172 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. ful insinuations of Dr. Grey. Mr. Neal having specified his preferments, the doctor adds, " but how deserving this gentle- man was of these preferments, his works sufficiently testify:" and then, to prove what he insinuates, he cites Dr. Hill's words, delivered on public occasions, as follows:-" That we may have an incorrupt religion, without sinful, without guile- ful mixtures ; not a linsey-woolsey religion : all new-born babes will desire word-milk, sermon-milk, without guile, without adulterating sophisticatiOn of it. -What pity it is that cathedral societies, which might have been colleges of learned .presbyters for feeding and ruling of city churches, and petty academies' to prepare pastors for neighbouring places, should be often sanctuaries for nonresidents, and be made nurseries to many such drones, who can neither preach, nor pray; otherwise than read, say, or sing their prayers, and in the mean time, truth must be observed in a non-edifying pomp ,of ceremonious services.-Behold, with weeping eyes, the manyhundred congregations in the kingdom, where mil- lions of souls are like ,to perish for want of vision. Truth is sold from among them, either by soul-betraying nonresidents, soul-poisoning innovators, or soul-pining dry nurses. Inmany places the very imageofjealousy, the idol of the mass, is setup; yea, the comedyof the mass is acted, because she wanteth the light of truth to discover the wickedness and folly of it. In many miles, not a minister that canpreach and live sermons. I wish every parliament-man had amap of the soul-misery of the most of the ten, thousand churches and chapels in England. " In the stead of the high commission," says he, " which was a._ soul-scourge to many godly and faithful ministers, we have an honourable committee, that turns the wheel upon 'such-as are scandalous and unworthy. In the room of Jero-' boam's priests, burning and shining lights are multiplied in some dark places of the land, which were full of the habita- tions of cruelty. In the place of a long liturgy, we are in hopes-of a pithy directory. Instead of prelatical rails about the table, we have the scripture rails of church discipline in great forwardness. Where popish altars and crucifixes did abound, we begin to see more of Christ crucified in the sim- plicity and purity of his ordinances. Instead of the prelates' oath, to establish their own exorbitant power, with ,appurte7 nances, we have a solemn league and covenant with God, engaging us to endeavour reformation, according to his word; yea, and the extirpation of popery and prelacy itself.". We Grey's Exam. of Neal, vol. ii. p. 158, 159.
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