.lìtory of the Puritans, examin'd. 3 83 Compulfion without Convincement, which not long before they complain'd of, as executed Unchrif= tianly,againfl themfelves, thefe Intents are clear to have beennobetter than Antichriftian : Setting up a Spiritual Tyranny by a Secular Power, to the ad- ' vancing of their own Authority above the Mai- ' ftrate, whom they would have made their Execu- tioners to punifh Church-Delinquencies ; where- ' of Civil Laws have no cognifance. Again, (p. 8.) the People therefore looking one while upon ' the Statifls, whom they beheld without Conftan cy or Firmnefs, &c. then lookingon the Church- ' men, whom they faw under fubtle Hypocrify, to have preach'd their own Follies, molt of them, ' not the Gofpel ; Time-fervers, Covetous, Illi- terate Perfecutors, not Lovers of the Truth, like in molt things whereof they accufed their Prede- ' cefl'ors ! Looking on all this, the People which had been kept warm awhile with the counterfeit Zeal of their Pulpits, after a falfe Heat, became more cold and obdurate than before ; fome turn- ' ing to Leudnefs, fome to flat zftheifm, put be- ' fide their old Religion, and foully fcandalízed in ' what they expeéed fhould be new. * ' It would be good (fays he, in another place) alto, if they lived fo, as might perfuade People they hated Covetoufnefs, which, worfe than He- ' refy, is Idolatry ; hated -F Pluralities, and all kind ' of Simony, left rambling from Benefice to Bene- fice, like ravenous Wolves, Peeking where they * Milton's Life, printed before his Profe Works, by .7. To land, p.25. t Sir WilliamDugdale informs us, [View of the-Troubles, p. 2,24.] " That when a Member of the Affembly of Divines, 6' was told by an eminent Perfon, that a certain Church in the Weft had no Incumbent ; the Affembly-Man ask'd, what the " yearly Value was ? And when told, that it was but so 1. per Annum; he replied, if it be no better, No Godly Man will " take it." may
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