52 The papists had a most inveterate hatred to all the protestants, but especially to those who were godly; and they againe many of them suffer'd their zeale to runne out into bitter personal! hate . Betweene these two extremnes, the common protestant was in the middle, though I cannot reck~n them as a vertuous medium; for of them the more .rrophane and ignorant only left popery because it grew out of fashion, but in their hearts inclin'd that way; those who were peaceable, conscientious, or moral! persons, enclin'd to the puritane; of whom there were many that unwillingly bore the burthcn of the cerimonies, for q uietnesse sake, and through fal se doctrine of their unfaithfull teachers, as moll as some that disccrn'd the base and carnal! minds of those sed ucers, and 1yould not be .perswadecl by them to cefile their consciences: the former sort of these, in zeale to reduce the whole land from their idolatrous practises, pr9cur'd !awes and invented oathes to suppresse popery, which they little thought, but wee now sadly find, are the bitterest engines to batter downe the pure worship and destroy the pure worshippers of God; which I have often looked upon as an evidence that God is not pleas'd with the conversions that arc enforc'd by men's law{:s. W'e have spiritual! weapons given us for spiritual! combates, and those who go about to conquer subiects for Christ with swords of stecle, shall find the base metal! breake to shivers when it is used, and hurtfullJ' flie in their owne faces. About the time of the reformation, there was a greate change in the civill interest of all that part of the world which had long layne under the bondage of the Roman prelate and his tirannicall clergie. These had by degrees so encroacht upon all the secular princes, that they were nothing but vassalls and hangmen to the proud inso-. lent priest. Obtaining his empire by fraud, false doctrine, lies, and o Godly. The name always given by the Puritans to those of their own party, and not unfrequently so used by different sectaries at the present day .
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