144 The HISTORY of the PURITANS. Chap. IV een " fers of them have taught, that ofnecellity they- muft be had; and have Elizabeth, " made laws to punifh and deprive thofe that had them not; as appears in s " the pontifical de clerico faciendo, that is, ofthe ordering ofa clerk, where the furplice is termed, the habit or garment, of the holy religion. And " Durandus, in his 3d book, entitled RationaleDiviner, calls it the linen " garment which thofe men that are occupied inany manner at the fervice ' of the altar and holy things, mull wear over their common apparel. " Lynwood alto, in his conftitutions for the province of England, de " Habitu Clericali, affirms the neceffity of this habit ; fo does Ottabones and others, appointing grievous punifhments for thofe that refufe to wear them ; yea, and the pontifical teachers, that when a clerk has by mur- " der, or otherwife, deferved to die, he muff be degraded, by plucking " violently from him thofe garments with thefe words, Authoritate Dei " Omnipotentis, Patris, Filii, & Spiritus Sanc?i, &c. By the authority of " Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, and byour authority, we " takefrom thee the habit of the clergy, and we make thee naked and " bare of the ornaments of religion; and we do depofe, degrade, f ói1, and " flrip thee of thy clergy order, benefice, and privilege ; and as one that is unworthy of the profefon of a clerk, we bring thee back again into the " fèrvitude and /name of the fecular habit. Thefe things being thus weigh'd, with the warning that St. Paul " giveth, t Theo. chap. v. where he commands us toab/lain from all "ap- " pearance of evil, we cannot but think, that in ufing of thefe things, we " lhould beat back thofe that are coming from fuperftition, and con- " firm thofe that are grown in fuperftition, and confequently ovérthrow .< that which we have been labouring to build, and incur the danger of " that horrible curie that our Saviour has pronounced, Wo to the World " becaufe ofoffences. Knowing therefore how horrible a thing it is to fall into the hands " of the livingGod, by doing that which our confciences (grounded upon " the truth of God's word, and the example and doetrine of ancient fa- " theia) do tell us were evil done, and to the great difcrediting of the " truth, whereof ..we profefs to be teachers; we have thought good to " yield ourfelves into the hands of men, to (offer whatfoever God bath " appointed us to fuffer, for the preferring of the commandments of God " and a clear confcience, before the commandments of men ; in complying " with which we cannot efcape the condemnation of our confciences; " keeping always in memory that horrible Paying of yohn in his firft " epiftle, if our confcìence condemns us, God is greater than our confeience : " And not forgetting the Paying of the pfalmift, It is good to tru/t in the " Lord, andnot to trufi in man. Pfal, cxviii. It is good to truft in the " Lord, and not to tru/t in princes. And again, Pfalm cxlvi. Trull not " in
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