> " liritannorum inaoccssa Romania Inoa, Christo vcro subdita." — Tertul.
' "Jji-itaniiiam inCluistiaiuiin conseiitire relif,noiieiii." — Urio^oii. llom.iv. in ICzck.
^ Niccpli., lil). ii. cap. 40. Kiiist. Eleuth. ad Lucimn, an. 169, apud Bar.
* Anno 40'!) the Sa.xoiis etiti'i\'d.
UNCHANGEABLE, FEEE MERCY. 27
had been instruments to root out otliers submitted their own necks to the yoke of the Lord; and, under exceeding variety in civil affairs, enjoyed the word of grace, until, by insensible degrees, like summer unto winter, or light unto darkness, it gives place to antichristian suj^erstition, and left the land in little less than a paganish darkness, drinking deep of the cup of abominations mingled for it by the Koman harlot. And is there mercy yet in God to recover a twice over lost backsliding people ? Might not the Lord have said unto us. What shall I do unto thee, 0 island ? How shall I make thee as Admah ? how shall I set thee as Zeboim ? But his heart is turned within him, his repentings are kindled together: the dry bones shall live, and the fleece shall be wet, though all the earth be dry. God will again water his garden, once more piu-ge his vine- yard,— once more of his own accord he will take England upon liking, though he had twice deservedly turned it out of his service. So that, " coming as a refiner's fire, and as fuller's soap, to purify the sons of Levi, to purge them as gold and silver, to offer to the Lord an offer- ing in righteousness," to reform his churches, England, as soon as any, hath the benefit and comfort thereof Nay, the reformation of Eng- land shall be more glorious than of any nation in the world, being carried on neither by might nor power, but only by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts. But is this the utmost period of England's sinning, and God's showing mercy, in continuing and restoring of the gospel ? No, truly : we again in our days have made forfeiture of the purity of his worship, by an almost universal treacherous apostasy; from which the free grace and good pleasure of God hath made a great progress again towards a recovery.
There are two sorts of men that I find exceedingly ready to ex- tenuate and lessen the superstition and popish tyranny of the former days, into which we were falling.
(1.) Such as were industriously instrumental in it. whose sufirages had been loud for the choice of a captain to return into Egypt, — men tainted mth the errors and loaded with the preferments of the times; with all those who blindly adhere to that faction of men who as yet covertly drive on that design : — to such as these all was nothing, and to them it is no mercy to be delivered. And the truth is, it is a favour to the lamb, and not the wolf, to have him taken out of his mouth; but these men liave interest by those things which have no ears, against which there is no contending.
(2.) Such as are disturbed in their optics, or have gotten false glasses,^ representing all things unto them in dubious colours. Which
' " Nunc igitur si nomiiiis odium est, quis nominum reatus I quce accusatio voca- bulorum? nisi aut, barbarum sonat aliqua vox nomiuis, aut maledicum aut inipii- dicum." — Teitul. Apol. ad Gen., cap. iii.
28 A VISION OF
way soever they look, they can see nothing but errors, — errors of all sizes, sorts, sects, and sexes, — eiTors and heresies from the beginning to the end ; which have deceived some men, not of the worst, and made them think that all before was nothing, in comparison of the present confusion. A great sign they felt it not, or were not troubled at it; as if men should come into a field, and seeing some red weeds and cockle among the corn, should instantly affirm there is no cona there, but all weeds, and that it were much better the hedges were down, and the whole field laid open to the boars of the forest: but the harvest will one day show the truth of these things. But that these apprehensions may not too much prevail, to the vilifying and extenuating of God's mercy, in restoring to us the purity and liberty of the gospel, give me leave, in a few words, to set out the danger of that apostasy from which the good pleasure of God hath given us a de- liverance. I shall instance only in a few things. Observe then, that, — [1.] The darling errors of late years were all of them stones of the old Babel, closing and coupling with that tremendous fabric which the man of sin had erected to dethrone Jesus Christ, — came out of the belly of that Trojan horse, that fatal engine, which was framed to betray the city of God. They were popish errors, such as whereof that apostasy did consist which only is to be looked upon as the great adverse state of the kingdom of the Lord Christ. For a man to be disorderly in a civil state, yea, oftentimes through turbulency to break the peace, is nothing to an under-hand combination with some formidable enemy for the utter subversion of it. Heedless and headless errors may breed disturbance enough, in scattered individuals, unto the people of God ; but such as tend to a peace and association " cum ec- clesia malignantium," tending to a total subversion of the sacred state, are far more dangerous. Now, such were the innovations of the late hierarchists. In worship, their paintings,^ crossings, crucifixes, boA\ings, cringings, altars, tapers, wafers, organs, anthems, litany, rails, images, copes, vestments, — what were they but Roman varnish, an Italian dress for our devotion, to draw on conformity with that enemy of the Lord Jesus ? In doctrine, the divinity of Episcopacy, auricular con- fession, free-will, predestination on faith, yea, works foreseen, " limbus patrum," justification by works, falling from grace, authority of a church, which none knew what it was, canonical obedience, holiness of churches, and the like innumerable, — what were they but helps to Sancta Clara, to make all our articles of religion speak good Roman Catholic ? How did their old father of Rome refresh his spirit, to see such chariots as those provided to bring England again unto him ! This closing witli Popeiy was the sting in the eiTors of those days, which cause pining, if not death, in the episcopal pot.