you or honefty; that there ought to be an unbounded enjoyment of all and every natural appetite; that there can be no crime in indulging any inclinations-Would you make fuch a man the companion, the tutor or guardian of your daughter; or would you not shut him out of your houfe? Would trust the man with the receipt or custody of your money, who openly fhould avow that property is not facred? Or would you make such a man your executor, or trust him with the fortune you defign'd for your fon that is a minor? The temptation is too great to one who profeffes his defires, and defigns to close in with it: and notwithstanding a man may be punished fufficiently if he be taken, and proved guilty of a breach of laws, yet the folly of fuch a confidence would be nevertheless inexcufable, when the mischievous effects of it come to be felt. AND thus it is in the cafe of power: punish an offender as feverely as you can; yet fo many chances intervene; fo many ways there are of eluding laws; fo many steps may be taken which are prejudicial to the public good, which yet are not cognizable by courts of human judicature; there are so many arts open to fecure and ftrengthen a faction in power, that it wou'd be the heighth of imprudence to truft to the remedy of punishments. And if it be imprudent to trust to them, it certainly must be unreasonable and improper.. THE threat of death, or the frequent execution of it, does not deter a villain from robbery, or from putting his bad principles into practice, tho' he knows the confequence will be fo certain and fo great punishment. Would you therefore truft fuch a man, whose wickedness you know beforehand; because you can punish him when he is caught? Or is it not common prudence to guard against him, and to prevent, if poffible, the mifchiefs that are foreseen? THE principles of action operate so naturally and fo ftrongly (efpecially where they have the additional fpring of religious mo tives,) that you muft not imagine that goodnature, humanity, or any other virtue, will generally prevail against their strength and importunacy. Sometimes indeed it is poffible that it may; but he that will depend upon that, knows little of what paffes in the world. When an innocent, upright, virtuous, conscientious man is seized by the inquifition, and condemn'd to the flames, how eafily is christianity, compatriotism, relation, kindred, every good and kind affection, brought to give way to the opinion of the duty of destroying an heretic? Stamp but that odious name upon the fincerely good man; and even joy and pleasure shall appear in the countenances of fpectators, who fhall make no diftinction be twixt fuch a man and the greatest vilain that was ever executed. THIS will shew you how naturally princi ples ples influence practice; and what high folly it is to place in power, and then to depend for fecurity, on any men whofe avowed principles are deftructive of the common welfare. And furely there is more real fecurity to every man, and what he would purchase at some price, to have no grounds to fufpect an invafion of his rights, than there is, when he must be constantly trying to catch a known, powerful, profeffed enemy to them. At leaft it appears in this light to, Papatum non agnofcimus pro ecclefia, neque pro parte ejus, fed pro corruptione & defolatione, five pro antichrifto, qui ecclefiam, verbum & ordinem Dei impugnat, et se fupra illos extollit, ut Deus Deorum. Luther. de Miff. Solitar. Men and brethren, fellow chriftians and Proteftants, TH HE Proteftant religion and liberties, which, by the favour of Almighty God, you are in quiet poffeffion of, are blef fings envied you by all the antichriftian powers of the church of Rome. The northern be refy, fuch they call your religion, is the object of their incurable hatred, and what they have for many years fworn and laboured the deftruction of. Tho' nothing is more evident, than that popery is the vileft corruption of the chriftian religion, and hath not fo much as maintained the very appearance of christian worship; yet fuch is the impudence of this impofture, that the appropriates the name of the true church and religion to herfelf, configns over to eternal damnation, and perfecutes with relentless fury, all without exception, where her power reaches, who dare deny the abfurdities the commands to be believed, or refufe to practise the fuperftitions and idolatries fhe injoins. It might reasonably be hoped, that the frequent experience which this nation hath had, of the perfidy and cruelty of the church of Rome, the perfecutions which fhe is at this day carrying on against our brethren the Proteftants, in France, Germany, and other places, and especially the advantage which we have in reading and examining the facred writings, fhould be abundantly fufficient to prevent our entertaining any favourable opinions of the religion of that church, and the increase of converts to her communion. But her arts are innumerable, and her endeavours unwearied to profelyte corrupt, and unthinking men. Her priests and miffionaries are in defatigable defatigable in the vineyard, and boast of a large and plentiful harvest. AND in the midst of these triumphs over the proteftant religion and liberties, Proteftants themselves, I fpeak it with grief, are lending their helping hands to the caufe of popery; and are not ashamed to difperfe papers thro' the most distant parts of the kingdom, profeffedly maintaining the church of Rome to be a true church, and perfuading men to believe, that they may continue without danger of falvation in it. THE firft Reformers and Proteftants were of quite different fentiments, and would have abhorred fuch a conduct. The motto to this paper fhews Luther's opinion. We don't acknowledge, fays he, the papacy for the church, neither for part of it, but for corruption and defolation, or for antichrift, who oppofses the church, the word and order of God, and exalts itself above them AS GOD OF GODS. WHEN the Proteftants were charged with schism for their separation from the Romish communion, Bucer replied: Schifm with them, (the Romanifts) is to depart from their antichrift to Chrift the Lord, and to exchange the abominations of antichrift, for the doctrines and inftitutions of Chrift; and therefore we glory in the name of fchifm. For we could not belong to the members of Chrift, if we should adhere to the body of antichrift. Apud Seckend. Lib. 3.8122. IT would indeed be endless to produce all the |