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Things in the present Establishment are owned to be good, and all tolerable, is not the Effect of much Judgment. If Want of Perfection be a Reafon to change, it will be a Reafon for ever; for fince all the Laws. of the Church are not of divine Institution, they have too great a Mixture of Weakness in their Original, ever to be perfect in themfelves. And fhould all the Changes defired, be granted, let not Men imagine that the next Age will be fo unlike this, as not to find Fault with the Orders of their Superiors.

It is unaccountable in Reason, that, in Matters of religious Government, every Man thinks himself judge of what is decent and convenient, and what fit to be obeyed; whereas in Matters of civil Government, whatever they act, they dare not pretend to the fame difcretionary Power: as if the Cafe were not the fame in both; and Obedience in all Things lawful and honest, (further than which, no Man's private Judgment extends) in both of like Neceffity.

How the common People are led into the Efteem of Men thus acting, is not hard to fay. To fuffer for one's Opinion, right

or

or wrong, is in the Eyes of the Vulgar meritorious and fince fome outward Advan

tages are forfeited, by not complying with the prefent Establishment; fhould Men, even for worldly Intereft, and Want of Merit fufficient to rife in the lawful and regular Way, ftrike out new Paths for themselves; yet they shall be fure, among their Followers, to have the Character of honeft Men, Men fuffering for Confcience fake. And though there be no Suffering in the Cafe; no Punishment attending upon fuch Practices; yet whilst Rewards are open to the Obedience of others, the partiality of Men will make them apter to repine at the Distinction, than to be thankful for the Impunity.

As long as Men are weak enough to be mifled; and the Errors of fome are profitable to others; there will be no End of Diffenfions and should the Reftleffness and Importunity of Men once break in upon the Constitution, the Event could only fhew where it would end.

To what Extremes the Humour of Men once fet on changing will run, the mournful Occafion of this Day's Meeting is too fenfible a Proof. The Actors in the late с

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Troubles thought of nothing lefs, when they began, than the Event that fucceeded. The Good of the Public, and of the King, was the Pretence; and they never left feeking it, till they had ruined the Public, and laid His Royal Head low. With the same good Success, the Purity of the Church was promoted; which ended in utter Subverfion, and the Blood of a great Prelate.

Great indeed in many Refpects; but he funk under the Iniquity of the Times, by endeavouring to give Life to the longforgotten and neglected Difcipline of the Church; when the Liberty and Licentioufnefs of the Age could bear nothing lefs. The Reformation had given fuch a Turn to weak Heads, that had not Weight enough to poife themselves between the Extremes of Popery and Fanaticism; that every thing older than Yesterday was looked upon to be Popish and Antichriftian: the meaneft of the People afpired to the Priesthood; and were readier to frame new Laws for the Church, than obey the old. This led him to fome Acts of great Severity, that he might create an Authority, and Reverence for the Laws, when it fhould appear they had not quite loft their Edge. Thus he

became

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became too generally hated, and fall he must; for his Faults were great, and, as the Times went, unpardonable; he loved the Church and the King.

His Cafe might deferve more to be lamented, did not that which followed, bury all private Injuries and Refentments; in refpect of which, the former Cruelties were tender Mercies. The Thirft of Blood was too great, to be fatisfied with the Fall of private Men; nor could the new Schemes of Confufion take place, till the Fountain of lawful Power and Authority was dried up. Every Man had a Project of his own for a new Government; and rather than be difappointed, they resolved to lay the Foundation in royal Blood.

Could all the Obligations of Nature and Religion have prevailed, the King might have lived to make his People happy; but the Misfortune was, they had injured him too much, to trust him even with his own Life; nor could their Confciences give them Security for the Mifchiefs already done, but in going on ftill to add Murder and Parricide, and in destroying the Power, they had too much Reason to fear. A barbarous Cruelty of which it is hard to fay, whe

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ther the Malice and Wickedness, with which it was acted, were greater; or the Patience and Magnanimity, with which it was borne. As if the Contest had been, whether human Nature were capable of greater Degrees of Virtue, or Vice.

View the King from the Throne to the Scaffold; and he was in his Life the Pattern of a good Prince; in his Death, of a good Christian. He was a Prince, who, from the Sweetness of his Temper, the Integrity of his Intentions, and a kind and tender Concern for the meaneft of his Subjects, might well have expected to make his Name dear to this Nation, and his Memory glorious, upon a better Account than the Hiftory of this Day affords. He was formed by Nature and Grace to be an Ornament of better Times; and wanted nothing to make him great in the worst, those he lived in, but a just Resentment of the Indignities he fuffered. The only Prerogative his Enemies had left him, was to forgive the Injuries they did him; which he exercised to the last; and, in the Heat of a merciless Rebellion, could never forget his Enemies were his Subjects, when they had long fince forgot him to be their King; which was

too

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