and whilest men for Scruples have been undone, for attempts upon Sodomy they have onely been admonished.
Master Speaker, we shall find them to have been like the Hen in Aesop, which laying every day an Egg upon such a proportion of Barly, her Mistress increasing her proportion in hope she would encrease her eggs, she grew so sat upon that addition, that she never laid more: so though at first their Preaching was the occa∣sion of their preferment, they after made their Preferment the occasion of their not Preaching.
Master Speaker, we shall find them to have resembled another Fable, the Dog in the manger; to have neither Preached themselves, nor employ'd those that should, nor suffered those that would: to have brought in Catechising only to thrust out Preaching, cryed down Lectures by the name of Factions, either because their Industry in that Duty appeared a reproof to their neglect of it, (not un∣like to that we read of him, who in Nero's time and Tacitus his story was ac∣cused, because by his Vertue he did appear Exprobrare vitia Principis) or with intention to have brought in darkness, that they might the easier sowe their tares, while it was night; and by that Introduction of Ignorance, introduce the better that Religion which accompts it the Mother of devotion.
Master Speaker, in this they have abused his Majesty, as well as his people, for when they had with great wisdom (since usually the Children of darkness are wiser in their generation than the Children of light; I may guess not with∣out some eye upon the most politick action of the most politick Church) silen∣ced on both parts those Opinions which have often tormented the Church, and have, and will alway trouble the Schools, they made use of this declaration to tye up one side, and let the other loose, whereas they ought either in discretion to have been equally restrained, or in justice to have been equally tolerated. And it is observable, that that party to which they gave this License, was that whose Doctrine, though it were not contrary to Law, was contrary to Custom, and for a long while in this Kingdom was no oftner Preached than recanted.
The truth is, Master Speaker, that as some ill Ministers in our State first took away our Money from us, and after endeavoured to make our Money not worth the taking, by turning it into Brass by a kind of Antiphilosophers-stone; so these men used us in the point of Preaching, first depressing it to their power, and next labouring to make it such, as the harm had not been much if it had been de∣pressed; the most frequent Subjects even in the most sacred Auditories, being the Jus divinum of Bishops and Tithes, the Sacredness of the Clergy, the Sacriledge of Impropriations, the demolishing of Puritanism and propriety, the building of the Prerogative at Pauls, the introduction of such Doctrines, as admitting them true, the truth would not recompense the scandal; or of such as were so far false, that as Sir Thomas Moore says of the Casuists, their business was not to keep men from sinning, but to inform them Quàm propè ad peccatum sine peccato liceat ac∣cedere: so it seemed their work was to try how much of a Papist might be brought in without Popery, and to destroy as much as they could of the Gospel, without bringing themselves into danger of being destroyed by the Law.
Master Speaker, to go yet further, some of them have so industriously labour∣ed to deduce themselves from Rome, that they have given great suspition that in gratitude they desire to return thither, or at least to meet it half way: Some have evidently labour'd to bring in an English, though not a Roman Popery: I mean not only the outside and dress of it, but equally absolute; a blind depen∣dance of the People upon the Clergy, and of the Clergy upon themselves; and have opposed the Papacy beyond the Sea, that they might settle one beyond the water. Nay, common Fame is more than ordinary false, if none of them have found a way to reconcile the Opinions of Rome to the Preferments of England; and be so absolutely, directly and cordially Papists, that it is all that fifteen hundred pounds a year can do to keep them from confessing it.
Master Speaker, I come now to speak of our Liberties; and considering the great Interest these men have had in our common Master, and considering how great a good to us, they might have made that Interest in him, if they would have used it to have informed him of our general Sufferings; and considering how little of their freedom of Speech at Whitehall might have saved us a great