do I yet believe it. For it is so apparently destructive of our dear Master's royal laws of charity and obedience, that I must not be so uncharitable as to think they speak their own mind truly, when they profess their belief of the lawfulness and necessity, in some cases, of rebelling against their lawful Prince, and using all means to throw him from his kingdom, though it be by taking of his life. But it is but just that they who break the bonds of duty to their Prince, should likewise forfeit the laws of charity to themselves, and if they say not true, yet to be more uncharitable to their own persons, than I durst be, though I had their own warrant. Briefly, Most Reverend Father, I found amongst them of the Roman party such prevailing opinions, as could not consist with loyalty to their Prince, in case he were not the pope's subject; and these so generally believed, and somewhere obtruded under peril of their souls, that I could not but point at these dangerous rocks, at which, I doubt not, but the loyalty of many hath suffered shipwreck, and of thousands more might, if a higher star had not guided them better than their own pilots.

I could not, therefore, but think it very likely, that this treason might spring from the same fountain; and I had concluded so in my first medita

tions, but that I was willing to consider, whether or no it might not be, that these men were rather exasperated than persuaded,—and whether it were not that the severity of our laws against them might rather provoke their intemperate zeal, than religion thus move their settled conscience. It was a material consideration, because they ever did, and still do fill the world with outcries against our laws, for making a rape upon their consciences; have printed catalogues of their English martyrs; drawn schemes of most strange tortures imposed on their priests, such as were unimaginable by Nero, or Dioclesian, or any of the worst and cruelest enemies of Christianity, endeavouring thus to make us partly guilty of our own ruin, and so washing their hands, in token of their own innocence, even then when they were dipping them in the blood royal, and would have emptied the best veins in the whole kingdom to fill their lavatory. But I found all these to be but calumnies, strong accusations upon weak presumptions, and that the cause did rest where I had begun, I mean, upon the pretence of the Catholic cause, and that the imagined iniquity of the laws of England could not be made a veil to cover the deformity of their intentions, for our laws were just, honourable, and religious.

Concerning these and some other appendices to the business of the day, I expressed some part of my thoughts, which because happily they were but a just truth, and this truth not unseasonable for these last times, in which (as St. Paul prophesied) "Men would be fierce, traitors, heady and high minded, creeping into houses, leading silly women captive;" it pleased some who had power to command me, to wish me to a publication of these my short and sudden meditations, that, if it were possible, even this way, I might express my duty to God and the King.

Being thus far encouraged, I resolved to go something further, even to the boldness of a dedication to your Grace, that since I had no merit of my own, to move me to the confidence of a public view, yet I might dare to venture under the protection of your Grace's favour. But since my boldness doth as much need a defence, as my sermon a patronage. I humbly crave leave to say, that, though it be boldness, even to presumption, yet my address to your Grace is not altogether unreasonable.

For since all know that your Grace thinks not your life your own, but when it spends itself in the service of your King, opposing your great endeavours against the zealots of both sides, who

labour the disturbance of the church and state. I could not think it άrgordióvvrov to present to your Grace this short discovery of the king's enemies, ws ἐπικουρίαν βασιλικὴν φιλοβασιλεῖ, and proper to your Grace who is so true, so zealous a lover of your Prince and Country. It was likewise appointed to be the public voice of thanksgiving for your University (though she never spake weaker than by so mean an instrument,) and, therefore, is accountable to your Grace, to whom under God and the King, we owe the blessing and prosperity of all our studies. Nor yet can I choose but hope, that my great obligations to your Grace's favour may plead my pardon (since it is better that my gratitude should be bold, than my diffidence ungrateful;) but that this is so far from expressing the least part of them, that it lays a greater bond upon me, either for a debt of delinquency in presenting it, or of thankfulness, if your Grace may please to pardon it.

I humbly crave your Grace's benediction, pardon, and acceptance of the humblest duty and

observance of

Your Grace's

Most observant and obliged Chaplain,

JER. TAYLOR.

A

SERMO N,

&c. &c.

But when James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come from heaven, and consume them even as Elias did?—Luke ix. 50.

I SHALL not need to strain much to bring my text and the day together. Here is 'fire' in the text, 'consuming fire,' like that whose Antevorta' we do this day commemorate. This fire called for by the disciples of Christ; so was ours too, by Christ's disciples at least, and some of them entitled to our great Master by the compellation of his holy name of Jesus.

6

I would say the parallel holds thus far, but that the persons of my text, however Boanerges,'' sons of thunder,' and of a reprovable spirit, yet are no way considerable in the proportion of malice with the persons of the day. For if I consider the cause that moved James and John to so inconsiderate a wrath, it bears a fair excuse:* the men of Samaria turned their Lord and Master out of doors, denying to give a night's lodging to the Lord of heaven and earth. It would have disturbed an excellent patience to see him, whom but just before they beheld transfigured, and in a glorious epiphany upon the mount, to be so neglected by a company of hated Samaritans, as to be forced to keep his vigils where nothing but the welkin should have been his roof, not any thing to shelter his precious head from the descending dew of heaven.

Temperet ?+

Quis talia fando

It had been the greater wonder if they had not been angry.

• Ver. 53.

VOL. II.

2 P

† En. ii.