AS in Nature there is hardly a Poyson growing any where , but in the same place there groweth an Antidote against it ; so in Nations , seldome do the loose principles of Licentiousness , Rebellion , and Disorder prevail so universally , but that in the same Nation the more excellent principles of Reason , Religion , Laws , and Allegiance , bear up against them . Various have been the shapes and pretences , under which the Lusts of men ( for all the disorders in the world , are nothing else but Lust , casting off the restraint God hath laid upon it by Government ) have indeavoured ( since God set up Government to keep men civil and quiet in this world , as he did Religion to prepare them for another world ) to shake and invalidate the obligations both of Religion and Government in all places of the world ( for most pretences last but an Age , in which time they are looked through , exploded , abhorred , and must be shifted . )

How men willing to live at the highest freedom of a loose Nature , have in this Nation endeavoured in several generations to overthrow all the Checks , Restraints , Rules , and Disciplines of Religion , is not so properly the business of this place , as it is commonly the subject of every discourse elswhere .

The pretentions and appearances under which those that have made a pretty good shift to suppress all those Principles of Honesty , Sobriety and Obedience that Religion curbed them withal within , would likewise in this Nation over-rule all Power , Authority , Order and Laws , that keep them within compass from without , when those unruly Lusts , Pride , Ambition , Animosity , Discontent , Popularity , Revenge , &c. would over-run all those Banks that were raised against them ; have been

1. The Dubiousness of the Royal Title , the ground of thirty six Rebellions , one hundred forty six Battle since the Conquest : In all which though the Rebels were usually the most , the Loyallists were always the best : and when the many followed sometimes a prosperous Villany , the most noble and excellent stood to , or fell with an afflicted right , and bore down all umbrages with this real truth , That the Crown took off all defects , and that any man may pretend arguments to begin a War , when but few can make arguments , when it is begun , to make an end of it .

2. The Liberty of the Subject , forsooth , the old Quarrel for which the Throng and Rabble would venture much , when wiser men maintained , that there was no greater oppression in the world , than a Liberty for men to do what they pleased ; and that Government is the great security of freedome .

3. Religion , for whose sake so many resisted Authority , when one of the Maximes of this Religion is , that none should resist upon pain of damnation : and albeit the Factious in all Ages have been many , that have taught men for Religions sake to disobey Authority ; yet the sober in those Ages have been as many , that taught them , that for Religion-sake they should obey them that have the rule over them .

But when towards the last , that is , the worst Ages of the world , wickedness grows wiser upon the experiences and observations of former times , and twists all these pretensions into one ; there have been excellent persons that with their lives and fortunes asserted Government , and have been Confessors and Martyrs to this great truth , That it is upon no pretence law●●l to resist the Supream Authority of a Nation : a truth that keeps up the world , without which it had been long ere this a desolation .

Upon the Reformation in Henry the eighth's time , it fell out in England , as Luther observes it did in most other reformed Churches , that the Papists finding that their way was so odious , that it was to no purpose for it to appear here with open face to settle it self , therefore did they under several covert pretexts and cunning scruples , endeavour to unsettle all other ways ; and when it could not establish it self , to hinder all other Professions from being established , that at least they might watch some opportunities , whereof there are many offered in distracted times . For no sooner was our Church setled on the Primitive principles of Religion and Government , than some of those that fled into the free States , and the places of popular reformation in Germany , returning when most preferments were gone , and living upon the Liberality of well-disposed People , set up some popular scruples against the established Government : A. E. 6. 4. 1550. and among the rest , Iohn Hooper having been long in Switzerland , upon his election to be Bishop of Gloucester , scrupled several Ornaments and Rights of our Church ; the Earl of Warwick , afterwards Duke of Northumberland ( having a design to oblige all Parties in order to a project he had set up to convey the Crown to his own family , to preserve the Reformation , though he died a Papist ) writes to Arch-Bishop Cranmer to dispence with the publick Laws , to satisfie a private mans humor ; and when his Letter would not do , makes the young King write another : and now Cranmer and Ridley stand up for these great Principles of Government : Let private Spirits yeild to publick establishments : there is no end of yeilding to scruples , one scruple indulged begetting another , so long , till there be no more Law than pleaseth the humoursome : be well advised in making Laws , and resolute in keeping them . Notwithstanding that the learned and wise Ridley suffered almost as much for his asserting the Government of our Church at that rate from the Puritans , as he did afterwards for asserting the Doctrine of it , from the Papists : he was Martyr to the Protestant Church , and a Confessor to the Church of England ; Hooper not being reconciled to him until the Sun of their lives was going down ; and their heart-burning upon this occasion was not quenched , A. Ed. 6. 7. 1553. till the Fire was kindled that burned both their bodies .

The Lord Admiral Seymour was a back-Friend to Common-Prayer ; and old Latimer takes him and others up for it : I have heard say , when that the good Queen that is gone , had ordained in her house daily Prayers , both before noon and afternoon ; the Admiral getteth him out of the way , like a mole digging in the earth : he shall be Lots wife to me as long as I live . He was , I heard say , a covetous man , a covetous man indeed : I would there were no more in England . He was I heard say a seditious man , a contemner of Common-Prayer : I would there were no more in England . Well! he is gone , I would he had left none behind him .

Yea , when the death of King Edward the sixth put an end to these differences among Protestants , but putting an end to the publick profession of the Protestant Religion it self in this Nation ; the forementioned scruples accompanied some hot-Spirited men to their exiles under Queen Mary . Q. M. 2. 3. 1557 / 8. When Master Calvins Authority , who forsooth observed some Tolerabiles Ineptiâ in our establishment ; and Master Knox , Master Whittingam , Goodman , and Foxes zeal cried down the whole Platform of our English Reformation ; the judgement and gravity of Master Horn , afterwards Bishop of Winchester , the learning of Bishop Poynet and Iuel , the piety and prudence of Doctor Sands and Doctor Coxe , the moderation and calmness of Master ( afterwards Archbishop ) Grindall , and Chambers , the Reputation of Sir Iohn Cheeke , Sir Anthony Cooke , Francis ( afterwards Sir Francis ) Knolles , bore it up , until it pleased God that with Queen Elizabeth it was again established and restored by the Law of the Realm .