tends on guilt, that we have not afterwards the same alacrity to do well, and grow ashamed and afraid of that conversation, without which it will not be possible for us to do that good. It will be said, our not concurring in this particular act, may ruin us, but not hinder the act from being done; and therefore, that it is too vain an affectation of our ruin to oppose that so fruitlessly: and this consideration and objection, I fear, hath prevailed over too many to submit to that which they have long opposed, as not agreeable to their understandings and conscience; that they have done their parts, opposed it as long as they were able; that it shall be done whether they will or no; and that it is only in their power to perish with what they would preserve, but not to preserve it by perishing; and therefore, that they may for their own preservation join in the doing that, or consenting to it, which will be done in spite of any resistance they can make. This is said in the business of the church: it is actually oppressed; the government of it actually and remedilessly altered; nothing that I can say or do can preserve it; and that the question is not, whether I would desire to preserve both church and kingdom, but whether, when there can be one, and but one preserved, I will lose that because I cannot keep both. But these arguments cannot prevail with a consci

ence informed and guided aright. If my religion oblige me to do my duty no longer than conveniently I might, and that when wants and necessities and dangers pressed upon me, I might recede and yield to what I believe wicked or unlawful, I had no more to do, but to make that necessity and danger evident to the world for my. excuse. But no union and consent in wickedness can make my guilt the less; and if nothing I can do can preserve the church, it is in my power to preserve my own innocence, and to have no hand in its destruction; and I ought to value that innocence above all the conveniences and benefits my submission can bring to me. And I must confess, I want logic to prove to myself, that it may be lawful for me to do that to recover or redeem my fortune, which was not lawful for me to do to preserve it; or that after I have borne great afflictions and calamities, I may conscientiously consent to that, which, if I could have done, I might have prevented all those calamities. No man is so insignificant as that he can be sure his example can do no hurt. There is naturally such a submis. sion of the understanding, as many do in truth think that lawful to be done which they see another do, of whose judgment and integrity they have a great opinion; so that my example may work upon others to do what no other temptation

or suffering could induce them to; nay, it may not only increase the number of the guilty, but confirm those, who, out of their reverence to my carriage and constancy, began to repent. the ill they had done; and whosoever is truly repenting, thinks at the same time of repairing. I doubt many men in these ill times have found themselves unhappily engaged in a partnership of mischief, before they apprehended they were out of the right way, by seriously believing what this man said (whose learn. ing and knowledge was confessedly eminent) to be law, and implicitly concluding what another did (whose reputation for honesty and wisdom was as general) to be just and prudent; and I pray God, the faults of those misled men may not be imputed to the other, who have weight enough of their own, and their very knowledge and honesty increase their damnation. " If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small," says Solomon, Prov. xxiv. 10. Si desperaveris lassus, says the vulgar Latin; if being weary or faint, thou despair, thy strength is small: it shews thou hast done well out of design, and in expectation of pros. pering by it; and being disappointed, thou even repentest the having done thy duty for thy strength and courage being grounded only on policy, it must needs be small; whereas, if it had been grounded on conscience and piety towards

God, thou couldest never despair of his assistance and protection. Tremellius renders that text more severely, Si remisse te geras, tempore angustice, angusta erit virtus tua; If thou art less vigorous in the time of trouble, thy virtue is not virtue, but a narrow slight disposition to good, never grown into a habit. "In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider," says the preacher. Tremellius renders it, Tempore autem mali utere; Use the time of trouble, employ it so that thou mayest be the better for it, and that others may be the better by thy deportment. It was observed in the primitive time, that there were more men converted to Christianity by the death of every martyr, than by all their sermons and actions of their life; and thence it was said, Sanguis martyrum est semen ecclesiæ; Not only that the confirmation of their doctrine with their blood persuaded many that it was the truth for which many were so ready to pour out their blood, but that their demeanour at their death, their great courage and patience, and contempt of tortures and pain, made many believe that there was a satisfaction and pleasure and joy in those opinions, which was so much superior and above the agony and pain of death, that a mind refreshed with the one, preserved the body from the sense and feeling of the other; insomuch, as the prosecutors themselves, who could

not be moved with the orations and sermons and disputations of the prisoners, were converted by beholding them at the stake. And we oftentimes see passionate and violent men, whose animosities and revenge no charity or Christian precepts could suppress and extinguish, so astonished with the brave and constant carriage of their adversaries in their afflictions, which have been unjustly brought upon them by the other, that their very reverence to their sufferings have begot a remorse in them, and a reparation of their wrongs: nay, we often see ill men, who have justly fallen under heavy calamities, behave themselves so well under them, that all prejudice hath been thereby reconciled toward them. To conclude, wouldst thou convert thy adversary to an admiration and value and affection to thee, to a true sense of the wrong he hath done thee, there is no such way, as by letting him see by thy firm and cheerful submitting to adversity, that thou hast a peace about thee of which thou canst not be robbed by him, and of which in all his power he is not possessed. If his heart be so hardened, and his conscience seared, that thou canst this way make no impression on him toward his conversion, thou shalt however more perplex and grieve and torment his mind with envy of thy virtue, than he can thine with all his insolence and oppression.