, or a clear consistent
view of the word of God. Men sought celebrity by inventing modes of
faith; and sacred truths were not established by an appeal to antiquity,
but by the singular ordeal of novelty, as if, after a lapse of seventeen
ages, it was reserved for ignorance and fanaticism to make fresh
discoveries in the sacred writings.

The ordinance of sequestration, which annihilated all
church-dignitaries, and exposed every parochial minister to the malice
of any informer who should report him for his loyalty, passed in the
year 1643, and was justified by complaints of the supposed scandalous
lives of the episcopal clergy. Doubtless, in a numerous body, some might
be found guilty of gross vices, secular in their pursuits, negligent of
their high duties, and looking more to the "scramble at the shearers'
feast," than to feeding and guiding the flock through the wilderness. No
true lover of the church will defend clerical debauchees or canonical
worldlings, especially when she appears beleaguered round with enemies,
and when her surest earthly supports are the zeal, the learning, and the
pious simplicity of her officials. Persuaded that our national
establishment grows from that root which can never decay, we may always,
when a very general corruption of the clergy is apparent, expect a
fearful tempest to arise, which will clear the tree of its unsound
branches, and enable it to put forth vigorous and healthy shoots. But
while that rottenness is not total but partial, while some green boughs
are still seen to extend a lovely and refreshing shade, what impious
hand shall dare to assail the venerable queen of the forest, whose
magnitude defends the saplings, which, ambitiously springing under its
protection, require the room it occupies? At the time of the great
rebellion, the Church of England boasted an unusual number of, not
merely learned, but apostolical men, especially among the bishops and
the royal chaplains, whose pious labours have excited the gratitude and
admiration of posterity, as much as their lives and sufferings did the
wonder and commiseration of their own times. Beside those who have been
thus immortalized, there were vast numbers who "took their silent way
along the humble vale of life," unknown to fame either for their virtues
or their hardships, yet still living in the memory of their descendants.
These submitted in silence to poverty, reproach, and injustice; and,
like Bishop Sanderson, "blessed G