id unto
men in his station, to be unwelcome unto him, and so he discharged
himselfe of them, and thereby disobliged those persons, who thought
their quality, tho' not their busines, required a patient and
respectfull entertainment. This I reflect upon, because I heard from a
good hand, that the Marquiss of Argile making him an insidious visit,
and he, knowing he neither loved him nor the Church, entertaining him
not with that franknes he should have done, but plainly telling him,
he was at that time a little busy about the King's affairs, this great
Lord took it so much in indignation, and esteem'd it such a Lordly
Prelacy, that he declaimed against it, and became (if possible) more
enemy both to him and the Church, than he was before. The rectitude of
his nature therefore made him not a fitt instrument to struggle with
the obliquity of those times; and he had this infirmity likewise, that
he beleived those forward instruments, which he employed, followed the
zeal of their own natures, when they did but observe that of his: for
as soon as difficulty or danger appeared, his petty instruments shrunk
to nothing, and shewed, from whom they borrowed their heat.
He weighed not well his Master's condition; for he saw him circled
in by too many powerfull Scots, who mis-affected the Church, and had
joyned with them too many English Counsellors and Courtiers, who were
of the same leaven. If he had perceived an universall concurrence in
his own Clergy, who were esteemed Canonicall men, his attempts might
have seem'd more probable, than otherwise it could: but for him
to think by a purgative Physick to evacuate all those cold slimy
humors, which thus overflowed the body, was ill judged; for the good
affections of the Prince, back'd only by a naked or paper-authority,
sooner begets contumacy, than complyance in dissaffected Subjects....
And this shall suffice to be said of that well intentioned, but
not truly considerative, great man, unles wee add this single thing
further, that he who looks upon him thro' those Canons, which in
Synod passed in his time, will find him a true Assertor of Religion,
Royalty, and Property; and that his grand designe was no other, than
that of our first Reformation; which was, that our Church might stand
upon such a foot of Primitive and Ecclesiastick authority, as suited
with God's word, and the best Interpreters of it, sound reason and
Primitive practice. And untill this Nation is blest with such a
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