one Fanatical or Republican Encroachment made upon it befides. For this is the direct and certain way to bring up, and perpetuate a Race of Mortal Enemies both to Church and State. To derive, propagate, and immortalize the Principles and Practices of Forty One to Pofterity, is Schifm and Sedition for ever, Faction and Rebellion in Sacula fæculorum; which I am fure no Honest English Heart will ever fay Amen to. We have, I own, Laws against Conventicles; but believe it, it would be but Labour in Vain to go about to fupprefs them, while thefe Nurferies of Difobedience are fuffered to continue. For those first and early Averfions to the Government, which thefe fhall infufe into the Minds of Children, will be too ftrong for the clearest After-Convictions, which can pass upon them, when they are Men. So that what thefe Under-ground Workers have once planted a Bryar, let no Governor think, that by all the Arts of Clemency, and Condefcenfion, or any other Cultivation whatsoever, he fhall be able to change into a Rofe. Our Áncestors, to their great Honour, rid the Nation of Wolves, and it were well, if (notwithstanding their Sheeps Cloathing) the Church could be rid of them too; but that neither will, nor can ever be, fo long as they fhall be fuffered to breed up their Litters amongst us. Good

Good God! Can all Hiftory fhew us any Church or State fince the Creation, that has been able to fettle or fupport itself by fuch Methods? I can, I thank God, (looking both Him and my Confcience in the Face) fo lemnly and seriously affirm, that I abhorr every thing like Cruelty to Mens Perfons, as much as any Man breathing does, or can; but for all that, the Government must not be Ruined, nor Private Interefts ferved to the Detriment of the Publick, though upon the most plaufible Pretences whatsoever. And therefore it will certainly concern the whole Nobility, Gentry, and all the fober Commonalty of the Nation, for the fake of God, their Prince, their Country, and their own dear Pofterity, to lay this important Matter to Heart. * For unless thefe Lurking Subterraneous Nefts of Disloyalty and Schifm be utterly broken up, and Dismantled, all that the Power and Wit of Man can do to fecure the Government against that Faction, which once deftroyed it, will fignify juft nothing. It

*The Reader is defired to caft bis Eye upon a Printed Piece, entituled, A Letter from a Country Divine to his Friend in London, concerning the Education of the Diffenters, in their Private Academies, in feveral Parts of this Nation; humbly offered to the Confideration of the Grand Commitee of Parliament for Religion, now fitting. Printed at London for Robert Clavell in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1703.

will be but as the Pumping of a Leaky Vessel, which will be fure to fink for all that, when the Devouring Element is still soaking and working in an Hundred undiscerned Holes, while it is caft out only at one.

2. My other Request to you, Great Men, is : That you would, in your refpective Stations, countenance all legal, allowed, Free Grammar-Schools, by caufing (as much as in you lies) the Youth of the Nation to be Bred up there, and no where else; there being fometimes, and in some refpects, as much Reason why Parents should not Breed, as why they fhould not Baptize their Children at Home.

But chiefly, and in the first place, let your kind and generous Influences upon all Occafions defcend upon this Royal and Illustrious School, the Happy Place of your Education. A School, which neither disposes Men to Divifion in Church, nor Sedition in State; tho' too often found the readieft Way (for Churchmen especially) to Thrive by; but Trains up her Sons and Scholars to an Invincible Loyalty to their Prince, and a strict, impartial Conformity to the Church. A School fo Untaintedly Loyal, that I can truly and knowingly averr, that in the very worst of times (in which it was my lot to be a Member of it) we really were King's Scholars, as well as called Jo. Nay, upon that very Day, that Black

and

and Eternally Infamous Day of the King's Murder, I myself heard, and am now a Witnefs, that the King was publickly Pray'd for in this School, but an Hour, or two (at most) before his Sacred Head was ftruck off. And this Loyal Genius always continued amongst us, and grew up with us; which made that Noted *Corypheus of the Independent Faction, (and fome time after, viz. 1651, promoted by Cromwell's Intereft to the Deanery of Christ-Church in Oxford) often fay, That it would never be well with the Nation, till this School was fuppressed; for that it naturally bred Men up to an Oppofition to the Government. And fo far indeed he was in the Right. For it did breed up People to an Oppofition to that Government, which had oppofed, and destroyed all Governments befides itself; nay, and even itself too at laft; which was the only good thing it ever did. But if in those Days, fome four or five bred up in this School, (though not under this Master) did unworthily turn afide to other By-ways and Principles; we can however truly fay this of them, That though they went out from us, yet they were never of us. For ftill the School itself made good its Claim to that glorious Motto of its Royal Foundress, Semper Eadem ;

*Dr. John Owen.

VOL. V.

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the

the Temper and Genius of it, being neither to be Corrupted with Promifes, nor Controuled with Threats.

*

For though, indeed, we had fome of those Fellows for our Governors, (as they called themselves) yet Thanks be to God, they were never our Teachers; no, not fo much as when they would have perverted us, from the Pulpit. I myself, while a Scholar here, have heard a Prime Preacher of those Times, thus addreffing himself from this very Pulpit, to the Leading Grandees of the Faction in the Pew under it. You ftood up (fays he) for your Liberties, and you did well. And what he meant by their Liberties, and what by their ftanding up for them, I fuppofe, needs no Explication. But though our Ears were ftill encountred with fuch Doctrines in the Church, it was our Happiness to be taught other Do&rine in the School; and what we drank in there, proved an effe&ual Antidote against the Poifon prepared for us† here.

And therefore, as Alexander the Great admonifhed one of his Soldiers (of the fame Name with himself) ftill to remember that his Name was Alexander, and to behave himfelf accordingly; fo, I hope, our School has

Mr. William Strong.

t Viz. Weltminster. Abbey, where this Sermon was appointed to have been preached.

all