one Fanatical or Republican Encroachment made upon it besides. 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 Posterity, is Schism and Sedition for ever, Faction and Rebellion in Secula feculorum; which I am sure no Honest English Heart will ever say Amen to. We have, I own, Laws against Conventicles; but believe it, it would be but Labour in Vain to go about to suppress them, while these Nurferies of Disobedience are suffered to continue. For those first and early Aversions to the Government, which these shall infuse into the Minds of Children, will be too strong for the clearest After-Convictions, which can pass upon them, when they are Men. So that what these Under-ground Workers have once planted a Bryar, let no Governor think, that by all the Arts of Clemency, and Condescenfion, or any other Cultivation whatsoever, he shall be able to change into a Rofe. Our Ancestors, 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, so long as they shall be fuffered to breed up their Litters amongst us. Good Good God! Can all History shew us any Church or State fince the Creation, that has been able to settle or support itself by such Methods? I can, I thank God, (looking both Him and my Conscience in the Face) solemnly and feriously affirm, that I abhorr every thing like Cruelty to Mens Persons, as much as any Man breathing does, or can; but for all that, the Government must not be Ruined, nor Private Interests ferved to the Detriment of the Publick, though upon the most plausible Pretences whatsoever. And therefore it will certainly concern the whole Nobility, Gentry, and all the sober Commonalty of the Nation, for the fake of God, their Prince, their Country, and their own dear Posterity, to lay this important Matter to Heart. For unless these * Lurking Subterraneous Nefts of Disloyalty and Schifm be utterly broken up, and Dismantled, all that the Power and Wit of Man can do to secure the Government against that Faction, which once destroyed it, will fignify just nothing. It will be but as the Pumping of a Leaky Vessel, which will be sure to sink for all that, when the Devouring Element is still soaking and working in an Hundred undifcerned Holes, while it is caft out only at one.

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

But chiefly, and in the first place, let your kind and generous Influences upon all Occasions descend upon this Royal and Illustrious School, the Happy Place of your Education. A School, which neither disposes Men to Division in Church, nor Sedition in State; tho too often found the readiest 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 so 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 fo. Nay, upon that very Day, that Black and

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

VOL. V.

* Dr. John Owen.

E

the

the Temper and Genius of it, being neither to be Corrupted with Promises, 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 so 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 stood up (says he) for your Liberties, and you did well. And what he meant by their Liberties, and what by their standing up for them, I suppose, needs no Explication. But though our Ears were still encountred with such Doctrines in the Church, it was our Happiness to be taught other DoArine in the School; and what we drank in there, proved an effectual Antidote against the Poison prepared for us † here.

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

* Mr. William Strong.

† Viz. Westminster. Abbey, where this Sermon was appointed to

have been preached.

:

all