180 with joint confent agreed to expel the fociety from their feveral ftates, or kingdoms, France, Spain, and Portugal, &c. actually drove them out of their dominions, and not only folicited the Pope to difband, but refused Catholic fubordination or to communicate with the chair of Peter, on any other conditions. The general schifm had made fome progrefs, and the cafe now lay before the Pope, whether the unity and peace of the Church be preferved by unbodying the fociety, or not? Clement the 14th was left as a general hemmed in by a fuperior army, had no alternative, the conditions were pofitive, unbody the fociety, compofed of the fubjects of our different ftates, whom we have expelled, purely for being of that body, or you, by contumacy, like a foolish king, facrifice the nation to the humour and whim of his minion. Club. The fociety no doubt could claim a regular and legal procefs against the malecontents; the Pope was abfolutely in justice; had he with the courts of Rome, France, Spain, Naples, Vienna, Portugal and other departments of the church, not been in league, and all the matter was brought to an iffue, Clement should have reinftated the fociety in their birth-rights and immunities, with a sharp and fpirited reprimand to the Princes for their cavalier and arrogant behaviour to fo great and wife a community. Your Eminence will be pleased, therefore decide as the facts have come before your fublime and moft wonderful fupremacy. 1 Ignatius. Ignatius. I fhould think myself culpable if I kept filence in fo weighty a matter, which through the ingratiating fpirit of the world, influencing fome of us of the fociety who be. came religious on worldly views, under the fanction of the most respectable body then in the church, whofe found went throughout the earth; myself being a herald of the inferior part, in lieu of the greater glory of God. Our boast was, the learning, fagacity, writings, extension, labours, regularity, fuperiority, influence, granduers, wisdom, both in fpiritual and temporal concerns, directing the minds of the great, and affuming an air of fingular dignity and preeminence, love of fhow, or thirst for commerce, and gloried in the unbounded flow of riches, efteeming ourselves the fenate or great council, to inftruct, decide, and probe the wounds of all, ourselves impeccable. Thefe, with many other improvident and bewitching fnares, laid by the enemy, by which us zealots were egged and biaffed, presently clouded, and brought on a general and baneful war against the society, to which we, as the zealots at the facking of Jerufalem, not only oppofed the invaders, but their brethren within their own walls; fo we kept up the fire against our Sovereigns, and other oppofitions without; and withstood the fathers, and irreproachable among ourselves, which eftablished a rooted inveteracy throughout the catholic powers, that no conceffions or terms would be acceded to, but unbodying and withdrawing the commiffion granted by Pope Paul 3d, to the fociety; neither were us-zealots difpofed T 3 difpofed to offer any other overture for reconciliation, but to be reinftated with honor in our full privileges and immunities; and we fuppofed his holinefs could do no otherwise than ftand or fall, with the fociety, and which we confidered the finews and nerves, on whofe fu-premacy the church depended; but to our confufion, we were neither nerves, finews, or fupreme in the eyes of his holiness, or any part of the church, fave in our own predilection, when our commiffion was cancelled, as Zealot stigmatized his holiness with injuftice, and brayed out threatnings against the court of Rome, and the other peftiferous catholic courts; as we would willingly have laid our pack on the head of the Pope and court of Rome, bragged with the other courts as aforefaid, in imitation of the Ifraelites on the head of the fcape goat. Leviticus 16 chap. 21 verfe. And Aaron fball lay both his hands upon the head of the Scape goat, and confefs over him all the iniquities of the children of Ifrael, and all their tranfgreffions in all their fins, putting them on the head of the goat, and fend him away by the band of a fit man into the wilderness; and the goat fhall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and be shall let go the goat in the wilderness. When all hopes of conceffion from his holiness, court of Rome, with the other catholic courts and fovereigns, had failed; as Zealots, as rooks gather at the approach of winter, in consultation to determine, as it were, to feek fome place of refuge, during the inclement feafon. But not being willing to be biaffed by each other, we took took different routs, myself, with others, ingrafted in the reformed churches, where our zeal fuffered no controul, and our new flocks heard us gladly; we here inebriated our zeal and flesh, free from fcandal, or offence; our zeal still unfatiated, fome of us took the fecond leap into the new philofophy of this our enlightened age and northern hemifphere. Luther. Hufh, all hufh. Let us pray, or the like of that, do ye mungey, as true and faithful church proteftants, to the ghost of old Robin Wisdom, who lived in the times of Yore, a great man, who toffed the fcriptures from knuckle to knuckle, and rhyme profe into metre, as the faying is, do ye mungey, nincompoop. Let us pray. Thou once a body, now but air, And fend us, a good lay, For ever, and for aye, For all, and fome. Then, Robin, look behind thee, Left Pope and Turk, do find thee, And now go to bed again. This Father Robin, whose surname was Wifdom, was, perhaps, as you obferve, by his epitaph placed on his tomb-ftone by another great man, a deceased bishop of Norwich. This Robin lies unrivalled, a divine, whofe natural Ꭲ 4 gifts gifts were fongs, glees, and making merriment in our churches, which filled every space with peals of applaufe, which not only with sweet pfalmody tickled the ears of the people, but melted their hearts, that as the oil anointed Aaron's head, run down his beard and shirt, fo in like fort the balm of pfalmody not only played "Tommy come tickle me" to the ears, but as the faying is, unloofed the purfe ftring, fat many old women on their crutches, that had for many years been bed-ridden, and perhaps through contradictions and many infirmities, that lurk and attend the decrepit; it never I fay, perhaps, came into their heads to remember their double duty to their God and to their paftors. You will obferve, as I was faying, or the like of that, do ye mungey, that this great divine, father Robin Wisdom, who could make and rhyme fcripture quicker than crows fwallow pebble ftones, or King the player talk a score to the dozen on the ftage, or theatre, was that, as the faying is, or the like of that, do ye mungey, great luminary that raised our theatre, or place of worship, to the grandeur and preeminence it now difplays over the world. But as I was faying, or the like of that, to return to my ftory, do ye mungey, father Robin Wifdom, or the like of that, was, as I was faying a great divine who changed melancholy into malady, and by rhiming the pfalms raifed mirth; fo that his whole character is, "Laugh and grow fat." But then, and fuppofe, or the like of that, as the faying is, do ye mungey, that I have one question which will have great weight |