152 THE LIFE OF 



CHAP. &quot; when the sceptre was, or shall be, in the hand of the male. 

 &quot; And so if it were found evil, (as I am persuaded it shall 



&quot; never be,) it might without the wronging of any be re- 

 &quot; formed. But now being stablished by law, confirmed by 

 &quot; custom, and ratified by common consent of all the orders 

 &quot; in the realm ; it can be no equity to take it from them, 

 &quot; nor any colour of honesty or godliness to move any plea 

 &quot; against them. If nature hath given it them by birth, 

 &quot; how dare we pull it from them by violence ? If God have 

 &quot; called them to it either to save or to spill, why should we 

 &quot; repine at that which is God s will and order ? Are we 

 &quot; wiser than he in bestowing it ? or so bold to alter that he 

 &quot; purposeth should come of it ?&quot; Thus fully and plainly did 

 our Divine, in his own and in the name of the rest, declare 

 their loyal sentiments of obedience to the supreme, be he 

 man or woman, whom God had brought unto the throne. 

 However, this could not stop the mouths and pens of their 

 enemies the Papists, charging them with disloyal principles, 

 and gladly taking hold of the occasions this foreigners book 

 had given them. 



Some cha- But as for Aylmer*s book, surely it was writ with as close 

 th^book. anc * logical reasoning and good arguing, as any I have met 

 with composed in that age, and void of that manner of abu 

 sive treating of the adversary, (too common in controversial 

 writers, especially of that time,) dealing in gentle and hu 

 mane words with the person he undertook to confute. And 

 his expositions of Scripture throughout the book, which are 

 divers and sundry, are very sound and learned ; a piece of 

 learning more rare among Divines then, when the original 

 languages and the Jewish history were less known. 

 A specimen Now that the reader may the better see and observe the 

 ofthebook&amp;lt; design of the author of this treatise, and his style, (espe 

 cially it being a book somewhat rare to be met with in this 

 age, now after an hundred and fifty years well near,) let it 

 not be counted tedious, if I repeat somewhat at large his 

 introduction to his said discourse in his own words. 



&quot; Like as sick or feble bodies cannot abyde any great 

 &quot; panges or fittes, or old cracked shyppes any great waves 



