jackdaws stripped of
their Babylonish trappings, their robes and square caps, their lawn
formalities, their hoods and scarfs, and mitres, and crosiers, and
thrones, by which these Diotrepheses lorded it over the faithful, and
made the land stink with idolatries which Scripture forbids. But the
blood of that Popish inquistior, Laud, will soon flow on the scaffold,
and be a cleansing stream over a foul garment; and with him episcopacy
shall be coffined up and buried without expectation of a resurrection."

"It is strange," observed Dr. Beaumont, "that the Papacy should rejoice
at his degradation, and consider his present sufferings as a judgment
upon him for composing a treatise which exposed their fopperies with a
strength of reasoning to which their most able divines know not how to
reply."

Morgan here interposed, and, with a smile of condescension, advised Dr.
Beaumont to reflect on his own situation, and consider his temporal
advantages and personal security. He spoke in praise of his learning,
benevolence, and inoffensive conduct, and desired him, by a timely
conformity to the prevailing doctrines, to avoid being implicated in the
ruin of a falling church.

"A true branch of the Catholic church," replied the Doctor, "may be
shaken, but cannot fall, because it has the promise of resisting the
attacks of the powers of darkness to the end of the world. But you
mistake me, Sir, if you suppose that policy was the schoolmaster who
taught me my creed, or that I will desert that Church in adversity who
fed me with her bread, and graced me with her ministerial appointments.
The pastoral office she intrusted to me may be wrested from my grasp by
force; my body may be imprisoned, my goods confiscated; you may drag me
to the flames, like Ridley, or to the scaffold, like Laud, but you
cannot change truth into falsehood, or make that right, which, though
successful, is intrinsically wrong. Whether the doctrines of the Church
of England be branded as those of a declining sect, or set by the throne
as a light to guide our hereditary Princes, they must be tried by other
criterions than popularity, I mean, by reason, Scripture, and
apostolical usage. I trust she will ever have sons equal to the task of
defending her, men uncorrupted by sensuality when she basks in sunshine,
undaunted by danger when tempests threaten her destruction. And with all
your boasts of making this land a Zoar and a Zion, I will tell you that
you will never