Accordingly, her divines abound with warnings against the aforesaid Scylla and Charybdis, and with exhortations to cleave to the middle line of safety. Acting on the proverb that _extremes meet_, they were ever drawing parallels between their two opponents. On the other hand, the Puritans stoutly contended that _they_ were the true middle-men; and in their turn traced divers similarities and parallels betwixt "Popery and Prelacy," the "Mass Book and Service Book."[2] Without farther preface, I shall give the title of a curious work, which will tell its own story: "_Foxes and Firebrands_; or _A Specimen of the Danger and Harmony of Popery and Separation_. Wherein is proved from undeniable Matter of Fact and Reason, that Separation from the Church of England is, in the Judgment of Papists, and by Experience, found the most Compendious way to introduce Popery, and to ruine the Protestant Religion: '_Tantum Religio potuit suadere Malorum._'" A work under this title was published, if I mistake not, in London in 1678 by Dr. Henry Nalson; in 1682, Robert Ware reprinted it with a second part of his own; and in 1689 he added a _third_ and last part in 12mo., uniform with the previous volume.[3] In the Epist. Ded. to Part II. the writer says of the Church of England: "The Papists on the one hand, and the Puritans on the other, did endeavour to sully and bespatter the glory of her Reformation: the one taxing it with innovation, and the other with superstition." The Preface to the Third Part declares that the object of the whole work is "to reclaim the most haggard Papists" and Puritans. Wheatly, in treating of the State Service for the 29th of May, remarks: "The Papists and Sectaries, like Sampson's Foxes, though they look contrary ways, do yet both join in carrying Fire to destroy us: their End is the same, though the method be different."--_Rational Illust. of the Book of Common Prayer_, 3rd edit., London, 1720, folio. The following passage occurs in _A Letter to the Author of the Vindication of the Clergy_, by Dr. Eachard, London, 1705: