Here and in many other passages of his other works Jeremy Taylor very unfairly states this argument of the anti-prelatic party. It was not that the Church of England was afflicted (the Puritans themselves had been much more afflicted by the prelates); but that having appealed to the decision of the sword, the cause was determined against it. But in fact it is false that the Puritans ever did argue as Taylor represents them. Laud and his confederates had begun by incarcerating, scourging, and inhumanly mutilating their fellow Christians for not acceding to their fancies, and proceeded to goad and drive the King to levy or at least maintain war against his Parliament: and the Parliamentary party very naturally cited their defeat and the overthrow of the prelacy as a judgment on their blood-thirstiness, not as a proof of their error in questions of theology. Ib. s. iv. p. 105. All that I shall say, &c. 'ad finem'. An admirable paragraph. Taylor is never more himself, never appears greater, or wiser, than when he enters on this topic, namely, the many and various causes beside truth which occasion men to hold an opinion for truth. Ib. s. vii. p. 111. Of such men as these it was said by St. Austin: 'Cæteram turbam non intelligendi vivacitas, sed credendi simplicitas tutissimam facit.' Such charity is indeed notable policy: salvation made easy for the benefit of obedient dupes. Ib. s. ii. p. 119. I deny not but certain and known idolatry, or any other sort of practical impiety with its principiant doctrine, may be punished corporally, because it is no other but matter of fact. In the Jewish theocracy, I admit; because the fact of idolatry was a crime, namely, 'crimen læsæ majestatis', an overt act subversive of the fundamental law of the state, and breaking asunder the 'vinculum et copulam unitatis et cohæsionis'. But in making the position general, Taylor commits the 'sophisma omissi essentialis'; he omits the essential of the predicate, namely, criminal;--not its being a fact rendering it punishable, but its being a criminal fact. Ib. s. iii.