have been first confusion, and then ruin and misery to this numerous
nation.

[Sidenote: Spectator ab extra]

These errors and animosities were so remarkable, that they begot
wonder in an ingenious Italian, who being about this time come newly
into this nation, and considering them, writ scoffingly to a friend in
his own country, to this purpose; "That the common people of England
were wiser than the wisest of his nation; for here the very women and
shop-keepers were able to judge of Predestination, and to determine
what laws were fit to be made concerning Church-government; and then,
what were fit to be obeyed or abolished. That they were more able--or
at least thought so--to raise and determine perplexed Cases of
Conscience, than the wisest of the most learned Colleges in Italy!
That men of the slightest learning, and the most ignorant of the
common people, were mad for a new, or super, or re-reformation of
Religion; and that in this they appeared like that man, who would
never cease to whet and whet his knife, till there was no steel left
to make it useful." And he concluded his letter with this observation,
"That those very men that were most busy in oppositions, and
disputations, and controversies, and finding out the faults of their
governors, had usually the least of humility and mortification, or of
the power of godliness."

[Sidenote: Growth of Atheism]

And to heighten all these discontents and dangers, there was also
sprung up a generation of godless men; men that had so long given way
to their own lusts and delusions, and so highly opposed the blessed