in and by the Church of Rome especially since Trent-Council assembled and ended above your hundred years ago is inconsistent with and destructive of this individual Headship true Faith and Church-constitution being nothing else but an Anti-christian miscellany and compound oppositum in apposito of God and the Creature God-man and meer-man in the most material points and principles of Christianity the Persons of both in point of Worship the Power and Authority of both in matters of Faith the Righteousness and Merit of both in point of Satisfaction and Justification the Wills of both in the act of Conversion the Intercession of both in the great office of Mediation yea an universal co-equivalency or equal concurrence of Worth Vertue and Efficacy from both throughout the whole business of Redemption and Salvation especially from Christ and the Virgin Mary constituted therein Corredemptress with her Son and Saviouress a latere as if her Brests as well as his Sides had been no less then sacramental and the Mothers Milk and the Son's Blood equally saving Moreover to prosecute this Religious medley God and the Creature in the Decalogue Christ and the Church in the Creed Scripture and Tradition in the Canon Pater-Noster and Ave-Maria in the Litany Sacrament and Sacrifice in the Supper c. all so many Riddles in the Mystery of Iniquity A Religion consisting of such Trent-Forge-Principles and Practices as these viz. In point of Doctrine Papal Supremacy and Authotity Church Infallibility unwritten Traditions equall'd in authority with the Holy Scriptures the doctrine of Man's free-Will in opposition to God's Free-Grace the Doctrine of Perfection of Merits Pardons and Indulgences redounding from a surplusage of Works of super-erogation and satisfaction as they are termed as if any meer Man could fullfill in obedience beyond what the Law requires and satisfy in penance beyond what Sin deserves a rare Religion the doctrine of Purgatory and Souls Departed the doctrine of Mass-service and Transubstantiation the Consecrating Priestling turning a petty Creator as is supposed converting sacramental Forms into real Substance and Commemoration into Expiation celebrating Christ's Death with his death as well as with his own in destroying instead of discerning the Lord's Body yea both Saviour and Sacrament at once the doctrine of Ministration in an unknown Tongue by means whereof they do most sacrilegiously robb the Children of their Bread in the Scriptures as they do of the Cup in the Supper and many more such like Doctrines not of men onely but of Divels which I list not to dwell upon the Subject being so Frightful In point of Worship Idolatry and Imagery Superstition Saint-Worship c. In point of Polity absolute Tyranny the Keys turned into a Sword sufficiently exercised and dearly experienced throughout the World upon Princes-Crowns their Subjects-Consciences and Protestant-Blood in sanguinary Lawes a bloody Inquisition direful Anathemaes execrable Massacres rageing Persecutions c. the violent Calentures of that Torrid Zone The Religion in fine of that Church which is in Doctrine damnably Heretical in Worship grossely Idolatrous in Polity and Government intollerably Tyrannical in all palpably Antichristian opposite to and virtually destructive of Christs fundamentality and headship in his Person or Natures in his Offices in all their parts in his States in his vertues merits graces priviledges Institutions and ordinances c. in one or more or all of those and consequently destruction of the Catholick Faith and Religion by Himself and his Apostles and the whole successive series of Christians throughout the World professed and practised and finally of the truth of a Christian Church his Body all in effect nullified thereby yea and a false head other foundation and another name being substituted in opposition to the true the Religion I say professed and practised in the Church of Rome and that Church her self especially since Trent-Council being such as is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 described it followeth by necessary consequence that the separation of the Church of England both primitive in her first Reformers and present in their Successours persisting in that happy divorce from her and embodyed into a contradistinct but true Church under Christ the onely true Head in a Joynt profession of his Faith the true Religion is so far from being Schismatical this being ever a causeless and groundless separation in or from matter of true Religion in a true Church that on the contrary it is righteous and Justifyable yea absolutely necessary by the authority of that Law whereby we are strictly commanded to renounce and abjure her society upon peril of sharing in her Plagues from which Good Lord deliver us Sir if in this short defence of our Reformation which it is like may seem a kind of morose Tragedy to an airy Mercurius but that I aim at a further goal you think I have falsified or misrepresented any principle of the Romish Church charge me with it and spare not and if I do not Justify what I have asserted brand me for as great a slanderer as your self Again Sir True Religion being that onely of which the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth is the Author the Holy Scriptures the Word of Truth is the Rule and the Holy Church whereof our Church of England is part the Pillar and Ground of Truth is the publick Trustee Keeper and Conservatory as Pillars or Tables are of affix'd Papers and Proclamations to wit modo forensi non architectonico derived and delivered as is above-said to her from the Apostles and to them by Christ from God himself And the Reformed Religion Faith Doctrine and substantial Worship professed and practised in and by the Church of England being such as may appear from her publick tests and monuments especially the three Creeds Apostolick Nicene and Athanasian and her doctrinal Articles unanimously agreed upon in two several Convocations viz An. Dom. 1562 and 1604 c. compared with the Sacred Canon whose test and trial in the Case she is willing to undergo It follows that the Reformed and onely reforming Religion professed and practised in and by the Church of England is the onely true Religion which when you assault with Argument as now you undermine by Stratagem you shall be dealt withall Moreover Sir The Church of England is no less satisfied in her Clergy then in her Religion that as God hath by a Law of as long duration as that of Sun and Moon in the ordinary course of his Providence appointed to publish and propagate his Truth and instruct his Church by a constant series and succession of persons of holy Order and Office authorised and qualified thereunto so her Clergy is such having derived their orders together with their Religion ex traduce Apostolica from the original Seminary Founders of Christianity in England who are recorded in History the monumental Memory and best Intelligencer in such cases to have been Apostles or Men Apostolical whether Philip or Joseph of Arimathea sent by him as Tertullian
Dignity pre-engaged be perfected and ripened into a firm perswasion by the concurrent certificative Testimony of the Holy Ghost as the efficient cause thereof exerted in if distinct from the admirable efficacy of the Doctrine it self upon the mind and judgment the heart will and affections c. namely that the Revelation that is the doctrine confirmed by miracles both co-attested canonically in the Scriptures and ministerially by the Church contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament as they are approved and received throughout the Reformed Churches is of a truth the Word of God c. There be several other Secondary and Collateral arguments of the Divinity of of the Scriptures as the cessation of Gentile-Oracles the subversion of Pagan-Idols by vertue hereof like the fall of Dagon before the Ark the implacable Malice rage and fury of Satan and his accomplices against them the Divine Judgements upon their inveterate Opponents the invincible courage constancy and resolution of their Confessors and Martyrs the quality of the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists their first Publishers and Writers the admirable preservation of them against all opposition the confession of Adversaries Jews Gentiles Sibylls Phylosophers Heathens and Hereticks c. touching the divine truth thereof And also several other Internal markes and cognizances of Divinity as antiquity consent of parts efficacy of doctrine and the like But the former being only known to us by humane Testimony it is plain that the prudence and discretion the honesty and integrity of the present Witnesses of the Divinity of the scriptures as persons Rationally Infallible or such as cannot in reason be suspected of any either active or passive deceit imposture in the case is must to any considerate person appear to be equivalent to all the rest and a more sure and compendious argument for fixing and setling of our belief in the particular The latter I have omitted as not so argumentative or convictive to natural-Conscience which I have here more especially addressed my endeavour to as the others above urged But that none may wonder why I urge not here the argument of miracles which others of the greatest Fame lay such a main stress upon I will give you and the world this brief account of it Miracles are considerable in reference to the case in hand but two ways namely as either matter of Divine testimony co-attested together with the doctrine by them confirmed canonically in the Scriptures or else as matter of humane testimony co-attested together with the said doctrine ministerially in by the Church as hath been preasserted Now in short Sir under neither consideration are Miracles or can they rationally be supposed to be the argument of our Faith but only the partial Object thereof as matter of Divine testimony as hath been said in the Scriptures and matter of Humane testimony in the Church and therefore requiring a correspondent assent to both Where for a further account of my self I crave leave to Remonstrate against a very Eminent and worthy Divine of the quorum of the Clergy by you contemned now living who in a Book as noted as himself holds this of Miracles for the main convictive Argument of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures as though best now because such of old which is a meer fallacy a non causa pro causa partly and partly ab accidente for First to argue ab absurdo from his own Hypothesis namely this That which Christ himself in his time used as the best argument to prove the Divine Authority of his doctrine is the best still to which I subsume But so it is that that of visible miracles was the best argument which Christ used to prove the Divine authority of his doctrine making the Ear-witnesses of the one Eye-witnesses of the other as infallibly demonstrative signs and seals of Divinity and then the conclusion followeth full of absurdity viz. that that of visible miracles obvious to our Eyes as those were which he wrought in the dayes of his flesh to his then-proselytes is the best argument that can be used still to prove the Divinity of his doctrine the scriptures or which is all one Christ must re-descend into the world and work New miracles visible as his first before he can have New converts Absurd Again If that which Christ himself used as the best Argument to prove the Divinity of his Doctrine which is known to have been visible miracles be the best still then are we under an unavoidable necessity of incurring the same guilt to wit non-conviction and positive unbelief or in the same Authors opinion which I do not here dispute the sin against the Holy Ghost with those reprobated Infidels in the dayes of Christ through our being destitute of the same provisions against it namely visible miracles Nay more we are under a necessity of incurring sin without possibility of remedy a necessity of sinning through want of the preventive visible miracles without possibility of remedy because the positive unbelief mentioned and sin against the Holy Ghost if those be distinct are known by scripture-verdict to be unpardonable this gross absurdity followeth by necessary consequence how injurious nay blasphemous against the Wisdome Goodness Holiness and Justice of God the asserting of such a thing were is easy to determine Thirdly Dilemmatically that Reverend Author must necessarily consider miracles either as Recorded in the Scriptures or as Reported by the Church for as visible they were peculiar to Christ's Contemporaries and Eye-witnesses If as Recorded in the Scriptures as such they being part of the Divine testimony which is this complex the Doctrine of Christ confirmed by Miracles they are not the Argument but the Object of our Faith and we believe not the Scriptures for the Miracles but the Miracles for the Scriptures as part of the sacred narrative and together with the Doctrine by them confirmed and joyntly with them therein Recorded the Collateral Object of our belief If again as Reported by the Church then by my Authors Divinity the testimony of the Church is the main or best Argument that can be used to prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures A train of Absurdities and if we abstract from the testimony of both Scriptures and Church let any tell me what significancy Miracles are of in the case The Author I assure you is a person approved for Eminent both Learning and Piety and indemnified from your two extenuative Characters of which in their due place but personal respects must vail to the interest of the truth I can easily declare with him that I believe that Doctrine to be of God which is confirmed by undeniable Miracles I can as easily declare that I believe all true Miracles to be of God because they exceed all created power but the critical Query in the case by him omitted is how shall one be assured that such Miracles were ever wrought as Christ's turning of Water into Wine for instance his Raising of
Hieragonisticon OR CORAH'S DOOM BEING AN ANSWER To Two Letters of Enquiry into the Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion In Vindication of the Contemned By way of Epistle to the Author of the said Enquiry Contra Rationem nemo sobrius contra Scripturam nemo Christianus contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus London Printed by Tho. Milbourn for Dorman Newman at the Kings-Armes in the Poultry 1672. An Answer to two Letters of Enquiry into the Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion in Vindication of the Contemned By way of Epistle c. SIR THe Reformed Religion and Clergy England's Glory being by you betrayed to Contempt under pretence of an amicable Enquiry into the Grounds and Occasions of it which I here offer to make good I cannot conceive how I may better manage my vouch'd Vindication of both then 1. By Vnriddling the mystery of your Inquest to the Laity and 2. By answering to your Process form'd in it against Religion and Clergy This therefore is the method which I will observe in the present Contest which had I reckoned it Certamen de Oleastro a debate about matters of no greater consequence than are Achilles's Toes the Graecian's Boots or Neapolitan Chesnuts c. I had never I assure you contrasted you in to your the worlds or my own trouble As touching the First General viz. the Vnriddling of the Mystery and detecting of the stratagem project and imposture of your Inquisition and that in order to the prepossessing and guarding of the Laity against it This Sir I will endeavour by way of distinct gradual paragraphs commenced not a Nannaco from Adam or the Prae-adamites nor yet from your great Mormo Belshazzar but from the very Genealogy of the Christian Religion by you impeached thence proceeding ab Equis ad Asinos till in fine Sphinx do upon the matter become his own Oedipus and your Riddle whether one in the Mystery of Iniquity or not the Reader shall be Judge as legible as that plain truth as great a one as any that occurrs throughout your whole Rhapsody namely Let. 2. pag. 10 that there is a near relation between Atheisme and Contempt of the Clergy wherein let me tell you you have in a manner prophesied your own doom as Caiaphas did our Saviour's unawares First then Sir The Christian Faith or Religion is That which God the Father the original Author of Truth as well as Being hath delivered to his Son his Son to his Apostles his Apostles to his Church the primitive to succeeding Churches and all to their respective Members and Matriculates This is a prescript of the learnedst Apologist and Defender of the Faith that ever the Church enjoyed namely the great Tertullian and with me a grand piece of Orthodoxy Again Sir This Religion thus conveyed from God the Father by his Son to his Apostles and by the intermediation of both to his Church hath been in all the successive Ages thereof from the Apostles downwards to this present time and will be to the end of the world published preached and propagated by a constituted Hierarchy or continual Series of persons of holy Order and Office duly authorized and qualified thereunto stiled the Lights of the World the Stewards of Divine Mysteries the Embassadours of Christ the Pastors Teachers Guides Angels and Overseers of the Church For this Sir besides its congruity to the principles of general Equity I would produce Scripture-Arguments but that I fear lest they might share in the common lot of sacred Promises Precepts Narratives c. by your over-daring Witt facetiously abused sacra sacris Hence Sir it follows Thirdly There cannot be a more compendious method or stratagem devised for propagating of any sinister innovation or revolution Pagan or Papal in matter of Religion and the most Atheistick Idolatrous loose licentious principles and practices whatsoever even to an universal re-paganizing of a Nation than either by utterly subverting of an Orthodox Clergy therein or else by rendering it useless and unserviceable For if either the Persons of those Sacred Stewards Teachers Guides and Supervisers be removed or which is all one as to use and serviceableness in the Church their authority rebated and infringed those Lights either quite exstinct or at leastwise eclipsed those sacred Pipes cut or stop't c. what other can the sequel be then gross Ignorance And what may not be obtruded upon an Ignorant Laity of all that the arbitrary Lawes and lusts of their new Masters to whose service and blind obedience they are now most humbly envassal'd shall impose their swallow being sufficiently prepared by this time not for their Gnats only Tushâ— that 's ordinary with the blind to a proverb but for their Camel the Beast himself for a nauseous deadly Crambe a blasted Nehushtan for Stocks Stones Idols Images and what you will even to an unknown God! which undoubtedly is the reason why Satan his Accomplices have in most of the Catastrophes that have befallen the Church still commenced the tragedy from the Ministry witness both history and experience addressing all their power and policy to an utter either extirpation or exauctoration of the same This Sir I have likewise adopted into my Creed as following consequentially from the former Fourthly The most artificial and expedite way either to destroy the Clergy or which is much the same to render it useless and unserviceable to the Church as this is to destroy Religion is to expose and betray it to misprision and Contempt in the Laity This Sir I take to be as high a strain of Politicks as ever Socinian Loyolite or Jesuited Pandor throughout the world could write himself master of and indeed a very sacra anchora in the Romish Sea for all other artifices failing Enchantments Arguments Anathemaes Menaces Massacres Altar-Coals the Learned Quill the Charming Cup the sacred Key the thirsty Sword c. inter sacrum saxum Ahab's prejudice will do the business The Jesuite's Powder-Plot An. Dom. 88. was a shrewd stratagem as being levelled at the Community in Ruler and Representative where each unite stands for thousands universally devoted to a tout a coup such an epitomised stroke upon the English as the enraged Caligula imprecated to his offending Romanes without the trouble of a repetition But now those Ghostly Politicians are taught by experience that sacred enterprizes never luck more prosperously then when managed surdo verbere and that the Serpent is far more serviceable in the cause then the Dragon as acting with less noise greater execution Once throughly leaven an ungovernable Laity with contempt and prejudice against their Clergy and what the consequents hereof might prove may be perceived without a prospective-glass this active ferment will doubtless by degrees foment the whole mass of Blood and Spirit with which it once incorporates to an utter rejection of that which it ought if call'd for to be expended in defence of and thus
to understand that Sacred Truth might have been easily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by tradition from father to son conveyed preserved all that time pure entire and incorrupt free from the above-named Inconveniencies yea one single Trinmvirate might have performed this for the whole Two thousand years mentioned namely Adam Methuselah and Shem Methuselah living above Two hundred years with Adam and Shem who lived to the Fiftieth of Isaack's Age which was about the Two thousandth one hundredth and Fiftieth of the Age of the World about a hundred with Methuselah But now being that the Church-Line hath been since far extended her constitution advancing from Domestical to National and from That to Oecumenick and Vniversal Japhet perswaded to co-tabernacle with Shem and moreover the Life of Man very much since curtail'd being contracted by Sacred Horoscope to seventy or at most eighty years yea very rarely protracted to that insomuch that many successive Sages of the Church would not suffice to perform that now which that one single ternion did before and thus the case infinitely altered It followeth that for a preventive expedient against the Three-fold Inconveniency above-specified namely oblivion corruption and suppression a scriptural and written Rule is most Convenient And lastly that it is most congruous to the Nature and Honour of GOD to indulge his Creatures such a Revelation Rule and Directory is most convincingly manifest from his own infinite Perfections partly and partly from the concerns of his Glory and Honour in his own Worship being rightly performed and his Creature 's Happiness being fully secured for to urge but one argument in this one piece of Sacred Oeconomy which is Nemesius's concerning a Divine Providence in general should not God in condescention to his Creatures necessity and conveniency mentioned as well as in compliance with the Interest of his own Honour therein concerned afford him such a Revelation of his Mind and Will and Rule of Faith and Life this non-indulgence or refusal must necessarily proceed either from want of Wisdom or of will or of power and sufficiency in God as if either he were not Wise enough to understand how to gratifie his Creature or indeed consult his own interest herein or not Good Gracious and Kind enough to his Creature or Faithful enough to his own interest to do it or else in case of both Skill and Will yet not Able or Sufficient enough hereunto But now being that God as is evident by the very light of Nature is infinitely Wise infinitely Good and All-sufficient it were desperate treasonable Blaspemy committed against Heaven to assert any of those Defects and therefore in fine by the best of consequence as a special supernatural Revelation of the divine Mind and Will and Rule of Faith and Life is to the Creature absolutely Necessary and a Scriptural and Written one most Convenient So it is most congruous and suitable to the Divine both nature and honour to afford and indulge his Creature this most needful useful Scriptural Rule and Revelation Lastly Sir That this necessary-expedient Revelation of God and his Will this Canon Rule and Directory of Divine Doctrine and Worship and Christian Faith and Life c. is no other then what is contained in that System of Sacred Truth the Volume of the Scripures of the Old and New Testament as approved and received throughout the Reformed Churches is as rationally demonstrable as either of the former This being that only Revelation to which the necessary properties and conditions of such a Canon do appertain which are summarily these two namely Divine Authority in respect of the Original and universal sufficiency in respect of the end it being absolutely requisite that such a Rule should both proceed from not Man Church or Angel but God himself as its Author and also by due proportion correspond to the ends and intendments specified as a plain and plenary description of and direction to the true God true Worship true Happiness and the appropriated means of the acceptable performance of that Worship and infallible attainment of that Happiness what more Rational and may that Instrument Method and Model of Revelation be for ever exploded the Church of God as apocryphal which is devoid of either property The one is a compound of infallible Veracity and authoritative Power expressed in the Revelation as being by its Sacred Author whose essential properties those are both inspired and instituted for the only authentick and unalterable Canon of his Church the former requiring our Faith the latter our Obedience Both in their respective analysis ultimately resolvable into the same as their very formal and Fundamentall Reason a principle of natural Conscience as well as that of the Authors eternal Power and God Head So that the Christian Religion framed by this Canon is of all others the most rational as being founded partly upon the Veracity of that God who can neither deceive nor be deceived partly upon his Supremacy or potestative Right by vertue whereof quicquid libet licet he may as the Creature 's Soveraign Proprietary enjoyn and exact of him whatsoever Worship or Service his own absolute but righteous Will shall dictate or direct and if any of the English Clergy offer to court your assent or obedience hereunto as other let them for ever inherit your Contempt The other property again by me considered as relating to both matter and manner of Revelation is the absolute perfection of the Canon whereby it is conceived as a Sacred Pandect or Ecyclopoedy expressely or implicitely directly or consequentially to comprehend the whole Counsel of God concerning all things necessary to be either known and believed or observed and practised in order to God's Glory and Man's happiness with so much clearness and perspicuity as that all both literate and illiterate may in a due and diligent perusal of the same attain to a competent skill and knowledg therein So that that onely Revelation must necessarily be the authentick Organ and Instrument Canon and Rule of Divine Doctrine and Worship Christian Faith and Obedience to which those two Canonical properties and conditions agree viz. that authority in respect both of inspiration and institution and that all-sufficiency in respect both of matter and manner of discovery so as that all Faith and Obedience yielded to the Revelation must be resolved into the veracity and supremacy of its Author expressed therein as the formal object or objective Reason of both aswell as into the universally perfect and all-sufficient Testimony it self as the material one and not into the testimony either of Church with the Papist or of Spirit with the Enthysiast both committing a most absurd and putid Circle in giving the reason of their hope asserting the truth and authority of the Canon by those respective testimonies and again in a reversed method the truth of those testimonies as being no other way known to be true by the Canon therefore to be equally declined Now that the Revelation of
God and his Will contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament as they are approved and received throughout the Reformed Churches is that one only Revelation which is thus both inspired and also by eternal sanction instituted and appointed of God for the all-sufficient and absolutely perfect Canon of his Church and that both as touching the Doctrine therein contained and its accessary mode of scription it being wholly committed to writing by God's Holy Prophets Apostles and Evangelists being all by the Holy Ghost as his immediate Actuaries extraordinarily qualified for irresistibly incited to and infallibly guided and actéd in the work commenced by Moses the first and finally concluded and perfected by St. John the last of Canonical Writers may be very rationally evicted and that to an utter exclusion not only of the Jewish Talmud the Turkish Alchoran Popish Traditions Enthsiastick Fancies c. from having part or lot in the Sacred Canon but of matters of a higher predicament namely all vocal Revelation such as was that whereby God instructed his Church for the first two thousand Yeares and upwards and the many Sermons of Christ and his Apostles not recorded though equally inspired of God with the Scriptural as also several Prophecies as those of Gad Nathan Iddo and others which were not only equally inspired but likewise recorded yet irrecoverably lost as being only accommodated pro tunc to some particular state condition exigency of the Church which once satisfied they were judged unnecessary to be incorporated into the universal Canon Where I advertise the Reader that the sufficiency of the Scriptures is evicted in their authority for it being once agreed upon that the Revelation contained therein is of a truth the Word of God we cannot more question its sufficiency then its testimony whereof this is a signal part namely that It is as inspired of God so as his Sacred Institutes profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction c. sufficient to perfect every individual Man and the whole Church of God That whatsoever things were written were written for our Learning c. That this word must be indeclinably observed without turning to the right hand or to the left That nothing must be added to this Word or diminished from it upon peril of accumulative misery denounced by St. John the last and longest liver of Canonical Writers as hath been said in the very last of his writings namely the very close of the Canon by way of penal sanction and ratification of the whole So that the very crisis of this weighty concern of stating and setling our Faith obedience in and to the Holy Scriptures lyeth in the evidence of the Divine Authority thereof after this discursive method That which is the Word of God ought necessarily to be believed and obeyed But the Revelation contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New-Testament is the Word of God Therefore this Revelation ought necessarily to be believed and obeyed The major or first proposition is a conclusion of natural Reason founded and following upon God's essential veracity and supremacy as hath been said the dictates of the very Light and Law of Nature as well as that of a Deity it self The minor or assumption namely that the Revelation contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is the very Word of God is apparent upon a threefold testimony namely that of the Church that of the Scriptures themselves and that of the Holy Ghost of which the two former onely are argumentative the one as Humane and Ministerial the other as Divine and Canonical as for that of the Holy Ghost He being the efficient cause of our Faith and obedience his testimony indeed is most certainly perswasive to a person 's own Conscience but this testimony being private and internal like the Hidden Manna which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it and the truth or divinity hereof being with all opponents equally questionable with that of the Word it self it can be no wayes convictive to others Well then to urge only the two former and that very briefly As touching the first of those namely the testimony of the Church which I here consider and observe it Sir not under the notion of a Church for as such it is onely knowable by the Scriptures not they by it but as a collective Body or society of prudent and honest faithful Witnesses professing and attesting the Holy Scriptures and the Religion therein prescribed so that the Argument standeth thus That Revelation which is by a society of prudent honest and faithful Witnesses who are neither deceived themselves nor deceivers of others professed and attested to be the Word of God in all rational construction and evidence is such But the Revelation contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is by such a society of prudent honest and faithful Witnesses c. professed and attested to be the Word of God Ergo c. The major or first proposition Sir I reckon unquestionable with all Atheists and Infidels throughout the world for certainly as essential infallibility in God by vertue whereof in genere entis he can neither deceive nor be deceived is the ground of an infallible assurance in matters of Divine testimony so a rational infallibility in a society of prudent honest and faithful men who therefore cannot be suspected to be in genere moris either deceived in themselves or deceivers of others is a sufficient ground of rational assurance in matter of humane testimony as is that in question viz a humane testimony of a divine Revelation for what more can be required in the case As for the roof of the minor or assumtion all that is required hereunto is the eviction of the prudence honesty and faithfulness of those Witnesses or the rational infallibility of themselves and and their testimony namely that they are such as can neither be suspected of being deceived in themselves nor yet of any imposture or intent of deceiving others where I understand as to our immediate concern in the case the present Testifiers especially without a perplexing recourse had to the first being that the credit of the preceeding is still successively secured in the subsequent Churches thus being once perswaded of the prudence and honesty of the present Church namely that she is so wise and prudent as not to have been deceived by the next preceeding from whom she received the Scriptures and so honest and ingenuous as not to deceive the Reader or my self or the next ensuing we are accordingly assured of the same both prudence and honesty and consequently rational infallibility in the former and so in the next to that and so on to the very Apostles and first witnesses Now then Let the intellectuals and morals the wisdom prudence and discretion the honesty fidelity and integrity of the present Witnesses of the Divinity of the Scriptures be impartially scann'd and all compared with the multitude of
the key exchanged for the Croisade but this I wonder that you of all men should advise for you know Sir that the holy Warriours vouch to fight not Turks only but Infidels how beit strange it is if both wayes of vent namely either to a slavery in Turky the Barbadoes or Indies or to an honourable adventure into the Holy Land may not suffice to reduce the number but sink or swim stand or fall it is all one to you what becomes of either Cargo or Armado so there be but a good riddance to the Nation of such cumber-ground-Inmates that is of our Guides Lights Pastors Seers and Overseers We are beholden to you Sir and what the sequel hereof might be or your design in it your Reader be Judge I do but think how great your grudge had been had the whole English Clergy match'd in number one single order of another See namely that of St. Bennet of which it is bragg'd that it hath been the fruitful Nursery of no less than Fifty-two Popes Two hundred Cardinals sixteen hundred Arch-Bishops Four thousand Bishops and Five thousand Saints approved by the Church or that of the Cordeliers or Minims computed by Sabbellicus in his Enneads to be in Europe besides the multitudes in Asia Africa c. above Five hundred thousand a thing almost incredible out of whom the General of the Order of St. Francis their Patron hath upon all occasions offer'd to advance the Pope an Army Thirty thousand strong and all very well spar'd besides a great many Tunns for Transport whether the commodity be good or nor I leave to others to determine Invidious grudge against Englands Clergy though the sum total amounts not to so many hundreds as there are of thousands in one single Romish order this I dare say is rancide and inveterate though the spirituall press and tunnage may seem to be spoken by a Jocoso your Inquisition herein in the case of our Clergy somwhat resembling that of the Roman Tyrants of old in the case of Christians whom they tormented for a diversion But this is not all I suppose that the English Clergy being divided into three parts and a thousand in each tertia that one of those is dispatched away under their sacred Labarum for the Holy-Land unanimously resolved to be either absolute Masters or Martyrs upon the spott a second ship'd off amongst other domestick commodities with which the Nation is over-stock'd at so much par teste or per tunn for the Barbadoes or the Indies c. to get their living as Adam got his by digging in grounds or mines under ground as not worthy to live upon it and all this jure exterminij by Act of Parliament too prompted by your judicious motion this supposed I say the Ghostly Armado the sacred Cargo all ship'd and gon and the Nation well rid of them is all your spire malice and contempt quite spent and evaporated now I doubt not there is a tertia behind still and the mischief of all the office in and with them the number of persons retrieved but the function still continues in the remainder and whilst there is a preaching Timothy or a praying Joshua in England to be sure Amaleck cannot prevail Therefore Your next attempt Sir is made upon the Ministerial Office and Function it self especially in those two grand Ministerial exercises Preaching and Prayer both Manna and Incense and that with such a strain of dialect as deserves the severest anathema in my Budgett but I referr that piece of Justice to your Reader To begin with the latter You severely criminate and highly disparage the Spirit and gift of Prayer Lett. 2. p. 155. and which yet is usual with both sorts of the English Clergy Conformists and Nonconformists all conceived Prayer Now what the Gift and Spirit of Prayer is a Learned ingenious and worthy Prelate of our Church shall determine who knows but Episcopal Reverence may aw you into a submission whose Judgment in the particular I perswade my self is of general authority with all that are sober and discerning namely Bishop Wilkins whose assertions in the case are these in his Discourse of Prayer viz. the Gift of Prayer may be thus described It is such a readiness and faculty proceeding from the Spirit of God whereby a man is enabled upon all occasions in a fit manner to express and enlarge the desires of his heart in this Duty Unto the attaining of this Gift in its true latitude and fulness there are three sorts of Ingredients required viz. 1. Something to be infused by the Spirit of God who must sanctify and and spiritualize the judgment and affections before we can either apprehend or desire any thing as we should 2. Some natural endowments and abilities disposing us for this Gift as readiness of apprehension copiousness of fancy tenderness of affection confidence and volubility of speech which are very great advantages to this purpose being naturally much more eminent in some then others 3. Something to be acquired and gotten by our own industry namely such a particular and distinct apprehension both of our sins and wants and the Mercies bestowed upon us that we may be able to express the thoughts and dispositions of our minds concerning them in such a decent form as may excite both in our selves and others suitable affections The first of these is by some stiled the Spirit of Prayer the two latter the Gift of Prayer c. This Sir is Diocesan Doctrine and let that Clergy-Man undergo your Contempt that pretends to other Gift or Spirit then what is here described But now what do you think will the World Judge of you who advance an all-Damning and illiterate Hector into a competition herein Lett. 1. p. 36. with a Learned and Reverend Prelate for you undertake Sir to recriminate you from your own censure sub nomine penae to procure one of the rankest Hectors about Town Lett. 2. p. 157 that shares his time between Swearing and Cursing and something else who supposing he does not put in sometimes an Oath in stead of O Lord and a God damn him by the common Law of autocatacrisy in stead of God bless him shall make a long well-worded and affectionate Prayer with confession of all the Villanies committed since the Flood Contempt of the Clergy I hope amongst the rest which shall draw forth as many Tears and as deep Groans as any of the greatest pretenders to that Gift or Spirit that is to say as any Prayer of the Bishop himself now mentioned he being of the number of those pretenders as you are pleased to entitle them And if this be not test sufficient to the World of what Spirit you are of I will for ever abjure all Spirit-discerning faculty and I doubt not but this one signature of it will serve to debase your credit for ever with any impartial Reader in order to whose just verdict touching your project and principle of Atheisme it is
that I single out such matchless instances of your extemporal and occasional Witt which let me tell you none but some unsanctified Humster for your Hector will ever afford an Amen to or reckon other then facetious villany remember for a check to it though Noah's Flood mentioned in your Hector's Litany be past yet St. Peter's Fire is still to come which all your holy Water cannot quench Ignorant-Poor Clergy indeed if a profligate Hector-Rampant shall out-vie them in their faculty being no further hallowed then with your outside consecration of a double Cap Cassock and Girdle Again As touching the other grand part of the Ministerial Office namely Preaching It is your peremptory assertion Sir in the Words of some great Patron an Intimado possibly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom you adopt for your mouth that such Preaching as is usual in the Church of England is a hinderance of Salvation Lett. 1. p. 81. rather then the means to it and the explication of what you intend by the epithete usual you reserve to the good time c. but what I will give the World to understand presently and yet plough with no other then your own Heiffer That Preaching of the Word of God by persons of Holy Order duly authorised and qualified hereunto is a Divine Institution that such Preaching is the ordinary meanes of Salvation and that the Preaching usual in the Church of England of which a fuller vindication hereafter is such She and I in her is obliged to believe till She see better Authority for altering of her Creed or Clergy then you or your Masters are like to produce in haste But the emphasis of your assertion lyeth in the adjunct viz. usual with which you epithet the Preaching by you tax'd and what you intend by usual Preaching in the Church of England must be traced by its extreams or opposites Now then the extream or opposite of usual Preaching must either be 1. Extraordinary high performed in the Holy Tongues Hebrew and Greek through an immediate illapse and inspiration of an infallible Spirit and if so Christus corpore Paulus ore nothing less will serve your turn then then St. Augustine's wish the audible Preaching of Christ or an Apostle in person visibly re-incorporated into the Church or else 2. Extraordinary low and mean possibly by way of prescribed Homily the Church speaking in this as the Spirit in the former but this you know is performable by the meanest Desk-Man one of your Contemptibles though never Master of other Language or Literature then what he may owe to a Mothers Nurses or School-Dames discipline or 3. Extraordinary in respect of Church Office order and degree as being performed onely by Primates or Prelates c. but neither do I take this to be the meaning of your unusual Preaching for besides the great breach of charity implied in it as if all the Preachers in the Church of England were Hinderers of Salvation except onely two saving Graces and twenty four Dominical Vertues if once the inferiour order and Body of the Clergy be brought into Contempt I am sure the Most and Right Reverend must look to share in the Destiny Or else lastly but of that anon It is not a little observable Sir I hope your Reader will sense you accordingly that while you expose our Preachers to the contempt of the Laity you amuse them with dark Reserves touching their Preaching The Clergy and Religion is the very Theme Argument and subject-matter of your Letters those you presuppose a contempt of the Grounds and Occasions of this Contempt you have engaged in an Enquiry into with pretence of friendly redress those grounds and occasions you summarily reduce to two viz the ignorance and Poverty of the Clergy of which anon in the explication and demonstration of those two characters the Preachers are plainly described whose Preaching you averr to be a hinderance of Salvation Now then the usual Preachers of the Church of England are plainly described by you and in them the usual Preaching what then can be the meaning or Mystery of your Reserve that the usual preaching that hinders Salvation which one would think you have sufficiently explained yet you will not here goe about to explain Lett. 1. p. 81. Lett. 2. p. 101. and that the reasons of your scrible might be further explained when occasion should require undoubtedly profound all naught and that I may unmask and detect you according to my promise I will spell out the Original by your own Copy for therein as God would have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your speech bewrayeth you and by good consequence draw a summary conclusion touching the designe charged upon you from your own premises and that in A third assault made by you upon both Doctrinal and Ministerial foundation joyntly the Reformed Religion and Clergy more expressely Ad hominem then All such preaching as is at present usual in the Church of England is a hinderance of Salvation rather then the meanes to it But the Preaching used in the Church of England for an hundred Yeares last past is such as is at present usual therein Therefore the Preaching used in the Church of England for an hundred Yeares last past is a hinderance of Salvation c. Sir of this Categorick Syllogisme for form unexceptionable as you must needs know if your Logicks match your Ethicks the premisses are your own and I hope you will not deny the conclusion which is a compendious glosse and Comment upon the pestilent designe of your Letters of Enquiry The Major proposition Consists of your own express words above scann'd onely your indefinite is by me turn'd into an universal which you know the Rules of School will justify me in as well as the matter in debate such preaching and all such Preaching are equivalent The minor proposition or assumption is your own too as appears partly by express words partly by the scope series tenour and contexture of your Discourse disown it if you can Lett. 1. p. 58 59 It would be an endless thing Sir say you to your Correspondent to count up all the Follies that have been for an hundred Yeares last past Preached and Printed of this kind Now what kind of Follies you mean is plain from your foregoing Narrative concerning ridiculous Preaching by way of impertinent nay Lett. 1. p. 32 38 45 c. sometimes Blasphemous Metaphor Similitude Tales or such as is apt to bring Contempt upon the Preacher and that Religion which he professeth of which afterwards when I come to enquire into matter of Fact so that the argument standeth thus That Preaching which is full of Follies or such useless and ridiculous things as are apt to bring Contempt upon the Preacher and the Religion by him professed is such as is at present usual in the Church of England and therefore by you supposing it such exposed to Contempt But the Preaching usual in the Church of England for an Hundred
Ecclesiastick Polity and Government c. But the whole as I said before universally accommodated to all the respective States Conditions and emergent Exigencies of the Church whose Pastors Teachers Guides and Overseers they are by eternal sanction constituted and established In fine Sir There be two grand Official Acts necessarily incumbent upon the Clergy as the publick Guides Teachers and Instructors of the Church namely the propagation the preservation the delivery and the security of Divine Truth and Religion the revelation of it to the Church and the defence of it being revealed against its and her Enemies Now in order to a laudable performance of these Offices there is 1. absolutely pre-required in point of priviledge the derivation and reception of that Religion from God himself the Author of all Truth as well as being and 2. ordinarily by way of necessary antecedent and preparative to all a competent knowledge of and skill in the Latine Greek and Hebrew Tongues those at least the first being of general use as in the pursuit of all manner of knowledge in general so of Divine in particular both the other two being the Original Languages of that only Authentick Revelation of God and his Will the Holy Scriptures co-inspired of God together with the Doctrine therein contained and thereby conveyed and the last Test of Sacred Truth in all Appeals in Logical Methods of Ratiocination and Discourse in Natural and Moral Philosophy in Metaphysicks and the other more useful parts of Humane Literature that Naturals being polished and somewhat refined by these the Divine being founded in the Man our Ecclesiastick Candidate may be the better prepared for his sacred Province and Mystery for Theology in all its parts Dogmatical Polemical Acroamatical and Concional c. for the reception of Sacred Truth from God ordinarily conveyed in the use of Means namely as to Ministerial accomplishment Learning and Learned Languages the great deferents of knowledge whence is observable the Divine Providence in the successive circulation of Learning and Religion together in the world viz. from its very Aborigines and the Chaldeans to the Egyptians from them to the Grecians from them to the Romans till at last arrived in this Island to the rescuing of it from its Original Darkness for the propagating of this Truth being received whether by way of sacred Orthotomy in a due explication and application thereof or a dextrous resolution of cases of Conscience or writing or otherwise and lastly for the preserving and securing of it when published or propagated partly by a polemick defence of and contending for the Faith partly by a due regular Pastoral conduct and Church-Discipline c. Now Sir as imperitia culpae adnumeratur as saith the Aquilian Law Ignorance by you charged is a great crime in the Clergy and no less plague to the Laity for if their very Light be Darkness how great must be that Darkness So on the contrary the Qualifications mentioned concurring with other Supernatural Gifts and Ecclesiastick Order and managed with competent wisdom prudence and discretion I conceive sufficient in foro Ecclesiae to denominate a person an able Minister of the New Testament and then Ambasciator non protapena Let. 1. p. 123. which very thing is happily confirmed by your own little authority for though it be not necessary say you for every Guide of a Parish to understand all the Oriental Languages or to make exactly elegant or profound Discourses for the Pulpit both which ib. p. 38. by your own confession our Clergy do and therefore instead of defect super-erogate yet most certainly it is very requisite that he should be so far learned and udicious as prudently to advise direct inform and satisfie the people in holy matters c. And if the Author of the Contempt of our Clergy once prove their incompetency of Qualification and insufficiency to these Ministerial Act sand Offices he is I must needs say a most dextrous Ingenioso else which had not his own Minion said Ans p. 80 I durst not Fool or Knave As touching the Second Particular That the Clergy of the Church of England Sir is justly chargeable with the want of that Ministerial Knowledge as explained or with Ignorance and Insufficiency I do in their name and behalf peremptorily deny That in the Twilight indeed and early days of the Reformation Preaching like the constitution of the Church it self was rude and impolite is confess'd Yea nor is it denied but that there be here and there coecus coeco dux such as your Booty-Antagonist may be or some others of his Brother-Levites whose only Manna is a Homily and Incense Liturgy Dutiful Sons of the Church who can speak as an indulgent Mother hath taught them and here and there a Sixth-Rate-Non-conformist a choice Vessel possibly but poorly fraughted Such I deny not but there be of both Predicaments who to their own shame and ignominy but that is the least and to the disparagement in tantum of their Function Doctrine and Church wherein they live are devoid not only of the Ornamental part of Learning we could abate them that but even of what is absolutely requisite to render them apt to teach or workmen that need not to be ashamed who may therefore be most justly contemned for Logick Rhetorick and other necessary parts of Philosophy those they left behind them in the Vniversity if they were ever there from whence they came ut canis e Nilo For Languages a little Latine serves turn and it were well for Priscian that there were none at all less Greek and as to the Hebrew that is a Holy of Holies unapproachable by ordinary Priests a Disgrace to themselves to the Church to the Ministry and Religion May Authority for ever doom such to the Desk but that I bethink my self it is too near to the Pulpit c. You see Sir you cannot be more severe than my self where there is occasion for it But now Sir will you draw your Argument from the Day-star to the Meridian or because only here and there a dim Light in it disparage our Candlestick What is the rude impolite yea impertinent Ministrations and Insufficiency of a few to a polished generality or indeed Plurality Nay rather will not the accomplishment and renown of the generality make abundant recompence for the defects and disgrace of a few So that there is greater reason for publishing the Credit than the Contempt of the English Clergy a Clergy that deserves more a Panegyrick than needs my Apology or fears your Inquest Two things I will be bold to assert here 1. There is no Profession in the world wherein there have been so many persons eminent for all the several parts in the whole Encyclopoedy of Learning as the Clergy especially the English Again 2. There is no Hierarchy or Clergy in the world wherein there have been so many persons eminent for Theological accomplishments as the Clergy of the Church of England What!
Menander to the Corinthians out of Epimenides to Titus c. But I marvel not that you envy our Clergy Learned Languages in the Pulpit as well as in the Schools though in the mean time you tax them with Ignorance Thanks be to God the world is well amended with us over what it was in those days when as your Answerer notes Graece nosse suspectum erat Hebraice prope Haereticum the Holy Languages more than Holy men escape not the Inquisition elsewhere I do the less wonder that they do not yours at home as hardly do the very Masorites and Guardians of it themselves Ben-Israel Ben-Manasseh Ben-Maimon c. though Jewish Learnning be no mean Minisecrial accomplishment but possibly the Father may please your better than the Son Abba Dominicus Abba Franciscus Abba Ignatius c. and others of the Paternity whose Worth and Merit may influence to the lower Iambo else I doubt Jew and Gentile were both alike with you for I do very much suspect you and the rather because of your inveteracy expressed against the Sacred Languages Hebrew and Greek the Vniversal at leastwise general Ignorance whereof in the very Fathers of the Popish Councils is alledged by Bellarmine himself Let. 1. p. 42. as his reason for the Canonization of the Vulgar Latine What more intelligible say you to all Mankind than Christs Sermon upon the Mount And what less intelligible say I to any man than his Sermon in the Valley i. e. by the Sea-side without what the Apostles themselves were fain to court him for his own Exegetick And was not the generality of his Sermocinations for holy and good Reasons best known to himself Mystical Allegorical Parabolical Similitudinary c which brings me to your next Censure Your next Exception Sir against Preaching Let. 1. p. 44 45. c. is formed against the ridiculous impertinent Materials of the Sermon as that which doth more immediately cause the Preacher to be scorn'd and undervalued And under this Predicament you sum up a confused Miscellany and Ribble-Rabble Prefaces-Textual Divisions Method of Doctrine Intermixture of harsh Metaphors Childish Similitudes misapplied Tales c. Where you must excuse me if I attend you not in your own preposterous order It shall suffice that I defeat or answer to your chief Cavils and Allegations under one or more of these ensuing Paragraphs very briefly First of all then As Preaching of the Word of God by persons Called and Qualified thereunto is a Divine Institution so there seems not to be a more exact Art of Orthoâ—oâ—ny or Method of Preaching more congruous and suited to an Auditory as Men or as Christians than That by way of Doctrine Reason and Vse Textual Explication Rational-Scriptural Demonstration and Practical Improvement This is plain Sir for by the first Scriptural Words and Phrases Idioms and Sense is explicated and understood by the second from Principles of common Reason your own persuasive Reason or plain Scriptural Texts and Collection and therefore usefully intermixt with Sermons whatever you alledge from S. Basil or Chrysostome whose ordinary Sermons were but short Homilies preached as so many Sacred Journals every day the Judgment is convicted and by the last enforced by the former and closely insinuated with sutable pertinent pithy lively zealous but withal sober and prudent expressions the Affections are engaged and what more can be required or expected from this one Ministerial Exercise Which yet thus Methodized is in your Dialect idle Let. 2. p. 131. empty and insignificant but Asinus in Paleas It may be a Lecture out of your Protestant-Homer or Evangelist-Virgil or Plutarch or Seneca as Scultetus observes of some carowsing Germans near a kin to your Friend Hect. might please you much better than a Sermon from one that is Dionysius Corinthi But as touching what hath been for an hundred years last past and at present is the usual Preaching in the Church of England by you daringly and wickedly censured as Folly and a hinderance of Salvation rather than the Means to it I have sufficiently defeated you before which will save me a great deal of Labour here Secondly Sir The intermixture of Allegories Parables Metaphors and Similitudes in Preaching provided they have a Foundation in Nature or Scripture or no way interfere with either be apposite and pertinent to the purpose not over-numerous used with due reverence and managed with prudence as to Vse and Application are very justifiable both by the practice of Christ and his Apostles and by the Official Scopes and Ends of Preaching I might add the Scriptural Representations of the Divine Excellencies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which would do more authentick execution than the largest Broad-sides that ever you discharged from Homer As for the former the practice of Christ and his Apostles in this Allegorical Parabolical Similitudinary c. way is unquestionable the admirable Reasons whereof you tell us you 'l not insist upon ne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quidem though I must tell you this had been the way by your arguing to have reproved but you are wise Sir Ne Sutor ultra Crepidam Now this is a Maxim with me till otherwise inform'd that whatever Christ or his Apostles did as publick Doctors of the Church wherein they are imitable by their Successors Pastors and Teachers c. therein they may lawfully nay in some cases ought necessarily to be imitated As for the official scope and end of Preaching it is the edification of a promiscuous Auditory which by Metaphorical and Similitudinary insinuations with the Cautions specified intermixed with Doctrinals no despicable knack in the foolishness of Preaching is very generally gain'd upon and most lastingly influenced insomuch that a part Metaphor or Simile hath often proved a Memorial Topick of such a durable impress upon the Mind and Memory as that by means thereof the chief scope series and contexture of the whole Discourse hath been remembred which else had been irrecoverably lost Sir I could tell you of the chief Fathers of the Church as Chrysostome Gregory Nazianzen and others nay which may be of more authority with you the best Orators both Greek and Latine that have used this Metaphorical c. way as highly Rhetorical yea and of a Painter and an Orator converted by means of one Simile in a Sermon but I forbear till better Acquaintance with you concluding that Parabolical Divinity though it be not Argumentative yet proves often Edificative Sir I cannot dismiss this Head till I have a little rectified yours You say that in Similitudes there ought to be an exact agreement with that which is compared Let. 1. p. 48 49. This is as good as all the rest an exact agreement is next degree to Identity and yet in omni simili est dissimile is a Maxim not less notorious for truth than you are for Forgery Let us but instance in one of our Saviours by you quoted Ib. p. 57. Be wise as Serpents said he to his
that it is most observable in the support preservation and maintenance of a poorer Clergy and that a poor Clergy is no just object of Contempt in the Laity else Christ himself and his Apostles and both Primitive and Modern most eminent propagators of the Christian Faith might pari jure share therein As touching the second Sir It is soon resolved that the poorer sort of the Reformed Clergy is partly through the corruption of Man's heart partly through instigation from Satan and Hell-inspired Atheists Socinians Jesuits and Jesuited persons and all such Cinifloes using ostentative braggs and insinuations about the full Coffers spread Tables costly Apparel Honorary Titles Grandure and Magnificence not only of the Primates and Optimates of Church and State but of most orders of men but especially amongst their Simiae in purpura beyond the Channel over and above what the inferiour Clergy hath de facto which is matter of grief and condolency exposed to contempt in the Laity but quid ad Rhombum Sir Doth matter of fact prove right in either Law or Logick or are they therefore to yours or suppose they were blessed with the splendour and magnificence here mentioned would this secure them from yours or a Laicks lash no! flegm would then ferment into choler contempt into grudge emulation and your Inquisition re-authorised for inspection into the grounds and occasions of the envy as now of the contempt of the Clergy there is a remarkable instance of this amongst our Neighbours where a Franciscan Hackney that is in plain English Sir good bare Ten-Toes was once a Proverb but now forsooth the Gentlemen of that order instead of vowed bare footing of it as heretofore in journying are mounted upon the best Horses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with attendance better befitting their Nobless than a Monkish Tenebrio to a most rancide grudge and inveteracy both in the Laity and other Religious orders But since you can only understand matter of fact here not matter of right that as ignorance is a just ground of Contempt of the Clergy so poverty is a tempting occasion to it I proceed As touching the last particular Sir The poverty of the Clergy and upon this occasion actual but wicked and unjust contempt in the Laity being both supposed the next thing to be enquired into is whether this same Poverty and Contempt the disease and symptome be capable of a remedy now That it is most congruous to the Law of God Nature and Nations that some competent provisions be made for the Ministers of the Gospel is I think a generally confessed case though I will not dispute the mortality of a decimal provision or tithe yet I assert the natural equity of a competent one as the holy Scripture hath before me in that very natural principle The Labourer is worthy of his hire And what ample provisions were made by God for the Priests and Levites of old is sufficiently attested in holy Writ and by you well asserted utinam sic semper errasset Bellarminus together with the reasons thereof which I am sure are moral however the particular definite way of raising of those provisions be ceremonial and antiquated viz. that they might closely and composedly attend the Service of God and his Church and studies relating thereunto without distracting cares and solicitude about the urgent concerns of back and belly and necessary supports of humane life and you may guess Sir what a miserable pinching thing that is res angusta domi and also that they might be capable of administring to the necessities of others in charitable offices as occasion should offer or require a great both encouragement and ornament of piety I add a third reason peculiarly suited to the Horizon of our Church namely that after domestick exigencies and charitable offices satisfied some little surplusage might accrue for a petite subsistence to a surviving Consort Sir my Muse flaggs my heart akes when I consider that in England England a Land of plenty a poor Ministers Widow is become a very Proverb bâ—â— what will no lesssuit Jeremiahs Lamentations then Solomons Parables now what a sad thing is it that he who devotes himself to spend and be spent in the service of God his Church and the Souls of others should be able to entitle the companion of his own life that ended to no more than an Ecclesiastick plea for an Alms a poor Ministers Widow and that the surviver of him who serves at the Altar should be enforced to beg at the Door a Lamentation and let it be for a lamentation Now for a remedy and redress of the whole the Poverty of the Clergy male and female and contempt of them hereby too truely though unjustly occasioned in the Laity whom can or ought we to make applications to but our State-Physicians namely his Majesty in conjunction with a wise prudent considerate Parliament all joyntly spirited hereunto from a generous zeal for the glory honour and renown here endangered of their Clergy and Religion that Church of whom they own themselves Sons and that Faith of which they profess themselves Defenders what the method of redress or expedient in the case should be must as reason good be left to their own prudential contrivance but I presume I may use the same liberty so I do the modesty that your self Well then The Lucrative Arts and Stratagems of the Church of Rome as the Ghostly authority and infallibility of the Pope their fundament al cheat their monopoly of merits and indulgences miracles auricular confession absolutions pardons penance purgatory canonization of Saints the Wafer-God for there they can make not only Saints but a God Let. 1. p. 98 99 100. c. at pleasure vowed Celibacy the denial of marriage to their Clergy and such like artifices some whereof are by you recounted all sacrificed to Mammon or the Money-God those and the like I say are and I hope will be by both Church and State of England eternally adjudged antichristian which if you or any advocate in your behalf will undertake to disprove me in so it be with more argument and less flashy Theatrical wit then you use in your Letters it is like I may procure some who pro tenui tate your Academick Youngster's conge will try it out with you at the two-edged Sword Again the method of reducing and levelling Episcopal and Cathedral or Collegiate Revenues and all other Ecclesiastical preferments and possessions to a commonmage were such a motion as nothing less then the Acts of the Apostles could render unpardonable besides the danger of an Ignis sacer in the case and I am terribly afraid of St Anthony Once more your Astraea's return or restitution of such Tithes and Church-Rents as former Kings and Parliaments especially the great Church-Publican King Henry the Eight thought good upon what prudential considerations it is not meet that you or I should dispute to impropriate to the Crown or State which might happily prove as