even the lake of Gehenna and so to the place of the neerest Denomination Epis. Asser. p. 379. Pacif. Your wit lying in the affinity of sound betwixt Geenna and Geneva is much like that of Campian Elizabeth and Jezabel But as for Lay-Elders I am not much solicitous about them thinking the Church may be well enough without them only I cannot think they are so destitute of all Antiquity and Scripture as you imagine that of 1 Tim. 5. 17. hath more for Lay-Elders than many places in Scripture urged by our Bishops have for Episcopacy Dr. Whitgist is said to have these words That he knoweth that the Primitive Church had in every Church certain Seniors to whom the Government of the Congregation was committed and in a Book against Mar-Prelate subscribed by the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Winchester Lincoln and London it is affirmed That the Government by Elders was used under the Law and practised under the Gospel by the Apostles though not fit for our times Though afterwards repenting this plain Confession they caused certain words importing the contrary to be printed in a sheet of Paper which paper was pasted in all the books of the first impression to cover and conceal the former assertion This I take on the Testimony of an Author who so printed in Queen Elizabeths time in a Tract called A Petition directed to her most Excellent Majesty but Mr. Nowel is plain in his Catechism in Latine p. 155. Edit. 1570. Grotius also acknowledgeth that Geneva did not first institute these Officers but only restored them nor may it be amiss for the learned Reader to consult about this point of Elders Bodins Method cap. 6. p. 245. Le ts on to the third Commandment Land Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain This our blessed Saviour repeating expresseth it thus It hath been said to them of old Thou shalt not forswear thy self to which Christ adds out of Numb. 30. 2. But thou shalt perform thy Oaths unto the Lord the meaning of the onewe are taught by the other We must not Invocate the Name of God in any promise in vain i. e. with a lie this is to take the Name of God i. e. to useit to take it into our mouths for vanity i. e. according to the perpetual stile of Scripture for a lie and this is to be understood only in promises for so Christ explains it out of the Law Thou shalt perform thy Oaths for lying in judgement which is also with an Oath or taking Gods Name for a witness is forbidden in the ninth Commandment Grand Exemp part 2. p. 114. Pacif. At this rate indeed write Maldonate and the Composer of the Racovian Catechism but without any reason for it is gratis dictum that our Lord doth repeat or give the sense of the third Commandment Exod. 20. 7. It is more probable that he intends those words Levit. 19. 12. As for the words in the third Commandment they have alway been so interpreted by Protestant Commentators as to forbid not only false swearing but vain swearing yea all irreverent use of the Name of God whether with an Oath or without an Oath So the Catechism in King Edward the 6ths raign so Bishop Hooper in his Exposition of the Decalogae so the Common Church Catechism so the Homily part 1. p. 45 46. No one that hath but a smattering skill will deny {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sometime to signifie mendacium or falsum but it doth also signifie gratis in vanum as often if not more often The LXX Exod. 20. 7. render {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Aquila {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Yet I can more easily excuse this if you will but acknowledge that vain and unnecessary Oaths were unlawful to the Jews as well as us Laud By the Natural Law it was not unlawful to swear by an oath that implyed not Idolatry or the belief of a false God I say any grave or prudent oath when they spake a grave truth And it was lawful for the Jews in ordinary entercourse to swear by God so they did not swear to a lye to which also swearing to an impertinence might be reduced by a proportion of reason for they that swear by him shall be commended saith the Psalmist Psal. 63. 11. And swearing to the Lord of hosts is called speaking the Language of Canaan Isa. 19. 18. Great Exem part 2. p. 114. Pacif. This is Theology that a sober Heathen would startle at How do you prove that by the Natural Law it was not unlawful to swear an Oath when they spake a grave truth Doth any Scripture say so Do the more sage sort of profane Writers say so or do not all rather say who have not blinded Natural Conscience That it is not lawful to swear in the gravest matter if a man may be credited without an oath or if his oath be not like to be an end of strife Or what man who knows that God was alway tender of his Name and Glory canthink that it was lawful for the Jews to swear by God in ordinary entercourse They did ordinarily swear but it was not lawful so to do The son of Sirach reproves it Heathens condemn it it is indeed said They that swear by him shall glory Psal. 63. 11. but it is not said They that swear by him in ordinary entercourse shall glory if they should they would glory in their shame As for the place Isa. 19. 18. it proves not that swearing to the Lord in ordinary entercourse is speaking the Language of Canaan but it is a Prophecy only of the calling of Egypt that sundry of that Nation should make the same Profession and Confession of Faith that Gods people did and that they should by solemn Oath engage themselves to depend on the living Lord alone How doth this prove that it was lawful for the Jews to swear by God in ordinary entercourse or that their ordinary communication ought not to be yea yea and nay nay as well as ours Pass we on to the fourth Law of the Decalogue Laud There was nothing Moral in it but that we do Honour to God for the Creation and to that and all other purposes of Religion separate and hallow some portion of our time Great Exem part 2. p. 119. Pacif. Surely this is the way to rob us of one of the laws of the Decalogue for either the fourth Commandment is moral for a determinate time or for nothing at all some time being moral by the other Commandments and it would be strange that the Church of England should appoint this fourth Commandment to be publickly read and teach her members to pray Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law and yet think it had only that latent morality you speak of if the fourth Commandment be not in force in the words of it according to their literal and Grammatical
Narrative which we may find exemplyfied in Mr. Rush. Collections from p 438. to 462. assirmeth that he thrice complained of Mr. Mountagues Arminian Book but he was held up against him by the prevalence of the Duke of Buckingham who magnified him as a well-deserving man that the whole Narrative if he that will read shall have a key put into his hand to unlock several misteries of our Church declining and a character of the men who were most busie to advance the Remonstrant opinions Laud The Doctrine of Praedestination is the root of Puritanism and Puritanism the root of all rebellious and disobedient untractableness in Parliaments and of all schism and sauciness in the Countrey nay in the Church it self this hath made many thousands of our people and too great a part of our Gentry Laytons in their hearts Last Parliament they left their Word Religion and the Cause of Religion and begun to use the name of Church and our Articles of the Church of England and wounded our Church at the very heart with her own name Dr. Brooks his Letter to the Archbishop extant in Can. Doome p. 167. there were then some who were tantum non in Episcopatu Puritani they saw their holy cause would not succeed by opposition therefore they came up and seemed to close with the Church of England in her Discipline to use the Cross and wear the Clothes but for her Doctrine they wave it preach against it teach contrary to what they had subscribed that so through foraign Doctrine being infused secretly and instilled cunningly and pretended craftily to be the Churches at length they might wind in with foraign Discipline also and so fill'd Christendem with Popes in every Parish for the Church and with Popular Democracies and Democratical Anarchies in State App. p. 111. el 43 44. Pacif. The wrathful expressions you are continually using against the Puritans do not work the righteousness of God and they are the more to be disliked because it is sufficiently known that Puritans have been as conscientious as any that ever lived in our Church Laud Puritanism had indeed a form of godliness but denyed the power and for any thing I can discern is as dangerous as Popery the only difference being Popery is for Tyrannie Puritanism for Anarchy Popery is original of Superstition Puritanism the high way to profaneness both alike enemies unto piety Ap. p. 320 321. Pacif. Puritanism the way to profaness How came it then to pass that there was so little of profaneness in Puritans so much of it in those who gloried in their Anti-Puritanism but I leave this to be decided by the Judge of quick and dead who shall render to all according to what they have done in the flesh How is it that of late years you have learned to call all Puritans who will not say a confederacy with you in your Popish and Arminian Errors which have been so generally reputed contrary to the Doctrine of our Church Laud What you call Error that seems to me to be Truth and because the doubts hung in the Church of England unto the Publick Doctrine of the Church of England do I appeal contained in those two authorized and by all subscribed Books of the Articles and Divine Services of the Church let that which is against them on Gods Name be branded with Error and as Error be ignominiously spunged out App. p. 9. Pacif. What ever is against the Word of God or contrary to any opinion which hath been maintained in the Catholick Church by all in all places at all times I am content should be called an error but you know I hope that no Church of Particular Denomination is Infallible and therefore I shall not grant that whatever is against the Tendries of the Church of England is erroneous for I know that our first Reformers and the Composers of our publick Records of Doctrine did place the Nature of Faith in Assurance or a perswasion that our sins are actually pardoned which you will grant to be a mistake but a mistake that was scarce seen by any till of late except Mr. John Fox who indeed placed the Nature of Faith in Recumbence nevertheless in those matters wherein you and I differ I am very willing to be tryed by the Articles and Lyturgy but then I premise this that I take the Homilies to be part of our Churches Lyturgy for the Rubrique in the Communion Office speaks affirmative enough After the Creed shall follow one of the Homilies and the Preface to the first Book of Homilies commandeth all Parsons Vicars Curates c. every Sunday and Holy-day in the year c. after the Gospel and Creed in such order and place as is appointed in the Book of Common-Prayer to read one of the said Homilies Evidently implying as Mr. Lestrange notes they were no more to be omitted then any other part of the Service but where the Rubrique gives a toleration Laud I willingly admit the Homilies as containing certain godly and wholesome exhortations to move the people to honor and worship Almighty God but not as the publick Dogmatical resolutions confirmed by the Church of England the 33. Article giveth them to contain godly and wholesom Doctrine and necessary for these times which they may do though they have not Dogmatical Positions or Doctrine to be propagated and subscribed in all and every point as the Books of Articles and of Common-Prayer have They may seem to speak somewhat too hardly and stretch some sayings beyond the use and practice of the Church of England both then and now and yet what they speak may receive a fair or at least a tolerable construction and mitigation well enough App. 260. Paeif I am glad to hear you acknowledge that the Homilies do contein certain godly and wholesom exhortations which if all had thought we had not been pestered with a vain discourse pretended to be made by a Lady in defence of Auxiliary Beauty or Artificial handsomeness the which are so expresly condemned by the Homily against excess in Apparel But I am sorry to find you saying that the Homilies are not the avowed Doctrine of the Church for the Preface tells us they were set forth for the expelling of erroneous and poisonous Doctrines and more fully the Orders of K. James The Homiles are set forth by authority in the Church of England not only for a help of non-preaching but withall as it were a pattern for preaching-ministers I have read among the Romanists that there is fides temporum a Faith that followeth the Times It is no marvel saith Cusanus though the practise of the Church expound the Scripture at one time one way and at another time another way for the understanding or sence of the Scripture runneth with the practise and that sense so agreeing with the practise is the quickning Spirit and therefore the Scriptures follow the Church but contrariwise the Church followeth not the Scriptures ad Bohem. Epist. 7.
accommodato adorationi erectam aut constitutam modus autem aecomodatus adorationi est cum imago depicta aut sculpta est per se non veluti appendix additamentum alterius rei in ornatum illius rei Beware lest thou make to thy self i. e. to any religious use any grauen image Homily Perill of Idol p. 42. Laud The examples of the Seraphims and Brazen Serpent tell us that to make pictures or statues of creatures is not against a natural reason and that they may have uses which are profitable as well as be abused to danger and superstition Now although the nature of that people was apt to the abuse yet Christianity hath so far removed that danger that our blessed Law-giver thought it not necessary to remove us from superstition by a prohibition of the use of images and pictures and for the matter of images we have no other rule left us in the New Testament the rules of reason and nature and the other parts of the Institution are abundantly sufficient for our security And possibly St. Paul might relate to this when he affirmed concerning the fifth that it was the first Commandment with a promise for the second Commandment had a promise of shewing mercy to thousand generations but because the body of this Commandment was not transcribed into the Christian Law the first of the Decalogue which we retain and in which a promise is inserted is the fift Commandment G. E. part 2. p. 111 112. Pacif. Do you then think that the second Commandment is not retained by us Christians I never thought but that it was if not natural yet moral of universal and perpetual obligation of this judgement were the Ancients Irene lib. 4. cap. 31. August lib. 19. contra Faus cap. 18 Epis 119. cap. 12 Not to speak of Clem Alex. who in his Adhortatory Oration to the Gentiles plainly saith that the Commandment obligeth us as well as the Jews though he seem to be mistaken in giving the sense of it this way also go all Protestants though indeed the Papists do make this law but temporary In a word God allowed the Jews a civil use of Images and other he alloweth not to us under the Gospel who are not so much out of danger of Idolatry and superstition as you seem to imply Laud Images have three uses assigned by the Popish Schools instruction of the rude commonefaction of History and stirring up of devotion they and we also give unto them Gagg p. 300. The pictures of Christ the blessed Virgins and Saints may be made had in houses set up in Churches respect and honour may be given to them the Protestants do it and use them for helps of Piety in rememoration and more effectual representing of the Prototipe Ans. to Gagg p. 818. Pacif. The Church of England teacheth her children quite another lesson Hom. against the peril of Idol Part 3. p. 42. It is unlawful that the Image of Christ should be made or that the Image of any Saint should be made especially to be set up in Temples to the great and unavoidable danger of Idolatry we grant Images used for no Religion or Superstition rather we mean Images of none worshipped or in danger to be worshipped may be suffered but Images placed publickly in Temples cannot possibly be without danger of Idolatry many such passages may be picked out of that Homily which are the more considerable because of all our Homilies it seemeth to be penned with most exactness Laud It is the Consecration that makes Churches holy and makes God esteem them so which though they be not capable of grace yet by their consecration they receive a spiritual power whereby they are made fit for Divine Service and being consecrated there is no danger in ascribing holiness unto them Tedder his Visit Sermon licensed by Dr. Baker an. 1637. Pacif. That Churches do by Consecration receive any spiritual power whereby they are made more fit for Divine Service than other places or that the same company meeting in a private house and praying by the same Spirit should not be as acceptable to God as in the Church is Superstition to affirm nor did the Church of England ever teach any such Doctrine yet I easily grant that in peaceable times and under Christian Princes the people of God ought to have their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and that it is a broach of civil decency to employ these places set a part for Gods Worship to any common uses ordinarily Laud We use signing with the sign of the Cross both in the fore-head and elsewhere witness that solemn Form in our Baptism for which we are so quarrelled by our factions the flesh is signed that the soul may be fortified saith Tertullian and so do we Ans. to Gagg p. 320. Pacif. If any one besides the Minister useth signing with the Cross or if he use it at any time but in Baptism or on any place but on the forehead 't is done without any warrant at all from the Church of England and our Church retained the sign of the Cross in Baptism only as an outward Ceremony and honorable Badge but it doth not ascribe any efficacy unto it of fortifying the soul and declares the child to be perfectly baptized before it be signed with the sign of the Cross as plainly appears from the Book of Canons agreed upon 1603. Chapter Of the lawful use of the Cross Laud Baptism of Infants is most certainly a holy and charitable Ordinance and of ordinary necessity to all that ever dyed and yet the Church hath founded this Rite on the Tradition of the Apostles and wise men do easily observe that the Anabaptists can by the same probability of Scripture enforce a necessity of communicating Infants upon us as we do of Baptizing Infants upon them if we speak of an immediate Divine Institution or of practice Apostolical recorded in Scripture and therefore a great Master of Geneva in a Book he writ against Anabaptists was faign to fly to Apostolical Traditive Ordination and therefore the Institution of Bishops must be served first as having fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants and yet they that deny this are by the just Anathema of the Church Catholick condemned for Hereticks Dr. Tayl. Episc. Asser. p. 100 101. Pacif. 'T is gratis dictum that the Institution of Bishops hath fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants nor can you prove that they who deny the Baptism of Infants are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick much less that they who deny the Institution of Bishops superior in order to Presbyters are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick Hath a whole Book been written to prove that none are to be anathematized who consent to the Articles of the Apostles Creed and must it now be worthy an Anathema to deny Infant Baptism who but a Papist ever said
sense it is not in force at all for both Lawyers say and reason it self shews that a law is no longer in force then the words of it are in force at least those that contain the substance of it Laud The Primitive Church kept both the Sabbath and the Lords day till the time of the Laodicaean Council about 300 years after Christs Nativity and almost in every thing made them equal and therefore did not esteem the Lords day to be substituted in the place of the obliterated Sabbath but a Feast celebrated by great reason and perpetual consent without Precept or necessary Divine injunction Gr. Ex. part 2. p. 119. Pacif. There are in the few words by you uttered certain things that you must pardon me if I cannot presently close with 1. You say that the Primitive Church till the Laodicaean Council kept both the Sabbath and the Lords Day Quanta est haec propositio Do you mean that the whole Primitive Church did so that will be hard if not impossible to prove for the Books that are come to our hands have neither declared nor do they pretend to declare what all the Churches of Christ did nay it appears from Socrates that the Roman and Alexandrian Church kept not the Saturday at all as I think is acknowledged by Dr. Heylin himself Part. 2. But dato sed non concesso that there had been such an universal custom of observing both dayes how doth it hence follow that the Lords Day was not substituted in the place of the obliterated Sabbath Would you argue that Baptism came not in the place of Circumcision because to gain over the weak Jews they used Circumcision for some season They might use the Saturday as a meeting day that by complying with the Jews and Proselytes they might obtain familiar access and gain opportunity to instruct them in the Christian Faith by reason that the people had been accustomed to meet together on that day Laud Ignatius would have both dayes observed the Sabbath first though not as would the Ebionites in a Jewish sort and after that the Lords Day which he so much magnifieth the better to abate that high esteem which some had cast on the Sabbath Hist. of Sab. Part. 2. p. 41. Pacif. I know the place you intend though you refer us not to any Epistle but you are not ignorant that Ignatius his Epistles are much corrupted and have been so accounted by all great Scholars who have impartially spent their judgement upon them this place particularly which you quote out of this Epistle to the Magnesi is depraved and if you will take the pains to consult either the old Latine Manuscript of Ignatius published by the Right Reverend Archbishop Usher or the Greek Edition published by Isaac Vossius which undoubtedly are the truest that ever were printed you will find no such thing can be drawn out of Ignatius as is by you inferred yea rather it will appear that Ignatius is against the keeping of the Saturday Sabbath at all Laud 'T is true that in some tract of time the Church in honour of Christs Resurrection did set a part that day on which he arose to holy exercises But this upon their own authority and without warrant from above that we can hear of more then the General warrant which God gave his Church that all things in it be done decently and in comely order Hist. Sab. Part. 2. p. 7. Pacif. Our Homily saith it plainly appears that Gods Will and Commandment is to have a solemn time and standing day in the week wherein the people should come together and have in rememberance his wonderful benefits Part. 2. p. 125. And that the Apostolical Church would not change the day from the seventh to the first without authority and Commission from Christ so to do is certain enough 'T is to me sufficient that the Lords Day is of Divine Institution whether immediate by Christ or mediate by his Apostles and that it is of Divine Institution one of these wayes is I take it easily proved by Antiquity and Reason The Homilie entitled De Semente hath these plain words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} This testimony is made use of by Archbishop Usher for the purpose to which I bring it Laud Neither the Author whom he cites nor the authority by him cited will evince the point 1. The Author will not do it the Homily being supposed by the Learned not to have been writ by Athanasius but put into his Works by some that had a mind to entitle him to it 2. The authority or words cited will not do it though at first fight they seem to come home to make proof of it for the words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are to be understood not as if the Translation of the day were made by his commandment but on his occasion the Resurrection of our Lord upon that day being the principal motive which did induce his Church to make choice thereof for a day of Worship Res. Pet. Pacif. Do you make this gloss upon the words in jest or earnest Do you really think that the meaning of of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is this that the Church did translate the day with relation to Christs Resurrection Laud Yes for otherwise the false Athanasius whosoever he was must cress and contradict the true who having told us that it was commanded at the first that the Sabbath should be observed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in memory of the accomplishmrnt of the Worlds Creation ascribes the Institution of the Lords Day to the voluntary usage of the Church of God without any Commandment from our Saviour {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. We celebrate saith he the Lords Day as a memorial of the beginning of the new Creation which is plain enough Resp. Pet. p. 7. Pacif. The words you refer to I acknowledge to be found in Athanasius de Circum Sabbatho and confess them to be plain enough but neither plain enough nor plain at all for the evincing of that for which you produce them for how doth it follow that if Athanasius say {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that he must mean we celebrate the Lords Day by the voluntary usage of the Church without any Commandment from our Saviour may we not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} though there be a Divine Institution of the day But for satisfaction in these points Irefer any indifferent person to what is said by Mr. P. Caw in Sabbat Rediv. fourth Part. Laud What shall we think of Knox and whittingham and their fellows who in their Letter to Calvin depart from the Constitution Ordinance and Practice of the Apostles and Apostolick men and call not this day the Lords Day or Sunday but with the Piety of Jeroboam make such a day of it as they have devised in own their hearts to serve their own turn and Anabaptizing
by Scripture or sufficient reason Liber Prop. p. 89. Pacif. Points of good concernment not determinable by Scriptures nor yet by Reason How contrary is this to what is quoted out of Chrysostom and Fulgentius in the Homlly Exhorting to the reading of the holy Scripture p. 2. Besides such an assertion doth very much tend to discourage men from making enquiry into Truth for if such points are not determinable by either Scripture or Reason how shall they be determined If by the Church I say the Church in her determinations must be guided by Scripture and Reason or else her members are not obliged to regard her determinations Laud I must negatively conclude that all things necessary to the Salvation of all are not of themselves clear in the Scripture to all understandings whereby I say not that all such things are not contained in the Scriptures as if some things necessary to the salvation of all were to be received by Tradition alone Nor that being in the Scriptures they are not clear and discernable to the understandings of those that are furnished with means requisite to discern the meaning of Scripture But that which I stand upon is that it is not nor ought to be a presumption that this or that is not necessary to Salvation because it is not clear in the Scriptures which if it were admitted whosoever were able to make such an argument against any Article of Faith as all understandings interessed in salvation could not dissolve should have gained this that though it may be true yet it cannot be an Article of Faith Principles of Christian Truth p. 25. Pacif. It is beyond all dispute that all things contained in Scripture are not clear to all understandings there are some understandings to which nothing is clear it is also past dispute that they who understand Scriptures must be first furnished with all means necessarily requisite for the understanding of Scriptures and which is more they must make use of those means and pray to God for a blessing upon them but this is said by Protestants against Papists that God hath made nothing necessary for the Salvation of all men Necessitate praecepti medii but such things as are so clearly laid down in the Word that all who will make use of the abilities God hath vouchsafed may find them out and that men may safely conclude that is not a necessary Article of Religion which is not clear in some place or other of Scripture clear I say with such a clearness as may satisfie the conscience though not with such as may satisfie curiosity Laud The holy Scriptures in the first time of the Christian Church were not communicated to all men all at once for the Primitive Fathers wisely considered how extreamly perillous it might be to expose the whole Scripture unto ignorant mens use and judgement or indeed abuse rather and want of judgement surely more dangerous and pernicious it might prove unto mens souls then to leave a whole Apothecaries shop open to a diseased person who might as well choose and take deadly poyson to his destruction as a Soveraign medicine to the recovery of his health Had the souls of men been so carefully watched over by their Governors and such portions of Scripture wisely and fatherly dispensed unto them as might with such holy reservedness have met with mens proficiency surely such prodigious Monsters had not been counterfeited out of the Word of God by the spirit of Opinion as in these later dayes we have seen and lament to see Dr. Gell. Preface to his Essay about the amendment of our English Translation Pacif. That by the free reading of the Holy Scriptures some very dangerous Opinions have been occasioned accidentally is no question but that therefore any part of the Scripture should be locked up in an unknown Tongue from the Vulgar is no stronger an inference then if one should argue because some have burned their fingers and houses with candle and fire therefore the free use of those creatures is not to be vouchsafed in a Common-wealth And as I think the conclusion to be absurd so I am sure 'T is quite contrary to the whole scope and design of the Homilies called an Information of them that take offence at certain places of Holy Scripture Laud The further we proceed in the survey of the Scripture the Translation is the more faulty as the Hagiographa more then the Historical Scripture and the Prophets more then the Hagiographa and the Apocrypha most of all and generally the New-Testament more then the Old Idem near the end of his Preface Pacif. Such a censure might have been born from the pen of the Rhemish and Doway Divines but who can bear it from one pretending to be an English Protestant the Translation is Vsque ad invidiam aliarum gentium elaborata Translatio It was sufficiently defended in the parts that you find most fault with by Dr. Fulk and Cartwright against the Cavils of the Rhemists and may more easily be defended against the exceptions taken to it by you But there is another thing that offends me in your former words viz. That you seem to make the Apocrypha part of the Scripture which word when it is taken absolutely and without addition should suppose only for Canonical Scripture and I do the more doubt that you advance the Apocrypha higher then do our Reformed Divines because I find you ascribing the Book of Wisdom to Solomon p. 51. whereas that Book was sure written by one of a spirit far inferior to that which acted Solomon in his writings Laud Such is the boldness and ignorance of some that they have left out of their impressions the Apocryphal Scriptures whereby they have gotten this whereof to glory that they have done that which no wise or honest man hath done before them so far as I have yet known or I hope will adventure to do after them Dr. Gell Pref. Pacif. To devest all those who had an hand in leaving the Apocrypha out of our English Bibles of all wisdom and honesty is very hard for what if those Apocryphal writings be of some good use yet there 's nothing in them should make it necessary or expedient to bind them up with the Canon why may they not be kept in a Volume by themselves or indeed how can they be read by private Christians at all without apparent hazard and scandal seeing some of them contain notorious lyes some of them justifie such things as God Law and the Law of Nature too do condemn But before we proceed any further suffer me to know your mind about Reason and Councils Laud All Controversies are reducible to two heads Goodness or Truth so that the question is Whether right reason can infallibly judge what is good or bad true or false for a thing to be morally good for Metaphysical Goodness is all one with Truth depends by sure connexion from that Eternal Justice which is primarily in God