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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71273	The verdict upon the dissenters plea, occasioned by their Melius inquirendum to which is added A letter from Geneva, to the Assembly of Divines, printed by His late Majesties special command, with some notes upon the margent under his own royal and sacred hand : also a postscript touching the union of Protestants.	Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.; Diodati, Giovanni, 1576-1649. Answer sent to the ecclesiastical assembly at London by the reverend, noble, and learned man, John Deodate.	1681 (1681)	Wing W3356; ESTC R36681	154,158	329

by seducing their simple followers But they that are such St. Jude tells us there is a sad reserve of vengeance allotted for them Jud. Ep. v. 13. 2. They say they have read over all the Books c. But do they bring minds prepared to receive the truth and Patient of convictions Lavater as was observed above tells us of Zelots in his time that would write and publish Answers before they had well considered or so much as read the Discourses they did oppose And one would think that some of these Dissenters dealt so by their Adversaries for they call their Arguments weak many times when they cannot answer them and their Reasons Futilous when they find them too convinceing to be eluded What their performances have been when they menaged this Province before that Learned Prince King James at the Conference at Hampton Court his Majesty has told us in his Proclamation of March 5. in the first year of his Reign in these words we found mighty and vehement Informations supported with so weak and slender Proofs as it appeared to us and our Counsel that there was no Cause why any Change should have been at all in that which was most impugned the Book of Common Prayer containing the form of the publick service of God here established neither in the Doctrine which appeared to be sincere nor in the Forms and Rites which were justified out of the Practice of the Primitive Church Thus saith that Learned and Judicious Prince And whatever Partial men may think the Judicious and well discerning will conclude that our present Dissenters after all their great pains and study have made very little accession of advantage to their Cause by Argument and sound Reason whatever may accrew to it by Noise Tumult and importunity 3. For Rayling 't is so much our Authors own Talent I know no man will claim it from him especially finding that the Spirit which acts in him prompts him not only to Scoff and Rail but now and then to be Smutty and Obscene 4. This Author seems to be very kind in allowing his Adversaries to have Rhetorick And 't is a quality so ornamental and useful I shall not wish them to part with it but to make use of it still to better purposes then he does his Witt and Reading to advance Obedience Peace and Piety But for contradicting themselves by which we are not to understand any ingenuous Retraction upon second thoughts and better information 't is a new Observation of this Authors never before collected out of their Writings 'T is true we have read of Richard against Baxter in 80 Pages but never of Richard against Hooker or any the like in all my time If he has found him out let him name the party 5. But the main Quaere will be How these Dissenters come to be hardened in their Errour for tho he calls it a Going astray into the right way there is no less truth in this his Drollery than in their Conviction who are mentioned Wisd. 5. 6. They have erred from the way of Truth and how so Malunt perversis Vocibus veritati reluctari quàm confessis erroribus Paci restitui as St. Austin says of the Donatists They had rather perversly resist the Truth than Confess their Errours to be restored to the Peace of the Church Let Scripture and Antiquity let the best Authority and the highest Reason urge what they can they will not be convinced or perswaded the Reason is given by the Learned Davenant They are Inscitiâ occaecati or Malitiâ abrepti or Philautiâ fascinati Either blinded by Mistakes and Ignorance or hurried away by Envy and Malice or bewitch'd by Self-love and Vain-glory. They are pre-engaged and having embarqued themselves upon other Principles and drawn so many well-meaning Souls into Association with them they are resolv'd to keep possession for their own Reputation and Interest For this Reason they study not to be inform'd but to contradict They read what is Writ against them not with a preparation of mind to receive the Truth in the love of it but to contrive the better to justifie their Separation with the odd pranks which have been plaid upon that account This makes them to Gavil at little things and to rest in nothing nor will they ever be satisfied but in the use of Forms and Canons of their own devising For to such as have read them thorowly in the opinion of their own personal Infallibility they come not much short of the Pope himself and had they Power in their hands we have some reason to believe they would no less imperiously impose the effects of it I need go no further for Evidence than the Front of a Book written by Mr. B. which bears this Arrogant Title The true and only way of Concord of all Christian Churches which puts me in mind of what Bullinger observed of the like sort of Men which pesterd the Church of God in his time Invenias hodiè saith he Morosos quosdam qui tametsi non negare possint alios Paria docere unum cum ipsis Christum praedicare cupiunt tamen se Religionis Dominos appellari imò à se profectum esse Evangelium Christi You may find saith he at this day certain froward men who though they cannot deny but other men Preach the same Christ and the same Truth with themselves yet they ambitiously affect to be called the Masters of Religion yes and to have men believe they stand engaged to them for the light and purity of the Gospel To such Arrogant Pretenders we are taught what Reply to make by the expostulation of the Great Apostle to those deceitful Workers as he calls them among the Corinthians 1 Cor. 14. 36. What Came the Word of God from you or came it unto you only But of this place we have given some account already I shall conclude this Section with the Words of the Reverend and Learned Professour who was not then Bishop Prideux Haud scio an filios alat Magis degeneres quaevis Ecclesia quam Anti-Synodicos nonnullos Novatores qui seorsìm saperent à Majoribus aut Fratribus satis ducunt ad Contemptum si quis non statim se incurvet ad eorum vestigia Hisce plerunque familiare est Transmarina longè Petita admirare Domestica extenuare Ignotos deperire praepositis vero suis quibus debito tenentur obsequio quavis arreptâ occasione recalcitrare sua tantùm deosculari quae non pallam astruunt sed occultò disseminant Tantum abest ut tales Ecclesiam audiant ut indignantur plurimùm si ipsos non audiat Ecclesia saltet ad ipsorum fistulam etiamsi incertissimum edat Modulamen Hujusmodi Superstitiosi factiosi furiosi insidiosi destinandi vel debellandi sint à vobis Dilecti Filii si Benedictionis Coelestis Messem uberem pacatam optatam expectetis I know not saith he whether any Church can

will never edifie the Church but most certainly deform it Rome we say was not built in one day The Apostle left something unsettled till a further consideration 1 Cor. 11. last And when he departed from Crete he left Titus his Vicar saith Crocius to supply what the shortness of his stay would not allow him to accomplish and as St. Hierome observes to super-correct what he could not then bring to perfection Zanchy observes very well That it is the Duty of the Bishops to take care of the whole Church and whatsoever may conduce to the welfare of it whether it be in point of life and manners in the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments or in the Discipline of Pennance or in the wants of the Poor or in matters of Ceremonies and to give diligence that whatsoever has been constituted in such matters either by the Lord himself or by his Apostles or by the after-Church may be observed But if there be any thing that is not appointed and yet may concern the edification of the Church Let Laws be appointed concerning those things that they may be confirmed in the Name of the whole Church and by the Authority of Pious Princes and be observed of all respectively subject to their Jurisdiction 2. I Answer That according to the Common prayer-Prayer-Book in King Edward the Sixth's time the Church injoyn'd the Priest at the Consecration of the Eucharist to sign the Elements with the sign of the Cross and so if she did not declare her Power in her Articles yet she declared it sufficiently in her Practice In ordering the Priest to make the sign of the Cross upon the Symbol in the Patin and Chalice she did exercise her Power in decreeing and practising that Rite which has since been taken away tho' it has proved of very little consequence to avoid Scandal and consequently the Terms of Communion have been somewhat contracted since those times and not inlarged as is pretended However that Rule of St. Austin will certainly hold His enim causis id est aut propter fidem aut propter Mores vel emendari oportet quod perperam fiebat vel institui quod non fiebat For these Causes that is either for the Faith or for Manners sake that ought to be amended which was done amiss or appointed to be done which was not done at all But this is not all in this Section They object also against the Doctrine in the Rubrick That it is certain from the Word of God That Children baptized and dying before the commission of actual Sin are undoubtedly saved The Scripture the Protestant Churches nor any sound Reason have yet given them any tolerable satisfaction of the Truth of the Doctrine about the Opus Operatum of Sacraments That Doctrine laid down in the Catechism That Children do perform Faith and Repentance by their Sureties is also saith he as great a stumbling to our Faith and we cannot get over it How the Adult should believe and repent for Minors or Infants believe and repent by Proxy Thus the Dissenters The Answer 1. The silence of other Protestant Churches if they be all silent herein is but a Negative Argument from Authority and that 's of no validity But we are sure the most Learned amongst Protestant Writers do favour this Article The Form of a Sacrament they say is the Sacramental Conjunction of the signs and the things signified which Conjunction consists not only in the signification and obsignation but also in the exhibition of the things signified by the signs So Wendelin And he makes the effect and end of the Sacraments to be not only The Confirmation of our Faith in Christ but also the Obsignation of his gracious Promise touching our Communion with him and our participation of the benefits purchased by his death And particularly among the effects of Baptism Zanchy reckons these 1. Our admission into Covenant with God 2. Our ingraffing into his Church and the Communion of Saints which are the Faithful 3. The Remission of Sins and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness And Calvin upon those words 1 Cor. 7. 14. else were your children unclean but now are they holy Comments after this manner This is a high point of Divinity For it teacheth that the Children of the Faithful are segregated from others by a special Prerogative and are accounted Saints in the Church And to reconcile this with those other words of the same Apostle Eph. 2. 3. We are all by nature children of wrath He saith thus Aequalis est igitur in omnibus naturae conditio The condition of nature is alike in all They are all obnoxious both to sin and death eternal But this privilege which the Apostle attributes to the Children of Believers that flows from the benefit of the Covenant upon the intervention whereof the malediction of Nature is blotted out and they are consecrated to God by Grace who are Prophane by Nature From which Testimonies we shall draw an Argument presently that Children baptized and dying before actual Sin are undoubtedly saved But first let us consult the holy Oracle The Scripture tells us That Christ tasted death for every man Hebr. 2. 9. for Children vers 14. And to what end did he do this to reconcile them vers 17. to sanctifie them v. 11. to free them from the bondage of the Devil v. 14 15. and to bring them unto glory v. 10. Can Christ fail of his end without any Obstacle in the Subject Has he done enough to save a drunken Noah an incestuous Lot an idolatrous Manasses and a perjur'd Peter and yet left a poor innocent Babe without a Remedy 'T is our Saviour's comfortable assertion with a gracious invitation thereupon Mat. 19. 14. Suffer little Children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven If these Dissenters be of a Cross opinion That of such is the Kingdom of Satan They should in modesty keep their faith to themselves till they can find a better proof than the Post-poning of Esau whose person notwithstanding Learned Men do think was saved In the Discourses of our Saviour little children are Candidates for Heaven and set forth as a pattern to such as shall undoubtedly inherit it Mat. 18. 3. and he tells his Disciples v. 14. It is not the will of your Father which is in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish which in all Reason must be understood of little Children literally according to the first intention of the words But 2. Baptism is the Laver of Regeneration Eph. 5. Tit. 3. Hereupon St. Peter makes his Exhortation to the People Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost For the promise is unto you and to your children Act. 2. 38 39. Whence I argue thus such as are admitted to the benefits of the Covenant remission

Death for us the sign of the Cross was made upon our Foreheads when we were dedicated to him at our Baptism not that we are drawn from our duty and allegeance to God by it or expect any supernatural Grace or Virtue from it or intend to pay any manner of devotion to it but to assert our own priviledge and relation to our Crucify'd Jesus to be a Symbolical Protestation of our faith and affiance in him a Memorial of the solemn Profession we have made to own and serve him This is our Ed our Witness to this purpose And as far as I am able to discern no less commendable in our practice than that was in those Tribes But these Dissenters tell us 't is impossible that any Church should institute a Divine Sacrament and they have good Authority to back them no less than the Suffrage of Trent to bear them out in this assertion which has denounced Anathema to all that shall say otherwise Si quis dixerit Sacramenta novae legis non fuisse omnia à Jesu Christo Domino nostro instituta Anathema sit If any one shall say That All the Sacraments of the Gospel which they call the new Law were not instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord let him be accursed But they say 't is possible Men may institute Humane Sacraments An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual Grace and they may ascribe an effect to it also to excite and increase Devotion and yet because Christ is not the Author of it they say it is no lawful which is but a begging of the question for they should only say it is no Divine Sacrament tho' it be a Humane Sacrament Such an Institution they say is the sign of the Cross The Matter of a Sacrament without Divine Signature which is the thing they condemn it for Now the question is whether this Condemnation be just or no The other day as I remember I saw a Pack of Cards which according to this account may very well be call'd a Pack of Sacraments for each Card had the matter of a Sacrament that is an outward and visible sign of some inward and spiritual Grace in the Martyr whose barbarous Murder they were design'd to represent and sure the Ingenious Contrivers of those Cards intended some effect from them to excite to stir up to increase Grace and Devotion by the sight of them viz. an utter abhorrence of Treason and all Popish Principles which lead to it And must this poor Pack of Cards be condemned to the Flames for the ingenuity of the Author I am so far from being the Executioner of such a Sentence that I wish such another Pack to represent the horrid Mischiefs of Schism and Sedition to teach our Children for the time to come to have the Practice and Doctrines which lead to it in utter detestation That such mystical Ceremonies or symbolical Representations are not sinful I am fully convinced because they are good for the use of edifying For whatsoever is apt to inform me and put me in mind of my Duty and to excite me to perform it That is certainly for my Edification because to inform to admonish and excite is to edifie And that some Mystical Ceremonies are of this Nature is too notorious to be denyed Est homini Connaturale ut per sensibilia ad Cognitionem intelligibilium deveniat says a Person well verst in the Prince of Schoolmen T is Connatural to Man by the help of sensible things to arrive at the knowledge of such things as are intelligible This I learn from all the Prophets Amos has his Basket of Summer fruit Amos 8. 2. Jeremy his Seething-Pot and the Rod of an Almond Tree Jer. 1. 11 13. Ezekiel has his Roll his Seige his Chain his Fire his Wheel and his Razor All these Representations in Vision for the Service of God's People and the interest of Religion And the great Prophecy concerning the state of the Christian Church is displayed in Mystical and Symbolical Representations Shall I quarrel with the Book of the Apocalypse and the seven Golden Candlesticks because they are full of Mystical Ceremonies and some men may erroneously fancy they put them in mind of seven Sacraments I will not But to see how far the force of prejudice and a superstitious conceit will carry these men By their invention Daniel's Chamber-window is made a Sacrament The opening of it towards Jerusalem was the outward and visible sign The inward and spiritual Grace was his faith and affiance in God with his Zeal for God's Holy Temple and Worship Yea so unreasonable and extravagant is this their Act of Condemnation it will reach all the most Pious accomplishments of Holy Men the Practice of Piety the Whole Duty of Man the Saints everlasting Rest the Institutions of Mr. Calvin I confess I cannot say so of those many Books which these Dissenters have written and sent abroad to shake the People and unhinge the Government to foment Faction and disturb the Peace of Church and State I cannot say it of such that they are outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual Grace but of every Pious and Learned Book I say it will fall under this their rash and unadvised Condemnation It is a Humane Sacrament that is it has the matter of a Sacrament which is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual Grace and the Author whoever he be will hope for some good effect from it else he is ill advised to make it Publick to excite to stir up to increase Grace and Devotion by it and whatever Man can work by his Discourse and Ordinance and yet according to these Dissenters Notion and Logick because it wants the efficient Cause to make it a Divine Sacrament it must be unlawful it must be sinful for 't is upon this accompt they do here judge the sign of the Cross in Baptism to be so and so condemn it What he means by a Divine Signature is a matter of some question if some institution or promise to annex Grace to it we understand it not But if he understands by Signature some impression that discovers something of God's Attributes we say with the great Apostle That the Preaching of the Cross sets forth the Power of God and the Wisdom of God There is this Divine Signature upon all Creatures For the invisible things of God from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made Rom. 1. 20. The Heavens declare the glory of God Psal. 19. And every Rational Creature should Echo to that Declaration and say When I consider thy Heavens Lord what is Man For a Sacrament properly so called that is a Divine Sacrament in the sense of the Church That is a thing of another Constitution For 1. It must have Christ for its Author all Ordinances of Divine Worship design'd to exhibit to seal and convey supernatural Grace are of

Evidence to the contrary therefore according to the Liberty purchased for us saith he we do retain these Ceremonies which are indifferent in themselves and no where forbidden by the Word of God And that the Nature of things indifferent may remain entire Christian Liberty safe and the Truth unshaken we are resolved not to yield no not so much as for one moment to the intemperance of our Adversaries who under a pretence of Zeal do nothing in matters of Religion but with tumult and an immoderate Asperity Thus the Learned Meisner on behalf of the Lutherans Yet I cannot omit another pregnant Evidence of their strictness in adhering to their establishment which we find in an Extract out of the National Synod held by the Churches of France at Charenton in September 1631. In the Chapter which contains their General Acts their Answer made to an Address of some of the Lutheran Perswasion Translated into English either by Mr. Samuel Hartlip or Mr. John Dury Printed 1641. runs in these very words viz. Touching the request made by the Province of Burgoigne that such of the Faithful as embrace the Augustane Confession might be permitted to Contract Marriages and bring their Children to be baptized in our Churches without abjuring the former Opinions which they hold contrary to the Belief of these Churches The Synod doth declare that seeing the Churches of the Confession of Ausburg do agree with the other Reformed Churches in the Principles and Fundamental Points of true Religion and that in their Discipline and Form of Divine Worship there is neither Idolatry nor Superstition Such of the Faithful of that Confession as shall with the Spirit of Charity and in a truly Peaceable way joyn themselves unto the Publick Assemblies of the Churches in this Kingdom and desire to Communicate with them may without the Abjuration aforesaid be admitted to the Holy Table Contract Marriages with the Faithful of our Confession and present themselves in the quality of God-Fathers to the Children which shall be baptized Upon their Promise given to the Consistory that they will never solicite them to Contradict or do any thing directly or indirectly against the Doctrine believed and professed in our Churches but shall content themselves with giving them Instruction only in things wherein we all agree The Note in the Geneva Bible at 1 Cor. 14. 38. is worth our observation The Church ought not to care for such as be stubbornly ignorant and will not abide to be taught but to go forward notwithstanding in those things which are right Nay in their Books of Discipline as was observed above they Decree That such as will not acquiesce in the Decision of their National Synod and expresly cast of their Errours shall be cut off from the Communion of the Church And this we find practised in Genevah with great severity for Goulartius and the rest of the Consistory deprived Rotarius one of their Ministers and thrust him out of their City and which is more they hunted him by their Letters out of a Town not far from thence which had entertain'd him for their Pastour And all this was done because he gave the Cup in his own Church with his own hand not permitting a Lay-man to deliver it This Fact of his was not the breach of any Ancient Canon of the Church but consonant to our Saviour's own Practice at the Institution of the Sacrament yet being against the Custome of that place they did thus sharply punish it And Mr. Calvin does seem to justifie such rigour upon a Rule of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 16. which affords him this Observation Authoritate magìs compescendos esse pervicaces rixandi cupidos quàm refellendos longis disputationibus that is Such as are stubborn and addicted to dispute and wrangle and refuse to sit down quietly by the Publick Determinations and Practice of the Church are not to be treated with Disputations but to be bridled by Authority And there 's AN END AN ANSWER Sent to the Ecclesiastical Assembly at LONDON By the Reverend Noble and Learned Man JOHN DEODATE THE Famous professor of Divinity And most vigilant Pastor of GENEVAH With some Marginal Notes by the late King Printed at Newcastle by Stephen Bulkley 1647. The Translators Preface To the Simple Seduced Reader Reader MAy the Father of Lights open thine Eyes to see over this Strangers shoulders and by this Impartial perspective what thou whilst kept down thus low by the new Masters and through thy Seducers false Mediums hast not hitherto been suffered to perceive it being till now purposely hid from thine Eyes Behold a meer Stranger that notwithstanding his manifold Obligations and personal ingagements to a contrary Discipline in the Church and different form of Government in the State yet overruled by the manifest Truth and Honesty of the Kings Cause breaks through all those Restraints of his Liberty as far as he may to tell the thus much plain English Truth Behold here Geneva's veneration and full vindication too of thine own Mother the Church of England as it stood under Episcopacy traduced here at home by her own spurious Brood for Superstitious Popish Antichristian what not And this Apology directed to the Assemblymen in answer to their Letter what ever it was Behold here again a clear Justification of the King vilified by his own for that for which strangers do admire him his Clemency his Inclinations to Peace his Acts of Grace c. Behold here the Root of Gall that which hath brought forth all these National Mischiefs the Popular Tumults and Conspiracies pointed at there as the only Evident Cause of the Kings Divorce from the Parliament See here by whom poor Ireland was deserted one thing also thou mayst here take notice of from these standers by That the Clergy in their own proper Sphere may be as fit and as honest and perhaps in some respect more able for the good speed of a Treaty than those that do slight them with utter preterition Last of all behold here the Loyal and Religious Subjects only Militia or his own proper Magazine to witt the known Laws of the Land that and Prayer and Submission are the only defensive weapons allowed here by this Master of Fence I say no more to thee save only that I do heartily pity thee and therefore I do still pray for thee and for all thy fellow-bondmen That God will bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and deceived Amen Reverend Godly and worthy Sirs our Dear Brethren and Companions in the work of the Lord. IF proportionably to the grief we have conceived at your Letters wherein you have expressed the most sad face of your Affaires we had but as much Ability either by our Consolations to asswage your sorrows or by our Counsels to ease your Burthens or by any our Co-operation to help your Extremity we should think our selves very happy in so well corresponding with your Honourable and most

he is not offended Hence proceeds that tremulous aversion to such things as God has no where forbidden as if the use of them were sinful This the Apostle reproves in the Colossians Touch not taste not handle not Coloss. 2. 20. Whence this Observation does naturally arise That such as are afraid they should offend God and wound their Conscience by the use and practice of such things as God hath not forbidden are Superstitious And into what absurdities and extravagant Whimsies this humor will carry men we may read as has been said in Mr. Calvin if our own Experience were not pregnant with Examples to that purpose How many men have formerly and do still trouble themselves and the Church of God upon this account Sensi enim saepe dolens gemens multas infirmorum perturbationes fieri per quorundam fratrum Contentiosam Obstinationem Superstitiosam timiditatem c. They are the Complaint of the Great St. Austin I have seen with grief and sorrow that the weaker sort are much disturb'd by the Contentious Obstinacy and Superstitious timorousness of certain Brethren who in matters of this indifferent nature which can be brought to no issue either by the Authority of the Holy Scripture or the Tradition of the Universal Church or upon the account of their being beneficial towards the amendment of life but only because they fancy they have some reason for them or some forreign practice which they esteem so much the more learned because it is the more remote Tam litigiosas excitant quaestiones ut nisi quod ipsi faciunt nihil rectum existiment They raise such litigious Questions and Disputes hereupon that they will allow nothing to be right but what they do themselves Which is as true a Character of our Dissenters as if St. Austin had been alive and acquainted with their disposition and practice before he wrought it Fear is a Passion very apt to enthral us and a fear upon the account of Religion most of all This Fear many times sets up strange Opinions in mens minds and when these are once framed Humanum ingenium quod suum est illic recognoscit recognitum libentiùs amplectitur quàm optimum aliquid quod suae vanitati minùs conveniret 'T is the Nature of man to recognize his own Conceptions and not only to acknowledge them but to be fond of them and prefer them before the best things which contradict their Vanity 3. Being wedded to these New Fangles the issue of their own imaginations out of devotion to them they Sacrifice they offer up the very Commandments of God and perhaps by this means they run into Idolatry as well as Superstition though such as are most concern'd therein are not presently sensible of the guilt of it I am sure St. Austin and St. Hierome are both of this Judgment Perverse Opinions says Hierome are the Graven and Molten Images which are adored by such as frame them in their Imaginations Comment l. 1. in Habak 2 and in Dan. 3. Qui falsum Dogma componunt They which set on foot a false Opinion set up an Image and as much as lies in their power by their Perswasion they compel others to fall down and worship the Idol of their Falshood And again in his Commentary upon Jerem. 32. Sed usque hodiè in Templo Dei quae interpretatur Ecclesia c. Even at this day saith he in the Temple of God which is interpreted to be the Church or in the hearts and minds of Believers an Idol is set up when a New Doctrine is broached and as is said in Deuteronomy the 4th is worshipped in secret Nor does that Doctor rest here but he saith further in that second of Habakuk Si quando videris aliquem nolle cedere veritati c. When thou seest a man that will not yield to Truth but persist still in his Error and studied opposition when the falshood of his Doctrines is made manifest thou maist very fitly say Sperat in figmento suo facit simulachra mu●a vel surda He puts his trust in his own figment and frames to himself dumb or deaf Idols Nor does St. Austin differ in his Judgment for he says plainly They are involved in a baser kind of Superstition Idolatry and Servitude who worship their own Fancies than they who worship the Host of Heaven His words are these Est alius deterior inferior cultus simulachrorum c. There is another inferiour and baser kind of Idolatry when men worship their own Fancies and whatever the Imagination sets up in the mind through pride or fear Religionis nomine observant They observe it strictly as their Religion Now whether these Dissenters out of zeal to their Negative Superstition Touch not a Surplice sign not with the Cross kneel not at the Sacrament c. do not peremptorily reject the express Command of God for Obedience to their Governours let all sober men and the World judge 4. I would ask this Question Do these Dissenters value those Homilies or do they not If they trust our Reformers for that Observation they have reason also to believe them that there is no such peril of Superstition in those Ceremonies which the Church then enjoyned and they themselves practised for I hope their insinuation should not be more prevalent to keep them from Superstition than their constant practice to keep them in Obedience especially when 't is evident that their Disobedience runs them into one sort of Superstition which in the general they pretend to be so very shy of that they can overlook an express and necessary duty to avoid it The Dissenters Tenth Section THey say they have read over all the Books that have been written in justification of those things and they find their Arguments so weak their Reasons so futilous that setting aside Rhetorick and Rayling there 's nothing in them but what had been either answered by others or is contradicted by themselves which hardens them in their Error who are gon astray into the right way The Answer 1. He saith they are gon astray into the right way This is no time for Bullbaiting therefore if they have a mind to gad let them take their jest along to make merry with But Corah had as fair a way and as safe a Convoy too in his own conceit Yet St. Jude was of another Judgment and we know he fell into the Pit at last And 't is somewhat an unlucky expression To go astray into the right way For we read of wandring stars whose Motion if we may believe any old Philosophy is very Regular in respect of the first mover and so they are in the right way But they have Erratick Motions of their own and to these were those false-teachers resembled by St. Jude who are said to wander because really they do so by their fluctuation in their Doctrines Deviation from the common Practice of the Church and