this Relator professeth and teacheth a blind Charity sutable to his Faith which he boldly affirmeth to be not a mistaken Charity in granting that a silly ignorant Papist so living and dying may be Saved by his Ignorance in that Religion conforming himselfe to his Religious life and on the contrary condemning such Protestants of stiffenesse and churlishnesse that are not of the same Charity with him though the Replyer proveth that there is no true Charity without true Faith and Verity And whereas the same Relator is shewed in this Reply to give much more liberty to your Majesties Protestant People to goâ— to the Romish Masse as being with him one and the same undiffering Religion with that of England then the Jesuite doth to his blind Romanist to come to the English Church And whereas the same Relator hath many passages wherein he makes a Generall Councell of Prelates Iudge in all Controversies of Faith ascribing unto them an Infallibility and in case they shall erre and that even in grosse things and points of Faith yet that all men are bound to yeeld obedience at least externall till another Generall Counsell equall to the former reverse those Errours whereupon by Consequence of this Prelaticall doctrine as the Replyer doth instance the Church of England it self is bound to observe the worship of Images and the forbearance of the Cup in the Sacrament c. decreed in Generall Councels and not yet reversed by other Generall Councels equall to those And whereas the Relator calls Transubstantiation Purgatory and the forbearance of the Cup but disputable and Improbable Questions the nature of which is to be taken indifferently Pro and Con And whereas he never once in all his Relation calls the Romish-worship of Images and of the Sacrament or any other Idolatry in all the Romish Church but onely by the name of Superstition abstaining altogether from the name of Idolatry as if with him the Roman Church were no Idolatresse And whereas he much lamenteth the Seperation and rent between the Protestants and Rome with the continuance of it although with the Iesuite he confesse that errour in Faith is just cause of separation And whereas he the same Relator doth cunningly yet palpably enough in sundry passages of his Booke as also he hath openly done viva voce at the High-Commission-Board exclude all the Reformed Protestant Churches beyond the Seaes as no Churches of Christ as not admitting the Hierarchy Finally also in his Book quipping Luther and in him all the Reformed Churches as having made a rent not onely from Rome with her corruptions but even from the Catholick Church it selfe which indeed in the Relators sense and difinition of the Catholicke Church is most true to wit from the universall Hierarchy And whereas he the Relator doth every where highly extoll his Ceremonies in Gods worship as without which he saith there is no light left to shine before men that they may see his Devotion and so glorify GOD therein most foulely and odiously perverting and abusing the holy Text of Scripture uttered by CHRIST to a cleane other purpose as the Replyer hath noted all which Ceremonies being a will-worship after the Tradition and Commandement of men the Apostle doth utterly condemn as wherby the very merits of Christs death are made of none effect who in his death destroyed All Ceremonies in Religion obliging the Conscience and not onely the Leviticâ—ll but all other whatsoever of humane Ordinance as the Replyer clearely proveth So as it is not left to any Power on Earth to impose the least Ceremony yea though it be of nature indifferent to bind the Conscience in the service of GOD seeing all such imposition is Antichristian Tyranny And whereas all Prelaticall Hereticall and Antichristian Faction erected by the Prince of darkenesse against Iesus Christ and his Kingdome as is apparent both by their profession and practice wherein they have nothing at all yea not any one thing to show wherein they resemble either Christ or any one of his Apostles except Iudas Christs Kingdome being altogether spirituall and not of this world but the Hierarchy a meere carnall and worldly Kingdome onely guilded over with the bare name of spirituall And whereas the Relator throughout his whole Booke bewrayeth his most palpable and profound ignorance and notorious blindnesse in the whole mystery of Faith and all true divinity in so much as when ever he Cites Scripture he still perverts it to a wrong sense and is not able to bring any proofe either from Scripture or Common Reason except from some of his Jesuiticall Authors for any of his Paradoxes and strange doctrines delivering all without Book tanquam è Cathedra as but of some Papall unerring Chaire upon the Authority of his bare word and upon meere trust And whereas the Relator saith That worth once misled is of all other the greatest misleader and who of greater worth in the Church of England and in the Esteem of Great ones too then the Great Primate himselfe whose very word with many is taken as a divine Oracle So as if the Church and State of England will but pin their soules upon this Leaders sleeve he will not fayle to lead them in that way the issue whereof seem it never so right in the eyes of credulity will certainly prove to be as Solomon saith the wayes of death And whereas by the Relator sundry occasions are ministred to the Replyer of instancing divers practises charged upon the Prelate as the principall Agent or Instrument of setting up sundry Innovations in Religion in the Church of England all which have been done under his Primacie as The republishing under your Majesties Name the Book for liberty of profane Sports on the Lords day with pressing Ministers to read the Sayd Book in their severall Congregations and upon refusall extreamely persecuting them and thrusting them from their Ministry and meanes with their poore wives and children The authorizing and licencing of some Doctors Books which cry down the Morality of the 4 th Commandement for the Sanctifying of the Lords Sabbath day The setting forth of a New Order to restraine Preachers from Preaching in the Afternoones on the Lords dayes much pressed by the Prelates and their Officers in all their visitations The setting forth of a Declaration in your Majesties Name prefixed to the Articles of Religion which the Prelates practises plainly interpret to be for the restraining and prohibiting altogether the Doctrines of Saving Grace to be preached and wherein the genuine sense of those Articles touching Grace which formerly were universally interpreted to have but one sence agreeable to the Scripture is confounded with the heterodox hereticall doctrines of the Pelagians and Arminians so as none can tell what to make of those Articles saving that by this meanes the Orthodox Ministers must not preach the truth and the Adverse party and Faction may find footing and countenance for their groundlesse and gracelesse heresies and all this to the manifest
Church of Rome and of the Church of England And that the greatest too And I am perswaded the Church of England since it professed the Gospell never had such a monstrous and Bayeyard-like bold misleader as this Great worth of Canterbury hath proved to be or will certainly proove in effect if it find as blind Disciples to deale witthall as it selfe is a Master Although it is much hoped that if any Man hath conceived such an high Opinion of your worth as to account you for the most Profound Divine the most Pregnant Politician and the most potent Champion of the Church of England the very Reading of this your Book with a corrected judgement will either convert him from this errour or at least prevent that this errour of your Doctorship shall not Commence or Proceed to the degree of Heresie L. p. 303. 'T is safest to beleeue the Article of Christs Descent into hell as both the Churches of England and of Rome do agree upon that is That he descended into the place of the damned And this is the truth P. Surely if this be the truth that Christ descended locally into hell the place of the damned it were safest to beleeve it whether you and Rome consent in the beliefe of it or no. But because you beleeve as the Church of Rome beleeves will you thereupon conclude This is the truth Certainly we have the more cause to suspect that truth for a falshood wherein you and Rome doe both agree But how true your beliefe with Rome is and how true this Truth we have before sufficiently discovered But will this hold for a good Rule that in what you and Rome agree it is safest to beleeve it You agree in Altars Priests Sacrifice all manner of wil-worship Antichristianisme and many things more forespecified Ergo is 't safest to beleeve these things Or for whom safest safest for all those that affect to be of your Church Tryumphant here and would not come under your persecution But how agrees this with that which you adde ibid. that Rome will not indure this that Christ descended into the place of the damned but onely in Limbum Patrum a Region in the upper part of Hell Ergo rather then faile if Rome will not beleeve as you doe That Christ discended into the place of the damned you will beleeve as she beleeves that he dâ—scended in Limbum Patrum For agree you must and that 's the safest beliefe L. p. 307. I my selfe have heard some Iesuites confesse that in the Liturgie of the Church of England ther 's no positive errour P. 'T is a signe then your Liturgie agrees pretty well with the Romish Messal as is noted by the way before For surely such a Testimony from a Jesuites mouth gives us the more cause of suspicion that all is not so well in your Liturgie as it should be As Diogenes sayd when the people applauded him he began to suspect himselfe that he had committed some absurdity or other saying Wherein have I miscarryed my selfe that this people doth so commend me L. p. 318. Though Dr. White late Bishop of Ely was more able to answere for himselfe yet since he is now dead and is thus drawn into this Discourse I shall as well as I can doe him the right which his learning and paines for the Church deserved And I grant as well as he that there must be some one Church or other continually visible P. First for Dr. White he being now dead which he was long before I will say no more but this For his deserving pains for the Church the Church of England you meane as now it stands the same Church with that of Rome and of the same Faith with her and of which Faith he also declared himselfe to be when he told a Minister that the Difference between the Church of Rome and of England in the Doctrines of the sixt Session of Trent and by name of Grace and Justification was little or nothing how great it was his Works extant can witnesse as namely his Approbation prefixed to your now Brother of Chichester his Appeale to Caesar wherein is maintained the whole Body of your Arminian Heresie together in all or most of the grossest points of Popery as worship of Images at least with Doulia and the like and assaying to prove the Pope not to be Antichrist as if he would solem è coelo tollere also Dr. Whites Book of the Sabbath to prove no Sabbath to Christians and the fourth Commandement not to be Morall for the keeping of one day in the weeke as the Lords Day allowing also of vaine sports and profane pastimes on that Day and commending of praying towards the East where your Altar is placed and such like stuffe in all which he so well deserved of your Church of England as he scarce had his fellow onely if he were now living againe he would yeeld the Bucklers to your Lordship as the bravest Champion of the now Chuch of England that hath risen up in this latter Age or yet succeeding times may hope to produce But let us now heare the right which your Lordship does him and which his paines for the Church deserved But first let me tell you you forget here to give him his Title of Lord Bishop which you indeed gave him in the very first page of your Booke But now his Lordship is dead let not Lord and Bishop be separated in any case no not by death it selfe For indeed Lord-Bishop is a peculiar Title differencing you from all true Bishops indeed as the Scripture commendeth for the onely Bishops as is shewed before yet I know not how it is come to passe that in the best Reformed Churches beyound the Seas the Pastors are never called Bishops I suppose it is because as Kings of old were stiled Tyranni and that in meliorâ—m partem untill degenerating into Lawlesse Tyrants indeed good Kings would thereupon never after be called Tiranni but Kings so the Reformed Churches seeing how the name of Bishop grâ—w to be odious the Office and Calling of it being changed 〈◊〉 that of a Parochiall Pastor into a Diocesan Lordship and so 〈◊〉 have for this cause layd aside the Name of Bishop though otherwise the Name is good as it pertaines to the true 〈◊〉 and Presbyters over particular Congregations as is before shâ—wed so as the Reformed Churches doe herein as the Ancient Romans did who when their Kings turned Tyrants the lâ—st wheâ—of was Tarquinius surnamed Superâ—us for his extreme 〈◊〉 they for ever banished both the name of Kings and 〈◊〉 out of their Commonweale But let us see how you recompense the omission of this Lordly Title in this place to such a well deserving man You adde And I grant as well as he that there 〈◊〉 be some one Church or other continually visible Aâ— well aâ— he This then may seem to be some recompense by way of honour and 〈◊〉 some doing of him Right for indeed his main
and of Rome doe agree upon 363 364. He contradicts himselfe ibid. 307. Jesuites Commendation of the English Liturgy whether it be a good signe 364. 318. How the Prelate rewards the late Dr. White for his Deserts and what they were 364 365. The true Church of Christ proved against the Prelate not to be alwayes visible and conspicuous by many Instances Though the Prelaticall be alwayes conspicuous 366 367 368. Most pittifull and perplexed contradictions and confused and false Speeches of the Church of Rome by the Prelate 369. Rome a Tree wholly corrupt without so much as the Barke of a true Church 370. 321. Dr. Whites Errours Fundamentall reductivè confuted 371 372. 325. Wherein the Prelates Church of England is departed from the Foundation 373. The Prelates Latitude of faith in reference to different mens Salvation which he can no more fit to them then a coat for the Moâ—ne 373 374. True Preachers must teach all what and how to beleeve though it be no worke for the Prelates pen 373. 327. The Prelate confesseth that Romanists dare not beleeve but as the Church of Rome beleeves which saith he beleeves not aright How then can his Ignorants be saved 374 375. 332. Apocrypha by the Prelate how neatly brought in as a Co-witnesse with the Scripture to prove points of Faith 375. 336. The Prelates Resolution to live and dye in the Faith of the Primitive Church confuted by sundâ—y Instances 375 376. 338. The Prelate holds not the Saving Faith as not acknowledging other then Romes Faith 377 378 379. And the Saving Faith is not in the Church of Rome 377 The Prelate holds a false Hope and Charity together with a false Faith with Rome wherein he will live and dye an English Romish-Catholicke 379 380. 339. The Prelates haâ—ting and halfing with the Jesuite 380. In charging Rome he checketh himselfe 340. His halting againe 381. Yet he confesseth that the now Roman Faith is not the Catholicke which Roman Faith he will live and dye in 380. What Contradiction is ib. His contradiction noted 382. His halting down-right all along 382 383. 342. How the Prelates Saving Faith of Rome is by himselfe proved to be Infidelity 384. So as compared with the former he will live and dye in the Roman Infidelity Conferre 375 376 377. His Collusion 382. 349 Who the first Founder of Purgatory 386. 365. The Prelates false root of the true Churches existence and true root of the false 387 388. 370. The Church of Rome how yeelded by the Replyer to be visible yet not Apostolicke against the Prelate 387 388. 371. Of Peters being at Rome 388. The Church of Rome for what preserved of God 389. 375 How the Prelate gives more liberty to his Protestants to goe to the Romish Church to heare Masse which he calls the Service of God then the Jesuite doth to his Roman Catholicks to goe to the English Service 390 391 392. 376. The Prelates Assertion That the Church of Rome and the Protestant Church of England do not set up a different Religion 392. And so no great difference of going to either yet that both accuse each other of grosse corruptions indangering Salvation 393. Ibid. Who are the Prelates Indifferent Readers to whom it appeares by his Discourse as himselfe saith That the Religion profest in the Church of England comes nearest to the Primitive Church And what Readers will judge the contrary 394. 377. Not onely Superstition as the Prelate stints it but grosse Idolatry in Adoration of Images in Invocation of Saints in Adoration of the Sacrament 395. 378. By the Prelates confession to the Priest A. C. there should be but little pride in his heart 396. 379. The Prelates wan hope of mercy to the dead Lady 396 397. 388. The Prelates Close or Conclusion wherein he excuseth himselfe by reason of his other weighty affaires and of his Age His misnaming of the Penman of the 90 Psalme least he should through all his Booke but touch or name any one Scripture and withall not mistake misapply or pervert it His fearefull and desperate condition layd home unto him by the Replyer His mocking and abusing Gods Name and Mercy in his hypocriticall Prayer and impenitent heart His blaphemy in Fathering all his Booke written and published for the meeting of his Popish Truth and Peace in a Reconciliation with Rome upon Gods Free Grace His wicked and false hope that God will bring to passe that his Diabolicall Designe and Desire which cannot come to passe but with the utter confusion of the whole Land His hypocriticall and faithlesse giving Glory to God after all his blacke mouthed blasphemies and disgraces throughout his Booke cast upon the Majesty of God of Christ and of the Holy Ghost also upon Gods holy word the Scripture as if he would in the close of all with this one plaister heale so many broken heads 397 to 405. This suffice for a rude Model But what 's that to the House it selfe Enter therfore and take a free and full view Consider what thou readest and the Lord give thee understanding in all things TO THE AVTHOR AND PVBLISHER OF THE RELATION MY Lord that you find not my Name in Front the Reasons are to my selfe And when you find it 't will appeare that feare of your displeasure though terrible enough was not the Cause But whoever I be you will Say perhaps I am some madde fellow and too bold to make a Reply to your Relation But your own words will I hope excuse me for that For you Say A right sober mâ—n may without the least touch of insolency or madnesse dispute a businessâ— of Religion with the Roman either Church or Prelate so it be with modesty and for the finding out or confirming of Truth free from â—anity and purposed opposition against even a Particular Church So you Now my manner in disputing with one so Great though a single Prelate and no Church being with modesty and 〈◊〉 from vaniâ—y and purposed opposition against your Person and the end for finding out and confirming the Truth which God himselfe knoweth I hâ—pe I Say your Lordship wil be as good as your word not to cast upon me an aspersion or Censure of the least touch of Insolâ—nâ—ie or madnesse But this indeed I must confesse unto you and professe before all the world that in a Cause so weighty as this wherein I find my Lord Iesus Christ so deeply ingaged so much dishonoured and his onely true Faith and Religion so much depressed and disparaged and that by so great a Prelate I must crave pardon if herein I be both zealous and plain with you And that so much the more that one so Great I say so high in favour in Court and so potent and prevalent in the State should so doe And to this purpose I remember another Speech in your Booke Worth is no necessary concluder for Truth For worth once misled is of all other the greatest misleader And such is
your worth in the esteem of Great ones too that misled it is the greatest misleader But there you adde And yet God forbid that to worth weake men should not yeâ—ld in difficult and perplexed Questions Certainly my Lord what ever my weaknesse be it will hardly yeeld to your worth though never so great where I find your worth misled and so to become the Great Misleader and that of no lesse then the whole Church of England You know it is every good Subjects part to be zealous of the Kings honour when he seeth it wounded or wronged And shall not every good and faithfull Christian be zealous for the honour of his Lord Iesus Christ and of his Kingdome when he seeth them either openly opposed or secretly undermined by Any though never so Great and honourable in the world And this I shall make manifest and I hope convince your Lordship of if cleare evidence of holy Scripture and Reason will doe it that you have as in your common practise so in this your Last Book not onely bewrayed but confirmed to the world at least to all that have their eyes in their head as the Preacher saith your amity with the Church of Rome and enmity against Iesus Christ and his true Church and so to the Salvaâ—ion of mens soules This by Gods Grace I shall make cleare in my ensuing Reply Wherein I shall observe no other method but as I meet with such Passages all along though perhaps not all as are worthy of Animadversion to tell your Lordship plainly my mind of them And although as the Proverbe is Plaine dealing is a Iewel that is for the rarity of it yet it is not so highly esteemed in Court as others of a more glistering luster And wheras you may imagine and hope as you have exprest your selfe that this your Book will make for your Reputation as being interlaced with some â—arger Discourses or Disputes against the Jesuite which may be a goodly broad Figge-leaves to cover the nakednesse of the rest yet many things in it are so palpably grosse and directly opposit to the Truth that when you have layd on never so much varnish and guilding All will prove but as a painted Sepulchre The Law of God forbids the Jewes to sow their field with diverse kinds of seeds least the whole fruit be defiled This was to teach them and us not to mingle Truth with Errour nor to halt between GOD and Baal for so all their Religion comes to be defiled But your field here is sowne with many Tares mingled with some graines of Wheat which oâ—â—ekthròs Anthopos the enemy having sown and being grown up to such a ranknesse and ripenesse marvaile not that I have brought so Sharpe a Sickle to cut it down The letter L. is to noâ—e your Lordships words p. the page and P. the Replyers Answere And in all I shall be somwhat briefe though perhaps tedious And I suppose your Lordship so formidable by That Late Censure and so secure by the Sure and Closse cooping up of those 3 once troublesome men expected not that any should be left of that mettall so hardy as to take up and maintain such a quarrell against the Great Metropolitan of all England But my Lord deceive not your selfe The Lord Iesus Christ rather then faile will out of the very dust rayse up witnesses to stand up against Antichrist or any of his Confederacie And so in the first place I come to your Epistle Dedicatory to his Majesty THE REPLIE TO THE RELATORS EPISTLE DEDICATORY TO THE KING L. p. 1. THIS Tract will need Patronage as Great as may be had and that 's yours P. Thus you begin your Epistle But you might have added on Earth On Earth no doubt the greatest Patronage you can have is the Kings But haply you neither thought nor hoped of any higher Patron of this Tract then on Earth And therefore it will so much the more need some humane Patronage and that as Great as may be had and all little enough you will find in the end But I hope when once your Tract shal be well troden out and beaten that you will find but few that will travell your way or follow such a Leader and much lesse hazzard their own both honour and safety by Patronizing such a perillous Tract as this will appeare to be And though you should find some to protect you from the Courts of Civill Iustice yet never from Christs dreadfull Throne where you shall certainly be judged according to your worke And let me tell you in putting forth this your Book under the Kings Patronage you lay a greater burthen upon his shoulders then he is able to beare and should he undertake it it would break his back For then he must Patronize all your blasphemous lyes against GOD and his Word and against all Truth which when he comes once to know instead of Patronizing hee will Anathematize both you and your Book L. p. 2. He that seeks it Court Truth with a Roman Bias or any other then for it selfe will run counter when he comes neere it and not find it though he come within the Kenning of it P. Sir you say true And for proofe hereof it will appeare and that too palpably that this Roman Bias hath too much wheeled you about from the Truth which you pretend to seek but neither come neere it nor within the Kenning of it Or if within Kenning so as you have been at any time by its cleare light convinced of it the greater is your sin and the more desperate your case not to confesse it but how much more to fight against it And think not my L. that your plausible naming of Truth here will so blind mens eyes as to beleeve all is truth that you have written in your Book If you seek Truth 't is but as those Sodomites sought for Lots doore to violate his Angel-guests For where you find the Truth sincerely preached and professed doe you not lay violent hands upon Gods Angels the Messengers of his Truth and break into the houses of those righteous Lots those Preachers of Righteousnesse to cast them out And then mervaile not if GOD smite you with blindnesse that you shall never find the Truth for the end you seek it namely to destroy it L. p. 6. He did but skip up and down and labour to pick a hole here and there where he thought he might fasten and where it was too hard for him let it alone P. What the Jesuite did let him answere for himselfe But perhaps you will say the like of me here For I touch not every particular passage as where for your reputation sake you speake some truth thereby to gaine credit to what is contrary as you know who useth to doe and therfore Christ would not suffer the Devils to confesse him at all nor need I labour to pick holes here and there when every where
as the least colour of reason or just cause other then such as the very Heathen do hisse out of all Courts of justice as the bane and ruine of Common-weales So as while you heartily beseech GOD to forgive those that be innocent persons you forget once to pray to GOD to forgive your selfe who have been the main Instrument of committing such an example of Diabolicall cruelty and iniquity as is without all example either in the Christian or Heathen world And yet running on furiously in this desperate course you say after in the very Conclusion of your Book that you are now 65. yeares of age and yet you tremble not to think it cannot be long before you must appeare before that strict Judge from whose Tribunall and Sentence not your Greatest Patron in the world can rescue you And if this be all your Charity thus to pray for these men whom you desist not to plague they may say to you as Christ did to those women that wept for him Pray not for us but pray for your selfe that GOD would pardon your sin in not taking vengeance on you for the blood of his Servants which you have shed And consider how you have used Christs Minister with what horrible and detestable cruelty and all for the faithfull discharge of his duty in reprooving such enormities and impieties as your selfe cannot be but guilty of the very remembrance whereof were enough to shake all the veines of your heart and to cause your Conscience to quake and tremble had you but the least sparke of common grace in you Oh the bloud and members of a Mans body are precious and do you think they were made and Redeemed with such a price as Christs own bloud for any Man to satisfie the lust of his Diabolicall and damnable malice upon in taking them away gratis and so easily And especially the bloud of Christs Servant which you have shed for no other cause but for bearing witnesse unto the Truth is it not precious in Gods sight And When he maketh inquisition for blood will he not remember and not forget the complaint of the poore Without doubt my Lord his Great King and Master will utterly shame and confound you for ever unmasking all your hypocrisie and leaving you naked before all the world if you still desperately goe on in this course Nor is it your Fine-spun-cob-web-Lawne-veile that can hide the grossenesse and foulenesse of your actions from the worlds eyes And though you could mock men yet God you cannot but Whatsoever ye sow ye shall reape Doe you beleeve the Scripture What saith it A man that doth violence to the blood of any Person shall flee to the pit Let no man stay him But I leave you to GOD whom because you have no changes you doe not feare yet one day shall you feele But you tell us that you have little leasure and lesse incouragement thereby to answer a Iesuite or to set upon other Services To answer a Iesuite Oh glorious word A Sound Protestant sure that Answers a Iesuite· What may we not expect This one word were enough to vindicate that reputation of yours which you tell us anon of But the mischief is I have observed a New-found-Art of Late-dayes that which our Protestant Doctors of the Now Church of England have practised and grown great Proficients in namely under the name and colour of Answering a Iesuite or so to meet him at least the halfe-way between England and Rome if he goe not further So did your Brother of Chichester in his Appeale to Caesar his Answer to the Popish Gagger How finely jumpes he with the Jesuite and comes closse to his doores A pretty veile to bring that old Hagge into request againe and to set up her Throne in the Church of England And whether your Lordship do thus or no in this your glorious Answer to the Iesuite we shall see at after But why you should complain of little leasure when you have so many Chapleins and Doctors at hand and command to set a worke and of lesse incouragement when for such services you have gotten the Metropolitanship of all England I cannot see But before I passe further I may not balke the close of your words complaining You are under the Prophets affliction Psal. 50.19 20. And what is that Between the mouth that speaks wickednesse and the tongue that sets forth Deceit And whose affliction was this The Prophets you say What Davids Yes How prove you that out of that Psalme 'T is true David had many afflictions in this kind which hee in other Psalmes much complaines of but he speakes not a word of his owne proper afflictions in this kind in that Psalme which you quote Therefore to passe by both your forced expression of the words and false application of the sense Let us take the Prophets own word But unto the wicked GOD saith what hast thou to doe to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth Seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee When thou sawest a thiefe thou consentedst with him and hast been partaker with Adulterers Thou gavest thy mouth to evill and thy tongue frameth deceit Thou sittest and speakest against thy Brother and thou slanderest thine own Mothers Son These things hast thou done and I kept silence and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy selfe but I will reproove thee and see them in order before thee Now consider this ye that forget GOD least I teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver Thus farre GOD speaketh in that Psalme In all which you see plainly that the Prophet complains not of his owne suffering such things of wicked tongues It is GOD that speaks here to wicked men And if you had well and wisely looked â—our face in that Glasse you might farre sooner have discerned your selfe to be one of those to whom GOD speaketh then to be as the Prophet so afflicted by them And because you are so briefe in perverting the Scriptures to make them a veile for your iniquity and a Vergula Censoria to argue and accuse Gods own innocent Servants as if their mouth spake wickednesse and their tongues set forth deceit lend your patience a little while we doe truly interpret and impartially appy the forecited words of this Psalme Here GOD speakes to the wicked and sets him forth by sundry markes and properties as First his notorious and audacious shamelesse hypocrisie in pretending to be for GOD and for his true Religion For he taketh upon him to declare Gods Statutes and takes his Covenant in his mouth but for all this he hateth instruction and casteth Gods word behind him Secondly his taking part with Theeves and Adulterers Thirdly his giving his mouth to evill and framing his tongue to deceit Fourthly his sitting and speaking against his Brother and slandering his owne Mothers Sonne Fifthly his carnall security and
your own Name This in our poore opinions will mightily take with the vulgar and easily vindicate and set upright your Graces Reputation And because we are not ignorant of your multiplicious and waighty affaires in Court not permitting your thoughts that vacancie which such a worke would require let not that trouble your Lordship our Service shall not be wanting Thus or so your Divines Well now that you heare your friends Counsell what 's your Resolution L· ibid. I confesse I looked round about these men and their motion and at last my thoughts working much upon themselves I began to perswade my selfe that I had been too long diverted from this necessary worke And that perhaps these might be in voce hominum tuba Dei in the still voyce of men the loud Trumpet of God P. And perhaps my Lord and that whereof it may be ye wil be the rather perswaded the unanimous consâ—nt of these Divines might be by the instigation of that same Spirit in which those 400. Prophets by their unanimous vote prevailed to perswade King Ahab to goe up to Ramoth Gilead that so according to Gods own purpose he might there perish But it might be you say Gods loud Trumpet What to hasten you to Judgement Certainly that lying Spirit in those Prophets was sent from GOD to prepare the way of executing vengeance on that Ahab the more speedily as who had sold himselfe to worke wickednesse in sheding Nabaths blood And surely when I look'd into the intrals of this your Booke as the Roman Southsayers of old did into the bowels and entralls of their Sacrifices and found them so exceedingly vicious and corrupt and withall like to Caesars Sacrifice wherein was found no heart which the Astrologers took for a bad signe no heart at all to the true Religion indeed it suggested these conceits into my mind about this very passage of yours But time will try all things And if you will have my poore opinion I am perswaded if you had never put pen to paper it having been super-sufficient to have expressed your mind in your other handy-works or Practises and so had reserved your Apology when requisite to your perswasive Language and powerfull Rhetorick men might have had lesse hold to take off you when you might have put all your other Actions upon a higher moving Cause as usually ye doe But for writing you know Litera Scripta manet Or else it had been better to have reprinted your First Coppy as it was at first without Alteration and in your Chaplains name still for so you should both have vindicated it from obscurity lying hid and lurking in the belly of Dr. Whites Works and also at pleasure have either owned or disclaimed it as you found occasion Or might have excused any thing that might be taken in it as offensive either imputing it to your Chapleins mistake or to want of leasure to revise it or which is the surest and most beaten way to the Printer as was lately done about that notorious Popish Book of Salis his Devotions And hereof if your Lordship knows it not I will tell you a pretty Tale. This Book of Devotion of Salis bearing the Title of Bishop of Geneva although the Church of Geneva have no such Bishops had been so long ago translated into English and being purged from those grosse points of Popery which were in the Originall Coppy was by Authority published in Print and sold well But of late dayes since you came to sit in that Chaire one undertook to translate the Originall anew and intire as it was at first set forth by the Author without altering any thing as the Translator professed in his Epistle Dedicatory to Mris Anne Roper a notorious Recusant This Translation being brought to your Chaplein to license it past for currant as containing nothing in it against Faith and Manners and so was licensed without the least correction of the grossest things in it It came to the Printer who falling aworke upon it began to stumble at some no small Popish blocks that lay in his way insomuch as he was afraid to goe on but went and shewed them to your Chaplein who making a tush at it bad him goe on and he would beare him out in it So Printed it was And coming abroad some began to find fault with it and the stinke of the Booke more and more increasing with stirring it came at length to be smelled by your Lordship Hereupon what serious examination you used about it I know not but there being some Jealousie that some one of those THREE forementioned troublesome bitter men whose Cause was then shortly to be heard might haply among other things might they have been permitted to speake freely cast that Booke in your Lordships dish the next newes we heard of it was that a Proclamation is published for the burning of the Book in Smith-field wherein also all the blame was layd upon the poore Printer for which he must to prison and you and your Chaplein were acquitted and cleared as no way faulty So easie is it with the least breath to blow away the blackest clowds when they threaten a storme either against you or your Chaplein in such cases But now in this your Booke so exactly Reprinted and revised and republished wherein also you have ratified and avowed all in your former Booke for yours you have for ever fast bound your hands that you cannot helpe your selfe at a dead lift Well 't is too late now either to prevent or remedy what is past Yet one thing there is which you may perhaps deem to be operae pretium worth your paines as wherein lyes your maine Confidence of vindicating your Reputation with good men and that is some Large Discourses in your Booke wherein you seeme to be point blanke against the Papists as about the Scripture Transubstantiation c. This indeed might say well to it and passe for currant were there not in some of them so much grosse allay as makes the whole to be reprobate Silver as the Prophet saith and also did you not commit a grosse Solecisme in writing a seeming Truth and practising apparently contrary and did you not overballance seeming Truths with too much Popish Truth throughout your Booke as will all along appeare And you know that if one dead Fly will corrupt a whole box of oyntment how much more a Swarme And a little poyson corrected and infused in a Potion proves medicinall but if uncorrected and of two great a quantity it becomes mortall and so instead of bealing kills the Patient But to proceed L. p. 9. I have thus acquainted your Majestie with all occasions which both formerly and now againe have led this Tract into the Light P. And not without cause needs your Tract to be led into the light I will not here apply that speech of Christ If the blind lead the blind but leave it to the event L. p. 11. GOD forbid I should
in a shallower water or what their bad nets This hath relation to Discipline as the former to Lawes and so though for your Reputation sake you modestly spare to name them yet they are in plain English your Puritans and those Puritan-Preachers especially because Anglers But where are there any such creatures as Puritan-Preachers now adayes Doe not all conform and submit to your Discipline And are not all Non-Conformists put to perpetuall silence as in the grave O but you say there is a sort of Puritan Conformists which are worse then the Non-Conformists whom you have often said you would worme out And to worme out is as men tread out the wormes out of the ground Onely we must not call this Persecution to set your feet with all your waight upon Gods Ministers God forbid But who are they Such as will not conform to your New Discipline and Ceremonies Such as will not read in their congregation the Edict for Sports on the Lords day Such as will not observe the Kings order for not preaching of Predestination and other doctrines of Grace Such as will not observe the order for bare Catechising out of the Booke by Simple Question and Answer without any exposition Such as will not forbeare preaching in the Afternoon and that often times beyond their houre the people standing on thornes the while to be at their Sports considering that Afternoone-Sermons are forbidden but not afternoon-Sports Such as though for feare they submit to their Prelates domination yet you suspect them to be disaffected with your Church Government as being an intollerable Tyranny These are that Serious Sort of Fishers you mention But what are those Shallower waters which you say they Fish in Perhaps you meane they are a Sort of Shallow-braind fellowes poore Snakes that angle in shallow waters that is have but a poore Vicaridge or Stipend or preach to Shallow-simple people the Great-Fishes being in your deeper Seaes taken with your Long-lined Angle or Sweep-net or in a Shallow water and that of force because you forbid them to Fish in the Deep waters of Election and Predestination leaving them onely the Shallowes of morall Divinity to fish in whereby they shall never be able to catch one good Fish but onely such small Gudgions as when the net is drawn to shore or cast away And the Shallower waters ye oppose to these Deep waters the Iesuites Fish in For they Fish in all the deep Rivers and Ponds in the Land yea and most in the Bishops Seaes or Cathedrals where they find and inclose whole Sholes of Fish and they Fish in the Deeps of mens hearts and leave not a Creeke unfished and those no simple ones neither I will not say Lords and Ladies in the Court though themselves dare professe it So as they can Fish out of them the discovery of all the Mysteries of State whereby they maintaine a rich Trade of such Commodities by way of intelligence to Rome and Spaine and other Forraigne parts Whereas your other sort of Anglers have indeed an Angle and Line that will dive into the secrets of Mans heart and that is the plaine and powerfull preaching of Gods Word which pierceth even to the dividing asunder of Soule and Spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart but haply this is that which you call their bad nets which they Fish withall Indeed they Fish not with the Golden-nets of Heliogabaluâ— they use not to bait their hooks with guided Flattery nor with the glittering shew of humane learning in powring forth Greek Sentences which the Fish onely gaze upon but never bite onely as Ierome saith most admiring what they least understand and which every novice newly cropt out of the shell of Grammer Schoole with the help of Books can con and recite which is not to Fish with Peters net not to preach sound Divinity to the edification and Salvation of Gods people but to Fish for a Whale for some great Cathedrall or so And therefore perhaps also you call the nets of these men bad nets as being either broken with age preaching the good old Saving Truth such as will not hold a good Fat Fish or benefice as when they take to themselves such a liberty in Preaching the truth and against sinne as they come to loose all or too small such as will not inclose a plurality of great Fishes though they be in Severall Seaes or Diocesse Or not like to the Monkes net which he used to spread his Table withall till under this veile of humility he crope up to the Lord Abbots chaire and rich Table where he used his net no more having taken the Fish he lookt for Thus I suppose by this time I have fished out your meaning of that other sort of Fishers and Anglers whom you would not have his Majesty to neglect But if he doe I hope your Lordship will not neglect to hinder such Fishers from setting up their Busses in your Seaes or to have the least private Pond or Chappell to angle in You said well to such fellowes when the time was when with the help of Noy's Arke you suppressed that great Busse of the Feoffees in Trust which had it gone on would have in time drawn many Fishes out of the Devils nets of whom they are taken captive at his will and have translated them out of your brackish and bitter Seaes into those Fresh Rivers of the waters of life where they should have bin out of danger to be catcht with your carnall baites though they could hardly escape your tearing Hookes But enough of this Yet one thing more here I cannot but note and that is this you humbly beseech his Majesty to keep a serious watch over the Romish Fishers and withall you adde that another Sort of Anglers be not neglected Who this other sort is is shewed namely your Puritan Preachers that is to say The most godly painfull zealous Ministers in the Land and so the most vigilant watchmen to preserve the flockes of Christ from Wolves and Foxes that seek to devoure them And who are these Wolves and Foxes but these Romish Fishers you speak of that I may not say also your homebread Wolves and Foxes the Prelates and their Faction Now if the Lawes against these Wolves and Foxes doe sleep and if the faithfull watchmen be removed and none but a sort of dumb dogges left that either cannot or will not or dare not barke but themselves helpe to devoure the flocks as the Prophet speaks do you think that though the King should keep never so serious watch it were possible to preserve his people from perishing by these Wolves Certainly the case being so though the King should watch both night and day and had Argus his eyes yet he should but weary himselfe to no purpose yea although he had the help of your many-eyed dogges your Pursuants who are cunninger at fastening upon the Shepheards then upon the Wolves
Pope not to be Antichrist and no necessity of frequent Preaching and none to preach but Bishops and Deanes and that onely and especially at the three Solemn times in the yeare Also another Book intituled the Femall Glory as full fraught thoughout with the most grosse blasphemous Idolatrous Popish Stuffe as it can hold and this in plain English allowed by one of your Chapleins or of London house and for ought I heare not yet suppressed or call'd in Besides many other of the same branne some whereof are printed but kept up under deck not daring yet to peep forth till the Storm as in Starre Chamber you call'd it raysed by BURTON and others be over and least they should be made Popish Martyrs in Smithfield as Salis his Devotions were which for feare were burned as afore Under your Primacy hath there not been a mighty stirring and stickling for the seting up of Altars c. yea of Images too and Crucifixes and that in Collegiate Churches or Chappels both in Oxford you being Chauncellour and in Cambridge where you want not a Vice-Chauncellour and which you indeavour in all the Churches of England Under your Primacie have not your pregnantest wits and profoundest Divines been set aworke to write Books to unmorallize the 4th Commandement for the perpetuall keeping of the Lords Sabbath day and so unbind Christians from the sanctification of the Lords day and their Books allowed by your Authority and Dedicated to great ones and much applauded by your Faction Under your Primacie have not your Doctors also written stoutly for your Altars and that even unto blasphemy Saying that the use of the Altar is to sanctifie the Sacrifice and without an Altar the Sacrifice is not Sanctified or dedicated by the Bishop Under your Primacie began not Ministers to be Suspended Silenced Excommunicated put out of their Benefices and Cures of Soules for refusing to read the Book of Liberty for Sports on the Lords day and to set up Altars in their Churches at their Ordinaries Command These these my Lord being thus doe you complaine of unsettlednesse Who hath troubled the Fountain The Wolfe above at the Spring head or the Lamb below To recollect then and recapitulate these things When Profanation of the Lords day is by publick Edict allowed when the Articles of Religion are made as the Delphick Oracles to be taken two contrary wayes when the Doctrines of Gods Grace are universally restrained and forbid to be preached when Popish Books publickly allowed in Print and Orthodox Books against Popery restrained when Altars set up in all Churches where there was none before when Books published by Authority to disanull Gods Morall Law when Books allowed publickly to maintain the seting up of Altars in Churchs when Godly Ministers by multitudes put down for not yeelding to those things which are contrary to the Laws of God and man and all this in the State of England where from the first Reformation such as it was have been universally and constantly maintained both by writing and preaching the morality of the 4th Commandement for the sanctification of the Lords Day the Articles of Religion concerning Grace to have but one Orthodox sense the free and unrestrained preaching of Gods word and confuting of all opposite Errours that the Pope is that Antichrist that the Lords Supper was to be celebrated onely at the Lords Table that Ministers Conformity was extended no further then was limited by the Law all these things considered in the tumult of so many bold Innovations Innovation I cry you mercy Renovations I should say of old Popish ragges and outcast reliques for you disclaim Innovation against Gods law and Mans law what settlement what peace what tranquility can be expected and then again al these new Attempts for Uniformity and Conformity coming in under and with your Primacie can they vindicate your Reputation from a generall opinion of your being the most perillous and pernicious Instrument of unsettling and troubling the State oâ— the Land and of Religion and you may if you will take Scotland in to boot with generall discontents and heart burnings to see the State of Religion thus turned topsie turvie And doe you complain notwithstanding that you cannot attain to an Orderly Settlement Stay my Lord be not so eagre See Scotland first settled before you proceed further in the settlement of England least you unsettle all Be not deceived in the confidence of your own active brain and borrowed power And see also how your Booke will take For Certainly therein you have run your selfe upon the Pikes get off as you can Your Reputation if you meane it for the Repute to be a good Protestant unlesse you meane it that you would be accounted what you are a member of one and the Same Church with Rome is now bound to the Stake ready to be Sacrificed for a whole-burnt Offering For what your Ordinary practises proclaimed to the world of you now in your Book you stick not openly to professe that you desire for the Church and State of England to be reconciled to the Sea of Rome So as your Book besides the turbulent matter in it like the Trojan horse full of armed enemies could not possibly have been borne into the world in a more unhappy time then now when you see two Kingdomes all in a combustion which the Sprinkling of your Romes Holy water wil be so farre from quenching or allaying that it will prove rather as Oyle to increase and feed the flame But GOD give the King the Spirit of Wisedome and Iudgement to see into these things betimes both for the preventing of further mischiefes and for the reuniting of the great rent between his two Kingdomes But as Iehu said to Iehoram when he asked Is it peace Iehu What peace said he so long as the Whoredomes of thy Mother Iezabel and her Witchcrafts are so many So what peace can be expected in the Land where such an Uniformity and Settlement is required as is so repugnant to the Laws of Christs Kingdome and conformable to Antichrists Tyranny and conducible to a reconciliation with that old Iezabel of Rome Certainly the case being so as Deborah said in her Song They chose new gods then was warre in the gates So when a Nation falls to advance higher and higher a new and false Religion where it had been formerly in some good measure cast out to set up Idolatrous and Romish Altars whereby Christ the true and onely Altar of true Christians as hath been shewed is denyed and renounced and to cry down Gods holy Commandements and to oppresse Gods holy Word in the Ministry of it and to persecute Gods faithfull Ministers and People and like the Aegyptians to oppresse Gods People more and more with intolerable burthens of humane inventions to the great reproach of Christ and the throwing down of his incommunicable Royall Soveraignty over his Church and People in matters of Faith and the worship of God Can peace or settlement
text and so prosecutes them with proofes of Scripture and Reasons and lastly applyes this word in sundry uses to the hearts and Consciences of the hearers reproving this or that sinne and pressing it home And all this while knowing nothing that any such Creature as the Archbishhop of Canterbury is in his Congregation in the ardor of his holy Zeale hee lets flye his Darts of sharpe Reproofe Steeled with Divine Authority of GODS Word the Scripture as against Pride Hypocrisie hatred of GODS Word Persecution of Gods Ministers and People under a colour of piety and peaâ—e-making in the Church and the like and so drives the nayle to the head as that the dart pierceth through all your armour of proofe as the Arrow shot at adventure hit Ahab between the joynts of his Armour to the the very quick of your Conscience not onely to the awakening of it but driving it to a trembling fit as Pauls preaching did to Felix and to be in a cold Sweat and to wax wanne and pale as Belshazzar at the sight of the hand-writing which is a part of Scripture what would you imagine of this Perhaps that the Minister knew of your being there But the contrary appeares to your selfe you did it so secretly as you knew none could discover it as you want neither wit nor art to doe such a feate if you will Well you can draw no other Conclusion from that your Conviction upon this occasion but that sure those were the Darts of the Scripture that wounded you yea and sounded you and found you out in the Croud pulling off the veile of hypocrisie from off the the face of your Conscience and therewithall so terrifying it as you are perswaded all the men in the world could not have struck such terrours into your Soule and therupon you are forced to Conclude and Confesse that surely the Scripture must needs be the word of God having such a mighty power in it being applyed but by a weake man As the Apostle saith We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power might be of God and not of us For you could discerne nothing of the Minister himselfe but that he was a simple plain man and did but speake as his text led him and for which he brought good proofe from the Scripture Thus if your Lordship should make but such an experiment as this would you not doe with this your Book wherein you have besides many other strange passages all along as will appeare yet more at large pronounced so many disgracefull Sentences against the Sufficiencie of the Divine Scripture to prove it selfe to be the word of God as those Converts in the Acts did with their Books of Curious Arts or as you did though against your will with that Popish Book of the Bishop of Geneva in Smithfield But I proceed As the Scripture not onely in and of it selfe but by the Ministry of it discovereth such a cleare selfe-light as whereby even naturall men are convinced and enforced to beleeve and confesse that Surely the Scripture is the very word of God so this word this Scripture is not as the Papists say and you say little better a dead letter but as it is the word of God uttered by his Spirit by which holy men spake and wrote it so it carries meat in the mouth as we say it never goes alone but is accompanied with the Spirit of God which Spake it giving testimony unto it that it is the undoubted word of God For even as the veines in a naturall body doe carry and convey in them the life-blood and as the Arteries doe containe in them those animal Spirits conveyed from the head to all the members whereby they are vegetated and moved So the Scriptures and every part of them have in them the Spirit whereby they are quickned and which is in them as the light in the body of the Sun their proper light wherein they shine forth in such a brightnesse as is sufficient to convince all men that they are the word of God and effectuall in perswading and assuring all the Elect of God of the truth thereof even to their Salvation And as the Soule with its faculties as understanding and Reason in mans body doe shew him to be a reasonable creature Man So the Spirit of God breathing and moving in the Scriptures doe shew them to be the very word of God For in the Scripture doe shine forth Gods Majesty Wisdome Holinesse Power Providence Iustice Mercy Truth Goodnesse Omniscience and all his excellent Attributes so as they all beare testimony unto it that it is the word of God So as to seperate these from the Scripture as they doe who affirme that the Scripture is not bright enough to be a sufficient witnesse to it selfe to the begetting of Beliefe that it is the word of God is as if they should abstract and seperate the light from the Sun and say it is not sufficient to prove it selfe to be the Sun For indeed take away the light from the Sun and then you may say truely it is not bright enough to shew it selfe to be the Sun Nay it ceaseth to be the Sun any more when the light and heat of it is taken away For the Sun is pherónumos according to its names in the Hebrew Shemesh so called because by its light it is a Minister or Servant to the world or some derive it quasi Sham-esh ibi ignis There is fire or according to another name from its property of calefaction or heating But take away its light and it looseth both its nature and its name and serves for no use So if you take from the Scripture those things in it which are its life and soule its native light and â—uster which can no more be seperated from it then the light from the Sun nay the Sun shall come to loose his light as it once did at the Ecclipsing of the Sun of Righteousnesse in his Passion on the Crosse but Gods word endureth for ever in heaven you quite destroy the nature of the Scripture and so make it to be no longer the word of God I might here inlarge my Discourse upon this excellent Subject but I shall have further occasion ministred by you to speake something more of it as I passe along For you proceed L. p. 83. A man is probably led by the Authority of the present Church as by the First informing inducing perswading meanes to beleeve the Scripture to be the word of God but when he hath studied considered and compared this word with it selfe and with other writings with the helpe of ordinary Grace and a mind morally induced and reasonably perswaded by the voyce of the Church the Scripture then gives greater and higher Reasons of Credibily to it selfe then Tradition alone could give P. Here you begin to tell us your manner of proposing the Scripture as a credible object fit
an ordinary Grace and this Ordinary Grace hath no force at all unlesse the present Churches Authority prepare the way So as this Ordinarily of yours admits of no exception at all in any case though never so extraordinary And thus you exclude that your Divine Faith as it is a worke of ordinary Grace as you call it from being any Grace of God at all except Grace of Canterbury can dubbe it for a Grace For all Grace is one of those two kinds I named even now either that Grace of God which makes a man freely accepted in Christ which your Ordinary Grace by your own Confession doth not or that common Grace which is said to be freely given of God to whom he will without the intervention or prevention of any outward meanes or respect which your ordinary Graces cannot be for your selfe every where professe that no ordinary Grace nor any thing else can worke beliefe that the Scripture is the word of God unlesse your present Church Authority tanquam Gratia preparans ac praeveniens as a preparing and preventing Grace prepare the way And thus you see to what a Confusion all your Schoole Distinctions are brought And in truth your Schoole Distinctions for the most part being weighed in the just ballance of the Sanctuary prove too light and doe corrupt the truth For even that Distinction which I named of Gratia gratis data Gratia gratum faciens though the termes are good and true yet as some apply the latter to wit Grace making acceptable it is corrupt As when by that Grace they understand Faith Hope and Charity which being infused into the soule aâ—e the matter say they of Iustification and of our acceptation with God Now in this sense this member of the Distinction holds not good but is Popish For Faith onely is that Grace which makes us accepted of God but this not as it is a worke or Grace inherent but as an Instrument apprehending and applying Christ in whom alone we are through Faith accepted of GOD who makeâ— us accepted in the beloved So as he that will find any good and sound Distinction out of the Schoole-men he must doe as Virgil said of his reading of Ennius Margaritas è caeno legere gather pearles out of the mudde and he must look to have them well washed and polished and tryed by the Scriptures before he use them to illustrate or confirme any Doctrine of sound Divinity This by the way L. p. 226. The time was before this A. miserable rent in the Church of Christ which I B think no Christian can look upon but with a bleeding heart that C you and we were all of one beliefe D That beliefe was tainted in Tract and Corruption of time very deeply A division was made yet so as E both parties held the Creed and other Common Principles of beliefe Of these this was one of the greatest That the Scripture is the word of God For our beliefe of all things contained in it depends upon it Since F this Division there hath been nothing done by us to discredit this Principle Nay we have given it G all honour and ascribed unto it more sufficiency even to the containing of all things necessary to Salvation with satis superque enough and more then enough which your selves have not done doe not H And for begetting and setling a beliefe of this Principle we goe the same way with you and a better besides The same way with you because we alow the Tradition of the present Church to be the first inducing motive to imbrace this Principle onely we cannot goe so farre in this way as you to make the present Tradition I alwayes an infallible word of God unwritten P. Here I Have Alphabetically as by A B C. c. noted sundry particulars A That you call the Protestants seperating from the Church of Rome a miserable rent Why miserable when Christ Commands it As Rev. 18.4 as is noted before and shall yet more in a fit place So as the Protestants had been in a miserable condition if this seperation this rent had not been made B 2 dly And must every Christian heart bleed to see it because it seems yours doth Surely this hath cost the heart-blood of many thousands of Gods Saints and Martyrs shed and spilt by that blood drunken whore Yet better so to perish by her temporally here then to perish with her eternally hereafter which must have been had not this miserable rent been made C 3 dly But before this rent say you they and we were all of one beliefe You may speake for your selfe if you had lived before the rent was made We doubt not but both you would have been of the same Faith with Rome and would have continued in it so as for your part there should never have been made such a miserable rent We know well both your Faith and your Charitable and Peaceable disposition for that matter Yea though that one beliefe was tainted That should have broken no square For you say D 4 ly That beliefe that very one beliefe whereof you and they then were before the rent was tainted yea very deeply too But I say still speake for your selfe and your Confederates onely usurpe not the name of all Protestants quorum tu pars minima whereof you were the least part if any at all that seperated from Rome whereof many before they came to be called Protestants which was upon their protesting against the Whore of Babylon and for their just and necessary seperating from her dissented from and disliked and so farre as the iniquity of the times and humane frailty and unavoidable necessity permitted seperated themselves privately at least from many of her most notorious and intolerable en ormites and not a few in their severall ages wherein they lived openly protested against her both by writing and preaching though it cost them their heart-blood for it You have at hand a Catalogue of them in Catalogus Testium veritatis and in the Book of Acts and Monuments and other Authors both forraigne and domesticke and that of fâ—esh bleeding memory E 5 ly You prove your Faith was then one for holâ—ing the Creed and other CoÌ„mon Principles of beliefe of which one of the Greatest c. Indeed before that rent Rome professed and held the letter and externall form of the Creed but not the sense faith life and substance as elsewhere you confesse of the present Church of Rome Did you so then so now I doubt 't will prove so in a great measure For though you tell us that your beliefe of all things contained in the Creed depends upon this principle That Scripture is the word of God For that is the best sense can be made of your words yet there be many even fundamentall Doctrines in Scripture which your beliefe depends not upon nor your practises agree unto as both before is touched and occasion will be given yet more to speake of
as you imposed upon me So as No Right that is No Orthodox Church at Rome And yet no newes it is that I granted the Roman Church to be a true Church For so much very learned Protestants have acknowledged before me and the Truth cannot deny it For that Church which receives the Scripture as the Rule of Faith though but as a partiall and imperfect Rule and both the Sacraments as instrumentall Causes and seales of Grace though they adde more and infuse these yet cannot but be a True Church in Essence How it is in manners and Doctrine I would you would loâ—ke to it with a single eye P. Not Right then not Orthodox you hold the Church of Rome to be That 's somthing yet Yet True you ever have and will hold her to be unlesse she absolutely fall away from the Faith Well And yet I wot well you give absolutely falling away from the Faith So large bounds as it is to be feared you will never come to give her for absolutely gone and fallen away from the Faith so long as she can have but one bare thread or ragge of the profession of the Faith of the Creed nay if she can but say over her Creed though as you Confesse elsewhere she hath quite overthrown the sense of it And if the sense of it be destroyed surely the Faith of it also This will more fully appeare as we goe along We come to your Reasons why you hold Rome a True Church 1. For very learned Protestants which hold with you in this First we can set both as learned and double the number of of Protestants who will weigh down the Scale against those that seem to be of your opinion Secondly we could out of those very Protestant Authors whom you mean though I suppose you seldome read such Authors and in other things scarce name them Honoris causa collect more against this opinion That the Church of Rome is a true Church then you can for it As out of Iunius himselfe for Instance I mentioned before a laâ—e Book intituled Babel no Bethel never yet answered by any Jesuite or other Priest Romish or English where the Author hath cleared all or most of those Protestants which his Adversaries alledged and I suppose you meane from this opinion of yours And then also the Author proves by many concluding Arguments and in my opinion unanswerable that the Church of Rome is no true visible Church of Christ as having lost the very Essence of a true Church To which Booke I referre your Lordship could your patience but brook the Authors name or your Conscience not tremble at the mention of him To your Second Reason First I deny that the Church of Rome receives the Scriptures as A Rule of Faith For first The Rule of Faith must be in it selfe simply Divine and Infallible But such to the Church of Rome the Scripture is not For she makes the Infallibility and Divine Authority of the Scripture to depend upon the Church as you do upon Church Tradition which you confesse to be not simply Divine and Infallible Ergo Rome receives not the Scripture as A Rule of Faith Secondly Rome receives not holds not The Rule of Faith Ergo she is not a true Church As the late Dr Carleton of Chichester in his Book of the Church hath well and learnedly proved For not to hold the Rule of Faith is to deny and destroy the Faith and to fall absolutely away from the Foundation of Faith and to set up a new and false Faith upon a new and false Foundation Nor dare or doe you say that Rome receives the Scripture as The Rule of Faith but onely as A Rule of Faith to wit a partiall Rule as Bellarmine calls it But if the Scripture be as it is The onely Rule of Faith and ever hath been in all ages so held till Rome in the Councel of Trent changed this Rule then not to hold it so for The Rule that is the onely Rule but onely as a partiall Rule joyned with other Rules equall to it as her Traditions which Bellarmine in his Book de verbo Dei non scripto calls the word of God unwritten is to reject the onely Rule and so to fall absolutely away from the Faith And you confesse that the Church of Rome holds the Scripture but as a partiall and imperfect Rule And is this nothing with you What is this but to evacuate and utterly make voyd the Rule when for a perfect intire and absolute onely Rule it is made but a partiall imperfect and joynt Rule And when humane Authority is equalled with Divine Humane Traditions with Divine Scriptures as an equall Rule of Faith Nay and those her Traditions which she calls her word of God unwritten are such as teach things directly contrary to the Doctrines of Scripture as of Purgatory Invocation of Saints and the like Is not this a'kurosai as Christ saith to make voyd and of no Authority the Commandements of God by mens Tradition Yet this Camel you can easily swallow you slight this over as a matter of nothing as if it were all one thing in a manner to hold the Scripture The Rule of Faith and A Rule of Faith namely a part or piece of the Rule The whole Rule and a partiall Rule The onely perfect Rule and An imperfect Rule All this breakes no squares with you but that Rome for all this holds the Rule of Faith and therfore you hold her for a true Church of Christ. But yet in so saying you plainly imply That if Rome held not the Rule of Faith she is no true Church of Christ but is absolutely fallen away from Christ the Foundation For you give this for a Reason that Rome is a true Church because she holds the Rule of Faith Ergo If she hold not the Rule of Faith she is no true Church of Christ but is absolutely fallen away from the Faith Whereupon I argue thus That Church which denyeth the Scripture to be the onely Intire Absolute perfect Rule of Faith is fallen absolutely away from Christ and so ceaseth to be a true Church that is to have the very Essence and beeing of a true Church of Christ But the Church of Rome denyeth the Scripture to be the onely Intire Absolute Perfect Rule of Faith Ergo the Church of Rome is absoluely fallen away from Christ and so ceaseth to be a true Church that is to have the very Essence and beeing of a true Church of Christ. The Minor Proposition is confessed by your Lordship For you say The Church of Rome holds the Scripture but as A Rule a Partiall Rule an Imperfect Rule Thus she denyeth the Scripture to be the onely Intire Absolute Perfect Rule of Faith And for the Major Proposition you doe by necessary Consequence confesse it also to be true For you set it down as a Reason why you hold the Church of Rome to be a true Church because she holds the
what evidence can the Church of Rome now give us or what assurance can she have besides the bare name That she is still a Christian Church Onely Vega helps it aswell as he can That in reason and Charity men are not to thinke that the Priest should be so carelesse at the Consecration as not to look to his Intention upon which the Salvation of all menâ— soules dependeth Fourthly for the Sacrament of the Eucharist or of the Altar as they call it First this is in the same Predicament with Baptisme for the Priests intention which if not present at the Consecration of the Host as they call it there is no Transubstantiation no body of Christ and so they worship a wafer instead of Christ and so by their owne Confession in that case they commit materiall Idolatry as a Jesuite confessed in Dispute with Dr Featly But Secondly by the very name of Sacrament of the Altar they destroy the Sacrament that Christ ordained in his last Supper called therfore the Supper of the Lord. For they have turned it from a Supper to a sacrifice yea and that from an Eucharisticall sacrifice as the Fathers called it to a Propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of quick and dead as is noted before And so this Sacrament they have Non sacramented and made of it a whole burnt sacrifice Secondly they have utterly destroyed the materialls or Element in this their Sacrament the bread and wine that no maâ— should so much as dreame or once take it for the Lords Supper For a Supper cannot be without bread and drinke and heâ—e is neither And so it is neither Supper nor Sacrament And thus they have taken away noâ— onely the cup from the people but the bread also altogether So as there is nothing in their Sacrament but a meere lye meere imaginations Phantasmes of Accidents without subject as we said before And so enough of this And lastly the Church of Rome having disanulled the Sacraments of Grace it hath withall disabled them from being seales of Grace For it is the property of a seale to give a sure and certain Impression and thereby a Confirmation of the Covenant But in Popish Sacraments all certainty is taken away as is shewed and so having lost the seales consequently the Covenant of Grace it selfe is of no force unto them And thus in denying the two Testaments to be the onely rule of Faith and overthrowing the two Sacraments the seales of Faith yea having lost and disclaimed the true Saving Faith it selfe what evidence hath Rome left her to shew and prove that she is now a true Church of Christ or hath the Essence of a true Church Let her shew her evidence As he said Let Baal if he be a god plead for himselfe Yet all this is of no Force to your Lordship but that like Ixion imbracing a cloud for Iuno as it is in that Fable so you imbrace but a cloud or rather the shadow of a cloud instead of the once faire Virgin Rome you must needs have her a true Church still She onely say you misuses the two Sacraments A small triviall trifle to speake of Misusing then is nothing with you What say you then to those wicked Princes and Priests of Israel that misused the Lords Prophets Was this nothing They so misused them that they stoned them to death And so the Church of Rome hath so misused the two Sacraments that they have stoned them them to death and left not one alive But they have made amends for it For say you they have added more even no lesse then five which are as the five wounds wherewith the Lord was crucified to death For those five have eaten out the other two of Christs own ordaining both expressing his death the one for ingrafting us into it the other for growth and strength by it as our spirituall food And these five Sacraments fo humane invention they must have their vertue of conferring Grace ex opere operato being all as they use them a meere evacuating of Christs me it s But time permits not a longer discourse of them Enough is said for Answer And for Conclusion the Church of Rome having taken away the Authority of Scripture and added her own Traditions and having taken away and misused the Lords Sacraments and added their own Sacraments what remaines to that Church but that which the Divine Iohn Concludeth the whole Bible withall I testifie unto every man that heareth the words of the Prophecie of this Book If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this Book And if any man shall take away from the Book of this Prophecie God shall take away his part out of the Booke of life and out of the Holy City and from the things which are written in this Booke Out of the Holy City which is the Church of Christ. Here then in this holy City is no place for the Church of Rome L. p. 131.132 The Church of Rome both was and was not a right or Orthodox Church before Luther made a breach from it For in the Primitive times of it it was a most right and Orthodox Church but upon the immediate times before Luther or some Ages before that Rome was a corrupt and tainted Church farre from being right And yet both these times before Luther made his breach P. The Conclusion then of your speech here is this That Luther made his breach from the Church of Rome not onely as it was Corrupt and tainted immediately or in some Ages before but also as it was right and Orthodox in her Primitive Times For you say And yet both these times before Luther as well those wherein the Church of Rome was most right and Orthodox as those wherein after before Luther it was corrupt and tainted made his breach And thus you make the rent on the Protestant party to be not onely from the corrupt and tainted Church of Rome but from the most Right and Orthodox Church of Christ. A pestilent speech bewraying the speaker to be in the very gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity and worhty to be abhorred and abandoned of all that beare the name of Protestants But this agreeth with that which we noted before how you exclude all the Protestant Reformed Churches beyond the Seas where your Prelacie and Hierarchy is not erected nor my Lord Bishops Chaire allowed from being any Churches of Christ or members of the true Catholick Church For here also in Luthers rent from the Church of Rome not onely as corrupt and tainted but as once Right and Orthodox you include all those Reformed present Churches and to exclude them out of the true Church of Christ. But as before we have shewed and proved and shall yet more upon fit occasion ministred upon the same cause for which you exclude all Reformed Protestant Churches beyond the Seas from being Churches of Christ
because they are seperated from the Church of Rome and from all Prelacy and Hierarchy we do exclude you and Rome with your Prelaticall and Hierarchicall Churches and Government Ecclesiasticall from being any true Churches of Iesus Christ. And whereas you say Rome was once Right and Orthodox 't is true that in Pauls time the faith of those Christian Romans was famous throughout the world and so it might continue pure for a time after but when once the Prelacie and Hierarchy of Rome and that but within Romes Diocesse was erected it became Ipso facto Antichristian and after when the Bishop of Rome became supream over all Christendome then it was the Church of Antichrist from which it is necessary for all true Christians to make a perpetuall Seperation L. p. 133. The Roman Church which was once Right is now become wrong by imbracing superstition and error P. Such is your stile to touch that delicate Woman tenderly as saying She is now wrong by imbracing superstition and error But not by defiling her selfe with abominable Idolatries This you never once charge her with in all your Book as we shall see more at after And onely error as humanum est errare but you never tell her of her Heresies and Apostacie from Christ and her Doctrines of Devils Beware of that You have therfore put me to the greater paines in dealing plainly both with her and you L. ibid. 'T is too true indeed that there is a miserable rent in the Church and I make no question but the best men do most bemâ—ane it nor is he a Christian that would not have unity might he have it with Truth P. You are often putting your finger into this scarre or rent An Argument it paines you because ubi dolor ibi digitus And I am perswaded the more you put your finger in it the wider you will make it And certainly those that are indeed the best men are so farre from bemoaning such a rent as they rejoyce in it the cause considered as in their glory and safety And such Christians as have the greatest wisdome tempered with their goodnesse do see such an Impossibility of Reconciliation with Rome that they account it the greatest folly in the world once to dreame of such an unity as is coupled with a condition of Truth I mean Truth indeed not such a Truth as you mean there where nothing but superstition and error Idolatry and Infidelity Hypocrisie and Iniquity Ambition and Avarice Pompe and Pleasure are the onely supporters of Peters Infallible but counterfeit Chaire Unlesse you mean as you must doe those good men which are your Confederates in your Idolatrous Altars and other Superstitions and Idolatries halting between two opinions God and Baal and have already one foot over Romes thresholdâ— accounting themselves with your Church of England one and the same Church with Rome as two branches of the same tree as two Sisters of the same venter ready to salute each other with the kisse of amity and unity as Aâ—ab did his Brother Bâ—nhâ—daâ— then much may be what should hinder your unity And for your Truth as we sayd before we know very well what it is Rome will not want for that which you call Truth L. ibid. But I never said nor thought that the Protestants made this rent P. I pray you do you think as you speake But admit it Why should you think so Or why are you so zealous in makeing such an Apology which true Protestants indeed will never thank you for But you are such a Protestant as I dare say would not have been the first that should have made the rent no nor the hindmost neither so firme you are for peace But I noted before a necessity of Seperation to be made by the Protestants from Rome as Christ admonisheth Rev. 18.4 Come out of her my people c. L. p. 135. He must leave my words to my selfe and their sense either to me or to the genuine construction which an Ingenious Reader can make of them P. 'T were well If you would observe the same Law your selfe to others Then you would not so frequently as you doe make a poore Minister an offender for a word and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate and turn aside the just for a thing of nought as the Prophet speaks L. ibid. The Protestants did not get that name by protesting against the Church of Rome but by protesting and that when nothing else would serve against her errors and superstitions Do you but remove them from the Church of Rome and our Protestation is ended and the Seperation too P. Yes by protesting against the very Church of Rome got they and that deservedly the name of Protestants For were not those errors and superstions you speake of yea and Antichristianisme and abominable Idolatries and universall Apostacie become the very body and soule of the Religion faith and practise of that Church Was not your Dalilah the Church of Rome become that Harlot and Mother of whoredomes and all abominations before the Seperation and rent was made Could they then protest against her corruptions and not withall against her selfe Were not all her corruption so incorporated unto her as they were altogether inseperable from her like the Blackamores skin or the Leopards spots which cannot be changed And do not you confesse that they protested against her Corruptions when nothing els would serve when there was no remedy left when she was grown incorrigible So as they might have said as in the Prophet we would have healed Babylon but she is not healed Forsake her and let us goe every one into his own Countrey for her judgement reacheth unto heaven and is lifted up even to the Skies It applyes it selfe And my Lord you speake too late and in vain to A.C. to remove Romes errors and superstition A C. is not of the Faith to remove such mountaines He cannot wâ—sh the Blackmore white You must procure such a Generall Councel as is at least equall to that of Trent to reverse all those Decrees whereby all Romes superstitions and errors are so ratified as England will sooner heare of a Parliament for Reformation then Rome will indure the thoughts of any more Generall Councels to question or meddle with her Trent Decrees Rome is now setled upon her lees and you shall sooner remove the City of Rome it selfe from her muddy Tiber then the Church of Rome from her superstitions Nor is the black skin more conaturall to the Ethiopian nor spots to the Leopard then Idolatry Superstition Infidelity Apostacie and all error is conaturall to the Beast with seaven heads and ten hornes as making up both the Complexion and Constitution of that painted Whore And therefore you might have saved all this labour in vain in writing such a Volume out of a hope to worke an unity with Rome when her superstitions and errors shal be removed and that is ad Graecas Calendas
Conscience Whether the High-Priest Azariah did transgresse or no when King Vzziah in the Temple burnt Incense on the Altar he with fourescore Priests of the Lord that were valient men went in after the King and withstood him saying It perteameth not unto thee Vzziah to burn Incense unto the Lord but to the Priests c. Loe here was a withstanding the King But I will not presse you for your Judgement for I find in the next verse Gods own Judgement of the Case for Vzziah with the Censer in his hand being incensed even while he was wroth with the Priests the leprosie even rose up in his forehead before the Priests in the house of the Lord from beside the Incense-Altar And Azariah the Chiefe Priest and all the Priests looked upon him and behold he was leprous in his forehead and they thrust him out from thence yea he himselfe hasted also to goe out because the Lord had smitten him And Vzziah the King was a Leper unto the day of his death and dwelt in a severall house being a Leper for he was cut off from the house of the Lord and Iotham the Kings son was over the Kings house judging the people of the Land Now to apply this to the present purpose You make your self as the High-Priest of the Church of England Now suppose the King of England should doe that whereby the foundations of Faith and good Manners were shaken what would your Lordship doe I aske not what you would doe in case you should be the Chiefe Agent and Instrument a Counceller a Promoter and a Contriver of such a thing For then it were a vaine Question But suppose you had no hand nor head in it at all and were a man zealous of Gods glory and truly pious and found in the faith and one that knew well what the foundations of Faith and good Manners are and when they are shaken and one that respected more the Kings good and Honour then your own private ends and more Christs Kingdome then any Hierarchy or spirituall-Temporall Principality on Earth and one that loved more to speake the Truth to Kings though you were sure of displeasure then to flatter and speake pleasing things to the ruine of the State and Kingdome though for the present it pleased suppose I say all this for even impossibilities may be supposed then tell me what your selfe a man of such high Place and Grace in Court and of so great Power to perswade and disswade would doe when you should see the Foundations of Faith and good Manners to be shaken by the King or supreme Magistrate For the very Name of shaking the Foundations of Faith and good Manners is enough to shake a Mans heart and cause him to abhorre the very thought of it if he were not either altogether senselesse and ignorant what the Foundations of Faith and Good Manners do meane or knowing them were not either an open or secret enemy unto them For what is such a shaking but a mâ—king way for the sodaine precipitation of the state of all things into inevitable Destruction a dissepating of all humane society a mingling of heaven and earth together in one Chaos of all Confusion And therfore now that we are upon a point of such Moment as it were the Center wheron the worlds Globe is pitched or as the two Pillars in Solomons Temple Iâ—chin and Boas stability and strength Faith and good Manners being the stability and strength of all true Religion of humane society and Civil Politie it wil be worth our Inquiry a little what it is to shake these Foundations or when these Foundations are shaken And it is possible that these Foundations may at this very time be shaken in the Church and state of England and so threaten if not hasten Ruine in somuch as a speedy remedy for prevention upon the discovery may be required You will say God forbid What God forbid that in such a Case a speedy remedy should be used No not so by your leave Well what say you then to your Articles of Religion wherein the Doctrines of Faith of the Church of England and those of them that are according to the expresse Scriptures as Gods Grace in Election Predestination Salvation c. are shaken Are they not shaken and that terribly too by an Edict or Declaration so as they doe at the least nutare et huc illuc fâ—luctuare so reele too and â—ro like a drunken man as no sober man knows to which side they will fall And are not those Doctrines of Gods free and saving Grace in Christ the foundations of Faith which are contained in those Articles Can you deny this Again what say you to the Two Tables wherein are contained the Ten Commandements of Gods Morall Law Are they not also Foundations Yea and Foundations both of Faith and Good Manners For the Foure Commandements of the First Table concern Faith and Religion the Six of the Second Good Manners So much all confesse and your selfe too And you say Emperours and Kings are Cussodes utriusque Tabulae They to whom the Custody and preservation of both Tables of the Law for worship to God and duty to man are commited And That a Booke of the Law was by Gods own command in Moses his time to be given to the King Deut. 17.18 So you Is it so then What say you then to those two Great Commandements the Last of the First Table and the First of the Second Do they not stand closse together as those two formentioned Pillars in Solomons Temple Iachin and Boaz Is not holy Obedience to God in his worship on his own day as Iachin the stability of the the Church and Temple of God And is not Civil subjection to superiours as Boaz the strength of the Common-wealth So as when these two Commandements are shaken are not two maine Pillars and Foundations of Faith and good Manners shaken and so the Foundations both of Church and Common-wealâ—h shaken What say you to this ô Great High Priest Is it true or no For I must now put you to it You give just occasion But you answere nothing siâ—ence in this Case is consent and such as proceeds frâ—m guilt of Conscience And how ever Res ipsa clamat The thing it selfe proclaimes it and cleare evidence proves it For doth not the Edict for Sports so often upon fresh occasions mentioned declare as much And doth it not shake the Fourth Commandement for the sanctification of the Lords Day the Lords Sabbath-Day Which Dispensation of such profane and madde sports can it consist with sanctification or any holinesse or common sobriety of a Christian or with Christian Profession or with our Baptismall vow to the Contrary much lesse with the direct and expresse immediate solemn sanctification of that day commanded in that Fourth Commandement Is not here then a Foundation of Religion and so also of Good Manners too shaken For what Good Manners doth our May-pole-dances and
to defend their ancient and accustomed Liberty Regiment and Laws they may not well be countod Rebells So he But this by the way But I have somthing more to say about the shaking of the Foundations of Faith and Good Manners though I mentioned it before but now upon this occasion And that is concerning Ceremonies of humane ordinance in Gods worship which being imposed upon mens Consciences is not onely a shaking of the Founâ—ation of Faith but an overthrowing of it for thereby Christ is denyed to be the onely King of his Church And therfore as the Kings of Israel did nothing in reforming of Religion and the worship of God but what was expresly commanded and prescribed in Gods Law so Christian Kings and Magistrates ought not to doe any thing no not to impose any one humane Ceremony or Ordinance in Gods service besides that which is written in Gods word otherwise the Foundations of Faith is overthrown Of such moment is the least Ceremony in Gods service that it is of the substance and Foundation of Faith L. p. 210. But 't is time to return For A.C. in this Passage hath been very carefull to tell us of a Parliament and of living Magistrates and Iudges besides the Law books Thirdly therfore The Church of England God be thanked shines happily under a Gratious Prince and well understands that a Parliament cannot be called at All times and that there are visible Iudges besides the Law-books and one supreme long may he be and be hapâ—y to settle all Temporall Differences which certainly he might much better perform if his Kingdome were well ridde of A. C. and his Fellows And she beleeves too that our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his Law-books the Scripture Visible Magistrates and Iudges that is Arch-bishops and Bishops under a Gratious King to governe both for Truth and Peace according to the Scripture and her own Canons and Constitutions as also those of the Catholicke Church which Crosse not the Scripture and the Iust Laws of the Realme But she doth not beleeve there is any Necessity to have one Pope or Bishop over the whole Christian world more then to have one Emperour over the whole world P. It were time indeed for you to return from your Course when once there is mention of a Parliament For thriving If you mean that your Church of England hath of late dayes well thriven in her prevailing for the seting up of Images and Altars for bringing in more Superstitions into your Service for puting down sincerity Purity and power of the true Religion and of the Preaching of Gods word for suppressing the Doctrines of Grace forementioned for hampering the Puritans as you call them by puting down suspending and silencing of Godly and painfull Preachers and by crying down both the Doctrine and Practise of the sanctification of the Sabbath or Lords day and by smothering in the birth all sound and Orthodox Books against Popery and other Heresies not suffering them to be Printed and by licencing of Popish Books to be Printed and Publâ—shed and the like and if this be the way of the well thriving of your Church whomsover you have cause to thanke yet surely you have small cause to thanke God whose Name herein you doe abuse and blaspheme as perhaps your own Conscience may tell you as if he favoured such practises of yours because for a time he patiently suffers and winks at them and that in judgement to a sinfull Land and for tryall of his own servants and people and for a preparative to your certaine ruine if speedy repentance prevent it not For God is not mocked with such thanks though he be mocked but whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reape How then doth it concerne all Christian Magistrates to look to it least if they suffer Christs Kingdome to be betrayed into the hands of Antichristian Usurpers by giving way unto them to doe what they list while themselvs seem to sleep they provoke God too much For as Samuel sayd to the People If ye doe wickedly you shall perish both you and your King For my part though I will not joyne in Prayer with such a Profane Hypocrite as you are and an enemy of Iesus Christ and his Truth no more then the Apostle Iohn would be in the same Bath with that Heretick Cerinthus yet my dayly Prayer is and shall be that God would more and more let the King see how miserably he is abused and the Peace and safety of his Kingdome distracted and indangered both by the late violent practises which have been held in Church-affaires and now by the publishing of such a Book as this so notoriously perillous or rather most pernicious and so much the more in these times of troubles about Religion lately sprung up in the Iland of Great Britaine Which Book though it make many faire pretences for Peace yea Peace and Truth yet in truth it will prove the greatest troubler of Israel and the falsest friend to true Truth that the light hath seen these many yeares This I speake not by conjecture much lesse out of malice to the Authors Person but from the cleare evidence of the word of Prophecy in Scripture in such cases But how comes your Church of England to be so well seen in State-Mysteries I pray you as so well to understand that a Parliament cannot be called at all times Or by the Church of England doe you not meane the the Chaire of Catnterbury as the Church Collective or representative of England For you should better understand such State-matters especially for the not calling of Parliaments at all times or suppose it were at Notime or Nevermas least perhaps it might prove as a Frost to nippe your thriving and overforward spring then your Lordship For my part I am no States-man and so I leave State matters to States-men who should best understand them But if your A.C. and his Fellows be such troublesome fellows why doe you trouble your selves with them when a good honest Parliament might ease the King and Kingdome â—oo of that trouble provided that good Laws already enacted and by the next Parliament if ever there shal be any quickned by a new Law to put them in better execution there may be also a good season to bring forth such Visible Iudges as without straining the strings either of their Purses or Consciences coming clearly to their Benches and not making them as Banks but siting Rectè in Curia they may without feare of any Prepotent Prelate or Partiality in respect of Persons do Justice I passe now from the understanding of your Church of England to her Beliefe which you also tell us of She beleeves too What doth she beleeve That our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his law-Law-books the Scriptures visible Magistrates and Iudges that is Arch-bishops and Bishops How Is this come already to be an Article of the Faith of the Church of
England because her Great Metropolitan a little before beleeves it Or because Ipse dixit he said Christ thought it fitter to governe his Church by Divers Vice-roys then by One Is there such an Infallibility in your bare word as for the Church of England to establish her beliefe upon Certainly this is an Addition to the Articles of the Faith of the Church of England which in her former dayes she was not acquainted with Well for your Arch-bishops and Bishops we have said I hope enough and perhaps you will say too much and desire no more to be troubled with them Yet I see we must whether we will or no. For first here againe you doe most impiously ne dicam impudenter ye blasphemously bely the Lord Iesus Christ as before you have done more then once or twice and are not yet ashamed but rather hardned in your Habit as being reserved to be confounded Secondly as before you would make Christ to be the Author of such Governours and Vice-Roys as Arch bishops and Bishops so here Besides his Law-Books the Scripture he hath you say made you visible Magistrates and Iudges Surely That is besides the Scripture indeed yea not onely praeter but contra not onely besides but against the expresse Scripture as is but a little before proved that Arch-bishops and Bishops though they have gotten a degenerate Beeing as Mules in Rerum natura yet should have any Beeing at all in the Church of Christ much lesse that they should be Iudges at all in spirituall matters being themselves altogether carnall And For Arch-Bishops it hath not so much as a Name in Scripture as your Bishops have usurped that Title from Scripture and you confesse the Apostles were all equall in what night then grew up this Mushrum And we have before given a touch and tryall what kind of Iudges you would prove would men but pin their faith on your White sleeve But except you can bring some better Authority then your own blasphemous speech that Christ hath left such visible iudges to his Church your Church of England will have but a cold pull of it when she shal be put to give a reason of this her beliefe that Christ did so Or what Or why For truth and peace These words are with you as Mel in ore verba lactis honey in the mouth words of milke but we can discerne by them Fel in Corde fraus in factis Gall in the heart and fraud in actions But by what means will you procure us truth and peace By governing How or by what Law or Rule According to the Scripture say you Stay there and govern according to that for that is the onely way were your Prâ—laticall Government according to the Scripture both to procure and preserve truth and peace But unlesse you can prove which you never can by the Scripture and not by your own single-soled bold affirmation that Christ hath made you Governours of his Church you shall never perswade us to beleeve or hope that you will ever Govern according to the Scriptures But yet is this all Will you be such honest Governours as you will not go beyond Christs Law-books the Scriptures Nothing lesse For there follows immediately a dangerous Conjunction Copulative And. According to the Scriptures And. And what I hope you have no other Law-books to adde to Christs Law-books Have you Produce them And her own Canons and Constitutions Nay then Farewell Christs Law-Books Christ may put up his Pipes as it is said When your Canons and Constitutions come in Place And then farewell Truth and Peace your own Canons and Constitutions can make no Room for them For he that shall hold the truth never so right and firm and shall transgresse but one of your Canons what peace He shal be put to read the Canon that is he shal be shattered to pieces with your shooting off of your Canon And he that comes under the command of your Canon is ipso facto brought under the Babylonian and Antichristian yoak so as not onely his peace is destroyed but the truth power and verture of Christs death which hath freed his people from the bondage of all humane ordinance as hath been shewed in Gods worship and service is overthrown As also your selfe elswhere saith That Peace and Truth are rent by superstitious deâ—iâ—es from which I hope all your Canons and Constitutions are not altogether free How much lesse can that Church be free from most miserable slavery that puts her neck under the yoak and her shoulders under the intollerable burthen of your Canons and Constitutions Nay I will say more If you be the visible Magistrates and Iudges of the Church as the High Priests and Pharisees were although the High-Priests office was grounâ—ed upon Divine Ordinance and Authority and had Christ himselfe to stand at your Barre to be judged though you had not as the Jews said they had a Law to put him to death yet you would find Church-Canons and Constitutions enough or some new devise though not to condemn him to be Crucified yet to Censure him to be Pillorified and to have his Eares closse cropt and his blood shed in a great measure and stript naked and perpetually Imprisoned and exiled as being the Arch-enemy of your Hierarchy Tyranny Hypocrisie and all Impiety And all this you would do by vertue of your Canons and Constitutions which yet were never ratified by any Law of the Land or Act of Parliament But yet seeing you must have your Church-Canons and Constitutions besides Christs Law-Books to govern by yet the Church of England may think her selfe well appayd and in some tolerable though intollerable case if she have but her own Canons such as her selfe hath constituted and assented to For volenti non fit injuria If the Church of England be willing to be an Asse to her Prelates as once she was to the Pope she may And so she hath her amends in her own hands If the yoak of Canons pinch her she may thank her selfe for putting her neck under I but this is not all There be other Canons besides that are not hers that she must be governed by What more Bonds and Fetters yet for thee poore Church of England Yes As well her own Canons and Constitutions as Those also of the Catholicke Church What are those Alas your Church of England is an Ignoramus in all such Canons as you call Catholicke And your Church Catholike you know and tell us doth Comprehend that of Rome and Rome hath innumerable Canons Consâ—itutions and Decretalls so as under the Canons of the Catholicke Church you may bring upon the Church of England all the Canons and Decrees of Trent all the Popes Decretalls and the whole body of the Popes Canon Law so large a field is your Canons and Constitutions of the Catholicke Church But you qualifie the matter in adding Which crosse not the Scripture and the just Laws of the Realme That 's somthing
larger Commentary let him but read the words over againe To the Eighth I answere It is not in it selfe pride not to obey Councels Difinitions and much lesse when a man knows them to be erronious Nor is it against any Iust and Godly Government but onely against that which is Papall Antichristian Tyrannicall And is it not high and Antichristian pride to impose Difinitions of Generall Councels of Prelates yea even when they are erronious and known apparently to be so yet to be as Gods own holy Commandements necessarily obeyed of all This is the highest and most Diabolicall Tyranny in the world thus to bring into bondage the faith soule and conscience of men to a necessary subjection to errour and falshood Yea thus not to obey you call it also unlawfull Unlawfull By what Law Or what Law either of God or of any lawfull Authority of Man or of Civil state is here broken Are mens lufts a Law Or are your Prelaticall Councels any true Generall Councels Generall they may be in respect of Prelates but Generall they are not in respect of the true Catholicke Church of Christ the Body whereof is not represented in your Generall Councels as is shewed before No nor is your Generall Councel Generall in respect of the Catholicke Church whereof you call your selfe the representative body For the lay-people are not admitted into your Councel nor any to represent them therfore it is not Generall therfore not to obey the difinitions of it is it unlawfull And suppose the Councel were lawfull are the Decrees therof to be obeyed when erronious To the Ninth That Christ intended not to leave an Infallible certainty in his Church to satisfie either contentious or curious or presumptuous spirits Here is one thing expressed and another implyed the thing expressed is negative Christ intended not c. the thing implyed is affirmative That Christ intended to leave an Infallible certainty in his Church And sutable hereunto are your precedent words There is there can be no necessity of an infallible certainty in the whole Catholicke Church and much lesse in a Generall Councel of things not absolutely necessary in themselves Which words imply this Affirmative That there is a necessity of an infallible certainty in the whole Catholicke Church of things absolutely necessary in themselves So as here also it is all one as if you had said thus Christ intended to leave an infallible certainty in hiâ— Church but not to satisfie either contentious or curious or presumptuous spirits Oney you doe still in such things of this naâ—ure prudently avoyd the plainer and least deceitfull way of expressing your selfe Now what Christ intended he certainly performs and makes good But to that your Imaginary Catholicke Church Prelaticall I deny that Christ ever intended to leave an infallible certainty For to such he never made any such promise And therfore you cannot say and say truly That Christ intended that For you are no part of his true Church as having no calling from Christ as before is proved And you your selfe confesse in many places of your Booke that the Authority of your Church is not Divinely infallible And for instance you make your present Church Authority in inducing beliefe of Scripture to be Gods word to have a primâ— place in things absolutely necessary in themselves and yet you confesse that this Authority is not Divine and infallible So here is a Contradiction which I leave with you to reconcile Againe you tell us before that our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his law-Law-books the Scripture visible Iudges to wit Arch-Bishops and Bishops And of such are made your Generall Councels Ergo of necessity Christ must intend to leave unto you an Infallible Certainty in judging Controversies of Faith For the Scripture you deny to be a compleat and sufficient Iudge in doubtfull cases and that in such cases the visible Iudges the Prelates in a Generall Councel are to determine Now if you have not certain infallibility of Judgement in what case is the Church Then it may be said as Bellarmine and other Jesuiâ—es say Christ hath provided very ill for his Church if he had not left a visible Iudge and withall a certaine infallibility unto him to determine controversies of Faith This he speakes of the Pope and upon the very same ground that you doe for all Prelates in a Generall Councel And the ground is that you and they both deny the Scripture to be sole Iudge in Controversies of Faith Well then what say you Doe you confesse this that you have this Infallible certainty If you say you have it not as you do and yet you will be the true Church of Christ then you bely Christ both here saying He intended to leave it and before in saying He hath left you to be visible Iudges For had he intended to leave such an Infallibility certain to such a Church as you speake of and to leave such to be visible Iudges as are Archbishops and Bishops then certainly he would have given you such an Infallible certainty as wherby you should have been qualified and furnished to be sufficient and competent Iudges whose Judgement should be such in matters of Faith as men might secretly and safely rely and rest their Faith upon For otherwise if you have not this Infallibility but that somtimes at least and that in weighty Controversies you might erre in Judgement then men should have no more ground whereon to settle their Faith then the Dove in the Deluge had to set her foot upon you have so covered the Scripture as with a Deluge of Criminations as to be no sufficient Judge in Controversies of Faith And you confesse ibid That a Generall Councel which is an Universall Assembly of Prelates and Grand Bench of visible Iudges is not of infallible credit but that they may erre yea and possibly manifestly too against fundamentall verity as pag. 226. So as if the Scripture be though Infalâ—ible yet not living but a dead Iudge that cannot speake or pronounce the sentence And if the Prelates the visible living Iudges have not infallible certainty nor a Generall Councel infallible credit in their Decrees you leave the Church in a most perplexed case Whither shall she goe in all her doubts To what Judge or Oracle for resolution To the Scriptures That 's dead and cannot say Mum· To a Generall Councel of Prelates That 's of no certain credit their Judgement is not infallible yea not in fundamentall Truths Alas poore Church what wilt thou doe What wilt thou doe Why surely beleeve none of all these false Prophets no not all of them together when assembled in a Generall Councel for they may and will miserably deceive and seduce you if you trust to their Judgement Whither then To the Scripture But it is dead say they They are false Prophets and blind guides beleeve them not follow them not Search the Scriptures as Christ bids you To the Law and
giving her hope that she might be saved living and dying in the Roman faith Is it so easie trow you to send such a Lady to heaven securely wrapped in the Mantle-lap of her silly ignorance But what if she be now in hell Are not you guilty of her damnation by muzzling her in her blind ignorance as wherein onely you taught her to place the hope of her salvation But you told her of some danger But you did not possesse her with such a feare of the danger as both there was cause and you should have done as you puffed her up with the hope of safety and that in the onely confidence of her silly ignorance so as her vain hope overcame just feare And if now by this meanes she be in hell as you set her in the ready high way look you to it Paries cum proximus ardâ—t Tunc tua res â—gitur if she by your leading be fallen into the pit what is like to befall you the leader when the blind leading the blind both fall into the pit But if God hath had mercy on her it was not since her death by delivering her out of Purgatory iâ— she dyed a Papist but before her death by delivering her from her Popery worse then any Purgatory causing her to renounce and repent of that and to beleeve in his mercy and Christs merit onely for salvâ—tion without which faith of Christ â—here is no hope of mercy And we shewed before that this faith of Christ is not the Roman faith but quite opposit unto it L. p. â—88 But 't is time to end especially for me that have so many things of weight lying upon me and disabling me from these Polemâ—ck â—isccurses besides the burthen of sixty five yeares compleat which draw on a pace to the period set by the Prophet David Psal. â—0 and to the Time that I must goe and give God and Christ an account of the Talent committed to my Charge in which God for Christ Iesus sake be mercifull to me who knows that however in many weaknesses yet I have with a faithfull and single heart bound to 〈◊〉 free Grace for it laboured the meeting the blessed meeting of Truth and Peace in his Church and which God in his own good time will I hope effect To him be all Honour and Prayse for ever Amen P. How fitly doth this your Conclusion suit with and succeed that which was last mentioned as matter for your more serious and sad meditation and which I cannot but tremble 〈◊〉 And well weighing also the words of this your Conclusion with all that you have written in this your Booke and with all your Practises in your life all so uniforme and sutable I am surprized with great astonishment The reasons hereof will further appeare in the more particular animadversions upon your words asunder And because we use to take most speciall notice of a mans last words give me lâ—ave to take a full and particular view of yours here as being though not the last words of a dying man yet the finall Conclusion of this your Booke which so soon as I have read over it passeth away tanquam Fabula as the Prophet speaks of a mans life as a taâ—â— thâ— is told And as we looke thaâ— however you have dealt in your Book yet in the close of all you should deale candidly ingeniously and cordially and not dubble with God and the world and with your own Conscience yet for my part as the Spirit of sincerity and truth without flattery or respect of Persons where the truth is wronged hath rnd doth run through all the veines of this my Reply to your Relation so I shall by Gods grace close all with the same spirit not sparing you to the last where still you give just cause And the truth cannot better nor more seasonably be spoken home then as to a dying man who though he have been never so notorious an hypocrite and desperate man in the Course of his life yet when he lyes upon his death-bed and utters some words which seem to savour of some sensiblenesse of his Condition then if ever there may be some hope of working upon him as when the yron is hot by putting home unto him and laying before him his former life that so at the last though late as the Thiefe on the Crosse he may through Gods mercy be brought to repentance and so to salvation Although examples of such penitents indeed and in truth be very rare For as one observeth One Thiefe was saved on the Crosse that none should dâ—spaire and but one that none should presume â—or the saying too ordinarily proves true Qualis vita finis itâ— As a man lives so he dyes And Paenitentia sera rarò vera Late Repentance is seldome true And the Prophet gives the reason of it Can the Ethiopian change his hew or skin Or the Leopard his spots Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to doe evil For as one â—aith Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccaâ—i Custome of sinning takes away the sense of sin And where there is noâ— sense of sin there can be no Repentance for sin And therfore commonly when a man that hath lived wickedly and hath been used to lying and dissembling all his life comes to â—ay on his death bed or at the last gaspe Lord have mercy upon me however we may not judge him leaving him to his Judge yet this is no sufficient argument to perswade us that this is 〈◊〉 Repentance For lightly when such men promising and vowing it God restore them to reforme their life do recover they â—â—turn â—s the Scripture speaks with the dog to his vomit and with 〈…〉 that is washed to her wallowing in the mire According to that 〈◊〉 or Apologie 〈◊〉 Daemon Monachus tunc esse volebat 〈◊〉 Daemon nec tamen est Monachus Which 〈…〉 thus 〈…〉 was 〈◊〉 the Deâ—il a Monke would be 〈…〉 was well the â—evil a Monke was he But I must not doe you wrong in applying of these things to you or that I have any hope of doing good upon you even now at last in the close of all seeing you give me no incouragement of hope at all this way For in all this your Closse not a word expressing the least sorrow for your most enormious iniquites but on the contrary you justifie them and glory in them Wherein you shew the pride of your heart to be out of measure desperate and not to be named with the pride of that Pharisee For though he gloryed in himselfe yet he gloryed not in his evil but in those things that were in themselves good and commendable and for which he gave God thanks as the Author of them but here I find a proud Prelate vaunting in his impiety and in all his wicked practises the ayme whereof is to reconcile the Church of England and that of the Whore of Babylon together and all under a faire pretence