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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05604	The ansvver of Iohn Bastwick, Doctor of Phisicke, to the exceptions made against his Letany by a learned gentleman which is annexed to the Letany it selfe, as articles superadditionall against the prelats. In the vvhich there is, a full, demonstration and proof of the reall absence of Christ in the sacrament of the Lords Supper, with the vanity and impiety of the consecreation of temples churches and chapples, also the necessity of the perpetuall motion and circulation of worship if men be bound to bow the knees at the name of Iesus. This is to follow the Letany as a second part thereof.; Litany. Part 2	Bastwick, John, 1593-1654.	1637 (1637)	STC 1573; ESTC S104507	58,976	32

pursuiuants themselues often brag of the greatnes of their Masters attendance and in such ample maner as I thinke the Kings Maiestie hath not commonly greater and therefore that cannot be denyed which is dayly practised And for their Seruants insolency I haue frequently both seene it and felt it Now whereas you thinke that it will not be will taken that I call Bishops Preists and Deacons Antichrists little toes and in my LETANY desire deliuerahce from them and withall seeme to accuse them of incontinency all which you thinke will be censured of vnad uisednes at least if not thought scandalous and punishable To this I answer first that by Bishops I vnderstand the Prelats and by Preists their owne creatures a generation vnknowne in the Church of Christ and by Deacons the vnder Preists in this Kingdome Officers of which the Scripture knoweth nothing likewise For the Deacons such as the Churches chose and were allowed by the Apostels they were men of grauity full of Faith and the Holy Ghost men of wisdome and good gouerment and honesty and were the treasures of the faithfull and the Church of God and distributed the liberalityes of the Saints amongst the poore indigent and necessitated brethren Now I know neuer a Deacon in England either guilty of any of those Vertues before specified or that was euer imployed in that Office or was thought fit to be trusted with the treasury of the poore or tooke the least care of them who ordinarily they trample vpon and most reprochfully abuse with the name of rascality So that such Deacons as I pray against are limbes of the Beast and the inferior order of shauelings such as ought to be spewed out of the Church as profitable for nothing but the increase of wickednes And for Bishops such as God appoynted I honour them and will mayntayne their dignity to the last drop of my bloud so far I am from praying against such Neither did I euer speake vnreuerently against the Kings Bishops and those that were apoynted as an Order in the State till they had in their open court renounced his authority and run themselues by that and many other notorious proceedings into a Praemunire and so had made themselues enemyes of his Prerogatiue royall and delinquents against his Maiestie and vnder his Highnesses displeasure as by the Statutes of the Kingdome they are proclamed to be and by the defenders of their proceedings in their Ecclesiasticall Courts who in a booke set forth by their common consent doe conclude all those in a Premunire that challenge their authority Iure diuino as the Pope and clergie of Rome which at this time they doe And for your better satisfaction looke in the Apology for proceedings in Courts Ecclesiasticall a booke made by the Prelats owne creatures and in the first chapter you shall see all the Prelats by their owne witnes in a Premunire and delinquents against his Maiestie in a high degree of contumacy And truely I thinke there was neuer such an affront put vpon regall dignity as on that day I was censured neuer such dishonour put vpon the Scriptures by such as would be thought Ministers of the word and the Bishops and Pastors of Christ neither were the scriptures euer more blasphemously abused thē they were at that time in their open assembly I shall briefly therefore tell you that dayes work of which there is a thousand witnesses as also of their impious words against the most sacred word of God and diuine oracles of holy writ by all which you will see I haue good reasō to call them ANTICHRISTS LITTLE TOES and to pray against them for they are as Disperatly impious equally to be detested of all such as truely feare the Lord and the King for if wee compare them together there will no disparity appeare between them they being euery way as malicious against the word of God and his deare seruants and as diametrally opposing regality as Antichrist himself But that all things may the more clearly be euidenced vnto you let mee tell you that dayes proceedings You must take notice that howsoeuer they had fained some triuiall articles against mee they were all by the generall consent of the Court thought so poore as they openly auerred they would not condemne mee for them so much the rather because those that had sworne to them were proued to be my capital enimyes and also in their depositions to haue sworne point blanck one against an other and like euill witnesses could not agree in swearing therefore they onely cōdemned mee for my booke which I writ in defence of the honor of Christ and his Kingdome and of the Kings most excellent Maiesties prerogatiue Royall and Supremacy against the Pope and Popish Bishops prouoked there vnto by a Papist to which duty I was bound both by the law of God the law of the land my speciall oath all which I alleged at the barre farthermore added that in writing against the Bishop of Rome I intented no such Bishops as acknowledge their autority from Kings and Emperors but onely those Bishops that vsurp autority ouer Kings and Emperors and their fellow brethren and the Church of God iure diuino and so I had prefaced in my book which also I openly read there And to speake the truth I looked for fauour and assistance in this combat from the Prelats neuer suspecting that they would haue been my enimyes for this endeauour especially I hauing also in that place alleged the Acts and Statutes establyshed by the publick consent of the whole Kingdome in which it was ratified that the Prelats haue all their autority and iurisdiction which they now exercise from the King as immediately deriued from him and to affirme the contrary is to be ipso facto an enimy of his crowne and dignity And as the Prelats were an order established by the King and state I was so farre from opposing them that I neuer impeached their dignity in the least thing in all the booke neither would I euer haue medled with them if they had kept that standing but they like the euill Angels out of pride not keeping their first station BVT OPENLY RENOVNCING THE KINGS AVTORITY and affirming that Iesus Christ made them Bishops and that the holy Ghost consecrated them and that they were Princes and had their thrones and that before Kings and all this iure diuino by all which they made mee their enimy they being delinquents against the King And because I had retified whatsoeuer I sayd in my booke by the word of God they as they had before renounced the Kings autority and barbarously reuiled mee for my paines most impiously likewise vilified the holy scripture Saying in their Sessions that they looked for some great matter in my booke finding mee so confident but more diligently reading of it they found nothing but scripture in it which was the refuge of all Schismaticks and Heriticks and that the Scripture could not be knowne

the most part not onely the Popes knights I meane fir Iohns bachellors of wicked arts but Masters of the black and deuillish art of deceiuing I say they pretend that Christ is there really present and therefore in honour to him they doe all this reuerence I know what they haue alwayes pretended for their wickednes but that must not suffice in things of this consequence aud in matters that concerne the worship of God where we looke for his expresse word for our rule oboue and beyond which to be wise is contrary to the will of God Therefore if any man will propound vnto vs a way to worship God let them produce his word to conuince vs of his pleasure otherwise it is but will-worship which he abhorres as we see in the 2 of the Colossians And to serue him according to mens precepts is to worship him in vaine Matth. 15 If they could once againe bring-in the twilight of ignorance then perhaps they may make the simple beleeue that bladders are Lanthornes but so long as the light of Gods word shineth yet so clearly for which wee hartily blesse and praise his holy name they cannot so easily delude vs and make vs take apples for oysters We cā yet distinguish between truth aud error and see all they doe is but meere iug lings and the tricks of Munntibanks For we know that Christ is in heauen really and no where els in his human nature neither are wee to beleeue them that say Christ is here or there Wee know also that Christ is no more in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper then he hath been in other Sacraments in the old testament and in the Sacrament of Baptisme nor more in either of all then in the preaching of the word or in any other of his holy ordinances as in priuat meetings of the Saints gathered together in his name and with all priuate Christians walking in faith and obedience to his commandements To all which hee hath giuen many gracious promises that wheresoeuer two or three be gathered together there he will be with them Calling them 2. Cor. 6. the Temple of the liuing God and saying I will dwell in them and walk in them and will be their God and they shall be my people and that he will be a father vnto them and they shall be his sons and danghters So that with greater right they may challenge veneration then stocks and blocks and woodden things For they that are indeed the temple of the holy Ghost and in whom Christ dwells except they bee reprobates in them there is as much reall presence as is in the sacraments which are but seales of the promises and follow them insomuch that a man may be saued with out the sacraments but not without the word mingled with faith of which they are but signes and seales Againe for the word it self of real presence it is the language of the beast so to speake and howsoeuer they haue forced vs sometime to vse it yet I hope we shall in time abdicate it and all other solecismes of that animal neuertheles by that tearme when we do vse it we vnderstand no more but that God by his Spirit which is the Comforter and which Christ sent in his absence to illuminat the blind and direct the faithfull and bring them into the way of truth doth assist his in all that is good and in all godly vndertakings and holy meetings in his name and that the blessed Trinity doth approue of their endeauours seconding them in it goe along with them to the end and sends them away with a benediction and comfort here and preserues them in all their wayes and assisteth them and after crownes them which eternall glory for he is with them to the end and in the end And so the blessed promises of God are to be vnderstood when he sayth he will be with his and that he is at hand and in them which is all one as to say that in their will doings he approueth of them and will protect them and euer assist them with his particuler preseruation and blessing and doth allow of them so doing in a singular maner According to that of Paul writing to the Corinthians about the incestuous person being gathered together though absent saith he I present in spirit 1. Cor. 5. as much as if he had sayd you haue my warrant for what you doe I allow of it as if I were there present You haue my approbation I am of the same mind with you So that Paul saying though absent I present in spirit doth not establish a real presence of Paul among the Corinthians but his approbation onely and liking of their godly prooceedings And in the very same maner are the blessed promises now specified to be vnderstood conserning Christs reall presence But to faine any other reall presence that Christ should be more on the Communion table or alter then in the Font or belfore or other part of the Church then in any other place where the faithfull are in his name gathered together therfor that more veneration is to be giuen to those places or reuerence vsed is mere superstion yea palpable idolatry to worship the creature for the creator an abominable and crying sinne and therefore these impostors do egregiously abuse the poore people in putting such things into their heads as to thinke one place more holy then an other whether it be table alter font Church or Church-yard and very reason might conuince these men of idlenesse yea madnes if they were not infatuated For if the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper were not to be worshipped not lift by Christ vnto the Church for that end then much lesse the place where the Sacraments are or lye ought not to be worshipped But we know that the Sacraments were onely appoynted for seales and remembrances of absence and not of presence as the scripture it self teacheth therefore they most impiously delude the people in making them yeild deuine veneration to senslesse things because the Sacraments are celebrated in or vpon them Besides that which is a meer inuention of mans owne braine and hath been an horrible idol in Gods seruice and is yet an idol ought not to be tolerated in the Church of God but to be abominated of all men that truely feare the Lord but all well informed Christians know that altars haue been and are idols and therefore they ought euer to be abhorred and cast out as idols out of the house of God and all table worship alter worship or any creature worship is contrary to the second commandement and is detestable idolatry Againe to put any holynesse more in one place then in an other and to think nothing holy but that which hath been confecrated with bell booke and candle is great impiety against Christ not far from blasphemy For we reade in the fourth of Iohn in the one and twentyeth verse Christ himself taking away all discrimination

THE LETANY OF JOHN BASTVVICK Doctor of Phisicke Being now full of Devotion as well in respect of the common calamities of plague and pestilence as also of his owne particular miserie lying at this instant in Limbo Patrum Set downe in two Letters to Mr. Aquila Wykes keeper of the Gatehouse his good Angell IN WHICH There is an universall challenge to the vvhole World to prove the parity of Ministers to be jure divino ALSO A full demonstration that the Bishops are neither Christs nor the Apostles Successors but enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and of the Kings most excellent Majesties prerogative Royall All which hee undertaketh to make good before King and Counsell with the hazard of otherwise being made a prey to their insatiable indignation A Booke very usefull and profitable for all good Christians to read for the stirring up of devotion in them likewise PROVERB Chap. 25. vers 2. It is the glory of God to conceale a thing but the honour of the King is to search out a matter PRINTED By the speciall procurement and for the especiall use of our English Prelat● in the yeare of Remembrance Anno 1637. THE SECOND PART OF THE LATENY OF IOHN BASTWICK Doctor of Phisick WORTHY SIR I Was sometime in a demurre whether I should answer any thing or no vnto the exceptions you made against my LETANY and had I not indeed heard from many that others also from your speeches conceiued something in it might well haue been omited who by that meanes began to haue a preiudicat opinion of my honest endeauours I should neuer haue vouchsafed to haue giuen a reason of my proceedings in that behalfe till I had been called in question But in regard of that I thought fit in the meane time in a few words to signifie vnto you that whatsoeuer you seeme to blame as either fauouring of rashnes or not so graue was of purpose put in by me and proceeded from no disguised distemper or vnadvisednes but from mature deliberation and very good reason And whatsoeuer you may thinke of it I hope among equall Iudges it can no wayes hurt the cause of any honest men nor procure trouble to me my onely ayme and end being the honour of God and the King and the generall good of this Kingdome Which I shall euer preferr before my owne life and well being Nay had I neuer so many liues I would willingly loose them all in the cause of either Neither do I suppose any wise men to be so shallow that if I should handle a good cause neuer so weakely or vnaduisedly that the truth it selfe should suffer for my deficiency or others fare the worse for my temerity God forbid that one mans fayling should any wayes proue fatall to all those that are innocent More charity I do conceiue yet dwels in the world then that the innocuous should suffer with the delinquent But now breifly to summe vp what you obiect against MY LETANY OBLIGATION and EPISTLE to the LADY You seemd to blame some three passages as not so graue but comicall others to hyperbolicall and sauouring of some virulency and in fine thinke that some others will be questionable as scandalous and somewhat dishonourable to the diuine Sacrament of Baptisme and the holy ordinance of Matrimony To all which I suppose among all rationall men I shall find no great difficulty to answer when I am called thereunto But in the meane time by way of preface I haue sent you the ensuing lines in the which I shall tell you and that vpon good grounds there is no iust cause why any should blame mee for mingling ioc●● serijs et seria iocis all scurrility and prophanesse being avoyded For there wants not presidents of this kind in sacred writ that in the most graue and waightiest matters it pleased the Prophets of old to vse ironicall speeches yea the holy Scriptures are full of them But not now to enumerat many let one at this time suffice to be specified Where the Prophet deridingly bids Bals Priests cry alowd for that their God might either be in a iourney or a sleep or talking with his freinds I pray was not this as deepe an Irony as any euer was and that in a serious businesse But to speak no more of that let vs looke into all the famous writers of all ages and you shall find that many of them haue vsed this method for the discouering and confuting of error and haue more confounded the aduersaries of the truth in a pleasant and merry way then with all the grauity they could euer vse I dare say the Papists themselues will tell you that ALAGVNDE that noble Gentleman did them more hurt with his Beehiue And two or three other such books mixing and contempering mirth with seriousnes thē the profoundest Doctor of that age with all the pouderosity of Arguments and solidest tractats Such delight change of writing brings that euen as the same meat dressed after a common maner is not so pleasing nor so delightfull to many that know the diuersity of tasts but cooked with some variety as some time with tart sometime with pleasant sauce doth conciliat an excellent appetit so the same truth diuersly set out and comming forth in a new fashion and something merrily makes more gazing after it then if it were in an ordinary graue matronly habit which vsually is not looked after Neither was it euer more seasonable then in this age where there is such plurality of mutations in all things Besides a Writer must looke at the condition of the people whose benefit he aymes at the variety of humors sexes and conditions and must so order things that they may please the most If grauity please not they may haue that which may make them merry If seriousnes on the other side sobriety be prized they may find no want of that neither there being both the one and the other so mingled together as they may take away nauciousnes and recreat the readers And this indeed is the best way of writing though nothing now a dayes can please all mens phantasies It was the counsell of the Fathers to write with diuersity of style in the same faith that the enimies of the Gospell and errors might the better be opposed and that the way of truth might the more easily be found out and falsity discouered an excellent meanes of which they conceiued to be the variety of styles and writing And so dayly experience teacheth vs. It is with many men in our dayes as it is with those that are stung with the Tarantula in Apulia who are cured by musick and that not with euery sort of musick but such onely as at that instant pleaseth their humour which the Musitian playes long many times before he can find out or light vpon and sometyme can neuer hit it so that many perish being sodainly stupisied and benummed with the poyson But if the fidler strike vpon that string that pleaseth their