AN APOLOGY Vindicating the CAVALEERS from a partiall or rather a passionate aspersion too rigorously put upon them for making Churches Prisons and Stables Wherein is discussed disputed although not the lawfulnesse yet at this time the unavoydable necessity of it London Printed in the yeare 1643. AN APOLOGY Vindicating the Cavaleers c. MAny of this Kingdome have seemed of late to be much troubled I cannot say in conscience untill it better appeare by their conversations that they make a conscience of any thing therefore let it be trouble in their thoughts and trouble others with their silly discourses about the throwing downe of Organs silencing of Cathedrall Roarers and Squeakers battering of Images defacing the Popish paint gaudery of Churches and assaulting immodestly forsooth and irregiously not onely that sacred smock of the whore of Babylon the Surplice but also the formalists grand Charter for Heaven the Common prayer Book all this while these devout men have not beene at all perplexed or moved at that piacular insolence and more then heathenish impiety of the Cavaleers at Oxford Kingstone upon Thames Cirencester have not onely made prisons but by the inhumane restraint of their Prisoners Jakes in Devonshire and Cornwall stables of Gods houses so reverentiall and devoutly tender of the honour of Gods houses have these Bishops white boyes been who yet in the account of some half witted Guls are the onely Patrons both of Church men and Churches the truely zealous advancers of the Protestant Religion The serious consideration of which premises cals to my remembrance that no lesse true then famous axiome of Divines quicquid propter Deum fit aequaliter fit 1 what is done to Gods glory is alwaies done upon the same occasions for he that honoureth God upon true Grounds will honour him impartially and at all opportunities alike by the help of which substantiall ground I shall at once confute both the practice of the dissembling Cavalier and also the opinions and discourses of those formall Protestants who upon all occasions decry the Brownist and his practice and yet have not an ill word for these cursed Cavaliers who farre transcend the Brownist in that very particular whereof the Brownist in their misguided partiall judgement stand guilty First then if the Cavalier in good earnest dislike the rudenesse of the Separatist in laying violent hands upon these sacred Utensills appointed by our holy mother-Church for the setting forth of Gods worship with more luster and a stronger Influence upon the dull affections of the vulgar why doth the same Rake-hell so farre forget his own discourse as to unhallow not onely the sacred implements but the very Churches themselves if his eye were all on Gods glory in his accusations of the Separatist he might see as just cause to condemne himself who doth the same thing in a more notorious manner if any love to God set his tongue on work against the Separatist it would teach his hand to abstain from that which he so deeply censures in the other Secondly tell me thou lukewarm or rather key-cold Protestant who art alwayes snarling at these poore despised Christians whose practise thinkest thou is more scandalous the Brownist's who out of conscience labours to purge our Churches of these Babilonish Reliques or the Cavalier who at least without if not against Conscience transformes the very Churches themselves into Prisons Stables Jakes didst thou adore these stinking Cavaliers onely as thou saist for their zeal and Religion to Gods houses then couldest thou not hold also from defilng them for their unexampled polluting of them either then spare the lash of thy venomous tongue towards the one or else spit thy venome also at the other Our Saviour thou knowest if I may without offence mention that sacred name when I talk of these varlet tells us that the temple is greater and holier then either the Altar or gold upon the Altar and accounts of the Scribes and Pharisees as of blind buzzards who thought otherwise Mat. 23.17 If it be so then I hope the blind formalist by the same force of reason will be convinced that the churches themselves deserve more reverence from us then Organes or other Popish trumpery if therefore thou hast any heart thou besotted ignorant formalist to put in practise the former golden rule above mentioned fail not to remember that when thou disgorgest thy rancor against Separatists for dishonouring Gods house thou oughtest at the same time to bespatter the Cavalier who much more dishonours it if thou forget this thy duty inforc'd upon the same ground then take it not amisse if thou be herafter accounted by every wise man that heats thee a shamelesse Censor and that thou rather discouerest thy malignant humour then any judgement when thou severely reprehendest the one and sparest the other who more justly deserves thy bitterest reprehensions But notwithstanding all that hath been said or it may be can be said are there not some so impudent as to palliate and varnish ouer this cursed fact who yet keep on barking at the poore separatist nay are not some grave Doctors of that University where this fact was committed who have had the fore-heads not onely in their private discourses but I would I could not say it in the pulpet as it were in despight of all that which hath hitherto been preached written by that practise to the contrary to legitimate that base action and proclaime it not onely lawfull and seemely but laudable and now here I beseech you upon what learned grounds these grave beasts have so determin'd it because forsooth the Cavaliers were necessitated to what they did wanting other convenient receptacles for their prisoners Eye upon that foule mouth that said it fouler I wis then those profane Churches after a months defilement for were there in all Oxford no unsanctified Colledges which might with more convenience and lesse scandall have been converted into Prisons and Jakes then God houses to my apprehension rather then you should have so thwarted your Episcopal doctrine by such an unheard of president at such a time when your zeale for Churches and their ornaments should have been most conspicuous had it not been much better and more advantageous to your cause that your selves had wanted for a time the convenience of houses then that Gods houses should bee so fouly dishonoured Vobis ipsis spectantibus plaudendentibus whilst your selves were lookers on nay applauders and collourers of so shamefull an action especially since you cannot but have fresh in your memory that at the reedifying of St. Pauls Church at London good St. Gregories was demolished by the Command of your then great Metropolitane that so St. Pauls might have the more elbow-room for no man hath yet heard of any other cause whence I thus reason If God himselfe may be cashiered of a Church meerely out of a silly complement to St. Paul your selves might with patience have layen in the streets a decent lodging
for such Atheists for the preseruing Gods house from such unexpiable dishonour Yea but another Reverend beast said that this disuse how finely the man could phrase it of these Churches was onely for some short time he that said so might as well excuse a sonne that ravisheth his Mother by saying he did it onely for a time can the beggarly circumstance of i me excuse that tedious practise which should not so much as lodge in your thoughts the least minute of time Moreover the people of Oxford know for how long time this Sacrieledge was continued and how ready the same men are should God permit them any more to conquer which the base use of their past victories will I doubt not avert to doe the like or a more impious and scandalous act at any time But it hath been gravely answered that the Prisoners good men had their option at least deserved no other place of their restraint then Churches Had these Caytifs knowne so much they had questionlesse found prisons some where else least in any thing these poore Saints should by their meanes have had their desires againe these poore men though they most of all love Gods houses yet know that to love them for such uses had been to have loved the abuses of them which were not to love them Another incarnate Divell said aloud that such Puritans deserved in that house to be purnisht where by their precisenes they had so often offended which is all one as if he had said they deserve there to be punished where God had been by them so devoutly serv'd What reward waites for thee thou Helish tongue similis labra luctueas a blasphemy well beseeming a Court divine neverthelesse the truth is what ever pretences they have sought out for the palliating this unparalel'd piece of Atheisme for so it would have been accounted three yeares since even by the whole rabble of these Cathedrall Sycophants the true cause I say of this vile fact was none other then the base esteeme however they have seem'd to carry it that party hath of Churches of which as formerly they speak with reverence and entered them with great shew of devotion and at other mens charges adorn'd set them forth with all manner encomioms of holynes so now the tide of things being somewhat turn'd and Policy coming in the room of shewfull Pageantlike devotions as a more helpfull assistant to the present exigences now I say the same men whose thoughts were wholly possess'd with Popish projects of attiring Churches thereby to approve themselves to their 〈◊〉 man Idoll are as well content that the same Churches should be 〈…〉 vilest offices Nay most confident I am and so I beleeve are 〈…〉 who have with discretion lookt into their disseumbled outward 〈…〉 that so their cause may be advanced by it the best of them care not if all the Churches in England were converted into synagogues for Jewes or Mosques for Mahomet nay their height of joy it would be if all our Churches were turned as of late some of them you know have beene into Prisons so Puritans and Roundheads fill'd them and if all manner of service of God were for ever laid aside upon condition the title of their Lordly revennues were chang'd from frank Almoygne to fee simple whereby they might durably entayle their pride and luxury upon their licentious brats and posterity Had not some such christian thoughts and desires as these lodged in the breasts of our Court-Clergy-Parasites at Oxford it is impossible but that upon view or notice of that Publique Profanation of their Churches either some Arch-bishop or Bishop or Doctor especially that Ceremonious Master of Baliol Colledge Do. Laur. who wore the consecrated slippers and spent most of his stock of learning upon that empty discourse of his touching the holinesse of churches should not have made way to his Majestie and after this or the like manner have eas'd his couscience and exprest himself to his sacred person Most gracious Soveraigne defender of the truly anncient Catholique faith and the great protector both of Churches and Churchmen I humbly crave your Matesties gracious pardon that I your Maiesties most unworthy servant yet truly loyall subiect dare adventure to open my mouth before your sacred Matestie having not first received your Maiesties commands for the unloosing my infant tongue Your all knowing Maiestie cannot but exactly know and it hath been a subiect frequently stood upon and gravely pressed in your Maiesties audience by your Maiesties most faithfull subiects and servants the Arch-bishops Bishops and other of your learned Clergy whose happinesse it hath been to performe their duties before your Maiestie in the house of God That the materiall Churches or Temples are places set apart consecrated to Gods peculiar service That God himselfe whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot containe delights to dwell in these houses made with hands vouchsafes a speciall presence unto them and conferrs at the instance and devout importunity of his pious servants are all though ineffable holinesse upon them and therefore in all ages of the Church more especially in the purest times when the seemly worship of God most flourisht a singular care hath been alwayes taken to preserve these sacred fabricks from common uses especially from Prosanation in imitation whereof for your divine Maiestie cannot fall short in any point of the most renowned Christian Princes there is at least hath been of late yeares under your Maiesties most religious Raigne the beauty of holinesse so farre forth to be found in your Matesties Churches that in despight of these ignorant peevish male-contents who care not or rather desire that Gods houses should be as undecently or sluttishly kept as their shops or Barnes Churches have been to admiration adorned Altars erected Copes Tapers Crucifixes and other comely and holy ornaments brought in use againe and by your Maiesties countenance and the vigilancie of the Reverend Fathers of your Church the antient and soule-ravishing worship of God so setled not onely in your Churches but also in the affections of your subiects that a proportionable reward thereof in this life the choysest blessing of Heaven surrounded your royall throne the maligners of your Maiesties Diadem and the sacred Miter find few at least no considerable advocates Indeed it cannot be dissembl'd that of very late dayes by the mighty working of Setan these coutemptibe mushromes but now touched at discovering a discontented party though from different grounds from them amongst the Nobles and Commons in the late Parliament of your Maiesties own most Gracious calling who envying the happinesse of your Maiesties meniall servants and some select Ministers of state whom the beames of your Maiesties Grace had most instly made glorious or which is nearest of all the truth lowring at your Maiesties royall scepter Prerogative a tribe of Politicks destitute of all deserts or else your omniscious Maiesty had certainly taken notice of them yet highly conceited of an indiscoverable
worth and eminency in themselves and a suitablenesse to high employments which God knowes they eminently want unto this seed of evill doers permitted by the Divine Providence in your Kingdome onely to exercise the vertues of your accomplished Councell have this onely reserve of turbulent Cartwrights Geneva novelty applied themselves and in requitall of their crasty simpathizing with their Rebellions ends have been admitted into their confederacy who so gracious with them as these Church-racking tumultuous spirits these every where unprotected and baffled Sectaries who again the better to gratifie their new masters and to approve themselves and which is their meat and drink to doe mischiefs upon apprehensions of their new patrons designe fell speedily and furiously as their manner is to work blew the coules most zealously to their Rebellious enterprise disparaged the Crown blemished that intaminate Peerelesse Consort in nothing inferiour to that greatest saint of her name in heaven but immortality threw dirt in abundance upon the sacred Miter buzzed impure notions of license and independency into the credulous vulgar in a word so plaid their parts in scurrilous libells Sermons discourses that in short time they which set them a work had nothing almost left for themselves to doe but onely to admire the dexteritie and successefullnesse of these formerly contemned instruments Whereupon their new masters abundantly sensible of their sufficiency began to unfold themselves more freely unto them nay threw open a wide gap to their familiarity solas't each other in their low ungrac'd condition as Caius Marius and Carthage did of old in the Historian prayd together for the confusion of the Churches and Kingdomes glory * Velleius Paterculus Prerogative and Prelacy indeed by Gods connivance in Processe of time so it came to passe that this mongrel monstrous beast begotten betweene a sectary and an envious Peere so thrived and gathered strength whether thorough the novelty of the proiect for the Vulgar are usualy ravished with new fangles or the activity and zeale of these cursed incendiaries who left no stone unroll'd to bring about the designe your Maiesties Cathedrall subiects were put into a bodily feare that their fatall period and desolation was drawing neere and that Prelacy which I tremble to relate was either to be devorsed from Prerogative or else both as they had long stood so in a trace were to fall together and the glorious Church and Monarchy of England to run the same base fates with Democraticall Scotland This unexpected hurli-burly as there was iust cause soone put your Maiesties sacred Clergy out of these devout offices which held the peoples hearts unto them and we became a sort of men cheap and contemptible untill at length it pleased God by a new assession of Martiall vigour to strengthen your Maiesties sacred arme and to rouse up the sleepie courage of your liege people so farre that the greater and better part of your Kingdome were animated to declare to fight for your maiesties rights a large portion of which have no other fountaine then your Clergies height and nearnesse to your Maiestie since which time your Matestie and we all cannot but with exultation acknowledge by the Cathedrall prayers of your Clergy as well as by the swords 〈◊〉 these sonn◠of Mars the heroick Cavaliert many glorious victories haue been obtained as at Keinton Branford Marleborow Cirencester in the North all which and the rest which are yet to come are under God wholly to be attributed to the speciall respect the Allmighty beares to your Most Religious Person and to the Canonicall Cathedrall Prayers of your upper Clergy so that now your Maiesties your Churches glorie seemes only to have been Eclipsed for a time that it might shine forth again in fuller strength gaine new beams by that disconsolate interruption Yet after all these testimoates from heaven of the truth of your Maiesties cause one particular there is by the demerits whereof without early prevention we may chance to hazzard all our happinesse in the very haven and that is it which with submission to your Majesties divine judgement I shall now take the boldnesse in a few words to discover and it is none other then that most unhappy accident cast in of late no doubt by the impure hand of Satan nay to blast our budding nay almost flourishing hopes that unparalelled profanation of Gods and your Majesties Churches which I began to looke at at the entrance of this my addresse to your Majesty but was diverted and thrust aside by those uncivill justlers of Monarchy it selfe whom I could not but for a time let flie at even in the presence of your Majesty returning therefore from whence I have so long digressed I shall now by your Majesties pardon and patience cloze this humble tender of my duty and conscience in a briefe representation of this horrid fact and the inconveniences or mischiefes rather which either have already or will in reason infallibly attend it The fact such that I feare those so effectuall Cathedrall orisons of your Clergy without some speciall miracle of mercy from heaven upon them cannot expiate and therefore the mischiefes which must attend will correspond to the deserts of such a Cause if a timely humiliation ward them not off from us I cannot then dread Soveraigne longer dissemble that which is the joy and hope of your enemies and a rasor upon the hearts of your most faithfull Subjects That too well and too far violation of two of our neighbour Churches here in Oxford that of Saint Giles and Maudlins Parish into which your Provost Marshall no doubt for want of other convenience but that satisfies not thrust that Rebellious crew which a late Victory brought from Cirencester I have heard the like was done at Kingston but I will not beleeve it oh that no man knew or beleeved this it is the best wish I can breathe out next unto that it had not at all been done but done it is I would there were an Act of oblivion past upon it at least I would we could as easily gather up the infamy of it as it might have been prevented Your Majesty I know is cleare and innocent from this great offence may the punishment fall upon that head which first conceived it and may your sacred Majesty be untoucht better your Church your Kingdome fall then your sacred person feele but one twinge of the toothache How loath me thinkes I am to speake out all how officiously my fancy stirs my tongue to other matters but my thoughts will not out it must lest it burst in the delivery your Churches gracious Soveraigne your Churches are dishonoured defiled become an abomination in the sight of heaven your Churches only dedicated to heavenly uses are made to serve the vilest offices Neither the sacred Font that fountaine of spirituall life nor the blessed Altar that heaven upon earth where Christ vouchsafed us more then his spirituall presence can say I am not polluted I
Conscience when there is least of these Casuists both directions and judgements in it Give me leave first to explaine some things in the Question and then thou shalt have my iudgement such as it is in this weighty matter First then by the Seperatist I meane all those people of new or old England who either will not or else have no great heart to ioyne in the outward worship of God with any be their learning or esteem what it will who make a conscience of the Ecclesiasticall policy or Discipline of the Church of England as it was lately mannaged by the Archbishops Bishops c. 2. Secondly I adde that Parenthesis as they are called to imply that in my judgement though they are usually so called by the adverse party yet they are ill called Seperatists for good men they agree throughout with the formall Protestant in the maine of Gods worship and in the whole Doctrine of the Gospell but Seperatist only in that wherein they are in conscience perswaded they ought not and the adverse party cannot in the judgement of any indifferent man convince them that they ought to joyne unto them Indeed when it shall be made cleare or certaine that they ought to joyne with the Cathedrall party and then they shall stand off I also shall be well contented to have them Christened Seperatists In the meane time I wonder that any at least iudicious men should fasten a terme of disgrace for so it is accounted upon men both upright in their lives and Orthodox in their tenets meerly for not according with them in a humour for not complying in a point of outward uniformity when variety for ought hath beene said to the contrary hath both as much decency and might have for its companion as much charity in my poore iudgement which I professe in Gods sight is impreiudiced for ought I know in this cause men may as well call him a Seperatist that betakes himselfe from one neighbourhood to another or from one Corporation to another for as such a man may be as good a Subiect to his King in both places though hee observe not the same Customes and should be accounted so in like manner the other whom heedlesse men call a Seperatist keeping the Relation to God and his people inviolable so farre as God Commands him at least sincerely indeavouring it is capable of and should have our Charitie and good opinion though he differed from us in these outward Ceremonies as cordially as he that most of all complies with us nay more many times if reason may be heard for many agree with the Cathedrall men meerely out of fashion and this man differs out of conscience and what man who is sound in the Head-peece likes not a man better than a Jacke-an-Apes at least each wiseman should doe so 3. Thirdly when I say That the Seperatist makes his house or as it s said his Barne a Church I speake it againe in the words of his Calumniators for it hath not yet beene made apparent that he doth either at least not the latter how ever it is not their constant opinion who beare that name that Churches should be disus'd and Barnes or private Houses serve in stead of Churches onely this much is true that in regard they are offended at the Customes and humane impositions in our publike worship they chuse rather to serve God in their private houses or it may be any where then omit the performance of so necessary a duty so that what they now doe is onely In casu necessitatis and whilst our publike places of worship are not open at least for the foppish Ceremonies used in them are offensive to them 4. Fourthly the burthen of the Quere resting upon these words More scandalous It is but convenient that this phrase of comparison be well weighed First then I would not have any man hence inferre that the practise of the Seperatist is at all scandalous in propriety of speech because I am about to prove the practise of the Cavaliers is more scandalous for the scandall which ariseth from the practise of the Nonconformist for so may he most fitly be called unlesse you please to call him what in very truth he is an honest man is only Scandalum acceptum a positive Scandall a scandall in fancie and opinion only wheras that of the Cavalier is Scandalum datum an active scandall a scandall in truth and reallity Secondly I would thus be conceiv'd that to any man that makes a conscience of his ways the Practise of the Cavaliers upon supptfition of their owne principles touching the holinesse of Churches which the Seperatist conceives and that truely most false is at least ought to be ancounted more offensive even to the men of their own party as having in it a just cause of scandall then the practise of the Non-conformists suppose all true which is obiected can be either to the Cavalier or any Christian whatsoever the former being truely scandalous the latter in a groundlesse opinion onely and therefore the former is more scandalous neverthelesse leaving the indifferent Reader to his owne judgement touching what is scandalous or more scandalous I shall I doubt not by the Reasons following make it evident ad hominem at least that the practise of the Cavalier is most scancaious and that out of the notorious Position of their owne party First then one point of their Divinity is that Irreverence in Churches is scandalous upon this ground they condemne all such as bow not at the Name of Jesus all such as receive not the blessed Sacrament Kneeling all such as bow not at the Altar or stand not up at Gloria Patri c. as scandalous persons whence I subsume that if these men are upon these titles scandalous then a fortiori much more the Cavaliers who by dishonouring by polluting and unhallowing whole Churches at once casheeres all those observances the very neglect whereof in others they cry up as scandalous 2. Secondly another principle of theirs is That throwing downe of Organs silencing of Cathedrall Roarers and Squeakers overturning of Idolls battering of Paint and Images pulling up railes assaulting of Surplices and Common-Prayer-Bookes is scandalous whence I likewise inferre a fortiori that thus violating of whole Churches and prophaning and unhallowing all the sacred Utensils of Churches is much more scandalous which is the knowne gracious practises of the holy Cavaliers 3. A third Position of theirs is that by vertue of Consecration there is impressed an holinesse on Churches and therefore such as unhallow them in any kinde are eminently scandalous yet the Cavalier whose Doctrine this is notwithstanding this holinesse of Churches converts Churches into Stables Prisons Jakes a worser unhallownesse then which cannot be immagined unlesse the Cavaliers themselves quartered in Churches and by their blasphemous Oathes Execrations ribaldry made their Church which their conscience would not startle at their hell 4. Fourthly and lastly they Vote unanimously that the Seperatist
Lawes Lastly the Seperatist is frequent in the service of God at home and at Church he will heare Sermons but the Cavalier serves the devill at home and his revenge and his horses at Church and now let my Cavalier who is not drunke or mad if any such may be found judge whether is more prophane and scandalous He or the Seperatist How gladly would I learne what the most profound Cathedrall Doctor in Oxford could Answer to these Reasons what evasions they could excogitate for reconciling the practise of their Patrons with their acknowledged Doctrine But alas what reason hath any man at this time of all times to expect subtilties from Oxford where before the King came thither when Sacke abounded in their Tavernes the height of judgement was but some frothy Nonscence raptures of wit but since God knowes by reason of that long unhappy divorce betweene their braines and the spirit of Sacke nothing hath flow'd above the sad complexion of dull Ale and Colledge Taplash Neverthelesse though I utterly despaire of satisfaction from them I will be so courteous as to lend them a word of Counsell and to wish them capable of it and it is this That since the world is so offended with this beastly fact of their Minions and disappointed of all just and reasonable Apologies for it from themselves they would exhort very earnestly the Cavaliers and others whom it may concerne to play an after-game of Repentance and Reformation so that at least they might skin over that wound which they cannot heale The Church Story not impertinently to this purpose makes mention of a Morâ—â—ssian Prince as I remember called Cabares who pursuing the Gothes and Vandalls with an huge Army still in his passage as he went cleansed all those Churches which that impure Nation had desir'd and would it not be an exemplary peece of piety and much tending to the honour of your party with posterity First if the Cavaliers would in their hands or mouthes or any other more fitting way carry out the filth of those Churches which by a more than Gothish impiety they have desiled and then secondly if the Lordly Cleargy would humble themselves so low as to come after the Cavaliers and with their Cathedrall Beesome-like Beards sweepe them and so much be spoken touching our first Question the second was Whether Churches thus prophaned and fallen from Grace and holinesse are not by the Bishops to be consecrated Of which Question with all manner of expedition First then the Puritans here so much he is for holinesse would I warrant you goe neare to hold they ought if he thought 1. First That there were no neede of consecrating Churches 2. Secondly that any holinesse were stampt on Churches by the Ministry of Consecration 3. And thirdly that Churches could fall from Grace or holinesse once received but holding neither of these its probable that his iudgement stands for the negative Secondly on the other side the Cathedrall Doctors maintaining with one consent 1. A necessity of Consecrating Churches 2. Undiscernable Characters of holinesse impressed on Churches 3. Falling from Grace in the best Saints of God much more inanimate Churches must in reason be thought to hold the affirmative and that Churches thus desiled ought to be reconsecrated especially considering First That Consecration of Churches is an holy and heavenly Work which begets an high and reverend esteeme in the people for say the people the Bishops must needs be eminently holy men who can make dead Churches holy and therefore at this time when Bishops have beene much vilified all occasions should be catcht at for a reingendring in the people a reverentiall conceit of these holy Fathers and therefore reconsecration not to be past by Secondly Considering that it may chance to be scandalous and to their brethren of the Church of Rome not to have these unhallowed Churches though in pollicie made so at their instigation reconsecrated of whose consciences they ought to be very tender in requitall of their bowells of compassion towards the Bishops cause lately in much ieopardy to have beene consumed by the fiery zeale of the Schismaticks had not that holy man of Rome and his agents bestirred their stumps and brought more than holy water for the extinguishing of that flame 3. Thirdly considering that the Consecration of a Church which is no great labour and brings no benefit at all either to Auditors or spectators which is at length to be thought on least the People by the Bishops meanes grow too Holy and too knowing as of late it sell out both to their shame and smart will save the good Father a Sermon for that weeke of Consecration which is well saved especially since experience hath atught the Church of late that Sermons have done so much mischeese 4. Fourthly considering that at the reconsecrating of every Church there ought to be a consecration Dinner at the charge of the Parish which will be comfortable both to his Lordships old corps and no false Latin in his purse by saving a meale after these hard pinching times which had almost exhausted all and tantum non brought rem ad repem that is brought his good Lordship within a close or two off the Beggar Lastly considering that so few Churches are in these peevish times erected and therfore though there be no great need supposing Churches cleansed and swept as was above advised of reconsecration of them yet least the holy Father should forget the trick of it and so the Country People in case there be at any time an occasion of consecration and the boyes shoud have matter ministred unto them to laugh at his Lordship when possible he should be through disuse to seeke what to doe next Yet notwithstanding all these strong reasons for the reconsecration of Churches it seemes not onely expedient but necessary not to reconsecrate them 1. In case the Kings Maiestie or the Queen or the Privy Councell or the Chiefe Prelate then in highest place do not approve it 2. In case there can be no consecration dinner or a poore one 3. In case the Church of Rome declare to the contrary and Lastly in case his Lordship be decrepit and cannot trample about all the time without danger of having a fit of the gout or stone and then it shall be thought sufficent that his Lordship either omit the duty or conse crate onely the new Boards Poasts or other Utensills which were not before consecrated that so a greater good may be consulted viz his good Lordships ease and indeed were I freely to give my Judgment this much if any thing at all were to be done would be enough for my private opinion it is gentle Reader pardon me that I tell not from whence I had it untill I know my Authors pleasure from whom I had it whether I may reveale it that consecration is a kinde of Baptisme and therefore should not be iterated least wee simbolize too farr with the cursed Anabaptist and therefore onely the new parts of a Church should be conscerated no part reconsecrated and yet in this new way there are new difficulties not a few as if Consecration be a kind of Baptisme why should not a man who hath beene Baptized in his infancy be rebaptized when he is growne a great Lubber and hath gotten much new flesh about him as well as a Church receive consecration in the new parts of it and many more such difficulties I could with more ease conjure up then put them downe againe but I beleeve such are niceties which a man may be ignorant of or else Holy Church will hereafter resolve them if we can have the patience to waite her leasure and so I shake hands with this perplexed Case touching the reconsecration of unhallowed Churches FINIS