as we say in a Proverb Like an Owl in an Ivie Tree and so do they love the King and kindly embrace and with pretended affections and plausible terms express themselves because they draw sap from him and are good for little but to harbour a sort of blind Priests as very Moles as themselves 't is but Cupboard-love all for the belly For man can be but for himself in every action until the Love of God be wrought in him Every good thing the Philosopher tells us is of a diffusive nature fire and water are communicable creatures So is Love when it proceeds from a right principle I cannot parallel their love to the King more fitly than in my love to you I saw that in you which as I conceived might make me happy and did much affect me one of a good report of a sober life and hansome carriage with other endowments I gave you good words and cogg'd and daub'd as fast as they it may be and all this while I was but my self in it Poor woman it had been better for you if you had never seen my face So may the Majestical Oak say one day Would I had never seen the face of Dr. Ivie I have seen a stately Oake flourish without an Ivie-bush W. Husband I pray you be saber in your expressions and be not bitter towards them we should love our enemies H. Wife I am not a man of that frame or temper of spirit like Sir Jocelin Pearcie who after the Gunpowder-Treason brake out into great laughter and being demanded wherefore he laughed answered I cannot but laugh to think if the design had took how the Bishops would have flown up in the air like so many Magg-Pies Seriously Wife I love their Persons although I hate their Pybald Worship I wish their eternal welfare and that they would cry down the sins of the times Idolatry Superstition Swearing Whoring fearful Imprecations Dammum and Rammuns The Devil fry my soul in Brimstons c. which are fit materials to build Fortifications against the Invasion of Mercles and will serve as fitly to draw the floodgates and sluces for the incursion and bringing-in of Wrath and Vengeance and will do more miscief than the Walls of Northampton Coventry or Glancestor if re-standing To keep up sin and throw down stones is but poor policy When the Children of Israel served strange gods then there was war in the gates And let them give over the prosecution of the Phanaticks for they 'l never give over praying until they have prayed them down Let them remember the Queen of Scots in Edward the sixh's dayes as I take it who sent an Army into England but before sent privily to know which side John Knox and his party took saying She feared more the Prayers of him and his party than all the Kings Army And set our moderate Bishop leave his conjunction with his near relation the Papist in saying that the Presbyterians were like Lorinus the Jesuite who held it lawful to take away the life of Princes Let him mind his brother Gauden Bishop of Wotcester who said that the Presbyterians were like the discease called the Strangury which was froth on the top and blood in the bottom of which disease himself dyed and his predecessor Dr. Goodman who made this Confession dying in the Imbrit at Westminister That he died a Roman Catholick But to give the Patriarch his due I think he was one of the best of them But how can there be a Superlative where there is no Positive a bast where there is not a good W. Husband we have talk though of this will you speak of Doctor Warmstrey's Opinion Dean of Worcester H. Wife which of his Opinions do you mean either that which he delivered about observation of Holy-dayes from David's Example When I see the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained David as he sayes walking forth in the night took special observation of the Stars placed in the Firmament so should we take special observation of the Saints who have been as Stars in the Firmament of the Church and therefore a day of Solemnity in commemoration of them we should not let pass Or 2dly do you mean that opinion of the observation of Lent from the example of Danel's eating of Pulse and drinking of water for certain dayes and from that example of his would ground the observation of Lent If you mean either of these I shall say nothing but this If he had grounded his opinion from Fortune my foe why dost thou frown on me or the other In the dayes of old when fair France did flourish these places would have held out the truth of his opinions aswel as those Texts of Scripture Or 3dly do you mean Local the scension which he holds that Christ went down into Hell into the place of the damned in me hamine body Or 4thly That the Doctor hath power to forgive sion not alone declaratively but absolutely If these I 'le not adventure to deal with him for I know the Pope will take his part and two to one is ods at Footbal I being but one poor man they may be too hard for me W. No Husband Neither do I mean his crying down of Gloucester for a bloody City and for Rebellion that he did passing well he could not but deliver the Message he was sent for that purpose H. VVife you say he did it passing well I pick something out of that word of yours passing well but I 'le say no more But I wonder he staid so long before he brought the Message None of all the Lord's Prophets had so much time given them when they were sent forth their Commissions were presently to be put in execution The young Prophet must neither eat bread nor drink water before he was to deliver his Message but the Doctor staid fifteen years before he brought his It 's to be suspected whether he be not guilty of the Rebellion much mischief might have been prevented had not he delayed time but when all was past and ended then comes this Prophet with his Message Censitium post facta imber post tempora fiugum as the Poet speaks Counsel after the fact is like a shower of rain after Harvest to fill the Corn When the †Gunpowder-Treason Traytors were hang'd then came the Pope's Pardon But he came not until the Message would bring meat in the mouth of it his Prebends place at Gloacester and a thousand pounds for the Crop as his man calls it and 2001. per annum at Hampton with his Message altogether chopt in his mouth it 's a wonder it had not choak'd him What 's become of all those souls which died in those fifteenyears the comfort on 't is if in Purgatory he is or may be as prevalent a man with the Pope to setch them forth as any I know W. Husband name that about a man killing his own Father H. VVife I understand now what you mean thus
the one a Doctor of Dulvinity the other a Doctor of the Civil Law lately at a Sack-shop fit for the Crime could not easily be determined Excommunication could not he was no Member of the Church if a Member little would it advantage the Bishops Court wanting money to pay for his Absolution If the Cat should eat him then the Bread had been twice prophaned kill him they could not before they caught him and it 's questionable whether it were not before the invention of Mouse-traps no doubt but it put the Synod to a great deal of trouble In things of like imoortance our Convocation is as able to manage as that Synod and that Synod able to do as much good as ours have done or would do were they to sit seven years longer VV. Husband what is this Convocation is it constituted according to Magna Charta the Rule of the Gospel H. Wife for your satisfaction I 'le tell you it is not according to the Rule of Gospel for the constitution of it for in the Churches of Christ in the primitive times the Power lay not in any single person but in the Members of the Churches aswel as in the principal Officers This Convocation is of Romes Constitution and left unto us by succession as it was in the darkest times of Popery and as it is at this day under the Romane Empire in which the Laity as they call the common People have no voice in the election of the Clerks according to the Government of the Mystical Body as the Doctor calls it the Church of England the People being denied that priviledge for their precious Souls which they have in some cases in temporal things for their perishing bodies Bear with me for some homely comparisons and some circumstances and I will tell you the manner of this Convocation and constitution of it by and by W. Husband I hope there is no need of such Complements between you and me Pray tell me H. Wife not long since I was standing in Newgate-Market in London where I saw at a distance a strange Creature mounted on the back of a beast but approaching near me I perceived it to be a Gentleman-Fackanapes on Horse-back and the Bears led by the nose following him to the misery of the stake there to baited with Dogs This Gentleman is no English Native but a Foreigner whether of some parts of Italy or America I know not his habit is an hairy rough garment yet nothing but what Nature did afford him and with the bridle on his arm for so I 'le call it for imitation like himself very Ape as we say There is a Gentleman John Priest with whom you may parallel this Gentleman Jackanape's in some passages who is mounted upon the Magisterial power of the Beast and with Institution and Induction which is as pretty a Popish knack as any is in all the Pack comes to the Parish and they must take him for better or worse for their Pastor although he never tasted of one bit of Bread which came down from Heaven nor drop of living Water to which he is a stranger Watchman or Overseer although the Scales never fell from his eyes nor ever opened by that great Occulist who only is in Commission for that purpose and follow him they must although quite blind they must see with his eyes and be led by him into the misery of the Ditch This Gentleman John Priest is no true Native qua Saeerdos as a Priest but as a Romane and his habit a Rough Garment to deceive the People according to the nature of the Beast but not any garment no nor a rag of any thing but what Nature doth afford him For imitation apish and wanton with a strange woman and nothing fits his fancy better than the Fashions of the old Whore Well a Convocation must be called by whom this Gentleman John Priest with the rest of the Gentlemen John Priests of the several Diocesses and Parishes must make choice of the Clerks who are men called to the work of Priesthood as himself and although the Bishops sit in Parliament by vertue of the King 's Writ yet they are of the Corporation and must have not a finger only but a foot in it and then as we say in a Country Proverb The Pottage is never the better what they are we talked on before And whatsoever is brewed in the Convocation I may not say who grinds the Malt being tund up into the House and there a cork put in the Bunn-hole I mean confirmed by Act is Jus Divinum And the People must be led by the nose of an Implicit Faith to believe that it is their duty to observe and practise which Implicit Faith brings more misery than the Bears are brought unto at the Stake the misery of the one is Finite the other Infinite If they observe not the Dictates and Commands of the same they are Fin'd Imprison'd Transportation threatned c. W. Husband what 's become of Sions King all this while one JESUS H. Wife well remembred shall I tell you they have served him as Herod Pontius Pilate and the High Priests sent him into another world or else transported him to Tangier or else where for Deus hic nihil fecet he hath not been seen or heard of here W. Husband that is some comfort to them that shall follow after if their Captain and Head be gone before but what is to be done in this case for remedy H. Wife nothing as I know of but the old Weapons Preces et Lachrime Prayers and Tears wait upon God and then you shall see as Athanasius said in the like case but Nubeculo cito transitura a little Cloud quickly past over But Wife you put me out with your talking what I was going to say concerning John Priest a little more when the House is adjourn'd Acts extant and the Bishop come home Country John Priest in duty gives his Lordship a visit and bids him welcome home thanking him for his pains c. The Bishop gives John some account of their work good thinks John this will help of spin out a little time next Sunday in the Pulpit or Pue and then John addresses his speech unto his Neighbours Neighbours I have been with my Lord Bishop who hath given me a Narrative of the Proceedings of the House for the setling and right regulating thereof The Church of England it 's well known hath been accounted the most Glorious Church and hath had the preheminence of all the Churches in the Christian world however it hath been clouded and eclipsed by some Schismatical and Seditious Spirits in the late unhappy times of Libertinism and still Fanatick Spirits do abound yet such good and wholsome Laws are enacted and made for the suppressing of the same that the Church of England may be restored to its former Beauty and Primitive Purity For never was there a more Learned Pious Wise Grave Juditious Assembly of Divines of Bishops Doctors
came the Gentiles in the interval of Worlds was a companion as for clean so for unclean Beasts for Asses Pigs and Wolves From his loins I received a swinish hellish nature swarming with divers lusts And an Asse-like head stupid and dull without any true understanding of any divine Mysteries or saving Knowledge and therefore can justly claim nothing for my Coal of Arms but a Pigs-tail and an Asses head for the Crest If any of you step further into the old world and speak with the old man there you will find the fountain as purely corrupt if I may use that Epithite as the stream only you may take thence a coat of Fig-leaves which will be too short to hide your cloven-footed devilish natures If you come back into this world to old Jacob and think to take up a coat there which as I have heard some say who pretend to have skill in Heraldry that the rise of it is founded from Jacob falsly understood to be Coats of Arms which he declared as Blessings that should come upon his Sons he would tell you if alive that those Prophetical Predictions which he uttered by the instinct of a divine Spirit were never intended as Presidents to make proud Fools Coats of Honour and therefore you may return and take up my Coat with the addition of a Wolfs-skin which is as honourable as an Arch-Bishops Miter and that as truly honourable as the Popes Triple-Crown My Reverend Lords give me leave to pig it once more with you I am the poor Pig that feeds in a bare-bitten Common a dish of Grains Whey or Wash falls to my share wherewith I am contented and my ears secure You had some better pasture or feeding than mine but Pig-like whyning and discontented therewith you are crept through the hedge into the Corn or Bean-fields and there you are up to he ears and above the cars too you were never turned in at any gate if the Heyward or Field keeper should come peradventure you may answer the trespass with the forfeiture of your ears And lest that you should not understand me we will unpig our selves and then give me leave to take a turn with you in your Palace Parlour and there I shall tell you that the station wherein you stand is none of Christs institution you enter but as Jackdaws into Steeples you are not entred in by Christ who is the door and therefore but Thives and Robbers Diocessan Bishops are but of humane institution Cambden in his Brittania tells us that Dyonisius was the first that divided Italy into Diocesses and Parishes And it 's not unknown to you who first divided England What have you to do to lord it now over God's Heritage and to undertake the office of Apostles nay of Christ himself wherein you are Blasphemers in that you presume to give the Holy-Ghost to your Creatures who are therein guilty of Blasphemy when by your imitation you are as incomperable to Christ and his Apostles as the Apes on the Alps to Alexanders Army These with the rest of your usarpations take heed you do not answer with the loss of your souls And as you have been the grief of the Godly in Ages past so you are at this day and as you live undesired so you dye unlamented by the Diocess wherein you domineer and no more lamentation made for you than for the most fordid Catchpole in the Country And when any of you die I have not heard that ever the Diocess went to prayer for a supply in your places The premises considered I shall assume the boldness to tell you that forasmuch as I hope that there was as great a price paid for me as for the best of you and that by him who is no respecter of persons and hath made all Nations of one blood that qua man I am as good a man as the best of you And although my condition in the world be such that in hard times with the rest of my poor neighbours I have entertained Bishop Bean Doctor Barly and Parson Pease at the upper end of my table with a cup of Cow Beer as good as the best Gentlemans Oxe in the Country drinks and glad I could see them there yet would not I change my present condition with any of you for the best of your Bishopricks which was at first cheated from the poor Country nor for the future swop souls with you in which trade of Soul-swopping some of you have much skill Well Wife this I could tell them if they were present but good Wife keep this Letter close for if the Bishop should meet with it as lately he met with a Book and Letter of which I am the supposed Author it may be as much as my liberty is worth And for the Books for fear lest any of them should be lost give the Children a charge to keep them safely If any accidentally meet with any I desire they would send them home by the hand of those that know where I dwell or make a hole in the ground and bury them If any take up a book and read and be offended at it then 't is Scandalum acceptum et non datum an offence taken not given I throw a bone to my own dog under board other quarrelling curs fall together by the ears about it shake my poor cur and peradventure bite me by the shins into the bargain the fault is not in me I may give a bone to my own dog nor in my dog it cannot be nor in the bone it is in those quarrelling curs that fall together by the ears about that they have nothing to do withal So I dedicate a book to my own Wife for the use and benefit of my own Children some Mastive fellows understanding that I intend such a thing begin before hand to quarrel the fault cannot be in my Wife nor Children nor in the poor innocent Paper nor in me it cannot be it is my duty to inform my Children There is an Act that Tutors and School-masters shall teach no Chatechism but the Church Chatechism I am not restrained thereby What 's the matter these Mastive fellows quarrel about it and be ready to come out with a Bowgh wough at me I have seen a country man walking by a country house which hath stood some what solitary out comes a great ' Dog with a Bowgh wough wough at him the country man spreads his arms runs to meet him as if he would catch him in his arms the dog seeing it claps his tail between his legs away he uns the Country man cryes rut Begone ye cowardly Cur begone what afraid of a naked man This last year travelling upon Bristol-Read I had a wooden Dagger in my hand almost a Swords fellow which a Gentleman commended to a young Kinsman of his by my hand and having it naked in my hand meeting with a man on horseback my self on foot pretended some fear I put him into shunn'd the way and began to
come he must appear before the Bishop or turn out To the Reverend Father he goes and as he said with great terror upon his spirit but when he came to the Bishop the Bishop kindly salutes him with a What brother Brit Come come put to your hand and take it in your own sense which he did chearfully and home he comes and then preacheth that some brown bread is better than no white and then to the Common-Prayer again W. Husband what would you have the man to do he did it out of Love and Pitty to his Parish not knowing under what Ministry they may be lefe unto and he is glad and rejoyceth that he did conform because as he saith he hath since he was with the Bishop converted eight souls which he takes as a seal of his Ministry which is more than he had converted in many years before and he seeing the Purish was willing the Bishop willing and his Wife willing made him willing also and then what hurt can be in it H. Wife 't is Cato's case and Ortetius Cato hath a mighty mind to Ortetius Wife he makes it known first to Ortetius and goeth honestly to work and then to his Wife expresseth his affection telling both that upon condition he may have her home to his house for his use for such a time he will give them so much money and justly and truly it shall be paid Ortetius is willing his Wife willing and home he hath hee useth her kindly when the time is expired he proves honest according to his word and sends her home with so much money Cato is pleased Ortetius Wife pleased and Ortetius a well contented-Cuckold and what hurt is in all this Wife here is a Commandment broken in this and a Covenant in the other H. Wife Eusebius reports of Origen that living among the Heathen they perswaded him to sacrifice with them but he refused they told him that if he would but hold up his hand and do no more that should be all they would desire and then he should preach he hoping to preach held up his hand they clapt a Censor into his hand and cryed out Origen hath sacrificed Origen hath sacrificed This struck a terror to Origen and it may to Mr. Brit. and take away his boasting if he consider from whom now he hath received his Ministry His Converts were Members of his Church before but it seems Infidels which is something a prepostrous course to make them members first and then convert them afterwards something like the the Bishop of Newgate and Tyburu who receives men into his fellowship administers the Sacrament unto them makes them Members of the Church of England and then brings them to the Gallows and bids them Confess A contrary effect of Conformity hath been found near unto us in some men who made profession contrary to what their practice hath fallen out to be as first in one whose name is Hall who not long since being left unto himself got a Wench with Child the Child murdered by the Wench he ran away A second whose mother whom you know told me that since her Son had been with the Bishop the Devil was got into him he was turned common Drunkard and Swearer and would beat his wife R. Bâ—â—â— A third is Mr. Page of Ledbury who the first day he went to tende Common-Prayer was imitten dumb and never spake since If Mr. Brit. hath found such a seal as he speaks of put that in Annus Mirabilis These are Membes of the Mystical Body Another sort of this Mystical Body are the Rats or Cu-Rats who are set over the Flocks who receive orders from their Masters to Pottage them well over whatever they do in which they are not so diligent as in the Cathedrals where they heat the Pottage three times in a day to keep it from sowring and yet can hardly keep it from stinking in the nostrils of many And these will be Preachers too And they are so pestered in some places with Phanaticks that they cannot filch a Sermon as their Masters do but they are found out Some of them who are privy to my infitmities knowing that I am many times troubled with a pain in my right arm that I cannot heave a groat to my head have come to me for some one who had plaid the Truant at a Free-School and loytring about his father displeased with it he be thinks himself what course to take and finding himself more fit to teach than to be taught mounts the Pulpit in a Reprobate Parish where none had any Call to speak the means being so small and with a few ragged Notes which he patch'd together puts off the ware The Parish accepts on 't and takes him for their Cu-Rat Then to trading he and I fell and in a case of extremity being so lame not able to stir but with crutches and troubled with the pain in my arm I shewed him a parcel of Notes nine in number he put his hand in his pocket took me money without asking price we are now both in stock he for Sermons I for money Not above groats apiece I had of him if he gave threepence a peice more than they were worth he had quick return that 's something worth Then to work agen and falls to drinking Ale very stifly with them pleased the Parish well but shortly packs up and to another and another and another place until he got to Worcester where he got Ordination and a Living of threescore pounds a year in that Diocess Another poor Rat came to me being my self in a Trap I mean a Prison begging some of me which I wrote there I gave them freâ—ly it could be but poor matter from a beggar to a beggar but he got mony by them One young Rat lately being in discourse with one who told him that a man unregenerate his prayers were not acceptable but abominable he answered That if they were not available for himself yet they might by available to do others good if he prayed heartily Another in Holy-Orders asked one what a Presbyterian was and what an Independant was where the difference was between them and thirdly what Free Grace was which when he was told replied that it was more than ever he heard before One Rat-master having a Living of 150 l. per annum saith that he can go to London and buy Sermons to serve him all the year about for five pound and hear his charges into the bargain which hath been his course Another old Rat who hath lived upon other mens Bacon for many years being Schoolmaster in a Market-Town where good Preachers have been he serving a Curacy now and hath set his Son up at the Trade who began since the King came in and is like to do well for he saith His Father will help him to Sermons to serve him seven years W. Husband I pray you give over this Rat-catching I am almost weary of it H. Wife I le tell you but
of two more one who served under an Impropriator for eight pounds per annum removes thence to a place of ten pounds yearly and out of a desire to do more good by his Ministry as others do when they remove from a lesser to a greater I but seeing Preaching was the better trade to get money gets some Sermons and to 't he goes but hearing where a vacincy in a Parish was thither he repairs with some of the best were he had and up into the little shop he clambers with it twice in one day The Parish accepts of him and in a short time the pretty knave thrive so fast that he was able to hang his Bed about with slitches of â—â—cor instead of Curtains If I should say any more of him I should not know how to end take t'other Rat and I 'le trouble you with no more A young man a servant to a Merchant went away with an hundred pounds of his Master's money but the business being taken up and the young man without imployment resolves to take up that which will help when all fâ—ils A Preacher he will be I met with him at a Cooks shop in 63 he gets him some Canonical habit Circingle and all up he gets into a Pulpit in London with as good a portion of Impudence as of Ignorance some Youths of his former acquaintance put a Bill up to him Desiring him to remember one in his prayer who had run away with an hundred pound of his Masters money But Ordination is wanting and he by some means men with one Dr. Gatr as they called him but I think no Doctor who wanted a Rat to trading they fall Caust preach said the Doctor twice in a day Yeaquoth the Rat. Canst preach once a day Canst preach half an hour in a day Yes Sir Come along with me to the Bishop of Chiâ—hester Away they go The Bishop refers the examination of him to the Archdeacon Away goes Cars to the Archdeacon leaving the Rat in the room where I was but return with this answer That the Archdeacon had been drinking so hard he was unfit for the work for this day besides that the Canonical hour will be past Meet me at the Spur in Southwark on Friday there thou shalt have an Horse and into Sussex twelve miles from Chichester we will go thither to the Bishop there thou shalt have Ordination Others came to me for Sermons lately by their Advocates But I refused to let them have any sending them to Ducklane whereas I then understood the Parsons Wives sold the remainder of their Husbands Studies and Sermon-Notes I think some of them have took my counsel for I went to enquire lately for some but could not meet with any I asked them if they did not use to sell such sometimes they answered me Yea sometimes but now they were without At last I met with a parcel of very honest Sermons but not fit for the times A man that drives a Trade must provide VVare according to the Market he that â—rucks for Sermons must be sure to deal for such as the times will take off else they may stand upon his hand good judgment is required in it Sermons whose Texts are taken out of the Revelation are quite out of fashion for you know that the Bishop hearing that Mr. Hall preached a Sermon out of the Revelations forbid him to speak any more thence For indeed if a man had free liberty to speak thence he might quickly endanger the tumbling down of their Kingdom A man may with safety take a Text out of Tobit and his Dogg or where the smell of a Fish affrighted the Devil into Egypt and raise Orthodox matter thence to please the times Of if a man take a Text that may touch Prelacy let him he sure to play his Uses far enough off the point or as old Busted of Stow would play his Uses in such a case beyond Sea and speaking as loud as he could O that I had the Pope here and this makes the Popes Kitchin SMOKE And the use of this point serves to reprove the Pope and the Turk and the great Cham of 〈◊〉 then there is no danger in it But if he be wise let him be sure to bang the Fannaticks soundly as the Bishop of Winehesier did at a Visitation and tell them that the Church of England had brought forth four Bastards viz. the Presbyterian Independant Anabaptist and the Quaker and although a Gentleman spake saweily and said That if she had brought forth four Bastards she must needs be a Where he would never come at her again yet who dare say any thing to him so long as he is in the Pulpit and hath Authority on his side I hope he it as good a man as a Stage-player they can speak freely without controul and why may not he upon his Stage Or if he preach as sometime Dr. Lewis did at Tewksbury and shew the reason why Metchizâ—dech was Priest and King because the Priests place was a beggarly place like Teniksbury It would not maintain a man therefore he was King of Salem Or if he preach as he that preached at Bartholomews Exchange out of the Acts the words of the evil Spirit in the Exorcist Jesus I know and Paul I know But who are ye and thence infer speaking of the Presbyterians That there were a generation of men in this age that the Devil himself did not know Or as he that would maintain the lawfulness of Ceremonies from Pauls saying Greet ye one another with an holy Kiss Or as Mr. Fox who prefer'd the Church-Catechism before the Garden of Eden In the Garden of Eden were Trees good and evil in the Church-Catechism all good In the Garden of Eden there were Serpents and Scorpions in the Church-Catechism no hurtful thing Such as these will pass A man almost may say any thing provided alwayes he pray for the Right Reverend and observe the Orders of the Church VV. Husband you will hardly afford me time to speak What preach out of Tobit and his Dog Fie fie or where the smell of a Fish frighted the Devil into Egypt what out of the Apocrypha I am sorry to hear you say so H. VVife why may not a man preach out of the Apocrypha as well as the wise Convocation by order of the Common-prayer-book as it is to be seen in the Calender approve of fourty Chapters or near so many to be read for Lessons out of Tobit Esdras c. disinheriting the Sacred Scriptures bastardizing them neither do I think they would take in their places so many out of Daniel or the Revelation VV. Husband they are wise they know what they have to do H. VVife no doubt but they are as wise in this and other things as that Synod which was called about the Mouse's eating of the Consecrated Bread that Fanatick Creature disturbed the peace of the Church what punishment might be This was discoursed on between two Doctors
and Clerks who are the Pillars of the Church then England hath at this day and who have laid out themselves aswel in Purse as Person for the reformation of those evils which are crept in among us If after all this we shall remain obstinate disregarding and undervaluing their indefatigable pains studies and diligence used and out of our Peevish Self-Conceitedness of our own abilities New-Light forsooth and Light within and such like fooleries whereas it is impossible that those who are but Layicks Mechanicks and other T'radsmen and Country men who follow the Plow tayl to have that Wisdom Knowledge and Understanding which they have attained unto by reason of their great reading and acquaintance in the Originals especially if we consider that we are not under Heathen Emperours but Christian Magistrates whom in duty we are bound to obey as the Apostle saith Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake c. If after all this we shall remain as before it behoveth all his Majesties Officers to put the Laws in Execution and therefore Church-Wardens look to your charge take notice who are absent at the Prayers of the Church make your Presentment I 'le put to my hand as by duty I am bound Well done Sir John Priest you have made a fair speech Well Wife have a little patience and give him but halter enough he will hang himself or give himself such a fall as never Jackanapes had Neighbours saith John I have received orders from my Lord Bishop who tells me that it is his Majesties will and pleasure that Children should be Catechized I pray you send your Children the next Sunday I intend to begin at two of the clock The neglect whereof hath been the cause of so much Heresy Schism and Sedition as hath been among us the Youth having not been instructed in the right Principles of Religion The time being come saith John Where be the Youths that come to be Catechized Ready quoth the Holy-water dishclout the Clerk Quest What is your name Answ T. B. Let me hear you say your Creed I believe in God the Father Almighty c. Q. Why do you say I believe and not we believe A. Because every man must be saved by his own Faith Good Boy saith John 't was well answered You hear what he saith That every man must be saved by his own Faith And this serves to reprove and condemn the Church of Rome who hold that a man may be saved by an Implicit Faith and this very Faith say they drove the Devil away from the Collier The Devil asked the Collier how he did believe he answered As the Church believes And how doth the Church believe As I believe At which the Devil departed Whereas we know that every man must be saved by his own Faith O Woman great is thy Faith be it unto thee as Thou believest not as others believe And Faith is a perswasion of the heart grounded upon the Promises of God not upon Churches and Councils The Papists tell us that such General Councils decreed such a thing and such Learned-men and Fathers were of such an Opinion We know that Churches have erred and General Councils as the Council of Nice consisting of three hundred and eighteen Bishops witness Paphnutius It is not humane Learning that opens the eyes of the blind that is the proper work of Christ The Learnedst men have been the greatest Hereticks Heresie as one saith is a Bastard bego between a Learned head and an Unsanctified heart Paul accounted his Learning among his all things but Dung. Where is the Disputer of this world Apollos an eloquent man instructed by Aquilla and Priscilla two poor Tent-makers And Christ revealed himself to poor Fisher-men and Shepherds I thank thee O Father that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes and sucklings Neither must we pin our Faith upon other mans sleeves no not upon Kings and Princes Not many Mighty not many Noble after the flesh Great men are as ignorant of Christ as any The Princes of this world knew not Christ If they had known him they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Nor obey any further than their Commands consist with God's Commands c. Well done John for one Article H. Wife the substance of what John Priest hath said I have heard delivered by some of them and can name the persons yea the example of the Collier for instance Prethee speak thy mind wife may not this go for a fall at footbal W. Truly Husband he hath overthrown what he said before But good Husband give over talking for this time I begin to be sleepy H. Hold a very little more and I will tell you this short passage of which I was credibly informed In Katherine Coleman Parish in London a Dutchman a Jew and a Papist came to pay their Daes as they call it but I cannot say they came together But saith John Priest Wherefore come not you to Church I go to the Dutch-Church Wherefore come not you to Church I am a Jew Wherefore come not you I am a Roman-Catholick John is very kinde receives his money and farewell Then another comes also contented to pay his money but Sir John suspecting him to be some sort of Phanatick ask'd him Wherefore come not you to Church he saith but a little Come I know what you are you frequent Private Meetings you are a Fanatick I shall take a course with you I 'le prosecute the Law against you but very kind to his Countryman the Roman To speak it between our selves they say wife that there is more favour to be found under the Turk than under some that profess to be Christians W. Husband I cannot forbear sleep any longer the Child hath lugg'd me so hard that unless I fetch a nap I shall not have any milk for him when he wakes H. Wife I 'le rise betime in the morning and fetch a halfpeth of Ale that will recruit you again W. Nay Husband take two farthings more off the Cupboards head and bring a pot that will make us all drink I must turn on my other side pray have a care of the Child and so goodnight Husband H. Goodnight Good-wife FINIS