be heard among them And for us thy poore handmaids here humbly suppliant before thee let thy holy Spirit direct lead and assist us in the way which may be most acceptable to thy Majesty and profitable for thy People and comfortable to us all in our distressed estate And shew unto thy Servants what thou wouldst have us to doe in this difficult businesse about the presenting of this Reply to the King which with our selves and all thine we humbly commend to thy grace and blessing through Iesus Christ to whom with thee ô Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory now and ever Amen Mother Now my deare Children I will tell you what resolution GOD hath put into my heart upon the very close of this Prayer namely that we addresse our selves to the King with this Reply together with an humble Petition And because all of us perhaps would be too many let as many of you as are willing to attend me goe with me to the King the rest let them goe and be humble suiters at the Throne of Grace that our GOD would give us to find Grace in the eyes of the King so as hearkening to our Petition he may doe accordingly Such therefore of you as are willing to accompany me stand on this side and the rest stand on that side Well I see you are equally divided Six with me and Six for me With me Charity Humilty Prudence Piety Patience and Verity For me Faith Hope Zeale Iustice Mercy Prayer Now my Gracious Children be strong and of a good courage Our Cause is good and GOD is for us and though our enemies be great yet they shall not prevaile against us TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTY THE TRVE CHVRCH AND CHILDREN THE TRUE FAITH AND RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST do humbly present their Petition of Right THAT whereas a Book intituled A Relation of a Conference between WILLIAM LAUDE and Mr. FISHER the Iesuite hath been by the said WILLIAM now of Canterbury lately republished and that under your Majesties Patronage and in the publishing whereof as he saith he hath obeyed your Majesty And whereas A Reply to the said Relation is now under the Patronage of JESUS CHRIST and in obedience to his Word and by assistance of his Grace here published and presented to your Majesty and before all the World in which Reply are detected and clearely evinced by manifold and infallible Testimonies sundry particular passages and Doctrines of the Relator which directly overthrow all true Christian Faith and Religion And whereas in this Reply is clearely proved that Prelaticall Government of the Church or the Hierarchy as they call it is meere Antichristianisme and the very Mistery of Iniquity branded by the Apostle and expresly forbidden by Christ himselfe to his Apostles whose Successors the Prelates falsely pretend to be and that all Prelates even as they are Prelates are both by their Profession and Practise so many Antiâ—hrists adversaries to CHRIST who as the Great Antichrist sit as Gods in the Temple of GOD Lording over the Faith Soule and Conscience of GODS People thrusting CHRIST out of his Throne And whereas notwithstanding the manifest truth hereof confirmed by most cleare Testimony and undeniable Proofes of Scripture the Relator or Prelate hath in his said Relation uttered sundry blasphemous Speeches belying the Wisedome Counsell and Providence of GOD and of CHRIST as making Him the Author and Ordainer of such a Hierarchicall Government of his Church which is to Father upon GOD and CHRIST a most notorious Lye and Falshood where he addes withall a blasphemous New Article of Belief of the Church of England that this is a truth And whereas the Holy Scriptures is and hath been in all Ages and by all Sound and Orthodox Divines both Ancient and Moderne both Forraigne and Domestick universally received held and constantly beleeved and maintained against all Adversaries of the Truth to be the Onely Rule of Faith and Iudge of Controversies in Divinity and alone Selfe-sufficient to give Testimony to it selfe that it is the undoubted Word of GOD as in this Reply also is fully prooved And whereas the Relator notwithstanding hath loded the Scripture with many intollerable reprâ—ohes and blasphemous words of disgrace censuring it as an insufficient witnesse to it selfe and an incompetent Iudge of Controversies in Faith as being both a blinde dumbe and dead Judge and that it hath no light in it selfe but is as a Candle in a box without light till Tradition of the present Church doe light it and the like the very ground of all Infidelity and Apostacie And whereas notwithstanding all such his blasphemies against the Scripture wherewith he hath stuffed some 30 leaves in Follio besides many other the like scattered all along his Book he the same Relator out of his grosse hypocrisie addeth this proud Blasphemy to all the rest That he hath given the Scripture all honour and ascribed unto it Sufficiencie more then enough And whereas also as appeareth in this Reply the Relator belyes and blasphemes the Holy Ghost himselfe making him the Author of most notorious lyes and vanity And whereas the Relator doth define a meere false and counterfeit Catholicke Church contrary to that Holy Catholick Church beleeved in the Creed whereby he overthrowes both that Article of Faith and with all the Communion of Saints teaching that his Catholicke Church though it cease to be holy yet is a true Church of CHRIST still And whereas of and in this his new Catholicke Church which the Relator beleeveth he makes the Church of England and of Rome to be one and the same Church and both to hold one and the same Faith of that his Catholicke Prelaticall Church which Faith is declared in the Reply not to be the true saving Faith and that they both do set up and professe one and the same Religion not different in which Faith and Religion of the Church of England and of Rome he saith as he hath lived so he resolves to dye as much to say as he will live and dye an English-Romish-Catholicke And whereas the Replyer proveth and which no Papist denyeth that the maine substance of the Romish Religion is the Masse And whereas the Relator confesseth that though a simple Papist may as he saith yet no Romanist as a Romanist living and dying in the Roman Faith can be saved and yet this Faith of Rome is the same with that of England wherein he will end his dayes So as the Church of England may hereby see in what a case she is and how highly she is preferred by her Primate as to be brought to be of the same Church the same Faith the same Religion with Rome enough to startle all your Majesties Subjects that till now thought themselves to bo Protestants and no Papists and to cause all zealous Christians to abandon all communion with such a Church as is the same Church of the same Faith and Religion with Rome And wheras
Replyer 23 24. A notable Prophecie of Scripture against the Anti Sabbatarians in these dayes 24. How the Prelate takes Gods Name in vain 25. Difference between Romes Fishermen and Christs 26 to 30. The Prelates subtile laying all the Load upon the King what ever be amisse 29 30. Good Laws may sleep ibid. What he meanes by the wakening of Discipline ibid. 12. The Prelates meaning of Anglers in a shallower water fished out 29. And how they differ from Romes Fishers The Prelates Councel to the King how perillous in his sly and subtile inticing him against godly Preachers The Prelates sly Speeches in some Cases how best interpreted by his Practises And how and what he Councelleth the King 29 30. Perillous Consequences of Prelates practises in altering of Religion how considerable for States 30 31. The Prelate put to his proofe whether he loves the Kings Crown or the Prelates Miter better 32. 13. Prelate how condemned of the Same Scripture by himselfe alledged 32 33. How the Prelate is an Enemy to the Gospell and to the preaching of it 33. What be the Prelates Foundations of Faith and how shaken 34. How the Prelates Practises not onely shake but quite overthrow the true Foundations of Faith and that by his own Instances wherein he is selfe-condemned and his palpable hypocrisie detected 35 36 37 38 39. Altars overthrow the Foundation Christ 35. 13 14. The Prelates comparison of the Church to a Hive of Bees Scanned so as nothing is left him but the Sting 40 41 42 43. Prelates and their Clergie no true Order of Priesthood 41. The Prelate calls his Hypocrisie Integrity and Sincerity The great difference between the King and the Prelates Priest about the Bee hive 41 42. And how perilously they are joyned together by the Prelate 43 44 What Integrity of the Church in Doctrine and Manners we may expect when the Prelate or his Priest is joyned to the King in Reformation 45. Two places of Scripture vindicated from the Prelates perverting of them and whereby himselfe is stung for being too busie about the Bee-hive 46 47. For what good Service the Prelates Priest medling with the Bee-hive is stung by the true Bees 48 49. The Prelates Church in England together with Rome wherin fallen from the ancient Catholick Faith in maintaining Doctrines of Devils And what the true Catholicke Faith iâ— 51. The Prelaticall Church in England how Antichristian and what Antichristianisme is 52 53 54 55 56. The Mystery of Iniquity in the Prelacy ibid. The place in John 1 John 2.22 vindicated against Jesuites and Prelates and thereby Prelates proved to be Antichrists in that they deny Jesus to be the Christ that is King Priest and Prophet distinctly proved 56 57 58 59. No Priest but Christ ever had power to forgive sins 58. The true Reformed Churches beyond the Seas vindicated to be true Churches of Christ against the Prelate 62. And Prelaticall Churches proved to be false Churches ibid. 16. Who have cause to cry out of persecution the Prelat's Jesuite Or his Seperatist 63. What Cause the Prelate gives of Separation from his Church which he saith is the Same with Rome 64. And wherein ibid. The Prelates Riddle 65. In how many paritculars these two Sisters are alike yea one and the same 64 66 67 68. And so how the Prelates Church in England being one and the same with that of Rome must needs be a false Church 69. How the Prelate overthroweth all the learned works of the Orthodox English Divines ibid. 17. The Prelates blasphemous putting a most notorirus lye upon Christ 70. What Interpretation of Scripture we may expect from Prelates whereof his Church consisteth 71. The Prelate selfe-condemned as a most notorious forcer and perverter of Scripture where ever he doth but touch it with his finger ibid. What need there is of the Prelates Oracle in setling the true sense of the 39. Artcles which under his Primacy have been declared doubtfull and of a double sense 72. What cause we have to expect an Index Expurgatorious from the Prelate to purge the writings of all our Oxthodox Divines against the Church of Rome ibid. 18. How the Prelate without his Prophecying doth by his practise hale in Atheisme and Irreligion 73 74. What we are still to understand when the Prelate names Truth c. 74. What he He calls an unworthy way of contending for Truth which we must contend for notwithstanding against such Adversaries 75. What is that Atheisme and Irreligion properly which the prelate nameth and meaneth 75. 19. The Prelates externall will-worship what it is a Great Witnesse of 76 77. The prelates swelling pride and conceit of His Will-worship 77 78. All Will-worship expresly forbidden in the Scripture It is no Service of God but of mans lust ibid. The prelates upright heart down right hypocrisie 79. The prelates notorious and bold perverting of Christs words to His own blind Devotion 78. How God is dishonoured by the prelates will-worship 79 80 The prelates Sincerity in Religion how it drives consciencious men from Communion with His English Church 81. The prelate how clearely he deales with His Majesty 82. What is with the Prelate Decent and what orderly Settlement in the worship of God 83 84 85. Sundry Innovations or rather Renovations under the primat ib. Of Ceremonies in Gods worship Of Naturall Morall and Religious Actions how they differ in point of Ceremony 87. Prelates Ceremoniall worship Hereticall 88. What Heresie is ibid. Christ the onely Master of Ceremonies in Gods service 88. How this is an Article of our Faith 8â— Christ never imparted this His Prerogative or any part thereof to any Humane Power 90. The Apostles words for Deceny and Order 1 Cor. 14.40 cleared from Prelaticall perverters 90 91 92 93 94. Prelates Pretence for Antiquity of His Ceremonies absurd 94 95 96. Prelates Cerremonies will fit neither Time nor Place but as they are forced wherin the Prelate is too zealous and forward 97. What rubbes and tough knots the Prelate meets withall about His Ceremonies 98. And how He hath been crost since his Crucifying of His Three bitter men and why and how 99. The Prelates practise not so politick as Julians was 98. Even Mediocrity in Ceremonies is an Extreme 99. So as the very least overburthens the Church of Christ ibid. How the Prelate had need to fit His Ceremonies some for Sommer and some for Winter for overburthening His Priest 100. The Replyer requireth of the Prelate a just number of so many Ceremonies so as they may neither overburthen nor leave his Service naked 100 101. The Prelate like the Pharisees in binding burthens on others ib. How the Prelate needs many Ceremonies as Herbs to straw the way to the celebrating of the marriage betweene England and Rome ibid. How the Prelates Service is naked without his Ceremonies 1â—2 Prelates pompous Service condemned by the Heathen 102 103 The Leviticall Pompe as a Type altogether abolished by Christ 105. Adam more glorious
and of Rome doe agree upon 363 364. He contradicts himselfe ibid. 307. Jesuites Commendation of the English Liturgy whether it be a good signe 364. 318. How the Prelate rewards the late Dr. White for his Deserts and what they were 364 365. The true Church of Christ proved against the Prelate not to be alwayes visible and conspicuous by many Instances Though the Prelaticall be alwayes conspicuous 366 367 368. Most pittifull and perplexed contradictions and confused and false Speeches of the Church of Rome by the Prelate 369. Rome a Tree wholly corrupt without so much as the Barke of a true Church 370. 321. Dr. Whites Errours Fundamentall reductivè confuted 371 372. 325. Wherein the Prelates Church of England is departed from the Foundation 373. The Prelates Latitude of faith in reference to different mens Salvation which he can no more fit to them then a coat for the Moâ—ne 373 374. True Preachers must teach all what and how to beleeve though it be no worke for the Prelates pen 373. 327. The Prelate confesseth that Romanists dare not beleeve but as the Church of Rome beleeves which saith he beleeves not aright How then can his Ignorants be saved 374 375. 332. Apocrypha by the Prelate how neatly brought in as a Co-witnesse with the Scripture to prove points of Faith 375. 336. The Prelates Resolution to live and dye in the Faith of the Primitive Church confuted by sundâ—y Instances 375 376. 338. The Prelate holds not the Saving Faith as not acknowledging other then Romes Faith 377 378 379. And the Saving Faith is not in the Church of Rome 377 The Prelate holds a false Hope and Charity together with a false Faith with Rome wherein he will live and dye an English Romish-Catholicke 379 380. 339. The Prelates haâ—ting and halfing with the Jesuite 380. In charging Rome he checketh himselfe 340. His halting againe 381. Yet he confesseth that the now Roman Faith is not the Catholicke which Roman Faith he will live and dye in 380. What Contradiction is ib. His contradiction noted 382. His halting down-right all along 382 383. 342. How the Prelates Saving Faith of Rome is by himselfe proved to be Infidelity 384. So as compared with the former he will live and dye in the Roman Infidelity Conferre 375 376 377. His Collusion 382. 349 Who the first Founder of Purgatory 386. 365. The Prelates false root of the true Churches existence and true root of the false 387 388. 370. The Church of Rome how yeelded by the Replyer to be visible yet not Apostolicke against the Prelate 387 388. 371. Of Peters being at Rome 388. The Church of Rome for what preserved of God 389. 375 How the Prelate gives more liberty to his Protestants to goe to the Romish Church to heare Masse which he calls the Service of God then the Jesuite doth to his Roman Catholicks to goe to the English Service 390 391 392. 376. The Prelates Assertion That the Church of Rome and the Protestant Church of England do not set up a different Religion 392. And so no great difference of going to either yet that both accuse each other of grosse corruptions indangering Salvation 393. Ibid. Who are the Prelates Indifferent Readers to whom it appeares by his Discourse as himselfe saith That the Religion profest in the Church of England comes nearest to the Primitive Church And what Readers will judge the contrary 394. 377. Not onely Superstition as the Prelate stints it but grosse Idolatry in Adoration of Images in Invocation of Saints in Adoration of the Sacrament 395. 378. By the Prelates confession to the Priest A. C. there should be but little pride in his heart 396. 379. The Prelates wan hope of mercy to the dead Lady 396 397. 388. The Prelates Close or Conclusion wherein he excuseth himselfe by reason of his other weighty affaires and of his Age His misnaming of the Penman of the 90 Psalme least he should through all his Booke but touch or name any one Scripture and withall not mistake misapply or pervert it His fearefull and desperate condition layd home unto him by the Replyer His mocking and abusing Gods Name and Mercy in his hypocriticall Prayer and impenitent heart His blaphemy in Fathering all his Booke written and published for the meeting of his Popish Truth and Peace in a Reconciliation with Rome upon Gods Free Grace His wicked and false hope that God will bring to passe that his Diabolicall Designe and Desire which cannot come to passe but with the utter confusion of the whole Land His hypocriticall and faithlesse giving Glory to God after all his blacke mouthed blasphemies and disgraces throughout his Booke cast upon the Majesty of God of Christ and of the Holy Ghost also upon Gods holy word the Scripture as if he would in the close of all with this one plaister heale so many broken heads 397 to 405. This suffice for a rude Model But what 's that to the House it selfe Enter therfore and take a free and full view Consider what thou readest and the Lord give thee understanding in all things TO THE AVTHOR AND PVBLISHER OF THE RELATION MY Lord that you find not my Name in Front the Reasons are to my selfe And when you find it 't will appeare that feare of your displeasure though terrible enough was not the Cause But whoever I be you will Say perhaps I am some madde fellow and too bold to make a Reply to your Relation But your own words will I hope excuse me for that For you Say A right sober mâ—n may without the least touch of insolency or madnesse dispute a businessâ— of Religion with the Roman either Church or Prelate so it be with modesty and for the finding out or confirming of Truth free from â—anity and purposed opposition against even a Particular Church So you Now my manner in disputing with one so Great though a single Prelate and no Church being with modesty and 〈◊〉 from vaniâ—y and purposed opposition against your Person and the end for finding out and confirming the Truth which God himselfe knoweth I hâ—pe I Say your Lordship wil be as good as your word not to cast upon me an aspersion or Censure of the least touch of Insolâ—nâ—ie or madnesse But this indeed I must confesse unto you and professe before all the world that in a Cause so weighty as this wherein I find my Lord Iesus Christ so deeply ingaged so much dishonoured and his onely true Faith and Religion so much depressed and disparaged and that by so great a Prelate I must crave pardon if herein I be both zealous and plain with you And that so much the more that one so Great I say so high in favour in Court and so potent and prevalent in the State should so doe And to this purpose I remember another Speech in your Booke Worth is no necessary concluder for Truth For worth once misled is of all other the greatest misleader And such is
Romanist condemn you of Novelty in Doctrine And what defence have you against this charge You say She professeth the Ancient Catholick Faith Is this your best Apology for your Church of England Is profession sufficient when you are departed from the Ancient Catholick Faith And is not the Ancient Catholick Faith that which Christ and his Apostles taught and have left recorded in the Scriptures Dare you deny this Now in what particular the Romanist condemnes you for Novelty in Doctrine I know not Surely not in those wherein themselves are equally condemned I will instance in two Doctrines wherein both you and they are Apostatized and departed from the Ancient Catholick Faith in your Novelty of Doctrine The first is your Forbidding of Marriage wherein thus farre you goe with the Romanist in forbidding Marriage to all sorts of persons for certain times in the yeare in all amounting to upon 20. weeks wanting not halfe a quarter of halfe of the yeare The Second is Forbidding Certain Meates on certaine dayes and weeks in the yeare And your Zeale in the observation hereof showeth plainly that you make it a matter of Religion as the Romanist doth and not a meere civill thing as the Statute makes it Now let us see what the Adostle saith of both these for he couples them together Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils speaking lyes in hypocrisie and commanding to abstain from Meats which GOD hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which beleeve and know the Truth For every Creature of GOD is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving For it is sanctified by the Word of GOD and Prayer If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good Minister of Iesus Christ nourished up in the words of Faith and good Dâ—ctrine whereunto thou hast attained So the Apostle Where we may observe these particulars First That these two Doctrines Forbidding of Marriage and certaine Meates are Doctrines of Devils Secondly they proceed from lying Spirits Thirdly they are lyes spoken in hypocrisie as if some times were more holy then Marriage it selfe which is honourable amongst all and at all times or as if some meates were holyer then other or some more uncleane then other at some times Fourthly such as teach hold and practise these Doctrines have cauterized or seared Consciences which instead of remorse glory in these Doctrines and stiffely maintain them and out of which your Prerogative Courts and other Episcopall Courts sucke no small advantage making a rich merchandise of them Fifthly That the holding of these Doctrines is a departing from the faith Apostâ—sonta tines some shall apostatise or be Apostates from the faith such as hold these Doctrines And this faith is the true ancient Catholick Faith which they depart from Sixthly These Doctrines are the markes and fruits of the last times perillous times times of Antichrist and Antichristian Apostacie and therfore they are Doctrines of Novelty Seaventhly For the truth and confirmation of all this The Spirit speaketh it expresly So as it admits of no doubting or gainsaying Eightly and lastly That it is the duty of every good Minister of Iesus Christ nourished up in the words of faith and good Doctrine to put the Bretheren in remembrance of these things So as it were to be wished that the Church of England had some good Ministers of Iesus Christ that durst and would cry out against these Doctrines of Divels practised by the Prelates and their Disciples and learned from Antichrist himselfe and upheld by his Canon Law against the expresse word of God Thus then doth not the Church of England justly lie under the Apostles sentence of condemnation for Novelty in Doctrine yea holding Doctrines of Devils and that by the expresse testimony not of Romanists but of Gods Spirit that cannot lye I could give many more instances of novelty in your Doctrine though not as yet generally professed yet practised preached and printed by Authority though if ye be charged home with it either that Book shal be burned and the Printer blamed or they will prove but private mens opinions as you say in your Book As Invocation of Saints Iustification by Charity Erection of Altars with many other Popish Doctrines as also New Arminian Heresies old Pelagianisme newly raked out of hell againe whither they had been long agoe remaunded which to entertaine and maintaine in your Church of England you have made your Articles of Religion and that by an Edict or Declaration prefixed before them to be of a dubious sense and to equivocate having a mentall Reservation of sense for the adverse party while the Orthodox imagineth the letter to be on his side and as it hath ever so been taken till you altered the case But the two former Instances shal be sufficient witnesses against you for the present that you are departed from the Ancient Catholick Faith being justly condemned of Novelty in Doctrine yea Doctrines of Divels So as here ye may have a sounder Answer to stoppe the Romanists mouth charging the Church of England with Novelty in Doctrine then to say She professeth the Ancient Catholick Faith Tell the Romanist by way of Retortion That in some things the Church of England is no more to be condemned of Novelty in Doctrine then the Church of Rome is nor altogether so much We come now to your discipline wherein the Separatist you say condemnes her the present Church of England of Antichristianisme A sore Charge and sufficient if true to seperate from you But what defence have you for this Surely you say She practiseth Church-Government as it hath been in use in All Ages and all Places where the Church of Christ hath taken any rooting both in and ever since the Apostles times and yet the Seperatist condemnes her for Antichristianisme in her Discipline Here you say something indeed and to some purpose could you make it good For to say you professe is nothing but to professe and practise that 's matter of cleare evidence And yet I say could you prove it so it were but to some purpose and not sufficient to acquit you from Antichristianisme which is the maine Point For Some things were in use even in the Apostles times and have continued ever since in all Ages and all Places too where the Church you meane of hath taken now in tract of time a deepe rooting in the Earth yea even there also where Christs true Church hath taken rooting and yet all this is no sufficient Argument or warrant for the true Church of Christ presently to imbrace them For instance The Mystery of Iniquity began to worke in the Apostles time as he affirmeth 2 Thesse 2.7 And an example hereof St. Iohn notes in his third Epistle of Diotrephes who was ambitious of Prelacie hee loved to have The
in a Cloake-bag as most of the rest were was for them and favoured their side And the present Oracle of the Church of England Papa alterius Orbis hath so handled and hammered the matter in his forge that by a Declaration before the Articles of Religion he hath with no great difficulty made those Articles concerning Grace so to speak as to please both the dissenting parties Like to a Picture which each man in the room imagins looks upon him in particular Or as easily I say as if a man should take away the prick of a Hebrew Letter from the right side and place it on the left according to which variation a man pronounceth respectively the word Schiboleth or Sibboleth The false pronounciation of which word cost the Ephraimites their lives Lastly to end as I began The Church of England and of Rome are One and the same in turning Christs Kingdome which is altogether Spirituall and not of this world into an earthly and seculer Kingdome although Styled a Spiritualty and Hierarchy or holy Government and Kingdome whose Governours are temporall Lords calling themselves Christs viceroys whose kingdome glory pompe dignity riches is all earthly not heavenly carnall not spirituall verefying that of the Apostle They are the enemies of the Crosse of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly whose glory is in their Shame which mind earthly things Here are particulars enough to be silent in the rest to prove your Speech true That the Church of England and the Church of Rome are in Substance one and the Same no doubt of that As for Romes corruptions as you account and call them they are neither so many nor so great So long as they overthrow not the foundation as you not say they doe but that the large Mantle of your Charity is broad enough to cover them So as that need not to break square or greatly hinder your so much desired and attempted Reconciliation wherein I know you will be ready to meet Rome the halfe way or three quarters and more rather then faile to give his Holinesse the kisse of peace so he will be content to leave your Patriarchate or Popedome in England while himselfe enjoyeth the Vicarship of the wider world and at his death leave you his Heir apparent of the triple Crown Yet perhaps for your Reputation sake you would require that some grossenes at least might be payred off the outsides of her fouler corruptions and they a little smoothed over and for your part I dare say you will not be behind hand to bring on the Church of England in such a faire forwardnesse and neernesse as possibly the time will permit to a just conformity in all things fecible But is the Church of England now come to this to be in Statu quo So as a man may find her just there where Rome is now Alas poore England Shall not now all thy brave Worthies that are for the most part dead and gone and Some yet surviving as brands out of the flame rise up and bring their Evidences as witnesses aganst Rome that Shee is a False Hereticall Idolatrous Apostatized Antichristian Church the very Whore of Babylon plainely described in the Revelation And one of the last Bookes written against her to purpose indeed Intituled BABEL no BETHEL which came forth in a good season somwhat before you came to sit in the Chaire of Canterbury and for which you may remember you convented the Author before your High Commission Board at London house out of Terme and committed him to prison Mr. BURTON I mean now a closse prisoner and Exile hath by many impregnable Arguments so strongly proved the Church of Rome to be no true Church of Christ but a meere Antichristian Apostacie from the Faith So as neither his two hot Antagonists your Brothers Champions nor any Jesuites since hath undertaken to Answer it as being indeed unanswerable And so it Stands his Adversaries giving him the Bucklers in the plain Field And yet now is the Case so altered that so suddainly the Church of England is become One and the Same with the Church of Rome So as She may find her selfe just there where Romes is now and that no doubt of that But how doth this appeare Surely you may take it for truth for the Primate and Metropolitan of all England hath so bestirred himselfe and playd his part in Chopping and Changing puting down truth and seting up errour and superstition in the Church of England that she is Sodainly so metamorphosed into another form and in a manner transubstantiated into a new Substance of a Church as now you may find her just there where Romes is now both one and the Same Church no doubt of that If then we may take your word for your Church of England in this Case and considering that the Church of Rome is that notorious Harlot how any true Christian as I said before that will not become the member of a Harlot can hold longer communion with you I cannot see And for my part I doe here ingenuously professe and protest against you againe and againe that I abhorre you and all such Churches as hold communion with Rome as one and the Same Church and doe utterly seperate from you till you seperate from all communion and conformity with that Babylon in all those particulars forementioned And so I have done with you thus farre in this point You proceed L. p. 17. According to Christs Institution the Scripture where 't is plaine should guide the Church and the Church where there 's doubt and difficulty should expound the Scripture P. How Where I pray hath Christ so instituted And who hath bewitched you to dare to utter such a notorious and pernicious untruth as this and to Father it upon Christ and that upon your bare word For What Scripture doe you or can you bring For this Nay if the Scripture Christs own voyce and wherein the Spirit of Christ breatheth be not sufficient to interpret it selfe and that in all more doubtfull and difficult places of it what Man or Men or Church shal be able to doe it For how can any interpret difficult places of Scripture especially such as concerne Faith and Salvation but by the Scripture it selfe But we shall speake more fully of this afterwards And you have told us what the Church is namely a Hierarchy or Kingdome of Prelates who generally Savour the things of the flesh and not of the Spirit And if youâ— Lordship should but stand for a proofe and Say in this Case and that all other Prelates would hazzard their credit upon your Ability in interpreting the Scripture it would quickly appeare what hope the world might have of Prelates helpe at a dead lift for the establishing of our Faith and Consciences in some perplexed Cases O then what brave Prelaticall Glosses should we have As for the purpose Some doubts of late are risen in England
about Altars Prelates Calling Ceremonies Now if they should consult your Lordship Siting in the Chaire of Canterbury to resolve them in these difficulties what would be your finall determination of them For the first would you not alledge Heb. 13.10 We have an Altar For the second Psal. 45.16 Princes in all Lands that is Prelates For the Third to wit Ceremonies 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in Order Ergo what Ceremonies the Bishop shall injoyne you must observe These are your Glosses and such interpretations as these we must looke for of your Church Such as the Church of Rome is very dextrous and expert in As This is my body Ergo The Bread is transubstantiated into Christs very body I have prayed for thee Peter Ergo the Pope cannot erre Launch out into the deep Ergo the Pope may fish all the world Arise Peter Kill and eat Ergo the Pope may kill the Venetians As it were by fire Ergo there is a Purgatory Thus the Scripture where 't is plaine should guide the Church otherwise not but in doubt and difficulty the Church should expound the Scripture that is guide the Scripture Ergo the Church is above the Scripture because onely where 't is plaine it guides the Church but where difficult the Church must guide it interpret it In difficulties then the Scripture it must not guide the Church Ergo in difficulties and doubts the Church may interpret as She pleaseth No not so for you adde ibid. Saying Yet so as neither the the Scripture should be forced nor the Church so bound up as that upon just and further evidence She may not revise that which in any Case â—ath slipt by her P. Here be two things enterfeerinch each other First a Caution Secondly a Condition The Caution That the Scripture be not forced Take heed of that But who shall Judge of that Even the Same that forceth it the Church And who shall defend that Scripture from forcing if it be left to mens interpritation and those men in matters of doubt and difficulty are not guided by the Scripture but the Scripture by the Churches interpretation But in no Case let the Scripture be forced You will have a care of that But why then doe you show your selfe so expert in forcing and misapplying the Scripture and that most pittifully as both hath been shewed and will all along appeare But however the Condition will helpe all Forcing or not forcing the Church must not be bound but that upon just and further Evidence She may revise that which in any Case hath slipt by her Now what is this just and further Evidence Or what this Revising And what this Sliping by her I take the Sense and Summe of all to be this That here you lay your ground to make way for an Index expurgatorious to revise But is that all Nay 't is implyed that some thing els be done as to correct and expunge or at least more clearely interpret but indeed to expunge with a Deleatur let it be blotted out whatsoever in any Books formerly Printed by Authority in England hath in any Case slipped by her or if the maine Subject of the Book be not Catholick and consonant to the Doctrines of the present Church that they may be censured as Prohibited Bookes and so una Litura cancelled And withall whatsoever you find in any Books which you do not very well resent to declare which be the Doctrines of the Church of England and which private mens opinions And 't will be requisite in my judgement that you hasten this worke to dispatch it in your time least if you die such another Phoenix will hardly arise out of your Ashes that will have the courage to adventure upon these things But among all other things leave us not in that perplexed estate whereinto you have brought us by your Declaration before the Articles of Religion but make us a New Declaration to certifie us what to beleeve and rather resolve us plainly that the Articles are to be taken in that sense which agreeth with your own opinion then that they should give an uncertain sound for then who shall prepare himselfe to the battell And there may be great reason why we should preferre your Lordships opinion before the judgement of all other those learned men that have formerly lived in the Church of England because the Church may now see more and further into a Milstone then of old as a Dwarfe upon a Giants shoulders And so what slippes have formerly passed by the Church of England your Lordship with your Chapleins and Divines will so revise and repurg as there shal be nothing left upon record whereby it might appeare to Posterity that there is any such difference between the Church of England and of Rome as to hinder their most wished and desirable reconciliation And I think I am not in this farre wide of your Project The Wardens of the Company of STATIONERS can tell what you lately gave them in Charge about such a matter for the revising of Puritan Books that so when you have purged out the Puritanism there may be neither Purity nor Verity left As I remember the Orator said of a certaine Roman that he alwayes had his head and eye-browes Shaven that men might take him not to have one haire of a good man Thus when you have given such Books a dry shaving you will make them to appeare as ridiculous as Davids Messengers whom the young Ammonitish King took and caused halfe their beards to be Shaven off and their garments to be curtalled to their bare buttocks But herein you prudently follow both the example of Rome and the Counsell of Franciscus â S. Clara who commends you for seting afoot this Project But I hope the Stationers will look a little better to their tò méros â—rgasÃa the gaine of their Trade and that which is their Freehold and Livelyhood as well knowing that if the good Books be guelt of their masculine vertue and verity none will buy them except perhaps Chandlers to stop their Mustard pots and put about their Candles And then should the Company of Book sellers and their Posterity be deprived of the benefit of their Coppies which are as a Coppy-hold of Inheritance to them and theirs But time will try all things L. p. 18. And though I cannot prophesie yet I feare that Atheisme and Irreligion gather strength while the truth is thus weakened by an unworthy way of contending P. Cannot you prophesie being the High Priest of England as that High Priest did that it was necessary Christ should dye that the whole Nation perish not So cannot you prophesie That it is necessary that all Puritans Christs members should perish that the whole Generation and Hierarchy of Priests perish not But though you cannot no more then Balaam prophesie or bring an Inchantment against the Children of Israel that God should
curse them yet can you not doe as that wicked Prophet did in Counselling King Balack to put a stumbling block before the Children of Israel by inticing them to his Idols with his faire Damosels You can tell us that the Church of England and of Rome are one and the Same Church and that her worship of Images is but a trenching or coming neare Idolatry as at after so as none need fear communion with her so he be but ignorant of her Corruptions Of which more hereafter But though you cannot prophesie what is all your practise but a cleare Prognostication and that not onely foretelling but causing and haling in a Deluge of Atheisme and Irreligion flowing in upon you Yea witnesse this your Book which could not spring but from the root of Atheisme and Sourse of all Irreligion and which doth not onely prognosticate nor onely teach the way how Atheisme and Irreligion may gather strength but doth certainly presage and that by necessary consequence most terrible Judgements and Calamities to fall upon the Church of England I would say rather upon the Hierarchy of England and which you doe with both hands in writing and publishing this Book and by all other your practises pull upon your own heads But this your feare of Atheisme and Irreligion to gather strength is say you while the Truth is weakened by an unworthy way of contending What Truth Or what is that unworthy way of contending for the Truth Or what is your Atheisme and Irreligion For all these termes need your interpretation But your prudent modestly therein we will make bold as well as we can to Supply First for Truth it is much in your mouth I meane the name and word Truth But when you name Truth you alwayes mean Falshood as when you Speake of the Church you meane such a Church as is a false Church and when you Speake of Peace you meane such as is a false Peace when your Reconciliation with Rome is a Conspiracie against Christ and his true Church and when you name Priest you meane such as is a false Priest and when you name Devotion you meane such as is a false Devotion of humane devising and when you name Faith as the gift of God you meane not the true Saving Faith whereof the Apostle speakes where he Saith Faith is the gift of God As we shall see at after So as ever under the green leaves of such faire words as Truth Peace Church Devotion Faith c. we may ever Suspect and shal be ever sure to find a false Serpentine Sense to lurke Secondly your unworthy way of contending for the Truth what is it but that which the Apostle exhorts unto that Christians should earnestly contend for the Faith given to the Saints and Paul that we should sunathlein wrastle together as for Mastery or for a Crown for the Faith of the Gospell Now is not this that which you call an unworthy way of contending for the Truth No doubt of thâ—â— As to write Books or preach Sermons proving the Pope to be Antichrist and the Church of Rome to be a false Church or no Church of Christ and no Salvation to be hoped for in that Church and that all true Christians ought to have no Communion with that Church but to abhorre and abandon her as the Lord commandeth and that Prelates are not Jure divino but are Antichristian and their Hierarchy Tyrannicall and that Altars in Churches are a denying of Christ the Onely Altar and that all Ceremonies invented and imposed by men in the Service of God is a will-worship condemned by Christ and his Apostles and many such like This is that unworthy way of contending whereby you say the Truth is weakened No marvaile Thirdly what is that Atheisme and Irreligion which you feare will gather Strength while the Truth is weakened by such an unworthy way of contending This I take it may be taken two wayes Either that by Atheisme you meane the true Faith of Christ which is opposite to the Romish faith wherewith you hold such correspondence for whatsoever is contrary to Romes faith or which is all one your faith is with you branded for Atheisme Or Secondly Atheisme truely and properly taken gathers strength by such an unworthy way of labouring a Reconciliation between the Church of England and the Church of Rome which to make way for you are glad to say that these two Churches are for substance one and the Same Church Now before your time the Church of England though in many things it symbolized with Rome as hath been shewed yet still it renounced all communion with her as being a Strumpet and that great Whore whose Husband is the great Antichrist But now you have so turned the Cat in the pan by making way to bring the Church of England back againe to an union and communion with Rome that you put the people to a stand to a nonplus so as they know not what to beleeve or what to think but are ready to cast off all further thought of God as if there were no God because they see those to flourish and to goe on unpunished who overthrow the faith formerly professed in England seting up the Romish faith againe where it had been cast out and on the other side Preaching and Preachers to be put down and the true Professors to be persecuted and thrown out of all and forced to quit their native Countrey and the like Now where all this is do you but feare that Atheisme gathers Strength Nay is not the root of all your cruely in persecuting Christs Ministers and People meere Atheisme It is noted of the Sadduces that of all other Sects they were the most cruell in their judiciall Censures As Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 2. c. 14. out of Iosephus And no marvaile They denyed the Resurrection and the Last Iudgement So as they were Atheists This made them dare to practise all cruelty and injustice For Maxima peccandi illaecebra impunitatis Spes So how durst you be so unjust and cruell in your oppressions and persecutions did you certainly beleeve that there is a Resurrection and Last Judgement wherein you shall be Judged But this by the way 't is an Item And Irreligion also what 's that That 's soon resolved to wit Obstinacie in not admitting of Altars in some Churches Irreveverence in not bowing to Altars and worshiping towards the East and adoring the name Iesus and the like This is with you Irreligion because your whole Religion is placed in these things For so you tell us in the words following L. p. 19. The externall worship of God in his Church is the GREAT WITNESSE to the world that our hearts stand right in the Service of God Take this away or bring it into contempt and what light is there left to shine before men that they may see our Devotion and glorifie our Father which is in heaven P. Surely were it not
of true piety and the power of true Religion in all those or the most part who are insnared by them Although you call this Weakenesse in those that cry them all down But I hope this weaknesse is So crying especially reaching up to heaven will in time so prevaile with God as to batter them down and to dismount your Canon that holds them up But such consider not Say you that by this meanes their most hated enemies the Jesuites I suppose you meane cry up their cause and not els but by them Surely By them here if rightly taken 't will prove very true you Say By them that is by your Ceremonies For what is there whereby the Jesuites doe more climbe and cry up themselves and their Cause then your crying up of your Ceromonies This they professe in their Bookes and English Pamphlets which they scatter among the People that the Church of England is coming amaine towards Rome as being weary of her Religion or ashamed of it And all this especially since you have climbed up to the top-pinnacle of Canterbury Church And well you Say Their most hated Adversaries You say not Your most hated Addversaries the Iesuites for then you should account Jesuites no better then Puritans Though I think your Lordship can give no great good reason why the Jesuites should be the Most hated enemies of those that most cry down your Ceremonies except you will give the Jesuites precedencie of you in persecuting those men But I say your Zeale for Ceremonies is a fiery Chariot to carry the Jesuites to that heaven of their happinesse to wit Englands Reconciliation with Rome which is hastened and advanced by nothing so much as by hoysing up of Altars and other Idolatrous Superstitions and puting downe of good Ministers and all true Religion This this is the Ladder by which Jesuites Climbe up not now to the top of Tyburne but to the top of their Mount Tabor beholding the Church of England transformed into the Church of Rome being also so exceedingly helped up and advanced by this your handy worke now published for that end L. p. 21. In this insuing Discourse I have indeavoured to lay open those wider Gates of the Catholick Church c. P. So you have indeed having set open Englands broad Gates that That Great Whore of Babylon with all her Train and Trinkets her Superstitions and Idolatries may have the more easie reentry without so much as the ruffling of her Ruffe Nay rather then fayle as the Trojans at the Subtile Counsell of their perjured Sinon brake downe a great part of their City-wall to let in the Trojan horse which unknown to them was full of armed Greeks their Enemies by which meanes their City was surprized sacked and burnt So you having been a great Instrument of not onely Seting open the broad Gates and making them wider then they were before but of pulling downe the Walls and Bulwarks of the Church of England to wit in Suppressing Gods Word and Supplanting the most Painefull and Godly Ministers as the Watchmen of the City yea the Chariots and Hose-men of Israel and having prepared it by the Setting up of your Altars and Superstitious Service and Devotion attending thereupon all conformable to Rome doe in this your Book now published as with open voyce proclaime how happy a thing it were that the Church of England and of Rome were perfectly reconciled and reunited Againe you have in this also layd open those wider gates of your Catholick Church in that therein you have in some respects made those broad Gates that lead to destruction wider then they were before For at after in your Booke you can find a broad way for the silly ignorant Papists to find Salvation in the Church of Rome and so to be Saved living and dying in the Roman Faith But of this in its due place Onely you have altogether shut the Gates of the Catholick Church against all Reformed Churches beyond the Seas as having no Prelates and therefore no Churches As hath been noted You adde The Catholicke Church confined to no Age Time or Place nor knowing any bounds but that Faith which was once and but once for all delivered to the Saints Jude 3. P. My Lord what have you to doe with the Saints faith except that you indeavour to destroy it Or with those Saints except to persecute and root them out Or would you make us beleeve that you are one of those Saints Certainly then you must become another-gates Man then as yet you have shewed yourselfe to be Your Tyranny your Hypocrisie your Superstitions your Persecutions your Reconciliation with Rome must be utterly abandoned Except by continuing in them you hope to be the next Canonized Saint to Ignatius the Father and Founder of the Jesuites Society Lately Canonized by his Holinesse at Rome for his good Service for the Catholick Cause and so may you haply after 100. yeares come to be Canonized for the notable Service you have done in the Church of England for the Church of Rome if ever you shall bring them to a perfect Reconciliation And as for that Faith you Speake of as the bound of the Catholicke Church which you say you and Rome doe both professe we shall have occasion hereafter to speake more largely of it L. p. 22. I have delivered with a single heart that truth which I professe P. What truth it is which you professe we have in part already discovered in this your Dedicatory and shall further and more fully in your insuing Discourse But with what singlenesse of heart you have done it that we leave to the Judge of all hearts Onely where we find your hypocrisie so palpable as that we cannot chuse but use it as a Perspective to see into the constitution of your heart as where we find your words so directly contradicting your deeds and practises the clearest Indexes of your mind expressed and written in Capitall Letters we doe not spare to informe you of it both because the heart is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked who can know it So as your own heart when you think it single may double with you and that others also taking warning by such a dangerous example as the greatest Prelate of England may not also be deceived and seduced by your deep dissimulations L. ibid. In the publishing whereof I have obeyed your Majesty discharged my duty to my power to the Church of England given account of the hope that is in me and so testified to the world that Faith in which I have lived and by Gods blessing and favour purpose to dye P. For your obedience to his Majesty we say no more having touched before how strong that backe had need to be that beares all your burthens so intolerable to be borne But is this the discharge of the duty of the Metropolitane of all England to the Church of England to compile and publish such a Booke to reconcile England with
sufficient Images and Crucifixes which when you doe honour and homage to your Altar canâ—ot but participate of it And againe the Councel of Constance being a Generall Councel and the Decree therof for the Cup being not yet reversed by another Councel equall to that And seeing your Church of England is one and the same with the Catholick Church when it was represented in that Councel why doe you not presse your Doctrine unto Practise in your Church of England telling them that they are all bound to the obedience of that Decree of the Councel of Constance for the taking away of the Cup in the Sacrament at least they are bound to externall obedience not to drinke of that Cup till another Councel equall to that shall reverse that Decree which hath not yet been but on the contrary the Generall Councel of Basill since that hath ratified that Decree of Constance notwithstanding all the Bohemians supplications and demonstrations to the contrary But you will say you have here in your Book made a demonstration both against worship of Images and the taking away of the Cup. But this will not free you from externall obedience to the Decrees of the said Councels till another Councel thereupon equall to those shall reverse them Therefore by your own Doctrine you have put upon your selfe and Church a necessity of externall obedience to the said Decrees from which because you cannot otherwise be exempted how doth it concerne you and your Church of England too if indeed you desire to be freed from the obedience of those Decrees to use all meanes for the expediting and speedy calling of a Generall Councel to reverse the said Decrees And so much the rather now when you have made such Demonstrations against those said Decrees as being against Truth which therfore you cannot obey without offering manifest violence to your Conscience And if your Protestants of the Church of England shall aledge that these Errours Heresies Idolatries Sacriledges have been cryed down by one unanimous voyce of all Protestants and in particuler by the established Doctrines of the Church of England yet your Doctrine tells them still that being never yet reversed by a Generall Councel equall to those wherein they were Decreed and seeing that the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas are no true Churches for fault of Prelates And the Doctrines of the Church of England are declared to be doubtfull therfore your Doctrine stands in force still that externall obedience at least must be yeelded of all Otherwise it cannot stand with any Government as you tell us here But how stands it with Faith with Conscience with Scripture with the Apostle that a man is bound knowingly to obey an Errour in the Faith For the Apostle saith whatsoever is not of Faith is sinne that is whatsoever a man doth against his Conscience is sinne So as you hereby teach men directly to sinne against their Consciences and all to uphold the Credit of your Prelaticall Government and Decrees Thus the Church of England may see what an Oracle she hath got in the Chaire of Canterbury To the Fift A Generall Councell hath not power from Christ immediately to be Iudge in Controversies Imediately No nor mediately neither nor any way at all For it is denyed that your Generall Councel of Prelates are lawfull seeing all the members of the Councel are neither visible Iudges nor Vice-Roys appointed and allowed by Christ to Governe his Church as hath been proved Now if all the members of your Generalâ— Councel be of no Authority Divine then neither your Generall Councel it selfe with all the Decrees of it For there is â—he same reason of the whole and of all the Parts Christ then will not have his truth to receive Testimony much lesse subject his word to the Judgement of those who are usurping Tyrants and enemies of his word and especially since Antichrist hath prevailed Christ would not receive testimony from the Devils that they knew him No more doth he allow any of Sathans Ministers false Apostles to be Iudges in Controversies of Faith And you confesse A Generall Councel hath no power from Christ Immediately at least to be Iudge in Controversies Whence then hath your Generall Councels this power Thâ— Church say you prudently tooke it up from the example of the Apostles Acts 15. Prudently tooke it up Nay surely rather you craftily stole it You took it up where it was not layd down for you to take up and so to abuse But you have Prudently that is Politickly and presumptuously taken up that is usurped that power which was never given you nor yet by any Apostolicke Legacy left unto you seeing you are neither their hâ—ires nor successors nor Executors nor Administrators nor Assignes of the Apostles but in one word for all meere Usurpers Yea though by the Name of Church we should understand which you doe not the true Church of Christ successively after the Apostles in all Ages yet she hath learned another gates Prudence then to take up such an example from the Apostles as is neither warrantable for her to doe nor imitable For the Apostles aâ— they had their Immediate Calling from Christ so by him they were immediately inspired with the Holy Ghost so as then judgement in all matters of Faith was infallible But the succeeding beleevers had not the like fullnesse and abundant measure of the Spirit as to make them competent and sufficient Judges in matters of Faith on whose judgement men might infallibly rest their faith and settle their Conscience Yea it pleased the wisdome of Christ to give that fullnes of his Spirit to his Apostles that being thereby led into all Truth they might not onely preach that truth to that present age wherein they lived but also leave the same truth written to all succeeding Ages of the Church of Christ to be guided and directed by that Truth in the Scripture as the sole competent and every way sufficient and compleat Iudge in all controversies and matters of faith whatsoever Againe that particular Example of the Apostles Acts 15. was an A per se. It was a particular Act proper onely to that present occasion and not to be stretched to aftertimes when the Church should be settled For that very determination of the Apostles was but proskairos for that very season to compose some Differences arising between the Iews and Gentiles newly converted to Christianity And the Apostle Iames layes this for the ground of the Determination or Decree Moses saith he of old time hath in every City those that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day Here is the occasion of this Assembly the mixture of the Iews living amongst the Gentiles And though the Gentiles converted were free from Jewish ordinances yet the Iews being offended at it and not yet strong enough in the faith and pressing the Gentile Christians with Circumcision hereupon the Assembly met and by the speciall and immediate assistance and
that principally They came about him like Bees Who The High Priests the Scribes and Pharisees who also hooked in the secular power Caesar and the Priest these came Swarming about Christ like Bees which they did first in the Garden where they apprehended him then in the High Priests hall where they accused him then in the Praetorium before Pilate where they condemned him as before Herod where they mocked him and last of all they Stung him to the heart with a Roman Speare his hands and feet fast nayled to the Crosse. Thus the Great Master Bee of the Hive was stung to death by the Hierarchies instigation And thus indeed GOD grant it never be our Kings case as it was Christs Thus I hope you see by this time what a Divine you are in your application of Scripture If you heare but the buzzing of a Bee presently that 's the Bee that stings you Whereas in truth you and all such as you who are persecuters of Christ and murtherers of him in his Saints and Servants are those Bees that David and in him Christ complaines of They came about me like Bees But take with you what followes They these Bees are quenched as the fire of thornes For in the Name of the Lord I will destroy them The Second place which I wonder at more and yet I will now cease to wonder at any thing you either doe or dare to speake which you quote is Rev. 22.12 Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his works shal be Now this you apply to your selfe as a medicine to cure that sting which you say the Bees have given you Why what Bees doe sting you If any are they not and that by your own confession the Bees of Gods own Hive his true Church And why doe they sting you Is it not for your slapping of them and smoaking them out of their Hive But how or wherewithall do they sting you Alas poore soules they have no other stings but Prayers and Teares and the sting of Truth which they preach and professe These are their proper stings Perhaps as they have cause enough they pray against you as a most cruell persecuter of the poore painfull Bees of Christ his Ministers and an overthrower of their Hives and a destroyer of the Bees But such stings you little care for as which you are not affraid to provoke more and more against you every day But beleeve it their Prayers like winged darts or arrowes fly swiftly and pierce deep and will deadly wound where they light though as yet ye be not sensible of it But all this while I heare not a word of the Hornets-Selfe stinging Why doe ye not yet cry out of the deadly sting of your own Conscience For all the innocent blood of Gods Servants which you have shed and for all the havock you have made in his Hive Nay rather your heart is so hardned with sinne and blinded with Romish zeale that instead of remorse you look for a reward And a reward you shall have of him whose words you feare not to cite who Saith Behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me to give to every man according as his works shal be But you tell us immediately before this that you are stung of the Bees many times for no offence nay sometime for Service done them would they see it Many times for no offence Therfore it seems sometimes it is for offence done them by you But can you name any one time when they sting you without being extreamely provoked by your offence given them Shew it if you can Nay sometimes you say for Service done them Somtimes When And what Service Your oppressing and burthening their Consciences with more and more Romish rites and Ceremonies Your fetching them up to your High-Commission and there undoing of them clipping their wings that they can now no more doe their office and bring any more honey to the Hive and so muzling their mouthes that they cannot dare not so much as humme What other Service can they see you doe them Or do you your selfe know any that you do in private for these Bees Do you now and then whisper a good word for them in the Kings eare That were a good heareing if you did it on the right side But this service we confesse you do them You drive them closser to their GOD make them pray the more earnestly and fervently and to be the more provident in the well husbanding of that poore stock of honey they have got both because you have stocked up all those flowers on which they should gather more and least that which they have you should take from them For a Conclusion of this your similitude of the Bee-hive the Church of Christ upon earth you compare to a Hive of Bees And when the Priest putteth his hand to the Hive he shal be sure to be Stung and there is no Honey for him This Priest is the Prelate an Hierarchicall man And as I noted before the true Bees of Christ his true Church cannot brook such Priests such Hierarchicall men to meddle with them Ergo hence I conclude that the Hierarchy consisting of Priests and such like men as Prelates or an Hierarchicall Church is no true Church of Christ is not this Hive of Bees to which you compare the Church of Christ upon earth How so For your Prelaticall Church is such a Hive of Bees as the Priest may put his hand to the Hive without any feare or danger of stinging at his pleasure For in that Hive all the Bees are so conformable to the Priest their Master-Bee as they yeeld all subjection to his dictates neither doe they or dare they at any time offer to sting him But if this Priest offer to meddle with Christs Bee-hive and to impose his Cannon Law and Ceremonies upon Christs Bees to inforce them to conformity to his Rules the Bees doe no more acknowledge such a Priest or Prelate for a Master then Christs Sheep which will not heare the voyce of a strange Shepheard And if he will needs force them he must not blame them if they sting him For as Christ said to the Jewes Ye are not of my Sheep So such Priests with their Hierarchy are none of Christs Hive Prelaticall Churches therefore are none of Christs true Churches And thus much of the Bee-Hive L. p. 15. The Church of England is in a hard Condition She professes the Ancient Catholick Faith and yet the Romanist condemnes her of Novelty in her Doctrine She practises Church Government as it hath been in all Ages and places where the Church of Christ hath taken any rooting both in and ever since the Apostles times and yet the Seperatist condemnes her for Antichristianisme in her Discipline P. It matters not so much who they be that thus condemn your Church of England as how true it is whereof you are condemned Doth the