above those who design mischief when they are awake and dream of nothing that is good when they are asleep above Popish Priests up to the Ears in Legends Fanaticks in Pulpits or Witches upon Bromstaves for his fancies are for the real good of others as well as for to please himself Parables are lively Pictures of significant truths and Morality was excellently described in Fables by a Heathen but it does not a little trouble me that the Beasts in Aesop should shame some men now a days who will not be convinc'd of the Errors and Mischiefs they are engaged in when they have the opportunity of being better taught by the truly ancient and Catholick Doctrine of the Church of England but her Adversaries the Jesuits and Fanaticks who deny the King to be Head of the Church do likewise reject the Reformation by his Authority the Papists Sham it and would make it a ridiculous Schism the Presbyterians though they renounce the Pope yet retain to themselves that Usurpation which was above 500 years a gaining by the Popes finding that such a Discipline was not consistent with the Doctrine of the Church of England Preach't up a Reformation more pure and primitive as they pretended the reasons we shall know afterwards Therefore the Emblem of the Church we saw in the last Vision having vanquish't and discovered the unjust Stratagems both of the Council of Trent and of the Assembly of Divines ordered her own Convocation of Orthodox and Learned Church-men to defend her for the future against both Papists and Presbyterians They were no sooner fat but in came Harding and boldly told them That they were a small obscure meeting of Calvinists that reformed the Church As soon as Bishop Jewel espied him That is very false said he I will tell you the truth and tell you otherwise in the Epistle I wrote concerning the Council of Trent to a Venetian Noble man my words relating to our Reformation are these For our selves we have done nothing but with very good reason nothing but what we saw to be lawfull and to have been practised by the Ancient Fathers without any reprehension at all wherefore we called a full Synod of Bishops and by common consent of all estates purged our Church as it were Augeas 's Stable of all superfluities which either the negligence or malice of men had brought in this was justly in our power to doe and because we could doe it we did it faithfully At this I was so encouraged as to ask Harding whether or no they were Calvinists or a small obscure meeting that signed the Judgment of the Convocation that the Pope cannot call them without the King's consent in the year 1536 there being present the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of London 13 Bishops 49 Abbots c. Now the fatal blow was given to the Papal Authority in England and yet these could not be Calvinists nor were they few or contemptible indeed you Popish Writers are great adversaries to National Councils because they will look after the Civil Rights that the Court of Rome do not encroach upon them which a General Council wherein the Pope is what he pleases cannot therefore Cardinal Palavicini profoundly tells Lib. 14. cap. 12. us that Concilio Nazionale sempre abhorrito dà Pontifici That the Pope did always abhor a National Council and good reason because it sometimes stops that Torrent of Money which he says is so necessary to maintain the carnal felicity of the Church therefore we know why you stickle so much against the Methods of our Reformation which Mr. Shaw has well justified and Origo Protest which Dr. Burnet says was advanced with such deliberation in King Henry the Eight and King Edward the Sixth's time as is as great an evidence of the ripeness Part 1. Pag. 289. of their proceedings as can be shewed in any Church in any Age So that we were Reformed without that violence the German Divines were as the Letters between Osiander and Cranmer testifie or without Rebellion which is always the consequence of Popish Reformations At this he march't off and made room for Raynolds a Rhemish Renegado who came Busling up And although said he ye have fob'd off Mr. Harding yet I suppose I shall prove your Reformation to be a wicked Separation from the Roman Communion which the irreconcilable divisions among you testifie for hear what I say to Whitaker Pag. 481. Have you not at this present among you a great murmuring even amongst the Protestants against the Communion-Book and State of Religion which in the beginning of her Majesties Reign was Queen Elizabeth brought in If the Catholicks said nothing have you not the Puritans detesting your Faith and were it not for the Prince's Sword ready to dispossess you of Chairs and Churches I was mightily amazed to hear this for 't is 99 years ago since these words were Printed which a Gentleman observing See you not said he what a scandal these rascally Schismaticks are to our Reformation indeed the man foretold what too certainly came to pass but he must know that we do not acknowledge that any of their Principles had any share or part in it any more than they had in bringing in the King for in the days of Queen Mary Knox that peevish Puritan was as malicious towards the Orthodox in Francfurt as the Papists were to them in England And moreover 't is no wonder that they agree not with us for they disagree among themselves and are not the same they were Those in King Edward's time scrupled only some Ceremonies as Bucer Rogers and Hooper those in Queen Elizabeths time excepted against some Prayers Canons and Articles but now they are for Abolishing Supremacy and Episcopacy they have lay'd the Ax to the root and are gone so far from the Church of England that they are come round about to the Church of Rome and are worse Papists than any before the Reformation We perceive by Raynolds that the Jesuits very well knew this and therefore whilst the Presbyterians were busie to advance their Discipline they thought them fit tools to carry on their Fifth Monarchy their Principles being both alike destructive both of Church and State in order to which they quarrel with our Reformation and as the Pope and the Devil would have it Cry up a thorough one of their own Of which I will give you such a full sight if you will go along with me that you shall never forget it untill you are in heaven Pray Sir said I before you doe that let me know by what methods they brought their Discipline to that perfection in 48. I will not trouble you said he with a long relation of their several Cabals they had all King James his Reign he himself was sufficiently sensible of their restless humour and said What his Son King Charles found by experience that there were not greater thieves and cut-throats among the Highlanders and Borderers for as soon
had St. Paul himself been here then he had as certainly been sequestred and plundered as Archbishop Laud was beheaded For our Puritans who depriv'd him of his Saintship would have found many Malignant places in his Epistles enough to have brought him before a High Court of Justice for in August 1642 one was committed to the Prison which they made of the Lord Peter's House for reading Malignant Chapters as said his Mittimus and some of them without doubt were St. Paul's Certainly the Jesuits who were very busie in all the late Rebellion and who were for expunging the 7 first Verses of the 13th Chapter to the Romans would have employed their Agents to have proved him a Prelatical Papist in England and a great Enemy to the Presbyterian Reformation which could not be done decently and in order as he would have all things in the Church Besides he put the Assembly of Divines to a great Postscript to their Annotat. expence of Learning about his Epistles to Timothy and Titus to defend their Form of Church Government and the House of Commons were forced to the Lord knows how many Ordinances to raise Horse Foot and Dragoons to prove themselves the Higher Powers and that shutting the King out of Hull fighting him in open Field and imprisoning him was not resisting him therefore he would have come within the reach of this thorough Reformation as sure as a Gun for the onely Cathedral in Christendom dedicated to his Honour was Reformed to a Stable for their Horses Well Sir said he before we talk of that come along with me I will shew you some more of their tricks to bring about their Reformation With that he carried me to St. Antolin's Church in which at the beginning of the Rebellion the Brethren had set up a Lecture to pull down Popery as soon as I came to the Door there was such crowding and thronging that I was unwilling to go in besides the Steam of the Saints which were half stew'd with Zeal was almost as troublesome as a Damp in a Coal-mine The Gentleman observing me to be somewhat backward took me by the Arme And pray Sir said he give your self a little trouble it will be much to your satisfaction I will assure you You must expect to be a little warm for Presbytery and the Sweating Sickness came into England much about the same time Warm Sir said I is that all the danger Truly I do not like their Looks what do they come hither for For what said he to take warning against Popery Why Sir said I is any body to be hanged for it No replyed he but yonder is a Gentleman that will doe execution upon it presently Pray Sir said I what reason have these People to be afraid of Popery They do not look as if Mahomet would bestow the Alcoran upon them for I do not believe that they ever had any Religion but they disgrac'd it they look more like Jews than any other people living or indeed like an Assembly of Egyptian Mummies And truly untill they stirred I imagined that several of them next the Wall had been Antic Wainscot or Grotesque Carvings but one Fellow amazed me mightily for he was of such a course grain'd Complexion that I thought an Effigies belonging to some Tomb had been walking away from its Pedestal Whilst I was looking around me there stept a living Creature up into the Pulpit that took up all my Thoughts he was in the most mortified Dress that you can imagine for the white Border upon his black Cap made him look like a Black Jack tipt with Silver he wrinckled his Face up and down that it resembled a Crab-lanthorn possest with a Devil who had crumpled all the upper Crust with his Horns and Hoofs after he had been a considerable time putting himself into a posture of Ugliness and had wiped the Pearl from his Snout at last his Mouth opened his Lips trembled his Eyes twinkled but nothing was yet heard but a little grumbling in his Guts as if his Fervency lay in his Chitterlings the Audience in the mean time stretcht their Ears untill they look'd like Elephants Luggs and then to gratifie them a word or two slipt out of his Trunk but at last he roar'd so loud that I could not imagine but that there was an hollow place in his Head to make an Echo and the method and matter of his Prayer confirmed my fancy for excepting the malicious part of it which respected the King and his Loyal Subjects in which his Prayers for them contain'd a scandalous Invective against them those which were for deliverance from their Enemies as he called them were sawcy and blasphemously foolish their usual strain of ex tempore praying concluding That it would please the Lord to take his and their Foes a knock on the Costard and then they would joyn their hands to smite them Hip and Thigh This way of Praying was the Reformation of the Liturgy and according to the Rules of the Directory a superfine way of propagating Sedition leaving them scope to insert whatever might move the Passions of the ignorant Rabble and might compose a Form for devout Necromancers to raise the Devil But now for a touch of his preaching which was the modish Eloquence of Church-Conventicles in those days The Subject he treated upon was the Vnion of Protestant Dissenters against the common Dangers of Popery and his Text in order to it was this And in the Gen. 14. vers 5. fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer and the Kings that were with him and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth-Karnaim and the Zusims in Ham and the Emims in Shaueh Keriathaim He was forc'd to spit five or six times before he entred upon his Discourse the speaking the Text had made his Mouth water so mightily but after he had done fluxing he began Beloved And shall we and our Brethren in the Country and our Brethren of Scotland be smitten by the Kings of the Earth as the poor Emims and Zusims were And will it not be better that we joyn in a Covenant together that we may joyn with them in Battel altogether Beloved If these People I here mention be Strangers unto you take it upon my word they were the ancient French Protestants and this Chedorlaomer was a huge great Popish King a mighty tall Man with a dimple upon his Chin above seventeen hand high a great sign of being a Persecutour Pray observe he came in the fourteenth year there he cheated the Protestants because he came in the Popish Stilo veteri But who do you think came with him Why all the Kings he could rap and rend Antichristian French Kings Sons of Belial And what do ye think his Majesty Chedorlaomer and the Kings that were with him did Why first they came and secondly they overcame and smote the Rephaims yea they smote them even the Rephaims of Ashteroth-Karnaim I suppose this was a good Town of trading Beloved there was a World of
Antichristian neither Name or Office one Instance for a thousand and that from the Reformed Churches Oecolampadius who Reformed the Church of Basil is stiled Bishop upon his Tomb which your Reformation had certainly demolish'd That Arch-Bishop Laud had no such Design as you speak of your Brother Fisher that Trent Presbyter can testify although he smiles to think that after you had confuted him with the Axe you should reform Lambeth-House into a Prison and a Dancing-School at once representing a Popish Inquisition and a Carnival too But since your main Argument that moved the People to assist you in your blessed Reformation was that the Liturgy of the Chuch was Popish I will tell you if you 'll keep it to your self that you either knew not what Popery was or else had a mind to bring it in the Fool and the Knave are both in the Case chuse which you will 't is certain that by the great number of Papists that were in the Parliament Army by the long delay of Assistance to be sent to the distressed Protestants in Ireland you were more intent upon the ruine of the Church of England than of Rome But pray what is Popish in the Liturgy All of it replyed they and therefore ought to be reformed * Preface to the Directory All the several burthensome Ceremonies 't was made a mere Idol lip-Labour and a great Hinderer of the preaching the Word Pray Gentlemen said he again since you quote the Publick Faith let me ask you one question Are the Responses in the Liturgy Popish and may not the Church of England enjoyn them No no replyed they they are not of Apostolical Institution How then cryed he came it to pass that the Assembly should order * Of Singing of Psalms Directory pag. 83. the reading the Singing Psalms Line by Line to the People Is that of Apostolical Institution Or are Sternhold and Hopkins of greater Authority than all the Fathers of the Church There is enough written by learned Pens to prove the Significancy Usefulness Innocency and Antiquity of the Ceremonies of the Church to satisfy every Objection and Scruple of yours before-hand but if that cannot doe you might a little reflect upon what followed your Reformation of them You abolish'd all those excellent Prayers for the King and the Church but how did yours you put in the room of them prevail to procure either his Honour or its good Estate You pretended to reform the Sabbath to a Pharisaical Strictness but the first general Battel was fought on the 23 d of October at Edghill on the Sunday wherein with five shot made at the King's Army you bid him Battel and then having abolish'd Holy-days even Christmas day it self which you made a Fast you sanctified your own first Thanksgiving-day with a leud Lie You took away the Order of Christian Burial and indeed there was little occasion for it when you preach'd so many at a time to the Sword that it could be no more used than in a Pestilence and moreover you being to set Christ upon his Throne on Earth could not comply with that Prayer that He would hasten the Kingdom of Glory Item You took away the Cross in Baptism and afterwards sold your Fellow-Christians to Turks and Barbarians among whom they must receive either the Badg of Slavery or Infidelity You altered the Form of Marriage and afterwards 't was solemniz'd by a sort of Bassa's in the very Livery of the Scarlet Whore In short you debauch'd the People with Superstitious Fears which made them fly into a wicked Rebellion and they were afterwards as unjustly hang'd up in Bundles for the Sin of Witchcraft Thus did ye involve the Nation in infinite Guilt and they were punish'd with Judgments shadowing or reflecting their Sins nor did ye your selves escape a retaliating Justice being severely chastised by that very Cromwell whom ye first set up in the House of Commons to be such a Stickler against Dr. Neal for a Defender of Arminianism and Popery At this they all fell a crying Ah Lard Lard 't was Covenant-breaking that brought all these Evils upon us and upon this Nation 'T was so indeed replyed he ye broke the first Covenant with your Prince in the oath of Allegeance by introducing the Solemn League which brought in the Engagement which brought in the Devil and all his Works He had no sooner spoken but there was a Fellow in a Red-Coat got into the Pulpit and playing as many Tricks as a Turkish Dervice upon a Moschite railed against the Presbyterian Reformation calling it * Goodwin 's twelve Cautions pag. 5. Rough Froward Peremptory Imperious c. which †Discovery of Sectaries pag. 26. Edwards observing All sorts of Mechanicks said he take upon them to preach as Smiths Taylors Shoemakers Pedlars Weavers A peculiar People truly replyed he you complained that the Liturgy of the Church of England was a great Hinderer of the preaching the Word I hope you have now enough of it But why should you find fault with a Red-Coat when as your warlike Doctrine could not endure a White one and besides these are but your Journey-men in Divinity your Scribes and Amanuenses whom you have taught all the Tricks of Sanctified Legerdemain and if they have out-done you in your own Trade you know that all Arts improve What and if they have not so much Learning as you yet they are arrived to such a pitch of Mystical Gibberish and Edifying Nonsense that they are more powerfull with the People than your selves although you first taught them to justle out the Prayers in the known Language by your unintelligible Cant and cramp Exorcisms and this was driving away Popery But Gentlemen let me ask you a question Is it not a main Artifice of the Popish Priests to keep the People zealously ignorant Is it not as easy to compose a thing in English of which the common People shall understand every single word and yet not know the meaning or Connexion of any whole Sentence as 't is to make some Lines in Spanish words which put together shall be true Latin the very Language of the Beast 'T is certainly as easy since ye have mix'd and balderdash'd the sacred Style with barbarous Expressions and made every thing ye do not like to be either Antichrist or the Whore of Babylon But moreover 't is very remarkable that ye had a fine way of amusing the Rabble with ends of Hebrew let me tell you that Mr. Herbert Thorndike as learned a Rabbi as any of you observes in his Book of Religious Assemblies from the Commentaries under St. Ambrose's Name that those who would needs speak in strange Languages Pag. 351. in the Church were of the Hebrews and Irenaeus Lib. 1. c. 8. tells that the Marcosians at the Ministration of Baptism used some Hebrew words to astonish the Minds of the Ignorant I cannot say that you directly design'd to bring in flat down right Popery as you call
Greg. Epist lib. 6. cap. 3. know it he detested it as a Symptome of Antichrist and Phocas who bestowed it upon Pope Boniface did not doe it untill he had an occasion to bestow his Master the Emperour Mauritius in the other World But now said he you may plainly see it with your Eyes look you there there is the Globe of the whole Earth of which the Pope is the Lord and Governour 't is true you Hereticks wander in some little bye Places as in England and in some petty Hans-Towns of Germany but his Authority is extended over all the World all the Indies acknowledge him all Italy France Spain Poland Hungaria Transylvania Gallicia Valentia Granada Andalusia Hold Hold Sir cryed he if you should stumble o'er the Straits Mouth you will beat out your Brains against Hercules's Pillars Pray let us examine this Monster 's Noddle what a grievous bruise has Martin Luther given him with his High Dutch Knuckles he has broken I do not know how many Degrees of Longitude and Latitude all Great Britain is quite beat out and the Low-Countries are so sunck in that I believe he must be trepan'd before he can recover in short the Protestants are almost as numerous as the Papists But suppose we grant him that thumping Appellation why did Pope Paul the 5th in his Bull wherein he excommunicated Queen Elizabeth use that sneaking Title of Servant of Servants your Triple Servant He should have sent a good deep-mouth'd Nuncio that should have stretch'd his Muzzle to the uttermost and have roar'd like a crack of Thunder among the Alpes and have cryed Paolo quinto Papa Monarcha di Regno di Vaticano Segnor del mondo supremo santissimo Vmano magistrato c. This would have conjur'd down all the Protestants and have put them into such a trembling Fit that they would have shak'd all their Heresie out of the Knees of their Breeches this would have better suited him who is the most serene and invincible Sultan of Contradictions the Grand-Seignior of all Mental Reservations and Equivocations the Sophi of Legends and Romances the Great Mogul of Indulgences the Czar of Holy Impostures and Pious Cheats the Great Cham of the Inquisition c. Hold Sir cryed one of the Papists this is Railery and Abuse 't is as true replyed he as that the Pope is Vniversal Bishop let him but keep within his own Diocese and not meddle any more with the Rights of Sovereign Kings and Princes and there is no body that I know of will be so ready to complement him from the Artick to the Antartick Pole for the Future But we hope cryed several of them you will allow our Church to be the Catholick Church For this word Catholick there has been much scrambling these many Years replyed he and you have taken much pains to monopolize it to your See of Rome in order to which for the great number of humane Hereticks whom you excommunicate you take all manner of Beasts Fowles and Fishes into the Pale of your Church St. Francis first converted the Birds and then afterwards he fully convinc'd and satisfied a Wolf that had a very tender Conscience nor was he the onely Apostle to the Brutes but the Bishop Book of Conf. p. 114. of Canaglion managed as difficult a Diocess in the Year 1593 for he Catholickly accused the Fishes so that afterwards they without all doubt believed the Doctrine of Holy Water St. Bernard in a Fit of Popery is reported by * Pet. de Nat. in vit Bern. Petrus de Natalibus to have excommunicated the Flies and therefore several Species of Creatures observing that all Regular Orders had put themseves under the Protection of some considerable Saints have likewise listed themselves the Dogs under St. Hubert a Huntsman the Horses under St. Loys their Ostler-General and because the Geese once preserved the Capitol there was an Order from the Vatican that St. Feriol should take care of them And so said he I hope we are all satisfied as to the Vniversality of the Romish Church pray set forth the Antiquity of it Upon this all the Papists desired that they might save that Argument untill the last fancying that it gathered strength every Moment and desired the Assembly to take into their consideration the Vnity of their Church and the Supremacy of the Pope as for the Protestants cryed one of them they are divided into as many Factions as there are days in the Year and make an Anarchy of the Kingdom of Grace but the Roman Catholicks are all united under one Head the Pope so making the true Hierarchy of the Holy Catholick Church Upon this one of the Church of England stood up and said as for our Church it has no more to doe or answer for the Factions among Protestants than yours nor so much neither when did ever any Minister of the Church of England preach the Doctrines of Fanaticks to promote its Interest when did any of them ever preach that which in their Consciences they knew to be a Lye for the sake of the Truth and if you look into your own you will find those Divisions which never were in our Church as the differences betwixt the Dominicans and Franciscans betwixt the Jansinists and Mollinists which have been continued with the greatest heats imaginable 't is true the Pope hath sometimes interposed his Authority but to no great purpose but where was the Papal Authority in the days of the Anti-Popes or what will become of it if the Jesuits gain their designs will all other Orders acknowledge the Papal Authority if the Jesuits confine it to their own the Church of England can never be subject to such a Fatal Division so long as the King of England is acknowledged to be in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Supreme Governour As for the Pope's Supremacy that has been so sufficiently pelted with good Greek and Latin by many of these Learned Authours that I will onely humbly drop a few Queries concerning it at this time First then We desire to know Whether our Saviour ever granted it to St. Peter Secondly Whether the present Pope be his Successour Thirdly Suppose it was granted to St. Peter Whether there was any need of forging the Donation of Constantine afterwards Fourthly If it was granted to St. Peter because he first confess'd him to be Christ the Son of the living God Whether Pope Leo the 10th had any right to it for saying to Cardinal Bembo * Crispinus Quantum nobis nostrique ea de Christo fabula prosuerit satis est omnibus secuâ— notum Fifthly we desire to know whether any Bishoprick in Christendom remaining can shew a Succession so disordered and corrupted as that of Rome Not to mention their strange Schisms let any Person but consider the Stratagems and impious Intrigues of the Conclave the Factions of the Nepotism contrary to that Solemn Oath they take enough to make Angels tremble and he will conclude