poore Sheepe and Lambs of Gods fold there you feare not most stoutly to make wide wounds and make no bâ—nâ—s of it Put true Protestants doe hold that the wider the rent is made between them and Rome the better it is I know this is to you as the widening of a ghastly wound But it is the truth Yet you put us in some hope to heare what you will say when you are forced to it As Cowards will fight most terribly when they are forced to it Though I hope you will not indanger Rome more then her errors indanger her own salvation L. p. 149. Nor can you say that Israel from the time of the separation was not a Church for there were true Prophets in it Elias Elizeus and others and thousands that had not bowed knees to Baal P. But I can say and that upon good evidence that Israel the ten Tribes from the time of their setting up and following the Calves were no true visible Church of God For they had no visible signes or markes of a visible Church Their whole Religion consisted in the worship of the two Calves neither had they any Leviticall Priesthood or Priests of Aarons order nor went they up three times in the yeare to worship at Ierusalem according the Law 1 King 12.28 29 30 31 32 â—3 Here was not one footstep of a visible true Church of God but of the Devil indeed whom they worshiped in the Calves But say you there were true Prophets in it True But that was upon some extraordinary occasion when they were sent and prophecied But for all their Prophecyings did the King and People abandon their Calves Yea when Elias had caused Baals Prophets to be slain or when Iehu slew all the remainder of them and their worshipers both he and the People followed the Calves still And besides they had not true Priests but those of Ieroboams Order And if they had no true Priests will you allow them for all their Prophets to be a true Church of God Doe you not exclude all the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas from being true Churches of God because notwithstanding all their Prophets to wit Preachers and Ministers of God they have no Priests no Prelates no Priesthood Would you account or call Rome a true Church if she had not her Priesthood Although her Priesthood is of no other Order then that of Ieroboam of humane Ordinance not of Divine Institution sacrificing Priests as those were Now as Ierome saith as you cite at after Vbi non est Sacerdâ—s non est Ecclesia Where there is no Priest there is no Church Israel had no true Priest and so no true worship of God Nor doth Ierome and so the antient Fathers when they used the word Sacerdos thereby meane any such sacrificing Priests as are at this day in the Church of Rome For the Fathers held no Transubstantiation ergo no sacrificing Priests Whereas your Romish Priests have no other Order but of sacrificing Priests expresly in their Ordination in these words Take thou a power to sacrifice the body of Iesus Christ upon the Altar or to the like effect And this by the way proveth Rome to be no better a Church of God then that of the ten Tribes was when they had their Calves and Priests sutable And as for those Prophets you speake of Elias and Elizeus were their Prophecies regarded Nay were they not persecuted by Ahab and Iezâ—bel and their Son Iehoram Yea and 100 Prophets of the Lord more whom good Obadiah hid in a Cave and fed with bread and water and so preserved them from Iezebels fury Yea and all the Prophets whom the Lord sent were they not persecuted by the State and Court of Israel Was not Amos forbid by Amasiah King Ieroboams Court-Priest to preach at Bethel saying Prophecy no more at Bethel for it is the Kings Chappell and it is the Kings Court And did not this Court-Priest complaine of the Prophet to King Ieroboam saying Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel the Land is not able to beare all his words And it were well if there were no such Priests in Christian Kings Courts that doe such offices against the Lords Prophets and Preachers complaining of them to the King that they are a sort of factious Conspirators against him such as those whom you have called shallower waters as before and the Land cannot beare all their words although they speake nothing but truth which Gods word teacheth and gives them good warrant for But this by the way To return to Israel Is a people presently a Church upon the coming of a Prophet or Minister of God to preach unto them untill they doe imbrace Gods word and set up his pure worship amongst them But those ten Tribes still minced and contemned Gods word and persecuted Gods Prophets that were sent unto them and with a high hand maintained their Calfe-worship the Devils service though they pretend it was Gods service as Exod. 32. These are thy Gods ô Israel that brought thee out of Aegypt untill there was no remedy that the Lord gave them up to perpetuall Captivity Againe I cannot but a little wonder that your Lordship should so grosly forget your selfe as because of a Prophet or two to give such a state the stile of a true Church of God For do you any where allow a true Church which hath no Priests And it is cleare that Israel then had no true Priests but counterfeit such as Rome now hath So in this respect rather I suppose you mean that was then a true Church because of their Priests such as they were Baalish such as your Babylonish Priests as good an Argument to prove Rome a true Church But you alledge there were thousands among them that had not bowed knees to Baal 'T is true God told Elias when he complained he was left alone that he had reserved to himselfe 7000. that had not bowed the knee to Baal nor kissed his mouth But they were all so hid that you see the Prophet himselfe knew no such thing till the Lord told him They made no open profession of the true Religion And if they had any private meetings to pray together and to read and expound the Law will your Lordship call that a Church Though those Assemblies were indeed the true Churches of God But would not you if you had been in Amaziah the Priests stead have called those private meetings Conventicles and would have hunted them out with your Pursuivants And therefore those seven thousand not being of the Kings Religion nor Communion Ecclesiasticall with the other many thousands of Israel and lying hid in Corners here and there they would not denominate the whole state of the ten Tribes a true visible Church of God themselves living as it were invisible at least so invisible as though others took notice of their Persons where they conversed yet they saw not their Religion for
Resurrection Indeed you inatate â—he Apostles in their Philâ—â—â—ikÃâ— emulation and contention which should be the greatest which Christ condemneth and utterly forbiddeth in them But this was in them onely before they knew the Mystery of Christs Kingdome aright They dreamed of a Temporall Kingdome but after Christs Resurrection when they had received the Holy Ghost they were of another mind no such emulation then who should be the chiefest there but who should shew greatest love and fidelity to Christ in preaching the Gospell and building up spirituall Temples to God But you I say imitate them in their carnall estate wherein that which they blindly imagined you have erected an Image of namely a Temporall Kingdome like that of Heathen Kings and Princes and other Temporall Lords Which shews that you are none of Christs Disciples I say or the Apostles successors and that you have not Christs Spirit but are altogether carnall and sensuall as the Apostle saith For had you Christs Spirit you would be truly spirituall as the Apostles were But you are sâ—nsuall having not the Spirit And if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the sâ—me is none of his And in that you veile your hypocrisie and all your sensuality and carnall state which you call your Hierarchy under the specious termes and Titles of spirituall Holy Grace Church Bishops Christs Vicars or Vice-Roys Apostoliâ—ke successors oâ— the Apostles wherewith you gull the blind world this is that very Mystery of Iniquity the Apostle speaks of which began to work even in his dayes as we noted before you being those false Prophets that come in Christs Name in sheeps clothing but are inwardly ravening Wolves You may think my language sharpe but it cannot be too sharpe against such a cursed proud Generation as you Prelates are usurping Tyrants Rebells against Christ Perverters of all truth and faith corrupters of all true honesty holinesse Religion and the worship of God who are made to be destroyed with that Beast of Rome whose Image you beare and with whom the false Prophets such as you are and all those that in you do worship the Image of the Beast and receive his marks shall goe into the bottomlesse pit and burning lake L. p. 204. Now it the Church of Rome must be a Tryumphant Church here Militant no longer P. I hope then if Rome be here as she is a Church Triumphant and no more Militant but in warring against Christ and his Saints for she saith in her heart I sit a Queen and am no Widow and shall see no sorrow And in her Decretalls she hath made a firme Decree for her perpetuall tranquility and felicity here in all pleasures and prosperity free from all incursions and invasions which is an estate Tryumphant there also you and your Hierarchicall Lady Church of England will not be farre behind your Sister Queen at Rome For you are both one and the same Church and one in that especially which makes you a Church Tryumphant and that is your Kingly Hierarchy and Lordly Prelacy and therfore if that Queen be tryumphant at Rome your Lordship and your Churches Ladyship must be tryumphant in England as indeed you are in all your Ruffe and Gallantry And as Rome hath now a long time tryumphed over the poore Saints of God and Martyrs of Iesus martyring and massacring them and garrowsing full cups of their blood even unto drunkennesse and surfet so your Tryumphant Chariot marcheth after her apace trampling the Saints under your feet and tryumphing over them in shedding their innocent blood and so glorying in your Bestiall and Diabolicall cruelty in oppressing and tyrannizing over Gods people and that so fiercely as if you would outstrippe your Elder Sister in all her bloody barbarisme and therein exalt your tryumph above hers For wherein else should the Glory and magnificence of your Prelaticall Princes and Heroicall Vice-Roys shine forth but in being mounted on Horsebacke while the true Princes lacky it by them on the earth And thus you ride in tryumph as the Heathen Kings were wont to doe Oh how you tryumphed when you looked through one of your Court-windowes when you passed your tryumphall Censure to behold those THREE looking through your Pillory-windowes whose blood you had before how justly your own Conscience can tell you condemned there to be shed But the wonder was that they even theâ—e as in their tryumphall Chariot tryumphed over your Barbarous cruelty But thus you are a Tryumphant Church too and in nothing Militant but as is noted before in your warring against and persecuting the poore Saints of God But your tryumph shall end in your shame and confusion verifying that which shall be fulfilled in your Sister or Mother Rome Reward her even as she rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works in the Cup which she hath filled fill to her double How much she hath gâ—â—rified her selfe and lived delicioutsly so much torment and sorrow gâ—ve her for she saith in her heart I sit a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow Therfore shall her plagues come in one day c. L. p. 205. The Kings under the Law but sâ—ill according to it did proceed to necessary Râ—formations in Church-businâ—sses and therin commanded the very Priests themselves as appeares in the Acts of â—lesechiah and Iosiah 2 Chro. 29.4 and 4 King â—â— 2 P. All this is true you here affirme so as iâ— confirmes what we said before of Christian Kings in matters oâ— Religion that they ought to doe nothing but still according to the Law of God All Allways in All things not varying in the least Circumstance or Ceremony All this is well But what makes this for your Priest What saith your practise This Ergo the King giving way to the Priest or Prelate of Canterbury he may of his own head appoint and impose what Ceremonies his Romish Devotion thinks fit in the worship of God This is your usuall Logicke This your usuall perverting and abusing of Scripture Well What more A little before ibid. you tell us Omnis anima Every soule All spirituall men even to the highâ—st Bishop and in spirituall Causes so the foundations of Faith and good Manners be not shaken must be subject to the Higher Powers And where they are shaken there ought to be Prayer and Patience there ought not to be opposition by force Now for your highest Bishop and all spirituall men we have done withall That all Obedience is due from all men to Kings and Princes in all things where the foundations of Faith and Good Manners be not shaken we all acknowledge with you and where they are shaken there ought to be Prayer and Patience of every particular and private Christian without his opposition by force when he is pressed to doe that which is against Gods word and his own Conscience Now here by the way I pray you resolve me as in a Case of
Incendiary For behold Lord what havock is made in the Land What superstitions in will-worship what oppression of the Gospell what persecution of thy Ministers what effusion of their innocent blood What dispersion of their poore families What prophanation of thy holy Sabbaths What erection and adoration of Antichristian Altars and Images What suspension of the doctrines of Grace and Salvation What usurped Tyrannicall Domination over thy Ministers and People What imposition of the intollerable yoake of Ceremonies upon their necks bringing them againe under Antichristian bondage whom Christ by the shedding of his precious blood hath made free And what urging and pressing with furious rage reaching up to heaven the observation of all humane Ordinances while yea and whereby thy divine Ordinances are cast out And what wilt thou now doe to thy great Name Thou hast of late by terrible signes from heaven as it were by sound of Trumpet summoned the whole Land threatning to destroy it Surely the provocations are great were not thy Patience greater But thou expectest Repentance with Reformation of all these abominations But little appearance as yet and as little hope while such Books as this are Patronized and Authorized What then Lord Wilt thou therfore proceed to judge the whole Land for these things Surely the whole Land is defiled and so the cause were just But yet remember Lord that thou hast a remnant yet left therein that have not bowed the knee to Baal And consider withall that they are a Faction principally of some few persons as the Prelates that have caused such confusions in the Land And wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked farre be that from thee Shall not the Iudge of all the world doe right And even now do not thy People lift up strong cryes unto thee against their Aegyptian Taskemasters and Babylonian Lords And behold Lord what a desperate Leader this Faction hath got even as Iudas was to the Rowt the Primate and Metropolitan of all England those Antichristian Titles he so much vaunteth of who because he walkes in Factious and lawlesse by-wayes therefore hath this Fox for his better defence gotten upon him the Lyons skin pretending the King for the Author and Patron of all his practises Now the Foundations being thus cast down what can the Righteous doe But thou art in the holy Temple Thy Throne is in heaven wherein and whence thou swayest all Scepters here below Thou art the King of Kings and in whose band the Kings heart is as the rivers of waters turning it which way it pleaseth thee And thou hast of late mercifully turned his heart to grant to his Scottish People their ancient Christian liberty both by freeing them from Ceremonies and from the High Commissions thereby cutting shorter at least the Hornes of the Beast in the exercise of Prelaticall Tyranny Now ô Lord be pleased to perfect this thy worke both in Scotland and England and throughout all Christendome by causing the Kings of the Earth that formerly were as hornes to the Beast and had given their power unto him to hate the Whore and strippe her naked and that by throwing down the Hierarchy the maine Pillar of the Antichristian Throne which is advanced above and against the glorious Kingdome and Throne of our Lord Iesus Christ. And for this cause ô Lord open the Kings eyes clearely to see the notorious hypocrisie of his Prelate who under a Colour of Peace and Truth goes about to overthrow all true Peace and Truth in his Kingdome Let him see ô Lord how dangerous it is to maintaine or countenance an Antichristian Faction within his Kingdome Let him see how naked his Kingdome lyes at this time exposed to all the stormes of heaven through so many crying Sins and desperate iniquities which the whole Land groaneth under ready to sinke to the bottome of hell Let him see and be rowsed up to a more watchfull Care and diligent attention upon the grave and waighty affaires of a King and especially not to commit the Care of Religion to Romish Prelates which are no members of the true Church of Iesus Christ. And withall ô Lord quicken the Kings heart with a Coale from thine Altar even with the zeale of the Spirit of Iesus Christ to enter into a present strict examination of the State of Religion as it now stands in his Kingdome And because thou hast in mercy stirred up and strengthened a Servant of thine to discover to the King not onely the great dishonour his Name sustaineth but the great danger his Kingdome incurreth while such intollerable things are suffered as thy Servant hath in his Reply laid open Now ô Lord let it be thy pleasure to bring this worke to a full perfection by the publishing of it that so both the King and his People by taking knowledge thereof may come to see what a miserable condition they are brought into by one blinde guide and bold Prelate And let thy Spirit ô Lord awaken and quicken the minds of the Lords and Nobles of the King and State to consider what a base vassalage all those are brought under who suffer themselves to be made slaves to serve the lawlesse lusts of one domineering Primate and at length wisely to foresee the mischiefes which the Altering of Religion to the worse and reducing all back againe to Rome may and will certainly bring upon the Land and upon themselves too if not the more speedily prevented by a sound and serious thorow Reformation Make the great ones of the world ô Lord sensible that there is a judgement to come and that there is a terrible GOD above them that shall call them to a strict reckoning for all those ungodly practises wherein themselves have either been Agents or Instruments either Principalls or Accessories as in oppressing thy Word and Truth in persecuting thy faithfull Ministers and the like And Lord stirre up all thy people to fervent and continuall Prayer and strengthen them therein to persevere and watch untill an Answer come forth from thy Throne to all their Petitions and Supplications which from day to day they have and do and shall present unto thee Oh let not our God be angry with his people that pray unto him with unfained hearts and lips nor let their enemies Say Where is now their GOD But Lord stirre up thy strength and come and helpe us Put the wicked in feare O Lord that they may know themselves to be but men And shew some token upon thy servants for good that they which hate us may see it and be ashamed because thou Lord hast holpen us and comforted us And let the Atheisticall Scornfull world see that it is not in vain to serve God and to call upon him and to wait for him And now Lord avenge the Cause of Iesus Christ against Antichrist and break down Antichrists throne and exalt Christs Throne that himselfe alone may sit and rule and raigne over his People and the show◠of that King may
dishonour of the Word of Grace the distraction of good Ministers and the destruction of many thousand soules The pressing and setting up of Altars attended with sundry adorations images crucifixes to the open Scandall of many and for non-admittance whereof with other Innovations or rather Renovations of old Popish Reliques many good Ministers and people of GOD have deeply suffered by all which practises and sundry more the Replyer hath plainly and particularly proved how the very Foundations of Faith and Christian Religion are not onely terribly shaken but razed and ruined so as the very Foundations of the earth doe tremble withall and more especially how not onely by unmoralizing of the 4 th Commandement whereby the Floodgates of all profanenesse are broken up and the uncannonizing as it were or making voyd of the doctrines of grace but by the setting up of Altars with all their Service and Ceremonies is an absolute denying and renouncing of Iesus Christ our onely Altar as the Replyer hath shewed at large And whereas notwithstanding terrible persecutions if it be lawfull to call a Spade a Spade have followed upon these Innovations which have fallen most heavy upon the faithfull Ministers and their Families yet the sayd Relator whether out of notorious hypocrisie or egregious malice or both is not afraid to abuse the Sacred Name of GOD nor ashamed to cast a myst before the open eyes of all the world saying * GOD forbid I should ever offer to perswade a Persecution in any kind or practise it in the least whereas if Persecution be Persecution whether he hath perswaded to it or diswaded perhaps your Majesty can tell and how little he hath practised it thousands have sufficiently felt And whereas the Replyer upon occasion by the Relator hath declared fully the Tragicall Story of the Cause Censuring and suffering of a late Minister of the Gospell depriving him of his Ministry and all worldly comforts and all for the meere discharge of his Ministeriall duty in admonishing his people of such dangerous Innovations as were then creeping yea and crowding into many Churches for the which he hath been so terribly censured and still suffereth both closse Imprisonment and Punishment with Divorcement and Seperation from wife and children and all friends whatsoever as a man buried quick in a Marble Tombe of perpetuall Calamity the very Image of hell such an Example as no age no history sacred or profane is able to parrallell that a man should be so terribly Censured and that upon this very ground that he would not do that whereby he should assent to the condemning of his Cause before the hearing his Answere in Court for Defence of his Cause being wholly precondemned by the two Judges as impertinent and Scandalous And whereas notwithstanding the Relator doth still insult trample upon and imbitter his inke with gall blacking the innocent with foule reproaches whom all the Court could not charge with the least offence or crime but that they said he was too bitter which he gave good reason for And whereas the cry of innocent blood both of that Servant of Christ and of his Companions is gone up to heaven against the whole Land pleading and clayming Iustice at that High and righteous Throne so as heaven and earth are troubled with the cry which will not be appeased till Iustice be done And whereas GOD hath put into your Majesties hand both the word of his Truth as the onely Rule whereby to reforme all errors and corruptions wherewith his worship is profaned and the Sword of Iustice to vindicate the Cause of the oppressed Innocents And whereas so great a worke as the Reformation of Religion is above the Spheere of any ordinary Court of your Kingdome so as even the Honourable Boord of Starre-Chamber disclaymed that Office where the sayd Innocent standing before them desired Justice in that behalfe yea and is too heavie a burthen to lye upon the Kings shoulders alone and much more as the case now stands in such a perplexity of things and universality of corruptions which as a leprosie hath overspread the whole body of the Land And seeing Christian Prudent Grave and Pious Princes use not upon the first sound or sight to slight or reject as fables or flashes of some brain-sick man such deepe charges as the Replyer here presenteth and presseth hard upon the Relator by such sound and demonstrative arguments and which do so nearely concerne the State of the whole Land which by reason of Prelaticall outrages seconded with the publication of the said Relation the very Portent of Confusion lies now a bleeding And whereas the contempt of just complaints and neglect of Iustice in such Cases of so high a nature would necessarily argue that men have sold themselves as having made a covenant with death as the Prophet speakes and an agreement with hell being justly given up of GOD to dâ—struction as in the case of Amasiah King of Iuda who threatning the Lords Prophet for reprooving him the Prophet replyed Now I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou hast not hearkened to my Counsell even as it came to passe a little after in the same Chapter Amasiah would not heare for it came of God that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies because they sought after the Gods of Edom as the Prelate professeth for the Church of England one Faith and Religion with Rome And whereas the Hierarchy being an Antichristian Kingdome shall perish with Antichrist and all they together that support and confederate with it against Christs Kingdome his Gospell and Truth as the Relator doth in his Book So as to suffer such a Rebell against Christ as the Replyer hath proved him to be and much more to Patronize him and his worke were to maintain open warre against heaven and to make your Majesty guilty of all those blasphemies and heresies in it which GOD forbid And whereas to whom much is committed of him much shal be required and the Office of Kings is of all other highest on earth and therefore God will require the strictest account of them and the more where the light of the Gospell hath also clearely shined forth leaving no place for pleading ignorance it being lo the honour of Kings to search out a matter as Solomon saith throughly to inquire into the Cause brought before him and therein to do exact and impartiall justice much lesse committing the Cause to be judged by the Adversary or Party but to judge righteous judgement And whereas GOD hath sent of late sundry fearefull signes from heaven as warning-pieces to England to awaken the State thereof to a more deepe consideration of the condition wherein it stands obnoxious unto and naked before that dreadfull Judge for her most notorious and hideous crying sins iniquities transgressions and impieties in all kinds and in the highest degree and to lay down her high pride and selfe-confidence and gyant-like daring in lifting her selfe up
against Iesus Christ and his High-Throne in oppressing and trampling upon his sacred Word and Ministers and People least by standing out in open defiance against God and in the defence and maintenance of her Rebellion with a high hand God be provoked altogether to confound her So as if a more mature Reformation of such hideous enormities whereof the Relator is here by the Replyer convinced be not seriously thought of and speedily and effectually put in execution to be secure in looking for Peace or any Good not having thus made peace with God were but to bewray a mind desperate and past all hope of remedy And lastly whereas the Replyer to all these his high Charges upon the Relator hath for some speciall reasons to himselfe not set his Name it being neither out of any distrust of the goodnesse of his Cause nor yet feare of men by others Example when as your Majesty shal be pleased to send forth your Royall Edict commanding that the Repyer whoever he be come forth and appeare to make proofe of all his Allegations against the Relator assuring him of an equall just and faire unpartiall hearing in such a Court of Iustice as the Replyer himselfe shall nominate and appeale unto which is not cannot be lesse then the most High and Honourable Court of Parliament which the necessity of things so nearely concerning the whole Land doth with all importunity call for he the Replyer will then be ready God giving him life and health in all humble duty and allegeance to present himselfe and personally face to face before the Honourable Court by the assistance of that Grace which first set him aworke and inabled him to finish it make good his whole Reply against the Relator It would therefore please your most Excellent Majesty the waighty Premises seriously consiâ—ered and upon your mature Revisall of this Reply or at least of the brief contents thereof prefixed to the Reply with the eye of your soundest and sollidest judgement directed by the wisdome of Gods owne Spirit which hath the hearts of Kings in his all-swaying hand and for vindicating of Gods glory and your own honour so deeply suffering in the forenamed respects and for staying of Gods hand stretched out and the preventing of further calamities not onely to take to heart and into your Royall hand the speedy reformation of such things as have been done and all in your Majesties Name still for that must beare all the burthen since the Relators Primacy as namely in the first place to send forth your Royall Edict for the taking downe of all Altars which where ever they stand doe stand in open defiance against Christ another for the calling in of your Book for Sports on the Lords dayes a third for the calling in of your Declaration before the Articles of Religion a fourth for the calling in of all Orders for the restraint of Preaching a fift for the restoring in Integrum that is not onely to their Ministry and Charge but to their liberty in Christ from the bondage both of Prelates and Ceremonies all those godly Ministers who out of Coâ—scienâ—e and duty towards God and not out of any disrespect or mucâ— lesse disloyalty towards your Majesty for refusing to read the said Book have been by the Prelates thrust out of all a Sixt if not the First for the quite releasing and setting at full liberty your three poore banished Prisoners that the loud cry of their oppressions breake not through the walls and barres and roofes of their straight inclosure to the piercing of the heavens and the provoking of their wrath to dart downe the thunderbolt of Divine revenge to the blasting of the beauty of your State while as a tall Ceder or sturdy Oake it stoutly lifts it selfe up on high as if it would threaten heavens throne and lastly all this done without which what can prosper and that you may make your Peace with GOD as you have done with Scotland to Proclaime a Publick Fast with Prayer and Humiliation for the deprecating of Gods high displeasure for what is past and the procuring of his favour and blessing upon you and your Kingdome and thereupon send forth your Royall writs for the calling of a Parliament for the redressing and removing of the maine Causes of all the disorders and enormities in the Church and State So shall your Kingdome be established and your Crowne flourish in abundance of Peace and Prosperity to your Majesty and your Royall Posterity which the Petitioners the true Church and Children the true Faith and Religion of Iesus Christ will never be wanting to sollicite the throne of Grace for THE CONTENTS OF THE PRINCIPALL PASSAGES IN THIS INSUING REPLY AND first to the Relators Epistle Dedicatory The left-hand Figure notes the Page of the Relators Book the right-hand the Replyers L. page 1. HOw the Prelate by pinning his Booke upon the Kings Patronage doth thereby expose him to the perill of being guilty of patronizing all the blasspemies falsities therein page 2. 2. What Truth and how the Prelate seeks it ibid. 7. What use the Prelate makes of Gods restoring him from his Fever p. 3. 7. What he meanes by the Scandalous and Scurrilous pennes of some bitter men with a short Narration of their Cause and Tragicall suffering ibid. Notorious Hypocrisie of the Prelate and taking Gods name in vaine pag. 3 4.6.8 Prelates mercies exceed all Heathen cruelty 6. A strange Precedent without Precedent to censure a Man because he would not consent to the condemning of his Cause before the Hearing 7. The Prelate Shrewdly put to it for his blood-guiltinesse and shamelesse hypocrisie 7 8. A new-found Art under colour of Answering Jesuites to strike a leagve with Popery 9. 7. The Prelates notorious perverting of Scripture which is retorted upon himselfe by a true Application 10 11 12. 7. Gods Ministers for sharpe and particular reproving of sin and sinners proved not to be Libellous nor Scandalous by many examples 11 12 13. How Prelates with the High Priests and Pharisees are guilty of all the blood of the Saints shed from Abel hitherto 15 16. True marks of a Minister of Christ extraordinarily raysed up of God ibid. 7. What kind of Men the Prelates Divines of worth and Note be 16 17. How the Prelate publisheth his Booke to vindicate his Reputation and with whom ibid. 7. A Prosopopaeia representing the Prelates Divines speaking to him 17 18. 7. The Prelate selfe-deluded by the unanimous Councels of his Divines as Ahab was by his false Prophets 19. The Prelates Booke like Caesars sacrifice ibid. The Replyers Councel to the Prelate 19. The Prelates Booke how reprobate Silver 21. The Mystery of burning Salis his Devotions opened 20. How the Prelates Tract needs leading into the light 21. 11. Notorious hypocrisie of a most persecuting Prelate detected as most detestable 21 22. worse then that of Stephen Gardiner and Bonner ibid. The Prelate sore pressed with sundry Scriptures by the
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
your soule the guilt of the bloud of JESUS who under Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession and so of all his Prophets Apostles and Martyrs But you will say BURTON had no such speciall mission and commission as the Prophets had No Could not you see that he was extraordinarily raysed up by GOD and by him extraordinarily assisted both in his Sermons and in his Book and in his free and undanted Spirit in his appearance and Answer before so many Terrible ones in that Court and in that fiery tryall on the Pillory and other tryalls wherein he carryed himselfe from the First to the Last with that constant magnanimity that he seemed rather a Triumphant then a Patient Can you ascribe this to any humane strength of a poore impotent Man wrastling and warring against such a dreadfull and direfull host of Adversaries and not to the sole and extraordinary support of the Spirit of Christ in him So as when being a Spectator of the Tragedy as you had been the maine Author wherein you thought to glut your eyes with such a Spectacle and to make your selfe even drunken with his bloud were you not on the contrary amazed and confounded to see a Man on the Pillory triumphing over your incomparable cruelty Did not your Conscience then at least check you and tell you that you did then Pillory Iesus Christ in his Servant as it were nayling him afresh to the Crosse and putting him to an open shame But you goe on Saying Now in the midst of these Libellous outcryes what some Divines of great note and worth in the Church of England c. 'T is no hard matter to Divine of what stamp your Notable and worthy Divines in the Church of England be But I passe them by as unsaluted it being obvious to all men what kind of Divines doe merit to be accounted of you of Note and Worth in the Church of England who are and must be either Arminian or Popish or both Flatterers and Sycophants Proud and Profane persons by which they are most noted and known and whose worth is valued according to the rate of the magnitude or multitude of their Fat Benefices Prebends Deaneries Prelacies or other dignities and according to their great Scholarship show'd in their seldome preaching in their own Cures and their curious and quaint Rhetorizing in the Court where the plainest part of the Sermon is down-right-rayling against the Puritans and the base and grosse flattering of the Court. â—ut what of these your worthy divines First they come to your Lordship Well that 's but good manners to expresse their officiousnesse though but with a complement Secondly not together but one by one not one knowing of anothers coming Every one thinking perhaps to prevent other in so notable a piece of Service and so to promerit all the thanks Well thirdly What 's the matter of this casuall or rather miraculous confluence To perswade with you to reprint this your Conference in your own name But cui bono To what purpose For it would vindicate your Reputation being generally known to be yours Now least your Lordship may run into a strong misconceit as if this strange concurrence of persons and Spirits not one knowing of anothers coming or occasion were from some Constellation of the Starres or rather from Divine Providence for your good you know your Brother of Chichester protested in his Appeale that he had never read Arminius and yet how pat did he hit upon and hold all the Arminian Points as if he had been an old Disciple of Arminius his Schoole By what Spirit trow you was this But to the point All this was to vindicate your Reputation With whom With Jesuites Certainly not with any good Christians Yet this you labour too with laying on colous enough But this Art of writing against Jesuites is now grown so stale and triviall as in these dayes it begets new Suspicions of a Popish Spirit especially when it once comes forth under the Authority or Name of Canterbury Yet haply your Divines are Astrologers observing the Constellations of the times and thereupon divining or conjecturing what fearefull events might come of it and those perhaps prognosticating and ominating little good to your Lordship upon whom they saw a generall bad and malignant Aspect to be cast might strain their wits and use their strongest reasons to perswade you to use the best meanes to prevent the worst whereof they imagined this their motion to be the best And therefore they might perhaps frame their Speech in such a like forme as this My Lord we observe abroad what discontents possesse most men against your Grace about these late Innovations in the Church as they call them and you know the Truth of Religion as they apprehend it as also the Liberty of their Consciences are with the Puritans of high estimation and men will not easily part with them especially those that be Zealous indeed as accounting them their best freeholds Such especially as acknowledge no other King over their Soules and Consciences in matters of Faith and Gods worship as we have heard them say but onely CHRIST And they have shrowd Arguments herein for themselves And you see what necessary occasions and exigents may constrain the King to call a Parliament and how farre that being a meanes to fasten and confirme the Subjects affections to his Majesty now especially upon this Defection of Scotland may draw the King to be willing to give his People contentment in permitting them that purity in Religion in Faith and Discipline which Christ and his Apostles they say have taught and left them without which they say they cannot be freed from the Yoake of Antichristian or humane Ordinance for we use but their words and how dangerous this may be to your Grace whom they have marked out as the maine Active Agent or Instrument in disturbing their peace and distracting their minds and trenching upon their said Liberty as they account it And considering how the whole Land generally groaneth under many heavy Grievances as People now adayes account Grievances as their deep Sighs do interpret their minds and of these your Honour is reputed one of the Prime Movers And however your Lorship may haply conceive that if ye be put to a pinch your Book your late Conference set forth against Fisher will prove sufficient to ward off and beat back all accusations annent Religion yet my Lord it is not put forth in your own Name they may Question whether it be yours or no and say that being namelesse you may in time disclaime it if ever you can bring your pious purpose for peace to passe And besides 't is now a long time since it was Printed and so is forgotten Wherefore our humble advise with all due Submission to your Lordships pregnant wisedome is that your Grace would revise correct and more fully expresse your selfe in some things in the said Book and so republish it in Print under
Conscience Whether the High-Priest Azariah did transgresse or no when King Vzziah in the Temple burnt Incense on the Altar he with fourescore Priests of the Lord that were valient men went in after the King and withstood him saying It perteameth not unto thee Vzziah to burn Incense unto the Lord but to the Priests c. Loe here was a withstanding the King But I will not presse you for your Judgement for I find in the next verse Gods own Judgement of the Case for Vzziah with the Censer in his hand being incensed even while he was wroth with the Priests the leprosie even rose up in his forehead before the Priests in the house of the Lord from beside the Incense-Altar And Azariah the Chiefe Priest and all the Priests looked upon him and behold he was leprous in his forehead and they thrust him out from thence yea he himselfe hasted also to goe out because the Lord had smitten him And Vzziah the King was a Leper unto the day of his death and dwelt in a severall house being a Leper for he was cut off from the house of the Lord and Iotham the Kings son was over the Kings house judging the people of the Land Now to apply this to the present purpose You make your self as the High-Priest of the Church of England Now suppose the King of England should doe that whereby the foundations of Faith and good Manners were shaken what would your Lordship doe I aske not what you would doe in case you should be the Chiefe Agent and Instrument a Counceller a Promoter and a Contriver of such a thing For then it were a vaine Question But suppose you had no hand nor head in it at all and were a man zealous of Gods glory and truly pious and found in the faith and one that knew well what the foundations of Faith and good Manners are and when they are shaken and one that respected more the Kings good and Honour then your own private ends and more Christs Kingdome then any Hierarchy or spirituall-Temporall Principality on Earth and one that loved more to speake the Truth to Kings though you were sure of displeasure then to flatter and speake pleasing things to the ruine of the State and Kingdome though for the present it pleased suppose I say all this for even impossibilities may be supposed then tell me what your selfe a man of such high Place and Grace in Court and of so great Power to perswade and disswade would doe when you should see the Foundations of Faith and good Manners to be shaken by the King or supreme Magistrate For the very Name of shaking the Foundations of Faith and good Manners is enough to shake a Mans heart and cause him to abhorre the very thought of it if he were not either altogether senselesse and ignorant what the Foundations of Faith and Good Manners do meane or knowing them were not either an open or secret enemy unto them For what is such a shaking but a mâ—king way for the sodaine precipitation of the state of all things into inevitable Destruction a dissepating of all humane society a mingling of heaven and earth together in one Chaos of all Confusion And therfore now that we are upon a point of such Moment as it were the Center wheron the worlds Globe is pitched or as the two Pillars in Solomons Temple Iâ—chin and Boas stability and strength Faith and good Manners being the stability and strength of all true Religion of humane society and Civil Politie it wil be worth our Inquiry a little what it is to shake these Foundations or when these Foundations are shaken And it is possible that these Foundations may at this very time be shaken in the Church and state of England and so threaten if not hasten Ruine in somuch as a speedy remedy for prevention upon the discovery may be required You will say God forbid What God forbid that in such a Case a speedy remedy should be used No not so by your leave Well what say you then to your Articles of Religion wherein the Doctrines of Faith of the Church of England and those of them that are according to the expresse Scriptures as Gods Grace in Election Predestination Salvation c. are shaken Are they not shaken and that terribly too by an Edict or Declaration so as they doe at the least nutare et huc illuc fâ—luctuare so reele too and â—ro like a drunken man as no sober man knows to which side they will fall And are not those Doctrines of Gods free and saving Grace in Christ the foundations of Faith which are contained in those Articles Can you deny this Again what say you to the Two Tables wherein are contained the Ten Commandements of Gods Morall Law Are they not also Foundations Yea and Foundations both of Faith and Good Manners For the Foure Commandements of the First Table concern Faith and Religion the Six of the Second Good Manners So much all confesse and your selfe too And you say Emperours and Kings are Cussodes utriusque Tabulae They to whom the Custody and preservation of both Tables of the Law for worship to God and duty to man are commited And That a Booke of the Law was by Gods own command in Moses his time to be given to the King Deut. 17.18 So you Is it so then What say you then to those two Great Commandements the Last of the First Table and the First of the Second Do they not stand closse together as those two formentioned Pillars in Solomons Temple Iachin and Boaz Is not holy Obedience to God in his worship on his own day as Iachin the stability of the the Church and Temple of God And is not Civil subjection to superiours as Boaz the strength of the Common-wealth So as when these two Commandements are shaken are not two maine Pillars and Foundations of Faith and good Manners shaken and so the Foundations both of Church and Common-wealâ—h shaken What say you to this ô Great High Priest Is it true or no For I must now put you to it You give just occasion But you answere nothing siâ—ence in this Case is consent and such as proceeds frâ—m guilt of Conscience And how ever Res ipsa clamat The thing it selfe proclaimes it and cleare evidence proves it For doth not the Edict for Sports so often upon fresh occasions mentioned declare as much And doth it not shake the Fourth Commandement for the sanctification of the Lords Day the Lords Sabbath-Day Which Dispensation of such profane and madde sports can it consist with sanctification or any holinesse or common sobriety of a Christian or with Christian Profession or with our Baptismall vow to the Contrary much lesse with the direct and expresse immediate solemn sanctification of that day commanded in that Fourth Commandement Is not here then a Foundation of Religion and so also of Good Manners too shaken For what Good Manners doth our May-pole-dances and
Moris-dances teach us Nemo saltat sobrius could the very Heathen say No man Danceth that is sober And as an English Author saith licenced too but in diebus illis A Dancer and a mad man different but in the duration And to helpe to shake this Foundation yet more you have licenced Books that do unmoralize the Fourth Commandement as before as antiquated now and of no force to bind us Christians to the observation of a seventh day or the Lords day which we have proved before to be the Rest-day or the Sabbath day of the Lord our God Iesus Christ. And did not your Tyranny suppresse all Truth all your Doctors had been ere now answered to the shame of their Divinity-Profession and the confusion of their accursed Opinions and Blasphemies against the holy Truth and eternall Law of God Well here you are charged with shaking this Great Foundation of Faith and Religion And though my Name be not here to the Bill which therfore you wil be ready by another Bill to make a Libell yet as I sayd before I say againe let the King be but pleased to send forth a Proclamation commanding the Author of this Charge to come forth and avouch it before the High and Honourable Court of Parliament where he shall have a faire just unpartiall and honourable hearing and where your Lordship shall as well stand at the Barre as your Accuser and you shall see your Antagonist dare shew his face But to prevent the trouble of Calling a Parliament you will answere this is none of Your doing 't is the Kings Edict and of King Iames before him and now by the Kings speciall command republished Is it so And therein are the Foundations of Faith and Good Manners shaken And that not onely in overthrowing the Morality of the 4 th Commâ—ndement by Dispensaton of profane sports but by dispensing with youth to use their libâ—rty on that day without controule of their Superiours as Parents or Masters who if they shall hinder them the Magistrate shall punish them and so the 5 th Commandement which is a Foundation of Good Manners in all obedience due to Superiours is shaken if not pull'd down to the ground as the Aprentices of London were wont on Shrove-Tuesday to pull down Infamous houses Is all this so Why then did you not step in as good Azariah and withstand the coming forth of such an Edict and tell the King It pertaineth not to Thee ô King to set forth such an Edict to dispense wâ—th Gods Holy Morall Eternall Commandements whereby the Foundations of Faith and Good Manners are shaken least thereby shaking the Foundations both of Church and Common-Wealth you doe through Gods just wrath bring your own Kingdome to suddain ruine But did you at all interpose your selfe Or did you use Prayer and Patience rather undergoing the Kings displeasure then being either Agent or Instrument in the publishing of such an Edict No such thing For it was the handsel of your Primacy to publish the Edict as being the best Office whereby you could testifie your thankfullnesse for so high a Preferment For why should you here leave the King alone in so weighty a Cause when you tell us before that the King and the Priest more then any other are bound to looke to the Integrity of the Church in Doctrine and Manners and that in the first place And would you now leave the King in the lurch to doe that whereby the Foundations of Faith and Good Manners are shaken and the Church in Doctrine and Manners corrupted But you were an Instrument at least and that at both endâ— of the businesse As for Prayer and Patience you were willing to leave them to others that had more need and could make better use of them to wit those poore honest Ministers who seeing the danger of their publicke reading of the said Booke in their severall Congregations so straightly imposed by the Prelates and thâ—inâ— the Kings Name wherein they well understood that the very Foundations of Faith and Good Manners are shaken so as their reading of it to their people would make themselves accesâ—ary to all the mischiefe that might come thereby as whereby the wrath of God must needs be greatly incensed against the whole Land did thereupon refuse to read it committing the Cause to God in Prayer and arming themselves with resolved Patience to indure all the Censure and punishment threatned in the Booke and left to be inflicted by the Bishops As not long after the Bishops thunderclap of threatning they feele the thunderbolt it selfe by Suspension Silencing Excommunication Dispossession out of their Benefices Cures Houses Freeholds Dispersion of Family Wife and Children now exposed to the wide world and made a Prey to Wolves and Lyons Here is indeed the Patience and Faith of the Saints Here is use of their spirituall Armour Prayer Patience Teares the onely weapons of their warfaire against such enemies so as if Solomon the Preacher were now alive he might see his words as truly and fully verified in these times as ever they were in his I returned saith he and considered all the Oppressions that are done under the Sun and behold the teares of such as were oppressed and they had no Comforter and on the side of their Oppressors there was power but those had no Comforter But it is well that you left the poore soules those weapons which you could not take from them but with their lives Prayer and Patience Although how doe you labour to deprive them even of Prayer when you will not suffer them to pray together that suffer together in and for the same Cause but your Beagles hunt them out And would you not reduce all Prayer and conjure down the very Spirit of Prayer by confining it to the prescript letter and form in your Service Book where there is never a Prayer for poore afflicted and distressed soules in such a Case complaining of the Bishops Cruelty and Tyranny over them So as you see they patiently suffer they use no opposition by force And yet what say you to one of your Predecessors who when the King would not agree to his Nobles in the casheering of his Favorites who were his Privy Councellors to the ruine of his Realme he being then but Lord Elect of Canterbury took with him his Clergy and went to the King and threatned him if he would not yeeld in the matter he would Excommunicate him Neither I suppose are you of opinion with once a Brother of Winchester who in a Book of his published by Authority and Printed at Oxford hath these words If a Prince should goe about to subject his Kingdome to a forraigne Realme or change the forme of the Common-wealth from Empery to Tyranny or neglect the Laws establlished by common consent of Prince and People to execute his own Pleasure In these and other Cases which might be named If the Nobles and Commons joyne together
to defend their ancient and accustomed Liberty Regiment and Laws they may not well be countod Rebells So he But this by the way But I have somthing more to say about the shaking of the Foundations of Faith and Good Manners though I mentioned it before but now upon this occasion And that is concerning Ceremonies of humane ordinance in Gods worship which being imposed upon mens Consciences is not onely a shaking of the Founâ—ation of Faith but an overthrowing of it for thereby Christ is denyed to be the onely King of his Church And therfore as the Kings of Israel did nothing in reforming of Religion and the worship of God but what was expresly commanded and prescribed in Gods Law so Christian Kings and Magistrates ought not to doe any thing no not to impose any one humane Ceremony or Ordinance in Gods service besides that which is written in Gods word otherwise the Foundations of Faith is overthrown Of such moment is the least Ceremony in Gods service that it is of the substance and Foundation of Faith L. p. 210. But 't is time to return For A.C. in this Passage hath been very carefull to tell us of a Parliament and of living Magistrates and Iudges besides the Law books Thirdly therfore The Church of England God be thanked shines happily under a Gratious Prince and well understands that a Parliament cannot be called at All times and that there are visible Iudges besides the Law-books and one supreme long may he be and be hapâ—y to settle all Temporall Differences which certainly he might much better perform if his Kingdome were well ridde of A. C. and his Fellows And she beleeves too that our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his Law-books the Scripture Visible Magistrates and Iudges that is Arch-bishops and Bishops under a Gratious King to governe both for Truth and Peace according to the Scripture and her own Canons and Constitutions as also those of the Catholicke Church which Crosse not the Scripture and the Iust Laws of the Realme But she doth not beleeve there is any Necessity to have one Pope or Bishop over the whole Christian world more then to have one Emperour over the whole world P. It were time indeed for you to return from your Course when once there is mention of a Parliament For thriving If you mean that your Church of England hath of late dayes well thriven in her prevailing for the seting up of Images and Altars for bringing in more Superstitions into your Service for puting down sincerity Purity and power of the true Religion and of the Preaching of Gods word for suppressing the Doctrines of Grace forementioned for hampering the Puritans as you call them by puting down suspending and silencing of Godly and painfull Preachers and by crying down both the Doctrine and Practise of the sanctification of the Sabbath or Lords day and by smothering in the birth all sound and Orthodox Books against Popery and other Heresies not suffering them to be Printed and by licencing of Popish Books to be Printed and Publâ—shed and the like and if this be the way of the well thriving of your Church whomsover you have cause to thanke yet surely you have small cause to thanke God whose Name herein you doe abuse and blaspheme as perhaps your own Conscience may tell you as if he favoured such practises of yours because for a time he patiently suffers and winks at them and that in judgement to a sinfull Land and for tryall of his own servants and people and for a preparative to your certaine ruine if speedy repentance prevent it not For God is not mocked with such thanks though he be mocked but whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reape How then doth it concerne all Christian Magistrates to look to it least if they suffer Christs Kingdome to be betrayed into the hands of Antichristian Usurpers by giving way unto them to doe what they list while themselvs seem to sleep they provoke God too much For as Samuel sayd to the People If ye doe wickedly you shall perish both you and your King For my part though I will not joyne in Prayer with such a Profane Hypocrite as you are and an enemy of Iesus Christ and his Truth no more then the Apostle Iohn would be in the same Bath with that Heretick Cerinthus yet my dayly Prayer is and shall be that God would more and more let the King see how miserably he is abused and the Peace and safety of his Kingdome distracted and indangered both by the late violent practises which have been held in Church-affaires and now by the publishing of such a Book as this so notoriously perillous or rather most pernicious and so much the more in these times of troubles about Religion lately sprung up in the Iland of Great Britaine Which Book though it make many faire pretences for Peace yea Peace and Truth yet in truth it will prove the greatest troubler of Israel and the falsest friend to true Truth that the light hath seen these many yeares This I speake not by conjecture much lesse out of malice to the Authors Person but from the cleare evidence of the word of Prophecy in Scripture in such cases But how comes your Church of England to be so well seen in State-Mysteries I pray you as so well to understand that a Parliament cannot be called at all times Or by the Church of England doe you not meane the the Chaire of Catnterbury as the Church Collective or representative of England For you should better understand such State-matters especially for the not calling of Parliaments at all times or suppose it were at Notime or Nevermas least perhaps it might prove as a Frost to nippe your thriving and overforward spring then your Lordship For my part I am no States-man and so I leave State matters to States-men who should best understand them But if your A.C. and his Fellows be such troublesome fellows why doe you trouble your selves with them when a good honest Parliament might ease the King and Kingdome â—oo of that trouble provided that good Laws already enacted and by the next Parliament if ever there shal be any quickned by a new Law to put them in better execution there may be also a good season to bring forth such Visible Iudges as without straining the strings either of their Purses or Consciences coming clearly to their Benches and not making them as Banks but siting Rectè in Curia they may without feare of any Prepotent Prelate or Partiality in respect of Persons do Justice I passe now from the understanding of your Church of England to her Beliefe which you also tell us of She beleeves too What doth she beleeve That our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his Law-books the Scriptures visible Magistrates and Iudges that is Arch-bishops and Bishops How Is this come already to be an Article of the Faith of the Church of
Primitive Church and Generall Councels is the Iudge of Controversies whereunto you professe to submit in all humility Thus these 12 Conclusions be as the 12 Articles of your Faith But now let 's a little examine what Truth or Force there is in all these I confesse some of them are somwhat coincident and like Brookes fall one into another but all have their Confluence into your Generall Councel as one maine Ocean But we will take a say of each as they run along For the first and so the rest which have any generall concurrence with it I deny that a Generall Councel is a sufficient and competent Iudge of Controversies in matters of Faith My Reasons are these First Because Generall Councels consisting of Prelates and more especially in these latter times are so much the unabler to judge of the sense of Scripture where 't is deep or doubtfull As Nicolaus de Clemangus in his Tract De Concilus Generalibus discourseth very largely and pregnantly of this very Circumstance shewing that Prelates are none of those to whom God doth reveale the mysteries of his will in his Word which are altogether spirituall but Prelates are carnall proud ambitious covetous minding the things of the world His whole Discourse is worth the Reading And Arelatensis Arch-Bishop of Arles in France in the Councel of Basil said that they had no zeale nor love nor knowledge of the Truth but every one would be of his Kings Religion and was ready to say as his King would have him and that the poore Priests were those by whom the Truth was upholden And not to goe farre from home If a Generall Councel were assemblâ—d of such Prelates as you are who have no savour of and lesse favour to the Truth having bewrayd in this your Book besides your usuall practises how contrary your spirit is to Christs spirit and wisdome Certainly asmuch as in you were you would bring utter confusion upon the world in seting up and establishing your Babilonish Faith and Religion And I have noted before how the poore in spirit such as feare the Lord are those Eagles Christ speaks of whose eyes are sharpest to pierce into the Mysteries of the Scriptures as having Gods holy Spirit to guide them into all Truth Heare what the wiseman saith The rich man is wise in his own conceit but the poore that hath understanding searcheth him out I leave it to your Application And Christ rejoycing in Spirit saith I thanke thee ô Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so Father for it seemed good in thy sight Againe Prelates especially such as your selfe are taken up with State-matters and all of them generally with their worldly affaires and great Revenues so as they have little leasure so much as to thinke of Divine matters or to care for the state of mens soules or to seek to advance Christs Kingdome as being a'pellotriomenoi tes politeÃas tou Israèl as the Apostle speakes Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel Yea even those that have good learning and judgement in Divinity which they had before they were Prelates after they come once to be Prelates they are so choked with the world and so over-awed with the servile feare of man that they dare doe nothing for the Truth especially in a time wherein it is openly opposed and oppressed but are willing to sleep in a whole skin and to let Religion and Faith sinke or swimme so they may injoy their Lordships and fill their Coffers Againe suppose a Generall Councel of Prelates were called for the purpose to judge and determine of the Controvesie about the Calling of Prelates whether it be Iure divino by Divine Authority or no as it was in Question and agitation in the Councel of Trent would not such a Councel trow you be Partiall in their own Cause and Define with one voyce That Prelates are an Order and of a Calling Jure divino and that Christ thought it fittest to governe his Church by such visible Iudges and Vice-roys Or if the Controversie were whether the Church alwayes collective in the Prelates have power to ordaine Ceremonies in Gods service to the Obedience and conformity whereof all mens Consciences are bound by which Imposition Gods people come to loose that liberty which Christ hath purchased for them and Christ should lose his Royall soveraignty as King in his Church as before is shewed it is not easie to Divine what the Difinition of such a Councel would be Or is there any Question to be made but that without any more adoe they would Order Determine Define and Conclude that Prelates the Church Collective have power to ordaine what Ceremonies they please in the worship and service of God which shall bind all mens Consciences to the necessary obedience and observation therof Would they herein have any respect to Christian liberty or Christs Prerogative Would they not with the Scribes and Pharisees and High Priests in their Councel condemn Christ for his Title of King of the Iews And because you are so much for a Generall Councel as Iudge in Controversies What say you to the first Generall Councel of Nice wherein there were above 300 Prelates as I remember Had they not all consented to the making of a Decree for the establishing of a Doctrine of Devils to wit forbidding Marriage to all Ecclesiasticall Persons had not one man Paphnutius and he an unmarried man too stood up and withstood such a Decree shewing by many Reasons and Arguments from Scripture and otherwise how wicked and cruel such a Decree were So early began the Mystery of Iniquity to bud forth and that in the most Ancients and in the very Prime or first Generall Councel wherein these Fathers the Prelates were so piously zealous though ignorantly to lay the foundation of a generall Aposticie from the Faith in establishing such a Doctrine of Devils as the Apostle calls it of which suffciently before Yet by your Doctrine If that Generall Councel of so many Prelates had determined it and ratified it by Decree all Priests then were bound to obedience untill another Generall Councell equall to that should reverse it which should have been long enough when every Age grew successively worse then other And thus in the very first and best Generall Councel after the Apostles a Doctrine of Devils should have been ratified and therein an Apostacie from the Faith and all men must have yeelded obedience at least externall enough to keep all your Priests from Marriage and so all Prelates and Priests should so quickly have proved a Generation of Apostates from the Faith Againe if you have a Generall Councel you must not according to the Councel of Frier Franciscus à S. Clara admit of any Puritans or the precise Party of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas no not such as you call Puritan Bishops For you see