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
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
before all the world and therefore that the Reply be published And if it shall be thought fit to be dedicated to the King I wish that mine own hand might present it For to say no more how highly doth the Cause concerne the King and his Kingdome did he but truely know it And how he should come to know it but this way I know not And I hope his Majestie will not refuse it at Charities hand I have said Mother Zeale what sayst thou Zeale Deare Mother can we see our God so highly dishonoured our Christ so belyed his Spirit so despised his Word so disparaged his Worship so depraved his Saints so destroyed his true Spouse unchurched and excommunicated out of the Creed and a false Church fasle Faith false Religion false Gods set up in Christs Throne to be Judges in matters of Faith and proud men to usurpe over the Consciences and Soules of his people and the like and are we not to set a worke all the irons in the fire that may be to arme us against such an all-daring Philistin who dare so desperately defie the Hosts of the living God And blessed be our God who hath raised up and inabled such a Replyer and blessed be the Replyer who ever he be that takes up Davids sting and stone to throw at that Gyant-like Mushrumme And were there an hundred such Replyes let them all be published and all be presented to the King to the confusion of all Babell-builders or Ierecho's rebuilders And if men will willfully close their eyes and stop their eares against the Truth at their perill be it I have sayd Mother Humility what sayst thou Humility Deare Mother I humbly pray that the Reply be published and if my Sister Charity doe present it to the King all my ambition is to waight upon her as her hand-maid to beare up the Traine of her manyfold sin-covering Mantle This is all I can doe or say Mother Prudence what sayst thou Prudence Deare Mother although I accord with all that my Sisters have here said yet seeing it pleaseth you to impose this taske upon me I shall give you a faithfull and just account what I further conceive to be not altogether unworthy our serious consideration about the dedicating and presenting the Reply to the King First we all know what reward others have had for the like service and that of fresh memory as a Minister appealing from the Prelates to the King for a just and equall hearing of his Cause which was about the discharge of his Ministry in Preaching was delivered over to the Censure of a Court wherein his maine Adversary sate a Judge and the Censure was accordingly so terrible as no age can parallell And Secondly the same Adversary that was the Prime instigator to inflict the said Censure continues still in the same power and favour in Court so as if my Sister Charity her selfe together with Humility should present the Reply I know not what security she can have from the like Censure of being both Schismaticall and Seditious because she thus appeares against a most notorious Adversary of CHRIST and his Word but such whose power and favour in Court can so farre prevaile to the abusing of the sweet and unsuspicious nature of Princes as to make them beleeve that they cannot possibly be misled by such a Leader although the Prelate himselfe confesse that Worth once misled proves of all other the greatest Misleader and the Replyer hath detected and proved him the most notorious blind Leader that ever sate in Canterbury Chaire And Thirdly who sees not the maine worke that so many arrowes of persecution against Gods Ministers and people and so the Gospell it selfe as appeares too palpably by the Prelates usuall practises doe ayme at As namely the rooting out of the Gospell and the erecting of all Popish Superstition and Idolatry and so the bringing in of Atheisme and Infidelity with Antichristian Tyranny and all to reduce England to a Reconciliation with Rome as also the Relation it selfe doth unblushingly discover And the Merchants doe tell us from abroad how the Priests and Fryers can tell them upon occasion of the Scots first standing out that this course was by the Prelaticall Faction reaching as farre as Rome resolved on before yesterday And Fourthly when we looke upon the hideous outrages of the Prelates against which no complaint can take place nor find better successe then as when a man casts stones upward which fall down againe upon his own head doth it not argue the Estate of things to be desperate and at the height when such men as the Prelates are mounted on a throne of iniquity framing mischiefe as by a Law But yet Lastly notwithstanding all this when I consider how mercifully God hath heard the earnest prayers of his people in moving the Kings heart to such an accord with Scotland as of late although those bitter Roots which GOD never planted and which poâ—son the very ground they goe on the Prelates I meane so fast are they rooted in the earth are left still unplucked up and that the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as the Rivers of waters and that if he were once rightly possessed of the State of things wherein he hath been by the Prelates extreamly abused and his State exposed to the wrath of heaven we should be in good hope of Reformation so as what lawfull meanes may be most likely and probable to conduce hereunto is worth the putting in practise though full of hazzard saving that the same GOD who mightily and mercifully moved the Kings heart so farre to yeeld to his Scottish Subjects as to enjoy in a good measure the Prelates onley excepted their liberty of Conscience can also perswade him to doe as much and more for his Subjects Christs people in England And therefore my conclusion is I am so farre from Sacrificing to humane discretion or carnall reason in this point that I could be content to accompany my Sisters Charity and Humility in presenting the Reply resolving with Hester And if I perish I perish And this is all I have to say for the present Mother Piety what sayst thou Piety Deare Mother I owe a duty as to GOD principally and in the first place so to the King Gods vicegerent in the second place and therefore what may conduce to the happinesse and well-fare of the King in this kind I would for it hazzard all And I am for the pubilshing and presenting of the Reply to the King in hope he may possibly read and understand the true State of things being of such high importance as in the world there cannot be a greater And if this be not done things going on as they have done there wil be no longer abiding for us in this place I have said Mother Patience what saist thou Patience Deare Mother what your selfe and my loving Sisters here do or shall resolve of my office is to prepare my backe to beare whatsoever
this Relator professeth and teacheth a blind Charity sutable to his Faith which he boldly affirmeth to be not a mistaken Charity in granting that a silly ignorant Papist so living and dying may be Saved by his Ignorance in that Religion conforming himselfe to his Religious life and on the contrary condemning such Protestants of stiffenesse and churlishnesse that are not of the same Charity with him though the Replyer proveth that there is no true Charity without true Faith and Verity And whereas the same Relator is shewed in this Reply to give much more liberty to your Majesties Protestant People to goâ— to the Romish Masse as being with him one and the same undiffering Religion with that of England then the Jesuite doth to his blind Romanist to come to the English Church And whereas the same Relator hath many passages wherein he makes a Generall Councell of Prelates Iudge in all Controversies of Faith ascribing unto them an Infallibility and in case they shall erre and that even in grosse things and points of Faith yet that all men are bound to yeeld obedience at least externall till another Generall Counsell equall to the former reverse those Errours whereupon by Consequence of this Prelaticall doctrine as the Replyer doth instance the Church of England it self is bound to observe the worship of Images and the forbearance of the Cup in the Sacrament c. decreed in Generall Councels and not yet reversed by other Generall Councels equall to those And whereas the Relator calls Transubstantiation Purgatory and the forbearance of the Cup but disputable and Improbable Questions the nature of which is to be taken indifferently Pro and Con And whereas he never once in all his Relation calls the Romish-worship of Images and of the Sacrament or any other Idolatry in all the Romish Church but onely by the name of Superstition abstaining altogether from the name of Idolatry as if with him the Roman Church were no Idolatresse And whereas he much lamenteth the Seperation and rent between the Protestants and Rome with the continuance of it although with the Iesuite he confesse that errour in Faith is just cause of separation And whereas he the same Relator doth cunningly yet palpably enough in sundry passages of his Booke as also he hath openly done viva voce at the High-Commission-Board exclude all the Reformed Protestant Churches beyond the Seaes as no Churches of Christ as not admitting the Hierarchy Finally also in his Book quipping Luther and in him all the Reformed Churches as having made a rent not onely from Rome with her corruptions but even from the Catholick Church it selfe which indeed in the Relators sense and difinition of the Catholicke Church is most true to wit from the universall Hierarchy And whereas he the Relator doth every where highly extoll his Ceremonies in Gods worship as without which he saith there is no light left to shine before men that they may see his Devotion and so glorify GOD therein most foulely and odiously perverting and abusing the holy Text of Scripture uttered by CHRIST to a cleane other purpose as the Replyer hath noted all which Ceremonies being a will-will-worship after the Tradition and Commandement of men the Apostle doth utterly condemn as wherby the very merits of Christs death are made of none effect who in his death destroyed All Ceremonies in Religion obliging the Conscience and not onely the Leviticâ—ll but all other whatsoever of humane Ordinance as the Replyer clearely proveth So as it is not left to any Power on Earth to impose the least Ceremony yea though it be of nature indifferent to bind the Conscience in the service of GOD seeing all such imposition is Antichristian Tyranny And whereas all Prelaticall Hereticall and Antichristian Faction erected by the Prince of darkenesse against Iesus Christ and his Kingdome as is apparent both by their profession and practice wherein they have nothing at all yea not any one thing to show wherein they resemble either Christ or any one of his Apostles except Iudas Christs Kingdome being altogether spirituall and not of this world but the Hierarchy a meere carnall and worldly Kingdome onely guilded over with the bare name of spirituall And whereas the Relator throughout his whole Booke bewrayeth his most palpable and profound ignorance and notorious blindnesse in the whole mystery of Faith and all true divinity in so much as when ever he Cites Scripture he still perverts it to a wrong sense and is not able to bring any proofe either from Scripture or Common Reason except from some of his Jesuiticall Authors for any of his Paradoxes and strange doctrines delivering all without Book tanquam è Cathedra as but of some Papall unerring Chaire upon the Authority of his bare word and upon meere trust And whereas the Relator saith That worth once misled is of all other the greatest misleader and who of greater worth in the Church of England and in the Esteem of Great ones too then the Great Primate himselfe whose very word with many is taken as a divine Oracle So as if the Church and State of England will but pin their soules upon this Leaders sleeve he will not fayle to lead them in that way the issue whereof seem it never so right in the eyes of credulity will certainly prove to be as Solomon saith the wayes of death And whereas by the Relator sundry occasions are ministred to the Replyer of instancing divers practises charged upon the Prelate as the principall Agent or Instrument of setting up sundry Innovations in Religion in the Church of England all which have been done under his Primacie as The republishing under your Majesties Name the Book for liberty of profane Sports on the Lords day with pressing Ministers to read the Sayd Book in their severall Congregations and upon refusall extreamely persecuting them and thrusting them from their Ministry and meanes with their poore wives and children The authorizing and licencing of some Doctors Books which cry down the Morality of the 4 th Commandement for the Sanctifying of the Lords Sabbath day The setting forth of a New Order to restraine Preachers from Preaching in the Afternoones on the Lords dayes much pressed by the Prelates and their Officers in all their visitations The setting forth of a Declaration in your Majesties Name prefixed to the Articles of Religion which the Prelates practises plainly interpret to be for the restraining and prohibiting altogether the Doctrines of Saving Grace to be preached and wherein the genuine sense of those Articles touching Grace which formerly were universally interpreted to have but one sence agreeable to the Scripture is confounded with the heterodox hereticall doctrines of the Pelagians and Arminians so as none can tell what to make of those Articles saving that by this meanes the Orthodox Ministers must not preach the truth and the Adverse party and Faction may find footing and countenance for their groundlesse and gracelesse heresies and all this to the manifest
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
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-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
for this GREAT WITNESSE which here you bring in arayed in Capitall Letters to wit your externall will-will-worship in many devised Ceremonies of seeming Humility Devotion and Piety the world could not come to know what Religion is in your heart towards God in that internall part of his worship which you Speak of But now through the cleare perspective of your bright shining Devotion without we can discerne what Devotion is within Herby we come to know all that spirit of Infidelity and Apostacie and consequenty of Atheisme and Irreligion which is in your heart Do you set up Altars and adore them and set up Priests to serve at them to which you must needs adde a Sacrifice sutable some materiall and corporall thing Hereby we come to know how in your heart you deny Iesus Christ to be the onely Altar Priest and Sacrifice as is shewed before And were it not for your lowly bowing at the bare nameing of the Name Iesus you should want witnesse to testifie to the world that deep hypocrisie in your heart while in bowing to Iesus you persecute the Lord Iesus Christ in his Word in his Ministers in his Members So as your externall ceremoniall worship is the GREAT WITNESSE to the world that there is in you an Antichristian heart a Popish heart a Superstitious heart an Idolatrous heart an Evill heart of unbelife in departing away from the living God How then with what inward testimony of your Conscience with what evidence of truth can you say that your heart stands right in the Internall worship of God when the externall is so crooked and bowed together with so many lowly duckings and crindgins so as your Head and Feet doe even meet together And is not the Devotion of your heart every way as crooked Doth not your heart bow as and when your body doth And is not the Same object which your body boweth unto the object to which your heart boweth and wherein your internall worship is ultimately terminated and bounded For as Aug. Saith Quis intuetur Semulacrum c. Who beholdeth an Image that is not so affected as to imagine the Divinity to be in that Image which he adoreth And doe not you Say that your God-Almighty is upon your Altar which you bow unto when you Say of your Altar you will have none to fit above God Al-mighty So as either you Locally place God there or you make your Altar your God and goe no further But suppose you doe in and by that Altar which you bow unto worship God Who hath required such worship at your hands Nay hath not GOD in the Second Commandement expresly forbidden any such worship in or by an Image or any such thing as Man deviseth in and by it to represent and worship GOD And such will-worship is it not the fruit of the Will of your Evill Corrupt and Superstitious Idolatrous and Proud Heart whence it springeth and proceedeth O Proud and Blind Hearts indeed that dare make choyce of their owne selfe-pleasing devises in Gods worship thinking thereby to please GOD But GOD abhorres all such will-worship But it is Say you a testimony of your Humility But the Apostle expresly condemneth such voluntary Humility And tell me what is there in all the World seting your Honours and Dignities and Favour in Court aside wherein you take more Pride and Glory then in such counterfeit Humility wherein your Heart is more lifted up in perswading your selfe that thereby the World comes to take you for the most Devout and Pious Prelate or Person in all England and as whereby you so bewitch the Court with an opinion of your incomparable Sanctity then simply in these your externall Ceremoniall Complements Saving onely that they Serve for your GREAT WITNESSES to all the world that your heart stands right in the Service of God which indeed is a Service done to your selfe And this appeares in part through those Swelling words set down at large Characters EXTERNALL WORSHIP GREAT WITNESSE Is not this a cleare expression of a heart full of pride selfe-conceit and vain glory when you doe thus as the Poet said Proijcere ampullas Sesquipedalia verba strout it in such a swelling Style and big words And that the world may yet further see how little I misjudge in this let your own immediate words further witnesse For Say you Take this away this EXTERNALL WORSHIP this GREAT WITNESSE and what light is there left to shine before men that they may See our Devotion and glorifie our Father which is in heaven I remember indeed what Christ said to his Disciples Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven These be the words you play withall as a Descant of your Devotion But cursed is he Saith Christ that addeth to or taketh from Gods word Here you doe both for you leave out good works and in stead of that put in your Devotion and you put out the true Light there which is faith and put in the place of it your false Light which is your blind Devotion I say blind Devotion because of your own devising For as the Prophet saith If they speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them So I say of that Feare or Devotion which is taught by the precepts of men Such have no light in them But your Dovotion is your Light when both you and it be blind As I have read of some Creatures that are múopes Mope-eyed as we Say that see better in the darke then in the day To such darknesse is light Such a light is your Devotion And such Devotion was in the Priests of Baal which was mixt or rather inflamed with great zeale Zeale in Launcing themselves that the blood sprang out Devotion in their long Prayers from Morning till Noon And this secundum usum Sacrum after their manner Now might not they have said as you doe This our externall worship is a GREAT WITNESSE to the world of our Zeale to our God and without which what light have we left whereby men may see our Devotion And such also was the Devotion of Hypocrites of whom Christ saith They pray standing in the Synagogues and in the Corners of the Streets that they may be seen of men Now might not these Hypocrites say for themselves This our externall Devotion is the GREAT WITNESSE unto the world that our hearâ—s stand right being testified by standing in Prayer so as without this light men could not see our Devotion So the Pharisees who were curious Masters of Ceremonies in will-worship they wore goodly broad Phylacteries and for pretence made long prayers Might not they also have said as you This our externall worship in long Prayers in our Solemne Robes with goodly Boarders is the GREAT WITNESSE to the world that our hearts stand right and without this Light men could
not see our inward Devotion towards God And say not you Our externall worship is that light without which men could not see our Devotion Iust as the Pharisees All they did was to be seen of men But you would perswade us you doe it to a higher end which is Gods glory For you Say Take this away and what Light is there left to shine before men that they may see our Devotion and glorifie our Father which is in heaven So here be two ends of all your externall worship and solemne service and great pompe and humble expressions of Devotion First that men may see your Devotion for els it were not worth a rush Secondly that they may glorifie God As I noted before these words of Christ you falsely apply to your blind Devotion which he Spake concerning the Light of faith shining forth in good workes to the glory of God Whereas your externall worship as it is a fruit of your blind Devotion so it is that whereby God is greatly dishonoured and that both actually in it selfe and effectuâ—lly in the beholders First Actually in it selfe all false worship or will-worship for both is one is a dishonour to God In vaine they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Precepts of Men. Now God is not glorified or honoured with any vain worship Nay on the contrary he is greatly dishonoured by it For such will-worship is a high presumption derogating from the Majesty of God who wil be worshiped no otherwise then as himselfe hath expresly commanded in his word As the Prophet saith And shalt honour him not doing thine owne wayes nor finding thine own pleasure And such is all will-worship Secondly God is greatly dishonoured by such externall will-worship effectively in the Beholders First because when they see such a great Prelate as your selfe use such gestures in Gods Service they are apt to imitate you and so to partake of your sinne as too many doe Secondly because in such false worship the neerer they think to approach to God in imitating of you the further off their hearts are from God as the Prophet Speaketh And they whose hearts are farre removed from God cannot glorifie God Now your will-worship which is taught by the Precepts of men though it seem to be very humble and so to draw neere unto God yet it drawes away mens hearts farre from God as there the Prophet sheweth And such as behold and affect and imitate your devises in externall worship they are as much puffed up with vaineglory that they imitate and so please such a great Man as your selfe as they never think of glorifying God And lastly God is not glorified by blind and Superstitious worshippers but by good works springing from the inward light of Faith Now your blind Devotion is not to be reckoned and ranked among good works For good works are such and so done as God hath commanded but your externall worship as you call it being a will-worship and so a false worship which God no where hath commanded but every where expressely forbidden are no good works but as Aug. Saith Splendida peccata a glaring false worship But it seemeth this your externall worship the fruit of your Devotion is all the good works you have to show that men thereby may See what Kind of light is in you which is not any true but a false light I proceed But how hath this ignis fatuus of yours carryed me so out of my way that I have over Skipt one Passage in the same Page a little before But yet coming in here it will the more fitly usher in the next which we shall note in the Same Page L. ibid. This I have observed further that no one thing hath made Conscientious men more wavering in their own minds or more apt and easie to be drawn aside from the Sincerity of Religion professed in the Church of England then the want of uniform and decent Order in too many Churches of the Kingdome P. A little before you commended unto us the Integrity of the Church in Doctrine and Manners and but now how right your hearts stand in the Service of God here you use a third word Sincerity of Religion and that professed in the Church of England By this time we are sufficiently acquainted with your Sincerity of Religion professed in the Church of England For we have your externall worship as the GREAT WITNESSE thereof of which your Sincerity so much is spoken as we have left a great hole in it And the nature of that your Sincerity of Religion professed in the Church of England duely considered can we marvaile if most mens minds in the Kingdome fall a wavering yea and if they be truely Conscientious men indeed not such as you meane to wit meere Formalists or Newters no marvaile if you find multitudes of them if multitudes of such be left to fall quite off from the Sincerity of your Religion professed in the Church of England But if any of your Conscientious men be drawn aside what 's the Cause Want of uniforme and decent Order in too many Churches in the Kingdome But doe you not see on the other side a whole Nation driven aside and that as they Say by your too much pressing upon them your uniforme and decent Order in all Churchs for the erecting of the Sincerity of Religion professed in the Church of England And yet you complain that you cannot set up your uniformity in too many Churches in England Surely ye might have done well first to have made all uniforme at home before you pressed too hard upon your Neighbour-Countrey And if too many Churches in England be not uniforme whose fault is that Not yours I dare say Have not you and your brother Prelates done pretty well to it in Suspending Silencing Excommunicating Casting out of their Ministry and Living so many Ministers Witnesse Norfolke Suffolke Essex Kent Surrey and other Diocesse and Shires Will not these Examples terrifie all other Churches in England But yet if nothing els will doe it the publishing of this your Book anew will certainly effect it or nothing And therfore you adde L. Ibid. To deale Clearly with your Majesty these thoughts are they and no other which have made me labour so much as I have done for Decencie and an Orderly Settlement of the externall worship of God in the Church Now no externall action in the world can be uniform without some Ceremonies And these in Religion the ancienter they be the better so they may fit Time and Place Too many overburthen the Service of God and too few leave it naked c. Ceremonies are the hedge that fence the Substance of Religion from all the indignities which Profanesse and Sacriledge too commonly put upon it Weaknesse it is not to see the Strength which Ceremonies things weake enough in themselves God knows adde even to Religion it selfe but a farre greater to see it and yet to cry them down All
would not commit to either of them any part of this his Prerogative in appointing what manner of service they thought good or in the fashion of building the Temple Nor yet did the Lord deliver the patterne of these things by tradition but in writing that in nothing they should come short or over shoot their bounds Neither had any of the Kings of Iudah the power afterwards either to adde or alter the least thing but at their perill No not the King and the Priest together as you would now have it So as when in a cafe of necessity no Law or Rule for us to take liberty to doe what we please without warrant from Gods word King Ezechias was to keep the Passeover in the Second Moneth he did it not alone nor with the Priest alone but with the unanimous assent and approbation of all the Princes and People in Ierusalem So as the thing pleased the King and all the Congregation Likewise when King David was to bring the Arke to Ierusalem he did it not alone or with the Priest alone but gathered all the chosen men of Israel together about it And what to doe Not what himselfe and they thought fit but according to the Law and Commandement of the Lord. And is it come to this passe now that the King and the Priest must doe all and that according to their owne Fancie in the worship and service of God When the Priest Vriah had according to the Kings Commandement built an Altar according to the patterne sent him by the King from Damascus on which the King offered Sacrifice did God approve it Is he not branded with this note which sticks upon his name to this day This is that King Ahaz And did not the Lord smite King Vzziah with Leprosie for offering Incense which pertained to the Priest onely And was not Vzzah smitten for but puting his Hand to stay the Arke when the Oxen shook it it not pertaining to him being but a Levite and not a Priest who onely was to meddle with the Arke So dangerous is it for men to take upon them be they Prince or Priest or both to intermeddle in any thing about the service of God which God hath not given them warrant for Now where hath Christ or his Apostles from him left any such power to man Prince or Priest or both as you claim and usurpe or to the Church to ordaine any Ceremonies in Religion to bind the Conscience of his People to the observation of them And if ye have either a pattern or pattent for it from Christ and under black and white in writing not by any unwritten Tradition produce and shew it But none can you shew we are sure I know your usuall places which you use to wrest for this purpose As 1 Cor. 14 4â— Let all things be done Decently and in in Order Hereupon it seemeth your words of decencie and orderly settlement are grounded But what conclude you hence Ergo the King and the Priest although in things of this nature you use the King but as a Cypher to back and countenance the Priest in what he doth may appoint what Ceremonies they please in the service of God But frame your Argument in a Syllogisme All things in the Church are to be done Decently and in Order But for the King and the Priest to prescribe and impose what Ceremonies they please in Gods Service is Decent and Orderly Ergo it is left to the Power of the King and the Priest to prescribe and impose what Ceremonies they please in Gods Service Or thus What is Decent and according to Order is lawfull to be done in the worship of God But for the King and Priest to prescribe and impose Ceremomonies in Gods Service is Decent and according to order Therefore it is lawfull for the King and the Priest to prescribe and impose Ceremonies in the Service of God Now if I have not framed your Argument according to your mind I desire you to mend it But I conceive it is all that can be framed upon that test which you alledge so as if you argue not thus you can make nothing at all of it according to the Rules of Logick Nor for answere First I deny that the Apostle speakes there of the Service of God in Prayer but onely of an Order and Dencie in Prophecying such as was then in use in the Church as first that it should be done one by one and not confusedly Secondly that women should not be permitted to speak in the Church Thirdly that it be not in a strange tongue without an Interpreter And such like And to this hath that of the Apostle particular and immdediate reference Let all things be done decently and in order As for Praying in the Church the Apostle gives no other Rule but this that it be not done in a strange tongue Againe we have before excluded the Priest you speak of from having any thing at all to doe or meddle in Gods service for the Reasons fore-shewed So as if for the King and the Priest you put the Church I answere First your Prelaticall Church is a false Church as hath beed proved and so with your Priest is altogether excluded here from having any such power as to ordain Ceremonies in Gods service to bind the Consciences of Gods people For in so doing you shew your selves to be Antichrists and Tyrants over mens soules as before is shewed Secondly not even the true Churches and Congregations of Christ the King Minister and People put together have power to ordaine and impose any Ceremony in Gods service to bind the Conscience For the Apostles themselves neither had nor exercised any such power We find not any one footstep of it in all the New Testament But in this case Christians were left altogether free And the Apostle admonisheth the Collossians and in them all Christians Saying Beware least any man spoyle you through Philosophy and vaine deceit after the Tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. And v. 16. Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day c. which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. Let no man Judge you that is subject not your Conscience to Mans command and ordinance in these things as matter of Religion And v. 20. If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as living in the world are subject to Ordinances Touch not Tast not Handle not which all are to perish with the using being after the Commandements and Doctrine of men which have indeed a Shew of wisedome in will-will-worship and humility in neglecting of the body not in any honour to the Satisfying of the flesh The summe of all which is to shew that Christians being freed by Christs death from all humane Ordinances and Traditions in matters of Religion they ought to
Verity is oldnesse of Errour And againe Illud antiquissimum quod â—erissimum That is most ancient which is most true You commend unto us ancient Ceremonies and the ancienter the better so they may fit time and place But here is never a word how fit and agreeable they be to the word of God As Tertullian els where Saith to Hermogenes the Heretick Scriptum esse doceat Hermogenis Officina Si non est Scriptum timeat vae illud adijcientibus c. Let Hermogenes his Shop shew this to be written if it be not written let him feare that woe to all them that adde to or take from the word of God c. But if antiquity be with you in such request you may take in also the Mystery of Iniquity if antiquity will commend it for good For even in the Apostles time as is noted before it began to work though as a Mystery more covertly as not yet then fiting time and place Not time For the Apostles then living thundred it into holes and thickets Not place For not Ierusalem but Rome must be the place for it but was not yet fitted for it And the Devil with his Lyes can plead great antiquity And with his Lyes came in all Errours which may stand in competition for antiquity even with verity it selfe For Satans Religion had the Start for antiquity of time even of the Gospel it selfe as we may see Gen. 3.1.15 And therefore no marvail if your Lady Mother Rome doe stand so much upon the Tiptoes of her antiquity both in her Hierarchy and its whole frame of Errours and Superstitious Ceremonies as all claiming from the antiquity of the mystery of Iniquity the common Grandmother and root whence hath sprung in successive ages the Stock and branches of all Popery But for answere to all your Plea and Pretence of Antiquity we alledge against you the antiquity of Truth And if you plead for antiquity of humane devices because Satans Lyes were born into the world and imbraced before Christ was revealed So as the very foundation of all will-will-worship and inventions in the service of God was layd in Adams fall from God by the Serpents seducement yet we preferre the Religion of Christ before it because this brings with it the blessing As in the Old Testament when through Adams fall nature had lost her birth-right the blessing still descended upon the younger and that through grace And doth not the antiquity of your ancient Ceremonies take its very rise and Originall from that poyson of pride which the Serpent infused into our First Parents telling them they should be as Gods selfe-wise selfe-sufficient Now there is nothing wherein men would seem more wise and please themselves more in that opinion then their own devises in the worship of God As the Apostle notes of the Gentiles Who professing themselves to be wise they became fooles Wherein wise The Apostle sheweth in their devised worship of God in framing and worshiping false similitudes of God yea even Images of beasts and creeping things Herein they thought themselves very wise men And doe not you so in all your Train of humane inventions in the service of God If you do not think it the highest point of your wisedome why do you make it your main Study and spend all your wits and strength to fill the Church with such inventions But you will Say They are not your owne invention they are ancient and the ancienter the better But your seting them up makes them your own and makes them new againe where they had been antiquated and cast out to the dunghill Nay one thing more for antiquity of your Ceremonies you have from the Old Serpent to be perswaded that you are as Gods that you have all power in your hands over mens Consciences in imposing upon them what Ceremonies you please in the service of God Do you not here take upon you to be as Gods Sit you not in Christs Throne while you thrust him out Thus we see what antiquity not onely your Ceremonies but your absolute Tyranny in imposing of them may justly challenge Well take your antiquity but withall there 's another antiquity goes with it which falls unto you by right of inheritance from that Old Syre of your Ceremonies and that you may find in those words to the Serpent and his Seed Cursed art thou And this is confirmed unto you Deut. 27.26 Cursed is he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to doe them And doe you not make the word of God of no effect by your Traditions while you set up your Ceremonies for and Essentiall part of Gods service For so you call them in plain termes The externall worship of God which you expresse to be those externall actions which you use in your Church-Service as your devout bowing to your Altars and the like Thus you make Gods word of no authority which alowes of no other worship of God internall and externall but such as he hath expresly commanded in his word To which purpose Christ alledgeth against those hypocriticall Pharisees the Prophet Isaiah in these words This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips but their heart is farre from me But in vaine they doe worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandements of men Which is expressed in Isaiah thus Their feare towards me is taught by the Precepts of men Where by feare is meant the worship of God as is noted before but you give me new occasion here to mention it againe And I have no other Weapon but Gods word to incounter your vanities withall So they may fit Time and Place Can you find any time or place in these dayes in England so uncivill or so irreligious in your religion as not to intertaine your ancient venerable Ceremonies Or is not time yet ripe for it but that some places at least shut out such guests Why then what 's wanting Have you not a remedy in a readinesse Either the Popes Dispensation to suspend all those without Law that stand out or some Edict or other will serve the turne And no marvaile if your English Christians so long brought up in Christs Schoole think Scorn to be brought back to Romes A.B.C. againe And they have read how Iosua and the Elders of Israel not consulting God were deceived by the Gibeonites faire pretence of longinquity by the appearance of Antiquity Shewing it selfe in their mouldy bread and old Shooes Which was all they had to pretend for themselves to be received into a League with Israel The Same pretence is yours who to strike a League between England and Rome you pretend your Ceremonies come from farre from antiquity it selfe and the Ancienter the better But all this Chaffe will not intice the old Birds into your Snare Your Ceremonies for all their antiquity will not yet fit Time and Place at least not all Places in these Times Why my Lord cannot your zeale
such like baggage which it was stuft withall becoming a ridiculous spectacle to all the beholders So when your faire glorious guilden earthen pot striving with your Maker as the Prophet speaketh comes to justle with the godlen pot of Manna Iesus Christ and to be struck with a blow of his Iron-rod all that filthy inside of hypocrisie and infidelity shall fly out to become a laughing stocke to all the world which shall then see that GREAT WITNESSE of what sincerity was in your heart when you bleared ignorant mens eyes with the glaring luster of your externall worship Yea your externall pompous service as wherewith you think to please Christ argues you to have no other conceit of Christ then such as the Jewes had dreaming of a temporall Messias and an earthly Prince But let us heare your tale out And scarce any thing hath hurt Religion more in these broken times then an opinion of too many men that because Rome had thrust some unnecessary and many Superstitious Ceremonies upon the Church therefore the Reformation must have none at all For Answere in short All your Ceremonies are Superstitious and therefore unnecessary or if you will all unnecessary and therefore both Superstitious and Superfluous What necessity I pray you of your Crosse in Baptisme What necessity of a Surplice except to hide your poore Priests dublet when 't is either greasie or out at the elbowes What necessity of Kneeling at the Sacrament and so before your Altar And how can you sever these from Superstition What 's a signe made in the Ayre to signifie and set forth the life of a Christan and that also after Baptisme the seale of his vow to renounce the Devil and all his works and to be a souldier and servant of Iesus Christ And how is your Surplice a signe of sanctity when commonly he that weares it hath least holinesse and hath cause to blush when he hath no better signe to hang out then that which tells the world ther 's no true Sanctity within And when you so devoutly kneele before your Altar at the receiving of the Sacrament to which your Altar-men usually apply that in the Psalme O come Let us worship and bow downe and kneele before the Lord our Maker What is it a signe of Of your adoring Christs body imagined to be in the bread Or of your adoring the Altar as which you call Gods-Mercy-Seat and where Christ keeps his personall residence Or of your adoring the Crucifix upon or over your Altar Or is it a signe in generall of your humility or of your Idolatry rather or both together Idolatrous humility or humble Idolatry And so is it not a plaine signe of your pride and presumption in perverting the ordinance of Christ while you injoyne such gestures before an Altar in receiving the Lords Supper which Christ ordained not at an Altar but at a Table where a Supper ought to be eaten as a Supper sitting and not kneeling But say you ought the Reformation to have none at all Yea none at all of mens devising to bind the Conscience of any Christian. For els how is it Reformation if it retaine any thing that is either unnecessary or Superstitious Your Reformation is deformed with your Hierarchy and Ceremonies the very badges and Ensignes of Antichristian Tyranny and Romish Apostacie for thereby as is noted before you thrust Christ the King of his Church out of his Throne and put a yoake of bondage upon his peoples necks But say you Ceremonies are the hedge that fence the Substance of Religion from all the indignities which profanesse and Sacriledge too commonly put upon it You meane such Substance of Religion wherein Rome and you are both one Church that is Hierarchy and Ceremonies as is shewed before And you use your Ceremonies as the Traine and Guard of your Hierarchy and Principality which were contemptible without such Attendance And 't is not without need that you make such use of these beggerly Rudiments when you have no fence for your selves in Gods word And in one respect your Ceremonies may fitly be termed a hedge yea Sharper then any thorne hedge as the Prophet speaketh which who so offereth to thrust away must be as David saith fenced with iron and the Staffe of a Speare to be utterly burnt with fire in the same place otherwise they will pierce thorow his hand And this hedge of your pious seeming Ceremonies is a fence to your Hierarchy against Profanesse while profane ignorant persons led by their carnall sense are thereby more then halfe perswaded that Prelates when they are at their Church-devotion are pious and holy Men although they doe not so much as seem so out of the Church And againe Ceremonies you use as a hedge to fâ—nce you against Sacriledge for were it not for your pompous dayly Service and at Solemne Feasts in your Cathedralls you might be in some danger of having all those fat Corpses alienated to some other use then to the maintenance of a sort of Idle-bellies As once a Brother of yours answered being asked of King Iames to what use their Cathedrals did serve your Majesty quoth he is there dayly and Solemnly prayd for Although those Solemne prayers in regard of their fat feeding and customary Chanting and Roaring out of a Sort of ignorant Chanters may be thought to have but little vertue in them except it be for the poore Singing mens poverty whose allowance will scarce maintaine their Credit upon the Ale-house Score You adde And a great weaknesse it is not to see the strength which Ceremonies things weake enough in themselves God knowes adde to Religion it selfe but a farre greater to see it and yet to cry them downe All and without Choyce by which their most hated Adversaries Climbe up and could not cry up themselves and their Cause as they doe but by them Now as we said before Considering what your Religion it selfe is in Substance one with that Religion of Rome 't is weakenesse indeed not to consider what a Strength your Ceremonies doe adde unto it Yet what strength in Ceremonies so weake in themselves as you seem to acknowledge when you Say God knowes And indeed the Apostle calls them Weake and beggerly Rudiments But as weake as they be in themselves yet being backed with your Canons and Courts they prove strong enough to make the strongest to stoop and vaile bonnet unto them Yea are they not strong bonds and chaines to bind and captivate the Conscience of Gods people worse then either the Aegyptian or Babilonian captivity So as were it not for your Canons mounted and full charged these hedges or mud-walls would prove but weake enough to fence the Substance of your Relâ—gion And indeed this is the reason that so many cry them down All without Choyce because of that strength which they adde to your Romish Superstition your Religion it selfe and because on the other side they eat out the very heart
notwithstanding after all this I say you inferre L. p. 280. These and their like have given so great a scandalâ— among us to some Ignorant though I presume well meaning men that they are affraid to testifie their duty to God even in his own house by any outward gesture at all In so much that these very Ceremonies which by the Iudgement of godly and learned men have now long continued in the practise of this Church suffer hard measure for the Romish superstition sake But I will conclude this point with a saying of Beatus Rhenanus Who could indure the People sayes he rushing into the Church like swine into a sty Doubtlesse Ceremonies do not hurt to the People but profit them so there be a meane kept and that By be not put for the Maine that is so we place not the Principall part of our Piety in them P. Concerning These to wit Images as also Ceremonies we have spoken somthing before what more is requisite for this Passage we shall briefly adde And first If Images in Churches so scandalous why are you so curious and zealous for the setting of them up and the garnishing of them Is it because Afternoon-Sermons on the Lords dayes being put down so as the people having little imployment for their Eares they may instead thereof have such goodly objects for their Eyes to gaze upon Populo ut placerent and so by such Books learne that they may aswell goe to their May-pole and spend their time in beholding a Morice-dance as gaze upon such dumb shews But if they be scandalous you know who sayd Wo to that man by whom thâ— scandall cometh But to whom are they scandalous Alas it is but to some ignorant say you though perhaps well meaning men And for such it matters not much if they stumble at those blocks But perhaps that ignorant but well meaning man who takes offenee at your Images and for that and other your Idolatrous Romish superstitions about your Altars abhorres communion with you perhaps say I Surely this is one signe of a true Child of God and of a well-meaning and no ignorant Christian is one of God Allmighties fooles as you and the world call and account them And then heare what Christ saith againe Who so shall offend one of these little ones which beleeve in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his necke and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea What thinke you of this as small account as you make of those your ignorant well meaning men who are scandalised by your many Romish superstitions And the least true beleever in Christ however you take him for an Ignoramus yet he knows more of Christ then you doe and if you have more litterall knowledge the greater is your sinne in both giving scandall to such and punishing of them for not sinning against their Conscience so scandalized But are onely ignorant well-meaning men offended with your Popish or Romish Images and ragged Reliques of superstition and Idolatry wherwith your Churches are pestered and the pure worship of God corrupted so as they are affraid to testifie their duty to God in that place which you call his house Certainly if they be such as are indeed ignorant of Christ and have not the power of Religion and the Spirit of Christ in them but such Protestants at large as look to be saved by their well-meaning these are least of all affrayd to testifie such duty as you doe as taking your superstition for the best part of their Religion aswell as you doe being brought up in no other Schoole but yours But such as are offended wherfore are they affrayd Of doing their duty to God in his house What call you that Gods-house which you make the Tyring-house of all your superstitious guises and the stage or Theater of your pompous service wherein you please your selves and not God and that his Temple wherein you erect an Altar to the Devil Doe you startle at it I say To the Devil For is not that the Devils Altar whereon our onely True Altar Iesus Christ is crucified afresh denyed and destroyed And is not all superstitious and will-worship and that Altar-worship a sacrifice offered to the Devil on your Altar Doth not the Apostle say that the things which the Gentiles sacrificed they sacrificed to Devils and not to God Why they meant it to God they erected their Altars to God and not to the Devil Agnosto â—eo To the unknown God was that Altar in Athens dedicated How then was it to the Devil Because it was a strange worship which God never commanded The Altar was strange and so the service too And even so is your Altar and Altar-worship and service though you pretend it and intend it to God and to Christ yet because therein you doe with Corah and his company offer strange fire and strange incense such as he hath not commanded and such as whereby Christ Iesus is denyed and renounced it is no better then the service of the Devil In the Law we read that all strange Incense of mans devising was straitly forbidden to be offered to the Lord. Yea whosoever made any composition of Incense like unto that which the Lord commanded was to dye the death For the breach of which Law in this point besides that of Corah and his Company we have a terrible example in Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron who tooke either of them Censers and put fire therein and put Incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they dyed before the Lord. And it is noted also of them that they had no Children so as their Name and Memory perished with them Now Incense signified Prayer and the service of God which if it be not that which the Lord hath expresly commanded it is death to him that offereth it or deviseth it So as your Altars and Altar-service being such as the Lord hath not commanded but forbidden and condemned being taught by the Precept of men and are a denying of Iesus Christ as before is proved your sinne therein is so much greater then that of the Heathen for they offered upon a strange Altar to the unknown God but you with your Eyes open at noon-day doe presume to set up Altars of wood and stone of your own devising and theron offer the strange Incense of your Prayers and service thinking them to be the more effectuall and more acceptable to God because they are offered up upon your Altar For which your high presumption what can you expect but terrible Judgements and fiery indignation which shall destroy the adversaries such as the Apostle there saith sin willingly EkousÃos that is wittingly and willingly after they have received the knowledge of the truth for whom there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin
‡ Mat. 26.26 ‡ Luke 22.32 § Luke 5.4 †Act. 10.13 * 1 Cor. 3.15 Prelates Subtile but vain evasion Prelate a most notorious forcer of Scripture * Chaerea ‡ 2 Sam. 10.4 ‡ Iohn 11.50 § Num. 23.23 24.1 * Rev. 2.14 Prelates Practise ‡ Ephe. 2.8 * Iude 3. ‡ Phil. 1.27 ‡ Rev. 18.4 § Mat. 15.9 †Col. 2.8.16.18 Gal. 4.10 * Heb. 3.12 ‡ Col. 2.18 Prelaticall pride in Will-worship Will-worship is no true Service of God * Math. 5.16 ‡ Rev. 22.18 19. ‡ Isa. 8.20 § 1 King 18.26.29 †Math. 6.5 * Math. 23.5 14. ‡ Math. 23.5 ‡ Prelates abusing of Scripture § Math. 15.9 * Isa. 29.13 * Pag. 34. Prelates Contradiction * Ier. 48.11 ‡ Zeph. 1.12 What a Settler the Prelate is * Zach. 8 ‡ 1 Cor. 11.14 * Katà ras tékna Heresie what it is Prelates Ceremoniall worship Hereticall ‡ Artcile of faith Christ the onely Lord in and over his own house and Service * Gen. 4. 7. 8. 35. ◠‡ Exod. 25.9.40 ‡ 1 Chro. 28·12 19 § v. 12. †1 Sam. 13.14 * 2 Sam. 2â— 14 * 2 Chron. 30.2 3 4. ‡ 2 Sam. 6. 1 Chron. 15.1 2 3 4. ‡ 2 King 16. § 2 Chron. 28.22 †2 Chro. 26. * 1 Chro. 13. * 1 Cor. 14 31. ‡ v. 34. ‡ v. 27. * Col. 2.8 ‡ v. 18. ‡ Katà †Rev. 3.11 * Ioh. 4.23 24. ‡ Heb. 3.6 * 2 Cor. 6.26 § 1 Cor. 3.17 †1 Pet. 2.5 * Exod. 30.9 Levit. 10.1.3 Mal. 1.7 2 Chro. 36.1 * Math. 24.49 ‡ Isa. 1.12 ‡ Math. 15.9 § Math. 24.48.49 †Pro. 16.31 Antiquitas sinâ— Veritate vetustas erroris est * Rom. 1.22 § Gen. 3.14 15. Ceremonies in the worship of God put for the very Substance of Religion § Isa 29.13 * Parturient Montes Nascitur ridiculuâ— Muâ— Hor. * Exod. 1.10 Psal. 105.25 * Plutarch * The Shout of Mariners when they hale together * Persius Satyr 2. Heathen more holy then Prelates ‡ Or Bishops ‡ Horace Carm. lib. 3. Ode 23. § Iohn 4.23.24 †Psal. 45.13 * Act. 17.23 ‡ Act. 17.22 23. c. * veâ—s 29. ‡ Isâ— 1.12 Psal 50.8 c. ‡ v. 23. § v. 22. †Psal. 4.6.7 Heb 10. â— 6 7 8 9 10 * 2 Thess. 1. â— 8 9. See pag. 3. Will-worship Idolatry * Miâ—h 7.4 ‡ 2 Sam. 23 7· ‡ Dr. Andrewes * Gal. 4.4 Bâ—nds of Aegypt The Prelates wider Gates whither they lead * Ier. 17.9 Tuscul. Quest. lib. 3. * 1 Sam. 11.2 ‡ 1 Coâ— 14.20 ‡ Heb. 6.1 § Heb. 5 14. †Psal. 1.1 2· * Heâ— 5.14 Câ—l 2.2 Col. 3.16 The Prelate yeelds the Iesuite this that the Church of Râ—me is a true Church on whose Iudgement people must depend * Act. 4.12 * Iohn 16.7 ‡ Rom. 8.9 Synodi Chalcedonensis â—lepistis Asmukutos Akoristoes Adiairétoes Atrâ—ptoes * See pag. 94. â—â—fore ‡ Iohn 14.6 * Pro. 5.8 * Isa. 9.6 ‡ Luke 2.11 ‡ Rom. 4.25 § Heb. 2.14 15. †Rom. 4. * Ioh. 16.7 ‡ Ephes. 4.8 Ioh. 14.2 Rom. 8.34 Psal. 2.6 Act. 7.56 Heb. 1.13 ‡ Act. 2.29 30 31 32. § Eph. 4 9 * Ioh. 19.30 Psal. 18.5 ‡ Col. 2.15 ‡ Heb. 2.14 15. †Psal. 18.5 Math. 26.38 3â— 27.46 * L. p. 62. compared with other places See p. 109. * Nondum â—ato Pelagio securius loqueâ—â—ntur Pâ—tâ—â—s Aug. Epist. 103 ‡ Dr. Bilson * p. 45.46 ‡ Iam. 5 1â—.20 * Ehes. 5.25 26. * Ioh. 20.30 31. ‡ pag 52.53 * 1 Cor. 7.14 ‡ Rom. 4.16 ‡ Isa. 8.20 〈◊〉 8.9 ‡ 〈◊〉 5.39 ‡ Luke 10.25.26 § 1 Cor. 4.6 †Rom. 15.4 * 2 Pet. 1.19 * Iam. 2 1â— * Coâ—â—il Trid. Sess. 6. ‡ Abasing of the Scripture in subjecting it to natural Reason ‡ 1 Cor. 2.14 § Act. 16.14 * 1 Cor. 2. ‡ Math. 6.23 * 1 Cor 2.14 § Rom. 8.6 “ v. 7. †Ier. 10. * Psal. 62.9 § Exod. 30. â—3 Prâ—lates Reason put to its tryall * Rev. 19 13. ‡ Luke 9.22 †Luk 18.21 § Psâ—l 8.8 Hieronimus Epist. * Math. â—â— 3◠‡ Iam. 4.4 ‡ Tit. 1.16 § 1 Cor. 2.2 †1 Cor. 1.18 Prelates blaspâ—â—my against 〈◊〉 Scripture * Rev. 17.3 Ioh. * Rom. 3.4 * 2 Cor. 4.4 ‡ Math. 5.15 * Pro. 30.5 6 ‡ Pro. 8.8 9. ‡ 2 Pet. 1.19 § Psal. 119.105 * Psal. 19.8 ‡ Ps. 119.130 Scripture convincing a naturall man ‡ 1 Cor. 14.24 25. Heb. 4.12 § 2 Cor. 10.4 5. A motion * 1 King 22 * 1 King 22. ‡ Act. 24.25 ‡ 2 Cor. 4.7 * 2 Pet. 1.21 Comparison * Mat. 24.29 ‡ Mal. 4.2 § Mat. 27.45 †Ps. 119.89 * Eccles. 7.29 ‡ 1 Sam. 19.13 Magno 〈◊〉 magnas nugaâ— * Adversus Luciferianâ—s The onely way how men may know the Scripture to be Gods word as the Prelate teacheth * Math. 24. ‡ Revel 13. ‡ Math. 24. § Col. 2. â—8 †2 Tim. 3.13 2 3 4 5. * Act 26.28 * Col. 2.8 ‡ Rom. 10. Prelates Blaspheming of Scripture all along and exalting his Present Churches Authority above it Prelate lighting the Scripture and puting out the Candle More and more Blasphemy of the Prelate ascribing that to his Tradition which is onely proper to the word and Spirit of Christ. * Psal. 19·8 * Iohn 9 A Doctrine of damnable Blasphemy ‡ Ioh. 5.39 †Ioh. 6.44 45 § August in Iohan alibi Act. 16.14 * Ps. 119.18 ‡ Mat. 28.19 20. A subtile and sly evasion of the Prelate from the Iesuite who objecteth truly A miserable Shift * A pretty jugling tricke of Legerdemain ‡ 1 Cor. 14 20. ‡ 2 Tim. 3.15 16. * 1 Cor. 13. ‡ Rom. 12.6 ‡ Prelate perverts the sense of Scripture confâ—â—â—ding the Regenerate with the Vnregenerate and Saints Faith with Historicall †Andreas Vega Bellarmine and others * 2 Cor. 11.17 * 2 Cor. 4.18 See also 1 Cor. 2.9 1 Pet. 1.8 ‡ Psal. 10.5 †pag. 86. * Heb. 11 1◠‡ v. 27. ‡ Ioh. 8.56 § Act. 7.56 †Ier. 17. â— * 2 Cor. 1.20 * Psal. 19.7 93.5 ‡ Psal. ‡ Esay 55.3 § Iohn 6.69 Act. 13.34 †Rom. 4.16 * 2 Pet. 1.19 ‡ Rom. 15.4 ‡ Act. 24.25 § Act. 26.28 †vers 27. * Scripture perverted by the Prelate as pag. 134. ‡ 1 Cor. 13.12 ‡ Exod. 33. § 2 Cor. 3.18 Blasphemy against God in his Providence * Iob. 16.3 § Iob. 19.3 ‡ 2 Tim. 1.12 § Iâ—h 10 38· †1 Tim. 4 3· * 1 Pet. 1.23 ‡ Iam. 1.18 ‡ Psal. 119.49 50. * Rom. 15.4 ‡ Iob. 13.15 Blasphemy ‡ The Prelâ—te contradicts himselfe not understanding wherof he â—ffirmeth § Rom. 10.10 * Heb. 11.3 (a) Rom. 3.2 (b) 2 Tim. 3.15 16. (c) Ioh. 5.39 (d) 2 Pet. 1.20 21. (e) Act. 10.43 (f Luk 22.32 (g) Ioh. 16.13 (h) 1 Ioh. 1.3 (i) Rev. 22.18 * pag. 88 ‡ Ioâ— 5.31 The Prelâ—tâ—s