your running negligence which should help to make your sophisticall criticisme perfect sense Truly Sir if it be so high a fault to picture God I may justly wonder that any picture of a Saint turned into an Idoll should be retained and pleaded for by any man that pretends to be a Protestant and if it be impossible to picture God it is also impossible to picture God-man And I beleeve that you will acknowledge our Mediatour to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. That the Sun and Images cannot be put in the scales of a comparison in point of fitness to be preserved is a truth written with a Sun-beame Sir I never durst argue from the abuse of a thing against the use of it if the thing be necessary But the Sun is necessary and Images are not necessary ergo there is no parity of reason betweene the termes of your comparison 5. It appeares to me by your shifting fallacy that you make Copes as necessary as clean Linnen 6. You will never be able to prove that all that the prelates and their Faction have borrowed out of the Missall Ritualls Breviary Pontificall of Rome are to be found in any Lyturgie received by the Primitive Church And I would intreat you to consider whether they who doe profess a seperation from the Church of Rome can in reason receive and imbrace such trash and trumpery And yet though you would willingly be esteemed a Protestant I find you very unwilling to part with any thing which the Prelates have borrowed from the Court rather then Church of Rome 7. Your next Paragraph doth concerne Tradition I shall give you leave to preferre the constant and universall consent of the Church of Christ in all ages before the reason of any single man but Sir you doe very ill to call the testimony of the spirit speaking in the word to the Conscience of private men a private spirit I thinke you are more profane in the stating of this point then Bellarmine himselfe 8. You have not yet proved that any Prelate can challenge the Sole power of Ordination and Iurisdiction Iure divino 9. I should be glad to know for how many yeares you will justifie the purity of the Doctrine Discipline and Government in England I beleeve the Doctrine Discipline and Government of the Prelaticall faction whom you call the Church was not excellent if you reckon from 1630. to 1640. and that is time enough for men of our time for to examine I beleeve that you will acknowledge that the Prelates did lay an Ostracisme upon those who did oppose them who were in the right both in the point of Doctrine and Disciplâ—…ne we shall in due time dispute Though Prelacy it selfe be an usurpation yet there were many other encroachments which may justly be called Prelaticall usurpations and the Parliament hath sufficiently declared its judgement in this point they have clearly proved that Prelacy had taken such a deepe root in England and had such a destructive influence not only into the pernicious evills of the Church but Civill State that the Law of right reason even Salus populi quae suprema lex est did command and compell them to take away both roote and branch you may dispute that point with them Sir you cannot prove that Prelacy is an Order of the Church as ancient as the Christian Church it self and made venerable by the never interrupted reception of it in all Ages of the Church but ours 10. I am no Turkish Prophet I never preacht any piece of the Alchoran for good Doctrine much less did I ever make it a piece of the Gospell all that I say is this that Christians incorporated in a Civill State may make use of Civill and naturall means for their outward safety And that the Parliament hath a Legall power more then sufficient to prevent and restrain Tyranny Finally the Parliament hath power to defend that Civill right which we have to exercise the true Protestant Religion this last point is sure of highest consequence because it concernes Gods immediate honour and the Peoples temporall and eternall good Pray Sir shew me if you can why he who saith the Protestants in Ireland may defend their Civill right for the free exercise of their Religion against the furious assaults of the bloudie Rebells doth by that assertion proclaime himself a Turke and Denison the Alchoran you talke of the Papists Religion Sir their faith is faction their Religion is Rebellion they think they are obliged in conscience to put Heretiques to the sword this Religion is destructive to every Civill State into which true Protestants are incorporated therefore I cannot but wonder at your extravagancy in this point Sir Who was it that would have imposed a Popish Service Book upon Scotland by force of Armes You presume that I conceive the King had an intent to extirpate the Protestant Religion Sir I am sure that they who did seduce or over-awe the King had such a designe I doe not beleeve that the Queene and her Agents the Papists in England who were certainly confederate with the Irish Rebells had any intent to settle the true Protestant Religion you cannot but beleeve that their intent was to extirpate the Protestant Religion by the sword and to plant Popery in its stead I know Christ doth make 〈◊〉 and breake the spirituall power of Antichrist by his word and spirit for Antichrist is cast out of the hearts and consciences of men by the spirit of the Lord Iesus but Christ is King of Nations as well as King of Saints and will breake the temporall power of Antichrist by Civill and naturall meanes If Papists and Delinquents are in readiness to resist or assault the Parliament by Armes how can the Parliament be defended or Delinquents punished but by force of Armes I know men must be converted by a spirituall perswasion but they may be terrified by force of Armes from persecution All that I say is the Parliament may repell force with force and if men were afraid to profess the truth because of the Queenes Army and are now as fearfull to maintaine errours for feare of the Parliament the scales are even and we may by study conference disputation and prayer for a blessing upon all be convinced and converted by the undenyable demonstrations of the Spirit Sir this is my perswasion and therefore I am sure far from that Mahumetan perswasion of which I am unjustly accused 11. I am glad that you speake out and give light to your darke roome I did not accuse you of Conventiâ—…les I beleeve you hate those Christian meetings which Tertullian Minutius Pliny and others speake of we had lights and witnesses good store at our meetings And as for your conceit that I deserve to be in Bedlam because of the predominancy of my pride and passion and the irregularity of my will Sir I confess that I deserve to be in Hell a worse place then Bedlam and if you scoffe at
but prove to me that the Priests whom you make to be the lower orbe of their Faction did so mingle and confound the services of the Church as to put no difference between the holy and profane or that in complyance with them they saw vanity and divined lyes to the people and I shall think them capable of all the hard language which you or others have for some yeares heapt upon them Till then Sir pray mistake not Concrets for their Abstracts nor charge the faults of persons upon the innocency of their functions Prelacy is an Order so well rooted in the Scripture though now deprived of all its Branches in this Kingdome that I verily perswade my selfe that as Caiaphas in the Gospell when he spoke Prophecy perceived not himself at that time to be a Prophet so you over-rul'd by the guidance of a higher power have in this Paragraph exceedingly praised Prelacy whilst you laboured to revile it For either it must be Non-sense or a very great Encomium of it when you say that as long as it enjoyed a root here in this Kingdome it had not onely a destructive influence into the evils of the Church but of the Civill State too If the Influence of it were so destructive of evils as indeed it was pray with what Logick can you say that Salus populi quae suprema lex est did compell the Parliament to extirpate a thing so preservative and full of Antidote both to Church and State Sir if mens styles denominations be to be given to them by the place clymate where they are borne bred I shall grant you are an English nay an Oxford Christian. But if you preach maintain that Religion is to be propagated by the Sworâ—… I must tell you that an English Presbyter may in this case be a Turkish Prophet and that though his Text be chosen from the Gospel yet the Doctrine raised from it may be a piece of the Alchoran I shall allow you to say that the Protestants in Ireland had a Right to the defence of the free exercise of their Religion against the furious assaults of the bloody Rebels But when you tell me that Christ is King of Nations as well as King of Saints which I shall grant you and say that as one of his wayes to make Proselytes is by the perswasion of his Word and Spirit so if that will not do his other way to break the power of Antichrist that is as I conceive you mean to convert men from Popery is by civill and naturall meanes that is if you meane any thing to compell them to be Protestants by the Sword Me-thinks I am at Mechâ—… and heare a piece of Turcisme preacht to me by one of Mahomets Priests In short Sir whether the Papists in England were confederate with the Irish Rebels I know not But doe you prove demonstratively not jealously to me that the Queene and her Agents had an intent to extirpate the Protestant Religion and to plant Popery by the Sword and the Army that should bring that designe to pass shall in my opinion be styled an Army not of Papists but of baptized Ianizaries As for your bidding me dispute the right of taking up Armes in such a case with the Parliament First I must desire you to accept the Answer which Favroinus the Philosopher gave to a friend of his who askt him why he would let Adrian the Emperour have the better of him in a Dispute I am loth to enter into an Argumentation with those who command Thirty Legions Next Sir if I were of consideration enough to be heard to speak publickly to that Great Assembly having first kist my weapon I should not doubt with all the respective liberty which might witness to them that I strive not to diminish the rights of their power but to defend the truth of my cause to tell them that to come into the field with an armed Gospel is not the way chosen by Christ to make Proselites If this be an error or mis-perswasion in me shew me but one undenyable demonstration of the Spirit to disprove it besides your untopicall perswasion of your selfe to the contrary and without any farther conference or dispute in this point I shall acknowledge my selfe your convert and be most glad to be convinced In the mean time Sir you are obliged though I be in your opinion in an error to think more nobly of me then of those Cowards of your side who durst not speak Truth in a time of danger when you see me in the like time such a resolute Champion as you conceive for the wrong Sir 't is one of the prayses of a good picture to be drawne so livingly that every one in the room that beholds it shall thinke it looks only on him 'T is just so with some Texts in Scripture and some parts of morall Philosophy which when they speake very Characterizingly of an irregular passion or vice if they meet with a man Conscious and one subject to such passions remember him of his guilt and prick his minde as if he only were signified by that which was writ to all the World By your charging me that I dealt more sharply with you then I should you give me cause to suspect that my Letter proved such a picture to you and you to your guilty selfe seemed a person so concerned The words of bitterness which you have layed together in one heape are composed of such Language as upon your twentieth perusall you will never be able to finde in my Letter Sir Christianity and my profession however you in your letter forgot both have taught me not to returne Vomit for Vomit And the love which I beare to to the Civility of expression would never suffer me to be so revilingly broad If I made use of one of Senoca's Epistles or of Tully's Paradoxes or Horace's poeticall Controversies and if you would apply what they said of Ambition Pride or Choller to your self certainly Sir you have no reason to call this the Luxuriancy of my wit And thereupon to inferre these provocative conclusions that my wit is wanton therefore I am effeminate That I am superstitious therefore lascivious too Sir as my wit is so poore that I shall observe your Councell that is never wax proud upon the strength of it or despise those that are more weake so without sparing me at all I doe once more challenge you to prove that the wantonness of it hath betrayed me to the loose Conversation of any that are light Lastly Sir I hope you doe not think I have so much of the vaine glory or selfe-conceitedness of those Reverend Hypocrites in the Gospell in me who were able to boast of their long Prayers and broad phylactaries and of their fasting twice a weeke that I will offer to thinke my selfe more temperate then the Apostles Yet Sir I dare once more challenge you the precisest of your inspired informers to prove me at any time
thus separate must betake themselves to some other Teacher whom in opposition to the former they chuse to be their Guide and so make themselves his Followers Thirdly they must erect a New Assembly or place of Congregation as a New Church distinct from that from which they doe divide Lastly This choyce of a New Guide and Separation from the Old this Erection of a New Church and Division from the former must be upon slight unnecessary Grounds For if the Cause or Ground of their Separation be needlesse vaine unnecessary if it spring more out of Humour Pride desire of change or Hatred of their Brethren then out of any Christian love to keepe themselves from sinnes 'T is in the Scripture-Language Schisme That is a sinne of Separation Or if you will heare me expresse my self in the language of a very learned Man who hath contrived a clue to lead us through this Labyrinth This breach of Communion This separation from a Church rightly constituted This choyce of a New Guide New Teacher New Instructer Lastly This setting up of a New Congregation or place of private Meetings is the same sinne in Religion which Sedition or Rebellion is in the Commonwealth or State For upon a right examination of the matter 't will be found That Schisme is a Religious or Ecclesiasticall Sedition as Sedition in the State is a civill Lay-schisme Which two sinnes though they appeare to the World in diverse shapes the one with a Sword the other with a Bible in his Hâ—…nd yet they both agree in this that they both disturbe the publick peace The one of the State where men are tyed by Laws as Men The other of the Church where men should be tyed by Love as Christians To let you yet farther see what a grievous sinne this sinne of Schisme or Separation is If the time would give me leave I might here rayse the Schoolemen Antient Fathers and Generall Councells from the dead and make them preach to you from this Pulpit against the sinne of Separation I might tell you that in the purest Times of the Church a Schismatick and Hereticke were lookt upon as Twinnes The one as an Enemy to the Faith the other to Communion But because in our darke Times learning is so grown out of date that to quote an Ancient Father is thought a piece of Superstition And to cite a Generall Councell is to speake words to our New Gifted men unknowne I will say nothing of this sinne but what the Scripture sayes before me First then I shall desire you to heare what S. Paul sayes in this case in the last Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans at the 17. verse Turne to the place and marke it well I beseech you Now I beseech you brethren sayes he there Marke them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which â—…e have learned and avoid them That is in other words Separate your selves from them And then he gives you a Character and Description of those Separaters at the 18. verse of that Chapter And sayes For they that are such serve not our Lord Iesus Christ but their owne Belly And by good words and faire speeches deceive the Hearts of the simple In which words Foure things are so exactly drawn to life as makes them a perfect Prophecye or rather picture of our Times The first is that there were some in S. Pauls dayes who caused Divisions in the Church Men who in a way of Schisme and Separation made themselves the Heads and Leaders of divided Congregations Next The Ground upon which they built their Separation 't was not upon any just true lawfull Scripture Ground For the Text sayes 'T was contrary to the Doctrine which the Apostles taught and preacht But the true cause or Ground why they thus caused Separations was meerly self-Interest And that they might gaine by their Divisions Nay 't was such a poore base unworthy selfe-Interest that 't is there said they did it in compliance to their Belly The third thing which will deserve your observation is the cunning Art they used to draw the weaks to be their Followers 'T is there sayd that by good Words and faire Speeches they deceived the Hearts of the simple especially the simple of the weaker sex And who these were S. Paul in other words but to the same purpose tells you in the 3. Chapter of his second â—…pistle to Timothy at the 5 6 7. verses of that Chapter Where speaking of such Coseners he sayes they had a Forme of Godlinesse an outward seeming Holynesse to deceive and cosen by And that under this Forme of Godlynesse they crept into Houses and there led Captive silly Women loaden with sinnes and drawne away with divers Lusts. Women so unable to distinguish Right from Wrong that they were alwayes learning and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth And certainly my Brethren 't is no new thing under the sunne to see the weaker sexe misled by holy Formes and Shews 'T is no new thing I say under the Sunne for a man that makes long prayers to eat up a Widdows House Or for a cunning Angler to catch the fillyer sort with a hooke bayted with Religion 'T was so in our Saviours time and 't was so in S. Pauls And whether their demure lookes their precise carriage their long prayers their good words and fayre speeches be not the Hooke and snare by which weake people are caught now whether the feasting of their Bellyes or the making Gayne of Godlinesse Or whether the Itch and pride of being the Leaders of a Faction Or whether the vaine Ambition of being thought more holy or more gifted than the rest be not the true end of those who doe now cause Separations I will not rashly censure but I have some reason to suspect But this is not all The fourth and last thing which most deserves your observation is that Separation in that place is such a Scripture-sinne that S. Paul commands us to separate from those who doe thus cause Separations Heare the place I pray once more repeated to you I beseech you Brethren sayes he Marke them who cause Divisions among you and avoid them That is as I said before Separate your selves from them If they who upon no just cause doe Separate must be Separated from I hope you 'l all confesse that Separation is a sinne And what sinne thinke you is this sinne of Separation Why I know some of you will thinke it strange if I should say 't is a sinne of the Flesh. And yet S. Paul sayes that 't is a sinne of the Flesh in the 3. Chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians Marke I beseech you what he sayes in that place Are ye not carnall sayes he there For whereas there are among you Envyings and Strifes and Divisions Are ye not carnall and walke as men Sayes He at the 3. verse Againe when one saith I am Paul And when another saith I am of
most zealously pretended to him had him most And that however he be the God of Order and Iustice Agreement among men yet in favour of his owne Cause he would for a while be content to change his nature and become the God of Injustice Disorder and Confusion too The better to worke this perswasion into the minds of the Multitude their first piece of policy was to draw the Prophets into their Faction This is exprest to us in the 25. verse of this Chapter Where 't is said of Ierusalem There is a conspiracy of her Prophets in the midst thereof And truely 't was a Conspiracy so unfit for Prophets that the resemblance of it was never yet found in any but those Men of a much unholier stile of whom the Historian saies Est aliquod etiam inter Latrones Sicarios foedus that Theeves and Robbers hold League and friendship amongst themselves For 't is said in the following words of that verse that 't was a Conspiracy like the roaring of a Lion ravening the prey A Conspiracy by which they devoured Soules and took to themselves the Treasure and pretious things of the Land And because pillage of this publick Nature could hardly be gained without the Death and Murther of the Owners 't is said in the close of that verse That they made her many Widdows in the midst thereof To which if the Scripture had added these two words of pitty the Fatherlesse and Orphane too nothing could have beene added to the calamity of the Description Nor is there a much more favourable Character stuck by the holy Ghost upon the Priests of those times For by that which is said at the 26. verse of this Chapter And 't is well worth your marking you may perceive that the Disorder to which things were brought in the State sprung first from the Disorder to which things were brought in the Church For 't is there said That The Priests had violated the Law and prophaned the holy Things That they did put no difference between the Holy and Prophane nor made any Distinction between the unclean and the cleane In briefe the Legall well establisht Service and Worship of God was at a kinde of losse and Indifferency 'T was referred to every mans Fansie to make to himself his own Religion Blemisht and unblemisht Sacrifices began to be sacred alike And the Scripture of another Prophet became quite altered He that offered a Swine was thought as religious as he that slew an Oxe And he that â—…t off a Dogs neck was thought as liberall a Sacrificer as he that brought a Lambe to the Altar Next having taken the Prophets and Priests so far into their plot as to mingle and confound the Services of the Church they made it one part of their policy more to make them lend Reputation to their proceedings in the State This is plainly intimated to us by that which is said at the 27. verse of this chapter cohering with that which is said in the words of my Text. For there mention is made of certaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Princes or chiefe men who are there said to be like Wolves ravening the prey Yet there wanted not some Prophets as you may gather from my Text who presented these Wolves to the people in Sheeps cloathing 'T is said too that they had this property of Wolves that they tooke pleasure to shed bloud yet there wanted not Priests who called Blond thus spilt Sacrifice 'T is said too that they did shed Bloud that they might get to themselves dishonest Gain yet there wanted not some who called even that dishonest gain godlinesse If you will have all this limbed to you in one short Draught and picture how cruell soever destructive to the common safety the Projects and proceedings of some men powerfull in the then State of the Iewes were there wanted not Prophets who dawbed them with untempered Morter seeing vanity and divining lyes unto them saying thus saith the Lord God when the Lord had not spoken Which words are a History of the worst Times in the then worst State In which we have these considerable parts 1. An irreligious Compliance or rather Collusion of Spirituall men with Lay. Some there were as you have them described in the precedent verse whose designe 't was to make their Countrey their Prey Others there were whose part t was to make them seem Good patriots and Protectors of their Countrey Some destroyed Soules in the way to their Ambitious Ends Others made it their businesse to put Holy colours on their Slaughters Or if you wil have me express my self in the Language of both Texts some there were who did Shed bloud that they might get to themselves Dishonest gaine And some Prophets there were who to make their proceedings seem specious did put religious pretences to them and with these pretences did disguise and dawbe them Next we have here the Frailty and Weaknesse and Deceiveable nature of such pretences How plausible soever they seemed to the deluded vulgar and however they might a while not onely serve to cover and veile foule purposes but to set them off with a Beauty and Lustre too yet this could not be lasting Dishonest projects thus adorned were but so many painted Ruines And therefore the Prophets who thus disguised them are here said to Dawbe them with untempered Morter Thirdly for the effecting of this we have here a very strange abuse of their Ministery and Function set downe to us in three Expressions having every one of them something of the Forme but nothing of the Reality of a Prophet in them First they are here said to be Sâ—…ers But as for the things they saw they were of that foolish empty nature that the Scripture hath not vouchsafed to call them Dreams We may call them visions perhaps But such as Aene as in Virgil saw among the Shades So voyd of Weight and Body and Substance so far from Sense and Reason as well as Revelation that as the fittest word which could be found for them they are here in this place called Vanity Next they are here said to Divine or foretell But 't is added withall that they foretold not Things but lyes As many untruths as Prophecies fell from them And their predictions had onely thus much of Divination in them that some time was required for men to prove them false And to perceive that contrary to all true predictions they would never come to passe Lastly which was the third and great abuse of their office and function they were not afraid to entitle God to their vanities and lies As often as they were pleased to deceive the people he was cited and quoted as the inspirer of the deceit And this bold insolent sin was committed against the holy Ghost that the vaine foolish groundlesse conjectures of the Prophets were called his Inspirations who to make their falshoods take the stronglier still uttered them in the holy Propheticall stile
obtaine pardon for them I doe professe that I cannot thinke the Sun in all his heavenly course for so many yeares beheld a Church more blest with purity of Religion for the Doctrines of it or better establisht for the Government and Discipline of it then ours was And therefore if I were presently to enter into dispute with the greatest Patriarch among these Prophets who even against the Testimony of sense it selfe will yet perversely strive to prove that our Church stood in such need of Reformation that the growing Superstitions of it could not possibly be expiated but by so much Civill Warre I should not doubt with modesty enough to prove back again to him that all such weak irrationall Arguments as have onely his zeale for their Logick are not onely composed of untempered Morter But that in seeing those spots and blemishes in our Church which no good Protestants else could ever see 't will be no unreasonable inference to conclude him in the number of those erroneous Prophets here in the Text. Who to the great Scandall and abuse of their Office and Function did not onely palliate and gild over the publique sins of their times but did it like Prophets and saw Vanity too Which is the next part of the Text And is next to succeed in your attentions If the Philâ—…sophers rule be true that things admit of definitions according to their essences and that the nearer they approach to nothing the nearer they dâ—…aw to no Description to goe about to give you an exact definition of a thing impossible to be defined or to endeavour to describe a thing to you which hath been so much disputed whether it be a thing were to be like those Prophets here in the Text first to see Vanity my selfe and then to perswade you that there is a Reality and Substance in it Yet to let you see by the best lights I can what is here meant by Vanity I will joyne an inspired to a Heathen Philosopher Solomon whose whole Book of Ecclesiastes is but a Tract of Vanity as we may gather from the instances there set downe places vanity in mutability and change And because all things of this lower world consist in vicissitude change so farre that as Seneca said of Rivers Bis in idem flumen non descendimus we cannot step twice into the same stream so we may say of most Sublunarie things whose very beings do so resemble streams ut vix idem bis conspiciamus that we can scarce behold some things twice that wisest among the sonnes of men whose Philosophy was as spacious as there were things in nature to bee knowne calls all things under the Sunne vanity because all things under the Sunne are so lyable to inconstancy and change that they fleet away and vanish whilst they are considered and hasten to their decay whilst we are in the Contemplation of them Aristotle desines vanity to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing which hath not some reasonable end or purpose belonging to it For this reason he calls emptinesse and vacuity vanity Because there is so little use of it in nature that to expell it things have an inclination placed in them to performe actions against their kinde Earth to shut out a vacuity is taught to flie up like fire and fire to destroy emptinesse is taught to fall downe like earth And for this reason another Philosopher hath said that colours had there not been made eyes to see them and sounds had there not beene eares made to heare them had been vanities and to no purpose And what they said of sounds and colours we may say of all things else not onely all things under the Sun but the Sun it selfe who is the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eye of the world without another eye to behold him or to know him to be so had been one of Aristotles vanities As then in Nature those things have deserved the name of vanities which either have no reasonable end or purpose belonging to them or else are altogether subject to Mutability and change so 't is in policy and Religion too To doe things by weake unreasonable inconstant principles principles altogether unable to support and upold the weight and structure of publique businesse built upon them or to doe things with no true substantiall solid usefull but a meere imaginary good end belonging to them As for example to alter the whole frame and Government of a State not that things may be mended but that they may run in another course then they did before or to change the universally received Government of a Church meerely for change sake and that things may be new not that they may bee better is a vanity of which I know not whether these Prophets here in the Text were guilty but when I consider the unreasonable changes already procured and the yet farther endlesse changes as unreasonably still pursued by the Prophets of our times I finde so much vacuity and emptinesse in their desires so much interested zeale and so little dis-interested reason so much novelty mistaken for reformation and withall so much confusion preferred before so much decency and order that I cannot but apply the Wise mans Ingemination to them and call their proceedings Vanity of vanities For if we may call weak groundlesse improbable surmises and conjectures vanities have not these Prophets dealt with the mindes of vuâ—…gar people as Melancholy men use to deale with the clouds raised monstrous formes and shapes to fright them where no feare was Have they not presented strange visions to them Idolatrie in a Church window Superstition in a white Surplice Masse in our Common-prayer Booke and Antichrist in our Bishops Have they not also to make things seem hideous in the State cast them into strange fantasticall Chymera figures And have they not like the fabulous walking Spirits wee read of created imaginary Apparitions to the people from such things flight unsolid melting Bodies as Ayre And for all this if you enquire upon what true stable principle or ground either taken from reason which is now preacht to be a saecular prophane heathen thing or from Scripture which is now made to submit to the more unerring rule of fancy they have proceeded or what hath been the true cause of their so vaine imaginations you will finde that contrary to all the rules of right judgement either common to men or Christians they have been guided meerely by that Causa per accidens that fallible erroneous accidentall cause which hath alwayes been the mother of mistakes Socrate ambulante coruscavit Because it lightned when Socrates took the Ayre one in the company thought that his walking was the occasion of the flash this certainly was a very vaine and foolish inference yet not more vaine and foolish then theirs who have â—…right people to conclude that all pictures in Church-windowes are â—…dols because some out of a misguided devotion have worshipt â—…hem or that
Surplices and the like Church Vestures are superstitious because some superstitious men weare them or that our Commâ—…â—…rayer booke is Poperie because part of it is to bee found in the 〈◊〉 of that Church or that the government of the Church 〈◊〉 bishops is Antichristian because in their beleefe Antichrist alâ—…ady is or when he comes into the world shall be a Bishop For here if I should presse them in a rationall logicall way unâ—…sie they will call Argument and Logick and Superstiâ—…â—…oo â—…oo and banish Reason as well as Liturgy out of the Church â—…o think as they doe that Churches are unhallowed by reason of their ornaments or to perswade people to refrain them because some out of a blind zeale have paid worship to the Windows is to me a feareâ—…s â—…s on reasonable as theirs was who refused to goe to Sea because â—…ere was a Painter in the City who limned Shipwracks For certainly if that be all the reason they have to banish Images out of thâ—… Church because some if yet there have been any so stupid have made them Idols by the same reason we should not now have a Sun or Moon or Stars in the Firmament but they should long sinâ—… have dropt from Heaven because some of the deluded Heathen worshipt them And if that be all the reason they have to prove Surplices or white vestments superstitious because Papists wear them pardon the meannesse of the subject I beseech you which is scoreâ—… worthy of a confutation why doe not they also conclude Linnes to be superstitious because Papists shift and so make cleanlinesse to be as unlawfull as Surplices or Copes Thirdly to say our Coâ—… prayer-booke is Popish because 't is so good that some in the Church of Rome have praised it is to mee an accusation as sencelesse as theirs who accused the Generall of their Army of treason against the State because his enemies out of the admiration of his vertues erected a Statue to him Lastly to call the government of our Church by Bishops Antichristian because that Church which they make to be the seat of Antichrist is so governed is to me such a weak Imputation as by the same reason makes all the Christian Governments of the world pagan And therefore to be utterly extirpated and banisht out of the world because in some points of Government they resemble the Common-wealths of Infidels To all which vain unlearned impotent shallow objections raised against the Church when I have added their vain improbable conjectures and objections raised against the State too Where things possible nay in a civill politick way almost impossible have beene urged and cited as things present and done Where because some Princes have been Tyrants and grievous to their Subjects people in serene easie halcyon times have bin made beleeve that an Aegyptian bondage and Thraldome was ready to fall upon them And where because there was a time when a bunch of Grapes or two extraordinary was gathered for the publicke people after so many reparations so many acts of recompence have been entertained that those few irregular Grapes were but the prologues and fore-runners to the intended rape which should in time have been committed upon the whole future following vine I cannot look upon the Prophets who have thus preacht vanity to them thus amuzed them with false imaginary dangers but under that description which the Prophet Ieremy hath made of them in his 23. chap. at the 26. verse where he calls them Prophets of the deceit of their owne hearts Seers who coyne their owne visions Men who relying wholly upon the uncertaine illumination of their own fancies which they call the Spirit and having never acquainted themselves with the true wayes and principles either of reason or Religion which should cleare their mindes and take off the grosse filme which beclouds their understandings make it their businesse and profession to deceive themselves and others Building false conclusions upon weak irrationall premisses and supporting improbable conjectures by fictions and untruths Which suggests to me the second abuse of the Ministery and function of these Prophets here in the Text. Which was that they not onely saw vanity but divined lyes too The thing in nature which makes the expression hold true that man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sociable creature is that we are able to repay conversation with conversation and have a privilege bestowed upon us beyond that of beasts that wee can unite and joyne our selves to one another by speech Without which we who now make rationall assemblies and Common-wealths had been only a rude discomposed multitude and Herd of men Nay without Language to expresse our selves and to associate our selves to one another in Discourse every man had been thus like the first that he had been alone and solitary in the world For where commerce and entercourse and exchange of minds is denyed and where all that passeth between us of men is that we are Alter alteri spectaculum onely a dumbe speechlesse shew and spectacle to one another meetings and numerous Assemblies are but so many unpeopled Wildernesses and desarts And where all that we enjoy of one anothers company is onely the dull sight and presence every one of us may reckon himselfe single in a full theatre and crowd As speech then was at first bestowed upon us that we might hold conversation and discourse with one another so there was a Law imposed upon us too that wee should not deceive one another by our sppeech * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is Aristotlâ—…s definition of speech which hath a piece of commutative Iustice in it Words sayes he are the images of thoughts That is sayes the Divine they alwayes ought or should be so The minde is thereby enabled to walke forth of the Body and to make visits to another separated divided mind Our Soules also assisted by Speech are able to meet and converse and hold entercourse with other Soules Nay you must not wonder at the expression if I say that as God at first conveyed our minds and Soules into us by breathing into us the breath of Life so by Speech he hath enabled us as often as we discourse to breath them reciprocally back againe into each other For never man yet spoke Truth to another and heard that other speake Truth back againe to him but for that time the saying of Minutius Felix was fulfilled Crederes duas esse animas in eodem corpore there were enterchangeably two mindes in one Body But this as I said before is onely when Truth is spoken Otherwise as the Question was askt of fire Igne quid utilius What more usefull gift did God ever bestow upon us then Fire And yet the same Poet tells us that some have imployed it to burne Houses So we may say of Words Sermone quid utilius What more beneficiall gift of nature did God ever bestow upon us then Speech 'T is the thing which doth outwardly distinguish
but as a Delegary of power to examine my studies life and manners I shall bring all the submission with mewhich can be expected from one subject to the tryall and examination of such a power Being withall very confident that when that time comes however you may perhaps finde an old Cope or two in our Colledge yet you will never bring Logick enough with you to prove that they are either Idolatrous or have been put to a superstitious use And therefore Sir in this particular you have lost your friendly counsell there being no need at all that we should against that time study for an Answer In your next Fascicle you say that I maintaine that some things in the Excellency and Height of the Doctrines of Christian Religion depend for their credit and the Evidence of their Truth upon the Authority of Christs Miracles convey'd along in Tradition and Story And therefore conclude that my Religion leaues too hard and too heavy upon Tradition Sir though I have alwayes lookt upon the Scriptures of the Old Testament and the New as two glorious lampes which to all eyes that have not lost the use of seeing by being kept sequestred from the sunne too long in the darke mutually give light to one another so that a vigilant Reader by comparing Prophecies with their Accomplishments will have very great reason to beleeve that both are true yet because this amounts but to the discourses and perswasions of a single mans reason if I prefer Tradition which is the constant universall consent of all Ages as a fuller medium to prove doctrines by which are hardly otherwise demonstrable doe I any more I pray then prefer the universall Testimony and Report of the Church of all Times before the more fallible suggestions of a private spirit Your next Paragraph is perfectly the Hydra with repullulating Heads which I warned you of in my first Letter And multiplies so many causeless questions as make it nothing but a heape partly of such doubts partly of untruths as would make it one of Hercules labours to examine them First you bid me prove that Christ hath put the sole power of Ordination in the hand of a Prelate Sir if the practice of the Apostles in the Scripture in this point were not cleare yet the practice and opinion of the Church for 1500 yeeres ought to be of too great Authority with you to make this a scruple Knowing that no Church in the world thought otherwise till the Presbyterian Modell crept forth of Calvins fancie nor any good Protestant in the Church of England till such as you recalled Aerius from his grave and Dust to oppose Bishops Next you bid me justifie that no Church that ever the sunne lookt upon hath beene more blest with purity of Religion for the Doctrines of it or better establisht for the Government and Discipline of it then the Church of England hath Sir you repeat not the words of my Sermon so faithfully as you should I am not so extravagant as to say that no Church that ever the Sunne lookt upon but that the Sun in all his heavenly course for so many many yeeres that is in my sense for many Ages saw not a purer Church then ours was both for the Doctrines and Discipline of it Against this you wildly object I know not what Doctrines publiquely countenanced but tell me not what these Doctrines were speake of certaine superstitious practices and Prelaticall usurpations but doe not prove them to be either superstitious or usurpt quarrell with the Delegation of Bishops power to Chancellors then proceed to the tyrannie of the High-Commission-Court and at last conclude with I know not what Imaginary corruptions and Innovations introduced into the State Church and University Sir if I should grant this long-winded Charge of yours to be true as truly I think it is onely a seeing of vanity yet my confident Assertion is not hereby enfeebled I hope when I spoke of the purity of our Church you did not think I freed it from all blemishes or spots The Primitive Church it selfe had some in it who broacht strange doctrines Saint Iohn had not else written his Gospell against the Gnosticks nor Saint Paul his Epistle to the Galatians against those that held the necessity of Circumcision The next Ages of the Church have not been more distinguisht by their Martyrs then Heretiques yet the Primitive Church ceased not to be Apostolically pure because it had a Cerinthus or Nicolaitans in it nor the succeeding Churches to be the Spouse of Christ because one brought forth an Apelles another a Marcion a third a Nestorius a fourth an Eutiches a fift an Arius Sir as long as the best Church in the world consists of men not infallible there will be errors But then you must not charge the Heterodox opinions or Doctrines of particular men though perhaps countenanced by some in publique authority upon the Church Besides Sir every Innovation is not necessarily a Corruption unless it displace or lay an Ostracisme upon some other thing more worthy and better then it selfe You your selfe say that the corruptions introduced were brought in by a prevailing faction who were not the Church If they were not my Assertion holds good that notwithstanding such corruptions yet our Church in its time was the purest Church in the world This then being so me thinks Sir you in your pursuit of Reformation by making Root Branch your Rule of proceeding have beene more severe then the lawes of right Reason will allow you If there were such a tyrannie as you speake of streaming it selfe from the High Commission Court why could not the tyrannie be supprest without the abolishment of the Court Or if there were such a thing as Prelaticall usurpation why could not the usurpations be taken away and Episcopacie left to stand Sir if you be Logician enough to be able to distinguish betweene the faults of persons and the sacredness of functions you cannot but pronounce with me that to extirpate an order of the Church ancient as the Christian Church it selfe and made venerable by the never-interrupted Reception of it in all the Ages of the Church but ours for the irregular carriage of a Prelate or two if any such have beene among us is a course like theirs who thought there was no way left to reforme drunkenness in their State but utterly to root up and extirpate and banish Vines The remainder of your Paragraph is very politically orderd which is that because you finde it hard for you to confute my Sermon by your Arguments you will endeavour to make the Parliament my Adversary who you thinke are able to confute it by their power And bid me prove that the proceedings of the Parliament are Turkish Here Sir methinks being a Poet I see a piece of Ben Iohnson's best Comedy the Fox presented to me that is you a Politique Would-be the second sheltring your self under a capacious Tortoise-shell Why Sir can you perswade
and the denyall of providence doe destroy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one nay one of the firmest Bonds of Society and supporters oâ—… Lawes yet I have not met with any demonstrative Argument which hath proved to me that there is such a necessary dependance of Humane society upon Religion that the Absence of the One must inevitably be the Destruction of the other If it be this is most likely to come to passe in the State or Commonwealth which is of this opinion among themselves Not in a forraigne State or Common-wealth which is not But since 't is possible that a Countrey of Atheists may yet have so much Morality among them seconded by Lawes made by common agreement among themselves as to be a People and to hold the society of Citizens among themselves And as 't is possible for them without Religion so farre for meere utility and safeties sake to observe the â—…aw of Nations as not to wrong or injure a People different from themselves so where no civill wrong or injury is offered by them to another People but where the morall Bonds of Society and commerce though not the Religious of Opinion and Worship are unbroken by them for the People not injured to make Warre upon them for a feard imaginary consequence or because being Atheists 't is possiâ—…l that their example may spread is an Act of Hostility which I confesse I am not able to defend For thirdly Sir such a Warre must either have for it's end their punishment or their Correction Their punishment can be no true warrantable end because towards those who shall thus make Warre upon them they have not offended Nor can their Correction Legitimate such a Warre Because all Correction as well as Punishment requires Iurisdiction in the Correctors and Inflictors of the punishment Which one People cannot reasonably be presumed to have over another People independent and no way subject to them unlesse we will allow with that Author that because Naturall reason doth dictate that Atheisme is punishable therefore they who are not Atheists have a right to punish those that are which Covarruvtas 〈◊〉 Spaniard who hath learnedly disputed this poynt and others as learned as he have not thought fit to grant It hath been a Questionâ—…k't â—…k't whether Idolatry be not a Crime of this punishable nature in one People by another who are not guilty of that Crime To which the best Divines which 〈◊〉 hâ—… yet read upon that Subject doe answer negatively that it is not For though it be to be granted that anâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and kinds of Idolatry One is more Ignoble and irrationall then Another A 〈◊〉 so tâ—… eâ—…nce towards God is greater or lesse as the Objects to which men terminate their Idolatry are more vile or honourable As in those old Heathens 't was a more faulty Idolatry to worship a Dogge or Crocodile or Serpent then to worship things of a Sublimer kinde namely the Sunne or heavenly bodies or Soules of famous men departed And though all such Idolatries have deservedly been thought to be so many Affronts and Robberies of the true God whose worship is thereby misplaced and spent upon false yet having left behind him in his whole Globe of Creation no exact figure or Character of Himselfe to be known or distinguisht by nor any plaine Teacher but his Scripture to informe men of vulgar understandings that there is but one God and that that one God is only an Intelligible spirit and no part of this grosse materiall World which we see wherever the Scripture hath not been heard of if men unable by the sight of a Naturall discourse to apprehend him as He is have fancied to themselves a plurality of False Gods or made to themselves false representations of the true S. Paul tells us that God connived at it as a piece of unaffected ignorance which can never be a cause meritorious of a Warre to correct it First because being only an Offence against God and the Offendors being as I said before free and no waâ—… subject to any People but themselves Any forraigne Nation unlesse they can show the like Commission from God to punish them as the Iewes had to punish and root out the Canaanites will want Iurisdiction and Authority to their Armes Next because Idolatry though it be a false Religion is yet as conservant of Society which distinguishes it very much from Atheisme and the deniall of Providence as if'twere true Nor can I see why He who worships many Gods if he believe them to be Gods should lesse feare punishment for his perjuries or other Crimes then He who only worships and believes there is but one Lastly because though Idolatry be an Errour in men yet being an Errour without the light of Scripture to rectify it hardly vincible in themselves and no way criminall towards others of a more rectified Reason 'T is to be reformed by Argument and perswasion not violence or force Since a Warre made upon the Errours or mens mindes is as unreasonable as a Warre made upon the Freedome or their Wills And for this â—…ast reason I conceive that the propagation of Christian Religion cannot be a just cause for a Warre upon those who will refuse to imbrace it First because such a Refusall may possibly spring from an Errour in the understanding which even in a Preaching and perswasive way would scarce be in the power of S. Paul himselfe if he were on earth againe unless he would joyne Miracles to his Sermons to dislodge For though some parts of the New Law doe carry such a Musick and consent to the Law of Nature that they answer one another like two strings wound up to the same tune yet there be other parts which though they doe not contradict it are yet so unillustrable from the principles of Reason that they cannot in a naturall way of Argumentation force assent And you know Sir 't would be unreasonable to make Warre upon mens persons for the reception of a Doctrine which cannot convince their Minds I must needs confesse to you should Christ now live in our daies and Preach much harder Doctrines then those in the Gospell and should confirme every Doctrine with a Miracle as he did then 't would be an inexcusable peece of Infidelity in all those who should see his Miracles not presently to consent and yeeld beliefe to his Sermons But somethings in his Doctrine appearing new and strange to the World and depending for the probability of their Truth upon the Authority of his Miracles And those Miracles being Matters of Fact wrought so many Ages since and therefore not possibly able to represent themselves to our times upon gâ—…eater Authority anâ—… proofe then the Faith and generall Report of Tradition and story If any shall think they have reason not to believe such a report they may also thinke they have no reason to believe such Miracles and by consequence the Doctrine 〈◊〉 be confirmed by them In short