once thus satisfied and resolved of the truth and true religion might afterward the better and the more freely apply themselves to the good and due practise of it in their affections words workes lives and conversations refusing all other religions of humane invention whatsoever and the wayes thereof But now though the truth be never so manifest and apparant yet some there be of that froward and perverse disposition that they will not yeelde unto it but as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses 2. Tim. 3.8 so doe these also resist the truth being men of corrupt mindes and reprobate concerning the faith as S. Paul speaketh of which sort of men if I could helpe it I would not have you to be though you be mine Adversarie yea though you were mine utter enemie And therefore as to the answere which you made to the two Chapters contayned in the first part of my first Booke I replyed so to your Rejoynder I have here also thought it good to make a Surreplication wherein I must not omit to tell you that as touching the second Chapter of my Reply you have in your Rejoynder made no answere at all unto it but it remaineth wholly and entirely unanswered and consequently in his full force strength against you And as touching the first Chapter of my Reply concerning the Supremacie upon which point it seemeth that all your thoughts were wholly fixed imployed although you make some kinde of answere in your Rejoynder unto it and such as perchance you and your partakers may thinke to be somewhat strong yet it is indeede of that great debilitie as that upon the matter it is as good as no answere as will appeare by the sequele and yet have you moreover left a great part even of that first Chapter also unanswered Beside that you have againe in your Reioynder sundry things which were before answered in my Reply and much other idle futile and frivolous stuffe which I suppose you would never have inserted into your booke but fro want of better matter in your cause For first what an idle exception is this that you take to my Reply in that I dedicated it to the Right Honourable the Lord Deputie Why might I not doe so Was it not lawfull Or was there any inconvenience or indecorum in it You say that his Lordship hath taken the Oath of Supremacie which maketh him a direct Partie being a Partie he may not also be a Iudge in the same cause What have you so soone forgotten what your selfe did For when you made your answere to the two Chapters of my first Booke you may remember that you dedicated it To your dearest countreymen the Lawyers of Ireland You then thought it lawfull and seemely enough for you so to dedicate it notwithstanding that by their refusall and utter dislike to take the Oath of Supremacie they manifestly shewed themselves to be Parties And was this lawfull for you to doe and was not the other as lawfull at least or rather much more lawfull and seemely all things considered for mee to doe Howbeit you know also that Bookes be not alwayes dedicated to men to make them Iudges but sometimes and usually to the end they should be the Patrons thereof albeit therein also they be not disallowed but well allowed to passe their judgement and censure upon the same But indeede no reason had you to dislike of the dedication of that my Booke unto his Lordship in whom your selfe doe acknowledge that there is sufficiencie to understand wisedome to discerne and power to commaund A like second exception you take for that I call the Papists of this kingdome Pretended Catholickes which title say you they doe not acknowledge But whether they acknowledge it or no it must bee graunted that whilest they call themselves Catholickes when re vera they bee not so as I have shewed and prooved in my first Booke they can bee no other but Pretended Catholickes As likewise hee that calleth himselfe an honest man when revera he is not so is at the most but a pretended honest man Yet another exception you take in this that you say I call you Canis festinans and Luscus inter caecos But you mistake in both For in that my epistle dedicatorie of my Reply I did not say that you were Caniâ— festinans but that whilest in your Answere you strived to make more hast then good speede you shewed your selfe to be like Canis festinans caecos edens catibos which is a proverbiall speech tolerable enough in the judgment of such as be not over captious and often and ordinarily vsed in that sort and sence to that purpose that I used it Neither did I say definitely expressely of you that you were Luscus inter caecos but my words be these Regnat inter caecos Luscus which may be aswell spoken of any other as of you vnlesse you will needs be the man and so take and apply it as you doe to your selfe particularly 2. After these exceptions you come next to the the three requests I made to him that would take upâ—n him to answer my first booke in the first whereof I desired that he would answere it not by parts or peasemeals but wholly and entirely from the beginning of it unto the end The second was that he would doe it not superficialie and sophistically but substantially soundly satisfactorily if he could Thirdly I desired him to doe it as in love and charity so also with an affection only to follow Gods truth and with all to set his name unto it as I had done to that booke of mine But hereunto you take divers exceptions though now somewhat lately in your Reioynder First you say that these being conditions they should have beene agreed upon by the mutuall consent of parties and that if any advantage be given it should be in favour of the defendant as in matter of challenge for the defendant appoints the weapon time and place But in this challenge of mine contrary unto law and custome I have say you assumed unto my selfe being the challenger the proposing of such conditions as doe disadvantage the defendant It is true that in contracts and bargaines betweene man and man the conditions must be agreed upon by mutuall consent of parties before it be or can be a perfect contract or a perfect bargaine howbeit conditions for all that not onely may be but also must be first propounded before they can bee assented unto or agreed upon Againe there is aswell a subsequent agreement as a precedent As if a man propound or offer unto you a Lease for yeares of lands upon certaine conditions you may choose whether you will accept of it or no upon those conditions but if though not at the first yet afterward you having the election doe declare your consent and acceptance of it by entring upon the lands manuring them taking the profits is it not reason you should performe the conditions thereunto annexed
it to bee a fault in mee you should rather have eschewed it then committed it upon any mans example whatsoever He that knoweth an Act to be a sinne and reproveth and condemneth another man for it and yet will himselfe commit it is not his sinne and fault Rom. 2.1 so much the greater Therefore art thou inexcusable O man whosoever thou art saith S. Paul that condemnest another for in that thou condemnest another thou condemnest thy selfe for thou that condemnest dost the same things Yea you say further that in your Answer formerly made you signified this to be a fault aswell in your selfe as in mee But if you then thought so in verie deede why did you commit it Or why doe you still commit and continue it For so your Reioynder declareth doth not this then more more aggravate your offence And doth it not declare you to bee a man of little conscience that dare thus wittingly and willingly to sinne against your owne conscience and to persist also in it For if our heart condemne us 1. Ioh. 3.20 saith S. Iohn God is greater then our heart and knowes all things It is high time therefore for you to give over writing in these matters of Religion if it be against your conscience and that you verily thinke it to be unlawfull for you so to doe But as for me I am not of that minde neyther have you shewed nor can you shew any sufficient or good reason to disswade mee For whereas you suppose it to bee unlawfull or unmeete for Lawyers or other lay-men to meddle with the Scriptures and matters concerning Religion as being a thing out of their element calling and profession First to forbid or denie lay people the medling with the Scriptures and with Religion is knowne to bee an old Popish policie and a most wicked and damnable device by meanes whereof mens eyes being in times past thus blinded and as it were put out it came to passe that both Pope and poperie in those dayes so mightily prevayled as they did in the world yet still prevayle amongst too too many For what is it else but ignorance of Gods word and will in the people that keepeth them so fast fettered and chayned both to Pope and poperie Secondly the untruth of this irreligious and Antichristian opinion is formerly and at large discovered and manifested in my first Booke which I see not yet answered And yet thirdly you must further know if already you know it not that a Lawyer or any other lay-man hath a double calling or a double profession one worldly which concerneth the things of this life the other is his Christian calling which concerneth respecteth things belonging to a farre better life namely to a life everlasting This Christian calling Ephes 4.1 S. Paul proveth desiring men to walke worthy of that calling whereunto they are called Againe hee prayeth for some that God would make them worthy of this calling S. Peter likewise speaketh thus 2. Thes 1.11 Yee are a chosen generation a royall Priesthood an holy nation a people set at libertie that yee should shew forth the vertues of him 1. Pet. 2.9 that hath called you out of darkenesse into his mervailous light And sundrie other Texts of holy Scripture there be to prove that there is aswell a Divine and Christian calling and profession as there is a worldly and terrestriall For what Have not men soules to looke to aswell as bodies Or are men to bee no more but naturall and meere men 1. Pet. 1.23 Are they not also to become Christian men and to bee regenerated aswell as generated And doth not S. Peter tell us that men are regenerated or borne a new not by corruptible but by incorruptible seede even by the word of God who liveth and endureth for ever 1. Pet. 2.2 And doth he not further advise some as new borne babes to desire the sincere milke of the word that they may grow thereby 1 Cor 3 1 2. For men after that they bee once begotten and borne a new by Gods word Hebr. 5.12.13.14 and the power of his spirit working therewithall are first Babes in Christ and afterward by degrees they grow to bee strong men and able to digest strong meates untill they come at last to bee a perfect man as S. Paul speaketh Yea Ioh. 6.27 doth not Christ himselfe bid men to Labour not for the meate which perisheth but for that meate which endureth unto life everlasting Luke 10.39 40.41.42 And did he not also further tell Martha that shee was troubled about many things but this was the unum necessarium the one thing that was necessarie which Mary had chosen namely the hearing of his word Seeing then that Gods word which is now long sithence committed to writing and is in the sacred and Canonicall Scriptures to bee found and where all truth concerning points of Divinitie and Religion is to be had is so necessarie as that it is the foode meate and nourishment of Christians to life everlasting How can it be rightly and truely said that when they be thus within their aliment they bee out of their element For is not the life of the soule to bee preserved and maintayned aswell or rather much more heedefully then the life of the body Or will any say that the fish is out of his element when hee swimmeth in the water where he liveth and most delighteth Yea as the fish removed out of his proper element dieth within a while after and as the bodie that is destitute of corporall foode to sustaine it must needes decay and die So the soule that hath not this spirituall foode of Gods word to cherish and maintayne it in a spirituall life must likewise needes consume decay and pine away untill it come in the end to utter ruine You see then that a true Christian Iohn 17.16 Who though he bee in the world yet is not of the world but hath his affection set upon things that are above not on things which are on earth Col. 3.1.2 Phil. 3.20 is so farre from being out of his element as that contrarywise hee is within his right and true element in respect of his soule and the things belonging to a better world and keepeth himselfe within the compasse bounds of that his divine Christian calling so long as hee humbly and reverently heareth readeth searcheth the word of God delighteth in it museth and meditateth upon it talketh of it and thereout learneth truths and true religion and propoundeth them also unto others for their benefite and instruction aswell as of himselfe Yea all duties of a Christian a Lawyer or other lay-man may and ought to doe and performe as hee is able and as occasion requireth so that hee doe them discreetely and with due respect to all manner of persons and so long as withall hee intrudeth not into those duties that bee proper and peculiar to the
amongst them for that cause In which regard also it is that hee would have the Easterne Churches to be imitators of him and to follow him Neither did this Emperor Iustinian write unto him as to an universall or supreme Bishop in those dayes over all but onely as to a Bishop of a Province or of a parte of the Christian world and namely in this sort Iohanni Sanctissimo Archiepiscopo almae urbis Romae â—de libr. 1. â— 4 lib. 4 â— 6 Patriarchae To Iohn the most holy Archbishop and Patriarch of the famous Citie of Rome Againe in that Epistle he desired this Iohn the Bishop of Rome to write his letters to him and to the Bishop of that his royall Citie of Constantinople whom hee there calleth brother to the Bishop of Rome and not his servant or subject Whereupon the Glosse it selfe maketh this observation and saith thus Hic eum parificat Here the Emperour equalleth the B shop of Constantinople to the Bishop of Rome And indeede the first Generall Councell of Constantinople consisting of 150. Bishops Canon 2. 3. and the Generall Councell of Chalcedon also consisting of 630. Bishops Act. 16. and the sixt Generall Councell of Constantinople Can. 36 doe all decree the Sea of Constantinople to be equall to the Sea of Rome except onely that in the meeting and assembly of the Bishops the Bishop of Rome was for Order sake to have the first Place and the Bishop of Constantinople the second Place which together with the reason thereof you may see more fully declared in my first Booke chap. 1. pag. 17. 18. I alledged further in my Reply pag. 15. 16. 17. 18. many and sundry Chapters Lawes made by the Emperour Charles the great otherwise called Charlemaine concerning men and matters Ecclesiasticall the Particulars whereof you may there see which because you knew not how to answere you passe them over with this saying that they are not worth the answering why so in regard say you there is thereby no more discovered then by those before mentioned of Iustinian And is not that mough if it were no more but so and yet is there more discovered in the one then in the other Howbeit Act. 2.36 5.31 Iohn 18.36.37 1. Cor. 15.25 Heb. 1.8.13 Ephes 1.20.21.22.23 Coloss 2.10.8.19 the Lawes of those two Emperors vizt both of Iustinian Charlemaine I alledged not to any such end as you still evermore untruly suppose vizt thereby to prove the Spirituall Supremacy to belong to Emperours or Kings for the spirituall Monarchy and Supremacy I attribute as I said before neither to Emperor nor King nor to Pope nor Prelate but to Christ Iesus onely the sole Monarch and head of his whole Church but to this end and purpose onely namely to prove that Emperours and Kings had in those former and auncient times Authority over Persons Ecclesiasticall in causes also Ecclesiasticall which because you neither doe nor can deny what doe you else but graunt them consequently you here graunt once againe the thing that is in question as a matter cleere and vndenyable and therefore what neede I to dispute or debate this matter any longer with you But here if I doe not mistake you you seeme much to restraine the Power and Authority of Emperors and Kings as though they might not make any new Lawes or Constitutions but onely strengthen confirme and put in execution the olde and former Ecclesiasticall lawes If this be your meaning you see how this conceit is confuted confounded even by those former precedents and examples of Iustinian and Charlemaine For it is evident that Iustinian made many new lawes and new Constitutions which were not before and so did also Charles the Great frame and make divers and sundrie new lawes Chapters and Constitutions And did not Constantine that first famous Christian Emperour also make many new Lawes and new Constitutions concerning Ecclesiasticall persons and Ecclesiasticall matters which were not made before his dayes You may also remember Aug. Epist 50. that S. Augustine saith Serviunt Reges Christo leges ferendo pro Christe Kings serve Christ by making lawes for Christ And therefore they may as occasion requireth aswell make new lawes for Christ as commaund those that were formerly made for him to bee put in execution But if you meane that you would have Emperours and Kings to make no lawes nor cause any to bee put in execution concerning the Church but such as will well stand with the Lawes of God his truth Religion and Ordinances you therein say the same thing that Protestants doe 2. Cor. 13.8 For they say with S. Paul that they may doe nothing against the truth but for the truth And that the power authoritie of Emperours Kings and Princes if it be rightly used and not abused is for God and not against God and for Christ his Church and Religion and not for Antichrist or any untruths heresies or errors whatsoever Or if your meaning bee that you would have Emperours Kings and Princes in their making of lawes concerning God his Church Religion to take the advise direction counsell of godly learned Orthodoxe Bishops and teachers this is also not denied but graunted unto you But then must you graunt on the other side that if they bee not Orthodoxe Bishops and true teachers but false teachers or if they be such as deliver errors in stead of truths such mens erroneous counsailes directions and advises are not to be followed but to bee rejected as I have shewed more fully in my Reply pag. 37. 38. 12. But after these times of Charles the Great mentioned in my Reply pag. 18. you come next in your Reioynder to your accusation of Luther Calvine mentioned in my Reply p. 49. So that here you skip over no lesse then fifteen whole leaves together in that my Reply Yet what have you now to say against Luther and Calvine In your first Answer you tooke occasion for I gave you none to inveigh against them as if they had beene Adversaries to Kings and Princes and to the obedience due to them In that my Reply pag. 49. I said that the works and writings of them both did shew openly proclayme the contrarie to the world And this is indeede verie apparant Luth. tom 1. in Gen. cap. 9. tom 3. annota in Deut capit 6. fol. 4. fol. 552. Rom. 13.1.2 3.4.5.6 Luth. tom 2. resp ad Ambros cather fo 150. 152 For where as some objected That the rule or governement of one man over another might seeme a tyrannous usurpation because all men are naturally of like condition To this saith Luther must wee that have the word of God oppose the commaundement and ordinance of God who hath put a sword into the hand of the Magistrate whom therefore the Apostle calleth Gods Minister Againe hee saith I grieve and blush and groane to see how scornefully our Emperours and Princes
Iudge in Spaine or Hungarie or other kingdomes to prove the supremacie to bee likewise in their kings And why not For it is a thing of right belonging to all Kings to have the supremacie within their severall Dominions and to use and extend that their power and authoritie for God and for the advancement of his true service and right religion aswell as for the advancement of Civill Iustice and externall peace amongst their subjects And what hurt were it to any if all the Kings in Christendome yea if all the kings in the world did this or rather how great ample unspeakeable a benefite would thereby accrew and come not onely to all Christendome but to the whole world If all the Kings in Christendome or in the whole world did extend their authoritie 2 Thess 2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12 Rev. 17 1.2.3.4 c. Revel 18.4 for the maintenance and advancement of Popery which is indeede the adulterate corrupt and false Religion it being as the holy Scripture it selfe hath notified and declared it to be the Religion of the grand Antichrist and of the whore of Babylon which all Gods people be commaunded to forsake even Papists themselves out of the error of their judgement would thinke it to bee well done How much more in true judgement ought you and they to thinke it to be well done if they did all imploy their Civill sword power and authoritie for the advancement of that which is indeed the most auncient true Christian Catholicke and Apostolicke Religion But you have yet still a conceite that it is requisite necessarie to have a Pope of Rome as a supreme Pastor or a supreme Iudge to decide and determine all heresies errors doubts questions and controversies concerning faith and religion that arise in the Church and so to preserve peace and unitie in it by his infallible and unerrable judgement Howbeit first why should the Bishop of Rome be this supreme Pastor or supreme Iudge more then the Bishop of Antioch Constantinople Alexandria Ierusalem or any other Bishop For where hath God constituted the one to bee so more then the other Secondly how doe you prove the Bishop of Rome to have an infallible an unerrable judgement more then other Bishops have Yea even in the Preface of my first Booke pag. 14.15 16. and againe in the second part of that same my first Booke Chap. 1. pag. 54.55 I have proved that the Bishop of Rome may erre even in matters of faith aswell as any other Bishop and the same doth also before appeare in this Booke likewise Thirdly if the supremacie and Monarchie of the Bishop of Rome have this vertue in it to keepe and maintayne peace and unitie in the Church and to decide and determine certainely truely and infallibly all doubts questions and controversies in Religion Why doth hee not decide and determine all those questions controversies that so it might experimentally appeare to have that vertue in it or what neede is there then of Generall Councels yea of any Councels at all For the use and end of Synods and Councels is to decide and determine questions and controversies that doe arise and spread themselves to the disquiet and trouble of the Church all which bee superfluous if the certaine truth in everie question may be had immediately from his mouth But indeede this institution of Synods or Councels is a divine institution and therefore must stand although that humane invention of the Popes supremacie needelesly erected for the same use and end doe utterly fall and be disanulled And what necessitie is there of him For even Generall Conncels were summoned and convocated in times past by the Emperours and may be still at this day convocated by the unanimous consent and authoritie of the severall Kings and Princes of the severall Nations Neyther is the judgement of one man as namely of the Bishop of Rome or of any other so strong or powerfull to pull out errors that be rooted in mens mindes Conc. Affric cap. 138. epist â—ad CelestinuÌ„ as is the judgement and consent of many in a Synod or Councell Vnlesse there be any that thinketh God inspireth one particular person with righteousnesse forsaketh a number of priests assembled together in a Councell which the Councell of Affrica held to be verie absurd and repugnant to Christ his promise so long as they meete together in his name and for advancement of his truth And here you may observe a difference betweene the wisedome of God and the wisedome of Men For in the Apostles times there arose at Antioch a great question which was whether Circumcision were necessarie to salvation Act. 15 1.2 3.4 5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12 13. c. what doe they in this case Doe they choose and appoint some one man as chiefe to whom they will referre the deciding and determining of this question No such matter And yet if they would have had the controversie decided and determined by One who was fitter to have beene that one then S. Paul whom they had amongst them But they take no such course but send Paul and Barnabas and certaine others to Ierusalem What to doe Was it to desire the judgement only of some one man there as namely of S. Peter or of any one other No. But to have the matter decided by a Synod or Councell of the Apostles Elders and others therein to be assembled for that purpose and in which Synod or Councell it was determined accordingly If then in those times of the Apostles when there was so great abundance of the gifts of God and when as controversies might without danger of error have beene referred unto one onely The rule of One above all the rest was not held meete and convenient Now when the gifts are lesse and the danger of error more Can is be thought a wisedome consonant to the wisedome of the holy Ghost to erect and constitute as the seduced world hath done One man namely the Bishop or Pope of Rome to be the Iudge and that a verie sure and infallible one as they account him for the deciding and determining of all doubts questions and controversies that arise throughout the whole world concerning Faith and Religion and upon whom as being in their opinions the Monarch and head of the whole and universall Church upon Earth they doe though overboldly and dangerously relye and depend It is true that the regiment or governement of the Church is Monarchiall but that is not in respect of the Pope but in respect of CHRIST IESVS who is indeede the right true and sole Monarch and head of his whole Church But in respect of the Bishops and Pastors that be rulers or governours under Christ it is as the Protestants have rightly taught and defended against the Papists not Monarchiall but Aristocraticall Yea Christ Iesus himselfe told his Apostles and in them all Bishops their successors when they contended for a Majoritie or Monarchy among themselves that Reges gentium
A SVRREPLICATION TO THE REIOYNDER OF A POPISH ADVERSARIE VVherein THE SPIRITVALL SVPREMACY of Christ Iesus in his Church and the Civill or Temporall Supremacie of Emperours Kings and Princes within their owne Dominions over Persons Ecclesiasticall in causes also Ecclesiasticall aswell as Civill and Temporall be yet further declared defended and maintayned against him By CHRISTOPHER SIBTHORP Knight one of his Majesties Iustices of his Court of Chiefe-place in IRELAND Give therefore unto Cesar the things that bee Cesars and unto God the things that be Gods Matth. 22.21 He that is not with mee saith Christ is against me And he that gathereth not with me scattereth Luke 11.23 Imprinted at DVBLIN by the Societie of Stationers Anno Domini M.DC.XXVII To the Reader I Did expect Courteous Reader that before I had written any word in these matters both my first Booke and my second also which is my Reply should first have beene answered and that in such sort as in the Postscript annexed at the end of the same my Reply is declared but therein I perceive mine expectation is deceaved and that my Adversarie without any regard had to that which I desired hath taken his owne course and put forth a Rejoynder to that my Reply In which his Rejoynder I am sorry to see how much he debating the point of Supremacie wrongeth not onely Me and his Reader and the auncient Christian Emperours and auncient Fathers but even CHRIST IESVS also himselfe and all Kings and Princes generally in respect of their severall rights to them belonging Wherfore I thought it not meete or seemely for me in this case to be silent or to desist but being thus provoked to proceede and to make and publish a Surreplication to that Rejoynder And this I doe the rather that so a third book being added to my two former they all three together might serve so much the more strongly to perswade him and the rest of the pretended Catholickes to the truth in this cause for vis unita fortior a threefold corde is not easily broken If by all or any of my labours I shall bee a meane or helpe to worke their conformitie or reformation I shall be glad of it for it is the maine thing I seeke after but if they hate to be reformed and will in contempt and scorne of all admonitions live die in their errors which were a case most fearefull desperate and lamentable whom can they blame therein but themselves and their Popish teachers by whom they are so much misled and abused My Adversarie when he tooke upon him to answer the two Chapters in my first Booke did not prefixe those two Chapters of mine to his answer neyther when hee answered my Reply did he prefixe my Reply to his Rejoynder And therefore also neyther did I prefixe his answere to my Reply nor his Rejoynder to this my Surreplication Whereat neyther he nor any other for him hath cause to be offended or to take exception in asmuch as I doe therein but follow his owne president and example which himselfe first used and wherein hee began unto mee The substance neverthelesse marrow pith and strength of all his Bookes and of his reasons and arguments therein contayned I omit not but mention and that usually or rather evermore in his owne words and doe also make answere thereunto But I am loth any longer to detaine you and therefore I here leave you to the reading of that which followeth and that which followeth to your owne judicious just and equall censure Beseeching God to guide us all unto his truth to keepe establish us therein continually after that wee once see and know it Amen A SVRREPLICATION TO THE REIOYNDER OF A POPISH ADVERSARIE To my Adversarie SIR As you throughout your Rejoynder addressed your speech to me in particular so doe I in like sort here direct my speech unto you in this worke of mine For although I neyther purposed nor promised it nor others I suppose expected it yet that which you have of late published against my Reply hath provoked me once more to set penne to paper in defence of that cause which you so much strive against in vaine In the beginning of that your Rejoynder you say that although wee bee different in religion yet you desire much that wee be united in affection This speech of yours I dislike not because it savoureth as I conceive it of that humanitie and charitie which is to be entertayned and continued amongst us notwithstanding these differences in points of religion as also of some good affection and inclination in you unto Gods trueth wherein chiefely it is that wee are to be united For as touching any other kindes of unitie namely that which is in error and falsehood I hope you desire it not because it is as S. Augustine rightly calleth it Error is conspiratio a conspiracie of error against the truth The unitie which is joyned with divine veritie is it which S. Paul calleth The unitie of the spirit and which hee would have all Christians to be evermore verie carefull to observe saying Ephes 4.3 Endevour to keepe the unitie of the spirit in the bond of peace and hee saith againe thus Ephes 4.15 Let us follow the truth in love and in all things grow up into him which is the head that is Chirist This truth if we did all earnestly seeke after and follow and that in love and in a charitable manner as here we are required to doe all our controversies would the better and the sooner be ended and determined which have now so long disquieted many mens mindes and doe so much hinder that which is indeede most requisite namely the good and due practise of true religion in the world For how can any practise religion aright before they know which is the right religion which they are to practise and to walke in Or how can they know which is the right religion they are to walke in so long as they be doubtfull of it by reason of questions and controversies that doe perplexe and distract them The first thing then which men desirous to live good and godly lives are to seeke after is in the middest of all these controversies to get obtain within themselves a resolution of a right religion which resolution they can never certainely have or attaine unto but by meanes of the sacred and Canonicall Scriptures which be the onely infallible rule of all divine truth as I have shewed in my first Booke So that the purpose and intention of that my first Booke as likewise of the second which is my Reply and of this also was not nor is to have men to dwell continually and everlastingly in controversies but cleane contrariwise to have them all ended and determined and that as speedily as might bee in every mans conscience by diligent searching of those holy Scriptures and finding out thereby what is the undoubted trueth in them that men being