or I believe any man else It were a great folly for me to misreport or dissemble in things so publike and notorious as these 19. Much adoe you make about Chounes Booke where you begin with the License but mistake the Licenser whence I hope we may conclude you are over-apt to trust flying Report For had you used ocular inspection here we cannot but think you can read a printed Name Touching the Booke it selfe very eager you are to stretch all to the worst For he saith not Fides Resipiscentia Perseverantia Faith Repentance Perseverance are the Causes of Salvation as you alledge but Fidei Resipiscentiae Perseverantiae recta quae est ex Deo Ordinatio Kenne you no difference here betwixt mans act in believing repenting and persevering and Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in ordaining faith repentance and perseverance to be the meanes of salvation But a dangerous matter it is to fall into the hands of a Man that is resolved to make the worst of every thing he meets with You tell us farther D. Bastwick in the Face of the Starre-Chamber charged my Lord of Canterbury with this Booke That he did not neither in the High Commission somewhat hee wrangled about Fundamentalls which truly was not worth the writing into Scotland But more than all this It wounds you say the Kings Monarchick Government at the very heart and transferres from the Crowne to the Miter one of its fairest Diamonds which the King and His Father before him did ever love most dearely You cite not the Words nor the place but in your Chapter of Tyrannie we cannot misse it sure There he is alleaged to say that * P. 113. Kings and Princes are accompted sonnes of the Church That Bishops make Canons which yet have their Vivacity or Act of life from Kings as the Heads This is all in effect he saith there I wonder much what designe M. Choune a Lay-Gentleman should have to transferre from the Crowne to the Miter this faire Diamond Supremacie in Causes Ecclesiasticall for that is it you meane And I wonder more to finde you so jealous of it But be content good Sir neither M. Choune nor the Bishops intend any such theft In the meane while Rom. 2.21 thou that teachest a man should not steale dost thou steale Doe not you with open face rob the Crowne of this Diamond and transferre it to your Ecclesiasticke Assemblies f Parall 4. Lysimachus Nicanor sayes you doe And in your Postscript-answer to him here durst you deny it so much as in one syllable Are you not faine to conclude the point with him thus Our Prince is very well content from the Generall Assembly the highest Ecclesiasticke Court should come no appeale at all to him Belike from other Sessions and Presbyteries lies Appeale thither but there you are at the top 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Looke no higher then though sure the top is ever the Kings by right Obediunt simul regnant saith Choune Princes obey the Church but rule and governe it withall but with you it is simply obediunt nay g Synodo intersint non ut regnent sed ut serviant c. Bez. conf c. 5. art 15. serviunt by no meanes regnant You may make Acts censure depose excommunicate and no Appeale lies from you Indeed you slide it over with a mannerly expression our Prince is very well content c. but should the Bishops build up such an independent Supremacie and be questioned for it would it suffice for them to answer Our Prince is very well content That personate Iesuite as you call him objects you deny Kings Power to convocate Assemblies whereto you answer * Postscr p. 14 he knowes the contrary that you give to all Christian Soveraignes so much interest in affaires of the Church as to convocate Assemblies when and where they please but withall you hold indeed that without them you may convocate your selves in some case So tender you are of preserving in the Crowne that faire Diamond And so much you indigne at Choune though very innocent thereof that hee should transferre it to the Miter the fault is he did not indeed transferre it to the Presbytery Where bee it knowne That Ecclesiastick power is not to bee lessened by the expulsion of Bishops now it is jurisdiction but then it shall bee discipline 21. In your third Chapter you * P. 31. taxe my Lord of Canterbury for promoving Master Duries Negotiation with the Churches beyond Sea This Durie is a Scottish Minister that hath much pained himselfe travelling up and downe Germany to solicit an Vnion betwixt the Churches of the Augustan confession and the rest My Lord of Canterbury found his Predecessour Archbishop Abbot imbarqued in this designe and thereupon inclined the rather to give encouragement to it but ever kept himselfe within the bounds which his Predecessour had set Now if this be a fault there be many partakers For wee are made beleeve few Ambassadours or Agents in those parts few Doctours or Professors of their Vniversities that have not intermedled more or lesse to promove this action But after all I doubt you need not much feare the successe A synctetisme you say all good men did ever pant for but not a full peace I suppose you meane they should combine against the common enemy but still keepe at oddes amongst themselves Yet a syncretisme being not every daies Word you might have done well to explaine your selfe better and the rather because the Cretians had an ill name you know for cheating and cozening that possibly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may bee taken in a vicious sense to pack together for mischiefe And I thinke Beza uses it so in an Epistle of his to Bishop Grindall Quis porrò fuerit quorundam nuper adversus omnes harum Partium ac proinde etiam adversus Gallicas vestras quoque Ecclesias quas omnes nobiscum in omnibus doctriae capitibus consentire arbitramur conatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jam pridem ad vos usque perlatum esse Opinor Conatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I hope this is not the syncretisme you have long panted for But a syncretisme you would have not a full peace though otherwise a man very peaceably minded Now wee in England are taught to pray thus That God would inspire continually his universall Church with the spirit of truth unity and concord and grant that not onely These and Those but even all they that confesse his holy name may agree in the truth of his holy word and live in unity and godly love 22. And thus much of Fact now to matter of Doctrine or Opinion wherein all that is objected will be found as hitherto it hath been lighter then vanity it selfe But when such things as these are printed with Licence and informed of as matters of very great consequence wee trust it will bee excused if wee lose a little time to give some answer at least to
hand that must be thus unhappily defended First you are wrong upon the Liturgie againe This Prayer is in the Service appointed for the fifth of November which you fraudulently and to raise hatred call the publike Liturgie The publike Liturgie was extant and established by Act of Parliament before that Service was begotten or the miserable occasion of it fell out Secondly * Ep. 2.18 S. Iohn tels us there be many Antichrists so that though a man doubt whether the Pope of Rome be that great Antichrist yet he may esteeme well enough the Doctrines and practices of the Romish Church to be Antichristian and call them so what needed this blotting of the Service then His Grace might have held his Opinion and let the word Antichristian stand And thirdly so he doth there it is as it was Root out that Babylonish and Antichristian Sect of them For the change with which you would colour this passage objected by Burton ventilated in the Starre-Chamber defended afterwards by Heylin and Dow all which you seeme to have read with double diligence and therefore I mention them was no more but this from that Sect into that Sect of them I say the word Antichristian remaines I have seene the very Originall So that your Crimination here is a notorious and which is worse a wilfull Falshood And whatever your pretentions of holinesse be and great shew of zeale we shall desire the ingenuous Reader for his finall satisfaction and to decide upon the whole matter betwixt us but to remember this one Principle that the divell is the father of lies 27. But the Popes Antichristianisme being thus as you falsly pretend removed by my Lord of Canterbury you say P 36. the Pope and his Cardinals and their whole religion begin to looke with a new face Particularly it lies upon his Grace that debating with the Iesuite Fisher about the Popes Supremacy over the Church universall he yeelds to S Peter a Primacie of Order to the Pope 1 a Primacie of Order 2 A more powerfull Principality than other Churches 3 An Apostolike Chaire 4 A jurisdiction within his owne Patriarchate Touching a Primacie of Order granted to S. Peter who ever denied it Doe I deny it sayes t Ch. 5. div 3. D. Reynolds in his Conference with Hart Then let me be smitten not with the blunt weapon of the words of men c. Touching those priviledges granted the Pope neither my Lord of Canterbury nor any reformed Writer of note in this Church doth deny them to him And particularly here had hee denied the first it would have beene extorted from him by the third Canon of the second Oecumenicall Councell the second by the flat testimony of Irenaeus which the Iesuite alledged the third by S. Augustine The fourth by the sixth Canon of the Nicene Councell and Rufsinus his Testimony and againe every one of these by other Testimonies sans Number But now I pray observe First all these Priviledges are granted to the Bishop of Rome stante Imperio and intra Romaniam the Empire yet standing and within Romane soyle so that the States and Policies of the world being now changed happily he may be brought to a new reckoning as his * § 25. Num. 13. What if the States and Policies of the world be much changed c. Grace notes Secondly the most demonstrative way to cut off his claime of Supremacy by divine Right which is the point in question is to shew all his Greatnesse to be founded upon positive Law and in relation to the temporall State So the Fathers in the Councell of Calcedon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because that is the Regall City And so x Can. 28. Ep. ad solit vitam agent Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rome is the Metropolitane City of all the Romane Soile And the most demonstrative way to cut off his claime of Universall Supremacy is to y Prima pars huius Canonis satis perspicuè docet Alexandrinum Episcopum habuisse Potestatem in vicinis aliquot Regionibus sic etram Romanum Episcopum sua sub potestate vicinas Italiae Regiones obtinuisse Antiochenum Episcopum suas etiam vicinas Ecclesias gubernasse neque horum quenquam in alterum superioritatem sibi sumpsisse ergo tunc temporis Romanus Pontifex nondum pro universali totius Ecclesiae Episcopo agnoscebatur Osiand Ep. ad Con. Nic. Can. 6. Et Baron scot Apol. Tract 5. c. 9. limit him within the circuit of his owne Iurisdiction Thirdly as is said before it is neither strange nor new in the Church of England to yeeld the Bishop of Rome all these Priviledges I shall put this Authour in minde of King Iames onely King Charles his blessed father z Praemon to all Chr. K. Of Bishops and Church Hierarchy I very well allow as I said before and likewise of Ranks and Degrees amongst Bishops Patriarchs I know were in the time of the Primitive Church and I likewise reverence that Institution for orders sake and amongst them was a contention for the first place And for my selfe if that were yet the question I would with all my heart give my consent that the Bishop of Rome should have the first seat I being a Westerne King would goe with the Patriarch of the West And for his Temporall Principality over the Signiory of Rome I do not quarrell it neither let him in God his name be Primus Episcopus inter omnes Episcopos and Princeps Episcoporum so as it be no otherwise then as Peter was Princeps Apostolorum How say you Sir whether is more bountifull to the Pope King Iames or the Archbishop of Canterbury he that can be content to admit him Patriarch of the West or hee that circumscribes him within his Italique Diocesse Had you beene to answer the Iesuite here you would have granted him none of all this You would have told him plainly the Pope was never of any credit in the Catholike Church neither Bishop nor Primate nor Patriarch but a Monster and alwayes Antichrist or rather you would have told him there was never any Catholike Church at all But it hath not beene our way in England to confute Iesuites so Wee are perswaded that by the strength of Truth wee may subdue Falseshood Magna est veritas praevalebit but to drive out one untruth with another is an unworthy and indeed an unsuccessefull way Though our Adversaries bee never so madde saith a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Gal. c. 1. St. Chrysostome yet it behoves not us out of the like love of contention to goe awry from the Truth 28. But among all the Paradoxes charged here by you upon the Divines of our Church this I stood amazed at You say They teach That the Restitution of the Popes ancient Authority in England and yeelding unto him all the Power that this day he hath in Spaine or France would be many wayes advantagious and in nothing prejudiciall to the King Good
that he set himselfe about this Worke not out of any Love of Truth but out of a wicked purpose to doe Mischiefe They teach sayes he * P. 43. that not only the People but their most learned Clergie Popes Cardinals Iesuites living and dying in their bitter oppositions and persecutions of Protestants are in no hazard of Damnation though they never come to any particular Acknowledgement of their sinfull opinions and practices following thereupon as who should say for so the Words import though knowing them to be sinfull Opinions and practises yet never acknowledging them such never repenting nor asking God forgivenesse for them they are still in the way to heaven Belike these Canterburians would be content to save the Pope and his Cardinals though sinning against the Holy Ghost for truth is this were no lesse To make good this Accusation stand in his Margin this and such like sayings The Corruptions of Rome materially and in the very kind and Nature are leven drosse hay and stubble yet the Bishop thought that such as were misled by Education or long custom or over-valuing the Soveraigntie of the Romane Church and did in Simplicity of heart embrace them might by their generall Repentance and faith in the merits of Christ attended with Charity and other vertues finde Mercy at God's hands Reader how say you doth this come home to the Popes learned Clergie living and dying in bitter and unrepented Oppositions and persecutions of Protestants It was counted a Christian Speech that of * Euseb Hist L. 6. c. 45. Dionysius Alexandrinus to Novatus Thou oughtest to have endured any thing rather then to rent the Church of God To suffer for avoiding of Schisme is a Martyrdome never a whit lesse nay indeed more Glorious then for not sacrificing to Idols And S. Chrysostome cites this from the mouth of an holy man as he sayes That even Martyrdome will not satisfie for Schisme Now then what Spirit may we thinke guides these men that are so dearely affected to Division and Combustion that rather then faile to kindle a fire among us doe harden their faces to slander and in this bold Manner 37. Our Divines say there is a Difference in Case of Schisme or Heresie betwixt the Simple and the Learned the Misled and the misleaders They say A man may be a good Protestant and yet not damne all his forefathers They say we refuse Communion with Rome in her Publike Service being grosse and superstitious but in Charitie we hold Vnion with them and all the Church of Christ These and the like sayings are scored downe here in his Margin as foule and impious So that belike the Contradictory of them would have better become the Pens of Protestants They must say there is no difference betwixt Priest and people simple and learned Leaders and followers all are in a like Condition all must to hell alike They must say no man can be a good Protestant that lives in charitie with a Papist Nor can he be a good Protestant unlesse he damne all his Forefathers What Cause there may be to repent of that pious and prudent Way which hath hitherto beene insisted upon by this our Church in defence of the Truth and is most agreeable to Christian moderation and the practice of the most holy times I know not But if this keene zeale were the only Weapon left to destroy Poperie And the Bishops with their Adherents should wipe their Pens and give place to these fierie Champions What Fields of honour would be wonne by their devouring sword of damnation what accession made to the Protestant part wise men know well enough and time would teach the rest which is the best master to shew an errour but the worst to mend it 38. Hitherto you have stood upon Generalls you tell us now you will come up close to the Canterburians in particular points of Poperie and for that purpose you propound us foure heads * P 48. Their Idolatries their Heresies their Superstitions their abomination of Desolation the Masse In all which say you nay the grossest of which it shall appeare that the Canterburians joyne with Rome But having undertaken to present the Reader with such passages as are objected to my Lord of Canterbury from his owne pen which was to be expected would raise a great Cloud over him To see the ill luck of it my worke is done even where it should begin For except about the Matter of Altars in this next point of Idolatry I meet not with his Name cited above once or twice in all the residue of your Booke so that you are faine to give him over at the first loose only the word Canterburian runs through all but to keep the worke alive and your Reader in minde at what marke specially be it right or wrong he is to shoot This must be swallowed or els you have done just nothing that all these men whom you bring to the Barre for Canterburians wrote by his speciall encouragement and direction whereas some of them were his Elders and Antecessors in the Church as D. Andrewes and D. White 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some of them were and are meere strangers and unknowne to him so much as de facie which is most true and will be avowed Yea and when this is swallowed yet you have done just nothing for let the indifferent Reader but use the helpe of your Margin to confute your Text not distracting his owne eyes with passion or prejudice and this quarrell is well nigh ended Though were it otherwise yet to affirme that the Archbishop of Canterbury long before he was Archbishop for these many yeares hath held the Pens of all that have written in England amisse and of none of them that have written right is such a wild Presumption as no man of any honesty can say and no man of Common Sense will believe 39. Concerning the holy Table or Altar your Accusation is Canterbury saith that Worship yea and divine Worship or Adoration is to be given to the Altar Let us see now whether your Allegations in the Margin will come home to this there we finde Great reverence is due to the Body and so to the Throne where this Body is usually present Marke you Reverence not Worship But you say he gives Venite Adoremus to the Altar and no man can suppose that to be lesse than Divine Adoration Let us to your Margin againe there we read thus Therefore according to the Service-Book of the Church of England in this Compellation Venite adoremus the Priest and the People both are called upon for externall and bodily Worship of God in his Church Marke you againe Worship of God not of the Altar Let the Reader peruse the whole Passage as it is set downe within the Bounds of a few short Pages in his Starre-Chamber Speech and see if his constant expression be not Reverence to the Throne Worship to God q St. Sp. p. 43. God forbid sayes his
Poperie stand by or else let every Doctrine insisted on by you be Popish so as withall opposite to the Religion by Law established and therein you shall do very well 12. Next in your Minor I may not suffer you to jumpe out of England into Scotland as you do in this Clause of it Our Religion and Lawes Ours whose yours in Scotland shall these men subjects of England and Members of this Church be punishable for teaching some Doctrine opposite to the Religion by Law established in Scotland when did they subscribe to your Religion or Lawes you * Scota ante aliquot Annos Anglorum Auxilus è servitute Gallica liberati Religionis Cultui Ritibus cum Anglis Communibus subscripserunt The scotish being some yeares before delivered from the slavery of the French by the Aydes of the English subscribed to the same Worship and Rite of Religion which the English used Buchan hist Scot. l. 19. have subscribed to ours as coy as you are of us now we to yours never And yet would you candidly set out even your own Lawes happily they would not refuse you upon them But if you superinduce the Bookes of Discipline or Records to them utterly unknowne y Large Declar p. 270 wonderfully preserved and now after a long silence of Time no doubt as uncorruptly exhibited by you if that must be a Canon to regulate your Church and Religion then they will recoile and desire to be tryed by their owne Lawes The summe of all is they would not have you juggle and sophisticate confound and tumble together Places Persons Things as every where you do to raise Clamour not to discover Truth In all Equity then this must be your syllogisme Whosoever in the Kings Dominions respectively spreads abroad any Doctrine opposite to the Religion by Lawes established ought to be punished But Canterburie and his Dependents being subjects of England have spread abroad Doctrines opposite to The Religion by Lawes established in England Ergo. Now if you can acquite your selfe of this Minor and carry it handsomly through your whole Booke you will doe a memorable performance But you meane no such thing and therefore I desire the Reader to do it for you upon every point to bring you to this test which he must do if he will be just and impartiall For make you up your parties as you please with reformed Divines and orthodox Preachers that wil be but to call up against you other orthodoxe Preachers and all to no purpose for nothing is punishable but by Law Simul ac a jure discesseris go you from that and either in Fact or Opinion men wil think they may use a moderate liberty 13 First touching Arminianisme in relation to Fact It is but hard measure in you to represent it presently with this Odium A * Pag. 8. dangerous innovation and such a one as was found to be the readiest Engin which had ever beene used by the Pope or Spaniard to overthrow the Church and State of Holland For were this true yet sure it could bee true by no other necessity then as Medicus cantat a Physitian may be skilfull in song but it is no intrinsecall act of his Profession An Arminian may bee a seditious Citizen but it flowes not from any of the five disputed points Divines may differ about the order of Gods Predestination and yet bee good subjects to their Prince In the meane while your selfe that make this objection living in a Monarchicall State make no bones to affirme * Postscrip p. 14. That publike Assemblies and Conventions may bee held without the authority of the Civill Magistrate * Ibid. p. 8. That subjects may beare Armes against their Soveraigne * p. 14. That there is and ought to bee in a Kingdome an Ecclesiastique Power supreme in it selfe and independent on the King These Opinions touch the life of a State and tend dangerously to the dissolution of Government yet these must be borne with in you but if men doubt of absolute Reprobation or sticke at any like rigid Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the State must looke about it is some secret Plot to betray the Kingdome to the Pope or Spaniard Ultra Sauromatas fugere hinc libet c. I take not upon me to Apologize for Arminians let them stand or fall by themselves But I thinke a dramme of equity will obtaine them thus much that they may bee as good and loyall subjects in any State or Kingdome as they which maintaine your aforesaid positions or any of them When my Lord of Canterbury that then was tooke so much care as you tell us to suppresse Barrow at Cambridge and to enact his Lambethane Articles which you ridiculously call the * Pag. 16. Synod of Lambeth the Queene even * Presat that most sacred Queene Elizabeth did not interpret it as any great service done to the State or as if the Kingdome had been thereby secured Which is plaine enough by the cold thankes shee gave him If you know not the carriage of that businesse I pray you informe your selfe better out of the story 14. The greatest Accusation that lies against my Lord of Canterbury here in this matter of Arminianisme is the preferment of men whom you suspect to encline to the opinions of Arminius wherein before you passe any Verdict you should doe well to consider First whether all Preferments be so absolutely in his Graces disposing that hee may bee truely said to preferre them all Secondly whether hee looke upon them in that Quality as they encline to such Opinions and bee not obliged to favour them for some other eminent Abilities or Merit of particular service done in Church or State Thirdly whether some others sufficiently known to be anti-Arminians be not as high in the Church as well promoted as they Fourthly whether most men promoted in the Church are not upon your own false grounds by you causelesly suspected to be Arminians Quicquid horum tetigeris Ulcus est you are not Proofe in any of these And because the Preferments of sundry men may bee upon sundry motives by sundry Meanes and Procurements Nor can it be any thing else in you but an invidious Presumption to thinke all done by his Grace in favour of Arminianisme whereas all in that kinde is not done by him nor any with an eye of favour upon Arminianisme clamour while you please my Answer is this and it is sufficient to satisfie any honest man There is no man promoted in the Church of England with or without my Lord of Canterburies helpe but subscribes to the Articles the established Doctrine of this Church Now these Articles either they condemne the Opinions of Arminius or they doe not If they doe not then is Arminianisme either a thing set by and left at liberty neither belongs it to my Lord of Canterbury or any other trusted with the Goverment of the Church to take cognisance of any mans
God! upon which of the Canterburians will this Paradox fall Even upon his Grace himselfe you say whose words stand upon the blacke list of your Margin thus Cant. Relat. pag. 202. He that is not blinde may see if hee will of what little value the Popes power in France and Spaine is this day further then to serve the turnes of their Kings therewith which they doe to their great advantage Now that impudence it selfe should not blush out of these words to extort such a prodigious conclusion * Relat. of Relig. Sir Edwin Sands a man never suspected sure in the least manner to warpe towards Popery discourseth very largely with what permutation of courtesies the Pope gratifies Popish Princes and they him how hee serves them with his Dispensations and Excommunications that hee may bee served by them with their Executions In all which belike hee doth but commend the like Practices to his owne King and insinuate that the restitution of the Popes power in England would bee many wayes advantagious and in nothing prejudiciall unto him Hee that saies men of haughty spirits use proud and atheisticall Discourses Psal 33. Their tongue goeth through the world therefore fall the people unto them and thereout suck they no small advantage doth by your reasoning herein exhort men to Pride and Atheisme If these your candid Constructions may goe for solid Arguments to prove Popery upon my Lord of Canterbury nay if they induce not all reasonable men to believe him as hee is most cleare and innocent and that more effectually then any thing we can reply to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Farewell to all modesty truth and piety But let mee tell you touching these great Kings French and Spanish the experience of your Behaviour here towards our and your Gracious Soveraigne will rivet them faster into the Popes Chaire then all the Courtesies they can receive from the Pope himselfe when they shall see that to reforme Religion will not be to vindicate their own just power in the government of the Church nor to reduce their Kingdomes to the peaceable profession of Christian Truth but to expose themselves to new hazards and indeed to breake one yoake to put on another when they shall see that under pretence of Reformation some men will still bee heaving at the publike Government and induce others to expostulate espeé au poing upon every occasion when they shall see the King of Great Britaine that sustaines so much unjust envie and inconvenience with the neighbouring world for defence of the Gospell after the settlement of so many yeares at as hard a passe to satisfie his Subjects in matters of Religion as ever Themselves were When they shall observe all this to arise not from any accidentall matter of Fact but from questions of right from Principles and Doctrines infused into the people by them that will be held the onely Architects of a Reformation though God knowes they are farre from it I say when they shall observe and consider all this it may probably be thought they will keep too close where now they are And this is an immense scandall and incurable would given by you to the Truth of God which you may doe well to consider of in your cooler thoughts 29. Next it offends you P. 39. my L. of Canterbury should exempt himselfe from the jurisdiction of the Pope which he doth even by their owne Lawes and Canons But I pray let not this be a point of Poperie To any reasonable man this one period is a sufficient confutation of your whole discourse unlesse you can by some strange art conclude this contradiction That to shut out the Pope is to let him in P. 41. 30. But it offends you most of all that he says We and the Papists are of one religion yet he gives you his reason withall a Starre-Cham Speech p. 36. There have been in the world of old three Religions Paganisme Iudaisme Christianisme Two of these are false saith b Cont. Sabel Gregales Athanasius and if they oppose each other it is but as the Babylonians fought with the Egyptians the third is the true To these three saith his Grace later times have added a fourth which is Turcisme Now if these be all and Brerewood who inquired thereabout with more diligence than I beleeve ever you did can c Inquir c. 11. tell us of no more And we cannot reasonably accompt the Papists to be Iewes Pagans or Turks we must grant them Christians and so we and they fall under the same gender of Religion That in this Religion we differ and that the Difference is certaine grosse corruptions superinduced by them to the very endangering of salvation this the Archbishop defends and you take notice of it but this satisfies you not it must be toto genere a diverse Religion Now to bid us quit such an authentique division and not supply us with a new one to put the Archbishops Reason in your margin and not gainesay it with a better in your Text is but the same prudence which you have used all your booke along There is a great Schisme in the Mahumetan Religion and it begun d Paul Iovi L. 13. much at the same time that Luther stirred in Germany yet we count them all Mahumetans still and why may not dissenting Christians be all Christians That some errours and corruptions brought into a Religion should diversifie it so as to make it no more the same is alike absurd and unreasonable as if one should say an unsound man is no more a man We hold the substance of Religion in Common the Papists with us e Eph. 4. One Lord one Faith one Baptisme which are S. Paul's Fundamentals Our Faith or Belief is the same as it is contained in and explicated by the same Creeds Our Baptisme the same which is the proper Badge and Character f Vide S. Aug. cont Crescon l. 2. c. 4. of one Religion when any of them returne from their Errours to us we g Pource qui'l reste encores quclque petite trace d'Eglise en la Papauté mesme que la substance du Baptesme y est demcurce joinct que Defficace du Baptesme ne despend de celui qui Padmintstre nous Confessons que cieux qui y sont baptizez n'ont besoin d'un second Baptesme Confess Gallican iterate not this We thinke our selves bound to eschew that arrogance and singularity which h Iam illud quale est quod hominibus Christianis etiam Clericis dicitis eâ—…te Christiani Optat l. 3. Non est alius tam impius superbiae tumor apud omnes qui se à Christi unitate discindunt quà m se solos esse Christianos jactare damnare caeteros August cont Crescon lib. 4. Et in Epist 169. ad Euseb Optatus and S. Augustine reprehended so sharply in the Donatists Now if this be not to your mind I pray tell us what
specificates a Religion what latitude you will allow Shall every difference in Religion be sufficient to produce a new one Then Geneva and you are not of one Religion For your new erection of Ruling Elders to sway in all Presbyteries and Assemblies and to voice in Matters of Faith Geneva knowes not Nay the Protestants of France as i D'Aubiga l. 2. c. 5. an Historian of their owne Party tells us offered to conforme themselves to all the Ceremonies and Constitutions that had beene established within the fifth Age of the Church whereas you forsake them all But if one difference serve not to diversifie a Religion may a few do it Then are not you a thing which we shall by no meanes acknowledge of one and the same Religion with us P. 98. For besides other differences betweene us you say your Countrey-men would never be induced to follow so much of the Masse as we retained here If a few will not doe it then how many I pray depinge ubi sistam how many Errours for Number and how great for Quality are of a just weight to make Christned men no Christians When you goe about this Worke you will finde your selfe brought in locum lubricum periculosum as Cicero cals it so that you were better take the Stoicks counsell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to be quiet and to stop this differencing of Religions which is cutting a thread betwixt Heaven and hell at those knowne bounds and limits which common observation hath made els you will but venture into a soriticall Maze out of which you will never be able to finde your way 31. In like manner it offends you P. 44. that my Lord of Canterbury in all that large Booke set out by him the last yeare doth no where charge the Papists with Schisme Heresie or Idolatry nor any of his Favourites you say have done it in earnest as farre as you can remember in all your poore Lecture Now truly I see little Cause why you should much confide in your owne poore Lecture For doubtlesse most of these Collections were brought to your hand and it is plaine because in the puzle of digesting them your fashion is to put downe a Quotation and then another and another and often by mishap you light upon the same againe and downe you clap it againe without any Care at all Let the Reader but observe the manner and he will be of my mind 32. But first touching Schisme doth my Lord of Canterbury no where charge the Papists with Schisme That he doth sure very plainely especially in the 23. Sect. of his Book where he shewes in regard they thrust us from them by Excommunications and Censures and were obstinate to continue in their owne Corruptions the Schisme was theirs The Cause of the Schisme is yours saith he for you thrust us from you because wee called for Truth and redresse of Abuses A Schisme must needs be theirs whose the cause is Againe he makes the Separation that gives the first just cause of it not He that makes an actuall separation upon a just cause preceding Further as he casts upon them the k P. 145. beginning of the Schisme so doth he the continuance of it And if this be not to charge them with Schisme I know not what is and insisting so largely as he doth upon this Argument how could you misse it You that a little before could see in his Booke what was not there the Popes Authority absolutely vindicated and commended to bee set up in England Now cannot see what is there The Papists charged with Schisme but no great marvell this l Tertul. Apol cap. 9. Coecitatis enim duae species facilè concurrunt ut qui non vident quae sunt videre videantur quae non sunt Or in S. Basil's language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An eye indisposed and out of temper sees not many things that are and seemes to see many things which are not 33. Next how should we be sure neither the Archbishop nor any of his Favourites charge the Papists with those other two Crimes of Heresie and Idolatry You that read them only to explore what is amisse wil not report what you find for you say they absolve them clearely in formall Termes of all those three crimes Schisme Heresie and Idolatry Of Schisme because they goe on in the practice of their Forbeares without introducing any late Novations Of Heresie because their errors taketh no part of the Foundation away but are only Excesses and Additions consisting with all fundamentall Truth Of Idolatrie because they teach not the giving of Latria to any Image or any Creature Where that they clearly and in formall termes absolve them of all these three or any of the three I am very confident will be found an untruth for it is one thing to absolve them by Deductions and Consequences of your making and another to absolve them clearly and in formall Termes Concerning the first which is Schisme as your report is false so the reason given is weake and filly for it is no Contradiction but they may goe on in the practises of their forefathers and yet be guiltie of Schisme by exterminating all those that will not submit themselves to the same vicious practices together with them as it was shewed even now The blame ever goes along with the Cause 34. For the second which is Haeresie Even those Errours of Rome which they hold not to be contra fundamentum fundamentall errours yet they hold them to be damnable and if obstinately persisted in hereticall Which is cleare by his Graces discourse Confer p. 315. And elswhere as what say you to this passage p. 298. Therefore in this present case there is perill great perill of damnable both schisme and Haeresie and other sinne by living and dying in the Roman faith tainted with so many superstitions as at this day it is Call you this cleare absolving 35. Thirdly Concerning Idolatrie though the Papists be very nice in their doctrine here yet it is well enough knowne their Practice is grosse and how little my Lord of Canterbury favours them either in their doctrine or practice I leave the Reader to be his owne Iudge if he please to peruse the 33. Sec. Nu. 13. of his Conference where upon occasion of a proposition taken out of Lammas he putteth his adversary to this question And now I pray A. C. doe you be judge whether this proposition doe not teach idolatrie and whether the moderne church of Rome be not growne too like to paganisme in this point For my owne part I heartily wish it were not And much more hath he there to this purpose enough sure to shew what credit may be given to this shamelesse Calumniatour who would make the World believe that the Papists stand absolved of these three Crimes Schisme Heresie and Idolatrie clearly and in formall termes 36. His like frequent overstrainings in this kind are an evident demonstration