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
distractions of their minds they have dealt with them as cunning Anglers do with silly fishes troubled the stream and blinded them and then made them their prey The way to do this was to affront and disgrace clamour down all the primitive Truths for some Generations taught among them and to recall from their sepulchres and dust all the old intricate long since buried Opinions which were the madnesse of their own times and the Civill Warre of ours With which opinions they have dealt as the Witch of Endor dealt with her Familiar raised them up to the people clothed in a long mantle and speaking to them in the shape and voyce of a Prophet Hence come those severall acceptions and interpretations among you even in your ordinary discourses of one and the same plaine but sinisterly understood places of Scripture One following the practice of all the purest ages of the Church thinkes the Sacrament of Baptisme is to be administred to Infants Others who would certainly be a strange fight to the Congregation if they should appear the second time at the Font of late are taught to thinke that none are to be baptized but such as are old enough to be their owne Godfathers and can enter into Covenant with God and promise for themselves Some because it hath beene called a binding of the spirit to fetter their devotions in a set forme of Prayer have banisht that Prayer which Christ prescribed to his Apostles out of their Closets as well as Temples Others of as rectified a piety think no Prayer so likely to finde acceptance with God as that which was conceived and put into forme by his Sonne I should tire your patience too much to give you an exact Catalogue of all the rotten opinions which at this present swarm among us One who hath computed the Heresies which have sprung up in this Kingdome within these five years sayes they have doubled the number of those which were in Saint Austins time and then they were very neer fourscore One is a Chiliast and holds the personall Reigne of Christ upon Earth Another is a Corporealist and holds the death of the Soul with the Body Nay as 't is said in Africke a Lyon will couple with a Tyger from whence will spring a Libbard so certain strange unheard-of double-sex't Heresies are sprung up among us not able to understand what he would hold himselfe You shall have an Arrian and Sabellian lodged together in the same person Nay which is yet worse whatever Celsus spoke in scorn and Origen in vindication of our Redeemer Christ and his Mother hath of late trodden the Stage again and appeared to disturbe the World One I tremble to speak it hath called the Virgin Maryes chastity into question And others have spoken of the Saviour of the World so suspiciously as if he had been a thing of a stoln unlawfull Birth In short there want only some of those Munster men among us of whom Sleydan writes where one calleth himselfe God the Father another God the Sonne A third Paraclete or God the holy Ghost to make our Babel and confusion of wilde opinions at the height In this miserable distraction then where Heresie and Errour hath almost eaten up the true Religion And where all the light of the Gospel which shines among us is but like that imperfect light at the Creation which shined before the Sunne was placed in the firmament A light creeping forth of a dark Chaos and blind masse and strifefull heape of jarring Elements In this thick fogge of strange Doctrines I say which hath condenst it selfe into a cloud which hath almost overspread this whole Kingdome from which Truth seemes to have taken flight and made way for Ignorance to stile it selfe once more the Mother of devotion what way is there left to reconcile our minds or to beget one right knowledge and understanding of the wayes of God among us Truly I know none but that which Saint Paul here prescribes in the Text which is that we endeavour as near as we can to be of one mind and of one judgment But how shall this be brought to pass unless all judgments were alike clear and unbiassed Or unless laying apart all partiality and affection to their own side and all prejudice and hatred against those from whom they differ men would submit themselves to him who is best able to instruct them Or who can bring with him the most saving Truths into the Pulpit Besides may some one say if people should bring minds prepared to entertain the Truth where is that instructor so infallible or so opinionated of the strength of his own gifts and knowledg that another pretending to the same Truth may not challenge to himself the like infallibility who shall be the Judg of Controversies or who shall present Truth to us with such known marks and notes about it that as soon as t is presented every congregation of what mean capacities soever shall presently acknowledg and entertain it Wil you Sir who have all this while thus bemoaningly pitied our divisions we are bound to thank you for your charity to us and should be desirous enough to imbrace a truth of your description But you are a Scholar whose parts and abilities lye in the humane modell and building of your own secular studies We are therefore bid to doubt very much whether you have the Spirit and are told by some who profess themselves inspired that all your Readings and Studyings and tyrings of your self over a difficult piece of Scripture at midnight perhaps when all others sleep by a lone solitary dumb candle are but so many labours in vain Since t is impossible for any to understand the Scripture aright but such only who have it revealed to them by the same holy Spirit that wrote it My Brethren what shall I say to you Modesty and the knowledg I have of my own imperfections wil not allow me to say peremptorily that I have the Spirit of God Or if I could distinguish his secret influences and assistances from the operations of my own soul or could certainly say I have him which S Paul himself durst not say definitively yet 't would not become me so to confine him to my frail narrow parts as to deny him to all others more learned then my self For the setling therefore and composing of your divided minds I will not take upon me to be the Judge of Controversies but you your selves shall be Onely the better to enable you to peforme this charitable office to your selves and for your better direction how not to be out in your judgement as a sure clue to guide you through the perplext windings of that labyrinth into which some of you are falne so falne that they seem to me quite lost in a wood of mistakes where every path is a guide and every guide is an error give me leave to commend to you that seasonable advice of Saint Iohn which he delivers in the fourth
pieces by her owne Idolaters and Lovers Here then if any expect that I should apply what hath beene said to our times and that I should take the liberty of some of our Moderne Prophets who have by their rude Invectives from the Pulpit made what ever Names are High and Great and Sacred and Venerable among us cheap and vile and odious in the eares of the people If any I say expect that by way of parallell of one people with another I should here audaciously undertake to show that what ever Arts were used to make bad projects seeme plausible and holy in this Prophets time have been practiced to make the like bad projects appeare plausible and holy now Or that in our times the like Irreligious Compliance hath past between some Spirituall men and Lay to cast things into the present Confusion I hope they will not take it ill if I deceive their Expectation For my owne part as long as there is such a piece of Scripture as this Diis non maledices thou shalt not revile the Gods that is thou shalt not onely not defame them by lying but shalt not speake all truthes of them which may turn to their Infamy and reproach I shall alwayes observe it as a piece of obligatory Religion not to speak evill no not of offending dignities Much lesse shall I adventure to shoot from this sacred place my owne ill-built Iealousies and Suspitions for Realities and Truths Which if I should doe 't would certainly savour too much of his Spirit of Detraction who hauing lost his modesty as well as Religion Obedience to the Scandall and just offence of all loyall Eares here present was not affraid to forget the other part of that Text which saies Nec maledices principi in populo meo Thou shalt not reproach the Ruler of my people Yet because so many strange Prophets of our wilde licentious times have preacht up almost five years Commotion for a Holy war And because in truth no warre can be Holy whose cause is not justifiable If I should grant them what they have proclamed from so many Pulpits that the Cause for which they have all this while some of them so zealously fought as well as preacht hath beene Liberty of Conscience or in other termes for the Reformation of a corrupted degenerated Church Or to speak yet more like themselves for the Restitution of the Protestant Religion growne Popish if I say all this should be granted them yet certainly if Scripture Gospell Fathers Schoolmen Protestant Divines of the most reverend and sober marke and Reason it selfe have not deceived mee all Sermons which make Religion how pure soever to be a just cause of a Warre doe but dawb the undertakers with untempered Morter For however it be an Article in the Turkish Creed that they may propagate their Law by their Speare yet for us who are Christians to be of this Mahumetane perswasion were to transfer a piece of the Alcoran into a piece of the Gospell And to make Christ not onely the Author of all those Massacres which from his time to ours have worne that Holy Impression but 't were to make him over-litterally guilty of his owne saying that he came not to send peace but a Sword into the World For though it be to be granted that nothing can more conduce to the future happinesse of men then to be of the true Religion yet I doe not finde that Christ hath given power to any to compell men to be happy or commanded that force should be used for the collation of such a Benefit All the wayes more proportioned for the atchieving of such an end hee hath in his Gospel prescribed namely preaching and perswasion and Holy example of life He bade his Apostles goe and teach all Nations not stir up one Nation against another or divide Kingdomes against themselves if they would not receive the Gospell This had been plainly to joyne the Sword of the flesh to the Sword of the Spirit Which to save their Lives and Fortunes might perhaps have made some Hypocrites and dissemblers without who would neverthelesse have remained Pagans and Infidels within In short some things in the Excellâ—…ncy and Height of the Doctrines of Christian Religion being no way demonstrable from Humane principles but depending for the credit and evidence of their truth upon the Authority of Christs miracles conveyed along in Tradition and Story cannot in a naturall way of Argumentation force assent Since as long as there is such a thing in men as liberty of understanding all arguments even in a Preaching and perswasive way which carry not necessity of demonstration in their Forehead may reasonably 〈◊〉 rejected Much lesse have I met with it in all my progresse of Dâ—…vinity or Philosophy convincingly maintained that men upon every slight disagreement or dissent in Religion are to be whipt or beaten into a Consent or that the plunde of mens Estates is a fit medium to beget a Beleefe or perswasion in their Minds Here then should I once more grant the charge of these Prophets to be true a very heavy one I confesse that the Protestant Religion among us had very farre taken wing and had almost resigned its place in this Island to the Romish Superstition Nay suppose which is yet farre worse that a great and considerable part of this Kingdome had through the Corruption of the times not onely relapst from the Protestant Religion in particular but from the Christian Faith in generall suppose I say which is the worst that can be supposed that they who have so frequently of late been branded for Papists had out-right turned Infidels however in such a case that Warre which fights against the Errours of men thus lost and proposeth to it selfe no other end but their Repentance and Conversion may to some perhaps seem to weare the Helmet of their Salvation and the Army which thus strives to save men by the sword may to some seem an Army of Apostles yet I doe not finde that to come into the field with an armed Gospel is the way chosen by Christ to make Proselites The Scripture indeed tells us of some who took the Kingdome of Heaven by violence But of any who by violence may have it imposed upon them 't is no where recorded But alas my Brethren if I may speak freely to you in the defence of that defamed Religion in which I was borne and to which I should account it one of the greatest blessings that God can bestow upon me if I might with the Holy Fathers of our Reformation fall a Sacrifice that which these men call Idolatry and Superstition and by names yet more odious was to farre from having shrined it selfe in our Church So little of that drosse and Ore and tinne which hath lately filled our best Assemblies with so much noyse and Clamour was to be found among us that with the same unfainednesse that I would confesse my sinnes to God and hope to
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
your strange wilde Art of multiplying Questions upon Questions or like another Hydra what ever the Hercules be make three heads spring up in the place where you finde one convincingly lopt of The other is that when you have made your Charge and I my Resistance you will consent that the debate of every question thus disputed may bee made publike and printed But if by a Dispute you meant that I should fight a Duell with you upon the same stage and in the same Theater of men and women before whom you and Mr. Yerbury played your prize I doubt very much if I should accept of your Callenge in that sense whether all discreet men would not count this a spice of the phrenzy in me which you complained of in the Pulpit for being imputed to you by Him that wrote the Conference at your late Scruple-House and say I deserved to be cured by the Discipline and Physicke of a darke roome To deale freely with you Sir I by no meanes can approve of an English Disputation in a University But because you shall not loose your challenge nor I be thought to desert the cause which I professe to defend so you will choose the Divinity Schoole and Latine weapons I shall not refuse as well as God shall enable me to give you a meeting there and to sustaine the Answerers part in the defence of the lawfulnesse of white Surplices Church Ornaments the Common-Prayer Booke and Prelacy which are the particulars in my Sermon which you called Relicts of Superstition To one of these two offers I shall patiently expect your answer unlesse without troubling me any further you will let me quietly retire backe againe into the shade from whence you have too importunately called me Who neuer the less have learnt so much Charity as to pray God to forgive you the wrong which you intended towards From my chamber this evening Ian. 19. 1646. The Author of the Sermon against False Prophets J. MAYNE To this letter in which as briefly as the lawes of a Letter would permit I indeavour'd to wash out the spots with which M. Cheynell in his Sermon strived to defile and sully mine and withall to comply with him in any sober way of Dispute which might befit two University-men after two dayes was returned an Answer First strange for the messenger's sake that brought it which was One Iellyman some say a preaching Cobler who from repairing the decayes of University-mens shooes was now thought fit to have a part in the conveyance of their disputes Next for the double Superscription of it which without on the side of the first paper that enclosed it was as faire and full of Candor as the whited sepulcher in the Gospell and was directed To D. MAYNE AT CHRIST-CHURCH But this outward stone was no sooner rolled away but another Inscription very unlike the first appear'd which ran thus FOR M. JASPER MAYNE ONE OF THE NEVV DOCTORS STUDENT AT CHRIST-CHURCH By which parenthesis it seemes M. Cheynell thought it an errour in the University to make me a Doctor And truely if I may be believed upon my owne report as often as I compare my unworthiness with my degree I am of his opinion and thinke I am a Doctor fit only to stand in a parenthesis and without any iniustice done me to be left out of the sentence This second Superscription was underwritten with a kind of a preamble Letter to the more inward Letter with the lock and guard of a scale upon it and ran thus SIR I have sent severall times to your lodging this day to answer your challenge yesterday if you cannot meet to morrow let me understand your minde to night For I have a great deale of business since the University was silenced for your sake What kinde of meeting was here meant or whether I having I thanke God the use of my understanding could consent to it will appeare by the Letter it selfe which being an Answer to mine was verbatim this SIR I use to spend my morning thoughts upon a better subiect then a pot of dead drinke that hath a litle froth at top and dreggs at bottom SIR It appeares by your Letter that you doe not understand my Text and the learned Scribe or Intelligencer did not vnderstand my plaine very plaine English Sermon I am not at leisure to repeat every Sermon that I preach preaching soe often as I doe sometimes twice and upon just occasion thrice a day to every one that is at leisure to cavill at that which thay heard but at second hand yet to shew how much you are mistaken I will give you a breife but satisfactorie account My Text stands upon record Isa. 40. 25. the Doctrine I raised from the words was as followeth Doct. There is no creature in heaven or earth like God in all things or equall to God in any thing The first Corollarie I deduced from thence when I came to make application was breifly this That no picture can be made of God because there was nothing like him in heaven or earth All nations are less then vanity in comparison of God to whom then will ye liken God or what likeness will ye compare unto him Isay. 40. 17. 18. The Prophet urgeth this Argument against all manner of images which are made to represent God who sitteth upon the circle of the earth and stretcheth out the heavens from the 19. v. of the same chap. to the 23. ver and he enforceth this Argument vers 21. have yee not knowne have ye not understood c. as if he had say'd yee are ignorant sotts irrationall and inconsiderate men if yee apprehend not the strength of this Argument Now SIR be pleased to produce your strong reasons and overthrow if you can the Doctrine or the Corollary Your Intelligencer was if not a false Prophet yet a false Historian when he told you that I accused you of making images equall with God SIR I said that images were not like unto God and thereupon wondered that you tooke upon you to pleade for the retaining of those images which have beene too often turn'd into idolls not by the piety but superstition of former times You say that by the same reason there should be no Sun in the firmament Whence I collect that you will be forc'd to maintaine that images are as necessary in the Church as the Sun in heaven be pleased to read the 22. page of the false Prophet Moreover you plead for Copes and for those parts of the Common-Prayer Booke which were borrowed from Rome pag. 21 22. The Uisitors will ere long enquire whether there hath not beene a Superstitious use of Copes at Christ-Church and therfore I did not make any such enquirie in my Sermon but as a Freind I give you and your adherents timely notice of it because I believe you had need study for an Answer You maintaine that some things in the excellencies and height of the Doctrines of Christian Religion
depend for their credit and evidence of their truth upon the authority of Christs miracles conveyed along in tradition and story pag. 16. and therefore I say your Religion leanes too hard and too heavy upon Tradition You are offended that I spoke not distinctly concerning Prelacy you may if you please try your strength and endeavour to prove that Christ hath put the sole power of Ordination and Iurisdiction in the hand of a Prelate 2. You may if you can justifie that no Church that ever the Sun look'd upon hath been more blest with purity of Religion for the Doctrine of it or better establish'd for the Government and Discipline of it then the Church of England pag. 7. if you believe this confident assertion you may proceed and justifie all the Doctrines which were publikely countenanced or approved all the superstitious practises and prelaticall usurpations nay the delegation of the Prelates usurped power to Chancellors and all the Tyranny of the high Commission together with all the corruptions and innovations introduced into the State Church University from the yeare 1630. till 1640. by a prevailing faction who were not the Church or University but the disease indeed the plague of both If you dare not undertake so sad a taske you cannot justifie the 17. 18. 22 23. 27. 35. pages of the False Prâ—…het you must prove that the proceedings of the Parliament are Turkish pag. 15. 17. that none of the Members of either House of Parliament who complaine of the blemishes of the Church are to be esteemed good Protestants pag. â—…8 that the Reformation which they have made is vanity of vanities pag. 20. that they are guided by no other principles but such as are contrary to all rules of right judgement either common to men or Christians pag. 21. that the Ministers who have appeared for the Parliament are all of them False Prophets who have encouraged the Parliament to oppression sacriledge murther and to make all names that are great and sacred cheap and odious in the eares of the people That the Ministers are the liars and the Parliament-men the compliers as appears by all your unworthy insinuations hints intimations quite throughout your Scurrillous Libell falsly called a Sermon let any prudent man judge whether this be not your maine drift and scope à carceribus usque ad metam You talke of a Religion in which you were borne were you borne in a Surplice or a Cope Christiani non nascuntur sed fiunt Sir the Parliament doth not defame nor will they suppress the true Protestant Religion and therefore if you fall in this quarrell I said that you must be sacrificed in the defence of Tyranny Prelacy Popery if you put not Religion in Copes Images Prelates or Service-Booke quorsum haec perditio why doe you talk of being Martyr'd say that if the King will give you leave you will burne your Copes and Surplices throw off the Bishops and Common-Prayer Booke you 'l break your windowes and take the Covenant and make it evident that you are and ever will be of the Kings Religion for you hold none of these things necessary now whatever you have said heretofore unless they be made necessary by right Authority Sir if I made any prediction it was that your Sermon would be confuted before it was burnt you know Paraeus was burnt before he was confuted and if you be not guilty of any doctrine received in Poland I wonder First why you did endeavour to incense an Officer of this Garrison against me because I had refuted M. Yerburies blasphemous errors 2. Why you did maintaine those damnable Doctrines on the last Sabbath forgive me this injurie for I heare you did but vent them and were no way able to maintain them Sir I acknowledge that I doe contend for the restitution of the true Protestant Religion and contend for the civill right which we have to exercise the true Protestant Religion we were in manifest danger to lose our right by the force and violence of potent Enemies whereupon the high Court of Parliament judged it fit to repell force by forces be pleased to shew how the Parliament doth hereby canonize the Alchoran or declare themselves to be of the Mahumetan perswasion the Parliament will not compell you to be happy onely take heed that you do not compell them to make you miserable Though you renounce all Doctrines that M. Yerberie maintaines yet I thinke you are too great a friend to the Rebels in Ireland you contend for a Vorstian liberty not for a liberty of conscience for you desire a liberty for men that have no conscience such as turne from being Protestants to be Infidels There is one of M. Yerburies opinion who saith that the righteous are at liberty he that is righteous let him be righteous still and the wicked are at liberty he that is wicked let him be wicked still but you are of a more dangerous opinion the wicked as as you think are at liberty to kill and slay but the godly are not at liberty to defend themselves by the power of the highest Court of Justice in the Kingdome from illegall and unjust oppression violence I am convinced by many passages in your Sermon especially the 15 16 17. pages that you think we ought not to fight against the Rebells in Ireland because it is part of their Religion as it was of your brethren the Cavaliers to put all Roundheads as you terme them to the sword missajam mordet the Mass may be armed but the Gospel must not What thinke you of the War fore-told in the book of the Revelation Sir you abuse your betters when you talk of the Scruple-house You are not worthy to carrie the books of those Reverend Ministers after them nor could your Carfax-Sermon have ever silenced the ungifted Preachers you would have found them gifted Disputants if you think otherwise try one or two of them in some of their beaten points Sir I speake thus freely because I was not present at the famous meeting Novemb. 12. but I see you can cite one of your owne Prophets Poets I should say but he is no truer a Prophet then you are like to prove a Martyr a Cretian Prophet Sir the knowledge of my Brethrens worth and your famous pride and self-conceitedness hath provoked me to let my pen loose that I might disabuse and humble you It seems you are unwilling to come upon the stage though that be a fitter place for you then the pulpit to appear before a Theater of men and women Sir you love the stage too well take heed you doe not love women too ill there is a friend of yours that doth entreat you to beware of dark rooms and sight women for though a great Physitian doth advise you to the use of such pleasing physick yet the Frenchmen will assure you that it is not wholsome for the body and the English can assure you that it is not good for the soul your kind