being rationally and Christianly principled and nothing averse to Piety till coming to the later Proposition That it became the wisedom and goodness of Christ to appoint a visible Judge Infallible upon Earth to determine Controversies He replied mildly we had reason to go warily in censuring the wisedom and goodness of God if this or that thing seeming to us expedient were not done in the government of the World for who can pretend to know the depth of the wisedom and knowledg of God Rom. 11.33 to search into his judgments and find out his ways This most rational advertisement took deep root in my heart ever thirsty of reason and open to receive it Neither did the modesty of the Proposer diminish but rather augment the weight of it It was in truth the first shock that touched me to the quick striking upon the very root of that Engine of Infallibility I leaned upon Reflecting upon the matter in my solitudes I perceived the weakness of the ground I built upon I saw that in like manner we may say it belongeth to the goodness wisedom and power of God not to permit that his Holy Law should be transgressed by vile creatures and his supreme dread Majesty offended by despicable vermine Nor that Pastors of Souls especially the Roman Pope deemed a Vice-God upon Earth should fall into errours and scandalize with wicked life the people And alas it is but too well known he permits this Shall we therefore waver in the Opinion of his goodness power and wisedom God forbid Why then should we think it a failure in his providence or goodness if besides Holy Scriptures abounding in all light and Heavenly Doctrine to such as are not wilfully blind he did not appoint some visible Judge universal for our direction St. Paul saying 2 Tim. 3.16.17 that Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works That Foundation alledging the necessity of a Judge visible universal and Infallible being thus weakned I proceeded to examine what right the Pope or Church of Rome could pretend to such infallibility the support of all their Incredible Doctrine And first the very inconstancy of their pretence to this priviledge and great dissention of their Authors in asserting it was to me a main reason of suspecting the truth of all and a concluding argument that they cannot be certain of having it Vide Bel l. 4. de Rom. Pont. c. 2. For some will have the Pope himself alone as Pope or as teaching from his chair to have this Infallibility of Doctrine Others will not allow it him but in conjunction with a Council either general or particular of Cardinals and Divines Others only attribute it to him in a General Council Others neither separately nor conjunctly and will only allow the Church Universal to be Infallible And finally others of the most Learned affirm even the Church Universal S. Tho. Turre â—â—â—mata Alphonâ—us a Cactâ—o apud Candi 4 〈◊〉 c. 4 concl 2. to be capable of a Material Errour by Probable Ignorance though not of a Formal and Heretical one which in substance is to allow the Church no more Infallibility than Origen Tertullian or any other particular true Christian Believer hath though subject to errors which Opinion if extended to make the Universal Church fallible even in Points Essential to saluation is false And upon so great an uncertainty of their Infallibility they will have us to build a certain Infallible Belief of all they please to teach us which is to build a house incapable of falling upon a sandy and ruinous Foundation Now for their grounds for this pretended Infallibility what is their warrant for it Divine Scripture they say for who but God could give such a Priviledge and what warrant have they for believing he Scripture saying so to be Divine and Infallible The Infallible Testimony of the Church say they again their own Roman Church they mean So they believe the Scripture is Infallible because the Roman Church doth testifie it and this Church to be Infallible because the Scriptures Testimony is for it A circle in reasoning which Logicians would hiss out of their Schools Neither may Becan's escape avail him that they deal with Christians who believe the Scripture for no Christian but such as they will make blind can believe that there is any Scripture favouring their case in this particular without clipping or corrupting it to serve their purpose For example Their main pillar for this Infallibility fetcht out of the 24th chapter of St. John John 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth Their own Disciples who ordinarily know no more of Scriptures than what they are pleased to shew to them for their several purposes may think that Text to be pertinent for their pretentions But who will take the liberty to read the Context before and after will clearly find out that the very same Text destroyeth their whole design and taketh away all certainty of the Holy Ghost his assistance for rendring their Decrees Infallible The Text restored to its integrity saith thus in their own Bible If ye love me keep my commandments Mundus id est remanens amator mundi cum quo nurquam est amor Dei Gloss interlin Non habent spirituales oculos quibus Spiritum sanctum videant muâ—â—i amaâ—â—res Gloss ordinaria and I will ask my Father and he shall give you another Paraclete that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive By the first words you may see this to be a conditional promise limited to such as love God and keep his Commandments by the later words you see worldly and sinful men expresly excluded from receiving that gracious assistance of the Spirit of Truth therefore to be sure that the Pope and his Council have the assistance of the Spirit of Truth we must be sure that they love God and keep his Commandments but of this we cannot have security their own Histories relating and the world knowing enormous vices in them What they alledge out of St. Paul writing to Timothy Tim. 3.15 that the Church is the pillar and ground of Truth we freely admit it as due to the Universal Church not to any particular but less to one found guilty of so many and great errours such as the Romish is whose ambition in claiming and appropriating to it self all the commendations delivered of the Church Universal is no less reprehensible than as if the Scribes and Pharisees persecuting our Saviour should appropriate to their Synagogue all the praises given to Moses and Aaron Would not you wonder that their chief Champion Cardinal Bellarmine Bellar de sum Pâ—n l. 4 c 2. should bring for proof of the Pope's Infallibility that in the Old Law
not disdain to follow that I proposed of the blessed Virgin Mary If you hear the voice of God by what mouth or means soever it comes harden not your hearts examine and try in God's Name whether it be really his voice and will and finding it is so fear not to declare for Christ before the World lest he may refuse to own you before his Heavenly Father To persons thus disposed and to such onely I desire my words or writing to be addressed deeming it labour lost to speak or write to any that is resolved obstinately to lye where his Lot was to fall be it right or wrong That there should be any so careless of their greatest concern is an object of pity but of wonder that their judicious Instructors should teach them to think and do accordingly perswading them it is a mortal sin to admit of any doubt in their belief that they must neither hear nor read any Arguments against it or if they happen to do it must be with resolution not to yield or consent to them be they never so demonstrative or evident which is really to devest men of rationality and make Religion a matter of chance not of council or free election and so undeserving praise or reward They allow to others whom they would gain to their party the use of their reason and liberty to hear and examine Arguments proposed to them otherwise why should they go about to convert them How then come their own Flock to be excepted from the use of this priviledge allowed to the rest of humane kind They wonder that I by so many years learning and teaching Philosophy and Divinity in several famous Colledges of Spain should not find out until now on which side the truth of Catholick Religion did stand Which is to wonder that I could judge better of a debate after hearing both parties than when I was hearing onely one side to wonder that by ten years of more study I should learn more Which will appear yet a more unreasonable wonder if you consider what St. Luke relates of Jesus Christ the Son of God though of infinite wisedom Lu. 2 40. that as man he seemed to grow more wise by age And shall we disdain to grow more wise with more time and with more light sent from God They object to me that I am the first of my Family that became Protestant And so was St. Paul the first of his that became Christian. If I am now in the right as I am fully satisfied that I am I heartily wish that my Kinsmen according to the flesh would follow my example in examining the Truth and adhering to it They tell me I was unkind and hard-hearted in forsaking my Friends and Kindred in discomforting and offending many Noble Families at home and abroad from whom I have received singular demonstrations of Love and Honour None is more sensible of the hardship of that case than my self To dye effectively in defence of Truth never appeared to me so harsh as to be alienated from my Friends and to see their love turned to hatred but all that though heavy I thought more tolerable than God's anger which I was to draw upon me by working against my conscience They say I lost my wits and well may they say it if for humane respects I did take this resolution but if for superiour motives of pleasing God and securing Eternal Happiness upon sufficient ground I might expect they should rather take it for the greatest shew of wisedom I could give The tryal will be to examine the reasons I give for my resolution in the ensuing Discourse by publick writing that indifferent persons may judge which of us speaketh more sense That I heartily desire to see provided it be in a modest and serious way with plain and solid reasons grounded upon the Word of God as becomes Christians and Learned men to speak and will be fit for clearing the Truth Shewing wherein my reasons against their Tenents examined in this Discourse are deficientâ— or what other reasons they have for them of more strength and expect my Answer to them To such Replyes I will listen willingly and answer seriously with resolution to honour and acknowledge Truth wheresoever I see it If they think I am in an errour and pretend to win me out of it this is the way and not by promises menaces or calumnies with all I was assaulted To them that came with promises I gave all shews of perfect indignation To the menaces I answered with Susanna Dan. 3.22 It is better for me to fall into your hands and not to do it than to sin in the sight of the Lord. The calumnies are so rude and apparently false that I need not wish more harm to their Forgers than that they should be known Such is to say that after resolving to embrace the Communion of the Church of England I went about to my Friends in the County of Tipperary and collected a great sum of Money to go over Seas and then came with it this other way The untruth of this base obloquy I made evident after diligent enquiry as is well known to the most Reverend the Lord Archbishop of Cashell and to several other Persons of Quality I being so averse to such proceeding that I passed by the Houses of my chief Friends and Kinsmen in that County without taking leave from them fearing they would offer me any Money for my Voyage then intended for England as I have declared to some and onely entred in very few Houses where I had some concerns to dispose of and where by good luck no Money was given or offered to me Of the like condition is the report spread here in Dublin that at making my Declaration in the Church of St. John at Cashell before the most Reverend the Lord Archbishop of that City and the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Waterford and a very great Congregation I was struck dumb and could not speak a word And that after going in the street I fell dead suddenly It were both tedious and rediculous to mention all the Fables they coyn daily forging things certainly so far from my thoughts and contrary to my inclination as to put my hand in the fire I could not but expect this kind of proceeding from them knowing how much their Writers of greatest repute do encourage them to it saying it is lawful for a Priest or Resigious man to kill any that would offer to divulge grave faults of himself or of his Religion And which to me seemeth no less cruel That it is not a grievous sin to raise false Testimonies against him that would blemish one's honour to bereave him of credit If they allow this kind of defence for the honour of every particular what may expect they will suggest to destroy or defame one they su spect may diminâ—sh with his opposition the credit of their whole Religion I abstain at present from quoting the Authours
of this Doctrine not willing to defame the Teachers of such infamous Tenents until farther occasion make it necessary to shew how opposite they be to the Law of God and the Doctrine of Christ This kind of defence is a great discredit to their cause Truth needeth not such weapons to be drawn for it David saith Psa 16.2 That God needeth not our goods Deus meus es quoniam bonorum meorum non eges And if he needs not our goods surely he needs not our evil Who useth these means sheweth clearly it is not for God he acts for God refuseth all such ways Job 13.7 Will you speak wickedly for God saith holy Job and talk deceitfully for him Certainly none of his true Followers will do so It is not the way Christ and his Apostles did shew us to propagate their Doctrine Several Persons that pretended to desire my safety were employed to forewarn me I should not speak in prejudice of the Party I forsook in terms which might seem a threatning if I did not take that advice If they require that I should not raise or blazon the faults of particular persons or Societies I am my self totally inclined and fully resolved to observe that rule But if they expect that I should not justifie my departure from the Romish Communion by declaring the exceptions I took against their erroneous â—enents which I could not with approbation of my conscience embrace it is a cruel unjust demand and as much as to say I ought not to defend Iruth and my Credit according to the Law of God and Nature but permit them to strike at both without reply to which I cannot consent And whereas I understand there are malicious glosses made upon my Declaration falsifying the words of it to build cavils upon others substituted by themselves For discovery of that imposture and manifestation of Truth a true Copy of the said Declaration as delivered it in the Church of St John at Cashell is hereto annexed the following Discourse being a fulleâ— explication of what is there said in general And that malice may confide less in its contrivances thinking they will not be discovered and confuted I will let it have here a view of its own weakness declaring one of its attempts by way of the foresaid Declaration Among other tryals made of my constancy in my resolution taken was a Letter written to me in the moneth of June last wherein was advertised that in my Declaration I acknowledged that some years past I did intend and resolve to forsake the Romish Communion and adhere to the Church of England Contrary to which resolution were extant Writings of mine in those times approving and defending the Roman Church I desire the indifferent Reader to peruse carefully the Declaration and see whether in it he finds mention of a Resolution made some years ago of forsaking the Roman Church and he shall onely find that some years ago I doubted of the truth of some Articles of that Church but no word of a Resolution made of separating from it as truly I never made it until the first day of last May and no man living is able to say with truth that he saw any expression of mine by word or writing concerning such a Resolution until that day So this Foundation of that gloss being thus evidently falsified all the breed of that great pregnaney comes to be that writings of mine are extant wherewith in times past I defended the Roman Church A singular discovery as if my name were not to be seen enrolled several years in the Registry or publick Books of the Vniversity of Salamanca for Professour of Controversies in one of the Colledges Members of that Vniverfity and my Auditors being composed of Spanish French and Irish my Dictates may not be in many hands both in this Countrey and abroad as if I were not one of the most srequent and earnest Disputers in favour of the Romish Church since I came to this Land This being generally known and my self canfessing it with repentance of my unfortunate errour therein what purchase do they pretend to make with this acute discovery of one I may probably assure them that the unpassionate will judge them unworthy of credit in matters less clear when they pretend to blind my self and all the Countrey making us believe that in my Declaration extant in so many hands as here published I did acknowledge that some years past I did intend and resolve to desert the Roman and adhere to the Protestant Church whereas therein is onely said that some years ago I doubted of the truth of some Romish Articles but delayed to give assent against them And any good judgment may see that to doubt of the truth of some Articles may be far enough from concluding upon the untruth of them and even this later may be yet farther from a resolution upon a total breach and separation from a Church Herein we see passion blinded for not to be sensible of shame in telling palpable untruths weakness is no less discovered in pretending to discredit me with telling I did in former years approve and defend the Roman Church With this note St. Paul may be branded for being zealous one time of the Synagogue and opposing the Gospel They should remember that I live now in a Congregation allowed to read Scripture and not ignorant of the gracious Word of God delivered by the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek 22.22 If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful right he shall surely live he shall not dye All his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him If the godly people with whom I converse make any mention of my former errours it is to rejoyce at my conversion from them As there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God Luke 15.10 over one sinner that repenteth To this shot by way of menace waâ— adjoyned another from the same hand pointing at my intention For they do not think it a robbery to make themselves equal to God in searching hearts and discerning intentions They object to me that if my intention was to be certified of truth as I do profess I should have consulted my doubts with some of my Brethren about me To which I answer First that I could not judge any of my Brethren living about me more fit to resolve me upon these points than Suarez Bellarmine Becanus Stapleton and others the most learned Defenders of the Roman Church with whom I was always very much conversant I would not judge any of them mentioned so vain as to pretend he could give me more satisfaction than the Writings of those great Doctors could afford Secondly I say that to try their skill I related very often to the best understanders about me my several encounters with Learned Protestants their Objections and my Answers And I never yet met
God commanded Two Hebrew words Exod. 20. or Two stones signifying Doctrine and Truth to be put in the breast plate of the High Priest And what then will you infer thence more Infallibility in the Pope than in those High Priests you bring for example Will you make them all Infallible even Caiphas If we will speak in earnest I would suppose these words so inserted were an advertisement to the High Priest that he was to exercise Doctrine and Truth as becoming his place The same advertisement I allow the Pope should have and I wish he did always do accordingly This is the utmost That Text can afford And of this weight are the other Texts they bring to assure us of the Infallibility pretended to build all our Belief on This main Foundation of the Romish Church being thus weakned I began with more liberty to pry into and examine exactly the Mysteries and Tenents of both parties Protestant and Romish To which purpose if I had no other notice of the Protestant cause than that afforded by Popish Writers and Informers as long time I had not I should have been for ever kept from adhering to it Here I perceived a great Insincerity of dealing in the proceeding of Romanists who to make odious their Adversaries gathered up out of the Writings of some particular persons a heap of some extravagant doctrines adding thereto humane frailties of their private lives whether true or false I will not debate now but certainly such as any wise and modest Protestant would abhor no less than any of themselves And if he were to repay them in the like coyn he may by their own mouth do it superabundantly For Two certain Families or Orders of them reputed the most learned and grave of all but very opposite in doctrine passing from the Gravity of Scholastick Disputes to the Scurrility of Infamatory Libels have published of late such damnable doctrines and hideous vices the one of the other as any humane and more a Christian heart would tremble to hear Which lest I should defile this sacred place or your ears or my own mouth I will not relate now But I thought it fit to insinuate to them that this foul and killing Armour of their own against themselves is in a readiness if our necessary defence would require to draw it but such a necessity not intervening I think it unbecoming an Evangelical Preacher to stir that dung and indeed no effective way to conclude with serious minds upon so weighty a matter being certain that in all Congregations of men there are defects in particulars The true and proper way being to deal as becomes men of solid and serious temper is to examine these Tenents wherein each party doth generally agree with publick Uniform consent which I have done And beginning with the Church of England I find the eminent persons of it by Uniform consent of word and writing Article 20. assert the summe of their Faith and Religion to be the Word of God contained in the undoubted Canonical Scripture besides which the plain indubitable consequence of it they require nothing to be believed as matter of Faith What rule could be imagined more sacred and excellent than this for the instruction of men in Faith and good manners if you fancy Infallibility or Antiquity what more Infallible or Ancient than the eternal Word of God if Sanctity and Wâ—sedom what can be imagined more holy and wise than the councels of Christ our Saviour the sentences of holy Prophets and Apostles if the Lustre of Miracles what more admirable and certain than those wrought by our Saviour and his Prophets and Apostles in confirmation of their doctrine if Universality all true Christians do agree in embracing and honouring Canonical Scripture Now as to the Roman Church the Tenents of it as opposite to the Protestant shall be considered for the present to be reducible to these seven heads First the Infallibility and Supremacy of the Pope Secondly the Mystery of Transubstantiation Thirdly the Worship of Images Fourthly the Praying to Saints and Angels Fifthly the Half Communion denied to the Laity Sixthly the use of Indulgences and doctrine of Purgatory Seventhly the celebrating of publick Divine Worship in a Language generally unknown to the people and prohibiting the generality the reading of the Holy Scriptures Pope's Infallibility As to the First we have already declared how ill grounded their pretence to Infallibility is St. Tho. 22. q. 13. Art 3. â—â—iman â—â— 4. tr â—0 c. 6. Now it remaineth to shew how heinous a crime it is to attribute it to the Pope or his Council Their own Divines with St. Thomas Aquinas do agree in asserting that of all sins Blasphemy is the greatest 1 p q 16 ar 18 30. The same Divines do accord in saying it is Blasphemy to attribute to any creature what is proper to God whereas God's Attributes are indistinct from himself and so to ascribe any of them to a creature is to make such a creature God Now that Infallibility is one of Gods chief Attributes incommunicable to any creature 1 p. q 16. ar 8. the same St. Thomas teacheth expresly grounding his Opinion upon these words of the Eleventh Psalm Psal 11.1 according to the Latine Translation Quoniam diminutae sunt veritates à filiis hominum that verities are maimed among the children of men To which is consonant the English Translation of the same Text that the faithful fail from among the children of men Psal 115. v. 11. but more resolutely the hundred and fifteenth Psalm declareth that all men are lyars Therefore the Romanists Attributing Infallibility of Doctrine to their Pope are guilty of Blasphemy the most hainous of all crimes which is evidently deduced from premisses of their own Theologie This hainous Blasphemy of parallelling the Pope with God in the Attribute of Infallibility is raised to a higher degree in their practice of making him Supreme and Absolute Judge and Arbiter of the Law of God and his Holy Scripture So as for the belief and practice of all we must stand to his Declaration in such degree Bellarmin li 4. de Rom. Pont. c. 5. that Bellarmine sticketh not to say if the Pope did command Vices and prohibit Virtues the Church would be obliged to believe Vice to be good and Virtue bad Nay the Council of Constance professedly commandeth the Popes Decrees to be preferred to the Institutions of Christ Whereas confessing that our Saviour did ordain the giving of the Sacred Communion under both kinds to the Faithful people and that the Apostles and Primitive Church did practise it so notwithstanding they command Concil Constan Sess 13. that for the future it be not given to the Laity but under one kind Proposing no other reason for it than that the precedent Popes and Church govern'd by them practised it so though contrary to the practice of Christ and His Apostles Whereby they extol the Pope to a
of withdrawing from the Communion of the Roman Church was just and necessary My whole Discourse upon the Text prefixed is but one Syllogism whereof the major Proposition is this That if we should find a Church or Congregation convinced of Idolatry Impiety and Cruelty in the publick established practice of it we are to forsake the Communion of it This is the doctrine of our Saviour contained in the words of our Text as appeared by the declaration and proof of it in the first Point The minor is That I found the present general practice of the Roman Church convinced of Idolatry Impiety and Cruelty The Conclusion is that the Resolution I took of forsaking it was just and necessary No Christian may deny the major it being Christ's doctrine as appeareth by our Text. If the minor be true no good Logician may deny the conclusion The truth of the minor touching Idolatry seems to be sufficiently proved by what is said concerning the Worship of of the Eucharistical bread and of Images And touching Antichristian Impiety by what is declared of their opposing and preferring the Popes Laws to the Law of God making the Pope Sole and Supreme Arbiter of Gods Law giving him the Attribute of Infallibility proper to God alone abrogating Christs Institution in the Administration of the Eucharist or Communion and Establishing another contrary to it Bereaving Christ of the title of sole Saviour and hope of human kind by calling the Virgin Mary their Saviouress and hope Advancing the honour and worship of Saints beyond that of God by dedicating more Churches and saying more prayers to them than to God Their Cruelty in the conduct of souls appeareth too much in what we have said of bereaving the Christian people of the Fruit of the blessed Sacrament of the Altar in their practice of half Communion in depriving them of the benefit of their soul having publick Divineservice in a Language not intelligible to them of the liberty of reading the word of God in his Holy Scriptures Their Tyranny over Princes in deposing them from their Crowns and dignities and moving subjects to bear arms against them Their severity used with the Irish in pursuance of their pretention herein To this may be added their Tyranny over consciences in forcing them to the belief and defence of Doctrines repugnant to their judgement and not established by Catholick Faith as may appear in their violence about forcing all to believe and declare for the conception of the virgin Mary without original sin so many clear testimonies of Scripture being against it as affirm that all men did sin in Adam that Christ was universal redeemer from sin and Saviour of all mankind And not one word to be found in favour of the Exception they pretend for the Virgin Mary besides their voluntary and very often frivolous applications of Texts never intended by the Author of them for their purpose So whatsoever is said by Solomon of the Spouse in his Canticles of wisedom in his Proverbs c. that may seem to have some sound or cadency suiting with their intention is taken up for a sure Oracle declaring the immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin But what strength is wanting to their Texts is supplied by Force and Art two Orders being engaged in that quarrel for the immaculate conception the one numerous among the people and violent in stirring them to abuse the Houses and persons of their Opposers the other prevalent with the Peers and Prelates and with the Popes to engage all in their Quarrel obtaining fearful Excommunications against Opposers of their doctrine by word or writing ordering that in Universities none may have Degrees in Churches none may preach but such as will protest publickly for the immaculate conception with other many violences used to extort such protestations Of which Protestants how many do Protest against what in their mind they judge to be truth God knoweth For my part I am slow in judging of mens thoughts but I dare judge that if their Definitions touching other Points controverted did proceed after this manner I am not obliged to take them for Infallible What of their cruel censures of their Fellow Christians not subject to the Pope of Rome excluding them and the rest of human kind not living in that Communion from all hopes of Salvation wherein they not onely oppose Truth but bely their own Principles as was clearly made out in a Treatise I was forced to pen some years ago When being questioned by some of the Nobility whether one baptized knowing the Lords Prayer the Ten Commandments and the Creed and endeavouring to live according to them ready to believe what he understands to be true Catholick Faith guilty of no obstinacy in misbelieving any Article of it Whether such an one may be saved though he be not of the Communion of the Roman Church I answered he may and was truly a Member of the Catholick Church notwithstanding any calling the Vulgar gave him And having understood I was censured for this Doctrine in absence though none opposed me in presence I penned a Treatise in Latine wherein I demonstrated by evident Testimonies of Scripture Councils Fathers Authority of Divines and Declarations of Popes that the Doctrine I delivered was Catholick Faith and the contrary of it was Heresie and Blasphemy Coppies of this Treatise were given to them of more Authority and Learning of the Romish Clergy in the Kingdom and are among them these 3. or 4. years and none yet could shew in it any thing untrue or ill grounded yet all conspired against the publishing of this said Doctrine as being prejudicial to the Romish Cause because thence followed that Protestants may be saved and that many called Hereticks would not be such indeed To which I answered that I found great conveniences in those things they represented to me for inconveniences being heartily desirous that all men should be saved and that of them called Hereticks none of all should be such in truth And come what will of my Answer I cannot but answer truth when I am questioned I replied to their complaints of that with the words of Job Jo. 13.7 Will you speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him Or as the Latine Text hath Num quid Deus indiget vestro mendacio ut pro illo loquamini dolos Does God need your lyes and that you should use cheats in his cause surely he does not And so I concluded it was not the cause of God or good of souls they zealed but the Grandeur of the Roman Court and their own pretentions with it which I would not advance with telling lyes or concealing truth Let them sooth one another with those compliances as those Owls and Syrens Isaiah represents answering one another in the ruinous Houses of Babilon Respondebant ibi ululae in aedibus ejus Is 13.22 Syrenes in delubris voluptatis Odious Night-birds leud Syrens keep correspondence in Babilon But the