are set Free by the Son of God The eleventh Book in Adversarijs Conteining a Treatise upon the Articles of Christs comming to judgement The Resurrection of the dead and Life everlasting The twelfth of the Catholick Church part whereof is Printed and mentioned above Besides a great number of Treatises and Sermons respective Appendices to the Books aforesaid So many as would fill a Page with a Particular Catalogue For the Publishing whereof in due Time and manner and suiting with this Volume The Worthy persons whom the Author made Supervisors of his Will will be conscientious and Prudent Accountants to the Church of Christ And some others Pious and Learned men of that University Chearfull Assistants thereto But here if the Reader be of my Temper Secretum peto I must lead him aside a little to Condole the losse the Great loss of one most Considerable piece Finished and Alas for the Day lost some yeers ago It was The Treatise of Prodigies or Divine Forewarnings betokening Blood I am bold to say Reader Write this a Prodigie And to render it the more Prodigious take notice that it was lost in the Authors Life Time as his ingenious Amanuensis Mr. B. told me inquiring after it above 9 yeers ago What shall be said or thought of This Surely The World was not worthy of such a Blessing It sentenced it self unworthy thereof by the stupid totall neglect of what he Preached at Court and Printed at Oxon in the Yeer 1637. about The Signes of the Times a Subject neer of Kin to that Treatise The longing impatient desire of Retreiving this Treatise makes me not blush to transform this Preface into a kind of Proclamation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather into a most humble and earnest Supplication unto the Person that hath this Treatise in keeping if yet it be kept from the Malice of the Destroyer That he will please to bring it in unto the Stationer for whom this Book is Printed upon assurance to receive it again or for it twelve or twenty Copies or a sum of Money Aequivalent if it be Printed For it is the desire and designe of more and more able men then my self to Collect and Publish This Authors Works as Compleat as possibly may be The Earnest whereof is Given in this First Volume with this further Account The Quarto Impression was scarce and dear and ill Printed The weighty and many Quotations of Authors so exceeding falsly figured and disfigured too that it cost so much Time and great Turning sometimes to finde out One single place as none can believe that hath not tried the like nor could all the Authors be found in London This the Famous Library of Oxon and the chearfull Candor of a learned Friend there supplied I am hopefull that the Authors Sence is not altered in the least measure for the least sin in that kind is sacriledge I am sure I was so scrupulously carefull of changing as that I have omitted what I thought necessary correction For example in the Epistle to the Reader line 12. I think I ought to have changed the word Conscience into Conscious or lesse conscience into more conscientious unlesse you will say Conscience there signifies Guilt So Page the 12. Line 3. after And yet These two words They persecuted should be inserted as I conjecture unlesse the comparison betwixt the Roman and Turkish Emperours Subjects make them needlesse So in the 250 page in the Margin surely it ought to have been R. P. but it was R. B. in the old Copie and in the search of Parsons Resolutions not finding absolute evidence that he was the party meant I let R. B. stand Yet have I added now and then a Citation or Note in the Margin As where the Great Businesse of Charles Martell is Related page 110. I have cited divers Authours whom the Reader may consult for his own better satisfaction To conclude There is a saying and men may think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the pecuniary profit be to the Tradesman If my heart deceive me not as divers Nutus Dei did invite the beginning and many remarkable momenta providentiae did encourage the Progresse in a Time of greatest trouble for outward estate so the Glory of God Almighty the Benefit of his Church and Children the doing of some small Thing in a Time of Cashierment that may tend to the discharge of a most unprofitable servants account at the last Day is the gain aimed at And if our Pr Brethren Sons of the same Fathers with us that cast us out viewing well the second and third Books and being here advertised That twenty of those men whom they have put from the Stations wherein God had set them in the Church of England as Factors for the Church of Rome have contributed each man their Symbolum to this Impression will by this be brought to see their mistake and taking this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confess themselves deceived and unwittingly made Proctors for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and transported in this particular became partial and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will be an Accession above expectation The Good Lord lay not this sin to their Charge but reconcile them to their former selves and be Reconciled both to them and us in Christ and prosper the work both dispatched and intended to his Glory and the good of his Church for our Lord Jesus's sake The Prayer of the most unworthy One of all his servants B. O. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 483. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both the Ark and his Habitation But if he say I have no delight in Thee Let him do to me as seemeth good unto Him Good is the Word of the Lord. The Law of the Lord is an undefiled Law converting the soul The Testimony of the Lord is sure and giveth wisdom to the simple Let the Word of God dwell in you plenteously Search the Scriptures Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation In which are some things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the Other Scriptures to their own destruction Remember them which are the Guides or have the Rule over you The Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth He that heareth you heareth me Lo I am with you alway even to the End of the World THE LIFE and DEATH of the Venerable Dr. JACKSON Dean of PETERBROUGH and President of Corpus-Christi Colledge in OXFORD Written by a late Fellow of the same Colledge BEing earnestly desired by an intimate and Powerful Friend to deliver some Character of that Reverend and Learned Doctor Jackson late President of our Colledge I might very well excuse my self from my unworthiness to undertake so weighty a Task I must seriously confess it was not so much the Importunity of that
Gospel should sleep in all or most intermediate Ages till these later dayes wherein we live wherein such Observations are more Seasonable We being the Men on whom the later Ends of the world are come Happily had Ecclesiastick Writers Commented upon those times our curious Modern Wits too much addicted unto Gentilism would have given less Credence to the pregnant Testimonies of profane Authors as suspecting lest Christians in whose Custody their writings for many generations have been had infected either the whole Discourses or some peculiar Circumstances pertinent to their purposes or apt to countenance their Opinions otherwise improbable in the worlds Judgement But now by how much the Silence of Ecclesiastick Authors in these narrations hath been greater and the Testimonies of Heathen Writers more plentiful or pregnant so much the more unexcusable is the curious and unregenerate Artist or incredulous Atheist That most generations since those times whereof we treat should expect Signs in the Sun Moon to come before the Day of Judgement cannot seem either strange in itself or prejudicial to this Doctrine which we deliver if we call to mind how men otherwise truly Religious have been usually ignorant or mistaken in the meaning of divine Mysteries until the time apointed for their Revelation or until they unfold their Enigmatical Construction by the approach or Real Existence of the Events foretold Thus many well affected to our Saviour and his doctrine did expect Elias should come before the Kingdom were restored to Israel even whilst they had John Baptist of whom that Prophecy was properly meant amongst them Yea after he had Sealed his Embassage with his Bloud Even in the Apostles time That our Saviour should instantly come to give Final Judgement was an Opinion as it seems from S. Paul his Admonition to the Thessalonians generally received amongst Christians first occasioned as is most probable from misconstruction of our Saviours Prophesie Verily I say unto you This Generation shall not passtil all these things be done and this Misconstruction caused from a Common Errour or Ignorance in not distinguishing betwixt the Typical and the Mystical or Substantial Sense of Prophesies oft-times both alike literally and necessarily imported in the self-same words From this Errour of Christians in misapplying our Saviours words unto the Substance which for that time were onely applyable to the Type was the like Tradition propagated to the Heathen of those times as may be gathered from Lucan who lived when S. Paul flourished and died by the same Tyrants appointment His description of the last Day is but a Poetical Descant upon our Saviours words related by three of his Evangelists The Sun shall wax dark and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars of heaven shall fall and the powers of heaven shall be shaken sic cum compage soluta Secula tot Mundi Suprema coâ—gerit Hora Antiquum repetens iterum Chaos omnia mistis Sidera sideribus concurrent Igneapontum Astrapetent Tellus extendere Littoranolet Excutietque Fretum Fratri contraria Phoebe Ibit obliquum bigas agitare per arbem Indignata diem poscet sibi totaque discors Machina divulsi turbabit Foedera Mundi When the last hour hath summ'd up Time and when This Frame resolves into 's First Chaos Then The Stars shall justle Reel Fall fowl and drop Into the Sea Churl â—arth will grudge and stop The waters Course The Moon shall Counter-move The Sun And claim to Rule the Day Thus Love Love that Aton'd each Atome with his Brother Made Feuds in League or Truce to Kisse each other Love Ligament of Th' universe Turn'd Hate All fals in pieces See you Doomes-Dayes Fate The Romans might well have taken their Martyred Poet for a Prophet at least in this Prediction when within few years after they did behold the Sun and Moon with all the Host and powers of heaven Tragically Acting what he had penn'd The Romans conceit of that rueful Spectacle whose Admiration had brought her great Philosopher ‖ Natures Curious Secretary to his untimely Death in Dions words Book 66. was thus Postremo tantus fuit cinis ut inde pervenerit in Asricam Syriam Aegyptum introieritque Romam ejusâ— aerem compleverit solem obscuraverit Nec mediocris etiam Romae trepidatio complures ad dies accidit or as some read id Romae accidit paucis post diâ—bus quum omnes ignorarent id quod sactum erat in Campan a nec quid esset conjectura assequi possent Itaque etiam ij putare coeperunt omma sursum deorsum ferri solemque in terram cadere ac terram in coelum conscendere So well doth this Heathen expresse the Prophets Words I will shew Wonders in the heavens and in the earth Bloud and Fire and Pillars of smoak Joel 2. 30. But most admirable is the consent between the same Prophet and Pliny the younger who was an eye-winesse of the first rising of that smoak portending such dismal times That great and terrible Day of the Lord before which as the Prophet speaks the Sun was to be turned into darkness and the Moon into Bloud was not to be terminated unto one set Natural or Artificial day but to be extended unto all the Prodigious Calamities which after Jerusalems destruction successively ensued throughout the world or as another Prophet speaks unto the continuance of that great Controversie which the Lord had with the Nations before which the Burning of Vesuvius was as a Beacon to give warning to all slesh And the Ingenious Reader will I hope be incited by Pâ—…ies expressing the beginning of that Prodigious Sight to Admire the Hidden Mysteries that are often enwrapt in the Enigmatical Propriety of Prophetical Words rather then censure this Observation following for a Tale of Smoak or Critical Conjecture fet beyond that Region wherein these Fiery Comets appeared The word in the Original rendred by Pillars properly signifies a Palm-tree From the Analogie betwixt Pillars and whose long Trunk and broad Top it comes to signifie a Pillar or Supporter Pliny the younger setting down the occasion manner of his Uncles death resembles the first Apparition of that Huge and strange Cloud unto a Pine-tree for to no other as he saith he could more fitly compare it though for this reason it might altogether as 〈◊〉 have been compared to a Palm-tree had that Tree been as well known in Italy as in the Region wherein the Prophet lived that did foretell this strange Apparition so long before Plinies words are these Mater mea melicat eâ— apparerenubem inusitata magnitudine specie Surgit ille ascendat locum ex quo maxime Miraculum illud conspici poterat Nubes incertum procul intuentibus ex quo monte Vesuvium fuisse postea cognitum est oriebatur â—â—jus formam non alia magis arbor quà m Pinus expresserit Nam longissimo velut trunco elata in altum quibusdam ramis diffundebatur Credo quia
Glories and all the Patriarches from whom the Jews descended had been in Egypt in ripe Age where our Saviour came not but in his Infancie As for his Miracles the Testimonie of Moses and other Prophets whose divine Authoritie is acknowledged by the Jew shall evince them wrought by The Einger of God In the mean time the estate of the Jews since Their death sufficiently known to all the world and foretold by Them shall manifest against the Atheist that They all wrote by The Spirit of God CAP. XXII That all the Heathens Objections against or doubts concerning the Jews Estate are prevented or resolved by Jewish Writers 1 OUt of that which hath been hitherto Premised this Conclusion stands firm supported both by forrain Writers observation and these Jews own confession That They were a People Remarkable for their unusual Prosperitie and Calamity I am fully persaded it would have given full Satisfaction to any â—ngenuous Roman or later Heathen That This was a People Beloved of God had they known as much as we do that all they could Object in contempt of the Jews or their Religion had been conceived before by the Aslyrian and Babylonian but Falsified in the Event fully answered by Judaical Writers and plainly foretold by their Prophets lest such Events as occasioned others to contemn them might have proved Temptations to the Godly amongst this people as if they had been Forsaken of their God The dayes had been wherein the Babylonians had taken themselves for men and their Idols for gods as good as Rome had any and these Jews for as Base a People as the world yielded They had gathered captivitie as the sand mocked the Kings and made a sâ—orn of the Princes deriding every strong Hold and hence as the Prophet foresaw they were as ready as the Romans to take courage in transgressing and doing wickedly imputing this their power unto their God But the Prophet is not herewith dismayed nor tempted to think his Gods power was lesse then theirs albeit to shew himself a true Patriot of Israel he complains of their Intolerable Presumption which in due time he well foresees should be abated Art not thou of old my Lord my God mine Holy One We shall not die O Lord thou hast ordained them for Judgement and O God thou hast established them for correction Thou art of pure eyes and canst not behold wickedness wherefore doest thou look upon The Transgressours and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous then He and makest men as the â—ishes of the sea and as the creeping things that have no Ruler over them They take up all with the Angle they catch it in their Net and gather it in their Yarn whereof they rejoyce and are glad Therefore they sacrifice unto their Net and burn incense unto their Yarn because by them their portion is Fat and their meat plenteous Shall they therefore stretch out their Net and not spare continually to slay the Nations No he knew their time was limited and other Nations as Jeremiah saith When his Time was come were to serve themselves of Him though God at that time had exposed the Princes of Judah to his violence for their Violent Oppression of their Brethren as Habakkuk expressely notes in the beginning of his fore-mentioned Prophecie These Jews before the Event did prove the contrarie were as incredulous they should be brought into Captivitie by the Babylonian or such foolish Idolaters as the Romans were of their great prosperitie under David or Solomon And for to beat down this proud Humour in them the Prophet Ezekiel foretels That for their Extream Crueltie the Lord would punish them by the Most wicked of the Heathen Make a chain for the Land is full of the judgement of Bloud and the City is full of Cruelty Wherefore I will bring the Most Wicked of the Heathen and they shall possesse their houses I will also make the Pompe of the Mighty to cease and their Holy Places shall be desiled When Descruction commeth they shall seek peace and shall not have it Calamity shall come upon Calamity and Rumor shall be upon Rumor then shall they seek a Vision of the Prophet but the Law shall perish from the Priest and Counsel from the Ancient And lest any should marvail why God would so use his Chosen People he gives the reason in the words immediately following Because he was a God of Justice The King shall mourn and the Princes shall be clothed with desolation and the hands of the people in the land shall be troubled I will do unto them according to their ways and according to their judgments will I judge them and they shall know That I am The Lord. 2 More particularly both Tullies Objection concerning their Overthrow and Conquest is directly answered Strabo and Seneca's doubt concerning their thriving in Captivitie fully resolved and Tacitus false Imputations of their increase sufficiently cleared by the Psalmist They were stained with their own works and went a whoring with their own inventions therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people and he abhorred his own inheritance and he gave them into the hand of the Heathen and they that hated them were Lords over them Their enemies also oppressed them and they were humbled under their hand Many a time did he deliver them but they provoked him by their counsels therefore they were brought down by their iniquities Had Tully read thus much he might have been fully satisfied that it was not love or hate of his Immortal gods which made the Romans Conquerors the Jews Captives But it was their Love to Sin onely Hateful to their God which brought them in subjection unto the Romans and made Caesar whom Tully and other Romans hated Lord over them as they had been over the Jews And if Strabo Seneca Tacitus or others that either envied or marvelled at these Jews prosperity had read what follows in the same Psalm they had rested better satisfied with the reason that the Psalmist there gives then with such as Blundering Politicians guesse at For although they had been brought down by their iniquity yet their God who had given them into their Enemies Hand saw when they were in Affliction and heard their Crie And he remembred his Covenant towards them and repented according to the multitude of his Mercies and gave them Favour in the sight of all them that led them away Captives The Psalmist had better understanding of Gods dealing with these People then Tully and Strabo had and in Confidence of Gods Mercies which they had often tasted he concludes with this Prayer Save us O Lord our God and gather us 〈◊〉 among the 〈◊〉 thâ—… we may praisâ—… by Holy Name and glory in thy 〈◊〉 Though this Godly Pâ—almist saw this People in greater distresse then they were in Tullâ—… time yet he attributes not their Captivity and oppreâ—… 〈◊〉 any want of Good-will in their
from speaking any good unto the Jewâ—… yet the Oracles of Carmel assure Vespasian of good Successe in all that he should set â—is hand unto 2 As these and many other Presignifications were more then Natural so the means of his Advancement if we respect onely the purpose of men were meerly Casual nor is it possible for the Atheist to imagin their Concurrenâ—e contrived by Policy 3 But herein we may clearly see Gods Covenant of exalting this People and humbling their foes quite Inverted All the Plagues threatned to such as bare ill will to Sion light on her Friends and Inhabitants All the â—lesâ—ingâ— promised to such as prayed for Jerusalems Peace are heaped upon them that work her Ruine More particularly do they verisie that Propheâ—â—e of Mâ—… â—â—â—t 28. 4â— The stranger that is amongst you shall climb up on high and tâ—â—â— shalt come down beneath alow For these Children of the Kingdom taking Violent but false hold upon Gods truest Promises do by their unseasonable desire of exalting themselves above the Nations hoise Him up to highest Dignity that was ordained to pluck them down from their seat and bring them below all other people The manner of it was thus 4 There was a constant Opinion through the East that Jewry about this time should bring forth the Monarch of the World In Confidence of which Prophecie the Jews as the Roman Writers observe did Rebel Vespâ—… otherwise likely to have lived in Danger and died in Obscurity and disgrace whereunto Nero had designed him appointed for reasons afore alledged to Manage these Wars gets Renown for his good Service among the Romanâ— Good wâ—… of the Eastern nations and upon Nero's death and Civil Broiles thence ensuing partly by promise of assistance from the Parthian partly by other unexpected Occurrents had the Empire thrust upon him otherwise backward of himself to entertain Hopes suggested to him from Heaven by many wonderful Signs and tokens Yet after all this being made Emperour on a suddain before he could bethink himself what belonged to so High a Place he wanted 〈◊〉 as the Historian notes Authority and Majesty to countenance his proceedings and these again are confâ—â—med unto him at his first entrance into the Empire by means more Miraculous then the former Since Rome began was it not heard that any Roman had opened the eyes of the Blind unlesse this man had been from God he â—ould have done nothing Why then do the Heathen rage and the people â—…in thing against God and his Annointed The Christ as if He had not Healed him which was born Blind with Spittle when as Vespasian â—…perour dâ—d â—ure one desperately blind by spitting upon his eyes or whence came that vertue into this new Emperours feet that he should â—eal a lame and withered thigh by treading upon it Both these effects were well known unto the most judicious Roman Writers of those times so constantly avouched by them as can leave no place for suâ—pition in Ages following 5 What shall we Christians say to these things Onely this In both these Cures there was the Finger of God pointing out Vespasian to the world as Christs Right Hand appointed for some Extraordinary and Peculiar Service even to inâ—… the Plagues foretold by him upon these Jews which had reviled traduced and crucified the Lord of Glory for the like and infinite other far greater Miracles wrought amongst them These strange Calamities had they fallen in Nero's or other like Emperours time might have been attributed to their Cruel disposition but that Vespasian for his natural Inclination another Moses scarce provocable to revenge Practize of Treason against his Person in private men should work that strange desolation upon a whole Land hath this signification that he was Gods Instrument onely in this Businesse what he did he did impelled by Him not of his own Motion or Inclination And because he had diligently executed that which was right in Gods eyes and had done unto these Jews according to all things that were in Gods Heart he had by what Revelation God best knoweth Jehu's Blessing Sealed unto him That his Son should sit upon his Throne so confident was he in this perswasion as after the discovery of many to scorn all Conspiracies though daily intended against â—… avouching still either his Sons or None must succeed him in the Empire as both of them did Though the later much degenerate from so worthy a Father most dislike unto his noble brother was most unworthy and uncapable of so High a Place but onely from his Fathers deserts which GOD had ordained should be rewarded with this Honour Had either of his Sons rendred according to the reward bestowed upon them more Scepters had sprung from the Flavian Stock But as it Grew â—pace so did it quickly Fade Titus the fairest Branch to all mens seeming being plucked off to his great Hearts grief in the Blossom for what Secret sin GOD knoweth best This One was grievous enough to have deserved a more grievous death that apprehending his Fates approach he durst so Considently look Heaven in the Face and Expostulate his untimely death as unjust seeing he never had offended the Sacred Powers thereof but Onely Once The Signs of those Times were Extraordinary could the Romans have rightly observed them But these Great Conquerours were taken with their Captives â—rrour in not discerning or mis-applying them As the Spring Sun which naturally reviveth all other living Creatures often times prepareth such Human bodies as are fullest of Life and Bloud but most neglective of the opportunity of taking Physick or using diet convenient for that season to hot and desperate diseases never perceived in their Summers growth until they be ripe of death in the Autumn so albeit the Sun of Righteousnesse whose coming into the world was to give life unto it did first arise in Jewry yet by her childrens Confidence in their wonted Temper so whole and sound unto their seeming that of all other people they onely needed no Physitian the very Beames of saving Health did secretly dispose their evil disposed hearts to violent death which burst out in the later end or Autumn of that Age wherein he appeared For that Generation with whom our Saviour Christ Jesus conversed on earth was not fully past until this People began to swell with insolent and proud hopes of Soveraignty over others and by their untimely provocation of the Romans bring suddain Destruction upon themselves as stout and full Bodies by violent and unseasonable Exercises are soonest brought down from the height of their strength unto the grave The Romans again seeing these Jews defeated and themselves possessed of their hopes Vespasian being called to the Empire during these wars which Titus his son did gloriously finish to the utter ruine of that Nation think sure their Gods had been more potent then the GOD of the Jews and apply the Prophecie meant of Christ unto Vespasian as if He
voice was heard through Portugal surpassing that in Ramah nothing but mourning and weeping and lamentation many a Leah blearing her eyes with weeping for her children and would not be comforted Men and women filling the heavens with more hideous outcries then the Egyptians did at their Fore-fathers departure out of Egypt when the Firstborn of every Family throughout the land was slain at midnight But these were bereft at once of all their loving children in the open Sun Many of them not able either to rescue or dispatch their own bowels become mad with the sight that their eyes had seen and killed themselves Others having better opportunitie account it a part of their happinesse to be able to prevent their childrens washing in the sacred Font by drowning them in draw-wels and ditches In both these calamities at the two fore-mentioned transportations we may see those Prophecies of Moses exactly fulfilled Deut. 28. 30. Thou shalt betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her And again verse 32. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people and thine eyes shall fail at the sight every day and there shall be no power in thy hand Many Moors professing Mahumetism were transported from Portugal the same time but had no such violence offered them what was the reason God would have a manifest distinction between this and other people The Barbarous Moors had some power in their hands the Portugals abstain from like usage of them lest the report coming to the African Mahumetans ears might have moved them to avenge their wrongs upon poor Christians living amongst them But these Jews no where had any Nation none to avenge their grievous wrong which the Lord God of their Forefathers had ordained they should suffer at all times in all places wheresoever they have come without redresse 16 Nor do their Fates change with their Name or Profession For what violence was ever offered to any of this race like to that which these late converts Christned Hebrews but still Jews in misfortunes suffered in Lisbon in the year 1506. Two thousand massacred in three dayes space many not suffered to die of deadly wounds were dragged by their mangled limbs into the market place where the bodies of the living and slain with others half alive half dead were burnt together on heaps The Spectacle was so horrible that it quite astonied the rest of this miserable progenie at other times as desperately set to suffer as Monks furiously to inflict any torture Parents durst not mourn for children nor children sigh for their parents though each haled in others sight to the place of torments lest these significations of their grief and sorrow might bewray them to be of the tormented kinred with whom the least suspicion of alliance was sufficient to make them inherit like plagues ere the breath was out of their predecessors bodies Osorius description of these distressed souls perplexitie shewed in their gesture and cariage during this Massacre may serve albeit he meant nothing lesse as a Paraphrase upon the last words of Moses often-mentioned Prophecie There that is in the utmost parts of the earth the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and a sorrowful mind and thy life shall hang before thee The disposition of the Divine Providence in affording opportunitie to this licentious out-rage was much what like to that described before in Lin. A great part of these Tragical Actors were German and French mariners which had repaired to Lisbon for other traffick but returned home unpunished burdened with the spoil of these Hebrews goods but more heavily laden with guilt of their bloud albeit their souls were not so deeply died therewith as the Lisbon Monks who had instigated them and others to this Butchery inflamed themselves with this furious zeal only by an unseasonable speech of one poor Hebrew apprehended by the other as derogatorie to our Saviour For whilest the others by long gazing upon the picture of his wounded side through a glasse took the reflex of light thence cast upon their dazled eyes for a Miracle the silly Hebrew whether openly to contradict or unawares uttering to some by-standers what he thought bewrayed his incredulitie How a piece of drie wood should work Miracles 17 Whilest I read so many Christned souls thus Butchered like Beasts for ones denial of divine Honour to a livelesse Image I could not but pause with my self and now I must commend it to the Christian Readers consideration whether that part of Moses prophecie and there thou shalt serve other Gods which thou hast not known nor thy Fathers Wood and Stone may not be understood of the convert Jews throughout the Popes Dominions thus oft times urged to commit Idolatrie with stocks and stones upon more Tyrannical terms if they gainsay then their Forefathers were either by the Assyrian Caldaean Egyptian Roman or any whosoever had led them Captive out of their land If the Monkish Apologizer reply There is a great difference between the Heathen Idol and their Image worship I grant the Idolatrie is of a divers kind and so it seems Moses meant when he threatned this people that after their final transplantation by Adrian and their scattering through Spain and these Western Countries They should serve such Gods as their Fathers had not known For this peoples Forefathers before Moses time and after had known the Heathen gods too well If the Romanist yet rejoyn that in worshipping Christs Image they worship Christ I will not deny but he may think so for so the Jews thought they honoured Moses because they honoured the Letter of his Law But to omit other reasons this and other like outragious Facts committed upon as light occasions shall convince their nice School-distinctions of foul errour and turn their lies with such violence into their throat that as Saint Augustin interprets the Psalmist of these Jews It shall even break their teeth in their mouthes For if the zeal these Monks of Lisbon bare unto this Image had been directed unto Christ they had in some good measure been transformed into the similitude of His gentle meek and merciful disposition It was Wbod-worship doubtlesse which had made them so mad and furious It was their continual adoring of stones which had turned their hearts of flesh into hearts more full of fire then the flint and harder then the hardest Adamant But of the effects of Monkish pitie towards Christ or the Crucifix as also of the Jesuites doctrine concerning Image-worship elsewhere if God permit Thus much of these Jews estate from time to time may suffice for our intended purpose to be further collected in the Chapter following CAP. XXX General collections out of the particular Histories before mentioned the strange dispositions of the Jews and Gods Judgements upon them all Testifying the Truth of Divine Oracles 1 I Cannot but approve Crantzius his judgement of these Jews That they are a perfidious and wicked people worthy to be
challenge another as free and absolute as himself for his Tributarie or Vassal and traduce him for a seditious member of Christendome because he would not compose the Quarrel thus injuriously sought with the surrender of his Crown and Dignitie 3 Princes may conclude a Peace for civil and free commerce of their People though professing sundry Religions and they and their Clergie might perhaps procure a mitigation of some other Points now much in Controversie but Though all others might yet This admits no terms of parly for any possible Reconcilement The natural Separation of this Island from those Countries wherein this Doctrine is professed shall serve as an everlasting Emblem of the Inhabitants divided hearts at least in this Point of Religion and let them O Lord be cut off speedily from amongst us and their Posterity transported hence never to enjoy again the least good thing this Land affords let no print of their Memory be extant so much as in a tree or stone within our Coast or let their Names by such as remain here after them be never mentioned or alwayes to their endlesse shame who living here amongst us will not imprint these or like Wishes in their hearts and daily mention them in their Prayers Littora littoribus contraria fluctibus undas Imprecor arma armis pugnent ipsique nepotes Which words though uttered in another case applied to this sound thus much to all wel-affected English or Brittish ears Let our and for ain Coasts joyn battel in the Main Ere this foul blasphemy Great Brittain ever stain Where never let it come but floating in a floud Of ours our nephews and their childrens childrens bloud 4 The Leaven of the Pharisees whereof our Saviour willed his Disciples to beware was sweet Bread in respect of this pestiferous Dough whose poison is so diffused througout the whole Body and Masse of Romish Religion as it hath polluted every parcel therein and makes even those particular Points to be damnable in modern Papists which in the Ancient holding them from other Grounds were pardonable Such as held a kind of Purgatorie or third Place after this life Evangelical Counsels Invocation of Saints or the like because they thought the Scripture taught them were deceived in these particular Scriptures but yet reserved their faithful Allegiance to Gods Word in general Nay even those particular Errours and mistakings of the sense of Scriptures were witnesses and pledges of their Obedience unto the Scripture or Word of God when they therefore Believed them because they were immediately perswaded in Conscience that the Scriptures the Rule of their Conscience did teach them But while you hold the same Opinions not because you are perswaded in Conscience immediately ruled by Scripture that they are contained in Scripture but because the Church which as ye suppose cannot erre doth teach them or to speak more plainly whiles you your selves either Believe or teach others to Believe them or the Scriptures concerning them because the Church whose Authoritie in this and all other Cases you acknowledge for the infallible Rule of your Faith commands you so to do you hereby openly renounce your own and sollicit the the people to alienate their Allegiance from God and his Word and the passing over or yielding up of stedfast and absolute Assent unto any particular Point in your Religion upon these Grounds is as evident a witnesse of high Treason committed against GOD by the partie thus believing a swearing of that Fealtie or Allegiance to a pretended Vicegerent or Deputy which is only due to the Prince himself would be in a natural and sworn subject Wherefore the supposed Infallibility of your Church is no such excellent Means of taking up all Controversies if your meaning be in the former sense proposed For it is so far from taking up all that it puts an Imposibility of having any betwixt you and as taken up unlesse you abjure it quite for it makes all the rest of your Opinions deadly to such as stedfastly Believe it or for it them 5 Your meaning then must be That this Infallibility of your Church would be an excellent Means for taking up all Controversies if all men would subscribe unto it Indeed I must confesse there would soon be an end of all or rather no controversies should ever be begun if every man would resolve with himself not to dissent from others but let them hold what they list he would hold the very same or if all men would bind themselves to abide some one Mans or a Major part of some few or more determinate persons Determinations without more ado In this case one might say of his Judge He shall determin for me and another might reply nay but for my Opinion the third might say He shall judge as I will have him and the fourth reply or rather as I will and yet never a one dissent from other but all agree All of them might have the Judges Sentence at as absolute command as the Shepheard had the Weather For every one might have him determin as he pleased because all of them were fully resolved to be pleased with whatsoever he should determin If you dream of such an Unitie in Faith or such a manner of composing Contentions it must be further disputed whether this were not an open Dissention or solemn Compact for moving a general Apostasie from the true Faith And they that labour for such an Union in points of Faith and Salvation do in effect solicite the whole Christian world to run hand in hand but head-long into open Insidelitie lest perhaps by breaking companies some might slide into Schisms and Heresies Should the Ramists and Aristotelians or generally all the Professors of Secular Arts and Sciences in our Universities bind themselves under penaltie of Expulsion or by solemn Vow never to swerve from the Bedle of beggers or John-a-dogs his determinations and resolutions in any point of Logick Philosophie or Metaphysicks would this be a sweet match to take up all Controversies or Contentions between Colledge and Colledge in our Schools were this so excellent a way to retain the Unitie of the Truth and skill in those Faculties or rather the only readie way to make all bond-slaves to Errour Ignorance and Falshood And yet might we with more safety delegate greater Authority in these cases to every one then we may to any living in matters of Faith and Religion over which or over our selves in respect of which we have no lawful Power or Authority For this and other Reasons should we be more afraid to subscribe unto any mortal mans Authority as unto a Judge most absolute and infallible whose decrees we may not resist from whose Sentence we may not appeal in matters of Faith then to refer our seves wholly unto the sole Judgement of the meerest natural Fool living in matters of secular Learning and natural Knowledge For besides the danger hence accrewing to our selves GOD our Creator Christ our Redeemer and the Holy
Jove Caesar habet Jove and Caesar are Kings and Gods But Jove of heaven that 's the only ods That Christ should retain the title of the supream head over the Church militant and the reality of supremacy over the Church triumphant our adversaries are not offended Because there is small hope of raising any new tribute from the Angels and Saints in heaven to the Romish Churches use and as little fear that Christ should take any secular commodity from it which anciently it hath enjoyed 14 But though it were true that we were absolutely bound to obey an absolute Monarch of whose right none doubts yet may we examin whether every Potentate that challengeth Monarchical jurisdiction over others or gives forth such insolent edicts in civil matters as the Pope doth in spiritual do not go beyond his authority in these particulars albeit his lawful preâ—ogatives in respect of others be without controversie many and great yet limited both for number and magnitude For suppose King Henry the eight after he had done what he could against the Pope should stil have professed his good liking of Romish religion opposing only this to all his Popish Clergie that had challenged him of revolt Am not I defender of the faith The Pope whom I trow you take for no false Prophet hath given me this prerogatrâ—… amongst Christian Princes as expresly as ever S. Peter bequeathed him his supremacy above other Bishops It is as impossible for me to defend as for his Holinesse to teach any other besides the true Catholick Faith Let the proudest amongst my Prelates examin my expositions of his decrees and by S. George he shall fry a fagot for an Heretick Would this or the like pretence though countenanced by royal authority have been accepted for a just defence that this boisterous King had not contradicted the Pope but the tatling Monks or other private expositors of his decrees would this have satisfied the Popes agents until the King and his Holinesse had come to personal conference for final debatement of the case yet for Christs servants thus to neglect their masters cause is no sin in the Romanists judgement yea an heresie is it not to deal so negligently in it For a sin of no lower rank they make it not to submit our hearts minds and affections unto the Popes negative decrees though against that sence of Scripture which conscience and experience gives us Unto all the doubts fears or scruples these can minister it must suffice That the Pope saith he expounds scripture no otherwise then Christ would were he in earth but only controls all private glosses or expositors of them But can any Christian heart content it self with such delusions and defer all examinations of doctrine until that dreadful day come upon him wherein the great Shepheard shall plead his own cause face to face with this pretended Vicar and his associates Do we believe that Christ hath given us a written law that he shal come to be our Judge and call us to a strict account wherein we have transgressed or kept it yet may we not try by examination whether these Romish guides lead us aright or awry Whether some better or clearer exposition may not be hoped for then the Pope or Councel for the present tenders to us What if the Pope should prohibit all disputations about this point in hand whether obeying him against the true sence of Scripture as we are perswaded we yield greater obedience unto him then unto Scriptures may we not examin the equity of this decree or his exposition of that Scripture which happily he would pretend for this authority his amplius fili mi ne requiras No by their general Tenent and Valentians expresse Assertion it were extream impiety to traverse this sence or exposition under pretence of obscurity c. By the same reason for ought I can see it would follow that if the question were whether obeying the Pope more then God we did obey man more then God we might not examin at least not determin whether the Pope were Man or God or a middle nature betwixt both which came not within the compasse of that comparison CAP. X. In what sense the Jesuites may truly deny they believe the words of man better then the words of God In what sense again our writers truly charge them with this blasphemy 1 IF we review the former discourse we may find that equivocation which Bellarmin sought as a knot in a bulrush in our writers objections to be directly contained in their Churches denial of what was objected Whilest they deny that they exalt the Churches authority above Scriptures or mans word above Gods this denial may have a double sence They may deny a plain and open profession or challenge of greater authority in their Church then in Scriptures Or they may deny that in effect and substance they overthrow all authority of Scripture save only so far as it makes for their purpose 2 That the Pope should openly professe himself competitor with God or in expresse tearms challenge greater authority then Scriptures have was never objected by any of our writers For all of us know the Man of Sin must be no open or outward enemy to the Church but Judas-like a disciple by profession his doctrine indeed must be a doctrine of devils yet counterseiting the voice of Angels as he himself though by internal disposition of mind a slave to all manner of filthinesse and impurity must be enstiled Sanctissimus Dominus the most holy Lord. If the poison of his iniquity were not wrapt up in the titles of divine mysteries it would forth-with be disliked by many silly superstitious souls which daily suck their bane from it because perswaded that the Scriptures which they never have examined whose true sense they never tasted but from some reliques of heathenish zeal idolatrously worship in gross do fully warrant it When our Writers therfore object that the Papists exalt the Popes laws above Gods had not these holy Catholicks an especial grace to grow deaf as often as we charge their mother with such notorious and known whoredomes as they see might evidently be proved unto the world if they should stand to contest with us their meaning is plain that the Pope in deed and issue makes the Scriptures which in shew he seems to reverence of no authority but only with reference to his own That he and his followers should in words much magnifie Gods word written or unwritten we do not marvel because the higher esteem men make of it the higher still he may exalt his throne being absolutely enabled by this device to make all that belongs to God his Word his Laws his Sacraments the pretious Body and Bloud of his Son blessed for ever meer foot-stools to his ambition For if the authority of Scriptures or such traditions as he pretends be established as divine and he admitted sole absolute infallible Judge of their meaning it would argue
did his words give life unto his greatest works his Divinations were to his Miracles as his humane soul was to his body And no question but the conception of their Faith that heard him preach was as immediately from those words of eternal life which issued from his mouth as ours is from the Word preached by his Messengers To what other use then could miracles serve save onely to breed a praeviall admiration and make entrance for them into his hearers hearts though his bodily presence at all times was not yet were his usuall works in themselves truly glorious more then apt to dispell that veil of prejudice commonly taken against the meannesse of his person birth or parentage had it been meerly naturall not occasioned through wilfull neglect of extraordinary means precedent and stubborn opposition to present grace most plentifully offered His raising others from death to life was more then sufficient to remove that offence the people took at that speech If I were lift up from the earth I should draw all men unto me To which they answered We have heard out of the Law that the Christ bideth forever and how sayest thou that the Son of Man must be lift up Who is that Son of Man 18 To conclude then his distinct and arbitrary foretelling Events of every sort any Prophet had mentioned many of them not producible but by extraordinary miracles withall including divine testifications of farre greater glory ascribed to him then Moses or any Prophet ever challenged was The demonstrative Rule according to Moses prediction whereunto all visible signes and sensible miracles should have been resolved by their spectators as known effects lead contemplators unto the first and immediate causes on which their Truth and Being depends That Encomium This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Hear him with the like given by John Baptist Behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world unto all such as took him for a true Prophet did more distinctly point out the similitude peculiar to Him with Moses expressed in the forecited place of Deuteronomy literally though not so plainly as most Readers would without direction observe it seeing even interpreters most followed either neglect the words themselves in which it is directly contained or wrest their meaning Unto him shall ye hearken according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly Their request then was Talk thâ—â— with us and we will hear but let not God talk with us lest we die Here the whole multitude bound themselves to hear the word of the Lord not immediately from his mouth but by Moses For whiles the people stood afar off he onely drew neer to the darknesse where God was This their request and resolution else-where more fully expressed the Lord highly commended I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken unto thee they have well said all that they have spoken Oh that there were such an heart in them to fear me and to keep all my commandements alway that it might go well with them and with their children for ever If we observe that increment the literal sence of the same words may receive by succession of time or as they respect the Body not the Type both which they jointly signifie the best reason can be given of Gods approving the former petition and Israels peculiar disposition at that time above others will be this That as posterity in rejecting Samuel rejected Christ or God the second Person in Trinity so here the Fathers in requesting Moses might be their spokesman unto God requested that Great Prophet ordained to be the Author of a better Covenant even that promised womans seed their brother according to the flesh to be Mediator betwixt God and them to secure them from such dreadfull flames as they had seen so they would hearken as then they promised unto his words as unto the words of God himself esteeming him as the Apostle saith so farre above Moses As he that builds the house is above the house And in the Emphasis of that speech Whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him purposely resumed by Moses with these threats annexed as if he had not sufficiently expressed his mind in the like precedent Unto ‖ him ye shall hearken The same difference between Moses and the Great Prophet then meant is included which the Apostle in another place expresseth He that despiseth Moses Law dieth without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye he shall be worthy which treadeth under foot the Son of God and counteth the blood of the Testament as an unholy thing Untill the soveraignty of the Law and Prophets did determin that Encomium of Moses did bear date There arose not a Prophet siâ—â—e in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knâ—w face to face but vanished upon the Criers voice when the Kingdom of heaven began to appear The Israelites to whom both promises were made did far exceed all other nations in that they had a Law most absolute given by Moses yet to be bettered by an Everlasting Covenant the Former being as an earnest penny given in hand to assure them of the Latter In respect of Both the name of a Soothsayer or Sorcerer was not to be heard in Israel as in the nations which knew not God much lesse expected a Mediator in whom the spirit of life should dwell as plentifully as splendor doth in the body of the Sun from whose fulnesse ere he visibly came into the world other Prophets were illuminated as those lights which rule the night are by that great light which God hath appointed to rule the day at whose approach the Prince of darknesse with his followers were to avoid the Hemisphere wherein they had raigned In the mean time the testimonies of the Law and Prophesies served as a light or candle to minish the terrors of the night Even Moses himself and all that followed him were but as messengers sent from God to sollicit his people to reserve their alleageance free from all commerce or compact with Familiar spirits until the Prince of glory came in person 19 Thus without censure of their opinion that otherwise think or teach albeit the continuance of Prophets amongst this people were a mean to prevent all occasions of consulting sorcerers or witches yet the chief ground of Moses disswasion from such practises according to the literall connexion of these words The nations which thou shalt possesse hearken unto those that regard the times and unto sorcerers as for thee the Lord the God hath not suffered thee so with those following hitherto expounded The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet was the consideration of their late mighty deliverance by Moses the excellencie of
with Hereticks Difference between your selves and us in this Point you shall never be able to assigne any Tell us by what Means you can discern who dissent from your Canons and our Answer is readie we can discern who dissent from ours by the same if no other were left us This briefly may suffice for removall of Prejudices easie to be wrought in such as compare not Particulars with Particulars or consider not the use of external Magistracie acknowledged by us for punishing Contentious Spirits or our Means of discerning who are such In both which respects we are at least equal to the Romans CAP. XXVII That the Romish Church hath most need of some excellent Means for taking up Contentions because it necessarilie breeds so many and so grievous 1 FOr the main Point as well about the Original of Contentions and Schismes as incorrigible continuance in them onely this Difference I find That we permitting a sober search of Scriptures unto all not binding any mans Faith to the Judgement of man leave a possibilitie to the learned of finding out a liberty unto all of professing the Truth found for the health and life of their Souls without dread or danger to their Bodies And seeing we bind no man upon pain of damnation to Believe any point of Doctrine which is not plainly and expressely set down in Scriptures we minister no occasion of deadly dissention unto any For Contentions amongst our selves they are rather distempers then dangerous diseaseâ— nor do they affect those parts of Religion in which our spiritual Life is properly seated Yet even these in later yeers had been and alwayes would be fewer and their danger lesse were it not for those Foxes which your Church suborns to bring firebrands into the Lords Harvest And even these your Foxes in this our Land howsoever for this publick Mischief against us and the intended Combustion of our Church their Tails were tied together by your Churches knot have yet whet their cankred Teeth as eagerly and opened their venemous Mouthes as bitterly one against another as any but they could have done either against us or any creatures living But to leave private dissentions amongst your selves your Church prohibiting men the ingenuous search of Scriptures and free profession of their Conscience tying them to submit their Judgements at all adventure unto the corrupt Doctrine of your Clergie hath set open a wide gap to such grosse Opinions and monstrous Heresies as no man vnlesse his judgement had been surprised by your pretended Authority or his Spiritual senses lockt up in superstition sleep and midnight darknesse would ever have assented unto much lesse have tolerated when men were taught to hold them for Points of Faith as infallibly true as the Scripture it self only because your Church hath proposed and practised them 2 Thus did your Doctrine and filthy Practise of Indulgences to omit many moe from some surmises of the Ancient concerning a third place after this life as it were from a small seed or kernel by little and little come up to such a mighty growth that it violently rent and tore asunder the main Wals of Christs Temple and caused that irreparable breach and rupture betwixt the Southern and Northern parts of Christs Church established in this Western part of the World And albeit Cassander with divers other learned men in your Church both before and about the time of the Trent-Councel wished a reformation of many Points maintained by you hoping the Lutheran and other reformed Churches would thereby be drawn to Unity with you again yet what one suspicious Opinion hath that Councel cleared what bad amended what harsh or odious one hath it mitigated Nay what Possibility hath it left for the amendment of any in Ages to come amongst such as shall acknowledge that Authority infallible which hath thundred out so many Anathema's to all Gainsayers Before it was lawful for Cassander and Cajetan Fspenceus and others to shew their dislike of your Doctrine and signifie their desires of amendment retaining some Reliques or fashion of men that had been Free-born not Slaves or Vassals to corrupt and dissolute Tyrants They used their Liberty of Speech even in those cases wherein it is not now lawful for any in your Church to mutter no not so much as to sigh or groan under that heavy Yoak which their Forefathers grudged to bear whose weight and hardnesse notwithstanding you still increase whilest your upstart Statesmen the Jesuites like Rehoboams green-headed Counsellers daily seek to make your Ecclesiastick Monarchâ—s little finger greater then his Predecessors loins 3 Some Jesuite or other happily would reply Had Luther been quiet the Church had been still at such Peace and Unity as it enjoyed for many years before What manner of Peace and Unity was that Any other then such as usually is found in any political Argus-eyed Tyrannie before the sinews of it shrunk or the ligaments be dissolved where no man may move but he is seen nor mutter but he is heard where the least secret signification of any desire of Freedom in Speech or Liberty in Action is interpreted for open Mutiny and the least Motion unto Mutiny held matter sufficient for a cruel Death These were the Bonds of your Peace and Unity in this point of your Ecclesiastick Monarchie As for your Peace in other speculative Points of lesse use or commodity to your state it was like the revellings or drunken Consorts of Servants in their night sportings when the Master of the House is asleep in a retired room Any School-man might broach what Opinion he list and make his Auditors drunk with it others might quarrel with him and them in as uncivil sort as they list so no Weapon were drawn against the Popes Peace Albeit in the mean time the Scripture suffered as open Violence and Abuse as Priscian doth when drunken or dunstical Grammarians braul in extemporary Latin As for your Cardinals and States-men they were at league indeed but it was foedissimum foedus a League solemnized with more then barbarous and heatheâ—sh sacrifice with the bloud of many thoâ—sand silly Lambs for whom the Lamb of God had sacrificed his precious Body and Bloud What number of Hussits Bohemians Picardes poor souls of Lions were made a prey unto your Woolvish I may not say Lions teeth seeing as the Italian Poet argues this Title so ill befits your Popes Nec cadit in turpes nobilis ir a feras No Lions they for noble wrath No place in such base creatures hath But what Troops of such harmlesse souls were slain burnt and tormented for their longing after the Liberty of the Sons of God nor we nor you that live this day can know nor shall be known until the Register of the Book of life be opened And howsoever they went as their Lord and Master the great Shepheard of their souls had done before them like sheep unto the slaughter whilest their friends and kinsfolks cries were drowned with your Jewish
Melody and joy at their Destructions yet we assure our selves and ye might dread Gods further Judgement by the event it was the Cry of their innocent Bloud which fill'd the Court of Heaven and in a just revenge of their Oppression procured Luthers Commission for Germanies Revolt And yet say you Luther was the Cause of Dissention in Christs Church why so Because he burst your former Unity whose only Bond was Hellish Tyrannie Of such a dissention and of the breach of such an Unity we grant he was the Cause and you have no just cause to accuse him of dissention or disobedience for it For all kind of Unity is not to be preferred before all kind of Dissention or Revolt He that will not dissent from any man or society of men upon any Occasion whatsoever must live at perpetual Enmity with his God and War continually against his own Soul For there is an Unity in Rebellion a Brotherhood in Mischief a Society in Murther both of Body and Soul Wherefore unlesse you can prove your Cause or Title for exacting such absolute submission of mens souls and spirits unto your Church or Popes Decrees to be most just and warrantable by Commission from the Highest Power in Heaven Luther and all that followed him did well in preferring a most just most necessary and sacred War before a most unjust and shamefully-execrable Peace A Peace no Peace but a banding in open Rebellion against the Supream Lord of Heaven and Earth and his Sacred Laws given for the perpetual Government of Mankind throughout their generations 4 To presse you a little with your Objections against us and our Doctrine for nourishing dissention Our Church say you hath no Means of taking up Controversies aright If this were true yet God be praised it ministreth no just occasion of any dangerous Quarrel But be ours as it may be hath your Church any better Means for composing Controversies of greatest moment that raign this day throughout the Christian World Or doth it not by this insolent proud tyrannical claim of Soveraigntie and imperial Umpiership over all other Churches in all Controversies give just cause of the greatest dissention and extremest Opposition that can be imagined could be given in the Church of Christ The whole world besides cannot minister any like it Nature and common Reason teach us that a man may with far safer Conscience take arms in defence of his Life and Liberty then in hope to avoid some pettie loss or grievance or to revenge some ordinary cause of private discontent the Quarrel in the one though with resistance unto our Adversaries bloud may be justifiable which in the other albeit within the compasse of lesse danger were detestable But Grace doth teach us this Equitie Skin for Skin all that ever a man hath the whole world and more if he had it is to be spent in the defence of Faith the only seat of our Spiritual Life or for the Libertie of our Conscience You alone teach that all men should submit their Faith to your Decrees without examination of them or appeal from them we usurp no such Authoritie either over yours or any mens Consciences You challenge our Soveraign Lord and all his People to be your ghosily Slaves we only stand in our own defence we exact to such absolute Service or Allegeance either of you or any other the meanest Christian Church no nor our Prince and Clergie of the natural members of our own They only seek would God they sought aright in time to keep them short at home whose long reach might hale over Sea your long-sought Tyrannie over this People of Brittany happily now divided Lord ever continue this happy Division from the Romish world Unlesse your Means of taking up so great Contentions as hence in equitie ought to arise be so superexcellent that it can make amends where all is marred for which I cannot see what Means can be sufficient unlesse you either let your Suit fall or prove your Title to be most just by Arguments most Authentick and strong you evidently impose a necessitie of the greatest Contentions and extremest Opposition that any abuse or wrong losse or danger possibly to befall a Christian man either as a Man or Christian either in things of this life or that other to come either concerning his very Life and Libertie whether Temporal or Spiritual or whatsoever else is more dear unto him can occasion of breed 5 That which ye usually premise to work such a prejudice in credulous and unsetled minds as may make your sleight pretences of Reason or Scripture to be sifted anone seem most firm and solid to ground you Infallibility upon is the supposed Excellency of it for taking up all Controversies in Religion and so of retaining Unitie of Holy Catholick Faith in the Bond of Love If indeed it were so excellent for this purpose you might rest contented with it and heartily thank God for it Yea but because you have this excellent Means which we have not nor any like unto it yours is the true Catholick Church and ours a congregation of Schismaticks What if we would invent the like would that serve to make ours a true Church Or tell us what Warrant have you for inventing or establishing your supposed most excellent Order for taking up Controversies Was it from Heaven or was it from Men If from Heaven we will obey it if from Men we will imitate you in it if we like it But first let us a little further examin it CAP. XXVIII That of two Senses in which the Excellency of the Romish Churches pretended Means for retaining the Unity of Faith can only possibly be defended The one from the former discourse proved apparently False The other â—… self as palpably Ridiculous 1 WHen you affirm the Infallibility of your Church to be so excellent a Means for taking up all Controversies in Religion you have no choice of any other but one of these two Meanings Either you mean It is so excellent a means de facto and doth take up all Controversies or else it would be such as might take up all if all men would subscribe unto It. 2 If you take the former Sense or meaning we can evidently take you as we say with the very manner of Falshood For this claim of such Authoritie as we partly shewed before is the greatest eye-sore to all faithful eyes that can be imagined and makes your Religion more irreconcilable to the Truth And for this Church of England as in it some dissent from you in many Points others in fewer some more in one some more in another so in this of your Churches Infallibility all of us dissent from you most evidently most eagerly without all hope of Reconcilement or agreement unlesse you utterly disclaim the Title in as plain terms as hitherto you have challenged it Your dealing herein is as absurdly impious and impiously insolent as if any Christian Prince or State should