above those who design mischief when they are awake and dream of nothing that is good when they are asleep above Popish Priests up to the Ears in Legends Fanaticks in Pulpits or Witches upon Bromstaves for his fancies are for the real good of others as well as for to please himself Parables are lively Pictures of significant truths and Morality was excellently described in Fables by a Heathen but it does not a little trouble me that the Beasts in Aesop should shame some men now a days who will not be convinc'd of the Errors and Mischiefs they are engaged in when they have the opportunity of being better taught by the truly ancient and Catholick Doctrine of the Church of England but her Adversaries the Jesuits and Fanaticks who deny the King to be Head of the Church do likewise reject the Reformation by his Authority the Papists Sham it and would make it a ridiculous Schism the Presbyterians though they renounce the Pope yet retain to themselves that Usurpation which was above 500 years a gaining by the Popes finding that such a Discipline was not consistent with the Doctrine of the Church of England Preach't up a Reformation more pure and primitive as they pretended the reasons we shall know afterwards Therefore the Emblem of the Church we saw in the last Vision having vanquish't and discovered the unjust Stratagems both of the Council of Trent and of the Assembly of Divines ordered her own Convocation of Orthodox and Learned Church-men to defend her for the future against both Papists and Presbyterians They were no sooner fat but in came Harding and boldly told them That they were a small obscure meeting of Calvinists that reformed the Church As soon as Bishop Jewel espied him That is very false said he I will tell you the truth and tell you otherwise in the Epistle I wrote concerning the Council of Trent to a Venetian Noble man my words relating to our Reformation are these For our selves we have done nothing but with very good reason nothing but what we saw to be lawfull and to have been practised by the Ancient Fathers without any reprehension at all wherefore we called a full Synod of Bishops and by common consent of all estates purged our Church as it were Augeas 's Stable of all superfluities which either the negligence or malice of men had brought in this was justly in our power to doe and because we could doe it we did it faithfully At this I was so encouraged as to ask Harding whether or no they were Calvinists or a small obscure meeting that signed the Judgment of the Convocation that the Pope cannot call them without the King's consent in the year 1536 there being present the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of London 13 Bishops 49 Abbots c. Now the fatal blow was given to the Papal Authority in England and yet these could not be Calvinists nor were they few or contemptible indeed you Popish Writers are great adversaries to National Councils because they will look after the Civil Rights that the Court of Rome do not encroach upon them which a General Council wherein the Pope is what he pleases cannot therefore Cardinal Palavicini profoundly tells Lib. 14. cap. 12. us that Concilio Nazionale sempre abhorrito dà Pontifici That the Pope did always abhor a National Council and good reason because it sometimes stops that Torrent of Money which he says is so necessary to maintain the carnal felicity of the Church therefore we know why you stickle so much against the Methods of our Reformation which Mr. Shaw has well justified and Origo Protest which Dr. Burnet says was advanced with such deliberation in King Henry the Eight and King Edward the Sixth's time as is as great an evidence of the ripeness Part 1. Pag. 289. of their proceedings as can be shewed in any Church in any Age So that we were Reformed without that violence the German Divines were as the Letters between Osiander and Cranmer testifie or without Rebellion which is always the consequence of Popish Reformations At this he march't off and made room for Raynolds a Rhemish Renegado who came Busling up And although said he ye have fob'd off Mr. Harding yet I suppose I shall prove your Reformation to be a wicked Separation from the Roman Communion which the irreconcilable divisions among you testifie for hear what I say to Whitaker Pag. 481. Have you not at this present among you a great murmuring even amongst the Protestants against the Communion-Book and State of Religion which in the beginning of her Majesties Reign was Queen Elizabeth brought in If the Catholicks said nothing have you not the Puritans detesting your Faith and were it not for the Prince's Sword ready to dispossess you of Chairs and Churches I was mightily amazed to hear this for 't is 99 years ago since these words were Printed which a Gentleman observing See you not said he what a scandal these rascally Schismaticks are to our Reformation indeed the man foretold what too certainly came to pass but he must know that we do not acknowledge that any of their Principles had any share or part in it any more than they had in bringing in the King for in the days of Queen Mary Knox that peevish Puritan was as malicious towards the Orthodox in Francfurt as the Papists were to them in England And moreover 't is no wonder that they agree not with us for they disagree among themselves and are not the same they were Those in King Edward's time scrupled only some Ceremonies as Bucer Rogers and Hooper those in Queen Elizabeths time excepted against some Prayers Canons and Articles but now they are for Abolishing Supremacy and Episcopacy they have lay'd the Ax to the root and are gone so far from the Church of England that they are come round about to the Church of Rome and are worse Papists than any before the Reformation We perceive by Raynolds that the Jesuits very well knew this and therefore whilst the Presbyterians were busie to advance their Discipline they thought them fit tools to carry on their Fifth Monarchy their Principles being both alike destructive both of Church and State in order to which they quarrel with our Reformation and as the Pope and the Devil would have it Cry up a thorough one of their own Of which I will give you such a full sight if you will go along with me that you shall never forget it untill you are in heaven Pray Sir said I before you doe that let me know by what methods they brought their Discipline to that perfection in 48. I will not trouble you said he with a long relation of their several Cabals they had all King James his Reign he himself was sufficiently sensible of their restless humour and said What his Son King Charles found by experience that there were not greater thieves and cut-throats among the Highlanders and Borderers for as soon
as they by the same computation the Devil tells his Legions found that they were grown so numerous and strong as to make a prevalent Party in every County then they set up their Patriots whom they raise and then admire as Boyes do Paper-Kites These were the men that should Trounce Antichrist that should toss the Pope and all his Cardinals in Blankets that should purge out all superfluities of Popish Idolatry and make the Nation as clean as a peny indeed new Brooms sweep clean but they turned into rods to scourge it at last by their Ordinances as Resolutions viz. Resolved That the Kingdom be put into a posture of defence March 2. 1641. Now I would fain know against whom Against one another said I you know Sir the Spaniards sometimes at an Execution as soon as the person is hang'd do draw all their Swords we can't suppose that 't is to kill the man that is dead and it had been well for this Nation if as the Spaniards put up their Swords again quietly they had put themselves into a posture of Peace No no Sir replyed he Jack Presbyter must have a holy War too and since he fought for the Throne of Christ he may as lawfully kill Malignants as the Pope slew Infidels to regain his Sepulchre Item Resolved that a Committee be appointed to examine St. Paul whether or no it be lawfull to grant the King Tonnage and Poundage Pray Sir said I what do you mean by this I never heard thus much before Why said he Sir Jo. Eliot and Pym would not grant them untill they had first setled Religion touching Arminianism Sir said I do you think that St. Paul will be summon'd before a Rebellious Committee No Sir I will assure you he will appeal unto Caesar and besides do you think that he will satisfie the curiosity of those men about the difficult Points of Predestination and Free-will who care not for damnation upon such plain terms besides he does not know why nor does he believe that the Fundamental Laws of this State are contrary to the Fundamental Government of the Church so as to alter it and therefore he will be tryed by the Bishops for which there is more Greek in his Epistles than for a Burgess in all the Old and New Testament When the Church of England said he was Reformed from the Corruptions of Rome it was done with the advice and consent of all the Estates of the Nation and for the establishing a publick and lasting Settlement but these Ambitious men endeavouring to alter the Government in the State found it a requisite piece of Policy to make a Schism and Division in the Church in order thereunto which was the Reason they were so zealous about those Controversial Points So the Court Prelates in Trent gain'd their Decrees of Reformation whilst they diverted the well-meaning Fryars in sharp disputes about Doctrines so the Jesuits over-reacht the Franciscans and Dominicans by setting them together by the Ears And therefore I am perswaded that as St. Paul would have Condemned those Interlopers who troubled themselves about things they neither understood nor had to doe withall so likewise he would have blamed those men who called themselves either Calvinists or that stiled themselves Arminians as he did those who said I am of Paul I am of Apollo or I am of Cephas for among the many methods those Rebels used to obtain their glorious Reformation there was none of greater consequence First of all it made a great division among the Clergy and that numerous part of them which contrary to their Oaths separated from the Church either ignorantly or wilfully upon the account of Arminianism became the greatest Incendiaries of all and the chief Promoters of that unnatural Rebellion And secondly the People who by them were taught the Discipline of Calvin were taught likewise that Arminianism was down-right Popery which the visible Ceremonies of the Church branded with the same Character confirmed to them who could know no better therefore they must help too to promote the Reformation aforesaid they must carry on the work of the Lord in the land of the living which they did by Tumults and Petitions against Bishops as Popish Nusances and against the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church as Rags of Superstition That the Jesuits had a hand in encouraging that Controversie to enrage the People against the Church is a plain case and nothing is certainer than that they brought up the distinction of Long Cloaks worn in London and elsewhere and now they are playing the same game again with Socinus and his fratres Poloni But to return to those Learned Patriots I before mention'd after they had got the Power into their hands they no more depended upon the Judgment of Calvin or Arminius for what they did than upon the Hypothesis of Tycho Brahoe or of Copernicus for the Sequestring Delinquents Lands only in the mean time it testified their zeal to all the godly of the Land as they were deliciously pleased to stile themselves who are wise Disputants in defence of their several Enthusiasms when they are ignorant of the Catechism and like Ravilliac learned in all the Doctrines of King-killing when he scarce knew his Creed And who did all of them unanimously agree in one Billingsgate Argument against the Bishops and Clergy Railing reviling and calling them by names enough to fright old Nicolas untill he plucks in his horns like a Snail And althô Michael the Arch-Angel Epist Jude v. 9. when contending with the Devil durst not bring against him a railing Accusation yet these meek-hearted were taught by their Preachers in the Language of Sion to say that they were * Wilson to the Commons 1642. Croaking Frogs Spirits of Devils †Vicar's Jehov Jir p. 88. a stinking heap of Atheistical and Roman Rubbish a Rotten Rabble of Scandalous Priests Bastard Sons of Belial * White 's first Century Epist to the Reader persons illiterate and insufficient dumb Dogs Whoremongers and Adulterers who as fed Horses Neigh after their Neighbours Wives Priests of Baal Bacchus and Priapus And therefore says Coleman to the Parliament Aug. 30. 1643 the Hierarchy is become a fretting Gangreen and spreading Leprosie an insupportable Tyranny Up with it up with it to the bottom Root and branch Hip and thigh destroy these Amelekites and let their place be no more found Thus that Order of men who have been instrumental to all the Publick good this Nation ever enjoyed was exposed to the publick scorn and contempt of the insolent Rabble and made as the filth of the world and the off-scowring of all things But 1 Cor. 4. 13. what was their glorious Reformation in the end Truly more infamous than Jeroboam's Rebellious Idolatry he made the lowest of the people Priests to his high Places but here the lowest of the people viz. Triers c. made Priests and Kings too to the most high God as they pretended Truly replyed I
had St. Paul himself been here then he had as certainly been sequestred and plundered as Archbishop Laud was beheaded For our Puritans who depriv'd him of his Saintship would have found many Malignant places in his Epistles enough to have brought him before a High Court of Justice for in August 1642 one was committed to the Prison which they made of the Lord Peter's House for reading Malignant Chapters as said his Mittimus and some of them without doubt were St. Paul's Certainly the Jesuits who were very busie in all the late Rebellion and who were for expunging the 7 first Verses of the 13th Chapter to the Romans would have employed their Agents to have proved him a Prelatical Papist in England and a great Enemy to the Presbyterian Reformation which could not be done decently and in order as he would have all things in the Church Besides he put the Assembly of Divines to a great Postscript to their Annotat. expence of Learning about his Epistles to Timothy and Titus to defend their Form of Church Government and the House of Commons were forced to the Lord knows how many Ordinances to raise Horse Foot and Dragoons to prove themselves the Higher Powers and that shutting the King out of Hull fighting him in open Field and imprisoning him was not resisting him therefore he would have come within the reach of this thorough Reformation as sure as a Gun for the onely Cathedral in Christendom dedicated to his Honour was Reformed to a Stable for their Horses Well Sir said he before we talk of that come along with me I will shew you some more of their tricks to bring about their Reformation With that he carried me to St. Antolin's Church in which at the beginning of the Rebellion the Brethren had set up a Lecture to pull down Popery as soon as I came to the Door there was such crowding and thronging that I was unwilling to go in besides the Steam of the Saints which were half stew'd with Zeal was almost as troublesome as a Damp in a Coal-mine The Gentleman observing me to be somewhat backward took me by the Arme And pray Sir said he give your self a little trouble it will be much to your satisfaction I will assure you You must expect to be a little warm for Presbytery and the Sweating Sickness came into England much about the same time Warm Sir said I is that all the danger Truly I do not like their Looks what do they come hither for For what said he to take warning against Popery Why Sir said I is any body to be hanged for it No replyed he but yonder is a Gentleman that will doe execution upon it presently Pray Sir said I what reason have these People to be afraid of Popery They do not look as if Mahomet would bestow the Alcoran upon them for I do not believe that they ever had any Religion but they disgrac'd it they look more like Jews than any other people living or indeed like an Assembly of Egyptian Mummies And truly untill they stirred I imagined that several of them next the Wall had been Antic Wainscot or Grotesque Carvings but one Fellow amazed me mightily for he was of such a course grain'd Complexion that I thought an Effigies belonging to some Tomb had been walking away from its Pedestal Whilst I was looking around me there stept a living Creature up into the Pulpit that took up all my Thoughts he was in the most mortified Dress that you can imagine for the white Border upon his black Cap made him look like a Black Jack tipt with Silver he wrinckled his Face up and down that it resembled a Crab-lanthorn possest with a Devil who had crumpled all the upper Crust with his Horns and Hoofs after he had been a considerable time putting himself into a posture of Ugliness and had wiped the Pearl from his Snout at last his Mouth opened his Lips trembled his Eyes twinkled but nothing was yet heard but a little grumbling in his Guts as if his Fervency lay in his Chitterlings the Audience in the mean time stretcht their Ears untill they look'd like Elephants Luggs and then to gratifie them a word or two slipt out of his Trunk but at last he roar'd so loud that I could not imagine but that there was an hollow place in his Head to make an Echo and the method and matter of his Prayer confirmed my fancy for excepting the malicious part of it which respected the King and his Loyal Subjects in which his Prayers for them contain'd a scandalous Invective against them those which were for deliverance from their Enemies as he called them were sawcy and blasphemously foolish their usual strain of ex tempore praying concluding That it would please the Lord to take his and their Foes a knock on the Costard and then they would joyn their hands to smite them Hip and Thigh This way of Praying was the Reformation of the Liturgy and according to the Rules of the Directory a superfine way of propagating Sedition leaving them scope to insert whatever might move the Passions of the ignorant Rabble and might compose a Form for devout Necromancers to raise the Devil But now for a touch of his preaching which was the modish Eloquence of Church-Conventicles in those days The Subject he treated upon was the Vnion of Protestant Dissenters against the common Dangers of Popery and his Text in order to it was this And in the Gen. 14. vers 5. fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer and the Kings that were with him and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth-Karnaim and the Zusims in Ham and the Emims in Shaueh Keriathaim He was forc'd to spit five or six times before he entred upon his Discourse the speaking the Text had made his Mouth water so mightily but after he had done fluxing he began Beloved And shall we and our Brethren in the Country and our Brethren of Scotland be smitten by the Kings of the Earth as the poor Emims and Zusims were And will it not be better that we joyn in a Covenant together that we may joyn with them in Battel altogether Beloved If these People I here mention be Strangers unto you take it upon my word they were the ancient French Protestants and this Chedorlaomer was a huge great Popish King a mighty tall Man with a dimple upon his Chin above seventeen hand high a great sign of being a Persecutour Pray observe he came in the fourteenth year there he cheated the Protestants because he came in the Popish Stilo veteri But who do you think came with him Why all the Kings he could rap and rend Antichristian French Kings Sons of Belial And what do ye think his Majesty Chedorlaomer and the Kings that were with him did Why first they came and secondly they overcame and smote the Rephaims yea they smote them even the Rephaims of Ashteroth-Karnaim I suppose this was a good Town of trading Beloved there was a World of
an Elephant's Trunk before the next Morning but I perceive that some of those who are padling in all the ill Humours of the Nation have been tampering with you That Fellow Sir said I that spoke to him is a Jesuit and he has been as busy with all manner of Fanatical Male-Contents Perhaps said he with as much Success for 't is easy for him to draw those People to what Practices he please who are of the same Principles with himself As for that little Gentleman said I that frets like Gum-Taffety If he will change his Religion because he is not successfull he never had any And as for the Fanaticks they have been told that theirs is purely Popish untill their Ears are stretch'd with hearing it and they will by no means believe it But I will believe my Eyes said he And if you had ever been in France Spain Italy or Germany and had seen or heard the Jesuits or preaching Fryers in their Pulpits you might at the same time have seen all our Conventiclers Mimick Voltings their frisking Ecstasies their apish Laughings their sudden Howlings their awry Faces all their Postures are according to the Ceremonies of a Roman Missal their fumbling their Buttons their knocking their Breasts their Hands hanging loose and then again stretch'd as if they were bewitch'd with an hundred other jugling Tricks and all to set off and varnish their Doctrines which are the most modish Popery in the World viz. That the People is the Supreme Power That Kings and Princes may be Deposed and Murthered That Success is a certain Evidence of God's approving whatever comes to pass I have heard Sir said I Instances enough of the two first Positions pray let me have one of this last Jenkins said he in his Conscientious Queries printed 1651. Asks Whether The stupendious Page 2 d. Providence of God manifested among us in the destruction of the late King whether by these Providences God hath not remov'd the Government of Charles Stuart and whether a refusal to yield Obedience to the present Government be not a refusal to acquiesce in the Wise and Righteous pleasure of God and a stat Breach of the Fifth Commandment So Bellarmine uses it for an Argument for Image Worship Iconomachis Bell. lib. de Imag c 12. Argumenâ—um decimum omnia non sine divino quodam Miraculo malè successisse and then instances that Leo Isaurus for his demolishing Images lost the Empire of Italy whereas it was taken from him by the perfidious Rebellion and Perjury of the Roman Bishops Now you talk Sir said I of Image-Worship they object as a reason of their Separation that the Church of England is inclinable to Popish Superstition and Idolatry No but they are replyed he You must know that some kind of Image-Worship sprang from the obsolete Fancies of the Anthropomorphitae and therefore Pope Adrian argues thus God made Man in his own Image therefore Images ought to be worship'd Now one would think that Pope Adrian's Idea had whipt into that Zealot's Noddle by the way of Pythagoras who cryed Oh Lord take a Chair and come and sit among thine Honourable House of Commons But farther another Popish Doctrine they hold is that God sees no Sin in his Children that they cannot fall from Grace So the Jesuits hold that they cannot commit a Mortal Sin Nemo sociorum in Lethale peccatum incidere queat None of our Society can fall into deadly sin thus they vaunted to Cardinal Borromaeus saith Alphonsus de Vargas in his Book * Cap. 14. pag. 39. Edit 1636. De Stratag Jesuit Their Funeral Sermons are as so many Popish Canonizations and the Lives of their Saints wherein they boast of such extraordinary Revelations and Gifts of the Spirit of strange Voices great Lights and heavenly Apparitions seem to out-doe the Enthusiastick Legends of St. Francis St. Dominick Father Xaviere or Ignatius Loyola they both of them interpret many places of Scripture to the very same sense though both very false and the 21st of Ezekiel the 25th Verse hath been frequently quoted by Popish and Presbyterian Expositours to the same ends and purposes and so has the 8th Verse of the 149th Psalm I have often thought that John Owen learnt from the Psalter of Bonaventure to abuse and misapply the Psalms of David He says * Eben Ezer pag. 13. God came from Naseby and the Holy One from the West Selah And that saith Let our Lady arise and let her Enemies be scattered c. The preaching of Women in the Conventicles of Quakers is rank Popery †Bell. lib. 1. de Bapt. cap. 7. Bellarmine saith 'T is not onely permitted but lawfull for Women to teach and * Paludanus saith †In 4. Sent. dist Papa potest clavem Jurisdictionis Laico Foeminae committere And again Papa potest sicut Laico sic Mulieri committere quòd excommunicet The Pope can grant as to a Lay Person so to a Woman the power of Excommunication And the Canonists teach that they may exercise Spiritual Jurisdiction Thus you see that the Spirit of Popery in one shape or other appears among all the several Sectaries of Great Britain and some more of their Practices will plainly shew how injuriously they cast the Charge of their own Guilt upon the truly Reformed Church of England They condemn all but those of their own Persuasion and their Motto in Zion's Plea is aut hoc aut nihil So Campian in his Challenge to Oxford saith aut nostrum est aut nullius Regnum Coelorum The Jesuits did never more industriously corrupt the Writings of the Fathers than the Presbyterians did the last Books of Mr. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Policy The Papists endeavour to impose upon us the Rhemish Testament and the Presbyterians in King James's time were as busie to have the Geneva Notes put upon the Margent of the Bible The Jesuits have their Index Expurgatorius but they never cancell'd any thing with more boldness than the Presbyterians did when they procured that the 20th Article viz. That the Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies c. was by their Malice left out in the printed Articles And lastly whoever shall reade their unsanctified Ribaldry with which they treat the Reverend Prelates of the Church of England will fancy them the very Cronies and Disciples of the famous Cardinal Palavicini who to maintain the new Frame of Papal Government modell'd by the Council of Trent does so ridiculously and maliciously inveigh against the Sacred and Primitive Order of Bishops calling them * In Hist Conc. Tr. Piccioli Vescovi Fanciulli impertinenti insolenti Buffoneschi little Bishops Babies impertinent insolent Buffoons He had no sooner done speaking but we heard a mighty shouting as if some Triumph had been coming along and hastening to see what was the matter I perceived a great Bonfire blazing in the midd'st of the Court and a world of People with many Torches bringing the Pope with his
defended by their Writers for Rome 's seven Hills Popes may have faith to move As soon as hopes that they will Zions prove The Mountains swell'd were big with expectation But Vermin Bore instead of Reformation THE Second VISION OF THE REFORMATION The Reasons of Calling the Council of Trent The Vnchristian Stratagems of the Court of Rome in that Council The Decrees of Reformation in that Council with the sad Calamities they occasion'd in the Kingdom of France which opposed them Parallel the Assembly of Divines in England THE noise of the Reformation of Rome was no sooner silenc'd but the Town was as much concern'd about a General Council for the Consistory concluded it a better expedient and that it look't more honourable to carry the Controversie further from their own doors Therefore his Holiness himself silence being made was pleased to say That since it was the Maxim of this holy and politick City that Hereticks ought to be destroyed rather than Infidels He knew no better means to effect it than by calling a General Council of the whole Church-Militant wherein he should engage the Catholick Princes to joyn their Temporal Arms to his Spiritual that therefore by the Authority of St. Peter and St. Paul which he exerciseth on Earth he intimateth an holy General Oecumenical Council and because the Venetians refused to have it held in Vicenza and the Duke of Mantua will not suffer him to administer Justice in his City which is a derogation from his Universal Supremacy in all cases he was resolved it should be held in Trent a City not only free and opportune for all Nations but also whose very Name imported good success to the Church Tridentum being derived from Tridens God Neptune's Prong which was an ancient Type of the Triple-Crown That therefore for the greater splendour of his Apostolick Monarchy he Commanded all Patriarchs Archbishops c. to be there himself resolving to go thither in Person At this three or four Cardinals stood up and took an occasion to disswade him from ventring himself into such eminent dangers as that place so near the Germans would expose him to which thing did not only please him because no man living is so timorous as the Pope insomuch that he will not eat the Consecrated Wafer without a taster one infallible symptom of Usurpation but they also used such Arguments as kept his successors from going thither too for they said that his Holiness was too glorious a sight for the eyes of polluted Hereticks that to be absent better suited with his spiritual and invisible Authority that to imitate the Eastern Monarchs in such cases was a policy becoming the Western Church who are seldom seen lest they should grow cheap in the eyes of their Subjects that the Grand Seignior was always shut up in his Seraglio whilst his Bassa's Beglerbegs and Agliamoglams executed his Commands in the Divan that they with his most Obedient Generals of Orders Abbots Priors and Posteriors were no less ready to testifie their devotion to enlarge the spiritual Interests by all Pious frauds Holy cheats and Consecrated stratagems which they should think convenient that therefore he might sit still and enjoy the pleasures of the Belvedere and they did not question but that by following his directions according to their Oaths and Allegiance they should bring the Council to so happy an Issue as to make it famous to all posterities The Pope contented to stay at home hastned the Council with all possible speed and because the people of Rome talk't of things either as they first heard them or as they were prejudic'd I was resolved seeing I could convey my self without great Charges being in a Vision to go to Trent I do not remember what kind of Journey I had but as soon as I came into the Town there was a noise in Council as if they had been hallowing who should roar loudest the Cardinal of Lorain took upon him Histor Con. Trid. to be Chief in those acclamations which ended that famous Council with wishing long life for the Pope Eternal felicity were prayed for Paul and Julius Eternal memory for Charles the Fifth Long life for the Emperour Ferdinand and for Kings Princes and Republicks to the Legates Cardinals and Bishops and the Faith of that Synod commended as the Faith of St. Peter Goodly goodly thought I how loving are we now all good friends and a rare show When as Father Paul the Venetian espied me and twitching me by the Ears Is not this said he a very splendid sight Four Legates Two Cardinals Three Patriarchs Twenty-five Archbishops Two hundred sixty eighty Bishops Seven Abbots Thirty-nine Proctors of Men absent Seven Generals of Regular Orders do sign and subscribed to the Decrees of the Council which the Hereticks reject for which you hear they are in General Anathematized therefore ought you not to fear falling into Heresie Indeed Sir said I the Cardinal does it with such vehemence that I fancy his very foam will poyson me Yet Sir Thanks to your Impartial History although Campian is pleased to rant in Commendation of this Synod and in his Ecstasie of Jesuitism to cry out Qui delectus Episcoporum quae Medulla Theologorum Augustum illud Sacrarium implevemâ—nt Yet I neither value their Number nor their Judgment nor their Excommunications any more than of so many Dogs and Sorcerers and if you have not a care of me I shall hit upon the Number of the Beast presently the Number of those which subscribed amounts in all to just 355. Now you know that the Pope is above a General Council thus His Holy Assent as I may call it makes the Decrees infallible and obliging all People Nations and Languages And he being put to all of them doubles their Number which makes 710 which doubling their Number is his Authority above them Now deduct 44 from 710 and there remains 666 Of the 44 I deduct 5 for the Person of Pope Pius Quartus 1 for Pius and 4 for Quartus and the 39 for the Proctors of them that were absent Vid. Hist of the Council of Trent 2 Book P. 111. because Pope Paul the Third upon the account that the Viceroy of Naples sent but 4 Bishops to the Council made a severe Bull that none without exception should appear by Proctor This the Legates concealed as being too severe because it contained all the Prelates of Christendom even the most remote and because saith your History it was too rigid Constituting that they incurred ipso facto the punishment of Suspension from their Ministry Now because Pope Paul the Third published this Bull and Pius the Fourth confirmed the Decrees by them subscribed therefore to salve the Infallibility of both I have reckoned them in one place and deducted them in another thus Let him that hath understanding count Apoc. 13. v. 18. the number of the Beast for it is the number of a man and his number is Six hundred threescore and six
fomented the fatal divisions of that Kingdom to establish the Throne of Christ's Vicar upon the Ruines of the Monarchy they instructed and encouraged the Assassins and yet they did not kill him 't is easie to apply it but 't is hard to make them believe it I believe so too Sir said I for with the same confidence that the Jesuits could splendidly embalm the heart of that * Henry 4. Prince whom they had traiterously Murthered do our Presbyterians seem to lament for the Death of King Charles the First and who but they restored King Charles the Second who now such Defenders of the Regalia of France as the Jesuits and Father Maimbourg writes against the Usurpations of the Pope who but Presbyterians are Loyal Subjects who but they the Preservers of their Country and of the true Protestant Religion Hiccius Doxius of Colchester writes his Black Nonconformist and Dedicates it to the Archbishop of Canterbury just as * Answered by Dr. Durel Philanax Anglicus a Jesuit did before him these are the men that are so irreconcilable to Popery that every honest Orthodox Church-man is a Jesuitical Tory and is mark't out in Libels and Pamphlets to the Rabble who have a fair occasion to complement him when they Cart the Whore of Babylon through the streets of London These are your true Protestant Processions wherein they burn the Pope in Effigie that they may establish his Authority for the multitude are as ready to change Crucifie him into Hosanna's as Hosanna's into Crucifie him they are but as Dogs to Perk that fair game the Jesuits never want a consecrated Gun to shoot at this is the old game of 41 but they will neither acknowledge their former guilt nor fear that punishment which attended it which King Charles says was like that of Corah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 261. and his Complices at once mutining both against Prince and Priest in such a method of divine Justice as is not ordinary the earth of the lowest and meanest people opening upon them and swallowing them up in just disdain of their ill-gotten and worse-used Authority upon whose support and strength they chiefly depended for their building and establishing their designs against me the Church and State As soon as I had spoken these words the roof was in a moment uncovered and there descended the most glorious object that ever I beheld it was in the shape of a Virgin Beautifull as the Sun and which had all the Charms of Heaven and Earth her garments were not very rich but decent and comly her eyes piercing as lightning and on her face was enthron'd all the glories of modesty and innocency her feet which were bare seemed torn and bloody with Thorns and Briars on her right hand sat Kings and Princes and immediately next her King Charles the First with a Crown of light upon his head her left was guarded with a long row of Reverend Prelates in garments white as Snow she no sooner descended with a quickning light all about her but both the Trent Fathers and Assembly of Divines were so strangely Metamorphosed that I could not distinguish them from Devils or from one another for the Fucus and Paint of Hypocrisie upon their faces with which they had deluded and bewitch'd such multitudes of people melted off with the warmth of her Rays and she no sooner espied them but with an angry grief she threatned to make them in a short time as contemptible and odious to future Ages as the worst Hereticks in the world ever were I have said she turning and looking around her travelled through the Wilderness of this World now more than Sixteen hundred years and never yet could find any long-continued abode or resting-place But when the Defenders of the Faith like true Christian Champions had set me free from my long and dark imprisonment and had restored me to my Primitive purity and just Authority the Honour the Peace the Plenty I brought to these Kingdoms made me reflect not only upon their gratitude but their interest too for my security But wo is me I still like the Sun must pass through Clouds of various shapes which are every where drawn from the combined humours of a feculent world yet never was I so much darkned with sorrow and lamentations as in these Islands for the unparallell'd Indignities inflicted upon my head and my members by the most ungratefull men upon the most unjust accusation that ever was lay'd to my charge by Heathens or Infidels I who freed them from the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities was condemned and torn in pieces as guilty of Popish Superstitions So my great Bridegrome was accused as instrumental to the bringing the old Romans to take away the Place and Nation of the Jews but their destruction followed his Crucifixion and the Rebellious divisions of those very Jews provok't the Roman Emperours and lay'd them open to that final vengeance that they left that Land delug'd with blood which they found overflown with Milk and Honey Oh my people of England whom I love and pity with the tenderest compassion and with an unlimited charity Oh that ye weeping said she would know in this your day the things that belong unto your peace that ye would open your eyes and see and consider who they are that will by undiscreet zeal preposterous fears or an ambitious policy subject you to a more intollerable bondage than ever this Nation yet felt Are they not those Pharisaical Hypocrites which strain at a Gnat but swallow a Camel who Pray against Popery in the Church but Preach Jesuitism in the Conventicle who fight against me under a form of Godliness who for a pretence make long Prayers and thorough Reformations that they may destroy Widows houses and God's too Certainly ye have been sufficiently taught from the Calamities ye have lately felt without comparing them to others of a farther distance of time and place not to trust to any change of that Government which was restored with so Universal satisfaction and has still preserved you in peace but by an union of Loyal and truly Christian Resolutions to maintain it against all opposition upon what pretence soever which thing if ye doe then shall ye be delivered from the Presbyterianism of the Council of Trent and from the Jesuitism of the Assembly of Divines from Popish Leagues and Protestant Covenants from the Good Old Cause with a new name to it from establishing Christ's Throne upon the Blood Of Pious Prelates and of Christian Kings From Killing God's Anointed to his Glory From Prayers in unknown words for unknown things And from the Mass and from the Directory THE Third VISION OF THE REFORMATION A short Vindication of the Reformation of the Church of England The Methods the Presbyterians used to ruine it A full Description of their thorough Reformation Parallel desideratur IT is a great and lawfull conveniency that a well-meaning man has in Visions
it but you were reforming us to those Fantastical Customs from whence at first 't is probable that the Romish Corruptions had their beginning but what and if you thought to banish the Mass by taking away the Common-Prayer-Book 't is certain that you at the same time made room for the Targum and surely your Friends the Jews could not but smile at their return into England again to meet such plenty of Adonirams Obadiahs and Ichabods such blessed Reformers from Popery as would have sold them St. Paul's Church for a Synagogue who preach'd Christ to the Gentiles this was establishing his Throne Nineteenthly My Beloved We cannot help it cry'd Vines if the Turk should come in For that Horse of Superstition and Idolatry upon the Back of Vines to the Commons 1646. which the Devil hath in former times made war against the Church is slain under him and now he is mounted upon a fresh Horse of another Colour called Liberty of Opinion falsly called Liberty of Conscience Well done old Beelzebub cry'd a Cavalier laughing heartily a very good Jockey truly and very well mounted upon an Horse that will carry double and treble I hope he will be so gratefull to your Worships for helping him to him that he will take some of you up behind him one of these Days But for the Horse of Superstition and Idolatry did those Horses rout him which Cromwell brought into the Church watered at the Font and fed at the Communion Table assure your selves that those very Gentlemen who raised that abominable Lye concerning the Nag's-head are the Men that would make you believe that there is a Horse of Superstition grasing within the Pale of the Church of England although 't is hard to prove him to be lineally descended from those Horses upon which the Popes ride whilst Princes hold their Stirrop But since the Devil is mounted as you say we find he will not ride alone for your Brother the Quaker is got upon his Mare that may in time breed as many false Opinions as the Trojan Horse carried treacherous Grecians But how came we cry'd he from Hebrew to Horseback How replyed a Gentleman over Hedg and Ditch by leaping a Similitude of Vines's who compares the Service of the Church to an Horse of Idolatry whenas his Brethren who style themselves the Horsemen and Chariots of Israel are Heyryck to the Commons May 27 1646. nearer related to the old Centaures and his Horse of Opinions might as well have been a Hydra or the Beast with seven score Heads But my Friends cry'd he turning to the Presbyterians were not you forewarned of those very things of which ye now complain Did not the Authour of the Loyal Convert whoever he was thus argue with you in the Year 1643 Think you such swarms of Sectaries sweat Page 17. for nothing Are their Purses so apt to bleed to no end Will not their costs and pains expect at least a congratulatory connivance in the freedom of their Consciences Or will their Swords now in the strong possession of so great a multitude know the way into their quiet Scabbards without the expected Liberty of their Religions and can that Liberty produce any thing but an establish'd Disorder And is not Disorder the Mother of Anarchy and that of Ruine At this they being all silent for a considerable time he said again pray what do you your selves think to be the reason that your intended Reformation should so dismally miscarry What! replyed Faircloth why * Faircloth on John 7. 25. Pag. 25. Israel could not be cured without a full and total extirpation of all the accursed Things and Persons also That is replyed the Cavalier every Throat that could not swallow the Covenant was to be cut which amounted to some hundreds of thousands and by all the accursed things you meant whatever you called Popish But I protest Saints according to your Definition of Popery many things more Popish than any thing you objected against the Church escaped your sagacious Reformation Why did you not utterly abrogate all Leggs of Mutton Town and Country because they have the Popes Eye in every one of them Why was not the Man in the Almanack that great Malignant laid by the Heels whose Heart is influenc'd by Leo the name of a great many Popes Why did you not demolish all the Signs of the Cross-Keys of the Mitre and of the Cardinals Cap Why did ye suffer the Babylonish Game of Cross and Pile the Antichristian Game of Chess with Kings and Queens and Bishops in it Why was there a Toleration of Dice the very Bones of the Whore of Babylon with black Patches on them these were all dismal Tokens of the Beast and more the just Objects of your refining Zeal than many things you did abolish But to be serious with you after all the Remonstrances you made did the King ever deny to concur with you in a Legal Reformation of any abuse But instead of closing with him in calm and moderate Counsels you brought all things into Confusion with violent Invectives and distant Scandals the Peoples easy Fancies being the best grounds of your clamorous Arguments to prove the Ceremonies of the Church Popish and particular Irregularities of some few Clergy-men were made use of as a general Argument against its Discipline and Government whenas indeed the Faults of its Members are not its Constitutions nor did so good and just a King any more countenance them than your Rebellion and therefore they did not authorize you to revile the whole body of the Church much less to treat the best of its Members with such barbarous Insolencies without distinction as you have done and * De Moribus Eccl. Cath. Tom. 1. cap. 34. St. Austin if you will allow of any Saints but your selves hath taught you a better Lesson when he saith Nunc illud vos admoneo ut aliquando Ecclesiae Catholicae maledicere desinatis Vituperando mores hominum quos ipsa condemnat quos quotidie tanquam malos filios corrigere studet Now this I advise you that you cease at length to revile the Catholick Church by disparaging the manners of Men which it self condemns and whom as evil Sons it dayly endeavours to correct The words immediately before are Novi multos esse Sepulchrorum picturarum adoratores I know that there are many Worshippers of Tombs and Pictures So much Superstition could never be found among the Sons of the Church of England who might have found more Charity among Turks and less Inhumanity from Infidels than from you But you who could not endure one establish'd Religion let in at least 40 to drive it out as Foreigners themselves computed This was First my Beloved a plentifull Reformation You that could not allow the King any considerable Supplies towards the maintaining a Foreign War in which you engaged him could raise and consume 17 Millions Sterling in less than three Years in a Domestick War
the Government to carry on their Designs at present and infinitely pleased to think that they had left their Deputies in an uproar to make them more easy and successfull for the Future But because they perceiv'd that their rude Clamours grew distatefull to the Generality of People they began to be more calm upon which a Reverend Divine stood up and turning to them Can ye Brethren that dissent from us imagine said he that we can either redress your Grievances or answer your Writings whilst they thus fly in Swarms about us No certainly unless we had as many Ears as Argus had Eyes Let one or two of your select Champions now stand forth and we will give you all possible Satisfaction by answering all their Objections To this they all willingly agreed and after a short Debate pitch'd upon the Authours of Melius Inquirendum and of Julian the Apostate so Proclamation was made and the first of them cited to appear in their Defence As he was coming the same Person stood up again and said this Person has wrote a Book entituled MELIVS INQVIRENDVM OR A SOBER INQUIRY INTO THE REASONINGS OF THE SERIOUS INQUIRY WHEREIN The Inquirer's Cavils against the Principles his Calumnies against the Preachings and Practices of the Non-conformists are examined and refelled c. In which Book he shews himself the most dangerous and implacable Adversary of the Church of England abusing our Reformation and establish'd Government with all the unsanctified Buffoonry his Wit and Malice can invent and pretends to superinduce a Thorough Reformation of his own which for all his confident Varnish and pious Pretences would subject us to all the Calamities and Villanies we have already seen and felt Now although the sober part of this pretended Sober Inquirer is already sufficiently answered and refell'd by the Reverend and Learned Dr. Laurence Womock in his Verdict upon the Dissenters Plea c. Yet since he is maliciously pleased to swell into a third Edition with Additions we will e'en let loose a small Country Curate at him to trifle with him in his own way and to give him some gentle Corrections he cannot find fault with his Antagonist or despise him 't is but to fulfill his own Quibble * Pag. 110. Parvae Loquuntur curae ingentes stupent I paid for my peeping for immediately I was commanded to come into the Theatre where I stood trembling as if I had been to kick and cuff with Colbron the Gyant or to fight and scratch with some Wild Beast whenas a good brisk Fellow with a loose Coat hanging upon his Shoulders came in and turning to a Gentleman You Sir said he The ever and much honoured Epist Ded. S. K. Esquire Do you think that these Dissenters Court their Miseries with the same Passionate Caresses that other Inamorato's do their Mistresses that they should run over one anothers Heads for the first grasp of Destruction as if they rode Post all upon the Switch and the Spur for a Presentation to a warm Parsonage Hold Friend said I curb in your Pegasus or he will run over some of the Company by and by Inamorato's are as very Fanaticks as ever doted upon Chains and Fetters and have as wrong a Notion of Persecution and I do not know why the Circumcelliones might not pretend as many Charms for courting the Gallows as some of them have for whining after an Insolent and Squabbling Dowdy but your Miseries are so well qualified with the Liberality of the Holy Sisters that you can merrily bear them you never meet with so many Golden Mines as in the Torrid Zone of your Sufferings and can pleasantly endure to be smoak'd a little in Terra del Fogo so long as 't is by the way of Potosi this makes you so flippant under Tribulations and crackle like Bayes in the Flames of Martyrdom 't is certain that as Jack-Pudden gets most Money when he is briskly kick'd about the Stage so does Jack-Presbyter when the Penal Laws are pretty nimble upon him Well Sir since You and I must have a Tryal of Skill for the Diversion and Good of the Company pray tell me your Name Melius Inquirendum by Ignoramus what 's the meaning of this R. W. your Name begins with a W. and therefore it shall be Whiggus mine with a P. any one will do mine for once and away shall be Pamphilus But what are your Miseries you were speaking of What is the Matter with you Whig Why there is a certain Compassionate Enquirer lately come to Town with a great deal of Passion that would set us together by the Ears with Uniformity but why cannot we love a Christian as he is such though differing from us in Innocent Accidents as well as a Man because he is a Man though his Hair be of another Colour his Face of another Symmetry and Complexion than our own Pamph. If you cut off the Man's Head or lop off his Arme you cannot say you love him if you doe it willfully 't is no Innocent Accident you think the Supreme Magistrate who is a Man and a Christian too a great deal too tall for you you wilfully take his Authority down lower by the Head 't is no Accident and when he was made the Head shorter in his Person I wish you were Innocent Whig But you Church-men make the Breach so wide by endeavouring to reduce the World into a strict and precise Uniformity in every minute Punctilio Pamp. How come these Punctilio's to grow so fat and burly on a sudden that you durst not swallow them for fear the Devil and all his Works should crowd in after them for before the next full of the Moon you will be complaining that they are bigger than Camels and won't go down How can you love or agree with another Man that do not agree with your self but in this Book you have not shewn your self either a Man or a Christian but rather a prophane Satyr of another symmetry being a Composition of Man Beast and Devil that can blow hot and cold and Contradictions with the same Breath And now you have the Heels of a Goat can clamber over the most craggy Consequences I shall not trouble my self to trace you in all the bye-paths wherein you are wanton and rampant upon the Compassionate Enquirer but since you are broke loose upon the Reformation of the Church of England if I can come handsomely at you I will put a Curb in your Mouth that you shall be more sensible of than of the Axes and Halters you talk of Whig I see I cannot avoid the lash of virulent Tongues but I tell you I design nothing but a Reformation to the Primitive Institutions of Christ and his Apostles I would have no Inventions of Men but perfect Evangelical Purity and Simplicity and that 's the Design of my Book Pamp. But the strain of your Book shews little of the Evangelical Gravity or Modesty I doubt you will find a great many Idle
words in it and besides what is worse you will be found in your Plea for the Dissenters to defend the Actions of the Scribes with the Language of the Pharisees though by the way you may chance to meet with the Whip for them that prophane the Temple and as smarting Correction for those that are Hypocrites in the Corners of the Streets But Sir did you ever reade any Punns or Quibbles in the Evangelists Did the Apostles Ridicule and Burlesque the Ceremonial Law though abolish'd Did they Droll upon or make sport with Kings or those that are in Authority under them Hermias a Christian Philosopher was the first that wrote Gentilium Philosophorum Irrisio a Book so called but is there no difference betwixt the Diabolical Magick of Heathenish Institutions and the decent Ceremonies of a Christian and Reformed Church No so it seems by you whilst those that constitute them are made no better than Numa Pompilius the first Roman Ritualist as you call him and the Orders appointed by them with whom Christ by the Blessed Spirit is promised to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the end of the World than the Palladium of Troy or the Image of Diana Thus you shew your Malice more than Wit in your disproportionable Similitudes and Examples whenas to expose a Child for its indifferent Innocency you might as well dress him in the Armour of one of the Titans and then frighten all Nations with him Your Instances Rejoynders Quotations are all the way of the same Nature which though at first glance they may seem to some to look upon the Church yet like the Parthians shoot another way yet you draw them in by the Head and Shoulders dress them up with Daisies and Primroses to amuse and cheat the easie Reader whenas a Judicious Eye that pierceth through the Buffoonry of such a Scribler will no more mistake him for a good Casuist than a Morrice-Dancer for a good States-Man had you like Janus look'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you might in the prophane abuse of all things Sacred in the late Blessed Reformation of the Dissenters have met with ridiculous Impieties that rather require the severe Lashes of a flaming Wit if Blasphemy Sacrilege and Treason do rather deserve them than Peace and Order But now to the purpose what do you in particular object against our Reformation Whig I tell you I clear the Articles of the Church of England from the Rubbish of Popery and Arminianism and since the Compassionate Enquirer has made a Syncope of the Name and Fame of St. Augustine alias Austin for confuting the Pelagian Heresie and since he pretends to rout him and the whole Synod of Dort that was of St. Austin's Mind with a whole long row of Fathers Greek and Latin then and there quoted I think I was no less bound after the Examples of our own Kings and Parliaments and many Writers of the Church knowing this Arminianism to be an inlet into Popery to oppose and expose it Pamp. Here is indeed the whole matter in short from Page 45 to 65 Onely Sir by the way there was no need of half that noise about it with all that ruffling of flanting Metaphors and learned Out-cry the design is to lay a new Indictment for the pretended Crime of Arminianism against the Church to help to run it down as in the late Rebellion but you want an Oliver Cromwell to make Evidence It had been as witty since you are got to Dort to say that St. Augustine's Name is begun in the Middle like an Holland Cheese as that a Syncope was made of it and much more to the Capacity of the Phlegmatick Tribe but Sir though he did not very well agree with Pelagius yet he would never have set up his Horses at Hippo with Aerius much less at Dort with any of his Successours therefore I do not know why the Church of England which is as considerable as the Church of Africa was should receive Ecclesiastical Government from Dort or Civil from Amsterdam We are neither Calvinists nor Arminians nor Pelagians nor Novatians but of the truely Ancient Catholick and Apostolical Church of England we have our own National Convocation And as for our Articles pray let them alone you have already filch'd away one of them viz. the 20th as the Papists have done the second Commandment But what was you going to say about Ceremonies and Reformation Whig For your Ceremonies I say they were left as a Key to Let in Papists and now they are a Lock to shut out Protestants Thus Indulgences and Remission of Sins were granted to all that would engage in the Holy Wars but in process of time were dispensed to them that would Massacre the Waldenses and Albigenses Thus the Inquisition was first set up to discover the Hypocritical Moors of Spain but the edge of it since turn'd against the Protestants Pamph. Here are two more Instances that have been upon the Tenter-hooks these hundred years but when will you prove the Ceremonies of the Church comparable to Romish Indulgences or the Penal Laws to the Inquisition when the Moon has Calv'd and left you her horns for a Legacy But that is not the End why they are retain'd and if they were Abolish'd you would discover your selves to be worse than Hypocritical Moors by a Rebellion of which neither the Waldenses Albigenses or Protestants in Spain were ever guilty Whig I say they are Popish and therefore your Reformation wants a Reformation for as one said The English have driven the Pope out so hastily that he has left his Garments behind him And therefore we desire a Reformation of what is necessary and as often as is necessary Pamph. I will make bold with an Answer from Bishop Sanderson It were good saith he for your own selves that you may not Rove in infinitum and in compassion to us that you would give us a perfect Boundary of what is Popery now with some Prognostication or Ephemerides annex'd if you please whereby to conclude what will be Popery seven years hence Therefore propose what you would have Reform'd Whig Before I come to particulars I must say what honest Gerson said of old There can be saith he no General Reformation without the Abolitions of sundry Canons and Statutes which neither are nor reasonably can be observed in these times which doe nothing but ensnare the Consciences of men to their endless perdition no Tongue is able to express what evil what danger and confusion the neglect and contempt of the Holy Scriptures which doubtless is sufficient for the Government of the Church else Christ had been an imperfect Law-giver and the following of Humane Inventions hath brought into the Church Serm. in die circ Pamph. Truly friend this is too long-wasted and looks as you say like a Shrimp in a Lobster's Symar What does this signifie to us you might as well have scrape'd an Objection out of the Minor-Poets for he neither talks of our Canons nor
of these times nor have you who live in them any reason to complain of the neglect and contempt of the Holy Scriptures which are order'd to be read in the Church by the Rubrick in better order and more frequently than ever they were in any Conventicle But as you shew your self an excellent Artist at the Hocus-Pocus of Systole and Diastole so by sleight of hand you have scrub'd up a new-fashion'd Hypotyposis a figure of Rhetorick in which you Conjure up together Things Places Persons Times that little thought of meeting one another in this world Now if a true Syllogism in Logick should but flush in the Pan they would disperse like wild-fowl to their several quarters You talk earnestly for a Reformation but make a great many Cramp Quibbles about the Remedies for healing our divisions as if you had plundred a Druggist or cull'd the hardest names from the Gally-pots of an Apothecary's Shop But Sir to be short I demand of you that you plainly tell us in order though your grievances lye scatter'd up and down your Book like the Sporades or darkest specks in the Chaos what you would have Reformed in the Church of England and to what Model you would have them Reformed Whig I Will Sir And first for your sake I would have the Gouty Benefices reduced to the Modicum of Meagre Vicarages or that Lean Curats should have more of the Fat Parsonages if we be for Moderation in Reformation why are we immoderate for Revenues but instead of that nothing but laying Steeple upon Steeple like Pelion on Ossa and such Riding to Constantine o'er hedge and ditch for a thumping presentation Pamph. Ho Pegasus ho what is he broke loose again Pray stop a little and let me tell you Sir That if all the Gentlemen of England would follow the example of our good Constantine who refused the Impious request of your Brethren to make them a Lease of Bishops Lands for 99 years the consequence would be this That few men of Worth and Parts would be almost starv'd with want or ruin'd with discontent whilst heavy Block-heads waddle with plenty But there are a sort of Mongrel Heteroclites of your Faction that Gallop over the head and shoulders of Simon Magus into the Church doors that they may throw it out at the Windows these make the inequality by jumping o'er the Barrecadoes of Oaths and Sacraments who have found out a Salvo with which if they do but anoint their Mouths they can take an Episcopal Oath though hot as melted Lead without scalding their Chaps But hark you Sir One of your Friends at Sudbury was so deadly trepan'd the last Assizes at St. Edmunds-Bury that that Trade since you are such an Advocate for Trading is in danger to be lost But pray what makes you laugh Whig Why to think that you Church-men should hazard such Substantial Preferments for such Circumstantial Fopperies as Ceremonies are as the Sign of the Cross the Surplice and Organs c. Pamph. What say you to the Sign of the Cross in Baptism Whig I say they may as well put a finger in the Child's Ear in token that it shall hereafter hearken diligently to the Word of God or lay a little Salt upon the Child's Tongue in token that its Speech shall be season'd with Salt as make an Airy Cross over its Forehead in token that it shall confess a Christ crucified Pamph. Good morrow Mr. Udal I thought you had been hang'd fourscore years ago in token that you should not hereafter have talk't so prophanely if I be not mistaken you may find a great many of your squirting Jests in his or Penn's Writings But how comes it to pass that you who at other times make the Sign of the Cross such a stout over-grown humane Sacrament such a huge symbolical mystical Ceremony as to be more dreadfull to the Saint than raw-head and bloody-bones should now make it onely an airy vanishing Phantasm But I 'll tell you a piece of news Sir I have been told that when Sir William Waller that great Apostate-Gold-finder burn't the Picture of the Cross that His Majesty should say That although he would not Worship it yet he would not Burn it And all his good Subjects will tell you that you should not contemn and scoff at it Why should it not be a token that I should manfully fight against sin the world and the devil under Christ's Banners as when in the late Wars pulling out the lappet of a Shirt or some such device was a token that your Dissenters should perfidiously fight under the Banners of a Rebel against their Lawfull Sovereign You have had Reasons enough for the Ancient use of the Sign of the Cross but I will be bold to add That because the Church has retein'd it as a pious custome in opposition to the scurrilous Malice of Heathens Jews and Mahometans who would seem to affront the Christians with that Sign so ought the Church still to continue it so long as among your Dissenters as you call them there have been lately found * Dissenters Sayings that have denied to put their trust in a Crucified Saviour One word more of this and I have done If symbolical signs and tokens will move your Anger why not if they be Analogous my Devotion I do not think running for Fritters on Shrove-Tuesday a symbol of the Christian Race nor drawing Valentines in the Ash-heap of Mortality Yet I say again that tokens or symbols that bear a true Analogy will stir I hope my Devotion and I fear your Anger for should I point at your fore-head with two fingers and make Horns as they call it you would go near to hit a man a substantial Cuff for such a symbolical affront and although it did not make you a Cuckold any more than the Sign of the Cross makes a man a Christian yet 't would be a token that you shall hereafter be asham'd to confess it But go on to the next thing that must be Reform'd I think you spoke of the Surplice Whig Ay I say 't is strange that you Church-men must have your Summer-Ceremonies and your Winter-Ceremonies sometimes you are in White and then again in Black Pamph. Are not you in both when you have a black and white Cap on but I thought you had been for variety by the flourishing Harangues you make upon it in your Preface and besides you say Let the Worshippers of Mahomet quarrel about their Green and Red Turbants may not a man agree with another though his suit be not of the same colour How is it that you so disagree with your self But I can tell you Sir that for all the Clamours against Symbolical Colours when the Green Ribond was made a note of distinction to know those of your Faction by none of you ever spoke against it although it was the colour worn by the Leaguers in France and although such an Historian as you are cannot be ignorant of the great deflagration