Years last past is full of such Follies c. Then the conclusion followeth by clear consequence viz. that therefore the Preaching usual in the Church of England for an Hundred Years last past is such as is at present usual therein and consequently by your own position a hinderance of Salvation rather then the means to it the Preachers Fools and the Preaching Murther That is to say the Faith and Doctrine usually Preached yea and Printed too for both Press Pulpit Writings as well as Sermons are by you charged contended for lived and dyed in yea and by many of them sealing with their Blood what they professed by Tongue or Pen dyed for by our first Reformadoes Protestant-Champions and Church-Worthies our Marian Martyrs all our Orthodox Learned Pious Painful Preachers under the Reign of Q. Elizab. K. James Charles the first in times past and what hath been still is under our present Soveraign King Charles the II. usually Preached published is a hindrance of Salvation rather then the means to it consequently the Church of England since the Sun of Righteousness arose in it with his healing wing of Reformation no true Church for as extra Ecclesiam nulla salus there is no ordinary Salvation without the Line of Church-Communion so there is no true Church without the appropriated meanes of Salvation and then according to your Divinity Ichabod farewell Church of England And now Sir what do you think of your self upon recollection or what will your Reader think of you have I not here convincingly made out against you from your own Principles and positions a base unworthy pestilent designe upon the Reformed Religion and Clergy and in them upon our Church to what in you lies the utter subverting and nullifying of the whole And what you mean by your mysterious reserves namely that what you intend by usual Preaching Lett. 1. p. 81. Lett. 2. p. 101. you will not here go about to explain and the reasons of your Letters might be further explained when occasion should require but I have done it to your hand in a paraphrase very congruous to the original what you mean I say by such Reserves and shrew'd hints as those are we may by this time very plainly perceive especially with the additional help of a short Glosse of your own dropt from you it seemes unawares a great way off from the Text where you explain the good time by those despaired of dayes of vertue Lett. 1. p. 124. of having the Tithes restored to the Church most unjustly robb'd of them by the Sacrilegious Church-Publican Henry the Eight to wit when like a wise Man he rejected the Yoak of Papal Supremacy Anglia non patitur duos Caesares which other Christian Princes Issachar like couch and crouch under and forraged its Antichristian supports Monkish Nests and Nurseries with which the Nation was at that time much more over-stock'd then now it is with an Orthodox Clergy though in so doing he onely kill'd the Pope's Body as Luther said of him in the mean time saving his Soul c. Encrease of Church-Patrimony Sir I do as heartily wish and pray for as your self but I 'll be sure that it be a Reformed Church which upon any such score I enter into my Litany but this you aim to subvert But good Sir pray tell me how comes it to pass that you adventure to explain the good time in the plausible circumstance of Church-Tyth which you doe so mysteriously conceal in the concern of usual-Church Preaching 'T is very odd here you are express but in the case of Preaching you treat your Reader with Morose Reserves what I intend by usual Preaching I shall not here go about to explain the reasons of my Writing may be further explained when occasion shal require Sir I doe not like these odd hints of your hic nunc I understood by your last Lett. 2. p. 200. that you was gon into Devonshire to secure the World from your being ever troublesom in this kind any more Amen said I a good riddance and what other kind of trouble you design for it the God of Heaven knowes your reticentiae's of time place and occasion when where and upon what account you intend it may be by Letters of Credence to be produced in a good time further to explain to us the reasons of your Enquiry and what you understand by usual Preaching in the Church of England I must tell you are very suspicious what do you mean to comment upon it with the sensible gloss of Fire and Faggott or a second dose of the Jesuite's Powder or the new game of Trapp-Law or t'other Coal from the Altar because the first did not the business and thus of Inquisitor turn Executioner In the name of God Father Son and Holy Ghost we defie the Divel and all his Works Being that your Charge Sir is commenced from and coextended with Englands Evangelick Century and blessed Aera of Reformation the hundred Yeares last past whereas had it been limited to the last twenty or thirty we had less suspected your morals and consequently Vulpes Bovem agit the Reformed Religion and Clergy therein attacted and what in you lies subverted insomuch that it is plainly manifest that the Christian Religion founded and fixed in the Nation is with you the Apple of contention who therefore criminates Ministers being two bent upon Preaching of it Lett. 2. p. 72. index sufficient of yours It highly concerns the Church of England to stand in Justification of her first Reformation her original Protestancy and remonstrance against and separation from the Church of Rome the Religion by her professed her Clergy the official Preachers and Publishers of that Religion and the usual Preaching of that Clergy which in her name as her Advocate I have vouch'd to doe Well then The Essentials constitutive of a true Church Sir of the Mystical aswell as of the natural Body being these three namely the Head the Body and intimate Vnion and Communion between both the onely Head of the Christian Church being Jesus Christ God and Man in one Person appointed and anointed by God the Father King Priest and Prophet thereof the only mystical Ligament and bond of Community in this holy Corporation being the Divine Spirit originally derived from the Head through the whole Body the Church as Heiress thereof being the common foundation of that Sacred patronymick Christian under the New Testament as well as of that other Meschiahim as Eusebius notes under the Old or the Catholick Faith the product of that Spirit or both whence it comes to pass that the Founder Foundation Superstructure and medium or instrument of conjunction are all in Holy Scripture propounded as so many Vnites admitting of no consort or collateral One God and Father of all One onely Lord Mediator Saviour Foundation Name Way c. One Body One Spirit Faith Hope and Religion And being that the Religion professed and practised
in and by the Church of Rome especially since Trent-Council assembled and ended above your hundred years ago is inconsistent with and destructive of this individual Headship true Faith and Church-constitution being nothing else but an Anti-christian miscellany and compound oppositum in apposito of God and the Creature God-man and meer-man in the most material points and principles of Christianity the Persons of both in point of Worship the Power and Authority of both in matters of Faith the Righteousness and Merit of both in point of Satisfaction and Justification the Wills of both in the act of Conversion the Intercession of both in the great office of Mediation yea an universal co-equivalency or equal concurrence of Worth Vertue and Efficacy from both throughout the whole business of Redemption and Salvation especially from Christ and the Virgin Mary constituted therein Corredemptress with her Son and Saviouress a latere as if her Brests as well as his Sides had been no less then sacramental and the Mothers Milk and the Son's Blood equally saving Moreover to prosecute this Religious medley God and the Creature in the Decalogue Christ and the Church in the Creed Scripture and Tradition in the Canon Pater-Noster and Ave-Maria in the Litany Sacrament and Sacrifice in the Supper c. all so many Riddles in the Mystery of Iniquity A Religion consisting of such Trent-Forge-Principles and Practices as these viz. In point of Doctrine Papal Supremacy and Authotity Church Infallibility unwritten Traditions equall'd in authority with the Holy Scriptures the doctrine of Man's free-Will in opposition to God's Free-Grace the Doctrine of Perfection of Merits Pardons and Indulgences redounding from a surplusage of Works of super-erogation and satisfaction as they are termed as if any meer Man could fullfill in obedience beyond what the Law requires and satisfy in penance beyond what Sin deserves a rare Religion the doctrine of Purgatory and Souls Departed the doctrine of Mass-service and Transubstantiation the Consecrating Priestling turning a petty Creator as is supposed converting sacramental Forms into real Substance and Commemoration into Expiation celebrating Christ's Death with his death as well as with his own in destroying instead of discerning the Lord's Body yea both Saviour and Sacrament at once the doctrine of Ministration in an unknown Tongue by means whereof they do most sacrilegiously robb the Children of their Bread in the Scriptures as they do of the Cup in the Supper and many more such like Doctrines not of men onely but of Divels which I list not to dwell upon the Subject being so Frightful In point of Worship Idolatry and Imagery Superstition Saint-Worship c. In point of Polity absolute Tyranny the Keys turned into a Sword sufficiently exercised and dearly experienced throughout the World upon Princes-Crowns their Subjects-Consciences and Protestant-Blood in sanguinary Lawes a bloody Inquisition direful Anathemaes execrable Massacres rageing Persecutions c. the violent Calentures of that Torrid Zone The Religion in fine of that Church which is in Doctrine damnably Heretical in Worship grossely Idolatrous in Polity and Government intollerably Tyrannical in all palpably Antichristian opposite to and virtually destructive of Christs fundamentality and headship in his Person or Natures in his Offices in all their parts in his States in his vertues merits graces priviledges Institutions and ordinances c. in one or more or all of those and consequently destruction of the Catholick Faith and Religion by Himself and his Apostles and the whole successive series of Christians throughout the World professed and practised and finally of the truth of a Christian Church his Body all in effect nullified thereby yea and a false head other foundation and another name being substituted in opposition to the true the Religion I say professed and practised in the Church of Rome and that Church her self especially since Trent-Council being such as is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 described it followeth by necessary consequence that the separation of the Church of England both primitive in her first Reformers and present in their Successours persisting in that happy divorce from her and embodyed into a contradistinct but true Church under Christ the onely true Head in a Joynt profession of his Faith the true Religion is so far from being Schismatical this being ever a causeless and groundless separation in or from matter of true Religion in a true Church that on the contrary it is righteous and Justifyable yea absolutely necessary by the authority of that Law whereby we are strictly commanded to renounce and abjure her society upon peril of sharing in her Plagues from which Good Lord deliver us Sir if in this short defence of our Reformation which it is like may seem a kind of morose Tragedy to an airy Mercurius but that I aim at a further goal you think I have falsified or misrepresented any principle of the Romish Church charge me with it and spare not and if I do not Justify what I have asserted brand me for as great a slanderer as your self Again Sir True Religion being that onely of which the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth is the Author the Holy Scriptures the Word of Truth is the Rule and the Holy Church whereof our Church of England is part the Pillar and Ground of Truth is the publick Trustee Keeper and Conservatory as Pillars or Tables are of affix'd Papers and Proclamations to wit modo forensi non architectonico derived and delivered as is above-said to her from the Apostles and to them by Christ from God himself And the Reformed Religion Faith Doctrine and substantial Worship professed and practised in and by the Church of England being such as may appear from her publick tests and monuments especially the three Creeds Apostolick Nicene and Athanasian and her doctrinal Articles unanimously agreed upon in two several Convocations viz An. Dom. 1562 and 1604 c. compared with the Sacred Canon whose test and trial in the Case she is willing to undergo It follows that the Reformed and onely reforming Religion professed and practised in and by the Church of England is the onely true Religion which when you assault with Argument as now you undermine by Stratagem you shall be dealt withall Moreover Sir The Church of England is no less satisfied in her Clergy then in her Religion that as God hath by a Law of as long duration as that of Sun and Moon in the ordinary course of his Providence appointed to publish and propagate his Truth and instruct his Church by a constant series and succession of persons of holy Order and Office authorised and qualified thereunto so her Clergy is such having derived their orders together with their Religion ex traduce Apostolica from the original Seminary Founders of Christianity in England who are recorded in History the monumental Memory and best Intelligencer in such cases to have been Apostles or Men Apostolical whether Philip or Joseph of Arimathea sent by him as Tertullian
that it is most observable in the support preservation and maintenance of a poorer Clergy and that a poor Clergy is no just object of Contempt in the Laity else Christ himself and his Apostles and both Primitive and Modern most eminent propagators of the Christian Faith might pari jure share therein As touching the second Sir It is soon resolved that the poorer sort of the Reformed Clergy is partly through the corruption of Man's heart partly through instigation from Satan and Hell-inspired Atheists Socinians Jesuits and Jesuited persons and all such Cinifloes using ostentative braggs and insinuations about the full Coffers spread Tables costly Apparel Honorary Titles Grandure and Magnificence not only of the Primates and Optimates of Church and State but of most orders of men but especially amongst their Simiae in purpura beyond the Channel over and above what the inferiour Clergy hath de facto which is matter of grief and condolency exposed to contempt in the Laity but quid ad Rhombum Sir Doth matter of fact prove right in either Law or Logick or are they therefore to yours or suppose they were blessed with the splendour and magnificence here mentioned would this secure them from yours or a Laicks lash no! flegm would then ferment into choler contempt into grudge emulation and your Inquisition re-authorised for inspection into the grounds and occasions of the envy as now of the contempt of the Clergy there is a remarkable instance of this amongst our Neighbours where a Franciscan Hackney that is in plain English Sir good bare Ten-Toes was once a Proverb but now forsooth the Gentlemen of that order instead of vowed bare footing of it as heretofore in journying are mounted upon the best Horses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with attendance better befitting their Nobless than a Monkish Tenebrio to a most rancide grudge and inveteracy both in the Laity and other Religious orders But since you can only understand matter of fact here not matter of right that as ignorance is a just ground of Contempt of the Clergy so poverty is a tempting occasion to it I proceed As touching the last particular Sir The poverty of the Clergy and upon this occasion actual but wicked and unjust contempt in the Laity being both supposed the next thing to be enquired into is whether this same Poverty and Contempt the disease and symptome be capable of a remedy now That it is most congruous to the Law of God Nature and Nations that some competent provisions be made for the Ministers of the Gospel is I think a generally confessed case though I will not dispute the mortality of a decimal provision or tithe yet I assert the natural equity of a competent one as the holy Scripture hath before me in that very natural principle The Labourer is worthy of his hire And what ample provisions were made by God for the Priests and Levites of old is sufficiently attested in holy Writ and by you well asserted utinam sic semper errasset Bellarminus together with the reasons thereof which I am sure are moral however the particular definite way of raising of those provisions be ceremonial and antiquated viz. that they might closely and composedly attend the Service of God and his Church and studies relating thereunto without distracting cares and solicitude about the urgent concerns of back and belly and necessary supports of humane life and you may guess Sir what a miserable pinching thing that is res angusta domi and also that they might be capable of administring to the necessities of others in charitable offices as occasion should offer or require a great both encouragement and ornament of piety I add a third reason peculiarly suited to the Horizon of our Church namely that after domestick exigencies and charitable offices satisfied some little surplusage might accrue for a petite subsistence to a surviving Consort Sir my Muse flaggs my heart akes when I consider that in England England a Land of plenty a poor Ministers Widow is become a very Proverb bâ—â— what will no lesssuit Jeremiahs Lamentations then Solomons Parables now what a sad thing is it that he who devotes himself to spend and be spent in the service of God his Church and the Souls of others should be able to entitle the companion of his own life that ended to no more than an Ecclesiastick plea for an Alms a poor Ministers Widow and that the surviver of him who serves at the Altar should be enforced to beg at the Door a Lamentation and let it be for a lamentation Now for a remedy and redress of the whole the Poverty of the Clergy male and female and contempt of them hereby too truely though unjustly occasioned in the Laity whom can or ought we to make applications to but our State-Physicians namely his Majesty in conjunction with a wise prudent considerate Parliament all joyntly spirited hereunto from a generous zeal for the glory honour and renown here endangered of their Clergy and Religion that Church of whom they own themselves Sons and that Faith of which they profess themselves Defenders what the method of redress or expedient in the case should be must as reason good be left to their own prudential contrivance but I presume I may use the same liberty so I do the modesty that your self Well then The Lucrative Arts and Stratagems of the Church of Rome as the Ghostly authority and infallibility of the Pope their fundament al cheat their monopoly of merits and indulgences miracles auricular confession absolutions pardons penance purgatory canonization of Saints the Wafer-God for there they can make not only Saints but a God Let. 1. p. 98 99 100. c. at pleasure vowed Celibacy the denial of marriage to their Clergy and such like artifices some whereof are by you recounted all sacrificed to Mammon or the Money-God those and the like I say are and I hope will be by both Church and State of England eternally adjudged antichristian which if you or any advocate in your behalf will undertake to disprove me in so it be with more argument and less flashy Theatrical wit then you use in your Letters it is like I may procure some who pro tenui tate your Academick Youngster's conge will try it out with you at the two-edged Sword Again the method of reducing and levelling Episcopal and Cathedral or Collegiate Revenues and all other Ecclesiastical preferments and possessions to a commonmage were such a motion as nothing less then the Acts of the Apostles could render unpardonable besides the danger of an Ignis sacer in the case and I am terribly afraid of St Anthony Once more your Astraea's return or restitution of such Tithes and Church-Rents as former Kings and Parliaments especially the great Church-Publican King Henry the Eight thought good upon what prudential considerations it is not meet that you or I should dispute to impropriate to the Crown or State which might happily prove as