the malignity and iniquity of the Times shall lay upon me which I am most willing to undergoe for his sake who suffered death that we might live And never had I more imployment to exercise me in any age Mother Iustice what sayst thou Iustice. Deare Mother I hold it both just and necessary that the Reply be published both for the beating down of the insolencie of the Relator and the raysing up of the drooping spirits of Gods people and the setling them in the Truth As for presenting it to the King though I be not against it yet for my part I have engaged my selfe in an Appeale to the High and Rightâ—ous Iudge of all the world for Iustice in this Cause where I shall be sure to have it So as I resolve not to descend to any inferiour Court and there too where the like Cause inferiour to none for pure innocencie and that also upon Appeale so foulely miscarried So as I am altogether taken up in waiting for an Answer from my Righteous Iudge wherein I shall desire my Sister Patience to lend me so much of her vertue as may preserve my Attendance from fainting Mother Mercy what sayst thou Mercy Deare Mother I am ingaged with my Sister Iustice in the same Petition to the throne of Iustice and Mercy that the Righteous Iudge will for his mercy sake to his people give righteous judgement between them and the Relator for else they and the Cause must fall to ground And this course I stick unto not that I dissent from my other Sisters but what your selfe and they shall resolve on in this case my Petition with my Sister Iustice may stand in no small stead when GOD shall be pleased to move the Kings heart to vindicate the Cause of Christ and of his innocent people from the unjust and unmercifull dealing of the Relator against whom I stand a dayly Petitioner with my Sister Iustice not departing from the Court-gate of heaven till we have a full Answer Mother Verity what sayst thou Verity Deare Mother I would willingly accompany my other Sisters to the Court in presenting the Reply to the King but that there I am better known then trusted So as I could never yet have any good successe there Insomuch as I have made my selfe as they have made me altogether a stranger at Court because my naked simplicity can no way suit with the garbe of the Court-fashion which can turn themselvs into all formes but mine which is unchangeable Yet if my Sister Hope could lend me her habit I durst adventure with my Sisters once more within the Court-gates in hope the Courtiers would not reject me as not knowing me to be Verity And should they by my language descry me yet seeing me in Hopes habit they might perhaps turn Truths Disciples in hope of some gaine or preferment so much affiance they have in hopes But alas their hope is nothing a Kin to my Sister Hope for her object are things spirituall and eternall but theirs onely temporall And besides the Relator hath forced his Pack with such a deale of trumpery and painted stuffe gilded over with the glittering Titles of Truth and Peace and Piety and Devotion and the Church and the like that these his faire polished Bristow-stones are preferred by his Court-Disciples before the true and precious Diamonds because presented in their ragged or russet Coat so as these prove not merchantable there where otherwise even Truth it selfe is bought and sold. And therefore it shal be sufficient that my Sisters so many as goe weare me as alwayes as a Jewell in their bosomes so I shall not be taken notice of and the fewer they appeare the better least the Prelate conjure them down for a sort of Factious Spirits as he did those THREE of late in the Starre-Chamber I have said Mother Prayer what sayst thou Prayer Deare Mother and all my deare Sisters here present come I pray you and kneele down here and assist me by joyning in earnest supplication to our GOD that he would direct and lead us in that way which in this businesse may most conduce to the advancement of the Cause of Christ and the honour of the King Prayer O Lord God Almighty Who shall not feare thee thou King of Saints Great and marvelous are thy works just and true are thy wayes Thou art the great King over all the Earth the righteous Iudge of all the world the GOD that hearest Prayer and helpest thy People when they cry unto thee and judgest their cause when thou seest their strength is gone But how long LORD Holy and True when wilt thou arise and have mercy upon Sion Is not now the time the set time come Is it not now a day of rebuke and blasphemy Are not the children brought to the birth and there is none to deliver How long shall thy people cry and thou answerest not How long shall the enemy roare and thou regardest not How long shall he blaspheme thy Name For ever Why pluckest thou not thy right hand out of thy bosome Art not thou our King of old working Salvation in the midst of the Earth Didst not thou divide the Sea for thy People to passe through And art not thou the same GOD of Israel still Or is thine arme shortened that it cannot save And dost thou not remember this how the enemy hath reproached O LORD and blasphemed thy Name And wilt thou deliver the soule of thy Turtle Dove unto the Beast Wilt thou forget the Congregation of thy poore for ever Remember thy Covenant O Lord for we are thy People and thou art our GOD. Other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us but by thee onely will we make mention of thy Name And yet dost thou not see the darke places of the Earth full of the habitations of Cruelty O let not the oppressed returne ashamed The poore and needy cry unto thee they trust in thee they waight for thee that they may praise thy Name Arise therfore O GOD plead thine own Cause remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily Forget not the voyce of thine enemies the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually And now behold here spread before thee a Book of Reproaches and Blaspemies against thy Majesty and against thy Sonne Iesus Christ and against thy Holy Spirit and against thy Holy Word and against thy Holy Ministers and against thy Holy People and against thy Holy and Pure Worship yea and against the Kings Sacred Majesty whom thou hast set over thy People to governe them according to Truth and Equity under whose Patronage and Authority notwithstanding the Relator is bold to shrowd this his Book with all the Blasphemies and Falsities therein contained So as hereby not onely the exterpation of all true Faith and Religion in the Land is threatned but consequently the utter ruine and extermination of the Nation it selfe hastened already fitted as dry fewell for thy wrath by this
dishonour of the Word of Grace the distraction of good Ministers and the destruction of many thousand soules The pressing and setting up of Altars attended with sundry adorations images crucifixes to the open Scandall of many and for non-admittance whereof with other Innovations or rather Renovations of old Popish Reliques many good Ministers and people of GOD have deeply suffered by all which practises and sundry more the Replyer hath plainly and particularly proved how the very Foundations of Faith and Christian Religion are not onely terribly shaken but razed and ruined so as the very Foundations of the earth doe tremble withall and more especially how not onely by unmoralizing of the 4 th Commandement whereby the Floodgates of all profanenesse are broken up and the uncannonizing as it were or making voyd of the doctrines of grace but by the setting up of Altars with all their Service and Ceremonies is an absolute denying and renouncing of Iesus Christ our onely Altar as the Replyer hath shewed at large And whereas notwithstanding terrible persecutions if it be lawfull to call a Spade a Spade have followed upon these Innovations which have fallen most heavy upon the faithfull Ministers and their Families yet the sayd Relator whether out of notorious hypocrisie or egregious malice or both is not afraid to abuse the Sacred Name of GOD nor ashamed to cast a myst before the open eyes of all the world saying * GOD forbid I should ever offer to perswade a Persecution in any kind or practise it in the least whereas if Persecution be Persecution whether he hath perswaded to it or diswaded perhaps your Majesty can tell and how little he hath practised it thousands have sufficiently felt And whereas the Replyer upon occasion by the Relator hath declared fully the Tragicall Story of the Cause Censuring and suffering of a late Minister of the Gospell depriving him of his Ministry and all worldly comforts and all for the meere discharge of his Ministeriall duty in admonishing his people of such dangerous Innovations as were then creeping yea and crowding into many Churches for the which he hath been so terribly censured and still suffereth both closse Imprisonment and Punishment with Divorcement and Seperation from wife and children and all friends whatsoever as a man buried quick in a Marble Tombe of perpetuall Calamity the very Image of hell such an Example as no age no history sacred or profane is able to parrallell that a man should be so terribly Censured and that upon this very ground that he would not do that whereby he should assent to the condemning of his Cause before the hearing his Answere in Court for Defence of his Cause being wholly precondemned by the two Judges as impertinent and Scandalous And whereas notwithstanding the Relator doth still insult trample upon and imbitter his inke with gall blacking the innocent with foule reproaches whom all the Court could not charge with the least offence or crime but that they said he was too bitter which he gave good reason for And whereas the cry of innocent blood both of that Servant of Christ and of his Companions is gone up to heaven against the whole Land pleading and clayming Iustice at that High and righteous Throne so as heaven and earth are troubled with the cry which will not be appeased till Iustice be done And whereas GOD hath put into your Majesties hand both the word of his Truth as the onely Rule whereby to reforme all errors and corruptions wherewith his worship is profaned and the Sword of Iustice to vindicate the Cause of the oppressed Innocents And whereas so great a worke as the Reformation of Religion is above the Spheere of any ordinary Court of your Kingdome so as even the Honourable Boord of Starre-Chamber disclaymed that Office where the sayd Innocent standing before them desired Justice in that behalfe yea and is too heavie a burthen to lye upon the Kings shoulders alone and much more as the case now stands in such a perplexity of things and universality of corruptions which as a leprosie hath overspread the whole body of the Land And seeing Christian Prudent Grave and Pious Princes use not upon the first sound or sight to slight or reject as fables or flashes of some brain-sick man such deepe charges as the Replyer here presenteth and presseth hard upon the Relator by such sound and demonstrative arguments and which do so nearely concerne the State of the whole Land which by reason of Prelaticall outrages seconded with the publication of the said Relation the very Portent of Confusion lies now a bleeding And whereas the contempt of just complaints and neglect of Iustice in such Cases of so high a nature would necessarily argue that men have sold themselves as having made a covenant with death as the Prophet speakes and an agreement with hell being justly given up of GOD to dâ—struction as in the case of Amasiah King of Iuda who threatning the Lords Prophet for reprooving him the Prophet replyed Now I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou hast not hearkened to my Counsell even as it came to passe a little after in the same Chapter Amasiah would not heare for it came of God that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies because they sought after the Gods of Edom as the Prelate professeth for the Church of England one Faith and Religion with Rome And whereas the Hierarchy being an Antichristian Kingdome shall perish with Antichrist and all they together that support and confederate with it against Christs Kingdome his Gospell and Truth as the Relator doth in his Book So as to suffer such a Rebell against Christ as the Replyer hath proved him to be and much more to Patronize him and his worke were to maintain open warre against heaven and to make your Majesty guilty of all those blasphemies and heresies in it which GOD forbid And whereas to whom much is committed of him much shal be required and the Office of Kings is of all other highest on earth and therefore God will require the strictest account of them and the more where the light of the Gospell hath also clearely shined forth leaving no place for pleading ignorance it being lo the honour of Kings to search out a matter as Solomon saith throughly to inquire into the Cause brought before him and therein to do exact and impartiall justice much lesse committing the Cause to be judged by the Adversary or Party but to judge righteous judgement And whereas GOD hath sent of late sundry fearefull signes from heaven as warning-pieces to England to awaken the State thereof to a more deepe consideration of the condition wherein it stands obnoxious unto and naked before that dreadfull Judge for her most notorious and hideous crying sins iniquities transgressions and impieties in all kinds and in the highest degree and to lay down her high pride and selfe-confidence and gyant-like daring in lifting her selfe up
against Iesus Christ and his High-Throne in oppressing and trampling upon his sacred Word and Ministers and People least by standing out in open defiance against God and in the defence and maintenance of her Rebellion with a high hand God be provoked altogether to confound her So as if a more mature Reformation of such hideous enormities whereof the Relator is here by the Replyer convinced be not seriously thought of and speedily and effectually put in execution to be secure in looking for Peace or any Good not having thus made peace with God were but to bewray a mind desperate and past all hope of remedy And lastly whereas the Replyer to all these his high Charges upon the Relator hath for some speciall reasons to himselfe not set his Name it being neither out of any distrust of the goodnesse of his Cause nor yet feare of men by others Example when as your Majesty shal be pleased to send forth your Royall Edict commanding that the Repyer whoever he be come forth and appeare to make proofe of all his Allegations against the Relator assuring him of an equall just and faire unpartiall hearing in such a Court of Iustice as the Replyer himselfe shall nominate and appeale unto which is not cannot be lesse then the most High and Honourable Court of Parliament which the necessity of things so nearely concerning the whole Land doth with all importunity call for he the Replyer will then be ready God giving him life and health in all humble duty and allegeance to present himselfe and personally face to face before the Honourable Court by the assistance of that Grace which first set him aworke and inabled him to finish it make good his whole Reply against the Relator It would therefore please your most Excellent Majesty the waighty Premises seriously consiâ—ered and upon your mature Revisall of this Reply or at least of the brief contents thereof prefixed to the Reply with the eye of your soundest and sollidest judgement directed by the wisdome of Gods owne Spirit which hath the hearts of Kings in his all-swaying hand and for vindicating of Gods glory and your own honour so deeply suffering in the forenamed respects and for staying of Gods hand stretched out and the preventing of further calamities not onely to take to heart and into your Royall hand the speedy reformation of such things as have been done and all in your Majesties Name still for that must beare all the burthen since the Relators Primacy as namely in the first place to send forth your Royall Edict for the taking downe of all Altars which where ever they stand doe stand in open defiance against Christ another for the calling in of your Book for Sports on the Lords dayes a third for the calling in of your Declaration before the Articles of Religion a fourth for the calling in of all Orders for the restraint of Preaching a fift for the restoring in Integrum that is not onely to their Ministry and Charge but to their liberty in Christ from the bondage both of Prelates and Ceremonies all those godly Ministers who out of Coâ—scienâ—e and duty towards God and not out of any disrespect or mucâ— lesse disloyalty towards your Majesty for refusing to read the said Book have been by the Prelates thrust out of all a Sixt if not the First for the quite releasing and setting at full liberty your three poore banished Prisoners that the loud cry of their oppressions breake not through the walls and barres and roofes of their straight inclosure to the piercing of the heavens and the provoking of their wrath to dart downe the thunderbolt of Divine revenge to the blasting of the beauty of your State while as a tall Ceder or sturdy Oake it stoutly lifts it selfe up on high as if it would threaten heavens throne and lastly all this done without which what can prosper and that you may make your Peace with GOD as you have done with Scotland to Proclaime a Publick Fast with Prayer and Humiliation for the deprecating of Gods high displeasure for what is past and the procuring of his favour and blessing upon you and your Kingdome and thereupon send forth your Royall writs for the calling of a Parliament for the redressing and removing of the maine Causes of all the disorders and enormities in the Church and State So shall your Kingdome be established and your Crowne flourish in abundance of Peace and Prosperity to your Majesty and your Royall Posterity which the Petitioners the true Church and Children the true Faith and Religion of Iesus Christ will never be wanting to sollicite the throne of Grace for THE CONTENTS OF THE PRINCIPALL PASSAGES IN THIS INSUING REPLY AND first to the Relators Epistle Dedicatory The left-hand Figure notes the Page of the Relators Book the right-hand the Replyers L. page 1. HOw the Prelate by pinning his Booke upon the Kings Patronage doth thereby expose him to the perill of being guilty of patronizing all the blasspemies falsities therein page 2. 2. What Truth and how the Prelate seeks it ibid. 7. What use the Prelate makes of Gods restoring him from his Fever p. 3. 7. What he meanes by the Scandalous and Scurrilous pennes of some bitter men with a short Narration of their Cause and Tragicall suffering ibid. Notorious Hypocrisie of the Prelate and taking Gods name in vaine pag. 3 4.6.8 Prelates mercies exceed all Heathen cruelty 6. A strange Precedent without Precedent to censure a Man because he would not consent to the condemning of his Cause before the Hearing 7. The Prelate Shrewdly put to it for his blood-guiltinesse and shamelesse hypocrisie 7 8. A new-found Art under colour of Answering Jesuites to strike a leagve with Popery 9. 7. The Prelates notorious perverting of Scripture which is retorted upon himselfe by a true Application 10 11 12. 7. Gods Ministers for sharpe and particular reproving of sin and sinners proved not to be Libellous nor Scandalous by many examples 11 12 13. How Prelates with the High Priests and Pharisees are guilty of all the blood of the Saints shed from Abel hitherto 15 16. True marks of a Minister of Christ extraordinarily raysed up of God ibid. 7. What kind of Men the Prelates Divines of worth and Note be 16 17. How the Prelate publisheth his Booke to vindicate his Reputation and with whom ibid. 7. A Prosopopaeia representing the Prelates Divines speaking to him 17 18. 7. The Prelate selfe-deluded by the unanimous Councels of his Divines as Ahab was by his false Prophets 19. The Prelates Booke like Caesars sacrifice ibid. The Replyers Councel to the Prelate 19. The Prelates Booke how reprobate Silver 21. The Mystery of burning Salis his Devotions opened 20. How the Prelates Tract needs leading into the light 21. 11. Notorious hypocrisie of a most persecuting Prelate detected as most detestable 21 22. worse then that of Stephen Gardiner and Bonner ibid. The Prelate sore pressed with sundry Scriptures by the
as the least colour of reason or just cause other then such as the very Heathen do hisse out of all Courts of justice as the bane and ruine of Common-weales So as while you heartily beseech GOD to forgive those that be innocent persons you forget once to pray to GOD to forgive your selfe who have been the main Instrument of committing such an example of Diabolicall cruelty and iniquity as is without all example either in the Christian or Heathen world And yet running on furiously in this desperate course you say after in the very Conclusion of your Book that you are now 65. yeares of age and yet you tremble not to think it cannot be long before you must appeare before that strict Judge from whose Tribunall and Sentence not your Greatest Patron in the world can rescue you And if this be all your Charity thus to pray for these men whom you desist not to plague they may say to you as Christ did to those women that wept for him Pray not for us but pray for your selfe that GOD would pardon your sin in not taking vengeance on you for the blood of his Servants which you have shed And consider how you have used Christs Minister with what horrible and detestable cruelty and all for the faithfull discharge of his duty in reprooving such enormities and impieties as your selfe cannot be but guilty of the very remembrance whereof were enough to shake all the veines of your heart and to cause your Conscience to quake and tremble had you but the least sparke of common grace in you Oh the bloud and members of a Mans body are precious and do you think they were made and Redeemed with such a price as Christs own bloud for any Man to satisfie the lust of his Diabolicall and damnable malice upon in taking them away gratis and so easily And especially the bloud of Christs Servant which you have shed for no other cause but for bearing witnesse unto the Truth is it not precious in Gods sight And When he maketh inquisition for blood will he not remember and not forget the complaint of the poore Without doubt my Lord his Great King and Master will utterly shame and confound you for ever unmasking all your hypocrisie and leaving you naked before all the world if you still desperately goe on in this course Nor is it your Fine-spun-cob-web-Lawne-veile that can hide the grossenesse and foulenesse of your actions from the worlds eyes And though you could mock men yet God you cannot but Whatsoever ye sow ye shall reape Doe you beleeve the Scripture What saith it A man that doth violence to the blood of any Person shall flee to the pit Let no man stay him But I leave you to GOD whom because you have no changes you doe not feare yet one day shall you feele But you tell us that you have little leasure and lesse incouragement thereby to answer a Iesuite or to set upon other Services To answer a Iesuite Oh glorious word A Sound Protestant sure that Answers a Iesuite· What may we not expect This one word were enough to vindicate that reputation of yours which you tell us anon of But the mischief is I have observed a New-found-Art of Late-dayes that which our Protestant Doctors of the Now Church of England have practised and grown great Proficients in namely under the name and colour of Answering a Iesuite or so to meet him at least the halfe-way between England and Rome if he goe not further So did your Brother of Chichester in his Appeale to Caesar his Answer to the Popish Gagger How finely jumpes he with the Jesuite and comes closse to his doores A pretty veile to bring that old Hagge into request againe and to set up her Throne in the Church of England And whether your Lordship do thus or no in this your glorious Answer to the Iesuite we shall see at after But why you should complain of little leasure when you have so many Chapleins and Doctors at hand and command to set a worke and of lesse incouragement when for such services you have gotten the Metropolitanship of all England I cannot see But before I passe further I may not balke the close of your words complaining You are under the Prophets affliction Psal. 50.19 20. And what is that Between the mouth that speaks wickednesse and the tongue that sets forth Deceit And whose affliction was this The Prophets you say What Davids Yes How prove you that out of that Psalme 'T is true David had many afflictions in this kind which hee in other Psalmes much complaines of but he speakes not a word of his owne proper afflictions in this kind in that Psalme which you quote Therefore to passe by both your forced expression of the words and false application of the sense Let us take the Prophets own word But unto the wicked GOD saith what hast thou to doe to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth Seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee When thou sawest a thiefe thou consentedst with him and hast been partaker with Adulterers Thou gavest thy mouth to evill and thy tongue frameth deceit Thou sittest and speakest against thy Brother and thou slanderest thine own Mothers Son These things hast thou done and I kept silence and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy selfe but I will reproove thee and see them in order before thee Now consider this ye that forget GOD least I teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver Thus farre GOD speaketh in that Psalme In all which you see plainly that the Prophet complains not of his owne suffering such things of wicked tongues It is GOD that speaks here to wicked men And if you had well and wisely looked â—our face in that Glasse you might farre sooner have discerned your selfe to be one of those to whom GOD speaketh then to be as the Prophet so afflicted by them And because you are so briefe in perverting the Scriptures to make them a veile for your iniquity and a Vergula Censoria to argue and accuse Gods own innocent Servants as if their mouth spake wickednesse and their tongues set forth deceit lend your patience a little while we doe truly interpret and impartially appy the forecited words of this Psalme Here GOD speakes to the wicked and sets him forth by sundry markes and properties as First his notorious and audacious shamelesse hypocrisie in pretending to be for GOD and for his true Religion For he taketh upon him to declare Gods Statutes and takes his Covenant in his mouth but for all this he hateth instruction and casteth Gods word behind him Secondly his taking part with Theeves and Adulterers Thirdly his giving his mouth to evill and framing his tongue to deceit Fourthly his sitting and speaking against his Brother and slandering his owne Mothers Sonne Fifthly his carnall security and
be heard among them And for us thy poore handmaids here humbly suppliant before thee let thy holy Spirit direct lead and assist us in the way which may be most acceptable to thy Majesty and profitable for thy People and comfortable to us all in our distressed estate And shew unto thy Servants what thou wouldst have us to doe in this difficult businesse about the presenting of this Reply to the King which with our selves and all thine we humbly commend to thy grace and blessing through Iesus Christ to whom with thee ô Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory now and ever Amen Mother Now my deare Children I will tell you what resolution GOD hath put into my heart upon the very close of this Prayer namely that we addresse our selves to the King with this Reply together with an humble Petition And because all of us perhaps would be too many let as many of you as are willing to attend me goe with me to the King the rest let them goe and be humble suiters at the Throne of Grace that our GOD would give us to find Grace in the eyes of the King so as hearkening to our Petition he may doe accordingly Such therefore of you as are willing to accompany me stand on this side and the rest stand on that side Well I see you are equally divided Six with me and Six for me With me Charity Humilty Prudence Piety Patience and Verity For me Faith Hope Zeale Iustice Mercy Prayer Now my Gracious Children be strong and of a good courage Our Cause is good and GOD is for us and though our enemies be great yet they shall not prevaile against us TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTY THE TRVE CHVRCH AND CHILDREN THE TRUE FAITH AND RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST do humbly present their Petition of Right THAT whereas a Book intituled A Relation of a Conference between WILLIAM LAUDE and Mr. FISHER the Iesuite hath been by the said WILLIAM now of Canterbury lately republished and that under your Majesties Patronage and in the publishing whereof as he saith he hath obeyed your Majesty And whereas A Reply to the said Relation is now under the Patronage of JESUS CHRIST and in obedience to his Word and by assistance of his Grace here published and presented to your Majesty and before all the World in which Reply are detected and clearely evinced by manifold and infallible Testimonies sundry particular passages and Doctrines of the Relator which directly overthrow all true Christian Faith and Religion And whereas in this Reply is clearely proved that Prelaticall Government of the Church or the Hierarchy as they call it is meere Antichristianisme and the very Mistery of Iniquity branded by the Apostle and expresly forbidden by Christ himselfe to his Apostles whose Successors the Prelates falsely pretend to be and that all Prelates even as they are Prelates are both by their Profession and Practise so many Antiâ—hrists adversaries to CHRIST who as the Great Antichrist sit as Gods in the Temple of GOD Lording over the Faith Soule and Conscience of GODS People thrusting CHRIST out of his Throne And whereas notwithstanding the manifest truth hereof confirmed by most cleare Testimony and undeniable Proofes of Scripture the Relator or Prelate hath in his said Relation uttered sundry blasphemous Speeches belying the Wisedome Counsell and Providence of GOD and of CHRIST as making Him the Author and Ordainer of such a Hierarchicall Government of his Church which is to Father upon GOD and CHRIST a most notorious Lye and Falshood where he addes withall a blasphemous New Article of Belief of the Church of England that this is a truth And whereas the Holy Scriptures is and hath been in all Ages and by all Sound and Orthodox Divines both Ancient and Moderne both Forraigne and Domestick universally received held and constantly beleeved and maintained against all Adversaries of the Truth to be the Onely Rule of Faith and Iudge of Controversies in Divinity and alone Selfe-sufficient to give Testimony to it selfe that it is the undoubted Word of GOD as in this Reply also is fully prooved And whereas the Relator notwithstanding hath loded the Scripture with many intollerable reprâ—ohes and blasphemous words of disgrace censuring it as an insufficient witnesse to it selfe and an incompetent Iudge of Controversies in Faith as being both a blinde dumbe and dead Judge and that it hath no light in it selfe but is as a Candle in a box without light till Tradition of the present Church doe light it and the like the very ground of all Infidelity and Apostacie And whereas notwithstanding all such his blasphemies against the Scripture wherewith he hath stuffed some 30 leaves in Follio besides many other the like scattered all along his Book he the same Relator out of his grosse hypocrisie addeth this proud Blasphemy to all the rest That he hath given the Scripture all honour and ascribed unto it Sufficiencie more then enough And whereas also as appeareth in this Reply the Relator belyes and blasphemes the Holy Ghost himselfe making him the Author of most notorious lyes and vanity And whereas the Relator doth define a meere false and counterfeit Catholicke Church contrary to that Holy Catholick Church beleeved in the Creed whereby he overthrowes both that Article of Faith and with all the Communion of Saints teaching that his Catholicke Church though it cease to be holy yet is a true Church of CHRIST still And whereas of and in this his new Catholicke Church which the Relator beleeveth he makes the Church of England and of Rome to be one and the same Church and both to hold one and the same Faith of that his Catholicke Prelaticall Church which Faith is declared in the Reply not to be the true saving Faith and that they both do set up and professe one and the same Religion not different in which Faith and Religion of the Church of England and of Rome he saith as he hath lived so he resolves to dye as much to say as he will live and dye an English-Romish-Catholicke And whereas the Replyer proveth and which no Papist denyeth that the maine substance of the Romish Religion is the Masse And whereas the Relator confesseth that though a simple Papist may as he saith yet no Romanist as a Romanist living and dying in the Roman Faith can be saved and yet this Faith of Rome is the same with that of England wherein he will end his dayes So as the Church of England may hereby see in what a case she is and how highly she is preferred by her Primate as to be brought to be of the same Church the same Faith the same Religion with Rome enough to startle all your Majesties Subjects that till now thought themselves to bo Protestants and no Papists and to cause all zealous Christians to abandon all communion with such a Church as is the same Church of the same Faith and Religion with Rome And wheras
your worth in the esteem of Great ones too that misled it is the greatest misleader But there you adde And yet God forbid that to worth weake men should not yeâ—ld in difficult and perplexed Questions Certainly my Lord what ever my weaknesse be it will hardly yeeld to your worth though never so great where I find your worth misled and so to become the Great Misleader and that of no lesse then the whole Church of England You know it is every good Subjects part to be zealous of the Kings honour when he seeth it wounded or wronged And shall not every good and faithfull Christian be zealous for the honour of his Lord Iesus Christ and of his Kingdome when he seeth them either openly opposed or secretly undermined by Any though never so Great and honourable in the world And this I shall make manifest and I hope convince your Lordship of if cleare evidence of holy Scripture and Reason will doe it that you have as in your common practise so in this your Last Book not onely bewrayed but confirmed to the world at least to all that have their eyes in their head as the Preacher saith your amity with the Church of Rome and enmity against Iesus Christ and his true Church and so to the Salvaâ—ion of mens soules This by Gods Grace I shall make cleare in my ensuing Reply Wherein I shall observe no other method but as I meet with such Passages all along though perhaps not all as are worthy of Animadversion to tell your Lordship plainly my mind of them And although as the Proverbe is Plaine dealing is a Iewel that is for the rarity of it yet it is not so highly esteemed in Court as others of a more glistering luster And wheras you may imagine and hope as you have exprest your selfe that this your Book will make for your Reputation as being interlaced with some â—arger Discourses or Disputes against the Jesuite which may be a goodly broad Figge-leaves to cover the nakednesse of the rest yet many things in it are so palpably grosse and directly opposit to the Truth that when you have layd on never so much varnish and guilding All will prove but as a painted Sepulchre The Law of God forbids the Jewes to sow their field with diverse kinds of seeds least the whole fruit be defiled This was to teach them and us not to mingle Truth with Errour nor to halt between GOD and Baal for so all their Religion comes to be defiled But your field here is sowne with many Tares mingled with some graines of Wheat which oâ—â—ekthròs Anthopos the enemy having sown and being grown up to such a ranknesse and ripenesse marvaile not that I have brought so Sharpe a Sickle to cut it down The letter L. is to noâ—e your Lordships words p. the page and P. the Replyers Answere And in all I shall be somwhat briefe though perhaps tedious And I suppose your Lordship so formidable by That Late Censure and so secure by the Sure and Closse cooping up of those 3 once troublesome men expected not that any should be left of that mettall so hardy as to take up and maintain such a quarrell against the Great Metropolitan of all England But my Lord deceive not your selfe The Lord Iesus Christ rather then faile will out of the very dust rayse up witnesses to stand up against Antichrist or any of his Confederacie And so in the first place I come to your Epistle Dedicatory to his Majesty THE REPLIE TO THE RELATORS EPISTLE DEDICATORY TO THE KING L. p. 1. THIS Tract will need Patronage as Great as may be had and that 's yours P. Thus you begin your Epistle But you might have added on Earth On Earth no doubt the greatest Patronage you can have is the Kings But haply you neither thought nor hoped of any higher Patron of this Tract then on Earth And therefore it will so much the more need some humane Patronage and that as Great as may be had and all little enough you will find in the end But I hope when once your Tract shal be well troden out and beaten that you will find but few that will travell your way or follow such a Leader and much lesse hazzard their own both honour and safety by Patronizing such a perillous Tract as this will appeare to be And though you should find some to protect you from the Courts of Civill Iustice yet never from Christs dreadfull Throne where you shall certainly be judged according to your worke And let me tell you in putting forth this your Book under the Kings Patronage you lay a greater burthen upon his shoulders then he is able to beare and should he undertake it it would break his back For then he must Patronize all your blasphemous lyes against GOD and his Word and against all Truth which when he comes once to know instead of Patronizing hee will Anathematize both you and your Book L. p. 2. He that seeks it Court Truth with a Roman Bias or any other then for it selfe will run counter when he comes neere it and not find it though he come within the Kenning of it P. Sir you say true And for proofe hereof it will appeare and that too palpably that this Roman Bias hath too much wheeled you about from the Truth which you pretend to seek but neither come neere it nor within the Kenning of it Or if within Kenning so as you have been at any time by its cleare light convinced of it the greater is your sin and the more desperate your case not to confesse it but how much more to fight against it And think not my L. that your plausible naming of Truth here will so blind mens eyes as to beleeve all is truth that you have written in your Book If you seek Truth 't is but as those Sodomites sought for Lots doore to violate his Angel-guests For where you find the Truth sincerely preached and professed doe you not lay violent hands upon Gods Angels the Messengers of his Truth and break into the houses of those righteous Lots those Preachers of Righteousnesse to cast them out And then mervaile not if GOD smite you with blindnesse that you shall never find the Truth for the end you seek it namely to destroy it L. p. 6. He did but skip up and down and labour to pick a hole here and there where he thought he might fasten and where it was too hard for him let it alone P. What the Jesuite did let him answere for himselfe But perhaps you will say the like of me here For I touch not every particular passage as where for your reputation sake you speake some truth thereby to gaine credit to what is contrary as you know who useth to doe and therfore Christ would not suffer the Devils to confesse him at all nor need I labour to pick holes here and there when every where
better then I can tell you I know you do but I tell you to rub over your memory and awaken your sleepy Conscience who were the main moving cause of all this as All the world knows And how farre you weâ—e an Instigator of the Court so to censure and of the King to inflict you very well know Who Your Lordship Farre be it For your Piety doth heartily beseech GOD to forgive them Indeed in the conclusion of that your Pamphlet which you read then in the Court after the Censure was past you had these words or the like whom I leave to the Mercy of GOD and the Iustice of the King But if indeed you doe heartily and unfainedly beseech GOD to forgive them why doe you not if indeed they have justly offended GOD and the King in transgressing any Law divine or humane both your selfe from your heart forgive them if they have done you any wrong and testifie it by a serious soliciting of the King and that now after two whole yeares and more Imprisonment and Banishment yea and Divorcement from their Wives to release and acquit them Or why do you not if you be as you pretend one of Christs Ministers at least inform the King how contrary it is both to Gods Law and Mans Law and the Law of Nature to separate Man and Wife in this sort without any just cause given on either part But the King in his Clemencie had granted to their Wives liberty and leave to goe to their Husbands And do not you know my Lord whose piety and charity and equity and policie it was to reverse and hinder it Well my Lord let me deale freely with you and that from the mouth of the Great Iudge There shall be Iudgement without Mercy to him that sheweth no Mercy Yea Suppose the Cause of that most terrible Censure had been just yet should there be no place for Mercy and that now after so long a time and so sharp a Tryall What Not one drop nor crumb of Mercy That 's enough for hell But you will say as you have done Mercy was shewed in sparing their lives How I pray you They were never questioned for their lives much lesse was any Sentence of death passed upon them nor was there any Cause found although perhaps narrowly searched for but no precedâ—nt was found Againe Suppose they had been in a legall way and justly sentenced to dye yet so to spare life as to make and leave it worse then any death can be as being a continuall and languishing death Call you this a mercy Take heed least herein that be verefied of you which the wise-man saith The tender mercies of the wicked are cruell Or shall the examples of Heathen cruelty be justified by theirs who professe to be Christians But what Heathen example can you parallell to this Indeed I remember one and but one that comes somwhat neere it The Roman Verres Praetor in Cicily closse imprisoned one Apollonius a rich Citizen there so as neither his old Father nor young Son might for the space of one whole yeare and a halfe come to see him and this for no other cause but that he was rich a punishment saith the Orator to be redeemed with a mans very life when life hath nothing left Praeter Calamitatem but meere Calamity Whereupon the Author saith who was himselfe no meane Statesman Haec cum accidunt nemo est quin intellegat ruere illam Rempub. Haec ubi veniunt nemo est qui ullam spem salutis reliquam esse arbitretur I need not English it to your Lordship Yet I will When such things happen there is none but understands that Common-wealth to be falling when these things come to passe there is none that can imagine any hope of safety to be left And what have you left to those THREE remarkable Men Praeter Calamitatem What but a miserable life As the Prophet saith of Ierusalem's Captivity in Babylon The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater then the punishment of the Sin of Sodome that was overthrowne as in a moment and no hand Stayd on her And They that be slain with the sword are better then they that be slain with hunger for these pine away stricken through for want of the fruits of the Field So as a life stript of all the outward comforts of the world yea and of the meanes of spirituall comfort which one Friend should minister unto another haveing nothing left Praeter Calamitatem but Calamity is it not a greater punishment then death it selfe How is it then a mercy instead of death undeserved to grant such a life But you say 't is just For they were Censured pro Confesso Pro Confesso Of what Of all charged in the Bill Why they did Answer and it was condemned before hearing And Si sat est accusasse quis innocens erit If it be enough to have accused who shal be innocent And againe let the Court-Records be searched if there be ever such a Precedent that a man should be so censured for not assenting to the condemnation of his Cause before the hearing Or that ever any Defendants whole and intire body of his Answer containing his just Defence yea and when he could not expect any Counsell to plead for him that either would or durst should unaliturâ at one dash be expunged as Impertinent and Scandalous and that after it was orderly admitted upon Oath into the Court Or if this be found to be the Custome of such Courts may not a man here apply the foresaid Speech of that Roman Orator When such things happen there is none but understands that Common-wealth to bee falling when these things come to passe there is none that can imagine any hope of Safety to be left Were not these things Prognostications and Presages if not rather immediate fore-runners and causes of some terriblâ— imminent and impendent Stormes that should shortly after fall upon the Land But O Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see But they shall see and be ashamed c. But how ever you are so charitable as heartily to beseech GOD to forgive them Now suppose you did this from your heart as some naturall man may do doe you think it a sufficient discharge to your Conscience or holy water enough to wash you cleane from the guilt of the blood of these men which you have so shed Is not this a meere mocking of GOD and Men to pretend piety in praying for those whom you still most cruelly persecute with all the damnable malice and hatred which you could learne of none but of the Schoole-master of Hell And doth not your notorious hypocrisie appeare in this that you still pretend piety in praying GOD and that heartily to forgive those as Malefactors and Offendors whom your own Conscience knows to be innocent and of whose punishments at least some of them you cannot give so much
worship of GOD besides the prescript and precise Rule of Gods written word that able and godly Ministers duely chosen by Gods people and Congregation be set over every Congregation to preach Gods word diligently to the people and that the well deserving be cherished incouraged countenanced and protected from oppression but the Droanes cast out of the Hive This is all the King need to be carefull of about the Hive of Christ. For then as for Doctrine and Manners Gods word in the due administration thereof will sufficiently direct informe instruct and teach both what to beleeve and how to live and worship God and honour the King But for the Priest you speake of to intermeddle Procul ô hands off Here 's no roome for him he may get him to Rome to his Sacrifice This Priest as is already touched hath no calling of GOD at all and therefore not bound to any such thing much lesse ought he to yoake himself with Kings that he may prescribe what Doctrines and Manners do best please his own corrupt and blind fancie And as for you my Lord if you be that Priest as 't is most likely what kind of doctrine we might look for at your hand your Book here will sufficiently inform us as we shall see throughout and as partly we have seen by your acts edicts declarations and practises And for Manners I pray you what Manners will your Priest teach us Namely how to make a legge or a courtesie at our coming within the Church with the posture of our face towards your Altar devoutly and lowly to bow passing by or approaching your Altar devoutly to pray with the face east-wards towards your Altar to make a low legge or crindge when the name Iesus is named to doffe the bonnet with some other courtesie before an Image Crosse or Crucifix to receive the Communion kneeling before your Altar and many such like as will fit time and place Yet whether these be your Manners or Doctrines you can best resolve us And if you meane Morall Manners in life and conversation can your Priest teach them Can he that ruffles up and downe the Court in his Silkes and Sattens teach men humility Can he that ambitiously aspires to honours and riches in the world teach men contempt of the world and contentednesse with a meane estate Can he that flatters and dissembles and playes the Hypocrite teach men Sincerity and Truth Can he that is an Accuser of the Brethren teach men Charity Can he that is a cruell persecuter of Gods servants and children teach men to be mercifull Can he that oppresseth the innocent in their cause and takes away the righteousnesse of the righteous from him teach men to doe justice Can he that hates the very name of holinesse and the practise and profession thereof in a strict life as GOD commandeth teach men to be holy Can he that labours all he can to put out the light and to put down Candlesticks that hold it forth to set up his blind Priesthood teach men to walke as Children of the light Can he that stops Ministers mouthes for preaching the truth teach how Ministers ought to preach Can he that hates holy Wedlocke and violently Separates Man and Wife without Cause teach Man and Wife their mutuall duties to each other Can he teach Chastity who thus exposeth marryed Couples to Satans temptations to incontinencie Or in a word is he fit to look to the Integrity of the Church in Doctrine and Manners whose both judgement and affections in both are altogether corrupted Away therefore with your Priest from the King least that come to passe indeed which here you say as it were to prepare the way that the Priest undertaking to qualifie the Church with a new kind of integrity as he hath already done in a good measure in Doctrine and Manners he bring to utter ruine both Church and Kingdome Lastly before I leave your Comparison of the Bee-hive I cannot but note two plâ—ces of Scripture which you make as you use to doe when you apply any Scripture which is not a Shooe will fit your foot very bold with For the first you say The Kings case as King Davids is to be stung with the Bees For this you quote in the Margent Psal. 118.12 And you apply it to the King saying God grant it be never yours Why was David stung by the true Church and Children of GOD which you compare to a Hive of Bees You are much mistaken David there speakes not onely in his owne Person but as a Type ingenerall of Gods Church and in particular of Christ. First as in his owne Person who were those Bees that stung him or buzzed about his eares Were they any of Gods Children Was it not especially Saul who continually persecuted him and sought his life to have stung him to death Wherein was he not rather the Master-Wasp or the Master-Hornet that with his Swarms of Wasps and Hornets armed troopes pursued after Davids life and sometime inclosed him like a Swarme of Bees And for this very Cause did not David complaine to the Lord of Sauls cruelty setting forth his wickednesse under the name of Heathen For when Saul sent and they watcht the house to kill him coming about him like Bees David thereupon flyes to GOD in prayer to deliver him from the workers of iniquity and to save him from bloody men Thou therefore O Lord God of Hosts the God of Israel awake to visit all the Heathen be not mercifull to any wicked Transgressors And vers 8. But thou O Lord shalt laugh at them thou shalt have all the Heathen in derision Now by Heathen here is plainly meant Saul and his wicked Servants and Officers and that for their heathenish cruelty seeking to murther innocent David With such Bees therefore was he compassed about That 's for his Person Secondly David in that Psalme 118. represents the Church of God that Bee hive you Spake of whose Bees are often smoaked out of their Hive or smothered in the Hive and their honey devoured by the wild Boares of the Forrest the Common Bee-hunters a right Embleme of the cruell persecuters of Gods Children and Church who are here in the world as Sheep in the midst of Wolves One fresh bleeding-new example I could give you of one Member of this Church one Bee of this Hive whom you sent your Officers with Swords and Weapons beseting his house to take him as you did and though not to kill him presently yet with intent that in case He did live His life should be worse then any death So as hath not such a one reason to hold himselfe one of that Church which David in his Psalmes prefigured as touching the afflicted estate therof in this world But enough of this Instance before Thirdly in that Psalme and that passage by you quoted and so foulely misapplyed David speakes Typically and Prophetically of Christ and