giving her hope that she might be saved living and dying in the Roman faith Is it so easie trow you to send such a Lady to heaven securely wrapped in the Mantle-lap of her silly ignorance But what if she be now in hell Are not you guilty of her damnation by muzzling her in her blind ignorance as wherein onely you taught her to place the hope of her salvation But you told her of some danger But you did not possesse her with such a feare of the danger as both there was cause and you should have done as you puffed her up with the hope of safety and that in the onely confidence of her silly ignorance so as her vain hope overcame just feare And if now by this meanes she be in hell as you set her in the ready high way look you to it Paries cum proximus ardâ—t Tunc tua res â—gitur if she by your leading be fallen into the pit what is like to befall you the leader when the blind leading the blind both fall into the pit But if God hath had mercy on her it was not since her death by delivering her out of Purgatory iâ— she dyed a Papist but before her death by delivering her from her Popery worse then any Purgatory causing her to renounce and repent of that and to beleeve in his mercy and Christs merit onely for salvâ—tion without which faith of Christ â—here is no hope of mercy And we shewed before that this faith of Christ is not the Roman faith but quite opposit unto it L. p. â—88 But 't is time to end especially for me that have so many things of weight lying upon me and disabling me from these Polemâ—ck â—isccurses besides the burthen of sixty five yeares compleat which draw on a pace to the period set by the Prophet David Psal. â—0 and to the Time that I must goe and give God and Christ an account of the Talent committed to my Charge in which God for Christ Iesus sake be mercifull to me who knows that however in many weaknesses yet I have with a faithfull and single heart bound to 〈◊〉 free Grace for it laboured the meeting the blessed meeting of Truth and Peace in his Church and which God in his own good time will I hope effect To him be all Honour and Prayse for ever Amen P. How fitly doth this your Conclusion suit with and succeed that which was last mentioned as matter for your more serious and sad meditation and which I cannot but tremble 〈◊〉 And well weighing also the words of this your Conclusion with all that you have written in this your Booke and with all your Practises in your life all so uniforme and sutable I am surprized with great astonishment The reasons hereof will further appeare in the more particular animadversions upon your words asunder And because we use to take most speciall notice of a mans last words give me lâ—ave to take a full and particular view of yours here as being though not the last words of a dying man yet the finall Conclusion of this your Booke which so soon as I have read over it passeth away tanquam Fabula as the Prophet speaks of a mans life as a taâ—â— thâ— is told And as we looke thaâ— however you have dealt in your Book yet in the close of all you should deale candidly ingeniously and cordially and not dubble with God and the world and with your own Conscience yet for my part as the Spirit of sincerity and truth without flattery or respect of Persons where the truth is wronged hath rnd doth run through all the veines of this my Reply to your Relation so I shall by Gods grace close all with the same spirit not sparing you to the last where still you give just cause And the truth cannot better nor more seasonably be spoken home then as to a dying man who though he have been never so notorious an hypocrite and desperate man in the Course of his life yet when he lyes upon his death-bed and utters some words which seem to savour of some sensiblenesse of his Condition then if ever there may be some hope of working upon him as when the yron is hot by putting home unto him and laying before him his former life that so at the last though late as the Thiefe on the Crosse he may through Gods mercy be brought to repentance and so to salvation Although examples of such penitents indeed and in truth be very rare For as one observeth One Thiefe was saved on the Crosse that none should dâ—spaire and but one that none should presume â—or the saying too ordinarily proves true Qualis vita finis itâ— As a man lives so he dyes And Paenitentia sera rarò vera Late Repentance is seldome true And the Prophet gives the reason of it Can the Ethiopian change his hew or skin Or the Leopard his spots Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to doe evil For as one â—aith Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccaâ—i Custome of sinning takes away the sense of sin And where there is noâ— sense of sin there can be no Repentance for sin And therfore commonly when a man that hath lived wickedly and hath been used to lying and dissembling all his life comes to â—ay on his death bed or at the last gaspe Lord have mercy upon me however we may not judge him leaving him to his Judge yet this is no sufficient argument to perswade us that this is 〈◊〉 Repentance For lightly when such men promising and vowing it God restore them to reforme their life do recover they â—â—turn â—s the Scripture speaks with the dog to his vomit and with 〈…〉 that is washed to her wallowing in the mire According to that 〈◊〉 or Apologie 〈◊〉 Daemon Monachus tunc esse volebat 〈◊〉 Daemon nec tamen est Monachus Which 〈…〉 thus 〈…〉 was 〈◊〉 the Deâ—il a Monke would be 〈…〉 was well the â—evil a Monke was he But I must not doe you wrong in applying of these things to you or that I have any hope of doing good upon you even now at last in the close of all seeing you give me no incouragement of hope at all this way For in all this your Closse not a word expressing the least sorrow for your most enormious iniquites but on the contrary you justifie them and glory in them Wherein you shew the pride of your heart to be out of measure desperate and not to be named with the pride of that Pharisee For though he gloryed in himselfe yet he gloryed not in his evil but in those things that were in themselves good and commendable and for which he gave God thanks as the Author of them but here I find a proud Prelate vaunting in his impiety and in all his wicked practises the ayme whereof is to reconcile the Church of England and that of the Whore of Babylon together and all under a faire pretence
that seeth the Son and beleeveth in him should have eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day Marke here This is the Fathers will his resolution his revealed councell and purpose What That every one that seeth Christ not with bodily eyes here but with the eyes of his soule being illuminated by holy knowledge and so beleeveth in him should have eternall life and Christ will raise him up in the last day Here is Mans last happinesse to which God hath revealed tâ— us in his word that he hath resolved in his councel to bring Mankind by Faith and Knowledge together and without seperation as both seeing and beleeving And this doth the Scripture every where shew unto us Wherfore did God give some Apostles and some Prophets and some Euangelists and some Pastors and Teachers but for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministry for the edefication of the body of Christ And Col. 2.2 That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the Mystery of God What a high and admirable expression is here And 6.7 this is to be rooted and built up in Christ. Againe on the other side what 's the Cause and sourse of all wickednesse and infidelity superstition and Idolatry but ignorance of God and of his word As Ephes. 4.17 This I say therfore and testifie in the Lord that ye henceforth walke not as other Gentiles walkâ— in the vaâ—ity of their minds having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their heart c. So 1 Pet. 4.3 and Hos. 4.1 The Lord hath a controversie with the Inhabittnts of the Land because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the Land And vers 7. My people are destroyed for lacke of knowledge Because thou hast rejected knowledge mark it well my Lord I will also reject thee THAT THOU SHALT BE NO PRIEST TO ME. And on the other side againe The Lord saith I will give you Pastors according to mine heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding namely the people whom the Lord is in Covenant with But it seemeth your Priesthood standeth not with the nature and office of those Prophets which feed the people of God with knowledge and understanding You can teach the people a shorter cut to heaven and more easie for the Priest for you tell us God hath resolved to bring Mankind to blessednesse another way then by knowledge Wherin how farre you not onely dishonour but blaspheme the truth of God in Fathering such a foule and abominable lye upon him for this I leave you to that judgement which he hath revealed in his Word But you seem to doe all this in charity That the weakest among men may have their way to blessednes open A way open You meane surely the broad way and you know whither that leads and how the many such weake ones as you speake of goe in that way And broad and open your way had need to be both for the multitude of the travailers therein and for their blindnesse and for the darknesse of the way that so though both they and their guides be blind yet the way is so broad as they cannot possibly goe out of it so long as they do but follow their Nose which must be their guide for want of eyes But it may be you will alledge that saying of Augustine Indocti rapiunt regnum Caeloâ—um c. The unlearned and ignorant take by violence the Kingdome of heaven where we that be great learned Clerks are shut out Ergo the way is open for the weakest and shut against those that abuse their Learning to Gods dishonour and soules destruction But whom doth Augustine there meane by unlearned Ignorants that had no Faith nor true Religion in them Certainly ther 's no heaven for such The blind and lame come not within the fort of Sion But a true beleever may be unlettered or as they say not book learned yet not without knowledge For if he hath faith he hath a knowledge of God in Christ. And being Christs he hath the Spirit of Christ and this quickens him up â—o diligence in the use of all good meanes of saving knowledge as to heare Gods word faithfully preached for he knows Christs voyce and frequently read and conferred upon and he meditates on it his mind is much upon it as yours is of your honours and favour in Court how to keep them and he is still praying for increase of grace and faith and knowledge And my Lord many a such man I could bring that cannot a letter on the Booke that for all your seeming Learning would put you to your Trumps if your greatnesse would but descend so farre as to reason with him of the Scriptures and of Christ and so of faith and the like For there 's all his Learning And such unlearned ones they be who goe to heaven yea take it by violence as Christ saith when great Lord Prelates are shut out As Christ saith to the Pharisees The Publicans and â—arlots goe into the Kingdome of God before you for they beleeved Iohns preaching but ye when ye had seen it repented not afterwards that ye might beleeve him But you goe on in your blind way and say pag. 109. The way of knowledge was not that which God thought fittest for mans Salvation 'T is true not such a speculative knowledge as you speak of but God thought it fittest to bring men to salvation by a knowing Faith as before is shewed I will conclude this with the Apostles thunder As we said before so say I now againe if any man preach otherwise then that is delivered in Gods word let him be accursed And if the Scripture accurse him that leads the blind out of his way to which curse all the people say Amen then what curse is due to him that teacheth the blind such a way as leads to certain destruction of Soule and Body Shall not all the people say Amen to this curse L. p. 106. The Credit of the Scripture depends not upon the subservient inducing Cause that leads us to the first knowledge of the Author which leader here is the Church but upon the Author himselfe and the opinion we have of his Sufficiencie P. Doe you not make the credit of the Scripture to depend upon the Authority of the present Church when without this subservient inducing Cause you deny the possibility of beliefe that the Scripture is the word of God For you say expresly pag. 120. When I said Scriptures were Principles to be supposed I did not I could not intend they were prius cognitae known before Tradition Since I confesse every where that Tradition introduces the knowledge of them But if the credit of
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
ever offer to perswade a Persecution in any kind or practise it in the least P. How What doe I heare GOD forbid What neither perswade nor practise Persecution no not in the least And must GOD be named in it too What meaneth then as SAMUEL said to SAUL the bleeting of the Sheepe and the bellowing of the Cattell in mine eares Or you mistook the word when instead of GOD forbid you should have said GOD forgive me both for perswading Persecution and for practising it and that in as high a measure as possibly I could the times considered And GOD forgive should be from your Heart whereas GOD forbid is but from the lippes outward and spoken out of meere Hypocrisie shamelesse grown with Impiety Or else Persecution is with you as sin is with many so frequent and habituall as the custome of Persecuting takes away the sense of it Or els as Paul before his conversion was mad with persecuting the Saints So you are so intoxicated with drinking the blood of innocents that you know not what either you say or do Or in a word notwithstanding you have been so long a Practitioner in this kind of Trade yet you know not what persecution is nor what or who the Saints of GOD be nor who are the true Ministers of Christ nor who are his true members 'T is well if Ignorance will excuse you that you might come once to say with Paul But I was received to mercy for I did it ignorantly through unbelife But can you say so Or rather doe you not sin against the light of Gods Word against the light of your Conscience against the light of naturall Reason and the Law of Humanity and against Gods Law and against Mans Law and I had almost said against the Holy Ghost it selfe Unlesse you be one of those that for blindnesse stumble at noon day How many godly and able Ministers of Christ together with their Wives and Children are cast out and undone by you and all for not daring to obey you in those things wherein of necessity they must have dishonour'd GOD Or for omitting one of your Ceremonies perhaps but once or twice and the like Yet this with you is no persecution no not in any kind What is it then Onely a punishing of the Puritans that so they may be rooted out This you blushed not to say openly in Starre-chamber when you with your Brethren were charged for casting out above a hundred Ministers in Norfolk Suffolk Essex Kent Surrey and where not But you neither practised nor perswaded to it Why did you not disswade Why did you not enterpose Why did you not relieve them when upon Petition to the King they were referred to you No such thing They are a sort of Puritans they must be rooted out This is enough to wash your hands of persecution as Pilate did of his condemning of Christ for they are Puritans So the Popish Prelates in Queen Maries dayes in burning the Martyrs were no persecuters for those Martyrs were Hereticks Nor will the High Priests and Pharisees prove persecuters and murtherers in Crucifying of Christ for they could say He was a seducer and deceiver And so in summe There wil be found no such thing in rerum naturâ not in the whole world as persecution is Now what patience can refrain it self at these things O notorious impious shamelesse gracelesse Hypocrisie Or Hypocrisie shall I call that which hath not the least veile or cloake or vizard or pretence or colour or shadow of a shadow to overshadow it withall but meere shamelesse impiety daring God to his face using his Sacred name as a white veile to lay over the black-butchery of Gods own deare Saints saying God forbid when his own wicked heart and blood-guilty Conscience and foule bloody practises cannot but convince him of a more impious and shamelesse lye then the Divel himselfe except he were incarnate durst make Not practise Persecution in any kind no not in the least What kind of persecution is there ô Prelate whereof thou art not an Actor and that in the highest Degree Dost thou not persecute Gods Ministers with Suspention Silencing Excommunication Deprivatoin Degradation spoyling their dwelling place Confiscation of their goods by intollerable Fines Imprisonment dismembring of their bodies shedding of their blood banishment or driving them to seek for refuge from thy cruell Tyranny among the wild Beasts and wild Woods and wild Salvages in Countryes not inhabited in desolate Deserts the worst of which is to be preferred before thy all-destroying Cruelty Nay when they have escaped thy Lyons Clawes with their Skin dost thou not as the Dragon vomit after them a Flood of persecution with thy venemous tongue So insatiable is thy blood-thirsty Cruelty and yet after all this hast thou a Forehead to say God forbid that I should practise Persecution in any kind no not in the least Now I call heaven and earth to witnesse against thee and that holy and righteous God the Father and King of Saints whom thou persecutest and whose Sacred Name thou darest prophane with tongue and pen judge thee for all thy Cruelties and Lawlesse persecutions of the poore Servants of Iesus Christ. Lawlesse indeed wherein thou outstrippest the persecutions of Stephen Gardiner and Edmond Bonner who had a Law for what they did but thou hast none O what punishments in Hell shall be sufficient for these things I must confesse my zeale is here transported but it is not beyond the Cause provoking it I will conclude with this hearty Prayer though in your words but not with your Spirit God forbid that you should ever to wit for ever perswade Persecution in any kind or practise it in the Least God forbid you should Ever doe it Ever Amen Ever Nay what saith the Lord For the oppression of the poore for the sighing of the needy Now will I arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him Now even Now from him that puffeth at the godly Who is that The Tongue-master he that speaks with flattering lippes and a double heart and proud things saying Who iâ— Lord â—ver us Now Now will the Lord arise against such as are in the highest and ruffe of all their wickednesse And do not you think you are one of these yea and a Prime one too You think Say I Doth it ever enter into your thought that you shal be judged for these things and that Now even Now The Scripture tells us No. For David Saith A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a foole understand this what this when the wicked spring as the grasse and when all the workers of iniquity doe flourish it is that they shal be destroyed for ever Even Then in the top of their flourishing estate they shal be destroyed Yea their flourishing estate is the immediate cause of their perishing when the wicked spring and flourish It is that they shal be destroyed for ever
answered Tamen Romanus est yet he is a Romanist And this Romanist is like the Colloquintida in the pot of pottage of which the young Prophets said to Elizeus Ther 's death in the pot Or like the flye in the Apothecaries box of oyntment it marres and corrupts the whole oyntment And a man may say of your Roman Christians or Christian Romanist which you will as one said of a wicked Prelate who was also a Temporall Prince as you be when he gloryed of his greatnesse as being both a Prelate and a Prince or Earle What shalbecome of the Bishop when the Earle is in hell So what shal become of your Romanist as a Christian when your Christian as a Romanist is in hell L. p. ibid I am willing to hope there are many among them which kâ—ep within the Church and yet wish the Superstitions abolished which they know and which pray to God to forgive their errours in what they know not and which hold the foundation firme and live accordingly and would have all things amended that are amisse were it in their power And to such I dare not deny a possibility of Salvation for that which is Christs in them though they hazzard themselves extremely by keeping so closse to that which is Superstition and in the case of Images comes too neare to Idolatry P. Your Hope and Charity may be much but in this can doe but little But 't is possible that some may keep within the Confines of that Church-Dominions and more powerfull Principality and yet not be of that Church as those seven thousand in Israel forementioned Of such if any such there be we may well hope of their salvation although they cannot live in those places where Popery beares sway but with much danger to their bodies and estates and some to their soules too As I perswade my selfe for all your diligent Inquisition and hunting with your Hounds Beagles and Prosecutions or if you will persecutions in your High Commission and other spirituall Coâ—ts there are many poore honest soules in England that truly feare God and abhorre your superstitions and oppressions but in regard of their bodies and estates cannot be but in dayly danger of falling into your Lyons denne if but once detected But for others who are sensible of your Tyrannicall yoake and groane under the burthens of your superstitions and Ceremonies yet have not the heart and courage of the spirit of Christ to with-draw their necks but indure all your bondage so they may injoy the fleshpots of Aegipt however they may wish to be free yet you know the Proverbe Wishers and Woulders And so of those in the Church of Rome some Errours some may see and be sensible of them and wish them removed but in the mean time will they nill they they must undergoe them and that even against their Conscience so as me thinks this should somwhat abate and snibbe your willingnesse to hope of any possibility of salvation for such as against their Conscience and for worldly respects live in known errour Nor can he possibly avoyd it so long as he lives in and of that Church For as Solomon saith Can a man take fire in his bosome and not be burnt Can one goe upon hot coales and his feet not be burnt so who so toucheth a whorish woman shall not be innocent Now he that lives in and of the Romish Church lives in the whores bosome and is a member of the whore And perhaps many a one feeling how hot the bosome is wisheth he were out of it but hath not the Power being as Solomon saith plunged into a deep pit The mouth of a strange Woman is a deep pit he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therin And once in 't is hard getting out Nor all a mans wishing will doe it But say you he prayes to God to forgive him his Errours that he knows not What then Is he the nearer salvation when he still lives in the errour that he knows and onely wisheth to be amended And doth not many a man live in a known sinne as whoredome or drunkennesse or the like and being convinced of the foulenesse of it and the many evils it brings upon him wishes he could leave it and prayes God to forgive him and yet lives in it still Is he ever the neare to mercy Nay he is the further off as being habituated and hardened in his sin known sin wherein he lives unpenitently Wheras Solomon saith He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy But he that hideth his sins shall not prosper And you here bring some Papist in confessing the errours which he knows not as praying God to forgive them but never a word of his confessing and praying God to forgive those errours which he knows and wherein he lives So here is a hiding of his known errours But it were too grosse to bring him in confessing and deprecating God for his known errours wherein he still liveth and though he wish them amended in the Church of Rome yet amends them not himselfe nor doe you tell us that he doth so much as wish them amended in himselfe and therfore you prudently forbeare the mention of any such thing as his praying to have his known errours forgiven For that should put a man into a desperate case shuting him out of all hope and possibility of salvation to mock God to his face in praying to have those Errours and sins forgiven him in which against his Conscience he both liveth and resolveth no other though he wisheth but to dye But yet say you such hold the foundation Christ. How As they that held him fast when they crucified him For such as live in known sin and errour they as the Apostle saith * crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame Such holding of Christ is not to hold him as a foundation but to overthrow the foundation For Christ dyed not to hold to deliver us from the punishment of sin but from the guilt and dominion of sin by working in us Faith and Repentance So as to professe Christ and to want these yea to live in known sin and errour onely with a faint wishing of amendment is not to hold the foundation Christ but to make him a false foundation as if he were a Saviour of such as so live in known sin and errour as they resolve no other but to live and dye in it And we have proved before that Romes Religion quite overthrows the foundation Christ so as none living and dying in the Faith of that Church can be saved and the more he knows it and yet lives in it the greater is his damnation though he wish never so much to have the errour amended But you say Christ hath a part in them I answere with the Apostle The Foundation of God stands sure and hath this seale The Lord knoweth them that are his and
a shorter period of your life least promising to yourselfe and sleeping in the security of so many yeares more you should be suddainly taken napping as that rich man in the Gospell to whom it was said Thou foole this night shall they take away 〈◊〉 soule from thee And besides you are â—et in a slippery place 〈◊〉 you may fall into suddain destruction as in a moment as the Prophet saith So as there is lesse confidence to be put in that then in your Age. And therfore bethinke your selfe how suddain the time may be that you must goe and give account as you say to God and Christ of the Talent committed to your Charge which you cannot so easily answere before that Judge as you could doe in the Starre-Chamber And remember what you said to the Jesuite pag. 316. Our reckoning wil be heavier if we thus mislead on either side then theirs that follow us But I see I must looke to my selfe for you are secure And are not you full out as secure as the Jesuite But in that you pray that God for Christs sake would be mercifull to yo u. But is that enough to wipe off all old scores to say God be mercifull to me When the Course of a mans life hath been a very Enmity and Rebellion against Christ when he hath spent the Talent of his Strength and Wit Meanes and Friends to the dishonour of God in oppressing Christs word persecuting his Ministers and People profaning and polluting the service of God with humane Ordinances and will-worship forcing mens Consciences to conformity and the like doe you think to salve all with a Lord have mercy upon me Nay you seem to be in good earnest when you say and pray if God for Christs sake would be mercifull unto you But wherein or for what should God for Christs sake be mercifull unto you Which of your sins your scarlet sins your Episcopall sins doe you confesse to God and because publick unto the world that truly repenting of them God for Christs sake may be mercifull to you Doe you confesse and repent of your persecuting of Gods Ministers and People for their Conscience sake Nay you are so farre from this that you say God forbid not God forgive that I should perswade to persecution in any kind or practise it in the least So as you in all this persecute none no not you nor yet perswade others to it nor disswade neither And yet you still continue a persecutor as accounting it not a sin but a vertue not vicious but rather meritorious to root out the Puritans And what say you to your more then Barbarous shedding of the Innocent Blood of Gods servants and Christs witnesses mangling their Bodies and breaking them in pieces causelesly separating Man and Wife to satisfie your wicked malice and so to murther them with your intollerable oppressions Doe you crave mercy of God for this Or is your guilty Conscience still seared and stupified Is your heart still hardened Do you need no mercy for such cruell shedding of Innocent blood David confessed his blood-shed and found mercy But you continue your cruelty still in cold blood What Do you think that because Gods people are as sheep appointed for the slaughter and you the chiefe Butcher therfore you sin not in devouring and spoyling so many good Ministers with their Families and Flocks O stupid Conscience O desperate soule And so still desperately you goe on in justifying your selfe in all that you have done and calling God to be witnesse too saying Who knows that however in many weaknesses yet I have with a faithfull and single heart bound to his free Grace for it laboured the meeting the blessed meeting of Truth and Peace in his Church O shamelesse hypocrisie O blasphemous wretch Doth God know Is God the Author of all thy impiety iniquity cruelty craft hypocrisie and dissimulation of thy faithlesse and false heart in thy plotting to bring thy false Truth and thy turbulent Peace with the Whore of Babylon that notorious enemy of Christ and his true Spouse his Church to a meeting to a blessed yea to a cursed meeting O GOD thou searcher of all hearts behold this blaspemous Wretch calling thee for a witnesse of his notorious and perfidious false heart and ascribing it to thy free Grace as the moving and helping cause of all his impious practises O Lord Be not mercifull to any wicked Transgressor that dare thus desperately take thy sacred Name in vaine and make thy Grace the father of his gracelesse actions Seest thou not ô thou All-seeing and All-revenging GOD how this man hath been a prime Instrument of oppressing thy Word of forbidding it to be preached therein denying and destroying the Doctrine of thy free Grace which here he hypocritically nameth of persecuting thy faithfull Ministers and People even to root them out Of proclaming Libertinisme in the publicke profanation of thy Sabbaths and violation of thy holy Commandement Of setting up Idolatrous Altars to the denying of the Lord Iesus Christ our onely Altar whereon our Persons and sacrifices offered up unto thee are accepted of Thee Of bringing into thy worship sundry supersâ—tious Idolatrous Rites and Ceremonies in Adoration of Altars Names praying towards the East Of setting up Images and Crucifixes those Idols in the publick place of Worship Of putting down preaching of thy holy Word upon thy holy Sabbaths especially in the Afternoones when there is most need and people should be aptest and best at leasure generally to heare Of inlarging and making heavier the yoake of Bondage and Tyranny upon the necks of thy People in increasing of more Ceremonies to the intollerable vexation of thy Children and incrochment and usurpation upon Christs Kingdome and royall soverainty as sole King over his Church and Lord of the Consciences of his people Yea surely thou hast seen all these things for thou beholdest mischiefe and spight even to requite it with thy hand and therfore the poore committeth himselfe unto thee For thou art the helper of the fatherlesse Therfore arise ô Lord ô God Lift up thine hand forget not the humble Wherfore doth the wicked contemn thee ô God He hath said in his heart Thou wilt not require it But Lord break thou the arme of the wicked and the evil man seek out his wickednesse till thou find none For wherfore should the Heathen say where is their God O let our God be known among the Heathen in our fight by the revenging of the blood of thâ— servants which is shed And let the sighing of the Prisoners come before thee according to the greateesse of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to dye And render unto our Neighbours sevenfold into their bosome their reproach wherewith they have reproched thee ô Lord. So we thy People and Sheep of thy pastture will give thee thanks for ever we will shew forth thy praise to all Generations Now to return to you againe