your running negligence which should help to make your sophisticall criticisme perfect sense Truly Sir if it be so high a fault to picture God I may justly wonder that any picture of a Saint turned into an Idoll should be retained and pleaded for by any man that pretends to be a Protestant and if it be impossible to picture God it is also impossible to picture God-man And I beleeve that you will acknowledge our Mediatour to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. That the Sun and Images cannot be put in the scales of a comparison in point of fitness to be preserved is a truth written with a Sun-beame Sir I never durst argue from the abuse of a thing against the use of it if the thing be necessary But the Sun is necessary and Images are not necessary ergo there is no parity of reason betweene the termes of your comparison 5. It appeares to me by your shifting fallacy that you make Copes as necessary as clean Linnen 6. You will never be able to prove that all that the prelates and their Faction have borrowed out of the Missall Ritualls Breviary Pontificall of Rome are to be found in any Lyturgie received by the Primitive Church And I would intreat you to consider whether they who doe profess a seperation from the Church of Rome can in reason receive and imbrace such trash and trumpery And yet though you would willingly be esteemed a Protestant I find you very unwilling to part with any thing which the Prelates have borrowed from the Court rather then Church of Rome 7. Your next Paragraph doth concerne Tradition I shall give you leave to preferre the constant and universall consent of the Church of Christ in all ages before the reason of any single man but Sir you doe very ill to call the testimony of the spirit speaking in the word to the Conscience of private men a private spirit I thinke you are more profane in the stating of this point then Bellarmine himselfe 8. You have not yet proved that any Prelate can challenge the Sole power of Ordination and Iurisdiction Iure divino 9. I should be glad to know for how many yeares you will justifie the purity of the Doctrine Discipline and Government in England I beleeve the Doctrine Discipline and Government of the Prelaticall faction whom you call the Church was not excellent if you reckon from 1630. to 1640. and that is time enough for men of our time for to examine I beleeve that you will acknowledge that the Prelates did lay an Ostracisme upon those who did oppose them who were in the right both in the point of Doctrine and Disciplâ—…ne we shall in due time dispute Though Prelacy it selfe be an usurpation yet there were many other encroachments which may justly be called Prelaticall usurpations and the Parliament hath sufficiently declared its judgement in this point they have clearly proved that Prelacy had taken such a deepe root in England and had such a destructive influence not only into the pernicious evills of the Church but Civill State that the Law of right reason even Salus populi quae suprema lex est did command and compell them to take away both roote and branch you may dispute that point with them Sir you cannot prove that Prelacy is an Order of the Church as ancient as the Christian Church it self and made venerable by the never interrupted reception of it in all Ages of the Church but ours 10. I am no Turkish Prophet I never preacht any piece of the Alchoran for good Doctrine much less did I ever make it a piece of the Gospell all that I say is this that Christians incorporated in a Civill State may make use of Civill and naturall means for their outward safety And that the Parliament hath a Legall power more then sufficient to prevent and restrain Tyranny Finally the Parliament hath power to defend that Civill right which we have to exercise the true Protestant Religion this last point is sure of highest consequence because it concernes Gods immediate honour and the Peoples temporall and eternall good Pray Sir shew me if you can why he who saith the Protestants in Ireland may defend their Civill right for the free exercise of their Religion against the furious assaults of the bloudie Rebells doth by that assertion proclaime himself a Turke and Denison the Alchoran you talke of the Papists Religion Sir their faith is faction their Religion is Rebellion they think they are obliged in conscience to put Heretiques to the sword this Religion is destructive to every Civill State into which true Protestants are incorporated therefore I cannot but wonder at your extravagancy in this point Sir Who was it that would have imposed a Popish Service Book upon Scotland by force of Armes You presume that I conceive the King had an intent to extirpate the Protestant Religion Sir I am sure that they who did seduce or over-awe the King had such a designe I doe not beleeve that the Queene and her Agents the Papists in England who were certainly confederate with the Irish Rebells had any intent to settle the true Protestant Religion you cannot but beleeve that their intent was to extirpate the Protestant Religion by the sword and to plant Popery in its stead I know Christ doth make 〈◊〉 and breake the spirituall power of Antichrist by his word and spirit for Antichrist is cast out of the hearts and consciences of men by the spirit of the Lord Iesus but Christ is King of Nations as well as King of Saints and will breake the temporall power of Antichrist by Civill and naturall meanes If Papists and Delinquents are in readiness to resist or assault the Parliament by Armes how can the Parliament be defended or Delinquents punished but by force of Armes I know men must be converted by a spirituall perswasion but they may be terrified by force of Armes from persecution All that I say is the Parliament may repell force with force and if men were afraid to profess the truth because of the Queenes Army and are now as fearfull to maintaine errours for feare of the Parliament the scales are even and we may by study conference disputation and prayer for a blessing upon all be convinced and converted by the undenyable demonstrations of the Spirit Sir this is my perswasion and therefore I am sure far from that Mahumetan perswasion of which I am unjustly accused 11. I am glad that you speake out and give light to your darke roome I did not accuse you of Conventiâ—…les I beleeve you hate those Christian meetings which Tertullian Minutius Pliny and others speake of we had lights and witnesses good store at our meetings And as for your conceit that I deserve to be in Bedlam because of the predominancy of my pride and passion and the irregularity of my will Sir I confess that I deserve to be in Hell a worse place then Bedlam and if you scoffe at
Sir the Gospell at that very time when the 〈◊〉 of it was accompanied with Miracles obtained not alwaies that successe which the saving Doctrine of it deserved The Iewes saies S. Paul 1. Cor. 1. 22. Require a signe that is they would believe it no farther then they saw Miracle for it And the Greekes That is the learned Gentiles seek after wisdome that is They would believe no more of it then could be proved to them by Demonstration Nay notwithstanding all those great Miracles which were wrought by Christ and his Apostles after him S. Paul tels us at the 23. verse of that Chapter that the vilenesse of Christs death did so diminish the Authority of his Doctrine though confirmed by Miracles that the Preaching of Him crucified was a stumbling block to the Iewes and Foolishnesse to the Greekes Next Sir As Christ hath no where commanded that men should be compelled to receive the Gospell by any Terrors or Inflâ—…ctions of Temporall punishments so I finde that all such endeavours are very unsutable to his practise You know what his answer was to his two zealous Disciples who would have called for fire from heaven to consume those Samaritans who would not receive him ye know not saith he of what spirit ye are of The sonne of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Which Answer of hiâ—… was like the Commission which he gave to his Apostles when he sent them forth to Preach the Gospell of verall Citties which extended no farther then thâ—…s If they will not receive you shake off the dust of your feet against them for a Testimony that you have been there Agâ—…eable to this pâ—…actise of Christ is â—…hat Canon whicâ—… pâ—…st in the Councell of Toledo which sâ—…ies praecipit sanâ—…ta Synodus Neminâ—… deinceps ad credendum vim inferre 'T is ordered by this holy Synod that no man be henceforth compâ—…lled to believe the Gospell A Canon which I wish the mâ—… of the Countrey where 't was made had worne in their Ensignes when they made Wâ—…e upon the Indians And agreeable to this Canon is the saying of Tertullian Lex nova non se vindicat ultore gladio The new Law allowes not it's Apostles to revenge the contempt of it by the Sword And agreeable to this saying of Tertullian is thâ—… 〈◊〉 in Procopius where one tellâ—… Iustinian the Emperâ—…or that in striving to force the Samaritans to be 〈◊〉 by the Sword he made himselfe successor to the two over zealous Apostles who because they would not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master would have destroy'd them by fire Thâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…ing â—…o to deale freely Sir both with you and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I read the writings of some of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wâ—…o think all others Infidells who are not of thâ—… 〈◊〉 And whose usuall language 't is towards all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from them in Poynts though in themâ—… indâ—…fferent and no way necessary to Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make Covenants raise Armies stâ—…p them 〈◊〉 â—…ir Estates and compell them to come in 〈◊〉 thinks a 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Alcoran is before meâ—… anâ—… the Preachers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…christian Doctrines 〈◊〉 they walke our English streets in the shape of Assembly Protestant Divines seem to me to be a Constantinople Colledge of Mahomets Priests To speak yet mâ—…re plâ—…ly tâ—… yâ—…u Sir I am so farâ—…e from thinking it a peece of Christian Doctrine to Preach that ' tiâ—… lawfull if it may not be done by perswasion to take from men the Liberty even of their erring Conscience that the new Army which shall be raised which I hope never to see for the prosecution and advancement of such an End however they may be Scots or English-men by their Birth will seem to me an Army of 〈◊〉 and to come into the field with Scymitars by their sides and Tulipants and Turbants on their Heads How farre Defensive Armes may be taken up for Religion cannot well be resolved without a Distinction I conceive Sir that if such a warre fall out between Two Independent Nations That which makes the Assâ—…ylants to be in the wrong will necessarily make the Defendants to be in the Right which is as I have proved to you a want of rightfull power to plant Religion by the Sword For in all such Resistances not only They who fight to preserve a true but They who fight because they would not be compelled to part with a false Religion which they beleeve to be a true are innocentâ—…like â—…like The Reason is which I have intimated to you before because All Religion being built up on Faith and Faith being only Opinion built upon Autority and Opinion built upon Autority having so much of the Liberty 〈◊〉 mens wills in it that they may chuse how farre they will or will not beleeve that Autority No man hath Rightâ—…o â—…o take the Liberty of another mans will from him or to prescribe to him what he shall or shall no beleeve though in all outward things hit other have sold his Liberty to him and made his Will his Subject where both parties therefore are Independent and One no way Subiect to the Other Religion it selfe though for the propagation of it selfe cannot warrant the One to invade the Others Freedome But 't is permiâ—…ted to the Invaded by both the Lawes of God that of Nature and Scripture too unlesse they be guilty of some preceedent Injury which is to be repayred by Satisfaction not seconded by Resistance to repell Force with Force And 〈◊〉 the Army now in Conduct under Sir Thomas Fairefax be of this perswasion thus stated I shall not think it any slander from the Mouth of a Presbiterian who thinks otherwise to be called an Independent If a Prince who is confessedly a Prince and hath Supreme power make Warre upon his Subjects for the propagation of Religion the Nature of the Defence is much alter'd For though such a Warre whether made for the Imposition of a false Religion or a true be as uniust as if 't were made upon a forreigne Nation yet this injustice in the Prince cannot warrant the taking up of Armes against Him in the Subject Because bâ—…ng the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Supreme within his owâ—… Kingdome As 〈◊〉 power concerning the publick secular Governmentâ—…f â—…f 〈◊〉 it selfe iâ—…to Him so doth the ordering of the Outward exercise of Religion too In both Cases he is the Iudge of Controversies Not so unerring or Infallible as that all his Determinations must be received for Oracles or that his Subjects are so obliged to be of his Religion that if the Prince be an Idolater a Mahumetan or Papist 't would be disobedience in them not to be so too But let his Religion be what it will let him be a Ieroboam or one of such an unreasonable Idolatry as to command his people to worship Calves and Burn Incense to Gods scarce fit to be made the Sacrifice Though he be not to be
your selfe that the great Councell of the Kingdome by whom you are imployed if they will vouchsafe to reade my Sermon will not presently discerne your Art And withall perceive that though the Text upon which I out of the Integrity of my soule preacht that Sermon stick as close to False Prophets as the Cenâ—…aures shirt did to Hercules and set them a raging yet that they having never Parliamentarily profest to propagate Religion by their speare can no way be concerned when I say that such a perswasion in us Christians would be Mahumetan and we thereby should translate a piece of the Alchoran into a piece of the Gospel Sir I am so confident of the wisdome of that Honourable Assembly of my owne innocent meaning and of your guilt who have beene one of those Turkish Prophets and in your Letter to me still are who have preacht that piece of the Alchoran for good doctrine that for answer to all your slye impotently-malicious mis-applications and shiftings off that which I have said onely of such as your selfe to the Parliament I shall onely appeale to my Sermon And by that if you please to undertake the Devils part and be my Accuser shall be content to stand or fall In the meane time Sir I must repeat what I said before that if it be read or lookt on through those refractions with which you have mis-shap'd and crookt it I shall consent to what you say in the end of your filthy Paragraph That 't was once a Sermon but you almost à Carceribus usque ad metam have made it a Libell In your next what shall I call it you are very Critically pleasant And because I talke of a Religion wherein I was borne aske me whether I were borne in a Surplice or Cope and then very distinguishingly proceed and say Christiani non nascuntur sed fiunt To the first I reply that it had been as unnaturall for me to be borne in a Surplice or Cope as for you to come into the world with a little Geneva set-ruffe about your neck Next Sir for your sharpe distinction I hope though the Muses be your Step-dames yet you thinke not the figures of Rhetorick to be so superstitious that it shall be Popery in me to make use of a Metonymy and to express my selfe by the Adjunct when I mean the place and Country I grant Sir that men are not borne but re-born Christians yet 't will be no great Errour in speech for a man to say he is born in Christianity if he be a Christian and were born in the place where Christianity is establish'd Sir I doubt you begin to think secular learning to be a profane thing And that you are bound to persecute Tropes out of Expression as you have Liturgy out of the Church If you do Sir we shall in time if we proceed in this conflict fulfill a peece of one of Saint Paul's Epistles between us I become a Barbarian to you and you to me I am glad to hear you say That the Parliament will not suppress the true Protestant Religion Sir I never thought they would But then 't will be no harm to you if I pray That whilst you pursue such a through Reformation of it as of late years hath left it doubtfull in the minds of the people what the true Protestant Religion is you let not in Popery at that Gate by which they strive to shut it out If Queen Maries dayes do once more break in upon us through the â—…luce which we open to them by our unsetledness and Distractions and if I then fall a sacrifice in defence of the same Religion for which I now contend I hope you then will think your self confuted And no longer beleeve that I am such an ill Iudge of Religions or so profusely prodigall of my life that I would make it a Holocaust or Oblation either to Tyranny or Popery In short Sir let the King and Parliament agree to burn Copes and Surplices to throw away the Common-Prayer-Book or to break our Windows I shall not place so much Religion in them as not to think them alterable and this done by Right Authority But as for the Covenant 't is a pill Sir which no secular interest can so sweeten to me that I should think my self obliged to be so far of any mans Religion as to swallow both parts of a contradiction in an Oath if it appear to me to be such Your promise that my Sermon should be first confuted before it be burnt gives me hope it will be longer liv'd then upon the first report I thought it would But then I wonder you should passe that sentence on it and choose Paraeus for your precedent I must confesse to you Sir had I written so destructively of Parliaments as He did of Kings I should think it no injustice from that High Court if they should doom me the Author to be sacrificed on the same Altar with my Book But having upon the highest warrant that can possibly lend courage to a good action directed it wholy against False Prophets and no where reflected upon the Members of either House but where I maintain it to be unlawfull to speak evill of dignities to condemn it to the flame for speaking such Truths as I could not leave unspoken unlesse I had prevaricated with the Scripture will be so far from the reproach of a punishment that 't will encrease the esteem and value of it from its sufferings and make it ascend to heaven as the Angel in the Book of Iudges did in the breath and ayrc and perfume of an acceptable sacrifice to God Sir As your she-Dâ—…ciple did very much mis-inform you if she told you that I endeavoured to incense an Officer of this Garrison against you so 't was one Errour more in her as upon just occasion I shall demonstrate to you to tell you that I vented damnable Doctrines in her Company which I was not able to maintain She is my Gentle Adversary and I desire she should know that as I desire not to fight serious duells with that unequall Sex so when ever she will again provoke me to a Dispute so it be not at Saint Maries for S. Paul forbids women to argue in the Church she shall return with prizes and I will confess my self conquer'd In the mean time Sir whither she came to you or you went to her Her Sex puts me in mind of some false Teachers not mention'd in my Sermon but branded by Saint Paul * for creeping into houses and leading captive silly Women If your Intelligencer be one of these as I shrewdly suspect she is I should be sorry for those Friends sake in whose Acquaintance we both meet that she should be lyable to the Character of such silly women in the next verse where 't is said That they were ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth You proceed and say That you were in manifest Danger to loose
together with the Cries of Widdowes and Teares of Orphans were smooth'd and glazed into the milder appearances perhaps of publique Utility necessity of State In briefe these Prophets here in the Text dealt with some mens vices as the Philospher would have us deale with our Affections transformed and wrought them into Ornaments and vertues Or lastly whether we use the word Gypsabant 't is a word taken from those who deale in playster And the meaning of the place will be That as such Artificers by laying a new Crust upon old Decayes doe many times make a falling building seem strong and to the certaine danger of the dweller doe so veile and cover aged Walls as to disguise Rottennesse and make a ruine seem habitable So these Prophets dealt with the sinnes of their times They whited Sepulchers and adorned Rottennesse and putrefaction Wicked designes had a faire crust put upon them And ruinous projects were supported with splendid holy Colours If you will have mee speak more home to the minde of the Text some ambitious men built Houses on the Sand and some flattering servile Prophets dawbed them with weake untempered morter Which discovers to us the frailty and unsoundnesse of all such proceedings as are not built upon Iustice or Truth those two immoveable Rocks of the Scripture And leads us on to the next part of the Text. For the clearer understanding and interpretation of which words it will be necessary that I once more briefely reconcile the severall Translations of them That which we in English doe read untempered morter a very Classicall Interpreter of the Bible reads thus Prophetae ejus linebant eos insulso Her Prophets have dawbed them with a thing which is insipid or which hath no salt in it From whence some have made this exposition of the place That though the thing with which these Prophets disguised the soule actions of their times were Holinesse and Religion and though it be true that we may say of Religion as Christ said of the Teachers of it that it is the salt of the world yet this salt sprinkled upon forbidden enterprizes leaves off to be sale and loseth its savour To speak yet more plainly to you Holinesse it selfe applyed to wicked designes leaves off to be Holinesse And they who put sanctity to that vile use to serve onely as the paint to make the unlawfull projects of others seem faire adde thus much guilt of their owne to the others that they turne Religion it selfe into their crime And I may confidently say that they had beene much more innocent if in such forbidden cases they had beene lesse holy Saint Ierome translates the words thus Propheta obliniebant eos absque temperamento The Prophets dawbed them with a thing which would not piece or unite or make a mixture From whence some have given this Interpretation of the place That however religious pretences may be found out to mask irreligious deeds and however Holinesse may be made the vermilion to impiety yet there can never such a mixture or composition passe between them that it shall cease to be Impiety because it hath piety joyned to it But rather as gilt upon false coins makes it so much the more counterfeit or as Tinne silver'd over is so much the more Treason because 't is silver'd over and Copper so much the more deserves hanging because it weares the Kings Image and the Inscription on it is written in golden Letters So 't is with bad actions silver'd over with Religion they are so farre from becomming good that they double their iniquity and become so much the more counterfeit And as the spirit of Delusion is so much the more the spirit of Delusion when hee transformes himselfe into an Angel of Light so foule projects are never fouler then when there is a glory and lustre put upon them In all such disproportioned Commixtures where the worse is sure to vitiate and corrupt the better we may not onely ask the Question What agreement there can be betweene light and darknesse or what fellowship Christ can have with Belial but we may boldly pronounce that light thus joyned with darknesse loseth its rayes and becomes darknesse And that Christ thus joyned and matcht with Belial degenerates into a Deceiver and becomes Belial too The third and last translation of this place which our English Translators have followed is that of Vaâ—…ablus who renders the words thus Prophetae ejus linebant eos luto infirmo Her Prophets that is the Prophets of Jerusalem have dawbed them with infirme untempered morter That is as Dyonisius Carthusianus very fully expounds the Metaphor Confirmabant eos in errore persuasionibus non solidis sed fucatis The Prophets confirmed them in their errors with weake untempered Reasons All which severall Interpretations doe agree in this one and the same undenyable sense That such is the conscious guilty unjustifiable nature of sinne so suspicious and fearefull 't is to be seen publiquely in its owne shape that it not onely deales with all sinners as it did with the first two upon a mutuall sight and discovery of themselves shewes them ashamed and naked to one another but to cover and veyle their nakednesse and shame sends them to such poore fraile unprofitable shelters as Bushes and Fig-leaves which though they should grow in Paradise it selfe or should be gathered from the same holy ground in which Innocence and the Tree of Life were planted together yet applyed to hide an oppression or pluckt to cover a sacrilege they will still retaine the fading transitory nature of leaves which is to decay and wither between the hands of the Gatherer and lose their colour and freshnesse in the very laying on and to every well rectified religiously judging eye instead of being a veyle to hide will become one of the wayes to betray a nakednesse To speake yet more plainly to you and to lay it as home as I can to every one of your consciences who heare me this day If the designe and project be unlawfull and contrary to Gods Commandements let there be a Prophet found to pronounce it holy let there be a Statist found to pronounce it convenient let Reason of State be joyned to Religion and publique utility to quotations of Scripture Lastly let it be adorned with all the varnishes and paintings taken either from Policy or Christianity which may render it faire and amiable to the deluded multitude yet such is the deceiveable nature of such projects such a worme such a selfe destroyer growes up with them that like Ionas Gourd something cleaves to their root which makes their very foundation ruinous and fatall to them At best they are but painted Tabernacles of clay oâ—… palaces built with untemp red morter The first discovery of their hypocrisie turnes them into heaps and the fate of the scarlet whore in the Revelation befalls them whose filthinesse and abominations were no sooner opened and divulged but she was dismembred and torn in
pieces by her owne Idolaters and Lovers Here then if any expect that I should apply what hath beene said to our times and that I should take the liberty of some of our Moderne Prophets who have by their rude Invectives from the Pulpit made what ever Names are High and Great and Sacred and Venerable among us cheap and vile and odious in the eares of the people If any I say expect that by way of parallell of one people with another I should here audaciously undertake to show that what ever Arts were used to make bad projects seeme plausible and holy in this Prophets time have been practiced to make the like bad projects appeare plausible and holy now Or that in our times the like Irreligious Compliance hath past between some Spirituall men and Lay to cast things into the present Confusion I hope they will not take it ill if I deceive their Expectation For my owne part as long as there is such a piece of Scripture as this Diis non maledices thou shalt not revile the Gods that is thou shalt not onely not defame them by lying but shalt not speake all truthes of them which may turn to their Infamy and reproach I shall alwayes observe it as a piece of obligatory Religion not to speak evill no not of offending dignities Much lesse shall I adventure to shoot from this sacred place my owne ill-built Iealousies and Suspitions for Realities and Truths Which if I should doe 't would certainly savour too much of his Spirit of Detraction who hauing lost his modesty as well as Religion Obedience to the Scandall and just offence of all loyall Eares here present was not affraid to forget the other part of that Text which saies Nec maledices principi in populo meo Thou shalt not reproach the Ruler of my people Yet because so many strange Prophets of our wilde licentious times have preacht up almost five years Commotion for a Holy war And because in truth no warre can be Holy whose cause is not justifiable If I should grant them what they have proclamed from so many Pulpits that the Cause for which they have all this while some of them so zealously fought as well as preacht hath beene Liberty of Conscience or in other termes for the Reformation of a corrupted degenerated Church Or to speak yet more like themselves for the Restitution of the Protestant Religion growne Popish if I say all this should be granted them yet certainly if Scripture Gospell Fathers Schoolmen Protestant Divines of the most reverend and sober marke and Reason it selfe have not deceived mee all Sermons which make Religion how pure soever to be a just cause of a Warre doe but dawb the undertakers with untempered Morter For however it be an Article in the Turkish Creed that they may propagate their Law by their Speare yet for us who are Christians to be of this Mahumetane perswasion were to transfer a piece of the Alcoran into a piece of the Gospell And to make Christ not onely the Author of all those Massacres which from his time to ours have worne that Holy Impression but 't were to make him over-litterally guilty of his owne saying that he came not to send peace but a Sword into the World For though it be to be granted that nothing can more conduce to the future happinesse of men then to be of the true Religion yet I doe not finde that Christ hath given power to any to compell men to be happy or commanded that force should be used for the collation of such a Benefit All the wayes more proportioned for the atchieving of such an end hee hath in his Gospel prescribed namely preaching and perswasion and Holy example of life He bade his Apostles goe and teach all Nations not stir up one Nation against another or divide Kingdomes against themselves if they would not receive the Gospell This had been plainly to joyne the Sword of the flesh to the Sword of the Spirit Which to save their Lives and Fortunes might perhaps have made some Hypocrites and dissemblers without who would neverthelesse have remained Pagans and Infidels within In short some things in the Excellâ—…ncy and Height of the Doctrines of Christian Religion being no way demonstrable from Humane principles but depending for the credit and evidence of their truth upon the Authority of Christs miracles conveyed along in Tradition and Story cannot in a naturall way of Argumentation force assent Since as long as there is such a thing in men as liberty of understanding all arguments even in a Preaching and perswasive way which carry not necessity of demonstration in their Forehead may reasonably 〈◊〉 rejected Much lesse have I met with it in all my progresse of Dâ—…vinity or Philosophy convincingly maintained that men upon every slight disagreement or dissent in Religion are to be whipt or beaten into a Consent or that the plunde of mens Estates is a fit medium to beget a Beleefe or perswasion in their Minds Here then should I once more grant the charge of these Prophets to be true a very heavy one I confesse that the Protestant Religion among us had very farre taken wing and had almost resigned its place in this Island to the Romish Superstition Nay suppose which is yet farre worse that a great and considerable part of this Kingdome had through the Corruption of the times not onely relapst from the Protestant Religion in particular but from the Christian Faith in generall suppose I say which is the worst that can be supposed that they who have so frequently of late been branded for Papists had out-right turned Infidels however in such a case that Warre which fights against the Errours of men thus lost and proposeth to it selfe no other end but their Repentance and Conversion may to some perhaps seem to weare the Helmet of their Salvation and the Army which thus strives to save men by the sword may to some seem an Army of Apostles yet I doe not finde that to come into the field with an armed Gospel is the way chosen by Christ to make Proselites The Scripture indeed tells us of some who took the Kingdome of Heaven by violence But of any who by violence may have it imposed upon them 't is no where recorded But alas my Brethren if I may speak freely to you in the defence of that defamed Religion in which I was borne and to which I should account it one of the greatest blessings that God can bestow upon me if I might with the Holy Fathers of our Reformation fall a Sacrifice that which these men call Idolatry and Superstition and by names yet more odious was to farre from having shrined it selfe in our Church So little of that drosse and Ore and tinne which hath lately filled our best Assemblies with so much noyse and Clamour was to be found among us that with the same unfainednesse that I would confesse my sinnes to God and hope to
obtaine pardon for them I doe professe that I cannot thinke the Sun in all his heavenly course for so many yeares beheld a Church more blest with purity of Religion for the Doctrines of it or better establisht for the Government and Discipline of it then ours was And therefore if I were presently to enter into dispute with the greatest Patriarch among these Prophets who even against the Testimony of sense it selfe will yet perversely strive to prove that our Church stood in such need of Reformation that the growing Superstitions of it could not possibly be expiated but by so much Civill Warre I should not doubt with modesty enough to prove back again to him that all such weak irrationall Arguments as have onely his zeale for their Logick are not onely composed of untempered Morter But that in seeing those spots and blemishes in our Church which no good Protestants else could ever see 't will be no unreasonable inference to conclude him in the number of those erroneous Prophets here in the Text. Who to the great Scandall and abuse of their Office and Function did not onely palliate and gild over the publique sins of their times but did it like Prophets and saw Vanity too Which is the next part of the Text And is next to succeed in your attentions If the Philâ—…sophers rule be true that things admit of definitions according to their essences and that the nearer they approach to nothing the nearer they dâ—…aw to no Description to goe about to give you an exact definition of a thing impossible to be defined or to endeavour to describe a thing to you which hath been so much disputed whether it be a thing were to be like those Prophets here in the Text first to see Vanity my selfe and then to perswade you that there is a Reality and Substance in it Yet to let you see by the best lights I can what is here meant by Vanity I will joyne an inspired to a Heathen Philosopher Solomon whose whole Book of Ecclesiastes is but a Tract of Vanity as we may gather from the instances there set downe places vanity in mutability and change And because all things of this lower world consist in vicissitude change so farre that as Seneca said of Rivers Bis in idem flumen non descendimus we cannot step twice into the same stream so we may say of most Sublunarie things whose very beings do so resemble streams ut vix idem bis conspiciamus that we can scarce behold some things twice that wisest among the sonnes of men whose Philosophy was as spacious as there were things in nature to bee knowne calls all things under the Sunne vanity because all things under the Sunne are so lyable to inconstancy and change that they fleet away and vanish whilst they are considered and hasten to their decay whilst we are in the Contemplation of them Aristotle desines vanity to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing which hath not some reasonable end or purpose belonging to it For this reason he calls emptinesse and vacuity vanity Because there is so little use of it in nature that to expell it things have an inclination placed in them to performe actions against their kinde Earth to shut out a vacuity is taught to flie up like fire and fire to destroy emptinesse is taught to fall downe like earth And for this reason another Philosopher hath said that colours had there not been made eyes to see them and sounds had there not beene eares made to heare them had been vanities and to no purpose And what they said of sounds and colours we may say of all things else not onely all things under the Sun but the Sun it selfe who is the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eye of the world without another eye to behold him or to know him to be so had been one of Aristotles vanities As then in Nature those things have deserved the name of vanities which either have no reasonable end or purpose belonging to them or else are altogether subject to Mutability and change so 't is in policy and Religion too To doe things by weake unreasonable inconstant principles principles altogether unable to support and upold the weight and structure of publique businesse built upon them or to doe things with no true substantiall solid usefull but a meere imaginary good end belonging to them As for example to alter the whole frame and Government of a State not that things may be mended but that they may run in another course then they did before or to change the universally received Government of a Church meerely for change sake and that things may be new not that they may bee better is a vanity of which I know not whether these Prophets here in the Text were guilty but when I consider the unreasonable changes already procured and the yet farther endlesse changes as unreasonably still pursued by the Prophets of our times I finde so much vacuity and emptinesse in their desires so much interested zeale and so little dis-interested reason so much novelty mistaken for reformation and withall so much confusion preferred before so much decency and order that I cannot but apply the Wise mans Ingemination to them and call their proceedings Vanity of vanities For if we may call weak groundlesse improbable surmises and conjectures vanities have not these Prophets dealt with the mindes of vuâ—…gar people as Melancholy men use to deale with the clouds raised monstrous formes and shapes to fright them where no feare was Have they not presented strange visions to them Idolatrie in a Church window Superstition in a white Surplice Masse in our Common-prayer Booke and Antichrist in our Bishops Have they not also to make things seem hideous in the State cast them into strange fantasticall Chymera figures And have they not like the fabulous walking Spirits wee read of created imaginary Apparitions to the people from such things flight unsolid melting Bodies as Ayre And for all this if you enquire upon what true stable principle or ground either taken from reason which is now preacht to be a saecular prophane heathen thing or from Scripture which is now made to submit to the more unerring rule of fancy they have proceeded or what hath been the true cause of their so vaine imaginations you will finde that contrary to all the rules of right judgement either common to men or Christians they have been guided meerely by that Causa per accidens that fallible erroneous accidentall cause which hath alwayes been the mother of mistakes Socrate ambulante coruscavit Because it lightned when Socrates took the Ayre one in the company thought that his walking was the occasion of the flash this certainly was a very vaine and foolish inference yet not more vaine and foolish then theirs who have â—…right people to conclude that all pictures in Church-windowes are â—…dols because some out of a misguided devotion have worshipt â—…hem or that
not without much violence offer'd to his Text He directed the vse and Application of it to me whom after some characteristicall reproaches of my person and defamations of my Sermon He challenged to a publike Disputation with him This after two dayes coming to my knowledge I disputed with my selfe what I was to doe in such a case To returne reproaches for reproaches or to vindicate my selfe in the place where I was thus publikely reviled had bin to make my selfe Second in a fault which the whole Congregation condemned in him as the First Besides if I could have dispens'd with my selfe for being so unchristianly revengefull as to remove part of the Civill Warre which hath too long imbrued our Fields into the Temple and there to answer Challenges and fight Duells from the pulpit this licence was denyed me who have for divers monthes beene compelled to be a speechless member of this silenced Vniversity Againe To sleepe over my infamy and to dissemble my disgrace had beene to beget an opinion in the mindes of those that heard him that either I wanted a good cause or else my good cause wants a Defender At length something contrary I confess to the peaceableness of my studies which never delighted much in those quarrelsome parts of Learning which raise tempests between men following the Scripture counsell which is to take my offending Brother aside in private and to tell him of his fault I resolved by the secresie of writing to wipe off those Calumnies for the future and to answer the bold Challenge for the present which hee hurl'd at me in the Pulpit and having first banish'd all gall and Bitternesse from my pen sent him this following Letter SIR THat a Text of Scripture in your handling should weare two faces and the Doctrine of it should bee made to looke one way and the use of it another is at all no wonder to me But that pretending so much to Holiness and Christianity as you doe you should thinke the Pulpit a fit place to revile me in would hardly enter into my beleif were not the Congregation that heard you on Sunday morning last at S. Maryes my cloud of Witnesses From some of which I am informed that you solemnly charged me with imprudence and impudence for publishing a late Sermon against false Prophets SIR Though report and my name perfixt in the Title-Page might probably perswade you that I am the Author of it yet to assure you that I caused it to be publish'd or consented to the printing of it will certainly require a more infallible illumination then I presume you have Besides if I should grant you that 't was printed with my consent which yet I shall not yet certainely the seasonableness of it in a time where godliness is made the engine to arrive to so much unlawfull gaine will excuse me from imprudence though perhaps not from an unthriving in your sense want of policy And as for the impudence you charged me withall I am confident that all they who heard you with impartiall Eares and have read that Sermon with impartiall Eyes have by this time assigned that want of modesty a place in a more capable forehead I heare farther that having in a kinde of pleasant disdaine shuffled pipes Surplices pictures in Church-windowes Liturgy and Prelacy together in one period and stiled them the musty Relickes of an at-length-banisht Superstition you were pleased out of that heape to select Images and to call them Idolls and then to charge me as a defender of them SIR Had you done me but the ordinary Justice to pluck my Sermon out of your pocket as you did the Practicall Catechisme and had faithfully read to your Auditory what I have there said of Images I make no question but they would all have presently discerned that I defend not Pictures in Church windowes as they are Idolls or have at any time beene made so but that 't is unreasonable to banish them out of the Church as long as they stand there meerly as Ornaments of the place From which innocent use having not hitherto digrest for you to call them Idols and then to charge me as if I had made them equall with God by my defence of them so formallized will I feare endanger you in the mindes of youre Hearers and beget an Opinion in them that you are one of the Prophets who use to see Vanity I heare farther that when you had traduced me as a Defender of the fore-mentioned musty Relicts of Superstition you said that this was the Religion to which I profest my selfe ready to fall a sacrifice Certainely Sir This is not faire dealing For if once more you had pluckt my Sermon out of your pocket and had read to the Congregation that passage of it which endeavours to prove that 't is not lawfull to propagate Religion how pure soever it be by the sword they would have heard from your mouth as they once did from mine that the Religion to which I there professe my self ready to fall a Sacrifice is that defamed true Protestant Religion for which the holy Fathers of our Reformation died before me In saying therefore that I professe my selfe ready to fall a sacrifice in the defence of Surplices the Common Prayer Booke or Church Ornaments things which I have alwayes held not necessary unlesse made so by right Authority you have incurred one danger more which is not only to be thought to see Vanity but to be guilty of the next part of the Text. I am farther told that to deliver your selfe from the number of the false Prophets there preacht against you prophecyed in the Pulpit and chose for the subject of your prediction a thing which is possible enough for you to bring to passe which was that you will have my Sermon burnt Sir I have for your sake once more severely consider'd it And can neither finde Socinianisme or any other Poland Doctrine there which should deserve that doome But if it must die like Bishop Ridley or Hooper for its adhaesion to the best Religion that this Kingdome ever enjoyed I must repeat the words of my Sermon and tell you that without the fear of being thought by you a Pseudo-Martyr I shall account it one of the happiest passages to Heaven to be dissolved to ashes with it in the same funerall pile Lastly Sir having with all the sober detraction which might probably beget a dislike in the mindes of your Hearers of me and my Sermon sufficiently defamed both I heare you did beat up a Drumme against me in the Pulpit and ehallenged me to a publike dispute with you If by a dispute you meant a pen-combate I shall be as ready to enter the lists with you as you have beene to summon me to it if you will grant me two things The one is that if we engage our selves in a Conference of that nature you will confine your selfe to the particulars in my Sermon which you quarrell'd at and not use
your strange wilde Art of multiplying Questions upon Questions or like another Hydra what ever the Hercules be make three heads spring up in the place where you finde one convincingly lopt of The other is that when you have made your Charge and I my Resistance you will consent that the debate of every question thus disputed may bee made publike and printed But if by a Dispute you meant that I should fight a Duell with you upon the same stage and in the same Theater of men and women before whom you and Mr. Yerbury played your prize I doubt very much if I should accept of your Callenge in that sense whether all discreet men would not count this a spice of the phrenzy in me which you complained of in the Pulpit for being imputed to you by Him that wrote the Conference at your late Scruple-House and say I deserved to be cured by the Discipline and Physicke of a darke roome To deale freely with you Sir I by no meanes can approve of an English Disputation in a University But because you shall not loose your challenge nor I be thought to desert the cause which I professe to defend so you will choose the Divinity Schoole and Latine weapons I shall not refuse as well as God shall enable me to give you a meeting there and to sustaine the Answerers part in the defence of the lawfulnesse of white Surplices Church Ornaments the Common-Prayer Booke and Prelacy which are the particulars in my Sermon which you called Relicts of Superstition To one of these two offers I shall patiently expect your answer unlesse without troubling me any further you will let me quietly retire backe againe into the shade from whence you have too importunately called me Who neuer the less have learnt so much Charity as to pray God to forgive you the wrong which you intended towards From my chamber this evening Ian. 19. 1646. The Author of the Sermon against False Prophets J. MAYNE To this letter in which as briefly as the lawes of a Letter would permit I indeavour'd to wash out the spots with which M. Cheynell in his Sermon strived to defile and sully mine and withall to comply with him in any sober way of Dispute which might befit two University-men after two dayes was returned an Answer First strange for the messenger's sake that brought it which was One Iellyman some say a preaching Cobler who from repairing the decayes of University-mens shooes was now thought fit to have a part in the conveyance of their disputes Next for the double Superscription of it which without on the side of the first paper that enclosed it was as faire and full of Candor as the whited sepulcher in the Gospell and was directed To D. MAYNE AT CHRIST-CHURCH But this outward stone was no sooner rolled away but another Inscription very unlike the first appear'd which ran thus FOR M. JASPER MAYNE ONE OF THE NEVV DOCTORS STUDENT AT CHRIST-CHURCH By which parenthesis it seemes M. Cheynell thought it an errour in the University to make me a Doctor And truely if I may be believed upon my owne report as often as I compare my unworthiness with my degree I am of his opinion and thinke I am a Doctor fit only to stand in a parenthesis and without any iniustice done me to be left out of the sentence This second Superscription was underwritten with a kind of a preamble Letter to the more inward Letter with the lock and guard of a scale upon it and ran thus SIR I have sent severall times to your lodging this day to answer your challenge yesterday if you cannot meet to morrow let me understand your minde to night For I have a great deale of business since the University was silenced for your sake What kinde of meeting was here meant or whether I having I thanke God the use of my understanding could consent to it will appeare by the Letter it selfe which being an Answer to mine was verbatim this SIR I use to spend my morning thoughts upon a better subiect then a pot of dead drinke that hath a litle froth at top and dreggs at bottom SIR It appeares by your Letter that you doe not understand my Text and the learned Scribe or Intelligencer did not vnderstand my plaine very plaine English Sermon I am not at leisure to repeat every Sermon that I preach preaching soe often as I doe sometimes twice and upon just occasion thrice a day to every one that is at leisure to cavill at that which thay heard but at second hand yet to shew how much you are mistaken I will give you a breife but satisfactorie account My Text stands upon record Isa. 40. 25. the Doctrine I raised from the words was as followeth Doct. There is no creature in heaven or earth like God in all things or equall to God in any thing The first Corollarie I deduced from thence when I came to make application was breifly this That no picture can be made of God because there was nothing like him in heaven or earth All nations are less then vanity in comparison of God to whom then will ye liken God or what likeness will ye compare unto him Isay. 40. 17. 18. The Prophet urgeth this Argument against all manner of images which are made to represent God who sitteth upon the circle of the earth and stretcheth out the heavens from the 19. v. of the same chap. to the 23. ver and he enforceth this Argument vers 21. have yee not knowne have ye not understood c. as if he had say'd yee are ignorant sotts irrationall and inconsiderate men if yee apprehend not the strength of this Argument Now SIR be pleased to produce your strong reasons and overthrow if you can the Doctrine or the Corollary Your Intelligencer was if not a false Prophet yet a false Historian when he told you that I accused you of making images equall with God SIR I said that images were not like unto God and thereupon wondered that you tooke upon you to pleade for the retaining of those images which have beene too often turn'd into idolls not by the piety but superstition of former times You say that by the same reason there should be no Sun in the firmament Whence I collect that you will be forc'd to maintaine that images are as necessary in the Church as the Sun in heaven be pleased to read the 22. page of the false Prophet Moreover you plead for Copes and for those parts of the Common-Prayer Booke which were borrowed from Rome pag. 21 22. The Uisitors will ere long enquire whether there hath not beene a Superstitious use of Copes at Christ-Church and therfore I did not make any such enquirie in my Sermon but as a Freind I give you and your adherents timely notice of it because I believe you had need study for an Answer You maintaine that some things in the excellencies and height of the Doctrines of Christian Religion
depend for their credit and evidence of their truth upon the authority of Christs miracles conveyed along in tradition and story pag. 16. and therefore I say your Religion leanes too hard and too heavy upon Tradition You are offended that I spoke not distinctly concerning Prelacy you may if you please try your strength and endeavour to prove that Christ hath put the sole power of Ordination and Iurisdiction in the hand of a Prelate 2. You may if you can justifie that no Church that ever the Sun look'd upon hath been more blest with purity of Religion for the Doctrine of it or better establish'd for the Government and Discipline of it then the Church of England pag. 7. if you believe this confident assertion you may proceed and justifie all the Doctrines which were publikely countenanced or approved all the superstitious practises and prelaticall usurpations nay the delegation of the Prelates usurped power to Chancellors and all the Tyranny of the high Commission together with all the corruptions and innovations introduced into the State Church University from the yeare 1630. till 1640. by a prevailing faction who were not the Church or University but the disease indeed the plague of both If you dare not undertake so sad a taske you cannot justifie the 17. 18. 22 23. 27. 35. pages of the False Prâ—…het you must prove that the proceedings of the Parliament are Turkish pag. 15. 17. that none of the Members of either House of Parliament who complaine of the blemishes of the Church are to be esteemed good Protestants pag. â—…8 that the Reformation which they have made is vanity of vanities pag. 20. that they are guided by no other principles but such as are contrary to all rules of right judgement either common to men or Christians pag. 21. that the Ministers who have appeared for the Parliament are all of them False Prophets who have encouraged the Parliament to oppression sacriledge murther and to make all names that are great and sacred cheap and odious in the eares of the people That the Ministers are the liars and the Parliament-men the compliers as appears by all your unworthy insinuations hints intimations quite throughout your Scurrillous Libell falsly called a Sermon let any prudent man judge whether this be not your maine drift and scope à carceribus usque ad metam You talke of a Religion in which you were borne were you borne in a Surplice or a Cope Christiani non nascuntur sed fiunt Sir the Parliament doth not defame nor will they suppress the true Protestant Religion and therefore if you fall in this quarrell I said that you must be sacrificed in the defence of Tyranny Prelacy Popery if you put not Religion in Copes Images Prelates or Service-Booke quorsum haec perditio why doe you talk of being Martyr'd say that if the King will give you leave you will burne your Copes and Surplices throw off the Bishops and Common-Prayer Booke you 'l break your windowes and take the Covenant and make it evident that you are and ever will be of the Kings Religion for you hold none of these things necessary now whatever you have said heretofore unless they be made necessary by right Authority Sir if I made any prediction it was that your Sermon would be confuted before it was burnt you know Paraeus was burnt before he was confuted and if you be not guilty of any doctrine received in Poland I wonder First why you did endeavour to incense an Officer of this Garrison against me because I had refuted M. Yerburies blasphemous errors 2. Why you did maintaine those damnable Doctrines on the last Sabbath forgive me this injurie for I heare you did but vent them and were no way able to maintain them Sir I acknowledge that I doe contend for the restitution of the true Protestant Religion and contend for the civill right which we have to exercise the true Protestant Religion we were in manifest danger to lose our right by the force and violence of potent Enemies whereupon the high Court of Parliament judged it fit to repell force by forces be pleased to shew how the Parliament doth hereby canonize the Alchoran or declare themselves to be of the Mahumetan perswasion the Parliament will not compell you to be happy onely take heed that you do not compell them to make you miserable Though you renounce all Doctrines that M. Yerberie maintaines yet I thinke you are too great a friend to the Rebels in Ireland you contend for a Vorstian liberty not for a liberty of conscience for you desire a liberty for men that have no conscience such as turne from being Protestants to be Infidels There is one of M. Yerburies opinion who saith that the righteous are at liberty he that is righteous let him be righteous still and the wicked are at liberty he that is wicked let him be wicked still but you are of a more dangerous opinion the wicked as as you think are at liberty to kill and slay but the godly are not at liberty to defend themselves by the power of the highest Court of Justice in the Kingdome from illegall and unjust oppression violence I am convinced by many passages in your Sermon especially the 15 16 17. pages that you think we ought not to fight against the Rebells in Ireland because it is part of their Religion as it was of your brethren the Cavaliers to put all Roundheads as you terme them to the sword missajam mordet the Mass may be armed but the Gospel must not What thinke you of the War fore-told in the book of the Revelation Sir you abuse your betters when you talk of the Scruple-house You are not worthy to carrie the books of those Reverend Ministers after them nor could your Carfax-Sermon have ever silenced the ungifted Preachers you would have found them gifted Disputants if you think otherwise try one or two of them in some of their beaten points Sir I speake thus freely because I was not present at the famous meeting Novemb. 12. but I see you can cite one of your owne Prophets Poets I should say but he is no truer a Prophet then you are like to prove a Martyr a Cretian Prophet Sir the knowledge of my Brethrens worth and your famous pride and self-conceitedness hath provoked me to let my pen loose that I might disabuse and humble you It seems you are unwilling to come upon the stage though that be a fitter place for you then the pulpit to appear before a Theater of men and women Sir you love the stage too well take heed you doe not love women too ill there is a friend of yours that doth entreat you to beware of dark rooms and sight women for though a great Physitian doth advise you to the use of such pleasing physick yet the Frenchmen will assure you that it is not wholsome for the body and the English can assure you that it is not good for the soul your kind
your Right to the Exercise of the Protestant Religion whereupon the High Court of Parliament thought it fit to repell force by force Sir do not entertain me with your own false fears and â—…ealousies but demonstrate to me that the King for Him I presume you mean meant to extirpate the true Protestant Religion by the sword and to plant Popery in its stead And you shall not more 〈◊〉 charge me that I make the Parliament by such a Resistance to Denizon the Alchoran then I shall truely pronounce the Kings party in fighting for him to that end guilty of a Mahumetan perswasion In saying this you exceedingly mistake me if you think I contend for a Vorstian Liberty or am hereby a Friend to the Rebels in Ireland Sir I hope you can distinguish between mens Disloyalty and Religion As Rebels I hold it fit if they will not otherway return to their Alleagance that they be reduced by force There is a right to their subjection pursued by such a War which makes all Armes warrantable which are imploy'd for the recovery of such a losse But to think that as they are Papists nay Sir I shall not shrink from my word if they were outright Infidels that the Protestant Relâ—…gion is to be imposed upon them by force is to make our selves guilty of all the hard Censures which have past upon the Spaniards Conquest of the Indians where their Silver Mines were the true cause and Religion the pretence Notwithstanding your Holy War therefore mention'd in the Revelation which place I have considered and find it as mysterious as the pale or black Horse for ought you have said in disproof of it I find not my self tempted to desert my Opinion which is That to come into the field with an Armed Gospel is not the way chosen by Christ to make Proselytes And therefore Sir I will not so much distrust the Wisdome or Iustice of the Parliament that upon your bare Assertion they will make me miserable because I maintain that they cannot waâ—…rantably compell any man to be happy Why the bare mention of your Scruple-house should put you into such a fit of ill language as to pronounce me unworthy to carry the Books of the Reverend Divines after them who met there to heal Doubts or why my Carfax-Sermon should contribute to the raging of that fit I cannot reasonably imagine Sir I have no mind to fight many Duells at Once nor having received a challenge from no other but your self to ingage my self with them by whom I have not been provok'â—… Whither they be ungifted preachers or Gifted Disputants is best known to themselves But certainly Sir if the Report which was made to me by some who brought both their understandings as well as Eares with tâ—…em to the famous meeting November 12. be true there was nothing so demonstratively by them either objected or replyed as might incourage them or their Hearers to beleeve this peece of Popery that they are unerring and infallible in the chair pray Sir do not think my Famous pride or self-conceitedness which you say hath provoked you to break your chaines and to let loose your pen that you might whip me into Humility hath prompted me to say this Had you named the Reverend persons whose Books I am not worthy to carry after them so they be Greek or Latine Books and those well understood by them perhaps I should have exprest a greater Act of Humility then you are aware of and have been content though one of the new Doctors yet by the second Subscription of your Letter but a Master of Art to sit a while at the feet of such learned Gamaliel's But speaking indefinitely as you do I hope Sir for twenty years study sake in this University where I have learnt to distinguish the letters of the Greek Alphabet and at first sight do know that it would beget a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or quarrell among the Vowells if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a word should usurp the place of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you will find me a nobler imployment then to carry Books after Them who count Liberaries Superfluous humane Secular Things And think a Minister not Minister of Gospel as your Scribe hath twice erred in the transcription of your letter in a vowell very fatall to you needs no other furniture but the Spirit Cottons Concordance and the English Bible without the Apocrypha Sir I am sorry the Fit which the mention of the Scruple-house did put you into should be increased by the mention of a Dark Roome There goes a Story of one who had tasted a while of Bedlam and was at length by the help of Discipline dyet and Physick cured of his Distraction yet not so perfectly but that still when he came within the sight of the place his fancy remembred him of his old Distemper and tempted him to do something which required a second cure I speak not this parable to upbraid any with an infirmity which is unavoydably naturall to them and no way contracted from the pride or irregularity of their own Wills But if you have read Tully's Paradoxes you may remember Sir that he there maintains the Opinion of the Stoicks that not onely they whose chaines and fetters proclaim them distempered but that all foolish over passionate men are to be reckoned into the number of those who are to be cured by manacles and chaynes pray Sir do not take it ill if being as you say a Poet I cite a Poet who was of this Opinion but maintains it like a Philosopher I will not say a School Divine And having insisted in verse upon Covetousness as one Ambition as another The love of beauty either in reall or painted faces as another Species of Madness He concludes in Anger and sayes Ira furor brevis est that is That the Cholerick man during the fit of his oholer is in a short phrenzy That which Seneca Tully and Horace called madness though not the other more naturall which I should be uncharitable to object to you you by this letter especially the angry part of it have given me very justifiable cause to apply to you who as all dispassionated men may judge have fulfill'd the Poets definition of Madness upon your self in all the parts of it but one which is that your Anger against me is not furor Brevis a short distraction but extends from the word Scruple-house to the End of your Letter For first Sir in Language almost as unclean as the sin of uncleanness it self you endeavour to raise a Suspition upon me in the world as if I had been more familiar then I should with light Women in dark Roomes Sir besides the poverty of your wit and quibling Antitheses of Expression to which I finde you in other places of your letter very subject I am not afraid with all the confidence of an Innocent man to tell you That as I never was an Enemy to that Sex so I never
me for this acknowledgement I shall say as Augustine did Irrideant me arrogantes nondum salubritèr prostrati elisi à te Deus meus ego tamen confiteor dedecora mea in laude tua Sir be not too confident of the strength of your wit make a good use of it or else you may quickly come to have as litle wit as you conceive God hath bestowed on me 1. Doe you beleeve that your nature is corrupt 2. And doth not a wanton wit make the heart effeminate 3. Did you never converse with any woman of light behaviour rub up your memory 4. Superstitious persons are usually lascivious I could tell you more but I spare you 5. Are you more temperate then the Disciples to whom Christ gave that caveat Luk. 21. 34 you may then apply your selfe to Prayer and Fasting doe not say that this is a filthy Caveat but beware of that filthy sinne and acknowledge that the Caveat is given you upon sad considerations 12. You tell me that God is not so fatally tyed to the Spindle of an absolute Reprobation but that upon your Repentance he will seale your Pardon Sir Reprobatio est tremendum Mysterium how dare you jest upon such a Subject at the thought of which each Christian trembles Can any man repent that is given up to a reprobate mind and an impenitent heart And is not every man finally impenitent save those few to whom God gives repentance freely powerfully effectually See what it is for a man to come from Ben. Iohnson or Lucian to treat immediately of the high and stupendidious mysteries of Religion the Lord God pardon this wicked thought of your heart that you may not perish in the bond of iniquity and gall of bitterness be pleased to study the 9. Chapter to the Romanes You say if we agree upon the true state of the Questions before hand nothing will be left us to dispute Sir it is 1. one thing to state a question for debate so that you may undertake the affirmative I the Negative or è contra 2. another thing to state a question in a supposition as the Respondent usually doth and a third business to state a question after the debate in a prudent and convincing determination as the Moderatour should doe I speake of agreeing upon the state of the question in the first sense that the Question may be propounded in such termes as doe so farre state the point in Controversie that you and I may know which part to take the Affirmative or Negative The questions as I conceive are these that follow 1. Whether all that our Prelates have borrowed of the Church of Rome and imposed upon the people ought to be still retained in the Church of England 2. Whether the Images of our Mediatour and the Saints are usefull Ornaments in Protestant Churches 3. Whether any Prelate be endued with the power of sole Ordination and Iurisdiction Iure divino 4. Whether they who defend the Protestants of Ireland against the Rebells by force of Armes are therefore to be esteemed Mahumetans 5. Whether that faith which is grounded only upon Tradition ought to be esteemed a Divine faith 6. Whether the spirit speaking in the word to the conscience of private men ought to be esteemed a private Spirit 7. Whether any Reprobate can ever be converted or saved 8. Whether the Papists of England Rebells of Ireland with their Confederates did endeavour to extirpate the Protestant Religion and plant Popery in its stead 9. Whether they who endeavoured to impose a Popish Service-Booke upon Scotland by force of Armes were of the Mahumetan perswasion 10. Whether the School-men are Competent judges in any point which concernes the Mysterie of Faith or Power of Godliness 11. Whether the Nationall Covenant contradict it selfe Sir if you please to answer upon the three first questions in the Schools and hold them as you seem to hold them all Affirmatively I shall endeavour to prove the Negative To all your scoffes and abuses I have nothing to reply if God bids you revile or curse me I shall submit to God you call me Fool Bedlam Turke Dog Devill because I give you seasonable advice Sure Sir Nazianzen Prosper c. were not guilty of such Poetry nor did Prudentius teach you any such streines I did very honestly forewarn you of a visitation it is I thinke proper enough to enquire into matters of fact at a visitation Now whether Copes have been put to a superstitious use is not a question to be determined by any but In-Artificiall Arguments I mean by sufficient witnesses To that which you Prophesie of that I am like to be a Visitor I answer 1. I thinke you have litle ground for such a Prophecy I call it a Prophecy for I am sure the Houses of Parliament have not yet named any Visitor 2. You talke much of the wisedome of the High Court of Parliament and can you imagine that so wise a Court or as you terme it Councell will make choice of a Bedlam a Turke Dog c. to visit so many prudent and learned Doctors Sir you say you are not satisfied with my Arguments you might have consider'd that I doe reserve my arguments till we meete at Schooles our worke for the present is to draw up the Points in Controversie into formall questions I have you see formed some questions if you please to adde more you may I shall be ready to give you the best satisfaction I can after these are discussed if I be not called away to some better imployment by those who have power to dispose of Your humble Monitor FRAN CHEYNELL An Omnia è Missali Breviario necnon Pontificali Romano à Prelatis nostris decerpta populoque obstrusa in Ecclesiam recipienda sint Christi Sanctorumque imagines Reformatorum Templis utili sint ornatui Soli Praelato potestas Ordinationis nec non Iurisdictionis Iure divino competat In hisce quaestionibus animi tui sententiam expectat FRANCISCUS CHEYNELL Having read over this Letter I felt two contrary Affections move within my selfe First I was sorry that it began in that kinde of bitterness which useth to have the same mischievous effect upon minds not addicted to quarrel as blear eyes have upon other eyes more sound Which finde themselves insensibly infected by beholding And in the presence of those that are bleared unawares learne their imperfections and become bleared too Next I was glad that the Controversies betweene us which like the originall of mankinde began in two and in a short time had multiplyed themselves past number were at length reduced to three latine questions and those to be disputed in the Divinity School where that part of Oxford which understands no other Tongue but that in which they dayly utter their commodities if they had been present towards the making of a throng had yet beene absent to the dispute Thus divided therefore between my provocations to Answer the reproachfull Preface
people as Traâ—…an did with the Pratorian praefect â—…ut his sword into their Hands and bid them use it for Him if he ruled well if not against Him In short Sir Magna Charta was a Uine I confesse cast over the People but this Act enabled them to call the shade of it their owne An Act which if your friend will please to forget Ship mony being in no one particular violated so farre as to be instancâ—…d in by those whose present Ingagements would never suffâ—…r such Breaches of Priviledge to passe unclamâ—…ur'd will obâ—…ge posterity to be gratefull as often as they remember themselves to be Freemen Thiâ—… then being so the next inquiry will be whether a bare Iealousy that the King would in time have recalled this Grace and would have invaded the Liberty of his Subjects by the change of the Fundamentall Lawes could be a â—…ust cause for such a praeventive Warre as this To which I answâ—…re that such a Feare 〈◊〉 built upon strong presumptions cannot possibly be a just cause for one Nation to make Warre upon another much lesse for Subjects to make Warre against their Prince The Reason is because nothing can legitimate such a Warre but either an Injury already offered or so visibly imminent that it may passe for the first Dart or Speare hurled Where the Injury or Invasion is only continâ—…ent and conjecturall and wrapt up in the wombe of darke Counsells no way discoverable but by their own revelation of themselves in some outward Acts of Hostility or usurpation to anticipate is to be first injurious and every Act of prevention which hath only Iealousie for its foundation will adde new justice to the enemies Cause who as He cannot in reason be pronounced guilty of anothers Feares so he will come into the Field with this great advantage on his side That his reall wrong will joyne Battle with the others weake suspition But alas Sir Time the best interpreter of Mens Intentions hath at length unsee'â—…d our eyes and taught us that this hath been a Warre of a quite opposite Nature The Gentleman who wrote the Defence of M. Chaloners Speech and M. Chaloner himselfe if you marke his Speech well will tell you that the quarrell hath not been whether the subject of England shall be Free but whether this Freedome shall not consist in being no longer Subject to the King If you maâ—…ke Sir How the face of things hath alter'd with successe How the scene oâ—… things is shifted And in what a Nâ—…w stile they who called themselves the Invaded have spoken ever since their Victories have secured them against the power of any hat shall invade If you consider what a politick use hath been made oâ—… those words of Inchantment Law Liberty and Propriety of the Subject by which the People have been musically enâ—…ced into their Thraldome If you yet farther consiâ—…er the more then Decemvirall power which this Parliament hath assumed to it selfe by repealing old Lawes and making Ordinances passe for new If you yet farther will please to consider How much Heavyer that which some call Priviledge of Parliament hath been to the Subject then that which they so much complained of The Kings Prerogative so much heavyer that if one deserved to be called a Little finger the other hath swolne it selfe into a Loyne Lastly if you compare Ship-mony with the Excise and the many other Taxes laid upon the Kingdome you will not onely find that a whippe then hath been heightned into a Scorpion now but you will perceive that as these are not the first Subjects who under pretence of Liberty have invaded their Princes Crowne so farre as the Cleaving of Him asunder by a State Distinction which separates the Power of the King from his Person so ours as long as he was able to lead an Army into the Field hath been the first King that ever took up Armes for the Liberty of his Subjects Vpoâ—… all which premises Sir I hope you will not think it faâ—…e Logicke if I build this Conclusion so agreeable to the Lawes of the Kingdome as well as the Lawes of God Thaâ—… supposing the Parliament all this while to have fought as was at first pretended for the Defence of their assayled Liberty yet fighting against the King whose Subjects they are it can never before a Christian Iudge make their Armies passe for just But being no way necessitated to make such a Defence their Liberty having in no one particular been assaulted which hath not been redrest if S. Paul were now on earth againe and were the Iudge of this Controversy between them and their Lawfull Soveraigne I feare he would call their Defence by a Name which we in our Moderne Cases of Conscience doe call Rebellion And thus Sir having as compendiously as the Lawes of a Letter will permit given you I hope some satisfaction concerning the first part of your zealous Friends dispute with you which was whether the Two Houses which he calls the Parliament have not a Legall power in Defence of their Liberty to take up Armes against the King I will with the like brâ—…vity proceed as well as I can to give you satisfaction in the second part of his Dispute also which was whether Religion may not be a just Cause for a Warre The Termes of which Question being very generall and not restrained to any kind of Religion or any kind of Warre whether offensive or defensive or whether of one Nation against another or of a Prince against his Subjects or of the Subjects back again against their Prince allow me a very large space to walk in In which least I be thought to wander and not to prove It will first be necessary that I define to you what Religion in generall is And next that I examine whether every Religion which falls within the Truth of that Definition may for the propagation of it selfe be a just cause of a Warre and so whether all they who either are of no Religion or a false may not be forced to be of the true Lastly what the Duty of Subjects is towards their Prince incase he should endeavour by force to impose a Religion upon them which they think to be false and can probably make it appear to be so by proofeâ—… tâ—…ken from the Scripture Religion then to define it in the dearest Termes is saies Aquinas Uirtus reddens debitum Honorem Deo A virtue which renders to God his just Honour This payment of Honour to God as 't is built and founded upon his Creation of us by which he hath a Right to our Sâ—…vice and Worship of him so in the contemplative part of it it consists in these foure Notions or Apprehensions of him First that there is a God and that there is but One. Next that he is not any part of this Visible World but something Higher and more excellent then any Thing we see Thirdly that he hath a providence going in the World and takes care of
Humane affaires Lastly that he made and created the World To every one of which foure answers a Commandement in the First-Table of the Decalogue Where the first describes His Unity by forbidding the Worship of other Gods The next his Invisibility by forbidding any Image or Resemblance to be made of Him The third his providence described there by two eminent parts of it His Omniscience by which he knowes the Thoughts of mens Hearts and his Iustice by which he inflicts punishments on those whose Thoughts are disporportion'd to their Oathes and Words The Fourth declares his Omnipotence by which he created the World and appointed the Sabbath to be the Feast and Memoriall of that great Worke. From which speculative apprehensions of him doe spring these practicall That being such a God thus known He is to be Honour'd Lov'd Fear'd Worshipt and Obey'd Now since mens Religion or Worship of God cannot in reason be required to reach higher then their Knowledge of Him for Manifestation is so necessary to Obligation and Duty that if'twere impossible to know that there is a God 't would be no sinne to be an Atheist so if God had never made any second Revelation of Himselfe by the Scripture but had left Mankind to their own Naturall search of Him and to those Discourses of their Mindes by which they inferred that such an orderly frame and Systeme of things where every one works to the good and End of another is too rationally contrived to arise from a concourse of Atomes or to be the Creature of Chance and therefore must have some Efficient Cause higher and nobler then it selfe since it implies a Contradiction that any thing should be it 's own producer yet his bare Creation of the World represents so much of him that without any other Booke or Teacher all Ages have believed that there is a God who made the World and that He hath a Rule and providence going in it This then being so 'T is the Opinion of a very Learned Moderne Writer That if there should be found a Countrey of Atheists or a People of Diagoras Melius's Opinion or of the opinion of Theodorus the Cyrenian whose Doctrine 't was Nullos esse Deos inane coelum That there is no God nor a habitable Heaven But that such Names of Emptinesse have been the Creatures of superstitious fancies whose fears first prompted them to make Gods and then to worship them or if there should be a People found of Epicurus his opinion who held that there were Gods but that they were Idle carelesse vacant Gods who troubled not themselves with the Government of the World but past their time away in an undisturbed Tranquillity and exemption from such inferior businesses as the Actions of Men such opinions supposing them to be Nationall as they are contradictory not only to the Dictares of Naturall Reason upon which God hath built the forementioned precepts of the Decalogue but to that universally received Tradition That there is a Divine power whose providence holds the scales to mens actions and first or last sides with afflicted Innocence against succesfull Oppression so they would be just Causes for a reforming Warre Not only because they are contumelious reproachfull to God himselfe but because being directly destructive to all Religion They are by necessary consequence destructive to Humane society too For let it once be granted that there is no God or which with reference to States and Common-wealths will produce the same irregular effects that he regards not mens Actions nor troubles himselfe with the Dispensation of Rewards and Punishments and the Doctrine of Carneades will presently pâ—…sse for reasonable That Utility is the measure of Right And that he is most in the wrong who is least able to defend himselfe That Iustice is the virtue of Fooles and serves only to betray the simple and phlegmaticke to the more active and daring In short Take away providence especially the two great parts of it which raigne in the Hearts of men hope of Reward and feare of Punishment and mens worst Actions and their best will presently be thought equall Whereupon Lawes the Bonds of Humane â—…ociety wanting their just Principle which upholds them in their Reverence will inevitabâ—…y loose their force and fall asunder and Men will be Men to each other in nothing but their 〈◊〉 injustice Oppressions of one another 'T was therefore the politick observation of an Atheist in Sextus Empiricus That to keep men orderly and regular in a Common-wealth wise men at first invented Lawes But perceiving that these reaching only to their outward Actions would never be well kept unlesse they could find a way to awe their Minds within too as a meanes conducing to that end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one more wise and subtle then the rest invented Gods too Well knowing that Religion though but fained is a conservative of States upon consideration of which harmefull consequences which naturally follow Atheisme and the deniall of Gods providence 't is the opinion of that Author that as 't was no Injustice in those Grecian Citties which banisht Philosophers who were of this Opinion out of their Commonwealth so if there should be found a Nation of such impious perswasions 't would be no Injustice in any other People who are not Atheists by way of punishment to banish them out of he World Though this Sir were the opinion of one whose works have deservedly made him so Famous to the whole Christian World besides the peaceablenesse of his Writings which decline all the wayes of quarrell that to erre with him would be no disreputation to me yet I must confesse to you that I am so faâ—…re from thinking 〈◊〉 Warre made for the propagation of Religion how true soever it be is warrantable that in this particular I persâ—…ade my selfe I have some reason to dissent from Hiâ—… and to think it a Probleme very disputable if his supposition were truâ—… that there were such a Countrey of Atheists or Epicureans who should 〈◊〉 there is a God or that he 〈◊〉 providence going in 〈◊〉 World whether for that reason only another Nation 〈◊〉 justifiâ—…bly make Warre upon them For first what should give them Authority to doe so Is 't because men of this 〈◊〉 perswasion doe sinne very grievously against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be true to the utmost 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 that this speculative error in â—…hâ—…ir Mindes dâ—… wâ—…s a practicall errour 〈◊〉 it in their lives which i not to pâ—…y Worship to a God which either they think not to be or not at all to regard them yet this being but a crime against God the same Author hath answered himselfe in another Paragraph where he saies Deorum inâ—…ae Diis cura That God is able to revenge the injuries committed against Himselfe Next then is 't because such an Opinion is destructive of Humane Society Truly Sir though I shall grant that saying of Plutarch to be true that Religion which Atheisme
and the denyall of providence doe destroy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one nay one of the firmest Bonds of Society and supporters oâ—… Lawes yet I have not met with any demonstrative Argument which hath proved to me that there is such a necessary dependance of Humane society upon Religion that the Absence of the One must inevitably be the Destruction of the other If it be this is most likely to come to passe in the State or Commonwealth which is of this opinion among themselves Not in a forraigne State or Common-wealth which is not But since 't is possible that a Countrey of Atheists may yet have so much Morality among them seconded by Lawes made by common agreement among themselves as to be a People and to hold the society of Citizens among themselves And as 't is possible for them without Religion so farre for meere utility and safeties sake to observe the â—…aw of Nations as not to wrong or injure a People different from themselves so where no civill wrong or injury is offered by them to another People but where the morall Bonds of Society and commerce though not the Religious of Opinion and Worship are unbroken by them for the People not injured to make Warre upon them for a feard imaginary consequence or because being Atheists 't is possiâ—…l that their example may spread is an Act of Hostility which I confesse I am not able to defend For thirdly Sir such a Warre must either have for it's end their punishment or their Correction Their punishment can be no true warrantable end because towards those who shall thus make Warre upon them they have not offended Nor can their Correction Legitimate such a Warre Because all Correction as well as Punishment requires Iurisdiction in the Correctors and Inflictors of the punishment Which one People cannot reasonably be presumed to have over another People independent and no way subject to them unlesse we will allow with that Author that because Naturall reason doth dictate that Atheisme is punishable therefore they who are not Atheists have a right to punish those that are which Covarruvtas 〈◊〉 Spaniard who hath learnedly disputed this poynt and others as learned as he have not thought fit to grant It hath been a Questionâ—…k't â—…k't whether Idolatry be not a Crime of this punishable nature in one People by another who are not guilty of that Crime To which the best Divines which 〈◊〉 hâ—… yet read upon that Subject doe answer negatively that it is not For though it be to be granted that anâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and kinds of Idolatry One is more Ignoble and irrationall then Another A 〈◊〉 so tâ—… eâ—…nce towards God is greater or lesse as the Objects to which men terminate their Idolatry are more vile or honourable As in those old Heathens 't was a more faulty Idolatry to worship a Dogge or Crocodile or Serpent then to worship things of a Sublimer kinde namely the Sunne or heavenly bodies or Soules of famous men departed And though all such Idolatries have deservedly been thought to be so many Affronts and Robberies of the true God whose worship is thereby misplaced and spent upon false yet having left behind him in his whole Globe of Creation no exact figure or Character of Himselfe to be known or distinguisht by nor any plaine Teacher but his Scripture to informe men of vulgar understandings that there is but one God and that that one God is only an Intelligible spirit and no part of this grosse materiall World which we see wherever the Scripture hath not been heard of if men unable by the sight of a Naturall discourse to apprehend him as He is have fancied to themselves a plurality of False Gods or made to themselves false representations of the true S. Paul tells us that God connived at it as a piece of unaffected ignorance which can never be a cause meritorious of a Warre to correct it First because being only an Offence against God and the Offendors being as I said before free and no waâ—… subject to any People but themselves Any forraigne Nation unlesse they can show the like Commission from God to punish them as the Iewes had to punish and root out the Canaanites will want Iurisdiction and Authority to their Armes Next because Idolatry though it be a false Religion is yet as conservant of Society which distinguishes it very much from Atheisme and the deniall of Providence as if'twere true Nor can I see why He who worships many Gods if he believe them to be Gods should lesse feare punishment for his perjuries or other Crimes then He who only worships and believes there is but one Lastly because though Idolatry be an Errour in men yet being an Errour without the light of Scripture to rectify it hardly vincible in themselves and no way criminall towards others of a more rectified Reason 'T is to be reformed by Argument and perswasion not violence or force Since a Warre made upon the Errours or mens mindes is as unreasonable as a Warre made upon the Freedome or their Wills And for this â—…ast reason I conceive that the propagation of Christian Religion cannot be a just cause for a Warre upon those who will refuse to imbrace it First because such a Refusall may possibly spring from an Errour in the understanding which even in a Preaching and perswasive way would scarce be in the power of S. Paul himselfe if he were on earth againe unless he would joyne Miracles to his Sermons to dislodge For though some parts of the New Law doe carry such a Musick and consent to the Law of Nature that they answer one another like two strings wound up to the same tune yet there be other parts which though they doe not contradict it are yet so unillustrable from the principles of Reason that they cannot in a naturall way of Argumentation force assent And you know Sir 't would be unreasonable to make Warre upon mens persons for the reception of a Doctrine which cannot convince their Minds I must needs confesse to you should Christ now live in our daies and Preach much harder Doctrines then those in the Gospell and should confirme every Doctrine with a Miracle as he did then 't would be an inexcusable peece of Infidelity in all those who should see his Miracles not presently to consent and yeeld beliefe to his Sermons But somethings in his Doctrine appearing new and strange to the World and depending for the probability of their Truth upon the Authority of his Miracles And those Miracles being Matters of Fact wrought so many Ages since and therefore not possibly able to represent themselves to our times upon gâ—…eater Authority anâ—… proofe then the Faith and generall Report of Tradition and story If any shall think they have reason not to believe such a report they may also thinke they have no reason to believe such Miracles and by consequence the Doctrine 〈◊〉 be confirmed by them In short
to deale with those whom they would by peece meale destroy first shap't to themselves his Image in waxe then prickt and stab'd it with needles striving by their many Reproaches of his Government and Defamations of the Bishops to reduce his Honour by degrees to a consumption and to make it Languish and pine and wither away in the Hatred and Disaffection of his People But perhaps Sir your Friend and I are not well agreed upon our Termes If therefore he doe once more strive to perswade you that notwithstanding all this which I have said to the contrary the King would if he had not been hindered have destroyed the Protestant Religion pray desire him to let me know what he means by the Religion which he calls Protestant Doth he mean that Religion which succeeded Popery at the Reformation and hath ever since distinguisht us from the Church of Rome Doth he meane that Religion which so many Holy Martyrs seal'd with their Blood that for which Queene Mary is so odious and Queene Elizabeth so pretious to our memories Lastly Doth he meane that Religion which is comprised in the 39. Articles and confest to be Protestant by an Act of Parliament If these be the Markes these the Characters of it let him tell me whether this be not the Religion which the King in one of his Letters to the Queene calls the only Thing of difference between Him and Her that 's dearest to Him whether this also be not the Religion in which if there be yet any of the old Ore and Drosse from whence 't was extracted Any thing either essentially or accidentally evill which requires yet more sifting or a more through Reformation Any thing of Doctrine to offend the strong or of Discipline or Ceremony to offend the weake His Majesty have not long since offered to have it passe the fiery Tryall and Disputes of a Synod legally called To all which questions 'till He and his Com presbyters give a satisfying Answer however they may think to hide themselves under their old Tortoise-shall and cry out Templum Domini the Temple of the Lord They must not take it ill if I aske them one question more and desire them to tell me whether this be not the Religion which they long since compelled to take flight with the King and which hath scarce been to be found in this Kingdome ever since the time it was deprived of the Sanctuary it had taken under the Kings Standard This then being so hath your Friend or his fellow Assemblers yet a purer or more primitive Notion of the Protestant Religion which compared with the Religion which we and our Fathers have been of will prove it to be Idolatrous and no better then a hundred years superstition Let them in Charity as they are bound not to let us perish in our Ignorance shew ut their Modell If it be more agreeable to the Scripture then Ours have more of the white Robe and not of the new invention we may perhaps be their converse And their Righteousnesse meeting with our Peaâ—…eâ—…ay â—…ay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eaâ—…h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 timâ—… Sir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wiâ—… not define â—…e Protâ—…stant Religion so bâ—… Negâ—…tives 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No Bishops No Liâ—… or No Commâ—… â—…er Boâ—…ke These we 〈◊〉 yâ—… coâ—…vinced to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goâ—…d 〈◊〉 but not Essâ—…ntialls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we câ—…l the Proâ—…t Religion 〈◊〉 Siâ—…e Their Negation then can bâ—… 〈◊〉 true Essentiall Constituent of the same Religion on theirs There is but Onâ—… positive Notion more in all he world 〈◊〉 whiâ—…h câ—…n pâ—…ly â—…nderstand Them when They say Tâ—…ey have all this while Fought for the Defence of the Protestant Religion Tâ—…at iâ—… thâ—…t by the Defence of the Protestant Religion if they meane any Thing or if this â—…ave not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tâ—… 〈◊〉 more dangerous secret They meane the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 New Directory and their aâ—… length concâ—… Goâ—…rnment of the Church by Presbyters If this be theiâ—… 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should rock my Invention I câ—…not make 〈◊〉 find â—…other The Second part of that most Holy and Glorious Cause which hath drawne the eveâ—… of Europe upon it and renderd the Name of a Protestant a â—…roverbe to expresse Disloyalty by That Pure Chast Uirgin without spâ—…t or wrinkle-Cause which like the Scythian Diana hath been feâ—… with â—…o many Humane Sacrifices And to which as â—…o another Moloch so many Men as well as Children have been compell'd 〈◊〉 through the Fire resolves it selfe into this Vnchristiaen Bloudy conclusion That an Assembly of profest Protestant Divines hâ—…ve advised 〈◊〉 Two Parliaments of Englandâ—…nd â—…nd Scotland confeâ—… Subiects to take â—…p Arâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 King their Lawfull Severaigne Hâ—…e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Three Kingdoms in a â—…lame been the Aâ—…rs oâ—… more Protâ—…stants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Civiâ—… thâ—…n 〈◊〉 â—…ave served to â—…ver the Palaâ—…ate by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 buâ—… thiâ—… vnnâ—…cessary â—…vell accidentall Considerâ—…on Tâ—…t the King 〈◊〉 compell'd by Force would never consâ—…nt not indeed without Perjury could to the Change 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ancient Primitive Apostolike Vnâ—…versally received Government of this Church by Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 new vpstartâ—… Mushrome Calvinisticall Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Preâ—…bytery of Spirituall Lay-Elders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by â—…rinciples â—…en both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ture proved â—…o yâ—…u iâ—… the mâ—…st 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Râ—…sistance 〈◊〉 no aâ—… Invasion of the Higher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Higher 〈◊〉 being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Oâ—…dinance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Warre made against God â—…imselfe And â—…he Authors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlesse they repent and 〈◊〉 â—…hemselves tâ—… timely râ—…turne to their Obedâ—…ence in â—…anger to draw upon themselves this other sâ—…d tragicall irresistible Conclusion wâ—…ich St Paul tels us is the inevitable Catastrophe 〈◊〉 Disobedience which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you may English iâ—… swift Destruction And thuâ—… Sir Though â—…ll weakâ—… Defences have something of the Nature of prevarication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aâ—…d he may in part be thought to betray a Cause 〈◊〉 feebly argâ—… for 〈◊〉 I have return'd you a large Answere 〈◊〉 the two Quere's 〈◊〉 your short Letter which iâ—…â—…ou shall vouchsafe 〈◊〉 Satisfaction you will very much assiâ—…t my Modesty whicâ—… will not suffer me to thinke that I in this Argument have said more then Others Only being so fairely invited by you to say something to have remain'd silent had been to have consâ—…stâ—…ny â—…ny 〈◊〉 convinced And my Negligence in a Tâ—…me so seasonableâ—…o â—…o speak Truth in might perhaps in the Opinion of the Gentleman your Friend have seemed to take part with those oâ—… his side against whose Cause though not â—…ir Persons haâ—…e thuâ—… freely armed my Pen Sir I should think my selfe fortunate if Any Thinge which I â—…ave 〈◊〉 in this Letter mighâ—… make him a Proselyte But this being rather my wish then my Hope all the Successe which this Paper aspires to is this that you will accept it as a Creature borne at your Command Anâ—…â—…hat you will place it among your other Records as a Testimony how much greater my Desires then my Abilities are to deserve the stile of being thought worthy to be From my Chamber Iune 7. 1647. Your affectionate servant JASPER MAYNE Jude 13. 2. * Levit. 26. 12. * Esay 52. 11. * Esay 52. 11. †2 Pet. 3. 16. †Col. 3. 5. * Mat. 13. â—…am 3. 6. â—…1 〈◊〉 qualifi 〈◊〉 5 15. Luk. 2â—… Acts 9. The aâ—… insinua himself 4. Unity of blies 〈◊〉 3. 16. 5. â—…ty of minds Mat. 15. 1 2 Cor. 10. â—…b 11. 29. â—…r 4. 7. division 1 The comâ—…ance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…he frailty of â—…d designes * Exod. 3. 〈◊〉 first abuse â—…eir functi 4. â—…he second aâ—…e of their â—…nction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…jury ofâ—… to God â—…ek 13. 3. â—…ay 30. 10. The conc sion * c. 7. v. 〈◊〉 2 Tim 3. 6 Imago nos tantùm ut memoriale excitat uti Iesuitae passim Dico non esse â—…am certum in Ecclesiâ an sint faciendae imagines Dei sive Trinitatis quaÌ„ Christi sanctoruÌ„ hoc enim ad fidem â—…ertinet illud est in opinione Bella. de imag l. 2. c. 8 Inanimata spiritualem quandam virtutem exconsecratione adipiscuntur c. Tho. p. 3. q. 83. art 3. Deum imaginibus inhabitanteÌ„ colunt Deum â—…utem virtuteÌ„ stam spiritualeÌ„â—…etrahere alâ—…quando sive 〈◊〉 fatentur Cajetanus hac â—…n re ne Gentiâ—…ibus quidem â—…apientior haâ—…tur * Pro. 26. 4 5. * Psa. 〈◊〉 1. * Pro. 26. 18. 19. * Mat. 5. 22 * 2 Pet. 1. 20 * v. 9. * v. 17. * V. 5. * Deuter. 17. v. 16 17 18 19. Lib. 4. c. 4. Grot. lib. 1. c. 3. de Iure Belli pacis * Iudg Ienkins * Sir Iohn Banks * 〈◊〉 Sae q. â—…0 c. 3. * Grot. l. 2. de Iure Belâ—…i ac pacis c. 20. * Adv. Mathemat p. 3â—…8 * Lib. 2. de jure bell pacis c. 20. * Act. 17. 30. * Luke 9. 54. * v. 55. 56. * Luke 9. 5. * C. de Iudiciis dist 45. * Iu Arcanâ Historiâ * Luke 14. 28. * c. 13. 20. * Revel 9. * Cabinet Opened * Rom. 13. 2. * V. 2.