those who are not wont much to deal in any books but our new Pamplets of a Catechisme set forth by Authority for all Schoolemasters to teach in King Edw. 6. daies the very year after the composing of the publick Articles the King prefixed his royal Epistle wherein he commands and chargeth all Schoolmasters whatsoever within his Dominions as they did reverence his Authority and as they would avoyd his royal displeasure to teach this Catechisme diligently and carefully c. In that Catechisme how doe Master and Scholar plainly declare themselves to be no friends to any of the Tenents which Mr. P. contends for If this Book be not at hand let the Bible printed by Rob. Barker Anno 1607. be consulted and at the end of the Old Testament there will be found certain Questions and Answers touching the Doctrine of Predestination which are as full and punctual against Arminianisme as may be But lest all this should not bee thought evidence sufficient we will produce our Arguments to prove the Church of England not to bee Arminian and if not Arminian much lesse could she account Anti-arminianism Blasphemy 1. Who were the Composers of our 39 Articles were they not all the Disciples and Auditors of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr or at least such as held consent with them in Doctrine Dr. Alexander Nowel was Prolocutor of the Convocation in the time of Qu. Eliz. And whether he had any Communion with Arminians let his Catechisme speak I mean the English one dedicated to the two Archbish To the Church doe all they properly belong as many as do truly fear honour and call upon God altogether applying their minds to live holily and godly and which putting all their trust in God do most assuredly look for the blessednesse of eternall life they that be stedfast stable and constant in this faith were chosen and appointed and as we term it predestinated to this so great felicity pag. 44. and paulo post the Chuch is the body of the Christian Common-weale i. e. the universal number and fellowship of the faithfull whom God through Christ hath before all beginning of time appointed to everlasting life Shall we think that he and others engaged with him in the same Convocation were so ignorant that they understood not what they put into the Articles or so infatuated by God as to put in things that were quite contrary to their own judgement 2. If the Church of England did consent to the opinions commonly called Arminian how came she to dispose of her places of greatest influence and trust to such as were of a contrary perswasion no places in our Church are more considerable for leavening the Clergy than the Archbishoprick of Canterbury and the two Chaires in the University both these have been occupied by those who detested Arminianisme as the shadow of death Parker Grindall Whitgift Bancroft Abbot are all known particularly in the time of Bishop Bancroft came forth the book called The Faith Religion Doctrine professed in the Realm of England and Dominions thereof said in the Title page to be perused and by the lawful authority of the Church of England allowed to be made publick Let Mr. P. or any one for him name the Dr. of the Chaire in Oxon that did not totis viribus oppose such a Platform of Gods Decrees as men would faign obtrude upon us now In â—ambridge indeed we may find one Dr. Overall who may bee suspected a little to Arminianise but his opinion is disliked by Mr. Playfer in his Apello Evangelium and therefore is not that which Mr. P. stickleth for In the Conference at Hampton Court he did declare himselfe against the totall or finall falling away of Gods elect And would Mr. P. but come over to us in the point of Election Gods invincible working on the hearts of his chosen ones we should soon agree or else very easily bear with one another in our differences 3. If Mr. P. go the way that the Church of England hath taught him how came it to passe that as many as trod the Arminian path were wont to be suppressed censured so soon as they beganne to discover themselves Who is such a stranger in the History of the University that hath not heard of Barrets Recantation made in the University Church 10. of May 1595 And these are the words of the Order appointing him that penalty Habitâ maturâ deliberatione nec non visis diligenter examinatis positionibus praedictis quia manifesto constabat positiones praedictas errorem falsitatem in se continere nec non aperte repugnare religioni in Ecclesia Anglicanâ receptae ac stabilitae ideo judicaverunt c. See more in Mr. Th. Fuller Peter Baro's Arminianisme cost him the loss of his place and which was worst lost him the Affections of the University Mr. Edward Sympson a fine Critick preached a Sermon before King Iames at Royston taking for his Text Iohn 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh hence he endeavoured to prove that the Commission of any great sinne doth extinguish Grace and Gods Spirit for the time in man Hee added also that St. Paul in the seventh Chapter to the Romanes spake not of himself as an Apostle and Regenerate but sub statu legis Hereat his Majesty took publickly expressed great distaste because Arminius had lately been blamed for extracting the like exposition out of the Works of Faustus Socinus whereupon hee sent to the two Professors in Cambridge for their judgement herein who proved and subscribed the place ad Rom. 7. to bee understood of a Regenerate man according to St. Augustin his later opinion In his Retractations and the Preacher was enjoyned a publick recantation before the King which was performed accordingly Mr. Mountagues Appeale had almost been strangled in the womb by Archbish Abbot When it saw light how exceedingly it was disliked may appear by the several Answers made to it by Bish Carleton Dean Sutliffe Dr. Featly Mr. Yates Mr. Wooton all Episcopal Presbyt Mr. Francis Rouse Independ Mr. Henry Burton Nor doe his Respondents object any thing more than his dissent from the Doctrine of the Church of England He was censured for it by the Parliament Mr. Rim from the Committee for Religion made this Report to the House of Commons April 18. 1626. That hee had disturbed the peace of the Church by publishing Doctrines contrary to the Articles of the Church of England and the Book of Homilies that the whole frame and scope of the booke was to discourage the well affected in Religion from the true Religion established in the Church and to encline them and as much as in him lay to reconcile them to Popery Let mee here insert an Order made by the House of Commons 28 Ian. 1628. after a large Debate We the Commons now assembled in Parliament do claim profess and avow for truth the sense of the Articles of Religion which were established in Parliament 13
of his hatred the title of Calvinist and Puritan and because I find some to make use of this Jvybush to tole in customers that they are obedient Sons of the Chuch of England I shall beg thy patience good Reader whilest I shew that not the Remonstrant but the Contra-remonstrant opinion hath been the Doctrine of the Reformed Church of England and that the Countenancing of Arminianisme with us is no older than Bishop Laud and Bishop Mountague who are but of yesterday in comparison But do not these men much forget themselves whilest they appeale to the Church of England Was it not the Church of England that in her 35th Article did legitimate the books of homilies and are not such words to be found in the homily against the Peril of Idolatry The image of God Father Son or Holy Ghost either severally or the images of the Trinity be by the Scriptures expressely forbidden and condemned as appears by these places Deut. 4. Isa 40. Acts 17. Rom. 1. Vide ibidem plura How then was the late Arcshbishop an obedient Son of the Church of England who put Mr. Sherlfield a Bencher of Linc. Inne and Recorder of Sarum to so much cost and a disgracefull acknowledgment of his fault and caused him to be bound to his good behaviour for taking down a glasse Window in which there were made no lesse then 7. pictures of God the Father in forme of a little old man clad in a blew and red coat with a Pouch by his side about the bignesse of a Puppet Yea I have heard it from a Gentleman of good repute that the Archbishop then justified the Picturing of God the Father in forme of an old man out of that place of Daniel where God is called the ancient of dayes Nay Bishop Lindsey one of the Archbishops great Creatures was not ashamed to say That none but ignorant Calvinist Bishops did put down Altars at the beginning of the Reformation and that they were worse then Iesuites that he was much offended with the Homily's against the Perill of Idolatry against setting up of images in Churches that he would have these Homilies put out of the Homily book wondred why they were suffered to continue in it so long Was it not the Church of Enland who by her Lords Spiritual in the upper house and her whole convocatiō in the Act for the subsidy of the Clergy 3o. Iacobi defined the Pope to be the Antichrist was it not Bishop Andrews positive opinion that the Pope is Antichrist was it not Archbishop Whitgifts commencement assertion 1569. Papa est ille Antichristus was not this also positively asserted by Archbishop Vsher and proved by King Iames and must they now be called the onely obedient Sons of our Church who study by all their Learning to take off that ignominious name from the Pope and fasten it upon I know not whom Was it not the Church of England who in her 9th Article speaks so plainly concerning Original sin That it standeth not in following of Adam as the Pelagians do vainely talke but is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendred of the off-spring of Adam c. And must he now that set forth the unum necessarium then whom Pelagius himself could not be more Pelagian be resorted unto and reputed as an Oracle by those who glory in nothing more then in beeing old Eliz Protestants O that those who have any zeal for the Religion sealed by the blood of our Martyrs defended by the pens of our Divines the swords of our Soldiers established by the Law of our Nation would consider what I write But these are Parerga'es to our grand design which was to find out the opinion of the Church of England in the matters debated betwixt the Remonstrants and Contra remonstrants for the carrying on whereof it will not be amisse to consider our Church in a twofold capacity before our general Reformation after it Before the general Reformation in whom should we seeke our Church but in our Martyrs and confessors who did witnesse against the Synagogue of Sathan what were the opinions of Wichlief we can scarce find but in the History of Papists who would be sure to make him as odious as they could tell how to draw him but by their laying it to his charge that he brought in fatal necessity that he made God the author of sin we may make a probable ghesse that there was no disagreement betwixt him and Mr. Iohn Calvin For the dayes of King Henry the eight wee have through special providence some workes of Mr William Tyndall Mr Iohn Frith Mr. Dr. Barnes preserved which are all bound up together and put forth by Iohn Day 1563 Mr. Iohn Fox than whom Magd. Coll. hath scarce ever had a member of whom she may more justly boast putting a large preface in which he stileth them the cheife ring-leaders of the Church of England How point blank they speake for the things that now are called Calvinistical errors may be seen with a little labour if any one will looke upon the index though he that will read the book it selfe once over for my sake will read it over twice for his owne Come we to the more conspicuous estate of our Church when Kings and Queens have vouchsafed to be nursing Fathers and Mothers to it when she hath spoken to her members by the 39. Art Homilies Liturgies Catechismes these we will consult that we may be sure if it be possible to know her mind The Articles were first agreed upon in the Convocation holden in the Reign of Edward the sixt 1552. confirmed and repromulgated Anno 1562. ratified by King Iames 1604. and by King Charles 1628. Some little variation there is in the several editions of them about which I mind not to trouble my self seeing the 17th Article is the same in all the words are as followeth Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundation of the World laid he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be call'd according to Gods purpose by his Spirit working in due season they through grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made sons of God by adoption they be made like the image of his onely begotten Son Iesus Christ they walk religiously in good workes and at length by Gods mercy they attain to everlasting felicity c. Nor can any one that reads the common prayer booke with an unprejudiced mind choose but observe divers passages that manifestly make for a personall eternall election That which may be collected out of our Homilies I will not transcribe seeing the booke is commonly to be had Let me only minde
to bring in an English though not a Roman Popery I mean not the outside onely and dresse of it but equally absolute a blind dependance of the people upon the Clergy and of the Clergy upon themselves And have opposed Papacy beyond the Sea that they might setle one beyond the water Nay common fame is more than ordinarily false if none of them have found a way to reconcile the opinions of Rome to the preferments of England be so absolutely directly and cordially Papists that it is all that 1500. per annum can do to keep them from confessing it Dr. Abbot in a Sermon before the University preached at St. Peters on Easterday 1615. Men under pretence of truth and preaching against the Puritan's strike at the heart and root of faith and Religion now established among us This preaching against the Puritan's was but the practice of Parsons and Campian's counsell when they came into England to seduce young Students and when many of them were afraid to lose their places if they should professedly be thus the counsell they then gave them was that they should speak freely against the Puritan's and that should suffice And they cannot pretend they are accounted Papists because they speak against the Puritan's but because they are Papists indeed they speak not against them If they do at any time speak against the Papists they do beat a litle upon the bush and that softly too for fear of troubling or disquieting the birds which are in it They speak of nothing but that in which one Papist will speak against another as against aequivocation the Popes temporall authority and the like and perhaps against some of their blasphemous speeches but in the point of free-will justification concupiscence being sin after Baptism inherent righteousnesse certainty of salvation the Papists beyond the Sea can say they are wholly theirs and the Recusants at home make their braggs of them and in all things they keep themselves so near the brink that upon all occasions they may step over to them From the Doctor of the Chair in Oxon I 'le lead him to the University of Cambridge in which I finde a Letter subscribed unanimously by the several Heads of Colledges March 8. 1595. to their much honoured Chancellor desiring from his Lordships hands some effectual remedy for the suppressing of Baro's opinions Lest by permitting passage to these errours the whole Body of Popery should by little and little break in upon us to the overthrow of our Religion And a little after these words doe occurre Vouchsafe your Lordships aide and advice both to us wholly consenting and agreeing in judgement and all others of the University soundly affected and to the suppression in time not onely of these errours but even of gross Popery like by such means in time easily to creep in among us as we find by late experience it hath dangerously begun The Reader will pardon me who can scarce pardon my self for this excursion occasioned through a desire to acquaint the world what our former Worthies did think concerning the spirit and design of our English Demonstrants 3. It were no difficult matter to compasse about my Thesis denying the positivity of sin with a cloud of witnesses from among our Modern Divines but that I have reasons more than enough to conceive they stand but for cyphers in Mr. P's account Melancthon it may be shall bee regarded let 's hear him He wisheth that there were some one common definition of sin unto which all would stand and for his own part declareth in more places than one that he well approveth the Definition given by Anselm that Original sin is privatio originalis justitiae debitae inesse Nay Tom. 1. p. 163. hee answers Mr. P's Argument If sin be not a positive entity then God punisheth for nothing by distinguishing between nihil negativum and nihil privativum by the same token that he calls that convincing demonstration by no better a name than Cavillatio hence I hamper him in this Dilemma either Melancthon's judgement is somewhat worth or it is not if not why is it made so much use of by Mr. P If it be then down falls the positivity of sin I confesse these horns are in themselves so blunt that I am almost asham'd to make any use of them but ad hominem they are sharp enough for with such a pair he fancieth he hath tossed Dr. Reynolds concerning King James Div. puri p. 8. And yet this deplorable Dilemmatist would needs be dealing again with that incomparable Doctor quite and clean forgetting what befell the poor Frogge in Aesops Fables that would needs be swelling against the Oxe a second and third time I now inform him that the Doctor will meddle no more with him and indeed to undertake an Answer would be intemperanter abuti otio literis nothing being offered against his Epistle which hath weight enough in it to turne those Scales at Sedan of which Capellus saith that they would break with the four hundreth part of a Grain After so many testimonies it may seem needlesse to urge reasons unto Mr. P. who professeth Divi. Phil. p. 100. That none of his principles appeal to reason against the judgement of the whole ancient aod modern Church If by the whole Ancient and Modern Church he mean every Learned man that hath in any Age been of the Church I question whether wee can finde a consent so unanimous in any point except the twelve Articles of the Apostles Creed But that sin is a privation hath been as generally held as any one thing of this nature Among the Fathers I know none of a contrary minde Some few Schoolmen as also Dr. Field I grant were in reference to sins of commission as to sins of omission that they also should be positive is so strange that I know not whether ever it were asserted by any but Cerberus alias Champneys Mr. Dukes the Keeper of the great Ordinary at Hell in Westminster Mr. P. and whom I would not joyn with such company the Reverend and Learned Dr. Hammond Yet wee will also contend by Arguments artificiall Mr. B. had used one p. 112. in which because Mr. P. will have me equally concern'd I shall suffer it and his Answer to play a little before us If sin as sin be a positive entity then it is a thing in it self good but so it is not therfore neither is it a positive entity The consequence is founded upon a very rational and commonly received Maxim that Ens bonum convertuntur though Mr. P. be pleased to call this The printed Article of Mr. B's unchristian Creed p. 151. But what doth he answer 1. That all the force of this argument is onely to prove that sinne is good whereas he that hath but half an eye may see that the design of the Argument is to fright Mr. P. out of his sad opinion concerning the positivity of sinne by bringing him to the grand absurdity of
Eliz. which by the publick Acts of the Church of England and the general and currant exposition of the Writers of our Church have been delivered to us and we reject the sense of the Iesuites and Arminians and all others wherein they differ from us If any one shall be desirous to know why we meet with no censures of Arminianisme in Oxon the answer wil be that thiâ— was not because she had lesse zealâ— against that error than her Sisterâ— but because her members either were free from it or else kept it to themselves Yet I could tell him oâ— Dr. Howsons suspension for flurtinâ— at Mr. Iohn Calvin 4. How comes it to pass thaâ— those who now follow Arminius diâ— heretofore follow Mr. Calvin Dâ—… Iacksons Questions in vesper 162â— were An peccatum originale liberum arbitrium in Adamo ipsius posteris penitus extinxit Affirm An voluntas hominis lapsi sic libera quoad actum conversionis ad Deum Neg. And whos 's these were 1627. An praedestinatio ad salutem sit propter praevisam fidem Neg. An praedestinatio ad salutem sit mutabilis Neg. An gratia ad salutem sufficiens concedatur omnibus Neg. Mr. P. knows if he knows who admitted him a Demy Nay he himself confesseth that he holdeth not the same opinions that he did when he first commenced Mr. What did not the Parents Masters Tutors of these persons know what the Doctrine of the Church of Engl. was or were they some schismatical Puritans who instructed them in a doctrine contrary to what is establisht by Law I hope they will not so blemish their education yet doe they not strangely blemish the Church her selfe For if shee did verily apprehend these Geneva Doctrines to be so contrary to the glory of God and the power of godlynesse why hath shee not in some Convocation declared the mischievousnesse of these tenents and warned her Sonnes against such Catechisms and Systems of Divinity as do contain them Why hath the Practice of Pietie Perkins his Principles Balls Catechisme with divers others been so often printed 5. If the Church be so cordially for Arminianisme how came it to pass that King Iames should bee so very solicitous to have it weeded out in other Churches Did he not put the States upon calling an Assembly to condemn Episcopius and his party Did he not send some of his Divines of singular Piety and parts to sit in that Assembly charging them not to agree to any thing contrary to the Church of England and yet rewarding them at their returne when they had suffraged to the contra remonstrants Did not he exclaim against the impudence of Bertius for saying that his Doctrine of the Apostasie of Saints was agreeable to the Doctrine of our Church Doe but observe how Mr. P. strives to get out of your hand though you think you have him fast Div. Puri p. 6 7. Although King Iames in his younger yeares had imbibed and suckt in even before hee was aware that Presbyterian opinion of the Genevizing Scotish Kirk which no man living will think strange who knows the place of his birth his education yet in riper and wiser years he found so great reason to retract and abjure his former error that he readily accepted of Bishop Mountagues Appeal and commanded it to be printed and to be dedicated also unto his royal self when even this was the Doctrine Appealed for that the children of God may fall away according to the tenour of our sixteenth Article which the King perceiving to be the words and mind of the Church of England and that Bertius had discerned it a great deal sooner than himselfe he did not think it below him to grow in knowledge wisdom as well as yeares The very mentioning of B. Mountague makes him talk like a Dictator rather than an Historian B. Mountague saith in his Appeale lest the Lambeth Articles should too much stand in his way that they were afterwards forbidden by publick authority But Mr. Tho. Fuller Book 9. p. 231. makes himself a little merry with the Learned man When where and by whom this prohibition was made he is not pleased to tell us and strange it is that a publick Prohibition should be whispered so softly that this author alone should hear it and none other to my knowledge take notice thereof Such another Winter tale hath Mr. Pierce told us King Iames changed his judgment when or where how many monthes or years before his death of these not a tittle Doth he think that so unlikely a change will bee believed without very strong proofs I can prove that not above a month before he dyed giving directions and instructions to two Divines having occasion to touch upon the treatises of St. August that are extant in the 7. Tome he stiled them S. Augustins Polemical Tracts against the Hereticks that agree with our Arminians and presently calling to minde their proper name termed those Hereticks Pelagians Vid. Feat Parallels Now though some people who vvill be prating about vvhat concerns them not do talk parilously about some poyson given to the King not long before his death yet that the poyson vvas the Arminian errors I never heard or dreamed That the Divines employed at that venerable Synod never changed their mind is beyond all doubt Hear Bishop Hall and Bishop Davenant in their Letters to one another Bishop Hall Yea as if this calumny was not enough there want not those whose secret whisperings cast upon me the foul aspersions of another sect whose name is as much hated as little understood My Lord you know I had a place with you though unworthy in that famous Synod of Dort where however sickness bereaved me of the honour of a conclusive subscription yet your Lordship heard mee with equall vehemence to the rest crying downe the unreasonablenesse of that way I am stil the same man and shall live and die in the suffrage of that reverend Synod doe confidently avow that those other opposed opinions cannot stand with the Doctrine of the Church of England Bishop Davenant replyeth As for the aspersion of Arminianisme I can testifie that in our joint employment at the Synod of Dort you were as farre from it as my selfe And I know that no man can embrace it in the Doctrine of Predestination and grace but he must first desert the Articles agreed upon by the Church of England nor in the point of perseverance but he must vary from the common Tenet and received opinion of our best approved Doctors in the English Church Mentis aureae verba bracteata Obj. Notwithstanding all this â—t is plainly said that we may fall away from grace received Article 16. As will appear if we compare the 16 th Article with the first part of the homily touching falling away from God Pag. 54.57 With the forme of Baptisme with the Catechisme and all with the Conference at Hampton-Court Pag. 29 30 31. Answ All these have been compared
admiration Hist of the Counc of Trent lib. 2. pag. 212. he speaking of the debates in that Assembly concerning these two opinions thus expresseth himself The first opinion which is the opinion Mr. P. so declaimes against as it is hidden and mystical keeping the minde humble and relying on God without any confidence in it self knowing the deformitie of sinne and the excellencie of divine grace so the second was plausible and popular cherishing humane presumption and making a great shew it pleased more the preaching Fryars then the understanding Divines and the Courtiers thought it probable as consonant to politick reasons it was maintained by the Bishop of Bitonto and the Bishop of Salpi shewed himself very partiall the defenders of this using humane reason prevailed against the others but coming to the testimonies of the Scripture they were manifestly overcome The other story I find in the Preface to the Parallells drawn up as I suppose by Doctor Featly and Doctor Good Accacius Baron of Dona residing some months in England to solicite the recovery of the Palatinate was often set upon and much laid at by a stranger there named Roerghest a man deeply engaged in the Arminian party who though he could not draw him from the truth to that side yet cast such mists of doubts before him that his Lordship for better clearing desired the conference of some English Divines versed in Controversies of this nature and opportunely meeting with two at once he demanded of them why the Divines of England so generally distasted the Doctrine broached by Arminians their answer was that albeit those tenents were plausible to corrupt reason and set out to the best advantage by the wit and art of the Patrons thereof yet that the sacred Scriptures to which naturall reason must bow and stricke sail throughly searched and impartially scanned gave no support at all to the new modell of Gods councells framed in mans braines and that the prime Fathers of most eminent note in the Church above twelve hundred years ago at the first birth of those mishapē brats dashed them against the stones and consequently that by the same Orthodox ancient Church the new Revivers of those errors at this day were damnati antequà m nati precondemned in the loines of their parents The Baron somewhat affected with this answer replied certe si Arminius Pelagium refodit merito vos Arminium defoditis Not long after the said solicitor came to the Baron again hoping to make him his Proselite the Baron acquainting him with the English Divines answer he was at first so confident as to say quid tandem Arminio cum Pelagio But when those Divines had exhibited to the Baron a Paralell betwixt them since printed this confident Gentleman though he undertook to returne forthwith a direct and punctuall answer quitted the field took Sea and returned into Holland and was never heard of more I know Mr. P. also doth very much fume to be accounted Pelagian Semi-pelagian Massillian c. But if his feet were not crooked how came their shoes to fit him so well I remember a saying of Doctor Sanderson in his fifth Sermon ad Populumi that the Prophesies of saint Paul and saint John make it so unquestionable that Rome is the seat of Antichrist that they who will needs be so unreasonably charitable as to think the Pope is not Antichrist may at least wonder by what strange chance it fell out that these Apostles should draw the picture of Antichrist in every point and limbe so just like the Pope and yet never think of him Mr. P. his quick wit hath prevented me in the application never did the stile of an unfortunate writer belong to man if not to him supposing him to have no communion with those old Hereticks for he hath formed no weapon against which I cannot furnish my self with armour from the Magazine of Austin and others who had to do with Pelagius and his Disciples But it may be the party with whom he supposeth me to say a confederacy are the Puritans for those he cannot name with any patience or moderation he tells us advertisement to Mr. Baxter that they were defined at Hampton Court to be protestants frighted out of their wits such as are known to be painted sepulchres having the forme onely of godlinesse without the power of it thought by judicious Hooker to be fit inhabitants for a wilderness not for a well ordered City Such as have ever despised dominion and spoken ill of dignities have been formerly boutefeus and men of bloud the proverbiall Authors Fautors of sedition and violence in Church and state The words of the relator of the Hampton Court conference are these Pag. 37. This and some other motions seeming to the King and Lords very idle and frivolous occasion was taken in some by-talke to remember a certain description which Mr. Butler of Cambridge made of a Puritan A Puritan is a protestant frayed out of his wits And must what is said in some by-talke be called defining If I were minded to pay Master P. in his own coine how easily might I tell him that the Arminians were defined by a wise King in a premeditated declaration Atheisticall sectaries that many of them are known to have neither the forme nor the power of godlinesse of whom judicious Amyraldus saith that they can scarce be supposed ever to have felt the power of the Holy Ghost concerning whom the foresaid King said that if they were not with speed rooted out no other issue could be expected than the curse of God infamy throughout all the reformed Churches and a perpetuall rent and distraction in the whole body of the State concerning whom also the States themselves said that they had created them more trouble than the King of Spain had by all his wars And one would think the King and the States should know better how to set the saddle upon the right Horse then Master P. Ob. These were Presbyterated Arminians our English Episcopall Arminians are free from any such guilt Ans Concerning them not I but the Viscount Falkland shall speak who as he had more courage than to be afraid of them so had he more ingenuity than to wrong them in the before commended speech to the house of Commons Pag. 3 4. Master Speaker he is a great stranger in Israel who knows not that this Kingdome hath long laboured under many and great oppressions both in Religion and liberty and his acquaintance here is not great or his ingenuity lesse who doth not both know and acknowledge that a great if not a principall cause of both these hath been some Bishops and their adherents Master Speaker a little search will serve to find them to have been the destruction of unity under pretence of uniformity to have brought in superstition and scandall under the titles of reverence and decency to have defiled our Church by adorning our Churches to have slackned the strictnes of that union which was formerly between
us and those of our Religion beyond the Sea an action as unpolitick as ungodly And because I know the Reader will not account me tedious whilest I use the words of so eloquent a Lord I shall recite more passages from him to the same purpose Pag. 9. We shall find of them to have both kindled blown the Common fire of both Nations to have both sent and maintained that book of which the Author hath no doubt long since wished with Nero utinam nefcissem literas and of which more then one Kingdome hath cause to wish that when he writ that he had rather burned a Library though of the value of Ptolomies We shall find them to have been the first and principall cause of the breach I will not say of but since the pacification at Barwick we shall finde them to have been the almost sole abettors of my Lord of Strafford whilst he was practising upon another kingdom that manner of Government which he intended to settle in this where he committed so many so mighty and so manifest enormities as the like have not been committed by any Governour in any Government since Verres left Sicilie And after they had called him over from being Deputy of Ireland to be in a manner Deputy of England all things here being governed by a Juntillo and that Juntillo governed by him to have assisted him in the giving of such counsels and the pursuing of such courses as it is a hard and measuring cast whether they were more unwise more unjust or more unfortunate and which had infallibly been our destruction if by the grace of God their share had not been as small in the subtletie of Serpents as in the innocence of Doves But in entitling the honest Puritanes to the manifold violences that have been attempted or practised in Church and State he borrows a piece of policy from the Jesuits who if they had prospered in blowing up the Parliament house had intended to give it about that that so horrid and hellish a fact was perpetrated by he knows whom Honest Bishop Carleton in his Examination of Mr. Montagues Appeal saith That albeit the Puritans disquieted the Church about their conceived Discipline yet they never moved any quarrel about the Doctrine of our Church and that till Montague there was no Puritan Doctrine known Mr. Wotton saith in his answer to the Popish Atti p. 33. Hee that makes difference between the Protestants and Puritans in matters of Faith doth it either ignorantly or maliciously Mr. T. Fuller 610. p. 99. We must not forget that Spalato I am confident I am not mistaken therein was the first who professing himself a Protestant used the word Puritan to signifie the defenders of matters doctrinal in the English Church Formerly the word was onely taken to denote such as dissented from the Hierarchy in Discipline and Church-government which now was extended to brand such as were Anti-arminians in their judgement So that by Puritanes in all probability must be meant non-conformists And if Mr. P. dare say that such men as Mr. Paul Baine Mr. Arthur Hildersham Mr. Dod and Mr. Cleaver the Decalogists Mr. Tho. Hooker Mr. John Ball Mr. Tho. Shepheard were void of the power of godlyness or that they had not more of it than had their persecutors he must either expect not to be believed or seek some other place than England to vent his passion in If by the Puritanes he meaneth the giddy Brownists I have not a word to say in their excuse but this that the Prelaticall oppression was such as might have made wiser people than they madde Had they not a colourable pretext to call some of our Prelates Antichristian whose Courts vexed sundry laborious Preachers because they could not bow at the name of Jesus when as sundry idle sots whom they might frequently observe to stagger in the streets were never questioned But the most probable ground of his fury is yet behind my being noted by Mr. Barlee in the Margin to be a man of his own Colledge for doe but observe the phrases and periods of the man upon this occasion For ought I know he may be also in possession of mine own Fellowship and mine own Chamber and mine own meat and drink and those yearly revenues which are mine own too and for the which I may the rather expect to have some satisfaction because it seems the Visitors made him one of my Receivers and Usufructuaries for my legitimate heir or successor they could not make him And I have reason to be glad that he is thought such a pious and learned man because if he is pious he will the sooner pay me my Arrears and if he is learned he will not object against my known and indisputable right pag. 155. and Div. Phil. p. 147. I suffered the loss of what I thought to be the pleasantest possession on earth for being secretly suggested to be the Author of some bookes which to this very day I could never hear named and though I earnestly desired that I might hear my self accused and know distinctly my accusation and be heard speak for my self yet Dr. Reynolds could not obtaine that for me Thus he hath thrown his fierie darts at me at farre the greater part of Heads and Fellows of Colledges in Oxon at the Visitors and at the two Houses of Parliament But I know not how I am so little sollicitous concerning the quenching of these Darts that I find my self carried away with a very pleasing diversion concerning two different kinds of sober distraction or melancholy the one wherein the brain is generally and equally ill affected to all objects the other where the distemper is confined to some one object or other the brain being otherwise very sound and sober upon all other objects and occasions So Laurentius tells us of a Noble man that otherwise had his senses very perfect and would discourse of any subâ—ect very rationally but was perswaded that he was glass And Huartus tels us of a Noble mans foot-boy in Italy that thought himself a Monarch And Josephus Acostae tells us a sadder story of a Doctor of Divinity who would affirm that he should be a King and a Pope too the Apostolical See being translated to those parts of America which together with some other frantick distempers made him condemned to the fire for an Heretick Farre be it from me to wish or presage any such kind of punishment to Mr. P. for his impudence against the supream Authority of the Nation but I am under some temptation to think that Mr. P. how discreet and sober soever in other matters is fallen into some Hypocondriacall conceits much of that nature for what else could make him after that he hath been known for some years to be an Husband and peaceably to have enjoyed the Rectory of Brington to talk of an indisputable right to a Fellowship chamber meat and drink yearly revenues in Magdalene Colledge Nay he prints as if he had