should make him for that time seem religiously distracted or beside himselfe Or because his Prayer or Sermon hath been premeditated and hath not flowne from him in such an Ex-tempore loose careere of devout emptinesses and nothings as serve onely to entertaine the people as Bubbles doe children with a thin unsolid brittle painted blast of wind and ayre Or because perhaps the sands of his Glasse have not fleeted for two tedious houres together with nothing but the bold insolent defamation and reviling of his Prince Againe have there not been some who have thought our Temples unholy because the Common-Prayer Booke hath been read there And have renounced the Congregation where part of the Service hath been tuned through an Organ Hath not a dumb Picture in the window driven some from the Church And in exchange of the Oratories have not some in the heat and zeale of their Separation turned their Parlours Chambers and Dining-roomes into Temples and Houses of Prayer Nay hath not Christ been worshipt in places yet more vile and mean In places which have reduced him the second time to a Stable If I should aske the people of both Sexes who are thus given to separation and with whom a Repetition in a Chamber edifies more then a learned Sermon in the Church upon what religious grounds or motives either taken from the Word of God which is so much in their mouthes or from reason which is so little in their practice they thus affect to single and divide themselves from others I believe it would pose them very much to give a satisfying Answer Is it because the persons from whom they thus separate themselves are irreligious wicked men Men who are Christians onely in forme and whose conversation carries nothing but evill example and pollution with it If I should grant this to be true and should allow them to be out-right what they call themselves The Elect and Godly and Holy ones of the earth and other men to be outright what they call them The Reprobate the wicked the ungodly and prophane yet is not this warrant enough to divide or separate themselves from them Nor are they competent Judges of this but God only who by the mouth of his Son hath told us in the Parable that the wheat and corne is not to be separated from the chaffe and tares when we list but that both are to grow together till the great harvest of the world Till then 't is a piece of the building of it that there bee a commixture of good and bad Besides let me put this Christian Dilemma to them either the persons from whom they divide themselves are holy or unholy If they be holy they are not to separate themselves from them because they are like themselves If they be unholy they are in charity to converse with them that they may reforme and make them better Did not our Saviour Christ and certainely his example is too great to be refused usually converse with Publicans and sinners Did he forsake the Table because a Pharisee made the Feast Or did he refuse a perfume because a harlot powred it on his head Or did he refuse to goe up into the Temple because buyers and sellers were there men who had turned it into a den of Theeves Certainely my Brethren we may like Christ keep company with Harlots and Hypocrites and Publicans and Sinners and yet retaine our innocence 'T is a weake excuse to say I will never consort my selfe with a swearer lest I learne to blaspheme Or I will utterly renounce all familiarity and acquaintance with such and such an Adulterer or with such and such a Drunkard lest I learne to commit Fornication from the one or Intemperance from the other In all such conversations we are to imitate the Sun who shines into the foulest puddles and yet returnes from thence with a pure untainted Ray. If mens vices then and corruptions bee not a sufficient cause to warrant a separation what else can be Is it the place of meeting or Church or the things done there which hath made them shun our ordinary Congregations Yes say some we have held it very unlawfull as we conceive to assemble in such a place where we have seen Altars and Windowes worshipped superstitious garments worne and have heard the more superstitious Common-Prayer Booke read that great bolster to slothfull Ministers and twin-brother to the Mass and Liturgie of Rome Were this Charge true a very heavy one I confess had there been any among us so unreasonably stupid as to spend their devotion on a pane of glass or pay worship to the dumb sensless creature of the Painter or adore the Communion-Table the wooden issue of the Axe and Carpenter as I think there were none had there I say been very Idolaters among us yet unlesse they would have compelled them to be Idolaters too I after all the impartiall Objections which my weake understanding can frame can see no reason why they should not communicate with them in other things wherein they were no Idolaters I am sure if S. Paul had not kept company with Idolaters we to this day for ought I know had remained Infidels My Brethren deceive not your selves with a fallacy which every child is able to discover If such superstitio ns had been publikely practised among us it is not necessary that every one that is a spectator to anothers mans sin should presently be an offender Nor are all offences so like the Pestilence that he that comes within the breath and ayre of them must needs depart infected Thou seest one out of a blind zeale pay reverence to a picture he hath the more to answer for But why dost thou out of a zeale altogether as blind thinke thy selfe so interested in his errour as to thinke thy self a partaker of his fault unless thou excommunicate thy selfe from his conversation Againe tell me thou who callest Separation security what seest thou in a Surplice or hearest in the Common-Prayer Booke which should make thee forbeare the Congregation where these are retained Is it the web or matter or colour or fashion of the garment or is it the frame or forme or indevotion of the Book which offends thee Or art thou troubled because they have both beene borrowed from the Church of Rome That indeed is the great argument of exception which under the stile of Popery hath almost turned Religion it selfe out of the Church But then it is so weake so accidentall so vulgar an Argument an Argument so fit for none to urge but silly women with whom the first impression of things alwaies takes strongliest that I must say in replie to it That by the same reason that thou poore tender-conscienc'd man who art not yet past milke or the food of infants in the Church makest such an innocent decent vesture as Surplices unlawfull because Papists weare them thou mayest make eating and drinking unlawfull because Papists dine and sup The subject is not high or
which are first capable to be seen and then to be transcribed into a picture But why that part of Christ which after his Resurrection when it began to cease to be any longer a part of this visible World was seen of above five hundred brethren at once may not be painted Nay why the figure of a Dove or of cloven Tongues of fire wherein the third person in the glorious Trinity appeared when he descended upon our Mediator Christ and sate upon the heads of the Apostles may not be brought into imagery I must confess to you I am not sharp-witted enough to perceive Though this I shal freely say to you and pray do not call it Poetry That to maintain that Christ thus in picture may be worshipt is such a peece of Supeâ—…stition as not only teaches the simple to commit Idolatry but endeavours to verifie upon him in colours the reproach which the calumniating Jews stuck upon his person and to make him thus painted a Seducer of people As for your fourth paragraph which assaults me the second time with an Argument without an Edge which is that the Sun and Images cannot be put in the scales of comparison in point of fitness to be preserved having in my former Letter already answered you I shal not put my self to the needless trouble the second time to confute it For answer to your Fifth pray Sir read that part of my Sermon which you have corrupted into a quibble And there you shal find that what I say of clean linnen is not as you say a shifting Fallacy But I there say that which you wil never be able to controule which is That by the same reason that you make Surplices to be superstitious because papists wear them you may make Linnen also to be superstitious because papists shift And so conclude cleanliness to be as unlawful as Surplices or Copes Sir this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I confess the same Answer twice served in to you not out of scarcity or barrenness or for want of another Reply but because much of your Letter is but crambe repetita a carret twice boyled Your sixth paragraph is a faggot bound up with more sticks in it then you without poetical Licence can possibly gather from my Letter where Sir I only promise you when ever you shal cal upon me to derive to you all the ancient parts of our English Liturgy from Liturgy's which were in the Church before popery was born Of which if any part be to be found in the Rubricks of the Church of Rome your logick wil never be able to prove that therefore 't is to be rejected as trash and trumpery in ours Good things Sir lose not their goodness because they are in some places mingled with superstitious Nor as I told you before do Davids Psalms cease to be a piece of Canonical Scripture because they are to be found bound up in the volumn with the Mass. Sir if what ever is made use of by the Pope or touches upon Rome should be superstitious the River Tiber would be the most blameable river in the World What you mean by a prelatical Faction here in England or what they borrowed from the Rituals or pontifical of Rome is exprest to me in such a mist of words which sound big to the common people and signifie nothing to the wise that I must confess my dulness I do not understand you If you mean that they inserted any new peeces into the old garment of our CoÌ„mon-prayer-book and those borrowed from the Missal or Breviary of Rome I beleeve Sir abstracting from those alterations made in the prayers for the King Queen and Royal issue which the Death of Princes exacted unless for constancy sake you would have them allow of prayers for the dead and in King Charls and Queen Mary's days to pray still for King Iames and Queen Anne which would be a piece of popery equal to the invocations of saints you will find nothing modern or of such new contrivance as past not Bucers Examen in the raign of Edward the sixth And was confirmed by Act of Parliament in the raign of Queen Elâ—…zabeth In saying this in their defence who had the ordering of such changes I hope Sir you will not so uncharitably think me imbark't in their Faction which truly to me stil presented it self like the conceal'd Horses under ground a fiction made to walk the streets to terrifie the people as to perswade your self after my so many professions to fall a sacrifice to the Protestant Religion that it can be either in the power of the Church or court of Rome to tempt me from my Resolution Which is to go out of the world in the same Religion I came in Sir I gave warning in my last letter not to venture your writings upon the Argument which deceives none but very vulgar understandings and which I in my Sermon cal the Mother of mistakes which is from an accidental concurrence in some things to infer an outright similitude and agreement in all Because Bellarmine says tradition is a better medium to prove somethings by then a private spirit and because I in this particular have said so too you tacitely infer that I and Bellarmine are of the same Religion which is the same as if a Turk and a Christian saying that the Sun shines you should infer that the Christian is a Mahumetan and for saying so a Turk I confess you do not say we are both of the same Religion but that I in preferring Tradition which you your self in your seventh paragraph tllow to be the Constant and universal Report of the Church before he Testimony of the Spirit speaking in the Word to the Consciences of private men am more profane than he Heer sir you must not take it ill if I expose you to the censure of being deservedly thought guilty of a double mistake The one is that if Bellarmine in this particular were in an Errour and if I had out-spoken him in his Errour yet the Laws of speech will not allow you to say That in an unprofane subject either of us is profane more heretical or mistaken you might perhaps have said and this though a false Assertion might yet have past for right Expression But to call him positively and me comparatively more profane because we both hold That a Drop is more liable to corruption then the Ocean or the testimony of al ages of the Church is a fuller proof of the meaning of a text in Scripture then the solitary Exposition of a man who can perswade none but himself is as incongruous as if you should say that because Bellarmine wrote but three Volumns and Abulensis twelve therefore Abulensis was a greater Adulterer then He. Your other mistake is That you confound the Spirit of God speaking in the Scripture with the private Spirit that is Reason Humour or Fancie of the person spoken to Sir let that blessed Spirit decide this controversie between us
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.
thus separate must betake themselves to some other Teacher whom in opposition to the former they chuse to be their Guide and so make themselves his Followers Thirdly they must erect a New Assembly or place of Congregation as a New Church distinct from that from which they doe divide Lastly This choyce of a New Guide and Separation from the Old this Erection of a New Church and Division from the former must be upon slight unnecessary Grounds For if the Cause or Ground of their Separation be needlesse vaine unnecessary if it spring more out of Humour Pride desire of change or Hatred of their Brethren then out of any Christian love to keepe themselves from sinnes 'T is in the Scripture-Language Schisme That is a sinne of Separation Or if you will heare me expresse my self in the language of a very learned Man who hath contrived a clue to lead us through this Labyrinth This breach of Communion This separation from a Church rightly constituted This choyce of a New Guide New Teacher New Instructer Lastly This setting up of a New Congregation or place of private Meetings is the same sinne in Religion which Sedition or Rebellion is in the Commonwealth or State For upon a right examination of the matter 't will be found That Schisme is a Religious or Ecclesiasticall Sedition as Sedition in the State is a civill Lay-schisme Which two sinnes though they appeare to the World in diverse shapes the one with a Sword the other with a Bible in his Hâ—…nd yet they both agree in this that they both disturbe the publick peace The one of the State where men are tyed by Laws as Men The other of the Church where men should be tyed by Love as Christians To let you yet farther see what a grievous sinne this sinne of Schisme or Separation is If the time would give me leave I might here rayse the Schoolemen Antient Fathers and Generall Councells from the dead and make them preach to you from this Pulpit against the sinne of Separation I might tell you that in the purest Times of the Church a Schismatick and Hereticke were lookt upon as Twinnes The one as an Enemy to the Faith the other to Communion But because in our darke Times learning is so grown out of date that to quote an Ancient Father is thought a piece of Superstition And to cite a Generall Councell is to speake words to our New Gifted men unknowne I will say nothing of this sinne but what the Scripture sayes before me First then I shall desire you to heare what S. Paul sayes in this case in the last Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans at the 17. verse Turne to the place and marke it well I beseech you Now I beseech you brethren sayes he there Marke them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which â—…e have learned and avoid them That is in other words Separate your selves from them And then he gives you a Character and Description of those Separaters at the 18. verse of that Chapter And sayes For they that are such serve not our Lord Iesus Christ but their owne Belly And by good words and faire speeches deceive the Hearts of the simple In which words Foure things are so exactly drawn to life as makes them a perfect Prophecye or rather picture of our Times The first is that there were some in S. Pauls dayes who caused Divisions in the Church Men who in a way of Schisme and Separation made themselves the Heads and Leaders of divided Congregations Next The Ground upon which they built their Separation 't was not upon any just true lawfull Scripture Ground For the Text sayes 'T was contrary to the Doctrine which the Apostles taught and preacht But the true cause or Ground why they thus caused Separations was meerly self-Interest And that they might gaine by their Divisions Nay 't was such a poore base unworthy selfe-Interest that 't is there said they did it in compliance to their Belly The third thing which will deserve your observation is the cunning Art they used to draw the weaks to be their Followers 'T is there sayd that by good Words and faire Speeches they deceived the Hearts of the simple especially the simple of the weaker sex And who these were S. Paul in other words but to the same purpose tells you in the 3. Chapter of his second â—…pistle to Timothy at the 5 6 7. verses of that Chapter Where speaking of such Coseners he sayes they had a Forme of Godlinesse an outward seeming Holynesse to deceive and cosen by And that under this Forme of Godlynesse they crept into Houses and there led Captive silly Women loaden with sinnes and drawne away with divers Lusts. Women so unable to distinguish Right from Wrong that they were alwayes learning and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth And certainly my Brethren 't is no new thing under the sunne to see the weaker sexe misled by holy Formes and Shews 'T is no new thing I say under the Sunne for a man that makes long prayers to eat up a Widdows House Or for a cunning Angler to catch the fillyer sort with a hooke bayted with Religion 'T was so in our Saviours time and 't was so in S. Pauls And whether their demure lookes their precise carriage their long prayers their good words and fayre speeches be not the Hooke and snare by which weake people are caught now whether the feasting of their Bellyes or the making Gayne of Godlinesse Or whether the Itch and pride of being the Leaders of a Faction Or whether the vaine Ambition of being thought more holy or more gifted than the rest be not the true end of those who doe now cause Separations I will not rashly censure but I have some reason to suspect But this is not all The fourth and last thing which most deserves your observation is that Separation in that place is such a Scripture-sinne that S. Paul commands us to separate from those who doe thus cause Separations Heare the place I pray once more repeated to you I beseech you Brethren sayes he Marke them who cause Divisions among you and avoid them That is as I said before Separate your selves from them If they who upon no just cause doe Separate must be Separated from I hope you 'l all confesse that Separation is a sinne And what sinne thinke you is this sinne of Separation Why I know some of you will thinke it strange if I should say 't is a sinne of the Flesh. And yet S. Paul sayes that 't is a sinne of the Flesh in the 3. Chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians Marke I beseech you what he sayes in that place Are ye not carnall sayes he there For whereas there are among you Envyings and Strifes and Divisions Are ye not carnall and walke as men Sayes He at the 3. verse Againe when one saith I am Paul And when another saith I am of
diversity of speech For as speech was at first bestowed upon us by God that wee might hold league and society and friendship with one another so you may read in the 11. Chapter of Genesis that as long as all the world was of one language and of one speech they lived unanimously together like men of one family and house One heart one soule seemed to move in them all But when they once ceast to be unius labii homines men of the same lip and speech when as many languages were throwne among them as they afterwards possest Countries then society and co-habitation and brotherhood ceast among them too They were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth saies the Scripture They who were before children of the same common Ancestours and derived themselves from the same common parentage and stock as if they had been borne in the adverse Hemispheres of the world or had taken their beginning from as many severall Parents as they afterwards found Islands of one great Family and Kindred became so many divided Nations As this diversity of Tongues at first broke the world into the severall crumbles and portions of men who from that time to this have divided it among them so there is not any one thing which hath so fatally divided Kingdomes and States and Churches against themselves somtimes to an utter extirpation many times to an eternall breach and Irreconciliation as diversity of Language I doe not meane when men speake divers tongues of severall dialects and significations as when they at the building of Babell spoke some of them Hebrew perhaps some of them Greek but my meaning is that nothing more directly tends to the division of a State or Church then for severall companies of men to distinguish and divide and separate themselves from one another by certaine words and names of marke and difference especially if they be words of disgrace and scandall and reproach mutually imposed and stuck upon each other Or words of faction and combination assumed and taken by themselves Then if hatred of person or difference of Religion doe accompany such words of distinction that for the most part befalls them which befell the men of the old world they breake society and Communion and crumble asunder and of one people become so many divided Nations and Churches to each other This is an Engine which the Devill and wicked Polititians have in all ages of the world made use of to disturb the peace and trouble the happinesse of Kingdomes and Common-wealths Making holy vertuous words and names many times the partition wall of separation And the device and incitement not onely to divide Kingdomes but Corporations and private Families against themselves As long as the Jewes called themselves by one and the same common name of their Father Iacob Israelites they made but one State one Common-wealth among them But when once ten Tribes ingrossed that name to themselves and the other two for distinction sake called themselves by the name of the Tribe of Iudah the most united happiest neerliest allied people in the world a people of one blood as well as one language fell asunder and divided themselves like Iacob and Esau into two hostile irreconcileable never more to bee united Kingdomes And this was the case of these disagreeing Corinthians to whom S. Paul directed this Text. As long as they called themselves by one and the same common name of Christians they made but one City one Church one place of Concord But when they once began to distinguish themselves by their severall Teachers when some said We are of Paul others we are of Cephas A third sort we are of Apollos And onely a fourth sort more Orthodox then the rest we are of Christ Then then indeed as if Christ had been divided or had beene the Author of severall Religions preacht among them by severall Apostles they became broken and rent and torne asunder into severall Churches and Congregations Where their usuall custome was not onely to oppose Sermon against Sermon and Gospell against Gospell and Teacher against Teacher but everie one in the defence of their owne Teacher and his Gospell thought it part of their Religion to extoll and quote and urge the purity and infallibility of the one to the depression and disgrace and contempt of the other Till at length it came to passe as I told you before that that which begun in Religion proceeded to bad manners and ill behaviour Markes and words of distinction and difference grew to bitter invectives and mutuall reproaches of one another They who were the followers of Saint Pauls Doctrine called those who followed Apollos by way of marke and infamy Apolonists And they who were the followers of Apollos by way of retaliation and brand called the followers of Saint Paul Paulists though Saint Paul and Apollos preach both the same Doctrine Hard censures flew between them in as hard language who ever was not of a party nor enrolled of a side was thought to be without the pale of the Church The gates of heaven were shut against him and nothing but reprobation and the lot of the damned and hell fire were allowed to be his portion Here then my Brethren let me make my appeale to eyery one of you who heare me this day hath not this been our verie case I must with sorrow of heart confesse to you that as often as I have for some yeares made to my selfe a contemplative survey of this unhappie Kingdome I have been able to discover no cause so pernicious for the many alienations of mind or the many separations of Congregation from Congregation heightned at length into the tragedy of an over-spreading Civill War as certain vain ridiculous empty words and names of distinction among us which have sprung from some mens stricter or looser carriage of themselves in their profession of the same Religion They of the more free and open carriage and behaviour who call a severe regularity and strictnesse of life precisenesse and an abridgement of Christian liberty have called those of a more reserved and lockt up and demure conversation Puritans and Round-heads and I know not what other names of contumely and reproach And they of the more strict behaviour have equally as faulty called those of a freer and lesse composed conversation Libertines and Papists the usuall words of infamy made to signifie a Cavalier These two words my Brethren have almost destroyed a flourishing Kingdome between them To this I cannot but adde one most pernicious cause of our present divisions more which people have derived to themselves from making themselves followers too much of severall Teachers and affecting too much to bee called after their names whilest one saies I am of Paul another I am of Cephas a third I am of Apollos only a few neutrall men We are of Christ. Nay if we needs must goe severall waies I could wish wee had such sacred names as S. Paul or S. Peter or
comparison or examination to reject and despise al others I am of opinion we should quickly make one Church againe if those new-borne names and words of Independent and Presbyter did not divide us And I am also Perswaded that our severall Disciplines and Doctrines have not kept the Church of Rome at a greater distance with us then the style and compellation of Protestant and Papist Thirdly that we Schollars in those high mysterious poynts which have equall argument and proofe on both sides and which both sides for ought I know may hold yet meet in heaven doe factiously or peremptorily betake our selves to neither But either lay them aside as things of meere contemplation not of practise or use or else speak of them to the people onely in that generall sense wherein all sides agree and as that generall sense is laid downe to us in the Scripture Lastly that in matters of Ceremony and forme things either altogether indifferent or at most neither enjoyned nor forbidden in the Scripture that our carriage and words be alwayes as indifferent That we call not that scandalous which is decent or that decent which is scandalous That we presse not things as necessary which are meerly ornamentall nor impose ornaments as things of necessity That where no well-establisht Law is broken by it both in Actions and Language where ever we come we conforme our selves to the harmelesse though to us unusuall custome of the place Herein imitating that sure example of S. Paul by being strong with the strong and weak with the weak as neere as we can to become all things to all men In things meerly Ceremoniall to part with our Christian liberty and peaceably to yeeld to those who being otherwise perswaded will contentiously refuse to part with theirs And where our salvation or the salvation of our neighbour is not concerned charitably to comply and sort with their infirmities neither crossing them by our practice though perhaps the better nor perplexing them with our disputes though perhaps the more rationall But if it be possible as much as lies in us not only to have peace with all men in words and speech but in society and conversation and Church-Assemblies too Which is the next degree of Unity here petitioned for that is an unity of meeting together in the same house of God set downe in these words I beseech you Brethren that there be no divisions among you That I may the clearlier proceed in the interpretation of this part of the Text I shall desire you to observe that the word which we here in English doe translate Divisions is in the Originall Greek by which we are to order our exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A word which signifies not every kinde of rent or division or disagreement among men but such a division onely as is accompanied with a perverse unreasonable deniall of society and communion together in the same Church A division which carries with it an obstinate separation upon unnecessary grounds Which unnecessary separation upon weake slight grounds is that which Saint Paul here in this Text by way of difference and distinction from lighter Rents calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schismes A sin my Brethren of which if I should discourse to you at large and should shew you the hainousness of it by its dangerous effects I might tell you that it is not only a sin against the sociable nature of men who are borne for Communion and Commerce and the mutuall help of one another but it is a sin directly against that unity and peace which Christ as his last Legacy bequeath'd to his Church A sin which besides the uncharitable opinion which accompanies it which is that they who are separated from must therefore be separated from because they are wicked deplorably wicked men men reprobated and utterly lost in the wayes of Errour and with whom all communion is destructive to our Salvation doth not alwaies confine it selfe within the retired sequestred limits of a bare separation But that which at first began from a scruple hath many times proceeded to a Tragedy and massacre They who at first causelesly separated themselves from their Brethren because they were wicked have many times as their strength and numbers have encouraged them and as the time hath favoured their Reformation as they have called it proceeded from the rectifying of mens Errors to the lessening of their fortunes And they only have at length been called the wicked who have been rich and have had estates to lose That onely which I shall further say to you of it is this Separation is a sin which hath alwaies veyl'd it selfe in the disguise of sanctity Thus Montanus and his followers broke off Communion with the whole Christian Church then in the world because forsooth 't was revealed to them by divine illumination that the Holy Ghost was no where to be found but in their Conventicle An Heresie which beginning in Schisme proceeded at length to this monstrous conceit among them That only the house of Montanus was the true Church and that Montanus himselfe was the Holy Ghost Thus also the Donatists an over-scrupulous Sect of men divided themselves from the then Catholique Church because it was not pure enough for such sanctified Communicants nor complied with the inspired doctrines of the Father of that Sect. And this it seems was the fault of these Corinthians here in this Text who having intitled themselves to severall Teachers proceeded by degrees to divide themselves into severall Churches and Congregations every one of which challenging to themselves the true and right Religion and charging the others with the name of the false thought at length that no way was left to keep themselves pure and unspotted but by breaking off all Religious nay Civill Commerce and Communion with each other Hence for feare of infection it was held a crime for any but the Righteous to assemble or converse with any but the Righteous or for any to meet together at a spirituall Exercise but such who first agreed in the same purity of Opinions Here then if I may once more take the liberty to parallel one people with another is not this our very case Hath it not been the practice of many many yeares for those who call themselves the godly the righteous the children of the most High to breake off society and communion nay almost neighbourly civility with those whom they call the wicked As there were among the Jewes certaine uncleane places and things and persons which whosoever toucht were for that time uncleane too so hath not the like opinion past among us that there have been certaine unholy unsanctified places and persons which make those who touch or approach neer them unholy too Have not some Pulpits been thought unsanctified because forsooth the Preacher hath been ungifted And wherein I pray hath his ungiftedness appeared Because hee hath not expressed himself in that light fluent running passionate zealous stile which
he hath helpt to make miserable Or let him weepe never so passionately over the Congregation which he hath broken into factions In short how seemingly holy how precise how unprophane soever his behaviour bee though the Scripture doe so continually over-flow in his mouth that hee will neither eat nor drinke nor speake nor scarce sleep but in that phrase yet as long as he thus forgets his Charity thus Preaches strife thus Division I shall so farre mistrust whether he have the Spirit that I shall not doubt to reckon him in the number of those false Prophets which S. Iohn sayes are gone out into the world The Conclusion then of this Sermon shall be this Men and brethren I have with all the sincerity and plainnesse which might benefit your soules preacht Truth and Concord and mutuall Charity to you I have also for some yeeres not been so sleepy an Observer but that I have perceived some of you who have thought your selves more Religious then the rest to be guilty of the I might say Crime but I will rather say of the mis-guided Zeale of these Corinthians here in my Text. There have been certaine Divisions and I know not what separations among you I have farther observed that certaine false causlesse prejudices and aspersions have been raised upon our University which to the grief of this famous Nursery of Gods Church at home and the reproach of it abroad are still kept waking against us by some of you as if Conscience and Religion as well as Learning and Gifts had so far forsaken us that all the Schools of the Prophets cannot afford you a set of able vertuous men fit to be the Lecturers to this soule-famisht Parish How we should deserve to be thus mistaken by you or why you should under-value those able Teachers which you have already or refuse to take your supply from so many Colledges which here stand present and ready to afford you choyce or why you should supplicate to the great Councell of this Kingdome in pitty to your soules to send you Godly Teachers which perhaps is but a well-meaning Petition from you but certainly 't is agreat scandall and Libell against us I know not But whatever the mysterious cause be I am confident that unlesse they will sleep over their infamy and reproach it will alwayes be in the power of our despised University-Divines to make it appeare even to those whom you intend to petition That this is but a zealous errour in you And that they are as able to edifie you certainly as he whose occupation it was to repaire the old shooes of the Prophets I should shame some of you too much who were the Disciples of that Apostle if I should discribe him to you by a larger character Instead therefore of a farther vindication of the reproach throwne upon us that which I shall say of more neere concernment to you is this If I have in the progresse of this Sermon ript open any wounds among you it hath not been with a purpose to enlarge or make them bleed but to powre wine and Oyle into them and to heale and close them up Next If I have cleared any of your sights or inabled you at length to discerne that the reason why the mote in your brothers eye seemed so big was because an over-scrupulous zeale had placed a beame in your owne and that in contributing to the ruine of one of the purest Religions in the world the reason why you have swallowed so many monstrous Camels hath been because at first you made scruple and strained at gnats I have what I intended Which was to let you see that to divide and separate your selves from the communion of our Church if it had been guilty of a mole or two is as unreasonable as if you should quarrell the Moon out of her Orb or think her unworthy of the skies because she wears a spot or two writ on a glorious ball of light Lastly if I have said any thing in the reproof of discord or the praise of charity which may re-unite your minds and make you all men of the same heart and beliefe as well as of the same Citie and Corporation I shall thinke I have done the work and businesse of a just Divider of the Word of God towards you and of a faithfull Servant and Steward towards my heavenly Master Whose blessing of peace be upon you all together with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost To which glorious Trinity be ascribed all Honor Praise Dominion and Power for ever AMEN FINIS A SERMON AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS PREACHED In St. MARIES CHVRCH In OXFORD shortly after the Surrender of that Garrison By IASPER MAINE D. D. and one of the Students of Christ-Church OXON IER 23. 16. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Hearken not unto the words of the Prophets that prophesie unto you They make you vaine they speak a vision of their owne heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. Printed in the Yeare M D C XLVII A SERMON AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS EZEK 22. 28. Her Prophets have daubed them with untempered Morter seeing vanity and divining lyes unto them saying Thus saith the Lord God when the Lord hath not spoken THE PREFACE THat which the best Orator said of Oratorie put to the worst use Nihil est tam horridum tam incultum quod non splendesent oratione That there is nothing so deformed or rude which may not be made amiable by Speech hath alwayes been verified of Religion too No one thing hath in all Ages been more abused to paint and disguise foule actions It hath been made the Art to cozen people with their owne Devotions and to make them in the meane time think sacredly of their seducers Conspiracies and Insurrections drest in these colours have been called holy Associations and Leagues And the Ambitious to worke the more securely on the credulity of the simple have not onely presented evill to them growing on the Tree of Good but have proceeded thus much farther in the fallacy that they have still made forbidden fruits seem pleasant to the eye And the false colours under which they have seemed pleasant have alwayes been taken from Religion Thus in these Heathen States where they first made their owne gods and then worshipt them never plot was hatcht to disturbe the Common-wealth but the writings of some Sybill or other were entitled to that plot And never any designe was laid to destroy the Roman Empire but some Augur or Priest was taken in whose part 't was to make the Entrailes and Liver of his sacrifice give credit to the ambition of the designe And thus among the Iewes some ambitious men the better to gild over their proceedings still entitled God to them Who as if he had been one of those Tutelar changeable Deities which used to be enticed and called over from one side to another they still entertained the people that they who
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
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-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
but as a Delegary of power to examine my studies life and manners I shall bring all the submission with mewhich can be expected from one subject to the tryall and examination of such a power Being withall very confident that when that time comes however you may perhaps finde an old Cope or two in our Colledge yet you will never bring Logick enough with you to prove that they are either Idolatrous or have been put to a superstitious use And therefore Sir in this particular you have lost your friendly counsell there being no need at all that we should against that time study for an Answer In your next Fascicle you say that I maintaine that some things in the Excellency and Height of the Doctrines of Christian Religion depend for their credit and the Evidence of their Truth upon the Authority of Christs Miracles convey'd along in Tradition and Story And therefore conclude that my Religion leaues too hard and too heavy upon Tradition Sir though I have alwayes lookt upon the Scriptures of the Old Testament and the New as two glorious lampes which to all eyes that have not lost the use of seeing by being kept sequestred from the sunne too long in the darke mutually give light to one another so that a vigilant Reader by comparing Prophecies with their Accomplishments will have very great reason to beleeve that both are true yet because this amounts but to the discourses and perswasions of a single mans reason if I prefer Tradition which is the constant universall consent of all Ages as a fuller medium to prove doctrines by which are hardly otherwise demonstrable doe I any more I pray then prefer the universall Testimony and Report of the Church of all Times before the more fallible suggestions of a private spirit Your next Paragraph is perfectly the Hydra with repullulating Heads which I warned you of in my first Letter And multiplies so many causeless questions as make it nothing but a heape partly of such doubts partly of untruths as would make it one of Hercules labours to examine them First you bid me prove that Christ hath put the sole power of Ordination in the hand of a Prelate Sir if the practice of the Apostles in the Scripture in this point were not cleare yet the practice and opinion of the Church for 1500 yeeres ought to be of too great Authority with you to make this a scruple Knowing that no Church in the world thought otherwise till the Presbyterian Modell crept forth of Calvins fancie nor any good Protestant in the Church of England till such as you recalled Aerius from his grave and Dust to oppose Bishops Next you bid me justifie that no Church that ever the sunne lookt upon hath beene more blest with purity of Religion for the Doctrines of it or better establisht for the Government and Discipline of it then the Church of England hath Sir you repeat not the words of my Sermon so faithfully as you should I am not so extravagant as to say that no Church that ever the Sunne lookt upon but that the Sun in all his heavenly course for so many many yeeres that is in my sense for many Ages saw not a purer Church then ours was both for the Doctrines and Discipline of it Against this you wildly object I know not what Doctrines publiquely countenanced but tell me not what these Doctrines were speake of certaine superstitious practices and Prelaticall usurpations but doe not prove them to be either superstitious or usurpt quarrell with the Delegation of Bishops power to Chancellors then proceed to the tyrannie of the High-Commission-Court and at last conclude with I know not what Imaginary corruptions and Innovations introduced into the State Church and University Sir if I should grant this long-winded Charge of yours to be true as truly I think it is onely a seeing of vanity yet my confident Assertion is not hereby enfeebled I hope when I spoke of the purity of our Church you did not think I freed it from all blemishes or spots The Primitive Church it selfe had some in it who broacht strange doctrines Saint Iohn had not else written his Gospell against the Gnosticks nor Saint Paul his Epistle to the Galatians against those that held the necessity of Circumcision The next Ages of the Church have not been more distinguisht by their Martyrs then Heretiques yet the Primitive Church ceased not to be Apostolically pure because it had a Cerinthus or Nicolaitans in it nor the succeeding Churches to be the Spouse of Christ because one brought forth an Apelles another a Marcion a third a Nestorius a fourth an Eutiches a fift an Arius Sir as long as the best Church in the world consists of men not infallible there will be errors But then you must not charge the Heterodox opinions or Doctrines of particular men though perhaps countenanced by some in publique authority upon the Church Besides Sir every Innovation is not necessarily a Corruption unless it displace or lay an Ostracisme upon some other thing more worthy and better then it selfe You your selfe say that the corruptions introduced were brought in by a prevailing faction who were not the Church If they were not my Assertion holds good that notwithstanding such corruptions yet our Church in its time was the purest Church in the world This then being so me thinks Sir you in your pursuit of Reformation by making Root Branch your Rule of proceeding have beene more severe then the lawes of right Reason will allow you If there were such a tyrannie as you speake of streaming it selfe from the High Commission Court why could not the tyrannie be supprest without the abolishment of the Court Or if there were such a thing as Prelaticall usurpation why could not the usurpations be taken away and Episcopacie left to stand Sir if you be Logician enough to be able to distinguish betweene the faults of persons and the sacredness of functions you cannot but pronounce with me that to extirpate an order of the Church ancient as the Christian Church it selfe and made venerable by the never-interrupted Reception of it in all the Ages of the Church but ours for the irregular carriage of a Prelate or two if any such have beene among us is a course like theirs who thought there was no way left to reforme drunkenness in their State but utterly to root up and extirpate and banish Vines The remainder of your Paragraph is very politically orderd which is that because you finde it hard for you to confute my Sermon by your Arguments you will endeavour to make the Parliament my Adversary who you thinke are able to confute it by their power And bid me prove that the proceedings of the Parliament are Turkish Here Sir methinks being a Poet I see a piece of Ben Iohnson's best Comedy the Fox presented to me that is you a Politique Would-be the second sheltring your self under a capacious Tortoise-shell Why Sir can you perswade
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
but prove to me that the Priests whom you make to be the lower orbe of their Faction did so mingle and confound the services of the Church as to put no difference between the holy and profane or that in complyance with them they saw vanity and divined lyes to the people and I shall think them capable of all the hard language which you or others have for some yeares heapt upon them Till then Sir pray mistake not Concrets for their Abstracts nor charge the faults of persons upon the innocency of their functions Prelacy is an Order so well rooted in the Scripture though now deprived of all its Branches in this Kingdome that I verily perswade my selfe that as Caiaphas in the Gospell when he spoke Prophecy perceived not himself at that time to be a Prophet so you over-rul'd by the guidance of a higher power have in this Paragraph exceedingly praised Prelacy whilst you laboured to revile it For either it must be Non-sense or a very great Encomium of it when you say that as long as it enjoyed a root here in this Kingdome it had not onely a destructive influence into the evils of the Church but of the Civill State too If the Influence of it were so destructive of evils as indeed it was pray with what Logick can you say that Salus populi quae suprema lex est did compell the Parliament to extirpate a thing so preservative and full of Antidote both to Church and State Sir if mens styles denominations be to be given to them by the place clymate where they are borne bred I shall grant you are an English nay an Oxford Christian. But if you preach maintain that Religion is to be propagated by the Sworâ—… I must tell you that an English Presbyter may in this case be a Turkish Prophet and that though his Text be chosen from the Gospel yet the Doctrine raised from it may be a piece of the Alchoran I shall allow you to say that the Protestants in Ireland had a Right to the defence of the free exercise of their Religion against the furious assaults of the bloody Rebels But when you tell me that Christ is King of Nations as well as King of Saints which I shall grant you and say that as one of his wayes to make Proselytes is by the perswasion of his Word and Spirit so if that will not do his other way to break the power of Antichrist that is as I conceive you mean to convert men from Popery is by civill and naturall meanes that is if you meane any thing to compell them to be Protestants by the Sword Me-thinks I am at Mechâ—… and heare a piece of Turcisme preacht to me by one of Mahomets Priests In short Sir whether the Papists in England were confederate with the Irish Rebels I know not But doe you prove demonstratively not jealously to me that the Queene and her Agents had an intent to extirpate the Protestant Religion and to plant Popery by the Sword and the Army that should bring that designe to pass shall in my opinion be styled an Army not of Papists but of baptized Ianizaries As for your bidding me dispute the right of taking up Armes in such a case with the Parliament First I must desire you to accept the Answer which Favroinus the Philosopher gave to a friend of his who askt him why he would let Adrian the Emperour have the better of him in a Dispute I am loth to enter into an Argumentation with those who command Thirty Legions Next Sir if I were of consideration enough to be heard to speak publickly to that Great Assembly having first kist my weapon I should not doubt with all the respective liberty which might witness to them that I strive not to diminish the rights of their power but to defend the truth of my cause to tell them that to come into the field with an armed Gospel is not the way chosen by Christ to make Proselites If this be an error or mis-perswasion in me shew me but one undenyable demonstration of the Spirit to disprove it besides your untopicall perswasion of your selfe to the contrary and without any farther conference or dispute in this point I shall acknowledge my selfe your convert and be most glad to be convinced In the mean time Sir you are obliged though I be in your opinion in an error to think more nobly of me then of those Cowards of your side who durst not speak Truth in a time of danger when you see me in the like time such a resolute Champion as you conceive for the wrong Sir 't is one of the prayses of a good picture to be drawne so livingly that every one in the room that beholds it shall thinke it looks only on him 'T is just so with some Texts in Scripture and some parts of morall Philosophy which when they speake very Characterizingly of an irregular passion or vice if they meet with a man Conscious and one subject to such passions remember him of his guilt and prick his minde as if he only were signified by that which was writ to all the World By your charging me that I dealt more sharply with you then I should you give me cause to suspect that my Letter proved such a picture to you and you to your guilty selfe seemed a person so concerned The words of bitterness which you have layed together in one heape are composed of such Language as upon your twentieth perusall you will never be able to finde in my Letter Sir Christianity and my profession however you in your letter forgot both have taught me not to returne Vomit for Vomit And the love which I beare to to the Civility of expression would never suffer me to be so revilingly broad If I made use of one of Senoca's Epistles or of Tully's Paradoxes or Horace's poeticall Controversies and if you would apply what they said of Ambition Pride or Choller to your self certainly Sir you have no reason to call this the Luxuriancy of my wit And thereupon to inferre these provocative conclusions that my wit is wanton therefore I am effeminate That I am superstitious therefore lascivious too Sir as my wit is so poore that I shall observe your Councell that is never wax proud upon the strength of it or despise those that are more weake so without sparing me at all I doe once more challenge you to prove that the wantonness of it hath betrayed me to the loose Conversation of any that are light Lastly Sir I hope you doe not think I have so much of the vaine glory or selfe-conceitedness of those Reverend Hypocrites in the Gospell in me who were able to boast of their long Prayers and broad phylactaries and of their fasting twice a weeke that I will offer to thinke my selfe more temperate then the Apostles Yet Sir I dare once more challenge you the precisest of your inspired informers to prove me at any time
possible it may beget an opinion in the minds of those that know me not that though I have more then once profest my selfe ready to fall a sacrifice in the defence of the Protestant Religion yet that this was but a disguise which concealed my hypocrisie 'till provoked I were put to defend the superstitions of the Church of Rome Sir I know upon what lesser grounds then this some in our credulous times have been unjustly called Papists Next Sir if I should hold them affirmatively with their faces thus looking towards Popery and should bring them thus clothed in your termes of superstition into the Divinity Schoole I doubt very much whethet the publickness of the Defence may not draw an aspersion not onely upon me and the Moderator if he will vouchsafe to sit in the Chaire whilst we quarrell but upon the whole already too much defamed University which such as you have from numerous Pulpits called long since Popishly affected But if it should allow of such a Dispute 't would lend fuell to your calumnies and be endangered to be no longer thought Popish but out-right a Papist Thirdly Sir your first and last Question if they were purged of their odious termes cannot publiquely be maintained without some affront to the Parliament who by one Ordinance have put down the Common-prayer-book by another Episcopacy If therefore under your termes I should publiquely stand up in defence of them you had need procure a third Ordinance which when I have done may keep me safe Yet Sir to assure you that this is no evasion in me to decline a dispute because my Sermon was the occasion of your challenge of me in the Pulpit and of this private conference betweene us since Since also you allow me the liberty of alteration and to adde my stroke to the Anvill on which the questions to be disputed on between us are to receive the last form and shape in which with least offence and scandall they may walk into the publique Lastly since the three Latine Questions you sent me are three passages of my Sermon but so corrupted from themselves as shew them to have been once purely Protestant but passing through your hands have degenerated and clothed themselves with a to-be-suspected robe of Popery the nearest way I know for us to agree upon their true state is to deale with them as the Bishops at the Reformation dealt with the Religion of the Church of Rome that is purge them from their corruptions and restore them to the Primitive rule from whence they have digrest Which Rule being my Sermon if you read it with open eyes presents you with your three questions in this more genuine forme An Liturgia Anglicana ideò â—…liminanda sit quia nonnullas partes ab Ecclesiâ Romanâ mutuata est Neg. Christi Sanctorumque imagines in Reformator Ecclesiis lâ—…ite retineri possint Aff. Regimen Ecclesiae Anglicanae per Episcepos sit Antichristianum ex eo quòd Ecclesia Romana quaÌ„ nonnulli sedem Antichristi statuunt sic gubernatur Neg. Vpon these three Questions which are but three periods of my Sermon cast into a problematicall forâ—…e if you approve of them and like a generous Adversary will promise me that neither for sending of them to you now nor for defending them hereafter I shall be question'd for this I require no other security but your word I will not faile God assisting me to meet you in the Divinity Schoole at University weapons when ever you shall think fit to call upon me and to bring with you those Arguments which you say you reserve for that place and in your two letters have not vouchsafed to afford me who doe daily pray for I begin to be weary of fighting with shades that this unnecessary conflict may at length end in a Christian peace between you the opponent and me the defender of The Sermon against False Prophets J. MAYNE From my Chamber this Afternoone Feb. 4. 1646. In the evening to the afternoone in which this Letter was sent M. Cheynell returned an Answer not so large I confess as I expected but composed of Language so complying with my desires that I unfainedly felt a new strife within my self how having hitherto tolerably borne his rougher assaults I should preserve my self from being conquer'd by his civilities Which I confess have such a forcible charme upon my nature softend and tutor'â—… to it by Religion that the World cannot afford an Enemy who shall raise such a tempest of persecution against me but that I shall be ready to afford him my Imbraces and Armes if he will be content to be received there in a calme I do farther confess that M. Cheynell by undertaking to secure me against the danger which might have followed a publique dispute hath not onely verified my expression and shewne himselfe a generous adversary but by that engagement of himself hath made me see what reason I have to complaine of my hard fortune which hath left me onely the will and not the power to be in the like kind as generous to Him back again His Letter was to a syllable this SIR You may be confident that the Messenger was not sent by me because he return'd without you and without his fees I never writ up one Letter to London that did in the least measure reflect upon you if your Sermon had not been printed I had not spoke one word against it I desire to deale with you in a rationall way and therefore I doe accept of your Academicall proposition or challenge so often sent me and because I find my prayers in some measure answered and you more civill then heretofore I shall deale freely with you I doe here under my owne hand assure you that if you be questioned for defending these Propositions in a Scholasticall way you know reproaches are not Scholasticke in the publique Schools I will answer for you the Parliament will not question you for any learned rationall debate about Prelates or the Common-Prayer-Booke for the satisfaction of your self and others I will meet you if you please at the Doctor of the Chaire his lodgings to morrow about two of the clock in the afternoon I doubt not but by his advice we shall agree upon termes fit to express the points in Controversie if you like the proposall be pleased to send your approbation of it in two lines by this bearer to Your friend to serve you FRAN CHEYNELL Mert. Coll. Feb. 4. 1646. To this Letter which was the last I received from him by the same Messenger that brought it I return'd this Answer which was the last he received from me SIR I shall God willing meet you to morrow at your houre at the Doctor of the Chaire's Lodging Where if you be as willing to submit to the termes which he shall think fit to put the Questions in which we are to dispute upon as I shall be there will be no variance between us there nor shall we I
obeyed yet he is not to be resisted Since such a Resistance would not only change the Relation of inequality and Distance between the Prince and People and so destroy the Supremacy here given him by S. Peter but 't would actually enter duell with the Ordinance of God which ceaseth not to be sacred as often as 't is wickedly imployed Irresistibility being a Ray and Beame of the Divine Image which resides in the Function not in the Religion of the Prince Who may for his Person perhaps be a Caligula or Nero yet in his Office still remaine Gods Deputy and Vicegerent And therefore to be obeyed even in his unjust commands though not actively by our compliance yet passively by our sufferings This Doctrine as 't is agreeable to the Scripture and the practice of the purest and most primitive times of the Church so I finde it illustrated by the famous example of a Christian Souldier and the censure of a Father upon the passage This Souldier being bid to burne Incense to an Idoll refused But yeelded himselfe to be cast into the fire Had he when his Emperour bid him worship an Idoll mutinied or turn'd his speare upon him saies that Father he had broken the fift Commandement in defence of the second But submitting his Body to be burnt the only thing in him which could be compelled instead of committing Idolatry he became himselfe a Sacrifice I could Sir second this with many other Examples but they would all tend to this one pious Christian Result that Martyrdome is to be preferred before Rebellion Here then if I 〈◊〉 suppose your Presbyterian Friends charge to be true a very heavy one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the King miscounselled by a Preâ—…ticall Court Faction when he first Marcht inâ—…o the field against the Armies raised by the two Hâ—…uses of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aâ—… inteâ—…t to subvert the Protestant Religion and to plant the Religion of the Church 〈◊〉 Rome in it's stead yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to me that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 King or the two Hâ—…uses to be his 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 their two Oathâ—…â—…f 〈◊〉 and Alleageâ—… that in so â—…ing â—…e for 〈◊〉 his Crowns and wâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over all persons and in all â—…auses as well â—…vill as â—…cclesiasticall within the 〈◊〉 of his three Kingdomes supreame Head and Governour I know no Armes which coâ—…â—…wfully be used against Him bâ—… these which S. 〈◊〉 used against an Arian Emperour Lachâ—…as Suspiâ—…ia Sighes Tears and Prayersâ—…o â—…o Godâ—…o â—…o turne hiâ—… heart And therefore Sir when your Friend doth next aske you Flow it could stand with the safe â—…onscience of any English Protestant to stand an idle spectator whilst Queen Maries daies were so ready to break in upon him that He was almost reduced to this hâ—…rd choyce either to follow the Times in the new erected fashion of Religion or live in danger of the stake and Faggot if he persisted in the old yâ—…u may pâ—…ease to let him know from me That as I have no unruly Thirst or irregular Ambition in me to dâ—…e a Martyr Not am so much a Circumcâ—…lee as to court or wooâ—… or in case iâ—… fled from me enthusiastically to call upon me my own Death and Execution So if it had been my Lot to live in the fiery times He speaks of when a Protestant was put to death for an Heretick as I should not have quarreld with the Power that condemned me so I should have kist my funerall pile And should have thoughâ—… it a high peece of Gods favour to me to call me to Heaven by a way so like that of his Angell in the Book of Iudges who ascended thither in the Flame and aire and persume of a Sacrifiâ—…e But what if this be only a Jealousie and suspition in your Friend â—…ay 〈◊〉 if it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disguise and paâ—…t to some Ambitious mâ—…s 〈◊〉 who to walke the more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thâ—… darke and politick ends â—…ave stiled thâ—…mselves the Dâ—…fendours when they have all this while been the Invadors And have calleâ—… the King the subverter who hath all this while to his power been the Defendor of this Religion This certainâ—…y if it be proved will very much 〈◊〉 and aggravâ—…e their sinne and dye it in a deep sâ—…let through all the progresse of it But because I rather desire to east a mâ—…tle over their strange proceedings then to adâ—…e to their Nakednesse which hath at length discover'd it selfe to all the World all that I shall say to deliver so much Goodnesse from so much misrepresentation it this That the report which at first poyson'd the mindes of so many Thousand well minded people That the King had an intent by this â—…re in destroy the Protestant Religion could at 〈◊〉 have no other parent but some mens either crasty Malice or needlesse Feare appears clearly in this that after all their great Discoveries they have not yet instanced in one considerable Ground fit to build more then a vulgar Iealousy upon The Kings affection to the Queene His Alliance and confederacy with Popish Princâ—…es abroad and the Gentlenesse of his Raigne towards his Popish Subjects at home being premises 〈◊〉 unfit to build this inference and conclusion upon that Therefore He took up Armes that he might introduce theiâ—… Religion as his in Aristotle were who because it lightned when Socrates toâ—…k the Ayre thought that his walkingâ—…use â—…use â—…hat commotion in the skyes For that the Root and Spring of such a report could be nothing but their own deluded fancy they must at length 〈◊〉 esse unlesse with their Faith they have â—…ast off their Charity too Let 〈◊〉 Friend Sir read â—…ve any one of His Majesties Declarations and whâ—… sacred Thing 〈◊〉 there by which he hath not freely and uncompelled obliged and bound Himselfe to live and dreâ—… a Protestant By what one Act have these many Vowes been broken Who made that Court Faction which would have miscounselled him to bring in Popery Or let your Friend if he can name who those Miterd Prelates were who lodged a Papist under their Rotchet If he cannot let him for beare to hold an Opinion of his Prince and Clergy which Time the mother of Truth hath so demonstratively confuted And let him no longer suffer himselfe to be seduced by the malitious writings of those who for so many years and from so many Pulpits have breathed Rebellion and Slander with such an uncontrouled Boldnesse and Sting that I cannot compare them to anything so fitly as to the Locusts in the Revelation which crept forth of the Bâ—…ttomlesse pit every one of which worethe Crowne of a King and had the Tayle of a Scorpion In short Sir If he have not so deeply drunke of the Inchantedâ—…uppe as to forget himselfe to be a Subject let him no longer endanger himselfe to east of their Ruine too who for so many years have dealt with the best King that this Nation ever had as Witches are said