were such as serued fitly to leade the Reader into that Sense which vnder the word True comprehendeth only Truth of Beeing or Existencie and not the Due Qualities of the thing or subiect you haue beene causelesly traduced But on the other side if that Proposition comes in ex abrupto or stands solitarie in your discourse you cannot maruell though by taking the word True according to the more ordinarie acception your true meaning was mistaken In briefe your Proposition admits a True sense in that sense is by the best learned in our Reformed Church not disallowed For The Beeing of a Church does principally stand vpon the Gratious Action of God calling men out of Darknesse and Death vnto the Participation of sight and life in Christ Iesus So long as God continues this Calling vnto any people though they as much as in them lies Darken this light and corrupt the meanes which should bring them to life and saluation in Christ yet where God Calls men vnto the Participation of life in Christ by the word by the Sacraments there is the true Being of a Christian Church let men bee neuer so false in their Expositions of GODS Word or neuer so vntrustie in mingling their owne Traditions with Gods Ordinances Thus the Church of the Iewes lost not her Being of a Church when shee became an Idolatrous Church And thus vnder the gouernment of the Scribes and Pharisees who voided the Commandements of God by their owne Traditions there was yet standing a true Church in which Zacharias Elizabeth the Virgin Mary and our Sauiour himselfe was borne who were mēbers of that Church and yet participated not in the corruptions thereof Thus to grant that the Roman was and is a True Visible Christian Church though in doctrine a false and in practice an Idolatrous Church is a true assertion and of greater vse and necessitie in our Controuersie with Papists about the Perpetuitie of the Christian Church then is vnderstood by those who gainsay it This in your Reconciler is so wel explicated as if any shall continue in traducing you in regard of that Proposition so explained I thinke it wil be only those who are better acquainted with wrangling then reasoning and deeper in loue with strife then truth As for the aspersion of Arminianisme I can testifie that in our Ioint imployment at the Synod of Dort you were as farre from it as my selfe And I know that no man can imbrace it in the Doctrine of Predestination and Grace but he must first desert the Articles agreed vpon by the Church of England nor in the point of perseuerance but he must vary from the common Tenet and receiued opinion of our best approued Doctors in the English Church I am assured that you neither haue deserted the one nor will vary from the other And therefore be no more troubled with other mens groundlesse suspitions then you would be in like case with their idle Dreames Thus I haue inlarged my selfe beyond my first intent But my loue to your selfe and the assurance of your constant loue vnto the Truth inforced me thereunto I rest alwayes Ian 30. 1628. Your louing Brother IO. SARVM ¶ To the Reuerend and learned Master Doctor PREDEAVX professor of Diuinitie in Oxford and Rector of EXCETER Colledge WOrthy Master Doctor Predeaux All our litle world here takes notice of your worth and eminencie who haue long furnished the Diuinitie Chaire in that famous Vniuersitie with mutuall grace and honour Let me intreate you vpon the perusall of this sorie sheete of Paper to impart your selfe freely to me in your censure and to expresse to mee your cleare iudgement concerning the true being and visibilitie of the Romane Church you see in what sence I professe to hold it neither was any other euer in my thoughts Say I beseech you whether you thinke any learned Orthodoxe Diuine can with any colour of reason maintaine a contradiction herevnto And if you find as I doubt not much necessitie and vse of this true and safe Tenet helpe me to adde if you please a further supplie of Antidotes to those Popish spiders that would faine sucke poyson out of this herbe It was my earnest desire that this satisfactorie reconcilement might haue stilled all tongues and pens concerning this ill-raysed brabble but I see to my griefe how much men care for themselues more then peace I suffer and the Church is disquieted your learning and grauitie will be ready to contribute to a seasonable pacification In desire and exspectation of your speedie answere I take my leaue and am Your very louing friend and fellow-labourer IOS EXON Right Reuerend Father in GOD VPon the receite of your Reconciler which it pleased you to send me I tooke occasion as my manifolde distractions would permit to peruse what had beene said on both sides concerning the now-being of the Romane Church VVherin I must professe that I could not but wonder at the needlesse exceptions against your Tenet you affirming no new thing in that passage misliked in your Old Religion And this your Aduertisement afterward so fully and punctually cleareth and your Reconciler so acquitteth with such satisfying ingenuitie that I cannot imagin they haue considered it well or meane wel that shal persist to oppose it For who perceiues not that your Lordship leaues no more to Rome then our best Diuines euer since the Reformation haue granted If their speeches haue beene sometimes seemingly different their meaning hath beene alwayes the same that in respect of the common Truths yet professed among the Papists they may and ought to bee tearmed a True visible Church in opposition to Iewes Turkes and Pagans who directly denie the Foundation howsoeuer their Antichristian aditions make them no better then the Synagogue of Sathan This being agreed vpon by those whose Iudgement wee haue good reason to follow cited in your Aduertisement and by others they doe an ill office to our Church in my opinion who set them at ods in this point that are so excellently reconciled and giue more aduantage to the Aduersarie by quarrelling with our worthies then the Aduersarie is like to get by our acknowledgment that they are such a miserable Church as we discouer them to be VVhat I haue thought long since in this behalfe it appeareth in my Lecture De Visibilitate Ecclesiae and as often as this hath come in question in our publicke Disputes we determine here no otherwise then your Lordship hath stated it And yet wee trust to giue as little vantage to Poperie as those that doe detest it and are as circumspect to maintaine our receiued Doctrine and Discipline without the least scandall to the weakest as those that would seeme most forward That distinction of Romes case before and since the Councell of Trent holds not to dis-Church it but shewes it rather to be more incureable now then heretofore Neither find I any particulars obiected which those worthy men haue not sufficiently cleared that haue iustifyed
society of all that professe Christian Religion through the whole world howsoever impured who can denie this title to the Roman If in a strict sense it be taken as it is by Zanchius here and all those Divines who refuse to give this style to the Synagogue of Rome for the companie of elect faithfull men gathered into one mysticall bodie under one head Christ washed by his blood justified by his merits sanctified by his Spirit conscionablie waiting upon the true ordinances of God in his pure Word and holie SacrameÌ„ts who can be so shamelesse as to give this title to the Roman Church Both these sentences then are equally true The Church of Rome is yet a true Church in the first sense The Church of Rome long since ceased to bee a true Church in the second As those friendly souldiers therefore of old said to their fellowes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why fight we Stay stay deare brethren for Gods sake for his Churches sake for your soules sake stay these busie and unprofitable litigations put up on both sides your angrie pens Turne your Swords into Sithes to cut downe the ranke corruptioÌ„s of the Roman church and your Speares into Mattockes to beat downe the walls of this mysticall Babylon There are enemies â—now abroad Let us bee friends at home But if your sense be the same you will aske why our termes varie and why wee have chosen to fall upon that maner of expression which gives aduantage to the Adversarie offence to our owne Christian Reader let me beseech thee in the bowels of Christ to weigh well this matter and then tell me why such offence such advantage should bee rather given by my words than by the same words in the mouth of Luther of Calvin of Zanchie Iunius Plessee Hooker Andrewes Field Crakenthorpe Bedel and that whole cloud of learned and pious Authors who have without exceptioÌ„ used the same language And why more by my words now than twentie yeares agoe at which time I published the same truth in a more ful and liberall expression Wise and charitable Christians may not be apt to take offence where none is given As for anie Advantage that is hereby given to the Adversaries they may put it in their eye and see never the worse Loe say they we are of the true visible Church this is enough for us why are we forsaken why are we presecuted why are we solicited to change Alas poore soules doe they not know that Hypocrites leud persons reprobates are no lesse members of the true visible Church what gaine they by this but a deeper damnation To what purpose did the Iewes crie The Temple of the Lord whiles they despighted the Lord of that Temple Is the sea-weed ever the lesse vile because it is dragd vp together with good fish They are of the visible Church such as it is what is this but to say they are neither Iewes nor Turkes nor Pagans but misbeleevers damnablie hereticall in opinion shamefullie idolatrous in practice Let them make their best of this just Elogie and triumph in this style may we never prosper if we envie them this glorie Our care shall be that besides the Church sensible as Zuinglius distinguisheth we may be of the Church spirituall and not resting in a fruitlesse visibilitie wee may finde our selves livelie limbes of the mystical body of Christ which onelie condition shall give us a true right to heaven whiles fashionable profession in vaine cries Lord Lord and is barred out of those blessed gates with an I know you not Neither may the Reader think that I affect to goe by-waies of speech no I had not taken this path unlesse I had found it both more beaten and fairer I am not so unwise to teach the Adversarie what disadvantage I conceive to be given to our most just cause by the other manner of explication Let it suffice to say that this form of defence more fully stops the adversaries mouth in those two maine and envious scandals which hee casts upon our holy Religion Defection from the Church and Innovation than which no suggestion hath wont to bee more prevalent with weake and ungrounded hearts what wee further win by this not more charitable than safe Tenet I had rather it should bee silently conceived by the judicious then blazoned by my free penne shortly in this state of the question our gaine is as cleare as the Adversaries losse our ancient Truth triumphes over their upstart errours our charitie over their mercilesse presumptions Feare not therefore deare brethren where there is on roome for danger Suspect not fraud where there is nothing but plaine honest simplicitie of intentions censure not where there is the same Truth clad in a different but more easie habite of words But if any mans fervent zeale shall rather draw him to the liking of that other rougher and harder way so as in the meane time he keepe within the bounds of Christian charitie I taxe him not let everie man abound in his owne sense Onely let our hearts and tongues and hands conspire together in peace with our selves in warre with our common enemies Thus farre have I Right Honourable in a desire of peace poured out my selfe into a plaine explication and easie accordance Those whom I strive to satisfie are onely mis-takers whose censures if some man would have either laught out or despised yet I have condescended to take off by a serious deprecation and just defence It is an vnreasonable motion to request mindes prepossessed with prejudice to heare reason Whole Volumes are nothing to such as have contented themselves onely to take up opinions upon trust and will hold them because they know where they had them In vaine should I spend my selfe in beating upon such anviles but for those ingenuous Christians which will hold an eare open for justice and truth I have said enough if ought at all needed Alas my Lord I see and grieve to see it it is my Rochet that hath offended and not I In another habit I long since published this and more without dislike It is this colour of innocence that hath bleared some over-tender eyes Wherein I know not whether I should more pittie their errour or applaud my owne sufferings although I may not say with the Psalmist What hath the righteous done Let mee I beseech your Lordship upon this occasion have leave to give a little vent to my just griefe in this point The other day I fell upon a Latine Pamphlet homely for style tedious for length zealously uncharitable for stuffe wherein the Author onely wise in this that he would bee unknowne in a grave fiercenesse flies in the face of our English Prelacie not so much enveighing against their Persons which he could be content to reverence as their verie places I blest my selfe to see the case so altered Heretofore the Person had wont to beare off manie blowes from the function now the verie function wounds the person In what
Men but cannot utterly dischurch it whiles those main principles maintaine a weake life in that crazie and corrupted bodie But is not this language different from that whereto our eares and eies have beene inured from the mouthes and pens of some reverend Divines and professors of our Church Know Reader that the streame of the famous Doctors both at home and abroad hath runne strongly my way I should have feared and hated to goe alone what reason is there then to single out one man in a throng Some few worthie Authors have spoken otherwise in the warmth of their zealous contention yet so as that even to them durst I appeale for my Iudges for if their sound differ from me their sense agrees with me that which as I touched in my Advertisement so I am now readie to make cleare by the instance of learned Zanchius whose pregnant testimonies compared together shall plainly teach us how easie a reconcilement may bee made betwixt these two seemingly-contrarie opinions That worthie Author in his profession of Christian Religion which hee wrote and published in the 70. yeare of his age having defined the Church of Christ in generall and passed thorow the properties of it at last descending to the subdivision of the Church militant comes to inquire how particular Churches may be knowne to be the true churches of Christ wherof he determines thus Illas igitur c. Those Churches therefore doe wee acknowledge for the true Churches of Christ in which first of all the pure doctrine of the Gospell is preached heard admitted and so onely admitted that there is neither place nor eare given to the contrarie For both these are the just propertie of the flocke or sheepe of Christ namely both to heare the voice of their owne Pastor and to reject the voice of strangers Iohn 10. 4. In which secondly the Sacraments instituted by Christ are lawfully and as much as may bee according to Christs institution administred and received and therefore in which the Sacraments devised by men are not admitted and allowed In which lastly the discipline of Christ hath the due place that is where both publiquely and privately charitable care is had both by admonitions corrections and at last if need be by excommunications that the Commandements of God be duly kept and that all persons live soberly iustly and piously to the glory of God and edification of their neighbour Thus hee wherein who sees not how directly he aymes both at the justifying of our Churches and the casheering of the Roman which is palpably guiltie of the violation of these wholsome rules And indeed it must needes be said if we bring the Roman Church to this touch she is cast for a meer counterfeit shee is as farre from truth as truth is from falshood Now by this time you goe away with an opinion that learned Zanchie is my professed adversarie and hath directly condemned my position of the truenesse and visibilitie of the Roman Church Have but patience I beseech you to read what the same excellent Author writes in his golden Preface to that noble worke De natura Dei where this question is clearly punctuall decided There you shall finde that having passed through the wofull and gloomie offuscations of the Church of God in all former ages he descending to the darknesse of the present Babylon concludes thus Deinde non potuit Satan c. Moreover Satan could not in the verie Roman Church doe what he listed as hee had done in the Easterne to bring all things to such passe as that it should no more have the forme of a Christian Church For in spight of Satan that Church retained still the chief foundations of the faith although weakned with the doctrines of men it retained the publique preaching of the word of God thogh in many places mis-understood and mis-construed the invocation of the name of Christ though joyned also with the invocation of dead men the administration of Baptisme instituted by Christ himselfe howsoever defiled with the addition of many superstitions So as together with the symbole of the covenant the Covenant it selfe remained still in her I meane in all the Churches of the West no otherwise than it did in the Church of Israel even after that all things were in part profaned by Ieroboam and other impious and Idolatrous Kings upon the defection made by them from the Church and Tribe of Iuda For neither doe I assent to them which would have the Church of Rome to have no lesse ceased to be the Church of Christ than those Easterne Churches which afterwards turned Mahumetan what Church was ever more corrupt than the Church of the ten Tribes yet we learne from the Scriptures that it was still the Church of God And how doth S. Paul call that Church wherein Antichrist hee saith shall sit the Temple of God neither is it any Baptisme at all that is administred out of the Church of Christ The wife that is an Adulteresse doth not cease to be a wife unlesse being despoiled of her mariage-ring she be manifestly divorced The Church of Rome therefore is yet the Church of Christ but what manner of Church Surely so corrupted and depraved and with so great tyrannie oppressed that you can neither with a good conscience partake with them in their holy things nor safely dwell amongst them Thus he againe Wherein you see hee speakes as home for me as I could devise to speake for my selfe and as appositely professeth to oppose the contrarie Looke now how this learned Author may be reconciled to his owne pen and by the very same way shall my pen bee reconciled with others Either he agrees not with himselfe or else in his sense I agree with my gainsayers Nothing is more plaine then that hee in that former speech and all other classicke Authors that speake in that Key meane by a True Church a sound pure right beleeving Church so as their vera is rather verax Zanchie explicates the terme whiles he joines veram puram together so as in this construction it is no true Church that is an unsound one as if truth of existence were all one with truth of doctrine In this sense whosoever shall say the Church of Rome is a true Church I say he calls evill good and is no better than a teacher of lyes But if we measure the true being of a visible Church by the direct maintenance of fundamentall principles though by consequences indirectly overturned and by the possession of the word of God and his Sacraments though not without soule adulteration what judicious Christian can but with mee subscribe to learned Zanchius that the Church of Rome hath yet the true visibilitie of a Church of Christ what should I need to press the latitude and multiplicity of sense of the word Church there is no one term that I know in all use of speech so various If in a large sense it be taken to comprehend the
and that they were not his people he calleth them his people My people saith he asketh counsell at their stickes and their stuffe answereth them But after that God had scattered them among the Medes and other nations of Assyria and broken his couenant with them they became not onely in the second but also in the first sence Iesrehel and no more Israel Lo-ruhama and no more Ruhama Lo-hammi no more Hammi Then was fulfilled the the prophesie Plead with your mother plead For shee is not my wife neither am I her husband So the Iewes which were Gods people in the midst of their idolatrie since they haue denied Christ to bee the Messias the Mediatour betweene GOD and them and haue crucified the Lord of glory are no more Gods people although they beg still that name They are saith Christ the Synagogue of Satan They say they are Iewes and are not but doe lye For seeing God hath broken them off and grafted the Gentiles in their roome they qualifie themselues Gods people as falsely and iniuriously as a whoore lawfully diuorced by her husband calleth her selfe his wife To applie this to the Romane Church which hath adulterated and corrupted the whole seruice of God and is more adulterous then was at any time Iuda or Ephraim and therefore is not a true visible Church in the second sence I say shee is one in some sort in the first In her God doth still keepe his true word in the Old and New Testament as the contract of his marriage with her In her is the true Creed the true Decalogue the true Lords Prayer which Luther calleth the kernel of Christianitie In her Christ is Preached though corruptly In her the Trinitie and Incarnation of Christ are beleeued In her the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost are prayed vnto though in an vnknown tongue to the most part In her the little children are Baptised in the Name of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost And no Diuine will denie that their Baptisme is a true Sacrament whereby their children are borne to God seeing wee doe not rebaptise them where leauing her they adioyne themselues to vs. Who then can denie that shee is a true Church For out of the Church there is no Baptisme and the Church alone beareth children to God In her sitteth the man of sinne the sonne of perdition who sitteth in the Temple of God which is the Church It s graunted that shee is Babylon in the second sence And Gods people is commanded to come out of Babylon What is Gods people but Gods Church which forsaketh her successiuely as of old the typicall people came out of the typicall Babylon not at once but at many seuerall times If then we applie vnto her Gods commandement exhorting her to come out of Babylon either wee vnderstand not what wee say or we acknowledge her to bee Gods people that is Gods Church though idolatrous rebellious and disobedient Neither shall shee cease to bee Gods people in this sence till the comming of the blessed day when the ayre shall rebound with the shouting of the Saints Babylon is fallen shee is fallen that great Citie because shee made all nations drunke with the wine of the wrath of her fornication I say then that as Ierusalem was at the same time the holy Citie and a Harlot the Temple was Bethel and Bethauen Gods House and a house of Iniquitie the Iewes were Gods people and no people Gods children the Deuils Ephraim was Idammi and Lo-Hammi in diuers râ—spects euen so the Romish Church is both BETHEL and BABEL Bethel from God calling her to the communion of his grace in Christ by his Word and Sacrament of Baptisme Babel from her selfe because shee hath made a gallimaufrey of the Christian Religion confounding pell-mell her owne traditions with Gods Word her owne merits with Christs the bloud of Martyrs with the bloud of the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinne of the world Purgatorie with the same bloud which purgeth vs from all sinne Iustification by workes with Iustification by faith only praying to the Creatures with praying to the Creator Idols of men women beasts Angels with Gods worship the mediation of Saints with the mediation of him who is the suretie of the new Testament and is able to saue to the vttermost all those that come vnto God by him seeing hee euer liueth to make intercession for them Nay as Caluin said truly in the Romish Church Christ is scarcely knowne among the Saints of whom some are in Heauen as the Apostles c. some on Earth as the Pope some in Hell as Saint George an Arrian Hereticke and bloudie Butcher of true Christians Saint Dominicke the firebrand of the warre against the Albigeois Saint Garnet whom Tyburne sent to his owne place to bee rewarded of the Gunne-powder Treason Some did neuer die because they had neuer the honour to liue as Saint Christopher Saint Katherine Saint Vrsule Saint Longin who was a Speare Saint Eloi who was two couple of sharpe nailes and many more of the same stuffe In a word the roaring of the Camards of Bahal is so lowd in that Church that Christs voice is scant heard in her and yet heard both in the mouth of these Babylonian builders which vnderstand not one another and in the mouthes of the people halting betweene Christ and the Pope their Bahal And therefore in that behalfe not the true but a true Christian Church This testimony is the praise of the most wonderfull patience of God who suffereth so long that common hackney to beare his Name It is her shame As it is the shame of a Queane married to a good husband to be conuicted of running vp downe after strangers It s a vantage to vs in our imployment for her conuersion For as when Agar had confessed truly that she was Sarahs maid the Angell tooke her at her word saying Returne to thy Mistresse and submit thy selfe to her and perswaded her Euen so wee take the Roman Church by the necke when shee confesseth that shee is Christs Church as shee is indeed exhorting her to returne vnto Christ to obey his Word to submit her selfe vnto him and to folow the true Faith of the ancient Catholicke and Apostolicke Church Neither is it any vantage to her against vs to inforce vs to returne to her or to vpbraid vs for forsaking her For as Moses when the people had committed Idolatrie tooke his Tabernacle and pitched it without the Campe afarre off from the Campe breaking of all communication with those which had broken the Couenant of the LORD their God till they repented As God said to Ieremiah of the Iewes which had opened their legges to euery one that passed by multiplied their whoredomes Cast them out of my fight and let them goe forth Let them returne vnto thee but returne not thou vnto them As
Hosea said of Ephraim Ephraim is ioyned to Idols let him alone So Christ saith vnto vs Come out of Babylon my people that yee be not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receiue not of her plagues Her sinnes are a spirituall leprosie And we run away from leprous men though true men and our neerest and dearest friends crying what they are loth to cry Vncleane vncleane lest their breath should infect vs Her sinnes are infidelitie not negatiue but priâ—atiue not in whole but in part As Saint Paul a beleeuing lew was in vnbeliefe when he persceuted the Church And Saint Paul saith vnto vs Be ye not vnequally yoked together with vnbeleeuers c. Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the vncleane thing and I will receiue you and will be a Father vnto you and yee shall bee my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almightie A faithfull subiect will not take a traitour though a subiect by the hand nor I a Papist in matter of his Religion Neither will honest women 〈…〉 with the greatest Lady thogh shee be a great ones wife This I haue euer taught priuately Preached publikely published in Printed Bookes against Papists during these thirtie three yeares of my Ministrie in the French Churches without any aduantage to our Aduersaries without any contradiction of our diuines without any acception taken against it by our Churches or any particular among the brethren which all in their name Preach and publish that they are of the same mind calling themselues The Reformed Churches and our Religion The reformed religion For as the good Kings of Iuda did not build a new Temple call to God a new people set vp a new Religion but repurge and clense the old Temple restore the ancient Religion exhorted Gods people to shake off the new inuentions of the new patched Religion and to returne to the Lord their God by the olde way which their fathers had beaten and Moses had traced vnto them in the Law And as Zorobabel Esdras Nehemiah Ieshuah builded the Wals of Ierusalem vpon the ancient foundation euerie man building next himselfe Euen so the Protestant Diuines haue euerie one next himselfe not builded a new Church vpon a new foundation but repurged the auncient Church of idolatrie superstition false interpretations of the Scriptures and traditions of men whereof shee was fuller then euer Augeas his Stable was full of mucke but beaten downe and burned with the fire of Gods word the Wals of Wood Hay Stubble which the Babylonian builders had raysed vpon the old foundation which is Christ Iesus and edified vpon it a faire Palace of Siluer Gold precious Stones This same is the opinion also of my Collegues of the French Church of this Citie of London If any selfe-conceited Christian thinketh this an aduantage rather then a disparagement disgrace to that punke the Romane Church and taketh thereby occasion to perseuere to be her Bawd or Stalion and to runne a whoring with her I say with the Psalmist The wicked hath left off to bee wise and to doe good And with the Angell Hee that is vniust let him he vniust still And he which is filthy let him be filthy still For neither must an honest heart speake a lie for the good that may come of it Nor conceale in time and place a necessarie truth for any euill that may insue of it If it harden more and more the flintie hearts of some vnto death it will soften and melt the iron hearts of others vnto life that seeing among vs the mudde and dirt of humane traditions wherewith the Pope and his Clergie had furred and soyled the bright-shining glasse of the Gospel wiped away from this heauenly mirror of Gods fauor they may come vnto vs and beholding with open face as in a glasse the glorie of the Lord may be changed with vs into the same image from gloire to glorie euen as by the Spirit of the Lord. Which last effect I pray with my heart your Reconciler may haue with those that are children of peace And so recommending your Lordship with all your learned eloquent sound and vsefull labours to GODS most powerfull blessing and my selfe to the continuance of your godly Prayers and old friendship I remaine for euer Your Lordships most humble and affectionate Seruant Gilbert Primrose From London the 26. of Februarie 1629. ¶ To my VVorthy and much respected Friend Mr. H. CHOMLEY MAster Cholmely I haue perused your learned and full reply to Master Burtons answere wherein you haue in a iudicious eye abundantly righted your self and cleared a iust cause so as the Reader would wonder where an Aduersarie might find ground to raise an opposition But let me tell you Were it a Booke written by the pen of an Angest from Heauen in this subiect I should doubt whether to wish it publique How true how iust soeuer the plea be I find such is the selfe-loue and partialitie of our corrupt nature the quarrell is inlarged by multiplying of words when I see a fire quenched with Oyle I will expect to see a controuersie of this nature stinted by publike altercation New matter still rises in the agitation and giues hint to a fore-resolued opposite of a fresh disquisition So as we may sooner see an end of the common peace then of an vnkindly iarre in the Church especially such a one as is fomented with a mistaken Zeale on the one side and with a confidence of knowledge on the other Silence hath somtimes quieted such like mis-raised brabbles neuer interchange of words This very question was on foot some fortie yeares agoe in the hote chase of great Authors but whether through the ingenuitie of the parties or some ouer-ruling act of Diuine Prouidence it soone died without noyse so I wish it may now doe Rather let the weaker title goe away with the last word then the Church shall bee distracted For that Position of mine which occasioned your vindication you see it sufficiently abetted and determined by so reuerend authoritie as admits no exception I dare say No learned Diuine of our owne Church or the foraine can but subscribe in this our sense to the iudgement of these Worthies To draw forth therefore this cord of contention to any futher length were no lesse needlesse then preiudiciall to the publike peace Hee is not worthy to bee satisfied that will yet wrangle As for those personall aspersions that are cast vpon you by malice be perswaded to despise them These Westerne parts where your reputation is deseruedly precious know your Zeale for Gods truth no lesse feruent though better gouerned then the most fierie of your Censurers No man more hateth Popish Superstition only your fault is that you doe not more hate errour then iniustice and cannot abide wrong measure offered to the worst enemie Neither bee you troubled with that idle exprobration of a Prebendary retribution who would