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<DATE>2010-05-12</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Olivia Bottum</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Did text and markup review.</ITEM>
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<IDG S="marc" R="UM" ID="A89004">
<STC T="W">M1471</STC>
<STC T="T">E392_15</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99862068</BIBNO>
<VID>114217</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>A late Printed SERMON AGAINST Fal&s;e Prophets, Vindicated by LETTER, From the cau&s;ele&s;s A&s;per&s;ions of M^r. FRANCIS CHEYNELL.</P>
<P>By <HI>Ja&s;per Mayne, D.D.</HI> the mi&s;-under|&s;tood Author of it.</P>
<Q><BIBL>LUKE 21.19.</BIBL>
<P><GAP DESC="foreign">.</P></Q>
<P>Printed in the Yeare, MDCXLVII.</P>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="sermon">
<PB REF="2">
<PB N="1" REF="2">
<HEAD>A late printed SERMON again&s;t FALSE PROPHETS, Vindicated by Letter, from the cau&s;ele&s;&s;e A&s;per&s;ions of M^r. FRANCIS CHEYNELL.</HEAD>
<P>_AS often as I have, for &s;ome yeares, con&s;idered the <HI>&s;ad Distractions</HI> of this <HI>Kingdome,</HI> me-thinkes, thus <HI>divided</HI> again&s;t it <HI>&s;elfe,</HI> it hath verified upon it &s;elfe the <HI>Fable</HI> of the <HI>Peo|ple</HI> &s;owne of <HI>Serpents Teeth;</HI> where, with|out any knowne <HI>Cau&s;e</HI> of a <HI>Quarrell, Bro|ther</HI> &s;tarted up &s;uddenly armed again&s;t <HI>Bro|ther,</HI> and making the place of their <HI>Nativity</HI> the <HI>Field,</HI> and <HI>Scene</HI> of their <HI>Conflicts,</HI> every one fell by the <HI>Speare</HI> of the next, upon the <HI>turfe,</HI> and <HI>furrow</HI> which hatcht and brought him forth. 'Tis true, indeed, &s;ome have <HI>preacht,</HI> and others have <HI>printed,</HI> that the <HI>Super&s;titions</HI> of our <HI>Church</HI> were growne &s;o high, that they could not po&s;&s;ibly be purged but by a <HI>Civill Warre.</HI> But finding, upon my mo&s;t &s;ober and impartiall Inquiries, that the&s;e <HI>Super&s;titions</HI> were onely the <HI>mi&s;conceipts</HI> of &s;ome mens <HI>&s;icke Fancies,</HI> who called certaine <HI>&s;leight harmle&s;&s;e pee|ces of Church Ceremony Super&s;tition,</HI> I thought it a peece of <HI>Chari|ty</HI> to them and the deluded <HI>people,</HI> to let them no longer remaine in the Ca&s;e of the <HI>di&s;tracted Midi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">ites</HI> in the Booke of<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">c. 7. v.</NOTE> <HI>Iudges;</HI> where, upon a Dreame told by a <HI>man</HI> to his <HI>Neighbour,</HI> and upon the &s;ight of &s;uch incon&s;iderable things as <HI>lamps,</HI> and <HI>broken
<PB N="2" REF="3">pitchers,</HI> every <HI>mans &s;word was again&s;t his fellow;</HI> and a well-or|der'd <HI>Ho&s;t</HI> of <HI>freinds,</HI> &s;truck with an imaginary feare, became a confu&s;ed and di&s;order'd <HI>heape,</HI> and <HI>rout of enemies.</HI> This de&s;ire to rectifie <HI>mi&s;takes,</HI> and withall to &s;hew upon what &s;lender threds of <HI>vanity</HI> their <HI>Sermons</HI> hang, who&s;e <HI>accidentall, mi&s;guided Argu|ments,</HI> under certaine <HI>fal&s;e colours,</HI> have &s;trived to prove <HI>things indifferent</HI> to be <HI>unlawfull;</HI> and then, that thus by them pro|nounced <HI>unlawfull,</HI> they are to be <HI>extirpated</HI> by the <HI>Sword,</HI> cau&s;ed me at fir&s;t to preach a <HI>Sermon</HI> again&s;t <HI>Fal&s;e Prophets,</HI> which hath &s;ince pa&s;t the <HI>Travell</HI> of a more <HI>publique Birth:</HI> wherein, what a cold Advocate I am in my pleadings for <HI>Super&s;tition,</HI> will ap|peare to any, who with an unclouded under&s;tanding &s;hall read it: yet <HI>M. Cheynell,</HI> (one of the <HI>Preachers</HI> &s;ent downe by the <HI>Parliament</HI> to <HI>Oxford</HI>) in a <HI>morning Sermon</HI> of his preacht at <HI>S. Maries</HI> Jan. 17. upon <HI>E&s;ay.</HI> 40.27. Having directed the <HI>Do|ctrinall</HI> part of it again&s;t one <HI>M. Yerbury,</HI> an <HI>Independent,</HI> (who publikely in a Di&s;pute with him held, that the <HI>Fulne&s;s of the Godhead dwells in the Saints bodily, in the &s;ame mea&s;ure that it did in Chri&s;t</HI>) not without much <HI>violence</HI> offer'd to his <HI>Text,</HI> He di|rected the <HI>v&s;e</HI> and <HI>Application</HI> of it to <HI>me;</HI> whom (after &s;ome <HI>characteri&s;ticall</HI> reproaches of my <HI>per&s;on,</HI> and defamations of my <HI>Sermon</HI>) He challenged to a publike <HI>Di&s;putation</HI> with him. This (after two dayes) coming to my knowledge, I di&s;puted with my &s;elfe what I was to doe in &s;uch a ca&s;e: To returne <HI>reproaches</HI> for <HI>reproaches,</HI> or to vindicate my &s;elfe in the place where I was thus publikely reviled, had bin to make my &s;elfe <HI>Second</HI> in a fault, which the whole <HI>Congregation</HI> condemned in him as the <HI>Fir&s;t.</HI> Be&s;ides if I could have di&s;pens'd with my &s;elfe for being &s;o unchri&s;tianly revengefull, as to remove part of the <HI>Civill Warre,</HI> which hath too long imbrued our <HI>Fields,</HI> into the <HI>Temple,</HI> and there to an&s;wer <HI>Challenges,</HI> and fight <HI>Duells</HI> from the <HI>pulpit,</HI> this licence was denyed me; who have for divers monthes beene compelled to be a <HI>&s;peechle&s;s member</HI> of this &s;ilenced <HI>Vniver&s;ity.</HI> Againe, To &s;leepe over my <HI>infamy,</HI> and to di&s;&s;emble my <HI>di&s;grace,</HI> had beene to beget an <HI>opinion</HI> in the <HI>mindes</HI> of tho&s;e that heard him, that either <HI>I</HI> wanted a <HI>good cau&s;e,</HI> or el&s;e my <HI>good cau&s;e</HI> wants a <HI>Defender.</HI> At length (&s;omething contrary I confe&s;s, to the <HI>peaceablene&s;s</HI> of my <HI>&s;tudies,</HI> which never delighted much in
<PB N="3" REF="3">tho&s;e <HI>quarrel&s;ome</HI> parts of Learning, which rai&s;e <HI>tempe&s;ts</HI> between men) following the <HI>Scripture</HI> coun&s;ell, which is, to take my <HI>offen|ding Brother a&s;ide in private,</HI> and <HI>to tell him of his fault,</HI> I re&s;olved by the <HI>&s;ecre&s;ie</HI> of writing to wipe off tho&s;e <HI>Calumnies</HI> for the fu|ture, and to an&s;wer the bold <HI>Challenge</HI> for the pre&s;ent, which <HI>hee</HI> hurl'd at me in the <HI>Pulpit;</HI> and having fir&s;t bani&s;h'd all <HI>gall,</HI> and <HI>Bitterne&s;&s;e</HI> from my <HI>pen,</HI> &s;ent him this following <HI>Letter.</HI></P>
<LETTER LANG="eng">
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>THat a <HI>Text</HI> of <HI>Scripture</HI> in your handling &s;hould weare two <HI>faces,</HI> and the <HI>Doctrine</HI> of it &s;hould bee made to looke one way, and the <HI>u&s;e</HI> of it another, is at all no wonder to me. But that pretending &s;o much to <HI>Holine&s;s,</HI> and <HI>Chri&s;tianity</HI> as you doe, you &s;hould thinke the <HI>Pulpit</HI> a fit place to revile me in, would hardly enter into my beleif, were not the <HI>Congregation</HI> that heard you on <HI>Sunday morning</HI> la&s;t at <HI>S. Maryes,</HI> my <HI>cloud of Witne&s;&s;es.</HI> From &s;ome of which I am informed, that you &s;olemnly charged me with <HI>imprudence</HI> and <HI>impudence,</HI> for publi&s;hing a late <HI>Sermon again&s;t fal&s;e Prophets.</HI> SIR, Though <HI>report,</HI> and my <HI>name</HI> perfixt in the <HI>Title-Page</HI> might probably per&s;wade you, that I am the <HI>Author</HI> of it; yet to a&s;&s;ure you, that I cau&s;ed it to be publi&s;h'd, or con&s;ented to the <HI>printing</HI> of <HI>it,</HI> will certainly require a more <HI>in|fallible illumination,</HI> then, I pre&s;ume, you have. Be&s;ides, if I &s;hould grant you that 'twas <HI>printed</HI> with my con&s;ent, (which yet I &s;hall not) yet certainely the <HI>&s;ea&s;onablene&s;s</HI> of it in a <HI>time</HI> where <HI>god|line&s;s</HI> is made the <HI>engine</HI> to arrive to &s;o much <HI>unlawfull gaine,</HI> will excu&s;e me from <HI>imprudence,</HI> though perhaps not from an <HI>unthri|ving,</HI> in your &s;en&s;e, <HI>wart</HI> of <HI>policy.</HI> And as for the <HI>impudence</HI> you charged me withall, I am confident that all they who heard <HI>you</HI> with impartiall <HI>Eares,</HI> and have read that <HI>Sermon</HI> with impartiall <HI>Eyes,</HI> have, by this time, a&s;&s;igned that want of <HI>mode&s;ty</HI> a place in a more capable <HI>forehead.</HI> I heare farther that having in a kinde of <HI>plea&s;ant di&s;daine</HI> &s;huffled <HI>pipes, Surplices, pictures in Church-win|dowes, Liturgy, and Prelacy</HI> together in one period, and &s;tiled them the <HI>mu&s;ty Relickes</HI> of an at-length-bani&s;ht <HI>Super&s;tition,</HI> you were plea&s;ed out of that <HI>heape</HI> to &s;elect <HI>Images,</HI> and to call them <HI>Idolls,</HI> and then to charge me as a <HI>defender</HI> of them.</P>
<P>SIR, Had you done me but the ordinary Ju&s;tice to pluck my
<PB N="4" REF="4"><HI>Sermon</HI> out of your <HI>pocket,</HI> as you did the <HI>Practicall Catechi&s;me,</HI> and had faithfully read to your <HI>Auditory</HI> what I have there &s;aid of <HI>Images,</HI> I make no que&s;tion, but they would all have pre&s;ently di&s;cerned that I defend not <HI>Pictures</HI> in <HI>Church windowes</HI> as they are <HI>Idolls,</HI> or have at any time beene made &s;o, but that 'tis un|rea&s;onable to bani&s;h them out of the <HI>Church</HI> as long as they &s;tand there meerly as <HI>Ornaments</HI> of the <HI>place.</HI> From which innocent u&s;e having not hitherto digre&s;t, for you to call them <HI>Idols,</HI> and then to charge me as if I had made them <HI>equall with God,</HI> by my defence of them &s;o <HI>formallized,</HI> will I feare, endanger you in the <HI>mindes</HI> of youre <HI>Hearers,</HI> and beget an <HI>Opinion</HI> in them, that you are one of the <HI>Prophets</HI> who u&s;e to <HI>&s;ee Vanity.</HI> I heare farther, that when you had traduced me as a <HI>Defender</HI> of the fore-mentioned <HI>mu&s;ty Relicts of Super&s;tition,</HI> you &s;aid, that <HI>this was the Religion to which I profe&s;t my &s;elfe ready to fall a &s;acrifice.</HI> Certainely, <HI>Sir,</HI> This is not faire dealing. For if, once more, you had pluckt my <HI>Sermon</HI> out of your <HI>pocket,</HI> and had read to the <HI>Congregation</HI> that pa&s;&s;age of it which endeavours to prove that 'tis not lawfull to <HI>propagate Religion,</HI> (how pure &s;oever it be) by the <HI>&s;word,</HI> they would have heard from <HI>your mouth,</HI> as they once did from <HI>mine,</HI> that the <HI>Religion</HI> to which I there profe&s;&s;e my &s;elf ready to fall a <HI>Sa|crifice,</HI> is that <HI>defamed, true, Prote&s;tant Religion,</HI> for which the <HI>holy Fathers</HI> of our <HI>Reformation</HI> died before me. In &s;aying, therefore, that I profe&s;&s;e my &s;elfe ready to fall a <HI>&s;acrifice</HI> in the defence of <HI>Surplices,</HI> the <HI>Common Prayer Booke,</HI> or <HI>Church Ornaments,</HI> (things which I have alwayes held not <HI>nece&s;&s;ary,</HI> unle&s;&s;e made &s;o, by <HI>right Authority</HI>) you have incurred one danger more, which is, not only to be thought to <HI>&s;ee Vanity,</HI> but to be guilty of the <HI>next part of the Text.</HI> I am farther told, that to deliver your &s;elfe from the number of the <HI>fal&s;e Prophets</HI> there preacht again&s;t, you <HI>prophecyed</HI> in the <HI>Pulpit;</HI> and cho&s;e for the <HI>&s;ubject</HI> of your <HI>pre|diction,</HI> a thing which is po&s;&s;ible enough for you to bring to pa&s;&s;e; which was, that you <HI>will have my Sermon burnt.</HI></P>
<P>Sir I have, for your &s;ake, once more &s;everely con&s;ider'd it. And can neither finde <HI>Sociniani&s;me,</HI> or any other <HI>Poland Do|ctrine</HI> there which &s;hould de&s;erve that <HI>doome.</HI> But if it mu&s;t die like <HI>Bi&s;hop Ridley</HI> or <HI>Hooper,</HI> for its <HI>adhae&s;ion</HI> to the <HI>be&s;t Religion</HI> that this Kingdome ever enjoyed, I mu&s;t repeat the <HI>words</HI> of my
<PB N="5" REF="4"><HI>Sermon,</HI> and tell you, that (without the fear of being thought by you a <HI>P&s;eudo-Martyr</HI>) I &s;hall account it one of the <HI>happie&s;t pa&s;|&s;ages</HI> to <HI>Heaven,</HI> to be di&s;&s;olved to <HI>a&s;hes</HI> with it in the &s;ame <HI>fune|rall-pile.</HI></P>
<P>La&s;tly, <HI>Sir,</HI> having, with all the <HI>&s;ober detraction,</HI> which might probably beget a di&s;like in the <HI>mindes</HI> of your <HI>Hearers,</HI> of me and my <HI>Sermon,</HI> &s;ufficiently <HI>defamed both,</HI> I heare you did beat up a <HI>Drumme</HI> again&s;t me in the <HI>Pulpit,</HI> and challenged me to a <HI>pub|like di&s;pute</HI> with you. If by a <HI>di&s;pute</HI> you meant a <HI>pen-combate,</HI> I &s;hall be as ready to enter the li&s;ts with you, as you have beene to &s;ummon me to it, if you will grant me two things. The one is, that, if we engage our &s;elves in a <HI>Conference</HI> of that nature, you will confine your &s;elfe to the <HI>particulars</HI> in my <HI>Sermon</HI> which you <HI>quarrell'd</HI> at; and not u&s;e your <HI>&s;trange, wilde Art</HI> of multiplying <HI>Que&s;tions</HI> upon <HI>Que&s;tions;</HI> or like another <HI>Hydra,</HI> what ever the <HI>Hercules</HI> be, make <HI>three heads</HI> &s;pring up in the place where you finde <HI>one convincingly</HI> lopt of. The other is, that, when you have made your <HI>Charge,</HI> and I my <HI>Re&s;i&s;tance,</HI> you will con&s;ent that the <HI>debate</HI> of every <HI>que&s;tion,</HI> thus <HI>di&s;puted,</HI> may bee made publike and <HI>printed.</HI> But if by a <HI>Di&s;pute,</HI> you meant that I &s;hould fight a <HI>Duell</HI> with you upon the &s;ame <HI>&s;tage,</HI> and in the &s;ame <HI>Theater</HI> of <HI>men</HI> and <HI>women,</HI> before whom you, and <HI>Mr. Yerbury</HI> played your <HI>prize,</HI> I doubt very much, if I &s;hould accept of your <HI>Callenge</HI> in that <HI>&s;en&s;e;</HI> whether all di&s;creet men would not count this a &s;pice of the <HI>phrenzy</HI> in me, which you complained of in the <HI>Pulpit,</HI> for being imputed to you by <HI>Him</HI> that wrote the <HI>Conference</HI> at your late <HI>Scruple-Hou&s;e;</HI> and &s;ay I de&s;erved to be cured by the <HI>Di&s;ci|pline,</HI> and <HI>Phy&s;icke</HI> of a <HI>darke roome.</HI> To deale freely with you, Sir, I by no meanes can approve of an <HI>Engli&s;h Di&s;putation</HI> in a <HI>&V;niver&s;ity.</HI> But becau&s;e you &s;hall not loo&s;e your <HI>challenge,</HI> nor I be thought to de&s;ert the <HI>cau&s;e,</HI> which I profe&s;&s;e to defend, &s;o you will choo&s;e the <HI>Divinity Schoole,</HI> and <HI>Latine weapons,</HI> I &s;hall not refu&s;e (as well as God &s;hall enable me) to give you a meet|ing there, and to &s;u&s;taine the <HI>An&s;werers</HI> part in the <HI>defence</HI> of the <HI>lawfulne&s;&s;e</HI> of <HI>white Surplices, Church Ornaments;</HI> the <HI>Common Prayer Booke,</HI> and <HI>Prelacy;</HI> which are the <HI>particulars</HI> in my <HI>Ser|mon,</HI> which you called <HI>Relicts of Super&s;tition.</HI> To one of the&s;e two offers I &s;hall patiently expect your <HI>an&s;wer;</HI> unle&s;&s;e without
<PB N="6" REF="5">troubling me any further, you will let me quietly retire backe againe into the <HI>&s;hade,</HI> from whence you have too importunately called me: Who, neuer the le&s;s, have learnt &s;o much <HI>Charity,</HI> as to pray <HI>God</HI> to forgive you the <HI>wrong</HI> which you intended to|wards</P>
<CLOSER><DATELINE><HI>From my chamber</HI><DATE><HI>this evening. Jan.</HI> 19. 1646.</DATE></DATELINE>
<SIGNED>The <HI>Author</HI> of the <HI>Sermon</HI> again&s;t <HI>Fal&s;e Prophets. J. MAYNE.</HI></SIGNED></CLOSER>
</LETTER>
<P>To this <HI>letter</HI> (in which (as briefly as the <HI>lawes</HI> of a <HI>Letter</HI> would permit) I indeavour'd to wa&s;h out the <HI>&s;pots,</HI> with which <HI>M. Cheynell</HI> in his <HI>Sermon</HI> &s;trived to <HI>defile</HI> and <HI>&s;ully mine,</HI> and withall to comply with him in any &s;ober way of <HI>Di&s;pute,</HI> which might befit two <HI>&V;niver&s;ity-men</HI>) after two dayes was returned an <HI>An&s;wer:</HI> Fir&s;t, <HI>&s;trange</HI> for the <HI>me&s;&s;enger's</HI> &s;ake that brought it, which was <HI>One Jellyman</HI> (&s;ome &s;ay) a <HI>preaching Cobler;</HI> who from repairing the <HI>decayes</HI> of <HI>&V;niver&s;ity-mens &s;hooes</HI> was now thought fit to have a part in the conveyance of their <HI>di&s;putes.</HI> Next, for the <HI>double Super &s;cription</HI> of it, which without, on the &s;ide of the fir&s;t paper that enclo&s;ed it, was as faire and full of Candor as the <HI>whited &s;epulcher</HI> in the <HI>Go&s;pell,</HI> and was directed, To D. MAYNE AT CHRIST-CHURCH. But this outward &s;tone was no &s;ooner rolled away, but another <HI>In&s;cription,</HI> very un|like the fir&s;t appear'd, which ran thus. FOR M. JASPER MAYNE (ONE OF THE NEVV DOCTORS) STUDENT AT CHRIST-CHURCH. By which <HI>parenthe&s;is,</HI> it &s;eemes <HI>M. Cheynell,</HI> thought it an <HI>errour</HI> in the <HI>&V;niver&s;ity,</HI> to make me a <HI>Doctor.</HI> And truely (if I may be believed upon my owne report) as often as I compare my <HI>unworthine&s;s</HI> with my <HI>degree,</HI> I am of <HI>his opinion;</HI> and thinke I am a <HI>Doctor,</HI> fit only to &s;tand in a <HI>paren|the&s;is;</HI> and, without any iniu&s;tice done me, to be left out of the <HI>&s;entence.</HI> This &s;econd <HI>Super&s;cription</HI> was underwritten with a kind of a <HI>preamble Letter</HI> to the more <HI>inward Letter;</HI> with the <HI>lock</HI> and <HI>guard</HI> of a <HI>&s;eale</HI> upon it; and ran thus.</P>
<LETTER LANG="eng">
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>I have &s;ent &s;everall times to your lodging <HI>this day</HI> to an|&s;wer your challenge <HI>ye&s;terday;</HI> if you cannot meet to <HI>morrow,</HI> let me under&s;tand your minde to <HI>night.</HI> For I have a great deale of
<PB N="7" REF="5">bu&s;ine&s;s, &s;ince the <HI>&V;niver&s;ity</HI> was <HI>&s;ilenced</HI> for your &s;ake.</P>
<P>What kinde of <HI>meeting</HI> was here meant, or whether I (having I thanke God, the <HI>u&s;e</HI> of my <HI>under&s;tanding</HI>) could con&s;ent to it, will appeare by the <HI>Letter</HI> it <HI>&s;elfe;</HI> which (being an <HI>An&s;wer</HI> to <HI>mine</HI>) was <HI>verbatim</HI> this.</P>
<P>SIR, I u&s;e to &s;pend my <HI>morning thoughts</HI> upon a better <HI>&s;ubiect</HI> then a <HI>pot</HI> of dead drinke, that hath a litle <HI>froth</HI> at <HI>top,</HI> and <HI>dreggs</HI> at <HI>bottom;</HI></P>
<P>SIR, It appeares by your <HI>Letter,</HI> that you doe not under&s;tand my <HI>Text,</HI> and the <HI>learned Scribe,</HI> or <HI>Intelligencer,</HI> did not vnder|&s;tand my <HI>plaine,</HI> very <HI>plaine Engli&s;h Sermon.</HI> I am not at lei&s;ure to repeat every <HI>Sermon</HI> that I <HI>preach,</HI> (preaching &s;oe often as I doe &s;ometimes <HI>twice,</HI> and upon ju&s;t occa&s;ion <HI>thrice</HI> a day) to every one that is at lei&s;ure to cavill at that which thay heard but at &s;e|cond hand; yet to &s;hew how much you are mi&s;taken, I will give you a breife, but &s;atisfactorie account.</P>
<P>My <HI>Text</HI> &s;tands upon record, <HI>I&s;a.</HI> 40.25. the <HI>Doctrine</HI> I rai&s;ed from the words, was as followeth.</P>
<P>Doct. <HI>There is no creature in heaven, or earth, like God in all things, or equall to God in any thing.</HI></P>
<P>The fir&s;t <HI>Corollarie</HI> I deduced from <HI>thence,</HI> when I came to make <HI>application,</HI> was breifly <HI>this.</HI></P>
<P>That <HI>no picture can be made of God, becau&s;e there was nothing like him in heaven or earth.</HI> All <HI>nations</HI> are le&s;s then <HI>vanity</HI> in com|pari&s;on of <HI>God;</HI> to whom then will ye liken <HI>God,</HI> or what <HI>like|ne&s;s</HI> will ye compare unto him? <HI>I&s;ay.</HI> 40.17.18. The Prophet urgeth this <HI>Argument,</HI> again&s;t all manner of <HI>images</HI> which are made to repre&s;ent <HI>God,</HI> who &s;itteth upon the <HI>circle</HI> of the <HI>earth,</HI> and &s;tretcheth out the <HI>heavens</HI> from the 19. <HI>v. of the &s;ame chap: to the</HI> 23. <HI>ver.</HI> and he enforceth this Argument <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 21. <HI>have yee not knowne&mdash;have ye not under&s;tood?</HI> &amp;c. as if he had &s;ay'd, yee are <HI>ignorant &s;otts, irrationall,</HI> and <HI>incon&s;iderate men,</HI> if yee apprehend not the <HI>&s;trength</HI> of <HI>this Argument.</HI> Now, <HI>SIR,</HI> be plea&s;ed to pro|duce your <HI>&s;trong rea&s;ons,</HI> and overthrow, if you can, the <HI>Doctrine</HI> or the <HI>Corollary:</HI> Your, <HI>Intelligencer</HI> was (if not a <HI>fal&s;e Prophet</HI> yet) a <HI>fal&s;e Hi&s;torian,</HI> when he told you that I accu&s;ed you of making <HI>images equall with God.</HI> SIR, I &s;aid, that <HI>images were not like unto God;</HI> and <HI>thereupon</HI> wondered that you tooke upon you to pleade for the retaining of tho&s;e <HI>images</HI> which have beene too
<PB N="8" REF="6">often turn'd into <HI>idolls,</HI> not by the <HI>piety,</HI> but <HI>&s;uper&s;tition</HI> of <HI>forme times.</HI> You &s;ay, that by the &s;ame rea&s;on there &s;hould be no <HI>Sun</HI> in the <HI>firmament.</HI> Whence I collect, that you will be forc'd to maintaine, that <HI>images</HI> are as <HI>nece&s;sary</HI> in the <HI>Church,</HI> as the <HI>Sun</HI> in <HI>heaven;</HI> be plea&s;ed to read the 22. page of the <HI>fal&s;e Prophet.</HI></P>
<P>Moreover, you plead for <HI>Copes,</HI> and for tho&s;e <HI>parts</HI> of the <HI>Common-Prayer Booke</HI> which were borrowed from <HI>Rome pag.</HI> 21, 22. The <HI>&V;i&s;itors</HI> will ere long enquire, whether there hath not beene a <HI>Super&s;titious u&s;e</HI> of <HI>Copes</HI> at <HI>Chri&s;t-Church?</HI> and ther|fore I did not make any &s;uch enquirie in my <HI>Sermon,</HI> but as a <HI>Freind</HI> I give <HI>you</HI> and <HI>your adherents</HI> timely notice of it, becau&s;e I believe you had need <HI>&s;tudy</HI> for an <HI>An&s;wer.</HI></P>
<P>You maintaine, that <HI>&s;ome things in the excellencies and height of the Doctrines of Chri&s;tian Religion depend for their credit and e|vidence of their truth upon the authority of Chri&s;ts miracles con|veyed along in tradition and &s;tory, pag.</HI> 16. and <HI>therefore</HI> I &s;ay your <HI>Religion</HI> leanes too <HI>hard</HI> and too <HI>heavy</HI> upon <HI>Tradition.</HI></P>
<P>You are offended that I &s;poke not di&s;tinctly concerning <HI>Prela|cy,</HI> you may (if you plea&s;e) try your <HI>&s;trength,</HI> and endeavour to <HI>prove</HI> that <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> hath put the <HI>&s;ole power</HI> of <HI>Ordination</HI> and <HI>Juri&s;|diction</HI> in the hand of a <HI>Prelate.</HI> 2. You may (if you can) <HI>ju&s;tifie,</HI> that <HI>no Church that ever the Sun look'd upon hath been more ble&s;t with purity of Religion for the Doctrine of it, or better e&s;tabli&s;h'd for the Government and Di&s;cipline of it, then the Church of England, pag.</HI> 17. if you believe this confident a&s;&s;ertion, you may proceed and <HI>ju&s;tifie</HI> all the <HI>Doctrines,</HI> which were <HI>publikely countenanced,</HI> or <HI>approved;</HI> all the <HI>&s;uper&s;titious practi&s;es,</HI> and <HI>prelaticall u&s;urpati|ons,</HI> nay, the <HI>delegation</HI> of the <HI>Prelates, u&s;urped power</HI> to <HI>Chan|cellors</HI> and all the Tyranny of the <HI>high Commi&s;&s;ion,</HI> together with all the corruptions and innovations introduced into the <HI>State, Church, &V;niver&s;ity</HI> from the yeare 1630. till 1640. by a <HI>prevailing faction,</HI> who were not the <HI>Church</HI> or <HI>&V;niver&s;ity,</HI> but the <HI>di&s;ea&s;e,</HI> indeed the <HI>plague</HI> of both. If you dare not undertake &s;o &s;ad a taske, you cannot ju&s;tifie the 17.18.22, 23.27.35. <HI>pages</HI> of the <HI>Fal&s;e Prophet;</HI> you mu&s;t prove that the proceedings of the <HI>Parliament are Turki&s;h, pag.</HI> 15.1<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">. that none of the <HI>Members</HI> of either <HI>Hou&s;e</HI> of <HI>Parli<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">ent</HI> (who complaine of the blemi&s;hes of the <HI>Church</HI>) are t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="6 letters">med good <HI>Prote&s;tants, pag.</HI> 18. that the <HI>Reformation</HI> which they have made is <HI><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> vanities, pag.</HI> 20. that they are
<PB N="9" REF="6">guided by no other <HI>principles</HI> but &s;uch as are contrary to all rules of right <HI>judgement,</HI> either common to men or Chri&s;tians, <HI>pag.</HI> 21. that the <HI>Mini&s;ters</HI> who have appeared for the <HI>Parliament,</HI> are all of them <HI>Fal&s;e Prophets,</HI> who have encouraged the <HI>Parliament</HI> to <HI>oppre&s;&s;ion, &s;acriledge, murther,</HI> and to make all names that are great and &s;acred, cheap and odious in the eares of the <HI>people.</HI> That the <HI>Mini&s;ters</HI> are the <HI>liars,</HI> and the <HI>Parliament-men</HI> the <HI>compliers,</HI> as appears by all your unworthy <HI>in&s;inuations, hints, intimations,</HI> quite throughout your <HI>Scurrillous Libell,</HI> fal&s;ly called a <HI>Sermon:</HI> let any prudent man judge whether this be not your maine drift and &s;cope, <HI>&agrave; carceribus u&s;&abque; ad metam.</HI></P>
<P>You talke of a <HI>Religion,</HI> in which you were borne, were you borne in a <HI>Surplice</HI> or a <HI>Cope? Chri&s;tiani non na&s;cunt<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">r &s;ed fiunt.</HI> Sir, the <HI>Parliament</HI> doth not defame nor will they &s;uppre&s;s the true <HI>Prote&s;tant Religion,</HI> and therefore if you fall in this <HI>quarrell,</HI> I &s;aid, that you mu&s;t be &s;acrificed in the defence of <HI>Tyranny, Pre|lacy, Popery:</HI> if you put not <HI>Religion</HI> in <HI>Copes, Images, Prelates,</HI> or <HI>Service-Booke, quor&s;um haec perdito?</HI> why doe you talk of being Martyr'd? &s;ay, that (if the King will give you leave) you will burne your <HI>Copes</HI> and <HI>Surplices,</HI> throw off the <HI>Bi&s;hops</HI> and <HI>Com|mon-Prayer Booke,</HI> you'l break your windowes, and take the <HI>Co|venant,</HI> and make it evident that you are and ever will be of the <HI>Kings Religion;</HI> for you hold none of the&s;e things nece&s;&s;ary now, (whatever you have &s;aid heretofore) <HI>unle&s;s they be made ne|ce&s;&s;ary by right Authority.</HI></P>
<P>Sir, if I made any prediction, it was that your <HI>Sermon</HI> would be confuted, before it was burnt; you know <HI>Paraeus</HI> was burnt before he was confuted; and if you be not guilty of any <HI>doctrine</HI> received in <HI>Poland,</HI> I wonder, Fir&s;t, why you did endeavour to incen&s;e an Officer of this <HI>Garri&s;on</HI> again&s;t me, becau&s;e I had refu|ted M. <HI>Yerburies bla&s;phemous errors.</HI> 2. Why you did maintaine tho&s;e <HI>damnable Doctrines</HI> on the la&s;t <HI>Sabbath:</HI> forgive me this injurie, for I heare you did but vent them, and were no way able to maintain them.</P>
<P>Sir, I acknowledge that I doe contend for the re&s;titution of the true <HI>Prote&s;tant Religion,</HI> and contend for the <HI>civill right</HI> which we have to exerci&s;e the true <HI>Prote&s;tant Religion:</HI> we were in ma|nife&s;t danger to lo&s;e our right, by the force and violence of po|tent <HI>Enemies,</HI> whereupon the high Court of <HI>Parliament</HI> judged
<PB N="10" REF="7">it fit to repell <HI>force</HI> by <HI>forces:</HI> be plea&s;ed to &s;hew how the <HI>Par|liament</HI> doth hereby <HI>canonize</HI> the <HI>Alchoran,</HI> or declare them|&s;elves to be of the <HI>Mahumetan per&s;wa&s;ion;</HI> the <HI>Parliament</HI> will not compell you to be happy, onely take heed that you do not compell them to make you mi&s;erable. Though you renounce all <HI>Doctrines</HI> that M. <HI>Yerberie</HI> maintaines, yet I thinke you are too great a <HI>friend</HI> to the <HI>Rebels</HI> in <HI>Ireland;</HI> you contend for a <HI>Vor&s;tian liberty,</HI> not for a <HI>liberty</HI> of con&s;cience, for you de&s;ire a <HI>liberty for</HI> men that have no con&s;cience, &s;uch as turne from being <HI>Prote|&s;tants to be Infidels.</HI> There is one of M. <HI>Yerburies</HI> opinion, who &s;aith, that the righteous are at liberty, <HI>[he that is righteous let him be righteous &s;till]</HI> and the wicked are at liberty, <HI>[he that is wicked let him be wicked &s;till,]</HI> but you are of a more dangerous opinion, the wicked as (as you think) are at liberty to kill and &s;lay, but the godly are not at liberty to defend them&s;elves by the power of the highe&s;t <HI>Court</HI> of <HI>Ju&s;tice</HI> in the <HI>Kingdome</HI> from illegall and unju&s;t oppre&s;&s;ion, violence. I am convinced by many pa&s;&s;ages in your <HI>Sermon,</HI> e&s;pecially the 15, 16, 17. <HI>pages,</HI> that you think we ought not to fight again&s;t the <HI>Rebells</HI> in <HI>Ireland,</HI> becau&s;e it is part of their <HI>Religion</HI> (as it was of your brethren the <HI>Cavaliers</HI>) to put all <HI>Roundheads</HI> (as you terme them) to the &s;word; <HI>mi&s;&s;ajam mordet,</HI> the <HI>Ma&s;s</HI> may be armed, but the <HI>Go&s;pel</HI> mu&s;t not: What thinke you of the <HI>War</HI> fore-told in the book of the <HI>Revelation?</HI> Sir, you abu&s;e your betters when you talk of the <HI>Scruple-hou&s;e.</HI> You are not worthy to carrie the books of tho&s;e Reverend <HI>Mi|ni&s;ters</HI> after them, nor could your <HI>Carfax-Sermon</HI> have ever &s;i|lenced the <HI>ungifted Preachers;</HI> you would have found them <HI>gif|ted Di&s;putants:</HI> if you think otherwi&s;e try one or two of them in &s;ome of their beaten points; Sir, I &s;peake thus freely, becau&s;e I was not pre&s;ent at the <HI>famous meeting, Novemb.</HI> 12. but I &s;ee you can cite one of your owne <HI>Prophets, Poets</HI> I &s;hould &s;ay, but he is no truer a <HI>Prophet</HI> then you are like to prove a <HI>Martyr,</HI> a <HI>Cretian Prophet.</HI> Sir, the knowledge of my Brethrens worth, and your fa|mous pride and &s;elf-conceitedne&s;s hath provoked me to let my pen loo&s;e, that I might di&s;abu&s;e and humble you.</P>
<P>It &s;eems you are unwilling to come upon the <HI>&s;tage</HI> (though that be a fitter place for you then the pulpit) to appear before a <HI>Theater</HI> of <HI>men</HI> and <HI>women:</HI> Sir, you love the <HI>&s;tage</HI> too well, take heed you doe not love <HI>women</HI> too ill, there is a friend of yours
<PB N="11" REF="7">that doth entreat you to beware of dark rooms and light women; for though a great <HI>Phy&s;itian</HI> doth advi&s;e you to the u&s;e of &s;uch plea&s;ing <HI>phy&s;ick,</HI> yet the <HI>Frenchmen</HI> will a&s;&s;ure you, that it is not whol&s;ome for the body, and the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> can a&s;&s;ure you, that it is not good for the &s;oul; your kind of <HI>phrenfie</HI> mu&s;t be cured by more &s;evere remedies, your <HI>devill</HI> will be better ca&s;t out with prayer and fa&s;ting. You are mi&s;|informed when you &s;ay, that I did beat <HI>up my drum.</HI> No Sir, you did &s;ound a charge and made a challenge, my acceptance of it was but the eccho which an&s;wered the 17. and 21. <HI>pages</HI> of the <HI>Fal&s;e Prophet.</HI> In the 17. you &s;eem prepared to enter into di&s;pute pre&s;ently with the greate&s;t <HI>Champion</HI> that appeares for the <HI>Parliament,</HI> Sir, one of the meane&s;t that appears for them, takes up that <HI>Gantlet</HI> which you threw forth with &s;o much &s;corn and confidence.</P>
<P>In your 21. <HI>page</HI> you threaten to pre&s;s us in a rationall logicall way; Sir, doe your be&s;t, you &s;hall find that we have neither lo&s;t our <HI>rea&s;on</HI> nor our <HI>logick.</HI> We can di&s;tingui&s;h between <HI>demonstration</HI> and <HI>&s;uper&s;ti|tion;</HI> and truly Sir, if you had not put more <HI>Poetry</HI> then <HI>Logick</HI> into your <HI>Sermon,</HI> though your <HI>Sermon</HI> might have been longer, yet your <HI>Libell</HI> would have been &s;horter; if you plea&s;e to blot out tho&s;e few places of <HI>Scripture</HI> which you have abu&s;ed by mi&s;application and im|prudent in&s;ertion of them into &s;o prophane and wild a &s;tamp, you may do well to turne your <HI>Libell</HI> into <HI>Ver&s;e,</HI> and then it may pa&s;s currant among&s;t the <HI>Balladmongers</HI> for a triobolar <HI>Ballad,</HI> and you will be ran|ked in the number of tho&s;e who are reputed the mo&s;t excellent <HI>Au|thors,</HI> next to them that write in <HI>Pro&s;e.</HI> If you are offended that I did not &s;hew you &s;o much re&s;pect, as I have &s;hewed towards the learned <HI>Author</HI> of the <HI>Practicall Catechi&s;me,</HI> con&s;ider the difference, nay, di|&s;tance betwen his per&s;on, education, learning, civility, writings and yours, and you will &s;ee a very &s;ufficient and &s;atisfactory rea&s;on. Sir, if that <HI>Author</HI> did overlook your <HI>Letter,</HI> I believe he did advi&s;e you to contend onely for the <HI>lawfulne&s;s of Prelacy, becau&s;e I &s;ee that is interlined,</HI> and he was pre&s;ent at the &s;ad debate at <HI>&V;xbridge;</HI> if that learned <HI>Doctor</HI> hath any thing to object again&s;t me, he knowes my <HI>mind, habet aetatem,</HI> he is able to &s;peake for him&s;elfe, the <HI>Oratour</HI> needs not borrow eloquence of &s;o prophane a <HI>Poet.</HI></P>
<P>You are unwilling to di&s;pute in <HI>Engli&s;h,</HI> to which I an&s;wer:</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, your <HI>Sermon</HI> is <HI>Engli&s;h.</HI> Secondly, many of the per&s;ons whom you have abu&s;ed and deceived by your <HI>printed Sermon,</HI> under&s;tand not <HI>Latine.</HI> Thirdly, you have been too much addicted to <HI>Engli&s;h
<PB N="12" REF="8">Playes,</HI> and <HI>Engli&s;h Ver&s;es,</HI> and you have with a plea&s;ant kind of <HI>igno|rance</HI> &s;huffled them (with other <HI>Ver&s;es</HI> publi&s;hed in more learned <HI>lan|guages</HI>) in the &s;ame book printed by the <HI>&V;niver&s;ity-Printer,</HI> and there|fore I believe you are mo&s;t able, and mo&s;t ingaged to di&s;pute in <HI>Engli&s;h,</HI> for the di&s;abu&s;ing &amp; undeceiving of tho&s;e whom you have &s;educed by a <HI>Sermon</HI> preacht and printed in <HI>Engli&s;h.</HI> Be plea&s;ed to performe that task to morrow at two of the clock at S. <HI>Maries Church,</HI> where your <HI>Sermon</HI> was preacht, and I will meet you; and if you dare examine your <HI>Sermon</HI> by the <HI>Word of God,</HI> I &s;hall be the <HI>Opponent,</HI> becau&s;e you have cho&s;en to be the <HI>Re&s;pondent.</HI></P>
<P>If when the <HI>Doctor of the Chaire</HI> comes home, you plea&s;e to di&s;pute in the <HI>Divinity Schools,</HI> let us agree upon the <HI>&s;tate</HI> of the <HI>que&s;tions</HI> in controver&s;ie, and I will accept your <HI>challenge</HI> at your owne <HI>weapon,</HI> which will I feare have more <HI>fal&s;e Latine,</HI> then <HI>true &s;teele.</HI></P>
<P>SIR, You make a <HI>di&s;honourable retreat,</HI> when you &s;ay that <HI>Prelacy</HI> is lawfull; you have cried it up <HI>jure divino,</HI> &amp; a&s;&s;ured the <HI>King,</HI> that hee cannot in con&s;cience pa&s;&s;e the <HI>Bill</HI> again&s;t <HI>Prelacy,</HI> becau&s;e it is a <HI>Go|vernment</HI> in&s;tituted by the will and appointment of <HI>Je&s;us Chri&s;t.</HI> Now &s;tand your ground, or confe&s;s your <HI>errour,</HI> acknowledge that <HI>you</HI> and your <HI>adherents</HI> have per&s;waded the <HI>King</HI> to de&s;troy &s;o many thou&s;and of his loving and gallant <HI>&s;ubjects,</HI> that <HI>Prelacy</HI> might be e&s;tabli&s;hed in its <HI>tyrannicall height and rigour;</HI> and now the <HI>God</HI> of <HI>heaven</HI> and <HI>Lord of ho&s;ts</HI> hath broken all your <HI>forces,</HI> you tell us that the <HI>Parliament</HI> mu&s;t not pur&s;ue their <HI>victory;</HI> but we mu&s;t in charity beare with tho&s;e <HI>malignant, Prelaticall,</HI> and <HI>Antichri&s;tian errors,</HI> which will not con&s;i&s;t with <HI>faith;</HI> be plea&s;ed to return &s;uch an an&s;wer as will indure the pub|like <HI>te&s;t</HI> and <HI>touch&s;tone,</HI> and you &s;halbe <HI>rationally,</HI> nay <HI>&s;piritually</HI> dealt with by</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>The <HI>Prior opponent</HI> of the <HI>fal&s;e Prophet, Francis Cheynell.</HI></SIGNED></CLOSER>
</LETTER>
<P>To this <HI>letter</HI> (which (as all the world may judge) declines that part of <HI>entercour&s;e,</HI> which obligeth one mans <HI>letter</HI> to carry &s;ome <HI>corre|&s;pondence</HI> to anothers, and in&s;tead of a <HI>confutation,</HI> only multiplies <HI>que|&s;tions,</HI> and urgeth me to prove divers pa&s;&s;ages of my <HI>Sermon,</HI> which M. <HI>Cheynell's</HI> part was to <HI>convince</HI>) becau&s;e the <HI>&s;uper&s;cription</HI> of it <HI>dark|ly,</HI> and the <HI>clo&s;e</HI> of it more <HI>clearly</HI> required me to meet him at an <HI>Eng|li&s;h di&s;putation</HI> the next day at S. <HI>Maries</HI> before the <HI>Town&s;men</HI> and their <HI>wives,</HI> (very unfit <HI>moderators,</HI> certainly, in the points there to be di&s;|cus'd) I for the pre&s;ent (to divert that meeting) return'd him this <HI>&s;hort An&s;wer.</HI></P>
<LETTER LANG="eng">
<PB N="13" REF="8">
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>THough in the <HI>Letter</HI> you &s;ent me ye&s;terday by (I think) <HI>Jelly|man</HI> the <HI>Cobler,</HI> you have given me &s;uch a ta&s;t of your <HI>Lo|gick</HI> as well as <HI>civility,</HI> that I have &s;mall encouragement to meddle a|ny farther with you, (unle&s;s you will promi&s;e hereafter to write with better <HI>con&s;equence,</HI> and le&s;s <HI>di&s;temper</HI>) yet, Sir, lea&s;t you &s;hould tri|umph over me, as one beaten by your <HI>Arguments,</HI> not by your <HI>rude|ne&s;s,</HI> I have thought fit for once to return you this <HI>an&s;wer.</HI> Fir&s;t, that without the <HI>danger</HI> of a <HI>dark room</HI> (as I told you before) I cannot con|&s;ent to <HI>meet</HI> you at S. <HI>Maries</HI> at two a clock. Next, that I do imbrace your <HI>offer</HI> to meet me at <HI>Latine weapons</HI> in the <HI>Divinity Schoole,</HI> when the <HI>Doctor of the Chayre</HI> comes to town. Thirdly, that if your <HI>Syllo|gi&s;mes</HI> be no better then your <HI>wit,</HI> (which I perceive &s;trived to be <HI>fa|cete,</HI> when it adventured to &s;ay, that you <HI>feare</HI> my <HI>weapon will have more fal&s;e Latine then true &s;teele</HI>) I doubt the <HI>Poet</HI> you contemne &s;o much, will go equall with you in the <HI>conque&s;t.</HI> La&s;tly, not being inga|ged (I confe&s;s) to preach <HI>thrice a day</HI>) I will with as much di&s;patch as I can, put <HI>order</HI> to your <HI>chaos,</HI> and return a <HI>fuller an&s;wer</HI> to your <HI>&s;trange letter;</HI> wherein I know not whether you have le&s;s <HI>&s;atisfied,</HI> or more <HI>reviled</HI></P>
<CLOSER><DATELINE>From my Chamber <DATE>this morning Jan. 22. 1646.</DATE></DATELINE>
<SIGNED>The <HI>Author</HI> of the <HI>Sermon</HI> again&s;t <HI>fal&s;e Prophets, J. Mayne.</HI></SIGNED></CLOSER>
</LETTER>
<P>This <HI>Letter</HI> might have beene lengthened with many other <HI>rea&s;ons</HI> (be&s;ides tho&s;e already &s;et down) to &s;hew how unfit 'twas for mee to meet M. <HI>Cheynell</HI> at an <HI>Engli&s;h di&s;putation</HI> at S. <HI>Maries,</HI> as M. <HI>Yerbury</HI> did. As fir&s;t, becau&s;e the <HI>frame</HI> and <HI>carriage</HI> of the whole <HI>di&s;pute</HI> be|tween us, in all probability would have been as <HI>irregular</HI> and <HI>tumultu|ous</HI> as the other was; where, becau&s;e neither of them kept them&s;elves to the <HI>lawes of di&s;putation,</HI> which enjoyne the <HI>Di&s;putants</HI> to confine them&s;elves to <HI>Syllogi&s;me,</HI> rai&s;ed from the &s;trict rules of <HI>Mood</HI> and <HI>Fi|gure,</HI> which admit not of <HI>extravagancy:</HI> In the judgment of all <HI>Schol|lers</HI> who were pre&s;ent, it was not a <HI>Di&s;pute,</HI> but a wild <HI>conflict,</HI> where neither an&s;wered one another, but with &s;ome mixture of <HI>ill language,</HI> were both <HI>Opponents</HI> by turnes. Next, becau&s;e the greate&s;t part of the <HI>Auditory</HI> would have con&s;i&s;ted of &s;uch a confluence of <HI>Town&s;men</HI> and <HI>women,</HI> as under&s;tood good <HI>Arguments</HI> and <HI>Replies</HI> as little as they do <HI>Latine;</HI> and &s;o the i&s;&s;ue of this <HI>Di&s;putation</HI> would probably have been the &s;ame with the former; where M. <HI>Cheynell</HI> was thought to have the better by <HI>one Sex,</HI> and M. <HI>Yerbury</HI> by the <HI>other.</HI> Loath, therefore to for|feit
<PB N="14" REF="9">my di&s;cretion before &s;uch an <HI>Incompetent A&s;&s;embly</HI> of witne&s;&s;es, with as much di&s;patch as one ingaged by promi&s;e could make, I retur|ned to his <HI>Letter</HI> this fuller <HI>An&s;wer.</HI></P>
<LETTER LANG="eng">
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>Among the other prai&s;es, which greater friends to the <HI>Mu&s;es</HI> then I perceive you are, have be&s;towed upon <HI>Virgil,</HI> he hath been cal|led the <HI>Virgin Poet.</HI> Yet <HI>Au&s;onius</HI> ordering his <HI>Ver&s;es</HI> another way, hath rai&s;ed one of the mo&s;t loo&s;e la&s;civious Poems from him that I think ever wore the name of a <HI>Marriage-&s;ong.</HI> Me thinks Sir (and I doubt not but all they who &s;hal compare them together will be of my opinion) you in your Letter have ju&s;t dealt &s;o with my <HI>Sermon;</HI> it went from my hands forth a &s;ober <HI>Virgin,</HI> but falling into yours, it returns to me &s;o &s;trumpet|ed, &s;o di&s;torted in the &s;en&s;e, and mi&s;applied in the expre&s;&s;ions, that what I preach'd a <HI>Sermon,</HI> you by tran&s;lating whatever I have &s;aid of <HI>fal&s;e Pro|phets</HI> to the <HI>Parliament,</HI> have with the dexterity of a fal&s;ification, tran&s;|formed and changed into a <HI>Libell.</HI> This I do not wonder at, when I re|member what the <HI>Phy&s;itian</HI> was, who &s;aid, that where the <HI>Recipient</HI> is <HI>di&s;|tempered,</HI> the mo&s;t whol&s;ome food turns into his di&s;ea&s;e; ju&s;t as we &s;ee in tho&s;e harmfull creatures, who&s;e whole <HI>e&s;&s;ence</HI> and <HI>compo&s;ition</HI> is made up of <HI>&s;ting</HI> and <HI>poy&s;on,</HI> the juice which they &s;uck from <HI>flowers</HI> and <HI>ro&s;es,</HI> con|cocts into <HI>venome</HI> and <HI>becomes poy&s;on</HI> too. Having &s;aid this by way of <HI>Preface</HI> to my following <HI>Reply,</HI> fir&s;t, Sir, (confining my &s;elf to your <HI>me|thod</HI>) how you &s;pend your morning thoughts, being impo&s;&s;ible for me outright to know, unle&s;s your thoughts were either vi&s;ible or you tran&s;|parent; I de&s;ire you wil not think me over-curious, if I open a door upon you, and proceed by conjecture. You &s;ay, you u&s;e to <HI>&s;pend them upon a bet|ter &s;ubject then a pot of dead drink that hath a little froth at top, and dregs at bottome.</HI> To what pa&s;&s;age of my <HI>Letter</HI> this refers, or why a <HI>language</HI> which I do not under&s;tand, &s;hould po&s;&s;e&s;s the <HI>porch</HI> &amp; <HI>entrance</HI> to <HI>yours,</HI> I am not <HI>Oedipus</HI> enough to <HI>unriddle.</HI> But if I may gue&s;s what your <HI>mor|ning thoughts were,</HI> when (as you confe&s;s) you did <HI>let them loo&s;e</HI> by your <HI>pen</HI> to di&s;charge them&s;elves upon me in a &s;hower of <HI>rude, untheologicall, flat, downright detraction,</HI> though they were not employ'd upon a <HI>frothy &s;ubject,</HI> yet they &s;hew that you were at that time in <HI>his di&s;temper</HI> in the <HI>Go&s;pel,</HI> a piece of who&s;e <HI>raging</HI> and <HI>di&s;traction</HI> 'twas to <HI>fome at mouth.</HI></P>
<P>Next Sir, had I been pre&s;ent at your <HI>Sermon,</HI> (as I am glad I was not, for I de&s;ire not to be an <HI>Auditor</HI> where I mu&s;t hear my &s;elf <HI>libelled</HI> from the <HI>pulpit</HI>) I &s;hal ea&s;ily grant, by the <HI>ta&s;te</HI> which you have given me in this <HI>&s;hort Conference</HI> with you of the per&s;picuity of your <HI>&s;tile,</HI> and the
<PB N="15" REF="9"><HI>clearne&s;s</HI> of your <HI>matter,</HI> that 't was po&s;&s;ible enough for me not to <HI>under&s;tand it.</HI> I doe, therefore, acknowledge it as a <HI>favour</HI> from you, that you will let me no longer wander in uncertain|ties, or write to you upon the <HI>mi&s;-report</HI> of a <HI>fallible Intelligencer;</HI> but will <HI>your &s;elfe</HI> be my <HI>Clue</HI> to guide me to what you &s;aid. Which <HI>favour,</HI> you have much <HI>heightned,</HI> by robbing your <HI>weigh|tier employments</HI> of &s;o much <HI>time</HI> to convey it in, as might have been &s;pent in providing your &s;elfe to preach <HI>thrice a day,</HI> and yet not doe it &s;o <HI>ha&s;tily,</HI> or with &s;uch a <HI>running negligence,</HI> as to be thought to preach but <HI>once a week.</HI></P>
<P>As for your <HI>Text,</HI> and the <HI>Doctrine</HI> built upon it, at whom &s;oever it was <HI>&s;hot,</HI> I &s;hall not quarrell with it. But how your <HI>Co|rollary</HI> &s;hould concern any thing that I have &s;aid in my <HI>Sermon</HI> contrary to your <HI>Doctrine,</HI> I cannot po&s;&s;ibly <HI>imagine;</HI> who do there onely &s;peak of the <HI>vanity</HI> of &s;ome of our <HI>Modern Prophets,</HI> who can &s;ee <HI>Idolatry in a Church-window:</HI> And do onely &s;trive to prove that for <HI>people</HI> to refrain the <HI>Church</HI> (as you know who did) becau&s;e <HI>&s;ome</HI> (though perhaps not of <HI>our age</HI>) paid <HI>wor&s;hip</HI> to the <HI>windowes,</HI> was a fear as unrea&s;onable as <HI>theirs</HI> was, who refu&s;ed to go to <HI>Sea,</HI> becau&s;e there was a <HI>Painter</HI> in the <HI>City</HI> who <HI>limn'd &s;hipwracks.</HI></P>
<P>Sir, had you a minde to deal <HI>pertinently</HI> or <HI>ingennou&s;ly</HI> with me, you would witne&s;s for me, that though I &s;peak in defence of the <HI>Ornamentall u&s;e</HI> of <HI>Images,</HI> yet I in no pa&s;sage of my <HI>Sermon</HI> do defend any <HI>Image</HI> or <HI>pourtraicture</HI> made of the <HI>Deity.</HI> Sir, 'tis not your &s;aying, That <HI>no picture can be made of God, becau&s;e there is nothing like him in Heaven or Earth,</HI> or the following <HI>proofs</HI> of your <HI>letter</HI> (which I conceive to be a <HI>piece</HI> of your <HI>Sermon</HI> at <HI>St. Maries,</HI> which becau&s;e I came not to <HI>it,</HI> you in charity have &s;ent home to <HI>me</HI>) that per&s;wades me that any &s;uch <HI>picture</HI> is <HI>unlaw|full: Nature,</HI> as well as the numerous places of <HI>Scripture,</HI> which you have quoted to prove that which I never yet denied, have long &s;ince taught me, that to <HI>make,</HI> or <HI>draw</HI> any <HI>picture,</HI> or <HI>Image of God</HI> is not onely a <HI>breach</HI> of the <HI>&s;econd Commandement,</HI> which is built upon the <HI>invi&s;ibility</HI> of his <HI>E&s;&s;ence,</HI> and <HI>Nature,</HI> but that the <HI>Attempt</HI> would be much more <HI>vain,</HI> then if a <HI>Painter</HI> &s;hould endeavour to limn a <HI>&s;oul</HI> or <HI>minde,</HI> which not affording any <HI>Idea,</HI> or <HI>re&s;emblance</HI> to his <HI>fancy</HI> to be taken by, cannot po&s;&s;ibly by him
<PB N="16" REF="10">be expre&s;t in <HI>Colours.</HI> The Task, therefore, to make any <HI>Draught</HI> or <HI>Figure</HI> of <HI>God</HI> (pray Sir, being mi&s;led by <HI>your example,</HI> do not think me &s;uperfluous in my pur&s;uit of an <HI>Argument,</HI> to which I was not bound to <HI>reply</HI>) is (be&s;ides the <HI>&s;infulne&s;s</HI> of it) much more impo&s;&s;ible. For, <HI>First,</HI> Sir, if the <HI>School-men</HI> (which I hear you once &s;aid you had long &s;tudied to little purpo&s;e) may be <HI>Judges,</HI> He cannot be <HI>limn'd</HI> or <HI>drawn,</HI> becau&s;e he is a <HI>Spirit:</HI> Therefore not capable to be repre&s;ented by any <HI>gro&s;s, materiall Thing. Next,</HI> becau&s;e He is <HI>Infinite;</HI> and therefore not capable to fall under <HI>Symmetry,</HI> or be circum&s;cribed within the <HI>finite lines</HI> which &s;tream from a <HI>Painters pencill.</HI> Thirdly, becau&s;e He is <HI>Sim|ple,</HI> that is, (as <HI>your Schoolmen</HI> &s;ay, for you know Sir, I am but an <HI>Engli&s;h poet</HI>) <HI>All</HI> in <HI>All,</HI> and <HI>All</HI> in <HI>every part:</HI> Or, in other <HI>Termes,</HI> a Thing entirely <HI>uniform,</HI> and <HI>indivi&s;ible</HI> within it &s;elf, which admits not of any fal&s;e <HI>repre&s;entation</HI> of it &s;elf by <HI>limbs</HI> or <HI>parts.</HI> La&s;tly, Sir, (becau&s;e I will not be tedious, and go over all his other <HI>Attributes</HI>) who &s;hall <HI>paint</HI> his <HI>Omai&s;cience,</HI> who his <HI>Omnipotence,</HI> who his <HI>Eternity,</HI> who his <HI>&V;biquity?</HI> Knowing this Sir, and much more of him (not by the Help of a <HI>borrowed Illu|mination</HI>) I could not tre&s;pa&s;se &s;o much again&s;t my own <HI>&s;tudies,</HI> and <HI>Con&s;cience</HI> as to allow of any <HI>picture</HI> of <HI>God.</HI> And therefore, in this particular, challenging me, (as you <HI>impertinently</HI> do) to <HI>produce my &s;trong rea&s;ons, and overthrow,</HI> if I can, your <HI>Doctrine,</HI> or <HI>Corollary, deduced from E&s;ay</HI> 40.25. where God by his Prophet &s;ayes, <HI>To whom will ye liken me, or &s;hall I be equall &s;aith the Holy One?</HI> You would fain have me be your <HI>Adver&s;ary</HI> in an <HI>undefen|&s;ible Cau&s;e,</HI> that your <HI>conquest</HI> of me might be the ea&s;ier. In &s;hort, you would have me profe&s;s my &s;elfe to be an <HI>Anthropomorphite,</HI> that you might have the advantage to confute me for an <HI>He|retike.</HI></P>
<P>Sir, &s;ince you deny that you &s;aid in your <HI>Sermon,</HI> that I made <HI>Images equall with God</HI> (which if you had &s;aid, my <HI>Sermon</HI> without any new confutation, would have <HI>di&s;proved</HI> you) I am in that par|ticular <HI>&s;atisfied,</HI> and &s;hall think it was, though not a <HI>wilfull</HI> one, yet a <HI>mi&s;take</HI> in the <HI>reporter.</HI> But, then, Sir, I mu&s;t tell you, that I am not at all <HI>&s;atisfied</HI> with that which followes. Where you &s;ay, that <HI>Images are not like unto God,</HI> and <HI>Thereupon wonder that I took upon me to plead for the retaining of tho&s;e Images which have been
<PB N="17" REF="10">too often turned into Idols, not by the piety, but &s;uper&s;tition of former times:</HI> For here, Sir, if I would take the advantage of <HI>expre&s;sion</HI> not well con&s;idered, upon you, in &s;aying that <HI>Images are not like unto God,</HI> and <HI>thereupon</HI> that I did ill to plead for the retaining of other <HI>Images</HI> not of <HI>God,</HI> a <HI>Sophi&s;ter</HI> would make the world be|lieve, that you think all <HI>Images</HI> &s;uper&s;titious, and therefore fit to be bani&s;ht out of the <HI>Church,</HI> but onely &s;uch <HI>Images</HI> as are <HI>made of God;</HI> which would expo&s;e you to the <HI>opinion</HI> of being thought very &s;ubject to &s;peak <HI>contradictions.</HI> But being a <HI>meer poet,</HI> Sir, who&s;e <HI>ability,</HI> you know, lies not in making u&s;e of <HI>Ari&s;totles Eleuchs,</HI> but in the <HI>&s;oft, harmle&s;s compo&s;ure</HI> of an <HI>Elegie</HI> or <HI>Ode,</HI> I &s;hall deal more gently with you; That is, take you in the mo&s;t <HI>advantagious &s;en&s;e</HI> which you po&s;&s;ibly, upon your better <HI>morning thoughts</HI> can put to <HI>your words,</HI> &amp; believe, that the fault you finde with me for the <HI>retainment</HI> of <HI>Images,</HI> is, becau&s;e by the <HI>&s;uper&s;titi|on</HI> of <HI>former times</HI> they have been turn'd into <HI>Idols.</HI> Sir, if I be not deceiv'd, my <HI>Sermon,</HI> in this <HI>particular,</HI> is able to &s;ave me the la|bour of a <HI>reply.</HI> Where I have once for all &s;aid that which you wil never be able to controul (how <HI>poetically</HI> (that is <HI>not dully</HI>) &s;oe|ver you may think it expre&s;t) that by the &s;ame rea&s;on that <HI>Orna|ments</HI> are to be turn'd out of the <HI>Church,</HI> becau&s;e &s;ome out of a <HI>mi&s;-guided devotion</HI> have <HI>adored</HI> them, we &s;hould not have a <HI>Sun,</HI> or <HI>Moon,</HI> or <HI>Starres</HI> in the <HI>firmament,</HI> but they &s;hould long &s;ince have been bani&s;ht the <HI>skies,</HI> becau&s;e &s;ome of the <HI>deluded Heathen wor&s;hipt</HI> them. The <HI>little fallacy</HI> with which you think to entrap me, when you &s;ay, that <HI>hence you collect that I will be forced to main|taine that Images are as nece&s;&s;ary in the Church, as the Sunne in the Firmament,</HI> will expire, like all other <HI>thin Sophi&s;mes,</HI> in <HI>vanity</HI> &amp; <HI>&s;moke,</HI> when I have &s;hewn the <HI>weakne&s;s</HI> and <HI>infirmity</HI> of it, which will be briefly done by repeating onely the <HI>&s;en&s;e</HI> of my <HI>Sermon</HI> in <HI>other words,</HI> and &s;aying, that if <HI>Images</HI> doe <HI>agree</HI> with the <HI>Sunne,</HI> in that they have both been made <HI>Idols,</HI> though <HI>one</HI> be no <HI>nece&s;&s;ary part</HI> of the <HI>Church,</HI> and the <HI>other</HI> be a <HI>nece&s;&s;ary part</HI> of the <HI>building</HI> of the <HI>world,</HI> yet if for that <HI>rea&s;on</HI> wherein they <HI>agree, one</HI> mu&s;t be <HI>bani&s;ht,</HI> any man that hath <HI>Logick</HI> (though he be a <HI>Poet</HI>) may inferre, that t' will be as rea&s;onable that the <HI>other</HI> &s;hould be <HI>bani&s;ht</HI> too.</P>
<P>In your next <HI>Paragraph,</HI> or <HI>fardell of I know not what,</HI> you &s;ay
<PB N="18" REF="11">that <HI>I plead for Copes,</HI> and <HI>for tho&s;e parts of the Common-Prayer-booke which were borrowed from Rome:</HI> And then <HI>confute</HI> me with the <HI>threats</HI> of an <HI>ere-long Vi&s;itation.</HI> Sir, there is neither <HI>Logick,</HI> nor <HI>School-Divinity</HI> in this. As for <HI>Copes,</HI> you know I joyne them with <HI>Surplices</HI> in my <HI>Sermon;</HI> and &s;ay that by the &s;ame <HI>rea&s;on</HI> that the <HI>fal&s;e Prophets</HI> of <HI>our times</HI> would per&s;wade the <HI>people that Surplices are unlawfull becau&s;e Papi&s;ts weare them,</HI> they may endeavour to per&s;wade them, that <HI>Linnen</HI> is al&s;o <HI>unlawfull,</HI> becau&s;e <HI>Papi&s;ts &s;hift;</HI> and &s;o conclude <HI>Cleanline&s;s</HI> to be as <HI>&s;uper|&s;titious</HI> as <HI>Surplices</HI> or <HI>Copes.</HI> Sir, you may call this <HI>Poetry,</HI> but there is a <HI>Logick</HI> in it, which I hope doth not cea&s;e to be <HI>Logick,</HI> which you cannot <HI>re&s;i&s;t,</HI> becau&s;e 'tis not <HI>watri&s;hly</HI> or <HI>flegmatickly</HI> expre&s;t. As for tho&s;e <HI>parts</HI> of the <HI>Common-Prayer-booke,</HI> which I doe not &s;ay were <HI>borrowed</HI> from <HI>Rome,</HI> (as you impo&s;e upon me) but are to be found in the <HI>Rubrick</HI> of the <HI>Church:</HI> if I had &s;aid they had been <HI>borrowed</HI> from that <HI>Church,</HI> yet <HI>you</HI> have &s;aid no|thing to prove, that upon <HI>this &s;uppo&s;ition</HI> 'tis <HI>Popery</HI> to u&s;e tho&s;e <HI>Prayers</HI> in <HI>Ours.</HI> Fore&s;eeing, I beleeve, that if you had offered to maintaine that what ever is in the <HI>Popi&s;h Lyturgie</HI> is <HI>Popery,</HI> that is, <HI>&s;uper&s;titious,</HI> and fit to be <HI>pro&s;cribed</HI> out of the <HI>Church,</HI> you would (meeting with a <HI>good Di&s;putant,</HI> and one not addicted to <HI>Poetry</HI>) have been compelled to confe&s;s, that the <HI>Lords Prayer,</HI> and <HI>Davids P&s;almes</HI> are <HI>Popery</HI> too, (though the one were deli|vered by <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> the other by <HI>one</HI> who lived long before <HI>Antichri&s;t</HI>) becau&s;e they are bound up in the &s;ame <HI>volumne</HI> with the <HI>Ma&s;&s;e.</HI> Sir, if this be your <HI>Logick,</HI> 'tis <HI>Socrate ambulante coru&s;cavit,</HI> and will be a <HI>fal&s;e fire</HI> to lead you for ever out of the way. But here, Sir, though I need not take the paines to <HI>confute</HI> the <HI>Nothings</HI> you have &s;aid again&s;t me, in <HI>this particular,</HI> yet whenever you &s;hal call upon me to make good my <HI>undertaking,</HI> I doe promi&s;e to make it evident to you, that all the <HI>ancient parts</HI> of the <HI>Common-Prayer-booke,</HI> which I <HI>plead</HI> for, I doe not plead for becau&s;e they are u&s;ed by the <HI>Church</HI> of <HI>Rome,</HI> but becau&s;e they were part of the <HI>Lyturgie</HI> of tho&s;e <HI>Churches</HI> which were thought <HI>primitively pure,</HI> and not <HI>&s;uper&s;titious,</HI> and were in the world long before <HI>Popery,</HI> or <HI>Antichri&s;t</HI> was borne. I mu&s;t, therefore, for ought you have yet &s;aid to alter my <HI>opinion,</HI> &s;till &s;tand to my <HI>former conclu&s;i|on;</HI> which is, that by the <HI>&s;ame rea&s;on</HI> that either the <HI>whole,</HI> or <HI>any
<PB N="19" REF="11">part</HI> of our <HI>Co~mon-Prayer-Book</HI> is to be <HI>turned</HI> out of the <HI>Church,</HI> becau&s;e in <HI>&s;ome things</HI> it agrees with the <HI>Lyturgie</HI> of the <HI>Church</HI> of <HI>Rome, Italy,</HI> and <HI>Rome</HI> it &s;elf is to be <HI>turned</HI> out of the <HI>world,</HI> (&amp; &s;o a <HI>new Map</HI> to be made of it where the&s;e <HI>places</HI> are not) be|cau&s;e they are the <HI>Popes Territories,</HI> and lye under his <HI>Juri&s;diction.</HI> La&s;tly, Sir, as for the <HI>Vi&s;itors</HI> you <HI>threaten</HI> both <HI>me</HI> and <HI>Chri&s;t-Church</HI> withall, (of <HI>whom</HI> &s;ome <HI>report</HI> that <HI>you</HI> are <HI>one</HI>) when you come to <HI>execute</HI> your <HI>Commi&s;sion,</HI> &s;o you will not urge it as a <HI>Topicke</HI> to <HI>convince</HI> my <HI>under&s;tanding,</HI> but as a <HI>Delegacy</HI> of <HI>power</HI> to <HI>examine</HI> my <HI>&s;tudies, life,</HI> and <HI>manners,</HI> I &s;hall bring all the <HI>&s;ub|mi&s;sion</HI> with me which can be expected from <HI>one</HI> &s;ubject to the <HI>try|al.</HI> and <HI>examination</HI> of &s;uch a <HI>power.</HI> Being withall very confident, that when <HI>that time</HI> comes, however you may perhaps finde an <HI>old Cope</HI> or <HI>two</HI> in our <HI>Colledge,</HI> yet you will never bring <HI>Logick</HI> enough with you to prove, that they are either <HI>Idolatrous,</HI> or have been put to a <HI>&s;uper&s;titious</HI> u&s;e. And therefore, Sir, in this <HI>particu|lar</HI> you have lo&s;t your <HI>friendly coun&s;ell,</HI> there being no need at all that we &s;hould <HI>again&s;t that time &s;tudy for an An&s;wer.</HI></P>
<P>In your next <HI>Fa&s;cicle,</HI> you &s;ay, that I maintaine that <HI>&s;ome things in the Excellency, and Height of the Doctrines of Chri&s;tian Religion depend for their credit, and the Evidence of their Truth, upon the Authority of Chri&s;ts Miracles convey'd along in Tradition, and Sto|ry;</HI> And, therefore, conclude that my <HI>Religion leanes too hard, and too heavy upon Tradition.</HI> Sir, though I have alwayes lookt upon the <HI>Scriptures</HI> of the <HI>Old Te&s;tament</HI> and the <HI>New,</HI> as two <HI>glorious lampes,</HI> which to all <HI>eyes</HI> (that have not lo&s;t the u&s;e of <HI>&s;eeing,</HI> by being kept <HI>&s;eque&s;tred</HI> from the <HI>&s;unne</HI> too long in the <HI>darke</HI>) mu|tually give <HI>light</HI> to <HI>one another,</HI> &s;o that a <HI>vigilant Reader,</HI> by compa|ring <HI>Prophecies</HI> with their <HI>Accompli&s;hments,</HI> will have very great <HI>rea&s;on</HI> to beleeve that both are <HI>true,</HI> yet becau&s;e this amounts but to the <HI>di&s;cour&s;es</HI> and <HI>per&s;wa&s;ions</HI> of a <HI>&s;ingle mans rea&s;on,</HI> if I prefer <HI>Tradition,</HI> which is the <HI>con&s;tant, univer&s;all con&s;ent of all Ages,</HI> as a <HI>fuller medium</HI> to prove <HI>doctrines by</HI> which are hardly <HI>otherwi&s;e de|mon&s;trable,</HI> doe I any more, I pray, then prefer the <HI>univer&s;all Te|&s;timony,</HI> and <HI>Report</HI> of the <HI>Church</HI> of all <HI>Times,</HI> before the more <HI>fallible &s;ugge&s;tions</HI> of a <HI>private &s;pirit?</HI></P>
<P>Your next <HI>Paragraph,</HI> is perfectly the <HI>Hydra</HI> with <HI>repullulating Heads</HI> which I warned you of in my <HI>fir&s;t Letter;</HI> And multiplies
<PB N="20" REF="12">&s;o many <HI>cau&s;ele&s;s que&s;tions</HI> as make it nothing but a <HI>heape,</HI> partly of &s;uch <HI>doubts,</HI> partly of <HI>untruths,</HI> as would make it one of <HI>Her|cules labours</HI> to <HI>examine</HI> them. Fir&s;t, you bid me <HI>prove that Chri&s;t hath put the &s;ole power of Ordination in the hand of a Prelate.</HI> Sir, if the <HI>practice</HI> of the <HI>Apo&s;tles</HI> in the <HI>Scripture</HI> in this <HI>point</HI> were not cleare, yet the <HI>practice</HI> and <HI>opinion</HI> of the <HI>Church</HI> for 1500 yeeres ought to be of too great <HI>Authority</HI> with you to make this a <HI>&s;cru|ple.</HI> Knowing that no <HI>Church</HI> in the world thought otherwi&s;e, till the <HI>Pre&s;byterian Modell</HI> crept forth of <HI>Calvins fancie;</HI> nor a|ny <HI>good Prote&s;tant</HI> in the <HI>Church of England,</HI> till &s;uch as <HI>you</HI> re|called <HI>A&euml;rius</HI> from his <HI>grave,</HI> and <HI>Du&s;t</HI> to oppo&s;e <HI>Bi&s;hops.</HI> Next, you bid me <HI>ju&s;tifie, that no Church that ever the &s;unne lookt upon hath beene more ble&s;t with purity of Religion for the Doctrines of it, or better e&s;tabli&s;ht for the Government, and Di&s;cipline of it, then the Church of England hath.</HI> Sir, you repeat not the words of my <HI>Sermon</HI> &s;o faithfully as you &s;hould. I am not &s;o <HI>extravagant</HI> as to &s;ay, that <HI>no Church that ever the Sunne lookt upon,</HI> but that the <HI>Sun in all his heavenly cour&s;e for &s;o many, many yeeres,</HI> that is, (in my <HI>&s;en&s;e</HI>) for <HI>many Ages,</HI> &s;aw not a <HI>purer Church</HI> then <HI>ours</HI> was, both for the <HI>Doctrines,</HI> and <HI>Di&s;cipline</HI> of it. Again&s;t this you wildly ob|ject, I know not what <HI>Doctrines publiquely countenanced,</HI> but tell me not what the&s;e <HI>Doctrines</HI> were, &s;peake of certaine <HI>&s;uper&s;titious practices,</HI> and <HI>Prelaticall u&s;urpations,</HI> but doe not prove them to be either <HI>&s;uper&s;titious,</HI> or <HI>u&s;urpt;</HI> quarrell with the <HI>Delegation of Bi&s;hops power to Chancellors,</HI> then proceed to the <HI>tyrannie of the High-Commi&s;sion-Court,</HI> and at la&s;t conclude with I know not what <HI>Imaginary corruptions and Innovations introduced into the State, Church, and &V;niver&s;ity.</HI> Sir, if I &s;hould grant this <HI>long-winded Charge</HI> of yours to be true, (as truly I think it is onely a <HI>&s;eeing of vanity</HI>) yet my <HI>confident A&s;&s;ertion</HI> is not hereby <HI>enfeebled</HI> I hope, when I &s;poke of the <HI>purity of our Church,</HI> you did not think I freed it from all <HI>blemi&s;hes</HI> or <HI>&s;pots.</HI> The <HI>Primitive Church</HI> it &s;elfe had <HI>&s;ome</HI> in it who broacht <HI>&s;trange doctrines;</HI> Saint <HI>John</HI> had not el&s;e written his <HI>Go&s;pell</HI> again&s;t the <HI>Gno&s;ticks,</HI> nor Saint <HI>Paul</HI> his Epi&s;tle to the <HI>Galatians</HI> again&s;t tho&s;e that held the <HI>nece&s;sity of Circumci&s;ion.</HI> The <HI>next Ages</HI> of the <HI>Church</HI> have not been more di&s;tingui&s;ht by their <HI>Martyrs,</HI> then <HI>Heretiques;</HI> yet the <HI>Primitive Church</HI> cea&s;ed not to be <HI>Apo&s;tolically pure,</HI> becau&s;e it had a <HI>Ce|rinthus,</HI>
<PB N="21" REF="12">or <HI>Nicolaitans</HI> in it; nor the &s;ucceeding <HI>Churches</HI> to be the <HI>Spou&s;e</HI> of <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> becau&s;e <HI>one</HI> brought forth an <HI>Apelles, another</HI> a <HI>Marcion,</HI> a <HI>third</HI> a <HI>Ne&s;torius,</HI> a <HI>fourth</HI> an <HI>Eutiches,</HI> a <HI>fift</HI> an <HI>Ari|us.</HI> Sir, as long as the be&s;t <HI>Church</HI> in the world con&s;i&s;ts of men not <HI>infallible</HI> there will be <HI>errors.</HI> But then you mu&s;t not charge the <HI>Heterodox opinions</HI> or <HI>Doctrines</HI> of <HI>particular men,</HI> though, per|haps, <HI>countenanced</HI> by <HI>&s;ome</HI> in <HI>publique authority</HI> upon the <HI>Church.</HI> Be&s;ides, Sir, every <HI>Innovation</HI> is not nece&s;sarily a <HI>Corruption,</HI> un|le&s;s it <HI>di&s;place,</HI> or lay an <HI>O&s;traci&s;me</HI> upon &s;ome other <HI>thing</HI> more <HI>worthy</HI> and <HI>better</HI> then it <HI>&s;elfe. You</HI> your &s;elfe &s;ay, that the <HI>corrup|tions</HI> introduced were brought in by a <HI>prevailing faction, who were not the Church.</HI> If they were not, my <HI>A&s;&s;ertion</HI> holds good, that notwith&s;tanding &s;uch <HI>corruptions,</HI> yet our <HI>Church</HI> in its time was the <HI>pure&s;t Church</HI> in the world. This, then, being &s;o, me thinks, Sir, you in your <HI>pur&s;uit</HI> of <HI>Reformation,</HI> by making <HI>Root</HI> &amp; <HI>Branch</HI> your <HI>Rule</HI> of proceeding, have beene more <HI>&s;evere</HI> then the <HI>lawes</HI> of <HI>right Rea&s;on</HI> will allow you. If there were &s;uch a tyrannie as you &s;peake of &s;treaming it &s;elfe from the <HI>High Commi&s;sion Court,</HI> why could not the <HI>tyrannie</HI> be <HI>&s;uppre&s;t,</HI> without the <HI>aboli&s;hment</HI> of the <HI>Court?</HI> Or if there were &s;uch a thing as <HI>Prelaticall u&s;urpation,</HI> why could not the <HI>u&s;urpations</HI> be taken away, and <HI>Epi&s;copacie</HI> left to <HI>&s;tand?</HI> Sir, if you be <HI>Logician</HI> enough to be able to di&s;tingui&s;h betweene the <HI>faults</HI> of <HI>per&s;ons</HI> and the <HI>&s;acredne&s;s of functions,</HI> you cannot but pronounce with me, that to <HI>extirpate</HI> an <HI>order</HI> of the <HI>Church, ancient</HI> as the <HI>Chri&s;tian Church it &s;elfe,</HI> and made <HI>venera|ble</HI> by the <HI>never-interrupted Reception</HI> of it in all the <HI>Ages</HI> of the <HI>Church</HI> but <HI>ours,</HI> for the <HI>irregular carriage</HI> of a <HI>Prelate</HI> or <HI>two,</HI> (if any <HI>&s;uch</HI> have beene among us) is a <HI>cour&s;e</HI> like <HI>theirs,</HI> who thought there was no way left to reforme <HI>drunkenne&s;s</HI> in their <HI>State,</HI> but utterly to <HI>root up,</HI> and <HI>extirpate,</HI> and <HI>bani&s;h Vines.</HI></P>
<P>The <HI>remainder</HI> of your <HI>Paragraph</HI> is very <HI>politically</HI> orderd; which is, that becau&s;e you finde it hard for you to <HI>confute</HI> my <HI>Sermon</HI> by <HI>your Arguments,</HI> you will endeavour to make the <HI>Par|liament</HI> my <HI>Adver&s;ary,</HI> who, you thinke, are able to <HI>confute</HI> it by <HI>their power:</HI> And bid me prove that <HI>the proceedings of the Parlia|ment are Turki&s;h.</HI></P>
<P>Here, Sir, methinks, being a <HI>Poet,</HI> I &s;ee a piece of <HI>Ben John&s;on's</HI> be&s;t <HI>Comedy,</HI> the <HI>Fox,</HI> pre&s;ented to me; that is, <HI>you,</HI> a <HI>Politique
<PB N="22" REF="13">Would-be</HI> the <HI>&s;econd,</HI> &s;heltring your &s;elf under a <HI>capacious Tortoi&s;e-&s;hell.</HI> Why, Sir, can you per&s;wade <HI>your &s;elfe</HI> that the <HI>great Coun|cell</HI> of the <HI>Kingdome,</HI> by <HI>whom</HI> you are imployed, if they will vouch&s;afe to <HI>reade</HI> my <HI>Sermon,</HI> will not pre&s;ently di&s;cerne your <HI>Art?</HI> And withall perceive, that though the <HI>Text,</HI> upon which I, out of the <HI>Integrity</HI> of my <HI>&s;oule,</HI> preacht that <HI>Sermon,</HI> &s;tick as clo&s;e to <HI>Fal&s;e Prophets,</HI> as the <HI>Centaures &s;hirt</HI> did to <HI>Hercules,</HI> and &s;et them a <HI>raging,</HI> yet that they having never <HI>Parliamentarily</HI> profe&s;t to <HI>propagate Religion by their &s;peare,</HI> can no way be concerned, when I &s;ay that <HI>&s;uch a per&s;wa&s;ion in us Chri&s;tians would be Mahu|metan;</HI> and we thereby &s;hould <HI>tran&s;late a piece of the Alchoran into a piece of the Go&s;pel.</HI> Sir, I am &s;o confident of the <HI>wi&s;dome</HI> of that <HI>Honourable A&s;&s;embly,</HI> of my owne <HI>innocent meaning,</HI> and of <HI>your guilt,</HI> (who have beene <HI>one</HI> of tho&s;e <HI>Turki&s;h Prophets,</HI> (and in your <HI>Letter</HI> to me &s;till are) who have preacht that <HI>piece</HI> of the <HI>Alchoran</HI> for <HI>good doctrine</HI>) that for an&s;wer to all your <HI>&s;lye, impo|tently-malicious mi&s;-applications</HI> and <HI>&s;hiftings</HI> off that which I have &s;aid onely of <HI>&s;uch</HI> as <HI>your &s;elfe</HI> to the <HI>Parliament,</HI> I &s;hall onely ap|peale to my <HI>Sermon.</HI> And by <HI>that,</HI> if you plea&s;e to undertake the <HI>Devils part,</HI> and be my <HI>Accu&s;er,</HI> &s;hall be content to <HI>&s;tand</HI> or <HI>fall.</HI> In the meane time, Sir, I mu&s;t repeat what I &s;aid before, that if it be read, or lookt on through tho&s;e <HI>refractions,</HI> with which you have <HI>mi&s;-&s;hap'd,</HI> and <HI>crookt</HI> it, I &s;hall con&s;ent to what you &s;ay in the end of your <HI>filthy Paragraph;</HI> That 'twas <HI>once</HI> a <HI>Sermon,</HI> but <HI>you</HI> almo&s;t <HI>&agrave; Carceribus u&s;&abque; ad metam</HI> have made it a <HI>Libell.</HI></P>
<P>In your <HI>next</HI> (what &s;hall I call it?) you are very <HI>Critically plea|&s;ant;</HI> And becau&s;e I talke of a <HI>Religion</HI> wherein I was <HI>borne,</HI> aske me, whether I were <HI>borne in a Surplice,</HI> or <HI>Cope;</HI> and then very <HI>di&s;tingui&s;hingly</HI> proceed, and &s;ay, <HI>Chri&s;tiani non na&s;cuntur, &s;ed fiunt.</HI></P>
<P>To the fir&s;t, I reply, that it had been as <HI>unnaturall</HI> for <HI>me</HI> to be <HI>borne</HI> in a <HI>Surplice,</HI> or <HI>Cope,</HI> as for <HI>you</HI> to come into the world, with a <HI>little Geneva &s;et-ruffe</HI> about your neck.</P>
<P>Next, Sir, for your <HI>&s;harpe di&s;tinction,</HI> I hope, though the <HI>Mu&s;es</HI> be your <HI>Step-dames,</HI> yet you thinke not the <HI>figures</HI> of <HI>Rhetorick</HI> to be &s;o <HI>&s;uper&s;titious,</HI> that it &s;hall be <HI>Popery</HI> in <HI>me,</HI> to make u&s;e of a <HI>Metonymy,</HI> and to expre&s;s my &s;elfe by the <HI>Adjunct,</HI> when I mean the <HI>place,</HI> and <HI>Country.</HI> I grant, Sir, that men are not <HI>borne,</HI> but
<PB N="23" REF="13"><HI>re-born Chri&s;tians;</HI> yet 'twill be no great <HI>Errour</HI> in <HI>&s;peech</HI> for a man to &s;ay he is <HI>born</HI> in <HI>Chri&s;tianity,</HI> if he be a <HI>Chri&s;tian,</HI> and were <HI>born</HI> in the <HI>place</HI> where <HI>Chri&s;tianity</HI> is <HI>e&s;tabli&s;h'd.</HI> Sir, I doubt you begin to think <HI>&s;ecular learning</HI> to be a <HI>profane thing;</HI> And that you are bound to per&s;ecute <HI>Tropes</HI> out of <HI>Expre&s;&s;ion,</HI> as you have <HI>Liturgy</HI> out of the <HI>Church.</HI> If you do, Sir, we &s;hall in time, (if we proceed in this <HI>conflict</HI>) fulfill a <HI>peece</HI> of one of Saint <HI>Paul's Epi&s;tles</HI> between us; I become a <HI>Barbarian to you,</HI> and <HI>you to me.</HI></P>
<P>I am glad to hear you &s;ay, That <HI>the Parliament will not &s;uppre&s;s the true Prote&s;tant Religion;</HI> Sir, I never thought they would. But, then 'twill be no harm to <HI>you,</HI> if I pray, That whil&s;t you <HI>pur&s;ue</HI> &s;uch a <HI>through Reformation</HI> of it, as of late years hath left it doubt|full in the <HI>minds</HI> of the <HI>people</HI> what the <HI>true Prote&s;tant Religion</HI> is, you let not in <HI>Popery</HI> at that <HI>Gate,</HI> by which they &s;trive to &s;hut it out. If <HI>Queen Maries</HI> dayes do once more break in upon us through the <HI>&s;luce</HI> which we open to them by our <HI>un&s;etledne&s;s,</HI> and <HI>Di&s;tractions,</HI> and if I <HI>then fall a &s;acrifice</HI> in <HI>defence</HI> of the &s;ame <HI>Religion</HI> for which I now contend, I hope you then will think your &s;elf <HI>confuted;</HI> And no longer beleeve that I am &s;uch an <HI>ill Judge</HI> of <HI>Religions,</HI> or &s;o profu&s;ely prodigall of my <HI>life,</HI> that I would make it a <HI>Holocau&s;t,</HI> or <HI>Oblation,</HI> either to <HI>Tyranny,</HI> or <HI>Popery.</HI></P>
<P>In &s;hort, Sir, let the <HI>King</HI> and <HI>Parliament</HI> agree to <HI>burn Copes,</HI> and <HI>Surplices,</HI> to <HI>throw away the Common-Prayer-Book,</HI> or to <HI>break</HI> our <HI>Windows,</HI> I &s;hall not place &s;o much <HI>Religion</HI> in them, as not to think them <HI>alterable,</HI> and this done by <HI>Right Authority.</HI> But as for the <HI>Covenant,</HI> 'tis a <HI>pill,</HI> Sir, which no <HI>&s;ecular intere&s;t</HI> can &s;o &s;wee|ten to me, that I &s;hould think my &s;elf obliged to be &s;o far of <HI>any mans Religion,</HI> as to &s;wallow both parts of a contradiction in an Oath, if it appear to me to be &s;uch.</P>
<P>Your promi&s;e that my <HI>Sermon</HI> &s;hould be fir&s;t <HI>confuted before it be burnt,</HI> gives me hope it will be <HI>longer liv'd,</HI> then upon the fir&s;t report I thought it would. But then I wonder you &s;hould pa&s;&s;e that &s;entence on it, and choo&s;e <HI>Paraeus</HI> for your <HI>precedent.</HI> I mu&s;t confe&s;&s;e to you Sir, had I written &s;o de&s;tructively of <HI>Parliaments</HI> as <HI>He</HI> did of <HI>Kings,</HI> I &s;hould think it no <HI>inju&s;tice</HI> from that <HI>High Court,</HI> if they &s;hould doom <HI>me</HI> the <HI>Author</HI> to be <HI>&s;acrificed</HI> on the &s;ame <HI>Altar</HI> with <HI>my Book.</HI> But having (upon the <HI>highe&s;t warrant</HI> that can po&s;&s;ibly lend <HI>courage</HI> to a <HI>good action</HI>) directed it wholy again&s;t
<PB N="24" REF="14"><HI>Fal&s;e Prophets,</HI> and no where reflected upon the <HI>Members</HI> of either <HI>Hou&s;e,</HI> but where I maintain it to be unlawfull to <HI>&s;peak evill of dig|nities,</HI> to condemn it to the <HI>flame</HI> for &s;peaking &s;uch <HI>Truths,</HI> as I could not leave <HI>un&s;poken,</HI> unle&s;&s;e I had <HI>prevaricated</HI> with the <HI>Scrip|ture,</HI> will be &s;o &s;ar from the <HI>reproach</HI> of a <HI>puni&s;hment,</HI> that 'twill en|crea&s;e the <HI>e&s;teem</HI> and <HI>value</HI> of it from its <HI>&s;ufferings;</HI> and make it a&s;cend to heaven as the <HI>Angel</HI> in the <HI>Book</HI> of <HI>Judges</HI> did, in the <HI>breath,</HI> and <HI>ayre,</HI> and <HI>perfume</HI> of an acceptable <HI>&s;acrifice</HI> to <HI>God.</HI></P>
<P>Sir, As your <HI>&s;he-Di&s;ciple</HI> did very much <HI>mi&s;-inform</HI> you, if <HI>&s;he</HI> told you that I endeavoured to <HI>incen&s;e an Officer of this Garri&s;on against you,</HI> &s;o 'twas one <HI>Errour</HI> more in her (as upon ju&s;t occa&s;ion I &s;hall demon&s;trate to you) to tell you that I <HI>vented damnable Doctrines</HI> in her Company, <HI>which I was not able to maintain. She</HI> is my <HI>Gentle Adver&s;ary,</HI> and I de&s;ire <HI>&s;he</HI> &s;hould know, that as I de&s;ire not to fight <HI>&s;erious duells</HI> with that <HI>unequall Sex,</HI> &s;o when ever <HI>&s;he</HI> will again provoke me to a <HI>Di&s;pute</HI> (&s;o it be not at Saint <HI>Maries,</HI> for S. <HI>Paul</HI> forbids <HI>women</HI> to argue in the <HI>Church</HI>) <HI>&s;he</HI> &s;hall return with <HI>prizes,</HI> and I will confe&s;s my &s;elf <HI>conquer'd.</HI> In the mean time, Sir, whither <HI>&s;he</HI> came to <HI>you,</HI> or <HI>you</HI> went to <HI>her,</HI> Her <HI>Sex</HI> puts me in mind of &s;ome <HI>fal&s;e Teachers,</HI> not <HI>mention'd</HI> in my <HI>Sermon,</HI> but <HI>branded</HI> by Saint <HI>Paul,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">2 Tim 3.6</NOTE> * for <HI>creeping into hou&s;es,</HI> and <HI>leading captive &s;illy Wo|men.</HI> If your <HI>Intelligencer</HI> be one of the&s;e (as I &s;hrewdly &s;u&s;pect <HI>&s;he</HI> is) I &s;hould be &s;orry for tho&s;e <HI>Friends</HI> &s;ake in who&s;e Acquaintance we <HI>both</HI> meet, that <HI>&s;he</HI> &s;hould be lyable to the <HI>Character</HI> of &s;uch <HI>&s;illy women</HI> in the next <HI>ver&s;e;</HI> where 'tis &s;aid, <HI>That they were ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth.</HI></P>
<P>You proceed, and &s;ay, <HI>That you were in manife&s;t Danger to loo&s;e your Right to the Exerci&s;e of the Prote&s;tant Religion, whereupon the High Court of Parliament thought it fit to repell force by force.</HI> Sir, do not entertain me with your own <HI>fal&s;e fears,</HI> and <HI>jealou&s;ies;</HI> but <HI>demon&s;trate</HI> to me that the <HI>King</HI> (for <HI>Him</HI> I pre&s;ume you mean) meant to <HI>extirpate</HI> the true <HI>Prote&s;tant</HI> Religion by the <HI>&s;word,</HI> and to plant <HI>Popery</HI> in its &s;tead, And you &s;hall not more <HI>fal&s;ely</HI> charge me that I make the <HI>Parliament</HI> by &s;uch a <HI>Re&s;i&s;tance</HI> to <HI>Denizon</HI> the <HI>Al|choran,</HI> then I &s;hall <HI>truely</HI> pronounce the <HI>Kings party,</HI> in <HI>fighting</HI> for him to <HI>that end,</HI> guilty of a <HI>Mahumetan per&s;wa&s;ion.</HI> In &s;aying this, you exceedingly mi&s;take me if you think I contend for a <HI>Vor&s;tian Liberty,</HI> or am hereby a <HI>Friend to the Rebels in Ireland.</HI> Sir, I hope
<PB N="25" REF="14">you can di&s;tingui&s;h between mens <HI>Di&s;loyalty</HI> and <HI>Religion.</HI> As <HI>Rebels</HI> I hold it fit, if they will not otherway return to their <HI>Alleagance,</HI> that they be reduced by <HI>force.</HI> There is a <HI>right</HI> to their <HI>&s;ubjection</HI> pur&s;ued by &s;uch a <HI>War,</HI> which makes all <HI>Armes</HI> warrantable which are im|ploy'd for the recovery of &s;uch a <HI>lo&s;&s;e.</HI> But to think, that as they are <HI>Papi&s;ts,</HI> nay, (Sir, I &s;hall not &s;hrink from my word) if they were outright <HI>Infidels,</HI> that the <HI>Prote&s;tant Religion</HI> is to be impo&s;ed upon them by <HI>force,</HI> is to make our &s;elves <HI>guilty</HI> of all the <HI>hard Cen&s;ures</HI> which have pa&s;t upon the <HI>Spaniards Conque&s;t</HI> of the <HI>Indians,</HI> where their <HI>Silver Mines</HI> were the true cau&s;e, and <HI>Religion</HI> the <HI>pretence.</HI> Notwith&s;tanding your <HI>Holy War,</HI> therefore, mention'd in the <HI>Reve|lation</HI> (which place I have con&s;idered, and find it as <HI>my&s;terious,</HI> as the <HI>pale</HI> or <HI>black Hor&s;e</HI>) for ought you have &s;aid in <HI>di&s;proof</HI> of it, I find not my &s;elf tempted to de&s;ert my <HI>Opinion:</HI> which is, <HI>That to come into the field with an Armed Go&s;pel, is not the way cho&s;en by Chri&s;t to make Pro&s;elytes.</HI> And, therefore Sir, I will not &s;o much di&s;tru&s;t the <HI>Wi&s;dome,</HI> or <HI>Ju&s;tice</HI> of the <HI>Parliament,</HI> that upon your <HI>bare A&s;&s;ertion, they will make me mi&s;erable,</HI> becau&s;e I maintain that they cannot <HI>warrantably compell</HI> any man to be <HI>happy.</HI></P>
<P>Why the bare mention of your <HI>Scruple-hou&s;e</HI> &s;hould put you into &s;uch a <HI>fit</HI> of <HI>ill language,</HI> as to pronounce me <HI>unworthy to carry the Books of the Reverend Divines after them,</HI> who met there to heal <HI>Doubts,</HI> or why my <HI>Carfax-Sermon</HI> &s;hould contribute to the <HI>raging</HI> of <HI>that fit,</HI> I cannot rea&s;onably imagine. Sir, I have no mind to fight many <HI>Duells</HI> at <HI>Once;</HI> nor, (having received a <HI>challenge</HI> from no other but <HI>your &s;elf</HI>) to ingage my &s;elf with <HI>them</HI> by <HI>whom</HI> I have not been <HI>provok't.</HI></P>
<P>Whither they be <HI>ungifted preachers,</HI> or <HI>Gifted Di&s;putants,</HI> is be&s;t known to them&s;elves. But, certainly, Sir, if the Report which was made to me (by <HI>&s;ome</HI> who brought both their <HI>under&s;tandings</HI> as well as <HI>Eares</HI> with t em to the <HI>famous meeting November</HI> 12.) be true, there was <HI>nothing</HI> &s;o <HI>demon&s;tratively</HI> by them either <HI>ob|jected,</HI> or <HI>replyed</HI> as might incourage <HI>them,</HI> or their <HI>Hearers,</HI> to be|leeve this <HI>peece</HI> of <HI>Popery,</HI> that they are <HI>unerring,</HI> and <HI>infallible</HI> in the <HI>chair:</HI> pray, Sir, do not think my <HI>Famous pride,</HI> or <HI>&s;elf-conceited|ne&s;s</HI> (which you &s;ay hath <HI>provoked</HI> you to <HI>break</HI> your <HI>chaines,</HI> and <HI>to let loo&s;e your pen,</HI> that you might <HI>whip</HI> me into <HI>Humility</HI>) hath prompted me to &s;ay this.</P>
<P><PB N="26" REF="15">
Had you named the <HI>Reverend per&s;ons who&s;e Books I am not worthy to carry after them,</HI> &s;o they be <HI>Greek</HI> or <HI>Latine Books,</HI> and <HI>tho&s;e</HI> well under&s;tood by them, perhaps I &s;hould have expre&s;t a greater <HI>Act</HI> of <HI>Humility</HI> then you are aware of, and have been content (though one of the <HI>new Doctors</HI> yet by the <HI>&s;econd Sub&s;cription</HI> of your <HI>Letter</HI> but a <HI>Ma&s;ter of Art</HI>) to &s;it a while at the <HI>feet</HI> of &s;uch <HI>learned Gamaliel's.</HI> But &s;peaking <HI>indefinitely</HI> as you do, I hope Sir, for twenty years <HI>&s;tudy</HI> &s;ake in this <HI>&V;niver&s;ity,</HI> (where I have learnt to di&s;tingui&s;h the <HI>letters</HI> of the <HI>Greek Alphabet,</HI> and at fir&s;t &s;ight do know that it would be|get a <GAP DESC="foreign">, or <HI>quarrell</HI> among the <HI>Vowells,</HI> if <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> in a <HI>word</HI> &s;hould u&s;urp the place of <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word">) you will find me a <HI>nobler imployment</HI> then to <HI>carry Books</HI> after <HI>Them</HI> who count <HI>Liberaries Superfluous, humane, Secular</HI> Things; And think a <HI>Mini&s;ter,</HI> not <HI>Mini&s;ter of Go&s;pel,</HI> (as your <HI>Scribe</HI> hath <HI>twice</HI> erred in the <HI>tran&s;cription</HI> of your <HI>letter,</HI> in a <HI>vowell</HI> very <HI>fatall</HI> to you) needs no other <HI>furniture</HI> but the <HI>Spirit, Cottons Concordance,</HI> and the <HI>Engli&s;h Bible</HI> without the <HI>Apocrypha.</HI></P>
<P>Sir, I am &s;orry the <HI>Fit</HI> which the <HI>mention</HI> of the <HI>Scruple-hou&s;e</HI> did put you into, &s;hould be <HI>increa&s;ed</HI> by the <HI>mention</HI> of a <HI>Dark Roome.</HI> There goes a Story of <HI>one</HI> who had <HI>ta&s;ted</HI> a while of <HI>Bedlam,</HI> and was at length, by the help of <HI>Di&s;cipline, dyet,</HI> and <HI>Phy&s;ick,</HI> cured of his <HI>Di&s;traction;</HI> yet not &s;o perfectly, but that &s;till when he came within the &s;ight of the place, his <HI>fancy</HI> remembred him of his <HI>old Di&s;temper,</HI> and tempted him to do &s;omething which required a <HI>&s;e|cond cure.</HI> I &s;peak not this <HI>parable</HI> to upbraid any with an <HI>infirmity</HI> which is unavoydably <HI>naturall</HI> to them, and no way contracted from the <HI>pride,</HI> or <HI>irregularity</HI> of their own <HI>Wills;</HI> But if you have read <HI>Tully's Paradoxes,</HI> you may remember, Sir, that <HI>he</HI> there maintains the <HI>Opinion</HI> of the <HI>Stoicks,</HI> that not onely <HI>they</HI> who&s;e <HI>chaines</HI> and <HI>fetters,</HI> proclaim them <HI>di&s;tempered,</HI> but that all <HI>fooli&s;h,</HI> over <HI>pa&s;&s;io|nate</HI> men are to be reckoned into the number of tho&s;e who are to be <HI>cured</HI> by <HI>manacles,</HI> and <HI>chaynes:</HI> pray Sir, do not take it ill, if (being as you &s;ay a <HI>Poet</HI>) I cite a <HI>Poet</HI> who was of this <HI>Opinion;</HI> but main|tains it like a <HI>Philo&s;opher,</HI> (I will not &s;ay a <HI>School Divine.</HI>) And ha|ving in&s;i&s;ted in <HI>ver&s;e</HI> upon <HI>Covetou&s;ne&s;s</HI> as <HI>one, Ambition</HI> as <HI>another,</HI> The <HI>love</HI> of <HI>beauty</HI> either in <HI>reall</HI> or <HI>painted faces,</HI> as <HI>another Species</HI> of <HI>Madne&s;s,</HI> He concludes in <HI>Anger,</HI> and &s;ayes, <HI>Ira furor brevis e&s;t;</HI> that is, That the <HI>Cholerick man,</HI> during the <HI>fit</HI> of his <HI>choler,</HI> is
<PB N="27" REF="15">in a <HI>&s;hort phrenzy.</HI> That which <HI>Seneca, Tully,</HI> and <HI>Horace,</HI> called <HI>madne&s;s,</HI> (though not the <HI>other more naturall,</HI> (which I &s;hould be <HI>uncharitable</HI> to object to you) <HI>you</HI> by this <HI>letter</HI> (e&s;pecially the <HI>an|gry part</HI> of it) have given me very ju&s;tifiable cau&s;e to apply to you, who (as all <HI>dispa&s;&s;ionated men</HI> may judge) have fulfill'd the <HI>Poets de|finition</HI> of <HI>Madne&s;s</HI> upon <HI>your &s;elf</HI> in <HI>all</HI> the <HI>parts</HI> of it but <HI>one,</HI> which is, that your <HI>Anger</HI> again&s;t me is not <HI>furor Brevis,</HI> a <HI>&s;hort di|&s;traction,</HI> but extends from the word <HI>Scruple-hou&s;e</HI> to the <HI>End</HI> of your <HI>Letter.</HI> For fir&s;t, Sir, in Language almo&s;t as <HI>unclean,</HI> as the &s;in of uncleanne&s;s it &s;elf, you endeavour to rai&s;e a <HI>Su&s;pition</HI> upon me in the world as if I had been more <HI>familiar</HI> then I &s;hould with <HI>light Women in dark Roomes:</HI> Sir, be&s;ides the <HI>poverty</HI> of <HI>your wit,</HI> and <HI>quibling Antithe&s;es</HI> of <HI>Expre&s;&s;ion,</HI> (to which I finde you in other places of your <HI>letter</HI> very <HI>&s;ubject</HI>) I am not afraid (with all the <HI>con|fidence</HI> of an <HI>Innocent man</HI>) to tell you, That as I never was an <HI>Ene|my</HI> to that <HI>Sex,</HI> &s;o I never conver&s;t with any of them <HI>&s;ingle,</HI> or in a <HI>dark Congregation,</HI> &s;o <HI>loo&s;ely,</HI> to de&s;erve to have the <HI>&s;lander</HI> fa&s;t|ned upon me, which <HI>Tertullian,</HI> and <HI>Minutius Faelix</HI> from him, &s;ay was laboured to be &s;tuck upon the <HI>Chri&s;tians</HI> of tho&s;e <HI>Times,</HI> which was, That they u&s;ed to meet in <HI>Conventicles,</HI> where their cu&s;tome was, after the <HI>end</HI> of the <HI>Sermon,</HI> to put out the <HI>Candles,</HI> and then to commit <HI>Folly,</HI> the <HI>holy</HI> with the <HI>holy.</HI> Sir, in plain Termes, (How <HI>blameable</HI> &s;oever other <HI>Errours,</HI> or <HI>vanities</HI> of my <HI>life</HI> may make me &s;tand in the pre&s;ence of <HI>God,</HI> who upon a <HI>true Repentance,</HI> Sir, is not &s;o <HI>Fatally</HI> tyed to the <HI>Spindle</HI> of <HI>ab&s;olute Reprobation,</HI> as not to keep his <HI>promi&s;e,</HI> and to &s;eal <HI>mercifull pardons,</HI> yet) in this <HI>particular,</HI> my <HI>known Conver&s;ation</HI> in this <HI>&V;niver&s;ity,</HI> and all other <HI>places,</HI> bids me <HI>defie</HI> you; And challeng not only your &s;elf, but the <HI>preci&s;e&s;t</HI> of your <HI>Informers,</HI> either <HI>heer,</HI> or <HI>any where</HI> el&s;e, (who u&s;e not to &s;uffer the <HI>looks, Ge&s;tures,</HI> or thoughts of any who are not of their <HI>Tribe,</HI> much le&s;s <HI>notorious matter of Fact,</HI> to &s;cape <HI>unque&s;tio|ned</HI>) to appear in an <HI>accu&s;ation</HI> again&s;t me; where it &s;hall be <HI>proba|bly,</HI> not <HI>conjecturally</HI> proved, that I have been <HI>frail</HI> with the <HI>frail Sex</HI> either <HI>holy</HI> or <HI>profane.</HI></P>
<P>Sir, all they of that <HI>&s;oft Sex,</HI> with whom I have conver&s;t, have accu&s;ed me of too great <HI>&s;everity,</HI> and <HI>ruggedne&s;s,</HI> towards them, but <HI>you</HI> are the <HI>fir&s;t,</HI> who ever endeavoured to make me guilty of being too <HI>amorou&s;ly affected.</HI></P>
<P><PB N="28" REF="16">
Next, &s;ir, However you may tell me that you <HI>have not &s;o lo&s;t your Rea&s;on, or Logick, but that you, (the meanest who appears for the Parliament) are ready to take up the Gauntlet which I threw down, and to an&s;wer the challenge which I fir&s;t &s;ounded in the Pul|pit;</HI> yet, certainly, They who &s;hall read that <HI>pa&s;&s;age</HI> of my <HI>Sermon,</HI> where I &s;ay, <HI>That if I were pre&s;ently to enter into a di&s;pute with the greate&s;t Patriarch among the&s;e Prophets, who</HI> (notwith&s;tanding that which I &s;aid before) <HI>will &s;till perver&s;ly &s;trive to prove that our Church &s;tood in &s;uch need of Reformation, that the growing &s;uper|&s;titions of it could not po&s;&s;ibly be expiated, but by &s;o much Civill War, I &s;hould not doubt with mode&s;ty enough to prove to him back again, that all &s;uch irrationall Arguments, as have onely his zeal for their Logick are compo&s;ed of untemper'd Morter:</HI> And &s;hall compare the <HI>wilde Torrent</HI> of <HI>ill language,</HI> with which the <HI>furious remainder</HI> of your <HI>paragraph</HI> over-flows, with the <HI>Sober Web,</HI> and <HI>Compo&s;ition</HI> of my <HI>Sermon,</HI> which you there think no worthier of, then of a <HI>Triobolar Ballad,</HI> They will finde that you have &s;aid no|thing in the <HI>progre&s;s</HI> of at lea&s;t <HI>forty Folio-lines</HI> together, which &s;hews not that your <HI>Rea&s;on</HI> a&s;&s;i&s;ted not your <HI>pen.</HI> One <HI>pa&s;&s;age</HI> I con|fe&s;&s;e (like a <HI>lucide Intervall</HI>) hath &s;ome ta&s;te of <HI>&s;obriety,</HI> and not <HI>&s;hort fury</HI> in it; <HI>which is,</HI> that how meanly &s;o ever you think you may &s;peak of <HI>me,</HI> yet you think you are to make a more honourable mention of the <HI>Author</HI> of the <HI>Practicall Catechi&s;m.</HI> That <HI>learned Doctor,</HI> Sir, I am acquainted with, but not &s;o <HI>inwardly</HI> as that <HI>he</HI> &s;hould contribute to the <HI>interlining</HI> any <HI>letter</HI> I write to <HI>you;</HI> or &s;hould &s;ugge&s;t to me what <HI>he,</HI> not <HI>I,</HI> think fit to be maintain'd. I wi&s;h your <HI>lucid intervall</HI> had been as long as your <HI>fit;</HI> For, then I per&s;wade my &s;elf you would never have &s;u&s;pected that <HI>he</HI> did <HI>over|look</HI> my <HI>letter,</HI> or <HI>advi&s;ed me to contend</HI> for the <HI>lawfulne&s;s</HI> of <HI>Pre|lacy,</HI> becau&s;e he was <HI>pre&s;ent at the &s;ad debate at Vxbridge.</HI></P>
<P>What you mean when you &s;ay, <HI>That if the learned Doctor hath any thing to object again&s;t you, He knows your mind, and</HI> (being none of the <HI>new Doctors,</HI> who you pre&s;ume are <HI>Infants</HI>) <HI>is able to &s;peak for Him&s;elf,</HI> I cannot po&s;&s;ibly divine: unle&s;s by this <HI>Oraculous Ex|pre&s;&s;ion,</HI> you would have him under&s;tand you ready to enter into a <HI>&s;econd conflict</HI> with him, and would put <HI>me</HI> to the <HI>mean imployment</HI> to convey your <HI>challenge.</HI> Sir, if I know that Doctor well, you had be&s;t content your &s;elf with <HI>me,</HI> who am a more <HI>poeticall adver&s;ary;</HI> &amp; who&s;e <HI>weapons,</HI> you know, when they <HI>&s;trike</HI> mo&s;t, being &s;heath'd in
<PB N="29" REF="16"><HI>Ro&s;es,</HI> ought to be <HI>terrible</HI> to <HI>none</HI> but <HI>&s;uch,</HI> who&s;e <HI>buying</HI> &amp; <HI>&s;elling Con&s;ciences</HI> (like the <HI>money-changers</HI> in the <HI>Go&s;pel</HI>) wil drive them out of the <HI>Temple</HI> at the &s;ight of a <HI>whip</HI> made of <HI>&s;traws</HI> and <HI>ru&s;hes.</HI> Ne|verthele&s;s, Sir, if you be &s;o <HI>fruitfully quarrel&s;ome,</HI> that you think your <HI>lei&s;ure</HI> will &s;erve you to hold combate with us <HI>both,</HI> let me de&s;ire you to hold this Opinion of <HI>us,</HI> that as I &s;hal at no time <HI>recruit</HI> my &s;elf fro~ <HI>him</HI> as an <HI>Oratour,</HI> &s;o <HI>he</HI> is too good a <HI>&s;chollar</HI> to need my <HI>a&s;&s;i&s;tance</HI> as a <HI>Poet.</HI> This word <HI>Poet,</HI> I do ob&s;erve, through the whole <HI>phrenzy</HI> of your <HI>letter,</HI> you &s;trive to make u&s;e of in a <HI>di&s;graceful &s;en&s;e;</HI> And object it to me as a <HI>Reproach</HI> that the <HI>Mu&s;es</HI> are my <HI>Friends.</HI> In one place you call me a <HI>Cretian Prophet,</HI> That is, (according to your <HI>Com|ment</HI>) a <HI>Poet;</HI> In another place you tell me, that <HI>onely the few places of &s;cripture which I have mi&s;applied in my Sermon, can pre&s;erve it from pa&s;&s;ing among the penny-merchandizes of tho&s;e that &s;el Ballads.</HI> In your <HI>next paragraph,</HI> (where you challenge me to <HI>di&s;pute</HI> with you in <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> at S^t. <HI>Maries,</HI> as <HI>Mr Erbury</HI> did) one of your <HI>Arguments</HI> to move me to that <HI>frantick enterprize</HI> is, becau&s;e I am an <HI>Engli&s;h Poet,</HI> and <HI>have been not only addicted to Playes, but have &s;huffled my Mother-tongue Ver&s;es, with other Ver&s;es publi&s;ht in more learned languages, in the &s;ame Book Printed by the &V;niver&s;ity-Printer.</HI> Fir&s;t, &s;ir, though the <HI>ungentlene&s;s</HI> of your <HI>&s;tile,</HI> and <HI>Expre&s;&s;ions,</HI> do &s;ufficiently te&s;tifie that neither the <HI>Mu&s;es,</HI> nor <HI>Graces a&s;&s;i&s;ted</HI> at your <HI>Birth,</HI> yet I hope you are not &s;uch an enemy to <HI>numbers,</HI> to think <HI>poe|try Super&s;titious,</HI> and therefore to be turn'd with <HI>Imagery</HI> out of the <HI>Church.</HI> If you do, you will compell me to call <HI>Nazianzen</HI> in to my <HI>Ayde;</HI> who, be&s;ides his writing of a <HI>Play</HI> (if <HI>Era&s;mus</HI> have not mi&s;|numbred them) hath written thirty thou&s;and <HI>Heroick, Jambick, Hen|deca&s;yllable, Elegiack,</HI> and other <HI>ver&s;es. Tertullian,</HI> Sir, you know hath confuted <HI>Marcion</HI> in <HI>Ver&s;e;</HI> and <HI>Syne&s;ius</HI> thought it as great a glory to be called a <HI>good Poet,</HI> as <HI>&s;ome</HI> who wrote in <HI>pro&s;e</HI> did to be called <HI>fathers of the Church.</HI> I wil not repeat a <HI>peece</HI> of <HI>Pro&s;per</HI> to you nor tel you what S. <HI>Au&s;tin</HI> hath &s;aid in the praif of <HI>Virgil.</HI> To be a <HI>Cre|tian Prophet,</HI> that is in <HI>your</HI> &s;en&s;e, a <HI>lying Poet,</HI> but in al theirs who un|der&s;tand the <HI>fir&s;t C. of Titus,</HI> an <HI>Evil Bea&s;t,</HI> and a <HI>falfe Prophet</HI>) Is I confe&s;&s;e a crime. But then, &s;ir, as one excellently &s;ayes in his <HI>Defence of Poe&s;ie,</HI> This is a kind of <HI>Poetry</HI> which belongs to <HI>tho&s;e</HI> who <HI>lye in pro&s;e</HI> as wel as <HI>tho&s;e</HI> who <HI>fain in Ver&s;e.</HI> For <HI>Pliny,</HI> when he &s;peaks of <HI>men</HI> with <HI>one foot,</HI> who&s;e <HI>breadth</HI> interpo&s;ed between them and the <HI>&s;un,</HI> &s;hades their <HI>whole body,</HI> to be as great a <HI>poet</HI> as <HI>Ovid,</HI> when he &s;peaks of
<PB N="30" REF="17">a <HI>Virgin</HI> transformed into a <HI>Laurell,</HI> &s;o, Sir, when <HI>you,</HI> (contrary to the direct <HI>minde,</HI> and <HI>Expre&s;&s;ions</HI> of my <HI>Sermon</HI>) <HI>fain</HI> that to be &s;poken of the <HI>Parliament,</HI> which is onely &s;poken again&s;t <HI>Fal&s;e Prophets.</HI> you are a far <HI>greater Poet</HI> then I have yet &s;hewn my &s;elf either upon the <HI>Stage</HI> at <HI>Black-Fryers,</HI> or in any <HI>&V;niver&s;ity Book</HI> here in <HI>Oxford.</HI> Next, &s;ir, I was never &s;o addicted to <HI>Engli&s;h Poe|try,</HI> but that in the &s;ame <HI>&V;niver&s;ity Book</HI> I had <HI>Latine Ver&s;es</HI> too; And the Rea&s;on why I wrote in <HI>both Languages</HI> was, becau&s;e I was prompted to it by my <HI>Obedience</HI> to their <HI>Commands,</HI> who had <HI>Au|thority</HI> over me, and thought <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> the <HI>fitter Language</HI> for that <HI>part</HI> of the <HI>Court,</HI> who&s;e <HI>Sex</HI> doth make it a <HI>Soleci&s;m</HI> to be writ|ten to in <HI>Latine.</HI></P>
<P>La&s;tly, Sir, As for your Arguments to give you one of Mr <HI>Yerbury's Meetings,</HI> at Saint <HI>Maries;</HI> I. <HI>Becau&s;e my Sermon Preacht there is Engli&s;h,</HI> next, <HI>becau&s;e you conceive that to be the readie&s;t cour&s;e to undeceive the people who under&s;tand not Latine;</HI> thirdly, <HI>becau&s;e I am an Engli&s;h Poet;</HI> if you think I have not &s;ufficiently an&s;wered them in my <HI>two former letters</HI> to you, I de&s;ire you once more to con|&s;ider, if I &s;hould have con&s;ented to that cour&s;e, whither <HI>you,</HI> as well as <HI>I,</HI> in the opinion of <HI>di&s;creet men,</HI> might not have indangered our &s;elves to have that <HI>half ver&s;e</HI> in <HI>Horace</HI> applyed to us, <HI>Aut in&s;anit Home, aut ver&s;us facit,</HI> That either we are <HI>both mad,</HI> or <HI>both Poets,</HI></P>
<P>The way to avoyd &s;uch an Imputation, in a <HI>Time</HI> of liberty, where every body may &s;ay what they li&s;t, is for us to &s;tand con&s;tantly to the more <HI>Academicall Propo&s;ition</HI> I made you; which was, to meet at <HI>Latine Weapons in the Divinity School.</HI> Where; &s;ir, not <HI>agreeing</HI> upon the <HI>true &s;tate of the Que&s;tions before hand,</HI> (For if we <HI>agree before hand,</HI> nothing will be left us to di&s;pute) if you plea&s;e, the <HI>Que&s;tion</HI> &s;hall be <HI>that</HI> which concludes your <HI>Letter;</HI> That is, <HI>Pre|lacy,</HI> which, how far 'tis, or 'tis not to be defended to be <HI>Jure divino</HI> &s;hall then appear. In the mean time, &s;ir, as I can by no means allow that <HI>victory,</HI> and <HI>Succe&s;s,</HI> are alwayes the <HI>true &s;ignes</HI> of a <HI>Right cau&s;e,</HI> (Becau&s;e, <HI>The Lord of Ho&s;ts, who,</HI> you &s;ay, <HI>hath broken all our forces,</HI> is &s;ometimes fal&s;ely thought to <HI>a&s;&s;i&s;t,</HI> when in truth he doth only <HI>permit</HI>) &s;o, Sir when you write next to me, let me reque&s;t you to keep your <HI>promi&s;e;</HI> which is, to deal with me <HI>rationally</HI> for the <HI>Matter,</HI> and <HI>Spiritually,</HI> that is, like a <HI>Divine</HI> for the <HI>language</HI> and <HI>forme.</HI> Otherwi&s;e, &s;ir, though I have long &s;ince learnt from the
<PB N="31" REF="17"><HI>be&s;t Ma&s;ter,</HI> that when I am <HI>reviled,</HI> I am not to <HI>revile againe,</HI> yet, in&s;tead of a <HI>Conference,</HI> meeting with nothing but <HI>Invectives,</HI> 'tis po&s;&s;ible you may &s;o farre provoke me from my <HI>mild temper,</HI> that the <HI>Philo&s;ophers</HI> expre&s;&s;ion in <HI>Lucians Nigrinus</HI> may be veri|fied upon me; <GAP DESC="foreign">. The <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> of it will endure the <HI>publick te&s;t;</HI> to which if you will be plea&s;ed to <HI>&s;ubmit</HI> your <HI>Letters</HI> with the &s;ame rea|dine&s;s that I am content to <HI>&s;ubmit mine,</HI> I doubt not but the world will judge, that as you have not yet <HI>confuted,</HI> &s;o you have very unchri&s;tianly <HI>injured</HI></P>
<CLOSER><DATELINE><HI>From my Chamber,</HI><DATE>Jan. 23. 1646.</DATE></DATELINE>
<SIGNED><HI>The</HI> Author <HI>of the</HI> Sermon <HI>again&s;t</HI> Fal&s;e Prophets, J. MAYNE.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
</LETTER>
<P>To this <HI>An&s;wer</HI> (in which the <HI>Reader</HI> may &s;ee, I have not much digre&s;t from the <HI>copy</HI> which was before me, but have proportio|ned my <HI>Defence</HI> to every con&s;iderable <HI>particular</HI> of M. <HI>Cheynels</HI> Charge) at the <HI>end</HI> of &s;ix dayes was return'd this <HI>Reply.</HI></P>
<LETTER LANG="eng">
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>If I had not an&s;wered you according to your <HI>folly,</HI> you would have been <HI>wife</HI> in your <HI>owne conceit;</HI> but if I &s;hould againe an&s;wer you according to <HI>your folly,</HI> I feare I &s;hould become too <HI>like</HI> unto you, <HI>Prov.</HI> 26.4, 5. I told you that I did <HI>let loo&s;e my pen,</HI> that you might &s;ee how <HI>ea&s;ie</HI> it is to an&s;wer you with a <HI>running pen,</HI> nay a <HI>running negligence</HI> in the le&s;s <HI>&s;erious part</HI> of the day; I did <HI>let fly</HI> &s;o many <HI>quibbles</HI> that you might &s;mell the <HI>&s;tench</HI> of your owne <HI>elaborate folly;</HI> glad I am that you have <HI>cen&s;ured</HI> me for <HI>imitating</HI> of you, I hope you will now be at lei&s;ure to <HI>cen&s;ure</HI> your <HI>&s;elfe,</HI> for <HI>&s;etting</HI> me &s;o <HI>foule</HI> a <HI>copy;</HI> doe but read over your <HI>owne Sermons</HI> and <HI>Letters,</HI> and &s;uppo&s;e they were <HI>mine,</HI> and then &s;eriou&s;ly and impartially pa&s;s your &s;entence on them, and I dare &s;ay you will be a gainer by this <HI>conflict.</HI></P>
<P>I am very much plea&s;ed with your faire conde&s;cen&s;ion to have all things in controver&s;ie <HI>rationally</HI> and <HI>&s;piritually examined.</HI></P>
<P N="1">1. Sir, you did as I conceive preach in defence of <HI>all images</HI> &s;et up in any <HI>Chappell</HI> in the <HI>&V;niver&s;ity;</HI> you know there are divers <HI>Images</HI> of &s;ome <HI>per&s;ons</HI> in the <HI>glorious Trinity</HI> &s;et up in &s;ome
<PB N="32" REF="18"><HI>Chappels</HI> within this <HI>&V;niver&s;ity:</HI> You mu&s;t then acknowledge <HI>all Images</HI> of that <HI>&s;ort</HI> ought to be <HI>taken downe.</HI></P>
<P><NOTE PLACE="marg">Imago nos tan|tism<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">t memori|ale excitat uti Je&s;uitae pa&s;&s;im. Dico non e&s;&s;e tam certum in Eccle&s;i&acirc; an &s;int faciendae ima|genes Dei, &s;ive Trin<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">tatis, q<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&acirc; Ch<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">&s;ti &amp; &s;an|cto is hoc <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">nim ad &s;idem <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">erti|n<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">t, tilud e<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">t in opi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">one. <HI>B<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">lla. deim g l. 2 c. 8</HI> J<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">animata &s;p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">|ritualem quan|dam virt<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">em excon&s;ecratione adipi&s;cuntu<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">, &amp;c. <HI>Tho. p. 3. q. 83. art 3.</HI> Deum imagini|bus inhabitant&egrave; colunt, Deum cut<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">m virtu<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">e <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;tam &s;p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters">tua<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters"> ret<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">he<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">e al|quando &s;ive <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">be e&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">n<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">m. Ca&s;etanus hac in re<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">nc Genti|libus quidem &s;anientio<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> ha|b<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">tur.</NOTE> You are not per&s;waded by any <HI>Scriptures</HI> which I have cited, but <HI>nature hath taught you</HI> (&s;o pure is your <HI>nature</HI>) <HI>that it is a breach of the &s;econd Commandement to draw a picture of God:</HI> (re|vi&s;e that <HI>fancy</HI>) the <HI>Schoolmen</HI> whom you prefer before the <HI>te&s;ti|monies</HI> cited out of the <HI>Word,</HI> have taught you that it is not onely <HI>&s;infull,</HI> but <HI>impo&s;sible</HI> to draw any <HI>picture</HI> of <HI>God.</HI> But, be plea&s;ed to con&s;ider that the <HI>Scriptures</HI> are a <HI>perfect</HI> (nay indeed the <HI>onely All-&s;ufficient perfect</HI>) <HI>Rule,</HI> &amp; therefore you need not goe about to patch up the <HI>rule</HI> with the <HI>low generall dictates of nature</HI> &amp; <HI>School-men,</HI> you may &s;tudy the <HI>L<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">llian Art.</HI> &amp; fill your <HI>braine</HI> with <HI>Sebund's fancyes,</HI> but my <HI>Schoole-men</HI> (as you call them) are the <HI>be&s;t Tutors,</HI> &amp; the <HI>be&s;t Schollars.</HI> If you prove that is is <HI>impo&s;sible</HI> to <HI>picture God,</HI> you doe not touch the <HI>point</HI> in <HI>Controver&s;ie,</HI> for <HI>vaine men</HI> will fancy and endeavour to doe, that which is <HI>impo&s;sible</HI> for to be done. Beleeve it Sir, <HI>they</HI> who had con&s;ulted as many <HI>Mu&s;es,</HI> and courted as many <HI>Graces as you</HI> have done, and were able to <HI>demon&s;trate</HI> out of their <HI>Poets</HI> that we are <HI>Gods off-&s;pring,</HI> yet were not able without the help of <HI>divine Revelation</HI> to infer, from thence, that the <HI>Godhead is not like to Gold,</HI> as you may &s;ee it con|vincingly proved; <HI>Act</HI> 17.29. <HI>For as much then as we are the off-&s;pring of God, we ought not to thinke that the Godhead is like to Gold or Silver, or &s;tone graven by Art or mans device,</HI> I dare not there|fore make the <HI>Schoolmen</HI> my <HI>Judges</HI> in this <HI>weighty point,</HI> and I beleeve you cannot prove them to be <HI>Judges</HI> in <HI>any point</HI> which concernes the <HI>My&s;tery</HI> of <HI>faith</HI> or the <HI>power</HI> of <HI>godline&s;s,</HI> but enough of that.</P>
<P N="3">3. The word <HI>(thereupon)</HI> is &s;ometimes <HI>Illative,</HI> &s;ometimes <HI>Or|dinative,</HI> you are &s;ufficiently <HI>an&s;wered;</HI> but let me adde, that if no <HI>Image</HI> is like <HI>God,</HI> then &s;ure tho&s;e <HI>Images,</HI> which are not made to <HI>repre&s;ent God,</HI> and yet are by <HI>Idolatours</HI> turned into <HI>Idols,</HI> and wor&s;hipped as if they were <HI>divine,</HI> cannot rea&s;onably be <HI>de|fended.</HI> Sir, I mu&s;t gue&s;s at your <HI>meaning,</HI> becau&s;e I beleeve you have omitted two or three words (&s;uch is your <HI>running negli|gence</HI>) which &s;hould help to make your <HI>&s;ophi&s;ticall critici&s;me</HI> per|fect &s;en&s;e.</P>
<P>Truly Sir, if it be &s;o high a fault to <HI>picture God:</HI> I may ju&s;tly
<PB N="33" REF="18">wonder that any <HI>picture</HI> of a <HI>Saint</HI> turned into an <HI>Idoll</HI> &s;hould be retained and pleaded for by <HI>any man</HI> that pretends to be a <HI>Prote|&s;tant,</HI> and if it be <HI>impo&s;sible</HI> to <HI>picture God,</HI> it is al&s;o <HI>impo&s;sible</HI> to <HI>picture God-man.</HI> And I beleeve that you will acknowledge our <HI>Mediatour</HI> to be <GAP DESC="foreign">.</P>
<P N="4">4. That the <HI>Sun</HI> and <HI>Images</HI> cannot be put in the <HI>&s;cales</HI> of a <HI>compari&s;on</HI> in point of fitne&s;s to be <HI>pre&s;erved,</HI> is a truth written with a <HI>Sun-beame;</HI> Sir, I never dur&s;t argue from the <HI>abu&s;e</HI> of a thing again&s;t the <HI>u&s;e</HI> of it, if the thing be <HI>nece&s;&s;ary;</HI> But the <HI>Sun</HI> is <HI>nece&s;&s;ary,</HI> and <HI>Images</HI> are <HI>not nece&s;&s;ary, ergo</HI> there is no parity of rea&s;on between the termes of your <HI>compari&s;on.</HI></P>
<P N="5">5. It appeares to me by your <HI>&s;hifting fallacy,</HI> that you make <HI>Copes</HI> as <HI>nece&s;sary</HI> as <HI>clean Linnen.</HI></P>
<P N="6">6. You will never be able to prove, that all, that the <HI>prelates</HI> and their <HI>Faction</HI> have borrowed out of the <HI>Mi&s;&s;all, Ritualls, Breviary Pontificall</HI> of <HI>Rome</HI> are to be found in any <HI>Lyturgie</HI> re|ceived by the <HI>Primitive Church;</HI> And I would intreat you to con|&s;ider, whether <HI>they,</HI> who doe profe&s;s a &s;eperation from the <HI>Church</HI> of <HI>Rome,</HI> can in rea&s;on receive and imbrace &s;uch <HI>tra&s;h</HI> and <HI>trumpery.</HI> And yet though you would willingly be e&s;teemed a <HI>Prote&s;tant,</HI> I find you very unwilling to part with any thing which the <HI>Prelates</HI> have borrowed from the <HI>Court</HI> (rather the <HI>Church</HI>) of <HI>Rome.</HI></P>
<P N="7">7. Your next <HI>Paragraph</HI> doth concerne <HI>Tradition;</HI> I &s;hall give you leave to preferre the <HI>con&s;tant and univer&s;all con&s;ent of the Church of Chri&s;t in all ages, before the rea&s;on of any &s;ingle man;</HI> but Sir, you doe very ill to call the <HI>te&s;timony</HI> of the <HI>&s;pirit &s;peaking</HI> in the <HI>word</HI> to the <HI>Con&s;cience</HI> of <HI>private men,</HI> a <HI>private &s;pirit;</HI> I thinke you are more <HI>profane</HI> in the &s;tating of this <HI>point</HI> then <HI>Bellarmine him&s;elfe.</HI></P>
<P N="8">8. You have not yet proved that any <HI>Prelate</HI> can challenge the <HI>Sole power of Ordination</HI> and <HI>Jurisdiction Jure divino.</HI></P>
<P N="9">9. I &s;hould be glad to know for how many yeares you will ju&s;tifie the <HI>purity</HI> of the <HI>Doctrine, Di&s;cipline</HI> and <HI>Government</HI> in <HI>England.</HI> I beleeve the <HI>Doctrine, Di&s;cipline</HI> and <HI>Government</HI> of the <HI>Prelaticall faction</HI> whom you call the <HI>Church,</HI> was not <HI>excel|lent,</HI> if you reckon from 1630. to 1640. and that is <HI>time enough</HI> for men of <HI>our time</HI> for to examine. I beleeve that you will ac|knowledge
<PB N="34" REF="19">that the <HI>Prelates</HI> did lay an <HI>O&s;traci&s;me</HI> upon <HI>tho&s;e</HI> who did <HI>oppo&s;e them;</HI> who were in the right both in the point of <HI>Doctrine</HI> and <HI>Di&s;cipline,</HI> we &s;hall in due time di&s;pute. Though <HI>Prelacy it &s;elfe</HI> be an <HI>u&s;urpation,</HI> yet there were many other <HI>en|croachments</HI> which may ju&s;tly be called <HI>Prelaticall u&s;urpations,</HI> and the <HI>Parliament</HI> hath &s;ufficiently declared its <HI>judgement</HI> in this <HI>point,</HI> they have clearly <HI>proved</HI> that <HI>Prelacy</HI> had taken &s;uch a <HI>deepe root</HI> in <HI>England,</HI> and had &s;uch a <HI>de&s;tructive influence,</HI> not only into the <HI>pernicious evills</HI> of the <HI>Church,</HI> but <HI>Civill State,</HI> that the <HI>Law</HI> of <HI>right rea&s;on</HI> (even <HI>Salus populi quae &s;uprema lex e&s;t</HI>) did command and compell them to take away both <HI>roote and branch;</HI> you may di&s;pute that <HI>point</HI> with <HI>them;</HI> Sir, you cannot prove that <HI>Prelacy is an Order of the Church, as ancient as the Chri&s;tian Church it &s;elf, and made venerable by the never interrupted reception of it in all Ages of the Church but ours.</HI></P>
<P N="10">10. I am no <HI>Turki&s;h Prophet,</HI> I never <HI>preacht</HI> any <HI>piece</HI> of the <HI>Alchoran</HI> for <HI>good Doctrine,</HI> much le&s;s did I ever make it a <HI>piece</HI> of the <HI>Go&s;pell;</HI> all that I &s;ay is this, that <HI>Chri&s;tians incorporated</HI> in a <HI>Civill State</HI> may make u&s;e of <HI>Civill</HI> and <HI>naturall means</HI> for their outward <HI>&s;afety.</HI> And that the <HI>Parliament</HI> hath a <HI>Legall power</HI> more then <HI>&s;ufficient</HI> to prevent and re&s;train <HI>Tyranny.</HI> Finally, the <HI>Parliament</HI> hath power to defend that <HI>Civill right</HI> which we have to exerci&s;e the <HI>true Prote&s;tant Religion,</HI> this la&s;t point is &s;ure of highe&s;t con&s;equence becau&s;e it concernes <HI>Gods</HI> immediate <HI>honour,</HI> and the <HI>Peoples temporall</HI> and <HI>eternall</HI> good. Pray Sir, &s;hew me if you can, why, he who &s;aith the <HI>Prote&s;tants</HI> in <HI>Ireland</HI> may de|fend their <HI>Civill right</HI> for the free exerci&s;e of their <HI>Religion,</HI> again&s;t the <HI>furious a&s;&s;aults</HI> of the <HI>bloudie Rebells,</HI> doth by that a&s;|&s;ertion proclaime him&s;elf a <HI>Turke,</HI> and <HI>Deni&s;on the Alchoran;</HI> you talke of the <HI>Papi&s;ts Religion,</HI> Sir, their <HI>faith is faction,</HI> their <HI>Religion</HI> is <HI>Rebellion,</HI> they think they are obliged in con&s;cience, to put <HI>Heretiques</HI> to the &s;word, this <HI>Religion</HI> is <HI>de&s;tructive</HI> to every <HI>Civill State</HI> into which true <HI>Prote&s;tants</HI> are <HI>incorporated,</HI> &amp; there|fore I cannot but wonder at your extravagancy in this <HI>point.</HI> Sir, Who was it that would have impo&s;ed a <HI>Popi&s;h Service Book</HI> upon <HI>Scotland</HI> by <HI>force</HI> of <HI>Armes?</HI> You pre&s;ume that I conceive the <HI>King</HI> had an intent to <HI>extirpate</HI> the <HI>Prote&s;tant Religion;</HI> Sir, I am &s;ure that <HI>they</HI> who did <HI>&s;educe</HI> or <HI>over-awe</HI> the <HI>King,</HI> had &s;uch a
<PB N="35" REF="19"><HI>de&s;igne.</HI> I doe not beleeve that the <HI>Queene</HI> and her <HI>Agents</HI> (the <HI>Papi&s;ts</HI> in <HI>England</HI> who were certainly <HI>confederate</HI> with the <HI>Iri&s;h Rebells</HI>) had any intent to <HI>&s;ettle</HI> the true <HI>Prote&s;tant Religion;</HI> &amp; you cannot but beleeve that their intent was, to <HI>extirpate</HI> the <HI>Prote|&s;tant Religion</HI> by the <HI>&s;word,</HI> and to plant <HI>Popery</HI> inits &s;tead; I know <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> doth make <HI>pro&s;e<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ites,</HI> and breake the <HI>&s;pirituall power</HI> of <HI>Antichri&s;t,</HI> by his <HI>word</HI> and <HI>&s;pirit,</HI> for <HI>Antichri&s;t</HI> is ca&s;t out of the hearts and con&s;ciences of men by the <HI>&s;pirit</HI> of the <HI>Lord Je&s;us;</HI> but <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> is <HI>King</HI> of <HI>Nations</HI> as well as <HI>King</HI> of <HI>Saints,</HI> and will breake the <HI>temporall power</HI> of <HI>Antichri&s;t</HI> by <HI>Civill</HI> and <HI>naturall meanes.</HI> If <HI>Papi&s;ts</HI> and <HI>Delinquents</HI> are in readine&s;s to <HI>re&s;i&s;t</HI> or <HI>a&s;&s;ault</HI> the <HI>Parliament</HI> by <HI>Armes,</HI> how can the <HI>Parliament</HI> be de|fended or <HI>Delinquents</HI> puni&s;hed but by force of <HI>Armes?</HI> I know men mu&s;t be <HI>converted</HI> by a <HI>&s;pirituall per&s;wa&s;ion,</HI> but they may be <HI>terrified</HI> by force of <HI>Armes</HI> from per&s;ecution. All that I &s;ay, is, the <HI>Parliament</HI> may repell <HI>force</HI> with <HI>force,</HI> and if men were a|fraid to profe&s;s the <HI>truth</HI> becau&s;e of the <HI>Queenes Army.</HI> and are now as fearfull to maintaine <HI>errours</HI> for feare of the <HI>Parliament,</HI> the &s;cales are even, and we may (by &s;tudy, conference, di&s;putati|on, and prayer for a ble&s;sing upon all) be <HI>convinced,</HI> and <HI>convert|ed</HI> by the <HI>undenyable demon&s;trations of the Spirit;</HI> Sir, this is my <HI>per&s;wa&s;ion,</HI> and therefore I am &s;ure far from that <HI>Mahumetan per|&s;wa&s;ion</HI> of which I am unju&s;tly accu&s;ed.</P>
<P N="11">11. I am glad that you &s;peake out, and give light to your <HI>darke roome;</HI> I did not accu&s;e you of <HI>Convenicles.</HI> I beleeve you <HI>hate</HI> tho&s;e <HI>Chri&s;tian meetings</HI> which <HI>Tertullian</HI> &amp; <HI>Minutius, Pliny</HI> and <HI>others</HI> &s;peake of; we had <HI>lights</HI> and <HI>witne&s;&s;es</HI> good &s;tore at our <HI>meetings.</HI> And as for your conceit, that I de&s;erve to be in <HI>Bedlam,</HI> becau&s;e of the <HI>predominancy of my pride and pa&s;sion, and the irregularity of my will;</HI> Sir, I confe&s;s that I de&s;erve to be in <HI>Hell,</HI> a wor&s;e place then <HI>Bedlam;</HI> and if you &s;coffe at me for this acknowledgement, I &s;hall &s;ay as <HI>Augu&s;tine</HI> did, <HI>Irrideant me arro|gantes, &amp; nondum &s;alubrit&egrave;r pro&s;trati, &amp; eli&s;i &agrave; te Deus meus, ega tamen confiteor dedecora mea in laude tua.</HI> Sir, be not too <HI>confident</HI> of the <HI>&s;trength</HI> of your <HI>wit,</HI> make a <HI>good u&s;e</HI> of it, or el&s;e you may quickly come to have as <HI>litle wit</HI> as you conceive, <HI>God</HI> hath be|&s;towed on <HI>me.</HI> 1. Doe you beleeve that your <HI>nature</HI> is <HI>corrupt?</HI> 2. And doth not a <HI>wanton wit</HI> make the <HI>heart effeminate?</HI> 3. Did
<PB N="36" REF="20">you never <HI>conver&s;e</HI> with any woman of <HI>light behaviour?</HI> rub up your <HI>memory.</HI> 4. <HI>Super&s;titious per&s;ons</HI> are u&s;ually <HI>la&s;civious,</HI> I could tell you more, but I &s;pare you. 5. Are you more <HI>tempe|rate</HI> then the <HI>Di&s;ciples</HI> to whom <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> gave that <HI>caveat, Luk.</HI> 21.34? you may then apply your &s;elfe to <HI>Prayer and Fa&s;ting;</HI> doe not &s;ay that this is a <HI>filthy Caveat,</HI> but beware of that <HI>filthy &s;inne,</HI> and acknowledge that the <HI>Caveat</HI> is given you, upon &s;ad <HI>con|&s;iderations.</HI></P>
<P N="12">12. You tell me that <HI>God</HI> is not &s;o <HI>fatally tyed to the Spindle of an ab&s;olute Reprobation,</HI> but that upon your <HI>Repentance</HI> he will <HI>&s;eale your Pardon.</HI> Sir, <HI>Reprobatio e&s;t tremendum My&s;terium;</HI> how dare you <HI>je&s;t</HI> upon &s;uch a <HI>Subject,</HI> at the thought of which each <HI>Chri&s;ti|an trembles?</HI> Can any man <HI>repent,</HI> that is given up to a <HI>reprobate mind,</HI> and an <HI>impenitent heart?</HI> And is not every man <HI>finally impe|nitent,</HI> &s;ave tho&s;e <HI>few</HI> to whom <HI>God</HI> gives <HI>repentance, freely, po|werfully, effectually?</HI> See what it is for a man to come from <HI>Ben. John&s;on,</HI> or <HI>Lucian,</HI> to treat immediately of the <HI><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">igh</HI> and <HI>&s;tupendi|dious my&s;teries</HI> of <HI>Religion;</HI> the <HI>Lord God</HI> pardon this wicked thought of your <HI>heart,</HI> that you may not peri&s;h in the <HI>bond of ini|quity</HI> and <HI>gall of bitterne&s;s;</HI> be plea&s;ed to &s;tudy the 9. <HI>Chapter to the Romanes.</HI></P>
<P>You &s;ay if we <HI>agree</HI> upon the <HI>true &s;tate</HI> of the <HI>Que&s;tions before hand, nothing will be left us to di&s;pute.</HI> Sir, it is 1. one thing to <HI>&s;tate</HI> a <HI>que&s;tion</HI> for debate, &s;o that <HI>you</HI> may undertake the <HI>affirmative,</HI> I the <HI>Negative,</HI> or <HI>&egrave; contrat:</HI> 2. another thing to <HI>&s;tate</HI> a <HI>que&s;tion</HI> in a <HI>&s;uppo&s;ition</HI> as the <HI>Re&s;pondent</HI> u&s;ually doth, and a third bu&s;ine&s;s to <HI>&s;tate</HI> a <HI>que&s;tion</HI> after the debate in a prudent and convincing <HI>de|termination,</HI> as the <HI>Moderatour</HI> &s;hould doe; I &s;peake of <HI>agreeing</HI> upon the <HI>&s;tate</HI> of the <HI>que&s;tion</HI> in the fir&s;t &s;en&s;e, that the <HI>Que&s;tion</HI> may be propounded in &s;uch <HI>termes</HI> as doe &s;o farre <HI>&s;tate</HI> the <HI>point</HI> in <HI>Controver&s;ie,</HI> that <HI>you</HI> and I may know which <HI>port</HI> to take, the <HI>Affirmative</HI> or <HI>Negative.</HI></P>
<P><HI>The</HI> que&s;tions <HI>as I conceive are the&s;e that follow.</HI></P>
<LIST>
<ITEM>1. Whether all that our <HI>Prelates</HI> have <HI>borrowed</HI> of the <HI>Church</HI> of <HI>Rome,</HI> and <HI>impo&s;ed</HI> upon the <HI>people,</HI> ought to be &s;till <HI>retained</HI> in the <HI>Church</HI> of <HI>England?</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>2. Whether the <HI>Images</HI> of our <HI>Mediatour,</HI> and the <HI>Saints</HI> are
<PB N="37" REF="20"><HI>u&s;efull Ornaments</HI> in <HI>Prote&s;tant Churches?</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>3. Whether any <HI>Prelate</HI> be <HI>endued</HI> with the <HI>power</HI> of <HI>&s;ole Or|dination</HI> and <HI>Juri&s;diction Jure divine?</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>4. Whether <HI>they</HI> who <HI>defend</HI> the <HI>Prote&s;tants of Ireland</HI> again&s;t the <HI>Rebells</HI> by <HI>force</HI> of <HI>Armes,</HI> are therefore to be <HI>e&s;teemed Ma|humetans?</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>5. Whether <HI>that faith</HI> which is <HI>grounded</HI> only upon <HI>Tradition,</HI> ought to be <HI>e&s;teemed</HI> a <HI>Divine faith?</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>6. Whether the <HI>&s;pirit &s;peaking in the word to the con&s;cience of private men</HI> ought to be <HI>e&s;teemed</HI> a <HI>private Spirit?</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>7. Whether any <HI>Reprobate</HI> can ever be <HI>converted</HI> or <HI>&s;aved?</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>8. Whether the <HI>Papi&s;ts</HI> of <HI>England,</HI> &amp; <HI>Rebells</HI> of <HI>Ireland</HI> with their <HI>Confederates</HI> did endeavour to <HI>extirpate</HI> the <HI>Prote&s;tant Religi|on</HI> and plant <HI>Popery</HI> in its &s;tead?</ITEM>
<ITEM>9. Whether <HI>they</HI> who endeavoured to <HI>impo&s;e</HI> a <HI>Popi&s;h Service-Booke</HI> upon <HI>Scotland</HI> by <HI>force</HI> of <HI>Armes,</HI> were of the <HI>Mahumetan per&s;wa&s;ion?</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>10. Whether the <HI>School-men</HI> are <HI>Competent judges</HI> in any <HI>point</HI> which concernes the <HI>My&s;terie</HI> of <HI>Faith</HI> or <HI>Power</HI> of <HI>God|line&s;s?</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>11. Whether the <HI>Nationall Covenant contradict</HI> it &s;elfe?</ITEM>
</LIST>
<P>Sir, if you plea&s;e to an&s;wer upon the <HI>three fir&s;t que&s;tions</HI> in the <HI>Schools,</HI> and <HI>hold</HI> them as you &s;eem to <HI>hold</HI> them <HI>all Affirma|tively,</HI> I &s;hall endeavour to <HI>prove</HI> the <HI>Negative.</HI></P>
<P>To all your <HI>&s;coffes</HI> and <HI>abu&s;es</HI> I have nothing to reply; if <HI>God</HI> bids you <HI>revile</HI> or <HI>cur&s;e</HI> me, I &s;hall &s;ubmit to <HI>God;</HI> you call me <HI>Fool, Bedlam, Turke, Dog, Devill,</HI> becau&s;e I give you <HI>&s;ea&s;onable</HI> advice: Sure Sir, <HI>Nazianzen, Pro&s;per,</HI> &amp;c. were not guilty of &s;uch <HI>Poetry,</HI> nor did <HI>Prudentius</HI> teach you any &s;uch <HI>&s;treines.</HI></P>
<P>I did very hone&s;tly forewarn you of a <HI>vi&s;itation;</HI> it is I thinke proper enough to enquire into <HI>matters</HI> of <HI>fact</HI> at a <HI>vi&s;itation.</HI> Now whether <HI>Copes</HI> have been put to a <HI>&s;uper&s;titious u&s;e</HI> is not a que&s;ti|on to be determined by <HI>any</HI> but <HI>In-Artificiall Arguments,</HI> I mean by <HI>&s;ufficient witne&s;&s;es.</HI> To that which you Prophe&s;ie of, that I am like to be a <HI>Vi&s;itor;</HI> I an&s;wer 1. I thinke you have litle ground for &s;uch a <HI>Prophecy:</HI> I call it a <HI>Prophecy,</HI> for I am &s;ure the <HI>Hou&s;es</HI> of <HI>Parliament</HI> have not yet named any <HI>Vi&s;itor.</HI> 2. You talke much of the <HI>wi&s;edome</HI> of the <HI>High Court of Parliament;</HI> and can you
<PB N="38" REF="21">imagine that &s;o <HI>wi&s;e</HI> a <HI>Court</HI> or (as you terme it) <HI>Councell</HI> will make choice of a <HI>Bedlam,</HI> a <HI>Turke, Dog,</HI> &amp;c. to <HI>vi&s;it</HI> &s;o many <HI>pru|dent</HI> and <HI>learned Doctors?</HI></P>
<P>Sir, you &s;ay you are not <HI>&s;atisfied</HI> with <HI>my Arguments,</HI> you might have con&s;ider'd that I doe re&s;erve <HI>my arguments</HI> till we meete at <HI>Schooles,</HI> our worke for the <HI>pre&s;ent</HI> is to draw up the <HI>Points</HI> in <HI>Controver&s;ie</HI> into <HI>formall que&s;tions;</HI> I have you &s;ee <HI>for|med</HI> &s;ome <HI>que&s;tions,</HI> if you plea&s;e to adde <HI>more,</HI> you may, I &s;hall be ready to give you the be&s;t <HI>&s;atisfaction</HI> I can, after <HI>the&s;e</HI> are <HI>di&s;|cu&s;&s;ed,</HI> if I be not called away to &s;ome <HI>better imployment</HI> by <HI>tho&s;e</HI> who have power to <HI>di&s;po&s;e</HI> of</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED><HI>Your humble</HI> Monitor, FRAN: CHEYNELL.</SIGNED>
<POSTSCRIPT>
<P>An
<LIST>
<ITEM><HI>Omnia &egrave; Mi&s;&s;ali Breviario necnon Pontificali Romano &agrave; Pre|lat is no&s;tris decerpta, populo&abque; ob&s;tru&s;a in Eccle&s;iam recipi|enda &s;int?</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Chri&s;ti Sanctorum&abque; imagines Reformatorum Templis utili &s;int ornatui?</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Soli Praelato pote&s;tas Ordinationis nec non Juri&s;dictionis Jure divino competat?</HI></ITEM>
</LIST></P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED><HI>In hi&s;ce quae&s;tionibus animi tui &s;ententiam expectat</HI>
FRANCISCUS CHEYNELL.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
</POSTSCRIPT></CLOSER>
</LETTER>
<P>Having read over this <HI>Letter,</HI> I felt two <HI>contrary Affections</HI> move within my &s;elfe. Fir&s;t, I was <HI>&s;orry,</HI> that it began in that kinde of <HI>bitterne&s;s,</HI> which u&s;eth to have the &s;ame <HI>mi&s;chievous effect</HI> upon <HI>minds</HI> not addicted to <HI>quarrel, as blear eyes</HI> have upon other <HI>eyes more &s;ound.</HI> Which finde them&s;elves <HI>in&s;en&s;ibly infected</HI> by <HI>be|holding;</HI> And in the <HI>pre&s;ence</HI> of tho&s;e that are <HI>bleared</HI> unawares learne their <HI>imperfections,</HI> and become <HI>bleared</HI> too. Next, I was <HI>glad,</HI> that the <HI>Controver&s;ies</HI> betweene us, (which like the <HI>originall</HI> of <HI>mankinde,</HI> began in <HI>two,</HI> and in a &s;hort time had <HI>multiplyed</HI> them&s;elves pa&s;t <HI>number</HI>) were at length reduced to <HI>three latine que&s;tions,</HI> and tho&s;e to be di&s;puted in the <HI>Divinity School;</HI> where that part of <HI>Oxford,</HI> which under&s;tands no other <HI>Tongue,</HI> but that in which they dayly utter their <HI>commodities,</HI> if they had been <HI>pre&s;ent</HI> towards the making of a <HI>throng,</HI> had yet beene <HI>ab&s;ent</HI> to
<PB N="39" REF="21">the di&s;pute. Thus divided, therefore, between my <HI>provocations</HI> to <HI>An&s;wer</HI> the <HI>reproachfull Preface,</HI> and my <HI>Alacrity</HI> to <HI>comply</HI> with the <HI>Conclu&s;ion</HI> of the precedent <HI>Letter,</HI> I returned this <HI>following An&s;wer.</HI></P>
<LETTER LANG="eng">
<OPENER><SALUTE>Sir,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>When I had open'd the <HI>Letter</HI> you &s;ent me on <HI>Saturday night</HI> la&s;t, <HI>Jan.</HI> 30. and found by the fir&s;t period of it, that as your <HI>fir&s;t Letter</HI> &s;hew'd you a great <HI>Ma&s;ter</HI> in <HI>Detraction,</HI> &s;o in <HI>this</HI> you had learnt the <HI>Art</HI> to make the <HI>Scripture revile</HI> me too, and taught <HI>two</HI> of <HI>Solomons</HI><NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Pro. 26. 4, 5.</NOTE> <HI>Proverbs</HI> to call me <HI>Fool;</HI> Finding al&s;o in the next period how <HI>naturally</HI> and uncompelled <HI>ill language</HI> flows from you; who do here confe&s;s that you did <HI>let loo&s;e your pen</HI> that I might &s;ee, how ea&s;ily, and with what an <HI>unforc'd</HI> Dexterity, <HI>in the le&s;s &s;erious part of the Day,</HI> without <HI>premeditation,</HI> or the expence of Study, you could <HI>revile</HI> me; And withall, that you did <HI>let flye &s;o many quibbles</HI> (as the <HI>exerci&s;e of your Recreation,</HI> I pre&s;ume) to minde me of my more <HI>indu&s;trious Trifles,</HI> I mu&s;t confe&s;s I not onely look't upon you as a <HI>Per&s;on</HI> fit to <HI>&s;it</HI> in the<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">P&s;a. i. 1<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"></NOTE> <HI>Seat of the Scornfull,</HI> but as <HI>one</HI> very capable to be requited with a <HI>Proverb;</HI> which the &s;ame<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Pro. 26.18.19.</NOTE> <HI>Chapter</HI> which you <HI>quoted,</HI> pre&s;ented to me at the 18. &amp; 19. <HI>Ver&s;es;</HI> where 'tis &s;aid, <HI>That as a mad-man who ca&s;teth-firebrands, Arrows, and death, &s;o as the man that deceiveth his neighbour and &s;aith he is in &s;port.</HI></P>
<P>Sir, I &s;hould not have applyed this <HI>price</HI> of <HI>Scripture</HI> to you by way of <HI>Retaliation,</HI> (which may &s;eem to have &s;ome <HI>bitterne&s;s</HI> in it) had you not at the very <HI>thre&s;hold</HI> and fir&s;t <HI>unlocking</HI> of <HI>your Letter,</HI> verified this <HI>Proverb</HI> upon <HI>your &s;elf,</HI> by ca&s;ting <HI>firebrands</HI> and <HI>Arrows</HI> fir&s;t, and thereby <HI>deceiving me,</HI> who (upon your <HI>pro|mi&s;e</HI> that I &s;hould be <HI>&s;piritually dealt with,</HI> that is, as a <HI>Divine</HI> ingaged in a needle&s;s <HI>Controver&s;ie</HI> with a <HI>Divine</HI> ought to be) un|&s;uccesfully flattered my &s;elf, that for the <HI>future,</HI> though I could not expect much <HI>Rea&s;on</HI> or <HI>proof</HI> or <HI>Argument</HI> from you, yet you would certainly bind your &s;elf to the <HI>Laws</HI> of <HI>Sobriety,</HI> and <HI>good Language.</HI> How you have made good your <HI>promi&s;e,</HI> will appear to <HI>any,</HI> who (be&s;ides the <HI>reproachfull proverb</HI> with which you <HI>begin</HI> your <HI>Letter,</HI> and for which, a <HI>greater then Solomon</HI> hath &s;aid you &s;hall be in<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Mat. 5.22</NOTE> <HI>Danger of Hell-fire</HI>) &s;hall read the puddle of <HI>your letter</HI> which &s;treams from the fir&s;t <HI>foul Spring,</HI> and <HI>Head</HI> of it; where, having fir&s;t charged me in my <HI>writing</HI> to you with <HI>Elaborate Folly,</HI> you make it an <HI>Excu&s;e</HI> to the <HI>Dirt</HI> and <HI>mire</HI> of your <HI>pen,</HI> that I &s;et you the <HI>Copy,</HI> and was <HI>foul</HI> in my <HI>Expre&s;&s;ions fir&s;t.</HI></P>
<P>Sir, Though the &s;aying of <HI>Tacitus</HI> be one of the be&s;t <HI>confutations</HI> of
<PB N="40" REF="22"><HI>Detraction, Convitia &s;preta exole&s;cunt,</HI> and though I have alwaies thought that to enter <HI>combate</HI> with a <HI>Dunghill</HI> is the way to come off more <HI>defiled,</HI> yet finding my &s;elf <HI>engaged</HI> (like one of the <HI>poeticall Knights errant</HI>) with an Adver&s;ary that will not onely <HI>provoke</HI> me to <HI>fight,</HI> but, who&s; <HI>be&s;t weapon</HI> is to defile me out of the field, I &s;hal for once apply as good <HI>perfume</HI> to the <HI>&s;tench</HI> you &s;peak of, as can po&s;&s;ibly in &s;uch times make me walk the <HI>&s;treets</HI> in my <HI>own Oxford, uncondens'd</HI> not by <HI>you</HI> made <HI>foggy, Ayre;</HI> And &s;hall make it evident, fir&s;t to <HI>your &s;elf,</HI> next to the <HI>world,</HI> (if you will con&s;ent that what thus <HI>&s;ecretly</HI> pa&s;&s;eth between <HI>us</HI> &s;hall be made <HI>publike,</HI> and <HI>Printed</HI>) that you are not onely <HI>fallible</HI> in your mo&s;t &s;ad, and melancholy con&s;iderations, but in tho&s;e more <HI>plea&s;ant, mirthful chymes</HI> of <HI>quibbling,</HI> for which I before placed you in the <HI>Chaire.</HI></P>
<P>Fir&s;t, &s;ir, you bid me read over my <HI>two Sermons</HI> and the <HI>two letters</HI> which I have &s;ent you, <HI>as if they were yours, and then impartially tell you, whether I am not to pa&s;s &s;entence upon them as you do;</HI> That they are <HI>Diffoiles Nugae, Elaborate Follies.</HI></P>
<P>To which my Reply is; Fir&s;t, that there is &s;o much <HI>loyalty,</HI> and &s;o little <HI>&s;elf-intere&s;t</HI> in them, that my imagination can never be &s;trong enough to Suppo&s;e them to be <HI>yours,</HI> Next, That what <HI>Folly</HI> &s;oever betrayes it &s;elf in your <HI>expre&s;&s;ions,</HI> yet the <HI>matter</HI> is built upon &s;uch &s;ure <HI>rocks</HI> of the <HI>Scripture,</HI> that 'tis not all the <HI>waves</HI> or <HI>Tem|pe&s;t</HI> which you can rai&s;e again&s;t them, wil be able to reduce them to the <HI>fate</HI> of a <HI>Hou&s;e built upon the Sand.</HI> Thirdly, (&s;ince all <HI>Di&s;|putes,</HI> as wel as <HI>wit,</HI> are like a <HI>Re&s;t Kept up at Tennis,</HI> where <HI>good players</HI> do the <HI>be&s;t</HI> with the <HI>be&s;t Gam&s;ters</HI>) I do &s;adly promi&s;e you, that when ever you &s;hal either <HI>write</HI> or <HI>urge</HI> to me &s;uch <HI>Arguments</HI> of <HI>&s;erious Con&s;ideration,</HI> that I &s;hal not have rea&s;on to think <HI>St. Pauls</HI> &s;aying verified in thy <HI>Expre&s;&s;ions,</HI> that my <HI>Fooli&s;h things</HI> are &s;uffici|ent to <HI>confound,</HI> and <HI>bring to nought</HI> your <HI>wi&s;e;</HI> I wil lay a&s;ide the <HI>Folly</HI> you tax me withal. In the mean time, if you think my <HI>Letters</HI> to you <HI>By</HI> what <HI>Gla&s;s</HI> &s;oever my <HI>Sermons</HI> were made) are <HI>elaborate,</HI> pray compare the <HI>Dates,</HI> and <HI>Receipts</HI> of <HI>them,</HI> with the <HI>No-d<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">es,</HI> and uncertain <HI>Receipts</HI> of <HI>yours;</HI> And you wil find that the <HI>longe&s;t letter,</HI> I have yet written to you, was but the <HI>creature</HI> of <HI>two days,</HI> when your <HI>unelaborate an&s;wer</HI> to it back again was the <HI>Birth,</HI> and <HI>Travell</HI> of a whole week.</P>
<P>Having &s;aid this, Sir, by way of <HI>An&s;wer</HI> to your <HI>ungo&s;pel</HI>-like <HI>pre|face,</HI> I &s;hal next, (confining my &s;elf once more to your own <HI>method</HI>) addre&s;s my &s;elf to the <HI>examination</HI> of the re&s;t of your <HI>letter.</HI> A hard
<PB N="41" REF="22">task, I confe&s;s; It being &s;o much a <HI>Twinn-brother</HI> to your <HI>former&punc;</HI> where your <HI>eva&s;ions,</HI> and <HI>little e&s;capes</HI> are &s;o <HI>many,</HI> and your true &s;ub&s;tantiall, &s;olid <HI>di&s;proofes</HI> of any one thing which I have &s;ayd either in my <HI>Sermons</HI> or <HI>Letters,</HI> &s;o <HI>few,</HI> that, to deal freely with you, my <HI>Conflict</HI> with you hitherto hath been (and for ought I yet fore&s;ee is like to prove) like the <HI>Fight</HI> between <HI>Hercules,</HI> and the <HI>River Achelous;</HI> which when 'twas foyled in one <HI>&s;hape,</HI> could tire the <HI>Conquerour,</HI> and pre&s;ently provoke him to a fre&s;h encounter <HI>in ano|ther.</HI> Sir, I could wi&s;h (without your &s;trange endle&s;s multiply|cation of <HI>Que&s;tions</HI>) you would a&s;&s;ume to your &s;elf &s;ome <HI>con&s;tant figure,</HI> wherein I might &s;ay, I grappled with a bodyed <HI>Adver&s;ary.</HI> But changing <HI>Form,</HI> as you do, and putting me &s;til to <HI>prove</HI> that which you have not yet &s;o much as &s;eemingly <HI>confuted,</HI> pardon me (I be&s;eech you) if I &s;ay, that my <HI>combate</HI> with you is not only like the <HI>combate</HI> of <HI>Hercules</HI> with that <HI>River,</HI> but like his, who thought he had entered <HI>Duell</HI> with a <HI>Gyant,</HI> and after much toyl found him&s;elf encountred by a cloud.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, you <HI>conceive,</HI> that I <HI>preacht in defence of all Images &s;et up in any Chappell within this Vniver&s;ity.</HI> Sir, This is but your <HI>con|ceipt,</HI> of which <HI>you,</HI> not <HI>I</HI> am guilty. My &s;ermon, if you mark it, is not &s;o confined either to <HI>Vanlings Draughts,</HI> or any other mans <HI>pencil,</HI> as to defend what ever their <HI>Irregular Fancies</HI> &s;hal draw, or not to defend what ever, either heer, or any where el&s;e, they &s;hal <HI>regularly</HI> limb. But if your <HI>conceipt</HI> were true, what doth your <HI>Logick</HI> infer, That becau&s;e &s;ome <HI>Chappels</HI> are adorn'd with the <HI>I|mages</HI> of &s;ome of the <HI>per&s;ons in the Glorious Trinity, therefore I mu&s;t acknowledg all Images of that &s;ort ought to be taken down?</HI> Pray, Sir, how long hath the &s;ingle-<HI>Topick</HI> of your meer <HI>A&s;&s;ertion</HI> been of &s;uch forcible Authority, that without any other proofe, you &s;hould think me obliged to hold &s;uch <HI>Images</HI> worthy of expul&s;ion, be|cau&s;e you &s;ay they are? Had you either from <HI>Scripture</HI> (the mo&s;t perfect <HI>Rule</HI> for the Deci&s;ion of <HI>Controver&s;ies</HI>) or from <HI>Rea&s;on,</HI> (Though in your e&s;teem but a peece of <HI>nature corrupted</HI>) urged any one <HI>nece&s;&s;ary Argument</HI> to prove them <HI>unlawful,</HI> or things which de&s;erve to be called the <HI>Idolatry</HI> or <HI>Super&s;tition</HI> of the <HI>place,</HI> per|haps being a <HI>&s;ervant</HI> to <HI>Demon&s;tration,</HI> (though a <HI>favourite</HI> of the <HI>mu&s;es</HI>) I &s;hould have been one of the fir&s;t that &s;hould have cryed out for <HI>Reformation.</HI> But this not being done by <HI>you,</HI> nor indeed, po&s;&s;ible to be done by <HI>any other,</HI> though my &s;ermon &s;peak not of any <HI>Image</HI> of any <HI>per&s;on</HI> in the <HI>Trinity,</HI> yet I conceive all <HI>Argu|ments,</HI> which &s;hal &s;trive to prove, that no picture of any <HI>per&s;on</HI> in
<PB N="42" REF="23">the <HI>Trinity</HI> ought to be the <HI>Ornaments</HI> of a <HI>Church,</HI> or <HI>Chappell Window,</HI> will be as frail and brittle as the <HI>Gla&s;s</HI> in which they &s;tand. Sir, I have &s;aid in my la&s;t <HI>Letter,</HI> and &s;hal repeat it in this, that 'tis not <HI>you,</HI> but <HI>nature</HI> and the <HI>numerous places of Scripture,</HI> which forbid to make any <HI>picture</HI> of <HI>God,</HI> (either taken for the <HI>Divine e&s;&s;ence</HI> com|mon to all the <HI>three per&s;ons,</HI> or for the per&s;on of <HI>God</HI> the <HI>Father</HI> di|&s;tinct from the other <HI>two</HI>) which per&s;wade me that any &s;uch <HI>picture</HI> (be&s;ides the <HI>impo&s;&s;ibility</HI>) is <HI>unlawfull.</HI> And therefore you need not have put your &s;elf to the uncece&s;&s;ary trouble to hang your <HI>Margin</HI> with <HI>quotations</HI> taken out of <HI>Bellarmine,</HI> or <HI>Aquinas;</HI> &s;ince all &s;uch <HI>quotations</HI> applyed to that which I have &s;aid and you have cited, which is, That <HI>all pictures of God are a breach of the &s;econd Com|mandent,</HI> do &s;trike me no more, then if I &s;hould enter conflict with tho&s;e dead <HI>Arras-Captains,</HI> which in <HI>hangings</HI> threaten to a&s;&s;ault the &s;pectatour with <HI>imaginary, woven Lunces.</HI> Much le&s;s need you &s;o &s;uperflou&s;ly have called S. <HI>Paul</HI> from the <HI>third heaven</HI> to prove, that (becau&s;e he once quoted this <HI>Greek Hemi&s;tick</HI> out of <HI>Aratas</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">, that we are the <HI>Off-&s;pring</HI> of <HI>God</HI>) God is not <HI>like to gold, &s;ilver, or &s;tone, graven by the art of mans device.</HI> Since by that which I have &s;aid of him in my former Letter, you are obliged to te&s;tifie for me, that I have urged convincing rea&s;ons to prove he cannot be: which Re<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;ons, as borrowed from <HI>nature</HI> and the <HI>&s;choolmen</HI> (with whom, &s;ir, I hope you are not implacably fallen out) I do not urge as the <HI>&s;upre<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters"> Judges</HI> of what I there prove, but as &s;ub&s;ervient mediums, which car|ry a mu&s;ick and con&s;ent to that which <HI>God</HI> hath &s;aid of him&s;elf in the more perfect <HI>Rule</HI> of his <HI>Word.</HI> So that for doing this, to charge me (as you do) with the Study of the <HI>Lullian Art,</HI> is either <HI>non&s;ence</HI> in your Letter, or an <HI>Illation</HI> which re&s;olvs it &s;elf into a contemptible mi&s;take; which is, That becau&s;e <HI>Lullius,</HI> who wrote of <HI>Chymi&s;try,</HI> was ca<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">ed <HI>Raymundus,</HI> I, who have read another <HI>Raymundus</HI> who wrote of <HI>Natural Theologie,</HI> am to be called a <HI>Lulliani&s;t,</HI> which is a <HI>Logick</HI> as wretched, as if I &s;hould &s;ay, Mr <HI>Cheynell</HI> hath read <HI>Ca&s;erane,</HI> and hath made him <HI>a marginal note,</HI> Therefore he is a <HI>&s;eeker</HI> of the <HI>Philo|&s;ophers Stone,</HI> and &s;tudys to convert the <HI>Ore</HI> and <HI>Tin</HI> of the <HI>kingdom</HI> into <HI>Gold.</HI> Sir, Your <HI>Logick</HI> is not much mended when you &s;ay, That the Word <HI>(thereupon)</HI> is &s;ometimes <HI>Illative,</HI> &s;ometimes <HI>Ordina|tive.</HI> For <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">ke it which way you will, As it &s;tands in your la&s;t <HI>letter,</HI> you are bound to give me thanks as a <HI>Poet,</HI> that I deal<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> not with you as a <HI>Sophi&s;ter,</HI> and proclaimed your infirmity for having utter'd a <HI>con|tradiction.</HI> Which <HI>contradiction,</HI> I confe&s;s, might have been avoyded
<PB N="43" REF="23">by the in&s;ertion of the <HI><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters">itled worder two,</HI> for w<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters"> of which, yo<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> &s;ay my <HI>&s;ophi&s;ticall Crititi&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters"></HI> is abortive, and came but with one legg into the World.</P>
<P>In an&s;wer to your next <HI>Paragraph,</HI> I &s;hall mo&s;t readly grant, That 'tis a <HI>high fault to picture God.</HI> Becau&s;e, any &s;uch <HI>Draught</HI> not being po&s;&s;ible to be made of him, but by re&s;embling of him to <HI>&s;omething</HI> w<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters"> is able to afford a <HI>Species</HI> or <HI>Idea</HI> to the <HI>&s;en&s;e,</HI> would, (be&s;ides the <HI>Fal&s;ene&s;s</HI> of it, where a <HI>gro&s;s material figure</HI> &s;hould repre&s;ent a <HI>Pur<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> invi&s;ible E&s;&s;ence</HI>) degrade him from the honour which he ought to hold in our <HI>Minds</HI> which are his Temple; in which <HI>Temple</HI> if he &s;hould hang up in a <HI>frame</HI> or <HI>table,</HI> which &s;hould contract and &s;hrink him to the finite <HI>Model</HI> of a <HI>man</HI> o<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> any other <HI>creature,</HI> 'twere the way to convert him into an <HI>Idoll;</HI> and &s;o (as I have often &s;aid) to &s;in again&s;t the <HI>&s;econd Commandement,</HI> which as it may be broken by &s;pending our <HI>Wor&s;hip</HI> upon <HI>fal&s;e Gods;</HI> &s;o it may al&s;o be broken by our <HI>fal&s;e portraitures,</HI> and <HI>apprehen&s;ions,</HI> and <HI>venerations</HI> of the <HI>True.</HI></P>
<P>The ca&s;e of the <HI>Saints</HI> is far otherwi&s;e. For who&s;e <HI>pictures turn'd into Idols,</HI> as I have no where pleaded, (For as <HI>Idols</HI> I acknowledge they are the crime of tho&s;e who wor&s;hip them) &s;o, as <HI>Orndments,</HI> you will never be able convincingly to prove but that they may be i<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">no|cently retain'd, and be lookt on by tho&s;e who do only count them <HI>&s;peechle&s;s Colours.</HI> The like may be &s;aid of <HI>Pictures</HI> made of <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> which pretend to expre&s;s no more of him then is capable of <HI>Repre&s;on|tation,</HI> and exceed not the <HI>lines</HI> and <HI>&s;y<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">etry</HI> of his <HI>Body</HI> and <HI>fle&s;h.</HI> For I &s;hal grant you that to Limb his <HI>Divinity,</HI> or to draw him in both his <HI>Natures,</HI> as he is <GAP DESC="foreign"><HI>God</HI> as well as <HI>man,</HI> is altogether impo&s;|&s;ible, and not in the power of any <HI>Painter,</HI> though we &s;hould recall <HI>Apelles,</HI> or <HI>Parrha&s;ius</HI> from their Graves, and once more put <HI>Pencil<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"></HI> into their Hand. You know, &s;ir, if a <HI>man</HI> &s;hould have his <HI>picture</HI> drawn, 'twould be an impo&s;&s;ible task, if he &s;hould enjoyn the <HI>Painter</HI> to limb his <HI>&s;oul,</HI> as well as the <HI>proportion</HI> and <HI>feature</HI> of his <HI>Body,</HI> &s;ince the <HI>Soul</HI> is a thing &s;o unexpre&s;&s;ible to the &s;en&s;e, that it &s;carce affods any <HI>Idea</HI> to be under&s;tood by the <HI>mind.</HI> Sir, if you have read Ari&s;totles Books <GAP DESC="foreign">, you will there find, that the <HI>proper Objects</HI> of al the <HI>&s;en&s;es</HI> be&s;ides tho&s;e of the <HI>Eye</HI> (though much gro&s;&s;er then <HI>Spirits</HI> or <HI>Souls</HI>) cannot be brought into <HI>picture.</HI> A <HI>Painter</HI> may draw a <HI>flower</HI> but he cannot limb a <HI>&s;cent.</HI> He may paint <HI>fire,</HI> but he cannot draw <HI>heat.</HI> He may furni&s;h a table with an <HI>imaginary banquet,</HI> but he that &s;hould offer to ra&s;te of this <HI>banquet</HI> would find him&s;elf co<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">en'd. The Rea&s;on is, becau&s;e <HI>Nature</HI> it &s;elf makes it impo&s;&s;ible for the <HI>proper</HI> Object of
<PB N="44" REF="24">one <HI>&s;en&s;e</HI> to be the <HI>Object</HI> of <HI>another;</HI> And finds not <HI>art</HI> or <HI>col<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters">s</HI> for any <HI>thing invi&s;ible;</HI> But only for tho&s;e <HI>Superficie's, Symetry's,</HI> and <HI>&s;en&s;ible parts</HI> of Things, which are fir&s;t capable to be <HI>&s;een,</HI> and then to be tran&s;cribed into a <HI>picture.</HI> But why that part of Chri&s;t, which after his Re&s;urrection, (when it began to cea&s;e to be any lon|ger a part of this <HI>vi&s;ible</HI> World) <HI>was &s;een of above five hundred bre|thren at once,</HI> may not be painted; Nay, why the <HI>figure</HI> of a <HI>Dove,</HI> or of <HI>cloven Tongues</HI> of <HI>fire</HI> (wherein the <HI>third per&s;on</HI> in the <HI>glorious Trinity</HI> appeared, when he de&s;cended upon our Mediator Chri&s;t, and &s;ate upon the <HI>heads</HI> of the <HI>Apo&s;tles</HI>) may not be brought into <HI>ima|gery,</HI> I mu&s;t confe&s;s to you, I am not &s;harp-witted enough to perceive. Though this I &s;hal freely &s;ay to you, (and pray do not call it Poetry) That to maintain that Chri&s;t thus in <HI>picture</HI> may be <HI>wor&s;hipt,</HI> is &s;uch a peece of <HI>Super&s;tition,</HI> as not only teaches the &s;imple to commit I|dolatry, but endeavours to verifie upon him in <HI>colours</HI> the reproach which the calumniating Jews &s;tuck upon his <HI>per&s;on</HI> and to make him thus painted, a Seducer of people.</P>
<P>As for your fourth <HI>paragraph,</HI> (which a&s;&s;aults me the &s;econd time with an Argument without an Edge, which is, that the <HI>Sun and I|mages cannot be put in the &s;cales of compari&s;on in point of fitne&s;s to be pre&s;erved</HI>) having in my former <HI>Letter</HI> already an&s;wered you, I &s;hal not put my &s;elf to the needle&s;s trouble, the &s;econd time to confute it.</P>
<P>For an&s;wer to your Fifth, pray, Sir, read that part of my <HI>Sermon</HI> which you have corrupted into a <HI>quibble;</HI> And there you &s;hal find, that what I &s;ay of <HI>clean linnen</HI> is not, as you &s;ay, a <HI>&s;hifting Fallacy.</HI> But I there &s;ay that which you wil never be able to controule; which is, That by the &s;ame rea&s;on that you make <HI>Surplices</HI> to be <HI>&s;uper&s;ti|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ious</HI> becau&s;e <HI>papi&s;ts</HI> wear them, you may make <HI>Linnen</HI> al&s;o to be <HI>&s;u|per&s;titious</HI> becau&s;e <HI>papi&s;ts &s;hift;</HI> And &s;o conclude <HI>cleanline&s;s</HI> to be as <HI>unlawful</HI> as <HI>Surplices</HI> or <HI>Copes.</HI> Sir, this is <GAP DESC="foreign">; I confe&s;s, the &s;ame An&s;wer twice &s;erved in to you, not out of &s;carcity or barren|ne&s;s, or for want of another Reply, but becau&s;e much of your <HI>Letter</HI> is but <HI>crambe</HI> repetita, a <HI>carret twice boyled.</HI></P>
<P>Your &s;ixth <HI>paragraph</HI> is a <HI>faggot</HI> bound up with more &s;ticks in it, then you, without <HI>poetical Licence,</HI> can po&s;&s;ibly gather from my <HI>Letter;</HI> where, Sir, I only promi&s;e you, (when ever you &s;hal cal upon me) to derive to you all the <HI>ancient parts of our Engli&s;h Liturgy</HI> from <HI>Liturgy's</HI> which were in the Church before <HI>popery</HI> was born. Of which if any part be to be found in the <HI>Rubricks</HI> of the <HI>Church of Rom<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"></HI> your <HI>logick</HI> wil never be able to prove, that therefore 'tis to be rejected as
<PB N="45" REF="24"><HI>tra&s;h and trumpery in <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters">rs. Good things,</HI> Sir, lo&s;e not their <HI>goodne&s;s,</HI> becau&s;e they are in &s;ome places mingled with <HI>&s;uper&s;titious.</HI> Nor, as I told you before, do <HI>Davids P&s;alms</HI> cea&s;e to be a piece of <HI>Ga<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters">ical Scripture,</HI> becau&s;e they are to be found bound up in the volumn with the <HI>Ma&s;s.</HI> Sir, if what ever is made u&s;e of by the <HI>Pope,</HI> or touches upon <HI>Rome,</HI> &s;hould be <HI>&s;uper&s;titious,</HI> the <HI>River Tiber</HI> would be the mo&s;t blameable <HI>river</HI> in the World. What you mean by a <HI>prelatical Faction</HI> here in <HI>England,</HI> or what they borrowed from the <HI>Rituals</HI> or <HI>pontifical</HI> of <HI>Rome,</HI> is expre&s;t to me in &s;uch a <HI>mi&s;t</HI> of words (which &s;ound big to the <HI>common people,</HI> and &s;ignifie nothing to the <HI>wi&s;e</HI>) that I mu&s;t con|fe&s;s my <HI>dulne&s;s,</HI> I do not under&s;tand you. If you mean, that they in|&s;erted any <HI>new peeces</HI> into the <HI>old garment</HI> of our <HI>Co~mon-prayer-book;</HI> and tho&s;e borrowed from the <HI>Mi&s;&s;al,</HI> or <HI>Breviary of Rome,</HI> I beleeve, Sir, (ab&s;tracting from tho&s;e <HI>alterations</HI> made in the <HI>prayers</HI> for the <HI>King, Queen,</HI> and <HI>Royal i&s;&s;ue,</HI> which the <HI>Death</HI> of <HI>Princes</HI> exacted, (unle&s;s, for con&s;tancy &s;ake, you would have them allow of <HI>prayers</HI> for the <HI>dead;</HI> and in <HI>King Charls</HI> and <HI>Queen Mary's</HI> days, to pray &s;till for <HI>King James</HI> and <HI>Queen Anne,</HI> which would be a piece of <HI>popery</HI> equal to the <HI>invocations of &s;aints</HI>) you will find nothing <HI>medern</HI> or of &s;uch <HI>new contrivance,</HI> as pa&s;t not <HI>Bucers <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">xamen</HI> in the <HI>raign of</HI> Edward <HI>the &s;ixth;</HI> And was confirmed b<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> <HI>Act of Parliament</HI> in the <HI>raign</HI> of Queen <HI>Elizabeth.</HI> In &s;aying this in their defence, who had the ordering of &s;uch <HI>changes,</HI> I hope Sir, you will not &s;o uncharitably think me imbark't in their <HI>Faction</HI> (which truly to me &s;til pre&s;ented it &s;elf like the <HI>conceal'd Hor&s;es under ground,</HI> a <HI>fiction</HI> made to walk the <HI>&s;treets,</HI> to terrifie the <HI>people</HI>) as to per&s;wade your &s;elf, after my &s;o many profe&s;&s;ions to <HI>fall a &s;acrifice</HI> to the <HI>Prote&s;tant Religion,</HI> that it can be either in the power of the Church or <HI>court of Rome,</HI> to tempt me from my <HI>Re&s;olution:</HI> Which is, to go out of the world, in the &s;ame Religion I came in.</P>
<P>Sir, I gave warning in my la&s;t <HI>letter</HI> not to venture your writings upon the Arg<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ment, which deceives none but very <HI>vulgar under&s;tan|dings,</HI> and which I in my Ser<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">on cal the <HI>Mother of mi&s;takes;</HI> which is, from an <HI>accidental concurrence</HI> in <HI>&s;ome things</HI> to infer an outright <HI>&s;i|militude</HI> and <HI>agreement</HI> in <HI>all.</HI> Becau&s;e <HI>Bellarmine</HI> &s;ays <HI>tradition</HI> is a better <HI>medium</HI> to prove &s;omethings by, then a <HI>private &s;pirit,</HI> and be|cau&s;e I in this particular have &s;aid &s;o too, you tacitely infer that I and <HI>Bellarmine</HI> are of the &s;ame Religion; which is the &s;ame, as if a <HI>Turk</HI> and a <HI>Chri&s;tian</HI> &s;aying that the <HI>Sun</HI> &s;hines, you &s;hould infer, that the <HI>Chri&s;tian</HI> is a <HI>Mahumetan,</HI> and for &s;aying &s;o, a <HI>Turk.</HI> I confe&s;s, you do not &s;ay we are both of the &s;ame Religion: but that I, in preferring
<PB N="46" REF="25"><HI>Tradition,</HI> which you your &s;elf, in your &s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="5 letters">h <HI>paragraph,</HI> t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ow to be the <HI>Con&s;tant and uni<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">er&s;al Report of the Church</HI>) befo<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters"> he Te&s;timony of the <HI>Spirit, &s;peaking in the Word to the Con&s;ci<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">ce<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> of private men,</HI> am more <HI>profane</HI> than <HI>he.</HI> Heer, &s;ir, you mu&s;t not take it ill, if I expo&s;e you to the cen&s;ure of being de&s;ervedly thought guilty of a double <HI>mi&s;take.</HI> The one is, that if <HI>Bellarmine</HI> in this <HI>par|ticular</HI> were in an <HI>Errour,</HI> and if I had out-&s;poken him in his <HI>Errour,</HI> yet the Laws of <HI>&s;peech</HI> will not allow you to &s;ay, That in an <HI>unprof<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters"></HI> &s;ubject, either of us is <HI>profane;</HI> more <HI>heretical,</HI> or <HI>mi&s;taken</HI> you might perhaps have &s;aid: and this, though a fal&s;e A&s;&s;ertion, might yet have pa&s;t for right Expre&s;&s;ion. But to call him <HI>po&s;itively,</HI> and me <HI>compara|tively more profane,</HI> becau&s;e we both hold, That a <HI>Drop</HI> is more liable to corruption then the <HI>Ocean,</HI> or the <HI>te&s;timony of al ages</HI> of the <HI>Church</HI> is a fuller <HI>proof</HI> of the meaning of a <HI>text</HI> in <HI>Scripture,</HI> then the <HI>&s;olitary Expo&s;ition</HI> of a <HI>man</HI> who can per&s;wade none but him&s;elf, is as incon|gruous, as if you &s;hould &s;ay, that becau&s;e <HI>Bellanmine</HI> wrote but <HI>three Volumn<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">,</HI> and <HI>Abulen&s;is</HI> twelve, therefore <HI>Abulen&s;is</HI> was: a greater <HI>Adulterer</HI> then <HI>He.</HI> Your other <HI>mi&s;take</HI> is, That you confound the <HI>Spi|rit</HI> of God &s;peaking in the <HI>Scripture</HI> with the <HI>private Spirit</HI> (that is) <HI>Rea&s;on, Humour,</HI> or <HI>Fancie</HI> of the <HI>per&s;on</HI> &s;poken to. Sir, let that <HI>ble&s;&s;ed Spirit</HI> decide this controver&s;ie between us. He &s;ayes<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">2 Pet. 1.20</NOTE> <HI>that no Prophe&s;ie of the Scripture is of private Interpretation.</HI> That is, &s;o <HI>calculated,</HI> or <HI>Meriduanized</HI> to &s;ome &s;elect <HI>mind</HI> &amp; <HI>under&s;tandings,</HI> that it &s;hall hold the <HI>candle</HI> to them <HI>only,</HI> and leave <HI>All others</HI> in the <HI>Darke.</HI> But, if you will con&s;ent to the Comment of the mo&s;t primitive <HI>Fathers</HI> on that <HI>Text,</HI> The meaning of it is, That as <HI>God</HI> by his <HI>Spirit</HI> did at fir&s;t dictate the <HI>&s;cripture,</HI> &s;o he dictated it in tho&s;e things which are <HI>nece&s;&s;ary</HI> to <HI>Salvation,</HI> intelligible to all the world of M<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">n, who will addict their minds to read it. It being therefore a <HI>Rule</HI> held out to all <HI>mankind,</HI> for them to order their lives and actions by and there|fore univer&s;ally <HI>intelligible</HI> to them, (it &s;hould el&s;e cea&s;e to be either <HI>Revelation</HI> or a <HI>Rule</HI>) for you to hold that is <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters">not be under&s;tand without a <HI>&s;econd Revelation,</HI> made by the &s;ame <HI>Spirit</HI> that wrote it, to the <HI>private &s;pirit of you the more-Cabinet Reader,</HI> is as if you &s;hould inclo&s;e and impale to your &s;elf the <HI>Ayre,</HI> or <HI>Sun-be<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">es;</HI> And &s;hould maintain that God hath placed the <HI>Sun</HI> in the firmament, and given you only eyes to &s;ee him In &s;hort, &s;ir, 'tis to make as <HI>word,</HI> which was ordained to give <HI>light</HI> to all the <HI>World,</HI> a <HI>Dark Lanthorn,</HI> In which a <HI>candle</HI> &s;hines to the u&s;e of <HI>none</HI> but <HI>him</HI> that bears it.</P>
<P>Your <HI>Eighth Paragraph</HI> being the <HI>third</HI> of your <HI>eleven Que&s;tions</HI> as al&s;o the <HI>clo&s;e</HI> of your <HI>ninth,</HI> &s;hall receive a <HI>latine</HI> An&s;wer from me in the <HI>Divinity School.</HI></P>
<P><PB N="47" REF="25">
Your next <HI>Paragraph</HI> is againe the <HI>Hydra</HI> with <HI>repullulating Heads:</HI> Where, fir&s;t, you put me to prove the purity of the <HI>Doctrine, Di&s;cipline,</HI> and <HI>Government</HI> in <HI>England.</HI> Which, being managed by a <HI>Prelaticall faction, whom,</HI> you &s;ay, I call the <HI>Church, was not excellent, if I reckon from the yeare</HI> 1630. <HI>to</HI> 1640. As for the <HI>Doctrine,</HI> Sir, I told you before, that the <HI>Primitive Church</HI> it &s;elfe was not free from <HI>Here&s;ies.</HI> If therefore I &s;hould grant you (which I never &s;hall, till you particularly tell me what tho&s;e <HI>er|roneous doctrines</HI> were) that &s;ome men in our <HI>Church</HI> were <HI>hete|rodox,</HI> nay <HI>hereticall</HI> in their <HI>opinions,</HI> yet I conceive it to be a very neere neighbour to <HI>here&s;ie</HI> in you to charge the <HI>doctrines</HI> of <HI>per&s;ons</HI> upon the <HI>Kingdome</HI> or <HI>Church.</HI> Such <HI>Doctrines</HI> might be <HI>in Eng|land,</HI> (as you whether out of Choice or Luck have &s;aid) yet not by the <HI>Tenets</HI> or <HI>Doctrines</HI> of the <HI>Land:</HI> No more, then if you &s;hould &s;ay, that becau&s;e M. <HI>Yerbury</HI> and &s;ome few <HI>others</HI> hold the <HI>Equ<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">lity</HI> of the <HI>Saints</HI> with <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> the whole <HI>Kingdome</HI> is a <HI>bla|&s;phemer,</HI> and was by you confuted at S. <HI>Maries.</HI> The <HI>publick do|ctrine</HI> of the <HI>Church</HI> of <HI>England</HI> I call none but that which was al|lowed to be &s;o by an <HI>Act</HI> of <HI>Pa liament</HI> of <HI>England;</HI> and that, Sir, was contained in the 39. <HI>Articles.</HI> If any <HI>Prelate</HI> or <HI>inferiour Prie&s;t,</HI> for the <HI>Cicle</HI> of <HI>yeares</HI> you &s;peak of, either held or taught any thing contrary to <HI>the&s;e,</HI> (as it will be hard I beleeve for you to in&s;tance in <HI>any</HI> of that <HI>&s;ide</HI> who did) you &s;hall have my con|&s;ent, in that particular, to count them no part of our <HI>Church.</HI> In the meane time, Sir, I be&s;eech you be favourable to this <HI>I&s;land;</HI> and think not that for <HI>ten yeares &s;pace</HI> 'twas <HI>hereticall</HI> in all the parts of it on this &s;ide <HI>Berwick.</HI> Withall, Sir, I de&s;ire (&s;ince you have a&s;&s;igned me an <HI>Epocha</HI> to reckon from) that you will com|pare the wor&s;t <HI>doctrines</HI> which wore the <HI>date</HI> of the <HI>Trojan Warre</HI> amongs us, with tho&s;e which have &s;ince broke loo&s;e in the &s;pace of a <HI>Warre</HI> not halfe &s;o long, and you will find, that our <HI>Church</HI> for tho&s;e <HI>ten yeares</HI> you &s;peak of <HI>wore a garment,</HI> I will not &s;ay, as <HI>&s;eamle&s;s</HI> and <HI>undivided</HI> as <HI>Chri&s;ts coat:</HI> But &s;ince the <HI>Soldiers</HI> did <HI>ca&s;t lots</HI> upon it, &s;o much <HI>here&s;ie,</HI> as well as <HI>&s;chi&s;me,</HI> hath torne it a&s;under, that 'tis now become like <HI>Jo&s;ephs coat</HI> imbrued in <HI>bloud,</HI> where no one <HI>piece</HI> carryes <HI>colour</HI> or <HI>re&s;emblance</HI> to another. As for the <HI>Di&s;cipl ne</HI> and <HI>Government</HI> of our <HI>Church,</HI> (if you would &s;peak your <HI>con&s;cience,</HI> and not your <HI>gall</HI>) you would confe&s;s, that
<PB N="48" REF="26">the <HI>frame</HI> and <HI>&s;tructure</HI> of it was rai&s;ed from the mo&s;t Primitive <HI>Modell</HI> that any <HI>Moderne Church</HI> under the <HI>Sunne</HI> was governed by. A <HI>Government</HI> &s;o well <HI>&s;ized</HI> and <HI>fitted</HI> to the <HI>Civill Govern|ment</HI> of the <HI>Kingdome,</HI> that till the <HI>in&s;urrection</HI> of &s;ome <HI>fal&s;e Pro|phets,</HI> who pre&s;umed to offer <HI>&s;trange fire</HI> before the <HI>Lord,</HI> and reduced a <HI>Land</HI> which flowed with <HI>milk</HI> and <HI>honey,</HI> into a <HI>wilder|ne&s;&s;e;</HI> they agreed together like the two <HI>Scripture-brothers, Mo&s;es</HI> and <HI>Aaron;</HI> and were the two <HI>banks</HI> which &s;hut up <HI>&s;chi&s;me</HI> within its <HI>channell,</HI> and &s;uffered not <HI>here&s;ie</HI> or <HI>&s;edition</HI> to overflow their <HI>bounds.</HI> In &s;hort, Sir, I know not into what <HI>new forme</HI> this <HI>Kingdome</HI> may be <HI>moulded,</HI> or what <HI>new creation</HI> may creep forth from the &s;trife-full <HI>heap</HI> of things, into which, as into a &s;econd <HI>Chaos,</HI> we are fallen; But if the <HI>Civill State</HI> doe ever returne to its former <HI>&s;elfe</HI> againe, your <HI>Pre&s;byterian Government,</HI> which was brought forth at <HI>Geneva,</HI> and was &s;ince nur&s;ed up in <HI>Scotland,</HI> mingled with it, (if I be not deceived in the <HI>principles</HI> of that <HI>Go|vernment</HI>) will be but a <HI>wild Vine</HI> ingrafted into a <HI>true.</HI> Vpon which unequall, di&s;proportioned <HI>Incorporation,</HI> we may as well expect to gather <HI>Figs</HI> of <HI>Thi&s;tles,</HI> or <HI>grapes</HI> of <HI>thornes,</HI> as that the <HI>one</HI> &s;hould grow &s;o <HI>Southerne,</HI> the <HI>other</HI> &s;o <HI>Northerne;</HI> that one harmonious, mu&s;icall <HI>Body</HI> &s;hould ari&s;e from them thus <HI>joyned.</HI> What <HI>Errors</HI> in <HI>Government</HI> or <HI>Di&s;cipline</HI> were committed by the <HI>Prelates,</HI> I know not; neither have you proved them hither|to chargeable with any; unle&s;s this were an <HI>error,</HI> that they laid an <HI>O&s;traci&s;me</HI> (as you &s;ay) <HI>upon tho&s;e that oppo&s;ed your Govern|ment.</HI> I beleeve, Sir, when <HI>Presbytery</HI> is &s;et up, and you placed in your <HI>Con&s;i&s;tory</HI> with your <HI>Spirituall</HI> and <HI>Lay-Brethren,</HI> you will not be &s;o negligent, or &s;o much a&s;leep in your place, as not to find an <HI>O&s;traci&s;me</HI> for tho&s;e, who &s;hall oppo&s;e you in your office. In the meane time, Sir, to call <HI>them,</HI> or <HI>tho&s;e,</HI> who &s;ubmitted to their <HI>Government, A Prelaticall faction,</HI> becau&s;e the then wheels of their <HI>Government</HI> moved with an <HI>unanimous</HI> undi&s;turbance, is, I be|leeve, a calumny, which you would faine fa&s;ten upon them, pro|voked (I &s;uppo&s;e) by the de&s;cription which I have made of the <HI>con&s;piracy</HI> of the <HI>Fal&s;e Prophets</HI> of <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> in my <HI>Sermon.</HI> I mu&s;t deal freely with you, Sir, do but probably make it appear to me, that this <HI>Faction</HI> in <HI>your letter</HI> was like the <HI>Con&s;piracy</HI> in <HI>my Sermon;</HI> Do but prove to me, that the <HI>Prelates devoured &s;oules;</HI> That they took to them&s;elves the <HI>Trea&s;ure,</HI> and <HI>precious things</HI> of the <HI>Land;</HI>
<PB N="49" REF="26">That to effect this, they kindled the fir&s;t <HI>&s;park</HI> towards a <HI>Civil War;</HI> &amp; then blew it into &s;uch a <HI>flame,</HI> as could not be quencht but with the bloud of <HI>Husbands</HI> ravi&s;ht from their <HI>Wives,</HI> and the &s;laugh|ter of <HI>parents</HI> pre&s;t and ravi&s;ht from their <HI>children:</HI> Doe but prove to me that they made <HI>one widdow,</HI> or built their <HI>Honours</HI> upon the <HI>ruine</HI> or <HI>calamity</HI> of one <HI>Orphane;</HI> La&s;tly, do but prove to me that the <HI>Prie&s;ts</HI> (whom you make to be the <HI>lower orbe</HI> of their <HI>Faction</HI>) did &s;o mingle, and confound the <HI>&s;ervices</HI> of the <HI>Church, as to put no difference between the holy, and profane,</HI> or that in complyance with them, they <HI>&s;aw vanity, and divined lyes to the people,</HI> and I &s;hall think them capable of all the hard language, which you or others have for &s;ome yeares heapt upon them. Till then, Sir, pray mi&s;take not <HI>Concrets</HI> for their <HI>Ab&s;tracts;</HI> nor charge the faults of <HI>per&s;ons,</HI> upon the innocency of their <HI>functions. Prelacy</HI> is an <HI>Order</HI> &s;o well rooted in the <HI>Scripture,</HI> though now deprived of all its <HI>Branches</HI> in this Kingdome, that I verily per|&s;wade my &s;elfe, that as <HI>Caiaphas</HI> in the <HI>Go&s;pell</HI> when he &s;poke <HI>Pro|phecy,</HI> perceived not him&s;elf at that time to be a <HI>Prophet;</HI> &s;o you (over-rul'd by the guidance of a <HI>higher power</HI>) have in this <HI>Para|graph</HI> exceedingly prai&s;ed <HI>Prelacy,</HI> whil&s;t you laboured to revile it. For either it mu&s;t be <HI>Non-&s;en&s;e,</HI> or a very great <HI>Encomium</HI> of it, when you &s;ay, that <HI>as long as it enjoyed a root</HI> here in this King|dome, it had <HI>not onely a de&s;tructive influence into the evils of the Church, but of the Civill State too.</HI> If the <HI>Influence</HI> of it were &s;o <HI>de&s;tructive of evils,</HI> (as indeed it was) pray with what Logick can you &s;ay, that <HI>Salus populi quae &s;uprema lex e&s;t,</HI> did compell the <HI>Parliament</HI> to extirpate a thing &s;o <HI>pre&s;ervative</HI> and full of <HI>Anti|dote</HI> both to <HI>Church</HI> and <HI>State?</HI></P>
<P>Sir, if mens <HI>&s;tyles</HI> &amp; <HI>denominations</HI> be to be given to them by the <HI>place</HI> &amp; <HI>clymate</HI> where they are <HI>borne</HI> &amp; <HI>bred,</HI> I &s;hall grant you are an <HI>Engli&s;h,</HI> nay an <HI>Oxford Chri&s;tian.</HI> But if you preach, &amp; maintain, that <HI>Religion as to be propagated by the Sword,</HI> I mu&s;t tell you, that an <HI>Engli&s;h Presbyter</HI> may in this ca&s;e be a <HI>Turki&s;h Prophet;</HI> and that though his <HI>Text</HI> be cho&s;en from the <HI>Go&s;pel,</HI> yet the <HI>Do|ctrine</HI> rai&s;ed from it, may be a piece of the <HI>Alchoran.</HI> I &s;hall allow you to &s;ay that <HI>the Prote&s;tants in Ireland had a Right to the defence of the free exerci&s;e of their Religion again&s;t the furious a&s;&s;aults of the bloody Rebels.</HI> But when you tell me that <HI>Chri&s;t is King of Nati|ons
<PB N="50" REF="27">as well as King of Saints,</HI> (which I &s;hall grant you) and &s;ay, that as one of his wayes to <HI>make Pro&s;elytes</HI> is by the <HI>per&s;wa&s;ion of his Word and Spirit;</HI> &s;o, if that will not do, his other <HI>way to break the power of Antichri&s;t,</HI> that is, (as I conceive you mean) to con|vert men from <HI>Popery,</HI> is by <HI>civill</HI> and <HI>naturall</HI> meanes that is, (if you meane any thing) to compell them to be <HI>Prote&s;tants</HI> by the <HI>Sword;</HI> Me-thinks I am at <HI>Mecha,</HI> and heare a piece of <HI>Turci&s;me</HI> preacht to me by one of <HI>Mahomets Prie&s;ts.</HI> In &s;hort, Sir, whether the <HI>Papi&s;ts</HI> in <HI>England</HI> were <HI>confederate</HI> with the <HI>Iri&s;h Rebels</HI> I know not: But doe you prove <HI>demon&s;tratively,</HI> not <HI>jealou&s;ly,</HI> to me, that the <HI>Queene</HI> and her <HI>Agents</HI> had an intent to <HI>extirpate</HI> the <HI>Prote&s;tant Religion,</HI> and to <HI>plant Popery</HI> by the <HI>Sword;</HI> and the <HI>Army</HI> that &s;hould bring that <HI>de&s;igne</HI> to pa&s;s, &s;hall, in my opinion, be &s;tyled an <HI>Army,</HI> not of <HI>Papi&s;ts,</HI> but of <HI>baptized Janizaries.</HI> As for your bidding me di&s;pute the <HI>right of taking up Armes</HI> in &s;uch a ca&s;e, with the <HI>Parliament;</HI> Fir&s;t, I mu&s;t de&s;ire you to accept the An&s;wer which <HI>Favroinus</HI> the <HI>Philo&s;opher</HI> gave to a friend of his, who askt him, why he would let <HI>Adrian</HI> the <HI>Emperour</HI> have the better of him in a <HI>Di&s;pute;</HI> I am loth to enter into an <HI>Argumen|tation</HI> with <HI>tho&s;e</HI> who command <HI>Thirty Legions.</HI> Next, Sir, if I were of con&s;ideration enough to be heard to &s;peak publickly to that <HI>Great A&s;&s;embly,</HI> having fir&s;t ki&s;t my <HI>weapon,</HI> I &s;hould not doubt, with all the <HI>re&s;pective liberty,</HI> which might witne&s;s to them that I &s;trive not to dimini&s;h the <HI>rights</HI> of their <HI>power,</HI> but to de|fend the <HI>truth</HI> of my <HI>cau&s;e,</HI> to tell them, that <HI>to come into the field with an armed Go&s;pel, is not the way cho&s;en by Chri&s;t to make Pro&s;e|lites.</HI> If this be an <HI>error</HI> or <HI>mi&s;-per&s;wa&s;ion</HI> in me, &s;hew me but one <HI>undenyable demon&s;tration</HI> of the <HI>Spirit</HI> to di&s;prove it, be&s;ides your <HI>unto picall per&s;wa&s;ion</HI> of <HI>your &s;elfe</HI> to the contrary, and, without any farther <HI>conference,</HI> or <HI>di&s;pute</HI> in this point, I &s;hall acknowledge my &s;elfe your <HI>convert,</HI> and be mo&s;t glad to be <HI>convinced.</HI> In the mean time, Sir, you are obliged, (though I be in your opinion in an <HI>error</HI>) to think more <HI>nobly</HI> of <HI>me,</HI> then of tho&s;e <HI>Cowards</HI> of your <HI>&s;ide,</HI> who dur&s;t not <HI>&s;peak Truth</HI> in a <HI>time</HI> of <HI>danger,</HI> when you &s;ee me, in the like <HI>time,</HI> &s;uch a re&s;olute <HI>Champion</HI> (as you conceive) for the <HI>wrong.</HI></P>
<P>Sir, 'tis one of the pray&s;es of a good <HI>picture</HI> to be drawne &s;o <HI>livingly,</HI> that every one in the room that beholds it, &s;hall thinke it
<PB N="51" REF="27">looks <HI>only</HI> on <HI>him;</HI> 'Tis ju&s;t &s;o with &s;ome <HI>Texts</HI> in <HI>Scripture,</HI> and &s;ome parts of <HI>morall Philo&s;ophy;</HI> which when they &s;peake very Characterizingly of an irregular <HI>pa&s;sion,</HI> or <HI>vice,</HI> if they meet with a man <HI>Con&s;cious,</HI> and one &s;ubject to &s;uch <HI>pa&s;sions,</HI> remember him of his <HI>guilt,</HI> and prick his <HI>minde</HI> as if <HI>he only</HI> were &s;ignified by that which was writ to all the <HI>World.</HI> By your charging me that I dealt more &s;harply with you then I &s;hould, you give me cau&s;e to &s;u&s;pect, that my <HI>Letter</HI> proved &s;uch a <HI>picture</HI> to you; and you to your <HI>guilty &s;elfe</HI> &s;eemed a per&s;on &s;o <HI>concerned.</HI> The words of bit|terne&s;s which you have layed together in one <HI>heape,</HI> are compo|&s;ed of &s;uch <HI>Language,</HI> as upon your twentieth perufall you will never be able to finde in my <HI>Letter.</HI> Sir, <HI>Chri&s;tianity,</HI> and my <HI>pro|fe&s;sion</HI> (however you in your letter forgot <HI>both</HI>) have taught me not to returne <HI>Vomit</HI> for <HI>Vomit.</HI> And the love which I beare to to the <HI>Civility</HI> of <HI>expre&s;sion,</HI> would never &s;uffer me to be &s;o <HI>revi|lingly broad.</HI> If I made u&s;e of one of <HI>Seneca's Epi&s;tles,</HI> or of <HI>Tully's Paradoxes,</HI> or <HI>Horace</HI>'s <HI>poeticall Controver&s;ies,</HI> and if you would apply what they &s;aid of <HI>Ambition, Pride,</HI> or <HI>Choller</HI> to your &s;elf, certainly, Sir, you have no rea&s;on to call this the <HI>Luxuriancy</HI> of my <HI>wit.</HI> And thereupon to inferre the&s;e <HI>provocative conclu&s;i|ous;</HI> that my <HI>wit</HI> is <HI>wanton,</HI> therefore I am <HI>effeminate.</HI> That I am <HI>&s;uper&s;titious,</HI> therefore <HI>la&s;civious</HI> too. Sir, as my <HI>wit</HI> is &s;o <HI>poore</HI> that I &s;hall ob&s;erve your <HI>Councell,</HI> that is, never wax <HI>proud</HI> upon the <HI>&s;trength</HI> of it, or <HI>de&s;pi&s;e tho&s;e</HI> that are more <HI>weake,</HI> &s;o (without &s;paring me at all) I doe once more challenge you to prove, that the <HI>wantonne&s;s</HI> of it hath betrayed me to the <HI>loo&s;e Conver&s;ation</HI> of any that are <HI>light.</HI> La&s;tly, Sir, I hope you doe not thing I have &s;o much of the <HI>vaine glory,</HI> or <HI>&s;elfe-conceitedne&s;s</HI> of tho&s;e <HI>Reverend Hypocrites</HI> in the Go&s;pell in me, who were able to boa&s;t of their <HI>long Prayers,</HI> and <HI>broad phylactaries,</HI> and of their <HI>fa&s;ting twice a weeke,</HI> that I will offer to thinke my &s;elfe <HI>more temperate then the Apo&s;tles.</HI> Yet, Sir, I dare once more challenge you, &amp; the <HI>preci|&s;e&s;t</HI> of your <HI>in&s;pired informers,</HI> to prove me at any time guilty of the breach of the <HI>Text</HI> you quote again&s;t <HI>Surfeiting,</HI> and <HI>Drun|kenne&s;s. Luk.</HI> 21.34. That part of your <HI>Paragraph,</HI> therefore, which ends in <HI>exhortation,</HI> is a piece of <HI>Homily,</HI> which returnes to you, to be made u&s;e of towards &s;ome other on the next <HI>la&s;t Wedne&s;day of the month,</HI> where <HI>Fa&s;ting,</HI> and <HI>Sobriety</HI> will be <HI>&s;ea&s;o|nable The<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ams.</HI></P>
<P><PB N="52" REF="28">
I grant, Sir, that <HI>Reprobation is a My&s;tery to be trembled at.</HI> Yet Sir, all they who (maintaining it to be <HI>ab&s;olute</HI>) doe revive the fiction of the three <HI>de&s;tinies,</HI> where one holds the <HI>Di&s;taffe</HI> on which the <HI>Thred</HI> of every mans <HI>Fate</HI> is <HI>&s;pun,</HI> and doe preach a piece of <HI>Zeno's Philo&s;ophy</HI> for a piece of Saint <HI>Paul's Epi&s;tles,</HI> can have no rea&s;on to accu&s;e me of a <HI>je&s;t,</HI> becau&s;e I apply'd a <HI>&s;pindle</HI> to the <HI>Di&s;taffe,</HI> on which mens <HI>fates</HI> are <HI>rolled.</HI> Sir, in plainer termes, as <HI>ab&s;olute Reprobation,</HI> is a piece of <HI>Stoici&s;me,</HI> which was never held to be <HI>Chri&s;tian,</HI> till it crept forth into the Church from the &s;ame <HI>fancy,</HI> which was the <HI>wombe</HI> in which the <HI>Pre&s;byterian Go|vernment</HI> was formed, &s;o me thinks, <HI>Lucian,</HI> Sir, (how cheaply &s;oever you think of <HI>him,</HI> or <HI>me,</HI> for having clo&s;ed my <HI>la&s;t letter</HI> to you with a piece of his <HI>Nigrinus</HI>) in his confutation of this <HI>Hea|theni&s;h Errour</HI> (which hath made &s;o many hang them&s;elves) urgeth Arguments which would become one of the <HI>Fathers</HI> of the <HI>Church.</HI> I know not whether you have read his <GAP DESC="foreign">. But if you have, he there tells you, that if there be &s;uch a thing as the <HI>fatall Decree,</HI> you &s;peak of; 1. That all they who lye under the <HI>Inflexibility</HI> of it, being tyed by an unalterable <HI>nece&s;sity</HI> to do what they do, can in no rea&s;on be <HI>rewarded</HI> if they do <HI>well,</HI> nor with any Ju&s;tice be <HI>puni&s;ht</HI> if they do <HI>ill.</HI> Next, that the <HI>Sinnes</HI> which they commit, (if they cannot but commit them) are not to be called <HI>their Sinnes,</HI> but the <HI>Sinnes</HI> of that <HI>Decree</HI> which laid this <HI>nece&s;sity</HI> upon them. And, therefore, Thirdly, that a <HI>murtherer</HI> (thus prede&s;tined) if he &s;hould be <HI>arraigned,</HI> may &s;ay to any <HI>Judge</HI> thus <HI>&s;toically per&s;waded.</HI> Why doe you accu&s;e <HI>me?</HI> Pray call my <HI>De&s;tiny</HI> to the <HI>Bar;</HI> and do not &s;entence <HI>me,</HI> but my <HI>fate</HI> to the Racke and Wheel. I was but an over&s;way'd <HI>In&s;trument</HI> in this <HI>Murther;</HI> and was but &s;uch an <HI>Engine</HI> to my <HI>De&s;tiny,</HI> as my <HI>Sword</HI> was to <HI>me.</HI> Though this were &s;poken by a <HI>Heathen,</HI> only in di&s;|proof of <HI>Fate,</HI> yet &s;ince Saint <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tome</HI> in more then <HI>three Ser|mons</HI> had &s;aid the &s;ame things in di&s;proofe of <HI>ab&s;olute Reprobation,</HI> I hope, sir, neither <HI>Calvin,</HI> nor <HI>Pi&s;cator,</HI> have &s;o mi&s;taught you to under&s;tand Saint <HI>Paul,</HI> as from any <HI>Epi&s;tler</HI> of <HI>his</HI> to conclude peremptorily, that any without their <HI>de&s;ert,</HI> are given up to a <HI>Repro|bate minde,</HI> and <HI>finally</HI> &s;truck &amp; <HI>nece&s;sitated</HI> to a remedile&s;s <HI>impeni|tence.</HI> The 9. <HI>Chap. of the Romans,</HI> I have long &s;ince con&s;ider'd, and &s;tudyed it by the mo&s;t <HI>&s;ere<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">e, impartiall lights</HI> which might <HI>uncloud</HI>
<PB N="53" REF="28">the great <HI>My&s;terie</HI> to me which lyes &s;o ob&s;curely there wrap'd up. And to deale freely with you, the be&s;t <HI>Commentator</HI> I ever yet met with to lead me through the darkne&s;s of it, was another place of <HI>Scripture</HI> or two &s;et in pre&s;ence, and <HI>&s;cale</HI> with <HI>this,</HI> both which <HI>joyned,</HI> me thought, made perfectly the <HI>Cloud</HI> which guided the <HI>Jewes</HI> through the <HI>Wilderne&s;s,</HI> which was a <HI>Cloud</HI> to the <HI>Aegypti|ans,</HI> but a <HI>pillar of fire</HI> to the <HI>I&s;raelites.</HI> Sir, I know that neither Saint <HI>Paul</HI> hath written <HI>Contradictions,</HI> nor any other of the <HI>Apo&s;tles</HI> written that which is <HI>Contradictory</HI> to Saint <HI>Paul,</HI> Sir, I pre&s;ume, al&s;o, that <HI>Ari&s;totles Book</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign"> hath not &s;o <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">or|&s;aken your <HI>memory,</HI> but you know that an <HI>&V;niver&s;all Affirmative,</HI> and a <HI>particular Negative</HI> are a perfect <HI>Contradiction,</HI> and cannot both be <HI>true.</HI> Here, then, &s;tands the ca&s;e. You, building your <HI>Opinion</HI> upon the <GAP DESC="foreign"> or <HI>great depth</HI> of the <HI>ninth Chapter</HI> to the <HI>Romans,</HI> inferre from thence that <HI>God gives Repentance only to &s;ome few,</HI> who&s;e peremptory will 'tis that <HI>they only</HI> &s;hall be <HI>&s;aved.</HI> Saint <HI>Paul</HI> in his fir&s;t <HI>Epi&s;tle</HI> to <HI>Timothy, Chapter</HI> 2. <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 4. gives us a <HI>line</HI> and <HI>plummet</HI> to &s;ound this <HI>Depth;</HI> and &s;aves expre&s;ly, That 'tis <HI>the will of God that all men &s;hould be &s;aved.</HI> Between the&s;e <HI>pro|po&s;itions, 'tis his will that all &s;hall,</HI> and <HI>'tis his will that only a few &s;hall be &s;aved,</HI> there is no <HI>Medium,</HI> in which they may be reconciled; but one of them mu&s;t nece&s;sarily be <HI>true,</HI> the other <HI>fal&s;e.</HI> This, then, being &s;o, I have alwayes held it &s;afer to build my <HI>Faith</HI> upon tho&s;e <HI>cleare</HI> places of the <HI>Scripture,</HI> which have no <HI>vaile</HI> before their <HI>face,</HI> then tho&s;e which are <HI>my&s;terious,</HI> and lead me to a <GAP DESC="foreign"> over which I &s;tand <HI>amazed,</HI> but cannot from thence <HI>infer.</HI> I doe farther profe&s;s to you, that I am not &s;o wedded to <HI>this</HI> or <HI>any other Speculative Opinion,</HI> but that, if you will &s;hew more convin|cing <HI>Scripture</HI> for the <HI>contrary,</HI> I &s;hall mo&s;t readily renounce my <HI>owne</HI> thoughts, and e&s;pou&s;e my &s;elf to <HI>yours.</HI></P>
<P>Your <HI>premonition</HI> or <HI>forewarning</HI> of me that we at <HI>Chri&s;t-church</HI> would e're long ta&s;te of a <HI>vi&s;itation,</HI> hath &s;ince come to pa&s;s, and in part approved it &s;elf to be <HI>true Prophecy.</HI> Whether <HI>im<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">ired</HI> by <HI>you</HI> or no, I know not, but there have been <HI>two</HI> with us, who have taken away as many <HI>Copes</HI> and <HI>guilt can le&s;ticks,</HI> as if they had been <HI>&s;uper&s;titious.</HI> Sir, 'tis no wonder to me that in our times <HI>&s;ilver</HI> &s;hould be <HI>Popery;</HI> Or that <HI>Church uten&s;ills</HI> if they be <HI>Gold</HI> &s;hould be called <HI>&s;uper&s;tition.</HI> But certainly, Sir, 'twas a great <HI>mi&s;infor|mation</HI>
<PB N="54" REF="29">to &s;end them to &s;earch for <HI>Copes</HI> or <HI>things of value</HI> to my <HI>poor Prote&s;tant Chamber;</HI> where there never was a <HI>Cope,</HI> though, per|haps, they might have found a long-difu&s;ed <HI>Surplice,</HI> there. And as for <HI>Idolls</HI> of <HI>price,</HI> if they had <HI>&s;earcht</HI> my <HI>pur&s;e,</HI> I beleeve that all the <HI>popery,</HI> which, in the&s;e <HI>impoveri&s;hing</HI> Times, they could have found in it, <HI>ca&s;t</HI> into the <HI>fire,</HI> like the <HI>Jewi&s;h Earerings,</HI> would neither have come forth a <HI>Silver Crucifix;</HI> much le&s;s &s;o <HI>wealthy</HI> an <HI>Idoll</HI> as a <HI>Golden Calfe.</HI></P>
<P>Sir, &s;ince at length I under&s;tand you, that by agreeing upon the <HI>true &s;tate of the que&s;tions before we di&s;pute them,</HI> you mean that we &s;hould <HI>agree</HI> upon the <HI>termes</HI> in which they are to be <HI>held,</HI> I am very ready to comply with you in that <HI>rea&s;onable</HI> particular. But to accept of any, either of your <HI>eleven Engli&s;h,</HI> or yout <HI>three La|tine que&s;tions,</HI> in the <HI>terms</HI> in which you have <HI>formed</HI> them, I can by no meanes con&s;ent. Fir&s;t, Sir, Becau&s;e I find a piece of Artifice in the <HI>Web,</HI> and <HI>contrivance</HI> of them, which hath &s;omething of a <HI>Trap,</HI> and <HI>Snare,</HI> and <HI>Engine</HI> in it. Which is, that by making them as <HI>Popi&s;h que&s;tions</HI> as you can, (e&s;pecially one of them) where you in&s;ert the words <HI>Mi&s;&s;all, Breviary,</HI> and <HI>Pontificall</HI>) words <HI>odious</HI> to the people, and part of the <HI>di&s;mall &s;pell</HI> which for &s;ix yeares hath rai&s;ed the <HI>&s;pirit</HI> of <HI>di&s;cord</HI> to walk among us; if I &s;hould hold it <HI>affirmatively</HI> under the&s;e <HI>termes</HI> of <HI>hatred,</HI> 'tis po&s;&s;i|ble it may beget an opinion in the minds of tho&s;e that know me not, that, though I have more then once profe&s;t my &s;elfe ready to <HI>fall a &s;acrifice</HI> in the defence of the <HI>Prote&s;tant Religion,</HI> yet that this was but a <HI>di&s;gui&s;e</HI> which concealed my <HI>hypocri&s;ie,</HI> 'till provo|ked I were put to defend the <HI>&s;uper&s;titions</HI> of the <HI>Church</HI> of <HI>Rome.</HI> Sir, I know upon what <HI>le&s;&s;er ground<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"></HI> then this, <HI>&s;ome</HI> in our <HI>credu|lous times</HI> have been unju&s;tly called <HI>Papi&s;ts.</HI> Next, Sir, if I &s;hould hold them <HI>affirmatively,</HI> with their <HI>fares</HI> thus <HI>looking</HI> towards <HI>Po|pery,</HI> and &s;hould bring them thus clothed in your <HI>termes</HI> of <HI>&s;uper|&s;tition</HI> into the <HI>Divinity Schoole,</HI> I doubt very much whether the <HI>publickne&s;s</HI> of the <HI>Defence</HI> may not draw an a&s;per&s;ion not onely upon <HI>me,</HI> and the <HI>Moderator,</HI> (if he will vouch&s;afe to &s;it in the <HI>Chaire</HI> whil&s;t we quarrell) but upon the <HI>Whole</HI> already too much <HI>defame &V;niver&s;ity,</HI> which <HI>&s;uch</HI> as <HI>you</HI> have from numerous <HI>Pul|pits</HI> called long &s;ince <HI>Ropi&s;hly affected;</HI> But if it &s;hould allow of &s;uch a <HI>Di&s;pute,</HI> 'twould lend <HI>fuell</HI> to your <HI>calumnies,</HI> and be en|dangered
<PB N="55" REF="29">to be no longer thought <HI>P<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">pi&s;h,</HI> but <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> right a <HI>Papi&s;t.</HI> Thirdly, Sir, your <HI>fir&s;t</HI> and la&s;t <HI>Que&s;tion</HI> (if they were purged of their <HI>odious termes</HI>) cannot <HI>p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">liquely</HI> be maintained without &s;ome affront to the <HI>Parliament,</HI> who by one <HI>Ordina<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters"></HI> have put down the <HI>Common-prayer-book,</HI> by another <HI>Epi&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">y.</HI> If there|fore, under your <HI>termes,</HI> I &s;hould <HI>p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">l<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">quely</HI> &s;tand up in defence of them, you had need procure a third <HI>Ordinance,</HI> which when I have done may keep me &s;afe. Yet, Sir, to a&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters">e you that this is no <HI>eva&s;ion</HI> in me to decline a <HI>di&s;pute,</HI> becau&s;e my <HI>Sermon</HI> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">as the oc|ca&s;ion of your <HI>challenge</HI> of me in the <HI>Pulpit,</HI> and of this <HI>private conference</HI> betweene <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">s &s;ince; Since al&s;o you allow me the <HI>liberty</HI> of <HI>alteration,</HI> and to adde my <HI>&s;troke</HI> to the <HI>A<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">ill</HI> on which the <HI>que&s;tions</HI> to be di&s;puted on between us are to receive the la&s;t <HI>form,</HI> and <HI>&s;hape,</HI> in which, with lea&s;t <HI>offence,</HI> and <HI>&s;can<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters">l,</HI> they may walk into the <HI>publique.</HI> La&s;tly, &s;ince the three Latine <HI>Que&s;tions</HI> you &s;ent me are <HI>dree pa&s;&s;ages</HI> of my <HI>Sermon,</HI> but &s;o <HI>corrupted</HI> from <HI>them&s;elves,</HI> as &s;hew them to have been once p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">r<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">y <HI>P<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="4 letters">&s;tant,</HI> but pa&s;&s;ing through your hands have <HI>degenerated,</HI> and <HI><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="4 letters">ed</HI> them|&s;elves with a to-be-&s;u&s;pected <HI>robe</HI> of <HI>Popery,</HI> the neare&s;t way I knew for us to agree upon their <HI>true &s;tate,</HI> is to deale with them as the <HI>Bi&s;hops</HI> at the <HI>Reformation</HI> dealt with the <HI>Religion</HI> of the <HI>Church</HI> of <HI>Rome;</HI> that is, p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">rge them from their <HI>corruptions,</HI> and re&s;tore them to the <HI>Primitive rule</HI> from whence they have di|gre&s;t. Which <HI>Ride,</HI> being my <HI>Sermon,</HI> (if you read it with open eyes) pre&s;ents you with your <HI>three que&s;tions,</HI> in this more <HI>ge<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">i<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">e forme.</HI></P>
<P>An
<LIST>
<ITEM><HI>Liturgia Ang<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ican<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> ide&ograve; elimin<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">da &s;ie, qui<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="4 letters">ullas partes ab Eccle&s;i&acirc; <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> na<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&acirc; <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> e&s;t,</HI> Neg.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Chri&s;ti, Sa<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">rum&abque; imagines in Reformater. Eccle&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">is <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">it&egrave; r<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ti<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">eri p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;si<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">t,</HI> Aff.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Regimen Eccle&s;ia Anglic<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">na per Epi&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">s &s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">t Anti|chri&s;tianum, ex eo qu&ograve;d Eccle&s;ia Romana (qua~ non|nulli &s;edem Antichri&s;ti &s;tatuunt) &s;ic gubernatur,</HI> Neg.</ITEM>
</LIST></P>
<P>Vpon the&s;e <HI>three Que&s;tions</HI> (which are but <HI>three periods</HI> of my <HI>Sermon</HI> ca&s;t into a <HI>problematicall forme</HI>) if you approve of them, and, like a <HI>generous Adver&s;ary,</HI> will promi&s;e me, that neither for <HI>&s;en<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ing</HI> of them to you <HI>now,</HI> nor for <HI>defending</HI> them <HI>hereafter,</HI>
<PB N="56" REF="30">I &s;hall be que&s;tion'd, (for this I require no other <HI>&s;ecurity</HI> but your <HI>word</HI>) I will not faile (God a&s;&s;i&s;ting me) to meet you in the <HI>Divinity Schoole</HI> at <HI>&V;niver&s;ity weapons,</HI> when ever you &s;hall think fit to call upon me; and to bring with you tho&s;e <HI>Arguments,</HI> which, you &s;ay, you <HI>re&s;erve for that place,</HI> and in your <HI>two letters</HI> have not vouch&s;afed to afford me, who doe daily pray (for I be|gin to be weary of <HI>fighting</HI> with <HI>&s;hades</HI>) that this <HI>unnece&s;&s;ary con|flict</HI> may at length end in a <HI>Chri&s;tian peace</HI> between <HI>you</HI> the <HI>oppo|nent,</HI> and <HI>me</HI> the <HI>defender</HI> of</P>
<CLOSER><DATELINE><HI>From my Chamber this Afternoone,</HI><DATE>Feb. 4. 1646.</DATE></DATELINE>
<SIGNED><HI>The</HI> Sermon <HI>again&s;t</HI> Fal&s;e Prophets, J. MAYNE.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
</LETTER>
<P>In the <HI>evening</HI> to the <HI>afternoone,</HI> in which this Letter was &s;ent, M. <HI>Cheynell</HI> returned an <HI>An&s;wer,</HI> not &s;o <HI>large,</HI> I confe&s;s, as I ex|pected; but compo&s;ed of <HI>Language,</HI> &s;o <HI>complying</HI> with my <HI>de&s;ires,</HI> that I unfainedly felt a new &s;trife within my &s;elf, how, having hitherto tolerably borne his <HI>rougher a&s;&s;aults,</HI> I &s;hould pre&s;erve my &s;elf from being conquer'd by his <HI>civilities.</HI> Which I confe&s;s, have &s;uch a <HI>forcible charme</HI> upon my <HI>nature, &s;oftend,</HI> and <HI>tutor'd</HI> to it by <HI>Religion;</HI> that the World cannot afford an <HI>Enemy,</HI> who &s;hall rai&s;e &s;uch a <HI>tempe&s;t</HI> of <HI>per&s;ecution</HI> again&s;t me, but that I &s;hall be ready to afford him my <HI>Imbraces,</HI> and <HI>Armes,</HI> if he will be con|tent to be received there in a <HI>calme.</HI> I do farther confe&s;s, that M. <HI>Cheynell,</HI> by undertaking to &s;ecure me again&s;t the <HI>danger</HI> which might have followed a <HI>publique di&s;pute,</HI> hath not onely veri|fied my expre&s;&s;ion, and &s;hewne him&s;elfe a <HI>generous adver&s;ary,</HI> but by that <HI>engagement</HI> of <HI>him&s;elf,</HI> hath made me &s;ee, what rea&s;on I have to complaine of my <HI>hard fortune,</HI> which hath left me onely the <HI>will,</HI> and not the <HI>power,</HI> to be in the like kind, as <HI>generous</HI> to <HI>Him</HI> back again. His <HI>Letter</HI> was to a <HI>&s;yllable</HI> this.</P>
<LETTER LANG="eng">
<PB N="57" REF="30">
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>You may be confident that the <HI>Me&s;&s;enger</HI> was not &s;ent by <HI>me,</HI> becau&s;e he return'd <HI>without</HI> you and <HI>without</HI> his <HI>fees.</HI> I never writ up one <HI>Letter</HI> to <HI>London</HI> that did in the lea&s;t mea&s;ure <HI>reflect</HI> upon you; if <HI>your Sermon</HI> had not been <HI>printed,</HI> I had not <HI>&s;poke</HI> one word again&s;t it. I de&s;ire to deale with you in a <HI>rationall way,</HI> and therefore I doe accept of your <HI>Academicall propo&s;ition</HI> or <HI>challenge</HI> &s;o often &s;ent me; and becau&s;e I find my <HI>prayers</HI> in &s;ome mea&s;ure <HI>an&s;wered,</HI> and <HI>you</HI> more <HI>civill</HI> then heretofore, I &s;hall deale <HI>freely</HI> with you. I doe here under my <HI><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> b<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">nd</HI> a&s;sure you, that if you be <HI>que&s;tioned</HI> for defending the&s;e <HI>Propo&s;itions</HI> in a <HI>Schola&s;ticall</HI> way, (you know <HI>reproaches</HI> are not <HI>Schola&s;ticke</HI>) in the <HI>publique Schools,</HI> I will an&s;wer for you; the <HI>Parliament</HI> will not que&s;tion you for any <HI>learned nationall debate</HI> about <HI>Prelates</HI> or the <HI>Common-Prayer-Booke,</HI> for the &s;atisfaction of <HI>your &s;elf</HI> and <HI>others.</HI></P>
<P>I will meet you if you plea&s;e, at the <HI>Doctor</HI> of the <HI>Chaire</HI> his lodgings to <HI>morrow</HI> about two of the clock in the <HI>afternoon;</HI> I doubt not but by his advice we &s;hall, agree upon <HI>termes</HI> fit to ex|pre&s;s the points in <HI>Controver&s;ie;</HI> if you like the <HI>propo&s;all</HI> be plea&s;ed to &s;end your approbation of it in <HI>two lines</HI> by this <HI>bea|rer</HI> to&punc;</P>
<CLOSER><DATELINE><HI>Mert. Coll.</HI><DATE><HI>Feb.</HI> 4. 1646.</DATE></DATELINE>
<SIGNED><HI>Your friend to &s;erve you,</HI> FRAN: CHEYNELL.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
</LETTER>
<P>To this <HI>Letter</HI> (which was the <HI>la&s;t</HI> I received from him) by the <HI>&s;ame Me&s;&s;enger</HI> that brought it, I return'd this <HI>An&s;wer,</HI> which was the <HI>la&s;t</HI> he received from <HI>me.</HI></P>
<LETTER LANG="eng">
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>I &s;hall (God willing) meet you to <HI>morrow</HI> at your <HI>houre,</HI> at the <HI>Doctor</HI> of the <HI>Chaire's Lodging.</HI> Where if you be as willing to &s;ubmit to the <HI>termes</HI> which he &s;hall think fit to put the <HI>Que|&s;tions</HI> in, which we are to <HI>di&s;pute</HI> upon as I &s;hall be, there will be no <HI>variance&punc;</HI> between us there, nor &s;hall we I hope, bring any with us from the <HI>Divinity School.</HI> Where Sir, you &s;hall meet <HI>one</HI> who is &s;o great a <HI>lover</HI> of <HI>truth,</HI> that if you can <HI>convince</HI> me for
<PB N="58" REF="31">being all this while in an <HI>Errour,</HI> I &s;hall think my &s;elf indeed, a <HI>gainer</HI> by this <HI>conflict.</HI> And no longer &s;tile my &s;elf the <HI>defender</HI> of the <HI>Sermon</HI> again&s;t <HI>Fal&s;e Prophets,</HI> but <HI>one,</HI> who for being <HI>confuted</HI> by <HI>you</HI> ought to remain</P>
<CLOSER><DATELINE><HI>From my Chamber,</HI><DATE><HI>Feb.</HI> 4. 1646.</DATE></DATELINE>
<SIGNED><HI>Your</HI> Affectionate friend <HI>and</HI> Servant, J<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">SPE<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> MAYNE.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
</LETTER>
<P>Here, if any be <HI>curious</HI> to know how this <HI>la&s;t act</HI> of our <HI>conf<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">nce</HI> ended, or what <HI>Cata&s;trophe</HI> did &s;h<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters"> up the <HI>conflict</HI> between us, which had &s;o much <HI>bu&s;ie Epita&s;i<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"></HI> and <HI>expectation</HI> in it, I could wi&s;h Ma&s;ter <HI>Cheynell</HI> him&s;elf were the <HI>Hi&s;torian.</HI> Neverthele&s;s, none will have rea&s;on to thinke me <HI>partiall</HI> or <HI>unfaithfull</HI> in my <HI>Report,</HI> having not only Ma&s;ter <HI>Wilkin&s;on,</HI> if I deliver <HI>fal&s;e &s;tory,</HI> but the <HI>Doctor</HI> of the <HI>Chaire</HI> to <HI>di&s;prove,</HI> and <HI>contradict</HI> me. At who&s;e <HI>lodging</HI> in <HI>Chri&s;t-church</HI> when we met, Fir&s;t, with a <HI>prudence</HI> becoming the <HI>gravity</HI> of his <HI>per&s;on,</HI> and the <HI>Dignity</HI> of his <HI>pl<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">e,</HI> he told us, that he could not think it fit to fit <HI>moderatour</HI> to any <HI>di&s;putation</HI> which was not either <HI>preform&acirc;,</HI> and conduced to the taking of a <HI>degree,</HI> or <HI>pro T<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">mi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">,</HI> which is a <HI>Di<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters">ity exerci&s;e,</HI> at which the <HI>&V;niver&s;ity Statutes</HI> require his pre&s;ence in the <HI>chaire.</HI> Next, if we re&s;olved to meet in the <HI>Schools</HI> without a <HI>moderatour,</HI> his <HI>advice</HI> was, that Ma&s;ter <HI>Cheynell</HI> &s;hould have his <HI>&s;cribe</HI> and I <HI>mine,</HI> to write down faithfully his <HI>Arguments</HI> and my <HI>Replyes:</HI> which thus <HI>taken</HI> and <HI>compared,</HI> would not be &s;o liable to the <HI>va|riations</HI> of <HI>report,</HI> as when the <HI>eares</HI> and <HI>memories</HI> of the <HI>h<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters">ers</HI> are their <HI>only Regi&s;ter.</HI></P>
<P>There remained but one <HI>difficulty,</HI> which was, how to make us <HI>agree</HI> upon <HI>que&s;tions</HI> fit to be <HI>di&s;puted</HI> in &s;uch a <HI>publike way.</HI> M. <HI>Cheynell</HI> utterly refu&s;ed <HI>Mine,</HI> and the <HI>Doctor</HI> of the <HI>Chaire</HI> thought it no way <HI>rea&s;onable,</HI> that in the <HI>dangerous attire</HI> they wore, I &s;hould accept of <HI>his;</HI> e&s;pecially the <HI>fir&s;t:</HI> Which upon M. <HI>Cheynells</HI> unlocking of the full <HI>extent</HI> and <HI>meaning</HI> of the <HI>termes,</HI> revealed it &s;elf to be a kinde of <HI>Trojan hor&s;e; con&s;ecrated</HI> indeed to <HI>Pallas</HI> without, but lined with an <HI>Ambu&s;h</HI> of <HI>Armed enemies</HI> within. For, be&s;ides the Words <HI>Mi&s;&s;all, Breviary,</HI> and <HI>Pontificall</HI> (again&s;t which I before gave in my <HI>exceptions</HI>) by <HI>A pr<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="4 letters">is de|cerpta,
<PB N="59" REF="31">popido&abque;, obtrufa,</HI> Ma&s;ter <HI>Cheynell</HI> &s;aid, he not only meant tho&s;e parts of our <HI>Engli&s;h Lyturgie</HI> which have been borrowed from the <HI>Church</HI> of <HI>Rome,</HI> but the <HI>Scotch Lyturgie</HI> too, as it was impo&s;ed upon that <HI>Nation</HI> by the <HI>Sword.</HI> Which, though it were a mi&s;take in him to &s;ay it was <HI>impo&s;ed</HI> by the <HI>&s;word,</HI> (&s;ince the date of the <HI>reception</HI> of it in that <HI>Church</HI> was the year 1637. At which time the <HI>Sword</HI> of both <HI>Nations</HI> lodged peaceably in the <HI>Scab|berd</HI>) and though upon the peru&s;all of it &s;ince, E<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">nde it the &s;ame in all points with ours, but only in the contraction of the <HI>forme</HI> of the <HI>Admini&s;tration</HI> of the <HI>L<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">rds Supper,</HI> and &s;o for the matter of it as <HI>defen&s;ible</HI> as <HI>ours,</HI> yee having been turned out of that <HI>King|dome,</HI> and <HI>Church</HI> as &s;olemnly as it was at fir&s;t introduced, that is, by an <HI>Act of Parliament;</HI> To who&s;e birth the <HI>King</HI> and <HI>Hou&s;es</HI> concurred, for me to have di&s;puted <HI>publiquely</HI> for the &s;econd re|ception of it, had been the way not only to rai&s;e a <HI>Northern Ar|my</HI> of men again&s;t my &s;elf, (who would, doubtle&s;s, have thought it a very <HI>bold piece</HI> of <HI>in&s;olence</HI> in me to di&s;allow in a <HI>publique di|&s;pute,</HI> the <HI>proceedings</HI> of a whole <HI>State</HI>) but of &s;uch <HI>Northerne Wo|men</HI> too, who&s;e <HI>zeale</HI> upon the fir&s;t reading of that <HI>innocent Lyturgie,</HI> mi&s;took it for the <HI>Ma&s;s booke,</HI> and thereupon conver|ted their <HI>Joynt-&s;tools,</HI> upon which they &s;ate, into <HI>Weapons,</HI> with which they invaded the <HI>Reader,</HI> and chaced him, with his <HI>New|born Popery</HI> in his hand, out of the <HI>Church.</HI> The&s;e <HI>Rea&s;ons</HI> being layed to tho&s;e other, which in my la&s;t <HI>letter</HI> but one, produced to &s;hew how &s;candalous, as well as un&s;afe, it would in all likely|hood, prove both to the <HI>&V;niver&s;ity</HI> and <HI>my &s;elf,</HI> if I &s;hould <HI>pub|liquely</HI> maintaine a <HI>que&s;tion</HI> which carryed &s;o much <HI>danger</HI> with it, I pre&s;t M. <HI>Cheynell</HI> with the <HI>intimation</HI> which he gave me in his <HI>la&s;t letter,</HI> which was, to &s;tand to that <HI>frame</HI> of <HI>Que&s;tions</HI> which the <HI>Doctor</HI> of the <HI>Chaire</HI> &s;hould contrive for us. To who&s;e <HI>Or|dering</HI> of the <HI>terme</HI> of his fir&s;t <HI>Que&s;tion</HI> if he would &s;ubmit, I pro|mi&s;ed him to accept of his <HI>other t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">,</HI> (th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters"> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> in the <HI>D<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters"></HI> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> the <HI>Chaires</HI> opinion, the <HI>termes</HI> of his <HI>third Que&s;tion</HI> were &s;omething hard) in th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters"> <HI><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">orm<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"></HI> into which he <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">d <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">a&s;t them. To this his reply was, that after the Words <HI>p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">pulo obtru&s;a,</HI> in his <HI>fir&s;t Que&s;tion,</HI> he would allow me to in&s;ert the&s;e two words of <HI>Miti|gation, ut fertur.</HI> Whereto my an&s;wer was, that this <HI>addition</HI> would &s;o litle de&s;erve the name of a <HI>Mitigation,</HI> that it very much
<PB N="60" REF="32">increa&s;t my burthen, and hung more <HI>weights</HI> upon me. Since here|by I obliged my &s;elf, not only to &s;tand up for the <HI>Re-admi&s;sion</HI> of the <HI>Scotch Lyturgie;</HI> which could not be done without an <HI>affront</HI> offered to the <HI>Act</HI> of <HI>State</HI> that bani&s;ht it, but for the <HI>Ju&s;tificati|on</HI> of all the <HI>unknown practices</HI> of the <HI>Prelates,</HI> who had the con|trivance of that <HI>Lyturgie,</HI> again&s;t the <HI>Sini&s;ter reports,</HI> and <HI>Calum|nies</HI> of the <HI>incen&s;ed people.</HI> Who, as for &s;ome yeares, they have been fal&s;ely taught to thinke the <HI>Order</HI> of <HI>Bi&s;hops Antichri&s;tian,</HI> &s;o looking upon their <HI>per&s;ons</HI> through the <HI>mi&s;t</HI> ca&s;t by &s;ome <HI>Fal&s;e Prophets</HI> before their eyes, it ought to be no wonder if their <HI>be&s;t Actions</HI> have &s;eemed <HI>Popery.</HI> The <HI>Conclu&s;ion</HI> of all was this. M. <HI>Cheynell</HI> at length, without any farther <HI>Clouds</HI> of <HI>di&s;cour&s;e,</HI> told me plainly, that to any other <HI>alterations</HI> then <HI>this</HI> he could not con|&s;ent; being <HI>bound up</HI> by his <HI>in&s;tructions</HI> to hold this <HI>Que&s;tion</HI> only in the <HI>latitude</HI> &amp; <HI>&s;en&s;e,</HI> which was &s;ignified by the <HI>termes</HI> in which he had <HI>Arrayed</HI> it. Whereupon, the long expected <HI>&s;cene</HI> between us clo&s;ed, and the <HI>Curtaine</HI> to this <HI>Controver&s;ie</HI> was let fall. And <HI>we,</HI> after &s;ome mutuall exchanges of <HI>Civility, parted,</HI> I hope like <HI>two Divines,</HI> in <HI>perfect Charity</HI> with <HI>one another.</HI></P>
<TRAILER>THE END.</TRAILER>
<PB REF="32">
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
