IS apologeticall; and well may it be so. Satis­faction to tender Consciences, is that which we look for, and that which you ought to give; as having done violence through all your book to the person of an holy and religious Prelate, the eares of all good Christians with­in our Church, the established Laws of the Kingdom, the pre­tious and dear name of our common Master and Saviour Christ Jesus.

We must suppose you have undertaken a religious cause: that is your pretended subject; we shall examine the truth of it by and by; we must now look to your manner of hand­ling it: a suspicious way you think; and so do I. Here we agree. Your defense is, In such a cause, it is nothing disagree­ing from Christian meeknesse, the morall precept of Solomon, the example of Christ. What? to weary God and man, with lewd profanations, scurrilous jests, slanderous and reproach­full calumni [...]s? What morall precept in Solomon countenan­ces such language as thisSee more of [...]he same hotch­p [...]tch in the Episile. [Scum, Lad [...]es, Kitchen-Physick. Brawn, Beef, Kickeshaw and Crambe-Prayers, Motley and patcht incoherences. With hey passe, repasse, and the mysticall men of Sturbridge: Your Barber leading in Balaams Asse. Christ and his Apostles, Capon and white-broath in the same leaf. Esaus red pottage, and a spur-galled Galloway. Bastards and Centaurs of spirituall fornications. A Christian Mini­sters Surplice, and an Egyptian Priests frock in the same suds: your Primero of piety, Cogging of Dice into heaven. Gleeking and [Page 2] Bacchanalia, and Flanks, and Brickets, &c.] Such language you should scarce hear from the mouths of canting beggars, at an heathen [...], [...]. Arist. Eth. [...] 4. c. 8. [...] Latinis Scurra dicitur, sumtâ metaphorâ à mendicantibus, qui ad aras & templa Deum sedebant & jacebant, & à sacrificantibus stipem mendicabant. In­ter [...]a autem seipsos multis jocis & scom­matis vexabant, & interdum praetereun­te [...] conviti [...]s pr [...]scquebantur. à [...] ara, & [...] jaceo seu accubo. Vid. Mag. Co [...] Eth. Arist. altar; much lesse was it looked for in a treatise of controversall Theologie, as yours might have been thought, had you not thus pre­vented it. As for Christs example, which you blasphemously urge, sure­ly that holy mouth was never so foul, but then when it was spit upon: Yet neither was that indignity so bad as this.

Well, but what if the benefit of this kind of writing will make amends for the fault of it? Shall we do evill that good may come thereof? God forbid: not if the good which fol­lowed were far better than it is like to prove: for let us see, what does it promise? [Even this vein of laughter, as I could produce out of grave Authors, hath oft times a strong and sinewy force in teaching—] doubtlesse you mean Atheism. For what else it can teach I am as far to seek, as you are of those grave Authors that defend it. I care not to know what your read­ing hath been; and mine own is confest small: YetSir Fr. Bacon. One I have met withall, who (till you confute him with a graver) shall speak home to the purpose. To leave all reverend compas­sion towards evils, all religious indignation towards faults, to turn Religion into a Comedy or Satyr, to rip up wounds with a laughing countenance, to intermixe Scripture and scurrility sometimes in one sentence, is a thing far from the devout reverence of a Chri­stian, and scant beseeming the honest regard of a sober man. Is this your noble jealousie, your dear love to the souls of weak Christians! this your well-heated fervency! for shame render not that holy fire of zeal, which burned as bright in our fore-fathers breasts, [...]. Vid. Mer. Casaub. in Praesat ad Med. Mar. Aur. Anton. as it lyes dead in ours, any further suspected to the world; lest a­non, men think it nothing but a name, an ignis fatuus, or the lying and false bragge of some vain­glorious fools.

[Page 3] Again, it must be beleeved, you have done this not without a sad and unwilling anger, not without many hazzards: and therefore we must pardon your endevours! Who put you up­on the task? who forced an unwilling, relenting man, to com­mit such insolencies? Little charity doth he deserve, who will choose to ask forgivenesse, rather than not toNae tu, Aule, nimium nuga­tores, cùm maluisti culpam deprecari quàm culpâ carere:—te oro, qu [...]t perpulit ut id committeres, quod priusquam faceres, peteres uti ignosceretur. Cato apud Macrob i [...] Pr [...]fat▪ ad Saturn. offend.

NOt to tarry longer in your Preface; the intent of it was, as of other passages in your book, rather to maintain and defend libelling, than to give any pretended satisfaction: yet at the same time you condemn it too: condemn it on the Bi­shops side, defend it on your own. If any of their party (for indeed thus the matter stands now) do chance to write, then their writings are defaming * Invectives; Ask your Lysi­machus Nica­nor what d [...]fa­ming inve [...]tives &c. p. 7. if any of yours, then it is liberty of speaking, permission of free-writing: nothing more injurious, nothing more pinching, than the restraint of them to free-born spirits, p. 8. For my own part, I dislike them equal­ly in both; unlesse in you somewhat worse, than in all that in this kinde have wrote before, because you stand up to justifie it. That Lysimachus Nicanor, which you instance in, (is but one, and truly to my remembrance I have seen no more; one of theirs to an hundred of yours is oddes:) I misliked and cen­sured as much as any that I have read. But what have all the Bishops, on whom you so hotly charge it, to do with that? nay what he, in whose dish you so enviously and malitiously lay it? no more than you had sure with Newes from Hell, or the Protestation protested. Before I answer your Justification of these libels, I must tell you, you have wronged the noble inge­nuity and fair memory of that wonder of our age, Sir Francis Bacon, whom you here bring in as a witnesse against the Bi­shops, He complains (you say) of the Bishops uneven hand o­ver these kind of Pamphlets. Pag. 7. You say so: Hear him. [And here I do much esteem the wisedome a [...]d religion of that Bishop, [Page 4] which replyed to the first Pamphlet in this kinde; who remem­bred that a fool was to be answered, but not by becomming like unto him; and considered the matter he handled, and not the per­son with whom he dealt.]

You will say perhaps, this was but one Bishop: Hear him again in the name of them all. [I hope assuredly that my Lords of the Clergie have no intelligence with these other Libellours, but do altogether disallow, that their dealing should be thus defen­ded: For though I observe in him many glo [...]es, whereby the man would insinuate himself into their favour, yet I find too ordinary, that many pressing and fawning persons do misconjecture of men in authority; and many times Veneri immolant suem, they seek to gratifie them with that they most dislike.]—[For I have great reason to satisfie my self touching the judgment of my Lords the Bishops in this matter, by that which was written by one of them, whom I mentioned before with honour.] Whom have you wronged most now? your Authour, your Reader, or the Bi­shops? Beleeve me, who ever you are, such collusion as this is unchristian.

I return to you again. This permission of free-writing (so you are pleased to stile the most bitter and Atheisticall libels) were there no good else in it, yet at some time thus licenced, is such an unripping, &c.

Let the good be what it will, I am sure it is the most unwor­thy way of procuring it that may be. What Generall,Militum virtu­te non hosti­um imbecilli­te, potentia quaeri debet. Them [...]st. apud Iust. Spec. Europae p. [...]4. Lond. 1632. in whose brest there lived but one spark of noble valour, would first disarm the enemy, and then fight! The just arms that they have who defend a good cause, is innocence, integrity, and re­pute; which when they are deprived of, layes them open to such impotent nakednesse, as inevitably brings their ruine. [These courses (saith Master Sandys) are base and beggarly, even when singlenesse of mind and truth do concurre with them, and far unworthy of an ingenuous and noble spirit, which soareth up to the highest and purest pathes of Verity, disdaining to stand raking in these puddles of obscoenity, &c.] When singlenesse of mind and verity concurre; both which are wanting here in your cause: no singlenesse of mind, because these corruptions in man­ners are urged by you as arguments to disprove a clear and di­vine [Page 5] truth, (which Sir Francis Bacon will tell you, is as well now a policy of the Devils, as formerly pretended holinesse was to raise errors.) No truth, because though some cor­ruptions, and those grievous ones, are confessed and lamen­ted, yet not on his hand to whose person you lay them. Hear then my fore-cited Authour:Sandys Spec. E [...]rop. [But if to this basenesse of dis­coveries, other basenesse be also added; if malice prefer them, if sleight increase them, if falshood and slander taint them, then do they not onely abase men from the dignity of their nature, but even associate them with the foul enemy and calumniator there­of, whose name is the slanderous accuser of his brethren.

The good that arises of these libels,Mach. discour­ses upon Livie, lib. 1. c. 8. (as the Florentine in­forms me) is, to incite the people of fury and tumult, to breed hatred, findings, factions, ruine. [And yet it is some­what pinching among free-born sprits, if this liberty be deny­ed.] Yea, Some Citizens have served themselves of these ca­lumnies, and made them steps and helps to their ambitious ends. How? By confirming the people in an ill opinion of them that do oppose, thereby to get their votes and partage. And as it de­presseth that scale wherein you put all the Prelates, so it rai­seth that as much, wherein you put your selves.Vide Hooker Eccl. Pol. in Praefat. The ripping up with exceeding severity the faults of higher callings, beget­teth a great good opinion of integrity, of zeale and holinesse, to such constant reprovers of sin, as by likelihood would never be so much offended at that which is evill, were they not singularly good themselves. And further (as you have used the matter, imputing personall faults to the government in generall, of which I shall say somewhat anon) It gets you the opinion of wise men too, that can see farther into Ecclesiasticall affairs, than either the Founders or Conservers of this established Polity. Thus much of libels in generall. I come now to yours.

NOr would I have done you the injury to have called it so, were it not too too manifest. For that which even you professedly disavow (private and personall spleen, p. 3. lin. 18.) is the greatest matter in your book; the other busi­nesse [Page 6] being handled but by the by, or not at all: and where it is, in such a wretched, loathsome manner, as once I did almost doubt me, whether or no you did not jeer at both sides, at Religion, and God, and all. I shall first answer to those personall injuries, and then to the cause. Only first let me satisfie you concerning my engagements and dependen­cie, which perhaps you may possibly think might have wrought me to this vindication. I am free, as you, or any true subiect may or need be: I have a fortune therefore good, because I am content with it: and therefore content with it, because it neither goes before, nor comes behind my merit. God hath given me a soul, eager in the search of truth; and affections so equally tempered, that they neither too hastily adhere to the truth, before it be fully examined, nor too lazily afterward. Such excesse fills the world with furious, hot-braind Hereticks, Schismaticks, &c. the defect, with cold speculative Atheists. I have alwayes resolved that neither person nor cause shall improper me, further than they are good; and so far it is my duty to give evidence.

HE that shall weed a field of corn, bind the weeds up in sheaves, and present them at once to the eye of a stran­ger, that is ignorant how much good wheat the field bears, beside those weeds, may very well be deceived in censuring that field; especially if he which presents them hath put into the heap such weeds as came from elsewhere. Thus it fares with men, when the evil actions of the best are picked and culled out from their virtues, and all presented in grosse to­gether to the eye or ear of him who is otherwise ignorant of the persons whose vices or faults they are; what monsters do they seem! This and more have you done to our Prelate: This, in pinning upon his sleeve the faults of others: More, in that those which you pretend faults are indeed virtues.Foxian. Confess. p. 14. What hath the Remonstrant to an­swer for the * scorn that is by some thrown upon our Martyrs; while it is known to all, that will not be ignorant, [Page 7] that he doth both honour their memories, and tread in their steps; and that he doth not, as they did, in an holy zeal sa­crifice his blood to his God, is not that he is backward to it, but that it is not yet required at his hands. God is my witnesse, I do not, neither can I flatter him: He that so pa­tiently hath offered up his fame, his civill life, to be torn by the teeth and phangs of calumny, how shall I think he will love his blood better than that? I know what it is that hath rendred many Martyrs and their stories so suspected as they are,Vide Donnes Pseudom. to wary and uncredulous men: Sometime a * wrong cause; when Traytours shall engage God in a conspiracy, and then being detected and brought to execution, dye for it no lesse undauntedly than if it were for the dearest truth; unhappily priding themselves in that, for which they ought rather to have repented. What glory is it,1 Pet. 2. 20. if when ye are buf­feted for your faults ye take it patiently? Sometimes the seeking their own deaths in a good cause, out of ambition of obtaining that honour, which those first times of the Church had set upon Martyrdome. Whence I should think it as dis­commendable for men to seek thus over-eagerly their own deaths, banishments, confiscations of goods, stigmatizings, as the Philosopher did the seeking of * preferments: [...]. A­rist. Pol. 2. c. 7. Neither shall I ever esteem either their names or memories who shall thus gather sticks for their own severall piles; and as if God knew not what honour was sit for them, be their own Car­vers: so may the same thorns which Christ wore as the Crown of Humility, be upon their heads the Crown of Pride. Otherwhiles the ignorant or malitious unfaithfulnesse of the Martyrologers, in transmitting to us those Church-sto­ries, big-swoln with untrue Legends, as so many invincible arguments of the truth of that cause, which those Martyrs sealed with their blood. I have seen beyond sea what the Jesuites of our own nation have carped at Master Fox his History; which made me think, though I durst not say, that they injured them no lesse now than formerly: and if any one of ours shall do the like, I shall think he wisheth no better to the Protestant cause than they do.

AFter you have born the people in hand, that our Re­monstrant hath defamed the old ones, it is an easie thing to perswade them that he hath made new. So you do; [haled some into the Gehenna at Lambeth, Pag 12. strappado'd others with an oath ex officio—] If that Court hath been illegall, either in the constitution of it, or in its proceedings, it is more than I know: but if so, the Remonstrant is as guiltlesse of such illegalities, as I am ignorant: And a fault commit­ted there can no more prejudice Him, than the Divine right of Episcopacy. Though your Bow-men here were quick in the delivery of their arrows, yet they were wide of the mark.

IF you missed before, now you will be sure to hit him, [You love toothlesse Satyrs; Let me inform you, a toothlesse Satyre is as improper as atoothed sleek-stone, and as Bullish.] I wonder you go no lower; perhaps his cradle might have yeelded you some worthy observation: It was reckoned a­mongst Saint Augustines faults,Ger. M [...]ringus in vita Sancti August. faults, that in his infancy he did morosiùs flere. Such a note had not been amisse here; but vixit is enough for that; an happy time, that you cannot in­vent a slander to fixe upon. You begin therefore with his youth; the sport and leisure of his youth, even that must be raked up out of the dust, and cited to witnesse against him, as it were to disparage the holinesse of his Age and Calling. [When my early sinnes are done away as a morning cloud, they shall never obscure or darken my setting Sun: God will never impute them to me, man may] hath been the comfort of many a dying Saint, in the day of evill, when the iniquity of their heels have encompassed them; many, whose first years have been as famous for * debauchednesse,Primam [...] tis par [...]em [...]e quaera [...], in coe no perdidit. [...] T [...]es. de S. Aug. as their latter for de­votion: whiles this Remonstrant no sooner came to be capa­ble of the more violent impressions of sin, but his nature and it fell foul; and because he had overcome vices in himself, [Page 9] he took liberty to whip them in others. Which timely zeal, as it did not mis-become his youth, so can it not disparage hisNon corrum­puntur in dete­rius quae ali­quando etiam à malis, s [...]d ho­n [...]sta ma [...]e [...]t. quae saepius à bonis fiunt. P [...]in. l. 5. ep. 3. Arist. apolog. pro suis l [...]dic. i [...]. Prelacy; no, not as Poesic, not as Satyr: The first you cannot condemn; and the latter I will maintain, against greater Criticks than you would dare boast to have been conversant with: only if I appeal to such, my fear is, I shall have no adversary.

To let passe therefore your simile of the sleek-stone (which shews that you can be as bold with a Prelate, as familiar with your Laundresse,) why, in the name of Philology, is a toothlesse Satyr improper? why Bullish?

The Authour himself furnished you with the exception:Epig. ad suas Satyras. and had you had but so much life or quicknesse in your pallade, as to have tasted an Epigram, you might have understood he speaks there in the person of such carping Poetasters as you, and your now-despised Tribe, are: They say, they are Mon­sters; you, that they are Bulls: you mean, I suppose, Chy­maera's; absurd and ridiculous compositions of words, in­consistible with sense. Let us therefore, if you will, take them in pieces, and see where the incongruity lyes. Satyra signified anciently any kind of miscellaneous writing, which we now term * Essayes; Farrage libelli Iuv. Sat. 1. I [...]ge [...]ell. Mosellanus ad Gell. [...]. 1. c. 17. whence Varro entituled many of his books of divers subjects, * Satyras suas: Whence there was also a Law called metaphorically * Lex Satyra, when by one and the same Vote, divers things were enacted. Last of all, it came to be restrained to such kind of writings, as contained the vices of the times, whether in verse or prose; more commonly now of later times in verse. Dens or den­tatus you cannot think should come here into composition with a Satyre, in the primitive or proper signification of it, so as to make Satyra dentata as we say it of a child, after its teeth are grown, or before, that he hath teeth, or is tooth­lesse: we must seek then some other sense for it; where I finde teeth and horns to signifie strength, used to defense or [Page 10] injury. Nothing is more familiar in Scripture, than horn for strength: [...],Luk. 1. 69. Hebraeis fami­liare est (Ke­ren) id est cor­nu, pro vi & [...]o­bore usurpare, sumpta meta­phora ab ani­malibus cor­nupetis. Beza ad [...]oc. He hath raised up an horn of salvation; a strong salvation. So also for injurious strength, foenum habet in cornu is a common Proverb. The word, Matth. 10. 16. which we translate simple, or harmlesse, is [...], ab [...] cornu. Thus Martial lib. 13. ep. 91.

So vinum edentulum was used by the Ancients for small wines, such as we say in plain English, will do a man no hurt: Vinum edentulum, hoc est nullarum virium, vel saltem perexiguarum. Salmuth. ex Gualth. Tit. 25. p. 84. In the same sense Horace speaks of the effects of strong wines:

makes a man bold or injurious: and in this sense (unlesse these Authours are improper, it is no Bull to say a toothlesse Satyr, i. e. an harmlesse Poem, that doth ‘Parcere personis, dicere de vitiis;’ spare the person, but strike the vice: For such should a true Satyrist be,

Satyrae incolumes are harmlesse (more elegantly) tooth­lesse Satyrs; in opposition to Satyrae mordaces, biting or toothed Satyrs; such as for their loose insolencies were by Law forbidden to the Ancients.

[Page 11] To which decorum our Authour professes himself to have had respect, Virgidem. lib. 3. in Prol.

And Sir David Lindsey in his Satyr in Prol.

Though what was, and is denyed the stage, is got up into the Pulpit: much as the manner was with Chaucers Pardoner.

As you have censured the Remonstrants Poesie, so in like manner you have justified a slip in the Smectymnuans Phi­lology; I mean, so weakly, not so malitiously, they mistook a Bench for a Judge; or rather the place for the men: Areo­pagi for Areopagitae; and you make it good: How? [If in Note: pag. 6.dealing with an outlandish name they thought it best not to screw the English mouth to an harsh forrain termination, they [Page 12] did no more than the elegantest Authours among the Greeks, Romans, Italians, &c.] Every Countrey, I know, takes and gives that leave in the use of forraign words, to fit them to their own easiest pronunciation and best liking: sometimes out of necessity, sometimes of choice and pleasure onely. The Greeks when they met with words terminated in any of these letters, [...], because such terminations were un­known to them, usually changed them. As Polybius for [...] writes [...]. And Suetonius (as some will have it) tells us how the Romans used the old Germane word (Nam parum abfuit cuin à Bructero quod [...]m occideretur. Suet in T [...]b. Som [...] readings for [...]ruct [...]ro have Ructe [...]o: [...]orren­tius his manuscript hath Rut [...]ro. Rutters) which they still use to signifie horsemen in war. And so perhaps our English word (Meat) is but Mattya fashioned to our Dialect:

So the Italian Inciostro from the Latine word Ex purpurâ atramenti genus conficiebatur, qu [...]d Encaustum nominabatur: h [...]c soli Impe­ratores privil giis & literis subscribendis [...]ebantur.—un­de & Inchiostro postea deriva­tum credo, Guido Pancirollus rerum memorab tit Encaust p 10. Encaustum, as likewise our English word (Inke.)

[Our learned Chaucer did not sticke to doe so.]

True.

What is all this to the purpose?Ceys for Ceyx. Chaucer hath mollifyed a termination, [...] quod valet [...] in [...]: he hath not metamor­phosed the name of a place into the name of a man: or if he had,Sir Ph. Sidney Defense of Poes. it were one of those faults which ought to be forgiven (not imitated) in so reverend antiquity. The old Latines wrote im for eum, joure for jure, nox and noctu for nocte, die­quinte for die quinto: Would you do so now? Yes, yes, any thing, rather than acknowledge the least errour: For either you are as dis-ingenuous in matters of Grammar as of Reli­gion; in both, purposing therefore to maintain a thing, be­cause you have said it; or else perhaps you have a designe to innovate as well upon our language as upon our Church-government. If you be remembred, you set Afranius in Lu­cian to laugh at the Bishops; to return you an innocent jest, I will set Demonax upon you. [...]. Luc. Demo [...]ax. This Demo­nax asked one a question, who answered him in old obsolete affected words; Prethee fellow (saith he) where are thy wits? I ask thee a que­stion now, and thou answerest 400. years ago. I ask in the sixteenth of King Charls, and you answer in the first of King John. For your Aula & Olla, that you say is the same in old Latine, I could clap you on the shoulder with a Greek Proverb as old, [...], Children and [...]ools, &c.

But for your application of it in plain English [Aula and Hall] I must tell you it was an observation as unchristian & flanderous in that particular,Pag. 66. as in the generalOmina quae­dam occultio­ra sumpta sunt ex rebus, locis, nominibus, vestibus. Vide Isa. Pont. in Collectan. ad Ma­crobium. Ex nominibus, Roma quasi [...], robur. Roma, non Romula, ne male ominaretur diminutivum. Ne mihi damn [...]m in Epidamn [...] duas. Plaut. in Me [...] ch. omen, non à loci aliquâ incommoditate, sed à nomine tantùm. Item, S [...]te emem, Lu­cridem fore confido [...] in Pers. Vnde à d [...]s plerunque auspieata nomina: A love, Dio­cles, Diogenes, Diom [...]des: A Iunone, Heraclides, Heraclitus: A Sole, Helius, H [...]od [...]rus, &c. Hugo Grotius in Februis ad Mart. Capell. Sa yricon. superstitious.

NExt you impugne his Logick: The Remonstrant had said,

And thereupon you cry, Treason! and want of Logick! In the first you are uncharitable; in the last, irrationall, only guilty of that failing which you impute to the Remonstrant. For look upon your syllogism; there is in the major proposition, fallacia ad plures interrogationes: For either we ask, what is possible only; or what is possible and lawfull. The Remon­strant answers; It is possible Civill Polity may vary; or, It is in the generall notion left of God to a various administra­tion; subject to divers forms, Monarchy, Aristocracy, De­mocracy. You answer; It may be lawfully done at any time, or by any what ever undertakers: For so much is infer­red in your conclusion.

This makes the Treason, this you must and do inferre, or else you charge him with Treason unjustly. In this sense, as lawfull, and, at any time, and, by any undertakers, the Remon­strant denyes the particular to be inferred upon his generall. But in his own he grants it, viz. That it is possible, subject to a condition of variation, though it be Treason against the highest Majesty of heaven, whose substitute the King is, in him or them who do attempt a change. And in this saying [Page 15] he sayes no more, than all Statesmen of the generall, and Sir Francis Bacon of our particular,Considerations touching the Church of Eng­land. had said before him. [All civill governments are restrained from God unto the gene­rall grounds of justice and manners, but the Policies and forms of them are left free;] free, and to the arbitrement of a peo­ple, met together and consenting by the secret impression and instinct of God, [...], Arist. lib. 3. Pol. cap. 6. to take what form of government they please: which being setled according to the generall rules of justice, and particular rules of the best advancement of publike good, is so immediately ratified by God, by his infusion of sove­raignty into him or them, who by the joint consent of all is advanced to the helm; as also (to us Christians) by lay­ing so many injunctions upon the people,Rom. 3. 5. to obey and ho­nour all those in authority, not for wrath, but for conscience sake; that it is a [...]inne of the highest degree, onely but in thought to meditate an alteration.

The Apostles distinction, [...], shewes us what is the Kings hold, and what is our duty. The Kings hold is divine; he hath a deputed soveraignty, which works upon the conscience, either willing or refusing to submit, in just lawfull and indifferent things: our duty is, in these things, willingly to obey: and in case of substra­ction of our obedience, to know that he hath [...], a compulsory power, without which God had put the sword into his hands in vain; that is, made him like a George on horse-back, with his hand and sword lift up, but not able to strike.

In this point I suppose both they that labour for and a­gainst Episcopacy, do agree jointly.

ENvie is a make-bate, alwayes doing ill offices: if it can­not compasse its own ends one way, it will another. You, not having any thing to accuse the Remonstrant to the King, do it to the Parliament. [Gladly you say, Pag 6. we beleeve you, as gladly as your faction wished for the assembling of this [Page 16] Parliament. Pag 13.—Whether this reflect not with [...]cont [...]ely up­on the Parliament.—] Let the theef or murderer dread the Judge; Let fear dwell where it ought, in guilty bosomes. Doubtlesse the Remonstrant; and those which you esteem hi [...] faction, are as glad of, and wish as well to this Honourable Assembly, as you and yours do. It is not the Parliament they make head against, but you and your furious complices, who between soft flattery towards some of that House, and rough violence to others (witnesse your Libels against so many of them, as their consciences made Vote contrary to some proceedings) are like to over-turn all. They know, and so do I, That the Sunne looks not upon a braver, nobler Convocation, than is that of King, Peeres, and Commons; whose equall Justice, and wise moderation, shall eternally triumph, in that they have hitherto deferred to do, what the sowre exorbitancies on one hand, and eager solicitations on the other, not permitting them to consult with reason, would have prompted them to: who know how to ponder wise and graveNumerantur sententiae, non pondera [...]tur: nihil est tam in­aequale, quàm aequalitas ip [...]a: nam c [...]m sit impar prudentia, par omnium jus est. P [...]in. l. 3. epist. 12. sentences, not from the number, but the worth of them that propound them. Among whom, even the youngest and un­skilfullest may stand a pattern and example to future times, teaching State-Novices, ra­ther to inform their judgments to the good of the next Assembly, than to use them to theRudes nos & imperitos redu­cta libertas deprehendit, cujus duleedine accensi, cogimur quaedam sac [...]re antequam nosse. Idem l. 3. ep. 14. prejudice of this present. The gravest and most experienced, to be what they are thought, and to deserve all that praise, with which the peopleSenatus, humano g [...]ne ire­verendus, O [...]bis terrae consili­um, Asylum mundi, Fid [...]m & al [...]um reipublicae pectus. Vide Fil [...]sac [...]m l. 3. s [...]lect. T. t. Sen [...]otus Ven. Sen. §. 4, 5, &c. load them. So to satisfie their desires as they are just, not as they are Non considerandem est quid vir opt [...]mus in praesent â [...], sed quid semper sit probaturus. Plin. l. b. [...]. ep. 7. Sunt quae non dare, sed nega [...]e, beneficium est. Poscit aeger frigidam, ira [...]us serrum, &c. exorari in pernitiem rega [...]tium, saeva est [...]. Sen. de B [...]nef. vehement: considering that the multitude crave only out of the sense of evils; of which so long they will have a sense, as they are willing to obey. All conspiring unanimous­ly, so to advance the pure Religion of our dearest Saviour, that it be not dispirited [Page 17] on one hand by gaudy ceremonious Formalists; nor lost on the other amids a Crowd of sullen and ignorant Sectaries: and after that (to which it is an honour for him to submit) the divine soveraignty and royall Immunities of our most Gratious Master.

WE must go higher yet▪ and if we will, may beleeve the Remonstrant to be [a notorious enemy to truth, pag. 2. a false Prophet, pag. 3. a belly-god, proud and covetous, pag. 5 squeezed to a wretched, cold, and hollow-hearted con­fession of some Prelaticall ryots, pag. 15. whose understanding nothing will cure but Kitchin-physick, pag. 17. a Laodicean, pag. 24. a dissembling Joab, pag. 28. a dawber with untempered morter, pag, 62.] Good God! thou that hast promised to di­rect the steps of the humble, and to be with those that are of a meek heart, instruct me how to chuse some other path to walk in towards my Eternity; for this my soul hates! Let me for ever be shut out of that heaven, that is the reward of such black calumny, such malitious and divellish slanders! And, O you my dear brethren, who are disaffected towards the Prelate, look upon and give evidence to the man! How is he an enemy to the truth, unlesse the Gospel of Christ be a lye! How is he a false Prophet, unlesse your selves who professe the same faith be impostors? View well that heap of age and reverence, and say whether that clear and health­full constitution, those fresh cheeks and quick eyes, that round tongue, agile hand, nimble invention, s [...]ay'd delive­ry, quiet calm and happy bosome, be the effects of threescore yeers surfeits andApponitur coena non mi­nus [...] q [...]àm frugi, [...] dele [...]ratur, [...] afficitur; [...]nd [...] post [...]7 [...], [...] [...]rumque vigor integer, ind [...]agile & vi [...]idum cor [...]us, [...]olaque ex [...]e [...]ecture prudentia. Pl n. l b 3. epist 1. gluttony. What time could he steal to bestow upon Mammon, the God of this world, who hath given us so large an account of his idlestOccasio [...]all Medit. minutes? whose whole life hath been nothing but a laborious search after humane and divine truths, which having pickt out, (as that little miracle of nature doth honey) from weeds and flowers, he did not improper to himself, but liberally dealt [Page 18] them to theNon [...]ibi, sed operi bibunt. Quint decla. 13. Apes paupe is. good of the publike; his toyl being implea­santed to himself, in that he loved the work he went about; and accepted of the world, because they knew he dished out nothing to them, but what he tasted of himself; penned no­thing but what first he practised. How could he be lazie and idle, whose volumes are so many, whose preaching so frequent, whose studies so early and late; so that it is onely questionable whether his lips did drink in more grace than they distilled? I commend not, but vindicate. Must he be therefore luke-warm,See Shepherds sincere Conver [...]. Christ an M [...]der. 1 Ex [...]. p. 70. because his zeal burns not as hot as hell? must his conscience be therefore cauterized and seared, because he brands not every Christian out of the Church of England with the marks of reprobation? writes not the dreadful doom of God in the forehead of all Popishly given, in France, Spain, Italy, Germany? Sends not all Russian, A­bassine, Grecian, Armenian, Ethiopick Churches, which all the day have flown different wayes, and laboriously cull'd (with the Bee) such sweets as they could light upon, in the evening swarming to hell; or presently sets not fire on their hives? Alas! how long hath this been the doctrine of the Church of England? and I cannot yet beleeve it. Shall I ever think, with that foolish Anchorite, that the Sun shines no where but into my Cell? Or can I not enough enjoy and blesse God for the warmth of his great light, unlesse I con­fidently affirm, that at no time, in no measure it shines be­yond our Tropick. Let who will confine the mercies of God in Christ to so narrow limits; I dare not.

Brethren, hath he forsaken the faith, that is so far an ene­my to the Pope,Pag. 18. as the Pope is an enemy to Christ? Is it come to this now, that he must be bid part from the rest of his brethren, that holds not Episcopacie to be Antichristian; All forms of Prayers and Liturgies to be quenching of the Spirit, evill (quatenus ipsum;) An equality of Ministers, li­ving upon niggard contributions; demolishing of Churches and all kind of Sacriledge lawfull? That calls not the royall, noble, and devout munificence of our Ancestors, who recei­ved, cherished, and transmitted our Religion to us, the price of their damnation? Doth that good Spirit of God dwell [Page 19] no where but in dry or marishy constitutions? Will Grace mixe with nothing but adust choler, or lowring mo­rose peevishnesse? Cannot Grace and Nature consist? When we deny our selves, must we deny humanity? Doth Gods Spirit now inspire Christians, as the Devill did his Priests of old, by putting them out of their wits? Is conver­sion nothing but a turning about to this mans opinion, or that mans novelties? a slavish imitation of some forraigne Church abroad, or doting upon some great Masters at home? Why else cannot a sober, modest, humble, orthodox Prelate go for a Christian among us? Why are we weary of him, if we be not so of our Religion? him, who had been as holy, wise, learned, temperate, bountifull, sincere a Prote­stant, as any this day in our Church, had he but been of your opinion in matters of discipline? How almost a Saint, how altogether a Devill? No preaching, no care of the peace of the Church, no learned Volumes writ, no hospitality, no poor fed, no holinesse of life, no Church, no salvation, but in the Presbytery? Worthy you of your chains and fagots, O ye Martyrs, that commended this government unto us; perish and rot the memories of those famous Assemblies, that confirmed it, and bound us to the maintenance of su­perstition and Antichristianisme! And now that I finde them so ungratefull to the dead, it lessens my wonder, though not their impiety, that they are so to the living. A­way with those cheap as numerous leaves, that image forth to us his ravished and devout thoughts; away with the clear and bright mirrour of a dispassioned soul, a rectified understanding, a liberall and Christian charity; with that sweet and heavenlyVellem mihi, etsi non qualis in Marco Tullio fuit, aliquam tamen proximam [...]loquentiae contingere facultatem. Lactan. l. 3. div. Inst c. 1. Veri [...]as licet possit sine eloquenti [...] defendi, tamen claritate & nitore sermonis illustranda est, ut potentius in animos influat. Idem. Quid igitur? annon adfuit Paulo sua [...]? certè adfuit, quanta nulli unquam obtigit; sed coele­stis, non humana. Beza ad 1. Cor. 1. 17.— [...]. Naz. 1. in lul.— [...]. Idem Orat. 20. in funere Basil. eloquence that prepares a way for the [Page 20] Spirit of God; that opens our eares, the gates of our soules, that the King of glory may enter in, and dwell there; that awakens our understandings to arise and be ready to enter­tain that [...], the engrafted Word, which is able to save our souls; yea and away with it from the earth, lest it upbraid to future ages, the tyrannous malice and affected barbarisms of these present times. Blind men! that will not see our own good; that shut our eyes, and then complain that we want the Sunne! If you will not look upon his works, which testifie of him, ask his great Master, or his noble re­tinue at Court, whether this confession of the riots and dis­orders of Courts, Officers, Palaces, City, Countrey, were now squeezed from him? Whether it came not then from his lips as freely as now? Whether his reproofs seemed cold, wretched, or heartlesse? Or if there lurked hidden evils which he saw not, or those which he saw were not refor­med, why doth he suffer as a countenancer, as a contriver? It was a word fell from the boldest and most undaunted spi­rit that Rome ever saw,Animus mihi certè nunquam de­fuit, tempora defuerunt. ul 4. Philip. Non prosequi, non fugere. I would, but the times would not. Zeal must have discretion as well as knowledge. He that pressed too hard upon the enemy and lost himself, was in the old discipline of warre accounted as infamous as he that fled. He that regulates his actions by a good conscience, rather than popular fame, however they hear abroad, findes ever the content and reward of them at home.

But in good earnest, What should he do to please you? what way, besides abjuring his Prelacy, or being as wicked as you would make him, is there left for him to content you? If he write controversies, then he is a Swash-buckler against the Pope; then he careers with speare in rest, and thunders upon the steel cap of Bellarmine: If he preaches, then he sermonizes and dawbes with untempered mortar: If he contemplates or meditates, then he playes with [...]ambeth Kittens: If at Court, he is crowding for preferme [...]t, or ac­cusing the people to the King: If at home, he is a belly-God, &c. O the love, and charity, and reverence of these times, to so holy, so deserving a Bishop! May ye stay for such another glorious light of the Church, till ye can de­serve [Page 21] him! and never enjoy the benefit of this, till ye have made him amends for these injuries!At si intereos quos nunquam vi­dimus floruisset, non solum [...] e [...]us, orum etiam imagines conqui­ [...]eremus: ejusdom nunc honor prae­sentis & gr [...]tia quasi satietate lan­gues [...]it: at hoc pravum malig [...]um­q [...]e est, [...]on admirari homine [...] ad­mira ione dignissimum, quia vide­re, audire, alloqui, c [...]mplecti, n [...] [...] verum etiam ama­re contingit. Plin. lib. 1 epist. 16. Had former times shewne him, or forraigne Churches nourished him, he that is now your scorn had been your wonder: Happy had that man been that could have dressed a Sermon in his grave and waighty Sen­tences, or his Study with his Picture: only now we wanton at the full brest, and be­cause we are at spring-head, rather puddle the clear stream with our foot, than slake our thirst. Froward spite, that makes us therefore hate, be­cause we cannot love enough; therefore revile, because we cannot sufficiently praise. But go on, revile, slander, belye holy men; your selves can give us the best and truest chara­cter of what ye are: Neither in this point would I ever have condemned ye, had I not heard it from your own mouths. And you, Reverend Sir, stand up; the disadvantage of your old age, your spent and decayed strength, that would natu­rally shrink under such pressures, makes but Grace more eminent in you: We can never better see how the foundati­on bears the weight of the building, than when the props be removed. How can any one say, Lo this man leans to an arm of flesh, [...]ccl 12. 1 [...] when he sees it withered? The evill dayes of a man are the best of a Christian: Now may Grace borrow her Masters Chariot,Esa 63. 3. and triumph, saying, I have [...]rod the Wine-presse alone, and of the people (feare, hope, bold­nesse, glory) there was none with me. And to thee, O God, be the praise of this exercise of his Christian fortitude; it is thou that hast shewn (as the last and most glorious blaze of this dying light) That he that could deserve all praise, could suffer all injury.

THe scraps and offall that remain of your Libell, con­cern Liturgie and Episcopacie; both which you have handled, as you esteem of them, unworthily and basely. [Page 22] Forsooth you would give the world to know these two things; First, that you are no Bishop: Secondly, that you can pray ex tempore. Surely a man of strong parts, and a mortified ambition! It was thought of old, that the Philo­sophers did therefore contemn and speak ill of riches and pleasures and high places, because they were never born to them; as the Fox cursed the Grapes that were out of his reach. But we will not think so uncharitably of you; A rich Widow, or a Lecture, or both, contents you.

To the first you make way, by a long, tedious, theatri­call, big-mouthed, astounding Prayer, put up in the name of the three Kingdomes; not so much either to please God, or benefit the weal-publike by it, as to intimate your owne good abilities to her that is your rich hopes.

Because you shall never say I am envions, and go about to disgrace you, I will give this testimony of your Oraisons, That there wanted but one petition to make them complete, which was, That God would forgive you the profanation of the rest of your book.

To the second you make way (a very compendious way in this age, if as honest as compendious) by flattery and rayling: at both which you are old excellent, or as your own expression is, sufficiently tryed. How you can performe the first hath been already heard; now let us heare the se­cond. Speak out, the Parish is big. [Our great Clerks think these men, because they have a Trade, as Christ himself and S. Paul had, cannot therefore attain to some measure of know­ledge, and to a reason of their actions, p. 13.] As Christ had; Christ preached, Ergo Sam. How may. Take heed friend, you border upon blasphemy. Our great Clerks thinke, &c. Tru­ly, small Clerk, you know but little of those mens mindes: I will insure you they do not think so. But why should you plead this? Methinks it were much better for you, and more conducible to your ends if it were so: For could they not at­tain [Page 23] to a reason of their actions, there were great hopes they would choose you to be their Minister. But I know not how unluckily you have spoyled your own market; if that be true which you elsewhere affirm of them [That they are competent Judges of a Ministers abilities, as it will not be de­nyed that he may be the competent Judge of a neat picture or ele­gant Poem, that cannot limne the like,] unlesse in your simi­le you recover your selfe and abuse them: For who ever ac­counted an ignorant Gull a sufficient and competent Judge of a terse Poeme?

All which is the office of a Critick. Who but you thinks an inspired Cobler may judge of Apelles his workmanship? [...], Synes Epist. 1. [...], Arist. Pol. 8. c. 3. Vt de pictore, fi­ctore, sculptore, nisi artifex judicare, ita nisi sapiens non potest perspicere sapientem, Plin. lib 1. epist. 10. (These Authours testimonies, I hope Sir, may be considerable against your insolent affirmation.) Who but you, against the command of God himself, dare bring not the Congregation onely, but the very beasts of the people, within the borders of the Mount? Sober and wise Christians, I doubt not but they know where to stay; neither will they follow such Ring-leaders as you, to their own destruction: Such men will acquit our great Clerks well enough, of any or all your pretended slanders; and besides tell you, (that though a­gainst all sense and reason they make them not Judges of their abilities, and against all antiquity and custome of the Church, above what ever is written or practised in Scrip­ture, they receive not their ordination from them;) yet they [Page 24] both encourage them in, and blesse God for their safe know­ledge, and becomming actions. Go you then to your muti­nous rabble, and if you can appease their furies, enthrone their sage wisedomes upon some stall or bench, and cite be­fore them the Clerks of either University: those competent Judges, I guesse, will do like themselves, reject one as un­sufficient (so as they the Horse which Polygnotus had exqui­sitely painted,Fr. I [...]n [...]us de P [...]ct. vet l. 3 damned the whole piece, because contrary to the nature of that beast, he had made him with hairs on his nether eye-lids,) onely for that he hath too little haire on his upper lip, or too much upon his fore-head; because he useth not to wear wrought night-caps, or mastick patches. In the mean while another (as the Good-wife in Plutarch judged of Philopoemen) shall be thought fitter to [...]leave blocks than divide a Text, because he hath a sowre or crab­bed countenance; because either his learning is too much, or that little he hath lodges, as their Prentices do,Ingenium Galbae mal [...] habitat. in an ugly Garret: Whiles a third shall be deeply suspected of Armi­nianism, because he hath a squint-eye, or is of the Arch­bishops Colledge. Briefly all those glorious lights, and bright stars of eminence and lustre in either Horizon, shall be no better esteemed of, than Tyro in Gellius observes the Hyades were, which by his Clownish Ancestors were taken for so many sucking-pigs; [...] Suculae dictae. A. Gell. l 13. c. 9. and perhaps under that name shall be driven to Hogs-Norton to pipe upon the Organs (if they be yet standing.) But I leave these grave Censors, these Areopagi, if you will, to their own discretion; lest while I am busied in observing of theirs, I forfeit mine: and this Paragraph be taxed for that fault of your whole discourse, which in the easiest Censurers mouth is but Levity and Di­gression.

OF Liturgie first.1 Cor. 10. 23. a Re ringen­d [...]m est [...] [...] [...]g­tur, sc. indiff. Into which that distinction of Saint Pauls shall lead the way: All things are lawfull, but all things are not expedient. A thing in its own nature in­different, and so lawfull, doth sometimes [...] become in­expedient, and so unlawfull. By this rule we will examine [Page 25] the point in hand. For that set forms of Prayer are in them­selves at least indifferent, the precept and practice of Christ confirms,Lord Viscoun [...] Say and Seal in his answer to the Archbishop. and no man in his right wits ever denyed. [Some set forms of Prayer, by some men, in some cases may be law­fully used.] The question is therefore of the expediency, not of the lawfulnesse of such prayers, viz. Whether a set form of Prayers, this in particular to which the Church of Eng­land hath been, and is laudibly as piously accustomed, may [...], expediently be used, and enjoyned by all to be used, in a nationall Church, as ours is.

To the clearing of which point, there are two things of necessity to be done:

• 1. The conveniencies and inconveniencies of such prayers in the generall, must be weighed.
• 2. The blemishes with which this of ours in particular is charged must be examined

According as we find which, for or against, our conclusion must be made.

1. It suits to, and agrees best with Gods own proceedings in the government of his Church. In which it hath pleased his divine wisdome so to order the matter, that (since all men are not alike capable of knowledge, nor have the same abilities,) his providence should as it were conform it self to this unequall condition of men: whence it is, he hath made choice of some to teach others, and pray for others; chose some to be Apostles, some Ministers, Pastors, Teachers; whereas had he not had respect to this, and purposed to go along with this weaknesse of mans nature, he could as well have infused abilities (I mean supernaturall) into the brest and brain of the most ignorant despicable member of the Church, sufficient without other teachings or helps, to have raised him to converse with God here, and possesse God hereafter, as ever he did into the ablest of the Apostles.

And now having thus ordered the matter; (for thus it is, was, and ever will be, let men dream never so long, torture and rack Scripture, to make it roare out an imaginary lying perfection) God looks that those some which he hath chose, endued, set apart to teaching and praying, and all other of­fices [Page 26] of ministeriall function, as they are publike men, so should have a publike care of that Church wherein they are: So drive, as the Church may go like a flock together, a due respect had to the Lambs and Ewes big with young, to the weary, faint, and lame: ‘—Hanc aegram vix Tytere duco:’ which alwayes are the most considerable number.

Yea, come we to the Shepheards themselves: How many laborious, painfull, conscionable men are there, that if these helpes may not be allowed them, must either tempt God, fail in the performance of their duties, or give them quite up, [...] Cor. 2. 16. as not sufficient for these things? And if it come to this once, how many souls, (every one, for ought we can say of this or that particular, being to God alike pretious,) will here be desperately, irrecoverably lost! For what help? will our Land afford enow such ex tempore men? no nor the much magnified Amsterdam, with Geneva and New-Eng­land to boot. Hope is a brave, heroick, sublimed Christian virtue, [...]. Rom. 5. 5. but it is of things which make us not ashamed.

2. Such Liturgies and set forms are most expedient, if we look to the nature of Prayers (publike Prayers.)

Prayer in it self considered, Is the proper act of the soul, of the will and understanding, and may be completely and perfectly offered up to God, without those subsidiary helps of invention, disposition, memory, language; these, when we speak of private Prayer, are but the vain pomp of it: when of publike, the necessary adjuncts.

I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with understand­ing, 1 Cor. 14. 15. This often mis-applyed Text is to be un­derstood of publike Prayer, as you may see by comparing it with the second verse, He that speaketh or prayeth in an un­known tongue, speaketh or prayeth not unto men, but unto God. By Spirit is meant (not as our vain humourists would have it) an extemporall faculty of wording it, but that gift of the Spirit which Saint Paul mentions vers. 5, 6, &c. viz. the mi­raculous gift of tongues, or faculty of speaking divers lan­guages: by understanding is meant the understanding of the people; for he that prayeth in an unknown tongue, prayeth [Page 27] not unto men, that is, not to their understanding. That which I gather from hence is this; That those publike Pray­ers are most expedient to be used, which are most accom­modated to the capacity of the people. Herein I known you will agree with me. I go on. But a set form is most accom­modate, Ergo. This proposition is easily proved: I make it good thus.

1. The understanding is prae-acquainted with, and the subject otherwise difficult is thus made obvious and easie. 2. The matter is the same, not at the will, or passion, or ig­norance, or negligence of him that prayeth to be varied: by reason of which, sometime the people cannot, sometime dare not go along with their Minister. 3. Though the language be not in it self unknown, yet the harshnesse of it in some, the length and ediousnesse of stile in others, the affected heighth of forced Allegories and Tropes, not to say the nonsense and ridiculously absurd variations of many pretenders to the faculty, render [...] it altogether as unintelligible, as it were Latine or Greek. If were to make good this assertion by a particular in [...]ance, I would go no farther than your prayer you have given us, pag▪ 6, 37, 38. which infinite of honest and simple Christians would no more know how to under­stand, than they would doe a Scene out of Iohnsons Ca­taline.

But what command in Scripture is there for it? Where is conceived prayer mentioned! what such virtue is there in the extemporall wording of a Prayer, that for the giving it such undoubted liberty we must run all these hazzards? The soul may be as much inflamed that prayes in a set form, as that which doth not: and that may be as cold that prayes extempore. Will you say, that every one that hath the gift, hath also affections answerable? you dare not. That then may be belyed, and we shall admire the spirit where it is not: what is this, but to warm our selves at a painted fire? For indeed it is not the volubility or roundnesse of tongue, that is the work of Gods Spirit primarily in him that hath this gift of Prayer, but the enkindling of the affections: I say primarily; for where the Spirit of Grace, which is as [Page 28] fire in the heart, findes such abilities, such naturall abilities, either actuall or potentiall, it doth catch hold of them, and make fuell as it were of them, whereby the soul burns the more ardently: But where it finds them not, God never in­fuseth them, (this is meer Anabaptisme) otherwise no such abilities,See Perkins ca­ses of Consc. of set forms of Prayer. no grace, no extemporall expressions, no Prayer. And this being thus, doth it make a Prayer ever the more ac­ceptable to God, that it is extemporall? Doth it make a Prayer unacceptable, that it is not so? In truth, no: But this is it, there is more of the man in the extemporall Prayer, and that makes us doat so much upon it; as the fond mother commonly loves that child best, whose face is most like her, though perhaps of worst conditions. You cannot but know, that there are of the holiest men, and most able Ministers about London, and elsewhere, that both use our Liturgy, and accustome themselves to a set form of their own; wisely considering as I said before, that they are publike men, and are bound to do not what they could more to their own be­nefit, but what they must, to the peoples. Yea, those that do use extemporall expressions, I would ask them, how far they are from a set form: Is not yesterdayes, to dayes, to morrows, and every dayes Prayer alike, in the frame, oeco­nomy, or disposition of the matter? Is not the matter the same? do they not preface, petition, conclude always alike? Not in the same words, you will say. Well, but S. Paul did so in all his Epistles in the very same words; and it is more than probable did so in all his Prayers. If there be new emergent occasions, do not those men insert into their own? doth not the Church insert into the Common-prayer book such peti­tions as are needfull for those occasions? Consider then in what things their Prayers come near yours, and yours come near theirs, and where's the difference? why is the world distracted about nothing? either you are exorbitant, or both may agree.

3. Most expedient to attain the end such worship drives at; Order, Unity, Piety, and the best advancement of Gods glory: Whereas an unbounded liberty in extemporall and fanaticall Prayers, brings forth the quite contrary; disorder, [Page 29] dis-union of affections between man and man, impiety, athe­ism, and anarchy. Ex ungue leonem. What leud demeanours, what insolent and irreligious behaviours, both towards the Book of Common-prayers, and the men that use them, hath this lawless time shewn? now, while the laws are still in force that authorize them. The King and Parliament devoutly use them, religious people morning and evening frequent them; now some to spurn and tear them, others spit at them, you to call them superstitious, evill, a Crambe, a Kickshoe, an Hotch-potch, a Drench, &c. If this be not the highest degree of profanation, nothing is. Surely, if we do not re­pent for this, our posterity will; and besides that, blush when ever they shall be upbraided by such prodigiously A­theisticall Ancestors. But to proceed: What order can ever be expected? what uniformity looked for? what consent and harmony betwixt Church and Church, when every one shall differ in that which should make them truly one? a Communion of Saints, even their community of Prayers? How, while some are starved, shall others be pampered? and then what likenesse? Tell me not, that they that will shall use the Churches set forms; for either they will be wholly neglected, where others cannot be had, being so discounte­nanced, if left arbitrary; discountenanced, I say, by publike authority, & depraved, condemned, damned, by private per­sons; or else, whiles both are in use, it will nourish a conti­nuall enmity betwixt the users of each. It is a requisite in the Church of Christ, that the particular Congregations which are the members of that mysticall body, be of one heart and one minde, especially in their Prayers to, and Praises of God; more especially in publike meetings, at pub­like deliverances, in publike dangers: how shall we be so, when we shall not know what one anothers hearts and mindes are? No, but the designe of your dear friend, the Authour of The Protestation protested, and some since him, is, to have the Church at length sifted and winnowed, and the grain laid apart by it self, that is your faction; and for the chaffe, all else, let them do or be what they will, it mat­ters not. If the Kings State will maintain the faith of Christ, [Page 30] well and good, they shall have your fair leave: if not, they shall have your leave too; so you may enjoy your conscien­ces you are indifferent. This is the Common good that is cryed up, though indeed the Publike wo: and thus you tread a fair way to it: you shall have the hold of the hearts of the people, the surest hold that may be, of their consciences, of all their religiousest actions, their Prayers, Supplications &c. and the State shall have none of you: not command you to pray for the King, that you say is time spent in flattery; not for Bishops, they are Antichristian; not for his subjects, that they may live godly and peaceable lives u [...]der him, they are dogs, shut out of the gate of the new City▪ howling.

What can the end of these proceedings be, but an irrecon­cileable distance between party and party; then jealousies, then provocations, then wars, then ruine! I doubt not, but if Christ had been pleased to have converted to his faith but one King and his whole State, and for to have ordered a na­tionall Church, and have given over to us that order as a pattern, surely it should not have been any such independent anarchicall Government as your platform is, nay will be if we can tell when; for as yet the Whelp is not licked into any fashion. You say that set forms of Prayers are quenching the Spirit; whether it be so or no, I am sure your Extempo­rall will set such a fire on your Spirits, that they will need quenching, or the whole Kingdome will burn with them. Weigh these circumstances, and you will see that there is an expediency of set forms in a nationall Church.

2. Of set forms some of ye will grant, but not of these that are. Your reason?

[The form of your Liturgie is phantastick and superstitious, and the end sinister, the imposition violent, pag. 2 [...].]

Phantastick? Like enough they might think so, that saw or heard you read them; Sed malè dum recitas, &c. But then the fault was not in the Prayers, but your officiating. If [Page 31] ever you were present at a Synagogue in Amsterdam, and saw how the Jewes with voice and ge [...]ure read a Se­ction of the Law, or one of Davids Psalmes, you might justly say the men were phantastick, yet the matter was good.

But the Forme is so. Wherein I pray? I suppose you mean the same thing, with those importunate triflers in Queen Elizabeths dayes, who were offended at the short cuts or shreddings, at the intermingling of praying and reading in it, in such manner, as if supplicants should use the same to a mortall Prince in proposing their suits, all the world would think them mad. If thus, the answer is, where you had the objection;Hooker Eccl. Pol. p. 241. I have turned down the leaf, pray save me the labour of transcribing, and look it your self: Onely the close is this; Our case were miserable, if that wherewith we most endevour to please God, were in his sight so vile and despicable, as mens disdainfull speeches would make it.

Though you borrow your arrowes (your objections) from their quiver, yet what with being new feathered with the peoples discontents, perhaps flying with the wind; and lastly, their heads being poysoned with the gall of Aspes, they pierce deeper now than formerly: then our Prayers were but ridiculous, now superstitious. Were they alwayes so? Yes. Belike it was beyond the skill of those holy men to refine a Scorpion into a Fish, pag. 14. Where then was their errour in transmitting over this superstition to us? Was it malice, or ignorance, or both? that when we asked them Bread, would give us a Stone; when we asked a Fish, would give us a Serpent? [It bribed their judgements with worldly engagements, pag. 16.] O the inconsideratenesse of eager and headlong ambition! that men, who but now were, some returned from banishment, others drawn out of prison, should in an instant be so turned about, that they would forfeit their Religion, their Wisedomes, their Cre­dits, yea their Souls, in obtruding upon a Church superstiti­ous and damnable Rules for Devotion; and all this to [Page 32] get a narrow incompetent Bishoprick. If they had minded preferment, why looked they not abroad, where sacriledge and misdevotion had not so streightned their walkes, nor demolished their goodly prospects, nor washed out their gilded titles? they could not have been worse there, if they were superstitious at home. I wonder not now to hear them so traduced by the Papists, when our selves doe thus uncharitably misreport them. Martin Mar-prelate (as Master Sandys can tell you) is in the disgrace of our Clergie cited by the Papists, [...]pee. Europ. as a grave unquestionable Authour: and what place your Animadversions may once have in the Vaticane, is yet dubious; though it be certain that those Spiders of Rome cannot have a fitter subject from whence to draw poyson. But is it certain they are supersti­tious now? Will your Smectymnuans affirm so much? Tru­ly then they are as deeply concerned in it, as any of the rest of their brethren, who before the unhappy distaste of the late Convocation, could alike swallow so much Popery. However; where is the superstition? In this, this, or this Prayer, or any of the rest? If not in any of the parts, not in the whole. O but [it symbolizeth with the Masse, and pranks it self in Popish weeds, and goes too garish upon holy-days, p. 22.] They have Anthems, and Organs, and Copes, and Surplices in the Church of Rome: True; and when all this is away, still they have Prayers: and if you will wholly abolish them because symbolicall, Antichrist will symbolize with ye [...], in his Creed in spite of your teeths, unlesse you mean to have no other but The Christian Beleef concerning Bishops. That soul that can soar aloft upon the strength of his own wings, or hath its flagging Pinions completely ym­ped with feathers from the Dove, the Spirit of God, shall little need such advantages as are these things which we speak of; (for advantages they are, and but advantages;) onely take you heed you do not, Icarus-like, over-dare, and give all the Christian world else leave to acknowledge and remedy as they may, their almost irremediable weaknesses. This outward State and glory (sayes my fore-cited Author) [Page 33] being well disposed, doth ingender, quicken, encrease and nou­rish the inward reverence and respectfull devotion, due to so soveraign, so awfull a power: which, those whom the use there­of cannot perswade so, would easily by the want of it be caused to confesse.

Next, [the end is sinister: a bait for Papists to bite at.] Saving your scorn Sir, such baits are laid by his direction, that made his Apostles fishers of men. But what would that do? bring them to our Churches? Yes, and did: Alas, what was that you will say? I will tell you; It was a shame to such Recusant Prote­stants as you are, that will not only not bite, but not so much as nibble. But you have answered your self: It was [a greedy desire of winning of Proselytes, by conforming to them unlawfully.] I will confesse with you, that there was a greedy desire of winning Proselytes, and is still; but no unlawfull meanes used, till you have proved that those things, with which our Church and the Church of Rome do symbolize, are either in their own nature, or due use, superstitious. If you know what is the meaning of that passionate entreaty of S. Paul, Rom. 14. 15 Destory not him with thy meat for whom Christ dyed: or of that which he alledgeth as his own example;1 Cor. 9. 22. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak; I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some:] you would not call it, as you do, a vain-glorious and Pha [...]isaicall project; unlesse you think that a Papist cannot have a tender conscience; or if he hath, that he ought not for his satisfaction to be yeelded unto in things indifferent. Neither is this end (a respect indeed it is, that was and is had in having such forms, though not the main and ultimate) frustrate if they do not come; for it keeps as many Protestants at Church now, as it did Papists at first (till they were upon other reasons diverted;) many of which by so unsufferable a scandall, would either ab­stain from the worship of God altogether, or go where they might have it nearest to their ancient manner.

In the last place, you say the imposition is violent: you mean this in respect to your selves, who have resolved never but by force to submit to any thing, how just soever: otherwise I s [...]e not how you can possibly call it so, since the authority is lawfull and just; the thing in it self indifferent, and in the circumstances ex­pedient, [Page 34] the extent of the imposition no farther than as it may stand together with Prayers of our own framing, whether as private m [...]n or as publike. To conclude thi [...] Section, you and I might hav [...] b [...]n far better busied in using those pious forms, than [...]n thus d [...]sputing them either of the one side o [...] the other.

I Was glad at my heart when I heard you cry out [s [...]t the grave Councels upon their shelves, Pag. 19. string them hard,] for from such your slighting of them, I conjectured your ignorance in that ki [...]d of learning to be, though not so ingenuously confessed, yet altogether as much and great as mine. And see, my conje­cture proves true; where my fear was most, I finde lea [...] cause why to fear: you have shewn that Episcopacy, as it cannot be upheld but by well-grounded reason, and diligently searched antiquity, (the Scripture in this, as in a lesse materiall point, be­ing lesse clear:) yet it may be beaten down both by the clubs of the base rabble, and the rude fist of your false Logick. For what is all your conf [...]tation of that holy Order, but insinuative and cheating inconsequences, or spitefull and malicious rayling; as if you intended so only to triumph over the cause, (as lately ye did over the person of a Prelate) by throwing dirt in his face? Though your bright and new-varnisht Modona vizard (under which you so hansome [...]y play the hypocrite) have deceived the people, yet (Non omnes fallis—) others there be will know it to be but a vizard, especially wh [...]n I shall have rendered it more ugly, by scraping off the paint. In doing which I must follow you some what more close than formerly.

Animad. It had been hapty for this Land, if your Priests had been but onely wooden; all England knows they have been to this I­land not wood but wormwood, that have infected the third part of our waters, like that Apostate. &c pag. 53.

Confut. It is an unhappy, though necessary misery, that doth accompany the Church of Christ; that not only the people, but the guides of those people are subject to corruptions and depra­vations, as well in manners as doctrine: and it i [...] yet a more un­happy misery, that those corruptions have a farther mischief, viz. that too too often advantage is taken by and upon them, to discountenance, yea to ruine many truths. As here; a Bishop is [Page 35] incestuous or bestiall, ambitious, or tyrannicall, or hereticall, or ps [...]udodoxe, Therefore the Calling is Antichristian: One is so: therefore all are so. What could make rationall men swallow such absurdities, but offense taken at those personall faults and misdemeanours? confesse with you, that there is nothing more intolerable, more justly abominable in the eys of God and man, than a lewd, vicious, or lying Prophet; that there is nor higher nor lower among them, nor Priest nor Prelate, but some of them hath been and is so: What, shall we therfore have no more Mini­sters? Is it the office, or the man, that bears this cursed fruit? you say the office. I ask of Prelacy only: why is it then that the infe­riour Clergy is most faulty? how can they be so lewd, if no Pre­lates? or if lewd, why is not their order abolished? Hath Prelacy some ill quality in it, that makes good men bad? why are not all the Prelates alike vicious? why are there so many good men a­mongst them? Or look again; Were not they which have mis­behaved themselves in that office, bad men before they were in it? or those that were good before, did they not continue so? It is the man then, the sinfull corrupt nature of man, that yeelds these bitter fruits, not Episcopacy.

Animad. What should I te [...] you how the Vniversities (that men look should be fountains of learning and knowledge) have been poy­soned and choaked under your governance, &c.

Confut. Fair and pure may those living streams ever flow, both Isis and Chame! but who, Iwis, hath troubled them? yea, who goes about to dry them up? if either they fail, or be pudled, you cannot blame Episcopacy for either. If some Bishops be Ar­minians, and some Scholars at either University, that infection came from beyond sea, though not in the same ship with your Presbytery. Was Arminius a Bishop? surely no more than M^r Calvin: Why then should that be objected to them or the cause? Or pray tell me, do you think if you have pulled down! pisco­pacy that those opinions will dye? Alas, never till you can kill depraved and curious reason, which hath the start of Grace in these two things; namely, that it is sooner [...]p at, and better cherished and heartned in its operations than she commonly is; it being as naturall to man to love the one, as to hate the other. What other choaking you should mean, i [...] not this, I can no [Page 36] more conceive, than I can how it concerns the businesse in hand.

Animad. And if to be wooden be to be base, where could there be found among all the reformed Churches, nay in the Church of Rome it self, a baser brood of flattering or time-serving Priests? &c

Confut. To recriminate is so poor a way of justification, that I should think he wants all other excuses that flyes to that; there­fore though you and your saction lye open no where more than on this part, I purposely spare you; yet so, as I will shew you the advantage I had you at. For observe me; What is that which you call flattery? standing up by the King. Is it not their duty? and yours too, were ye not so great Patrons of popularity? If the Kings Soveraignty be inviolable, may it not lawfully be published? may not a Minister dare preach it? yea, and if your Parlour Oratours have defamed, may not the Pulpit vindicate? There is difference, I hope, between a Libell clapt upon White­hallgates, and a Panygirick at Pauls: In my opinion those flat­terers shall do very ill to be silent, till either their Prince be lesse vertuous, or you lesse malitious.

Animad. And as for your young Scholars, that petition for Bi­shopricks and Deanaries to encourage them in their Studies, and that many Gentlemen else will not put their sons to learning, &c. That which they alledge for their encouragement, should be cut away forthwith, as the very bait of pride and ambition, the very garbage that draws together all the fowls of prey, &c.

Confut. It is one of those young Scholars that asks your El­dership, whether there were not birds and beasts of prey, that did devour the flock, before ere the Church were so much behol­ding to the bounty of Princes and Nobles as now she is? Whe­ther the Devill can allure never a Cobler from his awl and last under a fat Prebendary? Whether a Widows house be not as tempting as a Bishops Palace? or there be not of those degene­rate sort of men, who will desire the Priesthood for a morsell of bread? If so, how are we, or shall we be then more safe than now? Poor soul! how envie and anger befools thee! Bethink your self better; are not Parsonages, Vicarages, and Lectures prey too? and do we not see halt and dumb too often possesse the for­mer, and crazed men the latter? away with them then by any means. No, but away with those fowls and beasts rather, and [Page 37] then that prey will be meat for honest and able Preachers; or I doubt not else but sacriledg Hook and his neighbour Gentlemen will make many a pleasant meal on it. But in good earnest Sir, for Bishopricks and Denaries, they are in too wise a Dispencers hands to be given to Vultures; had it been otherwise, perhaps yours and your fellows mouths ere this had been stopt.

Anim The heathen Philosophers thought, virtue was for its own sake inestimable, and the greatest gain of a Teacher to make a soul virtuous. Was morall virtue so lovely or so alluring, and heathen men so inamoured of her, as to teach and study her, with greatest neglect and contempt of worldly profit and advancement: and is Christian Piety so homely and unpleasant, and Christian men so cloyed with her, as that none will study and teach her but for lucre and prefer­ment! O stale-grown Piety! O Gospel rated as cheap as thy Ma­ster! &c. pag. 54.

Confut. Now I see you know somewhat: and were I not assu­red that other passions distracted you, I could easily be enclined to think that this volley of expressions proceeded from a love of goodnesse: indeed so much the more easily inclined, by how much I would fain have it so. For were there no guile in them, as I do continually nourish such thoughts, so would I never desire to have them better cloathed: if at any time a floud of eloquence becomes us, it is when we expresse such a love, or such an indig­nation! But it is one thing that you say, and another thing that you prove: the means is often times rested and taken up in stead of the end; therefore the means is not the means; or therfore the means cannot be looked at as the means: illogicall and absurd! A Philosopher loves virtue; and a Christian loves him that is the fountain of that virtue; What then? The Philosopher, you say, lo­ved virtue for it self; So doth a Christian love God much more. But he did it with neglect of others things, wealth, honours, &c. He came then so much short of his own Philosophicall perfecti­on: They that stood a begging in the streets, might (if it had pleased them) have been as liberall as their best Masters; And that Philosopher that flung his gold into the sea, might have been perhaps lesse an Infidell, if he had provided for himself and his family with it; I am sure might have been more magnificent. But that offends you, that our Church should use the same means [Page 39] to entice men to the pure service of God, that were used to tempt our Saviour to the service of the D [...]vill. Those means were nei­ther in themselves▪ nor as enticemen [...]s, any way dangerous; but so far as they were tendered by him, from whom it was a sin to receive them to him, who could make no use of them; for such an e [...]d, as it had been a sin to accept them O [...]herwise how could God entice the children of Israel with the promise of Canaan; or Solomon, with riches and honours and all kind of abundance? But these desires mixe. Heb. 11. 29 As subordinate they may: The holy Ghost witnesseth of Mose [...] that he had an eye to the reward; I ask whether in that Moses sinned yea, God himself hearteneth on the Church of Smy [...]na,Rev. 2 10. Be thou faithfull unto the death, and I will give thee a Crown of life. Du Moulin whose Tractates you would seem to be acquainted with) in a discourse Of the love of God, tells us, the most imperfect and incomplete degree of this love is, to love God for the good we receive from him: Thus children (saith he) say Grace, that they may go to break-fast. Indeed a childish love. The perfectest is, to love him and no­thing else; a love onely the glorified Saints are capable of: be­twixt which two he placeth a third, a mixed love; which is, when we love God with other things; yet so, as that we love those things for Gods sake; that is, as helps and furtherances of our own piety and his glory. Either you wilfully oversee much truth, or are very ignorant.

Animad. A true Pastor of Christs sending hath this especiall marke, that for greatest labours and greate [...] merits in the Church, he requires either nothing, if he could so subsist; or a very common and reasonable supply of humane necessaries. We cannot do better therefore than to leave this care of ours to God; he can easily send Labourers into his harvest.—He can stir up rich fathers to be­stow exquisite education upon their children and so dedicate them to the service of the Gospel, he can make the sons of Nobles his Mi­nisters, &c pag. 56. Animad. No man doubts of what God can do; but we may well doubt he will not do what we would have him, while we are thus froward and unthankfull; while we are under persecution, poor, wretched, and despicable, fed but from hand to mouth, (as we say) whiles God leads his Church through a desart or wildernesse: If we expect our drink to drop [Page 38] out of a flint, or from the shivers of a barren and dry rock; if we spread our table to a miracle, or every morning and evening look out for a Raven to feed us, it becomes our condition, and there­fore God answers our expectation: but if when he hath brought his Church into a land that flows with milk and honey; when he hath made Kings our nursing Fathers, and Queens our nursing Mothers, we will then over-look all that bounty, and say God can do thus and thus, can raise out of these stone [...] children unto A­braham, and bring up those children to his own work, at his own miraculous expences; this is but to tempt his providence. God can do this and more, but his wayes are his own. He can rain Manna into our mouths, as well as dew upon the earth. Shall we be angry, because we have our Corn at the second hand? he could have sent us into the world with our cloaths on; is it not as well that he sets the worm to the wheel to spin it for us? doth he not shew a work of providence in preparing both for us, as well as in giving them to us? so no doubt he could have imme­diately from himself supplyed the necessities of his Ministers; is it not as well that he doth it by others? doth he not make a vir­tue out of what we have, in their hands through which it passeth? is it not liberality, is it not munificence in them that give it? why should we envie good men their piety? or are these virtues out of date, were they only ceremoniall? hath God impropriated all the riches of the earth for the use of the Lay-men only? are not Glergy-men members of the body of Christ, why should not each member thrive alike? if these must be poor and naked,Vide Hoo­ker in prae­s [...]t. Eccl. P [...]l. so let the rest be; and though there be in this but little wisdome, yet will there be some indifferency.

But you will say, It is too much, and ill placed▪ Any thing is so that is ill used: Single out the man, and if you can make better use of it than he, I wish you had the preferment. But for Church livings in generall,B [...]cons con­si [...]. a judicious Surveyor once said, (and I dare say they have not been much bettered since) that they were in­sufficient for the Church-men: and that all the Parliaments since 27. H. 8. who gave away Impropriations from the Church, seem­ed to him to stand in some sort obnoxious and obliged to God in conscience to do somewhat for the Church (he did not mean to rob it) to reduce the patrimony thereof to a competency.

[Page 40] Animad. Can a man thus employed (in preaching, &c.) finde himself discontented or dishonoured, for want of admittance to have a pragmaticall vote at Sessions,—or be discouraged though me [...] call him not Lord:—would he tugge for a Barony, to sit and vote in Parliament? pag. 57.

Confut. Yes marry, what else? That man that was and could have still been content without those honours, will be very loath now to let them go; yet not so much that he loves the honours or means that accompany them, as that he would not have his countrey made guilty of so shamefull a depriving him of them. Why should sacriledge and injustice triumph over Gods cause, whiles he hath tongue or pen to defend it? yea, why should he or any the rest of that sacred function forsake their Great Ma­ster in it? Me thinks if all other arguments failed, it were suffi­cient proof of the goodnesse of it, that it hath him to be its De­fender that is Defender of the Faith: A Prince, who if for no­thing else, will therefore keep the munificence of his Predecessors inviolate, that he may teach succeeding ages a reverence to his Own: which indeed is so much the more estimable, in that it is exercised in so perverse an age of the world, as is so far from gi­ving it its just value, that it searce allows itAs [...] the Kings gift, regall bounty may be excusable in giving. p. 59. pardonable. Alas! what an heap of disorder and ruines had this Church even now been, had not God sent it So Gracious a Governour! But if, not­withstanding what divine and humane lawes, what the King and all Good men vote to the contrary, such a desolation must come, may the curse which hath alwayes been wont [...]o accom­pany such Desperate Robbery, be to this land turned into a bles­sing; and may it never fall any whit below that Happinesse, which in Gods extraordinary supply of New Means is and may be Imagined.