As touching the First General, viz. the Ʋnriddling of the Mystery, and detecting of the stratagem, project, and imposture of your Inquisition; and that in order to the prepossessing and guarding of the Laity against it:

This, Sir, I will endeavour by way of di­stinct gradual paragraphs, commenced, not (a Nannaco) from Adam, or the Prae-ada­mites; nor yet from your great Mormo Bel­shazzar; but from the very Genealogy of the Christian Religion, by you impeached; thence proceeding ab Equis ad Asinos, till in fine, Sphinx do upon the matter become his own Oedipus; and your Riddle (whe­ther [Page 3]one in the Mystery of Iniquity, or not, the Reader shall be Judge) as legible, as that plain truth, as great a one as any that oc­currs throughout your whole Rhapsody, namely, Let. 2. pag. 10 that there is a near relation between Atheisme, and Contempt of the Clergy, wherein, let me tell you, you have in a manner prophesied your own doom, as Caiaphas did our Saviour's, unawares.

And what if I suppose, Sir, (what I will not yeild) that you had no formal intent, or the least design in the world to betray either Clergy and Religion to Con­tempt, on the one side; or the Laity to A­theisme, Popery, or the like, on the other? [Page 18]and that all the mischief and execution committed or committible by either edge of Ishonael's sword, were meer chance-medley; finis openis, non operantis; yet this being the immediate, direct, concur­rent tendency of both your Letters, as may appear from the general fram, scope, series, tenour and contexure of the whole (for your speech bewrayeth you Segnior) your self, the world, yea very Na­ture may Justify the Church of England, in guarding and securing her self, both in her Clergy and Laity, (and in both, her endeared Religion) against the pernici­ous influences and growing mischiefs of your Pestilent Rhapsody ( [...]) namely, those two near correlates (by your own confession) the contempt of the one; and atheisme, &c. in the other; and what dismal train those may carry with them, ut Caecias, nubes; as also in animadverting upon you as no better, then Heathen or Heretick, with­out, (what as your friend I advise you at your first return from Devonshire) a publick recantation.

And thus, Sir, I have made the way to my text (as your contemned Clergy use to do [Page 19]by theirs,) as smooth and plain as any thing, with a Preface, (as you may re­member) not from Adam, but from Alpha, the Ancient of dayes himself, though my business in part (your doom) ly at the farther end, (almost the very last verses) of all the Bible; so that it now remaines, that I turn allegata into probata, and make good what I have here charged your Letters withall; that I may not seem to speak without-book.

The first thing then that offers it self in your Letters, Sir, is the very theam and title thereof, viz. The Grounds and Oc­casions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion enquired into: Being then that Religion and Clergy (an individual Con­jugate in themselves, as well as in your Epistles) is the subject-matter of your Inquest; being that a previous contempt of both de facto is by you (but too truly) supposed; and the redress hereof de futuro by you pretended; It will necessarily fol­low, that if instead of redressing of this contempt, either by removing (to your power) the grounds and occasions of it, if Just and deserved, in the Clergy; or by removing it, if unjust and undeserved, in [Page 20]the Laity; your Letters administer false and unrighteous grounds and occasions of additional contempt, &c. If so (I say); it will necessarily follow, that the project and designe of your Enquiry can be no­thing less, nothing else, then that of pro­pagating Atheisme, &c. in the Laity, by means of a confirm'd unjust Contempt of their Clergy, (between which, there is such a near relation, by your own con­fession) and that (else your politicks were as faulty as your cause) under the disguise of a friendly pretence: It is a grand maxime in Law (but only with a Civilian) non defendere videtur qui latitat; very silence or non-appearance for the ac­cused &c. much more publication with­out vindication (as in the present case) is an implicite charge; so that the very negative, your non-vindicating of Religion and Clergy from that Contempt which you both (too truly) presuppose, and divulge, is an indirect proscription and exposal of both, to a further degree and confirmation of it; your Inquisition, interpretative (though there were no express) accusa­tion! and hence, according to this rule, the properest paraphrase upon your Text [Page 21](and I dare say, most congruous to the original) must be this: — ‘The Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt and Contemptibility both of the Clergy ( Person and Functi­on) and of Religion, under Colour of Friendly Enquiry into the same, and pretence of Redress of the pre­sent G [...]tempt, but with a real in­tent of fomenting and propagating a further and firmer Prejudice, and (what hath a near relation thereunto) Atheisme, &c. alledged or admini­stred, and in perpetuam rei memo­riam published to the world, by Oath, ex officio, &c. And now— ex ungue Leonem!’

But Sir (to subsume a fortiori) in stead of Vindication of Religion and Cler­gy, or the pretended redress of popular contempt of both (by you both supposed and divulged) you have exposed and be­trayed both, to, (what you have fowly bewrayed in your self), accumu­lative prejudice, and a confirmed contempt; and in order to the more effectual pro­pagation hereof, and your Atheistick, Antichristian design herein, in a [Page 22]a most defamatory, reproachful and blas­phemous manner traduced and abused the doctrinal foundation of both, viz. the Holy Scriptures, to the infringing and subverting (what you can) the sacred authority (and consequently, the neces­sity and utility) of the same, and therein the Christian Faith founded thereupon; for which you must be accountable.

As touching your first and cheif assault, Sir, This being made (as is said) upon the doctrinal foundation of both Religion and Clergy, the Holy Scriptures, and in them the personal, God and his Christ, or rather this complex, God in Christ (if those phrases may not be offensive to you) and thus at once, antiscriptural, antichristian, atheistical; I Judge it ne­cessary that I first by way of defence, prepossess the Reader against it; and then for conviction, in a few instances amongst many, a litle exemplify it.

As for the former, I cannot better prepossess the Reader, nor counter-work you, then by asserting from the very principles of Reason (the onely significant topick in this case) the authority by you debased and disparaged, namely, That [Page 23]of the Holy Scriptures, which I will briefly perform in these few ensuing pa­ragraphs, wherein I consult not so much his judgment, as his memory; the rea­lity, as the rationality of his Faith; as being rather prompter hereof, then foun­der; hoping that I have not herein to do with more Atheists, then one; nor fearing in defence of such a rational in­terest, to encounter them all.

First then, Sir,

That there is an One only true and living God; that to this God, is due from the Creature, all possible wor­ship and service; that upon the right performance of this worship, depends all true and certain happiness; are all truths demonstrable from principles of common Reason; (else I am willing to take shame for my assertion) viz. That of a true Deity, partly from natural Con­science, as being in its latitude, both Con­servatory of common connate notions and principles (of which, that of a Deity, divine worship, and concomitant Reward, are the chief) the very Light and Law of nature; and also witness and judge, by way of domestick process in matters [Page 24]of fact vitious or vertuous, accusing or excusing according to the tenour of that Law; hence called by Gregory Nazian­zen, the Souls-paedagogess (which would you become tractable disciple to, I should not yet despair of you, for none such ever died Atheist or Infidel) and by Basile the Great, a natural Judicatory, most certainly authorised from a supream Law, and Law­giver, who can be no other than the true God, whose authentick and righteous Will is therein exemplified: Partly again, by rational collection, or conclusion of one absolute first Cause and Principle from obvious effects; that being the pro­duction of the Creatures, can neither be infinite, that is, of one by another, the present by a former, those again by a former, and so still on, (far beyond Adam, and the Prae-adamites) even in infinitum, by way of a direct unbounded procession: nor yet Circular; that is, of a second, by a first; a third, by a second; another, by that; and so round to the first again, pro­ducing and reproducing each other, by way of continual circulation; (both those wayes being palpably inconsistent, absurd, and irrational) it must of necessity be Ori­ginal, [Page 25]proceeding from one only univer­sal, supream, absolute, and independent Be­ing, the Original Author of all things, which is no other then Jehovah, the onely true God. Deny this, Sir, and unman your self.

Again, that of Religious Worship, is evicted from the former; the very same principle convincing of the truth of a Godhead, and of Religious Worship due from Man, as natural Tribute and Ho­mage to this God, as being not only a super­excellent nature in Himself; but absolute, & soveraign Proprietary in, & Benefactor to his Creature, more especially Man, his Ʋsufructuary for life and being: Him­self independent upon any thing; all things necessary dependants upon him! Inso­much, that there was never person or peo­ple in the world, who did not alwayes Joyn with their sense and conscience of a Deity, Religious and devotional acknow­ledgments; witness sacred Rituals, Tem­ples, Altars, Sacrifices, Festivals, &c. amongst the most Barbarous of Nations; and thus it is observable, that the Gen­tiles are not tax'd by their Doctor in his Letter to the Old Romans, with a total [Page 26]neglect of Worship, but with defect in the manner of it; as being unsuitable and in­congruous to the Divine Nature and Will. Lastly, that of a certain Reward and Happiness attending upon the due performance of this Worship, (as oppo­site misery upon the neglect of it) is no less congruous to the Principles of Natu­ral Reason, than either of the former; as being convincingly manifest, partly from the infinite goodness and righteousness of God, being equally disposed to reward Vertue, and punish Vice; partly from the intrinseck Equity and Justice of the thing it self.

In fine then, Sir,

The truth of a Godhead, Religious Wor­ship due to this God; true Happiness and Reward depending upon this Worship, are all Articles of a very Heathen's Creed, as well as of that of a Christian; as being the dictates of Nature, as well as of Scripture; (Read by the Light of Sun, Moon, and Stars;) common principles of Reason, as well as Articles of Faith; per­spicuous to the World in general, in com­mon with that impropriated part of it, the Church; and therefore in the business of [Page 27] Religion, supposed as general Prelimina­ries, and (as it is in all other Arts and Sciences) confessed Principles; for he that cometh unto God, (as Candidate in this Sacred Profession) must believe that God is, and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him: A Godhead! Reli­gion! Concomitant Reward and Happi­ness! Common-Creed! wherein all Hea­thens, and Pagans, Jews, Mahometans, &c. (whose several Testimonies I must not here insert) as well as Christians, univer­sally throughout the world, are Joynt Confessors, save here and there a Prota­goras, Diagoras, Lucian, the Author of the Contempt of the Clergy, &c. and such like Desperadoes, who yet ne­ver durst, out of a Feaver, expresly deny any of all the Three, a GOD, his WORSHIP, or a FƲTƲRE STATE: or suppose they live the Pope's Life, questioning what they dare not, cannot deny; ( Clement the Seventh is the Man I mean) his Three Dying-Resolves, will be their certain, though too late Conviction, viz. Whether there be a God? Whether the Soul be Immor­tal? Whether there be a Heaven and Hell?

Again, Sir,

That in order to the due knowledg of this God, the right and acceptable perfor­mance of this worship, and the discovery and attainment of this happiness, a special Revelation of the Divine Mind & Will, and Rule of Faith & Life, is to the crea­ture absolutely necessary; that a scrip­tural Rule and Revelation, is most con­venient; and that to afford the creature such a Rule is most congruous to the sa­cred nature & honour of God; are all ra­tional truths aswell as the former: For, Sir, as touching the necessity of such a Rule and Revelation; although a person might by the conduct of the Light and Law of Nature, emproved by the acces­sary help of the works of Nature, dis­cover and learn, That there is a God, yea, and in some degree, what He is both in his negative Attributes, independency, infinity, immutability, &c. and in his af­firmative-goodness, wisdom, power, &c. yea, and those in their very eminencies, —omnisciency, omnipotency, &c. and the like, as the necessary and essential properties of the first Cause: Likewise, that there is religious worship due to this God; yea, [Page 29]and that he ought to be worshipped, [...], in a way and manner most acceptable to himself: Lastly, that reward and happiness attends and depends upon that Worship; yea and in some respect, what objective happiness & chief good is, viz. God himself, ( qui omnis beatitudinis, fastigium, meta, finis, as said the Divine Plato, like as his Master Socrates, the former) the very sum, a­dequate measure and boundary of all real blessedness: yet notwithstanding all this; What Ʋnity of Essence in Trinity of Per­sons is; One, in Three, without division! Three, in One, without confusion! God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, all one individual Spirit; the pro­per object of divine Worship: What the right and acceptable manner of perfor­ming that Worship: Wherein that true formal happiness consists, which attends thereupon; and by what means, attain­ble, &c. Those, Sir, believe it, are not at all discoverable by that common Light, by reason of that infinite dispro­portion which is between such a defective medium and the object; and hence, in the Academy, the Lyceum, the Stoa, and [Page 30]other Athenian Phrontisteries, would have found no more credit, then the doc­trine usually preached for a hundred yeares last past in the Church of England hath in your books — Follies! Lett. 1. pag. 59. else what mean't the Heathenish polytheisme, and great Armado of mock-Deities (alias Mortals bewrayed by the Tombs they had, aswell as Temples) thirty thousand strong! as it is in Hesiod's muster-roll copied by St. Augustine; of whom three thousand amongst the very Graecians as it is in Homer's (whose [...], if with you as Canonical, as belike his Iliades and Odysses are, then we know at once, what is your Creed, your Bible, and Practice of Piety) six thousand amongst the Ro­manes, as it is in Varro's, more Gods then there are of Contemned Clergy all England over; what mean't their mon­strous Idolatries? their two hundred eighty eight Beatitudes (recounted by the learned Roman now mentioned)? and such like stuff (of which to speak with the Father, me piget quod illos non puduit) and that not amongst the ruder Plebeians only, but even persons of more defecated in­tellectuals, their polished Sophies, Inge­niosoes, [Page 31]Vertuosoes, and the most refined of all Nations and professions; the Egyp­tian Priests, the Persian Magi, the wisest Graecian Philosophers, Stoicks, Peripateticks, Platonicks, &c. the most inquisitive Roman Naturalists, the Grae­cian and Roman both Orators and Poets, even the very Princes in either Faculty; Demosthenes and Tully in the one, and in the other (which your Reader may chance to wonder at) Protestant-Homer, Let. 2. pag. 43 45, 46. and (which is yet stranger) Virgil the (undoubted) Nonconformist, had he but held out to Bartholomew the Famous; the onely persons of either Perswasion, I as­sure you, that I ever read or dream'd of, to have come from Rome or Athens: What (I say) can the Pagan Mock-deities, Idolatries, and imaginary Beatitudes in the very judgement of the most strenuous Advocates of pure Naturals, portend other, then an utter Insufficiency of natu­ral light, for the ends and purposes above specified; namely, the administring of the due Knowledge of the True God, True Worship, and True Happiness? Therefore a New Light, or supernatural Rule and Revelation, is absolutely neces­sary: [Page 32]Again, Sir, the expediency of a scriptural or written Rule, may appear from a three-fold danger and inconveni­ency which an unwritten one is liable to; namely, that of oblivion and forgetfulness; that of depravation and corruption, by un­just additions, detractions, falsifications, and forgery; and lastly, that of utter de­struction and suppression; the first, through the treachery of Humane memory; the two last, through the implacable enmity of Satan, and his Accomplices against God, his Truth and Church: From all which, a written Rule and Revelation is more secure, as being a publick Record and Repertory, whereunto recourse may be had upon all occasions, as well for relief to Memory, as for trial, or redress of questioned and impeached Truth; hence called by St. Peter, a surer word of Prophecy, than Vocal or Ʋnwritten; to wit, not by a certainty [...] of vera­city, for all Divine Revelation is equally sure in this sense, because equally true, but [...] of security, upon the ac­counts mentioned: True it is, God was pleased to instruct his Church for the first Two thousand years, and upwards, onely [Page 33] viva voce, by a vocal Revelation of his Mind and Will (for ought certainly known to the contrary;) but then, Sir, the constitution of the Church, was, du­ring that long Aera, onely domestical, confined within the Line and Limits of particular Families, which compared with the longaevity, and great age of the Abori­gines of the World, gives us plainly to un­derstand, that Sacred Truth might have been easily [...] by tradition from father to son, conveyed & preserved all that time, pure, entire, and incorrupt, free from the above-named Inconvenien­cies; yea, one single Trinmvirate might have performed this, for the whole Two thousand years mentioned; namely, Adam, Methuselah, and Shem, Methuselah living above Two hundred years with Adam; and Shem, (who lived to the Fiftieth of Isaack's Age, which was about the Two thousandth, one hundredth, and Fiftieth of the Age of the World) about a hundred with Methuselah: But now, being that the Church-Line hath been since far ex­tended, her constitution advancing from Domestical, to National; and from That, to Oecumenick, and Ʋniversal, (Japhet [Page 34]perswaded to co-tabernacle with Shem;) and moreover the Life of Man very much since curtail'd, being contracted by Sa­cred Horoscope, to seventy, or at most, eighty years; yea, very rarely protracted to that; insomuch, that many successive Sages of the Church, would not suffice to perform that now, which that one single ternion did before; and thus the case infinitely altered: It followeth, that for a preventive expedient against the Three-fold Inconveniency above-specified; namely, oblivion, corruption, and suppres­sion; a scriptural and written Rule is most Convenient. And lastly, that it is most congruous to the Nature and Honour of GOD, to indulge his Creatures, such a Revelation, Rule, and Directory; is most convincingly manifest from his own infi­nite Perfections partly, and partly from the concerns of his Glory and Honour in his own Worship being rightly per­formed, and his Creature's Happiness be­ing fully secured; for, to urge but one ar­gument in this one piece of Sacred Oeco­nomy (which is Nemesius's concerning a Divine Providence in general) should not God, in condescention to his Creatures [Page 35]necessity and conveniency mentioned, as well as in compliance with the Interest of his own Honour therein concerned, afford him such a Revelation of his Mind, and Will, and Rule of Faith and Life; this non-indulgence, or refusal, must necessari­ly proceed, either from want of Wisdom, or of will, or of power and sufficiency in God; as if either he were not Wise e­nough, to understand how to gratifie his Creature, or indeed consult his own in­terest herein; or not Good, Gracious, and Kind enough to his Creature, or Faithful enough to his own interest, to do it; or else in case of both Skill and Will, yet not Able or Sufficient enough hereunto: But now being that God (as is evident by the very light of Nature) is infinitely Wise, infinitely Good, and All-sufficient, it were desperate treasonable Blaspemy committed against Heaven, to assert any of those Defects; and therefore in fine, by the best of consequence, as a special su­pernatural Revelation of the divine Mind and Will, and Rule of Faith and Life, is to the Creature absolutely Necessary; and a Scriptural and Written one, most Con­venient; So it is most congruous and suita­ble [Page 36]to the Divine both nature and honour, to afford and indulge his Creature, this most needful useful, Scriptural Rule and Revelation.

Lastly, Sir,

That this necessary-expedient Reve­lation of God and his Will, this Canon Rule and Directory of Divine Doctrine, and Worship, and Christian Faith and Life, &c. is no other then what is con­tained in that System. of Sacred Truth, the Volume of the Scripures of the Old and New Testament, as approved and received throughout the Reformed Churches; is as rationally demonstra­ble as either of the former; This being that only Revelation to which the neces­sary properties and conditions of such a Canon do appertain; which are sum­marily these two, namely, Divine Au­thority in respect of the Original, and universal sufficiency in respect of the end; it being absolutely requisite that such a Rule, should both proceed from (not Man, Church or Angel, but) God himself, as its Author; and also by due proportion correspond to the ends and in­tendments specified, as a plain and ple­nary [Page 37]description of, and direction to, the true God, true Worship, true Happiness, and the appropriated means of the accep­table performance of that Worship, and infallible attainment of that Happiness; what more Rational? and may that Instrument, Method and Model of Re­velation, be for ever exploded the Church of God as apocryphal, which is devoid of either property; The one is a compound of infallible Veracity and authoritative Power, expressed in the Revelation; as being by its Sacred Author, whose es­sential properties those are, both inspired and instituted for the only authentick and unalterable Canon of his Church; the former requiring our Faith, the latter our Obedience; Both in their respective analysis, ultimately resolvable into the same as their very formal and Fundamen­tall Reason, a principle of natural Con­science as well as that of the Authors eternal Power and God Head. So that, the Christian Religion framed by this Canon, is of all others, the most rational, as being founded, partly upon the Vera­city of that God who can neither deceive, nor be deceived; partly upon his Supre­macy [Page 38]or potestative Right by vertue where­of quicquid libet licet, he may, as the Creature's Soveraign Proprietary, enjoyn and exact of him, whatsoever Worship or Service his own absolute, but righte­ous Will, shall dictate or direct: and if any of the English Clergy offer to court your assent or obedience hereunto as other, let them for ever inherit your Contempt: The other property again, (by me considered as relating to both matter and manner of Revelation) is the absolute perfection of the Canon, where­by it is conceived, as a Sacred Pandect or Ecyclopoedy, expressely or implicitely, directly or consequentially, to compre­hend the whole Counsel of God concerning all things necessary to be either known and believed, or observed and practised, in order to God's Glory and Man's hap­piness, with so much clearness and per­spicuity, as that all both literate and il­literate, may in a due and diligent per­usal of the same, attain to a competent skill and knowledg therein: So that, that onely Revelation must necessarily be the authentick Organ and Instrument, Canon and Rule of Divine Doctrine and [Page 39] Worship, Christian Faith and Obedience, to which those two Canonical properties and conditions agree, viz. that authority in respect both of inspiration and insti­tution; and that all-sufficiency in respect both of matter and manner of discovery; so as that all Faith and Obedience yielded to the Revelation, must be resolved into the veracity and supremacy of its Author, expressed therein as the formal object or objective Reason of both (aswell as into the universally perfect and all-suffici­ent Testimony it self as the material one); and not into the testimony either of Church with the Papist, or of Spirit with the Enthysiast, both committing a most absurd and putid Circle in giving the reason of their hope; asserting the truth and authority of the Canon, by those respective testimonies; and again in a reversed method, the truth of those testimonies, (as being no other way known to be true) by the Canon; there­fore to be equally declined: Now that the Revelation of God and his Will contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament, as they are approved and received throughout the Reformed [Page 40]Churches, is that one only Revelation which is thus both inspired, and also by eternal sanction, instituted and appoin­ted of God for the all-sufficient and ab­solutely perfect Canon of his Church, and that both as touching the Doctrine therein contained, and its accessary mode of scrip­tion; it being wholly committed to wri­ting by God's Holy Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists, being all by the Holy Ghost, as his immediate Actuaries, ex­traordinarily qualified for, irresistibly incited to, and infallibly guided and actéd in the work; commenced by Moses the first, and finally concluded and per­fected by St. John the last of Canonical Writers; may be very rationally evicted; (and that to an utter exclusion not only of the Jewish Talmud, the Turkish Al­choran, Popish Traditions, Enthsiastick Fancies, &c. from having part or lot in the Sacred Canon; but of matters of a higher predicament, namely, all vocal Revelation, such as was that whereby God instructed his Church for the first two thousand Yeares and upwards, and the many Sermons of Christ and his A­postles not recorded, though equally in­spired [Page 41]of God, with the Scriptural; as al­so several Prophecies, as those of Gad, Na­than, Iddo, and others, which were not on­ly equally inspired, but likewise recorded, yet irrecoverably lost, as being only ac­commodated pro tunc to some particular state, condition, & exigency of the Church, which once satisfied, they were judged unnecessary to be incorporated into the u­niversal Canon.) Where I advertise the Reader, that the sufficiency of the Scrip­tures, is evicted in their authority; for it being once agreed upon, that the Reve­lation contained therein, is of a truth the Word of God, we cannot more question its sufficiency then its testimony, whereof this is a signal part, namely that, It is as inspired of God, so as his Sacred Insti­tutes, profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Correction, for Instruction, &c. suf­ficient to perfect every individual Man and the whole Church of God; That what­soever things were written, were written for our Learning, &c. That this word must be indeclinably observed without turning to the right hand or to the left; That nothing must be added to this Word, or diminished from it, upon peril of accu­mulative [Page 42]misery, denounced by St. John the last and longest liver of Canonical Writers, (as hath been said) in the very last of his writings, namely the very close of the Canon, by way of penal sanction, and ratification of the whole; So that the very crisis of this weighty concern of stating and setling our Faith & obedience in and to the Holy Scriptures, lyeth in the evidence of the Divine Authority there­of, after this discursive method; That which is the Word of God, ought neces­sarily to be believed and obeyed; But the Revelation contained in the Scrip­tures of the Old and New-Testament, is the Word of God; Therefore this Revelation ought necessarily to be be­lieved and obeyed: The major or first proposition, is a conclusion of natural Reason, founded and following upon God's essential veracity and supremacy (as hath been said) the dictates of the ve­ry Light and Law of Nature, as well as that of a Deity it self: The minor or assumption, namely, that the Revelation contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is the very Word of God; is apparent upon a threefold [Page 43]testimony, namely, that of the Church, that of the Scriptures themselves, and that of the Holy Ghost; of which the two former onely are argumentative, the one as Humane and Ministerial; the o­ther, as Divine and Canonical: as for that of the Holy Ghost, He being the efficient cause of our Faith and obedience, his testimony indeed is most certainly per­swasive to a person's own Conscience; but this testimony, being private and inter­nal, (like the Hidden Manna which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it) and the truth or divinity hereof being with all opponents equally questio­nable with that of the Word it self; it can be no wayes convictive to others: Well then, to urge only the two former, and that very briefly; As touching the first of those, namely, the testimony of the Church, which I here consider (and ob­serve it, Sir,) not under the notion of a Church, (for as such it is onely knowable by the Scriptures, not they by it;) but as a collective Body or society of prudent and honest faithful Witnesses, professing and attesting the Holy Scriptures, and the Religion therein prescribed; so that [Page 44]the Argument standeth thus; That Revelation which is by a society of prudent honest and faithful Witnesses, who are neither deceived themselves, nor deceivers of others, professed and attested to be the Word of God, in all rational construction and evidence, is such; But the Revelation contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is by such a society of prudent honest and faithful Witnesses, &c. profes­sed and attested to be the Word of God; Ergo, &c. The major or first proposition Sir, I reckon unquestionable with all A­theists and Infidels throughout the world; for certainly, as essential infallibility in God by vertue whereof in genere entis, he can neither deceive, nor be deceived, is the ground of an infallible assurance in mat­ters of Divine testimony; so a rational infallibility in a society of prudent honest and faithful men, who therefore cannot be suspected to be in genere moris, either deceived in themselves, or deceivers of o­thers, is a sufficient ground of rational assurance, in matter of humane testimony, (as is that in question, viz, a humane testimony of a divine Revelation); for [Page 45]what more can be required in the case? As for the roof of the minor or assum­tion, all that is required hereunto, is the eviction of the prudence, honesty and faithfulness, of those Witnesses, or the rational infallibility of themselves and and their testimony, namely, that they are such as can neither be suspected of being deceived in themselves, nor yet of any imposture or intent of deceiving others; where I understand as to our immediate concern in the case, the present Testifiers especially, without a perplexing recourse had to the first; being that the credit of the preceeding is still successively secured in the subsequent Churches; thus being once perswaded of the prudence and honesty of the present Church, namely, that she is so wise and prudent as not to have been deceived by the next preceeding from whom she received the Scriptures; and so honest and ingenuous as not to deceive the Reader, or my self, or the next ensuing; we are accordingly assured of the same both prudence and honesty, and consequent­ly rational infallibility in the former; and so in the next to that, and so on to the very Apostles and first witnesses: Now [Page 46]then, Let the intellectuals and morals; the wisdom, prudence, and discretion; the honesty, fidelity, and integrity of the present Wit­nesses of the Divinity of the Scriptures be impartially scann'd; and all compared with the multitude of the Testifiers (a wise man may sometimes both be de­ceived and deceive, but a multitude can hardly, if ever; in regard of choice of direction in case of errour, or detection in case of forgery) the publicity and openness of the testimony, and consequently, its lyableness to conviction, if false or frau­dulent; the hazard of loss of peace, ease, and quiet; honour, credit, and reputati­on; profits, pleasures and wordly de­lights; means of subsistence, liberty; yea, life it self, which that Testimony and Pro­fession exposeth to: a practice quite con­trary to the Law of Nature, which ob­ligeth to self-preservation, but that it is warranted by those higher severe lawes of Mortification and Self-denial, &c. as to all those endearments, prescribed in the Scriptures, by them attested; which whe­ther observed, or not observed, is a cer­tain conviction of a faithful testimony, the observance being matter of credit there­unto; [Page 47] non-observance of disgrace, which by fore-going the profession, might be avoi­ded; and lastly, the vigilancy, subtilty, and potency of Enemies and opponents, past and present; for whom it was, and is easie in case of imposture, at once both to detect and to destroy; who yet either have been wholly silent under the publick at­testations of Sacred Truth, or have ad­ded thereunto their own acknowledgments, (instances whereof, History abounds withal); or lastly, have disputed the same with the sword, rather then with argument, though the Gates of Hell never could nor shall prevail herein: Let those I say, and the like, be all duly scann'd and com­pared together; and then undoubtedly, the conclusion can be no other, then that the Testifiers and Witnesses of the Revela­tion (or Doctrine confirmed by Mira­cles,) contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, are and have been a prudent, honest, and faithful So­ciety, which can, or could neither be sus­pected of Errour, or of being deceived in themselves; nor yet of imposture, or in­tent of deceiving others; and consequently, that this same Word or Revelation by [Page 48]them thus attested and professed, is of a truth the Word of God: At leastwise the whole may be of such vertue and in­fluence as to beget in us that veneration and reverend esteem for those Testifiers, and the Scriptures by them testified, to­gether with the Religion which according to the prescript thereof they profess, as to bring us to the Bible, and to perswade us to a research of the Scriptures with the applauded Bereans, whether things be so as is reported; (without which, take no­tice, my testimony for the Scriptures, ought to be of more force with you, then yours against them, can be expected to be with me, mine being with you one­ly of suspected partiality; yours with me, of manifest prejudice;) and then are we half-Proselytes already; for, Sir, the Divine Authority of the Scriptures may convincingly appear to one thus pre­pared by the subordinate and introductory attestation of the Church, from the superiour Testimony of the Scriptures themselves (the second thing propounded to be spoken to) namely that evidence which may be collected from the intrin­seck characters and cognizances of Di­vinity [Page 49]as so many dignifying preroga­tives, enstamp'd upon the Word it self, as that which [...] (as saith Athanasius) as in a manner self-mani­festative; and hence (which is remarka­ble) frequently likened to the objects or mediums of our natural senses, as light, voice and sound, smell, savour and taste, fire and heat, &c. whence any that hath his senses exercised to the discerning here­of, may gather, that as the things men­tioned doe indemonstrably discover them­selves to be what they are, so the Holy Scriptures whereof those are figurative resemblances, doe infallibly prove them­selves to be Divine: Now these three or four Characters of the Scriptures seem of all others to be more especially argu­mentative and convictive of their Divinity to natural Conscience; namely, 1. the ma­jesty of their stile, witness those many majestick Titles of Divinity, which the Author doth therein assume to himself, (which I must not hear recount) impor­ting either independency of being, or uni­versality of perfection, or absolute power and authority, or excellency of operation, &c. but all no less then Divinity; and [Page 50]amongst other particulars, that magi­sterial affidavit —Thus saith the Lord, familiar to the Holy Scriptures, and pre­tended to in no writings in the world be­sides: 2. The transcendency, spirituali­ty, and sanctity of the matter and con­tents, both in doctrines and duties; the great mysteries of the Godhead and god­liness; three distinct persons, in one nature, in the one; two distinct natures, in one person, in the other: the mystery of di­verse, yea adverse, both natures and persons united in one Covenant; the mystery of Regeneration; the mystery of the Resur­rection, &c. and other Doctrines & Duties as opposite to man's corrupt Will, as these are to his Reason, as the doctrines of original sin; the impotency of pure na­turals, in spirituals; the servitude and Bondage of Free-Will, &c. the duties of mortification of the Flesh, self-denial, and that strange retaliation of evil with good, and hatred with returnes of Love, &c. infallible marks of Sanctity; as is also finally the universal tendency and intend­ment of the whole contexture; namely, the exaltation and advancement of God, and debasement of the Creature, pecu­liar [Page 51]to Holy Writ, beyond all other what­soever: 3. The sincerity and impartiality of the Writers and Compilers, who ap­pear to be so far from concealing, that on the contrary, they have faithfully divulged upon Record, each other's, nay, almost each his own defaults and infirmities; Moses, his Grand-father Levi's iniqui­ty; his Brother Aaron's Idolatry; his and his sister Miriams sedition, and his own faulty precipitancy: David, Mose's rashness and inconsideracy, and his own Murther and Ʋncleanness: the Evange­lists, their very Master's humane infir­mities, as hunger, thirst, weariness, fear, &c. and their own dulness of under­standing; impertinent Queries; St. John's and Jame's ambition; Thomas's incredu­lity; Peter's triple denial of his Lord and Master, recorded by St. Mark, his own Disciple: Paul's dissention with Barnabas, and accessary guilt of Stephen's Death, recorded by St. Luke his own Follower: St. Paul, Peter's Judaizing, and his own Blasphemy and Persecution, &c. an un­questionable conviction of the faithful­ness and truth of their Testimony, not to be match'd by any Writers whatso­ever [Page 52]besides, 4. And lastly, the jnfallibility and veracity of their predictions; the pre­dictions themselves are recorded in the Holy Scriptures, the accomplishment of them is sufficiently attested, partly by Humane History, partly by experience; and (to argue with Bellarmine) ‘if Scrip­tural predictions of things to come, be true, as is approved by the event, why not scriptural attestations of things present?’ All which duly considered what peruser of those Sacred Digests, will not assent to and conclude upon the Divine Authority of the same? till this same assent introduced by the Testimony of the Church, as the preparative medium by which (per non propter) our Faith and obedience in and to the Holy Scriptures is first in order of time, though not of Dignity, pre-engaged, be perfected and ripened into a firm perswasion, by the concurrent certificative Testimony of the Holy Ghost, as the efficient cause thereof (exerted in, if distinct from, the admira­ble efficacy of the Doctrine it self, upon the mind and judgment, the heart, will, and affections, &c.) namely, that the Revelation, (that is the doctrine confirmed [Page 53]by miracles, both co-attested canonically in the Scriptures, and ministerially by the Church) contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament, (as they are approved and received throughout the Reformed Churches) is of a truth the Word of God, &c.

There be several other Secondary and Collateral arguments of the Divinity of of the Scriptures, as the cessation of Gen­tile-Oracles; the subversion of Pagan-Idols by vertue hereof, like the fall of Da­gon before the Ark; the implacable Ma­lice, rage and fury of Satan and his ac­complices against them; the Divine Judge­ments upon their inveterate Opponents; the invincible courage, constancy, and re­solution of their Confessors and Martyrs; the quality of the Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists, their first Publishers and Wri­ters; the admirable preservation of them against all opposition; the confession of Adversaries, Jews, Gentiles, Sibylls, Phylosophers, Heathens and Hereticks, &c. touching the divine truth thereof; And also several other Internal markes and cognizances of Divinity, as antiqui­ty, consent of parts, efficacy of doctrine, [Page 54]and the like: But the former being only known to us by humane Testimony, it is plain, that the prudence, and discretion, the honesty and integrity of the present Witnesses of the Divinity of the scrip­tures, as persons Rationally Infallible, or such as cannot in reason be suspected of any, either active or passive deceit & impo­sture in the case; is & must to any conside­rate person appear to be equivalent to all the rest, and a more sure and compendious argument for fixing and setling of our be­lief in the particular; The latter I have omitted, as not so argumentative or con­victive to natural-Conscience, (which I have here more especially addressed my endeavour to) as the others above urged. But that none may wonder why I urge not here the argument of miracles, which others of the greatest Fame lay such a main stress upon, I will give you and the world this brief account of it: Miracles are considerable in reference to the case in hand, but two ways, namely, as either mat­ter of Divine testimony, co-attested to­gether with the doctrine by them confir­med, canonically in the Scriptures; or else as matter of humane testimony, co-attested [Page 55]together with the said doctrine, ministerially in & by the Church; (as hath been preasserted): Now in short, Sir, under neither consideration, are Miracles, or can they rationally be supposed to be, the ar­gument of our Faith, but only the partial Object thereof, as matter of Divine testi­mony (as hath been said) in the Scriptures, and matter of Humane testimony in the Church; and therefore requiring a cor­respondent assent to both: Where, for a further account of my self, I crave leave to Remonstrate against a very Eminent and worthy Divine of the quorum of the Clergy by you contemned, now living, who in a Book as noted as himself, holds this of Miracles for the main convictive Argument of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures as though best now, because such of old; which is a meer fallacy, a non causa pro causa, partly, and partly, ab accidente; for First, to argue ab absurdo from his own Hypothesis, namely this, That which Christ himself in his time used as the best argument to prove the Divine Authority of his doctrine, is the best still; to which I subsume; But so it is, that that of visible miracles, was the best argu­ment [Page 56]which Christ used to prove the Divine authority of his doctrine; making the Ear-witnesses of the one, Eye-witnesses of the other, as infallibly demonstrative signs and seals of Divinity; and then the conclusion followeth full of absurdity, viz. that that of visible miracles (obvi­ous to our Eyes, as those were which he wrought in the dayes of his flesh, to his, then-proselytes) is the best argument that can be used still to prove the Divinity of his doctrine, (the scriptures); or, (which is all one) Christ must re-descend into the world, and work New miracles ( visible as his first) before he can have New con­verts; Absurd! Again, If that which Christ himself used as the best Argument to prove the Divinity of his Doctrine, (which is known to have been visible miracles) be the best still, then are we under an unavoidable necessity of incur­ring the same guilt, to wit, non-conviction and positive unbelief, (or, in the same Au­thors opinion, (which I do not here dis­pute) the sin against the Holy Ghost) with those reprobated Infidels in the dayes of Christ, through our being destitute of the same provisions against it, namely, vi­sible [Page 67]miracles; Nay more, we are under a necessity of incurring sin, without possibi­lity of remedy, — a necessity of sinning, through want of the preventive, visible miracles, — without possibility of reme­dy, because the positive unbelief mention­ed, and sin against the Holy Ghost (if those be distinct) are known by scripture-ver­dict to be unpardonable, this gross absur­dity followeth by necessary consequence, & how injurious, nay, blasphemous, against the Wisdome, Goodness, Holiness, and Ju­stice of God, the asserting of such a thing were, is easy to determine: Thirdly Dilemmatically, that Reverend Author must necessarily consider miracles either as Recorded in the Scriptures, or, as Re­ported by the Church; (for as visible they were peculiar to Christ's Contemporaries and Eye-witnesses) If as Recorded in the Scriptures; as such they being part of the Divine testimony, which is this complex, the Doctrine of Christ confirmed by Mira­cles, they are not the Argument, but the Object of our Faith; and we believe not the Scriptures for the Miracles, but the Miracles for the Scriptures, as part of the sacred narrative, and together with the [Page 58] Doctrine by them confirmed, and joyntly with them therein Recorded, the Collate­ral Object of our belief: If again as Re­ported by the Church; then by my Authors Divinity, the testimony of the Church, is the main, or best Argument that can be used, to prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures; A train of Absurdities! and if we abstract from the testimony of both Scriptures and Church; let any tell me what significancy Miracles are of in the case: The Author (I assure you) is a person approved for Eminent, both Learn­ing and Piety, and indemnified from your two extenuative Characters, of which in their due place; but personal respects must vail to the interest of the truth; I can easily declare with him, that I be­lieve that Doctrine to be of God, which is confirmed by undeniable Miracles; I can as easily declare, that I believe all true Miracles to be of God, because they ex­ceed all created power; but the critical Query in the case, (by him omitted) is, how shall one be assured, that such Mira­cles were ever wrought (as Christ's turning of Water into Wine; for instance, his Raising of Lazarus from the Dead, and [Page 59] his Curing of all manner of Diseases, &c.) for confirmation of his Doctrine? the two former, one may, by the very light of na­ture, be assured of, and yet question the last: This certainly is no otherwise at­tested, then first in a secondary and subser­vient order by the Church, as a Ministe­rial mean of conveying to us, the truth of matter of Fact; and next, in a superiour order by the Scriptures themselves, as the the Canonical Records of the same; and in both, in conjunction with the Doctrine by them confirmed; and both Doctrine and Miracles, as the complex and con­junct object of our Faith, equally credible upon Testimony; which Faith is (as hath been said) by the concurrent testimony, and inward illumination and motion of the pub­lick spirit of the Holy Scriptures, viz. the Holy, Ghost, ripened into this firm per­swasion, that the Revelation contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa­ment, that is, both the Doctrine it self, and the narrative of the Miracles, by which it was confirmed, as collateral parts and contents thereof, is of a truth the Word, not of Man, nor Angel, but of GOD himself; and the onely authentick [Page 60]Canon, and Rule, of Divine faith, worship, and obedience; which, I thank God, I am as much confirmed in the belief of, not onely to speak, with Campian in another perswasion, quam me vivere, as that I live, but as surely as that there is a God by whom I live; else had long ere now become a miserable prey to subtil Adver­saries, who are ever observed primarily (as you do) to attact their Opponents, in the scriptural foundation, and that especially in its very fundamentality; name­ly, the Divine Authority thereof, here Asserted, and I hope, Evicted. Thus, Sir, I have gone a great way about, to bring you by the nearest way home; at leastwise, if not to gain upon you, as a Proselyte, yet to guard your Reader a­gainst you, as an Enemy: And now I Challenge you to do your Worst; the hurt will be your own, none of mine, nor, I hope, of his, being that I have arm'd him with an Antidote, he shall not need to fear (what I promised to produce in the next place, viz.) your infective exam­ple: And indeed, Sir, your whole Rhap­sody seemes to be nothing else but a con­tinued exemplification of your Atheisme, [Page 61]and Blaspemy, expressed in depreciating, extenuating, debasing, and what in you lies, nullifying the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures, and that in the most material Promises, Invitations, Precepts, Narratives, &c. therein contained; which, could you, by your foul index expurga­torius, expunge them the sacred Canon, as belike you have them your Creed, let the remainder be branded for Apocryphal for me; for (to instance in a few) what grea­ter Promise is there recorded in the whole Book of God, then that in Mala­chi:—Ʋnto you that fear my Name, shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his Wings? Or Invitation, then that of Isaiah: — Ho, every one that thirsteth—come ye, buy and eat; yea, come buy Wine and Milk without mo­ney, and without price? Or Precept, then that early summons in our Saviour's trien­nial Preaching:— Repent, for the King­dom of Heaven is at hand? Or Narra­tive, then that of St. John:— God so loved the World, that he gave his only be­gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have Everlast­ing Life? Or its Parallel, that of St. Paul,—This [Page 62]is a faithful saying, and worthy of all Acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the World to Save Sinners? &c. And what a poor jejune, dilute, empty History were the Volume of Holy Scrip­ture, (and consequently how helpless and hopeless your case and mine, and that of all Sinners universally) if depauperated of those, and their parallel Evangelical con­tents, being that the [...], the very quintessence, the life and spirit, the very soul and substance of that Blessed Revelation consisteth therein; and yet most Blasphemously debased and propha­ned by your self, and prostituted to Con­tempt in others, (for which you must be accomptable); witness those facetious, but blasphemous Laconicks, with which you Criticize thereupon, viz. that of The Moon of Righteousness upon the first; A spiritual Sack-posset upon the next, The Soap of Sorrow, and Fullers-earth of Con­trition, upon the third; That of the Daugh­ter of God, and Dauphin of Heaven, upon the fourth; and that of a Christ­mas-Feast, consisting of Three Dishes, &c. upon the last, and the like; which, who but your self can either read, or relate, [Page 63]without Horrour? I guess what your Reply might be here, namely, that you have onely transcribed the Blasphemies of others, to wit, those of the Clergy, &c. But then remember, Sir, what the doctrine of the Civil Law is (approved with all civil men) above alledged, namely, that Publication without Vindication, is impli­cite Accusation, especially in a case of of such an universal concern as are the Holy Scriptures, which your own inte­rest therein had obliged you to vindi­cate, but that (it is plain) you have re­nounced it. In short then, supposing matter of fact to be matter of sad truth, namely, that some unhappy Clergy-men have, to the disgrace of their function, Religion, and Scriptures, committed such horrid Blasphemies, (which as yet I do not enquire into, but methinks if a­ny such be, you should have by name, singled them out of the society, to their deserved contempt) this will not justify you in what I charge you withal; It be­ing manifest, that you have not only di­vulged those Blasphemies, but divulged them without the least vindication of the Holy Scriptures, Religion, &c. thereby so [Page 64]greatly damnifyed and disparaged, which (as hath been said) is an implicite joyn­ing of issues with the first Aggressors; nay, that you do industriously through­out your Letters, betray and prostitute the same to accumulative contempt in the Laity, and that with all imaginable arti­fice and advantage of an extemporary and occasional witt (to use your own idiom in your own praise) that cursed Volupia to whose unhallowed Shrines you have pre­sumed to devote and sacrifice God's own Word and Oracles, (though you might easily have made experiment thereof up­on another Theam at a much cheaper rate than that is like to prove, of adven­turous jesting with a two-edged tool) and what plainer instance or argument of A. theism? But for a further and fuller ex­emplification and conviction hereof, I will first prompt your Reader with this rule, that as in the sacred Decade or Ten commandements in particular, so in the sacred Scriptures in general, he that of­fends in any one point, is by Divine ver­dict guilty of all, to wit, intensively, in re­gard the Divine authority of the whole is violated in any one particular. And now [Page 65]or instance in particulars of Scripture, not by the Clergy, but by you, (and the whole consequentially in those) abused, depreci­ated, and what in you lieth, exauctorated; I do in the next place, recommend to your Readers perusal, a few pages of your se­cond Letter noted in my Margent, where he shall find such a Scheam of facetious Atheism; as I believe, he never read the like of, all his life-time; and this exem­plified in a supposed Gentlman (persona­ting your self in shewing extemporary and occasional witt, Lett. 2. p. 187, 188, 189, 190. in abusing the Holy Scrip­tures, in your own words, as is plain) much resembling some a la mode Spark, or one of your high-bred Hects, dex­trous in the gentile strain, in a breath to damn himself, and humble-servant others; a Bartholomew-Gentleman, I dare say, least of all, as being known to be no affecter of ceremonies of State (which this Generoso abounds in) more than of Church; his education not serving him for the one, more than his judgment for the other's Well, this same Gentleman, alias the Au­thor of the contempt of Religion, is suppo­sed to be intended for dinner, (probably a feast of luxurious barrioadoes and escu­ladoes) [Page 66]in some good house or other; and how ingenious (to give him your own epithet) he acquits himself both in going and returning, and his demeanour there; quoting Canon for all his addresses, with suddenness of apprehension, and experi­enental skill (as you there call it) in the application of Scripture; the Reader, af­ter perusal of your narrative, be judge. Straight is the Gate, and narrow is the way, and few there be that find it, said our Saviour; prophanely applyed and prostituted to your narrow Alley, (a bad omen, I assure you, of the broad way) The Psalmist's, Lift up your heads O ye Gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, to knocking at the Gate in the Porters ab­sence; The Prophet's Besome of destructi­on, and desolation of Babylon, to a ser­vants sweeping away a little dirt out of a Court-yard; Our Saviour's, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first; to the straining of a complement of precedency, with shruggings, and beg-pardons;— If ye have faith like a grain of mustard­seed, ye shall remove Mountains; to the removing of a little of the mountain of mustard upon the Table: O Jerusalem, [Page 67]Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets —how often would I have gathered thee as a Hen gathereth her Chickens, &c. (an instance whereupon one would have thought you should rather have spent tears, as Himself did, then costly jests) to a dish of Chickens, commended for a dish of fat Jerusalems, &c. The Apostle's Tabitha, arise, to every child, Boy, or Girl, that drops in the street: Our Saviour's in­vitation of relief, Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; to every Porter easing himself of his burden: The Apostle's, Paul may plant, and Apollos may water, but it is God who gives the encroase; to every wa­ter-bearer, &c. I am resolved to add one more, but what is enough to turn my Gentlemans dinner into Belshazzars feast, (celebrated with sacred utensils, as this is, with greater cost, sacred texts,) and the whole into a Tragedy; you can by no means endure that the Minister should preface from Belshazzar; and you tearm your Parson-Antagonist, invi­ting you to here him preach, and promising you the best sermon in his budget, that he forbear the name of Belshazzar; but [Page 68]how will you like to end with him, whom you can so little endure the Minister should begin with? though you have not a Kingdom to lose, yet you have that which is, or ought to be equally or more dear to you; therefore capable of as fa­tal a Peres; — O full of all subtilty and mischief, thou Child of the Devil, thou Enemy of all Righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord? most justly applicable, to all Scripture-vilifiers; and what son of Be­lial, or Bartesus himself? What Celsus or Julian? What Faustus or Manes him­self? What invidious Jew, Papist, or Pagan, doth more deserve to be ran­ked into that predicament, than doth the Author of the contempt of the Clergy, and Religion, personated by that parabo­lical Gentleman? What more abusive, ignominious, blasphemous predicates, did ever the Father of Lies, or Child of that Father, stigmatize the word of truth with­all, then he hath? Aven-Gilion [...] Lesbian Rule! Livius's Decades! Aesop's Fables! Nose of wax! Inky Divinity! mute Do­ctress! Dumb, dead, killing Letter! and a thousand such reproachful epithets, have [Page 69]not reflected a greater affront, ignomi­ny, and disparagement upon the Holy-Scriptures, to the infringing and nullifi­ing, what Man or Devil can, their sacred authority, then hath your debasing prosti­tution thereof; and again, what greater instance or argument of Atheism? For opposition and exaltation, [...], against Religion and against God (or a Deity it self,) is a matter indivi­dual and inseparable in it self, as well as in Antichrist's character; so that you may upon equal terms commence a process or enquiry of contempt against both; I leave the application to the Reader: But, I had almost forgot that you may probably be one of those that hold no other canon than Homer's Iliades and Odysses, Let. 1. pag. 9. or Virgil's Evangelical and Prophetical writings; the former, as containing mystically both Law and Gospel; as his works are own­ed by you in general, for a practice of pi­ety, Lett. 2. pag. 43. wherein you tell your Correspon­dent, he may find all practical Divinity sum'd up, cases of Conscience resolved, controversies decided, &c. (no wonder, you tearm him Christian and Protestant) the other, as comprehending a body of [Page 70]Divinity exactly agreeing with the primi­tive Doctrine and intentions of our Savi­our, Lett. 2. p. 45.46 father'd upon a Nonc. (alias your Hec or self; for I dare say, there is an agreement in unitertio); indeed I have read of one converted by Virgil's fourth Eclogue, but have suspended my beliefe of it hitherto; it may be you are the man; and from such a Bible, such a practice of piety, such a body of Divinity, such a Con­vert, what can the world expect? — [...]. I proceed.

Another assault of yours, Sir, is made upon the Ministerial foundation; (as the former was upon the Doctrinal) namely, your Gorah-like Rebellion against the Cler­gy of the Church of England, and those both in person and function.

As touching the person's of the Clergy, two things you except against, viz. num­ber and qualification: their qualification is reserved for an enquiry, under the second general propounded: As to their number; your exception is, that they are supernu­merary, whereof you betray deep sense and sorrow; the Nation (say you) is perfectly over-stock'd with professors of Di­vinity; Lett. 1.115. thus Aaron's fruitful Rod, is Co­rah's [Page 71]grudge: and for a remedy to this prevailing spirituality, that you may lop what you cannot fell, you propound a double expedient; One is, an anniversary vent, namely, a yearly Transport beyond the Seas of so many Tunn of Divines; as well as of other commodities, with which the Nation is over-stock'd; Lett. 1. p. 119. the other is a spi­ritual press upon Professors and Pulpiteers (as you are sometimes pleased to stile them) an Expedition to another holy­war; the key exchanged for the Croisade; but this I wonder, that you of all men should advise, for you know Sir, that the holy Warriours vouch to fight not Turks only, but Infidels; how beit, strange it is, if both wayes of vent, namely, ei­ther to a slavery in Turky, the Barbadoes, or Indies; or to an honourable adven­ture into the Holy Land, may not suffice to reduce the number; but sink or swim, stand or fall, it is all one to you, what becomes of either Cargo or Armado; so there be but a good riddance to the Nation of such cumber-ground-Inmates; that is, of our Guides, Lights, Pastors, Seers and Overseers! (We are beholden to you Sir,) and what the sequel here­of [Page 72]might be, or your design in it, your Reader be Judge; I do but think how great your grudge had been, had the whole English Clergy match'd in number one single order of another See, namely, that of St. Bennet of which it is bragg'd, that it hath been the fruitful Nursery of no less than Fifty-two Popes, Two hun­dred Cardinals, sixteen hundred Arch-Bi­shops, Four thousand Bishops, and Five thousand Saints approved by the Church; or that of the Cordeliers or Minims, com­puted by Sabbellicus in his Enneads, to be in Europe (besides the multitudes in A­sia, Africa, &c.) above Five hundred thousand, (a thing almost incredible) out of whom, the General of the Order of St. Francis their Patron, hath upon all oc­casions offer'd to advance the Pope an Ar­my Thirty thousand strong; and all ve­ry well spar'd, besides a great many Tunns for Transport; whether the com­modity be good or nor, I leave to others to determine; Invidious grudge against Englands Clergy, though the sum total amounts not to so many hundreds, as there are of thousands in one single Romish or­der; this, I dare say, is rancide and inve­terate, [Page 73]though the spirituall press and tunnage may seem to be spoken by a Joco­so; your Inquisition herein, in the case of our Clergy, somwhat resembling that of the Roman Tyrants of old, in the case of Christians, whom they tormented for a diversion: But this is not all; I suppose that the English Clergy being divided in­to three parts, and a thousand in each ter­tia; that one of those is dispatched a­way under their sacred Labarum for the Holy-Land, unanimously resolved to be either absolute Masters or Martyrs upon the spott; a second ship'd off amongst other domestick commodities with which the Nation is over-stock'd, at so much par teste or per tunn, for the Barbadoes or the In­dies, &c. to get their living as Adam got his by digging in grounds, or mines under ground, as not worthy to live upon it; and all this jure exterminij, by Act of Parli­ament too, prompted by your judicious motion; this supposed, I say, the Ghost­ly Armado, the sacred Cargo, all ship'd and gon, and the Nation well rid of them; is all your spire, malice, and contempt, quite spent and evaporated now! I doubt not; there is a tertia behind still, and [Page 74](the mischief of all) the office in and with them; the number of persons retrieved, but the function still continues in the re­mainder; and whilst there is a preaching Timothy, or a praying Joshua in England, to be sure, Amaleck cannot prevail.

Therefore,

Your next attempt, Sir, is made upon the Ministerial Office and Function it self, especially in those two grand Ministerial exercises, Preaching and Prayer (both Manna and Incense) and that with such a strain of dialect, as deserves the severest anathema in my Budgett; but I referr that piece of Justice to your Reader: To begin with the latter; You severely criminate, and highly disparage the Spirit and gift of Prayer, Lett. 2. p. 155. and (which yet is usual with both sorts of the English Cler­gy, Conformists and Nonconformists) all conceived Prayer: Now what the Gift and Spirit of Prayer is, a Learned, in­genious and worthy Prelate of our Church shall determine (who knows but Episcopal Reverence may aw you into a submission?) whose Judgment in the particular I perswade my self, is of ge­neral authority with all that are sober and [Page 75]discerning; namely Bishop Wilkins, whose assertions in the case, are these in his Discourse of Prayer, viz. ‘the Gift of Prayer may be thus described; It is such a readiness and faculty proceed­ing from the Spirit of God, whereby a man is enabled upon all occasions, in a fit manner, to express and enlarge the desires of his heart in this Duty: Unto the attaining of this Gift in its true latitude and fulness, there are three sorts of Ingredients required; viz. 1. Something to be infused by the Spirit of God, who must sanctify and and spiritualize the judgment and af­fections, before we can either apprehend or desire any thing as we should: 2. Some natural endowments and abilities dispo­sing us for this Gift, as readiness of ap­prehension, copiousness of fancy, ten­derness of affection, confidence and vo­lubility of speech, which are very great advantages to this purpose, being na­turally much more eminent in some then others. 3. Something to be acqui­red and gotten by our own industry, namely, such a particular and distinct apprehension, both of our sins and [Page 76]wants, and the Mercies bestowed upon us, that we may be able to express the thoughts and dispositions of our minds concerning them, in such a decent form, as may excite both in our selves and others, suitable affections: The first of these is by some, stiled the Spirit of Prayer, the two latter, the Gift of Prayer, &c.’ This, Sir, is Diocesan Do­ctrine; and let that Clergy-Man under­go your Contempt that pretends to other Gift or Spirit then what is here descri­bed: But now, what do you think, will the World Judge of you, who advance an all-Damning and illiterate Hector into a competition herein, Lett. 1. p. 36. with a Learned and Reverend Prelate? for you undertake, Sir, (to recriminate you from your own censure) sub nomine penae, to procure one of the rankest Hectors about Town, Lett. 2. p. 157, that shares his time between Swearing and Cursing (and something else) who suppo­sing he does, not put in sometimes an Oath, in stead of, O Lord, (and a God damn him, by the common Law of autocatacri­sy, in stead of God bless him,) shall make a long well-worded, and affectionate Prayer, with confession of all the Villanies committed [Page 77]since the Flood (Contempt of the Clergy, I hope, amongst the rest) which shall draw forth as many Tears, and as deep Groans, as any of the greatest pretenders to that Gift, or Spirit; that is to say, as any Pray­er of the Bishop himself, now mentioned, he being of the number of those preten­ders, as you are pleased to entitle them: And if this be not test sufficient to the World, of what Spirit you are of, I will for ever abjure all Spirit-discerning facul­ty; and I doubt not but this one signa­ture of it, will serve to debase your cre­dit for ever with any impartial Reader, in order to whose just verdict touching your project and principle of Atheisme it is, that I single out such matchless in­stances of your extemporal and occasional Witt; which, let me tell you, none but some unsanctified Humster for your Hector, will ever afford an Amen to, or reckon other then facetious villany; & remember for a check to it, though Noah's Flood, (mentioned in your Hector's Litany) be past; yet St. Peter's Fire is still to come, which all your holy Water cannot quench: Ignorant-Poor Clergy indeed: if a profligate Hector-Rampant shall out­vie [Page 78]them in their faculty, being no fur­ther hallowed then with your outside consecration of a double Cap, Cassock and Girdle!

Again,

As touching the other grand part of the Ministerial Office, namely Preaching; It is your peremptory assertion, Sir, in the Words of some great Patron, (an Inti­mado, possibly, [...]) whom you adopt for your mouth, that such Preach­ing as is usual (in the Church of Eng­land) is a hinderance of Salvation, Lett. 1. p. 81. rather then the means to it; and the explication of what you intend by the epithete, usual, you reserve to the good time, &c. but what I will give the World to under­stand presently, and yet plough with no other then your own Heiffer: That Preaching of the Word of God, by per­sons of Holy Order duly authorised and qualified hereunto, is a Divine Institution: that such Preaching is the ordinary meanes of Salvation; and that the Preaching usual in the Church of England (of which a ful­ler vindication hereafter) is such; She (and I in her) is obliged to believe till She see better Authority for altering of her [Page 79] Creed or Clergy then you or your Masters are like to produce in haste: But the emphasis of your assertion lyeth in the adjunct, viz. usual, with which you epi­thet the Preaching by you tax'd; and what you intend by usual Preaching in the Church of England, must be traced by its extreams or opposites; Now then, the extream or opposite of usual Preaching must either be, 1. Extraordinary high, per­formed in the Holy Tongues, Hebrew and Greek, through an immediate illapse and inspiration of an infallible Spirit; and if so,— Christus corpore! Paulus ore! no­thing less will serve your turn then, then (St. Augustine's wish) the audible Prea­ching of Christ or an Apostle in person, visibly re-incorporated into the Church: or else, 2. Extraordinary low and mean, possibly by way, of prescribed Homily (the Church speaking in this, as the Spirit, in the former) but this you know is perfor­mable by the meanest Desk-Man (one of your Contemptibles) though never Master of other Language or Literature then what he may owe to a Mothers, Nurses, or School-Dames discipline: or 3. Extraordinary in respect of Church [Page 80]Office, order and degree, as being per­formed onely by Primates, or Prelates, &c. but neither do I take this to be the meaning of your unusual Preaching; for besides the great breach of charity implied in it, (as if all the Preachers in the Church of England were Hinderers of Salvation, except onely two saving Graces, and twenty four Dominical Vertues) if once the inferiour order and Body of the Clergy be brought into Contempt, I am sure the Most and Right Reverend— must look to share in the Destiny: Or else lastly,—but of that anon.

It is not a little observable, Sir, (& I hope your Reader will sense you accordingly) that while you expose our Preachers to the contempt of the Laity, you amuse them with dark Reserves, touching their Preaching: The Clergy and Re­ligion is the very Theme, Argument and subject-matter of your Letters; those you presuppose a contempt of; the Grounds and Occasions of this Con­tempt, you have engaged in an Enquiry into, with pretence of friendly redress; those grounds and occasions you sum­marily reduce to two, viz, the igno­rance [Page 81]and Poverty of the Clergy (of which anon); in the explication and de­monstration of those two characters, the Preachers are plainly described, whose Preaching you averr to be a hin­derance of Salvation: Now then the u­sual Preachers of the Church of Eng­land, are plainly described by you, and in them, the usual Preaching: what then can be the meaning or Mystery of your Reserve? that the usual preaching that hinders Salvation, which one would think you have sufficiently explained, yet you will not here goe about to explain! Lett. 1. p. 81. Lett. 2. p. 101. and that the reasons of your scrible, might be further explained when occasion should require! undoubtedly profound, all naught! and that I may unmask and de­tect you (according to my promise) I will spell out the Original by your own Copy (for therein, as God would have it, [...], your speech be­wrayeth you;) and by good consequence draw a summary conclusion touching the designe charged upon you, from your own premises, and that in

A third assault made by you upon both Doctrinal and Ministerial foundation [Page 82]joyntly, the Reformed Religion, and Clergy, more expressely. Ad hominem then,

All such preaching as is at present usual in the Church of England, is a hin­derance of Salvation, rather then the meanes to it;

But the Preaching used in the Church of England for an hundred Yeares last past, is such as is at present usual there­in;

Therefore the Preaching used in the Church of England for an hundred Yeares last past, is a hinderance of Salvation, &c.

Sir, of this Categorick Syllogisme (for form unexceptionable, as you must needs know, if your Logicks match your E­thicks;) the premisses are your own; and I hope you will not deny the con­clusion, which is a compendious glosse and Comment upon the pestilent designe of your Letters of Enquiry.

The Major proposition Consists of your own express words, above scann'd; onely your indefinite is by me turn'd into an universal, which you know the Rules of School will justify me in; as well as the matter in debate: such preaching, and [Page 83] all such Preaching; are equivalent.

The minor proposition or assumption is your own too, as appears partly by ex­press words, partly by the scope, series, tenour and contexture of your Dis­course; disown it if you can.— Lett. 1. p. 58, 59 It would be an endless thing, Sir, (say you to your Correspondent) to count up all the Follies that have been for an hundred Yeares last past Preached and Printed of this kind: Now what kind of Follies you mean, is plain from your foregoing Narrative concerning ridiculous Preach­ing, by way of impertinent, nay, Lett. 1. p. 32, 38 45, &c. some­times Blasphemous Metaphor, Similitude, Tales, or such as is apt to bring Contempt upon the Preacher, and that Religion which he professeth (of which afterwards, when I come to enquire into matter of Fact) so that the argument standeth thus: That Preaching which is full of Follies, or such useless and ridiculous things, as are apt to bring Contempt upon the Preach­er and the Religion by him professed, is such as is at present usual in the Church of England, (and therefore by you supposing it such, exposed to Contempt); But the Preaching usual in the Church [Page 84]of England, for an Hundred Years last past, is full of such Follies, &c. Then the conclu­sion followeth by clear consequence, viz. that therefore the Preaching usual in the Church of England for an Hundred Years last past, is such as is at present usual there­in; and consequently by your own positi­on, a hinderance of Salvation, rather then the means to it; the Preachers Fools! and the Preaching Murther! That is to say, the Faith and Doctrine usually Preached, yea, and Printed too (for both Press & Pulpit, Writings as well as Sermons, are by you charged) contended for, lived and dyed in, (yea, and by many of them sealing with their Blood, what they professed by Tongue or Pen, dyed for) by our first Reformadoes, Protestant-Champions and Church-Wor­thies, our Marian Martyrs, all our Ortho­dox Learned, Pious, Painful, Preachers under the Reign of Q. Elizab. K. James, & Charles the first, in times past; and what hath been & still is under our present Soveraign King Charles the II. usually Preached & publish­ed, is— a hindrance of Salvation, rather then the means to it! & consequently the Church of England since the Sun of Righteousness arose in it, with his healing wing of Refor­mation, [Page 85]no true Church; for as extra Eccle­siam nulla salus, there is no ordinary Salvation without the Line of Church-Communion; so there is no true Church without the appropriated meanes of Sal­vation; — and then according to your Divinity— Ichabod! farewell Church of England! And now, Sir, what do you think of your self upon recollection? or what will your Reader think of you? have I not here convincingly made out against you, from your own Principles and positions, a base unworthy pestilent designe upon the Reformed Religion, and Clergy, and in them, upon our Church, to (what in you lies) the utter subver­ting and nullifying of the whole. And what you mean by your mysterious re­serves, namely, that what you intend by usual Preaching, Lett. 1. p. 81. Lett. 2. p. 101. you will not here go a­bout to explain; and the reasons of your Letters might be further explained when occasion should require, (but I have done it to your hand in a paraphrase very congruous to the original) what you mean, I say by such Reserves and shrew'd hints as those are, we may by this time ve­ry plainly perceive, especially with the ad­ditional [Page 86]help of a short Glosse of your own, dropt from you it seemes unawares a great way off from the Text, where you explain the good time — by those (despaired of) dayes of vertue, Lett. 1. p. 124. of having the Tithes restored to the Church most unjustly robb'd of them by the Sa­crilegious Church-Publican, Henry the Eight; to wit, when like a wise Man, he rejected the Yoak of Papal Supremacy, — Anglia non patitur duos Caesares (which other Christian Princes, Issachar like, couch and crouch under) and forraged (its Antichristian supports,) Monkish Nests and Nurseries, with which the Nation was at that time much more over­stock'd, then now it is with an Orthodox Clergy; though in so doing he onely kill'd the Pope's Body, (as Luther said of him) in the mean time saving his Soul, &c. — Encrease of Church-Patrimony, Sir, I do as heartily wish and pray for, as your self, but I'll be sure, that it be a Reformed Church, which upon any such score I enter into my Litany; but this you aim to subvert: But, good Sir, pray tell me, how comes it to pass, that you adventure to explain the good time in the [Page 87]plausible circumstance of Church-Tyth, which you doe so mysteriously conceal in the concern of usual-Church Preach­ing? 'Tis very odd! here you are ex­press; but in the case of Preaching, you treat your Reader with Morose Reserves — ‘what I intend by usual Preaching, I shall not here go about to explain, — the reasons of my Writing may be further explained when occasion shal re­quire:’ Sir, I doe not like these odd hints of your hic & nunc; I understood by your last, Lett. 2. p. 200. that you was gon into De­vonshire, to secure the World from your be­ing ever troublesom in this kind any more, ( Amen, said I, a good riddance,) and what other kind of trouble, you design, for it, the God of Heaven knowes; — your reticentiae's of time, place, and oc­casion, when, where, and upon what ac­count you intend, (it may be by Letters of Credence to be produced in a good time) further to explain to us, the reasons of your Enquiry, and what you understand by usual Preaching in the Church of Eng­land, I must tell you, are very suspi­cious: what? do you mean to comment upon it with the sensible gloss of Fire, [Page 88]and Faggott? or a second dose of the Jesuite's Powder? or the new game of Trapp-Law? or t'other Coal from the Altar, (because the first did not the business)? and thus of Inquisitor, turn Executioner? In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we defie the Divel and all his Works!

Being that your Charge, Sir, is com­menced from, and coextended with Eng­lands Evangelick Century and blessed Aera of Reformation (the hundred Yeares last past) whereas had it been limited to the last twenty or thirty, we had less suspected your morals) and consequently, Vulpes Bovem agit, the Reformed Religion, and Clergy, therein attacted, and what in you lies, subverted; insomuch, that it is plainly manifest, that the Christian Re­ligion founded and fixed in the Nation, is with you the Apple of contention, who therefore criminates Ministers being two bent upon Preaching of it, Lett. 2. p. 72. ( index suf­ficient of yours) It highly concerns the Church of England to stand in Justifica­tion of her first Reformation; her ori­ginal Protestancy and remonstrance a­gainst, and separation from the Church [Page 89]of Rome; the Religion by her professed; her Clergy, the official Preachers and Publishers of that Religion; and the u­sual Preaching of that Clergy; which in her name, as her Advocate, I have vouch'd to doe. Well then,

The Essentials constitutive of a true Church, Sir, (of. the Mystical, aswell as of the natural Body,) being these three, namely, the Head, the Body, and inti­mate Ʋnion and Communion between both; the onely Head of the Christian Church, being Jesus Christ, God and Man in one Person, appointed and anoin­ted by God the Father, King, Priest, and Prophet, thereof; the only mystical Ligament, and bond of Community in this holy Corporation, being the Divine Spirit, (originally derived from the Head, through the whole Body, the Church as Heiress thereof, being the common foundation of that Sacred pa­tronymick Christian, under the New Testament, as well as of that other Meschiahim (as Eusebius notes) under the Old) or, the Catholick Faith, the product of that Spirit, or both; whence it comes to pass, that the Founder, Foun­dation, [Page 90]Superstructure, and medium or instru­ment of conjunction, are all, in Holy Scrip­ture, propounded as so many Ʋnites, admitting of no consort or collateral, — One God, and Father of all; One onely Lord, Mediator, Saviour, Foun­dation, Name, Way, &c. One Body, One Spirit, Faith, Hope and Reli­gion: And being that the Religion professed and practised in and by the Church of Rome, especially since Trent-Council, (assembled and ended above your hundred years ago) is inconsistent with, and destructive of this individual Headship, true Faith, and Church-constitution; being nothing else but an Anti-christian miscel­lany and compound (oppositum in apposito) of God and the Creature, God-man and meer-man, in the most material points and principles of Christianity; the Per­sons of both, in point of Worship; the Power and Authority of both, in mat­ters of Faith; the Righteousness and Merit of both, in point of Satisfaction and Justification; the Wills of both, in the act of Conversion; the Interces­sion of both, in the great office of Me­diation; yea, an universal co-equiva­lency, [Page 91]or equal concurrence of Worth, Vertue, and Efficacy from both, through­out the whole business of Redemption and Salvation; especially from Christ, and the Virgin Mary, constituted therein Corredemptress with her Son, and Sa­viouress a latere, as if her Brests, as well as his Sides, had been no less then sacramental; and the Mothers Milk, and the Son's Blood equally saving: More­over (to prosecute this Religious medley) God and the Creature, in the Decalogue; Christ and the Church, in the Creed; Scripture and Tradition, in the Canon; Pater-Noster and Ave-Maria, in the Litany; Sacrament and Sacrifice, in the Supper, &c. all so many Riddles in the Mystery of Iniquity! A Religion con­sisting of such Trent-Forge-Principles and Practices as these, viz. In point of Doctrine, Papal Supremacy and Autho­tity, Church Infallibility, unwritten Tra­ditions equall'd in authority, with the Holy Scriptures; the doctrine of Man's free-Will in opposition to God's Free-Grace; the Doctrine of Perfection, of Merits, Pardons, and Indulgences, re­dounding from a surplusage of Works [Page 92]of super-erogation, and satisfaction (as they are termed) as if any meer Man could fullfill, in obedience beyond what the Law requires, and satisfy in penance beyond what Sin deserves! a rare Religion! the doctrine of Purgatory; and Souls De­parted; the doctrine of Mass-service and Transubstantiation, the Consecrating Priestling turning a petty- Creator (as is supposed) converting sacramental Forms, into real Substance, and Com­memoration into Expiation, celebrating Christ's Death with his death, as well as with his own, in destroying, instead of discerning the Lord's Body, yea, both Saviour and Sacrament at once! the doctrine of Ministration in an unknown Tongue, by means whereof they do most sacrilegiously robb the Children of their Bread in the Scriptures, as they do, of the Cup in the Supper; and many more such like Doctrines not of men onely, but of Divels, which I list not to dwell upon, the Subject being so Frightful: In point of Worship, Idolatry and Ima­gery, Superstition, Saint-Worship, &c. In point of Polity, absolute Tyranny, (the Keys, turned into a Sword) sufficient­ly [Page 93]exercised and dearly experienced throughout the World, upon Princes-Crowns, their Subjects-Consciences, and Protestant-Blood, in sanguinary Lawes, a bloody Inquisition, direful Anathe­maes, execrable Massacres, rageing Persecutions, &c. the violent Calentures of that Torrid Zone: The Religion, in fine, of that Church which is in Doctrine, damnably Heretical; in Worship, grossely Idolatrous; in Polity, and Government, intollerably Tyrannical; in all palpably Antichristian; opposite to and virtually destructive of Christs fundamentality and headship, in his Person or Natures; in his Offices, in all their parts; in his States; in his vertues, merits & graces, priviledges, Institutions and ordinances, &c. in one or more, or all of those; and consequently, destruction of the Catholick Faith and Re­ligion, by Himself and his Apostles, and the whole successive series of Christians throughout the World, professed, and practised; and finally of the truth of a Christian Church, his Body; all in effect nullified thereby; yea, and a false head, other foundation, and another name, being substituted in opposition to the true; the [Page 94] Religion I say, professed and practised in the Church of Rome, and that Church her self, especially since Trent-Council, be­ing such, as is here, [...], descri­bed; it followeth by necessary conse­quence, that the separation of the Church of England, both primitive in her first Reformers, and present in their Succes­sours persisting in that happy divorce from her, and embodyed into a contra­distinct, but true Church, under Christ, the onely true Head, in a Joynt profes­sion of his Faith, the true Religion, is so far from being Schismatical (this being ever a causeless and groundless separation, in or from matter of true Religion, in a true Church,) that on the contrary, it is righteous and Justifyable, yea, abso­lutely necessary by the authority of that Law, whereby we are strictly comman­ded to renounce and abjure her society upon peril of sharing in her Plagues; from which, Good Lord deliver us! Sir, if in this short defence of our Reformation (which, it is like, may seem a kind of mo­rose Tragedy, to an airy Mercurius, but that I aim at a further goal) you think I have falsified or misrepresented any prin­ciple [Page 95]of the Romish Church, charge me with it, and spare not; and if I do not Justi­fy what I have asserted, brand me for as great a slanderer as your self.

Again, Sir,

True Religion being that, onely of which the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, is the Author; the Holy Scriptures, the Word of Truth, is the Rule; and the Holy Church, (whereof our Church of Eng­land is part,) the Pillar and Ground of Truth, is the publick Trustee, Keeper, and Conservatory, (as Pillars or Tables are, of affix'd Papers and Proclamations) to wit, modo forensi, non architectonico) de­rived and delivered (as is above-said) to her from the Apostles, and to them by Christ, from God himself: And the Reformed Religion, Faith, Doctrine and substantial Worship professed and practi­sed in and by the Church of England, be­ing such; as may appear from her publick tests and monuments, especially, the three Creeds, Apostolick, Nicene, and Atha­nasian; and her doctrinal Articles, unani­mously agreed upon, in two several Convo­cations, viz, An. Dom. 1562 and 1604, &c. compared with the Sacred Canon; whose [Page 96]test and trial in the Case she is willing to undergo; It follows, that the Reformed (and onely reforming) Religion, profes­sed, and practised in and by the Church of England, is the onely true Religion; which when you assault with Argument, as now you undermine by Stratagem, you shall be dealt withall.

Moreover, Sir,

The Church of England is no less sa­tisfied in her Clergy then in her Religion, that as God hath by a Law of as long duration as that of Sun and Moon in the ordinary course of his Providence, ap­pointed to publish and propagate his Truth, and instruct his Church, by a con­stant series and succession of persons of holy Order and Office authorised and qua­lified thereunto; so her Clergy is such, having derived their orders together with their Religion ex traduce Apostolica, from the original Seminary Founders of Christianity in England, who are recor­ded in History the monumental Memory, and best Intelligencer in such cases, to have been Apostles or Men Apostolical; whe­ther Philip, or Joseph of Arimathea sent by him, as Tertullian witnesseth, lib. [Page 97]vers. Jud. or Simon Zelotes, as Nicepho­rus; or St. Peter, as Baronius seemes some times to incline; or the great Doctor of the Gentiles himself, St. Paul, as Theodo­ret, &c. (not Monk Austine, as your friends would have it) I here dispute not; being 'tis generally agreed amongst an­cient Writers, as Origen, and the above named Tertullian and Theodoret, and o­thers, that England's first Conversion, and (consequently) Ministerial constituti­on, was contemporary with the very primi­tive Church; and though both Religion and Clergy thus founded, was under a long and dark Eclipse of interposed Popery in the Nation, much obscured and suppressed, yet out of the sacred Seed-Plot of those who in that interval, would afford nor heart, nor tongue, nor knee to Baal, both were happily afterwards Phenix-like re­vived, rescued out of the Antichristian rubbish, and successively hitherto propa­gated: And supposing, Sir, (2.) That the ordination and deputation of the Eng­lish Clergy to the sacred Function had its rise not from Jerusalem, immediately, but from or rather through Rome, Jure devo­luto; where is the inconveniency? or [Page 98]what prejudice accrueth to the Protestant interest? or particularly to that of the English Clergy, by receiving ordination from Rome, more then by receiving Bap­tisme from her, (which is as well as order, interchangeably esteemed va­lid between Papists and Protestants)? or­der! then ordinances? a lineal, then a doctrinal succession? Moreover, being that Ministerial Ordination, is onely mat­ter of Polity, unconcerned with morals; how corrupt soever the Church, per­son, or medium of conveyance be; yet not­withstanding, it can be nothing derogato­ry to succession, &c. more then the lineal descent and extraction of our Saviour's Humanity from Adam, through the in­tervention of an impure Thamar, Rachab, Bathsheba, &c. (Harlots); or the re­ception of the doctrine of the New Testa­ment from a treacherous Judas who be­trayed our Saviour, or a Judaizing Peter who denied him (the dark-side of that Pil­lar) or of that of the Old, from malicious Jewes, that crucified him; or the succes­sive transmition of Priestly orders from the Calf to the Martyr, from Idolatrous Aaron, through a prophane Hophni, and [Page 99] Phinehas, &c. & Law-nullifying Superstiti­onaries, Scribes & Pharisees, &c. (who yet, you know sate in Moses's Chair, as sure as you do in that of the scornful) to Caia­phas himself, who had a negative vote in our Saviours's death (yet owned for High Priest after it) more, I say, then such mediums and methods of reception, are de­famatory to that Sacred Humanity, that do­ctrine, those Orders, &c. this then consider­ed, I cannot reckon the succession or trans­mission of Orders by means of, & through the polluted and adulterated Church of Rome, more disparagement to the Pro­testant interest, then the derivation of Order and Religion (as is pretended) from St. Peter, (who, you know, Sir, denied and renounced the Head, and in that, the Body), is to the Popish. Yea, Sir, supposing (3) lastly, (which yet I will not yeild you more then the other) that the Case of our first Reformers had been punctum indivisibile, one of that extraordinary nature and necessity, that they must either by way of mutual consent, (the major part with some Sacred Solem­nity selecting one or more for that pur­pose) mutually ordain each other, or else preach and prosecute the work unor­dained; [Page 100]either opportunity of ordination from others not offering, or else Violence obstructing; &c. doubtless, Sir, God who is so provident a Guardian to his Church, hath not left her destitute of a lawfull warrantable expedient under such an extraordinary case, and extremity as that; which can be no other then one of those two now mentioned; and justifyable by the like practises in the like emergent Cases, by a dispensation from above; that of Aedesius and Frumentius, though private persons, yet instigated and iufluën­ced by the same Spirit amongst the Indians (of whom they are said by Preaching of the Gospel to have con­verted a great Nation,) as Eldad and Medad amongst the Jewes, is by Ruf­finus and Theodoret fam'd throughout the World; and were it not but that I fear a Church-Dame and a School-Dame may be treated with the like civility by you, I would instance in one who you must needs confess employed her ferula to good purpose, namely, a poor Cap­tive Woman whom Nicephorus affirms to have converted the Nation of the Iberians, and amongst the rest, their [Page 101] King and Queen, the Scepter yielding to the Distaff, who became (two Royal Ecclesiastes's) Preachers to their Subjects; this is a case the more extraordinary, because the sex is such: there are more examples of this kind, which I forbear; for, 'tis a generally confessed matter, that in such cases both Preaching is war­rantable in persons unordained, and also mutual ordination by joynt-consent a­mongst Preachers, other opportunity, or remedy failing. And now, Sir, for Scory's consecration—but I shall com­mit a mortal solecisme by and by, and de­serve, at least to be excommunicated, though I should not in all my Letter be­sides—but tush, I am a great way off— a Jove, a Fulmine! The story makes such notorious May-game amongst our Neighbours, especially arayed in its for­malities, that I think they would go neer (as you do) to scorn and jeer us down, ex cathedra, but that (and 'tis well as it lucks) we can confront our Scory with their Joanne! consecration with procession; and if we add— succession too, we are ab­solute Victors in the brize: but laugh, or frown, Sir, in hypothesi in such an exi­gency [Page 102]as that mentioned, ordination and consecration in the manner above specifi­ed equally justifyable in India, and in Ju­ry, or (to come a little nearer) in Lon­don, and in Rome, though bearing no tru­er mark of the Beast, than that of the sign of a Nagg's- head, &c. and now 'tis out, do your worst: In a word, in all cases extraordinary (as this, which I speak of, is supposed to be), all Law in the world, of Nature, Nations, Canonical, Civil, yea, that of God himself, alloweth a warrantable latitude.—scope sufficient for justi­fication of the Orders both of our first and succeeding Clergy; Englands usual Prea­chers;—Now (once more) of their usual preaching, by you charged both with folly and cruelty, (as hereafter their persons, with ignorance and poverty) as though both ridiculous-full of follies, and a hinderance of salvation; (Insomuch, that I cannot but wonder, that instead of terming your self (or your Parson, ma­king Hercules's twelve labours of his year­ly preachments) to such a Sermon once a month, Lett. 1. pag. 107 you did not rather resolve never to hear, one all your life time) a severe censure!

Sir, Being that [ [...]] Salvation [Page 103](according to its universally receiv­ed notion in the Church) is a recove­ry of mankind out of a condition of sin and misery, into a state of grace and glory; it followeth, that those Preachers and Pub­lishers of the Divine Will concerning it; who preach, publish, and declare to the Church; the nature, the Author and Procurer; the termes and conditions; and the proper means, methods, helps, &c. con­ducing hereunto; with due explication and application of the same, acco [...]ng to the acroamatick rules of that Divine art; must needs be in foro Ecclesiae, saving Preachers, at leastwise, no Hinderers of Salvation; As, That the condition of all mankind by nature, is a state of sin and misery, consisting in the loss of beati­fick friendly union and communion with God, (the sum of all created happiness) and the incursion of his wrath, curse, and all the accumulative misery attend­ing his violated Law, both in this world, and that which is to come: That there is no possible way of escape, or recove­ry, out of this condition, without a Me­diator or Redeemer, interposing as a third person, between God and the De­linquent; [Page 104]partly, by reason of that infi­nite (both) disproportion, and opposition, distance and repugnance between the two parties; and partly, by reason of the Sinners own invincible insufficiency hereunto. That this only Mediator, Redeemer and Saviour, is the Christi­an's Messias and Immanuel, the Son of God incarnate in a true Humane Na­ture, assumed into personal subsistence with the Godhead; as being of all persons in Heaven and Earth, (and indeed a kind of compend of both) alone qualified for such a negotiation; his twofold-Na­ture, Divine and Humane; his three­fold Office, Kingly, Priestly, and Propheti­cal; his twofold state of Humiliation, and Exaltation; his manifold Vertues, especially his Spirit and Merit; his Laws, Ordinances and Institutions, &c. all co-effectual herein: That true Faith namely, that sacred principle and habit whereby we not only assent to Christ's Revelation of himself, but re­ceive and embrace his Person upon his own terms, as therein offered and re­vealed; together with true Repentance, (another pious qualification) in tur­ning [Page 105]from sin to God, out of a due sense of the hainousness, as well as danger, of the Offence, and Mercy through Christ in the Offended, with firm resolutions and endeavours of amendment; are the conditions neces­sarily required in, and of all, that par­take of this Saviour, and Salvation: That Good Works, or the acts of sin­cere and conscionable Obedience, per­formed to the Moral Law, are the necessary and inseparable testificats, proofs and evidences of that Faith and Repentance; the Decalogue being ever the best justification of the Creed: That the Word, Sacraments, Prayer, (but your Heathen's touch of Devo­tion will not serve turn) and the like; are to be pursued as the ordinary means and methods instituted and appointed of God, for the producing of that Faith, Repentance, and Obedience: And, Methinks, I have waded through great Mysteries in a little time; and if I gain a Proselyte by the means, my labour is well bestowed; Amen say I; 'tis pi­ty Witt should perish: The Publican two I say, of such fundamental truths as these [Page 106]represented in this Scheam, with due explication and application of the same, must needs, I think, if there be any such in the world, be an edifying and saving way of preaching; not a hinderance, but further­ance of Salvation. And, (to apply) That the usual preaching in the Church of England, is such saving preaching, as well as her Preachers, both her first Refro­mers and their Successors (infinitely em­proved, Answ. pag. 25. since the High-Sheriff's Sermon in St. Marie's Pulpit at Oxford) in point of Order and Office, sufficiently authorised; and the Religion by them purged and preached, and in community with the People, joyntly professed and practised, truly Catholick-Apostolick; She, Sir, is very well satisfyed, and like to be dayly more and more confirmed in it (I hope) unless better Authority be offered for an innovation in either Creed or Clergy, than what hath ever as yet appeared on this side the Sea, or to some of us beyond it, from the Learned'st, either Men or Books: (But I'll assure you, for your comfort, you have little reason to hope ever to see—such days of vertue) — What! and yet our usual Preaching Folly, and [Page 107] a hinderance of Salvation! God forbid: — Sir, If I have failed in the premisses, disprove them; if not, pray deny not the conclusion; but this is antiquated game; 'tis ordinary with the Old Ser­pent to act the Diabolus, where he can­not be Apolyon, accuse what he cannot destroy; when as after a great expence of Venom and Subtilty, he cannot (thanks be to God) either Ʋnmi­nister our Clergy, nor Ʋn-church our Laity, to the ruine of the whole; he cunningly playes his after-game, in tra­ducing all; our Church, as Apostate; our Religion, as Heresy; our Discipline, as Schism; our usual Preaching, as Folly, and a hinderance of Salvation: and Sir, sup­posing I grant part of your charge, that the Preaching of the first Reformers of our Church, and what is usual in it at present, was, is— the foolishness of prea­ching; what then? such was that of the very Apostles, yet — saving to them that believed; and why not ours? theirs, notwithstanding the Folly charged upon it by the Greeks—saving! and ours, because of the same charge from a Grecizer — damning! destructive, [Page 108]a hinderance of Salvation! Segnior no; but to read your destiny in theirs, by the same Oracle; if the usual preaching in our Church be Foolishness, it is— to them that perish, Foolishness; and be­tween Convert and Castaway, I know, and you will find no middle Limbo— [...]! then who fool twice? or worse! Your own dear Mi­nion (with whom I will conclude this particular) hath told you the same up­on the matter, in a more intelligible language, (plain English instead of Greek) and that in a cornute, and thereby indeed he pusheth you, [...], but fool-hardy takes no warning; Answ. pag. 80. either you expect (saith he) that your Reader should believe nothing of what you say (through­out your Letters) and then you play the Fool, and write to no purpose; or you would have him believe all, and then you do little better than ('twere almost actio­nable, had I not a precedent for it) play the— Knave! And now, Sir, By way of reflection upon the whole, in order to a conclusion of this general, What Reader, that is not either prepossest with your poysonous Principles, and prejudiced, [Page 109]or else wholly stupified and insatua­ted, when he shall recollect within him­self, and duly weigh the premisses: What Reader I say, thus qualified and considerate, will not readily Joyn issues with me in this conclusion, viz. that the scope, project and designe of your Letters of Enquity, can be no other then instead of the pretended redress of the Contempt of the Reformed Religion and Clergy, to expose, and betray both to it, and by meanes thereof propagate (what your Rhapsody abounds withall) most pestilent and licentious Principles and Practices, Atheisme, Libertinisme, pre­paratives to Popery, Sensuality, and what not, to the utter subversion of both; though you have Politician-like for cau­telous Guards to the designe observable throughout your Epistles, (which I here note once for all) cunningly in­terwoven Sly insinuations, with dex­trous retrieves; prologues from Pilate, and Epilogues from the Harlot, wash­ing your Hands with — the one, as if you mean't no hurt, and wipe­ing your Mouth with the other, as if you had done none; but — [Page 110] praemonitus, praemunitus! And this may suffice for the first part of my under­taking, viz. the detecting of the Stra­tagem and designe of your Enquiry, &c. in order to the prepossessing or dispos­sessing of your Reader.

As touching the Ignorance of the Clergy, I will briefly enquire into these Particulars, viz.

1. What particular kind of Knowledge is requisite in the Clergy, so as to free them from the (just) imputation of (its opposite) Ignorance.

2. Whether the Clergy of the Church of England be justly chargeable with the want of that Knowledge? And lastly,

3. I will give a Formal Answer to your Charge and Allegations in the Par­ticular; for I have vouch'd it, though it cost me more Pen, Ink and Paper than both the other two.

As touching the Poverty of the Clergy.

I will briefly enquire, Sir,

1. Whether Poverty be a ust ground of the contempt of the Clergy?

2. Whether Poverty be an actual occasion of this Contempt? And

3. VVhether Poverty and Contempt may admit of any redress?

As for the former

That the Clergy is upon the account of poverty therefore de [...]ure Contempti­ble is most justly denied; else Christ himself the Antesignan and Head of the Clergy, and the Apostles his Associates had been de jure contemptible; for the former, though Lord of all, had not where [Page 175]to lay his head; insomuch that when he had occasion to pay a little Tribut e he was fain to be at the expence of a miracle for it; the latter by the very Laws and Terms of Discipleship, nor Silver nor Brass to buy necessaries for themselves, nor yet Scrip to receive the charitable benevolence of others; both (briefly) in extraction, relations, possessions, &c. very poor! What and therefore justly contemptible? nay on the contrary.

2. It hath ever been matter of sacred veneration towards the Christian Reli­gion, glory to its Author and Promo­ters, and wonder to a perfect consterna­tion and amazement in its Adversaries, that it hath been founded and propagated, preserved and maintained by the poorer predicament and order of mankind: who would ever have thought that a poor Duo-decemvirate, poor in extracti­on, relations, possessions, number, power and policy, Twelve inconside­rable Mechanicks, within the space of Forty years would have proved such ab­solute conquerours of the greatest part of the known world, in subduing the [Page 176]same to and by the Christian Faith? Though their opponents were nume­rous, potent and politick: Verba legun­tur piscatorum & colla subduntur Orato­rum, said St. Augustine, Fisher-men, prove Fishers of men! (a canting quib­ble, but that it is warranted by a jure Divino) catching Imperial necks in their book; subduing Scepters to Christs Standard—the Cross! I shall not need here to mention the succeeding Propa­gators of the same Faith, Primitive nor Modern, the poor of Lyons, Paterius, Humilists, Waldenses, Albigenses, &c. Nor yet our own si [...]se [...] Reformers, in whom a Divine power was most honour­ably eminent, as well as in their Pre­decessors in that those [...]erformed by Mi­racles, what these (which the above na­med Father observes to be the greatest of Miracles) performed without them, save that of Conversion. But here a vehe­ment Objection is framed from a Divine Providence; against the Cler­gy, usual with all A [...]heists, against Christians in general.

Though Ministers be called the men of God (say you) yet when it is observed that God seems to take but little care of them in making them tolerable provisions for this life, Let. 1. p. 95. — the people are presently apt to think that they do no more belong to God, &c, But what would you in­fer from hence Sir? You will bewray your self again; for you speak your self in the people: One of two must necessarily be implied, either none or (which is the same) an unjust Provi­dence in God; or else no part or share in that Providence for a poorer Cler­gy! Improvidence or injustice in God in that he doth not make competent provisions for the Clergy; or else the misery and unhappiness of the poorer Clergy, in that they have no part in his Providence; and consequently, their just ground of Contempt: No God! or else, no poor Clergy! or if poor, contem­ptible! are you there Sir? Nay even off with your Mascarado, profess your self downright; for the most desperate Atheist, or (which is all one) Anti-providentialist, is one in disguise; therefore I assert (if truth, be you [Page 178]my Proselyte; if not, I promise you upon conviction to own my self yours) First,

That there is a Divine Pro­vidence, by which the whole World, and all its contents, creatures, acti­ons, states, cases and concerns in eve­ry kind, order, and degree whether Metaphysical, viz. Generals and par­ticulars, things great and small, or natural, viz. things necessary, free and casual; or moral, viz. actions good and bad; or civil, viz. condi­tions prosperous and adverse, &c. are all preserved, governed and conducted to the respective ends allotted them by the wise Creator, both particular and peculiar to each, and universal or common in respect of the whole, and in and by all the supream and ultimate, the Creator's own Glory, (he hav­ing no end in working beyond, more then motive to it, without himself) doth necessarily and naturally flow and follow from the Divine perfections and properties, namely his Goodness, Wis­dom and power, so that (to argue with [Page 179] Nemesius above quoted) there is nei­ther will, nor skill, nor sufficiency wanting in him which is any wayes re­quisite hereunto; and hence, as a com­mon connate notion indelibly engraffed upon Rational Spirits, acknowledged by (at least) the generality of very Heathens. Again, That there is a peculiar kind of Oecono­my, or a special Providence whereby God as he upholdeth all things in general by the word of his power (to speak with the Scriptures, and then I am secure) so doth in an especial manner uphold, preserve, govern and administer his Church, more especially the sacred Tribe of his own Ministry; is con­fessed by all Christians. Thirdly,

That God is in all the administrations of his Providence (what he is essentially in himself) glo­rious, wise, holy, good and righte­ous (so as that there is nothing of inde­cency or incongruity to his Majesty in inspecting the least things, more then in the greatest; no blemish to his holi­ness, in governing the bad and worst [Page 180]of actions, more then of the good; no tyranny or violence offered to the liberty of second causes, from the in­fallibility of the first, more then to the liberty of the first, from the natural necessity, which is in many of the se­cond; no violation (lastly) of his ju­stice, in the dissimilary and widely different, how seemingly soever un­righteous, administrations of prospe­rity and adversity to and in the world) is (as the first by very Pagans, and the second by all Christians,) acknowledg­ed by all Orthodox, sober, learned; what then to make of you in such an arraignment of this Providence, the Reader be judge. As for the seeming inequality of Divine administrations of adversity to the righteous, and prospe­rity to the wicked in somuch that it is their canonical definition — these are the ungodly that prosper in the world (to the vehement perplexity of many;) God's very autocrasy or absolute pow­er and prerogative by vertue whereof he being the Omnipotentiary and sove­raign Proprietary of the whole world, Jure potest quicquid potest, may do by [Page 181] right, whatever he can do by power, (accountable to none for his actions) may suffice to vindicate his Justice: But (as for you) the very Heathens have offer'd satisfaction in this case, amongst whom I recommend to you, Socrates, Plato Seneca, but especially Plutarch, sufficient to school you not only in the doctrine of a Divine Providence in ge­neral, but ineven that of a holy, just, and righteous one, and that in the very present difficulty: But as for others, in case the Academy fail, I am sure the Sancturry will not; Davids Oracle, will afford Davids resolution, (in this very case) if consulted with suitable de­votion. Besides, one very material con­sideration in this case is this, namely, that there is a kind of miscellany of good and bad in the best and worst of all, whilst on this side another world; good, natural, moral, or spiritual, as well as evil; now the righteous God, whose pure and holy nature inclines and obligeth him to an equal love to the good and abhorrency of the bad; on the one hand often owns and crowns that natural, moral good in the wicked with a temporary [Page 182]reward as his portion in this life; and on the other, frequently chastiseth the evil that is in the righteous with a temporary punishment; reserving the eternal full and plenary recompence of both, viz. mi­sery in the former, and glory and hap­piness in the latter, to another world: so that external states and occurrences are but a very sallible Index of that interest in God by you mentioned. I might add several other considerations for satisfaction herein, as that the very afflictions of the righteous, poverty (for instance) in the Clergy, are by a wise God intended, and by themselves impro­ved for real advantages, the Cherem turned into Rachem (as the Jews use to say) [...], &c. and others; but I hasten towards a con­clusion.

Lastly, Sir, what is by you insinua­ted as an argument against a Providence, is a considerable argument for one; namely the Poverty of that Clergy which yet maugre all opposition, slanders, reproaches, prejudice and contempt, is preserved and maintained as the more [Page 183]immediate Eleemosynary Dependants upon Divine Providence, herein most observable; which I conceive to have been one reason why Christ (as I no­ted before) interdicted his Disciples the Scrip as well as the Purse; but I proceed; having declared enough for the conviction of any sober or ratio­nal; namely, that there is a Divine Providence, general in the World, and special in the Church; that this Pro­vidence is universally holy, just, and righteous; that it is so far from being inconsistent with, that it is most obser­vable in the support, preservation and maintenance of a poorer Clergy; and that a poor Clergy is no just object of Contempt in the Laity; else Christ himself and his Apostles, and both Primitive and Modern most eminent propagators of the Christian Faith, might pari jure share therein.

As touching the second, Sir,

It is soon resolved that the poorer sort of the Reformed Clergy is partly through the corruption of Man's heart, [Page 184]partly through instigation from Satan; and Hell-inspired Atheists, Socinians, Jesuits and Jesuited persons and all such Cinifloes using ostentative braggs and insinuations about the full Coffers, spread Tables, costly Apparel, Honorary Titles, Grandure and Magnificence not only of the Primates and Optimates of Church and State, but of most orders of men (but especially amongst their Simiae in purpura beyond the Channel) over and above what the inferiour Clergy hath, de facto (which is matter of grief and condolency) exposed to contempt in the Laity; but quid ad Rhombum Sir? Doth matter of fact prove right, in either Law or Logick? or are they therefore to yours? or suppose they were blessed with the splendour and magnificence here mentioned; would this secure them from yours or a La­icks lash? no! flegm would then fer­ment into choler; contempt, into grudge, & emulation; and your Inquisition re-au­thorised for inspection into the grounds and occasions of the envy (as now of the contempt) of the Clergy: there is a remarkable instance of this amongst [Page 185]our Neighbours; where a Franciscan Hackney, (that is, in plain English, Sir, good bare Ten-Toes) was once a Pro­verb; but now forsooth, the Gentle­men of that order instead of vowed bare footing of it as heretofore, in journy­ing are mounted upon the best Horses [...] with attendance bet­ter befitting their Nobless than a Monk­ish Tenebrio, to a most rancide grudge and inveteracy both in the Laity and other Religious orders. But since, you can only understand matter of fact here, not matter of right, that as ignorance is a just ground of Contempt of the Clergy, so poverty is a tempting occasion to it; I proceed,

As touching the last particular Sir,

The poverty of the Clergy, and upon this occasion, actual (but wicked and unjust) contempt in the Laity, being both supposed; the next thing to be enquired into is, whether this same Poverty and Contempt (the disease and symptome) be capable of a remedy? now,

That it is most congruous to the Law of God, Nature, and Nations, that some competent provisions be made for the Ministers of the Gospel, is I think, a generally confessed case; though I will not dispute the mortality of a decimal provision, or tithe; yet I assert the natural equity of a competent one, as the holy Scripture hath before me, in that very natural principle— The Labourer is worthy of his hire: And what ample provisions were made by God for the Priests and Levites of old, is sufficiently attested in holy Writ, and by you well asserted (utinam sic sem­per errasset Bellarminus!) together with the reasons thereof, which I am sure are moral, however the particular definite way of raising of those provisi­ons, be ceremonial and antiquated; viz. that they might closely and compo­sedly attend the Service of God and his Church, and studies relating there­unto, without distracting cares and so­licitude about the urgent concerns of back and belly, and necessary supports of humane life; and you may guess Sir, what a miserable pinching thing [Page 187]that is — res angusta domi—and also that they might be capable of ad­ministring to the necessities of others, in charitable offices, (as occasion should offer or require) a great both encou­ragement and ornament of piety: I add a third reason, peculiarly suited to the Horizon of our Church, namely, that after domestick exigencies, and charitable offices satisfied, some little surplusage might accrue for a petite subsistence to a surviving Consort: Sir, my Muse flaggs, my heart akes, when I consider, that in England, England a Land of plenty, a poor Ministers Wi­dow, is become a very Proverb, b [...] what will no lesssuit Jeremiahs Lamen­tations then Solomons Parables; now what a sad thing is it that he who de­votes himself to spend and be spent in the service of God, his Church, and the Souls of others, should be able to en­title the companion of his own life, that ended, to no more than an Ecclesiastick plea for an Alms, —a poor Mini­sters Widow! and that the surviver of him who serves at the Altar, should be enforced to beg at the Door! a Lamen­tation! [Page 188]and let it be for a lamentation! Now for a remedy and redress of the whole, the Poverty of the Clergy (male and fe­male) and contempt of them (hereby too truely, though unjustly occasioned) in the Laity; whom can or ought we to make applications to, but our State-Physicians; namely, his Majesty, in conjunction with a wise, prudent, con­siderate Parliament, all joyntly spiri­ted hereunto from a generous zeal for the glory honour and renown (here endangered) of their Clergy and Religi­on; that Church of whom they own themselves Sons, and that Faith of which they profess themselves Defen­ders: what the method of redress or expedient in the case should be, must (as reason good) be left to their own prudential contrivance; but I presume I may use the same liberty, so I do the modesty, that your self. Well then, The Lucrative Arts and Stratagems of the Church of Rome, as the Ghostly authority and infallibility of the Pope (their fundament al cheat) their monopoly of merits and indulgences, mi­racles, auricular confession, absoluti­ons, [Page 189]pardons, penance, purgatory, canonization of Saints, the Wafer-God, (for there they can make not only Saints, but a God, Let. 1. p. 98, 99 100. &c. at pleasure) vowed Celibacy, the denial of marriage to their Clergy, and such like artifices, (some whereof are by you recounted) all sacrificed to Mammon or the Money-God; those and the like (I say) are, and I hope will be by both Church and State of England eternally adjudged, antichristian; which if you or any advocate in your behalf will undertake to disprove me in, so it be with more argument and less flashy Theatrical wit, then you use in your Letters, it is like, I may procure some who pro tenui­(tate your Academick Youngster's conge) will try it out with you at the two-edged Sword. Again, the method of reducing and levelling Episcopal, and Ca­thedral, or Collegiate Revenues, and all other Ecclesiastical preferments and pos­sessions to a commonmage, were such a motion as nothing less then the Acts of the Apostles could render unpardona­ble; besides the danger of an Ignis sacer, in the case, and I am terribly [Page 190]afraid of St Anthony. Once more; your Astraea's return, or restitution, of such Tithes and Church-Rents as for­mer Kings and Parliaments, especially (the great Church-Publican) King Henry the Eight, thought good (up­on what prudential considerations, it is not meet that you or I should dis­pute) to impropriate to the Crown or State; (which might happily prove as offensive to the State, as the former would to the richer Clergy) I should not have the confidence once to offer at, unless you will promise to secure me — Antidotum adversus Caesarem: But Sir, I will presume to offer what (with submission to the wiser, especial­ly my Governours) I am strongly per­swaded might be a considerable expe­dient in the case, estimated by a three­fold inconveniency observable in the rich-poor Church of England, namely,

1. A great inequality of Parochial distributions;

2. A great disproportion of Pastoral provisions in those Parishes; and

3. An incommodious way of collecting & receiving of those provisions. Now those [Page 191] inequalities are several wayes deter­minable, as in respect of extent of Parishes, number or quality of Inha­bitants, &c. and accordingly the value of Livings and Benefices; thus you shall observe, some Livings of double and tripple the value of what others are of, in Parishes of double and tripple the extent of bounds, number and quality of Inhabitants; again nearness to or distance from the Metropolis is consi­derable; it being certain that an hun­dred pound per an. will go farther in York shire, Lancashire, &c. (where yet generally the greatest Livings are, viz. of 200. 300. 400. 500. &c. l. per annum) then two or three in or about London, where yet one is reckoned a tolerable competency; a great odds! A­gain the Incumbent's or Beneficiary's own collecting and receiving of the benefits, is greatly inconvenient; for first it involves him in worldly incum­brances and distractions, which we desire to have remedied; next it renders him lyable either to be defrauded in his right, or else to litigious Law-suites and contests with the inhabitants, in pursuit [Page 192]of it enkindling of such mutual grudg­es and animosities between Pastor and People, as will most certainly obstruct all proficiency under, and success of his Ministery: Now Sir, I have a great temptation within my self to believe, that if the Parliament pleased to con­trive some more equal and proportio­nable distributions of those Livings and Benefices, (J meddle not here with Col­legiacies) both as to extent of parochi­al bounds and number and quality of Inhabitants; and (which is the chief) of Pastoral provisions therein, with regard had to their respective nearness to, or distance from the City of London; (the greater reduced, the lesser augmented) this might prove some considerable expedient in the case, and remedy to the poverty of the Cler­gy; a respective competency being all England over by this means and me­thod apportioned to them. But the incorporating of the whole in the State, and the Cl [...]rgy made State-Pensioners; a certain number being constituted Tribuni cleritatus, Fide-commissaries, [Page 193]Church-Tribunes and Trustees for a faithful management of the affair; seemes to many to be a very com­pendious way both for securing of competent provisions to the Clergy, and additional peace, and quiet with­all; and possibly besides this some redounding emolument and subsist­ence to their surviving Consorts, as in other reformed Churches beyond the Seas; which far be it from me to propound as other than motive, not pattern; not for imitation, but ge­nerous emulation, worthy of an En­glish Parliament; but I doubt I have been too bold; if I have, my Betters I hope will pardon me; and as for others, the equity of the interest which I plead, may excuse me; and if it do not, I rest unconcerned. Thus Sir, I have shewed that though Po­verty in the Clergy be partly through inbred corruption, partly through Satan's and your co-instigation, an occasion of contempt in the Laity; yet the same is no just ground of Con­tempt in it self, and besides that [Page 194]both poverty and contempt are ca­pable of a remedy; which I hope, our prudent State-Physicians may in due time administer; therefore once more, What doth your arguing re­prove? But Doomsday is a coming.