The Grand Sacrilege of the Church of Rome, Dedication 3
TO MASTER EVERARD, ROMISH PRIEST.
SIr, I doubt not, but that you hauehave heard, or read of the famous Leaper of Rhodes; who hauing bragged in the hearing of many, what an incredible leape he had leapt at Rhodes, was by some there present taken tardie in his tale, and short in his leape; they bidding him forthwith to leape that great leape againe; foreign. Hîc Rhodus, hîc saltus: See, her's Rhodes, let vsus, say they, see the leape. This plat of ground for leaping is all one with Rhodes. In the Schedule which I sent you two yeeres since by S. P. L. I discribed as it were our stande at Rhodes, where we tooke our rise. The question in hand, and the large scope wee had to take our feeze in, the whole Scripture, and the perpetuall practise of the Church. Now if you, (as either your selfe, or your Proselytes hauehave reported) at our encounter in Noble-street, so farre out-leapt, not me onelyonly, but all the Romish Priests, and Iesuites, that hauehave met with me vponupon the like tearmes: let me intreat you to leape that your great leape againe; That the print of your feet may remaine to be viewed of all men by the Characters of the Presse. Had you learned from the holy Apostle, foreign, and ballast Rom. 12. 13. Not to thinke of your selfe more highly, then you ought to think, but to be wise. vntounto sobriety.your vessell with modest ingenuitie, you could not so lightly with a puffe of vaine glory bin driuen on those Rocks, at which now you must needs make shipwrack of your Faith, or of your fame; of your Creede, or of your Credit; of your Creede, if you stand to the defence of your assertions in the Conference; of your Credit, if you flinch from them. For mine owne part, I professe sincerely, I would hauehave let your manifold escapes and slips in that extemporarie dispute slip out of memorie; your Solecismes in Logick, as well as Diuinitie; your ignorance of your owne Romish tenets; your contradicting your selfe; your lame distinctions, and crude expressions, which cannot indure the light, should neuer hauehave been brought by me to it, had you not beene your selfe, in the audience of some persons of qualitie, your owne Herald, and Trumpeter. Had you not like one of those Captaines of Alexander, mentioned in the first book of Maccabees, put a Crowne vponupon your own head, Macc. l. 1. c. 1. v. 9. After his death, they all put Crownes vponupon themselues, and so did their sonnes after them.for your noble exploytes that day. Nay, had not you, or some of your disciples, voiced a miracle vponupon it, that the places which you alleaged against mee out of the Councell of Trent, and Cardinall Bellarmine, turned to of themselues; no sooner had you taken the booke in your hands, but presently they fell open at the chapter and pages, which you w…re to make vse of against me. Iust like as the flattering Senators at Tiberius his table, Asud. I…u. Saty. 4. Ipse capi voluit, quid apertius▪ et tamen illi Surgebant cristae.spake of the great Turbet ferued in; That the Fish in honour to the Emperour, offered himself to be taken, as being for many ages preserued for him. If you had then, M. E. so glorious a day, why doe you now make a night of it, by shaddowing, and vail…ng it in obscuritie and silence? why doe you not put forth that Conference your selfe, or put your hand to the true Relation thereof long agoe sent you. Nihil veritas erubescit, nisi solumodo abscondi; Truth neuer blusheth, but when she is hid. She feareth nothing, but not to bee brought to her tryall. Hee who knoweth his coyne is pure gold, will neuer refuse to offer it to the Goldsmiths Test: because he can loose nothing by it, but shal hauehave allowance for it. Besides your friends boasting at the Conference, your owne promise in the Conference deepely ingageth you to assoyle the arguments then vrged against your halfe Communion; whereunto at the present you returned not so much as half an answer; pleading for your selfe the short scantling of time, which gaue you not space to wield yonr Catholike buckler. Scitum est enim, culpam conijcere intempus, cum vltra addere, si maximèvelis, non possis. The Romane Oratour told you, it is a handsome put-off, to lay the blame vponupon the time, when an aduocate hath neuer a word more to say for his Clyent. But veritas temporis filia, Truth is Times Daughter, & she will iustifie her Mother. If in so long a tract of time, as hath run since our meeting in Noble-street, you had fully and punctually satisfied those arguments then left vntouched, you had salued your cause and credit, and made it appeare, you were not wanting to time, but time then to you. But now, sith you hauehave broken so often day after day, and monethmonth after monethmonth, and by this time yeere after yeere, being fo oft challenged of your promise, yea & vpbraided also by S. P. L. and the Lord T. and others, and in fine, your resolution is, to giuegive no resolution of those doubts: I will be bold to tell you, that time will now no more beare your blame, but you and your cause must beare it off with head and shoulders. You cannot now goe backe: Lis contestata est, praelium condictum; The field is pitched, the weapons are chosen: The question agreed vponupon, is the Communion in one kind: the proofes must bee Scripture, and the perpetuall custome of the Church. If by both your Romish practise be conuinced to be sacrilege in the highest degree, then write hereafter your braggs In su…reption of the Cup from the Laiety.in redinke, and let your lines blush for shame, and do you your selfe ingeniously confesse concerning sacrilege, as Papinian did concerning fatricide: that it is as difficult and dangerous a matter to defend the murder of a brother, as to commit it. But on the contrarie, if by the euidence of Scripture, and coustant practise of the Catholike Christian Church, you can iustifie your Romish dry communions, you shal not only gaine your pretended Catholicke cause, but me also your Proselyte.
D. F.