Rejoinder to Bristows Reply, Part 2 · Book 3
The third Booke.
In the Preface of ye third Booke he promiseth to proue, First that Christ in the sixt of S. Iohn, spake of the gifte he made afterwarde in his parting banket. Secondly, yt the real presēce of his flesh and bloud, is euidently prooued by such words of promise, as he there vttered. Afterwarde he excuseth himselfe, that he is driuen to handle deepe & obscure matters, being a poore scholler of Oxford, and yet inferior to 200, that were in the late Tridē tine councel. So that if any Parliament man brought vp in hawking and hunting, think he writeth too profound ly for his vnderstanding, he must thinke, that he is lesse able to be a iudge of this whole controuersie, and of all questions in religion. As though it were necessarie, for euerie member of the Parliament, that shall entreate of cases of religion, to be trained vp in schoole points of Popish diuinitie, which the farther they be, from ye vnderstāding of yt cōmō people, y• further they are from faith & Christiā religiō, which ought to be cōmonly know… euē to the simplest women and children. And albeit that euerie parliament man is not able of himselfe to iudge of al controuersies of religion, yet they altogether, by the instruction of so many godly learned men, as are among them, may decree what lawes are necessarie to bee made, for the aduancement of Gods glorie in religion, as well as for the furtherance of the common wealth in quiet & tranquillitie. To conclude, his foolish preface hath neuer done craking of hard and difficult matters, as though he were a man of such ripe iudgement in them, that whatsoeuer he did write, were the Oracles of Apollo, where as in deede, euerie meane wise man shall easily perceiue, that when he would seeme to winde himself out of a difficult and intricate matter, hee sheweth more boldnesse in aduouching, then soundnes in his approuing.