The Levites Scourge, Section 14 – Section 15
SECT. XIIII. Of the subscription of the letter written to the Primate of Armagh, and the signification therof.
HE tels us of Sir Walter Earles interpretation of Φ and Δ the two Greek letters:Brit. p. 68. Aulicus, you see we have some honest Greeks, that can find out your villanies, though you hide them in another language; I thinke you will translate your mischiefs in time into all languages: oh these doctors treacheries are very learned pieces; this is to shew their schollarship, and traiterous abilities, that they are able to betray us in Greek, as well as in English.
Because thy animadversions upon the doctors letter scorpion-like thrust out a sting in the taile;Answ. I will first pluck out the sting, and then crush the serpent to pieces, and rub it upon the part. First then whereas thou chargest the doctor with villainy and treacherie: I answer, that this is villainous language; but because most false and slanderous, the villain will return upon thy self, and the traytor upo… thy forma informans A. Wardner. I grant it is villany and treachery to betray the secrets of state, wherwith a man is trusted, to the enemy; but resolves of Synods are no secrets of state, nor is the King an enemy of the state; if thou sayst so, Brit. thou art a traytor, and reus laesae majestatis: had the doctor acquainted his Majesty by the primate of A…magh what past in the Assembly, it had bin no villany or treachery▪ but piety and loyalty so to doe; for the King is the defender of the faith and the P. of Armagh is a noble champion therof: all treachery is either of things or persons: what or whom did the Doctor betray? first what? did he betray forts, or cittadels or treasure or magazins of armourie, or cabin-councels? no word or syllable in all the intercepted advertisement of any such thing. There is mention of nothing but of some doctrinall conclusions and theologicall propositions▪ de fide, quae tradi debent prodi non possunt, which cannot be betrayed, yet ought to be delivered. If the Assembly of divines resolve upon such articles of religion, as cannot en…ure the light, it is not only lawful but a necessary duty of a faithful minister of Christ Iesus▪ to detect them, and to discover the abettors of them to the supream head of the church under Christ, that he may prevent the danger the body is like to be in. Tertullian a…signeth it as a proper note of hereticks, that they conceal their tenents from the governours of the church, and the common sort of Christians also, and instill them secretly into the eares of confiding proselites; occultant quod praedicant, si tamen praed…cant quod occulta…t, Turtul. praescript.and wilt thou brand the divines of the Assembly with this mark of hereticks?
But the truth is, the Doctor held no correspondencie by Letters, nor was an Assembly-Spie, nor sent, nor intended to send any Letter towards Oxford, save onelyonly that one unsealed that was intercepted▪ which also by a false suggestion was cunningly drawn from him and presently shewed the close Committee, and a copie taken of i…, and the originall sent by them to Oxford, and the Carrier preferred to a gain…ull place in the Armie. By these st…ps, Br…tan…cus, if thou can…t not sent and trace the tra…or from the Bridge-foot to Lambeth, from Lambeth to the close Committee, from the close Committee to Oxford, from Oxford to the Committee for Examinations, and from thence to the Leaguer at S. Albans, thou hast no nose.
Yea but the Letter was subscribed not with the Doctors name in English but with two Greek characters, Δ and Φ, and is that treason? Then surely to subscribe and much more to write a whole letter in Greek ▪ as the Doctor hath done many, to Cyril Patriarch of Constantinople, Metrophanes Patriarch of Alexandria, and diverse others, must needs be high treason, and such a treason as none of your Brownisticall Lecturers or Teachers are guiltie of. I had thought, that the Latin had beene onelyonly the language of the beast; but now I perceive, that any learned language is with you not only Poperie and heresie, but also treason; because it is like the Masse, an unknowne tongue to you, and betrayeth your ignorance, who have skill of no other language then your mothers tongue, and canting.
Yea, but the Δ and the Φ were not written severally, and distinctly, but one in another, after the manner of numerals in Greek characters, and the Φ was somewhat above the Δ, and therein certainly some mysterie of iniquitie lyeth hid, which none of all the Committee but Sir Walter Earle could reveal; I pray thee what was that? namely, that by these characters was signified not D. F. but Fidelitie: O divinam ariolum, ô Chrysippeum acumen; O quint-essence of wit, O rare Criticisme! Yet, by Sir Walters leave, this conceit will shrink in the wetting: for there is a difference betweene Phi. and Fi. and Delta and Delitie: neither was the Φ written above the Δ, but in the middle of it, after this manner, which marres the quiblet. Yet if the wits will have it so, let it passe for a curious and quaint conjecture. Admit that Φ and Δ Phi and Delta is to be construed Fidelitie, and that as the Doctor carrieth loyaltie in his heart, so also fidelitie in the two first letters of his name transposed, what wilt thou hence inferre, Britanicus; ergo, the Doctor is a villain and a traitor? now Phi upon the Delta, d…nce, or rather Beta, Britanicus.
Ut sapiant fatuae fabrorum prandia Betae,
O quam saepè petet vin… …iperque *Cook at the Bridge foot.Coq…us?
SECT. XV. Wholesome and seasonable advice to Britanicus.
TO knit up all in a true lovers knot: I know thee not by face, Britanicus, but onelyonly ex ungue, by thy naile, which I find fretting in every sore, in Church and Common-wealth, whereby thou exasperatest all sorts of men against thee, and hast stirred a nest of hornets; which, if thou look not to it, will sting thee to death;Cic. pro Sylla. noli aculeos, qui reconditi sunt, excussos arbitrari; think not those stings thrust or pluckt out which lye hid, and for a time drawn in. Great Britain, Britanicus, hath been of late made a stage, wherein bloudie tragedies have been acted, and after every scene thou thrustest thy self in among the Chorus, and freely censurest all the actors at thy pleasure; give over thy part in time, and get off the stage: the Protasis is past, we are now in the Epitasis, God knowes what the Catastrophe will prove. In the mean while, take heed thou insult not upon calamitie, foreign,Isocr ad Daem… nicum. the fall of the Die is uncertain, and thou knowest not what may be thy chance. He that out of curiositie lookt into the table hanged up in the market place, wherein the names of the Proscripti by Sylla were set in their order, at unawares spyed his own name written in bloudie characters: cuivis contingere potest, quod cuiquam potest; that which is any ones case may be every ones case. Strengthen not the hands of those whose fingers itch at the treasure of the Church, it will prove like Sejanus horse, which none ever bestrid; or the gold of Tholouse, which none ever touched but he came to an ill end. Neither revile thou the servants of the living God, neither put scorns upon his Prophets: be not so gracelesse, as to take a pride in disgracing those whom God hath appointed to be the instruments and silver conduit-pipes to conveigh grace into thy soul. A jeer only at the Prophet Elisha, and that by innocents, proved nocent, and their bodies were all to rent and torn with Beares▪ who touched only the thin hayr of the Prophets head, crying, goe thou bald-pate. If thou wilt needs prove masteries with thy pen, chuse thy match, beware of impar congressus.
foreign
foreign.Hesiod. l. 1. …p. & dies.
He is a stark ideot who will contend with his betters; for besides losse of victorie he gaines blows into the bargain.
If Patroclus will encounter Hector; and Amycus Pollux; and Dares Entellus; and the Syr…ns the Muses; and the blind worm the Basilisk, they must take that which followed; above all things shoot not thy Porcupey's quills at soveraign Majestie; though thou thinkest thou goest invisible, as if thou hadst Gyges ring, or wer… compassed with Homers dark pavilion: yet the daughter of time will descry thee,Adag. Homerica nube tectus. Ve…itas tempo…is filia. and thou shalt find by wofull experience, how dangerous a thing it is, in eum scribere qui potest proscribere, it is not safe medling with edge tooles, nor scribling against him who hath power to proscribe.
LEX TALIONIS: OR, A sober reckoning with CIVICUS.
AFter Britanicus, or rather Barbaricus, had mingled his ink with the over-flowing of his own gall: his brother Civicus, rather to vend his sorrie pamphlet, then to vent his spleen against D. F. hath a sling at the gentle lash, A Book so intituled.and would fain squeez some poysonous juyce out of the Doctors spunge.