The Levites Scourge, Section 3
SECT. III. Six Untruths uttered by Britanicus in three Lines; the true cause why D. F. was voted out of the Assembly.
IT is briefly mentioned before, who was an Intelligencer to Oxford of passages in the Assembly, now a word more of it:Merc. Brit. pag. 47. That grave Doctor, I meane Doctor Featley, that held correspondencie with the Bishop of Armagh, and informed his Irish grace how much His Majesty was beholding to him for his intelligence, and upon the whole matter desires his grace to move the King to conferre upon him the Deanerie of Westminster. The Letter it selfe was intercepted, all of his owne hand writing, and he acknowledged it.
Lingua in udo est & facilè labitur, the tongue is seated in a moyst place and easily slips; this is seene by thee, Britanicus, whose tongue hath slipt six times within the short space of three Lines.
First, Thou sayst that the Doctor held correspondence with his Irish grace by Letters, whereas the Doctor never received Letter from the Primate of Armagh, during the time of his abode in the Assembly.
Secondly, Thou makest a hideous noyse and great racket about a Letter written to his grace, but intercepted; Whereas it was no Letter in truth and proprietie of speech, but a note unsealed without any indorsment or date, and that note also drawne from the Doctor by a wile, by one who at this present is Suttler to the Trained Band at S. Albans.
Thirdly, thou sayest, the Doctor informed his grace what good service he had done the King this Parliament; whereas there is never a word in that Letter or Note of any service done to His Majestie, but a meere complaint of unsufferable wrongs offered the Doctor by the Parliament Souldiers, who plundered him both at Acton and Lambeth.
Fourthly, thou impudently affirmest, that he desired his grace to move the King to conferre upon him the Deanerie of Westminster; whereas the words in the originall Letter not falsified are, that his grace would put in for himselfe, that he might hold it as a Commendam with the Administratorship of Carlile, as the Archbishop of Yorke held it before.
Fifthly, thou sayest, that the Doctor wrote all this pretended Letter with his owne hand, whereas he wrote never a Line of it with his owne hand, but dictated to another.
Sixthly, thou blushest not to say, that the Doctor acknowledged the Letter examined before the Committee to be his owne, whereas that was but a false transcript, and never so much as shewed to the Doctor, much lesse acknowledged by him to be true. Thou wilt say then, if neither the originall now at Oxford, nor the transcript was exhibited to the Doctor, nor any witnesse at all produced to make faith, either that the originall being unsealed was not corrupted, or that this transcript perfectly accorded with the originall, neither could be any evidence against the Doctor; how then came it to passe that he was blowne out of the Assembly, and both his Livings, by one blast of Euroclydon? I could answer as Erasmus did to the Emperour, who demanded of him what he thought of Martin Luther, a man so much cryed up and downe in the world; up among the reformed, but downe in the Popish Church: Truely, quoth Erasmus, he is a worthy and able Divine, and otherwise irreproveable, onelyonly he was too blame in two things.
First, That he touched the Popes triple Crowne.
Secondly, The Monkes belly, which were two Noli me tangere's: so the Doctor, though otherwise he went with a right foot, and kept pace with those of his ranke, yet in two things he tript.
First, In the great debate about the three Creeds, he sided with the Presbyterians against the Independents.
Secondly, When the new Covenant was first offered to the Assembly, he openly and professedly opposed it, and endeavoured to prove, that all the Divines that were wrapt in that new bond, were intangled in perjurie by breaking their Oathes of canonicall obedience. For this, the Independents accounted him a Malignant, and the Presbyterians confided not in him. Besides, our Polititians that have beene brought up at the feet of the great Gamaliel in Phylosophie, Aristotle, taking upon them the defence of Ostracisme (never more practised then now, even by those who understand not what the word signifies) teach us, that though a man have a cleare brest and strong voyce, yet if it be not tunable, or his Note be so loud, that hee drowneth the rest in the Consort, it is fit he should be put out of the Quire. And truely, Britanicus, that needed not, for though he were Voted into it by 390 voyces, yet he never voted himselfe into it, but often wished himselfe out of it, not because he was averse from Synods, as the learnedest of the Greeke Fathers (Sir-named the Divine) was, who observed in his time, that he never saw good end of any such Assemblies; but because this Assembly was not called by the sound of Moses his Silver trumpet, neither were the Members thereof elected or nominated by the bodie of the Clergie, neither have they any decisive, but onelyonly consultive, and deliberative suffrages. In which regard, he conceived that he might doe more hurt to himselfe by his presence there, then good to others by his assistance. And therefore when he heard, that like a Candle hee was blowne in and out with the same breath, hee past not at all for it, deeming himselfe neither a gainer by the one, nor looser by the other.