A Reply to a Relation, Part 1
TO THE AVTHOR AND PVBLISHER OF THE RELATION.
MY Lord, that you find not my Name in Front, the Reasons are to my selfe. And when you find it, 'twill appeare, that feare of your displeasure (though terrible enough) was not the Cause. But whoever I be, you will Say perhaps I am some madde fellow, and too bold to make a Reply to your Relation. But your own words will (I hope) excuse me for that. For you Say: *Pag. 138.A right sober m…n may without the least touch of insolency or madnesse dispute a business… of Religion, with the Roman either Church or Prelate; so it be with modesty, and for the finding out or confirming of Truth, free from …anity, and purposed opposition against even a Particular Church. So you: Now my manner in disputing with one so Great, though a single Prelate, and no Church, being with modesty, and … from vani…y, and purposed opposition against your Person; and the end, for finding out and confirming the Truth, which God himselfe knoweth: I h…pe (I Say) your Lordship wilbe as good as your word, not to cast upon me an aspersion, or Censure of the least touch of Insol…n…ie or madnesse. But this indeed I must confesse unto you, and professe before all the world, that in a Cause so weighty as this, wherein I find my Lord Iesus Christ so deeply ingaged, so much dishonoured, and his onelyonly true Faith and Religion so much depressed and disparaged, and that by so great a Prelate: I must crave pardon, if herein I be both zealous, and plain with you. And that so much the more, that one so Great (I say) so high in favour in Court, and so potent and prevalent in the State, should so doe. And to this purpose, I remember another Speech in your Booke: ‡Pag. 302.Worth is no necessary concluder for Truth; For worth once misled, is of all other the greatest misleader. And such is your worth, in the esteem of Great ones too, that misled, it is the greatest misleader. But there you adde: And yet God forbid, that to worth weake men should not ye…ld in difficult and perplexed Questions. Certainly, my Lord, what ever my weaknesse be, it will hardly yeeld to your worth (though never so great) where I find your worth misled, and so to become the Great Misleader, and that of no lesse then the whole Church of England. You know it is every good Subjects part to be zealous of the Kings honour, when he seeth it wounded or wronged. And shall not every good and faithfull Christian be zealous for the honour of his Lord Iesus Christ, and of his Kingdome, when he seeth them either openly opposed, or secretly undermined by Any; though never so Great, and honourable in the world? And this I shall make manifest, and (I hope) convince your Lordship of (if cleare evidence of holy Scripture, and Reason will doe it) that you have, as in your common practise, so in this your Last Book, not onelyonly bewrayed, but confirmed to the world (at least to all that have their *Eccle. 2.14▪eyes in their head, as the Preacher saith) your amity with the Church of Rome, and enmity against Iesus Christ, and his true Church, and so to the Salva…ion of mens soules. This, by Gods Grace I shall make cleare in my ensuing Reply. Wherein I shall observe no other method, but as I meet with such Passages all along (though perhaps not all as are worthy of Animadversion, to tell your Lordship plainly my mind of them. And although (as the Proverbe is) Plaine dealing is a Iewel (that is, for the rarity of it) yet it is not so highly esteemed in Court, as others of a more glistering luster. And wheras you may imagine and hope (as you have exprest your selfe) that this your Book will make for your Reputation, as being interlaced with some …arger Discourses, or Disputes against the Jesuite, which may be a goodly broad *Gen. 3.7.Figge-leaves to cover the nakednesse of the rest: yet many things in it are so palpably grosse and directly opposit to the Truth, that when you have layd on never so much varnish and guilding, All will prove but as a ‡Mat. 23 27.painted Sepulchre. The ‡Deut. 22 9.Law of God forbids the Jewes to sow their field with diverse kinds of seeds, least the whole fruit be defiled. This was to teach them, and us, not to mingle Truth with Errour, nor to §1 Ki. 18, 22.halt between GOD and Baal, for so, all their Religion comes to be defiled. But your field here is sowne, with many Tares, mingled with some graines of Wheat, which †Mat. 13.27·28.o…ekthròs Anthopos, the enemy having sown, and being grown up to such a ranknesse, and ripenesse, marvaile not, that I have brought so *Rev. 14.18.19.Sharpe a Sickle to cut it down.
The letter L. is to no…e your Lordships words: p. the page: and P. the Replyers Answere. And in all I shall be somwhat briefe, though perhaps tedious. And I suppose your Lordship so formidable by That Late Censure, and so secure by the Sure and Closse cooping up of those 3 once troublesome men, expected not, that any should be left of that mettall, so hardy, as to take up, and maintain such a quarrell against the Great Metropolitan of all England. But my Lord, deceive not your selfe: The Lord Iesus Christ, rather then faile, will out of the very dust rayse up witnesses, to stand up against Antichrist, or any of his Confederacie. And so in the first place I come to your Epistle Dedicatory to his Majesty.