Prophecys concerning the return of popery into England, Scotland and Ireland by Arch-bishop Usher, Mr. Herbert, Dr. D. Pareus ... [et. al.] 1682 Approx. 65 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 18 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A70861 Wing P3675 ESTC R7049 13388337 ocm 13388337 99359 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A70861) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 99359) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 402:10 or 1554:15) Prophecys concerning the return of popery into England, Scotland and Ireland by Arch-bishop Usher, Mr. Herbert, Dr. D. Pareus ... [et. al.] Ussher, James, 1581-1656. [2], 33 p. Printed for A. Bancks, London : MDCLXXXII [1682] Reproduction of original in the Huntington Library. Entry for U208 cancelled in Wing (2nd ed.). Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Catholic Church -- England -- Prophecies. Catholic Church -- Controversial literature. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Prophecys Concerning the Return of POPERY INTO ENGLAND , SCOTLAND AND IRELAND . BY Arch-bishop Vsher , Mr. Herbert , Dr. D. Pareus , Mr. Burroughs , Mr. Selden , Mr. Baxter , Dr. M. Luther , Arch-bishop Grindal , Bishop Jewel , Bishop Gauden , Mr. Hooker , Dr. Sutcliffe . LONDON , Printed for A. Bancks , MDCLXXXII . Prophecies Concerning the Return of Popery into England , Scotland and Ireland . JAmes Vsher late Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh Primate of Ireland , being asked by a Gentleman of his acquaintance what his thoughts were of a very great Persecution , which should fall upon the Church of God in these Narions of England , Scotland , and Ireland , of which he had spoken with great confidence many years before , when we were in the highest and fullest state of outward peace and Settlement . The Gentleman asked him whether he did believe those sad times to be past , or that they were yet to come , to which he answered , that they were yet to come , and that he did as confidently expect it , as ever he had done , adding , that this said Persecution would fall upon all the Protestants Churches of Europe . The other replyed , that he did hope it might have been past as to these Nations of our , since he thought , that though we , who are the People thereof , have been punished much less than our sins have deserved , and that our late Wars had made far less Devastations , than War commonly brings upon those Countries where it pleaseth God in Judgment to suffer it : yet we must needs accknowledge that many great Houses had been Burnt , Ruined and left without Inhabitants , many great Families Impoverished and undone , and many thousand Lives also had been lost in that bloody War , and that Ireland and Scotland , as well as England , had drunk very deep of the Cup of God's Anger , even to the overthrow of the Government , and the utter desolation almost of a very great part of those Countries . But this holy man turning to him , and fixing his eye upon Him , with that Serious and Irefull Look , which he usually had when he spake God's Words and not his own , and when the power of God seemed to be upon , and to constrain him to speak , which the Gentleman could easily discern much to differ from the Countenance , wherewith he usually spake to him , He said thus . Fool not your self with such hopes , for I tell you , all you have yet seen , hath been but the beginning of sorrows to what is yet to come upon the Protestant Churches of Christ , who will er'e long fall under a sharper Persecution than ever it hath been upon them , and therefore said he , Look you be not found in the outward Court , but a worshiper in the Temple before the Altar , for Christ will measure all those that profess his name , and call themselves his People ; and the outward worshipers he will leave out , to be trodden down by the Gentiles . The outward Court ( says he ) is the formal Christian whose Religion lies in performing the outside without shewing any inward life and duties of Christianitie , Power of faith and love , uniting them to Christ , and these God will leave to be trodden own , and Swept away by the Gentiles ; but the worshipers within the Temple and before the Altar , are those who do indeed worship God in Spirit and in Truth , whose souls are made his Temples , and he is honoured and adored in the most Inward thoughts of their Hearts , and they Sacrifice their lusts and vile affections , yea , and their own wills to him , and these God will hide in the hollow of his hand , and under the shadow of his Wings ; and this shall be one great difference between this last , and all the other proceeding Persecutions ; for in the former , the most Eminent and Spirituall Ministers and Christians did generally suffer most , and were most violently fallen upon , but in this last Persecution , these shall be preserved by God as a seed to partake of that glory which shall Immediately follow and come upon the Church , as soon as ever this storm shall be over . For as it shall be the Sharpest , so it shall be the shortest Persecution of them all ; and shall onely take away the grosse Hypocrites and formal Professors , but the true Spiritual Believers shall be Preserved till the Calamity be overpast . The Gentleman then asked him by what means or Instruments this great Trial should be brought on . He answered , by the Papists ; the other replyed , that it seemed to him very Improbable they should be able to do it , since they were now little Countenanced , and but few in these Nations , and that the Hearts of People were more Set against them than ever since the Reformation . He answered again , That it would be by the hand , of Papists , and in the way of sudden Massacre , and that he the then Pope would be the chief Instrument of it . He then added , that the Papists were in his own opinion the Gentiles spoken of in the 11th of the Revelation to whom the outward Court shall be left , that they might Tread it under Foot : They having received the Gentiles worship in their Adoring Images , and Saints departed , and in taking to themselves many Mediators ; and this ( said he ) the Papists are now designing among themselves , and therefore be sure you be ready . Mr. George Herbert . REligion stands on tip-toe in our Land , Ready to pass to the American Strand . When height of Malice , and Prodigious Lusts , Impudence sinning , Witchcrafts , and distrusts , ( The marks of future bane ) shall fill our Cup Unto the Brim , and make our Measure up : When 〈◊〉 shall swallow Tiber , and the Thames . By letting in them both , pollutes her Streams : When Italy of us shall have her will , And all her Calender of sins fullfill ? Whereby one may foretell , what sins next Year . Shall both in France and England Domineer . Then shall Religion to America fle . They have their times of Gospel , ev'n as Wee . Mr. David Pareus Professor of Divinity in Heidelberg THere shall arise a King out of the Nation of the most Illustrious Lilie , having a long fore-head , high Brows , great Eyes , and an Eagles nose : He shall gather a great Army , and destroy all the Tyrants of his Kingdom : and slay all that fly and hide themselves in Mountains and Caves from his face : For righteousness shall be Joyned unto him , as the Bridegroom to the Bride : with them he shall wage War even unto to the fourtieth Year , bringing into Subjection the Islanders , Spaniards , and Italians : Rome and Florence , he shall destroy and burn with fire , so as Salt may be sowed on that Land. The greatest Clergyeman who have invaded Peters Seat , he shall put to Death : and in the same Year obtain a double Crown at last going over Sea with a great Army , he shall enter Greece , and be named King of the Greeks , the Turks and Barbarians he shall subdue , making an Edict , that every one shall die the Death that worshipeth not the Crucified one , and none shall be found able to resist him , because an holy arme from the Lord shall always be with him . And he shall possesse the Dominion of the Earth , these things being done , he shall be called the rest of Holy Christians , &c. Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs . BAbylon must down , and yet the Kings lament her fall , Who then must Pull her Down but the People ? Not that the People can raise a War meerly for Religion , but God will so order things , That the Papists Shall by their Malice be put upon such Plots and Entreprizes , that shall make Themselves Liable to the Justice of the Law , so that King 's shall have no Legal Power to resure them from it , but inferiour Magistrates assisted by the People shall in a Just way fall upon them , even then when the Kings of the Earth , and their Merchants shall lament them . Hence Revelation 19. 6. The Hallelujah that is begun upon the Lord God Omnipotent Reigning , is begun by the People . I hear the voice of many Waters , &c. Saying , Allelujah , for the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth . Now the Scripture frequently sets forth the People by Waters , as Revelation 17. 15. The Waters which Thou sawest were People . We read Canticles 5. 11. Where the Glory of Christ is set forth , it begins at the Head , but Cant 7. 1. Where the Glory of the Church is set forth , it begins at the Feet ; How beautifull are thy Feet ! Surely the Right Knowledge of these Liberties God hath given his People , will much help forward the Great things God hath to do in this Latter Age. Mr. Selden . MIrum quidem , &c. It is a wounderfull thing that Azuarrus 400 years ago should say that indeed about the year 1500 the Catholick Religion should fall much in lustre , extent and authority ( If I translate his words aright ) onely I must confess the pride , vanity , and security of the Catholick Clergy seem to make way to it : yet ( which is more strange ) the same Religion shall cover it's self towards the years 1700 , onely I must needs say that I think the late divisions arising no doubt from Roman Insinuations , seem to threaten the Late Reformation ; weakening the Interest of Religion on the one hand , and opening advantages to the adversaries of it on the other ; while the Jewish way was one and entire within it self , it was secure from forreign attempts upon its being or purity ; as soon as it was crumbled into those minute parts and factions of Esseans , Pharisees , Sadducess , Herodians , Zelots , &c. It yielded to the adversary , and at last was resolved to nothing : But that I think there is a providence in all ages remarkable , which doth at once bear testimony to , and secure Religion , I shall much fear that our most excellent Religion , so miserably confounded by its distracted followers , would one day give place to the two grand mischiefs of the world Popery and Profaneness ; against which there are no other remedies below the mercifull assistance of heaven , than found Doctrine setled , severe discipline established , a decent and holy Worship secured , and a grand establishment enjoyned , which may fence in truth and virtue , and keep out errour and sin ; whereby the Orthodox and the good part of the Nation may be known and encouraged , as the Heterodox may be discovered and awed . Mr. Baxter . WHen the motion was first made , for the publishing of these Papers , it seemed to me to be as the casting of water into the Sea ; so great is the Number of the Learned Writings of Protestant Divines against the Papists ( which will never be well answered ) that the most elaborate addition may seem superfluous ; much more these hasty Disputations prepared but for an exercise which is the Recreation of a few Country-Ministers at a monethly meeting , when they ease themselves of their ordinary work . But upon further consideration , I saw it was , The casting of water upon a threatning fire , which the Sea it self doth but restrain . It 's more Engines than a few that are openly or secretly at work at this time to captivate these Nations again to the Roman Pope . When so many hundreds , if not thousands are night and day contriving our seduction , ( under the name of reconciling us to the Church ; ) if no body counter-work them what may they not do . It s not enough that we have had Defenders , and that their Books are yet in the World. Old Writings are laid by , though much stronger than any new ones : But new ones are sooner taken up and read ? The Papists have of late been very plentiful , and yet very sparing in their Writings Plentiful of such as run among the simple injudicious people in secret , so that the Countries swarm with them ; But sparing of such as may provoke any Learned man to a Confutation : That so , they may in time dis-used us from those Studies , and so disable the Ministry therein , and catch us when we are secure through a seeming peace , and fall upon us when we have lost our strength . And I am much afraid that the generality of our people ( perhaps of the best ) are already so much disused from these studies , as to be much unacquainted with the Nature of Popery , and much more to seek for a preservative against it , and a through confutation of them . So that if Papists were once but as fully set out among us in their own likeness , as they are under the names of Quakers and other Sects , what work would you see in many places ? I doubt many would follow their pernicious ways , and fall like Sheep of a common rot , or People in a raging pestilence , especially if they had but the countenance of the times : Not through their strength , but because our people are naked , and unmeet for a defence . The work that now they are upon , is , 1. By Divisions , and reviling the Ministers , to loosen the people from their Guides ; that they may be as a Masterless dog that will follow anybody that will whistle to him . 2. To take down the Ministers maintenance and encouragements , that they may be disabled so vigorously to resist them . 3. To hinder their union , that they may abate their strength , and find them work against each other . 4 To procure a Liberty of seducing all they can under the name of Liberties of Conscience , that so they may have as fair a game for it as we : and ignorance and the common corruption of nature ( especially so heightened by a custome in sin ) doth befriend the Devil's cause much more than God's ; or else how 's comes it to pass that the Godly are so few , and Error , Idolatry and Impiety doth so abound in all the Earth ! 5. To break the common people into as many Sects and Parties as they can , that they may not onely employ them against one another , but also may hence fetch matter of reproach against our profession in the eyes of the World. 6. To plead under the name of Seekers against the certainty of all Religion ; that men may be brought to think that they must be either of the Popish profession or of none . And indeed when all Sects have done their worst it is but two , that we are in any great danger of ( And of those I think we are in more danger , than the most are aware of ) and that is , 1. Papists : who plead not as other parties , onely by the tongue , but by exciting Princes and States against us , and disputing with the Fagot or Hatchet in their hands : And if we have not Arguments that will confute a Navy , an Army , or a Powder-Plot , we can do no good against them . 2. Prophaneness , animated by Apostate Infidels : This is the Religion that men are born in . And men that naturally are so indeared to their lusts , that they would not have the Scripture to be true , will easily hearken to him that tells them it is false . Yea so much doth Popery befriend men in a vicious course , that some are apt to joyn those together , thinking at the heart that Christianity is but a Fable : but yet for fear it should prove true , they will be Papists , that they may have that easie remedy for a reserve . If God will preserve us but from these two dangers , Popery and Prophaneness animated by infidelity , it will go well with England . 1. Either Scripture is true or not true : If not , Popery is not true , which pleadeth its warant from it ( and some of them argue , as if they purposed to disprove the Scripture and to imitate Sampson , in pulling down the house on their heads and ours , in revenge for the dishonour they have suffered by the Scripture . ) If it be true ( as nothing more true ) then Popery is not true , which palpably contradicteth it , as in the points of Latine service , and denying the Cup in the Lords Supper , and many other is most evident . 3. Either the judgment of the Antient Doctors is sound or not : If not , then the Church of Rome is unsound , that is sworn to expound the Scripture only according to their consent : If it be sound , then the Church of Rome is unsound , that arrogate a Vniversal Government and Infallibility , and build upon a foundation , that was never allowed by the Antient Doctors ( as in the third Disp. I have fully proved ) and which most Christians in the World do still reject . 4. Either Reason it self is to be renounced or not : If it be , then none can be Papists but mad men . If not , then Popery must be renounced , which foundeth our very faith upon impossibilities , and teacheth men of necessity to believe in the Pope as the Vicar of Christ , before they believe in Christ , with many the like , which are afterwards laid open . 5. Either our five Senses , and the judgment made upon them , is certain and infallible or not . If not , then the Church of Rome , both Pope and Council are fallible , and not at all to be trusted : For when all their Tradition is by hearing or reading , they are uncertain whether ever they heard or read any such thing ; and we must all be uncertain whether they speak or write it : And then we must not only subscribe to Fransc. Sanches . Quod nihil scitur , but also say that Nihil certo creditur . But if sense be certain and Infallible ; then the Church of Rome , even Pope and Council are not only Fallible ; but certainly false deceivers and deceived . For the Pope and his Council tell the Church that it is not Bread and Wine which they take , eat and drink in the Eucharist . But the senses of all sound men do tell them that it is . I see that its Bread and Wine , I smell it , I feel it , I taste it ; and some what I hear , to further my assurance : And yet if Popery be not false , it s no such matter . One would think the dullest Reader , might be quickly here resolved whether Popery be true or false . Look on the consecrated Bread and Wine , touch it , smell it , taste it , and if thou canst but be sure that it is indeed Bread and Wine , thou mayest be as sure that Popery is a delusion . And if thou can'st but be sure , that it is not Bread and Wine , yet thou mayst be sure that the Pope or his Council , nor any of his Doctors are not to be believed . For if other mens senses be deceitful , theirs and thine are so too . Reader , Adhere to God , and the Righteousness of Christ , and the Teachings of the Holy Ghost , by the Scriptures , and a faithfully Ministry , in the Communion of the Saints , and as a member of the Catholick Church , which arising at Jerusalem , is dispersed over the World , containing all that are Christians ; renounce not right Reason , or thy senses ; and live according to the light which is vouchsafed thee ; and then thou shalt be safe from Popery , and all other pernicious damning Errors . Mr. Luther . NOn Citius , &c. No sooner have we reformed , but those arise among us who speak perverse things , and destroy that in a week , which we had been some years setting up ; whose hand is this , is it not the adversaries ? who sows these Tares , but the Enemy ? who finding he cannot prevail openly , undermines us secretly ; who seeing he cannot succeed against us bare-faced , attempts us under the vizard of a deluded people : God of his mercy put a stop to those delusions , which if they proceed will ingulf us again in Popery : These cry down the Ministers of the Gospel , the Papists can do no more ; they do the Papists work for them , alas , alas ! &c. Archbishop Grindal . TWo great dangers I really fear , Atheism and Popery ; both me thinks , I see arising out of our needless divisions and differences , fomented and cherished , I fear by Satan the enemy of mankind , and the Pope , the enemy of Christendom , that Antichrist , the mystery of whose iniquity yet worketh among us , but that she letteth who also did let , and will let , by her power and authority given her of God , for God , until ( which God avert , though their enemies endeavour ) she be taken out of the way . — By these differences the enemies of our Religion ●gain this , That nothing can be established by Law in the Protestant Religion , whose every part is opposed by one or other of her own professors ; so that things continuing loose and confused , the Papists have their opportunity to urge their way , which is attended with Order and Government , and our Religion continued thus distracted and divided , some vile wretches lay hold of the Arguments on one side to confute the other , and so hope at last to destroy all : In quae reservamur tempora ? Bishop Jewel . NOw let us behold the present state of our country . These words of Christ our Saviour were never more true , than we finde them now in these our days . The harvest is great , and the labourors very few , the poore people sieth forsaken , and left as it were sheep without a guide : the afflicted in conscience have no man to quiet them : they grow wild and savage , as it were a people that had no God : they are commanded to change their religion , and for lack of instruction , they know not whither to turn them : they know not , neither what they leave nor what they should receive . Some other defie , and spit at the holy Gospel of our Saviour Christ , and refuse the covenant of everlasting life . Some other for lack of knowledge follow after willful and blind masters , and become Arrians or Pelagians , and thus they blaspheme the Son of God. Some others give themselves over to their own affections , and , as he saith , rejoyce and triumph in their filthiness , without fear of God , without conscience of sin , and so tread down the blood of the Testament under feet : and this do they for lack of teaching , because they have not learned men and preachers to shew them what they should do . O , saith our Saviour Christ , the good shepherd and bishop of our souls , my harvest is beaten down and lost , and there is none that will go abroad and save it . My people run headlong to their own destruction , not of Malice but of very simplicity , only because they are not taught , because they know not my father nor me . Also , it is not my fathers will that any of them should be lost . But for the hope of posterity , I report me to all you which are fathers , and have children for whom you are careful . Although your selves have a zeal and care for the house of God : yet will you breed them up , keep them at School , until four and twenty years old to your charges , that in the end they may live in glorious poverty ? that they may live poorly and naked like the Prophets and Apostles ? Our posterity shall rue , that ever such fathers went before them : And Chronicles shall report this contempt of learning among the punishments , and murrains , and other plagues of God. They shall leave it written in what time and under whose raign this was done . Or if we grow so barbarous that we consider not this , or be not able to draw it into Chronicle , yet fortain Nations will not spare to write this , and publish it to our everlasting reproach and shame . In the mean time , what may be ghessed of their meaning , which thus ravin and spoil the house of God , which decay the provision thereof , and so basely esteem the Ministers of the Gospel ? they cannot say to God , The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up . Howsoever in other things they do well , howsoever they seem to rejoyce at the prosperity of Sion , and to seek the safety and preservation of the Lords Anointed : yet needs must it be , that by these means forraign power , of which this Realm by the mercy of God is happily delivered , shall again be brought in upon us . Such things shall be done unto us , as we be for suffered : the truth of God shall be taken away , the holy Scriptures burnt and consumed in fire . A marvellous darkness and calamity must needs ensue . For , if the tempest be so dark in the sea , that the load-star lose her light , and the needle tail to give token of the North Pole , no marvel though the ship lose her course , and be swallowed in the sands . The Gospel , of Christ is the fountain of light , and of knowledge . It cannot be maintained by ignorance and darkness . These be the props of their kingdom which take away the Scriptures , which hold the people in blindness , which flie the light , which have their common prayers , minister the Sacraments , marry , bury their dead in a strange tongue , that the people may understand nothing : which make a famme of hearing the word of God : which stop up the springs of the water of life : which take away the keys of the kingdom of Heaven , and neither enter in themselves , nor suffer them that would enter : which say ignorance is the mother of devotion , and the Church is then in best order , and the people most devout , when they are hood-winckt and blinded , and see nothing . These are not fit instruments wherewith we may overcome the adversaries . This is not the sword of the spirit , these are not the spiritual weapons , which cast down holds , and every high thing that is exalted against the kingdom of God. When man that would keep out his enemy , will pull down his holds ? what Captain that meaneth to give a forcible assault upon the enemy , will discourage his fighting souldiers , but our Souldiers are out of courage , our Castles are falling : therefore that which we tear will fall upon us . Bishop Gauden . THese , and such like , are the uncouth expressions used to usher it , under the names of Liberty , Curiosity , sublimity , nothing but Ignorance , Idleness , Atheisme , Barbarity , Irreligion , and utter confusion in this Church : or at best , ( as I shall afterward more fully demonstrate ) they are but van-courriers , or agitators for Romish superstitions and Papalusurpations ; the end of all this gibberish is , Venient Romani . Put all these fine fancies and affected phrases together , with all those strange phantasms in Religion , which of late have haunted this Church , like so many unquiet vermin , or unclean spirits ; truely they spell nothing but , first , popular extravagances , which are the embasings and embrovlings of all true and reformed Religion ; next they portend Popish interests and policies prevailing against this Church and state , whose future advantages are cunningly , but notably , wrapt up in these plebeian furies , and fondnesses , as grocery wares are in brown paper . Be confident , the spirit of Rome ( which is very vigilant and and active ( doth then move most potently upon the face of our English waters , when there is to be seen nothing but a sea of confusion , a meer Chaos of the Christian and Reformed Religion . Which feared deluge , ( and by wise men forseen ) devastation of the Reformed Religion ( once wisely established , honourably maintained , and mightily prospered in the Church of England ) is already much spread and prevalent among many people , under the plea and colour of I know not what liberty , to own any or no Minster , any or no Religion , any , none , or many Churches in England . The visible decayes and debasings of the true and Reformed Religion in England , as to piery , equity , unity and charity , as to the authority of its Ministry and solemnity of its Ministrations , are so palpable , both in the outward peace and profession , also in the inward warmth and perswasion , that it is high time for all sober and wise men , that love God , Religion , and their Country , mightily to importune the mercies of God , that breathing upon us with a spirit of meekness and wisdom , truth and love , humility and honesty , he would ( at length ) asswage that deluge of contempt and confusion , the troubled and bitter waters of wrath and contention , which have overwhelmed the highest mountains of this Church ; over-topping by their salt waves and aspersions , the gravest , wisest , most learned and religious , both Preachers and Professors , of the Reformed Religion in this Church and Nation . Which licentious insolencies have made all sober Christians so sick , weary and ashamed of them , that they cannot but be infinitely grieved to see and fore-see the low ebbe , to which the Reformed Religion in its purity and power , must in time fall in England , while the pristine dignity and authority of the Evangelical Ministry is so invaded baffled and depised ; while the authentick derivation , and Catholick succession of that holy power , is so interrupted , innovated , divided , destroyed ; while the reverence of primitive customes and examples is so slighted , abated , by Popish innovators ; while the cords of Christian harmony and Church-policy are so loosened and ravelled on every side ; while the just honour and encouragements of learning and learned men are so much damped and exhausted ; while the Ecclesiastick Glory of his Nation , which was the chiefest ( in being and owning it self as a true and Reformed Church of Christ ) is so much eclipsed , to the great reproach of this present age , and the infinite hazard of posterity ; which will hardly ever recover the honour , order , beauty and unity of Christian and Reformed Religion , formerly enjoyed in this Church and Nation , when once the Jewels of it , the learned , ordained , orderly and authoritative Ministers of the Gospel , with all their Ministry and Ministrations , Come to be either trampled under feet by Schismatical fury , or invaded and usurped by vulgar insolency ; which in time will rake them all up , and bury them in the dunghil of Romish superstitions and Papal usurpations . From the Deformities , Divisions , and Degenerations of Religion , also the Falsifications , Usurpations and Devastations , which of later years have been made by the violent sort of Anabaptists and other furious Sectaries , against the Unity and Authority , the Sanctity and Majesty of the Church of England , destroying its Primitive Order and Apostolick Government , its Catholick Succession , its holy Ordination , its happy and most successful Ministry , to the great neglect and contempt of all holy ministrations and duties of Religion ; I cannot but further intimate to your piety and prudence ( O my honoured Countrey-men ) that which is most notorious , and no lesse dangerous , both in religious and civil respects , namely , the great Advantag●s , Applauses and Increases , which the Roman , or Papal party daily gain against the Reformed Religion , as it was once wisely , honourably , and happily established , professed and maintained here in England : which is now looked upon by the more subtil , superstitious and malicious sort of Papists , as deformed , divided , dissolved , desolated ; so conclamat for dead , that they fail not with scorn to boast that in England we have now no Church , no Pastors , no Bishops , no Presbyters , no true Ministry , no holy Ministrations , no Order , no Vnity , no Authority , no Reverence , as to things Divine or Ecclesiastick . Insomuch that we must in this sad posture , not onely despair of ever getting ground against the Romanists , by converting any of them from the errours of their way to the true Reformed Religion ; but we must daily expect to lose ground to the Popish party and their Proselytes : there being no banks or piles now sufficient to keep the Sea of Rome from over-flowing or undermining us , in order to advance their restless interests ; which have been , and still are , mightily promoted , not by the reverend Bishops and the other Episcopal Clergy ( who are men of Learning , Piety , Prudence , and Martyrlike constancy ) as some men with more Heat than Wit , more Spite than Truth , have in their mechanick and vulgar Oratory of late miserably and falsly declaimed ; but by those who have most done the Popes work , while they have seemed most furiously to fly in the Popes face as popularly zealous against Popery , and yet at the same time by a strange giddiness , headiness , and madness , they have risen up against that Mother-Church which bare them , and those Fathers in it , who heretofore mightily defended them and theirs from the talons and gripes of that Roman Eagle : and this not with childish scufflings or light skirmishings , to which manner of sight the illiterate weakness and rudeness of our new Masters and Champions hath reduced those Controversies ? but with such a Panoply or compleat Armour of proof , such sharp Weapons , such ponderous Engines , such rare dexterity of well-man-aged Powers , raised from all Learning , both Divine and Humane , that the high places and defences of Rome were not able to stand before them heretofore , when they were battered by our Jewels , our Lakes , our Davenants , our Whites , our Halls , our Mortons , our Andrews , and the late invincible Vsher , who deserved to be Primate , not only of Ireland , but of all the Protestant Forces in the world . All these were Bishops , Worthies of the first three , seconded in their ranks by able and orderly Presbyters , as Whitakers , Perkins , Reynolds , Whites , Crakenthorps , Sutcliffs , and innumerable others , while our Regiments were orderly , our Marchings comely , and our Forces both united and encouraged . Whereas , now there is no doubt but the merciless mowing down and scattering of the Clergy of England , like Hay , with the withering and decay of Government , Regularity and Order in this Church , these have infinitely contributed to the Papal harvest , and Romish agitations ; the gleamings of whose Emissaries will soon amount to more than the sheaves of any the most zealous and reformed Ministers in England . By the Papal interest and advantages , I do not mean the Roman Clergies preaching or propagting those truths of Christians , Doctrine , and D●ties , which ( for the main ) they profess in common with us and all Christian Churches , if any of them be thus piously industrious , I neither quarrel at them , nor envy their successes , but rather I should rejoyce in them with Saint Paul ; because however Christ crucified is preached , by some whom common people will either more reverence or sooner believe ( than they generally do the decayed , despised , and divided Ministers of England ) who seem to have ( many of them ) so small abilities , and carrying so little shew or pretence of any good authority for their work Ministerial ; nor can they be potent or esteemed abroad , who are so impotent and disesteemed at home . But I mean that Papal Monarchy , or Ecclesiastical Tyranny , by which the Church , of rather the Court of Rome , ( by such sinister Arts and unjust Policies , as were shamefully used and discovered in the Tridentine conventicle ) seeks to usurp and continue an imperial power over all Churches and Bishops , as if there had been but one Apostle , or one Apostolick Church planted in the world ; also to corrupt and abuse that ancient Purity , Simplicity , and Liberty of Religion , which was preserved among Primitive Churches and their co-ordinate Bishops : Further , without fear of God or reverence of man , opposing some Divine Truths and undoubted institutions of Christ also imposing such erroneous Doctrines and superstitious Opinions upon all Christians , to be believed , and accordingly practised , as become not the severity and sanctity of true Religion , adding to that holy foundation ( which was indeed first laid by the great Apostles and continued happily for many hundred years by the successive Bishops of Rome ) those after-superstructures , not of ceremonies onely , which are tolerable ( many of them like feathers , making but little weight in Religion ) but of corrupt Doctrines and superstitious Duties , as seem ( at best ) impertinent to true Piety ; but some of them are erroneous , s●crilegious , pernicious . In somethings they are boldly adding to , or detracting from the Doctrine and Institutions of our blessed Lord Jesu● Christ : in other things they impose for sacred and necessary , such opinions and customes , which are but the rust and drosse , the disease and deformity of Christian Religion , contracted in the long ignorance , darknesse , and almost barbarity of times , which God winked at : but now they appear highly and justly scandalous , yea , intolerable to more judicious and lesse credulous Christians , who are very sensible , not onely of that offence , which many Papal Injunctions and Observations give to themselves , as Christians , but also to the very Heathens , to Jews , and to Mahometans , who cannot teconcile in any Reason or Religion the Idolatrous use of Images and Hoasts among Papists , to which they must submit , if they will be in communion with them , or converted to be Christians ; nor yet those Tridentine Terrours and Anathemas of eternal damnation , which are thundered by them against all those who will not , against God's expresse Words , own as Truth , and submit to as necessary , those opinions and practices among Papists , which seem either impious or impertinent , as to true Faith and a good Conscience . Against all which burthens ( too heavy for any wise and generous Christians to bear , when once duly informed of the weight and danger of them , and duly reformed from them ) as the great Wisdom , Piety , and Order of the Church of England in its sacred Ministry and holy Ministratious , was heretofore the greatest barre and bulwark in all the Christian world : so the disadvantge of the Reformed Religion are now so palpable , and the danger of the people of this Nation , as so obvious in their returning to that Egypt and Babylon again , which is not the Church of Rome , but its disease and opression ; that I know not in ordinary providence any means can be used , or is left , to stop the daily prevalencies of Popery , and the great Apostasie of England to the Romish superstition and subjection in after-times , unlesse God stir up such Wisdome , Zeal and Care in those that have honest hearts , joyned with publick power and influence , not so much to fleece and depress Popish Recusants by pecuniary exactions ( which is to set Religion to sale , and to make merchandize of mens errours , rather than fairly to perswade and win them by the proper and perswasive engines of true Religion ; ) but ( rather ) duly to restore and speedily assert the Honour , Order , Succession , Unity , Authority and Majesty of this Reformed Church and its Catholick Ministry : from which when the Papists see our selves to be such profound Revolters , with what face can we expect they should ever come into our Reformation which they now behold with joyful and disdainful eyes , so mangled , so deformed , so massacred by our owns hands ? How can we with Justice , Honor , or Humanity , inflict severe penalties upon Papists , as refusing to conform to our Church and Religion , when they protest , with so much truth , to our faces , they cannot see any Church , any Religion among us , as uniform , publick , authentick , constant ? What ( they say ) formerly had the goodliest figure and fairest presence of a Christian Church , and the best Reformed of any , is now deformed , ruined , demolished ; nothing but scattered rafters and pieces of that ship-wrackt vessel now appear floating up and down in a restless and foaming sea of faction , opposition and confusion , between Bishops , Ministers and People : some are Episcopal , others Presbyterian , a third sort Independant : all are disparate or opposite in Discipline , some are Heterodox in Doctrine : the Anabaptists rise against all , and the Quakers so are above all . To which of all these , with many other Sects , shall an honest-hearted Papist apply himself , to be safe and setled in Religion ? If to the poor and depressed remains of Bishops , and the Episcopal Clergie , who yet adhere to the Church England ; alas , they are weak and exhausted , contemned by many , pitied some , but asserted by few or none , according to their true merit in former ages , or their present Worth , Courage , Constancy and Patience in this . If the Romanists go to the Presbyterian party , which like small shoots spring out so thick in England , upon the cutting down of Episcopacy , to which they all formerly submitted ; these , besides their Levity , Parity , and In constancy , as to their former Stations , Opinions , and Oaths , seem so unseasonably insolent , and magisterially domineering , before they had got a full and just dominion , that all sober men think them rather popular , plebeian and impertinent in their heats , transport and passions , than so modest , wise , and grave , as becomes those who will undertake to wrest Government out of the hands of their superiours and betters every way , and to impose a novelty of untried and undesired Discipline upon such a great and stout Nation as England is ; which disdaining the insolency of Popes , and offended at the indiscretion of some Bishops , will hardly ever bear the pertnesse of petty Presbyters , who cannot want Vanity , Impudence and Arrogancy , when they fancy themselves in a supremacy of Power above people , Parliaments and Princes : for they affect no lesse , as Christ's due and theirs too . If the tossed Romanists run to the spruce and self-conceited Independents for shelter , because these fine new Masters seem to have patents for Christian Liberty , and urge a Magna Charta from Christ , to be accountable to none in matters of Religion , but their own little Congregation , Church , or Body , in which , as in an Ecclesiastick Corporation or free Borough of Religion , they may hang and draw , exercise high and low Justice upon mens souls as they list in their little Conventicles ; yet here the poor Papist finds so much of a rude and exotick novelty , such a grosse shew of Schisme , such variety , such an inconsistency , such a plebeian petulancy , such pitiful and ridiculous affections , and arrogating of Church-power in some of the plebs , and such contempt of it in others , that he cannot think it is other than some pieces of Josephs bloody coat , or some torn limbs of his body . Compared to what Splendour , Order , Strength , Beauty , Unity , Decency , and Majesty in Doctrine and Discipline , in Faith and holy Duties , was formerly to be observed , even to the envy and admiration of sober Papists , in the Church of England ; how much more in the Antient and Catholick Churches grand combinations , from which these petty fractions and crumblings of Christians seem most abhorrent and dissonant ? This goodly Cedar , then , of the Church of England being thus broken and hewn down , and nothing like it , or comparable to it , planted in its room , but such Shrubs and Mushromes as grow of themselves out of the rankness of the earth ( vulgar humours and passions ) under whose shade any Egyptian Vermine , Frogs , or unclean Birds may hide themselves ; no wonder if the Papists triumph in their sufferings and constancies if they despise all our Presbyterian , Independent , Anabaptistick , and fanatick Novelties ; if they rejoyce in that vengeance which they conclude God hath made upon our Schismes , Errours , Obstinacies , and Persecutions against them , by our mutual confusions . Hence must daily and necessarily follow secret inclinations , and accessions to the Roman party , by all those who are not well grounded in the Reformed Religion , or not much prejudiced against the Popish Errours , or are indifferent for any Religion which is most easie or pleasing . These at length will wrap to the Roman party , as the most specious of any : so that unless there be a speedy restauration of the honour of the Church of England , I see not how it is possible to prevent that fatal relapse , either to Romish superstition and slavery , or else to a dreadful persecution , which will in time necessarily follow those dissipations and destructions of this Reformed Church , its Minstry , Government and Religion , which some men have already too much , and still do , beyond measure , so industriously promote , to the excessive joy and gratifying of the Popish party and designs , which are not onely invasive upon the honour and freedome of this Nation , but highly scandalous to our Reformed Profession , and dangerous to our consciences , especially as we yet stand convinced of the Errors , Superstitions and Sacriledges of the Romish Religion since it lapsed from the Primitive Institutions of Christ , the patterns of the Apostles , the ancient Communion of Christian Churches , and the fraternal Co-ordination of Bishops , who were alwayes united in orderly , happy , and harmonious Aristocracies , rather than subordinate to any one Monarchical Supremacy , as to Ecclesiastical Power and Jurisdiction : however they had such regulation and primacy of order , by Patriarchs and Metropolitans among Bishops and the representers of several Churches , as become wise men , that were numerous when they met in great Councils or Church Assemblies . Nor do these wilely Romanists exercise their malice against this Reformed Church , onely with their own strength and dexterity , but they have other oblique Policies and sinister Practices by which they set on work the hot heads and pragmatick hands of all other Sects , who pretend the greatest Antipathies to popery , and yet most promote its interests by their Factions and fanatick Practises , by their heedlesse and , hedlesse their boundlesse and endlesse Agitations , which blast all true Reformation , and bring nothing but Division and Confusion . For among these there are a sort of people who affect Supremacy in Church and state too , a spiritual and temporal Dominion , no lesse than doth the Pope of Rome : there among them many petty Popes , who would fain be the great and onely Dictators of Religion , whose opinionative pride and projects are as yet of a lesse volume and blinder print , but they every day mediate and agitate new Editions of their power , and larger additions to their parties and designs ; being as infallible in their own conceits , as imperious in their spirits , and magisterial in their censures , as the proudest Popes of Rome ; not doubting to condemn and excommunicate any private Christians and Ministers , yea whole Christian Churches , yea and the best Reformed in the world ( such as England was ) , if they be not just of their form and fashion , or if they will not patiently submit to their multiform and deformed Reformations , by which they daily with-draw true Reformation to such a small thread , that losing its strength and integrity , it must needs snap in pieces and become uselesse : the strange fires of blind , popular , preposterous and sacrilegious Zeal so over-boyling true Religion and sober Reformation , till they are utterly confounded and quenched with such fordid and shamefull deformities , as must needs follow their Divisions , Distractions and Despiciencies , as to all Church-order , Christian unity and Ministerial authority . Thus many heady and giddy Professors have been so eager to come out of Babylon , that they are almost run out of their wits , and far beyond the bounds of good consciences ; so jealous of Superstition , that they are Panders for Confusion ; so scared with the name of Rome , that they are afraid of all right Reason and sober Religion ; so fearful of being over-righteous by following vain traditions of men , that they fear not to be over-wicked , by over-throwing the good foundations of Order , Honour , Peace and Charity , which Christ and his Apostles have laid in his Church : fierce enemites indeed against the Idolatry of Antichrist , but fast friends to Belial and Mammon , to Schisme and Sacriledge ; which having no fellowship with God and Christ , must needs belong to the party of Antichrist , which contains a circle of Errours , while Christ is the centre of Truth : And we know that parts diametrically opposite to each other may ( yet ) make up the same circumferences and be at equal distance from the centre ; so may Practises and Opinions which seem most crosse against each other , yet at Herod and Pilate , alike conspire against Christ and true Religion , like vicious extremes , which are contrary to each other , and yet uncorrespondent with that virtue from which they are divided . But the end or effect following their actions , ( though possibly not some of their intentions ) will be this , to prepare by these various windings , confused circulations and distorted wrestings of the Reformed Religion , the way for Roman factors , Papal interests and Jesuitick designes , whose learned abilities , orderly industry , and indefatigable activity is such , that by that time the old stock of Reverend , orderly and authoritative Bishops and Presbyters , ( the truest and most unquestionable Ministers of the Church of Christ ) are worn out in England , and the reformed Religion is reduced with its titular and extenuate Ministers to a meer medly , or popular Chaos of confusions , ( the most of sober people being either sick , or shamed , or weary of their home bred disorders , and unremedied diseases in Religion ) . By this time ( I say ) the Romish agitators will not onely devour all these petty parties , and feeble factions of Reformers , with as much ease as the Stork did the Frogs ; but they will ( in time ) utterly destroy the remains of the defamed Doctrine and deformed Religion , which your fore fathers owned , and to the death professed , as most true and well reformed , with great Honour , Holiness , and Happiness , which yet the ignorance and insolence , the Illiterateness , and Rusticity , the Barrenesse and Barbarity of novel Sects have already rendred poor and despicable , much to be pitied and deplored both at home and abroad . I must ever so far own my reason , as to professe that I look upon the Defamers Dividers and Destroyers of the Church of England , ( whatever they are or seem ) to be no other than the perdues or forelorn hope of Popery , which by lighter skirmishes open advantages to the Popes main Battaglio ; the Vancourriers , or Harbingers , sent and excited ( in great part ) from the Pragmatick Policies of Rome , whose grand interest since the Reformation hath been , not more to advance the House of Austria and preserve the Papacy , than to regain the Church of England to the Romish slavery . Certainly these petty parties , who scarce know what they drive at , and are full of varieties in their Fancies , Forms and Factions , these cannot produce so constant a current and so strong a tide , as is always urging against the Church of England and the honour of the Reformed Religion ; but they are driven on by a subtle and secret , yet potent impulse , as waves of the sea , not onely dashing and breaking upon each other , but ( all of them ) battering the Honour and Stability of the Church of England , as the great rampart or bank which stands in the way of the See of Rome , mightily opposing and hindering heretofore both fanatick Confusions , Papal Usurpations , and Romish Superstions ; whose advantages now are evidently prepared and carried on by those , that under the name of Reformation will most effectually at last overthrow it . For after these petty spirits , who have been and are the great Dividers , Despisers and Destroyers of the reformed Church of England , have a few years longer played their mad pranks in this sometime so flourishing and fruitful vineyard of the Lord , ( pulling up the hedge of Ecclesiastical Canons , and Civil Sanctions , throwing down the wall of Ancient Discipline and Catholick Government , breaking in pieces the wine-press of holy Ordination and Ministerial Authority and Succession , pulling up both root and branch of holy Plants and regular Planters ; ) what ( I beseech you ) can hinder these subtle Foxes and wild Boars of Romish Power and Policy , to enter in , and not onely secretly , but openly ( as occasion shall serve ) to destroy all the remaining stock of the true Protestants and Professors of the Reformed Religion ; who at first soberly protesting against Popish Errours and Deformities , afterwards praying ( in vain ) for a joynt and just Reformation , did ( at last ) reform themselves , after the rule of God's Word , interpreted by the Catholick Practise of purest Antiquity . What ( without a miracle ) can hinder the Papal prevalency in England , when once sound Doctrine is shaken , corrupted , despised ; when Scriptures are wrested by every private interpreter ; when the ancient Creeds and Symbols , the Lords Prayers and Ten Comandments , all wholsome forms of sound Doctrine and Devotion , the Articles and Liturgy of such a Church , together with the first famous Councils , all are slighted , vilified despited and abhorred by such Englishmen as pretend to be great Reformers ; when neither pristine Respect nor Support , Credit nor Countenance , Maintenance nor Reverence shall be left either to the Reformed Religion or the Ministry of it ? without which they will heardly be carried on beyond the fate of Pharaohs Chariots , when their wheeles were taken off , which is to be overwhelmed and drowned in the Romish red Sea , which will certainly overflow all , when once England is become not onely a dunghill and Tophet of Heretical filth and Schismatical fire , but an Aceldama , or field of blood , by mutual Animosities and civil Dissentions , arising from the variations and confusions of Religions . All which , as the Roman Eagle now fore-sees , and so follows the camp of Sectaries ( as Vultures and Birds of prey are wont to do Armies ) so no man , not blinded with private passions and present interest , is so simple , as not to know that it will in time terribly seize upon the blind , dying , or dead carkase of this Church and Nation ; whose expiration will be very visible , when the Purity , Order and Unity of Religion , the Respect , Support and Authority of the Ministry is vanished and banished out of England , by the neglect of some , the Malice , Madnesse and Ingratitude of others , your most unhappy Countrey-men : Then shall the Israel of England return to the Egypt of Rome ; then shall the beauty of our Sion be captive to the bondage of Babylon's either Superstition or Persecution ; from both which I beseech God to deliver us . As an Omen of the future fate , how many person of fair Estates , others of good parts and hopefull Learning , are already shrewdly warped and inclined to the Church of Rome , and either actually reconciled , or in a great readiness to embrace that Communion ( which excommunicates all Greek and Latine Churches , Eastern , Western and African Christians , which will not submit to its Dominion and Superstition ) chiefly moved thereto , because they know not what to make of or expect from the Religion and Reformation of the Church of England ; which they see so many zealous to reproach and ruine , so few concerned to relieve , restore , or pity ? As for the return of you ( my noble Countrey-men ) and your Posterity to the Roman Subjection and Superstition . I doubt not but many of you , most of you , all of you , that are persons of judicious and conscientious Piety , do heartily deprecate it , and would seriously avoid it to the best of your skill and power , as indeed you have great cause , both in Prudence and Conscience , in Piety and Policy : yet I believe none of you can flatter your selves , that the next Century shall defend the Reformed Religion in England from Romish Pretensions , Perswasions and Prevalencies , as the last hath done , while the Dignity , Order and Authority of the Ministry , the Government of excellent Bishops , the Majesty and Unity of this Reformed Church and its Religion , were all maintained by the unanimous vote , consent and Power of all Estates . Nay , the Dilemma and distressed choice of Religion is now reduced to this , that many peaceable and well-minded Christians , having been so long harressed , bitten and worried with novell Factions and pretended Reformations , would rather chuse that there Posterity ( if they may but have the excuse of ignorance in the main controversies , to plead for Gods mercy in their joyning to that Communion which hath so strong a relish of Egyptian Leeks and Onions , of Idolatry and Superstition , besides unchristian Arrogancy and intolerable Ambition ; that their Posterity , ( I say ) shall return to the Roman party , which hath something among them setled , orderly and uniform , becoming Religion , than to have them ever turning and tortured upon Ixion's wheel , catching in vain at fanciful Reformations , as Tantalus at the deceitful waters , rolling with infinite pains and hazard the Reformed Religion , like Sisyphus his Stone , sometimes asserting it by Law and Power , otherwhile exposing it to popular Liberty and Looseness ; than to have them tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine , with the Faedities , Blasphemies , Animosities , Anarchies , Dangers ▪ and confusions , attending fanatick Fancies and quotidian Reformations , which like botches or boiles from surfeited and unwholsome bodies , do daily break out among those Christians , who have made no rule of Religion but their own humours , and no bounds of their Reformations but their own Interests ; the first makes them ridiculous , the second pernicious to all sober Christians . Whereas the Roman Church , however tainted with rank Errours and dangerous Corruptions in Doctrine and Manners ( which forbid us under our present convictions to have in those things any visible sacred communion with them , though we have a great charity and pity for them ; Charity in what they still retain good ; Pity , in what they have erred from the Rule and Example of Christ and his Catholick Church ; ) yet it cannot be denied , without a brutish blindness and injurious slander ( which onely serves to gratifie the gross Antipathies of the gaping vulgar ) that the Church of Rome , among its Tares and Cockle , its Weeds and Thornes hath many wholsome Herbs , and holy Plants growing ; much more of Reason and Religion , of good Learning and sober Industry , of Order and Polity , of Morality and Constancy , of Christian Candor and Civility , of common Honesty and Humanity , becoming grave men and Christians , by which to invite after-Ages and your Posterity to adhere to it and them , rather than to be everlastingly exposed to the profane bablings , endless janglings , miserable manglings , childing confusions , Atheistical indifferencies and sacrilegious furies of some later spirits , which are equally greedy and giddy , making both a play and a prey of Religion , who have nothing in them comparable to the Papal party , to deserve your or your Posteritie's admiration or imitation , but rather their greatest caution and prevention : For you will find what not I onely , but sad experience of others may tell you , that the sythes and pitch-forks of these petty Sects and Plebeian Factions will be as sharp and heavy as the Papists Swords and Faggots heretofore were , both to your religious and civil Happiness . Rigid be not for Episcopacy , Nor too much earnest for Presbytery ; No Faction espouse , what e're it be , For by that means may enter POPERY . Mr. Hooker . WIth our contentions their irreligious humor also is much strengthened ; nothing pleaseth them better than these manifold oppositions about the matter of Religion , as well for that they have the more opportunity to learn on one side , how the other may be oppugned , and so weaken the credit of all unto themselves ; as also because by their hot pursuit of lower Controversies amongst men professing Religion , and agreeing in the principal foundations thereof , time will cause Alteration to grow : For which purpose when they see occasion they stick not sometimes in other mens persons , yea sometimes without any vizard at all , directly to try , what the most religious are able to say in defence of the highest points , whereupon all Religion dependteh . Now for the most part it so falleth out touching things that are generally received , that although in themselves they be most certain , yet because men presume them granted of all , we are hardly able to bring such proof of their certainty , as may satisfie gainsayers , when suddenly , and besides expectation they require the same at our hands , which unpreparation and unreadiness , when they find in us , they turn it to the soothing up of themselves in that accursed fancy , whereby they would fain believe that the hearty devotion of such as indeed fear God , is nothing else but a kind of harm less Error , bred and confirmed in them by the flight of wiser men . Dr. Sutcliffe . HAud vanus timor , &c. It s no vain fear which some wise men have entertained upon their experience of affairs , that these unhappy Questions about indifferent things managed by the subtile Jesuites , thereby to disturb the peace and settlement of our Church , until at last they enjoy their long expected opportunity to set up themselves , and restore the exploded Tyranny and Idolatry of the Church of Rome . FINIS .