this wall with untempered mortar, that it fhall fall; there fhall be an overflowing fhower, and ye, O great hailftones, fhall fall, and a ftormy wind fhall rend it, and I will lay unto you, the wall is no more, neither they that daubed it."

Remonft. Whether of us fhall give a better account of our charity to the God of peace, I appeal.

Antw. Your charity is much to your fellow-offenders, but nothing to the numberlefs fouls that have been loft by their falfe feeding: ufe not therefore fo fillily the name of charity, as most commonly you do, and the peaceful attribute of God to a prepofterous end.

Remonft. In the next fection, like illbred fons, you fpit in the face of your mother the church of England.

Anfw. What should we do or fay to this Remonftrant, that by his idle and fhallow reafonings, feems to have been converfant in no divinity, but that which is colourable to uphold bishoprics? we acknowledge, and believe, the catholic reformed church; and if any man be difpofed to use a trope or figure, as St. Paul did in calling her the common mother of us all, let him do as his own rhetoric shall perfuade him If therefore we must needs have a mother, and if the catholic church only be, and must be fhe, let all genealogy tell us, if it can, what we must call the church of England, unlets we fhall make every english proteftant a kind of poetical Bacchus, to have two mothers: but mark, readers, the crafty scope of these prelates; they endeavour to imprefs deeply into weak and fuperftitious fancies, the awful notion of a mother, that hereby they might cheat them into a blind and implicit obedience to whatsoever they fhall decree or think fit. And if we come to ask a reafon of aught from our dear mother, fhe is invifible, under the lock and key of the prelates her fpiritual adulterers; they only are the internuncios, or the gobetweens, of this trim devifed mun mery: whatfoever they fay, fhe fays muft be a deadly fin of difobedience not to believe. So that we, who by God's special grace have fhaken off the fervitude of a great male tyrant, our pretended father the pope, fhould now, if we be not betimes aware of these

wily

wily teachers, fink under the flavery of a female notion the cloudy conception of a demy-ifland mother; and, while we think to be obedient fons, fhould make ourfelves rather the baftards, or the centaurs of their fpiritual fornications.

Remonft. Take heed of the ravens of the valley.

Anfw. The ravens we are to take heed of are yourfelves, that would peck out the eyes of all knowing christians.

Remonft. Sit you merry, brethren.

Anfw. So we fhall when the furies of prelatical confciences will not give them leave to do fo.

Queries. Whether they would not jeopard their ears rather, &c.

Anfw. A punishment that awaits the merits of your bold accomplices, for the lopping, and ftigmatizing of fo many freeborn chriftians.

Remonft. Whether the profeffed flovenlinefs in God's fervice, &c.

Answ. We have heard of Aaron and his linen amice, but those days are paft; and for your priest under the gofpel, that thinks himself the purer or the cleanlier in his office for his newwashed furplice, we esteem him for fanctity little better than Apollonius Thyanæus in his white frock, or the priest of Ifis in his lawn fleeves; and they may all for holiness lie together in the fuds.

Remonft. Whether it were not moft lawful and juft to punish your prefumption and disobedience.

Anfw. The punishing of that which you call our prefumption and difobedience, lies not now within the execution of your fangs; the merciful God above, and our juft parliament will deliver us from your Ephefian beafts, your cruel Nimrods, with whom we shall be ever fearless to encounter.

Remonft. God give you wisdom to see the truth, and grace to follow it.

Anfw. I wish the like to all those that refift not the Holy Ghoft; for of fuch God commands Jeremiah, faying, "Pray not thou for them, neither lift up cry or prayer for them, neither make interceffion to me, for I will not

hear

hear thee;" and of fuch St John faith, "He that bids: them God speed, is partaker of their evil deeds."

TO THE POSTCRIPT.

Remonft. A goodly pafquin borrowed for a great part out of Sion's plea, or the breviate confifting of a rhapfody of hiftories.

Anfw. How wittily you tell us what your wonted course is upon the like occafion: the collection was taken, be it known to you, from as authentic authors in this kind, as any in a bishop's library; and the collector of it fays moreover, that if the like occafion come again, he fhall lets need the help of breviates, or hiftorical rhapsodies, than your reverence to eke out your fermonings fhall need repair to poftils or poliantheas.

Remonft. They were bishops, you say, true, but they were popish bishops.

Anfw. Since you would bind us to your jurifdiction by their canon law, fince you would enforce upon us the old riffraff of Sarum, and other monaftical reliques; fince you live upon their unjust purchases, allege their authorities, boaft of their fucceffion, walk in their fteps, their pride, their titles, their covetousness, their perfecuting of God's people; fince you difclaim their actions, and build their fepulchres, it is most just that all their faults fhould be imputed to you, and their iniquities vifited upon you.

Remonft. Could you fee no colleges, no hofpitals built?

Answ. At that primero of piety, the pope and cardinals are the better gamefters, and will cog a die into Heaven before you.

Remonft. No churches reedified?

Anfw. Yes, more churches than fouls.

Remonft. No learned volumes writ?

Anfw. So did the mifcreant bishop of Spalato write learned volumes againft the pope, and run to Rome when he had done: ye write them in your closets, and unwrite them in your courts; hot volumifts and cold bifhops; a fwathbuckler against the pope, and a dormouse against the devil, while the whole diocese be fown

with

with tares, and none to refift the enemy, but fuch as let him in at the poftern; a rare fuperintendent at Rome, and a cipher at home. Hypocrites! the gofpel faithfully preached to the poor, the defolate parishes vifited and duly fed; loiterers thrown out, wolves driven from the fold, had been a better confutation of the pope and mafs, than whole hecatontomes of controverfies; and all this careering with fpear in reft, and thundering upon the fteel cap of Baronius or Bellarmine.

Remonft. No feduced perfons reclaimed?
Anfw. More reclaimed perfons feduced.
Remonft. No hofpitality kept?

Anfw. Bacchanalias good ftore in every bishop's family, and good gleeking.

Kemonft. No great offenders punished?

Anfw. The trophies of your high commiffion are renowned.

Remonft. No good offices done for the public?

Anfw. Yes, the good office of reducing monarchy to tyranny, of breaking pacifications, and calumniating the people to the king.

Remonft. No care of the peace of the church?

Anfw. No, nor of the land; witnefs the two armies. in the North, that now lie plundered, and overrun by a liturgy.

Remonft. No diligence in preaching?

Anfw. Scarce any preaching at all.
Remonft. No holiness in living?

Anfw. No.

Remonft. Truly, brethren, I can fay no more, but that the fault is in your eyes.

Anfw. If you can fay no more than this, you were a proper Remonftrant to ftand up for the whole tribe! Remonft. Wipe them and look better.

Anfw. Wipe your fat corpulencies out of our light. Remonft. Yea, I befeech God to open them rather that they may fee good.

Anfw. If you mean good prelates, let be your prayer, Ask not impoffibilities.

Remonft. As for that proverb, the bishop's foot hath been in it,' it were more fit for a Scurra in Trivio, or some ribald upon an alebench.

Anfw.

Anfw. The fitter for them then of whom it was meant. Remonft. I doubt not but they will fay, the bishop's foot hath been in your book, for I am fure it is quite fpoiled by this juft confutation; for your proverb, Sapit ollam.

Anfw. Spoiled, quoth ye? Indeed it is so spoiled, as a good fong is fpoiled by a lewd finger; or as the faying is, "God fends meat, but the cooks work their wills:" in that fense we grant your bishop's foot may have spoilęd it, and made it "Sapere ollam," if not "Sapere aulam; which is the fame in old Latin, and perhaps in plain English. For certain your confutation hath achieved nothing against it, and left nothing upon it, but a foul tafte of your skillet foot, and a more perfect and distinguishable odour of your focks, than of your nightcap. And how the bishop should confute a book with his foot, unless his brains were dropped into his great toe, I cannot meet with any man that can refolve me; only they tell me that certainly fuch a confutation must needs be gouty. So much for the bishop's foot.

Remonft. You tell us of Bonner's broth; it is the fashion in fome countries to fend in their keal in the laft fervice, and this it feems is the manner among our Smectymnuans.

Anfw. Your latter fervice at the high altar you mean: but soft, fir, the feaft was but begun, the broth was your own, you have been inviting the land to it this fourfcore years; and fo long we have been your flaves to serve it up for you, much again ft our wills: we know you have the beef to it, ready in your kitchens, we are fure it was almoft fod before this parliament begun; what direction you have given fince to your cooks, to fet it by in pantry till fome fitter time, we know not, and therefore your dear jeft is loft; this broth was but your first fervice: alas, fir, why do you delude your guests? Why do not thofe goodly flanks and brifkets march up in your ftately chargers? Doubtlefs if need be, the pope that owes you for mollifying the matter fo well with him, and making him a true church, will furnish you with all the fat oxen of Italy.

the

Remonft. Learned and worthy doctor Moulin shall tell them.

Anfw.