I Was in my Journey in the North , far enough from London , when your Animadversions upon Fiat Lux came forth . Nor did I ever set eye upon them , till my return in February , about half a year after : which I tell you Sir , to excuse my silence . And now in brief : For your labour I thank you ; for your endeavour I pitty you ; for your purpos I pardon you : that being as I beleve , intended for Gentlemens satisfaction , the othet for Fiat Lux his confutation , this for the Authors confusion .

I may not go about to reply unto you ; becaus this would be against the very end and principles of Fiat Lux it self , which speaks forth nothing more then this , That Controversies about Religion are vain and fruitless . And lest this should not be able to detain me from any such reply , you adde your own threats , That if I shall dare to write again , you will make me know what manner of man you are . However Sir , let we crave leave to thank you for the pastime your Animadversions have given me since my return .

But Sir , you mistake the very drift and design of Fiat Lux , which makes you to erre ever and anon , throughout your whole Book , whiles you take that as spoken absolutely which is only said upon an hypothesis of our present condition here in England , distraction , disputes , and wars , in order to a contrary end of unity , love , and concord , designed by Fiat Lux ; and the Prosopopeia's brought in by me , as Solomòn in his Ecclesiastes makes the fool and atheist ever and anon to speak their minds , these you conceiv to be my doctrin . By vertu of these capital mistakes , what by me is said of the obscurity of God , Nature , and Providence , is with you impertinent ; that of Light and Spirit , impious ; that of Plea of Parties , frivolous ; that of Reason , dissonant and to no purpos ; that of Scripture blasphemous ; that of the History of Religion , no less inconsequent than untrue . In a word , this thing , that thing , every thing , a wilde , dishonest illiterate discours .

Some would wonder , that he who writes in confutation of a Book , should be himself the only man that understands it not . But the reason is apparent : It is your onely advantage to mistake . The whole discours of Fiat Lux chained together , one part with another , from that which is supposed to that which is designed , would breath so much of charity and sobernes , that my Commentatour could not have told how to make any mad versions upon it . It is not yet too late . Now that you have finished your Animadversions , or Comment , or Notes upon it , you may do well to take my Book again into your hands ; read it calmly , and understand it .

That which you speak so frequently of Fiat Lux his ignorance , is not altogether amiss : for he pretends not much to learning , although he knows what he sayes . But yet Sir , if you had defied and villified him with less violence , and more seldom , and not so universally in every point of history , language , and philosophy , nor just then when you had least caus , it had been more for your honour . A third part of your Book , which is taken up in talking of my ignorance and other qualities , might well have been spared , had you had arguments to demonstrate it .

And in my minde you too much forget your self , when you recount so often with regret and anger , that som gentlemen of the land should through their own inconsideration , have any liking of a Book which you judg so slight , aiery , vain , fallacious , and simple . As if they had none , and you all the judgment of discerning . Gentlemen , Sir , must be allowed a sens of Religion as well as Ministers ; and their portion of reason must not therfor be less , becaus their Blood is more noble , the company they keep more accomplisht , and their education better . They have the body , although they wear not the Cloak of Religion , and masters they are of their own reason , tho not of yours . This is one difference between Catholik countreys and ours ; that there the Clergy-man is only regarded for his vertue & the power he hath received , or is at least believed to have received from God in the great ministery of our reconciliation . And if he have any addition of learning besides , it is looked upon as a good accidental ornament , but not as any essential complement of his Profession . So that it often happens , without any wonderment at all , that the Gentleman Patron is the learned man , and the Priest his Chaplain of little or no science in comparison . But here in England our Gentlemen are disparaged by their own Black Coats ; and not suffered to use their judgments in any kinde of learning , without a gybe from them . The Gentleman is reasonles , and the scribling Cassock is the only Schollar : he alone must speak all , know all , and only understand .

I cannot but smile to see you turn so dexterously every thing that is said in Fiat Lux , to your own use . His discours of innocence and moderation , gives you occasion to speak , and amply dilate of wars , murders , adulteries , lyes , hypocrisies , villanies : And when he cries , Peace , Peace , it is motive enough for you to cry , Guns and Daggers . You rave and rage against him and the whole earth ; you load your pen and pages with the tyrannies , desolations , disorders have been aforetime in the world , not heeding that you had not so much as heard at this day of any such abuses , if their holy and renowned Clergy-men , who still declaimed against the vices of their times , had not left them upon record ; or so much as considering , that even now in these best times of Reformation are as grand disorders in all kindes as ever were in the worst times of Popish corruption .

Nay there was never any crow or magpie so pecked and cawed upon the back of a sheep , as you do upon Fiat Lux ; and if he do but stir or wag , you threaten , if I understand you right , to peck out his eyes . And all this , because Fiat Lux endeavours to show , that animosities about matters of Religion are groundless , prejudicial to peace and neighbourhood , ruinous , desolatory , endles , and consequently vain , fruitles , and sinful ; ( ther may indeed be som advantage on the Defendants side , which is not in the Plaintiff or Actour , but this at present I am not to take notice of ) nay finally , that they have ever don much harm in Kingdoms , but never good . In all this Sir , you do like your self , you love nois and whirlwinds , and when you hear of Peace , prepare your self to Battle : so ill do you understand the sound of a retreat , or , becaus it suits not with your ends and inclinations , will not .

But all this discours of Fiat Lux , tends , say you , to Popery . A fearful thing , and ungrateful news to Ministers ; for whose foolish , endles , and ungrounded quarrels , we have lately engaged our honour , peace , livelihood , lives , and all that is dear unto us ; and yet we are still , but where we were before we began . Nay , we are ten times farther off from any reconcilement , unity , or satisfaction then before . And such success have all wars ever had , where the alarm was given in the Pulpit . But why must it tend to Popery ? Becaus that Fiat Lux is bold to say , that Popery in its own likenes is not so ugly as we imagin it . Lord ! what a strange thing is this , that either Fiat Lux or any els should presume to say , that we in England , or other Nations may be carried by the reports of som interested men , to think wors of a thing then it may deserv ; especially considering that we com all to Church to hear Gods Words , and there meet with a man , who in the first opening of his lips , cryes , Hearken my Beloved to the word of the Lord ; and so having with that airy honey-comb sweetned the edges of our ears , pours into them afterward what poison of his own conceived interests he pleases ; all which we his dearly beloved let down greedily into our hearts , as that precious word of the Lord which he at first proclaimed . By which fallacies , we have been in the time of these our late wars , so far inveigled , ( I speak to men now alive , who all know I speak true ) that it became then a most dangerous thing , yea , treason it self , to say , God save the King , who was by this our Pulpit rhetorick made as odious then throughout the land , as Popery , what ever it be , ever was or can be . And are not neighbours thus abused daily almost in every thing ? Where is that man , who hath not by such like means been one time or other induced to think amiss , even of his most innocent and dearest friends , till himself by trial found the contrary ? O but God forbid , you will say , that ever we should come by trial to know what Popery is . Sir , may it be far from us , so long as heaven pleases . But i' th interim , what harm can it be to us to mitigate our passions ? which if there be no mistake , are prejudicial notwithstanding to our own peace ; and if a mistake there should be , are double injurious , and desperately sinful before God and man . Oh but mistake there can be none ! Sir , let me tell you roundly . By your own Book of Animadversions I do as clearly see , as ever I beheld Sun in the Firmament , that you do not your self understand what Popery is ; even no more , then the poorest meanest peasant in the Parish . But who is able to make this good and clear unto you ? no body Sir , so long as you are in passion , in a calm of indifferency your very self . Nor could I without that serenity , have been ever able to discern it . But yet , there is one thing more , which will hinder your acknowledgement , although you should come to know it . It is their interest to justifie themselvs , and yours to condemn them .

Had not you with your threats so much frighted me from any thought of writing any more , I could I think my self , who am in your judgement one of the greatest ingrams in the Land , make it yet appear , that the present Popish Religion , if to pleas you they will give me leave to call it so , is not only less ugly then we conceive it , but far more innocent and amiable then I have made it . And , if there were not so much as one Catholik , or Romanist , or Papist upon earth , yet so far am I from any interest herein , that in that judgment I would notwithstanding dy alone . Nor had I set before my eyes any other end in that my Fiat of moderation , against which you write your hot Animadversions , then the peace and welfar of my Countrey , which under the pretended shadow of Popery , inflamed by the alarms of Vicars and their Wives , for whom we fight as it were pro aris & focis , hates and mischiess , strikes and destroyes one another without end . And yet , which is a strange thing , whilst every one conceits himself to fight for Purity of Gospel against Popery , they fight all for Popery against Purity of Gospel . And this you must affirm your self , if you do but remember what in your Book of Animadversions you so frequently assert ; that what good soever the Papists or Roman Catholiks either do or have amongst them , they have and do the same as Christians and not as Papists ; and that Popery is it self nothing els , but pride , interest ambition , tyranny , worldly respects , thirst of blood , affectation of dominion , &c. As I am sure on the other side , that grace , charity , and peace is the pure quintessence of Gospel , and the very extract of true Religion . Either then I had reason to tell you , that you understand not what Popery is ; or if you do , you must needs acknowledge , that those who here in England , betwixt the years of 1640. and 1660. with guns and daggers , as you often phrase it , with field rhetorick and pulpit cannon , subverted all before them , even Church and State too , let them call themselvs Puritans , Independents , Presbyterians , or what they pleas , were all of them by this your own rule , as arch Papists as ever trode upon the earth . Nor is it of concernment , so they have the reality of the thing , whence they may borrow their name ; whether some man upon earth be their Pope , or whether the Devil be himself their ghostly father .

And I fear Sir , you wer your self some part of that dismal tempest ; which in the last years of our woful Anarchy overbore all before it , not only Church and State , but reason , right , honesty , all true Religion , and even good natur too . The very flashings of your pen move me to this thought . The whole physiognomy of your Book speaks the hot and fiery spirit of the Authour . First , you cannot abide to hear of moderation , it is with you most wicked , hypocritical , and devillish , especially as it coms from me . And for this one thing Fiat Lux suffers more from you , then for all the contents of the Book put together . My reason is your passion ; my moderation inflames your wrath ; and you are therfor stark wild , becaus I utter so much of sobriety . Secondly , your so frequent talking of sword and blood , fire and faggot , guns and daggers , do more then show , you have not yet let go those hot and furious imaginations . It is a phrase so ordinary with you , that when another writer of your own judgment would have told me , that my words are false or besides the purpos , or the like , you in a phrase of your own tell me still that I speak guns and daggers . If he mean , say you of me , p 27. that ther is in good works an intrinsecal worth , &c. he speaks daggers , and doth not himself beleev what he sayes . And again , p. 94. For men to come now in the end of the world , and tell us , That we must rest in the autority of the present Church , &c. is to speak daggers and swords to us , upon a confidence that we will suffer our selves to be befoold . So likewise p. 340. He tells us , say you of me , it is good to prefer a Translation before the Originals . What shall we do with those men that speak such swords and daggers , and are well neither full nor fasting . I pray Sir where did you borrow this trope ? had you it from the school of Aristotle , or Mars his camp ?

Thirdly , your prophetick assurance so often inculcated , that if you could but once com to whisper me in the ear , I would plainly acknowledg , either that I understand not my self what I say , or if I do , beleev it not , givs a fair character of those fanatick times , wherin ignorance and hypocrisy prevailed over worth and truth ; wherof if your self wer any part , it is no wonder you should think that I or any man els , should either speak he knows not what , or beleev not , what himself speaks . It was the proper badg of those times , when after the alarm sounded in the Pulpit , that our people therupon went forth in troops to battle , neither did the peasant understand , nor the man in black beleev , although the sound rung generally in their ears , that it was the sword of the Lord and of Gideon , which they brandisht against the loyal band , their foes . Measuring me it seems by your self , you tell me no less than seaven times in your book , that I beleev not , and I think seaventy times , that I understand not what I speak my self . It is a kind of charity in you to think your neighbour is as you know your self to be . But I do not much care for that charity , except you were better than I find you are .

Fourthly , your pert assertion so often occurring in your book , that ther is neither reason , truth , nor honesty in my words , is but the overflowing of that former intemperat zeal : and the more frequent it occurs , the less approbation it will find . Fiftly , your sharp and frequent menaces , that if I write or speak again , I shall hear more , find more , feel more , more to my smart , more than I imagin , more than I would , rellishes too much of that insulting humour our bleeding Land then groaned under , the many years of our anarchical confusion . Sixthly , the absence of your name in the frontispiece of your book , which I have never before observed in all my life of any Protestant writer , that hath ever in my time set forth a book here in England against Popery , givs no small suspicion that the Authour of our Animadversione is no such Protestant as he would be thought to be . Lastly , that I may omit other special reasons , your other general trick of charging me then most of all with fraud , ignonorance , and wickedness , when in your own heart you find me most clear from any such blemish , thereby to put a vail upon your own caus , which would otherways be disparaged , makes me smell a fox , a notorious one . Sic notus Vlysses . This has been too often acted here in England to be soon forgotten . The better the caus , the lowder still was the cry against those who stood for it ; that the blustering nois of calumnies might drown all report of their innocence . And by all this I cannot Sir but suspect , that if the description of Popery your Animadversions givs us be right , you are a Papist your self , and no true Protestant , a notorious Papist . But as it is , so let it be .

Thus much I only tell you , that you may see I am neither neglective of your book , nor idle ; but have perused and read it over . And although what for the threats of your Animadversions , and what for the reasons of my own Fiat , I may not enter into controversie : yet I hope I may let you know that I have seen your work . And that you may the better credit me , I will give you a short account of it , first in general , then in particular . And this is all I mean here to do .

The whole design of Fiat Lux you do utterly mistake , throughout all your book of Animadversions ; so that you conceiv that to be a controversy , which is none ; that to be absolutely asserted , which is but hypothetically discoursed out of the exceptions of other men ; that to be only for one side , which is indifferently for all ; although I speak most for them that are most spoken against , and am in very deed absolutely against all speaking , quarrelling , disputing about Religion . If you will but have patience to hear my purpos and design , which to all men not interested and blinded with a prejudice , is clear enough relucent in the whole context of my Fiat , what I say will easily appear to your self . Fiat Lux sayes one thing , and supposes it ; another thing he desires and aims at : that he dislikes ; this he commends . We are at this day at variance about Religion , this Fiat Lux supposes . But it were better to have peace ; this he aims at and desires . And both these things are intermingled up and down in my book , according to that small faculty that God hath given me , though not according to the usual method that is found now adayes in books . Here Sir in few words you have the summe of my Fiat . And I hope you will grant that to be the scope of my book , which I made it for . That we are now at variance is most clear and certain ; by me supposed , and not to be denied . And that it were better to have peace , is as absolutely expedient , as the other is evidently true . These then being things both of them which no man can resist ; either by denying the one , or disliking the other ; I thought them better intermingled then set apart ; and with more reason to be supposed , then industriously proved . Yet to superinduce a disposition unto peace , my only work was to demonstrate an uselesnes , an endlesnes , an unprofitablenes of quarrels , which I laboured quite through my book ; beginning it with an intimation of our quarrels , which St. Paul calls the fruits and works of the flesh ; and ending it with a commendation of charity , which is the great fruit and blessing of Gods holy Spirit . Now the easier to perswade my Countreymen to a belief both of the one and the other , first is insinuated in Fiat Lux , both the ill grounds and worst effects of feuds ; then is the plea of parties specified ; their probabilities acknowledged ; and lastly an impossibility of ever bringing our debates to a conclusion , either by light or spirit , reason or scriptur texts , so long as we stand separated from any superiour judicative power , unto which all parties will submit , is I think with a strong probability , if not demonstrative evidence concluded . And therfor is it thought by Fiat Lux to be more rational and Christian-like , to leav these endles , groundles , and ruinous contentions , and resign our selvs to humility and peace . This is the design and whole summe of my book . And although I speak up and down , here for Papists , there for Protestants , elswhere for Presbyterians or Independants , commonly out of the very discourses they make for themselvs ; yet do I not defend either their wayes , or their arguments . Nor do I teach any doctrin at all , or hold there any opinion . But I only giv to understand in that one little book , what is largely discoursed in a hundred , That all parties do make out to themselves such a probability , which as it stands joyned with the actours resolution , and separated from any superiour visible power to which they will submit , can never be subdued . And hath not long experience proved this as true as any thing els ? What then is ther in Fiat Lux that can be denied ? Is it not evident that we are now at variance ? and too long indeed have been . Is it not also clear , that peace , charity , and neighbourhood is better then variance , dissention , and wars ? Do not parties strongly plead for themselvs , so far perswaded each one that himself is in the right , that he will not yield , the truth to be with any but himself . Is not all this evident ? I am sure it is ; and all England will witnes it .

And if any one should be able to evince , that any reasonings made in Fiat Lux either for Papists , Protestants , or others , be not certain , or perhaps not probable ; yet he does nothing , except he be able to prove likewise , that they are not probable to Fiat Lux , or to those that use them , whether Protestants or Papists ; which he can no more do , than he can pull a star out of the firmament . I say Sir again , and mark I pray you , what I say . If you should chance to evince that the reasons brought by Fiat Lux either for the doctrin or practises of Papists or others , be either not probable or untrue , yet is your labour all in vain , except you be able to demonstrate likewise , that they are not probable to Fiat Lux , or to Papists and others who use those reasons ; which you can no more do , then any thing that is absolutely impossible . By this time Sir , you may discern how hard it is to deal with Fiat Lux , and impossible to confute him . Sith he speaks nothing , but what is as clearly true and evident , as what we see at mid-day . Nor do I in this any way exalt the ability of the Authour , whom you are pleased so much and frequently to disable . A Tom-fool may say that , which all the wisemen in the world cannot gain-say : as he did , who said the Sun was higher at noon , than any other hour of the day . It was Fiat Lux his fortune rather then chois , to utter words which will no sooner be read , than acknowledged . And it was your misfortune Sir , to employ your greater talents in refuting evident truths ; perhaps for no other reason , but becaus they issued from the pen of a man , who is not so great a friend to faction , as you could wish . And although you proceed very harsh and furiously ; yet am I verily perswaded , you now discern , though too late for your credit , that you had all this while , according to our English proverb , good Mr. Doctor , a wrong sow by the ear . Thus far in general . Now briefly to give you som account in particular .

You spend four Chapters , and a hundred and eighteen pages , which is the fourth part of your book , before you com to the first line and paragraff of mine , The applaus and honour of this world , &c. And it is not unwittily done . For being to be led , as you heavily complain , out of your ordinary road of controversies , by the wilde chase of Fiat Lux , it behoved you to draw som general common places of your own , for your self to walk in , and exercise your rhetorick and anger , before you pursue a bird that flies not , you say , in any usual tract .

Preface from page 1. to page 19.

Your preface , wherin you speak of my subtilty and your own pretence , affords me nothing but the beginning of your own mistake , which will run quite through your book .

1 Chap. from page 19. to 29.

Your first chapter beats me about the pate , for saying that I conceal my method , with a terrible syllogistical dilemma , He that useth no method , say you , cannot conceal it , and if he hath concealed it , he hath used one . But I must pass by store of such doughty stuff , being only fit for the young Oxford Schollar , who being com home to take air , would prove before his father and mother , that two eggs were three . Then going on you deny , that Protestants ever opposed the doctrin and merit of good works ; which at first I wondered at , seeing the sound of it has rung so often in mine own ears , and so many hundred books written in this last age , so apparently witnes it in all places , till I found afterwards in my thorow perusal of your book , that you neither heed what you say , or how much you do deny . But you perhaps love to talk of them better than your fore-fathers did , though your thoughts be all the same . And you will all equally bless your selvs from building of Churches as the Papists have don , however your prattle goes .

2 Chap. from page 29. to 110.

Your second chapter collects out of Fiat Lux , as you say , ten general conclusions , spread all over like veins and arteries , in the body of that my book . And this you do , that you may make your self a campus Martius to sport in , without confinement to my method . But you name not any page of my book , where those principles may all or any of them be found . And you do wifely : For in the sence those words do either naturally make out , or in which you understand them , of all the whole ten I cannot own any one for mine own , set down in my book . The first of my principles must be this , That we received the Gospel first from Rome . In your sence I never spoke this . We , that is , we English first received it thence . But you talk against it , as if I meant that Brittans had it first from Rome . We had it not first from Rome , say you , but by Joseph of Arimathea from Palestin , as Fiat Lux himself acknowledges . Sir , if Fiat Lux say both these things , he cannot mean in your contradictory fals sence , but in his own true one . We , that is , we Englishmen , the now actual inhabitants of this Land , and progeny of the Saxons , received first our Gospel and Christendom from Rome ; though the Brittans who inhabited this Land before us , differing as much from us as Antipodes , had some of them been Christned long before us . And yet the Christendom that prevailed and lasted among the Brittans , even they also as well as we , had it from Rome too : mark this likewise . But you reply , Though persons from Rome did first plant Christianity among the Saxons , was it the Popes Religion they taught ? did the Pope first finde it out ? or did they Baptise in the name of the Pope ? Good Sir , it was the Popes Religion , not invented by him , as your cavil fondly imagines , but owned , professed , and put in practice by him , and from him derived unto us by his missioners . You adde , Did not the Gospel come to Rome as well as to us ? for it was not first preached there . Sir , properly speaking , it came not so to Rome , as it came to us . For one of the twelve fountains , nay two of the thirteen , and those the largest and greatest , was transferred to Rome , which they watered with their blood : we had never any such standing fountain of Christian Religion here , but only a stream derived to us from thence .

My second assertion must be , From whom we first received our Religion , with them we must still abide . This principle as it is never delivered by Fiat Lux , though you put it upon me , so is it in the latitude it carries , and wherin you understand it , absolutely fals , never thought of by me , and indeed impossible . For how can we abide with them in any truth , who may perhaps not abide in it themselvs . Great part of Flanders was first converted by Englishmen , and yet are they not obliged , either by Fiat Lux , or any lux whatsoever , to accompany the English in our now present wayes . If Rome first taught us Christianity , she may then rather plead a power to guide us , than we her . This or some such like thing I might speak , and rationally speak it . But that we or any other should be obliged still to abide or rather to follow them who first taught us Religion , though they should themselvs forsake their own doctrin , as you would make me speak , is a piece of folly never came into my thoughts . And you may be ashamed to put it upon me : Why do you not set down my own words , and the page of my book where I delivered this principle .

My third must be , The Roman Religion is still the same . This also I do no where formally express , nor enter into any such common place : You will say I suppose it . But doth this justifie you who say here , that I assert it as a principle ; let it then be supposed , for I do indeed suppose it , becaus I know it hath been demonstrativly proved a hundred times over . You deny it has bin proved , why do you not then disprove it ? Becaus you decline , say you , all common places . Very good , so do I ; let us com to proper ones . You fall then upon my Queries in the end of my book . The Roman was once a true flourishing Church , and if she ever fell , she must fall either by apostasie , heresie , or schism , &c. So I speak there . And to this you reply , that the Church that then was in the Apostles time , was indeed true , not that Roman Church that now is . So , so ; then say I , that former true Church must fall then , som time or other ; when did she fall , and how did she fall ? by apostacy , heresy , or schism ? Perhaps , say you , neither way : for she might fall by an earthquake . Sir , we speak not here of any casual or natural downfall or death of mortals by plague , famine , or earthquake , but a moral and voluntary laps in faith . What do you speak to me of earthquakes ! You adde therfor the second time , that she might fall by idolatry ; and so neither by apostacy , heresy , or schism . Good Sir , idolatry is a mixt misdemeanour both in faith and manners : I speak of the single one of faith . And he that falls by idolatry , if he keep still some parts of Christianity entire , he falls by heresy ; by apostacy , if he keep none . At last finding your self pusled , in the third place you lay on load ; She fell , say you , by apostacy , idolatry , heresy , schism , licentiousnes , and prophanenes of life . And in this you do , not much unlike the drunken youth , who being bid to hit his masters finger with his , when he perceived he could not do it , he ran his whole fist against it . But did she fall by apostacy ? By a partial one , say you , not a total one . Good Sir , in this division , apostasy is set to expres a total relaps ; in opposition to heresy , which is the partial . Did she then fall by heresy , or partial apostasy , in adhering to any error in faith , contary to the approved doctrin of the Church ? Here you smile seriously , and tell me , that since I take the Roman and Catholik Church to be one , she could not indeed adhere to any thing but what she did adhere unto . Sir I take them indeed to be one ; but here I speak ad hominem , to one that does not take them so . And then , if indeed the Roman Church had ever swerved in faith , as you say she has , and be her self but as another ordinary particular Church , as you say she is ; then might you find som one or other more general Church , if any ther were , possitively to judg her ; som Oecumenical councel to condemn her ; som fathers either greek or latin , expresly to write against her , as Protestants now do ; som or other grave solemn autority to censur her ; or at least som company of beleevers out of whose body she went , and from whose faith she fell . Since you are no wayes able to assign any of these particulars , my Query remains unanswered , and the Roman still as flourishing a Church , as ever she was .

The fourth assertion , frequently , say you , pleaded by our Authour is ; that all things as to religion were ever quiet and in peace , before the Protestants relinquishment of the Roman Sea . This principle you pretend is drawn out of Fiat Lux , not becaus it is there ; but only to open a door for your self , to expatiate into som wide general discours , about the many wars , distractions , and factious altercations , that have been aforetime up and down the world , in som several ages of Christianity : And you therfor say it is frequently pleaded by me , becaus indeed I never speak one word of it . And it is in truth a fals and fond assertion . Though neither you nor I can deny , that such as keep unity of faith with that Church , can never so long as they hold it , fall out upon that account . If you had either cited the place , or set down my own words , they would have spoke their meaning . I might say perhaps , that our Land had no part of those disturbances upon the account of religion all the thousand years it was Catholik , which it hath suffered in one age since , or the like . But that all things should ever be at quiet throughout the world , that ther should no heresies rise , no seditions , no wars any where ; this is a fansy that was never in my head ; and I wonder how it should drop into my paper . But you are a martial man , and resolved to bring me in with pikes and guns , as the red-coat souldiers did the Cavaliers in the time of our late anarchy , to suffer not only for the good they acted , but for the ill they never thought of .

Fift must be , that the first reformers were most of them contemptible persons , their means indirect , and ends sinister . Where is it Sir , where is it , that I meddle with any mens persons , or say they are contemptible , or their means indirect , or ends sinister ? Where do I say all this ? Do I speak any word of Reformers of Religion in general , as you make me to do . But this you adde of your own , in a vast universal notion , to the end you may bring in the apostles and prophets , and kings , into the list of persons by me surnamed contemptible , and liken my speech , who never speak any such thing , to the sarcasms of Celsus , Lucian , Porphiry , Julian , and other Pagans .

So likewise in the very beginning of this your second chapter you spend four leaves in a parallel betwixt me and the pagan Celsus , wherof ther is not any one member of it true . Doth Fiat Lux , say you , lay the caus of all the troubles , disorders , tumults , wars within the nations of Europe upon the Protestants ? Doth he charg the Protestants , that by their schisms and seditions they make a way for other revolts ? doth he gather a rapsody of insignificant words ? doth he insist upon their divisions ? doth he mannage the argument of the Jews against Christ , &c. So doth Celsus , who is confuted by learned Origen , &c. Where does Fiat Lux , where does he , does he , does he any such thing ? Are you not ashamed to talk at this rate ? I give a hint indeed of the divisions that be amongst us , and the frequent argumentations that are made to embroil and pusle one another , with our much evil , and little appearance of any good , in order to unity and peace , which is the end of my discours . But must I therfor be Celsus ? Did Celsus do any such thing to such an end ? It is the end that moralises and specifies the action . To diminish Christianity by upbraiding our frailties is paganish : to exhort to unity by representing the inconvenience of faction , is a Christian and pious work . When honest Protestants in the Pulpit speak ten times more full and vehemently against the divisions , wars , and contentions that be amongst us , than ever came into my thoughts ; must they therfor be , every one of them a Celsus , a pagan Celsus ? what stuff is this ! But it is not only my defamation you aim at , your own glory coms in the reer . If I be Celsus , the pagan Celsus ; then must you forsooth be Origen that wrote against him , honest Origen . That is the thing . Pray Sir , it is but a word , let me me advise you by the way , that you do not forget your self in your heat , and give your wife occasion to fall out with you . However you may , yet will not she like it perhaps so well , that her husband should be Origen .