Fair-Play on both sides: OR, The surest way to HEAVEN.
DISCOVERED IN A DISPUTE BETWEEN A Roman-Catholic, AND A PROTESTANT.
LONDON,
Printed for
Richard Head,
at the
Heart
and
Bible
in
Little-Britain,
1666.
To my much esteemed Friend, Mr.
J. L.
YOU will wonder, I am sure (considering my profession) to see me become a Poet. And indeed I do almost marvel at myself, knowing myself to want the two principal furtherances of Poetry;
the one is Natures instinct,
which God in his holy providence hath denied me: the other is,
A certain retired freedom from all such businesses which may breed destraction;
which my public calling, besides private encomberances, will not afford me. Yet notwithstanding, upon this present occasion, I have even forced myself to this strait
•
r course of verse-making; though I know, that for my own ease (having to deal in such a distempered and unruly subject) that less limited, and freer kind of discourse, which Prose alloweth, had been more convenient, because the Rules of Cadence & number (to which our English Poetry specially is confined) do many times so straighten an unaccustomed Practitioner, that he is in hazard, either of obscuring the sense (which in a matter of this nature were something dangerous) or of marring the Verse (which to the apprehension of every common conceit, were very ridiculous.) But howsoever I have erred in the carriage of this Verse, I hope, to you and to others, whose favor, either because of their judgment, or their honesty, I desire, this shall excuse me; that meeting with our common Adversary (who appeareth sometime in shape of a Statesman, debating of Titles, and common-wealth affairs,
sometime as a Petitioner to the King and Parliament,
sometime as a plausible Perswader,
sometime as a restorer of the holy Text, to the native purity thereof
sometime as a man of a very tender conscience, giving reasons why he cannot come to our Assemblies,
sometime as a Raylor at our Government, and an approver of our open enemies
that I say, meeting with this time-serving
Proteus,
in the fashion of a Rimer or Balladins,
and crept in
(as the manner of false Brethren 1 is)
into
•
oth the ha
•…
and
〈…〉
simple seduced;
I have endeavored to make
〈…〉
like the Lips
(as the Proverb is)
〈…〉
sing, to
〈◊〉
I am sure (without willful forsaking the plain truth of God,
〈…〉
I shall
〈…〉
The service it
〈…〉
here
〈…〉
by
〈…〉
,
is
〈…〉
though
〈◊〉
say the truth it
〈…〉
through
〈…〉
yet set forth after any good or
〈…〉
but it is even
〈…〉
of certain
〈…〉
egations (as to there the
•
avings and scraps of
〈◊〉
other
〈…〉
order or proof
〈…〉
word of
〈…〉
than Or
•
. Belike, the
〈…〉
rough for those for whom it was provided, as
〈◊〉
it is for those
which turn their ears from the Truth, and are given unto fables:
and by some, upon my knowledge (to whom
〈◊〉
me,
God hath sent strong delusions, that they should believe
〈◊〉
)
it is highly magnified, as a special preservative against supposed Heresy, and as a well-framed Sconce, which none of us all is able to overthrow.
In regard whereof, knowing myself
〈…〉
others,
to contend earnestly for the maintenance
〈…〉
;
I have undertaken this which you here see, For my desire and true intent therein, it is best known
to him which seeth in
〈◊〉
,
and in his due time
will make the counsels of all hearts manifest.
Touching the thing itself, how it is, and how well it is, I submit it to the sensure of the godly-wise, praying them, that with their favorable (if not allowance, yet at least) connivance, it may pass to the use of those, to whom it is intended: And among others, I have directed it especially to you, in part of recompense for a great deal of kindness entreating you to entertain
〈◊〉
with the like measure of Love; wherein it is offered. And so
•…
ching God
to fill you with the fruits of Righteousness
, I command you to his grace in Christ Jesus.
Your loving Friend, SAM. HIERON.
Modbury,
Aug. 20. 1604.
FAIR PLAY:
Or a Dispute between a PROTESTANT and a ROMAN-CATHOLICK.
Wherein the true Religion is made clear to the meanest capacity.
Roman Catholic's
Preface.
I Pray thee,
Protestant,
bear with me,
To ask thee Questions two or three:
And if an answer thou canst make,
More of thy counsel I will take.
Many sundry Sects appear,
Now in the world far and near,
The
Calvinist,
the
Protestant,
The
Zwinglian,
the
Puritant,
The
Brownest,
and the
Family of Love,
And many more which I can prove,
And the
Roman
Faith truly,
Which you call
Papistry.
And everyone confess
Jesu,
Saying that their Faith is true:
But amongst these, tell me how
The
Truth
from feigned lies to know.
All these in very deed,
Reherse all Articles in the Creed;
And everyone of them saith,
That theirs is the
Catholic Faith:
But this it is that I do seek,
To know the Church
Catholic,
The Communion or Company
Of holy men in Unity.
Protestants
Answer.
His Preface.
I May not
(Papist)
suffer thee,
Because thy Questions idle be:
And if my Counsel thou wilt take,
Then hear the answer I will make.
Thou tell'st of Sects that do appear,
And seemest the truth glad to inquire:
But even in this I malice smell,
And see thy spiteful meaning well.
When thou these divers Sects dost name,
Thou wouldst thereby our Church defame
And make fools think that we them loved,
When as with us th' are not approved.
We do not hang on
Clavins
sleeve,
Nor yet on
Zwinglius
we believe:
And
Puritans
we do desie,
If right the name you do apply.
All giddy Sects among us crept,
We wish out of our Church were swept:
No name do we delight in more,
Then that at
Antioch
given of yore.
But now what Sects you
Papists
have,
I do but thy own witness crave:
Some
Capucines,
some
Franciscans,
And some be called
Dominicans:
Some
Jesuits,
some
Seculars,
Some
gray,
some
black,
some
white Friars:
And that your store may not be spent,
New Locusts still from Hell are sent.
Thou sayest, thou would the Church find out:
So that I see thou art in doubt:
And so indeed Uncertainty
Is still the fruit of
Popery.
Popish Rime.
Catholic.
IN your Bible I have read,
The Church must through the world be spread:
For Christ he his Apostles sent,
With Power and Commandment,
That to all Nations they should go,
To Preach, and to Baptize also.
Who hath done this? to know I wish:
For that is sure the Church of Christ.
And for example, let me know,
And if thou canst, I pray thee show,
What Church did take in hand
The first conversion of this Land.
And all other Countries everywhere,
Throughout the world far and near;
If this were not the Church of
Rome,
Then will I be converted soon.
Saint
Paul
in his Epistle saith,
The
Romans
had the
Catholic
Faith,
Saying it was renowned,
Spoken of, or published,
Through the world over all,
Catholic, Universal:
And if your Churches were even so
Then to your Churches I would go.
Protestants Answer.
Catholic.
IN our Bible thou hast read:
'It is well in ours, for yours is fled,
And lurketh in a tongue unus'd,
Whereby poor people are abused.
The Church is Catholic, as you say,
And so say we: but why
I pray?
Because to it, it were disgrace,
To limit it to time or place.
It ever was, and so shall be,
Since Christ, excluding no degree:
It once was tied unto the
Jews,
But now no place
it doth refuse.
It is a very fond surmise,
Which you the
Papist
do devise,
To shut the Church within
Rome's
wall,
And yet to call it general.
The very name which you pretend,
Whereby your Church you would defend,
To all which do the meaning know,
Doth quite your fancy overthrow.
You say, the charge, which Christ once gave,
The
Romists
well performed have:
But mark how thou thyself dost hurt,
And lay
Rome's
honor in the dirt.
That charge
was given first to them,
Which lived at
Jerusalem,
And thence the Gospel issued out,
As
Isaiah
told
the world throughout.
By them the Nations turned were,
And thence of Christ
Rome
first did hear:
Yet now the place
which others called,
To
Turkish
Empire is enthrall'd.
So thoughit were true, which is not so,
And never shall be proved I know,
That
Rome
to Christ the Nations brought,
Yet this your reason were stark naught.
But now (perhaps)
Rome
doth, you will say,
Bring home the wanderers to the way.
Indeed the
Spaniards
loving Gold,
Have brought the
Indians
to your fold.
The Frogs from
Euphrates
came out,
I mean, the
Jesuited
Rout,
Do spread themselves in each country,
To draw men to disloyalty.
They counsel Subjects kill their Kings,
Stabbings they use, and poysonings.
Christ gave no such commandment,
When first he his Disciples sent.
Of this conversion if you boast,
Whereby poor souls, Hell hath engrost,
I yield it you full willingly,
It well agrees with
Popery.
To draw Disciples is no mark,
For so doth many a feigned Clark.
The Church to truth which doth convert,
We do embrace with all our heart.
Thou sayst,
Rome's
Faith once over all
The world was famous (so saith
Paul
)
And
Rome
did first convert our Land,
And hereupon you greatly stand.
Rome's
faith indeed once bare the bell,
And so it did deserve it well:
But
Rome's
not now as heretofore;
That faithful City's made a Whore.
If new
Rome
now, were as the old,
Then we with
Romanists
would hold.
If
Rome
become Christ's enemy,
Then we from
Babylon
must fly.
To say that
Rome
is therefore sound,
Because of old it was renownd,
It may a
Papist
satisfy:
But men of judgment it deny.
Paul
never
Rome
did magnify,
As he did those of
Thessaly:
Yet now that Church is clean defacit,
And there the
Turk
himself hath placit.
The
Asian
Churches,
famous once,
Are turned to a heap of stones.
The golden lights
of Saint
Johns
age,
Are now become even Satan's cage.
Prove thou, that
Rome
hath not declind
From th' ancient Church by
Paul's
resind:
And then I will say, thou hast done more
Then ever
Papist
did before.
But for first turning of our Nation,
I trow thou nam'st it but for fashion:
For they that look in History,
Thereof can find no certainty.
Simon Zealots,
as some say
Did first Christ's Gospel here display,
Even whilst that Emperor did reign,
By whom our Savior Christ was slain.
Some say, that he of
Arimathy
In the year of grace sixty three,
From
France
by
Philip
was sent over,
To us the faith for to discover.
Hereto agreeth a learned man,
That ancient Clark
Tertullian,
That by th' Apostles, Britany
Was turned to Christianity.
As his Epistle plain did show
Unto King
Lucius
hither sent,
Ere
Ethelbert
was king of Kent.
We hold the faith that then was taught,
But you the same do set at naught:
When
Rome
the
Truth
doth once forsake,
Then we of
Rome
our leaves must take.
If that our Church were
Catholic,
To come to Church thou wouldst not stick.
If of the word thou knewst the sense,
Thou soon wouldest leave that fond pretence.
Our Church that truth doth firm embrace,
Which all those hold in every place,
Who leaving men's traditions clean,
Upon the Scriptures only lean.
Popish Rime.
Prophets.
SO saith the Prophet
Malachi,
There should be offered far and nigh,
A clean Oblation or Sacrifice
From place where now the Sun doth rise,
To the going down of the same:
And what is that, I pray thee name?
If it be not the holy Mass,
I will be a
Protestant
as I was.
In the eighteenth Psalm I found,
The whole world should hear their sound:
And if this mark you do not want,
Presently I will recant.
Protestants Answer.
Prophets.
THou cit'st a text of
Malachi,
Hoping to prove thy Mass thereby,
Alas, the reason is but small,
And helps that Idol not at all.
In it God threateneth the
Jews,
Who their great privilege did abuse,
And thought the Lord was tied to them,
And unto their
Jerusalem.
The Prophet tells, that God elsewhere
Will find out those, which shall him fear,
And in an order without blame,
Shall call upon his holy Name.
Speaking to their capacity,
The Legal terms he doth apply:
And calls our Gospel like Service,
A pure and spotless
Sacrifice.
What ground is here then for the Mass?
It still remaineth, as it was,
A gross device, defaming Christ,
Who is our true and only Priest.
The speech of
David
of the Skies,
Into the Apostles,
Paul
applies,
And saith, their sound went far and near,
As in the stories doth appear.
Tell me, I pray, what good to you,
This place you have alleged can do?
It maketh naught for
Popery,
Or for your idle trumpery.
Indeed the infamous Fame is spread,
Of
Antichrist
your hideous head,
And all God's Children him do see,
The man of sin
alone to be.
Th'
Apostles
Faith was far dispersed,
And here in
England
was rehearst.
•
ith then our Doctrine is the same,
•
o it belongs part of their fame.
Popish Rime.
Continuance.
THis is another mark most sure,
The Faith of Christ must still endure,
According as our Savior said,
When for Saint
Peter
he had prayed;
Simon,
thy faith shall never fail,
The gates of Hell shall not prevail,
The holy Ghost your comforter,
Shall remain with you forever.
And I myself, your surest friend,
Will be with you unto the end.
Saint
Paul
hath the like speech,
There shall be always men to preach:
Apostles
Doctors, and the like,
In the Church Catholic:
If this be not the Church of
Rome
Then will I be converted soon.
Protestants Answer.
Continuance.
YOu say, Christ's faith must still endure,
I yield that nothing is more sure:
And always God a Church will have,
Though thereat Satan rage and rave,
It glads my heart, that Christ hath prayed;
Thereby I know my Faith is staid:
The comfort of God's holy Sp'rit,
Is each good Christians sole delight.
This proves, there still a Church shall be,
And herein thou and I agree:
To prove the Church tied to one Sea,
Requireth yet a better Plea.
The Faith of Christ may still abide,
Though
Rome
should into
Tibur
slide:
God's Spirit is free, and is not bound
Within the lists of
Romish
ground.
When thou canst prove by holy writ,
Christ's Faith to
Rome
by charter knit,
Then shall thy tale some credit find,
Where now it turneth all to wind.
But yet continuance is a Note
Of God's true Church: and
Paul
hath wro
•…
That there should still some teachers be:
In some we this fulfilled see.
I say, continuance is no sign,
To prove a Church to be divine;
We may not think each Doctrine sure,
Which doth for many years endure.
Must not the tares be let to grow,
Till it be time the corn to mow?
And Antichrist shall long time stay,
Even till the very Judgment day.
The
Arian
heresy years did stand,
Two hundred more than one thousand:
And so since
Mahomet
first was seen,
A thousand years have numbered been.
Rome's
name endures, but
Rome
is changed,
And hath from Christ itself estrang'd:
Quit thou
Rome
from Apostasy,
Or name not Perpetuity.
Paul's
words do prove,
that certainly
The Church shall have a Ministry:
And that there shall be some to feed
The Flock of Christ at every need:
But that these Pastors here or there,
Shall always fit in beauty clear,
This fond conceit, not one more word,
The holy Scripture doth afford.
Indeed in Rome there divers be,
That bear the name of
Prelacie:
Better we
Pilate's
may them call,
Seeking the Churches Funeral.
You call your
Pope
a Shepherd great;
But where is his Spiritual meat?
I do not hear that he doth preach:
That would his greatness much impeach.
Such are his carnal
Cardinals,
Or rather bloody
Cannibals.
They eat the fat, and skin the Flock,
And live upon the Churches stock.
An idle sign, a Shepherds Crook
In hand they bear
but cannot brook
To preach the Word (a Pastors grace)
That duty fits not their high place.
The key of knowledge they withdraw,
And from God's people steal
God's Law,
And men's devices
on them thrust,
Making them unto fancies trust.
These are
Rome's
Pastors: woeful sheep,
Which left are to the Wolves to keep.
Thou Shepherd great and Bishop chief,
Come quickly
quell this
Romish
thief.
Papists Rime.
Visible.
ANother mark there is most clear,
The Church of God must still appear,
Seen and continue still,
As a light on a Candlestick,
So is the Church
Catholic:
Our Savior saith, if one offend,
And will not be ruled by his friend,
Tell all the Church without delay:
And if he will not then obey,
Do thou esteem such a man,
An
Heathen
or a
Publican.
Is not that the Church, wherein we see
Two hundred Bishops thirty three,
To have succeeded each other,
Since the time of Saint
Peter.
Shew me this mark in you,
And I will say your faith is true:
If this be not in the faith of
Rome,
Then will I be converted soon.
Protestants Answer.
Visible.
THou tell'st a tale incredible,
How that God's Church is visible:
And by the Bishops Catalogue,
Wouldst prove the
Romish
Synagogue.
The errors here together lapped,
By which the simple are entrapt,
All which your feigned
Church
doth hold,
I mean in order to unfold.
The
Catholic Church
defined aright,
Cannot be subject to our sight:
It is th' Elected company,
And
Christ
his chosen Family.
Of this, one part in Heaven lives,
The other here with Satan strives,
The part above (you will not deny)
With mortal eyes none can descry.
The same is true of that below,
It is unseen by us also:
How with mine eyes I might discern.
And see th Elect fain would I learn.
Upon their persons we may look,
Whose names are written in God's Book:
But as for their Spiritual being,
It is a thing doth pass our seeing.
Parts of
Christ's Church,
you Papists make
Even those whom God will quite forsake:
Which if the matter be well scand,
Cannot with any Scripture stand.
Of the true
Church Christ
is the head,
In him can be no member dead:
His
Church
a Garden,
closed well,
In which no Reprobates can dwell,
So that, if fitly we will speak,
The ground you lay is very weak:
In calling it a mark most clear,
That God's true
Church
must still appear.
Of
Churches
named in several,
In
Cities,
or else National,
We yield sometime they may be seen,
Though sometime they are darkened clean.
Sometime the Moon with cheerful light,
Shines in the height of Heaven bright:
Sometimes with clouds 'tis overspred,
And in the Wane clean vanished.
So is the Church in safety still,
Although not always visible:
Sometimes it sits in glory great,
Sometime it hath no certain seat.
The Woman, which to Desert fled,
From Satan's rage to hide her head,
By all the learnedst full consent,
The Church on earth doth represent.
The famous Church of
Israel,
Where God did promise still to dwell,
Was drowned so in Idolatry,
And superstitious slavery,
That all true worship being gone,
Elias
thought himself alone:
And when Christ comes to judge us all,
Then faith on earth shall be but small.
How is the Church a City then,
Rais'd on a mount, and seen of men?
And how a light set up on high,
That all that will may it espy?
How shall we to the Church complain,
If of the Church no show remain?
This is thy
Popish
reasoning,
And Scriptures plain misconstruing.
Christ doth th' Apostles counsel give,
Soundly to preach, and well to live,
Because their places were in sight,
And 'twas their Office to give light.
They erring many might mislead,
Which in their steps might hap to tread:
If that their Doctrine were unsound,
In falsehood many might be drowned.
It was in vain for them to ween,
In doing ill not to be seen:
You are (saith Christ) upon a Mount,
To be well markit make full account.
This shows wherein our duty stands,
And what God looks for at our hands,
Who called are to the Ministry,
To labor in God's Husbandry.
But from hence how may proved be
The Churches visibility?
This place affords a slender proof,
And little for the
Popes
behoof.
Yet you perhaps will urge it still,
The Pastors are set on a hill,
And called Light: even so say I,
But all men can them not descry.
For those which want spiritual eyes,
Nor are by searching
Scripture-wise
This mounted City cannot see,
Nor where these lightsome Pastors be.
Christ bids us we the Church should tell,
If things be not reformed well:
By Church, he means all such as be
These Office-bearers all men see,
In times of settled Sovereignty:
Yea, and among themselves th' are known,
When th' outward state is overthrown.
When that was said in special,
You turn to Church in general:
Thereby you may deceive some fools;
But soon it will be seen in Schools.
This argument of outward state,
Which for a mark you intimate,
Against that thing doth strongly make,
Which you to prove do undertake.
Rome's
state hath sometimes been obscured,
And hath disgraces foul endured:
Burnt
sacked
some
Popes
imprisoned,
Some glad to fly
some banished;
Where did your glorious Church abide,
When
Popes
were glad themselves to hide?
Peace, peace, no more of this for shame:
Rome
saith you will her clean defame.
Succession cometh next in place,
Whereby thou seek'st thy Church to grace:
Your turn Succession cannot serve,
If from the Truth Succession swerve.
The
Jewish Church
from
Aaron,
A just descent might stand upon,
Even when they crucified our Lord:
And hated all that loved his Word.
If we shall say, that
Church
was true,
Consisting of so vile a crew,
We cast
Christ
and the Apostles out,
Among the base and damned rout.
The
Grecian Churches
at this day,
For their defense as much can say:
Yet you of them do give this doom,
That in God's
Church
they have no room.
Yet if Succession were a sign,
Which your grand
Captain Bellarmine
Dares not avouch,
I fain would see,
How
Rome
can prove her pedigree.
You call your
Church
Saint
Peters Chair,
As though the
Pope
were
Peters
Heir:
But if that ground we once deny,
What
Papist
can it verify?
You cannot prove by holy Writ,
Peter
at
Rome
did Bishop sit:
The only place which you do name,
Returneth to your greatest shame.
The things you fetch from History,
Touching this point, do not agree,
And what our part hath herein sed,
By
Papists
stands unanswered.
But if he Bishop were indeed,
Tell me who next did him succeed:
Some
Clement
and some,
Linus
hold.
Thus your succession is controlled.
Once was a
Pope
supposed a man,
But proved in time a
Curtezan.
Then either your Succession shrank,
Or you must put her in the rank.
When
Popes
there were, some 2.
or 3.
Where then might your succession be?
One Schism held almost forty year,
Pope
against
Pope,
as doth appear.
One Council
did these
Popes
put down,
And to another gave the Crown:
When these false
Popes
the place possessed,
I think you will say Succession ceased.
Popish Rime.
Unity.
ANother mark there is truly,
The Church must have Unity,
As our Savior hath foretold,
One Shepherd and one fold:
One is my Spouse, one is my Love,
One is my Darling and my Dove.
This is his Spouse, and at some time,
He doth resemble it to a Vine:
His Father is the Husbandman,
A Branch is every Christian.
This is his Body Mystical,
The which he doth his Kingdom call:
Whereof Saint
Peter
had the Keys,
And his Successors have always:
And likewise Saint
Paul
saith,
One Baptism, and one Faith.
And one Lord Jesu:
Have no dissention among you.
If this be not the Church of Rome,
Then will I be converted soon.
Protestants Answer.
Unity.
TIs true, Christ's Church is always one,
Ty'd unto him as head alone:
The parts thereof do well agree,
Like Children of one Family.
But yet not every company,
Together linkit in Unity,
Must by and by be called good,
If truth by them shall be withstood.
To make a Calf they all agree'd,
All cried,
Let Christ be Crucifi'd:
Great is Diana,
with a shout,
At once the people all cried out.
John
said, they should yield to the Beast,
Even from the greatest to the least.
As Christ his City is but one,
So is the Devils
Babylon,
The best sometimes do disagree,
Each man hath his infirmity:
Better the discord bringing light,
Then is agreement without right.
Yet by this mark, if
Rome
be tried,
It will fall hard upon your side:
Your joint-consent, we cannot find,
Nor that you all are of one mind.
If we shall credit History,
You cannot brag of Unity:
Where twenty several Schisms have been
What harmony may there be seen?
The laws which one determineth,
The
Pope
that follows cancelleth:
Yet things by him abolished,
By next
Popes
are established.
And yet another
comes behind,
Who with the former fault doth find,
And all which they did quite displace,
Reduceth to the former grace.
Thus one sage Council doth decree,
Another saith it may not be:
That which one Sect
or Author likes,
The same another clean out-strikes.
I know you Papists do agree
To work the Churches misery:
So
Herod
was made
Pilate's
friend,
To bring our Savior to his end.
Some yield, as fearing to resist,
(Such is the power of Antichrist)
You may not call this Unity,
But rather public Tyranny.
Some join, because they do not see
The very depth of Popery:
To build upon the Church Belief,
Of Lay Religion is the brief.
Some for their ease and Bellies sake,
Do to your Church themselves betake:
As Monks, and such as loytring love,
Whom none but
Romists
can approve.
This is your Romish Concordance,
Among yourselves at variance:
Though all for some respects are led,
To meet together in one
Head.
In one point more, I needs must stay,
Though named of you but by the way;
Lest with a phrase of
Peter
's Keys,
You dazzle should the Peoples eyes.
By Keys, is meant the power to preach,
And in God's truth the Church to teach:
By it
Heaven's opened to receive
All those which truly do believe.
It is the power to loose and tie,
Which Christ gave to the Ministry;
It was intended unto all,
Though spoke to one in several.
When to Believers we give Hope,
Then is the Gate of Heaven set ope:
When Mercies Promise is repealed,
Then by the Keys that Gate is sealed.
When
Peter
did his Faith confess,
Th' Apostles (by) did mean no less:
And that which Christ to
Peter
spake,
We may not from the other take.
Each true and faithful Minister,
Is
Peter
's rightful Successor:
Then speak no more of
Peter
's Keys,
Except th' art sworn the Pope to please.
Popish Rime.
Holy.
THis you say in very deed,
When you rehearse the Holy Creed,
One Church Catholic,
Holy and Apostolic.
This is another mark truly,
The Church of God must be holy:
Holy Men, Holy Service,
Ceremonies, Sacrifice:
Sacraments and holy Days,
Are observed in her always:
As for the Saints and Martyrs all,
And Virgins, which you Saints do call,
I ask you when they lived, and where,
Whose names are in your Calendar?
In what Religion they died,
By whom they were Canonized?
Prove that these agree with you;
And I will say your Faith is true:
If they were not your Company,
Then is your Faith an Heresy.
Protestants Answer.
Holy.
THou sayst the Church we Holy call,
And so we do acknowledge all:
What in the Creed our Mouths confess,
Our Hearts within believe no less.
The Purity, decayed before,
Unto his Church Christ doth restore.
That which is here in less degree,
The same in Heaven shall perfect be.
If thou knew'st
Rome's
Impurity,
Thou wouldest nor brag of Sanctity:
A sink of Sin, a Sea of Evil,
A place possessed of the Devil.
Your Popes bear Names of Holiness,
But none more full of Wickedness:
Let Stories speak, inquire of them,
What Popes have worn the Diadem:
Some
Heretics,
some
Murderers,
Incestuous
some,
some
Sorcerers:
Some noted for their
cruelty,
Some for their
monstrous Blasphemy.
One Pope
a famous Lemman kept,
Whose Bastard to the Popedom crept:
Another granted liberty
To practice beastly Sodomy.
Who but the Pope receiveth Rent,
Which from the Stews to him is sent?
Let
Rome
and
Venice
make Report,
And all that thither do resort.
Who hath in Metre vile expressed
The sin which Nature doth detest?
Let
Beneventum
name the man:
Do thou disprove it, if thou can.
If this among your
Heads
be found,
How shall we think the
Members
sound?
Lord, bless us from such holy Popes;
And, Lord, make void all Popish Hopes.
Like to your Popes your Service is,
Wanting no store of blasphemies:
Which, lest the People should espy,
You hide in Latin secrecy.
I need no better Witnesses
Then your allowed Portesses,
Your Missals, and your Litanies,
And all your forged Psalteries.
What we to God alone must give,
That to the Saints you do derive:
God will not from his Glory part,
Yet you to Creatures it convert:
Unto the Saints you prayers make,
And beg Salvation for their sake:
You do adore a piece of Bread,
And make fond
prayers for the dead.
You kneel down to a Cross of Wood,
Thinking thereby to purchase good:
And for some things you would have done,
You pray the Virgin charge her Son.
With Christ you do Saint
Francis
join,
And so his Glory do purloyn:
You have join'd with him many mo:
We do the Virgin Blessed call,
And say she passed Women all:
But when you call her
Gate of Grace,
We say Christ's honor you deface.
The thing that made her Spirit glad,
Was, that she such a Savior had:
Can she on him commandment have,
Whose help she needed her to save?
This honor to the Saints we give,
We crave God's grace like them to live:
We care to keep their memory,
And God in them we glorify.
And favor most of vanity:
You stand so much on outward show,
That you the substance overthrow.
With Images and Pictures gay,
You steal the Peoples hearts away:
Well may you please the outward eye,
The spirit you do not edify.
A pretty play, to see a Priest
Tossing his God between his fist:
Such gestures, and such apish mowes,
Such warbling, and such antick shows;
Now bends, now ducks, now stands upright,
Then turns him to the Peoples sight:
Now sighs, now twenty Crosses makes,
And ore his head the Wafer shakes:
Then washeth, then the Chalice licks,
And shuts his Idol in the Pix:
But still the man is much afeard,
Lest ought should hang upon his Beard.
Mean while the Vulgar in a maze,
Upon the Caky Idol gaze,
And knock and kneel, and think them well,
That they have heard the sacring Bell.
Tell me, I pray thee, doth God will,
With such fond Rites his Church to fill?
They never came into his thought;
Tradition only hath them brought.
Your Rites and Mass do well agree,
Both full of gross Idolatry:
Both are unholy and unsound,
Both wanting holy Scripture-ground.
You say that in the Eucharist,
To God is offered by the Priest,
A Sacrifice in Wine and Bread,
Both for the living and the dead.
Look first what Christ did institute,
And that one place shall you refute:
What he did, we must do likewise;
There's no word of a Sacrifice.
By this
(said Christ)
Remember me:
That shows he would not present be:
We keep such things in memory,
Which we behold not really.
The Priests of old did every day
Some Off'ring on the Altar lay.
Christ's holy Off'ring is but one,
Performed by himself alone.
If Christ shall often offered be,
We shall his sufferings multiply:
As on the Cross he died not twice,
So there's no second Sacrifice:
There's now no sacrificing, Priest,
That Office rested upon Christ:
It comes to none successively,
'It is his for all Eternity.
How can a Mass a pardon bring,
Since 'tis a bloodless Offering?
Christ hath procured Remission:
What needs a new Oblation?
See then your holy Sacrifice,
A thing without all warrantize:
Of Scriptures, or of Writers sage,
Which lived in the purest Age.
The Sacraments
in number twain,
You eekit have with a longer train:
The seven-headed
Romish Beast,
The two to seven hath increased.
Both Baptism,
and that holy feast,
Commanded are by Christ's beheast:
Shew me but one commandment
To prove another Sacrament.
Two in the Old,
two in the New,
So shall we have proportion true:
Name what in th' ancient
Liturgy,
Your five false Symboles do supply.
Those Sacraments which holy be,
You stained have with your Pedlary:
In Baptism, Oil, Lights, Spittle, Cream,
Your Exorcism, and conjur'd Stream;
Were these invented by God's Spirit?
Or found you them in holy Writ?
Whence had you all that rituous store
Us'd in the Mass, and named before?
You speak next of
Festivities,
And holy-day Solemnities:
Thou thinkest by this, with easiness
To prove thy Churches holiness.
Truth is, men's Conscience you enthral,
To many an idle Festival:
You'll have them be as strictly kept,
As God's own day by his precept.
Of feasts, some low, some higher be,
Some great, some lesser in degree:
Some double more, some double less,
A treble fault some to transgress.
So with your doubling and redoubling style,
The simple People you beguile:
The Lord is weary of your feasts,
And likes not your devised rests:
All days are like in holiness,
None holy more, none holy less.
Paul
thought his labor was in vain,
Where days distinctions did remain.
Thou hop'st to put us in some fear,
With speaking of the Kalendar:
Thou ask'st what Faith all those did hold,
Whose Names are found therein enroll'd?
I tell thee plain, 'tis naught to me
What many a one there named, might be:
My faith's not so set on the rack,
To seek strength from the Almanac.
Yet sure I am, what we profess,
Some that are there, believed no less:
Our Faith and theirs doth well agree,
And you with them at variance be.
You Churches make, and holy days
Unto the Saints and Martyrs praise:
But us which do believe the same,
You seek to kill, and to defame.
Thou ask'st who them canonized,
Whose names are there enregistred?
You say the Pope: I ask again,
Wilt thou that sainting power maintain?
Can any mortal Creature tell,
Who goes to Heaven, and who to Hell?
All judgment
Paul
bids us forbear,
Until the Lord himself appear.
In Heaven to sit, or high or low,
Is it in man's power to bestow?
What Bishops can, or Saints invest,
Or shut men from eternal rest?
Someone Pope doth a Saint enstall,
His grant another doth recall:
'It is but a silly dignity,
That's subject to uncertainty.
Among your Saints even those are seen,
Which to their Prince have Traitors been.
Though that our Church such Saints despise,
To it, it is no prejudice.
Popish Rime.
Heretics.
OUr Savior warns us to have care,
Of false Prophets to beware;
Which in his name shall come,
Not sent, yet they shall run:
Thieves; not entering by the Door,
That kill and steal, and keep a stoor;
Wolves in Shepherds clothing,
That kill the Soul, and steal the Tything.
Dogs, Foxes, and Masters of lies,
That new Sects will devise;
Bringing in dissention,
And heap thousands to perdition.
Where have you been this many a year,
That none of you durst once appear.
Ever since our Savior's time,
To whom did your light shine?
Where did your principal Pastor sit?
Who kept your keys? who fed your sheep?
Shew some Churches you have built:
I can show many you have spilled.
How might a man have found you out,
To have trial in a matter of doubt;
Where for so many a year,
No such Company did appear?
Until
Luther,
a lying Frier,
Upon whom the Devil had desire,
Br
•
ke his Vow,
and married a Nun,
And there your Sect
first begun.
And favored in
Saxony,
By a Duke that loved liberty:
And in King
Edwards
time truly,
It first infected our Country.
For a thousand years you say,
That Papistry did bear the sway:
And during all that space,
No Protestant durst show his face.
Who kept
the holy Scriptures then
From the hands of wicked men?
Who had authority to ordain
Our Priests and Bishops again?
For he that entereth without Order,
As a Thief doth kill and murder.
And one thing maketh me to muse,
That no Priest you do refuse.
Being ordered by the Church of
Rome,
But he was accepted soon:
If he would say the New Service,
He should have a Benefice
Without any further Order,
And accounted for the better.
How can she make a lawful Priest,
If she be not the Church of Christ?
Answer this, O Protestant;
If thou canst, I will recant:
But while an answer you devise,
I counsel all men that are wise,
To hold the faith maintained here
The space of a thousand year,
Brought unto us English men,
By our Apostle
Saint
Agustine.
Who from
Rome
was hither sent,
When
Ethelbert
was King of
Kent,
Who learned his Faith of
Gregory:
His Faith was kept successively,
By threescore Bishops and three,
Since Saint
Peter
's time truly,
Who learned his Faith of
Christ Jesu,
Who is the Son of God most true.
Protestants Answer.
Heretics.
THe Caveat touching Heretics,
Doth make against false Catholics:
We know full well that Popery
Is but a Mass of Heresy.
Those Errors which of old were hatched,
Your Church together hath them patched:
On them she puts a fairer Name,
But in effect they are the same.
You raz'd have the foundation
Of all Truth and Religion:
You changed have the sincerity
Of all the Grounds of Piety.
Thou fall'st now to a railing vain,
And wouldest by this thy Pope maintain:
Leave idle terms, and show some reason,
Else all these words come out of season.
Shew thou what Sects we do devise,
And wherein we deliver lies;
And prove it so, that all may see,
Lest thou thyself the Lyar be.
Foxes, and Dogs, and Wolves thou nam'st,
And Thieves, wherein thyself thou sham'st:
Or prove all this in us is true,
Else we return it back to you.
They called Saint
Paul
an Heretic,
A Blabler,
and a Schismatic:
They said our Savior was possessed,
And of his preaching made a Jest.
Yet
Paul
no Heresy did teach,
Nor in the Church made any breach:
Nor yet our Savior had a Devil,
He never did or preached evil.
Let Scripture try wherein we err,
We crave no other Arbiter:
Convict us once by such a Judge,
We will not at your railings grudge:
Now that thy store is almost spent,
Thou comest toan old worn Argument:
Where was your Church some years ago,
Before the World did
Luther
know?
If briefly now I should deny
The Churches Visibility;
It were a word sufficient
To overthrow this prattlement;
Yet this I say, and will maintain,
That even when blindness most did reign,
Our Church a certain being had,
Though not with outward Beauty clad:
Like to that holy portion,
In that great superstition,
Which over whelm'd all
Israel,
After the Tribes from
David
fell.
Or as some Ears of purer seed,
Amidst a field of noisome weed;
So God had some even at that time,
When Antichrist was in his prime.
And now and then oat brake the Light,
Even in that long and irksome night:
Like as the Sun in lowering days,
Sometime sends forth his glittering Rays.
Long time ere
Luther
yet was born,
Whom you our Founder name in scorn,
There were which showed their enmity
Against your vile Idolatry.
But now the Lord hath let us see
Your Antichrists deformity:
That all men might him fully know,
Before his final Overthrow.
Our Pastor chief
in Heaven did sit,
And so doth still, saith holy Writ:
On earth, Universal Priest,
None dare be called but Antichrist.
He that our Church and Keys had sought,
By tokens in the Scripture taught,
Our Church and Keys he might have found,
Even when the World was most unsound.
Building of Churches nothing makes
For that which here thou undertakes:
For then commend
Demetrius,
Who built Shrines at
Ephesus.
Well may the heathen People boast
Of Piramees and Churches cost:
In Houses made, God doth not dwell,
As holy Scripture doth us tell.
Yet neither all the Churches here,
Erected by the Papists were:
Nor are by us abolished
Places where God is worshipped.
If private men have evil done,
For it blame not Religion?
Those men that do Church-spoiling love,
Our Faith and Church doth not approve.
Those Cells and Dens of Idleness,
And Nurseries of Wickedness,
Upon good causes were displac'd,
As
Baals
Temples were defaced.
A lawless Vow
of single life,
Luther
well brake, and took a wife.
Better the pure and spotless Bed,
Then by unclean lusts to be led.
Better the married Chastity,
Then violent Virginity:
They ought not single to remain,
Who are not gifted to contain.
Wedlock itself cannot defile,
It hath an honorable style:
God doth it not to each man give,
Without the Marriage Bonds to live.
The forced vows of singleness,
Have brought forth beastly filthiness:
Thou mayest behold in History,
The fruits of Monkish Lechery.
Thy poisoned Tongue doth further reach,
The noble
Saxon
to impeach:
Because to truth he did incline,
Thou callest him a Libertine.
When God was pleased to let him see
How Christ his death hath made us free,
Then did he deem it slavery
To bear the
Romish Tyranny.
Though
Antichrist
did
Rome
possess,
You kept the Scriptures I confess:
And in that long Apostasy,
Those Books were in your custody.
So I a Pirate false have known,
To keep the Goods were not his own;
And in the Ship to rule and reign,
When the right Owner hath been slain.
So did the
Jewish Synagogue,
Safely keep
Moses Decalogue,
And th' other Books,
when cruelly
They did Christ Jesus crucify.
The Pastors which did first restore
The truth which long lay hid before,
Thereto were called lawfully,
And even by your Authority:
You did them Priests and Doctors make,
And they from you this charge did take,
That they the Truth should soundly preach,
And in the same the People teach.
Hereto you caused them to swear,
That to the Faith they should adhere,
And never should Errors endure,
That were against the Doctrine pure.
That whereunto you did them call,
Full well they have performed all:
Truth they have sought to propagate,
And Heresies to ruinate.
As we account your Baptism true,
And never do the same renew:
So may you make a lawful Priest,
Yet be not the pure Church of Christ:
We know that now you wiser be,
And swear your Priests to Popery,
And bind them to maintain the state
Of your three-crowned Potentate.
See now (O Papist) thou recant,
Th' art answered by a Protestant.
I counsel thee, if thou be wise,
No new evasions to devise.
Thy tale of
Ethelbert
of
Kent,
Is but a slender Argument:
It skills not whence the Faith was brought,
Or who it first amongst us taught.
Let us into the Scriptures look,
And duly search
that holy Book:
Thence shall we know which
Church
to leave,
And unto which alone to cleave.
Those swelling words
of Unity,
Succession, and Antiquity,
Are but poor groundless fantasies,
To blind the simple people's eyes,
Though that an Angel thou shouldst see,
Let him (saith
Paul
) accursed be,
If from the Scripture he doth err,
Account him not God's Minister.
If one arise, and wonders show,
Seeking the truth to overthrow,
Though that might seem a motive strong,
Yet unto him death doth belong.
If threescore Bishops here, and three,
Have been with us successively,
It either proves our Church is true,
Or else that mark makes naught for you.
That Faith for which
Peter
was slain,
Our English Church doth still retain:
We hear the Voice of CHRIST JESU,
Who is the SON of GOD most true.
FINIS.