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Parenthefis, had as many more Queries in it, as there were Proteftant Churches, true or falfe, perfect or imperfect, heretical or not heretical, of the fame or different Reformations. And to this you have nothing to reply, but, f, That it is trifling. 2dly, That I had nothing to complain of, but that you gave me too much Liberty. 3dly, That you bid me name any which I would call the Proteftant Church, but that I had a mind to be confined. And laftly, that you are content to let me be confined to the Church of England. In Answer to the first, I fay, that my defiring to know what Church you meant by the Proteftant Church, was not trifling, as you modeftly call it, but obferving the Laws of Controverfy and the Rules of Difputation ; according to which, no ambiguous Term can be defined, before it is diftinguished into its various fignifications, nor any ambiguous Question answered, till it is known in which of its Senfes it was propofed. To the fecond I fay, that what you mifcall Liberty, was fophiftical Ambiguity; of which, though I expofed it, I did not complain, otherwife than by faying your Query was not penned, as one would have expected it from a fair and learned Adverfary; and if the Laws of Difputation and Controverfy be fuch as juft now mentioned, I had reafon to fay fo, and now I fay it again. To the third I anfwer, it is not true, that you bid me name any Proteftant Church where did you bid me name any, or by whom? Not in your Query, nor in any Letter, nor by any Meffage after I received it. And whereas you fay, I had a mind to be confined; I anfwer, it was I that was to confine you by the Rules of Logick and Difputation; and when you faw I would confine you, then in the last place you are graciously pleafed to fay, you are con

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tentented to let me be confined to the Churb of England. And feeing I have forced you to confine your loofe Query to that Church, I fhall, before I have done, fhew you by Gods Affiftance, where there was a Church that held all the Articles of the Church of England, nine hundred or a thoufand Years ago. But, Sir, to fhew you how weak and really trifling your Reply is, let me put the Cafe, that a Gentleman fhould fend the following Query to a King at Arms: Sir, I defire to know (if I am qualified to be admitted to the honourable Order of Knighthood) what it would coft me to be created a Knight? As I put this Cafe better for the illuftration of the Cafe between us, allow me to fuppofe the King at Arms fent him this Answer. Sir, your Queftion is not one, but two, which you should have propofed thus. Sir, I defire to know, if I am quaLifted to be admitted to the honourable Order of Knighthood, and if I am, fecondly, What it would coft me to be created a Knight? Befides, Sir, there are feveral Kinds or Orders of Knighthood, and of different Dignities and Charges; and before I can answer these Questions, I must know what Order of Knighthood you mean. But to carry on the Parallel, I mult in the third Place fuppofe the Gentleman made him this Reply... Sir, your Anfwer is trifling, in defiring to know what Order of "Knightbood I meant. I gave you too much Liberty, I bid you name any which you would call an Order of Knightbood, but you had a mind to be confined. I fee a small thing will ferve you to wrangle about, but you may if you will confine your Self to the most noble Order of the Garter. "Sir, you know for whose fake I have made this Apologue, and you cannot but guess to whom I leave the Application,

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IV. To your Query, Where the Proteftant Church was 900 or 1000 Years before Luther? I made this Answer, That if by the Proteftant Church you meant the Faith, Worthip, and Polity of the Church of England, I would tell you where the Church of England was many hundred Years before Luther; or if you pleafe, before the Council of Trent, even where the prefent Faith, Worship, and Polity of the Roman Church never was, i. e. in the Primitive Church. I told you I faid before the Council of Trent, becaufe Luther was none of our Reformers; and because I should rather have expected, that a fair and learned Adverfary would have faid, I defire to know where the Church of England, or where your Religion was for 900 or 1000 Years before the pretended Reformation? as I told you, you might have faid without Offence. To this you reply without any Anfwer, Since the Word Luther ives Of fence, let it be blotted out. I am glad he is fo much afhamed of the great Captain and Patriarch of the pretended Reformation, the Chariot of Ifrael, and the Horfeman thereof, as fome have been pleafed to call him, and a most excellent Inftrument of God, as great Doctors of his own Church have termed him. His Name I put down only because be makes the great Epoch of the Proteftant Religion, by reafon of his Priority in Time and Fame above others. But fince he defires it, let his Name be removed, and that of Cranmer's be put down, or any other whom he thinks he needs not be ashamed of.

BUT pray, Sir, who told you I was afhamed of Luther? Or by what Inference do you prove I was? I only meant to fhew how abfurd it was in you to ask of a Doctor of the Church of England, whom you had challenged as fuch, where the

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Proteftant Religion was before Luther? Because, as I told you, Luther was none of our Reformers; and I will now add what was implied in that Remark, That ours and the Lutheran are different Reformations; which made me tell you, I expected that you should have put the Queftion to me about the Church of England, which as you know, differs from all the Lutheran Churches in one Point of Doctrine, and in Polity or Government from fome. But you could not forbear fhewing your Rancour against the Inftrument, which God raised up to expose the Corruptions of your Church, and to perfuade fo great a Part of the Northern World to thake off the Papal Tyranny, which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear. Father Paul only wanted his Courage to do the fame on the other Side the Alps; and he used to wish that God had given him the Spirit of Luther, and fometimes wept to think he had it not. You fhew your Rancour alfo against Archbishop Cranmer, and against all our Reformers, in your Letter of the 10th of laft April, which is nothing to the Merit of the Controverfy, nor ferves for any Purpofe, but to invite me to put you in Remembrance of the monftrous Wickedness of many of * your Popes, which I could fhew out of your own Writers. One of which, + Cardinal Turrecremata, faith of Pope John XII. (whom Palatina calls John the XIII.) That because his Life was deteftable and wonderful offenfive to Chriftian People, Chrift bimfelf gave out the Sentence of Death against him: For when he was in the At of Adultery with another Man's Wife, the

* See Tortura Torti, p.219.

+Summa de Ecclefia, Lib.2. cap. 103.

Devil ftruck him fuddenly, and fo be died without Repentance.

V. IN the XVII. Paragraph you fay: If he defigns an Answer to any thing in this Reply, I defire it may be direct and home to the point. By this time I hope you are convinced, that I defigned an Answer to every thing in it, tho' to the great lofs of my precious time; and that you begin to be fenfible how direct and home it is in every part to the point. Then you proceed: If there be any Word of uncertain fignification, let it be answered by diftinguishing according to the Cuftom of fair and learned Adverfaries, and not be fent back with a number of Queries to attend it, which is a fashion newly invented by this Adverfary. This you fay to fuggeft to your Profelyte and her Brother, as if I had not rightly and fairly distinguished your Query into two; and then by obferving that there were feveral different Proteftant Churches, fhewed that each of them was really as many Queftions, as there were dif ferent Proteftant Churches, which you notwithftanding abfurdly and fallacioufly call the Protestant Church. And therefore, Sir, to answer you directly and home to the point, I muft plainly tell you, that bare Suggeftions and Affirmations without Proof against my Diftinctions, as if they were not according to the Custom of fair Adverfaries and the Laws of Controverfy, is a Proof that they were. Here you only fuggeft, or fuppofe they were not; in fome places you affirm your Query was but one, and a short one, tho' prefaced with a Suppofition, and backed with a Challenge; and in another place, already taken Notice of, you refer it to any Man to judge whether it was one Query or two. But thefe are

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