The comparison is very vnequall and odious, that you make betwixte the holy bookes of the Scripture, indited by the spirit of God, and reputed and taken as porti∣ons of the canonicall scriptures, wherein only we haue to séeke the doctrine of sal∣uation: and these rayling, rude, vncharitable, and vnlearned Admonitions. And yet in the one of them, that is in the Reuelation you are fouly ouershot, for the name of* 1.1 the author of that booke is expressed thrée times in the firste chapter, and that with such circumstances that it cannot well be doubted who the author was, though you would cauill about the multiplicitie of the name. Likewise his name is expressed in the latter chapter of the booke: wherefore you were not well aduised when you set it downe that S. Iohn in the Apocalips did not put his name to his booke. He saithe in the. 1. cap. in the first verse, Seruo suo Iohanni, and in the. 4. verse Ioannes. 7. ecclesijs quae sunt in Asia, and a little after. Ego Ioannes frater vester. &c. and in the last chap. Ego Ioannes qui audiui & vidi haec. The epistle to the Hebrues hath no opprobrious and slanderous words in it, neither doth the author thereof séeke to defame or deface any body, as the authors of the Admonition do.
If my booke be comparable to eyther of the Admonitions in sharpe and vnchari∣table speaches, proue it vnto me by comparing them togither, and surely I will like the worse both of my boke and of my self: and confesse that I haue offended. Although I might excuse my selfe in saying that I haue done it in the defense of the truth, and vendicating this Church of England from such vntollerable slanders, as they bur∣then it with.
If any of the honorable house of Parliament did consent to the publishing of it in that manner and forme that it was published (which I am sure they did not, as you vndutifully and vntruly charge them) I will not excuse them: and yet they cannot be said to be either the authors or the publishers of it: neither can their allowing of it, ex∣cuse it from being a libell, being not orderly in Parliament propounded, but disor∣deredly (I might say seditiously,) spread abroade in corners to the defamation of thys whole state and Church of England, not to any reformation.
But to satisfye your desire that would so gladly know what a libell is, I will tell* 1.2 you in few words. An infamous libell is that, that is written in verse, or in prose, to yt infamy & slander of any man, to y• which the author dare not set his name. This is an infamous libel, & it most aptly agréeth to y• booke called an Admonition to ye Par∣liamēt: So that by this definition your obiectiō also of ye booke of ye Apocalips, & of the epistle to the Hebrues is soone answered: for al those bookes are not libells which are published without the authours name, but those whiche are published to the infamy or slander of others, to the which the authors dare not set their names.