The three countrey-mens English answers to the clergy-mens Latine charges. Or, the lay-mens plain English, in answer to the unknown language of the pretended spiritual court at Winton Unto which is added a short relation of the dealings of Iohn Hayes priest with two of them after they were excommunicated. Also twenty four queries propounded to be answered by those that call themselves spiritual men.

JAcob was a plain man and the Lord loved him, and we are plain men and are perswaded that Gods love is towards us; however men may hate us and seek occasion against us, and use us hardly as our Fathers were in Egypt, but we having the love of God shed a∣broad in our hearts we dare not offend him, in doing or upholding that which the Lord hath shewed us to be evil, and though we have not much knowledge in the Law, yet we know what is just & reason∣able; & though we have not much heretofore known the proceedings in this which you call a Spiritual Court, yet we see and plainly un∣derstand

that you who are the upholders thereof are not guided by the spirit of God who is Love, nor by the spirit of his son, who said, love your enemies, but by another spirit, the fruits whereof both to∣wards us and before our faces hath appeared to be quite contrary to the spirit of God which is shewn by the Apostles, Gal 5. yea, and you have shewed forth works of darknesse towards us, throwing away our hats, and even abusing them and us, as once by prophane cursing of us, and then give us writing wherein (it may be) is declared what is demanded, but by reason it is written in such a dark way, not only in Latine, but in such an unsound and un∣certain or unknown way, that if we were willing to pay it, we can scarce come to know how much it is, whereby also it appears you are men of such a spirit that seeks to keep us in darknesse and blind∣nesse, and from the knowledge of those things which concerns our bodies and estates as well as our souls, that by no means we might understand it, though we much desire the same; and we know no rea∣son that we or any else should give any unto you for so doing, nei∣ther can we be free or clear in the sight of God to pay towards the maintenance of such a Priesthood, which is to be upheld by men of such a spirit, nor to uphold or repair such Temples in which they (not we) do worship, but we confesse Christ come, and him to be our Priest for ever, and the Bishop of our souls, and our bodies are a spi∣ritual house built up of living stones, of which Christ is the Head we own, which is not a Temple made with hands, for ye are the Temple of the living God, and I will dwell in them, and walk in them, saith the Lord; but as for that place built with mens hands called a Church, we own it not for the Church, and therefore we cannot pay to the upholding of the same.

• Josiah Wickham,
• Nicholas Wonson.

The Reader may know that the Declarations which these three men received at the Court were one and the same, only their names and the summes of Money demanded were several, as one two shillings two pence, another two shillings six pence, and the other three shillings.