H ment, yet thou didst worse, when thou wouldst have made one thy felf, after thou hadst engaged thy Faith unto the House, that thou wouldst never lift up thy Heel against them more: Truly, thou fheweft thy felf in this, no better than a few, in throwing the first Stone at them, unless thou wert innocent thy self; and all thy Fundamental, Municipal, Common, Natural Law, will not ferve to prove the other, who has been judged by the Laws of the Land, as a Pharifee, to wear a Philaetery in Public, and haft had thine Ears bored through, according to the Mofaical Law: And I fear thy pretended Converfion to Christianity is but in order to something else, even as the Mahometans (they fay) will not admit a Jew to turn Turk, unless he first become a Chriftian: And that is the Reason why thou art fo cruel (like a Renegado) to those of thine own Sect; yea, even unto thofe in whofe Quarrel thou haft loft Leather; for as one of thy Ears was cut off for Prefbytery, even fo was the other for Independency. But now I fpeak of thine Ears, give me leave to afk thee one Queftion. I have heard, that those who have loft their Legs do fometimes nevertheless feel Pains in their Toes; and I would fain know, whether toward Change of Weather, thou doft not feel a Kind of Itching and Tingling in those defunct-Parings of thine, especially when Prefbytery and Government are like to peep out again? For what else does thy railing against the Bishops (as well as us) hold forth, but that thou art the very fame Will. Prynne, Utter-Barrifter, that didft heretofore publish against them so many ridiculous Hat-Cafes and Band-boxes, in which thy Works are always bound up, and are to be fold on the South-fide of Paul's Church-yard, where thy Stationers live? Among thofe, I have seen thy Title-pages pafted, like Mountebanks Bills, in which thou doft always write Reformation, Law, Religion, and Fundamental in Capital Letters, even as thofe Quacks do Pox and Running of the Reins, and both to the fame Purpofe; namely to deceive the Reader, and vapour of more than thou art able to perform. But O! the Verbofity of thy Writings! Solomon faith, in many Words there is Folly; and thou haft prov'd it true. For thou writeft perpetually in the Language of a Conveyance, and does not indite, but draw; and when thou shalt answer for every idle Word, all the Bills and Answers in Chancery will rife up in Judgment against thee. For thou useft so many impertinent Tautologies, that thy Reader can never understand what thou meaneft, unless he should take the Pains to draw Breviats of thy fenseless Repetitions, which is infufferable, and not to be endured by a Free-born English-man. And this ferves thee to the fame Purpofe that Hems and Habs do thy Gifted Ghoftly Fathers, that is, to lose Time, and put off thy Commodity, namely, Wafte-Paper, whereof thou endeavoureft to obtain the Monopoly, and thereby undo hundreds of Families that live by writing lewd and prophane Plays: For when thou haft ingroffed the whole Commodity of Waste-Paper into thine own Hands, their Works will be left upon theirs; and in this thou takest a more wife and rational Courfe, than thou didft heretofore in writing Indentures against them; for thou knoweft not how to write in any other Strain, and therefore to let thee fee how easy it is to attain unto thy Gifts, I will now fpeak unto thee a few Words in thine own Way. Doft thou not remember William Prynne, when the long Parliament, according to the antient, known, fundamental, established Custom, Practice, Ufage, Example of all Rebels, Traytors, Cades, Tylers, Straws, fet open the Prifons, Goals, Dungeons, Cages, and took the Prifoners, Felons, Male factors, Jaylbirds, into their Protection, Patronage, Safeguard, Tuition, and, among others, thy felf, William Prynne, aforefaid, with thy Brethren, Companions, Copemates, Affociates, Burton, Baftwick, Lilborn, Poe, &c. How the Saints, Brethren, godly, well-affected, rode out to meet thee, with the Sifters, Helpers, Damfels, Handmaids, behind them, on the Tail of the Beast, stuck with Antichristian, Superftitious, Idolatrous Rosemary and Bays, to celebrate, welcome, and congratulate thy Remitter! How they dawb'd, dash'd, defiled and polluted thee the faid William Prynne, with Dirt, Puddle, Greetings, Salutations, that thou didft look more like unto a Pimp, Pander, Bawd, newly Carted, than an Utter-Barrister Triumphant; and with how dirty and filthy a Grace, Fashion and Demeanor thou didst bow, stoop, and lowt to thine Idolaters, the Rabble-Rout Crowd on both Sides of the Street, or Streets, who made an Idol of the Rings of thine Ears, even as the Jews did of their Earings. This, verily, William, is thy perfect Style, and right Manner of Expreffion, in which thou art the Freer of thy Windy Stuff, because thou comest eafily by it, for thou doft but turn over thy Concordances, and the Indexes of thy Books, and wherefoever thou findeft any Thing of Quake, Tremble and Shake, from the Motion of the Heavens to the Wagging of a Dog's-Tail, thou appliest it right, or wrong, unto us; and that it may feem to be to fome Purpose, thou dost always print it in CAPITAL LETTERS, because fuch were heretofore to very good Purpofe, imprinted on thy Cheeks by the Miniftration of that Son of Belial, the Executioner. But I cannot understand how thou, or thy Rabble of Saints, could answer the Churches for committing the abominable Sin of Bays and Rosemaryness, which they had before, and have fince fo often condemned; for if it be idolatrous and fuperftitious (as they have determined) to ftick thofe Creatures in the Windows of Steeple-Houfes, much more must it be on their own Veffels. All that they have (in my Opinion) to fay for themfelves, is, that they ferved thee up (like a Weftphalia Ham) with Bays, as thou art a Pagan Poet, according to the prophane Cuftom of thy Forefathers the As one Campanella a Popifb Friar, &c.] The following Verfes from Butler's poetical Thefaurus may ferve as one Proof, out of - many others that might be produced, of the Genuinefs of this Letter. As CAMPANELLA us'd to forew and wrest |
