The doubting conscience resolved. In answer to a (pretended) perplexing question, &c. Wherein is…

Dis. Let this thing be considered, seeing it is so intricate, and lead me and many others into disquiet of mind; for which perplexities of Conscience, none will deny that a remedy is to be sought at the hands of those that have Christian fellow-feeling, and might be found if all the Divines of those sides that have left Popery, would vouchsafe to afford me a wise, mild, and solid Answer in writing, not savouring of partiality, prejudice, or passion.

Dis. Let this thing be considered, seeing it is so intricate, and lead me and many others into disquiet of minde; for which perplexities of Conscience, none will deny that a remedy is to be sought at the hands of those that have Christian fellow-feeling, and might be found if all the Divines of those sides that have left Popery, would vouchsafe to afford me a wise, milde, and solid Answer in writing, not savouring of partiality, prejudice, or passion.

Consid. When Boast was taken by the States, there was seen in the wall a Bishop sometimes of that town, painted with Christ and his blood on the one side, and the Virgin Mary and her breasts sprouting milk on the other side, and the devout Bishop was represented there in the gesture of a man in great perplexity and ambiguity, not knowing well which to prefer, whether Christs blood before Mary's milk, or Mary's milk before Christs blood, and this expressed in Latin Verses, and one of the Martialists (as it were) to put him out of his mood and perplexity, Why thou Sot (quoth he) get thee to Got. Who, I pray, was the cause of this mans perplexity, was it not his own extreme superstition most abominable? If the Author of this Discourse had proposed any thing on the other side to the Scripture, and pretended ambiguity and perplexity, ⟨p. 131⟩which of them he preferred according whereunto to order his faith, that Martialists resolution of the doubt might have been congruous enough: But only concerning the Scripture-doubts are here proposed how a man should ground his faith thereupon; what he is, I know not, and whether this be res gesta, or ficta, I am to seek, for the present world is full of juggling. But when we make such doubts unto our selves, do we well consider the goodness and wisdom of God in giving us his holy Word to direct us in the ways of everlasting life? if still there were just cause to complain of a perplexed condition, whereinto we were cast, not knowing whether we shall take hold of it, or run away from it, as Moses did from his rod when it was turned into a Serpent. But do we find any the like Metamorphosis here?