A DIALOGUE BETWIXT THREE TRAVELLERS, as accidentally they did meet on the Highway: 

CRUCY CRINGE, a Papist,  
ACCEPTED WEIGH ALL, a Professor of the Church of England, and  
FACTIOUS WREST-WRIT, a Brownist.    
Wherein the errors of the Papists and the Brownists are discussed, and themselves reconciled to the Church of England.  
Printed in the year, 1641.   

A Dialogue Betwixt three Travellers, as accidentally they did meet on the Highway, Crucy Cringe, a Papist, Accepted Weighall, a Professor of the Church of England, and Factious Wrest-Writ, a Brownist.  Crucy. 
WEll met, well met Master Wrest-Writ, you are such an eager man; Do you remember, Sir, the conference we had, when we last encountered, almost in this very place? Do you still pursue your errors with that wilful heat?  Factious. 
Out of my sight thou Idolater; profaneness hangs in a mist about thee, that thou mayst commit thy deeds of darkness with the Whore of Babylon with more secureness.  Crucy. 
Not so hasty Master Wrest-Wright, a good cause should be disputed with good words, and confirmed with reasons, not with passions.  Factious. 
Down Dagon, down, I hate thee Cringe; I hate thee and thy late disputed doctrine of the real presence in the Sacrament, worse than the lawn Reeves of the Prelates, which are but mere rags of Rome, and fit only for tinder for the Tinderbox of Tophet; but go to M●ster Cringe, because society is the injunction of nature; and good discourse (they say) doth make a hor●e that trots seem to amble, proceed in your last argument, and I promise you both silence and attention.  Crucy. 
If you will be patiented I will: The doctrine then of the real presence in the Eucharist.  Factious. 
The Eucharist! I can forbear the argument no longer; there is no such word to be read in all the Scripture.  Crucy. 
Very frequently, Sir, in the Greek original.  Factious. 
Talk not to me of Greek, I will believe no Greek, it is a language that shall carry no authority with me; I hope to see Greek and Latin too, ere it be long, in less reputation than they are.  Crucy. 
I do not like this fury, Even God be with you, and grant your zeal more knowledge, and your knowledge more humility.  Factious. 
Nay but hark you Master Cringe, hark you one word,— look you here,— Master Accepted Weighall:— Come as wished for.  Accepted. 
How have you done this long time? How do you Master Crucy? Sir, I hearty salute you.  Crucy. 
I return your salutation with the like testimony of good will, and true affect on: you intervene an happy Umpire, we two were even a falling out, and a falling off too.  Factious. 
Verily, Master Weighall, the words of truth being not in his lips, I was about to separate, and to leave him to the fogs of his superstitious ignorance, I must beseech you, having so happily met with your better company, that we may abandon him.  Accept. 
Why so Sir, Although I am a Professor of true and Orthodox Religion, I am not of the separation; I would be neither a Trojan, nor Tyrian; it fares with Religion as with Virtue, she must preserve herself entire betwixt two extremes; and the safest way to truth is the middle way; I would be neither learnedly superstirious, nor obstinately ignorant; but to the point which you were so hot in disputation of.  Factious. 
Sir, when last Master Cringe and I encountered, we held a controversy concerning the real presence in the Sacrament, which Master Cringe believeth to be truly corporal, and in adoration bows unto it.  Crucy. 
Sir, I believe the Sacrament to be a greater mystery than peradventure you conceive it, and not a mere Lovefeast, as idly enough you are pleased to fancy it; I dare affirm, that the great work of man's Redemption is no where more perfectly to be discovered, Nec tam praesentes alibi cognoscere Divos.  Factious. 
Sir, you are in your Latin, I will have Latin again to answer you; I assure you I take it to be a Commemoration per fidem, only in remembrance of our Saviour's sufferings, on whom we feed with the eye of faith.  Crucy. 
That cannot be Master Wrest-Writ, the words are positive and punctual, This is my Body, and will admit of no other interpretation.  Factious. 
The words that follow that text do as plainly and punctually interpret the words precedent, Do this in remembrance of me, which implies a direct absence of the party; for what needs a remembrance, when the person is present? and in this I refer myself to Master Weighall. You affirmed besides at our last meeting, that you did feed in the Sacrament, upon the very body of Christ indeed.  Crucy. 
I feed in the Sacrament on the very Body and Blood of Christ, the elements of Bread and Wine, being transubstantiated into his Body.  Factious. 
This is most horrible impiety. How is this transubstantiation? when is it begun? when is it finished? answer me to that, Master Cringe.  Crucy. 
Immediately after the words of the consecration.  Factious. 
That cannot be, for the Metaphysics (as I have heard Scholars say) will not allow that the substance should be altered, and the accidents remain, that the Bread and Wine should be converted into the very Body and Blood of Christ; yet the colour and taste of the Bread and Wine, which are their accidents, should still continue; neither will Divinity ever agree, that the Bread, which after consecration, you say, is turned into the Body of Christ, should suffer afterwards, corruption, and moulder away, as we see it doth.  Crucy. 
We feed, I say, in the Sacrament on the very Body of Christ; but how? not as we feed on butcher's meat bought in the shambles; but it being received with all reverence, and prepared humility after a divine and spiritual manner; and whatsoever you are pleased to say to to the contrary of us, believe me, there is no Catholic but is of the same opinion with me.  Factious. 
That you do to avoid some dangerous absurdities which would consequently arise, should you affirm, that in a fleshly manner you eat in the Sacrament, the very flesh of our Saviour; for then by the same argument should the blessed Virgin, the mother of our Saviour, feed in the Sacrament, on the flesh of her own son; and then again, as often as in the time of Let you receive the Communion, you should as often offend against the order of the Church, which doth command, that there should in Lent no meat be eaten. Besides, I understand how cross it is to reason and Philosophy, that one Body should at one and the same time move in several places.  Crucy. 
Wonders are no wonders in wonderful subjects; I believe as the Church believeth, which doth inform me, that the Body of our Saviour is assisted always with the Divinity of our Saviour, and in this (as Master Wrest-Writ did before) I refer myself to you Master Weighall.  Factious. 
With all my heart, and if we shall continue in our journey and travel one way together; as in this, so in all controverted points betwixt us, I shall refer myself to your advice, Master Weighall.  Weighall. 
I have not the desire, nor yet the ability to go thorough with so great a task; but since it is the inclination of truth to communicate herself, and through all my life I have made it my labour to inquire her out: I will, as near as I can, first state the question aright, and then determine it. I believe we ought not to make our approaches to the blessed Sacrament, with that overweening familiarity, as the saucy Brownists; nor yet with such a devout superstition as the abused Papists. That the Bread and wine in the Sacrament should be transubstantiated into the Body of Christ, cannot be admitted into the faith of any sober man, without admitting with it many gross and grievous errors; for besides that, it is but a mere invention of latter times, it is diametrically opposite to reason and nature; and God himself, who oftentimes doth work above nature, doth never work against it. The elevation of the Host by the Papists, savours of rank idolatry; and the unmannerly sitting of the Brownists at the Communion, of irreverence. A decent and humble posture is most requisite, especially where God is pleased to communicate himself to be really, and more peculiarly present. It is no lukewarmness, no neutrality to keep safe between both your errors, but a grounded knowledge and uprightness: And I assure myself, if you would well weigh, with how much safety between both rocks the Truth doth pass by unshipwrackt, how secure and clear she is discovered, you would then make haste to disembogue, and make up unto her, who indeed is the Centre of all sublunary happiness, where alone we may find peace with confidence. Errors in the Church result out of too unruly an heat, or too thick and too grave a Superstition; either while we violently are lead by our own ungoverned humours, or while blinded with pomp, or with the shadows of Antiquity with a willing reverence we are drawn unto Idolatry. Too much Ceremony and an affected pomp hath begot much Superstition in the Sacrament amongst the Papists. Too careless a presumption hath begot much irreverence in the Sacrament amongst the Anabaptists. The mean betwixt both is the fate and happy way attended with a persevering care, not to decline, either to the one, or to the other, either to the right hand, or to the left.  Crucy. 
I thank you for your good counsels, and shall endeavour to embrace them.  Factious. 
And I shall acknowledge myself to be much improved by you which doth embolden me to propound one question more, and that is concerning the Original, and the Institution of Bishops.  Accept. 
I should with much content lend care to your Conference, but see the Town is near, and within the full view of our eye; we will therefore for this day repose our minds as well as bodies; and refer the discourse until the Morning.  
FINIS.