you have attributed to them as far as the effects can shew the heart to others I have before took some pains to let you see how easily men may be mistaken when they behold a man through the spectacles of partiality and defection or take the visible appearances for invisible graces the fraudulent art fiâ—â—s and deceits of men for the coelestial gifts of God And as for that which you have inferred hereupon viz. that if he love them he will scarcely take my dealing well You should first prove the Premises before you venter upon such a strange conclusion and not condemn a Christian brother upon Ifs and Ands. 32. In the next place you please to tell me that you are not an approver of the violence of any of them and that you do not justifie M. Burtons way and that you are not of the mind of the party that I most oppose in all their Discipline as a Book now in the Press will give the world an account In the two first parts of which Character which you have given us of your self as I have great reason to commend your moderation and hope that you will make it good in your future actions so I can say little to the last not having heard any thing before of the Book you speak of nor knowing by what name to call for it when it comes abroad But whereas you tell us in the next that you are sure the Church must have unity and charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government or not at all I take you at your word hold there and we shall soon agree together Vnity and charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government no man likes better then my self bring but the same affections with you and the wide breach which is between us in some of the causes which we mannage on either side will be suddenly closed but then you must be sure to stand to the word ancient also and not to keep your self to simplicity only if unity and charity will content you in the ancient Doctrine in the simplicity thereof without subsequent mixtures of the Church I know no doctrine in the Church more pure and ancient then that which is publickly held forth by the Church of England in the book of Articles the Homilies and the Chatechism authorized by Law under the head or rubrick of Confirmation Of which I safely may affirm as S. Augustine doth in his Tract or Book Ad Marcellinum if my memory fail not his qui contradicit â—ut à Christi fide alienus est aut est haereticus that is to say he must be either an Infidei or an Heretick who assenteth not to them If unity and charity in the simplicity of Worship be the thing you aim at you must not give every man the liberty of worshiping in what form he pleaseth which destroys all unity nor cursing many times in stead of praying which destroyes all charity the ancient and most simple way of Worship in the Church of God was by regular forms prescribed for the publick use of Gods people in their Congregations and not by unpremeditated indigested prayers which every man makes unto himself as his fancy shall lead him which I hope I have sufficiently proved in my Tract of Liturgies And if Set Forms of Worship are to be retained as I think they be you will not easily meet with any which hath more in it of the ancient simplicity of the Primitive times then that by which we did officiate for the space of fourscore years and more in the Church of England And finally if the ancient simplicity in Government be the point you drive at what Government can you find more pure and ancient then that of Bishops of which I shall only present you with that Character of it which I find in that Petition of the County of Rutland where it is said to be That Government which the Apostles left the Church in that the three ages of Martyrs were governed by that the thirteen ages since have alwayes gloried in by their succession of Bishops from the Apostles proving themselves members of the Catholick and Apostolick Church that our Laws have established so many Kings and Parliaments have protected into which we were baptized as certainly Apostolical as the observation of the Lords day as the distinction of Books Apocryphal from Canonical as that such Books were written by such Evangelists and Apostles as the consecration of the Eucharist by Presbyters c. An ample commendation of Episcopal Government but such as exceedeth not the bounds of truth or modesty Stand to these grounds for keeping unity and charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government in the Church of God and you shall see how cheerfully the Regal and Prelatical party whom you most oppose wil join hands with you and embrace you with most dear affections 33. But you begin to shrink already and tell me that if I will have men live in peace as brethren our Union must be Law or Ceremonies or indifferent Forms This is a pretty speculation I must needs confesse but such as would not passe for practicable in any well-governed Common-wealth unless it be in the Old Vtopia or the New Atlantis or the last discovered Oceana For how can men possibly live in peace as brethren where there is no Law to limit their desires or direct their actions Take away Law and every man will be a Law unto himself and do whatsoever seemeth best in his own eyes without control then Lust will be a law for one Felony will be a law for another Perjury shall be held no crime nor shall any Treason or Rebellion receive their punishments for where there is no law there is no transgression and where there is no transgression there can be no punishment punishments being only due for the breach of Laws Thus is it also in the service and worship of Almighty God which by the hedge of Ceremonies is preserved from lying open to all prophaneness and by Set Forms be they as indifferent as they will is kept from breaking out into open confusion God as S. Paul hath told us is the God of Order not of Confusion in the Churches If therefore we desire to avoid confusion let us keep some order and if we would keep order we must have some forms it being impossible that men should live in peace as brethren in the house of God where we find not both David hath told us in the Psalms that Jerusalem is like a City which is at unity in it self and in Jerusalem there were not only solemn Sacrifices set Forms of blessing and some significant Ceremonies prescribed by God but Musical Instruments and Singers and linnen vestures for those Singers and certain hymns and several times and places for them ordained by David Had every Ward in that City and every Street in that Ward and every Family in that Street and perhaps every
remedies That which concerns me in relation to Bishop Burlow is my acquitting him from shewing any partiality in summing up the conference at Hampton Court a matter never charged upon him by the Puritan faction more then twenty years after his death and more then thirty years after the publishing of that Book which as the Church Historian saith to have been complained of so doth he only say not prove it and affirmations or complaints are no legal evidences where there are any reasons of strength to evince the contrary but what he wants shall be supplied by the Antagonist who fearing to be prevented in it puts the best legg forwards crying out with more hast then good speed That he will Answer the Doctor Admit him to his Answer and he will tell us That the times were evil that the prudent did think themselves obliged to be silent and that God did so order the matter that they lost no credit by a quiet committing their cause to him How so Because saith he D. Burlow lying on his death bed did with grief complain of the wrong which he had done to D. Reynolds and others that joyned with him in that conference If this be prooved we will admit of all the rest but if this be not proved all the rest is nothing And for the proof of this he is able as he saith to give a satisfactory account to any person of ingenuity who desires it of him I would have took him at his word desiring earnestly to be satisfied in the truth thereof presuming that I might lay claim to so much ingenuity as would entitle me to a capacity of obtaining that favour 20. But in this point I reckoned without my host for though I pressed my desire so far as to conclude that if he did not gratifie me with an Answer I should think he could not yet I am stil as far from satisfaction as at first I was I must first gratifie him in answering such demands as he puts unto me impertinent to the cause in hand and such as the nature of the point in issue cannot bind me too by any Rule of Disputation in the Schools of Logick or else the evidence desired must not be produced I gave some reason why I was not willing to name the parties who received or paid the pension given by Bishop Williams towards the maintenance of a Scholer two of the parties to my knowledg and the third for any thing I know to the contrary being still alive otherwise I could not only name the men but produce the acquittance And for the words relating to Bishop Prideaux they were spoke at a great Table in the Court in the hearing of many and being spoken in the Court must refer only to such Sermons as were preached at the Court and not to all which had been preached elswhete by that learned Bishop The Sermons will be shortly published if not done already and will be able to speak as much for themselves as can be desiâ—ed of me to do The witness in the cause touching Bishop Burlow may appear securely without drawing danger to himself and will be heard no Question both with love and freedom For if he be a lover of the English Prelacy Liturgie and Ceremonies who is to attest unto this truth I know of none who can refuse to give credit to it but if he take up the report at the second hand from one who told him that he took it from the Doctors mouth and not from the man himself that spake it his witness may be lyable to just exception and then we are but as we were without proof at all He vaunts it somewhere in his Book That he is furnished with a cloud of Witnesses to justifie his cause against you but in this point and the next that follows his Witnesses are all in a cloud shadowed as Aeneas and his followers were from the sight of Dido so that no mortal eye can see them Et idem est non esse et non apparere was the Rule of old 21. Upon no better grounds then this he lays a fouler reproach on the late most Reverend and still Arch-Bishop of Canterbury as being turned out of the Divinity Schools with disgrace by D. Holland in publicis commitiis for but endaevouring to maintain That Bishops differed in order and not in degree only from inferiour Presbiters I reproved him for this in my first Letter and told him how much he would be troubled to produce his Author he shifted it off by saying that he means no otherwise by being turned out of the Schooles with disgrace then that he was publiquely checkt by the said D. Holland for maintaining the said opinion and having M. Prinnes Breviate for the truth of this he thinks it a sufficient proof also to confirm the other but is it possible that any man who pretends but to a grain of ingenuity or learning should dare to lay so base a calumnie on so great a person and hope to salve the matter by such a ridiculous explication as may justly render him contemptible to the silliest School-boy Assuredly if he received a publique check be that same with being disgracefully turned out of the Schools there must be more turned out of the Schools with as much disgrace because as much reprehended and checkt as he of whom the foulest mouth could never raise so leud a slander The Doctor of the Chair in the Divinity Schools at Oxon would be more absolute in his decisions and determinations were this once allowed of then all the Popes that ever sate in Peter's Chair since they first laid claim to it 22. But he goes on and adds that this disgrace was put upon him for maintaining such a novel Popish Position as that before Not Novel I am sure for the ancient Writers call the solemn form of consecrating a Bishop by no other name then that of Ordinatio Episcopi and if the Bishop at his Consecration doth receive no Order his consecration ought not to be styled an Ordination And if it be not Novel then it is not Popish for id verum quod primum as they Father it unlesse he will be pleased to make Popery Primitive and intitle it to the Eldest times of Christianity But Popish if it needs must be then must the Form of Consecration of Arch-Bishops Bishops c. be accounted Popish for which it stands acquitted by the Book of Articles and the two Parliaments of K. Edw. 6. Queen Eliz. must be Popish also by which that Form of Consecration was confirmed and Ratified Twice in the Preface to the Book we find mention of three Orders of Ministers in the Church of Christ Bishops Priests and Deacons and this distinction made as antient as the very times of the Apostles And in the Book it selfe besides the three distinct forms of Ordination the one for Bishops the other for Priests and the third for Deacons in one of the Prayers used at the Consecrating of a
any little outward lustre they then cried on the other side O the pride of the Clergie But tell me M. Baxter if you can at the least in what the turgidness or the high swelling pride of the Prelates did appear most visibly was it in the bravery of their apparel or in the train of their attendance or in their lordly port or lofty looks or in all or none Admitting the worst and most you can of these particulars would you have men that shine in an higher Orb move in a lower Sphere then that in which God hath placed them oâ— being ranked in order and degree above you would you not have them keep that distance which belongs to their places or because you affect a Paritie in the Church and perhaps in the State would you have all men brought to the same level with your self without admitting sub and supra in the Scale of Government If they were your Fathers in God why did you not look upon them with such reverence as becometh children If your superiors in the Lord why did you not yield them that subjection which was due unto them If fixt in place and power above you by the Laws of the Land only and no more then so why did you not give obedience to those Laws under which you lived and by which you were to be directed Take heed I beseech you M. Baxter that more spiritual pride be not found in that heart of yours then ever you found worldly and external pride in any of my Lords the Bishops and that you do not trample on them with a greater insolence calco Platonis fastum sed majore fastu as you know who said in these unfortunate dayes of their calamity then ever they exprest towards any in the times of their Glory Were it my case as it is yours I would not for 10000 worlds depart this life before I had obtained their pardon and given satisfaction to the world for these horrible scandals 25. This leads me from your uses of reproofs or reprehension which for my better method I have laid together to that of Exhortation which comes next in order For having told me of my many reproaches against extemporary prayers the holy improvements of the Lords day c. with my uncharitable as well as unjust speeches against my brethren you adde how confident you are that they are matters which I have exceeding cause in tears and sorrow to bewail before the Lord and for which I am very much obliged to publish my penitential lamâ—ntations to the world and that if it were your case you would not for 10000 worlds dye before you had done it This is good counsel I confess if it were well grounded and as divine â—hysick as could be given if it were properly administred as it ought to be But let me tell you M. Baxter you goe not the right way to work in your Application you should first convince me of my errours before you presse me to a publick Recantation of them and make me sensible of my sins before you preach repentance to me or can require such a solemn and severe repentance as you have prescribed It was in the year 1635. that the History of the Sabbath was first published which if it doth contain such matters of Reproach against the holy improvements of the Lords day as you say it doth why hath it not been answered in all this time my errors falsities and mistakes layd open in the sight of the world It is true that in the Postscript of a Letter writ from Dr. Twisse to the late Lord Primate bearing date May 29. Anno 1640. I find it signified with great joy no question that M. Chambers of Clouford by Bath hath long agoe answered Dr. Heylins History of the Sabbath but knew not how to have it printed But this was nothing but a flourish a cup of hot water as it were to keep life â—nd soul together till the pang was over For M. Chambers might as well know how to get his Book printed had he been so pleased as M. Byfield of Surry could get a Book of his printed in answer to that of Dr. White then Lord Bishop of Ely which came out at the same time with that History Or if he could not get it printed before that time which the Doctor speaks of I am sure he might have done it since the Presse being open to all comers but to none more then unto such as write against the Government and established Orders of the Church of England And it is more then 20. years since I published that Book so much complained of against M. Burton in which I answered all his Objections against the preheminence of Bishops their function in the Church the exercise of their Jurisdiction and cleared them from the guilt of all innovations in Doctrine Discipline and Forms of Worship which M. Burton in a furious zeal had laid upon them Why hath not that been answered neither in which the differences between us are so briefly handled that it would have required no great study but that the truth is mighty and prevaileth above all things Giue me but a satisfactory answer to those two Books not nibling at them here and there like a Mouse at a hard piece of Cheese which he cannot Master and then you may take further time to look into the History of Episcopacy and that of Liturgies Give me I say a full and satisfactory answer to those two Books and you shall find I have a malleable soul that I shall be as ready to publish my penitential Lamentations to the world as Origen did his in the Primitive times and cast my self as Esebollus did before the dores of the Church and call upon the Congregation passing in and out to trample on me for an unsavoury piece of salt calcate me tanquam salem insipidum fit only to be thrown on the common dunghil Till you do this you have done nothing but must leave me in the same state in which you found me and when you doe it I hope you will give me leave to use your own words and say that if I have erred it hath been through weaknâ—sse not by partiality much lesse by any willful opposition to a manifest truth 26. This said you fall into rapture and cry out Oh the holy breathings after Christ the love to God the heavenly mindedness the hatred of all known sin the humility self denial meekness c that you have discerned as far as effects can shâ—w the heart to others in abundance of those people that differ from you in some smaller things Here is a Panegyrick indeed fit only for Angelical spirits or such at least as live only on the food of Angels How well accommodated and applyed to the present subject we shall best perceive by consulting some of the particulars Some of your holy breathings we have seen before and shall see more in that which follows tell me then what you think of
it that after the Schism made by Pope PIVS V. little or nothing for many years together comparatively with those of the other party was writ against it that being newly translated into the Latine tongue about the year 1618. it gave great content to the more moderate sort of Papists amongst the French as Bishop Hall informeth us in his Quo Vadis and being translated into Spanish at such times as his late Majesty was in Spain it gave no less contentment to the learned and more sober sort amongst the Spaniards who marvelled much to see such a regular order and form of Divine Worship amongst the English of whom they had been frequently informed by our English Fugitives that there was neither form nor order to be found amongst us But on the other side the Genevians beginning to take up the cry called Puritans upon that account in the 6. or 8. year of Q. ELIZABETH animated by Billingham and Benson conntenanced by Cartwright and headed by the Earl of Leicester followed it with such a violent impetuosity that nothing could repress or allay that fury neither the patience and authority of Arch-Bishop Whitgift the great pains and learning of Bishop Bilson the modesty of M. Hooker nor the exactness of D. Coâ—ens all which did write against them in Q. ELIZABETHS time was able to stop their current till the severity of the Laws gave a check unto them Nor was King JAMES sooner received into this Kingdom but they again revived the quarrel as may appeare by their Petitions Admonitions and other Printed Books and Tractates to which the learned labours of Bishop Buckridge Bishop Morton and D. Burges who had been once of that party but regained by K. James unto the Church were not by them thought to give such ample satisfaction that they must be at it once again during the life of K. James in their Alâ—are Damuscenam in which the whole body of the English Liturgie the Hierarchy of Bishops the Discipline and Equâ—nomy of the Church of England was publickly viâ—â—ified and decried How egerly this game was followed by them after the first ten years of his late Majesty K. Charles till they had abolished the Liturgie destroyed the discipline and pluckt up Episcopacy both root and branch is a thing known so well unto you that it needs no telling And this I hope hath satisfied you in your first enquiry viz. why and in what respects it was said in the Preface to my Ecclesia Vindicata That the Papist was the more moderate adversary and for the other words which follow viz. That the Puritan faction hurried on with greater violence c. which you find in the 17. Sect. of it they relate only to the violent prosecution against the Episcopal Government in which how far they out went the Papists is made so manifest in that and the former Section that it is no small wonder to me that you should seek for any further satisfaction in it read but those Sections once again and tell me in your second and more serious thoughts if any thing could be spoken more plainly or proved more fully then that the Puritan â—action with greater violence and impetuosity were hurried on towards their design that is to say the destruction of Episcopal Government then the Papists were Secondly You seem much unsatisfied that I maintained against M. Burton That the Religion of the Papists is not rebellion nor their faith faction But this when I maintained against M. Burton I did it not in the way of laying down my own reasons why it neither was nor could be so but in the way of answering such silly Arguments as he here brought to prove it was but now that I may satisfie you and do right both to the Church and State you shall have one Argument for it now and another I shall give you when I shall come in order to answer yours The Argument which I shall give you now is briefly this shall be founded on a passage of the Speech made in the Star Chamber by the late Arch Bishop at the sentencing of D. Bastwick M. Burton c. in which he telleth us That if we make their Religion to be Rebellion then we make their Religion and Rebellion to be all one and that is against the ground both of State and the Law for when divers Romish Priests and Jesuites have deservedly suffered death for Treason is it not the constant and just profession of the State that they never put any man to death for Religion but for Rebellion and Treason only Doth not the State truly affirm that there was never any Law made against the life of a Papist quatenus a Papist only And is not all this stark false if their very Religion be Rebellion For if their Religion be Rebellion it is not only false but impossible that the same man in the same act should suffer for his Rebellion and not for his Religion And this â—aith he K. James of ever Blessed Memory understood passing well when in his Premonition to all Christian Monarchs he saith I do constantly maintain that no Papist either in my time or in the time of the late Queen ever dyed for his conscience therefore he did not think their very Religion was Rebellion thus he And if for all this you shall thus persist and say that the Popish Religion is Rebellion you first acquit Papists from suffering death banishment or imprisonment under the Raign of the three last Princes for their several Treasons and Rebellions and lay the guilt thereof upon the blood-thirstiness of the Laws and of the several Kings and Parliaments by which they were made And secondly you add hereby more Martyrs to the Roman Kalender then all the Protestants in the world ever did besides 36. But this you do not only say but you prove it too at the least you think so Your argument is this 1. That Religion which defineth the deposition of Princes and absolving their subjects from their fidelity by the Pope because they deny Transubstantiation c. is rebellion doctrinal But such is the Popish Religion that is to say the Popish Religion defineth the Deposition of Kings and absolveth their Subjects from their fidelity by the Pope because they deny Transubstantiation c. The Minor you say is evident but I am willing to believe that you mean the Major that this only is an escape of the pen because you do not go about to prove the Major but the Minor only To the whole Sylogisme I answer first that it is of a very strange complection both Propositions being false and therefore that it is impossible by the Rules of Logick that the conclusion should insue that the Proposition or the Major as they generally call it is altogether false may be proved by this that the thing which teacheth cannot be the thing which is taught no more then a Preacher can be said to be the word by him preached or the Dog which
as a secret to himself for some new discovery 35. For M. Nowel who sate Prolocutor in the Convocation Anno 1562. he takes a leap to the year 1587. in which he findes a Book published by D. John Bridges Dean of Salisbury and afterwards Lord Bishop of Oxon Entituled A Defence of the Government established in the Church of ENGLAND And that he might come to it the sooner he skips over the admission of Peter Barro a French man to the Lady Margarites Professor-ship in the University of Cambridge Anno 1574 who constantly held these points in a contrary way to that of the Calvinian plat-form and relinquished not that University till after the year 1595. of which more hereafter And he skips over also Doctor Harsâ—ets Sermon at Pauls Cross Octob. 27. 1584. in which he so declared himself against the Calvinistical Doctrines of Predestination that neither Mountague nor any that have writ since him did ever render them more odious unto vulgar cars But being come to him at the lâ—st what finds he there Marry That D. Bridges was of opinion That the Elect fall not finally and totally from Grace and so did D. Overal also of whom more anon who notwithstanding disallowed the Doctrine of Predestination as maintained by Calvin and puts not any such Comment on the 17. Article as your Antagonist contends for The like he findes in M. Hookers Discourse of Justification from whence he concluded no more but that M. Hooker was of a different opinion from you in the point of falling away from Grace Which point he might maintain as D. Overal D. Bridges and some others did and yet not be of the same judgment with the Calvinistical party either sub or supra touching that absolute and iresistable decree of Predestination the restriction of the benefit of Christs death and passion to particular persons and the invincible or rather irresistable operations of the grace of God in the conversion of a sinner which were so rigidly maintained in the Schools of Calvin I see then what is said by D. Bridges and what is said by M. Hooker but I see also what is said by the Church of England in the 16. Article in which we find That after we have received the holy Ghost we may depart from Grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives No such determination as either totally or finally to be found in the Article nor suffered to be added to it when it was motioned and desired by D. Reynolds in the conference at Hampton Court that old saying Non est distinguendum ubi lex non distinguit being as authentical as true and as true as old Howsoever I am glad to hear from your adversarie that M. Hooker could not tell how to speak Judicially as he saith he could not and then I hope he may be brought in time to approve of all things which he hath written so judiciously in behalf of the Liturgie and all the Offices Ceremonies and Performances of it which whensoever he doth I make no question but but that he may come to like the Episcopal Government and by degrees desert the Presbiterians both in Doctrine and Discipline as much as he Certain I am that M. Hooker maintained no such determination of humane action by any absolute decree or prelimitation as the Calvinists do and declared his dislike thereof in Cartwright the great Goliah of that Sect who had restrained all and every action which men do in this life to the preceding will and determination of Almighty God Even to the takeing up of a straw a fine piece of Dotage 36 But he demands How the Church came to dispose of the places of greatest influence and trust to such as hated Arminianism as the shadow of death If she her self consented to those opinions which he calls Arminian amongst which reckoning the Arch Bishops till the time of Laud he first leaves out Arch Bishop Cranmer the principal instrument under God of this Reformation which plainly shews that Cranmer was no favourer of those Opinions which your Antagonist contends for and consequently that the Articles were not fitted in these points unto Calvin's fancie And secondly he brings in Parker and Grindal whom M. Prinne whose diligince few things have escaped which serve his turne hath left out of his Catalogue in which he hath digested all our English Writers whom he conceived to be Antiarminianly enclined in a kind of Cronologie Thirdly he brings in Bishop Bancroft as great an enemy to the Predestinarian and Puritan Faction as ever sate in the See of Canterbury he had not else impeacht the Doctrine of Predestination as it was then taught by the Calvinians for a desperate Doctrine You have the whole passage in the Conference at Hampton Court impartially related by D. Burlow though your Adversary hath some invisible vileness or other to affirm the contrary Whereon a motion made by D. Reynolds about falling from Grace The Bishop of London this very Bancroft whom we speak of took occasion to signifie to his Majesty how very many in these days neglecting holiness of life presumed too much of persisting Grace If I shall be saved I shall be saved which he tearmed a desparate Doctrine shewing it to be contrary to good Divinity and the true Doctrine of Predestination Wherein saith he we should reason rather ascendendo then descendendo thus I live in obedience to God in love with my neighbour I follow my vocation c. therefore I trust that God hath elected me and predestinated me to salvation Not thus which is the usual course of argument God hath predestinated and chosen me to life therefore though I sin never so grievously yet I shall not be damned for whom he once loveth he loveth to the end so little a friend was this great Pralate to the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination and persisting Grace 37. But your Adversary not content with this hath found some proofs as he conceives That Bancroft hated that which he calls Arminianisme like the shadow of death he telleth us that in his time came out the Book called The Faith Religion Doctrine professed in the Realm of England and Dominions thereof In this as much mistaken as in that before that Book being published in the time of Arch-Bishop Whitgift Anno 1584 as he might have found in Mr. Fullers Church History lib. 9 fol. 172. being twenty years almost before Bancroft came to the See of Canterbury and 12. at least before he was made Bishop of London And being then published was as he saith disliked by some Protestants of a middle temper whom by this his Restrictive Comment were shut out from a concurrence with the Church of England whom the discreet â—uxity of the Text admitted thereunto And if disliked by Protestants of a middle temper as he saith it was there is no question to be made but that it was disliked much more by all true Protestants such as
under any other that our first Ecclesiastical Authors tell us of that the Apostles not onely allowed but founded Bishops so that the Tradition for some Books of Scripture which we receive as Cunonical is both less ancient less General and less uncontradicted then that is We have lived long happily and Gloriously under this form of Government it hath very well agreed with the Constitutions of our Laws with the disposition of our people How any other will do I the less know because I know not of any other of which so much as any other Monarchy hath had eperience they all having as I conceive at least superintendents for life and the meere word Bishop I supposed is no mans aim to destroy nor no mans aim to defend c. so that if we should take away a Government which hath as much testimony of the first Antiquity to have been founded by the Apostles as can be brought for some parts of Scripture to have been written by them my fear is least this may avert some of our Church from us and rivit some of the Roman Church to her So he when he was come again to his former temper and not yet entred or initiated into Court Preferments 54. And thus at last I shall end my trouble and your own having performed as much as I proposed to my self in answer to the Historical part of your Antagonists discourse in which he laboureth to evince that the Calvinian Doctrines by you opposed are no other then the establisht Doctrines of the Church of England In the managing whereof I could wish he had carried himself with more Respect towards some great persons whom he ought not to have looked on but with eyes full of Duty and reverence and that he had not given me so just cause to think that by his speaking Evil of Dignities he may be also one of those who despise Dominion I could have wisht also that both M. Baxter and himself would have given me leave to have worn out the remainder of my days in peace and quiet without engaging me in any of those disputes by which they have given so much trouble to themselves and others For your part happy man be your doâ—e I see there is a way chalkt out for your Redintegration It is but going over to your Adversary in the point of Election and Gods invincible working on the hearts of his chosen ones then he doth asture you of a speedy agreement or at the least that you should easily bear with one another in the present Differences Can M. Pierce remain so obstinate as not to hearken to a Pacification on such easie terms as giving to his Adversary the right hand of fellowship captivating his own judgement to the sence of Calvin the great Dictator in the Churches of the Reformation to whom so many knees have bowed and much tribute of obedience hath been paid both with heart and hand Why do not you offer the same terms to so kind an adversary and tempt him to a Reconciliation on the like conditions which if he be not willing to accept when offered you may then keep your selfe at that honest distance which hitherto hath made you unaccessible to all approaches and kept you out of the reach of their shot whether bolts or shafts What fortune will befall my selfe upon this encounter I am not able to determine having done nothing to deserve the just displeasure and little hoping to obtain the favour of those men who shall think themselves concerned in it some men are so in love with their own opinions that they do not onely hate to be Reformed in the Psalmists Language but carry an evil eye towards those who have laboured in it looking upon them with as much disdain indignation as Hanun the King of Ammon did on Davids Messengers when he returned them to their Masters with their beards half shaven and their Garments cut off in disgrace to their very buttocks 2 Sam. 10. 4. But be my fortune what it will it will be a most infinite content unto me that by my weak endeavors I have contributed any thing to the Glory of God the vindication of the truth the edification of the Church and the satisfaction of those pious souls who heartily do pray for the peace of Jerusalem and most effectually endeavor to promote the Work Amongst which number there is none who can more possionately desire to be entertained then Your most affectionate friend and Brother in Christ Jesus Peter Heylyn Lacies Court in Abingdon April 15. 1659. A POST-SCRIPT To the former Papers SIR AFter I had dispatched the Papers foregoing to the Press I called to mind a passage in a Letter sent from Dr. Ridley then Bishop of London to Mr. Hooper Bishop of Glocester which you shall find amongst many others in the Acts and Monuments in which he signifieth unto him that though they had sometimes differed in matter of Ceremony yet there had been an uniform consent between them in matter of Doctrine So that unto the testimonies of Arch Bishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper in maintenance of the cause which you contend for you may add also the concurrence of Bishop Ridley whose judgement in carrying on the Reformation was of such Authority that Canmer more relied on him then on any other I have been also further advertised of two Letters which are to be seen of M. Barrets own hand writing the one to D. Goad Master of Kings Colledg the other to Mr. Chatterton Master of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge in which he plainly lets them know That he would never yield to make that recantation to which for fear of losing his fellowship and being expelled the Vniversity endeavoured to draw him as also that D. Cosens and D. Martin making a diligent search into the Registers of the University could never find any such Recantation to have been made by the said Barret as is exemplified unto us in the Anti Arminianism from thence taken by M. Hickman though he do not so much as once acknowledg by whom he profiteth I am the more apt to believe that Barret never made the Recantation which is fathered on him because it appears clearly by the Acts themselves that though he did confess the Doctrines wherewith he was charged to have been positively and expresly delivered by him yet he averreth as expresly Quod contenta in iisdem Religione Ecclesiae Anglicanae omnino noti repugnant That they contained nothing contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England All that I find in the said Acts is the enjoyning of a Recantation the drawing of it into form and the delivering of it to Barret on the 5. of May by him to be published in S. Maries Church on the Saturday after and all this done when neither the Margaret Professor was of the same judgement with Barret nor the Vice-Chancellor himself whom it concerned as much as any were consulted in it But that Barret
his Ink mixt with more of the durty puddle then the Church Historians was with gall and vinegar when he bespattered the poor Clergy in the Preface to his Book of the Grotian Religion with all the filth that could proceed from a Pen so qualified I need not saith he go to M. Whites Centuryes to be acquainted of the qualities of the ejected our Country have had too many of them that have long been a burthen instead of a blessing some never preached but read the Common Prayer Book and some preached much worse then they that were never called Preachers Some understood not the Catechism or Creed many of them lived more in the Ale-house then the Church and used to lead their people in drunkenness cursing swearing quarrelling and other ungodly practises and to amend all by railing at the Puritans Praecisians some that were better would be drunk but now and then and preach once a day remembring still to meet with the Precise least their hearers should have any mind to becom Godly but neglecting most of the Pastoral cure and lived much in worldliness and prophaneness though not so disgracefully as the Rest Which passage when I read over it caused in me so great an horror and amazement that I could not tell whether I might give any credit to my senses or not the words sounding loud in my ears but not sinking at first into my heart For who could possibly believe that one who doth pretend to so much piety should shew himself the master of so little charity To all the Acts and offices of which excellent virtue enumerated by S. Paul in his 1. Epist to the Corinthians cap. 13. he hath shewed himself so great a stranger as if his Soul had never been acquainted with the Graces of it Such as have thrust themselves into other mens livings and they who patronize them in it seem to have quitted all the other properties of Charity to the Sequestred Clergy and retain only to themselves the not seeking their own For they seek after the Benefices and Goods of others The Rear brought up by a young man of * Magdalen Coll. Oxon whom I shall not call a whelp of the same litter though he hath pleased to give me no other title then that of a bird of the same feather who spends his mouth by telling his Reverend brethren of the Brackly breed that the Episcopal Government will be desired by the bad and therefore that they should take care that the Good did not wish it restored also that the Prelatical oppressions were such as might make wise men mad that some of the Prelates might with reason be called Antichristian whose Courts vexed sundry laborious Preachers becaus they could not bow at the name of Jesus when as sundry idle sots whom they might frequently observe to stagger in the streets were never questioned and finally he leaves it unto consideration whether it be not envy rather then conscience which maketh some to exclaim with so much bitterness against the late Ejections Sequestrations Deprivations and whether our late Sequestrations were not more justifiable then those proceedings in the late Archbishops times when men were suspended ab officio beneficio meerly for not Reading the Book of sports In which particulars although he doth not â—ark so loud yet he bites as close as any other in â—he Pack who have deeper mouths I must confess that neither finding my self particularly named in that infamous Century nor concerned more then any other in those general calumnies I did not think my self obliged to take notice of them It was my expectation rather that some one or other of those who sustained most wrong would have done themselves the right of a vindication and not have suffered those reproaches to have gained belief by such a dul and dangerous silence But at the last finding the cry revived by the Civil Historian the Divine Right of Episcopacy called in question the Bishops and Clergy ignorantly censured for their Proceedings in Convocation and the subordinates of the late Archbishops whereof I had the honour to be one so unhandsomely handled I thought it my duty to appear in defence of those points wherein I found the Author either by inadvertency or want of better intelligence to have been mistaken And so far I was liberum Agens prompted by none but my own good affections to the pulick interess to that undertaking But so I cannot say of my engagings with the Church Historian being solicited thereunto by persons of all Orders Degrees and stations as wel Ecclesiastical as Accademical in the pursuance whereof I could not but take notice of that passage before laid down do the poor Clergy so much right as the nature of an Animadversion might comport withal Nec solum ad nos haec in juriavenit ab illo in the Poets words it is not we alone that are the poor sequestred and ejected Clergy but the whole Church which hath been injured by him in her power and priviledges for the asserting whereof and rectifying such mistakes as I found therein I first applyed my self unto that performance What led me to this Letter-Combate with M. Baxter you will find in the discourse it self In which you may perceive how sensible I am of those reproaches which he so prodigally casts abroad upon those poor men whom the late Ordinance for ejecting of ignorant and scandalous Ministers hath brought under his power I must needs say I might have slipt my self out of this employment as one of those whose casting out he hath disowned among many others under the notion of being Prelatical and so far interessed in the late Civil Wars as my attending on the Kings person at Oxon can ascribe unto me But in this case I will not sever my own interess from that of my Brethren my brethren not like Simeon and Levi in the evil of sin but like to Paul and Barnabas in the evil of Punishment when used despitefully and threatned to be stoned to death by the men of Iconium For though we are all guilty through human frailties of our several sins yet for those sins we stand accomptable onely at the Bar of Heaven Those scandalous crimes under colour whereof so many of us have received the punishment of Sequestration and Ejection that the Hands of men falling so short from being proved that the nonproseuting of the Evidence to a legal Tryal may rationally be thought to acquit us of them And therefore I shall weave up your defence in the same peece with my own that as we fell together we may stand together in the recovery of that Reputation which is dearer to us then our lives not suffering our common Adversaries to deal with us as Ignorant Jurors do too often in passing their verdict upon the Prisoners at the Bar when without consideration of the crimes or evidence they resolve to save one half and hang the other Whatsoever I have done herein as it
concluded with my self not to engage hereafter in any of these unhappy Controversies which this unhappy Age hath bred but where some unavoidable necessity shall compel me to it For though Mr. Baxter hath been pleased in a late Book of his to give me the Title of an hot Anti-Puritan as I am credibly informed by a Letter which is come newly to my hands I verily perswade my self that neither you nor he will finde any such heat in my Conference with him as may render me obnoxious to that accusation But whether it be so or not and whether that which I have done in that whole Discourse to which Mr. Baxter is a party will be taken for an acceptable service to your selves and the Church our mother remains in you to be determined to whose upright just and impartial censure I do most chearfully recommend my performance in it the other tracts having particular applications as I do you to the divine consolations of the Heavenly Comforter with that affection which becometh The most unworthy of your Brethren in these common Sufferings Peter Heylyn Lacies Court in Abing don â—â—y 2. 1659. Certamen Epistolare Or The Letter Combate Managed by P. Heylyn D. D. with M. Baxter of Keederminster c. IT was about the middle of August last that M. Baxter's Book Entituled The Grotian Religion was put into my hands and it was put into my hands with this advertisement that I should finde somewhat in the Preface which concerned my self That intimation gave me the curiosity of turning first to that which was said to be of my own concernment as indeed it prooved not without much amazement to me that a man whom I had never known by face and not much by fame should put such an unnecessary provocation on me For speaking of the various acceptations of the word Puritan he lets us know that with the late Prelates a Puritan was eiâ—her a Non-Conformist or a Conformist that in Doctrine was not Arminian of which set Peter Heylyn gives us a description by their opinions Ser. 23. My first amazement being over I began to examine my memory upon these two points First whether in any Book or Books of mine I had applied the name of Puritan to any such of the Clergy who being conformable to the Church in Rites and Ceremonies agreed not in some Doctrinal points with such of their Brethren whom M. Baxter there brandeth with the name of Arminians And secondly whether in any Book or Books of mine I had made any such description of those Puritan-Conformists for so I may express M. Baxter's meaning by their opinions as might and did distinguish them from other men but not being able to find the remembrance or any the least foot-steps of it of any such application of the name or any such description of the men as is described to me in that Preface I began to consider with my self what might be M. Baxter's design in it Doubtful I was whether it might not be his purpose to render my name as unpleasing to the conformable Clergy by attributing to them the title of Puritans because they hold not with those whom M. Baxter calls Arminians in some points of Doctrine as it had been before to the Presbiterians for standing in defence of the Church and the conformable Children of it good sport it would have made amongst them if such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ball of discord such a bone of division being cast amongst us we had fallen foul on one another whilst they attending the success and taking opportunity to go on securely might in fine triumph over both And no less doubtful was I whether it might not be done upon some design of drawing me into fresh disputes and multiplying those invidious controversies which I chuse rather to decline Amongst so many uncertainties I thought it most agreeable unto my present condition to dispatch a fair but short Letter to him to let him know in what I found my self concerned and to desire him so far to assist my memory as to direct me to such Book or Books of mine and the particular places in them in which the name of Puritan was so applied and they to whom it was applied had been so described According to which resolution I had no sooner put an end to some business which detained me in London till the end of August and renewed the acquaintance betwixt me and my Study at my coming home but I prepared and sent away a Letter to him bearing date the thirteenth of September but either by my own incogitancy or the carelesness of my Scribe or Amanuensis there was no Copy of it taken so as I am necessitated to hit upon the matter and expressions of it as well as I can desiring M. Baxter to rectifie my mistakes therein if any shall be committed by me in laying down the sum and substance of that Letter which in brief was this The Substance of D. Heylyn's first Letter to M. Baxter of Keederminster SIR I Have lately caused your Book of the Grotian Religion to be read over to me and cannot but approve the modesty of your expressions and the ingenuity which you have shown in the carrying on of your designe Only I could have wished you had spared my name unless you would have proved me to have been one of that Religion as I think you cannot or else have had some more particular matter wherewithal to have charged me then I find you have For whereas it is said by you in your Preface That with the late Prelates a Puritan was either a Non-Conformist or a Conformist that in Doctrine was no Arminian of which sort Peter Heylyn gave us a description by their opinions I desire you to please to let me know in what Book or Books of mine you either find the name Puritan to be so applied or any such description made of them as your Preface speaks of Which favour if you please to do me you will not only therein supply the defect of my memory by which I may the better discern what I am to do but give me very just occasion to subscribe my self SIR Your very humble Servant and Christian Brother Peter Heylyn Lacies Court in Abingdon Septemb. 13. 1658. This Letter being thus dispatched I proposed these two hopes unto my self First That M. Baxter seeing his mistake would do me right and make me such amends in a publique way as might be answerable to the wrong he had publickly done me or otherwise that without any suspition of pragmaticalness or any new desire of being in action I might right my self What I have done in the last case must be left to the Reader M. Baxter having failed on his part of doing it for me For after more then six weeks expectation I received an Answer to my Letter on Saturday the thirtieth of October In the first part whereof he nameâ—mpuring â—mpuring it to his temerity that he made mention of me on that
holy breathings after Christ the love to God! the heavenly mindedness the hatred of all known sin the humility self-denial meekness c. that I have discerned as far as effects can shew the heart to others in abundance of those people that differ from you in some smaller things which occasioned your frequent bitter reproaches if God love them not I have not yet met with the people whom I may say he loveth if he do love them he will scarcely take your dealing well especially when you rise to such bloody desires of hanging them as the better remedy then burning their Books as in your History of Sabbath pag. 254. Ecclesia vindicata Preface and passim you express 7. I am not an approver of the violence of any of them nor do I justifie M. Burtons way nor am I of the minde of the party you most oppose in all their discipline as a Book now in the Press will give the world an account but I am sure the Church must have unity and charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government or not at all And if you would have men live in peace as Brethren our union must not be Law or Ceremonies or indâ—fferent Forms nor must you make such rigorous Laws for all and hang them that are against you Scripture and reason and the primitive practise and great experience do lead us all to another course But of these words if I could procure your pardon I expect no more because of our difference 8. To pass by many others I am also much unsatisfied in three things you say concerning Popery 1. That the Papist was the more moderate adversary and the Puritan faction hurried on with greater violence c. Preface to Ecclesia vindicata 2. That you maintain against M. Burton that the Religion of the Papists is not rebellion nor their faith faction I prove both 1 That Religion which defineth the deposition of Princes and absolving their Subjects from their fidelity by the Pope because they deny Transubstantiation c. is rebellion Doctrinal but such is the Popish Religion The Minor is evident That which is defined by a Pope and general Council is the Papistâ— Religion It is defide yea and essential because they will have all essentials and deny our distinguishing them from the rest But the aforesaid Doctrin is defined by a Pope and an approved general Council viz at the Laterane under INNOCENT III. That if any Protestant Writers should teach the same that puts it not into our Creed as this is in theirs 2. If it be an Article of the Papists faith that none are members of Christ and his Church but the Subjects of the Pope then the Papists faith is faction But the Antecedent is true being defined by Pope LEO X. in a general Council 3. I am a sorry Lawyer but truly I would fain understand whether it be true that written by M. Dow and you his page 185. and yours 210. of the History of the Sabbath That the Popes decretals the body of the Canon Law is to be accepted as not abrogated which being made for the direction and reiglement of the Church in general were by degrees admitted and obeyed in these parts of Christendom and are by Act of Parliament so far still in force as they oppose not the Prerogative Royal and the municipal Laws and Statuâ—es of this Realm of England these are your words and M. Dow gives some reason for them out from a Statute of HEN. 8. But little know I by what Authority the Popes decretals are Laws to the Church in general or to us and I will yet hope they are not in force But if ever I live to see another Parliament if I be mistaken I shall crave a freedom from that bondage I thought the Acts that impose the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy had disobliged us from all forreign power and nulled the Popes authority in England 9. I am very glad that you who are esteemed the Primipilus among the defenders of the late turgid and persecuting sort of Prelacy do so freely disclaim the Grotian Religion which I never charged you with I hope the more confidently that most of the Prelatical Divines will disown it but if ever you put your self to the trouble of writing to me again I should be glad to understand how you can take the Popes decretals and the body of the Canon Law as a Law for the government of the Church in general and here received to be still so far in force as you affirm and yet not hold that the Pope and his Council have the power of making Laws for the government of the Church in general and see that we and all other Christians are his Subjects Sir I crave your pardon of the displeasing plainness of these lines and remain Your unfaignedly well willing Brother and fellow Servant R. Baxter Octob. 20. 1658. To this Letter being thus received and seriously considered of I thought my self obliged to return an Answer and such an Answer as might satisfie him in all particulars which were in difference between us and it is here chearfully presented to the eye of the Reader The Answer of Peter Heylyn D. D. to M. Baxter's Letter of Octob. 20. SIR YOur Letter of Octo. 20 last I received on Saturday the 30. of the same Month at what time I was preparing for a Journey to London from whence I returned not till that day Month I had there so much other business to take up my thoughts that I could not give my self the leasure to read and consider the Contents of that your Letter much less of dispatching an Answer to it But being now at home in full peace of minde and health of body I thank God for it I have more thorowly considered of all particulars which may sâ—em necessary for me to take notice of in order to my owne defence and your satisfaction which shall go hand in hand together 10. But first I must needs tell you that I could not chuse but wonder at the extream but most unnecessary length thereof and the impertinencies of the greatest part of it in reference to that Letter of mine which it was to Answer and whereunto you had given so full an Answer in the first 25. lines which make but the fifth part of the whole that there was no need of any thing to be added to it The cause of my address unto you was to let you know how much I wished that you had spared my name in your Preface to your Book of the Grotian Religion unless you could have proved me to have been one of that Religion which I thought you could not or had had some more particular charge to have laid against me then I sound you had And secondly To desire you to let me know in what Book or Books of mine you had found a Puritan defined to be a Conformist who was no Arminian a description of whom one Peter Heylyn had
common sense import though I desire that my words should be understood alwaies in the litteral sense or in any other sense that you shall give them as afore was said which being premised I would fain see how you prove the point which you have so blindly undertaken Marry say you I deal with M. Burton as the Puritans Oracle pag. 152. their superintendent Champion c. as in my Preface to that Book and my desâ—râ—ptiâ—n of him is that he followeth Illyricus in his Doctrines de providentia predestinatione gratia libero arbitrio c. pag. 182. Stay here a little M Baxter do you not tell us in the former part of your Letter that you had not seen that Book against M. Burton above 20. years and therefore condemned your temerity in mentioning me on the trust of your memory after so long time and can you now direct us not only unto single words Oracle Superintendent Champion c. and to the several pages where they are Can you direct us to a marginal Note pag. 182. relating to a Book called Necessaria Responsio and to the folios of that Book viz. pag. 82. with pag. 82 84. 85. or tell your Readâ—â— in what part or page of that Book he may find D Jackson acquitted from maintaining Arminianism and the Puritans condemned for wresting the Articles of the Church pag. 122 123. Can you do this and yet with confidence declare that it is 20. years since you saw that Book Assuredly your memory must be very good in remembring so many single words and particular passages with the very places where they are after the space of twenty years or very bad in not remembring that the description of a Puritan which you had charged on Peter Heylyn was to be found in M. Dow and perhaps not there Quid verba audiam cum facta videam You tell us that you have not seen that book this twenty years and here is evidence enough that you have it by you for I cannot think that you clogged your Note Book with such petit remembrances unless the term of twenty years may pass in your account for no more then yesterday 13. But be your memory good or bad I am sure your Logick is far worse none of old Baxter's this then your memory can be The Charge you are to prove is this That with the late Prelates a Puritan was either a Non-Conformist or a Conformist that in Doctrine was no Arminian of which sort Peter Heylyn gave us a description by their opinions By which we are to understand if you mean nothing else but what your words in the common sense import that the Puritans of whom the said sorry fellow called Peter Heylyn hath given us a description by their opinions is such a Conformist who in Doctrine is no Arminian This is the point you are to prove and for the proof of this you instance in M. Burton of Fryday-Street who though he was no Arminian in point of Doctrine yet was he so far from being a Conformist that since the hanging up of Penry at Saint Thomas of Waterings where he Preached before a very thin audience on the top of the Ladder as Johannes Stow informeth us Anno 1593. There never was a more profest outragious violent and seditious Non-Conformist in the Church of England Now if the Puritans be there described by M. Burton as you say they are or if the Reader understand me as describing Puritans only because I have so often given the person described that name as I am willing that he should and you say he must It must needs follow thereupon that the Puritans against whom I write cannot be such Conformists as are no Arminians but such notorious Non-Conformists as their Oracle and Champion M. Burton was There was an old distinction made by I know not whom betwixt the Knaves Puritan and the Knave Puritans the Knaves Puritan being one that made a conscience of his waies and followed not profane and licentious persons in their ungodly way of living But the Knave Puritans were those who under pretence of long Prayer devoured widdows houses and wilfully opposed the Rights and Ceremonies of the Church and clamorously cried down the Lordly Prelacy and jurisdiction of the Bishops that they might themselves Lord it over Gods people in their several Parishes and sit as so many petit Popes in their Classical Sessions These and no others are the Puritans against whom I write not against those who walk unblamably before God and man nor against those who following Calvin's judgment in the matter of predestination and the points concomitant conform themselves unto the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England here by Law established of which last sort were many Bishops Deanes Dignitaries in Cathedral Churches whose parts piety I admire as much as any whom it had been a madness to condemn for Puritans such Puritanism and their several dignities being inconsistent 14. So then the Puritan whom I aim at in the person of M Burton is a notorious Non-Conformist and whither I had described him or them we are next to see And my description of him as you tell us containâ—th first that hee follows Illyricus in his Doctrines dâ— providentia predestinatione gratia libero arbitrio c. If it conteins that first as you say it doth it must needs contain something in the second third and fourth places which you are willing not to speak of For if â—ou look into the place by you cited pag. 882. you will there find that M. Burton is not only said to be a follower of Illyricus in his Doctrines de providentia c. but to have also followed him in his fiery nature and seditious principles one of which was Principes potius metu seditionum terrendos quam vel minimum pacis causa indulgendum That Princes should be rather terrified with the feares of tumults then any thing should be yielded to for quietness sake All which being laid together as it stands in your Author falls so much short of being a description of such Puritans as being conformable to the Church in Rites and Ceremonies are notwithstanding no Arminians in point of Doctrine which you have charged on Peter Heylyn that it conteineth not such a principal part of that description as you have laid on D. Dow For besides that the Puritans hold the same opinions with those who follow Calvin's judgment in some controverted points before remembred they hold also some opinions of their own that is to say it is not lawful to use the Cross in Baptism or to bow at the blessed name of Jesus which M. Burton calls Cross-worship and Jesu-worship nor to be uncovered in the time of Divine Service to wear the Surplice kneel at the Communion to marry with the Ring and finally to stand up at the Gospels and the Gloria Patri In all which he and they were as much opposed by those of the Conformable Clergy who follow Calvin's
like and reckoned him for a reproach to the holy improvements of the Sabbath by justifying his Disciples in plucking off the ears of Corn upon that day commanding the man whom he had cured of his diseases to take up his bed and walk though upon the Sabbath and finally giving this general Aphorism to his Disciples That the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath Then which there could be nothing more destructive of those superstitions wherewith that day was burthened by the Scribes Pharisees and thereby more accommodated to the ease of the Ox and Asse then to the comfort and refreshment of the labouring man might not the latter Rabines among the Jews defend themselves in those ridiculous niceties about the keeping of that Sabbath Queen-Sabbath as they commonly call it for which they stand derided and condemned by all sober Christians by reckoning them for such holy improvements as D. Bound and his Disciples have since encogitated and devised to advance the dignity of the Lords day Saints Sunday as the people called it in times of Popery to as high a pitch Restore the Lords day to that innocent freedom in which it stood in the best and happiest times of Christianity and lay every day fresh burthens upon the consciences of Gods people in your restraints from necessary labours and lawful pleasures which neither we nor our forefathers have been able to bear though christned by the name of holy improvements The coming out of Barbours's Book Printed and secretly dispersed Anno 1628. but walking more confidently abroad with an Epistle Dedicatory to his Sacred Majesty about five years after declare sufficiently what dangerous effects your holy improvements had produced if not stopt in time and stopt they could not be by any who maintain your Principles that poor man being then deceived into the errour of a Saturday Sabbath a neer neighbour of this place hath been of late by the continual inculcating both from the Pulpit and the Press of the perpetual and indispensable morality of the fourth Commandment as it hath been lately urged upon us But so much hath been said of this by others and elsewhere by me that I forbear to press it further nor indeed had I said thus much had you not forced me upon it for my own defence 18. And for those most unjust as well as uncharitable speeches those bitter reproaches as you call them afterwards which you charge upon me in reference to my brethren whom I take for adversaries when you have told me what they are and of whom they are spoken and where a man may chance to find them I shall return a more particular answer to this calumny also but till then I cannot In the mean time where is that ingenuity and justice you so much pretend too you make it foul crime in me not easily to be washed away with the tears of repentance that I have used some tart expressions which you sometimes call bitter reproaches sometimes unjust and uncharitable speeches against my brethren many of them being my inferiours and the best but my equals and take no notice of those odious and reproachful Attributes which you have given unto your Fathers all of them being your superiours de facto though perhaps you will not grant them to be such de jure You call me in a following passage the Primipilus by which I finde you have studied Godwin's Antiquities or chief of the defenders of the late turgid or persecuting sort of Prelates whither with greater scorn to me or reproach to them it is hard to say the merit of the accusation we shall see anon I note here only by the way in S. Paul's expression that that wherein you judge another you condemn yourself seeing you do the same things and perhaps far worse But to return unto my self take this in general that though I may sometimes put vinegar into my inck to make it quick and opulative as the case requireth yet there is nothing of securrility or malice in it nothing that savoureth of uncharitableness or of such bitter reproaches as you unjustly tax me with But when I meet with such a firebrand as M. Burton whose ways you will not seem to justifie in that which followeth I hope you cannot think I should pour Oyl upon him to encrease the flame and not bring all the water I had to quench it whither soul or clean Or when I meet with such unsavoury peices of wit and mischief as the Minister of Lincoln Diocesse and the Church Historian would you not have me rub them with a little salt to keep them sweet The good Samaritan when he undertook the care of the wounded passenger is said to have poured into his wounds both Oyl and Wine that is to say the Oyl to cherish and refresh it and the Wine to cleanse it Oleum quo foveatur Vinum quo mordeatur as I have read in some good Authors he had not been a skilful Chyrurgion if he had done otherwise one plaister is not medcinal to all kind of sores some of which may be cured with Balm when others more corrupt and putrified do require a lancing but â—o I shall not deal with M. Baxter nor have I dealt so with others of his perswasion insomuch that I have received thanks from the Ministers of Surrey and Buckingham shire in the name of themselves and of that party for my fair and respectful language to them both in the Preface to my History of the Sabbath and the Conclusion to the same 19. But you go on and having given me some good councel which I shall thank you for anon you tell me that besides those many bitter reproaches of my Brethren which I take for adversaries I rise unto such bloody desires of hanging them as the better remedy then burning their Books For this you point us to the History of the Sabbath pag. 2 pag. 254. and in the general Preface to Ecclesia vindicata Sect. 8. In which last place we find it thus That partly by the constancy and courage of the Arch-Bishop Whitgift who succeeded Grindal Anno 1583. the opportune death of the Earl of Leicester their chief Patron Anno 1588. and the incomparable pains of judicious Hooker Anno 1595. but principally by the seasonable execution of Copping and Thacker hanged at Saint Edmonds bury in Suffolke for publishing the Pamphlets of Robert Brown against the Book of Common-prayer they became so quier that the Church seems to be restored to some hopes of peace Nothing in this that savoureth of such bloody desires as you charge upon me I am sure of that and there is little more then nothing in the other passage where speaking of D. Bound's Book of Sabbath-Doctrines and the sad consequents thereof I add that on the discovery of it this good ensued that the said Books were called in by Arch Bishop Whitgift in his Vâ—sitations and by several Letters and forbidden to be Printed and made common by Sir
John Popham Lord Chief Justice at the Assizes held at Bury and thereunto I subjoyned these words viz. Good remedies indeed had they been soon enough applied yet not so good as those which formerly were applied to Thacker and his fellow Copping in the aforesaid Town of Bury for publishing the Books of Brown against the Service of the Church But here is no mention not a syllable of burning the said Books of Sabbath-Doctrines but only of suppressing and calling in Which makes me apt enough to think that you intended that for a private nip relating to a Book of mine called Respondit Petrus which was publiquely voyced abroad to have been publiquely burnt in London as indeed the burning of it was severely prosecuted though itscaped the fire a full account whereof being too long to be inserted in this place I may perhaps present you with in a place by it self And secondly what find you in that latter passage which argueth me to be guilty of such bloody desires as I stand accused for in your Letter Cannot a man report the passages of former times and by comparing two remedies for the same disease prefer the one before the other as the case then stood when the spirit of sedition moved in all parts of the Realm but he must be accused of such bloody desires for makeing that comparison in a time of quietness in a time of such a general calm that there was no fear of any such tempest in the State as did after follow If this can prove me guilty of such bloody desires the best is that I stand not single but have a second to stand by me of your own perswasion for in the same page where you find that passage viz. page 254. you cannot chuse but find the story of a Sermon Preached in my hearing at Sergeants Inn in Fleetstreet in which the Preacher broach'd this Doctrine That temporal death was at this day to be inflicted by the Law of God on the Sabbath breaker on him who on the Lord's day did the works of his daily calling with a grave application to my Masters of the Law that if they did their ordinary works on the Sabbath day in taking fees and giving counsel they should consider what they did deserve by the Law of God The man that Preached this was Father Foxly Lecturer of S. Martins in the Fields Superintendent general of the Lecturers in S. Antholin's Church and Legate à Latere from the Grandees residing at London to their friends and agents in the Countrey who having brought these learned Lawyers to the top of the Ladder thought it a high piece of mercy not to turn them off but there to leave them either to look after a Reprieve or sue out their Pardon This Doctrine you approve in him for you have passed it quietly over qui tacet consentire videtur as the saying is without taking any notice of it or exceptions against it and consequently may be thought to allow all those bloody uses also which either a blind superstition or a fiery zeal shall think fit to raise But on the other side you find such bloody desires in the passages before remembred which cannot possibly be found in them but by such a gloss as must pervert my meaning and corrupt my text and it is Male dicta glossa quâ corrumpit textum as the old Civilians have informed us 20. But to come nearer to your self May we be sure that no such bloody desires may be found in you as to the taking away of life in whom we find such merciless resolutions as to the taking away of the livelyhood of your Christian Brethren The life of man consists not only in the union of the soul and body but in the enjoyment of those comforts which make life valued for a blessing for Vita non est vivere sed valere as they use to say there is as well a civil as a natural death as when a man is said to be dead in law dead to the world dead to all hopes of bettering his condition for the time to come and though it be a most divine truth that the life is more then food and the body then rayment yet when a man is plundered both of food and cloathing and declared void of all capacities of acquiring more will not the sence of hunger and the shame of nakedness be far more irksome to him then a thousand deaths How far the chiefs of your party have been guilty of these civil slaughters appears by the sequestring of some thousands of the Conformable and Established Clergy from their means and maintainance without form of Law who if they had done any thing against the Canons of the Church or the Laws of the Land were to be judged according to those Laws and Canons against which they had so much transgressed but suffering as they did without Law or against the Law or by a Law made after the fact aâ—ainst which last his Highness the late LORD PROTECTOR complaineth in his Speech made in the year 1654. they may be truly said to have suffered as Innocents and to be made Confessors and Martyrs against their wills Either they must be guilty or not guilty of the crimes objected If they were guilty and found so by the Grand Inquest why were they not convicted and deprived in due form of Law If not why were they suspended sine die the profits of their Churches sequestered from them and a Vote passed for rendring them uncapable of being restored again to their former Benefices Of this if you do not know the reason give me leave to tell you The Presbyterians out of Holland the Independents from New England the beggerly Scots and many Trâ—n châ—r-Chaplains amongst our selves were drawn together like so many Vultures to seek after a prey for gratifying of whom the regular and established Clergy must be turned out of their Benefices that every Bird of r pine might have its nest some of them two or three for failing which holding by no other Tenure then as Tenants at will they were necessitated to performe such services as their great Patrons from time to time required of them 21. Now for your part how far you are and have been guilty of these civil slaughters appears abundantly in the Preface which is now before us in which you do not only justifie the sequestring of so many of the regular and established Clergy to the undoing of themselves and their several families but openly profess That you take it to be one of the charitablest works you can do to help to cast out a bad Minister and to get a better in the place so that you prefer it as a work of mercy before much sacrifice Which that it may be done with the better colour you must first murther them in their fame then destroy them in their fortunes reproaching them with the Atributes of utterly insufficient ungodly unfaithful scandalous or that do more harm then good
person in that Family used his own way in worshiping the Lord his God Jerusalem could not long have kept the name of a City much lesse the honour of being the City which was at unity in it self And Solomon in the book of Canticles compareth the Church unto an Army an Army terrible with banners now an army is a gallant sight when it moves one way when every Regiment and Troop marcheth in order with and under their proper Ensigns and as long as they do so they may seem invincible but if their files and â—anks be broken if they march either without order or against direction consusi Equites Peditâ—sque in exitium ruunt both Horse and Foot will be easily vanquished and the whole Army put to rout by the weakest Enemies When therefore the Apostle gives us this good counsel that we endeavour to keep the spirit of unity in the bond of peace he seems to intimate that there can be no unity where there is no peace and that peace cannot be preserved without some bond If you destroy all Ceremonies and subvert all Forms you must break the bond and if the bond be broken you must break the peace and if you break the peace what becomes of unity so that it is but a dream of a dry Summer as the saying is to think that without Law or Forms or Ceremonies men may live peaceably together as becometh brethren though they profess one Faith acknowledge one Lord and receive one Baptism and be the sons of that one Father which is in heaven 34. When therefore you subjoin that Scripture and reason and the Primitive practice and great experience do lead in all to another course I would fain know particularly to what that passage doth relate if to the words immediately foregoing in which you tell me that I must not make such rigorous laws to hang up all that are against me I grant indeed that the Church hath no authority to make any such laws either from Scripture or the practice of the Primitive times Neither can any reason justifie or any great experience adde strength to such executions defendendaâ—est religio non occidendo sed moriendo was the rule of old but if those words relate to the former clause as intimating that an union which is built on Laws preserved by Forms and cemented by Ceremonies in Gods publick Worship is neither consonant to Scripture agreeable to Reason conform unto the Primitive times nor countenanced by great Experience there is not any thing in the world which can be more unfitly spoken or more impossible to be proved What may be said in that behalf from Scripture Reason and the practice of the Primitive times hath briefly been presented to you in the former passages and would to God we had not found by too great experience how much our union which made us gloried and renowned in the eyes of the World is broken in pieces for want of those good Laws those religious Forms those decent Ceremonies which were before in use amongst us certain I am that neither Scripture Reason the Primitive times or great Experience do lead us to any other course for preserving union in the Worship of God but by established Laws set Forms and commanded Ceremonies in which if you conceive me to be mistaken you must endeavour to prove it not say it only But this you seem willing to decline telling me that if you could procure my pardon for those words you would expect no more because of our distance My pardon is as easily obtained as asked if you conceive it worth the asking when there is no offence either given or taken But whether you expect any more or not that remains wholly in your self it being a matter of your own seeking that you have so much My desires are to live in peace and not to engage my self in new embroilments having had too many Irons in the fire already howsoever as you like this you may have more if you please the distance of our habitations not being so great but that we may manage these Pen Combates without any great trouble and the distance in our affections being so little that I shall very chearfully embrace the freindship and somwhat ambitiously desire a place in your good opinion Distantia locorum non tollit amicitiam is a known Aphorism in our Ethicks A friendly correspondence being once begun cannot be intermitted by the distance of places or the remoteness of habitations if both parties equally endeavour to maintain the same 35. And here again we might have parted but that you have a mind for what ends I know not to ingage me in some fresh disputes For thinking you had satisfied me you desire that I would satisfie you passing by many other things in three points especially concerning Popery in which you seem to be much unsatisfied such satisfaction as I can I am bound to give you as unto any other man who modestly shall require an account from me for any thing which hath passed my Pen or come within the compass of my small ability and the first thing for which satisfaction is desired is That the Papists are affirmed by me to have been the more moderate Adversaries then the Puritans and the Puritan Faction hurried on with greater violence c. For this you cite the Preface of my Ecclesia Vindicata where I am sure there is no such matter no such thing I am sure delivered in such general tearms as you here express it but with limitations and restrictions unto one particular which is the Argument there handled so that you enter upon these new Disputes concerning Popery with that kind of fallacy which the Logicians call A dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter And how can I hope for a fair end from so foul a beginning Look on that Preface once again and you will find that I speak not generally of all the differences which are betwixt us and the Papists but only of those heats which have passed on both sides about the liturgie for having told the Reader That the Liturgie was faulted by the Papist because it had abolished the Mass and was communicated to the people in the English tongue and blamed by the Genevians for having too much in it of the Roman Rituals I presently subjoyn That the Papist of the two was the moderate Adversary and such whose edges were sooner taken off from the prosecution of the quarrel then others were Would you be satisfied in this You may then please to know that after the first heats were over the Papists presently grew cool and relinquished the quarrel considering seasonably and discreetly that the Liturgie being founded upon those common Principles of faith and piety in which both parties did agree was not so subject to disputes and contradiction as at first it seemed And hereupon it was that Pope PIVS IV. offered to confirm it by his Papal Authority that the English Papists dilligently resorted to
were subject to the Pope Neither indeed was there any need at that time of this Councel that any such Definitions should be made no new Heresie or any new doctrine which by them might be called Heresie being then on foot for Luther did not rise in Germany till this Counsel was ended which might create any disturbance to the peace of that Church If any such priviledges were arrogated by Pope Leo the 10. that none should be accounted members of Christ and his Church but such as were subject to the Pope which you cannot find definitively in the Acts of that Councel you must rather have looked for it in the Bulls of that Pope after Luther had begun to dispute his power and question his usurped authority over all the Church In one of which Bulls you may finde somewhat to your purpose where you shall find him saying that the Church of Rome is Mother and Mistress of all Christians and that her doctrines ought to be received of whosoever would be in the Communion of the Church If this be that you mean much good do it you with though this be rather to be taken for a Declaration then a Definition 45. But if your meaning is as perhaps it may be that the Papists Faith may be called Faction because they appropriate to themselves the name of the Church and exclude all other Christians from being members of Christ and his Church which are not subject to the Pope as indeed they do take heed you lose not more in the Hundreds then you got by the County for then it may be proved by the very same Argument if there were no other that the Puritan Faith is Faction and so to be accounted by all that know it because they do appropriate unto themselves the name of the Church as the old Affrican Scismaticks confined it intra partem Donati For proof whereof if you please to consult Bâ—shop Bancrofts book of Dangerous Positions anâ— Proceedings c. part 3. chap. 15. you will find them writing in this manner viz I know the state of this Church make known to us the state of the Church with you Our Churches are in danger of such as having been of us do renounce all fellowship with us It is long since I have heard from you saith one Blake of the state of the Church of London Another By M. West and M. Brown you shall understand the state of the Churches wherein we are A third If my offence may not be passed by without a further confessiâ—n even before God and his Churâ—h in London will I lye down and lick the dust off your feet where you may see what it is which the heavenly-mindednesse the self-denial meeknesse and Humility which the brethren aim at and confesse it c. I have received saith the fourth a Letter from you in the name of the rest of the Brethren whereby I understand your joining together in choosing my self unto the service of the Church under the Earl of Leicester I am ready to run if the Church command me according to the holy Decrees and Orders of the Discipline Lay all which hath been said together and tell me he that can my wits not being quick enough for so great a nicety whether the Papists Faith or that of the Puritans most properly and meritoriously may be counted Faction 46. The third thing in which you seem unsatisfied in what I say concerning Popery is whether it be true or not that the Popes Decretals the body of the Canon Law is to be accepted as not being abrogated which being made for the direction and reiâ—lement of the Church in general were by degrees admitted and obeyed in these parts of Christendome and are by Act of Parliament so far still in force as they oppose not the Prerogative royal or the municipal laws and statutes of this Realm of England These words I must confesse for mine owning Hist Sab. pa. 2. ch 7. p. 202. and not 210. as your Letter cites it your parenthesis being only excepâ—ed and you name it this Kingdome in stead of the Realm of England though both expressions be to one and the same effect In which you might have satisfied your self by M. Dow who as you say gives some reason for it out of a Statute of Hen. 8. But seeing you remain still unsatisfied in that particular I shall adde something more for your satisfaction In order whereunto you may please to know that in the Stat. 29. Hen. 8. ch 19. commonly called the Statute of the submission of the Clergy it is said expresly First that the Clergie in their convocation promised the King in verbo Saâ—erdoris not to enact or execute any new Canons but by his Majesties royal assent and by his authority first obtained in that behalf and secondly that all such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodals Provincial as were made before the said submission which were not contrary or repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customes of this Realm nor to the dammage or hurt of the Kings Prerogative Royal were to be used and executed as in former times By which last clause the Decretal of preceding Popes having been admitted into this Land and by several Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England and the main body of the Canon-law having for a long time been accounted for a standing rule by which all proceedings in the Courts Ecclesiastical were to be regulated and directed remain still in force and practice as they had done formerly But then you are to know withall that they were no longer to remain in force and practice then till the said preceding Canons and Constitutions as appears by the said Act of Parliament should be viewed and accommodated to the use of this Church by 32. Commissioners selected out of the whole body of the Lords and Commons and to be nominated by the King But nothing being done therein during the rest of the Kings reign the like authority was granted to King Edw. 6. 3. 4. Edw 6. c. 11. And such a progresse was made in it that a Sub-committee was appointed to review all their said former Canons and Constitutions and to digest such of them into form and order as they thought most fit and necessary for the use of this Church Which Sub committee consisted of eight persons only that is to say Thomas Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Lord Bishop of Eli Dr. Richard Cox the Kings Almoner Peter Martyr his Majesties professor for Divinity William May and Rowland Taylor Doctors of the Law John Lucas and Richard Gooderick Esquires who having prepared and digested the whole work into form and order were to submit the same to the rest of the 32. and finally to be presented to the King for his Royal Assent and confirmation And though the said Sub-committee had performed their parts as appears by the Book entituled REFORMATIO LEGUM ECCLESIASTICARUM ex authoritate primum Regis HENRICI VIII inchâ—aâ—a Deinde
Certamen Epistolare Or The Letter Combate PART II. Containing the Intercourse of Letters between Peter Heylyn D. D. And Mr. Hickman of Magd. Coll. Oxon. Relating To the Historicall part of a Book Intituled The Justification of the Fathers and Schoolmen c. Vell. Puterc Histi Lib. 2. Ubi semel a recto deerratum est in preceps pervenitur nec quisquam sibi turpe putat quod aliis est Fructósum Ide ibid. Familiare est hominibus omnia sibi remittere nihil aliis Et invidiam non ad causam sed advoluntatem personasque dirigere LONDON Printed in the Year 1659. To His much Respected Friend Thomas Peirce Master of Arts and Rector of Bringhton in the Diocess of Peter-burrough SIR 1. BEfore you had writ your Letter of the 8th of March I had received another from an unknown hand by which I was made acquainted that your Antagonist of Magdalen Coll. had published his Pamphlet a second time and made bolder with me in the second then the first Edition And having given me some account of the Book which I could find no time of sufficient leisure to Enquire much after he makes this request that I would undertake an answer to the Historical part thereof in which he labours to Evince that the Calvinistical opinions were the avowed doctrines of this Church I had then some other work in hand from which I was not willing to be taken off by this diversion and therefore desired him to excuse me from that ingagement which he so zealously but very modestly withal recommended to me It was not long before I had received the like Advertisement from a friend nere London which I past over with as little Apprehension of the indignities and affronts which were done unto me as I did the other But yours of the Date above mentioned following close upon them I began to consider with my selfe that there was somewhat more then ordinary in this invitation in which so many men concurred of such different dwellings without communicating their designs and thoughts unto one another I found many Reasons in my selfe to decline the business my growing into years my decay of Sight my want of necessary helps the disparity between the persons and that having Adversaries enough already it would be a great imprudence in me to encrease their number and make them swell into an Army But on the other side I considered also the multiplicity of your Employments the Charity which might be shown in easing you of some part of your burthen the bitterness of the man against persons of Eminence on whom he ought not to have looked without veneration but most especially that as I had appeared in defence of the Church in my younger dayes so it might ill become me to desert her now being as yet in some Capacity of doing that service which you and others have so earnestly desired of me Defendi Rem publ Adolescens non deseram senex was Cicero's Resolution once and shall now be mine And because it was your Letter which prevailed upon me more then any other I have made bold to render my account to you from whose hand most especially I received the charge First laying down the narrative of such preparatory Entercourse as passed betwixt me and your Antagonist before I setled positively on the undertaking and then descending to the satisfaction of so many good friends as far as I am able to serve them and the Church in performance of it Give me your patience for a time whilest I address my lines unto you in my own behalf and I shall little doubt of it when I write of him who hath made one Enemy of both Alterum a te pâ—to ut me pro me benigne Alterum ipse Efficiam ut contra illum cum dicam attente audias in the Orators words But it is time to end my preamble and begin my story which is thus 2. It was by accident that Mr. Baxters Book of the Grotian Religion was unexpectedly offered to me with intimation that I should find somewhat in the preface which concerned my selfe By the like accident and with the same intimation also I came to know of Mr. Hickmans late Book in Justification of the Fathers and Schoolmen c. It is not to be wondred if my Curiosity or desire of self satisfaction first carried me to the consideration of my own concernments as before it did or that I should be much amazed to find my self so coursely handled by a person I never heard of nor perhaps never might have done but on that account The Positivity of Sinne might be a Paradox or a truth and so declared on either side without drawing me into the Quarrel who have not hitherto engaged on the one side or the other But Mr. Hickman that thinks so well of his own abilities as to conceive no one man was to be looked upon as a competent Adversary on whom to exercise his Pen and therefore must raise up another who had not the least thoughts of contending with him And that he might be sure to sharpen me to the Encounter he doth not onely touch upon me and so pass it over as Mr. Baxter did before but spends the best part of a leafe in loading me with Reproach and infamy He had before given this unhandsome Character of you whom he looks on as his principal Adversary that you are one that drinks up scorning like water and knows not how to mention the worthiest man alive if of a different judgment without contempt which he concludes with this smart Expression that rather then you will not fight you would contend with your own shaddow Which said he calls me a Bird of the same feather makes me to take my flight from the Angel in Ivy-lane intitles it to no small wonder that a Doctor in Divinity should so unworthily handle a Reverend Person it is the Lord Primate whom he means and finally declares that a Book of mine had received the desert of its bitterness in being burnt for so he saith he was informed by the hand of the Hangman But let not these vinegar expressions be a trouble to you which I assure you stirre not me who have long learnt with him in the old Historian civili animo laceratam existimationem ferre to bear with an undisturbed mind the greatest Calumnies which either the tongues or pens of malitious men can lay upon me 3. For though this provocation might have been sufficient to have awakened one of a duller spirit yet I resolved to sleep on still and lookt no otherwise on this passage then as the inconsiderable Phantasme of an Idle Dream I had before resolved not to put my hand to any controversie in which the Lord Primate was concerned and so far satisfied Mr. Baxter in the not burning of the Book that I conceived all further answer to that scandalous charge to be altogether as unnecessary as the Charge was false In satisfying him I should have satiâ—fied all others
Lincolnshire The mistaking of a â—iberal summe in old French Pistolets unknown to â—ny of the society for a mutuum annually borrowed â—nd repaid in good English Silver the apprehensiâ—n of their danger left the Souldiers garrisoned in â—he Town and looking on themselves as Lords of the soil should lay some claim unto the money as Treasure trou-ve though it were only lockt up in a chest not under the ground But the strange manner how they found it goes beyond all this Porcede luck on 't Hilkiah the High-Priest by searching into the treasures of the Temple found the book of the Law but these good Fellows looking after a book of the Law must find the treasures of the Temple What pitty was it that such a heap of dainty Gold should be spoiled with rust whilst so many Purses languisht under a vacuity then which there could be nothing more abhorrent from the Rules of Philosophy I had before read over the Legenda Aurea and some part of the Legenda Lignea also But row behold Tertia post illam succâ—ssâ—â— Ahenea See here a brazen legend to be added to the other two but more worth then both 17. But your Adversary will not leave me yet he hath two questions to propose 1. Whether he that takes money for the Resignation of a fellowship be bound to restore And 2. Whether he that is married and carrieth it so clancularly that the house can make no just proof of it be not bound to restore all the benefits that he received from his place after his halfe year is expired And here I might take leave to follow your Adversaries way of Disputation in answering one Question with another and standing for some satisfaction to two Queries of mind before I return any to his And my two Queries shall be these 1. Whether the taking away of the Almes-Basket and the suppressing of so many Gaudies and Pie-Gaudies to the destruction of the hospitality and charity of the noble fâ—undation do not tend more unto the profit of the present Fellows then to the credit of the Society 2. By what Rule of Equity they can depâ—ive the Demies and Choristers whose dinners were too small before of that unlimited allowance of bread and beer which of old they had reducing them at first to an allowance of 2s s 6d by the week and afterwards retrenching that to two shillings only I might defer the satisfying of his Questions till he answer these but I shall deal more freely with him and content him presently First then for answer to the last Mime adsum qui feci This reflects on me who held my Fellowship above a twelve month more then his allowance But first it was no clandestine or clancular marriage but carried openly enough The Colledge Chappel was set out by my appointment with it's richest Ornaments the Marriage was performed on St. Symons and Judes day between 10 and 11 of the clock in the morning and in the presence of a sufficient number of Witnesses of both Sexes according both to Law and Practise The wedding dinner kept in my own Chamber some Doctors and their wives and five or six of the Society invited to it My wife placed at the head of the Table and by me publickly desired to make much of the company the Town Musick playing and my self waiting at the Table the most part of the Dinner no old formality wanting to my best remembrance which was accustomably required even to the very giving of Gloves at a solemn wedding No clancular carriage in all this no deceit put upon the Colledge and therefore no necessity of a Restitution the Colledge saving my dyet and the Fellows getting my Minor Dividents for the greatest part of the time till I left the house And for the other admitting I should determine in the Affirmative what would the Colledge get by that For granting that he who takes money for a Resignation be bound to restore it yet must it be restored unto the parties and to their Relations of whom he received it and not to the Society or corporation of whom he received it not And therefore granting that those who have taken money for a Resignation should be bound to restore it the Colledge Chest would prove so far from being fuller then the Founder left it that it would still remain as empty as these Confounders made it If he hath any more questions to propound unto me he shall not take me unprovided of as ready Answers 18. In the mean time I must desire you to take notice how Eagle-ey'd he is in his own concernments and how blind in others He tells you p. 14. that if you had been a Resident at the Vniversity Mr. Vice-Chan had been bound upon his complaint to have punished you with banition or at least with incarceration or publique Recantation for bestowing some smart speeches and expressions on him and therefore I may tell him on far better Reasons that if I were a resident in Magdalen Colledge the President had been bound to put him out of Commons upon the Local Statute of Verba Brigosa or the Vice Chancelour obliged to inflict the same punishments on him which he finds for you or the next Justice to have bound him to his Good Behaviour for offending contra bonos more 's in using to a Doctour of Divinity such reproachful words as he doth in the Preface and giving him the odious name of Tinker in the end of his Pamphlet But I leave him to Gods mercy and your Castigation saying no more of him at this present time then Bishop Jewel did of Cartwright when he first took up arms against the Church viz Stultitâ—a est in corde pâ—eri sed virga disciplinae fugabit eam 19. In the next charge I cannot seperate my own interest from that of the right Reverend Father in God D. William Burlow once Lord Bishop of Lincoln though there be somewhat in it which concerns my self and some which relates only to that Reverend Prelate In reference to my self alone he tells me in his second Letter That though he will not censure me to have no ingenuity yet I must pardon him if he refuse to give me any account of that particular which I conceived by vertue of a promise he was bound to give me Where you may see that though he will not censure me to have no ingenuity yet he doth not grant me to have any which whether it be a negative or a privative condemnation I leave to be disputed at the next encounter in the School of Complement And secondly you may see what shifts he hath to avoid the satisfying of the debt which he cannot pay but by putting such Conditions on me as are not to be found in the Obligation I am charged also in the Book for lashing the Church Historians for any expression that is in the least favorable to the poor Puritans as he calls them of which let him that feels the smart seek out for
Bishop it is distinctly called an Order all which he could not chuse but see in that very Chapter of the Book called Respondit Petrus in which he finds me questioning the Lord Primates Iudgement touching the universality of Redemption by the death of Christ The Books confirmed by Act of Parliament in the 5th and 6th of Edw. 6. Repealed in the first yeare of Queen Mary continuing notwithstanding in use and practise for the first seven years of Queen Elizabeth and reconfirmed by Parliament the next year after upon occasion of a difference between Bonâ—er the late bloody Bishop of London and Horn then Bishop of Winchester His Grace had therefore very good Reason not to change his judgement and to press very hard on Bishop Hall not to wave that point for which he stands censured by our Adversary p. 24. and to insist upon it more then at other times when the Scotish Presbyterians had began to revive the question for which he stands condemned also p 25. 23. But see the Candor of the man and how like he seems to Aesops Dog when he lay in the Manger not giving the Arch-Bishop a good word himselfe nor suffering any other to do it without snarling at him I had signified in my first Letter that the Arch-Bishops memory was too precious amongst all that loved the Church of England to suffer him to be so defamed and by such a person Your Adversary doth not deny because he cannot that in many things he had deserved well of the Vniversity but will not yield himself convinced that his memory should be so precious as my Letter intimates to all that love the Church of England And a squint eye he casts on some body for a Temporizer whose design it was to ingratiate himself with great ones and could complement a Prince so highly as to style himself his Creature and the workmanship of his hands But who it is whom he so decyphereth or whether he means any one man or not but onely casts abroad his censures as Boyes throw their stones without any proper aim or object but the love of the sport I am not able to find out in my best remembrance Passing by therefore such Aenigma's as I cannot unriddle I must needs take notice how he applyes the Character to him of which Isidore Pelusi gives unto one Eusebus a wretched fellow of those times and one who took upon himself the name and office of a Bishop The Character to be found in the 24. Epistle of his second Book and the Epistle recommended to my diligent Reading 23. He tells me that the Character contained therein doth two well suit with the Arch-Bishop but I find it otherwise Eusebius as the Author tells us would not know the difference between the Temple and the Church between the place of the Assembly and the Congregation sparing no cost to build repair and beautifie the one but vexing disquieting and expelling the righteous soul to many of which he had given great matter of offence or scandal dum multis offendiculis causam prebet probos viros expellere c. The same he florisheth over again in the following words concluding with this Observation That in the Primitive times when there were no Temples the Church was plentifully adorned with all heavenly Graces but that in his time the Temples were adorned beyond Moderation Ecclesia vero Canviciis Cavillis in cessitur but the poor Church reproached and reviled upon all occasions such is the Character which Isidore gives to this Eusebus But that this Character should suit too well with the late Arch-Bishop is a greater scandal then ever Eusebus gave to the weak brethren of the Church of Pelusium For will your Adversary confine the Church as some wild Affricans did of old intra partem Donati within the Conventicles and Clancular meetings of the Puritan Faction Or hath he confidence to averre that any Righteous and Religious person was expelled this Church understand me of the Church of England whom either Faction or Sedition in conformity or disobedience spiritual pride or fear of punishment did not hurry out of it Just so it was Railed out by Brother Burton in his Libel falsly called a Sermon where he affirms that the edge of Dscipiline was turned mainly against Gods people and ministers even for their virtue piety and worth and because they would not conform to their the Bishops impious Orders Just so it was once preached in a Latine Sermon at St. Maryes in Oxon by Bayley one of the old brood of Puritans in Magdalen Colledge that good and Godly men were purposely excluded from preferments there ob hoc ipsum quod pii quod boni onely because they were enclined to virtue and piety With spight and callumnie enough but not to be compared with his who so reproachfully hath handled this Renowned Prelate and the poor sequestred and ejected Clergy of the Church of England But Judas did the like before to his Lord and Master And thereupon St. Cyprian very well inferres nec nobis turpe esse pati quae passus est Christus nec illis gloriam facere quae fâ—cerat Judas 24. And here I would have ended with your puissant Adversary but that his Letter carries me to a new ingagement He tells me there that in the Historical part of his discourse he hath proved that till D. Laud sat in the Saddle our Divines of prime Note and Authority did in the five points deliver themselves consonantly to the determination of the Synod of Dort and that they were enjoyned Recantation who were known either to preach or print that which is now called Arminianism and thinks that no body can deny it for a truth infallible But first if we allow this for a good and sufficient Argument it will serve as strongly for the Papists against all those who laboured in the Reformation For what one point do we maintain against those of Rome in which the Divines of prime Note and Authority in the Church of Rome did not deliver themselves as consonantly to the preceding Doctrines of the Schoolmen there and to the subsequent determinations of the Council of Trent and for opposing which manner of Persons were constrained to a Recantation who either preacht or printed in defence of that which is now called Protestantism And 2dly if we behold the constitution of our University when D. Humphrys a moderate non-conformist but a non-conformist howsoever as M. Fuller is pleased to call him possest the Divinity Chaire for almost forty years and D. Reynolds a Rigid non-Conformist publiquely read a Divinity Lecture founded by Sir Francis Walsingham the principal Patron of the Sect as you will find in the beginning of his Lectures on the Books Apocriphal it is no marvail if we find that the Doctrine and Discipline of Calvin should be so generally received by the Students there or being so generally received that they should put all manner of disgraces upon all or any of those
that opined the contrary The like may be affirmed of Cambridge when D Whittakers sat in the Divinity Chair and M. Perkins great in the esteem of the Puritan Faction had published his Book Intituled The Golden Chain which Book containing in it the whole Doctrin of the Supra-Lapsarians was quarrelled first by Arminius in the Belgicks Churches and sharply censured afterwards by D. Robert Abbot in his Book against Tompson By these two first and after on the coming down of the Lambeth Articles of which more anon as hard a hand was kept upon all those who embrace not the Calvinian Rigors as was done at Oxon the Spirit of that Sect being uncapable of opposition in the least degree Under which two Generall Answers but the last especially we may reduce all Arguments which are drawn from the severe proceedings of those Professors and their adherents against all such as held any contrary opinion to them that is to say against Bishop Laud by Doctor Holland and D. Abbot by the last against D. Houson also and by D. Prideaux against Mr Bridges and in the other university by D. Whittakers against M. Barret by the whole faction there against Peter Barrow and finally by the two Professors then being against M. Simpson And yet those times were not without some Eminent men and men of prime Note and Authority as he calls their opposites which bear witnesse to the genuine Doctrines of the Church of England now miscalled Arminianism who never were subjected to the ignominy of a Recantation Amongst which I may Reckon D. Hursnet for one Master of Pembrook Hall in Cambridge afterwards successively Bishop of Chichester Norwich and Arch Bishop of York Whose Sermon aâ— St. Pauls Cross the 27 of Octob. 1584. sufficiently declares his judgment in those points of Controversie And I may Reckon D. Buckridge for another President of S. Johns Colledge c. and Tutor unto Bishop Laud at his first coming to Oxon who carring these opinions with him to the See of Rochester maintained them in a publick conference at York house against D. Morton Bishop of Lichfield and D. Preston Master of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge Anno 1626. 25. I have already written a full discourse shewing upon what Principles and Positions the Church of England did proceed at her first Reformation But this being designed as an Ingredient to a larger work now almost finished I must not wrong that work so far as to make use of it at the present and therefore you must needs have patience till a further time In the mean season I shall endeavour an answer to all those Arguments which your Adversarie hath made use of to evince the point he chiefly aims at leaving the positivity of Sin to your abler hand Where by the way give me leave to tell you that one who seems to wish me well though known no further to me then by the first Letters of his name signified in his Letter to me of the 3d. of March that Mr. Hickman was not the Author but the Compiler of the Book which is now before us having all the Assistance as he was credibly informed which the University could afford him But in this I cannot be of his opinion far less assistance being needful to this petty performance then the united Councels of an university Though my Eyes be very bad and unuseful to me in this way yet I am able to trace the steps of this young Serpent in all the Cliffs and precipices of the Rock upon which he glideth not onely as to follow him in his Proofs and arguments but many of his Phraseâ— and florishes also I could direct you to the Authors from which he borroweth his faining and his failing in the Advertisement at the End of his Book his charging you with tumbling in your Tropes and rowling in your Rhetorick p. 4 his dealing with you as Alexander did with his Horse Bucephalus taking him by the Bridle and leading him gently into the Sun that other men may see how lustily you lay about you though your selfe do not p. 7. I could direct you also to the very pages in M. Prinns book of Anti-Arminianism and that called Canterburies Doom out of which without acknowledging his Benefactor he takes all his Arguments Except that of Gabriel Bridges in Oxon and M. Sâ—mpson in Cambridg perhaps these also But being they are made his own as some unhappy Boys makâ— knives when they do but steal them I will Answer them one by one in Order as they come before me 26. In the first Entrance to his proofs he begins with Wicklife concluding that because the Papists have charged it on him that he brought in fatal necessity and made God the Author of sinne therefore it may be made a pâ—obable Guâ—ss that there was no disagreement between him and Calvin The Course of which Argument stands thus that there being an agreement to these points betwixt Wickliffe and Calvin and the Reformers of our Church embracing the Doctrins of Wickliff therfore they must embrace the Doctrine of Calvin also But first it cannot be made good that our Reformers embrace the Doctrine of Wickliffe or had any Eye upon that Man who though he held many points against those of Rome yet had his field more tares then wheat his Books more Heterodoxies then sound Catholick Doctrines And secondly admitting this Argument to be of any force in that present case it will as warrantably serve for all the Sects and Heresies which now swarm amongst us as for that of Calvin Wickliffe affording them the Grounds of their several dotages though possibly they are not so well studied in their own concernments For they who have consulted the works of Thomas Waldeâ—sis or the Historia Wiclesiana writ by Harpfield will tell us that Wickliffe amongst many other Errors maintained these that follow 1. That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but a piece of Bread 2. That Priests have no more Authority to Minister Sacraments then Lay men have 3. That all things ought to be common 4. That it is as lawful to Christena child in a Tub of water at home or in a ditch by the way as in a Fontstone in the Church 5. That it is as lawful aâ— all times to confess unto a Layman as to a Priest 6. That it is not necessary or profitable to have any Church or Chappel to pray in or to do any divine service in 7. That buryings in Church Yards be unprofitable and vain 8. That Holidayes ordained and instituted by the Church taking the Lords day in for one are not to be observed and kept in Reverence in as much as all dayes are alike 9. That it is sufficient and enough to believe though a man do no good works at all 10. That no humane Laws or Constitutions do oblige a Christian and finally that God never gave Grace or knowledge to a great person or Rich man and that they in no wise follow the same What Anabaptist
Brownist Ranters Quakers may not as well pretend that our first Reformers were of their Religion as the Calvinists can if Wicklifâ— doctrines be the Rule of our Reformation 27. It is alledged in the next place that the Calvinistical Doctrines in these points may be found in the writings of John Fryth William Tyndall and Dr. Barnes collected into one Volumne and to be seen the easier as he knows who saith because it was printed by John Bay 1563. Who as they suffered death for their Religion in the time of King Hen. 8. so Mr. Fox in his Preface to the said Book calls them the Ring-leaders of the Church of England But first I do not take Mr. Fox to be a fit Judge in matters of the Church of England the Articles of whose confession he refused to subscribe being thereto required by Arch-Bishop Parker and therefore Tyndal Fryth and Barnes not to be hearkened to the more for his commendation Secondly If this Argument be of any force for defence of the Calvinists the Anti-Sabbatarians may more justly make use of it in defence of themselves against the new Sabbath speculatioâ—s of Dr. Bound and his Adherents imbrac'd more passionately of late then any one Article of Religion here by Law established For which consult the History of the Sabbath lib. 2. c. 8. Let Fryth and Tyndal be admitted as sufficient Witnesses when they speak against the Sabbath Doctrines or not admitted when they speak in behalf of Calvin and then the Brethren I am sure will lose more on the one side then they gain on the other Thirdly taking it for granted that they maintain'd the same opinions in these points which afterwards were held forth by Calvin yet they maintained them not as any points of Protestant Doctrine in opposition to the Errors of the Church of Rome but as received opinions of the Dominican Friars in opposition to the Franciscans the doctrine of the Dominicans by reason of their diligent Preaching being more generally received in England then that of the other Fourthly it is to be considered that the name of Luther at that time was in high estimation as the first man which brake the Ice and made the way more easie for the rest that followed who concurring in judgment with the Dominicans as to these particulars drew after him the greatest part of such learned men as began to fall off from the Pope And so it stood till Melancthon not underservedly called the Phaenix of Germany by moderating the rigours of Luther and carrying on the Reformation with a gentlier hand became a pattern unto those who had the first managing of that great work in the Reign of King Edward Fiftly it is Recorded in the 8th of St. Mark that the blind man whom our Saviour at Bethsaida restored to sight at the first opening of his eyes saw men as trees walking v. 24. that is to say that he saw men walking as trees quasi dicat homines quos ambulantes video non homines sed arbores mihi videntur as we read in Maldonate By which words the blind man declared saith he so quidem videre aliquid cum ante nihil videret imperfecte tamen videre cum inter homines arbores distinguere non posset More briefly Estius on the place Nondum ita clare perfecte video ut discernere possim inter homines arbores I discern somewhat said the poor man but so imperfectly that I am not able to distinguish betwixt trees and men Such an imperfect sight as this the Lord gave many times to those whom he recover'd out of the Aegyptian Darkness who not being able to discern all divine truths at the first opening of the eyes of their understanding were not to be a Rule or precedent to those that followed and lived in clearer times and under a brighter beam of illumination then the others did 28. In the third place he referres himself to our Articles Homilies Liturgies and Catechisms for the proof of this that the Calvinistical opinions were the establish'd doctrines of the Church of England and if his proof holds good in this he hath gained the cause But first he directs us to no particular place in the Catechisms Homilies or Liturgies where any such matter may be found but keeps himself aloof and in generals only and we know who it was that said Dolosus versatur in generâ—libuâ— When he shall tell us more particularly what he would insist on I doubt not but I shall be able to give him a particular answer Secondly skipping over those passages of the Liturgie and Catâ—chisms which maintain the Universality of Redemption by the Death of Christ and taking no notice that the possibility of falling from grace is positively maintained in the 16th Article and the Cooperation of mans will with the Grace of God as clearly published in the tenth he sets up his rest on the 17th Article touching Predestination and Election as if the Article had been made in favour of Calvin's Doctrine But first the Papists have observed two Reformations in the Church of England the one under King Edward the 6th which they called the Lutheran and the other under Queen Elizabeth which they called the Calvinian And thereupon we may conclude that the 17th Article as well as any of the rest being framed approved and ratified under Edward 6. was modelled rather in relation to the Lutheran then Calvinian doctrines the Reformers of the Church of England and the Lutheran Doctors holding more closely to the Rules of Antiquity and the practise of the Primitive Church then the Zuinglians and Calvinists were observed to do Secondly The 17th Article doth visibly presuppose a curse or state of Damnation in which all Mankind was presented to the sight of God which overthrows the Doctrine of the Supra-lapsarians who make the Purpose and Decree of Predestination to precede the Fall and consequently also to precede the curse Thirdly It is to be observed that the Article extends Predestination to all those whom God hath chosen in Christ out of Mankind that is to say to all true Believers For so the phrase Ephes 1. 4. is generally interpreted by the ancient Fathers For thus St. Ambrose amongst others Sicut eligit nos in ipse as he hath chosen us in him Prescius enim Deuâ— omnes scit qui credituri essent in Christum for God saith he by his general Prescience did fore-know every man that would believe in Christ The like saith Chrysostom on that Text. And that our first Reformers did conceive so of it appears by that of Bishop Latimer in his Sermon on the third Sunday after the Epiphany When saith he we hear that some be choseâ— and some be damned let us have good hope that we be amongst the chosen and live after this hope that is uprightly and godly then shall we not be deceived Think that God hath chosen those that believe in Christ and Christ is the book of life If thou believest lievest
in him then art thou written in the book of life and shalt be saved 29. In the last place we are to note that there is a clause in the end of the Article viz. that we are to receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture then which nothing can be more contrary to the Doctrine of the Supralapsarians which restrains Election unto life to few particulars without respect had to their Faith in Christ or Christs death for them and extendeth the Decree of Reprobation to the far greatest part of Manking without relation to their incredulity or unbelief And though your adversary tells us that he who reads the common Prayer Book with an unprejudiced mind cannot chuse but observe divers passages which make for a personall and eternal Election yet I find but little ground for the affirmation the Promises of God as they are generally set forth unto us in Holy Scripture being the ground of many Prayers and Passages in the Publique Liturgie for in the General Confession it is said expresly that the Promises of God in Christ Jesus our Lord are declared not to this or that man particularly but to all mankind declared to all because first made to all mankind in Adam in the promise of Redemption by the seed of the woman Gen. 3. 15. Secondly it is said in the Te de um that when our Saviour Christ had overcome the sharpness of Death he did open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers Thirdly we find a Prayer for the day of the Passion commonly called Good-Friday which is so far from pointing to any personal Election that it bringeth all Jâ—ws Turkâ— and Infidels within the possibility and compass of it Morciful God so the Church teacheth us to pray who host made all men and hatest nothing which thou hast made nor wouldest the death of a sinner but rather that he should be converted and live have mercy upon all Jews Turks Infidelâ— and Hereticks and take from them all ignorance hardness of heart and contempt of thy word and so fetch them home blessed Lord to thy flock that they may be saved amongst the remnant of the true Israelites and be made one fold under one Shepherd Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth c. Can your Antagonist read this Prayer and observe those passages and think the Liturgy so contradictory to it self as to afford him any proof that such a personal Election from all Eternity as an unprejudiced mind may desire to meet with If not why doth he talk so confidently of divers passages which a careful Reader cannot chuse but observe in the Common Prayer Book which enclines that way yea let him direct us to those passages and reconcile the differences which he finds betwixt them 30. And though it was not my intent to produce any arguments at this time in Justification of the Doctrine of the Church of England as by you maintained yet since your Adversary stands so much on the 17th Article and thinks it makes so strongly for defence of the Calvinists I will here lay down the Judgment of two Godly Martyrs who had a chief hand in the Great Work of this Reformation and therefore must needs know the meaning of the Church therein more then any of us The first of these shall be Bishop Hooper who in the Preface to his Exposition on the ten Commandments hath expresly told us That Cain was no more excluded from the Promise of Christ till he excluded himself then Abel Saul then David Judas then Peter Esau then Jacob that God is said to have hated Esau not because he was dis-inherited of Eternal Life but in laying his Mountains and his Heritage waste for the Dragons of the Wilderness Mal. 1. 3. that the threatnings of God against Esau if he had not of his own wilful malice excluded himself from the Promise of Grace should no more have hindred his Salvation then Gods threatnings against Nineve c. That it is not a Christian mans part to say that God hath written Fatal Laws as the Stoick and with necessity of destiny violently pulleth the one by the hair into Heaven and thrusteth the other headlong into Hell that the cause of Rejection or Damnation is Sin in man which will not bear neither receive the Promises of the Gospel c. And secondly we shall find Bishop Latimer in his Sermon on the third Sunday after the Epiphany speaking in this manner viz. That if the most are damned the fault is not in God but in themselves For Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would that all men should be saved but they themselves procure their own Damnation and despise the passion of Christ by their own wicked and inordinate living He telleth us also in his fourth Sermon preached in Lincoln shire That Christ only and no man else merited Remission Justification and sound felicity for as many as will believe the same that Christ shed as much blood for Judas as for Peter that Peter believed and therefore was saved that Judas did not believe and therefore was condemned the fault being in him only and in no body else More to which purpose I have elsewhere noted as afore was said and give you this only for a tast to stay your stomack And though Archbishop Cranmer the principal Architect in the work spent his endeavours chiefly against the Papists yet that most holy Martyr tells us somewhat in his fifth Book against Gardiner fol. 372. which doth directly look this way Where speaking of the sacrifice which was made by Christ he lets us know That he took unto himself not only their sinnes that many years before were dead and put their trust in him but also all the sinnes of those that until his coming again should truly believe in his Gospel so that now we may look for no other Priest nor sacrifice to take away our sins but onely him and his sacrifice that as his dying once was offered for all so as much as pertained unto him he took all mens sinnes unto himself In all which passages and many others of like nature in the other two there is not any thing which makes for such a personal absolute and irreversible decree of Predestination as Calvin hath commended to us and therefore no such meaning in the 17th Article as his Disciples and adherents in defence of themselves and their opinions would obtrude upon it For if there were your Adversary must give me some better Reason then I think he can why Cranmer Ridly Hooper and the rest that laboured in this Reformation should command the Paraphrases of Erasmus to be translated into English studied by Priests and so kept in Parish Churches to be read by the People whose Doctrines are so contrary in all these particulars to that of Calvin and his followers 31. But I return again unto your Adversary who in the next place remembreth us of a Catechism
published by John Poynet Bishop of Winton which he sets forth with many circumstances to indear it to us as namely that it was publick in the next year after the passing of the Book of Articles in the Reign of K. Edw. 2dly That being by that King committed to the perusal of certain Bishops it was by those Bishops certified to be agreeable to the Scriptures and Statutes of the Realm and 3dly That upon this Certificate the King prefixt his Royal Epistle before it charging their moral Schoolmasters within his dominions that diligently and carefully they should teach the same Thus have we seen the Mountain now comes out the Mouse for having thus swelled our expectation we had reason to look for some great matter but finde none at all Instead of laying down some clear passages out of Poynets Catechism which might evince the point he aims at he asks the Question answer him any man that dares How do the Master and the Scholar plainly declare themselves to be no friends to any of the Tenents M. P contends for A Question which a very well studied man may not easily answer that Catechism being so hard to come by that scarce one Scholar in 500. hath ever heard of it and hardly one of a thousand hath ever seen it But your Antagonist hath good reason for what he doth there being somewhat in that Catechism which more confirms the points M. Pierce contends for then he is willing to make known witness this Passage of the Catechism in the Anti-Arminianism from which your Adversary makes the greatst parts of his proofs evidence p. 44. After the Lord God faith the Catechism had made the Heaven Earth he determined to have for himself a most beautiful Kingdom and holy commonwealth The Apostles and ancient Fathers that wrote in Greek called it Ecclesiâ— in English a Congregation or Assembly into the which he hath admitted an infinite number of men that should be subject to one King as their soveraign and onely head him we call Christ which is as much as to say anointed c. to the finishing of this Common-wealth belong all they as do truly fear honour and call upon God duly applying their minds to holy and Godly living and all those that putting all their hope and trust in him do assuredly look for bliss of everlasting life But as many as are in this faith stedfast were fore-chosen predestinate and appointed to everlasting life before the world was made For though he seems to make such onely to be the members of the Church as were predestinated unto life from all Eternity yet we must understand it of them chiefly as being the most Excellent Members of it not of them alone For afterwards he enlargeth the acception of the word Ecclesia according to the natural and proper construction of it telling us that the Church is the company of those who are called to eternal life by the Holy Ghost The company of all those which are called to Eternal life and therefore not of those onely which are chosen or elected out of the number For many are called but few are chosen saith our Lord and Saviour Secondly it is not said that such as are Members of this Church were chosen to this end and purpose that they might be stedfast in the Faith and being stedfast in the faith might in the end obtain everlasting life but that being stedfast in the faith that is to say considered and beheld as such in the eternal Prescience or fore-knowledge of Almighty God they were predestinate and appointed to eternal life before the beginning of the world And Thirdly if these words or any other which he finds in Poynet may be drawn to any other construction which may serve his turn he must be made to speak contrary to the three Godly Bishops and Martyrs before remembred who being men of greater age and more experience in the affairs of the Church the chief Architects in the Great work of Reformation withal being three for one are more to be relyed on for delivering the true sence of the Church then any one single witness who speaks otherwise of it 31. For whom speaks Poynet in this place for M. Peirce or Mr. Hickman If he had spoke for M. Hickman we shovld have heard of it more at large as in that which followeth out of Nowel and if he do not speak for him it must speak for you more plainly speak the Answers unto certain Questions to which M. Prinne directs him in the end of the Bible Printed by Robert Barker Anno 1607. But the worst is they signifie nothing to the purpose which they were produced for For I would fain know by what Authority those Questions and Answers were added to the end of that Bible If by Authority and that such Authority can be proved the Argument will be of force which is taken from them and then no question but the same Authority by which they were placed there at the first would have preserved them in that place for a longer time then during the sale of that Edition The not retaining them in such Editions as have followed since show plainly that they were of no authority in themselves nor intended by the Church as a Rule to others and being of no older standding then the year 1608. they must needs seem as destitute of Antiquity as they are of Authority So that upon the whole matter your Adversary hath limited me with a very strong argument that they were foysted in by the fraud and practise of some Emissaries of the Puritan Faction who hoped to have them pass in time for Canonical Scripture such piae Fraudes as these are we have too many were those once allowed of some prayers were also added at the end of the Bible in some Editions and others at the End of the publick Liturgie which being neglected at the first and afterwards beheld as the authorized prayer of the Church were by command left out of those Books and Bibles as being the Compositions of private men not the Acts of the Church and never since added as before 32. In the next place it is said That the Composers of the 39. Articles were the Disciples and Auditors of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr or at least such as held consent with them in Doctrine none of them their Disciples and but few of them their Auditors I am sure of that Our first Reformers were too old Bishops and Deans most of them to be put to School again unto either of them And as for their consent in points of Doctrine it must be granted in such things and in such things onely in which they joyned together against the Papists not in such points wheâ—â—in those learned men agreed not between themselvâ—â— Bucer being more enclined to the Lutheran Doctrines and Martyr as it afterwards appeared unto those of Calvin Besides it is to be observed that the first Liturgy of K. Edw. 6. which was the Key to
the whole Work was finished confirmed and put in execution before either of them was brought over dispatcht soon after their arrival to their several Chair'es Martyr to the Divinity Lecture in Oxon and Bucer unto that of Cambridge where he lived not long And dying so quickly as he did vix salutata Accademia as my Author hath it though he had many auditors there yet could he noâ— gain many Disciples in so short a time And though Peter Martyr lived to see the death of King Edward and consequently the end of the Convocation Anno 1552. in which the Articles of Religion were first composed and agreed on yet there was little use made of him in advising and much less in directing any thing which concerned that business For being a stranger and but one and such an one as was of no Authority in Church or State he could not be considered as a Master builder though some use might he made of him as a Labourer to advance the work Calvin had offered his assistance but it was refused Which showes that Cranmer and the Rest to whom he made offer of his service Si quis mei usus esset as his own words are if they thought it needful were not so favourable to the man or his Doctrines either as to make him or them the Rule of their Reformation 33. Pass we next to Alexander Nowel Dean of St. Pauls and Prolocutor of the Convocation An. 1â—â—2 in which the Articles were Revised and afterwards ratified and confirmed by the Queens authority In which capacity I must needs grant it for a truth that he understood the conduct of all affairs in that Convocation as well as any whosoever But then it is to be observed that your Adversary grants their 17. Articles to be the very same verbatim which had before passed in the Convocation of King Edw. 6. No new sence being put upon it by the last establishment And if no new sence were put upon it as most sure there was not it must be understood no otherwise then according to the Judgement of those learned men and Godly Martyrs before remembred who concurred unto the making of it From which if M. Nowels sence should differ in the least degree it is to be looked upon as his own not the sence of the Church And secondly it cannot rationally be inferred from his being Prolocutor in that Convocation and the knowledge which he needs must have of all things which were carried in it that therefore nothing was concluded in that Convocation which might be contrary to his own judgement as a private person admitting that he was inclinable to Calvin in the points disputed which I grant not neither For had he been of his opinions the spirit of that Sect is such as could not be restrained from showing it self dogmatically and in terms express and not occasionally onely or upon the by and that too in such general terms that no particular comfort for your Adversary can be gathered from them And it were worth the while to know first why your Antagonist appealing to his Catechism should decline the Latin Edition of it which had been authorized to be publiquely taught in all the Grammer Schools of England and the English translation of the same by a friend of the Authors 1572. both still in use and both reprinted in these times since the year 1647 And secondly what it was which moved him to fly for succour to the first draught of it in the English Tongue out of which the two last were extracted that first draught or Edition being laid aside many years ago and not approved by any such publick Authority as the others were somewhat there must be in it which brought that first Edition so soon out of credit and therefore possibly thought fit by your Adversary for the present turn and thought to let us know which Catechism it is he means he seems to distinguish it from the other by being dedicated to the two Arch-Bishops yet that doth rather betray his ignorance then advance his cause the Authors own Latine Edition and the English of it being dedicated to the two Arch-Bishops as well as that 34. But since he hath appealed to that English Catèchism to her English Catechism let him go In which he cannot find so much as one single question touching the Doctrine of Predestination or the points depending thereupon and therefore is necessitated to have recourse unto the Articles of the Catholick Church the members and ingredients of it from thence he doth extract these two passages following the first whereof is this viz. To the Church do all they properly belong as many as do truly fear honour and call upon God altogether applying their minds to live holily and Godly and with putting all their trust in God do most assuredly look for the blessings of Eternal life they that be stedfast stable and constant in this faith were chosen and appointed and as we term it predestinate to this so great felicity The second which follows not long after as his Book directeth is this that followeth viz. The Church is the body of the Christian Commonwealth i. e. the universal number and fellowship of the faithful whom God through Christ hath before all beginning of time appointed to everlasting life And here again we are to Note that the First of these two passages not being to be found in the Latine Edition nor the English Translation of the same is taken almost word for word out of Poynets Catechism and therefore to be understood in no other sence then before it was And that the second makes the Church to consist of none but the Elect which the nine and tenth Article makes in a more comprehensive signification So that to salve this sore he is fain to fly to the destinction of a visible and invisible Church fit for his definition unto that which he calls invisible making the visible Church of Christ to consist of such as are assembled to hear the Gospel of Christ sincerely taught to call on God by prayer and receive the Sacraments Which persons so assembled together are by the Article called a Cong egation of faithful men as well as those which constitute and make up the Church invisible And yet I doubt your Adversary will not not grant them all to be in the number of the Elect. But granting that the Church doth consist of none but the Elect that is to say of none but such who have been through Christ appointed to everlasting life from before all time as is there affirmed yet there is nothing in all this which justifieth the absolute and irrespective decree of the predestinarians nothing of Gods invincible workings in the hearts of his chosen ones which your Antagonist maintains or which doth manifestly make for such a personal Election as he conceives is to be found in many passages of the Common Prayer Book though what those passages are and where they are to be found he keeeps
them and one that hated the Idolatries and superstitions of the Church of Rome with a perfect hatred This Reverend Father must not be consulted in the business for fear it might be thought that it was not to be done without him A Parish Vestry must be called by which M. Sherfield is inabled to take down the offensive Pictures and put new white Glass in the place though he be transported with a fit of unruly zeal instead of taking it down breaks it all in pieces Here then we have an Eldership erected under the Bishops nose a Reformation undertaken by an Act of the Vestry in contempt of those whom God and his Majesty and the Laws had made the sole Judges in the case An example of too sad a consequence to escape unpunished and such as might have put the people upon such a Gog as would have leâ—t but little work to the late Long Parliament Non ibi consistent Exemplaubi ceperunt sed in tenuem recepta tramitem latissime evagandi sibi viam faciunt as my Author hath it 52. But he proceeds according to his usual way of asking Questions and would fain know in what respect they may be accounted the obedient Sons of the Church who study by all their learning to take off that ignominous name of Antichrist from the Pope of Rome which had bin fastned on him by King James Archbishop Whitgift Bishop Andrews and the late Lord Primate and finally by the whole Clergy in their Convocation An. 1605. In the recital of which Proof I find not that the name of Antichrist was ever positively and and in terminis ascribed unto the Popes of Rome by any Article Homily Canon or injunction or by any other publick Monument of the Church of England which leave it to the Liberty of every man to conceive therein according as he is satisfied in his own mind and convinced in his understanding Arch-bishop Whitgift the Primate Bishop Andrews conceived the Pope to be Antichrist and did write accordingly Archbishop Laud and Bishop Mountague were otherwise perswaded in it and were not willing to exasperate those of the Popish Party by such an unnecessary provocation yet this must be accounted amongst their crimes For aggravating whereof he telleth us that the Pope was proved to be Antichrist by the Pen of King James which is more then he can prove that said it K. James used many Arguments for the proof thereof but whether they proved the point or not may be made a question Assuredly the King himself is to be looked on as the fittest Judge of his own intentions performance And he declared to the Prince at his going to Spain that he writ not that discourse concludingly but by way of Argument to the end that the Pope and his Adherents might see there was as good Arguments to prove him Antichrist as for the Pope to challenge any temporal Jurisdiction over Kings and Princes This your Antagonist might have seen in his own Canterburies doom fol. 264. Out of which Book he makes his other Argument also which proves the name of Antichrist to be ascribed unto the Pope by the Church of England because the Lords spiritual in the upper house and the whole Convocation in the Act of the subsidy 3. Jacobi so refined â—â— If so If any such Definition passed in the Convocation it is no matter what was done by the Lords Spiritual in the upper House of Parliament for that I take to be his meaning as signifying nothing to the purpose Wherein Gods name may such an unstudied man as I find that definition not in the Acts of Convocation I am sure of that and where there was no such point debated and agreed upon all that occurs is to bee found onely in the preamble to the Grant of Subsidies made at a time when the Prelates and Clergy were amazed at the horror of that Divellish plot for blowing up the Parliament Houses with the King Prelates Peers Judges and the choicest Gentry of the Nation by the fury of Gun-powder But were the man acquainted amongst Civilians they would tell him that they have a Maxime to this Effect that Apices juris nihil ponuns The Titles and preambles to Laws are no definitions and neither bind the subject in his purse or Pater-noster 53. As for the rest of the Bishops I find two of them charged particularly and the rest in General Mountague charged from D. Prideaux to be merus Grammatius and Linsel charged from M. Smart to have spoken reproachfully of the first Reformers on the Book of Homilies But as Mountague was too great a Scholar to be put to School to D. Prideaux in any point of Learning of what kind soever so Linsol was a Man of too much sobriety to use those rash and unadvised speeches which he stands accused of And as for Mr. Smart the apology of D. Cosens speaks him so sufficiently that I may very wel save myself the labour of a Repetition More generally he tells us from a speech of the late Lord Faulkland that some of the Bishops and their adherents have destroyed unity under pretence of uniformity have brought in superstition and scandal under the title of Reverence and decency and have defiled our Churches by adoring our Churches c. p. 40. and not long after p 64. That they have so industriously laboured to deduce themselves from Rome that they have given great suspition that in Gratitude they desire to return thither or at least to meet it half way Some have evidently laboured to bring in an English though not a Romish Papacy not the out side and dress of it onely but equally absolute a blind dependence of the People on the Clergy and of the Clergy on themselves and have opposed Papacy beyond the Sea that they might settle one beyond the water But these are onely the evaporations of some discontents which that noble Orator had contracted He had been at great charges in accommodating himself with necessaries for waiting on his Majesty in his first expedition against the Scots in hope of doing service to his King and Country and gaining honour to himself dismist upon the Pacifiation as most of the English Adventurers without thanks of honour where he made himself more sensible of the neglect which he conceived he suffered under then possibly might consist with those many favours which both Kings had shewed unto his Father But no sooner had that noble soul dispers'd those clouds of discontent which before obscured it but he brake out again in his natural splendor and show'd himself as zealous an advocate for the Episcopal order as any other in that house witness this passage in a speech of his not long before the dismissing of the Scottish Army Anno 1641. viz. The Ground of this Government by Episcopacy is so ancient and so general so uncontradicted in the first and best times that our most laborious antiquaries can find no Nation no City no Church no Houses
there must be some guilt some doubt at least that all is not well as it should have been The Animadvertor was not of such eager spirit as to let fly at every one which came in his way and possibly might never have heard of this Church History living far of and no such trading in the Books of the time if the frequent clamours of the wrongs done to the Church and Clergy had not come to his ears before the Book it selfe had been brought to his hands And when it was brought into my hands it found me so far unresolved to do any thing in it that nothing but invincible importunity could have drawn me to the undertaking The Appealant therefore may be sure that I never sent him any such message as that if I had not been visited with blâ—ndness I would have been upon his bones before that time of which whosoever did it from him he knew as little of my corporal blindness which I thank God is not yet fallen on me as he did of my secret intentions as to that particular so far as I was from sending anysuchmessage to him that I resolved not to be known for the Author of those Animadversions whensoever they should come abroad and to disguise my self the better related in the Margin to a passage in my own Cosmogrophy fol. 19 which now the Appealant chargeth on me as a solecism in point of Heraldy in laying mettal upon mettal p. 2. fol. 12. 18. My Authors first fears being fallen upon him he finds himself brought under a new debate whether he should return an Answer to the Animadversions or sit down in silence The cause being pleaded on both sides he resolves at last to return a plain full and speedy Answer fol. 3. Full enough I confess of needless questïons and disputes which rather showed a Resolution not to bear the Quarrel then an ability to maintain it I remember I have somewhere read of a famous Wrastler who being many times overthrown who did suddenly start up and by an Eloquent Oration perswaded the people that he rather fell by the slip of his own foot then by the strength of his Adversary Such a wrastler I have met with in the present Appealant who imputes all his faults to slips slips of the Pen slips Pretal as he words it and slips of memory To which three heads the Greatest Errors and mistakes which occurs in the faltiest and falsest writing may notunfitly be reduced so much the fuller in regard he hath incorporated the greatest part of the Animadversions into the body of his Book which if abstracted from the rest of the Authors one would make the Greater Book of the Law upon a just a perfect Calculation of the line and folio's by one part in five Fuller then otherwise it needed or could have been by making use of such of the additionall Notes intended more for supplement and illustration then the disparagement of the Author or disgrace of the work But my Adversary thinks his work so perfect as to stand no more in need of Illustration then it doth of Correction supplements supposing some defects as Corrections presuppose some Errors Onely I hope the Animadversions will be well paid for before all is done the Authors being so well paid for the first Original as is said before and the Appealant better paid by the Book-sellers and his many Patrons to whom they are presented like the prayers of some old Mendicants at the doors of their good Masters and Dames for the transcript of them 19. But whether it be full or not I am sure it is more full then speedy For though the Appealant would be thought to be furnished with the Pen of a ready Writer yet had he time and leisure more then enough for a greater Work considering what helps he had to set it forward and therefore I may say in the words of Sampson that if he had not ploughed with my heifer he must have askt more time though otherwise he had time enough to have read my Riddle If Mason one of the Correctors to some Presses in London had not falsely and unworthily communicated the sheets to him as they came from the Press we might have heard of this Appeal about Michaelmas next in case it had not cooled in the heats of Summer and been retarded by the leisure of a long vacation But making use of this Advantage and having all such other helps as the Libraries and shops in London the use of his own hands and eyes the contribution of his friends and an excellent memory to boot could supply him with it could not come abroad against Easter term without the Midwifery of three Presses to assist at the Labour The making of a full and speedy Answer for it must be both could not else have agreed with that want of leisure his many various imployments and coming twice a Lords day to the Pulpit which without oftentation he pretends to in that very Chapter But some like Aesops fellow servants whom he tells me of presumes so much upon themselves as to promise that they can do all things and that whatever thing they do shall be full and speedy though there be little speed and less fulness in them 20. So much being said of the Appealant in reference to his engaging and dispatch let us behold him next in his qualifications One of the fellow servants of the Animadvertor a fellow sufferer with him in the cause of the King and one of the same party in the Church All this I am very glad to hear of and am sorry I did not hear it sooner especially if there be any truth as I hope there is in the insinuation My fellow servant if he were it must not be in the capacity of a Chaplain in Ordinary for I never saw his name in the list of the forty eight accompanied with his fixt times of Attendants as the others were but supernumerary and at large of whom there is no notice taken in the Court though they may make som noise in the Country And a sufferer he could not be because he willingly relinquisheth both his cure and prebend which he advanceth by the name of none of the worse Benefices and one of the best Prebends in England not holding both or either of them till they were forcibly taken from him as well as from the rest of his brethren fol. 2. no suffering where no injury or wrong is offered and there can be no injury done in disposing that which he so willingly abandoned as he saith himself for volenti non fit injuria as the saying is never applyed more aptly then on such emergencies And if he were of the same Party in the Church as he saith he was he would have show'd some greater zeal in maintenance of the intress and concerments of it some greater measure of compassion towards those poore men who being spoiled of their Goods and Livings by the infelicity of the times must afterwards be
spoil'd of their good name and living fame by such undeserved reproaches as he layes upon them He speaks unto us now in the voice of Jacob but in the History he handleth both the Church and Church-men even from the highest to the lowest with the hands of Esau so that it might be said two justly quid verba audiam cum facta videam What credit may be given to words when they are confuted by our Actions 21. But whatsoever suspitions and sinister opinions might formerly have been conceived of him he either is not the same man he was or hath been hitherto mistaken for the man he was not At the least intimation of disloyal thoughts he flyes out into an open defiance fol. 55. and wishes that the Ravens of the valley who he beholds as Loyal subjects would in vindication of the Eagle their soveraign pick out his eyes If any such Rebellious Doctrine can be found in his book as he conceives himself to be charged withal by the Animadvertor fol. 45. He now professeth that he doth not derogate in the least degree from the power of the Church fol. 55. and wished without Pharisaical pride that his Mother would not onely spit in his face but spew him also out of her mouth if either by his Pen or practise he had done any thing unworthily to the best of his knowledge to the destroying of her interess by his Pen or his Practise fol. 14. He now declares himself so well affected to the late Arch-Bishop as to have spoken two and twenty lines in his commendation fol. 46. Referring us to the places in his History where they are to be found and rancking them under four Heads in as many Columes in reference to his Naturals Morals Intellectuals and spirituals fol. 67. so much affection he expresseth for the sequestred Clergy that he appealeth to the searcher of all hearts if he did not desire to do them all just favour as he hoped to find favour from him when he most needed it so far forth as it might be done without running himself into apparent danger assuring all who chance to read him that his Tongue and Pen hath been and shall be tender of their reputations p 3. fol. 56. He now declares that he doth cordially wish well to the cause of the Hierarchy fol. 46. and affirms absolutely not onely that he hath not in any place of his Books declared himself for a Presbyterian in point of Government but that if ever he had scattered such a syllable which might countenance such presumption he would presently snatch it up again for fear if I rightly understand him of giving scandal to himself and offence to others p. 2. fol. 91. Yet as Basurius in the Comedy said of Captain Bessus that he was none of those that believed his conversion from Coward so I much fear that very few will believe any conversion in our present Appealant as the former passages and protestations do pretend unto But for my part I have such an easinesse of nature in me as to give credit to so many asseverations though many passages in this Appeal might encline me otherwise not being willing to force any man out of the Church as was Tertullian by the continual clamours and reproaches of the Roman Clergy as long as he desires to remain in the bosome of it All therefore I shall say at the present time is that which he himself hath said of Dr. Theodore Price with a little variation onely that is to say That if he be a true Sonne of the Church 't is the better for him but the contrary hath been generally reported Printed and believed p. 3. fol. 79. 22. These preparations being thus laid down the points which he denyeth still remain in difference between us will be very few His Confessions being all allowed as of common course be Traverses submitted to the Rule of the Court His first Avoidings being offered to the judgement and his last presented and directed to the Eye of the Reader And first beginning with the Brittains the Arguments which he hath offered against the judgement of Bishop Goodwin and Mr. Cambden two Right Learned Antiquaries prove nothing to the contrary of that which I have affirmed that is to say that though the Brittains had many Topical and Tutelar Gods yet that the Druides instructed them in the knowledge of one supream deity as had been taught by many of the learned Gentiles both Greeks and Romans no more then it may be truly said of the present Papists that they acknowledge and adore but one supream God notwithstanding their superstitious worshipping of so many National Typical and Tutelor Saints whom they embrace as Patrons of their persons and their several Countrys And as for his Derivation of the name of London from the western Llan-dian it stands but as it did before as a fancy onely no proof being made that Diana was known by that name amongst the Brittains before the coming of the Romans The great Welsh Antiquary whom he speaks of might say well enough that the Brittains called Diana by the name of Dain but proves not that she was so called before the Romans came amongst them the Argument which he brings from Guarthey Demol that is to say Diana's Castle being so farre fetched considering the little or no Analogy betiwixt Dain and Demol that nothing can be built upon it Nor finds he any countenance in it from the Annotations of the famous Selden and the Polyol bion For Selden was not Selden when he made those Notes which were were written in the year 1612. as one of the first Essayes of his Great Abilities And being that the whole depends on the story of Brute which all our learned Antiquaries have exploded as an idle fiction the Derivation from Llan-Dian falls together with it For Selden doth otherwise plead for the story of Brute for to come up to the design of Drayton or to show rather how much he could be able to say in defence of a truth who hath delivered so much Learning in defence of a Fable as commonly men spend their greatest wits in maintaining Paradoxes When M. Fuller can point me out to that Isle of Largeria where Bruit is said to make his Prayers unto Diana I shall not only entertain the story of Bruit and the Etymologie of London from Llan-dian but shall give that Island some fit place in my Cosmography whensoeuer it shall come to a new Edition till then I must behold it as one of those Islands which is not to be found in all or any of our Mapps as Don Quixot said right truly to Sancho Pancha 23. Next coming to the time of the Saxons deviding Gloster-shire into three chief parts * laying the parts beyond the Severn to the Welsh or Brittanes those on this side the Severn to the Realm of West-Sex and Cotswald with the Vail adjoyning between Glosester and Worcester to the Kingdom of Mercia makes not that place were Augustine
2ly That the King by consent of Parliament directed the proceedings of Ecclesiastical Courts against declared Hereticks so that they could not punish them in life or limb but as directed by the statute p. 2. fol. 69. In confutation of which Proposition the Animadvertor is cunningly tempted to write two or three sheets upon assurance that it will be richly worth the Writers and the Readers pains and the hope of having an answer to it from no worse a hand then that of the Appealant himselfe This I shall be ready to do whensoever he shall show me in what place of my Animadversions or any other Book of mine whatsoever I have maintained that the Church hath power of making Canons which may extend either unto the life or limb of the English subject Certain I am that no such thing ever past my hand or câ—me into my head sleeping or waking sick or sound and therefore this must be a device of his to render me as distastful to all sorts of people as he hath made himselfe to all the true Sonnes of the Chruch of England whether they be High-Royalists or covetous Conformists as our Authoâ— words it 36. He puts it to the Readers Judgement whether any man alive can from these words viz. The right lay not in this Henry but in Mortimer Earl of March in for an insinuation that Kings may legally be deposed And I confefs as readily as any other man whatsoever that no such insinuation can be gathered from those words of his as they are laid down in the Appeal But then the Appealant should have took his rise a little higher where it is said as positively and plainly as words can speak it that granting Kiâ—g Richard either deservedly deposed or naturally dead without issue the Right to the Crown lay noâ— in this Henry but in Edmond Mortimer Ea of March c. for which consult Ch. Hist lib. 4 fo 153. And therefore let the Reader judge whether without more Perspicacity in the Organ or perspicuity in the Object any man may not easily perceive such an Insinuation in the words foregoing that Kings deservedly or legally may be deposed All further medling in which point as I then declined so I have greater Reason to decline it now And on that reason I shall spare to press him whether another of his Inferences Apothegmes and Maxims of State in reference to the person of King Hen. 6. and the calamiâ—ous death of that religious but unfortunate Prince which I find him willing to shift off with this one evasion which the change of times hath made more passable then before that the less we touch on this harsh string the better the Musick p. 2. fol. 53. 37. These points relating to the King and the Church being thus passed over the residue of the things or matters material and effectual to be Answered and by him denyed are neither very many nor of any great consequence though truth be as much violated in a matter of the smallest moment as in that of the greatest That which comes first and I must fetch a great leap to it a great part of the intervening Animadversions being either out off with aâ— c. or otherwise avoyded without making any answer to them at all as farre as to the middle part of Queen Eliz. Raign where I found our Author advocating in behalf of Peoples sidings as they were used in those times and show the dangerous consequents and effects thereof not onely in the apprehension of King James but of Queen Eliz. All which the Appealant shifts aside and thinks to satisfie all expectations in changing onely one of his expressions which made those peoplefidings to be grounded on the words of S Paul And therefore if you read in the next Edition that those people sidings were but pretended to be grounded on the words of St. Paul we muâ—â— then think the Arch-bishop Gryndal did well in pleading for them to the Queen that the Queen did ill in causing them to be suppressed and that King James was more miserably our in dreaming of so many dangers in that Apostolical Institution which our Father entitles plainly by the name of Gods and the Ghurches Cause as were not to be found in it at any rate In the Historians relating the story of Martin Mar-Prelate and the great injury done to the Bishops by those scandalous Libels an occasion is taken by the Animadvertor to put him in remembrance of a rule of his to this effect That the fault is not in the Authour if he truly cite what is false on the credit of another Which rule so dangerous in it self and so destructive to the truth so advantatageous to the slandering of the godliest men and mis-reporting the Occurrents of all times and ages is very justly faulted by the Animadvertor and thereupon he thus proceeds in his Animadversions That this rule whether true or false cannot be used to justifie our Author in many passages though truly cited considering that he cannot chuse but know them to be false in themselves and he that knowing a thing to be false sets it down for true not only gives the lye to his own Conscience but occasions others also to believe a falshood And from this charge I cannot see how he can be acquitted in making the Bishops to be guilty of those filthy sins for which they were to be so lashed by Satyrical wits or imputing those base Libels unto wanton wits which could proceed from no other fountain then malitious wickedness All which the Appealant passeth over without taking the least notice of it and to say truth he had good reason so to do knowing that dangerous rule to be so recessary for his justification and indempnity upon every turn And thereupon fixing himself upon this Rule That the Wâ—iter is faultless who truly cites what is false on the credit of another he thinks he hath sufficiently confuted the Animadvertor by telling him that if this Rule should not be true he must needs have a â—ard task of it in making good all things in his own Geography on his own knowledge who therein hath traded on trust as much as another I must have been a greater Travellor then either the Greek Vlisses or the English Mandivile all Purchas his Pilgrims many of our late Jesuits and Tom Corriot too into the bargain if it had been otherwise if in describing the whole world with all the Kingdoms Provinces Seas and Iles thereof I had not relyed more on the credit of others then any knowledge of my own if the Appealant could have charged me with citing any thing for truth which I know to be false and justified my so doing upon the credit of any Author whom I know to be mistaken in his information he had said somewhat to the purpose And when he can say that I desire no favour either from him or any other whatsoever In the mean time if any Gentleman Merchant or other Travellor
whensoever any equal judicious Auditor shall trouble himself in casting up the Reckonings which are between us And in this hope I shall apply my self to Answer Mr. Fullers Letter whom I thus salute To my Loving Friend Mr. THOMAS FULLER SIR AT the End of your Appeal which came not to my hand till Friday the sixt of this moneth I find a very civil Letter directed to me in which you propose a breathing time after some wearinesse in the encounters which have past between us and the suspending of such Animosities as we may be supposed to harbour against one another But for my part as I have had no such long breathing time since those Papers which relate to you first past my hands as might make me the more ready for this second onset so you may take as long or little time as you please to consider of it before you return to the encounter Animosities I have none against you and therefore none to be suspended in this Inter-Parleance My affections being fair to your person though not to the cause for which you seem most to have appeared in the whole course of your History And if you had appeared so onely to my apprehension I had been the more inexcusable both to God and Man and the more accomptable to you for conceiving otherwise of you then you had deserved But I am confident there are very few true Sonnes of the Church of England who could make any other judgement of you out of your History then was made by me and therefore you must thank your selfe if any greater noise hath been made about it then you could willingly have heard You know what Caesars Resolution was about his wife for having her as free from the suspition as the crime of Incontinency and therefore if your Conscience do acquit you from the crim it self in Acting any thing against the Interest of the Church your Mother you had done very well and wisely had you kept your selfe free from the suspition also of such disaffections You tell me that you are cordiall to the Cause of the English Church and that your hoary hairs will go down into the Grave in sorrow for her sufferings But then as Samuel said to Saul What meaneth this bleating of the sheepe â—in my Ears and the lowing of Oxen which I heare What mean those dangerous Positions and those many inconvenient expressions that I may give them no worse name which occur so frequently in your Book and which no man who is cordial to the Cause of the English Church can either read with patience or pass over with pardon If you would be believed in this you must not speak the same Language in your second Edition as you have done in the first or leave so much in it of the former Leven as may soure the whole lumpe of your performance Nor would I have you think it to be any dishonour to cast aside those soure Grapes whensoever they shall come to a second gathering at which so many of the teeth of your Mothers Children have been set on edge there being no greater Victory to be gained in the World then what a Man gets upon himself You have said as much as could be in your own defence and therefore may come off with satisfaction to your self and others In altering all or any of those passages which have given occasion of offence to the most of your brethren And you may take this occasion for it not as necessitated thereunto by the force of Argument but as Sylla resigned his Dictator-ship rather out of his good affections to the peace and happiness of the Common-wealth then compelled by Arms. You are pleased to take notice of some Parts that God hath given us thinking we might have used them better then in these Pen Combates and that the differences betwixt us will occasion such Rejoycings in the common Enemy as was amongst the Trojans on the fallings out of Agamemnon and Achilles But I hope you doe not think in earnest that either of us are so considerable in the sight of our Enemies as those Great Commanders were in theirs or that any great matter of Rejoycings can be given them by our weak contentions In which what satisfaction you are able to give your selfe for spending so much of your Parts Pains and Time in the drawing up of your Appeal is known onely to God and your own Conscience But for my part I am not conscious to my selfe of any mispendings in that kind in reference to the writing of my Animâ—dversions in which as I had no other end then the vindicating the truth the Church and the injured Clergy so I can confidently say that I have writtten nothing in the whole course of that Book to the best of my knowledge which was not able to abide the touchstone of truth whensoever it was brought unto it The smallest truth is worth the seeking and many truths are worth the finding No loss of time or mis-imployment of our parts or pains to be complained of in that pursuit And therefore I shall say in the Words of Judicious Doctor Hackwell That such is the admirable Beauty and Soveraignty of truth in it self and such infinite content doth it yeild the soul being found and embraced that had I proposed no other end to my self in this present Treatise then the discovery and unfolding thereof I should hold it alone a very ample recompense and sufficient reward of my labour Fracta vel leviter imminuta Auctoritate veritatis omnia dubia remanebant as S. Augustine hath it You tell me also that as you know I will not allow you to be my equal so you will not acknowledg me to be your superiour whereby you tacitly conclude your self for the better man as much above me in the fortune and success of the present Duel as Cesar was above Pompey in the War between them In which though I may suffer you to enjoy the jollity of your own opinion yet it is more then probable that such as have observed the conduct of the action on either side may think otherwise of it Which being referred to the finall sentence of those only who are made Judges of the field I shall not be unwilling to shut up the Quarrel upon such conditions as are propounded in your Letter one only of my own being added to them I conceive that having offered these short notes to the publick view I might do it without any disadvantage of reputation By some passages in your Book and Letter I find that you take notice of a remediless infirmity and decay of sight which is fallen upon me rendring me almost wholly unfit for further engagements of this nature and I finde also on the other side that you have many advantages above me both in friends and Books of both which by the plundering of my Library and the nature of a Country life I am almost totally unfurnished Which though it may give you many