must be counted a flourish only and not a convincing argument for tho' Lr. gives his assent in general to the reasoning of that discourse yet he do's not say every particular of it amounted to a demonstration As for his book adversus falso-nominatum ordinem Episcoporum and some harsh expressions about the Prelates of his time they must not be so understood as if he meant to unbishop 'em but only to set out their corruption and degeneracy Athanâ—…sius do's not speak more softly of the Arrian Bishops in Constantius his Court he says they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that if any of 'em has a mind to be consecrated he is not told that a Bishop should be blameless but only bid to rage against Christ and never trouble himself about manners b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athan. Ep. ad Solit. Vit. agentes p. 812. Edit Paris 1â—…27 But these words must be allow'd a latitude and are not strictly to be taken as if the Father deny'd the validity of their Consecration After the Breach with the Pope 't is own'd that Lr. â—… 17. took the freedom of calling him Antichrist when ever he came in his way but ere this can be made his crime it must be prov'd that St. Paul has not call'd him so too for otherwise we can't but think that he has taken after a good pattern If his spirit must be dubb'd evil for an hard word or two against his holyness of what spirit pray was the sacred Council of Brixia when they stigmatiz'd Hildebrand calling him Virum procacissimum sacrilegia inâ—…endia praedicantem Perjuria Homicidia defendentem manifestum Necromanticum and a deal of that stuff Now can I see no great difference between Lr. and the Council in this matter but that they rayl'd perhaps with infallibility on their side when He had only plain certainty on his But he rejected the authority of Councils yes siquando §. 19. contraria Scripturae statuunt a Assert Art 29. and so do all the Reform'd as well as He. So that this won't pass for a fault in him till 't is prov'd one in us too But he never refus'd to be concluded by the authority of One legally summon'd as is plain from that Preface of his to the Smalcald Articles written a little while before he went out of the world Indeed the sense he had of the tricks and Artifices us'd in convening these Synods for some Centuries together and the noise of his Adversaries who were perpetually crying Councils Canons c. when they had nothing else to say for their cause might perhaps force out an expression or two from him that did not carry all the respect due to those great Names he had fire in his temper and a German bluntness and upon these provocations might possibly strain a phrase with too great freedom yet even the diligence of his accuser has in all his works been able to find out but a few passages of this nature and of them the most material perhaps were never found out by any body else but himself For those two which seem the warmest on this occasion are quoted the one from Assertio Art 36. contra Reg. Angliae the other from a Treatise of his about Councils in 1639 two imaginary books that the considerer dreamt of perhaps but I am sure L. never wrote a In Luther's Works in High Dutch there is a Book of Councils I confess But this can't be that my Author means because his Quotations here are in Latin So that till he lay'â—… his Indictment in some certain County we don't think our selves bound to answer an indefinite charge As for the rest we acknowledge he call'd the Council of Constance Synagogam Satanae and I wonder my author should be offended at the expression when 't is consider'd what unlucky things they did in the business of the Pope's Supremacy especially since their own Annalist has given the same Title to that of Syrmium a Council legally summon'd by the Emperor Constantius approv'd by Pope Liberius and which they of the Roman Perswasion have no colour to reject but upon Protestant grounds because it made Heretical Decrees Lr. says sive Papa sive Concilium sic aiunt abundet quisque in sensu suo in rebus non necessariis ad salutem Assert Art 28. Here is He represented by this author as denying the power of the Church in indifferent things but this is foul dealing to conceal the occasion the words were spoken upon and then fasten a sense of his own This Article is aim'd against the pretences of a Pope or Council to make that a necessary point of faith by their determination which was of it self unnecessary before For they took upon 'em he knew to enlarge the Creeds which were already fix'd and had explain'd a Parable of our Savior's in a far different sense to what he taught it in The Faith which was but a Mustard-seed in the Primitive ages was grown by little and little tow'rds the beginning of the 16th Century into a great Tree This power of their's and no other Lr. here disowns as any one that views the place but cursorily must needs see There is no harm in this I hope and yet how bigg the accusation look'd as his sly Enemy had manag'd it There is another sentence taken from Tom. 2. p. 243. But I must desire the Citer henceforward to inform us of his Editions too for in the first Wirtenberg one which I now have by me no such thing appears I would request of him too to be punctual in his Titles that we who are at the drudgery of Reading him may loose no more time then is necessary By the book de gravi doctrina is meant I suppose de quavis doctrina p. 33. but 't is a trifle he has taken from it and what he knows every body own 's Thus has this one Paragraph afforded us more absurdities then we could possibly have expected in so narrow a compass and methinks tho I don't well know what the words mean yet in the phrase of the man it discover's a strange plerophory of blindnesâ—… Lr. is next arraign'd for speaking contemptuously of §. 20. Fathers but this is a rank calumny No man has a greater veneration for 'em then He. Let his latest Writings which our Author observes to have been the most haughty give us a tast of his thoughts on this point I say not this to lay a blott on the Holy Fathers whose Labors we ought with veneration to receive They were great men but men still and a little afterwards b Quoties videmus patrum opinioneâ—… cum scriptura non convenâ—…re cum reverentia eos toleramus agnoscimus tanquam majorâ—…s 〈◊〉 sedâ—… 〈◊〉 eoâ—…â—…almen non discedimus ab authoritate scripturae Ibid. When â—…e find the opinions of Fathers jarring with Scriptures we must pay a respect to 'em even in their very Errors and
AN ANSWER TO SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON THE Spirit of Martin Luther AND The Original of the REFORMATION Lately Printed at OXFORD The fierceness of Man shall turn to thy praise and the fiercness of Them shalt thou refrain Ps. 76. 10. OXFORD Printed at the THEATER Anno 1687. Imprimatur IO. VENN Vice-Can Oxon. Iulii 29. 1687. The PREFACE WHEN I first happ'ned upon this Pamphlet and by some peculiar beautys in the style easily discover'd it's Owner I was I must confess not a little surpriz'd I could not have imagin'd that a Man of so bigg a reputation as the Author of the Guide in Controversy One whose thoughts had for some years convers'd with nothing less then Oecumenical Councels Popes and Patriarchs should quitt all those fine amusements for the humble task of Life-writing and drawing of Characters 'T was mean prey I thought for a Bird of his Pounces and the Design he did it with made it ten times more a Riddle The Doctrines of the Reformation have for near two Centuries kept the field against all Encounterers and do's He think they may be foil'd at last by two or three little Remarks upon the Life and Actions of a single Reformer But it look's like a Jest when the Irregularities committed by Luther in Germany are turn'd upon Us here in England as if any thing that He said or did could affect a Church establish'd upon it's own bottom and as independent on any forreign authorities as the Crown Her Defender wears Luther's Voice is indeed to Us what our a Pag. 2. of Consid. Author term's it the Voice of the Stranger and tho' we are allwaies ready to wipe off the unjust aspersions cast upon him by his Enemies yet this is what we are oblig'd to not as Sons but as Friends Whenever injur'd Virtue is set upon every Honest man is concern'd in the Quarrel But these last Attacqu's have been so very feeble that had we for once trusted the Cause to it 's own strength 't would have suffer'd but little Damage And I for my part should have done so did I not know there were a sort of Men in the World who have the vanity to think every thing on their side unanswerable that do's not receive a sett Reply tho' at the same time they are pleas'd to answer nothing themselves They fight indeed all of 'em like Tartars make a bold and furious onset and if that does not doe they retreat in disorder and you never hear of 'em afterwards And this I expect will be the present case The Editor of these Considerations won't much care for replying I believe because that must be de proprio and can't be drawn from the old store of provisions laid in by the Fraternity But whether the Poysons were of an earlyer mixture and design'd like Italian Preparations to work now at a distance or whether later temper'd is a thing we may safely be ignorant of as long as we are secure of the Antidote before they take their effect And this the Theatre-Press thinks her self engag'd to promise considering from Whose Munificence she had her Birth and especially to Whom she ows her Lustre a late Prelate of a remarkable zeal for the establish'd Church and who were Religions to be try'd by Lives would have liv'd down the Pope and the whole Consistory If the Services she do's now are not of the most deserving Character 't is what the Meanness of the Opposer and a worn-out Cause will bear she has already produc'd the strongest arguments against Popery Fathers and Bibles The present Attempt is confin'd perfectly within the bounds of an Answer and pretend's to nothing more then a bare pursuit of the Author step by step and the laying open his Blunders for the Reader 's ease just in the same order they ly There was nothing frightful in this Task but the toil of being forc'd to think so long upon so very thoughtless a Writer in all other respects 't was as easy as one would wish The History-part lay within a little room and the Reasonings upon it were so thin that they needed only setting in the light to be look'd thro' In both my greatest helps have been drawn from one single Author the Considerer himself who in every Book of his has made it appear that he can write Contradictions as well as believe ' em This small performance had seen the light much sooner but that it waited the Edition of another Piece which should regularly have prevented it But the Gentleman employ'd on that occasion having not yet had all the leisure he expected 't was thought fit rather to send this abroad out of it's due place then stay till every body had forgotten the Book it answer's a misfortune which I fear it has already in a great measure undergone In the Defence of Our Reformation to come 't will be found that the Considerer is no good Historian the Replyer has prov'd him no good Catholic the Animadverter no good Subject and all together no good Disputant so that I have now no new side of him left to entertain the Reader with What he is after all this no body know's 't is much easyer to guess what under another Revolution he will be Answer to Considerations c. MARTIN Luther's Life was a continual Warfare he was engag'd against the united forces of the Papal world and he stood the Shock of 'em bravely both with Courage and Success After his Death one would have expected that generous Adversaries should have put up their Pens and quitted at least so much of the Quarrel as was Personal But on the contrary when his Doctrines grew too strong to be shook by his Enemies they persecuted his Reputation and by the venome of their tongues sufficiently convinc'd the world that the Religion they were of allow'd not only Prayers for the Dead but even Curses too Among the rest that have engag'd in this unmanly design our Author appears not indeed after the blustring rate of some of the party but with a more calm and better dissembled malice He has charg'd his Instrument of Revenge with a sort of White Powder that does the same base action tho' with less noyse 'T is cruel thus to interrupt the Peace of the Dead and Luther's Spirit has reason to expostulate with this Man as once the Spirit of Samuel did Ecclus. 46. 20. 1 Sam. 28. 15. with Saul Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up He know's the sequel of the story the answer that was given was no very pleasing one it only afforded the Enquirer an account of his own Discomfiture Let us see whether this Disturber of Luther's Ashes will have any better fortune The first thing we are presented with is a double Character of the Good and Evil Spirit set out by those Works or Properties which are said to attend each of 'em in Scripture And by this Test it is that Luther's Consid. p. 2. Spirit is to be try'd For
as our Articles term it of Justifâ—…cation by Faith alone and in this sense he say's you may more properly say the Gospel of St. Paul then of Matthew c. And what is there so heynous in this expression 'T is low ebb sure with his Accuser when such Peccadillos as these are put in to swell the Charge But the grand Article is to come L. he says was so strangely affected with this new invention he mean's justifying Faith that he made bold much to prefer the Mahometan life as to good manners before the Christian. Now had L. spoke up to this accusation yet Chrysostom's example would have been his defence For he says the very same thing in almost the same terms of the Christians in his time compar'd with the Pagans a Chrysost Op Imp. in Matth. hom 49. But L has indeed said no such thing In the place cited he compares Mahometans and Papists as to the austerities of living but 't is far from his principles to say all good life and practice consists in these strictnesses b Christiana Religio longe aliud est sublimius aliquid quam Ceremoniae speâ—…iosae Rasura Cucullus Pallor vultus Jejunia Horae Canonicae universa illâ—… facies Ecclesiae Romanae per orbem Luth Praef in Tract de Turcismo He only urges that if it were so then the one would lay as fair a claim to it as the other For the proof of this he vouches the testimony of a Papist one us'd barbarously by 'em in a slavery of 11 years continuance and who had therefore no great reason to favor ' em The Considerer here gives him the Ly and says no such thing is to be found in that Relation I shall not return the Complement but desire the Reader to look at the bottom of the page a Chap. the 14th of the Relation I find these words In ista specie religionis inveniunt aliquid tantâ—… 〈◊〉 ut impassibiles sâ—…nt ut nihil exterioris impressionis sentire valâ—…ant nam in maximis frigâ—…ribus â—…udato corpore incedunt non sentiuâ—… Isti suae probationis rationes veritatem ostendunt in vâ—…riis stigmatibus câ—…bustionum cicatricibus incisionum c. A living witness of good credit has confirm'd this account He says thâ—… Turks have their Mâ—…ks and thoseof different Orders the Dâ—…rvices the Kadri the Nimiâ—…ali the Eâ—…i and twenty more These live under as great austerities as Capâ—…s or Câ—…lites they go barefoot use corporal pennâ—…ce have frequent Pilgrimages and take some of 'em thâ—… three Vowâ—… of 〈◊〉 Poverty and Obedience Ryc prâ—…st of the Oâ—… Emp. p. 138 c. and he 'll be pretty well satisfy'd of my Author's modesty This innocent reflection gives occasion for one of the wildest inferences that ever was made He is condemn'd immediately as preferring Turcisin to Christianity the Alchoran to the Bible and Mahomet to Christ. With this false scent my Author runs away at full cry proves manifestly to you that the Christian Religion is the most holy of all Religions and after he has heated his imagination to an high pitch of zeal concludes with a Deus tibi imperet the Ld. rebuke thee His fancy it seem's has made a Gyant of a Windmill and he 's now engaging it I shall slip away in the mean time and when he has spent his fury meet him at the 10th Paragraph For so far we must go before any new matter offers it self His reflexions between are so very mean that a bare recitall confutes them Ls. Doctrine he says §. 7. is since detested by many judicious Protestants If you ask him how he knew it he 'll tell you Hammond and Thorndike wrote against the Solifidians and Luther himself one of those judicious Protestants confess'd that some wrested what he taught to their own destruction it is a Doctrine void of Consolation because some men §. 8. think they have this Faith when they have it not and so are betray'd into a fatal security This is such stuff as no patience can digest But L. pursu'd this notion §. 9. so far as to hold a parity of honor in all justify'd He did so as to the act of Justification it self and so must all do that hold it gratuitous but not as to the degrees of Sanctification afterwards The honor of Knighthood is the same in all upon whom the Prince confer's it but some Knights may live up to their characters better than others and so possess a larger share in the Princes favor What little amusements these are for so mighty a man in Controversy to sport himself withall He might e'en as well have employ'd his time as the Author of a Book of Education say's some Princes have Educ p. 13. done in the frivolous and low delights of catching Moles baltering Frogs hunting Mice with humble-bees making Lanterns Tinderboxes and such like Manufacture Come we now to the second Branch of L s. Accusation §. 10. his vilifying Religious Vows Pennance c. Agen I must ask him is this a work to try the Doctrine by or rather a part of the Doctrine that is to be try'd If Works are to decide the goodness or badness of L s. cause according to what was first propos'd why are these speculative points preposterously put upon us But if our Author in spite of his own design is resolv'd to give us a list of his Doctrines with what color of reason can that about Indulgences be slipp'd over 'T was the main Article that made the breach as all their own writers confess and do's it not deserve a mention But we deal with a man that understands very well the ordering of his scenes This busyness of Indulgences is too gross to be touch'd upon 't would leave ill impressions upon the Reader 's mind and therefore he passes it over just as Mezeray and the French Writers do the battle of Cressy It cannot be shewn so much as in Profile no light will make it look lovely Here is a fair occasion given to supply the defects of my Author's story and shew to what beastly uses Indulgences were then put and upon how brave an occasion it was that L. first appear'd but because the whole voice of Germany in the Centum Gravamina a Grav 31. and the Trent-Council it self b Sess. 25 Decret de Indulg has done it to my hands 't will be perhaps a needless trouble I go on then to see what L. has said in disparagement of Pennance Vows c. As to the first of these Pennance and what fall's under it in all that heap of Quotations which he has pil'd up Paragr the 10th nothing is aim'd at but the superstitious and meritorious use of it and this all Protestants as well as L. decry When he 's pleas'd to urge any thing in it's favor t will be time to think of our reasons In the mean while he 's resolv'd I find by such dry
right of Allowance but in this case 't was deny'd him so he thrust out the Invader and collated Amsdorf to the Benefice Luther perform'd the Consecration and the D. and his Brother Ernest were present at the Ceremony b Ibid. By the same Authority he sentenc'd the Canon-Law consisting of the former decrees amass'd as well those of Councils as those of Popes to the fire and assembling the University solemnly burnt it at Wirtenberg The matter of Fact is true but 't is frivolous to say he assum'd to himself any particular Authority in the doing it The reasons he publish'd declare that 't was done by virtue of the Commission he had as Preacher of God's word and the Oath he took at his going out Dr. of confounding all pernicious Doctrines as much as in him lay So that he own 's himself upon the level with all of the same degree But he had other motives he tell 's you His books had been solemnly burnt at Rome as Haeretical some people he found were startled at it so he was forc'd boldly to make reprisalls and do an action in the same way to buoy up their courages yet he did it not singly the University concur'd This way of Burning declares no such Authority as the Considerer talk's of Neither he nor any one else that assisted at the Oxon-Decree pretended to it if He declar'd his opinion then against Bellarmin the Iesuits c 't was all that was expected By the same he frequently pronounc'd Anathemas and Excommunications to those reform'd that dissented from him in opinion Is there no difference between an Authoritative Iudicial Anathema and a Wish of Execration The Monks certainly did not pretend to the Anathematizing power and yet at the entrance of their MSS. we alwayes find this sentence Quicunque hunc librum violaverit c sit Anathema Maranatha 'T is the constant style of all their own men that write warmly The Papist Repr and Misrepr has us'd it at the tail of his Pamphlet for some pages together Thus has not this Paragraph one ingenuous word throughout I have dissected it for a sample to shew how a man that had the patience and was sure of the days of Iob might handle the rest for I 'll do my Author this right to acknowledg that his Book 's all of a piece But he is here inconsistent not only with truth but himself He would make us believe that L r. in these actions pretended to a je ne scay quoy Authority forgetting what he had sleepily own'd in the Paragraph before that Lr. requir'd not conformity to his Doctrines out of any Authority he claim'd to impose them which Authority â—…e renounc'd He think 's perhaps that what 's past ought not to be thought of but we are not of his opinion In this point of Church-Authority and that other of Marriage I have siâ—…ted all the little scraps alledg'd by the Pamphlet with the greater care because here it is if any where that the Author seems to be awake and have some eye to his design I don't know whether the Reader will thank me for this exactness I hope the Writer won't But to make amends to 'em both I promise in what follows not to be so punctual but skip over sometimes 4 or 5 pages together without saying one word to em This Weapon form'd against us if it had any sharpness yet by this time I 'me sure 't is quite blunted a Child may now be trusted with it for the Tool has not Edge enough to hurt him For what are the mighty Considerations with which we are now to be entertain'd The first is that Luther was so bold as to think and say he was certain §. 21. n. 1. of what he taught a crime of so high a nature that the Considerer has taken pains to prove it by a Passage as § 24. n. 1. 2. long almost as from hence to the beginning of the Reformation Now he might have spar'd his labor for all well-grounded Protestants are in this point as bold as Lr. himself We have a certainty whose Evidence we find and under whose guidance we think our selves secure without the pretended boast of Infallibility a word which sound 's bigger indeed and fill's the mouth better but is not so satisfactory at the bottom as a late Author has tho' not infallibly yet certainly prov'd a Disc. about Judge in Controv. But we 'll allow the Considerer to decry this Protestant Certainty which he never understood if he had our charity tells us he would never have chang'd it for the gawdiest pretences on t'other side But Lr. maintain'd this certainty of his against other §. 24. n. 3. §. 21. n. 2. Reform'd which were equally certain and in contradiction to himself too for in the point of Consubstantiation tow'rd the latter end of his life he chang'd his mind say the papers and quote for it Melchior Adams and Hospinian I suppose my author is sure of Ls. instability in this point because he averr's it so confidently Now I am as sure that from the authorities mention'd no such thing can be infer'd as shall presently be made out Here is certainty against certainty and one of us must be in the wrong Yet neither of Us is oblig'd to think his own sentiments ere the less right merely because the other opposes 'em Why then might not Lr. maintain his certainty against those of the Reformation that maintain'd the contrary The conviction of his understanding lay within it self and could not be weakned by another man 's not being convinc'd The reason of my certainty in the case is because I am very well satisfy'd that what Adams and Hospinian have here said do's not at all infer a change in Luther's Opinion The story they tell is this Lr. some days before his death own'd that he had written a little too warmly in the Sacramentary-Controversy upon this Melancthon desires him ut leni edito scripto se explicaret that he would explain himself in some milder treatise The heat of dispute had forc'd out from him Expressions that seem'd to make his doctrine run higher then really it did 'T was his friends advice therefore that he should in some just discourse calmly and without reflection state the point and not correct but explain his first notions ut leni edito scripto se explicaret Now whatever sense explaining may now bear yet in those days it did not signify changing for the Bishop of Condom had not then writ his Exposition I am further convinc'd that this story relates not to any change of Ls. opinion but only to an hot word or two that ought to have been softned from the Preface with which Hospinian usher's it in Multi says He verba Lutheri urgent quae calor disputationis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exprimere solet dissimulantes aut nescientes illa quae valedicturus Collegio Philosophico dixit and then comes the Relation Had his
muchwhat the same words Church-Gov part 5. p. 260. But what do's he mean by it would he argue that because both thought themselves certainly in the right therefore he of the two that was in the right was not sure of it Do's Truth know her self ' ere the less to be truth because Error stand's up and pretend's boldly to know the contrary This strike's at all certainty as well as Luther's and my Author must be a Sceptic and no Roman-Catholic if he believes it He own 's there were several specious pretences for a §. 48 49 50 51. Reformation and allow's Lr. not to have been destitute of many personal virtues but then he says they did not ballance his vices and to prove this instances in his sensuality and disobedience two crimes which he has dealt with as Varillas dos with Charles the 5th and to make the more solemn shew split 'em into twenty For he accuses him of Pride and Contention of Licentiousness and Rebellion of Anger nad Impatiency he accuses him of self admiration and contempt of others of railing and blasphemiug against the Catholic Church and of a great many other Synonyma's All which have been sufficiently confuted in what goes before and shall receive here no other Answer then one of his own Words I shall give one instance of my Author's integrity and so dismiss this point He cannot but own that Lr. disswaded the Protestants from taking up arms in the Cause of Religion but according to his usual way of guessing at peoples thoughts imputes it to his being conscious of their weakness All that I shall say to this kind censure is that the passive obedience of the primitive Christians has been us'd at the same rate by a late Author whose face I have since seen thro' a pillory He gives a finishing stroke to his reasonings now §. 52. tow'rds parting by a Parallel drawn between Luther and Mahomet A man is tempted here to return the kindness and give him another between some body that He knows and Iudas But we understand with what design this odious comparison was made and shall therefore to mortify him not be provok'd Only he 'll give us leave to revive an old observation that Mahomet and Pope Boniface were cotemporaries Indeed Boniface got the start of him a little and set up his kingdome about 15 years before him but Mahomet having the advantage of so good a pattern tho' he began something later has thriv'd better There is an author too of ours that has writt a book call'd Turco-Papismus which I would desire him to read before he ventures at capping Characters These he has given us are very childish and have no other property of parallels but that draw 'em out o'both sides as far as you please they 'll never meet I am too weary now to allow my self any excursion from the main design else here 's a fair opportunity to shew how great a bungler my Author is in hitting features And after all let the likenesses be never so true yet a Parallel in a writer of Controversy is no more then a Simile from a pleader at the Bar it may glitter a little and look prettily but will never convince the Jury What is said upon this occasion then I shall suppose within a Parenthesis and so go on He resumes his first method afresh and after this long §. 57. account would now at last try his doctrine by his works according to that Text Ye shall know them by their fruits which he here repeats agen and expounds as formerly But I have shew'd him from the natural drift of the words from the joint authorities of our and their own Expositors that this Text must have another meaning Yet we have comply'd even with this sense too and expected after we had condescendingly made Ls. works Umpires in the Controversy that the gross of his book should have been taken up in setting them out but find contrarily that two thirds of it have been employ'd against his doctrines We may hope at least that he will be more pertinent in the close Here then after some little flourishes about the §. 61. Connexion of Truth and Holyness Error and Vice which kindly destroy one another he summ's up the Evidence that is he setts out what bad consequences Luther's doctrine had instancing in Variety of Sects Dissoluteness of Life c. which he says attended the Reformation So that by Works it seems he did not mean Ls. Works as we were foolishly made to believe for above an 100 pages together for on this Topic not one word here is said but the works of those that follow'd Luther and when His faylings are too light to carry any weight other mens Vices are thrown into the Scale What a strange thoughtlessness is this to write a book and then baulk the whole design of it just when 't is to be shutt up The Deserter it seems is resolv'd to maintain his character by running from every thing and leaving his own very methods in the lurch But how do's he prove this Dissoluteness of manners upon the Reform'd why as he do's other things he says it Now whether there were at that time any such bad things as he talks of among Protestants or no yet we are sure these fruits could not spring naturally from Ls. doctrine they might perhaps arise from it as Vermin from the power of the Sun by Equivocal production but that they were it's direct genuine issue is a proposition in vain asserted unless it be prov'd To shew this would be to his purpose till he do's we are left at a gaze and have nothing for all his fine promises at first to try Ls. doctrines by but the very doctrines themselves But men had reason to suspect 'em he says because they came into the world §. 58. neither with miracles nor if we consider all said with the signs of a good Spirit nor yet own'd or defended nay also rejected and condemn'd by the Church For the first of these Miracles Luther we own came without 'em but neither had he any need of ' em Their use is to establish some new doctrine not to restore an old one which was his case And therefore he no where pretend's to any extraordinary immediate vocation but onely to that ordinary call of the Presbytery and the commission then given him to preach the truth of the Gospel and confound Error As to the signs of a good Spirit I have consider'd all said and cannot find that he had the signs of a bad one He had a zeal for God's glory which hurried him sometimes beyond what was decent in his expressions but this imperfection was we doubt not easily pardon'd by that God who in some measure accepted Iehu's zeal tho stain'd with gross hypocrify In other things I hope I may by this time boldly pronounce him blameless As for the Churches rejecting and condemning his Doctrine 't is the old figure of the