it doth not follow hence that Episcopacy and Presbytery stand upon equal terms and though both proceeding upon the same suâ—position do equally complain yet that part which really suffers wrong doth justly complain And if he please now to set his Tables right again I am apt to think that he will give it on the Episcopal side But there is something farther for which the Presbyterian my justly complain though this Author had cast such a mist before his own Eyes that he could not see it For the Presbyterian in the general Notion asserts a great Truth and it is not his fault that he pleads a divine right of Church Government but that he takes it out of those Hands wherein Christ and his Apostles left it to commit to those to whom it was never intrusted and thus licks up Aerius's Vomit Now in this case Mr. Lowth had proved the Presbyterian concerned as well as the Episcoparian For when the Author of the Irenicum to avoid the Argument from the Superiority of the Apostles and their Jurisdiction over the Pastors of the Church by an Act of Christ had pleaded That it must be farther proved that it was Christ's intention that Superiority should continue in their Successions or it makes nothing to the purpose To this Mr. Lowth replies That at this rate of Arguing though the Apostles by an Act of Christ were invested with the ministerial Authority yet it must be farther proved That it was Christ's intention that the same power should continue in their Successors or it makes nothing to the purpose for a setled Ministry and the same Argument which overthrows a Superiority of Churchmen for want of an express of Christ's intention overthrows the very Ministry it self both having the same bottom and alike promises And here the Episcopal Man was not left alone to complain but the Presbyterian might honestly put in for a share And this indeed was a fatal Argument for it overthrew the whole project of the Irenicum for if you well observe you will find the Scheme of that Author to lie thus He asserts in general a divine Right of Government or that it is the Will of Christ that his Church should be Governed one way or other but then as for any particular Form of Church Government he doth not think that Christ or his Apostles erected any with an Obligation of its continuance but that it was left to some body I know not who to establish the particular Form according to the necessity convenience and circumstances of Times Places and Persons and from time to time to new mould and change the same as they should find cause yet always containing themselves within the bounds of what the Author thinks lawful I grant that he is not always true to this but the whole Work seems to be bottomed upon this supposition and for his inconsistencies he himself may take care of them Now the Argument here used hath undone himself and is levelled not only against the divine Right of any one particular Form but against the divine Right of a Ministry and all Church Government whatsoever Neither do I know to what purpose we should wrangle whether the House shall be built in this or that Form or Shape when it doth not appear that we have any Right or Authority either to build any at all or to enter any formerly built And now let any man judge whether this was an effectual way of arguing either for the re-establishment of the Church of England or for mens complying with it But tho this be enough to prove what Mr. Lowth hath alledged yet it is untruly said of the Letter-maker that this is all For Mr. Lowth had accused the Author of the Irenicum that notwithstanding his Pretence of the Mutability of Church Government he had invested the Presbyter with the full Power of Order and Jurisdiction and that he had perpetually fixed him by divine Right unalterable and he there proves his Charge p. 29. and you may find several other things in Mr. Lowth's Letter to this purpose to which I refer you for they having received no Answer I am no further at present concerned for them only I think this a very unlikely way of perswading the establishment of the Church under Bishops and leave you to judge let the Author's Design be what it will whether the Book do not carry on the Design which Mr. Lowth pretends I fear I grow troublesom to you but now my Hand is in I am resolved to follow this Author to see if he have done the reverend Dean any better Service in the remaining part of his Letter And the next thing he falls on is the Business of a Recantation And here supposing what I had read in the former part of the Letter would have been of the same piece with what followed I expected to have met with strange tragical Exclamations and that the unreasonableness of the Demand should have been bitterly cryed out against But I was quite disappointed and he is clear too quick for us for he saith That a Recantation hath been already made and that as publick as the Error Scandal and Offence and too before the Demand was made This Language I confess surprized me It seems then that Mr. Lowth and the Dean were agreed and did not know it What pity is it that such a Noise should be made all over the Kingdom and such Disturbance among Church of England Men about a Quarrel between Two Peasons who are both become of the same Mind But is it not a stark Shame that when Mr. Lowth is acknowledged to be in the Right and the Dean hath receeded from his former Tenets to come up to an Opinion which Mr. Lowth hath always maintained he should be reviled and exclaimed against in all places for this with as much Fierceness and Bitterness as if he had set the Church on Fire At least those who confess thus much ought to condemn the Practice as Unreasonable And if this be true I think the Quarrel ought to be at an end But now I am afraid to read on least in looking after the Proof of this I should meet with a second Disappointment and I find all to amount to little better than a meer Say so And indeed much thus it happens For tho I am willing to perswade my self that the Learned Dean is really and truly of another Mind and hath quitted many of the loose Opinions of the Rector of Sutton yet this Author is so Unfortunate in the Proof of it that he hath done him no small Diskindness And the First thing which he cites from the several Conferences is so far from a formal Retractation as he would bear us in hand that it is indeed only a scurvy Palliation of the matter and I am sorry there to find this Assertion That what Proposals he makes about tempering Episcopacy they were no other than what King Charles 1st and Mr. Thorndike had made before him How No
A LETTER TO A FRIEND IN ANSWER to a LETTER Written against Mr. LOWTH IN DEFENCE OF Dr. Stillingfleet LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1688. A LETTER TO A FRIEND IN ANSWER to a LETTER Written against Mr. LOWTH SIR YOU seem to be much concern'd that such considerable Members of the Church of England should be whetting their Pens against each other whilst they are inclosed with their Adversaries And I think every good Man will bear a part with you and doth heartily wish that there had been no occasion or that it could be taken away But since you require my thoughts concerning the late Answerer of Mr. Lowth's Letter I will answer your Request with as much brevity and impartiality as my mean skill will enable me The Man wants not wit but indulgeth it so far as to renounce both Civility and Reason good Manners and Religion I had perused his Letter with the same pleasure I read a Play or hear a Prevaricator's Speech but that the seriousness of the Matter wherein it was concerned was a continual check upon me and converted that Pleasure into Grief to think that any Man who pretends to Gravity and Reverence to Religion should allow himself the liberty to Wantonize at that rate in most sacred Things So that I think the Man is so far from doing the learned Dean any real Service that he will prove a disparagement both to his Cause and Person and the more for this reason That being the Dean had formerly justly lashed Mr. Alsap for his lightness in a Case near a-kin to this it will seem very indecent for him now to set up a Jack-Pudding or Merry-Andrew in his own Defence and that it should come forth without his privity and consent scarce any Man will believe who considers how long and by whom Mr. Lowth's Book of Church Power was stopp'd in despight of all the interest he could make Neither is the attempt to jeer Truth out of Countenance less intolerable at this time when it is apparent from the Letter it self that the Dean doth endeavour to come up to Mr. Lowth and it is much the best part of the Scriblers Plea to own it in his behalf Several Pages are spent meerly in pickeering at Words and Phrases without one Syllable as to the merits of the Cause though there be no want of Malice as to Mr. Lowth's Person But I love not to rake in Canals though I have to do with Scavengers and therefore shall pass it all over but where I meet with any thing material I shall give you a concise account of my Thoughts of it The chief Ground of this bitter Quarrel I find to be this That he the Dean is imperiously Summoned and little less than commanded viz. by Mr. Lowth to satisfie the Church of God by a Recantation as publick as his Error Scandal and Offence This latter Clause I remember in Mr. Lowth's Book but the imperious Summons is anothers Interpretation and the little less than commanded is added by the Author least he should seem to do nothing if he did not lay on more load But in what manner soever it was done I confess that in one respect it was very unreasonable to call for such a Recantation for we are all too fond of our selves to appear against our selves But when a Man hath gotten a name in the World is admired by his Followers applauded for his Parts and Learning and look'd on as the Coriphaeus of his Age this Man is above all Recantations and it is well if he do not think himself above any Error Scandal or Offence For such a one to lessen himself by the publick acknowledgment of Error is such a prodigious piece of Ingenuity as cannot reasonably be expected and indeed it is never to be expected from any but those who can be content to take the shame to themselves that God may have the Glory and who value Truth above all their Reputation yea all their Interest in the World and such are rare Birds whether they have Pockets or not But then if we lay aside Mens over-dearness to themselves and the frightful tenderness of their Reputation as we ought in this Case and look into the reason of the thing the Case will be quite altered and it will appear altogether unreasonable that the Church of God should be wronged or the Truth suffer for the Advancement or salving any Man's Reputation And if any offend in this kind they ought to give satisfaction though few are willing to do it I have no prejudice against the Dean's Person and shall readily do him all the right I can I acknowledge that he hath taken a great deal of pains in defence of the Church of England I honour him as a Man of extraordinary Parts Learning and Industry second to few if any of his Age. But doth this secure him from Error Doth this make him infallible Are we so zealous to pull down the Pope at Rome that we may set up another at St. Paul's Or have not meaner Men sometimes corrected the Errors of far greater Apollinaris was a Man of such curious Parts and Learning that he was the Admiration of his Contemporaries and he did the Church great service by his clear and convincing way of writing against Hereticks and yet as some think the very confidence in his Parts betrayed him into a foul Error and even those who pitied him who admired him who acknowledged themselves much inferior to him wrote against his Error and have transmitted him to posterity branded with the name of an Heretick Tertullian for acuteness of Parts and variety of Learning doubtless out-stripp'd all the Men of his Age and I question whether any thing written in behalf of Christianity against Heathens hath out-done his Apology or any thing hath been more convincingly penned against all sorts of Hereticks than his Book de Praescriptionibus And yet this very Man not without much ado hath escaped the Title of an Heretick himself if he have escaped it However it is notorious that he maintained some such foul Errors as are rejected on all hands In these we may see that the Church of God did not suffer the singular parts or even merits of any Man to patronize his Errors but in that cafe always left him to the Merits of his cause and perhaps it is most reasonable that the more considerable the person is the more severe Trial he should be put upon because the Authority of his Person is more like to make the Error spread than if it came from another Man. And in this particular even the Author of the Letter though like the Fish Saepia he muddles himself in his own Ink yet is forced sometimes in down-right terms to confess that the Dean hath been guilty of Error in that very matter wherein Mr. Lowth accuseth him and when he doth his best to wash it off he doth only plaster the Sore over To make this good I
Lowth seems to me a thing utterly unaccountable but from the Churches abounding with Men of Latitudinarian and Erastian Principles who are resolved to maintain the positions of the Rector of Sutton though the Dean of St. Paul's pretend to disclaim them and therefore I think Mr. Lowth might well call it an unlucky Book And yet no one living can believe this who admits the Character which is given of the Book It might be compared saith our Learned Author to one of those Trees that are thick hung with plenty of Fruit of several growths some ripe some green some in the blossom and some in the bud which altogether affordeth a very pleasant Prospect argue an exceeding luxuriency and fertility in the Soil and may be all brought to perfect Maturity in their due time God forbid that all these should come to perfect Maturity for what can this Fruit be but the several sorts of Church Government mentioned in the Iraenicum There a curtailed kind of Episcopacy is coldly and faintly allowed Presbytery strongly pleaded for Independency much favoured and if my memory fail me not in the matter of Tithes there is a spicing of Anabaptistry and Quakerism Now certainly Episcopacy must be the present ripe Fruit and therefore fit to be cropp'd and no doubt but Presbytery as green as it is will be quickly ready for its place Independency though in the bud yet upon occasion is a very great grower and ripens apace and will soon be endeavouring to lend the Presbyter a lift and others that are only in the blossom upon these incouragements will doubtless come on as fast as they can now would it not be a brave World to see all these come to perfect Maturity i. e. to thrust out one another to take their place by turns and run round by the help of some of J. O's Providential Revolutions I cannot tell what else to make of this Orainge-Tree Similitude and if any one can give a kinder and more natural Interpretation of it I should be glad to hear it If the Author had said of the Fruit that it was some Ripe some Rotten I think he had given a much truer though nothing so glorious a Character I have formerly read the Book and truly my thoughts of it then were that in all my Life I had never seen so many ill things so confusedly put together and the best excuse that I can make for it is to plead our near Twenty Years Confusions the variety of Opinions which then got in Vogue the prejudices which prevailed and the great disadvantages most Men laboured under as to their Studies who were forced to lanch forth into the World before his late Majesty's Restauration But if any Man plead for it in downright terms at this time o' th' Day he deserves to be casheired not only out of the Church of England but the Society of Learning But for this I had best look to my self for the Author of the Letter assures us that the Bishops were of another mind and that the Prudent and Reverend Governors of our Church did admire the performance Well then there is no help for such as I unless we can shelter our selves under such Imprudent and Irreverend Governors as did not admire it So perhaps the Letter-Maker may think and that he is safe now he hath set the Bishops on their Backs who shall dare to open their Mouths against the Iraenicum And yet for all this I am nothing concerned for I have learn'd that there is a great deal of difference betwixt admiring and approving and we more often admire Mens Folly and Wickedness than their Wisdom and Goodness I shall easily grant that considering the Time the Person and his Age there is much in that Book to be admired and perhaps more to be censured and I hardly think that the Bishops have a better Opinion of that Book than the Dean professeth to have himself who for some Years of late hath been sick of it But it would be the strangest Paradox in the World that they should be so desperately enamour'd on a Script which Sacrificeth their whole Order to the pleasure of the Magistrate or the Mobile and actually degrades them into the Rank of Presbyters What will such Insinuations make men think of our Bishops It is insufferable Impudence thus covertly to expose the highest Order in God's Church But let the Reverend Bishops look to themselves for our Author thinks he can prove what he saith and tells us that the great Sufferers for Religion and Loyalty had such an Opinion of Mr. Stillingfleet and that doubtless upon the account of the Iraenicum that they made choice of him to undertake the Defence of the Conference with Fisher And what of all this Doth it thence follow that they approved the Iraenicum I rather think the contrary I suppose our Author may have heard of Mr. Prynn a Man of a restless Spirit and unsetled Judgment who spared no Times or Persons Now because they could not tell what to do with him but put him to the Records in the Tower to employ his busie Mind will our Author conclude that they applauded all he wrote But to bring an instance yet nearer to our Case of all the Schismaticks that ever assaulted the Church of England possibly none will be found more Inveterate nor yet more able and learned than T. Cartwright and yet some of the Governors of our Church thought sit to put him upon Writing against our Country-men at Rhemes And I suppose their design was to sweeten his bitter Spirit by such an honour done to him and to win him what they fairly could or at least to divert a direct War upon the Church and to hinder his making the People run mad at which he was an excellent Artist 'T is true that his ill Principles stuck so close to him that his Performance did not answer expectation and other hands were forced to be set on work but if this Author had been then living it seems he would have hence concluded that not only all the Bishops but even Archbishop Whitgift himself who had wrote against him did approve of what Cartwright had wrote before and he had done the Bishops no mean favour if he had not made them all Fanaticks Something more perhaps may be said in behalf of the Rector of Sutton for the Irenicum though a pernicious Book yet did vouch thus much for its Author That he was a Man of luxuriant Parts and indefatigable Industry and being he seemed himself to be unsetled who shall accuse the Wisdom of our Governors for endeavouring to take him off before he was too far gone and to employ him in an honourable Work which might at once oblige him and better instruct him And he that had maintained an ill cause with so good appearance of Learning might reasonably be thought to manage a good one with much more advantage And I am apt to think that this course had totally secured him
discoursing about the State of Men in the Isle of Pines And he gives a reason of his Assertion to this effect That as no Man ought to limit God's Power and Mercy in extraordinary Cases so neither ought any to enlarge them where God by his revealed will hath set bounds and limits and consequently that the promises and assurances of Salvation ought to be given to none out of the Church where God hath a Church as to her Offices and Administrations in actual Being and Settlement But quite contrary hereto upon this supposition of antecedent Belief the Dean infers That a Man may be in a State of Salvation in his single and private Capacity apart and out of all Church Society and Ecclesiastical Communion though he live where it is to be had which utterly overthrows any necessity of attendance to Ordinances and all Church Communion And to prove this Mr. Lowth cites several passages out of that Book Now if this Author will not see how this Opinion can be destructive of Church Power he must be blind still for me but then he will be very ill able to disburthen the Dean of those consequences wherewith Mr. Lowth hath loaded him and indeed supposing the Truth of the charge the Dean himself can never be able any other ways to do it than by quitting the Opinion And thus this Book not doing the Business is laid aside to make way for The Answer to several Treatises wherein the Dean as our Author saith has reduced the Authority of the Governours of the Church to three Heads And to much purpose if it be arbitrary whether men shall enter or continue in any such Society But we will suppose them obliged which is so much more than I need grant to the foregoing Principle that it is rather directly against it and then the first Two Heads may be easily allowed only it is objected that what the Dean gives with one Hand he takes away with the other and by his unconstancy both in Opinion and Practice hath undermined his own Positions To this the Author says nothing nor will I urge it further but quietly take what is at any time well given The Third Head is An Authority of proposing Matters of Faith and directing Men in Religion And this is such a cautious mincing Expression that I cannot tell what to make of it nor where to find any distinct Authority in it For as for proposing I do not know but that any private Person upon a just Occasion and in a lawful manner may do the same And if any thing of that nature be pretended to be peculiar to the Clergy yet Proposals in their own Nature are so far from inferring an Authority to command their Reception that they rather imply a Power in those to whom they are proposed at Discretion to reject them and so in the issue gives the Authority to the People But that I may do him no wrong besides the proposing Matters of Faith there is also mentioned an Authority of directing Men in Religion And truly this is a very liberal Grant which allows as much to the Church as was given to the Statues of Mercury which of old were set up to direct Passengers in their Way and leaves men much at like Liberty to regard either I think this far from a Power to make her Declarations Law. And yet our Author with his accustomed Confidence affirms That it is plain that here is an Authority to Command attributed to the Church and a Power to enforce her Commands by inflicting of Censures c. But to what matters this Authority reacheth he durst not acquaint us for fear this great Mountain should dwindle into a Mole-hill For as the Matter is here laid the Exercise of what he calls the Power of the Keys must be limited to the Churches Authority in making Rules and Canons about Order and Decency For in other matters she can only propose or direct which is so precarious a sort of Authority that I see not how her Censures can be justifiable where it extends no farther And thus he hath made some kind of Fence about the Church against Schismaticks but laid her open to all manner of Hereticks And thus far I cannot find that abundant Satisfaction which he tells us we must be convinced has been made for any former Mistakes For as for what he repeats concerning the Treatise of the unreasonableness of Separation it hath received its Answer already and I am not willing to follow this Man through all his Vagaries who is willing to say any thing but to the Purpose We are now come to the last thing which is Episcopacy as to which it seems Mr. Lowth had charged the Dean that he had not asserted it in the number of those Institutions and Practices Apostolical which are perpetual and immutable To prove the contrary we are bid to look into the Discourse of the unreasonableness of Separation But why should he send us to look that which he could not find himself And I have another Reason why I shall not follow the Advice because I have looked long ago and could not find it Though otherwise I had no mean esteem of the Book And here it is very observable that all the Dean's Treatises fail our Author We may if we please go pore out our Eyes in the unreasonableness of Separation but not one word is thence cited and no other Book so much as mentioned And for his last Refuge he is forced to fly to the Ordination Sermon and Epistle which ought not to be admitted for Proof the Controversy being what was done before and the Performance of that acknowledged And had the Dean's Wrath suffered him to have the Ingenuity to acknowledge what he had the Honesty to retract and had he not disparaged so excellent a Sermon with that inconsiderate angry Epistle I am apt to think he had heard no more of Mr. Lowth unless in respect and kindness But when he endeavours to agree with Mr. Lowth in the Sermon and loads him with Crimes and Reproaches in the Epistle I think he gave him a just Provocation in that manner to defend himself And yet here Mr. Lowth hath granted more than our Author knew how to prove For he is so unlucky that he would tempt one to think that he had rather a design to expose than vindicate the Dean In the Epistle Dedicatory which he is mightily pleased to call the Two-Penny Paper the Dean as he saith tells us That he does now think much more is to be said for the Apostolical Institution of Episcopacy than he at that time apprehended that is when he wrote the Irenicum and I believe the Dean did mean honestly but our Author did unadvisedly to write this passage because it comes not up to the Case For how much that more was or whether it was enough to prove Episcopacy of Apostolical Institution is not expressed And it is well known that very much is often said for
had not some men who applaud his Failures above his best Performances perswaded him that he could do nothing amiss and made him cling too close to his early mistakes For doubtless the Dean after so long Experience and vast Reading cannot but discover the mischievous Consequences of many things in that Book which his Juvenile Heat and too forward Zeal sent over hastily into the World And I am willing to believe that we might in time see as great Evidences of Candor and Ingenuity as of Parts and Learning from him could these men leave him to himself But this I think may satisfie you of the reasons of those persons employing him at that time though they could not approve the Irenicum It may be needless perhaps to add more in respect of you yet for the sake of some others who may be more difficult because unwilling to be convinced I will fling you in a Royal Instance double twisted It is no unknown thing That Bishop Bilson let drop some passages from his Pen which might be interpreted to savour too much of Commonwealth Principles and were particularly distastful to King James the First and yet that Wise King not only suffered him to enjoy the richest Bishoprick in his Kingdom but seem'd to afford him some particular Favour and Countenance This some Schismaticks afterwards laid hold of and made use of it to their Advantage against whom our Royal Martyr thus defends his Father in his Third Paper to Mr. Henderson As for Bishop Bilson I remember very well what Opinion the King my Father had of him for those Opinions and how he shewed him some Favour in hope of his Recantation as his good Nature made him do many things of that kind And had this occurr'd to the Dean's Memory as it could not escape his Reading it might have been a strong Temptation upon him to have drawn the Father into his Party as well as he hath done the Son and indeed they are both much alike on his side But I think that it better serves to shew that respect to mens Persons and approbation of their Opinions are very distant things and that he who passeth judgment upon no better Evidence follows a very fallacious Rule From this we are lead to consider the design of this unlucky Book which I could wish had never been design'd at all And we are told That but two designs can be tolerably pretended the one is the Dean's own the other Mr. Lowth hath made for him The one is applauded the other insolently and scornfully condemned they are represented as inconsistent with each other and yet with this Author's leave I think it not impossible that they may be both true And First I must tell you that a man though very zealous and serious may be mistaken as to the Justice and Goodness of his own design and may actually design that which is really evil and effect it too whilst he thinks to do great good Thus it was with no less a person than St. Paul before his Conversion in persecuting the Christians And our Blessed Saviour himself tells us John 16. 2. The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God Service And I believe the Author of the Letter would be very unwilling to have his Throat cut with such a Religious design notwithstanding he is so brisk an Advocate for Mens well meaning And there is not a Presbyterian Independent Anabaptist Quaker or any Sectary whatsoever who seriously desire and endeavour to ruine the Church of England but they think they design well and our Author if he please may undertake their defence Well but the Dean hath solemnly profossed that his design was to heal the Wounds of the Church Now though I never liked the Plaster yet I am willing to believe this to have been his design and it is a very Christian and noble Design But then in the next place we are to consider that a Man who carries on a very just and laudable design may yet proceed in such untoward methods and use such unagreeable and unhappy means that he may not only miscarry as to his design but may do as much hurt as he designed good And in this case it is apparent that there is a Twofold design the one personal the other natural the one which the person intends and fails in the other that which the means he useth naturally tend to And therefore when Mr. Lowth saith That the design was meerly or mostly or what you will against the re-establishment of the Church of England I cannot believe that he meant to enter into the Dean's Thoughts but that he did judge what was the natural tendency of his Arguments and so let the Dean's design be what it will he might be in the right as to the design of the Book and whether he was or not must be tried by the proofs he brings for it And our Author confidently asserts That all that he Mr. Lowth offers in proof of this is his the Dean's denying Episcopacy to be by the Laws of Christ always binding and immutable and that he attributes too much power to the Civil Magistrate in Ecclesiastical Affairs and this saith our Author will be freely confessed A pretty fair Confession And is it not an admirable way to procure the Establishment of the Church of England by pleading that Episcopacy may be turned out of doors at the pleasure of the Civil Magistrate For supposing the mutability of Episcopacy and the power of the Magistrate there asserted this will be the natural consequence And is it not hard that a man should confess Mr. Lowth to be in the right and in the same Breath revile him But our Author has a trick to prove that this Argument will not hold and tells us That he will turn the Tables and suppose Mr. Lowth a zealous Presbyterian and then because the Irenicum denies that Government to be immutable as well as Episcopal and gives away some of the power to the Civil Magistrate which is wont to be assumed by their Classical and Synodical Assemblies he might have made the same complaint in favour of the Consistory c. Very true and there is no doubt but Mr. Lowth would have done so had he been such a zealous Presbyterian or else he must have been false to his Principles But could not this man turn the Tables without turning Mr. Lowth into a Presbyterian I pretend not to much skill at Tables but I had thought that those who turned the Tables had left the Persons as they were and if he had done so he might have turn'd and overturn'd his Tables till his heart had aked before he could have made Mr. Lowth open his mouth in favour of the Consistory though the Dean's Design and Arguments had been never so violent against it And let us suppose it true which this Author alledgeth That the design of the Irenicum may be as easily levelled against the Presbyterian as the Episcopal Church yet