FALSHOOD UNMASKT In ANSWER to a BOOK CALLED TRUTH UNVEIL'D Which vainly pretends to justify the Charge of M R STANDISH Against some Persons in the Church OF ENGLAND By a Dutiful SON of that CHURCH LONDON Printed for James Magnes and Richard Bentley at the Post-Office in Russel-street in Covent-Garden 1676. Imprimatur Ab. Campion Novemb. 3. 1676. To the AVTHOR OF THE VINDICATION OF Mr. STANDISH'S SERMON c. SIR BEing at this time not far from London I have met with a little Pamphlet called The Truth unveiled c. which you pretend to be a Vindication of Mr. Standish's Sermon a great deal sooner than otherwise I should have done The Pamphlet it self doth not seem to me to be worthy of any regard but to your self who seem to be much concerned for the safety of our Religion there is a great one due and therefore in mere charity to you I have once more set Pen to Paper briefly to demonstrate that you wrong your self exceedingly in imploying your time about works of this nature for which you are not at all fitted You are a Person of Quality I make no doubt because I have your word for it but I must take the boldness to tell you that whatsoever other qualities you have you are not qualified to imitate a little your way of writing to pass a censure on Men and on Books as you have taken the liberty to do You will be apt it is like by this blunt beginning to make the same judgement concerning me but I trust I shall evidently show it is no rashness or presumption in me to undertake this task which is so easy that it requires no great abilities to make good this charge viz That there is a notorious defect either in your Will and Affections or else in your Mind and Judgement either of which make you unmeet to meddle with these matters The former of these I dare not suspect because you profess down-right Honesty though no Arts and in many passages speak very piously Though I cannot forbear to say thus much that the constant affectation of little strains of the lowest and poorest sort of witty reflexions is no good sign of that serious inside Piety whose Heart-bloud you say is now letting out by a Generation of Men for whom you cannot find a name bad enough Who can read without some disdain such pittiful punns as you have made upon the names of several persons which I doubt you would not allow in another while you take a great liberty this way your self You would call it I have reason to think flurting and fleering or lightness and vanity if not jeering and abusiveness in those whom you take to task which you practice without any scruple from the beginning of the Book to the end Mr. Bull comes first with his Horns and eager pushes pag. 33. having lately pusht apiece into the World p. 37. Then Mr. Baxter is described by the character of one who hath spoiled in his time many good Bakings And elsewhere Dr. Heylin passes under the name of St. George his Champion and you doubt his Dragon too And there is another I am confident you aim at when upon the mention of Dr. Owen and Mr. Jenkins you tell us of the groveling outeries that are made Nor can I devise any other reason why you contracted the name of your Book in the entrance with an c. when it stands at length enough in the Title Page but only to bring in the far-fetcht conceit of the Oath c. Sure Sir this trifling is not to be a practitioner of Piety in Baley's way nor to watch over your actions according to Brinsley's Rules and as you direct us p. 30. If it be those Books and the rest you commend to our use do not surpass so far as you would have the world believe the labours of the New Speaking Gentlemen So you call the Writers you oppose though that excellent Man Dr. Hammond after whom follows Bishop Taylor leads the Van as you speak and was the Forelorn Hope Who deserved sure to be treated with more Reverence especially by a Person of Quality who ought not to have stooped to so low so paultry a way of writing nor to have comprehended so great a Divine and so Holy a Man under no better Name than that of a New-Speaking Gentleman But you do not deny but there are abundance of excellent useful seasonable well-said things in his Practical Catechisme and therefore notwithstanding all this I doubt not but you are though I know not who you are no more than the Man in the Moon a Pious Serious Honest Gentleman or Person of greater Quality who intends to do service to Religion though you are not well skilled in the business you go about For that there is an exceeding great defect in your judgement it is apparent from hence That pretending a Vindication of Mr. Standish his Sermon you have not writ one syllable to the purpose For the Men whom he informs against and whose names I desired we might know are such as impiously deny both our Lord and his Holy Spirit who make Reason Reason Reason their only Trinity who preach up Natural and Moral Religion without the Grace of God and Faith in Christ and in effect say There is no such thing as supernatural Grace That is in plain terms rank Socinians or worse if worse can be for the Socinians do not advance Natural Religion against the Christian nor deny all Supernatural Grace Now I did not nor do believe that there is a man to be named among our Clergy who is guilty of these foul detestable Heresies Yes say you or you say nothing since you call so loudly and importunately for a Bill of particulars you shall have it And the first Names you give in are Dr. Hammond and Bishop Taylor Who must therefore be the Ring-leaders of those deceitful Workers those false Apostles Mr. Standish speaks of or else to speak mildly in one of your own phrases you have mist the Quishion Chuse you which of these you will it is certain you will be found to be an incompetent person to interpose your self in those differences though I doubt not you are as in humility you stile your self p. 34 A well-meaning Scribler Do you really intend to charge those great Men with the crime of Socinianisme Is the Practical Catechisme in effect but the Cracovian in which Mr. Standish feared we might live to see our Youth trained up Hath any one more effectually established the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity than the ever memorable Dr. Hammond upon the 1 Epistle of S. John the fifth Chapter and the sixth Verse I believe I may answer for you that you did not mean to impute any such Heresies to either of them And therefore it remains if you acquit them that you condemn your self of the grossest impertinency and heedlessness in naming these as the Heads of that black Faction For if you can lay things
presumptions of some one man delighting commonly to oppose and thwart the stream of antiquity but according to the sense and meaning of those times that drew water nearer unto the Well-head that is to the Apostles and their successors immediately Upon which score it is certain that the Doctrine of this Church cannot be Calvinian For the first and purest ages by which it is guided you your self are sensible was not so only you think it sufficient to smile at those who pretend their Authority and say It is little less than ridiculous to talk of the Fathers before St. Austin's time in reference to those questions p. 25. Why so I beseech you Because they lived say you before the Controversie was started and so did not nor could intend to speak appositely to the points of Original sin the power of Grace c By which reason we must not appeal to them in the points about Popery for then the pretences of St. Peter were not on foot c. and then they could not intend to speak appositely to such matters I should think those great Lights of the Church ought not to be thus slighted in a matter of such moment And an indifferent person would for your reason conclude the quite contiany that they are the more to be heeded because they are the more likely to have delivered purely their sense without any bias when they were not engaged among themselves in the heats of controversy which too oft pervert the understanding And those Doctrines which subvert Mr. Calvins Systeme were so certainly believed by them that they made no controversy of them but with one consent rejected the Doctrine of Fate which was then no less rife among the Pagans against whom they were careful no doubt to write appositely than the absolute irrespective Decrees are now among Christians But besides this I am also certain that the Sons and Fathers of the Church of England have opposed this Doctrine long before Mr. Hoord appeared who you say was the first that ventured to give our Brittish world new notions of Gods love to Mankind This is so palpable an untruth that Bishop Hoopers Works shew these notions which you call New are as Old as the Reformation And a Sermon Preached at St. Pauls Cross PLACE = marg See Mr. Bull. on the 27 of October as the Title Page informs me Anno Reginae Elizabethae 26. by Samuel Harsnet is such an illustrious testimony against you that there cannot be a greater He was then but Fellow of Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge but afterward promoted to be one of the Fathers of the Church in King James his time and at last advanced to be one of our Primates for he dyed Arch-Bishop of York I supose Sir a Person of your Reading who undertakes to trace the crooked muddy stream as you call it to its first weak ebullitions cannot be ignorant of the strong efforts to use your own word made by this Preacher Who expressly makes the Doctrine which Mr. Hoord long after opposed a daring enemy risen up against our Israel For he expresly calls it a Goliah which was grown huge and monstrous reviling not the Host of the living God but the Lord of Hosts And mentioning those words of St. Paul God would have all men to be saved tells that numerous Auditory the Genevian conceit hath dealt with this Gracious bounty of God and this blessed saying God would have all men to be saved as Hanun did with the Ambassadors of David He cut off their Garments to the Hips and this hath curtail'd the Grace of God to the stumps For it saith it must not be meant that God would have every living soul to come to Heaven but one or two perhaps out of every order and occupation But the Spirit of St. Peter a great deal wiser than that of Geneva saith plainly God would not have any one perish c. I trust we shall have Grace to believe him since himself can better tell what himself would have than the men of Geneva can What think you now after this downright Declaration which I have transcribed a small scrap of out of that Sermon on 33 Ezek. 11. was Mr. Hoord the first man that ventured to teach Gods love to Mankind in a way quite opposite to that of the Calvinians Is not here a man that boldly tells the British world in the greatest Assembly it had that your beloved Doctrine is a stranger nay an enemy to our Church strutting indeed about at that time and bearing it self high as you speak of Dr. Heylins Arminianisme so that Men trembled and shak'd at it but by him resolutely endeavoured to be cast down as a forreign conceit which ought not to be admitted here We know very well how it came to spread and grow so huge and monstrous but it was then no more the sense of the Church of England than Arianisme was the sense of the Church Catholique when all places were over-run with it There were still more than one who had the same resolution with Athanasius to bear witness against it as I could show out of good Authors And I can see no cause why Bishop Mountague whom as becomes a true course Calvinian you call bare Mountague and therefore the rest by the way need not take it ill they are no better treated should be quite struck out of the number of those from whom we may learn the notions of our Church in his dayes For I can find no State-Politicks in his Book which you pretend for his rejection but as he assures us the proper true and antient tenents of the Church of England such as be without any doubt or question legitimate and genuine such as she will both acknowledge and maintain for her own So he avows in his Epistle Dedicatory to His late Majesty before his Apello Caesarem And there is no reason to think him partial in this case since Dr. Francis White then Dean of Carlisle no mean Champion sure of our Church testified as much after he had been authorized by King James to read that Book over duely and give his judgement of it which is this as you may see in his Approbation or License of it for the Press 1624. that having diligently perused it he found nothing therein but what is agreeable to the Publique Faith Doctrine and Discipline established in the Church of England Now mark what this Writer saith to those that informed against him You would make the world believe as you Sir indeavour also to do That the Church of England Calvinizes shew me good warrant for it and I yield I may rather say that the Church of England hath opposed this Doctrine because that many of the Learned your selves will not deny in that Church and most conformable unto the Discipline and Doctrine of the Church have mainly opposed it You may find this lively testimony against you in the First Part the Seventh Chapter towards the conclusion of which he
together you will see that this must be your meaning or you did not mind what you wrote about but having something in your Head concerning innovations in our Religion regarded not how you applyed it Look over the earnest request to Mr. Standish read the character of the Men a List of whom I desire him to communicate and then apply it to Dr. Hammond and Bishop Taylor and you will very hardly hold to speak your own language again from asking your self that question which you observe p. 29. Sir John Sucklin ask'd when he found Sir Toby Matthews in the Session of Poets What do they here Perhaps you will as earnestly reply have I not alledged a strange passage out of one of Bishop Taylors Prayers What do you say to it I say I have taken notice of it my self and do not know what he meant but I am sure he was no Socinian and that there is no Socinianism in the words you quote whatsoever there be else and therefore I know not what you meant to thrust them in here where they have nothing to doe There is no man of the Church of England I believe that will answer for every word in that great Mans Writings But no more will any discreet Man of your way answer for all the hard sayings that are in Mr. Calvins I am sure I find in my small Reading the greatest Men who have undertaken his defence absolutely disclaiming their being bound to make good every thing that he said and therefore had it been more pertinent than it is you might have let it pass and not have disturbed Dr. Taylors ashes as they speak but suffered a person of his merit to sleep in peace But some of those that follow perhaps may be of the Racovian stamp though these two be found as innocent as all you have said about them is impertinent Let us try if you please what you have to say to St. George Champion who next follows If we should allow him to have been as you doubt his Dragon too we shall never find him spitting any such venome as that mentioned in Mr. Standish's Sermon You your self cannot charge him with any such thing but detain your Reader only with along tedious reflection in XVII Particulars upon his Cyprianus Anglicus or The Life of our Great Archbishop Laud which still shows that you are beside the Cushion and without question expert as you say of him that Readers should rest upon your Dictates without any searching whether you write to the purpose or no or else you would never have so determinately called your Book a Vindication of Mr. Standish's his Sermon which in truth is far otherwise It would have saved you a great deal of needless pains if you would but have minded the last words of my Request to him which are not mine but the wise Son of Syrach's 11 Ecclus. 7. Vnderstand first and then rebuke You would not have troubled us if you had heeded this good counsel with a story of his Arminianisme strutting through all the pages of his Book which is no more to the Vindication you undertake than the mysterious agency of Panzani and Con which you talk or afterward and that which was a doing I know not when at Clerken well and behind Drury-lane Nor hath the Ghost of Tilenus whom you bring in next any thing to say about the business It is only a dumb apparition and we have nothing but your word for it that it makes very irregular glances and would let out the hearts bloud of sundry truly Protestant Doctrines All that follows it likewise is but wind against Parker Hickringale and sweet Mr. Sherlock as you are pleased in much civility to term him whose Writings you say contain not much more than Sophistical Harangues Perspicuous Calumnies and Prodigious Drolleries What that much more is you will not let us know It is like that as little as you think it it contains a confutation of your accusations For one of those persons whom you rank with them Georgius Bull I am acquainted withall and know him to be both an Holy and a very Learned person who hath in his last Book thrown off this charge of Socinianisme with as much indignation as you can do the Writings of any of the New speaking Gentlemen And there is no body that knows him but is assured he most sincerely declares his inmost thoughts and would not for a world embrace any Doctrine contrary to what hath been taught by the Catholick Church with which he is certain the Church of England is not at odds But why do I make so many words about this sort of Writers Our Books of Devotion will not down with you neither but upon this that is no occasion fall under your lash If they do but omit any thing which you would have in them straitway you quarrel and think it a sufficient reason for your displeasure at them The method and direction for private Devotion is not for your Tooth And which is more the Whole Duty of Man is not secure from your impotent assaults p. 29. and 32. We must use no other Books but such as you like or else quit our Title to the name of the right Sons of the Church of England Instead of the excellent Book last named we must buy the Practice of Piety though far more liable to exceptions in many wise mens judgements than any Book of Devotion you have mentioned or else you will not be in a good humor What an imperious dictating Spirit is this which rules in Men of this strain who will not allow us so much as to speak out of their phrase Is this the Spirit of true genuine Calvinisme which you so highly commend p. 28 Are those that carp at every thing and can relish nothing but what is of their dressing nor fancy any body but those that are exactly of their own cutt the rightest Sons and Fathers of the Church of England Why will you here I fancy interrupt me and be apt to say what have you to object against what I have writ That an Episcopal Calvinist is the rightest Son or Father of the Church of England the best Protestant and if a good man the best Christian p. 28. I answer if you will not count me impertinent for medling with that which was not my present business with you I have very much to object And first I say that no right Son much less Father of the Church of England will endure to be called or thought either a Calvinist or an Arminian for our Church follows no particular man though never so great neither Calvin nor Luther nor Arminius None of these are the founders of its Faith which is not taught by Calvin's or any other Institutions but by the Holy Scriptures interpreted by the Church of Christ in the best ages of it Or to give it you in the words of an once Father of this Church interpreted not according to the fancies and most what