Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	print_v	write_v	1,682	5	5.4147	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69974	An Entire vindication of Dr. Sherlock against his numerous and uncharitable adversaries to his late book called The case of allegiance &c.		1691 (1691)	Wing E3138; ESTC R26796	18,319	36

An ENTIRE VINDICATION OF Dr. Sherlock AGAINST HIS Numerous and Uncharitable ADVERSARIES To his Late Book called The CASE of Allegiance c. Licens'd Decemb. 30. 1690. LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1691. To the READER 'T IS a ticklish Task I have undertaken to write to justifie the Man and yet not entirely to espouse his Cause to vindicate the oppress'd and yet at the same time not to maintain all his Proceedings I say this may look seemingly a Contradiction to some Men that carry not a due Charity in their Censures but to him that follows the pure and ideal Feature of Vertue it will look as rational and accountable as the compleatest Vindication whatever Nor am I asham'd on this to entitle this Treatise to the stile of an Entire Vindication of the Doctor for what thô the Doctor be not infallible nor his Reasonings the unalterable Standard of Wisdom that is not a Character he ever presum'd at nor that could ever be expected from him the rational Vindication to be expected therefore either of the Doctor or any Man else is that he has kept in the track of Vertue and preserv'd his sincerity entire and if that can be maintain'd I presume we may very well bear with a perfect Salvo to the Doctor 's Reputation nay and Parts too notwithstanding he is not infallible And methinks it grieves me here that I am forc'd as it were to go between the skin and the flesh to seem to discountenance the Method of Mr. Per. and to vindicate a Doctrine I can by no means approve of methinks I say this seems of great difficulty to me for I always had too great an esteem for the English Liberties to disrespect their true Patriots and on the other hand injur'd Innocence on the Doctor 's side has forc'd me to take his part against them Therefore Reader excuse me that I do this Office for the Doctor nor be surprized why I should do it that am his Adversary in some things Who was that that dar'd the fury of the Priest● in the late Reign in all their Controversies was it no the Doctor Who was it durst then assault Popery not only with the vigorousest Reasons but with his open Name to his Books was it not Dr. Sherlock indeed who was more eminent in all those Controversies than he When the Bishop of London and Magdalen-Colledge became Confessors to the late Tyde of Romish Tyranny and when Dr. Sharp was silenc'd did he recant his Proceedings did he dread the imminent Dangers or was he afraid of the threatned Oppression or did he not rather like a stout Champion for the Church stand unconcern'd in the midst of these things And must the Doctor then now become the only Object of our Contempt must a little point of Casuism make him too mean to live amongst us Are we all Protestants are we all resolv'd against the Common Enemy the Romanists If we are I say how can this method he accountable with our designs not I say that therefore we should thro' respect of Persons let the Doctor lead us blindfold but as we should not so we should not for our own sakes let every little Controversie ruine the Reputation of such a Man I cannot think the World fond to desire the Doctor to be an ill Man that they might make that out in matter of fact and truth that some of his Enemies have too much already done in pretences I say I cannot be so uncharitable but if they do not let them for their own Credit treat him better for the future To be short as for the general unreasonableness of his Tenets in this matter it is not the work of a Preface however thus much I shall say that the Doctor has not undeservedly the Name of an eminent Reasoner and if in some things his Notions are not exactly accountable to us we have no reason to admire for had any of us laid our Breasts so freely open in our Writings as he has done I may add the best of us 't is not impossible but that some of the World had we as great a Post would give us as hard a Censure as ever the Doctor had A VINDICATION OF Dr. Sherlock c. WHEN a Man is unfairly Prosecuted and Libell'd rather than Answer'd and when the Croud of Mobile-Writers break in upon him as if they would crush and murder his Reputation with their Numbers even his very Enemies if they have any Generosity ought to step in to support him indeed 't is the common Cause of all Mankind not to see any man unjustly suffer and therefore though in some things I differ from the Doctor in Judgment yet I cannot but rescue him from those Aspersions that are so basely cast upon him But as his Adversaries are now grown to such a number and their Arguments for the most part a borrow'd Tautology and Plagiarism from each other that except some few they almost all write the same thing so I shall neither give my self nor the Reader that trouble as to trace out all their little crooked Paths but examining the sum of all their Objections against the Doctor at least of all those that are considerable I shall briefly and generally as if they were all but one shew how little he deserves their ill treatment and how eminent an Example he is of Innocence abus'd Without therefore particularly regarding either the Vindications or Answers that the Doctor has had upon this Subject for that were endless and were too perplex'd a Method to do him Justice by I say therefore without hinting at either Persons or Answers I shall take the Liberty to make some few Reflections on the chief Points in Controversie in favour of the Doctor and if any of his Adversaries think themselves therein aggriev'd I 'le promise them they shall not want a reasonable Satisfaction But it may be objected That under this Pretence perhaps I shall conceal or slur over those things that may be most considerable and only Vindicate the Doctor in those that are obvious or trifling I say as to that the World will judge and will see when they have read what I write but if at the entrance it can encourage them to know whether I am not conscious to my own defects in it or not I assure them I know nothing that is material that is objected against him but is reconcileable to the Doctor as a Learned Ingenious and Sincere Man and if his Adversaries can see any thing to the contrary I shall leave them to shew it To proceed therefore I say then first is it generous for Twenty men together to throng in their Answers to one Man Indeed is it not just as if they were afraid of having Replies or at best that thrusting thus into the Throng they might escape the better for their being in the Multitude and yet not I mean that I believe that all those Gentlemen that have wrote against him

that a good Man would be ashamed to bring them however his Adversaries have alleadg'd them and as those three I have nam'd seem the most considerable of them I have resolv'd to give them the satisfaction that their Objections are not Unanswerable and then I hope they will be content to dismiss me I say then the Doctor prayed for King William he did so and 't is the Command of Christ to Pray for our Enemies as I presume the Doctor 's Loyalty then to K. James could not make him otherwise I say then if he did this and has Christ's Command to justifie him what hurt is there in it indeed if the Doctor had us'd particular and inconsiderate Expressions in his Prayer he had been to blame but as long as he deliver'd himself in general Terms who shall accuse him for it When Christ bid us pray for our Enemies did he command us to imply in such our Prayers that God would prosper them so as to confound and destroy us or not rather that God would direct their hearts to save them and move them to right us where they injur'd us Surely I say the latter and if that were so necessarily implied in the general Command of Christ to pray for our Enemies shall we deny the Doctor that priviledge in the particular application of it But you will say he nam'd him King when he did so and what then was it not then rationally a doubt in his thoughts whether he were a King or no and if it was might not he justly use the common Stile and Name he then went by without either Hypocrisie or Cowardize when at the same time by his refusing the Oaths he put the World out of all doubt of his Dissimulation I say might he not honourably as well as concientiously in such a case Complement the King on his Doubt at least with the name of King Indeed if he had had no Doubt upon him but was convinc'd that he ought immediately to have help'd his distressed Prince I say then either he or any Man else under such a Conviction though they ought from the Command of Christ to pray for the new Prince yet withal they ought to refuse to Complement him so far as to call him King but I say when the Doctor was without any manner of such Conviction and was at least satisfied that he was quit of his Assistance if not of his Allegiance to his former Prince Surely I say in such case for his very Doubt's sake the Doctor might Complement his new Prince with the name of King especially when setled by the Choice of the Nation in the Throne and methinks no Casuist in the World should deny him that liberty And in truth the Doctor 's Enemies who pretend thus to refuse to pray for the King ought withal to remember that they ought to act accordingly they ought as I have said before to declare themselves in Hostile manner and flie from his Protection for if they once basely or lazily submit to him as I have before observed they transfer their Allegiance and as long as the new King is in Possession they cannot retract without Treachery and consequently they ought to pray for him as King also if the Title they suffer him to usurp be such And I might add to this also that those Men that are guilty of such a mean and clandestine Treachery against the State have the more reason in gratitude to her Mercy to acknowledge her for the future for however they harbour themselves under the scruple of Passive-Obedience or otherwise they ought to remember withal that 't is a singular Charity may I say a greater than ever they shew'd to the Doctor that the State shews to them in not treating them as Enemies when indeed without under a Prince of such an unparalell'd Clemency I don't know what they would well expect otherwise The second Charge against the Doctor is That he has chang'd his Opinion right and suppose he has What have not others done it before him or must it be an offence in the Doctor only to be converted from a mistake but you say he did it with deliberation and it may be so but what then that shews him the more likely to be a Master of the greater Integrity in it and not that he is corrupt in plain terms these Exceptions are rather Cavils than Reasonings When a Man ties himself to Principles by the Catalogue I must confess he may be more constant than the Doctor but when a Man allows himself free liberty of thinking and sicerity he 's a confident and ignorant Pretender that dares say he shall not change his Opinion Nor is it difficult in such Case to say why some are longer in their change than others for Gentlemen that give their Reason free reigns pursue her at first sight corrupt Men act without Examining but Divines that walk by a double sight Reason and Revelation nay sometimes cast in Tradition to them may be fairly allow'd a longer time to deliberate and yet who shall say to a sincere Man just so long The mischief on 't is honest Men change their Minds out of Conviction and Knaves out of Design now the uncharitable World in this case tho' it knows it cannot discern between these two and therefore ought in all Cases to put the best face on things streight without more ado upon every little peck or passion censures Men just as if they had got the sole Prerogative of God in searching Mens Hearts Nor is it enough in such case to say that such a Man is Learned and cannot but know better for Men that say such things do but blindly discover their own presumptuous Ignorance Alas there is no Casuist can answer all Objections even in the plainest Cases perfect Wisdom is the Prerogative of God and besides if they could we should consider how much such Men as the Doctor are diverted by the Publick by his Sermons by his writing necessary particular Tracts and Controversies c. The last thing I propos'd to speak to is that they find fault with the Doctor for giving his Opinion when he would pretend himself free from dispersing his Doctrine of Non-Swearing formerly Now as to this I say it is a meer Calumny and indeed it s own disingeniousness speaks it so To give our Opinion when ask'd of a thing where good or evil is a Duty that no Man can dispense with in himself and therefore when the Doctor declared he was not for spreading his Doctrine who would lay that upon him that he could not avoid Had he wrote Books to convince others upon it or had he but wrote Letters to that purpose nay had he but sought to promote the Subject and Controversie in discourse where he was not directed by a Letter for satisfaction or a Friend in a Casuistick Question I say had the Doctor 's Adversaries prov'd this they might have shew'd this expression of his inconsistency and prov'd him guilty from his own words of what he would insinuate himself to be innocent but to do as they have done is to shew only that they would be glad of the occasion for such a false Judgment All things therefore considered I hope his Adversaries will repent what they have been guilty of and endeavour to repair that Reputation they have so unjustly injur'd I am sensible what I can write in his defence is not likely in all particulars to be so strong as what he himself might alledge but as indeed the Cause is too nasty for the Doctor himself to meddle with and as the apparent Merits of it on his part want little help to illustrate them so I thought it better that a Stranger I might say an Enemy like myself to the Doctor should undertake it than he I might add that I could wish that the Task had fallen into a better hand but since it is where it is as I can solemnly before God satisfie myself of my proceedings in this matter so I shall endeavour to make them good and if the Doctor 's Enemies are resolv'd on no Peace with him I am resolv'd on his behalf to see how powerful they will prove in the Polemicks All therefore that I shall desire of his Enemies for now if they persist they are mine also is but that they answer me with candour and ingenuity with brevity and perspicuity and with solid sence and integrity and if so they endeavour to refute what I have said for the Doctor I 'll promise them they shall not want as fair a Reply as they can wish for But if notwithstanding all has been said they will still continue to Libel a Member formerly of the greatest Reputation in the Church and to whose Controversies all Protestancy is oblig'd I say if such Elders who as St. Paul advises must be treated with the greatest respect cannot have common Charity allow'd them I say if this be the temper of his Adversaries let it suffice the World at least the worthier part of it that they revile him without reason that they have had a tender of a fair satisfaction and have refus'd it whereupon all Mankind must acquit the Doctor and restore him to their former esteem whilst they wholly lay the blame and guilt upon his Enemies But methinks I have a prospect of better hope of his Enemies at best of the more considerable of them It cannot be that they should persist to do as they have done nay I am perswaded they won't for however they may charge Passive-Obedience honourably with its Mischiefs in their Zeal yet they will not surely thus force an occasion for it they will no longer keep Men in fear from joining with the Government for being of that Principle nor encourage the continuance of so unjust a slander methinks I say for their own nay the Publick and Piety's sake they will cease to persist in this course longer I end with the Commandment Thou shalt not bear False Witness against thy Neighbour FINIS ERRATA PReface p. 1. l. 23. Mr. Per. read Mr. Parkinson and in the last line was it no the Doctor read was it not the Doctor p. 8. l. 30. and from the Doctor 's Title read as from the Doctor 's Title