sincerely preached as he then thought and continued still to think of those Points that however no bodies false imputations should provoke him to give ill Language to persons who dissented conscientiously and for weighty reasons That he knew well this was the case of the Socinians for whose learning and dexterity he should always have a respect as well as for their sincerity and exemplariness Afterwards when Mr. Firmin gave him a Copy of the Considerations after he had read it he only said My Lord of Sarum shall humble your Writers Nor did he afterwards at any time express the least coldness on the account of the Answer made to him but used Mr. Firmin as formerly enquiring as he was wonted How does my Son Giles so he called Mr. Firmins Son by his second Wife About the time the Great and Good Archbishop died the Controversie concerning the Trinity and the depending Questions received an unexpected Turn The Vnitarians took notice from D. Petavius Dr. R. Cudworth S. Curcellaeus the Oxford Heads Dr. S th and others that their Opposers agreed indeed in contending for a Trinity of Divine Persons but differed from one another even as much as from the Unitarians concerning what is to be meant by the term Persons Some of 'em say three Divine Persons are three Eternal Infinite Minds Spirits Substances and Beings but others reject this as Heresie Blasphemy and Tritheism These latter affirm that GOD is one Infinite Eternal All-perfect Mind and Spirit and the Trinity of Persons is the Godhead Divine Essence or Divine Substance considered as Vnbegotten Begotten and Proceeding which Modes or Properties they further explain by Original Wisdom Unbegotten and therefore named the Father the reflex Wisdom Logos or WORD which being generated or begotten is called the Son and the eternal Spiration of Divine Love that has therefore the name of Holy Spirit The Vnitarians never intended to oppose any other Trinity but a Trinity of infinite Minds or Spirits grant to 'em that GOD is one Infinite Spirit or Mind not two or three they demand no more They applied themselves therefore to enquire which of these Trinities a Trinity of Spirits or of Properties is the Doctrine of the Catholic Church they could not miss of a ready satisfaction all Systems Catechisms Books of Controversie Councils Writers that have been esteemed Catholic more especially since the General Lateran Council Anno 1215. and the Reformation have defined GOD to be one Infinite All-perfect Spirit and the Divine Persons to be nothing else but the Divine Essence or Godhead with the three relative Properties Unbegotten and Begotten and Proceeding They saw therefore plainly that the difference between the Church and the Vnitarians had arose from a meer mistake of one anothers meaning a mistake occasioned chiefly by the unscriptural terms Trinity Persons and such like They resolved that it became them as good Christians to seek the Peace of the Catholic Church and not to litigate about Terms tho never so unproper or implying only Trifles when the things intended by those Terms are not unsound or heterodox These Honest Pacific Inclinations of men who drove no design in their dissent from the Church gave birth to the Agreement between the Unitarians and the Catholic Church a Book written at the instance chiefly of Mr. Firmin in Answer to Mr. Edwards the Bishops of Worcester Sarum and Chichester and Monsieur de Luzanzy I need not to say what will be owned by every Ingenuous Learned Person without hesitance that the Agreement is as well the Doctrine of the Catholic Church as of the Vnitarians and that in all the points so long and fiercely debated and controverted by the Writers of this and of former Ages It must be confest the hands of a great many excellent Persons did concur to this Re-union of Parties that seemed so widely and unreconcilably divided and did encourage the Author of the Agreement in his disinteressed laborious searches into Antiquity and other parts of Learning and several learned men some of them Authors in the Socinian or Vnitarian way examined the Work with the Candor and Ingenuity that is as necessary in such cases as Learning or Judgment are Mr. Firmin publisht it when examined and corrected with more satisfaction than he had before given forth so many Eristic Writings I did not wonder however that our Friend was so ready to embrace a reconciliation with the Church for he was ever a lover of Peace and always conformed as far as he could according to that direction of the Apostle Whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule Which with the best Interpreters he understood thus Conform to the Doctrines Terms and Usages that are commonly received as far as you can if in some things you differ from the Church yet agree with her and walk by her Rule to the utmost that in Conscience you may or as the Apostle himself words it so far as or whereunto you have attained From this Principle it was that our Friend never approved of those who separate from the communion of the Church on the account of Ceremonies Habits form of Government or other mere Circumstantials of Religion He was wont to tell such that seeing 't was undeniable they might communicate with the Church without either sin or scandal and did communicate on some occasions it is therefore both scandal and sin to separate and divide With this he silenced many and reclaimed divers In the Year 1658. the Vnitarians were banisht out of Poland the occasion this Poland had been long harass'd with most dangerous Civil and Foreign Wars insomuch that at one time there were in Arms in Poland Lithuania and the Vkrain One hundred and fourscore thousand Poles as many Tartars and two hundred thousand Cossacks besides powerful Bodies of Austrians and Transilvanians which attacked Poland on the West and South The ravages and desolations committed and caused so by many great Armies in a Country that has but few fortified Places were unexpressible Poland therefore was reduced to such a feeble and desperate condition that their King himself withdrew and the King of Swedes took the advantage of their confusion and low estate to invade them with Forty thousand men regular Troops He took the Cities of Warsaw and Cracow and with them almost all Poland he constrained the Polanders to take an Oath of Subjection and Allegiance to him which Oath was first submitted unto and taken by the Roman-Catholies then by the Protestants and not till last of all by the Vnitarians But the Swedish King engaging himself in other Wars particularly with Denmark and in Germany John Casimire King of Poland appeared again and the Poles generally joining their King at length drove the Swedes out of Poland the Swedish King found himself obliged to condescend to a reasonable Peace with King Casimire As the Vnitarians were the last that submitted to the obedience of Swedeland so being bound thereto by an Oath they did not
and was one of the first that subscribed the Composition but withal sent her a Letter wherein he remitted his whole Debt and desired to see her when her Affair was cleared and she at quiet When she came to him he said He had missed in his aim in what he design'd to procure for her but he would do something himself Shortly after he sent her a good Norwich Stuff that very well clothed her and her Four Children She told me this with many Tears to which I had the more regard because I had long known her to be a Virtuous and very Prudent Woman As Mr. Firmin's Pains and Care in giving forth these Charities were not small so neither were they little in procuring them Not only because many Persons are hardly perswaded to give the Bread of themselves and Families to others but because 't is much more difficult to beg for others than to give ones self He that begs for others must be Master of a great deal of Prudence as well as Wit and Address He must know how to choose the Mollia tempora fandi the fittest opportunity of speaking and when he speaks he must apply himself to those passions of the Person by which only he can be wrought on I remember Mr. Firmin told me of his applying to a Citizen of the highest rank for his Charity in rebuilding St. Thomas's Hospital Of whom he demanded no less than 100 l. The Person had been some way disobliged by the Governours of that Hospital so he refused to subscribe any thing But our Friend seeing him one day among some Friends whom he respected and by whom he was willing to be respected and that also he was in a very good Humour he push'd on his Request for the Hospital and prevailed with him so far as to subscribe the whole 100 l. But to his personal Solicitations he was forced sometimes to add Letters and sometimes succeeded by the Arguments in his Letters better than by the Authority of his personal Mediation I find in one of his Books in the Year 1679. the Sum of 520 l. 6 s. received of seventy two Persons in a Book of the Year 1681. the Sum of 531 l. 19 s. 6 d. received of forty three Persons All these were to be treated with privately and opportunely which required much Time Caution Industry and Discretion which laid out on his own Business what great Effects would it have produced Mr. Firmin might much more easily have been one of the great Men of the World than Almoner General for the Poor and the Hospitals I observe in the same Book of 1681. that the Disbursments against the Sum 531 l. 19 s. 6 d. do amount to 594 15 11. the Balance over paid is 62 15 5. which over-paid Balance is to be found in many of his Accounts and I believe it came out of his own Purse I must note also that the Sums were not given for the Poor alone or for the Spinners alone but of 50 l. given 30 of it is for the Spinners and 20 for the Poor sometimes 20 for the Spinners and 30 for the Poor Elsewhere 100 l. is given 50 for the Poor and 50 for Spinners Another gives 50 l. for Cloth to be divided to the Poor Another 100 l. for the same use Mr. Firmin having set his heart so much on Charity could not but esteem and love Mr. Gouge a Man of the same Spirit whom while he was in London he got to table with him 'T is not to be doubted that 't was the intimate Friendship of these two Persons that gave occasion to that remarkable passage in Dr. Tillotson's Funeral Sermon on Mr. Gouge p. 82. Mr. Gouge was of a disposition ready to imbrace and oblige all Men allowing others to differ from him even in Opinions that were very Dear to him Provided Men did but fear God and work Righteousness he loved them heartily how distant soever from him in Judgment about less Necessary things in which he is worthy to be propounded as an Example to Men of all Persuasions And till the Example is followed the World will never have Peace That great Preacher has given us an account of Mr. Gouges Religious Charity in printing divers good Books in the Welch and English Tongues to be given to those that were Poor and sold to such as could buy them the Chief of those Prints and the most Expensive was an Edition of the Bible and Liturgie in the Welch Tongue no fewer than Eight Thousand Copies of this Work were printed together One cannot question that Mr. Firmin contributed to and procured divers Sums for this excellent Undertaking of his Friend tho' all is attributed to Mr. Gouge who was Chief in that great and good Work After Mr. Gouge's Death I find the Sum of 419 l. 9 s. given to buy a Number of those Bibles whereof Dr. Tillotson then Dean of St. Paul's gave 50 l. Mr. Morrice 67 l. other Persons the rest but there wants in the Receipts 26 l. 13 s. to balance the Disbursment and that I judg was Mr. Firmin's mony Now that we are speaking of Books I ought not to forget that Mr. Firmin often printed Ten thousand Copies of the Scripture-Catechism which some think was written by Dr. Worthington But I have cause to believe that the Author was Dr. Fowler now Bishop of Glocester who in compiling it followed the Method of Dr. Worthington These Mr. Firmin gave to his Spinners and their Children and to the Children of the Hospital engaging them to get it by heart and giving something to those that did He lodged also great Numbers of them with Booksellers at cheaper rates than they were printed that they might be sold also cheaper and thereby be dispersed all over England His Acquaintance might at all times have of them what Numbers they would gratis He valued this Catechism because 't is wholly in the Words of Scripture favours no particular Party or Persuasion and therefore is of general Use the Aim of the Judicious Author being to instruct the Youth and the Ignorant in what all Parties agree is necessary to be believ'd and done leaving it to others to engage 'em in Controversies and Debates In the Year 1680. and 1681. came over the French Protestants new work for Mr. Firmin's Charity and Zeal for of all the Objects of Charity he thought those the most Deserving who were undone for Conscience toward God whether such Conscience be a well-inform'd Conscience or an erroneous and mistaken 'T is not the truth or falshood of the Opinion but the Zeal for God and the sincerity to the dictates of Conscience that makes the Martyr Therefore now our Elemosinary General had to beg not only for the Spinners the Poor of the out-Parishes of London the Redemption of Debtors from Prison for Coals and Shirting but for a vast number of Religious Refugees whose Wants required not only a great but an immediate Succour The first and one of the most
difficult Cares for them was how to provide Lodgings for such multitudes in a City where Lodgings are as costly as Diet But Mr. Firmin bethought him of the Pest-House then empty of Patients the Motion was approv'd by the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen and some Hundreds of these Strangers were accommodated in that spatious and convenient Place As for Relief in Mony they made their first application to the French Church therefore I find in Mr. Firmin's Books Delivered to the Deacons of the French Church 50 l. to J. S. 10 l. to an old Man at Ipswich 20 l. This was immediately upon their coming over In 1681 and 1682 I find the Sum of 2363 l. 10 s. 1 d. issued forth for the use of the French thro' his hands and in 1683 for the French Children at Ware 443 l. 18 s. 9 d. For their Meeting-House at Rye 20 l. I find upon his Books these following Sums before a Brief was granted to them 100 l. then 155 l. in the next page 70 l. 15 s. To answer these Receipts the Books say Sept. 15. Delivered to Mr. Carbonel c. in 16 pieces of Cloth 50 l. Sept. 24. To the Deacons at the Savoy in Cloth 20 l. Oct. 7. To Carbon c. in 32 pieces of Cloth 100 l. 14 s. The balance is 27 l. 8 s. which 't is likely was his own mony In the Year 1682. he set up a Linen Manufacture for the French at Ipswich to which himself gave 100 l. which was all sunk in their Service saving that at last he received 8 l. 2 s. 6 d. He paid also for their Meeting-House at Ipswich 13 l. In the same Year also he disbursed for them for Coals 60 l. 10 s. whereof he received only 20 l. 10 s. There have been Four Briefs granted to the French one by K. Charles in 1681. a second by K. James in 1686. another by K. James in 1687. the fourth by K. William in 1693. Besides which K. William gave to 'em 1000 l. per Month for 39 Months It was Mr. Firmin that was chiefly concerned in the distribution of all this Mony especially of the Thirty Nine Thousand Pounds which was committed to two Bishops two Knights and a Gentleman but almost the whole Distribution was left to Mr. Firmin sometimes with but more commonly without their Inspection I see I have omitted before I was aware the following Sums paid to the French Protestants at Ipswich before their Brief was collected 45 l. 10 s. and 42 l. and 45 l. 9 s. another 42 l. to 21 Families at Ipswich He had a principal hand in the special Collections that are now made every Winter about Christmas time in Churches for the Poor in and about London He was the man that solicited the King's Letter for making those Collections he took care of printing and distributing the King's and Bishop of London's Letters to the several Rectors and other Ministers of Churches in London to be by them read in their respective Churches He waited on the Lords of the Treasury for the King's part of that Charity And when the Mony as well of the King as the Parishes was collected and paid into the Chamber of London and was then to be divided among the Poor of the several Parishes by my Lords the Bishop and Mayor of London no man could so well proportion their Dividends as Mr. Firmin This was well known to their Lordships who therefore seldom made any alteration in his Distributions In these matters all the Church-Wardens made their applications to Mr. Firmin and when the Dividend was settled received their Warrants from him For which purpose the Bishop of London would many times entrust him with Blanks and my Lord Mayor was always ready to give his Hand The whole of this Charity was so constantly and so many years managed by Mr. Firmin that he dying some days before Christmas last the King's Letter for the Collection was not given till the 12th of January And when the Collection was brought in from the several Parishes they were at a loss for the Distribution and were glad to take direction from Mr. Firmin's Pattern There hath been occasion in my last Section to mention the Bishop of London Dr. Henry Compton I ought not to omit that Mr. Firmin could never speak of this Bishop without a particular respect and deference He admired the Candor Moderation Wisdom and Dexterity accompanied and tempered by Caution and Vigor which said he often are so eminent in his Lordship and so constantly appear upon all occasions proper to any of those Virtues that I wish it were as easy to be like as 't is impossible not to esteem him I return to Mr. Firmin During the last 23 or 24 years of his Life he was one of the Governours of Christ-Church Hospital in London 'T is known to every body almost in London that Mr. Firmin procured a great number and very considerable Donations to this Hospital but I cannot specifie many particulars because he kept not exact accounts of 'em but those that have come to my knowledg are remarkable of one of which give me leave to give the Reader this account The Honourable Sir Robert Clayton having had it in his thoughts to make a provision for a Mathematical Master in that Hospital became the hapy Proposer and by his interest in the then Lord Treasurer Clifford and Sir Robert Howard the successful Procurer of the establishment of a Mathematical School in that Hospital for the constant breeding of the number of 40 Boys skill'd in the Latin Tongue to a perfect knowledg in the Art of Navigation The occasion thus There was 7000 l. given to this Hospital by a Citizen payable out of Weavers-Hall for the maintenance of 40 Boys Upon the Restoration the Fund out of which this issued reverting to the Crown King Charles the 2d upon the said Proposal and Petition to that purpose was graciously pleased to grant to the Hospital the said 7000 l. to be paid them by 1000 l. per Annum for 7 years upon which the Hospital was obliged to maintain the said 40 Boys successively to be so educated for ever Sir Robert Clayton being greatly pleas'd that he had been an Instrument in so charitable and beneficial a Constitution did afterwards meditate a Donation from himself to this Hospital and so to take it into his special Care and Beneficence And that which instigated him to these thoughts was he had laboured under a very grievous sickness even to despair of recovery but it pleased the Almighty Governour that he did recover and Mr. Firmin was very instrumental in it both by his personal ministry and giving quick notices to Physicians of several symptoms Hereupon Sir Robert adviseth with Mr. Firmin about the building and adding a Ward for Girls to this Hospital as a testimony of his gratitude to God and determined that Mr. Firmin should have the management of that Affair Accordingly he went about it you may be