I have not the honour to be acquainted with The Book seems to be designed against 〈◊〉 Persecution and mystery The word Preist-craft is of late become very fashionable in the mouths of some who are no great Patterns for Philosophical Gentlemen to imitate If by Priest-craft is intended the sacred employment of a certain Order of Men who by their Office and Character are oblig'd to superimend the Solemnities of Publick Worship Such Men are no less necessary to the Preservation of the State than to the Administrations of Religion And the Persons so employ'd even in their Lowest ebb of Interest and Reputation are too strong to be attacked by any private Gentleman in Europe I argue now from what is Present and Visible and not from the more divine and excellent considerations of Religion because what is felt and seen is much more valued and considered than the Original Distinction between Good and Evil or what may be pleaded from the terrours of an Invisible State I confess the Argument is not so Philosophical and Sublime but it is such a one as now I offer to your own consideration how far it ought to regulate the Practice of any Man who lives in a Nation where the Priests are so able to assert from the best Topicks their Distinction and Character and the Priesthood it self is guarded by so many Laws As for Persecution I hope I am as much an enemy to it as any other in the World But since Conscience may be pretended when faction and sedition are intended I think the State may be left to judge for it self in all things relating to its own preservation and therefore the Good Laws that have been made to preserve the Beauty and Order of God's House may be reasonably and charitably put in execution to prevent such Confusions as must needs follow where Giddiness and Enthusiasm are upper most We may suffer hard things from Ecclesiastical Laws that are severe but human nature it self common sense and civility are banish'd where a Boundless Scepticism prevails Arbitrary Power is most frequently declaimed against by such as are invested with no Power But it is very hard to oblige the Soveraign Powers of the World to give an account of all their Actions and if they did the Body of the People can never perceive the Reasonableness of what they do even when their measures are most Divine and unquestionably just If I should say that I know no reason why I am committed to the Gate-house I would be thought very Impertinent tho' I should stumble upon the truth No Governors are oblig'd to let every body know what they do at all times If there are mysteries in the Government of the World it may be more reasonably presum'd that that there mysteries in Religion which we ought to believe tho' we can never fully grasp nor comprehend them When Men have done their best there is some thing dark in the object of Faith If we have good reason to believe that the Revelation which contains the Articles of our Religion proceeds originally from God and that we do not mistake the plain signification of those Words in which it is convey'd we may with the greater safety believe that such and such Propositions are true tho' they be above the comprehension of our Reason We cannot say that we fully understand the Essence of any the least Created being far less the Infinite and Eternal Mind who made the World and governs it We believe that his power is beyond our thoughts and Incomprehensible but can any Man confidently say that he himself has a full and adequate Idea of what is Infinite or Incomprehensible Sir I have kept you too long on this subject I would humbly intreat either or both of the two Calumniators to be a little more wary in their Libels 'T is an easy thing for them to put it to a fair Trial whether I can read Greek or Latin or whether either of them can Speak any other Language than what his Mother taught him As for the reflexions thrown upon the Universities of Scotland those Societies are above the Censures of an unknown Trifler his tongue is an Unruly Evil it is full of Deadly Poison I cannot tell how oft he blesses God with it his greatest talent is to curse Men made after the Similitude of God One of them recommends to me two very good Books and I thank him for his kindness I think he himself had need to read over again Crellius Ethicks And if that be troublesome he may cast his eye upon a most excellent Sermon against Evil-speaking Published by one of his eminent Authors And now Sir your two Philosophers may ask one another whether they know the Person they have so impudently Calumniated Whether the Authority they proceeded upon be so firm as to bear the weight of their notorious Forgeries and Lies Whether ever they heard that there was any Professor in any University of Scotland at any time since their first foundation so ignorant as they represent me to be But if they built their Calumnious stories upon the Authority of one of their Eminent Bishops I may be allow'd to tell them that I was already at some pains in the Month of January last to undeceive their Author as to this Calumny Then there was a Libel Published against me and it seems it was below his Eminence to retract an injury he had done to so mean a Person It is much more easy eloquently to extol the Morals of Christianity than to practise self-denial and humility Pride Popular Applause and Vanity do animate Men to the first but nothing short of a profound Resignation to the will of our Blessed Saviour can terrible us to practise the latter I take it for granted that my greatest Accuser is now convinced that I never wrote any such Book as the Charge of Socinianism c. Yet because the same Libel is again Propagated by the industry and malice of two unknown Slanderers I think it fit to subjoin to this Letter the Advertisement that I was forced some Months ago in to Publish in my own Defence And he that reads the Bishop's Vindication Printed for Mr. Chiswel in St. Paul's Church-yard may easily understand what is either express'd not insinuated in the following Paper There are some words in it which might have been spar'd but if compar'd with the Character bestow'd upon me perhaps many more might have been added without any Consure from the Impartial World If the open injustice that I met with made me then so free the peevishness which may be occasioned by imprisonment may extenuate the Reprinting of it since the Loads of Reproach thrown upon me by your two scurrilous Champions are but some Larger Annotations on the Original Character in which I was then represented in such taking colours to the view of the Nation Sir I now make an end of this Letter and I presume to ask but the same question that I humbly
A LETTER To the Honourable Sir ROBERT HOWARD Occasioned by a late Book Entituled A Two-fold Vindication Of the late Archbishop of CANTERBURY And of the Author of the History of Religion By Al. MONRO D. D. LONDON Printed for E. Whitlock near Stationers-hall 1696. ERRATA PAge 4. line 4. for this r. that p. 6. l. 21. r. elegancies p. 7. l. 8. r. accent ibid l. 15. r. Philosopher p. 8. l. 12. for to r. in ibid. l. ult for innocence r. innoscence p. 9. l. 4. r. innoscence ibid l. 9. r. innoscence ibid l. 29. r. highlander p. 10. l. 7. r. Cameron ibid. l. 10. after more add of ibid. l. 19. for used r. and p. 12. l. 14. for Socinianism r. Socinians p. 13. l. 13. r. innoscence p. 16. l. 21. for Sixth r. Sixteenth p. 18. l. 11. after there add are p. 20. l. ult r. Hero's p. 23. l. 29. r. Diminutive p. 26. l. 16. r. title SIR I Received your Answer to my Letter dated the 13 th of April last and I thank you heartily for your civility In mine I gave you a short Account of the barbarous Treatment I met with in a Book Entituled A Twofold Vindication of the late Archbishop of Canterbury and of the Author of the History of Religion I presum'd to address my complaint to your self because you was pleas'd to prefix an Epistle to that Book in which I am expos'd with greater contempt and severity than I deserve at your hands I humbly suppose you proceeded upon the same Mistakes and malicious Informations that provok'd your two Anonymous Authors to so much Fury and Indignation The ground of their quarrel is that they take it for granted that I am the Author of a certain Pamphlet Entituled The Charge of Socinianism against Dr. Tillotson considered This is the second time that I have been rudely and publickly accus'd on this very Head I might reasonably expect that your Two Philosophers would more narrowly examine the Matter of Fact before they had abus'd an innocent Stranger in so scurrilous a manner they are such as left me no opportunity to know their Names or the place of their Residence Nor am I now at liberty to make a stricter search where those Birds of darkness may be seen We know without the Assistance of a Revelation that he that doth evil hateth the Light The Advertisement which I printed in the Month of January last in opposition to the Censures publish'd against me upon the foot of that Calumny might one may reasonably think cover me from all Libels of that Nature since I am ready to take my Oath before any Judge that I never had the least thought of writing any such Book as the Charge of Socinianism c. in any former moment of my life And so far from writing any Animadversions on your History of Religion that I never saw it until the 16 th of April 1696. It may be that your two Champions will impute this second Vindication to my fear and pusillanimity and say that I am some timorous and silly Creature I dare not now avow what I have foolishly done I am so lash'd that it is not fit to write any more to provoke the Anger of such terrible Men whose greatest Talent is calumny and impertinence Nevertheless I may venture to tell you hoping that your passions are more calm that I can prove to a demonstration by Witnesses of more unstain'd Authority and Reputation than any of my Accusers that another is the true and sole Author of that Book And perhaps he may in due time discover himself if he can be secur'd against those Inconveniencies which may probably follow upon his being known When your very learn'd Authors consider this it may mortifie their accurate Wisdom to have thrown away all their Amunition of Wit and Raillery before they discover'd their Enemy And now Sir I beg your pardon if I have not the same opinion of their Morals that you have of their Intellectuals To rob a Man of his good Name maliciously and without any certainty of matter of Fact can as little be reconcil'd to the Rules of Honour as to the common Measures of Justice The first of them endeavours all he can to represent me a Beast The next makes me a Devil tho' one of the weakest and silliest Orders 'T is happy for the Prisoner at the Bar when the Evidences contradict one another However between them two I make a very sad figure I am not now to entertain you with my thoughts of their Learning and Theology they may Write or refute what Books they please 'T is time for me to interpose when they medle with any thing that is truly mine I arrogate to my self no man's performances As for the the Book that they seem to tear in pieces with so much bitterness and violence I only read some few pages in it And the Gentleman who gave me a Copy is ready to take his Oath that upon the delivery of the Book I said to him that I should never be able to read it to the end it was printed in so small a Character It is not enough for your two Philosophers to fall upon me like Madmen and to abuse me for what is contain'd in the Book but they must needs drop some Reflections that they think are peculiar either to my Person or my Country If they had confin'd their Libels to the Subject matter I would Judge it no part of my business to undeceive them But when they make use of Arguments and Critical Observations to prove that I am the Author of such a Book their Reasons are so short and superficial that I may be allow'd to examine them The first says pag. 33. that I was not able to keep my own Secret but that it got abroad among a great many that I was the Man that thought my self qualified to censure the Doctrine of an Archbishop of Canterbury and to encounter with the great Author of the History of Religion This is impudence with a witness Did I say so to himself or to any other Trifling Calumniator Is it not reasonable for him to let me know who this Gentleman is to whom I said any thing of this Nature But this fair and ingenuous Dealing is not his way it is enough for him that he was inform'd by some little Whisperer that I was the Author of such a Book And your Philosopher thought this a sufficient proof he was glad any Man was nam'd on whom he might so safely discharge his fury But when he found it was some tame Illiterate Pedant then he puts himself all in Armour as all Cowards do where there is no danger If I confess'd the matter of fact my self it is in vain to contradict it In the mean time I presume to tell you that whether he spoke this of himself or whether he was prompted by others that he is in the Strictest sense a Calumniator and a Liar I confess these words are harsh
see new Words as new Books do appear and several of them so harsh in the sound and so little us'd that immediately they vanish unto their former darkness and solitude Thus have I read in a late Book the word impunibly and in a Book written against Mysteries too But I suppose no Man will reasonably conclude that the Author was either Scot or English only from this unusual word To come a little nearer If I might venture to reason as your Philosophers seems to do I would prove that the Author of the History of Religion is not an English-man for in the 96 th Page I meet with a word which very few English-men know or ever heard for there the Author says that the mistakes and opinions which proceed from innocence do not make Men guilty that is to say from their weakness and ignorance How much weakness and ignorance there may be imply'd in the word innocence I cannot tell it may have in it all the Mysteries of Abracadabra for any thing I know for I never read it before Nor do I admire the word Impersonation in the Author of the Charge of Socinianism no more than I do the word Innocence both of them want Authority and Custom to preserve them from being banish'd out of ordinary Conversation Perhaps your Author built his Confidence not so much upon the strength of his critical Remarks as upon the Authority of his Informer yet to mortifie him and his cholerick Neighbour I may be allow'd to tell you that the Author of the Book Entituled The Charge of Socinianism against Dr. Tillotson was never in Scotland so far from being beyond the River of Tay that he never was on the other side of Tweed nor any City or Village in that Ancient Kingdom One of your Authors tells us speaking of Mr. Atterbury that Students do not hold themselves oblig'd to reason accurately and closely as other common Men must but by leaping over some intervening suitable Propositions may skip from Tumult to King Pipin or what â—s as good from Historian to Scorner One would think that the distance between an unusual Phrase and a Scotch-Highland is as wide as that between Tumult and King Pipin or that between an Historian and a Scorner I see that Students are not the only Men that reason loosely and incoherently there are other Sparks who pretend to digest nothing but Self-evident Propositions and accurate Infallible Deductions from clear Premises and they sometimes mistake the Mark as much as the former who are said to owe their false reasonings to dark keeping and other Infelicities of their Education I cannot perceive how the Highlander was forced to make up the Comical part of the Book I suppose Buchanan and Cameran were greater Criticks than the two Philosophers and they were both of them Scotch-Highlanders But when I consider the petulance and temper of our Authors I am afraid the naming of any of our Country-men to remove their Mistakes may savour more meanness than Condescension His observation that the flesh of a Highlander creeps is as New to me as the Phrase I am sure there are several of them that he thus Lampoons would be very apt to make his Flesh tremble if they knew him and that withal he continued obstinate in his scurrilous rudeness National Reproaches make up the divertisement used Witticisms of Porter's and Buffoon's I know no Country but may boast of its Heroes and Excellent Men And they who are forward to make comparisons are never reckoned into the number they are Knights of a lower Order such as pass all their Campaigns in Taverns and other places not sit to be named In these there may be dangers but I humbly suppose very little Honour 'T is true our Soil is not so fertil as the more Southern parts of the Island Our Sun seems to be sick for several Months in the Year nevertheless the common Character of the Scot's prae fervidum Scotorum Ingenium may be thought generally speaking more true than that which he is pleased to bestow upon his imaginary Adversary Viz. That his Northern frozen head could not perceive the Socinian Subtilties I thought they were a Sect that pretended to advance nothing nay allow of nothing but plain and undisputable Propositions that they were so slow and cautious in drawing Consequences that nothing short of Mathematical Evidence could satisfy them And when I was reading the Book that occasioned this Letter I meet with the following words For as to report and the Whispers of those Sagacious Men who so certainly know all Authors they are so oft mistaken that except it be here and there a Student no body heed them or rather every body abhors them Yet this very sagacious Philosopher this very Man of Evidence and Demonstration without any other proof than a slender Whisper or an Impudent lye finds out all Authors and knows them exactly as if he had been conversant with them from their Infancy But if his Conjecture stumble upon a Highlander then such a contemptible Creature must be crush'd to death But Men of valour use not to draw their Swords at so a great distance they approach their Enemy with less noise and they that pretend to Philosophy trust more to their Arguments than to their Fury and Indignation It is certainly so and so as he concludes it can be no other than such a one there are Improprieties in the Book and none else could be guilty of them but that one Man and then by such accurate reasoning his creeping Witticisme must get abroad I would advise this unknown Gentleman once more to consult the trifling Informer that gave him his intelligence and ask him but a few plain questions viz. Whether he had his information from me Whether he himself is familiarly acquainted with me Whether after all he be a Man of any Honour or Justice Whether he is resolved to appear to make good the Charge One may reasonably presume that a very Learned Author would not be so very Confident unless the Authorities that he built upon were strong enough to support the weight of his Insolence and Buffoonry The next Author treats me with the same virulence and contempt that the former does but he may appear even to himself a very ridiculous Fellow that with so much wit undertakes the defence of such particular Propositions as I my self lately proved I hope plainly enough against another tribe very different from the Socinianism in a small Treatise entituled An Enquiry into the New Opinions Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-head in St. Paul's Church-yard And this Book appeared with my name a considerable time before his scurrilous Libel was Printed I instance but in one particular which I advance in that Essay and it is this that our Blessed Saviour complied with those Rituals in the Worship of God among the Jews which had their Rise and Original only from human Authority Nay I think the Opposite Doctrine that allows
of nothing in the Solemnities of Worship but what is founded upon express Divine Institution to be the source of all Bigottry and Enthusiasm God is to be Worshiped and that in Unity and Society If this be allowed several Rites and Ceremonies must be Practis'd and enjoin'd which have no Institution but in the Prudence and determination of our Superiours If the angry Gentleman read this little Book that I have named he may then be more able to pass his Decretory Sentence how far the Contemptible Professor is of Mr. Knox's Principles He or his Neighbour I do not now remember which of the two not only lashes me as being tainted with those Principles of Sedition and Confusion that were so warmly Propagated by Mr. Knox but he says that all the Episcopal Clergy of Scotland tho' they forsook Mr. Calvin and Mr. Knox in the question about Church Government yet in points of Doctrine they have varied nothing at all from Mr. Knox Author of the Reformation there If this Man's knowledge in Theology was equal to his skill in our History he would certainly make the saddest figure that ever appear'd that is to say he would be all over Innocence in its true Original and Insignificant Notion so much below a Cypher that there is no Room left for him in Arithmetick Therefore he may be advised to let the Clergy of Scotland and their Doctrine alone they are not yet so low after all the oppressions and contradictions of sinners that they have endured as to want an Apology against the Railings of an inconsiderate Calumniator who knows as little the Persons that he thus bespatters as he does the Author of the Charge of Socinianism c. Let him read Dr. Forbes Bishop of Edinbourg his Considerationes Modestes and then let him tell me whether he was in all points of Doctrine of Mr. Calvin or Mr. Knox's Sentiments And he was a Person whose Character and Learning was more likely to make Disciples amongst the Clergy of Scotland than the two Reformers that he is pleased to name Nevertheless Calvin ought to be mention'd with honour because of the purity of his stile and other extraordinary accomplishments Some of our Clergy may have their differences amongst themselves about the Doctrine of Predestination and Freewill but then this is no reproach peculiar to Scotland these are Common Places in Divinity that divide not Churches from Churches but Men from Men. Those questions have been disputed in all Ages and will remain dark to the end of the World even to the Socinians themselves who pretend to banish all mysteries I believe the Infinite Incomprehensible Power of God and that he is the first cause of all things in him we live move and have our Being I believe him also infinitely Good and that he loves us better than we can do ourselves and that he governs the World by Laws just holy and excellent I Worship him under this Idea of Original Goodness and Power and I am very sure that none of the true and necessary deductions from these two great Attributes can be at variance with one another If I who am but Dust and Ashes neither can see nor happily explain their agreement in all Minute instances it is my Ignorance and Weakness The Good I do is from God the Evil altogether from my self And this is a short Confession of what I think all Men ought to adhere to in those Intricate and abstruse questions of Predestination and Freewill I am not now inclin'd to enter into any particular disquisition concerning the Original of Sacrifices nor had I ever the least thought of writing Animadversions on any Sermons Publish'd by the Late Archbishop Tillotson most of them as were Printed before the Revolution I read with great satisfaction and those that since appear'd I only read some of them as I met with them accidentally in the Booksellers-shops being not in an humour to buy New Books when I knew not how long I could keep such as I had formerly purchased Then your Philosopher recommends to me that I should read Spencer and Outram I love him the better that he converses with such Authors who are as much above the Common Level of Systematick Writers as their Learning exceeds his own modesty and good nature The former Author draws a Picture of me in little I am not concern'd much to view it tho' the Lineaments and Features had been more true but as they are extreamly ugly and extravagantly false he may lay it up in his own Closet to entertain himself with it when he is in his Hypochondriack fits The first stroaks of his Tableau are Historical and terminate only in my Person and such as the Author of the Charge of Socinianism is not at all concern'd in In the mean time I think my self oblig'd to give him no account of any part of my life unless I knew him better And if I did perhaps I might still continue in the same resolution He accuses me to have charged the late Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Sarum and the Author of the History of Religion of Socinianism And he adds this most accurate Reason because I mistake the Doctrine of the Church and the Arguments she useth for the Socinian Doctrine and Reasons Whether any of those Gentlemen now named were or are Socinians is more than ever I intend to enquire It is a very new thing to me to hear that the Church useth Arguments for the Socinian Doctrine and Reasons It is true one of his eminent Authors accused me of being the Author of the Charge of Socinianism in the Month of December last a mercenary malice and profound ignorance were but some of the vertues he allowed me I heartily forgive him those precipitate ramblings I have suffered since that time some things more terrible than the disdainful stroaks of his Pen I am apt to think that his Credulily led him into this mistake It is the unhappy lot of most who are advanced to Eminent Stations to be haunted with Sycophants false Accusers Lyars and Tale-bearers If they guard against the malignity of such Vermin their Vertue is more than ordinary and if they do not hear with both their ears they are certain plagues to human Society But one of the most surprising and impertinent stroaks of your Author's Libel is that he charges me to have accused your self of ingratitude to K. James for I never heard of your name until this Book was put into my hands by one of my Friends And I am as much qualified to write the lives of all the Irish Kings before the Conquest as I am to give any tolerable account of any part of your selfe As for your Book entitled the History of Religion I never saw it until the 6th of April 1696. So far have I been from writing any Animadversions upon it And if did they should be very short And I had rather communicate them to your self than print against an Author that