I shall shew my self to him if God permit I shall not reflect on those indignityes most uningenuously put upon me in his Poetick and bâ—tter Prose before the Correptorie Correction wherein he instructed Mr. Barlee how to raile calumniate by the tacit exhortative of his Example but immediately falling upon the matter of his last printed Book and that in conjunction with his Collegue's I shall charitably indeavour to make him see that his greatest strength had been to sit still 3. Whatsoever is found spoken in the ensuing sheets of this Book concerning the Principles and Practise of Presbyterians I have only spoken as an Historian upon matters of Fact Nor have I done it from my self but from the credit of the most questionlesse and authenticall Records Nor have I sought out occasions of such discourse but patiently received occasions offer'd All is to satisfy Mr. Barlee who if we may judge by his writings would not otherwise be content Nor are my words to be extended unto all Presbyterians indiscriminately but to such and such only of whom the Authors by me cited are found to speak For I know there are many who at least are esteemed to be of that judgement how truly or falsely I cannot tell whom for their peaceable Dispositions their Christian Temper and moderation I do very unfeignedly both love and honour In Rem non in Personam scripta est mea Actio I intend those zelots to whom my character doth agree let their Names or Qualityes be what they will What I say from the History of Mr. Knox I mean of those men whom Mr. Knox himself meant who was a chieftain of the party When I name Paraeus Buchanan Hacket and the like it is plain I mean Them If when no body is nam'd any one or more persons shall name themselves apply my words to their particulars which I had left only in common to be seized on by none but the proper owners they will be in that case their own Accusers There is nothing else in my thoughts which seemeth needfull to be premised And this at least is enough for the no-greatlength of the following Treatise whose great variety of matter whereof the third Chapter will afford the best choice is represented to the Reader in the Generall Contents which now ensue The Generall Contents of the severall Chapters CHAP. I. AN Introduction containing the great dishonesty of the Tongue It s severall Species and Degrees Mr. B. arrived at the utmost Round of the climax How a man may be brought to believe his own lye made apparent by 4 examples Mr. B's concernment in the premisses His wise caetera His confession sealed with an Oath that he gave no credit to the far greatest part of his inventions yet will not make a Recantation but seekes to secure an old Falsity with a new one Proved by an Induction His 2 Oaths opposite to each other His impossibility of escaping at any crevice either from perjury or contradiction The best that can be said for him is vehemently bad What he gets by his denial of vain credulity His Oath at best inconsiderate as from a common swearer His pretended necessity for swearing His Argumentative Oath like Mr. Hackets His necessityes and streights betwixt his first and second Book He gives the slip to a passage which would convince him of a double perjury The first of his 3 excepted slanders proved no more now then when it was crudely affirmed pretended to be a Hear-say contrary to his Oath He is provoked to name his Informer if he hath any Motives used to that purpose from parallel slanders which might be raised upon him and that with more probability and greater hopes of escape Reasons for the motives to the producing of his Informer Of Adams sin and ours Original and Actual in him and us How Mr. B's notion tends to Pelagianism and to other absurdityes T. 〈◊〉 's account of Original sin in himself What it is to be born in sin What it is not Of that Text Rom. 5. 12. The Absurdityes which follow from Mr. B's exposition The ridiculous force of his Argument It s Absurdity shewn in a parallel case He betrayeth his crime with his excuse and blasteth his Informer His second Informer evinced by himself to have been a Forger How his Tempter betray'd him to the choice of his invention How the Trick of his Confidence is an Argument of his Distrust Again he runs on the Symplâ—gades either of perjury or causelesse Railing The shamefull modesty of the Informer He is challenged to appear Mr. B. makes more way to the Discovery of his slanders His signal Tergiversation His new Calumny in defense of an old one His Revenge upon a Gentleman of 3 years old His wofull Drollery His malice against Castalio Of Christian perfection in Scripture A Catalogue of his gettings by maligning Castalio He slanders Arminius or chargeth Mr. Baxters Doctrin with Arminianism His personating a Bp. His being by confession 400 wide of the Truth His conscionable Divine confessedly a cheat Of Artificial Handsomness His perjury thereupon In sum His confessions without Repentance His Repentance without Amendment His liberall promises to amend with Resolutions of growing worse CHAP. II. Mr. B. cites private Letters to his own disadvantage His competent judges none but those of his party His tacit confession of scurrility His goâ—…â—bullitions His 15 Falsityes in 8 lines His passing judgement before Doomsday His adjudging men to Hell imply's the falsenesse of all his Doctrins His fear of Danger without being of opinion that there is any He woâ—nds himself with a Salâ—o Sneaks from his charge of Socinianism yet layes it on Mr. P. and inferres Calvin a Sâ—câ—man His cruell kindnesse Servetus his Books burnt before his Body Mr. 〈◊〉 's monstrous Dilemma his own snare His ordination into the Priesthood when and by whom and on what Termes His Promises of Conformity subscription to the 39 Articlâ—s severall Oaths Deny's his own Hand wherein he professed to proceed by the common Counsell of the Presbytery His Accusation of Dispatch His Recriminations the saddest part of his Adventure His love of falsehood quatenus ipsum The first Ground of his Malignity ript up by Himself What he gets by his complaint that his Parishoners were filched from him Their Vindication His charge recoils upon Himself His cursing and swearing and Pulpit-scuffles The Continuation of his Inventions His Dream of the Printers Boy His sin against Conscience and common sense His sad Defense of his Scholarship He buâ—â—ets Mr. Calvin and Himself in hope to make his Latin whole An important Digression to a new way of convincing Mr. B. of False witnesse Of Praying for the Dead and unto Saints A bashfull Calumny betraying its own Guilt A short Catalogue of 34 other Falsehoods to save the labour of 34 whole Sections CHAP. III. Mr. B's charge of Ingratitude the greatest jest in the world He defileth his own Nest Is disobliging to Sequestrators and
hath not a mousehole through which to run from it The many falsehoods which he affirmed in the word of a Priest only for he is a Priest or a Lay-preacher he did lustily seem at least to credit and did he not so much as seem to believe what he said upon his Oath Behold two Oaths as perfectly opposite to each other as the Scotish Covenant was opposite to any Oath which can be nam'd And will be do no penance for being perjur'd At what Crevice will he creep out He cannot say either in reason or in charity to himself that by his phrase of giving credit he only meant taking up upon Report from other men For 1. if that had been his meaning he would certainly have expressed it in a significant Phrase whereas habere fidem to give credit and credere to believe are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two expressions of one thing A man may give credit to the false suggestions of his own heart and again his own Fancy may create such Fictions to which himself can give no credit 2. In that very objection which he proposeth unto himself as that to which he must shape his Answer there are two sorts of falsities with which he stands charged viz. the Fictions of his Brain and Things taken upon report to the first of which he is to give his first answer or at least his second or to give a reason for the omission 3. As a man is said to be vainly credulous who believes his own Iealousyes without just ground so had Mr. B. meant otherwise by that expression in that place it had been more to his miserie then now it is For 4. no sooner had he sworn that he knew but three things to which he gave credit but he immediately lets fall a fourth concerning second marriages which he confesseth to have taken upon the report of a Reverend Divine which plainly proves him to be perjur'd if he meant there were but 3 things which he took upon Trust Nay 5. there were many amazing portentous falsehoods with which he was charged in my book and clearly proved to be guilty of which he must either now say he had but taken upon Trust from other men and then he is perjur'd as before or that at least they were the Issues of his Invention Such was that of rifling the Batavian Cabinet and of being * beholding to such Roguish Pamphlets as Fur Praedestinatus and to my Domestick Doctor Iackson and to Castalio for flowers of Rhetorick c. neither of which is in the number of those 3. fictions to which alone he sweares his having seemed to give credit And be it known to all his Readers that he neither indeavours to prove the truth of those things nor declareth his sorrow for their falsehood but passeth them over in a very deep silence hoping that I would forget them as well as our lesse-concerned Readers In a word if he will say his meaning is That of the Numerous Calumnies and Forgeries which I demonstrated to be such and himself also confesseth partly implicitly and partly explicitly there were three and three only which he received upon Trust from some other man he is not only perjur'd as hath been shew'd but also ownes the greatest wickednesse that any man in this kind can be guilty of It being much a greater fault to be the Coyner of adulterate mony than only to take it with the one hand and put it off with the other That is such a betraying subterfuge that I conceive he dares not use it I have taken his words not only in the most rationall but the most favourable construction and therefore knowingly he will not cast Anchor upon Quick-sands But whither then will he flye for Refuge He cannot say that the place is false-printed for the sense is intire the words exact they are not alter'd in the Errata nor yet with his pen and he jogg'd up to London immediately before his book came forth 't is said on purpose to set all right as he would have it He cannot say that he excepted but three things only of some one sort or in some one part of his Correptorie Correction for the words of his Oath are these expressely I must protest once for all before God and men that I know but three things in all my Book which I did so much as seem to give credit to against him and which yet I did not take upon bare hear-say c. Observe good Reader All his book is the widest expression he could have us'd whereby to justify me and defame himself Nor will his last words afford him any the smallest chink For what he took not up upon bare hear-say he either saw or felt or smelt at least afarr off and then why gave he no credit to them or if he did why did he not so much as seem to do it or if he did and did seem too why doth he swear that he did neither when in the very same Oath he sweareth that he had reason and ground for both Here he sweares that which implyes a contradiction and that within the compasse of not many words of which his Oath is composed For if he alledge as a Salvo for Name and Conscience that the last words do not relate to any thing else then the three particulars excepted his Calamityes will increase by all the things that he hath spoken in their defense as I shall clearly demonstrate when I come to consider them apart yet the sadder is his condition they cannot regularly belong to any other then those three nor truly should I have guess't it to be his meaning but that I know it his lesser Evill and find him often at false construction and so in charity would hope that some degree of his guilt may be imputed unto his Ignorance rather then all should be laid on the back of Conscience Yet that he may not be ingratefull for so much favour as I afford him as he formerly hath been I will shew him very shortly how ill he chooseth for himself in case he chooseth to be thought a good Grammarian But I may not yet passe from the present passage lying before us For sixthly I must not omit any means whereby to lessen the unhappinesse of this unfortunate Creature if any means may be found for so good a purpose The best excuse that I am able to prompt him to is to put a speciall Emphasis upon the words I know for so run's his Oath I must first once for all protest before God and men that I know but three things in all my book which I did so much as seem to give credit to against him c. But alas this best of excuses is so vehemently bad that I know not how he will be able to take it kindly For if he did not see the greatest part of my book nor of his own whilst he was labouring in the work of
lying as not to leave a possibility of his being believed by any Creature he could not have given us a lustier experiment of his Faculty by all the Pangs and Tortures of his Invention § 7. Now then good Reader give me the steadyest of thy Attention and prepare thy self for an Astonishment He begins to quit himself of the Forgeries which I had laid to his charge in these following words W. B. About what he hath of my 1 Fictions against him of taking up things upon 2 bare report or simple hear-say about what I charge him with Corrept Cor. 39. concerning his being above sin and concerning the deniall of the lawfulnesse of second Marriages p. 73. of Ministers c. Answ That I may at once quit my self from the Aspersion of having indulged to any vain Credulity against him I must once for all protest before God and men that I know but three things in all my book which I did so much as seem to give credit to against him and which yet I did not take up upon bare hear-say c. T. P. 1. Had not the man been so distinct in the later part of these lines which he marks for an Answer unto the manifold charge I should have thought his two caeteras but especially the first had been the wisest performance in all his Book For I had charg'd him in one chapter with 40. palpable Inventions which were the Subjects of so many Sections all conspicuous in the Front of the severall Sections and thereby thrusting themselves into the Eye of the Reader and expressed all in his own words and all referred to the pages from whence I took them Mr. B. observing but two of the 40. in my epistle set down only as a specimen of what the Reader was to expect sets them down with an caetera but imperfectly too and pretends to acquit himself from all at once This is the bottom of his deep project and my first observation But secondly He spoyles himself for a projector in the very next words For he rapps out an Oath that in all his book without exception of a page there are but three things that he knows which he did so much as seem to give credit to against me Reader observe the man's Confession Of those 40. great Falshoods which he delivered in his book with the greatest confidence in the world he doth acknowledge 37. to have been wilfully committed there being but 3. of all the number to which he gave any Credit How great a wickednesse was that to accuse a Neighbour even in print of so many foule things when he makes Oath even in print too that he believed so very few But this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meer beginning of all his sorrows For thirdly there was a multitude of Slanders besides those 40. thrust up together which I observed out of his Pasquil both in the first second and fourth chapters of my book Of all which when I expected that he would offer at a proof or publish at least a Recantation he puts me off with a Solemn Oath that excepting three things he gave no credit to a syllable of whatsoever he spake against me throughout his book How then shall I or the world give credit to him if he can hardly believe a word of what himself speakes Fourthly since he confesseth with an Oath that all his slanders except three were so transcendently incredible that he himself could not believe them why do we not find him upon his Knees at an open penance as he promis'd no longer since then whilst he was dedicating his Labours Here is his * fateor with a witnesse but where is his * peccavi which he is wont to be at in a poenitent mood Does he think that his making a lusty confession of his sins can intitle him to a privilege of doing as wickedly as before If so we understand what is his Doctrin of Repentance which doth consist of a Confession without satisfaction or amendment a goodly ornament of the Party of which he would be reckon'd a Leading man Or does he think that slanders are peccadillos in the elect of whose small Number small I mean in comparison he often gloryes that he is one If so what need such large Confessions and so many offers to cry peccavi when the omission of that also can be no more then a peccadillo But I will follow him no farther in this his miserie as being diverted by a greater For fifthly he doth not only sweare that he gave no credit to all the things which he spake against me excepting three but that he did not so much as seem to give credit to them Was ever Man so unhappy in the laying down so few words that whilst he is saying a very great Truth his giving no credit to what he spake against me he should spoyle it in the same Instant with as great a Falsehood his not so much as seeming to do it neither Doth he never so much as seem to give any credit to the Articles of his Creed when he pronounceth them in the most positive and dogmaticall manner to be imagin'd And was he not every whit as positive every whit as dogmaticall in pronouncing things against me to which he here sweares that he did not so much as seem to give any credence or belief I will put it home by an Induction of some particulars When he said that I gave out Faith to be the cause of election in my publick papers and that I did not so much as deny that when two men are equally called whereof the one converts himself the other miscarrieth it is not God but Man that puts the difference and that at Daintry in my Sermon I affirm'd God to have prepared Hell for the Devil and his Angels but not for any wickedmen that I affected to be an elector and Determiner of Grace that I call'd in Poets if not Devils to help me to blaspheme that I was a Satanicall blasphemer and exceeded the Devil himself in blasphemy with a multitude the like did he not so much as seem to believe what he said or will he say that these things were rather for me then against me Or when he professed in the presence of God that he did much fear that no man could write thus but one wel-nigh in the same condition with Simon Magus adding that I did openly blaspheme against Scripture did he not seem to give credit to it Either he did or he did not If he did not why then did he professe it in the presence of God and if he did seem to give credit to it why then doth he protest before God and men that he did not Poor man what hath he done or what will he do Can he escape doing penance upon his knees as before he promis'd and hath now repromâ—s'd when he
Corr. when I chanced to light upon this rare passage Heartily I can wish that you would not steer the ship you are one of the guiders of per Archipelagum through the main Ocean unto Rome it self It seems he thought that Archipelago which I mention'd in my Notes had been the oblique case of a Latin word because he knew Pelagus was Latin for a Sea And such was his knowledge in Geographie that he thought the Archipelago had been the Ocean through which we saile from hence to Rome or if he knew it to have been the Aegean Sea his mistake was more ridiculous in thinking that that Sea was on this side Italie As great a jest as that Preacher's who told his Hearers they must passe through the dangers of the Red Sea before they could arrive at the Cape of good Hope I need not speak of his citing Aristotle and Chrysostom in Latin because I know not what it may signify whether that he thought they were Latin Authors or met with a Translation at second hand It were well if he were able to write true English on all occasions as well as upon some Examples of the contrary are extremely rife in his publick works Whosoever shall consider how he prayes perfect non-sense in his Dedicatory Epistle and how in the end of his Postscript he is skipping for joy out of sense and syntax and shall compare what I have shew'd ch 2. § 17. he will say that Mr. B. was somewhat too lavish of his praises upon such an obnoxious and faulty self his faults being greater then those of Rivet of which the grave and wise Grotius took publick notice And in this I have follow'd that great example § 5. What he alledgeth to shew his learning for no other reason can I imagin concerning the Books in his study of which he proclaimeth unto the world that he should be loath to part with them for 150l ch 3. p. 126. lin 7 8. is as far from being argumentative as any thing which he hath spoken for his Doctrin of decrees or of God's being the cause of sin And though it merits not an Answer or confutation yet because I cannot imagin vvhy he should put it into his Book unlesse he thought it to be of force to serve for a part of his Vindication I vvill respect him so far as to make him a return by these degrees 1. I never did accuse him of having a cheap study of Books nor did I ever conceive it could be any mans crime Grotius vvas the Owner of very few Books he liv'd most upon borrowing the Books of others and that from the chiefest parts of Christendom vvhich having contracted into his paper and thence digested into himself he became an * animated Library or an * Ambulatory Pandect of all the best learning in all the vvorld 2. What he saith of his Books is gratis dictum neither proved by witnesse nor by an Inventary of the particulars and vve vvho are English-men do not like your Dutch reckonings nor is it the likelyer to be so because he sayes it vvho hath been found so often to give us the issues of his Invention The Boy in Horace vvas so known to speak falsely that vvhen at last he spake an important Truth none of the neighbourhood vvould believe him 3. He doth not tell us hovv much his study of Books is worth but for hovv much he vvill not leave them vvhich is only to tell us his great affection to those Authors vvhom he hath indeared unto himself by many late obligations But another man perhaps may be as glad of their room as he can be of their company 4. Admit 150l would buy a great study of books which yet I cannot apprehend if he meant to infer himself a man of great learning I deny his sequel For then the richest man living would have it in his power to be the learnedst Many Stationers are masters of much more learning then the best Scholars can pretend to but there is commonly this difference that the Stationers learning is without him the Scholars within him Yet the Stationer hath a mighty command of his learning as well as Mr. W. B. For as he bought it at his pleasure so he may sell it at his need and till then may hang it upon a Tack We see 't is very ill arguing from the Quantity of the Study to the Quality of the Student whose greater commendation were to have no more Books then he can put into his Brain Whosoever shall impose a Treasure of mony upon a Mule will not certainly enrich but load the creature But if he prized his Books to save his Executors a labour he should not here have put it in his Book of Abstersions he should rather have reserved it for a Codicill of Instructions to be annexed when time serves unto his last Will and Testament § 6. I must not thus insist upon the other like parts of his vindication and yet I may usefully represent them for many reasons by drawing up a short Catalogue of his escapes from the Question of Gods Decrees wherein will be seen his Dexterityes in finding work for the Printer and providing materials for a Book without indangering his Cause upon all occasions the very mention of which he had found by experience to be unsafe Hereupon he takes occasion because no good body would be so courteous as to offer it to acquaint his Readers with many particulars of his life which the publick-minded man would not have to dye with him Ex. Gr. 1. He hath been in this very Country well-nigh these fourteen years never behaving himself unchristianly ignorantly or rudely amongst many discerning gracious Christians amongst divers most venerable and eminent Scholars 2. He is averse from the very Act of writing fairly and slowly 3. He would not for 500l that other men should be put to it with Printers Correctors and Transcribers as he hath been 4. Of divers late years he hath preached by the hour-glasse 5. He catechizeth in his Parish as well as preacheth 6. His Carrier he tells us comes to him on Saturdayes in the afternoon and goes by ten a clock on Munday morning next after 7. A Bishop of my name to whom I never had any relation was wont to make clinches as well as He. 8. We must know at what glad Tâ—dings his Sympresbyters would have jumped 9. He layes up an Article against me against the time that ever we may be so blessed as to enjoy Presbyterian Censures 10. He tells us a Tale which he was told by an Oxford Stationer to commend his Book for Orthodox because it was so little bought 11. A certain man whose name was Forbes a Scotish Divine was for above 30 years Preacher at Delph 12. And he did speak to Mr. Barlee in the presence of Dr. Ames 13. He was more then ordinarily acquainted with Bishop Davenant
unthankfull to Mr. Hobbs King Iames concerning the Presbyterians The Imprisonment of Mr. Cartwright Travers c. King Iames his Antipathy to Presbyterianism and Pigg The Bishops lenity compared with the Presbyterian Rigor The Presbyterian Doctrins of excommunicating and killing the supreme Civill Magistrate Knox and Buchanan The Presbyterian Principles agreeable to their Practice That of the Kirk in particular Quares touching the Covenant Touching a Book subscribed by the Ministers within the Province of London against Toleration and for the Covenant Paraeus his Book most seditious dissembled and defended by Mr. B. â—ondemned to be burn'd by the whole Vniversity of Oxford and by orthodox King Iames with the hands of the common Hangman Grotius his judgement of the Book Paraeus an Oracle to the party Of Lambeth Articles King Iames and Bishop Mountague Vniversall Grace and Redemption The late Reverend Primate against Mr. B. Mr. B's Quaestion never enough to be admir'd His remarkable Calumny and Impertinence The irresistible Truth of Vniversall Redemption Of Testard Camero Amyrald Spanheim Daille Blondel for universal Redemption in his approbation of Daille's Book Of Mr. Baxter's warning to the Nation against Cassandrian Papists under the names of Episcopal Divines How applyed by Mr. Barlee A vindication of Grotius His Temper and Design The Peace of Christendom attempted by Melanchthon Maximilian Ferdinand and others before Grotius Accusations must not be too generall Episcopal Divines no Papists Melanchthon Bucer nay Calvin and Beza for Episcopacy set Formes of Prayer Rites and Ceremonies Popery shut out by Episcopal Divines but advanced by Presbyterians How Iesuites and Presbyt 〈◊〉 have been assisting to one another Mr. B's Contradictions about Bishop Davenant His third edition before his second and his being alive at least a year after he was dead His pretended correspondence with that Bishop His exceptions and sawcinesse to the same That Bishop reckons universal Redemption among Fundamentals and declares against all who shall deny it How severely that Bishops judgement reflects on Mr. B. His foul inventions of the late Primate of Armagh CHAP. IV. HIs Breeding and way of Complement to the admiration of all the world XI pages full of Railing of which a Tast only is exhibited A Copy of Mr. B's Reformation His notable justification of himself His Asperity against all others obliquely against Dr. Bernard and Dr. Reynolds expressely against Grotius Castalio Episcopius Dr. Taylor Mr. Thomson c. against Mr. Calvin Mr. Thomson vindicated in particular Of Mr. Baxters Godly Man And why Mr. Barlee so much extoll'd him The sad effect of that opinion that the Regenerate man cannot cease to be so Mr. B's self-contradictions His excessive commendations and condemnations of himself His Digression to the sum of 150l at which he values his study of Books His Dexterityes in speaking beside the purpose How great an Artificer of escapes The two Instances of his Wit The Contents of the Appendage A Manifestation by severall Instances that Dr. Bernard never pretended to prove the Negative to that which was Affirm'd by T. P. concerning the judgement of the late Primate as to the controverted points That matter is ventilated in severall Letters to Dr. Bernard In the first it is evinced that T. P. spake safely of the said Primate on which side soever the Truth might lye and that the case of Mr. Barlee is very sad on all hands The same things with more advantage are evinced in the second The third Letter sheweth that the Primates Honour was advanced in the publication of his change The Aspersions cast upon the Primate by Mr. B. as well as on Bishop Overall with whom the Primate at last concurr'd The great Harmony and Agreement between the judgement of the Primate as it is lately set forth by Dr. Bernard and the Doctrin deliver'd in the Books of T. P. The fourth Letter doth make a parallel of the Primates judgement with the writings of T. P. in 13 particulars Then sheweth the inconsistence of the Primates judgement with M. B's in 15 particulars wherein is also included Bp. Andrews his vindication The fifth Letter exhibiteth the three Certificates by which T. P. was induced to believe and publish the Primates change the first from Dr. Walton the second from Mr. Gunning the third from Mr. Thorndike Vpon which satisfaction is required of such Calvinists as have adorn'd their Doctrins by unjustly usurping the Primates Name His Grace of Armagh is farther proved to have changed his former judgement by the Irish Articles concluded A. D. 1615. and by the late account which Dr. Bernard gave of it To which is added the Primates care that Dr. Iackson's writings might be preserved And Mr. Baxters Censure of St. Austin as unsound and against Scripture in that particular wherein 't is collected from Dr. Bernard that the Primates judgement agreed with Austin's An Introduction to the First Chapter concerning Slanders and other Falsehoods § 1. IN the whole Catalogue of Impostures by which the God of all Glory hath been dishonour'd Religion perverted and the World abus'd there is certainly none greater then the Dishonesty of the Tongue For in a direct contrariety to the principal Ends of its Creation to wit the Honour of God and the mutual benefit of man it is frequently imployed by some sorts of Factors more especially in the blaspheming of the one and in the ruining of the other Since the Iesuites and their Apes who at the first did but imitate yet at last were able to instruct them have made use of their Tongues to conceal their meanings although intended by God to lay them open there have been whole volumes written concerning the Mystery or Science or Art of Lying and a sadder confusion hath been made of the distinct est Languages and Tongues then that which was given for a Defeat at the Tâ—wer of Babel God himself in much mercy was the Author of the one but the Devil in great malice was the first Father of the other § 2. Now the Dishonesty of the Tongue though of divers species and degrees by a generical word is called Falsehood which being singly taken is breach of Truth and joyn'd to witnesse is breach of Iustâ—ce and joyn'd to Neighbour is breach of Charity all expresly forbidden in that short Praecept Thou shalt not bear false witnesse against thy neighbour In the former respects it is no more than a Lye whereas in the later it is that and somewhat more Improperium a Slander But there are three sorts of speaking which are not literally True betwixt which notwithstanding there is a very vast Difference to wit a Rhetorical a Logical and an Ethical Falsehood Of which the first and the second may in many cases be very innocent but there is hardly any case in which the third will not be guilty And yet of this last sort there are degrees too For a Lie that is perfectly officious is not so filthy as a malicious one That is
he fear'd it by so much the stronger was his opinion which set his fear at that pitch So that if he speakes sense his meaning certainly must be this which will be worse then if it were non-sense that he did think me well-nigh in the same condition with Simon Magus but yet he was not of that opinion or else he was of that opinion but he did not say it in those words Let him choose which he pleaseth his falsehood in saying he did fear what he did not or his falsehood in saying he did not think what he did And let him study some little Logick though it be but a System that he may trouble the world with not-so-many contradictions Above all let him not call it his godly jealousy as here he doth p. 12. to pluck the Tares from the wheat before the Harvest untill he is able to distinguish betwixt the one and the other But let him leave it to him who shall come in the cloud at the last Day to gather the wheat into his Garner and to burne up the chaff with unquenchable Fire When Mr. B. was pleas'd to charge me with Atheisticall Lucianizing and with the pouring out of damnable blasphemyes for vindicating God from the aspersion of being the Author or cause of sin I would ask him if he thought me a pretious vessell of election When he will answer that Question I shall shew him what follows § 5. In his c. 2. p. 12. lin 24 25. c. He saith he only charged me with consequential Socinianisme to his best remembrance in all his book Is not this a rare Christian vvho for so great an injury to his Neighbour vvill make no other satisfaction then to deny or to extenuate the crimson Fact and to justify this too with want of memory It can as little be expected by any Reader that I should remember so many pages wherein the Socinian is put upon me Yet by but dipping into his book I find him speaking of my Socinio-Grotian-Persian glosses my desires not to be accounted a Socinian in such a fleering way as doth imply that I shall be so accounted do what I can my d Atheistical Lucianizing and d Castalionizing which with him who brands Castalio vvith no lesse then viperous Socinian books p. 13. vvas to call me Socinian and very much worse unlesse he thought that the Atheist Lucian vvas a Socinian only many hundreds of years before Socinus vvas borne or that Socinians are all Atheists Again he told me I vvas nearly allied to the Iesuites and Socinians though novv he virtually confesseth I vvas no more like a Iesuite then himself like a Dominican and so by his logick he is nearly allied unto the Papists and vvhich is vvorse unto the Libertines vvho only built upon the Calvinists Foundations In hovv many more places he did asperse me as a Socinian I must needs be forgetfull as vvell as he He hints my erring about the very Trinity but holds forth nothing only dreames of a Manuscript and talkes as impertinently out of it nay a great deal more then Mr. Haddock did in his sleep At last he concludes hovv he may shew me another time justly suspected of Socinianisme because I read the books of Episcopius Castalio who are no more Socinians then Mr. Barlee for ought I know and I read them as little I believe as He. Or if I read Socinian books never so much as I know few men have read them lesse doth it follow I am a Socinian more then I am a Presbyterian because I read Dr. Twisse and Mr. Barlee By this way of reasoning Mr. Barlee may justly be thought a Heathen because it appeares by his Latin shreds that he hath taken some few of the Heathen Poets into his Bosome His signal ignorance of Antiquity as to the Canon of Scripture and the three subsistences in one substance I leave as I find it meerly for fear of being tedious § 6. In his c. 2. p. 13. lin 19 20 c. he talks of his witnesses in the Country how tender he hath been of my life and of my livelyhood giving this instance of his tendernesse that he thought me fit to be punished but not to be burnt as was Servetus at Geneva Yet 1. he defends the burning of Servetus who was not so bad as Mr. B. hath labour'd to fancy me For let them say what they please to lessen the guilt of that cruelty yet they are partyes and must not so easily be heeded as other men who are none If Servetus his book was so blasphemous why was Calvin so diligent in burning up the Impression which he should rather have preserved that posterity might see some competent cause for such a terrible execution Yet by the Providence of God one or two of the Copies escap't the fire and we are assured by peerlesse Grotius that in the Copie which he saw he could not find those things which were objected by Mr. Calvin What Melanchthon spake of it was meerly on supposition that Calvin's narrative was true And Oecolampadius was offended at the Barbarity of the Sentence Nor find I any thing pretended against Servetus which was so highly blasphemous as the making God to be the Author or cause of sin How well Mr. Calvin could tell his own Tale and how diligent he was in being the first Informer of his Affairs we may guesse by his Epistles which he writ to the 4 Helvetian Cityes for the gaining of authority to his new Devise Secondly Mr. B. complains of the severity which was used to Penry which shews how much kinder he is to Treason then to that which either is or is called Heresie And with how many sorts of heresy he hath been pleased to load me in both his books I need not here reckon either to his or my Readers Thirdly though he professed in his Epistle to be so sollicitous of my Fame outward safety as no man more yet he will have me to be a Sorcerer and to be ranked with the witches spoken of by the Apostle 2 Tim. 3. 13. ch 2. p. 42. again he chargeth me at once with Socimanisme and dimidiate Pontificianism p. 38. with my good friends the Anabaptists and Quakers p. 42. two sorts of persons to whom I am equally a stranger and more a stranger then Mr. Barlee with vehement pleading for the lawfulnesse of praying for the dead and unto Saints p. 44. Nay in the very next page to the place I am upon he seeks my sequestration by this Dilemma § 7. Either he practiseth in his publick Ministry those many liturgical knacks which he doth so zealously plead for or he doth not if the first he knows at what perill he doth it if the later he proclaims himself a timorous unconscionable Coward to all the world The Lord shew Mr. T. P. a way how to leap out of this snare and this the Lord
his book printed for no greater sum then 20â— which if himself could not spare he had friends who were able to do it for him I had been told it before by many grave Persons but I should hardly have made it publick had he not told me of it himself And did I do ill to believe his own message when delivered by a person much more credible then himself If the bargain was alter'd from after that time he should have sent me word of that too as he had done of the former But how doth he blast his own credit in setting this down as a palpable untruth of which himself was the Author and I but his Echo nay he confesseth even here whilst he doth offer at a Deniall 1. that he suspected some such matter and spake of it to his friends 2. that one acquainted with the wayes of printers did a little scare him about a sum of mony 3. that after the mony matter was talk't of he did out of pure respect to his Budget forbear committing his Book to the Presse Truth will out one way or other 4. that at last it cost him a small matter to the Printer and what he did gratify his choice friends with But let him speak again in print was he not obliged at the Stationers price to take off 200 of his Correp Corrections and doth he not drop a confession that divers Dozens of his Book came down to him bound up and did he not leave some dozens to be sold for him by the â—…tioners Come away then Reader to his next Recrimination § 13. His third complaint is p. 22. lin 24 25. c. that I said he rayled at me to all sorts of people and cursed me to some and preached me down in his 2 lecture Sermons He preach't and rayl'd for he rayled in preaching to all sorts of people Once at Northampton in mine own hearing under the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vvhich when I charged him with he did not deny it another time in Daventry Pulpit which being upon a market day was talked of in the market and brought to my eares by a cloud of eare witnesses And whether he railed at me or no behind the Curtains his Readers may judge by what he hath done upon the Stage A Correptorie Corrector begins to grow into a Proverb and gives a speciall denomination to one that railes But Mr. B. will lay down his life upon it that for above this 30 years never did rash Oaths or cursing come out of the doors of his lips nor in his greatest hast and heats did he ever protest so high as by his Faith by his Troth or his Truly Yet in the 17th page of this his last book he protested before God not only rashly but very much worse as hath been shew'd Is not that more then by his Faith Again he professed in the presence of God that he thought me well-nigh in the same condition with Simon Magus Is not that more then by his Troth Nay farther yet he pulls a curse upon himself and the greatest curse too even Anathema Maranatha if he prove not the Doctrins which he hath taught these 20 years most agreeable to the Faith of the Church of England And when we consider how impossible it will be to prove that how much worse hath he done then if he had spoken it by his Truly Nay in this his second Book he bestows this curse upon his Friends Beshrew them who vvere at any time so credulous c. But in excuse of this last he may chance to say that he vvas somevvhat older at his p. 38. vvhere he cursed then at his p. 22. vvhere he laid his life upon it that he had not cursed or sworne these 30. years and therefore I presse it not much upon him I love to allovv him all the scope that I am able § 14. His fourth complaint is p. 3. lin 20 21. c. concerning vvhat I said of the Correctors of his Presse and that his Apologie was to be looked on as the deepest instance of his invention and p. 24. that he was at the cost to have his Book in the Diurnall To the first I ansvver that I vvas told it by divers persons vvhose eyes vvere still upon the place and could tell more of those matters then Mr. B. himself vvhich I cannot prove I 'le beg his pardon although the matter is not of moment For a most satisfactory Answer to the second I refer my Reader to the place where my words may be seen in conjunction with the reasons which there I give for them I say to the third that what he did by a proxy he truly did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That I can shew my information under the hand and seale of a most worthy person That if he did he did well for who prints books to keep them secret and therefore if he did not I did not ill to think he did Yet because I did take it upon report I shall as soon as he proves I did mistake it make him amends in such a manner as he will have me And thus having seen the very utmost of what he hath been able to charge me with from the very beginning to the conclusion of my book I will pursue my method of charging Him § 15. In his p. 24. lin 8 9. he is not afraid to divulge his Dream that by my silver hook I hooked in very Printers boyes to be my Historians and that I bribed them to let me have a hansell of his papers c. A thing not only extremely false but so very impossible to be true that I was never able to find out whereabout his Printer lived whether at London Oxford or Cambridge Upon my diligent inquiry I heard that London was the place but I heard it only and read it in the Title-page of his Book For ought I know there is no such matter But admit him to be in London I cannot tell to this hour either where he lives or what his name is All I find in his Title-page is Mr. Sawbridge his Stationer and W. H. which what it signifyes I cannot tell Indeed Mr. Sawbridge was ask't the question by a Friend but he was as wary as the ancient Persians and would not let fall a syllable towards the opening of the secret The mysteryes of Bacchus and of Cybele were never lock't up with greater care The like was observed in the printing of his last which I was never able to get a sight of notwithstanding my indeavours which might administer an occasion to Mr. B's confident invention untill after there were Copyes in the publick shops at Northampton So very unhappy is Mr. B. in printing all that lyes uppermost § 16. In his p. 25. lin 18 19. he saith I omitted to touch upon the 20th part of all that was substantiall in him and argumentative If he had said of all that was
scurrilous and invective he had hit the Truth a little nearer I was chid by wise persons for considering him at all and again I was chid for taking him so much into consideration But for this I have been thanked by the very same persons that I shew'd him the shadows of all his substance What subject is there in all his Satyr touching the questions in debate and relating to my notes upon which I have not fully spoken in my defense of Gods Philanthropie My Alphabeticall Index is a thousand witnesses to such as list to look no farther But I have many more witnesses then Mr. B. can pretend to because the whole Impression was dispersed long ago How I spake to all things which were substantiall and pertinent and why I spake to no more I cannot demonstrate by an induction unlesse I transcribe the many sections both of his book and mine But I can do it a shorter way even by sending my equall Reader to the conclusion of my Philanthropie and by desiring him with that to compare the Index § 17. In his 27 28 29. pages he proclaimes his ignorance in Greek and Latin by his pitifull endeavours to make them venial I did occasionally name a few of his infirmityes and in mercy to him I nam'd no more I did seriously intend not to rub up that sore and meant that Time should either heale it or skin it over But since the Delinquent is so ingratefull as not to accept of my pity and even flings dirt at me for concealing so much of his uncleannesse I will compell him to be sorry though I cannot be sure he will repent First for his generall excuses that the Printer did him much wrong and that I would not admit of a corrected Copy which he sent me I have this to Answer for his discomfort 1. That the grossest of his commissions such as multa rara ad phalerandum populum derelictoscujus and the like are not pretended by himself to have been errors typographicall For of the three I now nam'd he seeks to justify two and very wisely conceales the third ad phalerandum populum he dares not mention 2. Though I would not accept of a book from his hands having bought one before out of the shop and suspecting many dishonestyes to lye in ambush by such a project yet I detein'd it so long as to examine his monstrosityes of Greek and Latin which by the Index I had made was very easy to be done And except Daemon meridianum which he had mended with his pen I found the book to be as faulty in point of Latin and Greek as that which I had from the common stall Nay I have now in my custody one of those very Copyes which Mr. B. corrected after it came to Northampton and even there I have discover'd above twenty grosse errors as a neighbour Minister can bear witnesse neither amended with the pen nor yet in the Catalogue of Errata But let us come to the particulars in which I instanc't The first and chiefest was his deplorable use of phalerandum which in stead of confessing or excusing he very carefully passeth over and breaks out into railing as the naturall language of his misfortunes And having shew'd by convina as heretofore by Monsieurs that he would fain be mistaken to have at least a little skill in Italian and French even whilst he demonstrates his perfect ignorance in both he tryes to hide his reall frailty by starting a frailty where there is none For the fault that I found was multa rara which was as bad as to have said multa pauca And to that I pointed with an asterisk both in the margin and in the Text. But our Gamester provides a back-door for his escape and makes as if I had blam'd him for the particle ni whereas he knows I never did and was so far from laying it in his dish that I laid it wholly in the Printers as Mr. B. might have read in the Catalogue of Errata In so much as that refuge hath quite undone him Nor fares he the better for his many rare Gemms because his words were multa lectu dignissima admodum rara which if he thinks not worse then many grammaticall incongruities I know what the Reader will be apt to say of his learning Is not this bad enough not it seems for Mr. Barlee for that which follows is much worse Defectio arguit fuisse derelictos cujus supple Derelictionis saith Mr. Barlee non potest alia adduci causa quam Reprobatio Calvin's word was derelictos not derelictio or if it had been so as Mr. B's ignorance would have had it yet could it not have been Mr. Calvin's meaning For 1. it appears by the context that he was speaking of the Defection of the Reprobate Angels and inquiring after its cause and 2. it could not otherwise be sense then by making cujus to refer unto the word defectio Could Mr. Calvin be so silly as to say that Gods Reprobation was the only cause of his dereliction Not his positive Reprobation for then it would be before the negative in contradiction to his Tenent not the negative Reprobation for that is nothing but dereliction which cannot possibly be the cause of it self No 't was only Mr. B. who could arrive to that pitch of Dementation What satisfaction will he now make me for giving me the lye with a notorious epithet and for his wonderfull impertinence of St. Paul's ignorance in Grammar He tells us it is venial to break Priscian's Head But these are such faults as would break his Heart too The time would fail me if I should mention the great variety of the like which are very conspicuous in his Correp Correction But I will shew my Catalogue to any man that shall desire it for satisfaction and from the Presse if required by M. B. Nor is he happyer in his second book then he was in his first For not to speak of such trifles as Coriphaeus and acutum cernere not mended in the Errata I will only mention two or three Rarityes What I had written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he thought he must repeat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 17. no doubt because he found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his Lexicon and could not find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein how many absurdityes might be observed to the filling up of both pages I leave to the guesse of a sufficient Reader Again in his ch 2. p. 54 55. he snibs me for an oversight in translating this Latin Desinebat esse vir sed non malus Grammaticus either not knowing or not considering that the words are Amphibological like Ibis redibis nunquam Romane peribis and when the sentence vvas capable of both constructions I had reason to take that vvhich vvas most for my purpose and for the credit of Origen to vvhom the Amphibolie vvas applyed Novv vvhether the Logick or the Grammar
betwixt my opinions and the Pelagians which he pretendeth to have made in his Correp Corr. 2. what he saith of D. Reynolds in his Epistle to himself shewing my Arguments to have issued from the Pelagian School 3. what he saith of my abusing D. Reyn. and Mr. Whitfeld c. 4. of my repeating the Barbers Bason a second time 5. of its being no fiction into the partnership of which he took in his reverend Divine 6. of what passed at Daintry touching Socrates and Iob who were both spoken of but not as Mr. B. doth make relation 7. of my ending my Notes with a harsh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8. of my accusing him for being like Pausanias which indeed I mention'd of an indefinite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he alone applyes to himself 9. of frequent repetitions which is more his own fault then any mans whatsoever in all my reading 10. of my ranking the best of men with the worst of Quakers whereas I only said what things I was unlike and how far from being a Quaker 11. of my being not able not to know that Bishops were no other then primi Presbyterorum 12. of my justifying one of the worst of his expressions 13. of his not making promise to crave pardon for his faults 14. of my spending above 22 sheets in pure invective 15. of his not saying that he had need to cast about for Topical Arguments 16. of his 5 Arguments to prove that matter of fact pretended not to be spoken to 17. of my confessing a Copy to be mine which I never saw nor knew any thing of but from Him 18. of confessing by faultring denyals 19. of leaving out a passage against speciall discriminating Grace 20. of his never having heard that his three friends had their finger in the pye of sequestring others though some of them lived upon sequestrations 21. of its being plain by the Text and context that he spake not of me but of himself 22. of my granting those Westmonasterial Authors to make for him when yet he declares for the upper way c. 23. of his alluding to my words when he calumniates them 24. of his opposing my Idol Fancy of Grace when he gibed at Gods Grace by me alledged 25. of his not charging me with Atheisme c. 26. of my not threatning him with a thing pass'◠but He me 27. of his not allotting me a portion in the bottomlesse Lake c. which I have largely proved Ch. 2. § 4. 28. of Aerius his not being condemned generally for heresy 29. of his party 's maintaining communion with us in doctrin and worship 30. of Bp. Davenant's exacting nothing but the Oath of supremacy and subscription to the 39 Articles 31. of Episcopius his being an Antitrinitarian c. 32. of my knowing that Episcopius was fully confuted by Vedelius when I know the contrary 33. of the Bishops severity to Non-conformists c. 34. of King James his promise that he would labour to conform the Church-government of England to that of Scotland rather then vice versa 35. of speciall Grace being inconsistent with universall 36. of my charging Testard Amyrald Bp. of Armagh c. with Arminianisme who never own'd it in my self 37. of Bp. Davenants Pacificatorie to Duraeus not being one of the last things he writ by which we must mean his publick works not private letters c. What Mr. Barlee saith or insinuateth by such inevitable consequences as do make it equall to what he saith in dogmatical positions is neither more nor lesse true in the 34 places directed to in the margin of this last section then if a man should say that Mr. Barlee was passionatly in love with the Queen of France and pretends a just Title to the Crown of Spain And thus good Reader I have preserved thee at once from so much labour and losse of time as 34 long sections must needs have cost thee I wish I had thought of this method sooner since his prevarications with the Truth are most of them so palpable that to name them only is to discover them and to discover them only is to confute them CHAP. III. Mr. B's Abuses of other men as well as of me and of himself especially of his own Party and his incomparable mistakes in those of the Prelacy the late Primate Bp. Davenant c. § 1. Mr. B. taking it for granted upon the representation of his Fancy that he had done me some speciall savour concludes from no-premisses that I discover my self to be a Monster of ingratitude for having written a tedious letter to him and made that use of his Answer which he expresseth ch 2. p. 50. lin 14 15. c. Where the ingratitude doth lye I shall leave it to be consider'd by this impartiall account of that whole matter When I had published a true Copy of my Notes to prevent the publishing of a false one I was told which since I find was true that Mr. Barlee had a designe to print as much of that false one as he thought might be usefull to do his work Against this I thought fit to preadmonish him in a letter Advising him first to live in silence and not to trouble the Presse with breach of charity or peace Or if that might not be that he would then keep close to the proper subject of debate and neither call me by ill names nor affirm any thing to be mine which I had already so very heartily and so knowingly disown'd For having voted me already to be a Papist and a Pelagian and a Socinian into the bargain should he proceed to aspersions from I knew not what Manuscripts copied out with his Ink why might he not accuse me of having said Masse or of any thing else which might be matter of sequestration With how much reason I did this both his books have made appear For what I suspected only as possible he hath abundantly perform'd notwithstanding all those premonitions with which my self and others did very affectionately oblige him But the word sequestration did so sting him as he pretended that he wonder'd in his next letter at my monstrous uncharitablenesse for representing him to my misgiving fancy as if he had nothing of an Ecclesiastick of a Christian of a Gentleman of a Scholar of a Neighbour left in him So great a sin did he reckon a sequestration He farther added that even then when his principles did seem most to lead him to the liking of the sequestration of unworthy Ecclesiasticks yet even then he was so much for Ecclesiastica Ecclesiastice and justa juste as that he blessed God for it he never had nor ever would have nor ever in that way hoped to have any hand or finger in that pye Now comes the jest For having Noted sequestrations
Wentworth and Charke and Egerton and others of the Presbyterian Ministry made privy to the plot to which they were accessary by their concealement Perhaps Mr. B. is not acquainted with those affairs And therefore to requite him for his care to have me very well inform'd about the Faction which played Rex in King Iames his Court p. 69. lin 32 33. c. for which he adviseth me to a book writ in elegant verse by Thomas Hepey if I am able to procure it for love or money I will direct him for information to a most admirable volume printed in the year 1593. and intitled thus Dangerous Positions and proceedings published and practised within this Iland of Britain under pretense of Reformation and for the Presbyterial discipline If King James did intercede for those mens release perhaps being then but King of Scotland he did not know the whole cause of their imprisonment here in England or he was not out of his wardship to those fiery spirits as he call'd them and so might intercede in complaisance to his Guardians however unfit for that office to a King of his Age or he was not yet perfect in his mystery of King-Craft or let the cause of his intercession be what it will he did many things of which he afterwards repented that they were done § 4. What Mr. B. is pleas'd to add p. 66. lin 19 20. of K. James his writing into Scotland that he would labour to reduce the Church-government of England to that of Scotland rather then conform that to England's is for many reasons very incredible First because Mr. Barlee tells it and citeth no other Author then the unwritten words of a Scotish Minister At every dead lift he tells us something that he was told be it of me or any man else Secondly K. James was so far from such a preference that his a version to Presbyterianisme was as great as to Pigg or to Tobacco Witnesse his words at Hampton-Court where speaking of Dr. Reynolds and other chieftaines of the party If this quoth he be all that they have to say I will make them conform themselves or I will harry them out of this Land or else do worse Witnesse his letter from White-Hall A. D. 1617. to the Presbyterians of the Kirk wherein he upbraided to them their ignorance and profanenesse and resembling them to the Heathenish Constable of Castile told them they would indure both Lions Dragons and Devils to be figur'd in their Churches but would not allow the like place to the Patriarchs and Apostles Witnesse his chiding speech in the Diet held at St. Andres when he pressed upon them to keep a yearly commemoration of our Saviours greatest blessings bestow'd upon mankind as his Nativity Passion Resurrection Ascension and Descent of the Holy Ghost the private use of both Sacraments in urgent cases the Reverent administration of his holy Supper the catechizing and confirming of children by Bishops much too long to be here inserted Witnesse his very angry letter directed to the Arch-bishops of St. Andrews and Glascow representing the wrongs he had received from that sort of men and saying He was of that age that he would not be content to be fed with Broath as one of their Coat was wont to speak Witnesse his other angry letter directed singly to the Arch-bishop of St. Andrews wherein he complained of their ridiculous and scornfull dealings with their Soveraign their greater irreverence towards God himself saying The Ministers ease and commodious sitting on his Taile they are the Kings own words hath been more look't to then that kneeling which for reverence he had required to be enjoyned to the receivers of so divine a Sacrament Neither can we conceive as he there goes on what should be meant by that Table which they required even in their private administrations to people upon their Death-beds unlesse they meant to make a round Table as did the Jewes to sit and receive it In conclusion seeing we and this Church here must be held Idolatrous in this point of kneeling or they reputed rebellious knaves in refusing the same they are the Kings own words it is our pleasure c. Witnesse his third severe letter sent with this unto the Councell for inhibiting the payment of stipends to any of the rebellious Ministers they are the King own words in Burg or Landwart Witnesse his first letter of indignation to the generall Assembly indited at Perth wherein he charged all the rebellious dispositions of the people who of their own dispositions were most Loyall upon them and their Doctrins minding them of his patience under their manifold provocations their slandering the truth of God they are the Kings own words by walking disorderly under the cloak of seeming holynesse shaking hands as it were in this their disobedience to Magistracy with the upholders of Popery still the Kings own words Witnesse his fourth sharp letter directed to the Bishops at the last Parliament which was held by that King in Scotland telling them they had to deal with two sorts of enemyes Papists and Puritans that they should go forward in action against the one and the other That Papistry was a disease of the mind and Puritanisme of the Brain they are the Kings own words and that the Antidote of both must be a grave settled and well-order'd Church in the obedience of God and their King Whereof he will'd them to be carefull and to use all means for the reducing those that either of simplicity or willfulnesse did erre Witnesse his speeches at Hampton-Court when he trounced Mr. Knewstubs for taking exception to the Crosse in Baptisme when he said of him and his Brethren I have lived among this sort of men ever since I was ten years old but I may say of my self as Christ did of himself that though I lived among them I was never of them since I was able to judge neither did any thing make me more to condemn and detest their courses then that they did so peremptorily disallow of all things which at all had been used in Popery Witnesse his words upon the third day of that Conference when he pleaded for subscription to the three famous Articles which the Church-men of England were to approve by subscribing namely the Kings supremacy the Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer The necessity of which he did presse so home and evinced by three such excellent Reasons as he thought it fit to conclude in these words That if any after things were well ordered would not be quiet and shew his obedience the Church were better without him he were worthy to be hanged Praestat ut pereat unus quam unitas Yet how favourably he used them notwithstanding his Threats and how much mercy the Bishops shew'd them in spight of all their guilts and provocations many thousands can witnesse and have found too soon
the omnipotent Soveraignty and Grace of God Reader you must not be offended For Mr. B. tells you that Mr. Calvin was lyable to errors and passions as himself And if he means as lyable as himself he useth Mr. Calvin a great deal worse then his Arminians What would you have a man do when he is tortur'd with so many twitches of the aking tooth even men of mild tempers will be apt to cry out after the measure that they have smarted how much more may an orthodox and cordial zelot pangs and torments make some men Rave It being naturall to the Creature to ease it self by any means and to lessen its Agonyes by giving them the quickest and largest vent that he is able Many men have blasphem'd in fits of hast and vexation not for want of right principles but of strength and patience to make use of them It hath been matter of satisfaction to some stomack full souldiers whilst they have grovelled upon the earth in blood and slaughter at least to brow beat their enemyes and for want of other weapons to look blows at them and call them Doggs I will not vindicate those persons whom Mr. B. hath thus reviled because I think it their vindication that none but a Correptorie Corrector would have dared in publick to have revil'd them I will only put him in mind that this is now the second time wherein he hath printed his own disgraces by giving the name of Drunken Dick to that renowned Scholar Mr. Thomson a person admired for his Abilityes by the most pious and the most learned of the Belgick Protestants and highly commended by Bishop Abbot who writ against him Pascitur in vivis livor Had that Great Man been alive M. B's superiours might have malign'd him Or had I cited any one passage out of his learned Book Mr. B. then might have pretended some small occasion for this asperity But that upon no occasion offer'd he should have Drunken Dick Thomson in both his Prints bewrayes a marvellous Cacoethes in the inward old man If Mr. Thomson were ever drunk it is more then I know I am sure his writings are very sober Nor came I soon enough into the world to know him by any thing but his writings In the judgement of Mr. Baxter I do not speak mine own judgement He that hath oftentimes been drunk may yet have true grace and be in the number of the Godly Nay there are worse things then that which a man may commit and yet be Godly saith Mr. Baxter How many Professors will rashly raile and lye in their passions how few will take well a reproof but rather defend their sin How many in these times that we doubt not to â—e godly have been guilty of disobedience to their guides and of schism and doing much to the hurt of the Church a very great sin Peter Lot and its like David did oft commit greater sins And yet a man must be guilty of more sin then Peter was in denying and forswearing Christ that is notoriously ungodly yea then Lot was who was drunk two nights together and committed incest twice with his own Daughters and that after the miraculous destruction of Sodom of his own wife and his own miraculous deliverance Nay a man that is notoriously ungodly in the sense in hand or unsanctified must be a greater sinner then Solomon was with his 700. Wives and his 300. Concubines grosse Idolatryes when his heart was turned away from the Lord God of Israel which appeared unto him twice and commanded him not to go after other Gods but he kept not that which the Lord commanded Thus far Mr. Baxter from whom in conscience I am bound to declare my dissent and to warn my weaker Readers not to believe a word of it I will only say for Mr. Thomson that he was not dry drunk nor added Drunkennesse to thirst as many Precisians vvere knovvn to do What vvas said by the Prophet Isa 51 21. I may also say in another sense that many have been drunken though not with wine but vvith somevvhat worse I vvill not imitate Mr. B. by raking inhumanely in dead men's Graves But I have heard of a great one of Mr. B's party vvho as often as he vvas vvilling to exhilarate himself vvith the devv of Bacchus vvould make a short exhortation to his Bons Compagnions holding forth to this purpose if not in these very words Come Beloved in the Lord let us be refreshed vvith the othr bottle of Sack vve have an interest in the Creature through Jesus Christ let not the vvicked drink all I name not the man and so have revealed no secrets But I am willing that Mr. Barlee should see the uglinesse of his arguings against a Doctrin from the personal corruption of some one man who did assert it How easily might any man requite suchusage as God forbid that any man should by saying impatient Iack Calvin or Calvin was a proud Iack Is not that the same with Drunken Dick Thomson for was not Richard the name of the later as well as Iohn of the former nay did not Mr. Calvin confesse he was impatient and that the Beast was grown masterfull he could not tame it Was not Bucer a moderate man and did not he call Calvin Fratricide and is not that much worse then Drunken and is not all this printed by their very best Friends But never did Mr. Thomson accuse himself of being Drunken much lesse from the Print-house And therefore Mr. B. was ill advis'd § 4. He was also ill advised in being no kinder to himself then to pull down commonly with his right hand what he had raised with his left Had his memory lain in his fingers ends he would either not have written the former parcells of his Book or at least he would not have contradicted them in the later To shew this at large were to compile a whole volume of self-contradictions But yet my Reader shall have a tast of what hath been the greatest part of my entertainment One while he tells he hath abstersed all calumnyes and yet another while he pretendeth to have omitted many nay briefly to touch upon a few and not to mention a world more Had he followed the advise of his Father Pliny saepius respiciendo Titulum he would not have swallow'd so great a Camell without having felt it in going down He said in his Title A Full Abstersion of All Calumnyes and yet he rap't out an Oath that of all those Forgeries and Fictions which I had charged him withall there were but 3 in all his Book to which he seem'd to give credit Nor had he sooner said so but he nam'd a fourth to which he avowed his giving credit As if he thought that Abstersion had signified Recantation and that he meant only to say A Confession of all calumnyes except those three two of which he also confessed to
have been calumnyes indeed First he made himself smutty and now with a char-coal he strives to make himself clean But never was any man fowler in the full Abstersion of a chimney At first he promis'd his Reader that he would write in a certain method but solemnly brake it a little after by declaring his purpose to quit that method and for brevityes sake to be immethodicall For above 30 years space he durst to lay down his life he never swore a rash Oath yet he swore most rashly not above 3 leafs before and no lesse rashly in his Correptorie Correction p. 174. besides that he swore the Scotish Covenant and another Oath besides that which if he did not swear rashly was rashly broken He never cursed if you believe him in 30 years but yet believe me he cursed himself Correp Corr. p. 25. and here curseth others c. 2. p. 38. and together with himself the chief men of his party upon whom he wisheth that myriads of Anathematisms may light if they hold that God is the fountain or cause of sin Yet he holds it himself in the very next page where he saith that God is the naturall cause of the mere act of sin and the accidental cause of the very obliquity of the act of sin p. 55. c. 3. He denyes that he accused me of assertive Socinianism and yet accuseth me often in the Great and addes rank to the Socinian He frequently called me Arminian and Arminius my Father yet he reckons up many things wherein he confesseth I do recede from Arminius and that irreconcilably and yet he feares not to say that I have all my Principles from Arminius I am but inclin'd to Popery yet am half a Pontifician or Papist nay a whole one He saith he never call'd me Heretick yet often doth it He pleads for the lawfulnesse of his railing and yet denyes his pleading for it He saith his Manuscript Copy of my Notes doth not differ from mine in any material thing and yet in the very next page he saith they are two distinct things and that 't is false to say that they are one and the same for substance He would not presse me to things which I was most likely to refuse to have my Doctrins tryed by and yet would be tryed by no other then his Senior Sympresbyters Grotius is often a Socinian and yet a Papist which no Socinian can be The same Grotius is an enemy to all Popish and Episcopal Clergy which no Papist can be and be a Papist He saith his Senior Sympresbyters have receded from their subscriptions and yet for all that that they have been least upon their Tropicks in these Tropical times God saith he is the naturall cause of the Act of sin and yet that sin hath no efficient cause Corr. Corr. p. 55. Throughout his first Book he was much and often for the way of the Sublapsarians yet being beaten out of that he declares himself now to be a Supralapsarian He sometimes commends me for extreamly gallant parts and diverse rare excellencyes and fine Abilityes and of a superlative wit yet at other times I am a wordy and windy man of a blunt judgement and fitter then any of my neighbours to supply the place of an Idiot It is frequent with him to slight my Arguments as if they had nothing of force in them and yet he confesseth that he is brought to an extremity to his very last Reserve of forces which if they fail the Cause is lost This I say he confesseth if he understands the meaning of his Proverb Deventum est Triarios If he doth not I cannot help it He confesseth that his passions against me are exuberant here and there and talks of giving me satisfaction but yet he boasts of his moderation and will not so much as accept of my pardon His fictions and railings he calls his Frailtyes and doth confesse they are great and many and that he began his first Book with a Confession of them and yet his whole first Chapter is not only to excuse but in some places to commend them He snatcheth severall occasions to tell the world that he learned Hebrew many years since and hath attained to some little something and from the 18th year of his Age to this very hour men of the greatest Note for learning and piety have given large Attestations to his scholarship which he ever writes with ll when they have not been sollicited to it by any thing but their own forwardnesse And again that the most illustrious Luminaryes of the Church did grace his labours with their unexpected Encomiums p. 2. And that some of the greatest eminency for learning and piety did in letters expresse their good Resentment of his labours thankfulnesse for his pains But yet in a grosse contradiction to the first of these passages he hath published two Books whereby he hath shew'd it to be impossible that the most learned and the most pious should commend his learning For if they were learned how could they be so much mistaken and if they were pious how could they speak what they knew not to be true Since Mr. B. hath so partial an opinion of himself and had such need to let it fly as that he could not forbear to say in Print that he is not hardly opinionated against himself and also shews what it is that hath done him hurt it will be a charitable attempt to lay that spirit thus conjur'd up and to mind him of something for his Humiliation He tells his Patron he saith not as a spaniel that he knows not any mere individual alive to whom under God he would more desire to approve all his Travails As if he thought that individual had signified a Man which every child could have told him is a generical word as aptly spoken of a Beast a Tree a Stone or a Devil as of any man whatsoever I had said that sin was quid positivum he saith I put an Apotheosis upon sin as if he thought it derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pono unlesse he means that I made a God of it and then it is infinitly worse as I shall shew in my second part He calls me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such a way as if he thought it had signified a young man only For he could not intend to say that I am newly converted to the Christian Religion as the word importeth because he calleth me Apostate and Apostatarian and twenty things to that purpose So he useth the word Apostacy and writes it with a c as if he thought it had signified who-know's-what Nor can he excuse it any way possible unlesse by confessing he bore false-witnesse I did but dip by accident into his Correp
if you believe him 14. Bishop Davenant did once in private sadly bewail to Mr. Barlee as Mr. Barlee tells us the great growth of Popery and Arminianism 15. We must not dye in Ignorance that the Bishop writ a large letter to him about the Crosse in baptism 16. And which is most worthy to be communicated to late posterity by the indelible Characters of the Presse the Bishops letter was in folio To conclude in a word that I may not violate my promise of giving in a short Catalogue one while he strokes Mr. Whitfields Gray haires another while he cajoles a Worcestershire Minister now he tells us but unsincerely some Table-Talk at Daintry concerning Socrates and Iob anon he gives us to understand the severall parts of his Age. Somewhere he tells us what the brethren intended in case Presbytery had prosper'd and that he writes but a scrawling hand at the best Into such kind of subjects hath he been pleased to step aside from his pretended confirmation of irrespective Decrees § 7. There are but two things more in the making up of my Accounts with which I shall at present detain my Reader viz. the odnesse of his excuses and the prettinesse of his Wit A Tast or two of each will be an opiparous entertainment As for the former his facility is such that though his Tetters are never so spreading the least drop of his soveraign Ink will cure them all in an instant If angry blisters have been discover'd upon the two-edged member he gives us to know he is of a very small Stature and little men are still fretfull p. 5. If any thing ailes him in point of literature or manners it is no more but that his memory was terrible false to him p. 18. or the Printer did him a shrewd turn p. 19. or he had motives to it which shall be namelesse ibid. or he was told it by a Reverend Minister p. 18. or by a person of true honour p. 18. or by a conscionable Divine p. 19. or by W. C. p. 18. or by a Gentleman-entertainer p. 44. or else it crept at the Presse out of his Margin into his Text p. 19. and so all 's well If he is told of his clinches he shewes Scripture for it where there are none p. 29. If he is caught in the Act of doing violence to my Words he saith he did but allude to them not quote them directly p. 53. When he is brought to such a pinch he knows not which way to answer or any other wayes to evade then he saith of his opponent that he hath words and wit at will p. 53. or else he tells us a story of Dr. Twisse p. 54. and that he hath heard the Doctor spake it a hundred times over ibid. the whole vertue of which story doth consist in the tinkling of Thorns and Scorns ibid. Thus let the Difficultyes and streights of our great Artificer be never so many for number or never so monstrous for shape with a dash or two of his pen he winds himself out of all he makes all fair and unreprovable There is not a fault in his manners nor I warrant you a flaw in any one part of his undertakings So much for his artifice in drawing good over evill § 8. And because in the course of his studyes he hath attain'd to a pair of jests which in a volume of that bulk may run the hazard of being lost I will adde my mite to their conservation It seems he had learn't by one means or other that his Sympresbyter with the long breath which admonish't Mr. Baxter to keep his distance had in a Latin Epistle upon such an occasion as he could get shew'd the Dimensions of his wit in the mistaking of my Name No lesse then four whole times without the fourtieth part of a reason he was resolv'd to call me Persius and a little after took care to say what he thought would be pretty Difficile est Satyram non scribere Thus lay the Hint upon which Mr. Barlee held forth as shrewdly in his Abstersion that I am a Iuvenal Divine He thought it was pleasant for Iuvenal and Persius to be both predicated of Me and so hath left unto posterity this Memorandum that when two Sympresbyters joyn wit to wit they are able betwixt them to break a jest As his first jest is on my name so is his second upon his own in allusion to which he is again saith he call'd out to thrashing For Mr. Barlee to be a Thrasher it seems he thought to be as lepid as for the high-wayes of Egypt to become all Travellers when the Dust of the Land was wholly turn'd into Lice But he should have known whilst it was time what is now too late that he who is not skill'd in thrashing must take great heed how he fights with a Flaile lest in fetching back his weapon to lay it on so much the harder he prove so unfortunate as to break his own head Had I been in his case and he in mine this Book without Question had been Intitl'd Mr. Barlee thrashed with his own Flaile and found in the winnowing to be but Chaff AN APPENDAGE Touching the judgement of the late most learned and pious Primate of Armagh as to the matters in controversie betwixt the Two Parties THat it concerns me very neerly to perform my promises to my Reader and so to communicate the Grounds of what I have publickly aâ—firmed concerning the judgement of the right honourable and learned Primate of Armagh as to the Doctrines which I controvert with the unjust Usurpers of his Authority and bold Invaders of his Name my Reverend Friend Doctor Bernard hath made apparent for if I have wronged so great a Person it is by so much the greater wrong and exacteth from my conscience by so much the greater reparation Nor can I but take it very kindly from so Reverend a Person as Dr. Bernard that by opposing what I reported in that particular he hath given me an Occasion to shew the Truth in its Lustre which till now was exhibited in somewhat a thick vail by laying upon me a Necessity to clear my self To clear my self I say not from any aspersions which Dr. Bernard hath cast upon me for there are none in his letters if rightly taken and applyed he hath rather open'd a way to my vindication but from the sinister and irrational uses which Mr. Barlee and his peers if yet he is not a peerless person have had the skill or the unskilfulness to make of those letters against the intention of Him that writ them It is not therefore my purpose to clear my self or my Informers or the precious memorie of the L. Primate by a pâ—ofessed work of Hostility against those letters of Dr. Bernard but rather by shewing that those letters were so warily written as to have nothing in them of hostile against me or mine not pretending to
is Truth is not inconstancy but improvement as I interpret When I left those Doctrines into which my Teachers at first betrayed me I cannot say I revolted but I was rather set free To be fickle is one thing but to grow and increase is quite another Whatsoever I could intend as an honour to my cause I could not choose but intend to their honour also by whom I could think my cause was honoured When I say that King Iames Bishop Andrews Philip Melanchthon Tilenus Dr. Potter Dr. Godwin and many others whom I could name of eminent learning and integrity did turn away from those Tenents which are called Calvinistical in exchange for those other which unconsidering persons do call Arminian I make accompt I commend them for bowing to the sceptre of soveraign truth And this doth justifie my Intentions in all I said of our Reverend Primate But the question still remains concerning matter of Fact whether his Grace did change his judgement from what it formerly had been I began in the affirmative but you say No And both perhaps with good reason because we are diversely informed unless we can shew by some Inquiry where lyes the Error I grounded my affirmative upon the Difference which I found betwixt the judgement of the Primate when he writ the History of Gotteschalc and that account of his judgement which I had from those Persons who are of vast Importance in my esteem To transcribe their Certificates which they have severally given me under Hand and seal of what they severally heard from his Grace his mouth is too large a task in the present hast that I am in nor am I sure that you desire it And therefore deferring for a time the special part of my Advantage I will offer to your Equity and Christian candor what I have just now observed from several passages in your Book First you thank Mr. Barlee for the large expressions of his affection to the late Archbishop of Armagh and the readiness to clear him from some injury done him by Mr. Thomas Pierce whereas it seems very evident by that account which you give of the Primates judgement about the true intent and extent of Christs Death that Mr. Barlee is less qualified for the Bishops vindication in that affair then any man in the world in all respects I beseech you bear with me whilst I give you my reasons 1. Mr. Barlee in his last book declares himself a Supralapsarian Yet 2. in Correptory Correction he had again and again usurpt the name of the Primate for the patronizing of his opinions He doth in one place oppose him to Bishop Overal as a more moderate Bishop affirming Bishop Overal to have played upon Calvin and to have traduced the Puritans whom the Reverend Primate he saith did clear He citeth the History of Gotteschalc against that notion of Christs death and satisfaction which you have now printed from the Primates own Hand He directs me to him as to a choice orthodox writer in the Barlean conceipt of the word Orthodox besides what he doth in other places which I have not leisure to search after 3. But now you tell him in your Letter that the Primates judgement was in a middle way different as well from Mr. Barlees as from mine Whether from mine we shall see anon But if at all I am sure much less then from my neighbours In the mean time it is demonstrable that if Mr. Barlee was in the right when he vouched the Primate for his opinions I was also in the right when I said that the Primate had changed his judgement And for this your book shall be my warrant as well as the Primates own words That he concurred with Bishop Overal Next I pray Sir consider whether any one Paragraph in all my books touching the true intent and extent of Christs Death is any way dissonant from what now you publish and that say you very truly without all Question from the Primates Letter of Resolution to the request of a Friend First I have nothing in behalf of the two extremes p. 2 3. in any part of my writings Next I have jumped with the Primate in what I publisht before I had the possibility of seeing that which you have sent me not onely much to my comfort but truly almost to my Admiration For his Grace writes thus That the satisfaction of Christ was once done for all the application is still in doing The satisfaction of Christ onely makes the sins of mankind fit for pardon All the sins of mankind are become venial in respect of the price paid by Christ to his Father but all do not obtain actual Remission because most offendors do not take out or plead their pardon as they ought to do By this way being made that is by assuming our nature God holds out unto us the Golden sceptre of his word and thereby not only signifieth his pleasure of admitting us unto his presence c. but also sends an embassage unto us and entreats us that we would be reconciled unto him 2 Cor. 5. 20. By the vertue of this blessed oblation God is made placable unto our nature but not actually appeased with any untill he hath put on the Lord Iesus All men may be said to have interest in the merits of Christ as in a Common though all do not enjoy the benefit of it because they have no Will to take it The well-spring of life is set open to all Rev. 22. 17. Faith is the vessel whereby we draw all vertue from Christ The means of getting this Faith is the hearing the word c. Ephes 1. 13. which ministreth this general ground for every one to build his faith upon This Gospel of salvation many do not hear at all being destitute of the ministry c. Many hearing do not believe or lightly regard it and many that believe the truth thereof are so wedded to their sins c. that they refuse to accept the gracious offer that is made unto them Yet we may truly say that good things were provided for them on Christs part and a rich price was put into the hand of a fool however he had no heart to use it Prov. 17. 16. Our Saviour hath procured a Iubile for the Sons of Adam his Gospel is a Trumpet to proclaim liberty c. Luk. 4. 18. but that some desire no deliverance derogates nothing from the generality of freedom annext to that year Luk. 4. 18. The slavish disposition of him who will not be free Exod. 2. 5. maketh the extent of the priviledge of that year not a whit the straiter because he was included in the general Grant as well as others however he was not disposed to take the benefit of it The neglect of the men invited v. 5. doth not falsifie the word of the King v. 4. See Rom. 3. 4. Ezek. 18. 29. 30. The proclamation was general
2 Chro. 36. 23. and 1 Ezra 2. They alone did follow c. whose spirit God had raised to go up Ezra 1. 5. But they that remained still in Babylon could not justly plead that the Kings Grant was not large enough or that they were excluded from going up by any clause contained therein The matter of our Redemption purchased by Christ lyeth open to all all are invited to it none that hath a mind to accept of it is excluded from it The beautiful feet of those that preach the Gospel of peace do bring glad Tidings of good things to every house where they tread All are not apt to entertain this Message of peace though Gods Ambassadours make a true tender of it to all unto whom they are sent but if it meet with such as will not listen to the motion of it their peace returneth c. Luk. 10. 6. The proclamation runs Rev. 22. 17. with a Quicunque vult lest we should think the largeness of the offer abridged Yet none can come except the Father draw him Joh. 6. 46. The universality of satisfaction and especially of Grace do not derogate from one another It doth not follow from Ioh. 17. 6. He prayed not therefore he payed not for the world His satisfaction doth properly give contentment to Gods justice contains the preparation of the remedy necessary for mans salvation We may safely conclude that the Lamb of God offering himself a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world intended by giving sufficient satisfaction to Gods justice to make the nature of man which he assumed a fit object for mercy and to prepare a medicine for the sins of the whole world which should be denied to none that intended to take the benefit of it In respect of his mercy he may be counted a kind of universal Cause of the restoring of our nature as Adam was of the depraving of it Now Sir if your leisure will serve you to compare with this what I have printed Correct Copy p. 55 56. then p. 18 19. then Philanthr c. 1. p. 22. especially ch 3. Sec. 23. particularly p. 96. and then ch 4. Sec. 26. especiall p. 31. where I distinguish of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For which needs must note either the end or the effect and then say expresly that in respect of the later Christ died effectually for none but the elect but in respect of the former he dyed intentionally for all and for every one and give examples of each notion out of several Scriptures towards the end of that page I believe you will say when you have done that you concluded me in the first extremity you mention p. 2. as Mr. Barlee in the second p. 3. with as great a mistake of my opinion as with a just account of Mr. Barlees If you mean any thing else by saying the Primate was in the middle betwixt us two I shall be glad to know the meaning of it But if you find upon search that I have publick wrong done me and that Mr. Barlee grows insolent upon occasion of your Letters though quite besides your fair intentions I make no doubt but you will right me after the measure that I am wronged But I am weary of being wearisome and therefore shall hasten to subscribe SIR Your assured friend and servant Tho. Pierce Brington Dec. 11. 1657. For my Reverend friend Dr. Bernard at his lodging in Grayes Inn. SIR IAm heartily glad to find in your last what I expected so much Candor and equity as there you shew both in comparing the Primates judgement with the several passages of my books to which I pointed and in granting the near approches of the one to the other And although your words are that you have found me much inclining to the judgement of the Primate yet I suppose your meaning is that you have not found wherein we differ Differ we may in explications or inferences or endeavors of Reconcilement where it is more to be wished then possible to be had And so the Primate and you may differ nay so great Authors may oâ—ten differ from themselves by their charitable essayes to make agreement between their brethren But as to the true intent and extent of Christs Death compared with the end and the effect there is a very pleasant Harmony betwixt us both I will first demonstrate wherein we agree and then I pray Sir tell me wherein we differ 1. I agree with his Lordship in an utter dislike of the two extremes p. 4. both Mr Culverwells on the right hand and Mr. Barlees on the left 2. I do perfectly agree to the middle Doctrine p. 6. not so much as desiring that it should be expressed in other words then those his Lordship there useth to wit That by vertue of this oblation God is made placable unto our nature but not actually appeased with any untill he hath received his son And that all men may be truly said to have an Interest in Christ as in a Common though all do not enjoy the benefit thereof because they have no will to take it 3. I do fully agree to what he saith of Gods Intention to make the nature of man a fit subject for mercy and to prepare a medicine for the sins of the whole world which should be denied to none that intended to take the benefit of it p. 16. lin 2. and 8. where Gods intention is sincere as well as universal but it is conditional of mans intention 4. I agree to what he saith p. 35 36. That the general satisfaction of Christ prepares the way for Gods mercy by making the sins of all mankind pardonable the interposition of any bar from Gods justice notwithstanding and so puts the sons of men onely in a possibility of being justified Now Sir that by the death of Christ all men have the benefit to become salvabiles or are put into a Capacity of salvation or that Termes of peace are procured for all mankind or that for all mens sins mercy is attainable as your self have expressed it in your second Letter to Mr. Barlee p. 64. is as much as I have ever contended for in my writings Salvability for all without exception as it is the main thing in the Primates Tenet so it is also the main in mine For 5. Actual pardon is quite another thing and readily granted by me to be an effect of Christs Resurrection Rom. 4. 25. and of the consequents thereof as his intercession Ro. 8. 34. so that this is a fifth thing wherein I agree with that Reverend Primate 6. I agree to what he saith p. 21. That Christ obtained Remission of sins not for the Reprobate but elect only and not for them neither before they be truly regenerated and implanted into him For election being nothing else but the purpose of God resting in his own mind makes no kind of alteration in the party elected And you have read in my writings that