and that I ought to be thank full for the diligent and impartial hand which for some short time doth seem to hurt me But seeing he himself had the same Phagedaenous and eating sores which he tels us were cured by good company and good bookes what necessity was there that mine should be touch'd with either the launce or caustick If he had not delighted in such a composition whose every line is gall and wormwood why did he not before he thus blur'd me with his blackest ink First enquire whether ever I did write any such thing to Mr. B. or no For if Mr. B. be such a lyar as he represents him why would he beleeve me the Author of so monstrous an Argument upon the bare Authority of his report 2. How did he know whether I related this Argument as from my self and not onely as the Argument of others Or 3. why did he not by some private letter endeavour to purge the peccant humour before he made the passionate adventure of calling it obstinate Let 's try whether wee can ghess what might move Mr. P. who saies in his Letter to Doctor Bernard that in all his dealing with Mr. B. he was not so much as heated so to flame against me First it was not sure the Argument it self for that being used by Fathers by Schoolmen of all Sects by Protestant Writers of all perswasions particularly by the most judicious Mr. Tho. Barlow with whom for Metaphysical Learning Mr. P. will in modesty confess himself not worthy to be named in the same day could not deserve so severe a censure Seeing he tells us that he resolves to doe nothing untill the most sober unbiassed persons shall think it publickly usefull I shall make this request to him that hee would procure any one sober person to give it under his hand that it was publickly usefull to call all those foolish and impious who have used this Argument or if such Epithetes belong not unto others why to me Others have de industriâ printed the Argument whereas I never thought that any thing which I wrote should have come to the Press nay what I did write was written in such haste that I might well say with Jerome Qui non ignoscit ingenio ignoscat tempori But I believe the sober men of his own perswasion will be so far from approving his language that they will rather let him taste of Memnons discipline who hearing a mercenary Souldier with many bold and impure reports exclaim against King Alexander lent him a blow with his Launce saying That he had hired him to fight against Alexander and not to raile Secondly though not the Argument in self yet my party and my Masters with whom he doth so frequently upbraid me might justly move his choler Indeed I find Mr. P. guiltie of partiality to so desperate a degree that he makes Arminianism enough to a mans commendation but Anti-arminianism a blasting of all graces and an alloy to all endowments as if it might be said of his Opinion as Augustine speakes of Discretion Tolle hanc virtus vitium erit Once I finde him acknowledging that Piety and Learning might be found among the Absolute Predestinarians but being now faln from his first love he thinks meet to brand Dr. Reynolds with the suspicion of being an Hypocrite as if because he were a man of great parts and worth he could not be in earnest of that party whom he hath owned in Praying in Preaching in Covenanting Nay those against whom he writes are the wicked and so by him not onely thought but also called in the Adv. to Mr. Bax But as for those that are for the respective Decrees and are no friends to Presbytery they are eo nomine religious excellent renowned immortal what not I will instance in two or three upon whom he bestows the greatest commendations sure not without some regret and recalcitration of his conscience First he blesseth the Author of an unlicensed Pamphlet called An Historical relation of the Judgement of some most worthy Bishops holy Martyrs and others concerning Gods election Divi. Phil. p. 93. ch 3. with the honourable appellation of a most learned Divine and Confessour and seems to bewaile it that the book is in so few mens hands but I shall let the Reader see that if this book had had its desert it must have been in fewer mens hands than it is The forementioned scurrilous Pamphlet was reprinted Anno 1631 and licensed by Mr. Martin Bishop Laud's Chaplain when Sir Humphrey Lind and Mr. Prynne complained to Archbishop Abbot of this execrable Imposture the book was called in Bishop Laud professing to his Grace that he had given to his Chaplain such a ratling as would make him never meddle with Arminian books or opinions more nay at the Lords Barr he said that he did put him out of his Chaplains place for licensing that Pamphlet The first Author of this book was answered by Mr. Robert Crowly as may be seen in our University Library 4º O 5. This Crowly was a fugitive for Religion in Queen Maries dayes an eminent laborious Preacher in the time of Qu. Eliz. He not knowing the name of Mr. P's Confessour calls him Cerberus but Mr. John Veron the Queens Chaplain who was principally concern'd in the book found out his name to be Champneys and in a Tract of his dedicated to her Majesty and called a Defence of the Doctrine of Predestination speaks thus of him In this I comfort my self that his tongue is known to be no slander For the like did he most proudly attempt in your most gracious Brother good King Edward the sixth's dayes against all the godly Preachers of that time calling them marked Ministers of Antichrist and men void of the Spirit of God for none be they never so godly never so earnest and faithfull labourers in the Lords vineyard have the Spirit of God or doe know the efficacie of it but he onely as many godly persons be able to testifie to his face That he did therefore and for many other abominable errours which he then stoutly maintained bear at that time a Faggot at Paul's-cross Father Coverdale making then the Sermon there Belike fearing now the like punishment and that he should be compell'd to revoke his Pelagian-like opinion he durst not for all his proud boast set his own name to his railing and venemous bookes nor yet suffer them to be sold openly or publickly in the Book-sellers shops but cowardously suppressing both his own name and the name of his unwise and foolish Printer got the whole Impression into his own hands that so he might in huggermugger send them unto his private freinds abroad whom belike he suspected to be of his affinity and damnable opinion Howbeit this could not be wrought so privily but that within a while some of his bookes came into my hands whereby shortly after the Printer was known and brought to his Answer whom this stout champion of Pelagius hath
those who are not wont much to deal in any books but our new Pamplets of a Catechisme set forth by Authority for all Schoolemasters to teach in King Edw. 6. daies the very year after the composing of the publick Articles the King prefixed his royal Epistle wherein he commands and chargeth all Schoolmasters whatsoever within his Dominions as they did reverence his Authority and as they would avoyd his royal displeasure to teach this Catechisme diligently and carefully c. In that Catechisme how doe Master and Scholar plainly declare themselves to be no friends to any of the Tenents which Mr. P. contends for If this Book be not at hand let the Bible printed by Rob. Barker Anno 1607. be consulted and at the end of the Old Testament there will be found certain Questions and Answers touching the Doctrine of Predestination which are as full and punctual against Arminianisme as may be But lest all this should not bee thought evidence sufficient we will produce our Arguments to prove the Church of England not to bee Arminian and if not Arminian much lesse could she account Anti-arminianism Blasphemy 1. Who were the Composers of our 39 Articles were they not all the Disciples and Auditors of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr or at least such as held consent with them in Doctrine Dr. Alexander Nowel was Prolocutor of the Convocation in the time of Qu. Eliz. And whether he had any Communion with Arminians let his Catechisme speak I mean the English one dedicated to the two Archbish To the Church doe all they properly belong as many as do truly fear honour and call upon God altogether applying their minds to live holily and godly and which putting all their trust in God do most assuredly look for the blessednesse of eternall life they that be stedfast stable and constant in this faith were chosen and appointed and as we term it predestinated to this so great felicity pag. 44. and paulo post the Chuch is the body of the Christian Common-weale i. e. the universal number and fellowship of the faithfull whom God through Christ hath before all beginning of time appointed to everlasting life Shall we think that he and others engaged with him in the same Convocation were so ignorant that they understood not what they put into the Articles or so infatuated by God as to put in things that were quite contrary to their own judgement 2. If the Church of England did consent to the opinions commonly called Arminian how came she to dispose of her places of greatest influence and trust to such as were of a contrary perswasion no places in our Church are more considerable for leavening the Clergy than the Archbishoprick of Canterbury and the two Chaires in the University both these have been occupied by those who detested Arminianisme as the shadow of death Parker Grindall Whitgift Bancroft Abbot are all known particularly in the time of Bishop Bancroft came forth the book called The Faith Religion Doctrine professed in the Realm of England and Dominions thereof said in the Title page to be perused and by the lawful authority of the Church of England allowed to be made publick Let Mr. P. or any one for him name the Dr. of the Chaire in Oxon that did not totis viribus oppose such a Platform of Gods Decrees as men would faign obtrude upon us now In â—ambridge indeed we may find one Dr. Overall who may bee suspected a little to Arminianise but his opinion is disliked by Mr. Playfer in his Apello Evangelium and therefore is not that which Mr. P. stickleth for In the Conference at Hampton Court he did declare himselfe against the totall or finall falling away of Gods elect And would Mr. P. but come over to us in the point of Election Gods invincible working on the hearts of his chosen ones we should soon agree or else very easily bear with one another in our differences 3. If Mr. P. go the way that the Church of England hath taught him how came it to passe that as many as trod the Arminian path were wont to be suppressed censured so soon as they beganne to discover themselves Who is such a stranger in the History of the University that hath not heard of Barrets Recantation made in the University Church 10. of May 1595 And these are the words of the Order appointing him that penalty Habitâ maturâ deliberatione nec non visis diligenter examinatis positionibus praedictis quia manifesto constabat positiones praedictas errorem falsitatem in se continere nec non aperte repugnare religioni in Ecclesia Anglicanâ receptae ac stabilitae ideo judicaverunt c. See more in Mr. Th. Fuller Peter Baro's Arminianisme cost him the loss of his place and which was worst lost him the Affections of the University Mr. Edward Sympson a fine Critick preached a Sermon before King Iames at Royston taking for his Text Iohn 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh hence he endeavoured to prove that the Commission of any great sinne doth extinguish Grace and Gods Spirit for the time in man Hee added also that St. Paul in the seventh Chapter to the Romanes spake not of himself as an Apostle and Regenerate but sub statu legis Hereat his Majesty took publickly expressed great distaste because Arminius had lately been blamed for extracting the like exposition out of the Works of Faustus Socinus whereupon hee sent to the two Professors in Cambridge for their judgement herein who proved and subscribed the place ad Rom. 7. to bee understood of a Regenerate man according to St. Augustin his later opinion In his Retractations and the Preacher was enjoyned a publick recantation before the King which was performed accordingly Mr. Mountagues Appeale had almost been strangled in the womb by Archbish Abbot When it saw light how exceedingly it was disliked may appear by the several Answers made to it by Bish Carleton Dean Sutliffe Dr. Featly Mr. Yates Mr. Wooton all Episcopal Presbyt Mr. Francis Rouse Independ Mr. Henry Burton Nor doe his Respondents object any thing more than his dissent from the Doctrine of the Church of England He was censured for it by the Parliament Mr. Rim from the Committee for Religion made this Report to the House of Commons April 18. 1626. That hee had disturbed the peace of the Church by publishing Doctrines contrary to the Articles of the Church of England and the Book of Homilies that the whole frame and scope of the booke was to discourage the well affected in Religion from the true Religion established in the Church and to encline them and as much as in him lay to reconcile them to Popery Let mee here insert an Order made by the House of Commons 28 Ian. 1628. after a large Debate We the Commons now assembled in Parliament do claim profess and avow for truth the sense of the Articles of Religion which were established in Parliament 13
words Dr. Crakanthorpe thought meet to use against him Mr. Barlee hath already told Mr. Pierce I shall onely adde the Book was dedicated to King Charles and hath this title put to it Defensio Ecclesiae Anglicanae of which Church Mr. P. professeth himself a dutifull and obedient son and that Dr. Abbot saith of that Treatise that it was the most accurate peece of controversie that was written since the Reformation Next let us hear the most learned and peaceable Dr. Sanderson con 2. ad Clerum p. 29 30. Sundry of the Doctors of our Church teach truly and agreeably to Scriptures the effectual concurrence of Gods will and power with subordinate agents in every and therefore even in sinfull actions Gods free election of those whom he purposeth to save of his own grace without any motives in or from themselves the immutability of Gods love and grace towards the Saints Elect and their certaine perseverance therein to salvation the justification of sinners by the imputed righteousnesse of Christ apprehended and applied unto them by a lively faith without the works of the Law These are sound and true and if rightly understood comfortable and right profitable doctrines and yet they of the Church of Rome have the forehead I will not say to slander my Text alloweth more to blaspheme God and his Truth and the Ministers thereof for teaching them Bellarm. Gretser Maldonate and the Jesuites but none more than our own English Fugitives Bristow Stapleton Parsons Kellison and all the rabble of that crew freely spend their mouthes in barking against us as if we made God the author of sinne as if we would have men sin and be damned by a fatal necessitie sinne whether they will or no be damned whether they deserve it or no as if we opened a gap to all licentiousnesse and prophanesse let them believe it is no matter how they live heaven is their own cock sure as if we cried down Good Works and condemned Charity Slanders loud and false yet easily blown away with one single word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these imputations upon us and our doctrine are unjust but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let them that misreport us know that without repentance their damnation will be just Dr. Field B. 3. p. 117. The next Heresie which they say we are fallen into is the Heresie of Florinus who taught that God is the author and cause of sinne This saith Bellarm. Calvin Luth. Martyr have defended in their writings of this sinfull and wicked and lying report we are sure God is not the author but the devil pag. 140. Cal. Then is not worse than the Manichees in making God the author of those evils which the Manichees attribute to an evil beginning as Bellarm. is pleased to pronounce of him but is farther from that hellish conceit than Bellarm. is from hell it selfe if he repent not of these hellish slanders Dr. Ward prae de pecca orig p. 148. Prodiit non ita pridem clanculum liber quem author intitulavit amor dei erga genus humanum qui acriter contendit ex concessis sublap satis evidenter inferri omnium peccatorum hominum reproborum deum esse verum principalem authorem Audax assertum vel verius impudens calumnia I might mention more but I forbeare and doe earnestly desire those Episcopall Divines who close with us in the points of present contest that they would bethink themselves and consider what favour they must expect from these Arminian Ardelio's no more than what Polyphemus promised Ulysses to be last devoured If they cannot fall down and worship the Idols which these men have set up they must expect to be thrown into the fierie furnace nay they are tormented in it already in Augustines sense who calls the mouth of an angry adversary by that name for mark his word ch 2. p. 61. Whatever dishonours have been done unto the Protestant name by those of the Kirk or Consistory or their adherents here in England yet the dutifull sons of the Church of England have ever been free from any part of that guilt This doth expunge Bishop Hall Bishop Morton Bishop Brownerig whom we as they deserve call Fathers out of the number of the dutifull Sonnes of the Church of England Nay he sticketh not in the Preface to the Reader p. 6. to place them among the very unsound and unruly members of this Church Let me take the boldness to beseech them who are of any authority in that party as they love the truth than which nothing ought to be more precious as they tender the wellfare and safety of poor soules for whom Christ dyed that they would either plainly say that they have all this while been mistaken and through ignorance Preached and Printed Blasphemy or else brand this false accuser with the letter K which when the I aw I allude to was made was the first letter of the word Calumniator 3. I have spent more time in reading the Authors Pro Con about these points than ever I intend to doe being of opinion that the greatest Scholars will never be able fully to satisfie their own or other mens Reasons about them Nor should this seem any wonder to us who cannot be ignorant how many points there be in Natural Philosophy in which a man plungeth himself into inextricable difficulties whether he affirm or deny them With what confidence have I heard one young Sophister maintain that continuum fit ex indivisibilibus and another that continuum non fit ex indivisibilibus both thought themselves in the right but men of mature judgements standing by could easily see that neither the one nor the other could free his Assertion from the common Objections brought against it I thank God I have not the least temptation to doubt concerning the Trinity of the Persons nor the Hypostatical Union of the two Natures yet I never thought my self able to vindicate those mysteries from all the subtile Arguments and niceties of unbelieving sophisters The like I think concerning the Doctrine of Gods Decrees and the manner of the Spirits working Grace in the hearts of the Elect these are matters so very mysterious and my understanding so dark that I can scarce hope ever in this world to be freed from all scruples about them Would you therefore know why I hold Absolute Eternal Personal Election Efficacious determining Grace and the certain infallible perseverance of all Believers Truly because I finde these opinions most agreeable to Scripture to the communis sensus fidelium the instinct and impulse of the new creature in all ages and because I finde they doe most tend to the debasing of sinfull man and to the exaltation of Christ my Saviour and that free Grace of his by which I hope to be acquitted at the last day To this end I will relate two Historicall passages with which J have been much taken the one from Father Paul who hath filled the Christian world with his
us and those of our Religion beyond the Sea an action as unpolitick as ungodly And because I know the Reader will not account me tedious whilest I use the words of so eloquent a Lord I shall recite more passages from him to the same purpose Pag. 9. We shall find of them to have both kindled blown the Common fire of both Nations to have both sent and maintained that book of which the Author hath no doubt long since wished with Nero utinam nefcissem literas and of which more then one Kingdome hath cause to wish that when he writ that he had rather burned a Library though of the value of Ptolomies We shall find them to have been the first and principall cause of the breach I will not say of but since the pacification at Barwick we shall finde them to have been the almost sole abettors of my Lord of Strafford whilst he was practising upon another kingdom that manner of Government which he intended to settle in this where he committed so many so mighty and so manifest enormities as the like have not been committed by any Governour in any Government since Verres left Sicilie And after they had called him over from being Deputy of Ireland to be in a manner Deputy of England all things here being governed by a Juntillo and that Juntillo governed by him to have assisted him in the giving of such counsels and the pursuing of such courses as it is a hard and measuring cast whether they were more unwise more unjust or more unfortunate and which had infallibly been our destruction if by the grace of God their share had not been as small in the subtletie of Serpents as in the innocence of Doves But in entitling the honest Puritanes to the manifold violences that have been attempted or practised in Church and State he borrows a piece of policy from the Jesuits who if they had prospered in blowing up the Parliament house had intended to give it about that that so horrid and hellish a fact was perpetrated by he knows whom Honest Bishop Carleton in his Examination of Mr. Montagues Appeal saith That albeit the Puritans disquieted the Church about their conceived Discipline yet they never moved any quarrel about the Doctrine of our Church and that till Montague there was no Puritan Doctrine known Mr. Wotton saith in his answer to the Popish Atti p. 33. Hee that makes difference between the Protestants and Puritans in matters of Faith doth it either ignorantly or maliciously Mr. T. Fuller 610. p. 99. We must not forget that Spalato I am confident I am not mistaken therein was the first who professing himself a Protestant used the word Puritan to signifie the defenders of matters doctrinal in the English Church Formerly the word was onely taken to denote such as dissented from the Hierarchy in Discipline and Church-government which now was extended to brand such as were Anti-arminians in their judgement So that by Puritanes in all probability must be meant non-conformists And if Mr. P. dare say that such men as Mr. Paul Baine Mr. Arthur Hildersham Mr. Dod and Mr. Cleaver the Decalogists Mr. Tho. Hooker Mr. John Ball Mr. Tho. Shepheard were void of the power of godlyness or that they had not more of it than had their persecutors he must either expect not to be believed or seek some other place than England to vent his passion in If by the Puritanes he meaneth the giddy Brownists I have not a word to say in their excuse but this that the Prelaticall oppression was such as might have made wiser people than they madde Had they not a colourable pretext to call some of our Prelates Antichristian whose Courts vexed sundry laborious Preachers because they could not bow at the name of Jesus when as sundry idle sots whom they might frequently observe to stagger in the streets were never questioned But the most probable ground of his fury is yet behind my being noted by Mr. Barlee in the Margin to be a man of his own Colledge for doe but observe the phrases and periods of the man upon this occasion For ought I know he may be also in possession of mine own Fellowship and mine own Chamber and mine own meat and drink and those yearly revenues which are mine own too and for the which I may the rather expect to have some satisfaction because it seems the Visitors made him one of my Receivers and Usufructuaries for my legitimate heir or successor they could not make him And I have reason to be glad that he is thought such a pious and learned man because if he is pious he will the sooner pay me my Arrears and if he is learned he will not object against my known and indisputable right pag. 155. and Div. Phil. p. 147. I suffered the loss of what I thought to be the pleasantest possession on earth for being secretly suggested to be the Author of some bookes which to this very day I could never hear named and though I earnestly desired that I might hear my self accused and know distinctly my accusation and be heard speak for my self yet Dr. Reynolds could not obtaine that for me Thus he hath thrown his fierie darts at me at farre the greater part of Heads and Fellows of Colledges in Oxon at the Visitors and at the two Houses of Parliament But I know not how I am so little sollicitous concerning the quenching of these Darts that I find my self carried away with a very pleasing diversion concerning two different kinds of sober distraction or melancholy the one wherein the brain is generally and equally ill affected to all objects the other where the distemper is confined to some one object or other the brain being otherwise very sound and sober upon all other objects and occasions So Laurentius tells us of a Noble man that otherwise had his senses very perfect and would discourse of any subâ—ect very rationally but was perswaded that he was glass And Huartus tels us of a Noble mans foot-boy in Italy that thought himself a Monarch And Josephus Acostae tells us a sadder story of a Doctor of Divinity who would affirm that he should be a King and a Pope too the Apostolical See being translated to those parts of America which together with some other frantick distempers made him condemned to the fire for an Heretick Farre be it from me to wish or presage any such kind of punishment to Mr. P. for his impudence against the supream Authority of the Nation but I am under some temptation to think that Mr. P. how discreet and sober soever in other matters is fallen into some Hypocondriacall conceits much of that nature for what else could make him after that he hath been known for some years to be an Husband and peaceably to have enjoyed the Rectory of Brington to talk of an indisputable right to a Fellowship chamber meat and drink yearly revenues in Magdalene Colledge Nay he prints as if he had