Excellent truly Human truly Christian Natures so temper'd their Calvinism that 't was an inoffensive harmless Speculation if ever I have more Gods than one I do not say more personal Gods but more essentially distinct Gods a Hero so form'd shall be my second but tho I have an inquisitive Mind I think I am in no danger of multiplying Gods no I am resolved I will never do it unless it should be declar'd which I think next to impossible that no Heresy shall be conniv'd at but Tritheism 2. Mr. G. complains not indeed directly and in express words but by a side-wind thus Whether or not the Ecclesiastical Court hath in this occasion of Socinianism acted its part according to Laws I must not take upon me but leave it to the World to judg But notwithstanding all this he does not leave it to the World to judg but takes it upon himself nay he not only gives his Judgment upon the Case but also passes Sentence upon them that concur not in the same Judgment with him as appears by the Citations which he produces and the Reflections which he makes upon them Now in doing this which he thinks he ought not to do and promis'd that he would not he acts against the Light of Conscience which is a damnable Sin whether or no it be Heresy I will not dispute but without dispute 't is damnable it may perchance escape from Fire and Faggot but not from Fire and Brimstone unless it be expiated by a timely and hearty Repentance But what are his Citations of Law against Socinianism First a Passage or two out of a Book called The Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws began in the days of H. the 8th and continued in the time of Edw. the 6th That Book then was wrote before Faustus Socinus was born and before England could know any thing of his Uncle Laelius who was about twenty one Years old when Edw. the 6th died Again does Mr. Gailhard think that the Book which he quotes was wrote against Socinianism by inspired Writers in way of prophetick anticipation I am afraid the Contents thereof as to many particulars will plainly evince the contrary I know not what might appear admitting him to be an inspired Interpreter He may interpret Passages out of that Book if he so please against Quakerism as well as Socinianism or against the Scheme of any Party which may perchance arise reviving old and long buried true or false Speculations As for the Notions which I dislike in Socinianism for I am no Socinian but a Member of the Church of England by Law establish'd if I could not bring against them more pertinent and solid Arguments than Mr. Gailhard offers I would never dislike them therefore again I suspect that Mr. Gailhard after all his loud Outcries against blasphemous Socinianism as he phrases it is a subtle but real Socinian and writes booty Mr. G. to go on with his Citations and his booty writing presents the Parliament with a Fragment of a Letter from Edw. the 6th to to A. B. Cranmer Cum vos triginta c. Upon which he makes this booty Reflection So that there is something of a Parliament's Authority against Socinianism I may well call this a booty Reflection for in the next words he grants that that something wants a Parliamentary Stamp which is as much as to say it is a something that 's just as good as nothing We are not yet come to the end of Mr. G's Citations he presents us with a long Story from the Canons and Ecclesiastical Constitutions agreed upon in the Convocations of both Provinces Canterbury and York 1640. And lest the Authority of these Canons should in scornful manner be set aside for want of Parliamentary Sanction because it cannot be pretended that Jesus Christ gave Authority to the Preachers of his Gospel to impose Laws on the Subjects of the Civil Magistrate Mr. G. argumentatively notes That King Charles the First has by virtue of his Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical Causes straightly enjoined and commanded those Canons and Constitutions to be diligently observed and executed But after all this with Mr. G's leave be it spoken our Lawyers know not of any such Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical Causes by which the King alone without the Advice and Consent of his Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled is enabled to ratify and enforce the Ceremonial or Sanguinary Rules and Orders Canons and Constitutions I should have said of the Convocational Clergy Our Just and Lawful and Gracious King William pretends not to this Power nor is inclin'd to let any persecuting Priests loose upon his People and perhaps this is the true Reason and not his being chose by the People why he has no Defenders of his Title among such Priests here and there perhaps a moderate and sober Churchman owns him for his Rightful and Lawful Soveraign but Priests of persecuting Principles every Man of 'em spare not to revile him as a Conquering Usurper Let a Prince claim and exert a Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority to inforce Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical I question not but his obliged Clergy shall gratify him with a Right Divine tho he came in by a Foreign Power without and against the Consent of his People but Marriage-Right Proximity of Blood and Consent of the People together shall signify nothing if his Majesty out of a Fatherly Affection to all his loving Subjects will not execute the Vengeance of a Convocation or not call a Convocation to be taught his Duty 3. Mr. G. is troubled that Socinianism has met so little Opposition from the Bishops who as he intimates have not acted their parts and here he most andaciously and sliely slurs the Honour of my Lords the Bishops for tho several of them have wrote learnedly and angrily against Socinianism some in the Real some in the Nominal Trinitarian way yet Mr. G. takes no notice at all of this looking upon them as Men of the Arminian Perswasion who he tells us favour the Socinians go hand in hand with them mince the matter with them Hence he takes occassion to wish that after what several have written heretofore some Persons of Learning sound in the Doctrinal part of the 39 Articles i.e. Calvinists would appear as a very learned and able Prelat hath in some Points effectually done Now nothing could be more sly and malicious than this particular Commendation of a single Prelat as if all the rest favour'd the Socinians went hand in hand with them and mine'd the matter with them He often declares his Aversion from the Arminians of which Perswasion most of the Bishops in their Sermons and Prints have shewn themselves and as for the Calvinists the only Persons sound in the doctrinal part of the 39 Articles he says they have not appear'd i.e. they have been wanting to their Duty against Socinianism for which they were sitted by their Principles How unjust this
AN APOLOGY FOR THE PARLIAMENT Humbly Representing To Mr. JOHN GAILHARD SOME REASONS why they did not at his Request enact Sanguinary Laws against PROTESTANTS in their last Session In two Letters by different Hands LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCVII An Apology for the Parliament Mr. Gailhard SINCE your Zeal for the Glory of God was so fervent that in your Prefatory Epistle to the Honourable Houses of Parliament you could not forbear instructing them in their Duty of enacting new Sanguinary Laws against Protestants and since you were also pleased to assist them with the Precedent of Bartholomew Legat who was burnt in Smithfield A. D. 1611. for Socinianism I expected that the Honourable Houses would have returned you their Address of Thanks for the Honour you designed 'em especially since you are pleased to tell them that in this your Advice you had offered 'em a Field of Honour Smithfield has indeed been a Field of Honour to many who have suffered Martyrdom in it under the Character of Hereticks but what Honour the Parliament would gain by reviving the Writ upon which they were burnt I leave to their Consideration My Study shall be to pay you the Thanks which is due to you from all good English Freeholders for the pious Instructions you were pleased to bestow upon their Body Representative and to excuse that Honourable Assembly who seem to have neglected both you and your Instructions First I acknowledg that in an especial manner you have merited from the Honourable House of Commons and whole Nation that you were pleased so far to bridle your Zeal as to postpone the Glory of God to the Capitation Land-Tax Tunnage and Excises You say that you would not interrupt these Affairs and therefore you would not publish your Book till they were dispatched But if after this they should have sat till Midsummer to have qualified themselves for fighting your Battels in your Field of Honour 't is generally thought they might not have added to the Honour they have already obtained by the necessary Funds they have given the Reason is because those Funds were designed by them to preserve England from Spiritual Tyranny which your Project does actually introduce and therefore I most humbly beg that some small Portion of that sweet good Nature which overflows your Dedication and Preface may be spent in pardoning his Majesty for dismissing the Parliament from Westminster and preferring their Service in the Country before their further Attendance upon your gracious Motions In the next place I return you Thanks in behalf of your Brethren the Roman Catholicks who have always shewed the same burning Zeal with your self for the Glory of God that tho you frown a little upon them yet you do not join them who worship so many Idols in the same perilous Circumstances with the Unitarians who worship but one God It must be own'd to your free Grace also that the Jews come off with a chiding but are not design'd for a Burnt-Offering tho they blaspheme the Name of the Lord Jesus by whose Mediation alone the Unitarians expect to be recommended to the Mercy of God and I beg your Pardon that I make a small Excursion to congratulate the Turks who acknowledg but one Person to be God that they take care to encamp themselves at a convenient Distance from your Field of Honour Having thus with due Respect bespoke your gracious Favour 't is convenient to offer some Reasons towards giving you Satisfaction in the grand Point viz. why the Parliament at your Request did not in their last Session enact Sanguinary Laws against the Unitarians And truly Sir the first Reason came into my Thoughts with a Fear lest the Honourable Members should not have so much as read over your Book I have dipp'd into it here and there and by what I have staged over I think it an extraordinary large Treatise considering the Quantity of Matter contained in it so that he must be a Man of great Leisure and extraordinary Patience who will go through with it But if any worthy Member should have had the Application to have read and considered your Book he must thereby be convinced that there could be no need to make Penal Laws to suppress that Heresy since it can't be supposed that any Man should be so obstinate as to continue an Unitarian after that the Depth of your Learning the Height of your Fancy the Closeness of your Reasonings the Brightness of your Eloquence the Clearness of your Stile and the numerous Citations of Scripture-phrases have been so strenuously exerted for their Conviction I dare prophesy that he who reads your Book will be convinced of Mysteries viz. such things as are not intelligible to Men of Sense and Reason nay by the very Preface a Man may be convinced that you your self are no small Mystery who pretend to be a Protestant Persecutor And this very Mystery if well considered will suggest to you another Reason why this Parliament consisting of Protestant Members could not so well comply with your Desires as a House pack'd by K. James might have done and therefore Sir since things are as they are it had not been amiss for you to have considered the Difference between the Popish and Protestant Principle before you had addressed your late Dedication to the Parliament The Papists say that since the Word of God is so obscure and mysterious that great Controversies have arisen and are still increasing concerning the very fundamental Articles of our Faith 't is necessary there should be an Infallible Judg to determine finally all such doubtful Cases in whose Sentence all Christians are bound to acquiesce They assert the Pope in Council to be this Judg appointed by God and from thence conclude that they who refuse his infallible Sentence are obstinate Hereticks and deserve to be put to Death On the contrary the Protestants cannot find that God appointed any such Infallible Judg nor can they see any need of such a one because the Scriptures are plain enough so plain that any honest-minded Man of common Sense may understand all things there which are needful for him to his Soul's health Now Sir our Right Honourable and Honourable Houses of Parliament consisting of Protestants you could not easily suppose that they would vary so far from the Principles of the Reformation as to think that God had given us an obscure Rule of Faith or to think themselves the Infallible Interpreters of that Rule if it were obscure and hereupon 't was unlikely that they should impose their Sense of God's Word upon the Nation under those severe Penalties which you require and since you were not pleased to shew them any Judg more infallible than your self whose Sense they should enact methinks in modesty at least you might excuse the Parliament for permitting poor Protestants who are dutiful Subjects to our Rightful King William who are Lovers of their Country and live well with their Neighbours to interpret the Scriptures as well
Self-Interest we must allow them to be good Witnesses of those Matters of Fact which happened in their Times as that such Doctrines were then generally received such Books then written such Discipline then in use but it will not follow that I must receive those Doctrines as true because the Fathers thought they were so since those very Fathers were subject to Error and therefore their Belief of such Propositions can under no pretence be looked upon as an Authority over us but when the antient Christian Writers give their Reasons why they received such Opinions we have a natural Right of examining the Reasons they alledg and if we will act like Men we ought so to do before we receive their Opinions Now by what I perceive in the late Unitarian Prints they are sensible of the Weakness of Human Reason and therefore they submit their Opinions and the Reasons upon which they are grounded to the Examination of Mankind and yet being sensible that their Reason such as it is is the only Guide God has given them as to the three great Points afore mentioned they think it their Duty to examine the Opinions of others thereby not pretending to any Authority over others nor conceiving in their Minds any Displeasure against those who differ from them And upon this Foot all Controversies may and ought to be managed betwixt differing Parties without the least breach of Peace for the benesit of each other in the discovery of Truth But hence comes the breach of Peace in Christian Churches that tho they own themselves fallible yet their Convocations and even their private Doctors will considently alledg that they are in the Right and will therefore impose their Sense of Scripture upon others so that a Man must not write or speak any thing contrary to their Determinations under severe Penalties Let any Man judg whether this be to instruct us in the Faith of Christ or to make themfelves Masters of our Faith since our Understandings and Belief must be wholly submitted to their Interpretations After this manner the Dean of St. Paul's has lately insinuated his new-fangled Notion of a Real Trinity to the Ld Mayor the Judges and Citizens of London in that Sermon he shews the Danger of corrupting the Faith by Philosophy and then taking it for granted that his Interpretation of Scripture is the Faith he concludes in his own favour that we must not use our Reason or Philosophy as Dr. S th hath learnedly done to let the World see that the Dean's Notion of three distinct insinite Minds and Spirits is Tritheistical and Idolatrous This way of arguing if Assuming may be called so is grounded only in the Self-confidence Men have in their own Abilities Thus the Dean speaks p. 8. of his Sermon As for the Doctrine of the Incarnation nothing can be plainer in Scripture than that the Son of God was made Man that the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us that God was manifest in the Elesh And yet since the Incarnation of God is no where expressed in Scripture it can be no more than meerly a Deduction from thence but yet the Doctor will impose it upon all Christians as if it were express Scripture it self Suppose a Papist should say As for Transubstantiation nothing can be plainer in Scripture than that Christ when he held the Bread in his Hand said This is my Body and hereupon conclude that you must distinguish Philosophy from Faith and casting away your vain Philosophy hold fast to the Faith of Transubstantiation 'T were a parallel Argument to that in the Doctor 's Sermon both of them being founded in the Considence Men have of the Truth of their own Interpretations and Inferences But after all this a Protestant would not forgo the use of his Philosophy to shew that the Popish Doctrine is not only obscure but false and an Unitarian will still use his Reason to shew that the Doctor 's Inference is not only obscure but unconcluding As to the Doctor 's first Text The Son of God was made Man were those very Words in Scripture as they are not the Unitarian will say the Son of God does not always or necessarily signify God So to the second Text he will say that Expression viz. the Word does not plainly signify God and in like manner to the third Text alledg'd by the Doctor he will say that God may be manifest in the Flesh or by Flesh as his Power Wisdom and Goodness are made manifest by all Flesh or in all Flesh without being Incarnate So that the Unitarian cannot discern that Inference or Doctrine which the Doctor says is so plain in or from Scripture that nothing can be plainer What must be done in this Case then let the Doctor enjoy his Opinion but not impose it nor stir up any Strife about it nor should the Unitarian Notion be imposed on him but as the Doctor may have free leave to use his Philosophy of Self-consciousness and mutual Consciousness to support his own Opinion or attack the Unitarian Notions so 't is humbly desired that the use of Reason may be permitted to other Men for their examination of his Real Trinity and particularly that the use of Arithmetick may be indulg'd so far as to cast up whether a God and a God and a God do not amount to more than one God Now Mr. Gailhard if one of the great Doctors and Dignitaries of the Church may be mistaken in his Interpretations of Scripture and Inferences from it how shall you who are but a meer Layman hope to gain a Parliamentary Sanction to establish your Interpretations of Holy Writ and Inferences from thence Perhaps you will say 't is the Doctrine of the Church of England you would have penally establish'd by the Church you mean the Convocation which made the Articles Service-Book and Homilies now this Convocation was no more than an Assembly of Doctors and Clergy-men each of whom were subject to Error and tho they enacted their own Opinions into Articles and Homilies and oblig'd their own Clergy to subscribe them in order to their admittance into Benesices I cannot from thence see why we Laymen should put the Yoke of the Clergy upon our own Necks and be so zealous as you are to establish the Opinions of the Ecclesiasticks under the penalty of Fire and Faggot I should think it more desirable that a Gentleman may receive his Rents or a Tradesman his Prosits or even a labouring Man his Wages without subscribing the Articles or Homilies It once seem'd good to the Holy Ghost and the Apostles to impose no Burdens but what were necessary and those necessary Truths were inspired too Besides Men cannot help the altering of their Minds all the Subscriptions of the Clergy to the Predestinarian Doctrine contained in the Articles and Homilies has not preserv'd them from contrary Sentiments such as when Van Harman first broach'd them were universally judged to be contrary to the Doctrine of the Church
Circumstances 2. That some Circumstances of Action are but circumstantial 3. That there are essential Circumstances of Action 4. That some essential Circumstances are more essential than other A Person of good Learning Wit and Leisure would wonderfully improve four such Notices as these I shall make one obvious Inference which is this Human Actions cannot but be always very prudent and always well-tim'd for Well-timing is one of the best parts of Prudence and Prudence one of the most essential Circumstances of Human Actions I strengthen my Inference thus Human Actions cannot be at all without one and all their most essential Circumstances whatever perchance they might without some less essential Circumstances therefore they cannot want Prudence and because they cannot want Prudence they cannot but be well tim'd thence it undeniably follows that the Parliament of England tho they rose without preferring one Sanguinary Bill have acted like prudent Senators and tim'd every thing most exactly and that the King who prorogu'd them before Mr. Gailhard's pious Motion for Fire and Faggot could be made had also tim'd his Prorogation well and acted with all the Prudence which became him Thus by the help of Mr. Gailhard's Philosophy the King and Parliament are secure of doing all things well and the Exceptions which he moves against them as I shall farther manifest will only evince that good Sense is no essential Circumstance of writing therefore I would advise him to keep his word and write no more but 't is fit he do Penance for that ill-natur'd malicious Stuff which he hath wrote already I will examine it under these 4 Heads 1. What that blasphemous Impiety is which inflames his merciless Zeal 2. How wide it is spread 3. What Opposition it has met 4. What Treatment it deserves After a Flourish of wild Rhetoric ungovernably sallying into sundry Metaphors borrowed from things that have no affinity all within the same Period he declares what that Impiety is which inflames his merciless Zeal viz. Pag. 3. Ep. Dod. Blasphemous Socinianism attended by Atheism Deism Prophaneness Immorality Idolatry c. Not one of a hundred among the Pretenders to Learning knows any thing of Socinus from an impartial Historian or has read any of his Works but great Numbers strive who shall speak worst of him as if that were the only way to prove that themselves were sound and orthodox in the Faith For my part I am fully perswaded that Socinus was in several of his Opinions grosly mistaken also he lies under the suspicion of having contributed to the Persecution of Fran Davidis who differed from him but yet I may venture to say that he was descended of an antient Family endow'd with a piercing Wit and accomplish'd with no mean Learning Mr. Bidle in his Preface to the Panegyric of the Polonian Knight affirms that none since the Apostles hath deserv'd better of the Christian Religion so that a Man may more avail himself by reading his Works than by perusing all the Fathers together with the Writings of more modern Authors It is true this of Bidle's is the Testimony of a Friend but then it is strangely corroborated by Accident for it is plain that the most polite and rational modern Sermons and other moral Discourses are extremely beholden to Socinus his Works tho no Man of late that I have met has had the Ingenuity to make him the least Acknowledgment excepting that learned and calm Tritheist Mr. How who says That his Book De Deo was wrote non sine nervis Indeed the Enemies of Socinus tho they mean no good to his Memory yet frequently do him special service and in great measure supply to him the want of a profess'd Hyperaspist but none more than Mr. J. Gailhard who gives such a long disagreeing false and incredible Retinue to Socinianism that all which it is possible for an easy Reader to believe is that Socinianism is something which Mr. J. Gailhard mortally hates which it may be and never the worse on that account for he has declar'd his mortal hatred not only against Socinians and Jews Deists and Papists but also against all the Church of England Clergy that are of the Arminian Perswasion and all others whether Laymen or Clergy of what Religious Perswasion soever that will not bring fuel to the Fire for burning those whom he shall damn for Hereticks But let us call over the Retinue with which Mr. Gailhard says that Socinianism is attended 1. By Atheism and Deism 2. By Prophaneness and Immorality 3. By Idolatry and caetera But in the first place it is strange that Socinianism should be attended by Atheism and Deism too i.e. both by the Belief of a God and by the Disbelief of a God Notions so directly opposite one would think they could not be both together entertain'd in the same Mind But now I think on 't these two Charges are wisely laid together for the Design of the Accuser is to prove Socinianism a Monstrous Heresy which it must needs be if at the same time it affirms and denies the same Proposition Methinks Mr. Gailhard attacks the Socinians as the Wolf did the Lamb Sirrah said the Wolf to the Lamb how dare you trouble the Water that I am drinking Cry your Mercy quoth the Lamb I did not think that my lapping below could foul your Water above Sawcy Creature replied the Wolf trouble it or not trouble it I will eat you Thus Mr. Gailhard is for burning the Socinians right or wrong 't is all one to him whether they believe in God or no for if they will not be burn'd for denying his Existence they shall be burn'd for believing it But perhaps this fiery Gentleman may pretend that he does not use the word Deism as it signisies the belief of God's Existence but as it implies a denial of all reveal'd Religion and so it is an Attendant of Socinianism Now I confess this sort of Charge is not so perfect Nonsense as the other but then it is a Calumny so silly and so easy to be refuted that it is good for nothing but to tempt Men who are entirely in the Interests of the Church to suspect that they who are called Hereticks are not so black as they are painted and that they who throw the San-benito over the persecuted Man's Shoulders have more Devils about 'em than they that wear it For the Racovian Catechism is allow'd to be a just Summary of Socinianism and the first Chap. of that Catechism treats of the Certainty of Holy Scriptures and justifies the Authority of those Books by the most cogent Arguments that can be brought proves the Christian Religion to be a Divine Institution and the Author of it a Divine Person There may be in Socinianism more Errors than I know of and I know some but Atheism and meer Deism are none of the number The 2d Division of the Retinue which Mr. Gailhard would have the World believe to attend Socinianism is made up of
Christian it will make him for ever asham'd of Persecution I dare not say it will make an angry Calvinist so for it is I am afraid impossible that such a fated Zealot should fall from the Grace of implacable Anger against all that reject the Geneva Platform of Christianity I have now finished the Remarks which I thought proper upon Mr. G's Epistle Dedicatory to the Parliament and upon the Preface to his Book of which I made a shift to read six or seven Pages The reason which mov'd me to this was a just Indignation that this siery Gentleman should pretend that no man was fit to write against the Socinians but a Calvinist and that the chief Doctors of the Church of England who are of the Arminian Perswasion favour the Socinians go hand in hand with them and mince the matter with them For is it not the highest Impudence in him after he had condemn'd the Socinians to the Fire which perhaps might be born with to go about to prove that the Arminian Clergy and Laity are little better than Socinians In the beginning of this running Century we had few or no Calvinists but among the Puritans they governed all during the Civil War yet at the Restoration were set aside again and discountenanc'd that we have some of them crept into the Church now is I much fear for no other reason but to betray it I am confirm'd in this fear by the very Title of another Book just come to my hands it is inscribed The Growth of Errour being an Exercitation concerning the Rise and Progress of Arminianism and more especially Socinianism c. The first part of the Title is pointed against the Growth of Deism which Pamphlet I believe was wrote by a sincere Christian with a real Design however he is mistaken to prevent the Growth of Deism The Author of this Growth of Errour now I have a little lookt into him designs to prevent the spreading of Arminian and Socinian Doctrines both which he takes to be much the same and equally erroneous In his Preface he says that there are sundry Principles advanced by Men of Reputation among the sound in Faith that do in their tendency lead to what these drive at who are of the worst sort i.e. the English Socinians and in the Introduction to his Book he tells us Many of them who cannot see how they differ from their Brethren but in the way and method of explaining the same Doctrine which they both hold slide into Arminianism and from thence pass over unto the Tents of Socinus A little after he says Tho they set up for a middle way between the extreams of Calvin and the Excesses of Van Harman commonly called Arminius yet on their turn from the former they fall in so far with the latter that 't is impossible for them to make a just defence of what they hold contrary to the Arminian System and therefore they fall in with them and run their Length As much as say deviate but one Hair's Breadth from the System of John Calvin and you are presently over head and ears in Arminianism Again he says That the Arminians who pretend a middle way between the Orthodox and the Socinian are in the twinkling of an eye fallen under Socinus his Banner His Book produces some sort of Instances to make good this Charge which tempts me to compare Mr. Gailhard and this Author to Brutus and Cassius of whom the Historian Vbicunque ipsi essent ibi praetexebant esse Rempublicam Wheresoever they were there they gloried was the Commonwealth of Rome So these bonny Calvinists exclusively to all others especially the Arminians will be the Church of England I would old Peter Heylin were alive to tell 'em their own in truth I think he was over-modest which was but rarely his fault to esteem a Presbyterian i.e. a Calvinist for so it was in his days worse than a Papist For my part I esteem a Christian from whatsoever Sect denominated not excepting the Socinians more honourable than a persecuting Calvinist and this is my comfort that tho the Courage of this zealous Sect is great yet their Number is small they have but half the Retinue which Mr. G. allows the Socinians there are no real Deists nor Arminians among them and but few Papists not more than there are Dominicans some handfuls of conceal'd Hugonots in France a pugil of ingrateful Refugees in England Their main Strength lies among Mahometans and Atheists of which Confederates they have so few within call that I may venture to apply to them dat Deus immiti Cornua curta Bovi In English we say Curst Cows have short Horns Let me by the way commend the discerning Spirit of the Church of Rome who commits the management of her flaming Inquisition to the Order of St. Dominic a Race of bloody Calvinists as wisely knowing what Priests are by their Principles best fitted to do the work of Devils But I wonder in my Heart how the Author of the Growth of Errour having condemned the English Socinians as the worst of Men that so they might be given up to his and Mr. Gailhard's Mercy and taken a great deal of pains to lay the Arminians under the same Condemnation should yet have the confidence to tell his Readers that many who knew him think his Charity towards Men of very different Principles of a Latitude to a Fault whenas all that I can find by his Book is that his Soul is never so disturb'd with tormenting Regret as when an Orthodox Brother is not able to make good his false Accusation against an Arminian Festus Hommius had plaid the knave a little and put the change on Episcopius his Words tho for no other reason in the world but to fasten the Imputation of Socinianism upon him this foul play the honest Author of the Growth of Errour takes notice of and makes this charitable Reflection upon it I must confess that in an instance or two the report made of Episcopius was not so well grounded as might be wished p. 72. When I consider St. Paul's Character of Charity in the 13th Chapter of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians I cannot but conclude that our Author's Friends banter'd him when they found fault with the Latitude of his Charity for my part I cannot see how any Charity at all can be honestly laid to his charge for he desies Long-suffering and Kindness is full of Envy and Pride behaves himself unseemly seeketh to serve the Cause of his own Party is easily provoked thinketh evil in his Heart rejoiceth in Iniquity and not in the Truth beareth nothing but believeth as ill as he can of his Neighbour and still hopes and wishes the worst What would this Gentleman have giv'n that the Report made of Episcopius had been true why what would he have got by 't Why then the poor Man might have been ran down like a Wolf hang'd like a Dog or burnt for an Heretic whereas he was only banish'd a small satisfaction that in respect of what our Author might have received had the States of Holland treated Episcopius with Mr. Gailhard's extream Remedy I am sorry I have not Health and Leisure to do this Author farther Justice but must break off without so much as commending his Learning Wit and Reasoning which are of a Latitude equal to his Charity I beg his Excuse But the Debt which I cannot pay him I have some Temptation to hope that a couragious Master among the Tritheists will because some pages are particularly aim'd at him in one of which p. 161. there are these words If the contradictory Affirmation of three individual Essences being but one individual Essence will clear the Notion from being Heresy then Val. Gentilis Lismaninus Blandrata and the many other Propagators of the Socinian Abominations must be also for the same reason clear'd from Heresy Upon this Passage I have but one Observation and the Reader is at an end of his trouble If Dr. Sh ck be cleared from Heresy so also must the Socinians in the judgment not of this Author only but of Dr. S th also with whom are a Moiety if not a Majority of the Church If Dr. S th be clear'd from Heresy so also must the Socinians in the judgment of Dr. Sherlock who concludes all the Opposers of his real Tritheistic Trinity under Sabellianism and with him are some great Names and no contemptible Numbers What to do with these Socinians if I know never trust me if I brand them for Hereticks let me assign what merit I please I shall be thought as Growth of Errour phrases it to bereticate one or other Division of the Church If I pass them without censure Mr. Gailhard will vouch that I mince the matter with them notwithstanding the Protestation which I make that I am an obedient Son of the Church of England I think I had best after the example of the Areopagites engag'd in a Difficulty which puzzl'd them as much as this does me bid the Cause come before me a hundred Years hence FINIS ADVERTISEMENT Lately printed An Essay concerning the Power of the Magistrate and the Rights of Mankind in Matters of Religion With some Reasons in particular for the Dissenters not being oblig'd to take the Sacramental Test but in their own Churches and for a General Naturalization Together with a Postscript in answer to the Letter to a Convocation-man The Art of Memory A Treatise useful for all especially such as are to speak in publick By Marius D' Assigny B. D. Both sold at the Cross-keys and Bible in Cornhil