see new Words as new Books do appear and several of them so harsh in the sound and so little us'd that immediately they vanish unto their former darkness and solitude Thus have I read in a late Book the word impunibly and in a Book written against Mysteries too But I suppose no Man will reasonably conclude that the Author was either Scot or English only from this unusual word To come a little nearer If I might venture to reason as your Philosophers seems to do I would prove that the Author of the History of Religion is not an English-man for in the 96 th Page I meet with a word which very few English-men know or ever heard for there the Author says that the mistakes and opinions which proceed from innocence do not make Men guilty that is to say from their weakness and ignorance How much weakness and ignorance there may be imply'd in the word innocence I cannot tell it may have in it all the Mysteries of Abracadabra for any thing I know for I never read it before Nor do I admire the word Impersonation in the Author of the Charge of Socinianism no more than I do the word Innocence both of them want Authority and Custom to preserve them from being banish'd out of ordinary Conversation Perhaps your Author built his Confidence not so much upon the strength of his critical Remarks as upon the Authority of his Informer yet to mortifie him and his cholerick Neighbour I may be allow'd to tell you that the Author of the Book Entituled The Charge of Socinianism against Dr. Tillotson was never in Scotland so far from being beyond the River of Tay that he never was on the other side of Tweed nor any City or Village in that Ancient Kingdom One of your Authors tells us speaking of Mr. Atterbury that Students do not hold themselves oblig'd to reason accurately and closely as other common Men must but by leaping over some intervening suitable Propositions may skip from Tumult to King Pipin or what â—s as good from Historian to Scorner One would think that the distance between an unusual Phrase and a Scotch-Highland is as wide as that between Tumult and King Pipin or that between an Historian and a Scorner I see that Students are not the only Men that reason loosely and incoherently there are other Sparks who pretend to digest nothing but Self-evident Propositions and accurate Infallible Deductions from clear Premises and they sometimes mistake the Mark as much as the former who are said to owe their false reasonings to dark keeping and other Infelicities of their Education I cannot perceive how the Highlander was forced to make up the Comical part of the Book I suppose Buchanan and Cameran were greater Criticks than the two Philosophers and they were both of them Scotch-Highlanders But when I consider the petulance and temper of our Authors I am afraid the naming of any of our Country-men to remove their Mistakes may savour more meanness than Condescension His observation that the flesh of a Highlander creeps is as New to me as the Phrase I am sure there are several of them that he thus Lampoons would be very apt to make his Flesh tremble if they knew him and that withal he continued obstinate in his scurrilous rudeness National Reproaches make up the divertisement used Witticisms of Porter's and Buffoon's I know no Country but may boast of its Heroes and Excellent Men And they who are forward to make comparisons are never reckoned into the number they are Knights of a lower Order such as pass all their Campaigns in Taverns and other places not sit to be named In these there may be dangers but I humbly suppose very little Honour 'T is true our Soil is not so fertil as the more Southern parts of the Island Our Sun seems to be sick for several Months in the Year nevertheless the common Character of the Scot's prae fervidum Scotorum Ingenium may be thought generally speaking more true than that which he is pleased to bestow upon his imaginary Adversary Viz. That his Northern frozen head could not perceive the Socinian Subtilties I thought they were a Sect that pretended to advance nothing nay allow of nothing but plain and undisputable Propositions that they were so slow and cautious in drawing Consequences that nothing short of Mathematical Evidence could satisfy them And when I was reading the Book that occasioned this Letter I meet with the following words For as to report and the Whispers of those Sagacious Men who so certainly know all Authors they are so oft mistaken that except it be here and there a Student no body heed them or rather every body abhors them Yet this very sagacious Philosopher this very Man of Evidence and Demonstration without any other proof than a slender Whisper or an Impudent lye finds out all Authors and knows them exactly as if he had been conversant with them from their Infancy But if his Conjecture stumble upon a Highlander then such a contemptible Creature must be crush'd to death But Men of valour use not to draw their Swords at so a great distance they approach their Enemy with less noise and they that pretend to Philosophy trust more to their Arguments than to their Fury and Indignation It is certainly so and so as he concludes it can be no other than such a one there are Improprieties in the Book and none else could be guilty of them but that one Man and then by such accurate reasoning his creeping Witticisme must get abroad I would advise this unknown Gentleman once more to consult the trifling Informer that gave him his intelligence and ask him but a few plain questions viz. Whether he had his information from me Whether he himself is familiarly acquainted with me Whether after all he be a Man of any Honour or Justice Whether he is resolved to appear to make good the Charge One may reasonably presume that a very Learned Author would not be so very Confident unless the Authorities that he built upon were strong enough to support the weight of his Insolence and Buffoonry The next Author treats me with the same virulence and contempt that the former does but he may appear even to himself a very ridiculous Fellow that with so much wit undertakes the defence of such particular Propositions as I my self lately proved I hope plainly enough against another tribe very different from the Socinianism in a small Treatise entituled An Enquiry into the New Opinions Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-head in St. Paul's Church-yard And this Book appeared with my name a considerable time before his scurrilous Libel was Printed I instance but in one particular which I advance in that Essay and it is this that our Blessed Saviour complied with those Rituals in the Worship of God among the Jews which had their Rise and Original only from human Authority Nay I think the Opposite Doctrine that allows
and are not ordinarily heard in the Conversation of Gentlemen But if any thing can provoke this Impertinent Accuser to do himself Justice I think it may warm him into some generous behaviour to be so represented to his Great Patron If he patiently endure the Character of a Liar I do not envy him the honour of his invention if not he will let me know who was his Informer as in justice and common sense he is oblig'd to do And this is not answer'd by Writing of Pamphlets and gathering together several incoherent Stories and Probabilities but by an ingenuous acknowledgment of his willfull and unaccountable Forgery for when he re-examines his Evidence he will discover his own Precipitation and rashness I gave occasion to no such Calumny no not by the least inadvertence or indiscretion And it is very hard to oblige me at this time of day to the Drudgery of Vindicating my self from Infamous Libels You say in your Preface that they are two very Learned Men. Men may be mad without too much Learning I wish their civility and good breeding had been equal to their Learning Nor is it a pin matter to me how Learn'd they are I am sure they are very Impertinent to Libel a Man upon the Publick Theatre of the Nation to whom they are as great Strangers in all Regards either as to his life or accomplishments as I am to the Emperor of Morocco However as far as I am concern'd it is needless to baulk any of their Arguments The question between me and your two very Learn'd Gentlemen is not any Common Place of Theology but a matter of fact I let pass all their Virulent Reproaches that seem to be occasioned by the Book that they undertake to refute The first Argument to prove me the Author of it is that I did not keep my own Secret Of this you very kindly put me in mind in your Letter dated the 13th of April But how does he prove this Very well after his way He says that it got abroad among many People that I thought my self qualified for such an Undertaking Does it become a Man that sets up for an Accurate Philosopher to proceed upon Whisper Hear-say and Surmise to the ruine of his Neighbour's honour and reputation Was not he obliged to give the World a plain account of the Authority and honesty of him upon whose testimony he built his Defamatory Libel He must needs know that a Malicious inconsiderate Liar sets thousands of People by the Ears every moment especially such Informers as may be reasonably supposed our two Authors have conversed with They heard such a thing and there was no more necessary in their opinion to make one the Author of such a Pamphlet But if a Report of this nature can bear the Superstructure of such a calumny Men might have nothing else to do than to Write Vindications they must run from one corner to another without intermission to publish their Defences and Apologies against every Rude and Impertinent Libel The Philosophers advise us to be slow and wary in Drawing Consequences yet it seems they have lost all their pains upon your two Precipitate Authors We ought to treat no Man otherwise than the Golden Rule of our Blessed Saviour allows Quod tibi fieri non vis c. There is nothing so Treacherous or fails a Man sooner than a transient Whifling report Tam ficti pravique tenax quam Nuncia Veri But perhaps the next Argument is more Conclusive and Solid He is very sure the Author is a Scot because for positive he always Writes possitive To this he adds some Elegencies or rather Improprieties that he thinks are peculiar to the Scots viz. The Men above-told the Reason above-told And again it makes all my flesh to creep From these he concludes the Author not only to be Scot but a Highlander Now upon supposition that these were Idioms of the Scotish Dialect his ridiculous conjecture would scarcely make up a probable Argument if there was but one Scots-man in the Isle of Britain But when there are so many thousands of them his guesses vanish into a Dream and proves that there are greater flaws in his reasoning faculty than there are Improprieties in the Scottish Dialect May not those Forreigners who learn to speak English put their own Idiotisms in English words Are there not some English that frequently converse with those as well as with the Scots Are there not several Counties in the Northern parts of England that differ in their Phrase as well as in their Account from those in Kent and Middlesex Are there not some other People in the World besides the Scots who have different Phrases and Idioms from the English And have not they also a dependence upon the Monarch of Great Britain as well as the Scots and this may oblige them frequently to reside in or about the City of London Let our very learn'd Philosophers view his own Argument again he may easily find he hath not been so slow and cautious in drawing his Consequences as he ought to be Are there not some English-men that for reasons best known to themselves now and then make use of Scottish Phrases If any of these suppositions hold true his Argument to prove me the Author of such a Book is the most precarious weak incoherent Conjecture that ever dropt from a Man's Pen. But Sir Robert I have more to say to this Argument it is this that one of your Authors takes those words to be Idioms of the Scottish Dialect which no Scotch-man ever heard of For my part neither in their Writings nor Conversation did I ever remark any such Phrases as he sets down for Arguments to prove his Author to be a Scotch-man such as these the Man above told the reason above told And the difference between the Scottish and the English Language is not in those imaginary Improprieties that he fancies may distinguish the first from the last but rather in this that We of Scotland besides a different Accent retain a great many of the Old Saxon words which are not now us'd in England But they that understand the English Language accurately understand also those Saxon words some of which may be met with in the Old Version of the Psalms daily read in the Churches And if he be so squeamish as not to read that Version of the Psalms he may read Milton's Poems and Chaucer's Works where he may see many of those words that distinguish the Scottish Idiom from that which is now us'd in England The difference is not to the misplacing of words but in the Phrase it self the first may proceed from the inadvertence of an Author either Scottish or English And it is a very bad Argument to prove that the Author of such a Book is not an English-man if I meet with an unusual word or an impropriety in his compositions There is no fixt true Standard for the English Language and therefore every day we
of nothing in the Solemnities of Worship but what is founded upon express Divine Institution to be the source of all Bigottry and Enthusiasm God is to be Worshiped and that in Unity and Society If this be allowed several Rites and Ceremonies must be Practis'd and enjoin'd which have no Institution but in the Prudence and determination of our Superiours If the angry Gentleman read this little Book that I have named he may then be more able to pass his Decretory Sentence how far the Contemptible Professor is of Mr. Knox's Principles He or his Neighbour I do not now remember which of the two not only lashes me as being tainted with those Principles of Sedition and Confusion that were so warmly Propagated by Mr. Knox but he says that all the Episcopal Clergy of Scotland tho' they forsook Mr. Calvin and Mr. Knox in the question about Church Government yet in points of Doctrine they have varied nothing at all from Mr. Knox Author of the Reformation there If this Man's knowledge in Theology was equal to his skill in our History he would certainly make the saddest figure that ever appear'd that is to say he would be all over Innocence in its true Original and Insignificant Notion so much below a Cypher that there is no Room left for him in Arithmetick Therefore he may be advised to let the Clergy of Scotland and their Doctrine alone they are not yet so low after all the oppressions and contradictions of sinners that they have endured as to want an Apology against the Railings of an inconsiderate Calumniator who knows as little the Persons that he thus bespatters as he does the Author of the Charge of Socinianism c. Let him read Dr. Forbes Bishop of Edinbourg his Considerationes Modestes and then let him tell me whether he was in all points of Doctrine of Mr. Calvin or Mr. Knox's Sentiments And he was a Person whose Character and Learning was more likely to make Disciples amongst the Clergy of Scotland than the two Reformers that he is pleased to name Nevertheless Calvin ought to be mention'd with honour because of the purity of his stile and other extraordinary accomplishments Some of our Clergy may have their differences amongst themselves about the Doctrine of Predestination and Freewill but then this is no reproach peculiar to Scotland these are Common Places in Divinity that divide not Churches from Churches but Men from Men. Those questions have been disputed in all Ages and will remain dark to the end of the World even to the Socinians themselves who pretend to banish all mysteries I believe the Infinite Incomprehensible Power of God and that he is the first cause of all things in him we live move and have our Being I believe him also infinitely Good and that he loves us better than we can do ourselves and that he governs the World by Laws just holy and excellent I Worship him under this Idea of Original Goodness and Power and I am very sure that none of the true and necessary deductions from these two great Attributes can be at variance with one another If I who am but Dust and Ashes neither can see nor happily explain their agreement in all Minute instances it is my Ignorance and Weakness The Good I do is from God the Evil altogether from my self And this is a short Confession of what I think all Men ought to adhere to in those Intricate and abstruse questions of Predestination and Freewill I am not now inclin'd to enter into any particular disquisition concerning the Original of Sacrifices nor had I ever the least thought of writing Animadversions on any Sermons Publish'd by the Late Archbishop Tillotson most of them as were Printed before the Revolution I read with great satisfaction and those that since appear'd I only read some of them as I met with them accidentally in the Booksellers-shops being not in an humour to buy New Books when I knew not how long I could keep such as I had formerly purchased Then your Philosopher recommends to me that I should read Spencer and Outram I love him the better that he converses with such Authors who are as much above the Common Level of Systematick Writers as their Learning exceeds his own modesty and good nature The former Author draws a Picture of me in little I am not concern'd much to view it tho' the Lineaments and Features had been more true but as they are extreamly ugly and extravagantly false he may lay it up in his own Closet to entertain himself with it when he is in his Hypochondriack fits The first stroaks of his Tableau are Historical and terminate only in my Person and such as the Author of the Charge of Socinianism is not at all concern'd in In the mean time I think my self oblig'd to give him no account of any part of my life unless I knew him better And if I did perhaps I might still continue in the same resolution He accuses me to have charged the late Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Sarum and the Author of the History of Religion of Socinianism And he adds this most accurate Reason because I mistake the Doctrine of the Church and the Arguments she useth for the Socinian Doctrine and Reasons Whether any of those Gentlemen now named were or are Socinians is more than ever I intend to enquire It is a very new thing to me to hear that the Church useth Arguments for the Socinian Doctrine and Reasons It is true one of his eminent Authors accused me of being the Author of the Charge of Socinianism in the Month of December last a mercenary malice and profound ignorance were but some of the vertues he allowed me I heartily forgive him those precipitate ramblings I have suffered since that time some things more terrible than the disdainful stroaks of his Pen I am apt to think that his Credulily led him into this mistake It is the unhappy lot of most who are advanced to Eminent Stations to be haunted with Sycophants false Accusers Lyars and Tale-bearers If they guard against the malignity of such Vermin their Vertue is more than ordinary and if they do not hear with both their ears they are certain plagues to human Society But one of the most surprising and impertinent stroaks of your Author's Libel is that he charges me to have accused your self of ingratitude to K. James for I never heard of your name until this Book was put into my hands by one of my Friends And I am as much qualified to write the lives of all the Irish Kings before the Conquest as I am to give any tolerable account of any part of your selfe As for your Book entitled the History of Religion I never saw it until the 6th of April 1696. So far have I been from writing any Animadversions upon it And if did they should be very short And I had rather communicate them to your self than print against an Author that
A LETTER To the Honourable Sir ROBERT HOWARD Occasioned by a late Book Entituled A Two-fold Vindication Of the late Archbishop of CANTERBURY And of the Author of the History of Religion By Al. MONRO D. D. LONDON Printed for E. Whitlock near Stationers-hall 1696. ERRATA PAge 4. line 4. for this r. that p. 6. l. 21. r. elegancies p. 7. l. 8. r. accent ibid l. 15. r. Philosopher p. 8. l. 12. for to r. in ibid. l. ult for innocence r. innoscence p. 9. l. 4. r. innoscence ibid l. 9. r. innoscence ibid l. 29. r. highlander p. 10. l. 7. r. Cameron ibid. l. 10. after more add of ibid. l. 19. for used r. and p. 12. l. 14. for Socinianism r. Socinians p. 13. l. 13. r. innoscence p. 16. l. 21. for Sixth r. Sixteenth p. 18. l. 11. after there add are p. 20. l. ult r. Hero's p. 23. l. 29. r. Diminutive p. 26. l. 16. r. title SIR I Received your Answer to my Letter dated the 13 th of April last and I thank you heartily for your civility In mine I gave you a short Account of the barbarous Treatment I met with in a Book Entituled A Twofold Vindication of the late Archbishop of Canterbury and of the Author of the History of Religion I presum'd to address my complaint to your self because you was pleas'd to prefix an Epistle to that Book in which I am expos'd with greater contempt and severity than I deserve at your hands I humbly suppose you proceeded upon the same Mistakes and malicious Informations that provok'd your two Anonymous Authors to so much Fury and Indignation The ground of their quarrel is that they take it for granted that I am the Author of a certain Pamphlet Entituled The Charge of Socinianism against Dr. Tillotson considered This is the second time that I have been rudely and publickly accus'd on this very Head I might reasonably expect that your Two Philosophers would more narrowly examine the Matter of Fact before they had abus'd an innocent Stranger in so scurrilous a manner they are such as left me no opportunity to know their Names or the place of their Residence Nor am I now at liberty to make a stricter search where those Birds of darkness may be seen We know without the Assistance of a Revelation that he that doth evil hateth the Light The Advertisement which I printed in the Month of January last in opposition to the Censures publish'd against me upon the foot of that Calumny might one may reasonably think cover me from all Libels of that Nature since I am ready to take my Oath before any Judge that I never had the least thought of writing any such Book as the Charge of Socinianism c. in any former moment of my life And so far from writing any Animadversions on your History of Religion that I never saw it until the 16 th of April 1696. It may be that your two Champions will impute this second Vindication to my fear and pusillanimity and say that I am some timorous and silly Creature I dare not now avow what I have foolishly done I am so lash'd that it is not fit to write any more to provoke the Anger of such terrible Men whose greatest Talent is calumny and impertinence Nevertheless I may venture to tell you hoping that your passions are more calm that I can prove to a demonstration by Witnesses of more unstain'd Authority and Reputation than any of my Accusers that another is the true and sole Author of that Book And perhaps he may in due time discover himself if he can be secur'd against those Inconveniencies which may probably follow upon his being known When your very learn'd Authors consider this it may mortifie their accurate Wisdom to have thrown away all their Amunition of Wit and Raillery before they discover'd their Enemy And now Sir I beg your pardon if I have not the same opinion of their Morals that you have of their Intellectuals To rob a Man of his good Name maliciously and without any certainty of matter of Fact can as little be reconcil'd to the Rules of Honour as to the common Measures of Justice The first of them endeavours all he can to represent me a Beast The next makes me a Devil tho' one of the weakest and silliest Orders 'T is happy for the Prisoner at the Bar when the Evidences contradict one another However between them two I make a very sad figure I am not now to entertain you with my thoughts of their Learning and Theology they may Write or refute what Books they please 'T is time for me to interpose when they medle with any thing that is truly mine I arrogate to my self no man's performances As for the the Book that they seem to tear in pieces with so much bitterness and violence I only read some few pages in it And the Gentleman who gave me a Copy is ready to take his Oath that upon the delivery of the Book I said to him that I should never be able to read it to the end it was printed in so small a Character It is not enough for your two Philosophers to fall upon me like Madmen and to abuse me for what is contain'd in the Book but they must needs drop some Reflections that they think are peculiar either to my Person or my Country If they had confin'd their Libels to the Subject matter I would Judge it no part of my business to undeceive them But when they make use of Arguments and Critical Observations to prove that I am the Author of such a Book their Reasons are so short and superficial that I may be allow'd to examine them The first says pag. 33. that I was not able to keep my own Secret but that it got abroad among a great many that I was the Man that thought my self qualified to censure the Doctrine of an Archbishop of Canterbury and to encounter with the great Author of the History of Religion This is impudence with a witness Did I say so to himself or to any other Trifling Calumniator Is it not reasonable for him to let me know who this Gentleman is to whom I said any thing of this Nature But this fair and ingenuous Dealing is not his way it is enough for him that he was inform'd by some little Whisperer that I was the Author of such a Book And your Philosopher thought this a sufficient proof he was glad any Man was nam'd on whom he might so safely discharge his fury But when he found it was some tame Illiterate Pedant then he puts himself all in Armour as all Cowards do where there is no danger If I confess'd the matter of fact my self it is in vain to contradict it In the mean time I presume to tell you that whether he spoke this of himself or whether he was prompted by others that he is in the Strictest sense a Calumniator and a Liar I confess these words are harsh
desired you formerly to consider namely what reparations you think are due to an innocent Stranger so unworthily abused I forbear to aggravate the Injustice that is done to me in your Preface as well as in the other parts of the Book for I believe you wrote it carelesly and you thought that your two Hereos were as infallible in their censures as they appear'd to you accurate in their Reasonings I heartily forgive you and I wish you may be for the time to come more critically nice in examining those Reports that have no other beginning than Malice Nonsense and Impertinence Sir I am in all Sincerity and due respect Your very humble Servant A. MONRO THE following Advertisement was Printed in the Month of January last to undeceive such as might be impos'd upon by those Libels which then charg'd me with the same Calumny that is now sufficiently remov'd by this Letter AN ADVERTISEMENT By A. M. D. D. WHereas it hath been talked by some idle and impertinent People that I am the Author of a certain Book entituled The Charge of Socinianism against Doctor Tillotson c. I think it fit to declare that I never was the Author of any such Book charging him or any other with Socinianism And I further declare That I was never enticed prompted or encouraged by any Man dead or alive to write any thing of that nature And I am ready to take my Oath in the most solemn manner to confirm the truth of all this if duly required thereunto When I have said so much I think I am but little concerned to answer any Libel intended against me upon this occasion in which I am sensibly struck at by some distinguishing innuendo's tho' not particularly named as the Vindicator himself acknowledges The several reflections in a short digression of a late Book levelled at me are but some common places of Reviling which only proves That the Author was very angry One may venture to draw this Consequence from what is said Page 105. and 106. of his Vindication without the imputation of either Ignorance or Malice No modest Man loves to be put upon the unpleasant Task of defending himself against Reproaches of this Nature It is barbarous to invade a Man's good Name upon slender and foolish Surmises The Rules of Humanity oblige us to more Compassion and good Nature But most Men had rather talk of Generosity than practise it If we truly understood the Precepts of Natural Religion we would be the more prepared heartily to believe that which is Revealed It is a great Infelicity to continue for any considerable time under the dominion of a brutal Passion And it is very difficult to hide it where once it hath got the Ascendant Art and Memory may give a Man the slip and Nature will appear in its own Colours It is uneasie to act a Part even when we are much accustom'd to it I thank God I was never made a Tool to serve the Passions or Interests of any particular Man or Party I still retain the liberty of my Thoughts and Actions under all my Disasters If I am oblig'd to my Friends I am resolv'd to be Grateful I am very sure none of them gave my Enemies any Commission to upbraid me with their kindnesses Cruel Mockings do ordinarily attend the State of the Oppress'd And Philosophy as well as Justice has deserted the Earth What St. Paul hath said of the Primitive Christians is in a peculiar manner true of the Clergy of Scotland if there be not another Life They are of all Men the most miserable I pray God they may possess their Souls in patience For my part I love my Solitude and Retirement and the oldest Books in Divinity better than all the later Essays and Explications When my Ecclesiastical Superiors inform me That my endeavours to serve the Church are impertinent or unseasonable I chearfully submit to their Authority as I have always done â—n their and my more prosperous Circumstances What is observ'd by my Accuser is certainly true viz. That some Men have an Art of Writing to disparage the side they write for For this very reason some hasty Productions have been committed to the Flames and others which perhaps deserve the same Illuminations are suppress'd If he had left me half dead under the Cloud of general Strictures there might be some hopes of a Resurrection but he thought it convenient to set me in a better Light I must be ferreted from one Dominutive unto another until the Multitude fix their Eyes upon me A Triumphal Arch must be rais'd where such a contemptible Creature was slain and therefore he adds That it is probable the Party will desire their Journey-man to forbear writing and reserve himself for Fighting in which he is better practis'd One that reads this last stroak may be made to believe that some time or other I have fall'n into Quarrels and Contentions very unbecoming a Presbyter whereas the true story that is thus disguis'd into an Invective is no more than that I was perswaded by a Relation of mine then Lieutenant-Colonel to my Lord Dumbarton's Regiment when I was very Young to go abroad with him I complied with his Invitation I stayed in France about two Years and a half And tho' I was Listed in that Regiment I was under no restraints that might divert me from any part of Learning that I had a mind to That Scene was quickly over I return'd to my 〈◊〉 Country and former Studies This innocent 〈◊〉 of my Life made up a part of the Presbâ—… Libel at Edinbourgh Anno 1690. and it appeare◠〈◊〉 so ridiculous that I thought it should never be reviv'd again by any Man thereafter To have been a Souldier is a Reproach only in the Opinion of some few Men who understand Libelling better than the discipline of War The Greatest in all Ages thought that the Liberal Sciences and the knowledge of Arms are not at such odds with one another Julius Scaliger and Monsieur Des Cartes to name no more were Soldiers The truth is I am not ambitious of being call'd a Journey-man And I am surpris'd to find so mean a World placed so near another that is so usual and so manly Some Men forget nothing but the Decorum due to their Character It is fitter for such to give hard Names than for me to return an Answer Notwithstanding of all this I thank God I was never obliged nor inclined to Fight nor yet engaged in any Rencontre that could make me incapable to serve at the Altar It is no part of my business to know or enquire what Books are written against my Accuser or any of his Friends and Acquaintance dead or alive I think it very hard to publish scandalous Reports against a Presbyter before he is either heard or examined The Laws of Nature and Nations condemn this practice And the Evangelical Canon requires that no Accusation ought to be received against an Elder but before two or three Witnesses Clandestine Libels are more Malicious than when a Man is particularly named It is a sad Misfortune to be made the Property of every little Intelligencer If groundless Stories and unexamin'd Falshoods are publish'd for Truths what then comes of the Peace of Human Societies I pray God convince all Men that are engaged in such Designs of their Error and Injustice and in the mean time deliver me from the Malice of such as I never provoked A Copy of Sir Robert Howard's Letter to me dated the 14th of April 1696. being an Answer to my first unprinted Letter SIR YOur Letter found me very ill in a sit of the Gout yet I was unwilling notwithstanding my pain to seem so uncivil as to give you no Answer In short Sir the two Treatises were sent to me be-before they went to the Press to peruse And by reason of the kindness show'd to me and the great abilities I saw in them I prefix a short preface to them having also the opportunity to say something to Mr. Atterbury who in a Sermon at Whitehall before the Queen had ventur'd to treat me very ill But when these Papers were brought I neither knew nor was told from whom they came But the first seems to say that you did not keep your own Secret but that it got abroad among many that you were the Author And the second sets down your name and tells you at the beginning that I hardly knew his face This I confess made me take it for granted that it was yours But if it is not which I believe upon your affirmation I confess I think they ought to ask your pardon which if ever I know them I shall invite them to do For your Printed Paper there is not a little in it that concerns any thing I ever knew or said As to your Person I am so far from having any quarrel or animosity that I am rather sorry that this Letter should find you in restraint I wish you all freedom and remain SIR Your humble Servant Ro. HOWARD April 13 1696. FINIS * Vid. Seld. de Dis Syris Vid. Preface of the Two-fold Vindic. vid. pag. 51 of the Towfold Vindication Vid. Vind. of the Bishop of 8. pâ—inted for Mr. Chiswel pag. 105 106. Jam. 3. Chap. 5. 8. 9. pag. 105 106.
I have not the honour to be acquainted with The Book seems to be designed against 〈◊〉 Persecution and mystery The word Preist-craft is of late become very fashionable in the mouths of some who are no great Patterns for Philosophical Gentlemen to imitate If by Priest-craft is intended the sacred employment of a certain Order of Men who by their Office and Character are oblig'd to superimend the Solemnities of Publick Worship Such Men are no less necessary to the Preservation of the State than to the Administrations of Religion And the Persons so employ'd even in their Lowest ebb of Interest and Reputation are too strong to be attacked by any private Gentleman in Europe I argue now from what is Present and Visible and not from the more divine and excellent considerations of Religion because what is felt and seen is much more valued and considered than the Original Distinction between Good and Evil or what may be pleaded from the terrours of an Invisible State I confess the Argument is not so Philosophical and Sublime but it is such a one as now I offer to your own consideration how far it ought to regulate the Practice of any Man who lives in a Nation where the Priests are so able to assert from the best Topicks their Distinction and Character and the Priesthood it self is guarded by so many Laws As for Persecution I hope I am as much an enemy to it as any other in the World But since Conscience may be pretended when faction and sedition are intended I think the State may be left to judge for it self in all things relating to its own preservation and therefore the Good Laws that have been made to preserve the Beauty and Order of God's House may be reasonably and charitably put in execution to prevent such Confusions as must needs follow where Giddiness and Enthusiasm are upper most We may suffer hard things from Ecclesiastical Laws that are severe but human nature it self common sense and civility are banish'd where a Boundless Scepticism prevails Arbitrary Power is most frequently declaimed against by such as are invested with no Power But it is very hard to oblige the Soveraign Powers of the World to give an account of all their Actions and if they did the Body of the People can never perceive the Reasonableness of what they do even when their measures are most Divine and unquestionably just If I should say that I know no reason why I am committed to the Gate-house I would be thought very Impertinent tho' I should stumble upon the truth No Governors are oblig'd to let every body know what they do at all times If there are mysteries in the Government of the World it may be more reasonably presum'd that that there mysteries in Religion which we ought to believe tho' we can never fully grasp nor comprehend them When Men have done their best there is some thing dark in the object of Faith If we have good reason to believe that the Revelation which contains the Articles of our Religion proceeds originally from God and that we do not mistake the plain signification of those Words in which it is convey'd we may with the greater safety believe that such and such Propositions are true tho' they be above the comprehension of our Reason We cannot say that we fully understand the Essence of any the least Created being far less the Infinite and Eternal Mind who made the World and governs it We believe that his power is beyond our thoughts and Incomprehensible but can any Man confidently say that he himself has a full and adequate Idea of what is Infinite or Incomprehensible Sir I have kept you too long on this subject I would humbly intreat either or both of the two Calumniators to be a little more wary in their Libels 'T is an easy thing for them to put it to a fair Trial whether I can read Greek or Latin or whether either of them can Speak any other Language than what his Mother taught him As for the reflexions thrown upon the Universities of Scotland those Societies are above the Censures of an unknown Trifler his tongue is an Unruly Evil it is full of Deadly Poison I cannot tell how oft he blesses God with it his greatest talent is to curse Men made after the Similitude of God One of them recommends to me two very good Books and I thank him for his kindness I think he himself had need to read over again Crellius Ethicks And if that be troublesome he may cast his eye upon a most excellent Sermon against Evil-speaking Published by one of his eminent Authors And now Sir your two Philosophers may ask one another whether they know the Person they have so impudently Calumniated Whether the Authority they proceeded upon be so firm as to bear the weight of their notorious Forgeries and Lies Whether ever they heard that there was any Professor in any University of Scotland at any time since their first foundation so ignorant as they represent me to be But if they built their Calumnious stories upon the Authority of one of their Eminent Bishops I may be allow'd to tell them that I was already at some pains in the Month of January last to undeceive their Author as to this Calumny Then there was a Libel Published against me and it seems it was below his Eminence to retract an injury he had done to so mean a Person It is much more easy eloquently to extol the Morals of Christianity than to practise self-denial and humility Pride Popular Applause and Vanity do animate Men to the first but nothing short of a profound Resignation to the will of our Blessed Saviour can terrible us to practise the latter I take it for granted that my greatest Accuser is now convinced that I never wrote any such Book as the Charge of Socinianism c. Yet because the same Libel is again Propagated by the industry and malice of two unknown Slanderers I think it fit to subjoin to this Letter the Advertisement that I was forced some Months ago in to Publish in my own Defence And he that reads the Bishop's Vindication Printed for Mr. Chiswel in St. Paul's Church-yard may easily understand what is either express'd not insinuated in the following Paper There are some words in it which might have been spar'd but if compar'd with the Character bestow'd upon me perhaps many more might have been added without any Consure from the Impartial World If the open injustice that I met with made me then so free the peevishness which may be occasioned by imprisonment may extenuate the Reprinting of it since the Loads of Reproach thrown upon me by your two scurrilous Champions are but some Larger Annotations on the Original Character in which I was then represented in such taking colours to the view of the Nation Sir I now make an end of this Letter and I presume to ask but the same question that I humbly