Laudensium Apostasia OR A DIALOGUE In which is shewen That some Divines risen up in our Church since the greatness of the late Archbishop are in sundry Points of great Moment quite fallen off from the DOCTRINE Received in the CHURCH of ENGLAND By HENRY HICKMAN Fellow of Magd. Colledg Oxon. Stand ye in the wayes and see and ask for the old paths Where is the good way and walk therein Jer. 6. 16. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them who are given to change Prov. 24. 21. LONDON Printed by D. Maxwell for SA. GELLIBRAND at the Sign of the Ball in St. Pauls Churchyard 1660. A PREFACE To the READER Christian Reader PErhaps thou art not ignorant that I set forth a little Pamphlet intituled A Justification of the Fathers and Schoolmen the drift whereof was to shew That the generally received opinion of the Privative Nature of sin was neither so absurd nor so impious as it had been represented by a Luxuriant pen After about a twelve moneths labour and travail Mr. T. P. conceived and brought forth something which he called the Discoverer Discovered elemented of such palpable untruths as did scarce ever drop from the pen of any person pretending to learning or ingenuity In way of Appendix to that monstrous peece something was added relating to me but so worded and managed as if the Authors design had been only to make an essay whether it were not possible when he despaired to subdue my judgment by reason at least to conquer my patience by clamour I had hoped that after he had shot so many bitter words against my credit and reputation we should at last have received something from him savouring if not of the meekness of a Christian yet of the Candor of a Scholar But contrary to my desire I still find him foaming out his own shame and as is the nature of seducers waxing worse and worse deceiving and being deceived In such a case what is most adviseable Should I pay him with words as bad as he brings that were impossible unless I would have been at the charges to keep and maintain for some time a factor at Billings-gate 2. If such a course had pleased some wanton wits yet it must needs have much displeased the more sober and judicious to whom I must strive to approve my self and my writings Should I chastise the folly of the man with a more innocent satyr Mr. Bagshaw hath so done and what is the effect of it why after an Apologetical Parenthesis for bringing so unclean a thing into a Gentlewomans presence he is arraigned before the Tribunal of Mris. Peito and is told that it is the honour of her Sex that they read Mr. P's writings and the shame of ours that we so much slight them in which way if Mr. Bagshaw should follow him it would be such a peece of as scarse hath had its parallel since the time that the two Kings after some years fighting about Religion left the controversie at last to be decided by the fisti-cuffs of their two For what though Mris. Peito be a gentlewoman made up of grace and every thing that may render her amiable as I believe she is yet being but a Gentlewoman she cannot well be presumed to be a meet Umpire in so great a Controversie as that of Gods Decrees Shall I therefore take notice of the Argumentative part of his book then there 's nothing for me to do he having never ventured to make the least assault on the rational part of my book save that he once saith That I make no difference betwixt an action and a quality and why so because forsooth I say the Action of hatred as if they who say the act of Adultery or actus adulterii in Latine do presently make adultery not a quality but an action The folly of such reasonings are already made manifest but the huge plot is to make the world believe I am a Compilator a Plagiary Is this worth writing a book about then sure we are prodigi temporis cujus solius honesta est avaritia If Mr. P. be of the temper of the Cardinal in the Council of Trent who said That he could willingly consent to a Reformation but only he liked not that it should be brought about by means of such a poor Monk as Luther or if he have any thing of the humour of Bucephalus in him who would be mounted by none but Alexander If he can be content to acknowledg that his cause is fallen to the gronnd I can easily so far gratifie his ambition as to let it be thought that the blow was given by a learneder hand then my own Let Mr. P. have as low thoughts of me as he pleaseth I shall alwayes endeavour to have lower thoughts of my self I daily more and more see how far I fall short not only of what others have attained unto but also of what I my self might have attained had I but spent my time with that diligence and industry which for the future I shall aim at Yet shall I not altogether leave that blot which Mr. P. and his egregious advocates Dr. H. and M. O. have let fall to dry on my name I am charged to have played the Plagiary and to make good the charge Mr. P. hath employed I know not how many hands to pick up any words or phrases that they could meet with in any Authour that had affinity with my words and phrases and when they were so picked to fagot them up together with an intent that they may by him be made publick for my disgrace Had he made it appear that I had borrowed any set continued discourse from any Author he had then though not helped his own cause yet sufficiently disgraced me But seeing he only chargeth me with taking here and there a quotation and applying it to my purpose naming the first Authour though not the second the matter is not much if the charge were true Whether it be so or no will shortly be tryed But 1. Were I a Plagiary I should not be alone others and those none of the meanest are impeached of the like crime by Authors who are at least as much to be regarded as Mr. P. Concerning some of the Ancients let Dr. Brown be heard Enquiries into vulgar and common errors Lib. 1. ch. 6. Not a few of the Ancients have written transcriptively subscribing their names unto other mens endeavours and meerly transcribing almost all they have written the Latines transcribing the Greeks the Greeks and Latines each other Thus hath Justine borrowed all from Trogus Pompeius and Julius Solinus in a manner transcribed Plinie Thus have Lucian and Apuleius served Lucius Pratensis men both living in the same time and both transcribing the same Author in those famous Books Entituled Lucius by the one and Aureus Asinus by the other in the same measure hath Simocrates in his Tract de Nilo dealt with Diodorus Siculus as may
But God forbid our Church should have any Doctrines good and wholesome for some times and not for others Laud If there be any difference betwixt us about the sense and meaning of any Clause or Period in Articles Lyturgy Homilies how shall that difference be decided Pacif. It is scarce to be supposed that our Church in her publick Records of Doctrine should use any so great obscurity as that we should if we are unprejudiced need an Interpreter but if there be any need of an Interpreter who fitter then such Martyrs as had an hand in composing of the Articles in King Edw. the 6th his Time or elselived then and were well acquainted with the mind and judgment of the Composers and such Divines as lived and were famous in the beginning of Q Eliz. when the Articles were confirmed and let me tell you it will be a strong presumption that a Doctrine is contrary to the Church if it be contrary to the professed tenents of all or most of those eminent Divines by whose help she did at first recover her self out of Popish darkness Laud How little our old Martyrs did favour the Calvinians in the five points appears plainly by a Book entituled An Historical Narration composed by one who was famous in K. Edw. dayes and Q. Eli. and a voluntary exile for Religion in the raign of Q. Mary Partif Are you not ashamed to call him a famous Divine who created such disturbances in the raign of Q. Eliz. and K. Ed. whose Book is put into the Catalogue of Popish Pamphlets by Dr. Fulke in his answer to Bristow of the reprinting of which A. Laud was so much ashamed that at his tryal he durst not own it but averred that he had put his Chaplain out of his place for putting such a cheat on the world I might rather infer that the English Martyrs were no favourers of Arminianisme because in the late A. Bishops Time the Professor of Mathematicks in Gresham was troubled for but permitting an Almanack in which some Popish canonized Saints names were expunged and the names of some of our own English Martyrs that were Saints indeed put in their room and because by Dr. Bray Pochlintons Altare Christianum was licenced in which how bitter a passage is used against our old Martyrs and Confessors may be seen in the Recantation imposed upon that Doctor Laud It may be the passage might refer to John Wickliffe and such as he and if so I know no reason why it should be recanted for though he held many points against those of Rome yet had his Field more Tares then Wheat his Books more Heterodoxies then sound Catholick Doctrines for they who have consulted the Works of Thomas Waldensis or the Historia Wicklesiana writ by Harpssield will tell us that Wickliffe among many other errors maintained these that follow 1. That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but a piece of bread 2. That Priest have no more authority to minister Sacraments then Lay-men have 3. That all things ought to be common 4. That it is as lawfulito christen a Child in a Tub of Water at home or in a Ditch by the way as in a Font-stone in the Church 5. That it is as lawful at all times to confess unto a Lay-man as to a Priest 6. That it is not necessary or profitable to have any Church or Chappel to pray in or to do any divine Service in 7. That buryings in Church-yards be unprofitable and vain 8. That Holy-dayes ordained and instituted by the Church are not to be observed and kept in reverence in as much as all dayes are alike 9. That it is sufficient to believe though a man do no good works 10. That no humane Laws or Constitutions do oblige a Christian and finally That God never gave grace or knowledg to a great Person or rich man and that they in no wise follow the same Dr. Heyl. Cert Epist. p. 151. Pacif. Whether these things are collected out of Wald. and Harpssield I neither know nor have leisure now to examine I find the same things charged and charged in the very same words upon those who indeavoured reformation in King H. the 8th his dayes about Anno. 1536. as may be seen in Mr. Tho. Fuller's History lib. 5. p. 209. 210. 211. I believe those were then slandered and so I think is Wick. if Wald. and Harps have charged all those things upon him for the proof of this let what Dr. James hath collected in his Wick Conformity be consulted for that industrious Scholar hath made it appear out of the Writings of Dr. Wickly that he held no community of goods but what all good Christians hold by a Christian Charity not as touching the right Title and possession as the Anabaptists now and a certain bald Priest in his time did hold And so far was he from holding that good Faith alone would save a man without good Works that he is charged by Walden to have held the Doctrine of merits though very falsly as appears by many passages in his Commentaries upon the Psalms He held vocal confession to a Priest not to be necessary in case a man were truly contrite and sorrowful for his sin with full purpose of amendment unless the party offending do find himself very much grieved in which case he counselleth him to repair unto a Priest that hath cunning and good living But let us joyn issue on the terms formerly propounded What think you of the Church of Rome Laud It may be you account it a piece of Popery to call the Church of Rome a true Church Pacif. I account it no Popery to call the Church of Rome a true Church for it was so esteemed by Dr. John Reynolds Chamier Junius Gisbertus Voetius Ludovicus Capellus and his fellow Professor Amyraldus all very learned men and far enough from doting either upon Ceremonies or Prelacy indeed they will much disadvantage themselves in dealing with the Papist about the visibility of the Church who shall affirm that Rome is not a true Church but you know the Pope is made by Romanists to be the Church The Pope ought to tell it to the Church that is to himself saith Bellarmine Do you judg this Pope to be the Antichrist Laud Some Protestant Divines at home and abroad I grant have thought so wrote so disputed so in good zeal no doubt against that insolent and insufferable and outragious Tyranny and Pride of the Bishops of Rome and their infinite enormities in the Church and out of that affection have been too violently forward out of conjectures and probabilities to pronounce the Pope is that Man of Sin and Son of Perdition The Synod of Gapp in France made it a Point of their belief and concluded it peremptorily to be so but who can find it to be the Doctrine of the Church of England what Synod resolved it Convocation assented to it what Parliament Law Proclamation or Edict did ever command it to be
Scripture and when the Grammatical sense is found out we are many times never the nearer nor is it that which was intended for there is in many Scriptures a double sense a literal and spiritual for the Scripture is a Book written without and within Apoc. 5. and both these senses are subdivided for the literal sense is either natural or figurative and the spiritual is sometimes Allegorical sometimes Anagogical Lib. Prop. p. 64. Pacif. You rather use the language of Ashdod then Canaan whereas I count it a thing commendable rather to express our selves so as reformed Divines have been wont then as the Popish but I 'le not quarrel at any thing which is capable of a good construction yet let me have leave to say 1. That the place Apoc. 5. hath quite another sense then that to which you apply it 2. That I understand not how this consideration if admitted makes any thing to the proof of that for which you produce it that there should be a toleration of all who own the Apostles Creed Laud There being such variety of senses in Scripture and but few places so marked out as not to be capable of divers senses if men will write Commentaries as Herod made Orations {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} what infallible {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} will be left whereby to judg of the certain Dogmatical resolute sense of such places which have been the matter of question Lib. Proph. p. 65. Pacif. That if men will write Commentaries {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} no certain {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} will be left is beyond dispute but it is as much beyond dispute that if men will proceed with sobriety not leaning on their own understanding but humbly begging the Spirits illumination they shall not want an infallible {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to find out the certain Dogmatical sense of such places which have been the matter of question nor is there any truth in that assertion that there are but few places so marked out as not to be capable of divers senses I undertake to produce very clear places of Scripture against the errors of Popery Socinianism c. Laud There are divers places of Scripture containing in them mysteries and questions of great concernment and yet the fabrick and constitution is such that there is no certain mark to determine whether the sense of them should be literal or figurative nothing in the nature of the thing to determine the sense and meaning but it must be got out as it can and therefore it is unreasonable that what is in it self ambiguous should be understood in its own prime sense and intention under the pain of either a sin or Anathema I instance in that place Hoc est corpus meum the words are plain and apt to be understood in a literal sense which yet doth violence to reason but if you expound these words figuratively besides that you contest against a world of prejudices you give your self the liberty which if others should take when they have either a reason or necessity so to do they may perhaps turn all into Allegory and so may evacuate any precept and elude any Argument Lib. Prop. p. 67 68 69. Pacif. Do these words become one who wisheth well to the Protestant reformation Have our Martyrs alway understood those words Hoe est corpus meum in a figurative sense and have they upon that account ventured the loss of life and all things that were dear unto them and must the World now be told that in such an interpretation they gave rhemselves the liberty which if others should take all Scripture would be turned into an Allegory Irascor referens and I pray you how is it possible to quiet weak and tender consciences if some places of Scripture do contain mysteries of great concernment and yet there is no certain mark to determine whether the sense of them be figurative or literal Is the merciful God wont to set his poor creatures on the rack to bring them into labyrinths to set down things which are apt to breed scruples in their minds and to leave no certain rule by which they may determine in what sense the words in which such things are comprehended are to be taken Absit absit Laud There are some places of Scripture that have the self-same expressions the same preceptive words the same reason and account in all appearance and yet either must be expounded to quite different senses or else we must renounce the Communion and the charities of a great part of Christendome And yet there is absolutely nothing in the thing or in its circumstances or in its adjuncts that can determine it to different purposes I instance in these great exclusive negatives for the necessity of both Sacraments Nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aquâ c. Nisi mandua caveritis carnem filii hominis c. Liber Prophes. p. 69. Pacif. A prodigious assertion must I renounce the Communion and Charities of a great part of Christendome unless I will expound places of Scripture to a quite different sense that have the self-same expressions and that though there be absolutely nothing in the thing or in its circumstances or in its adjuncts that can determine them to different purposes if so then farewell the Communions and Charities of Christendome for to take such a course would be to do violence to my judgment reason and every thing by which I am denominated a man As for the two places you instance in the sense of them is quite mistaken by the Papists as our reformed Divines undeniably prove and me thinks the Romanists should easily yield they are mistaken or else they must needs leave themselves under horrible doubts about their eternal salvation for if they that dye unbaptised go to some part of Hell and none are baptised but those whom the Priest had an intention of baptizing when he sprinkled them with or dipped them in water how many of them must lose the joys of Heaven on that account And if those words are to be understood literally Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood c. What will become of their Laity who are not permitted to drink of the consecrated Wine their device of concomitantia will not sure make eating only to be eating and drinking It is a good sport to a Scholar who hath wear ed himself with other studies to observe how the Popish Writers are put to it to excuse their Church for not administring the Eucharist to Infants and I cannot but wonder what moved the Papists to such a practice seeing they give so much to the Sacrament viz. to confer grace by the work done and to fortifie the soul against Satan But what think you of the fulness and perspicuity of the holy Scriptures Laud There are some points of good concernment which if any man should question in an high manner they would prove indeterminable
by Scripture or sufficient reason Liber Prop. p. 89. Pacif. Points of good concernment not determinable by Scriptures nor yet by Reason How contrary is this to what is quoted out of Chrysostom and Fulgentius in the Homlly Exhorting to the reading of the holy Scripture p. 2. Besides such an assertion doth very much tend to discourage men from making enquiry into Truth for if such points are not determinable by either Scripture or Reason how shall they be determined If by the Church I say the Church in her determinations must be guided by Scripture and Reason or else her members are not obliged to regard her determinations Laud I must negatively conclude that all things necessary to the Salvation of all are not of themselves clear in the Scripture to all understandings whereby I say not that all such things are not contained in the Scriptures as if some things necessary to the salvation of all were to be received by Tradition alone Nor that being in the Scriptures they are not clear and discernable to the understandings of those that are furnished with means requisite to discern the meaning of Scripture But that which I stand upon is that it is not nor ought to be a presumption that this or that is not necessary to Salvation because it is not clear in the Scriptures which if it were admitted whosoever were able to make such an argument against any Article of Faith as all understandings interessed in salvation could not dissolve should have gained this that though it may be true yet it cannot be an Article of Faith Principles of Christian Truth p. 25. Pacif. It is beyond all dispute that all things contained in Scripture are not clear to all understandings there are some understandings to which nothing is clear it is also past dispute that they who understand Scriptures must be first furnished with all means necessarily requisite for the understanding of Scriptures and which is more they must make use of those means and pray to God for a blessing upon them but this is said by Protestants against Papists that God hath made nothing necessary for the Salvation of all men Necessitate praecepti medii but such things as are so clearly laid down in the Word that all who will make use of the abilities God hath vouchsafed may find them out and that men may safely conclude that is not a necessary Article of Religion which is not clear in some place or other of Scripture clear I say with such a clearness as may satisfie the conscience though not with such as may satisfie curiosity Laud The holy Scriptures in the first time of the Christian Church were not communicated to all men all at once for the Primitive Fathers wisely considered how extreamly perillous it might be to expose the whole Scripture unto ignorant mens use and judgement or indeed abuse rather and want of judgement surely more dangerous and pernicious it might prove unto mens souls then to leave a whole Apothecaries shop open to a diseased person who might as well choose and take deadly poyson to his destruction as a Soveraign medicine to the recovery of his health Had the souls of men been so carefully watched over by their Governors and such portions of Scripture wisely and fatherly dispensed unto them as might with such holy reservedness have met with mens proficiency surely such prodigious Monsters had not been counterfeited out of the Word of God by the spirit of Opinion as in these later dayes we have seen and lament to see Dr. Gell. Preface to his Essay about the amendment of our English Translation Pacif. That by the free reading of the Holy Scriptures some very dangerous Opinions have been occasioned accidentally is no question but that therefore any part of the Scripture should be locked up in an unknown Tongue from the Vulgar is no stronger an inference then if one should argue because some have burned their fingers and houses with candle and fire therefore the free use of those creatures is not to be vouchsafed in a Common-wealth And as I think the conclusion to be absurd so I am sure 'T is quite contrary to the whole scope and design of the Homilies called an Information of them that take offence at certain places of Holy Scripture Laud The further we proceed in the survey of the Scripture the Translation is the more faulty as the Hagiographa more then the Historical Scripture and the Prophets more then the Hagiographa and the Apocrypha most of all and generally the New-Testament more then the Old Idem near the end of his Preface Pacif. Such a censure might have been born from the pen of the Rhemish and Doway Divines but who can bear it from one pretending to be an English Protestant the Translation is Vsque ad invidiam aliarum gentium elaborata Translatio It was sufficiently defended in the parts that you find most fault with by Dr. Fulk and Cartwright against the Cavils of the Rhemists and may more easily be defended against the exceptions taken to it by you But there is another thing that offends me in your former words viz. That you seem to make the Apocrypha part of the Scripture which word when it is taken absolutely and without addition should suppose only for Canonical Scripture and I do the more doubt that you advance the Apocrypha higher then do our Reformed Divines because I find you ascribing the Book of Wisdom to Solomon p. 51. whereas that Book was sure written by one of a spirit far inferior to that which acted Solomon in his writings Laud Such is the boldness and ignorance of some that they have left out of their impressions the Apocryphal Scriptures whereby they have gotten this whereof to glory that they have done that which no wise or honest man hath done before them so far as I have yet known or I hope will adventure to do after them Dr. Gell Pref. Pacif. To devest all those who had an hand in leaving the Apocrypha out of our English Bibles of all wisdom and honesty is very hard for what if those Apocryphal writings be of some good use yet there 's nothing in them should make it necessary or expedient to bind them up with the Canon why may they not be kept in a Volume by themselves or indeed how can they be read by private Christians at all without apparent hazard and scandal seeing some of them contain notorious lyes some of them justifie such things as God Law and the Law of Nature too do condemn But before we proceed any further suffer me to know your mind about Reason and Councils Laud All Controversies are reducible to two heads Goodness or Truth so that the question is Whether right reason can infallibly judge what is good or bad true or false for a thing to be morally good for Metaphysical Goodness is all one with Truth depends by sure connexion from that Eternal Justice which is primarily in God
accommodato adorationi erectam aut constitutam modus autem aecomodatus adorationi est cum imago depicta aut sculpta est per se non veluti appendix additamentum alterius rei in ornatum illius rei Beware lest thou make to thy self i. e. to any religious use any grauen image Homily Perill of Idol p. 42. Laud The examples of the Seraphims and Brazen Serpent tell us that to make pictures or statues of creatures is not against a natural reason and that they may have uses which are profitable as well as be abused to danger and superstition Now although the nature of that people was apt to the abuse yet Christianity hath so far removed that danger that our blessed Law-giver thought it not necessary to remove us from superstition by a prohibition of the use of images and pictures and for the matter of images we have no other rule left us in the New Testament the rules of reason and nature and the other parts of the Institution are abundantly sufficient for our security And possibly St. Paul might relate to this when he affirmed concerning the fifth that it was the first Commandment with a promise for the second Commandment had a promise of shewing mercy to thousand generations but because the body of this Commandment was not transcribed into the Christian Law the first of the Decalogue which we retain and in which a promise is inserted is the fift Commandment G. E. part 2. p. 111 112. Pacif. Do you then think that the second Commandment is not retained by us Christians I never thought but that it was if not natural yet moral of universal and perpetual obligation of this judgement were the Ancients Irene lib. 4. cap. 31. August lib. 19. contra Faus cap. 18 Epis 119. cap. 12 Not to speak of Clem Alex. who in his Adhortatory Oration to the Gentiles plainly saith that the Commandment obligeth us as well as the Jews though he seem to be mistaken in giving the sense of it this way also go all Protestants though indeed the Papists do make this law but temporary In a word God allowed the Jews a civil use of Images and other he alloweth not to us under the Gospel who are not so much out of danger of Idolatry and superstition as you seem to imply Laud Images have three uses assigned by the Popish Schools instruction of the rude commonefaction of History and stirring up of devotion they and we also give unto them Gagg p. 300. The pictures of Christ the blessed Virgins and Saints may be made had in houses set up in Churches respect and honour may be given to them the Protestants do it and use them for helps of Piety in rememoration and more effectual representing of the Prototipe Ans. to Gagg p. 818. Pacif. The Church of England teacheth her children quite another lesson Hom. against the peril of Idol Part 3. p. 42. It is unlawful that the Image of Christ should be made or that the Image of any Saint should be made especially to be set up in Temples to the great and unavoidable danger of Idolatry we grant Images used for no Religion or Superstition rather we mean Images of none worshipped or in danger to be worshipped may be suffered but Images placed publickly in Temples cannot possibly be without danger of Idolatry many such passages may be picked out of that Homily which are the more considerable because of all our Homilies it seemeth to be penned with most exactness Laud It is the Consecration that makes Churches holy and makes God esteem them so which though they be not capable of grace yet by their consecration they receive a spiritual power whereby they are made fit for Divine Service and being consecrated there is no danger in ascribing holiness unto them Tedder his Visit Sermon licensed by Dr. Baker an. 1637. Pacif. That Churches do by Consecration receive any spiritual power whereby they are made more fit for Divine Service than other places or that the same company meeting in a private house and praying by the same Spirit should not be as acceptable to God as in the Church is Superstition to affirm nor did the Church of England ever teach any such Doctrine yet I easily grant that in peaceable times and under Christian Princes the people of God ought to have their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and that it is a broach of civil decency to employ these places set a part for Gods Worship to any common uses ordinarily Laud We use signing with the sign of the Cross both in the fore-head and elsewhere witness that solemn Form in our Baptism for which we are so quarrelled by our factions the flesh is signed that the soul may be fortified saith Tertullian and so do we Ans. to Gagg p. 320. Pacif. If any one besides the Minister useth signing with the Cross or if he use it at any time but in Baptism or on any place but on the forehead 't is done without any warrant at all from the Church of England and our Church retained the sign of the Cross in Baptism only as an outward Ceremony and honorable Badge but it doth not ascribe any efficacy unto it of fortifying the soul and declares the child to be perfectly baptized before it be signed with the sign of the Cross as plainly appears from the Book of Canons agreed upon 1603. Chapter Of the lawful use of the Cross Laud Baptism of Infants is most certainly a holy and charitable Ordinance and of ordinary necessity to all that ever dyed and yet the Church hath founded this Rite on the Tradition of the Apostles and wise men do easily observe that the Anabaptists can by the same probability of Scripture enforce a necessity of communicating Infants upon us as we do of Baptizing Infants upon them if we speak of an immediate Divine Institution or of practice Apostolical recorded in Scripture and therefore a great Master of Geneva in a Book he writ against Anabaptists was faign to fly to Apostolical Traditive Ordination and therefore the Institution of Bishops must be served first as having fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants and yet they that deny this are by the just Anathema of the Church Catholick condemned for Hereticks Dr. Tayl. Episc. Asser. p. 100 101. Pacif. 'T is gratis dictum that the Institution of Bishops hath fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants nor can you prove that they who deny the Baptism of Infants are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick much less that they who deny the Institution of Bishops superior in order to Presbyters are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick Hath a whole Book been written to prove that none are to be anathematized who consent to the Articles of the Apostles Creed and must it now be worthy an Anathema to deny Infant Baptism who but a Papist ever said
printed what he did in this matter and if Dr. Ham who so much decryeth any thing that hath but the appearance of bitterness in others can not only brook but also admire the writings of Dr. Heylin notwithstanding all the bitterness that is in them I must needs say that Ployden is not the only man with whom the case doth alter for sure the tartness which he blameth in Dr. Owen is not comparable to that which runneth through all the veins of Dr. Heylins books But I must not count my self engaged to believe any thing of this nature till I see something testified under Dr. Ham his own hand then the world shall know who told the story Laud But the Doctor hopeth he hath made it appear that Calvinism was not the Native and Original doctrine of the Church of England though in a short time it overspread a great part thereof Pres. to His. Quin. Artic. Pacif. He may hope where no hope is and that he doth so in this particular Theophilus Churchman hath evinced in his Review of the Certam Epistolare which was bnt an Epitome of this Historia quin Artic. the Doctor all along using the very same shifts and almost the very same words in one book that he doth in the other and herein he doth but antiquum obtinere for so in his Resp. Pet. he tels the very same tale that he did in the History of the Sab. not vouchsafing to take any notice that two learned men had in print many years before answered all his Subterfuges And he that can thus bring an old book upon the Stage under a new Title and rob his former writings to fill up the bulk of his latter doth but declare that he hath got an itch of scribling which I am not so good a Physician as to be able to cure As for the indignities that he hath offered to the Belgick Churches I leave him to be chastized by the pens of some of their owm Members who will easily manifest that the Synod of Dort was not so ugly a creature as he hath made it and that the proceedings against the Remonstrants were neither unjust nor yet rigorous Mean while I refer the reader to what Hornebeck hath said in his Summa Contr. I must only take leave to say something in vindication of T. C. in throwing reproaches upon whom the Doctor is so very not only liberal but also profuse He tels us that the gentleman whom he did strive to prefer to Mag. was none of his blood T. C. never said that he was and that he was a singular good Scholar T. C. never denyed it As for Mr. Hickman he was one of the means of procuring him an exhibition of fifteen pound per annum to help towards his subsistence in the Universitie till he should be able to provide himself of some such place as might alone suffice to keep him But sure Dr. Heylin when he sought to bring in this his friend a friend I hope is relatum did not take the Colledge to be a nest of Cuckoos he would not sure have took a courtesie from Mr. Praesi if he had not judged him to have power sufficient to bestow it And had his friend been made Fellow of the Colledg he would sure for his sake have been so civil as not to have used so ugly a similitude Indeed if singing alway the same note and tune make a Cuckoo all the Cuckoos do not lodg at Mag. Colledge Next the Doctor labours to prove that it was no slander to say That the new Sabbath speculations of Dr. Bound had been more passionately embraced of late then any one Article of Religion here by Law established But this he proveth by such an argument as I perswade my self he himself takes not to have any colour of truth in it Because impunity is indulged by them to all Anabaptists Familists Ranters By them whom meaneth the Doctor if he mean by any that deserve the name of Calvinists his Conscience cannot but flie in his face if by them he mean the Souldiers whose violence prevailed so far as to seclude the Members of that Parliament which was if any the Presbyterian Parliament then his Argument must run thus The Souldiers many of whom are Anabaptists and Arminians all of them Anticalvinists have procured impunity to Familists Ranters Quakers and yet not for those who transgress the Laws about the Sabbath therefore the Calvinists are more zealous about the Sabbath speculations then about any one Article of Religion by Law established If the world will be cheated with such arguments let it be cheated yet dare not I imitate the Doctour in despising of authority or speaking evil of dignities I dare not leave it in print That the Justice used cursed rigor who made a Victualler pay ten shillings for selling a half-penny loaf to a poor man in time of Sermon I rather think it was cursed rigor to Excommunicate Mr. Paul Bains for withdrawing to drink a little Wine or Beer after he had spent himself in Preaching a Sermon yet this I find practised The Doctor next proceedeth to make some Apology for his calling himself His Majesties Creature and the workmanship of his hands One while he seems to say no such thing dropped from his Pen another while that if it had the expression might have been justified He hath been told where and by whom it was averred that he did use those expressions I only now tell him The Gentleman was fasting when he so said and that M. C. Bursery is not a place in which men are or I hope ever were suffered to inflame themselves with wine and strong drink so as to make them talk that which they would be ashamed to own afterwards As to the expression it self I had well hoped that if a Courtier could have stooped so low in flattery yet no Divine whose work is to be Kings remembrancer that they are but Mortal Creatures and Creeping Dust durst have used any such language if the Doctor dare he shall pardon me if I do not take him to be the tenderest Conscienced Theologue in Christendome As for what concerneth Dr. Barlow I say but this That both Mr. John Martin Fellow of C. C. C. Ox. and also Dr. Henry Wilkinson will witness that Mr. Sparks did assert all that to be truth which T. C. hath published and that Mr. Sparks was both a learned man and a good man all the University will witness but as for the aged person who related this to Mr. Sparks he either is or very lately was alive In a word the book written by T. C. never was answered never will be answered except by such an Animal as M. O. whose eyes Mr. P. and Dr. Heylin have put out that he might the more easily grind in their mill The book was made by one whom the Vic. of Oxon loves and respects and that a sheet or two were printed ar London was by the Authors own consent meerly to avoid that clamour which else the Dr. might have raised upon the Vice who loveth not to meddle with those Salamanders that are never in their Element but when they are in the fire of contention The Doctor complaineth much of ribaldry obscenity c. but let him first pull out the beam that is in his own eye Loripedem rectus derideat AEthiopem Albus There 's a pretty story of a Cardinal and the Abbot of Fulda travelling together towards Ulma either of them attended with 30. horsemen compleatly armed My Lord saith the Cardinal do you think St. Bennet who was the Author of your Order went thus attended The Abbot presently replyed upon him and demanded If St. Peter ever rode in that state as his Fatherhood did If Dr. Heylin blame T. C. for one unseemly passage and that 's all he can charge him with which had been expunged also had not the Impression been so suddenly took off the Stationers hand T. C. will not be at a loss to find one as bad or far worse to lay in the Doctors dish I must spare neither and therefore say They both have so worded matters now and then that they have reason to beg the charity of men to excuse them and the mercy of God to pardon them and that the world may learn by their example more to mind the Doctrine which is according to godliness and less and more rarely to engage in Controversies is the prayer of The Lords most unworthy creature March 20. 1659. FINIS Meipsum invenio Bell de ver. Dei lib. 3. cap. 10. See worse language than this in the writings of Dr. Heylin and Mr. Tho. P. Vide C. P. Part. 1.