Licensed April 1. 1687. AN ANSWER TO Mr. Lowth's LETTER TO Dr. Stillingfleet In another Letter to a FRIEND LONDON Printed for Randal Taylor near Stationers Hall. MDCLXXXVII An Answer c. SIR BEcause you had so often desired it I have at last forced my self to turn over Mr. Lowth's Letter to Dr. Stillingsleet I found it a very tedious and uneasie Task You had been almost as kind if you had chang'd your Pennance and ordered me to walk to Highgate with Pease in my Shooes The Way you sent me proved so rugged and uneven that every step I took I fancyed I was treading upon Cinders and Pibble-stones But I am resolved to be revenged I 'le send you another Letter that shall be as troublesome to you as that was to me But I 'le promise you for your Comfort it shall be scarce half so long and not above a quarter so Ill-natured I cannot imagine what should move Mr. Lowth to fall upon the Dean in such a manner If it were pure Zeal 't is great pity it had not been tempered with more discresion if there were any thing of particular Pique in the Case it was not managed with Artifice enough The World will never swallow the Potion when the Venom swims on the top of the Cup. The first known occasion of Mr. Lowth's ingaging of Dr. Stillingsleet was the Pretence of the Irenicum A Book set out by the Dean in his younger Years in which were many passages which his riper Judgment could not approve And this he had signified to the World in other Writings which came abroad before the Publication of Mr. Lowth's Papers But here you must note the grand Objection against the Irenicum had been formerly made by T. G. and his Companions they had found as they pretended that the Design of it was only to Ruine and destroy the Church of England And that was a thing which they Good men were not able to indure and therefore out of pure kindness no doubt they discover the Plot and warn us of the danger we had cause to apprehend from this young brisk Presbyterian that had disguised himself in Irenicum Armour The Truth of it is they had reason enough to be very desirous to be delivered from a troublesome Adversary They saw by experience they were not able to oppose his force and to secure themselves they found it necessary if possible to give him a Diversion And this seasonable assistance Mr. Lowth very wisely affords them by fomenting the Jealousies they had cunningly raised In his Treatise concerning the Subject of Church-Power besides some insinuations in the Book it self to the same purpose there is a Letter to Dr. Stillingfleet c. Printed after that to the Reader wherein he is imperiously Summoned and little less than Commanded to satisfy the Church of God by a recantation as publick as his Error Scandal and Offence And then he is gravely admonished to consider that he has not erred in the Leviora Evangelii and that the Point is whether God has a Church on Earth with its peculiar appropriated Power or not This bold and importunate demand of Satisfaction seconded with so heavy a Charge urged upon him with so much fierceness after he had given sufficient Evidence of the contrary and done the Church very considerable Service upon several occasions could not choose but incline the Dean to reject the Calumny with some degree of just resentment Which he did in a short Epistle to my Lord Bishop of London where you may see that he was not wholly insensible of the abuse but yet notwithstanding the great Provocation he had received he could not be tempted to any rude and undecent expressions Though Mr. Lowth has snatched up some of them in haste and by the help of a rare Art of Composure which he has gotten has mixed and altered and jumbled them together I know not how till he has made a shift at last to make them look almost as oddly as some of his own This you will find he has done about the beginning of this Letter which he tells us is In answer to the Deans Epistle Dedicatory For it was the gentle rebuke which had been given him in that Two-penny Letter as he elegantly calls it that put him out of all Patience and set his Blood into such a violent fermentation that I cannot observe any great abatement of the Paroxysme for eighty four Pages together It seems to be little else but a continued sit of Passion and the Dean is all along treated with that gross disrespect that it must needs be a very pleasing entertainment to the Gentlemen of the Romish Perswasion to see him who had frequently baffled the subtillest Advocates they could find not confuted but abused and affronted by an angry Man of our own Church This is certain they were the only Men I ever heard of that applauded the Letter when it came abroad His other Friends who were not much displeased with his first Book were quite ashamed when they saw This they had not a word that they could offer in defence of it The most partial Readers were not able to frame any Apology for so much rudeness That you may not think I load it with prejudice without a Cause I will make it evident in some Reflections upon a few passages of the Letter and then consider the business of the Irenicum which gave the occasion to the whole Debate If you look into the Dean's Epistle you may observe that he has expressed a due sense of the injury done him but never let fall a word any ways unbecoming a Person of Civil and Ingenuous Education But Mr. Lowth as I intimated before has raked together some scattered expressions and by a strange Liberty of adding altering and misapplying as he thought best for his purpose would make the World believe that the Dean had represented him in a woful scandalous manner After some general flourishes of Clamorous Objections riotous Pag. 12. Noises choice Epithets and the like he goes on thus If you can reap any satisfaction from loading me with the general Titles of a Plagiary ridiculous fool malicious unskillful maker of Controversies a barbarous and rude Disputer with his Brethren an accuser of his Brethren an implacable Man uncharitable unjust Slanderer proud void of Prudence and common discretion the usual Complements you are pleased to bestow upon me you may be happy in the injoyment of your humour though it hath not an Irenical Complection But I that design nothing but the pursuit of Truth and Honesty c. And a very good Design really it is and I hope he will be careful to keep it always in his eye But I must look a little and inquire into the Titles of Honour he says he is loaded with Plagiary I cannot find this Title in all the Dean's Epistle nor any thing from whence it may be gathered without mightily straining of his words It has been always accounted an ill
Project was not only Great but Good an attempt to heal the Wounds of a miserable divided bleeding Church A Design so vast and important that they could not but wonder how it should enter the Thoughts of so young a Man. And then the Method he pursued for compassing the end he had proposed though not altogether such as they would have taken yet it inclined so far to the Episcopal side as they could scarce have expected from one that had been bred up among the Mists and Confusions of those distracted and unhappy Times And the whole was prosecuted with that subtilty of Argument that Perspicuity of style and that Variety of Learning that in these respects even at those years he might have deserved the Reputation of an Eminent Divine There were some flashes of a Juvenile Fancy which would soon be corrected by a riper Judgment Some Errors there must be acknowledged but commonly of that Sort which a little further consideration would easily amend And the very slips and mistakes that were to be met with were such as were signes of great Ingenuity and had something mixed with them that could not but please those that condemned them The Book indeed might be compared to one of those Trees that are thick hung with plenty of Fruit of several growths some Ripe some Green some in the Blossom and some in the Bud which all together afford a very pleasant Prospect argue an exceeding Luxuriancy and Fertility in the Soil and may be all brought to perfect maturity in their due time When the Prudent and Reverend Governours of our Church saw the Performance they looked upon it with Admiration The Errors they observed which were almost hid in the Excellencies of the work they readily pardoned and conceived that such Pregnancy of Parts and accuracy of Learning which were very discernable in that first Essay of so young a Writer did justly deserve all the incouragement which they could give And they thought it Pity that those Abilities which had discovered themselves so soon and might be improved to the singular Advantage of the Church should not be always imployed upon some Subject worthy of them When therefore the Answer to Arch-Bishop Laud came abroad which was not long after the publication of the Irenicum some of them who had been personally known to his Grace and all of them great sufferers for their Religion and Loyalty had such an opinion of Mr. Stillingsleet that they made choice of him to undertake the Defence of the Conference with Fisher Which he set about and dispatcht in a few Months with that success that a very Grave and Learned Prelate thought fit to honour it with a Licence under his own Hand And it was afterwards entertained with general approbation and I do not see what there is in it to be despised or cavilled at by Mr. Lowth However it is plain that those Reverend Persons at whose desire he undertook the Work had great confidence of his Skill and Ability to manage a Controversie of that moment and consequence and he did not deceive their expectation in the Performance He acquitted himself so well in those weighty Disputes they had ingaged him in that they could not but have a very particular respect and esteem for him which has been constantly maintained by those of their Order ever since And if he stood so fair in their good opinion when he had so lately published the Irenicum this manifestly declares that they were not then so angry with the Book nor with him for Writing it as Mr. Lowth was pleased to be above twenty year after I will therefore as I promised consider his judgement about it by it self And what he thought of it when it first came out I cannot tell and it matters not much what ever it were But that he might not be accused for doing any thing rashly when he had pawsed upon the business almost as many years as the Dean was old when he wrote that unlucky Book out he sends a very fierce Epistle and peremptorily demands a Publick Recantation and when he had been gently reflected on for that he seconds it with this other long Letter which I have before me You see the matter was a great while a Brewing He suffered his Choller to boyl inwardly so long without giving it any vent that I fear it was become a little Adust but now I hope since the plentiful Evacuation it has had in these angry Letters he may be grown more treatable and not so apt to break out into uncivil and passionate Expressions For truly all the while he was writing he seems in a mighty wrath at the poor Irenicum And what do you think should be the reason that he above all men should have such a particular quarrel against it The Bishops you know and all the Clergy for ought that I could ever hear though they could not approve of the whole yet they were never so highly displeased but that they could pardon the mistakes that were in it And it was a very long time before Mr. Lowth himself took any notice of them Twenty year as I have told you at least now if he did really think the Book so very mischievous as he at last pretended why did he not make his Animadversions upon it any sooner if he did not wherefore did he publish them at all Or if he did verily believe that the Iremcum was such a pernicious Treatise and might be of such dangerous insluence as he would seem to apprehend what wise purpose could it serve to revive the memory of it when it was laid out of most men's hands and in a manner forgotten But I am not to answer for the prudence or Honesty of the Action I will only acquaint you with the mystery of the business why He of all men in the World should concern himself so zealously about it And I will shew it you from his own words for when he had mentioned that Pag. 12. and some other things which he liked as well All this says he might make a greater impression upon me than on some others And why so I pray Because I had for some years applyed my Studies to search after the Rights of the Church c. And what then Had no body else done the same had none of the Bishops or Clergy of the Nation bent their minds that way He does not tell us Or if he will allow they had either it seems they were not subject to such sad impressions as he was or else they had not so deep an insight into the matter They could not discover the Design as he did The desperate Design that was most cunningly laid to ruine the Church of England by shewing the People that it was certainly Lawful and in some cases necessary to submit to the Episcopal Power This is all the formidable Plot that I can see which provoked him so much and put him in such a fright that he imagines we are
the beginning of his Letter he very Complementally Rejoyces and thanks him for it No man more But that was suddainly slipt out of his mind therefore I will take the liberty to refresh his Pag. 3. Memory with a passage or two which will clear the matter we are now upon And besides the general Scope of a great part of the Discourse in one place he delivers his mind thus That the Bishops did succeed Dr. Stillingfleet's Serm. p. 30. the Apostles we have the general consent of the Antient Fathers who were the most competent Witnesses in this Case which is an Argument they believed the Apostolical Power with respect to the Government of Churches did not expire with the Apostles but was to continue as long as Christ had promised to be with them i. e. to the end of the World. And afterwards again Our Church hath wisely and truly determined that since the Apostles times there have been three Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons and then he adds and in a regular well constituted Church are to Continue Ib. Pa. 38. to the World's end These are as full declarations of his Judgement concerning the Perpetuity and immutability of Episcopacy as can be desired unless Mr. Lowth should conceit that the Church Triumphant is governed by Bishops and may hope to be made one in the other world But how the overlooking of these and many things else and insisting still upon the old accusation as if it had not been clearly answered can comport with his Design of Truth and Honesty is worth the inquiry I leave it to your thoughts and hope I have made it plainly appear that the Dean has given very good satisfaction for all the Errours and Mistakes that have been laid to his charge This Letter is grown longer than I intended when I began it and yet I have taken some pains to contract it For if I had followed Mr. Lowth in all his Rambles and remarked every thing that was really exceptionable it would have been five times the length and must have been Read by you with as little pleasure as his was I have dealt with him as tenderly as I could and if I have said any thing that may seem severe it has been extorted by his unsufferable Rudeness to a better Man. Look upon his Letter once more and you will readily excuse the hardest word I have given him He takes care to let the World know that his first Book was the Result of the Course of his Subject Church Power Pref. Studies and so it might but this can be the Result of nothing but Anger and want of Consideration and an inveterate kindness for his Adversary For there is not any thing in it clearly proved but an untractable crossness and an impotent desire to be Cavilling at every thing the Dean can write Of this we have had many evidences already and you may expect more when you shall have the happiness to see another choice Piece with which he is sometimes threatning the Reader For he seems resolved to signalize himself for ever by still Renewing his bold Attempts upon the Dean of St. Pauls That he should have the Ambition I do not wonder but what should give him the Confidence I cannot certainly tell only I conjecture there is one thing may have done him some harm and put him upon enterprizing above his strength You know he pretends to have been very Conversant in some of the best Authors and his Industry for ought I know might have been commendable enough but then as 't is probable associating himself often with some that had little or no skill in that way among whom he might safely swagger with the great Names of Bishops Doctors and Fathers of the Church Ib. Catholick the Church Historians Councils and Laws Imperial c. and they stand all amazed and stare upon him and take him for nothing less than a perfect Oracle of Antiquity And as most men are apt to think well of themselves this might increase the conceit of his own Learning and make him presume so far as to Judge himselfan over-match for the Dean and there upon write to him with as much assurance as if he had been dictating to his ignorant Admirers over a Dish of Coffee He had been so used to give Law to his Companions that he imagined all the World would have held their Peace and gaped at him as they were Wont But he was very much deceived the Generality of men had quite another sense of Things they were something startled with the first but they were out of all patience at the incomparable Rudeness of this second Attack I am affraid I may incur his displeasure by the freedom I have taken to remind him of it but I deserve his Thanks for indeavouring to make him sensible of those faults for which he stands condemned by all the World. For I am confident there is not so much as a Remnant of that little Party which was once carefully fomented against the Dean and some others about Cosmus Blene now remaining 't is very likely they have all deserted For sure they could not be so very Weak but that they must plainly see that their mighty Champion has been able to do just nothing at last afte all his Hussing and Blustering for the Cause You cannot esteem any Expression I have used too harsh when you reflect upon the Contempt and incivility with which the Dean has been treated neither will you think any thing I have written too Light and Ludicrous when you consider that meer Indignation may provoke a man to Laugh A Person that has been most eminently seviceable to the Church is a Publick concern and his Reputation ought not to be blasted by every indiscreet and passionate Writer How Mr. Lowth will answer to his own Conscience this bold and repeated attempting to defame the Dean at this time upon false and frivolous pretences I do not know If he make an acknowledgement for the Injury by a Recantation as Publick as the Error Scandal and Offence he will do like an Honest Man but if he resolve to write on still to exercise his Style or to discharge a little more of his Choler he may please himself But unless he have something more material to say than he has yet offer'd all true Lovers of Learning and the Church of England will always continue upon the Dean's side I am SIR Your Humble Servant March the 10 th 1686 / 7. FINIS