the Doctrine but the Book till I had Corrected it and did disown it as too unmeet an Expression of my Mind which I had more fully exprest in other Books And is not this plain English Doth this warrant a Wise and Righteous Man to intimate that I accuse him of writing against that Doctrine of Justification which I Recanted and to call for the What and Where and When Yea and tell me that I refer you to a small Book when instead of referring you to it I only blame you for referring to that alone when I had said as before When many Divines have published the first Edition of their Works imperfectly and greatly corrected and enlarged them in a Second as Beza his Annotations Polanus his Syntagma and many such all Men take it for an Injury for a Neighbour twenty years after to select the first Edition to confute as the Author's Judgment Much more might I when I published to the World that I Suspended the whole Book and have these twenty four years hindred the Printing of it professing that I have in many larger Books more intelligibly and fully opened the same things Yea you fear not pag. 23. to say That I tell you of about 60 Books of Retractations in part at least which I have Written when never such a word fell from me If I say That one that hath published his Suspension of a small Book written in Youth not for the Doctrine of it but some unfit Expressions and hath since in al-most thirty Years time written about sixty Books in many or most of which is somewhat of the same Subject and in some of them he fullier openeth his Mind should be dealt with by an Adversary according to some of his later and larger Explications and not according to the Mode and Wording of that one Suspended Book alone Shall such a Man as you say that I tel you of about sixty Books of Retractations Or will it not abate Mens reverence of your disputing Accurateness to find you so untrusty in the Recitation of a Man's words The truth is it is this great Defect of Heed and Accurateness by hasty Temerity which also spoileth your Disputations But pag. 7. the Aphorisms must be The most Schollar-like and Elaborate though Erroneous Book in Controversie you ever Composed Answ 1. Your Memory is faulty Why say you in the next that I appeal to my Disputation of Justification and some others but you cannot Trudg up and down to every place I would send you your Legs are too weak Either you had read all the sixty Books which you mention the Controversal at least or not If not How can you tell that the Aphorisms is the most Elaborate If yea Why do you excuse your Trudging and why would you select a Suspended Book and touch none that were Written at large on the same Subject 2. By this I suâ—pose to make your Nibble to seem a Triumph you tell your Reader again how to value your Judgment Is it like that any Dunce that is diligent should Write no more Schollar-like at Sixty years of Age than at Thirty And do you think you know better what of mine is Elaborate than I do Sure that Word might have been spared When I know that one printed Leaf of Paper hath cost me more Labour than all that Book and perhaps one Scheme of the Distinctions of Justification which you deride If indeed you are a competent Judg of your own Writings Experience assureth me that you are not so of mine And pag. 25. you say You desire not to be preferred before your Betters least of all when you are singular as here I think you are § III. Pag. 9. You are offended for being put in the Cub with divers mean and contemptible Malefactors Answ O for Justice 1. Was not Bellarmin or some of the Papists and the Socinians as great Malefactors with whom as you phrase it you put me in the Cub 2. Are they Malefactors so far as they agree with you in Doctrine and are you Innocent What is the Difference between your Treatise in the part that toucheth me and that of Mr. Eyres Mr. Crandon and some others such Dr. Owen and Dr. Kendale indeed differed from you the latter seeking by Bishop Vsher an amicable Closure and the former if I understand his Book on the Hebrews less differing from me in Doctrine than once he either did or seemed to do And if any of us all grow no Wiser in thirty years Study we may be ashamed But to give you your due Honour I will name you with your Equals as far as I can judg viz. Maccovius Cluto Coccejus and Cloppenburgius I mean but in the Point in Question it 's no Dishonour to you to give some of them Precedencie in other things It may be also Spanhemius was near you But if I may presume to liken my Betters no Men seem to me to have been so like you as Guilielmus Rivet not Andrew Mr. George Walker and Mr. Roborough I hope this Company is no Dishonour to you And very unlike you are Le Blank Camero Davenant Dr. Hammond Mr. Gataker Mr. Anthony Wotton and in Complexion Scotus and Ockam and such as they If yet I have not Chosen you pleasing Company I pray you choo se so your self But you say on Had you not in your Memory many Scores of greatest Eminence and Repute in the Christian World of the same Judgment with me Know you not I speak the same thing with all the Reformed Churches c. For shame let it be the Church of England with all the rest of the Reformed c. Answ 1. I know not what you hold even when I read what you write I must hope as well as I can that you know your self How then should I know who are of the same Judgment with you 2. Yet I am very confident that all they whom you mention are of the same in some thing or other and in particular that we are Justified by Faith and not by the Works of the Law or any Works in the sence denied by St. Paul c. 3. Do not I with as great Confidence as you lay Claim to the same Company and Concord And if one of us be mistaken must your bare Word determine which it is Which of us hath brought the fuller Proofs I subscribe to the Doctrine of the Church of England as well as you and my Condition these thirteen or fourteen years giveth as much Evidence that I am loth to subscribe to what I believe not as yours doth of you And you that know which of my Books is the most Elaborate sure know that in that Book which I Wrote to explain those Aphorisms called my Confession I cite the Words of above an Hundred Protestant Witnesses that give as much to Works as I do And that of this Hundred one is the Augustine Confession one the Westminster Synod one the Synod of Dort one the Church of England
so to p. 80. l. 17. r. if you will sontes p. 91. l. 20. dele the. p. 94. l. 2. for but r. as l. 11. dele and. p. 102. l. 1. r. per. p. 104. l. antipen r. Albericus p. 135. l. 20. r. praeditus l. 23. r. aliquem p. 112. l. 28. r. relatione p. 116. l. 21. r. fulfillers p. 120. l. 11. r. Vasquez p. 150. l. 26. r. indebitae p. 167. l. 29. for if r. is p. 184. l. penult for as r. and. In a Cursory view of some Pages I since see these faults PReface Page 8. Line 22. for and r. as Book 1. P. 172. l. 1. r. is it true Answer to the Letter P. 93. l. ult for Conformists r. Nonconformists Book 2. Part 3. P. 16. l. 20. for tum r. tu P. 54. l. 14. for apt r. yet l. 28. for produceth r. proceedeth P. 56. l. 13. for still r. not P. 65. l. 13. for Guilt r. Gift Book 2. Part 1. P. 259. l. 8. r. Causas P. 268. l. 4. for first r. full P. 269. l. 28 fore Jure r. iu re And I must tell the Reader that it is so long since the Papers to Mr. Cartwright were written that if there be any passage which in my later Writings I correct I must desire him to take the latter as my Judgment For I am none of those that pretend my Youthful Writings to be sufficiently Accurate much less Faultless or that to avoid the Imputation of Mutability profess to be no wiser than I was between twenty and thirty Years ago I find somewhat Book 2. Part 3. P. 51 52. which needeth this Explication viz. God as Judg of lapsed Man when He was judging him added an Act of Grace which in several respects is 1. A Promise 2. A Deed of Gift 3. An Act of Oblivion or universal conditional Pardon 4. A Law 5. And as it hath respect to Christs absolutely promised and foreseen Merits it may be said to be like or Equivolent to an universal conditional Sentence But taking the word Sentence strictly as it is a Sentence of the Individuals according to the Rule of a Law as kept or broken so it is not properly a Sentence as to us as is after proved A POSTSCRIPT ABOUT Mr. DANVERS ' s Last BOOK WHen this Book was coming out of the Press I received another Book of Mr. Danvers against Infants Baptism in which he mentioneth Dr. Tullies proving what a Papist I am in his Justif Paul with Dr. Pierces former Charges and lamenting that no more yet but one Dr. Tully hath come forth to Encounter me Epist and Pag. 224. The perusal of that Book with Mr. Tombs short Reflections directeth me to say but this instead of any further Confutation That it is as the former so full of false Allegations set off with the greatest Audacity even a few Lines of my own about our meeting at Saint James's left with the Clerk grosly falsified and former falsifications partly justified and partly past over and his most passionate Charges grounded upon Mistakes and managed by Misreports sometime of Words sometime of the Sense and sometime of Matters of Fact in short it is such a bundle of Mistake Fierceness and Confidence that I take it for too useless and unpleasant a Work to give the World a particular Detection of these Evils If I had so little to do with my Time as to write it I suppose that few would find leisure to read it And I desire no more of the willing Reader then seriously to peruse my Book More Reasons for Infants Church-membership with his and to examine the Authors about whose Words or Sense we differ Or if any would be Informed at a cheaper rate he may read Mr. Barrets Fifty Queries in two sheets And if Mr. Tombes revile me for not transcribing or answering more of his Great Book when I tell the Reader that I suppose him to have the Book before him and am not bound to transcribe such a Volume already in Print and that I answer as much as I think needs an Answer leaving the rest as I found it to the Judgment of each Reader he may himself take this for a Reply but I must judg of it as it is I find but one thing in the Book that needeth any other Answer than to peruse what is already Writtâ—n And that is about Baptizing Naked My Book was written 1649. A little before common uncontrolled Fame was that not far from us in one place many of them were Baptized naked reproving the Cloathing way as Antiscriptural I never heard 〈◊〉 deny this Report I conversed with divers of 〈…〉 Church who denied it not As 〈…〉 denied it to me so I never read one that did 〈…〉 to my knowledg He now tells me Mr. Fisher Mr. Haggar and Mr. Tombes did Let any Man read Mr. Tombes Answer to me yea and that Passage by him now cited and see whether there be a word of denial Mr. Fisher or Haggar I never saw Their Books I had seen but never read two Leaves to my remembrance of Mr. Fishers though I numbered it with those that were written on that Subject as well I might I knew his Education and his Friends and I saw the Great Volume before he turned Quaker but I thought it enough to read Mr. Tombes and others that wrote before him but I read not him nor all Mr. Haggars If I had I had not taken them for competent Judges of a fact far from them and that three years after Could they say that no one ever did so The truth is that three years after mistaking my words as if I had affirmed it to be their ordinary practice as you may read in them which I never did nor thought they vehemently deny this And such heedless reading occasioneth many of Mr. Danvers Accusations I never said that no Man ever denied it for I have not read all that ever was written nor spoken with all the World But no Man ever denied it to me nor did I ever read any that denied it And in a matter of Fact if that Fame be not credible which is of things Late and Near and not Contradicted by any one of the most interessed Persons themselves no not by Mr. Tombes himself we must surcease humane Converse Yet do I not thence undertake that the same was true either of those Persons or such as other Writers beyond Sea have said it off I saw not any one Baptized by Mr. Tombes or any other in River or elsewhere by Dipping at Age If you do no such thing I am sorry that I believed it and will recant it Had I not seen a Quaker go naked through Worcester at the Assizes and read the Ranters Letters full of Oathes I could have proved neither of them And yet I know not where so long after to find my Witnesses I abhor Slanders and receiving ill Reports unwarrantably I well know that this is not their ordinary Practice The Quakers do not
those things now which many did at the rising of the Sect and if I could I would believe they never did them 2. This Book of Mr. Danvers with the rest of the same kind increase my hatred of the Disputing Contentious way of writing and my trouble that the Cause of the Church and Truth hath so oft put on me a necessity to write in a Disputing way against the Writings of so many Assailants 3. It increaseth my Grief for the Case of Mankind yea of well-meaning godly Christians who are unable to judg of many Controversies agitated otherwise than by some Glimpses of poor Probability and the esteem which they have of the Persons which do manage them and indeed take their Opinions upon trust from those whom they most reverence and value and yet can so hardly know whom to follow whilst the grossest Mistakes are set off with as great confidence and holy pretence as the greatest Truths O how much should Christians be pitied that must go through so great Temptations 4. It increaseth my Resolution had I longer to live to converse with Men that I would profit or profit by either as a Learner hearing what they have to say without importunate Contradiction or as a Teacher if they desire to Learn of me A School way may do something to increase Knowledg but drenching Men and striving with them doth but set them on a fiercer striving against the Truth And when they that have need of seven and seven years Schooling more under some clear well studied Teacher are made Teachers themselves and then turned loose into the World as Sampsons Foxes to militate for and with their Ignorance what must the Church suffer by such Contenders 5. It increaseth my dislike of that Sectarian dividing hurtful Zeal which is described James 3. and abateth my wonder at the rage of Persecutors For I see that the same Spirit maketh the same kind of Men even when they most cry out against Persecutors and separate furthest from them 6. It resolveth me more to enquire less after the Answers to Mens Books than I have done And I shall hereafter think never the worse of a Mans writings for hearing that they are answered For I see it is not only easie for a Talking Man to talk on and to say something for or against any thing but it is hard for them to do otherwise even to hold their Tongues or Pens or Peace And when I change this Mind I must give the greatest belief to Women that will talk most or to them that live longest and so are like to have the last word or to them that can train up militant Heirs and Successors to defend them when they are dead and so propagate the Contention If a sober Consideration of the first and second writing yea of positive Principles will not inform me I shall have little hope to be much the wiser for all the rest 7. I am fully satisfied that even good 〈◊〉 are here so far from Perfection that they must bear with odious faults and injuries in one another and be habituated to a ready and easie forbearing and forgiving one another I will not so much as describe or denominate Mr. Danvers Citations of Dr. Pierce to prove my Popery and Crimes nor his passages about the Wars and about my Changes Self-contradictions and Repentances lest I do that which savoureth not of Forgiveness O what need have we all of Divine Forgiveness 8. I shall yet less believe what any Mans Opinion yea or Practice is by his Adversaries Sayings Collections Citations or most vehement Asseverations than ever I have done though the Reporters pretend to never so much Truth and pious Zeal 9. I shall less trust a confounding ignorant Reader or Writer that hath not an accurate defining and distinguishing Understanding and hath not a mature exercised discerning Knowledg than ever I have done and especially if he be engaged in a Sect which alas how few parts of the Christian World escape For I here and in many others see that you have no way to seem Orthodox with such but to run quite into the contrary Extream And if I write against both Extreams I am taken by such Men as this but to be for both and against both and to contradict my self When I write against the Persecutors I am one of the Sectaries and when I write against the Sectaries I am of the Persecutors side If I belie not the Prelatists I am a Conformist If I belie not the Anabaptists Independants c. I am one of them If I belie not the â—â—pists I am a Papist if I belie not the Arminians I am an Arminian if I belie not the Calvinists I am with Pseudo-Tilenus and his Brother purus putus Puritanus and one Qui totum Puritanismum totus spirat which Joseph Allen too kindly interpreteth If I be for lawful Episcopacy and lawful Liturgies and Circumstances of Worship I am a temporizing Conformist If I be for no more I am an intollerable Non-Conformist at this time forced to part with House and Goods and Library and all save my Clothes and to possess nothing and yet my Death by six months Imprisonment in the Common Goal is sought after and continually expected If I be as very a Fool and as little understand my self and as much contradict my self as all these Confounders and Men of Violence would have the World believe it is much to my cost being hated by them all while I seek but for the common peace 10. But I have also further learned hence to take up my content in Gods Approbation and having done my duty and pitying their own and the Peoples snares to make but small account of all the Reproaches of all sorts of Sectaries what they will say against me living or dead I leave to themselves and God and shall not to please a Censorious Sect or any Men whatever be false to my Conscience and the Truth If the Cause I defend be not of God I desire it may fall If it be I leave it to God how far He will prosper it and what Men shall think or say of me And I will pray for Peace to him that will not hate and revile me for so doing Farewell Septemb. 4. 1675. FINIS 1 Not by imputing Faith it self part of Believing or any other Evangelical Obedience to them as their Righteousness 2 For their sole Righteousness Mark Virtually Not absolutely Mark by a Trope Mark how far