Notwithstanding all which impudent Disgraces there remains this one comfort to the Church of England that the same man who now vilifies Her so basely had once as mean thoughts of the God-Head of Her blessed Founder Himself But it is easie to conjecture at the Cause of this his harsh Usage of our Church He had but lately Apostatiz'd from the Reformed Religion in France he was but just enter'd into the Romish Communion And he suspected that there might be some doubts still remaining on mens minds of the Reality of his Conversion which might turn to the prejudice not onely of his Spiritual but of his Temporal Estate he had given himself out for a great Philosopher and he understood well enough that few Philosophers are thought to alter their minds that have once been Protestants He was therefore resolv'd to give an Unquestionable proof of his Establishment in the Faith by reviling the Church of England And in performing this I confess Sir he has Counterfeited the Zealot very well he has prosecuted Us with all the Violence and Bigottry which commonly accompanies new Converts But yet I beleive this will hardly do his business Even in this very Book he gives Evidence enough that Calvinism and Heresie are not wholy rooted out of his Heart He grosly abuses the most devoted Children of the Church of Rome the English Roman Catholiques He complains of them that they have no mind to disturb the Peace of their Country tomards the restoration of their Religion which is indeed spoken to their Honour though he intends it to their Shame He says that they are not so zealous in their Way as forein Papists the quite contrary to which is true he makes as if they never saw the True Mass perform'd he affirms that they are all born in Servitude and debases so many Antient Rich and Honourable Families to the condition and the minds of Slaves In all these Speeches he does not express any certain mark of a True Proselyte But above all he has set down such a determination of his Faith that if he had made it in Italy or Spain he had undoubtedly fallen into the Inquisition He boldly pronounces that Transubstantiation Purgatory the Merit of Works Invocation of Saints the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome the authority of Councils and the Infallibility of the Pope are none of them Fundamental Doctrines What greater Apology could be made for the Church of England which he has so much defam'd seeing these are the onely shameful Causes for which we dissented from Rome But I leave him to be corrected by the Pope's Sentence for these Heresies which perhaps the Holy Father has reason to think do more shake the Holy Chair then the five points of Iansenius that he condemn'd which Monsieur de Sorbiere says did raise a dispute about a matter of Nothing From our Religion Let us follow him of our Government And here Sir I was at first a little at a stand how to deal with him But I have heard of the Magnanimous resolution of the late Duke of Buckingham who would never permit any Apology to be written for him And I consider that it is almost as great an arrogance for one obscure Writer to undertake to defend the Actions of Great Princes as it is for another to defame them I will not therefore inlarge my Speech in the praises of the present happiness of England or in paying all the acknowledgements which are due to our Sovereign for the blessings of His Reign That is a Subject ficter for a more elaborate Volum then a single Letter and for a far more elegant Pen then mine I will onely here shew the Vanity of our Historiographers groundless suggestions And as an Introduction to what he says concerning the Political condition of this Nation I will first observe how he deals with some others of the cheif Crown'd Heads in Europe You will perhaps Sir be very hardly induc'd to beleive that he can be guilty of disrespect to Monarchy or Sovereign Princes when you behold him so Panegyrically given towards that Government as to take the pains to go five or six thousand miles to find out a Race of Kings to commend For he here speaks very zealously in praise of the most vertuous and most religious Kings of China This Sir I cannot but applaud in him and to shew how much this one testimony of his good manners has wrought with me I will not be harsh upon him in this place I will not call in question the credit of his Intelligence from the farthest East which you see is so false about a Country that lies only seven Leagues distant from his own Nay I will not so much as inquire whether ever he met with any Chinese Madam Fiennes to give him this Information I will graunt that the Kings of China have been great Menders of Bridges and Planters of Orchards But I will only now softly put him in mind that while his Pen did overflow with sweet words upon the Kings of China he has handled the Kings of Sweden and Denmark more cruelly then Dionysius the Tyrant would have done when he was a King much less when he was a Schole-Master Of the two last Kings of Sweden he affirms that their Glory is almost wholy vanish'd and that all moderate men must needs read the Desolations which they caus'd with Horror You see Sir what an excellent occasion he has here given me of Triumphing over him You know very well how many great and irresistable arguments this matter might suggest to me what might not be said of that Victorious Nation how copious might I be in extolling the indefatigable Industry the Conduct the Good Fortune the Generosity of those Kings What Passions might here be rais'd in appealing to all Mankind and in aggravating the common misery of all Great Commanders of Armies if it shall be permitted to every small Pamphleteer to invade their Lives and to arraign their Ashes when he pleases But there is no need of going so powerfully to work or of imploying against him any of the Lofty and Tragical Forces of Eloquence It will suffice if I recall to his Memory the Title in which he boasts so much I will only ask him how the Historiographer of France can assert the Wars of Gustavus Adolphus to have been horrible Divastations without casting some share of the Dishonor on the Crown of France it self For if we will believe all the French Writers of that time there was a strict Confederacy and a real Union of Interests between those Two mighty Monarchs I give him leave to use the Fame of the Kings of Sweden as he pleases Let them in his account pass for Theives and Oppressors They deserve so to be us'd for they were mortal Enemies to that belov'd Country with whose Muâ—ick and Latin and Dancing he was before so much ravish'd I only bid him look back on the relation which Lewis
State Affairs So that in truth in the present humour into which the reading of them has put me I had much rather offend on the other extream by an unjust silence then by impertinent praises of the English Government I will therefore conclude this whole matter as I began it by reflecting on a Passage of his own in the story of Vlefelt wherein he has given undeniable testimony that he is wholly ignorant of the Rights of Princes the true Policy and the Law of Nations He affirms that Vlefelt fled into Sweden that he became thereby effectually a Traytor that he was the cause of the Swedes last invasion into Denmark by advising Carolus Gustavus to turn his Army from the Poles against Coppenhagen These are his own words And what more apparent Crime could there be then this which had like to have drawn after it the utter Ruine of that Kingdome And yet immediately after he professes that he makes no doubt but the Illustrious Heroes Vlefelt and his Wife will live to see their great merits acknowledg'd and to enjoy in peace the applauses that are due to them for their fidelity to their King and their zeal for the Fundamental Laws of their Countrey But this Sir I suppose is one of those which he himself calls the Besueues of his stile which though as he says Monsieur de Vaubrun uses to forgive yet the King of France did not think fit to pass by This is the Idea that he has drawn of the Manners the Religion and the Government of the English But these are not the subjects which he principally regards such matters as these he confesses that he only uses to touch upon as they come in his way I will now therefore Sir consider his commerce with the chief heads of Parnassus and his intrigues of the Muses that is to speak plain sence without the help of Apollo I will examine some particulars in the account that he gives of the state of knowledge amongst us This is the argument in which he triumphs This is a Business in whose promotion he has spent the whole course of his life And that he may appear not to have bestow'd all his labour in vain I will allow that he ought to be numbred amongst the men of Learning Provided that he be content with that definition which he himself has laid down of Learned men in general For he says that it is the good custome of such men to render themselves ridiculous by their malignity and their Billings-gate-language In conformity to this description besides what is already past let us now behold what he reports of Dr. Wallis Dr. Willis Mr. Hobbs the Royal Society the English Stage their Eloquence their Language and their Authors Dr. Wallis he condemns for his ill usage of Mr. Hobbs in the Mathematical Controversies that have passâ—d between them I will not endeavour to make any defence for this knowing and acute Professor as he grants him to be But yet let me say that if Monsieur de Sorbiere himself being the Judg so much modesty of language ought to be preserv'd even in the contentions of Wit and Argument when Passion is apt to overbear the most temperate Minds then certainly he himself ought to have been careful of keeping to the same rule in an Historical Relation wherein he had no adversary to put him into a heat and nothing but his own natural peevishness to exasperate his Anger Dr. Wallis Entertain'd him at his house made him partake of his Experiment upon a dumb Man and behold the Model of a flat Floor which he says did raise admiration in Mr. Hobbs himself And for all this he might have deserv'd at least to have been pass'd by in silence But he had a good subject to be merry with for want of Polish Musick and he must needs give the receipt of making an Vniversity Cap. Take a Portefueille cover it with black Cloth fix a tuft of Silk upon it and sew it to a Calot and you have a perfect four corner'd Scholastical Bonnet Do you not now wonder Sir why he did not call himself Taylor as well as Trumpeter to the Common-wealth of Learning What kind of good breeding is this How can he after this object to Dr. Wallis that he has little in him of the Gallant Man Whose behavior has the strongest scent and wants most to be purify'd by the air of the Court The Geometrician receives him kindly at his Table The Historiographer Laughs at the habit of his Host. While he allows him extraordinary abilities that are proper to himself he abuses him for that which is common with him to the Sorbonists in France and almost all the Vniversities and Clergy-men in Christendom He declares that he profited very little by Dr. Willis's company because he could not understand his Latin And upon this he objects that all the English pronounce that Language with such an odd Tone as renders it almost as difficult to strangers as our own Tongue I might here Sir allege in defence of our pronuntiation that We do as all our neighbors besides We speak the antient Latin after the same way that we pronounce our Mother Tongue so the Germans do so the Italians so the French But the obscurity of our Speech being not only his complaint but of many other Foreiners I will not stand long in its justification There are so many peculiar slanders of greater concernment which he alone has fix'd upon us that I will not regard this small objection wherein there may be others that agree with him But however Sir from hence I may observe that it was therefore impossible for him to take a right measure of the English Manners and Disposition seeing he was incapable of holding any sort of correspondence with us He was not in a condition of being inform'd by our Gentry our Farmers or our Tradesmen because he understood no English nor by our Schollars our Physitians our Divines our Mathematicians because he professes that our Latin was unintelligible to him But to return Sir to Dr. Willis I am able to give another Reason why Monsieur de Sorbiere did profit so little by his Conversation The substance of it was reported to me from Dr. Willis his own Mouth And I doubt not but the remarkable sincerity and integrity whichâ— that excellent Man preserves in all his Writings would make this character of the other's vanity to be believ'd though we had not so many other proofs of it When Monsieur de Sorbiere came first to visit him the Doctor esteem'd him to be a man of some real and solid knowledg the great names of Des Cartes and Mersennas which he hath frequently in his Mouth might have perswaded him as much he began to treat him accordingly he enter'd into discourse with him about some parts of Chymistry and Physick in which he desirâ—d his opinion The Professor deliver'd it franckly and plainly
Crime It is but just that there should be so great a distance if our Clergymen that have Pluralities make their Grooms supply their Cures In this part of his Character he certainly Sir mistook the Country and intended this for some other Kingdom in Europe where he had also miss'd of a Medall It is a sign that he is as little acquainted with his own Church as he is with ours or else he would never have objected to us our Pluralities which are infinitely fewer and more confin'd amongst us he would never have ventur'd to upbraid us with the Ignorance of our Parish Priests lest we should have provok'd the whole Church of Rome to a comparison In breif Sir our Slaves do not serve at our Altars and I will also add that our Cheif Spiritual Dignities are not intayl'd upon Families nor possess'd by Children In all the Parishes of England I dare challenge not onely him that is a Stranger but the most bitter Enemies to our Discipline to shew me Twenty Pulpits that are fill'd with men who have not spent their Youth in Studies to prepare them and who have not the Authority of Holy Orders That He has presum'd to call our Publique Solemn Prayers only a Morsel or a Scrap of a Liturgy I do not much wonder For he that has long made his own Religion his Cook as one of our Poets expresses it may well be thought irreligious enough to take a Metaphor for ours from a Kitchin But besides this he asserts that the Introduction of the English Liturgy into Scotland was the cause of the shedding of all the Blood in the three Nations This Speech might have well fitted the mouth of Bradshaw or the Pen of Ireton For it lays all the guilt of so much Slaughter on the most Innocent and most merciful Prince that ever wore a Crown by whose special care an Uniformity of Worship was attempted in that Kingdome But to give him better light and to let him see that there were other Causes of our Miseries in one of these three Countries at least I would fain have him ask this Question of the Pope's Legat that was in Ireland whether the horrible Irish Massacre was committed for no other reason but only out of a tender Brotherly sense of the Yoke which was laid by the Common-Prayer on the Scotchmen's Consciences He tells us that it is an ordinary thing with our Bishops to exercise their Ecclesiastical Censures upon frivolous accounts But methinks he might have remembred that it was not probable they should seek out any trifling occasions of excommunication when by his own confession they have so many weighty Provocations if that be true that the whole Nation neglects their Discipline But Sir you know it is apparent to all indifferent Men that the Bishops have been most remarkably moderate in their Visitations and that the Punishments which have been inflicted on the Obstinate have for the most part proceeded from the Temporal Sword and not the Spiritual But because he here quarrels at the Absoluteness of our Bishop's power I leave him to be answer'd by the whole Clergy of the Church of Rome who ought to be alarm'd by this For if ours shal be reputed so Tyrannical what will they be eâ—teem'd whose Jurisdiction is so much larger He goes on to deâ—ame our Bishops He says they have imbezled the Church Lands to make their own Families Rich. This Sir is an Objection which though it was at first manag'd against them with great Clamour by the common Enemies of the King and the Church yet now upon a calmer consideration of things it has universally lost its credit even in those places where he says the English take Tobacco half the day together from whence he acknowledges that he had a good part of his Relations The first murmurs against them were rais'd because they receiv'd altogether some part of that which was their due for twenty years before But the Envy of that was quickly scatter'd when it was manifest how many publique and Generous works they have promoted Besides the first Fruits and Tenths and above all the Subsidies which have swept away a good part of their gains they have compounded with a very great Number of the Purchasers they have increas'd the Vicaredges in their Gift to Fourscore Pounds a year they have indow'd Alms-Houses and Colleges they have built Chappels they have repaired the Episcopal Palaces and Cathedrals which were generally gone to Ruine they have redeem'd at once all the English that were Slaves at Algiers and that too I dare assure him without any intent to make Curats of them The Account which he gives of their letting Leases is most ridiculous There is no man amongst them that lets a Lease for thirty years The Reserv'd Rent is that which was always the standing Revenue of the Church Nor ought this Custom to be Objected against the Church of England It is the same course which is taken in France and most other parts of Christendom Nay to go farther the letting of Church Leases is a business whose Regulation was brought about since the time that the Church of Rome divided from us Before Queen Elizabeth's reign the Churchmen had a power of Farming out their Lands not only for Thirty but for Ninety Nine years It was Shee that first confin'd the Term to One and Twenty and so it still remains He ought not therefore to reckon this practice as our disgrace when the good order that is now us'd about it is the peculiar honour that belongs to the English Reformation But to Conclude if no Man fears Simony in England then there is no man that is affrighted with punishment For our Laws are as strict against it and as severely executed as any where else However if it were true which is far from being so that we Simoniacally imploy the Church estate to Secular uses yet this sounds very ill from that Layman's Pen who when he writ this Voyage was maintain'd out of the Ecclesiastical Revenue This Sir was Monsieur de Sorbiere's Case And the first Office of a Churchman that ever he perform'd was in this Book where He devoutly prays to God to make Mr. Hobbs a Roman Catholique Which if his prayers can obtain from Heaven he deserves not only to be made a Priest or Bishop but even a Saint too For this will be a far greater Miracle then any of those for which many have been Canoniz'd And now Sir can you require any greater signs of Monsieur de Sorbier's Sincerity in his Religion He has accus'd of Simony the most Incorrupt of Pride the Humblest of Rapacity the most Innocent of Ignorance the most Learned of false Doctrine the most Primitive of ill Discipline the most Decent Church under Heaven And when nothing else could be said he even upbraids it with its Submission and Obedience To shew that he is as ill a Disciple of Mr. Hobbes's whom he pretends to admire as he is of the Apostles