tender am I of the Laws of Good Nature and Civility even towards all that have forfeited their Right in them could I ever have discovered the least appearance of Integrity either in his Writings or Actions or the least tokens of Repentance for his former Crimes or the least ground of hope for his future Reformation but when nothing appears but reprobate Hardness and Impenitence and an obstinate persisting in his old Rancour his case is desperate and when Men are past Grace they are past Mercy too And thus having done him Right and his Pamphlet Reason and prevented the Design of escaping the Disgrace of his Overthrow by sending abroad new Challenges before he had discharged himself of his old Engagements it is high time to return to the Argument upon which I was entring when he came in my way to divert me viz. To consider what likelihood or how much Danger there is of the Return of Popery into this Nation For my own part I know none but the Nonconformists boisterous and unreasonable Opposition to the Church of England for if ever that be Re-erected it must be upon the Ruines of this as long as this stands in Power and Reputation it will easily beat back and baffle all the Attempts of Rome and all its Adherents Our Reformation is Establisht upon such unblameable Grounds and Principles that all the Learning and Wit of our Adversaries was never able to fasten any Reproach or Dishonour upon the Constitution it self and next to the Puritan Cause there was never any so unequally managed as the Controversie between us and the Romanists their most plausible Reasonings are evidently no better than little Tricks and Sophisms and seem intended by themselves rather to abuse the Simple than to satisfie the Wise in so much that it is very hardly credible that those Persons who have lately appeared in the Cause can notwithstanding all their seeming Zeal and Earnestness be really in good earnest in their Pretences but 't is somewhat more wonderful that they should have the Confidence to suppose the World should be so simple as to think them so when they can boast such idle talk for Demonstration as themselves unless their Skulls are stufft with Mud and Saw-Dust cannot but know to be meer Trifling and arrant Sophistry And no wonder for every Cause must be defended as it can their Innovations are so undeniable and the Design of our Reformation so apparently Apostolical that those People must needs argue at a strangely wild rate that will be Demonstrating against Experience and Ocular Inspection and nothing could preserve them from being hiss'd out of the Pit but that they are extreamly confident and most Readers sufficiently ignorant so that the Church of England may safely defie all their Opposition she does not stand upon such trembling Foundations as to be thrust down with Bullrush-spears with sure Footings and Oral Traditions with Labyrinths and Castles in the Air. If there be any danger from them it lies more remote and out of view and if ever they get any Ground or Advantage of us they will be bound to make their Acknowledgments to the Puritans and the strength of their Assistance Not that these are a whit more considerable and dead-doing Enemy than the other they are Triflers beyond contempt and when they have in their mighty Zeal done their poor utmost and spent all their Ammunition a Man must be very splenetick that can refrain from laughing at the folly and the childishness of their Attempts No their strength lies in other Weapons and their danger arises from other Interests their Faction may be made use of as Instruments to dissolve and unravel the establish'd frame of things but they can never be able to set up any of their own Models and crazy Fancies in lieu of it they are too humorous and extravagant ever to be reduced to practice a little Experience quickly brought them all into the scorn and contempt of the common People and it would be a pleasant speciacle to see either the Classical or the Congregational Discipline Establish'd by Authothority But alas they are only excellent at their old Destruction-Work and beside that their Conceits are too freakish to be ever setled upon any lasting bottom they will always be supplanting each other by their mutual Squabbles and Animosities so that though they can never compass their own giddy Designs yet by their perpetual and restless Opposition to the Church they may possibly be the occasion of its utter Ruine and Dissolution and by that Change may probably make way for the Introduction of Popery And this is most likely to be effected by these Means and upon these Accounts I. By creating Disorders and Disturbances in the State For the present Fanaticks are so little Friends to the present Government that their Enmity to that is one of the main Grounds of their Quarrel to the Church They are generally fermented with a Republican Leven and are faln out with Monarchy it self as one of the greatest Instruments and Supports of Antichrist and no Liberty with them either of the Subject oâ— of Conscience but in a Commonwealth and that is a mighty piece of their Zeal and their Project to reform the Government of Church and State to the Platform of the Low-Countries T is the Good Old Cause that is the strongest Band and Endearment of the present Schism and the greatest Agents in and for Conventicles are Officers and Chaplains of the old Army And the warmest and most zealous of them such as have given the World no great ground to suspect either from their profess'd Principles or open Practices that they have the least Concern or Tenderness for Religion But this is the only plausible Device that is left them to rally and randevouz the People of God into a Body by themselves and distinct from the rest of the Nation and so keep up a Party always ready and prepared for their Purposes that if ever they may gain any hopes or advantages of recovering the Kings Power or the Bishops Lands for confident Men despair of nothing they may play the holy Brotherhood upon Demands and Attempts either of the old or some other new thorough-godly Reformation and enrage their Fiery Spirits against the Abominations and Idolatries of the Whore and Antichrist Though the danger here is not very formidable because Fanaticism it self is so much worn into Contempt unless among the meer Rabble that 't is never likely to gather strength enough to grapple with the Royal Power but yet whatsoever Power it has if it have any lies in the Old Army and the Old Cause And if we observe the true Patriots of the Godly Party in every County we shall find them generally such Persons as were never much concerned to give his Majesty any great assurance of their Loyalty and Allegiance and there are very few if any of any considerable Interest or Estate among them that was not raised by Plunder and Sequestration so
return to the ancient and Apostolical simplicity a thing very easie and very practicable were not Interest and Ignorance engaged against it Not that he was so vain or so presuming as to hope to see it effected in his own days He too well understood with how many invincible Prejudices it was obstructed he therefore only designed to declare his Iudgment to the Wise and the Unprejudicate and so to leave it to Posterity and some happy Iuncture of Affairs to accomplish what he could only advise and wish for But by this plain dealing with all Parties it is not to be doubted because it always so happens in the like cases but that he must displease and disoblige all but more especially he raised the Choler and enraged the Zeal of the Geneva Faction that Waspish Sect being according to the humour and spirit of their Founder never able to bear the least Affron or Contradiction And then immediately there was no gainsaying but that he must be as arrant a Papist as Antichrist himself This cry they smels of a Spanish-Popish-Iesuitical-Arminian Plot. It is a plain Prosecution of the Cardinal of Lorrains design that allowed annual Pensions even to the Lutheran Ministers themselves to revile and preach down Mr. Calvin thereby to reduce the People to Popery That crafty Statesman knew well enough that he was the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their Mystery of Iniquity and were he but once removed out of the way the Apostolical Chair would quickly be restored to its ancient Empire and Soveraignty over the Christian World And hence the Alarm is given to the People both from the Pulpit and the Press to stand upon their Guard against such dangerous and Babylonish Attempts These moderate and lukewarm men are but the Forerunners of the man of Sin and do but prepare the ways for his Entrance by removing the strongest and most stubborn Opposition against him And what though he deal as roundly and much more severely with the Church of Rome that is but a meer disguise for his present turn those hard Conditions are easily shaken off when once the Protestant cause and interest is utterly expired And therefore he and his Partizans may publish as many Books as they please against their present abuses and corruptions but the most charitable design they can be supposed to aim at is to bring in a more refined and a more cunning Popery And when this surmise is once voted and noised abroad and vouch'd by publick fame or their own vulgar Tales it is in vain to remonstrate to their rudeness and disingenuity It is not no it cannot be doubted of by any but such as are either privy or at least well-wishers to the design such indeed may pretend or counterfeit a Disbelief to cover their intentions and to escape suspicion And by this Artifice they begin first to seize upon all men in their Wits either for madmen or for parties in the Plot. And then the common people dare not but believe it in their own defence lest they should be suspected to have lost their Understanding as well as their Religion And by this rude and boiterous Confidence are they able as oft as they please to raise any disingenuous and spiteful surmise into popular Reputation and by strength of face and forehead to bear out the credit of the largest and most abusive Lyes And it is well known what strange and monstrous stories they obtruded upon the Multitude against the King the Bishops and the Church of England in defyance even to common sense and the most undenyable Experience But no man was more vehemently charged and more confidently condemned of this Attempt than this Reverend Prelate partly because he was a zealous and resolute Assertour of the publick Rites and Solemnities of the Church against all their wild and fanatick Pranks partly because he expunged some of their dear and darling Articles not only from the Christian Faith but from the Protestant Cause in that they were so far from being or pretending to be of Apostolical Antiquity that they were much younger than the Reformation it self or at best were but the Opinions of some private Doctors and were never establish'd into Articles by any publick Laws or Councils or if they were voted for Orthodox Doctrines in any meeting in Germany or Geneva they were never received for such in the Church of England and therefore ought not to be charged upon the Protestant Cause as such much less upon the English Reformation when it was never any part of its design to model new Bodies of Orthodoxy nor to exchange the old School-Doctors for Calvinian Systems and Syntagms but meerly to clear the Christian Faith of all Corruptions and innovations and reform it into its primitive and uncorrupted simplicity And if any Errours or fond Opinions should have escaped her first Observation she reserves a power in herself to review her own Decrees and either to ratifie or abolish them as they shall upon mature deliberation appear consonant to this Rule and agreeable to this design This was ever the Doctrine of the sober and intelligent men of the Church of England as well as her own declared sense They would never submit to any Authority of a later date than the four first general Councils and as for all forrain Churches of the modern stamp they were so far from being determined by them that they censured all their proceedings and rejected all their Doctrines that fell short of or went beyond their own standard of Prudence and Moderation But this was not to be endured by the fierce and fiery Calvinists to have all their Orthodox stuff cut off at one blow had they spent so much pains and gained so much reputation by their skill in Polemick Theology and must they now throw away all their Problems Subtilties and Distinctions and must all their deep and solid Learning be at last despised as a silly and impertinent piece of Duncery This certainly must needs be very grievous and somewhat provoking to great Clerks Men care not to be convinced that they have wasted so much Oyl and Sweat to no purpose And though they are not able to justifie the Follies and Errors of their Education yet being flush'd with the Glory that they have gain'd among their own party by their skill and ability in contending for their Opinion it is easie to imagine how stubbornly they will struggle in its defence rather than quit the support of their pride and self-conceitedness This Itch is so incident and delightful to humane Nature that where it is not over-ruled by an habitual Integrity and Discretion it is the most powerful not to say the only motive of all our Actions and has such a strict and undiscernable Influence upon our most serious thoughts that if well-meaning men are not very careful or very curious in observing and preventing its inward motions it will quickly prevail over their Understandings insinuate into all their designs and poyson
to be Jesuites and Socinians themselves but O Tempora O Mores they will force all others that desire to be admitted into her Communion to submit to Popish and Heretical Subscriptions and there is no other cause of the Independent Separation than that they dare not in Conscience conform to Popery and Socinianism Dear Heart How could I hug and kiss thee for all this love and sweetness Well fare poor Macedo for a modest Fool He could never have rubb'd his Forehead to such a burnisht Confidence as to venture upon such notorious and palpable Forgeries so contradictory both in themselves and to every Man 's own Knowledge and Experience For in the Name of Truth what new Doctrines have we made necessary to Conformity over and above the old Articles which yet he is so far from bringing under this Indictment that he makes our departure from them the very Charge of our Apostasie So that how wild and wanton soever we may be in our own Sentiments there is nothing to be found in Nature of so daring and desperate a Confidence beside the great and renowned J. O. as to belch in the face of the Sun such foul and uncleanly Railings But he is a Man of that inveterate and incurable Pride that there is no rancour spiteful or disingenuous enough to be admired at in him But now that I have seized him I cannot let him pass without taking notice to the World of another eminent instance of his Ravishing Candour and Ingenuity That when he had without any Provocation though that he never needs in a publick and solemn way undertaken the Defence of the Fanatick Cause and when he had reason done him in a particular Rejoinder to all his Pretences and Exceptions such as they were he could think of satisfying his People and salving his Reputation by Scribling over the very same stuff again and presenting it to the World in a new Pamphlet and under another Title without regarding how comfortably it had been exposed and baffled by a loving Friend even for his own dear sake For whoever will be at the idle pains to peruse his late Discourse of Evangelical Love Church Peace and Unity will never be able to find one syllable to the purpose beside a perpetual Repetition of the old worn-out Story of Unscriptural Ceremonies and some frequent Whinings and sometimes Ravings about his hard usage in being so severely chastised and innumerable Suggestions that all that are or pretend to be Loyal to the present Setlement of the Church of England are not so upon any Principles of Integrity or Conscience but purely for their own seoular and carnal Ends i. e. in plain English they are all downright Knaves These are the most pertinent passages I can meet with in the Book but they are not very new some others indeed I meet with somewhat newer but then they are not very pertinent It is a very new discovery to demonstrate that the Church of England is desperately Schismatical because the Independents are resolved one and all to continue separate from her Communion and though it is not as new yet it is as odd an Observation that all Parties in Christendom except only the little Flock of their own Secret Ones are profest Rebels to the most necessary and indispensable Institutions of the Lord Christ that none of them ought to be suffered to live in an open and habitual contempt of his Laws particularly that the Church of England is as little to be endured as the Church of Rome because they persecute those that are better than themselves and St. John tells us Revel 21. 8. Murther is as bad as Idolatry If it will do him or his cause any kindness we will let these pass for New Lights and wonderful pat to the business of Toleration Did ever Man write or speak with such a fluent Vein of looseness and impertinency Is it credible that any Creatures that pretend to common sense and the shapes of Men could ever accept much less admire such dull and intolerable Bungling And yet it is rare and admirable to the Wits of the Congregation and the Doctor is a wonderfully precious and convincing Man But the truth is he has an Advantage above most of his Neighbours for Writing Non-sense in that his common Readers despair beforehand to understand the Categoricalness of his Logick Otherwise he abounds so plentifully with Absurdities and Incoherences in every Page that there is nothing to keep him from being despicable even to the Apron-men of his own Dispensation but a peculiar Uncouthness and Obscurity of stile whereby as they cannot hope to carry along with them the Thread and Connexion of the Discourse so neither dare they presume to observe its Flaws and Weaknesses but if their Prejudices so incline them they suppose at all adventure some extraordinary depth of Reason and Metaphysicks that Men of their Education are neither able to fathom nor obliged to understand And he may take his Liberty as much and as long as he pleases to amuse his own gazing and admiring Drove with this profound and wonderful Non-sense provided he will be advised not to lay out his Talent to the disturbance of his Neighbours But if he will be venting his Gall and his Ignorance against the establisht Laws and Constitutions of the Commonwealth he must not take it ill if his shameful folly not to name something worse be discovered and laid open to the World And therefore in my Opinion it would be very good advice if he would be perswaded to give over this thread-bare Controversie of Church-Government and spend the remainder of his Days in embellishing and illustrating that great and important Discovery with which he has so lately obliged the World viz. That the Determination of a Septimary Portion in the Hebdomadal Revolution is or is not I care not whether an addition of the Law Decalogical to the Law Natural Ah! What Edifying Doctrine is this to the White-Aprons It could be no less to them than a Demonstrative Evidence of the Morality and Divine Institution of the Lords Day and doubtless they would with the Iews sooner Rost themselves than a small Ioint of Mutton upon the Day of Sacred Rest. He may I say trifle with his own Proselytes after this rate as much and as long as he pleases and no body will be much concerned to disabuse People so resolved to abuse themselves But if he will not be satisfied with the Priviledge of being learnedly impertinent unless he may make use of his Liberty to discompose the Publick Peace he may thank himself for what will follow For he will be sure to encounter to his cost too many Persons that love their Country too well to suffer it to be over-run and debaucht by such shallow Mountebanks and Impostors But my just Indignation against this Mans insolent and insufferable Behaviour transports me into too vehement and smart Resentments of his vile and dirty Practices yet because he is so forward
Iustice upon them though they were such scandalous and refractory Delinquents against his Laws but that must past all doubt and controversie declare him of their Side and for their Cause and the Lord must needs walk sweetly with his own People in ways of Plunder and Sequestration But if that were enough to make them presume his Favour and Approbation be has we may presume too done enough since to clear his own Providence and dash their Confidence and they may assure themselves that his Majesty understands both himself and them too well to be over-fond of their Friendship or trust too confidently to their Good-will But if they will be making such ill use of his Mercy as to insult over or to disrespect his Loyal Subjects they will find to their own cost and shame that he too can call them to their Songs upon Sigionoth as well as Divine Providence so that unless we will be guilty of a Iealousie as ungrounded and as unmannerly as their Presumption we may rest satisfied in the present Security of the Church of England under the Protection of a Wise and a Gracious Prince especially when beside the impregnable Confidence that we have from his own Inclinations it is so manifest that he can never forsake it either in Honour or Interest But should it ever so happen hereafter that any King of England should be prevailed with to deliver up the Church he had at the same time as good resign up his Crown and the reason is already very plain because there are none heartily Loyal to this but those that are so to that when 't is so notorious from Experience that the Crown of England never had any Cordial Friends but the Lovers of and Adherents to the Church-Interest and so evident from Mens Principles that it never shall have And then what must become of that unhappy Prince that should deliver it up to the Rage and Rapine of its and his implacable Enemies He is in the very same forlorn condition as if be were forced to flee from all his Friends to a Kirk-Army for Sanctuary and Protection i. e. be is certainly Sold and Sacrificed II. The second way whereby the Fanatick Party may at last work the Ruine of the Church is by the Assistance of Atheism and Irreligion Prophaness is in our days become as zealous and implacable a thing as Enthusiasin and Men are not content barely to neglect all acknowledgment of Duty to their Creator unless they may have the Liberty to affront and defie him too They scorn to be abused themselves with the Tales and Legends of Knavish Priests nor will they great Heroes suffer the World to be imposed upon by their bold and insolent Impostures It is not by any means to be endured to see such despicable Fellows insult over the free-born Minds and well-bred Understandings of Gentlemen away with all their Superstitious Cheats and Fopperies they will undertake to instruct Mankind in wiser and more Gentleman-like Principles And thus are these Caitiffs become as fierce and malicious Enemies to all Setlement of the Church as the most distempered and fiery sort of Fanaticks and they will piece Interest with any Party to pluck down any Church-faction that is uppermost and are as brisk and forward at hammering Reformation-work as the giddy rascal Multitude and rather than the Cause should miscarry for want of Zeal they themselves will not stick to turn Preachers of Sedition nor when the People are enraged to lead them on to act it The Atheists of former times because they expected nothing in the Life to come resolved without any farther trouble to enjoy all the Comforts of this and therefore they never thrust themselves into Publick Cares and Concerns but studied all the Arts of an idle a jolly and a pleasant Life and minded nothing but Wine and Love and Poetry But those of our Age are a sort of Devillish and Malicious Wretches whose proud and arrogant Minds make them love Mischief for Mischiefs sake they have so mean an opinion of other Men in comparison to themselves that they treat them just after the same rate as we do Insects and Vermin and will for the ostentation of their own Power and Greatness sport themselves in those Miseries and Ruines they are able to draw upon the World and will not stick to destroy Kingdoms if it lie in their Power only to gratifie their Insolence And no wonder when all the rankest Principles of Injustice and Ill-nature lie at the bottom of their Irreligion They are taught in the first place that they may and ought to use all the ways of Fraud and Violence for the Advancement of their own Power and Safety that the greater and more enormous Injuries they do to Mankind the more are they fear'd and that fear is their only security and the result of all their Principles is That every Wise Man will by any means consult his own Interest and Security and that his Interest and Security consists chiefly in the prebeminence of his Strength above other Men so that the more he oppresses them the more he acts up to the Laws of Nature and Principles of Wisdom And then being insolent as well as ill-natured they care not what Mischiefs they do out of meer Humour and Wantonness and the more extravagant they are in their Injuries and Oppressions their Power is so much the more considerable they scorn an ordinary Vice almost as much as to say their Prayers but if they can invent any new and unheard-of Wickedness that Vulgar Sinners have not the Wit to light upon nor the Courage to venture at that is an heighth of Bravery and only fit to be attempted by Men of their Parts and Breeding so that they love Mischief if not altogether as the Devils do for its own sake yet at least and that is almost as bad out of Pride and Singularity they cannot brook it to be inferiour to any Man in any thing that they are pleased to pretend to and yet are they pleased to pretend to every thing And from hence it is that they can be no real Friends to any Government only because the Supremacy of Power did not happen to fall to their share and they can never have any hearty kindness for their Prince though for no other reason than because he is their Superiour a little affront or neglect from him shall disoblige them for ever they are implacable in their revenge and every slight displeasure immediately puts them upon nothing less than thoughts of Treason and Rebellion But the great Object of their Hatred and Indignation is the Priestly Office their proud Spirits cannot bear it to see such mean and contemptible Fellows brave it with so much Awe and Authority over the Minds of the Peoples but they are past all patience that they should dare to pretend to vie Wisdom with themselves and undertake publickly to convict such mighty Wits of Folly and Ignorance and prevail so far as to
of Grotians is that they are for a visible head of the Universal Church whether Pope or General Council They who are for the Headship of a General Council are no fit instruments for the introduction of the Popes tyrannical power It seemeth he rejecteth the Authority of General Councils either past or to come as well as Popes so dare not we If under the name of the Universal Church he include the Triumphant Church we know no head of the Universal Church but Christ. If he limit it to the Militant Church we are as much against one single Monarch as he we dislike all tyrannical power in the Church as well as he yet we quarrel with no man about the name of Head or a Metaphorical expression But if he think that Christ left the Catholick Church as the Ostrich doth her Eggs in the Sand without any care or provision for the governing thereof in future Ages he erreth grosly So the Catholick Church should be in a worse condition than any particular Church yea than any Society in the World like the Cyclops Cane where no man heard or heeded what another said Particular Churches have Soveraign Princes and Synods to order them but there never was an universal Monarch And if he take away the Authority of General Councils he leaveth no humane helps to preserve the Unity of the Universal Church what is this but to leap over the backs of all second Causes The first Council was of another mind It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Act. 15. 28. And so have all the Churches of the World from Christs time until this Age. His fifth note of Grotians To dery the sufficiencie of Scripture in all things necessary to salvation might well have been spared for we all maintain it as well as he but he shuffles into the question such impertinent and confused generalities about the Peace of the Churâ—â— and Traditions as deserve no answer The sufficiency of Scripture is not inconsistent either with prudential Government or the necessary means of finding out the right sense of Scripture When he expresseth himself more distinctly he may expect a Categorical answer His last mark is that they will not be perswaded to joyn on any reasonable terms for the healing of our present divisions This dependeth upon his own interpretation what he judgeth to be reasonable terms We have seen his dexterity in making wounds and would be glad to have experience of his skill in healing them He complains only of illegal Innovations Dare he stand to the ancient Laws If he dare the Controversie is ended If he like not this for we know their exceptions were against the Laws themselves not against illegal Innovations let them name those Laws which they except against and put it to a fair trial whether there be any thing in any of them which is repugnant to the Laws of God or of right reason If they will but do this seriously without prejudice the business is ended I will make bold to go yet one step higher though our Laws be unblamable yet if the things commanded be but of a middle or indifferent nature we are ready to admit any terms of peace which we can accept with a good conscience so as we may neither swerve from the analogy of Faith nor renounce the necessary principles of Government nor desert the communion and ancient and undoubted customs of the Universal Church Such an accord would be too much loss both to you and us He would perswade us that there are two sorts of Episcopal Divines in England the old and the new And that there is much more difference between the old and the new than between the old and the Presbyterians Sect. 67. O confidence whither wilt thou what is the power of prejudice and pride The contrary is as clear as the light we maintain their old Liturgy their old Ordinal their old Articles their old Canons their old Laws Practices and praescriptions their old Doctrine and Discipline against them Then tell us no more of old Episcopal Divines and new Episcopal Divines we are old Episcopal Divines one and all out of his own words I condemn him The old sort of Episcopal Divines that received the publick Doctrine of the Nation contained in the 39. Articles Homilies c. I wholly acquitted from my jealousies of this compliance Sect. 12. If they be old Episcopal Divines who maintain the Doctrine of the 39. Articles and Homilies then we are all old Episcopal Divines In acquitting all them he acquitteth all us If he can shew any thing that I have written contrary to these I retract it if he cannot let him retract his words He might have taken notice of my submission of whatsoever I writ to the Oecumenical essential Church and to its Representative a free general Council and to the Church of England or a National English Synod to the determinations of all which and each of them respectively according to the distinct degrees of their Authority I yield a conformity and compliance or to the least and lowest of them an acquiescence Pref. to the Reply to Bish. Chalc. So far am I and always have been from opposing the Church of England wittingly He maketh a shew as though he could make it appear that the Grotian design was the cause of all our Wars and changes in England but it is but a copy of his countenance How should the Grotian design be the cause of all our Wars when our War began before Grotius himself began his design or to write of the reconciliation of Protestants and Papists which was in the years 1641 and 1642. But without all controversie either the Grotian design was the cause of our Wars or the design and more than the bare design of his own Party The World knows well enough and I leave it to his own conscience to tell him whether of the two was the right Mother of the Child Though he fail in his proofs against Episcopal Divines yet he produceth sundry other reasons to prove that there was such a Plot on foot to introduce Popery into England but they do not weigh so much as a Feather nor signifie any thing more than this how easily men believe those things which they wish He saith Franciscus à Sancta Claras design and Grotius his design seem the very same and their Religion and Church the same Sect. 73. Nay certainly that is more than seemingly their Religion and Church was not the same unless he mean the same Christian Religion and in that sense his own Religion is the same with theirs but in his sense they were not the same This is begging of the question which he ought to prove Grotius was not of the French Communion And for their designs the World is so full of feigned Plots and designs that I do not believe that either of them had any design except that general and pacificatory design which he himself professeth and extolleth every where I
wish every mans Books had as much learning and ingenuity in them as A Sancta Clara's have Yet if he conclude from hence that I and he are of the same Communion he doth me wrong Judge Reader how partial men are to deny that liberty to another which they assume to themselves He proceedeth This A Sancta Clara is still the Queens Chaplain c. And we have reason to believe the Queen to be so moderate as to be of the same Religion Whether he be the Queens Chaplain or not is more than I know The Queen hath had many Servants of Mr. Baxters own Communion who have had more influence upon her Counsels than ever A Sancta Clara had He hath reason to believe that the Queen and he were of the same Religion but no reason to prove that so seriously and so weakly which all men acknowledge that either the Queen or he had any hand in the pretended design of Grotius and his Followers no man can believe From the Queen he passeth over to the King what to do to accuse him of Popery He cannot prove it nor all the World to help him Yea he professeth openly that he believeth no such thing Not only his Conference with the Marquess of Worcester but his Life and Death and that Golden Legacie which he left to his Son do proclaim the contrary to all the World What is his aim then To shew how far he was inclined to a reconciliation That is the duty of every good Christian But did he preferr peace before truth Had he any design to introduce Papal Tyranny into England That is the crime whereof he accuseth those whom he nick-nameth Grotians The Devil himself cannot justly object any such thing against him He cites the Articles of the Spanish and French matches but is not able to cite one word out of them which maketh for his purpose And this alone that there is nothing in them for his purpose is a convincing proof against him that all his pretended design is but a dream I may well call it his design for it is the phantasm of his own brain and never had any existence in the nature of things He mentions the Kings Letter to the Pope written in Spain If he himself had been there at that time upon the same condition the King was at that time he would have redeemed his liberty with writing three Letters to the Pope such as that was or else he had been much to be blamed But what is there in the Letter Is there any thing of the Grotian design No I warrant you Observe how all his conjectural reasons make directly against himself Perhaps the King calls the Pope Most Holy Father a great crime indeed to make such a civil address which the common use of the World hath made necessary He who will converse with a Fryer in a Roman Catholick Country must do little less and he that will write to the Great Turk must do more Such compellations do not shew always what men are but what they ought to be or what they are or would be esteemed Next he tells us of the choice of Agents for Church and State Very trifles Kings must chuse their Agents according to the exigence of their affairs But if the qualifications of Agents did always demonstrate the resolutions of Princes I could more easily prove King Charles a Presbyterian than he a Grotian and bring more instances for my self I am confident he cannot instance in any one Agent for Church or State that ever had his Grotian design but I can instance in many who have had contrary and worse designs I shall not stick to tell him with grief that which hath been in a great part the cause of all our woes In some Courts it hath been esteemed a singular policie to nourish two Parties upon pretence that the one might ballance the other and the one watch over the other But it proveth too often true that the one Party is disgusted and ordinarily the weaker and worser Party doth countenance heterodox and seditious persons to augment the number of their dependents which evermore tendeth to manifest sedition By this means the rents of the Church have been perpetuated and enlarged and Subjects have been debauched with destructive and seditious Principles the evil influence whereof we have felt to our cost He proceedeth to the Residence of the Popes Nuncios in England It may be during all the Kings reign there were one Nuncio and his Proctor or Deputy or two Nuncios at the most And if we had never had them it had been the better not so much for any great hurt they did but for that opportunity which his own peevish Party got from thence to raise jealousies and Panick fears among the Rabble Unless he could have told something that the Popes Nuncio did in England tending to that end which he pretends he might as well have instanced in the King of Morocco's Ambassadour and said that he came over to convert us to be Turks I thought he would have produced the Popes Bull to his Nuncio to reconcile us to Rome or at least have discovered some secret Cabal or Conferences between him and those Episcopal Divines whom he accuseth He knoweth well there was no such thing and therefore it were much better to be silent than to urge so many things and to fail in every one of them His next instance is in the Jesuits Colledge which had been much better omitted for his credit Did the King found the Colledge No such thing Was he a Benefactor to it Nor that Did he give the Jesuits a license of Mortmain to purchase Lands for themselves to that use Not so much What did he then did he know of the Jesuits and the Colledge and connive at them and it O no. So soon as ever it was discovered it was suppressed By the same equity he might accuse an innocent Prince of all the crimes that are committed in hugger mugger throughout his Kingdom and make him Head even of the Presbyterian Rebellion The last of his odious instances hath less shew of truth in it than any of the rest how vain or empty soever they have been that is the illegal innovations in worship so resolvedly gradatim introduced Perhaps he calls the execution of old Laws Innovations because they themselves had taken the boldness to disuse them It were better to spare this charge lest they get a round peal of their own Innovations rung out in their ears Theirs are Innovations indeed To conclude Doth he think that such disloyal and uncharitable insinuations as these are salved by pretending that he hath not the least desire to perswade men that he was a Papist or that he would not have other men to believe it As if he should say Here are violent presumptions indeed that the King had Popish inclinations yet my charity will not give me leave to believe it other men may judge as they find cause when all he
Controversies of the Churches but of particular Persons or Parties in those Churches as well Protestants against Protestants and Roman Catholicks against Roman Catholicks as Protestants against Roman Catholicks Those Controversies which each Church doth tolerate within it self ought not to be any cause of Schism between the Churches Fourthly How many of our Controversies are about Rites and Ceremonies and things indifferent in their own nature in the use of which every particular Church under the Universal Church hath free liberty in it self and dominion over its own Sons When all these empty Names and Titles of Controversies are wiped out of the Roll the true Controversies between us may be quickly mustered and will not be found upon a serious enquiry to be either so exclusive of salvation to those who err invincibly and hold the truth implicitely in the preparation of their minds nor altogether so irreconcileable as some persons have imagined The two dangerous extremes are to clip away something from saving Truth whereof I do not find the Church of Rome to have been guilty and to obtrude erroneous or at the best probable opinions for Articles of Faith whereof I find many in the Church of Rome to have been most guilty Next to these are the practical abuses of the Court of Rome These were my thoughts in my younger days which age and experience hath rather confirmed and radicated in me than altered which if they had been known I deserved rather to have been cherished and encouraged than to be branded by any man as a Factor for the Pope Truly Mr. Baxter could hardly have fixed upon a Subject more improper for such a charge When I was commanded to preach to our Northern Synod where every one designed to discharge that duty chuseth some controversie between the Church of Rome and us my Subject was the Popes unlawful Usurpation of Jurisdiction over the Britannick Churches When I disputed in Cambridge for the Degree of Doctor my Thesis was taken out of Nilus that the Papacy as it was challenged and usurped in many places and as it had been sometimes usurped in our Native Country was either the procreant or conservant cause or both procreant and conservant cause of all the greater Ecclesiastical Controversies in the Christian World When our late King Charles of blessed memory was in Spain and Religion in England seemed to our Country people though without any ground to be placed in aequilibrio or reduced to a measuring cast I adventured with more zeal than discretion to give two of their Roman Champions in our Northern parts Mr. Hungate a Jesuite and Mr. Houghton a secular Priest one after another two meetings at North-Allerton and came off without any dishonour to the Church of England and stopped the Carrier of the Romish Emislaries at that time in those parts When I was last in Ireland and the Romanists had wrested some part of the power of the Sword into their hands they prosecuted no English Protestant more than my self and never left untill they had thrust me out of the Kingdom as conceiving me to be a great impediment to them in their making of Proselytes It was but an ill requital if I had been one of their Factors Since I came into exile these sixteen years where have my weak endeavours ever been wanting to the Church of England who hath had more Disputes with their Seculars and Regulars of all sorts French Italian Dutch English in Word in Writing to maintain the honour of the English Church And after all this am I traduced as a Factor for Popery because I am not a Protestant out of my wits or because my assertions of known Truth are not agreeable to the gust of Innovators Blessed are we when men revile us and persecute us and say all manner of evil against us falsly for Christs sake for great is our reward in heaven But doth he think in earnest that my way of reconciliation is the ready way to introduce the Papal tyranny into England Nay directly on the contrary it is the ready way to exclude the Papal tyranny out of England for ever and to acquit us for evermore from all the Extortions and Usurpations of the Roman Court and to free us from all their Emissaries who now make a prey of such as are unsetled among us by the means of doubtful and give me leave to speak my mind freely impertinent Disputations And this I am ready to make good against any Innovator of either side who shall oppose it This is hard measure to be offered to me from him who professeth himself to be so great a lover of the Unity of the Church p. 6. which is but his duty if it be true as I hope it is But let him take heed that his love of Unity prove not to be self-love which insinuateth it self strangely into the most holy actions and designs All men could be contented to have others united to themselves and to chop off or stretch out the Religion of their Brethren as Procrustes did his Guests according to the measure of his own Bed I doubt not but he would be well pleased to have Independency stretched up to an ordained Ministery as he calleth it and Episcopacy let down to a Presbyterian parity or rather to an empty shew of equality For I never yet observed but one or two single popular Presbyters ruled the whole Consistory and had more absolute Arbitrary power than ever any Bishop pretended unto If this be all his love and desire of Unity to have Antiquity Universality and the perpetual Regiment of the Church to be levelled and moduled according to private fantasies it is meer self-love no love of Unity But I hope better though I sear worse If he dare refer all differences between us to be tried by the publick Standard we shall quickly see whether he or I follow Peace and Unity with swifter paces I offer him two Standards to be tried by First the Doctrine of the Church of England set down by those old Episcopal Divines whom he pretendeth to be more propitious to him than to me If he submit to this Standard all differences between him and me are at an end And then to what purpose hath so much plundering and so much effusion of Christian blood been unless it be to shake the dregs to the top of the Urinal But if he like not this Standard as I much fear he will not I offer him another that is the Pattern of the Primitive Church both for Doctrine and Discipline But it may be he will dislike this more and when all is done admit no Standard but the Scripture I am ready to joyn with him in this also But if he and I differ about the sense of the Scripture all men acknowledge that the Scripture consisteth not in the words but in the sense how shall we be tried what is the sense by the judgement of the Church of England that is the Standard of the place or by
the pattern of the primitive Church that is the original Standard according to which the local Standard was made If he refuse both these let him not say that he will be tryed by the Scripture but he will be tryed by himself that is to say he himself will and can judge better what is the true sense of the Scripture than either his national Church or the primitive and universal Church This is just as if a man who brings his commodities to a market to be sold should refuse to have them weighed or measured by any Standard local or original and desire to be tried by the Law of the Land according to the judgement of the by-standers Not that the Law of the Land is any thing more favourable to him than the Standard but only to decline a present sentence and out of hope to advantage himself by the simplicity of his Judges Yet Mr. Baxter acquits me that I am no Papist in his judgement though he dare not follow me pag. 22. What soever I am this is sure enough he hath no authority to be my Judge or to publish his ill grounded jealousies and suspicions to the world in Print to my prejudice Although he did condemn me yet I praise God my conscience doth acquit me and I am able to vindicate my self But if he take me to be no Papist why doth he make me to be one of the Popes Factors or stalking horses and to have an express design to introduce him into England He himself and an hundred more of his confraternity are more likely to turn the Popes Factors than I am I have given good proof that I am no reed shaken with the wind My conscience would not give me leave to serve the times as many others did They have had their reward He bringeth four reasons in favour of me why he taketh me to be no Papist I could add fourscore reasons more if it were needful First because I disown the fellowship of that party more than Grotius did pag. 23. It is well that he will give me leave to know mine own heart better than himself Secondly because I give them no more than some reconcileable members of the Greek Church would give them And why some members I know no members of the Greek Church that give them either more or less than I do But my ground is not the authority of the Greek Church but the Authority of the Primitive Fathers and general Councils which are the representative Body of the Universal Church Thirdly because I disown their Council of Trent and their last 400. years determinations Is not this enough in his judgement to acquit me from all suspicion of Popery Erroneous opinions whilst they are not publickly determined nor a necessity of compliance imposed upon other men are no necessary causes of Schisme To wane their last 400. years determinations is implicitely to renounce all the necessary causes of this great Schisme And to rest satisfied with their old Patriarchal power and dignity and Primacy of order which is another part of my proposition is to quit the Modern Papacy both name and thing And when that is done I do not make these the terms of Peace and Unity as he doth tax me injuriously enough It is not for private Persons to prescribe terms of publick accommodations but only an introduction and way to an accommodation My words are expresly these in the conclusion of my answer to Monsieur Militiere If you could be contented to wave your last 4â—0 years determinations or if you liked them for your selves yet not to obtrude them upon other Churches If you could rest satisfied with your old Patriarchal power and your Principium unitatis a primacy of order much good might be expected from free Councils and conferences of moderate Persons What is here more than is confessed by himself that if the Papists will reform what the Bishop requires them to reform it will undoubtely make way for nearer Concord p. 28. I would know where my Papistry lieth in these words more than his They may be guilty of other errours which I disown as well as their last 400. years determinations and yet those errours before they were obtruded upon other Churches be no sufficient cause of a separation But what I own or disown he must learn from my self not suppose it or suspect it upon his own head His last reason why he forbeareth to censure me as a Papist is my two knocking arguments as he stileth them against the Papal Church But if he had weighed those two arguments as he ought he should have forborn to censure me as he doth for one that had a design to reconcile the Church of England to the Pope But I will help Mr. Baxter to understand my meaning better I meddle not with the reconciliation of opinions in any place by him cited but only with the reconciliation of Persons that Christians might joyn together in the same publick devotions and service of Christ. And the terms which I proposed were not these nor positively defined or determined but only represented by way of query to all moderate Christians in the conclusion of my just Vindication in these words I determine nothing but only crave leave to propose a question to all moderate Christians who love the peace of the Church and long for the reunion thereof In the first place if the Bishop of Rome were reduced from his universality of Soveraign Iurisdiction jure Divino to his principium unitatis and his Court regulated by the Canons of the Fathers which was the sense of the Councils of Constance and Basile and is desired by many Roman Catholicks as well as we Secondly if the Creed or necessary points of faith were reduced to what they were in the time of the four first Oecumenical Councils according to the decree of the third general Council Who dare say that the faith of the primitive Fathers was insufficient Admitting no additional Articles but only necessary explications And those to be made by the Authority of a general Council or one so general as can be convocated And lastly supposing that some things from whence offences have either been given or taken which whether right or wrong do not weigh half so much as the unity of Christians were put out of the Divine offices which would not be refused if animosities were taken away and charity restored I say in case these three things were accorded which seem very reasonable demands whether Christians might not live in an holy Communion and come in the same publick worship of God free from all Schismatical separation of themselves one from another notwithstanding diversities of opinions which prevail even among the members of the same particular Churches both with them and us Yet now though I cannot grant it yet I am willing to suppose that I intended not only a reconciliation of mens minds but of their opinions also and that those conditions which he mentioned had been my
only terms of peace and concord let us see what exceptions Mr. Baxter is able to bring against them CHAP. VI. Mr. Baxters exceptions answered HE saith he cannot consent that these which I grant should be made the terms of union pag. 25. What then Suppose I did name improper terms of pacification not only in Mr. Baxters judgement which I ought not altogether to depend upon but in very deed Is there no remedy but I must needs be the Popes Stalking Horse presently and have a design to reconcile England to him This is over severe My design is rather to reconcile the Pope and his party to the Church of England than the Church of England to the Pope He may make use of my way if it like him Much good may it do him If not he ought to thank me for my good will and propose a better expedient himself if he can But I must tell him before hand that if it be a general one like those which he hath hitherto proposed it will signify nothing Observe Reader how he is every way mistaken I make demands and he calls them grants or concessions I propose some terms as preparatory to a treaty and he calls them terms of peace He saith he cannot consent to these terms and yet he hath consented to them already that if they would reform what the Bishop requires them to reform it will undoubtely make way for nearer concord To make them adaequate terms or conclusive Articles of Peace was never any part of my meaning All the exceptions which he bringeth against my way are taken out of my answer to Monsieur Militier I have seen some silly exceptions against it from a Jesuit and have answered them but he is the first Protestant that I have met with who doth disapprove it If the efficacy or influence of it upon him be different from what it is upon others I cannot help it Books have their success according to the prejudice or qualifications of their Readers On this side the seas it hath been more happy to confirm many to convert some and particularly the Transcriber of the Copy which was brought to the Press who was then one of their Proselytes to irritate no Man but the common Adversaries who vented their splene against it weekly in their Pulpits as thinking that the easiest way of confutation Thus one sucks honey and another poison out of the same flower He pretendeth that the old Episcopal Divines are of his partie some of them have approved it and thanked me for it If they be not of his party I hope he will not suspect them at Geneva as Factors for Popery They have allowed it and translated it into French and Printed it without any fear of introducing Popery into their City by it God forbid that we should esteem the practice of the Primitive times to be Popish They who admit that for a conclusion need not wonder if the more rational persons turn Apostates But it has ever been the trade of this proud and envious race of men to fasten an hated name upon every thing they understand not And it is to be feared this great Divine may in time write a Book to prove Greek the Language of the Beast and he may as reasonably do it as charge me with Popery only because I pretend to more knowledge in Antiquity than he knows himself to be guilty of His first particular Exception is this If when he excludeth Universality of Iurisdiction by Christs institution he intend to grant them which yet I know not an Universality of Iurisdiction by humane institution as agreement then it would be but to set up an humane Popery instead of a pretended Divine But this I charge not on him as his judgement though some will think it intimated p. 25. If he do not charge it on me then why doth he publish his own or other mens thoughts in Print to my disadvantage I know not how to acquit the Printing of groundless jealousies and suspicions of innocent Persons from downright calumny Especially suspicions of such things which the Persons suspected had publickly disclaimed in Print long before any such suspicion was broached These are my very words in my replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon p. 249. It were a hard condition to put me to prove against my conscience that the Universal Regency of the Pope is of humane right who do absolutely deny both his Divine right and humane right And in my Schisme garded p. 15 I have made it evident that the Popes Authority which he did sometime exercise in England before the Reformation when they permitted him and which he would have exercised always de futuro if he could have had his own will was a meer usurpation and innovation If I deny both the Popes divine right and humane right to Soveraign Jurisdiction and regulate his powers by the Canons of the Church If I make the Papacy a meer usurpation and innovation he hath no need to fear my setting up of an humane Popery But I have just cause to require reparation of him So his first exception is a false groundless suspicion But doth he make no difference indeed between a Divine Papacy and an Humane Papacy So it seemeth by his words If the Pope do hold a Soveraign power in the Church by divine institution then whatsoever he doth though he draw millions of Souls to Hell after him yet it is not in the power of a general council to call him to an account or to depose him or to reform him But if his right be only humane all this may justly be done and hath been done If he have a Soveraignty by divine right he may give his non obstantes to the Canons of the Fathers at his pleasure then all power in the Church is derived from him But if he hold the Papacy not from Heaven but from men then other Bishops do not derive their power from him singlely but he from them jointly then he is stinted and limitted by their Canons and cannot dispense with them further than the Church is pleased to confer a dispensative power upon him within the bounds of his own Patriarchate Against divine right there is no prescription but against humane right men may lawfully challenge their ancient liberties and immunities by prescription A Papacy by divine right is unchangeable but a Papacy by humane right is alterable both for person and place and power So an humane Papacy if it grow burthensom is remediable But a pretended divine Papacy when and where and whilst it is acknowledged is irremediable So much a pretended divine Papacy is worse than an humane His second exception follows But that St. Peter hath a certain fixed Chair to which a primacy of order is annexed and an headship of unity is not a truth and therefore not a principle necessary to heal the Church Whether it be a truth or no is not much material We have no Controversie with the Church
their best Intentions and Resolutions So that they may easily believe themselves passionately concerned for the love of Truth and the Glory of God whilst all their mighty zeal and passion may be nothing else than Eruptions of pride and vanity And wherever this Delusion rules it is the most impetuous and most importunate Principle in the world No sort of men so boisterous and irresistible as those whose imaginations are overcome with the vehemence of its delight And this is the case of our peevish and Grubstreet Divines they have when time was been looked upon as Authors of esteem and credit in the world and were once admired and applauded for the deep and the solid men of the Age and as they have walked the Streets have sometimes had the pleasure of a this is that Demosthenes from the more knowing and judicious Tankard-bearers And in all Assaults and Challenges from the Enemies of the precisest and most refined sort of Orthodoxy they have been called forth to defend the Cause and in all Tryals of controversial Skill have ever come off with success and victory Truth has always hung upon their Pens and they have been courted and consulted as the Oracles of their Age Learned men have submitted themselves to their Iudgment and their Writings have stood or fell at their Tribunal and in all the nice and more difficult Controversies their Decree has determined what is Orthodox and what Heretical Now these men must needs lye under vehement temptations of being very troublesome and pragmatical and upon every trifling occasion of annoying the publick with perpetual Pamphlets and Scribles And I cannot divine what other provocation Mr. B. had to meddle with Grotius or Bishop Bramhall then that they were learned enough to despise the Ignorance of the highest knowledge that he or any of his Brethren coul'd pretend to And certainly he must have been bravely flusht and perch't in his own conceit that could prevail with himself to venture upon three or four days study to bolt forth such bold and rash censures against two such great Wits and great Scholars Had he then been furnished with Learning enough to understand the vast disproportion between his own and their abilities he would rather have trembled at their Names than have attempted their Reputations Mr. B. must not think himself undervalued by being placed so many degrees below them for alas it is not every Rabbi that is sufficiently qualified to sit at their Feet And I doubt not but the opportunities he has since had to emprove and raise himself to an higher form of Learning have convinced him of the confidence and unadvisedness of that undertaking as the rudeness and extravagance of his own Party has taught him more candour and civility towards the Church of England And therefore this Treatise was not published to impair his E steem in the least but for a Correction of his scribling humour and a warning to their Rat-Divines that are so perpetually nibling and gnawing other mens Writings that by this example they may learn how easie a thing it is to blast such hasty Conceptions and be a little frighted from being so very pert and forward at such uncivil Attempts For upon Perusal of it I cannot imagine any man either so partial or so ignorant as not to grant that our Authour has with Smartness enough and considering all Circumstances Modesty too much not only answered but baffled all such Accusations of his Adversary as are at all material in themselves or pertinent to the Cause and that without condescending to play with him at his Systematical and Push-pin Divinity But the main Reason that put me upon the Publication of it was thereby to give some check to their present disingenuitâ— for though Mr. B. have learnt more modesty then to be so prodigal as formerly in sending abroad his hard â— ensures and positive Decrees against every Body and upon every Occasion yet others that pretend to as great an Interest and Authority with the holy Brotherhood still persevere in the same rudeness and incivility towards the Church of England and upon every flight accident are beating up the Drums against the Pope and Popish Plots they desery Popery in every common and usual chance and a Chimney cannot take Fire in the City or the Suburbs but they are immediately crying Iesuites and Fireballs And as for all those that wear Canonical habits and walk in Cassocks and Girdles they are aâ— least Pensioners to his Holiness and let them protest or pretend what they please they are Popelings in their Hearts and Worshippers of the Beast in secret and own him too shamefully in their open and avowed Practices In so much that the great Scribler of the Party J. O. blushes not to charge them with a total Apostasie from the Reformation and to plead this in justification of their Nonconformity We fear not says Shamefacedness to own that we cannot Conform to Arminianism Socinianism on the one hand he might as well have added all the Isms in the Old Testament Perizzitism Hivitism Jebusitism Hittitism c. or Popery on the other and why not Sorcery and Extortion too with what new or specious Pretences soever they may be blended This is his old Modesty and brawny-faced Confidence who beside this humble melting broken hearted Secret One could have vented such lofty strains of Candour and Ingenuity But the Viper is so swell'd with Venom that it must either burst or spit its Poison The Dunghil is his only Magazine and Calumny his only Weapon and he has no other Apology to justifie the Rudeness and Incivility of his Scriblings but by such loud and thundering Falsifications And though he has been so often and so shamefully corrected for these base and unworthy Arts yet 't is not in his power to forbear them when they are the result of his Humour and Genius For had his Complexion been capable of a Blush or a modest Thought I dare say he has not wanted for Means and Opportunities of learning better Manners But he is so far from being reformed by the sharpest Rebukes and Corrections that they only provoke him to greater Sullenness and more enraged Abuses and in stead of being brought to Tears and Repentance he improves in the Boldness and Insolence of his Aspersions It is not sufficient now adays to represent us Papists Socinians and Hereticks that is an easie and an ordinary Slander he was able to face that out when he was but a Novice and unexperienced in the Arts of Malice and Confidence These were his common Performances twenty or thirty years ago But now his Mightiness scorns to stoop his Prowess to such low and creeping Atchievements they become not the Courage and the Confidence of so Renowned a Wight he disdains to vent a Slander that is not too big for any Mans Throat or Conscience but his own And now things are come to that desperate pass in the Church of England that they are not contented