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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B02400	Two letters of the right reverend father in God Doctor John Cosin, later Lord Bishop of Durham, with annotations on the same. Also the opinion of the Reverend Peter Heylin, D.D. concerning the metrical version of David's Psalms, with remarks and observation upon them. / By R. Watson, D.D.	Watson, R.; Cosin, John, 1594-1672.; Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.	1686 (1686)	Wing C6363B; ESTC R220851	37,011	111

re-union intended and earnestly endeavoured by 'em If I may without offence Sir I will report to you some instances I bear in mind without any unbecoming reflexion upon their persons that may deserve your censure if I have not your approbation When I came first to this Parochial Rectory which I have now enjoyed somewhat above twenty years informing my self by what means I best could touching the genius of my people I found I had entred on a hard task of reducing them into the right path from which they had diverted through the course of many years before my Predecessor having been misled himself and they by him in the erroneous doctrines and practices of those times the later of the two was that alone which I could hope in some measure to redress for so well knew I the Presbyterian after long acquaintance as I had concluded him irreclaimable in his Doctrine and irreconciliable to much of the outward worship in our Church what I knew I could best justifie by the character of my Order and prudential rule of Government over them committed to me without new direction from my Ordinary I seasonably endeavoured having left no liberty to my Clerk the very first day of my publick appearance in this Church to act any thing on his part but what he was expressly ordered by his rule and mine The Psalms in Meeter I am treating of had been so endeared to them who understood little better sense than what is unintelligible to him that hath most it was supposed they would hardly part with them and no less resolved was I neither to encourage nor permit the practice of what I could not conscientiously joyn with them in unless they could obtain an order to over-rule me which I presumed my superiours wiser than to grant upon any interest they could make or the most importunate solicitation the boldest of them could use yet I foresaw well enough how far they would adventure for it and meant to keep on the defensive side secured by the Rubrick after my saying the Nicene Creed Then shall follow the Sermon c. without the least mention of any Psalm to be Sung before my passing to the Pulpit I suffered my self to be sounded by the Church-wardens and some others why I continued not the old Custom which they fondly thought soirreversible as they flatter themselves some other are for non-payment of several Tythes even without a modus their Lawyer having found out a term worth ten of it in Latin too Lex Terra which hath the efficacy to discharge all arrears very potently by paying nothing The address they agreed to make to the Bishop I no way offered to obstruct nor did I much regard the open mouths of the many-headed monster in the Countrey that spent very freely their deep resentment of so great a grievance untill I perceived some of better note who had in possession the Dromedaries of Midian and Ephah who came from Sheba too for ought that I know but brought little or no Gold to the Church and as little Incense to the name or reputation of her truest Priests yet were very zealous in shewing forth the praises of the Lord this way of Singing caring not at all for the other until I was further certified that my Lord Bishop then of Sarum so countenanced them as they took for granted their Custom-musick should be re-induced and my morosity reformed to a free compliance for it was high time I judged in that juncture to provide against the dilemma I could not else avoid either of disobeying his Lordships Council if not Command because he had no Canon nor Rubrick to authorize any such Injunction or be irregular in my observance and act contrary to the higher obligation laid upon me as I supposed in the established Order of our service as I have shewed for my observing which I understood not why any apology should be made if expected or indeed could be by me without the guilt of either hypocrisie or shame Hereupon I truly stated the case to his Lordship as I had done to my self promising all submission to his paternal Order when directed to me but refusing to act ought without it to gratifie a wilful people in their digression from the Order of our Church His Lordship knew better than I what power he had to dispense and wherewith which when he pleased to declare in like manner as in other cases I had implicit faith enough to believe that in pursuance of it I should not do amiss I easily Sir perceived this ingenuous freedom did not rellish well with his Lordship and as ill satisfied was I to lye under the disgust of so Reverend a Prelate the only expedient I could think of was to wait some savourarable opportunity in which fairly to obtain the sense of the point in difference from some other worthy Prelate in no less eminency if not in greater than himself whereby the cloud of misprision might be dispell'd and their countenances cleared up who had frown'd upon me for this unnecessary nice reluctance as they supposed which soon after finding in my way I successfully improved My good Angel guiding me to the Lord Bishop Sheldons Lodgings at White-hall in a good hour when Lord Bishop Henchman of Sarum came to visit him I being not permitted to go out and leave them private in some proper pause of their discourse took occasion so far to accuse my self as to own how at that present I was unhappily fallen under my Diocesans displeasure and craved leave of both to relate for what very briefly which granted by their joint consent having render'd the summ of what had passed I reduced all to this question proposing with leave Whether a Clergy-man were obliged by his Oath of Canonical obedience to conform in his publick Offices to the express order of our Church or with connivance only of his Diocesan take up with others an unauthoriz'd unjustifiable Custom to rid himself or his O dinary from the importunity of an ill principled and misguided people The arguments for Canon or Rubrick which is equivalent and the opposite for prevailing Custom was pressed so far as on either side they would bear and my Lord of London whose Translation to the Metropolitan See of Canterbury was near approaching petitioned by me to be as I knew he would be an impartial Arbiter in the case What my Lord of Sarum most sharply insisted on was That no Parochial Priest ought to differ in practice from that of his Diocesan nor presume to withdraw his Church or Congregation from the precedent of his Cathedral that being little better than to set up Altar against Altar and consequently begin a Schism I humbly asked leave of his Lordship to make observation what advantage unawares he yeilded me in paralleling the practice he would have reintroduced into my Church with that which already was on solemn Festivals only to gratifie an accessional Auditory that had not prayed with him in his own

TWO LETTERS OF THE Right Reverend Father in God Doctor JOHN COSIN Late LORD BISHOP of DURHAM WITH Annotations on the same ALSO The Opinion of the Reverend PETER HEYLIN D.D. Concerning the Metrical Version of DAVID's PSALMS With Remarks and Observations upon them By R. WATSON D.D. LONDON Printed by F. Leach for Nich. Woolfe at the Leopard in Newgate-street MDCLXXXVI For my very Loving Friend Mr. Watson at the Princes Court in Jersey SIR THE Letter that Major Fontane brought from you was very welcome to me the rather for that I had inquir'd after you of many and could never hear of you before since the dispersion at Bristol for though I find your Name now in the review of one of Dr. Clare's Letters yet when I read that Letter at first I took it to have been Dr. VVadson from whom I had not long since received a Letter out of the West but I am glad it is you and that you have a so fair a subsistence for the present under so good a * The Lord Hopton Lord What will become of us all for the future our Lord above knows to whose Providence and Goodness we must recommend our selves You say right Our Church is as much misunderstood and misconstrued here abroad as it is misused and maligned at home and I have had experience enough of both The truth is they are here so exceeding uncharitable and somewhat worse that I know not how any man who understands himself and makes a Conscience of what he does can enter into any Communion with them b in those Doctrines and Practices which they hold necessary to Salvation and wherein they make their essential note of difference their Religion and their Church to consist And that I may answer your demand in brief for they say you are all to come hither it is far less safe to joyn with these men that c alter the Credenda the Vitals of Religion than with those that meddle only with the Agenda and Rules of Religion d if they meddle no farther and where it is not in our power to help it there is no doubt but in these things e God will accept the Will for the Deed if that will without our assent or approbation to the contrary be preserved entire though in the mean while we suffer a little for it oppression must not make us leave our own Church They of Geneva are to blame in f many things and defective in some g they shall never have my approbation of their doings nor let 'um have yours h yet I do not see that they have set up any new Articles of Faith under pain of Damnation to all the World that will not receive them for such Articles and i you know whose case that is Caetera cum veneris or if you come not in other Letters as you shall offer me occasion In the mean while I will be glad to hear of h your resolution still to be constant in the maintetenance of the Ancient Catholick Faith and Government of the Church of Christ which the Church of England hath profess'd and taught us though now there be a Cloud and Storm upon it as upon what Church hath there not been more or less in the several Ages of the World If you know of any thing fit for me to hear concerning our old Friends in England you will do me a favour to impart it to Your assured Loving Friend J. C. St. Germ. Jun. 19. 1646. SIR AS I expose his Reverence's Letters to publick view so I submit my Annotations on them to your savourable censure which are as follow Annotations a AFter Sequestration of his Estate a vast debt incurr'd for advancement of the Kings Interest the sale of most he had in any sort of value even to his Plate and Coach-Horses and the Rebels plunder of what he had left at Torrington our Noble Lord had no fair means of subsistence for himself much less wherewith to exercise his liberality toward the Chaplain and few Servants he had then attending on him whom yet notwithstanding their loss of all likewise at Torrington Divine Providence preserved then and many years after in their state of exile and carried them mercifully through all the difficulties incident thereunto b If we return to them in those Doctrines and Practices whatsoever they are wherein we may which I will not presume to enumerate and moderate our selves in some measure as to the rest by the meek Cassandrian and Grotian Spirit of a mutual charitable inclination toward an amicable reunion though they continue to exclude us their Communion for not subscribing to those new Doctrines and Articles we so far shall lay the Schism at their doors and may rest satisfied in our persevering Members of that Primitive and once Catholick Church which hath prescribed an excellent Canon of Belief and Practice unto us both c For what we suppose they have altered in the old Credenda let us be so exact as we fairly may be yet not over-nicely Critical lest we become uncharitable nor so fond of our own opinions as not to hearken unto the pacific language of the learned Grotius and other eminent persons of his temper a List of whose Names he hath publish'd and whom he directs us to their search and intimacy having perhaps discovered a better meaning than we at more distance can apply to the Letter of their Profession d As I fear they do though not under the Anathema of Damnation denounced against Dissenters if a strict scrutiny were made into the genuine sense of these Confessions with other Books and Writings generally owned by them Beside that they meddle with the Agenda and Rites of Religion without any justifiable Call or Commission for which reason alone were there no other we ought not to join with them in their Publick Worship or Communion e Then God may I doubt not accept the Will for the Deed although we decline Communion or Religious Compliance with either party from both whom we differ and at many their Doctrines or Practices we justly scruple wherein I might well have satisfied my self if I had been so well acquainted then as afterward with the learned Grotius's opinion de Christiano Segrege who himself if he dyed in that state as many that mean thereby to reproach him would have believed departed I make no question a good Member of the Catholick Church and so I hope many of us lived when in our state of Exile wheresoever we found no Oratories of our own we asked admission neither into the Churches of the Roman Catholicks nor the Temples or Meeting-places of the Lay-reformed Calvinists for Ecclesiasticks I dare not acknowledge those whom they pretend to make such f In too many of either whether we take them for Agenda or Credenda g Mine they never had but wherein they had the Deans likewise until it seems he chang'd his mind and departed from his aequilibrium of Indifference by making one Scale overmuch to