those who have either Separated from the Church or appeared against it I return to prosecute his Metaphor that I have used as UPRIGHT BOWLES as ever any that enter the Alley of History since our Civil Dissentions I do freely declare my self that I in VVriting my Book am for the Church of England as it stood established by Law the Creed being the Contracted Articles and the 39. Articles the Expanded Creed of her Doctrine as the Canons of her Discipline And still I prise her Favour highest though for the present it be least worth as little able to protect and less to prefer any that are faithfull to her Interest As for pleasing of Parties I never Designed or Endevoured it There were a kind of Philosophers called ELECTICI which were of none yet of all Sects and who would not engage in gross in the Opinions of any Philosophers but did pick and choose here and there what they found Consonant to Truth either amongst the Stoicks Peripateticks Academicks or misinterpreted Epicures receiving that and rejecting the rest such my Project to commend in all Parties what I find praise-worthy and condemne the rest on which Account some Fleer some Frown none Smile upon me First for the Papists though I malice not their Persons and have a Pity as God I hope hath a Mercy for many amongst them yet I do as occasion is offered dislike their Errors whereby I have incurred and according to their principles deserved their Displeasure The old Non-conformists being the same with the modern Presbuterians but depressed and under as the modern Presbuterians are the old Non-conformists but vertical and in Authority do though the Animadvertor twiâ—teth me constantly to Advocate for them take great and general exception at me and it is not long since in a Meeting of the most Eminent amongst them I was told that I put too much Gall into my Inck against them The Independent being the Benjamin of Parties and his Mess I assure you is none of the least taxeth me for too much fieriness as the Animadvertor in his Expression lately cited chargeth me for too much Favour unto them Thomas Lord Coventry when coming from the Chancery to sit down at Dinner was wont to say Surely to day I have dealt equally for I have displeased both sides I hope that I have his Happiness for I am sure I have his Unhappiness that having disobliged all Parties I have written the very Truth Thus I can onely privately comfort my self in my owne Innocence and hope that when my Head is laid low what seems too sweet too bitter too salt too fresh to the present divided Age will be adjudged well tasted and seasoned to the Palate of Unpartial Posterity CHAP. XIII What Good the Animadvertor might but would not doe and what Good by Gods goodness he Herein hath done unto the Author WHen the Animadvertor had perused my Book marking some but making moe faults therein it was in his Power to have done me a Pleasure the greatest he could give or I receive viz. not to paradigmatize me but by Letter in an amicable way to impart my Mistakes unto me that I might amend them in my next Edition Say not He owed me no such thing who would have beheld it not as a Debt paid unto but Alms bestowed upon me I was not wholly without hope hereof having found such favour from some worthy Friends Had the Animadvertor done the like How had he obliged me As the Society of Peter-house do preserve the Pictures of their Benefactors in their Parlour so would I have erected unto him a Monument of Gratitude in my Heart besides my publick acknowledgement of the courtesie But it seems He intended not my Information but Defamation However he hath done to me a great good turn for which because not intended I will thank God viz. He by his causeless Carping hath allayed in me the delight in Writing of Histories seeing nothing can be so unpartially and inoffensively written but some will carp thereat Mothers minding to wean their Children use to put Soot Wormwood or Mustard on the Nibbles of their Breasts God foresaw I might Suck to a Surfet in Writing Histories which hath been a Thief in the Lamp of my Life wasting much Oyle thereof My Head and Hand had robb'd my Heart in such delightful Studdies Wherefore he raised the bitter Pen of the Animadvertor to wean me from such Digressions from my Vocation I now experimentally find the Truth of * Solomon's words of making many Books there is no End Not but that all perfect Books I mean perfect in sheets otherwise none save Scripture perfect have Finis in the Close thereof or that any Author is so irrational but He propounds an End to himself before he begins it but that in making of many Books there is no end that is the Writers of them seldome or never do attain that End which they propound to themselves especially if Squinting at sinister Ends as who is not flesh and blood Such as project wealth to themselves are commonly by unwise managing or casual miscarriage impaired thereby in their Estates Others who designed to themselves with the builders of Babel to get them a Name commonly meet with shame and disgrace Or else when their Books are ended yet they are not ended because though never so cautiously written some Antagonists will take up the Bucklers against them so that they must begin again after they have ended or sink in their credits to write in their own vindication which is my case enough to take off my edge formerly too keen in making multiplicity of Books I confess I have yet one History ready for the Press which I hope will be for Gods Glory and Honour of our Nation This new-built Ship is now on the Stocks ready to be lanched and being a Vessel of great Burden God send me some good Adventurers to bear part of the Expence This done I will never meddle more with making any Books of this Nature It is a provident way before Writing leave us to leave of Writing and the rather because Scribling is the Frequentative thereof If therefore my Petitioning and Optative Amen shall meet with Gods Commissioning and Imperative Amen I will hereafter totally attend the Concernments of my Calling and what directly and immediately shall tend to the advance of Devotion in my Self and in Others as preparatory to my Dissolution out of this state of Mortality CHAP. XIV That the Author is unjustly charged by the Animadvertor for being agreeable to the Times And how far forth such Agreeableness is consistent with Christian Prudence THe Animadvertor is pleased to Charge me to be a great Temporizer and agreeable to the Times In Order to my Defence herein let me premise this Distinction that there is a Sinful and Sinless Agreeableness with the Times be they never so bad It is a Sinful Agreeableness when People for their private profit or safety or both are resolved in
they had deserved the first thing which was done by the House of Commons after the King by their means had been brought to the fatall Block being to turn them out of povver to dissolve their House and annul their priviledges reducing them to the same condition vvith the rest of the Subjects Fuller I behold all this Paragraph as a Letter sent to me vvhich requires no Answer onely I bear the Animadvertor witnesse that it is delivered seeing I was none of the Lords on either Side But I am not altogether satisfied in the Adequation of the Animadvertor's Dichotomy to all the English Nobility That all not subscribing the Catalogue at Oxford must instantly be concluded on the opsite Party believing that upon serious search some Lords would be found in their Minority and not necessarily reducible to either of these heads Dr. Heylyn Footsteps of his moderation content with the enjoying without the enjoyning their private practices and opinions on others This comes in as an inference onely on a former passage in which it is said of Bishop Andrews that in what place soever he came he never pressed any other Ceremonies upon them than such as he found to be used there before his comming Though othervvise condemned by some for many superstitious Ceremonies and superfluous Ornaments used in his private Chappell How true this is I am not able to affirm Fuller The Animadvertor if so disposed might soon have satisfied himself in this point being Beneficed in Hampshire the last Diocesse of Bishop Andrews And though his institution into his Living was since the death of that worthy Prelate yet his information in this particular had been easie from the aged Clergy of his Vicinage Sure I am he ever was inquisitive enough in matters vvhiâ—h might make for his advantage so that his not denying tantamounteth to the affirming of the matter in question Dr. Heylyn I am less able if it should be true to commend it in him It is not certainly the office of a carefull Bishop onely to leave things as he found them but to reduce them if amiss to those Rules and Canons from which by the forwardness of some to innovate and the connivance of others at the innovations they had been suffered to decline Fuller I comply cordially with the Animadvertor in all this last Sentence Only I add That it is also the office of a good Bishop not to endeavour the Alteration of things well setled before This was the constant practice of Doctor Andrews successively Bishop of Chichester Ely and Winchester who never urged any other Ceremonies that what which he found there Now whereas the Animadvertor saith that iâ— this should be true he is not able to commend it in him the matter is not much seeing the actions of Bishop Andrewes are able to commend themselves Dr. Heylyn And for the Inference it selfe it is intended chiefly for the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury against whom he had a fling before in the fourth Book of this History not noted there because reserved to another place of vvhich more hereafter Condemmed here for his want of moderation in enjoyning his private practices and opinions on other men But first our Author had done well to have spared the man vvho hath already reckoned for all his errours both vvith God and the vvorld Fuller He hath so and I hope what he could not satisfie in himself was done by his Savâ—our But first the Animadvertor had done wel to have spared his censure on my intentions except he had better assurance of them Here I must Reader appeal to an higher than thy self Him vvho can read the secrets of my heart before whom I protest That in this passage I did not reflect in any degree on the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury To make this the more probable knovv the Articles of his Visitation vvere observed to be as moderate as any Bishops in England Here let me enter this Memorable and let the Animadvertor confute it if he can There was a designe of the thirty six Dissenters of whom hereafter in the Convocaâ—ion to obtain that these Articles of his Visitation might be precedenâ—tall to all the Bishops in England as being in themselves in offensive and containing no Innovations This was by some communicated to Arch-Bishop Laud who at first seemed to approve thereof and how it came afterwards to miscarry I am not bound to discover I confess this my expression did eye another person related to Bishop Andrewes whom I forbear to name except by the Animadvertor's reply unto me I be forced thereunto Dr. Heylyn And secondly it had been better if he had told us what those private practises and opinions were which the Arch-Bishop with such want of moderation did enjoyâ— on others Fuller They are reckoned up in my Church-History Book 11. pag. 174. parag 47 48. This is direction enough and there one may find more then a good many of such opinions and practises On the self-same token that it was discreetly done of the Animadvertor to pass them over in silence without a word in their defence or excuse I will not again here repeat them partly because I will not revive what in some sort is dead and buried and partly because I charitably believe that some engaged therein and still alive are since sorry for their over-activity therein Dr. Heylyn For it is possible enough that the opinions which he speaks of might be the publick Doctrines of the Church of England maintained by him in opposition to those private opinions which the Calvinian party had intended to obtrude upon her A thing complained oâ— by Spalato who well observed that many of the opinions both of Luther and Calvin were received amongst us as part of the Doctrine and Confession of the Church of England which otherwise he acknowledged to be capable of an Orthodox sense Praeter Anglicanam Confessionem quam mi â— ut moâ—estam praedicalant multa video Lutheri Calvini dogmata obtinuisse as he there objects Fuller I am not bound to stand to the judgment of Spalato who would not stand to his own judgment but first in â—earâ— then in body went back into Aegypt Lay not such unsavoury salt in my dish but cast it to the Dunghill Dr. Heylyn He that reads the Gag and the Appello Caesarem of Bishop Monâ—â—gue cannot but see that those opinions which our Author condemned for private were the true Doctrine of this Church professed and held forth in the Book of Articles the Homilies and the Common-Prayer-Book Fuller He that reads the Answers returned by severall Divines to the Books of Bishop Montague cannot but see that they were rather private opinions than the true and professed Doctrine of the Church of England Here Reader I cannot but remember a passage betwixt two Messengers sent to carry Defiances from severall Armies who meeting in the mid-way though naked and without Swords yet to manifest their zeal to their Cause fought it out with their Trumpets
but on this condition to have all the Land he sued for with the full profits thereof to a minute past and his own costs and charges to a farthing Such and no other agreement will the court of Rome condescend unto Dr. Heylyn But as our Author sayeth that many of the Arch-bishops Equals adjudged that designe of his to be impossible so I may say without making any such odious Comparisons that many of our Author's betters have thought otherwise of it Fuller Amongst which many of his Betters the Animadvertor undoubtedly is one of the Principal Be it so I will endeavour to be as good as I can and will not envy but honour my Betters whose number God increase Sure I am amongst these many of my Betters the difference betwixt us and the Papists is made never a whit the better there remaining still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and though many may manifest much good wil to advance nothing hath taken Effect to compleate such a composition Dr. Heylyn It was the Petulancy of the Puritans on the one side and the pragmaticalness of 〈◊〉 Jesuits on the other side which made the breach wider than it was at 〈◊〉 first and had these hot Spirits on both sides been charmed a while moderate Men might possibly have agreed on such equal tearms as vvould have laid a sure foundation for the peace of Christendome Fuller Let us behold the Originall breach betvvixt the Church of Rome and Us. I name the Church of Rome first because confident they caused it so that vve may say unto them Pharez The breach be upon them This breach vvas made before either Puritans or Iesuits ever appeared in England As the Animadvertor skill'd in their dates knovveth full vvell It is therefore suspitious that the Wound vvhich vvas made before these parties vvere in being vvill continue if both of them vvere extinct I behold the Colledge of Sorbonists in Paris as far from Jesuitical pragmaticalness and Dr. I. Cosens as one free from puritanical petulancy Yet though the said Doctor hath complyed vvith them so far as he could doe vvith Christian prudence salâ—â conscientiâ And though the Sorbonists are beheld as the most learned and moderate Papists yet I cannot hear of any Accommodation betvvixt them but rather the contrary even in the point of the Apocrypha a controversie so learnedly canvased by the Doctor they being as unvvilling to allovv so few as he so many Books in the Bible to be Canonical And here let me be the Animadvertor's Remembrancer of vvhat perchance he vvould vvillingly forget hovv it vvas not long since he tvvitted me for saying that the difference about the posture of the Communion Table might be accommodated vvith mutual moderation and novv he holdeth By the same means an expedient betvvixt us and the Papists may be advanced Dr. Heylyn Moderate Men might possibly have agreed on such equall termes as would have laid a sure foundation for the Peace of Christendome Fuller My name is Thomas It maketh me the more distrust thereof because I see at this day most cruel Wars betwixt the Crowns of Spain and France both which agree to the heighth in the same Romish Religion I am sorry their differences are paralleled with a sadder instance of the deadly Wars betwixt the Swede and Dane both Lutherans alike And our Sea Wars betwixt us and the Hollander both wel paied for are not yet forgotten All I collect is this that if the agreement betwixt us and Papists were expedited to morrow yet so long as there be severall Greatnesses in Christendome there will be â—â—stlings betwixt them And although they are pleased to score their differences for the greater credit on the account of Conscience and Religion yet what saith St. Iames From whence comes Warres and fightings amongst you Come they not hence even of your Lusts that war in your members And it is a sad truth Such the corruption of the humane Nature that Mens Lives and Lusts will last and end together Dr. Heylyn Now that all these in the Church of Rome are not so stiffely wedded to their own Opinions as our Author makes them appears first by the Testimony of the Archbishop of Spaâ—ato declaring in the high Commission a little before his going hence that He acknowledged the Articles of the Church of England to be true or profitable at the least and none of them Heretical Fuller The Animadvertor hath instanced in an ill Person and in an ill time of the same Person It was just when he was a taking his return to his vomit and to leave the Land When knowing himselfe obnoxious and justly under the lash for his covetous compliance with forreign Invitations of King Iames to get leave to be gone he would say any thing here and unsay it againe elsewhere As little heed is to be given to such a Proteus as hold is to be taken of Him Dr. Heylyn It appears secondly by a Tractate of Franciscus de Sancta Clara as he calleth himself in which he putteth such a Glosse upon the nine and thirty Articles of the Church of England as rendreth them not inconsistent with the Doctrines of the Church of Rome Fuller By that Parenthesis as he calleth himselfe it is left suspitious that his true Name was otherwise And he who would not use his own but a false Name might for ought I know put a false Glosse upon our Articles and though he PUTTETH such a sense upon them it is questionable whether our Articles will accept thereof To PUT something upon sometimes answers to the Latin Word IMPONERE which is to deceive and delude and sometimes is Equivalent to our English Word IMPOSE which soundeth the forceable or fraudulent Obtruding of a thing against the Will and Mind of Him or That whereon it is imposed Lastly the Animadvertor cannot warrant us that the rest of the Church of Rome will consent to the Iudgement of Franciscus de Sancta Clara and if not then is the breach betwixt us left as wide as it was before Dr. Heylyn And if without Prejudice to the Truth the Controversies might have been composed it is most probable that other Protestant Churches would have sued by their Agents to be included in the Peace Fuller The Animadvertor's Prudent and Politick Probability that other Protestant Churches would by their Agents sollicite an Inclusion into such a peace mindeth me of the Distich wrot on the sumptuous Cradle gorgiously trimmed for the Child of Queen Mary by Philip King of Spain Quam Mariae Sobolem Deus Optime Summe dedisti Anglis incolumem redde tuere rege O may the Child to Mary God hath given For ENGLANDS good be guarded safe by Heaven Whereas indeed this Child pretended at White-hall may be said born at Nonsuch proving nothing but a Mock-mother-Tympany I cannot but commend the kindnesse and care of the Animadvertor for keeping this Babe when born I mean the agreement betwixt Us and the Papists But let us behold it born see
dissensionem consensum in vera Religione firmandum that is to say to take away diversitie of Opinions and to establish an agreement in the true Religion Which end could never be effected if men were left unto the liberty of dissenting or might have leave to put their own sense upon the Articles But whereas our instances in the Article of Christs descent into Hell telling us that Christs preaching unto the Spirits there on which the Article seemed to be grounded in King Edwards Book was left out in this and thereupon inferreth that men are left unto a latitude concerning the cause time manner of his discent I must needs say that he is very much mistaken For first the Church of England hath alwaies constantly maintained a local Descent though many which would be thought her Children the better to comply with Calvin and some other Divines of forain Nations have deviated in this point from the sense of the Church And secondly the reason why this Convocation left out that passage of Christ preaching to the spirits in hell was not that men might be left unto a latitude concerning the cause time and manner of his Descent as our Author dreams but because that passaage of St. Peter being capable of some other interpretations was not conceived to be a clear and sufficient evidence to prove the Article For which see Bishop Bilsons Survey p. 388.389 Fuller I cannot fully concur with the Animadvertor That the Church of England hath constantly maintained a LOCAL DESCENT though no man hath an higher esteem for those worthy Writers who are of that perswasion I will confess this hitherto hath staggered me viz. St. Peter his application of Davids words to Christ thou shalt not leave my soul in hel I appeal whether these words import not a favour to all unprejudiced hearers which God did to his Son bearing this natural and unviolated sense That had God left Christs soul in hell his soul had been in a bad condition as being there in a suffering capacity but Gods Paternal affection to his dear Son would not leave his soul in hell but did rescue it thence Now all our Protestant and especially English Writers who maintain a LOCAL DESCENT doe very worthily in opposition to the Romish Error defend that Christ was then in a good estate yea in a triumphing condition Now then it had been no favour not to leave his soul in Hell but a less love unto him to contract his happiness in his triumph I protest that in this or any other point I am not possest with a spirit of opposition and when I am herein satisfied in any good degree I shall become the Animadvertors thankful Convert in this particular Dr. Heylin Our Author proceeds Fol. 74. In a word concerning this clause whether the Bishops were faulty in their addition or their opposites in their substraction I leave to more cunning Arithmeticians to decide The Clause here spoken of by our Author is the first Sentence in the twentieth Article entituled De Ecclesiae Authoritate where it is said that the Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of the Faith c. Fuller To this and to what ensueth in two leaves following I return no answer not because I am pinched therein with any matter of moment but for these reasons following First I understand That the Animadvertors Stationer taketh exception that I have printed all his book which may tend to his detriment Now I protest when I â—irst took up this resolution to present the Animadvertors whole Cloth List Fagg and all I aimed not at his damage but my own defence noâ— can I see how I could doe otherwise seeing the plaister must be as broad as the sore the tent as deep as the wound yea I have been inâ—ormed by prime Stationers the like hath formerly been done without exception taken on either side in the Replies and Rejoynders betwixt Dr. Whitgift and Mr. Cartwright and many others However being willing to avoid all appearance of injury I have left out some observations which I conceived might well be spared as containing no pungent matter against me Secondly I am confident That there needs no other answer to these notes then the distinct and serious perusal of my Church History with the due alteration of favour indulged to all writings Lâ—stly What of moment in these notes is omitted by me relateth to those two Church Questions in Law which I have formerly desired may fairly be ventilated betwixt the Animadvertor and me and if he be sensible That any thing herein tendeth to his advantage he may and no doubt will re-assume and enforce the same Dr. Heylin From the Articles our Author proceeds unto the Homilies approved in those Articles and of them he tels us Fol. 75. That if they did little good they did little harm With scorn and insolence enough Those Homilies were so composed as to instruct the people in all positive Doctrines necessary for Christian men to know with reference both to Faith and Manners and being penned in a plain style as our Author hath it were fitter for the edification of the common people than either the strong lines of some or the flashes of vain wit in others in these latter times c. Fuller With scorn and insolence I defie the words The Animadvertor might have added my words immediately following viz. They preached not strange Doctrines to People as too many vent DARKNESSES now a dayes intituled New Ligâ—ts And well had it been for the peace and happiness of the Church if the Animadvertor and all of his Party had had as high an esteem as the Author hath for the Homilies If none of them had called them HOMELY HOMILIES as one did And if they had conformed their practise to the second Homilie in the second Book and not appeared so forward in countenancing Images of God and his Saints in Churches Dr. Heylin The Author proceeds Fol. 76. The English Bishops conceiving themselves impowred by their Canons began to shew their authority in urging the Clergy of their Diocess to subscribe to the Liturgy Ceremonies and Discipline of the Church and such as refused the same were branded with the odious name of Puritans Our Author having given the Parliament a power of confirming no Canons as before was shewed he brings the Bishops acting by as weak Authority in the years 1563. 1564. there being at that time no Canons for them to proceed upon for requiring their Clergy to subscribe to the Liturgies Ceremonies and Discipline of the Church And therefore if they did any such thing it was not as they were impowred by their Canons but as they were inabled by that Authority which was inherent naturally in their Episcopal Office Fuller I profess my self not to understand the sense of the Animadvertor and what he driveth at herein And as soon as I shall understand him I will either fully concur with him or fairly