Bishops and Presbyters which as being the most easie to be answered he therefore referred to a Bishop But in good earnest after having confider'd this last Chapter so Brutal whether as to Force or Reason I have changed my resolution For he argues so despicably in the rest that even I who am none of the best Disputers of this World have conceiv'd an utter contempt for him He is a meer Kitchin-plunderer and attacks but the Baggage where even the Suttlers would be too hard for him P. 18. Does the Exposer allow that under Constantinus Pogonatus to have been a free General Council In the same page If the Exposer would have done any thing in his Dic Ecclesiae he should have proved that a General Council is the Church that there can be such a General Council or hath been that the Church can impose new Articles of Faith beyond the Express Words of Scripture that a General Council cannot erre in matters of Faith That the Church of his making cannot erre in matters of Faith Whereas our Church Article 19. saith thus far The Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred not onely in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith This is an Induction from Particulars and remark the Title of the Article being of the Church Ours defines it The Visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men in which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duly ministred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same And then if the Reader please to look on the 20. and 21. Articles following one of the Authority of the Church the other of the Authority of General Councils unless a man will industriously mis-apply and mis-construe them those three are a Compendious and irrefragable Answer not onely to whâ—… he saith here upon the Appendix but to his whole Book from one end to the other p. 19. I ask him when the Greek Church is excommunicate by the Roman when the Protestants left the Roman Church when we in England are neither Papists Lutherans nor Calvinists and when in Queen Maries time we returned to the Roman Church what and where then was the Catholick Church that was indefectible and against which the Gates of Hell did not prevail Was it not in the Savoy Moreover I ask him what hinders but a General Council may erre in matters of Faith when we in England that are another World that are under an Imperial Crown that are none of them as the Exposer words it but have a distinct Catholick Faith within our Four Seas did in the Reign before mentioned and reckon how many in that Convocation those were that dissented again make our selves one of them unless he has a mind to do so too which would alter the Case exceedingly P. 20. He quotes the Act I Eliz. cap. I. let him mind that clause in it by the express and plain words of Canonical Scripture and then tell me what service it hath done him whether he had not better have let it alone but that it is his fate all along to be condemn'd out of his own mouth which must alwayes succeed so when man urges a Real Truth against a Real Truth P. 23. I have reason to affirm and he will meet with it and has already in the Author that those General Councils howsoever called were no Repraesentatio totius nominis Christiani but nominally yea that such a Representation could not be P 22. He expounds Scriptures here and thinks he does wonders in it by assuming the Faculties of the whole Body to the Mouth which Mouth he saith and in some sense 't is very true if a man would run over the Concordance is the Clergy But I know not why the Mouth of the Church should pretend to be the Brain of the Church and understand and will for the whole Laity Let every man have his word about and 't is reason We are all at the same Ordinary and pay our souls equally for the Reckoning The Exposer's Mouth which is unconscionable would not onely have all the Meat but all the Talk too not onely at Church but at Council Table Let him read Bishop Taylor of Liberty of Prophecy P. 25 The Exposer that alwayes falsly Represents his Adversary as an Enemy to Creeds to Fathers as afterwards he does to Ceremonies to Logick to Mathematicks to every thing that he judiciously speaks and allows of here P. 25. saith the Author who delivers but the Church of Englands Doctrine herein and would not have Divine Faith impos'd upon nor things prest beyond Scripture in this matter of General Councils is guilty of unthought of Popery for the Papists really I think he partly slanders them herein cannot endure Councils General and Free They allow many a General Council more than we do If the Pope do not for some reason or other delight in some that are past or in having new ones it does not follow that the Papists do not I think those were Papists that ruffled the Pope too here in the West and that at the Council of Constance burnt John Hus and Hierome of Prague and resolv'd that Faith was not to be kept with Hereticks But pray Mr. Exposer if we must give divine Faith to General Councils let the Author ask you in his turn which are those General Councils How shall we know them Why onely such as accord with Scripture Why then we I mean you Mr. Exposer make our selves you still Judges of the General Councils the fault you so much condemn the Author for But what Popery thought or unthought of are you in the very next line guilty of that call the Popes Supremacy the Quintessence of Popery So that it seems the Quintessence of the Controversie betwixt ouâ—… Church and theirs is onely which shall be Pope for the Articles of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compulsion though the Non-conformists may I thank you Mr. Exposer for your News I had often heard it before I confess but till now I did never and scarce yet can believe it it is rather to be wish'd then hoped for a thing so surprizingly seasonable But for the good news Mr. Exposer I will give you four Bottles which is all I had by me not for mine own use but for a friend upon occasion of the First Second Third and Fourth Essence But the Quintessence I doubt would be too strong for your Brain especially in the morning when you are writing Animadversions P. 28. of Ceremonies he sports unworthily as if the Author spoke Pro and Con Contradictions while as a Moderator he advises our Church to Condescension on the right and the Dissenters to submission on the left how are men else to be brought together He had as good call every man because he has two hands an Ambidexter He would turn every mans Stomach worse than the
him hand and foot and thrown him into the Thames betwixt White-hall and Lambeth for experiment laying so much weight too on him as would sink any ordinary man and nevertheless he swims still and keeps above Water So dangerous is it to have got an Ill Name once either for speaking Truth or for Incantation that it comes to the same thing almost to be Innocent or Guilty for if a man swim he is Guilty and to be Burnt if he sinke he is Drowned and Innocent But therefore this Exposing must surely be to condemne the Author as he has done his Book already to the Fire for no man stands fairer for't as being first Heretick and now Witch by Consequence and then the Devil sure can have no more power over the Animadverter Yet when I consider'd better that he does not accuse him of any harme that he has suffered by him in person but that it is the Church which may justly Complain of him and having done her so much mischiefe therefore it is become a Duty to Expose him I could not but imagine that it must be a severer Torment For if our Church be bewitched and he has done it Huic mites nimium Flammas huic lenta putassem Flumina fumiferi potasset nubila Peti Though I never heard before of a Church that was Bewitched except that of the Galatians Gal. 3. 1. Whom Saint Paul asks O foolish Galatians who hath Bewitched you taking it for evident that they were so because they are his very next words they did not obey the Truth And that was a Naked Truth with a Witness the Apostle teaching that Christ is become of none effect to them that from their Christian Liberty returned to the Jewish Ceremonies Gal. 5. 4. But therefore I looked over the Canons the Rational the Ceremonial the Rubrick imagining the Exposing mention'd must be some new part of our Ecclesiastical Discipline that I had not taken notice of before and I should find it in one or other of the Offices But I lost my labour and 't was but just I should for being so simple as not to understand at first that to Expose a man is to write Animadversions upon him For that is a crueller Torment then all the Ten Persecutors and which none but this Clergy-man could have invented To be set in the Pillary first and bedawb'd with so many Addle Eggs of the Animadverters own Cakle as he paâ—…ts him with How miserable then is the man that must suffer afterwards sub 〈◊〉 leâ—…to Ingenio To be raked and harrowed thorow with so â—…usty a Saw So dull a Torture that it contains all other in it and which even the Christian Reader is scarce able to indure with all his Patience Had he been a man of some accuteness the pain would have been over in an instant but this was the utmost inhumanity in whoever it was that advised whereas several witty men were proposed that would have been glad of the the imployment to chuse out on purpose the veryest Animadverter in all the Faculty This it is to which the Author is condemned And now that I know it and that it is an Office a Duty to which our Church it seems has advanc'd the Animadvertur I wish him Joy of his new Preferment and shall henceforward take notice of him as the Church of Englands's Exposer for I can never admit him by any Analogy to be an Expositoâ—… It is no less disingenuously then constantly done of the Exposer in this same p. 1. To concern the Author in the Non-Conformists that may have reflected any where as if there were Socinian or Pelagian Doctrines Allowed to be preached and maintained in the City Pulpits For the Author hath not in his whole Book the least syllable that can be wrested to any such purpose Only it serves the Adversaries turn as he thinks to preingage the whole Clergy and Church of England against him if they were so simple and by giving him an odious Badge and jumbling them altogether to involve him in all the prejudices which are studioufly advanced against that party But neither have I any thing to urge of that nature further then because he will out of season mention these matters to observe that our Church seems too remiss in the Case of Socinus and Volkelius who had many things to great value stolen from them by a late Plagiary but as yet have not obtained any Justice or Restitution But seeing the Exposer is thus given to transforme not only the Author but his words and his meaning it is requisite to state this Chapter in his own Terms as men set their Arms on their Plate to prevent the nimbleness of such as would alter the property The sum of what he humbly proposes is That nothing hath caused more mischief in the Church then the establishing New and Many Articles of Faith and requiring men to assent 〈◊〉 them with Divine Faith For the imposing such on Dissenters hath caused furious Wars and lamentable Blood-shed among Christians That it is irrational to promote the Truth of the Gospel by Imposition which is contrary to the Laws of the Gospel and break an evident Commandment to establish a doubtful Truth For if such Articles be not fully expressed in Scripture wâ—…ds it is Doubtful to him upon whom it is Forced though not to the the Imposer If it be fully expressed in Scripture Words there needs no new Articles but if not so and that it be only Deduced from Scripture Expressions then men that are as able and knowing as the Imposer may think it is not clearly Deduced from Scripture But there is nothing more Fully Exprest or that can be more clearly Deduced from Scripture nor more suitable to Natural Reason then that no man should be Forced to Believe Because no man can Force himself to believe no not even to believe the Scriptures But Faith is a work of peculiar Grace and the Gift of God And if a man Believe what is Clearly Contain'd in Scripture he needs not believe any thing else with Divine Faith To add to or deminish from the Scripture is by it unlawful and lyable to the Curse in the Revelation If the Imposer answer he requires not to Believe it as Scripture he doth if he urge it to be believed with Divine Faith If he say he requires it not to be Believed with Divine Faith he does if he make it necessary to Salvation There is no Command nor Countenance given in the Gospel to use Force to cause men Believe We have no Comprehensive Knowledge of the Matters declared in Scripture that are the Prime and Necessary Articles of Faith therefore it is not for any man to Declare one Tittle more to be Believed with Divine Faith then God hath there Declared He cannot find the least hint in the Word of God to use any Force to Compel men to the Churches established Doctrine or Discipline and from Reason there can be no motive to be Forced
thorow their Diocesses the number would appear inconsiderable upon this Easter Visitation Before men be admitted to so important an employment it were fit they underwent a severe Examination and that it might appear first whether they have any Sense for without that how can any man pretend and yet they do to be ingenious Then whether they have any Modesty for without that they can only be scurrilous and impudent Next whether any Truth for true Jests are those that do the greatest execution And Lastly it were not amiss that they gave some account too of their Christianity for the world has always hitherto been so uncivil as to expect somthing of that from the Clergy in the design and stile even of their lightest and most uncanonical Writings And though I am no rigid Imposer of a Discipline of mine own devising yet had any thing of this nature entered in to the minds of other men it is not impossible that a late Pamphlet published by Authority and proclaimed by the Gazette Animadversions upon a late Pamphlet entitâ—…led the Naked Truth or the true state of the Primitive Church might have been spared That Book so called The Naked Truth is a Treatise that were it not for this its Opposer needs no commendation being writ with that Evidence and Demonstration of Spirit that all sober men cannot but give their Assent and Consent to it unasked It is a Book of that kind that no Christian scarce can peruse it without wishing himself had been the Author and almost imagining that he is so the Conceptions therein being of so Eternal an Idea that every man finds it to be but the Copy of an Original in his own Mind and though he never read it till now wonders it could be so long before he remembred it Neither although there be a time when as they say all truths are not to be spoken could there ever have come forth any thing more seasonable When the sickly Nation had been so long indisposed and knew not the Remedy but having Taken so many things that rather did it harm then good only longed for some Moderation and as soon as it had tasted this seemed to it self sensibly to recover When their Representatives in Parliament had been of late so frequent in consultations of this nature and they the Physitians of the Nation were ready to have received any wholsome advice for the Cure of our Malady It appears moreover plainly that the Author is Judicious Learned Conscientious a sincere Protestant and a true Son If not a Father of the Church of England For the 〈◊〉 the Book cannot be free from the imperfections inâ—…ident to all humane indeavours â—…t those so small and guarded every where with so much Modesty that it seems here was none left for the Animadverter who might otherwise have blush'd to reproach him But some there were that thought Holy Church was concerned in it and that no true born Son of our Mother of England but ought to have it in detestation Not only the Churches but the Coffee-Houses rung against it they itinerated like Excise-â—…pyes from one house to another and some of the Morning and Evening Chaplains burnt their lips with perpetual discoursing it out of reputation and loading the Author whoever he were with all contempt malice and obloquy Noâ—… could this suffice them but a lasting Pillar of Infamy must be erected to eternize his Crime and his Punishment There must be an answer to him in Print and that not according to the ordinary rules of civility or in the sober way of arguing Controversie but with the utmost extremity of Jâ—…ere Disdain and Indignation and happy the man whose lot it should be to be deputed to that performance It was Shrove-Tuesday with them and not having yet forgot their Boyes-play they had set up this Cock and would have been contet some of them to have ventur'd their Coffee-Farthings yea their Easter-Pence by advance to have a sting at him But there was this close youth who treads alwayes upon the heels of Ecclesiastical Preferment but hath come nearer the heels of the Naked Truth then were for his service that rather by favour theâ—… any tolerable sufficiency â—…ied away this employment as he hath done many others from them So that being the man pitched upon he took up an unfortunate resolution that he would be Witty Infortunate I say and no less Criminal for I dare aver that never any person was more manifestly guilty of the sin against Nature But however to write a Book of that virulence and at such a season was very improper even in the Holy time of Lent when whether upon the Sacred account it behoved hiâ—…â—…ther to have subjugated and mortified the swelling of his passions or whether upon the Political reason he might well have forborn his young Wit as but newly Pigg'd or Calv'd in order to the growth of the yearly summer provisions Yet to work he fell not omitting first to â—…m himself up in the whole wardrobe of his Function as well because his Wit consiâ—…ing wholly in his Dresâ—…e he would and 't was hiâ—… concernment 〈◊〉 have it all about him as to the end that being huâ—…'d up in all his Ecclesiastical 〈◊〉 he might appear more formidable and in the pride of his Heart and Habit out â—…niface an Humble Mâ—…derator So that there was 〈◊〉 to do in â—…quipping of Mr. Smirke then there is about 〈◊〉 and the Diâ—…ine is Mâ—…de â—…ight have vyed with Sir Fopling Flutter The Vestry and the Tirâ—…ng-Roome were both exhausted and 't is hard to say whether there went more attendants toward the Composing of Himself or of his Pamphlet Being thus drest up at last forth he comes in Print No Poet either the First or the Third day could be more concern'd and his little Party like men hired for the purpose had posted themselves at every corner to feigne a more numerous applause but clap'd out of time and disturb'd the whole Company Annotations upon his Animadversions on the Title Dedication c. AT first bolt in his Animadversions on the Title the Dedication and the Epistle to the Reader he denounces sentence before inquiry but against the Book it self forgetting already his subject so early his brain circulates and saith that Having perused the Book thorowly he is abundantly satisfied not only from his Stile which is something Enthusiastick his speech bewrays him but from his matter and Principles if he stick to any that the Author is a borderer upon Fanaticisâ—…e and does not know it Even as the Animadverter is upon Wit and Reason for I have heard that Borderers for the most part are at the greatest distance and the most irreconcilable What the Stile is of a Title and what the Principles of a Dedication and Epistle to the Reader for these if any the Animadverter ought here to have stuck to it 's indeed a weighty disquisition fit for a man of his Talent But I have read them over
easing all Protestant dissenters from Penalties had he vouch'd for the Convocation his Belief or his probability might have been of more value But what has he to do yet they have a singular itch to it with Parliament business or how can so thin a scull comprehend or divine the results of the Wisdom of the Nation Unless he can as in the Epilogue Legion his name a People in a Man And instead of Sir Fopling Flutter he Mr. Smirke Be Knight oth'-Shire and represent them all Who knows indeed but he may by some new and extraordinary Writ have been summon'd upon the Emergency of this Book to Represent in his peculiar person the whole Representative Yet by his leave though he be so he ought not to Undertake before he be Assembled I know indeed he may have had some late Precedents for it and for some years continuance from men too of his own Profession And if therefore he should Undertake and to give a good Tax for it Yet what security can he have himself but that there may rise such a Contest between the Lords and Commons within him that before they can agree about this Judicial Proceeding against the Book it may be thought fit to Prorogue him The Crimes indeed are hainous and if the Man and Book be guilty may when time comes furnish special matter for an Impeachment That he has made a breach upon their Glorious Act of Unniformity Violated their Act their most necessary Act the Animadverter hath reason by this time to say so against Printing without a License and I suppose he reserves anotherfor aggravation in due time the Act against seditious Conventicles For these three are all of a piece and yet are the several Pieces of the Animadverters Armour and are indeed no less nor no more then necessary For considering how empty of late the Church Magazines have been of that Spiritual Armour which the Apostle found sufficient against the assaults of whatsoever enemy even of Satan what could men in all humane reason do less then to furnish such of the Clergy as wanted with these Weapons of another Warfare But although these Acts were the true effects of the Prudence and Piety of that season yet it is possible but who can provide for all cases that if there have not already there may arise thereby in a short time some notable inconvenience For suppose that Truth should one day or other come to be Truth and every man a Lyer I mean of the humor of this Parliamentum Indoctum this single Representativer this Animadverter you see there is no more to be said as the Case stands at present but Executioner do your Office Nor therefore can it ever enter into my mind as to that Act particularly of Printing that the Law-givers could thereby intend to allow any man a promiscuous Licenciousness and Monopoly of Printing Pernicious Discourses tending to sow and increase dissension thorow the Land of which there is but too large a crop already as neither of Prohibiting Books dictated by Christian meekness and charity for the promoting of Truth and Peace among us and reconciling our Differences no nor even of such as are writ to take out the Blots of Printing-Inke and wipe off the Aspersions which divers of the Licensed Clergy cast upon mens private Reputations and yet this is the use to which the Law is somtimes applyed And this Animadverter who could never have any rational confidence or pretence to the Press or Print but by an unlucky English saying men have or by the Text-Letters of his Imprimatur arraignes this worthy Author for Printing without Allowance as if it were a sin against the Eleventh Commandment Though a Samaritan perhaps may not practise Physick without a Licence yet must a Priest and a Levite alwayes pass by on the other side and if one of them in an Age pour Oyle and Wine into the Wounds of our Church instead of Tearing them Wider must he be Cited for it into the Spiritual Court and incurre all Penalties This high Charge made me the more curious to inquire particularly how that Book The Naked Truth was published which the Animadverter himself pretends to have got a sight of with some difficulty And I am credibly informed that the Author caused four hundred of them and no more to be Printed against the last Session but one of Parliament For nothing is more usual then to Print and present to them Proposals of Revenue Matters of Trade or any thing of Publick Convenience and sometimes Cases and Petitions and this which the Animadverter calls the Authors Dedication is his humble Petition to the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament And understanding the Parliament inclined to a Temper in Religion he prepar'd these for the Speakers of both Houses and as many of the Members as those could furnish But that the Parliament rising just as the Book was delivering out and before it could be presented the Author gave speedy order to suppress it till another Session Some covetous Printer in the mean time getting a Copy surreptitioufly Reprinted it and so it flew abroad without the Authors knowledge and against his direction So that it was not his but the Printers fault to have put so great an obligation upon the publick Yet because the Author has in his own Copyes out of his unspeakable Tenderness and Modesty begg'd pardon of the Lords and Commons in his Petition for transgressing their Act against Printing without a Licence this Indoctum Parliamentum mistaking the Petition as addressed to himself will not grant it but insults over the Author and upbraids him the rather as a desperate offender that sins on he saith goes on still in his wickedness and hath done it against his own Conscience Now truly if this were a sin it was a sin of the first Impression And the Author appears so constant to the Church of England and to its Liturgy in particular that having confessed four hundred times with an humble lowly penitent and obedient heart I doubt not but in assisting at Divine Service he hath frequently since that received Absolution It is something strange that to publish a good Book is a sin and an ill one a vertue and that while one comes out with Authority the other may not have a Dispensation So that we seem to have got an Expurgatory Press though not an Index and the most Religious Truth must be expung'd and suppressed in order to the false and secular interest of some of the Clergy So much wiser are they grown by process of time then the Obsolete Apostle that said We can do nothing against the Truth But this hath been of late years the practice of these single Representers of the Church of England to render those Peccadillioes against God as few and inconsiderable as may be but to make the sins against themselves as many as possible and these to be all hainous and unpardonable In so much that if we of the Laity
would but study our Self-Preservation and learn of them to be as true to our separate interest as these men are to theirs we ought not to wish them any new Power for the future but after very mature deliberation Forasmuch as every such Act does but serve as some of them use it to make the good people of England walk in peril of their Souls to multiply sin and abomination thorow the Land and by ingaging mens minds under spiritual Bondage to lead them Canonically on into Temporal slavery Whereas the Laity are commonly more temperate and merciful I might say more discreet in the exercising of any Authority they are intrusted with and what Power they have they will not wear it thred bare so that if I were to commit a fault for my life as suppose by Printing this without a License I would chuse to sin against good Mr. Oldenburg But this Animadverter is the genuine example of Ecclesiastical Clemency who proceeding on cannot bear that the Author should use the Title of an Humble Moderator he thinks him sure guilty herein Lasae Majestatis Ecclesiasticae and that both these Qualities are incompatible with one of their Coat and below the Dignity of any man of the Faculty much less will he indure him when he comes in the following discourse to justify his Claime to that Title by letting his Moderation according to the Apostles precept be known to all men for the Lord is at hand But he saith that the Author Assumes Imposes and Turnes all upside down and witnesses an Immoderate Zeal for one that is the Non-Conformists Party then which the Animadverter could never have invented a more notorious studied and deliberate Falshood to prepossesse and mislead the gentle Reader Wherein does he Assume He speaks like a Man a Creature to which Modesty and Reason are peculiar not like an Animadverter that is an Animal which hath nothing Humane in it but a Malicious Grinne that may Provoke indeed but cannot Imitate so much as Laughter Wherein does he Impose In nothing but by declaring his Opinion against all unreasonable Imposition And though it appears natural to him to speak with Gravity yet he usurps not any Authority further then as any man who speaks of a Truth which he thorowly understands cannot with all his Modesty and Humility hinder others from paying a due Reverence to his Person and acquiescing in his Doctrine But wherein does he Turn all upside down This hath been a common Topick of Ecclesiastical Accusation Our Saviour was accused that he would Destroy the Temple The first Martyr Steven was stoned as a Complice And Saint Paul as ill luck would have it was made odious upon the same Crimination of the Animadverters Acts 17. v. 5 6. For certain Lewd-fellows of the baser sort set all the City in an uproar crying those that have turned the world Up-side-down are come hither also And yet notwithstanding all these Calumnies The Naked Truth Christianity hath made a shift God bethanked to continue till this day and there will never want those that bear testimony to it even to the Primitive Christianity maugre all the arts that the men of Religion can contrive to misrepresent and discountenance it But as for the Turning all up-side-down the Animadverter is somewhat innocent if by the defect of his Organt as it fares with those whose Brain turnes round ' So we vulgarly expresse it he have imagined that the world is tumbling headlong with him But as to the Prejudice which he therefore reserved as the most effectual and taking to undoe the Author by that he is Immoderately Zealous for the Non-Conformists it is the effect of as strong a Phancy or as Malicious an Intention as the Former it being scarce possible to open the Book in any place without chancing upon some passage where he makes a firm Profession or gives a clear proof of his real submission and Addiction to the Church of England all his fault for ought I see being that he is more Truly and Cordially concerned for our Church then some mens Ignorance is capable of or their corrupt interest can comply with But therefore whoever were the adviser it is not well done to use him in this dirty manner There is no prudence in it nor whereas the Author in excuse that he sets not his name saith it is because he is a man of great Passions and not able to bear a Reproach The Animadverter had done fairer to cite the whole or Commendations my small Ability puts me out of danger of the last but in great fear of the former Therefore to resolve thus whereas they might have undone him you see by Commendation the rather to Reproach him now they have learn't his Feeble Holy Church I can tell you hath suffered upon that account so of ten that it were time for her to be wiser For by exasperating men of Parts who out of an ingenious love of Truth have temperatly Writ against some abuses She hath added Provocation to mens Wit to look still further insomuch that at last it hath sometimes produced then which nothing can be more dangerous to the Church a Reformation Therefore though Christ hath commanded his Followers so it be not I suppose out of his Way that if any man press them to go one mile they should go two yet it is not wisdom in the Church to pretend to or however to exercise that Power of Angariating men further then their occasions or understandings will permit If a man cannot go their Length 't is better to have his company in quiet as far as his Road lyes For my part I take the Church of England to be very happy in having a Person of his Learning and Piety so far to comply with Her and if my advice might be taken She should not lose one inch more of him by handling him irreverently For if once She should totally lose him God knows what an Instrument he might prove and how much good he might do in the Nation more then he ever yet thought of What a shame it is to hear the Animadverter abuse him who by the very Character of his Stile appears no Vulgar Person and by how much he hath more of Truth hath more of Gods Image and should therefore have imprinted that Awe upon him that Man hath over most Brutes he to trifle with so worthy a person at that rate that one would not use the meanest Varlet the dullest School-boy the rankest Idiot no nor the veryest Animadverter However he saith the Author hath done himself and him the Animadverter a great favour by concealing his Name in making it impossible for him to reflect upon his Person otherwise it seems he should have had it home which he knows no more then the Man in the Moon But therefore I am the rather jealous he did know him for the Animadverter having a Team of Gnaz'as alwayes a his devotion and being able if any one tired by the way to relieve
it and draw in person never think that he would want intelligence in that Region Come 't was all but an affected ignorance in the Animadverter and he had both inquired and heard as much as any of us who was the probable Author and all the Guard that he Lyes upon is because the Author had not given him legal notice that he Writ it And this was even as the Animadverter would have wished it For if a Reverend Person had openly avowed it he could not have been sawcy with so gooda Grace But under the pretence of not knowing Sir that it was you but only Sir as you were the Patron of so vile a Cause many a dry bob close gird and privy nip has he given him Yet he saith the Author would have done well and a piece of Justice to have named himself so to have cleared others for it hath been confidently layed to the charge of more then one Reverend Person how slily who I have great reason to believe and am several ways assured had no hand in it Truly the Animadverter too would have done a piece of Justice to have named himself for there has been more then one Witty person traduced for his Pamphlet and I believe by this time he would take it for a great favour if any man would be such a Fool as own it for him For he very securely reproaches the Author and yet I have been seeking all over for the Animadverters name and cannot find it Not withstanding that he writes forsooth in desence of the Church of England and against so vile a Cause as he stiles it and under the Publick Patronage Which is most disingenuously done as on other accounts so in respect of my Lord Bishop of London whom he has left in the lurch to justify another mans Follyes with his Authority But however that venerable Person who has for Learning Candor and Piety as he does for Dignity also outstripp'd his Age and his Fellows have been drawn in to License what certainly he cannot approve of it was but his First Fruits and a piece of early liberality as is usual upon his new Promotion and I am given to understand that for the Animadverters sake it is like to be the last that he will allow of that nature But this is not only a Trick of the Animadverters but ordinary with many others of them who while we write at our own peril and perhaps set our names to it for I am not yet resolved whether I can bear Reproach or Commendation they that raile for the Church of England and under the Publick License and Protection yet leave men as if it were at Hot-Cockles to guesse blind-fold who it is that hit them But it is possible that some of these too may lie down in their turnes What should be the reason of it sure theirs is not so Vile a Cause too that they dare not abide by it Or are they the Writers conscious to themselves that they are such Things as ought not once to be Named among Christians Or is it their own sorry performance that makes them ashamed to avow their own Books Or is there some secret force upon them that obliges them to say things against their Conscience Or would they reserve a Latitude to themselves to turn Non-Conformists again upon occasion Or do they in pure honesty abstaine from putting a single Name to a Book which hath been the workmanship of the whole Diocess But though he know not his Name seeing he has vented his own Amusements to the Churches great and real prejudice he saith and that is this Case he must not think to scape for the Godliness of his Stile Impious and most unmerciful Poor David was often in this Case Psal. 22. They gaped upon him with their Mouth He trusted said they in the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him And Psal. 71. 11. Persecute and take him there is none to deliver him And yet there are many places too in Scripture where God spared men even for their outward Formalities and their Hypocrisie served to delay his Judgements and should he not still do so the Church might re-receive greater prejudice But the Church and God are two things and are not it seems oblidged to the same Measures insomuch that even the sincerity of one Person which might perhaps attone for a whole Order and render them acceptable both to God and Man yet cannot hope for his own pardon Neither must be think to scope for a Man of good Intentions yet sure he is else would not give the Devil so much more then his due saying he would never condemne any good action though done by the Devil As if saith the Animadverter be supposed the Devil might do some such Here he thinhs he has a shrewd hit at him and this if a man had leisure might beget a Metaphysical Controversy but I desire him rather to comment on that Text Doest thou Believe thou doest well the Devils also Believe and Tremble Whereas he goeth on to mock at the Authors Good Intentions and tells him pleasantly that Hell it self is full of such as were once full of Good Intentions 't is a Concluding piece of Wit and therefore as well as for the Rarity should be civilly treated and incouraged so that I shall use no further 〈◊〉 there that if this be the qualification of such as go to Hell the Animadverter hath secured himself from coming there and so many more as were his Partners And thus much I have said upon his Animadversions on the Title c. Wherein he having misrepresented the Author and prejudicated the Reader against him by all disingenuous methods and open'd the whole Pedlers-pack of his malice which he half-p worths out in the following discourse to his petty Chapmen I could not properly say less though it exceeds perhaps the number of his Pages For it is scarce credible how vuluminous and pithy he is in extravagance and one of his sides in Quarto for Falshood Insolence and Absurdity contains a Book in Folio Besides the Reader may please to consider how much labour it costs to Bray even a Little Thing in a Mortar and that Calumny is like London-dirt with which though a man may be spatter'd in an instant yet it requires much time pains and Fullers-earth to scoure it out again Annotations upon the Animadversions on the first Chapter concerning Articles of Faith THe Play begins I Confess Do so then and make no more words when first I saw this Jewel of a Pamphlet and had run over two or three pages of this Chapter I suspected the Author for some Youngster that had been Dabbling amongst the Socinian Writers and was ambitious of showing us his Talent in their way I was quickly delivered from this Jealousy by his Orthodox Contradictory expressions in other places That word Jewel is commonly used in a good sense and I know no reason why this Book
of Christianity saith he were virtually contained in St. Peters short Confession of Faith Thou art Christ the Son of the living God For which Confession he was blest and upon which Faith Christ declared that he would build his Church as upon a Rock In conclusion I see Antiochus has ex mero motu certâ Scientiâ and Prince like Generosity given us the Question For I would not suspect that he hath hunted it so long till he lost it or let it go of Necessity because he could hold it no longer For the Extention as well as Intention of Peters Faith was terminated in these few words For it is no irreverence to take notice how plain the Apostles were under that dispensation The same John the Apostle and Evangelist C. 14. V. 26. and in the following Chapters showes how little it was and in how narrow a compass that they knew and believed and yet that sufficed Insomuch that where C. 16. V. 17. Our Saviour promises the Holy Ghost to instruct them further he saith only It is Expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not Come to you He saith not it is Necessary For that Measure of true Belief would have sufficed for their own Salvation but there was a larger Knowledge requisite for the future work of their Apostleship In how many of them and St. Peter himself as much as any were there such Ignorances I humbly use the word in matters of Faith that our Saviour could not but take notice of it and reprove them As for Peter when our Saviour was so near his Death as to be already beâ—…ray'd yet he Upon whose Faith he built his Church as on a Rock knew not the effect of his Passion but was ready with his sword against Christs Command and example to have interrupted the Redemption of Mankind And this short confession in which all the Fundamentalls were virtually contained as the Exposer here teacheth us and so hath reduced himself to that little Grain of Faith against which he contends with the Author was upon occasion of our Saviours question when Peter doubtless did his best to answer his Lord and Master and told him all he knew For that similitude taken from so small a Gâ—…aine by our Saviour did equal the proportion of Faith then attainable and requisite And as in a Seed the very Plain and Upright of the Plant is indiscernably express'd though it be not branch'd out to the Eye as when it geâ—…minates spreds blossomes and bears fruit so was the Christian Faith seminally straitned in that virtual sincerity Vital Point and Central vigour of Believing with all the heart that Jesus Christ was come in the Flesh and was the Son of the Living God And would men even now Believe that one thing thorowly they would be better Christians then under all their Creeds they generally are both in Doctrine and Practice But that gradual Revelation which after his death and Resurrection shined sorth in the Holy Ghost must now determine us again within the Bounds of that saving Ignorance by Belief according to the Scriptures untill the last and fuâ—…l Manifestation And the Intention of this Faith now also as it hath been explain'd by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Sacred Writers is sufficient for Salvation without the Chcianrey and Conveyancing of humane Extentions And the Controverter himself hath if not by his own confession yet by his own Argument all along hitherto proved it In the 6. p he saith that where the Author charges some with introducing Many and New Articles of Faith Heâ—… hopes he does not mean all our Thirty nine Articles If he hopes so why doth he raise the suspition for which indeed there is no cause imaginable but the Eâ—…posers own disingenuity the Author appearing thorow his whole Book a True Subscriber to Thenâ—…e without that Latitude of Equivocation which some others use or else they would not Publish those Doctrines they do and be capable nevertheless of Ecclesiastical Places But here as though any man had meddled with those Articles he explicaâ—…es his Learning out of Bishop Lâ—…y and of the Communio Laica which is but his harping upon one string and his usual Scanning on his fingers For the Author having named many and neew Articles of Faith the Exposer revolves over in his mind Articles Articles of and the word not being very pregnant he hits at last upon the Thirty nine Articles of the Church of England which yet the Exposer saith himself are Articles of Peace and Consent not of Faith and Communion Why then does he bring them by head and shoulders when the Author he knows was only upon Articles of Faith He might as well have saâ—… the Lords of the Articles But this he saith is one as he takes it of our Churches greatest Ecclesiastical Policyes that she admits the many in thousands and hundred thousands without any subscription ad Communionem Laicam Truly she is veâ—…y civil and we are an hundred thousand times oblidged to Her But I know not whether she will take it well of him that he not being content with so good an Office as that of her Exposer should pretend to be her Ecclesiastical Polititian over an other mans head that is fitter for both and not expect the Reversion And she cannot but be offended that he should thus call her Fool by craft assigning that for her greatest Ecclesiastical Policy when to have done otherwise would have been the greatest Impertence and Folly But who are these the many whom she so graciously receives Communionem Laicam without subscription Truly all of us whom she trusts not with Teaching others or with University Degrees The whole body of the Laity There again is another name or us for we can scarse speak without affronting our selves with some contemptuous name or other that they forsooth the Clergy have affixed to us Nos Numerus sumus the many fruges consumere nati Even his Majesty too God bless him is one of the many and she asks no suâ—…scription of him neither although I believe he has taken his Degree in the University Well we must be content to do as we may we are the many and you are the few and make your best of it But now though I am none of you yet I can tell you a greater Ecclesiastical Policy then all this you have been talking of It is a hard Word and though it be but one Syllable I cannot well remember it but by good luck it was burnt by the hand of the Hangman about that time that the Naked Truth was Printed And had that Policy succeeded the many must have taken not only all the Thirty Nine Articles but all the Ecclesiastical Errours and Incroachments that escaped notice all in the mass at once as if they had been Articles of Faith infallible unalterable but the State of the Kingdom had been apparently changed in the very Fundamentals For a
instance is made in Confutation of his own false supposition that the Authors words if then our reason understand not with comprehensive knowledge what is declared how can we then make any deduction by way of Arguments from that which we understand not did in their true meaning signifie how can we by reason make any deduction by way of Argument from that which we understand not to have been declared or that I may pâ—…t it the furthest I can imaginable to the Exposers purpose or service how can â—…e by reason understand that it is declared which is to impose a most ridiculous and impossible sense upon the Authors plain words for if we neither understand That nor What there is an end of all understanding Yet admitting here sayes the Exposer I have stated you a Case which proves the contrary for here Arrius or Socinus have no comprehensive knowledge of what is declared and yet they understand that it is declared and doubtless the Author would say so too without ever meaning the Contrary yea and that this revelation would have been demonstration enough of that Faith which we call Catholick But what would become of their former Contradictory Arguments which the Exposer saith would stand as they did before and remain against it I cannot vouch for the Author that he would be of the same opinion For I cannot comprehend though God had not answered those Arguments of theirs in particular as the Exposer puts it that those Arguments would or could remaine against it and stand as they did before any such declaration to Arrius and Sacinus after they had received a sufficient demonstration from Gods own mouth by New Revelation They would indeed remain against it and stand as they did before to Mr. Sherlocke But when I have thus given the humorous Exposer his own will and swing in every thing yet this superlunary instance does not serve in the least to confirme his Argument that he makes against the Authors words after his transforming them For here Arrius and Socinus only bring their sense of hearing and having heard this from God do not by Reason make any Deduction by way of Argument but by a believing knowledge do only assent to this second further Revelation Nor can they then from this second Revelation make any third step of Argument to extend it beyond its own tenour without incurring the Authors just wise Argument again that seeing our reason understands not what is declared I mean we have no comprehensive knowledge of this Doctrine of Trinity which the Exposer supposes to be declared how can we by reason make any deduction by way of Argument from that which we understand not to wit not comprehensively As I have abundantly cleared But this instance was at first extinguished when I shewed in the beginning that he did impertinently tradnce the Authors words and forge his meaning In the mean time though he saith put the Case with Reverence when the Case so put cannot admit it I cannot but at last reflect upon the Exposers unpardunable indiscretion in this more then absurd and monstruous representation of God almighty assuming the shape of an Angel as he saith he treated with Abraham face to face as a man doâ—…h with his friend to Discourse with Arrius and Socinus These are small escapes wiâ—…h which he aptly introduces such an interview and conference that he treated our 4th Abraham face to face as a man doth with his friend for it is true Abraham is Stiled the friend of God and that God spoke to him but it is never said in Scripture that God did Treat that is a word of Court not of Scripture No nor that God spoke to him face to face But it is said in Sripture only of Moses Exod. 33. 11. The Lord spoke to him face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend But that was a priviledge peculiar to Moses Numbers 12. 5. And the Lord came down in a Pillar of Cloud and stood in the door of the Tabernaele of the Congregation and called Aaron and Miriam and they both came forth and he said hear now my words if there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known to him in a Vision and will speak unto him in a Dream my servant Moses is not so who is faithful in all my house with him will I speak mouth to mouth even apparently and not in darke Speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold wherefore then were not you afraid to speak against my Servant Moses the Exposer is not afraid to do him manifest injury for Deut. 34. 10. And there arose not in Israel a Prophet like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face c. And much more might be said of this matter were the man capable of it But I perceive he neither reads nor understands Scripture and one Divine Criticism is stock enough it seems to set up an Exposer Neither is it so notorious an errour that he saith God assumed the shape of an Angel to treat with him I would be glad to know of the Exposer seeing he is so Cherubick what is the shape of an Angel Some humane Criticks have told me that it was the similitude of a Calfe But Gods appearing in a sha e to Abraham when he treated with him face to face was in the shape of a man Gen. 18 1. The Lord appeared to him in the Plane of Mamre as he sate in the Tent door and so three men stood by him c. These are easie slips and he that stumbles and falls not gains a step Yet for one as he mocks the Author p. 2. That appears as one drop'd down from Heaven vouching himself a Son of the Church of England teaching as one having authority like a Father to trip in this manner is something indecent But to bring God in to so little a purpose contrary to all rules that I have seen one with a better grace brought down by a Machine to treat with Arrius and Socinus no other Company those who have contended against the Son of God and his Holy Spirit whose Opinions have been the Pest of the Clergy for so many Ages to have them now at last brought in as Privado's to the Mysteries of Heaven and the Trinity what Divine in his Witts but would rather have lost an Argument What will the Gentleman I last named say to see such a reconciliation to behold Arrius and Socinus in so close Communion with God as to be admitted even to single Revelation He cannot then avoid thinking what he lately printed and now with more reason That God is all Love and Patience when he has taken his fill of Revenge as others use to say the Devil is good when he is pleased What a shame is it to have men like the Exposer who are dedicated to the service of the Church and who ought as in the place quoted by the Author in the present Argument they of
substantiae apud sanctos Patres ad consuetudinem Graeci Sermonis capi 'T is an happy thing I see to find our Church in good humour else she might have made more adoe about an Article of Faith as she does about much lesser matters 'T is not strange that the Exposer finds no greater difference or distinction between terms so distant seeing in the last Paragraph above he was so dull that he understood not What is What. But he most aptly concludes how Demosthenes once answered the Orator Aeschines who kept much adoe about an improper word The Fortunes of Greece do not depend upon it So trivial a thing it seems does the Exposer reckon it to have improper words obtruded upon Christians in a Creed without believing of which no man can be saved and whereupon the Eastern and Western Churches divided with so much concernment But how proper and ingenious a contrivance was it of the Author who is the very Cannon of Concinnity to bring in Demosthenes and Aeschines as being doubtless both of the Greek Church to decide the matter in Controversy of the Procession or Mission of the Holy Ghost between them and the West Antiochus whensoever you take the Pew again be sure you forget not Demosthenes and Aeschines For it will be to you as good as current Money which answers all things The Exposer though here so gentle yet in the very page before this was as dogged to as good men as the Greeks some of them the Papists Lutherans and Calvinists The Author he sayes may make as bold with them as he pleases for we are none of these I am not bound to make War in their vindication But if he should once Kyrie Elieson what would become of us Good Mother Church of England maintaine this humor thorow carrey it on but above all things make much of this thy Exposer give him any thing think nothing too good for him Happy the Church that hath and miserable that wants such a Champion But I must find some more expeditious way of dealing with him and walk faster for really I get cold The force of all that he â—…aith in the 8 and 9 pages is to represent the Author â—…idiculously and odiously as if upon his wishing that Constantine had commanded both parties Homoousian and Homoiosian to acquiece in the very Scripture Expressions without any addition whereby he is contident the Arrian He esie had soon expired he did by consequence cut Poe-dike to let in a Flood of Heresies upon the Fenns of Christianity But the words with which he cuts the Author down are Why this was the designe of the Arrians themselves that which they drove at Court that silence might be imposed on both Parties Well and 't was very honestly done of them and modestly and like Christians if the Controversie arose as men think about the Imposing of a Creed or Article coâ—…ncerning a Question so fine in Words so Gross which yet a man must Believe that without Believing it no man can be Saved though no humane understanding can comprehend the subject of the Question nor the Scripture Expressions as they conceived did reach it There is field enough for Faith in the Scriptures without laying out more to it and to resigne their Reason to be silenced in a Question stirred up by others that Peace might be established in the Church was Ingenuity in them and the contrary proceeding of the Church was the occasion of many other Heresies that else had never been heard of But the Exposer had said somthing if he could have divined that they would have used this silencing the disputes by Constantine as the Arminians so they were at that time called did the same in the Reigne of his late Majesty who procuring a command from him to prohibite all writing or preaching about those points having thereby gagged their Adversaries did let the Press and the Pulpit loose more then ever to propagate their own Doctrines That which the Exposer drops in the ardour of this Argument p. 9. How many terms in the Athanasian Creed which to seek for in the Apostles Creed or in the whole Bible were to as much purpose as it was for the old affected Ciceronian in Erasmus to labour and toile his Brains to turn that Creed into Ciceronian Latine Yet these are the terms in which the Catholick Church thought she spoke safely in these Divine matters is totidem verbis either to beg the Question or make a formal resignation of it And our Church howsoever else he may have oblidged her has reason to resent this indiscretion Why was she her self so indiscreet to admit such a Blab into her secrecies How if no man else ought to have known it It is an ill matter to put such things in mens minds who otherwise perhaps would never have thought of it 'T is enough to turn a mans stomach that is not in strong health not only against the Athanasian Creed but against all others for its sake He saith p. 8. Scoffingly that the Author is one of those whom St. Paul forbids to be admitted to any doubtful disputations But let the Exposer see whether it be not himself rather that is there spoken of And withall that he may make some more proper use of the place which he warily cites not I recommend it to him in order to his dispute about future Ceremonies 'T is the 14. Rom. v. 7. Where St. Paul calls them that contend for him the Weak Brother Weak in the Faith and such therefore the Apostle excludes from doubtful Disputations so that one gone so far in Ceremony as the Exposer had no License from him to Print Animadversions As to what he patches in p. 10. upon the matter of School-Divinity as if the Author poured contempt upon the Fathers I referre it to the Animadversions on the Chapter about preaching and should I forget I desire him to put me in mind of it And p. 11. and 12. where the Author having in his 2. and 3. p. said that None can force another to believe no more then to read where the Candle does not give good light and more very significantly to that purpose the Exposer flying giddily about it burns his wings with the very similitude of a Candle Sure if a man went out by night on Trauelling or Bat-fowling or Proctoring he might catch these Exposers by Dozens But the force of his Argument is p. 13. Whereas the Author says you can force no mans sight nor his Faith â—…he replyes If it be not in any mans truth to Discerne Fundamental Truths of which this Chapter treats when they are laid before his Eyes when there is a sufficient proposal then it is none of his fault Yet this is as weak as water For supposing a Fundamental Truth clearly demonstrated from Scripture though a man cannot force himself to believe it yet there is enough to render a man inexcusable to God God hath not been wanting one of the Exposers scraps
own nature So Prohibitions of that kind operate no more as to the intrinseque Quality then a publick Allowance of taking away any honest mens Goods by violence and giving it another name would extinguish the Robbery It was the King and Parliaments prudence to make such Laws and as long as they shall continue of that mind it is reason the Non-Conformists should lye under the Penalty which I humbly conceive is all that could be intended But the Exposer rivets this with Reason again not Gospel And was it not ever understood so in all Religions even in Heathen Rome The most learned P. Aerodius tells us Does he so What is it I beseech you that the Roman Senate the Exposer quotes it at large as a story of great use and not to be hudled over I must be glad to contract it made an Act against the Conventicles of certaine Innovators in their Religion if any particular person judged such a sacrifice to be necessary he must repair first to the Praetor he to the Senate where the Quorum must be an hundred and they must not neither give him leave if at all to have above five persons present at the Meeting The self same number beside the Dissenters own Family is so far forth indur'd by an Act of this present Parliament that there must be more then Five to make it a Conventicle This is a very subtile Remarke that he has made as if it were one of those Witty accidents of Fortune or an extraordinary hand of Providence that the Senate of Rome and the Parliament of England should hit so put upon an Act of the same nature And upon that number of Five However they are oblidg'd to him and he deserves the publick Thanks for furnishing them so long after with a Precedent I confess I alwayes wonder'd they would allow them so many as Five for fear when not two or three but Five of 'em were gathered together God should bear their request and it seem'd therefore to me a Formidable Number But where has the Example been hid so long I believe the Exposers study has laid much this way But this was so deep an Arcanum that was fit for none but an Arch-Bishops Closer I wish he have come honestly by it But Murder I see and Theft will out and so this comes to light by a blabbing Animadverter that cannot keep counsel but will violate the Ecclesiastical secret rather then lose the Leachery of his Tattle and the vain-glory of his Pedantry I could be glad to know what complexion this Exposer is of I am perswaded whatsoever he may be now he was once extreme faire for I remember since I was at School that the learned P. Ovidius told me that the Crow was once a white Bird and much in Apollo's favour till for telling of Tales Sperantem non falsae praemia linguae Inter aves albas vetuit consistere Corvum And of another the fairest thing that ever eyes were laid on but for carrying of Storyes was turn'd into a Jackdaw and grew as black as a Crow Filching and Kaw me and I le Kaw thee ever after And that which sure must make him more black more a Jack-daw and like it worthy to be expelled from the guard and from the protection of Minerva and who henceforward Ponatur post Noctis avem is that he does with open mouth proclaim the Naked design of all the Few that are of his Party p. 12. The Jews in Rome are constrained once a week to hear a Christian Sermon The same p. 12. We that would oblidge him to open his Eyes whether he will or no. p. 14. Iean only wish for the present that by forcing them into our Churches they may hear our defences p. 17. I speak nothing more against them then that they may he brought to our Churches c. All this as the last result and greatest condescension of his Ecclesiastical Clemency In conclusion he declares he would have them forced and for what manner of force violence punishent or penalty he leaves it all open go as high as men will These things still are not Scripture neither but Reason His first was an Heathenish Reason in one sense and this a Jewish in another For I confess it is a very pregnant and adequate example and of great authority for us to imitate that the Jews in Rome are constrained once a week to hear a Christian Sermon What could there be more proportionable then to resemble the proceeding with Christians among themselves here in England not differing in any point of Faith with the proceeding at Rome against the Jews But that the Exposer should implicitly liken and compare our Bishops to the Pope may perhaps not be taken well by either Party So that I dare say had he consulted with his usual Prudence he would not have disoblidged both sides at once But for the Precedent I have nothing to oppose to this more then the first it being doubtless of notable effect as notable as that of the Piemont conference Only out of the affection I have for him I would wish him to correct here one slip if I be rightly informed for some that have been abroad say his Intelligence from Rome has failed him for that it is not once a week but once a year that the Jews at Rome are oblidged forced to hear a Christian Sermon And therefore when the Parliamentum Indoctum sits again I would advise him not to make his Act too severe here upon this mistake then it is against those Judaick Non-Conformists at Rome But the next Reason would be so extraordinary troublesome to the Few that are of the Exposers party and to himself that if he had thorowly consider'd it I question whether he would have been so charitable to the Fanaticks that he would oblige them to open their Eyes whether they will or no. For it would require two of the Church of England to every Non-conformist unless 't were here and there one that had lost an Eye in the Service Less would not do the business decently and those two also must be well in order to open the Non-conformists Eyes both at once lest one Eye should be of one and the other Eye of a contrary opinion And then they should in humanity give them some interval for winking Else they had as good cut off their Eye-lids as the Episcopal Carthaginians used the Presbyterian Regulus for keeping in the true sense to his Covenant But on the other side it would look too big for a Company of beggarly Fanaticks to be waited upon in as much Majesty as Obeshankanogh the King of Virginia that had two Squires of the Body in constant attendance to lift up his Eye-lids as oft as he conceiv'd any man worthy to be look'd upon But let the Exposer order it as he pleases I am not bound to be any of his Sight-supporters Onely this it would be very improper for him to chuse any one that is blind
I cannot but to that purpose take further notice how also Gregory Nazianzen in Or. 2 d. contra Gentiles tells besides the breakings in of the Sea in several places and many fires that happened of the Earthquakes in particular which he reckons as Symptomes of Julian's Persecution And to this I may add Socr. l. 3. c. 10. who in the Reign of Valens that notorious Christian Persecutor saith at the same time there was an Earthquake in Bithynia which ruined the City of Nice that same in which that general Counsel was held under Constantine and a little after there was another But although these so happened the minds of Valens and of Eudoxius the Bishop of the Arrians were not at all stirred up unto Piety and a right opinion of Religion For neverthless they never ceased made no end of persecuting those who in their Creed dissented from them Those Earthquakes seemed to be certain indications of tumult in the Church All which put together could not but make me reflect upon the late Earthquakes great by how much more unusual here in England thorow so many Counties since Christmas at the same time when the Clergy some of them were so busy in their Cabals to promote this I would give it a modester name then Persecution which is now on foot against the Disfenters at so unseasonable a time and upon no occasion administred by them that those who comprehend the reasons yet cannot but wonder at the wisdome of it Yet I am not neither one of the most credulous nickers or applyers of natural events to humain transactions but neither am I so secure as the Learned Dr. Spencer nor can walk along the world without having some eye to the conjunctures of God's admirable Providence Neither was Marcus Aurelius that I may return to my matter negligent as to this particular But he observing as Antoninus had the Earthquakes that in an expedition against the Germans and Sarmatians his Army being in despair almost for want of water the Melitine afterwards from the event called the Thundring Legion which consisted of Christians kneel'd down in the very heat of their thirst and fight praying for rain which posture the enemyes wondring at immediately there brake out such a thundring and lightning as together with the Christian valour routed the adverse Army but so much rain fell therewith as refreshed Aurelius his Forces that were at the last gasp for thirst he thence forward commanded by his Letters that upon pain of death none should inform against the Christians as Tertulian in his Apology for the Christians witnesses But who would have believed that even Commodus so great a Tyrant otherwise should have been so favourable as to make a Law that the informers against Christians should be punished with Death Yet he did and the Informer against Apollanius was by it executed Much less could a man have thought that that prodigy of cruelty Maximine and who exercised it so severely upon the Christians should as he did being struck with God's hand publish when it was too late Edict after Edict in great favour of the Christians But above all nothing could have been less expected then that after those Heathen Emperours the first Christian Constantine should have been seduced by the Bishops to be after them the first occasion of Persecution so contrary to his own excellent inclination 'T was then that he spake his own mind when he said Eus. de vitâ Consti 60. You ought to retain within the bounds of your private thoughts those things which you cunningly and subtly seek out concerning most frivolous questions And then much plainer c. 67. where he saith so wisely You are not ignorant that the Philosophers all of them do agree in the profession of the same Discipline but do oftentimes differ in some part of the opinions which they dogmatize in but yet although they do dissent about the Discipline that each several Sect observeth they nevertheless reconcile themselves again for the sake of that common Prosession to which they have concurred But against compulsion in Religious matters so much every where that it is needless to insert one passage And he being of this disposition and universally Famous for his care and countenance of the Christian Religion Eusebius saith these words While the people of God did glory and heighten it self in the doing of good things and all fear from without was taken away and the Church was fortifi'd as I may say on all sides by a peaceable and illustrious tranquility then Envy lying in wait against our prosperity craftily crept in and began first to dance in the midst of the company of Bishops so goes on telling the History of Alexander and Arrius I have been before large enough in that relation wherein it appeared that contrary to that great Emperours pious intention whereas Envy began to dance among the Bishops first the good Constantine brought them the Fiddles But it appear'd likewise how soon he was weary of the Bal and toward his latter end as Princes often do upon too late experience would have redressed all and returned to his natural temper Of the other Christian Emperours I likewise discoursed omitting that I might insert it in this place how the great Heathen Philosopher Themistius in his Consular Oration celebrated Jovianus for having given that toleration in Christian Religion and thereby defeated the flattering Bishops which fort of men saith he wittily do not worship God but the Imperial Purple It was the same Themistius that only out of an upright natural apprehension of things made that excellent Oration afterward to Valens which is in Print exhorting him to cease Persecution wherein he chances upon and improves the same notion with Constantine's and tells him That he should not wonder at the Dissents in Christian Religion which were very small if compared with the multitude and crowd of Opinions among the Gentile Philosophers for there were at least three hundred differences and a very great dissention among them there was about their resolutions unto which each several Sect was as it were necessarily bound up and obliged and that God seemed to intend more to illustrate his own glory by that diverse and unequal variety of Opinions to the end every each one might therefore so much the more reverence his Divine Majesty because it is not possible for any one accurately to know him And this had a good effect upon Valens for the mitigating in some measure his severities against his fellow Christians So that after having cast about in this Summary again whereby it plainly appears that according to natural right and the apprehension of all sober Heathen Governours Christianity as a Religion was wholly exempt from the Magistrates jurisdiction or Lawes farther than any particular person among them immorally transgressed as others the common rules of humain society I cannot but return to the Question with which I begun What was the matter How came it about that Christianity which approved