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
of the Authors might not be properly enough called so though the Animadverter hath debased the meaning of the word to deprave and undervalue the worth of the Treatise For I perceive that during his Chaplainship he hath learnt it in conversation with the Ladies who translate it frequently to call Whore in a more civil and refined signification But to say thus that he suspected him at first for a Socinian yet was quickly cured of his Jealousy because he found the Author was Honest and Orthodox Why should he vent his own Amusements thus to the great and real prejudice of any worthy person It is indeed a piece of second Ingenuity for a man that invents and suggests a Calumny of which he is sure to be convict in the instant therefore with the same breath to disclaim it but it manifests in the mean time how well he was inclined if he thought it would have pass'd upon the Author and that could the Animadverter have secured his Reputation he would have adventured the Falshood What would he not have given to have made the world believe that he was a Socinian In this beginning you have a right Pattern of the Animadverters whole Stuffe and may see what Measure the Author is to expect all thorow But he finds he faith that he is one of the Men of the second Rate as he takes leave to stile them that scarce ever see to the second Conseqnence At first I suspected from this expression that the Animadverter had been some Ship-Chaplain that had been Dabbling in the Sea-Controversies a Tarpawlin of the Faculty but I was quickly delivered from this Jealousy by his Magisterial Contradictions that shew him to be a man of more Consequence one of them whose Eccleastical Dignities yet cannot wean them from a certain hankering after the Wit of the Laity and applying it as their own upon or 't is no great matter though it be without occasion Yet therefore once for all he Protests too that he does not charge him with any of his own most obvious Consequences as his Opinions for who would believe the one or other that reads the Author for 't is plaine that he does not nor any man that hath Eyes discerne them This is a Candor pregnant with Contempt But in the mean time he thinks it ingenuous to load this second Rate Frigat that was fitted out for the Kings and the Nations service so deep that she can scarce swim with a whole Cargo of Consequences which are none of the Authors but will upon search be all found the Animadverters proper goods and Trade his own Inconsequences and Inanimadversions So men with vicious Eyes see Spiders weave from the Brim of their own Beavers As for example p. 1. He saith that this Chapter does admirably serve the turn of the rankest Sectarian That in his two or three first pages he appeared a Socinian p. 12. That his Pique at the new word Homoousios carryes such an ugly reflection upon the Nicene Creed that be the Animadverter scarse dares understand him p. 6. The Author speaking against introducing new Articles of Faith the Adversary tells him he hopes he does not mean all our Thirty Nine Articles and defends them as if they were attaqued That he does implicitly condemne the whole Catholick Church both East and West for being so presumptuous in her Definitions p. 9. That upon his Principles the Prime and most necessary Articles of Faith will be in danger The old dormant Heresies Monothelites Nestorians c. May safely revive again p. 13. That his are the very Dreggs of Mr. Hobbs his Divinity and worse p. 14. That he would have some men live like Pagans and go to no Church at all p. 16. So for ought we know this Author is a Jesuite and writes this Pamphlet only to embroile us Protestants p. 25 That he is guilty of unthought of Popery p. 33. That our Author like her the foolish woman in the Proverbs plucks down our Church with his own hands and that she had need therefore be upheld against such as he is Of these Inferences which not being natural must have required some labour he is all along very liberal to the Author but the vile and insolent language costs him nothing so that he lays that on prodigally and without all reason Now whether a man that holds a true Opinion or he that thus deduces ill Consequences from it be the more blame-worthy will prove to be the Case between the Animadverter and the Author And to shew him now from whence he borrowed his Wit of the second Rate and at the second Hand all the subject matter of debate Is only who 's the Knave of the First Rate But he saith because of these things the Mischief being done to undoe the Charme again it is become a Duty to Expose him Alas what are they going to do with the poor man What kind of death is this Exposing But sure considering the Executioner it must be some Learned sort of Cruelty Is it the Taeda in which they candled a Man over in Wax and he instead of the wick burnt out to his lives end like a Taper to give light to the Company Or is it the Scapha wherein a man being stripp'd Naked and Smear'd with Honey was in the scorching Sun abandon'd to be stung and Nibbled by Wasps Hornets and all troublesome Insects till he expired Or is it rather ad Bestias turning him out unarmed to be bated worryed and devour'd by the wild Beasts in the Theatre For in the Primitive Times there were these and an hundred laudable ways more to Expose Christians and the Animadverter seems to have studied them But the Crime being of Sorcery and that there is a Charm which hath wrought great Mischief and it not to be undone but by Exposing the Malefactor Charme he never so wisely 't is more probable that it may be the Punishment usual in such Cases And indeed the Animadverter hath many times in the day such Fits tale him wherein he is lifted up in the Aire that six men cannot hold him down teares raves and foams at the mouth casts up all kind of trash somtimes speakes Greek and Latine that no man but would swear he is bewitched and this never happens but when the Author appeares to him And though in his Animadversions on the Title c. He hath so often scratched and got blood of him the infallible Country Cure yet he still finds no ease by it but is rather more tormented So that in earnest I begin to suspect him for a Witch or however having writ the Naked Truth 't is manifest he is a Sooth-sayer that 's as bad Many persons besides have for tryal run needless up to the Eye in several remarkable places of his Naked Truth that look like moles or warts upon his body and yet he though they prick never so much feels nothing Nay some others of the Clergy whereof one was a Bishop have tyed
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
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
to that employment For his several times repeated wish that they might be forced to come to Church to give them a fair hearing and to bear their discourses truly I believe they know the Lion by the Claw there is a great part of Oratory consists in the choice of the Person that is to perswade men And a great Skill of whatsoever Orator is to perswade the Auditory first that he himself is an honest and a fair man And then he is like to make the more impression on them too if he be so prudent as to chuse an acceptable subject to speak on and manage it decently with fit arguments and good language None but the very rabble love to hear any thing scurrilous or railing especially if they should hear themselves rail'd on by him they would be ready to give him the due applause of Petronius his Orator with flâ—…ging the stones about his ears and then leaving him to be his own Auditory Now they have had so ample experiment of the Exposer as to all these points in his Defence against the Naked Truth that I doubt his perswasion to this comming to hear him or others will be of little force with them and nothing would oblige these Donatists to it but the utmost extremity nor then would they find themselves one step nearer heaven His Book is as good to them as a Sermon and no doubt he has preach'd as well as printed it and took more pains in it than ordinary did his best Must they will they think be compelled to make up the pomp of his Auditory Must they while the good Popish Fathers suffer'd those of Chiapa to come to Church with their 〈◊〉 pots to comfort their hearts be inforced to come to Church by him to have Snush thrust up their Noses to clear their Brains for them 'T is the onely way to continue and increase the Schâ—…sme But in good sober earnest 't is happy that some or other of this Few chances ever and a non to speak their minds out to shew us plainly what they would be at Being conscious of their own unworthiness and hating to be reformed it appears that they would establish the Christian Religion by a 〈◊〉 way and gather so much Force that it might be in their power and we lie at their mercy to change that Religion into Heathenisme Judaisme Turcisme any thing I speak with some emotion but not without good reason that I question whether which way soever the Church Revenues were applied such of them would not betake themselves to that side as nimbly as the Needle to the Load stone Have they not already ipso facto renounc'd their Christianity by avowing this Principle so contrary to the Gospel Why do not they Peter Hermite it and stir up our Prince to an Holy War abroad to propagate the Protestant Religion or at least our Discipline and Ceremonies and they take the Front of the Battel No 't is much better lurking in a fat Benefice here and to domineer in their own Parishes above their Spiritual Vassals and raise a kind of Civil War at home but that none will oppose them Why may they not as well as force men to Church eram the Holy Supper too down their Throsts have they not done something not much unlike it and drive them into the Rivers by thousands to be baptized or drowned And yet this after the King and Parliament by his their Gracious Indulgence have enacted a Liberty for Five beside their own Family to meet together in their Religious Worship and could not therefore in end at the same time to force them to go to Church with the utmost or any severity What can be the end of these things but to multiply Force with Force as one absurdity is the consequence of another till they may again have debased the Reason and Spirit of the Nation to make them fit for Ignorance and Bondage Is it not reason if they had care or respect to mens souls which they onely exercise it seems the cure of perhaps not that neither but evacuate one Residence by another to allow that men should address themselves to such Minister as they think best for their souls health Men are all infirm and indisposed in their spiritual condition What sick man but if a Physician were inforced upon him might in good prudence suspect it were to kill him or that if the next Heir and the Doctor could agree he would certainly do it I shall conclude this reasonable transport with remarking that although the Author did modestly challenge any man to shew him a warrant or colour or hint from Scripture to use Force to constrain men to the Established Doctrine and Worship and offer'd to maintain that nothing is more clear to be deduced or is more fully exprest in Scripture nor is more suitable to Natural Reason than that no man be forced in such Cases the Exposer took notice of it yet hath not produced one place of Scripture but onely made use of Force at an Invincible Reason so that upon supposal which none granted â—…m that all his Few do clearly demonstrate from Scripture what is at best therefore but deducible from Scripture she thinks it reasonable to oblige all men by force to come to all their Parishes And yet he himself who does I suppose it onely for the Cases sake believe the Scripture although he cannot produce one place of Scripture for using this force and though the Author has produced so many and urges the whole Scripture that such force is not to be used hath his brains nevertheless so confused or so obdurate that he cannot force himself to believe the Author but persists in his unchristian and unreasonable desire that men may be compelled and hereby deserves to be made an Example of his own Principle For herein he exceeds Pharaâ—…h who had ten sufficient Proposals and yet his heart was so hardned that he would not let Israel go out of Egypt but was proof against Miracles But He onely would imagine that the Israelites were idle and would therefore force them to make Brick without Straw but the Exposers heart and brains are so hardned that he will conceive all the Nonconformists to be obstinate fools or hypocrits and therefore will compel them all to go to all their Parish Churches and to make therefore Faith without Reason And hence it is not onely probable but demonstrable if they were compelled to go and hear him and the Few of his Party how well he or they would acquit themselves too in clearly demonstrating from Sciprture the Prime Articles of Faith as it is extended in all the Creeds of which it was treated in this Chapter that I have now done with and truly almost with those remaining For I had intended to have gone Chapter by Chapter affixing a distinct Title as he does to every one of them that men may believe he has animadverted thorowly without reading except that concerning the difference between
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
grown so cumbersom and great that the Emperor's highway was too narrow for any two of them and there could have been no passage without the removal of a Bishop But soon after the Council was over Eusebius the Bishop of Nicomedia and Theognis the Bishop of Nice who were already removed both by banishment and two others put in their places were quickly restor'd upon their petition wherein they suggested the cause of their not Signing to have been only because they thought they could not with a safe conscience subscribe the Anathema against Arrius appearing to them both by his writings his discourses and Sermons that they had been auditors of not to be guilty of those errors As for Arrius himself the Emperor quickly wrote to him It is now a considerable time since I writ to your Gravity to come to my Tents that you might injoy my countenance so that I can scarce wonder sufficiently why you have so long delaid it therefore now take one of the publick Coaches and make all speed to my Tents that having had experience of my kindness and affection to you you may return into your own Country God preserve you most dear Sir Arrius hereupon with his comarade Euzoius comes to Constantine's Army and offers him a petition with a confession of Faith that would have pass'd very well before the Nicene Council and now satisfied the Emperor Socr. l. 1. c. 19. 20. insomuch that he writ to Anathasius now Bishop of Alexandria to receive him into the Church but Anathanasius was of better mettle then so and absolutely refus'd it Upon this Constantine writ him another threat'ning Letter When you have understood hereby my pleasure see that you afford free entrance into the Church to all that desire it for if I shall understand that any who desires to be admitted into the Church should be either hindred or forbidden by you I will send some one of my Servants to remove you from your Degree and place another in your stead Yet Athanasius stood it out still though other Churches received him into Communion and the Heretick Novatus could not have been more unrelenting to lapsed Christians then he was to Arrius But this joyned with other crimes which were laid to Athanasius his charge at the Council of Tyre though I suppose indeed they were forged made Athanasius glad to fly for it and remain the first time in exile Upon this whole matter it is my impartial opinion that Arrius or whosoever else were guilty of teaching and publishing those errors whereof he was accused deserved the utmost Severity which consists with the Christian Religion And so willing I have been to think well of Athanasius and ill of the other that I have on purpose avoided the reading as I do the nameing of a book that I have hear'd tells the story quite otherwise and have only made use of the current Historians of those times who all of them tell it against the Arrians Only I will confess that as in reading a particular History at adventure a Man finds himself inclinable to favor the weaker party especially if the Conqueror appear insolent so have I been affected in reading these Authors which does but resemble the reasonable pity that men ordinarily have too for those who though for an erroneous conscience suffer under a Christian Magistrate And as soon as I come to Constantius I shall for that reason change my compassion and be doubly ingaged on the Orthodox party But as to the whole matter of the Council of Nice I must crave liberty to say that from one end to the other though the best of the kind it seems to me to have been a pityful humane business attended with all the ill circumstances of other worldly affairs conducted by a spirit of ambition and contention the first and so the greatest Aecumenical blow that by Christians was given to Christianity And it is not from any sharpness of humor that I discourse thus freely of Things and Persons much less of Orders of men otherwise venerable but that where ought is extolled beyond reason and to the prejudice of Religion it is necessary to depreciate it by true proportion It is not their censure of Arianism or the declaring of their opinion in a controverted point to the best of their understanding wherein to the smalness of mine they appear to have light upon the truth had they likewise upon the measure that could have moved me to tell so long a story or bring my self within the danger and aim of any captious Reader speaking thus with great liberty of mind but little concern for any prejudice I may receive of things that are by some men I dolized But it is their Imposition of a new Article or Creed upon the Christian world not being contained in express words of Scripture to be believed with Divine Faith under Spritual and Civil Penalties contrary to the Priviledges of Religion and their making a Precedent follow'd and improv'd by all succeeding ages for most cruel Persecutions that only could animate me In digging thus for a new Deduction they undermined the fabrick of Christianity to frame a particular Doctrine they departed from the general Rule of their Religion and for their curiosity about an Article concerning Christ they violated our Saviour's first Institution of a Church not subject to any Addition in matters of Faith nor liable to Compulsion either in Belief or in Practice Farr be it from me in the event as it is from my Intention to derogate from the just authority of any of those Creeds or Confessions of Faith that are receiv'd by our Church upon clear agreement with the Scriptures nor shall I therefore unless some mens impertinence and indiscretion hereafter oblige me pretend to any further knowledg of what in those particulars appears in the ancient Histories But certainly if any Creed had been Necessary or at least Necessary to have been Imposed our Saviour himself would not have left his Church destitute in a thing of that moment Or however after the Holy Ghost upon his departure was descended upon the Apostles and They the Elders and Brethren for so it was then were assembled in a legitime Council at Jerusalem it would have seemed good to the Holy Ghost and them to have saved the Council of Nice that labor Or at least the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 12. 2. and 4. who was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for any man to utter having thereby a much better opportunity then Athanasius to know the Doctrine of the Trinity would not have been wanting through the abundance of that revelation to form a Creed for the Church sufficient to have put that business beyond controversy Especially seeing Heresies were sprung up so early and he foresaw others and therefore does prescribe the method how they are to be dealt with but no Creed that I read of Shall any sort of men presume to interpret those words
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
beyond their Reason To attempt any such Force though to the True Beliefe is to do Evil that Good may come of it But the Pastor ought first by plaine and sound Doctrine to stop the Mouths of Gainsayers When the Ministers have Preached and Prayed they have done all they can in order to mens Believing the rest must be left to the Justice or Mercy of God But if turbulent spirits broach New Doctrines Contrary to Scripture or not Clearly Contained in the Gospel and neither by Admonitions nor Intreaties will be stopt the Pastors may proceed to the Exeroise of the Keys Which if it were duely performed as in the Primitive Times and not by Lay Chancellors and their surrogates would be of great effect The Magistrate ought to siliâ—…ce and oppose such at preach what is Contrary to or not Clearly Contained in the Gospel and if they persevere in their perversuess he may use his power with Christian Moderation For his power reaches to Punish Evil Doers who Publiâ—… or Practise somthing to subvert the Fundamentals of Religion or to Disturbe the Peace of the State or to Injure their Neighbours but not to Punish Evil Believers But if the Magistrate shall conceive he hath power also to punish Evil Believers and on that pretence shall punish True Believers the Subject is bound to submit and bâ—…ar it to the loss of Goods Liberty or Life The Reader will excuse this one long Quotation for it will much shorten all that followes But now for which of these is it that 't is become a Duty to Expose him What is there here that seems not at first sight very Christian very Rational But however it is all delivered in so Grave and Inoffensive manner that there was no temptation to alter the stile into Ridicule and Satyre But like some Carle the Animadverter may browze upon the Leaves or Peel the Barke but he has not teeth for the Solid nor can hurt the Tree but by accident Yet a man that sees not into the second but the Thirteenth Consequence that is one of the Disputers of this World and ought to be admitted to these Doubtfull Disputations from which he ironically by St. Pauls rule forsooth excludes the Author what is there that such an one so subtile so piercing cannot distingish upon and Controvert Truth it self ought to sacrifice to him that he would be propitious For if he appear on the other side it will go against her unavoidably In his 27. P. he is ravisht in Contemplation how Rarachose it is to see or hear a material Question in Theology defended in the University-Schools where one stands a Respondent enclos'd within the Compass of his Pen as Popilius the Roman Embassador made a Circle with his Wand about Antiochus and bid him give him a determinate answer before he went out of it a most apt and learned resemblance and which shews the Gentlemans good reading But it is I confess a noble spectacle and worthy of that Theater which the munificence of the present Arch-Bishop of Canterbury hath dedicated in one may it be too in the other of our Universities where no Apish Scaramuccio no Scenical Farces no Combat of Wild-Beasts among themselves or with men condemn'd is presented to the People but the modest Skirmish of Reason and which is usually perform'd so well that it turns to their great honour and of our whole Nation Provided the Chaire be well filled with an Orthodox Professor and who does not by Solaecismes in Latine or mistake of the Argument or Question render the thing ridiculous to the By-standers That the Pew be no less fitted with a Respondent able to sustaine and answer in all points the expectation of so Learned an Auditory That the Opponent likewise exceed not the terms of Civility nor Cavil where he should Argue and that the Questions debated be so discreetly chosen as there may be no danger by Controverting the Truth to unsettle the minds of the Youth ever after and innure them to a Disputable Notion about the most weighty points of our Re-Religon by which sort of subtilizing the Church hath in former Ages much suffered nor hath Ours in the Latter wholly escaped Now seeing the Exposer seemâ—… to delight so much as men use in what they excell in this Exercise he and I because we cannot have the conveniency of the Schools and Pew will play as well as we can in Paper at this new Game of Antiochus and Popilius I must for this time be the Roman Senator and he the Monarch of Asiaâ—… for by the Rules of the Play he always that hath writ the last Book is to be Antiochus until the other has done replying And I hope to gird him up to close withâ—… in his Circle that he shall appear very slender For I am sensible yet could not avoid it how much of the Readers and mine own time I have run out in examining his Levity but now I am glad to see my labour shorten for having thus plumed him of that puffe of Feathers with which he buoy'd himself up in the Aire and flew over our heads it will almost by the first Consequence be manifest in his Argument how little a Soul it is and Body that henceforward I am to deal with The Author having said that That which we commonly call the Apostles Creed is and was so received by the Primitive Church as the sum Total of Christian Faith necessary to Salvation Why not now Is the state of Salvation alter'd If it be Compleat what need other Articles The Exposer p. 2. answers There may have been needful heretofore not only other Articles but other Creeds for the further Explication of these Articles in the Apostles Creed and yet in those New Creeds not one New Article 'T is safely and cautiously said there May and not there Were other Articles and other Creeds needful But the whole Clause besides is so drawn up as if he affected the Academical glory of justifying a Paradox nor is it for the reputation of such Creeds whatever they be to be maintained by the like Methods But seeing he disdains to explicare further how there can be a New Creed and yet not one New Article I will presâ—… to understand him and then say that in such Creeds whatsoever Article does either explaine the Apostles Creed Contrary to or Beside the Scripture or does not containe the same Express Scriptural Authority which only makes this that is called the Apostles Creed to be Authentick that is a New Article to every man that cannot conceive the necessary Deduction But then he galls the Author The Apostles Creed is the sum of the Christian Faith True Yet I hope he will not think the Nicene the Constantinopolitan and the Athanasian Creed Superfluous and and unnecessary First it is not necessary to take all those Three in the Lump as the Exposer puts it for perhaps a man may think but one or but two of them to have been superfluous
Few of the Few for above these forty years have been carrying on a constant Conspiracy to turn all Upside-down in the Government of the Nation But God in his mercy hath alwayes hitherto and will I hope for ever frustrate all such Counsels In his 7. p. it is that he saith the Author in his 4. p. implicitly condemns the whole Catholick Church both East and West for being so Presumptuous in her Definitions However if he does it but Implicitly the Exposer might have been so Ingenuous or Prudent as not to have Explicated it further but conceal'd it least it might do more harme but at least not to have heighâ—…en'd it so the whole Catholick Church and not only so but the whole Catholick Church both in the East and West too why did he not add in the North and South too for being so Presumptuous a term far beyond and contrary to the Modesty and Deference of the Authors expressions But this is the Art and Duty of Exposing Here it is that he brandishes the whole dint of his Disputative Faculty and if it be not the most rational I dare say and yet I should have some difficulty to perswade men so that it is the most foolish passage in the whole Pamphlet It is impossible to clear the Dispute but by transcribing their own words In the mean time therefore I heartily recommend my self to the Readers patience The Author pursuing his point how unsafe and unreasonable it is to Impose New Articles of Faith drawn by humane Inferences beyond the Clear Scripture Expressions instanceth in several of the Prime and most Necessary Principles of the Trinity especially that of the Holy Ghost Are they not things saith he far above the Highest Reason and sharpest understanding that ever man had Yet we Believe them because God who cannot lye hath Declared them Is it not then a strange thing for any man to take upon him to Declare one title more of them then God hath Declared seeing we understand not what is Declared I mean we have no Comprehensive Knowledge of the Matter Declared but only a Believing Knowledge To which the Exposer will have it that if the Author be here bound up to his own words and 't is good reason he should he hath said that we understand not that the matter is Declared and moreover he saith that he is sure he has done him no wrong in fixing this meaning to the Authors words No it is no wrong it seems then to say that to understand That and to comprehend What is the same thing As for example if our Ignorance may be allowed in things so infinitely above us to allude to things as far below us because I understand That the Exposer here speaks Nonsense I must therefore be able to Comprehend What is the meaning of his Nonsense and be capable to raise a Rational Deduction from it I am sure I do the Exposer right in this Inference and should be glad he only would therefore wear it for my sake for it will fit none but him 't was made for But let us come down to the particular The Scripture saith the Author plainly tells that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and That he is sent also by the Father That he is sent also by the Son but whether he Proceeds From the Son or By the Son the Scripture is silent I grant that by Rational Deduction and Humane way of Argument 't is probable that the Holy Ghost Proceeds from the Son as from the Father But we understand not What the Procession or Mission of the Holy Ghost is and therefore we cannot prove they are Both one And therefore to determine it or any such Divine and high Mysteries by Humane Deductions in Humane Words to be Imposed and Believed with Divine Faith is Dangerous And much more the Author adds demonstratively to the same purpose but the Exposer culls out by the Duty of his Place what may best serve for his neither will that do the turn unless he also pervert it Here again is the That and the What the same thingâ—… Is it the same thing to say or understand That the Holy Ghost is sent by the Son which is Declared in Scripture and to understand and comprehend What the Nature of that Mission is or What the Nature of Procession that a man may safely say that he Proceeds From or By the Son as from the Father which is not Declared in Scripture but by Humane Deduction and exact the Divine Belief thereof under Eternal and Temporal Penalties Yet this is the Exposers Logick And away he goes with it as if the world as this inference is were all his own and knocks all on the head with a killing Instance which that I may still open more visibly to the Readers I must beg pardon that I am necessitated to repeat over again their own Words sometimes upon occasion The Exposer saith But he means we have no Comprehensive knowledge His meaning is good and true but his inference is stark naught if he means therefore we understand not at all that this or that is Declared But the Author neither says nor means any such thing and the Exposer does him notwitâ—…hstanding his aveâ—…ment to the Contrary the most manifest wrong imaginable for as much as he would not only fix a false meaning upon the Authors words which I first mentioned in the beginning but upon these other words also which contrary to their plaine signification he produces for proof against him They are by the Exposers own relation If then our Reason understand not what is Declared which is the very Equipollent of what the Author had said that we have no Comprehensive knowledge of the matter Declared how can we by reason make any Deduction by way of Argument from that which we understand 〈◊〉 No more From whence it is evident from that virtual repetition and natural reflection that every Conclusion hath of and upon its Premisses that the full sense of the words must be from that which we understand not Comprehensive And yet he saith that he does him no wrong he is sure he does not in affixing this meaning unto those words And proceeds Is it even so Then let us put the Case with reverence that Almighty God who assuming I suppose the shape of an Angel treated with Abraham face to face as a man doth with his Friend Should for once have spoken in the same manner to Arrius or Socinus and made this one Declaration that the Catholick Churches Doctrine of the Trinity was true and his false then I demand would not this have been demonstration enough of the Faith which we call Catholick either to Socinus or Arrius And yet all these contradictory Arguments which either of them had once fancied so insolable supposing them not answered in particular would remain against it and stand as they did before any such declaration and yet all this without giving him any comprehensive knowledge This
Opinions in our own or our own Opinions in those of other Men and bite at one another we are now all of us torn in pieces This Bishop sure was the Author of the Naked Truth and 't was he that implicitly condemn'd the whole Catholick Church both East and West for being too presumptuous in her Definitions It is not strange to me that Julian being but a Reader in the Christian Church should turn Pagan Especially when I consider that he succeeded Emperor after Constantius For it seems rather unavoidable that a Man of great Wit as he was and not having the Grace of God to direct it and show him the Beauty of Religion through the Deformity of its Governours and Teachers but that he must conceive a Loathing and Aversion for it Nor could he think that he did them any Injustice when he observed that beside all their Unchristian Immorality too they Practised thus against the Institutive Law of their Galilean the Persecution among themselves for Religion And well might he add to his other Severities that sharpness of his Wit both Exposing and Animadverting upon them at another rate than any of the Modern Practitioners with all their Study and Inclination can ever arrive at For nothing is more punishable Contemptible and truly Ridiculous than a Christian that walks contrary to his Profession And by how much any Man stands with more advantage in the Church for Eminency but disobeys the Laws of Christ by that Priviledg he is thereby and deserves to be the more Exposed But Julian the last Heathen Emperor by whose Cruelty it seemed that God would sensibly Admonish once again the Christian Clergy and show them by their own Smart and an Heathen Hand the nature and odiousness of Persecution soon died as is usual for Men of that Imployment not without a remarkable stroke of God's Judgment Yet they as if they were only sorry that they had lost so much time upon his death strove as eagerly to redeem it and forthwith fell in very naturally into their former Animolities For Jovianus being chosen Emperor in Persia and returning Homeward Socr. l. 3. c. 20. the Bishops of each Party in hopes that theirs should be the Imperial Creed strait to Horse and Rode away with Switch and Spur as if it had been for the Plate to meet him and he that had best Heels made himself cock-sure of winning the Religion The Macedonians who dividing from the Arrians had set up for a new Heresie concerning the Holy Ghost and they were a Squadron of Bishops Petition'd him that those who held Filium Patri dissimilem might be turn'd out and themselves put in their places Which was very honestly done and above-board The Acacians that were the refined Arrians but as the Author saith Had a notable faculty of addressing themselves to the Inclination of whatsoever Emperor and having good Intelligence that he balanced rather to the Consubstantials presented him with a very fair Insinuating Subscription of a considerable number of Bishops to the Council of Nice But in the next Emperor's time they will be found to yield little Reverence to their own Subscription For in matter of a Creed a Note of their Hand without expresting the Penalty could not it seems Bind one of their Order But all that Jovianus said to the Macedonians was I hate Contention but I lovingly imbrace and reverence those who are inclined to Peace and Concord To the Acacians who had wisely given these the precedence of Application to try the truth of their Intelligence he said no more having resolv'd by sweetness and persuasions to quiet all their Controversies but That he would not molest any Man whatsoever Creed be follow'd but those above others he would Cherish and Honor who should show themselves most forward in bringing the Church to a good Agreement He likewise call'd back all those Bishops who had been Banished by Constantius and Julian restoring them to their Sees And he writ a Letter in particular to Athanasius who upon Julian's death had enter'd again upon that of Alexandria to bid him be of good Courage And these things coming to the Ears of all others did wonderfully assuage the Fierceness of those who were Inflamed with Faction and Contention So that the Court having declared it self of this Mind the Church was in a short time in all outward appearance peaceably disposed the Emperor by this Means having wholly repressed all their Violence Verily concludes the Historian the Roman Empire had been prosperous and happy and both the State and the Church he puts them too in that Order under so good a Prince must have exceedingly flourished had not an Immature death taken him away from managing the Government For after seven Months being seized with a mortal Obstruction he dparted this Life Did not this Historian trow you deserve to be handled and is it not now the Mischief iâ—… done to undo the Charm become a Duty to Expose both him and Jovianus By their ill chosen Principles what would have become of the Prime and most necessary Articles of Faith Might not the old Dormant Heresies all of them safely have Revived But that Mortal Obstruction of the Bishops was not by his death nor is it by their own to be removed They were glad he was so soon got out of their way and God would yet further manifest their intractable Spirit which not the Persecution of the Heathen Emperor Julian nor the Gentleness of Jovianus the Christian could allay or mitigate by their Afflictions or Prosperity The Divine Nemesis executed Justice upon them by one anothers Hand And so hainous a Crime as for a Christian a Bishop to Persecute stood yet need as the only equal and exemplary Punishment of being Revenged with a Persecution by Christians by Bishops And whoever shall seriously consider all along the Succession of the Emperors can never have taken that Satisfaction in the most judicious Representations of the Scene which he may in this worthy Speculation of the great Order and admirable conduct of Wise Providence through the whole contexture of these Exterior seeming Accidents relating to the Ecclesiasticals of Christianity For to Jovianus succeeded Valentinian who in a short time took his Brother Valens to be his Companion in the Empire These two Brothers did as the Historian observes Socr. l. 4. c. 1. alike and equally take care at the beginning for the Advantage and Government of the State but very much disagreed though both Christians in matter of Religion Valetinianus the Elder being an Orthodox but Valens an Arrian and they used a different Method toward the Christians For Valentinian who chose the Western part of the Empire and left the East to his Brother as he imbraced those of his own Creed so yet he did not in the least molest the Arrians But Valens not only Labor'd to increase the number of the Arrians but Afflicted those of the contrary Opinion with grievous Punishments And both of 'm especially Valens had