A COPY OF SOME PAPERS PAST AT OXFORD BETWIXT The Author of the Practicall Catechisme AND Mr. Ch. The second Edition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Basil. Epist. 63. LONDON Printed by Ja. Flesher for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane 1650. For Mr Cheynell SIR AT my returne from London late last night I met with some scattered reports of your dealing with the Author of the Practicall Catechisme in a late Sermon or Sermons of yours in this City within a few dayes after I met you at Col. Hammonds lodgings and signified my intentions to goe out of Towne the next day Now though the care I have of the reputation of that Author be not so great or passionate as to put me upon the least thought or designe of working any proportionable revenge on him that endeavoured publiquely to defame him or to make you any return save onely of my prayers to God for you that he will forgive you all the trespasses that either this or any other dealing of yours hath been guilty of and that he will give you a right Judgement in all things yet because I would not be in danger to beleeve any thing of you causlessly I thought my selfe obliged in Justice to you to desire from you who know best what you said an exact account in writing as farre as your memory will serve of all that you said in publike either at St. Maries or Carfax wherein the Author of that Catechisme was concerned I do much abuse my selfe in the notion I have of Christian Justice if that doe not oblige you to answer this request of Octob. 10. 1646. Your Servant H. Hammond I shall re-inforce my request that you will send me the summe of what you said with as little alteration as is possible SIR I Returne you thanks and am before-hand with you for Prayers the Lord pardon and lead you into all truth and holinesse Truly Sir I had said as much of the Practicall Catechisme as I did say though you had beene in Towne nay had beene where you might learne something of my brethren at Church What I said of the Author of that Catechisme was your Friends being Judges as such as hee deserved some thinke I spoke too highly in his commendations But to the point first you say you are obliged in Justice to mee to desire an exact account of my Sermons Sure this is somewhat more then equall Justice to mee it is to exercise Jurisdiction over mee Secondly you doe much abuse your selfe in the notion of Christian justice if you conceive mee obliged in Christian justice to give you an account this night being to preach to morrow of what I preached about ten dayes agoe I will deale plainely with you I have not said all that I intend to say of that Catechisme because it seemes to evacuate the morall Law under pretence of filling up its vacuities and it doth in effect overthrow the sum and substance of the Gospel Sir this is more then I said in either Sermon But you shall in due time place and manner as soone as my weighty occasions will permit receive the reasons of this assertion From your humble Servant Fr. Cheynell Saturday Octob. 10. 1646. about 4 of the clock in the afternoone Sir What I said of the Practicall Catechisme SIR I Am sorry I was so mistaken in you as to make a request to which you doe not by your answer return mee one word nor are so favourable as to promise me any at your greater leasure Having had this experience of you I shall make no more new questions to which the former part of your Letter might tempt one that were curious as who of my Friends they were which were so well satisfied with what you said of the Author of that Catechisme or who againe that envyed him the elogy which you affirme your selfe to have bestowed upon him I shall rather take occasion from these two affirmations of yours to inforce my one former Petition that you will commit to paper what you said and give me leave to passe a judgment whether the Author be obliged to thanke you for civilities or as my present intelligence goes to clear himself from your accusations I am willing to flatter my self by the second leaf of your Letter begun with a Sir what I said of the practicall Catechism and so abruptly broke off that you were once in so good humour as to design me the favour I petition'd for and if I am deceived yet have I now more reason to importune it because first by your present mistaking of my few Lines and secondly returning an answer very distant from the particular proposed by mee I am enclined to beleeve it possible that your exceptions to the Author of the Catechisme might be mistakes also and then I would hope I might rectifie and you retract those mistakes Or else secondly that your answers might be somewhat from the matter and the shewing you that might to you be usefull also And if neither of these should prove true I shall farther invite you to that charity by a serious promise that whatever you to my apprehension justly object against or confute in that Author shall by Gods grace tend to my edification And having that preparation of mind I hope your prayer will be heard that God will pardon and lead me into all truth and holinesse That you may not thinke I have beene unjust in mentioning such blemishes in your Letter and that I may performe to you what I desire of you I shall first mention the mistakes in it The first is your interpreting my desire to you for an exercise of Iurisdiction over you which that it may appeare probable you say I desire an exact account of your Sermons Where first Sir to desire an account is not to exercise jurisdiction Secondly the account I desired was not of your Sermons or of any part of them saving onely of that wherein the Author of the Catechisme was concerned and that I then told you I was obliged in Justice to you to desire and I still conceive I am so it being but just to use this obvious conducible meanes to keep me from beleeving you to have said any thing but what you did say when perhaps the relations of others may bee unjust to you and tempt mee to be so also and no body can well assure mee of either but your selfe What you meane by more then an equall justice to you I shall not demand because I would make haste to conclude this paper yet because I suppose you would intimate by that phrase that it was not Justice to you for if it were more then equall on your side you would not complaine and besides you say it is exercising jurisdiction over you which for mee to doe over you were I confesse injustice I must further evidence it were not by naming you the particulars which are reported to mee from your Sermon which are such false suggestions that nothing but
is a plaine recantation 8 It is more for Gods honour and yours to make a free noble solemn recantation and now you have deceived the Kingdom with three editions to doe all things like your selfe ingenuously a worthy action loses its grace and our brethren lose their share of benefit by it when done with so much reservednesse that others cannot well take notice of it for their edification Pray Sir let your recantation bee as remarkable as your seduction doe not put it at the fag-end of some lesse remarkable alterations acknowledge that you were seduced by into this opinion and recant with observation lest others be seduced by so many hundred Catechismes as are dispersed throughout the Kingdome But it may bee that you will deny that you have made a recantation Truly Sir first the addition of those words in the primary intention of the phrase 2 The putting in of Idle and blotting out of perhaps which did much affront your No more undoubtedly 3 The change of these words the particular matter of Moses his Law was of Promissory nor Assertory oaths for these The matter was peculiarly of promissory not onely of assertory oaths all these three together will amount to a round recantation considering that in three editions you had said there was No more and undoubtedly no more forbidden in the third Commandement then the breach of promissory oaths Ninthly consider that if this amendment had been before Oxford had been taken or if you would say that it as well as another edition of your Book was intended before you were in danger to bee called to an account for this and many things of worse consequence your recantation would bee more satisfactory I spake to you as a friend and speake not out of my owne breast for I doe but repeate the censures of other men For my owne prart you have made a solemne profession under your hand to give mee satisfaction but how will you satisfie other men 10. Yet I must professe that I doe not like that expression of yours Neverthinking to deny or doubt but that vaine oaths would bee forbidden there also Doe you mean that they were forbidden by God when Moses published the Law or would bee forbidden afterwards by a superaddition Would bee is not so cleare an expression as is desired 11. I doe not understand that expression of yours when you say That in kindnesse and submission to the meanest the Author thought fit to adde If you meane it of mee I take it kindly for I did speake to your friends at London about you and they promised to tell you positively of it and I spoke for that end for I doe respect you more then you thinke I doe and some worthy friends both of yours and mine know that neare upon tenne yeares agoe wee did exchange some Letters about your opinion concerning certaine vacuities in the morall Law of God 12. But Sir you should consider that Learned men have told you of this errour and therefore say in submission to better Judgements 13. Say in submission to the greatest even to Iehovah the God of glory I will abase my selfe recant my errors and acknowledge the perfection of his morall spirituall Law Surely it is meet to bee said to God c. Iob 34. 31 32. I beseech that you will weep over those two Verses and then read that passage Iohn 6. 38. Christ came downe from heaven to doe the will of God c. Oh doe you come downe from your Criticismes come downe from your notions your imaginary superadditions which you looke upon as a kind of heaven and endeavour to doe the will of your Father revealed in his perfect and spirituall Law and I 'll warrant you you 'll finde it so perfect without any superadditions that your Evangelicall obedience shall not excell or transcend that excellent rule nay you will confesse that you cannot see an end of its perfection and you will hate every false way Pardon mee if I seem to preach to you the Lord set it home upon your heart 3. The next report is that you made inclination to sinne an infelicity not a sinne I said that the Author of that Catechisme did acknowledge that godly sorrow was to be conceived for all kinds and sorts of sinne but when hee descends to particulars hee speakes with so much irresolution as if hee doubted whether our aptnesse to fall into all sinne were an infelicity onely or a sinne Sir your expression is inexcusable and your apology doth no way satisfie Truly Sir you must fall downe at a Throne of grace and beg pardon of God and you must speake more positively or else you will not bee able to give satisfaction to impartiall men 1 You speake of pollutions of nature sure that expression is more proper to denote actuall sinnes then originall sinne which is one entire universall and naturall pollution 2 Every one that is of age to conceive godly sorrow hath actually consented to the corruption of his nature hee hath cherished it and been pleased with it 3 You seeme to imply that there must needs bee some consent given to every actuall sinne Sir that is yet to bee proved on your part for you are too magisteriall and so much given to dictates that you may well stand to bee perpetuall Dictator in Divinity every point of a Catechisme should bee exactly proved 4 You seeme either to recant what you said before or at least to doubt whether these pollutions bee infelicities onely or sinne 5 The danger is the greater because you expresse such a grand point Sceptically there are indeed too many that say The corruption of our nature is rather an infelicity then a sinne doe you expresse your selfe thus doubtfully that you may comply with them indeed if you were composing such a Liturgy as some have wished for that Protestants c. might joyne together I confesse you have sufficiently served that designe but sure it was your duty especially in a Practicall Catechisme to have declared your selfe freely and fully against that dangerous error 6 If you are of their mind who maintaine the corruption of our nature to bee onely an infelicity not a sinne it was not fairly done to blind your Reader with an Orthodox expression in the beginning of your answer that you might afterwards tempt him into a dangerous error 7 It is absurd to say that godly sorrow is to bee conceived for an infelicity quà sic meerly as an infelicity 8 There is no doubt but that every sinne should bee wailed quà sic as a sinne an inconformity to a spirituall Law and a pronenesse to actuall rebellion against God and all the commands of God ought to bee bewailed even with tears of bloud you need not speake timorously or doubtfully in so weighty and cleare a point 9 I found the more fault with this doubtfull expression because you write a Practicall Catechisme and you know that the corruption of our nature hath great influence into our
is but a nicety that untill I did beg as well as desire and request and againe re-inforce my request you did not thinke fit to grant me the least crumbe of that justice which I desired from you At the phrase exact account you affirme your selfe to have stumbled and call it those hard words If this bee so I cannot tell how to behave my selfe so cautiously as either to speak plainely enough to you or to keep you from stumbling For axact account is so plaine to bee understood and so unlike jurisdiction unlesse you mistooke it for exacting an account which you are too subtle to doe when the word desire went before it that if ever I had exercised jurisdiction over you or any other which I never was in place to doe the Office for which my first fruits are required being without a jurisdiction annext to it yet you could not have been tempted by that to this mistake I suppose you were pleased to be merry when you imply you were and therefore must friendly admonish you that there is a shrewd disease in which Irenaeus had so much skill as to pronounce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore I shall briefly desire you that hereafter you speak 1 So properly as not to say desiring is exercising jurisdiction And 2 Seriously for truly I am not in jest when I write to you and that would have kept you safe from stumbling Yet because you are at such leisure as to remember I had an Office in your now Countrey I shall tell you that there is a seale belonging to that Office from which if you had induction to that Living you may read in your Wax 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then you will soone discerne how many men as well as mee you have helpt to make happy I blesse God and will never curse you that I am one of that number In your next Section you pray for them that suggested so many false accusations against you to mee But first you affirme not above one to have been false and that I confesse to bee so and need not to bee told so back againe As for your new accusation which you are resolved to pay mee in stead of that former I desire you to know that I defie it and know no danger or ill sound in the language of Speculative mysterie nor acknowledge any Author of it whom you can suspect particularly not him whose name you blotted out so that I might read I meane neither Smalcius nor Socinus whose doctrines in the businesse of the Trinity I doe heartily disclaime and am so farre from being tainted or tempted by them that I cannot say I ever permitted my selfe to read any Tract in them or any other of that set unlesse in the Racovian Catechisme on that subject And you will never repaire the injury if you use arts to fasten it on mee or to perswade any man that I was ever inclined towards it For your nicety by which you except against my calling the doctrine of the Trinity a speculative mystery saying that it is practicall and giving your reason because the blessed Trinity is the object of our worship as well as of our faith I shall make no scruple to acknowledge the Trinity to bee the object of our worship and to that end I directed that concluding act of my worship to that blessed object and every point of that which in the Catechisme is made due to God I supposed there and now professe to bee perfectly due to the Trinity But then you might remember that you acknowledge it the object of our faith and of that there be many parts which will not be disparaged by being stiled mysteries and depths of speculation and in that sense or as they are so I then spake and onely so and need not acknowledge any impropriety in that speech because though a speculative doctrine may be also practicall in another respect as the knowledge of the causes of diseases is a practicall knowledge in respect of the cures it will help to worke yet as that is ordinarily called the Theory of Physick and is presumed before Students ascend to the practicall so I told you the Author supposed the speculative understanding of that mystery in the Church-Catechisme before hee came to the Doctrines in this Booke which are the practicall You remember mee that a Sacramentall Covenant is practicall and I may as well remember you that there are credenda proposed to the vower in that Sacrament as well as facienda On occasion of mention of the Church-Catechisme you say you like that better then my Practicall and I confesse my selfe to doe so too so vehemently that I beleeve 't will bee long ere wee see a better in its stead But yet I conceive that hee that hath learnt that may bee capable of more at least of directions to make use of that knowledge imbibed to the amendment of his life else most of our preaching were in vaine nay else both that Catechisme ought never to have been expounded and every one that hath written any thing else for the benefitting of youth or men must lye under the prejudice of that insolence of thinking himselfe able to make a better as well as this Author For your justice in that answer to the third reason I am not to thanke you nor can I thinke that any man that was in any measure my friend needed to bee told by you or any that I acknowledged the Trinity If hee did examine your owne heart whether you know not some body who had helped to defame mee in that particular by saying I was a Socinian or the like or by saying I maintaine many errours broached by such If you doe not I will thank you for the good office you mention and so hasten also and wish heartily I could make more haste to get into some more delightfull imployment to the second report In that I see I met with no false accusation of you but in you enough of injury to that Author by picking out what might make him odious and present him an eloquent learned disciple of yours to bee taught that swearing is a sinne or rather a profane designer and corrupter of the Nation that hath given Boyes a liberty of swearing in their Catechisme I have sufficiently told you and all men that that Author is most guiltlesse of that charge and if you will not yet acknowledge it I must leave it to God to judge betwixt us as also whether hee produce not the unquestionable command of God against all swearing assertory or promissory and whether you doe not imply that hee doth so in saying against him that the perhaps imaginary superaddition which you know are no other then the words of Christ will not bee so effectuall to restraine as the unquestionable command of God Sir doth hee question the Command of God to bee against swearing doth hee not say that all profane use of Gods name is sure forbidden under the
will onely bee in my power to take care that this bee the last you shall receive Onely I shall adde without expressing any longing that if you will license your owne you shall not need to trouble your selfe in desiring mee to license mine or to give my consent that they bee licensed As for your advice to the contrary I know not from what degree of kindnesse it proceeds and having some reason to beleeve that there is nothing in them against piety or charity perhaps you may bee mistaken if you thinke your not licensing them will ever deserve thanks from mee any more then that which you call an act of friendship doth viz. your having dealt plainely with mee To which give mee leave to answer that friendship is a strange thing and very distant from Christian charity if it bee any thing like those publike reproaches which you laid most causlesly upon the Author of the Catechisme in your Sermons Assure your selfe if I were now in the temper of minde in which you were when you did that and it seemes now continue to bee I would presently send all your papers to the Presse with my answer to them and tell you I was in this your friend But I have other imployments for my thoughts and other motives and principles of not revenging injuries then those which you offer mee by way of friendly advice to beware c. Which perhaps may intimate something of terror I shall for the present sit downe with full patience and satisfaction of minde that I have driven this businesse thus farre and till your more weighty imployments permit you to consider mee as my paines to serve and satisfie you deserve from you I take my leave of you and rest Nov. 23. 1646. Your very loving Friend H. Hammond I would you had signified your pleasure positively that I should not permit to any mans eyes what you onely say you doe not desire mee c. I should then think my selfe obliged to burn that first part of my last answer but as yet wanting your directions I have not done it The end Christus persecit tertium mandatum nec in rebus veris nomen Domini invocare permittit nisi talc quid a nobis exigat dei gloria Vide Smalcium de Divinit Christi Catechism Racoviens Non assumes nomen Domini dei tui gratis frustra temere in ullum vanum uti viri diffusissimae eruditionis passim Mendacium prohibetur hoc in loco quia mendacium est gratis dictum vanum nihil The last edition at London pag. 120. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aleph est loco He literae radicalis est proprie vanitas tam verborum quam rerum saepe adverbialiter sumitur pro frustrà temerè Omne mendacium est vanum sed omne vanum non est mendacium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expount per Kinnom Hebel R. Sclomo c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXX Vide Stegman Photin Non assumes nomen Domini gratis sive frustra ut si non jures in ejus nomine nisi ob necessitatem etiam veritas non est juranda nisi ob necessitatem Vide Pagnini thesaurum curâ Merceri editum pag. 2186. Your last Edition pag. 28. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. â—yr Cat. 4. View of Dir. pag. 14. * Or that Prayer that I told you was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein they prayed for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An ancient forme of which wee have in St. Basils Liturgy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * See the testimonies of the Fathers both Greek and Latine in the Catechisme pag. 106. not thought fit then to swell up this Letter Pract. Cat. p. 5. a Tertia parte de vit spirit Sect. 1. b Opusc. tr 3. c. 10. c Refut 32. â—tio Luther Du Pless de Miss l. 1. c. 3. * Primi Christiani huic officio se accomodarunt Morn de miss l. 1. ca. 4.