A REPLY UNTO THE LETTER WRITTEN TO M r. HENRY STUBBE IN DEFENSE OF THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY Whereunto is added a Preface against Ecebolius Glanvill and an answer to the Letter of D r HENRY MORE Containing A REPLY TO THE UNTRUTHES He hath publish'd AND A CENSURE OF THE CABBALO-PYTHAGORICAL Philosophy by him promoted Spissis indigna theatris Scripta pudet recitare nugis addere pondus OXFORD Printed for Richard Davis 1671. THE LETTER TO M r. HENRY STUBS Concerning his Censure upon certain passages contained in the History of the Royal Society SIR WHEN I was lately at Warwick I purposed to have waited upon you but I was told by a Person of Quality and of your acquaintance that you were gone to Oxford with a great carriage of Books to write against the Royal Society and the reason of this enterprize was given to your disswading Friends that the Society did design to bring in Poperty The accusation 1 confe§ seemed to me very strange but what was more wonderful is such mighty Zeal for any one Religion and against That This calleth to my mind a discourse which you made one day at White-Hall to a Christ-Church Man and my self immediately after your return from Jamaica where you told us of a Provincial of the Dominicans who being a Prisoner there had perswaded you to go and live with him in the Spanish Plantations as being a place in wich you might very gainfully practice Physick and Nothing as you said hindred your complyance with his overtures but only this that you could not have carried away hereafter the Effects of your estate but must have left it if you had left the Country In all which account of the transactions betwixt that Provincial who was of the Inquisition and your self you skewed so much gentle calmne§ of mind in the affair of changing Religion that I was almost ready to have pronounced that some one had stoln your Name and put it to the Censure till I was better informed that your quarrel to this Assembly is so unappeasable that you would fall out with any Religion which they favoured and that if they had of each kind amongst them you would entertain no sort at all I must profe§ I always esteemed you by your Printed Papers a Man of excellent contradicting parts and I thought you would in this book have done as good service to Aristotle as a grave Dignitary of Canterbury hath lately rendred to him when he very industriously maintains that the Philosopher in his Ethicks did teach what is the summum bonum as well as David could when he set himself on purpose to treat of the same Argument in the first Psal. or that you would have repeated some of the least natural experiments laught at them and then with very good conduct of stile made all the rest appear ridiculous But you 'l say that may be done hereafter but a present Religion Religion is in danger and therefore you must succour your Dear Mother the Church of England It is done like a good Child and further I must commend you as a generous enemy in your censure of the Historian He is a Clergy-man and herein you challenge him at his own Weapon And if you vanquish him in this Encounter you may expect to make both your Reputation and his lo§ very considerable being that in England a Church-man suffers more for being Popishly affected then for being a favourer of the New Philosophy But I 'le tell you what falls out very unluckily This History was not Licensed as could have been wisht by the President of the Royal Society For then a Man might have charged every impious and pernicious Paragraph upon that large body of Men but so it is that it comes abroad into the World with an Imprimatur from Secretary Morrice of whom we cannot perswade the people to believe otherwise but that he stands two or three removes off from Popery But now at last give me leave as a By-stander to lock over your Game and privately to advize you where the other side may espy any advantage As the first instance of a passage in the History Destructive to the Religion and Church of England viz. While the Bishops of Rome did assume an infallibility and a Sovereign Dominion over our Faith the reformed Churches did not only justly refuse to grant them that but some of them thought themselves obliged to forbear all Communion and would not give them that respect which possibly might belong to so Antient and so Famous a Church and which might still have been allowed it without any danger of Superstition If any one should undertake a defence against your censure it is probable that he would say somewhat to this purpose that by Communion there mentioned the Author did not mean that the reformed Churches should joyn with them in all or the most important acts of worship being that hereby they must at all adventures yeild to the points of the controversie wich the Roman infallibility would thrust upon them for he tells us that our Churches did justly refuse to grant them that but he explains what he intends by Communion when he doth immediately add that they refused to give them that respect c. Now who can say that Communion if taken for Divine Worship can be the same with respect that it stewed to a Society of Men and whereas you seem to argue from the notion of the word Communion as if it were the same with the Lords Supper it may by replyed that the one sence wherein it may be understood throughout the whole Scripture is a friendly and charitable action and from this we cannot except that verse which you alledge and in this sence it is not impious to say that we should not forbear all Communion or deny to give that respect which possibly might belong to so ancient and so famous a Church Nor can I see that these Titles bestowed on Rome are so faulty since there are methods of speech in our language suitable hereunto whereby we call that antient and famous not which is so at present but what was such a long time ago and continued the same for a great while But I will grant that this is not the necessary but only the possible meaning of this Historian Yet at least if the contrary intimation be so hainous good Nature should oblige to understand the phrase in the most favourable manner but supposing he thought that Rome even at the reformation of others though it self was not amended might neverthele§ be called a Church he said no more then what the most learned amongst the German Divines though warm with disputes did readily acknowledge It was usual with them to say that the Church of Rome was truly a Church notwithstanding that it abounded in many and dangerous errours seeing that they retained the main Doctrines of Christian Religion and they indeavoured to clear their assertion by comparing it to a diseased body which
not so much a holy reverence as a stupid folly They pronounce as in a former instance so on this that no few shall have a part in the world to come who shall spit out when he names God or shall speak the Tetragrammaton in a forreigne tongue out of the Sanctuary There is one thing at the end of your censure which is very unkind and contrary to the law of common humanity I speak of your sharp reflexion on an excellent person deceased Mr. Cowley these younger fancies ought not after death to becomes his reproach especially since he left a charge that what was offensive in his Poems might be omitted though it was judged by others that he had written nothing but what with his own sober correction of himself and an equitable allowance of charity might well pa§ abroad in publique You know that those who weeded out the worst of Beza's youthful verses and presented them in one bundle to the world purchasd more shame to themselves then to the Poet. It is now time that I should put an end to this tedious Letter and I must request that you would excuse my plain dealing do not suspect that upon some account of friendship or acquaintance I am too inclinable to vindicate the Authour of this History I dare assure you I know him not otherwise then by face and Printed books one of which is against Sorbiere whom though a piece of a Virtuoso he handles very smartly examining the condition of his life and actions What apprehensions then might you have least if he should happen to have nothing else to doe be should write the History of your life and herein as is usuall describe your person and enquire into Physiognomy what temper of mind you must profess and give a Catalogue of Books written by you and shew in how many press-warrs you have served as a volunteer But now that I have done I have time to think what a deal of needless labour I have bestowed to write more then what you will have patience to read I therefore take leave and am your c. FINIS A Defence of the Censure of the History of the Royal Society against the Reply of the Virtuosi AFter so many Moneths respite so much deliberation in a case nearly relating to the welfare of the Religion and good Learning of this Monarchy and even of the Government it self I expected at least from the Virtuosi something of Wit and Solidity in their Reply I knew the justice of my side too well and the grounds I proceeded upon to fear it might be worsted but I thought it no unreasonable matter to promise my self florid Language and a plausible though not satisfactory Apology But though an entire Cabala of the R. S. did consult upon this responsory Letter though a Learned Person of that Society did peruse it yet can I find nothing in it that should have deserved my serious Animadversions except the quality of those Persons who revised and allowed it and 't is my respect to their dignity that I put once more Pen to Paper about this subject 'T is out of a regard to their quality not performances and I more suspected they would interpret my silence as a contempt then my answer as arrogant It had been more prudential for them not to have entermedled a second time in this Contest but to have enjoyed the benefit of that distinction which I made betwixt the Honorary Members of the R. S. and the Comediants then to mix with so insipid a Generation whose thoughts are not to be elevated by indignation and whom Learning it self should it change Parties could not rescue or protect I must renew those Protestations which their Ignorance hath made me so frequently to use and avow that 't is a troublesome affair to deal with Men that understand so little they know neither how to state a Case nor how to oppose or answer pertinently I am affronted with naked Assertions of Men that deserve no credit my Conclusions are denyed and the premises not invalidated and to convince the World how little I injure them herein I Reprint the first Censure upon their History their Defense and my present Rejoynder The Anonymous Author of the Letter begins with an Admiration that I should have so mighty a Zeal for any one Religion and why against Popery But that I know weak Persons are surprised at small Occurrents and that their astonishment doth not proportion it self to the greatness of the cause but the deficiencies of their Intellectuals I profess it would trouble me that having lived a life hitherto as the Age goes not very culpable and having always professed my self of the Reformed Religion and having united my self to the Church of England upon its restauration preserving always before that a non-communion with the several Schismaticks and Sects of this Nation that it should still be wondered at why I should be concern'd for any Religion or engage in opposition to Popery But this surmise argues onely the vanity and folly of the Objectors for were it in general indifferent unto me what Religion were National amongst us yet considering our Circumstances and that dismal Revolution which impends over my native Country upon the restitution of that Religion a Man who is concern'd for his own repose and tranquility and desires not to be involved in the Calamities of a Change can not want prudential Motives to induce him to oppose such an Alteration Any Man that hath but reflected seriously upon the Consequences which have attended the Change of Religion especially into Popery any Man who is not unacquainted with our English Histories or ignorant of the Politick Cautions which wise States-men have left unto us upon Record will justifie my demeanour without further inspecting into my Conscience But to allow these Men of no reading or consideration to allow them as ignorant of these things as of the Sweating Sickness why should they wonder at my being concern'd against Popery since I had united my self to the Church of England Is there any thing more repugnant to our Liturgy Articles of Religion and Homilies of our Church Was there ever any action of my life could give them ground for this Conjecture that I would openly adhere to any thing and avow my doing so and yet desert it rashly I do not use to deliberate after Resolutions taken whatever I do before It had better become those of the R. S. who are under many Obligations to confront the Romish Religion to have acted my part in this Contest then to malign discourage and disparage me for a work which the Apostle would have congratulated me for though I had attempted it meerly out of envy strife or pretence Beyond this Reply I know not what to answer unto this Passage because I have to do with Adversaries with whom Protestations Appeals to God and Conscience are ridiculous and more insignificant then a sobriety of life taken up neither out of
yet is as truly a humane body as it is a diseased one And if it may be termed a Church it is without doubt very antient and famous too for what it hath been of old as to the piety and learning of many Inhabitants of that City and still is Famous for that precedency which any Herauld would assign to it in a free Assembly of Western Bishops So that from what hath been discoursed in this matter may be inferred that though the Authour meant not that we must communicate with them in the distinguisting Offices of adoration yet for any thing I perceive he needs not to account them of that Church to be unto us as Heathens or of such a Number of Men with whom we may not so much as eat but that we may maintain a Communion of friendship with the professed of that Religion whose morals may afford an example or whose learning might advance our knowledge And the reformed must still keep the hearty Charity for the Romanist that after succe§le§ debates though managed with reason and temper he should still indeavour to improve him in all the uncontroverted instances of goodne§ and vertue such an exercise of Friendship and Charity as this is a Noble and Religious Communion it is an exhorting one another in our most Holy Faith it is an exact obedience to ihat command That as far as we have already attained we should walk by the same rule As to the next exception which you have against the same passage viz. His mistake in making the Papal Infallibility to be the grand occasion of the differences betwixt the reformed Religion and Papist I must tell you that he may well enough defend himself though indeed you pre§ closer in this then in the former objection against all Communion with Rome You say that only Parasitical Canonists did ascribe to the Pope such a Sovereign Dominion over our Faith I suppose you mean at the reformation though you cite many Authours much later and if so I shall only referr you to the report which Cassander gives of those days in his Judgement which he passes on the controversies viz. That then they made the Pope but little le§ then God that they set his Authority not only above the Church but above the Scriptures to and made his sentences equal to divine Oracles and to be an infallible rule of Faith and as he further proceeds though there was another sort of people in the Church yet they were such as were obscure and concealed Again though it were granted that infallibility lay in a Councel yet the Pope had the executive power of those decrees and Canons which passed by so high an Authority and hereupon might be troublesome with an Infallibility derived from others and impose little things as absolutely necessary in their own nature and this practice of the Bishops of Rome amongst others caused those of Germany to stand off from the Roman Church But for a fuller proof against the Authour of the History you alledge that erronious Doctrine about indulgences was the primary occasion of introducing Protestancy What you say is so far true the first occasion of Luthers publick invectives against the Court of Rome but for a good while after he maintained Communion as a member of that Church This is manifest to any one that is but in a small measure acquainted with the Histories of those times but at last when he saw there was no hopes of Reformation in this and other instances of gross abuse he utterly leaves them as past all likelyhood of recovery So that I have now prepared the cause depending betwixt you and him and made it ready for a Tryal and it may be determined by finding out the true account of the Grand hinderance of a Reformation at Rome Your adversary might give a very fair proof that it was mainly a reputed infallibility This is evident in the impartial History of the Councel of Trent where we read of a consultation held by Pope Advian VI. with some Cardinals for an amendment of what was amiss more particularly about the matter of Indulgences after that much had been said by himself and another against the mistakes and ill practices in that affair and after that he had declared his Resolution for the regulating thereof he was soon turned from his Former purpose by Cardinal Soderinus an old Politician and one who well understood the Frame of that Church This Man informs the Pope that any Reformation was dangerous for Rome because that this would implicitely yeild that somewhat was amiss and that possibly they might erre in more whereas the successes of Rome against such opposers were obtained by vouching for what ever was blamed and by proceeding against them as Hereticks This made Adrian to bewail the unhappy condition of Popes who might not reform at home if they would And now at last you seem to make infallibility so small a thing even in their own esteem that as you cite the words of a late writer amongst them their Infallibility is limited to Tradition and is spiritually assisted in the Faithful reporting of what hath been delivered It is easie to see thorough this harmless pretence of your judicious Authour For to be the sole and undoubted witness in their own cause on which sentence must follow in course is equally advantagious as if they were taken for infallible judges Thus the Jews who did so highly advance the credit of their Rabbinical traditions as thereby to make void the Law of God doe not as we see in Abravanel own any more then only that they expound and stew the Articles of Faith yet that Jew who shall despise or jeer at the Teachers of those traditions shall not according to their Fundamentalls have a part in the life to come And at the same rate may the Former sort of men denounce Anathema's if you believe not their report though in matters which are not only not certain but withall are unreasonable ridiculous and impossible Another passage in the History is brought in by you and deaply charg'd to be contrary to the Analogy of Faith and Scripture to wit He the Natural and Experimental Philosopher will be led to admire the wonderful contrivance of the creation and so to apply and direct his praises aright which no doubt when they are offer'd up to Heaven from the mouth of one that hath well studied what he commends will be more suitable to the Divine nature than the blind applauses of the ignorant This you say makes the acceptableness of all mens Prayers to depend more or less on the study of natural Phylosophy But the Authors words may by asserted by the whole contexture of that Section that he therein answers an objection and clearly shews that the study of experimental Phylosophy is not injurious to the worship of God he supposeth the person already a Christian and then he praises God more beartily for some examples of power and wisdom which he by inquiry
it self For while the Bishops of Rome did assume an Infallibility and a Soveraign dominion over our Faith the Reformed Churches did not only justly refuse to grant them that but some of them thought themselves obliged to forbear all friendly and charitable acts towards them and would not give them that respect which possibly might belong to so ancient and so famous a Church and which might still have been allowed it without any danger of Superstition I demand now of my Adversaries which of the Reformed Churches ever did think themselves obliged to forbear all friendly and charitable actions towards the Papists I have not read to my knowledge any such thing in the Harmony of Confessions and 't is but just to expect the judgement of Churches should be demonstrated out of Church-Acts I profess it is news to me and so it is to hear that one sense wherein the word Communion may be understood throughout the whole Scripture is a friendly and charitable action I desire him to try only these Texts 1 Cor. 10. 16 18 20.2 Cor. 6.14 he will abate of the generality of his assertion which indeed is such that I never heard of it before though I have had some acquaintance with the Scripture and Ecclesiastical History but if the word might bear any such Analogical sense as it does not I think yet to see the mischief of our old Logick I did suppose that Analogum per se positum stat pro famosiore Analogato When our Virtuosi henceforward talk of Cocks and Bulls we know by this how to understand them I shall not enlarge much upon the rest of this Discourse but refer my self to the judgement of my Reader Repet tions are tedious and here needless if he have perused the Censure it self He saith that the Historian in calling the Church of Rome a true Church said no more then what the most Learned amongst the German Divines though warm with Disputes did readily acknowledge I would he had instanced in the Authors that I might have taken their Words and Learning into consideration But Reader take notice that I enquire not whether the established Religion of Germany but that of England be here overthrown I enquire whether the Author of the History or any else in Holy Orders can avow such words without violating their subscription to our Articles and Homilies 'T is true I was told by that he was not well versed in the Homilies How did he subscribe them then or How can he press others to subscribe to he knows not what I will not expatiate beyond the Question in debate Hic Rhodus hîc Saltus In the next Paragraph where he should have proved against me That the Infallibility assumed by the Bishops of Rome and their Soveraignty over our Faith was the cause of the Reformed Churches separating from the Papists I find not one word of such proof offered and indeed it is notorious to any Man that hath but a little insight into the History of those times and the grounds of the Romish Religion All he alledgeth is a saying of Cassander not citing the Place and Words and so I cannot well judge of them to this effect That then they made the Pope but little less then God that they set his Authority not onely above the Church but above the Scripture too and made his Sentences equal to Divine Oracles and an infallible rule of Faith and as he further proceeds though there were another sort of People in the Church yet they were such as were obscure and concealed I answer that this proves not That the Bishops of Rome assumed an Infallibility and Soveraign Dominion over our Faith which is the Point in question but that some ascribed it unto him Cassander must be understood in relation to the Canonists which agrees with my Assertion yet were not all the Canonists of that minde for in the Council of Pisa which began at Millaine there Philippus Decius and others did defend the Superiority of a Council above the Pope or else what Cassander says is evidently false for the Superiority of the Council above the Pope and the limited power of the Papacy were the general Tenets and universally taught at the time when the Reformation began and before it immediately as any Man that traceth the History of the Councils of Constance Basil and Pisa may inform himself Cajetan himself who was a Cardinal and Legate against Luther though he prefer the Pope to a Council yet teacheth this Resistendum est ergò in faciem Papae publicè Ecclesiam dilaniantis c. Nor do I find any such Tenet avowed by Franciscus Victoria Professor at Salamanca at the first beginning of the Reformation In France you will never read that such a Power was ascribed to the Pope there as Cassander speaks of nor in Venice no nor so much as in Swizzerland as Hottinger avows It can onely be thus far true what Cassander says that the Canonists who at Rome sway in the execution of the Papal Jurisdiction might teach so but not that it was any way the Tenet of the Divines and there was then an opposition betwixt those two sorts of Men as now with us betwixt the Courts Spiritual and Temporal And the Theologicians did not hold themselves concluded by the Sentiments of the Canonists nor the People neither further then was requisite to peace and order of Government This being thus false and the relation of Pope Adrian impertinent for the Papacy is thereby confess'd fallible though for prudential Reasons not to be amended as Affairs then stood I have nothing to adde further then to desire my Adversaries whensoever they write to think of the point in Question It is an useful way w ch is practised in the Schools of Oxford for the Respondent to repeat a second time the Syllogism of the Opponent and so to frame his Answer when he is certain he comprehends the Argument I could wish my Adversaries had been used a little to that custom in their Youth their being habituated to such a method would have qualified them better then their beloved Curiosities in Opticks and Magnetismes for the managing of Controversies If it be too tedious to them to resume any Academick studies I must recommend unto the imitation of the R. S. what I have read of as to the Exchequer There is an Officer in the Exchequer who though sitting with the Barons on the Bench hath no power to vote with them nor interposeth his judgement as decisive in any cause but observing silence in pleading speaketh sometimes as to the regulation of the time how it passeth away What he should have said concerning the Religion of Adam in Paradise and his mustering of all creatures together I understand well but what he doth say it is not so easie to comprehend how it is much to the purpose The Question is Whether the acceptableness of our praises to God I added prayers also but took
did not publickly and personally read it I am apt to grant The Comediants had not patience to read it or any Book of that bulk but as in other cases gave their assent and applauds upon trust But that the R. S. did own it any man knows that was in London at its publication not to mention the Character which Mr. Glanvill and the Transactor fix on it Moreover when the first brute of my designing to write against the R. S. did reach London Sir R. M. writ to the Lady E. P. to inform them of my intentions adding That there was nothing in which the R. S. as a Body could be concern'd excepting this History and if I would civilly represent unto them any defaults therein they would take it kindly and amend them Hereupon I writ unto Him as a Person whom I greatly honor and who hath in all his undertakings and employments which have been neither mean nor facile expressed a wit prudence and conduct that is uncommon to which if I adde those other Imbellishments which his Mathematical and other Natural Studies have qualifyed him with this Age can hardly equal Him To Him I writ complaining of the Indignities put upon my faculty by Mr. Glanvill and their History represented the Pernicious tendency of those Books in reference to the Monarchy Religion and Learning of this Kingdom and DEMANDED that the R. S. should disclaim both of them by some authentick Declaration or I would not desist whatsoever might befall me But no repeated desires or Sollicitations of mine could prevail with them to disclaim the History the other they were less concerned for saying He was a Private Person and that the sense of the R. S. was not to be collected from the Writings of every single Member Thus could I not extort from their grandeur any just Declaration whereby to satisfie either the Kingdom in general or to oblige the Physicians in particular After that they had denyed me the returns of Common Equity I proceeded in that manner which I need not relate The Concerns they all along express'd were more then a little tenderness for a Fellow of the R. S. The menaces they made and which were noised thorow Court and City shewed that I had greater Opponents then the Author of the History What meant the Resolution I do not say Vote of the R. S. to give me no other answer but that three or four of their ingenious young-men should write my Life How comes this great concern for a Book in which they are not interested When the Censure came out why did several eminent Members presently report and represent to the ___ that I had thereby libelled His Majesty and pressed to have me whipped at a Carts-tail through London That Censure touches not the R. S. but only reflects on the Historian and that modestly though severely And to what heighth their exasperations and power might have carryed things I know not but a generous Personage altogether unknown to me being present bravely and frankly interposed saying to this purpose That whatever I was I was a Roman that English-men were not so precipitously to be condemned to so exemplary a punishment as to be whipped thorow London That the representing of that Book to be a Libel against the King was too remote and too prejudicial a consequence to be admitted of in a Nation Free-born governed by Laws and tender of ill presidents Thus spake that excellent English man the great ornament of this Age Nation and House of Commons He whose single worth ballanceth much of the Debaucheries Follies and Impertinences of the Kingdom in whose breast that Gallantry is lodged which the prevalence of the Virtuosi made me suspect to have been extinguished amongst us After all this who can judge that the R. S. is so little engaged in the Controversie as this Pamphlet suggests But to see to what a period they have brought things The whole effects of the Victory are yielded unto me for the Design I pursued and which I said I would make them to doe was the disclaiming of their History and having done this I am sure I have performed a considerable service to my Country and all other Disputes are but Circumstantial and such as Conquerors often meet with after an entire Rout to be encumbred with some Parties of the scattered Enemy and to be amused with Retrenchments and Passes But this Renunciation contents not me because it is not avowed nor solemn and in such form as to conclude them beyond their pleasure I will make them not only to disown the Book but the Contents thereof as not containing their Sentiments and to adde that they condemn all such as under pretence of new and Experimental Philosophy or any Mechanical Education do decry all Learning and vary that breeding which is absolutely necessary to the welfare of our Monarchy Religion and Kingdom Let Them but declare this effectually and I shall impose a Silence upon my self and willingly sink under their malice and obloquy for the publick utility Having thus acknowledged that the R. S. are not concern'd to avow the History my Adversaries proceed to give some account of the Passages I had chosen to censure In the first Passage I am to complain that since the Author of the History and another eminent Person read over this Piece yet the sence of them which writ the History is not represented the Question still remaining What the Authors meant 'T is here said I will grant that this is not the necessary but the possible meaning of this Historian yet at least if the contrary intimation be so hainous good nature should oblige to understand the Phrase in the most favorable meaning ___ If that the Historian had not been of the champerty this Passage had been more plausible but Oh! Virtuosi have a care how you mention Good nature it had been an excess of Charity and culpable whil'st that our Jealousies are such as they are and that the credit of the History remained entire to have passed by those words which were so inconsistent with our Church and the Religion established without demanding an Explication or renunciation of them I adde That the sense of my Adversaries is not consistent with the words and therefore not possible nor could any goodness of Nature but meer insensibility subject a Man to this construction If that by Communion may be meant without further import a Friendly and charitable action then by the doctrine of Equipollency if those words be substituted instead of the other the sense will be entire but our Experimentators never essayed this I will assist them in this as in other cases It is natural to mens minds when they perceive others to arrogate more to themselves then is their share to deny them even that which else they would confess to be their right And of the truth of this we have an instance of far greater concernment then that which is before us And that is in Religion
I had expected all Analogical senses when used by the Fathers and others upon weighty and pious occasions he might have transcribed out of the Censure passages as much to the purpose as that out of Ignatius and I granted the Fathers used it frequently but we must distinguish betwixt the Anagogical and Mystical accommodations of Scripture to pious harangues and the using of it in raillery The Question is Whether it be lawful and fitting to accommodate Scripture-sentences and the sacred phrase to the subjects of common and light discourse such are Amorous Poems or Discourses of Natural Philosophy I instanced in Mr. Cowleys Poems not to injure or upbraid the dead but because he at his decease having repented of such offensive Poems desired the Author of the History to dispunge them in the second Edition which was recommended to his care and since notwithstanding this request of his deceased Friend he thought fitting to continue them I expounded him by himself and fairly instanced in those Passages as the raillery commended by himself and conformable to what the Ancient Poets practised in honour of their Gods and Religion I have no reason to recede from my Censure yet but much greater perswasions then before that I did a necessary work and whatsoever their Malice may create me of Trouble or Inconvenience I never shall repent it The Conclusion of the Letter threatens me with the History of my Life to be written after the manner that Dr. Sprat writ against Sorbier I never pittyed that French man because he had so flattered the R. S. and was himself a Member of it and recorded for such in their History But when a greater Man then this Epistoler made me the like Threat I laugh'd thereat and said That as for my Physiognomy whatsoever it was He made us and not we our selves and that I had observed worse Faces in their Society and for any passage in my life 't is not clogg'd with these Circumstances That I took the Covenant or Engagement or was a Visitor of Oxon or Councellor to Cromwel and his Son I shall not have any Pindarick Ode in the Press dedicated to the happy memory of the most Renowned Prince OLIVER Lord Protector nothing to recommend the sacred Urn of that blessed Spirit to the veneration of Posterity as if His Fame like Men the elder it doth grow Will of it self turn Without what needless Art can do I never compar'd that Regicide to Moses or his son to Joshua When other Mens Flatteries did thus Exorbitate you will find my Resentments for the Church of England to have been of another nature and as I most associated my self with the Episcoparians so in the decpest he at s that engaged me for my Patron 's service I did not decline to give them the Elogy of Judicious and Learned and to plead for their Toleration in these Words To conclude I should here become an Humble suppliant for those of the Episcopal Divines who understanding the Principles of that Church-way which they profess have learned in all conditions to be content and in their Prosperity were neither rash in defining nor forward in persecting soberly-tender consciences It is certain that we owe much to their Learned Defenses of Protestancy against the Papists and several other their Labours and may reap much more benefit thereby if they may have a greater security paying the respect which they ought to their Governors and Praying for them that they may live peaceably under them then at present they enjoy in their walkings I did there in the Preface cast my self at their feet and made my timely Submissions to the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Winton I receiv'd from his Hands a Confirmation in this Church and never joyned with any other in Communion you will never find me in a Presbyterian-Pulpit nor leagued with the Sectaries Whatever was offensive in my Writings I voluntarily abandoned and have done more in publick for the Church and Religion of England without any further intent then the glory of God and welfare of the Nation then others to be Dignitaries and have not onely endeavored to fix others to the Preservation of the Monarchy but some ways signalized my self by Testimonies of particular Loyalty well known to the principal Secretary of State I speak not this to inodiate others I would they had given me happy Presidents for doing so much or been Exemplary that I might perform more But they who perhaps are not so much as confirmed having attempted nothing of this kind multiply discouragements upon me and would depress a Son of the Church because he once followed a different party Is it Thus that they would express their affection to the present Government Is it Thus that they imitate him who would not quench the smooking flax or break the bruised reed Do they envy me the Grace of God or would they have me adde obstinacy to my other faileurs Such procedures do not become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine and I desire God in his Mercy to prevent the Inconveniences which so scandalous and unchristian demeanour may occasion to the Church which must needs suffer in the publick Miscarriages of the Clergy FINIS A REPLY TO A LETTER OF Dr. HENRY MORE printed in Mr. ECEBOLIUS GLANVIL'S Praefatory Answer to HEN. STUBBE with a CENSURE upon the PYTHAGORICO-CABBALISTICAL Philosophy promoted by him WITH A Preface against Ecebolius Glanvil Fellow of the Royal Society and Chaplain to Mr. Rouse of Eaton late Member of the Rump Parlament By Henry Stubbe Physician at Warwick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OXFORD Printed for Richard Davis 1671. A PREFACE HAd the presse been so much at my disposall as I could have wished I had not suffered Ecebolius Glanvill to have enjoyed the triumph of a few weeks But since it is impossible to dispatch a particular Answer before the approaching Holy-dayes I must begge pardon of the world for that short respite It will not seem strange that omitting Him I hasten out a reply to Dr H. More for the other is but a Zany to this Pythagorean and the defamations of so ignominious and scandalous an Algerine as Mr Glanvill do not reach so far as the aspersions of his Master which hath some repute for learning and more for integrity though his demeanour be such now that I am necessitated to recant my judgment of him and so not disoblige him by a second Elogy for Piety The Prefatory Answer of Mr. Glanvill is no other then I expected though severall others could not believe it possible that any such Resolve could be taken or suffer'd to be put in execution But though the performance did not beseem a Christian much less a Divine of the Church of England yet I knew it would agree with the genious of a Renegado-presbyter turnd Latitudinarian and that some of the Virtuosi would doe what no Paynim or ancient Philosopher would imagine I had had frequent experience of this truth and had learned by
be my VASSAL and VICTIME if he doe not prove all he sayes against me Yet l have demonstrated to the R. S. under a NOTARIES HAND that my Head is not Red though he say it And whereas he abuseth me for styling my self in one book Physitian to his Majesty in the Island of Jamaica l was honoured with that Title by the King and as such received 200 lb. at my goeing thither his Majesty being graciously pleased to specify in the warrant preserved in the Signet-office that HE INTENDED ME FOR HIS PHYSITIAN THERE I have collected several more untruths in my Answer intend to demand the performance of his so solemn promise If he fail not of his word I will take care he shall live better preach better and write better One lye I must now take notice of briefly and t is this That Mr. Crosse did hire me to oppose our Ecebolius and by treating me at Bathe and entertaining me divers times at his House with deare welcome gain'd a person to his rescue who before contemned him I doe profess in the first place that my tongue was never guilty of those expressions he sets down I never call'd him Old nor said I would rescue the poor fellow I did say that I would rescue in great part the poor old man And that he had been as it were asleep or buried for these 30 or 40 years in the Country and knew not the transactions of the learned world Neither doth He pretend thereto as our ignorant Virtuoso does But this doth not diminish that respect which is due to him as a Divine and as such not unlearned I have heard the B. of Chester give him a much greater character then Mr. Glanvil allows him and t is notoriously known how eminent his repute was at Lincolne College and what esteem many honorable and understanding persons have for him I adde that He neither hired me nor treated me at Bathe except with one or two bottles of wine for I did not dine with him nor was I ever but once at his house where the entertainment was such as the Village affoorded and my unexpected coming permitted and then was the Book finished and almost all printed I never had the least PRESENT from him in my life nor did I see his Book till mine was all finished except what relates to the world in the Moon a voyage thither of which Mr. Glanvil writes nothing now nor informs us where those wings are to be bought that may supply so much as the flying Coaches I found that most of Mr. Crosses Book was personall and I did not understand what to conclude about so different reports as I met with about that conference till Hee in whose house it was informed me that all Mr Glanvill said was not true and I am not yet convinced by the certificate how it was possible for those to warrant the exactnesse sincerity of the relation since that the meeting was impremeditated the discourse without designe desultory interrupted by others that were there and hath received much of inlargement in the writing beyond what was there spoken But I leave that to their consciences which if they beare any proportion to that of M r Glanvills neither shall M r Crosse nor I suffer in our reputation for any thing that such persons utter or certify Upon occasion of what Ecebolius sayth concerning the mercenarinesse of my penne that I was HIRED to this performance I shall say in vindication of severall others that I was neither AT FIRST PUT UPON THE WORK nor HIRED thereunto by any What Mr Glanvill sayth Mr Crosse engaged me unto Dr Merrett sayth the APOTHECARYES did BRIBE ME TO UNDERTAKE but there is as litle truth in what that Virtuoso relates as in the reports of the Rectour of Bathe Others of the R. S. have told it publiquely that I was incited unto it by severall Reverend and Learned persons in the Universityes But neither did any one there know of it till I had undertaken the worke writ some of it I first acquainted the R. S. and after that had printed shewed some papers to their President before I divulged them in either University so that nothing of that report can bee true except the Virtuosi doe apprehend that the approbation reception of my papers have met with all are demonstrations that I was put upon it whereas this doth rather evince the generall odium they have drawne upon themselves and I could wish they would endeavour effectually to remove those umbrages in which I placed my cheifest strength I did presume to finde all intelligent persons my abettours but I tooke my measures from their common interest aud not from any speciall assurances given unto me There is another Reverend person so unfortunate as to suffer by their malicious intimations as if Hee had HIRED me to the undertaking because hee was so unhappy as upon another occasion to present me LATELY with a piece of plate There is not any course which I see these Virtuosi will not pursue thereby to ruine me t will bee a conspiracy against the R. S. shortly for any one to employ me as a Physician and each Fee will be reported as a Bribe and the Donor esteemed as an enemy to the Experimentall Philosophers This is the Method they now take thereby imagine they shall deprive me of all commerce or correspondence with persons of Quality and interest How generous brave these contrivances are how becoming the name of a Royall Society how suitable rather to a company of Poltrons I leave to the judgement of all mankinde It may not be amisse here to professe that respect for the Royall Society which doth become me I doe avow all just esteeme for the Institution though I cannot rise so high in its commendation as the Historian I think it might have added to the glory of his Majesty and beene of great advantage to learning had the designes of the Royall Founder and those persons of Honour which joyn'd with it been diligently prudently pursued Their purpose being at first to make faithfull records of all the works of Nature or Art which can come within their reach that so the present Age and posterity might be able to put a mark on the Errours which have beene strengthned by long prescription to restore the Truthes that have laine neglected to push on those which are already known to more various uses and to make the way more passable to what remaines unrevealed It was never my intention to detract from the laudable purposes of my Prince nor to derogate from those of Quality who were Honorary Members of it nor to enterfere with any Learned men in it But if a sort of Comedians under pretense thereof doe overthrow that Education which is necessary to the Church Monarchy undermine the established Religion and insult over the Faculty of Physitians I hope it will never Prejudice me in the
That he had not vowed Chastity So impious in his Metaphysicks that he was condemn'd by the Reformed Universities in Harderwick and Vtrecht as a Pestilent Writer and his whole Philosophy prohibited to be Taught or Defended in Leyden and Herborne Take notice what Character you have imposed on the Papists and remember withall that Des Cartes your Alumbrado is of that number I must protest unto you that the serious Animadversion upon these Passages of yours makes me scrupulous how to allow Dr. More the Attribute of PIOUS and my doubts multiply upon me when I observe that you deduce your Cabbala from the Pythagoreans and relie more on the mysteries of their members then the plain Text and Authority of the Universal Church You dignifie Pythagoras so far as to ascribe unto him a power of Working Miracles as Moses and the succeeding Prophets did which Skill dare you to call it Skill Empedocles Epimenides and Abaris having got they grew so famous that Empedocles was sir-named Alexanemus Epimenides Cathartes and Abaris Aethrobates from the power they had in suppressing Storms and Winds in freeing Cities from the Plague and in Walking aloft in the Air which Skill inabled Pythagoras to visit his Friends after that manner at Metapontium and Tauromenium in one and the same day You represent Plato as a Divine man for Knowledge and Vertue though it appear otherwise in the Records of his Life and Plotinus must be Sainted though he were a Magician though he stiled Christianity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and blamed Origen for defending it Good God! How far doth prejudice transport you How different are your Sentiments concerning those men from what the Fathers and the most Authentick Records of History relate about them Those that you almost Idolize were no others then Idolaters and Sorcerers and Julian the Apostate is redevable unto Dr. More for assigning them a better Qualification Thus Plotinus and Dr. More Porphyrius and Glanvill are mutually ingratiated and the Creation better explained by the Allegories of the Platonists then the Mosaical Writings in Genesis I finde that Simplicius denies the Scripture to be of Divine Authority becaufe it is Erroneous about the Original of the World 'T is granted by our Cabbalists And if we extenuate the Assertions of Gods Word from concluding in matters of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy How shall we any longer reject the Alcoran and Talmud for Errors therein With what justice shall we deny them the benefit of that excuse which we make use of our selves But I finde my self to enlarge beyond the designes of a Letter I beseech you Sir to follow that advise I have heretofore suggested unto you Consult Books and not your Phansy enquire better into the Foundations of the Cabbala and the repute you give to the Pythagorical Philosophy you will finde after a better Scrutiny then your narrow Reading as yet qualifies you for that your Confidence is but weakly supported and that upon prejudicate Opinions you desert the Sacred Text and obtrude upon us your own Conceits for Mosaical and with greater Impudence then any Jew you obtrude for such what you never Received as such And lay down this extravagant position In the expounding of Moses I think I may lay down this for a safe Principle that there is no considerable truth in Nature or Divinity that Moses was ignorant of and so if it be agreeable his Text I may attribute it unto him At least the Divine Wisdom wherewith Moses was inspired prevents all the Inventions of Men. By this Rule it is impossible for any thing considerable to be newly invented neither need we contest with the Virtuosi whether one of them or a Peripatetick were Author of this or that 't is certain Moses was acquainted with every thing considerable and the Spirit of God which inspired him doth prevent all the discoveries of Men. Thus you attribute to Moses the Opinion that the Earth is a Planet For as I have elsewhere intimated Moses has been before-hand with Cartesius The Ancient Patriarchs having had Wit and by reason of their long lives leisure enough to invent as curious and subtile Theorems in Philosophy as ever any of their posterity could hit upon besides what they might have had by Tradition from Adam Most excellently argued a posse ad esse Thus you make the Three Elements of Des Cartes to be Plainly Distinguishable parts in the Matter first Created And when you Write again the Elasticity of the Air and its ponderousness will at least become Ingredients in your Cabbala and the Authors are obliged unto you if you do not attribute the Barometer Thermometer and Air-pump c. unto the first Patriarchs who had so much wit and leisure Did ever Madness arise to such a heighth or was there any man who more grosly transformed Scripture into a Nose of Wax Sir you will pardon me for being earnest with you in a case of such importance I would believe you but that in so doing I should dissent from God Almighty I was inclined to believe you were an Hypocondriack and that your Opinions were not the result of your judgment but of your temperament but you have no Intervals and in the explication of your Preexistence you make the Bible not your Rule but Pretence and what you have asserted and consented unto in the Church you regard not in comparison of the Pythagorical Tenets Give me leave to tell you that where the Foundations of Government are dissolved there can be no Piety Our Laws oblige you to the 39 Articles and They to the Scripture if such Glosses be put upon them 't is in vain to expect that any thing can binde or that the Act of Vniformity can take place It is much better that such as you were cast out of the Church then continued in and an open enemy were better then such a friend It concerns the Parlament to look after such Latitudinarians and if what your Apologist saith may take place That men by no Professions or Subscriptions are obliged further then not to contradict the Articles of Religion all England will soon be Distracted with variety of Opinions some not crediting half so much as others and an Explanation must be made of the Words Assent and Consent Sir These Considerations do allay very much the esteem I had for your Piety and I ascertain you that if you will pardon me this time I will not give you a second cause of that nature for Exceptions And I am the more resolute herein because I finde you thus interposing in the behalf of Men whom no Proposals or Supplications of mine have been able to reduce unto a Declaration concerning those controverted Points in the History and you are pleased so to interest your self as to maintain Vntruths concerning them and to inodiate me most maliciously who threw my self upon the action without any other expectation then that of Certain Ruine Had you had any sense of piety had the