me with your Translation of my long Elegy into Latine which 't is hard to do well and so the more likely to commend your command of the Latine Tongue if the Poem does not loose very much in the Translation I acknowledge the great Authorities you alledge for the practice and use of Poetry and 't is laudable in all who are so much above their proper Business as to suffice both for That and their Recreations Such were Nazianzen and Grotius but the most excellent Dr. Hammond and Bishop Sanderson were none of that number much less am I That you can discharge all the Duties of your Priest-hood to write in Prose against the Errors of Iansenius and to write Verses at the same time and the hardest of the kind too a Latine Translation of arrant English gives me occasion to say with Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I grow in Indispositions as well as Years and am so much more modest or more timerous or more judicious than when I was Younger for I know not well what it is that I can seldom do any thing which I can readily approve of and have contracted an averseness to divers things such as Poetry and Musick in special manner wherein I formerly most delighted and thought I had the most skill in But if you send me your Translation as you say you do intend I will tell you what I think of it as I did divers Friends what I thought of their Translations of my Sermon against the Papists The Thesis you held at Oxford was very modest and very safe Iustin Martyr does go much farther who yet you know was too Primitive to be a Pelagian St. Augustin is cited by the Remonstrants and Antiremonstrants as a Patron of both those ways into which he was betray'd by the usual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his contrary disputes against the Pelagians and the Manichees so that reckon his Authority none at all in those Points all things consider'd And having cloy'd my self formerly with Disputes on that subject I am grown averse to that also But you it seems have now that Youngness and Inclination which I had then and may with more plausibility oppose those Errors in Iansenius a Papist than I did in Calvin Dr. Twiss Dr. Reynolds Dr. Barlow Dr. Bernard Mr. Barloe Mr. Whitfield Mr. Baxter Mr. Hickman and some other Writers who had the advantage of being Protestants which made my Writings ill resented by a Protestant Party tho well received by the most and best of Men amongst us yea by a multitude of the Party I writ against who have publickly thank't me for their Conversions if so I may call their Change of Judgment I think you will do well to consider Mr. Sherlock a stranger to me before you condemn him because I perceive he has the best Men's Approbation and may be taken by the wrong handle as many Orthodox Men have been They that quarrel Dr. Hammonds Letters to Dr. Sanderson whose longest Letter was to me altho I sent it Dr. Hammond in whose Friendship we long had met are hardly worth a wise Man's Anger and you need not purchase them yours Sir the Sickliness you speak of has invaded these parts too and the share I have lately had of it does make this Employment the less in season to Your Affectionate Brother and humble Servant Tho. Pierce Sarum Jan. 9. 1676. Reuerend SIR AT my return out of a Berkshire Visitation I met with yours at Sarum of the 12th of this month wherein I read your Translations of Montross his Epitaph on the King into good Greek Verse and better Latine These last being the happiest I have yet seen of yours and so the fitter to be the last too For you will never do better and 't is filthly to perform worse and worse which makes me fearful of ever more verfifying my self and a dissuasor to other Men who are grown in years and have a greater as well as graver Vocation to pursue Your weekly or frequent Preaching and your ingaging in the Quinquarticular Controversy will require your whole man whilst yet in health and be too hard for all your Faculties when you grow valetudinary as you will by much Study do what you can in prevention of it All your Iansenists and Calvinifts are well-performing Writers against Pelagius and the Massibienses and so far useful only they spoil the good they do and make themselves more obnoxious by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which carry'd them into the contrary and in my opinion the worse extream We are led between both by the Church of England and I congratulate to you the happiness of being one of her Sons Such I hope I shall die as I have liv'd and as such I subscribe my self Your Affectionate Brother and humble Servant Tho. Pierce Sarum May 19th 1676. To Dr. SHERLOCK 1691. SIR I Have seen a Printed Paper wheren I find your pretended Vindication of your Error in saying That the Three Persons in the Holy Trinity are three infinite Spirits Tho I was the first say you who had made use of those Terms in such a sense yet I ought not to be reprehended in opposition to such a Practice as you conceit to be so excusable the Learned Isaac Casaubon produces these most important Sayings of Plato Epictetus and Galen Pl. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certainly no Christian Schollar was ever guilty of a greater piece of INSOLENCE than this To use Terms in a Discourse concerning the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity in such a sense which they were never us'd in by any other Man Is not this to boast in your Singularity in a conceit of a kind of Superiority to the Communion of Saints whose consent in this matter is exprest in these words of Saint Augustin Epist. 174. Spiritus est Deus Pater Spiritus est Filius ipse Spiritus Sanctus nec tamen tres spiritus sed unus spiritus sicut non Tres Dii sed unus Deus I do not say you reprove the use of the word Person but it were to be wish'd that those who first introduc'd this term into Divinity had given us a clear and proper notion of it Answ. Their Notion of it plainly imports That a Person is THAT or SOMEWHAT which has an Intelligent Being or Essence Now it implies no contradiction that in the one absolutely infinite and incomprehensible Being there should be the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost of each of which Three it may be said He is THAT which has an infinite intelligent Essence But it may not be said That the Father is the Son or the Holy Ghost or that the Son is the Father c. And yet we must acknowledge that the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost have one Essence absolutely infinite that is to say that these Three are the one true and eternal God The Father is God the Son
is God and the Holy Ghost is God and yet they are not three Gods but one God You say that you have demonstrated That tho three finite Spirits must needs be three different Substances yet it follows not that three infinite Minds must be so I answer You never did nor ever shall demonstrate but that it is the most palpable Contradiction that Words can express to say there are three infinite Minds or Spirits An infinite Spirit is a Being absolutely infinite To say then that there are three infinite Spirits is to say there are three Beings or Effences absolutely infinite that is there are THREE GODS I am Your Servant in the Vindication of the Truth E. E. To the Reverend Mr. RICHARD BENTLY Reverend SIR MY Reflections on the great Wit and Learning I find in your Sermons make me to hope That you will with all Christian Candor and Tranquility of Mind peruse the Animadversions I shall here present you on some part of your Sermon on Acts 17 27. p. 6. and 7. Such a radical Truth that God is springing up together with the Essence of the Soul and previous to all other Thoughts is not pretended to by Religion No such thing that I know of is affirmed or suggested by the Scriptures Animadv 'T is said expresly Genesis 1. 27. God created Man in his own Image Since God is a Spirit most certainly the principal part of Man must be a Spirit man being created in the Image of God in a peculiar manner made partaker of the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Image of the Invisible God So that the first Reflexion that Man makes on his own Being must carry him immediately to the perception of the Divine Being in which he lives and moves and has his Being unless his Intellect be obstructed in it's operation by the Pravity of his Will I wonder that you say no such thing is affirmed or suggested by the Scriptures I shall entreat you to consider these words of St. Basil Epist. 399. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ipsissima veritas Deus noster est Primum enim Principale Cognoscibile Deus est Agreeable hereunto are these words of that most excellent Metaphysitian Dr. Thomas Barlow late Bishop of Lincoln in his Fourth Exercitation the Second Edition pag. 125. Sicut impossibile est Tactum quam diu est Tactus non sentire Ignem esse Calidum si ei admoveatur cum illud sit objectum Tactus fortissimè motivum Sic dico Intellectus quam diu est Intellectus non potest non judicare Deum esse esse Colendum cum hoc sit objectum ejus Primarium fortissimè motivum cum sit Veritas Prima in Cordibus Inscripta firmissimè Radicata If this will not serve to convince you of your Error yet I hope you will not stand out against these plain words of the Holy Apostle Rom. 2. 15. speaking of the Gentiles Which shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts Does not the Apostle mean the Law of God Can there be any innate Notion or natural Sense of the Law of God without any apprehension of this Truth that God is I hope you will not say again that no such thing that you know of is affirmed or suggested by the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament If our Apostle say you had asserted such an Anticipating Principle engraven upon our Souls before all Exercise of Reason what did he talk of seeking the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him seeing that the knowledge of him was in that manner innate and perpetual there would be no occasion of seeking nor any hap or hazard in the finding Such an Inscription would be Self-evident without any Ratiocination or Study and could not fail constantly to exert its Energy in their minds Answ. The Holy Apostle in these words plainly shews That the way to find the LORD our GOD is not to conceive as Idolaters do that He is far from us but to consider that IN Him we live and move and have our Being viz. That the Divine Essence comprehends or eminently contains the life and every motion or operation and the nature or essence of every Man in the whole World and consequently the essence and operations of all other Creatures so that the LORD our GOD must be no other than a Being INFINITE in all Perfection And since he is IN ALL Creatures and in a peculiar manner in Rational Creatures it must needs follow That 't is impossible that any Rational Creature should not apprehend this Fountain of all Being in every Regular or Orderly Reflection it makes on it self or it s own Being Such an Inscription say you would be Self-evident without any Ratiocination or Study and could not fail constantly to exert its Energy in their Minds To this I Answer That it implyes a contradiction That it should be perceiv'd by the Soul without any Reflexion on it That there is such an Inscription on the Rational Soul you must at length grant unless you will deny that those words were written by Divine Inspiration which shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts Not only the Admirable Structure of Animate Bodies and such other things as you speak of but every thing in the whole Creation shews the Existence of the one INFINITE Being That any Man is Atheistical proceeds only from the pravity of his Will perverting His Understanding Praesentem monstrat quae libet Herba DEUM I am unspeakably delighted with those words of the excellent Ingenious and Learned Malebranche De Inquirenda Veritate Lib. 4. Cap. 2. An difficile est agnoscere Deus existere Quicquid Deus fecit id probat Quicquid homines bruta faciunt idem etiam probat Quid plura Nihil est quod Existentiam Dei non probet aut saltem quod ingeniis attentis rerum omnium Authorem inquirentibus illam non possit probare I wish you all Happiness and remain Your Servant in the Love of the Truth EDMUND ELYS SIR I Humbly thank you for your Accumulation of Favours Your New Present comes only to put me in mind that I am your debtor for the first Quin fluctus in ipso fluctu I had scarce recover'd from your first when you pour out a new stream of Poetry and Rhetorick upon me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 't is confessedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I had almost like the unhappy Bee drown'd my self in anothers Hony but that I found Finis before I wish't it And then I bethought my self That you had observ'd the Kings Rule Solomons I mean Has thou found Hony eat as much as is sufficient for you give it out by Doses and measure your pieces by Us that are to read them I have sent your Book to Mr. Boyle and can assure you That he received your Letters and had return'd you an Answer as his H. told me had he known how to have directed it to you
Primitive Church or any one of the Inferiour Clergy with the Allowance of his Bishop did ever undertake to perform the Public Worship of Almighty God without the Use of the Lord's Prayer I do most confidently Aver That the want of the Practical Understanding of the Lord's Prayer is the chief Cause of all the Sins and Errours in the Christian World Wherefore I earnestly beseech all those that have Named the Name of Christ to joyn with me in the daily Contemplation of the Divine Sence of these Words deliver'd unto us by our Blessed SAVIOUR as a Compleat Directory for All Our Desires OUr Father which art in Heaven Hastowed be Thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our Daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil. For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A Vindication of the LITURGY of the Church of England THE Author of these Reflections most stedfastly resolves by the Help of Almighty GOD to embrace Truth and to reject Error wheresoever he finds it He desires That the Friends of R. B. would take these Reflections into their deepest consideration with the same candour and benevolence to all Mankind with which he communicates them to the World I am glad to find these words pag. 233 234. I would not be understood as if I intended the putting away of all set Times and Places to Worship God forbid I should think of such an Opinion Nay we are none of those that forsake the Assembly of our selves together but have even set Times and Places in which we carefully meet together to wait upon God and worship him These words following in the same Page require our Animadversion But the Limitation we condemn is That whereas the Spirit of God should be the immediate Actor moreover Perswader and Influencer of Man in the particular Acts of Worship when the Saints are met together this Spirit is limited in its Operations by setting up a particular Man or Men to preach and pray in Man's Will and all the rest are excluded from so much as believing that they are to wait for God's Spirit to move them in such things and so they neglecting that which should quicken them in themselves and not waiting to feel the pure Breathings of God's Spirit so as to obey them are led meerly to depend upon the Preacher and hear what he will say Answ. I shall undertake by God's assistance to vindicate the Use of the Liturgy of the Church of England the principal parts whereof are the Lord's Prayer and the Holy Psalms I say the Psalms for they are to be us'd in our Religious Assemblies as the Means or Instruments to lift up our Hearts unto God I would here avoid all Disputes concerning the Ordination of Ministers In our Assemblies the People bear a part with the Minister or Preacher in using their Voice in worshiping Almighty God The Spirit cannot be limited in its Operations by any thing that is taught or practised according to any Order of the Church of England We are taught not to Pray in Man's Will but according to the Will of GOD which is our Sanctification We are taught to wait for God's Spirit to move us to the performance of any thing He would have us to do but we are taught also to believe that God's Spirit is always ready to assist the Sincere those who desire above all things to do His Will to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth in Saying or Hearing the Words of our Liturgy in the Congregation The very moment that any Soul truly devout waits for or expects the assistance of the Spirit of Christ to help her to perform any known Duty towards GOD or towards Man she never fails to receive it Concerning the Psalms I shall speak hereafter It is the Duty of all Christians at all times and in all places to retain in their Hearts the Habit Ground or Principle of all those Holy Desires which are exprest in the Lord's Prayer this 't is to pray continually When the words of this Prayer are recited in the Congregation it is impossible but those who have the Habit of those Holy Desires in their Hearts should worship God in Spirit and in Truth viz. in the act or exercise of those Desires by the inspiration of the Divine Spirit whose operation never ceases but when Man in his own Will or Self-love doth suppress or totally extinguish such Holy Desires or Aspirations I am very sorry to see so ingenious and learned a person as R. B. err so grosly about the Lord's Prayer in which he shews himself tainted with that Impurity of Mind for which Dr. Owen has been so often corrected p. 245. We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us c. Rom. 8. 26. But says R. B. If this Prayer had been such a prescribed Form of Prayer to the Church that had not been true neither had they been ignorant what to pray nor should they have needed the help of the Spirit to teach them p. 245. To this I answer That it is impossible that any man should actually know as they ought to know the sence or meaning of any word in the Lord's Prayer but by an actual Influence of the Divine Spirit upon his Heart and Mind I must therefore proclaim to all the World That it was the Spirit of Error which suggested these words to R. B. If this Prayer had been such a prescribed Prayer to the Church that had not been true neither had they been ignorant what to pray nor should they have needed the help of the Spirit to teach them By what I have already said it appears that if by these words our Adversaries c. p. 264. he means all those who worship God according to the English Liturgy he 's very Uncharitable Our Adversaries says he whose Religion is all for the most part out-side and such whose Acts are the meer product of Man's natural Will and Abilities as they can preach so they can pray when they please and therefore have their set particular Prayers Answ. We acknowledge that we can never pray as we ought but by the assistance of the Spirit of God but his Assistance is always ready for us If at any time we fail of it we our selves are the cause we have it not As to set particular Prayers we own no Prayer but the Lord's Prayer further than the sense of it is implied in some part of that Compleat Body of Vocal Prayer that Divine Summary or Breviary of the Expressions of all holy Desires p. 266. Because this outward Prayer depends upon the inward as that which must follow it and cannot be acceptably perform'd but as attended with a superadded Influence and Motion of the Spirit Therefore
cannot we prefix set times to pray outwardly so as to lay a necessity to speak words at such and such times whether we feel this Heavenly Influence and Assistance or no for that we judge were a tempting of God and a coming before him without due preparation To this I answer That whatever feeling we have or have not in the Sensitive Powers or Faculties of our Souls if our Heart our Will or Spiritual Appetite be rightly affected towards God our Prayers will most certainly be acceptable unto Him And His Holy Spirit is always ready to assist every man that believeth in Iesus so to order and dispose his own Spirit that it may comply with the Will of God in all things It cannot be a Tempting of God to depend upon him for his gracious Assistance to do his Will And it is his Will that in our Religious Assemblies we should use Words in Prayer When ye pray say Our Father c. Luk. 11. 2. p. 268. To desire a man to fall to Prayer e're the Spirit in some measure less or more move him thereunto is to desire a man to see before he open his Eyes That is an irreverent Expression To fall to Prayer but most certainly it is our Duty to call upon all men who profess Christianity to observe the Times of the Public Worship of Almighty God and to testifie to them that if they will sincerely trust in God for Christ's sake to assist them by his holy Spirit they shall never fail of his gracious Assistance He will help their Infirmities and enable them to cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15 26. P. 275. As for the formal customary way of Singing it hath in Scripture no foundation nor any ground in true Christianity yea besides c. Answ. If by the formal customary way of Singing he mean that way of Singing Psalms in Metre or the reading of them in prose which the Church of England is accustomed unto It is a gross Errour to say there is no foundation for it in the Scripture Have we not received a Precept from our Blessed Lord by his Apostle to sing and make melody in our Hearts to the Lord And can there be any better means to do this than what the Apostle prescribes in these words Speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Can there be any better Psalms c. than those which were most certainly and unquestionably compos'd by Divine Inspiration Yea says he besides all the Abuses incident to Prayer and Preaching it hath this more peculiar That oftentimes great and horrid Lyes are said in the sight of God for all manner of wicked prophane People take upon them to personate the Experiences and Conditions of blessed David which are not only false as to them but also as to some of more Sobriety who utter them forth as where they will Sing sometimes Psal. 22. 14. My heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels Ver. 15. My strength is dryed up like a potsheard and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws and thou hast brought me into the dust of death And Psal. 6. 6. I am weary with my groaning all the night make I my bed to swim I water my couch with my tears And many more which those that speak know to be false as to them To this I answer That all the Prayers of wicked prophane People that is of those who persist in their Wickedness whatever words they use in Prayer are an abomination to the Lord. What then Must they be forbid to pray No surely But in Praying they must cease to be wicked And indeed it is impossible that any wicked man should cease to be wicked before he begins to pray Prayer has always that Priority to ceasing to be wicked which Logicians call Priority of Nature Before any man can be justly esteemed to be a Member of any Christian Assembly or Congregation he must profess that he believes the Holy Scriptures were written by Divine Inspiration and consequently that they contain nothing but Truth And also that he resolves by the help of God to take the Truth therein contained to be the Rule of his Life and Conversation If he be Sincere in this Profession and God only can judge whether he be so or no unless he violate his Profession by some notorious contrary Practice then most certainly he has in his Heart those Holy Desires which are exprest in the Lord's Prayer And as for the Psalms I pray God to make all the Adversaries of the Church of England duly sensible of this most important Truth That though indeed there are many Passages in them which none of us can apply to himself as to the Particularity of his own Person yet there is not one Passage in the whole Book but what every true Christian may and ought to apply to himself upon account of the Communion of Saints of the relation He has to the Head and to every Member of the Holy Catholick Church which is in Heaven or in Earth So that every Expression in the Book of Psalms every sincere Christian so far as it is intelligible unto him may use as the Means to stir him up to Sing and make Melody in his Heart to the Lord to form such Thoughts and Affections as shall be most acceptable to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly every Man that is confirm'd to the Image of the Son of God who was all his days here upon Earth A man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief I say every Sincere Christian does most certainly pour out his Soul before the Lord in such Affections as are here exprest in the words of the Psalmist My heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels c. I am highly delighted with many Passages in Robert Barclay's Apology particularly with this p. 370. It is plain that men that are taken with Love whether it be of a Woman or any other thing if it hath taken a deep place in the Heart and possess the Mind it will be hard for the man so in Love to drive out of his Mind the person or thing so loved Yea in his eating drinking and sleeping his Mind will always have a tendency that way and in Business or Recreations however intent he be in it there will but a very short time be permitted to pass but the Mind will let some Ejaculations forth towards its Beloved And albeit such a one must be conversant in those things that the Care of this Body and such-like things call for yet will he avoid as Death it self to do those things that may offend the Party so beloved or cross his Design in obtaining the thing so earnestly desired tho' there may be some small use in them The great Design which is chiefly in his Eye will so balance him that he will easily look over and dispense with such petty Necessities rather than endanger the loss of the greater by them Now That
gratifie others for their good All that I have writ being reducible to those grand Queries of the Wise man What is Man and whereto serveth he What is his Good and what is his Evil As I have particularly shewn in my Proefatio Generalissima And so few concern themselves in this kind of Knowledge that I cannot hope to have many perusers of my Writings in haste You shew your Sincerity as well as Judgment in giving a due value to that useful point touching Faith in the Power of Christ's Spirit There is nothing of more consequence than to be firmly fixt in that Belief that all sin and corruption is conquerable through the might of the Spirit of Christ till one be persuaded of that No man will set himself to resist his Lusts to any purpose And according to the weakness and smallness of their Faith such is their progress As for what is past and the Opinions of Men I think it most advisable not to trouble your self with them but to press on toward the mark of the high Calling whereunto we are called Nor to affect high Raptures or over-bearing inward Sensations which may happen from too great an inflamation of the Spirits but to examine our ardour of Love to Christ by what we do to his Members according as Christ has signified to Peter Lovest thou me more than the rest feed my sheep c. Which I do not question but you do perform in a good measure by what you intimate of the poor Girl you often visited in her Sickness and continuance in your seriousness will carry your further and further on in such good Offices As for that Book you mention I cannot do any thing but pro re natâ and it 's likely it will fall in course to me to do that or something like it e're long But there are many good Books in the world already if men would with sincerity make good use of them I am glad you are setled in your weighty Employment to be Guide of Souls to Heaven In which wishing you all good Success I commit you to God's gracious Keeping and rest Yours c. Hen. More C. C. C. Nov. 5th 1681. Ad Authorem ENCHIRIDII METAPHYSICI NAturae Aspiciens vultum tu lumine claro Cernis in hoc rerum fervidè amando patrent Illis se praebet solis Natura Videndam Diligere AUCTOREM qui Didicere suum De Vacuo tantas gaudens componere lites Esse quod Appellat Plebs Nihil OMNE probas Scilicet Omnipotens Vacuo se complet in Ipso Namque hic ex Nihilo Rem sibi quamque dedit Ad Lectorum ENCHIRIDII ETHICI EXhibet in Parvis Liber hic tibi Maxima Chartis Hic Totum LATIUM Totae Pinguntur ATHENAe Ad Eximium Virum HENRICUM MORUM Cantabrigiensem 1676. UT tantos Veri causâ tolerare Labores Sustineas Bonitas certè te summa replevit Lumine Inexhausto quo cuncta reducis ad unum Atque adeo Ingenti studio requiescis in Ipso Tot libris Variis Vocum Complexibus Illam Simplicitatem Animi Foecundo Numine Pleni Ex primis Ideas tam Claro Pectore Rerum Principio varias Sanctè deducis ab UNO O quem te memorem volitent tua scripta per orbem Terrarum Nusquam lateant haec Lumina Et Alis Angelicis homines Genius tuus excitet Omnes Ut tibi consimilis Pennis adiutus Amoris Summum Quisque Bonum Linquens Alia usque Sequatur SIR SInce my last to you I received your Tentamen Theologicum which is a pretty while ago and perus'd it upon the receipt thereof and return you my thanks for it I like the Air and Spirit in it well There was one it lying on my Table took it up and read it over that very Afternoon but said That you wrote like a Quaker And. I told him That if all the Church of England-men were such Quakers and all the Quakers such Church of England-men the world would be well amended with us What you intimated of the admitting Amplitude in Incorporeal Beings I conceive you are right in and I find an usefulness if not necessity in some to have immaterial Beings so represented and the Schools themselves tho' they speak so Aenigmatically do really at the bottom imply it I am so much taken up with the transcribing of the first part of my Enchiridion Metaphysicum that you must excuse this brevity of mine who am not in many words but in truth Your Affectionate Friend to serve you Hen. More SIR I Have receiv'd your melancholly Letter and am heartily sorry that there should be that occasion thereof viz. That the Young Lady should be so irrecoverably ill and that her death should be so hazardous to her Affectionate Mother But as for your desiring of me to suggest to you what I conceive best for you to say to the Young Lady in your endeavours to confirm her in her willingness to die I do not believe I can suggest to you any thing but what either has or will easily occur to your own mind One thing is she dying of a Consumption her Passage will be in all likelyhood very easy to her which ordinarily makes Death more terrible both to the dying Party and the By-standers When she is once got into the other World she being an innocent vertuous Young Lady you may remind her that there is nothing pleasing to her in this life but the enjoyment will be incomparably more in the other The Friendship and Society of amiable persons for feature and converse the beauty of persons of the other World insinitely excelling that in this as much as the purest Star does a durty clod of Earth And these whose Persons and Aspects are so lovely it is the genuine eradiation of the life of their very Souls or Spirits and they are as well assur'd of the Cordial Kindness they have one for another and this at the very first entrance as if they had been acquainted many years together nor is the affection of any Father or Mother to their only Child more dear and sincere than that of the Holy Inhabitants of the other World toward good and innocent Souls that pass out of this earthly Body into the Condition of those heavenly Spirits those Angelical Ministers of the Divine Providence who are ready about the Godly when they die to conduct their Souls to the happy place provided for them As our Saviour himself has foretold us In my Fathers House are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there you may be also This Scripture handsomely opened is apt to raise her affection to and affiance in our Saviour who exhorts us in these words Ye believe in God believe also in me to have a confidence in him and his Promises And for her dying
Young you know that Greek saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whom God loves dies young See the Book of Wisdom Chap. 4. Vol. 10 11 c. The Vanity Wickedness and Miseries we are incident to in this Body of Flesh you cannot but think of But if you could by chearful persuasions of the happiness of the departing into the other World cause her to be pleas'd or desirous to leave this I know not but it may contribute her mind being thus chear'd to the bettering the state of her Body and help on a Recovery if she be at all recoverable But no doubt but whatever shall happen from the Providence of our gracious God will be for the best to whose Guidance and Assistance I commend you and rest Dear SIR Your Affectionate Friend to serve you Hen. More C. C. C. March 13th 1684. An Epitaph on the Truly Vertuous L. M. F. who dyed May 10th 1687. MAid Wife and Widow she did always shew Her Business was to give to all their due To God her Husband and her Children dear She gave her Soul her Love her constant Care Her Husbands Death of all her Children too And ev'ry thing that mortal Men can call Woe With Christian Patience she did undergo On Earth she met whatever could molest To fit her Soul for everlasting rest In Solitudinem Cui aliquot Mensibus assuevit priùsquam sibi innotuit Praestantissimum Virum Optimum amicorum H. M. è Vitâ discessisse Scilicet Humani Generis consortia vito Angelico ut valeam me Sociare Choro Arctiùs Amplector te nunc Coelestis Amice Nulla venit sine te Nox mihi nulla dies In Somno Visa est Species Morientes Amici Ah quanto Exardent Pectora Amore mea Me placidè aspiciens Flammantem hac voce repressit Irruat in Mentem Passio nulla Tuam POTERIS NEC MORTE REVELLI SIR YOurs of Feb. 29th I have receiv'd c. There is no pleasure comparable to the not being captivated by any external thing whatsoever but to reserve himself entire for the service of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Your Judgment touching the drinking of Wine is true and will stick with you the better since it is built upon experience Amongst your other Verses I more particularly like that Distich I do but think my Friends are Good but know My Love is good which I on them bestow That Faith and Belief in the Power of God to become holy c. it is the great Gift of God to you that you are to acknowledge with all Humility and Thankfulness for it is of main importance for the making a man good and it is a sign of a great measure of simplicity of Spirit that a man will own such a Doctrine for it is a sign he seeks no Excuses for the Evil he commits but openly lays the fault at his own door and exposes himself to the more severe and envious Censures of other men But here a man must be sure to attribute all to the Power of God and that not only rationally and verbally but feelingly and sincerely and to confirm the truth of his Profession by a most profound and exemplary Humility of mind and conversation Whether it be in the Power of all men to believe this so important Doctrine is a Question more uncertain but the Belief theréof being of that great importance for holiness of Life it is very ill done of any Man to oppose it I wrote to our Friend Mr. D. the last time I wrote to you and superscrib'd it according to his direction but I know not whether it carry'd my Letter to him if you know whether he has receiv'd it or no and would give your self the trouble of sending me word thereof in your next you would thereby oblige Your affectionate Friend and Servant Hen. More C. C. C. March 13th SIR YOur last Letter I have receiv'd but your former long one tho'I enquired after it at the Post-house yet I cannot recover it I am glad you and Mr. H. are so well satisfied with my Expositions I hope Mr. D. is well tho you have not heard from him of late Your chearful Paraphrase of my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were enough to revive him You have Translated it very well saving your mistake in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which I intended I truly Live in Answer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If you be so long in Translating one after the other as I was in making of them it will be some years For I wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when I was Undergraduate but my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after I was Master of Arts. My Enchiridion Ethicum with the Translation of the Greek has been out these two Months at least I am glad my pains are so well accepted as you intimate it is the only reward I am sensible of It is an excellent Text your Friend chose out of Ieremiah and very suitable to his purpose I am glad you have your Health so well and that you do so well bestow it Your associating or not associating in the Circumstances you name you must your self be judge of according as you find your self in a capacity to do good thereby and receive no harm A man must feel his way in such things I see nothing amiss in that Passage of your Divine Solitude There 's a good lively strain in both your Paraphrases but the English seems the more easie and nearer to the Copy I am much straitned in time which has made me scribble so fast and leave off so soon and have a line or two to write to Mr. D. to see if he will speak to his and Your affectionate Friend and Servant H. More C. C. C. Jan. 8 1669. SIR THe Year is expired and yet I have not answer'd yours of the 9th of October which I hope you will excuse especially I having now the opportunity of wishing you a happy New Year I am glad my Enchiridion Metaphysicum gave you that satisfaction The Poetical Heat it stirred up in you is sound and good and the Verses handsome The other two parts of my Metaphysics will be less needful when my Writings are Translated into Latine In the first part I have done what is most proper for me to do in what follows there would be but what either others or my self have said already but if I live to publish my second Volume viz. the Philosophical no new thoughts touching this Metaphysical Subject shall be lost but I will contrive them in some form or other to go along with the Philosophical Volume I am now altogether taken up with Translating my Writings into Latine If you see Dr. T. again I pray you remember my service to him Dr. Barrow is a very worthy Person and that Discourse you mention very good and christian That saying of yours touching the eternity of the World is as true as handsome as my judgment is now but heretofore
Martyr is so far from favouring the Conceit That the Christians in those Days us'd Extemporary Prayers in their Religious Worship that it clearly demonstrates the contrary For the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having Reference to the Laity of whom Iustin Martyr speaks in these Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly shews That the Bishop did send forth or pour out Pryers and Thanksgivings in like manner as the Laity did whose Words no Person of common Sense will believe to be of their own composing These Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly im-import the Reciting or Repeating of of Words formerly us'd in Prayer and Thanksgiving Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not signifie the utmost strength of his Faculty of framing Extemporary Expressions in the Way of Prayer and Thanksgiving but the utmost intention of his Heart and Mind in the Act of his Devotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 10. 27. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the same Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I pray God to bless you and to lead you by his Holy Spirit into all truth Your Faithful Servant E. E. Jan. 6th 1692. Ianuary 28th 92. Reverend Sir YOur Letter of the 6th Instant I have receiv'd I thank you for your pains to inform me in any thing wherein you imagine I have been mistaken tho I think that in some things you misapprehend my meaning You affirm in the first place That the Primitive Church in the public Worship of Almighty God did always use a Liturgy or Form of Sacred Words namely the Lord's Prayer the Psalms and the Gloria Patri As for the Psalms I say the same with you and I think that I have proved it beyond contradiction pag. 5 6. of my Book As for the Lord's Prayer I say also and have proved it p. 36 37 38. That it was ordinarily and commonly used and no more if so much can be collected from those places which you Cite out of Origen in his Books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and contra Celsum As for the Gloria Patri you never find it within the three first Centuries that which you cite of Origen and Polycarp proves only this That they concluded their Prayers with Praise to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as I think all Christians now do Besides by ascribing too great an Antiquity to the present Gloria Patri you put an Argument into the hands of the Socinians or Unitarians who will retort upon you that you have changed that Apostolical or at least most Ancient Composure as you affirm it to be for that Whereas you now say Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost the Primitive Church as in those very Passages which you quote not to mention any more said Glory be to the Father by the Son in the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Iustin Martyr I do not say that it excludes the Intention and Fervency of the Heart and Mind but that it includes that together with the Exertion of his Personal Abilities What you mean by Extemporary Prayers I do not well understand if you mean a confused immethodical Heap of Words I dislike that as much as you as you may see pag. 40. But if you mean the debarring of a Minister from the Exercise of his Invention Judgment Expression and such like Gifts in Prayer I must therein disagree from you 'till I see more satisfactory Proof As sor your Descant upon the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a good Criticism that may please the Fancy but not satisfie the Judgment and as for Iustin Martyr's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it has not Reference to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to what Iustin Martyr related in the precedent Page which is the 97th of the Edition I use at Colen 1686 and in particular to the Eucharistical Prayer which the Bishop alone made and the People only testified their Assent by saying Amen Thus Sir I have briefly consider'd your Objections and shall crave leave to inform you in short of my Opinion concerning the Custom of the Primitive Church herein that so you may not mistake me viz. That they always used the Psalms in their Public Worship the Lord's Prayer commonly and ordinarily and for other Prayers the Ministers were left to their own Choice and Liberty I have one thing more to add and that is That you would not imagine every thing to be my particular Opinion which I have related in my Book or that I thought every thing necessary to be now used which is contained therein My Design as you may see in the Preface was only nakedly to relate the Customs of the Primitive Church without giving my particular Sentiments in any one Point whatsoever unless it be in the Conclusion of the last Section of the Second Part. How far we are to submit to the Authority of our Governours and to comply with the Peace of the Church I neither there nor here determine I beg Almighty God to inspire our Governours and People with a Spirit of Peace and Love of Unity and Charity and that instead of promoting fiery Disputations and rigid Impositions we may joyn in mutual Condescension and Relaxations I thank you for all your Kindnesses and beseech Almighty God to bless your Studies and make you instrumental for the Advance of his Glory and Honour I am Reverend Sir Your Humble and Affectionate Servant Honoured Sir I Give you most hearty thanks for your Letter I shall have no farther Controversie with you concerning the Gloria Patri since you ackowledge that the Primitive Christians concluded their Solemn Prayers with Praise to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Polycarp's Doxology is the same as if he had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sufficiently obviates the wrangling of a Socinian I suppose upon second thoughts you will not deny but that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has reference to the Prayers of the Laity of whom the Blessed Martyr speaks in these Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I fully Assent to All that our Gracious Soveraign King Charles the First says concerning the Public Worship of Almighty God I believe his Judgment is right in this as in his other Sentiments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the First Edition p. 141. I am not against a grave modest discreet and humble Use of Ministers Gifts even in Public the better to fit and excite their own and the Peoples Affections to the present Occasions Oremus invicem ut salvemur Your Affectionate Servant E. E. Feb. 14. 92. Post-script I Shall make no other Reply to what you say of the Lord's Prayer in your Letter than only by repeating what I said in mine viz. that it cannot be prov'd That any Bishop of the
I have demonstrated in my Latin Papers against Iansenius and Calvin whose Followers I hope will for the future be the more enclin'd to relinquish those wretched Opinions seeing them in the company of so many Hellish Conceits of that most horrid Monster the Father of the Leviathan By his saying That Men can have no Passion nor Appetite to any thing of which Appetite God's Will is not the Cause Chap. 21. he plainly gives the greatest Encouragement to the Workers of Iniquity to entertain a favourable conceit of the grossest Enormities of their wicked Lives Chap. 34. He talks perfectly like one in Bethlehem Apparitions quoth he though no real Substances but Accidents of the Brain yet when God raiseth them supernaturally to signifie his Will they are not unproperly term'd God's Messengers that is to say his Angels What does he think of the Angel we read of 2 Kin. 19. 35. And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand and when they arose early in the morning behold they were all dead corps This was a pretty stout Accident of the Brain that could slay in one night 185000 Men. No doubt there was an Angel an Evil one in the Brain of T. H. without such an Assistant he could hardly have hammer'd out so many Diabolical Imaginations Near the Conclusion of this Chapter he has a Lucid Interval But says he the many places of the New Testament and our Saviour's own words and in such Texts wherein is no suspicion of corruption of the Scripture have extorted from my feeble Reason an Acknowledgment and Belief that there be also Angels substantial and permanent I pray Reader observe these words Have extorted from my feeble Reason see how he discovers his Cross Humour and Averseness from a due compliance with the Judgment of the Church of God He reproaches his Reason for falling under the power of a Great Truth which he had such a mind to oppose By these words in the same Chapter Where by the Spirit of God is meant God himself he provides a Sophistical Evasion for himself and his Disciples in case he or they shall be charged with the Macedonian Heresie That young Students may not be impos'd on by persons more likely to deceive them than T. H. by their perverse Interpretations of Texts of Scripture wherein there is express mention of the Spirit of God I shall most earnestly beseech them to peruse these Books of the admirable Saint Basil viz. Adversus Eunomium Lib. de Spiritu Sancto And I desire that in all their Discourses concerning the Nature and Operation of the Holy Ghost they would be ever mindful of those words with which he concludes his third Book against Eunomius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. As for that wicked stuff which he delivers Chap. 42. in a pretended defence of his cursed Assertion That we ought to deny our Saviour before Men if we be commanded by our Lawful Prince it has such a smell of Brimstone that I abhor to recite it or say a word to any one that undertakes to vindicate him herein But the Lord rebuke thee His calumniating of the Holy Martyrs makes their Wounds as it were to bleed afresh and this will make his Memory to look horrid and ghastly to Posterity To his wicked Paradoxes concerning the word Church and Power Ecclesiastical I shall oppose these words of the most Learned and Pious Mr. Herbert Thorndike in his Review of his Discourse of the Right of the Church in a Christian state p. 40. Seeing that the Church is a Society Community Corporation or Spiritual Common-wealth subsisting by the immediate Revelation and Appointment of God without dependance upon those Christian States wherein it is harbour'd as to the Right by which it subsisteth and the matter wherein it communicateth it followeth of necessity that it is endowed with Rights correspondent to those wherein the Soveraignty of States consisteth The Power of the Sword is the Principal of Rights into which the rest are resolv'd when they are enforc'd to have recourse unto it for the execution of that which becomes requisite to make them available And the Church hath the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God which is used two manner of ways as the Sword is either to subdue Strangers or to cut off Malefactors Chap. 34. T. H. has these Mad Expressions Substance and Body signifie the same thing and therefore Substance incorporeal are words which when they are joyned together destroy one another as if a Man should say an incorporeal Body But Chap. 25. he has a Lucid Interval To worship God says he as inanimating or inhabiting such an Image or Place that is to say an Infinite Substance in a Finite Place is Idolatry Here he acknowledges that God is a Substance Infinite and consequently Incorporeal This Acknowledgment the force of so great a Truth to use his own words extorted from his feeble Reason Haec est summa delicti nolentium recognoscere quem ignorare non possunt Tert. Apol. Chap. 46. He puts Hell and Purgatory together as if the Existence of one were no more credible than of the other What is all the Legend says he of Fictitious Miracles in the Lives of the Saints and all the Histories of Apparitions and Ghosts alledg'd by the Doctors of the Church of Rome to make good their Doctrine of Hell and Purgatory the power of Exorcism and other Doctrines which have no warrant neither in Reason nor Scripture In the 44th Chapter he has provided a comfortable state for the Reprobate after the Resurrection instead of that state of ineffable Torments which all true Christians acknowledge to be signified by the Torments of Hell The Reprobate says he shall be in the estate that Adam and his Posterity were in after the Sin committed The Wicked says he in the same Chapter being left in the estate they were in after Adam's Sin may at the Resurrection live as they did Marry and give in Marriage and have gross and corruptible Bodies as all Mankind now have and consequently may engender perpetually after the Resurrection as they did before Are not these pleasant Conceits for that sort of Men who would fain have the Fear of Hell removed out of the way whilst they turn every one to his course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel But the fear of Death and Hell they shall never be able to shake off let them do what they can Haeret lateri lethalis arundo And now I doubt not but the ingenuous Reader will concurr with me in the Indignation I conceive against the most intolerable Impudence of a late Writer who pretends to set forth an History of the Life of T. H. He tells us we are all mistaken the Black-Moor is exceeding White Controversias quidem The logicas says he p. 167. maximè aversatus est Quicquid autem ad