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A85393 A fresh discovery of the high-Presbyterian spirit. Or The quenching of the second beacon fired. Declaring I. The un-Christian dealings of the authors of a pamphlet, entituled, A second beacon fired, &c. In presenting unto the Lord Protector and Parlament, a falsified passage out of one of Mr John Goodwins books, as containing, either blasphemie, or error, or both. II. The evil of their petition for subjecting the libertie of the press to the arbitrariness and will of a few men. III. The Christian equity, that satisfaction be given to the person so notoriously and publickly wronged. Together with the responsatory epistle of the said beacon firers, to the said Mr Goodwin, fraught with further revilings, falsifications, scurrilous language, &c. insteed of a Christian acknowledgment of their errour. Upon which epistle some animadversions are made, / by John Goodwin, a servant of God in the Gospel of his dear Son. Also two letters written some years since, the one by the said John Goodwin to Mr. J. Caryl; the other, by Mr Caryl in answer hereunto; both relating to the passage above hinted. Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.; Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673. 1655 (1655) Wing G1167; Thomason E821_18; ESTC R202307 68,987 94

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men of corrupt minds and injudicious about matters of faith at least many of them will I question not be found men of as pure and sound minds and of as discerning spirits in matters of Faith as either your selves or your best Teachers In the mean time I would gladly purchase of you at the price of the best book in all your shops so much as a tolerable answer to this double Question who are competent to appoint or to be appointed Judges between men men of corrupt minds and injudicious c. and men that are otherwise For it is not meet for any man or men to take this honour unto themselves I mean of being Judges over all other mens faith much lesse is it meet that any man or men should take so great an honor unto themselves as to constitute or appoint others to be Judges hereof If your answer shall be that the civil Magistrate is competent to appoint Judges in this kind you must give me a very pregnant and satisfactory account of his Commission from the Lord Christ in this behalf and by what rule he is directed by him to proceed in this great and important affair Book-sellers or Beacon-firers §. XVII To your 3d. and last charge which is that we smell of such a spirit as teaches men to suppose that Gain is Godlinesse and that our indeavour is to Monopolize our trade We answer 1. That we are not so vain as to desire what is utterly impossible to effect a 2. That we are willing that all of our Trade and Company should have equal liberty with our selves to Print or sell any Books which may promote the truth which is according to Godlinesse b 3d. We shake our hands from all dishonest gain it is below us to live by the Sins of the Age we look upon it as the basest drudgery in the world to be Pandors to the Errors and Lusts of men c We might gain by selling Biddles Books but we had rather see them burnt by the hand of the Hangman Your Motto will best become those who usually Print and sell Blasphemous Pamphlets For they if any look upon Gain as Godlinesse but our Motto is this Godlinesse is Gain and true Piety is the best Policy d Mr. Goodwins Animadversion XVII a Here again you make your charge from me greater then it is that by denying the sum total of it as your selves make it you may seem to deny all the particulars I no where charge you with Monopolizing your trade You would gladly I perceive be charged with that of which you can acquit your selves with credit b But what if your Licensers shall suppress such books which may promote the truth which is according to godliness and commend to the Press those that look another way How then shall men of your trade yea or our selves have that liberty you speak of c To what end you should purge your selves so zealously from the guilt of being pandours to the lusts of men I understand not unless haply some of your consciences charge you in this kind and you speak thus to stop their mouths But for that which you call pandour-ship to the errors of men I fear you are as obnoxious as others of your trade though perhaps you understand not your guilt in it more then they d If you saw the Books that you speak of burnt by the hand of the hangman do you think that the Errors Heresies and Blasphemies contained in them would burn with them If you do I confess I am of a far differing mind from you I verily beleeve that the ashes of these Books would be much more propagative of the said Errors and Heresies then the Books themselvs Your Motto may be as you say and you shall do well if you be not like those Boxes in Apothecaries Shops of which an ancient Father said that they had Pharmacum in titulo in pixide venenum The Arch-Priest of Rome hath this Motto Servus Servorum Dei yet in his practise he is Dominus Dominantium He of your company that understands Latine may interpret Book-Sellers or Beacon-Firers §. XVIII Finally to your close we answer that you have no jurisdiction over us and therefore you have no Authority to impose any penance upon us a or to curse us with Bell Book and Candle because we have in some weak measure discovered you to the world b It is true we owed you SVCH and now we have made restitution of it c You know not what to do with it because you are not able by the help of it to return an answer to those three Reverend Divines whom we mentioned before d Mr. Goodwins Animadversion XVIII a I am sorry to hear from you that you look upon a Christian request made unto you to do that which is your duty as an imposition of a Penance I perceive that things which are just and comely are far from being the joy and rejoicing of your souls You have forgotten your Motto already b Curse you with Bell Book and Candle Surely either I was asleep when I did it or you when you said it Name the word or words of the Curse and save your selves from the shame of a new foolish slander Whereas you speak of suffering from me because you detected me to the world The truth is had you detected me I should have counted you my great Benefactors for it I shall be a gainer not a loser by detection But so far have you been from detecting me to the world that you have concealed and hid me from the world as Tertullus did Paul when he termed him a pestilent fellow Act. 24. 5. and the malicious Jews did our Saviour when they put the veil of this reproach over his face that he was a Samaritan and had a Devil Joh. 8. you have not detected me to the world but your selves and have given the world an opportunity yea a kind of invitation to see your nakednesse c Concerning the restitution of which you vainly here boast it was before proved unto you that you are debtors unto me of far greater Sums then of the word Such Besides you speak at an extream low rate of understanding when you have traduced a man openly and in print to call a broken kind of acknowledgement in hugger mugger and sealed up in a paper a restitution If you pay your debts after this manner they are wisest that trust you least d Yes you have seen that by the help of the word h I am able to return an answer as you term it to your three reverend Divines in case any of them should levy an Argument or ground of exception against the passage you wot of which yet none of them have done nor can do with any colour of reason but only clamour'd and cavill'd as you have done Book-sellers or Beacon-fyrers §. XIX If you desire us to print your Letter and this our answer we will for once make you an Apocryphal Licencer and print both if you
A Fresh Discovery OF THE High-Presbyterian Spirit OR THE Quenching of the second Beacon fired DECLARING I. The Un-Christian Dealings of the Authors of a Pamphlet Entituled A Second Beacon Fired c. In presenting unto the Lord Protector and Parlament a falsified passage out of one of Mr John Goodwins Books as containing either Blasphemie or Error or both II. The Evil of their Petition for subjecting the Libertie of the Press to the Arbitrariness and will of a few men III. The Christian Equity that satisfaction be given to the Person so notoriously and publickly wronged Together with the Responsatory Epistle of the said Beacon Firers to the said Mr Goodwin fraught with further revilings falsifications scurrilous language c. insteed of a Christian acknowledgment of their errour Upon which Epistle some Animadversions are made By JOHN GOODWIN A Servant of God in the Gospel of his Dear Son When I would have healed Israel the iniquity of Ephraim was Discovered and the wickedness of Samaria c. Hos. 7. 1. Then were there two theeves crucified with him the one on the right hand the other on the left Mat. 27. 38. Humanum est errare jacere belluinum perseverare Diaboli●●m Also two Letters written some years since the one by the said John Goodwin to Mr. J. Caryl the other by Mr Caryl in Answer hereunto both relating to the passage above hinted London Printed for the Author and are to be sold by H. Cripps and L. Ll. in Popes head Alley 1654. To the Reader GOOD Reader I shal not impose upon either thy Time or thy Patience at present the brief of the Story is this Six London Book-sellers whose Names thou wilt finde mentioned in the superscription of the next ensuing Letter and subscribed to the second all as it should seem devout homagers to the Presbyterian fraternity of Sion Colledg not long after the first sitting of the present Parliament presented to the Lord Protector and the Parliament a small Pamphlet intituled A Second Beacon Fired In this Pamphlet amongst Errors and Blasphemies by them so called and some of them in my judgment too truly such they cite some words of mine which and as they please out of a passage of my Book of Redemption leaving out others which give the sence and import of the passage These words thus Sycophantly and traducingly severed from their fellows in the same Sentence they present to the Lord Protector and Parliament as containing in them Blasphemie and Error It was some while after the presentment of the said Pamphlet before I came to the sight or knowledg of it At last hearing that somewhat published by me was listed in their Muster-Role of Heresies and Errors to serve the design of their Petition for the Restraint of the Press as also of their no-Christian intendments against me otherwise I purchased a sight of the Pamphlet and comparing the transcription as they had mangled and misfigured it with my words related unto by themselves I found my self most notoriously wronged and abused Hereupon I wrote and sent a Letter to the said Gentlemen Book-Sellers desiring Christian and equitable reparations expressed in the said Letter of my Name and Repute which they had not a little damnisied by that egregious falsification of my words sence and meaning These Gentlemen in stead of giving me that satisfaction which Christianity and Conscience required at their hands return me such an Answer in Writing to my Letter as if they had taken unto themselves seven spirits worse then that by which they or whosoever for them indited the said Pamphlet the falsifications thereof ading drunkenness to thirst multiplying reproaches slanders revilings as the ten Tribes somtimes did their Idolatrous Altars like the furrows in the Field and are so far from acknowledging any wrong done unto me by mis-using me and my words that they justifie themselvs in that high misdemeanour and seem to think that they do God service in straining the peg of that iniquity yet higher Notwithstanding I may I suppose cleerly and fully acquit the said Gentlemen Book-sellers from the guilt and crime of inditeing or drawing up the said responsatorie writing this I judg to be the froath and foam of another Spirit which some yeers since leapt upon me and attempted to rend and tear me Sic oculos sic ille manus sic ora ferebat Such eyes such hands such mouth that spirit had Only the said Gentlemen have involved themselves in the guilt of the un-Christian Contents of the said writing by consent and subscription and possibly by solicitation also although I rather incline to think that the Penman was chosen and requested to the work not by men that use to sell but by some who are more frequently wont to buy Books That Motto in their title Page For Sions sake we cannot hold our peace whose device so ever it was seems by the Contents of the Book not to be meant of Sion in the common acceptation of the word viz. as it signifies the Church of God but rather of Sion Colledg in London For certain it is that the Book or Pamphlet is not calculated with any relation at all except it be that of opposition to the Interest of the Church of God but most exactly for the Interest of Sion Colledg and her children Doubtless whosoever was the Epistler or Enditer of the said Answer to my Letter might have stood in the High Priests Hall without danger his speech would never have bewrayed him to have been of Galilee I have in the days of my Pilgrimage both seen and heard of many Writings fraught with much more then enough of that which is vile and sinfully extravagant in men but to this day never did mine eye see nor mine ear hear of nor will it easily enter into my heart to beleeve that ever there was any Piece for the inches of it fuller of that which is un-Christian yea unman-like as of most notorious and broad-fac'd untruths of such obvious and easie an eviction such bold slanders such childish cavils wrestings and perverting of words such scurrilous and unseemly language such ridiculous quarrelings and exceptings against manifest truths such revengeful suggestions and insinuations with many other unworthinesses then that letter of theirs here presented unto the world It may be justly said unto them Many Writers have done foolishly but you surpass them all Their letter is for a writing what he was for a man whose character was Monstrum nulla virtute Redemptum A vitiis There is nothing savorie or Christian in it to balance in the least the high demerit of it Therefore as Paul having received reproachfull measure from men and those faling in their duty who ought to have vindicated him complaines that he was compelled himself to appear in his own vindication which otherwise he had rather should have been the work of others in like manner am I compelled once again to take hold of shield and Buckler in mine own defence
and either to make or to keep those things concerning my self streight in the minds and thoughts of men if it may be which men of most untrue suggestions have endeavoured to pervert and make crooked For thine accommodation about the Animadversions made upon the Book-sellers Epistle and for the ready application of them in their respective branches to the particular passages in this Letter unto which they respectively relate I have distinguished their Letter into twenty two Sections and again distinguished these by letters of the Alphabet where any Animadversion is particularly made upon them which readily lead thee to their appropriate passages in the subjoyned Animadversions characterized by the same Letter also And because the Gentlemen Book-sellers or rather the son of their right hand their Amanuensis challenge me to print Mr Caryls Letter about the passage of their falsification sent unto me some years since and threaten me that they may do it for me if I will not glorying over this Letter as if the publishing of it would confound me and that the reasons therein against the said passage in my book were so satisfactory that they did effectually silence me I have therefore published both this Letter of his to me and mine also to him which occasioned it The truth is I had Printed both these Letters presently upon their writing and sending but only for a clause in Mr Caryls Letter towards the close of it wherein he insinuates his unwillingness to have passages of that nature made publique So that it was cleerly and as in the presence of God only out of my respects to Mr Caryl that I then forbare the printing of them and should have done so still had not these importune Sons of high Presbitery thus reproachfully and triumphingly clamour'd upon me to do it But as for any reasons against the said passage either satisfactory or unsatisfastory that Letter mentioneth none unless it be the asserting of the Authors own judgement and some other mens in the point in opposition unto mine notwithstanding any thing offered by me in my book If either the Book-sellers or Book-buyers judg this a reason so satisfactory as effectually to silence me for ever I cannot but juag them to be of the race and lineage of those who are owereasie of satisfaction for their own carnal advantage Besides of such a reason as this I was not nor lightly could be ignorant before Mr Caryls Letter came to me Concerning this Letter with that of the Book-sellers I have delivered the Autographons themselves unto the Printer that there may be no mistake in the printing of these unless haply Typographical which notwithstanding I shall endcavour to prevent For my own two Letters not having by me the Copies themselves which were sent but being necessitated to make use of the rough draughts possibly there may be some variation in words although my desire standeth as neer as may be to varie in nothing especially without giving notice of the variation where I have any knowledg of it This I speak because of the capritious weakness of my Antagonists who on the one hand are wont to make a long arme to reach pretexts and occasions of cavilling and on the other to complain of the grashopper as a burthen Such personal contests as these have always been the regret of my Genius and if I thought not that my reputation were or may be of more concernment unto others then I judge it to be to my self I should not move heart hand or foot to pursue the rescue but abandon it to the lust and folly of those who have attempted to make a prey and spoil of it But I remember a good saying of Austine For our selves Brethren our conscience sufficeth but for you our name also had need be excellent a and Jerom's advice was that no man should sit still under a suspition or charge of Heresie b Besides this consideration that by how much a further and fuller discovery is made of the folly or madness as the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} was Englished in our former Translation 2 Tim. 3. 9. of those who resist the Truth they have so much the less time remaining to endanger the world by such a practise this consideration I say did balance the averseness of my disposition to the work Now as Jannes and Jambres saith the Apostle withstood Moses so do these also resist the Truth men of corrupt minds in-judicious conconcerning the Faith But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was c It is always folly if not madness which ingageth men in a resistance of the truth yea it is one of these which causeth men to persist in this practise By means hereof it cannot but in time utter and discover it self For that which is active especially in matters and cases of publique and weighty consideration must needs ere long bewray it's Genius nature and property at least unto those who are intelligent and apprehensive who being lovers of Truth and of the peace and comforts of men cannot forbear the communication of their vision and in case that which they see in this kind be of any evil or dangerous import unto men they cannot but give the most publique notice of it accordingly unto the world And when the generallity of persons shall he brought to understand and see the folly or madness of men in any course or way of acting wherein they have been deceived and injured by them they will for the future abhor their practises and buy their merchandise no more I trust this small piece may do some service unto the world in promoting and perfecting the discovery of the folly of those men who resist that great Evangelical truth with its complices which asserteth That God with his Antecedent and primary Intentions intended the Salvation of the whole world by Jesus Christ Or however God and the consciences of other men shall agree about the event and succese of it it here prefents ts service unto thee Good Reader together with the Christian respects and further service of Thy cordially devoted Friend and Servant in Christ John Goodwin From my Study Decem. 12. 1654. Mr John Goodwins Letter Endorsed To my Christian Friends Mr Thomas Underhill Mr Samuel Gellibrand Mr Iohn Rothwel Mr Luke Fawn Mr Ioshua Kirton Mr Nathaniel Webb or any one or more of them These present GEntlemen A few dayes since an ill-conditioned Pamphlet entituled A second Beacon fired presented to the Lord Protector and Parliament fell into my hands I find all your names sub-printed to it but know not whether your hearts be to it and were consenting to the publishing and presentment of it or whether some Son of Belial one or more taking the advantage it may be of some of your known weaknesses and desirous to disport themselves and possibly others also with your disparagement did not without your privity or consent
preferment over the Presse who by the opportunity of their standing on this ground shall be in a good capacity to gratifie their friends and benefactors in their way But in this I shall spare you For a cloze I shall make this reasonable and Christian request unto you that in case you be fellow-fufferers with me and have not been privy or consenting to the framing or publishing of that unworthy Pamphlet intituled A Second Beacon fired c. you will publickly and in print wash your hands from the guilt hereof and declare unto the world that you had neither right hand nor left either in the inditing or venting of that Pamphlet Or if your consciences be not at liberty to accommodate you in this for by somewhat I have heard since I began this Epistle to you I am little lesse then all thoughts made that you are the true and not the personated Beacon-firers your selves that then you will with your own hands quench your Beacon on fire first by acknowledging publickly and in Print 1. That you have falsly accused me either of Blasphemy or of Errour and this unto his Highnesse the Lord Protector the Parliament the Nation and indeed to the whole world 2. That you have given unadvised councel to speak no worse of it for the oppressing the Christian and just liberties of the Commonwealth of England about printing by subjecting the whole Nation I mean as many in it as shall at any time intend or be desirous to publish any thing Presse wise unto the wills and pleasures of a few particular men 3. By delivering or presenting Copies of what you shall Print or cause to be printed upon both these accounts to all the same persons as well Parliament men as others or to as many of them as are yet living in or near the City to whom you not long since delivered Copies of that unhappy Pamphlet stiled A Second Beacon-fired If you shall with your own hands thus quench the Beacon which you have rashly and unchristianly fired I shall rest satisfied Otherwise you will compell me to do it after my weak manner for you by publishing the contents of these Papers which I have sent unto you I shall wait for your Christian Answer till the latter end of the next week The God of all Grace give you Wisdome and a sound understanding in the Gospel of his dear Son that you may be capable of knowing things that differ to your own comfort and peace Your very loving Friend in the Faith of Jesus John Goodwin From my Study in Swan Alley in Colemanstreet London Nov. 9. 1654. The Book-sellers Letter to Mr J. Goodwin ENDORSED To the Learned Mr John Goodwin at his House in Swan-Alley Together with the said Mr J. Goodwin's Animadversions thereon according to the respective Sections of it Book-sellers or Beacon-firers §. I. SIR OVr weaknesse shall be as readily acknowledged by us as it is scornfully derided by you a but God who doth righteously conceal himself from lofty and crafty Sophisters b doth graciously reveal himself to Weaklings and Babes c We own that Book which you say was written by a son of Belial d because thore was one little word SVCH e mitted in transcribing a passage out of your Redempt Redeemed We cannot but admire this righteous providence f For you accuse us of falsification as Joseph's Mistresse accused him of wantonnesse whereof he was innocent and she was guilty g Mr. Goodwins Animadversion I. a Your weaknesse may be as readily acknowledged by you as it is scornfully derided by me and yet never be acknowledged by you at all yea as far as by the Contents of your Letter can be reasonably judged you are too far hardned in a conceit of your strength ever to acknowledge your weakness For your charge here is but an unchristian calumniating of my Christian intentions towards you in remembring you privately of your weaknesses nor do my words import any scornfull deriding either of them or of your persons for them Your Prophet and Amanuensis the Compiler of your Letter hath drawn you into a sinfull snare in the very beginning as he hath done unto twenty more in the sequel by occasioning you to subscribe such an insinuation of untruth b The word Sophister in the canting dialect of high Presbytery commonly signifies a person who levies such Arguments whether from the Scriptures or otherwise against any of their Tenents which their Prophets cannot tell how to answer In this sence of the word the Libertines Cyrenians Alexandrians c. might have termed Stephen a Sophister because they were not able to resist the wisdome and spirit by which he spake Act. 6. 9. 10. In like manner the Jews at Damascus might have called Paul a Sophister because he confounded them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} argumentatively proving or inforcing by argument that this Jesus is very Christ Act. 9. 22. The Prophets of the said school of high Presbytery have attempted to impose a like exotique sence upon several other words of frequent use amongst us They make the word Orthodox to signifie a man of their judgement whether rotten or sound the word Heteredox or erroneous a person differing in judgement from them though in the truth the word Blasphemy that which contradicts any of their notions or conceits about the Nature or Attributes of God this complex the Reformed Religion with them signifies that Systeme or body of Doctrine which they teach the word Arminian or Pelagian signifies such a person who holds that Christ tasted death for every man in the Scripture sence and again who holdeth in the Scripture sence that God would have all men to be saved and none to perish By Socinian they frequently understand a person that will not bruit it in matters of Religion by proud they sometimes mean him that will not stoop to the high Presbyterian yoke or to their judgement in other things My meaning is not that they intend or desire that the words or terms specified should in their writings or teachings be taken in the sences respectively mentioned but that truth cannot ordinarily be made of what they write or teach when any of the said words are used by them unlesse they be taken and understood in the said respective significations And by their usage of these and several other words upon the terms expressed they have wretchedly abused the simple and over-credulous world But I confesse that if I be learned as you please to stile me in the superscripcion of your Letter and yet a Sophister in the true and known signification of the word my condemnation is the greater and equal to a rich mans who is a common theef But it may be that was your complement and this your heart c Those Babes unto whom God graciously revealeth himself are not persons full of malice and revenge or who will justifie themselves in scandalous and publick misdemeanors nor who are alwaies learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth but such who are babes or children in malice who are tractable and teachable and easie to be intreated by the truth though otherwise they be men in understanding d This is an untrue charge like unto many others in your Epistle I do not affirm or say that your Book was written by a Son of Belial but onely suggested that such a thing might possibly be and that you might be abused in it as well as my self e Whereas you seem to extenuate the crime of your falsification by saying because there was one little word SVCH omitted c. I confesse the word Such is no word great of bulk or body but it was the spirit and life of that sentence of which you make a dead corps by separating it from it and without which as specificating that assurance of the unchangeableness of Gods love of which I there speak determinately you represent me as speaking that which is further from my thoughts or sence then possibly from your own And for you to pretend that it is one little word omitted as if it were the lesse in consequence because it is little in bulk or quantity doth it not bewray your great inconsiderateness The words no and not are each of them somewhat lesse then Such yet he that shall leave them out of nine of the ten Commandments of God shall of so many holy and just Commandments of God make alike number of horrid suggestions of the Divel Besides the difference between Sibboleth and Shibboleth consisting onely in an aspiration which as Grammarians inform us is lesse then a letter is farre lesse then that between any assurance and any such assurance yet did it cost many thousand men their lives a But besides the little word SVCH you omit many others in your said Transcription viz. all these in the beginning of the period yea that which is yet more I verily beleeve which words have some considerable influence upon the sentence Yea the truth is had you put in all these and the little word SVCH too unlesse you had moreover interpreted my meaning in this word which you might and ought to have done from what I had said before and from what follows after you had not dealt Christianly or fairly in the transcription For to take a sentence out of the midst of a discourse the meaning and right understanding whereof depends upon what goeth before and what comes after is not to represent the mind or judgement of the Author in such a sentence but with ambiguity and with the greatest probability of mistake Therefore whereas in your words immediately following you go about to justifie your selves from the crime of falsification in any degree the very certain truth is that you are falsifiers in a very high degree f. g It is indeed a righteous Providence that I should accuse you of falsification I beleeve that God put it into my heart to do it for the manifesting of your unworthiness first privately unto your selves and then upon your obduration and impenitency unto the world But that I should do it upon the terms asserted by you is no Providence at all but a broad-faced untruth affirmed by you and such an affirmation from you is indeed to be admired For whether I be a falsifier or no which shall be put to the trial anon it is as certain as certainty it self and hath been already proved in the sight of the Sun and above all contradiction that you are falsifiers according to your charge Therefore not Joseph with his chastity but Josephs Mistresse with her wantonnesse is your parallel You lay claim to innocency as Saul did to obedience when the Prophet Samuel charged him notwithstanding with rebellion 1 Sam. 15. 20 23. And he that taught you to talk of admiring that which you expresse as a righteous Providence taught you to speak prophanely and not as men awfully sensible of the Majestique Holiness and power of God Book-sellers or Beacon-firers §. II. To the first of your three censures then We answer that when you relate the judgement of the reformed Churches concerning the unchangeablenesse of Gods love toward his regenerate Children a You your selfe are guilty of a most notorious falsification which your Letter tempts us b to call forgery because you forge a vile opinion and you are excellent at that kind of forgery c and then lay a bastard of your own begetting at the Churches doors and would perswade the most chast Protestants that they must father your own hard-favoured Monster Are not you ashamed to stain paper with such slanderous Cavils d Did any of those learned men against whom you write ever assert the unchangeablenesse of Gods love to Apostates to men that are never so desperately wicked and prophane in his sight though they continue never so long in their outragious wickednesse e Mr. Goodwins Animadversion II. a Here again you falsifie a fresh laying to my charge that which I know not no nor yet your selves you should have done well to have pointed at the place in my writings where I relate the judgement of the reformed Churches concerning the unchangeablenesse of Gods love towards his regenerate children For I do not remember that I have related the judgement of any of them all touching this head of Doctrine but onely of the reformed Churches of Saxony and this I relate in their own words p. 394. of my Redempt Redeemed In the same page I refer indeed the Reader to another Authour who hath made a collection of the sence and judgment of more of them whose relations and collections in this behalf if you can disprove you may do it if you please but if you discover any thing amisse in him which I presume you cannot you must have a conscience by your selves to lay it to my charge However it had been requisite for you upon such a charge as this to have directed me where I shall find the judgement of the reformed Churches in the point related in conformity to your sence and desire for I am far to seek in this that so I might have compared my report hereof with the said judgement declared and laid down by these Churches themselves For in case I should find that I had mis-reported it I should not consult your example for a justification of my error but the example of David which teacheth me to confesse my sin and to flee to the golden Altar of repentance for my sanctuary So that that most notorious falsification of which you would make me guilty is but another most notorious falsification of your own you can prove nothing of it against me b However I marvel you should say that my Letter tempts you to call it Forgery He that calls a spade a spade doth not tempt another to call an hatchet a spade c No Gentlemen as Elijah answered King Ahab who charged him with troubling Israel I have not saith the Prophet to him troubled Israel but thou
he did not remove or take away Errours but sowed them a In the same piece he complains likewise of many professors of Christianity who had Bibles full of errors and falsities and these acknowledged for such by themselves and yet to keep their Books fair without blotting and interlineing would not suffer them to be amended And particularly speaking of the Book of Job he saith that amongst the Latines he means in the Latine Translations of this Book Job until his days lay on the dunghil and was spread all over with worms of errors b Yea nothing is more frequent amongst the best and learndest Expositors of the Protestant party themselves then to take and give knowledge of error after Error as yet retained in the ordinary Copies of the Bible which at first crept in thither partly by the ignorance partly by the negligence of those who were employed to Transcribe them Yea very many of the Expositors I speak of ever and anon take upon them to correct and amend those Translations themselves which notwithstanding they follow otherwise in their Expositions Nor is there any of them that attempt this more frequently then Piscator But surely although you would have me in cool blood to consider your own blood was in an high distemper when you talk of a cursed Art and a black Art in Swan-Alley to undermine the Authority of the Scriptures when we most pretend to defend them But whatsoever there is in Swan-Alley there is such an Art as you speak of cursed and black in Black-Friars and perhaps in the Northern quarters of Pauls Church-yard also the Practitioners whereof like the Pharises of old who defamed the Lord Christ as having a Devil and this most confidently and impudently Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil Joh. 8. 48. when as he was full of the Holy Ghost and acted and spake accordingly so do these men most shamelesly and with outfaceing the most evident truth traduce such persons as underminers of the Authority of the Scriptures and enemies otherwise to the interest of Christian Religion who have been and so continue most zealous and faithful Assertors of the former against all opposers and are devoted heart and soul to the promoting of the latter Concerning that Book which your Epistling Prophet teacheth you to charge with undermining the Authority of the Scriptures one known to be as learned grave and judicious as any English-born at this day and he no Independent neither nor yet of my judgement at least in several points about Redemption with the controversies relating to it gave a far different testimonie of it though not to me nor in my hearing To a friend of his he gave his sence and judgement of the Book in these words or to this effect That it was as good a Book as any was written since the Apostles days This testimony I confess may be as much too wide on the right hand as your malignant imputation is on the left Nor should the story ever have been told or reported by me for fear of being counted a fool for my labour but onely to balance the most importune malignity of those men whose consciences serve them to spit that poyson of Asps mentioned in the face of it Upon occasion of which strange unworthiness the said person expressed himself further to this effect that we are now fallen into an age in which mens consciences will serve them to say any thing My juggle is discovered and my folly detected in such a sence as the Lord Christs blasphemy was discovered by the high Priests rending of his garment Mat. 26. 65. and the Apostle Paul murther detected by the Barbarians when they said of him No doubt this man is a murtherer Act. 28. 4. h. i. It seems by the latter passages in this Section and the mention of Cooks and good chear that your Prophets Animus when he compiled them was in patinis and moreover that amongst you you intend to be at the cost and charge by the help of Cooks and Geese and other good Chear to preserve the Ceremonious frolique and jollity of Christmas so called from sinking in your days But because such of my Books as are sold offend Foxes therefore those that are not sold must do penance and defend Geese But do not you your selves defend your selves with some of them in this very Epistle You do somewhat very like a defending of your selves with some of them Sect. 7. and Sect. 11. and in several other places Whereas you think you reflect great disparagement upon my Books that some of them might have been wast-paper c. 1. I have no demonstrative ground to beleeve that there were not as many Novice Presbiters sold as Busie-Bishops or Blind Guids If there were not it may signifie nothing else but that the Presbyterian party of the world and their money are sooner parted then those that are wiser and theirs Besides it is the Observation of one of your Orthodox men for so I conceive him to be pardon me if I mistake in this that Learning hath gained most by those Books by which the Printers have lost whereas foolish Pamphlets have been most beneficial to the Printers When a French Printer saith he complained that he was utterly undone by Printing a solid serious book of Rablais concerning Physique Rablais to make him recompence made that his jesting scurrilous work which repaired the Printers loss with advantage Of the former part of this Observation he giues three famous Instances The first of Arias Montanus who wasted himself in Printing the Hebrew Bible commonly called the King of Spains Bible The second of Christopher Plantine who by Printing of his curious Interlineary Bible sunk and almost ruined his Estate The third and last of a worthy English Knight he means Sir Henry Savile who set forth the Golden-Mouth'd Father Chrysostome in a silver Print and was a loser by it Therefore that many books are no quicker of sale may as probably argue the ignorance weaknesse and injudiciousnesse of the world as any defectivenesse or want of worth in the Books Whereas you inform me of some Anti-Scripturists who bought up my books about the Scriptures I am very glad to hear it For the work was in special manner calculated for the use and benefit of such persons who are either in whole or in part Such I mean Anti-Scripturists I trust that thorough the blessing of God upon their labours in reading it it hath reclaimed many But I somewhat marvel at your tendernesse here in saying We had almost said against the Scriptures considering how bold and daring you are in twenty places besides to speak aloud and without regret most palpable and grosse untruths Your thought that my works need not be called in is very grave and considerate should you not do well humbly to present it to the Parliament Book-sellers or Beacon-firers §. VI Sir you might have had more honesty and piety then
them with this Majesty carries the print of a false singer in it as was lately said Nor is it any better then a putid of silly cavil not worthy the Genius of a School-Boy of ten or twelve years old to charge me with the grossest Blasphemy because I ascribe unto the University an Autocratorical majesty over Books and opinions in such a sence as I declare and explain in the period immediately following at large Nor would your Committee of Licensers should the Parliament indulge you in your Anti-Christian a request about them which I trust is found among the Absits of all considering men be able to accommodate you in your expectations or desires if they should not invest them with such an Autocratorical Majesty over Books and Opinions as I ascribe to the Doctors of Cambridge Should then the Parliament be guilty either of base flattery or of the grossest Blasphemy in case they should invest them with such a power over Books and Opinions as that which I Rhetorically term an Autocratorical Majesty Or have not I every whit as much ground of hope that there will be found none at least no wise men who will take that power and glory to themselves without which Licensers of the Presse cannot be established to do their work effectually and with authority as you have to hope that the Cambridge Doctors will not take that glory to themselves which I ascribe to them When you insinnuate indeed as good as say right-down that I my self ascribe unto God that Autocratorical Majesty which I ascribe unto men vestratim facitis you do like your selves and not like unto men honestly considerate Do I anywhere ascribe unto God an Autocratorical Majesty over Books and Opinions But he that commits sin I see is the servant of sin e Whereas you wish me a better memory then that which I have I fear you would be better satisfied if it were worse But I shall not burthen you with this jealousie Nay if you be reall and Christian in your wish I most heartily concur with you in it And by way of recompence for your good affections to me most cordially wish you a better understanding which I know will accommodate you as much as a better memory will do me f Your Prophets are they who aspire above the Order of second Causes when they claim a Lordship and Dominion over mens faith and undertake to prescribe what must be taught and beleeved by men And if your notion here be true this probably may be the cause why they are in your affectate Metaphor so Wormeaten in their intellectuals Booksellers or Beacon-firers §. XII 3. To your 3 reason concerning Qualifications the Holy Ghost doth set down such Qualifications both Negatively and Positively as would fit men to oversee a Presse though printing was not invented some hundreds of years after the Canon was perfected 1. Negatively They are not fit to oversee the Presse who are men of corrupt minds destitute of the truth a void of judgement or delivered over to areprobate sence 2. Positively they are fit who hold fast the wholesome form of sound words the mystery of faith and Godlinesse and have their sences exercised to discern both good and evill b Mr. Goodwins Animadversion XII a If men of corrupt minds or destitute of the truth be not fit men to oversee a Presse I doubt you must contract the number of your Committee of Six or else admit of men not fit according to your own rule for the service b Again if they and onely they be fit who hold fast the wholesome form of sound words certain I am that your Committee of Six are not fit for they hold fast an unwholsome form of words and teach many unsound Doctrines which are not according to Godlinesse the unsoundnesse and ill consistency of several of these Doctrines with the interest of Godlinesse I have demonstratively shewed and proved in sundry places of my writings Nor have all the Mercury water that hath been applied nor all the scrapings and scratchings and scrubbings that have been used been able to cleanse or clear those Doctrines from these stains and blots By the way though it be true that the Scripture doth mention such qualifications and characters of men both negative and positive as you speak of in reference to other occasions and imployments yet by what authority or warrant do you make them competent to qualifie for such an Apocryphal office as you call the over-seeing of a Presse Are not you men who abhominate to make use of your own wits reasons or judgements in matters of Religion especially to trust unto them Or can you prove from the Scriptures that your qualifications were ever intended or meant by the Holy Ghost for the designation or characterizing of persons meet to make Oversee-ers of Presses Or is your Office of Presse-over-sight an alien to Religion and irrelative to it Besides what warrant have you but onely from your selves and your own reasons when you undertake to qualifie your Presse-masters with those qualifications from the Scriptures which you expresse to lay aside and leave out others which are delivered there upon the same or like account with those insisted on by you Why do you not require in your Overseers of the Presse that they be as well blamelesse husbands of one wife given to Hospitality not given to wine not greedy of filthy lucre not covetous c. as men who hold fast the wholesome form of sound words which by the way is no Scripture qualification this no where termeth forms wholesome but words or Doctrines onely Notwithstanding this Section of your Letter hath this that it is the calmest of all the 22. Book-sellers or Beacon-firers §. XIII 4. To your 4th all things are not free in a free Common-wealth that Christian Commonwealth must expect to be ruined which allows men a liberty to blaspheme Jesus Christ or corrupt his Gospel a 5. To your 5th be pleased to read the 13th of Deuter. the 13th of Zachary and the 13th to the Romans and draw conclusions from thence for your satisfaction b 6. To your 6th The Religion owned by our State is the Christian Religion c Mr. Goodwins Animadversion XIII a What you mean by a Christian Commonwealth what by this Commonwealths allowing men a liberty to blaspheme Jesus Christ or corrupt his Gospel I professe ingeniously I understand not If by the former you mean a Nation or State wherein Christianity at large is more generally professed that which you speak here of a Christian Commonwealth you might as well have spoken of an Anti-Christian But I pray tell me did you ever know or hear of a Commonwealth which was either Christian or Anti-Christian that did allow men a liberty to blaspheme Jesus Christ or to corrupt his Gospel Or doth it follow that unlesse a Committee of Presse-Masters be established in a Commonwealth this Common-wealth must needs allow men a liberty to blaspheme or corrupt as you say Or have the
Lord Protector and the Parliament all this while wherein they have established no such Committee allowed men a liberty to blaspheme Jesus Christ or to corrupt his Gospel Therefore doubtlesse you do not understand your selves Nor can any man make sence and truth of your words with the least pertinency to your cause Nor do I well understand what you mean by Blaspheming Jesus Christ and yet lesse what you mean by corrupting his Gospel You and your Prophets have odd notions and conceits about Blasphemy Scarce any truth can be held forth which thwarteth or falleth foul on any of your tenents or Doctrines but this Antipathy by you is turned into Blasphemy And whether by corrupting the Gospel you mean the mingling of any errour though never so light or small with gospel truths or whether such a corrupting it which wholly destroies the nature and blessing intended unto men by it or whether a corrupting it to such or such a degree between these two extreams who can so much as steadily conjecture The truth is that I know very few who are greater corrupters of the Gospel then your greatest Champions When you say that all things are not free in a free Common-wealth do you speak to any purpose Or doth it follow from hence so much as by a dream of a consequence that therefore the Press ought not to be free because all things are not free Behold the natural face of your arguing in a glasse All things are not lawfull for men to do therefore eating when they are an hungry or drinking when they are thirsty are not lawfull b The three thirteenths you here point me unto I have already read at least thrice over respectively and have drawn conclusions from them to my full satisfaction against yours And if you please to see what conclusions I have drawn from them and what grounds I have laid upon which you also may draw the like I shall direct you to my respective arguings and explications of them The first of your three places you shall find examined by me at large in my treatise intituled Hagiomastix from 34. to the end of 41. Your second in a small discourse written upon that text of Scripture onely intituled a Postscript or Appendix to the former discourse Your third and last in the said discourse from the beginning of 45. to the end of 50. Between these Scriptures taken conjunctim and divisim and between your cause you will find a very cold Communion c Your Answer to my sixt reason is very little and yet to less purpose For 1. What do you mean by The Religion which the State owneth 2. What do you mean by the Christian Religion For this latter first The Religion owned and professed by Anti-Christian States is at least in a sence the Christian Religion Yea they have as much confidence if not more of the truth and soundnesse of their Religion as any Protestant State can have of the Religion owned and professed by them Secondly I would know what you mean by the Religion which the State owneth that so it may be considered not so much whether it be but how and how far and in what sence it may be called the Christian Religion First if by the State you mean either all those onely that have part in the Rule and Government of the Nation or else the great Body it self and Bulk of the Nation who can distinctly and in particular tell what Religion it is that is owned or that ever will be owned by either That Religion or that System of Tenents or confession of Faith which was composed and drawn up by the late Assembly of Divines and others at Westminster is not it seems owned or is not like long to be owned by the State in either acception of the word For the State in the former sence is in Travail with another Religion I mean another Confession or Profession of Faith which when they shall have assented unto and Authorized there is little question but the State in the latter sence will more generally own also If a man should repair to every particular member of the State in the former sence and much more in the latter and desire his sence and judgement distinctly touching his Religion and what he particularly holdeth in such and such points there is little question to be made but that in many things at least he should meet with the exemplification of the Proverb quot capita tot sensus quot homines tot sententiae as many men so many minds Yea in case the respective members of the State in the former sence shall joyntly and unanimously subscribe and Authorize any confession of the Faith which shall be formed either by themselves or by any number of Ministers or others this will amount to no proof that therefore the same Religion especially in all points is owned by them For it is a most true saying that Fides est in sensu non in verbis a mans faith consists in that which he meaneth not in the words which he speaketh And who knows not but the same words may have different interpretations and senses put upon them Therefore in case a State shall publiquely own and Authorize a model of Religion or Confession of Faith that shall be presented unto them I shall be very little the neerer hereby to know of what Religion this State is unless each particular member of this State shall further distinctly and particularly explain his sence touching every Article or head of Doctrine therein The truth is that to a State Religion it may be aptly said Belluae multorum es capitum nam quid sequar aut quem A many-headed Beast thou art for what or who May I with peace and safety for my Guide allow I confess men may be very unhappily and beyond the forecast of their own Genius inspired in the composing and drawing up a Catechism or Confession of Faith But I judg that hardly can either be formed or contrived in such words but that in case I may be allowed my own sence and construction of them I can subscribe them Book-Sellers or Beacon-Firers §. XIIII 7. To the seventh You do but repeat the Blasphemy which you darted against Heaven in your first Argument For we never desired the Parliament to suppress any truth revealed by the Spirit of God in the holy Scriptures but to suppress Blasphemies and Heresies a Mr. John Goodwins Animadversion XIIII a What Gentlemen suppose I had charged you with desiring the Parliament to suppress truths revealed by the spirit c. had this been blasphemy darted against Heaven Are you Heaven or any the Inhabitants thereof I cannot but here tell you that such importune and horrid assumings as these on the one hand and such abominable untruths and slanders one following in the neck of another like the waves of the Sea on the other hand are not so much as the way thither but to a far differing place For I know cause to
vindicate your self and recover the sequestred revenues of your Reputation by some Writ or Act of Indempnity c This is the satisfactory advice and councel of Your plain dealing e Friends Luke Fawne Sam. Gellibrand Tho. Vnderhill John Rothwell Joshua Kirton Nathanael Webb Nov. 17. 1654. Mr. Goodwins Animadversion XXII a It is with your Epistle like Premises like conclusion Neither is there reason to be found in the former nor truth in the latter I pray what is the Blasphemy and what is the Errour of which you have accused me Certain I am that you have proved nothing of which you have accused me to be either nay you have not so much as attempted or levied an argument to prove either No you have not so much as shewed or declared in what word phrase clause or strein of the passage quarrelled by you the Blasphemy or Errour by you so called lieth The citation of the bare words of a Text of Scripture is no eviction of an Error or proof of Blasphemy b You talk of making good your charge it were a wiser and more Christian undertaking and more fecible of the two to make your selves good Can you wash a Blackamore white Or can you prove darknesse to be light or the night day Then may you have some hope to make good your charge If you can make it good certain I am that you can do more then all the Angels in Heaven It may be you think to ascend up into Heaven in a vapour and to carry all before you with swelling words of vanity This I confess is the lofty method of some of your Don-Teachers who if they can but speak gloriously and confidently of their cause and then wash it over with some slight colour of an argument which it may be terminates the sight of a partial or formal Reader though it be as transparent as the air to unprejudic'd and intelligent men think their atchievement to be greater then all applause above all admiration c Here your Metaphorical eloquence passeth I confesse my intelligence What you mean by your Writ or Act of Indempnity though your selves possibly may understand though I can hardly think this yet I do not But truly when you make your selves the sequestratours of the revenues of other mens reputations you take an office and imployment of no honour or credit at all upon you unlesse you think those who are known amongst us by the Title of Knights of the Post to be persons of honour for their work sake Certainly Sathan is the Sequestrator General of the revenues of mens reputations and imploies many under him And what Seneca spake touching mens lives vitae alienae Dominus est quis-quis contemptor est suae any man that despiseth his own life hath power over the life of another man is as true in the point of credit and reputation He that cares not to prostitute his own reputation may at pleasure sequester the Revenues of another mans But for the sequestred Revenues of my reputation I shall recover all in good time and this with advantage by an Act of Indempnity from Jesus Christ which you will not be able to reverse You will be turned out of your Office of Sequestration in that day d I know no advice or councel at all that you have given me unlesse it be implicitely and by consequence and thus you have advised me to beware of men of your principles and spirit This advice I confesse is satisfactory and I intend to take and follow it as far as with a good conscience I can e If your plain dealing in your Shops be like your plain dealing in your Letter in case I were your customer I would desire that you would deal roughly not plainly with me because your plain dealing upon that account would be full of unrighteousnesse and untruth But in as much as you give me to understand that one of your Company understandeth Latine and the word planus from whence the English word plain cometh signifieth according to the different quantity of the former syllable in the Latine tongue as well a crafty jugling dissembling mate as a plain honest and open-hearted man Vir planus est fallax sed aperto pectore planus It may be you were advised by him to the choise of the word for the opportunity sake of the opposite signification of it under the covert whereof you may act what part you please But were you really and not in complement my plain dealing Friends you would deal truly and plainly i. e. Honestly and Fairly with me you would acknowledge your un-Christian misdemeanours towards me and adjust my reparations In doing this you should be your own friends as well as mine and plain dealing in your sence with your selves you will find an higher point of Christianity then the like dealing with other men especially with those whom you count your enemies My Christian and worthy Friend and Brother in Christ I Came some few dayes since casually to understand that there is one passage in my late Book intituled Redemption Redeemed possibly among many others of less offence of so hard a resentment with you that you judged it of very dangerous consequence and have cautioned several persons as some of themselves have reported I know not how publickly or unto how many against the danger of it Whether your intent was hereby to blast the credit of that one passage onely or to render the Book it self as unsafe or however of no good consequence for them to read I shal not too narrowly enquire into much lesse determine I acknowledg it to be far above my line in the composure of a Book to be able to pre-apprehend or fore-see what notions or expressions may possibly distaste or provoke a spirit of prejudice and pre-occupation or to deliver my sence at every turn upon such tearms as to leave no place or possibility for sinister constructions But this I am able to avouch as in the sight of God who will shortly bring every secret thing unto judgment that in the penning of that Book I was conscientiously studious and careful to decline as well in matter as in words whatsoever I apprehended likely to offend any man further or otherwise then as the truth even with the fairest and clearest delivery of it is apt to offend those who are not disposed or prepared in their judgements to receive it And I now am and I trust alwayes shall be willing and ready to do the best I can to heal every mans offence taken at any saying or expression in that Book when I come particularly to understand the ground or occasion of it I hear that within these few weeks there was another whose Name I shall spare at present who very reasonlesly and without the least cause given stumbled in the University Pulpit at Cambridge at another passage in the said book where I give an account of my judgment concerning the fulnesse freeness effectualness of the Grace of God