then may the Preachers of whom M. Jenkin speaketh be truly said to be the Preachers under worldly glory but if not hath not he avouched it to the shame and confusion of his face 5 o. And lastly the most staring and daring untruth in all the story is this that I am paid for hearing my people If this be written in any of M. Jenkins Bibles whether Translation or Originall most certainly it is not the word of God If in stead of saying I am PAYED for hearing my people he had said I am well apaid in hearing them his pen had been no great transgressor but saying I am PAYD FOR hearing them can he be judged any other than an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man condemned of himselfe in the saying Or if he had said that I am paid for teaching them or for inabling them instrumentally under God to speak those things which sometimes I heare from them the saying had been tolerable enough for matter of truth though little enough for matter of consequence or import But M. Jenkin hath little cause to be offended with me for being payed for teaching my people so that I may heare them speak the things of God with comfort when as himself is payed for teaching his people I feare to farre lesse purpose yea and compelleth some to pay him whom I beleeve he teacheth not at all unlesse it be to know what it is to dwel in a Parish so proudly covetously and quarrelsomly Clergified Though I assert the Divine authority of the Scriptures Sect. 114. or their being the word of God and the foundation of Religion in the very same sence wherein himselfe asserteth either the one or the other as hath been formerly proved and that by many Arguments and Demonstrations himselfe onely dictating his opinion but demonstrating nothing yet how importune and restlesse is he in his barking against me as if I denied both the one and the other And doth not saith he page 1. John Goodwin deny the Scripture to be the foundation of Religion Page 3. he telleth me that I subvert the whole Scripture Page 6. My Treatise wherin I assert the Divine Authority of the Scriptures he calls My late book AGAINST the Authority of the Scriptures Page 10. He chargeth me that by denying the Scriptures I feare not to destroy the word of truth I feare that he by his diabolizing and calumniating feares not to destroy his soule Page 19. he saith My work is to preach and write against all Propheticall and Apostolicall writings What shall be given unto thee or what shall be done unto thee thou false tongue a Psa 120. 3. When did I ever preach or write the least word or syllable against any Prophetical or Apostolicall writing Page 24. he chargeth me with casting contempt upon the written Word Page 20. he demands thus Ought you not to be the more blamed for your cloaked impiety and for your reall enmity to the Scriptures c. Page 22. he complaines that J. Goodwin tells him that this written word is not the word of God Page 24. he chargeth me that in terminis I deny the written word to be the word of God Page 14. he visits me with this Interrogatory Did not you blasphemously deny the Scripture to be the foundation of Faith Page 55. he saith He is sure that according to my principles the written word cannot be the standing measure of Truth and Error I think he is as sure of this as of most things wherein he is or pretends to be most confident The man it seemes knowes not sands from rocks Page 56. he chargeth me with having throwne off the written Word What a generation of spurious accusations hath Mr. Jenkin here begotten upon the body of a shadow of demerit Was there ever a foolish and groundlesse pretence thus nauseously improved to the defamation of a man if yet M. Jenkin hath so much credit in the world as to render him capable of that mischievous act of defaming P. 19 He demands of me thus Sect. 115. Was it from the lowlinesse of your heart that you prefer your selfe before the most learned and pious of the Subscribers Reader if there be any word syllable letter or tittle in that passage of mine as himselfe hath transcribed it upon occasion whereof he levieth this demand which savoureth in the least of any prelation of my selfe before any even the meanest of the Subscribers let this crown of honour be set upon Mr. Jenkins head that once in his dayes he spake truth In the next words he interrogaâ—es me further thus Or was it from the Logick of your head that you form such a childish argument viz. you may not be taxed with errors about the Authority of the Scriptures because you have written in vindication of them Reader if thou canst find any such Argument as this formed by me let me be the child and Mr. Jenkin the man but if it be otherwise contrariorum contraria sint consequentia The Argument formed by me as to that point he speaks of is to this effect that having written and published a large Treatise in vindication of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and having withall laboured with the uttermost of my endeavours in the ingagement to quit my selfe faithfully herein I conceive it no effect or fruit of the integrity of the hearts of the Subscribers to perform their duty taking no knowledge at all of the main drift scope and end or of the generall carriage of the Discourse to clamour and traduce me for a man denying the Authority of the Scriptures onely because in one place I doe not â—autologize and use those restrictrive or explicative expressions the second time which I had used a little before for the cleare stating of my opinion Yet had I formed such an Argument as he speaks of it had been more manly by farre and lesse childish than that whereby himselfe would prove that I cite M. Bucer for me impertinently inasmuch as M. Bucer never wrote an intire book or discourse against that opinion for which he is cited by me as I have done against that opinion which the Subscribers take liberty or licentiousnesse rather of Conscience to ascribe unto mee A while after in the same 19. page to vilifie me Sect. 116. and make ortes of my discourse in vindication of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures he magnifies Bellarmine and makes singular good hey of what he hath written upon the same subject and particularly commends one saying of his as a non-such in all my writings in which saying notwithstanding there is very little weight or worth indeed scarce Truth Bellarmine saith he hath laboured in justifying the Divine Authority of the Scriptures against the Swenkfeldians with INCOMPARABLE more sinews and strength than ever you have done in your way When did your pen ever◠〈◊〉 his did drop such a passage as this that the very Question Whether the Prophetical and Apostolical writing is
my back when the graver Judicatory had determined mine immunity in that kind and this I hope out of a conscientious sense of my innocency But poore man little doth he know what he hath done not onely to cause his own savour to stink in the eyes of men but to the further discovering of the nakednesse of his brethren also by tearing that covering which they had prudently cast over it Turno tempus erit magno cum optaverit emptum Intactum Pallanta cum spolia ista diemque Oderit i. The time will come when youthfull Turnus shall Wish dearly Pallas ne're had been encountred And when these trophies and this day he 'll call The hatred of his soule Nor can I charge all the 52. Ministers of the Diocesse or Province of London whose names were sub-printed but not subâ—scribed to the late Testimony published in their names nor doe I know how many of them I may truly charge with representing me as a man of Errors upon the Stage Because it is very possible that those of them who were the Master-sticklers in the businesse purveyors for subscriptions in which meritorious engagement my Antagonist as it seems by his unparalleld zeale for the vindication of the said Testimony had the principall hand might serue many more of the printed subscribers as slippery a trick as they did Mr. Downham one of the gravest and best spirited men amongst them The legerdâ— main was this The Architects of the designe present Mr. Downham with their papers wherein they had collected and put down in writing onely some of the wildest and most absurd opinions which are now extant in their Testimony desiring his hand by way of concurrence with them as intending to testifie against them publickly In this draught which they brought to him and whereunto they desired and obtained his hand and subscription there was not the least mention or word of any error of mine or of D r Hamonds From whence by the way it is observable how with as little truth as common sense or good English of which afterwards this young peece of presumption writes thus pag. 41. In which passage you bring in AND THAT TRULY the whole number of 52. as testifying against you c. In which words though not many as you see in number there are two contraries at least unto truth First that in that passage wherein I went about to make Testardus my Patron a passage no where to be found in my book I speak to the whole Colledge or Covent of 52. There is not a word syllable or tittle of any such addresse in that passage wherein I speak of Testardus Secondly that I bring in and that truly the number of 52. to testifie against me For I confesse that if I did in this or any other passage bring in or present 52. as testifying against me I did it not TRULY though I presume pardonably not suspecting forgery in a testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ especially being a testimony also to our solemne League and Covenant and this exhibited by so many calling themselves Ministers of Christ and these all of them solemne pretenders to an inviolable observation of this Covenant because Mr. John Downham whose name they have printed amongst the subscribers and who is one of the 52 did NOT testifie against me and many more of the 52. might be as innocent as hee in this behalfe for ought I know or have reason now to judge Are these false-fingred men these forgers of testimonies these opprobria propudia generis humani the shames and blots of mankind Mr. Jenkin his reverend and beloved Very probably they may so be himself being one and it's like the first born of them But are these the Pastors which the Lord Jesus hath provided after his own heart for his people No great marvell if the forlorn conscience of this man giveth him full liberty of speaking all maner of evill of me when at the infinite holinesse the dreadfull power the incomprehensible majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ himselfe cannot secure him against the reproach of his pen which not onely maketh the vilest of men Pastors of his providing for his people but also asserteth these for Pastors according to his own heart But to the story These Setters having obtained their desires of Mr. Downham in this kind how honourably think we did they reward him for his courtesie First they goe and foyst into that catalogue of errors which he had subscribed what sayings and sentences of other men they pleased without demanding his judgement about them whether he thought them errors or no Yea that which was as base an affront as could have lightly been put upon an ancient reverend and learned man they insert in this catalogue under the name of errors severall passages out of a book of Dr. Hamonds which Mr. Downam himselfe had licensed but a little before and so represent him not only as a man of a desultory and inconsistent judgement in his sedate and best composed yeares but also as a man of no more coÌ„science or cordialnes to his friend than to blow hot cold with the same breath to kisse and kill in the same houre If this be the measure of Sion Colledge to their friends what may their adversaries expect from them If this be their oyle what are their swords Secondly being conscious it seems that they bad abused him by way of reparation they make him Captain of their black guard conferring upon him the ignoble honour of prenomination amongst all their subscribers Mr. Downham himself related not without much regret this unnaturall and most unworthy department of his Presbyterian brethren towards him to another ancient and grave Minister in the Citie of his acquaintance Hem vosteam fidem Dii Sinoniam Tales neanimis coelestibus artes i. Have heavenly minds such tricks such frauds as these Could but such a piece of forgery as this be found in the tents of Independency how soon should the report of it fill Solis utramque domum both houses of the Sun Presbyterian pens and pulpits would joyne hand in hand to provide that Solis ad occasus Solis caneretur adorâ—us i. That East and West should ring with the disgrace The story puts me in mind of an old Saw which cuts well Non audet Stygius Pluto tentare quod audet Effraenis Flamen The Prince himselfe of the black Stygian lake Dares not attempt what Priests will undertake But the best is that our Collegrate sons of Sion doe not build up but pull down their Colledge and de number their Society by such unhallowed policies and practices as that lately related Mr. C. Mr. W. c. There are other Ministers I heare in the Citie late of that Consistory who are resolved that their souls shall no more enter into the secrets thereof The cage is already so defiled that the clean birds amongst them begin to loath and forsake it And indeed it stands all those
for his opinion but rather to have cast honour upon them as being Orthodox with himselfe Upon the like account he presently after chargeth me that my AIM is here to make Bucer seem a Gyant that I standing by him may seem but a Dwarfe in heresie Was there ever man spake at this rate of malicious non-sense Or was ever man charged with such a crime as this that his AIM was to make himselfe seem a Dwarfe in heresie Is any mans AIM to be counted Hereticall in what degree soever or to bring the reproach of Heresie upon others onely by presenting them as men of the same judgement with themselves But any thing sense or non-sense will serve M. Jenkins turn to vent his unmanly distemper in He can build with Slime as well as Mortar But would you know why or how I would make Bucer seem a Gynnt in Heresie The root of the matter is onely this Whereas M. Jenkin by vera justitia in the passage cited by me from Bucer will needs understand the duties of righteousnesse commanded in the Law and so make him speak perfect non-sense I on the contrary affirm the words to signifie True righteousnesse Presently after in the same heat of blood he civilly tells me that I doe wickedly to seeme willing that the Reader should beleeve that Bucer did ever imagine any could be justified out of Christ Reader wouldst thou know the ground of this charge also I onely translate Bucers Latine words into English where he saith Magis id ex instituto Pauli fuit ut objiceret Judaeis Gentes etiam ante revelatum eis Christum verae justitiae fuisse compotes i. It was rather Pauls minde and intent to object or suggest unto the Jewes that the Gentiles even before Christ was revealed unto them were obtainers not of the duties commanded in the Law as M. Jenkin would absurdly interpret hereby making Bucer to affirm that which is notoriously false and that in a very uncouth and harsh phrase For the Gentiles never obtained the duties commanded in the Law or the true righteousnesse of the Law neither before Christ was revealed unto them nor since but of true righteousnesse Nor doth it any wayes follow that in case Bucer should imagine that the Gentiles were justified before Christ was revealed unto them viz. in the ministery of the Gospel of which kinde of Revelation it is evident he speaketh that therefore he must needs imagine that men may be justified out of Christ God hath severall wayes to reveale Christ unto men besides the externall ministery of the Gospel nor is Faith said to come by hearing as if there were no other way by which it is possible to come but onely because it is the ordinary way by which God hath appointed that it should come Many things are simply and indefinitly affirmed in the Scriptures which doe not import an absolute universality but onely a commonnesse or frequency of truth When our Saviour saith that if any man walk in the day he stumbleth not a Ioh. 11. 9. his meaning is not to affirme that no man whatsoever walking in the day ever stumbled this being notoriously untrue but onely that men walking in the day doe not ordinarily stumble or are not likely or apt to stumble So when he saith a little after If a man walk in the night he stumbleth his meaning is not that alwayes and without exception they who walk in the night stumble but onely that it frequently cometh to passe that such doe stumble Doe I not then very wickedly to seeme willing that the Reader should beleeve that M. Bucer should imagine that which he clearly doth imagine yea and which he may imagine without any disparagement to him nay which he cannot but imagine unlesse with M. Jenkin he should imagine that which is palpably false Page 33. Sect. 108. He ingenuously demands of me whether I be a Bedlam that I teare my own flesh I may very reasonably demand of him whether he did not consult with a Bedlam and take his advice about the proposall of such a question For what sober man can imagine he should mean by my tearing my own flesh All the ground and occasion he pretendeth for this his question is that I say that the Subscribers represent it for an error in me to say Doubtlesse men are naturall men before they are spirituall and yet these are the words of the Apostle What act what strain is there in this question which a man in possession of his wits can call the tearing of a mans own flesh When I cite one saying of M. Jenkin without citing another or without citing all the rest doe I teare his flesh If so M. Jenkin tears the flesh of his friends of Sion Colledge and of severall other Authors lesse deserving such measure than they A little after he commenceth another demand of a like stamp Friend saith he to me Feare you not God Did not your hand shake and your heart tremble when you wrote that the Ministers set down these words for THE Error Doubtlesse men are naturall before they they are spirituall It seems Mr. Ienkins hand shaketh and his heart trembleth when he speaketh or writeth the truth else why should he ask me whether these Symptoms were not upon me when I wrote nothing but the truth For I doe not write as he falsly pro more suo repeateth my words viz. that the Ministers set downe the words he speaks of for THE error but for AN error in me And if Christ were not look'd upon by the Iewes as a malefactor why was he crucified by them amongst malefactors If the Ministers did not intend to represent the assertion mentioned as an error in me why do they inventory it under their head and title of Errors and Heresies Yea why doe they number it amongst my transgressions in matter of opinion Nay the truth is that this assertion we speak of is the very basis and foundation of what is asserted afterwards in that passage which they transcribe as erroneous so that granting the said assertion to be true they cannot reasonably deny any thing that followes therein Pa. 30. Sect. 109. He turns himself unto me with this grave addresse The Arminians were your Schoolmasters when you learned this lesson The Remonstrants and you meet again Did M. Ienkin never meet with any man the second time but who presently became his Schoolmaster upon the greeting But why should he think the Arminians were my Schoolmasters when I learned the lesson he speakes of This lesson being interpreted is nothing else but that God is not unjust nor unequall nor any wayes pretending contrarie to his intentions in his dealings with men I trust M. Ienkin hath learned such lessons as these and if he learned them without having the Arminians for his Schoolmasters why was it not possible for me also to learn them upon the same terms Hath not M. Ienkin so much mother-wit as to say that thrice five
of malignity hypocrisie searednesse of conscience dissimulation of the truth c. which doe not often find men out untill they be somewhat stricken in yeare and gray haires upon them 1. Mr. Jenkin argues himselfe defective in point of conscience by these and many such like passages in his Book In his Title page he calls Sion Colledge visited A very feeble Pamphlet and a while after in his Preface His other writings are below the most but this last piece was below himselfe Though the man speakes these things in good concurrence with my conscience for I verily believe my writings to bee of that sort of weake Sect. 3. feeble and despised things which God hath chosen to confound the things that are mighty yet I have cause to think that hee speakes them with the loud reclamation of his own it being a thing incident to youth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Eth. as Aristotle long since observed to say many things which they beleeve not For first is it like that a man of such Seraphicall parts and learning that he is able to instruct the ignorant in the profound speculation of the Quiddity of Manicheisme whereof Mr. Goodwin and such Abecedarians as he is ignorant a Busic-Bishop p. 45 48 c. would so farre undervalue himselfe and prophane his excellencie as to set himselfe and all the powers of his wit against that he judgeth VERY FEEBLE Subruere est arces stantia moenia virtus Quilibet ignavus praecipitata premit i. Valour strong castles won and walls d'exalt 'T is cowards guise things FEEBLE to assault Secondly if he judged my Pamphlet so very feeble why doth he so studiously amolish and deprecate of his Reverend Sirs the suspition of Ambition in that he should undertake to answer it b Preface p. 2. When an Eagle engageth herself to catch a Fly hath she cause to feare the imputation of Ambition because of such an attempt In this solemne deprecation of his to his Reverend Brethren not to account it ambition that puts him upon the undertaking supposing the Pamphlet he undertakes to be very feeble he either makes his brethren very feeble in their understanding viz. as being obnoxious to account it ambition in him that should attempt to break a rotten stick or otherwise bewrayes the rottennesse of his own conscience in calling that VERY FEEBLE which he inwardly thinks to be very strong And whereas hee presently addes that for the most of them to have performed his taske he should have accounted it an act of not to say too great condescention Questionlesse the condescention in them had been as great as it would be in the Master-fidlers belonging to a countrey consort to excuse the little Boy and carry the great Fiddle themselves Thirdly and lastly is it likely that Mr. Jenkin can have the consent of his conscience to say my other writings are below the most and this last to be VERY FEEBLE and below my selfe when as the fifth rib of Mr. Jenkins Religion High Presbytery I mean for which metaphor I shall give account hereafter lies bleeding at the foot of the other being as good as broken in peeces by them and himselfe with many others of his Collegiate fraternity cast out of the possession of their patience that I say not of their wits by the last If my other writings were below the most the cause of High-Presbytery being so shaken shattered and dismantled by them must needs be in strength and capacity of being maintained below the most of causes unlesse for the staving off of this consequence Mr. Jenkin will say that the cause I speake of is good but the defenders of it are weake and insufficient I give him leave to chuse his horn but goared hee must be either by the one horn or the other of the Dilemma And for Sion Colledge visited if this be below my selfe it is a signe that Mr. Jenkin and his Reverend Sirs grow downwards or backwards as well in patience as in learning and knowledge For I appeal to all judicious and disengaged men that have found so much time as to lose in reading Mr. Jenkins Busie Bishop whether both the patience of the man be not overcome and his learning overcharged with that writing If Mr. Jenkin notwithstanding all this will say in his soule and conscience hee verily beleeves that the said writing called Sion Colledge visited is a very feeble Pamphlet let this Animadversion be removed from under this head and carried on to the third to prove him a Defective in judgement and understanding But I suppose there is no occasion for the remove Secondly Sect. 4. whereas in the said Title page he insinuates me guilty of cavills against the Ministers of London for witnessing against my errors touching the holy Scriptures and the power of Man c. it argues in his own metaphor a crazy conscience For I never cavil'd against nor had any thing to doe with either on the right hand or the left the Ministers of London for witnessing against any errors of mine whatsoever nor did I ever charge them w th any such crime That which I charged them with not cavil'd against them for was unconscionable and indirect dealing with the words writings of their brethren who never wronged them a cōspiracy against several truths of God bound up indeed in the same bundle with many errors as Christ was numbred amongst transgressors and incensing the Magistrates against thousands that are godly peaceable in the land because not of their faction c. With these things and some other of like notorious delinquency with these I confesse I charged them But that they ever witnessed against any error of mine it never came within the verge of my thoughts Doth not then my young adversary abase his conscience greatly in this point also Thirdly Sect. 5. when in the same Title page he affirmeth that in his Busie-Bishop the impertinency of my quotations out of the Fathers M. Bucer and Mr. Ball are manifested he plainy declares that it is all one with him to say that snow is black as that it is white yea more easie to say that what is not done is done than to say that it is not done For alas what hath the young Glorioso done to the value of the least haire of his head towards a manifestation of any impertinencie in any of my quotations he speakes of Or if he understand not what the impertinencie of a quotation meaneth or wherein it consists let this note serve under the third head and prove him debile or crazie in his intellectuals For to cite other words of a different or contrary import to those quoted by me out of the same Author is no manifestation at all of any impertinency in my quotation It is indeed a discovering of the nakednesse of an Author to present him as contradictious to himself Nor is there any practice or course more ready and direct to enervate
cancell and dissolve the interest of all humane Authority whatsoever and to render all Authors but as so many ciphers in matters of religion than to expose the unstablenesse of their judgement to the eyes of men For he that speaketh contradictions as to matter of testimony is as good as silent and as speaking nothing at all And for my part I neither am nor shall be at all offended with Mr. Jenkin for duly presenting any Authors whatsoever Fathers or others beneath the order of Hagiographie as divided from and inconsistent with themselves in any difficult or disputable point in Christian Religion To goe on in this course I shall rather give him the incouragement of Macte nova virtute puer Brave youth advance in this new valour thine For by this meanes he will help to teare and pluck off that covering of flesh wherewith the faces of many notable Truths of God have been so bumbled and muffled up that the generality of men could never come to a cleare and orderly sight or view of them Not that I would have the names or memories of men deserving well of Religion and Christianity in their generations unkindly or unworthily handled in the least but that their authority and greatnesse of name might not contrary to their desires be abused to the prejudice or disadvantage of any truth nor in any particular opinion which they assert or hold be exalted above the strength and worth of those grounds whether of Scripture or Reason by which they maintain it I heartily wish that in all our disputes about matters of Religion all names of men whatsoever might be but standers by and lookers on and that onely their arguments and reasons might be actors And whereas the young man p. 41. either very ignorantly or which is worse very contra-conscientiously chargeth me with going about to make Testardus my Patron And p. 44. with bringing Mr. Bucer and Mr. Ball to blesse me And again that I come to the Fathers for patronage which is his Coccysme or Cuckow-note that he sings ten times over I must tell him for his learning in these sayings hee as the the English proverb phraseth it museth as he useth For because himself and others of his capacity use to make Patrons for their opinions of their books and Authours having commonly no better pillars to support the Pile and Fabrick of their judgements than flesh and blood therefore he conceiteth that all other men who make use of Authors doe it upon the same termes and ground But when the Lord Christ cited the testimony of John the Baptist in the behalf of himselfe and that Doctrine of his wherein he avouched himselfe the true Messiah and Son of God did he goe about to make him a Patron either to himself or his Doctrine Nay doth he not expresly disclaim any such thought or intention as this in these words I receive not testimony from man a John 5. 34. and as expresly declare what his intention was in producing this testimony in the words following but these things I say that ye might be saved plainly signifying that neither he nor his Doctrine had any need of any forraigne or extrinficall aid from any Authority of men whatsoever for the countenancing or asserting of either in the eyes or judgements of considering and unprejudiced men being both full of a native light of their own abundantly sufficient for the conviction and satisfaction of such and therefore the reason which moved him to insist upon the testimony of John was that such partiall froward and ingaged men as they were for he speakes unto the Jewes might have the advantage of a testimony more creditable with them to be convinced of and beleeve that which was so necessary to be beleeved by them for their salvation In like manner the reason why I quote either Testardus or Hierome or Austin or any other Authour as concurrent in judgement with me about my Doctrine or opinion which I teach is not by way of patronage or countenance unto them or as if I conceiv'd that intelligent free and disengaged men were not sufficiently capable of truth in them only by the pregnancy of those Scriptures and grounds of Reason upon which they are built without being relieved against their feares by a conjunction of humane Authority but that M. Jenkin such as lye under the same disadvantage with him for discerning and beleeving Truth being so servile and so bowed down in their judgements and understandings that they dare not or howsoever will not call any thing Truth which men voted Orthodox by a reciprocall vote amongst themselves doe not call such with them might have a sustentory or encouragement suitable to their weaknesse in this kind and not be afraid of Truth as of an unclean clean spirit for want of flesh and bones Therefore when he speakes of manifesting the IMPERTINENCY of my quotations I cannot readily imagine what he should mean by his Impertinency or how or by what light given by him he should imagine that he hath manifested any such thing in them or against them If by the IMPERTINENCY of aquotation he meanes a contrariety of sence or import to somewhat which the same Author affirmeth or denieth elswhere all or the greatest part of his own quotations are every whit as IMPERTINENT as mine For he quotes nothing from any Author in opposition to me but what hath been counter-quoted by me from the same Nor doe I either in Sion Colledge visited or in any other of my writings quote any Author for any such end or purpose as this viz. to prove that the Author which I quote never expressed himselfe otherwise than according to the tenor of the words which I quote from him If not to prove such a thing as this by a quotation be to quote an Author IMPERTNENTLY I confesse M. Jenkin hath said somewhat though not sufficient neither to manifest the IMPERTINENCY of my quotations but howsoever the IMPERTINENCY of his own are equally manifest as hath been said by the same light Or if by this his IMPERTINENCY hee meanes the Impertinency of them in respect of the actuall accomplishment of the end intended and desired by them which was the conviction and satisfaction of Mr. Jenkins and others of the truth contained and asserted in them I confesse as touching himselfe he hath sufficiently manifested this Impertinency in them by declaring himselfe an enemy to such Truths my quotations notwithstanding But in this sense of the word IMPERTINENCY his own quotations are altogether as IMPERTINENT as mine inasmuch as I and many others to my knowledge are far from being satisfied by them touching the truth of what hee conceiv'd to be comprehended in them If young Thraso will undertake to manifest IMPERTINENCY in any regular or tolerable signification of the word in my quotations he must clearly and lightsomly prove either that vera justitia doth not signifie true but hypocriticall righteousnesse or that anterevelatum eis Christum doth not
signifie Before Christ was revâ—â—led unto them but that Peter answered and said or the like 〈…〉 quam ut ignorare eos Christum suum pateretur doth at no hand 〈…〉 then that he would suffer them to be ignorant of his Christ but 〈…〉 two Sparrowes sold for a farthing or something as extravagant 〈◊〉 noramus-like as this or other things of everyhwit as difficult 〈◊〉 as any of these otherwise I make no question but the next time that he and his conscience meet either he will come off with this faire interpretation of his words that the IMPERTINENCIE of my quotations i. all the IMPERTINENCIE that is in them which indeed is none at all is manifested in his Busie-Bishop for in this sence I confesse the IMPERTINENCIE of them is here manifested 1. there is no more IMPERTINENCIE in them than what is by him manifested which as was said is none at all or else with this penitent confession that hee dealt unkindly by his Conscience when he talk'd of IMPERTINENCIE in my quotations Whereas he pretends in the same Title page that in his Busie-Bishop my Cavils against the Ministers of London are answered Sect. 6. I answer that in such a sence at the strong Arguments of his Book are answered in the Title page of mine so are my cavils against the Misters of London answered by him in his For as I answer all his strong Arguments without answering any at all so doth he answer all my cavils against the Ministers without so much as answering any there being no jot or tittle of such imployment in my Book for his Busie-Bishop to meddle with Amongst many other causlesse and sencelesse revilings of me Sect. 7. wherein he comforts himselfe and his Reverend Sirs his fellow Testimonialists against me in his Preface he is not ashamed to charge me with abundant rage in opposing Christ in his Scriptures Grace Ministers Government his rage saith he against the two last reaching up to heaven Elijah was the man charged by Ahab to be the troubler of Israel but Ahab himselfe with his Fathers house was the man who indeed and in truth was the troubler thereof Elijah being the Chariot and Horsmen of Israel I have not troubled Israel saith Elijah to him but thou thy Fathers House a 1 King 18. 18. So I am the man charged with abundant rage in opposing Christ in his Scriptures Grace Ministers Government but M. Jenkin with his Sinonian band is the man who really according to the truth thus opposeth him I oppose Christ in his Scriptures in such a sense as Christ himselfe deceived the people Others said nay but he deceiveth the people b Joh. 7. 2. These obstinate and blinde Jewes called that a deceiving of the people which was nothing else but an instructing of them in the truth and a preserving of them from being deceived In like manner this sonne of shame wilfulnesse and folly calls that an opposing Christ in his Scriptures which is most evident in the eyes of all men who have not sold themselves 〈◊〉 â—laves into the hand of high-Presbytery a justifying a magnifying an exalting of Christ in them It was the expression of a man as eminent both for pietie parts and place as either of our Universities affoord and not of the abhorred order of Independency neither as his preferment sufficiently testifieth finding me charged by the testimony-mongers of Sion Colledge with the foul crime of denying the authority of the Scriptures having seen my tractate upon that subject that he wondred how ever it should come into the hearts of these men to lay such a thing to my charge how they durst traduce me as a man denying the authority of the Scriptures when I had written so clearly fully effectually in the defence and vindication hereof These or words to this effect he used to some of his friends adding further this regretfull Epiphonema But I see wee are fallen into times wherein men dare doe and say any thing Words of like import have come from severall other men of worth and judgement But as they who charged the Lord Christ with deceiving the people were the deceivers of them themselves so the truth is that Mr. Jenkin his CoÌ„peers who burthen me with opposing Christ in his Scriptures are themselves the men of this abomination For whilst in their teachings they turn the glory of the abundant grace love sweetnesse and bounty of God expressed in the Scriptures towards men into the similitude of the most unnaturall unreasonable unconscionable cruelty and blood-thirstinesse of a tyrant and withall represent Christ as the Image and Expresse Character of this God doe they not oppose and that with an high hand Christ in his Scriptures Or what opposition is Christ capable of in his Scriptures greater than this that these diametrically contrary to their native tenor tendency and import should be made accessory to his disgrace and to the misrepresentation of him in the mindes judgements and consciences of men as if all the love care bowels and compassions which hee bare towards farre the greatest part of them in his death being interpreted were nothing else but bloody purposes intentions desires to make them two-fold more the children of wrath and this to the dayes of eternity than otherwise they had been And that as for those few whose salvation he is supposed to have intended in his death that these were as much in the love and favour of God before and without it and had eternall life and salvation setled upon them by the unchangeable decree and purpose of God from eternity without any relation to or consideration of it The teachers and avouchers of such doctrines as these are they who oppose Christ in his Scriptures not they who deny ink and paper and whatsoever is materiate or formed by man to be precisely and in propriety of speech the word of God Of the two in case the saying of Epiphanius be true that misbelief is worse than unbelief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is better to deny the Scriptures in any sense or in every sense to be the word of God which yet I never did am as far from doing as the best resolved man in all Mr. Jenkins fraternity than to render them an obloquie and reproach unto God and destructive to his glory But with what authority and soveraignty of argument Mr. Jenkin proves the Sun to be a Sackcloth I mean that I deny the Divine authority of the Scriptures shall be taken into consideration in due time That I oppose Christ in his grace Sect. 8. is a charge parallel to the other of opposing him in his Scriptures and therefore it is no great marvell if one conscience affords them both But why or how doe I oppose Christ in his Grace Surely not by making it greater more extensive more comprehensive more redundant than Mr. Jenkin and his fellow-dogmatists doe Certainly the conscience of the man if it
affections when such things come to passe which to others who are ignorant of the causes producing them are like to occasion disturbance and offence I make no question but my followers fully know that Mr. Jenkin before this might have that now he indeed hath pride ignorance wickednesse in him every wayes sufficient to exhibite and affoord all that acrimony he speakes of as bestowed on me and in this respect I am full of hope that they will not be offended at it in the least however they may bee affected with sorrow grief of heart to see a young man by the just judgement of God turn'd into a pillar of such unsavoury salt For what is that acrimony he speakes of or what are the ingredients of it but affectate jeers childish ventosities puffs of wit charges made of most notorious palpable and broad-fac'd untruths senslesse and importune vilifications which his best friends are ashamed of exaltations of ignorance and folly in Criticisms and such like over-ingagements of his strength unchristian revilings diabolicall slanders c. This is the true composition of Mr. Jenkins his Acrimony they that have nothing else to do with their time but to read his Pamphlet may without the help of any Commentary so find it This considered certainly either his sense or conscience or both failed him to say concerning his Acrimony that it is lesse than I deserved For can any man whatsoever his demerit or crimes be deserve to make another man sinfull or wicked Doth the Devill himselfe deserve to be belied slandered reproached reviled At whose hand or from whom deserveth he these things or who shall do the execution in case he deserveth them I know none but M. Jenkin and those that take the same liberty of conscience or from conscience rather with him that are like to inflict such penalties as these upon him Such executions are no work for Arch-angels But this Mancipium of absurdities and all manner of illiteratenesse that in matters of Scholarship regular and manlike learning scarce knowes his right hand from his left will yet ever and anon be perking up into Aristarchus his chaire and as if he understood what he censures will tell men how oft he takes them tardy For the further furnishing of this head Sect. 15. I shall onely present the Reader with a catalogue of some of those many broad-fac'd and shamelesse untruths with a briefe eviction annexed unto them respectively together with some other straines of a semblable impiety which lie thick scattered like dung upon the face of his Pamphlet First there is a nest of this serpentine brood I speak of base and putid slanders and untruths in the very first halfe page of his booke Here he affirmeth 1. That my work is to kill Religion 2. that I advance her head in my Preface to break her neck in my book 3. that in the performance of my booke I lay Religion among the clodds 4. that I deny the Scripture to be the Foundation of Religion 5. within two lines after the end of this first page that were my wit but halfe so keen as my will they should in a short time neither have Religion nor Minister left among them Might he not with as much truth yea with as much likelihood of truth have charged me to have uttered all those scurrilous foul-mouth'd unmanly and most unchristian speeches against the Parliament and Army which as the Pulpit-Incendiary informes the world have been the devout orisons and pious ejaculations of the circumforaneous tribe of our morning Lecturers I confesse that if either my wit or will knew how to effect it we should neither have any such Religion which stands in railing left amongst us nor any Minister who in stead of lifting up his voyce like a Trumpet to cause the people to know their abominations should lift it up like a Trumpet to prepare and cause the people to commit abominations As for that foundation of his that I deny the Scripture to be the foundation of Relion upon which he builds this pile of lying vanities we shall under the next head so raze and demolish it as not to leave one stone of it upon another which shall not be thrown down Page 2. he saith Sect. 16. 1. that my rage against the Ministers made me write non-sence and so page 4. and I know not how oft besides he tells me of my rage rage rage against the Ministers whereas the words which through ignorance of his mother tongue he calls non-sence are as regular proper and significant as the English tongue will beare and those which novice-like he would substitute in their place are meerly barbarous making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an absurd sollecisme as we shall God willing shew more at large in the second head And secondly there is not the least occasion given by me why he should imagine the least rage in me against the Ministers he speaks of He cannot but know that in my Sion Colledge visited I give them as friendly faithfull counsel as himselfe can do not is there any sentence or expression in all the book savouring of any rage against them In the same page he is not ashamed to say that he finds two abominable falsities within the space of two lines whereas the truth is that he contracts the guilt of two abominable falsities in relating my words For first he affirmes that I say That the Ministers of the Gospel are ONELY so reputed by men for want of knowing and cosidering better whereas my words are clearly of another tenor tendencie and import nor doe I so much as speak of the Ministers of the Gospel truly so called but onely of such who not being such notwithstanding assume the title and dignity of being such unto themselves and receive it accordingly from inconsiderate men And besides the word ONELY is here falsly foysted in he findes no such word amongst those of mine which hee pretends to cite Secondly he affirmes that I say that they the Ministers of the Gospel have vested themselves with the priviledge of being the ground and pillar of Truth whereas 1. I use no such barbarous or illiterate expression as vesting any man or men with any priviledge nor 2. doe I speak what I speak in this point concerning the Ministers of the Gospel truly such but as before is expressed concerning those who call themselves and are called by others such Ministers being really and in truth nothing lesse Therefore the two abominable falsities he speaks of are his own not mine Page 3. Sect. 17. Fearing it should seem that hee might want variety of falsities to fill the mouth of his Busie-Bishop hee again chargeth me with saying The Ministers have vested themselves with the priviledge of the Church c. Let him shew me these words in my book and I shall discharge him of the Whetstone Page 4. he saith that the designe of my deluded followers is to raze and levell the
boves caetera pecora campi or such like creatures or otherwise suffer the shame of a Pseudographer in those words As for heresies most certain I am that I have none in me being alwayes ready and willing to submit my judgement to such Arguments for my conviction of the weaknesse and insufficiencie whereof I am not able to give a faire and reasonable account though I confesse there is somewhat short of this which yet in true account is sufficient to exempt from the imputation of heresie But as for errors I confesse there may be more in me than are dispersed among ten thousand sheep oxen but that one Wil. Jenkin hath not double and treble my proportion in this black coyn I know that there is neither man under heaven nor Angell in heaven that knoweth or is able to demonstrate And when page 7. he chargeth it for a passage as pernitious as proud that I should say that I will endeavour when I am gone that my followers may have my spirit among them First he falsifieth almost as fast as he transcribeth Graecia mendax as if his pen were made of a Greek-goose quill and antipathized against the truth My words in the Epistle he mentioneth are these I shall endeavour whilst I yet remain with you to prevent as much as may be any supposed or feared inexpediencie in my departure from you As for these words and phrases which hee interfoysts followers when I am gone amongst them c. they are no where to bee found in the Epistle And for those words which are in the Epistle some of them he takes out of one sentence and others out of another and jumbles them together into what saying he pleaseth But secondly suppose such a saying as he reporteth should have dropt from my Pen why or how or wherein would it have been either pernitious or proud Doth M. Jenkin judge it pernitious either to his followers or to the world that he should endeavour that his hearers might have his spirit among them when he is gone More shame for him to have a spirit so mischievous and vile that it would be a pernitious endeavour in him to propagate it amongst his people Certain I am that it becomes every Shepheard of every flock of Christ to be of such a spirit which he may lawfully yea and commendably desire and endeavour to leave amongst his people when he is gone Page 7. Sect. 22. He sets this crown shall I call it of thorns or of honour upon my head he calls me a Seducer in chiefe and yet a few lines before he was so devout as to acknowledge it for a mercy that I have no more of intellect and in his Preface he saith that my writings are below the most to omit twenty vilifications and ten every whit as quisquilious and importune as these A double minded man saith James is unstable in all his wayes What A Seducer in chiefe and no intellect A Seducer in chiefe and yet his chiefe writings below the most Happy sure is the condition of the world in Mr. Jenkins dayes when the chiefe seducer in it is a man of a despicable and depressed intellect Is not the most devouring beast also in it a silly lamb and the greatest danger in it that men will walk with their heels upwards It had been time enough for Mr. Jenkin to have called me a seducer in chiefe when he had proved that I had seduced more than any of the practitioners belonging to Sion Colledge Page 8. His face and conscience it seemes like Simeon and Levi Sect. 23. took a shamelesse and sinfull boldnesse together to affirme that it was my aim in a place in Hagiom to prove him guiltlesse who denieth the Being of the Scriptures and yet in the words immediatly preceding he saith that it is most like that in the place he meaneth I deale cloudily What a wretched man is this to charge a person positively and peremptorily with the vilest intentions that lightly can be when by his own confession he had but a cloudy and obscure ground to do it I am perswaded that hardly can an instance ab orbe condito be given that so green a head and so black a mouth ever met so neere together before Page 9. he chargeth me with throwing off the Covenant in my life I confesse I have not observed it with that exactnesse which I both might and ought to have done but had not Mr. Jenkin and his high Presbyterian consorts thrown it off in their lives at another manner of rate than I have done the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament had been better preserved Incendiaries and Malignants more discovered the Reformation of Religion in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the word of God had been more advanced amongst us lesse had been taught contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godlinesse yea and a more effectual course had been taken that we and our posterity after us might as brethren live in faith and love and the Lord delight to dwell in the midst of us But not to rave and rage against the servants of God in zeale to the fifth rib of Mr. Jenkins Religion is in his interpretation to throw off the Covenant in our lives Page 10. Sect. 24. He chargeth me with denying the Scriptures Why doth he not accuse the Sun for wearing a Sackcloth the Moon that she never shineth Here also he saith that I think my eares defiled when with the Covenant the Ministers do but name the world Truth Truly I think that M. Jenkin thinks he may both think talk what he listeth without being called to an account by him that judgeth righteously Where doe I meddle with or so much as mention the Ministers naming the word Truth with their Covenant Let them practice Truth and keep their Covenant and I shall not be offended at their naming either the one or the other Indeed that men should talke aloud of giving Testimony to the Truth and so to their Covenant and yet to walk contrary to the Truth and to their Covenant is a matter of no pleasing resentment unto me nor I suppose to any truly fearing God or loving the souls of men Lest he should be so farre overseen as to let a page passe sine calumnia he remembers himselfe p. 11. and forgeth this slander that I plead for the covenant onely to get the greater advantage against it God I am certain doth not know of any such intention as this in me but it is a small thing with Mr. Jenkin to make himself equall in knowledge with God he presumes to know what God knoweth not In the same page he strikes the same false stroke againe and affirmeth that I dare not come neere an expression of dislike to errors by twelve score when as himselfe in the beginning of the same period had acknowledged that I tell the world that errors are a great griefe to my heart and that
I oppose them in my Ministery Though these be none of my words as most of his transcriptions are basely falsified nor so expressive of dislike to errors as mine yet doe they contain a manifest expression of dislike to errors He tellâ—â— me pag. 41. that a crazy conscience and a brittle memory are very ill companions I am sorry Mr. Jenking hath no better company than these they must needs draw him into much folly Whereas upon occasion of the Ministers branding Gods Truths Sect. 25. Satans errors with the same brand of obloquy and reproach I tender this Christian and sober advice to them that in their next impression they would not say A Testimony against errors and heresies but as we account errors and heresies Mr. Jenkin p. 13. in the heat of his youthfull blood not being well capable of advice in conjunction with his first love to the fifth rib of his religion riseth up thus His plain meaning is Be doubtfull whether those damnable errors and heresies be such or no be Scepticks Seekers c. Was the man ever cut out for an Interprer either of the word of God or of Men who so frequently misuseth the minde and meaning both of the one and the other by casting them out of their words and substituting his own in their stead Doth he that adviseth men not to judge themselves infallible or not to deport themselves as if they were infallible bidd them be doubtfull whether damnable errors and heresies be such or no Is not this rather the Spirit and cleare importance of such an advice Take heed you call not such things such opinions damnable errors or heresies which you cannot sufficiently and substantially prove to bee so and which for ought that appeares to men as learned as apprehensive as judicious as conscientious every whit as your selves to the contrary may be the sacred truths of God By Mr. Jenkins logick whosoever doth not judge himselfe to be infallible and this in the most profound and disputable matters in Religion ipso facto or non facto rather turnes Scepticke Seeker c. and can never believe any thing Men may be so far resolved and established in matters of religion as to be able and willing to dye for them and yet not necessarily judge themselves infallible will Mr. Jenkin call such Sceptickes or Seekers If he will what Sect shall we finde to give a denomination unto him whose establishment in matters of Religion notwithstanding his importune claime of infallibility will not I feare amount to the value or worth of such a resolution But it seems all counsell and advice to mature consideration though in matters of the greatest consequence and most dreadfull importance under heaven is to Mr. Jenkin as the shadow of death and the great abhorring of his soule Youth and the fifth rib of Religion when they meete make I see a fierie conjunction REader Sect. 26. I make no question but thy conscience is before this satisfied about the vilenesse and wretchednesse of the conscience of M r Vicars his Pastor and my Persecutor yet have I present thee but with a first fruits only of his base unworthinesse There is scarce any one page throughout the Pamphlet but Jim and Oijm forgeries and falsifications dwell in it His imputations charges are generally built upon the weakest simplest the most unreasonable and sencelesse grounds occasions and pretences that lightly can be imagined He seldome transcribes any of my words but hee imbaseth them with some allay or other of his owne Confident I am that never did any Minister of Christ vastare conscientiam make so much wast of conscience within so short a time and narrow compasse of occasion as Mr. Jenkin hath done in this daring and heaven-affronting piece of portentuous insolencie and impiety intituled The busie Bishop However I shall not weary the Reader or my selfe with tracing him any further by the foote steps of an evill conscience but shall proceed to the second head propounded where we shall take a like survey of his intellectuals as we have already done of his morals We shall find him hearted and headed much alike Only because the discussion and vindication of those two Doctrines or opinions which Facultas Theologica the faculty of Divinity annexed to Sion-Colledge hath beene pleased to make erroneous whether the Doctrines themselves will or no and which were the principall and upon the matter the only engagers of me to this Answer fall under the second head I must crave the Readers patience and leave to enlarge my selfe a little more herein than in the former but withall shall make ample satisfaction by contracting my selfe in the other two 2. Mr. Jenkin demonstrates himselfe defective in Clerk-ship and matter of learning in these passages with their fellows To prove that my rage in his rhetorick against Christs Ministers and Government Sect. 27. reacheth up to heaven hee appeales to these words of mine which yet as he hath jumbled them are more his than mine The best successe which with any colour of truth we can entitle the Presbyterian government unto is to snip and keepe under thriving branches Upon these words out of his profound learning he distinguisheth thus I know he meanes not branches that thrive in heresies but clearely intends such branches as thrive in holinesse In this division or distinction of thriving branches making some to thrive in heresies others in holinesse and concluding that because I do not meane the one I must needs the other doth my young Springlius reason at any better rate than this that which Mr. Jenkin hath upon his trencher is no apple ergo it is an oyster Or thus By the Reverent Ministers in the Citie Mr. Jenkin doth not meane the Independendent Ministers therefore he meanes my Lord Major's Officers or the Ministers of civill Justice in the Citie For is there no thriving but either in Heresie or in Holinesse Doth not Mr. Jenkin think that it is POSSIBLE a man may thrive in learning judgment and understanding of the Truth Or is such a supposition as this contrary to some Article in the Creed of high Presbytery Or doth he necessarily thrive either in Heresie or in Holinesse who thrives in any of these But this is the line of reason which our young Metropolitan Visiter hath stretched over his Busie Bishop from the one end to the other Before wee leave this Sect. 28. I would gladly demand of the learning of the man what rage it is against Christs either Ministers or Government to say that the best successe of Presbyterian government or the government which the Subscribers approve of as himselfe more truly expresseth my meaning this government not being simply Presbyterian but high Presbyterian or Metropolitanicall that the best successe of it is to snip and keepe under thriving branches suppose it should be meant of branches thriving in Holinesse What communion saith the Apostle hath light with darknesse or righteousnesse with
can exceed the Foundation in strength or continuance Therefore if the Church of God which is built upon the foundation of Religion bee unperishable and which cannot be prevailed against to ruine or destruction which the Scripture every where asserteth most certain it is that the foundation on which it is built is unperishable also If the foundation of Mr. Jenkins Religion be his Bible then is his Religion no such treasure but that theeves may break through and steal it from him For how should it continue or stand the foundation of it being gone Or in case his Bible should be casually burnt with fire the foundation of his Religion and consequently his Religion it selfe should be consumed Diogenes hearing that Plato had given this definition or description of a man Animal bipes implume that he was a living creature with two feet without feathers gets a Cock and pulls off all his feathers whilst he was alive and throwes him in amongst some of Platoes Scholars Ecce hominem Platonicum wishing them to behold their Master Plato his Man If some such odd-conceited fellow as Diogenes should use meanes to get Mr. Jenkin his Bible and having defaced rent and torn it should come and cast it into the midst of his Auditors with this Elogie Ecce fundamentum religionis Jenkinianae Behold the goodly foundation of the religion of your Master Jenkin it might prove a more effectuall conviction unto him of his folly than seven demonstrative reasons administred by a more sober man Thirdly If any booke or bookes whatsoever either that which is called the Scripture or any other be the true and proper foundation of religion then may religion be truly and properly said to have been founded by men But Religion cannot truly and properly be sayd to have been founded by men but by God Ergo. If Mr. Jenkin will deny the Assumption at the perill both of his conscience and reputation be it The consequence in the Proposition is evident For as the Apostle saith concerning houses that every house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is built by some man as our Translators render it So is it as true concerning bookes that every book now extant in the world every Bible in what language soever whether printed or transcribed whether consisting of paper parchment or other like materiall was built and form'd and made into a book by men There is no point letter syllable or word in any of them but is the workmanship of some mans hand or other If Mr. Jenkin hath a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bible that fell out of heaven written or printed without hands he is defired to produce it for the accommodation of the world Yet he must know that though he could produce such a Bible or copie of the Scriptures as this it would not follow that this book must needs be the foundation of Religion inasmuch as Religion might take place be professed and practised in truth and power by men where this book never came nor was heard of Fourthly Sect. 43. If those Tables of stone wherein the Law was written by the Finger of God himselfe a Exo. 24. 12. 32 16. were not the foundation of this law nor of the obedience exhibited unto it then neither is any Bible or Book whatsoever the foundation of Religion But the Tables of stone written immediatly by God himselfe were not the foundation of the Law written therein nor of the obedience exhibited unto it Ergo. This latter proposition is evident because these Tables of stone were broken in pieces by Moses soon after b Exod. 32. 19 and yet the law stood firme and obedience hath been given unto it untill this day The Consequence in the Major cannot reasonably be doubted or denied For doubtlesse there is as much if not much more reason to judge those two Tables w ch are said to have bin the work of God the writing in them the writing of God graven upon the Tables c Exod. 32. 16 to have been the foundation of the Law written in them and of the obedience either due or exhibited unto it as there is to judge any book whatsoever either written or printed by the hands of men to be the foundation of that Religion the grounds and principles whereof are declared in it and no more but declared especially confidering that this Declaration hath as hath been said been formerly made by God without any such book and might be made again by him if he pleased yea and doubtlesse would be made if there were any just occasion or necessity for it Fifthly Sect. 44 If any booke or bookes whatsoever Bible or other be the true and proper foundation of Religion then is not the true and proper foundation of religion necessarily uniform and consistent in all things with it selfe The reason of this Proposition is because it is very possible that either through negligence ignorance want of memory or the like in Scribes and Correctors of the Presse some such error may be found in every copie of the Scriptures now extant in the world which will render this copie contradictious to it selfe yea it is possible that many such errors as this may be found in the best and truest copies that are I now assume But the true and proper foundation of religion is necessarily uniform and consistent in all things with it selfe Ergo. If this Proposition be obnoxious the true and proper foundation of Religion must be divided in and against it selfe and how then according to our Saviours own Maxime and Rule Matth. 12. 25. can either it or the Religion built upon it stand Sixthly Sect. 45. If any booke or bookes Bible or other bee the true and proper foundation of Religion Then is the foundation of Religion somewhat that is visible and exposed to the outward senses of man This needs no proof unlesse Mr. Jenkin will deny that Bibles or the Scriptures are legible and may be seen But certain it is That the true and proper foundation of Religion is not any thing that is visible or exposed to the outward senses of men but somewhat that is spirituall and apprehensible onely by the mind and understanding of men Ergo. The reason of this proposition is if the proper foundation of Religion be the object of the outward sense then is there nothing necessary to be beleeved by any man to make him truly religious but what either he sees with his eyes handles with his hand or the like For he that beleeves or builds upon the true and proper foundation of Religion questionlesse is truly religious But men are not made truly religious by beleeving onely what they see with their outward sense of seeing otherwise every man or woman that did but look into a Bible and see such and such words and sentences written or printed there and beleeved accordingly that these words and sentences were here written or printed must needs hereby become truly religious Certainly if men may
the equity and meetness for them to practice of the things contained in this Law which this Law is wont to worke and produce in those who live under it besides many other things of like consideration Now I would gladly know of Mr. Jenkin by his next whether neither the power of God nor the righteousnesse of God nor the invisible things of God nor the eternall power of the God-head of God nor the things contained in the law be not the matter and substance at least some-what as much of the matter and substance of the Scriptures If they be then simple is his demand How can any man believe the matter and substance of the Scriptures to be the word of God when as he must be uncertaine whether the written word or Scriptures wherein the matter is contained be the word of God or no One thing more as to the point in hand I would gladly be informed of by Mr. Jenkin in his next viz. what the ground-worke and foundation of that Faith of his is whereby he believes that every passage sentence phrase word syllable letter point extant and to be found in every Bible or copie of the Scriptures printed or written Original or Translated throughout the world is the word of God or any part of it considering 1. the manifold yea and material disagreements that are generally known to be betweene many of them and 2. that the word of God is but one alwayes uniforme and consistent with it selfe without the least variation or change It is more than to be feared that whilst he pretends the establishment of men in the Faith of the Scriptures hee spreads a snare in their way and steers a direct course to cast them upon the quick-sands of insuperable difficulties and uncertainties Whereas I take my Testimonialists tardy Sect. 54. in making it an infamous and pernicious errour against the Divine Authority of Scriptures to say that a superstruction is not a foundation or that the act of believing being built upon the foundation of Religion cannot be this foundation it selfe with what acumen thinke ye doth this novice-undertaker bring off himselfe and his fellow adventures from the shelfe of this malicious absurdity For your argument saith he page 8. 9. Christ is the foundation and therefore not any act of man as the believing of the Scriptures 't is very false and feeble What man is it a very false and feeble Argument to infer that because Abraham begat Isaac therefore Isaac was Abraham's Son Or thus Isaac was the Son of Abraham therefore he was not the Son of Moses is this a false feeble argument too Or is not this an argument of the same calculation pregnancy and frame The timber of an house is part of the superstruction and is built upon the foundation therefore it is not the foundation it selfe Faith is an act of man built upon the foundation of Religion therefore it is not this foundation it selfe If Mr. Ienkin's fore-head will serve him to call these false and feeble arguments gape against ovens hereafter who will and let those undertake to prove that a mans eyes are not his eares who have a minde to trifle away their time or know not how to doe God or men better service with it Mr. Ienkin by such couragious expressions and sayings as these superstructions are foundations 't is very false and feeble to say otherwise that the Covenant hath done good to the Kingdome a Busie Bishop p. 9. that I by denying the Scriptures feare not to destroy the word of Truth b Page 10. that men that are dead assume to themselves titles in print c Page 11. that I dare not come neere an expression of dislike to errour d Page 11. that Master Edwards is a man of blessed memory e Page 12. that to advise men not to make errour and herefie of what they please cannot prove them to be such is to advise them to believe nothing or to put them to believe nothing f Pag. 13. 14. that because there is nothing in the world so certain as matters of Faith g Ibid. therefore there is nothing more certaine then that I deny the Authority of the Scriptures and that naturall men have no power at all to good supernaturall c. that Doctrina salutaris signifies the Law h Page 42. of nature that Gentes ante revelatum eis Christum verae justiciae fuisse compotes doth not signifie that the Gentiles before Christ was revealed unto them were partakers or obtainers of true righteousnesse but of the duties of righteousnesse commanded in the law i Page 43. Mr. Jenkin I say by the frequency of such valorous and couragious sayings and reasonings as these for I omit twenty more and ten of as high a resolution as these hath inspired me also with courage and resolution to count it strength eough for me to sit still the next time he riseth up against me By a like line of learning Sect. 55. reason and truth with which he measured my former errour so voted in the Testimonie concerning the Scriptures at last could make nothing of it but a Truth in processe of discourse he attempts the measuring of my second errour also for so it pleaseth the Colledge of Dictators to adjudge it concerning the naturall mans free will and power to good supernaturall for thus that Facultas Theologica thought good to head it The difference between his deportment and acquitment of himselfe in the one and in the other consists only or chiefly in this that as Jerusalem justified her two sisters Samaria and Sodome by multiplying her abhominations more than they k Ezek. 16. 51. 52. so hath hee qualified the hard aspect of his un-christian and un-clerk like behaviour in traversing the former point with that super-abundant extravagancy in both wherein he utters himselfe in managing the latter As for his un-christian dealings in affirming contrary to the certificate of his own conscience so many most notorious broad-fac'd falshoods untruths knowledg hath been taken of them and given in part under the first head Concerning his ridiculous empty and absurd reasonments and other puerllities of this nature we shall for the present only give a transient brief account of them intending a more full and through discussion of the controversie in due time the great disposer of all things not gainsaying First one of his first-born arguments to prove it an errour in me to hold that a naturall man hath any power to good supernaturall as to repent believe c. is that herein I lovingly joyne hands with the Arminians the Remonstrants a Busie Bishop p. 28. that the Arminions were my Schoolmasters b Page 30. again that I and my masters the Remonstrants will not part c Page 31. This cabbage he boyles and re-boyles and boyles again over and over I know not how often sets it before his Readers as one
that gives me the least countenance in any error I cite the words not so much by way of countenance either in any Error or Truth as of concurrence this onely with Truth But what childling but Mr. Jenking would have rais'd the dust of such a ridiculous demand up such an occasion But it may be he redeemes his reputation by that which followeth if he doth it is with a nihil minus Mr. Ball saith he saith and that truly that unwillingnesse to beleeve hinders a man from believing but he doth not say that any man of himselfe can be willing But Mr. Jenkin when I tell you that Mr. Ball speakes of Apples why doe you by way of answer tell me that he doth not speake of Oysters Who ever said that any man of HIMSELFE could be willing to beleeve Or that Mr. Ball should affirme any such thing The ridiculousnesse of the expression a man cannot be willing is enough to acquit any judicious man from the guilt of such an assertion But what if Mr. Ball doth not say that any man of HIMSELFE can be willing to beleeve Doth this hinder but that he may say every whit as much as I say or as my opinion importeth Moses doth not say Gen. 1. 1. that Babylon is fallen but yet he saith that in the beginning God made Heaven and Earth Therefore if the doctrine that lieth upon me to prove be either this There is a God or this God is the great Architect of the world or the like I may very properly for the confirmation of either cite Gen. 1. 1. where Moses saith In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth though he doth not here say that Babylon is fallen Where did Mr. Jenkin ever meet with any such assertion or opinion of mine as this that Man of HIMSELFE can be willing to beleeve As Christ sometimes said to the Jewes If I should say I know him not I should be a lyar like unto you a John 8. 55. So say I to Mr. Jenkin If I should say or hold that Man of himself could be willing to beleeve I should be as absurdly erroneous as He and his partners are in many of their Doctrines My sense and opinion as to the point in question is this that naturall men have such endowments from God and such a gracious assistance or concurrence of God with them for the acting of these endowments in order to repentance and beleeving that did they act according to their power means vouchsafed unto them they might repent and beleeve As for any will or willingnesse in such men to do either I mean either to repent or to beleeve I never asserted it much lesse that they had any such will or willingnesse as this of themselves My opinion as to this particular scltarly this That upon the first motion rising up of the will in a true and reall willingnesse to repent and beleeve men cease to be any longer Naturall men and become regenerate God in this case accepting the will for the deed Now whether Mr. Ball in the words cited by me doth not in cleare and pregnant importance say every whit as much as this let men without brasse on their forehead and blindnesse in their eyes judge No man saith he is hindered from beleeving through the difficulty or unreasonablenesse of the command Certainly a man hath power to doe that from the doing whereof he is not hindered by any difficulty relating to the performance of it If the command of God wherein he commands men to beleeve hath no such difficulty in it whereby they are hindered from obeying it have not men power to obey it and consequently to beleeve Besides though Mr. Ball doth not say that Naturall men of themselves cannot be willing to beleeve no more than I say it yet he saith that which clearly supposeth that such men want no power no not of being willing or of making themselves willing to beleeve For if there be no such difficulty in the Command he speaks of by w ch naturall men are or need be hindered from obeying it it must needs follow that there is no such difficulty in it neither but that such men may be willing to obey it inasmuch as there is an absolute impossibility for men to act or do that w ch is unpossible for them to wil. Men indeed may suffer what it is impossible they should be willing or make thēselves willing to suffer but they cannot be said to act or do or to be able to act or do but onely what is possible for them to wil or to make themselves willing to do And this is the apex utmost point of what I hold touching the natural mans free will or power to good supernaturall wherein it is most evident either that Mr. Balls judgement was fully commensurable with mine or else incommensurable with his own words Besides when Mr. Ball saith That a man doth not beleeve because he will not hee doth not resolve his non-beleeving or unbeliefe into any weaknesse or deficiency of power in him to will or to make himselfe willing as Mr. Jenkin would imply but into his will it selfe into the actuall and present frowardnesse and indisposition of his will by reason whereof it voluntarily chuseth to continue in unbeliefe whereas the nature of it is such yea and the grace of God in conjunction with it is such yea and a thousand ingagements upon it and motives round about it are such that it both ought and might as voluntarily chuse the contrary viz. a purpose and resolution to beleeve or which is the same to steere an effectuall course of meanes for believing But just such work as he makes in interpreting Mr. Balls words Sect. 59. to demonstrate their non-concurrence with me in my opinion or rather much worse he makes also in a like attempt upon the passages cited by me from M. Bucer and such work as hee makes in this attempt through the steadinesse and Vniformity of his hand he makes the like in construing my citations from the Fathers As it is said of Joshua that as he had done to Hebron and Libnah and to her King so hee did to Debir and her King * Iosh 10. 39. so doth Mr. Jenkin strike the same unpartial stroke in dealing with all my quotations as he deales by M. Ball and his words so he deals by M. Bucer and his words and so again with Austin and his words and with Hierome and his words hee leaves nothing of their native sense or savour remaining To insist upon the particularities of every story were to require more in patience of the Reader than I could recompence him in weight or worth of matter Manifesta rotae vestigia cernas The prints made by his wheeles do plainly tell That gone he is a way which doth not well Fourthly Sect. 60. whereas he troubles himselfe with quoting severall sentences out of Mr. Ball Bucer Austin c. of a contrary import
as he after his weak manner imagineth to that opinion which I affirm to be asserted by them in the passages cited respectively by me I would gladly know of him what is the distinct sound that this trumpet maketh or to what part he intends to saile with this wind Certain I am that what he doth in this kinde hath no manner of tendency in it to disable the pertinency of the words or passage cited by me in regard of my purpose or intendment in these citations My intent and drift in citing these Authors was not to prove or so much as to insinuate that they no where else in their writings delivered themselves with any seeming contrariety to the substance or import of the respective places cited by me but onely to shew and prove that the opinion asserted by me in opposition to Mr. Jenkin and his Testimonying Consistory was neither so irrationall nor so farre distant from truth but that men of worth of sound judgement and much learning formerly had embraced it yea and had left it upon record in their writings that they judged it to be a truth at least that they thus judged when they made the record So that unlesse Mr. Jenkin can prove out of the writings of Mr. Ball M. Bucer c. that they were at that time when they wrote those respective passages cited by me of a contrary judgement to the tenor purport and contents of them hee shall but beat the aire in any attempt what soeuer to separate between me and my end in these citations What the genuine and proper tendency of these his counter quotations is is elsewhere declared and proved to be nothing else but only the breaking as it were the bones and strength of the authority of these Authors and consequently the easing of the Truth in many points of the burthen and weight of their Authority which lies heavie upon her and keeps her from lifting up her head in the world with so much freedome and dispatch as otherwise in all likelihood she might doe Fifthly Sect. 61. if the information were worth a Readers time to peruse it were easie to shew how irrelative to his purpose the greatest part if not the whole number of all his quotations are there being very few of them if any but that Reason and good Grammar and Lexicons being the Interpreters I can willingly subscribe unto And yet how considerable a part of his inconsiderable Pamphlet labours under this vanity a Busie Bishop page 44. So that he will very pertiently serve for an example to his own Rule A child can blurre paper Sixthly Sect. 62. how like himselfe is he and acts he in telling me that my quotations out of the Fathers are threed bare quotations commonly made use of by the Jesuites and Arminianes b Page 46. Are not quotations from the Scriptures made use of by them both and that much more frequently than any of those sayings cited by me from the Fathers Will he say that the Scriptures become threed bare by being so frequently quoted as they are by pretenders to Truth on every side If any of the illustrious sayings of his book were quoted a thousand times over by a thousand men I beleeve he would not complaine of their being made threed-bare hereby Howsoever the question is not among wise men whatsoever it may be among Novices and shuttle-heads whether quotations have been oft used or no nor yet by whom they have been used but whether they carry the sense and importance of that opinion or conclusion in them for the credit and confirmation whereof they are used He is ever and anon up with Jesuits Arminians Remonstrants but I can hardly beleeve that this great talker of Robin Hood ever shot in his Bow Jesuits and Remonstrants are halfe as bad as Modall Propositions in Logick de quibus as the saying is non gustabit Asinus Seventhly Sect. 63. whereas he vapours in pitie towards me telling me that my mistake was pitifull Busie Bishop p. 48 in saying that the question between Pelagius and the Fathers was not whether man bad freedome of will in respect of good or evill but whether men notwithstanding their freedome of will did not still stand in need of the adjutory of grace c. and undertakes to inform me better viz. that the question between the said parties was not whether the will did stand in need of the adjutory of Grace for the performance of good but what kind of adjutory it was c. First the words of Austin are expresly contrary to this his information Dicat Pelagius saith he per gratiam nos posse praestare legem Dei pax est Construe Mr. Jenkin or let Mr. Vicars help you it may be he is better at construing than at making Latine Ask Mr. Vicars whether this be not the English of Austins Latine Let Pelagius say that by grace we may perform the Law of God and we are friends or it is peace If Austin offered the right hand of fellowship to Pelagius upon this condition that he would grant that by Grace i. by the Adjutory of Grace men might or had power to perform the Law of God certainly that which occasioned the distance between them was that Pelagius denied the necessity of grace or of the Adjutory of grace for performance of the Law of God which Austin contended for But 2 o What if in processe of dispute and after a long ventilation of the controversie between them the difference came to settle in that point wherein he placeth it and that Austin would not be satisfied unlesse Pelagius would grant the Adjutory of Grace by way of an invincible and undeclinable working of good in us doth it follow therfore it stuck here between them at the first or in the beginning of the controversie Who knows not but that skirmishers especially if the velitation or incounter continues long often shift and change their ground But by Mr. Jenkins Logick it seemes hee is pitifully if not palpably mistaken who saith that ever Mr. Vicars was a child because now he is a man or that the Sun was but two houres high at six in the morning because it is eight houres high at noone 3 o. If the question between them was that which Mr. Jenkin seems to assert viz. whether God doth not invincibly and indeclinably draw or work upon the will that is as I understand it so that the will must of necessity follow will it or nill it be it never so obstinate or resolved to the contrary then it could not be I mean the question between them could not be what kind of Adjutory the will did stand in need of but whether it stood in need onely of an Adjutory or compulsory For can that be called an Adjutory or help to another for the performance of what he is not able to do alone w ch necessitates or compell's him to doe it whether he will or no If my will
be unwilling to consent God shal come in with such an unresistible force or power upon me which shall ravish my will and force it to consent contrary to the present bent and posture of it this would not be adjuvare to aid or help forward my will to a consenting but cogere to compell or force it to consent whether it would or no nor could my consent upon such terms be called the act of my will but of the power which extorted or enforced it Suppose Mr. Jenkin having taken some just offence at the proceedings of the Classe he speakes of * Preface pag. 3. should grow into an utter aversnesse of meeting them in their Sessions any more If in this case some stout Porter should surprise him hoyse him up upon his shoulder and so carry him by main strength and against his will to the Classicall Consistory would he look upon this Porter or his act in carrying him as an Adjutory or help to convey him to his Classe But 4 o. If by his invincible and indeclinable work of grace upon the will he means onely such a work which the will hath no power to decline or to hinder God from working or exercising in it or upon it pax est as to this point Mr. Jenkin and I shall be no more two Grace questionlesse doth work upon the will invincibly and undeclinably in such a sense no creature hath any power to prohibit or impede God from working upon his will either in what kinde or to what degree he pleaseth 5 o. Whereas Austin as he saith makes a twofold adjutory to good the one without which a good work is not done the other by which and through which a thing is done adding that the Pelagians in granting the former never satisfied Austin because denying the latter by this addition he makes Austin ignorant of his own satisfaction For Austin requires but this as a true confession of the grace of God viz. for a man so to confesse it as not to question but that nothing at all appertaining to godlinesse and true righteousnesse CAN BE DONE WITHOVT IT a Ac per hoc gratiam Dei quâ charitas Dei diffunditur in cordibus nostris per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis fic confiteatur qui vult veraciter confiteri ut omninò nihil boni fine illâ quod ad pietatem pertinet veramque justitiam fieri posse non dubitet Aug. de gratia Christi cap. 26 Yea most evident it is if there be any tolerable consistencie in the writings of this Father concerning the Pelagian controversie that the main difference between him and Pelagius at least during the heat of the contention was Whether the Aajutory of grace was simply and absolutely necessary which was his opinion for the inabling of the will to doe that which is good and pleasing unto God or necessary onely by way of accommodation and facilitation for such a performance which was the sence of Pelagius b Non quomodo iste Pelagius qui cum dicit propreâ—â—à dari gratiaÌ„ ut quod à Deo praecipitur faciliù impleatur quid de 〈…〉 satis ostendit scilicet quod etiam sine illâ etsi minùs facilè fieri tamen quod divinitùs praecipitur potest In libre quippe ad virginem sacram cum dicit Divinam mereamur gratiam ut facilius nequam Spiritui sancti Spiritus auxilio resistanâ— significat protectò quid sapiat ut quid enim hoc verbum interposuit id est facilius Volens utique credi tantas esse naturae vires quas extollendo praecipitat ut etiam fine auxilio Spiritus sancti etsi minus facile tamen aliquo modo nequam Spiritui resistatur Aug. de gratiâ— Christi Cap. 27. Yea the very truth is that all things duly considered and compared both what Austin hath left in writing concerning his own judgement and demands in the controversie and what he reporteth as given in and granted first or last by Pelagius the difference between them in conclusion was very little if any at all But 6 o. And lastly whereas he feares as he saith that I deny such an aâ—jutory of grace by and through which a thing is done c Sed etiam hic vult intelligi Pelagius ad hoc esse auxilium ut facilius fiat per gratiam quod etsi minus facile tamen putat fieri praeter gratiam Item in eodem libro alio loco ut quod per liberum inquit homines facere jubentur arbitrium facilius possint implere per gratiam Tolle facilius non solum plenus verumetiam sanus est sensus si ita dicatur ut quod per liberum facere jubentur homines arbitrium possint implere per gratiam Cùm aureÌ„ facilius addit c. ibid cap. 29. I must tell him that 〈◊〉 feare is as vain here as his confidence is elsewhere Unhappy man that neither feare 's nor faith's but without ground or cause I freely acknowledge yea have allwayes taught and publickly asserted such an Adjutory of Grace not onely without which a good work is not done but by and through which a thing yea every good work which is done is done Onely let Mr. Jenkin take this mite from me and cast it into the treasury of his understanding that such an Adjutory of Grace by and through which a thing is done doth not imply an absolute necessity of the effecting of that which yet is effected and done by and through it Nor was Austin himselfe doubtlesse of any other mind when he preached this doctrine that it was in the power of man through the adjutory of God whether he would consent to the Devill or no d Et ideo cum per Dei adjutorium in potestate tuâ sit utrùm consentias Diabolo quare non magis Deo quà m ipse obtemperare deliberas Aug. Hom. 12. Nor did he ever that either I read or heard of nor I beleeve Mr. Jenkin himselfe retract this doctrine but stood by it to the last Certain I am that if he preach'd what he wrote and wrote what is printed in his name he preach'd the same Doctrine for substance over and over He indeed saith hee speaking of the Devill giveth counsell but God assisting or helping it 's our part or it belongeth unto us either to chuse or refuse what he suggesteth e Dat quidem ille Diabolus confilium sed Deo auxiliante nostrum est vel eligere vel repudiare quod suggerit ibid. And again So then both sin and well-doing are in the power or liberty of the will f Est igitur peccatum rectè factum in libero voluntatis arbitrio Aug. de 83. Quaest Quaest 24. Eighthly Sect. 64. whereas in one place he doth very freely and friendly all me that I know not what Manicheisme is and p. 48. that it proceeds either from unparallel'd impudency or inexcuseable ignorance that I charge the
assured he is that should be have their stroke it would be in the dark This confidence of his may very well be allowed him For he that is never out of the darke may be fully assured that if he be strucke he shall receive the blow or stroke in the dark A fish if he can but scape danger in the water needs not feare trouble in any other element Whereas he adds I desire them to know that I desire to say I can die c. Was the man afraid that saying I can die my followers should not know that he desired to say it or was he jealous that in case such a saying should come from him they would suspect that he did but dissemble therein that it came not from any truth of desire within him Either of these jealousies are extreamly simple and empty For though a man may very reasonably doubt whether Mr. Jenkin can doe as he saith when he saith I can die yea and whether when he saith he can die his heart doth not reprove him for so saying as being conscious to his tendernesse in that kind yet why saying it he should be thought not to desire to say it himselfe I think cannot well imagine the least reason But whatsoever his intent or meaning was the words are so unâ—avoury that no salt of any construction whatsoever will give any rellish or taste of reason unto them And yet this Neophyte with all his own non-sensicall sayings in that end of the wallet which hangs at his back presumes from the Tribunall of his understanding to give judgement in cases of sense and non-sense Having said Pref. p. 3. I can die he adds I cannot be silent It seemes hee is troubled with the unhappy infirmity of that talkative man in Athens long since of whom a wiser man gave this character saying of him that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. unable to be silent but most unable to speak That which yet followes Sect. 89. is liker Mr. Jenkin than what went be-before Pref. p. 3. When the truths are struck at saith he which Iâ—â—ish not to out-live How piously rationalâ— is the man in his wishes He wishes not to out-live him that liveth for evermore A very modest and mortified wish Is he afraid that the truths of God however struck at should die Indeed according to his absurd sense and notion of the word and truth of God making them nothing but paper and Ink and the workmanship of mens hands either in printing or transcribing they are mortall and may die All the Bibles in the world may be burnt with fire or perish otherwise but the word and truth of God cannot be burnt or perish As Jesus Christ the substantiall Word and Truth of God is the same yesterday to day and for ever a Heb. 13. 8. however he be opposed or struck at in the world so are all his words whether uttered immediatly by himselfe in the dayes of his flesh or suggested to his Pen-men before or after by his Spirit let mâ—n misscribe them mis-print them mis-understand them mis-interpret them handle them how they will turn them upside down yet will they be the same full of the same truth yesterday to day and for ever Is not the man think you a profound Theologue to be afraid of out-living the truths of God Or if his meaning be that he wishes not to out-live the free open and State-countenanced profession of these Truths i. that the profession of Truth may be free without danger countenanced by the State whilst he lives in the world I cannot but commend him for not being so unnaturall unto himselfe as to hate his own flesh What carnall formall or luke-warm Professor is there that will not give the right hand of fellowship to Mr. Jenkin in this wish Or if his meaning be that upon supposition that the Truths he speakes of shall be publickly opposed discountenanced persecuted he had rather die before than live to partake with the Truth in these her afflictions this argueth that he is no good Souldier of Jesus Christ Thou therefore saith Paul to Timothy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 endure hardnesse as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ a 2 Tim. 2. 3. And a little before Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel b 2 Tim. 1. 8. He doth not say to him In case the Gospel shall come to be opposed disgraced hated persecuted in the world desire rather to die or wish thy selfe out of the world than to stand up in defence of it or to partake of the afflictions which attend upon it If a souldier when the enemy comes on the battell is now ready to be joyned should come to his Captain and say Sir I wish rather to die than to fight I wish I may not out-live my ease and peace were this gallant or martiall-like I perceive Mr. Jenkin hath no minde nor courage to follow the Truth longer than shee hath Fields and Vineyards to bestow upon him or opportunity to make him a Captain When he saith page 6. that I cannot say that I have been opposed by them he speaks of himselfe and his Colleagues the Subscriptioners in God way Sect. 90. did he apprehend the most obvious and plain sense and importance of his words Or was it his intent to confesse ingenuously that the men he speaks of never opposed me in Gods way i. with meeknesse sobriety strength of argument c. but in their own way viz. with passion precipitation peremptorinesse or at the best with empty childish and loose arguments which stand off from the opinions which they pretend to prove by them as if they were afraid to come neere them or to own them Of which kinde of argument Mr. Jenkin hath mustered up a small body in his pamphlet I might without much labour instance in many but by seeing only two or three play before you you may judge of the dexterity and valour of the whole troop Page 28. he affirmeth that by my opinion wherein I affirm That if God should not make men capable of beleeving they who are condemned would have their mouthes opened against Gods proceedings I must needs make Gods soveraignty to be impaired with mans ability and to be limited to mans sinfully voluntarily contracted impotencie Might he not wel-neer w th as much semblance of reason strength argue thus If I hold that Abraham begat Isaac I must needs make Abel the murtherer of his brother For what greater affinity is there between my premises and his deduction or conclusion drawn from them If it be not consistent with the wisdome of God or with the goodnesse of God to require faith and repentance of men unlesse enabled by him to exhibit and perform them doth it any wayes follow that God must needs lose his soveraignty by not requiring them Doth he lose his soveraignty by
in by themselves 2 o. concerning the particulars wherewith they are burthened in the Pulpit Incendiary I have severall times heard the Author say that he can produce very competent and â—uostantiall witnesses for the proof of them all yea and of many things more of every whit as unchristian a character and import as the vilest and worst of these Pag. 17. Whilst labouring in the fire to find a knot in a rush Sect. 127. a contradiction I mean in a faire consistency as the Reader may soone perceive if it be worth his time to view the passage he deales so kindly with the truth as to spare it twice together For first he saith that I stile the Subscribers learned and pious men as if generally and without exception of any I so stiled them all whereas my expression wherein I use those words is clearly partitive and onely imports a supposall of some to be such 2 o. He saith that I instance in Dr. Gouge Mr. Calamy Mr Case Mr. Cranford is men of great names whereas I speak only of great names of man not any thing at all of men of great names there being no such expression or juncture of words in all that book Nor 3 o. do I so directly instance in the foure persons he speaks of for great names of men as he implieth But 4 o. and lastly whereas he seems very desirous to imply for here his sentence scarce senseth well that I Instance in the said foure men as learned and pious he drawes the face of my words quite awry and seeks to represent me to these men at least to some of them as if I had anintent to abuâ—e them Pag 19 He makes me a transâ—râ—ssor in chiefe Sect. 128. only for mentioning a report or information that was brought to me concerning another name by which Sion Colledge or the house now called Sion Colledge was anciently known For I affirm nothing positively concerning either the credit or truth of the information onely once alluding to â—he information I confesse I call it Sinon Colledge Was this so treasonable a practice against the majesty of Sion Colledge be it supposed that this and not the other was the ancient name of it though I have no ground at all from any thing that C. B. hath yet said to suspect the credit of my information a The house that hath for these 24 or 25 years last past been knowne onely by the name of Sion Colledge might very possibly notwithstanding be anciently called Sinon House And if so to say that the ancient Records mention it by the name not of Sion but of Sinon Colledg is not the breadth of a lana caprina out of the way of Truth For that House the present â—olledge being â—aterially the same there wants onely a faire explication to make the saying stand right streight in point of truth as to deserve a tree of fiftie cubits high or to have such a Viall of wrath or such a flood of fiery indignation poured out upon it as this great Rhadamanth hath prepared and decreed in these words Therefore viz. because the Records will speake for themselves i. because the Crow is black and not white Therefore saith hee I know none but himselfe who doth boldly take authority and delights in it to make errors that hath THVS IMPVDENTLY changed the name at pleasure c. It seemes C. B. knowes not himselfe otherwise he might know another besides me who farre more IMPVDENTLY than I changeth names at pleasure For 1 o when a person or thing hath two or more names or appellations he that calleth them by one of these names and not by the other doth not hereby change the name of it When Paul called Peter by the name of Cephas as he doth 1 Cor. 1. 12 did he change his name at pleasure especially calling him Peter elswhere as I usually call C. B. his beloved palace where hee thinkes his HONOR dwelleth by the Name of Sion Colledge Therefore it is a most frivolous and false charge upon me to say that I change the name of his Colledge because I once or sometimes call it by a name by which it is not so vulgarly knowne or called How much more shamelesly false is it to say that I either IMPVDENTLY or at pleasure change this Name when as first I use it but once and 2 o have the ground and inducement of such an information asserting the legitimacie of that Name by which I call it the authority whereof I know no man able â—o disable Secondly though he saith here that he knowes none but me that hath so IMPVDENTLY changed the name of that pleasure of his eyes Sion Colledge yet a few lines before hee had said that he thinkes he knoweth another As for the information saith hee which you intimate out of the ancient Records I THINK it came originally from a famous Atheist Surely this person whom he calls an Atheist by a worse change of a name I wisse than that of Sinon for Sion Colledge yea a famous Atheist whom he susspects for the Author of my information must needs be known unto him But 3 o And lastly to this is not C. B. himself a far more Impudent changer of names and this at pleasure then I He pretends not to lay any other changing of names to my charge but only of a dead edifice Nor is the Name pretended to be given by me by way of exchange any wayes reproachfull or disgracefull unto it but how oft doth he change the Names of living men that of his brethren in the most holy profession of Jesus Christ and this for Names disparaging and stigmaticall Pag. 1. He cals me by the Name of an Apostate member c. In the same page he calls the Author of the Pulpit Incendiary and me together by the name of Gracchi those audacious Gracchi Page 13. he calls me by the name of Bishop John page 15. Presbyter John Page 2. the Mock-visitor of Sion Colledge to omit many other such changes of names as these which at his meere pleasure he gives me for mine own But this is he that complains of so much of the Dragon and so little of the Saint in other mâ—ns writings But the man containeth not himselfe within the narrow compasse of the indignation uttered against me for my loud-crying sin of changing the name of Sion Colledge as you have heard in the words transcribed but advanceth the motion of his passion and pen together thus And now Mr. Goodwin be serious speake the truth and shame the D. D. Did the Lord Jesus Christ the great Bishop of our soules administer this Piece of your Monitory Visitation No C. B. nor did any man I know of ever say that hee did Or was not your hand guided by another spirit which you well know without my naming You mean I presume that Spirit by which your own hand was guided in drawing up this your vindicative vindication Consider
the whole Treatise to prove them to be such why I say doth he not regulate and measure the sence of that one place by the constant and expresse tenor of the rest of the Treatise But Mr. Jenkin I see hath a weight and a weight an Ephah and an Ephah one to accommodate him in selling another in buying but he shall do well to remember that both these are an abomination unto the Lord Prov. 20. 10. Thirdly Sect. 36. concerning that very particular sence wherein I doe indeed and I think all intelligent and considering men with me deny the Scriptures to be the word of God and foundation of Religion I expresse my selfe thus p. 15. of the said Discourse Though I doe not beleeve that any Originall Exemplar or Copy of the Scriptures now extant amongst us is so purely the word of God but that it may very possibly have a mixture of the word of men in it yet I confidently beleeve that the providence of God and the love which he beares to his own glory as well in the condemnation of the wicked and unbeleevers as in the salvation of his chosen have so farre interposed and watched over the great and gracious Discovery and Revelation which he hath made of himselfe by Jesus Christ unto the world that those books or writings wherein it was in all the branches particularities of it at first imparted unto the world neither as yet have suffered nor ever shall suffer any such violation mutilation or falsification in any kinde either through the ignorance negligence or malice of men but that they will be able sufficiently yea abundantly to furnish the world men of all sorts and conditions with the knowledge of all things necessary to be knowne either for their honourable and Christian deportment in this present world or for their everlasting salvation and exaltation in that which is to come By which words it clearly appeares that though in a sense limited and explained by me I deny the Scriptures to be the foundation of Religion yet I hold and assert them to CONTAIN the Foundation of Religion i. those gracious counsels and intendments of God unto the world by Jesus Christ upon which Christian Religion stands and is built Why then did Mr. Jenkin Anania's it with my opinion and keep back one part of it Fourthly Sect. 37. concerning my said opinion for which I beare the calumniatory charge of Mr. Jenkins pen I write thus pag. 17. of the said Discourse Seventhly and lastly the TRUE AND PROPER Foundation of Christian Religion is not INK AND PAPER nor any booke or bookes not any writing or writings whatsoever whether Translations or Originals but that substance of matter those gracious counsels of God concerning the salvation of the world by Iesus Christ which indeed are represented and declared both in Translations and Originals but are essentially and really distinct from both and no wayes for their Natures Beings depending on either Why then did not M. Ienkin charging me with denying the Scriptures to be the foundation of Religion as with a dangerous error mention and relate this my opinion truly and fully with such explications of mine about it without which it is unpossible for any man to know what mine opinion was in this behalfe Particularly why did he not charge me with denying the Scriptures to be THE TRUE AND PROPER Foundation of Religion Why doth he leave out those words THE TRUE AND PROPER which are essentiall to the true stating of that opinion of mine which he pretends to represent Again secondly why doth he not plainly acknowledge and declare that when I deny the Scriptures to be the foundation of Religion I meane by the Scriptures the INK AND PAPER wherewith whereon they are either written or printed and what ever else is found in them or appertaining to them besides the substance of matter and those gracious counsels of God concerning the salvation of the world by Iesus Christ which are contained and represented in them this being an essentiall ingredient also in that opinion of mine but it may be the fifth rib of Mr. Ienkins Religion hath need of the pious frauds of the Papists for her corroboration and support and can you then blame him for a little logerdemain now and then Fifthly Sect. 38. why doth this young Academick contrary to the principles of Logick and all regular Argumentation yea in full conformity with the weaknesse of illiterate Disputers deny the conclusion without denying or answering any thing at all to the premises I lay down severall Arguments and Grounds of Reason to prove the Scripture not to be the foundation of Religion in the sence wherein I deny it so to be and he without any answer or satisfaction given to so much as any one of these Arguments denies my conclusion and votes it for an error destructive to the foundation of Religion It is like the bent and figure of the fifth rib of his Religion required the Anomalie of these proceedings at his hand But Sixthly Sect. 39. doth not himselfe distinguish p. 7. and affirme that in a sense the Scriptures are not the foundation of religion Else what is the English of these words in terminis his own May not Christ be the onely foundation in point of mediation and the Scripture in point of manifestation and discovery Hath the man a Fungus a Mushrome in stead of caput humanum upon his shoulders to quarrell with me for denying in a sense the Scriptures to be the foundation of Religion and yet to deny as much himselfe Or did I ever or doe I any where deny them to be such a foundation in respect of representation and discovery i. to represent and discover him who is the foundation of Religion by way of mediation Or doth or can this young Pragmatico produce from any writings of mine any jot letter syllable word sentence of any such import I confesse that to call the Scriptures the foundation of Religion in point of manifestation or discovery taking the words manifestation and discovery properly in their usual and known significations is as ridiculous and absurd a metaphor as the stiling of Prerbytery the fifth rib of Religion For can he that onely manifests makes known and discovers unto me where such or such an house or towne stands or what the situation or manner of building of either is be in any tolerable construction or sense called the foundation of either Mr. Jenkin thinks that he manifests and discovers the feeblenesse of Sion Colledge visited is he therefore the foundation either of the book or of the supposed or rather pretended feeblenesse which he discovers But to affirm as he doth the Scripture to be the onely foundation of Religion in point of manifestation and discovery is not onely absurdum absurdo absurdius but most Atheologicall also and unsound in point of truth For did not God manifest and discover Christ or Christ himself whilst yet there were no
Scriptures or bookes written concerning him The Apostle Peter informs us that Christ by his Spirit went and preached unto the Spirits in prison which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah * Pet. 3. 19 20. c. Certainly the Scriptures were not extant in the dayes of Noah Moses who was born divers hundreds of years after being the first Pen-man of them Yet Christ by his Spirit even then preached unto men Did he preach without manifesting or discovering himselfe or the foundation of Religion unto them I mean in such a sense as the Scriptures afterwards manifested and discovered him If he did in the dayes of Noah manifest and discover himself to the world then are not the Scriptures the only no nor yet the first foundation of Religion no not in point of manifestation or discovery Yea if the Scriptures be the only foundation in point of manifestation and discovery how came all the Hagiographers and pen-men of the Scripture by that knowledge they had of God and of Christ and of Religion Did they ground their knowledge of these upon the Scriptures whilst as yet they were not And whereas he demands of me not more imperiously than simply but both sufficiently why I alledge 1 Cor. 3. 11. Other foundation c. to prove that Christ is the only foundation if I doe not ground my knowledg and beliefe hereof upon this place I desire to require his kindnes with this demand of him why did our Saviour Christ cite the testimony of John to prove himself to be the Messias b John 5. 32. 33 34. if hee did not ground his knowledg beliefe of his being the Messiah upon John's testimony One good turne the saying is requires another if Mr. Jenkin will pipe unto me in answering my demand I will dance unto him in answering his In the meane time what if I should prevent him with this answer that I doe ground my knowledge and beliefe of Christs being the only foundation upon 1 Cor. 3. 11 What followes from hence That I acknowledge the Scriptures to be in a regular sense the foundation of Christian Religion Poore man when did I ever deny it My discourse of the Scriptures is as hath beene lately proved full of this assertion If any thing followes besides this narra mi fili fili mi Batte Had not the man now thinke we a sore temptation upon him to foame out his owne shame in this most insufferably Thrasonicall demand Is it possible that the known distinction of essendi cognoscendi principium quod et quo or a foundation personall and Scripturall should be hid from this seducer in chiefe I confesse Mr. Jenkin is in no danger of being a Seducer in chiefe unlesse his wits and intellectuals miraculously advance except it be of or amongst such a generation of men and women as Peter resembleth to naturall bruit beasts made to be taken and destroyed a 2 Pet. 2. 22. or Solomons simple ones whose character is to believe every thing b Prov. 14. 15 Well might he ask is it possible that the distinction he speaks of should be hid from me For that which is not hid from him cannot lightly be hid from any other He talks of distinctions but with the Apostles Desirers to be teachers of the law he understands neither what he saith nor whereof he affirmes c 1 Tim. 1. 7. Would he else charge me as he doth a little after with doing wickedly and weakly to oppose Christ and his word when as himselfe as we heard just now opposeth foundations personall to foundations Scripturall What is this but to oppose Christ and his word as much as and in the very same sense wherein I oppose them There is nothing more frequent in Protestant-writers than to distinguish the person of Christ whom from the greek Fathers they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the essentiall or substantiall word from the written word which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word spoken or pronounced and what Novice knows not that in every distinction there is or ought to be an opposition And for his known distinction of essendi cognoscendi which hee so much wonders should be hid from mee he is desired in his next to produce any classique Author that ever used it but himselfe The complexion of it is as if it were of the house and lineage of Mr. Jenkins learning I confesse there is difference enough to make a distinction between esse and cognoscere witnesse Mr. Jenkin himselfe who hath a tall mans portion in the one but scarce a childs in the other But Seventhly Sect. 40. and lastly that the Scriptures whether written or printed are not truly and properly the foundation of Religion I demonstrate in the sight of the Sun to the shame and confution of all those faces which have charged the Assertion and Tenet upon me as an Errour by these arguments First If Religion was founded built stood firme and stable in the world before the Scriptures were then cannot the Scriptures be truly properly the foundation of religion This proposition needs no proof beyond the explication of the terms By the Scriptures I meane the Book or books commonly known by this Name amongst us wherin the gracious counsels of God concerning the salvation of the world by Jesus Christ are declared and expressed either by writing or printing as they were for matter and substance revealed at first by God himselfe unto the first writers or pen-men of them By the foundation of Religion we meane I presume on all hands that which mainly and primarily supports it and without which it cannot stand or have a being among men If Mr. Ienkin meanes any thing else either by Scriptures or by his foundation of Religion I must excuse him from blaming or medling with any opinion of mine concerning the Scriptures or foundation of Religion Therefore I assume But Religion was founded built stood firm stable in the world before the Scriptures were Ergo. This latter proposition besides the native pregnancy and evidence of Truth in it is fully proved by me page 10. of my discourse concerning the Divine Authority of the Scriptures where for dispatch sake I desire the Reader if unsatisfied in this point to enquire after it Secondly Sect. 41. If the foundation of Religion truly and properly so called be unperishable and what cannot be thrown down or deprived of Being then can no booke or bookes whatsoever under heaven and consequently not the Scriptures themselves be this foundation But the foundation of Religion truly and properly so called is unperishable c. Ergo. The Consequence in the Major Proposition is evident because any booke all bookes whatsoever are perishable may bee burnt or consumed by fire or miscary by many other casualties that may possibly befall them The Minor Proposition stands firm upon this bottome viz. that no building or superstruction whatsoever