SOME DISCOURSES UPON Dr. Burnet and Dr. Tillotson Occasioned by the Late FUNERAL SERMON OF THE Former upon the Later Remember how severely he that was Meekness it self treated the Scribes and Pharisees and he having charged his Followers to beware of their Leaven It is Obedience to his Command to search out that Leaven that it may leaven us no more And when any of a Party are so Exalted in their own Conceit as to despise and disparage all others the Love the Ministers of the Gospel owe the Souls of their Flocks obligeth them to Unmask them Dr. Burnet in his Vindication of the Authority Constitution and Laws of the Church of Scotland p. 4. Si quis est qui dictum in se inclementius Existimavit esse sic Existimet Responsum non dictum esse quia laesit prior desinat lacessere Habeo alia multa quae nunc condonabitur Quae proferentur post si perget laedere Terent. in Prolog ante Eunuchum LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCV THE PREFACE IF it surprize the Reader to see so large a Book written against Dr. B. and Dr. T. it will surprize him more to tell him That I could more easily have made it larger than have confined it within this Compass For those Two Gentlemen are not barren Subjects but furnish Matter in choice and plenty for History against themselves and though these Discourses which I have made upon them are not an History yet the Reader will find they are in part Historical and may in some respects serve to inform and entertain inquisitive Searchers after Truth till it may be convenient to publish a compleat History of the Things which some Men have done since the late Revolution in Church and State But besides the many Passages of Story which the Reader will meet with in the following Treatise he will also find I have had occasions to make several incidental Discourses some Theological some Moral and some of a Political Nature to confute or expose the loose Doctrines or Expressions of those Men against whom as I have been provoked to draw up Two several Charges or Informations which somewhat blemish their Honour so I hope I have proved them in every Part by very good Evidence And as some Tryals are longer than others according to the Number and Length of Depositions so if this Book of mine which contains as it were so many Depositions against them hath proved longer than I would have had it that is none of my Fault I know very well it will be called a Libel and a Defamatory Libel but I care not for that since many excellent Books were so miscalled in the Times of former Usurpations which detected the ill Men of those Times and their Hypocrisies and Iniquities to the World And besides to speak properly and justly of the Nature of a Libel all Books ought not to be so called which expose Men's Reputations but such only as expose them falsely injuriously and out of pure malice But this Book though in some Things it blemishes the Fame and Reputation of these Men yet it doth it truly justly and deservedly and so far am I from bearing the Person of the one or the Memory of the other any Malice That had I been acted by that evil Passion I could have written against them both much sooner and have been better provided to write against them now Men that do ill Things openly and with an high Hand though under never so splendid Pretences ought to hear of them especially when they go about to make Saints and Heroes of one another with a Design to cover their own Iniquities and deceive the People When this happens to be the Case Charity to the Peoples Souls and the Love of the Publick obliges all Lovers of Truth and Righteousness to unvizard such Men and expose them in their true Appearance before their credulous and deluded Admirers And as I have endeavoured in the following Discourses to do so by these two popular Divines so I assuâ—e the Reader I have done it purely upon these generous Motives wishing with all my Heart That neither of them had given so many and publick Provocations to undeceive any part of the World by writing such severe Truths I foresee very well what Sorts of Men will set themselves to inveigh against it and how it will ruffle our Funeral Orator and raise a Storm among the Men of his Latitude but I am not solicitous about the Entertainment it will meet with among them in hopes it will do good among some that are misled by them if they are not too far gone and hinder others both now and hereafter from being misled by that Sort of Men. For I have written it not only for the Times present but for Posterity and future Times when I doubt not but Books which do less good now shall then do much more when Libels so miscalled shall be curiously sought after and reprinted in greater Numbers and then inform the penitent World not only what unrighteous Things have then been lately acted among us but by what unrighteous Men and upon what unrighteous Principles they also have been done The Remarks on the late Funeral Sermons c. The Letter to the Author of the Funeral Sermon at Westminster Abby These Discourses not to mention others long since Printed will let Posterity see what kind of Men our Preacher and his Heroe and his Hero's Successor not to mention others were and what pernicious Doctrines were vented by them all and so help to convert the Lovers of Truth as those called Libels in former Times converted many and helped to bring the Nation to its Wits and the exil'd King back to his Throne I could name several of my Acquaintance who were converted by the Libels so called in the Long Usurpation one more particularly who by God's Blessing happen'd to be converted by the accidental Reading of one of the meanest of them and Bishop Hall's Answer to Smectymnuus which was reckoned a dangerous Libel And if these Discourses of mine happen by God's good Providence now or hereafter to disabuse but one mistaken Soul and occasion his Conversion I shall think all the unwilling Pains I have taken in Writing of them very well bestowed I find Mr. Altham in his late Recantation for Licensing Mr. Hill's Book sorrowfully confessing That Dr. Burnet's Honour and Function were much Blacken'd by it but if this Book of mine hath also Blacken'd his Honour it hath Blacken'd it with Matters of Truth and he must blame himself for it who hath given so many just Occasions and Provocations to all Sorts of Men to Blacken him in all Places * See the Character M. L. G. hath given of him in the Advertisement before his Letter to Mons Thavenot and afterwards p. 87 88. both at home and abroad But for his Sacred Function for which I have much more veneration than he hath himself that cannot suffer by what I have said of him because it
are in a Capacity And I appeal to your Conscience whether it be a likelier way to advance Religion by Fighting or Suffering since a carnal Man can do the one and not the other This is a further Proof of that part of the Charge I have drawn up against him in the beginning of the first Chapter of his being a Man of Contradictions to himself and I will beg the Reader 's leave to prove it with a later Testimony In his Funeral Sermon on Dr. Tillotson he censures the deprived Bishops but as I have shewed very unjustly for leaving their Authority with their Chancellors and tendering Oaths by them which they thought unlawful One would think he should not do that himself which he had so publickly objected to them yet having lately declared to a Clergy-man I could name That his Hand should rot off before he gave him Institution at last to prevent an Inconvenience which otherwise must have come upon him he left his Authority with his Chancellor to do it and by him gave him that Institution which he had said with a solemn Imprecation he would never do This Story also shews him to be a Man of great Passions which often hinder him from Writing as well as Speaking cooly and this unhappy Temper of his which is another part of my Charge against him will appear from what he said in a Conference he had with that Clergy-man of whom I here declare I think no worse because he thought so ill of him He began with telling him that he was a Church-robber and that he came over the Wall and not in at the Door Then he proceeded to call him Villain and said he had been guilty of a base and villanous Action worse by much than robbing on the High-way and that he would use his utmost endeavour to keep him out of the Church He further called him Simonaical and Sacrilegious Rascal and said he knew he must give Money to the Bishop of London's Servants to obtain his Orders Then he proceeded to Reflections on the Bishop of London and fell very fouly on the Doctors Commons saying he had procured a Faculty of those Rogues To which when the Gentleman replied That he obtained it from the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury he passionately answered It was the same Thing for that they only granted it for the sake of Money He further told him It should be his continual Business to expose him as long as he lived to his Clergy and that he would render him as black as he was in his Gown and Cassock and take all Opportunities to do it Yet after all this Storm of Fury against him as the worst of Men in his Esteem he gave him Institution by his Chancellor when if he was convinced of his Mistake he ought to have condemned himself for his rash Imprecation and made the Gentleman an honorary Satisfaction for the Injury he had done him by giving him Institution himself But if he persisted in his ill Opinion of him then by his own Rule he ought not to have devolved his Authority upon his Chancellor who did that in his Name and by his Commission and Order which he thought a Sin to do himself The Account the learned Mr. Hill hath given of his Printing his Discourse on the Divinity and Death of Christ much changed and otherwise than he spoke it before his Clergy proves another part of my Charge of his playing Tricks with his own Writings The like I have been assured he did with a Sermon which he preached somewhere in London in which he gave the People an Account what the Convocation was to do And were it not to make a Book of my Preface I could further shew his partial and biassed way of Writing and his proness to write his own Inventions for Truth from some Observations upon his Book of Travels which I have heard a Gentleman of great Reputation lately come from Travelling make upon several Passages in it And when I consider how apt he is to write Lives and to write his own Imaginations and Opinions in them I could not but bewail the Fate of the late honourable Mr. Boyle after that of Bishop Bedel should he also write his Life as Report saith he Designs to do And I cannot but wish for the Honour of that great Man's Memory that his honourable Relations would oblige some Person of unblemished Reputation to write it whom the World hath no reason to suspect even when he writes Truth Having mentioned Bishop Bedel's Life in which I think it is plain our Author had but too great a Part I am obliged to let the World know That I had the remarkable Observations upon it which I have put in my following Discourses out of a M. S. entitled OBSERVATIONS UPON BISHOP BEDEL'S LIFE The first Ground of which were some Observations formerly made upon it by the late learned Mr. Fulman who as I am informed sent them to Dr. Burnet though he was never pleased to take Notice of them and the Reason I think is pretty plain why he did not I must also acknowledge That I had that Account of his foul Dealing with a M. S. in Bennet College from a Learned hand who compared the Printed Copy and the Original together And in truth when one considers what Monsâ—…le Grand Antony Harmar Mr. Fulman and others have animadverted upon our Author 's Historical Works one need not wonder That he who must needs be Conscious to himself of their Discoveries and it may be of more such should speak so much in derogation of History as he lately did to a young Student who hath since given the World (a) Noticia Monastica an excellent Proof of his mighty Genius for Historical Studies and Antiquity Indeed if all Men had written Histories as Dr. Burnet knows he hath done he might well speak against the Study of it as a Thing which is in it self so uncertain and not to be depended upon If he measured other Historians by himself he might well think that all Histories are full of the same Vices that his are and all Historians as little to be trusted upon their own bare Authority as he really is But to pass from his greater to his lesser Works I cannot but here call to mind the Speech which he made for my Lord Russel When he was examined about it as I remember at Council Board he confessed he gave his Lordship the Minutes of it but one is bound in Charity and Respect to his Lordship's Memory to believe that the Doctor made it all and that his Lordship never considered it because it is so like the Doctor in the whole Texture of it having in it something very impertinent something questionable as to the Truth of it and something which looks very like contradicting himself I refer the Reader for what I say to the (b) Entitled the Lord Russel's Speech vindicated London printed for W. Crooke 1683. Paper mentioned in the Margent and
make a Cloak of Religion for Covetousness Ambition and Cruelty They will both Lye Murther Rob and Rebel for holy Church and Religion and there never yet was any Holy League Covenant or Association to begin or carry on Rebellion under the holy Pretence of Religion wherein the Ring-leaders were not Atheists or Enthusiasts and of the Two it is hard to tell which hath done most Mischief in any Kingdom and especially in ours But the Enthusiast makes the more plausible and taking Hypocrite of the Two he can sooner melt into Tears and more naturally counterfeit the Spiritual Man among the People and transform himself with a better Grace into an Angel of Light And one cannot but suppose that he had a great Dose of Enthusiasm in him when he undertook to perswade the late unhappy Princess to invade her Father's Kingdom against the Light of Nature and the Principles of her Education and that he season'd his Perswasives with the Salt of Pharisaical Tears pretended to be shed in Commiseration of the Church of England For it is well known that he hath Tears at Command as Enthusiasts of all Religions have He wept like any Crocodile at Mr. Napleton's Relation of the barbarous Usage which the King met with at Feversham And pray Mr. Napleton said he still wiping his Eyes carry my Duty to the King and let him know my Concern for him Which puts me in mind of a Story that I have heard of that Master-Enthusiast Cromwel who when a Gentleman came to entreat his Excellency That he would give leave that he might have a Lock of the Beheaded King's Hair for an honourable Lady Ah! no Sir saith he bursting into Tears that must not be for I swore to him when he was Living that not an Hair of his Head should Perish I beg my Reader 's Pardon for this Digression of Enthusiasm though I hope it is not altogether impertinent to my Undertaking and now return to shew by other Examples how apt our Preacher or Historian call him which you please is to write his Phansies and Inventions for true History and that he is very little if any Thing at all behind Varillas in this Fault which a Man of Letters especially a Divine that desires to have a lasting Reputation ought to avoid as much as a Tradesman that values his Credit ought to take care not to sell Counterfeit or Sophisticated Goods In his first Volume of his History of the Reformation p. 209. he tells us of Two original Letters the one in Italian and the other in English which the Lady Elizabeth not yet Four years of Age wrote to Queen Jane Seymour when she was with Child of King Edward and that they were both writ in the same hand that she wrote all the rest of her Life These are Two strange and incredible Things First That a Child not yet Four years old should have learned a foreign Language to such a Degree of Perfection as to be able to write Letters in it and Secondly That she should write then so well as never to mend or alter her hand after And to these Two I may add those pretty waggish Conceits in the English Letter which he hath there set down with this marginal Note Her Letter to the Queen not yet Four years of Age. In this Letter she Compliments her Highness upon the Pain it was to her to write her Grace being with Child and then after many other Passages which could not be the first Blossoms of a Child as he thinks these Words follow I cannot reprove my Lord for not doing your Commendations in his Letter for he did it and although he had not yet I will not complain on him for that he shall be diligent to give me knowledg from time to time how his busy Child doth for if I were at his Birth no doubt I would see him beaten for the trouble he hath put you to Now I appeal to any considering Man whether those look like the Conceits of a Child not yet Four years old And none certainly but an Historian so rash and phanciful in his Writings as he is would for this Reason have thought that this Letter was written to the Queen And had he taken time enough to reflect and considered his (a) Q. Eliz. was born Sep. 7. 1533. Cath. Par died in Child-bed of her Daughter in the beginning of Sep. 1548. Record better he would have found that her Highness was not the Queen but Catherine Par and my Lord not the King but the Lord Admiral to whom she was married and by consequence that the Lady Elizabeth was then Fifteen years of Age. How many Lashes must poor Varillas have had without mercy if he had been guilty of such a Blunder I know saith he in his (b) P. 29. Reflections upon him There are a Sort of Men that are much more ashamed when their Ignorance is discovered than when their other Vices are laid open since degenerate Minds are more jealous of the Reputation of their Understandings than of their (c) I suppose he means Sincerity Honour And whether this Discovery touches the Reputation of his Understanding or his Honour most I leave him to judge From hence I pass to Bishop Bedel's Life of which he saith in the Preface That his Part in it was so small that he can scarce assume any Thing to himself but the Copying out of what was put into his Hands by Mr. Clogy And in the (d) P. 175. Book he saith again That Mr. Clogy is much more the Author of it than he is For this we have only his own Word which I profess signifies little with me But to know what was his and what Mr. Clogy's he hath left us to Conjecture though I think few that know his way of Writing will so much as doubt that the Romantick Passages which I am going to cite out of it and which are obtruded upon the World for true History are his own Inventions and not Mr. Clogy's But however though they were Mr. Clogy's he is answerable for them for letting them pass unobserved and unchastised into the World But if they are his own as I am confident they are then let Men of the greatest Candor judge what Censure is fit for a Man that would write his own Imaginations for truth though he had declared in the Preface That Lives were to be written with the Strictness of a severe Historian and not helped up with Invention and that those who do otherwise dress up Legends and make Lives rather than write them To deceive and at the same time to declare against deceiving is double Imposture and Imposition in an Historian But Bishop Bedel it seems was worthy for whom our Historian should dispense with the Laws of History as he (a) 13 Eli. 12. did with an Act of Parliament upon a certain Occasion for reading the 39 Articles It is manifest from the Bishops Letters That he was a Latitudinarian in some
When Bedel came over he brought along with him the Archbishop of Spalata and one Despoline a Physitian who could no longer bear with the Corruptions of the Roman Church c. It was in the Year 1610. that Mr. Bedel return'd with Sir H. Wootton into England and the bringing them over should in all Reason and Decency have been ascribed to the Ambassador rather than his Chaplain but having set him up for a Man that had his own Dislikes to bowing at the Name of Jesus the alternative Reading and Singing of Psalms bowing towards the Altar instrumental Musick in Churches and the use of the Common Prayer in private Families he was resolved to paint him with a Glory and transmit his Memory to after Ages by Fictions as well as true Stories and even rob his Patron of his due Praises to extol him Both these are evident from what he saith of Bedel's bringing over Spalatensis and Despoline for as for the former it is evident from his Consilium Profectionis That he did not come over with Bedel it bearing date at Venice 1616 near 6 Years after Mr. Bedel's return from that Place and accordingly Dr. Heylin saith in the (a) P. 102. Life of Laud that Antonius de Dominis betook himself for Sanctuary to the Church of England An. 1616. And as for the latter Sir H. Wootton claims to himself the Credit of bringing him over as appears by his Letters In (b) Reliq Wootton p. 400. one to Sir Edm. Bacon he writes thus There cometh to you with him an Italian Doctor of Physick by Name Gasper Despolini I was glad to be the Conductor of him where his Conscience may be free In another to my dear (c) Ibid. p. 349. Nic. he saith more than a voluntary Motion doth now carry me towards Suffolk especially that I may confer by the way with an Excellent Physitian at B whom I brought my self from Venice I could produce more Instances out of Bedel's Life to shew how apt our Author of it is to write his own Inventions for true History and thereby impose upon the World but I believe I have brought enough for that purpose and hope I have thereby Convinced all Lovers of Truth more than of Mens Persons how unsafe it is to take Things upon trust from him Mr. Bedel was really a Man of great Merit for his Learning Life and Christian Temper which endear'd him to Father Paul who took him into his very Soul and * See Sir Henry Wootton's Life by Mr. Walton câ—mmunicated his most inward Thoughts to him He was also upon a strict Principle of Duty very Exemplary in Conformity to the Rites of the Church He kept all Ember weeks and observed all the Canonical Hours of Prayer very conscientiously and all the Feasts and Fasts of the Church But Dr. Burnet by writing so many Things to his Honour which are not true hath very much dishonoured his Memory and given those who are come to the knowledge of him only by his Life occasion to suspect every Thing he hath said of him and that he hath described him not as he was but as he would have the World believe him to have been But to apply all to the Purpose of my own Writing if he hath taken such Poetical Liberties where he promised to write with the Severity of a strict Historian and to give only a bare and simple Relation of Things I say if he hath taken such Liberties and made so bold with Truth in the Life of one Bishop contrary to his own Promises I think we cannot be too cautious how we believe him in his Funeral Sermon upon the other although he professes to speak of him with Plainess and Simplicity with great Reserves and with a Modesty of Stile through his whole Discourse But I think I have shewed how little Professions of this Nature signify when they come from him and will only add That our blessed Saviour's Advice of taking heed whom and what we hear is very strictly to be observed then when we hear or read him who is so apt to Romance and to speak of Things and Persons as he would have them to be rather than as they are And that he hath so spoken in many Respects of Dr. Tillotson and praised him above his Merits and more than his Memory deserves is according to the Method of the mentioned Conference which I proposed to follow to be the Subject of the ensuing Chapter CHAP. II. AMong the many worthy Men of our Church whose Memories have been transmitted to Posterity we read of some who have forbidden Sermons to be preached at their Funerals of others who have forbidden that any mention should be made of them in their Funeral Sermons and others again have taken care to nominate Persons to preach at their Funerals in whose great Prudence and Judgment they had an entire Confidence that they would speak more to the Living than of the Dead and that what they spoke of them would be Just Modest and Genuin and such as they might have said of themselves without Arrogance had they been Living or heard others say of them without Confusion Had Dr. Tillotson been so careful as to follow any one of these Examples or his Friends so well advised as to follow them for him he would have had more rest in his Grave and perhaps not had his Name so soon and so strictly called into question But having had the Misfortune after his Death to have his Funeral Sermon preached by a Man who hath shewed so little Temper and Justice in his Character but raised his Fame to an undue Pitch upon the Defamation of others more worthy than he I thought I should do a Work acceptable to all Lovers of Truth and of the true Church of England if I shewed in some Instances how undeserving he was of that Character and by noting some of his defects which ought to be noted prevent the Danger which unwary Readers and Hearers of his Funeral Sermon might otherwise fall into of following him upon the implicit Belief of this Character in the Wrong as well as in the Right and walk after him as securely in the devious paths of Errour as in the strait way of Truth For who would not chuse to follow the Example of a Man (a) P. 28. whose Life was free from Blemishes and shined in all the Parts of it and (b) P. 2. who was an Example of all sublime and heroical Piety and Vertue and a Patern both to Church and State And who more especially of our Religion would not follow a Church-man who will be such a lasting Honour to it and who (c) P. 30. kept the sacred Trust of the Christian Faith and Doctrine and maintain'd it pure and undefiled to his dying Day This is the lofty Character which our Preacher hath given us of Dr. T. but falsely and so much above his Merit That he hath had the deplorable Infelicity to do many Things
added preserve its self by means so evidently contrary to the very Nature and End of Religion This is Dr. Tillotson's fam'd Character of Religion and not to descant in long Applications upon it I desire my Reader to consider if it is not as applicable to the New as to the Old Fifth of November and the Worthies of the Protestants as well as the Popish Religion who conspired against James the Second as these did against James the First Tell me O ye Worthies of the Church of England who have hazarded your Lives and Fortunes to preserve our Religion Is it more lawful to Plot and Rebel for holy Church of England than for holy Church of Rome And is it not as much Priestcraft in our Divines to applaud you as Worthies for so doing as it was in the Pope to compare the Duke of Guise and his Partizans to those Jewish Worthies Jephtha Gideon and the Maccabees and do you not despise them for their sordid Flattery of you in open Contradiction to their own Doctrines and the Principles of that Religion which they pretend still to profess May I not say with Dr. Till against himself (a) Serm. Vol. 3. p. 77. That a Miracle is not enough to give Credit to a Man who teaches Things so contrary to the Nature of Religion and that (b) P. 20. the Heathen Philosophers are better Casuists than he This he said of the Jesuists and the Casuists of the Church of Rome for maintaining the Lawfulness of deposing Kings and subverting Government and yet without Blushing he maintained the Lawfulness of this in commending you But this is but one Instance of acting in contradiction to his own Doctrine when the appointed time of tryal came there are many more so well known that I need not mention them For indeed his whole Practice since the Revolution hath been one Series of Apostacy and by which he hath not only dishonoured his Memory and made all his other Good be evil spoken of but been a Scandal to our holy Church and Religion to which our Preacher saith he was such an Honour given the Enemies of them great occasion to Triumph their best and most stedfast Friends great occasion of Grief and Shame And lastly tempted loose and unprincipled Men to turn Atheists and ridicule our Priesthood and Religion and this he hath been told of in such different manners that I do not wonder (c) Fun. Serm. p. 27. it sank deep into him and had such influence upon his Health I cannot imagine but that one Letter which was sent to his Lady for him superscribed for Dr. Tillotson must needs disquiet him very much if he received it and read it It is written throughout with a serious Air and every Line of it speaks to his Conscience and because I know the worthy Gentleman who wrote it and that it is a full and clear Proof of what I have said I present my Reader but more especially the Preacher of his Funeral Sermon with a few Paragraphs of it if he will have the Patience to read them It begins thus (d) Letter p. 2. Sir I shall preface what I am about to say with an Assurance That I have formerly had the greatest Veneration for you as well for your Piety as good Sense and Learning that my Notions of Government are so large that the first Thing I ever doubtfully Examined that had your Name affixed to it was your Letter to my Lord Russel But your Actions since do less quadrate with that Opinion and seriously make me address my self to you to know how you reconcile your present Actings to the Principles either of Natural or Revealed Religion especially how you reconcile them with the Positions and Intentions of that Letter and consequently whether you have a Belief of God and the World to come (a) P. 5. But to come to your more particular Case I beseech you to publish some Discourse if you can clear Things to demonstrate either your Repentance of what you wrote to my Lord Russel or the Reasons that make that and what you now do consistent and that you with the usual Solidity with which you treat upon other Subjects justify the Proceedings and explain the Title of K. W. I know no Body hath a stronger and clearer Head and if you have Truth on your Side you can write unanswerably God's Glory and the Reputation of the Protestant Religion is at Stake Your own good Name calls for it and more especially because you have accepted a most Reverend and Devout Man's Archbishoprick A Man who hath given Evidence how unalterably he is a Protestant A Sufferer formerly for the Laws and Church of England and a Sufferer for those very Principles upon which that Letter to my Lord was written for those very Principles which you disputed for when he had so short a time to Live Nay which you remember'd him of even upon the Scaffold with the dreadful Commination of eternal Woe Really Sir if there be any Truth if there be any Vertue if there be any Religion what shall we say to these Things What will you say to them You must be at the Pains to clear this matter that we may not believe the Boundaries of Right and Wrong the Measures of Violence and Justice quite taken away that we may not be tempted to (b) P. 7. speculative and from thence to practical Atheism This Change has made many sober Men sceptical and gone further towards the eradicating all the Notions of a Deity than all the Labours of Hobs and your part in it hath I confess more stagger'd me than any one Thing else I have been ready to suspect That Religion it self was a Cheat and that it was a Defect in my Un-Understanding that I could not look through it For I think if I can know my Right-hand from my Left our present Government stands upon Foundations that contradict all those Discourses which you as well as others have lent to Passive Obedience The excessive Value I have for you for your Knowledg your Judgment your largeness of Spirit your Moderation and many other great Qualities that have signaliz'd your Name once made you one of the greatest Ornaments of the Christian Church Apostacy from what you preached and wrote pretended to believe and would have others believe shake me so violently in the first Credenda of Religion That I beseech you if you think it necessary upon no other Account that you will publish such a Discourse at least for the Satisfaction of mine and other Men's Consciences who I can assure you of my own Knowledg lie under the same Scruples with my self have the same Scruples in relaion to the Government and the same Temptations to question Religion it self upon your Account (a) P. 8. I beg of God Almighty to lay an happy constraint upon me â—o do what may be most for his Glory and the Good of these Nations and I earnestly supplicate him that
contrary to every part of it as I shall shew in some signal Instances which were blemishes in his Life and will remain such Blots upon his Memory as no Apology will ever be able to wash out My first Instance shall be in his Apostacy from his own avowed Principle and Doctrine of the Church of England the once venerable Doctrine of Non-Resistance or Passive Obedience in which our Church hath taught her Children how they should behave themselves towards Men and approve themselves towards God if she and they should come to be persecuted for the Tryal of their Faith as the purest Churches and best Christians have been in former Ages He did not only (a) In his Subscription to the Book of Homilies subscribe to the Truth of this Doctrine and in the Profession of the Truth of it declare it unlawful to take up Arms against the King upon any Pretence whatsoever but pressed it upon the Consciences of Living and Dying Men And when he preached against Popery he asserted it not only in the most serious manner that good Divines use to do the most important matters of Christiany but with that Strength and Clearness which our Preacher saith is his peculiar Talent In his Letter to my Lord Russel in Nâ—wgate which the Reader will find in the (b) N. 3. Appendix he told his Lordship who did not believe that Doctrine what a great and dangerous Mistake he was in and that his disbelief of it which was but a Sin of ignorance before he was Convinced of the Truth of it became a Sin of a more heinous Nature after his Conviction and called for a more deep and particular Repentance and that if he dyed in a disbelief of it he was like to leave the World in a Delusion and false Peace and pursuant to this in his last Prayer with his Lordship on the Scaffold he said Grant Lord that all we who survive by this and other Instances of thy Providence may learn our Duty to God and the King What could a Man have said more in behalf of any Doctrine of the Christian Religion Or what could he have done more to convince the World he was in good Earnest than to publish it after he said it And yet in his Thanksgiving Sermon (c) Jan. 31. 1688. preached at Lincolns Inn he tells us That our Deliverance then the Phrase of the Revolution was the Lord's doing although it was brought about by the utter Violation of that Doctrine and the whole Duty of Subjects which results from it and then reciting the Strange means by which it was brought about We must not saith he here forget the many Worthies of our Nation who did so generously run all hazards of Life and Fortune for the Preservation of our Religion and the Asserting our Ancient Laws and Liberties Behold the Preacher at Lincolns Inn and the Confessor in Lincolns Inn Fields contradicting one another The Confessor told my Lord Russell That the Christian Religion plainly forbids the Resistance of Authority and that the same Law which established our Religion declares it not lawful to take up Arms upon any Pretence whatsoever But the Preacher now turned Apostate from the Confessor commends the many Worthies as he calls the Traytors and Rebels of our Country for soliciting a Foreign Prince and the Creature of another State to invade their own Sovereign's Dominions and assisting of him in the Undertaking till they had driven him out of his Kingdoms He saith It was generously done of them to run all hazards of Life and Fortune and he might have added of their Salvation too for the Preservation of our Religion and Liberties although he had told the World before that our Laws forbid the Preservation of them by those means nay that the Laws of Nature and the Rules of Scripture had not left us at Liberty to use them which was in effect to say That neither our Laws would have our Religion nor our Religion have it self preserved by the Means those Worthies used for its Preservation The Belief of the Lawfulness of Resisting when our Rights and Liberties should be invaded was a Sin of a dangerous and heinous Nature in my Lord Russel but the Practice of it was laudable in I know not how many Lords and Gentlemen more for preserving our Religion Laws and Liberties by it and if any of them since are gone out of the World in a Delusion and false Peace he is one of those Divines who more especially must Answer to God for it For it was after a close Consult with him and one or two more that a Motion was made in the House of Lords for Appointing a Day of Thanksgiving to God for having made his Highness P. O. the glorious Instrument of delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power And then it was that our English Worthies as well as the Heroe under whom they acted were applauded in the Pulpits for the Success of that Glorious Enterprize which to think or speak of in a slighting manner was in his Opinion to be guilty of the foulest and blackest Ingratitude both to God and them One would wonder how any Christâ—an Man but more especially how a Christian Preacher should so plainly contradict himself and his most serious Doctrines and yet have the Confidence since to Reprint them as if he had never said nor done any Thing inconsistent with them Hear therefore what he saith of Religion our dear and holy Religion which the Worthies of our Nation run such an Hazard to preserve (a) Serm. preached on the Fifth of Nov. 1678. and Reprinted 1691. As for Religion the very Heathens always spoke of it as the great Band of human Society and the Foundation of Truth and Fidelity and Justice among Men. But when Religion once comes to supplant moral Righteousness and to teach Men the absurdest Things in the World to Lye for the Truth and to Kill Men for God's sake when it serves to no other Purpose but to be a Bond of Conspiracy to inflame the Tempers of Men to a greater Fierceness and to set a keener Edge upon their Spirits and to make them ten times more the Children of Wrath and Cruelty than they were by Nature then surely it loses its Nature and ceases to be Religion For let any Man say worse of Atheism and Infidelity if he can And for God's sake what is Religion good for but to reform the Manners and Dispositions of Men to restrain human Nature from Violence and Cruelty from Falshood and Treachery from Sedition and Rebellion Better it were there were no revealed Religion and that human Nature were left to the Conduct of its own Principles and Inclinations then to be acted by a Religion which inspires Men with so wild a Fury and prompts them to commit such Outrages and is continually supplanting Government and undermining the Welfare of Mankind In short such a Religion that teaches Men to propagate and advance and he might have
been offered unto Idols would be scandalized thereby against Christianity and the later in like manner seeing them do so would be encourag'd to persist in their Demonolatry because they might presume that the Christians buying or eating wittingly and willingly what had been offered up in Sacrifice to their Gods did so out of respect to them as they themselves did I think this was very strict Divinity to forbid Christians the use and enjoyment of those things which otherwise they were free to use and enjoy both at home and abroad purely upon the account of other mens Consciences because they were to give no offence neither to the unbelieving Jew nor to the Idolatrous Gentiles nor to the weaker Members of the Church of God Had our Preacher lived in those days I am afraid he would have censured the Apostle as a man of narrow thoughts who was too much influenced by Jewish notions and superstition in these severe determinations but because he was to make a Parallel between the Apostle and his Latitudinarian Hero therefore right or wrong he was to take some occasion to let us know that the Apostle had his large thoughts too Another of his Phrases which he chose rather to use improperly than to omit is that of the †p. 9. just freedoms of Human Nature where he tells us that his Heroick Primate asserted the great Truths of Religion when he saw them struck at with an authority and zeal proportioned to the importance of them while in lesser matters he left men to the just freedoms of Human Nature but he should have said had he spoke properly to their Christian Liberty for the freedoms of Human Nature relate to men as they are considered in a civil or in their natural state if there ever had been or were any such But this being one of the golden Phrases of the Latitudinarians he was resolved to tip his Tongue and gild one Period with it for that sort of men have their Jargon and Cant as well as others and particularly affect to talk of the Rights Liberties or Freedoms of Mankind or of the Rights Liberties or Freedoms of Human Nature altho' every man in the World only hath such Rights and such Liberties as the Laws and Customs of the Country where he is born or whither he betake himself give him and no more Hence the * Inst Lib. 1. de jure persâ—narum Roman Law defineth Liberty to be a Natural Power or Faculty which every man hath to do what he pleaseth as far as he is not hindered by law or force This definition shews that mens natural liberty is restrained more or less according to the civil constitutions of different Countrys and this is so true that in some places the greatest part of Mankind have almost no Liberties and Slaves which were the greatest part of Mankind in the Roman Empire as now in some of our Plantations had none at all Yet notwithstanding this is so plain and obvious a Notion our Latitudinarians when it serves their turn as it did in former Reigns love to talk of the Rights and Liberties of Mankind or Human Nature because they are splendid Phrases which by seeming to have something great in them are apt to gull unthinking men tho' they signifie nothing at all Tell them of Passive Obedience or the unlawfulness of Resistance they will tell you again that it is a Doctrine against the Rights and Freedoms of Mankind I knew a Gentleman to whom an unfortunate Lord of our Preachers acquaintance said so and we may without making a bold inference guess from whom he had the deceitful insignificant Phrase which to serve ill purposes may be used against Laws and Constitutions that restrain mens Liberties in civil Societies in any other respect as well as in not resisting the Supream Power and would help to justifie insurrections not only of Slaves but of Subjects and more especially of the common People all the World over So the Dispensing Power under King James's Administration was against the just freedoms of Human Nature and the French Government was and is against the Rights and Liberties of Human Nature though some Governments harder than it and the exercise of them is not so in other places where Protestants as Conscientious and at least as Orthodox as those of France are ruined and undone for Conscience sake and as effectually Dragoon'd without Dragoons by Deprivation and double Taxes of which I am confident our Preacher would say if he suffered such Penalties that they were against the Rights of Human Nature and the Liberties of Mankind But for my own part as I always suspected such specious Phrases and those who used them so I know not to what purpose they serve but to beget false notions in the minds of men and incite them to subvert States and Kingdoms and level all Orders of Men in them and I have always observed that those who used them set up for Demagogues and were most forward when it was in their power to invade other mens Rights and abridge other mens Liberties especially those of their lawful Kings and their Loyal Fellow Subjects without any regard to the Laws of Nature the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land In the same place he tells us that while the Defunct asserted the great Truths of Religion he left men in lesser matters to be governed by those great measures of Discretion and Charity a care to avoid Scandal and to promote Edification and Peace and Decency and Order This in an Author so given to subtile and malicious insinuations looks like one upon the generality of the Clergy as if they did not so but were more zealous for the lesser than the greater matters of our Religion But not to mention the Great men among our present Clergy did not our Hookers Sandersons and Hammonds as well as those who have followed their example assert the great Truths of Religion as zealously as his Hero did and tho' they defended both the Authority and Wisdom of the Church in enjoyning Ceremonies and things in themselves indifferent to be observed which he means by lesser matters and also took care to inform the Consciences of the People what a great and weighty Duty Obedience and Submissions to the Orders of the Church was and that morally considered it was none of the lesser matters of Christianity yet in their just freedoms they left them to be governed as he saith his Archbishop did by the measures of Discretion and Charity and a care to avoid Scandal and to promote Edification and Peace and Decency and Order But in Truth this Character of leaving men to their Freedoms as Christians was so very true of Doctor Tillotson that he left them to their Freedoms where neither he nor they were free and to govern themselves by their own private Consciences and discretion when they neither promoted Charity nor Edification nor Peace Decency or Order but gave scandal in both Senses as it