reprobation be one which they do not think themselves bound to believe 5. Nor is it credible they should hold any other Doctrine than the Church since they derive it from the same fountains not from the Spinose school-men or Dutch systematicks neither from Rome nor Geneva the Council of Trent nor Synod of Dort but from the Sacred writings of the Apostles and Evangelists in interpreting whereof they carefully attend to the sense of the ancient Church by which they conceive the modern ought to be guided and therefore they are very conversant in all the genuine Monuments of the ancient Fathers those especially of the first and purest ages not to gather out fine phrases and quaint sentences but that they may discern between the modern corruptions and ancient simplicity of the Church to distinguish between the Doctrines received in these latter ages and those which the primitive Christians received from Christ and his Apostles for those opinions in Religion how specious soever are justly to be suspected whereof there are no footsteps to be discerned in that golden age of Christianity that was tryed and purifyed in the fire of persecution we are not so secure of the succeeding silver age of peace and prosperity but that there might be some drossy mixture inferior to the golden but better than the brazen that trode upon its heels Saevior ingeniis ad horrida promptior arma when the Christians had taken up the swords formerly of their persecutors and drew them one upon another but de duro est ultima ferro Protinus erupit venae pejoris in aevum Omne nefas fugere pudor verumque fidesque In quorum subiere locum fraudesque dolique Insidiaeque vis amor sceleratus habendi And by this time sure there was need of Reformation to bring al things to the primitive pattern to purge out the dross and Tinn and all baser mettals which the Church of England hath most happily atchieved And now let no man accuse them of hearkning too much to their own reason since their reason steers by so excellent a compass the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church For Reason is that faculty whereby a man must judge of every thing nor can a man beleve any thing except he have some reason for it whether that reason be a deduction from the light of nature and those principles which are the candle of the Lord set up in the soul of every man that hath not wilfully extinguished it or a branch of Divine revelation in the oracles of holy Scripture or the general interpretation of genuine antiquity or the proposal of our own Church consentaneous thereto or lastly the result of some or all of these for he that will rightly make use of his Reason must take all that is reasonable into consideration And it is admirable to consider how the same conclusions do naturally flow from all these several principles and what in the faithful use of the faculties that God hath given men have believed for true doth excellently agree with that Revelation that God hath exhibited in the Scripture and the doctrine of the ancient Church with them both Thus the freedom of our wills the universal intent of Christ's death and sufficiency of Gods Grace the conditions of justification and many other points of the like nature which have been almost exploded in these latter degenerate ages of the world do again begin to obtain though with different persons upon different accounts some embrace them for their evidence in Scripture others for the concurrent testimony of the primitive Church for above four hundred years others for the reasonableness of the things themselves and their agreement both with the Divine Attributes and the easy suggestions of their own minds Nor is there any point in Divinity where that which is most ancient doth not prove the most rational and the most rational the ancientest for there is an eternal consanguinity between all verity and nothing is true in Divinity which is false in Philosophy or on the contrary and therefore what God hath joyned together let no man put asunder But these men are generally suspected to be for liberty of Conscience and that 's a principle of dangerous consequence that will undermine the very foundations of any Church what soever a Church cannot be without Unity and Uniformity an unlimited discord of opinions and practises will as much obstruct the edification of Gods Temple as the confusion of Languages did the building of the Tower of Babel Verily this is true and the most part of them who while they are under the hatches deny it do by their practises confirm it when ever they get power into their hands but how far the men charged with it are concerned therein remains to be inquired Though in the first place I cannot but take notice that this very objection confutes the vulgar calumny cast upon them as if they were men of no conscience for I dare say by how much the less of conscience any man hath by so much the less will he care what impositions are laid on it though for my own part I shall always think him most consciencious who leads the most unblameable life though he be not greatly scrupulous about the externals of Religion and for their lives I think the Latitude-men were never taxed by their greatest enemyes And now let us soberly consider what was before said they sincerely embrace all the Articles of Doctrine held forth by the Church they cheerfully use and approve her Liturgy and Ceremonies they cordially love and obey her government how then can they pursue any Liberty that can be dangerous to her for in all other things the Church her selfe leaves them to their liberty and who shall blame them for using it but there are some men it may be are offended that the Church is so indulgent a Mother that will not unnecessarily impose upon the judgement or practise of her Children they would have all things bound up and nothing free they would fain be adding some ciphers to their significant Articles she now prodounds and instead of 39 would make 39000. t is well if they would content themselves with ciphers and not add falsityes to make up the tale they have it may be an ambition to out-do the Assemblies Confession they would be content that Aquina's Summs were put into the Creed and all the janglings of the Schools into the Prayers of the Church that so by their Longitude they might be even with their neighbors of the Latitude Others it may be think we have not ceremonies enough and if they can find any antiquated Rite in some moth-eaten Author they have an itch presently of bringing it into the Church without considering whether there be the same reason or use of it now that may have been in other times and places and then if their Neighbors will not follow their example but think it enough to do what the Rubrick and Canons require
they shall be cryed out on for disaffected this is all that liberty of conscience they can justly be accused of unless I should add that they are so merciful as not to think it fit to knock people on the head because they are not of our Church The Church of England hath never yet embrued her hands in blood and I hope the Zeal of none of her sons will ever kinle such flames as her step-mother of Rome delights to warm her hands at And now having taken an impartial view of this so much exagitated company of men we find them so far from being any ways dangerous to the Church or fit to be disowned by her that they seem to be the very Chariots and Horsemen thereof for by their sober and unblameable conversation they conciliate respect and honour to her by their Learning and industry they defend her by their moderation they are most likely to win upon the minds of dissenters who are too many to be contemned by their accommodating themselves to the people who as is too too palpable are possessed for the most part by the Presbyterians they may in time bring them over to the Church and prevent her becomming a society of Shepherds without any Sheep for really I fear if the Fathers of the Church were not wiser than some of their angry sons who must needs be thrusting some of their younger brethren out of dores if I say all that have been reproached with the name of Latitude should be disowned by the Church they that remain would be the least party of men of any one denomination in England and to leave themselves so naked were to tempt Providence for their preservation especially considering they stand ready to be assaulted on each hand by two potent Enemies the Papists and the Presbyterians both of them numerous wealthy subtle and industrious who watch all opportunities of subverting the best Church in the world And therefore certainly this is no time for her to mutilate her self or to bleed with intestine Warr but let her embrace those that are so ready to serve her with both her Armes and let all her Children with joint affection and consent oppose the common Enemies 6. But it will be said no man is angry that men conform but that they have no greater zeal for what they conforme to they are as men indifferent and could be as well content with the contrary Truely Sir either I am mistaken in the men or the charge is very unjust for I find as many as it hath been my fortune to converse with that they do very sincerly esteem Episcopal govenment both as in it self the best and of Apostolical antiquity they were alwayes approvers of a Liturgy and think that of our own Church may easilyer be marred than mended That Religion would lose that due law veneration that ought to be preserved in it if it were not attended with outward Rites and Ceremonies that private persons are not the judges of that decorum whereby these things are to be measured but onely the Governours of the Church and that the Church of England as well in these as all other things is the best constituted Church in the world But they presume no man would have them to think the whole weight of Religion lies in externals or that they are of greater accompt than the eternal and indispensable Laws of good and evil but that Ecclesiastical laws are as the Jews were wont to say an hedge about the laws of God these ought stiffely to be observed and therefore the other not to be neglected that they do not consist so indivisibily but that if it should seem meet to the Fathers of the Church to make any alterations they were equally bound to submit thereto this is that Latitude they are so Tragically accused of 5. But there is another crime which cannot be denyed that they have introduced a new Philosophy Aristotle and the Schoolemem are out of request with them True indeed it is that ipse dixit is an argument much out of fashon and fortasse Philosophus non loquitur ex sua sententia sed ex mente aliorum would be accounted as impertinent an answer it will scarce passe for a Philosophical resolution of any Problem to say It is the nature of the beast it is done by virtue of its form or quality They love to search some more particular cause than the influence of the heavens nor will they be put off with complementum Vniversi They embrace a method of Philosophy which they think was as much antienter than Aristotle as you conceive Oxford was before Cambridge and was as great a bug-beare to the Presbyterians as a Crosse or Surplisse and therefore methinks the Church of England should have less reason to be offended with it For my own part I never had any great skill in it and am now too old to learn yet I am far from that humour reprehended by the Poet Turpe put ant parere minoribus quae Imberbes didicere Senes perdenda fateri And I suppose it is this freedome and unconcernedness of mine that makes you think my opinion worth knowing in a matter that I am so little conversant in of late years wherefore I will not undertake to compare the new Philosophy with the old but instead thereof will tell you a tale 7. There was a certain Husbandman who occupied a Farme with an antient mansion-house standing in the fields remote from any Town where there was an old iron Clock in a large wooden frame which had been a long while out of kelter and because he was much troubled to know how the time passed that he might order his business accordingly he resolved to get this Clock repaired and while he was considering where to finde a man able to do it it fortuned that a certain Peripatetick artificer something above the degree of a Tinker came that way who undertook to mend it but after he had bestowed a great deal of work in oyling the wheels filing the teeth and hanging on more weight and all to no purpose at last gave it up for nought and told him it could not be mended the farmer partly out of curiosity and partly in hope to find out the defect desired this Artificer to show him the nature of Clockwork and what was requisite to make up a perfect Clock he though he knew very little what belonged to it yet being a talkative fellow and very loth to confesse his ignorance in any thing began a long story that the nature of Clock-work in general was a principle and cause of motion and rest by means of an inward device of its own accord and not by chance but this Clock having no such nature it was indeed no Clock and could not move he told him also that there are three things go to the making of a Clock the materials and the shape and the want of that shape before it was made for it was not a Clock
upon one Topick more which is the improvement of Anatomy and the knowledge of the fabrick of Animals no man thinks himself bound to beleive that the nerves are derived from the heart and by consequence that to be the seat of common sence because Aristotle tells us so nor yet though he could tell us no such thing to disbelieve the circulation of blood found out by Dr. Harvey What should I mention those other learned Observations of the same Author concerning the Generation of Animals I omit Asellius his venae lacteae as also the ductus Chyliferus vasa lymphatica with many more of the like nature which do as much alter the face of the lesser as those other before rehearsed of the greater world 15. Must we now after all these and many more discoveries about natural bodies confine our selves to what we find in Aristotle who never dream'd of any such things is it possible that so many new appearances should not alter the frame of Philosophy nay rather hazard the pulling down of the old ruinous house that had too narrow foundations that it may be built again with more magnificence Since we find dayly Generations and corruptions in the heavens and that the stars themselves are not free from that fate how can we satisfy our selves with the four Elements of Aristotle or the three principles of the Chymists which at best can be but the ingredients of terrestriall bodies besides that they are not so simple as to deserve those titles and truly to them that have once tasted of the Mechanicall Philosophy formes and qualities are like to give as little satisfaction as the Clock-mender did to the Intelligent Gentleman in the Story I before told you 16. No man would be so ridiculous as since Columbus discovered the new world of America as big as the old or since the enlarged knowledge of the North of Europe the South and East of Asia and Africa besides the new divisions names and inhabitants of the old parts to forbid the reading of any more Geography than is found in Strabo or Mela or since the Portuguez have sailed to the Indies by the Cape of good Hope to admit of no other Indian commodities than what are brought on Camels to Aleppo or if posterity shall find out the Northeast or Northwest way to Cathajo and China or shall cut the Isthmus between the red Sea and Mediterranean will it be unlawfull to use the advantage of such noble atcheivements why then must Philosophy alone be bound up stil in its infant swadling bands and there being the same reason why should we not allow the same liberty of expatiating if any man love acorns since corn is invented let him eat acorns but t is very unreasonable he should forbid others the use of wheat Whatever is solid in the writings of Aristotle these new Philosophers will readily embrace and they that are most accused for affecting the new doubt not but they can give as good an acount of the old Philosophy as their most violent accusers and are probably as much conversant in Aristotles writings though they do not much value those small wares that are usually retailed by the generality of his Interpreters But me thinks I hear some men say all innovations are dangerous Philosophy and Divinity are so inter-woven by the School-men that it cannot be safe to separate them new Philosophy will bring in new Divinity and freedom in the one will make men desire a liberty in the other The very same argumentation the Presbyterians used when they bore rule in the University and the new Philosophy was interdicted in some Colledges upon that account But what was the event it was so much the more eagerly studyed and embraced there was a time when all Learning was upon the same pretence discountenanced Graece nosse suspectum erat Hebraice plane haereticum and there was a Colledge in Cambridge that shut their Gates against the Greek Testament but all their endeavours were but vain they might as well have hindred the Sun from rising or being up from filling the whole Horizon with light Learning and Knowledge will breake forth like fire and pierce like Lightning through all impediments politeness and elegancy hath long ago subdued Monastick barbarism Erasmus and Melancthon with the rest of those restorers of Learning have made Holcot and Bricot quite out of fashion and the inquisitive Genius of latter years like a mighty wind hath brushed down all the Schoolmens Cobwebs There is an infinite desire of knowlede broken forth in the world and men may as well hope to stop the tide or bind the Ocean with Chains as hinder free Philosophy from overflowing it will be as easie to satisfie mens corporal appetites with chaff and straw as the desires of their minds with empty words and terms the Church of Rome quickly saw her error in this point and forbore to strive against the stream for when she perceived that Learning would be in fashion she presently set her children to School and who so great Schollars in all kinds as they and she hath been so wise ever since that there shall be no piece of Learning but some of her sons shall be masters of it and if they will but give her respectfull words they may be as free Philosophers as they please and I dare say she would take it very ill if any one should deny Descartes or Gassendus to be hers Galileo indeed fell under correction for holding the motion of the Earth but the true crime was his abusing his Holiness in his Dialogues under the name of Simplicius For others have with impunity adventured on as great Paradoxes but they had the good manners to make a legg and say Omnia Ecclesiae authoritati submittimus I will never therefore believe that the Church of England can be more stingy than the Beldame of Rome but will do that of choice that the other doth of necessity True Philosophy can never hurt sound Divinity Christian Religion was never bred up in the Peripatetick school but spent her best and healthfullest years in the more Religious Academy amongst the primitive Fathers but the Schoolmen afterwards ravished her thence and shut her up in the decayed ruines of Lyceum where she served an hard servitude and contracted many distempers why should she not at last be set at liberty and suffered to breath in a free air let her alone be Mistress and choose her Servants where she best likes let her old loving Nurse the Platonick Philosophy be admitted again into her family nor is there any cause to doubt but the Mechanick also will be faithful to her no less against the open violence of Atheisme than the secret treachery of Enthusiasm and Superstition as the excellent works of a late learned Author have abundantly demonstrated Nor will it be posible otherwise to free Religion from scorn and contempt if her Priests be not as well skilled in nature as the people and her Champions furnished with as good Artillery as her enemies How shall the Clergy be able to maintain their credit with the ingenuous Gentry who begin generally to be acquainted with the atomical Hypothesis and know how to distinguish between a true Gemme and a Bristol-Diamond or how shall they encounter with the witts as they are called of the age that assault Religion with new kind of weapons will they acquiesce in the authority of Aristotle or St. Thomas or be put off with Contra negantem principia let not the Church send out her Souldiers armed with Dock-leaves and Bullrushes to encounter swords and Guns but let them wear as good brass and steel as their enemyes and fight with them at their own weapons and then having Truth and Right on their side let them never despair of victory But I had almost forgotten that I was writing a Letter the ordinary proportions whereof I have already exceeded and therefore must abruptly conclude assuring you that I am Sir yours c. 〈…〉 Cambridge 〈…〉