it doth not follow hence that Episcopacy and Presbytery stand upon equal terms and though both proceeding upon the same suâ—position do equally complain yet that part which really suffers wrong doth justly complain And if he please now to set his Tables right again I am apt to think that he will give it on the Episcopal side But there is something farther for which the Presbyterian my justly complain though this Author had cast such a mist before his own Eyes that he could not see it For the Presbyterian in the general Notion asserts a great Truth and it is not his fault that he pleads a divine right of Church Government but that he takes it out of those Hands wherein Christ and his Apostles left it to commit to those to whom it was never intrusted and thus licks up Aerius's Vomit Now in this case Mr. Lowth had proved the Presbyterian concerned as well as the Episcoparian For when the Author of the Irenicum to avoid the Argument from the Superiority of the Apostles and their Jurisdiction over the Pastors of the Church by an Act of Christ had pleaded That it must be farther proved that it was Christ's intention that Superiority should continue in their Successions or it makes nothing to the purpose To this Mr. Lowth replies That at this rate of Arguing though the Apostles by an Act of Christ were invested with the ministerial Authority yet it must be farther proved That it was Christ's intention that the same power should continue in their Successors or it makes nothing to the purpose for a setled Ministry and the same Argument which overthrows a Superiority of Churchmen for want of an express of Christ's intention overthrows the very Ministry it self both having the same bottom and alike promises And here the Episcopal Man was not left alone to complain but the Presbyterian might honestly put in for a share And this indeed was a fatal Argument for it overthrew the whole project of the Irenicum for if you well observe you will find the Scheme of that Author to lie thus He asserts in general a divine Right of Government or that it is the Will of Christ that his Church should be Governed one way or other but then as for any particular Form of Church Government he doth not think that Christ or his Apostles erected any with an Obligation of its continuance but that it was left to some body I know not who to establish the particular Form according to the necessity convenience and circumstances of Times Places and Persons and from time to time to new mould and change the same as they should find cause yet always containing themselves within the bounds of what the Author thinks lawful I grant that he is not always true to this but the whole Work seems to be bottomed upon this supposition and for his inconsistencies he himself may take care of them Now the Argument here used hath undone himself and is levelled not only against the divine Right of any one particular Form but against the divine Right of a Ministry and all Church Government whatsoever Neither do I know to what purpose we should wrangle whether the House shall be built in this or that Form or Shape when it doth not appear that we have any Right or Authority either to build any at all or to enter any formerly built And now let any man judge whether this was an effectual way of arguing either for the re-establishment of the Church of England or for mens complying with it But tho this be enough to prove what Mr. Lowth hath alledged yet it is untruly said of the Letter-maker that this is all For Mr. Lowth had accused the Author of the Irenicum that notwithstanding his Pretence of the Mutability of Church Government he had invested the Presbyter with the full Power of Order and Jurisdiction and that he had perpetually fixed him by divine Right unalterable and he there proves his Charge p. 29. and you may find several other things in Mr. Lowth's Letter to this purpose to which I refer you for they having received no Answer I am no further at present concerned for them only I think this a very unlikely way of perswading the establishment of the Church under Bishops and leave you to judge let the Author's Design be what it will whether the Book do not carry on the Design which Mr. Lowth pretends I fear I grow troublesom to you but now my Hand is in I am resolved to follow this Author to see if he have done the reverend Dean any better Service in the remaining part of his Letter And the next thing he falls on is the Business of a Recantation And here supposing what I had read in the former part of the Letter would have been of the same piece with what followed I expected to have met with strange tragical Exclamations and that the unreasonableness of the Demand should have been bitterly cryed out against But I was quite disappointed and he is clear too quick for us for he saith That a Recantation hath been already made and that as publick as the Error Scandal and Offence and too before the Demand was made This Language I confess surprized me It seems then that Mr. Lowth and the Dean were agreed and did not know it What pity is it that such a Noise should be made all over the Kingdom and such Disturbance among Church of England Men about a Quarrel between Two Peasons who are both become of the same Mind But is it not a stark Shame that when Mr. Lowth is acknowledged to be in the Right and the Dean hath receeded from his former Tenets to come up to an Opinion which Mr. Lowth hath always maintained he should be reviled and exclaimed against in all places for this with as much Fierceness and Bitterness as if he had set the Church on Fire At least those who confess thus much ought to condemn the Practice as Unreasonable And if this be true I think the Quarrel ought to be at an end But now I am afraid to read on least in looking after the Proof of this I should meet with a second Disappointment and I find all to amount to little better than a meer Say so And indeed much thus it happens For tho I am willing to perswade my self that the Learned Dean is really and truly of another Mind and hath quitted many of the loose Opinions of the Rector of Sutton yet this Author is so Unfortunate in the Proof of it that he hath done him no small Diskindness And the First thing which he cites from the several Conferences is so far from a formal Retractation as he would bear us in hand that it is indeed only a scurvy Palliation of the matter and I am sorry there to find this Assertion That what Proposals he makes about tempering Episcopacy they were no other than what King Charles 1st and Mr. Thorndike had made before him How No
the greatest Prelate that was concerned in it I have known some very good men who have been very solicitous that such Papers which might any ways discover their indecencies their weakness their over-sight or their neglects might be burnt and they never so much as suspected that this was an unwarrantable Artifice or that they or others should get the Title of Roman Senators either for desiring or performing of it And what is there in these Papers that deserves such an extraordinary Care Why truly no great matter of Good is pretended but this Author thinks they cannot do us much Hurt For saith he we do not think we can suffer so much by any private Opinion of his i. e. Cranmer 's that we should be tempted to destroy his Papers Nor do I think the suffering much or little could be a Temptation to publish them If that was his private Opinion I wish they had suffered it to be so still and that they had observed a Difference between destroying and making publick But suppose it was his private Opinion yet it was not so long nay it received such faint Entertainment at best that it scarce deserved to be called his Opinion For this Author tells us that he subscribed it with much Dubiousness And he was so far from being satisfied in the Point that it seems he retracted it not long after And Doctor Burnet expresly says That he subscribed the Book that was soon after set out which is directly contrary to those Opinions set down in these Papers And now is not this wise Work that an Opinion which Cranmer never heartily embraced which upon Debate he grew ashamed of discarded and under his Hand frankly retracted should be retrived from Darkness and not only set up for the Pole Star whereby the Rector of Sutton steers his Course thorough that fluctuating Irenicum but published with all Advantage to debauch others and lead them into the loosest and most extravagant Opinions concerning Church Government And here I cannot but observe the unpardonable Partiality of this Author who without any Remorse rakes into the very Ashes of poor Cranmer and revives a supposed Opinion of his from which he certainly departed that he might lay him to open Shame and at the same time will have the Dean to be Sacred and Inviolable and not suffer the least Reflection to be made upon him though he formerly printed the same Opinion only new vampt which they would father on the Archbishop Certainly some deference ought to have been paid to Cranmer either upon the Score of his Sufferings or his Station in the Church or the Distance of Time or the Uncertainty of the Thing and if none of these could prevail with this Author yet methinks he should have been more Merciful than to trample in a mans Urn and to expose one who hath been so long dead and can say nothing for himself As for the Dean he is alive and well and a Thousand times better able to defend his own Cause than this Whiffler And therefore such Tenderness over the one and such Neglect or rather Severity towards the other is neither fair nor ingenuous And after all it is not improbable that it never might have been Cranmer's Opinion which is set down in the Papers For the great management of Affairs passing thorough his Hands he might state the Case by way of Experiment to put others upon a more full free Debate and Consultation of the Matter and to discover the true Grounds and Reasons of the Right as well as the Mistakes of the Wrong and by a contrary Determination to give a Check to some Opinions which it is probable some Court Parasites might be then setting on Foot. For it is scarce Credible that a Man of his Greatness and Influence should so quickly so easily so spontaneously depart from an Opinion of such moment if he had been really possessed with it and not only used it by way of Tryal of others For that such an Opinion would have been grateful enough to the then prevailing Court Party there can be no Question and except the bare perusal of Leighton's and others Papers we do not hear of any considerable Means used to take him off this Opinion and that such a Person as Cranmer should leave an Opinion so lightly and that at a time when it served his particular Interest seems to me very unlikely And therefore though the Authority of the Manuscript should be good which to me seems very suspicious it may fairly be supposed that not a fixed Opinion but some other Reason which we see not moved him to state the Case at that manner and at that time And whilest a Matter is under Debate it may for removal of Objections and for the better beating and clearing up the thing in Question be useful sometimes induere personam alterius and to start and move such things which he may have no Kindness for But when the thing is determined and he as freely yields to it as any other he hath very hard Measure if all his Proposals must be fixed on him as his setled Opinions and be represented to the World ever after as heterodox or heretical But though Cranmer be sufficiently exposed by the Manuscript yet since others will have it so for me let him bear his own Burthen provided that the publishing of it may serve either our Church or the Reformation For otherwise I see no reason why Men should be so enamoured of it And as for so much as concerns Cranmer what Service can that do our Church which yeilds up its peculiar Rights and Powers to be ravished at Pleasure by lay Hands What Honour can it do our Reformation which represents the greatest Instrument of it and him who had the best Authority to promote it as a Man tainted with the loosest Principles It is true that things in themselves not only good but commendable may be done by ill Men but though that doth not alter the Nature of them yet it is apt to create Jealousies and cause a Prejudice in mens Minds against them And therefore it was wisely done of the Athenians who when they had received excellent Council from a very bad Man to avoid the scandal of following so ill a Person caused another of unblemished Reputation to give the same Advice in open Senate as from himself I must therefore beg your Pardon if I cannot but think it ill done that upon so weak Grounds as the Credit of a musty Manuscript which hath no other Voucher but Providence so great a Man as Cranmer should be blasted even in such matters that the Shame will in some measure rebound upon our selves And it seems strange to me that these Men should decry Doctor Heylin for his impartial Dealing in exposing some ill things done in the Entrance of the Reformation which certainly is best defended by separating the Cause from the Rapaciousness self Ends and ill Actions of some particular Persons and yet they themselves
discoursing about the State of Men in the Isle of Pines And he gives a reason of his Assertion to this effect That as no Man ought to limit God's Power and Mercy in extraordinary Cases so neither ought any to enlarge them where God by his revealed will hath set bounds and limits and consequently that the promises and assurances of Salvation ought to be given to none out of the Church where God hath a Church as to her Offices and Administrations in actual Being and Settlement But quite contrary hereto upon this supposition of antecedent Belief the Dean infers That a Man may be in a State of Salvation in his single and private Capacity apart and out of all Church Society and Ecclesiastical Communion though he live where it is to be had which utterly overthrows any necessity of attendance to Ordinances and all Church Communion And to prove this Mr. Lowth cites several passages out of that Book Now if this Author will not see how this Opinion can be destructive of Church Power he must be blind still for me but then he will be very ill able to disburthen the Dean of those consequences wherewith Mr. Lowth hath loaded him and indeed supposing the Truth of the charge the Dean himself can never be able any other ways to do it than by quitting the Opinion And thus this Book not doing the Business is laid aside to make way for The Answer to several Treatises wherein the Dean as our Author saith has reduced the Authority of the Governours of the Church to three Heads And to much purpose if it be arbitrary whether men shall enter or continue in any such Society But we will suppose them obliged which is so much more than I need grant to the foregoing Principle that it is rather directly against it and then the first Two Heads may be easily allowed only it is objected that what the Dean gives with one Hand he takes away with the other and by his unconstancy both in Opinion and Practice hath undermined his own Positions To this the Author says nothing nor will I urge it further but quietly take what is at any time well given The Third Head is An Authority of proposing Matters of Faith and directing Men in Religion And this is such a cautious mincing Expression that I cannot tell what to make of it nor where to find any distinct Authority in it For as for proposing I do not know but that any private Person upon a just Occasion and in a lawful manner may do the same And if any thing of that nature be pretended to be peculiar to the Clergy yet Proposals in their own Nature are so far from inferring an Authority to command their Reception that they rather imply a Power in those to whom they are proposed at Discretion to reject them and so in the issue gives the Authority to the People But that I may do him no wrong besides the proposing Matters of Faith there is also mentioned an Authority of directing Men in Religion And truly this is a very liberal Grant which allows as much to the Church as was given to the Statues of Mercury which of old were set up to direct Passengers in their Way and leaves men much at like Liberty to regard either I think this far from a Power to make her Declarations Law. And yet our Author with his accustomed Confidence affirms That it is plain that here is an Authority to Command attributed to the Church and a Power to enforce her Commands by inflicting of Censures c. But to what matters this Authority reacheth he durst not acquaint us for fear this great Mountain should dwindle into a Mole-hill For as the Matter is here laid the Exercise of what he calls the Power of the Keys must be limited to the Churches Authority in making Rules and Canons about Order and Decency For in other matters she can only propose or direct which is so precarious a sort of Authority that I see not how her Censures can be justifiable where it extends no farther And thus he hath made some kind of Fence about the Church against Schismaticks but laid her open to all manner of Hereticks And thus far I cannot find that abundant Satisfaction which he tells us we must be convinced has been made for any former Mistakes For as for what he repeats concerning the Treatise of the unreasonableness of Separation it hath received its Answer already and I am not willing to follow this Man through all his Vagaries who is willing to say any thing but to the Purpose We are now come to the last thing which is Episcopacy as to which it seems Mr. Lowth had charged the Dean that he had not asserted it in the number of those Institutions and Practices Apostolical which are perpetual and immutable To prove the contrary we are bid to look into the Discourse of the unreasonableness of Separation But why should he send us to look that which he could not find himself And I have another Reason why I shall not follow the Advice because I have looked long ago and could not find it Though otherwise I had no mean esteem of the Book And here it is very observable that all the Dean's Treatises fail our Author We may if we please go pore out our Eyes in the unreasonableness of Separation but not one word is thence cited and no other Book so much as mentioned And for his last Refuge he is forced to fly to the Ordination Sermon and Epistle which ought not to be admitted for Proof the Controversy being what was done before and the Performance of that acknowledged And had the Dean's Wrath suffered him to have the Ingenuity to acknowledge what he had the Honesty to retract and had he not disparaged so excellent a Sermon with that inconsiderate angry Epistle I am apt to think he had heard no more of Mr. Lowth unless in respect and kindness But when he endeavours to agree with Mr. Lowth in the Sermon and loads him with Crimes and Reproaches in the Epistle I think he gave him a just Provocation in that manner to defend himself And yet here Mr. Lowth hath granted more than our Author knew how to prove For he is so unlucky that he would tempt one to think that he had rather a design to expose than vindicate the Dean In the Epistle Dedicatory which he is mightily pleased to call the Two-Penny Paper the Dean as he saith tells us That he does now think much more is to be said for the Apostolical Institution of Episcopacy than he at that time apprehended that is when he wrote the Irenicum and I believe the Dean did mean honestly but our Author did unadvisedly to write this passage because it comes not up to the Case For how much that more was or whether it was enough to prove Episcopacy of Apostolical Institution is not expressed And it is well known that very much is often said for
A LETTER TO A FRIEND IN ANSWER to a LETTER Written against Mr. LOWTH IN DEFENCE OF Dr. Stillingfleet LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1688. A LETTER TO A FRIEND IN ANSWER to a LETTER Written against Mr. LOWTH SIR YOU seem to be much concern'd that such considerable Members of the Church of England should be whetting their Pens against each other whilst they are inclosed with their Adversaries And I think every good Man will bear a part with you and doth heartily wish that there had been no occasion or that it could be taken away But since you require my thoughts concerning the late Answerer of Mr. Lowth's Letter I will answer your Request with as much brevity and impartiality as my mean skill will enable me The Man wants not wit but indulgeth it so far as to renounce both Civility and Reason good Manners and Religion I had perused his Letter with the same pleasure I read a Play or hear a Prevaricator's Speech but that the seriousness of the Matter wherein it was concerned was a continual check upon me and converted that Pleasure into Grief to think that any Man who pretends to Gravity and Reverence to Religion should allow himself the liberty to Wantonize at that rate in most sacred Things So that I think the Man is so far from doing the learned Dean any real Service that he will prove a disparagement both to his Cause and Person and the more for this reason That being the Dean had formerly justly lashed Mr. Alsap for his lightness in a Case near a-kin to this it will seem very indecent for him now to set up a Jack-Pudding or Merry-Andrew in his own Defence and that it should come forth without his privity and consent scarce any Man will believe who considers how long and by whom Mr. Lowth's Book of Church Power was stopp'd in despight of all the interest he could make Neither is the attempt to jeer Truth out of Countenance less intolerable at this time when it is apparent from the Letter it self that the Dean doth endeavour to come up to Mr. Lowth and it is much the best part of the Scriblers Plea to own it in his behalf Several Pages are spent meerly in pickeering at Words and Phrases without one Syllable as to the merits of the Cause though there be no want of Malice as to Mr. Lowth's Person But I love not to rake in Canals though I have to do with Scavengers and therefore shall pass it all over but where I meet with any thing material I shall give you a concise account of my Thoughts of it The chief Ground of this bitter Quarrel I find to be this That he the Dean is imperiously Summoned and little less than commanded viz. by Mr. Lowth to satisfie the Church of God by a Recantation as publick as his Error Scandal and Offence This latter Clause I remember in Mr. Lowth's Book but the imperious Summons is anothers Interpretation and the little less than commanded is added by the Author least he should seem to do nothing if he did not lay on more load But in what manner soever it was done I confess that in one respect it was very unreasonable to call for such a Recantation for we are all too fond of our selves to appear against our selves But when a Man hath gotten a name in the World is admired by his Followers applauded for his Parts and Learning and look'd on as the Coriphaeus of his Age this Man is above all Recantations and it is well if he do not think himself above any Error Scandal or Offence For such a one to lessen himself by the publick acknowledgment of Error is such a prodigious piece of Ingenuity as cannot reasonably be expected and indeed it is never to be expected from any but those who can be content to take the shame to themselves that God may have the Glory and who value Truth above all their Reputation yea all their Interest in the World and such are rare Birds whether they have Pockets or not But then if we lay aside Mens over-dearness to themselves and the frightful tenderness of their Reputation as we ought in this Case and look into the reason of the thing the Case will be quite altered and it will appear altogether unreasonable that the Church of God should be wronged or the Truth suffer for the Advancement or salving any Man's Reputation And if any offend in this kind they ought to give satisfaction though few are willing to do it I have no prejudice against the Dean's Person and shall readily do him all the right I can I acknowledge that he hath taken a great deal of pains in defence of the Church of England I honour him as a Man of extraordinary Parts Learning and Industry second to few if any of his Age. But doth this secure him from Error Doth this make him infallible Are we so zealous to pull down the Pope at Rome that we may set up another at St. Paul's Or have not meaner Men sometimes corrected the Errors of far greater Apollinaris was a Man of such curious Parts and Learning that he was the Admiration of his Contemporaries and he did the Church great service by his clear and convincing way of writing against Hereticks and yet as some think the very confidence in his Parts betrayed him into a foul Error and even those who pitied him who admired him who acknowledged themselves much inferior to him wrote against his Error and have transmitted him to posterity branded with the name of an Heretick Tertullian for acuteness of Parts and variety of Learning doubtless out-stripp'd all the Men of his Age and I question whether any thing written in behalf of Christianity against Heathens hath out-done his Apology or any thing hath been more convincingly penned against all sorts of Hereticks than his Book de Praescriptionibus And yet this very Man not without much ado hath escaped the Title of an Heretick himself if he have escaped it However it is notorious that he maintained some such foul Errors as are rejected on all hands In these we may see that the Church of God did not suffer the singular parts or even merits of any Man to patronize his Errors but in that cafe always left him to the Merits of his cause and perhaps it is most reasonable that the more considerable the person is the more severe Trial he should be put upon because the Authority of his Person is more like to make the Error spread than if it came from another Man. And in this particular even the Author of the Letter though like the Fish Saepia he muddles himself in his own Ink yet is forced sometimes in down-right terms to confess that the Dean hath been guilty of Error in that very matter wherein Mr. Lowth accuseth him and when he doth his best to wash it off he doth only plaster the Sore over To make this good I
must descend to particulars and then we shall quickly see whether the Letter-maker be as good at his reasoning as he is at trifling and railing The first thing he lays hold of is a civil Concession of Mr. Lowth as to the Deans unreasonableness of Separation whereby he grants it to be competently well done upon the Dean's Principles and that he had abundantly set forth the reasonableness of our Book of Common-Prayer c. and urged Obedience thereto from the destructive consequences that must inevitably follow And when he hath got this by the end he will not endure to hear that any thing is left as Matter of Dispute but runs away with it full cry That every Man is bound to yield to reason and then tramples on Mr. Lowth at pleasure But his heat could not stay to consider that all this amounted to no more than motives to Compliance in the judgment of Interest or Discretion and were for the most part such as mutatis mutandis might be urged for any setled Constitution even at Geneva or Amsterdam And though they might incline Men to a present Obedience yet they did not so link men to the Church of England but that they still had a fair Pretence to join with any other Church Government which in time the Civil Power might advance or favour Upon this account I suppose it is that Mr. Lowth writes thus to the Dean In your Treatise of the Vnreasonableness of Separation you no where that I could take notice of have pressed Christians to Obedience as they are a Corporation imbodied under Government and Laws of their own which is the original and fundamental Obligation to Submission and Conformity arising from the nature of that Kingdom which Christ hath erected by the promulgation of the Gospel of which Kingdom every true Christian is a Subject p. 78. And had the Arguments been taken from this Topick they would have proved the Obedience not only reasonable but necessary secured Persons to the Church of England and kept things in the right Chanel And there is the more reason to urge this at this time when in a Paper attributed to no less person than the late King I find a charge drawn up against our whole Body in these Words That that part of the Nation which looks most like a Church dares not bring the true Arguments against the other Sects for fear they should be turned against themselves Now though for my own part I am possessed with no such fear yet I must confess that when men purposely avoid such Arguments when the nature of the thing requires them it gives a shrewd suspicion that either they do not approve them or are afraid to use them And it is by some thought that the Dean's way of manageing the Argument as well against Romanists as Fanaticks gave no small occasion to that and some other expressions in the Paper and indeed to the whole Discourse that is level'd against Erastianism which is there supposed the Sence of the Church of England because it is so represented by Mr. Dean and his Party And when you have considered these things I leave you to think whether there was any great reason for that immoderate triumph over Mr. Lowth's civility The next thing which after some idle foolish flourishings of Wit the Epistolizer adventures on is the business of the Iraenicum and truly he adventures hardly who trips up his own heels and gives up the cause at the same time that he undertakes to defend it He tells us that at his late Majesty's Restauration in those Ecclesiastical Confusions the Dean at that time but a very Young Man boldly ventures upon the reconciling part it must saith he be confessed and he has acknowledged it himself that according to the fate of most Reconcilers he was too liberal in his Concessions And 'pray' was this Mr. Lowth's fault or the Deans But then if those Concessions were such as were not only prejudicial to the Church of England but injurious to the Church of God as it is apparent they were might not Mr. Lowth or any other Man lawfully tax them for being so and step in at least for the defence of that Church of which he was a Member and to which he was engaged by most sacred Obligations Is the Dean's Reputation so great that it over-weighs the good yea the very being of the Church or must he have the liberty with applause to make erroneous Concessions whilst the other must not speak Truth without being shamefully Reproached and Abused For as to the main of the Controversie I do not find that even the very Enemies of Mr. Lowth do lay the Error at his Door but hence their Indignation swells that a poor Country Vicar should correct the Dean's Errors and dares to see that Truth which the Dean either did not or would not A Man accustomed to Hobnail-Proverbs as our Letter-man expresses it would have said in this Case That some may better steal a Horse than others look over the Hedge though with an intent to make a discovery But he thinks amends is made for all this because though some enamoured on their own Fancies could not be moved yet such as gave themselves the liberty of considering calmly were gained over to our Church and it did not want success in that way both here and in a Neighbour Nation And he tells us That there is no reason to question the Truth of this But with his good leave I am of another Opinion and notwithstanding his confidence shall either question the Truth or the honest meaning of it For what was this mighty gain and success but the filling the Church with men of no steady Principles The stubborn Dissenters obstinately made good their party and continued expecting a time for their Advantage but those who were of more moderate Perswasions or more favourable to their own Interest found a more gentle Temper in the Iraenicum to justifie their compliance with any Church Government and so these Luke-warm persons flock'd into the Church thereby corrupting its Body and ready to serve their purposes who stood out when any fit opportunity should be offered They were so far satisfied as to make their Benefit of the Episcopal Government but if that should happen to be removed they were as ready to embrace the Presbyterial or Independent and perhaps more heartily And for my part I do not think that the Church was any gainer by the Conversion of any such professed Dissenters into false Friends I should think it safer to see the Serpent hissing before me than to put him into my Bosom By such means it hath been brought to pass that in the Church of England we have had so few Church of England Men and that many who fed plentifully at her Table either durst not maintain her upon her own just Grounds and Principles or have been ready to betray her by their new Models and underhand dealings and this dreadful Out-cry against Mr.
had not some men who applaud his Failures above his best Performances perswaded him that he could do nothing amiss and made him cling too close to his early mistakes For doubtless the Dean after so long Experience and vast Reading cannot but discover the mischievous Consequences of many things in that Book which his Juvenile Heat and too forward Zeal sent over hastily into the World And I am willing to believe that we might in time see as great Evidences of Candor and Ingenuity as of Parts and Learning from him could these men leave him to himself But this I think may satisfie you of the reasons of those persons employing him at that time though they could not approve the Irenicum It may be needless perhaps to add more in respect of you yet for the sake of some others who may be more difficult because unwilling to be convinced I will fling you in a Royal Instance double twisted It is no unknown thing That Bishop Bilson let drop some passages from his Pen which might be interpreted to savour too much of Commonwealth Principles and were particularly distastful to King James the First and yet that Wise King not only suffered him to enjoy the richest Bishoprick in his Kingdom but seem'd to afford him some particular Favour and Countenance This some Schismaticks afterwards laid hold of and made use of it to their Advantage against whom our Royal Martyr thus defends his Father in his Third Paper to Mr. Henderson As for Bishop Bilson I remember very well what Opinion the King my Father had of him for those Opinions and how he shewed him some Favour in hope of his Recantation as his good Nature made him do many things of that kind And had this occurr'd to the Dean's Memory as it could not escape his Reading it might have been a strong Temptation upon him to have drawn the Father into his Party as well as he hath done the Son and indeed they are both much alike on his side But I think that it better serves to shew that respect to mens Persons and approbation of their Opinions are very distant things and that he who passeth judgment upon no better Evidence follows a very fallacious Rule From this we are lead to consider the design of this unlucky Book which I could wish had never been design'd at all And we are told That but two designs can be tolerably pretended the one is the Dean's own the other Mr. Lowth hath made for him The one is applauded the other insolently and scornfully condemned they are represented as inconsistent with each other and yet with this Author's leave I think it not impossible that they may be both true And First I must tell you that a man though very zealous and serious may be mistaken as to the Justice and Goodness of his own design and may actually design that which is really evil and effect it too whilst he thinks to do great good Thus it was with no less a person than St. Paul before his Conversion in persecuting the Christians And our Blessed Saviour himself tells us John 16. 2. The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God Service And I believe the Author of the Letter would be very unwilling to have his Throat cut with such a Religious design notwithstanding he is so brisk an Advocate for Mens well meaning And there is not a Presbyterian Independent Anabaptist Quaker or any Sectary whatsoever who seriously desire and endeavour to ruine the Church of England but they think they design well and our Author if he please may undertake their defence Well but the Dean hath solemnly profossed that his design was to heal the Wounds of the Church Now though I never liked the Plaster yet I am willing to believe this to have been his design and it is a very Christian and noble Design But then in the next place we are to consider that a Man who carries on a very just and laudable design may yet proceed in such untoward methods and use such unagreeable and unhappy means that he may not only miscarry as to his design but may do as much hurt as he designed good And in this case it is apparent that there is a Twofold design the one personal the other natural the one which the person intends and fails in the other that which the means he useth naturally tend to And therefore when Mr. Lowth saith That the design was meerly or mostly or what you will against the re-establishment of the Church of England I cannot believe that he meant to enter into the Dean's Thoughts but that he did judge what was the natural tendency of his Arguments and so let the Dean's design be what it will he might be in the right as to the design of the Book and whether he was or not must be tried by the proofs he brings for it And our Author confidently asserts That all that he Mr. Lowth offers in proof of this is his the Dean's denying Episcopacy to be by the Laws of Christ always binding and immutable and that he attributes too much power to the Civil Magistrate in Ecclesiastical Affairs and this saith our Author will be freely confessed A pretty fair Confession And is it not an admirable way to procure the Establishment of the Church of England by pleading that Episcopacy may be turned out of doors at the pleasure of the Civil Magistrate For supposing the mutability of Episcopacy and the power of the Magistrate there asserted this will be the natural consequence And is it not hard that a man should confess Mr. Lowth to be in the right and in the same Breath revile him But our Author has a trick to prove that this Argument will not hold and tells us That he will turn the Tables and suppose Mr. Lowth a zealous Presbyterian and then because the Irenicum denies that Government to be immutable as well as Episcopal and gives away some of the power to the Civil Magistrate which is wont to be assumed by their Classical and Synodical Assemblies he might have made the same complaint in favour of the Consistory c. Very true and there is no doubt but Mr. Lowth would have done so had he been such a zealous Presbyterian or else he must have been false to his Principles But could not this man turn the Tables without turning Mr. Lowth into a Presbyterian I pretend not to much skill at Tables but I had thought that those who turned the Tables had left the Persons as they were and if he had done so he might have turn'd and overturn'd his Tables till his heart had aked before he could have made Mr. Lowth open his mouth in favour of the Consistory though the Dean's Design and Arguments had been never so violent against it And let us suppose it true which this Author alledgeth That the design of the Irenicum may be as easily levelled against the Presbyterian as the Episcopal Church yet
other If there be not some Propositions which when you please go for Proposals in the Irenicum relating to Episcopacy which King Charles 1st and Mr. Thorndike were they living would abominate I will never more pretend to any common Understanding of what I read As for our glorious Martyr it is very hard to say what Concessions any man could have made who had been reduced to those miserable Straits which he was by the most impudent and barbarous Rebels And yet thus far I am confident that nothing stuck more close to him than his Opinion concerning the Government of the Church by Bishops nothing rendred him more suspected both to the Presbyterian and Independent nothing was a greater Obstacle in all Treaties nor was any thing pleaded for by him with more Vigor and Smartness But I will trouble you no farther on this Account because I know that the blessed King Charles and judicious Mr. Thorndike will be vindicated in this Point by another Hand But I could not forbear smiling at a pretty Fetch of this Author who when he had cited the King's Proposal as he calls it from the Deans Epistle Dedicatory and made his Comment upon it immediately adds This is very consistent with the Practice of the First Ages and this I take to be the same that by Law is established in our Church Surely the Dean did himself much wrong to talk of tempering Episcopacy For let him say what he would he was for it just the same that it is now And do you not think that our Author had good Eyes who could discover how Episcopacy hath been all along by Law established just according to the Proposals in the Irenicum I should commend him at a dead Lift but that he over does it so unmercifully Some other passages indeed this Author cites which seem to imply some kind of retractation and I am â—pt to believe that the Dean really intended them with reference to some things which he had formerly alledged in prejudice of the Church of England but then what the particulars are we are left to guess And I remember I have read of an old Hob-Nail'd Axiom that dolus versatur in universalibus And for any thing contained in those Expressions any Man upon occasion may easily get of them and each Party as the Tide turned might apply them to their own advantage for any thing that could be said to the contrary without a more particular Explanation from their Author But to put the whole matter out of Dispute this Author at last descends to particulars and instances in three things wherein lies the main Charge i. e. the Manuscript the Power of Church Officers and Episcopacy And if this be satisfactorily done I know no reason but that the Quarrel should die but instead of that I rather meet with idle Cavils than fair Answers As to the Manuscript the first thing charged is the altering the general Method of it and of this he in some measure clears the Dean and lays it upon Doctor Burnet and undertakes to give the reason of it But whatever might be the reason yet it is confessed That it was altered and no Record ought to be altered upon any reason whatsoever without Forgery and therefore Mr. Lowth spake Truth and ought not to be abused at this rate upon that account And though this Author tells us how easie a matter it is to put it in its first Order yet I believe many might have been to seek in it had not this Contest given occasion for the fuller explaining the mysteries of it And for my part I like not of mens doing thus unwarrantably and worse of their giving reasons for it The other charge in reference to the Manuscript is That they have left out Bishop Cranmer 's Subscription to Doctor Leighton 's Opinion concerning Church Power by which he retracted his former erroneous Judgment This the Author acknowledgeth to be so soul a thing that it would leave those without any excuse who should be proved guilty of it but he quarrels Mr. Lowth's proof and finds no less than four mistakes in it and if he had pleased he might have made them fourscore and I know not who could have contradicted him for the Manuscript is to be seen only by choice Friends and whilst they keep it so close to themselves they may say what they please of it without any bodies being able to disprove them But if there had been so many mistakes they cannot fairly be laid at Mr. Lowth's â—â—or for he doth not pretend to have seen the Manuscript but took it upon the credit and relation of Doctor Durel late Dean of Windsor and therefore at him the Argument ought to have been levelled And yet I do not see how the Dean of Windsor can be blamed not only because they took no notice of it in his life time nor in the least offered to disprove him but also because that learned person doth intimate that he had perused the Manuscript and followed his own Eye sight in what he wrote And it is farther considerable that Mr. Lowth gave notice of this by Letter whilst the Dean of Windsor was living All this while no mistake was heard of but now the Dean is dead and can tell no Tales here are four of a cluster But until this Author's Reputation can out-weigh that of the Dean of Windsor's which I think it will not do in haste amongst all disinteressed persons it will remain a Quaery where the mistake lies and give a suspicion of Jugling I was in hope that we had now done with this Mushroom Manuscript which surely either sprung out of the Ground or like the Trojan Palladium or Image of Diana fell down from Jupiter for I can yet learn nothing further of its Pedigree than that it came by Providence But this Author is not content to maintain the abuse of it unless he may also justifie the publication of it and most basely and unchristianly insinuates as if Mr. Lowth were a Man for Fire and Fagot meerly because relating a Story out of Livy he seems to dislike it I wish the Author would consider with what manner of Spirit he wrote that Paragraph I am ashamed of the malice of it Surely this Livy is an Vnlucky Book too I have heard the Story told That during the long Parliament-Rebellion an honest Loyal Gentleman was soundly Plundered and carried Prisoner to the next Rebel Garrison those Janizary Troopers finding Titi Livii Patavini Historiae Romanae Principis to lie in his Parlour and they had just so much Latin and Sence as thence to conclude him a Roman Catholick But though Mr. Lowth hath met with such hard usage for a slight insinuation of his Thoughts I will run the hazard of telling you more plainly that I think the Manuscript to have been much sitter for the Fire than for the Press nor can I think to what end it was published unless to scandalize our Reformation or to expose
unnecessarily and groundlesly should publish some pretended Opinions of Cranmer's which border too near the Cause it self and are not content so to do unless they may also espouse them And it is still worse in that it ministers too fair an Opportunity for our Adversaries to reproach us who doubtless will not be wanting to improve every thing of that Nature to their utmost Advantage And of this I will give you only one Instance in a Book lately printed at Oxford whose Author was apparently of greater Temper than is usual with most Romanists who is conversant in our best Authors and hath the Skill to convert even our Sufferings into our Ruine in that Book I say I find this severe Charge drawn up against both Clergy and Reformation occasioned purely and solely from this pretended Manuscript As for the King's Supremacy saith he how far now some of the complying Clergy extended or acknowledged the just Power thereof even as to Ordination and Excommunication and administring the Word and Sacraments I think I cannot more readily shew you than by setting down the Quaeries proposed concerning these things in the first Year of this Kings Reign he means Edward the VI. to Archbishop Cranmer and other Bishops and learned Men when assembled at Windsor for establishing a publick Order for divine Service and the Archbishops Answer to them printed lately by Mr. Stillingfleet out of a Manuscript of this Archbishop Iren. 2 par 8 chap. and then he sets down the Quaeries and the wild Answers thereunto and for any thing I can see very fairly and what he subjoins is I think as modest a Reflection as could be expected to flow from the Pen of an Adversary This Text saith he needs no Comment it is plain enough and perhaps Posterity might have done better to have covered this Nakedness of their Forefather than to have published it after so long a Silence Church Government par 5. concerning the English Reformation cap. 8. pag. 120 c. Now is it not mad Work to beray our own Nest and persist in it still after our Enemies shew themselves ashamed of our Unadvisedness though it be their great Advantage By this you may perceive that some still remain unsatisfied as to the Manuscript and by no means approve the publishing of it and I wish our Author may give a better account of the next particular which is the Power of Church Officers And here the Appendix to the Irenicum comes in the Van a Treatise written on purpose to help out the defects of the former and to purge himself from Erastianism and therefore with some reason one might expect that that matter of Church Power should have been clearly stated and certainly he did intend it so far as his Thoughts were for why else doth he refer Mr. Lowth to this very Book on that Scorce and upbraid him That he had not produced one considerable Argument which he had not made use of in a Discourse published above Twenty Years since which saying can be meant of no other than his Appendix Against this as this Author tells us Mr. Lowth's exception is That it is limitted to the Power of Excommunication And this he wipes of with a wet Finger saying That was the Subject to be treated of and to have extended it farther in that place had been to little purpose It seems then that to come up to a Case is to little purpose but to do it by halves is to mighty purpose But it is observable of this Author that he rarely mentions an Objection of Mr. Lowth's but he represents it either not in his Sence or not in its due force For Mr. Lowth's Objection lay thus That it was so limited to the Power of Excommunication that all other Acts and Offices of the Church teaching and administring the Sacraments excepted were left in the hands of the civil Magistrate so that the power over sacred Things was annexed entirely to the civil Power Now with the Epistolizers leave I think it had been nothing impertinent so to have handled the matter of Excommunication as not to have left so considerable an Objection always dashing at his Heels To the Objection in this sence there is not a tittle of Answer and now we may go look for the so much boasted Satisfaction elsewhere for on all hands it is agreed that it is not here to be found To help out this matter we are led to the Treatise in Vindication of Archbishop Laud a laborious and learned piece But as I will not be bound to Answer for all things in that Book so neither will I raise any new Quarrels against it I wish Mr. Lowth's Objections could be fairly answered For though he thence cites many intricate perplexed Passages yet our Author with his wonted Ingenuity tells us only That he had happened upon a little piece of a Sentence which he thought might have an ill Aspect upon Church Power and it is this The being of a Church supposes this antecedent belief or assent to the Doctrine of Christ in Christians And this piece of a Sentence is more I fear than he ever well understood though he thinks it may be so easily defended For though in a Church to be constituted or gathered out of Heathens it holds true yet in a Church already constituted he ought to distinguish between an actual and federal Belief For in all Societies both sacred and civil Children follow the common Condition of their Parents unless by their own subsequent act they alter the case Thus the Children of Slaves are born Slaves and the Children of Freemen born Free. And as under the old Law the Children as parts of their Parents and in the same Covenant with them were initiated by Circumcision so under the Gospel or new Law by virtue of a covenant-Right without any express declaration or consent of their own Children are admitted into the Church by Baptism And for want of distinguishing between those who are Born to Rights and Privileges in the Church and those who are not capable of acquiring them but by an explicite Belief of their own that proposition became liable to very ill construction and gave too much advantage to the Socinians and Anabaptists and yet I take this to be the least of the Quarrel in that particular and if this Author can so easily defend that proposition he ought either to defend it in the Sence in which Mr. Lowth alledgeth the Dean to have wrote it or he must prove that not to have been the Dean's Sence For there is no question but the Proposition it self might have been so qualified that both might have easily agreed in it But hence arose the Contest that they drew very different or rather opposite inferences from it for Mr. Lowth from this antecedent Belief infers not only a capacity but an indispensable Obligation upon such to enter into a Church Society and Ecclesiastical Communion i. e. ordinarily and where there is a setled Church for they were not
a thing and yet it doth not mount to a just proof And though I should grant more than I need viz. That Episcopacy is here acknowledged of Apostolical Institution yet that doth not imply it to be perpetual and immutable as he would perswade us 'T is true that it happens to be so in this case but he is more beholden to his luck than any good Cunning for being in the right for his consequence is not simply good because the proposition is not universally true That whatsoever is of Apostolical Institution is perpetual and immutable Neither is his distinction between Apostolical Practice and Institution of any force here For there were Institutions as well as Practices Apostolical which related to matters temporary and of indifferency And amongst several of these he might have found Episcopacy herded in the Irenicum though Mr. Lowth here mentions only the order of Widows And I have known some persons who have refused to eat black Puddings alledging for themselves that Text Acts 15. 29. which sure our Author will not deny to be an Apostolical Institution and had he been acquainted with them do not you think that his way of arguing would have excellently enabled him to convince them of their Folly He ought not therefore barely from the Institution to infer the immutability but rather from the terms of the Institution the design of the Author the nature of the Thing or the constant judgment of the Church to have proved it to have been of that sort of Institutions which are unalterable There only remain two more passages and those cited from the Ordination-Sermon in one of which the Dean mentions the consent of the Ancients in the other the judgment of the Church of England concerning Episcopacy Now though I believe the Dean did use their Authority both to express and confirm his own sence yet in strict arguing it will not follow that he must be of the same mind For it is well known when Doctor Owen readily granted what was the Opinion of the Fathers concerning Schism and yet at the same time knock'd them all down at a Blow most Magisterially and indeed most Impudently asserting That they were all out But since enough might have been fetch'd from that Sermon which speaks home and to the present purpose nothing of this ought to be urged in prejudice of the Dean though it discover the injudiciousness of our Author in his choice and how miserable a Defender he makes when he becomes any thing serious For my part in a Case of this Nature I am so far srom upbraiding any Man with what he publickly disown'd and much more for the very disowning of it as the Dean complains that I think he hath attained to a greater measure of that Vertue so peculiar to Christianity Self-denial than is usual among Men who can prevail with himself to do it and certainly a particular honour is due unto him for it But then I ought to be so just to Mr. Lowth as to say that upon the best search I could make I could not find any thing that could fairly amount to such a thing till that Sermon was published And though the Dean following his judgment in the Sermon depart from the Irenicum yet in the Epistle gratifying his displeasure he takes too much pains to defend it And being he there causelesly falls so foul upon Mr. Lowth I think he might justly defend himself in proving what he had formerly wrote to be true And indeed he has very hard measure for as to the Tenets controverted I do not find that any accuse Mr. Lowth to be in the wrong and it is somewhat odd at one and the same time to acknowledge the goodness of his Cause and rail against his Person As for the Epistolizer he pretends to no more in the Dean's behalf than to prove that he had publickly disowned his juvenile Mistakes which if he had done he might well have charged Mr. Lowth with disingenuity but failing in his proof it returns upon himself For certainly nothing can be more disingenuous than for a Man to clamour against another for maintaining the Right whilst he himself hath the confidence at the same time to defend the wrong As for the Ordination-Sermon I grant that it gives much Satisfaction to the matter of Episcopacy but not in Mr. Lowth's particular Case which was concerning what the Dean had wrote and done before However I am glad that some Satisfaction comes at any time and I hope it will prove a means to sopite the Quarrel and that when men meet in their Judgments they will not maintain a War for the sake of their Passions for I am ready to perswade my self that he who hath thought fit to assert the immutability of Episcopacy will not devest Church Officers of that power which will render them uncapable of performing their Trust I had now done with the Letter but that there remains some scattered passages which though they reach not the merits of the Cause yet are very Scandalous and therefore some cursory Notice may be taken of them He often accuseth Mr. Lowth of dealing severely and coursely with the Dean and therefore thinks he hath just cause to expose his ill Manners as he calls it though he doth it much after the same rate that Diogenes trampled on Plato's Pride To this I return that I have often observed that Mankind bears nothing with more impatience nor thinks of any thing with greater bitterness than Contempt A real Injury or considerable Damage doth not touch them half so near the quick And possibly upon a due examination good reason may be found at the bottom of this Now Mr. Lowth had dealt fairly he had privately acquainted the Dean with his Intentions he had promised upon honest Conditions to expunge his name out of his Book but to this he received no other Answer than scorn and some foul Play. And it is likely that this mighâ— make his Pen somewhat the keener Besides he is in nature no great Courtier and we Countrymen are accustomed to plain dealing or as our Polite Epistolizer phrases it Hob-nail'd Proverbs to call a Spade a Spade and an Error an Error And though it may be no great Crime in a justifiable Case for men to act like themselves yet perhaps it might be very displeasing to this Author who writes at that capering rate as if he had been bred at a Dancing School and at this time kept one Mr. Lowth had requested That if an Answer was returned to his Letter it might be done in a Scholar-like way i. e. by Argument Upon this our Author huffs and swaggers and pours out such a deal of Filth and frothy Stuff as would turn a Man's Stomach he is clearly for cashiering the Man not arguing the Case And indeed I think he might be very excusable for not answering like a Scholar who throughout his whole Letter never gives us any occasion so much as to suspect him to be
one But it doth reflect upon the Dean that he should decline the Scholar-like way in a matter of such weight and set up a Fellow who is mightily pleased to think that he shall gain the Reputation of so vile a Man as Andrew Marvell Men's Humours may be tickled but their Judgments are rarely satisfied with fooling And serious Persons will be apt to think that there was great scarcity of Argument where they betake themselves to such a course Another Quarrel against Mr. Lowth is That he made his Animadversions no sooner But he might have considered that Mr. Lowth's business was to state the Case of Church Power and the subject wherein it resided which was a matter too nice to be done over-hastily and what he Animadverted on the Dean was only by the way wherein he had forestall'd and laid a prejudice against his Opinion and it was in the Dean's power to prevent any Animadversions at all by a civil Answer to his first Letter And after all it matters not whether they were sooner or later if they be true unless he will admit Error to the Privilege to plead Prescription and then he that girds at Mr. Lowth for Animadverting on the Dean after Twenty years space and in his life time would certainly have been very severe had he been then living upon Theophilus Alexandrinus and Epiphanius for condemning some Opinions of Origen above Five times twenty Years after he was dead But though few may be concern'd for persorns at that distance yet there are many who would not have so easily pardoned him upon the score of our Reverend Hooker who must necessarily have fallen into the same condemnation for taking T. C. to Task above Forty Years after he had appeared in Print against the Church of England and that too when he had been answered long before in every minute particular by A. Whitgift It is well for us that the judicious Author of the Ecclesiastical Polity was not of the same mind with our Letter-man for then we had been deprived of one of the best pieces that ever was wrote in that kind But he is mightily troubled and cannot imagine what should give Mr. Lowth the Confidence to attack the Dean And for once I care not if I tell him It was the Dean's printing several things in Prejudice of the true State and Exercise of Church Government and what gave Mr. Lowth that Confidence would have been any other Man's Warrant to have done the same And he who had all along laboured to be the Dean's Compurgator could not had he so pleased but have seen this and been so far in the right But that he might run from that as far as might be he has devised another scandalous Reason and with abundance of Circumlocution and Coffee-house Phrases tells us to this effect That Mr. Lowth pretending to have been Conversant in some of the best Authors had associated himself with Men of little or no Skill in that way that he used to dictate to his ignorant Admirers give Laws to his Companions and to swagger with the great Names of Bishops Doctors Fathers c. whilest all stood amazed and took him for an Oracle and this puffed him up that he thought himself an over-Match for the Dean i. e. a parcel of Fools made him think himself Wiser than he was and enterprize beyond his Strength Whether he hath or not must be left to others to judge from the Arguments used on both sides If the Dean must have no Equal I wish him Joy of the Prerogative But could this Man no otherways raise his Reputation than upon the Ruines of others Could not he make him a publick Concern without making the country Clergy publick Ninnies What Necessity was he under to represent the Clergy of the prime Diocess of England as a company of Sots and Dunces who understand little or nothing in their own Business and Employment Or doth he really think that whilest all sorts of Persons are really tripping at our Heels we are so senselesly stupid as not to consider upon what Legs we stand Is it not an effectual way to perswade People to adhere to the Church of England to tell them that they are led by a parcel of blind Guides who gape and stare at a Discourse of Antiquity as if News were brought them from another World 'T was kindly done thus to sacrifice us by whole Hecatomb's to the Honour of his Idol Surely if he be not an ignorant yet he is a very malicious Admirer But had he thus causelesly blasted a whole Rank of Men in any regular Times he would have been enjoined to a severer Pennance than to walk to Highgate with Pease in his Shooes After he has thus set us out for Fools he thinks he has frighted us away and would perswade us that Mr. Lowth is left as Melancholy as the poor Vicars Cow and that all have deserted him But I can assure you that Mr. Lowth is not destitute of Friends and though they are such as are not willing to become Partizans yet they are Men who dare stand their Ground and are so far from being driven from their Judgments by Noise and Buffoonry that they are rather confirmed seeing so little of Reason appear against them His talk of siding smells of Faction But for me he may be of what Persons Side he pleaseth For my own part I am without Respect of Persons on the Church of England's side and shall neither be of the Dean's nor any other Man's side farther than they come up to her Constitutions And in Matter of that Concern the Honour and Interest of the Church will with me ever overweigh the Reputation of any single Person be he otherwise never so great or learned And by how much more Difficult the Times or greater the Danger so much the more necessary is it with all Carefulness to preserve our Body entire and sound For therein with Gods Blessing consists her Strength and Safety But if one Man may be allowed to depart from her Constitutions in one thing another will take the like Liberty in another thing till in the End she either fall in pieces of her self or become an easy Prey to any Adversary who cannot want Temptation to set upon such a shattered disjointed Body which Mischief that God would prevent shall be the daily Prayers of SIR Your obliged Friend and Servant Aug. 1st 1687. A POSTSCRIPT TO THE READER I Did suppose that the Author of the Letter in defence of the Dean had been some little flurting Wit of the Town who had been wheedled in to lend a Lift to a desperate Cause and supply the Penury of Argument with Tricks and Trifling But since I wrote these Papers and had put them out of my own Power I am credibly informed that he bears no less a Character than D. D. and is withal of considerable Reputation On this Account some Reflections upon him may be thought severe But he that will leave his Station and make himself a Buffoon may thank himself if he be treated accordingly And I am sorry that my Apology must be to tell you That he deserved somewhat worse who would hackney out himself to defend a particular Interest against his own Sence and the true State of the Church and that he stood in need of strong Diversion from Merriments and Jests whose Conscience flew in his Face for what he forced himself to write for that his private Judgment agrees not with his publick shew in this Matter I could if one Person give me Leave who I think will not deny it make appear from his own Letters if it be required But he who will suffer himself to be a Tool though otherwise sharp and good must be content to be put upon such ill Services as his Masters please and though he deserve better Usage yet shall be allowed neither the Choice nor Judgment of his own Employment But possibly upon better Consideration he may perceive that there is much Difference between writing against Mr. J a Nonconformist Teacher and running his Head against a downright Church of England-Man who thinks primitive Positions and Practice to be the fairest Comment on the Charter of Christ Jesus FAREWEL FINIS