have been taught rather to hate Arminius then understand him may very usefully be told some few things of him First he was plainly a Presbyterian and so is Mr. Barlee so am not I. Next he taught and beleeved that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth justifie so I suppose doth Mr. Barlee so do not I. Thirdly Arminius was for free will and so is Mr. B. as well as I. So as he confesseth are all his Party who are ready to take up that with Austin that the will is alwayes free but not alwayes good yet in a fit of forgetfulness p. 219. he saith that Austin and Melancthon scarce durst to name the free will of man since Adams Fall Not knowing perhaps or perhaps concealing that Arminius was a Follower and Admirer of Melancthon 4. Arminius was of opinion that the considerations of sub and supra in stating the object of Gods decree were but ingenti figmenta meer tricks and devices in the Anti-Arminians And Mr. B. confesseâ—h the very same in his p. 114. where though he saith that they are honest ingenious devices yet Dr. Twisse calls the former by very foule names as inferring God saith he to be the Author of sin the very thing they would avoid in the supralapsarian way 5. Arminius disputeth against Gods Absolute Power or Will as it is separate from his Justice and Mr. B. confesseth that Calvin himselfe doth do the same yea that he bitterly declaim's against it 6. Though Mr. Barlee most times affirme's God to decree and praedetermin that sin shall be done as I shall largely shew anon yet forgetfull of himself in his p. 138. He saith that God's decree is only permissive and governing of every sinful thing in which he jumps with Arminius extreamly well 7. Mr. B. confesseth that he and his party do in part admit of some Arminian Principles p. 106. and yet he makes a cleere distinction betwixt me and the Arminians p. 66. But 8. Arminius denyed the working of Grace irresistibly and Mr. B. professeth that the terms resistible and irresistble were never willingly owned by him and his party I am sure they use extreamly often the word irresistibiliter if not willingly it seems they do it unwillingly and why then do they do it if they are asham'd of it they should not be asham'd to mend 9. Arminius hold's that God never intended to punish any one with temporal and then lesse with eternal death but for sin And Mr. B. professeth to hold the same even in those very words What God decreed he intended and vice versâ and so Mr. B. is an Arminian perhaps before he is aware or understand's not the things whereof he speaketh 10. Mr. B. is a Calvinist and saith that Calvin and Melanchthon did but seemingly not really differ Yet Arminius was so much a follower of Melanchthon that we may call him a Melanchthenian Sure Mr. B. will agree as soon with Pelagius as with himself 11. To conclude where Arminius is in an Error Mr. B. is sure to erre with him but hates Arminius where he is Orthodox although he is constrain'd to speak like him there too when the necessity of his affaire's doth drive him to it or when he is forgetfull of the part which he is acting 12. For my self I do declare that I was then in the opinions I now am in when I had not read one page of Arminius his works nor do I agree with him any farther then he agree's with Scripture Antiquity the Church of England and Melanchthon after the time of his conversion from the Errors of Luther and Mr. Calvin this Melanchthon at first had been as it were the Scholar of Lu her and drew from him his first Errors But being apious learned and unpassionate man pursuing Truth not Faction he saw his Error and forsook it embracing those opinions concerning the liberty of the will the cause of sinne the universality of Grace and the respectivenesse of God's Decrees which I asserted in those Notes which Mr. B. now declaims against This Melanchthon was and is still the Darling more then any one man of the Reformed part of the Christian world so much the rather because besides his vast learning unbyass't judgement and transcendent piety he was almost proverbial for moderation For this was he chosen to write the Augustan Confession for this he was much considered by them that composed our Book of Articles and our other book of Homilies which shew's us what is the Doctrine of the true Church of England For this he was imitated and admired by the glorious Martyrs of our Religion in the dayes of Q. Mary for this he was esteemed farre above Mr. Calvin by Jacobus Arminius the famous professor of Divinity in the Vniversity of Leyden who however a Presbyterian as to matter of Discipline did yet so very far excell the other Divines of that sect in exactnesse of learning as well as life that we may say he became Melanchthon's Convert If Mr. B. would needs call me by any new Name it should have been a Melanchthonian not a Pelagian or an Arminian much lesse a Satanical and diabolical Blasphemer and Atheist an a what-not But neither am I a Melanchthonian in any other respect then as I apprehend Melanchthon to be a true and an Orthodox and a peaceable-minded Christian I leave it to M. B. to give up his Faith to Mr. Calvin and to follow him at aventure through thick and thin but neither Melanchthon nor Mr. Calvin did dye for me no was I baptized in the name of either It is my sole desire and ambition to be a follower of Christ and one of Christs school to imitate the example and adorne the Doctrine not of Calvin or of Arminius but of Jesus Christ Let Mr. B. be a Calvinist an Aeâ—ian or what he will I have vow'd for my part not to be any thing but a Christian And if that is good logick to say that I am an Arminian because in some things I do not differ from Arminius then Mr. B. by the same Logick is not only an Arminian where I am none but he is also a Papist because he is at agreement with the Jansenians and the Dominicans and in many respects with the Jesuites too Yet 13. I was in my childhood of those Opinions which Mr. B. doth now contend for So was Melanchthon himself as well as I but through the infinite mercy and Grace of God I have obtained conversion as well as Melanthon and being converted from the practice as well as from the opinion which I was of I will to my poore utmost at least endeavour to confirm or convert my brethren 14. The chief head of Arminianism as Mr. B. will call it do what I can is Vniversal Grace and Redemption with which the other opinions in debate must stand or fall as I conceive a point so cleer both from Scripture Reason and
Antiquity that the most learned Anti-arminians have been fain to assert it as well as Arminius or Melanchthon Among us Bishop Davenant and the late Bishop of Armagh This latter a little before his Death having also professed his utter dislike to the whole Doctrine of Geneva in these affairs and the former is plain enough in his parcificatory to Dureus So in France the learned Testard and Amirald and Daille lately in his defence of Amirald Mr. Baxter himself in this point must be an Arminian with Mr. B. and so must Prosper c or St. Hillarie which soever of them writ the Books De vocatione Gentium and so must Dr. Ward and many a noble Divine besides in the confession of Mr. B. who saith they have so many hardsome Orthodox putoffs that he will inquire farther before he passe any damnatory censure upon them thus doth he speak like some Pope out of his porphirie chaire of no lesse men then Bishop Davenant and Dr. Ward and other noble Divines as he himself call's them 15. Arminius held the respectivenesse of God's Decrees yet is it so far from being Arminianism to do the same that it 's confess 't to be the doctrine of all the Fathers of the Church before St. Austin many hundreds of years before Arminius was borne and that as well by the Enemies as by Friends of this Doctrine Beza is faine to say the Fathers are not to be heard And Dr. Twisse professeth to consider none but S. Austin and yet his single Father S. Austin will faile him too who placeth the object of election in Fide praevisâ in diverse places of his no-babelike writings And so doth Prosper as well as He. And therefore they must fall into the Catalogue of Mr. Barlee's Arminians Nay his beloved Polanus will not escape him any more then Du Moulin could escape Dr. Twisse or any more then Mr. B. can escape himself p. 121. 130. if I or my Reader were at leisure to shew how he is intangled as well in that as in other places by the necessary sequels of his unskilful Talkings To conclude 16. Mr. B. and his Masters have fastned the Name of Arminianisme upon so many very good and very necessary Doctrines that some of the wisest of their own Party have been heard to say that when all comes to all if they intend to preach to the people so as to do them any good they must preach Arminianisme do what they can For if the will of man is not free to avoid the sins which are preached down by the mighty assistance of Gods free grace and to perform the duties which are preached up by the same assistance of the same Grace but so tied and fetter'd and predetermin'd that it cannot possibly be one jot better or one jot worse then now it is all our lawes and precepts consultations and conditions exhortations and admonitions promises and threats praises and dispraises rewards and punishments would not only be useless but ridiculous things And therefore as we tender the good of souls and desire to be useful in what we speak or write we must be so far in danger of being call'd Arminians by such a Correptory Corrector as lies before us as to endeavour by our doctrines of Grace and liberty of liberty by and under Grace that all care and diligence and Circumspection may not be banish't out of the world as nothing else but Names and Notions And Mr. B. doth very ill in saying that Bishop Overal doth play upon Calvin and traduce the Puritans for heterodoxie about Predestination siince the most learned of his own party are grown asham'd of their Doctrines and that Incomparable Bishop doth but speak the very minde of the Church of England Which doth put me in minde of another great and strange Calumnie in Mr. Barlee's Title-page viz. § 4. That the Church of England will exclaim against me to my shame This they say is such a jest as nere was heard of That he should jeere me so often for my over-great Constancy to this my persecuted Mother and publish himself a Presbyterian and yet not allow me to be a dutiful Son 2. If we will hearken to the voice of the Church of England we must hear her speaking to us in the publick monuments of her Doctrine Such are the 39 Articles the Homilies the Liturgie the Catechisme the book of Ordination the book of Canons and Constitutions All which will prove that I if any man living am a dutiful son of the Church of England and that the Correptory Corrector is nothing less Well he may be of the Consistory of Geneva or of the Kirke of Scotland but as a most learned Doctor hath lately told us from the Press he and such as he is are as much of the Church of England as the Irish are English 3. He hath by much the worst luck of any Subsannator I ever knew For as if he had forgotten what he here speaks of me he speaks a great deale worse of his beloved selfe and of all his Sympresbyters to whom he Dedicates his Book For whilst he tells them in his Addresse that they do still adhere to the Dogmatical part of the 39. Articles of the Church of England he proclaims to the world that they adhere to a part only and not to the whole and that there is another part of those 39 Articles from which they have Apostatiz'd the particle Yet is very emphatical and im-ports thus much That whereas heretofore they did impartially subscribe to all the 39 Articles without exception and have since accommodated their principles to the great Turnings of the Times so as to violaâ—e their former faith they are not yet so totally fallen off from the Church but that they still adhere to the dogmatical part of the English Creed as Mr. Thomas Rogers himself doth call it which is to say in effect that though they are Schismatical in some points yet they are not in all though they beleeve the Church of England is a very false speaker in many things yet in many other things they beleeve she speaks truly though they have cast off their obedience to their common mother where her commands are not pleasing at least in these times yet to this very day they are loyal to her in part as farr as 't is safe or useful or secularly convenient Though they are not wholy of the Church of England yet they are halfe way And what a complement is this from Mr. B. to all his Sympresbyters to the Seniors of them especially to tell them they have receded from their subscriptions What greater reproach could he have fasten'd on them And how little have many of them deserved this usage at his hands I will take upon me to be an Advocate for the better sort of those Persons whom he hath thus publickly stigmatiz'd as if they were men of his Paste and Patronizers
the other weaknesses of this Incomparable Antagonist A Catalogue of some Books printed for Rich. Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane London Books written by the Author of the Divine Philanthropie A Correct Copie of some Notes concerning Gods decrees especially of Reprobation The 2. Edit Now at the Press with some Additionals The Sinner Impleaded in his own Court wherein are represented the great discouragements from Sinning which the Sinner receiveth from Sin it selfe Books written by H. Hammond D. D. A Paraphrase and Annotataions upon all the Books of the New-Test by H. Hammond D. D. in fol. 2. The Practical Catechism with all other English Treatises of H. Hammond D. D. in two volumes in 4. 3. Dissertationes quatuor quibus Episcoprtus Jura ex S. Scripturis primaeva Antiquitate adstruntur contra sententiam D. Blondelli aliorum Authore Henrico Hammond in 4. 4. A Letter of Resolution of six Quires in 12. 5. Of Schism A defence of the Church of England against the exceptions of the Romanists in 12. 6. Of Fundamentals in a notion referring to practice by H. Hammond D. D. in 12. 7. Six books of late Controversie in defence of the Church of England in two volumes in 4. Newly published Books and Sermons written by Jer. Taylor D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Course of Sermons for all the Sundayes in the year together with a Discourse of the Divine Institution Necessity and Separation of the Office Ministerial in fol. 2. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ 2 Edit in fol. 7. The Rule and Exercises of holy dying in 12 8. The Rule and Exercises of holy living in 12. 10. The Golden Grove or A Mannual of daily Prayers fitted to the dayes of the week together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness 11. The Doctrine and Practise of Repentance rescued from Popular Errors in a large 8. Newly published A Compendious Discourse upon the Case as it stands between the Church of England and those Congregations that have divided from it by Hen. Fern. D. D. New The History of the Church of Scotland by Job spot-sword Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews in fol. New Dr. Cousins Devotions in 12. The Quakers wilde Questions objected against the Ministers of the Gospel and many sacred Acts and Offices of Religion c. by R. Sherlock B. D. in 4. New The persecuted Minister in 4. New The Excellency of the Civil Law by Robert Wisâ—man Dr. of the Civil Law New CHAP. I. A Discovery of the Frailties and Misadventures in Mr. Barlee's Triumphant Title-page and his Dedicatory Epistles § 1. AS there is one sort of Creatures whose chiefest strength is in their Taile and another sort of Creatures whose chiefest strength is in their Teeth and a third sort of Creatures whose chiefest strength is in their Tongue so amongst the many skirmishes whether of truly-polemical or of meerly-troublesome and wrangling writers it is easy to observe their several strengths their sundry weapons and wayes of hurting There is one sort of writers who are not for threats but Execution All their premises are fair and Candid they only sting in the Conclusion There is another sort of writers who are incessantly biting in every part of their Discourses In every page and period they leave an evident Impression upon the party with whom they deal But a third sort there is whose chiefest strength is in their Title with that they bite very shrewdly in the thoughts of some who look no farther whereas in every thing that follows and doth denominate a Book they appear to do little more then only to wagg and to shew their Teeth As we know some Insects though they sting very smartly yet they presently leave their sting behind them and from that time forward they will buzz and be angry but cannot hurt And truly this is the Reason why I ought to consider the very Title of Mr. B. before I enter upon his Book For it speaks more in two words then his Book can attain to in 30 sheets His Title is magisterial and gives me Correptory Correction whereas his whole Book doth render him liable to the lash They that are of his Paste who either cannot or will not read him but only hear of his Title a Correptory Correction may take it for granted that I am beaten in my Notes stat Bellum famâ and so his Title may do him service Whereas his Book like the wicked ingrateful Vrchin that sucks the milke and spoyls the udder at the vary same Instant doth sadly betray both it and him So that if I were sure that all the Readers of his Title would be the Readers of his Book too I should not desire any other Vindication But because I am assured by very intelligent and practical Persons that very few will buy his book who are not prodigal of their mony and that fewer will read it who are not prodigal of their Time and that hardly any will compare it with the particulars of mine and that almost all who are abettors of his Cause and Doctrine will help to propagate his Title that is his strength and indeavour so to worke upon the letterless multitude in their Reports as to make his Confidence to pass for Courage his Impatience for Zeal and his Ovation instead of Conquest I think it not useless to admonish my Reader as Polybius did his concerning Fabius that they gaze not so much upon his Title as consider the matters of his book to which his Title is but a vizard Indeed Mr. B. doth but do his endeavour to make good his promise For he sent me a message long since by a Neighbour Minister that I should be whipt And now in his book he somewhere tell 's me he brings a Rod. And professeth in his Title to give me Correptory Correction Thus the Scythyans in Herodotus did encounter their slaves not with spears and arrows but with whips and switches Whilst they fought as with a just Enemy their Army of slaves still got the better but immediately fled away when they saw their Masters came Arm'd with switches it did so minde them that they were Sâ—rvants In the very same manner my Master would be being utterly out of hope that he can vanquish my Notes by force of Argument and Reason the proper weapons of a polemick hath thought it fitter for his purpose to use a Rod. Perhaps supposing I will not dare to turn my Pen upon them who take themselves to be Masters in this our Israel and if my Author hath muster'd his men aright did vanquish seven or eight thousand in less then three or foure years Indeed Favorinus did so far gratifie the Emperour Hadrian as to yield him the better in Disputation preferring the favour of an Emperour before the Truth of his Cause And being chid by his friends for that compliance he ask't them this Question will ye not suffer me to yield that he is more
of his Project and whom for their learning civility and moderation I do really love and honour I can name many Ministers and I beleeve there are others whom from my knowledge I cannot name who notwithstanding they have frequented one or both of those Lectures which Mr. B. doth mention in general Terms as if he were willing to involve them all together in his Guilt not sparing the Reputation of any one are so ingenuous and well dispos'd as to abhorr the blackness of His Designe and withall so rational as to despise the weakness with which 't is manag'd But 4. Since Mr. B. his memory would not serve him from the later end of one page to the beginning of another I desire the Readers of his Title-page to judge betwixt us against which of the two the Church of England is most likely to exclaim whether against him who makes a publick confession that he adheres to no more then one part of her Articles or against me who do cordially adhere to all But 5. What doth he mean by the Dogmatical Part If the Articles of the Trinity the Incarnation the Resurrection and the like he might have said as well that he adheres in part unto the Articles of the Church of Rome unto the Greek and Lutheran Churches or that he adhereth to the Articles of every Church in the world in all those parts and particulars wherein he doth not differ from them if he means those Articles concerning the matters in Debate his absurdity is greater For universal redemption is asserted in no less then 4 distinct Articles viz. the second the seventh the fifteenth the one and thirtieth So also in the Catechâ—sm the Nicene Creed and in several other parts of the Publick Liturgy as is evidently shewed by the right Reverend Doctor Overall whilst he was publick Professor of Divinity in the Vniversity of Cambridge And to this agree the consessions of the Protestant Churches beyond sea reckon'd up by Mr. Rogers upon the 31. Article if not rightly it is his fault Again the liberty of the will and the cooperation of Grace are asserted in the tenth Article wherein there is not the least sound of irresistible working as it is excellently explà in'd by the same Dr. Overall a person for Temper Piety and Moderation as well as for wideness and depth of learning as fit to tell us the very minde of the Church of England as any man that can be named Again the possibility to fall from Grace after the reception of the Holy Ghost and to fall into damning sins or into a state of Damnation is clearly asserted in the sixteenth Article and in the Homilies of our Church concerning the Danger of falling away from God and in the Administration of Baptisme as the same Doctor doth demonstrate Affirming the contrary opinion to have been rejected by all antiquity and too much confuâ—ed by the experience of all times and only brought into the Church by the late dissentions which passed betwixt Zuinglius and Martin Luther Lastly con litional Predestination is sâ—fficiently though implicitly asserted by our Church in her seventeenth Article Where it is clearly to be collected that Gods eternal Decree of electing men to life eternal was made in Inâ—uition of their being in Châ—ist Which is as clearly also to be inferred from the Nature of the Promises which are conditionally expressed in Holy Scripture And the Promises of God are merely the Transcripts of his Decrees revealed to us in time after the pattern and proportion of what he decreed from all eternity Which Mr. B. himself doth very strongly aknowledge by the very great weaknesse of his denials For whilst to this as to other things he hath no more to say then a Bare Noe embellish't with many contumelious words or embolden'd with the suffrages of such as are of his opinions or rather of such whose opinions he is of he declares he is worsted but will not yield But of this I shall speak hereafter and not to dwell overlong upon the threshold mind the Reader of that which he knows already the Exposition of Bishop Over all and the accurate Analysis of Mr. Playfere in his Appello Evangelium Besides that when the Church saith Art 31. that Christ is a perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world both originall and actual she doth irrefragably prove that Article being granted that God's Eternall Decrees of man's end were respective and conditionall 6. I will not here reckon up how many other Articles of the 39. exclaime against Mr. B. which I would not say but that it is his own word or how many Articles of our Church M. B. hath often exclaim'd against Nor will I largely insist on the three eminent Articles to which all that entred into sacred Orders and by consequence Mr. B. if he is lawfully ordained were strictly injoyned to subscribe viz. Concerning first the Queens Supremacy Secondly conformity to the Book of Common prayer and the Book of ordaining Bishops Priests and Deacons Thirdly the Book of the 39. Articles of the Church of England not a part only but the whole which three Injunctions were composed by Arch-Bishop Whitgift himself and added to the English Canons by the command of Q. Elizabeth I have already said more then Mr. B. his Calumny required What he is let others now judge by what I am and by what he hath professed himself to be 7. If Arch Bishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer Bishop Hooper and others who suffered Martyrdom in the dayes of Queen Mary were Orthodox sons of the Church of England in their Doctrines of God's Election and Universall Redemption c. of which occasion will be offered to speak anon then it is worse with Mr. B. then I wish it were and better with me then he would have it By what hath hitherto been spoken it will be easie to judge of his Next Invention viz. § 5. That Scripture Antiquity Schoolmen and all Orthodâ—x Neotericks will exclaim against me Here is matter for a whole volume if I would expatiate as I might upon each of these particulars But by how much the longer I am tempted to be I will endeavour to be so much the shorter And first for Scripture I will observe that he useth that as he doth the Neotericks So many Texts as in the letter do seem to make for his opinion that sin is absolutely willed by God Almighty as p. 78. 88. that God did voluntarily decree it as p. 73. that God doth determine it shall be done as p. 79. that God doth tempt men into sin as p. 79. and the like so many Texts in the letter do passe for Orthodox with Mr. Barlee But so many Texts as do evidently make for my opinion that Christ is the Saviour of the World of the whole world of all men of every man and the like so many Texts in the letter do passe
to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God And 't is the joy of my Soul for which I am bound to thank God that my small performance in those Papers hath redounded to the benefit at least of some § 10. He professeth not to put on the Spirit of meeknesse p. 10. much indeed to his commendation but to come against me with the Rod Ibid. Yet he hath made so many Rods for himself that I am even weary to lay them on What I said and meant only of the Accusor of the Brethren Rev. 12. 10. he takes unto himself p. 10. and so is Felo de se as if this were a mark of his being faithful chosen and true Ibid. that he hates his Neighbour not as himself though the Refuser of instruction despiseth his own soul § 11. He is content to have his Cause tried by any ten noted senior Sym-Presbyters who since the times have been upon their Tropicks have been least of all Tropical p. 11. 'T is well he acknowledgeth his Cause so ill as to submit it only to the judgement of his own Dear Brethren to whom he Dedicates his Book But 2. how came he to say they have been least Tropical since the times have been upon their Tropicks Are they the Men that have stood their ground Indeed S. Hierome hath said Bos vetulus fortiter figit pedem But did he not â—ell them in his Addresse that they adhered yet to one part of the 39 Articles implying their Aposâ—acy from all the rest What was that which he call'd an unchristian thing and four things more How many turns and removes have some of them made since they subscribed the three Articles which were contâ—ived by Bishop Wâ—itgift Since they owned the Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical agreed upon with the License of Orthodox King Iames in the Synod held at London An. Dom. 1603. and commanded to be observed under the Great Seal of England Since they took their Degrees either in Oxford or Cambridge Since the Day of their Ordinations when they were upon their Knees and the Bishops hand upon their Heads Since they Read Common Prayer like other mortals and preached some Sermons like other men The time would fail me to speak of what I will not here speak of And will he never leave jeering the very men of his way But 3. perhaps he had need to utter his fine Clinch which he therefore mark't with Italick letters and of which he is so amorous as to repeat it verbatim p. 48. lin 7. 8. 9. where he calls them grave Incumbents onely as if he distinguish't betwixt right and possession Had he not done better to have kept his â—est whole then thus to have broken it upon his friends Tropicks and Tropical would sure have kept § 12. He concludes the necessity of railing in that he ought not to be a dumb Dog nor to be toothlesse at his tongues end and pens end and that it is within his commission to be cutting p. 12. lin 45. 6. 8 Thus he squeezeth the Text till blood comes from it Scripture was ever made a Lesbian Rule by which all sorts of men have undertaken to set their Errours right The very Gnosticks and Nicholaitans pretended to it as much as any but hardly ever was it put to viler uses then now by our Correptorie Corrector because Titus a Bishop had the sharpnesse of Rebuke commited to him as part of his Episcopal Censures Tit. 1. 13. Mr. B. a meere Presbyter defends his railing and slandering against a person over whom he cannot pretend a jurisdiction Which abuse of this Text he seems to have borrowed from his first Epist'ler with what successe or Discretion we shall see more hereafter § 13. He is much pleased that our Divines at the Synod of Dort were the visible lawful Representers of our Mother the Church of England there p. 18. I am very glad of this confession because he adds another to it not many lines after That when a motion did but seem to be made somewhat prejudicial to the Hierâ—rchick Flaunt of the English Church they our English Divines in that Synod of Dort did unanimously enter their joynt attestation against it 1. It seemes they were not so much against the Remonstrant as against the Presbyterian party For 2. They were so far at agreement with the former that Bishop Davenant in his Pacificatory to Duraeus is very expressly for universal Redemption and saith that nothing belongs to the Catholick and Fundamental faith in these points of Free-will and Predestination but this one thing that all good is from Gods Grace and all evil from our selves Which as it is the total sum of what I desired to be granted me in the two Grounds of my belief and Book so it is also of what the Bishop there mentions He saith too that the word Calvinist is rather a signe of Faction then a badge of brotherly union and sets down Theses of Gods Decrees which are flatly contrary to many Anti-Romonstrants if not to all So that whatever his opinions might once have been he shewes evident marks of his change as the Primate of Armagh and other great ones have done as well as my very inconsiderable self It s very well known that in the Synod of Dort the English were more moderate then the rest of that way nay sometimes opposite Bishop Hall of late hath publickly shewed his dislike of all that party who ascribe eternal misery to the absolute will of an unrespective power and rebukes them for their distinction of a positive and negative Reprobation Which Mr. B. so much relies on p. 1. he calls it blasphemie as I did to make God the Author of Sin and pleads in effect for my whole second Chapter which Mr. B. hath so much railed at yet he and Bishop Davenant were both at Dort Besides it is certified by a most learned and pious person of that Synod that things were carried at Dort somewhat worse then at Trent it self rather by violence then Reason Their Arguments were all iron their Syllâ—gismes no other then Stocks and Fetters the Pretor made the Major proposition the Lictor was the Minor and the prison was the conclusion 3. Besides if those very few of our men at the Synod of Dort were the visible lawful Representers of our Mother the Church of England how much more were all Those who composed the Catechisme the Communion Book the 39. Articles of our English Church to some of which some Articles of the Synod at Dort have a most evident Repugnance what shall we say of all those who composed our Canons and Constitutions A. D. 1603. which were ratified by the learned and Orthodox King James as Mr. B. calls him when he thinks it is for his turn to which notwithstanding Mr. B. and his Masters do stand in perpetual opposition if so
few men at Dort who were purposely called out by the same King Iames are to denominate the judgement of the whole Church of England how much more may be said for the Common prayer which was not onely subscribed to by all our English Divines at Dort but was establshed by Law and Canon since the times of our Reformation by no lesse then five Acts of Parliament in the dayes of Edward the sixt and Queen Elizabeth compiled by those Reformers who were not persecutors but Martyrs and held in practice during the time of no lesse then 4. Princes and t is well known that Peâ—ry for publishing of libels against the Church Government was indicted arraigned and executed at Tiburn How much more for Episâ—opacy which is not onely as antient as Christianity it self in this very Land but was particularly confirmed by Mâ—gna Charta and by no lesse then 32 Acts of Parliament and in 42 of King Edward the third the first chapter enacteth that if any Statute be made to the contrary it shall be holden for none And in 25. Edvardi 1. Chap. 1. 2. Magna Charta is declared to be the Common Law of the Land And I hope an Ecclesiastical Constitution whether divine or humane is not the lesse valid for being corroborated by the whole Civil power But 4. Our English Divines at Dort as they were all for Episcopacy and their Authority as valid in one point as another so they were opposite in that and in other points to other Representers of other Churches even in that very Synod And Mr. B. is so angry for one part of their Dissention as to jeere them very mannerly with their Hierarchick Flaunt which the most Reverend Bishop Hall did very learnedly assert against Smectymnuus whom Mr. B. hath ill requited with this Correptorie Correction for his having requested Mr. Kendal to write an Answer to my Notes Which yet none are so credulous as to beleeve except the few who are not acquainted with such mens Rumors But 5. That a Presbyter should accuse those Bishops of so much arrogancy and Pride as seems to be couched in that Nick-Name Hierarchick Flaunt is no more or lesse strange then for Corah Dathan or Abiram to accuse Moses and Aaron of having taken too much upon them What shall we think of the Aerian or Presbyterian Flaunt which denieth a supremacy to all Civil power in all cases and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and for this very reason were never known to be quiet any longer then they were flattered or kept inawe The power to excommunicate the Supreme Civil Magistrate was never arrogated by any except the Pope and the Presbyterian in direct opposition to the 39 Articles of the Church of England and to the Protestant Hierarchie by whom they were composed and who never were known to beard their Soveraignes a thing as natural to the Scotish Presbyterie as eating and drinking to other men And what affinity or Identity rather there is betwixt the Scotish and English Followers of Aërius their League and Covenant hath made apparent If Mr. B. or his Assertors do think I cannot prove what I have spoken let them say but the word and I will try I have notcharged my Margin with Citations of proof both because I suppose it is not needful where there is so great a Noteriety of Fact and because my supellex is too plentifull to be but tolerably expressed in so small a Room § 14. He saith Vox populi Vox dei p. 23. if that is generally true then is he himself the unhappiest man that I have known He hath forgot what he told us p. 6. that his parrhesia in speaking hath procured him small favour in the world And yet he would needs publish his Correptorie Correction When he calls my person satanical Blasphemer and my writing Diabolical stuff he professeth as neer as he can to call things by their proper names p. 6. This the people calls Railing And he concludes against himself that the voice of the people is the voice of God § 15. He calls Vossius his Pelagian History my Warehouse to fetch Quotations out of p. 24. Perhaps he had not known that there was any such Book or that I made the least use of it if I had not publickly inform'd him in my 25 page What a cunning Man is this to finde out the knowledge of some things by no other Circumstance then that of being told but since he is so ingrateful as to make an ugly use of the knowledge which I gave him I may perhaps be lesse liberal another time I was desirous to use Vossius not as Mr. B. hath used Janseniâ—…s and Dr. Twisse and several others of that stamp out of pure necessity but that the Reader might discern what was the sense of Antiquity not only in my judgement which is not considerable but in the judgement of learned Vossius To whom I added many Testimonies though not the Tithe of what I could easily have done § 16. He saith It was a Massilian Tenent that they denied there was given unto any such a perseverance from which they were not permitted to prevaricate p. 24. Though this is nothing to the purpose hath been spoken of before yet that his Reader may not be abused by his bare Intimation I think it not amisse to say a little 1. That all is not erroneous or Massilian which was said to be so at the Synod of Dort 2. That I never denied the Grace of Perseverance but said on the contrary that that Grace in the Elect doth bring them to a most certain and infallible degree of blisse But 3. I question whether every one that hath Sanctification hath also that Grace of Perseverance And to this S. Austin hath sure no quarrel as appears by the beginning of his Sixth Chapter De bonâ— perseverantiae For 1. They are holy in some measure before they have or pray for the Grace of Perseverance 2. If no holy man can fall then no need of that prayer 3. The Grace of Sanctification is one Grace that of Perseverance another 4. God doth not alwayes at the first grant holy mens prayers but doth exercise their vigilance and excite their importunity and grants them perseverance in their course of well-doing as a reward to their vigilance and importunity in prayer for it 5. Though in S. Austin's opinion they that have the grace of Perseverance cannot fall from that grace yet they that have the grace of regeneration and justification may fall from that grace as appears by the place which I had cited out of S. Austin in my p. 67. Now before Mr. B. had writ against my Notes he should have taken the pains to understand them especially what I had spoken p. 65 66 67. § 17. What he saith of the Lambeth Articles and the Explanatory Articles of the Church of Ireland p. 24. is every whit as impertinent For 1. They are