much undeserv'd Bitterness if it be Dr. Sherlock's as generally believ'd I will not venture to pretend to cope with him in harsh and virulent Expressions he is more furnish'd than I am with Ammunition proper for such a War witness the Muster of his angry Forces in that learned Book which charges him with Tritheism but I hope he will not be displeased if with an unmov'd Temper I endevour to free my self from such uncharitable Imputations But of all Men living the Doctor seems to me the most improper Man to charge any one with ridiculing Religion and not accompany his Charge with the least Cause or Reason for it since he is not only indicted for it but the Indictment made good upon him if the Proof of Idolatry Impious and Heretical Opinions can do it and the Charge made out by a Doctor of the Church of England a Man of most extraordinary Learning and Parts with strong Reason and Authority and for ought I can see to the contrary very unanswerable by Mr. Dean and not only charges him for his publick Writings but for his private Practice if no regard of Conscience can ridicule Religion This is set forth by that most Learned Person in his Animadversions on Dr. Sherlock's Book entituled A Vindication of the holy and ever blessed Trinity which charges him with Tritheism tho Mr. Dean is pleased most peremptorily to declare that he has made his Notions plain and obvious tho by Words and Phrases neither obvious nor plain but the Charge is made out upon him with strength of Reason and Learning neither of which Dr. Sherlock is pleased to bestow on me for his severe Judgment perhaps he believes as indeed he may that his only pronouncing makes it as obvious and plain as his endeavouring to prove it would have been The Charge of ridiculing Religion in his own Practice arises from his seeming Contempt of Conscience one of the chief Rules of Christianity by professing he would suffer Martyrdom rather than take the Oaths but he was easily converted when Interest more prevail'd upon him than such a slighted part of Christianity nor stopt there but ridicul'd Providence it self to bring it in Aid to justify his contradictory Consciences for what can more appear the ridiculing of Providence than to endeavour to make it the Justifier of Mischief and Injustice if but successful enough But if the Doctor can make this good he will reach a more sublime Art of Priest-Craft than any that I have describ'd in the History of Religion But it may be he does not believe that I ridicule the Christian Religion comprehended in the Gospel but the Religion which he calls Christian that differs from the Gospel and is founded upon new and extravagant Notions for he is charg'd with Blasphemy by the same Learned Person in his Book of the Knowledg of Christ on such a Religion I confess if I had the Art of ridiculing I would willingly bestow it But since he is not pleased to give the least reason for his hard and uncharitable Censures cast upon me at a venture I will take the opportunity to refer it to any impartial Reader if he pleases to examine it whether I have not in my History of Religion pursued the blessed Rules and Precepts of the Gospel with a sacred Veneration and upon that strong and sure Foundation have endeavour'd to build all my Reasons and Arguments but the Doctor perhaps would have his Notions receiv'd as true Christian Religion tho not founded on the Gospel and consequently not to believe those dark Notions is to ridicule Christianity With the same passionate Liberty he calls me a Deist or an Atheist it matters not which I cannot imagine how any Man should venture to pronounce such a blasphemous Indifferency but seriously reflecting upon what the Doctor has writ I began to imagine that he had so fully and clearly convinc'd himself since he thought he had made it so plain to others that there were three distinct equal and Infinite Beings that consequently he presum'd if any did not believe in three Gods it matter'd not whether they believ'd any at all and if his Notion of three Gods equally Infinite and Almighty were true it seems to follow that he that does not believe the three must be guilty of Atheism tho he believes in one By this he seems to have reason to make Deism and Atheism of equal respect So that every one is concluded an Atheist that is not of the Doctor 's Opinion This adventurous Passion can only proceed from the Opinion of his own Infallibility and is angry at any that will not believe in him I know not what Answer to make to his downright calling Names there 's no Argument can arise from direct railing and such in the common Method of the World are replied to with nothing but Blows but I shall only say that he calls me what I am not and to wave the harsh word which is due to him I shall only add that what I say is true and leave the contrary to rest upon him I will conclude with one Assurance that I shall not take it ill of any one that shall offer Reasons unclogg'd with Passion against any thing I have writ and if I cannot clearly answer them I will submit and acknowledg my Error and that any one may have the freer Invitation I own that the History of Religion was writ by SIR Your true Friend and most humble Servant Ro. Howard A VINDICATION OF His Grace the late Archbishop OF CANTERBVRY And of the Honourable Author of The History of Religion From the Defamations and Scandals of Mr. Fr. Atterbury and of a Traiterous Libel supposed to be written by Dr. M roe with this Title The Charge of Socinianism against Dr. Tillotson considered c. In two Letters to the Honourable Author of The History of Religion Printed in the Year 1696. TO THE PUBLISHER SIR I Hear my Letters to our honourable Friend the Author of the History of Religion are in your Hands and that you have thoughts of putting them into the Press if so I pray let this to your self go along with them For I ought to inform you that I have receiv'd an Answer from our Friend concerning the great Favours and Liberalities of King James to him He avows that His Majesty both when he was King and while he was only Duke of York never did him any Favour nor made him the Offer of any but on the contrary shew'd to him all the Unkindness that Occasion and Opportunity at any time enabled him to express It appears then that the Libeller knowing the great Services of our Friend to the Crown and Royal Family took it for granted that King James had endeavour'd to win him to the Popish and Arbitrary Interest by Preforments and Liberalities and so at adventures he makes it one part of his Guilt and Naughtiness that he would not be bought by Favours the meaning of which he might so easily
A Twofold Vindication OF THE Late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury And of the Author of The History of Religion The first Part defending the said Author against the Defamations of Mr. Fr. Atterbury's Sermon and both those eminent Persons against a Traiterous Libel titled The Charge of Socinianism against Dr. Tillotson consider'd In two Letters to the Honourable Sir R. H. The second containing Remarks on the said Sermon and a Reply to the same Libel Wherein some Right is done to that great and good Man Dr. Tillotson in the Points of the Original of Sacrifices the Sacrifice of Christ Future Punishments c. And a word in Defence of the Eminent Bishop of Salisbury By another Hand London Printed in the Year 1696. SIR I Have receiv'd by your favour some Papers written by two very Learned Persons which you say are ready for the Press occasion'd by two extraordinary angry Men Mr. Atterbury and Mr. Monroe who have express'd their Displeasure against my History of Religion I dare not give my Opinion of their Writings I am too much an oblig'd Party besides their own Abilities will much better shew it than I can express it but I fancy that if Mr. Atterbury and Mr. Monroe had imagin'd they should have rais'd such a Strength against them they would hardly have muster'd up their own weak Forces For Mr. Atterbury I know him not but he has made himself known by chusing a very improper place the Pulpit to vent a Passion unsutable to Christianity or common Morality for such must an injurious Violence be esteem'd that has no Reason pretended to excuse or at least to extenuate the Passion From that place we expect to be taught by Perswasion not by Railing yet he seems to have a Christian Consideration that hinders him from writing some Body's Life if he means mine I will free him from his tender Christianity and own that I writ the History of Religion and if he pleases to use the freedom I give him I assure him I shall not be displeased at any Truth that he can write but if his usual Passion guides him other-ways I shall attend him with such Answers and make him such sutable Returns as will be proper for the occasion and consider his Calling with as little respect as he did the sacred Place where he chose to rail For Mr. Monroe he is angry at every thing he sputters at the Government and will not allow that most excellent Man Dr. Tillotson late Archbishop of Canterbury either to have a Title to that or any Parts or Abilities but at a venture among many other Errors charges him to be a Socinian and at the same time discovers he does not know what a Socinian is then falls upon the Bishop of Salisbury and then with an obliging Anger ranks me with those great Men but his furious Wildness is sufficiently laid open by these two Learned Men. When I writ the History of Religion I was very much pleas'd to see the Church of England which I have fought for and shall ever defend so free from all those Heathenish Rites and Superstitions retain'd by the Priest-Craft of the Church of Rome and could not but admire to see any that profest to be a Minister of the Church of England offended at it nor can I imagine any Reason for such a Concern unless they would have the very Name of Priest of what Perswasion so ever so sacred that it should not be irreverently handled if this should be the cause I dare venture to assure them they will find no return for could any write with such a Disadvantage to the Ministers of the Church of England the Popish Priests would not shew any Displeasure to see them condemn'd here that they pretend to believe will be damn'd hereafter But Mr. Monroe seems to grumble something about Sacrifices as if I had writ concerning the Original of them I could not be so dull as not to know the beginning of them was as early as Abel I only trac'd the use of them with the Rites and superstitious Ceremonies taught and enlarged from time to time by the Heathen Priests and how they were still continued and imitated by the Priest-Craft of the Church of Rome which I thought I had made evident by Matter of Fact A Friend of mine of Quality and Learning told me he ask'd a Minister why he was displeas'd at the History of Religion he answer'd that they were whipt upon the Backs of the Romish Priests I could not but wonder how they got up there to receive the Lashes of the others I believe that there are some so in love with Power that they were displeased I inveigh'd against Persecution by which they exercise it if that offend any I shall always persist in receiving their Displeasure for I presume I have clearly shew'd that it is contrary to the teaching of the Gospel we are there taught to love our Neighbours as our selves and certainly they would hardly seem such Neighbours that would be Executioners they would not seem to love others as themselves unless they were equally desirous to be their own Hangmen But Mr. Monroe is yet more severe and will be the Judg of what I mean for being displeased as it seems that I writ against Transubstantiation he says I meant it against the Trinity though I had not a thought nor writ a word that could give him the least cause to pronounce so rash a Sentence I remember a Justice of Peace in a Play that bid his Clerk make the Mittimus while he examin'd the Party but of all Men living I would not have him my Arbitrary Judg for he that makes himself worse than others would probably condemn me to be worse than I am But I leave these two angry Men to the Correction of those two Learned Persons to whom as in Gratitude I ought I shall ever acknowledg great Obligations by whose Strength my Weakness is sufficiently supported I shall only add that I have read of a wise Philosopher that would not trust himself while he was in Passion but these revers'd Philosophers raise all their Confidence from their Passions I have seen an angry Cur bite at a Wheel because it moved from him and I presume that dark keeping is the cause of such a causeless Fierceness At the latter end of one of these Learned Mens Writings I find a very charitable Answer for me to Dr. Sherlock who in his Defence of that excellent Man Dr. Tillotson late Archbishop of Canterbury in answer to The Charge of Socinianism against Dr. Tillotson considered is pleased unprovok'd by any Cause to call my History of Religion an execrable Pamphlet and me an Atheist or Deist which it seems is all one to him for he says it matters not which and that my Design is to ridicule Christian Religion If these heavy Charges be true I readily confess 't is an execrable Pamphlet indeed but he is not pleas'd to give the least reason to excuse or justify so
often intimates that the Court and the King and Queen did design to countenance the Arch-bishop's Blasphemies Socinianism and Super-Hobbism that 's his word by their commanding his Sermons to be printed He will not own the Arch-bishop the Bishop of Sarum or any of the new Bishops to be Bishops as being set up by an incompetent Authority but only Persons bearing themselves to be Bishops and the peculiar Name he has found for them because he delights in abusing the words of Sacred Scripture is Spiritual Wickednesses in High Places At p. 15. he discharges his Choler upon those who as he phrases it have deserted betrayed and taken Arms against King James With respect to the Oaths that are required to the present Government because he cannot jest but in the words of Holy Scripture he says because of SWEARING the Land mourneth He was so afraid that some dull Reader might overlook his Contempt of the Scriptures and his Treason to the Government that he was careful to write the word Swearing in Capital Letters He compliments the present Arch-bishop upon his Accession to the Chair of Canterbury in these words On Novemb. 16. 1694. Dr. Tillotson was struck with that fatal Apoplexy that carried him out of the World the 4 th day after to make room for another comprehensive Latitudinarian who look'd over Lincoln to succeed him He intended without doubt to allude to the Proverb the Devil look'd over Lincoln but to spoil his Conundrum the Proverb doth not intend Lincoln Cathedral but Lincoln College to which place his Grace never had a Relation 'T is easy to see by these Passages that the late Arch-bishop the Author of the History of Religion and other great Men are out of this Author 's good Graces not for any real Socinianism or Hobbism but only because they are notorious Williamites Hobbian and Socinian are the worst Names that we can now give so 't is expedient that all Williamites should be represented as Socinians and Hobbists A Man that shall thus undertake to reproach his Sovereign to spit upon the Government and to accuse the greatest Divines of the Kingdom as partly not understanding partly heretically perverting the Doctrine of the Church ought to be a Person of very great Abilities in respect both of Judgment and Learning Every one will blame such daring Attempts in a Man of very mean or no Wit and Erudition such a one let the Grounds of his Opposition and Complaints happen to be never so just should patiently expect till a sufficient Head and Hand shall enterprize to manage the Accusation But the Chitt who at present has ventur'd upon all this is so utterly unfurnish'd of the Qualities requisite to such a Work that the Care of a Village-Cure or of a Country-School is hugely above him I pray Sir have the Patience if you can to take account of some Instances of our Author's Learning and Judgment He had heard say or had read somewhere that St. Peter's words which things the Angels desire to look into are very emphatical in the Greek therefore to seem learned in a Tongue which he can scarce read with much to do he finds the Text and sets it down thus which things the Angels desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stoop down with Reverence and admire Here first the High-land Critick instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which last will never be found in any but a High-land Vocabulary In the next place he interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by to stoop down with Reverence and admire a sense never put on the word by any Lexicographer no not by the meanest Abcedarian Grecian Indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as the Learned Professor speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by some Criticks se inclinando introspicere which it may be he took for to stoop down with Reverence and admire but the Criticks meant thereby to view exactly after the manner of Persons that stoop or bow that they may observe a thing the more distinctly the Signification of stooping down to honour and admire is a discovery that we owe to this great Author only all the Grammarians and Criticks will reject it In my opinion our Author acted prudently when foreseeing that with the late Revolution in Scotland the Presbytery would be the Trump-Card that he might quit his Station with Credit he feigned himself a Jacobite and refused the Oath he was conscious to himself that the Presbytery would never continue a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Professor's Chair much less allow of this Criticism on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it denotes stooping down to honour and admire when here it so certainly signifies only stooping down to view distinctly and exactly He falls upon the Bishop of Salisbury for his Explication of the Incarnation and the Divinity of our Saviour he says this Explication implies both Heresy and Idolatry He kindly instructs the poor Bishop how the Incarnation is to be understood 'T is not says our Professor rightly accounted for by the Similitude of the Inhabitation of Jehovah in the Cloud of Glory no less Inhabitation of the WORD than an Impersonation can declare or truly describe the Incarnation for no other sort of Inhabitation can carry with it Communicatio Idiomatum that is can make God to be called that thing or that thing be called God Mr. Hill and this Author were best to confer Notes they alike understand the Church's Doctrine about these Mysteries and have equal right to censure the Doctrine of this Learned Prelate If he slights Mr. Hill yet it may be his Lordship may have so much Charity for his Country-man as to inform him that Impersonation of the Divine WORD is the Eutychian Heresy The Catholick Church never says that the Divine WORD but the Humane Nature is impersonated by the Incarnation 'T is the Manhood that is impersonated in the WORD or as the Athanasian Creed speaks is taken into God not the WORD that is impersonated in the Manhood The Manhood which is not a Person is rightly said to be impersonated by being taken into the Person of the Divine WORD but the WORD being always a Person cannot be impersonated by the Incarnation It was with great Propriety that his Lordship used the word Inhabitation as not only not implying any heretical Ambiguity as Impersonation does but being the very term used by St. John who John 1.14 explains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or He was made Flesh by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or He inhabited in our Nature in the Human Nature or Manhood The Arch-bishop had said It pleased God there should be some Mysteries in the Christian Religion such as three Persons who are but one God the Incarnation of God in the Human Nature God satisfying for Sin in his own Person probably saith the Arch-bishop for this Reason among others because it had been found by Experience that Men have a great Inclination for Mysteries and are hardly contented