added preserve its self by means so evidently contrary to the very Nature and End of Religion This is Dr. Tillotson's fam'd Character of Religion and not to descant in long Applications upon it I desire my Reader to consider if it is not as applicable to the New as to the Old Fifth of November and the Worthies of the Protestants as well as the Popish Religion who conspired against James the Second as these did against James the First Tell me O ye Worthies of the Church of England who have hazarded your Lives and Fortunes to preserve our Religion Is it more lawful to Plot and Rebel for holy Church of England than for holy Church of Rome And is it not as much Priestcraft in our Divines to applaud you as Worthies for so doing as it was in the Pope to compare the Duke of Guise and his Partizans to those Jewish Worthies Jephtha Gideon and the Maccabees and do you not despise them for their sordid Flattery of you in open Contradiction to their own Doctrines and the Principles of that Religion which they pretend still to profess May I not say with Dr. Till against himself (a) Serm. Vol. 3. p. 77. That a Miracle is not enough to give Credit to a Man who teaches Things so contrary to the Nature of Religion and that (b) P. 20. the Heathen Philosophers are better Casuists than he This he said of the Jesuists and the Casuists of the Church of Rome for maintaining the Lawfulness of deposing Kings and subverting Government and yet without Blushing he maintained the Lawfulness of this in commending you But this is but one Instance of acting in contradiction to his own Doctrine when the appointed time of tryal came there are many more so well known that I need not mention them For indeed his whole Practice since the Revolution hath been one Series of Apostacy and by which he hath not only dishonoured his Memory and made all his other Good be evil spoken of but been a Scandal to our holy Church and Religion to which our Preacher saith he was such an Honour given the Enemies of them great occasion to Triumph their best and most stedfast Friends great occasion of Grief and Shame And lastly tempted loose and unprincipled Men to turn Atheists and ridicule our Priesthood and Religion and this he hath been told of in such different manners that I do not wonder (c) Fun. Serm. p. 27. it sank deep into him and had such influence upon his Health I cannot imagine but that one Letter which was sent to his Lady for him superscribed for Dr. Tillotson must needs disquiet him very much if he received it and read it It is written throughout with a serious Air and every Line of it speaks to his Conscience and because I know the worthy Gentleman who wrote it and that it is a full and clear Proof of what I have said I present my Reader but more especially the Preacher of his Funeral Sermon with a few Paragraphs of it if he will have the Patience to read them It begins thus (d) Letter p. 2. Sir I shall preface what I am about to say with an Assurance That I have formerly had the greatest Veneration for you as well for your Piety as good Sense and Learning that my Notions of Government are so large that the first Thing I ever doubtfully Examined that had your Name affixed to it was your Letter to my Lord Russel But your Actions since do less quadrate with that Opinion and seriously make me address my self to you to know how you reconcile your present Actings to the Principles either of Natural or Revealed Religion especially how you reconcile them with the Positions and Intentions of that Letter and consequently whether you have a Belief of God and the World to come (a) P. 5. But to come to your more particular Case I beseech you to publish some Discourse if you can clear Things to demonstrate either your Repentance of what you wrote to my Lord Russel or the Reasons that make that and what you now do consistent and that you with the usual Solidity with which you treat upon other Subjects justify the Proceedings and explain the Title of K. W. I know no Body hath a stronger and clearer Head and if you have Truth on your Side you can write unanswerably God's Glory and the Reputation of the Protestant Religion is at Stake Your own good Name calls for it and more especially because you have accepted a most Reverend and Devout Man's Archbishoprick A Man who hath given Evidence how unalterably he is a Protestant A Sufferer formerly for the Laws and Church of England and a Sufferer for those very Principles upon which that Letter to my Lord was written for those very Principles which you disputed for when he had so short a time to Live Nay which you remember'd him of even upon the Scaffold with the dreadful Commination of eternal Woe Really Sir if there be any Truth if there be any Vertue if there be any Religion what shall we say to these Things What will you say to them You must be at the Pains to clear this matter that we may not believe the Boundaries of Right and Wrong the Measures of Violence and Justice quite taken away that we may not be tempted to (b) P. 7. speculative and from thence to practical Atheism This Change has made many sober Men sceptical and gone further towards the eradicating all the Notions of a Deity than all the Labours of Hobs and your part in it hath I confess more stagger'd me than any one Thing else I have been ready to suspect That Religion it self was a Cheat and that it was a Defect in my Un-Understanding that I could not look through it For I think if I can know my Right-hand from my Left our present Government stands upon Foundations that contradict all those Discourses which you as well as others have lent to Passive Obedience The excessive Value I have for you for your Knowledg your Judgment your largeness of Spirit your Moderation and many other great Qualities that have signaliz'd your Name once made you one of the greatest Ornaments of the Christian Church Apostacy from what you preached and wrote pretended to believe and would have others believe shake me so violently in the first Credenda of Religion That I beseech you if you think it necessary upon no other Account that you will publish such a Discourse at least for the Satisfaction of mine and other Men's Consciences who I can assure you of my own Knowledg lie under the same Scruples with my self have the same Scruples in relaion to the Government and the same Temptations to question Religion it self upon your Account (a) P. 8. I beg of God Almighty to lay an happy constraint upon me â—o do what may be most for his Glory and the Good of these Nations and I earnestly supplicate him that
to say no more of it the Doctor so trinketed in that Affair with his Lordship That Dr. Tillotson was obliged to write that Famous Letter to him a little before his Death and afterwards carried it to the Secretary of State and my Lord Hallifax then the Favourite Minister for his Vindication and so offended he pretended to be at him for something he did to my Lord that he said to a Person of great Reputation of my Acquaintance He would never trust a Scotch-man more for his sake I know no Reason he had to reflect upon his Country which hath been so fruitful in brave Men and Persons of the greatest Honour but however he trusted him after that Resolution and not only trusted him but let himself be too much influenced by him since the Revolution To my Account of this Speech I may add his most unjust exaggerating Character of the Prosecution of the Dissenters in London at the later end of Charles II's Reign He describes it in Terms big enough for the Decian or Dioclesian Persecution * At the later end of his Pref. to Lactantius For he saith it was reasonable to think it contributed not a little to fill up the Measures of the Sins of the Church and to bring down severe Strokes upon the Members of it that they let themselves loose to all the Rages of a mad Persecution to gratify their own Revenges And that they ought seriously to profess their Repentance of this their Fury in Instances that might be as visible as their Rage hath been publick and destructive Hear O ye furious mad raging revengeful Archdeacons Commissaries Officials Church-wardens and Parish Priests within the Liberties of London Give an Account of the Blood you have shed and the Families you have ruined But who can believe a Writer of Story at a greater distance that to gratify Passions and serve Turns will misrepresent such late Transactions and at such an impudent Rate as this I have shewed out of his Reflections on Varillas that he counts it but a small and venial Fault in an Historian if he departs from the exact Laws of History in setting out the best Side of his own Party and the worst of his Adversary and in slightly touching the Failures of the one and severely aggravating those of the other This he hath done throughout his Funeral Sermon of Dr. Tillotson and given me occasion to undeceive the World in the Heroick Character he hath given of him by noting some of his Failings which bring him down to the mediocrity of other Men. Had he been a more private Person or acted in a more private Sphere I should not have called his Canonization of him into question nor taken the Glory from the Picture which he drew of him in his Sermon and sent in numerous Copies about the World But being a Person of great and dangerous Example both to present Times and Posterity and having acted such a Part as he hath had the Misfoâ—tune to do both in Church and State I thought I should do the Christian World good Service in observing some of his Errours Weaknesses and Misdoings lest Men now or hereafter taking of him indeed for a Man of unblemished and heroick Piety should think him imitable in every Thing and follow his dangerous Example where he did ill as well as where he did well One thing I have taken notice of was the unfortunate Part he had in slandering and wronging the Two Kings and since I have concluded my Book I have heard that after the Revolution he did again revive the Report of the Legitimacy of the Duke of Monmouth which being false whatever Opinion he had of it is one of the greatest Slanders to the Memory of one of the Royal Brothers and Injuries to the other that a Man could be guilty of It is well known among the Clergy that one of his most intimate Acquaintance was very zealous after the Revolution in going about to Bishops and other Church-men to try if he could make them believe this old Story to be true and thence to perswade them to take the Oath of Allegiance to King W. because King J. never had any Right to the Crown I know the idle Hear-says he told them to create belief in them of this Stale Fiction and am able to disprove them all and I would here tell them and disprove them but that the great Honour and Respect I have for that Duke 's illustrious Family will nâ—t let me say some Things in Confutation of them which I think would be unacceptable to them to hear But if that second Self of Dr. Tillotson will publish his Hear-say Stories which I always suspected he had from him I will undertake to shew the falseness of them provided he will do it quickly while my Witnesses are alive Another Thing in which Dr. Tillotson fell short of his own Doctrine and was wont to act contrary to it was in noting like many of his Brethren the small Number of the non-complying Clergy upon all Occasions and despising of them and their Cause for that they were so few I thought to have observed this in its proper Place in my second Chapter but having forgot it I will here shew in his own Words what a vain and unmanly Thing it is to argue for or against any Church or Cause from Number and I am the more willing to set them down That neither his Funeral Orator nor any other of his side hereafter may boast of their Numbers or despise any Suffering Cause especially because it is embraced but by a Few * The Protestant Religion vindicated from the Charge of Singularity and Novelty in a Sermon preached before the King at Whitehall Ap. 2. 1680. But we will not stand upon this Advantage with them Suppose we were by much the Fewer So hath the Church of God often been without any the least Prejudice to the Truth of their Religion What think we of the Church in Abraham's Time which for ought we know was consined to one Family and one small Kingdom that of Melchisedeck King of Salem What think we of it in Moses's Time when it was confined to one People wandering in a Wildnerness What of it in Elijah's Time when besides the Two Tribes that worshiped at Jerusalem there were in the other Ten but Seven thousand that had not bowed the Knee to Baal What in our Saviour's Time when the whole Christian Church consisted of Twelve Apostles and Seventy Disciples and some few Followers beside How would Bellarmin have despised this little Flock because it wanted one or two of his goodliest Marks of the true Church Universality and Splendor And what think we of the Christian Church in the Height of Arianism and Pelagianism when a great part of Christendom was over-run with these Errours and the Number of the Orthodox was inconsiderable in comparison of Hereticks But what need I urge these Instances As if the truth of Religion were to be estimated and carried by the major Vote which as it can be an Argument to none but Fools so I dare say no honest and wise Man ever made use of it for the solid Proof of the Truth and Goodness of any Church or
Excellency of our holy Faith and in the (b) P. 7. Character of St. Paul whom he makes his Exemplar he insinuates his great Concern for the Truth and Honour of the Christian Religion and more particularly that he asserted the great (c) P. 31. Mystery of the Trinity when he was desired by some and provoked by others to do it with that Strength and Clearness which was peculiar to him As to the first I thought the Torments of Hell as well as the Joys of Heaven had been part of our holy Faith and taught as plainly by Christ the great Doctor of his Church and also as much implied in the Doctrine of the Resurrection and the last Judgment But how convincingly he hath proved the Truth of them appears from what I have said above And as to his great Concern for the Truth and Honour for the Christian Religion that appears in the same manner by his Apostacy in his Practice from that true and honourable Character he gave of it in his Fifth of November Sermon and as for the Strength and Clearness with which he hath proved the Mystery of the Trinity I refer the Reader to the Book in the * Entitled The Charge of Socinianism against Dr. Tillotson consider'd in Examination of some Sermons he hath lately published to clear himself from that Imputation by way of Dialogue To which are added some Reflections upon the Second of Dr. Burnet's Discourses delivered to the Clergy of Sarum concerning the Divinity and Death of Christ with a Supplement Margent which I hope will see the Light before these Discourses of mine There he will find that his Vindication of himself is but a shuffling Vindication which hath much of Arian Cunning and Reserve in it And that he never departed from his Moderation in this point as our Author saith he did not in another To this I shall add in the next place what he hath said of the heinousness of the Sin of Perjury in his Assize Sermon upon Heb. 6.16 But I shall not insist upon the Application of it as of some former Passages because it will apply it self nor make some severe and dangerous Reflections upon his heroical Piety because they are so obvious that the Reader may make them himself There he saith that all departure from the Simplicity of an Oath is Perjury and that a Man is never a whit the less forsworn because his Perjury is a little finer and more artificial than ordinary That he is guilty of Perjury who having a real Intention when he swears to perform what he promiseth yet afterwards neglects to do it not for want of Power but for want of Will and due Regard to his Oath That the primary and sole Intention of the Third Commandment is to forbid the great Sin of Perjury and that it is observable That there is no Threatning added to any other Commandment but to this and the Second which intimates to us that next to Idolatry and the Worship of a false God Perjury is one of the greatest Affronts that can be offered to the Divine Majesty This is one of those Sins that cries aloud to Heaven and quickens the pace of God's Judgments This Sin by the Secret Judgment of God undermines Estates and Families to the utter ruin of them and among the Heathens it was always reckoned one of the greatest Crimes and which they did believe God did not only punish upon the guilty Person himself but many times upon whole Nations as the Prophet also tells us That because of Oaths the Land mourns I need not use many Words to aggravate this Sin It is certainly a Crime of the highest Nature deliberate Perjury being directly against a Man's knowledge so that no Man can commit it without staring his Conscience in the Face which is one of the greatest Aggravations of any Crime and it is equally a Sin against both Tables being the highest Affront to God and of most injurious Consequence to Men. In respect of Men it is not only a Wrong to this or that particular Person who suffers by it but Treason to human Society subverting at once the Foundations of publick Peace and Justice This is just what our suffering Clergy and People say of Perjury and in consequence of it for their own Vindication Indeed they suffer like Men of heroick Piety because they could not outstare their Consciences as some other Men did and in their Opinion which they have so nobly defended commit Treason against Mankind and the King Dr. Sherlock told the Bishop of Killmore He would be sacrificed before he took the new Oath of Allegiance And Dr. Dove said He would give a Thousand Pound that he might not take it such Struglings they had to overcome the Dictates of their own Consciences which preached unto them the heinous Nature of Perjury And if those who took that Oath with so much Difficulty would but remember their own Case they would have more Compassion for those who could not take it at all more especially had that Tenderness which our Preacher saith his Heroe of Piety had for the Dissenters been genuin and the undesign'd Effect of his tender and extensive Charity he would have been as tender and compassionate to the Dissenters in this Reign as to those of the two former It was fear of Perjury the most heinous Sin of Perjury against which he preached so well that made them stand out and if they are under a Mistake he ought to have pitied and sympathiz'd with them more than other Men. Nay upon reading this excellent Passage against Perjury one would think he should have had more Tenderness and Pity for them than for the dissenting Parties but instead of that he was an early and vigorous Persecutor of them and so continued to his last Stroke though they had defended their Cause much better than the Dissenters were or ever will be able to defend theirs The Sunday after the First of February the day of Deprivation some of the Non-swearing Clergy preached in their Churches as I remember Dr. Sherlock was one and on Munday Morning following one of my Acquaintance going to this Man about some Business he inveighed severely against their Presumption and said Government was not to be so affronted At St. Laurence where he lies buried he preached often against them twice more especially at the beginning of Two several Sessions of Parliament and by degrees forgetting what he had preached against the heinous Sin of Perjury He thought Prisons and all the hard Usages of them which in former Reigns he was wont to call unchristian and inhuman Methods of converting Men not too bad for the best of them When others sometimes would pity them for being deprived and also dragoon'd by the new way of double Taxing he would say They brought their Sufferings upon themselves and which was yet more inhuman he endeavoured to rob them of the Glory of their suffering for Conscience and to bring yet more
St. Ambrose and St. Augustin but more especially one that desired to be an Orthodox Divine should methinks have well studied the Clements the Ignatius's the Polycarps the Irenaeus's the Tertullians and the Cyprians who (c) Ibid. he saith were the Glories of the Golden Age of the Church He had better by much have studied all them than all the Ancient Philosophers and had he went into all the best Things of those Fathers as it seems he did into all the best Things of Bishop Wilkins I need not fear to say he had been a much surer Guide as well as a more learned and profound Divine and had not been so ready at all times to treat away those Things with Dissenters which give such an Advantage to the Church of England above all the Reformed and more particularly enable her to answer that unhappy Question of our common Adversaries Where is your Mission The not being able to answer which as we can do hath contributed more to the Ruin of the French Reformed Church than all the late Persecution For he would have learned in those Fathers who lived nearest to the Times of the Apostles that Bishops were their Successors and next under Christ the Heads of their particular Dioceses From whom the Presbyters derived their Powers and to whom they and the People were to be subject for Christ's sake Had he thoroughly learned and imbibed this Doctrine which is best learned from those Fathers he would in all likelihood have been as loth to part from it as those the Latitudinarian Projectors are apt to call narrow and angry Men because they are not for Treaties of Comprehension with Dissenters upon such Terms as are not consistent with the Catholick and Apostolick Tradition concerning Episcopacy and Episcopal Ordinations and which if yielded to would be of more dangerous Consequence to the Religion we profess than all our Dissenters are or can be Notwithstanding all this our Preacher cannot but tell us (a) P. 17. of his tender Method of treating with Dissenters and of his Endeavours to extinguish that Fire and to unite us among our selves But he doth not tell us what were the Principles and Terms of Union upon which we were to be united nor how many of the Dissenters were to be taken in I can tell one Project which will take them all in and Roman Catholicks with them and that is to comprehend all who will subscribe to the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and all the Doctrines contained therein And if he shall say That such a Comprehension is too wide and such an Union more than all Divisions I am afraid when we shall know what this Man 's tender Method of Union or pious Designs as (b) Temp. Ch. Serm. preached Dec. 30. 1694 p. 17. Dr. Sherlock calls them were there will be Reason to say the same Thing of it and them For I make no difficulty to confess to the Reverend Doctor That I am one of those many Thousands who suspect his admirable Primates pious Designs of serving the Church his own way For he was always for blending of Orders under Pretence of Union and since he commenced admirable Primate he was wont to advise the Scottish Episcopal Clergy-men to submit to their Presbyterians and do all Acts of Compliance to their pretended Authority which was in effect to advise them not only to commit the highest Act of Disobedience and Schism against their own Bishops but to abjure Episcopacy with those who detest and abjure it as an Antichristian Usurpation over the Church of God The good Lord of his Mercy deliver his Church from such admirable Primates and Bishops as are Traytors to their own Order and from such tender Methods of Union and pious Designs of serving the Church as they may without breach of Charity be supposed to have Our Preacher as well as his Heroe may be numbred among those pious Designers for going to wait upon the Duke of Hamilton when he was last in London some days before he went for Scotland He took upon him to tell his Grace That he would ruin his Interest if he did not stick fast to the Presbyterian Cause for they began to fear that he was not for it to them And thereupon he advised him as he regarded his own Standing and the Kings Favour to be sure to promote the Presbyterian Interest This the Duke told to a Person of Honour before he left the Town And now hear O ye * See the Pref. before Bedel's Life Clements Ignatius's Polycarps Deny's Irenaeus's and Cyprians of the Golden Age of the Church was not this Apostolical Councel in a Man that bears your holy Character Could he do any Thing more unworthy of it than to advise a Prince of his Country to support those and stick to these who have declared your Holy Order to be Antichristian and abolished it as an Usurpation and deprived your Successors as much as in them lies for Usurpers over the Church of God Nay let all Men that read this Story consider it a little in its just Consequences and Reflections upon this wretched Man as he is a Bishop and a Bishop who formerly asserted the Office of a Bishop to be an Apostolical Institution Read what he hath wrote for it in his Preface to Bishop Bedel's Life It is not possible to think that a Government can be Criminal under which the World received the Christian Religion and that in a Course of many Ages in which as all the Corners of the Christian Church so all the Parts of it the Sound as well as the Unsound that is the Orthodox as well as the Hereticks and Schismaticks agreed The Persecutions that then lay so heavy upon the Church made it no desirable Thing for a Man to be exposed to their first Fury which was always the Bishops Portion And that in a Course of many Centuries in which there was nothing but Poverty and Labour to be got by the Employment There being no Princes to set it on as an Engin of Government and no Synods of Clergy men gathered to assume that Authority to themselves by joynt Designs and Endeavours And can it be imagined that in all that glorious Cloud of Witnesses to the Truth of the Christian Religion there should not so much as one single Person be found on whom either a Love of Truth or an Envy of the Advancement of others prevailed so far as to declare against such an early and universal Corruption if it is to be esteemed one When all this is complicated together it is really of so great Authority that I love not to give the proper Name to that Temper that can withstand so plain a Demonstration For what can a Man even herited with all the Force of Imagination and possessed with all the Sharpness of Prejudice except to the Inference made from these Premisses That a Form so soon introduced and so wonderfully blest could not be contrary to the Rules of the Gospel
they * Among the worthy Men I here describe may justly be reckoned the late learned Mr. Wharton who put out Archbishop Laud's Works Dr. Dove who as all the World knows took the new Oath with so much reluctance and once turned Dr. B. out of his House for arguing as he thought too warmly for the Government And more particularly Dr. Scot of worthy Memory who first refused the Bishoprick of Chester because he could not take the Oath of Homage and afterwards anotther Bishoprick the Deanry of Worcester and a Prebendary of the Church of Windsor because they all were Places of deprived Men and therefore Dr. Isham in his Funeral Sermon did improperly make them attendants upon the Obsequies of the late blessed Queen as he is pleased to say To these may be added the learned Dr. Busby I dare not name the Living retain vey tender Compassions for those who could not overcome them and honour them in their Hearts as Men of Principles who are most Faithful to the English Monarchy Zealous for the Honour and Prosperity of the Royal Family and the Catholick Doctrines and Rights of the Church Nay I have Reason to hope that they wait for the Times of healing and refreshing when they may come again to Communion with them under the Rightful Bishops who never did betray their Order or act in contradiction to the Doctrines of the Church I know in some measure what I say to be true and if any Man doubt of it let him consider what Inclinations the Convocation discovered at its first Sitting down But these Two Men and the rest against whom these Discourses are intended are to be considered as Men of quite another Spirit For they revile and persecute their old Brethren and say all manner of Evil falsely against them for their Principles sake and for their adhering to them If they are to preach before a great Audience especially upon a solemn Occasion then they will be sure to inveigh against them and as they think expose them for their Paucity or want of Reason or Peevishness or which is very strange for being dangerous to the Goverment which it is impossible for so small a Number of Men to be unless they have Truth on their side I have shewed in several Instances how this persecuting Spirit discovered it self in these Two Men upon whom I have discoursed and how it possesseth another of them may be seen in his (a) P. 18. Funeral Sermon at the Abby before the Lords and Commons in which he tells them of a domestick Discontent which Reigns in those whose Resentments are stronger than their Reasons Might he not as well have said My Lords and Gentlemen we are now engaged in a Foreign War and it concerns you to provide new Laws against our domestick Male contents whose Malice against the Government is of more dangerous Consequence to it than their Arguments and their Resentments stronger than their Reasons And I pray you let them know (b) This was the Message which Hugh Peters brought from Cromwel and the Army to the London Ministers before the Tryal of Charles the First That if they are for Suffering they shall have Suffering enough I would not have my Reader think that I put this Gloss upon his Words without Cause for he hath been a Persecutor of his old Brethren both by Word and Deed ever since they were deprived It was he that egged on Justice Tully when Vicar of St. Martins to drive a Meeting of Sufferers out of his Parish I could name the Gentleman that read his Letter to that purpose over the Justice's Shoulder as he stood reading it in the Street and this Spirit of Persecution in him proceeds from a Spirit of Latitude which makes him he cannot endure the Men of strict Suffering Principles beccause they and their Reasonings which he seems to undervalue so much but really stands in awe of are contrary to him in all his Designs I say he stands in awe of their Reasonings and therefore hath taken more Pains than any one Man among them to suppress them by hunting out the private Presses and getting their Books seized I have Reprinted a Paper in the (c) N. IX Appendix first published by the Messenger of the Press That Posterity may see from an Authentick Testimony what a severe Inquisition hath been made against their Books and how many of them have been destroyed No Man knew this better than himself and therefore it was equal Insolence and Disingenuity in him to disparage their Reasons when he was so conscious to himself of the Endeavours he and others had used to stifle them in the Birth Certainly there must be something formidable in their Books and some Reasonings in them which these Men of Latitude cannot well Answer that they use so much diligence to suppress them at a time when Atheists Hereticks and Republicans print and publish what they please with little or no molestation Why all this ado to suppress their Books more than others if their Reasonings are not strong But because he saith That their Resentments are stronger than their Reasons I have concluded my Appendix with a (a) N.X. Catalogue of their Books which lie unanswered and he may try his strength to answer any one of them when he will Some of his Brethren have published their Reasons and been soundly baffled by the Men of Resentment as he calls them but he never thought fit to give them Opportunity of answering any of his which makes it intolerable in him to Censure their Reasons in publick but especially in such an august Assembly before he had published his own or answered those Things which some years since have been (b) In a Book entitled A Vindication of some among our selves against the false Principles of Dr. Sherlock objected to him out of his own Writings I have taken this Method in the following Discourses of objecting many Things against Dr. Burnet and his Heroe out of their own Writings particularly about the Nature of the Christian Religion and to that which I have produced out of the former Reflections upon Varillas concerning Religion I desire this may be added out of the first Dialogue of his modest and free Conference printed 1669. In that Dialogue he thus answers the folâ—owing Objection N. The Law of Nature teacheth us to defend our selves and so there is no need of Scripture for it C. This is marvelous Dealing in other Things you always flee from Reason as a carnal Principle to Scripture but here you quit Scripture and appeal to it But it seems you are yet a Stranger to the very Design of Religion which is to tame and mortify Nature and it is not a natural Thing but supernatural Therefore the Rules of defending and advancing of it must not be borrowed from Nature but Grace The Scriptures are also strangely contrived since they ever tell us of suffering Persecution without giving your Exception that we may resist when we
Erubescet But if he will not be ashamed I know no reason why any Man that would not be deceived should take Things upon Trust from such a shameless Writer whom an impenitent Conscience hath hardened against the Confusion of Remorse and Blushing and made one of the greatest Examples of Impudence that ever dishonoured the Lawn Sleeves I hope it is a just Indignation that forces this Reflexion from me but if it seems too severe I beg the Reader 's Patience till I lay before him another of this unhappy Man's Books intituled A Vindication of the Authority c. of the Church and State of Scotland Printed 1673. This Book is full of very many Doctrins Rules and Precepts to which the Author's Life and all his Books since the beginning of the Revolution have been an open Contradiction In the Entrance of his Preface to the Reader saith he How sad but how full a Commentary doth the Age we live in give of those Words of our Lord I am come to send Fire on Earth Suppose you that I am come to give Peace upon Earth I tell you nay but rather Division Do we not see the Father divided against the Son and the Son against the Father and engaging into such angry Heats and mortal Feuds upon Colours of Religion as if the Seed of the Word of God like Cadmus Teeth had spawned a Generation of Cruel and Blood thirsty Men But how surprizing is the Wonder when Religion becomes the Pretence And after this Among all the Heresies this Age hath spawned there is not one more contrary to the whole Design of Religion and more destructive of Mankind than is that bloody Opinion of defending Religion by Arms and of forceable Resistance upon the Colour of preserving Religion The Wisdom of this Policy is Earthly Sensual and Devillish savouring of a carnal unmortified and unpatient Mind that cannot bear the Cross nor trust to the Providence of God Religion then as well as since was the Civil Property of these Kingdoms but at the time of the Revolution (a) In his Enquiry into the Measures of Submission to the Supreme Authority he distinguished the Christian Religion from it self as Religion and as it was one of the principal Rights and Properties of the Subject and though as Religion it ought not to be defended by Arms yet he affirmed That as a Civil Right and Property it might Would any Man but such a Bishop have had the Confidence to say That it was Lawful to sight for Religion as a Civil Right and Property who had published the Book above-mentioned and I know not how many after it to prove it Unlawful for Subjects to take up Arms in defence or under pretence of defending any Right or Property whatsoever Let such a Man say of Things or Persons or of Persons Dead or Living what he pleases he shall never be believed by me farther than he brings Proof The Passages of his forecited Book which now stare him in the Face are very many and very Emphatical and there is scarce a Page in it which is not a Record against him I must take notice of some and recommend (b) P. 8. to p. 18. p 35. 39. 40. 41. 42. 46. 47. those in the Margent to the curious Reader 's perusal at his leasure that he may make the same use of them that I am going to do of those that follow In the 68th Page of that Book he makes it of more dangerous Consequence to place the Deposing Power in the People than in the Pope Less Disorder saith he may be apprehended from the Pretensions of the Roman Bishops than from those Maxims that put the Power of Judging and Controuling the Magistrate in the Peoples hands which opens a Door to endless Confusion and sets every private Person in the Throne These Consequences of placing the Deposing Power in the People we have seen verified by Experience and still shall be more convinced of the Truth of them but yet his Enquiry into the Measures of Submission and Obedience which he owns among his 18 Papers and the Enquiry into the present State of Affairs which is his though he does not own it were both written upon the Principles of the Resisting and Deposing Power For in the one he Exhorts the People to resist the King as having fallen from his Authority and in the other to take upon them the Power and Authority of Deposing of him And to encourage them the more to it he doth affirm That the Power of the People of Judging the King in Parliament is a part of the Law of England and goes about to prove it from the Sentence of Deposition against King Edward the Second and Richard the Second which contrary to the Truth of History and I am confident of his own Knowledge he saith were never annulled by any subsequent Parliaments and therefore remain part of our Law Such an impudent Assertion contrary to so many Acts of Parliament printed in the Statute Books and (a) In Pryn's Jurisdiction of the Lords elsewhere would as Monsieur le Grand saith of him upon another Occasion (b) J'avoue qu'en faisant ces remarquâ—s je suis dans une veritable Contrainte de ne pas appeller M. Burnet de tous les Noms quile merite Lettre de M. Burnet a M. Thavenot avec les remarques de MLG. p. 33. Provoke a Man to call him by all the Names that he deserves But I pass on to the second Thing I intended to note in that Book and it is his own Answer to the Arguments for Resistance which in the first Conference he puts in the Mouth of Isotimus the Presbyterian to justify taking up Arms against our Lawful Governors from the Example of the Maccabees rising up in Arms against Antiochus and of the Christians who under Constantine the Great made no difficulty of fighting against the other Emperour his Colleague Licinius These Arguments he there pursues as far as they will go in the Mouth of Isotimus and then Answers them fully in the Person of Basilius the Royalist by whom he represents himself yet he lately made use of the very same Arguments to perswade his Clergy of the Lawfulness of taking up Arms against the King to bring about the Revolution and of the Obligations they were under to submit to it and support it without either retracting the Answer which he had made to those Arguments and which he might suppose some of them had read or replying to them or so much as mentioning of them but tells them in his Preface to his four Discourses That they had heard him urge them with seeming Satisfaction which I suppose was one sort of Satisfaction and Admiration too in many of them which I had rather hint than Name The third great Instance of that Book in which he hath contradicted himself is his Arguing for the Duty of Nonresistance from the Example of the Thebean Legion p. 58. which I cannot forbear to
contrary to every part of it as I shall shew in some signal Instances which were blemishes in his Life and will remain such Blots upon his Memory as no Apology will ever be able to wash out My first Instance shall be in his Apostacy from his own avowed Principle and Doctrine of the Church of England the once venerable Doctrine of Non-Resistance or Passive Obedience in which our Church hath taught her Children how they should behave themselves towards Men and approve themselves towards God if she and they should come to be persecuted for the Tryal of their Faith as the purest Churches and best Christians have been in former Ages He did not only (a) In his Subscription to the Book of Homilies subscribe to the Truth of this Doctrine and in the Profession of the Truth of it declare it unlawful to take up Arms against the King upon any Pretence whatsoever but pressed it upon the Consciences of Living and Dying Men And when he preached against Popery he asserted it not only in the most serious manner that good Divines use to do the most important matters of Christiany but with that Strength and Clearness which our Preacher saith is his peculiar Talent In his Letter to my Lord Russel in Nâ—wgate which the Reader will find in the (b) N. 3. Appendix he told his Lordship who did not believe that Doctrine what a great and dangerous Mistake he was in and that his disbelief of it which was but a Sin of ignorance before he was Convinced of the Truth of it became a Sin of a more heinous Nature after his Conviction and called for a more deep and particular Repentance and that if he dyed in a disbelief of it he was like to leave the World in a Delusion and false Peace and pursuant to this in his last Prayer with his Lordship on the Scaffold he said Grant Lord that all we who survive by this and other Instances of thy Providence may learn our Duty to God and the King What could a Man have said more in behalf of any Doctrine of the Christian Religion Or what could he have done more to convince the World he was in good Earnest than to publish it after he said it And yet in his Thanksgiving Sermon (c) Jan. 31. 1688. preached at Lincolns Inn he tells us That our Deliverance then the Phrase of the Revolution was the Lord's doing although it was brought about by the utter Violation of that Doctrine and the whole Duty of Subjects which results from it and then reciting the Strange means by which it was brought about We must not saith he here forget the many Worthies of our Nation who did so generously run all hazards of Life and Fortune for the Preservation of our Religion and the Asserting our Ancient Laws and Liberties Behold the Preacher at Lincolns Inn and the Confessor in Lincolns Inn Fields contradicting one another The Confessor told my Lord Russell That the Christian Religion plainly forbids the Resistance of Authority and that the same Law which established our Religion declares it not lawful to take up Arms upon any Pretence whatsoever But the Preacher now turned Apostate from the Confessor commends the many Worthies as he calls the Traytors and Rebels of our Country for soliciting a Foreign Prince and the Creature of another State to invade their own Sovereign's Dominions and assisting of him in the Undertaking till they had driven him out of his Kingdoms He saith It was generously done of them to run all hazards of Life and Fortune and he might have added of their Salvation too for the Preservation of our Religion and Liberties although he had told the World before that our Laws forbid the Preservation of them by those means nay that the Laws of Nature and the Rules of Scripture had not left us at Liberty to use them which was in effect to say That neither our Laws would have our Religion nor our Religion have it self preserved by the Means those Worthies used for its Preservation The Belief of the Lawfulness of Resisting when our Rights and Liberties should be invaded was a Sin of a dangerous and heinous Nature in my Lord Russel but the Practice of it was laudable in I know not how many Lords and Gentlemen more for preserving our Religion Laws and Liberties by it and if any of them since are gone out of the World in a Delusion and false Peace he is one of those Divines who more especially must Answer to God for it For it was after a close Consult with him and one or two more that a Motion was made in the House of Lords for Appointing a Day of Thanksgiving to God for having made his Highness P. O. the glorious Instrument of delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power And then it was that our English Worthies as well as the Heroe under whom they acted were applauded in the Pulpits for the Success of that Glorious Enterprize which to think or speak of in a slighting manner was in his Opinion to be guilty of the foulest and blackest Ingratitude both to God and them One would wonder how any Christâ—an Man but more especially how a Christian Preacher should so plainly contradict himself and his most serious Doctrines and yet have the Confidence since to Reprint them as if he had never said nor done any Thing inconsistent with them Hear therefore what he saith of Religion our dear and holy Religion which the Worthies of our Nation run such an Hazard to preserve (a) Serm. preached on the Fifth of Nov. 1678. and Reprinted 1691. As for Religion the very Heathens always spoke of it as the great Band of human Society and the Foundation of Truth and Fidelity and Justice among Men. But when Religion once comes to supplant moral Righteousness and to teach Men the absurdest Things in the World to Lye for the Truth and to Kill Men for God's sake when it serves to no other Purpose but to be a Bond of Conspiracy to inflame the Tempers of Men to a greater Fierceness and to set a keener Edge upon their Spirits and to make them ten times more the Children of Wrath and Cruelty than they were by Nature then surely it loses its Nature and ceases to be Religion For let any Man say worse of Atheism and Infidelity if he can And for God's sake what is Religion good for but to reform the Manners and Dispositions of Men to restrain human Nature from Violence and Cruelty from Falshood and Treachery from Sedition and Rebellion Better it were there were no revealed Religion and that human Nature were left to the Conduct of its own Principles and Inclinations then to be acted by a Religion which inspires Men with so wild a Fury and prompts them to commit such Outrages and is continually supplanting Government and undermining the Welfare of Mankind In short such a Religion that teaches Men to propagate and advance and he might have
quantam hic fenestram aperiemus in re omnibus communi cogitandi orientur hic fontes questionum opinionum ut tutius multo sit illos simpliciter manere in suo signo Cum nec ipsi suam nec nos nostram partem multo minus utrique totum orbem pertrahemus in eam sententiam sed potius irritabimus ad varias Cogitationes Ideo vellem potius ut sopitum maneret dissidium in duabus istis Sententiis quam ut occasio davetur infinitis quaestionibus ad Epicurisinum profuturis 3. Cum stent hic pro nostrâ sententia 1. textus ipse apertissimus Evangelii qui non sine causâ movet omnes homines non solum pios 2. Patrum decta quamplurima quae non tam facile possunt solvi nec tutâ conscientiâ aliter quam sonat intelligi cum bonâ Grammaticâ textui fortiter consentiant 3. Quia periculosum est statuere Ecclesiam tot annos per totum orbem caruisse vero sensu Sacramenti cum nos fateamur omnes mansisse Sacramenta verbum etsi obruta multis abominationibus 4. Dicta S. Aug. de signo quae contraria nostrae sententiae videntur non sunt firma satis contra ista jam tria dicta maximè cum ex Aug. scriptis clarè possit ostendi convinci Eum loqui de signo praesentis Corporis Vt illud contra Adamantum Non dubitavit Dominus appellare Corpus suum cum daret signum Corporis sui vel de signo corporis mystici in quo valde multus est praesertim in Johanne ubi copiose docet Manducare carnem Christi esse in corpore mystico seu ut ipse dicit in societate unitate charitate Ecclesiae istis enim verbis utitur 5. Ominium est fortissimum Augustinus quod dicit Non hoc Corpus quod videtis Manducaturi estis c. Et tamen conscientia memor apertorum verborum Christi Hoc est Corpus meum hoc dictum S. Aug. facile sic exponit quod de visibili corpore loquatur Aug. sicut sonant verba quod videtis Ita nihil pugnat Aug. cum claris verbis Christi Aug. infirmior est quam ut hoc uno dicto tam incerto imo satis consono nos moveat in contrarium Sensum 6. Ego S. Aug. non intelligo aliter sic ipse Patres ante se sorte intellexerit quam quod contra Judaeos Gentes docendum fuit apud Christianos non comedi Corpus Christi visibiliter more Corporali hac ratione fidem Sacramenti defenderunt Rursus contra Hypocritas Christianorum docendum fuit quod Sacramentum non esset salutare accipientibus nisi spiritualiter manducarent i. e. Ecclesiae essent uniti incorporati hac ratione Charitatem in Sacramento exegerunt ut ex Aug. clarè accipi potest qui absque dubio ex prioribus Patribus sui saeculi usu ista accepit 7. Istis salvis nihil est quod a me peti possit Nam ego hoc dissidium vellem testis est mihi Christus meus redemptum non uno Corpore sanguine meo Sed quid faciam Ipsi forte conscientiâ bonâ capti sunt in alteram sententiam Feramus igitur eos Si sinceri sunt liberabit eos Christus Dominus Ego contra captus sum bonâ certè conscientiâ nisi ipse mihi sim ignotus in meamsententiam ferant me si non possint mihi accedere Si vero illi sententiam suam sc de praesentiâ Corporis Christi cum pane tenere velint petierint Nos invicem tamen tolerari ego planè tolerabo in spe futurae communionis nam interim communicare Illis in fide sensu non possum Deinde si politica concordia quaeritur ea non impeditur diversitate Religionis sicut novimus posse conjugia commercia aliaque politica constare inter diversae religionis homines 1 Cor. 7. Christus faciat ut perfecte conteratur Satan sub nostris pedibus Amen Nostra autem sententia est Corpus ita cum pane seu in pane esse ut revera cum pane manducetur quemcunque motum vel actionem panis habet eandem Corpus Christi ut Corpus Christi verè dicatur ferri dari accipi manducari quando panis fertur datur accipitur manducatur Id est Hoc est Corpus meum No. III. A LETTER written to my Lord Russel in Newgate the Twentieth of July 1683. My Lord. I Was heartily glad to see your Lordship this Morning in that calm and devout temper at the Receiving of the Blessed Sacrament but Peace of mind unless it be well-grounded will avail little And because transient Discourse many times hath little effect for want of time to weigh and consider it therefore in tender compassion of your Lordships Case and from all the good will that one Man can bear to another I do humbly offer to your Lordships deliberate thoughts these following Considerations concerning the points of Resistance If our Religion and Rights should be invaded as your Lordship puts the Case concerning which I understand by Dr. B. that your Lordship had once received Satisfaction and am sorry to find a change First That the Christian Religion doth plainly forbid the Resistance of Authority Secondly That though our Religion be Established by Law which your Lordship urges as a difference between our Case and that of the Primitive Christians yet in the same Law which Establishes our Religion it is declared That it is not Lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms c. Besides that there is a particular Law declaring the Power of the Militia to be solely in the King And that ties the hands of Subjects though the Law of Nature and the General Rules of Scripture had left us at liberty which I believe they do not because the Government and Peace of Humane Society could not well subsist upon these Terms Thirdly Your Lordships opinion is contrary to the declared Doctrin of all Protestant Churches and though some particular Persons have taught otherwise yet they have been contradicted herein and condemned for it by the Generality of Protestants And I beg your Lordship to consider how it will agree with an avowed asserting of the Protestant Religion to go contrary to the General Doctrin of Protestants My end in this is to convince your Lordship that you are in a very Great and Dangerous Mistake and being so convinced that which before was a Sin of Ignorance will appear of much more heinous Nature as in Truth it is and call for a very particular and deep Repentance which if your Lordship sincerely exercise upon the sight of your Error by a Penitent Acknowledgment of it to God and Men you will not only obtain Forgiveness of God but prevent a mighty Scandal to the Reformed Religion I am very loath to give your Lordship any disquiet in the Distress you are in