their mutual Peace and Security against the Violence or Fraud of others And as reasonable it was that they should agree upon certain Rules or frame Constitutions which were to be the known Standard of every bodies Actions and might serve for the Decision of all their Differences That there should be Magistrates or indifferent Persons appointed to preserve those Laws and see 'em put in execution not leaving every Man to be his own Judg is not less reasonable still And that all due Honour and Obedience should be paid to those Governors by their Subjects is likewise most highly reasonable so that I fancy we must necessarily conclude all just Dominion to be founded in Reason At length comes from the North a finish'd Master of such Politicks and he doubts not but Mr. TOLAND after all is a Iesuit But his Book utterly destroys all the Principles of Popery and Superstition That 's nothing for Iesuits to unsettle us will preach against their own Religion Now if Mr. TOLAND be a Iesuit he 's certainly the most dangerous of the Order and begun extremely betimes He was not sixteen Years old when he became as zealous against Popery as he has ever since continu'd and by God's Assistance always will do From Redcastle near Londonderry he went in 1687. to the College of Glasco in Scotland and upon his departure from it the Magistrates of that City gave him Recommendatory Letters wherein they took particular notice of his Affection to the Protestant Religion The day before the memorable Battle of the BOINE he was created Master of Arts at Edenburgh and receiv'd the usual Diploma or Certificate from the Professors Then he came into England and liv'd in as good Protestant Families as any in the Kingdom till he went to the famous University of Leyden in HOLLAND to perfect his Studies and upon his return from thence lodg'd in a private House at Oxford till about two Years ago he came to London where 't is well known his Company and Conversation were the farthest in the World from being Iesuitical Notwithstanding the whole series of his Education as well as his own Genius did thus run in the most opposite Channel to Popery yet in Ireland that malicious Report gain'd upon some few because his Relations were Papists and that he happen'd to be so brought up himself in his Childhood which was no more an Action of his own than that he was born there So his Countrymen treated him in this respect like his Majesty's good Subjects of Guernsey who when they are in France are call'd English Rogues and in England French Dogs The last Effort except the charge of Socinianism to blast him was to make him pass for a rigid Nonconformist Mr. TOLAND will never deny but the real Simplicity of the Dissenters Worship and the seeming Equity of their Discipline into which being so young he could not distinctly penetrate did gain extraordinarily upon his Affections just as he was newly deliver'd from the insupportable Yoke of the most pompous and Tyrannical Policy that ever enslav'd Mankind under the name or shew of Religion But when greater Experience and more Years had a little ripen'd his Judgment he easily perceiv'd that the Differences were not so wide as to appear irreconcileable or at least that Men who were sound Protestants on both sides should barbarously cut one anothers Throats or indeed give any disturbance to the Society about them And as soon as he understood the late Heats and Animosities did not totally if at all proceed from a Concern for meer Religion he allow'd himself a latitude in several things that would have been matter of scruple to him before His Travels increas'd and the Study of Ecclesiastical History perfected this Disposition wherein he continues to this hour for whatever his own Opinion of those Differences be yet he finds so essential an Agreement between the French Dutch English Scotish and other Protestants that he 's resolv'd never to lose the benefit of an Instructive Discourse in any of their Churches upon that score and it must be a Civil not a Religious Interest that can engage him against any of these Parties not thinking all their private Notions wherein they disagree worth endangering much less subverting the Publick Peace of a Nation If this makes a Man a Nonconformist then Mr. TOLAND is one unquestionably And so he is if he thinks the Dissenters ought not to be molested in their Goods or Persons nor excluded from any of their Native Rights because they have a different Set of Thoughts from him or others so long as none of their Principles are repugnant to good Government He believes them likewise to be a true and considerable part of the Protestant Religion for they have demonstrated themselves to be stanch Patriots notwithstanding any Error or Weakness whereof they may be guilty in his Judgment But this same reason will prove him as sound a Member of the establish'd Church of England being perswaded the narrow Sentiments of a few about Communion is not any profest Doctrin of that Church nor would there be any Separation from it in this Realm were all others of his mind 'T is visible this Declaration is not made to curry favour with one as many do while in their Hearts they are devoted to the other side But Mr. TOLAND's Opinion being frequently demanded as to this Point he now delivers it once for all for he will never condescend to court any body of Men with preference to all others further than he sees ground for it and to this as his settl'd Judgment he 's resolv'd to adhere tho it should hazard the inevitable ruin of his Fortune or Reputation with all Parties Atheism is now become so common an Accusation in every Person 's mouth who is displeas'd at the Rudeness of others for not complimenting him with their Assent to his Opinions that altho in it self it be the most atrocious and unnatural Crime whereof a reasonable Creature can be guilty yet is it not otherwise minded than as a word of course which indicates a world of Inconsiderateness and Rancor When Mr. TOLAND us'd to be traduc'd in Ireland for Deism with many other Opinions and his Friends demanded of his Accusers where they made those Discoveries in his Writings the ready Answer always was that truly they had never read the Book and by the Grace of God never would but that they receiv'd their Information from such as were proper Judges of the thing O how inseparable is Popery from Ignorance And what is the source of all Popery but Implicit Belief where-ever it is found As to what the Author of the Letter to a Convocation-man says of a Congregation de propaganda Infidelitate no body needs be asham'd of so good Company as the present Bishop of Salisbury the late Archbishop of Canterbury and the Commons of England themselves whom he not only libels with most false and vile Insinuations but even his Majesty's own Person as
AN APOLOGY FOR Mr. TOLAND In a LETTER from Himself to a Member of the House of Commons in Ireland written the day before his Book was resolv'd to be burnt by the Committee of Religion To which is prefix'd a NARRATIVE containing the Occasion of the said LETTER Diis proximus Ille est Quem RATIO non IRA movet Claudian LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCVII A NARRATIVE Containing the Occasion of the following LETTER I Promise not to give any account at this time of the Controversy occasion'd by Mr. TOLAND's Book nor to enter into the Merits of the Cause on either side His Adversaries seem not yet weary of writing against him and when they have once done it will be early enough then for him to reply if he sees reason so to do For it would be an endless labour to make Answers severally to so many as may concern themselves in this Dispute My design is only to shew what Treatment he receiv'd from some People in Ireland as far as that may serve to set the Letter annex'd to this Narrative in its proper light And I shall take care to insert nothing but such notorious matters of Fact that no observing Person in Dublin or I might say perhaps in the Kingdom can pretend Ignorance concerning them or deny them to be true Mr. TOLAND was scarcely arriv'd in that Country when he found himself warmly attack'd from the Pulpit which at the beginning could not but startle the People who till then were equal Strangers to him and his Book yet they became in a little time so well accustom'd to this Subject that it was as much expected of course as if it had been prescrib'd in the Rubrick This occasion'd a Noble Lord to give it for a reason why he frequented not the Church as formerly that instead of his Saviour JESUS CHRIST one IOHN TOLAND was all the Discourse there But how unworthy a Member soever of the Christian Religion Mr. TOLAND may be he 's still so sensible of the Obedience he justly owes to its most Divine Precepts that he dares not allow himself to make any returns in the same Dialect to what was liberally utter'd against him in that place We read an Archangel was not permitted to rail against the very Devil and if Mr. TOLAND had not innumerable Passages of the Gospel to restrain him yet the Reverence all Men ow to their own Persons join'd to the Rules of common Civility would be powerful enough to keep him from bestowing any indecent Expressions or Reflections upon his Opposers Nor is he such a stranger to the former Ages or the present as not to perceive that passionate or violent Proceedings never yet gain'd Credit to a Cause nor produc'd any other Effects upon the Enemies of it but to make 'em abhor it the more But when this rough handling of him in the Pulpit where he could not have word about prov'd insignificant the Grand Iury was sollicited to present him for a Book that was written and publish'd in England And to gain the readier Compliance the Presentment of the Grand Iury of Middlesex was printed in Dublin with an emphatical Title and cry'd about the Streets So Mr. TOLAND was accordingly presented there the last day of the Term in the Court of King's-Bench the Iurors not grounding their proceeding upon any particular Passages of his Book which most of 'em never read and those that did confess'd not to understand Thus in the Reign of HENRY VI. one JOHN STEPHENS was presented by a Jury in Southwark as a Man say they we know not what to make of him and that hath Books we know not what they are In the mean time those of either Sex who had any intimacy with Mr. TOLAND or that favour'd him with their familiar Conversation were branded as his Proselytes and Lists of their Names industriously given about altho those worthy Persons for he always chose the best Company had never discours'd him of Religion nor had many of 'em then seen his Book And so far was he himself from making his Opinions the Subject of his common Talk that notwithstanding repeated Provocations he purposely declin'd speaking of 'em at all which made his Adversaries who slipt no handle of decrying him insinuate that he was not the real Author of the Piece going under his Name But if they were serious and this was not another Artifice to make him own it I would fain know what made them so angry with a Man whom they ought therefore to despise For if there be any Poison as I hope there is none in that Book the spreading of it in Ireland is wholly owing to the Management of those who would be thought most to oppose it We must not forget that in a few days after the present Lords Iustices of that Kingdom landed the Recorder of Dublin Mr. HANCOCK presented Mr. TOLAND to their Excellencies after a very obliging manner for in his Congratulatory Harangue in the name of his Corporation whereof by the way he spoke not a word he begg'd their Lordships would protect the CHURCH from all its Enemies but particularly from the TOLANDISTS a Sect I 'm sure those Noble Persons ne'er heard of before The late Lords Iustices the Earls of Montrath and Drogheda were more neglected at least in the same Speech tho all Ireland cannot without the blackest Ingratitude but acknowledg that they never liv'd before under a more prudent just and peaceable Administration For as they gave no occasions of Complaint in their Government so were there no Murmurings against them but only of such as through a perpetual desire of Change are always Enemies to their own and the Country's Happiness Mr. TOLAND being thus made a Heresiarch in so publick a place where all the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom then in Town were present occasion'd every body to hunt for his Book which was very scarce and his Enemies also took that Pretext of denominating all his Acquaintance TOLANDISTS how different soever they were from him or one another in their Sentiments From the Pulpit from the Iury and the Court he must take his next turn at the Press from whence there issu'd a Book said to be an Answer to him in particular and to all others who set up Reason and Evidence in opposition to Revelation and Mysteries This imports that Mr. TOLAND made Reason and Revelation contradictory But how well the Author of the said Book Mr. PETER BROWN senior Fellow of Trinity College near Dublin has prov'd this or the rest of his Undertaking is referr'd to the impartial Reader 's Judgment If hard Language would do instead of strong Arguments we might easily determine who had the better end of the Controversy and if you believe Mr. BROWN himself he assures you that if it can be shewn where one Link of his reasoning fails he 'll make it up again so firm that it shall never be undone Indeed I don't believe Mr. TOLAND designs to
the cognizance of such things into their own Hands And tho his Book should as it 's very probable happen to fall under their Censure yet his love to Mankind cannot but make him extremely pleas'd with the Consequences he foresees must necessarily follow from such an authentick Precedent in this Country where it was most peculiarly wanting Nor does he think it more reasonable for him to be angry at his private ill luck than it would be for some to be out of love with Parliaments themselves which is the best Constitution in the Universe because they are mistaken sometimes and that an Act is repeal'd in one Session which was establish'd in another not considering that such an Inconvenience is infinitely overballanc'd by several excellent Laws and by the Remedy that may likewise be had to this pretended Disorder from that very Court upon better Information or Temper Secondly Mr. TOLAND does not complain that he alone in the Kingdom is disturb'd for his Opinion but is heartily glad that no more are troubl'd upon that account For as he takes Persecution to be one of the chief Marks and Pillars of the Antichristian Church so he looks upon an impartial Liberty of writing and speaking whatever is not destructive of Civil Society to be the greatest advantage of any Country whether the Learning or the Commerce or the very Peace and Tranquillity thereof be consider'd Yet it cannot but look mighty odly to indifferent Persons that all the Dissenters from the Establish'd Church that the Papists who pervert Christianity it self that several declar'd Socinian ay and Iacobite Pamphlets should escape the burning Zeal of those who so furiously prosecute one young Man only for the suspected Consequences of his Book as if the very Being or Destruction of all Religion depended upon the fate of him or his Writings Thirdly As for the Errors commonly laid to Mr. TOLAND'S charge they are so various and inconsistent with one another that no Man of ordinary sense could possibly hold them all at a time and being credited by his Enemies without book he may with more Justice deny than they can affirm them He 's not therefore oblig'd to take notice of any thing but what is alledg'd in formal words or plainly inferr'd from his Book Indeed some Consequences an Author might not perceive which should render him the more excusable but Mr. TOLAND confesses he foresaw several Consequences of his Book even to part of the Opposition with which it has met tho not that after the Pulpits Presses and Juries the Commons of Ireland should likewise honour it with their Animadversion Now what is said to have been objected in the Committee is First That the very Title CHRISTIANITY NOT MYSTERIOVS is Heretical Whether the Committee decrees a new or declares an old Heresy Mr. TOLAND neither knows nor is much concern'd to understand being conscious to himself of neither If the Title be made good in the Book 't is orthodox or sound enough and if not yet he 's still to seek for the Heresy of it If it be an old Opinion others would gladly be inform'd in which Century it was first taught who the Author of it might be or by what Council it was condemn'd and if it be a new Notion they desire likewise to know whether the House of Commons alone can decree it Heresy being yet perfect strangers to any such Power claim'd by that Honourable Body But 't is affirm'd that by his Title he rejects the Mysteries of the Gospel If by Mysteries be meant the Doctrines themselves he denies none of them but that after Revelation they are not mysterious or obscure he still maintains for the Honour of Christianity A great many without doors very wisely conclude that he believes not the Doctrines because he thinks they are plain and therefore the more credible for that 's all he means by not mysterious But some People otherwise credulous enough believe no body capable of rendring that clear and easy which to themselves seems difficult or insuperable It was likewise objected that he makes a doubt whether the Scriptures be of Divine Authority That bare Expression If the Gospel be really the Word of God imports no such matter but very frequently the contrary as for example If the Gospel be true this frame of the World shall be dissolv'd which is not to question but more emphatically to assert the truth of the Proposition But this I confess is nothing to the case before us The words in the Conclusion of the Book are these Nothing contradictory or inconceivable however made an Article of Faith can be contain'd in the Gospel if it be really the Word of God for I have hitherto argu'd only upon this Supposition for the Reason to be seen towards the end of the Preface The sense of the words then must be determin'd by that Reason and the Passage referr'd to in the Preface is this viz. In the following Discourse which is the first of three c. the Divinity of the New Testament is taken for granted In the next Discourse c. I attempt a particular and rational Explanation of the reputed Mysteries of the Gospel And in the third I demonstrate the Verity of Divine Revelation against Atheists and all Enemies of Reveal'd Religion Now is it not something strange that a Man should question what he takes for granted and which the Method he follow'd would not permit him to prove before his time that is not form the Conclusion before the Premisses In one place he positively affirms the Scriptures to contain the brightest Characters of Divinity but that the force of Calumny may evidently appear let this other Passage of the same Book be consider'd What we discours'd of Reason before says he and Revelation now being duly weigh'd all the Doctrines and Precepts of the New Testament if it be indeed Divine must consequently agree with Natural Reason and our own ordinary Ideas THIS every considerate and well-dispos'd Person will find by the careful perusal of it and whoever undertakes this Task will confess the Gospel not to be HIDDEN from us nor afar off but very nigh us in our Mouths and in our HEARTS But this whole Chapter must have been transcrib'd were all that 's to our purpose in it to be nicely quoted for every word of it from N o 22. to the end is a Justification of the Method and Stile of the New Testament Yet lest any suspicion of Fallacy might remain where the Particle IF occurs I demand what Declaration can be conceiv'd in stronger terms than the following Passage for you shall be troubl'd with no more tho I might easily cite forty others relating to this Head The words are Whether or no Christianity is mysterious ought to be naturally decided by the New Testament wherein the Christian Faith is originally contain'd I heartily desire to put the Case upon this Issue I appeal to this Tribunal for did I not infinitely
prefer the Truth I learn from these sacred Records to all other Considerations I should never assert that there are no Mysteries in Christianity The Scriptures have engag'd me in this Error if it be one and I will sooner be reputed Heterodox with these only on my side than to pass for Orthodox with the whole World and have them against me It was likewise objected that Mr. TOLAND shew'd not a due Respect to CHRIST because he always stiles him in his Book barely CHRIST or at most only JESUS CHRIST If this be any Disrespect the most Orthodox Divines are as guilty of it in their Writings and the Apostles themselves speak of him without any additional Titles a great many times in the Gospel 'T is otherwise I grant when some special occasion requires them to be more express and when Mr. TOLAND was declaring the Head of his Church he says I am neither of Paul nor of Cephas nor of Apollos but of the Lord IESVS CHRIST alone who is the Author and Finisher of my Faith And here I cannot forbear admiring how Mr. TOLAND should be deem'd an Arian or Socinian seeing for ought appears in his Book he may lay a better Claim to any other Sect except the Papists than to them for these three are the only Parties he opposes by name But if his Religion is to be really discover'd by his Book 't is utterly impossible he should be either an Arian or Socinian They both of 'em from different Notions believe JESUS CHRIST to be a meer Creature God which Mr. TOLAND does not and to mend one Absurdity by a greater they join in paying their Deify'd Creature Divine Worship which Mr. TOLAND judges impious and ridiculous His own words are these Tho the Socinians disown this Practice of admitting Contradictions in Religion I am mistaken if either they or the Arians can make their Notions of a Dignify'd and Creature God capable of Divine Worship appear more reasonable than the extravagancies of other Sects touching the Article of the Trinity such as the Whimsies of EVTYCHES GENTILIS and the rest In short Mr. TOLAND had no natural occasion to declare his Sentiments relating to CHRIST's Person that and the other particular Doctrines of the Gospel being the Subject of the second and third Books he promises and by which alone his Conformity or Dissent with the Common Christianity is to be discern'd Nor had his Adversaries from the Press run into so many gross Mistakes and been at the trouble of several no less unhappy than needless Conjectures had they but Patience or Phlegm enough to attend the Publication of those Pieces It was objected also that he slighted the Sacraments which is a term he never uses by making them bare Ceremonies That he call'd 'em any where meer Ceremonies he absolutely denies tho he now affirms with all Christians that the Actions of breaking Bread and washing with Water are as much Ceremonial under the New Testament as Circumcision or the Passover were under the Old But when Mr. TOLAND had a just occasion to mention the Sacraments tho not to declare his Opinion concerning their Nature or Efficacy 't is evident he speaks there of those numerous Ceremonies of Human Institution which were added to 'em by the mistaken Zeal or Prudence of the Primitive Christians who as he says not having the least Precedent for any Ceremonies from the Gospel excepting Baptism and the Supper strangely disguis'd and transform'd these by adding to them the Pagan Mystick Rites and of these appending Ceremonies he gives a large Catalogue in that Chapter But he 's so far from making any comparison between Christianity and the Orgies of BACCHUS as was likewise alledg'd that on the contrary he severely handles those who blended such Corruptions with pure Christianity Thus says he lest Simplicity the noblest Ornament of the Truth should expose it to the Contempt of Vnbelievers Christianity was put upon an equal level with the Mysteries of CERES or the Orgies of BACCHUS To this may be added another Passage where he affirms he could draw his Parallel between Heathenism and those early Superstitions much larger to shew how Christianity became mysterious and how so Divine an Institution did through the Craft and Ambition of Priests and Philosophers degenerate into meer Paganism Here you see 't is not the Christian Religion but the unwarrantable Additions to it wherein JESUS CHRIST never had any hand which he compares with the Mysteries of CERES and the Orgies of BACCHUS And what pray is the main body of the Popish Eastern or other Superstitions but the continuance of those Rites of Heathen or Iewish Original which Mr. TOLAND justly explodes Or is any body that draws a Parallel between Heathenism and Popery thought disaffected to Christianity Indeed profest or disguis'd Papists will accuse him of such a Crime but no understanding Protestant can ever be guilty of so much Weakness 'T is possible more Exceptions were made to Mr. TOLAND'S Book in the Committee or these not all in this Order but these were all whereof he could inform himself and of which he gives the most compendious and satisfactory account he can being as ready to do the same in relation to all other Objections that shall fairly come to his knowledg The greatest Hardship he complains of is that being an Inhabitant of England he should be molested in Ireland where he was only fortuitously born for a Book he publish'd in another Country His Errand hither God knows was neither to propagate nor receive any Doctrines new or old and as he was far from ever designing to fix his constant Residence here so he thinks himself liable to be disturb'd in any other place whither his Curiosity or Business may lead him as in this Kingdom which is a way of proceeding hitherto unheard of in the World I shall give you no further trouble when I have told you that I resolve always to continue an unalterable Friend to Liberty an Advocate for Religion without Superstition a true Lover of my Country and in particular Sir your most humble Servant IOHN TOLAND THere was enough said in the preceding Letter concerning the Socinianism laid to Mr. TOLAND'S Charge and I doubt very much whether now there be any Socinians in England I am sure no considerable Body of them for the Theology of the Vnitarians who vulgarly pass under that name is very different from that of SOCINUS But these Vnitarians in one of their latest Prints disown any Service intended their Cause by Mr. TOLAND'S Book and all Sects we know are ready upon the least apparent Conformity to augment their own Numbers especially with such as they seem to value for their Learning or other Qualifications In The Agreement of the Vnitarians with the Catholick Church occurs the following Paragraph The Bishop of Worcester's eighth and tenth Chapters are employ'd in opposing and as he thinks in exposing and ridiculing some Interpretations of a few Texts