Bishops and Presbyters which as being the most easie to be answered he therefore referred to a Bishop But in good earnest after having confider'd this last Chapter so Brutal whether as to Force or Reason I have changed my resolution For he argues so despicably in the rest that even I who am none of the best Disputers of this World have conceiv'd an utter contempt for him He is a meer Kitchin-plunderer and attacks but the Baggage where even the Suttlers would be too hard for him P. 18. Does the Exposer allow that under Constantinus Pogonatus to have been a free General Council In the same page If the Exposer would have done any thing in his Dic Ecclesiae he should have proved that a General Council is the Church that there can be such a General Council or hath been that the Church can impose new Articles of Faith beyond the Express Words of Scripture that a General Council cannot erre in matters of Faith That the Church of his making cannot erre in matters of Faith Whereas our Church Article 19. saith thus far The Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred not onely in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith This is an Induction from Particulars and remark the Title of the Article being of the Church Ours defines it The Visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men in which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duly ministred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same And then if the Reader please to look on the 20. and 21. Articles following one of the Authority of the Church the other of the Authority of General Councils unless a man will industriously mis-apply and mis-construe them those three are a Compendious and irrefragable Answer not onely to whâ—… he saith here upon the Appendix but to his whole Book from one end to the other p. 19. I ask him when the Greek Church is excommunicate by the Roman when the Protestants left the Roman Church when we in England are neither Papists Lutherans nor Calvinists and when in Queen Maries time we returned to the Roman Church what and where then was the Catholick Church that was indefectible and against which the Gates of Hell did not prevail Was it not in the Savoy Moreover I ask him what hinders but a General Council may erre in matters of Faith when we in England that are another World that are under an Imperial Crown that are none of them as the Exposer words it but have a distinct Catholick Faith within our Four Seas did in the Reign before mentioned and reckon how many in that Convocation those were that dissented again make our selves one of them unless he has a mind to do so too which would alter the Case exceedingly P. 20. He quotes the Act I Eliz. cap. I. let him mind that clause in it by the express and plain words of Canonical Scripture and then tell me what service it hath done him whether he had not better have let it alone but that it is his fate all along to be condemn'd out of his own mouth which must alwayes succeed so when man urges a Real Truth against a Real Truth P. 23. I have reason to affirm and he will meet with it and has already in the Author that those General Councils howsoever called were no Repraesentatio totius nominis Christiani but nominally yea that such a Representation could not be P 22. He expounds Scriptures here and thinks he does wonders in it by assuming the Faculties of the whole Body to the Mouth which Mouth he saith and in some sense 't is very true if a man would run over the Concordance is the Clergy But I know not why the Mouth of the Church should pretend to be the Brain of the Church and understand and will for the whole Laity Let every man have his word about and 't is reason We are all at the same Ordinary and pay our souls equally for the Reckoning The Exposer's Mouth which is unconscionable would not onely have all the Meat but all the Talk too not onely at Church but at Council Table Let him read Bishop Taylor of Liberty of Prophecy P. 25 The Exposer that alwayes falsly Represents his Adversary as an Enemy to Creeds to Fathers as afterwards he does to Ceremonies to Logick to Mathematicks to every thing that he judiciously speaks and allows of here P. 25. saith the Author who delivers but the Church of Englands Doctrine herein and would not have Divine Faith impos'd upon nor things prest beyond Scripture in this matter of General Councils is guilty of unthought of Popery for the Papists really I think he partly slanders them herein cannot endure Councils General and Free They allow many a General Council more than we do If the Pope do not for some reason or other delight in some that are past or in having new ones it does not follow that the Papists do not I think those were Papists that ruffled the Pope too here in the West and that at the Council of Constance burnt John Hus and Hierome of Prague and resolv'd that Faith was not to be kept with Hereticks But pray Mr. Exposer if we must give divine Faith to General Councils let the Author ask you in his turn which are those General Councils How shall we know them Why onely such as accord with Scripture Why then we I mean you Mr. Exposer make our selves you still Judges of the General Councils the fault you so much condemn the Author for But what Popery thought or unthought of are you in the very next line guilty of that call the Popes Supremacy the Quintessence of Popery So that it seems the Quintessence of the Controversie betwixt ouâ—… Church and theirs is onely which shall be Pope for the Articles of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compulsion though the Non-conformists may I thank you Mr. Exposer for your News I had often heard it before I confess but till now I did never and scarce yet can believe it it is rather to be wish'd then hoped for a thing so surprizingly seasonable But for the good news Mr. Exposer I will give you four Bottles which is all I had by me not for mine own use but for a friend upon occasion of the First Second Third and Fourth Essence But the Quintessence I doubt would be too strong for your Brain especially in the morning when you are writing Animadversions P. 28. of Ceremonies he sports unworthily as if the Author spoke Pro and Con Contradictions while as a Moderator he advises our Church to Condescension on the right and the Dissenters to submission on the left how are men else to be brought together He had as good call every man because he has two hands an Ambidexter He would turn every mans Stomach worse than the
Consider But it is simply to say no worse done of him to call that Forme of words as it is ordered by our Saviour himself a Divine Criticisme as if Christ had therein affected that Critical glory which the Exposer himself in so subtile a Remarke doubtless pretends to But the Exposer will not only have Philip to have instructed the Treasurer in this Criticisme but to have read him so long a Lecture upon Baptisme as must for certaine have been out of the Assemblies and not Noel's Catechisme acquainting him and instructing him abundantly in those great Points of Faith the Dying Burying and Rising again of Christ for our Justification from our sins together with the Thing signified Death unto sin Mortification the New Birth unto Righteousness then the Mistery of the First and Second Covenant Original sin how thereby he was a Son of Wrath had hereby Forgiveness of sins Adoption being made a Child of Grace Co-Heire with Christ to live with him in the Communion of Saints after the Resurrection in Life Everlasting I am glad to see that at least when it serves to his purpose this Exposer will own all the Doctrines which another Exposer would have call'd so many Stages of Regeneration and have thought them too many to have drove over in one dayes journey but would rather have turn'd out of the Road and lay'd short all night somewhere by the way Here is a whole Calvinistical Systeme of Divinity that if the Treasurer had been to be Baptized in the Lake of Geneva more could not have been expected And he has in a trice made him so perfect in it that as soon as the Christ'ning was over he must have been fit to be received not only ad Communionem Laecam but the Clericam also if it were then come into fashion These Exposers are notable men they are as good as Witches they know all things and what was done and what was not done equally In earnest he has made us as formal a stoâ—…y of all Ppilip said and the Treasurer believ'd as if he had sate all the while in the Coock-boot and knows how long the discourse lasted as well as if he had set his Watch when they began and look'd upon it just as the Spirit caught up Philip to Azotus But suppose for the Exposers sake that the Treasurer were in a Coach discourse and for all the rumbling so distinctly and thorowly in so short a time too if it had been which is the uttermost a dayes passage Catechumeniz'ed it came to this short Print between them The Treasurer desires to be Baptized Philip replys If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest which can never signifie otherwise then with all the Intention of our Spirit as when we are said to love God wiâ—…h all our Heart The Treasurer replyes and that 's all I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Now it is worth the Readers observation that out of a desire of Câ—…villing and the luxury the Exposer takes in it he has quite forgot the matter he brought in Controversie For the Dispute is concerning New Creeds Imposed beyond clear Scripture the Authors arguments and proofs tended wholly thither and to that purpose he urged this passage of Philip to prove that God considers both but rather the Quality then Quantity of our Faith The Exposer amuses himself and us to tell what Philip preach'd to the Treasurer but never minds that let that have been as it will and the Eunuch have believ'd all that this man can imagine yet all the Creed demanded and all that he professes is no more then those formal words believed with all his heart I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Wherein the Author has clearly carryed and the Exposer thus far lost the Question And indeed Antiochus you are much too blame to have put the Romans to all this trouble to no purpose But any thing to stuffe out the Dimensions of a Book that no man may imagine he could have said so little in so much which is the new way of Compendiousness found out by the Exposer whereas he might have known that not God only but even men alwayes do respect the Quality of any Thing of a Book rather then the Quantity One Remarke I must make more before I take leave of this page how having thus liberally instructed both Philip and the Treasurer he immediately chops in p. 5. Now this Author may see what Use and Need There was of the Constantinopolitan Creed That puts in one Baptisme for the Remission of Sins I read it over and over for there was somthing in it very surprising beside the elegancy of the Verses For the Now in that place is a word of immediate Inference as if it appeared necessarily from what last preceded that he had notably foil'd the Author in some Arguments or other and therefore exulted over him To any man of common sense it can signifie neiâ—…her more nor less then that whereas I upon prospect of this spoke merrily of the Athanasian Creed Noel's and the Assemblies Catechisme c. wherein Philip instructed the Treasurer the Exposer means in good earnest if men mean what they say that Philip having studied the Constantinopolitan Creed himself very exâ—…ctly explain'd every Article of it thorowly to the Eunuch and in especial manner that of Baptisme for the Remission of Sins Which happening to have been so many hundred years before that Council was in being must needs be an extraordinary civility in Philip and which he would scarce have done but for the particular saâ—…isfaction of so great a personage that had the whole manage of the Revenue of the Queen of Ethiopia I am sure it is more then our Church will vouchsafe in Baptisme 〈◊〉 of Infanâ—…s or those of Riper Years with their God-Fathers but fobbs them of with the plain Apostles Creed And truly the easier the better if afttr that and by powering water upon them these persons be without any more adoe as the Priest according to our Rubrick shall then say Regenerate To as little purpose doth he trouble in this same 5. p. Another Scripture the first of John 4. 2. Every Spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God Which the Author urges in confirmation of what he said before concerning the Intention of Faith But saith the Exposer Will a Mahumetan or a Socinian Confession of Faith suffice This is I trow what they call reducing a man ad Absurdum and I doubt he has hamper'd the Author mischievously No it will not suffice in the Mahumetam or Socinian interpretation but a Confession according to the true sense of this and the clear express words of Scripture in other places will do it especially if St. John as most men are of opinion writ his own Gospel Nay though the Exposer contends against this place he admits another concerning Peter that is not much more pregnant All the few primary Fundamentals
Few of the Few for above these forty years have been carrying on a constant Conspiracy to turn all Upside-down in the Government of the Nation But God in his mercy hath alwayes hitherto and will I hope for ever frustrate all such Counsels In his 7. p. it is that he saith the Author in his 4. p. implicitly condemns the whole Catholick Church both East and West for being so Presumptuous in her Definitions However if he does it but Implicitly the Exposer might have been so Ingenuous or Prudent as not to have Explicated it further but conceal'd it least it might do more harme but at least not to have heighâ—…en'd it so the whole Catholick Church and not only so but the whole Catholick Church both in the East and West too why did he not add in the North and South too for being so Presumptuous a term far beyond and contrary to the Modesty and Deference of the Authors expressions But this is the Art and Duty of Exposing Here it is that he brandishes the whole dint of his Disputative Faculty and if it be not the most rational I dare say and yet I should have some difficulty to perswade men so that it is the most foolish passage in the whole Pamphlet It is impossible to clear the Dispute but by transcribing their own words In the mean time therefore I heartily recommend my self to the Readers patience The Author pursuing his point how unsafe and unreasonable it is to Impose New Articles of Faith drawn by humane Inferences beyond the Clear Scripture Expressions instanceth in several of the Prime and most Necessary Principles of the Trinity especially that of the Holy Ghost Are they not things saith he far above the Highest Reason and sharpest understanding that ever man had Yet we Believe them because God who cannot lye hath Declared them Is it not then a strange thing for any man to take upon him to Declare one title more of them then God hath Declared seeing we understand not what is Declared I mean we have no Comprehensive Knowledge of the Matter Declared but only a Believing Knowledge To which the Exposer will have it that if the Author be here bound up to his own words and 't is good reason he should he hath said that we understand not that the matter is Declared and moreover he saith that he is sure he has done him no wrong in fixing this meaning to the Authors words No it is no wrong it seems then to say that to understand That and to comprehend What is the same thing As for example if our Ignorance may be allowed in things so infinitely above us to allude to things as far below us because I understand That the Exposer here speaks Nonsense I must therefore be able to Comprehend What is the meaning of his Nonsense and be capable to raise a Rational Deduction from it I am sure I do the Exposer right in this Inference and should be glad he only would therefore wear it for my sake for it will fit none but him 't was made for But let us come down to the particular The Scripture saith the Author plainly tells that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and That he is sent also by the Father That he is sent also by the Son but whether he Proceeds From the Son or By the Son the Scripture is silent I grant that by Rational Deduction and Humane way of Argument 't is probable that the Holy Ghost Proceeds from the Son as from the Father But we understand not What the Procession or Mission of the Holy Ghost is and therefore we cannot prove they are Both one And therefore to determine it or any such Divine and high Mysteries by Humane Deductions in Humane Words to be Imposed and Believed with Divine Faith is Dangerous And much more the Author adds demonstratively to the same purpose but the Exposer culls out by the Duty of his Place what may best serve for his neither will that do the turn unless he also pervert it Here again is the That and the What the same thingâ—… Is it the same thing to say or understand That the Holy Ghost is sent by the Son which is Declared in Scripture and to understand and comprehend What the Nature of that Mission is or What the Nature of Procession that a man may safely say that he Proceeds From or By the Son as from the Father which is not Declared in Scripture but by Humane Deduction and exact the Divine Belief thereof under Eternal and Temporal Penalties Yet this is the Exposers Logick And away he goes with it as if the world as this inference is were all his own and knocks all on the head with a killing Instance which that I may still open more visibly to the Readers I must beg pardon that I am necessitated to repeat over again their own Words sometimes upon occasion The Exposer saith But he means we have no Comprehensive knowledge His meaning is good and true but his inference is stark naught if he means therefore we understand not at all that this or that is Declared But the Author neither says nor means any such thing and the Exposer does him notwitâ—…hstanding his aveâ—…ment to the Contrary the most manifest wrong imaginable for as much as he would not only fix a false meaning upon the Authors words which I first mentioned in the beginning but upon these other words also which contrary to their plaine signification he produces for proof against him They are by the Exposers own relation If then our Reason understand not what is Declared which is the very Equipollent of what the Author had said that we have no Comprehensive knowledge of the matter Declared how can we by reason make any Deduction by way of Argument from that which we understand 〈◊〉 No more From whence it is evident from that virtual repetition and natural reflection that every Conclusion hath of and upon its Premisses that the full sense of the words must be from that which we understand not Comprehensive And yet he saith that he does him no wrong he is sure he does not in affixing this meaning unto those words And proceeds Is it even so Then let us put the Case with reverence that Almighty God who assuming I suppose the shape of an Angel treated with Abraham face to face as a man doth with his Friend Should for once have spoken in the same manner to Arrius or Socinus and made this one Declaration that the Catholick Churches Doctrine of the Trinity was true and his false then I demand would not this have been demonstration enough of the Faith which we call Catholick either to Socinus or Arrius And yet all these contradictory Arguments which either of them had once fancied so insolable supposing them not answered in particular would remain against it and stand as they did before any such declaration and yet all this without giving him any comprehensive knowledge This
instance is made in Confutation of his own false supposition that the Authors words if then our reason understand not with comprehensive knowledge what is declared how can we then make any deduction by way of Arguments from that which we understand not did in their true meaning signifie how can we by reason make any deduction by way of Argument from that which we understand not to have been declared or that I may pâ—…t it the furthest I can imaginable to the Exposers purpose or service how can â—…e by reason understand that it is declared which is to impose a most ridiculous and impossible sense upon the Authors plain words for if we neither understand That nor What there is an end of all understanding Yet admitting here sayes the Exposer I have stated you a Case which proves the contrary for here Arrius or Socinus have no comprehensive knowledge of what is declared and yet they understand that it is declared and doubtless the Author would say so too without ever meaning the Contrary yea and that this revelation would have been demonstration enough of that Faith which we call Catholick But what would become of their former Contradictory Arguments which the Exposer saith would stand as they did before and remain against it I cannot vouch for the Author that he would be of the same opinion For I cannot comprehend though God had not answered those Arguments of theirs in particular as the Exposer puts it that those Arguments would or could remaine against it and stand as they did before any such declaration to Arrius and Sacinus after they had received a sufficient demonstration from Gods own mouth by New Revelation They would indeed remain against it and stand as they did before to Mr. Sherlocke But when I have thus given the humorous Exposer his own will and swing in every thing yet this superlunary instance does not serve in the least to confirme his Argument that he makes against the Authors words after his transforming them For here Arrius and Socinus only bring their sense of hearing and having heard this from God do not by Reason make any Deduction by way of Argument but by a believing knowledge do only assent to this second further Revelation Nor can they then from this second Revelation make any third step of Argument to extend it beyond its own tenour without incurring the Authors just wise Argument again that seeing our reason understands not what is declared I mean we have no comprehensive knowledge of this Doctrine of Trinity which the Exposer supposes to be declared how can we by reason make any deduction by way of Argument from that which we understand not to wit not comprehensively As I have abundantly cleared But this instance was at first extinguished when I shewed in the beginning that he did impertinently tradnce the Authors words and forge his meaning In the mean time though he saith put the Case with Reverence when the Case so put cannot admit it I cannot but at last reflect upon the Exposers unpardunable indiscretion in this more then absurd and monstruous representation of God almighty assuming the shape of an Angel as he saith he treated with Abraham face to face as a man doâ—…h with his friend to Discourse with Arrius and Socinus These are small escapes wiâ—…h which he aptly introduces such an interview and conference that he treated our 4th Abraham face to face as a man doth with his friend for it is true Abraham is Stiled the friend of God and that God spoke to him but it is never said in Scripture that God did Treat that is a word of Court not of Scripture No nor that God spoke to him face to face But it is said in Sripture only of Moses Exod. 33. 11. The Lord spoke to him face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend But that was a priviledge peculiar to Moses Numbers 12. 5. And the Lord came down in a Pillar of Cloud and stood in the door of the Tabernaele of the Congregation and called Aaron and Miriam and they both came forth and he said hear now my words if there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known to him in a Vision and will speak unto him in a Dream my servant Moses is not so who is faithful in all my house with him will I speak mouth to mouth even apparently and not in darke Speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold wherefore then were not you afraid to speak against my Servant Moses the Exposer is not afraid to do him manifest injury for Deut. 34. 10. And there arose not in Israel a Prophet like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face c. And much more might be said of this matter were the man capable of it But I perceive he neither reads nor understands Scripture and one Divine Criticism is stock enough it seems to set up an Exposer Neither is it so notorious an errour that he saith God assumed the shape of an Angel to treat with him I would be glad to know of the Exposer seeing he is so Cherubick what is the shape of an Angel Some humane Criticks have told me that it was the similitude of a Calfe But Gods appearing in a sha e to Abraham when he treated with him face to face was in the shape of a man Gen. 18 1. The Lord appeared to him in the Plane of Mamre as he sate in the Tent door and so three men stood by him c. These are easie slips and he that stumbles and falls not gains a step Yet for one as he mocks the Author p. 2. That appears as one drop'd down from Heaven vouching himself a Son of the Church of England teaching as one having authority like a Father to trip in this manner is something indecent But to bring God in to so little a purpose contrary to all rules that I have seen one with a better grace brought down by a Machine to treat with Arrius and Socinus no other Company those who have contended against the Son of God and his Holy Spirit whose Opinions have been the Pest of the Clergy for so many Ages to have them now at last brought in as Privado's to the Mysteries of Heaven and the Trinity what Divine in his Witts but would rather have lost an Argument What will the Gentleman I last named say to see such a reconciliation to behold Arrius and Socinus in so close Communion with God as to be admitted even to single Revelation He cannot then avoid thinking what he lately printed and now with more reason That God is all Love and Patience when he has taken his fill of Revenge as others use to say the Devil is good when he is pleased What a shame is it to have men like the Exposer who are dedicated to the service of the Church and who ought as in the place quoted by the Author in the present Argument they of
which to him were unspeakable by a Gibbrish of their Imposing and force every man to Cant after them what it is not lawful for any man to utter Christ and his Apostles speak articulately enough in the Scriptures without any Creed as much as we are or ought to be capable of And the Ministry of the Gospel is useful and most necessary if it were but to press us to the reading of them to illustrate one place by the authority of another to inculcate those duties which are therein required quickning us both to Faith and Practice and showing within what bounds they are both circumscribed by our Saviour's Doctrine And it becomes every man to be able to give a reason and account of his Faâ—…th and to be ready to do it without officiously gratifying those who demand it only to take advantage and the more Christians can agree in one confession of Faith the better But that we should believe ever the more for a Creed it cannot be expected In those days when Creeds were most plenty and in fashion and every one had them at their fingers-ends 't was the Bible that brought in the Reformation 'T is true a man would not stick to take two or three Creeds for a need rather then want a Living and if a man have not a good swallow 't is but wrapping them up in a Liturgy like a wafer and the whole dose will go down currently especially if he wink at the same time and give his Assent and Consent without ever looking on them But without jesting for the matter is too serious Every man is bound to work out his own Salvation with fear and trembling and therefore to use all helps possible for his best satisfaction hearing conferring reading praying for the assistance of God's Spirit but when he hath done this he is his own Expositor his own both Minister and People Bishop and Diocess his own Council and his Conscience excusing or condemning him accordingly he escapes or incurs his own internal Anathema So that when it comes once to a Creed made and Iâ—… posed by other men as a matter of Divine Faith the Case grows very delicate while he cannot apprehend though the Imposer may that all therein is clearly contained in Scripture and may fear being caught in the expressions to oblige himself to a latitude or restriction further then comports with his own sense and judgment A Christian of honor when it comes to this once will weigh every word every syllable nay further if he consider that the great business of this Council of Nice was but one single Letter of the Alphabet about the inserting or omitting of an Iota There must be either that exactness in the Form of such a Creed as I dare say no men in the world ever were or ever will be able to modulate or else this scrupulous private judgment must be admitted or otherwise all Creeds become meer instruments of Equivocation or Persecution And I must confâ—…ss when I have sometimes considered with my self the dulness of the Non-conformists and the acuteness on the contrary of the Episcoparians and the conscienciousness of both I have thought that our Church might safely wave the difference with them about Ceremonies and try it out upon the Creeds which were both the more honorable way and more suitable to the method of the ancient Councils and yet perhaps might do their business as effectually For one that is a Christian in good earnest when a Creed is Imposed will sooner eat fire then take it against his judgment There have been Martyrs for Reason and it was manly in â—…hem but how much more would men be so for reason Religionated and Christianized But it is an inhumane and unchristian thing of those Faith-stretchers whosoever they be that either put mens Persons or their Consciences upon the torture to rack them to the length of their Notions whereas the Bereans are made Gentlemen and Innobled by Patent in the Acts because they would not credit Paul himself whose writings now make so great a part of the New Testament untill they had searched the Scripture dayly whether those things were so and therefore many of them believed And therefore although where there are such Creeds Christians may for peace and conscience-sake acquiesce while there appears nothing in them flatly contrary to the words of the Scripture yet when they are obtruded upon a man in particular he will look very well about him and not take them upon any Humane Authority The greatest Pretense to Authority is in a Council But what then shall all Christians therefore take their Formularies of Divine Worship or Belief upon trust as writ in Tables of Stone like the Commandments deliver'd from Heaven and to be obeyed in the instant not considered because three hundred and eighteen Bishops are met in Abraham's great Hall of which most must be servants and some children and they have resolv'd upon 't in such a manner No a good Christian will not cannot atturn and indenture his conscience over to be Represented by others It is not as in Secular matters where the States of a Kingdom are deputed by their fellow Subjects to transact for them so in spiritual or suppose it were yet 't were necessary as in the Polish constitution that nothing should be obligatory as long as there is one Dissenter where no Temporal Interests but every man's Eternity and Salvation are concerned The Soul is too precious to be let out at interest upon any humane security that does or may fail but it is only safe when under God's custody in its own Cabinet But it was a General Council A special general indeed if you consider the proportion of three hundred and eighteen to the body of the Christian Clergy but much more to all Christian Mankind But it was a general Free Council of Bishops I do not think it possible for any Council to be free that is composed only of Bishops and where they only have the Decisive Voces Nor that a Free Council that takes away Christian Liberty But that as it was founded upon Usurpation so it terminated in Imposition But 't is meant that it was Free from all external Impulsion I confess that good meat and drink and lodging and money in a Man's purse and coaches and Servants and horses to attend them did no violence to 'm nor was there any false Article in it And discoursing now with one and then another of 'm in particular and the Emperor telling them this is my opinion I understand it thus and afterwards declaring his mind frequently to them in publick no force neither Ay! but there was a shrewd way of persuasion in it And I would be glad to know when ever and which free general Council it was that could properly be called so but was indeed ameer Imperial or Ecclesiastical Machine no free agent but wound up set on going and let dow by the direction and hand of the Workman A
General Free Council is but a word of Art and can never happen but under a Fifth Monarch and that Monarch too to return from Heaven The Animadverter will not allow the second General Council of Nice to have been Free because it was over awd by an Empress and was guilty of a great fault which no Council at liberty he saith could have committed the Decree for worshipping of Images At this rate a Christian may scuffle however for one point among them and chuse which council he likes best But in good earnest I do not see but that Constantine might as well at this first council of Nice have negotiated the Image worship as to pay that superstitious adoration to the Bishops and that Prostration to their Creeds was an Idolatry more pernicious in the consequence to the Christian Faith then that under which they so lately had suffer'd Persecution Nor can a council be said to have been at liberty which laid under so great and many obligations But the Holy Ghost was present where there were three hundred and eighteen Bishops and directed them or three hundred Then if I had been of their counsel they should have sate at it all their lives least they should never see him again after they were once risen But it concerned them to settle their Quorum at first by his Dictates otherwise no Bishop could have been absent or gone forth upon any occasion but he let him out again and it behoov'd to be very punctual in the Adjournments 'T is a ridiculous conception and as gross as to make â—…m of the same Substance with the Council Nor needs there any strong argument of his absence then their pretense to be actuated by him and in doing such Work The Holy Spirit If so many of them when they got together acted like rational Men 't was enough in all reason and as much as could be expected But this was one affectation among many others which the Bishops took up so early of the stile priviledges powers and some actions aâ—…d gestures peculiar and inherent to the Apostles which they misplaced to their own behoof and usage nay and chalenged other things as Apostolical that were directly contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of the Apostles For so because the Holy Spirit did in an extraordinary manner preside among the Holy Apostles at that Legitime Council of Jerusalem Acts. 15. they although under an ordinary Administration would not go less whatever came on 't nay whereas the Apostles in the drawing up of their Decree dictated to them by the Holy Spirit said therefore no more but thus The Apostles Elders and Brethren send greeting unto the Brethren of c. Forasmuch as c. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us to lay upon you no greater burthen then these necessary things that ye abstain from c. from which if ye keep your selves you shall do well Fare ye well This Council denounces every invention of its own far from the Apostolical modesty and the stile of the Holy Spirit under no less then an Anathema Such was their arrogating to their inferior degrees the style of Clergy till custom hath so much prevailed that we are at a loss how to speak properly either of the name or nature of their function Whereas the Clergy in the true and Apostolical sense were only those whom they superciliously always call the Laity The word Clerus being never but once used in the New Testament and in that signification and in a very unlucky place too Peter 1. 5. 3. where he admonishes the Priesthood that they should not Lord it or domineer over the Christian People Clerum Domini or the Lord's Inheritance But having usurp'd the Title I confess they did right to assume the Power But to speak of the Priesthood in that style which they most affect if we consider the nature too of their Function what were the Clergy then but Lay-men disguis'd drest up perhaps in another habit Did not St. Paul himself being a Tent-maker rather then be idle or burthensom to his People work of his trade even during his Apostleship to get his living But did not these that they might neglect their holy vocation seek to compass secular imployments and Lay Offices Were not very many of them whether one respect their Vices or Ignorance as well qualified as any other to be Laymen Was it not usual as oft as they merited it to restore them as in the case even of the three Bishops to the Lay-communion And whether if they were so peculiar from others did the Imposition of the Bishops hands or the lifting up the hands of the Laity conferr more to that distinction And Constantine notwithstanding his complement at the burning of the Bishops papers thought he might make them and unmake them with the same power as he did his other Lay-Officers But if the inferior degrees were the Clergy the Bishops would be the Church although that word in the Scripture-sense is proper only to a congregation of the Faithful And being by that title the only men in Ecclesiastical councils then when they were once assembled they were the Catholick Church and having the Holy Spirit at their devotion whatsoever Creed they light upon that was the Catholick Eaith without believing of which no man be saved By which means there rose thenceforward so constant persecutions till this day that had not the little invisible Catholick Church and a People that always search'd and believ'd the Scriptures made a stand by their Testimonies and sufferings the Creeds had destroyd the Faith and the Church had ruined the Religion For this General council of Nice and all others of the same constitution did and can serve to no other end or effect then particular order of menby their usurping a trust upon Christianity to make their own Price and Market of it and deliver it up as oft as they see their own Advantage For scarce was Constantine's Head cold but his Son Constantius succeeding his Brothers being Influenced by the Bishops of the Arrian Party turn'd the wrong side of Christianity outward inverted the Poles of Heaven and Faith if I may say so with its Heels in the Air was forced to stand upon its Head and play Gambols for the Divertisment and Pleasure of the Homoiousians Arrianism was the Divinity then in Mode and he was an ignorant and ill Courtier or Church man that could not dress and would not make a new Sute for his Conscience in the Fashion And now the Orthodox Bishops it being given to those Men to be obstinate for Power but flexible in Faith began to wind about insensibly as the Heliotrope Flower that keeps its ground but wrests its Neck in turning after the warm Sun from Day-break to Evening They could look now upon the Synod of Nice with more indifference and all that pudder that had been mà de there betwixt Homoousios and Homoiousios c. began to appear to them as a Difference only
it and draw in person never think that he would want intelligence in that Region Come 't was all but an affected ignorance in the Animadverter and he had both inquired and heard as much as any of us who was the probable Author and all the Guard that he Lyes upon is because the Author had not given him legal notice that he Writ it And this was even as the Animadverter would have wished it For if a Reverend Person had openly avowed it he could not have been sawcy with so gooda Grace But under the pretence of not knowing Sir that it was you but only Sir as you were the Patron of so vile a Cause many a dry bob close gird and privy nip has he given him Yet he saith the Author would have done well and a piece of Justice to have named himself so to have cleared others for it hath been confidently layed to the charge of more then one Reverend Person how slily who I have great reason to believe and am several ways assured had no hand in it Truly the Animadverter too would have done a piece of Justice to have named himself for there has been more then one Witty person traduced for his Pamphlet and I believe by this time he would take it for a great favour if any man would be such a Fool as own it for him For he very securely reproaches the Author and yet I have been seeking all over for the Animadverters name and cannot find it Not withstanding that he writes forsooth in desence of the Church of England and against so vile a Cause as he stiles it and under the Publick Patronage Which is most disingenuously done as on other accounts so in respect of my Lord Bishop of London whom he has left in the lurch to justify another mans Follyes with his Authority But however that venerable Person who has for Learning Candor and Piety as he does for Dignity also outstripp'd his Age and his Fellows have been drawn in to License what certainly he cannot approve of it was but his First Fruits and a piece of early liberality as is usual upon his new Promotion and I am given to understand that for the Animadverters sake it is like to be the last that he will allow of that nature But this is not only a Trick of the Animadverters but ordinary with many others of them who while we write at our own peril and perhaps set our names to it for I am not yet resolved whether I can bear Reproach or Commendation they that raile for the Church of England and under the Publick License and Protection yet leave men as if it were at Hot-Cockles to guesse blind-fold who it is that hit them But it is possible that some of these too may lie down in their turnes What should be the reason of it sure theirs is not so Vile a Cause too that they dare not abide by it Or are they the Writers conscious to themselves that they are such Things as ought not once to be Named among Christians Or is it their own sorry performance that makes them ashamed to avow their own Books Or is there some secret force upon them that obliges them to say things against their Conscience Or would they reserve a Latitude to themselves to turn Non-Conformists again upon occasion Or do they in pure honesty abstaine from putting a single Name to a Book which hath been the workmanship of the whole Diocess But though he know not his Name seeing he has vented his own Amusements to the Churches great and real prejudice he saith and that is this Case he must not think to scape for the Godliness of his Stile Impious and most unmerciful Poor David was often in this Case Psal. 22. They gaped upon him with their Mouth He trusted said they in the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him And Psal. 71. 11. Persecute and take him there is none to deliver him And yet there are many places too in Scripture where God spared men even for their outward Formalities and their Hypocrisie served to delay his Judgements and should he not still do so the Church might re-receive greater prejudice But the Church and God are two things and are not it seems oblidged to the same Measures insomuch that even the sincerity of one Person which might perhaps attone for a whole Order and render them acceptable both to God and Man yet cannot hope for his own pardon Neither must be think to scope for a Man of good Intentions yet sure he is else would not give the Devil so much more then his due saying he would never condemne any good action though done by the Devil As if saith the Animadverter be supposed the Devil might do some such Here he thinhs he has a shrewd hit at him and this if a man had leisure might beget a Metaphysical Controversy but I desire him rather to comment on that Text Doest thou Believe thou doest well the Devils also Believe and Tremble Whereas he goeth on to mock at the Authors Good Intentions and tells him pleasantly that Hell it self is full of such as were once full of Good Intentions 't is a Concluding piece of Wit and therefore as well as for the Rarity should be civilly treated and incouraged so that I shall use no further 〈◊〉 there that if this be the qualification of such as go to Hell the Animadverter hath secured himself from coming there and so many more as were his Partners And thus much I have said upon his Animadversions on the Title c. Wherein he having misrepresented the Author and prejudicated the Reader against him by all disingenuous methods and open'd the whole Pedlers-pack of his malice which he half-p worths out in the following discourse to his petty Chapmen I could not properly say less though it exceeds perhaps the number of his Pages For it is scarce credible how vuluminous and pithy he is in extravagance and one of his sides in Quarto for Falshood Insolence and Absurdity contains a Book in Folio Besides the Reader may please to consider how much labour it costs to Bray even a Little Thing in a Mortar and that Calumny is like London-dirt with which though a man may be spatter'd in an instant yet it requires much time pains and Fullers-earth to scoure it out again Annotations upon the Animadversions on the first Chapter concerning Articles of Faith THe Play begins I Confess Do so then and make no more words when first I saw this Jewel of a Pamphlet and had run over two or three pages of this Chapter I suspected the Author for some Youngster that had been Dabbling amongst the Socinian Writers and was ambitious of showing us his Talent in their way I was quickly delivered from this Jealousy by his Orthodox Contradictory expressions in other places That word Jewel is commonly used in a good sense and I know no reason why this Book
of the Authors might not be properly enough called so though the Animadverter hath debased the meaning of the word to deprave and undervalue the worth of the Treatise For I perceive that during his Chaplainship he hath learnt it in conversation with the Ladies who translate it frequently to call Whore in a more civil and refined signification But to say thus that he suspected him at first for a Socinian yet was quickly cured of his Jealousy because he found the Author was Honest and Orthodox Why should he vent his own Amusements thus to the great and real prejudice of any worthy person It is indeed a piece of second Ingenuity for a man that invents and suggests a Calumny of which he is sure to be convict in the instant therefore with the same breath to disclaim it but it manifests in the mean time how well he was inclined if he thought it would have pass'd upon the Author and that could the Animadverter have secured his Reputation he would have adventured the Falshood What would he not have given to have made the world believe that he was a Socinian In this beginning you have a right Pattern of the Animadverters whole Stuffe and may see what Measure the Author is to expect all thorow But he finds he faith that he is one of the Men of the second Rate as he takes leave to stile them that scarce ever see to the second Conseqnence At first I suspected from this expression that the Animadverter had been some Ship-Chaplain that had been Dabbling in the Sea-Controversies a Tarpawlin of the Faculty but I was quickly delivered from this Jealousy by his Magisterial Contradictions that shew him to be a man of more Consequence one of them whose Eccleastical Dignities yet cannot wean them from a certain hankering after the Wit of the Laity and applying it as their own upon or 't is no great matter though it be without occasion Yet therefore once for all he Protests too that he does not charge him with any of his own most obvious Consequences as his Opinions for who would believe the one or other that reads the Author for 't is plaine that he does not nor any man that hath Eyes discerne them This is a Candor pregnant with Contempt But in the mean time he thinks it ingenuous to load this second Rate Frigat that was fitted out for the Kings and the Nations service so deep that she can scarce swim with a whole Cargo of Consequences which are none of the Authors but will upon search be all found the Animadverters proper goods and Trade his own Inconsequences and Inanimadversions So men with vicious Eyes see Spiders weave from the Brim of their own Beavers As for example p. 1. He saith that this Chapter does admirably serve the turn of the rankest Sectarian That in his two or three first pages he appeared a Socinian p. 12. That his Pique at the new word Homoousios carryes such an ugly reflection upon the Nicene Creed that be the Animadverter scarse dares understand him p. 6. The Author speaking against introducing new Articles of Faith the Adversary tells him he hopes he does not mean all our Thirty Nine Articles and defends them as if they were attaqued That he does implicitly condemne the whole Catholick Church both East and West for being so presumptuous in her Definitions p. 9. That upon his Principles the Prime and most necessary Articles of Faith will be in danger The old dormant Heresies Monothelites Nestorians c. May safely revive again p. 13. That his are the very Dreggs of Mr. Hobbs his Divinity and worse p. 14. That he would have some men live like Pagans and go to no Church at all p. 16. So for ought we know this Author is a Jesuite and writes this Pamphlet only to embroile us Protestants p. 25 That he is guilty of unthought of Popery p. 33. That our Author like her the foolish woman in the Proverbs plucks down our Church with his own hands and that she had need therefore be upheld against such as he is Of these Inferences which not being natural must have required some labour he is all along very liberal to the Author but the vile and insolent language costs him nothing so that he lays that on prodigally and without all reason Now whether a man that holds a true Opinion or he that thus deduces ill Consequences from it be the more blame-worthy will prove to be the Case between the Animadverter and the Author And to shew him now from whence he borrowed his Wit of the second Rate and at the second Hand all the subject matter of debate Is only who 's the Knave of the First Rate But he saith because of these things the Mischief being done to undoe the Charme again it is become a Duty to Expose him Alas what are they going to do with the poor man What kind of death is this Exposing But sure considering the Executioner it must be some Learned sort of Cruelty Is it the Taeda in which they candled a Man over in Wax and he instead of the wick burnt out to his lives end like a Taper to give light to the Company Or is it the Scapha wherein a man being stripp'd Naked and Smear'd with Honey was in the scorching Sun abandon'd to be stung and Nibbled by Wasps Hornets and all troublesome Insects till he expired Or is it rather ad Bestias turning him out unarmed to be bated worryed and devour'd by the wild Beasts in the Theatre For in the Primitive Times there were these and an hundred laudable ways more to Expose Christians and the Animadverter seems to have studied them But the Crime being of Sorcery and that there is a Charm which hath wrought great Mischief and it not to be undone but by Exposing the Malefactor Charme he never so wisely 't is more probable that it may be the Punishment usual in such Cases And indeed the Animadverter hath many times in the day such Fits tale him wherein he is lifted up in the Aire that six men cannot hold him down teares raves and foams at the mouth casts up all kind of trash somtimes speakes Greek and Latine that no man but would swear he is bewitched and this never happens but when the Author appeares to him And though in his Animadversions on the Title c. He hath so often scratched and got blood of him the infallible Country Cure yet he still finds no ease by it but is rather more tormented So that in earnest I begin to suspect him for a Witch or however having writ the Naked Truth 't is manifest he is a Sooth-sayer that 's as bad Many persons besides have for tryal run needless up to the Eye in several remarkable places of his Naked Truth that look like moles or warts upon his body and yet he though they prick never so much feels nothing Nay some others of the Clergy whereof one was a Bishop have tyed