Chapter 1

SIR,

I have received your Epistle, and therein your excuse for your long silence, which I willingly admit of; and could have been contented it had been longer, so that you had been advantaged thereby to have spoken any thing more to the purpose, than I find you have now done: Sat citò si sat benè: Things of this nature, are always done soon enough, when they are done well enough, or as well as they are capable of being done. But it is no small disappointment to find [illegible], a fruitless flourish of words, where a serious debate of an important cause was expected and looked for. Nor is it a justification of any man, when he has done a thing amiss, to say he did it speedily, if he were no way necessitated so to do. You are engaged in a Cause, to whose tolerable defence, opus est Zephyris & hirundine multa; though you cannot pretend so short a time to be used in it, which will not by many be esteemed more than it deserves; for all time and pains taken to give countenance to error is undoubtedly misspent. [illegible], says the great Apostle; We can do nothing against the Truth, but for the Truth: which Rule had you observed, you might have spared your whole time and labor in this business. However I shall be glad to find that you have given me just cause to believe what you say, of your not seeing the Animadversions on your Book before February. As I find you observant of Truth in your Progress, or failing therein, so shall I judge of your veracity in this unlikely story; for every man gives the best measure of himself. And though I cannot see how possibly a man could spend much time in trussing up such a fardle of trifles and quibbles as your Epistle is, yet it is somewhat strange on the other side, that you should not in eight months space, for so long were the Animadversions made public before February, set eye on that, which being your own especial concernment, was to my knowledge in the hands of many of your party. To deal friendly with you, nolim caeterarum rerum te socordem codem modo. Yes, I doubt not but you use more diligence in your other affairs; though in general the matter in debate between us seems to be your principal concernment. But now you have seen that Discourse, and as you inform me have read it over; which I believe, and take not only upon the same score of present Trust, but upon the Evidence also which you give to your Assertion, by your careful avoiding to take any further notice of the things that you found too difficult for you to reply to. For any impartial Reader, that shall seriously consider the Animadversions with your Epistle, will quickly find, that the main Artifice wherein you confide, is a pretence of saying somewhat in general, while you pass over the things of most importance, and which most press the cause you defend, with a perpetual silence. These you turn from, and fall upon the Person of the Author of the Animadversions. If ever you debated this procedure with your self, had I been present with you when you said with him in the Poet, Dubius sum quid faciam.—Tene relinquam an rem, I should have replied with him, me sodes; but you were otherwise minded, and are gone before Ego, ut contendere durum est.

Cum victore, sequar. I will follow you with what patience I can, and make the best use I am able of what offers its self in your Discourse.

Two Reasons I confess you add why you chose vadimonium deserere, and not reply to the Animadversions; which to deal plainly with you, give me very little satisfaction. The first of them you say, is because to do so, would be contrary to the very end and design of Fiat Lux, which shall immediately be considered. The other is, the threats which I have given you, that if you dare to write again, I will make you know, what manner of man I am. Sir, though it seems you dare not reply to my Book, yet you dare do that which is much worse; you dare write palpable untruths, and such as your self know to be so, as others also who have read those Papers. By such things as these, with sober and ingenious Persons, you cannot but much prejudice the interest you desire to promote, as well as in your self you wrong your conscience, and ruin your reputation. Besides, all advantage springing from untruth is fading: neither will it admit of any covering, but of its own kind, which can never be so increased, but that it will rain through. Only I confess thus far you have promoted your design, that you have given a new and cogent instance of the evils attending Controversies in Religion, which you declaim about in your Fiat; which yet is such, as it had been your duty to avoid. What it is that you make use of to give countenance to this fiction (for malum semper habitat in alieno fundo) I shall have occasion afterwards to consider. For the present I leave you to the discipline of your own thoughts; Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice, nemo nocens absolvitur. And I the rather mind you of your failure at this entrance of our discourse, that I may only remit your thoughts to this stricture, when the like occasion offers it self, which I fear it will do not unfrequently. But Sir, it will be no advantage to me, or you, to contend for the Truth which we profess, if in the mean time, we are regardless of the observance of truth, in our own hearts and spirits.

Two principal Heads, the Discourse which you premise to the Particular consideration of the Animadversions, is reducible to. The first whereof is, your endeavour to manifest, that I understood not the design and end of Fiat Lux, a Discourse (as you modestly testify) hard to deal with, and impossible to confute. The other, your Enquiry after the Author of the Animadversions, with your attempt to prove him one in such a condition, as you may possibly hope to obtain more advantage from, than you can do by endeavouring the refutation of his Book. Some other occasional passages there are in it also, which as they deserve, shall be considered. To these two general Heads I shall give you at present a candid Return, and leave you when you are free from Flies to make what use of it you please.

The design of Fiat Lux, I took to be the promotion of the Papal interest; and the whole of it, in the relation of its parts to one another, and the general end aimed at in it, to be a persuasive induction to the embracement of the present Roman faith and religion. The means insisted on for this end, I conceived principally to be these; 1. A declaration of the evils that attend differences in religion, and disputes about it: 2. Of the good of union, peace, love, and concord among Christians: 3. Of the impossibility of obtaining this good by any other ways or means, but only by an embracement of the Roman Catholic faith and profession, with a submission to the deciding power and authority of the Pope, or your Church: 4. A defence and illustration of some especial parts of the Roman religion, most commonly by Protestants excepted against. This was my mistake; to this mistake I acknowledge my whole discourse was suited. In the same mistake are all the persons in England, that ever I heard speak any thing of that discourse, of what persuasion in religion soever they were. And Aristotle thought it worth while to remember out of Hesiod, Moral. Nicom. lib. 7. that [illegible] [illegible], that report which so many consent in, is not altogether vain. But yet least this should not satisfy you, I shall mind you of one who is with you, [illegible], of as much esteem it may be as all the rest, and that is your self; you are your self in the same mistake: you know well enough that this was your end, this your design, these the means of your pursuing it; and you acknowledge them immediately so to have been, as we shall see in the consideration of the evidence you tender to evince that mistake in me which you surmise.

First you tell me, pag. 4. that I mistake the drift and design of Fiat Lux, while I take that as absolutely spoken, which is only said upon a hypothesis of our present condition here in England. This were a grand mistake indeed, that I should look on any thing proposed as an expedient for the ending of differences about religion, without a supposition of differences about religion. But how do you prove that I fell into such a mistake? I plainly and openly acknowledge that such differences there are; all my discourse proceeds on that supposition. I bewail the evil of them, and labor for moderation about them; and have long since ventured to propose my thoughts to the world, to that purpose. All that you suppose in your discourse on this account I suppose also; yes and grant it, unless it be some such thing as is in controversy between you and Protestants, which you are somewhat frequent in the supposal of to your advantage; and thereon would persuade them to a relinquishment of Protestancy, and embracement of Popery, which is the end of your book, and will be thought so, if you should deny it a thousand times: for quid ego verba audiam facta cum video? Your protestation comes too late, when the fact has declared your mind: neither are you now at liberty to coin new designs for your Fiat. But this must be my mistake, which no man in his wits could possibly fall into; neither is it an evidence of any great sobriety to impute it to any man, whom we know not certainly to be distracted. But this mistake you tell me, caused me to judge and censure what you wrote, as impertinent, impious, frivolous, &c. No such matter; my right apprehension of your hypothesis, end, or design, occasioned me to show, that your discourses were incompetent to prevail with rational and sober persons, to comply with your desires.

You proceed to the same purpose pag. 15. and to manifest my mistake of your design, give an account of it, and tell us, that one thing you suppose, namely, that we are at difference. So did I also, and am not therefore yet fallen upon the discovery of my mistake. 2. You commend Peace, I acknowledge you do, and join with you therein, neither is he worthy the name of a Christian, who is otherwise minded; that is one great legacy that Christ bequeathed to his Disciples; [in non-Latin alphabet], says he [in non-Latin alphabet]. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. And he is no Disciple of Christ who does not long for it, among all his Disciples. This you tell us is the whole sum of Fiat Lux in few words. You will tell us otherwise immediately; and if you should not, yet we should find it otherwise. You add therefore, that to introduce a disposition to peace, you made it your work to demonstrate the uselessness, endlessness, and unprofitableness of quarrels: yet my mistake appears not; I perceived you did speak to this purpose; and I acknowledge with you, that quarrels about religion are useless and unprofitable, any otherwise than as we are bound to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints, and to stand fast in our liberty, not giving place to seducers, with laboring by sound doctrine to convince and stop the mouths of gainsayers; all which are made necessary to us by the commands of Christ, and are not to be called quarreling. And I know that our quarrels are not yet actually ended; that they are endless, I believe not, but hope the contrary. You proceed and grant, that you labor to persuade your countrymen of an impossibility of ever bringing our debates to a conclusion, either by light, or Spirit, or reason, or Scripture, so long as we stand separated from any superior judicative power, to which all parties will submit, and therefore that it is rational and Christian-like, to leave these endless contentions, and resign ourselves to humility and peace. This matter will now quickly be ended, and that ex ore tuo; give me leave I pray to ask you one or two plain questions: 1. Whom do you understand by that superior judicative power, to whom you persuade all parties to submit? Have you not told us in your Fiat that it is the Church or Pope of Rome? Or will you deny that to be your intention? 2. What do you intend by resigning ourselves to humility and peace? Do you not aim at our quiet submission to the determinations of the Church or Pope in all matters of religion? Have you not declared yourself to this purpose in your Fiat? And I desire a little further to know of you, whether this be not that which formally constitutes a man a member of your Church, that he own the judicative power of the Pope or your Church in all matters of religion, and submit himself thereunto? If these things be so, as you cannot deny them, I hope I shall easily obtain your pardon, for affirming that you yourself believed the same to be the design of your book, which I and other men apprehended to be so; for here you directly avow it. If you complain any more about this matter, pray let it be in the words of him in the comedian, Egomet meo judicio miser quasi sorex hodie perii, this inconvenience you have brought upon your own self: neither can any man long avoid such misadventures, who designs to cloud his aims, which yet cannot take effect, if not in some measure understood. Naked truth managed in sincerity, whatever perplexities it may meet withal, will never leave his owners in the briars; whereas the serpentine turnings of error and falsehood to extricate themselves, do but the more entangle their promoters. I doubt not, but you hope well, that when all are become Papists again, that they shall live at peace, though your hope be very groundless as I have elsewhere demonstrated. You have at best but the shadow or shell of peace, and for the most part, not that neither. Yes, it may be easily showed, that the peace you boast of, is inconsistent with, and destructive of that peace, which is left by Christ to his Disciples.

But the way you propose to bring us to peace, is the embracement of Popery, which is that, that was fixed on by me, as the design of your book, which now acknowledging, you have disarmed yourself of that imaginary advantage, which you flourish withal, from a capital mistake, as you call it in me, in misapprehending your design. You were told before, that if by moderation and peace, you intended a mutual forbearance of one another, in our several persuasions, waiting patiently until God shall reveal to us the precise truth, in the things about which we differ, you shall have all the furtherance that I can contribute to you; but you have another aim, another work in hand, and will not allow that any peace is attainable among us, but by a resignation of all our apprehensions in matters of religion, to the guidance, determination, and decision of the Pope, or your Church, a way no where prescribed to us in holy Writ, nor in the councils of the Primitive Church, and besides against all reason, law, and equity, your Pope and Church in our contests being one party litigant; yet in this persuasion, you say, you should abide, were there no other persons in the world but yourself that did embrace it. And to let you see how unlikely that principle is to produce peace and agreement, among those multitudes that are at variance about these things, I can assure you, that if there were none left alive in the earth but you and I, we should not agree in this thing one jot better, than did Cain and Abel about the sacrifices; though I should desire you, that we might manage our differences with more moderation, than he did, who by virtue of his primogeniture, seemed to lay a special claim to the priesthood. And indeed for your part, if your present persuasion be, as you sometimes pretend it to be, that your Fiat Lux is not a persuasive to Popery, you have given a sufficient testimony, that you can be of an opinion, that no man else in the world is of, nor will be, do what you can. But the insufficiency of your principles and arguments, to accomplish your design, has been in part already evinced, and shall, God willing, in our progress, be further made manifest. This is the sum of what appears in the first part of your prefatory discourse, concerning my mistake of your design, which how little it has tended to your advantage, I hope you begin to understand.

Your next labor consists in a pacifick, charitable enquiry, after the author of the Animadversions, with an endeavour by I know not how many reasons, to confirm your surmize, that he is a person, that had an interest in the late troubles in the nation, or as you phrase it, was a part of that dismal tempest, which overbore all before it, not only church and state, but reason, right, honesty, all true religion, and even good nature too. See what despair of managing an undertaking which cannot well be deserted, will drive men to. Are you not sensible that you cry, — Vos ô mihi manes. Este boni, quoniam Superis aversa voluntas. Or like the Jews, who when they were convinced of their errors, and wickedness, by our Savior, began to call him Samaritan, and Devil, and to take up stones to cast at him: Or as Crescens the Cynic dealt with Justin Martyr, whom because he could not answer, after he had engaged in a dispute with him, he laboured to bring him into suspicion with the Emperor, and Senate of Rome, as a person dangerous to the Commonwealth: And so also the Arians dealt with Athanasius. It were easy to manifest, that the spring of all this discourse of yours, is smart, and not loyalty, and that it proceeds from a sense of your own disappointment, and not zeal for the welfare of others; but how little it is to your purpose, I shall show you anon, and could quickly render it as little to your advantage. For what if I should surmize, that you were one of the Friars, that stirred up the Irish to their rebellion, and unparalleled murders? Assure yourself, I can quickly give as many, and as probable reasons for my so doing, as you have given, or can give for your conjecture, about the author of the Animadversions, on your Fiat Lux. You little think how much it concerns him to look to himself, who undertakes to accuse another; and how easy it were to make you repent your accusation, as much as ever Crassus did his accusing of Carbo. But I was in good hope, you would have left such reflections, as are capable of so easy a retortion upon yourself, especially being irregular, and no way subservient to your design, and being warned beforehand so to do. Who could imagine, that a man of so much piety, and mortification, as in your Fiat you profess yourself to be, should have so little regard to common honesty, and civility, which are shrewdly entrenched upon by such uncharitable surmizes? I suppose you know that the Apostle reckons, [in non-Latin alphabet], whereof you have undertaken the management of one, among the things that are contrary to the doctrine, that is according to godliness; otherwise suspicion is in your own power; nor can any man hinder you from surmizing what you please. This he knew in Plautus, who cried, Ne admittam culpam ego meo sum promus pectori, Suspicio est in pectore alieno sita. Nam nunc ego te si surripuisse suspicer, Jovi coronam de capite è Capitolio, Quod in culmine astat summo, si non id feceris, Atque id tamen mihi lubeat suspicarier, Qui tu id prohibere me potes ne suspicer? And I know that concerning all your dispute and arguings in these pages, you may say what Lucian does about his true Story, [in non-Latin alphabet]. You write about the things, which have neither been seen, nor suffered, heard, nor much enquired after; such is the force of faction, and sweetness of revenge in carnal minds. To deliver you if it may be from the like miscarriages for the future, let me inform you, that the author of the Animadversions, is a person, who never had a hand in, nor gave consent to the raising of any war in these nations, nor to any political alteration in them, no nor to any one that was among us during our revolutions; but he acknowledges that he lived and acted under them, the things wherein he thought his duty consisted, and challenges all men to charge him with doing the least personal injury to any, professing himself ready to give satisfaction to any one, that can justly claim it. Therefore as to the public affairs in this nation, he is among them who bless God and the King for the Act of Oblivion, and that because he supposes, that all the inhabitants of the kingdom which lived in it, when his Majesty was driven out of it, have cause so to do, which some priests and friars have, and that in reference to such actings, as he would scorn for the saving of his life, to give the least countenance to, among whom it is not unlikely that you might be one, which yet he will not aver, nor give reasons to prove it, because he does not know it so to be. But you have sundry reasons to justify yourself in your charge, and they are as well worthy our consideration, as any thing else you have written in your Epistle, and shall therefore not be neglected. The first of them you thus express, pag. 12. You cannot abide to hear of moderation, it is with you most wicked, hypocritical, and devilish, especially as it comes from me; for this one thing Fiat Lux suffers more from you, than for all the contents of the book put together. My reason is your passion, my moderation inflames your wrath, and you are therefore stark wild, because I utter so much of sobriety. This is your first reason, which you have exactly squared to the old rule, Calumniare fortiter, aliquid adhaerebit: Calumny will leave a scar; would you were yourself only concerned in these things. But among the many woeful miscarriages, of men professing the religion of Jesus Christ, whereby the beauty and glory of it have been stained in the world, and itself in a great measure rendered ineffectual to its blessed ends, there is not any thing of more sad consideration, than the endeavours of men to promote and propagate the things, which they suppose belong to it, by ways and means directly contrary to, and destructive of its most known and fundamental principles. For when it is once observed and manifest, that the actings of men in the promotion of any religion, are forbidden and condemned in that religion which they seek to promote, what can rationally be concluded, but that they not only disbelieve themselves what they outwardly profess, but also esteem it a fit mask and cover to carry on other interests of their own, which they prefer before it? And what can more evidently tend to its disreputation and disadvantage, is not easy to conceive. Such is the course here fixed on by you: It is the religion of Christ you pretend to plead for, and to promote, but if there be a word true in it, the way you take for that end, namely by openly false accusations, is to be abhorred, which manifests what regard to it you inwardly cherish. And I wish this were only your personal miscarriage, that you were not encouraged to it, by the principles and example of your chiefest masters and leaders: The learned person who wrote the Letters, discovering the Mystery of Jesuitism, gives us just cause so to conceive; for he does not only prove, that the Jesuits have publicly maintained, that calumny is but a venial sin, no, none at all, if used against such as you call calumniators, though grounded on absolute falsities, but has also given us such pestilent instances of their practice, according to that principle, as Paganism was never acquainted withal, Lett. 15. In their steps you set out in this your first reason, wherein there is not one word of truth. I had formerly told you, that I did not think you could yourself believe some of the things that you affirmed, at which you take great offence; but I must now tell you, that if you proceed in venting such notorious untruths, as here you have heaped together, I shall greatly question whether seriously you believe, that Jesus Christ will one day judge the world in righteousness. For I do not think you can produce a pleadable dispensation, to say what you please, be it never so false, of a supposed heretic; for though it may be you will not keep faith with him, surely you ought to observe truth in speaking of him. You tell us in your Epistle to your Fiat, of your dark obscurity, wherein you die daily, but take heed, Sir, lest — Indulgentem tenebris imaeque recessis Sedis, in aspectos Caelo radiisque Penates Servantem, tamen assiduis circumvolet alis Saeva dies animi, scelerumque in pectore dirae.

Your next Reason is, Because he talks of Swords and Blood, Fire and Fagot, Guns and Duggers, which does more than show, that he has not let go those hot and furious imaginations. But of what sort, by whom used, to what end? Does he mention any of these, but such as your Church has made use of, for the destruction of Protestants? If you have not done so, why do you not disprove his Assertions? If you have, why have you practised that in the face of the Sun, which you cannot endure to be told of? Is it equal think you, that you should kill, burn, and destroy men, for the profession of their faith in Christ Jesus, and that it should not be lawful for others to say you do so? Did not your self make the calling over of these things necessary, by crying out against Protestants, for want of moderation? It is one of the privileges of the Pope, some say, to judge all men, and himself to be judged by none; but is it so also, that no man may say he has done, what all the world knows he has done, and which we have just cause to fear he would do again, had he power to his will? For my part I can assure you, so that you will cease from charging others, with that whose guilt lies heavier upon your selves, than on all the professors of Christianity in the world besides, and give any tolerable security against the like practices for the future, I shall be well content that all which is past, may be put by us poor worms into perpetual oblivion, though I know it will be called over another day. Until this be done, and you leave off to make your advantages of other mens miscarriages, pray arm your selves with patience, to hear sometimes a little of your own. [in non-Latin alphabet]. Said wise Homer of old; and another to the same purpose, He that speaks what he will, must hear what he would not. Is it actionable with you against a Protestant, that he will not take your whole Sword into his bowels, without complaining? Sr, the Author of the Animadversions does, and ever did abhorre Swords and Guns, and Crusadoes, in matters of Religion and Conscience, with all violence, that may tantamount to their usual effects: He ever thought it an uncouth sight, to see men marching with Crosses on their backs, to destroy Christians, as if they had the Alcoran in their hearts; and therefore desires your excuse, if he have reflected a little upon the miscarriages of your Church in that kind, especially being called thereunto by your present contrary pretences. Quis tulerit Graculos de seditione querentes? and Major tandem porcas insane minori. It were well if your ways did no more please you, in the previous prospect you take of them, than they seem to do in a subsequent reflection upon them: But this is the nature of evil, it never comes and goes with the same appearing countenance; not that it self changeth at any time, for that which is morally evil is always so, but mens apprehensions variously influenced by their affections, lusts, and interests, do frequently change and alter. Now what Conclusion can be made from the premises rightly stated, I leave to your own judgement, at your better leisure.

Thirdly, You add, Your prophetic assurance so often inculcated, that if you could but once come to whisper me in the ear, I would plainly acknowledge, either that I understand not my self what I say, or if I do, believe it not, gives a fair character of these fanatic times, wherein ignorance and hypocrisy prevailed over worth and truth, whereof if your self were any part, it is no wonder you should think, that I or any man else should either speak he knows not what, or believe not what himself speaks. That is, a man must needs be as bad as you can imagine him, if he have not such an high opinion of your ability and integrity, as to believe that you have written about nothing, but what you perfectly understand, nor assert anything in the pursuit of your design and interest, but what you really and in cold blood believe to be true. All men it seems that were no part of the former dismal tempest, have this opinion of you; Credat Apella: If it be so, I confess for my part, I have no relief against being concluded to be whatever you please; Sosia or not Sosia, the Law is in your own hands, and you may condemn all that adore you not into Fanaticism at your pleasure; but as he said, Obsecro per pacem liceat te alloqui, ut ne vapulem; if you will but grant a little truce from this severity, I doubt not but in a short time to take off from your keenness, in the management of this Charge: For I hope you will allow that a man may speak the truth, without being a Fanatic. Truth may get hatred, I see it has done so, but it will make no man hateful. Without looking back then to your Fiat Lux, I shall out of this very Epistle, give you to see, that you have certainly failed on the one hand, in writing about things which you do not at all understand, and therefore discourse concerning them, like a blind man about colours; and as I fear greatly also on the other; for I cannot suppose you so ignorant, as not to know that some things in your discourse, are otherwise than by you represented: Nay and we shall find you at express contradictions, which pretend what you please, I know you cannot at the same time believe. Instances of these things you will be minded of in our progress: Now I must needs be very unhappy in discoursing of them, if this be Logic and Law, that for so doing, I must be concluded a Fanatic.

Fourthly, You adde, Your pert Assertion so oft occurring in your Book, that there is neither reason, truth, nor honesty in my words, is but the overflowings of that former intemperate zeal; whereunto may be added, what in the last place you insist on to the same purpose, namely, that I charge you with fraud, ignorance, and wickedness, when in my own heart I find you most clear from any such blemish. I do not remember where any of those expressions are used by me; that they are no where used thus altogether, I know well enough, neither shall I make any enquiry after them. I shall therefore desire you only to produce the instances, whereunto any of the censures intimated are annexed, and if I do not prove evidently and plainly, that to be wanting in your discourse, which is charged so to be, I will make you a public acknowledgement of the wrong I have done you. But if no more was by me expressed, than your words as used to your purpose did justly deserve, pray be pleased to take notice that it is lawfull for any man to speak the truth: And for my part, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], as he said in Lucian, I live in the Countrey, where they call a Spade a Spade. And if you can give any one instance, where I have charged you with any failure, where there is the least probability that I had in my heart other thoughts, concerning what you said, I will give up my whole interest in this cause to you; Mala mens, malus animus. You have manifested your conscience to be no just measure of other mens, who reckon upon their giving an account of what they do or say: So that you have but little advanced your Charge, by these undue insinuations.

Neither have you any better success, in that which in the next place you insist upon, which yet were it not like the most of the rest, destitute of truth, would give more countenance to your reflection, than them all. It is, that I give you sharp and frequent menaces, that if you write or speak again, you shall hear more, find more, feel more, more to your smart, more than you imagine, more than you would, which relish much of that insulting humor which the Land groaned under. I suppose no man reads this representation of my words, with the addition of your own, which makes up the greatest part of them, but must needs thinks, that you have been sorely threatned with some personall inconveniencies, which I would cause to befall you, did you not surcease from writing; or that I would obtain some course to be taken with you to your prejudice. Now this must needs savour of the spirit of our late dayes of trouble and mischief, or at least of the former dayes of the prevalency of Popery among us, when men were not wont in such cases, to take up at bare threats and menaces. If this be so, all men that know the Author of the Animadversions, and his condition, must needs conclude him to be very foolish and wicked; foolish, for threatning any with that, which is as far from his power to execute, as the person threatned can possibly desire it to be; wicked, for designing that evil to any individuall person, which he abhorres in hypothesi to be inflicted on any upon the like account. But what if there be nothing of all this in the pretended menaces? What if the worst that is in them, be only part of a desire, that you would abstain from insisting on the personall miscarriages, of some that profess the Protestant Religion, lest he should be necessitated to make a diversion of your Charge, or to shew the insufficiency of it to your purpose, by recounting the more notorious failings of the Guides, Heads, and Leaders of your Church? If this be so, as it is in truth the whole intendment of any of those expressions that are used by me, (for the most part of them are your own figments) whereever they occurre, what Conclusion can any rationall man make from them? Do they not rather intimate a desire of the use of moderation in these our contests, and an abstinence from things personall, (for which cause also (fruitlesly as I now perceive, by this your new kind of ingenuity and moderation) I prefixed not my Name to the Animadversions, which you also take notice of) than any evil intention or design. This was my threatning you; to which now I shall adde, that though I may not say of these Papers, what Catullus did of his Verses on Rufus, Verum id non impunè feceres, nam te omnia secla Noscent, & qui sis fama loquitur anus. Yet I shall say, that as many as take notice of this discourse, will do no less of your disingenuity and manifold falshood, in your vain attempt to relieve your dying Cause, by casting odium upon him with whom you have to do; like the Bonassus that Aristotle informs us of Hist. Animal lib. 9. cap. 24. which being as big as a Bull, but having horns turned inward and unusefull for fight, when he is persued, casts out his excrements to defile his persuers, and to stay them in their passage.

But what now is the end in all this heap of things which you would have mistaken for reasons, that you aim at? It is all to show how unfit I am to defend the Protestant religion, and that I am not such a Protestant as I would be thought to be. But why so? I embrace the doctrine of the Church of England, as declared in the 29 Articles, and other approved public writings, of the most famous bishops and other divines thereof. I avow her rejection of the pretended authority, and real errors of the Church, to be her duty and justifiable. The same is my judgment in reference to all other Protestant churches in the world, in all things wherein they agree among themselves, which is in all things necessary that God may be acceptably worshipped, and themselves saved. And why may I not plead the cause of Protestancy, against that imputation of demerit which you heap upon it? Neither would I be thought to be any thing in religion but what I am: neither have I any sentiments therein, but what I profess. But it may be you will say in some things I differ from other Protestants: wisely observed; and if from there you can conclude a man unqualified for the defence of Protestancy, you have secured your self from opposition; seeing every Protestant does so, and must do so while there are differences among Protestants: but they are in things wherein their Protestancy is not concerned. And may I be so bold as to ask you, how the case in this instance stands with your self, who certainly would have your competency for the defence of your Church unquestionable? Differences there are among you; and that as in and about other things, so also about the Pope himself, the head and spring of the religion you profess. Some of you maintain his personal infallibility, and that not only in matters of faith, but in matters of fact also. Others disclaim the former as highly erroneous, and the latter as grossly blasphemous. Pray what is your judgment in this matter, for I suppose you are not of both these opinions at once, and I am sure they are irreconcilable. Some of you mount his supremacy above a general council, some would bring him into a coordination with it, and some subject him to it; though he has almost carried the cause, by having store of bishoprics to bestow, whereas a council has none, which was the reason given of old for his prevalency in this contest. May we know what you think in this case? Some of you assert him to be de jure lord of the whole world in spirituals and temporals absolutely; some in spirituals directly, and in temporals only in ordine ad Spiritualia, an abyss from where you may draw out what you please, and some of you in temporals not at all; and you have not as yet given us your thoughts as to this difference among you? Some of you assert in him a power of deposing kings, disposing of kingdoms, transferring titles to dominion and rule, for and upon such miscarriages as he shall judge to contain disobedience to the See Apostolic. Others love not to talk at this haughty rate, neither do I know what is your judgment in this matter. This, as I said before, I am sure of: you cannot be of all these various contradictory judgments at once. Not to trouble you with instances that might be multiplied of the like differences among you; if notwithstanding your adherence to one part of the contradiction in them, you judge your self a competent advocate for your Church in general, and do busily employ your self to win over proselytes to her communion, have the patience to think, that one who in some few things differs from some other Protestants, is not wholly incapacitated thereby, to repel an unjust charge against Protestancy in general.

I have done with the two general heads of your prefatory discourse, and shall now only mark one or two incident particulars, that belong not to them, and then proceed to see if we can meet with any thing of more importance, than what you have been pleased as yet to communicate to us.

Pag. 5. Upon occasion of a passage in my discourse, wherein upon misinformation, I expressed some trouble, that any young men should be entangled with the rhetoric and sophistry of your Fiat Lux, you fall into a harangue, not inferior to some others in your Epistle, for that candor and ingenuity you give your self to.

First, You make a plea for Gentlemen, (not once named in my Discourse) that they must be allowed a sense of Religion, as well as Ministers; that they have the body, though not the cloak of Religion, and are masters of your own reason. But do you consider with your self, who it is that speaks these words, and to whom you speak them. Do you indeed desire that Gentlemen should have such a sense of Religion, and make use of their reason in the choice of that, which therein they adhere to, as you pretend? Is this pretence consistent with your plea in your Fiat Lux, wherein you labor to reduce them to a naked fanatical Credo? Or is it your interest to court them with fine words, though your intention be far otherwise? But we in England like not such proceedings. [illegible], [illegible]. Nothing dislikes us more than dissimulation. And to whom do you speak? Did I, does any Protestant deny, that Gentlemen may have? Do we not say, they ought to have their sense in Religion, and their senses exercised therein? Do we deny they ought to improve their reason, in being conversant about it? Are these the Principles of the Church of Rome, or of that of England? Do we not press them to these things, as their principal duty in this world? Do we disallow or forbid them any means, that may tend to their furtherance in the knowledge and profession of Religion? Where is it, that if they do but look upon a Bible, — Furiarum maxima juxta Accubat, & manibus prohibet contingere mentes. The Inquisitor lays hold upon them, and bids them be contented with a Rosary, or our Ladies Psalter? Do we hinder or dissuade them from any studies, or the use of books, that may increase their knowledge, and improve their reason? And has not the Papacy felt the fruits and effects of these Principles, in the writings of Kings, Princes, Noblemen, and Gentlemen, of all sorts? And do not you your self know all this to be true? And is it ingenuous to insist on contrary insinuations? Or do you think that truly generous spirits will stoop to so poor a lure? But you proceed: This is one difference between Catholic countries and ours, that there the clergyman is only regarded for his virtue, and the power he has received, or is at least believed to have received from God, in the great ministry of our Reconciliation; and if he have any addition of learning besides, it is looked upon as a good accidental ornament, but not as any essential complement of his profession; so that it often happens without any wonderment at all, that the Gentleman-Patron is the learned man, and the Priest his Chaplain, of little or no science in comparison. But here in England our Gentlemen are disparaged by their own black Coats, and not suffered to use their judgement in any kind of learning, without a gibe from them. The Gentleman is reasonless, and the scribbling Cassock is the only Scholar; he alone must speak all, know all, and only understand. Sir, if your Clergy were respected only for their virtue, they would not be over burdened with their honor, unless they have much mended their manners, since all the world publicly complained of their lewdness, and which in many places the most would do so still, did they not judge the evil remediless. And if the state of things be in your Catholic countries, between the Gentry and Clergy, as you inform us, I fear it is not from the learning of the one, but the ignorance of the other. And this you seem to intimate, by rejecting learning from being any essential complement of their profession, wherein you do wisely, and what you are necessitated to do; for those who are acquainted with them, tell us, that if it were, you would have a very thin Clergy left you, very many of them not understanding the very Mass Book, which they daily chaunt, and therefore almost every word in your Missale Romanum is accented, that they may know how aright to pronounce them, which yet will not deliver them from that mistake of him, who instead of Introibo ad altare Dei, read constantly, Introibo ad tartara Dei. Herein we envy not the condition of your Catholic countries; and though we desire our Gentry were more learned than they are, yet neither we, nor they, could be contented to have our Ministers ignorant, so that they might be in veneration for that office sake, which they are no way able to discharge. As to what you affirm concerning England, and our usage here, in the close of your Discourse, it is so utterly devoid of truth and honesty, that I cannot but wonder at your open regardlessness of them. Should you have written these things in Spain or Italy, where you have made pictures of Catholics put in bears skins, and torn with dogs in England (Eccles. Ang. Troph.) concerning England, and the manners of the Inhabitants thereof, you might have hoped to have met with some, so partially addicted to your faction and interest, as to suppose there were some color of truth in what you aver. But to write these things here among us, in the face of the Sun, where every one that casts an eye upon them, will detest your confidence, and laugh at your folly, is a course of proceeding not easy to be paralleled.

I shall not insist on the particulars, there being not one word of truth in the whole, but leave you to the discipline of your own thoughts, Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum. And so I have done with your Prefatory Discourse, wherein you have made it appear, with what reverence of God, and love to the Truth, you are conversant in the great concernments of the souls of men. What in particular you except against in the Animadversions, I shall now proceed to the consideration of.