SOME CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT UNION AMONG PROTESTANTS.
Prefatory Note by the Editor. ....... 518
Some Considerations, etc. ........ 519
A BRIEF AND IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE NATURE OF THE PROTESTANT RELIGION.
Prefatory Note by the Editor ....... 630
The State and Fate of the Protestant Religion . , . . . 53 1
ANIMADYERSIONS
A TREATISE ENTITLED "FIAT LUX;"
'A GUIDE IN DIFFERENCES OF RELIGION BETWEEN PAPIST AND PROTESTAIST, PRESBYTERIAN AND 1NDEPENDE^'T."
VOL, XIV.
PEEFATORY NOTE.
The Eestoration revived the hopes of the Eoman Catholics that their Church would ere long recover its ancient influence in Britain. The re-action by which the dynasty of the Stuarts recovered possession of the British crown extended in some measure to the doctrines held by the great body of Protestant Nonconformists, who had raised Cromwell to the Protectorate. The jnembers of the English Church, who were really attached to Protestantism, and at the same time zealous for the Eestoration, were too apt, under the bias of their political views, to regard Nonconformity as synonymous with rebellion. It was but a step farther to insinuate that Nonconformity was only Protestantism under another name and with slight modifications ; that Protestantism was really the fountain of bitterness which had recently overflowed in rebellion and anai'chy ; and that unless the doctrines of the Church of Eome were embraced and generally dif- fused throughout the nation, the ark of the State would never alight on any Ararat of settled peace and permanent safety.
The Church of Eome has always emissaries at command to seize such an opening as now presented itself. It is certainly remarkable, however, that it produced at this time, and down to the Eevolution, no British controversialist, in whom the Barrows and Owens of the Protestant cause could recognise " a foeman worthy of their steel." The Jesuits were busy in their own style of secret and successful intrigue, but on the Popish side of the controversy no work appeared exceeding in importance and plausi- bility the "Fiat Lux" of John Vincent Cane. It was published in 1601, and a good conception of its leading design may be gathered from its title if given at length ; " Fiat Lux ; or, a general conduct to a right understanding in the great combustions and broils about religion here in England, betwixt Papist and Protestant, Presby- terian and Independent, to the end that moderation and quietness may at length happily ensue after so various tumults in the kingdom. By Mr J. V. C, a friend to men of all religions, 1601." Cane was a Franciscan friar, and had previously been the author of a woi-k entitled " The Eeclaimed Papist." When he was eighteen years of age, he had gone to the University of Cambridge, and, having studied there for two years, left it for London, whence he entei'ed for some time on a course of foreign travel. He pro- fesses to have become attached to the Eomish Church from the solemnity of its ritual abroad, though he admits hereditary prepossessions in its favour, as his grandfather was a Papist, and had been " so far impeached about the rising of the Earls in the north, that he lost estate and life." "Fiat Lux" consists of five cliapters, in which, under a sub- division of thirty-one "paragraphs," it is shown, — 1. That there is no occasion for fiery zeal about religion ; 2. That all things are so obscure that no man should presume to guide his neighbour in matters of religion ; 3. That no religion is superior to Popery; 4. That the Eoman religion is truly innocent and unblamable, — quite as much so as other religions opjDOsed to it are to one another ; and lastly, foUow " moral topics for charity and peace."
The character of the times gave importance to such a publication. Though not remarkable either for learning or argument, it is crafty and plausible, contains some dexterous hits at the differences among Protestants, and, when the weak points of Eo- manism are to be covered, is written with a misty vagueness, in which sentimentalism is made to do the work of logic. It assumes as its text a passage in a speech by the Lord Chancellor, which seems to have brought it speedily into notice with the higher circles of society. Before Owen had finished his " Animadversions " in reply to it, it was in a second edition. It is believed that Clarendon, the Lord Chancellor, is " the person of honour," who, according to Asty, sent the work to Owen, requesting him to prepare an answer to it.
Our author had the book in his possession for "a few days only." The "Animad- versions," published in 1GG2, were the result of the attention he bestowed on it. He answers Cane most successfully. The readers of Owen will not much wonder that the Franciscan should be quite overwhelmed by the superior learning of the Puiitan, but they will hardly be prepared for the resources of wit, hvuuour, and irony, by which these " Animadversions" retain all tlieir freshness and pungency to the present day, and Cane found his own favourite weapons of ridicule and sarcasm tm-ned upon himself with irresistible efl'ect. Cane, it may be added, found another antagonist in ]Mr Samuel Mather, who wrote, in reply to " Fiat Lux," " A Defence of the Protestant Eeligion." It was published in Dublin, 1671, 4to. — Ed.