Neither haye 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 unto your re- flection 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 yoiu' smart, more than you imagine, more than you would ; which relisli much of that insulting humour which
PEEFACE TO THE REPLY CONSIDERED. 105
the laud groaned under." I suppose no mau reads this representa- tion of my words, with the addition of your own, which makes up the greatest part of them, but nmst needs think that you have been sorely threatened witli some personal inconveniences 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 days of trouble and mischief or at least of the former days of the prevalency of Popery amongst us, wdien 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 con- clude him to be very foolish and wicked: foolish, for threatening any with that which is as far fi^om his power to execute as the person threatened can possibly desire it to be ; — wicked, for designing that evil unto any individual person which he abhors " 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 personal miscarriages of some that profess the Protestant reli- gion, lest he should be necessitated to make a diversion of your charge, or to show the insufiiciency 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 vv^hole intendment of any of those expressions that are used by me (for the most part of them are your own figments), wherever they occur, — what conclusion can any ra- tional mau make from them? Do they not rather intimate a desire of the use of moderation in these our contests, and an abstinence from things personal (for which cause also, fruitlessly, 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 threatening you; to which now I shall add, that though I may not say of these papers what Catullus did of his verses on Rufus, —
" Verum id non irapune feres : nam te omnia secla Noscent. et, qui sis, fama loquetur anus;" Cat. Ixxviii. 9.
yet I shall say, that as many as take notice of this discourse will do no less of your disingenuity and manifold falsehood, in your vain attempt to reheve your dying cause, by casting odium upon him with Avhom you have to do ; like the bona,ssus that Aristotle informs us of Hist. Animal, lib. ix. cap, 24; which, being as big as a bull, but having horns turned inward and unuseful for fight, when he is pur- sued, casts out his excrements to defile his pursuers, and to stay them in their passage.
But what now is the end in all this heap of things, Avhich you would
196 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
have mistaken for reasons, that you aim at? It is all to show how unfit I am to defend the i:>rotestant 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 Thirty-nine Articles, and other approved pubUc writings of the most famous bishops and other divines thereof. I avow her rejection of the pretended authority and real errors of your church to be her duty, and justifiable. The same is my judgment in reference unto 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 ui)on 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 thence you can conclude a man unquahfied for the defence of Pro- testancy, you have secured yourself from opposition, seeing every Protestant doth so, and must do so whilst there are differences amongst 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 yourself, who certainly would have your com- petency for the defence of your church unquestionable? Differences there are amongst you ; and that, as in and about other things, so also about the po]3e himself, the head and spring of the religion you pro- fess. 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 irrecon- cilable. Some of you mount his supremacy above a general council, some would bring him into a co-ordination with it, and some subject him unto it; though he hath 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 abso- lutely ; some in spirituals directly, and in temporals only " in ordine ad spiritualia," — an abyss from whence 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 amongst you. Some of you assert in him a power of deposing kings, disposing of kingdoms, transferring titles unto dominion and rule, for and upon such miscaiTiages as he shall judge to contain disobedience unto the