THough the Preaching of the Word of God, the Administration of the Holy Sacraments, and whatsoever else properly belongeth to the Pasto­ral Office, be claimed by, and ought to be Ac­knowledged to stand vested in, and to be confined, and circumscrib'd unto those of the Ecclesiastical Order; unless in some cases of Absolute and Indispensable necessity; yet the Care and Defence both of the Credenda and Agenda of our Religion, being made, and constituted the Peculiar of no one Rank of Men, to the Exclusion of the rest, it would therefore be no Invasion upon the Province of such as are Stiled Divines, should one, who (besides his being a Chri­stian) pretendeth to no Title or Character save that of a Gentleman, assume the Liberty of Engaging in your Theolo­gical Disputes. And seeing those of the Laity so called, are sup­posed to be less Addicted to Parties, and Factions, and more [Page 2] fortifyed against Impressions from secular and worldly In­terests, than some of the Clergy are Apprehended, or found to be; they may thereupon be thought Qualified to think with more calmness, to write with greater Temperance, and to Determine with less Partiality, than we sometimes see practised in the Polemicks of the latter. Yea, considering with what Undecency, Rudeness and Scurrility, Contro­versies about the Doctrinals of our Faith, have been lately managed by a certain Presbyterian Thologue, it is become not only pardonable and lawful, but in a manner necessary, to have them undertaken by Persons of another Tribe; whose Civil Breeding and Social Vertues, will guide them to Discourse and Write with Modesty and Good manners, tho they may not do it with that Sophistry, and in those Terms of Scholastick Squabble, which are Affected by such, who set up for, and do value themselves upon the Leger­demain Knacks and Tricks of killing their Adversaries, and triumphing over their Reputation, when they have neither wounded nor touched them. Nor can any thing be more desireable, or worthy of Greater Commendation, than to have Differences, whether greater, or Lesser about Reli­gious matters, contrasted, and transacted with such a spirit of meekness and humility, and in that Innocent, Tem­perate and cleanly stile, as may not only Proclaim an In­genuous Education, but be Ornamental to the Gospel; and not with a virulence, clounishness and ribaldry, savouring of a Bear-Garden, and which would be both Detested and thought Punishable in Carmen, Porters, and in those at Billingsgate, who are Proverbial for all that is unmannerly and Brutal. For to whatsoever degrees of Laziness, or varieties of hurtful as well as Impertinent Diversions, too many of our Gentry have Resign'd and Abandoned them­selves, and notwithstanding that contempt and Burlesquing of Reveal'd Religion, which some of them through a Depra­vedness [Page 3] in their morals have ventered upon in hope thereby to excuse and justify their Practical Conduct; yet there are diverse both among the Grand and the Petite Nobles▪ who with respect to their Natural Parts, their Instruction in the Belles Lettres, acquaintance with all the kinds of good Literature, and their penetration into the Controversies of Religion, so far as the knowledge of them is Useful and subservient to Faith, and Holiness, do equal and exceed very many of our Theologues. Of which number, tho I Could mention several, whose late writings against Atheism, Deism, Popery, Socinianism, and all kinds of Irreligion, and Licen­tiousness, have obtain'd them an Honourable and Just esteem among such as are either good Scholars, or serious Christi­ans; yet I shall at this time put Mr. W. and Mr. A. only in remembrance of one, namely of Edward Polhill, Esq That was a Lawyer and a Justice of the Peace, who in a Discourse Published Anno 1673. concerning the Points now under Debate (and which was then Recommended to the world by the Prefatory Epistles of Dr. Owen, and Dr. Seaman, that had the most uncontroverted Character of all those of their respective Persuasions, for Literature and Piety) hath be­sides his handling of the most Important Doctrines of Re­velation, with wonderful modesty and with Singular strength of Argument from Scripture and Reason, given us likewise, by the Terms, in which he Expressed his senti­ments about them, a President, that may Authorize and Justify Mr. Lobb in the Use of that Phrase, for which those two, whom you call your Brethren, have thought fit to make it both the Design of their Books, and the subject matter of their Conversation with Women, as well as with Men, to Expose, and Lampoon him. The Passage which I do Intend and Referr unto is in the forementioned Authors Book of the Divine Will, considered in it's Eternal Degrees, and Holy Execution of them, pag. 226. [Page 4] Christ (says he) in his first coming sustained two Distinct Persons, his own, and ours: as he was in his own Person, he was without Sin; but as he was our Surety, and sustained our Persons, so our Sins were Imputed to him, and Imputed to him according to Truth, because he was such, i. e. that upon his being Sponsor for us, he became substitutively Guilty, tho he continued always Personally Innocent.

Nor could a Gentleman's interposing in those Controver­sies, be construed for an Intended Reflection on Mr. Lobbs Performances: seeing all who are not more the Partizans of a Faction, than Advocates for Truth, will upon a peru­sal of what he hath written, find themselves obliged to Confess, that he hath not only handled those matters which have been under debate, with Laudable strength and Re­markable sincerity, in Opposition to the most shameful Triflings, and the Grossest subterfuges, that ever men, pre­tending to the Lowest measure of Intellectuals and Morals, without Renouncing the Latter, and forfeiting the former, could Prostitute themselves unto; but that he hath also under the highest Provocations, which Insolent, Slanderous, Smutty, and barbarous Treatment could excite and give motives unto, behaved himself with that Temperance, Candor and Brotherly Respect, that his Place and Cha­racter, as a Minister of the Gospel, Required of him, and as became the Degree of a Gentleman, and the Education of a Scholar. So that for me, or for any other that is not both better Adapted and more Invited unto it than I am, to offer to come into his Assistance, with those poor Re­cruits of Rational, or Theological Learning, which I have been with some Industry Labouring to Attain, were both to Rob him of the thanks that are due unto him for having Vindicated and secured those Truths, which his Antagonists have contriv'd to Undermine and supplant, and to become Guilty of the Little and mean Vanity of [Page 5] Attacking a yielding as well as a Routed Eenemy. For all the victory he contended for, is no more, than that when our open, and Avowed Adversaries the Socinians and Ar­minians, cannot by force and dint of Arguments beat us off the Doctrinals of our Faith; they may neither be Filched and Trapan'd from us, by the Clandestine Arts, nor clan­cularly surrendred, if not shamefully Betrayed, thro either the Ignorance or the Conspiracy of those, who Pitch their Tents in our own Camps, March with us under the same Colours, and who by wearing the Livery of Orthodox Di­vines, exact and Receive Sallaries, and Pay, as Guardians of the Reformed Belief, against both the Remonstrants, and those of the Cracovian Creed. And so if there be not an Un­presidented Measure of Dissimulation, and foolery in the last Replies both of Mr. A. and Mr. W. he hath either gained, and Proselyted them unto, or wrested; and Extorted from them, all that is material in what he hath been Pleading for; namely, that our Lord Jesus Christ upon his under­taking to be a Mediator between God and us, came under the Sanction of the Law, which we had violated▪ and there­upon had the Guilt of our Sins Legally transferred upon, and Judicially Imputed to him, so as to be the meritorious Cause of his sufferings, which he thro undergoing in our room, and stead, did thereby Expiate them and make At­tonement for us.

And as to those Terms and Phrases, about which they Continue to squabble, with an Impertinence▪ Insincerity, and chicane, that would be Reproachfull in the Mercenary Scriblers of Baldwin's and Snowdens weekly Mercuries; they have hitherto been able to Assign no Reason, why he should be Ashamed of, and depart from them. Seeing that as with­out a strange Frontlesness, they can neither deny their ha­ving been Used by the most eminent Theological Writers, [Page 6] that ever Asserted, and vindicated the Doctrine of Christ's satisfaction, from and against the Sophisms, Obloquies, Derisions and Blasphemies of the Socinians; nor pretended Ignorance of, or dare to Contradict the meaning, and sense which hath been Affixed unto them, by those that best understood those controversies, and have managed them with the most success, against the Common Enemies of the Principal Fundamentals of our Christian Faith, without being in the Least suspected of verging to Antinemianism; so they cannot without a measure of Assurance, whereof no modest Person would be fond, and without the becoming Lyable to the Charge of Apparent Defamation, pretend that he hath otherwise Used and Applyed them, than in and according to the stated and setled signification, and Import that they were Designed unto, towards the secu­ring and being a Fence about, as well as for the Conveying these Truths with the greater Perspicuity to the minds of Believers, in which they have had their Place given and Assigned them, in order to the application of them. And tho I will neither Censure, nor Condemn any Persons as Hetro­dox, for Declining to express their Sentiments in the Forms, Modes, and Schemes of Speech, that are most Legitimated, and made Current by Vulgar Use, when I find them to be at an Agreement with the rest of the Reformed Divines in and about Doctrinal Articles; And will only blame them for their Affected and Phantastick squeamishness, or Ap­prehend some weak place to be about them, and that their uppermost Rooms are not over-well furnished; yet when I find such a Byass and Turn given to the Principles of our Belief, and such a Gloss, meaning and Paraphrase put upon them, as will both Expose them to the Attacques, and sur­render them to be Triumph'd over by those that Ridicule as well as Deny them; namely, That our Sins were only an Occasion of the Sufferings of Christ, and not properly the meri­torious [Page 7] Cause of them; and that his sufferings were not truly, only, but Analogically Penal. As that Great and Learned Man Mr. Baxter, (whose Memory, notwithstanding his Mistakes in diverse very substantiall Doctrines of Faith, will be always Precious, and held in honourable Remembrance,) disavow­edly, and with an Openess natural to him, doth Express him­self. And as to those Notions as well as Phraseologies, and Modes of Speech, Mr. Williams, for the Defence and Vindica­tion of whom, Mr. Alsop hath appeared with so much Dog­maticall Pride in himself, and Insolent Rudeness towards others, hath (to suggest no more, nor no worse at present) been heretofore found warping; I do say, that in this Case, it is so far from being a Practice Injurious unto, and a ma­ligning Jealousie of those, that do thus Express themselves, to demand and exact of them an Adhesion to the Terms and Words, which in Conformity to the greatest Authors, that ever enter'd the Lists against either Socinus, Cr [...]llius and their Disciples, or Episcopius, and Curcellaeus, &c. or Mr▪ Lobb Used, Insisted upon, and Pleaded for; that to supercede, and Dispense with it, would argue a strange supineness in referrence unto, and a Criminall Indifference for the most momentous Truths of the Gospel. And the rather, because all that have in any Age of the Church de­parted from, and risen up in Opposition to the Fundamen­tals of the Christian Belief, have at first Commenced their Quarrels against them, on Pretensions of meerly scrupling, at certain Words and Phrases, which were not [...], or Literally, and Syllabically Canonical. And if it would not be Judg'd the going beyond what falls within the Sphere of a Laick, I would presume to remind these two late Clerical Writers, that the Terms and Expressions, which have been Introduced and Adapted both into the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, and into the Canons of the first General Councils, for the covering, Guarding and Protect­ing [Page 8] the Christian Faith, against Arians, Nestorians, Euty­chians, &c▪ were antecedently thought upon and used by private and Individual Authors, and borrowed and trans­planted from thence into the Symbols and Decrees of the Universal Church. Which may serve both to Detect and Answer the often Repeated, and vain Boastings of Mr. A. whereby he seeks to Skreen himself, viz. That the Terms Mr. Lobb hath been Contending for, are not hitherto al­lowed a Room in the Confessions of Faith of the Reformed Churches. Whereunto I will here only add, that there is the Equivalent and Equipollent of them in all those Confes­sions, and that as the having Recourse to some peculiar Words and Phrases, may in Controversal Discourses, where Doctrines are Scholastically managed, be necessary, as well as usefull, towards the Explanation and Defence of Confes­sional Articles, which would not have been so well adap­ted to the Understanding of all Believers in the Compendious Draught and Summary Declaration of them, which Confes­sions are chiefly calculated for, and designed to give. So I dare knowingly, and therefore with Confidence affirm, that there is nothing which he hath said in this matter, that Looks with that severity upon his Antagonists, and against which their unmannerly, and rancorous, but weak Reflections are so directly level'd, as what hath been written by Grotius, Hoornbeck, Cloppenburg, Voetius, Rivet, Es­senius, and many others, to whom they are not to be thought comparable either in Theologick Learning in gene­ral; or for particular Accomplishments and skill to conflict with the Socinians and Arminians. And as it is both a Com­mendation, and a Glory to have Learn'd of, and to follow and Imitate those great, and Excellent men; so it can be no Disgrace to bear a share in the Contumelies, Aspresions, and Contempt, which are thrown upon them by these Pert, and snarling Scriblers, rather than Accurate Disputants.

[Page 9] But upon observing to whom Mr. Lobb hath Addressed his former Book, in the Nature, and way of an Appeal, and the choice he hath made of a Person, worthy of the high­est Veneration for Extensiveness of Literature, Solidity of Judgment, Justness of Thought, Clearness and Purity of Stile, and for an unbyss'd and sincere Regard to Truth, as well as for an Exact Acquaintance with, and a thorough Penetration into these Controversies; and that he hath Referred unto him, all that is, and hath been under De­bate between him and his Adversaries, it would proclaim a Haughtiness in me parallel to what anon I am to ac­cuse others guilty of, should I offer farther to interpose in any of the material Parts of these Controversies, where­of the Determination seems to be undertaken by, as well as it is expected from him. Nor can, or will Mr. L. be blamed, for the having Elected him Arbiter between them, in relation to their contested and disputed Questi­ons, by any, of what Persuasion soever, either here or elsewhere, to whom his Character is known, as it is to all the Learned and Ingenuous of the present Age, with, and among whom the Dignity whereunto he is Advan­ced, and which he bears in the Church, is accounted be­low his Merit. And the Esteem they have for his En­dowments, as a Gentleman, a Scholar, and a Prelate, makes them to judge and reckon, that no Station, or Ti­tle is, or can be Proportionable to his worth, save the Highest and most Elevated, that is communicable in these Kingdoms to those of the Sacred Order. And the Speci­men he hath already given of his great Judgment, wonderful Moderation, and exact Impartiality, in a Letter to Mr. Wil­liams (which he hath Published) about a Commutation of Per­sons between the Lord Jesus Christ, and those for whom he Intentionally Dyed, to purchase both-Forgiveness [Page 10] and Eternal Life; may at once both inlighten, and assure Mr. Lobb, That the Cause for which he hath been contending, will not suffer Prejudice in his hands; Seeing in the room of Discharging and Disclaiming the Phrase, not to say, of Lampooning, and Ridiculing it, which Mr▪ A. hath Attempted and Endeavoured to do, with an Air of Pride and Prophaness, which must necessarily flow from an Ignorant, if not a Depraved Mind, the Bishop hath Judiciously Assigned, and Established the Import of it, without verging in the least to Antinomianism, on the one hand, or gratifying the So­cinians on the other. And though he both Renounceth, and overthroweth the Sense, to which it hath been Ignorantly and Corruptly Perverted by Dr. Crisp, and those who have either unthinkingly, or Heterodoxly Imbibed his Notions, and showeth with what Repugnancy to Common Sense, Inconsi­stency to Revelation, Prejudice to Practical Godliness, and Danger to the Souls of Men, they have affixed that wild mea­ning unto it, yet it is with the Gravity, Modesty, and De­cency, which becomes his own Character, and are by Sober People expected in all Discourses upon Theological Subjects; and not with that Raillery, and Buffounry, which Mr. Alsop treats of it, even at the very time, and in the very Book, when, and wherein he is forced to acknowledge, That it is both capable of a very good Sense, and hath been frequently used by such as are deservedly esteemed the most Learned, and Orthodox Divines. For not being contented to have represented it as a Phrase, that in all respects carries a mutual and reciprocal Sence; and that if Grammar may have leave to Judge, must sound so to English Ears, let them be of what Bore they will; he endeavoureth to Burlesque, and render it Ri­diculous, by Unseemly and Foolish Comparisons, of a Com­mutation of Prisoners between France and England, the exchan­ging of Black-acre by A, for White-acre from B; and of Malt by C, for Hops from D. Vindic. of the Faithful Rebuke, p. [Page 11] 55, 56. which, to put the mildest Construction upon, that the words, which I have cited, can possibly bear, is to be Pedantick, and Drollish, on a Serious Subject, and to make Sport and Mirth for the Profane, with what the Wisest, and Best think is their Duty to believe. Nor is there any Truth whatsoever, either in Natural, or Revealed Religion, so sa­cred, which they, who will allow themselves the like Licen­tiousness that Mr. Alsop assumeth, may not Prostitute and Ex­pose, by Copying after this Original. For admitting, that they against whom he writes, were not only Indiscreet and Unwary in the expressing of their Sentiments, but even Er­roneous, in some of their Opinions; yet they ought to be calmly argued with, and not huffingly Buffoon'd: and their Understandings should be address'd, by strong Reasons cloa­thed in Temperance and Genteel Language, and not their Resentments and Passions provok'd by unmannerly Allusi­ous, and by nauseous offensive Jests. And certainly they are less Criminal before God, who when they Err, do it with Modesty, and Humility, and a Teachableness that will ad­mit their being rectify'd; than they, who when they plead for Truth, do it with Haughtiness and Scurrility; seeing the first is only a Mistake of the Vnderstanding, to which both the Wisest, and Best, are incident; whereas the Latter is a palpable Faeult of the Will, and has its Source in the Worst, and most Immoral Qualities. Whereunto all that I will add at present upon this Head, is, That they, who Regulate both their Conceptions, and Expressions, about the Satisfaction of Christ, with a Respect and Reverence to the Holiness and Righteousness of God, and his Veracity in the Sanction, which he annexed to the Law, will not be easily prevailed upon to abandon the Terms, and Phrases, which they have found useful towards the Declaring and Illustrating the Glory of those Perfections, and the giving us the most Instructive and Lively Impressions of our Obligation to the Love and [Page 12] Compassion of our Redeemer, in what he became, did, and underwent for us; by reason of their having had false Para­phrases, and Expositions, put upon them, by a few, weak, unthinking, and unstudied People. Seeing, should we upon this single, and alone Motive, comply with the Importu­nity of Mr. W. and Mr. A. in this matter, there is hardly any Phrase invented by Men, for the better and clearer con­veying their minds to one another, in their speaking and writing about the Truths of the Gospel, or Authorized by God in those Revelations he hath vouchsafed us, for the Commanding out Faith, and the Adjusting, and Governing the measures of it, which we shall not upon the like Induce­ments be obliged to Forsake and Renounce. For, as in the Vertue of that Topick, and according to that Rule of Procee­dure, the Terms of Trinity, Hypostatical Vnion, yea, the word Satisfaction it self, &c. may be wrested from, and ought to be resigned by us; so there are a vast number of plain Scriptural Expressions, which must be relinquished and forsook, as being Impeachable for having had very absurd sen­ses affixed unto them, and the having been applied to very ill Purposes. As particularly, without mentioning any other, that Expression, This is my Body; which Christ pronoun­ced of the Bread, upon the Consecration of it, in the Sacra­mental Supper. yea, the very Phrase of Christ's Dying in our Room and Stead, from the owning whereof Mr. A. and Mr. W. do so Justify and Vindicate their Orthodoxness in the Article of Christ's Satisfaction, must by that reason be like­wise parted with.

So that upon a Contemplation of what hath been hereto­fore, and is now written by Mr. Lobb, and of what is both Longed for, and expected from the Reverend Bishop, all that falls within my Circle, and remains for me to do, is Civilly to Reprimand, and Chastize Mr. Alsop, for his Pride and un­mannerly treating of Persons of Equal, yea, of Superiour [Page 13] Vertue, Learning and Merit to himself, and for his wri­ting of, and concerning such Theological Doctrines, as have always been, and still are accounted important Articles of the Christian Faith, with a Lightness and Ribaldry, not to be parallel'd in any that value themselves for Religion, or good manners, and whereof we have no President, save from the Tongues and Pens of the Atheistical and Im­pious. For instead of Reasoning about matters, upon which the Stamp of Divine Authority is said, and pleaded to be Impressed, with the Gravity, Temperance, and So­lidity, which would have been expected from a Gentle­man, or a Scholar, and much more from one called a Mini­ster of the Gospel, he hath Discoursed of them in such a Stile of wanton Drollery, Clownish Jesting, unmannerly Banter, and Pedantick Repartees, as would be thought a Disgrace unto and Infamous for the Stage, and Judged to be Designed for no other End, but to give a Diversion un­to, and make sport for a Mob, and Rabble. Now, for as much as the calling him to an Account, and the Rebuking him for this, is unsuitable to Mr. Lobbs Genius and Temper, and below the Dignity of the Reverend and Learned Bi­shop, and yet necessary, as well as called for, by those who do maintain a Zeal for supporting the Authority, Majesty and Credit of Divine Revelation, preserve a Pity and Compassion for Mr. Alsop, or who entertain a Tenderness for the Souls of Men, whose Minds and Morals are in Dan­ger of being Infected, and Debauched by this Licentious way of Writing about Divine things, I will attempt it, tho it be with a doing Violence to my Inclination. And when others are from a Zeal for the Glory of God, the Ho­nour of our Religion, and the Reputation of the Kingdom, Employing their Pens and Parts, to Correct and Reform the Stage, and for bringing the Poets, whose Labours are cheifly Designed for the Play-House, to write with Innocen­cy [Page 14] and Decorum, it would be strangely surprizing and incon­gruous, should none be sound to give Check to such of the Clergy, as do not only Imitate them in most of their vices, but do fall infinitely short of them, in their Sermons as well as their Polemicks in what is Comely, Pleasant and Instructive in Comedies. And whosoever he was that writ the Letter, prefixed to Mr. Lobbs Defence of the Report, he appears to have been Mr. Alsops Particular Friend, and to have Intended him a Service, in the supposing him to be Delirous: Seeing the believing him Distracted, is the best, if not the only Excuse, that can be made for his Wild and Extravagant Deportments: Madmen being only liable to Pity, but not to blame. Nor are the Freaks and Foppish Gambols, or the Outragious Transports of those, who are ei­ther in Bedlam, or whose condition qualifies them to be there, Judg'd Meritorious of other Punishment, than of a dark Lodging and of Physical Diet. Neither will the Do­ctor bring them to that Sobriety in their Paroxisms, as a sturdy and merciless Porter will. They are sooner aw'd into a sullen Calmness, if not into a Conversible Temper, by a Ropes End, or a Cudgell; than by Rhetorical Haerangues, or Medicinal Recipts. But seeing Mr. Alsop (as is observ'd of all Madmen) will be Sober in despite of St. Paul, as well as of Galen, and doth not approve of the Apology, that was made for him; he is to be applyed unto by means, that will work upon his Mind, more than upon his Corporal Hu­mours; and which, instead of altering the Ferment of his Blood, may open the Intellectual Tympany of his Pride and Haughtiness. Yet, tho the Province I have undertaken, and the Task which I am engaged in, will allow me much greater Latitudes, than Disputations about Questions of Di­vinity will do; I will nevertheless so behave my self in the Reflections I am to make, as not to depart from the Rules of Good Breeding, nor to forfeit my Discretion in Imitat­ing [Page 15] of him. For albeit, it may be very Agreeable to his manners and Conversation, to Slander, Lampoon and Ex­pose an Adversary; when his Business should only be mo­destly to Confute him; yet it is neither Consonant with, nor Reconcileable to mine. And tho some things I may have Occasion to say, may be a Little smart, and thought to have too much Salt in them; yet there shall be nothing Course and Unsavory, but all Pallatable, and well dress'd.

And as I am not one of those weak Principles, or sneak­ing Temper, that will be menaced, or Discouraged, from the Performance of a Duty, that I conceive to be Lawful, and of Publick Advantage to mankind, and therefore neces­sary, because of the malicious Insinuations, and the Bar­barous as well as the Rude, Ungenteel, and Unchristian suggestions both of Mr. Williams and of Mr. Alsop; so I do not believe, that any who with Justice Pretend to sense, Breeding, manners, or Religion, will suffer them­selves to be so Imposed upon, bubled and mislead, as to think, that this undertaking, can have the least Ten­dency towards the Disturbing of the Government. For tho they from a Feavorish Heat, and a Brutal Rage, In­flaming them against such as have Attackt them, and from a Towring, but vain Opinion of themselves, would fain have it believ'd, that the Peace of the Kingdom depends upon their being counted Civil Gentlemen, and Orthodox Divines; and that their Adversaries ought to be enrolled among the Conspirators against his Majesties Person, Crown, and Dignity; yet the generality of People, are not grow'n so dis-ally'd to Reason and Humanity, as to admit the ha­ving it obtruded upon their Understandings, that the Con­tradicting, and modest Examination of some new Theolo­gical Notions of Two Presbyterian Ministers, is, or can be any Part of a Jacobite Plot. But that it doth rather bespeak, [Page 16] and confirm their being Guilty of the errours, whereof they are accused; in that to cover themselves from Prose­cutions, and from having their Opinions Tryed at the Pro­per Barr, and in the way that is held Legal among Scho­lars, they repeate and take Sanctuary within the Verge of the Court. And their dealing thus Wrathfully, and withall Impertinently with those Persons, that have had the Inte­grity and Fortitude to Attack them, being Lyable to many Reflections, and not to be past by and over-look'd without the bestowing a few upon it, I shall therefore here transcribe their own Words, that the Reader may the better Judge, with what Meekness and Decency, tho with some measure of Picquancy, I treat them▪ The Common Interest (saith Mr. Williams, p 86. of his Answer to the Report) will not be long sacrificed, even (some Imposed on) will find out the Iustru­ments and Designs of our Breaches, namely, that Vnless a Per­son be a Non-Juror, a Non-Associator, Plotter, and Dire­ctor of other Ministers (in Imitation of himself) to Pray so for the King, as if either of the Two Kings may be Intended; if they must at all seem to Pray for King William, he must be held a Hypocrite, for a Rhetorical Expression, in an Address to the Late King James, and because of no other thing, than swearing Allegiance to King William, signing the Association, and carrying it becoming a Loyal Subject, in his Prayers, Ser­mons, peaceable Behaviour, and Advices, be accounted to act contradictiously to what he said and did under the late Reign. And in the same Strain of Accusation, and Calumny doth Mr. Alsop, p. 34. of his Vindication of the Faithful Rebuke, Insinuate that Mr. Lobb had been Criminally acquainted with Friend, Fenwick, and Charnock, there being no other reason Assignable besides the Endeavouring to get that Mark and Character of Guilt and Infamy fastned upon him, why he should say that he himself had no Correspondence with them. Now I suppose, none will deny, but that the Assaulting [Page 17] and falling upon their Adversaries with these Weapons, and this sort of Artillery, is both more malicious, and cal­culated to do much more hurt, than if they had only sliced upon them from their Posteriors, or fired against them with Guns Loaded with Dung instead of Iron and Lead, that I may use some of the Elegancies of Mr. Alsop's Pastoral, as well as Rhetorical Eloquence, pag. 49. ubi Supra. Seeing all the Danger and Damage from the one would be only to be a little Smutted and defiled, which may be Rubb'd or washen off without great Labour, or Expence; whereas the t'other is the shooting Bombs and Granadoes, against which it is but a weak and feeble Shelter to be entrench'd without the Walls of Innocency, Loyalty, and Peaceable Be­haviour: Especially when that Terrible and Destructive Artillery is managed by such skilful Engineers, as those two Preachers appear to be in the Arts of Murthering, had they the Application, and Exertion of the Laws against Trea­son in their Power, and should they be trusted with the executing of them upon such whom they out of Pique and Spleen should think fit to Impeach, and Pronounce Crimi­nal. Nor was there any need for Mr. Alsop's asking Mr. Al­sop, what Post he would allow him under Mr. Williams, that he might Legally demand a Living, and Sallary for it? p. 21. ibid. Seeing without waiting untill he should Testify his Friendship, and employ all his Skill and Interest in assigning him a Post that would Deserve a Living, tho it might not bring him any Considerable Wages, both he and Mr. Wil­liams have advanced themselves unto, and taken Possession of an Office, that may prove very Beneficial unto them, if it were but honourable. For as if neither the Work of the pulpit, whereunto they Pretend to be called, and for the Discharge whereof they have Liberal Allowances Assigned them, nor the having Assumed to themselves the Chair for Reading Scholastical Divinity, were Proportionable to their [Page 18] many and Extraordinary Qualifications, nor come up to the Dimensions of their Universal Talents, they have emitted an Advertisement from Westminister and Moorfields, to save the Charges they must have been at in getting it Published from the Savoy, declaring where two Informers may be found, for those that have occasion for such; and, having a Mind to Use them, will come up to the Price, which persons of their Character and Reputation have a Right to Insist upon and demand. And by the Essay they have given of their Adaptedness for their Employ, they will ease the Government the Expense that it is at, in Maintaining and Recompencing those, who will only swear to what they Perfectly know, the Fertility of their Fancy Qualifying them to Forge and Invent Crimes, and the Complexion of their Consciences giving them a Dispensation to Depose them. For upon no other Topicks can either Mr Alsop Arraign Mr. Lobb for having been Acquainted with Charnock, or Mr. Williams Impeach the Author of the Letter, Prefix'd to the Defence of the Report, as alike obnoxious to him; after he had accused him of a great many things that were Disloyal, and of some that were directly Treasonable; while in the mean time he neither then did, or hitherto can know, whom the Writer of that Letter was, upon any grounds that will support a Legal Evidence, or so much as give a Foundation for Moral Certainty. And to accuse a Person upon a wicked Suspicion, which is the whole upon which he Superstructs what he so boldly alledgeth, is to Represent himself in worse Features and in Blacker Colours, than I have taken the Liberty to Limn, and Draw him. And it ought to allarm all Mankind, whose misfortune hath brought them within the Circle of his Acquaintance and Conversation, to find how precariously they hold their Lives, if he through ca­price and humour should be Displeased, or but grow Jea­lous, that they pay him not that Profound Devotion, which [Page 19] he expects should be rendred to his Person and Opinions And as for the Complement, which he bestows upon that Gentleman whom he knoweth not, if his stretching forth his Claws, and being Rowsed to execute fiery Threats, ibid. ubi Supra; it doth only show his Conscience, Judgment, and Breeding to be of a piece, and that his Language is of an alliance with his Birth and Manners. However, were that Person either the Beast, or the Bird of Prey, which Mr. Williams in his Boarish and Clownish Rhetorick has Represented him, I do think it would have been discreetly done to have omitted the Rude and Brutish Allusion, and not to have thereby exposed himself to fall under his Fangs and Talons. And, if I did not Judge it a Part both of Civility and Religion, to write with more Reser­vedness of Persons, than Mr. Williams by Education, Con­verse, or good Morals, hath arrived unto, it would be no Difficult Province, to give an amazing Abatement, to some peoples great Pretensions to Loyalty. Nor do I understand how Republican Principles, wherewith I know many Pres­byterians that vouch themselves Partizans for the Present Government, to be deeply Tinctur'd, are reconcileable to that zeal for Monarchy and Fidelity to his Majesty, which they would fain be Distinguished from others by. Yea I have more Reason to believe, and better Memoirs upon which to Justify it, than Generosity and Good nature will allow me to Discover, that their Loyalty doth not so much respect the Kings Title, as the Advantages they have made, and do further hope to make, by serving themselves upon Him. But neither my Temper, my Breeding, or my Morals will suffer me to Retaliate towards them, as they do Deserve, or to make those Reprizals upon them, that I easily might, and which their Provocations would be accounted by most Casuists, to have rendred not only Lawful, but Necessary. And Mr. Williams's advancing these Defamatory Accusations against one Brother, and another Stranger, which he hath [Page 20] done, will appear to have been as Foolish, and Impudent, as it was Unjust and Cruel: because of his having been Ob­noxious himself to Suspicions and Charges of the same kind, not only among those of other Churches, but the Members of his own Congregation; for the Removing of whose Jealousies, and the silencing their Clamours, he pro­stituted and debauched the Pulpit, by Haranguing his Au­ditors from it with an Invective against King James, and the Jacobites, when his whole Work in that place should have been to Preach the Gospel, and not to have vented a Satyr, or Read a Lecture of Politicks. Nor could any Man whose Understanding were not both darkned and perverted by Passions, and Revenge, that had passed through divers Ordeals himself upon Suspicions much better grounded, than those upon which he hath Traduced and Slandered others, write with that Licentious and Bloody Rage that he has done, concerning a Brother and a Fellow Subject, in Im­peaching him of Disloyalty and Treason. But I will keep my self within the Limits of moderate Resentment, and do heartily wish, that the Biographers, for whose Pens he seems ambitious to create Imployment, may treat him with that Gentleness and Decency which I have done; yea, his whole Foregoing Accusation▪ were it time, is yet altogether Imper­tinent. Seeing the being either Imaginarily, or Really a Jacobite, a Non-Juror and a Non-Associator, which are the Titles he bestowes where, and upon whom he pleaseth, do not in the least degrade a Person from being a Christian, or a Scholar; or Vnqualify and Incapacitate him to Assert the Commonly Received Protestant Doctrine, nor subject him to Legal Penalties, because of his Detecting or Refu­ting the Hetrodoxes of two Dissenting Presbyterian Mini­sters. And how happy would it be for Mr. Dryden, Dur­fey, &c. if their calling Mr. Collier Jacobite, and Non Ju­ror, would pass with the thinking and Judicious Part of [Page 21] Mankind, as either a Reasonable, or Wise Answer to the Admirable Discourse, which he hath Published of the Im­morality and Profaneness of the English Stage: But as few, or none, even of those that frequent the Theatre, will be car­ried into so Foppish a Belief; so neither will the very Poets, whom he hath Reprimanded, tho Persons of a great Mea­sure of assurance, and who do often take unjustifiable Liber­ties, in Exposing and Ridiculing such as offend them, so far betray a want of Wit and Sense, as to offer that for any part of a Reply. To reflect upon an Author in that Stile, and Manner, may bear Proportion to the Intellectuals, and become the Politicks of some Preachers, whose Ends both over rule their Understandings and Influence their Practi­ces, and may be admitted and applauded by little People, who have nothing to commend them but their Ignorance and Bigottry; but it will be Accounted by all others to be Gross and Prodigious Impudence. And while they hope by this Maliciousness towards others, to testify their own Loyalty for the King; they even Lampoon him, and make the Government Ludicrous, seeing the Fealty of His Majesties Leige People, Is at this Rate of Arguing, no more to be measured by their obedience unto, or Passiveness under the known Laws; but by their humouring of Mr. Alsop, and Mr. Williams, and their Implicitely believing whatever they Preach and Write. Nor is the Kin [...]s Person, or Crown to be esteem­ed safe, unless these two Gentlemen be carried towards it with Extraordinary Admiration and Respect. And to Controul their Dictator-ship, or to question their Orthodoxy, is to be in a Conspiracy to Dethrone, if not to Assassinate His Majesty▪ However, the Reverend Bishop of Worcester is hereby Forewarn'd, to what Accusations he is to become Obnoxious, in case he depart from supporting Mr. Williams's Notions, in the Discourse he hath undertaken to write con­cerning this Controversie. For he is no less than bound [Page 22] unto, and put upon his good Behaviour, and to be pronoun­ced a Jacobite, and held for Disloyal, unless Mr. Williams's Judgment in Divinity, be Revived, and Acquiesced in as the great and Universal Standard of Truth.

The next thing that deserves to be Animadverted upon, and Reprimanded in Mr. Alsop, is his Phantastick Affectation of being thought Witty, and the laying claim to a Talent, which Nature hath Indisposed him for; and which nothing but Pride, Frothiness and Vanity, together with an Ignorance of him­self and of what his Faculty is adapted for, would have ever made him pretend unto. For the most, that can be justly allowed him, is, that he is fit to be a Droll, or a Buffoon; but that he is otherwise a Person of Wit, none that understand the Nature and Measures of it will upon any Terms grant him. And if he any where obtain the Character of a Witty man, it is only among little People, that have neither Genius, nor good Relish: With whom it is an Ingenious and Genteel qualification, to be able to Act the Part of a Jack-pudding. But among those whom Excellency of Sense, and Accuracy of gust distinguish from the Insipid and dull Rabble; all that will be allowed him, is that he may set up for a Merry Andrew, or hire himself out to be a Droll at Bartholomew-Fair. Now that the Rebukes, which he deserveth, and which I am to give him upon this account, may be the more Pungent, tho ap­pearing founded upon, and Warranted by all those Maxims of Reason, from which wit is Denominated, and by which it is Governed: I shall e're I proceed further on this Head, briefly Intimate both what True wit is, and under what Rules, and within what Limits it hath its esteem; and how Different it is from foolish Drollery, mean Pedantry, and vain Jesting which while they Excite Laughter in the Mob, beget a Contempt & Disgust in the Ingenious. True wit then Consists in Justness of Thought, & in Perspicuity and Neatness of Expression. In taking Every Matter, whereof we speak or write, by its Right [Page 23] and Proper Handle, and the having an Idea of it, compre­hensive of all that it imports, and which reacheth both to the utmost Dimensions of it, and the Harmony that is among them, and then in the Cloathing our Conceptions concerning it, with that Propriety and Neatness of Language, that may sit decently and adroitly upon them, and give them their due, and agreeable Air. In a word, it is to think Regularly, and to speak Decently; to have our Notions Harmonious to the Subject, and our Speech proportionate them. To say no­thing unworthy of, and detractive from the Matters of which we Treat, or unsuitable unto, or beneath the Chara­cter of Him that speaks; or that may Displease and Offend the most Sensible and Vertuous part of those that hear. And therefore it is, that to give Check to the Extravagancies of a Wild Fancy, and to prevent the Rudeness of Language, which through a Defectiveness of Breeding, or Morals, some Persons may Licentiously Indulge themselves in, the greatest Proprietors, as well as Masters of Wit, have mark'd out, and given us the Boundaries of it. So that according to the Rules they have assigned, and the Regulations which they have E­stablished for its Menage; It is always to be Manly, and not Pedantick; Clean, and not Smutty; Fashionable, and not Ob­solete; Civil, and not Detractive; Innocent, and not Profane; Modest, and not Rude; Grave and Solid, and not Light and Vain; Grateful to all, and Justly Displeasing to none; 'Tis not only to Humour an Auditory, but to Teach and Instruct them; and adjusted to make others Wiser and Bet­ter, as well as to entertain and divert them.

Now how well Mr. Alsop hath attended to any one of those Characters and Measures of Wit, is what I am to proceed to enquire into, and whereof the Disquisition will be the more Easy, in that his Departure from all of them, is so visible, Gross and Frequent. For from the beginning [Page 24] of the Book to the End of it, his Fancy, Judgment and Lan­guage are of an Alliance, and in every one of them he is perfectly ridiculous. And if He ever heretofore had either Vnderstanding, or Wit, Age hath Extinguished, or Pride and Malice perverted them. Nor do I know any Apology can be made for his manner of writing (seeing he will not allow himself to be Lunatick and Delirous) but that God having Created Men Risible, as well as Rational, and having gi­ven them no Faculties but what he hath provided Objects to sute and Gratify, he takes himself to have been Formed to find Exercise for our Risibility, instead of serving the End of our Intellectual Powers. And it being with great a­version that I expose any person to Laughter and Ridi­cule, I shall therefore, to render him ridiculous, only show him in the Picture drawn by himself, and which he hath hung forth upon his own Sign-Post. Nor will I insist upon his Puns and Quibbles, with which almost every Page of his Pamphlet is flourish'd and adorn'd: save only transcribe his Introduction to his Book, where, according to all the Rules of Decorum, there should nothing appear but what is Grave, Comely and Inviting. Whereas, instead of this, he courts his Readers to an attendance upon the Entertain­ment he is to give them, in a Stile of Language, and with a Turn of Thought, that are suited unto Guests at a Wake, or to a Rural Crew met together in order to Dance a­bout a May-pole. 'Tis somewhat a hard Case, saith he, that having Just Cause to complain, I must complain to your self of your self, and make your own Conscience Chancellor in your Cause, placing you upon the Bench, who in Justice ought to stand and Plead at the Bar. P. 3. Which is the addres­sing his Readers in such a Scheme of Rhetorical Eloquence, as his Cousin Sancho Pancho for they are nearly allyed in their Intellectual Talents and Moral Perfectious, as well as in their Gentlemanly Breeding) would have complain­ed [Page 25] of those that had Bastinado'd Master Don Quixot, ei­ther in kindness to Cure his Phrenzy, and Discipline him into Sobriety, or in Justice to Chastize him for the wild Extravagancies, he had committed in his Knight Errantry. But omitting his mean and silly Paedantries, to expose the Vanity that he is guilty of in pretending to Wit, and the Disgrace he hath done it through the Impropriety, and Im­purity of Thought and Language, wherein he Affects to be accounted an Eloquent and a Witty Man. And seeing the Specimen I am to give of his shameful mis-carriages as well as woful Defects in both these Particulars, will be somewhat long, I shall therefore Interweave nothing of my own, unless now and then by way of Parenthesis, but re­serve till afterwards the Reflections, which I design to make. And for a beginning I refer you to Page 21. of his Vindi­cation, where, upon the mighty Provocation of your hav­ing Prefix'd to your Defence of the Report, the two Initi­al Letters of your Name (while himself in the mean time appears without that Fiacho), he Accosts you with the en­suing Testimony of his Wit, and Civility. Could not (says he) some friend of yours have adorn'd your Chariot, when you are to Ride in Triumph over the Conquer'd Presbyterians? such a Cypher would have given you a great Figure. For he had Read, that these two Letters S. L. which you had Stampt upon your Book, were once Printed with a Red hot Iron upon the Cheeks of a Famous Patriot, who was a Confessor, and hugely Ambitious to be a Martyr for his Countrey, and that His Enemies did Interpret S. L. to stand for Slanderous Libel, and one of the Wits of that time would needs give the Ety­mology of the word Libel, that is a Lie with a Bell hung about the neck to Ring the Scandalous story up and down to his Friends in the Countrey, and that it would have been as de­cently set upon your Front as his Cheekes. To which I will next subjoin what occurreth, p. 23. where with those mea­sures [Page 26] of Truth, and Cleanlyness that are Peculiar to him, he stiles Mr. Lobbs Respectful, and modest Vindication of what he Believes an Important Truth, an Intrenching your cause in Dung, which gives more occasion for the Scavenger than the Scholar; for the Shovel than the Pen to Remove it. Whereunto may be added what he says p. 28. where De­signing to Charge Mr. Lobb for having calumniated him, in Imputing Opinions unto him which he no ways holds, he Expresseth it as he thinks modestly, and with the height of Genteelness, whereas the Phrase which he there useth doth in the Judgment of all that are Persons of a true Re­lish and of Good sense, Proclaim him an Ignoramus and a Fop. The words I referr to are, that the Defence hath prov'd himself hugely versed in the Oriental Tongues, in that the second Language spoken in Paradise by the Grand Enemy of Mankind, was the Lying, and Slandering Tongue. Nowtho the Animadverting upon the Wit of this stands Adjourned till anon, yet I would ask en passant by what Rules of Gram­mar, or Syntax, or by what Figure, or Trope in Rhetorick, Defence hath got the Faculty of Proving himself, or comes to be Conversant in Languages either Oriental, or other. Surely he who Criticiz'd with so much rigor and severity upon the word Observance instead of Observation, and upon the Term Populacy in the room of Popularity, as he did with an erected Crest and a Spread Train, p. 20. which a little good nature might have inclin'd him to have taken for errours of the Press; should have been careful not to have betray'd so much either Ignorance or neglect, as are Im­ported in the Expressions newly mention'd.

But I will proceed in calling over some more Examples, and Consequently proofs of the Elevation of his Wit, and of the purity of his Stile, whereof that which he hath affor­ded us, pag. 29. shall be the next. All hands aloft! Mr. Lobb [Page 27] hath brought from the Neighbour-hood of the Lay-st all at Pud­dle Dock to the Printers all those Ordures, which will Imploy all the City-Scavengers, and that he hopes the Reader has therefore his Florentine Balsom, or whatsoever may be more potent, ready to secure him against the Stench. And tho the Passage, which I am to mention next be not altogether so Smutty as the foregoing, yet it is vain, frothy, and pe­dantick in the highest Degree; you will find it in pag. 32. Where upon Mr. Lobb's having alledged, that he had once promised to midwife a certain Book of his into the World, He Replyes, that he never knew that Mr. Lobb had such hard Labour in Teeming of Books into the World, that he should need a Man-Midwife, and that it is certain he was always Big-belly'd, and more fear he should be Delivered in the open streets, like Pope Joan, than to need his manual operation, which his Printer can do without his help, who never Professed, or was Guilty of the Obstetrical Talent. The Countess of Holland was brought to Bed of an Almanack, as many Children as there are days of the year, and that he doubts not, but that he a being Parturient Author can exclude as many without his holding Mr. Lobbs back, tho perhaps he will need to hold his own sides, that he split not with Laughter. Whereunto that which he says p. 85. is of a piece and an Allyance, where comparing Mr. Lobb, and himself together, he Challenges the Preference in these Terms, that there is the same Dif­ference between a preaching Sophister, and a well studied Divine, that there is between a Petty Fogger with all his Chicanery, and a profound Lawyer. Nor doth he give better proof either of his Wit▪ or of his Breeding, p. 86. where thinking to Ex­pose Mr. Lobb he makes himself Ridiculous by the Foppishness of his thoughts, and coarsness of his Language. As a wisp (saith he) is a Theame copious enough to engage an Harangue for an hour Long to a well studied Scold; so these two Letters D. W. (i. e. Daniel Williams) shall serve to Equip a Fleet [Page 28] of Pamphlets. And that had it not been for him hitherto, and now for himself, he knows not what the Club of Retailers would have done for a little scribling Practice, or where they would have had bread. Surely of all men, Mr. Alsop should least pretend to Wit, seeing he never endeavours to show it but it is thro being and acting the Buffoon. For whether he write metaphorically, and by way of Allusion, or after the natural plain manner, without Tropes, and Figures, he is equally Boorish, and Impure, and all he says is either wholly Impertinent, or else Clownish, or downright Ri­baldry, of which it were easy to give many more Instances, were it not that I blush to go on in Repeating, what thro partly the childishness, and partly the Impurity of the Thought, and thro the coarsness and Indecency of the Lan­guage, must not only offend the consciences of those that are vertuous, but be Counted an Affront to the Under­standings of such as are Ingenious. And of such a Com­plexion do I take the following Passages to be, namely that p. 131, 132. where he says, that Mr. Lobb was never co­stive in his scribling humours, but that of late he is grown so Laxative, that all the Astringents in the Shops will not Check his scripturiency, but out it flies, without the Preface of saving your Presence. And that other, p. 140. where the most respectful Epithets and Titles, that he is pleased to De­scribe some of the Presbyterian Ministers by, to dignify them with, is the calling them Reverend Nine Pins.

As if all that they were either fit for, or worthy of, were to be kept in the Little, and for the most part Scandalous Houses of Entertainment, to be subservient to the sport, and diversion of Tipling Guests. Nor is that passage, which we have p. 137. any signal Demonstration of true Wit, good Manners, or Genteel Language; where intimating the opposition that hath been given, and always will to some of Mr. Williams's Theological Notions, he thus Ex­presseth [Page 29] it, viz. That he must be placed as a Shrove-Tuesday Bird, five Throws two pence, so long as any man can find a Cudgel to bestow upon him. And such is my dulness of un­derstanding, and my unacquaintedness with propriety and neatness of Speech, that I can neither discern the Wit, nor admire the Eloquence of that Paragraph, p. 104. where Mr. Alsop, being to Instruct Mr. Williams how to avoid the envy of his Neighbours (for writing upon that Motive himself, rather than out of any regard he has to Truth, he fancieth that others must also do it under the like Influence) he advised him to be content to draw in the Thillar's place in the Team, and let another walk gravely before him, with the high Foretop, and the melodious Collar of Bells, and all the gaudy Trappings. To which all that I will subjoin, shall be a passage in pag. 70. wherein although there be as little of bright and Shining Wit as in the former, yet there is a great deal nauseous and glaring Profaneness. For, having taken notice, that there are some Learned and Godly Divines (whom nevertheless he doth not name, that the suspicion of being one of the number, may fall upon Mr. Lobb) who have mentioned a Certain Bond, wherein Christ, and the Elect are said to be jointly Bound to God, he thereupon adds in an Impure, as well as a Jocular way, That he could never get sight of that Bond, no more than of our own Original Contract, or the pacta Conventa in a Remoter Kingdom, where Mr. Lobb having grea­ter Acquaintance, may possibly have better Intelligence. Now to Omit the Rude and unmannerly Jest and Buffoonry in the last Words, and how that it was to do Violence to his own Conscience, as it is to his Pride, to believe Mr. Lobb to have a greater Acquaintance in Poland, or any where else, than he thinks his Merit hath obtain'd for him, or that Mr. Lobb can receive better Intelligence from thence, or from any other Place, than is out of admiration of his Worth trans­mitted and conveyed unto him; all that I will observe [Page 30] is, that it is a Burlesquing things that are held sacred. And were these Divines mistaken, yet they ought to be con­futed with respect and modesty, and not exposed and Ri­dicul [...]d; and the matter, wherein they and others differ, should be Discours'd with Reverence, and not by way of Buff [...]onry. For as the Rules of Decorum, and good Breed­ing are much larger than those of st [...]ict Justice; so, tho it may not exactly be a Law of Revelation, yet it is one of Genteel Manners, not to Lampoon what another doth Reli­giously believe. And were he Guilty of holding what Mr. Alsop by his Innuendo's and tacit Insinuations imputes to him; yet I see no cause why he should be ashamed either of the Doctrine it self, or of being Listed among those Divines who have Believ'd and Taught it; Seeing no less a Man, than the Learned, Pious, and truly Venerable Dr. Bates has affirm'd, that Christ entered into the same Bond that we had forfeited, cap. 13. p. 240. of his Excellent Book of the Harmony of the Divine Attributes, &c. So the whole Import of that Phrase, as it hath been used by him, and also by the most who have written with Care and Ex­actness on the subject of Christ's satisfaction, is no more than what hath been Delivered by the Apostle, Gal. 4. 4, 5. namely, that Christ becoming Mediator and Surety, was made under the Law, both as to its Preceptive Part and its Sanction, that he might Redeem them that were under the Law: And that as he fulfilled the Directive Part of the Law, by the Innocency and Obedience of his Life, he like­wise underwent the Penalty of it in his Sufferings and Death. Now so many Instances of a frothy and vain Mind are scarcely to be met with in any Writing, nay not in it commonly called Grubstreet, as this Theological Author upon a subject relating to Divinity, and Articles of Christian Belief, hath delivered, not only in a few Sheets, but almost in every one of them. For the Ambition and Unity of Act­ing the Droll, has made him forget that he was either a Gentle­man, [Page 31] a Scholar, or a Divine. But tho True and Innocent Wit, be both Estimable in it self, and is hearkned unto with Respect and Deference, by all that have Genius and good Relish; yet Boorish, ill Natur'd, and foolish Jests, will recommend no man to such as are distinguish'd from the Unthinking and Debauched Herd, and much less one that is a Minister of the Gospel, the Grimaces and Mimicks of a Baboon, would give better Divertisement, than this Drolling, and Impure way of Writing; Those being agreeable to his species, while the Latter is both a Degrading, and a Disparaging of the Human kind, by act­ing a Part, which speaks a Metamorphosis of some of the Intellectual Race into those Brutal Creatures, which seem to have been purposely Fram'd to give Mirth and Sport.

But to bestow some Reflections upon what I have rehear­sed out of our Author, the first thing I would observe is, that the little Wit that appears in any thing he has said, is perfectly Antiquated, and out of Date. Chaucer's obsolete English would sooner be accounted Elegant and Rhetorical among the Politest Masters of our Refin'd and Modern Language, than these Puns, Quibles and Drollings of an In­fantill, unpolish'd Age will pass, and be admitted for Schemes of Maturated, Adult, and Pregnant Wit. And to Address the World in such a Style is more Ridiculous, than for a Beau to go to Court in Trunck Breeches and a Gorillo; or for a Lady that valueth her self upon Fashiona­bleness of Attire, and the Genteelest mean of Dress, to pre­sent her self in the Royal Presence, with a Kercher, or an Old Elizabeth Fardingal. It is likewise mean and Boorish, borrowed from the Plough and Harrow, rather than from either a Palace, or an Academy; And would more become the Rural Clown, than a Gentleman, or a Theologue, Wit­ness besides what I have already repeated that Expression, p. 102. where he calls all the Noise that hath been made about Mr. Williams's Book of Gospel-Truth stated, a shearing [Page 32] of Hogs. And that other Elegancy, p. 94 where to fasten upon Mr. Lobb the Slaunder of having misrepresented him, He phraseth it by his Extracting water out of Flint, and by his being in Possession of an Engine that can find drayning works on Salisbury Plain. In a word, all the Perfections of Wit and Eloquence, which he valueth himself upon, and seeketh Reputation from, are rather the Wit and Language of Coblers and Tinkers; than either of a Fresh-man in the Vniversity; or of a Common Trades-man in the City, and much less of one that would be held a Virtuoso as well as a Divine. And instead of having an Affinity with what is Learned from the Muses, it is such as people come to be Instructed in among Gypsies and Strollers, or which would be held owing to an Education among those whom both the Heathen Theology and Poetry made Inhabi­tants of the Woods, and which use to be Painted with Curled Horns and Cloven Feet.

'Tis also nasty and unclean, as if learned at the Tombrall, and not where Persons of Vertue, or Breeding do come, and Frequent. Neither doth his Vnderstanding seem to be of the same Species, nor his sensible Faculties Resolvable into the like Texture of Organs, that the rest of Human kind are, in that Trifles and Stenches, which choake the In­tellects, and offend the Senses of every one else, are in him most grateful to the latter, and entertaining to the Former. He would seem to have been either Born, or Bred in a Hog­sty, in that Dung and Ordure are more Agreeable, and Odoriferous to his Olfactive Power, than either Musk or Essences. And seeing he enquires of Mr. Lobb after, and seems to want a Place, I would case him of the Friendly service, which in that Particular he expects from him, and would recommend him as the fittest and best Qualified Can­didate to be a Midnight Gold Gatherer, or an Emptier of Houses of Office. For, if I may speak my Opinion [Page 33] impartially of this man's Judgment and sense, he does rec­kon it to be more Ornamental to be Drawn in a Dung-Cart, than to Ride in a Triumphant Chariot. And his Flights of Wit, and Flowers of Eloquence, are rather Burlesque, and plain Ribaldry than handsome, and Innocent Raillery. And when he comes forth Strutting in his Greatest Gaiety, it is in the Manufacture of Prophaneness, and in the Colours of smut, and Debauchery, and not in the Rayment and Garb of Vertue, and good sense. His best Turns of Thought, would hardly be tolerable in a Farce, but would upon no Terms be allow'd in a Comedy. The best that can be said both of his Wit, and skill is, that they are Entirely Scara­muchio, and [...]arlaquin. Nor was the Writing about Divine Truths, or the Preaching of the Gospel, ever intended to come within the Circle of his Province; the whole that Nature seems to have fitted, and therefore Design'd him unto, being to appear in yellow, and Red (seeing he is Covetuous of a Livery) to beget Laughter in the Mob, that stands gap­ing about the Stage of a Mountebanck. Tho in the mean time I'le crave Liberty to tell him, that whosoever he be whose work, and the Top of Ambition, and the height of his Facul­ty, is to make others Laugh, is to make himself Ridiculous. And as the Epithet of the Bird of Athens was given him by a very Learned Person divers years ago, so he doth now Appear to Deserve it, not only by reason of his being more Feathers than Body, but because he ought never to venture into the Light for fear of being houted at, but to rest contented to live within the Curtains, and under the Shades of the night; In that his coming abroad in the Day is found as Ominous of Disgrace to all that own him, as his Note, and Tune, by which he seeks to be thought melo­dious, is by all who have an Harmonious soul and a Musical ear, turn'd into an occasion of Laughter, and of Pleasant contempt. Nor will any Prescriptions be so proper and effe­ctual [Page 34] to cure the Distemper he at present is affected with, and Recover him from his Phrensy, as a Dark Lodging, and Hogsden Discipline.

But to Advance another Reflection, namely, that this way of Writing is no way Agreeable to the Station, or Character of a Minister of the Gospel, tho I will not say (but that abstracted from the Office) it may be very Conso­nant to his. For, if the Qualifications Required by St. Paul in a Presbyter, had been Attended to in his Admission, or were the Terms of his Continuance in that sacred Order, it would be matter of Enquiring how he came in, and by what neglects he escapes being cast out. For if according to St. Paul, it be an Indispensable Requisite, that such as enter upon the Holy Office should be imbu'd with meekness to Instruct those who oppose themselves to what the Church entertains and believes, 2. Tim. 2. 25. And that they should not be lifted up with Pride, lest they fall into the Condemnation of the Devil; I do greatly fear, that Mr. Alsop would neither have been the first Admitted; nor so long since continued, if the scrutiny according to these measures had been exact and Impartial. And if a Novice either in Age or in the Profession of Christianity, was not to be Con­secrated a Presbyter, lest he should fall into the Temptation of the Devil, either by acting with that Insolency, which may administer occasion to Sathan and his Instruments to Reproach Religion, or dispose him to be a Calumniator of the Bre­thren, as the Devil is Represented to be, or render him incident to Pride, of which the Devil being the first Presi­dent of Guilt, is sentenced, and condemned; surely then one that is not only arrived at a mature Age, but is almost Super annuated, and grown near to be Decripit, if he be found to be a Reviler, and one of Luciferian Haughtiness and Pride, he ought to be accounted lyable to severe Cen­sures, and Rebukes, tho he may through Indulgence [Page 35] rather than Justice, escape being ejected from the Mini­stry. And were it another Person than Mr. Alsop, it would be both believ'd and said, that he must have come in by the Window, and ought to have been dismiss'd and sent out by the way of the Belfry. For granting, that he may Preach Soberly, and well; yet if he write Immodestly, and with Pe­tulancy, the Contradiction between the one and the to'ther, will not only obstruct the success, and hinder the effects of the Former upon the Minds, and Consciences of Men, but will tempt his Hearers and Readers to conclude, that he only Personates, and Acts a part in that, while he is Real, and sincere in the Latter. And they will Form an Idea of the man from what they observe by the Organ of the Eye, rather than from the Sounds Conveyed to them by the Ear. To Assume the dignity, and to put on the Gra­vity of a Minister in the Pulpit, and to Act the Droll, Sa­tyr and Buffoon from the Press, will not only be accounted both Moral and Theological Nonsense, and to be Designed to make the Sacred Order Despicable and Ridiculous, but it doth also Justify the Athestical, and Prophane in all their Scoffs and Sarcasms upon those of the Holy Office; and Con­firms them in their Irreligious Opinion, that Preaching and the work of the Pulpit is only Priest craft, calculated and taken up to Cheat others, to Reconcile Reverence to themselves, and to gain a Livelihood, and no ways upheld and Practic'd for the making People either better Men, more social Neighbours, or firmer in their Loyalty to their Prince. Of all sides, one in the Pulpit to day, and to mor­row upon the Stage, which is most Ludicrous, as well as Vn­comely. And to lay aside both the Bible and the long Cloak, and to put on Buskins, can only be diverting to those, who are not only void of Religion, but Destitute of good sense. And it must be much more Disgustful, and Offen­sive to see one Disrobe himself of the Black Habit, and [Page 36] Narrow Band, and to come forth either in the strait Attire to Vault, upon the High Ropes, or to appear in the Party Co­loured Cap, and Coat, to Act the Jack Pudding on a Mounte­bank-stall, or Stage, than it would be to behold a Minister of State going about the Street Crying Mackaral, or Matches. An Ecclesiastical Droll is more Ridiculous than for my Lord Chief Justice of England to turn Bully. And God is more Dishonoured by the Former, than Authority is Degra­ded and made Contemptible by the Latter. For the highest Flights of Wit, with the best Turns of Thought, and Schemes of Eloquence be not expected from every Preacher; yet there is no man who doth not Indispensably exact from them a few Grains of good Nature and Modesty. And where these are met with, accompanied with Decency, Gravity, and seriousness they do Excuse, and will be Re­ceived as Apologies for many other Deficiencies. But while those stiled Ecclesiasticks, do by Bagatel, Ribaldry, and Virulence, Disgrace as well as Depart from the Decorum of their Station, they must not expect, but that they will be treated with a severity that would be thought Un­mannerly toward others, if it could be Judged Pardonable. In brief, it is pity that Dr. Echard is Dead, there being more occasion, and matter given in two Pamphlets of Mr. Alsops, for writing Volumn's of the Contempt of the Clergy than that Author could furnish his Adversaries with some years ago, towards the Equipping a Book, (that I may make bold with an Elegancy of Mr. Alsops) bearing that Title and with a Cargo of that kind.

Again, the way of writing, whereof I have given from him self the Copy, and Pattern, is altogether Unsuitable to the subject he was treatning of, Proportion and Har­mony are what not only give the Agreeableness, but the [Page 37] Beauty to Things both of Nature and Art. And ac­cording to the Grandure, or the meanness of the subject, should our Thoughts be more Elevated, or Depressed, and our Language stately, or humble. For tho there be common Rules for our Conduct in Rhetorick, as well as in Syntax, yet the Application of them is to be wonderfully Diversifyed in Compliance with the Nature of the subject. And as no man Conversant in this matter will take the Eloquence of the Aula, and the Curia to be the same, in that the Affairs at Kensington and Westminister Hall being vastly Different, do call for Dissonant Turns of Thought and Respective Schemes of Eloquution, and Lan­guage; so there is an Oratory Peculiar to Theological mat­ters, which hath little Affinity with either of them, and much less any thing meaner. And while these from whom he differs are of Equal Parts and Industry with himself, and from great Integrity do believe themselves in the Right in those Theological Articles, which the Dogmatical and Haugh­ty, and such as are govern'd by secular Interest are not very likely to be, it is the least deference that can be paid them, to examine their Opinions modestly, and not to Lampoon them. To talk or write jocularly and by way of Travesty of doctrines, and things alledged to have their foundation in divine Revelation, is to despise and vilify the Authority of God, and to detract from the Credit of his Declarations. And if the least Corrupt Communication, i. e. nasty or Vnclean, as the word [...] doth import, be forbidden every Chri­stian in his most divertive discourse, Ep. 4. 29. it must then be far from being Innocent or Comely in a Minister of the Gospel, especially when the subject is not Common, and Trivial, but weighty and Religious. To write of Ar­ticles of Faith with a wantonness and Impurity of stile that would be thought nasty and indecent in a Ballad, is to Burlesque Religion, and to bring a Contempt upon the [Page 38] doctrines of Revelation. For if we will hearken to the Advice or Imitate the Example of the Apostles, the Lan­guage wherein Theological Truths should be conveyed either to the Eye or Ear, should be plain and lowly, tho withal neat and pure, and not Terms of swelling Vanity, or the Bombast of Sophisters, or the Cant of Demogogues, and much less in words of Ribaldry and nastiness. 'Tis to ex­pose Religion, and without a great deal of Charity must be thought so designed, to manage the Controversies of it, either in the Billingsgate stile or in that of the Play-House. What might pass as harmless Raillery on another subject, is Tarlequin and Lewdness on a divine Theme. And the Modestest thing that can be said of it, is, that it is not only the bringing the most awfull and august Truths into the same Levell with Trifles, but it is the Lessening their Autho­rity over the Consciences of men by cloathing them in a Ludicrous Dress. For a King would be more houted at should he appear in the Attire of a Jack Pudding, than the meanest Fellow would be in the same Habit. Nor can it be thought less than a Burlesquing of the Bible, and a Lampooning whatsoever is Sacred, to Compare Christ's entering into the same Bond with us (in the sence before specified) with the pacta Conventa of Poland, and to the Chymerical Original Contract Romantically fancied by some to have been between the Kings of England and the Community upon the first erection of the Monarchy. And of the like excessive Flight of profaneness, as well as of shameful unsuitableness to divine Truths is that other Expres­sion of Mr. Alsop's, p. 140. where having Slandered a Reve­rend Minister who is a faithful and successful preacher of the Gospel, in reference to a Story maliciously invented of him by the Atheistical and Impious Drolls of the Town, and for which Unbrotherly, Unchristian, Ungentlemanly and Lying Defamation, I do purpose anon to call him to an [Page 39] account; he adds, that he would not for a Groat run the Hazard of Dropping into the Bottomless Pit; which I do think, and would likewise hope that his best Friends will not avoid to call unpardonable Levity in a matter that should never be spoken of but with profound seriousness. The different Fates of an Eternity to come, are the Pillars upon which Wisdom hath erected its House; And to turn Hell into a Jest is to undermine the divine Government, thro making the judicial Tribunal of God, and the Rectoral sentences of the Supream and Righteous judge, the subject of sport and Mirth. Yea, it is to treat the Bible in worse Ridicule than a discreet man would do the Alcoran of Ma­homet, in that it prostituteth that into matter of diversion and Laughter, which the Scripture hath so fully revealed in order to beget dread and fear. For if it be not worth more than the Expence of a Groat to avoid Damnation, the Torments of the Infernal Pit. must be very Slight, if not wholly Ro­mantick: seeing it is Impossible that a state and Condition should be either terrible or dolorous, which a Person whose Character both supposed him to know and maketh it his duty to acquaint others with it, would not part with above a Groat to Escape. And it is but congruous, and therefore not uncharitable to Believe of him, that he would not dis­burse more to Purchase Heaven, than he hath fixed the Price of avoiding Hell. In a word, if his Heaven be not more desireable than his Hell is Ftightful, the Hades, of the Pagans was less to be dreaded, and the Paradise of the Turks is equally valuable with the Infernal miseries and the Celestial Bliss, which are Revealed, Described, and proposed to our Faith in the Bible, as the great and proper meanes to work upon our Hopes and Fears, which are the two signal Handles and Machines graven upon and woven into our Intectual Na­tures, in order to our being restrained from Vice and Im­piety, and quickned to Virtue and Holy Obedience, without [Page 40] the doing violence to our Faculties and Moral Powers, or the Invading that Liberty and Freedom of Choice which distinguishes us from the Brutal Race, gives the moral Speci­fication to our Actions, rendring them denominable, good or bad, and which makes them capable of Punishment and Reward.

The last Reflection which I will advance under this Head, is, That his Wit and Stile are no ways proportioned to the Quality and Manners of those to whom his Book is addres­sed, and for whom he would be thought not only to have provided Entertainment, but to have design'd their Instru­ction. For though (that every thing in his Book might be of a peice; and all equally preposterous, uncomely and ir­regular) the Epistle to the Reader be the Epilogue in his Play, instead of the Prologue: and the Reader postponed from the Preface to the Postscript; and as he further not only fanta­stically phraseth it, from the Van to the Rear: but as he Boor­ishly and Buffoonly words it, degraded from riding in State on the Fore-horse, to come behind with the Postman, &c. p. 243. Yet I suppose he thought he had adapted it to the Genius, Humour and Relish of People of Condition, Learning, In­genuity, and of some Christian Vertue; and not have cal­culated it for the Meridian of Billing sgate, or to have prepa­red and dressed it to the Palat and Savour of the Atheistical Debanchees, and the Prophane Mob. Whereas in this, as in every thing else of the Pamphlet, his Understanding being over-ruled by his Pride, Passion and Revenge, has misled him into a mistake of the Canailler for the Nobless; of the Illiterate Herd for the Tribe of those of Erudition; and of the Graceless and Impious in the room of such as are strictly Moral and Religious.

[Page 41] Reverend Sir, I need not tell you, that every one who writes a Book, invites his Readers to a Feast, and that the Entertainment ought to be suited to the Condition of the Guests; and that the Viands should not only be propor­tionate to the Quality of those that are invited, in the good­ness and plenty of them, but in the Cookery also: And that as the meat ought to be the best of the kind which the purse of the Host can rise unto; so that likewise the dishes and Lin­nen should be clean; and the sawce such as may be both grate­ful to the senses, and whet the Appetite; and not be nause­ous to the Latter, and offensive to the former.

The droppings of a Candle into Cold Water, or the Broth of Fat Bacon may be a delicious pottage, and clean Straw an obliging and well furnished Bed, to a Gypsy or a Com­mon Stroller; but they would not be accounted an Agreeable and a Genteel Diet, nor a decent Accommodation for persons distinguished from the Vulgar as well as above the Indigencies of those who have neither Food nor Harbour, but what are charitably vouchsafed them. And tho Coarseness of Diet served up at Table may be pardonable in a person that pleads penury, albeit it be hardly justifiable to have the Vanity to Invite the most Fashionable of his Friends and Acquaintance to it; yet no man will forgive the mixing of Ratsbane to that degree in his food, as will infallibly poison all that partake of it, unless they have powerfull Antidotes about them, or by a long accustomed Mithridatical diet be habitually and strongly fortified against all Infection. And to use Coarse and Uncomely Language in a discourse directed to people of degree and Gravity, is not only to affront, but to debase them. 'Tis to despise the worth and detract from the value of people of merit and Breeding, for one that hath good Raiment by him, to make them a solemn and Ceremonious visit in Nastiness and Raggs. For tho that Garb may be dispensed with in a Beggar that comes for an Alms, and hath [Page 42] no better cloaths to put on (albeit even in such it is not so much the Poverty of their Weeds as the stench that digu­steth) yet it deserves to be chastized as well as Blamed, when it is found to be worn by any, not out of want, but to shew their own Cynical and Clownish Pride, and the Contempt which they have for their Superiors as well as their Equals. But that which upon this occasion I would more especially Remark, is what Idea Mr. Alsop's writing in this Jocular, wanton, and Impure stile, to Ministers and mem­bers of dissenting Churches, must be thought to give both of the Intectuals and Morals of those Pastors and people. For seeing the size of Men's Vnderstandings, and the Quality of their manners, are more discerned by their Relish and plea­sures, than by any other Diagnosticks whatsoever; it must Consequently proclaim the Presbyterian Teachers, as well as those that sit under their Instruction, to be very ill furnished with good sense, wholly strangers to good Breeding, and vastly removed from Virtuous manners, if the Wit and Language which I am Reflecting upon, can be allowed, or so much as Connived at by them. And whatsoever thoughts they may entertain of themselves, and of one Another; yet I dare say, that upon his alone Test, all they of other perswa­sions will form a judgment of what, little Genteel learning, refined wit, honourable Education, and practical Religion is among them. For if they do but either justify or Excuse, and much more if they find a pleasing Gust and a Relishing savour in the Wit and Language which I have Rehearsed, it will Authorize others to pronounce of them, that they are not only a dull and Insipid sort of people, but that they have neither Grace nor Modesty: And that their Non-con­formity to the Established Worship and Discipline, is not from their being wiser and more Conscientious, than other men, but from their Ignorance Peevishness, and ill humour, if not upon worse Motives. For there is more to affront the [Page 43] minds, shock the Sobriety and Virtue, and to fully and defile the Consciences of men, in this Book of Mr. Alsops than there is either in the Liturgy, Litany, Ceremonies, the three or four scrupled Articles of the Church of England, or in all the Parts and Branches of their disciplinarian and Ecclesiastical Administration. So that the Pastors who meet at St. Hellen's, as likewise their Auditors, must reckon what Character they will undoubtedly lye under, unless by some publick Testi­mony, they declare their Abhorrence of this Buffoonry of wit, and lewdness, as well as petulancy and scurrility of stile. Which whether they will do, by driving the Blown Deer out of the Herd, and by putting the Mangy Sheep apart from the rest, lest the Infection reach unto the whole Flock, or by what other means and methods may be Esteemed most Con­venient for their own Vindication, from all accesson to Mr. Alsops prophaneness of wit, and Impurity of Language; I do Leave to their Consideration at their next meeting. For the Question is not now (at least so far as at this time I hold my self intercessed in it) what Opinions of an Alliance not only with Armimianism, but with Socinianism, some Presbyterians may entertain, nor to what distance they are removed from the commonly received doctrine of protestants; but whether in order to Mr. Alsop's being thought witty and Eloquent, the smuttiness and Impiety of Billingsgate and of the Mounte­banck Stage, are to be received into the Catalogue of their Ministerial perfections, and adopted into the Morality and Manners of the Members of Presbyterian societies. And thus have I at length dispatched the foregoing Accusation against Mr. Alsop, tho with a tediousness that I will not strictly and punctiliously justify, and for the prolixity whereof I design (if it be practicable) a Compensation in my Brevity in those further Impeachments of him, which remain to be Ad­vanced.

[Page 44] I shall now therefore proceed to the charging him with great Insincerity, in what he hath alledged, both in reference to Persons and Things. And without envying him or Mr. Williams the luscious Complements and the lofty Paenegyricks, which they bestow upon one another, but leaving them to the enjoyment of those pleasures which are mutually designed by their Reciprocal Flatteries; I will only affirm that much of what both of them have said, is a disguizing of themselves, and a Misrepresenting of Mr. L. and that their way of writing is Disingenuous, and the matters which they suggest palpably False. And as Mr. Alsop knew Mr. Lobb to be perfectly in­nocent of those things which he Criminally accuseth him of, so the whole he intended by those Imputations, was only to furnish himself with an Occasion and pretence of being Rude and Vnmannerly. As I heartily wish there may not be many Ecclesiasticks in Britrain, in whom is verified the La­tine Adage of Odium Theologicum, i.e. that the Hatred which one Divine bears to another is both more causeless and Implacable, than what is found among others of any Quality, character and denomination soever; so I hope he and his Brother Wil­liams are the only persons, in whom is justified the Italian Proverb of Conscienza di Theologo, namely, that the Conscience of a Theologue, is less than any Man's, under the Confinement of the Rules of Religion, justice, and good manners: It hath been hitherto accounted the duty of every honest man, to speak and write, as he thinks, and believes: And hath been also esteemed a piece of Morality as well as of good Breeding, for a Person that is virtuous or discreet to avoid every officious lye, by which he may serve himself, or create sport to others, and much more to shun a malicious one, tho the Consequence of it be never so Trivial, and that it bring no Considerable Damage upon him that is Slander'd. To throw dirt is a Clownish way of Fighting, and becomes no man that lays claim to the Ability and Art of Weilding a Pen. [Page 45] For one that calls Himself a Scholar, to fasten Opinions upon an Adversary, without other Ground or Reason, save the seeking an occasion of Combating of Him, is nei­ther the part of the Brave or Learned, but of the Coward, the Knave, or the Madman. And the best that will be said of it by the Wise, Virtuous, and Impartial is, that it is only one's buckling on his Armour to Encounter the Wind­mills in his own Brains. Now as to the Insincerity of Mr. Williams, either in his Concealing his own Opinions, or the bringing them forth in Masquerade and Disguise; or in his Transforming and Metamorphosing the Opinions of others into Forms and Shapes, Forreign unto, and specifically dif­ferent from what they are in their Genuine and Nat [...]ral Features; I shall adjourn the consideration of it at this time, intending, if the occasion of it continue, to give him full satisfaction hereafter, with an Allowance of Interest for the forbearance in point of Payment, which I do now demand. But I am told, that the Learned, Grave, plain hearted and upright, Mr. Humphreys, is about saving me and others that Labour, who as he has had better opportu­nities of knowing the Man and his Sentiments, than I will Boast of, so none do understand better than that Ancient Person, how to Disrobe him of his Vizor Mask, and the rest of his Theatrical Habit, and to shew him in his own Colours. For tho' that Ancient and Learned Divine, be himself Guilty of some Aberrations from the commonly received Doctrine of Protestants, yet because of his dissen­ting from others with Meekness, Humility and Modesty in himself, and with respect and deference, as well as with Charity towards them; he is therefore Notwithstanding his Errors, had in all due Esteem and Veneration, even by those that do both most oppose and dislike his Opinions; which are only Accounted the Infirmities of his understand­ings, the mistakes of his Judgment, but no wise the [Page 46] Faults of his will, or the Blemishes of his Conscience. But as to Mr. Alsop's Insincerity; In Relation to what he hath written both of Persons and Things, I do take the Ac­cusing and Reprimanding of Him for it, to fall within the Province which I have undertaken: And which, I shall therefore uncontroulably justify by Quotations out of his own Books. Of this kind is, his Fallely and Maliciously mis-representing, Mr. Lobb, as if he, out of the Account which he gave of the substance of the Gospel, had Expunged Regeneration, Conversion, Repentance, Holiness, Sanctificati­on, a new Heart, new Obedience and Good works; and that he had discarded Faith from any concern in the Justification of a Sinner, and made it unnecessary to our Vnion with Christ, that so we might have an Interest in his Righteousness, p. 4. And that thereupon he is Metamorphosed from an Hy­peraspistes of Truth, into an Hector for the Antinomian Er­rors, so easy is the Conversion of an Hector into a Ranter, p 5. While in the mean time, he knew the whole of this Accu­sation to be Altogether Groundless and purely Romantick, and Consequently to be highly defamatory and Slanderous, and not becoming any one that pretendeth either to Con­science or to Moral Honesty. From which Unchristian, as well as Uncivil and rude Misrepresentation, Mr. Lobb having fully vindicated Himself beyond the possibility of Mr. Alsops replying, tho (I would say of him were he not called a Minister of the Gospel that) his Forehead is Brass double gilt, and his Vnderstanding, as to one great part of it's Function Callous and Dedolent. The whole which re­mains incumbent upon me, will be in a Reflection or two anon, to provide a chain and Muzzle for this Mastiff, and to give him the Correction that is due to one who hath turn'd his study (whatsoever he hath done his Pulpit) into a Calumny office. Of the like Complexion and dye with the foregoing falshood, is that barefaced and Impudent [Page 47] calumniation of all those divines, as well as of Mr. Lobb, who have called Mr. William's Orthodoxy in some parti­culars into Question, which the Reader may find on the File of his Book, p. 35. Where, after his Huffing and Ora­cular manner, and with the assurance of a Knight of the Post, he says, That he is confident that whatever has been the pretence, the real cause of all the Enmity manifested against Mr. Williams's Book of Gospel-Truth, was cheifly, that it gave a Mortal wound to Antinomian Opinions: And that, that is a Crime, which shall never be forgiven him, but Pro­secuted with Vatinian hatred by the Reporter, and all of the same Kidney. Which is, not only an Accusing a Great Number of very Holy and Orthodox Divines (for they are not a few who have testified their dislike of Divine things in that Book of Mr. Williams's) of being tainted with, and Patrons of Antinomianism; But it is the Ar­raigning them as Guilty of the Vilest Hypocrisie, thro' their Alledging other Reasons, as the Motives of their dis­satisfaction with it, when the real cause was it's having gi­ven a Mortal wound to Antinomian Opinions. Nor doth he only hereby pretend to have gotten that Window into other Men's Breasts, which neither King James's Prerogative nor Power could give him in reference to Mr. Alsop's, tho' he Complementally, i. e. deceitfully wished it him; but he hath usurped the Tribunal and Seated himself in the Throne of the Omniscient, thro' assuming to have an Intui­tive knowledge of the Hearts of Men, and to have obtained a view of their Intentions and Thoughts, not only without the assistance of the Mediums and Organs of Intellectual sight; but in despight of, and contradiction unto all the means of Intel­ligence, which God hath furnished us with, and staked us down unto, in our knowing and judging of others. Upon which I will also, en passant, further observe, that it is not one or two of the Congregational Brethren, whom he here accuseth of Antinomianism, but it is the Bulk and Gene­rality [Page 48] of that Party, (tho' he calls Mr. Lob's charging him with it a Nuisance and an Invidious Mis-representation of Him, p. 23) Seeing in a manner the whole Body of the Congregational Ministers, have signified their dissatisfaction with many Notions in that Book of Mr. Williams's. And as for the Complement there, which he bestows upon Ma­ny of those Brethren, of his knowing them to be sound in the Faith, and wholly remote from all Antinomian Tincture, It is all but Banter and Grimace, or if spoken in earnest, doth only shew that the Man was Delirous and Raving, thro' the Height and Power of Distemper, in that he could nei­ther think nor write Coherently, and that his Quarrelling with and contradicting others, is to be the more dispensed with, in that the Nature of his disease will not allow him to agree with himself. The several Paragraphs in his Book are like my Lord Roscommon's Cocks, which tho' rec­koned all of one side, do when taken out of their several and respective Cribs, Encounter and Destroy on another. Nor is he only at Variance and Discord with Himself, by reason, that what he hath written of late in Favour and Vindication of Mr. Williams, is altogether Irreconcileable with what he wrote several years ago in opposition to Dr. Sherlock, and that the two Poles may as soon meet, as what he hath delivered in his Antisozzo then, and now in his Faithful Rebuke and the Vindication of it, be brought to Harmonize and Agree; but in that there are Divers things in each of his late Pamphlets, which are perfectly contradictious and subversive of one another. The Man being of one mind in the Intervals of his Paroxisms, and when under his Lucida; and of another mind, when in his Phrenzy and Fits of Distraction. But to proceed to other Instances of his Insincerity, whereof the next shall be his Accusing of Mr. Lobb, as if he were not now of the same sentiments in several material Points of Theology, [Page 49] which he was heretofore, and that what he asserted and maintained about Seventeen Years ago, in a Book which he then wrote against Antinomianism, call'd, The Glory of Free Grace display'd, were both departed from, and overthrown, in what he hath lately published, as well in his Account, stil'd the Report, as in those Papers, intituled, the Defence of it; and that therefore the Display and the Report could not be in­dited from one Head, nor conceived in one Heart, nor written by one Hand and Pen, p. 25. unless Alteration in Interest, may have warped him; change▪ in Dependencies perverted him; new Friends and Alliances begat in him new Counsels, or an implacable Hatred against Mr. Williams, obliged him to alter his Princi­ples in meer spight, and to face about to the other Extream: And that if they came from the same Mint, the Report has wretchedly clipt what the Display had coyned; and the Display is now splay'd, p. 26, 27. In which Passages, besides the foppish and ridiculous Puns, the nauseous and undesent Drolling, and Fantastick Pedan­try, in his way of expressing himself, there is the height of Insincerity, Detraction, and Calumny. Nor could Mr. Alsop assume this Licentiousness of Traducing him in a matter of such Importance in it self, and whereof the Be­lief, if admitted, must wonderfully hinder the Success of his ministry, without doing Violence to his own Consci­ence, as well as transgressing the Laws both of Justice and Charity. Seeing of all the Pastors in and about the Town, there is not one (and that to Mr. Alsop's own know­ledge) who hath more endeavour'd to put a Discountenance upon all Antinomian Notions, than he hath done. And tho' he can neither apply that Character and Denomina­tion to every one, whom Mr. Williams is pleased so to mis-call, (that he may the better thereby disguise and co­ver his own Vergencies both to Socinianism and Arminia­nism, and weaken their Credit in reference to Accusations of those kinds, which they advance agaist him) nor can [Page 50] pronounce every one to be an Antinomian, who ascribes more to Christ in the Work of Satisfaction, and to his Obe­diential Righteousness in the Justification of Believers, than our new Refiners, upon the Covenant of Works, and of Grace, will allow; yet if a Judgment may be formed of him, either by his Books which I have read, or by his Sermons, whereof I have had particular Accounts convey'd to me by those that attend upon them, or by his Oral Dis­courses, both in the Assemblies of Ministers; and in more private Conversation there is not one, either of the Ecclesia­stical Order, or of the number of Laicks, Professors of the Chri­stian Religion in this Nation, who is less Tinctur'd with an Antinomian Dye, or at a farther Distance from approving their foppish, unreasonable, and Anti-Evangelical Tenets, than Mr. Lobb, both is, and hath always been known to be: whereof Mr. Alsop was not only fully inform'd by others, as appears from what he hath recorded in his own Book, p. 37. of a Friend of his, and Mr. L. telling him that the Author of the Report was no more an Antinomian than himself; but he was likewise abundantly convinced of it in his own Conscience, as well thro an antient and long Familiarity, which they had together, as by a Perusal of what he had declared in all his publick Writings. So that neither his Acknowledgment, P. 43. that Mr. Lobb is now become more Orthodox, than when he wrote his Report. Now his having said, P. 37. That his Charity inclined him to think he was no Antinomian, will not in the least extenuate, but does rather greatly aggravate and enhance the Guilt of the foremen­tion'd Defamatory Slander. And what he there delivers as an Apology, is a proof of his Criminalness. Seeing his Al­legation of his preaching one thing, and printing another; of his being one Man in the Pulpit, and another from the Press, &c. is not only gross Calumny towards Mr. Lobb, but pure Ficti­on [Page 51] in Mr. Alsop's Interest, and is at present his Duty, to consider to whom the Character and Denomination doth belong, of being [...], the Accuser of the Bre­thren; which Title seems to be ascrib'd unto the Devil in the Place which I have my Eye upon, because of the many false and flanderous Accusations fastned upon the Christians, under the Pagan Persecutions, of which they were altoge­ther innocent; so he ought to dread the Fate to which Back­biters, Lyars, and Slanderers, are adjudged both in the De­cree, and in the Judicial Sentence of the Righteous God. Nor possibly should I in any measure depart from Moral Truth, if I should both suspect and pronounce Mr. Alsop's Book to have been stuff'd with those defamatory Slanders of the Congregational Brethren, and written with that Acri­mony and Malice, which appear in every Page of it, in prospect of, and in subserviency to the raising a Persecution against them, which some Men's Counsels, as well as Hearts, are pregnant with, whensoever, thro' the Favour and Assi­stance of the Latitudinarian Divines of the Church of England; they can obtain a Comprehension, and be placed on the same Bot­tom, in relation to Parochial Settlements and Emoluments, with those of the Establish'd way, of which they were then full of Hopes, as well as diligent in their Endeavours to compass. But if the [...],, or he, who contrary to his own Knowledge, shall teach or write what is of no o­ther Tendency; but to make a Schism, Division, and mis­understanding in Churches, and among Believers, ought to be rejected, or mark'd out as a Person, neither fit for Civil Familiarity, nor for Church Communion, much less for a Station in the Ecclesiastical Office, we may thereupon ea­sily conclude how the Presbyterian Ministers that assemble at St. Hellens, ought to behave themselves towards Mr. Alsop, and by what Marks of Censure they should distinguish him [Page 52] from the rest of that Society, that he may be so known, as at the least to be shunn'd and avoided, unless they will partake of other Men's Sins, and come under the Guilt, as well as be involv'd under the Ignominies of all the Petu­lancies, Scurrilities, Impurities, Misrepresentations, and Slanders, &c. which he hath vented against Holy, Learn­ed, and Faithful Ministers of the Gospel, without either Ground or Provocation, save what the asserting receiv'd Doctrines of Faith, with Pastoral Fidelity, and Christian Zeal, yet at the same time, with the Modesty and good Manners of Scholars and Gentlemen, hath given and ad­ministred.

Now tho' there remain many other very remarkable Instances of his Insincerity, in misrepresenting his Adversa­ries, without any just Cause given by them, and contrary to the practical Dictamen of his own Understanding, I shall with reference to Matter of Theology, take notice of one more: And that is about Christ's having in his Suffering what the Sanction of the Law made the punishment due to Sin, sustained the Person of those Sinners whom he intentionally died to redeem and save, and in whose room and stead, pursuant to the Covenant of Redemption, he substituted himself, to undergo whatsoever was essentially imported in the threat­ning, unto the Execution, whereof they were become ob­noxious. And tho' I have suggested this in a Line or two already, yet it is of that Importance in it self, and gives such a fair and ample Occasion of detecting the Medisance, and scarcely to be paralell'd slandrous Faculty of Mr. Alsop, that I do think it my Indispensible Duty, both to re-assume and enlarge upon it. And as it was never pleaded by Mr. Lobb, that the foremention'd Phrase was Litterally and Syllabically Canonical; so it implies either the grossest Ig­norance, or the highest Impudence, to suppose it to have been [Page 53] at first invented, or that it hath been peculialy used by the Antinomians: Seeing it owes its Original and its Adoption into these Controversies, to Writers of the best Character for Learning and Piety, that the Reformed Churches could ever boast of. And as the declared Opposition made by the Socinians, to the Satisfaction of Christ (unless taken in a me­taphorical Sense) and the Fraudulency of some Arminians, both in enervating the meaning of it; and in the pervert­ing and mis-expounding it to other ends, than those for which it was requir'd of the Father, and undertaken and perform'd by the Son, gave the first Rise to the Mintage and Currency both of this and other Phrases, as those that are judg'd ex­treamly subservient to the Vindication of that Glorious Truth, and very useful both to cover it from the Attacques of Adversaries, and to convey the meaning, Relief and Comfort of it, to the minds of Believers; so it is as demonstrable as any Probleme in Euclide, that neither Mr. Lobb, nor any Person of Eminency among the Congregational Ministers, have other­wise paraphras'd, expounded, or applied it, than as its com­mon Signification, Importance, Service and Use, have been stated aud derived unto them in the most celebrated Wri­ings, both Dogmatical and Controversial, of the chief Divines in the Reformed Churches. So that it may give matter of Astonishment, with what Insincerity, or from what prodigi­ous Ignorance Mr. Alsop doth to that degree of Prophaneness and Drollery, declaim against, and endeavour to expose the Phrase, as if wholly new, and indebted both for its Coynage, and its Denization in these Controversies, to a few English Writers of the Congregational Perswasion, that are but of Yesterday, whereas it hath been Naturaliz'd, Legitimated, and made Authentick, by the most famous Theologues that ever appear'd in the Polemick Field, either against those of the Cracovian Belief, or Arminius and his Disciples. But that I may not be thought to misrepresent him, while I am in­diting [Page 54] him of that Crime, in reference to others. I will for the rendring his defamatory Insolence, in what he im­putes to Mr. Lobb, and to others of the Congregational way, evident beyond all reasonable Opposition and Controul. And for the justifying my own Integrity in what I accuse him of, lest he should compare me to the Chaplain of the Copper-Mines in Sweden, as he hath done Mr. Lobb, p. 87. of his Vindica­tion, &c. (whereas of all Men he has himself the best Right to that Title and Character, and in which Office I know none that are desirous to supplant him, or who pretend to Rival him in Qualifications for the Imploy) I will, I say, call over some Passages in his own Books; his Face, Fea­tures, and the Complexion of his Mind being drawn there in the liveliest Colours, and set in the most advantageous Light, for those to view him, who take Pleasure in mon­strous and deformed Sights: whereof the first shall be that, p. 10. of his Faithful Rebuke to a false Report, where he tells us, that as the Phrase is new and uncouth, so it seems to him unintelligible. In reference whereunto, it were no Uncha­ritableness to suppose that he accounteth it to be so, upon the like Motives which the Socinians and Arminians do, who do not reckon it Vnintelligible, because of any Abstruseness in the Phrase, but for the sake of the Truth which it Em­phatically expresseth. Nor is the calling it new, the worst he thinks fit to say of it, and therefore he adds, p. 11. ibid. That it is a Phrase to puzzle and confound Men's Vnderstanings; and p. 13. an Arbitrary Term, only fit to beget Blunder and Con­fusion; and p. 53. ubi supra, that to sustain the Person of Sin­ners is an Anglicism, and that it will not endure to shew its Face in some other of the Learned Languages; and to say Christ did sustinere personam Alterius; is to say, That he wore the Mask, the Vizor, the Disguise of Sinners, and that he was Per­sonatus Histrio, like a Stage-Player, that puts on the Person of a King, when indeed he is but some sorry Fellow: To which [Page 55] Expressions concerning it in his Faithful Rebuke, (whereof also I have remitted the Repetition of many) there are divers in his Vindication of the like Stamp with them, as being all Forged in the same Mint. As namely that, p. 54. It ne­ver had its Signification fixt and stated by a Competent Autho­rity: The Trumpet gives an uncertain Sound, and that if they must subscribe, it must be with an Implicite Faith in its own good meaning; and that he fears that the Notion of Christ's su­staining our Person in his suffering for our Sins, which Mr. Lobb and others do play withal, should in time become the Test of the Faith of sound Protestants, and all shall be damned that cannot subscribe the Antinomian Creed. Whereunto may be added what we met with in p. 93. ubi supra, viz. That it is a Phrase of a dark and dubious meaning, and as the Words seem to sound of dangerous Design and Tendency; by which, nothing else can honestly and truly be meant, but that it is of an evil and fatal Consequence, in reference to the overthrowing the Notions of the Socinians and Arminians, which out of Respect to Mr. Williams, if not to Himself, he is very sorry for. And of Affinity to the foremention'd Expressions, is that which occurs p. 97. of the same Book, where he tells us, that it is inept and improper to convey to our Vnderstanding the Truth of Christ's having died for our Sins: whereas much wi­ser and far more learned Men than he, i. e. All the great Divines, who have written with Irrefragable Strength, and with exact Accuracy on the Subject of Christ's Satisfaction, have judg'd it the aptest and properest Phrase, which in or­der to that end, they could fall upon. And to all the fore­going rude and unmannerly Misrepresentations of it, may be subjoyned that Expression, p. 99. ubi supra, that it is a Phrase which carrieth an odd sound, and syncretizeth with the Nestorian Gibberish, there having been a Crew of lewd Hereticks, who affirmed that Christ took on him the Person of Sinners, and these from the first Author and Founder of their Sect were called [Page 56] Nestorians, who maintain'd that Christ was constituted of two Persons; the one the Eternal [...], who did assume the other an Humane Person that was assumed. Which meerly to have cited, is enough to shew that the Man is Lunatick and Di­stracted, as well as childishly, foolish, and grosly ignorant. For without a large measure of the latter, and being very much affected with the former, he could never have written in this Nonsensical and Phrentick manner. For to imagine that Christ's sustaining in his Sufferings the Person of the Elect, or of such as either hid or should afterward believe, is co­incident with, or of any Alliance to Nestorianism, shews that after all his Pretensions to modern and antient Learning, he knows not what Nestorianism is, or that he hath both forfeit­ed his Understanding, and bid adieu to Conscience. Seeing whatsoever the Opinion of Nestorius himself was, concern­ing which I shall not now enquire, and much less reflect upon Cyrill and others, who are thought by some to have misunderstood or misrepresented him, it is certain that what was condemned as Nestorianism in the General Council of Ephe­sus, Anno 428. was, that the second Person of the Trinity, the Eternal [...] took an entire Humane Person, and not meerly the Humane Nature into Union with his Divine Person; and that he was constituted not of two Natures, whereof the Humane being taken into Union with the second Person of the Trinity, without any Personal Subsistence of its own Di­stinct, from that of the Eternal [...], subsisted by Perso­nality of the Son of God; but that he was constituted of two Essential distinct natural Persons. Now how Christ's stand­ing in the room and stead, and sustaining the Person of the Elect in his suffering for them as their Surety, should come to be compared with, or paralell'd unto Nestorianism; and thereupon expos'd to Ridicule, and rejected as Heretical, I think no Man, who is not depriv'd of Reason and common Sense, will presume to understand. Nor would any, save [Page 57] one beyond the Relief of Hellebore, have had the madness to have fancied or said it. For as the Orthodox by believ­ing and declaring that the [...] took a singular and individual Humane Nature of the same Species with ours, i. e. A true Body and a reasonable Soul into Union with his Divine Per­son; never meant that he took an Humane Person into that Union; but that the Nature which he assumed, subsisted by the [...] of the Son of God; so the very Nestorians, who held that the second Person of the Trinity took an Individual Humane Person, i. e. an Humane Nature, with its proper, na­tural and peculiar Subsistence into Union with his Divine Per­son, were never so nonsensical and delirious, as to dream, and much less to say that he took the Persons of all the Elect into a natural, Physical, or Hypostatical Union with himself, as he was the Eternal Son of God.

To which may be added, as that which is further detective of Mr. Alsop's prodigious Ignorance, or his impresidented In­sincerity, that the Phrase of Christ's sustaining the Person of the Elect upon the Reasons, and for the Purposes already mention'd, was never intended to denote a Personal Union, whether Physical or Hypostatical between Him and Them; but meerly a Moral and Legal. Nor was it ever used to sig­nifie and express more than what he did for them in a Juri­dical Construction; namely, that thro' being their Surety, he represented and became one with them in Conspectu Fori; and that thro' standing in their room and stead, he had the Guilt of their Sins imputed to Him, and suffer'd both in their place, and underwent whatsoever was Primarily in­tended, and Essentially comprehended in the Sanction of the Law; to which, they, thro' a Violation of the Preceptive part of it, were become Obnoxious. That is, to use the Language and Stile of Foreign Divines, least I should be thought to utter Anglicisms, or to vent what slanderous Per­sons may call Crispianism. Christum ut sponsorem foederis, pec­cata [Page 58] nostra sibi a Deo imposita suscepisse, at (que) sua fecisse, ut pro nobis peccatum i.e. peccator factus sit in Dei Judicio; & quia pec­catum factus pro nobis, factus quo (que) sit Execratio vi Legis, cui se nostro nomine subjecit. nam is vice & loco alterius moritur, quo mortuo alter mortuus Censetur in Judicio. Cloppenb. de Christ. Servat. Thess. 14. 15. i. e. That Christ as Surety of the Cove­nant, having our Sins imputed to, and charged upon him by God, undertook to bear and answer for them, as if they had been his own; and that being made Sin; i. e. a Sinner in the Judicial Estimate of God (viz. by Imputation) he thereupon became a Curse by virtue of the Sanction of the Law, to which he had sub­jected Himself in our Name and Stead; For he only dies in the place and room of another, in, by, and thro' whose Death that other is accounted in a Legal and Juridical Sense to have died. And that, Christus quatenus pro nobis sponsor erat, omnium Salvan­dorum personam sustinebat, ac pro us omnem justitiam Legis im­plevit, partim in ferendis poenis peccatorum, et subeundo poenas condignas quas lex dei a nobis peccatoribus exigebat, partim implendo pro us omnem justitiam legis, quam lex exigebat, sed quam illi implere non poterant. Voet. Select. par. 2. p. 22. i.e. Christ, as he was our Surety, sustained the Person of all that are to be saved, and did in their Behalf, and for them, fulfill all the Righteousness of the Law, partly thro' his undergoing the pu­nishment which the Law denounced against, and exacted of them as Sinners; and partly thro his performing the whole Preceptive part of the Law, which was required of us, but which we could not accomplish and discharge. To which, I will only subjoyn one Passage more out of the Dogmatica and Elenctica of the late Pious and Eminent Hornbeek, in his Textuary Discourse on 1 John 2. 2. where shewing that Christ is not the Propi­tiation for the Sins of the whole World, either in the Arminian or in the Amyraldian and Baxterian Sense, he useth this Ar­gument; Pro quibus Christus satisfecit, eorum personam susti­nuit, at personam Reproborum, aeterntum damnandorum, & pere­undorum, Christus non tulet, &c. Miscell. Sacr. Par. 2. p. 396. [Page 59] That all for whom Christ satisfied he sustained their Person; but that the Person of the Reprobate, and of those that were to perish, and to be Eternally damned, he did not sustain, Ergo. So that thro' what I have cited out of these three Eminent Divines, who were no ways inclined to Antinomianism, and who were certainly of as vast Lection, and as great Theological Lit­terature, as any this Age hath produced, and its being com­par'd with what hath been also quoted out of Mr. Alsop, it may be very justly question'd whether his Ignorance, his Insincerity, or his Prophaneness, be most to be blamed, all three being both so signal and so obvious. And it were well, if the chief thing he were impeachable for, were his Ignorance, tho' that in a matter of this Nature, would not only lessen his Reputation as a Scholar, and degrade him from being a competent Writer of Theological Books, but unqualifie him to be a Minister of the Gospel, and from ha­ving the Inspection and Instruction of a Church. But it was not so much thro' Ignorance, as thro' Insincerity, that he hath belched forth those many rude and unmannerly, as well as false and slanderous Expressions and Things, which I have now call'd over. For as if he took it for a Diminution of his Worth, and an affront to his Dignity, that any save Himself should have the Priviledge of exposing Him, and of shewing with what Knavery he writes (pardon the term, by reason the Penury of our Language is such, that it affords not a milder nor a genteeler upon the Occasion and Provocation) for he doth not only in several Places acknow­ledge that the Phrase is capable of a good Sense; but that it had been used by Divines of the highest Character in the Reformed Churches. Only that his Sophistry and Prevari­cation may be no less apparent when he is forced to con­fess a Truth, than when he Invents a Fable, and Coins a Lye, he assumes the Confidence to say, That its being used was be­fore the Antinomian Heresies were broached, and that from [Page 60] thence some of our Protestant Divines might overlash a little in some Phrases, as not dreaming of Saltmarsh or Crisp; and that it was in their Polemicks they talk'd thus, and not in Articles of Faith; and that they talk at this rate when they were fight­ing, and not uniting; and that none of them give any Reason for their using the Phrase, but run away with it as a word of course; and that Mr. Lobb's Lumber of Modern Testimonies, as if the Cause were to be pressed to Death with Number, and not with Weight, doth only prove those Learned Divines to have been of this Faith; that Christ died in our stead, but that Christ in his Death sustained the Person of Sinners (for so he should have worded it, would he have been sincere and ingenious) was necessary to the Explication or Confirmation of that Truth they prove not, p. 104, 105. and 96 of his Vindic. and with re­spect to all which Exceptions, I do boldly, because knowing­ly affirm, that he doth not only shamefully mistake in all, and in every one of the foremention'd Matters of Fact, but that contrary to the Light of his Mind, and the Conviction of his Conscience, he falsifieth and prevaricates in them out of Choice and Design. Seeing if ever he had a quarter of that Learning which Himself pretendeth to, and which o­thers have allow'd him, it is impossible but he should know, that as the Broaching the Antinomian Heresies was of a far older date, than the using of that Phrase was by most, or any of those Divines, whom Mr. Lobb hath quoted, and much more, long before Saltmarsh and Dr. Crisp were heard of; so he cannot without great and reproachable Unacquaintance with Theological and Ecclesiastical Writers, be ignorant that it hath been used by divers learned Persons, who have actually, and upon Design, employ'd their Pens against Antinomianism: And that tho it is not [...] in Creeds and Confessions (whereof I have assigned the Reason before) yet it hath been employed both in Dogmatical and Controversial Writings a­gainst the Socinians and others, towards the Defence and Vin­dication [Page 53] of the most momentous Articles of the Christian Faith: And that upon no lesser Motives, than that the wisest and best Propugnators of the Orthodox Doctrine, thought them hardly either vindicable or explicate without it. And for justifying the Truth of every particular which I have now alledg'd, I do pledge and lay my Word to pawn, that I shall be ready to demonstrate all the foregoing Heads, whensoever Mr. Alsop shall judge it his Interest to call for it. But which I think may be very well adjourn'd at this time, both as being alien from my present Undertaking, and because it would oblige me to enlarge this Letter far­ther than is comely and convenient in it self, or is any ways necessary in a Matter wherein none that are, or have been conversant in Theological Studies, can want or need Infor­mation. I will not add further with what Insincerity, but with what Forehead could Mr. Alsop, with all the petulant and foolish Drollery, first expose and ridicule a Phrase, which not only the greatest Men in the Reformed Church­es have used with so much Seriousness, and upon the most Important Service, and for the weightiest Reasons, but for the Lampooning whereof, he himself is forc'd at last to make an Excuse and Apology, by retreating to those weak and fabulous Pretences, which I have repeated out of his Book. Surely, either his Pride or his Malice have so Tin­ctur'd both his Mind and his Conscience, that he can nei­ther write with Truth, Integrity, nor Discretion. For were he not either abandon'd to a Reprobate Mind (i.e. an empty, unprofitable, prostituted, and an embased Under­standing) or perfectly delirous, he would not instead of furnishing us with reasonable, just, and coherent Thoughts, obtrude upon us what is either Scandalous and Impure, or Chymerical, Fabulous and Romantick. But that which is more to be detested, than even his Insincerity, is that he not only turns every thing, how Sacred soever, into Droll and Ban­ter; [Page 54] but that with a Prophaneness, not to be exceeded, and hardly to be paralell'd among the most Atheistical Debau­chees, or the highest Ranters, he Ridicules and Lampoons one of the most material Doctrines of Faith. For to say, That our Lord Jesus Christ thro' sustaining the Person of the Elect in his Sufferings, which is but the Equivalent (tho' a little more Emphatically expressed for the Vindication of the Truth and Reality of his Satisfaction against the Soci­nians, who deny it, and the Arminians, who both supplant and pervert it) of his dying in our room, was Histrio personatus. Like a Stage-player, that puts on the Person of a King, when indeed he is but some sorry Fellow; is a Blasphemy beyond the Chastisement of the Pen, and ought to be punish'd by the Publick Rods. And for the Brethren at St. Hellens, to connive at this Impious Jeer and Sarcasm, will be construed by the Sober and Impartial part of Mankind as an Approv­ing of it. Yea, if they suffer it to escape their Pastoral Censure, it will be fit to bring it under the Animadversion and Discipline of the Law. For Blasphemy is no less ut­ter'd and communicated in an Allusion, than if it were ex­press'd in plain and direct Terms. And to be patient and modest in such a Case, is neither Religion nor good Man­ners, but Treachery to our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the Souls of Men. Could he not be contented to be a Dissem­bler, an Histrio, a Stage-Player, a Perkin Warbeck himself, in all the Characters he bears, and the Imployments which he lays claim unto; but must he in a way of Licentious and Impious Wit, transform our Blessed Lord in the Solemn Work of Redemption into such an one? It will be highly Righteous, and is therefore greatly to be feared, that he who turns, Christ's sustaining the Person of those whom he died to save, into a Jest, will be left in Earnest to bear both the Guilt and Punishment of his own Crimes. For our Lord Jesus Christ, being (even as our Mediator and Surety) pro­posed [Page 55] as the Object of our Adoration; he cannot without the highest Blasphemy, be made the Subj [...]ct of our wanton Sport. And his having done and suffer'd all that was Incumbent upon, and demanded of Him as our [...], ought to be entertain'd and rely'd upon with a firm Belief, and hum­ble Thankfulness; and not to be thus Atheistically Ridcul'd and Lampoon'd.

But that I may not pursue the Accusation of Insincerity, wherewith I have charged him, to that Extent and Prolixity that I might, and for which he hath afforded me plentiful Matter, whereupon to found several other Examples and Instances of it, I will therefore, both to save him the being further expos'd, and made infamous, and to spare my self the unsafe, as well as unpleasant Labour of Dissecting a Cor­rupt, if not an Infectious Body, give only one Example more of it; and that in another kind of Learning▪ where­in his weak and ignorant Admirers will have him to be ad­mirably qualified. For whereas he has the Vanity himself to set up, not only for an excellent Grammarian, but for an exact and wonderful Philologist, and is highly worshipp'd, and hath a great Veneration paid him upon that Account by Mr. Williams, who can neither speak nor write Syntaxical Latin, if he can so much as understand a common Roman Author, not to put him upon the difficulty of Relishing Ci­cero, I shall therefore shew him to be either a Dunce in that kind of Learning, or that his Conscience and Understand­ing are not at an Accord. In that he either ignorantly per­verts a common Latin Passage from the true Sense of it, or with his Customary Insincerity, doth contrary to his Know­ledge mis-represent its meaning. The Passage which I do refer unto is that of Milton's upbraiding Salmasius for his say­ing, De parricidio in persona Regis admisso; and Milton's ad­ding thereupon, Quid quaeso est parricidium in persona Regis admittere? Quid in persona Regis? Quae unquam Latinitas sic [Page 56] locuta est? Nisi aliquem nobis Pstudo-Philippum narras, &c. From which Expression Mr. Alsop took occasion for the raising and supporting all the Impious Banter, and Athei­stical Drollery, for which I have lately called him to an Account; whereas it's most probable that Mr. Milton quarrell'd not with Salmasius about the Word Persona, with Respect to its having a Natural and Proper, as well as a Tropical Signification; but that his Satyrical Reflecti­on against that great Philologist and Critick, was rather for his having used the Ablative Case, Persona, in the Room of the Accusative, Personam, which Milton seems to have fancied he ought to have used. For, though he could not but know that a Persona in the Nominative, might and usually did admit a Natural Signi­fication, yet it's most likely he imagin'd that it neither did nor could do so▪ as it is there used by Salmasius in the Abla­tive. And from thence it was that he Construed, Persona, in the Ablative, not to signifie a Rightful and Legal King, but a Tyrant, there upon adding Tyrannus enim qnasi Histri­onalis quidam Rex, Lurva tantum & Persona Regis, non versus Rex est. Now whereas Mr. Lobb had given this Answer to Mr. Alsop upon his having on this supposed Authority of Miltons so prophanely Banter'd upon the Word Persona, as used in Reference to Christ's Represent­ing and Standing in the Room of the Elect in His Sufferings: The Reply which this Wanton Buffoon and Ignorant Fop makes is, Risum teneatis, was any thing spoken more Ridi­culously; in that Mr. Milton had no quarrel with Salmasius about the Case, but Exagitates the Phrase as improper and unbecoming so great a Grammarian as Salmasius had then the Vogue for in the Learned World. Vindicat. &c. p. 111, 112. Whereas notwithstanding both the positiveness and the huffing of this Haughty Man, the Answer that was given to Mr. Alsop by Mr. Lobb is the very same with [Page 67] one of the Answers which Salmasius gives in his Reply (Pub­lished by his Son) to Mr. Milton. For having proved by many Instances that Persona is often taken by and used in the Best Authors, in a Proper and Natural Sense, and not always in a Figurative and Tropical, as Splendida Per­sona in Celsus, for one in Eminent Dignity, Persona Imperato­ris in Aemylius probus, to signifie the Emperour; non qualis cunque Persona Testimonii pondus habet, that every Mans Disposition is not of Credit, in Cicero; parcere Personis, dicere de vitiis, to spare Mens Persons when we speak of their Faults, according to the common Gnomon; Mea & Tua Persona pro Ego & Tu, My Person and Yours, for I and You; Persona pupilli & Tutoris, among the Civilians, for the Guar­dian and the Pupil; Personales Actiones in the Law, Actions which affect the Persons of Men in Contradistinction from Rules which affect only their Goods and Estates, &c. I do say, that after Salmasius had alledged all that I have now mention'd, in Justification of his having used the Word Persona, in a Proper Sense (whereunto it were Easy to Multiply Hundreds of Testimonies more Omitted by him, were it not both Pedantick and needless) he adds, that Milton's Accusing him of Barbarism, because of the Foremen­tioned Expression, was, Fortassean quod non dixerit Salma­sius in Personam Regis admissum parricidium, sed in Perso­na, perhaps because he had used the Term in the Ablative and not in the Accusative. Upon which that Great Philologist proceeds to Expose as well as also Reprimand him, in say­ing, O Barde, Ludimagistrum veterem redi, ut discas quid sit Latine Loqui, Get thee Fool back to thy School-Master, and under the Ferula, that thou maist Learn what it is to speak Latin. And to Expose Milton's Ignorance, he sub­joyns divers Testimonies out of Classick Authors, in which the Ablative is used in the Sense that he had Imployed it. As, in Persona errare pro circa Personam; in puella pallere: [Page 68] And that of Virgil speaking of Achilles, non talis in hoste fuit Priamo. So that the O Barde, thou Fool, whereof Mr. Alsop is so liberal to Mr Lobb, p. 112. ubi supra, falls to his own share, and comes in with his many other good Quali­ties to make a part of his Character. Nor ought I to omit here further to Observe, because it shews the Ignorance or the Insincerity of the Man beyond all possibility of Contra­diction, how he either Misunderstands or Perverts the design of Salmasius's saying to Milton, O Barde! Through affirming that the whole which Salmasius intended, was to reject the supposal with Scorn and Indignation, that he should be thought to have mistaken the Ablative for the Accusative. Ibid. Where­as it was no part of his Intention to Excuse himself from a Mistake of that Nature, in that he very well knew that he had Written, as according to Patterns set him in the best Roman Authors, tho he both might and ought, but the whole of his Intention was to Ridicule Mr. Milton for quarrelling with it as a Barbarism, when indeed it was rather an Elegancy. However upon the whole Mr. Alsop appears no less Ignorant and Ridiculous, in his affirming the Word Person to signifie only a Larva, one under a Mask or Dis­guise, like the Personae Dramatis, the Comedians upon a Stage, who Counterfeit Persons whom they neither really, nor Juridically, or Legally are; and that Persona, & Perso­nam Sustinere, dare not shew their Face in any Learned Lan­guage, in another Sense; than Salmasius pronounceth Mr. Mil­ton to have taken it, in his Requiring an Accusative when an Ablative was as Rhetorical, but the Impiety of Mr. Alsop is glaring and unpardonable, to have upon no other Occasion, than a Grammatical Scuffle between two Learned Men, who Extreamly valued themselves upon their understanding the Proprieties and Elegancies of the Latine Tongue, and who sought all Advantages, for Depressing, and lessening one anothers Esteem, with respect to their knowledge in that Language. I say, to have upon no other Occasion run into [Page 69] those Excesses of Ribaldry, Lampoon and Blasphemy, which he hath done in his Assimilating Christ's sustaining the Per­son of the Elect in his Sufferings, to an Actor on a Theatre, who assumes the personating of another upon Mo­tive of Profit, and for no other end (besides his own In­terest) than to give Sport and Diversion. And as for the Character he gives Mr. Milton of having been a Person, whose excellent Latin, Terse and Smooth, has recommended his Stile to all that understand the Language; it is that which I am not much concern'd, nor at leisure now largely to dis­pute with him: But with respect to what his Religion was, I have convincing Reasons to induce me to believe he was an Arrian. And as his Principles of Faith (on that Hypo­thesis, which I shall be ready to justifie when lawfully call'd to it) oblig'd him both to deny the Deity, and the Satis­faction of Christ; so it is the less to be wonder'd at, that he took all Opportunities to expose and ridicule (considering withal the Satyrical Genius and Temper of the Man) what­soever he found made use of to explain and vindicate the Doctrine of the Orthodox in either of those Articles. But that Mr. Alsop should borrow and take up his Sarcasms upon the Fundamentals of our Christian Faith, and improve them into Ribaldry, Blasphemy, and Burlesque, (which as those times would not bear in any, so Mr. Milton had more Dis­cretion than to attempt it) would be somewhat surprizing, were not the Man distracted; and whosoever is so, may even renounce Christ and the Gospel, as well as slan­der and revile his Brethren, without the being held or pu­nish'd as a Criminal. Seeing such as are Lunatick are alike uncapable of Moral, as of Civil Government, and not to be restrain'd by Laws, but by Fetters and Chains. Tho' it is nevertheless observed of mad Men, that they are much the same in their Paroxisms of Phrensie, what they were in the Moral and Political Complexions of their Minds before, (wit­ness [Page 70] among a thousand others, Oliver's Porter) tho' they had the Art and Hypocrisie to cover and conceal it. But as to Mr. Milton's having been a compleat Master in the Latin Tongue, I will not (as I just now said) be so injurious to the Reputation of his Memory, as to endeavour with any In­dustry or Zeal to detract from his Character in that parti­cular. Tho' it were not difficult to cite several Passages out of his Defensio pro populo Anglicano, (which is the Book upon a Paragraph, whereof Mr. Alsop superstructs his Athe­istical Prophanations, in reference to our Saviour, and his Redemption of Sinners) that are so far from being Elegant, that they are not true nor proper Latin. Such are his Mo­do Aures teretes habent & doctas, Provided they have accurate and learned Ears. For modo habeant. Fastigio turgere, to be swell'd with, and elevated thro Pride, pro Fastu. Ne ex la­chrimis micam salis posse exprimi; that a Grain of Salt cannot be extracted out of Tears: For guttam or guttulam, a Drop. Exiguissimam the least, which is no Latin word, for Exiguam. Stipe Contentum esse, to be satisfied with an Alms; for Stipen­dio, a Sallary or Reward; and Denarium illud, which is a gross Solloecism; for Illum, that Penny. Besides many more, which I have not Time, nor will be so uncivil as to take no­tice of. Neither will I say that these Mistakes, whither Bar­barisms or Soloecisms, do in the least hinder Mr. Milton from being very justly esteem'd an excellent Latinist, seeing the Politest Writers in that Language are sometimes subject to Faults of the like kind. So that even Strada, who was un­doubtedly one of the most Elegant Writers in the Latin Tongue, which any of the latter Ages have produced, could not escape being severely exposed, as well as Animadverted upon by Sciopius, in a Book which that ill-natur'd and snar­ling Critick intituled, Infamia famiani stradae. And if it should in the Event prove, that it was not for Mr. Miltons having been an Arrian (tho' that People's Theological System is [Page 71] in all things more Coherent in it self, and in some not so de­tractive from our Lord Jesus Christ, nor so contradictious to the Scripture in divers Particulars, as that of the Socinians is) why Mr. Alsop doth so esteem and admire him, and gather up the most Ulcerous and Infective part of his Writings, with greater Lusciousness than the Poets are said to have lick'd Homer's Spittle; yet if Mr. Milton had two other Qualities, that reconcile him to Mr. Alsop's Veneration, and which encourage him both to borrow from, and imitate him. One was, his having been the most Satyrical and Sar­castical Writer of this Age; who never cared whether what he said of an Adversary was either true or civil, provided it was but picquant and biting: And who never govern'd himself towards those that had wrote against him, by the Maxims and Rules either of Religion, or of Moral Decency, but by Principles of Haughtiness, Indignation, and Revenge, whereof both his Defensio pro populo Anglicano, against Sal­masius, and his Defensio pro seipso, against Morus, (not to mention other of his Books) are as well shameful as un­controulable Evidences. The other was his having been the most malicious and virulent Antimonarchical Writer in Bri­tain, and the greater Zealot for Democracy. For which, I suppose he has the more Incense offer'd to his Memory by Mr. Alsop, and the sweeter Flowers strowed upon his Grave. Which I doubt not but Mr. Alsop, with the same Faecility, and the like Artifices of Sophistry can reconcile, both to his having taken the Oath of Allegiance to his present Majesty, as Rightful Soveraign and King, and to his having subscrib'd the Association, as he can bring his Antisozzo to harmonize, and to be in Alliance and Confederacy with his Faithful Re­buke, and his Vindication of it. All that I will further add in reference to Mr. Alsop's transferring a Passage out of Mil­ton (and that both wonderfully mistaken, misapplied, and blasphemously improv'd by him, and in which Mr. Milton [Page 72] also grosly erred) upon a Subject, where, tho Raillery was not decent, yet it was not Impious, into a Theological Dis­course about an Important Article of Faith, and his perver­ting it there to the height of Prophaneness, is, that the man will be beholding to any Authors whatsoever, and readily borrow from them; yea, be thankful to the Chaplain of the Copper-mines in Sweden, for his Aid and Assistance, (with whom, having brought him into an Ecclesiastical Office, I do reckon he purposeth to cultivate a Friendship and Cor­respondence) in order to his being enabled to be Irreligi­ously Witty. Nor are his many Puns, Quibbles, Jests, Drolleries and Sarcasms, wherewith his late Books are plentifully enrich'd, any thing else, save the most Immo­rall and Libertine Scraps of the worst Plays, and the greatliest offensive Recrements of the Mountebank's Stage, which he hath borrow'd and transplanted thence, and grafted into his Theo­logical Writings, and his Divinity Lectures to make himself e­steem'd a Jocular, Divertive, and Witty Author, whereas in reality they do only serve to proclaim him a pittiful Jack-Pudding, and an Insolent Buffoon, who hath neither Grace nor good manners.

Having dispatch'd all that I intended upon the Head of Mr. Alsop's Insincerity, in what he writes, both of Persons and Things; and having interwoven some Reflections upon that way, manner, and method of Writing, as I found them agreeable and pertinent to the several and respectful Instan­ces I have alledged in Justification of that Charge, all that now remains in reference to this Branch of my Letter, ad­dressed unto you, Reverend Pastors, and Brethren of the Con­gregational Perswasion, is by a very few general Reflections, (which I promised as Muzzel to this Molossus) to lay open the Hurt and Mischief, as well as the moral Criminalness of it.

[Page 73] In the First Place then, It is a high Affront to the Al­mighty God, who being Himself Essentially Veracious, Im­printed it Originally as a Dictamen Natural upon our Inti­lectual Faculties, that we should not dissemble, Misrepre­sent, falsly nor directly Lye. For as it is Contradictious to all the Attributes of God, that he should depart from Truth, and Veracity, in what he says either in Revealing Doctrines to be Implicitly believed, giving forth Promi­ses, to be firmly Relied upon; Denouncing Threat­nings, to be greatly Dreaded; or Recording Mat­ters of Fact, to be carefully Observed; So it is both our Indispensable Duty to Conform unto and Imitate Him, and will be the highest Improvement and Perfection of our Reasonable Nature, to become as nearly Assi­mulated unto him in the Properties of Truth and Sinceri­ty, as our Creature and Finite State will admit. For, tho there be several things, the Injunction whereof depend­eth Entirely upon the Soveraign, and Arbitrarious Will of God; and Abstracting from which, the Performance of them, would be no part of Duty, nor the Omitting of them any Trasgression; yet his requiring us to be Veracious and Sincere in whatsoever we Profess in reference to Him, and what he has Authentically Declared; or speak unto, or concerning Men; hath its Foundation in the Atributes of the Divine Being, Anticedently unto, and Regulative of the Placita of His Will. And as every Man therefore upon the Principles of his being made in the Image of God, and under His Law, ought to be exactly Veracious, and not to Represent Persons and Things otherwise than he knows them to be; so there are Particular Reasons, for which the departure of a Minister of the Gospel from be­ing Morally upright, Sincere and True, comes to be at­tended with an Aggravated and Inhansed Guilt. Because being a Selected, and Peculiar Officer both of Gods Rectoral [Page 74] Kingdom over men in General, and of His Dispensations of Grace, for the recovering a lapsed Race to their Duty, and the Re-envesting them in a Forfeited Happiness; he is upon both Accounts Distinctly Bound, not to do or say any thing, that may be Inconsistent with, or unbecoming the Chara­cter of an Ambassadour of the Great and True God, the High and Universal Soveraign, and our Gracious and Merciful Father. For whereas Tricks, Deceits, Misrepresentations, and Imposings upon the Easy and Credulous part of Mankind, are Observed to have been very usual and Customary Quali­ties in the Priests of the Heathen Deities, yet it is a thing that can be plainly Accounted for, in that being the Officers and Ministers of the Father of Lies, and who through speaking under his Authority, and in Imitation of his Example, did but in Conformity both to their Masters Copy and his Commission. As he in Terence Justified his Laciviousness from his Acting after the Patern set him by Jupiter. But that One who Pretends to be Authorised to Declare the Rectoral Will of the Supream and Soveraign Being; Pro­claim the Indemnifying Grace of a Compassionate and Indul­gent Father, and Convey to the Knowledge of Men the Truths Revealed by Him, that is the Essential Verity, should not only allow himself in putting False Glosses upon Things, through Paraphrasing what is Heterodox and Vnsound, to an Orthodox and Honest Sense, which he knoweth in his Conscience it will not bear; and by perversely Expounding what is Erroneous to a good Meaning, which the Authors neither Intended, nor the Words will Admit; but should set up for a Romancer, a Coyner of Fables, a Misrepre­senter and Slanderer, would be wonderfully surprising to me in Reference to Mr. Alsop, had he not beforehand vouch­safed to give me some Intelligence of his Acquaintance with the Chaplain of the Copper-Mines in Sweden. Now tho I have a large Field for suspicion before me, upon [Page 75] which to judge what this Man is like to be in the Pulpit, from what I find him to be from the Press; yet upon Recollecti­on of what I have observ'd him to say of others, namely, That they are not the same when Disputing, as when Teach­ing, and Preaching; I shall be ready to grant, that the Belief, Doctrine, and Character of the Man, are not to be taken from, and upon his Ravings in his Fits of Lunacy and Distra­ction; but that they are to be judg'd of by his Anti-Sozzo, which he wrote either before he became Delirous, or un­der the Decay of the Moon, and in his Lucida. Only it will be necessary for his Auditors, carefully to remark how the Tide flows at London-Bridge and Westminster-stairs, that they may thereby calculate at what Seasons they may give Credit to the Doctrine of their Pastor.

The second Reflection I would make upon this Insincere and misrepresenting way of writing is, that it undermines and blows up the Foundation and Basis of all Society, whe­ther Civil or Ecclesiastick. Hobb's State of Nature, in which he supposed all Men to be from under the Ties and Obliga­tions of Laws; so that he who had most Legerdemain and Cunning, might over-reach, cheat and deceive; and he who had the most Strength, or the greatest Party to sup­port him, might either rob or destroy his Neighbour, with­out becoming Guilty or Obnoxious to Punishment, was an Eligible Condition; in comparison of this, which Mr. Al­sop's way of writing concerning Persons and Things, would reduce the World unto. Seeing upon Mr. Hobb's Hypothe­sis all People would be upon their Guard, and no one would give Faith or Credit to another, whether in Words or Oaths; whereas all Society among Men being now establish'd upon a Belief, that they might mutually trust and take one ano­ther's Word, the Ligature and Cement of all Fellowship is dissolv'd and broken into Atoms of Dust by the Morals and Practice of Mr. Alsop. And if Mr. Hobb's Scheme of Nature [Page 76] be justly Detestable, because both of the Infamous Aspersi­ons, which it fastneth both upon the Wisdom and Good­ness of God, in making us not only capable of Conversati­on, and of Incorporating into Communities together; but leaving us under those Individual Deficiencies and Necessi­ties, which render it absolutely necessary, without imbu­ing us with those Qualities, or the subjecting us to such Laws, as make it practicable and safe; as also the Affront it gives to our reasonable Nature, in debasing it to a Level, with that of Brutes, or below it, thro' acquitting us from all Obligations, by Virtue of any Internal Dictamina, or In­tellectual Reasonings, to Justice, Mercy, and Truth, &c. and that our Engagements thereunto are only owing to Com­pacts and Bargains one with another. How much more is Mr. Alsop's Divinity in his Praxis (whatsoever other Theo­logy or Philosophy he may have in the Theory) to be ab­horr'd, in that it supersedes all Truth and Sincerity among men, whether resulting from Internal Dictates, External Revelation, or Social Covenants and Agreements. For as the two Pillars of Truth, and Branches of Veracity, upon which all Society is superstructed, are, that one Man shall not lie to another, and that he shall upon no Provocations belie him; neither obtrude that upon the Faith of another, which he that speaks or writes, doth not Himself believe, mean, or intend, nor fasten that Fact, or affix that Opinion unto a no­ther, which he hath neither by Overtacts, nor any of those Signs, by which the Internal Sentiments of a Man's Mind do become discernable, given Proof and Manifestation of. Of the Reverse of each of which, Mr. Williams, as well as Mr. Alsop, are Guilty in the Highest degree. And that both thro masquing, disguising, and dissembling their own Opi­pinions; and by misrepresenting, and falsly construing the Opinions of others; and by imputing those Notions to them, for which they have not only the greatest Aversion in their [Page 77] Minds, but have testified it by all the ways and means that would satisfie such as are not resolv'd out of Picque against a Party, as well as against certain Persons, to have Inno­cency come under the Ignominy, and to suffer the Punish­ment of Guilt. Nor should I say an undecent, and much less a severe thing, if I should call them the Nuisances of So­cieties of every kind and that they deserve to be thrust out from having any share in the Priviledge and Benefit, ei­ther of a Civil Corporation, or of Church Communion. And as no Subjects can be safe under any Form of Government what­soever, where Defamations are not only practised and en­couraged, but accounted Evidences of Zeal for God, and of Loyalty to the King, so no Supream Rulers, by what names soever dignified, can be secure either as to their Persons, or their Governing Authority, where the measures, by which these Men manage themselves, are allowed to escape without Publick Censure. For to speak or write of those whom one dislikes, with a Liberty and Unrestrained­ness, as if every thing were lawful to be pronounced of them, which may detract from their Reputation, as Sub­jects, Scholars and Ministers, is to dissolve the Ligaments of Society, and to turn Churches, Corporations and King­doms, into a worse Confusion than that of Babel, where e­very one spake what he meant, tho thro the Novelty, as well as the diversity of their Languages, they could not at first understand one another. Whosoever accuseth his Neighbour unjustly, in a Book addressed by him to the World, is as much a Delator, and ought to bear the Disgrace due to such, and to pass for one that is no less Suborned by his Envy, Ma­lice, and Revenge, to be a slanderous Informer; than as if for the Lucre of money he should perjuriously depose at the Kings Bench, or Session House. And tho such Detractors may not in all Cases be Arraignable before my Lord Chief Justice; yet it is not for the Interest of Mankind, nor for [Page 78] the Peace of Communities, that they should be let go without the Suffering of some sort of Discipline, which is the alone Reason, and not any Personal Quarrel with or against the Men, why I have assumed the Freedom, and Charged my self with the Trouble of giv­ing it them.

The last Reflection which I will make upon this Insincere and Defamatory way of Writing, is, that it is Extreamly prejudicial to Religion, and adapted to do more hurt by the Temptations and Encouragements which it Administers to render people Prophane, than, on the supposition that the Writer were in the right in every thing that is Doctri­nal, all his Arguments can do good by the making and preserving men Orthodox. Seeing such are the Frame and Complexion of the Minds and Spirits of the Generality, that Practice and Example are more Observed, and have a greater Influence upon them, than bare Teaching and In­structions usually have. In that there is no advantage thought to be gained by Hypocrisy in the former; Where­as it may be Imagined Subservient in the latter to several peculiar Ends. And of all People Ministers of the Gos­pel are most liable to be Judged by that Criterion, both in reference to the reality of their own Religion, and as to the Opinion which they have of all Religion in general; and to have it concluded from their Manners, what their Inward Belief is. Nor will they be held perswaded of the Being of a God, or World to come; the Tenor of whose Practice is such, as if there were not. Neither will the Preaching up of Sincerity, Meekness and Charity, be o­therwise Esteemed than as Grimace and Pageantry; while Falshood, Malice, Petulancy, and Defamation, are the whole of what is to be seen in the Morals of him that Preach­eth. Whence it is Both commonly and reasonably said, that tho the Speculative Atheist be a Fool, considering the [Page 79] many Convincing Means he is furnished with, both within and without him, in himself, and whatsoever doth surround him, to ascertain him of a Deity; yet the Practical one is of the two pronounced to be the greatest Knave, in that the latter dispiseth and affronts God, while the former doth only deny him. Nor can any thing be more fatally mischievous, both to the Personal and Publick Ends of Religion, than for those whose Office it is to inform the Minds and the Consci­ences, and to govern the Lives of Men, by the Truth and Prin­ciples of it; to set them a Pattern in and by their own Pra­ctice, importing that the whole which they deliver unto, and press upon others, they do themselves believe to be Fable and Romance. But the damage of this kind done to Religion by Mr. Alsop's way of managing the Doctrinal Controversies of it, being so obvious to all who will give themselves Liberty to think, is therefore neither the only nor the principal Topick, by and upon which I would repri­mand him, in reference to this matter. That then, where­with I would charge, and for which I would rebuke and chastise him, is, that in the whole Frame and Texture of his late Writings, he must either thro' Malice directly design, or thro Folly and Distraction occasion and promote Schism and Division among Dissenters, and give Ground not only for alienation, but for Bitterness of Spirit in one Party against the other. The whole Tendency of what he hath published in the two Books which he hath lately emitted, being not only to separate and divide the Dissenters into two distinct Parties (which they already are) but to Mar­shal and Rendevouze them into opposite Factions, in order either to make both of them a Prey to such as may have a Mind to overthrow the Liberty which is at present gran­ted and indulged them; or at least to crush and subvert the Freedom of those among them that cannot come into the Terms of a Comprehension with the Dignitaries and Pastors of the Di [...]cesan and establish'd Form. And if I durst define [Page 80] and conclude the Inclinations of the whole Presbyterian Body, by the Overt-acts of Mr. Alsop and Mr. Williams, I should be tempted to say, that they of the Congregational Way were not only to have the Liberty vouchsafed them by Law withdrawn, and the Act repealed; but that they were to be made obnoxious to some new and penal Statute. Seeing were they guilty of the Antinomian Notions they are charg­ed with, not only of Emasculating and Corrupting the whole Gospel, and of turning it into a Lampoon upon the Righteousness, Wisdom, Holiness and Veracity of God, but of perverting it into a Scandal and Reproach of our Re­deemer thro' the Licentiousness, which Antinomian Tenets give mental Biaz, as well as Doctrinal Countenance unto; they would be so far from deserving the Benefit of a Sta­tute of Indulgence and Liberty, that they ought to fall un­der the Severest Restraints of Law, as those who Travestie the whole Christian Religion, and pervert it into a Scheme that justifieth Immorality and Ungodliness. For tho' I neither will nor dare pronounce of those who thro' Weak­ness of Thought, Pre-possessions by Education, or the Un­happiness of Acquaintance, have imbib'd those Principles, that they are practically wicked; yet I will be bold to say, that their Virtue and Piety are not so much to be resolv'd into the Light and Efficacy of their Principles, as into the Mechanical Fabrick of their Bodies; upon which, both the Grave, Reserv'd, and Sober Temper of their Minds, and the want of Incitement, Food and Aliment to Scandalous Transgressions in their Lives, do very much depend; or ra­ther into the Efficacious Renewing and Sanctifying Grace of God, which to Souls that are sincere and upright in their Intentions, tho' mistaken in their Opinions, giveth a victo­rious Prevalency over the Errors of the Understanding, as well as over the Lusts of the Heart; the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus administring a Redemption in both from [Page 81] the Law of Sin and Death. But it is the Happiness of you Reverend Pastors and Elders of the Congregational Way, that you do not only at present live under a King, who hath more Temper as well as Wisdom, than to hearken to two very mean and indifferent Predicants, and who upon all o­ther Accounts, save the overvaluing themselves, are much less Men than they are Preachers, that would upon the Ruins of the Reputation, Learning and Piety of their Bre­thren, advance themselves into two Dictatorial and Patri­archal Seats over the Body of Dissenters; but that you are under the Care and Protection of a National Senate, who upon preceding Specimens, know by what Rules of Huma­nity, Equity or Justice (not to say of Christianity) the Bigots of that Faction do govern themselves. I do freely acknow­ledge that there is no Man of more Latitude as to Principles and Measures of Charity, good Nature, and Civil Man­ners than I desire to be; yet I can no ways allow that Religion should be made a Cloak to cover Passions and An­gry Resentments, or turn'd into an Engine and Tool, whereby to support, carry on, and justifie Passion and Re­venge. For when I judge of Persons and Things with the greatest Impartiality and Temperance, I cannot but reckon that all the unjust Accusations and Calumnies, which one Writer fastneth upon another, must not only serve to afford Diversion and Sport to the Prophane, and yield Matter of Contempt for all Religion to the Atheistical, but that they will give Offence and Scandal not only to the Pious and Vir­tuous, but to the Civil, and the Well-bred part of Mankind. I could readily, both bear with, and esteem any Man, that sheweth Zeal for his Theological Belief, whether he be in the right or wrong, provided he doth not express Viru­lence; and in the room of exercising Charity, doth not ex­ert Wrath and Malice; nor in the place of Arguments, in­vent and advance Reproaches and Calumnies. But I do both [Page 82] thank God, and take Pleasure in my self, to find that I am by Education, Principles and Temper, carried into the greatest Aversation imaginable of those, who in Discourses on Subjects of Divinity, where only Scriptural Authority, strong Reason, and Modesty of Expression, should be allowed, abandon themselves to the Licentiousness of Drollery, Sa­tyr, Pasquinade, and Calumny. And who, when they should be sober Disputants, turn Buffoons, Marphorio's, or Re­vilers. Nor are a Jack-Pudding on a Mountebank Stage, or a Mercenary Droll at a Bartholomew-Fair, or a Knight of the Post at the King's-Bench-Bar, in the Garb and Quality of a credible Evidence, more disagreable and displeasing Ob­jects to me, than to see an Ecclesiastick metamorphosed into a Comedian; a Divine transform'd into a Merry-Andrew; a Minister of the Gospel of Truth and Meekness, chang'd into a Fabulous Romancer, and a Petulant Reviler; and a Theological Disputant turn'd a Pasquin, and a Satyrist. Whereunto all that I will here subjoyn, and with which I will close this Head of Accusation and Reprimand of Mr. Alsop, is, that the Carriage and Behaviour of Him, and of Mr. Williams to­ward those of the Congregational Perswasion, is no less shapen and moulded (but whether intentionally or not I will not say) to the Abuse & Perversion of the Liberty, which the Dissenters have by Law obtain'd, first into their Reproach and Dishonour, and then into their Ruine; than the Freedom which Julian the Apostate granted to the Various Sects of Christians under his Reign, was by him designed both to their Destruction, and the Extirpation of the Christian Religion. For as that Cunning and Wise, tho Malicious Emperor against Christianity, Tolerated all the Dissentient Parties of that Religion, not out of Favour to it or them, but upon an hope and Prospect of their Qnarrelling with, their Revi­ling, and their Endeavouring to Destroy one another; so both Mr. Alsop and Mr. Williams se [...]m to make it their Pro­vince [Page 83] to abuse the Liberty, which hath been Graciously, and upon Honest, Prudent, and kind Inducements Vouch­safed unto Dissenters, into that Occasion of Envy, Strife and Rancour among themselves, and into a Provocation as well as an opportunity of Maliciously Slandring and defam­ing a Considerable part of the Body of Dissenters, as Hete­rodox, and in reality Subverters of the Christian Faith, (the Charge of Antimonianism importing no less) and of some of them as Treacherous and Disloyal Conspirators against His Majesties Person and the Government, which both must and ought, according to all the Measures of Wis­dom and Justice, produce as the Consequent and Event, a Repeal of the Statute by which they are possessed of Freedom with Respect to their Religious Assemblies, and Pastoral Exercises, and do stand Covered from all Obnoxious­ness to those Mulcts and Penalties, whereunto they were by former Laws liable upon the single Foot of Conscience and Religion. Or the least thing which this Buffoonry, Petu­lant and Defamatory way of Writing must in Reason effect, will be the Rendring them the Subjects of the Scorn and Derision of those of the National and Establisht Church. So that I do not wonder, if some of the greatest States-Men, as well as of the Principal Dignitaries of the Prelati­cal Way, do think that they who were at the Helm in the Reign of Charles 2d. were wonderfully Mistaken in their Politicks of Suppressing Dissenters, and of destroying Non­conformity to Episcopacy, and their Church forms and dis­cipline, by Rigorous Laws and Statutes, which only Served to make them Stifle and Conceal their Passions one against another; and upon the Encouragement of their Numbers to unite and Combine into a Faction Inimicous to the State, as they were before unfriendly to the Church. Whereas if the Way of Indulgence had in that Reign been fallen upon and pursued, some of the Presbyterians, who have Popes as well as Bishops and Arch-Bishops in their Bellyes, would long [Page 84] er'e this have run into the Road of arriving at Mitres, and of Grasping the Crosier Staff, if for no other Reason than that of using the Butt End of the Latter to knock those of the Congregational Way on the Head; instead of Ap­plying the Crook for drawing them gently and with meek­ness, either into their own or a Nationall Communion. I will not discover at present, whom I know of Court Pension­artes among the Presbyterian Ministers, nor what their Re­spective Pensions have been, seeing I am well assured, that they were not Originally granted in order to promote Quarrels among, themseves, nor to be the Sallaries of Buf­foons, Fabulists, or Revilers; but partly to Relieve men of true Piety and of Singular Worth, whose parts, and merit made them Capable of the most Honourable and Beneficial Stations in the National Church, if their Principles would have allowed their Qualifying themselves to have accepted of them; and partly to purchase and restrain some little, but stirring and peevish Ecclesiasticks among them, from being Demagogues against the Government, and to gain them to be Panagyrists for it, and render them Partizans, Zealots, and Advocates for it's Support, instead of their turning Saty­rists to disparage it, and of reassuming the Practise of beating their Ancient Tune again upon the Pulpit Drum. And forasmuch, as some Reverend Pastors and Brethren, who have enjoyed Some Advantages of knowing more of the little Arts and Tricks, which have been used, and I am afraid Still are, to render your Principles and Way, and Conse­quently your Persons and Churches the objects of State Jealousie; I shall therefore in a word or two shew the Friend­liness of your principles (I might say beyond those of some other Dissenters) to Civil Government; and that if your Tenets were but duly understood, you would be never Sus­pected (provided you be true unto and act Conformably unto them) as persons who can or will Encroach upon, or [Page 85] supplant the Authority and Jurisdiction of Magistrates. And as I do reckon that Church Frame and Form of Ecclesiastical Regimen and Discipline, to have most of a Divine Impression and Stamp upon it, which is of all others the Friendliest to Politi­al Authority, and is the furthest from Interfering with true Ma­gistratical Power; so I have not the best Opinion of that Scheme of Church-Government, which erects Dominium in dominio, (which is the Constitution in a Neighbouring Church, and to whose Pattern some People covenanted to conform, as the best in all the Reformed Churches) and against the Natural Effects whereof, in its Genuine Execution, they who bear the Temporal Sword are not secure in their Seats of Pow­er, without being at the Expense of finding now and then a new pair of Shooes, to accommodate such Ecclesiasticks for Travelling, as do but vigorously exert their Church and Disciplinarian Principles. For the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ not being of this World, it necessarily followeth, that the Institutions, by, and upon which he hath erected his Church, and the Rules which he hath prescrib'd for its Re­gulation, can neither be such as may Infringe the Authori­ty, nor weaken the Jurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate, whose Establishment and Ruling Power, as he took for granted; so he came not to subvert, but to confirm them. Nor was it inconsistent with the Wisdom and Goodness of our Holy and Blessed Lord, to have made it the Duty of Men and Women, to embrace the Christian Faith, and to aggre­gate themselves into Church-Societies, in all Nations and Dominions whatsoever, and at the same time to persevere in an Obedience to the Civil Laws of their several and Re­spective Soveraigns and Rulers, if what he requir'd of them, as so many Corporations of Believers had not been eminent­ly Amicous, as well as reconcileable to the various Forms and Schemes of Political Government. And thence it was that the Apostle St. Paul having once and again put the [Page 86] Divine Sanction upon the Duties owing by Subjects to Ru­lers, without making the least Abatement in the Obligati­ons of any, by reason of their being Christians, notwith­standing that the Secular Rules and Measures, by which Nations were then govern'd, favour'd more of Despotical­ness in some places, than they did in others; he doth also not only adjudge all Disobedience to just Laws to Punishment, by those whose Office it is not to bear the Sword in vain; but doth brand all Usurpation upon the Magistratical Power with a Vergency to Antichristianism, and thereby declares both that all Principles introduced into Church Frames, and Ecclesiastical Schemes of Discipline, of a Tendency to wea­ken and supplant the Civil Authority, are dissonant from, and opposite to the Institutions of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that all Trespasses of that Hue and Alliance, are depar­tures from the Rules of the Gospel, as well as they are Crimes against the Statutes and Pandects of Nations. So that upon the foremention'd Scripture Hypothesis of Church Power, your Principles, (Reverend Pastors and Brethren of the Congregational way) are plainly such, that if conform'd un­to, you can never become the Objects of the Jealousie of the Civil-Magistrate, nor deserve to have that Liberty with­drawn, which is now vouchsafed you. And which the Dissenters having gotten at first into a Precarious Possession of, thro' a Dispensing Power, claim'd by King James, they are more indebted unto that, than they are aware of, for the being establish'd in it by a Law under this Reign. For, Gentlemen, as your Principles seem no ways disagreeable to the Nature of a Christian Church, (tho far be it from me at present to give them the Preference to those of the Nati­onal Communion) so they are neither exerciseable beyond the Circumference of Ecclesiastical Fellowship, nor do they any ways extend to what is the Subject or Object of the Magistrates Jurisdiction. For as the Essence of a Church, as [Page 87] it is a Society distinct from other Communities, is to be a con­senting Association of Men and Women, upon such prescribed Holy and Evangelical Terms, both of Faith and Obedience, in order to the Enjoyment of Spiritual Priviledges, and the becoming entitled to special Divine Mercies and Blessings; so the whole Authority challeng'd by those of the Congrega­tional Perswasion over their Members, is to exact of them a Compliance with those Terms, both in point of Belief and Practice, or otherwise, to seclude and debar them from all share in the Priviledges which Christ has settled upon them alone who do observe them. And as all therefore which those stiled Independants do make Penal in their Ecclesiastical Discipline, is meerly the precluding unqualified Persons, and Members, who walk disorderly from any Portion in those Bene­fits and Priviledges, which Christ hath vested in his Church, as it is a Society chose out of the World, and distinct from Secular Communities, which consequently reacheth to no­thing that lies properly within the Sphere of the Magistrate; so they do not even inflict that, save upon those who in their consenting Association with them, submitted to be so treated, if they answer'd not the Terms which Christ hath made the Qualification for, and the Conditions of a Right to an actual Participation in such and such Blessings and Priviledges. 'Tis possible that what I have been now delivering, will by some be accounted a Digression from the Subject that I am upon, (and which, if it so were, I do nevertheless hope, every discreet Reader, as well as you Re­verend Pastors and Brethren, will easily pardon) tho' as to my self I can neither think nor own it to be one: Because of the Provocation, as well as the Occasion administred for it; and that not only thro' Mr. Alsop's and Mr. William's traducing a Congregational Pastor, (who is known to act as uniformly to his Principles, as any Man whatsoever) but by reason of Mr. Williams's slandering all who will [Page 88] not espouse his Heterodoxies in Divinity, who are by much the Majority of those who are of the Congregational Perswasion; and justifie his Treacherous, because Surrepti­tious, Clandestine, and disguised abandoning of the com­monly receiv'd Doctrines of the Reformed Churches in Mo­mentous Articles of Faith, as being therefore Instruments in the Breaches, (for that is the Term which his Breeding and Modesty have taught him to express a not acquiescing in his Arminian and Socianizing Notions by) upon design of Sacrificing the common Interest, i.e. of the King and King­dom, thro' a Subversion of the Government, P. 86. of his Answer to the Report.

But beginning to grow weary of raking in a Kennel, and being no ways ambitious either of Emulating or Imita­ting that Hero, among the rest of whose Celebrated Works, the cleansing the Augean Stable was not the least labourious and toilsome, tho neither the most honourable in it self, nor grateful to the Senses; I shall only insist upon one Head or Topick more in Mr. Alsop's late Writings; namely, that in­stead of confining Himself to Points of Doctrine that were to be debated, or to those Matters of Fact, which he might either really believe would be subservient to his Passion and Revenge, or which he might Romantickly imagine were Controvertible between him and Mr. Lobb, he hath most impertinently, foolishly, immorally, and irreligiously in­dulged himself in Detractions and Invectives, that are meer­ly Personal. And which respect, neither Doctrinal Errors, nor Historical Mistakes in his Adversaries; but at the most, either Bodily Defects, shortness in those Mental Perfections, which some may be furnish'd with. Failures in Punctilio's of Courtship; little Oversights, to which, both the best and wisest of Men are incident, or Aspersions founded upon pal­pable Lyes. Nor do his Personal Obloquies and Defamations [Page 89] terminate meerly in Laicks, and those of the mean Populace, but they are levell'd against Ministers of the Gospel, and Persons of deserv'd Esteem and Reputation in the World. Neither are his Sarcasms and Satyrical Invectives restrain'd only to the Living, but they extend unto, and are design'd to smut and blacken the Memory of the Dead; yea, they are calculated not only to affect single Individuals, and par­ticular Persons, but they are framed, and intended to be­spatter Fellowships and Communities. For as Men's Credit is both one of the most essential and material Parts of their Property, and accounted by many not only of equal, but of a Transcendent Value to their Lives; it is therefore fit that whosoever doth either openly or clandestinely invade it, should be mark'd out, and branded as one that is more Criminal, both in the Court of Honour, and at a Moral Tri­bunal; than he that picks a Pocket in the Crowd, or takes a Purse on the Road. For to be a Maroder and Pillager up­on the Street and Field of Humane Credit and Reputation, is worse both in it self, and in the Consequences of it, than to turn common Padders on the King's Highway. Nor do the latter deserve so much to be pursued by the Hue­and-Cry of the Country, as the former do deserve to be hun­ted and run down by the Social and Virtuous part of Man­kind. And tho' our Laws do only entitle the Grand Nobless to the Priviledge of pursuing those upon Actions of Scan­dalum, who are found to have Ignominiously detracted from, or insolently invaded their Reputation; yet both the Rules of Chivalry, and the Maxims adopted among the Learned, as well as among the well-bred, give them not only the Liberty of self-defence, but the Right of Reprizal upon whosoever steps forth as a Draw can bully, to stab and murther Persons in their Credit and Reputation. For tho an Enemy acting by a Lawful Commission, and keeping within the Boundaries chalk'd out and legitimated for the Manage­ment [Page 90] of a Lawful War, is to have both Quarter allow'd him, and to be treated with Humanity, when subdued and conquered; yet such as are Free-Booters and Pickasoons, ought to expect no better, than to be made Gally-Slaves, or to be hang'd up at the Yards-Arm. Nor is it either less of­fensive or prejudicial to Persons of all Degrees, to be de­tracted from, and made contemptible in Reference to their Understandings, than to have their Manners exclaimed a­gainst, expos'd and reproached. Yea, the Generality would rather submit to be thought and call'd Knaves, than to be held and represented for Fools. And God having design'd our Intellectual Faculties for those, by which we are especially to be distinguished from all sorts of Brutes, whether they be the Wanton and Sportful, or the Voracious and Fierce; he hath in his Providential Wisdom, pursuant thereunto, impress'd upon all People an Apprehension of equalling o­thers in Prudence; tho' they may at the same time readily acknowledge others to be Richer, Stronger, more Beauti­ful and Sublimer in Dignity than themselves. And this is peculiarly remarkable in God's Sapiential Government of the World; that where he hath given the fewer Rational Abilities, he hath bestowed upon those the most Degrees of Self-Conceit, which do as well for the Men's Satisfaction. Nor do we need any other Instances and Examples to ve­rifie that of the Poet, Qui velit ingenio cedere rarus— than my two snarling Divines; who tho' in their Bulk upon all Accounts, being not much bigger among Men, than Toads are among the Reptile Race, and in their Nature not very dissimular from them, have the Ambition to swell into the Di­mensions of an Ox, albeit liable to the same Misfortune with those loathsome and poysonous Animals in the Fable, of bursting in the Attempt. But that I may not be thought to accuse Mr. Alsop in a Matter of Fact, whereof he is innocent, I shall therefore, both to justifie my own [Page 91] Integrity in Charging him, and to make his Criminalness demonstratively appear, call over some passages out of his own Books, as so many Indubitable Testimonies both of the Truth of the Impeachment which I have entred against him, and of the justness of the Rebukes which I design to give him. Whereof the first shall be that, p. 33. of the Vindic. of his Reb. whereupon no other nor higher pro­vocation, than Mr. Lobb's having said, that Mr. Alsop pro­mised in such a Year to write a Preface to a certain Book of his, which he was then Writing against Antinomianism, in order to Midwife it into the World, as Mr. Lobb innocent­ly, and without any design of Reflection on Mr. Alsop, or of the least surmize that any could be Incensed by it to throw about Squibbs, and Firebrands of wrath and ma­lice; this Peevish, Unmannerly, and Lunatick Writer, breaks out into all the Rudeness of Personal Aspersion, which his Pride and Wrath could Dictate, and so narrow a Language as ours vent and express. For as the thing was in it self a meer Bagatell, and neither worthy nor in­tended upon their discoursing about it to be kept secret; So nothing can more discover the Folly, and at the same time the Exorbitant Passion and Rancour of Mr. Alsop, than his Calling Mr. Lobb's Discovering and Publishing of it, One of the most sordid Pieces of Baseness in the World; a betraying of Private Conversation; a Rudely revealing the most Innocent Passages of Friendly Correspondence; a Villany to be Banisht all Conversation and Commerce; With more stuff of the same Nonsensicalness, which for Mr. Alsop's sake I forbear to repeat. Nor can any be guilty of writing with such satyrical Wildness, by way of Personal Reflexion upon a Minister of the Gospel, and who was once his Friend, but one that had either never Learned, or thro' being Superan­nuated, hath forgotten the Rules and Measures prescribed for the Government of Conversation among Men. For ac­cording [Page 92] to this method of Censuring, nothing talkt of in Conversation, tho' never so trivial, must be discovered, and repeated to others. And thereby an end must be put to all Society, which is Cultivated not only in order to divert and improve our selves, but that we may Learn how we stand in the favour, esteem, and confidence of those with whom we Converse, and what Offices of Friendship they may be willing to render us, or what they may expect, and need that we should pay unto them. Tho I have been for some time in the World, and have both enjoyed opportuni­ties of Admission into great Variety of Fellowship, and have studied, as much as I thought necessary, the Mea­sures not only of Truth, Justice, and Honour; but of Dis­cretion and Friendship, as to the Concealment of what may be Communicated by one to an other; yet I coule never hitherto Learn, that a man was to be Accounted a Villain, or a Betrayer of Conversation, unless he was either under an Antecedent promise not to discover what should be said, or that the thing was of that Nature and Consequence, that the Revealing of it would prejudice him in his Person, Inter­est, or Reputation, that had first spoken it. Nor can any Man without Renouncing Common sense, and the be­ing accounted as Foolish or Distracted, as this Reflection on Mr. Lobb doth bespeak Mr. Alsop to be, ever imagine that it should be held enough to subject Mr. Lobb to the Chara­cter of a Villain, and a Betrayer of Private Conversation, &c. Meerly because he had said that Mr. Alsop was once so far from being Antinomian, that he undertook to Recommend a Discourse of his to the World, which he was then about publishing against Antinomianism. But it abundantly shews, that the Man under all his boasted of Attainments, to Wit, Wisdom and Learning, was either all his Days a meer Boy, or that he is become twice a Child; otherwise it were not possible that he should raise such a Noise and Out­cry, [Page 93] as if he were stab'd, or at least impeached of High Treason; only because of a Word spoken of him, which can no more hurt or affect him, than the saying he Lives and Preaches somewhere at Westminster, and now and then meets with the Presbyterian Ministers at St. Hellens, could reasonably be Judged to do. Only the Poor Man's under­standing is dwindled into that diminutive size (if ever it was of a larger dimension,) That to take his Marvels from him, or to blow upon his Soap Bubles, is equally Affrontive unto and Resented by him, as if Burglary were Commit­ted upon his House, or a Conspiracy form'd against his Life. Had Mr. Lobb discovered all his Obligations to King James (which his Friend Mr. Williams intimates to have been very great, by his saying, They were somewhat peculiar, p. 86. Of the Answ. to the Rep.) or had he published the many Promises which he made both to His Late Majesty Himself, and to others in order to have them Communica­ted unto him, how unchangeably he was in that Prince's Interest, and with what unalterable Fealty, he would ad­here unto and serve him; This might have been Construed as a Piece of Ill Nature, because Detective both of the Falshood of the Man to Him, and how Lubricous a Friend, and Changeable a Partizan he will be to any Soveraign, who has the weakness to give that Credit to his Word or Oath, in Point of Loyalty and Allegiance, as to Rely upon them; tho' even the Revealing of that by Mr. Lobb would have been no Treachery, nor have made him Obnoxious for the doing of it to the Character and Title of a Villain. But seeing Mr. Lobb hath out of Generosity, and upon the Score of Former Acquaintance and Friendship omitted it, and hath Nevertheless been most Brutally as well as Inhu­manly Treated by Mr. Alsop, I will (if occasion be further administred) try by an other method how Favour may be obtained at his hands; thro' disclosing not only the obliga­tions [Page 94] of Mr. Alsop to King James, which Mr. Williams doth only tell us in General to have been somewhat peculiar; but by Revealing an hundred Assurances given to that Prince of his Firm and Unalterable Loyalty, which Mr. Williams had as little knowledge of, as himself hath ob­serv'd Integrity in the keeping of them. Whereof, when­soever the World hath a true History, they will understand (which is all I will say at present) to whom the Imputation of Villain, and the Titles of being False and Treacherous, do properly belong.

But I proceed to an other Example of his weak Malice, and of his Boorish unmannerliness in his Personally Reflect­ing on Mr. Lobb, and that shall be his upbraiding, and en­deavouring to expose him, because the Region of his lower Belly is more ample and large, than it is found to be in some other People. 'Tis certain, says he, That Mr. Lobb is always Big-belly'd, and more fear he should be brought to Bed in the streets, like Pope Joan, than to need his Manual Opera­tion in Midwifing a Book into the World, or in the facilita­ting his Labour in Teeming of Pamphlets, p. 32. of his Vind. of the Faithf. Reb. And that he is so Bulky, as if the whole Congregational Party was stowed in his Belly. p. 24. Where omitting the Foppish, Pedantick, and Jack Pudding Wit in these Passages, which the more he valueth Himself up­on, the more Ridiculous he is in the esteem of all who have good sense, or true Rellish; I shall at this Time only Chastize and Discipline him upon the Topick of his Re­proaching Mr. Lobb with being always Big-belly'd, and of that Prominence, as if he were to give stowage to the whole Congregational Party. And the first Reprimand I would give him is, that none who pretend to Prudence, Religion, or good manners, will despise or ridicule an other, for that which never fell under his Will or Choice to have had it o­therwise, nor is it under his Power to give Remedy to it. [Page 95] And all Objections fastned upon Persons, because of some Anomolousness in their Bodily Structure and Fabrick, is an Impeaching of the Divine Wisdom, and the commencing a Quarrel against the Sovereignty of God. For all Defects or Excesses that appear in our Mechanical Form and Frame, provided they be not contracted, but natural; nor the Effects of Intemperance and Luxury, but of the Elemental Juices in our Constitution; as the Prominence of Mr. Lobb's Belly is known to be, are to be look'd upon rather with Pity, than with Disdain, and ought to be turn'd into Matter of Thankfulness to God, that it is not our own Case, and not perverted into a Contempt of those, and the rendring them a Jest, whose Misfortune it is to have them. And very often they who have most about them ungrateful to the Sight and View; have something which doth signally recommend them to those nobler Faculties from which we receive the Denomination of Men. Even Esop, notwithstanding his having been the most deform'd Creature that ever appear'd in Humane Shape, yet he will in all Ages be admir'd for the Admirableness of his Wit, the Profoundness of his Judgment, and the Incomparable­ness of his Art and Faculty, in teaching Virtue and Prudence by Apologues, and in the way of Mythology. Nor is it un­worthy of Remark, that Socrates, among the many other Bodily Imperfections, yea, Deformities, which he is repre­sented to have had, is particularly describ'd and character'd for having been Pot-belly'd; yet that was never thought to detract from his being justly esteem'd a very wise and vir­tuous Man, and as excellently learned and a profound Phy­losopher, so one of the greatest Sense and Probity, the no­blest Moralist, and the justest Person that ever the Pa­gan World brought forth. To which I will further add, that Aristophanes, who was another kind of Man for Wit than Mr. Alsop is (tho' for Haughtiness and Malice they seem [Page 96] much of an Alliance) and who thro being both an Hea­then, and one of those Poets that wrote for the Stage, to give Sport and Diversion to the Mob, as well as to the vain Immoral People of better Fashion, might have challeng'd greater Freedoms, and have exercised more Licentiousness in the Characters which he gave of Men, than a Christian or Minister of the Gospel, is by the Laws of our Holy Reli­gion, or the Rules of good Manners among such who have their Understandings enlightned, and Passions restrain'd by Divine Revelations, are allowed to use; yet even He, when he most designedly apply'd himself to render Socrates Ri­diculous, as he did with all the Art, Malice, Fiction and Falshood imaginable, in his Play, call'd the Clouds, shew'd both better Sense, and did more consult the Credit of his own Wit, than in the least to mention his being Pot-belly'd, (or any of his Corporal Deformities, which were many) and much less to make a Jest of him upon that Account. Which of all things, Mr. Alsop's brutal Rage, unmanly Revenge, and Merry-Andrew Talent would not have omitted against one whom he had singled out for an Adversary. And the Reason is obvious, in that this Holder-Forth, in a Presbyte­rian Congregation somewhere about Westminster (but where particularly I cannot tell) hath none of those Endowments of Wit, to qualifie him for Raillery after a genteel manner, which Aristophanes had; and must therefore be contented to take up with the Billingsgate, Grubstreet, and Mountebank­stall, Topicks of Satyr and Defamation. Nor do I think it was ever heretofore believ'd, (till Mr. Alsop hath of late reveal'd unto us the Arcanum of it) that we were, upon the Figure and Proportion of a Man's Belly, to form Conjectures with refe­rence either to his Intellectuals or Morals, whereas very many have said that there is another part about us, which carrieth Signatures and Diagnosticks upon it, subservient to the mak­ing Inferences of that kind. And as I have known divers my self, who have had the Pictures, both of their Mental [Page 97] Disposition, and of the Destiny that awaits them in their Lives, imprinted pretty legibly upon their Foreheads; so if Mr. Alsop will be but at the trouble to view himself in his Glass, he may possibly see more of Waspishness and Hypo­crisie engraven upon that Brass Sign, than I am willing to ascribe to him; yea, it may furnish him with more Oracu­lar Hints of what Fate may overtake him before he leave the World, than the Almanack could afford him, of which he tells us, The Countess of Holland was brought to Bed. At least he might have spell'd from the Hieroglyphicks and Bra­chigraphy there, that all the Estimation for Wit, which his whole Ambition hath been by the Scribling Talent, to attain unto, would come to be exposed in its Shapes and Features of Ridiculousness; and that the gay Flie, with his gilded and noisie Wings, would be shew'd as Terminating in a mean and despicable Worm.

There are many more Personal Reflections of Mr. Alsop's upon Mr. Lobb, for which he deserves to be arraign'd, and severely disciplin'd, were it not that I do reserve them in Petto against another Re-encounter with this Hector, Bully, and Draw can Sir, of the Presbyterian Party, which I do less fear than I am covetous of. And therefore all that I will further subjoyn in reference thereunto, is the Contempt which he every where expresseth both of his natural and acquired Abilities. An Instance whereof we have, P. 15, Vbi supra. Whereupon Mr. Lobb's having said that Mr. Alsop had been fool'd by Mr. Williams, this Westminster Parson replies, in the way of his wonted Scorn, That the E­legancy of the Term he complains not of, because Witicisms and Elegancies are great Rarities with him. And to the same purpose, P. 21. where he tells us that Mr. Lobb's Cruelty is so severe, as if he would saw off his Head with an old rusty Hand-Saw; and that whereas it would be some Comfort to be [Page 98] rail'd at in handsome Language, it is the worst of Deaths to be assassinated with dull and insipid Reflections, destitute of Wit and Truth. And that P. 116. where Mr. Alsop doth assure us, That Rhime will at any time with Mr. Lobb compensate the want of Reason. To which may be subjoyn'd, that P. 29. where he affirms, That Mr. Lobb is resolved thro thick and thin, over Shooes, over Boots, thro' Truth and Falshood. Per fas aut nefas, to defame, if he had Wit enough to Ridicule the Writer of the Rebuke. Of an Alliance, whereunto is that P. 12, 13. where he says, Mr. Lobb's Talent is not to inter­meddle with Accommodation of Matters, his special Gift being to embarrass, confound, and perplex whatever he meddleth with. Besides, a great deal more which followeth there of Childish­ness and Pedantry, which I do therefore forbear to repeat, because I am not at present disposed to take Occasion from it, of giving the World further Diversion and Sport, thro' leading him longer about, and publickly shewing of him in his Garb and Habit of Ridiculousness. But as to what I have call'd over, I will presume to say in way of Return, that it argueth extream want of Prudence, to despise an E­nemy, by whose Defeat and Conquest he was in hopes both to have erected his Trophies, and to have rode, if not trium­phantly, into the Capitol, and to have there laid down the Garland of his Victory in the Lap of Jupiter, at least to have drawn Mr. Lobb after his Chariot to St. Hellens, and to have been there welcom'd with the Eulogies and Panegy­ricks of two or three of that Assembly, if they had but Wit adapted that way, proportionable to their Vanity. Where­as Mr. Alsop's coming forth in his Warlike Accoutrements, with such Contempt of his Adversaries, as we read ascribed to his Cousin Don Quixot, in his Phrantick, as well as Ro­mantick Atchievments, doth only serve to make his being disarm'd, and the having Moombran's Helmet snatch'd, (as a­ny other would say besides my self) from his Coxcomb; and [Page 99] his being soundly Buffetted, the more laugh'd at, and turn'd into Mirth. And were the Man capable of penetrating in­to the Diversity of Intellectual Accomplishments; or had he been conversant in Books written on the Subject of L' Exa­men D' Esprit, he would not despise any one for deficiency in Rational Endowments, because his Faculty lieth not in the being a Droll and a Buffoon. And wheresoever these last Talents are found, or appear to be affected; it is an In­fallible Evidence, of a Want of Perfection of Understanding, and of the not being furnished with a sound Judgment: For there being no Specifical Difference (at least so far as I can apprehend) among the Souls that are allotted for the actuating Humane Bodies, it is very probable that all the Diversity, either of the Theorical or Mechanical Parts of one Man from another, is Primarily to be resolv'd into the various Organizations and Textures of our Bodies; and par­ticularly into the different Temperament of the Brain, Blood, and Animal Spirits, and secondarily into Education, Con­verse, Assiduity in Study, and most especially in the Art and Mathematicalness of Thinking; and that thereupon, as very few Men are of that Constitution and Frame, or of that Intenseness and Skilfulness of Thought, as to be capa­ble of attaining to many kinds, and much less to sublime Degrees of Intellectual Perfection; so they, whose Biass of Mind lies towards Bagatels and Trifles, and whose noblest Talents are to give Diversion and Sport, are to be rank'd among those whom the Sapiential and Governing Wisdom of God hath destined to stand listed among the most Inferi­or Individuals of the Humane Race. For tho true Wit quali­fies a Man to be any thing, a Divine, a Statesman, a Gene­ral, a Lawyer, a Physician, &c. yet the Bristol Colour and Hue, without the Diamond Shinings, Sparklings, and Firm­ness of it, do serve only to make those Ridiculous, who would appear gay, thro' a valuing of themselves, and an Im­posing [Page 100] on such as are unskilful and incompetent Judges, by their Glass Bugles, French Pearl, and Welch Stones, instead of being adorn'd with what is truly Oriental and Genuine. Whereupon I will assume the Liberty further to say, That as true Wit gives an Universal Capacity in proportion to the measures of Application; so the Counterfeit of it produceth inconceiveable Hurt and Damage in every Station and Im­ployment whatsoever. But herein is the Immense Sapience, and the Superlative Goodness of God to be admired, that un­der all these Diversities of Intellectual Accomplishments, with­out which there could be no Superiority, nor Subordination, and consequently no Regiment in the World; yet all Men are made sufficiently and equally capable, both for Moral and Political Government, being abundantly furnished with whatsoever Faculties or Powers are indispensably needful, for knowing and loving God; understanding and obeying his Precepts, accepting and relying upon a Mediator, giving unreserv'd Credit to revealed Truths, embracing and trust­ing Promises; fearing and dreading Threatnings; and for performing all the Relative and Social Duties; which are ex­acted of us, either towards Superiors, Equals, or those that are beneath us. Only your half-witted People do turn ei­ther Heterodoxal, or Bigots in Religion; Dogmatical or Pe­dants in Learning; Tools of Despoticalness; or Democratical Demagogues in Politicks; Empiricks in Physick, Chicanes in Law, and Buffoons in Pleasantry of Conversation. Nor did I hardly ever know a Man Oracular in his Opinions, but for want of Extensive Knowledge; Censorious of his Brethren, who walk conscientiously, but thro' a Deficiency in true Piety; a Refiner in Politicks, but thro' a Narrowness either of Understanding, or of Experience; nor one given to Drollery, but by reason of Indigency in good Sense, or from Excess in Prophaneness. Nor are your Men either of the most Elevated and Sublime, or they of the Jocular and Plea­sant [Page 101] parts, the usefullest Instruments in glorifying God, or benefiting others: The First, being too Exalted and Re­fined in their Notions to be generally understood; and the Latter too Wanton and Sportful to mind what is Weighty, Instructive, and Serious, or to be much Credited in what they say. So that they of the middle Size of Understand­ing, Parts, and Wit, are generally those from whom God receiveth most Service, and the Universality of Men most Advantage. Neither will our Holy Lord accept that Mans Labours, who is full of himself, and that makes his own Applause and Commendation his ultimate End, and terminating Center. But I do suppose Mr. Alsop is by this time Rectified in his thoughts about Mr. Lobbs Intellectual Abilities; and that he is made sufficiently Sensible by that Authors Two last Books, that the Censure which he bestow­ed on him in reference to weakness of Understanding, should have been levelled at Home and not Abroad. The occasion of the mistake being no ways in the Object, but in the Optick Nerves and Various Humours of his own Eyes, that could not discern what was plainly visible before him, either in it's just Dimensions, or in it's true Colours. Nor will it be otherwise, while Pedants assume an Authority of Judging concerning True and Solid Learning; and while Buffoons do claim a Right of deciding what is Just and Accurate Wit: And while one perfectly Lunatick shall Usurp the priviledge of Pronouncing who ought to be in or out of Bedlam. But Mr. Lobb hath this to Comfort himself under the forementioned Imputation, that it is no disgrace to be called Fool by a Madman, nor to be Repre­sented Weak and Unlearned by a little Pedant, whose great­est Attainment is to Act the Part of Sancho Pancho by Di­verting those with his Puns, Quibbles, and Jests, that have no more Sense nor better Relish, than to attend at his Stage; so there are divers Persons who with Respect [Page 102] both to their Natural and Acquired Accomplishments, are Qualified to Teach Mr. Alsop what is Genteel Wit, Rheto­rical Elegance, Sound Morality, Orthodox Divinity, and good Breeding. who do think Mr. Lobb both an Honest and a Learned Man, as well as a Good and Upright Divine, and that he hath in these Controversies written with Mo­desty, Pertinence, Strength, and exact Conformity to the Doctrine hitherto received in the Protestant Reformed Churches. And that Mr. Alsop ought to receive back all his Sarcasms, Jeers and Satyrs upon this Head, and apply them to the Ignorant and Half-witted Man, Himself.

But Mr. Alsop's Personal Reflections on Mr. Lobb (many of which I do keep in Reserve against the next Conflict, and have therefore omitted the particular mentioning of them at this Time) are the less to be Resented, and ought the more easily to be dispensed with, if not pardoned in course, as Excesses to which both the moral Complexion and Tem­per of his Mind, and the Power of his Disease and Malady, do hurry and transport him; seeing he knew not how to spare and give Quarter to his Reverend, Dear, and much Valued Friend Mr. John How, but bestows upon him a Cast, and yeilds him a Proof of his blackning and defam­ing Faculty, that is much more Satyrical, and a sharper pointed Pasquinade, than any which his most Virulent Ma­lice could suck and extract matter for out of Mr. Lobb's Writings wherewith Personally to asperse him. Nor is it unworthy of Observation (towards our attaining unto an Exacter and Distincter Knowledge of the Qualities and Talent of the man) how that immediately after that he had been sprinkling him with Holy Water, adorning his Temples with a Garland of Flowers, and giving him his Pastoral Benediction; he in the very next words, and the same Period, treats him worse than if he had been to have Cursed and Anathematized him with Bell, Book and Can­dle. [Page 103] And possibly he might think it but Congruous, that having so many of the Old Pagan Qualities in him, though a Christian Priest, he should imitate those of the Pontifical Order among the Heathen, who used first to gild the Horns of the Beast which they were to Sacrifice, and then to cut his Throat, and offer him as a Victim. For Mr. Lobb having in his Defence of the Report, p. 86, 87. charged Mr. Alsop ‘For having subscribed his Name to a Preface to Mr. Flavel's Blow at the Root, wherein it was declared, that the Difference between Dr. Crisp and other good men, seems to lye not so much in the things, which the one or the other of them Believe, as about their Order and Reference to one another: and that notwithstanding what is more Controvertible in Dr. Crisp's Writings, yet they do reckon there are much more material things wherein they cannot but agree, and would have come much nearer each other even in these things, if they did take some Words or Terms in the same sense.’

Unto which Charge all that Mr. Alsop has thought fit to reply in his Vindic. of the Faithful Reb. p. 35, 36. is, That the Paper, (viz. the forementioned Preface) was drawn up by a Learned and Able Hand, (i. e. Mr. John How) in whose Judgment he presumed he might acquiesce; and if that Reve­rend and Learned Person shall think fit to move out of his Retiredness, and appear concerned in this Affair, he will easily justify it: and that he Judged that Paper capable of a fair Vindication, and may be Justified by an Ingenious Interpreta­tion; (all which are but the Oyling of his Hone, in order to the giving the sharper Edge to his Razor, as appears in the following words, namely) That he is not well pleased with Himself, that he had put his Hand to that, or any other Trimming Paper. In which Reply of Mr. Alsop's, as there occur several things not to pass unremark'd, because they [Page 104] serve to give a farther Representation both of his Intelle­ctuals and Morals; so the last Passage, which carrieth in it such a severe Personal Reflection against Mr. How, is that whereof I intend to take some what more especial notice.

And the first thing that offereth it self to every man's View, that will but open his Eyes to observe it, is, That Mr. Alsop is every man's Tool that can but attack him on his vain side, and flatter him with the Glory of having his Name recorded in the End of a Preface, in Conjun­ction with so Eminent and Learned a Person's as Mr. How's. Seeing it plainly appears that he had never thought before hand, either distinctly, or thoroughly of what he was do­ing, but suffered himself to be wheedled by Caress or Im­portunity, to be a Tool in subscribing what he had either never Read, or not duly Considered. And as nothing can be more Evident, than that he must have Trespassed in what he did, either against the Rules of Prudence, or Laws of Conscience; so it is indifferent to me, into which of them he will resolve it, having had so many uncontrou­lable Evidences already before me, that he can be at one time Fool, and at another Knave, as he finds the diversity of Personating on the publick Stage, to be most agreeable to the Humour he is then in, and most subservient to the venting of his Rage and Wrarh, or to the giving Sport and Diversion. And as to his saying, He is displeased with Himself, for what he did in that matter, I do not judge it any Concernment of mine to determine on what motives he is so, nor to interess my self in the Quarel, by which of his Humours and Passions he is to be Govern'd; and therefore all I will say, is, That he never had before him a more proper and demeriting Subject of just displeasure; and that the Levelling the Artillery of his Indignation against an Object so worthy of it, will more commend his Wis­dom, [Page 105] Sincerity and Justice, than all the Proofs he hath hitherto given of his Angry and Rancorous Faculty. How­ever, this late Testimony which he hath vouchsafed us, of his not being past the Grace, nor the Bounds of Repent­ance, may Administer some faint hopes unto us, that he will in his next Lucida, humble himself to come forth in a New Habit and Dress of Penitence, in order to make Attonement for latter Offences, which I am sure do call for larger measures of Contrition and Remorse. And that we shall hear of his Apology, (which, to say the best of it, is the Retreat of the Fool, and the After-game of the Wise) that he has been Mr. Williams's Tool; (it being not only his Destiny, but the unavoidable Consequence of his little Sense to be some body's) as we have now had it for the having been Mr. How's.

To which I might subjoyn, in the Second Place, That with whatsoever Reason or Justice Mr. Lobb and others may complain of Dr. Crisp for his Antinomianism; yet Mr. Alsop cannot with any Consistency to Himself, pursue it with the Noise and Clamour, nor prosecute an Im­peachment of it with the Malice and Rage that he hath begun. For if it be only, or chiefly, the taking some Words and Phrases in different Senses, that keeps him and others at a distance in Opinions, as the forementioned Pre­face affirms, and which Mr. Alsop says is capable of a fair Vindication, and may be justified by an Ingenious Inter­pretation; I do then challenge all mankind, who have their Senses about them, and continue Masters of their Reason, to give a Wise, Rational, or Pertinent Account of the Satyrical and Bitter Invectives of Mr. Alsop, as well as of Mr. Williams against Crispianism, and so many of those of the Congregational way as Favourers of it. As that, Some of the Biggest Name among them, from the Press [Page 106] and Pulpit, had disseminated such horrid Opinions as filled all Intelligent Persons with Astonishment and Indignation. P. 25. of his Faithful Rebuke to a False Rep. And that Mr. Lobb, through being n Favourer of Dr. Crisp's Notions, has left out of his Substance of the Gospel, Regeueration, Conversion, Repentance, Holiness, Sanctification, a New Heart, New Obedience, and good Works, &c. P. 29. of the Vindic, of the Faithful Rebuke, compared with p. 4.

And that they who have used the Phrase of Christ's su­staining the Person of the Elect upon the Cross, never dream'd of Crisp's Substance of the Gospel, where Faith is left out from any Concern in Justification; and that as the Atheist's Heaven has no God in it; the Socinians Hell has no Devil in it; so the Antinomian's Gospel has no Justifying Faith in it; with an Hundred Expressions more of the same Alloy, which I have not leisure at pre­sent, and therefore forbear to repeat. Now if any man preserv'd so far in his Wits, as to know that Four and Three make Seven, and that Six is an Equal Number, and Nine an Unequal, can Reconcile these passages of Mr. Alsop, wherein he accuseth Dr. Crisp with those in the fore­mentioned Preface, and in the now repeated Apology of our Author for it, I will be bold to Affirm that he may with the same Ease both bring the Northern and Southern Poles into Conjunction, and make those propositions Identical and Coincident, which are directly Contradictory. By which it is Apparent that Mr. Alsop neither writes upon Principles of Science or of Faith, but in the Virtue of the Warmth, or of the Chilness of his Blood, and as his pulse beats faster or Slower, and as he is out of his Paroxisms or under them. And that we are to gather and Conclude what his opinions are, from the Seasons of the Moon, and the Estival or Brumal Temper of the Air, and not from any Coherent [Page 107] Schemes, which by means either of Philosophy or Revelation, he hath Formed of the Doctrines of Faith, and Precepts of of manners.

But that which upon this Occasion, I have Reserved to be the last, is the Title and Character, which this Sove­reign Bestower of Marks and Badges of Dignity, hath Conferr'd upon Mr. How, of being a Trimmer. Which, according to the design of those who first Coyned and Minted the Term, signifies no more than an Hypocrite and a Dissembler. And one who guides himself by no other Principles either in his Political or Moral Conduct, save by those of Worldly safety and of Secular Interest. For tho Sir. William Coventry in his Ingenious Character of a Trim­mer, gives a nobler Representation of those that are so Denominated, (of whom I do believe his Account to be very just in reference to very many that have been and are so Stiled) yet nothing can be more certain than that the Original Authors and Fabrickers of the Word, designed to Discribe, Discypher, and Mark out those by it, who were neither Loyal Subjects, Upright Christians, Just, Veracious and Amicable Neighbours, nor Vigorous Patrons and Partizans of Publick Laws and Liberties. And as it is Evident from the manner of Mr. Alsop's applying it, and the end whereunto that he intended it in the worst Sense (because the being a Trimmer, according to Sir William Co­ventry's Paraphrase of the Term, would be any Man's Glo­ry and not his Reproach, and ought to be coveted and not avoided) so both Mr. How and Mr. Alsop, do owe that Respect and Deference to their Whig and Phanatick Friends, who were the first Inventers of the Word, as so acquiesce in the Signification which they Stampt upon it. And ac­cording to the Value which those People design'd it should be Current at, it is no more nor less than the Euqivalent of Rogue and Rascal; the latter being only of Coarser Metal, [Page 108] but the same in Exchange, and on the Ballance of Traffick in the mutual Communication of Thoughts, with the former. Which therefore to bestow upon Mr. How, must be very unmannerly, rude, and injurious in Mr. Alsop; unless he have more Acquaintance with that Gentleman's Political and Moral Principles and Practices, than I, who do not pretend to the Honour of Conversing with him, could have imagined that he was embued with. But on supposition, that Mr. Alsop is not altogether mistaken in his Idea of that Presbyterian Divine; yet there were other ways of Penance, which might have been Prescribed unto him, for the having Written the Forementioned Preface, than to be thus brought forth as a Knave in the View of the World, in Castigation and Punishment of that Offence. For, if I be not very much misinformed, Mr. How is no less ready to make Attonement for Crimes of this kind, than he is Inclinable to Commit them. And Mr. Alsop might have found other Kinds and Degrees of Ecclesiastical Disci­pline to have adjudged him unto, than to Transmit him down to Posterity to stand Registred in the Dypticks of the Church by the Name and Character of a Trimmer; which I Believe, as well as Fear, will give a very odd Figure of a Divine, and especially of one of his Eminency.

But the next Personal Reflection for which I am to call Mr. Alsop to an Account, is that which he hath ventured, without the least Provocation given, against a Learned and Holy Divine, and one who is a very useful and Successful Preacher of the Gospel, and as well equal both to the for­mer and to himself in whatsoever deserves Esteem and Commendation, as Superior to them in Uprightness and In­tegrity. The Person I mean, is the Reverend Mr. Daniel Burgess, to whom tho I be altogether a Stranger, yet I do so well know his Worth and Merit, that I do hold my self [Page 109] in Duty and Justice obliged to do him Right. Nor has it been without Surprize and Astonishment, that I have found Mr. Alsop's Picquancy and Satyrism to lye chiefly against those both of his own Order, and of the Rank of Dissenters. As if at the same time, that both all the Re­putation he hath attained unto, and the Plentiful, if not Opulent, Condition unto which he is raised, is through his being accounted a Minister of the Gospel, and a Nonconfor­mist Preacher, his Wrath and Malice were Particularly Le­vesled against those of the Ecclesiastick Tribe, and Pastoral Character, and especially against them of that Quality amongst the Dissenters. And whereas, as great and Excel­lent a Person as either the Nation, or the Churches of any Denomination in England, can boast of, thought him long ago Worthy of the Title (and accordingly bestowed on him) of Martin Mar-Prelate, he may through the Im­provements which he hath made since, in the Perfections which procured him that Honourable Name, have his Stile now Enlarged and be called the Marphorio and Pasquin upon the whole Sacerdotal Order, and the Satyrical Reviler of them of the Ministerial Function. Nor would it exceed the Bounds and Rules of a reasonable Jealousie, to suspect that his Buffooneries and Invectives against so many of them, is not so much from any Quarrel he has with their Persons, as from a Prejudice he bears against their Office, and from Latent ill will to their Lord and Master, whose Ambassadors they are. And this Apprehension would seem the more Justifiable, in that those of them whom he chiefly singleth out to Ridicule and Lampoon, are such who do not only appear Adorned more Distinguishingly than others, with those Accomplishments and Vertues required in Bishops and Pastors, but whose Labours God doth most signally Bless in the Conversion of Sinners, and in the Build­ing up of Believers.

[Page 110] 'Tis true, that neither the Sacred Character which they bear, nor the Renewing and Sanctifying Grace of God, do so far Elevate them above the Rank of other men, but that they will have some Humane Weaknesses and Imperfections cleaving unto and accompanying them; which nevertheless ought not only to have some Indul­gence showed them on the Foot of the Common and un­avoidable Frailties of our Nature, but in deference to their Office, and out of Respect to him whose Servants they peculiarly are. And where their Faults are not E­normous, nor the Effects of Insincerity, their Reputation should be held as Sacred as their Office and Character are. Nor can a Clergy-man be Exposed or made Cheap, without both the designing and the doing more consequential Hurt to the Souls of men, who would otherwise attend upon, and might receive benefit by their Ministry; and the affording more Ground to the Prophane of Contempt, as well as a Neglect of those Ordinances, which Christ hath appointed them to be the Dispensers of; than the Injury done immediately to themselves can amount unto, or the Diversion and Pleasure of doing it can any ways Excuse. Yea, in all Cases where the Faults of Ministers are not palpably Notorious as well as Gross, and where the Pastor doth not by his Buffoonry both disgrace and renounce his Character, and lay aside the Parson as soon as he comes out of the Pulpit, to put on and act the Droll and Merry Andrew; it is an Indispensible Duty in all that would shew themselves either Virtuous or well-bred, to cover and conceal them as much as may be: And the Tres­passing on the other hand, by detecting and publishing of them, where there is no need for, or publick advantage arising by it, is very Heinously Criminal at the Tribunal above, whatever it be reckoned at your Benches of Judi­cature here below.

[Page 111] And to represent a Minister as a Fool, to be made a Jest of (while he doth not abandon and disclaim the Sacred Cha­racter through an Affectation of Appearing and being a Jack-Pudding) discovereth both Malice against the Office, and is more calculated to bring Dishonour upon our Lord Jesus Christ, than to tell of Twenty Failures, or Excesses, to which they are Incident with other men; and from which neither their Character, nor the Measures of Grace which God thinks fit to Communicate to any degrees of Men in this Life, can wholly preserve and secure them. And of all things the Sallies of Wit, and sometimes the indiscreet and impertinent Excursions of a Luxuriant Fancy, are not only the most Pardonable, but ought to be least taken no­tice of. Our Imaginations not being so intirely under the Conduct and Command of our Reasons, as our other Pow­ers and Faculties are. Yea, our very Passions are more in subjection to the Dominion, Restraint and Curb of our Minds, than the sudden and unforeseen Starts, Eruptions and Bounces of an impregnated and warm Fancy, are found to be. Yea, such is sometimes the Misfortune of those who are Endowed with the vastest degrees of Preg­nancy of Fancy, that they lose more of their Credit in be­ing thought and held Wise Men, by the venting of One Im­pertinent and Foppish thing, than a long Course of Reser­ved and Prudent Conduct will again restore them unto. So far is that Apothegm from being Exactly and Universally true, that he who is wise all day, can never be a Fool at night; that for a person, whom the greatest part of his Life hath shewed to be really modest, discreet and wise, to be but Guilty of One signal Impertinence and Blunder, may be such a Blot in his Scutcheon, as nothing can ever rase out or wash off.

[Page 112] Nor would I in these Sheets have with so much Picquancy taken notice of Mr. Alsop's Claim unto, and pretended Ex­ercise of Wit, but that it is all of that kind which both flow­eth from a want of true Judgment, and of accurate Sense, and is the Result of the deliberate Choice of a depraved Will. For though not only the hastly overflowing of a Fer­tile and Rich Fancy, which are for the most part immediate­ly retracted after their precipitant Ebullitions, but the motus primo primi of our Wills, while not afterwards consented to and approved of, ought to be construed for easily pardona­ble, if not held Venial among men towards one another (though they be Expressive of the Corruption of our Na­tures, and have the Taint of Pravity as well as of Guilt upon them) yet studied and affected Lightnesses, Jeers and Sarcasms, are to be accounted both gross Immoralities and prodigious Follies, and to be accordingly rebuked and repri­manded. However, as to my self I do esteem it an happi­ness, and do heartily bless God for it, that I am not furnish­ed with a Faculty pregnant with little Airy Conceits, but that I have my Thoughts under the Antecedent Government, as well as under the posterior Examination and Censure of my Reason. But having on the Occasion of a Personal Reflecti­on on Mr. Daniel Burgess, taken the Liberty to offer those few things to the Consideration of mankind, which I have now delivered, in order to their improvement in a Reserved, Dis­creet, and Modest Conduct; I shall now more particularly consider the Rude, Unmannerly, and Barbarous Reflection it self, and shew, that as there was no just Provocation given to Mr. Alsop for the publishing such a thing if it had been true, so there was not the least Ground for raising such a Re­port, but that it was all malicious Fiction, and a Romantick. Story invented by the Atheistical and Prophane. The Oc­casion of publishing the Story was this, namely, That Mr. [Page 113] Alsop having said, p. 29. of his Faithful Reb. to a False Rep. ‘That the Nine Brethren, who for, and in hopes of Peace, had signed the former Paper, had their Hands, Heads, and Hearts too, in the forming, wording, and as­senting to the Third.’ Whereunto Mr. Lobb return'd, in way of Answer, p. 70. of his Def▪ of the Rep. ‘That se­veral of the Nine had very lately declared their Approba­tion of the first Paper, and one of them in particular had told him, That Mr. Alsop was guilty of a Notorious Falshood, in saying, That the Individual Nine had their Hands, their Heads, and their Hearts, in the forming wording, and assenting to the Third Paper; for he had neither Hand, Head, nor Heart in it.’

Now it was meerly upon this, and upon no Offence com­mitted, that Mr. Alsop replies, p. 140. of his Vindic. of the Faithful Reb. That if any one of the Reverend Nine-Pins has been Tipt down, and denied his Agreement to the Third Paper; 'tis more than he had done before his Brethren: Nor is he at all concerned; for as he dare not (says he) Pin his Faith upon his Sleeve, so neither will he hang upon his Cloak, lest he should un­button the Loop, and let him drop into the bottomless Pit, as 'tis said he threatned some of his Auditors; and that if he has that slippery Trick with him, he would neither be in his Cloaths, nor hang on his Cloak, for a Groat.

But having already taken notice of the Impiousness, as well as of the Buffoonry of these Passages, all I shall do now, shall be only to Animadvert upon the Fabulousness and Falseness of the Story, upon which Mr, Alsop has had the Insolence to Reflect and Droll on a Minister of the Gos­pel. For that which makes the Defamation the more bar­barous in it self, and the more inhumane towards a Friend, as well as sacrilegious, in reference to one that is a Divine; [Page 114] is it's being founded upon a Fiction and a Lye, and of which Mr. [...]lsop could pretend to no Intelligence, save by some vain and Foolish Report. For all that he pretends to superstruct this detractive Reflection upon, is, it's having been said that he threatned some of his Auditors so; which was too slender and sandy a Foundation upon which to make a Reverend Brother, and a Faithful Ambassador of Jesus Christ, the Subject of Impious and wanton Sport. For knowing how prone the Atheistical and Prophane are to invent Stories, whereby to render those of the Pastoral Order Ridiculous, he ought neither by the Rules of Reli­gion, nor of good manners, to have given the least Ear to it, and much less to have dared to publish it, without the highest degrees of Moral Certainty, as to the Truth of it. And if all the idle and defamatory Stories, invented by the Graceless Rabble, and Impious Wits, against Ministers of the Gospel, should with the like Licentiousness be spread and divulged by one of their own Order, and the Word and Authority of a Priest laid to Pledge in Justification of them, I will be bold to say, That there are few Divines in and a­bout London, but who would as justly stand Obnoxious to be called Knaves and Villains, as Mr. Burgess, by reason of the fore-mentioned Expression, is Exposed to be made a Jest of. And he that hath been so Liberal in bestowing the Charact­er of Lying and Slandering Tongue again and again upon Mr. Lobb (only for representing him modestly and truly) and of Affirming, That the Elegant Figure with which he hath embel­lish'd his whole Discourse of the Defence of the Report, is purus, putus, satanismus. Vid. p. 25. ubi supra; should not have been so forward in receiving and publishing Falsehoods of o­thers, unless he takes his own Province to be incroached upon, and is offended that any should believe or disperse Falsehoods besides himself, or that they should presume to rob him of Purus, Putus, Satanismus, being a Rhetorick he [Page 115] is admirably versed in. And upon whose peculiar Right and Title thereunto, as Mr. Lobb hath not hitherto broken in, by any thing that he hath written of Him; so I dare say, that he will neither divest Him of that Priviledge hereafter (wherein it would seem He claims a Monopoly) nor envy His single and quiet Possession of it. For as he has both Chalk'd out for Himself an Imployment, and given a Proof of his Qualifiedness for the discharge of it, which no man hath been heretofore so impudently Villain­ous as to venture upon, namely, of being the Publisher as well as the Licenser of all the Lyes, which any have the Vanity or Malice to bring unto him; so I doubt not but he would have had the Pride to think he should have Authenticated, and made them Current, by affixing un­to them the Name and Seal of Vincent Alsop, Presbyteri­an Preacher in Westminster; were it not that I have possibly blasted his Credit. And he being both the late Inventor, and admirably skilled in the using this Engine of Slander and Defamation, whereby the most Establish't Reputation of the Wisest and Best Men, is Blown up, without their having Means left them of preventing, or of countermining it; it is a pity but that either by Pa­tent, or by Statute he should, during his Natural Life, have the whole Benefit that accrueth by it; and that he may with all, have a Badg appointed Him; by the wear­ing whereof, and by some Engravement over his Door, importing his Office and Character, all people may know where the Divulger of Lyes dwells; and who is allotted to be Chief Agent in the Traffick of Falshood. To which, in manners, I ought to subjoyn, That I wish him Joy in his Office, and that all the Success may Attend him which he deserves, namely, that none may hereafter Credit him out of the Pulpit, whatever they may do in it. For certainly that Person knew the Diversity of his [Page 116] lents, who said she never cared to see Him, or to hear Him, but in and from the fore-mentioned Place.

Nor could I have guessed upon what Motive he has Printed so False, Impudent, and Disgraceful a Story, but that he hath let me into the Reason, Mystery and Se­cret of it, by a Key of his own Fabricking, p. 103. of the Vindication of his Faithful Reb▪ where pretending to give an Account of the Opposition made to Mr. Willi­ams's Arminian and Socinianizing Notions, he resolves it into this, namely, That if God hath given him an Vse­ful and Profitable way of Preaching the Gospel, he may be maligned on that account. If he hath made too great a Fi­gure in the World, and born too great a port, that might draw on him the Evil Eye, &c. Which by changing the Tables, and inverting the Prospect to the 'tother End, gives us a True Ground of Mr. Alsop's Wrath against Mr. Burgess, and of his defaming him after the Inhu­mane, as well as Unchristian manner that he hath done. For finding Himself Eclipsed in the Vain Glory which he Aims at by his Preaching, (instead of his designing and pursuing the Honour of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Benefit of the Souls of Men) through the great and de­served Esteem which Persons of the first Rank, Qnali­ty, and Sense, as well as others of all Conditions, have of Mr. Burgess's Sound and Edifying Ministry, the Vain, Sel­fish, and Haughty Man is hereupon exasperated, and from thence cares not of what disservice it may be to our Blessed Lord, nor of what prejudice it may prove to the Souls of Men, provided He may but depress Mr. Burgess in the Veneration, Reverence and Love that are paid him, and by turning Him into a Jest, get others both to de­spise and abandon Attendance on his Preaching.

[Page 117] But though this appears to be the Grand Inducement upon which he hath treated him after the foregoing man­ner, yet I doubt not of his finding Himself by this time wonderfully disappointed in the End which He had pro­posed, and that the Mine which He had laid for the Blow­ing up the Reputation of a Reverend Divine, hath re­verted, and sprung against Himself, and shattered his own, and that instead of Diminishing Mr. Burgess's Cre­dit, or lessening his Assembly in the least, he hath both strangely disgusted the Soberest of his own Auditors, and sunk his Esteem amongst them, both as an Honest Man, and a Minister of the Gospel, beyond the possibility, as well as the likelihood of his Recovering and Repairing it.

There remains yet one Personal Reflection more of Mr. Alsop's, for which I ought both in Reason and Consci­ence to give him Chastisement. But it being so heinously Immoral, as well as Indecent, that it is in a manner be­yond the Pen. I am afraid to call him to account, lest I should be Transported to use the Ferula with too much Rigour, and thereupon maim, or wound, when my only design is gently to Correct him. For as if it were not a thing shameful, and Criminal in Mr. Alsop, to have at­tack'd and fullyed the Reputation of the Living, he hath Tygerously fallen upon the Dead, and Endeavoured to Blacken their Memory. And as if that Old Brutal Pagan were Revived in Him, whose Loathsome Character it is in History, to have said, That nothing smelled so sweet as the stench of a Dead Enemy; He seems to have his mind delighted, his Spirits Exhilerated, and all his Sen­ses gratified by his viewing the Corps, fixing his Eye up­on, and holding his Nose over the Ashes of Two Reve­rend [Page 118] and Holy Divines, lately deceased; and instead of suffering them to rest in their Graves Embalm'd in the sweet Odours, that excellent Learning, severe Piety, use­ful Preaching, and all the Flowers of Exemplary Virtue that grow in, and are to be gathered either out of the Fields of Morality, or from the Enclosed and Cultivated Garden of the Gospel, are adapted to give a sweet and pleasant scent of to such as view their Tombs, and Reflect upon and Ex­amine their Lives; he hath without License or Authority, carried them into his Anatomy-Office, and hath there not on­ly dissected them, and defaced their shapes by Tearing them Limb from Limb, and stript them of all that was Amiable and Odoriferous about them, but hath wrapt them in Filth and Nastiness, and then hung them up in Effigie.

Now it having been the Wisdom and Care of every Na­tion, that hath been any ways Civilized, to provide by Laws against all Injuries, which the Brutal part of Man­kind might perpetrate towards the Dead; and it having pass'd into a Proverb universally received, That we should tread softly upon their Graves, yea, it being the Interest of the Living (through a Consulting what may be their own Case) to Revenge the Wrongs done to the Memories of the Deceased; I shall therefore take a little notice of this Inhumanity of Mr. Alsop towards Two lately departed Divines. And but a little, lest through Resentment of the Injury done to them, I should be hurried into Excesses a­gainst Mr. Alsop, which I would not willingly be Guilty of. I Rejoyce (saith he) heartily, that we have at length heard some Tydings of Faith and Repentance, in order to our discharge from Punishment, which were wholly lost in the Report: so much do we owe to the Seasonable Deaths of Two Antinomians, under whose Influence he then was, and to the [Page 119] Lives of two Sound Divines, under whose Awe he now is, p. 143. of the Vindication of the Faithful Reb.

In reference to which Passages I shall, with all the Bre­vity I can, observe Three Things.

First, That the Expression of, The Seasonable Deaths of Mr. Cole and Mr. Mather, is Brutal and Barbarous, as well as Immoral and Unchristian. And that it argueth a strange Malignancy of Temper, and a Secret Enmity a­gainst the Glory of God, and the good of Souls, to be thus in his Exaltations of Mirth, for the Death of Two Faith­ful Labourers in the Work of the Lord, and in the saving of Souls; while all of true Piety or Good Judgment, who knew them, were afflictedly bewailing their Loss, as a Wonderful Damage to the Church of God; and which nothing could have brought them to a submissive and qui­et Acquiescence in, but the Consideration of the Will of the Great Sovereign, who giveth no account of his mat­ters, besides his pleasure, and a steddy Faith, that there is with him the Residue of the Spirit, whereby to qualifie o­thers to replenish and fill their Posts. And whosoever he be that doth thus Exalt and Triumph over the Deaths of Two Eminently Virtuous, Pious, and Useful Persons, and that Envieth both us and them the Elegies which are made upon them, I will presume to say of him, That as he can never hope to dye the Death of the Righteous, nor to de­serve the Burial of a Man; so all he can expect, is to de­part under the Infamy (if he Escape the Horror) of the Wicked, and to have his Resemblance perpetuated by such an Epitaph as would be written upon a Tyger or a Bear.

The Second Thing which I would observe in reference to the foregoing Citation, is his styling them Known Antino­mians, [Page 120] which is a Falshood that Thousands can controul, and prove the Contradictory of. For though upon more Experience of the Law of the Spirit of Life, and greater inward Sensations of the Power of the Divine Life, than God is pleased to Priviledge and Honour People of Mr. Al­sop's Wanton Wit, and Hanghty Petulant Humour with, they might think some Terms which others stake them­selves down unto, to be too scanty, narrow and flat by which to express their own Feelings, and the Concep­tions which they had thereupon; yet they were as far from being Antinomians, as they were from being either Socinians or Arminians.

Nor is it unworthy of Remark, That men of the best Hearts, and the Closest Communion with God, have not usually the most distinct and perspicuous methods of clo­thing and delivering their Notions. And the Reason is obvious, in that while others form both their Divinity Schemes, and Hunt for Language wherein to Array them, from the Theologick Chairs, and the Rhetorical Desks; bor­rowing their Tenets from the Systematick Doctors, and their Phrases from the Masters of Oratory, the former do in Consistency with, and in Subordination to Scriptural Revelation, Form divers of their Theological Notions from, and by their Internal Feelings. And though they may thereupon sometimes differ from such as have only read and meditated, but have never felt; yet when they come to be ask'd and advised with concerning what they mean, their Opinions are found in Effect to be the same with theirs who accuse and Reproach them, only they have an Air and Meen of Spirituality, which their Adver­saries do deride, through want of Enlightned, Elevated, and Qualified Faculties, whereby to discern these Beauties. Nor will I deny them to have been less fond of the Vnion, than several of their Brethren were, yet it was not from [Page 121] any Picque against Presbyterians in general, and much less from an universal dislike of their Principles, as if they were such as made them unmeet upon any Terms to be Cement­ed and Sodered with; but it was out of a Jealousy that there were some among them of the Spirit of Diotrephes, and of the Temper of Demas, who would thro' the Union endeav­our to usurp a Jurisdiction over all the Brethren, and who would serve their own Ends, and those of a Faction, upon, and by means of the Common Agreement. And I do wish that their previous Apprehensions and Fears had not been both justified and confirmed by too many Overt-Acts and sensible Proofs since.

The Third Thing that I would Animadvert upon, is Mr. Lobb's having been under the Awe of those Two Reverend Per­sons; whereas I can boldly affirm, That the contrary is ful­ly known to all that are acquainted with him, or who have had Experience of his Uprightness and Integrity. For tho he be none of your huffing bouncing people, yet he is of that Manly and Christian Fortitude, as not to suffer his Understanding and Faith to be prescribed unto by any, save by the Supreme Veracious Being. But it is one of Mr. Alsop's Creeping and Sneaking Artifices, to draw other Mens Pictures by his own Original, and from his being a little pitiful Tool himself, to conclude that others are also so. And that because he is under the Government of no Principles, unless of Pride, Passion and Vanity, &c. to believe the same of those who have an Uprightness to let nothing sway them, besides the Dictamina of Conscience, founded upon and guided by Revelation and Reason.

And thus I have at last finished my Examen of Mr. Al­sop's way of writing; and though in some places it be done with some measure of Smartness, through a concern­edness [Page 122] for the Truths of God, the Reputation of good men, and for preserving the Churches from being infected with Errors, and the being depraved by Vicious and Corrupt Ex­amples; yet it hath been done with the manners of a Gen­tleman, if not with the Learning of a Scholar: most of the Salt and Pepper, as well as of Vinegar, which it would have born, being reserv'd till the next Rancounter with Mr. Alsop, if he do think it for his Advantage to throw himself in my way again, armed with Porcupine Quills, Hog­gish Bristles, or with Don Quixot's Sword, Lance and Hel­met. For I am resolved to put an End to Mr. Alsop's way of writing, and to banish it, as to Ministers, out of the Precincts of the Nation, as well as out of the Purlieus of Churches, or else to finish my Days in the Underta­king and Atchievement. And which considering my Years, as well as my Health and Vigour, may not, ac­cording to the Course of Nature, fall out before his, whose Dotage, and his being already twice a Child, pro­claims him superannuated. Only one Admonition I do here think fit to give, That all concerned may be upon their Guard, namely, That the Gentlemen who write for the Theatre and Stage, finding themselves attack'd upon the Score of their Prophaneness, and their turning Religion in­to Ridicule, are thinking of making Reprizals upon those of the Clergy; which if they should be so ill-natur'd and revengeful as to do, Mr. Alsop, the Presbyterian Preacher, will be found to have out-done the most Libertine and Li­centious among the Poets, in all that is Unmannerly, Rude, Clownish, detractive and Impious. And his ha­ving Interlop'd upon them in their Trade, Faculty and Talent, may so Justly provoke them, that I shall no ways wonder, if they seize upon his Cargo, and expose it to Sale at their Auction-Houses, in Lincolns-Inn-Fields and Covent-Garden, to whosoever will bid most for it.

[Page 123] For if we may take a measure of the Lightness, Buf­foonry, Petulancy, and Prophaneness of those of the Ecclesiastical Order, by the Presbyterian Preacher at West­minster; the Pulpit is equally, if not more scandalous than the Stage, and they who are Called Preachers of the Gospel, and are dub'd for Theological Authors, do as much need to be reformed, as they who do write Comedies and Tragedies for the Theatre. Only the Crime is much more heinous in the Former than in the Latter, both because of their different Characters, and of the Respe­ctive Ends which they are severally supposed to de­sign.

And truely tho' my Talent doth not lye that way, yet if my Morals would have Allowed me, I thought to have made an Essay in reducing Mr. Alsops Writings in­to a Farce (that being the whole of what is Rellishing­ly divertive, which they are capable of being form'd in­to) and to have made him and Mr. Williams the Princi­pal Actors, and to have Introduced some of the young unthinking Preachers about the Town, to have Clapt at whatsoever their Wit and Manners would have found an agreableness in, or at least to have danced to an Horn Pipe and a Jews Trump in the Interludes. But I do sus­pend the prescribing and administring of that Hellebore, till I see how Gentler Physick will work with them: Which tho' a little Bitter, is not only made palatable but dulcified, by means of the vehicle into which it is in­fused and mixed. So that all which I have to add is to you, Reverend Pastors and Brethren of the Congregational perswasion, In order to beg your Forgiveness, for Intitling you to a Trifle, so much below you merit and worth: [Page 124] It having been my Ambition, to have testified the de­ference, which I pay you, by something that might have been more valuable, if the Subject, so far as my Concernment lyes in it, would have admitted it.

However, give me leave to say, and withal do me the Justice to receive it as no Complement, that I am with the profoundest respect and greatest sincerity,