Page images
PDF
EPUB

or denfe, a Sound obtufe (if I may use the Word here) or acute, according to the Degree of Denfity; and all of them, tho' in different Sort, teftify their Refentment on having Violence offered them, and the Laws of Nature and Peace infringed.

This is fufficient to confute the trifling Objections of the Writer under Confideration against the Essay, and the Philofophy therein contained.

The Rev. Mr. Samuel Henry, Rector of Gaulksbill, in the Diocese of Offory, has made no Objection to the Author's Philofophy; and that honest Gentleman's Knowledge in Divinity is not fo great as his Zeal, which in the Front appears fo furious, that he has given Reason to fufpect him to be of perfecuting Principles. Fire and Faggot were the old Inftruments of Perfecution: But he talks of piercing the Author thro' the Heart, and calls aloud on all Perfons to take Courage; and, indeed, they must have a good deal, and great Patience too, who will undertake what he defires, viz. to confider particularly his Arguments, which are only the

C 2

[ocr errors]

con

contemptible Scraps raked up from the Oppolers of Arianism, and set in a worse Light than he found them. But he muft here obferve, once for all, that the ready Objection, and the easiest made against the Author, is not only ungene¬ rous, but proves nothing, viz. Had you not Time to confider these Things before you took holy Orders? Why don't you refign Preferments? To which Questions the Author thinks it no Way incumbent on him to answer, till called upon in Convocation, or at a regal Vifitation, which he earnestly wishes to have an Opportunity of doing, from a well-grounded Belief, that his Doctrine would meet with a better Reception (at least from the upper House in Convocation) than it seems to have done from Perfons left at Liberty to judge for themselves, and publish their crude Opinions, together with their Ill manners, to the World,

THE

I.

THE GENUINE

SEQUEL, &c.

E

PIPHANIUS Scholafticus, in his Translation of the Tripartita, as commented on by Paraus, p. 588, hath these Words: "The Emperors, by their "Humility in fubmitting themselves to "God, reproved the High-mindedness and

[ocr errors]

Arrogancy of the Bishops, who, by their "continual Brawlings and Contentions, "abufed their Imperial Majefties." And the Emperor Conftantius Auguftus, in his Admonitions to Liberius, Bishop of Rome, hath thefe Words, as tranflated by A. Coxfa: Tu folus homini impio fubfidio venire, & pacem orbis ac mundi totius dirimere, audeas? The bomo impius was Athanafius, who, I find by all his cotemporary Writers, was esteemed a contentious Brawler, as I fhall in due Time, I hope, prove from his own Writings; and yet, though he stood as it were fingle, he did, by Intrigues and fervile Obedience to the See of Rome, get the better of the Emperor and all his Adherents.

It is a melancholy Reflexion, that in all Times of the Church the most obstinate Party has always prevailed and been esteemed Orthodox, which I take to be owing altogether to this, that a general Maxim has univerfally poffeffed Men's Minds, that Truth will defend itfelf; which, I humbly apprehend, is rather betraying the Cause of Truth than fupporting it. Truth will certainly

ftrike all Beholders with Conviction; but it may be hid from our Eyes, not only as a Punishment, but by the Artifices and Contentions of obftinate and defigning Men; and it is easy to remark, that the gentle Dispofition of the Emperors, and their Defire of Peace, was the Caufe that certain Things were established in the Church against the Judgment of the Majority, and which they did not intend fhould laft any long Time; which Compliance of theirs made others lukewarm and indolent: So that the fiery Zeal of an Handful of Men prevailed over univerfal Opinion, and it will always be fo. The Fire of Zeal is like all other fierce Fire, and puts out the more moderate; fo that it is no Wonder, if Errors, once crept in, fhould always remain, as the bigotted Party will ftand by and fupport thefe Errors, and call for Fire and Faggot, when Person of a liberal Way of Thinking fhall offer any Objection to Opinions impofed, or Forms eftablished.

any

The

The Author of the Efay on Spirit hath found thefe Obfervations verified, and is very well content to be the Object of Cenfure for a Time, if thereby what he proposes may in the End make its Way, and gain Credit with the reasonable Part of the World; fo as (when the Legislative Power in the Church fhall think fit) it may go better recommended to the People in general, by their public Approbation, without which, he is sensible, it can make but a flow and imperceptible Progrefs. Therefore,

Let it be his Apology, that he hath no other Design in this fecond Part, than to clear up and add fresh Teftimonies and Ar-. guments to the Truths before proposed, that Men may revolve and confider them frequently, in order that, when the feeming Novelty of them fhall wear off, they need not be startled at any Intention of the Governors in Church and State to fubftitute thefe his Opinions in the room of fuch, as, though now received, may be justly liable to Exception. He impofes them on no Perfon whatever, but leaves to every one's Choice either to receive or reject them.

II. The Author of the Queftions to Antiochus, Queft. 30, defines an Angle thus, ζωον λογικόν, υμνολογικον, αθανατον, which Syncellus, perhaps too ludicrously, translates a rational Animal and an immortal Pfalm. finger; but, at the Time he made his

Translation,

« PreviousContinue »