More Proofs of Infants Church Membership and Right to Baptism, Chapter 6
CHAP. VI. Of his venturous report of Biſhop Uſhers cenſure of me.
IN his Reply pag. 51. he ſaith [I have an honourable regard to his perſon, and due value to his labours, eſpecially where he has laid out himſelf to promote practical holineſs (and wherein as I have judged his greateſt excellency lies) ſuppoſing had he let Controverſies alone, and addicted himſelf thereto, he would much more have furthered the peace and union he pretends to promote: It having been, as I have heard, a judgement that Biſhop Uſher made of him, that if he perſiſted in Polemical writings, he was like to prove a troubler, rather than a promoter of peace.]
Here, 1. See how he feareth not to make reports of the dead by this hearſay? No wonder if by this ſort of men I my ſelf am by backbiting ſo frequently traduced, and ſaid to Preach and Print that which never was in my mouth or books or thoughts?
2. Should one ask him whom he heard this from, do you think we ſhould get a ſatisfying anſwer? No one is here named.
3. It is poſſible Biſhop Ʋſher upon the coming forth of my Aphoriſms (which had many crudities, and many quarrelled at it more than there was cauſe,) might fear any thing that looked like unuſual.
4. But I ask the Reader whether this be a probable report, when he underſtandeth,
1. That I was for ſome weeks familiar with the Biſhop, and he never ſpake a ſyllable to me of ſuch importance. 2. That when Doct. Kendal and I were together with him, and our queſtion was what was Auguſtins jugement of Redemption, Perſeverance, and ſome other things, he expreſly averred that my Aſſertion in all thoſe was the truth. 3. But I imagine this following might be the occaſion of the report. Dr. Kendal had ſome acquaintance with and intereſt in the ſaid Arch-Biſhop, and he having written two diſputations againſt me, I had anſwered the firſt, and had drawn up part of the anſwer to the ſecond: But Mr. Vines and Dr. Kendal deſired me to meet at Biſhop Ʋſhers lodging in order to the ending of our difference. There the Biſhop motioned that we ſhould promiſe to write againſt each other no more: which we did, and I caſt by what I had begun. But yet Doct. K. after in a Latine Treatiſe broke that promiſe (which occaſioned my verſes in the end of my Diſpute of the Object of Juſtifying Faith againſt Mr. Warner, which ſome underſtood not.) Now it is not unlikely that the Biſhop might ſay that if Dr. K. and I perſiſted in that Diſpute, it would but trouble the Church. I am ſure he ſaid no more to me, nor ſo much.
As for Mr. D.'s judgement, I deſerve not the honour he giveth me, but indeed I think that of moſt men that I have had to deal with in that kind, he is one of the unfitteſt to make himſelf a Judge, who is fit to meddle with Controverſie, or to judge himſelf much fitter than me. Doubtleſs his knowledge hath coſt him much leſs time and ſtudy than mine hath done me; And if his advantage be in greater illumination of Gods Spirit, as I ſeriouſly profeſs to fear leſt I ſhould want it, for my manifold ſins againſt the Spirit, and therefore have cauſe moſt earneſtly to beg for it; ſo I could wiſh that he had better manifeſted it, than in theſe two Voluems he hath done: at leaſt by an ordinary humane friendſhip to hiſtorical truth. For my part I had never more publiſhed any thing in this cauſe, if my ſenſe of the hurt and danger of their Separations and Diviſions of Chriſtians, and deſtruction of Love and Peace, had not moved me much more, than any great zeal againſt bare rebaptizing, in it ſelf conſidered, eſpecially if hypothetically done.