A Dialogue, Title page – Errata
Laudensium Apostasia: OR A DIALOGUE In which is shewen, That some Divines risen up in our Church since the greatness of the late Archbishop, are in sundry Points of great Moment, quite fallen off from the DOCTRINE Received in the CHURCH of ENGLAND.
By HENRY HICKMAN Fellow of Magd. Colledg Oxon.
Stand ye in the wayes and see, and ask for the old paths, Where is the good way? and walk therein, Jer. 6. 16.
My Son, fear thou the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them who are given to change, Prov. 24. 21.
LONDON, Printed by D. Maxwell, for SA. GELLIBRAND, at the Sign of the Ball in St. Pauls Churchyard. 1660.
A PREFACE To the READER.
Christian Reader,
PErhaps thou art not ignorant that I set forth a little Pamphlet intituled, A Justification of the Fathers and Schoolmen; the drift whereof was to shew That the generally received opinion of the Privative Nature of sin, was neither so absurd nor so impious as it had been represented by a Luxuriant pen. After about a twelve moneths labour and travail Mr. T. P. conceived and brought forth something which he called the Discoverer Discovered, elemented of such palpable untruths, as did scarce ever drop from the pen of any person pretending to learning or ingenuity. In way of Appendix to that monstrous peece, something was added relating to me, but so worded and managed, as if the Authors design had been only to make an essay, whether it were not possible when he despaired to subdue my judgment by reason, at least to conquer my patience by clamour. I had hoped, that after he had shot so many bitter words against my credit and reputation, we should at last have received something from him savouring if not of the meekness of a Christian, yet of the Candor of a Scholar. But contrary to my desire I still find him foaming out his own shame; and as is the nature of seducers, waxing worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. In such a case what is most adviseable? Should I pay him with words as bad as he brings? that were impossible; unless I would have been at the charges to keep and maintain for some time a factor at Billings-gate. 2. If such a course had pleased some wanton wits, yet it must needs have much displeased the more sober and judicious, to whom I must strive to approve my self and my writings. Should I chastise the folly of the man with a more innocent satyr? Mr. Bagshaw hath so done, and what is the effect of it? why, (after an Apologetical Parenthesis for bringing so unclean a thing into a Gentlewomans presence) he is arraigned before the Tribunal of Mris. Peito, and is told, that it is the honour of her Sex that they read Mr. P's writings, and the shame of ours that we so much slight them: in which way, if Mr. Bagshaw should follow him, it would be such a peece of — as scarse hath had its parallel since the time that the two Kings after some years fighting about Religion, left the controversie at last to be decided by the fisti-cuffs of their two — For what though Mris. Peito be a gentlewoman made up of grace, and every thing that may render her amiable (as I believe she is) yet being but a Gentlewoman, she cannot well be presumed to be a meet Umpire in so great a Controversie as that of Gods Decrees. Shall I therefore take notice of the Argumentative part of his book? then there's nothing for me to do, he having never ventured to make the least assault on the rational part of my book; save that he once saith, That I make no difference betwixt an action and a quality: and why so? because, forsooth, I say, the Action of hatred; as if they who say, the act of Adultery, or actus adulterii in Latine, do presently make adultery not a quality but an action. The folly of such reasonings are already made manifest; but the huge plot is to make the world believe I am a Compilator, a Plagiary. Is this worth writing a book about? then sure we are prodigi temporis, cujus solius honesta est avaritia. If Mr. P. be of the temper of the Cardinal in the Council of Trent, who said, That he could willingly consent to a Reformation, but only he liked not that it should be brought about by means of such a poor Monk as Luther: or if he have any thing of the humour of Bucephalus in him, who would be mounted by none but Alexander. If he can be content to acknowledg that his cause is fallen to the gronnd, I can easily so far gratifie his ambition, as to let it be thought that the blow was given by a learneder hand then my own. Let Mr. P. have as low thoughts of me as he pleaseth; I shall alwayes endeavour to have lower thoughts of my self. I daily more and more see how far I fall short not only of what others have attained unto, but also of what I my self might have attained, had I but spent my time with that diligence and industry which for the future I shall aim at. Yet shall I not altogether leave that blot which Mr. P. and his egregious advocates Dr. H. and M. O. have let fall, to dry on my name. I am charged to have played the Plagiary, and to make good the charge Mr. P. hath employed I know not how many hands to pick up any words or phrases that they could meet with in any Authour that had affinity with my words and phrases; and when they were so picked, to fagot them up together, with an intent that they may by him be made publick for my disgrace. Had he made it appear that I had borrowed any set continued discourse from any Author, he had then, though not helped his own cause, yet sufficiently disgraced me. But seeing he only chargeth me with taking here and there a quotation and applying it to my purpose, naming the first Authour though not the second: the matter is not much if the charge were true. Whether it be so or no will shortly be tryed. But,
1. Were I a Plagiary, I should not be alone; others and those none of the meanest, are impeached of the like crime, by Authors who are at least as much to be regarded as Mr. P. Concerning some of the Ancients, let Dr. Brown be heard, Enquiries into vulgar and common errors. Lib. 1. ch. 6. Not a few of the Ancients have written transcriptively, subscribing their names unto other mens endeavours, and meerly transcribing almost all they have written; the Latines transcribing the Greeks, the Greeks and Latines each other: Thus hath Justine borrowed all from Trogus Pompeius, and Julius Solinus, in a manner transcribed Plinie. Thus have Lucian and Apuleius served Lucius Pratensis, men both living in the same time, and both transcribing the same Author in those famous Books, Entituled Lucius by the one, and Aureus Asinus by the other; in the same measure hath Simocrates in his Tract de Nilo dealt with Diodorus Siculus, as may be observed in that work annexed unto Herodotus, and translated by Jungermanuus. Thus Eratosthenes wholly translated Timotheus de infulis, not reserving the very Preface: The same doth Strabo report of Eudorus, and Ariston in a Treatise, Eutituled de Nilo. Clemens Alexandrinus hath observed many examples hereof among the Greeks, and Plinie in his Preface spcaketh very plainly, that conferring his Authors, and comparing their works together; he generally found those that went before verbatim transcribed by those that followed after and their original never so much as mentioned. To omit how much the wittiest peece of Ovid is beholding unto Parthenius Chius; even the magnified Virgil hath borrowed almost in all his works: in his Eclogues from Theocritus, his Georgicks from Hesiod and Aratus, his AEneads from Homer, the second Book whereof containing the exploit of Sinon, and the Troian Horse (as Macrobius observeth) he hath Verbatim, derived from Pisander. Our own prosession is not excusable herein. Thus Oribasus, Etius, and AEgineta have in a manner transcribed Galen. But Marcellus Empiricus, who hath left a famous work, de medicamentis hath word for word, transcribed all Scribonius Largus de compositione Medicamentorum, and not left out his very Peroration. Thus Plagiary had not its Nativity with Printing, but began in times when thefts difficult, and the paucity of Books scarce wanted that invention.
Rhodiginus a famous writer, is chastised by the Varro of our age Gerh. Vossius de Orig. Idol. lib. 3. c. 84. for not relating the names of those, to whose labours he had been beholden. Unde ista hauserit non addit. Quam facile fuerat Athaenei nomen apposuisse. Nempe hoc actum Rhodigino passim, ut dissimulatis scriptoribus, unde sua hausisser, non alius quam ipse, testis laudaretur; & hic nos etiam fontes, unde quid que hauserint, dissimulandi, summis aliquot viris saeculo nostro est perfamiliaris. And the learned and pious Barthol Keckerman telleth us in his praecognita Logica, that the admired piece of Peter Hispan, is not Hispan's own, but taken out of Psellus, an Author ancienter then himself; yea, and that the very doctrine of Supposition which we look upon as a School invention, is by him handled in a whole Chapter. The same Keckerman also somwhere tells us, the censures passed upon Aristodes Logick by Ramus are most of them taken out of Ludovicus Vives; and that the Methodus Theologiae made by Hyperius, was reprinted under the name of Laurentius Villavincentius an Augustinian Monk. It is a most undoubted truth, that the commentaries of the Papists, especially of the Jesuits, do owe very much to Bucer, Mercer, Bullinger, Lavater, Beza, Calvin. Martir; yet these men are never mentioned, except with censure and blame. Bishop Laud stands charged by Mr. Prynne, for having stoln all his supposition out of Bellarmine, and that with so little Art, that the whole school could not but take notice of it. The learned Dr. Downham, is said by his answerer to have taken his arguments for Episcopacy out of Bishop Bilson; Mr. Mountague indeed hath told us, that the day was yet to come, in the which he ever read word of any of Arminius his works, but his antagonists have shewed the same Testimonies and Authorities commended by one and the other: and not to disturb the ashes of men in their graves, Mr. Bagshaw hath vontured to call Dr. Hamond, Grotius his Interpreter, how justly the Dr. best knows; yet thus far I will venture to say, that the learned Annotator hath ploughed more with Grotius his heyfer, and made more use of his labours, then I have done of any, or of all the men with stealing from whom Mr. P. hath charged me. Dr. Jer. Taylor is a great master of Language, and one of vast reading, and yet he borroweth sufficiently from Mr. Hales in his Preface to Liber. of Prophe. from Episcopius he borroweth almost every thing in his unhappy Tract of Original sin; but sure, Dr. Heylin who hath cast so many stones at Mr. Hickm. for filching, is frce from that fault; nay, if ever man was guilty of that crime, he is. I will not blot Paper with making parallels in many particulars, take him but in his master peece, his Fides veterum his whole p. 16. and half the 17. is almost Verbatim, transcribed out of Dr. Thom. Jackson, his Original of unbelief; as any one may easily see who will but be at pains to compare them; and how much he hath made use of the same Author, in the Articles of our Saviours Resurrection, Ascension, Session at the right hand, he is not ignorant; so that if he were so willing to shew his reader a Plagiary, he needed not to have sent him so far as Mag. Col. he might have found one as near as Seneca was wont to find a fool; the truth Meipsum inveniois, this Dr. is Felo de se, he robbeth his own Preface to adorn his Book. In the Preface to the Reader, he serveth us up these words; My opinions, as they are but opinions, so they are but mine; as opinions, I am not bound to stand to them my self, as mine, I have no reason to obtrude them on another man, &c. and these he brings a second time to the Table in his Book, p. 283. and yet he thrasonically enough tells us in the Preface, That whatsoever other censure might be laid upon his Book, that of nil dictum est, quod non dictum fuit prius, could find no place. But we need not much trouble our selves, that what he takes out of others, he carryeth, as if it were his own, seeing that he is so unhappy when he doth quote an Author: Quis nescit qualia demens AEgyptus portenta colat, He ascribes to Lucan in his Pharsal. lib. 10. And yet I believe there's many a boy in M. School who knows that it was Juven. and not Lucan who in those words upbraided the AEgyptians with their Idolatry.
I have sufficiently proved that if I am guilty of what Mr. P. and Dr. H. charge me with, yet I am not the first that did offend in this kind. But I farther plead, Not guilty to the accusation; and do here confidently aver, That what he chargeth me to have borrowed from Mr. Prynne, I borrowed not from him, but took from the books that I quote them out of: those questions and answers in the Bible printed 1607. I saw and read before I knew there was such a Tract in the world as Mr. Prynnes Anti-Armin. and all my Fathers house can bear me witness, that they are in the very Bible that we constantly made use of as oft as we read Chapters in the Family. And I must now inform Dr. Heylin, That he is much mistaken if he think (what he would feign have others think) that those questions and answers are no older then 1607. for I my self can direct him to a Bible printed twenty years before that time, that hath them, and how many Bibles there may be older than that, I know not: as for the Act Quest. Dr. Wallis knows, and so did Mr. Whittingh. when alive, that I took them out of the Congregation books; and that I had the sight of Pounols Catechism it self long before I printed my book, Mr. Cooper Fellow of N. C. knows, for he lent it me; Mr. Burscough of B. C. will witness that I did read that cheat of putting out Champneys book, and that I shewed him the opinion that Crowley had of that patron of Free-will, not out of Mr. Prynne, but out of Crowley himself. I also profess that I read Dr. John Bridges, and took not his words upon Mr. Prynnes credit, and so I did the works of T. F. and B. Balaeus also I consulted about our Ancient Protestant Divines, thence I had their Characters, and this as it proves, our Library-keeper can witness, for I came to him to direct me to that book, having searched for it among the Divinity, whereas it is placed among the Humanity books. Now after I had taken all this pains, and trusted nothing but my own eyes, was I bound to tell the world that such quotations might be found in Mr. Prynne? Yet I have made use of his History of the Tr. of the A. and have acknowledged my self so to have done; or if I had made no such acknowledgment, yet all would have thought that I had lighted my candle at his Historie, no man having written those transactions but himself: As for what he chargeth me to have stolen from Dr. W. or Mr. M. or Mr. Good. I am told that they are but sentences or Apothegmes; and truly it is hard that a man should be bound if he have read a sentence or Apothegme twenty times to quote the last Author. Let any one in the behalf of those Gentlemen implead me, and if it be made appear that I have used any thing that is properly theirs, and not given them the credit, I shall soon acknowledg my fault and cry them pardon. As for a phrase or expression I labour not to acquit my self, knowing that it is not possible to read an Author but that something of his stile will stick upon the memory, and ming'e it self with whatever a man shall write, till those impressions are blotted out. I thank God that whatever I am defective in, yet I did never find my self at any great loss for sit and apt words to express the conceptions of my mind.
Perhaps the world may expect that I should take notice of a late Whifler who notifieth himself by two letters, M. O. and (because else he would have been taken to be but a mechanick) tels us, That he is a Batchelor of Arts: but his lewd Pamphlet I did never read, nor did ever meet with that Scholar who thought it worth my reading. All Brackley knows that I had relinquished the profits of that place long before I came to St. Aldates in Oxon: and all Oxford knows that St. Aldates is not worth 150 l. per annum: And there are but few in Magdalen Colledge who know not that Mr. P. his book did never put me into a fit of the toothach; and all my Scholars will say, That I never forewarned any of them from reading of Mr. P. his book: The Printer and Stationer know that the Review was never intended to come forth in my name; yea, that it was almost off the Press before Mr. P. his book came to Oxon. And therefore that poor Creature hath done nothing but only gratified the Devil by raising groundless calumnies; and I heartily wish he may have time and grace to see how much he hath abused not only me, but himself in so unfortunate an attempt.
As for the following Tract, the Lord knows, and some men do know, that I send it into the world with a very unwilling mind. For I know they are mostly my superiours upon whose writings I have made Animadversions. I know that my undertaking may possibly be interpreted a sounding of an Alarum to War, whereas it becomes us to study all possible wayes and means of accord and reconciliation, that so our pens and hearts may be united against the common adversaries of Christianity, Papists and Atheists, &c. But I consider that wellmeaning people are drawn into opinions Diametrically opposite to the Doctrine by Law and Authority established among us, and that by those who esteeme themselves the only obedient sons of the Church of England; and therefore thought it not amiss to let our Country-men understand, that the plants they so greedily feed upon, are exotick, not planted by our first Reformers; and that it is a sad sign their temper and constitution is altered, if they can digest such Positions as I have manifested old Protestants would have nauseated. All along thou hearest men speaking in their own words, and therefore certainly no wrong is done them; if their meaning be mistaken; I hope it will teach them to express themselves more warily, and to abstain not only from that which is Popery, but also from every thing that hath the appearance of it. If any of them will so far take notice of what I have done, as to give a fair reconciliation of their sayings to our Artic. Homil. &c. I shall therein rejoyce, having this testimony within me, That I never desired to make differences where I found none.
But alas! it is but too evident that some of our Canterburians (I call them so not to disgrace, but to distinguish them) have removed the old Land-marks placed by our Protestant Forefathers, and are gone over into the Tents and Camps of our adversaries. It was of old reckoned Popery to hold, That the Virgin Mary was borbn free of Original sin; we have now one risen up among us who holds that, and holds also that every one else is born so too: Who also maintains, That she ever kept a dominion over her Passions, which never had been taught to rebel beyond the meer possibilities of Natural imperfection Gr. Ex. p. 13. cap. 19. He entitleth her, To a Faith that had no scruple: And that, Though she was Espoused to an honest and just person of her Kinred and Family, and so might not dispair to become a Mother, yet she was a person of so rare sanctity, and so mortified a Spirit, that for all this desponsation of her, according to the desires of her parents, and the Custome of the Nation, she had not set one step forward toward the consummation of her Marriage so much as in thought, and possibly had set her self back from it by a Vow of Chastity and holy celibate. p. 14. p. 19. We are further told, Of her being brought up in the Temple eleven years in her childhood, p. 22. Of her body being Aery and Vegete, and of the burden which she bare not hindring her. And p. 26. That she had no pain in the production, for to her alone did not the punishment of Eve extend, That in sorrow she should bring forth: and that as He came from the Grave with a stone and signature, and into the Colledge of Apostles, the doors being shut, and into the glories of his Father through the solid orbs of all the Firmament, so he came also into the world without doing violence to the Virginal and pure body of his Mother. He contents not himself to assert the perpetual Virginity of Mary, which is not denyed by any Protestant, but will abuse Scripture to prove it; viz. that of Ezek. 44. 2. p. 27. & Ibid. He adopts the uncertain conceit of Christs being laid in a Manger between Sheep and Oxen: and for this quotes Hab. 3. 4. whence no such thing is deducible. And p. 28. he writes in favour of Vows of Poverty; for he saith, That many wise men make such Vows: whereas no wise man did ever make such a Vow, or if he did, the making of the Vow was no part of his Wisdom. Ile not follow that Author any further, though seeing his books are so greedily bought up by our Gentry, it would be pains well spent if some one who abounds with leisure, would pick up his Popish passages, that the world might see what a kind of man he is whom they so much admire. For my part I think I could produce hundreds of Papists that were less Popish then he; though I do not take him to be a perfect, through-paced Tridentine Papist. Nor would I be thought to impute all his opinions to every one with whom I deal in the ensuing Tract; they are not all of a mind in all things: But they have all (if I mistake not) departed more or less from the Protestant Doctrine, by which means the Papists will be hardned in their errors, and some scandal be cast on our Reformation.
Reader, I shall finish thy trouble when I have only minded thee of two or three things relating to the temper of those Divines whose Opinions I relate.
1. I have observed they are hugely nncharitable to those that are of a different mind from them, though in smaller matters. 'Tis notorious that they have unchurched all the Transmarine Churches for want of such an Officer as they are not convinced that Christ did ever Institute: And 'tis also well known that Mr. Montague condemns those Churches of great impiety which do not observe Christmas.
2. They do pretend great Antiquity for their Opinions; whereas if all things were well observed and examined, no such Antiquity could be pleaded. I had thought to exemplisie this in Mr. Montagues Discourse about the time of Christs Nativity, but that is already done to my hand by Gisber. Voetius, whom if thou wilt consult, thou wilt be abundantly satisfied. Let me instance in the observation of the Lent Fast, concerning which Dr. Heylin, Fid. Veter. p. 163. thus declares himself, The Lent Fast was not alone of special use to the advancement of true godliness and increase of Piety, but also of such reverend Antiquity, that it hath good right and title to be reckoned among the Apostolical Traditions which have been recommended to the Church of God. To prove this he alledgeth the Canons of the Apost. Can. 69. and Ignatius in his Epistle to the Philippians. But he might have done well to consider that of August. Epist. 86. ad Casul. As for the authorities he quoteth, they are both spurious, as is proved by the most learned Usher. Tertullian also is by the Doctour produced: But what Tertullian? not Tertullian the Orthodox Father, but Tertullian turned Montanist, and grown to such a degree of pride, that he ventured to call the Orthodox Psychicos: and it may well be questioned whether his magnifying the quadragesimal Fast had not in it a spice of Montanism; for we find in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. 5. foreign. in. That Montanus is by Apollonius branded for an Heretick, because he was foreign. Let any one who counts it worth his labour consult Eusebius, lib. 5. cap. 25, 26. Socrates, lib. 5. cap. 21 Sozom. lib. 7. cap. 19. Nic. Calis. lib. 4. cap. 39. he will see that the Primitive Church did not impose the observation of the forty dayes Fast as a matter of necessity; yea, he will be of the mind of Cassian. Collat. 21. cap. 30. Observantiam quadragesimae quamdiu Ecclesiae illius primitivae perfectio inviolata permansit. penitus non fuisse, &c. If any one think that the example of Christs fasting doth oblige us to imitation, let him pause upon that of Chris. foreign foreign In Mathae. Homil. 47.
Therefore when ever thou sindest Antiquity pleaded mark well, and by comparing Editions enquire whether that which is brought be as ancient as is pretended, and not something foisted into the writings of the Ancients by men of later times. See also whether the Testimonies do prove that for which they are produced: for it would be great weakness to think that every Father who mentioneth or commendeth Episcopacy, doth presently allow or approve of such an Episcopacy as did here obtain in England, and as some would fain have restored. The question is not whether Antiquity had Bishops, but whether Antiquity did believe a Bishop to be of a superior order to a Presbyter; and if that were proved, it would be a second question whether that superiority of order were founded on humane or Divine institution; and if it could be proved that there is a Divine Institution of and for a Bishop, it may still be questioned whether that divine institution do make him so necessary and essential to Ordination, that any Ordination which is made by meer Presbyters is in naturâ rei, null and void. I am fully convinced that Imposition of hands is a Rite no way to be omitted in Ordination; yet if any apprehending that Ceremony to have been proper and peculiar to the Apostolical times, should omit it, I should be loath to say that the person Ordained without it was no true Minister; there are examples for many things in Scripture for which there is no precept; and there may be necessitas praecepti for many things which yet are not necessary necessitate medii: multa fieri non debuerunt quae tamen facta valuerunt. I conclude all with an earnest desire and prayer, That such a spirit of Love may be poured out upon us, as that whereunto we have already attained we may walk by the same rule, and bear with one another in those lesser things in which we differ; fer; and that we may have them in high esteem who first sealed our Reformation with the loss of their lives, and not meddle with those who are given to changes. VntoUnto which ends, if what I have done may contribute any thing, I shall account I hauehave not laboured in vain.
H. H.
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