Dr. Burnet AGAINST Mr. Thevenot and Mr. Le Grand.   

A LETTER TO Mr. THEVENOT.  
Containing A CENSURE of Mr. Le Grand's HISTORY OF King Henry the Eighth's Divorce.  
To which is Added, A CENSURE of Mr. de Meauxes HISTORY OF THE Variations of the Protestant Churches.  
Together with Some further Reflections on Mr. Le Grand.  
Both Written By GILBERT BURNET, D. D.  
Licenced and Entered according to Order.  
LONDON, Printed for john Starkey and Richard Chiswell. MDCLXXXIX.   

A LETTER TO Mr. THEVENOT, Containing a Censure of Mr. Le Grand's History of K. Henry the Eighth's Divorce.  
SIR,  
INstead of offering you all those expressions of Respect, which on many accounts are so justly due to you, I shall satisfy myself at present, with this one, which is, That I consider you as a Person of so much Probity and Sincerity, that notwithstanding all the difference of Persuasion that is between you and me, yet I can make an Appeal to you, and refer myself to your Decision, in the Contests that are like to be between Mr. le Grand and me, in a Subject that has a great Relation to Matters of Religion. Matters of Opinion, and the Inferences and Speculations that arise out of Matters of Fact, appear indeed differently to Men, according to their various apprehensions of things: While Matters of Fact have but one face, and appear the same to all who desire to find out Truth: And therefore, since our Dispute is like to run wholly on Matters of Fact, I know I run no hazard when I apply myself to you as an Arbiter. While I was last at Paris, I was so happy as to have the Honour of waiting sometimes on you, and saw how just a Title you had to the Esteem and Admiration which is so universally paid you. I had, in my own particular, all possible Reason to acknowledge the high Civilities that you put on me, and among others, the trouble that you put yourself to, in bringing Mr. le Grand and me to a Conference before yourself and Mr. Auzout. I confess I apprehended, that I had a man to deal with, from whom nothing was to be expected but fair dealing: A Man, that lived in the House of one, that was no less Eminent for his Sublime Virtue, than for those high Employments through which he has gone; one that was much with that Learned and Worthy Gentleman Mr. Bulteau, and that saw often the Famous Mr. Baluze, whose Sincerity is equal to his Learning, which is one of the greatest things of the Age, and that valued himself on Mr. Thevenot's Friendship, seemed to be such an Antagonist, as one would have wished for. I will not put you on so uneasy a thing, as the remembering the poor and inconsiderable things that were proposed in your hearing, of which you were both so weary, and for which you owned yourselves so much ashamed, not only to me when Mr. le Grand was gone, but to a great many others. You seemed fully satisfied, that all he proposed deserved not to be mentioned, and that such as it was, it was fully answered by me: Mr. Auzout indeed desired me not to boast much of what had past; with which it was very easy for me to comply: for to tell you freely, I did not find that my Antagonist was such a Person, that a Victory over him afforded matter for a Triumph, and in the account that I found it convenient to give of a part of our Conversation, in my Remarks on Mr. Varillas, I managed Mr. le Grand with all the Respect that he could have expected from me, but if hereafter I touch him a little more sensibly, he has none to blame for it but himself. I can very easily bear all his Reflections on me, 
p. 30.  for my Ignorance and want of Capacity, and in particular for my Ignorance of the History and Laws of England. 
p. 2, and 3.  This comes soon after a very high and undeserved Commendation that he had given of me; and it seems he himself thought I did not deserve it, since he changed his Style so soon: It is too common Artifice to pass upon me, to give a Man a good Title to reproach another, by introducing those Injuries with high Commendations. But I must be contented with my small measure of Knowledge, and the low degree of Capacity, that belongs to me; and I have the more Reason to bear with my own defects at present, since I have to do with one of so moderate a Talon, as Mr. le Grand shows himself to be.  
I wish only that those who desire to be rightly informed of the famous Transaction now in Dispute, will be at the pains to read Sander's History and mine, and next to examine Mr. le Grand's History, and then I am confident that they will conclude, that there must be some Error in the Printing of the Title Page, in which there is mention made of a Defence of Sander's, and a Refutation of my History: for the bulk of his work, does so agree with mine, except in some places, where he uses an Art for which I do not envy him, that I am tempted to think, that in Writing it he intended to make good his offer made in your hearing, that he would furnish me with a vast number of Papers, for the Confirmation of my Work. I have yet only seen his first part, so I cannot imagine how he can justify Sanders, having given him quite up in the whole thread of his History. The whole Story of Anne Bullen, and all the Branches of it are abandoned, which yet was the chief thing aimed at by Sanders; as being a nullity in Q. Elizabeth's Title, and by consequence an encouragement to Rebellion. The Decretal Bull is confessed; the Behaviour of Sir Thomas More is not insisted on by our Author: In short, if one will examine about eighty Errors, for which I have charged Sander's History in my Appendix, he will find above seventy of my contradictions of Sanders, confirmed by Mr. le Grand, which will be easily made appear, if this Work of his is judged of that importance, as to deserve a more particular censure.  
I say nothing of his manner of Writing, for that will offer itself to every Reader, who must needs find in him more of the Style of one that pleads a Cause, than of one that undertakes to relate Matters: An earnestness in proving, and an injuriousness of Style, are indecencies that are scarce to be forgiven to one that pretends to be an Historian: And there is somewhat that is Sacred even in the Ashes of Crowned Heads, that claims a Modesty of Style: So that even when they are censured, softer words than Lies and Impostures ought to be sought for. And the chief point in this whole Matter being, whether the King's Cause ought not to have been judged rather in England, and by his own Clergy, than at Rome: The supporting the Pope's pretensions in opposition to this, as it agrees very ill with the Principles of the Gallican Church, so it seems a little strange at this time, in which the Thunders of the Vatican are so little regarded at Versailles: And when an Appeal from a Pope to a General Council, is, after so long an intermission, again made use of in so critical a time: It might have been expected, that this Matter should have been handled with a little more decency, at least, unless this is one of the Artifices of a sort of Men, whom Mr. Talon has mentioned more freely than I will do, who perhaps intent to blast what Lewis the Great is doing, by representing Henry the 8th in ill Colours. But perhaps our Author is not a Man of so much Intriegue, as to have such remote Speculations; and this being his first Essay, it is possible he thought that less application was necessary, since he reckoned that he had to do with a Man of so small a Capacity as mine is. I will at present only single out six of the Errors that he has committed, which are a very small proportion as to their number, since you will find a much longer List, if I enter upon a more Crititical Enquiry into this History; but as these are all of great consequence, so I have limited myself to this number, that I may not enlarge at present beyond those narrow bounds, to which I restrain myself in a Paper of this Nature.  
1. He questions much the Contents of the Decretal Bull, 
Pag. 89. 10 92.  that Cardinal Campegio brought over, and thinks, that since it was only shown to the King and Cardinal Wolsey, no body can affirm what it was; and if it was a Bull that determined the whole Matter, he does not see how there could be any more occasion for the Legates; and he fancies that upon a Bull, the King would have proceeded to a second Marriage, without giving himself any further trouble, as Lewis the 12th had done.  
If Mr. le Grand had given himself the trouble to have Read the Decretal Bull which I have Published, 
Collect. 2. lib. Num. 10.  he would have seen that all this Discourse was to no purpose. The Bull was drawn in England, and sent to Rome, and tho' some few Clauses were altered, yet by all the Letters that passed between Rome and England, it appears, that it was upon the Matter the same Bull that was sent over by Campegio. Now the Bull declared indeed the justice of the King's Pretensions; and empowered the Cardinal Legates to examine the Truth of these Pretensions; and upon the Proofs of that, it Authorized them to Judge the Cause: so that tho' the Pope did by this Decretal give a definitive Sentence, in case the Pretensions were found to be true, yet here was still matter left for the Legates to proceed upon: To wit, whether the King had himself desired the Marriage? whether there was any danger of War at that time between England and Spain? whether the Dispensation was not annulled, by the Protestation the King had made, when he came of age, against the Marriage? and whether those Princes, or any of them, upon whose account the Dispensation was granted, died before the Marriage took effect? And till all these things were found true, the Bull dissolving the Marriage, that was granted upon that supposition, could have no effect: So that all his Reasoning upon this matter is in the Air. 
P. 85.  But since I have named Cardinal Campegio, I acknowledge that Mr. le Grand seems to be in the right as to his Son, whom I had called a Bastard, but he proves him Legitimate from Sigonius' Life of Campegio, which I confess I never saw, and Sigonius is so good an Author, that I acquiesce in his Authority. But Mr. le Grand ought to have taken notice, that I cite an Author for what I say of that Bastard. Pelerin juglese, which was a Discourse writ by Sir William Thomas, a Clerk of the Council at that time, and it seems he took Cardinal Campegio's Son for his Bastard. So if Mr. le Grand had pleased to have looked to the English Edition, he might have rectified this Error with less acrimony of Style, since it is no forgery of mine; and indeed this is the only omission that seems to be well grounded, of all those for which he accuses me.  
2. Mr. le Grand makes much ado to shake the credit of the Decision made by the Sorbon, 
P. 179. to 184.  in Favours of King Henry; tho' after all, the Printing the Decision itself the next year, and its passing for genuine, no Man having in that Age pretended that it was a Forgery, is so concluding a Proof for it, that no Insinuation to the contrary can be received. Neither Cardinal Pool who was at Paris when it past, nor any other Writer of the Roman Communion, accused the King of an Imposture in this Matter. And as the Bishop of Tarbe's continuing to advance the King's Interests in the Court of Rome, when he was promoted to be a Cardinal, and his not disowning the share that King Henry laid on him in public before the Legates, of his Scruples concerning his Marriage, is an evident confirmation of it, notwithstanding all our Author's suggestions to the contrary: So the Sorbonnes never disavowing this matter, 
p. 135.  is an evident proof that the Judgement was truly given by them, and all the presumptions that our Author offers to the contrary, amount to no more but that great opposition was made; and that Beda behaved himself very factiously in it: It is also to be considered, that as the whole Gallican Church was highly dissatisfied with Francis the 1st, for his having destroyed their Liberties by the Concordat, so the University of Paris was too much concerned in that matter, which stuck still deep with them, not to be full of Malcontents: and perhaps this might have contributed to make the opposition the greater, since the King supported King Henry's Concerns with much Zeal; yet after all, our Author owns, that in the Scrutiny there were fifty three for the Divorce, and only forty two against it, and five were for the referring it to the Pope: so here was enough for justifying the Judgement, as it is Printed, which bears only, that the greater number gave it for the Divorce, and against the lawfulness of the Marriage: And this justifies likewise those words of the first President's Letter, that it would rather prejudice than advance the King's Affair, since the whole Bodies in other Universities had judged for the King, whereas it was carried only by a plurality of Voices in the Sorbonne.  
3. Mr. le Grand pretends to give an Abstract of the Reasons that were brought against the Marriage of King Henry, 
Page 189. to p. 2●●  and yet he does not mention that which was the strength of the Cause, which was that according to the main hinge upon which all the Decisions in the Roman Church turn, Scripture expounded by Tradition, is that by which all Controversies ought to be decided: So here they brought a Series of Councils, Provincial and General, of many Popes, of all the chief Fathers both Greek and Latin, particularly of the four great Fathers of the Latin Church; whereas on the other side, there was not one Father nor Doctor alleged: And tho' Mr. le Grand pretends only that the Canons of some Provincial Councils against Incontinence, and some passages out of Tertullian, S. Basil, and S. Jerome upon Virginity, and against second Marriages were alleged. Here I am sure the Reader will censure him, for the want of somewhat that is more important to an Honest Man, than great Capacity: For the Canons of those Councils, and Passages of those Fathers, speak expressly of the degrees of Marriage forbidden in the Book of Leviticus: And tho' he names only three Popes whose Letters were cited to the same purpose, he passes over the chief of them with Relation to England, Gregory the Great, in whose time the Saxons were Converted to the Christian Faith, who gave an express Instruction to Austin the Monk, to annul all Marriages with a Brother's Wife: And this being a Rule settled in England, when the Christian Religion was received in it, it was considered as one of the chief supports of the King's Cause, and therefore if Mr. le Grand had desired to have the Reputation of a sincere Writer, he ought not to have passed it over, nor ought he to have passed over all that was said against the Pope's Dispensing even with the Laws of the Church, and much less with the Laws of God: Nor that other Branch of the King's Plea, that the Church of England, according to the Council of Nice, aught to judge this Matter, and that it did not belong to the Pope. If Mr. le Grand is a true Son of the Gallican Church, he cannot disown those Principles, and at least, if he would be esteemed a sincere Historian, he ought not to have passed them in silence. But if he was defective in his account of the King's Plea, he adds as much of his own to the Queens: For he has picked up a great many instances in History, that were never mentioned in the Books to of that time; and yet they all amount to no more, but show that these Rules of the degrees of Marriage, were not at all times observed with the same exactness. But the Church is Governed by Rules, and not by Examples: And all that he says of the Law in Deuteronomy, appointing the Brother to Marry his Sister-in-Law, when his Brother died without Children, had been ever looked on in the Christian Church, as an exception from the general Law, that belonged only to the jewish Nation, with relation to their Succession; which being taken away under the Christian Religion, the Laws in Leviticus, which have been ever considered in the Church as Moral Laws, must now take place Universally. In short, if any man will be at the pains to compare the Books that were Written upon this matter, and the Accounts that are given of them, by Mr. le Grand, and by myself, he will soon see which of us have Writ with the greatest sincerity, and I will not envy Mr. le Grand's Opinion of his own Capacity, so long as an unbiased sincerity is acknowledged to belong to me.  
4. 
p. 222.  Mr. le Grand tells us that the Parliament abolished the Oath which the Bishops were bound to swore to the Pope, at their Consecration, and drew a new one, which they should make to the King. Here he gives me just Reason, to say severer things than he may be willing to hear: for in the Parliament, the two Oaths that the Bishops swore, both to the Pope and to the King, were Read; and it appearing that they contradicted one another, they being both of the nature of an Oath of Homage, which can only be made to one Superior, all that the Parliament did, was to Repeal the Oath to the Pope, and to let the other to the King remain in its full force. I have given an undeniable Instance, that the Oath to the King was in all former times made by the Bishops, in a Record which I put at the head of my Collection of Instruments, and which Mr. le Grand may have seen, for tho' these Instruments have not yet appeared in the French Translation, yet Mr. Bulteau has my Work in English, where all these Records are. In that Cardinal Adrian not only renounces all Clauses in his Bull, that were contrary to the King's Prerogative, or to the Laws of England, but swears fidelity to the King in the same terms, in which our Kings have continued ever since to have Homage Sworn to them, by their Bishops. And the Oath to the Pope, as it was a Novelty not known before the twelfth Century, so it contains in it so many wide and indefinite Clauses, that it seems very hard to reconcile the taking of it, either with the Doctrines of the Gallican Churches, or with that Subjection which all Bishops own their Lawful Prince, since it is plain that is an Oath of Homage to the Pope.  
5. Mr. le Grand sets himself with no small force, 
p. 244. to 257.  tho' not with equal success, to give Cranmer the worst Character that he could make for him: He accuses me for endeavouring to make him pass for a Gentleman, but tho' I knew he was one, yet I said not a word of it, for I thought that was too inconsiderable a thing to have a place among the Honours that belong to the Memory of that Great Man. He cannot believe that he was in Germany, when by Warham's Death he was named to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. And thinks that he could not have stayed seven weeks there, after he had the News of his intended Promotion; since he was present at the King's Marriage with A. Bolen. Nor can he allow my saying, that the thing was slowly set forward, since there passed but three Months between September and january, in which he was preconised at Rome: Nor can he believe the Provincial Synod of Canterbury, judged the matter of the King's Marriage. Here are Errors enough for Mr. Varillas himself. In Cranmers Printed Trial he appeals to his Judges, who were all Witnesses of that Matter, that he had unwillingly accepted of that See; and that he had delayed his return out of Germany, after he had the News of the King's Intentions, for seven Weeks; and this was passed over by the Bishops that judged him, without any answer, which was a plain acknowledgement of the Truth of it. 2. There were twelve Weeks between Warham's Death, that fell out the 23 of August, and the King's Marriage on the 14th of November: So allowing two weeks for the Currier to go to him, there is room enough for his seven week's delay. But our Author to turn five Months into three, shuts out both September and january out of the account, tho' both aught to be included. And the Sentence of Divorce bears expressly, that both the Provincial Synods of England, had judged the King's Matter: but after all, our Author cannot enough aggravate Crammer's taking the Oath of Obedience to the Pope, at his Consecration, with the Protestation that limited it, with several restrictions: Which he also reports upon the credit of some spiteful Authors, quite contrary to what appears upon Record. For he made the Protestation to be twice Read at the Altar, when he was Consecrated: So it is plain he had no mind to equivocate; for he owned publicly all that he did. And Protestations, renouncing all Clauses that were in Bulls, contrary to the King's Prerogative, having been ordinarily made by Bishops, it seems the Canonists who were accustomed to double dealing, prevailed so far on Cranmer, as to make him take the method of Swearing the Oath, and then limiting it by a Protestation made at the same time: In which it is plain, that if he committed an Error, it was rather a mistake in his Judgement, than a want of Sincerity.  
6. Mr. le Grand says that the King pardoned More and Fisher the business of the Maid of Kent, 
p. 280. to 282.  and tho' he owns that More calls her in a Letter the silly Nun, yet he takes no notice of that long Letter of Moors which I published among the Instruments of my second Volume, in which he treats that matter as one of the horridest Impostures that ever was, and for which Fisher, tho' our Author denies it, was Condemned for concealing Treason: To this he adds, that the Chancellor having asked Fisher and More, what they thought of the Acts of the last Parliament, they answered nothing, but said, that being cut off from all Civil Society, they thought of nothing but our Saviour's Passion, and this cost them their life.  
This is such a corrupting of History, that I forbear to give it its true name: And indeed a prevarication in this matter is the less excusable, because our Author might have found advantage enough, by representing the matter truly as I had done, from the Records. They were Condemned first in a Praemunire, that imports loss of Estate and perpetual Imprisonment, for refusing to swear the Oath for the Succession by the King's Marriage, Enacted by Parliament: And after that, they were prosecuted for having spoken against the King's Supremacy; and there is one Incident in More's Process, which perhaps would be thought enough at present, for Condemning a Man as Guilty of High Treason; for he said, that as the Parliament could make a King, so it could likewise Depose him.  
But I limited myself to six Heads, and I will not go beyond them. The abundance of Matter that is before me, makes it uneasy for me to pass over many important things, which our Author has left out of his History, tho' they are in that Collection of Letters published by Camusat, and which I never saw, till he himself not only showed it me, but did me the Honour to present it to me: He does not tell us that the Pope promised to Cardinal de Tournon, 
Melanges Hist. 1532. folio 8. M.  that he would do all that was in his Power for the King of England, and that the thing should be done, tho' he must take such a Method in the point of Form, as not to seem too partial to him: And that the Cardinal thought he was sure of the Pope in that Matter. The same Cardinal writes the 17 of Aug. 1533. that though the Cardinals of the Imperial Faction forced the Pope to what he had done, 
fol. 9 N.  yet if the King of England would save his Honour, he would with all his Heart do what he desired, and did not doubt but he should propose Expedients for this, at the Interview that was to be at Marseilles. 
fol. 19 O.  By another Letter it appears, that Francis the First owned to the English Ambassadors, that the Pope had said to himself, that he knew the King's Cause was just, and he only stood upon a Procuration: For the King being cited to appear at Rome in Person, or by Proxy, the King would take no notice of this: 
fol. 177.  and so Karne was sent over Excusator, to excuse the King's Appearance: But it appears by that Collection, that he was sent over in the Name of the Nation, and not in the King's Name: So the King's refusing to appear, being thought a great Contempt, the Pope promised to grant the Divorce, if the King would so far acknowledge his Authority as to appear at Rome by a Proxy upon his Summons: And in this Francis the First thought the King was in the right; and he approved of his Marriage so far, that he ordered his Ambassador to christian the Child in his Name, 
fol. 140. P, Q, R. fol. 174, 175, 176, 177.  if it proved a Son. The French Ambassador at Rome, did also in many Letters to the Court of France, writ that the Pope would do all that was desired for the King of England, and much more if he durst: but he was so hard pressed by the Imperialists, that against God and Reason, and even against the Opinion of many of the Imperialists themselves, he was forced to do whatsoever the Cardinal Dosme asked of him: And that they wanted much the Cardinal Grandmont who was Bishop of Tarbes, for no man durst speak Truth to the Pope. It is true, the Ambassador who was then the Bishop of Auxerre, says that he expected no good of the Pope, and that all was but dissimulation: Yet to show that crafty Ambassadors change their Style, so that it is hard to know how much one ought to trust to their Letters, the same day, in which he had writ the former Letter to the Legate that was in France, he wrote another to the Great Master, in which he tells him, that the Pope had said, that the King of England 's Matter had been now four years in his hands, and was not yet touched by him; and that if he could do as he would, it should be as they all would. And he writes that he spoke this in such a manner to him, that he believes he said what he thought. 
fol. 177. S.  These Letters bear all Date the 7th of February 1532. But the 13th of july thereafter, he writes, that the Pope said to him, that he resolved to put off the Business to a good time, and he saw clearly what he meant by a good time: and adds, that if the thing had been then judged, the Old and Learned Cardinals would have been for the King of England, but the Imperialists were so much the stronger Party, that it would have been carried clear against them: And tho' Mr. le Grand speaks doubtfully of that Critical Matter, that a Currier came from England, within a day or two after the Sentence was given, and passes over the haste in which it was given, as a thing of which he knew nothing; yet in that Collection, there is a Letter writ from Lions by Pompone Trivulce, 
fol. 177. T.  Cardinal Trivulce's Brother, Dated the 16th of April, in which he gives an account of the Bishop of Paris' passing through that Town, who told him how precipitated the Sentence was; that the Pope was indeed for a delay, and if that had been granted only for six days, the King would have submitted, but the Imperialists would hear of none: tho' when the Courier came a day after, they were sorry for the hast they had made. By all these Indications it appeared plainly, that the Court of Rome was governed in this matter, only by Political Motives and Maxims: and therefore according to the Maxims of the Gallican Church, set forth lately with so much Zeal by Mr. Talon, in a matter of much less moment, the King of England had no Reason to have any great Regard to the Judgements or Thunders of that Court.  
But as I hold myself infinitely obliged to Mr. le Grand, for the Present he made me of so valuable a Book, which affords me so many Confirmations of the most important parts of my History, so I am extreme sorry that he has been so far wanting to himself, as to suppress them: and that he has put me on so uneasy a thing, as to make use of a Present that he made me, so much to his disadvantage. But in this case I must say, magis amica veritas. And tho' he thinks me to be extremely jealous of the Honour of my Writings, 
p. 2.  yet if the Concerns of Religion did not enter in this case, I could more easily abandon my own: But I will not pursue this Censure further at present: nor am I yet sure whether I will write more upon this Subject or not, for till I see his other three parts, and till I know what effects this has, I can form no Resolution as to that matter. In the mean while I beg your Pardon, both for giving you so great a trouble, and for addressing it to you in so Public a manner. For since I Censure a Book already Printed, I thought it was necessary to do it in this manner. I am, Sir, with all possible Respect,  
At the Hague, the 10th of May, 1688. Your most Humble and most Obedient Servant. G. BURNET.   

A CENSURE OF Mr. DE Meauxes HISTORY OF THE Variations of the Protestant Churches: Together with some further Reflections on Mr. Le Grand▪  
SIR,  
YOU ask my Opinion of Mr. de Meauxes long expected Work: And I will give it freely. It seems he intends to let the World see, that he can set forth the Reformation, with as much Sincerity as he had formerly showed in setting forth his own Doctrine; and that he can show as much Art in making the one appear Black, as he had done to make the other appear Fair. Some of my Countrymen have of late exposed him in so severe a manner, that his Credit in England was so much sunk before this new attempt that he has made upon it, that there was no need of this Work to destroy it quite. The truth is, great Respect is due to his Age, and Character: But if he will lay himself too open, and take so much pains to make himself be known, he will compass it at last. A Man of his Wit and Softness of Expression, should have held himself to general Speculations, in which a lively Fancy and a good Style, might have helped him out even when Truth failed him. But of all the Men I know, he should have avoided the most to meddle with Matters of Fact. For the gentlest Censure that can be passed on his Performances, that way, is, that some others furnish him with Extracts, which he manages to the best advantage, but without examining them. Yet when Mr. Larogue had showed him, or at least had showed it to all the World, if he would not see it, that there was not one single Passage, of all those which he had, with so much Pomp, produced for justifying the taking away the Chalice, that was either sincerely or pertinently made use of by him; and it seems Mr. de Meaux himself was convinced of it, since I have not heard that he has yet said one word to justify himself. He should not have ventured again, tho' he has returned with a particular degree of assurance, to say in this Work, that in the Primitive Church, Men received the Sacrament, either in the one or the other Species. He may now perhaps say, that he never Read Larague's Book, with the same Truth, that he writ to England that he had never seen F. Crasset's. The Truth is, Reason is a tame thing, which bends easily to a Man of Wit and Fancy: But Facts are sullen things, they are what they are: Wit has no place there, but Boldness and Confidence can supply all defects. Yet since Mr. de Meaux found that his underworkmen had dealt so ill with him, he should have been more cautious in trusting them for the future: And since even his most solemn Protestations have been laid open to the English Nation, as having more of an Air of assurance, than of a scrupulous Regard to Truth in them, he ought to have taken a little more care of himself, and of his Friends in England, who have ill Success enough already in what they themselves have writ, and in some small aid which he has sent them, and therefore it is too cruel in him, to give new occasions to those who will be sure to make the best of all that is given them, for showing the weakness of a Cause, which how prosperous soever it may be in the hands of Dragoons, yet has never had worse success than of late in England. The Calumnies of Cochlee, Florimond de Raimond, and other Writers of the last Age, were already revived and put in more Modern French by Maimbourg and Varillas, who have not failed to tell the Tale over again in the best Language, and with the best Grace they could; so that it was a little below Mr. de Meauxes Greatness to come after them, in a design which has succeeded so ill with them. It is true, he has much more Wit, and gives a better Air to the Malice that he bears the Reformed Churches, who have done nothing to provoke him, if it was not that they choose rather to take that to be Doctrine of his Church, which they found both in the Decrees of their Councils, the Public Offices, and the Chief Writers of Controversy, that have explained those Matters, ever since the Dispute was first set on foot, than the new Tour that he has thought fit to give it. In short, he is in ill Humour, because his Exposition was not successful enough to save his Church the Infamy of the Dragoons▪ Hinc illae lachrimae, and therefore he has now gathered together all that the Writers of the last Age had set forth, and added to that all the Extracts that his tools could furnish him with, that so he might Triumph over us with as much Scorn as Malice. He mixes all along with it the Flowers of a melting and declaiming Eloquence; but tho' these figures pronounced with a soft Voice, and in a languishing Air, may have perhaps wrought on some who slave come to him with a Design to be deluded by him; yet when they are on Paper, they are but bleak and feeble strains: And the affectation that appears in them, is too gross to pass even on Men that are already Partial in his Favours. Indeed they ought rather to Bias a Man the other way. He has called it the History of our Variations, but the truer Title had been the History of the Progress of the Reformation. If all that he has said were true, it will amount to no more than this, which we grant, without his being at so much pains to prove it, which is, that neither were our Reformers Inspired, nor our Sinods Infallible. But after all, it gives no small Provocation to Humane Nature, to see a Man that is of a Church, whose History is one continued Thread of Variations, and that in so many Essential points, from what itself was in the Primitive time, keep such a stir with a few inconsiderable Changes, that have been made among the Reformed. If all was not at first discovered, the Changes that the Reformers made, was a Progress and not a Variation; but after that their Confessions, were once form, we all know that they have stuck to them perhaps with too much stiffness; so that it were a much easier thing, to show that they ought to have varied, than to prove that they have done it. In short, we are but Men, and ought not to be ashamed to own that we grow in Knowledge, and that we no sooner discover Errors than we forsake them. Here is then a great Book writ to as little purpose as can be, since it concludes only that we are neither Inspired nor Infallible, to which we never pretended. If a Man of Mr. de Meauxes Wit, would at his rate of Writing, pretend to give the History of the first Variations of the Christians, and would begin with the Sect of the judaisers, and after that tell us of all the Schisms at Corinth, of the Scandals of their Lives, and the enormous disorders in their Worship; some Feasting in their Churches till they were Drunk, before they went to the Sacrament; others, that had even the extraordinary gift of Tongues, affecting to gratify their Vanity by showing it in their Public Assemblies, while false Apostles studied to supplant the Respect that was due to the true Apostles, and some false Teachers denied the Resurrection: If one will go through the Epistles writ to the other Churches, and bring together all the disorders that he finds among them, if to these he will join the Epistles in the second and third Chapter of the Revelation, and from these pretend to give us the Character of the Christians of the first Age; and if from that he should go to bring into the Picture all the Abominations of the Gnostics, all the Follies of the Valentinians, and all the Extravagancies of the other Heresies. If, I say, a Heathen that had as much Wit, and as much spite as Mr. de Meaux has showed in this Work, would undertake this, he might write Historical Essays, that would be as little to the Honour of the Christian Religion, as Mr. de Meauxes Work is to the Honour of the Reformation. And if a Man will examine either S. Athanase's Life, Cyril of Alexandria's, Liberius', Osius' or Damasus, with as much diligence as Mr. de Meaux had showed, in bringing together all the weaknesses of Cranmer, (whether real or pretended) and would carry down such a Critic on all the other Saints, the Calendar would be cleared of a great many Rubrics. Gregory the Great's Infamous Courting both of Phocas and Brunichild, would likewise degrade him from Saintship: and if one will examine the pretended Saint Clovis, by such strict Rules, not only his Saintship, but even his Christianity would be doubted: And we should conclude, that S. Remy had rather brought a Reproach, than an Honour on our Christian Religion, by Baptising him. If one will sum up all the Blemishes even of David's Life, and pretend to give his Character, by laying these together, instead of concluding him a man according to God's own Heart, one should rather conclude him to be one of those whom God abhors. In short, there are few men so bad, but one may find enough of good in them, that if that alone were laid together, they might pass for not only good Men, but even for extraordinary Men: If we had only preserved the beginnings of what Suetonius writes of Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero, those Monsters would have passed for Patterns. On the other hand, there are few Men so good, but that if all the Weaknesses of their Life, were set out in Bas-Reliefs, as Mr. de Meaux has dealt with Cranmer, without making the due mixture of Light and Shadow, of the Good as well as the Bad, they would make a very ill appearance.  
And it is certain, that a Man of Wit, can make either Panegyric or satire where he will, and even keep himself within the bounds of Truth as to the main strokes of his History. So after all that Mr. de Meaux has said of Cranmer, I do not doubt, but if a Man, even biased with the ill Characters that he has given of him, will be at the pains to read over my History, he will return to high thoughts of him, in spite of all those malignant Colours in which he has set him out. The Ages in which Men have lived do very much extenuate some things, as well as other times aggravate the same faults. Men of Modest Tempers, have often an oppression on their Spirits, which looks like fear. And some Men have an ascendant over other people, that those who are strong against all other Considerations, yet cannot resist them: And this was the case of Cranmer towards Henry the Eighth, who as he was always soft and gentle, so his Modesty carrying on it the weight of great obligations, made that he was not at all times so firm as was necessary, against so imperious a King: And indeed one of the Clergy of France reproaches Cranmer for this with a very ill Grace, in an Age in which, if we may believe the Answerer to Mr. Talon, they have showed not only a compliance with Lewis le Grand, but have vied one with another in their Admirations and Panegyrics, notwithstanding so many and high Invasions of the Rights of the Church, in the most Sacred things; and of the great steps made towards a breach with that which they call the Holy See. The prejudices of Education hang long about men: and the notion of adhering to the Unity, till one can make a general Reform, is plausible, and the complying with the Rites of a Religion, that was antiquated by the Death of Christ, in which the Apostles themselves went so far, seemed to warrant, or at least to excuse a Man, especially when the degrees of his Knowledge were yet imperfect, suitable to the Age in which he lived, if he did not all of the sudden emancipate himself: All these things might induce Cranmer to continue in the exercise of many Rites, to which he had been long accustomed, after they were softened with some Corrections and Explanations; hoping at last to engage the whole Nation into an unanimous Reformation. If in all these things the grounds he went on, are not so sure as to warrant all he did, yet in that dawn of Light, a compliance upon such Considerations is not so heinous a thing, but that he who was guilty of it, may yet be well reckoned among the greatest Men that have been in the Church. Since the Judgements that we make of Men, aught to be form, neither upon some slips they may have made on the one hand, nor upon some great Actions on the other, but upon the whole thread and course of their Lives. And as to Cranmer, there appeared in him so much Candour and Sincerity, so great a contempt of the World, and such a neglect of his Family, such a Spirit of Gentleness and Charity, both to those who differed from him, and even to his Enemies, such a simplicity of Spirit, that he would never enter into the Intrigues and Factions of Court. Such a constant application to the finding out of Truth, and such a plainness in acknowledging Mistakes, and submitting himself to the Correction of others; so much Humility and Modesty during one and twenty years' Greatness, and such an unblemished Purity as to his Personal Deportment, that even the Libels of that time durst not attempt upon it. All these, of which I had such copious Discoveries, appeared so extraordinary to me, that I was not afraid to mix with them all the instances of Humane Frailty that I found in him. If I had writ as most of those in the Church of Rome do, that publish Lives, I should have assumed the Impudence to have denied some things, and to have passed over others: And at least I should have suppressed a great many things that were never known before I published them. But I writ not for Parties or Persons; I writ for Truth's Sake; and so was not afraid to show even the weak sides of our Reformers. This is one of the unsearchable depths of Divine Providence, to let the Man appear even when God shows himself. And with how much indignation soever Mr. de Meaux rejects the consideration that I offered of S Peter's Denial, to soften the Censure of Cranmers fall, yet I return to it, and take the Liberty to say, that considering it was in our Saviour's own Presence, who had so lately warned him of it, and who had parted with his Disciples in so ravishing a manner, giving them such elevating Instructions, and ending these with so inflaming a Prayer, who was also upon the point of Offering up himself a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World: And whose ill usage from his Persecutors, aught in a most particular manner to have softened and melted his Disciples, who saw it. Besides that, nothing could more betray the Reputation of our Saviour's Innocency, than his being denied by one of his Disciples, which looked as if he was ashamed of him. And after all, that the Temptation was so weak, the Accusation of a Maid and some that stood near her, and that the Denial was confirmed with Oaths and Imprecations; I still doubt if Cranmers Fall is capable of so many aggravations, and therefore as the meanness of Man, and the greatness of God and of his Grace, appeared in S. Peter's Fall and in his Repentance, and his being afterwards restored to that sublime Dignity, from which he had fallen; so I doubt not but that God suffered Cranmer in his old Age, after a long and hard Imprisonment, and that he had seen some of his Brethren burnt before his Eyes, to fall; that so he might by his Mighty Power raise him again, and in him teach us to cease from Man, for wherein is he to be accounted of; and that such as glory might glory in the Lord and not in Man. As for the difference that is alleged as to the Time, that the one was but for a moment, and that the other lasted longer, it is to be considered that our Saviour looked presently at Saint Peter, and the Authority of that look, together with the Divine Virtue that might accompany it, and the Crowing of the Cock, were such extraordinary Motives, that it had been a wonder indeed, if Saint Peter had resisted them; and we may Charitably believe, that if Cranmer had been blessed with such awakening Motives, he had likewise Repent sooner than he did. So that upon the whole matter, I do not see any one Action in all Cranmers Life, unless it be his consenting to the Divorce of Anne of Cleve, in which it does not appear that he adhered strictly to a Principle of Conscience, tho' it is a question if that Principle was always well measured or not: But that is nothing to the probity of the man, so long as he adheres to that which he thinks right: And even in that of Anne of Cleve, as it was the body of the Popish Clergy that did it, so that his part was only a giving a too feeble consent; so he, believing that Marriage was no Sacrament, might think it subject to Political Regulations; especially when it was not consummated; so that the rights of Nature did not seem concerned: Whether this is to be defended or not, I will not determine: But certainly this is not so odious a matter, as Mr. de Meaux would make it appear to be. And for his dissolving the Marriage of Anne Bullen, the Record of that Sentence is lost, so that we do not know what it was that she confessed; and therefore here Mr. de Meaux studies to defame Cranmer upon conjecture; and yet I suppose that he himself would think that he met with hard measure, if he were censured, much less condemned, upon Reports, Presumptions, or Conjectures.  
As for all the good Characters that Mr. de Meaux gives of our Sinods, I shall only crave leave to tell him, that if one would examine not only the Councils of Trent and Florence, or to go a little higher, the second Council of Nice, and some ancienter Assemblies, as he has done ours, they would find not only Intrigues, Weaknesses, and Passions, but down right Impostures in them. In short, it has appeared that Man was Man even in the best Ages, and in the most Celebrated Assemblies of the Church; and I will not stick to own it freely, that if I had not a great Veneration for the first four General Councils, for the sake of the Truths that they decreed, I should never pay them much, when I consider their Method of Proceeding, which appears but too evidently to those who have read the Journals of the third and fourth: and if we Judge of the first, by the mutual Complaints which they exhibited to Constantine, and which he to their Reproach destroyed; or of the second, by their way of treating St. Gregory of Nazianze, who was one of the greatest Men of the Age, and that had done the most for the Truth in the former Persecution under Valens, we will not form a very favourable Opinion neither of the one nor the other of those two great Assemblies.  
But since I have named that Great Man, I will let Mr. de Meaux see how easy it is, to give an ill Character even of the greatest Men. I will not mention his indecent Invectives against julian, nor his high Eloges of Constance. But if we consider his Life after he was a Bishop, he despised Zasim where he was first settled, and was offended with his Friend S. Basil for putting him in it; and in the end he forsook it, for it was a mean place, and a Town full of disorders, as being situated on the great Road. After that he came and assisted his old Father at Nazianze; but upon his Death he left that; and without any Canonical Vocation, he came to Constantinople, where he acted long as Bishop: And in conclusion, when he saw it was like to be questioned by the Council, he withdrew indeed: But as appears by his Letter to Procopius, he grew upon that so disgusted at all Councils, that he could neither think nor write of them with patience. Here are many Blots in a Life of which we have very little left us; and yet after all this, he was one of the greatest Men, that not only his Age but the Greek Church ever produced.  
But here Mr. de Meaux will complain, that I am doing that which he apprehends so much, and that I am recriminating: He had Reason to apprehend this; for the Subject is Copious, and the Matter is Obvious: only with this difference, that a just Recrimination destroys the whole bottom on which the Roman Church is founded, for the certainty of Tradition, and the Infallbility of the Church, being their Foundation, if Variations are proved among them, these are shaken; and so their whole Fabric falls: but Variations even proved among us, signify nothing, they only prove that the Reformers were Men, subject to mistakes; that in some things they might bend matters too far, in opposition to that which they saw Reason to Condemn, before they had so clearly discovered the Truth that was wrapped up in so much Corruption; that it was to discern the Truths, which might have carried Cranmer in opposition to the Ecclesiastical Tyranny, to raise the Power of the Civil Magistrate too high: In other points they thought they might retain some received expressions, giving them sound Explanations; and so change the Ideas of things, without changing the Language: And thus tho' they retained the Real Presence, with some other Phrases that were consonant to it, yet they gave it another Sense: And Mr. de Meaux ought not to make so much as he does of their Submission to some Princes; when, not to mention the base compliances of some Bishops in this Age, who are indeed a Reproach to their Character, nor what was mentioned formerly of Gregory and Remy, even the Apostle of France, S. Martin himself, complied with the Tyrant Maximus in such a manner, that, as Sulpitius Severus sets it out, it does little Honour to his Memory: Only in this he differed from the Bishops of this present Age, that he interposed vigorously to hinder the Persecution of a Sect, that had neither Laws nor Edicts in their Favours, and that are represented in History as a very odious sort of Men, and indeed not worthy to live; whereas in our days, we have seen Bishops not only pushing on a Prince to an Infamous violation of Edicts, and to an unheard of Cruelty, but making Panegyrics upon it, while others were most Impudently denying it, even at the same time that they were writing private Letters in defence of it. These are indeed unworthy and scandalous Compliances, and yet those who are guilty of them, have the Face to Reproach us for things that are not to be once named in comparison with them: So true does the Character of a Pharisee remain to this day, of warning others to take the Mote out of their Eye, while there is a Beam in their own. Among all the Compliances in Henry the 8th's Reign, is there any one that carries with it such a Reproach to Religion, as it is for the Bishops of a whole Church, (one or two perhaps only excepted) to see Men required to Receive the Sacrament by the force of Royal Edicts, (in particular, by that Famous Monument of the Impiety and Inhumanity of the Age, against those who refused to receive it in their Sickness.) By which those from whom the violences of Dragoons had extorted a Signature, are required to do that, which in the Opinion of all Christians, is a high Profanation of the Sacrament, but in the Opinion of that Church, is a Profanation without a name, and beyond all that can be set out in words. This is an Edict relating to the Sacredest of all the Acts of Worship, and is a higher Invasion of the Sanctuary, than any that can be found in all King Henry's Reign: And yet those who Reproach us so severely, have not had the Honesty nor the Courage, to interpose and require their Clergy not to give the Sacrament to any but to such as were duly prepared for it, that believed their Doctrine, and came to Receive it with that disposition of Mind which became them. The Silence of those Bishops upon so Sacrilegious an Attempt, is an indication of a Slavish compliance, far above all that they can Charge on Cranmer: As for those Tragical Exclamations that Mr. de Meaux makes on the Supremacy, that was declared to be in our Kings, as well in Queen Elizabeth's time, as in King Henry's, and King Edward's, this is also very unjustly urged by a Clergy, that suffer under a much greater Invasion of the Rights of the Church, than any that we can complain of. By the Concordate, the Kings of France have Invaded the Liberties of that Church, and have assumed to themselves the Nomination of all the Bishops of France; and by the Pretensions to the Regale, they have assumed also a right of conferring Spiritual Employments, to which a care of Souls is annexed, and that pleno jure. Their Courts of Parliament are the last resort even of all Spiritual Matters; and receive all Appeals under the pretence of some abuse in the Sentence, so that the whole Exercise of the Episcopal Power is subject to the Secular Court. And whatsoever they may talk of their Union with the Holy See, even in this they are also Subject to the Secular Court, since no Bull or Breve can be Executed in France, without an approbation from thence. And yet these are the men that complain of the King's Supremacy among us: tho' there is nothing clearer, than that this Servitude lies much heavier on them than it does on us. For after all, we live under a Legal Government, by which even our Kings are bound, so that any Order that comes from them, whether in Matters Temporal or Spiritual, that is not founded on Law, or that is contrary to it, is null of itself. The King's Supremacy among us, amounts to no more, than that the Execution of the laws that relate to Religion, and to the Persons of Church men, belongs to our Kings. And all the difference between the French Constitution and ours, as to this, is, that whereas the French King Acts Arbitrarily in those Matters, ours are limited by Law. So that if a Clergyman is legally proved to be guilty of a Crime, our King indeed order the Law to pass upon him in his Courts of Justice: But the King can shut up no Clergymen in Prisons, or detain them there during Pleasure. We do not know what those Letters of the Cachet are, nor the Exiles or Imprisonments which go according to the Pleasure of a King, and the Directions of a Father Confessor. We retain the Freedom of the Elections of our Bishops, there being only a Temporal punishment laid on us by Law, if we do not follow the King's Recommendation. And except in Matters of Marriages, an Appeal from the Spiritual Court is scarce ever heard of in England: And even when an Appeal is brought, it is to be Judged by Delegates, that are named by the King's Authority, a considerable number of whom are always Bishops. Nor have our Parliaments or our Princes meddled any other way in Matters of Religion, but that they have given the Civil Sanction to the Propositions made by the Church, and this is that which all Christian Princes do in all places; so that after all the Clamour that is made on our being Subjected to the Civil Power, it is certain, that the Gallican Church is much more Subject to it than we are. And yet these Men, who have abandoned all the Immunities of the Church, Reproach us with Thomas Becket, tho' there is not one of them that dares make any one of those steps which procured to him his Saintship. These Men do also swear the Oath that is in the Pontifical to the Pope, of which Mr. Claud put Mr. de Meaux in mind long ago; but he is Wiser than to take any notice of a thing which he knows he cannot answer, for I would gladly see how they observe any one of all the Articles that are in that Oath. Mr. de Meaux is offended at Cranmer for the Protestation that he made, explaining to what degree he thought himself bound to observe it; and yet tho' he and his Brethren swore it, it does not appear that it makes any great impression on their Consciences: They are resolved to have no regard to it, only they cannot endure Cranmers Honesty for protesting to that purpose: But if they fail in this part of their Oath, they have been most exactly true to another Branch of it, which obliges them to Persecute Heretics to the utmost of their Power.  
Thus it appears, how just it was for Mr. de Meaux to apprehend that we should Recriminate: And that in all points, the Recrimination falls much heavier on their Church, than the Charge itself can fall on ours. He takes notice of an Objection that he finds I made upon the Subject of those prejudices, which is, that if we enter on a Personal Dispute, concerning the Reformers, the worst things that even their Enemies can lay to their charge, come far short of those Enormous Crimes, of which even their own Historians confess their Popes to have been Guilty; and that, some times in a Series of many Ages together; in which not so much as one good Pope Interveened; so uninterrupted was that Succession. Now Popes being, according to the general Doctrine of that Church, the Infallible Oracles of Truth, and the Universal Bishops; and according to all the rest of their Communion, they being the Heads of the Church, Christ's Vicars, and the Centres of Unity, they are much more concerned in all that relates personally to their Popes, than we are in the Lives of our Reformers: All that Mr. de Meaux says to this, is, that the Reformers are the Authors of our Sect, and that therefore we are more immediately concerned in them. But it seems Mr. de Meaux understands the Principles of the Reformation very ill. We own no Sect, but that of which Jesus Christ is the Author: And we have no other Interest in the Reformers, but that they were Instruments by whose Means the World was awakened to Read the Scriptures, and to examine Matters of Religion: And that they discovered many things of which the World was formerly ignorant, and in which the Clergy studied still to keep them in a blind Subjection to them; and since they found too much advantage in those Corruptions to be willing to part with them, the Reformers went on in their Discoveries, and at length by the Blessing of God, and the Labours of the Reformers, as well as by the Persecution of their Enemies, this Work had so great a Progress, that it will still be reckoned one of the wonders of Providence. But after all, the Reformers were only the Instruments of opening this Light, but not at all the Authors of our Sect, so that we are no other way concerned in them, but that we gratefully acknowledge their Labours, and honour their Memory: And what Mistakes, Weaknesses, or Passions soever may have mixed with their Conduct, this proves nothing, but that they were Men, and were Subject both to Sin and to Error.  
Mr. de Meaux is also at a great deal of pains, to show how unsteady the Protestants have been in settling some Notions, in particular the manner of Christ's Presence in the Sacrament, and the true Notion of a Church, on which he enlarges himself very copiously: But is it possible that he is so ignorant, either of Antiquity, or of the Age of the Schoolmen, as not to know how long they were before they settled on almost all the Notions of Divinity? F. Petaw can inform him, how dark the Fathers of the first three Centuries were even in their Ideas of the Trinity; and it were easy to show, that even after the Definition of the Council of Nice, it was long before they settled on the same Notion of the Unity of the Divine Essence, with that which has been received now for many Ages in the Church. It were easy to show, how even the so much cited and admired Saint Austin differed from himself, in his Disputes with the Manicheans, the Donatists, and the Pelagians; and that one sees in his works very different Notions, not only of the Freedom of the Will, but even of the Nature of the Church. When he writ against the Donatists, who had contrary to all Reason broke the Peace of the Church, he raised the Unity of the Church, and the submission to the visible Authority that was in it, very high: But when he writ against the Pelagians, the invisible Assembly of the Elect was the Church. Any Man that has been at the pains to Read all that he has writ on these Heads from end to end, and that has not only picked up here and there some quotations that are drawn out of him, must needs find so much confusion in him, that they will easily pardon others, if any such disorder appears in the Writings of the Reformers: And for the Notion of the Presence in the Sacrament, there has appeared of late such a History of the Disorders of the Schoolmen, before they came to settle on the Notion of Transubstantiation, and even in the explanation of that after the fourth Council of the Lateran, that it will give no great Reputation to any Man, that will take advantage from the Variations that may have been among us; when it appears that there have been Changes of another Nature among them.  
Mr. de Meaux is so pleased with this Prospect of the Variations among us, that he will even make the suppressing of a more copious condemnation of the Corporal Presence, that had been made in King Edward's time, but was left out in Queen Elizabeth's, to pass likewise for one. The Matter of Fact was this, in King Edward's time, both Transubstantiation, and the Corporal Presence, were expressly rejected in our Articles, and it was declared that Christ was present only in a Spiritual Manner, and that he was received by Faith alone: when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown, it was thought enough to reject both Transubstantiation, and the Adoration of the Sacrament; it was also declared that the Wicked did not receive Christ's Body or Blood in the Sacrament: That he was present only after a Heavenly and Spiritual manner, and that the Means by which he was Received, was Faith: only the rejecting the Corporal Presence with the Reasons upon which it was rejected, was left out. The Church did not at all change its Doctrine, but it being fit to put nothing in the Articles of the Church, but what is necessary, it had been an unseasonable rigour, to put in them a long explanation of a Negative Article. The positive Articles can only be necessary; and tho' some Negative Articles ought to be kept in Confessions, if the Error rejected by them, is very dangerous; yet no Man can say that all Negatives aught at all times to be proposed: So that this is a matter of Discretion and Prudence, and therefore the Adoration of the Sacrament, being according to us Idolatry, and Transubstantiation leading Naturally to that, these were still Condemned; that so the Purity of the Worship might be secured; but this being done, if our Church had carried the matter further, and had imposed on every one the more particular and disputable Opinions concerning the Presence, she had approached too near to the Rigour of that Church, from which she had separated herself. And therefore she shown that Regard both to Lutherans and others, who might have peculiar Notions of a Corporal Presence, as not to put such a Definition in the body of her Articles, as might drive them out of her Society: And if she went too far in King Edward's Time, we are so far from being ashamed of the Moderation that she shown in Queen Elizabeth's Time, that we rather Glory in it. We are neither afraid nor ashamed to follow Saint Paul who Circumcised Timothy, that by such a compliance he might gain the jews, and that went to Purify himself in the Temple, in which there was always a Sacrifice of one sort or another, which he did long after the Virtue and the Obligation of those Rites was extinguished; and if he went so far in positive Compliances, the Silence of our Church in a Negative Article, when done upon the considerations of Charity and Prudence, is rather an Honour than a Reproach to it. Indeed, it is no wonder to see those of a Church, that has thundered with her anathemas upon the smallest Matters, and has followed these with all the Cruelties, that either the Rage of Dragoons, or the Fury of Inquisitors could invent, it is no wonder, I say, to see them censure us for our Gentleness; since by this it appears, that ours is the true Mother, that cannot see her Children cut to pieces.  
But here I stop, I will not go further upon a Subject that is like to be handled by so able a Pen, that I am only sorry that such a man should employ so much time upon so Barren a Subject, since it it must be confessed that this Age has scarce produced a Book that has been writ with so much pains, but to so little purpose, and with so little sincerity. Yet since one has resolved to undertake it, who I know will manage it with much force as well as with great Truth, that so his Book may be in all Respects, the reverse of that which he answers; I will not anticipate further upon him: But will now add only a little in Vindication of the short Account which I gave of the Troubles of France, on design to justify the Assistance which Queen Elizabeth gave to the Protestants there, upon which Mr. de Meaux thinks that he has great advantages. He Reproaches me for my Ignorance of the Affairs of France, which he shows first in my calling the Union of the Cardinal of Lorraine and the King of Navarre, the Triumvirate, but this could have only made a Duumvirate; yet I named the Constable, whom he has thought fit to pass over, and I said not one word of a Triumvirate, but only mentioned the Union of these three with Queen Catherine. It is true the Translator has thought fit to add, beyond what I had said, par une espece de Triumvirate, which shows, that as I am not at all concerned in this matter, so even my Translator himself, had a mind to distinguish this from the famous Triumvirate. He also charges me for having accused the Duke of Guise as having designed the Business of Vassy, but in my English there is not a word of any premeditated Design, and I am only accountable for the English; nor is this plain in the Translation, tho' there is more in it than in the Original: Executer leur dessein, does not import, that the Business of Vassy was premeditated, but only that the Design being laid, the occasion offered at Vassy was laid hold on. It is true, I do not know how I came to say, that the King of Navarre was declared Regent, I had reason to say, that the Regency fell to him by Law, and that appeared, as Mr. de Thou observes, in the Famous Decision, in the Case of Philip le Valois. I had also Reason to say, that the Power of the Regent was limited, and so I only erred in setting the word Regent, for Governor or Lieutenant of the Kingdom. I am not ashamed to own mistakes, when I am convinced that I have made them. But it will soon appear, whether he or I have committed more Errors in Treating of the Affairs of his own Country: For in this I will frankly acknowledge my Error, without pretending to excuse myself, from the term in which Mr. de Thou had expressed the King of Navar's Employment praeses regni, now this seemed to answer to the English term, of Protector of the Kingdom, in whom the true Regency lies, tho' there is another Employment among us, in the Minority of our Kings, of him who is the Governor of his Person, which is independent on the other: And has been oft in another hand, upon which a Famous Dispute arose, between the two Brothers in Edward the 6th's Minority: Yet I confess frankly, that this is only an excuse, and not a justification.  
But whereas Mr. de Meaux reproaches me for citing the Opinions of the Lawyers of France, against the Regency of a Woman, and charging it as an impudence, in pretending that the Kings of France were not Majors till they were twenty two Years of Age, against an express Ordinance of Charles the Fifth, 1474. which has ever been held for a Law, through the whole Kingdom, without contradiction, as he assures us; In this he shows how little he has examined the Matters of that time, and how carelessly he has Read Mr. de Thou: It would indeed appear, that he has only turned to that place which opens the Business of Ambaise; for he citys Mr. de Thou's Words, relating to the Opinions that were given by the Lawyers of France and Germany, and the Resolutions of the Protestant Divines, which is in his twenty fourth Book. But if he had Read his twenty third Book, in which the Administration of Affairs under Francis the Second is set forth, he had found all that which I cited, concerning the Opinions of the Lawyers of France: For he gives us a large Abstract, of a Book that was writ in the end of October 1559, against the share that Women and Strangers had in the Government; proving also that the Kings of France were not of Age, till they were 25 years Old; and that tho' Charles the Fifth had made a Constitution for his Son's being Major at fourteen, and had also by his Will named Lewis of Bourbon to be his Regent, in our English Sense, the Government of the Kingdom being left to the Duke of Anjou; yet no Regard was had to this, for the young King was put into the hands of the Duke of Anjou, and the very name of the Regency was taken from the Duke of Bourbon, and the King was not declared to be Major, till he was twenty two years of Age: And the Historians of that time do expressly say, that the States declared him Major at that Age, because of the Gracefulness of his Person, and the Love that was generally born him. The Reader may, if he pleases, Read the rest of the Extract that Mr. de Thou gives, both of that Book, and of Mr. du Tillet's Answer, and of the Reply made to du Tillet, and it is plain, that Mr. du Thou favours the side of the first Book, and Censures Mr. du Tillet as much as became so Impartial an Historian to do: And in Conclusion, he says, that upon the occasion of the Disputes that followed in Charles the Ninth's Minority, the Chancellor Hospital took care to have the Decree inserted among the Royal Edicts: And thus it appears, that Charles the Fifth's Edict was of no Authority according to the Constitutions of France, as long as their Ancient Laws were in force. But it may now pass for a Law, in a Nation, where tell est nostre plaisir, is the measure of the Government: And by this it may be judged, whether Mr. de Meaux or I have read Mr. de Thou, or reported this matter, according to the Laws of France more exactly. But Mr. de Thou is too Impartial a Writer, for a man of Mr. de Meauxes Temper, and indeed the French Nation has gone in, so entirely into all the Notions of Slavery in this Age, that they seem not only to have forgot their Ancient Liberties, but even to be uneasy, when any others put them in mind of them.  
I will now put an end to all that I was to say at present with Relation to Mr. de Meaux: But since he has thought fit to insinuate, what performances were expected from Mr. le Grand, I will add somewhat relating to him; tho' I cannot yet give him such a Copious Answer as I find is expected from me.  
Both my Books and Papers are in England, so I cannot do what I intent, till I am furnished with some helps that I hope to receive e'er long; yet to let Mr. le Grand see, that I have not forgotten him, I will give you here some Essays of his Sincerity. He has Published a Volume of Letters and other Pieces, which he gives as the proofs of his Work, tho' not above a third part of them belongs to the Subject in hand: In short, he got many Letters in his hand writ from England, which he resolved to Print, that so he might raise both the Bulk and the Price of his Book: A big Book makes an Impression, and People think when they see much Bulk, that there is much said: And yet even of these Letters, some were Published by me, and others were Printed before: And the greater part has no Relation, neither to the Affairs of the Divorce, nor any other of the Affairs of England, but contain only Advices concerning the Affairs of Europe, and the Commerce between the two Crowns in their common Concerns. He has also given, for the most part, only the Letters that were writ to the Great Master, without giving us those that were writ to the King, or the Secretary of State, in which we might hope to find the Copious Accounts of the State of Affairs; whereas the Letters writ to other Ministers, contain only private Advices that are offered to them; but whether Mr. le Grand ever saw these to the King, or not, I do not know, tho' it is probable that those who preserved the one, would likewise have taken care of the other. He has not given us the Series of the Letters that were writ from Marseilles during the Interview, which he ought not to have suppressed, if they fell under his Eye.  
But besides all the Defects and the Excesses of that Volume, Mr. le Grand is liable to a severer Censure, for the Abstracts that he pretends to give from them: I shall name but three. In the first of all that he has put in his Volume of Proofs, one should have expected some exactness, for many are apt to read the first, that will not give themselves the trouble to go further: And therefore he ought to have taken a little more care of this than he has done, and not have given such an unfaithful Extract of it: I pass over that which he says of Pace's having neither regard to the Vulgar Latin, 
Hist. de Di●. p. 46.  nor to the Seventy, but only to the Hebrew: There being nothing in the Letter to that purpose, for he only corrects the Notion of some, who from the Title of the Book of Deuteronomy, inferred, that this according to the composition of the Greek word, signifying a second Law, and that therefore the Laws of Leviticus were abrogated by those in Deuteronomy: and let the Reader judge, if this is a disparaging either of the Vulgar or the Seventy. But he commits a fault of another Nature, when to represent the Corruptions of the Divines of England at that time, he says that Wakfield (soûhaîtoit que Sa Majesté luy écrivit Elle-méme ce qu'Elle vouloit qu'il fit, & s'il devoit defendre le pour ou le contre; & qu'alors' selon les Ordres qu'il receveroit, il donneroit des éclaircissemens', ou pour, ou contre, qui passeroient la capacité de tous les Anglois) desired, that the King himself would write to him, what it was that he would have him do, and if he would have him write for him or against him, and that according to the Orders that he should receive from him, he would give him such Informations, either for or against him, as should exceed the Capacity of all the English.  
Now because this seems so extravagant a Proposition, I will set down the words of the Latin Letter, with their Translation in English: And then I will leave it to every Reader, to think what Judgement he ought to form of Mr. le Grand upon it, D. R. Wacfeldus nunc me rogavit ut sibi significarem, a placeret tibi veritatem hac in re intelligere? i. utrum staret a te a contra te? ei ita respondi, te nihil velle quod esset alienum a Nobile Principe, & singularibus virtutibus praedito: Illumque Maj. tuae, rem gratissimam facturum, si laboraret ut puram veritatem tibi declarat: Tum ille nescio quo ductus timore, negavit se hoc posse facere, nisi Maj. tua, id sibi injungeret & mandaret: Et si mandares, se producturum in medium, tam contra te, quam pro te, illa quae nemo alius in hac tuo Regno producere posset. The English of this is, D. R. Wakfield desired me earnestly to let him understand, whether your Majesty desired to know the Truth in this Matter? that is to say, whether the Truth was for You or against You? To whom I answered thus, that you desired nothing that was unbecoming a Great and an Eminently Virtuous Prince: And that he would do a most acceptable thing to your Majesty, if he would declare to you the Verity. But he, upon what fearfulness I know not, said that he could not do that, unless Your Majesty would Command him to do it: And that if you did lay your Commands on him, he would lay before you, both what made for and against you, beyond what any Man in the Nation could do. Now whether Mr. le Grand's Errors, here flow from a want of Sincerity, or from his Ignorance of Latin, I do do not know: But certainly, never was a Letter worse handled than he has done this; since the Matters contained in it, are highly both to the King's Honour, and to Wakfield's; which yet he has turned so maliciously. Mr. le Grand has thrown out upon me all the Reproaches, with which a Clounish Temper, and a Mean Education could furnish him; not forgetting the common Figure of a brazen forehead. But I do not envy him those Beauties of Style, only if I were to make use of a Figure for him, I must seek it from other Bodies that are more impenetrable than Brass, for it will grow red before a fire; but I do not know whether such a Discovery as this will set him a Blushing or not.  
His second Letter is produced, to prove, in contradiction to me, that Cardinal Wolsey desired that the Pope would make him his Vicar General during his Imprisonment, and that this was long before the time that I make him pretend to it; 
Hist. de Di●. p. 60.  and this he thought so important, that he comes over it twice. This is no great matter, if it was true; and would only prove that he had found out some Papers, which I never saw: But it is somewhat extraordinary to see him produce a Letter for proving this, that does not so much as contain one word relating to it. The Letter which is the second among his Proofs, is indeed an address made to the Pope by five Cardinals, desiring him to give them a Power, to supply his absence by a Commission from him, suamque absentiam demandata Authoritatis presentia supplere. But there is not so much as an Insinuation of recommending Cardinal Wolsey to it, nor is there any mention made of a Vicar General, much less of all that long Extract that Mr. le Grand gives of it: But by these Indications, I suppose, you will conclude how little regard there is to be had to his Extracts, even when he makes them with the greatest Confidence. But the third Instance, is yet both more notorious and more important. It relates to the Decision made by the Sorbonne. Indeed, the Abstract that Mr. le Grand gives of that whole Matter in his History, differs so much from the account given in the Letters which he brings to prove it, that he must have a strange Opinion of his Readers understanding, and think that it is of a piece with his own Sincerity, if he expects that much credit will be hereafter given to any of his Extracts. For the account which he gives of Precedent Lizet's Letter, is somewhat extraordinary even for Mr. le Grand.  
By the Letter it appears, 
Preuves p. 480.  that he sent the Act to the King, and after he had mentioned that, he adds this, with Relation to the management of the Business, he prays the Great Master, that as to the Account which the Bishop of Bayonne had drawn up of that matter, they would suspend their judgement for the Reasons mentioned in his Letters to the King; till the King had heard from him, how the matter was managed, and then perhaps it would appear, that the Information would rather be a prejudice than an advantage to the King of England. It is plain that these last words belong not at all to the Act itself, but to the conduct of the matter; 
Hist. de Di●. p 18▪  and the Caballing that had been about it: But Mr. le Grand will apply these words to the Act itself in his History, in these words, yet he [the Precedent] took out the Act, and sent it to the King, without communicating it to Messieurs de Bellay, and advertised his Majesty, that this would hurt the King of England much more than it would serve him. By this sincerity the Reader may judge of the rest; when he makes the President's Reflections on the Conduct of the Matter, fall upon the Act itself: And would make that an▪ Evidence, to prove that the Act which was Printed in England, cannot be this which is mentioned by the Precedent, since it is entirely for the King. But Mr. le Grand has now furnished us with a proof, that an Act was passed in the Sorbonne: Now is it Credible, that if an Act which had passed with so much opposition, was falsely Printed in England, that either the whole Body of the Sorbonne, or at-least that Beda and those who opposed it, would not quickly have discovered the Imposture: So that Mr. le Grand without thinking on it, has given us a proof of the Authenticalness of the Decision, that was Printed in the name of the Sorbonne.  
I will enlarge no further in Reflecting on the rest of the proofs that he has given us, only a digression that he has made upon one of them, to tell us of the Dignity of the Family of Verjus, 
p. 5●●.  and that F. Verjus was of it, looked so affected, that I could not forbear enquiring a little after it: And I will give this account that I have of it: Mr. le Grand has let some Jesuits of the Court of England know, what great Services he could do them in destroying the Credit of my History, but in order to that, he hoped they would make his Fortune at the same time: So a powerful recommendation was obtained, which is lodged in F. Verjus' hands, Secretary to F. de la Chaise, to be made use of as occasion offers itself: And therefore he bestowed this Compliment on that Jesuit, to quicken him, in order to his Advancement. I have been also informed, that this is the Reason that made his Book stick so long in the Press, that so he might manage the Matter to the best Advantage. It is also said, that all the foul Language that he bestows on me, comes from the same Consideration; and was put in, to make the Work so much the more acceptable to those that are to recommend him. I confess, I wondered at first, to see a Man use me so ill, with whom I had lived Civilly, and to whom I had given no cause of offence. But since I am told that he was hired to it, tho' I cannot highly esteem him for that, yet I will do all that I can for him, which is hearty to forgive him: And perhaps the Reproaches that he must suffer, by the discoveries that I am forced to make of his Mistakes, may contribute to heighten his Pretensions, and to supply the want of Merit. In his Defence of Sanders, he charges me for not consigning myself to the first Edition, and for fastening my Censures on what was added in the subsequent Editions: But it is not yet known, whether the following Editions were not fuller Copies of Sanders's own Composing, in which he added much to the first Fable that he writ, or if they were added by others afterwards: And there is reason to believe, that the first Impression was from an Imperfect Copy, and that soon after a more complete one appeared, and all the Editions of that Book since that time, as well as the Translations of it, and in particular the late one by Maucroix, which gave the first occasion to my Writing, having been made according to that second Edition, I had Reason to follow it: But after all, I marked in general, a great difference that was between the first and the succeeding Editions: It is true, I did not think it necessary upon every passage, to mark in which of them that was to be found. I had indeed prepared a Sanders for another Impression, in which I intended to have marked in a different Character, the variations in the several Editions of that Book; but our Booksellers had no mind to meddle with a Book which they told me I had rendered unsaleable: by this the half of the Defences which Mr. le Grand makes for Sanderus, because the Articles to which I excepted, are not in the first Edition, are blown up; since I was obliged to destroy the Credit of the Book that had been for almost an Age received for Sanders's.  
But after Mr. le Grand had entertained his Reader with an Account of Sanders, 
Def. de Sand. p 9 and 20. Art 62. Ref. de Bur. p. 18.  he accuses me for a passage that I had cited out of an Answer that was made to Sanders, which he tells me he did not find in it, and this he thought so important, that he comes over it again and again, and requires me almost in the form of a Challenge, to make it good.  
The matter is this, I had said that Bonner had spoke so vigorously to the Pope at Marseilles, that the Pope thought either to burn him, or to cast him into a Cauldron of Boiling Lead. For which I had cited a Book, in which Mr. le Grand says he does not find it. It is true, there were two Books writ against Sanders, both Printed in the same Year, and in the same form, by Day 1573. And both commonly bound together; the one is the Book which I cited, and the other is Antisanderus: Now it seems I mixed my Extracts out of both these together, so that indeed, the words are not in the Book which I Cited, but they are in the other, p. 195. Bonnerus tam audacter asseruit nullum esse ' Pontifici jus in Ecclesias Anglicanas, ut de eo vel igne cremando, vel in plumbum liquefactum mittendo deliberaretur. 
Def. de Sand. p. 51  Mr. le Grand probably knew this, for he citys Antisanderus, as if he had Read it. A little after this, Mr. le Grand studies to let his Reader see how ill he understands Latin, for he pretends that Bacon gives the same Account of P. Arthur's Age with Sanders, and sets down both their words, the former says, erat annorum circiter quindecem; now circiter is either on this side or beyond fifteen, so this is true, tho' he was some Months past it; but Sanders' words are, decimum quintum aetatis annum vix dum attingens, which necessarily import that he was not yet fifteen: This is indeed of no great consequence, only it shows Mr. le Grand's good Sense in bringing Proofs for what he says. But the next I shall mention, 
Def. de Sand. Art 37. Ref. de Bur. Art 18.  which he likewise Repeats twice, as he does most things in which he thinks he has an advantage against me, is another Proof of his Candour. I had said, P. julius the Second, had such a Hatred to France, that he was thereby the more easily induced to grant the Bull for King Henry's Marriage, by which a League against France might be made the stronger; and upon this he insults upon the Poor Mr. Burnet, that he Poor Man, had heard that Pope julius was a great Enemy to France, and thereupon he fancies he was so from the beginning; whereas he assures him that the Cardinal of Roven helped him to the Pontificate, and that so at first he was in the Interests of France. But Mr. Burnet, Poor Man as he is, takes this from Raynaldus, who says expressly, and which is more, 
Ad An. 1503. Num. 11. & 22.  citys Authors to prove it, that the Cardinal of Roven himself had aspired, but that julius was preferred to him; and the same Author says, that he granted the Bull for the King of England's Marriage, which was proposed to him as a mean for bearing down the French, and for strengthening the Party against them, ad deprimendos Gallos confirmandasque adversus eos vires communes. Upon the occasion of the Bull, I had said that Isabel of Castille, is called Elizabetha in it. I neither said more nor less upon this, nor made I any reasoning upon it, and my Design in it, was occasioned by a Discourse that I had once had with some who pretended that these were different names; 
Hist. de Diu. p. 125. Def. de Sand. Art 35. Rej. de Bur. Art 11.  and yet in three or four places, Mr. le Grand, according to his usual Sincerity, and with his cold Raillery, of calling me an able Man for it, has said, that I have made that an Argument, to prove that the Bull was a Forgery.  
Mr. le Grand Reproaches me, for saying that the Count of Tholouse was the first that felt the effects of the fourth Council of the Lateran, and shows me that he was Censured and Deposed before that Council. But this shows how unfit he is to Writ upon Critical Matters; 
Ad. Con●. Lat. 4. p. 233.  what I said is justified by Cossart's Annotations, who says expressly that till then the Dominions of the Count of Tholouse were only sequestered, but that a Decree was made in that Synod, translating a great part of them to the Count of Monfort for ever; and for this, he not only Cites Petrus Vallisarnensis, but sends his Reader to Dachery's Spicilegium for the Decree itself. It is true, the Count of Tholouse was Deposed before that time, but by the Feudal Law, upon his Deposition, either his Heresy was to be accounted only a Personal Crime, and then the Fee was to go to the next Heir, or if it was to be made equal to a Crime of Treason, than the Fee was to return to the Superior Lord, and so in this Case it was to have fallen to the Crown of France; but it was the fourth Council of the Lateran, that first gave the Pope the Power of transferring the Dominions of Heretics to others, whereas before that he could only Depose them. It is also plain, that Mr. le Grand treats this whole Matter very mildly, and not with that Detestation that some Writers of that Church affect, when we reproach them with the Deposing Power.  
After all, if I have many reasons to complain of Mr. le Grand, I confess there is one, for which I am much beholden to him; and that is the pains that he is at to prove the constant Tradition in Catholic States, to proceed Capitally against Heretics. This Book was writ by him chief for the English Nation, and if this one thing does not hinder it, it will probably be put in English: But as we are beholden to those who set on the Persecution of France, and must acknowledge, that we own our Preservation in a great measure to it, since the Alarm which that gave this whole Nation, was a stronger Argument than any that we could have invented for showing them their danger, for sensible and barbarous things affect all the World: But now the Men of the Mission think fit to disclaim the Persecution of France, and throw it on the King's Bigotry, yet taking still great pains to clear Father de la Chaise of it, as if he had always opposed it, so that we are forced to justify Lewis le Grand in that matter, and to show that he has acted in all things Conform to the Doctrine and Spirit of his Church. This our Missionaries deny, and endeavour to persuade us, that Liberty of Conscience is the Principle and Doctrine of their Church: And that therefore we need not apprehend any mischief from them; that they not only abhor all Capital Proceed, but even the Fining of Men, or the excluding them from Employments on the Account of Religion; that they cannot forgive those lesser Severities practised by Men of the Church of England, and that all Men of all Persuasions may expect to live easy and happy under them. But Mr. le Grand has spoiled all this, and thus they see what it is to employ Men in their Cause, that are not yet Initiated into the Mysteries of the Society, tho' a little common Prudence had preserved Mr. le Grand from committing such an Error. But 'tis not just to expect from Men that which they have not.  
I will not carry this Censure further at present, for I have not near me the Books and other Documents that are necessary for a fuller Answer: And those in England, to whom I sent for the Resolution of some things, have so much work given them at present, by those, whose Favour Mr. le Grand is Courting, that it is not to be wondered at, if they have not leisure to send me the Materials which I wanted. They are in a Storm, which all the World knows; tho' they are not yet reduced to that which the Reverend Father Petre has threatened them with, in that Modest and Savoury Expression of his, That the Church of England shall be made to eat its own Dung. This is indeed a true Essay of the Charity of the Order, and it is that which we have Reason to expect from it. But I will now put an end to this long Letter. I am Sir,  
At the Hague, the 10th of September, 1688. Your most Humble Servant, G. BURNET.   

POSTSCRIPT.  
I Have seen Mr. le Grand's Annotations upon my Letter to Mr. Thevenot. I perceive clearly by it, that this hot Summer, and his extraordinary Application, have so dried his Brain, and given him such an over flowing of the Gall, that all the answer I can bestow on him, is to wish his Friends to look to him, and keep him from running about the Streets, for he is in a fair way to that. They will do well to Bleed him over and over again, to give him some inward Refrigeratives, and now and then a few Grains of Laudanum, and to take a special care of him at New and Full Moons. Pen, Ink, and Paper must be kept from him as poison, for these things set his Head so a going, that his Fits redouble upon him at every time that he gets them in his hands. But above all things, care must be taken not to name me, nor the Bibliotheque Universels to him, for that will certainly bring on him a most violent Paroxysm; and he being Young, and so mightily in love with himself, good Air and good Keeping, may at last bring him out of this Raving Distemper. So to be sure I will have no more to do with a Man that writes like a Lunatic: Yet as soon as some Materials which I expect shortly from England are brought me, I will answer every thing that he has said, that looks like Sense: And will not do as not a few of that Nation have done of late, who writ on without ever justifying themselves, or confessing the Errors into which they have fallen; for I will justify myself to a tittle, or acknowledge my Mistakes, as soon as I find that I have made any.  
FINIS.   

Books Printed for Richard Chiswell.  

SPeed's Maps and Geography of Great Britain and Ireland, and of Foreign Parts.  
Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Times. folio.  
B. Wilkin's Real Character, or an Essay about a Philosophical Language, folio.  
Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning. folio.  
Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity. folio.  
Rushworth's Historical Collections, in 3. vol. folio.  
Bishop Sanderson's Sermons, with his Life. folio.  
Sir Walter Raleighs History of the World▪ with his Life. folio.  
Bishop Nicholson on the Church Catechi in. 4to.  
Bibliotheca Norfolciana, sive Catalogus Libr. Manuscript. & impress. in omni Arte & Lingua, quo● Hen. D●● Norfolcia Regiae Societati Londinensi pro scientia naturali promovenda donavit. 4to.  
The Spaniards Conspiracy against the State of Venice. 4to.  
Dr. Salmon upon the London Dispensatory. 4to.  
A Discourse of the Nature, Ends, and difference of the two Covenants, 1672. by William Allen. 8vo.  
Certain genuine Remains of the Lord Bacon in Arguments Civil, Moral, Natural, etc. with a large account of all his Works, by Dr. Th●. Tennison. 8vo.  
Dr. Puller's Discourse of the Moderation of the Church of England. 8vo.  
Dr. Henry Bagshaw's Discourses on select Texes. 8vo.  
Mr. Seller's Remarks relating to the State of the Church in the three first Centuries.  
The Countryman's Physician; for the use of such as live far from Cities or Market Towns.  
Markam's Perfect Horseman, in fifty years' practice. 8vo.  
Dr. Sherlock's Practical Discourse of Religious Assemblies. 8vo.  
— Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation. 8vo.  
Sir Rob. Filmer's Patriarcha, or Natural Power of Kings. 8vo.  
Hodder 's Arithmetic, 12mo.  
New-englands' Psalms. 12mo.  
An Apology for a Treatise of Human Reason, written by M. Clifford, Esq 12mo.  
The Queen-like Closet, in two parts▪  
Valentine's Devotions. 240.  
An Historical Relation of the Island of CEYLON in the East Indies: Together with an Account of the detaining in Captivity the Author, and divers other Englishmen now living there, and of the Author's miraculous escape: Illustrated with fifteen Copper Figures, and an exact Map of the Island. By Captain Robert Knox, a Captive there near 20. years. folio.  
Mr. Camfield's two Discourses of Episcopal Confirmation. 8vo.  
Dr. Salmon's Doron Medicum, or supplement to his new London Dispensatory, 8vo.  
Sir james Turner's Pallas Armata, or Military Essays of the Ancient, Grecian, Roman, and Modern Art of War. folio.  
Mr. Tanner's Primordia: or the Rise and Growth of the Church of God described, D. Spenceri Dissertationes de Ratione Rituum judaicorum, etc. folio.  
The Fifteen Notes of the Church, as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin, examined and confuted. 4to. With a Table to the whole.  
Preparation for Death, being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France, in a dangerous Distemper, of which she died. By William Wake, M. A. 12mo.  
The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome, in opposition to a late Book, Entitled, An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome. 4to.  
A Private Prayer to be used in difficult Times.  
An Exposition of the Ten Commandments: By Simon Patrick, D. D. Dean of Peterborough. 8vo.  
A True Account of a Conference held about Religion at London, Sep. 29. 1687. between A. Pulton, Jesuit, and Tho. Tenison, D. D. as also of that which led to it, and followed after it. 4to.  
The Vindication of A. Cressener, Schoolmaster in Long-Acre, from the Aspersions of A. Pulton, Jesuit, Schoolmaster in the Savoy, together with some Account of his Discourse with Mr. Meredith.  
A Discourse showing that Protestants are on the safer side, notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgement of their Adversaries; and that Their Religion is the surest way to Heaven. 4to.  
Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist, wherein is showed, That the Doctrine of Transubstantiation overthrows the Proofs of Christian Religion.  
A Discourse concerning the pretended Sacrament of Extreme Unction; with an Account of the Occasions and Beginnings of it in the Western Church. In Three Parts. With a Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom.  
A Second Letter from the Author of the Discourse concerning Extreme Unction, to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom.  
The Pamphlet entitled, Speculum Ecclesiasticum, or an Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass, considered in its false▪ Reasonings and Quotations. There are added, by way of Preface, two further Answers, the first▪ to the Defender of the Speculum; the second, to the half-Sheet against the Six Conferences.  
An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England, in the several Articles proposed by the late BISHOP of CODNOM, [in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church.] By William Wake, M. A. 4to.  
A Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England; against the Exceptions of Mons. de Meaux, late Bishop of Condom, and his Vindicator. By William Wake, M. A. 4to.  
A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England▪ against the new Exceptions of Monsieur de Meaux, late Bishop of Condom, and his Vindicator. The FIRST PART: in which the Account that has been given of the Bishop of Meauxes Exposition, is fully vindicated; the Distinction of Old and New Popery Historically asserted, and the Doctrine of the Church of Rome, in point of Image-Worship, more particularly considered. Bianca▪ W. Wake, M. A. 4to.  
The Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome: by the Author of the [Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist.] 4to.  
Mr. Pulton considered in his Sincerity, Reasonings, Authorities: Or a just Answer to what he hath hitherto published in his True Account; his True and Full Account of a Conference, etc. His Remarks; and in them his pretended Confutation of what he calls Dr. 't's Rule of Faith. By Th. Tenison, D. D.  
A Full View of the Doctrines and Practices of the Ancient Church relating to the Fucharist, wholly different from those of the Present Roman Church, and inconsistent with the Belief of Transubstantiation: being a sufficient Confutation of Consensus Veterum, Nubes Testium, and other late Collections of the Father's pretending to the contrary. 4to.  
The Lay Christian's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures.  
An Answer to THREE PAPERS lately Printed, concerning the Authority of the Catholic Church in matters of Faith, and the Reformation of the Church of England. With a Vindication of the said Answer: In two Parts.  
An Answer to a late Pamphlet, Entitled, [The Judgement and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one special Branch of the King's Prerogative, viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws. 4to.]  
A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in two great Points of the Real Presence, and the Adoration of the Host; in Answer to Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject: with a large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument. by W. Wake.  
Two Discourses; Of Purgatory, and Prayers for the Dead. By W. Wake. M. A.  
An Answer to the Popish Address presented to the Ministers of the Church of England. 4to.  
An Abridgement of the Prerogatives of St. Ann, Mother of the Mother of God, with the Approbations of the Doctors of Paris, thence done into English, with a PREFACE concerning the Original of the Story.  
The Primitive Fathers no Papists, in Answer to the Vindication of the Nubes Testium, to which is added a Discourse concerning Invocation of Saints, in Answer to the Challenge of F. Sabran the Jesuit; wherein is shown, That Invocation of Saints was so far from being the Practice, that it was expressly against the Doctrine of the Primitive Fathers. 4to.  
An Answer to a Discourse concerning the Coelibacy of the Clergy, lately Printed at Oxford. 4to.  
The Virgin Mary Misrepresented by the Roman Church, in the Traditions of that Church concerning her Life and Glory, and in the Devotions paid to her as the Mother of God. Both showed out of the Offices of that Church, the Lessons on her Festivals, and from their allowed Authors.  
Dr. Tenison's Sermon of Discretion in giving Alms. 12mo.  
A Discourse concerning the Merit of Good Works.  
The Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome, demonstrated in some Observations upon the Life of Ignatius Loyola, (Founder of the Order of Jesus.)  
A Vindication of the Answer to the Popish Address presented to the Ministers of the Church of England. 4to.  
The Texts which the Papists cite out of the Bible for Proof of the Points of their Religion Examined, and showed to be alleged without Ground. In twenty five distinct Discourses. viz.  
Popery not founded in Scripture. The Introduction.  
Texts concerning the Obscurity of Holy Scriptures. — Of the Insufficiency of Scripture, and Necessity of Tradition.— Of the Supremacy of St. Peter, and the Pope, over the whole Church. In two Parts.— Of Infallibility.— Of the Worship of Angels and Saints departed, In two parts.— Of the Worship of Images and Relics.— Of the Seven Sacraments, and the Efficacy of them: In two Parts.— Of the Sacrifice of the Mass: In two Parts.— Of Transubstantiation.— Of Auricular Confession.— Of Satisfactions: In two Parts.— Of Purgatory: In two Parts.— Of Prayer in an unknown Tongue: In two Parts.— Of Coelibacy of Priests, and Vows of Continence: In two Parts.— Of the Visibility of the Church.— Of Merit of Good Works. Two Tables to the whole will shortly be published.  
A Brief Declaration of the Lords Supper: Written by Dr. Nocholas Ridley, Bishop of London, during his Imprisonment, with some other Determinations and Disputations concerning the same Argument, by the same Author. To which is annexed an Extract of several Passages to the same purpose, out of a Book Entitled Diallaction; written by Dr. john Poynet, Bishop of Winchester, in the Reigns of Ed. 6. and Q. Mary. 4to.  
An Historical Discourse concerning the Necessity of the Minister's Intention in Administering the Sacraments.  
A Discourse concerning Penance, showing how the Doctrine of it in the Church of Rome makes void true Repentance.  
A Continuation of the state of the Controversy between the Church of England, and the Church of Rome: Being a full account of the Books that have been of late written on both sides. By William Wake, M. A. 4to.  
A Discourse of the Pope's Supremacy, Part I. in answer to a Treatise entitled [St. Peter's Supremacy faithfully discussed, according to the Holy Scripture, and Greek and Latin Fathers; and to a Sermon of St. Peter preached before the Queen Dowager on St. Peter and Saint Paul's day: by Tho. Godden, D. D.]  
JULIAN the Apostate: Being a short account of his Life, the Sense of the Primitive Christians about his Succession, and their Behaviour towards him: Together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism: By Sam. johnson.  
Iulian's Arts to undermine and extirpate Christianity: Together with Answers to Constantius the Apostate, and jovian, by Sam. johnson.  
The Laws of this Realm concerning Jesuits, Seminary Priests, Recusants, the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance explained by divers Judgements and Resolutions of the Judges; with other Observations thereupon. By William Cawley, Esq fol.   

Books Written by Dr. Gilbert Burnet.  
— His History of the Reformation of the Church of England, in II. Vol. fol.  
— Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England, 40.  
— History of the Rights of Princes in disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church Lands, 120.  
— Life of William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland, together with the Letters betwixt Him and Wadsworth, about Religion.  
— A Collection of Seventeen Tracts and Sermons, written betwixt the years 1678. and 1685. to which is added Two Tracts, by another Hand, Viz. The History of the Powder Treason, and an Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuits dying Speeches, who were Executed for the Popish Plot, 1679.   

Lately Published.  
— Reflections on the Relation of the English Reformation, put out by Ob. Walker at Oxon.  
— Animadversions on the Reflections upon Dr. Burnet's Travels, 120.  
— Reflections on a Paper, entitled, his Majesty's Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester.  
— Enquiry into the present State of Affairs, and in particular, whether we own Allegiance to the King in these Circumstances? And whether we are bound to Treat with Him, and call Him back or no?  
— His Sermon before the Prince of Orange 23d. Decem. 1688.  
— His Thanksgiving Sermon before the Commons for the Deliverance of the Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power, by the Prince of Orange's Means.  
— A LETTER to Mr. THEVENOT. Containing a CENSURE of Mr. Le Grand's HISTORY of King Henry the Eighth's Divorce. To which is added a CENSURE of Mr. de Meauxes HISTORY of the Variations of the Protestant Churches. Together with some further Reflections on Mr. Le Grand.  
— A Collection of Eighteen Papers relating to the Affairs of Church and State, during the Reign of King james the Second: Seventeen whereof written in Holland, and first Printed singly there; now published here by the Author, to distinguish them from those falsely attributed to his Name.  
Dr. john Lightfoot's Works, in II. Vol. fol. together with his Life.  
An Explication of the Catechism of the Church of England, viz. The Creed, Lords Prayer, Ten Commandments, and the Sacraments, in 4. Volumes Folio. By Gabr. Towerson. D. D.  
Disquisitiones Criticae de variis per diversa Loca & Tempora Bibliorum editionibus, 4o.  
Dr William Cave's Lives of the Ancient Fathers in the IV. first Centuries, in II. Vol.  
— Primitive Christianity; or the Religion of the Ancient Christians in the first Ages of the Gospel.  
— A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church, by Bishops, Metropolitans, and Patriarches.  
Dr. William Burton's several Discourses of Purity, Charity, Repentance, and other Practical Subjects, in 2 Vol. Oct.  
Reflections upon the Books of the Holy Scripture, to establish the Truth of the Christian Religion, in Two Parts, Oct. By. Mr. Alix.  
Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria à Christo nato usque ad Saeculum XIV. Facili Methodo digesta. Qua de Vita illorum ac▪ Rebus gestis, de Secta, Dogmatibus, Elogio, Stylo; de Scriptis genuinis, dubiis, suppositiis, ineditis, deperditis. Fragmentis; deque variis Operum Editionibus perspicue agitur— Accedunt Scriptores Gentiles, Christianae Religionis Oppugnatores; & 〈◊〉 Saculi Breviarium. Inseruntur suis locis Veterum aliquot Opuscula & Fragmenta, tum Graeca, tum Latina hactenus inedita. Praemissa▪ denique Prologomena, quibus plurima ad Antiquitatis Ecclesiasticae studium spectantia 〈◊〉 Opus Indicibus necessariis instructum. Autore GVILIELMO CAVE, SS. Theol, Profess. Ca●●ico Windesoriensi. Accedit ab Alia Manu Appendix ab 〈◊〉 Saculo XIV. ad Annum usque MDXVII. Fol. 1689.