A LETTER TO D r. FOWLER, Vicar of St. GILES CRIPPLEGATE. IN ANSWER TO HIS Late Uindicatory Preface. By WILLIAM NEWBERRY, & WILLIAM EDMUNDS. Yspies y dengys' y din, O ba radd y bo ei wreiddyn. LONDON, Printed in the Year, 1685. A LETTER TO D r. Fowler, etc. Reverend Pastor, UPON Perusal of a Preface to a Sermon upon Slander, under your Name, We the Subscribers of this Paper found you as hard upon us in the Press, as you use to be in the Pulpit. And therefore for the Satisfaction of the World, and the Discharge of ourselves, we have resolved upon the Publishing of this Address. You are pleased to mention a Certificate given us, and your Repentance for it. Let it not trouble you, Sir, for the Certificate has done you no harm, and us no good: For a Great Man told us, That it would shake the Credit of our Loyalty; and so we laid it aside, as a Thing we were not Proud of. The Words were, That we were Peaceable, and Christian like tempered Men. And truly, when your Hand was in upon Certifying, we had a mind to Try, If you would do it for Loyal Men, as well as for Others. Your Opinion of us, we perceive, is much altered since you gave us that Character; though the World will witness the Justice we have to the Title of it, and stand in Admiration at us, for Bearing from yourself, and your Assistant, all the Satyrs, Invectives, and Comminations against us, that have been vented in the Pulpit, without praying the Justice of the Law to hold your Hand. Besides this, It hath been your Practice to Discourse of us both, with Great and Small, as Monsters of Spite and Malice; which is a Charge, that we shall in Charity divide betwixt yourself and your Assistant. And for our own Vindication, We do Appeal to All that know us, and our Consciences do bear us Witness, that we never opposed you out of any Ill-Will to your Person; but only to put a stop to some of your Latitudinarian Designs and Practices, by a Due Course of Law. And since we are forced upon this Way of Clearing ourselves, we must Impute the Cause now Depending, to your own Irregular and Unwarrantable Proceedings in your Office, which have Engaged us to Appear, as we do, for the Honour and Defence of our Mother Church. And if this be an Act of Spite and Malice, than we are Guilty; and our Crime is, the Service of the Established Church. Your Preface goes on in the Praise of Mr. R. W. and Mr. S. The former of these you Represent for a Truly Loyal Conforming Man, and our Proceedings against him to be Spiteful and Malicious. We shall not Reflect upon his being a Soldier under Colonel Hacker, and so continuing till near the King's Restauration; A noted Conventicler, and one of Doelittles Congregation, till he came to be Churchwarden of Cripplegate. We shall not Reflect upon his Rude, Trifling, Antic Gesture, at the Church, in the time of Divine Service, which appeared no other to the Congregation, than a Ridiculing of the very Office, as well as the Performance of that Holy Duty. We could tell you, Sir, That since his Certified Conformity, which we account upon, as the Date of his Conversion, we never heard, that he ever gave the Church Service one good word, or ever Attended to it with that Reverence as he ought to do. We presume you are no Stranger, Sir, to a Passage of His at a Wardmoot Inquest. Where a Motion was made to begin the Work, with Reading the Morning Prayers. Your truly Loyal and Conforming Mr. W. opposed it, Calling it an Innovation. I hope, Mr. W. (says one) you will not call the Prayers an Innovation, I mean, says Mr. W. the bringing of them into the Quest is an Innovation. To which one Replied: That it was generally used in all the Quests in London, and had been used in Cripplegate too before Mr. W. was born. Whereupon Mr. W. flew from the Table, crying, They that will have a Maypole, shall have a Maypole. And as the rest were Rising to go to Church to Prayers, Mr. W. got him to the Fire in the Chamber, saying; You that are so hot in Zeal, that can be warmed by Prayers, may go into the Church; As for my part, they never warmed me in all my Life; I'll stay and warm myself by the Fire. And if I had thought this, that you would have had Prayers, I would have bespoke some Fiddlers this Morning, that I saw at Tom Charnley 's, (an Alehousekeeper); For Prayers without Music does not do well. And during the whole Session, he never went with the Quest to Prayers, though he was a Member of it. The Report of this Scandalous Rudeness being told in the hearing of Mr. Recorder, he was pleased to examine the Matter, and to appoint the Reporters of it to come to the Sessions at Guild-Hall, and there to Deliver their Information upon Oath; which accordingly they did. And the Recorder Ordered an Information to be Exhibited against Mr. W. for Depraving and Ridiculing the Church Service. But by great and powerful Solicitation on his behalf, there was a Noli Prosequi granted, before the next Term; not for the Baseness of the Cause, as you would have People believe, but for other Reasons, not so proper for this Occasion. Another Instance of Mr. W's Affection to the Church may be this. The Alderman of the Ward Ordered the Presenting of all Conventicle Houses. In pursuance whereof a Motion was made in the very same Quest. Upon this up starts Mr. W. and called it, A Spiteful and Malicious Motion: For who could prove the Proprietors of Conventicle Houses. To which it was replied, That they would be easily found out. Why then, aith Mr. W. make what Presentments you will, For my part I will never set my Hand to them. A Word more now, with your Favour, to his Loyalty, He was as Active a Stirrer in the Tumultuous Elections at Guild-Hall as any Man; and Polled always on the Factious side. He was All in All with his Friend Bateman (at present Prisoner for the Conspiracy) to get Hands to a Seditious Petition. And whoever refused it, he Branded him for a Papist; Particularly Mr. Newberry, now Deputy of the Ward. And this must be no part of the Quarrel you are pleased to Mention. The Steeple was so Crazy it seems, that on the 29 th' of May, Mr. W. would not let the Bells be Rung, for fear it should fall. And yet upon Shaftsburie's Ignoramus Jury, the Steeple was strong enough to bear it. He himself, as Churchwarden, ordered the Bells to be Rung, and made a Bonfire at his Own Door, for Joy, at the Deliverance. It's very true, Sir, that he was Tallow-Chandler also to your Good Lord and Master, and that we hope was the Ground of your Certifying Mr. W. to be a truly Loyal Conforming Man. As for Mr. S. Your Commendations are well bestowed on him; For he is your Grand Informer, a Talebearer betwixt you and your Parishioners, a very Busy-Body in other men's Offices and Affairs. And for his Reputation, There is not a Curate in England, that either Studies less, or Usurps more upon his Neighbours. We do not dislike him indeed, Sir, for his Sermons upon Restitution, as you would be thought to Imagine; For they were Preached before we ever bore Office in the Parish. And so we could not be Instruments of Wasting the Poors. Stock, which most Untruly, as well as Invidiously, you intimate in your Preface But if you will allow a Falsehood to bring Truth to light, we shall now tell you the Story of those Sermons. It was Mr. S' Hap one Day to be chopping of Logic with a Pawn Broker in the Parish, who Reproving Mr. S. for some Ill thing he had done, Mr. S. was much Offended at him, insomuch that he fell upon the Man's Calling the next Sunday in the Pulpit, with the Doctrine of Restitution; where he Denounced Damnation, against Usury, Extortion, and Oppression. But this Treatment is no News from Mr. S. to our Parish and Officers, and our Great Slander and Damage. For by these Calumnies, He has diverted the Charity of divers of our Good Benefactors, and gotten the Money into his own Hand, whereof he gives no Account. He makes a great Noise indeed, how much the Poor are obliged to him, and yet by your Favour and His, the Number is much increased, and the Taxes considerably raised, since he came amongst us. He had once a Project of setting up a Nursery in the Parish to lessen the Charge, and bring poor Children up to Learning. To this end he got the Benevolence of several Good People, and Eighteen pence a Week of the Parish for every Child he took, being the very Price they were kept at before. He stocked his Nursery with about twenty of these Children, who as they went every Sunday Morning to Cornhill Lecture, gave the Spectators to understand, that they were Mr. S' Charity-childrens But instead of being Taught, these Poor Children were let out to Cooks Shops, Spinning-Wheels, or the like, at Twelve pence or Eighteen pence a Week, and were so scantly fed, and nastily kept, that the Churchwardens or Overseers, took them away to their old Maintenance, and some of them dying, it was not thought convenient to give the Searchers the View of their Bodies. This shall be made good (whenever Mr S. pleases) to any Court of Justice, without any need of his Profaning the Pulpit with Ribaldry, and Scandal against his Neighbours. And therefore, Sir, as you value your own Credit and Ours, be no longer led by Mr. S. into these uncharitable Mistakes; Curates do not behave themselves thus in other Parishes. And its hard for Cripplegate, to be the only Curate-Ridden Parish in London. Many of his Sermons are not only Personal Invectives, but some of them so Broad and Course: That the Men he Intends, are Pointed at by the Congregation. But it's well▪ if he does not play the Muggleton, and pronounce them Damned. We have born these Indignities thus long, more out of Respect to the Holy Function, than to the Curate; and we do jointly desire you would keep him to his Text, and advise him to Preach Jesus Christ as becomes a Minister of the Gospel. But the main Business is yet to come. The Cause depending in Doctor's Commons, betwixt yourself and One of us. The Sum of your Preface on that Matter, is partly Accusation, partly Excuse. And the Printing of it might have been spared, after so many Private Discourses and Public Preachments upon that Subject, wherein you have made us, and some others of our Neighbours, a Parcel of Lewd, Vicious, Profane, Scandalous, Debauched Fellows. Wherein the whole Parish, and all that know us, and will speak Truth, will appear to our Vindication. Sir, you should do well, to lay your Certificate and your Sermons together, and Reconcile this Character to the other. In the mean while deal with us as a Gentleman, a Christian and a Minister. You are pleased to Insinuate, That we are Nettled at your Preaching Impartially against certain Vices, which make Loyal Conformists a Disgrace to the King and the Church. Now the Truth is, Those Vices are rather chargeable upon your sort of Loyal Conformists, than upon any of the King's and Churches, that we know of. And the scope of your Present Design is this, There is a Heavy Charge sworn against you at Doctor's Commons; And one of us is the Fair and Open Prosecutor of it. So that if you can either Blast us in our Credit, or disable us in our Fortunes, from going thorough with it, you do a great part of your Work. And upon this Consideration, you have not left a Stone unturned to Defame us with Persons of Honour, and to Disparage us in our Dealings with our Customers and Tradesmen, to say nothing of your Reflection upon the Alderman of the Ward for choosing so Vile, Scandalous, and Debauched a Creature, as you have Represented his Deputy to be. Who is so sensible of these Indignities, that he is resolved in the first place to acquit himself, and afterwards to Resign on St. Thoma's Day next Ensuing. For the best Words you can bestow on him and others are these; Enemies, Malicious Enemies, Implacable Spirited Men, Wretched Liars, Vile-Slanderers, Vicious Debauched Men, not known whether Papists, Contrivers of Mischief, Depraved, Forsaken of Divine Grace, etc. And whoever compares the Doctrine of your Sermon, with the Practice of the Preface and Conclusion, will hardly believe one and the same Wise Man to have been the Author of them. Or that the Design of Christianity and of your Preface, had one and the same Father. The first Visible Change of your Countenance and Carriage towards us was (as we have Good Cause to Remember) just upon our Suppressing six or seven Conventicles in the Freedom Part of the Parish; And after that, upon our Endeavours to Purge the Vestry of some very Ill Men, (which by your and Mr. S' Artifice had been lately Introduced) your Countenance seemed to be further altered towards us. The one of these was an Anabaptist; Another, an Anabaptist Preacher; the Third an Elder of Griffith 's Congregation, and a Conspirator; and the Rest of the same Leaven, and who could never be Admitted by your Predecessor the Bishop of Gloucester. It's, Sir, you know, a Populous Parish, and we thought it our Duty to the Government to do what we did. We Petitioned His Majesty in this Affair, and obtained a Gracious Reference to Mr. Attorney General and Mr. Recorder: And you yourself were present, with a great many more of the Parish, at a full Hearing before Mr. Recorder and the Alderman of the Ward; where you were urged again to clear the Vestry of those Men. Your Reply was, That they were New Converts, or upon Coming over, and sober Men; and that you thought in time hay might prove useful Persons to the Government. To which the Alderman made Answer, Truly Doctor, if they are such, you should have made six or seven years' Trial of them before you brought them into the Vestry▪ But at length▪ after much struggling, you desired them to withdraw themselves from the Vestry in such a manner, that every Body saw your Heart went along with them, even when you parted with them. You speak of Articles Exhibited against you, and you say, That the First (for Obstructings Presentments) had nothing like▪ a Proof of it Produced in Court; but in this we Remit ourselves to the Law. You cannot but remember, Sir, how Fierce you were upon the Deputy in Doctor's Commons, Exclaiming, What had a Deputy of a Ward to do to meddle with Presentments? and Threatening him, That if the Churchwardens Presented those whose Names he had given, you would Present the Churchwardens for Perjury, and Him for not coming to Church on holidays. We must mind you likewise, Sir, of your Suppressing the Order appointed to be Published for the Presenting of all People that did not come to the Sacrament; and of your calling it, A Device to make the Clergy Odious. You told the Churchwardens (you say) That, they should Present Impartially, and not gratify any Man's particular Pique or Disgust. If your meaning was, They must Present All, or None, there must then be no Presentments at all: For how should they take Cognizance of at least Thirty thousand Souls in that Parish? So that since All could not be taken notice of, why might not the same Prudent Course serve in Cripplegate, as well as in all other Parishes; that is, to Single out the Heads and Ringleaders of the Faction, which would probably bring the Inferior Sort of Dissenters into better Order? This Course was commended by Dr. P. in Eighty two and Eighty three, and in several places had good Success. We need say no more to Prove the goodwill you had to the Obstructing of Presentments: So that now we shall briefly set before you the Inconveniences that followed upon your Backwardness to Present. The Warmth which you were pleased to express toward the Covering and Protecting of fanatics, presently made Cripplegate a Sanctuary for the Dissenters, and brought them out of other Parishes into Ours, as if they had Fled from Persecution into a City of Refuge. They themselves owning and declaring, That they should not be Molested with us, for any Church Matters or Sacraments. As for the Second Article, concerning your Administering the Sacrament to Excommunicated Persons, there needs no farther Proof, than your own Answer to the Libel in Court, and your own Confession and Declaration in your Preface. It's something however, that the Excommunicates were Notorious Dissenters, and chosen (by your Interest and Influence) Churchwardens in the Lordship part of the Parish, contrary to the Liking of the Loyal Men in that Vestry. Nay, there are some that say, You were resolved they should be Churchwardens, for this very Reason, That they would make no Presentments. After this they were Cited to take the Churchwardens Oath, which they peremptorily refused to do; and thereupon a Sentence of Excommunication was Pronounced against them in the Court, in Form: And an Instrument for Publishing the same in the Church was sent to you, which for some time you laid by, according to Good Advice, (as you say) and afterwards Admitted these Person's to the Sacrament, being Actually Excommunicated and before they were Absolved; though after they had Received, you did your Best to have them Absolved. Let any Man make an Excuse for this Usurpation, if he can. No, say you, there is no need of it; for I have made a sufficient Apology for it myself in these Words of my Preface. I had leave to defer the Publishing of that Excommunication; and the Sacrament was given them before it was Published: And I had then great Assurance, that Excommunications can take no Effect till they are Published: And what I did, was done upon the Best Advice I was capable of Having; and I relied upon the AUTHORITY OF MORE THAN ONE ECCLESIASTICAL JUDGE. And the same Article had been Exhibited against many other Divines besides myself, had they been so unhappy, as to have had in those Parishes any People of such Venomous Spirits as I am Infested with: So that, if this were a Fault, it was a Fault of most Excusable (if I may not say) Invincible Ignorance. You must now give us leave, Sir, to make some Remarks upon your Apology. First, We find that Doctor's Commons and Dr. Fowler are divided upon the Question: They are positive that it's a Fault, and the Doctor is doubtful; for you say, If it be a Fault. Secondly, It seems not to stand with the Honour of your Dignity in the Church, to pretend Ignorance in a Point of the highest Nature in our Church Discipline. Thirdly, Your Defence is only Crimination, and you should not have brought your Advisers upon the Stage; but rather have kept that Secret behind the Curtain. Fourthly, You should have spared them for the sake of the Ten Pounds Cost you boast of, and some other Reasons: For it's a New thing, for a Criminal, who Confesses the Fact, to be Cleared; and the Accuser, or Prosecutor, that makes Good his Charge, to be Punished. Fifthly, The Many Divines you speak of are Men that we never yet heard of. Sixthly, We will leave the World to Judge, whether the Fault lies in the Venomous Parishioners, or in the Peevish Minister. Seventhly, We take your Slanders the less ill, because you make no Bolder with us, than with Our Ecclesiastical Judges, and many of our Divines, nay, with our Mother Church itself, in giving the Church of Rome the Advantage of Throwing a Reproach upon us, which we believe She never had before, since the Blessed Reformation. For what will they say, to see such a Doctrine so Authorized, and a Parochial Minister in the Church of England take more upon him than the Pope of Rome; that is to say, in Admitting of Excommunicated Persons to the Communion before they are Absolved? Sir, As we have done you no Wrong all this while, so we will now do you this Right in the Story about the Election of Common Council Men, to Declare, That we believe you were no ways concerned in it; but that the Greater part of it belongs properly to Mr. S. And now to Conclude, We cannot but Observe what an unlucky Hand you have had at Vindications: You wrote one against Bunnion the Tinker; Another for Breaking the Church-Windows at Gloucester, and making use of the Trinity in the Seal, that was Idolatry in the Glass. This Preface of yours is the Third; and we do not know, but that this Letter of Ours may Produce a Fourth. If all this be for your Health, and by way of Prescription, as (a Wag said) now and then to take a lusty Dose of Vindication Pills to Purge Choler, we wish you good speed. We would do this in better Terms, but Letters and Vindications are none of our Talon. You were pleased to bestow a Couple of Latin Verses upon us at the end of your Preface; it's possible they may be something against our Church, but we understand them not. We presume however, that they will do as well at the End of a Letter, as at the End of a Preface; And therefore we shall conclude with them, Desiring, that if your Book comes to a Second Edition you would bless the World with your Crippling Verses in English. Hoc mihi pro certo quod si cum Stercore certo, Vinco, seu Vincor, certe Ego Maculor. Sir, We ask your Pardon for the Freedom we have taken to Vindicate (according to your Certificate,) Sir, Your Peaceable and Christianlike Tempered Parishioners and Servants, WILLIAM NEWBERRY, Deputy. WILLIAM EDMUNDS.