allegations, and also on such of the responses by Hall, as we have deemed it necessary to adduce below. Thus wrote Robinson:PREAMBLE. IT is a hard thing even for sober-minded men, in cases of controversy, to use, soberly, the advantages of the times; upon which, whilst men are mounted on high, they use to behold such as they oppose too overly, and not without contempt; and so are ofttimes emboldened to roll upon them, as from aloft, very weak and weightless discourses thinking any slight and slender opposition sufficient to oppress those underlings whom they have, as they suppose, at so great an advantage. Upon this very presumption, it cometh to pass, that this Author undertaketh thus solemnly and severely to censure a cause whereof, as appeareth in the sequel of the discourse, he is utterly ignorant: which, had he been but half so careful to have understood as he hath been forward to censure, he would either have been, I doubt not, more equal towards it, or more weighty against it. As this Epistle is come to my hands, so I wish the Answer of it may come to the hands of him that occasioned it. Entreating the Christian Reader, in the Name of the Lord, unpartially to behold, without either prejudice of cause or respect of person, what is written on both sides; and from the Court of a sound Conscience, to give just judgment. "AN ANSWER, &c,-THE Crime' here objected, is 'Separation :' a thing very odious in the eyes of all them from whom it is made; as evermore casting upon them the imputation of evil, whereof all men are impatient. And hence it cometh to pass that the Church of England can better brook the vilest persons' continuing communion with it, than any whomsoever separating from it, though upon never so just and well-grounded reasons. And yet separation from the world, and so from the men of the world, and so from the Prince of the world that reigneth in them, and so from whatsoever is contrary to God, is : charge and, certainly, had he folded his Epistle, with a superscription, to be delivered to that female figure, by any post or carrier who were not a ubiquitary, it had been a most miraculous greeting!" Apol. for Smectymnuus, p. 77. Previously to this, Milton had, in "Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's [Hall's] Defence' against Smectymnuus," 1641, written thus, "Mark, Readers, the crafty scope of these Prelates; they endeavour to impress deeply into weak and superstitious fancies, the awful notion of a Mother;' that, hereby, they might cheat them into a blind and implicit obedience to whatsoever they shall decree or think fit! And, if we come to ask a reason of aught from our 'Dear Mother,' she is invisible, under the book and key of the Prelates, her spiritual adulterers. They only, are the Internuncios, or the go-betweens, of this trim devised mummery. Whatsoever they say, she says must be a deadly sin of disobedience not to believe. So that we, who, by God's special grace, have shaken off the servitude of a great male tyrant, our pretended Father, the Pope, should now, if we be not betimes aware of these wily teachers, sink under the slavery of a female notion; the cloudy conception of a demy-island Mother; and, while we think to be obedient sons, should make ourselves rather the bastards, or the centaurs, of their spiritual fornications.” Edit. sup. p. 72. ́a "Would God, overliness and contempt were not yours." Hall, p. 4. b "The discourse' that I rolled down upon you, was 'weak and weightless :' you shall find this was my lenity, not my impotence."-"I was not enough your enemy: forgive me this error, and you shall smart more!" Hall. p. 4, 5. "To you not so extreme as your answer bewrays: a late Separation, not the first." Hall, p. 7. well known that the Ministers which desire Reformation have most of all other opposed themselves, by writing, to that faction."a We have thus set before the reader the proceedings of the weaker parties in resisting the pressure of the dominant interests. All hope of any accommodation or present relief being, nevertheless, found vain, now, therefore, some whose names have not yet been noticed here, distributed themselves in unoccupied places abroad, or joined the churches which had been instituted already in the Low Countries; while others resolved upon settling in transatlantic regions.b In the copy before us, on the margin, and in writing almost as old perhaps as the tract itself, are these words, “You should have proved them factious, before you called them so !" b In consideration of the marvellous career which the individual whom the following Letter concerns pursued through much of the course of our history, and which was addressed to him when merely a B.D. but who attained to the utmost pinnacle of ecclesiastical honours, we bring it under the reader's notice. Our justification for fixing on William Laud as the party to whom this letter was addressed by its author, himself no obscure ecclesiastic, in the year 1606, and the thirty-third of Laud's age, will be found in p. 54 of his Life, by Peter Heylyn, 1668. fo.; and also, in its accordance to the general character which Laud sustained indeed, the insight it gives into the germ of that character is what renders the document so interesting and valuable; besides that it contributes to the elucidation of the phases of passing occurrences. "To Mr. W. L.-I would I knew where to find you; then I could tell how to take a direct aim; whereas now I must rove, and conjecture. To-day you are in the tents of the Romanists; to-morrow, in ours; the next day between both,-against both. Our adversaries think you ours; we, theirs: your conscience finds you with both, and neither! "I flatter you not: this, of yours, is the worst of all tempers. Heat, and cold have their uses; lukewarmness is good for nothing, but to trouble the stomach. Those that are spiritually hot find acceptation; those that are stark cold have a lesser reckoning; the mean between both, is so much worse as it comes nearer to good, and attains it not. How long will you halt in this indifferency? Resolve one way; and know at last what you do hold; what you should! Cast off either your wings or your teeth and, loathing this bat-like nature, be either a bird or a beast. "To die wavering and uncertain, yourself will grant fearful. If you must settle, when begin you? If you must begin, why not now? It is dangerous deferring that whose want is deadly, and whose opportunity is doubtful. God crieth, with Jehu, Who is on my side, who?' Look, at last, out of your window to him; and in a resolute courage, cast down this Jezebel that hath bewitched you. Is there any impediment which delay will abate? Is there any, which a just answer cannot remove? If you had rather waver, who can settle you? But if you love not inconstancy, tell us why you stagger. Be plain, or else you will never be firm. What hinders you? "Is it our divisions? I see you shake your head at this; and, by your silent gesture, bewray this the cause of your distaste. Would God, I could either deny this with truth, or amend it with tears! But I grant it; with no less sorrow, than you with offence. This earth hath nothing more lamentable than the civil jars of one faith. What then? Must you defy your Mother, because you see your brethren fighting? Their dissension is her grief. Must she lose some sons, because some others quarrel? Do not so wrong yourself, in afflicting her. Will you love Christ the less, because his coat is divided? Yea, let me boldly say, the hem is torn a little; the garment is whole! Or rather, it is fretted a little; not torn: or, rather, the fringe; not the hem. Behold, here is one Christ, one Creed, one Baptism, one Heaven, one Way to it; in sum, one Religion, one Foundation; and, take away the tumultuous spirits of some rigorous Lutherans,-one Heart! Our differences "are those of Paul and Barnabas; not those of Peter and Magus: if they be some, it is well they are no more; if many, that they are not capital. Show me that Church that hath not complained of distraction; yea, that family; yea, that fraternity; yea, that man, that always agrees with himself! See if the spouse of Christ in that heavenly marriage song, do not call him a young hart in the mountains of division'! "Tell me then, Whither will you go for truth, if you will allow no truth but where there is no division? To Rome, perhaps; famous for unity; famous for peace! See now, how happily you have chosen; how well you have sped: Lo there. Cardinal Bellarmine himself, a witness above exception, under his own hand acknowledgeth to the world, and reckons up two hundred thirty and seven contrarieties of doctrine among the Romish divines. What need we more evidence? O the perfect accordance of Peter's See; worthy to be recorded for a badge of Truth ! "Let now, all our adversaries scrape together so many contradictions of opinions amongst us, as they confess amongst themselves; and be you theirs. No; they are not more peaceable, but more subtle: they have not less dissension, but more smothered. They fight closely within doors, without noise: all our frays are in the field. Would God, we had as much of their cunning as they want of our peace; and no more of their policy than they want of our truth! Our strife is in ceremonies; theirs, in substance; ours in one or two points; theirs in all. Take it boldly from him that dares avouch it-There is not one point in all divinity, except those wherein we accord with them, wherein they all speak the same. If our church displease you for differences, theirs much more, unless you will be either wilfully incredulous, or wilfully partial; unless you dislike a mischief the less, for the secrecy! "What will you do then? Will you be a Church, alone? Alas! how full are you of contradictions to yourself: how full of contrary purposes! How oft do you chide with yourself! How oft do you fight with yourself! I appeal to that bosom which is privy to those secret combats. "Believe me not if ever you find perfect unity anywhere but above either go thither and seek it amongst those that triumph, or be content with what estate you find in this wayfaring number. "Truth is in differences; as gold in dross, wheat in chaff: will you cast away the best metal, the best grain, because it is mingled with this offal? Will you rather be poor and hungry, than bestow labour on the fan, or the furnace? Is there nothing worth your respect but peace? I have heard that the interlacing of some discords graces the best music; and I know not, whether the very evil spirits agree not with themselves. If the body be sound, what though the coat be torn? Or if the garment be whole, what if the lace be unript? Take you peace: let me have Truth; if I cannot have both. "To conclude: embrace those truths that we all hold; and it greatly matters not what you hold in those wherein we differ: and if you love your safety, seek rather grounds whereon to rest, than excuses for your unrest. If ever you look to gain by the Truth, you must both choose it and cleave to it: mere resolution is not enough, except you will rather lose yourself than it." Epistles: by Joseph Hall. 1608. 12mo. Vol. ii. Dec. iii. Ep. v. The propriety of giving a place in these pages, to this letter, appears from its writer having been obliged inconveniently to accommodate himself to his design. He could, here, try to repel an argument from Divisions, and from Contrariety of Opinions; and would show that he estimates Truth far more highly than Peace. The reader will see in other places, with what consistency all this is preserved; and he will find, too, that when Scriptural boundaries are crossed, embarrassment must of necessity ensue: so, Hall, and divines of his school, were driven, at times, to turn their weapons in self-defence: thus, they first manage their stylus that it shall inscribe an argument this way; and anon, they prepare their waxen tablet so that it shall divert the same kind of argument that way but notwithstanding the labour and skill practised, the original lines are so imperfectly obliterated that they betray the difficulties and embarrassments of the operators. Lawson's stricture on Hall's letter is, that "the pious correspondent evidently laboured under the enthusiasm of the times, and one sentence of his epistle generally contradicts another." Life, &c. of Abp. Laud. 1829. 8vo. vol. i. p. 121. CHAP. VIII. JUNIUS AGAINST THE EXILES. ON resuming that portion of our narrative which more directly concerns" the exiled church," we shall remark on what arose out of their "Confession," so far as we gather the particulars from "Certain Letters, translated into English, being first written in Latin. Two, by the Reverend and Learned Mr. Francis Junius, Divinity Reader at Leyden in Holland. The other [four] by the Exiled English Church abiding, for the present, at Amsterdam in Holland. Together with the Confession of Faith prefixed, whereupon the said Letters were first written." 1602. 4to. pp. 57.a Junius addressed a Letter, on the ninth of January, 1599-[1600], "To his beloved in Christ the Brethren of the English Church, now abiding at Amsterdam," in which, he writes, " I have received, of late, a little book by one of your company; which is intituled The Confession of Faith of some Englishmen banished in Belgia,' and have known your desire partly by the speech of the same messenger, partly by the preface of the writing." He conjectures that " for nearness' sake, peradventure," he was applied to "apart," but professes not to see what he can do in the cause, or how he can suit the "purpose" of the applicants. From this point Junius launches out into a tirade against the exercise of private judgment; "for," says he, "I know that now long since, every man doth abound in his own sense;" and, "I thought nothing more commodious, or more safe, .. in all this matter, than .. a holy silence, if there be any thing wherein we be offended." He affects to wonder what can be the design of publishing the Confession: "if ye have set it forth to that end, that ye might purge yourselves, I pray you, brethren, wherefore do you desire to purge yourselves with so many souls who have not known you as yet to be accused!" Then, falling into the common-place jingle of "lawful means," and "indiscreetly" publishing the wounds of the Church, and of the "juice of charity," he would have had them restrain themselves, because, forsooth, of "so many weak ones," who are "offended" that they sniff the "stink of schisms;" their weakness being such that they do not know certainly" the body whereunto they may cleave." "Alas! brethren," he proceeds," is your purgation so much worth unto you, that therefore the public good of the Church should be brought into so great danger?" Having thus traduced the "end" which the "brethren" contemplated, Junius passes on to what he designates by the "fact:" he now plays the rhetorician, and, assuming certain conditions, he reminds them that if they have found "a place of rest, by the mercy a See back, p. 91, note (h.) of God," as they signify, "ye shall do wisely if ye do not stir," but, for that protection, subinit to have both "doctrine and faith" tried by the 66 Church"-" among whom ye are," whom "it is an unlawful course to omit, and to call upon another, or the whole public state, or this university, or me, who am a weak member therein."-" Let them speak first, with whom ye sojourn, whom ye deny not to be your brethren. But if, peradventure, they shall not satisfy you, or you shall not satisfy them, then let a new course be taken by lawful order.".. "And so much of the doctrine."-"I come to the accusasation which ye use against the Church of England, as ye write. . . What need is there that ye should accuse them? Ye have given place; ye have passed over into another court: wherefore you have given place, nobody desireth to know, or doth trouble you. If wrong be done you in England (that I may grant there was done; it belongeth not to me to affirm or deny, who have not known it) yet this injury hath ceased to prosecute you, being departed from them." Is it not surprising that, placed in so influential a situation as Junius was, he should thus wind about, and create a labyrinth where a plain course was open to him? What was peculiar in his own position, might have prompted him to exercise compassion toward others who showed, by their sufferings, that they were actuated by something more than worldly interests. The anti-protestant conduct and advice of those who ought to set the example of consistency is ever to be lamented; but it required more self-denial and fixedness of principle, to throw off the shackles of human authority in sacred things, and to raise the mind by freeing the understanding from that debasing prostration which priestcraft had inculcated as a dutiful submission to those who assumed to themselves to be the only depositories of the true faith, and the oracular dispensers of the Divine will. The paragraphs next following are, like some expressions interspersed among those which precede, grounded on a feigned conjecture what "end" the compilers of the Confession proposed to themselves. They had been in the same locality six years or more; and it is impossible to doubt but that Junius had learned some particulars of their settlement and proceedings who were so immediately in his own neighbourhood; yet he would seem to know little or nothing about them: while, under all this mysterious affectation of ignorance, he is ready and profuse with his advice: they were the weaker party, and outcasts, he chooses therefore to presume that they are less sinned against than sinning! He writes, however, "You do so require my judgment as you do also withal require the judgment of all universities and students. If you request this in common, then you do not desire that I should do it alone; but if particularly, do you think that any of us will be so mad, that when the judgment of so many good men and diligence is [are] desired, some one Palæmon' should take upon him the chiefest parts? .. I ought not to judge with myself of matters unknown, at least not so evident; neither yet with such forward boldness to pronounce among you or others, the matter being not sufficiently manifest to myself... All wise men have taught this with one consent, and delivered it to posterity, That where the founda |