A70766:33
Moderation a virtue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate…Moderation a vertue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate…
Moderation a virtue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate divines and laity of the Church of England represented in some late immoderate discourses, under the nick-names of Grindalizers and Trimmers / by a lover of moderation, resident upon his cure ; with an appendix, demonstrating that parish-churches are no conventicles ... in answer to a late pamphlet entitled, Parish-churches turned into conventicles, &c.Moderation a vertue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate divines and laity of the Church of England represented in some late immoderate discourses, under the nick-names of Grindalizers and Trimmers / by a lover of moderation, resident upon his cure ; with an appendix, demonstrating that parish-churches are no conventicles ... in answer to a late pamphlet entitled, Parish-churches turned into conventicles, &c.
London: printed for Jonathan Robinson, 1683
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Yet that we may not pay them in their own kind, and shoot in their Bow, they do not shoot at Moderation, but pelt the moderate Men; they do not expose the Virtue, but the Men that are denominated from it.
Yet that we may not pay them in their own kind, and shoot in their Bow, they do not shoot at Moderation, but pelt the moderate Men; they do not expose the Vertue, but the Men that are denominated from it.
If you would see the Effigies which they hang, take a Copy of it out of some Pieces of Tapestry, and Oratorical Painting, and the Picture is a Chimaera, a Draught of mere Invention and Fancy. Is there such a Man in the Church? If there be, tire him with Apparitors, and make some real Being of him, something existent, either a Conformist, or a Nonconformist.
If you would see the Effigies which they hang, take a Copy of it out of some Pieces of Tapestry, and Oratorical Painting, and the Picture is a Chimaera, a Draught of meer Invention and Fancy. Is there such a Man in the Church? If there be, tire him with Apparitors, and make some real Being of him, something existent, either a Conformist, or a Nonconformist.
We have a sort of Men, who are neither for Liturgy nor Directory, Canon nor Covenant, (sweet harmonious Jingle!) part Church-man, and part Schismatical; having one Leg for a Tub, and another for the Pulpit; one Hand subscribing to separate Worship, and the other to the Church of England; such who conform to the Benefice, (not to the Canon) and, Pope-like, cancel all their solemn Obligations to the Laws, and give themselves a Pardon for their ⟨p. 4⟩barbarous Irregularity against the Ecclesiastical Constitutions. Ex animo in their Subscriptions, signifies Lukewarmness and Neutrality; an unfeigned Assent and Consent, is a deep Hypocrisy; decently, is a Compliance with a Faction; and [Greek or Hebrew], according to Moderation, and (too frequently) according to Subscription. — He is your only Man of moderate Principles, whose Conscience is a Composition of five precious Ingredients, the Pride of Diotrephes, the Interest of Demas, the Treachery of Judas, the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and the Disobedience of Devils. — (I dare not reprint the rest.) — These are your blessed Episcopal Covenanters, Canonical Comprehenders, Clergy-Merchants, and Regular Renegadoes. — (Now for sound-sake, why not Read me a Riddle, or Rattle, rattle, rattle?) — Again, their Religion consists in the Overthrow of Church-Discipline and Government; and their Moderation is a wilful Omission of the Rites and Offices of the Church of England. The same again repeated, pag. 18. Thus some Men portrayed by Rhetorical Oppositions, the Creatures of an unhallowed Imagination, and I think not to be found, by Mr. Will. Gould, preached at a Visitation in Exon, dedicated to Bishop Sp. and for the goodness of it twice printed, or for the badness of the Sale, the second Edition of the Title-Page put out before it; but whether printed the second time or no, concerns the Bookseller more than any other Man. I will only answer what I have transcribed, by denying the Accusation, and look upon it as a public Pulpit-Slander. It is pity (tho it contains some Threads of Gold, and Shreds of richer Stuff,) that a great deal of it was ever thought of; or if invented, ever put to Paper; or studied, that it was ever preached; or preached, that it was ever printed; or printed, that it was ever sold or read, except to bewail that any Preacher should speak so unlike an Oracle of God.