A70766:72
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.
10. By their Self-designing, &c. Sir, Moderation is the Temper we would attain to; it is the Duty we study, and our sincere Exercise, and not Pretence. But what are our Self-designs by Moderation ⟨p. 18⟩and similibus? Do we design to make Nonconforming Arch-bishops and Bishops, and hope to be their Sons in Law, their Chaplains, or to rise with them? You said we ploughed cunningly, carried it cunningly; but now it is not as much as seemingly cunning; we have not as much as one Ox in our Team, but all Asses; if this be our Design, we show our selves to be half-witted as well as Half-Conformists; by this self-designing, were we self-designing-Men, we would write as you do; we understand the way on't, but you know and take it. And because Similitudes do illustrate, he compares us to King Charles's Murderers, &c. You know you dare not name one Man alive, of those you call Grindalizers, for it will bear an Action too heavy for your Shoulders. We had been sorry, if the Papists had done such a Fact open-faced, more sorry that any English-man, under any Denomination whatsoever, did contribute a Word to it, or think a Thought of it. And we are desirous to acquit all that can be acquitted from so scarlet a Sin and no more. Who were in the Contrivance and Execution, who disappeared, and who appeared, was best known to his Gracious Majesty, Privy Council, Parliament, and Honourable Court that sat at Hicks's Hall, upon the Trial of the Regicides, Octob. 1660. And according to the degrees of Guilt, we find some excepted, and some prosecuted, condemned, and executed; and if there had been but One, that One had been too many. And it would well become us to be as tender of Mens Honour, as our merciful King, and wise and just Judges, were of the Lives, Fortunes, and Honour of Offenders. If there be any sense in this Paragraph, the sense of this short cut-throat Sentence would be this, if there be any thing in it beside slander upon slander, malice upon malice, to make the odious Comparison perfect; 1. The Dissenters are without distinction, Presbyterian. 2. All the Dissenters are Presbyterian Regicides, or like them. 3. There are some that contribute to the encouragement of these Dissenters, and others are professed encouragers of them. 4. Either one or both of these, are like those Presbyterian Murderers of King Charles. 5.
10. By their Self-designing, &c. Sir, Moderation is the Temper we would attain to; it is the Duty we study, and our sincere Exercise, and not Pretence. But what are our Self-designs by Moderation