A70766:8
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
To the reader: To the Reverend Clergy, and Honoured Gentlemen, who are Truly Moderate.
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.
Reverend and Honoured Sirs,
THE Writer hereof hath such a moderate Opinion and Sense of himself, and this Vindication, that he thinks it too mean a thing to be dedicated to Persons of your Learning, Judgment, and Worth. It is a manifest proof of your eminent Moderation, that none of you hath set himself, either to examine the Accusations, or to eject the Insinuations of some Men, who must needs be either abused by Men of an ill Religion, and as ill a Nature, or else very great Strangers to your Principles, and manner of Conversation. And except this Undertaking find some Approbation from you, I shall wish I had taken direction from your Silence, to have been silent also. How it may operate upon our unkind Exposers, I cannot certainly divine: but that it may not reflect upon more than one, and he of a lower size than hundreds of you, I think it necessary to declare, That as it looks not like a manly Defence, compacted by the Reason of a Combination of famous Men; so it is not the Apology of a single Person, pointed at by the Accusers above others of his Brethren. Let the whole Blame of it fall upon one only, and such an one as if discovered, that the Aggressors cannot say of him, he had any particular Grudge, or personal Animosity against them.
THE Writer hereof hath such a moderate Opinion and Sense of himself, and this Vindication, that he thinks it too mean a thing to be dedicated to Persons of your Learning, Judgment, and Worth. It is a manifest proof of your eminent Moderation, that none of you hath set himself, either to examine the Accusations, or to eject the Insinuations of some Men, who must needs be either abused by Men of an ill Religion, and as ill a Nature, or else very great Strangers to your Principles, and manner of Conversation. And except this Undertaking find some Approbation from you, I shall wish I had taken direction from your Silence, to have been silent also. How it may operate upon our unkind Exposers, I cannot certainly divine: but that it may not reflect upon more than one, and he of a lower size than hundreds of you, I think it necessary to declare, That as it looks not like a manly Defence, compacted by the Reason of a Combination of famous Men; so it is not the Apology of a single Person, pointed at by the Accusers above others of his Brethren. Let the whole Blame of it fall upon one only, and such an one as if discovered, that the Aggressors cannot say of him, he had any particular Grudg, or personal Animosity against them.