A BOLD CHALLENGE OF AN ITINERANT PREACHER Modestly Answered BY A Local Minister to whom the same was sent and delivered: AND Severall letters thereupon.
Printed in Year, 1652.
The Printer to the unbyassed Reader.
AS there are diversities of gifts, so are there different Administrations; some are eminently qualified after the measure of the Sanctuary, others have their competency, and yet both usefull ministers in the Church of God. It were to be wished, that as God hath distinguished them into severall formes, so they would keep their ranks and stations, and serve in their warfare according to his discipline, not their own ambitions. These few letters will afford examples of either kind, here you may see the way and deviation; the Writers in all things disparate, the one a yong bold Challenger, a pretender more to infused habits than acquired learning, (though I could never read, that any having the gift of tongues, spoke false Latin; the immediate works of the Deity are alwayes observed the most excellent in their kind; and indeed, if the matter were from above, God would have assisted the author [though not perhaps to an elegant, yet sure] to an intelligible phrase:) the other, his stile and [Page] Temper bespeak grave and learned, and if thereby you understand him not, you must know no more of him, for he no otherwise commends himself: in short I commit not the men, but their letters to the presse: read and judge; onely observe, that the young Epistoler (to whom silence, by the other author was modestly promised) immediately communicated coppies to his own disciples, and had their Iô paean: Now, that standers by may know what they laughed at, the whole scene is hereby made publick; possibly while they make merry, the rest of the world may piously condole, with us, the boldnesse and Ignorance of our teachers.
A Bold Challenge &c.
THE questions underneath (or underwritten) are humbly offer'd to any Minister or Scholler, that oppose us or the way we walk in.
1. Qu. Whether your Calling or ours (which you so much speak against) be most warrantable and nearest the word of God.
2. Qu. Whether your mixt ways or our wayes of separation be neerest the word of God.
This I or some of my Brethen will be content in the Spirit of love, to dispute publikely or privately.
ACcepi hodiè chartulam stylo tuo exaratam tuoque nomine subscriptam, sed non tam mihi, quam cuivis alii Scholari aut ministello tradendam In eâ duas exhibes quaestiunculas, tandem aliquando si Deus dederit, fortasse discutiendas: unam de Vocatione ministrorum Evangelicorum, alteram de Separatione discipulorum Schismaticâ. Importunè sanè et intempestivè mihi jam valetudinario, liberalem te exhibes, fateor, quod digneris saltem per [...] nescio quem, nobiscum in arenam descendere, et quod nobis copiam five optionem feceris, ut vel Disputatio publica, vel collatio amica privatim instituatur; sed in hoc lubricum, et nimis incertum, quod neque tempus, neque actores, neque scenam, neque apparatum designaveris. Quod ad me attinet, Neutram detrecto, condictâ lege, scilicet, Si disputationem instituis, ut habeatur more Academico, strictim, punctim, pressis Argumentis sub Moderatore gravi aliquo Theologo Orthodoxo: sin Collationem privatem velis, amice amplector, modo codem amico animo statuatur, idque coram uno et altero cordatis testibus, ne vel mihi vel tibi tuisve injustè sparsis rumoribus imponatur. Interim ne molesta videatur mora, si quid habes, quod videri possit vel vocationem meam convellere, vel tuam (si quam habes ā meâ distinctam) statuminare, si quam habes gregi meo aspergendam labem, vel tuo schismati, h.e. separationi praetendendum patrocinium, sriptis manda; rescribam, eoque animo et stylo, quibus decet
Evangelicum.
Geo: Griffith.
For Dr. Griffith
IN quartum ultimae diem hebdomadae, latinam epistolam ate recepi: per quam intelligo, te accipisse duas quaestiunculas; meo nomine subscriptas: non meo proposito, sed ex opposito, (quemadmodum tunc coram caetu divulgavi) ut ut per tuam praedicationem, excercitationemque primitus administranda. Nec non occasione tuorum auditorum, verbis arrogantibus gloriatunt; sicut alij eo tempore loquebantur, me invitum timidumque, tecum confabulari. Itaque jam non me piget has quaestiones ad manus tanti viri pervenisse: praeterea nec tecum, neque ullis alijs litem exopto, atqui aequo animo veritates [...] asserereque ea quae iampridem a me credenda, atque praedicanda, Particulatim, de vocatione ministrorum evangelicorum, atque de separatione nostra, (quae separatio schismatica a te vocatur,) (Sed restat probandum.) Si veritatem tenes, quando in lucem venerit, spero [...]; si aliter non dubito te [...] At totum dubio de vocatione Episcopali, plusquam sane haereo vado, de vestro promiscuoso conventu: ideoque veritatis gratia, populique causa (iam inter duas claudicantes opiniones) mea sic fert opinio, (si etiam tibi videatur) disputationem, vel Coldocutionem, esse publice habendam: (quia veritas non quaerit angulos,) et admirabile celeritate nisi prohibebit valetudo. De loco, tempore, Moderatoreque tibi potestatem nominandi permitto. At si placuerit, ad 23 diem Julij, apud Polam: si intentionem habeas responsionem mittas: sin minus fiat tua voluntas, [...]: non operaepretium scribendo litigare nec est mihi oportunitas. Denique cujus (que) interest tempus prae alijs rebus omnibus de [Page] anima opere (que) spirituali conterere mea refert discendo at (que) docendo esse occupatum: ideoque quicquid in hoc agitur agatur breviter, & rotundè in amore, & [...] sic a pectore, essusissimoque studio, desiderat.
per duos ministros V.D.
His acceptis literis Ju: 23 arrepto statim calamo responsum est in haec verba.
EHem! quid tandem video? Tuumne, mi Powelle, Rescriptum? Tuas literas? Eane vero tibi scriptitandi prurigo, ut famam negligas, et tam certo inclarescentis nominis dispendio responsandum putes? Rectiùs sanè, et tibi, & causae cal patrocinium paras, et miserè vapulanti Prisciano consuluisies, si omninò tacuisses. Vah, vah Barbariem, Soloecismos, imperitiam. Haeccine, quam ad congrestum paras, armatura? Strenuum proculdubiò speremus Dialecticum, qui Grammaticam in contemptu habes, nec curasti olim didicisse. Ingenuè fateor, me in promptu non habere, quid regerendum judicârim. Adeo non tantum in phrasi elegantiam, in verbis syntaxin (levior est in graecis facta accentibus injuria, at facta tamen) sed in unaquaque fere periodo sanum sensum desidero; facilè ex his primitiis auguror, quòd disputationem tuam linguis istis Academicis non sis instituturus. Age igitur tuâ, hoc est, vernaculâ in gratiam populi saltem, ne dicam tui, de caetero agatur. Haec tibi tantum; pudet enim responsiunculam tuam [Page] eruditis viris, licet amicissimis communicare. Nollem tuae per me detractum famae, nisi tuo ipsius opere extorquendum curaveris testimonium. Ideo quicquid illud est quod tuo nomine subscriptum accepi, scriniis asservandum trado, donec aliquid amplius et fortasse limatius ornatiusque reposueris. Si quid in gratiam populi dubitantis transigendum curas, eò loci, ubi lis mota est, terminetur. Ibidem ad Capellam SS. Trinitatis, si Deus O.M. vires & valetudinem dederit stato die te opperiar. Alibi non libet, nec jam convenit te convenire; longum est iter Polam usque praesertim senescenti & valetudinario. Ignoscas interim festinanti calamo, et fortasse primo motu nimium excandescenti. Neque enim emerito facile arridere solent insoliti & inexpectati in Epistolis eruditorum naevi. Atqui spero liberiorem effusae mentis impetum in tuum cessurum commodum [...] Ignoscat etiam Deus O. M. siquid temerè. Det tibi idem Deus Pacis Spiritum Pacis, Eruditionis, intelligentiae, & timoris Domini, ut iis quibus praeditus es donis in honorem ipsius nominis, et salutem, non distractionem Popelli simplicis utaris.
Geo: Griffith.