own ugly clouts; I must tell you, he shall find before he hath read these papers half way through, that those clouts, as ugly as they seem to him, are genuine parts of that home-spun stuff which was warped, and woven, and milled too, by that very Synod of the town of Dort. Neither hath Tilenus set this web upon the tenter-hooks, nor torn any part, to make ugly clouts of it; but only used that liberty which is allowed to all artists of this kind, fairly to cut out of the whole piece such proportions as might best serve to clothe his discourse, in that fashion it is now represented in."

But, not content with vilifying Tilenus, Mr. Hickman "fell foul of" John Goodwin. As the brief answer which that redoubtable Arminian returned to his rancorous assailant, contains a remarkable confirmation of Dr. Womack's fidelity of execution, in the portraits which he has here given, I subjoin a copious extract from it:

"I understand, by some of my friends, who have had the opportunity and leisure, (which I have not yet had,) to look into a book not long since published by one Mr. Hickman,— a gentleman altogether unknown to me, and not heard of until of late, casting mine eye upon a piece of Mr. Pierce his writing, I found such a name there,-that this gentleman, pretending in the said book only an answer to Mr. Pierce touching some things in his writings at which he made himself aggrieved, two or three several times in this pamphlet stepped out of his way to ease his mind, perhaps his conscience, in remonstrating unto the world what high Remonstrant misdemeanours he had found in me. In one place of his book, (as I had the passage, transcribed by a steady hand, sent unto me,) having charged the English Tilenus with making the TRIERS to ask such questions, of those that come before them, as in all probability never came into all their thoughts to ask, upon this his probable misdemeanour he advanceth this Rhadamanthine and severe sentence, both against him and me: Which, saith he, is such a piece of impudence as no one hath ventured to imitate him [Tilenus] in, but that Ishmael of Coleman-street, [Goodwin,] whose hand, being against all men, hath provoked all men, even to the common pamphleteer, to lift up a hand against him. The best is, in case

could be admitted for true, a man of strife and a man of

Mr. Hickman's reproach here that Jeremy of Jerusalem was contention to the whole earth,' as well as that Ishmael of Coleman-street, and yet was a true prophet, and never the less like

so to have been for the numerousness of his contests.—-Noah also was a preacher of righteousness,' yet his proportion of opposers far exceeded mine; and the number of those who embrace my doctrine with their whole hearts, far exceedeth the number of those who, upon such terms, received his.—Yea, our Saviour himself testifieth, that, in the church and nation of the Jews, they who had the more general approbation and applause were the false prophets, not the true: "Woe unto them, when all men shall speak well of them; for so did their fathers to the false prophets.' (Luke vi, 26.)

Whereas, he chargeth me with venturing to imitate TILENUS, in making the Triers to ask such questions, of those who come before them, as in all probability never came into all their thoughts to ask: The truth is, that he chargeth me with the crime of such a courage or boldness whereof I was never conscious. I never made any venture to imitate Tilenus, in such an attempt as is here charged upon him; nor did I ever go before him in any such: I no where either challenge them or charge them with asking such questions, of those that come before them, which in all probability never came into all their thoughts to ask. If I charge them with asking any questions in the case, they are only such which themselves and their own consciences know, that they do or did ask frequently, and from time to time. And for the questions which Tilenus himself maketh them to ask, as far as I remember, if they were not the same formally et in terminis, yet they were the same materially and in reality of import, which they were wont to ask. And for a man in his own words to report another man's sense uttered in his, is no such venturous piece of impudence!"

Without further Preface, I introduce my readers to Dr. WOMACK's very able pamphlet.

JAMES NICHOLS.

THE

PREFATORY EPISTLE.

VIRO PARI, ET FAMILIARI MEO

M.S. P.

MY DEAR AND GOOD FRIEND,

THESE Papers come now to your hands, to give you assurance, that my many late discourses, upon the subjects here treated of, were in good earnest. Whatever it was that occasioned the forming of my conceptions into this shape, there is nothing in the world hath a greater hand, (if so it may be said of motives,) to give them birth, than your passionate opposition. For I am weary of those debates by word of mouth, wherein men of much zeal and prejudice grow so hot and so far transported, that instead of solid arguments advancing orderly under the command of sober reason, they can levy no other forces but froth and choler to assist them. That I may no more break the peace (in this kind) with you, nor endanger making the least flaw in that dear friendship that hath, by so long a conversation, grown up to so great a height betwixt us; I have resolved to take this calmer course,-to give an account of some grounds of my present persuasions, wherein I differ from your judgment. Perhaps they may some time or other find your affections so quiet, your understanding so well awakened, and your will so willing to stand neuter, till these truths have a fair and full hearing, that they may make a better impression, than hitherto they have had opportunity to do, upon you. And because I remember, (in some heat of dispute,) you have thrown some things upon me, (which were not so much faults in me, as prejudices and scandals taken up by yourself,) I shall briefly wipe them off, that such rubs being removed out of your way,

B

you may have the less objection to fright you from a further inquiry into the Articles under question.

And now, I beseech you, in the first place, to upbraid me no more with the errors of my education, (for so I must now account them,) because the greater the prejudices were which were instilled into me against these doctrines, the greater you ought to conclude the light to be which hath wrought this my present conviction of their truth, and induced me to embrace them, against all the charms of interest, and secular advantages, wherewith the world tempts us, to the contrary.

Unconstancy, (one of your other charges,) I confess, is sometimes culpable: But may we not say so too of constancy many times? which is therefore resembled (somewhere) to a sullen porter, who keeps out better company oftentimes than he lets in. Our happiness that will be unchangeable commenceth in a change; and it is our duty to turn from darkness to light, though we be called "inconstant" for it. We were not born with our eyes open; neither shall we ever see far, if we look no further than that prospect which some few admired writers have set before us. "The new man," which we are to "put on," is "renewed in knowledge;"* and if we receive our illumination regularly from heaven, that is given according to the capacity of the subject. We have a dawning first, but the progress of our light holds a proportion with the sedulity of our studies. We are never too old to learn in Christ's school.

"But the great scandal," you say, "is, to profess myself a disciple to such masters."-What masters do you mean? I call no man MASTER on earth, (in this sense,) nor ever will give any so great a dominion over my faith, as to swear allegiance to his doctrines. I would, others were as free from this yoke of bondage. But yet I know, it is not only a thing commendable, but a duty, to march after the standard of truth, what hand soever carries it before us. And who do you think were the bearers of it? If you enquire into their learning, (even their adversaries being judges,) they were as lights shining in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation; † and if you examine their lives, for piety and justice, they were blameless and harmless as becomes the sons of God; not more polite in their intellectuals than unreproveable in their morals, but very

eminent in both. And they have declared their virtues as well in a way of passive obedience as active. What professors were ever more constant and cheerful in their sufferings for the word of God and for the testimony which they held, (having been taught it, according to their full persuasion,) as the truth is in Jesus. *—They have been banished, imprisoned, &c; insomuch that one of them bespeaks his fellow soldiers (in this conflict,) after this manner: Vos societatis nostræ decora ac lumina, quorum vincula jam non in Belgio tantum, sed penè ubique per totum orbem Christianum celebria facta sunt, qui patientia vestrá jam per tot annos invicta atque infracta, adversariis totique adeo mundo fidem fecistis, conscientiam Remonstrantibus pluris esse, quam quicquid uspiam carum est in mundo. Ita pergite &c.t-" You, the lights and glory of our society, whose bonds are famous throughout the whole Christian world, whose invincible patience hath given proof to your very adversaries and all the world besides, that the Remonstrants value their conscience, above all things whatsoever: March on with me," (saith he,) "to the mark, 'by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true: as unknown and yet well known: as dying and behold we live: as chastened and not killed: as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing: as poor, yet making many rich: as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.'"-(2 Cor. vi, 8, 9, 10.) -Thus far he.

But you will say, "Non pæna sed causa, &c. it is not the suffering but the cause that makes a man a martyr;' and those men run after the error of Pelagius, who was condemned by the Ancient Fathers as an enemy to the grace of God."-To this I shall return Arminius's own solemn protestation: Inspiciantur capita omnia Pelagianæ doctrinæ, prout illa in Synodis Milevilana, Arausicana, et Hierosolymitana enarrantur et condemnantur, etiam ut à Pontifice Romano Innocentio referuntur; et adparebit posse quempiam Pelagianam doctrinam improbare, et tamen doctrina isti (Gomari sc.,) de Predestinatione, non accedere: And, a

* Ephes. iv, 21. + Apolog. pro Confess. in Prefat. ad finem. "Let all the articles of the doctrine of Pelagius be inspected, as they stand recorded and condemned in the Acts of the Synod of Milevia, [or Mela, in Africa,] Orange, and Jerusalem, and even as they are related by Innocent, the Roman Pontiff; and it will appear possible for any man to disavow and disapprove the Pelagian doctrine, and yet not make the least approach to this doctrine of Gomarus concerning Predestination, as it is expounded in these theses."-Examen Thesium Gomari. 156.