firfl Volume of the Hari of the Puritans. $47 two hundred pages together, to affault him from behind the curtain with the opprobrious charaaers of a rigid calvinifts, a difciplinarian, a man f a narrowfpirit ? &c. Muft an hiftorian be accountable for the juftnefs of their principles whole hiftory he writes ? or, becaufe he fets their arguments in a proper light, mutt he make them his own ? How- ever, that which touches an honeft mind more fenfibly, is to be accufed not only of involuntary miftakes, but of wicked and wilful corrupting the truth of hiftory toFerve a defagn, and oftaking much pains to. repre-P 7. feat the church of England asfounded in violence and bloodfhed ; its con- flitution contrary to the wordof God, and invading chri/lian liberty. God forgive this writer ! Where has Mr. N. faid, that the church of England was funded in bloodfhed, &c. Surely, a gentleman who takes thefe liberties, fhould appear before the world, and put his name to the charge. Mr. N. is fenfible of the difficulties of perfefting a religious eftablifh- ment at once, and of fecuring it afterwards, without intrenching upon the rights and liberties of mankind, which was the cafe of the Englifh reformation ; and though the defefts of the hierarchy may be in part excufed from the neceffity of the times, they ought not to be wholly juftified, but frankly confeffed and the hardfhips removed, as loon as an opportunity offers ; this Mr. N. acknowledges has been attempted feveral times, and might have been done more effeftually at the late glorious revolution. But it feems there is a plot againft the church, a defagn to introduce the Geneva plan upon the ruins of the prefent e/lablifhment. Is this writer then in the fecret ? or has he a key into the heart of his adverfary ? When men make fuch difcoveries, as affe& the reputation and good name of others, they fhould -be very fecure of their evidence, efpecially when they are unwilling to appear in open view, and fupport it with the authority of their own great names ; but Mr. N. not being acquain- ted with the plot, muff leave the gentleman to drefs it up after his own fafhion, and make what inference from it he pleafes. " The commiflion of errors in writing any hiftory of times pail, Mein. (fays the ingenious Mr. Wharton, in his letter to Mr. Strype) being Cran. Ap- " altogether unavoidable, ought not to detrat`.t from the credit of the Pendix, p. " hiftory, or the merits of the hiftorian, unlefs it be accompanied with 253 " immoderate oftentation, or unbandfome refleftions on the errors of " others." And although that gentleman has filled almoft three fheets of paper, with the errors of Mr. Strype, in his frngle volume of memorials *5Q.2 of ' When this review was firit publilhed, the author of the vindication was unknown, but it has been frnce advertifed under the name of the Right Reverend Ifaac Maddox, D. D. now Lord Bithop of Wsrcßer.
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