Transcriber's Note
Every effort has been made to replicate this text asfaithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and otherinconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious erroris noted at the end of this ebook.
British Library shows this was first published 1715 and reprinted by D. A.Talboys, Oxford, 1841.
I hope the time is come at last when the voice of moderate principlesmay be heard. Hitherto the noise has been so great, and the prejudicesand passions of men so strong, that it had been but in vain to offer atany argument, or for any man to talk of giving a reason for his actions;and this alone has been the cause why, when other men, who, I think,have less to say in their own defence, are appealing to the public, andstruggling to defend themselves, I alone have been silent under theinfinite clamours and reproaches, causeless curses, unusualthreatenings, and the most unjust and injurious treatment in the world.
I hear much of people's calling out to punish the guilty, but very feware concerned to clear the innocent. I hope some will be inclined tojudge impartially, and have yet reserved so much of the Christian as tobelieve, and at least to hope, that a rational creature cannot abandonhimself so as to act without some reason, and are willing not only tohave me defend myself, but to be able to answer for me where they hearme causelessly insulted by others, and, therefore, are willing to havesuch just arguments put into their mouths as the cause will bear.
As for those who are prepossessed, and according to the modern justiceof parties are resolved to be so, let them go; I am not arguing withthem, but against them; they act so contrary to justice, to reason, to[Pg 4]religion, so contrary to the rules of Christians and of good manners,that they are not to be argued with, but to be exposed, or entirelyneglected. I have a receipt against all the uneasiness which it may besupposed to give me, and that is, to contemn slander, and think it notworth the least concern; neither should I think it worth while to giveany answer to it, if it were not on some other accounts of which I shallspeak as I go on. If any young man ask me why I am in such haste topublish this matter at this time, among many other good reasons which Icould give, these are some:—
1. I think I have long enough been made Fabula Vulgi, and borne theweight of general slander; and I should be wanting to truth, to myfamily, and to myself, if I did not give a fair and true state of myconduct, for impartial men to judge of, when I am no more in being toanswer for myself.
2. By the hints of mortality, and by the infirmities of a life of sorrowand fatigue, I have reason to think I am not a great way off from, ifnot very near to, the great ocean of eternity, and the time may not belong ere I embark on the last voyage. Wherefore, I think I should evenaccounts with this world before I