ment) had received a reprimand from a witty ballad, called, The Battle Royal; to the tune of A Soldier and a Sailor: A dean and prebendary Had once a new vagary, And were at doubtful strife, sir, Who led the better life, sir, And was the better man, And was the better man. The dean he said, that truly, When Preb replied like thunder, Since Gods the dean had three, sir, And more by two than he, sir, For he had got but one, &c. Now whilst these two were raging, For Gods, sir, there were none, &c. That all the books of Moses Were nothing but supposes; That he deserv'd rebuke, sir, Who wrote the Pentateuch, sir; 'Twas nothing but a sham, &c. That as for father Adam, With Mrs. Eve his madam, And what the serpent spoke, sir, 'Twas nothing but a joke, sir, And well-invented flam, &c. Thus in this battle-royal, As none would take denial, The dame for which they strove, sir, Could neither of them love, sir, Since all had giv'n offence, &c. She therefore slyly waiting, Left all three fools a prating, And being in a fright, sir, Religion took her flight, sir, And ne'er was heard of since, And ne'er was heard of since. Whether this ballad is worded with that decency that the subject of the dispute, or the very eminent and learned per sons concerned in it, required, it is not in my sphere to decide; but the reception it met with in being translated into several languages, (particularly Latin, by a curious hand at the university of Cambridge,) and the presents made to the author by the nobility and gentry, made it evident that their sentiments were against having the mysteries of our holy religion discussed and canvassed after so ludicrous a manner. Not but that Dr. South's zeal for the cause of God and the defence of the blessed Trinity may atone for those loose and unguarded expressions that fell from his pen; and it is of great use to his justification to say, that it had been a crime in him to have been lukewarm and indolent, when the presumption of man should dare to push him forward upon explanations of those sacred arcana, (which God, who alone is omniscient, had reserved to himself,) contrary to the dictates of the holy Spirit, and the received opinion of the councils and fathers. Nor can I account for the manifest partiality of some great men in favour of Dr. Sherlock; especially of Dr. Stillingfleet, then bishop of Worcester, a person every way qualified for the high dignity he was invested with, and of a most excelling judgment in all points of human and divine literature; who though, in his preface to his Vindication of the Trinity, quotes this sentence against the manner of the treatment the two antagonists gave each other; viz. Oderit rixas et jurgia, præsertimque inter eruditos, ac turpe esse dicebat, viros indubitate doctos canina rabie famam vicissim suam rodere ac lacerare scriptis trucibus, tanquam vilissimos de plebe cerdones in angiportis sese luto ac stercore conspurcantes. Nic. Rigalt. Vit. P. Puteani, p. 48. i. e. "He ever hated "broils and opprobrious language, especially among the "learned; and said, it was a very odious and unseemly thing, "for men, who were undoubtedly renowned for knowledge "and understanding, to insult and tear to pieces each other's "reputations, in their inhuman writings, with a canine fury, "not unfitly compared to cobblers sprung from the vilest "dregs of the people, bespattering each other in lanes and 66 narrow passages with dirt and dung." This inclines very much to the part of that author, (viz. Dr. Sherlock,) who, in Dr. South's words, was not only the aggressor, but the transgressor too, as may be seen from a view of that book itself, who, howsoever learned, and seemingly intended against the Socinians, will appear to be a mere brutum fulmen in that respect, and to fall heaviest upon their very enemies. This Dr. South was very accurately apprised of; and notwithstanding his great deference for his lordship's unquestionable skill in polemical and casuistical divinity, joined to his obedience to the royal mandate and the episcopal order, held his hands from entering the lists with him in a controversial way, he could not but have a fling at them both, in a dedication to Narcissus Boyle, archbishop of Dublind; where, amongst other remarkable passages, are to be found what follow: "Surely," says he, "it would be thought a very odd way "of ridding a man of the plague by running him through "with a sword; or of curing him of a lethargy by casting "him into a calenture; a disease of a contrary nature in deed, but no less fatal to the patient; who equally dies, "whether his sickness or his physic, the malignity of his "distemper or the method of his cure, despatches him. And "in like manner must it fare with a church, which, feeling "itself struck with the poison of Socinianism, flies to Tri"theism for an antidote. “But at length happily steps in the royal authority to "the church's relief, with several healing injunctions in its "hands, for the composing and ending the disputes about "the Trinity then on foot; and those indeed so wisely "framed, so seasonably timed, and (by the king, at least,) "so graciously intended, that they must, in all likelihood, "(without any other Irenicon,) have restored peace to the "church, had it not been for the importunity and partiality "of some, who having by the awe of these injunctions en"deavoured to silence the opposite party, (which by their arguments they could not do,) and withal looking upon d See vol. ii. p. 226. "themselves as privileged persons, and so above those or"dinances which others were to be subject to, resolved not "to be silent themselves; but renewing the contest, partly by throwing Muggleton and Rigaltius, with some other "foul stuff, in their adversaries' faces; and partly by a "shameless reprinting (without the least reinforcing) the same exploded tritheistic notions again and again, they "quite broke through the royal prohibitions, and soon after "began to take as great a liberty in venting their inno"vations and invectives, as ever they had done before; so "that he, who shall impartially consider the course taken "by these men with reference to those engaged on the "other side of this controversy about the Trinity, will find "that their whole proceeding in it resembles nothing so "much, as a thief's binding the hands of an honest man "with a cord, much fitter for his own neck. 66 "But, blessed be God, matters stand not so with you in “Ireland; the climate there being not more impatient of poisonous animals, than the church of poisonous opi"nions: an universal concurrent orthodoxy shining all over "it, from the superior clergy who preside, to the inferior placed under them: so that we never hear from thence of 66 66 any presbyter, and much less of any dean, who dares in"novate upon the faith received: and least of all (should "such a wretch chance to start up among you) can I hear "of any bishop likely to debase his style and character so "low, as either to defend the man, or colour over his 66 opinions. Nor, lastly, do we find that in the judgment "of the clergy there, a man's having wrote against one sort "of heresy or heterodoxy, ought to justify or excuse him "in writing for another, and much less for a worse." His character likewise of high and low churchmen, in the same dedication, highly deserve a place in these Memoirs ; not only because they speak the sense and opinion of the author, but impress upon the minds of disinterested and impartial readers the same ideas which his was filled with: "Those of the ancienter members of her (viz. the church "of England's) communion, who have all along owned and “contended for a strict conformity to her rules and sanc"tions, as the surest course to establish her, have been of "late represented, or rather reprobated, under the inodi"ating character of high churchmen, and thereby stand "marked out for all the discouragement that spite and power together can pass upon them; while those of the "contrary way and principle are distinguished, or rather "sanctified, by the fashionable endearing name of low "churchmen, not from their affecting, we may be sure, a "lower condition in the church than others, (since none lie 66 SO low but they can look as high,) but from the low con"dition which the authors of this distinction would fain "bring the church itself into, a work in which they have "made no small progress already. And thus by these un"generous, as well as unconscionable practices, a fatal rent "and division is made amongst us: and, being so, I think "those of the concision who made it, would do well to con"sider, whether that, which our Saviour assures 66 66 66 us will destroy a kingdom, be the likeliest way to settle and support a church. But I question not but these dividers will very shortly receive thanks from the Papists for the good "services they have done them; and in the mean time they may be sure of their scoffs." 66 Much about this time, the doctor's unwearied application to his studies brought upon him the bloody flux, which was followed by the strangury, that scarce left him, but for some transitory releases from it, to his last moments; yet, notwithstanding the uneasiness this must needs give him, he still kept up his sprightliness and vivacity of temper with the few friends he conversed with, which were always well chosen; and so far was he from deserving the character of a morose and reserved person by a certain author, (who said, that the sourness of his disposition, which made him unfit for conversation, made him a scholar,) that whosoever was once in his company, went off with such a relish of his wit and good humour, as to covet the coming into it, though |