added; and that he follows fathers earlier than Jerom and Austin.

His controversy with Jeanes, though almost immediately subsequent to the publication of "Deus Justificatus," seems to have been brought on more by accident than design. Jeanes in his Address" to the unprejudiced reader," prefixed to the letters which he published on this subject, tells the public, that “one Mr. T. C. of Bridgwater, being at his “house, brake out into extraordinary, (that " I

I say not excessive, and hyperbolical) praises "of Dr. Jeremy Taylor: I expressed my con"currence with him in great part; nay, I "came nothing behind him in the just com"mendations of his admirable wit, great

parts, quick and elegant pen, his abilities "in critical learning, and his profound skill "in antiquity: but notwithstanding all this, "I professed my dissent from some of his

opinions which I judged to be erroneous; "and I instanced in his doctrine of original "sin; now his Further Explication of this lay "then casually in the window (as I take it),

k

* I have not been able to discover the name of this common friend of Taylor and Jeanes.

"which hereupon I took up, and turned unto "the passage now under debate, and shewed "unto Mr. T. C. that therein was gross non"sense and blasphemy; he for his own part, "with a great deal of modesty, forthwith de"clined all further dispute of the business, "but withal he told me, that he would, if I "so pleased, give Dr. Taylor notice of what “I said; whereunto I agreed, and in a short "time he brought me, from the Doctor, a "fair and civil invitation to send him my "exceptions, and with it a promise of a can"did reception of them; whereupon I drew "them up in a letter to Mr. T. C.”

But before Taylor had received this, Mr. T. C. had given him an account of what he remembered in this conversation with Mr. Jeanes, and had obtained an answer, which is dated July the 4th in the year 1657; in which he declares the objection brought against him to be grounded on Mr. Jeane's mistaking the meaning of the passage. This answer Mr. T. C. sent to Mr. Jeanes; which caused a rejoinder from him, dated the 31st of August, the same year, in which he comments upon Taylor's letter in terms that shew he was offended at the language in which it

was expressed, and defends himself against the imputation of a want of clearness in understanding the controverted passage.

On the 15th of the same month Taylor had written directly to him; in this letter he answers the first objections made against him, and concludes thus: "Sir, though I have rea"son to give you the priority in every thing "else, yet in civility I have far outdone you: you were offended at a passage, which you

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might easily, but would not understand: "you have urged arguments against me, "which return upon your own head: the "proposition you charge me withal, I own "not in any of your senses, nor (as you set

1 Taylor here complains of his sentiments being misrepresented. He would have had greater cause for remonstrating against a writer of more modern times; who, in a letter of advice to the clergy of Northumberland, inserted passages from Taylor's works, much to his own purpose, but greatly to the prejudice of that learned man's character, by an unusual piece of fraud, in the manner of quotation. But this writer was not suffered to repose on his dishonesty. "A vindication of Bishop Taylor from the "injurious misrepresentations of him by the author of the "Letter to the Clergy of the Church of England in the county of Northumberland, with a few remarks upon some other passages in that letter," was printed at "Newcastle in 1733." On the fly-leaf, "A vindication, "&c. written by Thomas Sharp, D. D. archdeacon of

"it down) in any at all; and yet your argu"ments do not substantially or rationally "confute it, if I had said so: besides all

"Northumberland."

There is reason to believe that very few copies of this little tract were ever published. It is of the small octavo size, and consists of twenty-three closely printed pages. A copy of it is preserved in the Lambeth library, which belonged to Archbishop Secker. After stating that Taylor's sentiments were misrepresented, the Archdeacon says, "As the Bishop's polemical works, out "of which these passages are taken, are in the hands of "few people, but his name and character universally "known, this cheat may possibly be attended with ill "consequence; while his authority is vouched, and his "testimony produced, for doctrines which he never held; "and there be very few even of the Clergy of Northum "berland themselves, who have the opportunity of exam"ining how these passages lie in the place from whence "they are taken, and thereby detecting the iniquity and "double dealing of this their new correspondent.

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The

design, therefore, of this paper, is to set these quota“tions in a true light," &c.

Then follows a reference to the eighteenth section of the discourse "On the Liberty of Prophecying," entitled "A particular consideration of the opinions of the "Anabaptists. And here," says the Archdeacon, "he "treats very largely and fully of their capital opinion "against the baptism of infants." Then follow several citations from Taylor's Discourse, and the quotations, with answers. "To confront," he observes, “ every sen"tence that the writer of the letter hath quoted out of the "Bishop's Discourse, with its respective answer out of "the same, in words at length, as is done in the three "first sentences, would take up much room to httle

"this, you have used your pleasure upon me,

you have reviled me, slighted me, scorned "me, untempted, unprovoked: you never "sent to me civilly to give you satisfaction "in your objections, but talked it in my ab"sence, and to my prejudice; yet I have "sent you an answer, I hope satisfactory, and together with it a long letter, which in the "midst of my many affairs, and straitened "condition, is more than I can again afford: "and after all this, I assure you that I will 66 pray for you, and speak such good things of you, as I can find, or hear to be in you, "and profess myself, and really be, Sir,

your affectionate friend and servant in our "blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus." Postscript.

"Sir, I received yours last night;

purpose. This short specimen, with the reference to "those places in Bishop Taylor's book, where any person, "who has a mind to satisfy himself, will find the several

answers, may be sufficient to justify that learned divine, "and to demonstrate the shameful want of ingenuity "[ingenuousness] and honesty in the letter writer, who "could condescend to such a mean art as this, to give "some appearance of authority to his own weak reason"ings; and draw his reader, by a cheat, into a persuasion, "into which he could not draw him by his argument."

Taylor is again mentioned in the last page of the vindication; and the rest of the tract is occupied by an address to the clergy of Northumberland on other matters.