Fall, or difcovering the leaft connection or re-
lation whatfoever between them.
The parable of the tares, as well as every
other parable recited in the fame chapter, is in-
terpreted by our Lord himfelf, to denote the
fate and fuceefs of the promulgation of his Gof-
pel, which is commonly called by him, the
kingdom of heaven, or the word of the kingdom :
thofe, who hear and receive this word, are the
good feed, or the children of the kingdom ; thofe,
who contemn and rejeft it, are the tares, or the
children of the wicked one ; by whom they are
incited and encouraged to oppofe the progrefs
"of the Gofpel [/>]. Nov/ what relation has this
[c] Page 21. ' ' [/'] Matth. xlir. Z4j 25.
to
Bijhop ^/London's Discourses." 307;
to the ftory of the Fall, or how does it teach us
that the Devil, in the form of a Serpent, was
the Temptor of Eve? Why not at all. Yet
by an art peculiar to himfelf, we fhali fee him'
prefently drawingout of the text, what no body
eife had ever dreamt of, or thought pofllble to
be found there : in order to which, he amufes
us by the following harangue upon it.
" Our Saviour, fays he, explanes this para-
" ble, and applies it to God's government of
" the world — the field is the world, the good
" feed are the children of the kingdom, the
" Tares are the children of the wicked one. —
" Here then our Saviour had the great point
" before him ; How came evil into the world ?
** All the anfwer he gives to it is, the enemy
*' that fowed the tares, is the Devil. Could
** our Lord be ignorant of the hiftory of the
*' Fall, and of the firft introduftion of evil in*
*' to the world .'* Or could he forget it, wheh
** he was accounting for the work of Provi-
** dence, with refped: to the beginning of evil,
** that every where abounded ? He does not in-
** deed enter into the curious qusftions, relat-
" ing to the origin of evil, but he teils us, who
" firft brought it in, the Devil. The Devil
** therefore was that very Serpciit, who tcmpt-
" ed Eve ; that enemy who lowed thefc tares,
" which have overfprcad the world [j].'*
[q\ Page 22.
U 2 Here
o
o5 \Jn Kx AM IN AT 1 ON of the
Here wc fee how many great and important
dodrines have lain dormant in this Parable, for
feventeen hundred years pafl, and would have
lain fo probably for ever, if his Lordlhip's pene-
tration had not difcovered them ; who has now
at' laft fhewn ; that the origin of evil, of all
quseftions, as he fays, the mofi ahjlrufe, and the
farthcji removed from our reach, is exprefsly
taught and explaned by it : that the firft pro-
phecy alfo in the world, delivered to our firft
Parents, in the curfe upon the Serpent, is clear-
ly made out and exemplified by it -, and Chri-
flianity, in fhort, proved to be as old as the crea-
Jion,
But how much foever he may plume himfelf
•.upon this difcovery, it is certain that nothing
was ever more ftrained, confufed and foreign to
the real fenfe of the Parable, than the expofi-
tion, which he has given to it. He firfl fup-
pofes our Lord to be here difculTmg the great
point of the introdu^ion of evil into the world ;
and having laid down this fuppofition, without
any authority from the text, he treats it imme-
diately as an allowed fadl, and converts it into
an argument : for our Lord, fays he, could not
he ignorant of the flory of the fall, when he was
accounting for the beginning of evil : from which
premifes he draws this extraordinary conclufion ;
the Devil therefore was that very Serpent, who
tempted Eve.
Our
BiJJiop ^/ L o N D k's Discourses. 309
Our Lord tells us, as the Bifhop affirms,
that the Devil was the Jirjl bringer in of Evil :
if fo, he not only enters into the qunsftion, but
goes to the bottom of it at once : Yet we arc at
a lofs all the while, to know, where it is, that
our Lord tells us fo : for it is certain, that in
this Parable, he fays not a fyllable about it.
The whole, which he here intimates, is, that
there is a wicked invifible fpirit fubfifting in
the world, who, by the agency of his children,
or corrupt feed, makes it his bufinefs, to ob-
ftrud: the progrefs of the Gofpel, and the hap-
pinefs propofed by it to mankind : but how
that wicked one was himfelf introduced, and
how he became indued with a nature and power
utterly oppofite and hoftilc to the divine nature,
is a myftery, not yet revealed to us, either by
the Old, or the New Tcftament.
From the fame premifes. His Lordfliip draws
another conclufion of the fame kind, and fays •,
" our Lord in this Parable, had undoubtedly
*' alfo in his view, that part of the Prophecy,
" delivered by God at the Fall, in thefe words,
*' I will put enmity between thee and the woman y
' ' and between thy feed and her feed -, itfhall bruifs
" thy heady and thou fh alt bruife his heel. For^
" as our Lord has cxprefsly told us, that the
" enemy, who brought evil into the world,
" was the Devil, he has as clearly, if attended,
♦' to, told us, that the reftorer of rightcoufnefs
V 3 ^ "'* was
^lo Jn En AM IK AT I on of the
" was that very feed, promifed to the woman,
" who was to bruife the Serpent's head [r]."
As to the cafe of the prophecy here referred
to, fuppofed to be myftically couched in the
curfe upon the Serpent, enough has aheady
been faid in the Bifhop's Diicourfes, and the
Examination of them : and what His Lordfhip
has here added, in this Appendix, is but a rem-
nant, as it were, of the fame flimfy fluff; a
a fine-fpun webb of fantaftical whims, and pre-
carious fuppofitions, worked up together into
fome refemblance of arguments, whence many
furprizing and recondite inferences are occa-
fionally deduced by him ; all which I fhall leave
for the prefcnt to the contemplation of the rea-
' der ; who will hardly want a monitor, to point
out the ridicule of them ; nor will I make any
refleftion on a fecond Prophecy, which he has
fmce difcovered and explaned here at large with
his ufual acutenefs ; the bare recital of it, with
a fliort fketch of his reafoning upon it, wiU be
fufficient for my purpofe.
The prophecy is this; Banjhall he a Serpent
hy the way^ an adder in the pathy that hitetb the
Horfe's heeh^ Jo that the rider Jljallfall backwards »
I have waited for thy falvation, O Lord! This
fecond prophecy is fo like^ he fays, to the firji^
in language and idea^ that comparing the fwo toge^
ther^ may reflet light upon each. And in order
to ftrike out this light, he tells ns, " that the
[r] Page 23.
5 <* houfe
Biftjop i?/LoNDON*s Discourses. ^^i
** hoiife of Dan were the Temptors and ring-
" leaders in idolatry to all the other tribes of
" Jfrael: wherefore fuppofing this to be the
" view before the prophet's eyes, he then
*' fhews, that, as the firft Temptor deferved
" the name of a Serpent for drawing Adam and
" Eve from their obedience to the original law,
" fo this fccond Temptor and feducer, Ban^
" deferved no Icfs to be called a Serpent and
" biter of heels, fordrawingthe people of i/r^f/
" from their obedience to the divine law: for
** if the mifchiefs brought upon the race of
" AdajTi, were juftly reprefented by the Ser-
*' pent's hruifing the heel of the vjoman^s feed^ did
" not the mifchiefs brought upon the houfe of
" Ifrael by the idolatry of Tian^ deferve to ht
" painted in colours of the fame kind [j]?**
Then as to the hope of falvation intimated in
this prophecy, " it manifeltly relates, he lays,
" to the mifchief wrought by a Serpent biting
" the heels,'* fo that by being confidered in
this light;, it affords a very ancient evidence of
the expcdlation of a deliverance from the curlii
of the Fall. And fo the fimilitude and relation
between the two prophecies being thus demon-
ftrated, " and all thefe circumltances laid to-
** gcther, he declares it impoflible, to imagine
** any falvation, that can anfwer to thefe ideas,
♦* but that onely, which arofc from the pro-
*' mife, that the feed of the 'â– Ji^oman fiouJd bruijc
" the Serpent's head [/"]."
[;] Page 42, i^c [/] Page 47.
U 4 . There
3 1 i ^» E X A M r N A T I O N
There are many other notable difcoverles,
and obfervations, fcattered through this Appen-
dix, which I have omitted to take notice of,
for fear of being tedious ; but left the reader
fhould think himfelf too great a fufferer by my
indolence, I will entertain him here with one or
two, as a fpecimen of the reft.
His Lordftiip obferves ; " that it is the pre-
" rogative of the man, to be the head of the
" woman-, but this fuperiority is not conveyed
" to him by exprefs grant or conceflion, but
** the fubjeftion is laid on the woman as a pen-
" alty, in the fentence pronounced upon her
" by God. And it is from this penalty that
" man's fuperiority, is left to be colledled by
" us [u]'* So that unlefs we admit his hypo-
thecs, and take the account of the Fall for a
real hiftory, this prerogative of man muft be
deemed a mere tyranny and ufurpation, as hav-
ing no other plea or title, but from that pun-
iftiment inflifted on Eve, by which Ihe was made
fubjeft to the rule of her hufhand. Yet His
Lordftiip might have feen, that the fame hiftory,
whether taken literally or allegorically, had
given a clear fuperiority to man, even previous
to the Fall, by the priority of his creation, and
the formation of the woman out of his rib \ on
which St. Paul particularly .grounds it, where
[«] Page 41, 42.
5//^o/) c/ London's Discourses. 313
he fays, that the head of the woman is man-, for
the man was not of the woman, but the woman of
the man: neither was the man created for the wo-
man, but the woman for the man \w\.
But man has Hill a furer title to this prero-
gative, than either Mofes, or the Apoftles could
give him, derived from his very nature, and
confirmed by the experience of all mankind :
I mean that fuperiority of force, and bodily
ftrength, which diflinguifhes the male, from
the female fex, and neceflarily conveyes a fu-
periority of power to the ftronger over the wea-
ker. And thus this groundlefs conceit, inftead
of confirming the Bifhop's expofition, tends
rather to confute it, and fliews, from this very
circumftance, that the account of the Fall could
not be an hillorical defcription of a real fad,
but the mere effed of fancy, attempting, by
way of fable or allegory, to reprefent the un-
happy ftate to which the man and the woman
had reduced themfelves by a wilful defection
from the original purity and innocence of their
nature.
There is another obfervation ftill remaining>
on the fubjecl of that firfl Prophecy, faid to be
contained in the fentence upon the Serpent, with
which His Lordfhip concludes his Appendix,
%xidi I alfo (hall put an end to my prefent Ani«
\yS\ I Cor, xi. 3, 8, 9.
madverfion^
214 \An 'Ex A M I n h r 1 o -ij of the
madverfions. He obferves, " that the lan-
*' guage of that prophecy, reprefenting the
«' vidory of the woman's feed, by hruifing the
" Serpent'' s head, and the known ufe and appli-
" cation of it in Scripture to the promifed feed,
*5 will help us to account for one of the arts,
'* made ufe of by the Temptor when he made
" his trial upon our Saviour :" which he il-
iuftrates in the foUov/ing manner.
" The Temptor, fays he, planely wanted to
" know, whether Jefus was the Son of God,
" that perfon expedled to come, and with
" whom he well knew, what concern he had.
" In order to know this, he tries whether our
*' Lord would own his charadier, by afTuming
" the power belonging to it — if thou be the So7t
" of God, caji thyfelf down, for it is written. He
" fhall give his Angels charge concerning thee,
*' and in their hands they fhall bear thee up, lefi
*' at any time thou dafh thy foot againji a ft one.
" Thefe words are taken from the xcift Pfalm,
*' ver. II, 12: and confidered in themfelves
*' contain, in figurative language, a promi»fe
" of God's providence and care over that per-
*' fon to whom they are addrefled ; and might
" be applied with great propriety to David
*' himfelf, or to any other good perfon, efpe-
" cially regarded by God. How came the
" Temptor then, to confider thefe words, as
" belonging only to him, who was to be the
♦' Son of God? From the words themfelves he
" could
5i/7jo/> ^/ London's Discourses. ^15
" could not colleft this j but there was another
" character in the very next vcrfe, and bclong-
" ing to the fame perfon, which he could not
" millakei for this perfon, over whom tl>e
" Ano-els were tp have charge, was lo tread
*' upn the Lion and Adder ^ and the young Lion
** and the Dragon to trample under his feet. He
" knew by this mark, to whom this whole
" prophecy belonged •, he could not forget,
" who was to bruife his head, and though he
" avoided to a(k our Lord direc5lly, whether
*' he was that perfon, who was to bruife his
" head, yet he did the fame thing covertly,
" by trying whether another part ot the fame
** prophecy would be owned by him, as be-
" longing to himfelf [a^]."
Here again we are amufed with a fine ftory,
in which his Lordfliip, by a wonderful pene-
tration, lays open to our view the craft and
hidden wiles of Satan, by which he hoped to
intrap our Lord, and draw the fecret of his
Mefliahfliip out of him: where, though he
treats the temptation of Chrift, in the fame
manner with the temptation of Eve^ as a fad
hiftorically related j yet the Learned have ever
been puzzled how to interpret it, and there
were fome, as Crotius intimates [;-], both of the
[y'\ Qus omnia co libentius noto, ne quis cum vctcrir
bus quibufdam, novifquc exillimct, qux hie narranturt
Chriiio non vtrcj feu wt'i (p«>Wia> accidiilc. Grot, in Matt.-
iv, \,
f.n:;ent$
5 1 6 j4n "E X A M I fi A r I o N of ibe
ancients and moderns, who took the whole to have
been reprefented onely to the fancy of Chriji, as in
a dream, or vifion. Be that however as it will,
I have no defign to difpute it's reality, but
ihall only afk his Lordlhip, how he can think
it probable, that the Devil, who appears, from
this very ftory, to have been perfeflly ac-
quainted with the writings of the Old Tefta-
ment, could be ignorant of the characfler of
Jefiis, whofe perfon was marked out fo evident-
ly, through a long fuccefilon of ages, by Mofes
end all the Prophets, that many of the Jews were
able to difcover and acknowledge him, as foon
almoft as he appeared ? Dr. Lightfoot, in his
comment on this fame ftory, fays, ftnce the
Devil zvas always a mojl impudent Spirit, he now
takes upon him a more hardened boldnefs than ever ;
even of waging war with him, whom he knows to
be the Son of God [z].
But how probable foever his Lordfhip may
take his conceit of SatarCs ignorance to be, it
happens very unluckily for him, that it is ut-
terly confuted by the repeated teftimonies of the
Evangelifts, who, in feveral different places,
exprefly affirm, that the Devils, whom Jefus
every where caft out, ufed to profefs, and pro-
claim aloud their knowledge of him, as the
Meffiah or Son of God, fent on purpofe to de-
ftroy them and their works. Their conftant
[js] Vol. II. p. 129. in Matt. iv. i.
cry
57/?;c»/> c/ London's Discourses. yi'j
cry was j JVhat have ive to do with thee, thou
Jcfus of Nazareth ? art thou come to deftroy us ?
we know thee, who thou art : the Son of God moft
high, or the Holy one of God [^]. So that Jefus,
as we are likewife told, would not fuffer them to
fpeak on fome occafions, becaufe thg knew him
to be the Chriji [^b\ How is it credible then,
that, when every inferior Devil •, and even the
whole Legion of them, whom Jefus caft out at
once, fhould all know his true character, yet
Satan himfelf, the Prince and Leader of them
all, fhould alone be ignorant of it and unable
to difcover him •, efpecially, when Jefus had
been openly declared to be the Son of God by a
miraculous voice from heaven, immediately be-
fore the time of this very temptation [<:] ?
In the laft paragraph of this Appendix, to
which we are now arrived, his Lordfhip puts
us in mind, how the firft and noxious part of
of this prophecy at the Fall, is fo evidently ful-
filled by the dominion of fm and death, through
all ages of the world, as to want no other proof
of it's completion. The heel of the feed of the
woman, fays he, has been, and will continue to
be fufficiently bruifed, till death, the lajl enemy,
fball he dejlroyed. But the fecond and healing
part of the fame prophecy, which implies a pro-
mife of victory by bruifing the Serpent's head, is
not to be accomplifhed till the day of judgment.
[«] Mark i. 24. [^] Luke iv. 41.
\c\ Mark j. 1 1 .
'^hen^
3 r 8 An 'E% A M m AT 10 N of thi
Then, fays he, Jball the Dragon, that old Serpent,
which is the Devil and Satan, be faji bound, and
cafi into the lake of fire and brimftone. Then fluall
the lofs of the Fall be repaired, Paradife be re-
Jiored, and the Tree of life fhall yield it's fruit a~
gain, a'rid the leaves thereof be for a fhelter and
healing to the nations.
And thus the benefit of this fuppofed pro-
phecy feems to evaporate at lall into air. It
was given, as we have conftantly been told by
him, to adminifter comfort to man, under all
the evils and diftrefles, in which his enemy, the
Devil, had involved him. Strange comfort, to
an inhabitant of this world, which could not be
felt or underftood, till the world itfelf ihould be
"no m.ore ! And a ilrange fort of viftory, which
left the Devil ftill infulting, as the Billiop ex-
prefTes it, in all the forms of violence, fraud, ini-
quity, dijlefnpers without number, and miferies too
many, too affeSling to be defcribed. A vicflory
which was not to take place, till the enemy had
fcattered every plague, and wrought every evil
upon this earth, which his malice could contrive
or his power effed;.
It is remarkable alfo, that after all his Lord-
fhip*s pains to alTert the hiftorical character of
the Mofaic account of the Fall, he is carried at
laft inadvertently and by the very nature of liis
,fubje6l to turn it, as it were, into an allegory \
telling us here in the conclufion, that the Para
dife.
Bijhop of London's Discourses. 319
dife, which man had forfeited on earth, would
be repaired and reftored to him in heaven ; and
the Tree of life^ which he was not fufFered to
tall in this worJd, would yield it* s fruit again in
the next ^ andfpread it*s leaves for a ftjelter and
healing to all nations.
But fince he has referred us after all, for the
completion of this prophecy, to the day of
judgement ; I fhall willingly adjourn all farther
difputes about it to the fame day. It is that day
alone, which can determine the real charadler,
not onely of this, but of all other pretended
prophecies, infpirations, and revelations of the
will of God i which now chiefly occupy the at-
tention, and conftitute the religion of all the
nations upon earth. And happy would it be
for them all, if dropping thofe vain contefls and
wijanglings about quieftions, wholly fpecula-
tive, fruitlefs and inexplicable ; and remitting
the decifion of them to that laft and awful day,
men would apply their pains and zeal, to pro-
mote and inculcate thofe pradical, fecial and
real duties, which our reafon and fenfes prefcribe
in common to all, as the chief good of our na-
ture i the foundation of all religion \ the fource
of all our happinefs in this life, and of all our
hopes in that which is to come.
A DIS-
DISSERTATION
Concerning the
ORIGIN
O F
Printing in England.
SHEWING,
That It was firft Introduced and Praftifed
by our Countryman
WILLIAM CAXTON, at Wejlminfier;
And not, as is commonly believed, by a Foreign
Printer at Oxford:
Inventas ant qui vltam excciuere p^r art£S ;
pulque fui nurnores alios fecere rnnendo j
Omnibus his nhca cln^untur tempera vltta.
ViRG.
Vol. V. X
[ 3^3 ]
DISSERTATION
Concerning the
ORIGIN
O F
Printing in England.
IT was a conRant Opinion delivered down
by our Hiftorians, That the Art of Print-
ing was introduced andfirji pra^ifed in Eng-
land ^^ William Caxton, z. Mercer and Citizen
of London ; who by his Travels abroad, and a
Refidence o^ many years in Hollatid, Flanders^
and Germany^ in the affairs of Trade, had an
opportunity of informing himfelf of the whole
Method and Procefs of the Art-, and by the
Encouragement of the Great, and particularly
of the Abbot o'i JVeJlminJler^ firft fet up a Prefs
'in that Abby, and began to print Books foon
Hifter the year mcccclxxi.
X 2 This
324 -^ DiJJertaiion concerning the
This was the Tradition of our Writers ; till .
a book, which had fcarce been obferved before
the Reftoration, was then taken notice of by
the Curious, with a Date of it's ImprefTion frorn
Oxford^ anno mcccclxviii, and was confidered
immediately as a clear proof and monument of
the exercife of Printing in that Univerficy, feve-
ral years before Caxton began to deal in it.
The Book, which is in our public Library,
is a fmall Volume of forty-one Leaves in
Quarto, with this title : Expoficio San^i Jeronimi
in Simbolum Apojlolorum ad Papam Laurentium :
and at the end, Explicit expoficio^ &c. Jmprejfa
Oxonie, (^ finita Anno Domini M.cccc.Lxvin,
XVII die Decembris.
The appearance of this Book has robbed
Caxton of a Glory that he had long pofrefTed,
of being the Author of Printing to this King-
dom, and Oxford ever fince carried the Honour
of the firft Prefs. The only difficulty was, to
account for the filence of Hiftory in an Event
fo memorable, and the want of any Memorial
in the Univerfity itfelf, concerning the Eftab-
lifhment of a new Art amongft them, of fuch
ufe and benefit to Learning. But this likewife
has been cleared up, by the difcovery of a Re-
cord, which had lain obfcure and unknown at
Lambeth-Houfe, in the Regifler of the See of
Canterbury^ and gives a Narrative of the whole
tranfaftion, drawn up at the very time.
An
Origin
An account of this Record was firft publifh-
td m a thin Qliarto Volume, in Englijh\ with
this Title, 'The Original and Growth of Printing,
colle^ed out of Hiflory and the Records of this
Kingdom : wherein is alfo demcnflrated^ that
Printing appertaineth to the Prerogative Royal,
and is a Flower of the Crown of England. By
Richard Atkyns, Efq ; London 1 664.
It fets forth in fhort, That as foon as the Art
nf Printing made fome noife in Europe, Thorn ait
Bourchier, Archbifhop of Canterbury, moved
King Henry VI. to ufe allpojfihle means to procure
it to be brought into England : The King approV'
ing the Propofal, difpatched one Mr. Robert
Turnour, an Officer of the Robes, into Flanders^
furnifhed with money for the purpofe -, who took to
his AJJiJiance William Caxton, a Man of Abi^
lities, and knowledge of the Country j and thefe two
found means to bribe and entice over into England
ene Frederick Corfellis, an Under-workman in the
Printing-Houfe at Harlem, where John Guttem-
berg had lately invented the Art, and was then
perfonally at work : which Corfellis was immedi-
ately fent down to Oxford under a Guard, to pre-
vent his efcape, and to oblige him to the performance
of his Contrail •, where he produced the Piece
above-mentioned, but without any name of
Printer. Thofe who have not the opportunity
of confulting Atkins's Book, which is not com-
mon, may find the ftory more at large in Mr.
X 3 Maittarie's
•;j^26 A Bifertatiott concerning the
Maittaire's Annals, or Palmer's Hiftoty of
Printing, C^c.
From the Authority of this Record, all our
later Writers declare Corfellis to be the firft
Printer in England-, Mr. Anthony Wood, the
learned Mr. Maittaire, Palmer, and one Bag-
ford, an induftrious Man, who had publifhed
Propofals for an Hifiory of Printing, and whofe
manufcript Papers were communicated to me
by my worthy and learned Friend Mr. Baker :
But it is ftrange that a Piece fo fabulous, and
carrying fuch evident marks of Forgery could
impofe upon men fo knowing and inquifitive.
For firjl; the Fa£t Is laid quite wrong as to
Time -, near the end of Henry the Sixth's Reign,
in the very heat of the Civil Wars ; when it is
not credible that a Prince, ftruggling for Life
as well as his Crown, fhould have leifure or
difpofition to attend to a Projeft that could
hardly be thought of, much lefs e^tecuted, in
times of fuch calamity. The Printer, it is faid*
was gracioufly received by the King, made cne of
his fworn Servants and fent down to Oxford with
a Guard, &c. all which mufb have pafled be-
fore the year 1459 • ^^"^ Edward IV, was pro-
claimed in London, in the end of it, according-
to our computation, on the 4th of March, and