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"Eam, quam nihil accusas, damnas." A man would say condemnas if he wished to avoid making a verse. "Bene quam meritam esse autumas, dicis male mereri. Id, quod scis, prodest nihil; id, quod nescis, obest." The very relation of the contrary effects makes a verse that would be harmonious in a narration. "Quod scis, nihil prodest; quod nescis, multum obest."
Wherefore he doth now recede not only from defending his thesis, but from applying it against the power of presbyteries. And so far we are agreed. I having confuted his argument grounded on Psal. xxxiii. 15; Prov. xxvii. 19, he shifteth the vindication of it, and still tells me he grounded no argument on those places, but spake “by way of allusion,” Male Dicis, p. 6. Now let the reader judge.
Whether he be given to dwell personally in us, or by his gracious operations only, is another question, which hath nothing to do with the present argument, and therefore I will not be led out of my way. Eleventhly, The eleventh heterodoxy is this: “I see no absurdity to hold that every man in authority is either Christ’s vicegerent, or the devil’s.” Male Dicis, p. 16.
The reverend brother had cited Rom. xiii. 4, to prove that the corrective part of church government belongs to the Christian magistrate. And now he brings in my reply thus: that I said he abuseth the place, “Because spiritual censures belong not to the civil magistrate;” which, saith he, begs the question, Male Dicis, p. 7. I replied no such thing upon this argument. Look at my words again.
Nil mihi das das vivus: dicis, post; fata daturum. Si non es stultus, scis, Maro, quid cupiam. MART. Lib. xi. 67. You've told me, Maro, whilst you live, You'd not a single penny give, But that whene'er you chance to die. You'd leave a handsome legacy: You must be mad beyond redress, If my next wish you cannot guess.
His reply now is thus: “Is not the allegation of the examples of the like doing a justification of the act done?” Male Dicis, p. 20. I am persuaded this one particular, his joining with the Arminians in their exceptions against the Synod of Dort, would make all the reformed churches, if they could all speak to him uno ore, to cry Male audis.
I having charged Mr Coleman’s doctrine with this consequence, “That there ought to be neither suspension from the sacrament, nor excommunication, nor ordination, nor deposition of ministers, nor receiving of appeals, except all these things be done by the civil magistrate,” which things, I said, “are most of them corrective, and all of them more than doctrinal,”—instead of making answer, the reverend brother expresseth the error, which I objected to him, thus: “That here are no church censures,” which is the quæsitum, saith he, Male Dicis, p. 10.
He answereth now, in his Male Dicis, p. 4, “I deny an institution; I assent to prudence; Where is the self-contradiction now?” and, p. 5, “The advice looks to jus divinum; the Parliament votes to prudence.” Sir, you have spoken evil for yourself; you have made the self-contradiction worse.
Irritated by the castigation he had received, Coleman published a bitter reply, to which he gave the somewhat unintelligible title of “Male Dicis Maledicis,”—intending, probably, to insinuate that Gillespie’s answer was of a railing character.
Mr Coleman, without taking the least notice of that which I did purposely and plainly premise, begins to speak of God essentially; and that if something may be given to Christ as God, then something may be given to God, and then God is not absolutely perfect, &c., Male Dicis, p. 13, 14.
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