Stillingfleet, Edward (1635-1699)

The Bishop of Worcester's Answer to Mr. Locke's Second Letter

London

Printed by J.H. for Henry Mortlock

1698

"I was apt to think the best way were, to let Nature spend it self; and although those who write out of their own Thoughts do it with as much Ease and Pleasure as a Spider spins his Web; yet the World soon grows weary of Controversies, especially when they are about Personal Matters."

I Was not a little surpriz'd at the length of your Second Letter, considering the shortness of the Answer contained in it: But it put me in mind of the Springs of Modená mention'd by Ramazzini, which rise up with such a plenty of Water upon opening a Passage, that the Undertaker is afraid of being overwhelm'd by it. I see how dangerous it is to give occasion to a Person of such a fruitfull Invention to write; for Letters become Books, and small Books will soon rise to great Volumes, if no way be found to give a Check to such an Ebullition of Thoughts, as some Men find within themselves. I was apt to think the best way were, to let Nature spend it self; and although those who write out of their own Thoughts do it with as much Ease and Pleasure as a Spider spins his Web; yet the World soon grows weary of Controversies, especially when they are about Personal Matters: Which made me wonder that one who understands the World so well, should spend above fifty Pages of a Letter in renewing and enlarging a Complaint wholly concerning himself. Suppose I had born a little too hard upon you in joyning your Words and anothers Intentions together; had it not been an easie and effectual way of clearing your self, to have declared to the World, that you owned the Doctrine of the Trinity, as it hath been Received in the Christian Church, and is by ours in the Creeds and Articles of Religion? This had stopt the Mouths of the Clamorous, and had removed the Suspicions of the Doubtfull, and would have given full Satisfaction to all reasonable Men. But when you so carefully avoid doing this, all other Arts and Evasions do but leave the Matter more suspicious among the most Intelligent and Impartial Readers. This I mention, not that you need be afraid of the Inquisition, or that I intend to charge you with Heresie in denying the Trinity; but my present Design is to shew, That your Mind is so intangled and set fast by your Notion of Ideas, that you know not what to make of the Doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation; because you can have no Idea of One Nature and three Persons, nor of two Natures and one Person; as will fully appear afterwards. And therefore, out of regard to Publick Service, in order to the preventing a growing Mischief, I shall endeavour to lay open the ill Consequences of your Way of Ideas with respect to the Articles of the Christian Faith.
(pp. 3-5)

Animals::Spider::Web

Reading Irvin Ehrenpreis, Swift: The Man, His Works, and the Age, 2 vols. (1962, reprinted Harvard UP, 1983), I, 234.

Edward Stillingfleet, The Bishop of Worcester's Answer to Mr. Locke's Second Letter Wherein his Notion of Ideas is Prov'd to be Inconsistent with Itself, and with the Articles of the Christian Faith. (London: Printed by J.H. for Henry Mortlock, 1698). <Link to EEBO-TCP>.

05/11/2012