The Self-Plumed Bishop Unplumed A Reply to the Profound Erudition of the Self-Named Hugh Latimer, in His Doctrine of Endless Punishment Asserted — A Reader’s Guide

Transcribed from the [1828] T. Tippell edition by David Price, email [email protected]

[Picture: Public domain book cover]

THE SELF-PLUMED BISHOP UNPLUMED.

PROFOUND ERUDITION OF THE SELF-NAMED

DOCTRINE OF ENDLESS PUNISHMENT ASSERTED,

MINISTER AT BRAMFIELD, SUFFOLK.

“Let us candidly admit where we cannot refute, calmly reply where we cannot admit, and leave anger to the vanquished, and imputation of bad motives to those who are deficient in good argument.” REV. W. J. FOX.

“Illi sæviant in vos, qui nesciunt quo cum labore verum inveniatur, et quam difficile caveantur errores. Illi in vos sæviant, qui nesciunt quam rarum et arduum sit, carnalia phantasmata piæ mentis serenitate superare. Illi in vos sæviant, qui nesciunt quantis gemitibus et suspiriis fiat, ut quantulacunque parte possit intelligi Deus. Postremo, illi in vos sæviant, qui nullo tali errore decepti sunt, quali vos deceptos vident.” ST. AUGUSTINE.

HALESWORTH: PRINTED AND SOLD BY T. TIPPELL; SOLD ALSO BY MESSRS. TEULON AND FOX, 67, WHITE-CHAPEL.

IN the various tracts that I have presented to the public, as well as at the conclusion of my lectures and appendix, I have earnestly requested any one who deemed himself competent to the task, to refute and expose my errors publicly from the press. W. W. Horne was the first who made an attempt to prop up the tottering cause of orthodoxy, and re-build the Idol Temple; and how much this attempt met the approbation of the orthodox, may be gathered from the fact, that they would not permit his performance to see daylight in these parts!!! The person more immediately concerned to reply to my lectures and appendix, has contented himself, and satisfied his friends, with warning young people to be upon their guard against that bare-faced infidelity that dares to shew its hateful crest in open daylight; and by assuring them in one concise sentence, “that if they are saved it will be for ever and ever, and if they are lost it will be for ever and ever; and if they depend on having been sincere and morally honest, or on repentance and reformation of conduct, (though both he says are necessary), their hopes will prove totally fallacious and groundless, and will deceive their souls in the end, and they must sink into the frightful regions of despair, and become companions of those who must for ever weep, wail, and gnash their teeth, without any diminution of their sufferings or deliverance from them.” This is doing business with dispatch. Yet, I have never imagined, that any one would suppose that a note in a funeral sermon was a proper reply to my book, and therefore I have been waiting in expectation of hearing from some other quarter, so that I am neither surprised nor disappointed at being attacked by some one under the _nom de guerre_ {3} of Hugh Latimer: nor am I at all surprised that the old bishop’s ghost, which has been conjured up on the occasion, should act so perfectly in _esprit de corps_, {4a} or so directly _contra bonos mores_; {4b} for this has ever been the spirit and temper of the whole body, that what they were deficient in truth and sober argument, they have abundantly made up by scurrility and vituperation. But since Hugh Latimer, who stalks forth _incognito_, {4c} whoever he is in _propria persona_, {4d} whether English, Irish, Scotch, or Welch, is to me a matter of small importance. I have nothing to do with the man, but with his evangelical matter: yet, I may be curious to ask, why such _homo multarum literarum_, {4e} as he affects to be, should be ashamed of his own name; especially to such a _chef d’œuvre_ {4f} as his performance appears to be. Probably, in the course of his extensive research into antiquity, he has discovered a striking similarity between the coarse sternness of the old bishop’s spirit and language and his own, and may think himself qualified for such an office; and he may perhaps have learned that as King Harry obtained from the Pope the title of Defender of the Faith, for writing in defence of popery, so Horsley, Magee, and others have been rewarded with mitres for writing against Socinians and Infidels; and, like the supplanter of old, he may wish to obtain the blessing, and rear his mitred front in parliament by wrapping himself in another person’s coat. Yet, blind as we are, we can discover, that although the voice is Jacob’s voice, the hands and the heart are those of Esau. But I shall leave all _gens de l’eglise_ {4g} to scramble for bishoprics and mitres as they please, and attend to the author who styles himself Hugh Latimer, and who deigns to bestow his favors upon me.