TO THE READER

As these Notes were communicated to me purely for my own Use, so had I never the least Intention of making ‘em publick: But finding what various Opinions are entertain’d of the Authors, and Misrepresentations of the Work to which they belong, insomuch that Mr. Wotton has added to his Reflections upon Learning some severe Remarks, in which he represents the Book as a design’d Satyr upon the Church of England, and even to ridicule the Doctrine of the Trinity; upon which score these Papers now appear, plainly to demonstrate, that the true Intent and Aim of the Authors was not to ridicule all Religion, but to assert and defend the Purity of our Church's Doctrine, whichMr. Wotton and his Party would insinuate they have aspers’d, and to display the Innovations of Rome and Fanatical Hypocrisy in their proper Colours.

SOME ANNOTATIONS AND EXPLANATORY NOTES UPON THE TALE OF A TUB

The Occasion of Writing it

A Preface of the Bookseller to the Reader before∗ the Battle of the Books shews the Cause and Design of the whole Work, which was perform’d by† a couple of young Clergymen in the Year 1697, who having been Domestick Chaplains to Sir William Temple, thought themselves oblig’d to take up his Quarrel in Relation to the Controversy then in Dispute between him and Mr. Wotton concerning Ancient and Modern Learning.

The‡ one of ‘em began a Defence of Sir William under the Title of A Tale of a Tub, under which he intended to couch the General History of Christianity; shewing the Rise of all the Remarkable Errors of the Roman Church in the same order they enter’d, and how the Reformation endeavour’d to root ‘em out again, with the different Temper of Luther from Calvin (and those more violent Spirits) in the way of his Reforming: His aim is to Ridicule the stubborn Errors of the Romish Church, and the Humours of the Fanatick Party, and to shew that their Superstition has somewhat very fantastical in it, which is common to both of ‘em, notwithstanding the Abhorrence they seem to have for one another.