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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43841	Fasciculus literarium, or, Letters on several occasions I. Betwixt Mr. Baxter, and the author of the Perswasive to conformity, wherein many things are discussed, which are repeated in Mr. Baxters late plea for the nonconformists, II. A letter to an Oxford friend, concerning the indulgence Anno 1671/2, III. A letter from a minister in a country to a minister in London, IV. An epistle written in Latin to the Triers before the Kings most happy restauration / by John Hinckley ...	Hinckley, John, 1617?-1695.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1680 (1680)	Wing H2046; ESTC R20043	157,608	354

Fasciculus Literarum OR LETTERS ON Several Occasions I. Betwixt Mr. Baxter and the Author of the Perswasive to Conformity Wherein many things are discussed which are repeated in Mr. Baxters late Plea for the Nonconformists II. A Letter to an Oxford Friend concerning the Indulgence Anno 1671 2. III. A Letter from a Minister in the Country to a Minister in London IV. An Epistle written in Latin to the Triers before the Kings most happy Restauration By JOHN HINCKLEY D. D. Rector of Northfeild in Worcester-shire LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset at the George near St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street MDCLXXX THE PREFACE THe Sun has run its course nine times through the Zodiack since these Papers passed betwixt Mr. Baxter and my self He was pleased to be the Aggressor and he also sounded the Retreat far be it from me to invite and Re-assume such grinning trouble I shall ever imbrace my own rest and quiet in making a Golden Bridge for such an impetuous Adversary laying hold on any generous overture whereby I may both save my credit and my pains that I may the better pursue without distraction my calmer and more profitable Studies I had indeed given him some fraternal advice in order to the peace of the Church But his restless and distemper'd Stomach turn'd this wholesome Dose into Foam and Choler He made himself ready for War And presently snatches up his angry Pen made of a Porcupines Quil to gore me for my Charity As if it had been provocation enough to presume to see one inch farther than his Eyes could reach or once to suppose that his daring Judgment could any way stag or warp with errour and fallibility so as to need advice and counsel Hence it is that his Strain is lofty and Magisterial Had another let fall one drop of such corroding Vitriol he must immediately have 〈◊〉 that he dealt in proud wrath So that it is not the least thing observable in these Papers we may divine of what spirit these Men are of and with what Scorpions we had smarted if Providence had not delivered us from such Aegyptian tyrannical Task-masters Herein indeed they are like to the Disciples of Christ when their dark side was towards us they are still aspiring to be greatest and ready to call down Fire from Heaven upon those that stand in their way I hope that I have not requited him with his scornful and slighting Rhetorick Better to fall short in answering his Arguments and remain in his debt than pay him in his own Coin and strive who shall be the proudest sinner I have not so learn'd Christ to revile when I 〈◊〉 revil'd Such a Conquest deserves no Tri●●h Nay he that overcomes in this Amphi●●●ter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo Judaeus is in a worse condition than he that gets the mastery He is the greater and more forlorn Captive He deserves no other Garland than one made of Nettles and Hemlock He merits little better that makes a loud profession of Christ seems to ingross Religion and monopolize all Piety yet neither shews Meekness Humilty Self-denial Obedience Love or any other Christian Grace in his Life pretending more than ordinary kindness to the Husband yet rending and mangling his Spouse the Church into more parts than the Levite did his Concubine With the Heretical Crow so Prosper calls that ravenous Bird they run out of the Ark and will not return they leave it desolate and their deluded Hearts feed upon Carkasses those Inventions that float upon the Surges of their own Brains For never were Men more guilty of what they condemn in others They declaim against Innovations Superstition and Will-worship And yet their own darling-discipline with the whole Compages of their affected Devotions especially as to the manner of them is little else but a Cento and Miscellany of the same As singular as their looks garb and utteranee What poor Sacrifices are these to Atone a most wise and heart-searching God to win upon and ingage the Judgments of such Men as know that a reasonable Service is required at their hands The more united we are in Gods Worship the more we throng and flock together to Gods House the more God will be glorified we comforted and confirmed and the greater awe and terror will be upon our Adversaries These Men have and do make St. Austin's Complaint to be justly ours Epist 147. Husbands and Wives can agree together to lye in the same Bed Parents and Children to live in the same House yet Domum Dei non habent unam they cannot agree to go together to the same Place of Worship We may ask with St. Pauls amazement Is Christ divided A better account must be given of publishing these Papers after they had so long been thrown aside as wast Papers devoted either to Moths or the Oven especially since Mr. Baxter in his last seemed unwilling they should see the Light And I did heartily comply with him It was no small joy that he did supersede his trouble of writing I still wish it may not only be a Truce but a lasting Resolution for he is indefatigable in raising Clouds of polemick dust and makes Books faster than I can read them I do not say this in the words of the Father Decolorare famam to fasten any blot upon his Name but to gratifie and applaud my own happiness in being delivered from so importunate and voluminous an Author 1. Did I stand at his Elbow I would whisper to him That the Issues and Products of his Head would be more lively and masculine if his retentive faculty were more costive and vigorous If he teem'd with the deliberation of the Elephant rather than slip his burden before it come to maturity Those Animals that are most pregnant have the most imperfect Births 2. Had he taken as much pains to edifie and save Souls to teach Men Piety Obedience and Loyalty to press Men to Vnity Peace and mutual Love as he has in making Parties distracting and dividing Mens minds and inflaming the Church and State with his Aetna-Granadoes and Eructations his Name might have been imbalm'd with a fragrant savour in the Ages to come 3. Since he hath told us almost in every Book he hath printed for above twenty years past how infirm he is in his bodily health and that he is daily dropping into his Grave If I durst presume to be his Counsellor I would mind him of spending the remainder of his time in writing Books of Heavenly Devotions that so laying aside the Sword and taking up the Trowel he may make some satisfaction to the Church for those wounds and breaches he hath either made or kept open in her Bowels And also Antidote the Souls whom he hath poisoned with his vexatious Divinity before all the Sands of his Glass be run out and he go hence to give up his Account before an All-seeing and Impartial Judge Though I had escaped thus out of his Talons and there was a kind

I think meet But I wonder and rejoyce that they are so few Had it been about London an usual thing they had heard more of it before now § 10. And for your second Caution it is not you nor I that make those Laws which denominate Duty and Sin And if I would hold it to be no sin in me to lie deliberately and say that I assent and consent to all things in three Books when I do not or to absolve from an Oath many hundred thousands when I never knew in what sense they took it or other such like if I incourage the Laity to conform to the Corporation Declaration that no man is bound by any thing in the Vow no not against Schism Popery nor Prophaness nor to repent of his sins c. Gods Law will never the more justifie any of this for my Conformity to it Nor will he accept of disobedience for a Sacrifice nor needeth my lie or other sin to his Service or Glory But it 's a fine World when fearing sin and no less sin than aforesaid is become the sin and danger of the Church § 11. I will add one observation on this Subject to make up your comparison what those whom I and others of my acquaintance succeeded were not silenced but sequestred for is said before but. I never yet heard of one Non-conformist silenced for Insufficiency or Scandal but for Nonconformity alone Let not your talk and mine but the Laws and Court-Records judge and tell Posterity the Truth But I have known silly Anabaptists and Sectaries whom we never approved received into the Ministry of the Church of England upon their Conformity § 12. You say I am glad you own my quotation out of your Book of Rest c. Answ Alas Sir is not repentance better than hiding slander by palpable untruth I told you truly I never wrote so I never thought so but have proved the contrary at large c. Why did not you cite the words where I say it § 13. You add for a Cover another untruth that I say I have retracted and expunged it in a later Edition not a true word I only said That I had retracted and expunged not only that which you pervert but all the rest from end to end which seemed to savour the late Wars And is it all one to say I expunged what you accuse me of and to say I expunged that which you pervert But you have more learning than we that are strangers to the Universities and therefore can make good one untruth with another and sport your self with the Image of a jumping Deer and a playing Fish so hard is it to convince you of visible sin § 14. You add If you be so rash'in obtruding your immature Notions c. Answ I justifie none of my Juvenile Errors or Crudities But how suitably cometh this from the same Pen that tells me how glorious it would be P. 128. to retract with the great Bishop of Hippo c. And in the same Book not only urgeth but falsifyeth what I did so many years before retract and now again upbraideth me with that which I did retract I know Innocency is best But can any Man think it would please such Men I confess had I never wrote at all I had never wrote any word amiss And had I never preached at all I had never preached word amiss which is the cure used on us now and the innocency of Priests which I have heard some plead for § 15. I neither had nor have any mind to pour Vinegar into the Wound which you lament only when in your Book you tell me of the inconformity of some that grew up under my Shadow Pag. 129. you forgot that you would not be responsible for one Man in your own Family and yet I am chargeable with that which you suppose the fault of I know not who § 16. If your Neighbour and his Wife will swear what you say wonder not that so much scandal was charged by Oath on your sequestred Ministers I tell you again that I was never to my knowledge in your Parish in my life that I never took Horse in my life that I medled not my self with any one at that time that I told you I went out that I never kept or possessed one of them Therefore no Committee could order me to restore them But a Week after another Company as I told you did fetch some from that Parish and were ordered by the Committee to restore some of them which must needs prove your Neighbours mistake No Man to my best remembrance ever came to me with any Order from the Committee for they knew that I was no Officer and kept not a Horse And if he followed me to London it must be at least sixteen years after For I was never at Mr. Foley's House in London till 1660. and the time he speaketh of was 1644. § 17. You say In your late Book you say you medled not with the War till after Naseby Fight Answ Not a true word What should move you to do thus I see Mr. Bagshaw is not the only temerarious Writer I tell you the clean contrary in that Book and only say That I never entered into the Army till after Naseby Fight And is that all one as to say I never medled with the War § 18. The Aphorisms which you called me to retract you thus noted Those especially which are gathered by an Eminent Hand I instanced but in the first which that Eminent Hand had gathered And now this is not one of those that you meant § 19. You say That since Arch-bishop Abbot refused to License Dr. Sybthorpes Book I must suppose him a Presbyterian Answ Yet not a word true I only said Was Arch-bishop Abbot a Presbyterian implying that he was none and so that the prelatists were they that began to offend the King by striving against his Will as I further told you § 20. The inconsequence which you bring in with I must say should have been turned into I did say Did I not recite your own words Doth he not swear to Diocesanes and Lay-Chancellors who sweareth That he will not at any time endeavour any alteration of the Government of the Church which is in their Hands And doth not he endeavour an alteration who Petitioneth the King or Parliament for it Shall we swear universally and say we meant it but particularly § 21 In your description of Presbyterians you talk of pulling down Episcopacy and setting up Presbyterian Government in the Church against the consent of the Supream Magistrate when you were told that it was Episcopacy that the present Non-conformists moved to obtain And I know none of them that take it not for Rebellion to pull down or set up forcibly or by the Sword any thing against the Supream Ruler or without him except only what a Parent or Master may do in his Family on Children with the Rod. § 22. Seeing you cannot deny but

Hooker and tells us That by the Law of Nature Legislation belongeth to the Body and that the King is dependent and subject to the Body and such like And many Divines took up those Opinions and Dr. Ferne and others were against them But what of all this Are not these Controversies in Law and Politicks though handled by Divines § 39. Your next say That Dr. Manton wrote on Jude and note my in-advertency that take no more notice of his Labours And I marvel more than you can do that I never heard of that Book before Nor could hear of it from any one till he told me himself that he had long ago published some Sermons which he preached very young c. on Jude And that I was hereof ignorant I confess § 40. You say of your Citation of Dr. Burges That the Book is in the Hand of a Friend and you add Are you such a Helluo Liborum and yet had you no acquaintance with these Answ I have read I think all Dr. John Burges's Writings except those against Conformity before he turned And I read Dr. Cornelius Burges Book of Baptismal Regeneration about 36 years ago and I after wrote somewhat against it and Dr. Ward and Mr. Bedford on that Subject and since I was familiar with the Author till near his death therefore I believe not that it was John Burges that wrote that Book but suppose you to be much liker to be mistaken than I. And unless Dr. John Burges wrote another Book of the same Subject which I shall also wonder that I never heard of I am as sure you are mistaken as my Eyes and Acquaintance can make me § 41. I told you I knew not one of the Ministers that was not ready to swear that which you feign the Discipline of the Chorus to refuse And you ask me Why then did they flit their Habitations Answ Did I not expresly tell you why and was your disingenuity at leisure to fill your Paper with the recital of an answered Question that you might have opportunity to vent your Latet aliquid And here you begin to dispute the Case Platonically But I cannot perswade my self to dispute it with one that no better understandeth it or careth what he saith only I answer your Questions Q. 1. What was the sum of that Oath was it not plainly and directly against taking up Arms Answ 1. And is that all the Oath or is there not a Clause for our Church-Government 2. If so why is the first Clause the Sum of the whole 3. Or need my Conscience stick at nothing in an Oath but what you will call the Sum O happy quieter of Consciences that fear an Oath Q. 2. Did it any way hinder Parliament Mens speaking or others peaceably petitioning for such reformation as is necessary Answ 1. You shall not draw me to say that an alteration of Diocesanes or Lay-Chancellors is necessary no not ad bene esse Ecclesiae for I know the Law is against it But if I thought so is Petitioning no Endeavouring Say so and shew that you care not what you say to draw down an Oath And must not I swear That I will not any time endeavour any alteration And shall I swear universally against all endeavour and mentally reserve excepting petitioning speaking c. Are Oaths things to be swallowed thus in sport And will wiping my Mouth thus make me innocent Q. 3. Were not those who were commissioned to administer it ready to declare the sense of it Answ 1. Where did the King and Parliament give them power to declare the sense 2. Is it not all the Justices in England that are authorized two at once to administer it And do you know what all the Justices in England are ready to do 3. Are you sure they will all agree in the sense or must we take it in several senses if several Men severally expound it 4. What Law or Divinity teacheth you to take an Oath in the sense of an inferior Magistrate that offereth it you who is not by the Law impowered to interpret it nor is so much as made a Judge of the sense but of my Fact of taking or refusing it If this way be lawful what if a Papist could find a Justice that would expound the Oath of Supremacy for the Pope May he therefore take it Is not the Law-maker the universal Expositor of his own Law except for the Judicial decision of a particular Case which he committeth to his Judges or can a Justice dispense with equivocation in Oaths and not a Pope 5. I was but once yet sent to Goal for refusing that Oath and then I told them that I refused it not but desired the Justices to tell me the sense of it which they refused and said I must take it according to the plain words or importance of the Phrase which is the truth And yet you say Are they not ready c. What wonder if Oaths go smoothly down where there are such Resolvers and it Books revile them that will not swear But here ensueth as confident a Rhetorical Invective against those that scruple this kind of swearing as if Logick first had done its part or at least one word of sense had been spoken to satisfie the Conscience of a Man that would not be stigmatized with PER. And we must swear without any smoother Oyl to get it down than such talk as this or else we must go with you for Men of hot and feavourish Brains But Swearers we find have a Heat of their own kind transcending others Such as your Book and other Mens Actions have declared § 42. I told you If you would put out the other Clauses of the Oath c. you should see how few would stick at that of taking Arms against the King Here you say Why do I lay this on you c. Answ But Sir you might have understood my Inference Why then do you pretend a false Reason of our refusal when we tell you the true Reason If you cannot put out the Clause which we refuse you could forbear to Calumniate us of Traiterous Meanings as if we stuck at another Clause § 43. When I desired the imposing of no other Oaths on us to Prelates or Chancellors than were imposed or used for many hundred years in the Church you tell us That it may be schismatical to stand up too stifly for immediate Dispensations as to the Modes of External Policy c. Answ 1. As some things not commanded in Modes of Church Policy are lawful so some things are unlawful or else you may swear to the Pope as well as to Diocesanes And is it lawful to swear to the unlawful part think you what that is I will not dispute with you 2. All that is lawful to be done is not to be sworn to and made so necessary as that a Church or Nation shall swear never to endeavour any alteration of it when a Change of Divine Providence can turn

you whom we leave to your own Master Yet do you make a hainous matter of it that we thus by fearing sin our selves do seem to think that Conformity is any sin at all and say we weaken your Hands prejudice your Ministry and make the People cold in joyning with you What then should we do if we published the Reasons of our Non-conformity and opened all that sin which we fear which yet you so vehemently call for Yea you say Who would unmuzzle a fierce Panther that would worry him that set his Chops at liberty even then when I ask you but to get me a License for that which you so openly call for which is all one as to say Do it if thou dare and if thou do it not thou abjurest thy Calling and refusest to give the World a reason of it You can tell the World that in my Book of Rest I seem to go their way that hold That they may fight against the King if it were for the cause of Religion to purge the Church of Idolatry and Superstition and cite P. 123. in which Edition of 12 I know not when I never wrote so never thought so but have proved the contrary at large in several Writings Yet this is done deliberately in print You fetch your Charge from the old Editions of that Book eleven years after I had retracted and expung'd and left out of that same Book not only that which you pervert but all the rest from end to end which seemed in the least to favour the late Wars Either you knew this or you did not If you did was that done like a peaceable Minister to aggravate with such gross and odious untruth things retracted and utterly expunged even long before the Act of Oblivion and that so as directly tendeth to the temporal ruine of him you charge them on If you knew it not did it beseem you to meddle in Print where you know no better what you do oppose What good will Austins Retractations do him if he shall ten or eleven years after be freshly charged with all that he retracted and much more yea I gave Mr. Hampden Pie one of the Books of One of the latter Editions so altered but a little before he came to your House to his utter undoing If you did not see it you might have done before you had written against it Yea as not regarding your self-contradiction at the same time you call me to retract my Political Aphorisms and tell me how excellent a Work it would be when I had done it before and had so long before retracted what you aggravate Though the one was done so lately that you could scarce know of it the other that was done eleven years before might have been known And if so long time excuse not the Book or Author yet from your bloody Charge why do you desire him to retract another What good will retracting it do if you will nevertheless so many years after make such use of it from what Principles and to what Ends I leave to you The Aphorisms which you would have retracted you say are those especially which are gathered by an Eminent Hand Who can think but here you condemn all those which that Eminent hand hath gathered And the first of all is Governours are some limited some de facto unlimited The unlimited are Tyrants and have no right to that unlimited Government The next words are For they are all Subjects themselves and under the Sovereignty and Laws of God Because it is your highest Preferments as you say to preach the Gospel I beseech you give me some such light here as is necessary to a Retractation If any Governours are not limited by God tell me whether it be any sin in them if they make Laws commanding Men to deny God and blaspheme him to worship themselves as Gods as Caligula did to worship Mahomet or Idols to kill all the Innocent People of the Land I talk not of the absolute Power of all Mens Estates and Lives Nay whether there be any thing imaginable which they may not command or whether it be possible for that Man at all to sin that is not limited by God And tell me if this be the Doctrine which you count it your chief preferment to preach And whether you can think that any wise Governours in the World will take those for friendly Promoters of their Interest who would so calumniate them as to make their Subjects believe that they lay any such claim You can gather that I approve of Mens terms of Ministration because I joyn with the Church which they teach As if no more were required of a Curate than of a Communicant And as if the same Reasons which warrant my Worship as a private Man would warrant all my Subscriptions Declarations Oaths and all the rest of Ministerial Conformity You can blame me for not Actively submitting to the Laws when you can name no Law which commandeth me what you mean You can Magisterially say Not that loose paralitick Discourse given to the Kings Commissioners at the Savoy written rather Rhetorically ad Captandum Populum to insinuate into vulgar Capacities than Logically to evince the Hypothesis contended for strip'd of its multifarious Fallacies ungrounded Surmises and erroneous Suppositions c. 1. As if you knew what was given in at the Savoy when a considerable part of the Papers were never published Yea I have reason enough to believe that no Man living can give an account of them to you but my self because no Copies were taken and some Papers only read 2. There are many Papers printed which were given in upon that occasion and who knows by this Character which of them it is that is called the Loose paralitick Discourse 3. You talk of a Hypothesis contended for as if you had a mind to be thought to say somewhat though you understand not about what For no Hypothesis is named by you and no wonder If you mean the first second or third Paper given in at the beginning of the Business to the Lord Chancellor the Hypothesis was that union is desirable the means whereto we offered as we were commanded If you mean our exceptions against the Liturgy the Hypothesis was that the Liturgy was corrigible and to be altered in some things And do you oppose that Hypothesis which the King had expresly put into the words of his Commission so far as to appoint Men to alter it and which the Convocation by their actual alterations owned If you mean our Reply to the Answer of the Exceptions the Hypothesis general is the same And what made all those Learned Persons who wanted neither Time nor Will forbear ever to give an Answer to that Reply if it were so loose and contemptible as you make it Was it because contempt was fitter than a Confutation that could not be because smaller matters not written by Men commissioned by the King for such a Treaty nor offered by their own importunity