time of Figgs was not yet In another for then was the time of Figgs Will he burn these Bibles yet he would have the Liturgy utterly cashier'd and rejected because of some divers Translations which are not contradictory for they are not Secundum idem or in the same respect 4. How does he strain some things in the Act for uniformity and also in the Liturgy until the very Blood follow As if he were resolv'd to stand with a flaming Sword in his hand Either to keep some tender minded men out of the Vineyard and Paradise of our Church I have too much cause to justify what I say Or else to Affright Puzzle and Perplex those that have entred already that they may drive more heavily Proceed with Trepidation and carry on the Lords work with less expedition Whereas some grains of Charity in taking words and things in the best sense they are capable of as every honest man ought to do might have prevented and spoiled the greatest part of his Book When the Covenant was justly charged to be unlawful from the very articulate sound of the words with what tenderness and softness was it sens'd What Salvo's were invented to Palliate the Vlcer But in our case how are words and sentences wrested and tenter'd beyond the Grammar and intention of them that snares may be spread upon Mispeh to keep men from going to the House of the Lord will the great God thank these Mormo-makers another day Quam sapiens argumentatrix sibi videtur ignorantia humana in the words of Tertullian How fond and wise do they seem to themselves that by a Carnal kind of subtilty doe affect to be accounted the disputers of this World I may well call such wisdome carnal how Angelical and Seraphick soever it appear from the authority of the great Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 3. whereas there are among you Envying Strife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sidings or making of Parties and factions are ye not Carnal will nothing satisfie some supercilions Humorists but that the whole frame of our Church and Religion must be taken asunder Ravell'd and Cancell'd to please them Why did they not Petition the King and Parliament to erect a scruple Office or a standing Committee that might assoil their growing doubts And by some Scolia upon the Liturgy and their own Arts give the meaning of every Paragraph and word in both They are now so mudded by these mens strugling and trampleings that like Aristotles Physicks they are Edita non Edita dark and Aenigmatical until they are clear'd by the Lamp of some supervening Commentary That common sense which satisfies many thousands of their Brethren will not serve their nice and squeamish stomachs But as if there were some Snake lurking in the Grass and some invisible knot in the Bulrush every leaf every sprig of Grass must be turn'd and shaken every little feavourish doubt must be Excuss'd As if a new Targum Misna or Paraphrase must be calculated on purpose for the Meridian of their swimming heads And none must do this but the first Authors and Legistators Magnus Revocetur ab orcis Tullius If the noise of their Axes and Hammers were once abated there wight be hope that the Temple of God would rise If Schism that battering Engine were dismounted the Walls of Zion would flourish and mount towards Heaven What could hinder Nourishment to be Ministred to the Body of the Church by Joynts and Bands that so being knit together it might encrease with the encrease of God Our peace would not only be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the words of Basil the great A means to charm the Devil that he should not approach us but our consenting together as Ignatius would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the means to crush his very head in frustrating his dividing designs so we might also defeat his Instruments too that wait for our fall Nam neque perire nos neque salvi esse nisi una Possumus as Otho in Tacitus said to his Army If we sink we shall sink together And if we arrive to a safe Haven it will be whilst we are united into one Body Therefore if Mr. Baxter would either do good or prevent mischief in his Generation May he be as Nazianzen said of Athanasius An Adamant and a Loadstone An Adamant to break the Conspiracies of naughty men and a Loadstone to draw together and to close the differences of dissenters I am thy Servant said David and the Son of thy Hand-maid that is as Prosper glosses those words the Son of thy Church He adds also He is not the Lords Servant who is not such a Son A Son of Peace For Christ is the King of Salem the Prince of Peace And Hierusalem which is the Spouse of Christ and the Mother of us all signifies the Vision of Peace But Invidiae quondam stimulis incanduit atrox Alecto placidas latè cum cerneret urbes Mr. BAXTER'S First Letter Directed thus To the AUTHOR of the Perswasive to Conformity SIR THE vehemency and importunity of your Call for an Account to the World of the Reasons of my Judgment and Practise have sufficiently made me willing of the Work and put me upon craving your assistance in it and to answer me these few Questions 1. Whether you know of any one that will License it if I should write it or can procure me so great a favour and who it is 2. Or whether you think it lawful to print it unlicensed contrary to the Law of the Land 3. Whether you think it lawful by my Reasons which you call for to write that which the Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws forbid under the Name of depraving the Liturgy and appugning the Church-Government 4. Whether you know how I may be kept out of Goale when I have done I hear you are now Minister of the Place whence a Letter was sent which occasioned my last imprisonment where I am virtually still being adjudged to go to New-gate when I am apprehended 5. Or if a Prison and in probability thereby Death be that you desire whether you think it lawful to suffer so much and die to satisfie your desire and do that Work 6. Whether you know of any Printer and Bookseller who would Print and Publish such a Book and who they are The Savoy Papers which you talk of were written by the Warrant of the Kings Commission and published some of them for others were never published by poor Scriveners that had the Copies to get Money without my knowledge and to our injury in a Time when the Act against Printing was not made 7. Whether you think if I should write such a Book that the Diocesane Party would not be much more offended and angry than if I had said nothing 8. Whether I should be called so earnestly to do that which will give so great offence against the New Conformity when that which you mention which was done by Commission against the Old Conformity could never have
who never wrote on Jude but only on James and that citeth Dr. John Burges of Regeneration who never wrote of such a Subject it 's like the Subject drew you to think that he that wrote so much for the Ceremonies though once a Non-conformist was like to be the Author of such a Book which indeed Dr. Cornelius Burges wrote when he was a great Conformist who was afterward Assessor in the Westminster Assembly and though a Protestor for moderate Episcopacy wrote that Book for the necessity of Reformation which so much offended the Episcopal Party In your last you liken me to the Papists that take liberty more than enough when you cannot name one Book since the Act before your importunity that I took more liberty in than was given me that I remember And you in the same Paragraph invite me to comply with your sober request and to direct it to the Common-wealth of the English Clergy and yet talk against unmazzeling the mouth of the Panther as aforesaid but these no doubt you can reconcile better than I. As for my nonsense in putting Librum pro Authore it is such as I am not seldom guilty of as I am also of putting the Author for the Book As to your particular Exceptions 1. Speaking slightly of Conformity Do you expect that a Man that by not conforming loseth more than you have yet gotten by conforming and that also loseth his Ministerial Liberty more desirable than all the Bishopricks in England should commend the Conformity which he so avoideth As for Mr. Dod's words I glad that you say Doth God stand in need of our Lie O! no nor of our Perjury neither should we speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for him No I think we should not nor deliberately covenant or do any wicked thing on pretence of securing the liberty of preaching against the sin of other Men. But yet it is my opinion that we may thank God for the effects that are brought to pass by Mens mis-doings though not for the sin it self even for the death of Jesus Christ which was all that Mr. Dod could mean 2. If you had but seen the Colections of Instances given in by some body at the Savoy Treaty to the reforming part of the Commissioners of Defects and Disorders or Immethodicalness in the Liturgy you would not wonder that I now take it not for Perfect Especially when you compare it with the Liturgy which we offered them and see there what difference we made can you forbear a Censure of ours which hath hitherto strangely scaped their Censures who rejected it and yet marvel not that we take not yours for perfect As for your likening me to the Jews that hire Christian Servants to dress their meat There is but one cometh sometime to my House and he will eat no meat there on any days but of his own dressing Remember that you said even now God needeth not our Lie or deceitful wickedness that we may have leave to preach or pray 3. As to your third Exception 1. When you have got me liberty to write my Reasons I will tell you more of my opinion about Diocesanes if you cannot understand it by my Disputes of Church Government long ago printed which if you have read do you still expect that I should approve of Diocesanes or marvel that I think better of the Waldenses Bohemian Episcopacy and that which obtained in Ignatius yea in Cyprians days But what thought you of when you call me to obey old Establishments and not invent now ones and set the People on gadding after Innovations Did you really think that our Establishment was elder than the days of the Apostles of Ignatius and that theirs were Innovations to ours And that Arch-Bishop Vsher reduced Episcopacy to Novelty when he pretended to reduce it to the ancient Form Doth not Dr. Hammond maintain that there were no Bishops in Scripture times that had more than one Congregation and that de facto there was then no such things as distinct Subject-Presbyters Is 1650 years ago the time of Novelties to us and our establishment the true Antiquity Well! let it be so 2. But you untruly report me to say that we must not communicate with a Parish-Minister who concurreth with the Bishop P. 77. If you had added In consenting to our silencing For I only said that I made that none of our Question The reason was because my work lay another way and it would have hindered the edification of those I wrote for to have pleaded that Cause with them But do I deny all that cometh not into our Question To deal openly with you I fore-knew long ago what would stick most against our Concord when I laboured in vain to have prevented it and now the thing which I fore-saw is come When I perswade the People to Communion in the Parish Churches they say shall we have Communion with those that have silenced so many hundred such Ministers and set up such and such in their stead And here I may as well drive them through a Stone Wall as drive them on directly in that way If you can do it why have not you done it I am sure I cannot They will sooner renounce Communion with me than hold Communion with those that they think have been the chief Promoters of all this that are of the Clergy And if I did not challenge them to prove if they can that ever such and such Parish Ministers were the Silencers I could get them to hold Communion with none of them all If you will have your work done your own way on your own terms do it I cannot so do it for I am not of your judgment And now Sir I am not so unacquainted with what I do as to tell you I have given you a lenifying Answer or to expect that this should please you who accounted a few gentle Questions so sharp If my business had been to win your good opinion and report of me I would have spoken you fairer But though veritas odium parit I am naturally addicted to speak plain truth without any ill will to you or any though I foresee that impatient guilt will call it railing and what not If none deal plainly with offending Preachers how much worse is their condition than the Peoples But had it been for publick view and not for your own private admonition I should have used a softer Stile on several accounts As I take none of your plainness with me amiss so far as it containeth truth so the imitation of it ought not to seem injurious to you Nothing hath more moved me to it than to find by your Letter how greatly averse you are to Repentance in the promoting whereof I should gladly be Your Servant Ri. Baxter April 28. 1671. AN ANSWER TO Mr. Baxter's second Letter SIR YOurs of April 28. came to me May 19. It may be it visited some Friends by the way which retarded its passage And though my
Head and Heart were then filled with better Meditations I mean against the Lords day approaching yet I could not but give you my sentiments of some Passages therein Though I shall not requite you much less be avenged of you for your length and sharpnes◠A full Anatomy of such a Carcass may prove offensive It is natural I perceive to you to drench your self in the Waters of Mara and to sport in the Salt Sea if Sarcasines and Satyrs Magnus ab Infernis revocetur Tullius umbris non potes absolvi It is a small thing with you to tell me of Crimes and Guilt That I comply with Satans designs That I have a Diabolical Spirit unfit for the Sacred Ministry I talk malepertly A Levite started up That I write against the Non-conformists When I only court and beg their assistance in doing no worse than my self that they would not stand still idle in the Market-place whilst so many hundred thousand Souls as you say are perishing through ignorance and ungodliness That I traduce the Presbyterians though I never named them I think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in any Writing or Sermon of mine As if I would have sin go uncontrolled and that I look on them as uncivil that presume to acquaint us with it Whereas I have procured your indignation only by a submissive and mannerly Request that you would give us the Reasons of your Non-conformity that we might see where the sin lies But you say You will leave us in our self-pleasing Crimes Then I must say you are but a treacherous Watch-man to suffer sin upon your Brother contrary to Levit. 19. 17. If you will not help us out of the Ditch into which we are fall'n It is one of Gods greatest Judgments when he does not reprove chide afflict See Hosea 4. 14. Are you one then that account it your duty to deal plainly with offending Preachers though you will not own the Name of a Diocesan Bishop yet you fansie your self sitting in his Chair and yet you will leave them in their self-pleasing Crimes Let the Righteous smite me it shall be a kindness Let him reprove me it shall be an excellent Oyl which shall not break my head Psal 141. 5. This dealing of yours will do little towards promoting my Repentance It may exercise my patience I will herein write after the Copies of St. Austin Melancton Calvin c. who in their greatest heats and provocations retain'd their calmness sweetness and serenity of Spirit towards those that did bitterly oppose them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Diogenes told Antisthenes in Laertius Michael the Arch-Angel and my grand Master have trodden this Path be-before me Sir you reckon up 1800 Ministers that are silenc'd Though I utterly dislike the term Silenc'd for to me 't is apparent they are silent actively and through their own fault until it appear to the contrary and then the sin is yet more hainous by how much it is the more voluntary But if you are a true Accountant if this be not a false Muster and you mistaken in your Arithmetick How many of these have little more learning than your English Books have taught them As great Strangers to the Writers of the first Centuries as they have been to the Universities How many of these were nested in other Mens Habitations whilst the right owners were exposed to wind weather and starving double the number of 1800. This Retalliation may cause them to say As I have done so God hath requited me Judges 1. 7. yet I have some ground to think the number is not so great since I hear that many come in and more remove into more remote Parts and conform there If it be true that Dr. Connaught has re-assum'd his Ministry I think his Example whose Piety and Learning is so considerable may be very attractive However 't is no strange thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Methinks that Men who are so willing to preach in Wales and the poorest Congregations without a farthing upon Catechetical Points neither medling with Bishops Liturgy or Ceremonies as you say should be willing to take things in order thereunto in their most favourable and candid sense Give me leave to give you two Cautions 1. Take heed how you undertake for any considerable part of those 1800. that they shall preach on those terms For then you trans-element them their Tongues do not only itch but their very Nods and Whispers tend that way 2. Take heed you do not impede so good a Work by maintaining Conformity to be an avowed and deliberate sin absolutely and simply so A sin as it were by Covenant So that a Blessing is not to be expected on their Ministry so inhumane and hainous you dare scarcely name it What will we say if you should lay open the sin of Conformity in your Reasons Such a Lyon in the way is enough to affright many Such a Flaming Sword may keep Labourers out of the Vineyard out of the Paradise of the Church I have sadder apprehensions yet As the Papists do unchurch us and by consequence damn us so you are like to arrive to the same uncharitableness For if we live and die in avowed and deliberate sin what Wages are we like inevitably to receive You infer from my words or rather drag from them by an odd Climax of Ergo's that there are some Persons deserve hanging But I can with more ease and better Logick gather from what you say that we must be damned I am glad you own my Quotation out of your Book of Rest At first you made me afraid when you said You never wrote or thought of any such Passage Yet this is but like the jumping of a Deer after a Mortal Shot or the playing and sprunting of a Fish when it is strucken with an Hook You make me amends afterward by saying you have retracted and expunged it in your later Editions And truly I do much rejoyce at your reiterated Ingenuity in this kind For as it is said The best thing is not to be born the next cito mori So a Palinodia is next to the publishing of sound Truths But though this Retractation was before the Act of Oblivion as you say yet I fear the War was done and execution over If you be so rash in obtruding your immature Notions upon the World before you have lick'd them and strain'd out their Crudities and ill Humours in the Press first by several Editions you will discourage Men from buying your Books when they first come forth This Overture has given you occasion Renovare dolorem by minding me of the saddest Tragedy of my whole Life The utter undoing of Mr. H. P. though you well know he was undone before I could lament this in Tears of Blood yet as my Conscience does not upbraid me of negligence herein so that good Lady I hope will do me the Justice that I gave her notice of what I fear'd and suspected a fortnight before the Catastrophe And if
not you know that the Bishop of Alexandria had all Aegypt Lybia and Pentapolis under him And that Thebais and Mareotis were afterward added to his Diocess But you will be guided you say by Cyprian and Ignatius Well! Agreed yet these were Diocesans Cyprians Diocess was Africa over great part of which his Power did extend Ignatius was Bishop of Syria Coelosyria and Mesopotamia If you doubt of this I can shew my Authority But why should we swear Allegiance to Bishops Till the Roman Tyranny invaded the Church the Clergy was not to swear to the Bishops This is to twist them into the Constitution of the Kingdom say you Is it unlawful to promise or swear to be obedient to Bishops in rebus licitis honestis Yet this is the sum of our Canonical Obedience By your leave Sir de facto Presbyters have been obedient to their Bishops under the Penalty of an Anathema and Excommunication long before the Roman Tyranny invaded the Church I could tell you of the Apostles Canons and Decrees of Councils for this But since you have such a kindness for Ignatius see his Epistle to the Ephesians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to the Magnesians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in his Epistle to the Philadelphians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is not this Canononical Obedience But this intrenches upon the King and twists Bishops into the Constitutive part of the Kingdom I am glad you are so tender of the Kings Honour and Power Mr. Cartwright wrangled himself at last into Conformity And if you have arriv'd to a just Latitude of Allegiance in giving unto Caesar the things that are Caesars I think you have shot the Gulph and may at last per tot discrimina rerum tendere in Latium I will secure you that what we swear to Bishops does not twist them with a Coordinate Power with the King no more than when I sworesidelity to the University at my Matriculation When a Soldier takes a Sacrament to be true to his General and Tradesmen do the like to their several Corporations I say no more do we set up an Aemulous confronting Power with the King in subscribing to Bishops which he does not only allow but authorize than I made the University or they their Generals or Corporations to have divisum cum Jove Imperium When I quote your words We must not communicate with a Parish Minister who concurreth with the Bishops you say I should have added In consenting to our silencing Indeed I thought those words needless and superfluous For what Parish Ministers had any hand in your silence If as being Subjects virtually in the Parliament so you were accessary your self If as approving and rejoycing at your silence you will find this very diffcult in any good Parish Ministers especially since we cry aloud for your Ministerial Assistance You tell me You can as soon drive the People through a Stone Wall as bring them to Communion in our way You bid me do it my self if I can Sir Had they not been distracted distorted and poisoned by other Tutors much might have been done perhaps we might have taken such stragling Sheep upon our Shoulders and have brought them to their proper Folds But since they have been taught like Wolves not to value the Scepter I have small hopes to prevail with my Shepherds Crook If they will not now hear your Voice and be obsequious to your Whistle they will like Corah's Company tell me to my Face They will not come up or like Mastiff Dogs will worry me to pieces Those that are lately perverted any way are most heady and sierce The Revolters are profound to make slaughter Hos 5. 2. And after the Scribes and Pharisees had compass'd pass'd Sea and Land to make one Proselyte when he was made he was two-fold more the Child of Hell than themselves Mat. 23. 15. Now Sir Since you do both in print and in your Letters so scorn at my absurdity in desiring your Reasons for Nonconformity whereas it would hazard your safety if you should do it without a License which is not to be expected If you have such strong Arguments in store which may prove Conformity to be simply and absolutely sinful An avowed and deliberate sin what think you of transmitting them to me I will do my best to Midwife them into the Light without any commerce with the Huxters you reproach me with Indeed I did send an Epistola veridica to the Tryars in the Usurper's days without an Imprimatur You end as it were glorying That you have not given me a lenifying Answer or spoken me fair You might have said If you are so naturally addicted as you say to speak plain truth That taking your Rod into your Hand you have slash'd the Malepert Levite Well! I will get some good by you whether you will or no I will think more humbly and meanly of my self than you can speak And though you say I am so blinded with self-love that I neither know what I say or do yet I will not pay you in your own Coin but pray for you as I do for my self That wherein you or I erre that God would even reveal this unto us and reduce us into the Way of Truth If your habit of severity and keen edge of fastuous contempt may be abated and you may be happily mollified into more kindness If you shall then vouchsafe to write to me in a more favourable smooth and obliging Strain you shall not overcome though you conquer me In the mean time you may call me a Levite but I will take the boldness to subscribe my self Your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jo. Hinckley Northfield May 23. A LETTER Written to Mr. Baxter After his BOOK of Church Divisions came forth SIR I Perceive that my Answer to your Letter was not satisfactory since I find in your late Book not only oblique Reflections but direct and down-right Expressions wherein without any Ambages you articulately signifie your discontent both with me and my Book Who would have thought that a word or two of advice and seasonable counsel should have merited such harsh and Passionate Censures or should not escape branding with the black Theta of a Challenge Ambuscade and an intimation of Defamation and Blood Herein me thinks considering the Premises you shew as great a defect of Logick as of Charity To what purpose is your Tragical out-cry of provoking you to gape against an Oven and making your Name a Stepping-stone to those Ends I aspire after Alas what advantage will it be to me to see you in the flames or your Name sullied That 's barbarous and this ambitious I am in the Zenith of my preferment whilst I am a constant Preacher of the Gospel How are you sure that I am not able to endure the light of the Truth If the Organs of my Eyes are indisposed at present I will borrow some Spectacles or procure some Eye-salve to clear them before you can prove those things
to be truth which you call so When I see Scripture and reason for them let me be accounted stabborn or stupid if I either shut my Eyes or cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hold them steddy enough to discern them in their genuine Colours Before this be done you cannot be assured that you are a true Prophet in judging and condemning me afore-hand Are you Secretary to him who at one glance sees them who have Eyes and see not or else see but perceive not You know who it was that boasted that his Eyes were open Numb 24. 3. I wish you knew me better and then you might have abated these severities How can you hope to heal our Divisions and to wooe our English World into mutual love when your own Gall runs over with such large Effluviums and your thoughts are so over-weening as if you did comprehend all Knowledge Truth and Light and we poor Wretches were groping in Cimmerian darkness or grovelling in some narrow Ditch But if you will not hold up your Taper and help us forth reserving your Antidote against our sin and error in your own Breast take heed you meet not with the same doom as he in Cardan who knew how to cure the Stone and dyed without revealing it It is well that you are pleas'd to prolong your Answer until I procure you a License for so you may spare your own trouble usque ad Cal. Graec. For who would unmuzzle a fierce Panther that would worry him that sets his Chops at liberty Although another Man would tell you Herein you deal like the Papists who tell us they can prove us all Hereticks if they might have liberty to dispute and write without the hazard of the Law Yet when it pleases them they take liberty more than enough Sir if ever you comply with my sober Request you need not direct it to me but to the Common-wealth of the English Clergy As for those four Lines 2. Part. Pag. 8. spend your second thoughts upon them and see whether you can make sense of them There you serve in again the same Dish of Coleworts but you leave out the Author and name the Book yet in your Grammar the Book is a Person This is no Solacism with you who can make one Disparatum to predicate of another for in the same Part Pag. 92. you categorically affirm that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Verb. These are but trifles yet if a Man be put to sencing he will take all advantages As for the bulk and scope of your Book concerning healing Church Divisions Cum sis mortalis c. The Scene is laid in Heaven and the design is Generous Noble and Christian It is great pity that you should Ausis excidere tam magnis Yet consider whether the aim and level be both right If you would have us joyn together with one Heart and Shoulder in the Worship of God as now constituted which you allow P. 38. me thinks you should not I will use as much softness as I can have spoken so sleightly of Conformity As if you should conform it would neither be a little or single sin Pag. 26. This must needs weaken our Hands prejudice our Ministry and make the People cold in joyning with us Will those words of Mr. Dod hold weight in the Ballance of the Sanctuary who thanked God for the Churches sake that some Men conform'd and for the Truth sake that some conform'd not Can that be for the advantage of the Church which is not according to the Truth Does God stand in need of our Lies should we speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for him Job 13. 7. 2. Though in some places you speak honourably of our Liturgy Pag. 38. 59. 88. yet you dash all again by complaining of its imperfect mode and fashion of words Pag. 59. And that you joyn with us meerly by force for want of a better for were you in New-England you would not joyn with our Prayers 2. Part P. 176. Is this your Balm of Gilead for our Wounds Are you like to prove a good Samaritan to our bleeding Church What lowring and longing must there be after another mode of Worship if ours be so imperfect and that of other Churches so far beyond it You do well Go on that you joyn with the Prayers of the Liturgy and in the Celebration of the Sacrament P. 34. 40. yet you will not touch either as to an active Administration of them with the least of your Fingers And herein you resemble the present Jews who hire Christian Servants to kindle their Fires and to dress their Meat on the Sabbath-day They care not what is done so they do it not themselves 3. Was it a right course to cement us and cure our Divisions by alienating the Minds of Men from their Governours and that Government which is established by Law amongst us As if it were not lawful by your Doctrine to own Diocesan Bishops and to hold Communion with a Diocesan Church P. 75. Nay we must not communicate with a Parish Minister who concurreth with the Bishops P. 77 The Government is such as God will not accept Part 2. P. 3. And to take off the Stomachs of Subjects the more from their present Governours you have found out a Forreign Government for them though not in Rome yet in Bohemia Pag. 46. which in your Judgment does far surpass ours Sir I thought it had been far better for you and I to obey old Establishments than to invent or prescribe new ones If we set the People a gadding after Innovations we neither perform our own Duties nor go the right way to cure the Peoples Divisions Now Sir I have given you these Strictures not out of any desire to reciprocate the same with you any farther than a private Letter but only to prepare you for what you may expect from your Antagonist and to shew you how dangerous it is to recede from the good old Paths and allowed Principles and to bewilder our selves and others with new and rash contrivances of our own Heads As for any thing which upon just and proper Grounds shall have a tendency to the advancing of Love and Peace I shall always be your Second and your Fidus Achates whilst I am John Hinckley Northfield April 11. In Worcester-shire Mr. BAXTER'S Third Letter SIR THough you foretel me how little good my writing will do you in which I presume not to contradict you yet the vindication of Truth is an end sufficient to invite me to bestow a few more Lines in detecting your unworthy opposition against that Object of the intellectual Nature Truth and Repentance are the things which you vehemently militate against under pretence of skirmishing with my words and that by no better Weapons than a wrangling Wit Rhetorical diversions which you use like one unwilling to understand the truth or to confess an Error or injurious Deed. § 1. You tell me I am a treacherous Watchman if I suffer sin
upon you and at the same time open your offence that I tell you of Crimes and Guilt and name some of your faults This is the Waters of Marah to you Sarcasmes Satyrs c. Are not you resolved then to be displeased by our Speech or Silence and to make me unavoidably an Offender by the contrariety of your Laws and what a wonder of self-ignorance is it that the Author of the Perswasive should draw up the Flood-gates of Sarcastical scorn upon so many and such Men and yet be so sensible of a drop of just reproof that fell upon his own Head § 2. After such a Book you would not be said to traduce the Presbyterians as if you wrote you knew not what or had already forgotten it § 3. When I had opened your strange dealing in calling for those Reasons of our Non-conformity which you knew we must not publish you neither can hide your disingenuity nor will confess it § 4. In my last I briefly named divers of your palpable contradictions and many of them you have no cloak for and yet no confession of but a silent preterition And what you speak to is so managed as if our Question had not been whether you had spoken well and truly but whether you could speak again or had any Pen Ink and Paper left § 5. As to the silenc'd Ministers that you may not seem guiltless you first say How many of these have little more learning than your English Books have taught them as great Strangers to the Writers of the first Centuries as they have been to the Vniversities You did craftily to speak interrogatively For a Question cannot be false There are many Non-conformists that live within a few Miles of your dwelling which of them do you mean Is it good old Mr. Sam. Hildersham or Mr. Sam. Fisher or Mr. Wilsby or Mr. Bryan or Mr. Reignolds or Mr. Tho. Baldwin Senior or Mr. Spilsbury or which of all the rest do you mean Sure it 's I that am the Stranger to the Universities that am therefore worthy to be silenced I know but of two or three more in all the Country about you But that two of those are so strange to the Fathers I do not believe But if they be I had rather the Church had Men that will speak sound Doctrine in an apt and serious manner for the bringing of sinners to repentance in English than such as can lace an insipid empty or senseless discourse with some Shreds of Chaldee Syriack and Arabick And though I could wish that all the Ministers of Christ had all Accomplishments fit even for the adorning of their Sacred Work yet I had rather hear a meer English Divine than an Hebrew or a Syriack Sot But as I am grown of late years to take it for no very great honour to our young Preachers that they are acquainted with the Universities so I think it so short a Work to read the few brief Writers of the three first Centuries as maketh it more a dishonour to be ignorant of them than any great honour to be acquainted with them But Sir this kind of talk had been sitter for a Man of Aethiopia or Armenia that knoweth not England than for an English Priest O that one half of our Parishes now had Men that were near as learned and understanding and able for their Ministerial Work as those two that I know near you who never were Graduates in any University How easily could I bear the silencing of my self and all the rest if all our Places were but fully supplyed with Conformists that had but that measure of Knowledge Utterance Piety and Diligence as the more unlearned and lowest Rank of the Non-conformists of my Acquaintance have if you take out a third part of that inferior Rank though some one individual may be as low And I think I know as many of them as you What pains do I take by Word and Writing and Example to satisfie them that are averse to joyn in the publick Assemblies And when I meet with a Parish that hath an honest sober tolerable or competent Preacher I usually prevail But alas from how many do I hear What Man can endure to hear a School-boy read over or Cant the Shreds and Patches of insipid nonsense or ignorantly abuse the Scripture and talk of things which he understandeth not and prate against he knoweth not what to get some reputation with those that take Vanity and Vexation to be the laudable Accomplishments of a Priest Or if sometimes they speak things good and needful it is done with so little skill or seriousness that all comes cold and dead to the Hearers who hear them as School-boys saying over their Lessons and not as Men that are in good sadness and believe themselves Especially considering how seldom a good word is heard out of their mouths all the week after and how oft they are in the Ale-house and how seldom in the Houses of the ignorant to instruct them and help them to prepare for the Life to come such Answers as these how often do I hear Pudet haec opprobria I believe no more than I am constrained to believe But I sometimes hear Lads talk in the Pulpit at such a rate my self as I confess would go near to drive me also away if ordinarily I had not better And when Patrons seek to me to motion them to a Teacher how hard do I find it to find them a Man that hath the abilities of the lower sort of Non-conformists To confess the truth to you the Preachers of these late years have almost brought me to the opinion of some of the highest Formalists that not only a Form of Prayer but of Preaching too be strictly imposed on some Ministers and nothing endured but Liturgies and Homilies For I am so far now from being all for Sermons that I take the Common-Prayer to be incomparably better than the Prayers or Sermons of some that I hear and to be the best that I expect in many places when I go to Church And if all conformable Preachers were such as too many be I would heartily prefer our Homilies and Common-Prayer before all their Pulpit-work And now I see which is the way to bring it to this pass and to put down Preaching and Pulpit-Prayers even to set up such as will weary the Hearers and make them be glad of a Homily as better than such pittiful stuff But yet I will not consent to that design while there are so many living that can and would do better if they might But must we be silenced because we be not such as these Conformists or must these also be silenced with us But I pray Sir forget not to tell me in your next what one Non-conformist was silenced on the account of insufficiency and whether the very worst and meanest of those that formerly joyned with them be not re-ordained and received when they do conform § 6. You next ask How many of
it and not excepting unless the King command me to endeavour it then I shall better consider of your security Till then you do but suppose me to see no difference between things most different § 54. Who is it that hath done most to drive People from the Parish Churches I am satisfied by experience And whether all such Dissenters are such Children of Hell as you describe I shall leave to a more wise and righteous Judge § 55. To write a full and just defence of that Non-conformity which I own according to the importunity of your Book would take up much time and the Volume would be great and I have not so much time to spare unless I saw a probability of some better effect than is like to arise from my putting it into your Hands as now you motion If my Stile suited to your Matter be displeasing review your Book and retract the culpable part which is the cause and you will have less cause to repent of your Repentance than of your Impenitency If as you say you are under affliction I hope it will help you to do as my long afflictions have partly done by me even to judge of Persons Things and Causes as one that daily waiteth for the time when he and all shall be judged of God I rest though your plain and faithful Monitor yet a true desirer of your well-fare July 4. 1671. AN ANSWER TO Mr. Baxter's third Letter SIR YOu lay a very sandy Foundation in your very first words you foretell say you how little good my writing will do you yet the Vindication of Truth is an End sufficient to invite me to bestow a few Lines upon you Do you call five Sheets a few Lines Are these written to vindicate the Truth Yet I must tell a Man of your gravity though with blushing that Truth has no communion with Falshood nor Light with Darkness Where did I foretell you that your writing should do me but little good I have told you to the contrary that if you could evince your Hypothesis that Conformity is absolutely sinful I would quit my station and come over into your Camp Nay when you had inform'd me as to some Passages in the Savoy Conference I return'd you my thanks Is not this an inauspicious and ominous Presage what is like to follow A Line crook'd at hand will never be straight though drawn if possible in infinitum Speak the truth your self before you accuse me for an unworthy Opposer of the Truth What delight had I think you to rush into the midst of your Pikes and to put my Hand into an Hornets Nest But only to extricate Truth and redeem it as those Argonauts did the Golden Fleece from the midst of waking Dragons that it may be try'd whether I and others do sin in Conforming by the dint of Scripture and sound Reason Some would call this a generous Enterprize proceeding from tenderness but you call it an unworthy opposing of Truth coming from Calumny and an hardened Front One Grain or Filing of Truth is more precious to me than all the Gold of Ophir if it lay in the bottom of the Sea I had rather fetch it thence than all the Pearls and Coral which the slavish Indians venture for with so much hazard No Man can do me a greater favour than to reduce me from any by-way of Errour Et Officium meum implisse arbitror si labor meus aliquos homines ab erroribus liberatos ad Iter Coeleste direxerit Who would have thought but that you who affirm that Conformity is simply sinful should have brought some clear Texts of Scripture to prove this or shewn some express divine Law which is violated hereby So you might have brought the Controversie to an Issue This had been the most dexterous course to have overthrown the very fundamental Principle whereon I stand which is That I owe submission to the Ordinances and Constitutions of my lawful Governours so far as they are suitable to or not repugnant or contrariant to the Word of God But instead hereof you write large Encomiums and Panegyricks on the Non-conformists reproach the present Preachers stumble at Diocesan Bishops Lay-Chancellors and the Oath of not taking up Arms yet in none of these will you take up your standing by saying this or the other is absolutely sinful So that you are still widing the Breach cutting out new Work and putting up new Game which is nothing else but a rambling from the first Subject of the Dispute Yet I must follow you or rather be drag'd and hail'd after you as the Serpents Head in the Fable when the Tail had the leading and conduct of it Only let me tell you whereas you complain of my Rhetorical Diversions I wish you were liable to the same Guilt for then you would not write so much with so much ease if you did but slick and polish your Lines as you go § 1. What a wonder of self-ignorance is it that the Author of the Perswasive should draw up the Flood-gates of Sarcastical scorn upon so many and such Men and yet be so sensible of a drop of just reproof Had you been train'd up in Alexanders Army you might have felt his discipline for railing rather than fighting for giving a Book hard words when you should have confuted it with convincing Arguments or had you been brought up at the feet of some Gamaliel you might have learn'd that a general Charge is no sufficient Answer and that a Book cannot be faulty as you make it when the Pages are not so as a Man is not leprous when all his Members are whole and sound I should not fear to lay Bellarmine himself on his back if it were enough to nick-name his Writings with some unmanly taunt I am not a little confirm'd that my Book is innocent in that you though you speak big deal as kindly with it as Jonathan did with David when he hid himself by the Stone Ezel you shoot your Arrows on this side and on that but you have taken more care than to hit it I might well complain of your Drops as you call them for they made me to smart as if there had been Poison in them Can you blame me for laying them before you that you may see if not blush at their malignant Aspect and if one drop be so painful what if you should pour one of your spoonfuls as big as a Church upon me As for the Title of Self-ignorance which you apply to me I have taken that up and put it into my Pocket We 'l raise no dust about that only I must observe 't is hard to be Head of a Party and to be humble and forbear contemptuous scorn towards those that stand in their way and do not vail their Bonnets to such Popular Rabbies § 2. After such a Book you would not be said to traduce the Presbyterians as if you wrote you know not what I well knew what I wrote for I never
that did so vehemently complain of Grievances and Innovations I question not aim'd at that which their Successors accomplish'd the down-fall of Bishops and the possessing of their Lands Nay some of them lived to make it good what was the Quarrel they design'd Who did the King mean 2. Caroli when he said the Hand of Joab was in the mis-understanding 'twixt him and his Parliament and that the Incendiaries of Christendome had suddenly and subtlely insinuated those things which had unhappily caus'd diversions and distractions There might be clashing 'twixt those Episcopal Men in Parliament yet it would have been long enough e're these had rais'd War against the King You are not ignorant that in the Marian days many Lay-men and Clergy fled beyond the Seas to Geneva and other Places at their return their Garments smelt of the Disciplinarian Fire ever after which grew stronger and stronger until it had burnt the Cedar in our Lebanon and level'd the glorious Towers of the Church How did Calvin and Beza labour with their Favourers here to promote their Discipline that as it was once said The S. S. came from Rome to Trent in a Cloak-bag so did it come from Geneva hither in Packets You say Sect. 25. There was but few Presbyters or Non-conformists here before the War no Presbyterians except two in the Parliament The General Lieutenant-Generals Major-Generals were Episcopal Men. I little thought to have disputed such a Cause I medled not with Lay-men but with my dissenting Brethren Though the other cannot be excus'd yet these were most guilty in blowing up the Trumpet Dathan and Abiram of the other Tribes rose up against Moses but that Rebellion was call'd the gain-saying of Core because he being of the Tribe of Levi was deepest in the Conspiracy And it is observable that all Insurrections against Princes have been inflam'd by some Clergy-men or other for some Centuries last past But were there so few Non-conformists in England before the War yet Anno 1603. King James is said to be saluted with a Petition of a thousand Ministers against Episcopacy and before that Anno 1582. Mr. Cartwright who was no Episcopal Man for he had renounc'd his Episcopal Ordination beyond Seas met usually with sixty Ministers of his own Way in some Corner of the Land Did not these think you increase and multiply If five or six in the Assembly and five Bishops as you say in the Parliament rais'd such stirs what shall we think may be effected by so many Dissenters Whereas you think that the late Wars furnish'd us with Presbyterians out of Scotland it is doubtful to me whether Scotland infected us or we Scotland for when the King was in Scotland he was inform'd that the Scots had neither taken up Arms nor invaded England but that they were incouraged to it by some Members of Parliament you 'l say these were Episcopal Men on a design to change the Government of Church and State One Proposition sent to the King after Edgehill was That he should yield to extirpate Arch-bishops Bishops c. yet you 'l say that all the Parliament except two were Episcopal Men. As good as any among the Covenanters who vow'd to abolish Prelacy c. or as any of those in your own Association When Alderman Pennington with his 15000 Myrmidons petition'd against Bishops it may be you 'l vouch them to be Episcopal Men as well as you do the Parliament Men Yet I do not find that any said any thing against that Petition besides the Lord Dighy as for many others it did appear that such Lettice was too suitable to their Lips yet sound Episcopal Men in your sense The War was called Bellum Episcopale not as if fought by Episcopal Men on both sides but Episcopacy or rather the Bishops Lands was the Palladium or Helena one side fought for it the other against it Mulciber in Trojam pro Troja c. And here was the very stick at last in the Isle of Wight As for the particular Members in the Army they were better known to you than my self I delight not in personal Reflections or Quarrels If those that are yet alive be not Episcopal I wish they were so But that they were whilst they acted in the support of the late Cause I have not so far renounc'd my reason and experience as to fall in with your Account And if you persevere in this new Doctrine we shall be as distant as the two Poles One Document I cannot but observe from what is said That the late War was so odious that neither side will own it Even as the dead Child in the Parable was rejected by both the Mothers § 28. Your notion of the Arminian and other Calvinian Bishops fighting and beginning the War and also each claiming to be the Church is a pritty singularity and savours of a Romantick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Did they all fight against one another Did they not all equally abhor the War Where did either part pretend to be the Church You have fram'd a strange imagination and when you are setting of it up it will not hang together I may say of it as the Lacedemonian did of one setting up the body of a dead Man when his Head swagg'd this way and the other he cried out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something is wanting within So it is with your discourse it is Soul-less and Life-less sine sanguine succo It is true Arch-bishop Williams was in Arms but he lost the Lord-Keepers Seal and was not admitted to do his Office at the Kings Coronation This inflam'd the Man and transported him beyond his duty towards the end of the War The missing of a Bishoprick did pervert Arrius and St. Jerom himself was not a jot the better for it 29. 31. I had said Would Episcopal Men root out Episcopacy You apply your former groundless Hypothesis They intended at first to regulate the Arminians but after by the help of Scots and Sectaries they took down Episcopacy How transparent and thin is that Answer Just as our modern Naturalists salve every Phaenomenon with their round square and forked Atoms So do you silence Doubts by the Arminian and Calvinian Bishops But you must prove it better that the Bishops began the War or else all you say tumbles to the ground You say I trifle in referring you to Dr. Heylin on the Presbyterians though you referred me before to his Book on the Life of Arch-bishop Laud Who would have thought but ad hominem this Method had been justifiable If I am sparing of my pains and forbear an elaborate Answer to such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such shallow and partial reasonings another Man would soon pardon me You say you will not justifie the Presbyterians in that he chargeth on them yet he says the Presbyterians thrive best when they involve whole Nations in Blood and Sacriledge I mentioned them not at all yet you charge me for traducing them 33. The Principles of
Hooker Bilson and such Prelatists led me to what I did and wrote in the Book which I have retracted As for Bishop Bilson I have not his Book by me which you quote neither dare I take upon me to defend what all our Bishops have written I must either want Imployment or be very pragmatical to venture upon every Task you are ready to impose upon me If any of my Fathers discover their nakedness I will put on my Mantle and go backward I will not lick up their Spittle and say it is sweeter than Nectar and Ambrosia I will follow them only so far as they follow Christ I am satisfied that Bishop Bilson was willing to say something in behalf of our Neighbours of Holland in vindicating them from Rebellion against the King of Spain And so stretched the Doctrine of Subjection too far Whether this will satisfie you I know not I am sure multitudo pecantium non minuit peecatum If Bishop Bilson misled you in point of Subjection aud Obedience let him make you amends in setting you upright about Diocesan Bishops I said something upon your provocation in behalf of Mr. Hooker not intending to be drawn further into the Field I am jealous of my own failing and weakness and so am unfit to be anothers Second when I have enough to do to answer for my self I do still admire Mr. Hooker and I find my Betters have done so before me Cambden wish'd his Books had been turn'd into an universal Language Bishop Vsher Morton and Mr. John Hales had the same high opinion of him Bishop Gauden said he had been highly commended of all prudent peaceable and impartial Readers King James said his Book was the Picture of a Divine Soul in every Page of Truth and Reason The late King commended it to his Children next to the Bible And the same happy Pen which taught the Kings Book to speak as good Latin if possible as it had English had almost turn'd Mr. Hooker into the same Dialect for the benefit of the learned World Yet you say he led you into what you did and wrote in print you say the same you cite his 1. Book P. 21. Laws they are not which publick approbation hath not made They must be made by entire Societies What is this more than what some that wrote for the Kings Cause in the late Wars have confessed That quoad aliquid that is as to making of Laws our Kings have not challeng'd a Power without Parliaments though I find that the legislative Power of Parliaments is properly and legally in the King alone in Heylin And the same incomparable Hooker adds An Absolute Monarch commanding his Subjects whatsoever seemeth good in his own Discretion This Edict hath the force of a Law whether they approve or dislike it And else-where he saith Where the King hath Power of Dominion no Forreign State or Domestical can possibly have in the same Cause and Affairs Authority higher than the King Take heed you do not imitate him who only took what was for his purpose and left out the rest But you have found out other Doctrine in Hooker viz. That Power is originally in the People and Escheats to them that the King is Singulis Major Universis Minor I cannot subscribe to this for as by God Kings Reign their Power is from him so it Escheats to him No Ephori Demarchi or Tribunes can curb the Prince But Sir was you led aside by Hooker to what you did and wrote yet you quote these Passages out of his eighth Book Now you was led aside in what you did and wrote before that Book and his Fellows saw the Light perhaps you did and wrote and then after the Kings return you gathered up your Principles as it were ex postliminio as if you should first build the Roof of an House and then lay the Foundation or first possess your self of an Estate and then blunder for a Title Yet your Title is but crack'd if you have none but what you have from his third Book King Charles the first denyed them to be his If they were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spurious or changelings yet they were so adulterated that they neither resembled Parent or Sisters My friend Mr. Walton did not guess amiss he had good Seconds Dr. Barnard says That Bishop Vsher noted that in these three Books there were many Omissions ex gr If a Private Man Offend there is the Magistrate that judgeth If Magistrates the Prince If the Prince there is a Tribunal in Heaven before which they shall appear on Earth they are not accountable to any Bishop Sanderson said That this Passage The King is accountable to the People was not in a Manuscript he had seen but he said the Copies had been interlin'd therefore he commanded nothing of his should be printed after his death And Dr. Spencer whom you recite said the perfect Copies were lost and that those which he saw were imperfect mangled draughts dismembred into pieces no favour or grace not the shadows of themselves remaining Had he liv'd to see them thus defac'd he might rightly call them Benonivs 35. I said I could not choose but nauseate that Discipline which startles at renouncing War against the King You ask Is it Prelatical Discipline No I acquit it Presbyterian No say you The present Non-conformists offered Episcopacy to the King You dare not undertake for all Some will startle as much at Episcopacy as they do at the Oath Except you castrate and qualifie it with your allays until you have made it quite another thing As Martial said of a Fellow who repeated his Verses amiss he made them his own The Poet would not own them So must you do with Episcopacy before it will slip down Indeed you puzzle me very much I am at a loss who these Non-conformists are When I write to them you tell me I traduce the Presbyterians But when you speak of them you say They are for Episcopacy By your words they are of a Motleylinsey-woolsey Kind Episcopal-Presbyterian-Nonconformists But what ever these Men are their Discipline must not be touch'd Neither the Chorus nor any Man of them startles at renouncing War against the King You have not prov'd their Practise such and is your printed Clamour come to this You say you know the Non-conformists better than I yet I know some that will not agree to the former part of that Oath about renouncing War against the King They have jealousies and fears almost about every word as if there were an Ambuscade to intangle them or to take away their Liberty What need I prove their Practise Is it not proof enough to point at those Men that flit their Habitations rather than subscribe to what I say Even as the Philosopher said nothing but walk'd up and down to prove that there was such a thing as Motion What if I should ask you whether you ever took that Renunciation I think I should stop