of stipulation betwixt us to let down the Flood-gates and shut the Gates of Janus yet as if to use his own words he had pin'd me fast to a Wall where he might inflict the Correction of as many Stripes as he pleas'd without either resistance or repercussion from me He tells the World in print what Toys I had written And in several other Books as also in the last I have seen for being immers'd in the Country and overgrown with Arcadian Moss I converse with few that are new he acquaints his Readers how unsatisfactory my endeavours have been though he answers neither one Chapter or Page in the whole Book that so much offends him Let equal Judges blame me if I have transgressed against his fourth Letter or my Answer to the same For he hath confuted his own Reasons and first brake the Condition of a Hypothetical Compact Since he goes on to reproach our Mother and all her dutifal Sons is not this enough to force a dumb Child to speak Semper ego Auditor tantum nunquamne reponam I must do him right He strikes 〈◊〉 through my Loins alone but with the same Dart wounds my Betters As if I should have this allay in my fall to have good company It matters not what we say for as if we were meer Shrimps and Striplings to this Goliah whiffling Currs to this Majestick Lyon he holds on his way without once stooping or looking aside to any Reasonings of ours And which is as great blemish to his Ingenuity he gathers up the vomit and Venom of all the male-contents and Incendiaries that have pestered the Church since the breaking forth of this Schism He puts his Paint and Varnish upon them and then obtrudes these weather-beaten Superannuated Wares for fresh Merchandise as if they had never been blown upon before He rallies those Troops which have been routed and baffled and furbishes those Arguments which have been answered again and again by the Divines and Worthies of our Church So that there will never be an end of these Disputes if there be such a Circulation in the management of them If they revive and rise again as oft as they are overthrown and disarm'd and with the Hydra's Head grow as fast as they are cut off No need of new Answers to such Books But as Dr. Whitby did prudently transcribe an Answer to Mr. Crescy's Exomologesis out of our own reformed Champions so 't is enough to confute and retund the force of such Rapsody's in opposing what others have said already Old Diseases must be rebuk'd and cur'd by old Remedies I fear that those who re-inforce old Cavils without taking notice what others have said to evade them do either delight in wrangling or which is worse with-hold the Truth in unrighteousness As for the Book it self I leave it to the Animadversions of those that are concern'd in an Answer if it deserve any yet I cannot forbear some few Strictures or Remarks 1. As to the Circumstance of time when it came forth even then when we were almost overwhelmed with fears from our common Enemies He had pleaded before for a License and Dispensation As if the printing such a Book would be against Law and Conscience But when he perceived an Interim the Laws were hush'd and silent Conscience with the Lord Chancellors Gown was quickly thrown behind the door And when we were weak and sore ready to fall a Prey to the Roman Fowler he help'd forward our misery by laying his Loyns upon us too So that if the King of Babylon be not strong enough The People of the Land are ready to weaken the Hands of the People of Juda Ezra 4. 4. He accorded with Mr. Hobs as to the occasion of the late War Both of them agree to father the Brat upon some speculative Disputes and Differences concerning some Doctrinal Points that they might the better undervalue the Vniversities and disgrace the Divines of those Times So he had rather promote the Interest of Rome by shattering our Power than miss of his Will in seeing our ruine I hope that God who has been a Bulwork to his People a Wall of Brass and a Wall of Fire about his Church will still infatuate the Counsels and Contrivances both of Manassey and Ephraim and preserve his own Juda. How can we depend upon their Kindness that with the Samaritans will carry it far in our Prosperity but if Antiochus set upon us will joyn their Forces with him and disown us in our extremity 2. He does not onely magnify the power of the People and this is ominous at least suspicious as if the Patronage of Churches and Bishopricks were wholly in them but he says too That neither Magistrates nor Bishops can silence Ministers once ordain'd What intrenching is this upon the Kings Ecclesiastical power as if it were less now than it was once in the Kings of Juda. This seems to me not onely to be contrary to Titus 1. 11. Whose mouths must be stopped but to Mr. Baxter himself in his Book of Confirmation pag. 87. Ministers cast out by the Magistrate are bound to obey him and to give place to others if his error tend not to the destruction of the Church and bestow their labours in some other Country or in some other kind at home His mind changes with the Moon yet he is constant to his first Hypothesis his endeavour to pull down the Fabrick of our Church which is so excellently built that it is the wonder of all Lands None can justly be offended at it only seditious and factious Sectaries at home Jesuits abroad and he that spawn'd them both are vex'd and gnash with their Teeth to see her prosperity But mauger all their attempts If our sins do not demolish the same it will appear to be rooted in Adamant and built upon such a Rock that neither the winds or tempests of those men united together nor the Floods and Waves from the Dragon himself shall ever overturn or drown it when we know not what to do yet we will trust on that God whose outgoings are seen in the Mount 3. How Tragically does be cry out against the Translation of some Texts in the Epistles Gospels and Psalmes as if they had never been observ'd before whereas he might also have taken notice that Mr. Hooker Mr. Nicholas Fuller and others have given a satisfactory Account how these places may be reconcil'd He that had one dram of Candor would have sate quiet at the seet of the Gamaliels without vexing the People with such needless scruples If he have a mind to trouble himself with more various Readings of Scripture his Friend Mr. Capell will lead him a dance thorow such Meanders that he will not easily extricate himself out of them What if Mr. Baxter had two Bibles In the one Job's Wife said Curse God and dy In the other Bless God and die In the one Christ said to the Fig-tree no man eat Fruit of thee hereafter for the
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
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
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 Triâ—â—h Nay he that overcomes in this Amphiâ—â—â—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
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
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
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
The Kings Grant of any favour made contrary to Law is void Rex nihil potest nisi quid jure potest And Pag. 210. When all which the Wisdom of all sorts can do is done for the devising Laws in the Church it is the general consent of all that giveth them the Form and Vigour of Laws without which they could be no more to us than the Counsels of Physitians to the Sick well might they seem as wholesom admonitions and instructions but Laws could they never be without the consent of the whole Church to be guided by them Whereunto both Nature and the Practise of the Church of God set down in Scripture is found every way so fully consonant that God himself would not impose no not his own Laws upon his People by the Hand of Moses without their free and open consent O fearful Passage And P. 220. It is a thing even undoubtedly natural that all free and independent Societies should themselves make their own Laws and that this Power should belong to the whole not to any certain part of a Politick Body And P. 221. For of this thing no Man doubteth namely that in all Societies Companies Corporations what severally each shall be bound unto it must be with all their assents ratified Against all equity it were that a Man should suffer detriment at the Hands of Men for not observing that which he never did either by himself or by others mediately or immediately agree to And P. 205. If Magistrates be Heads of Church they are of necessity Christians as if no Magistrates but Christians were Chief Governours of the Church which is meant by Heads And P. 218 223 224. What Power the King hath he hath it by Law The Bounds and Limits of it are known The entire community giveth order c. P. 223. As for them that exercise Power altogether against Order although the kind of Power which they have may be of God yet is their exercise thereof against God and therefore not God otherwise than by permission as all injustice is P. 224. Usurpers of Power whereby we do not mean them that by violence have aspired unto Places of highest Authority but that use more Authority than ever they did receive in form and manner afore-mentioned such Usurpers thereof as in the exercise of their Power do more than they have been authorized to do cannot in Conscience bind any Man to obedience ☜ And Pag. 194. May a Body-politick then at all times withdraw in whole or in part the Influence of Dominion which passeth from it if inconveniences do grow thereby It must be presumed that Supream Governours will not in such case oppose themselves and be stiff in detaining that the use whereof is with publick detriment c. Sir I do not by reciting it dissent from every word that I cite but I am against Mr. Hookers Popular Fundamentals themselves and desire you to let me know whether these be the Prelates Principles which you defend And for an Exposition of Mr. Hooker remember that Sir Edwin Sandys was his Pupil and chief Bosom-friend But you say you have read his Book over and over and therefore it is not from ignorance of what he wrote that you become a defender of him I suppose you are not ignorant that these are the very Principles which I will not say the Long Parliament but the very Rump and Regicides went upon that Power is originally in the People and escheateth to them and that the King is Singulis Major but Vniversis Minor c. See Parkers Observations 1642. If I were writing to such as Mr. Walton who would tempt Men to question whether the 8th Book be not corrupted I would tell them 1. That the Passage in the first Book is the Sum of all the rest and sheweth that they came from the same Author 2. Dr. Spencer was not a Person so to be suspected as one that would befriend a corrupted Copy 3. I can yet give you the Testimony of one of the famousest Men in England for Learning in the Laws and Integrity who had long ago a Copy in M. S. agreeing with the printed Copy 4. Bishop Guuden dedicated it to the King and saith That even the eighth Book is interlined in many places with Mr. Hookers own Characters as owned by him and he proveth it by other Reasons And the same Bishop Gauden saith P. 18. He admirably expresseth the original of all Laws And yet Bishop Carlton Treat of Jurisdiction Pag. 12. saith This I observe the rather because some of the Popes Flatterers of late as others also to open a wide gap to Rebellions have written That the Power of Government by the Law of Nature is in the Multitude I conjecture that Mr. Hooker was the chief Man whom he meant by others And his foresaid Pupil and Friend was far from being a Presbyterian as his Europae Speculum sheweth and yet it 's well known how close he stuck to Abbot's Party and how great a Man he was in Parliaments for the Subjects Liberty and the restraint of Monarchy And even Bishop Gauden his last Publisher saith Pag. 4. of his Life This is certain that the strength of the Church of England was much decayed and undermined before it was openly battered partly by some superfluous illegals and unauthorized Innovations in Point of Ceremony which some Men affected to use in publick and impose upon others which provoked People to jealousie and fury even against things lawful every Man judging truly that the measure of all publick Obedience ought to be the publick Laws ☜ Partly by a supine neglect in others of the main Matters in which the Kingdom of God the peace of Conscience and the Churches Happiness do chiefly consist while they were immoderately intent upon meer Formalities and more zealous for an outward conformity to those Shadows than for that inward or outward conformity with Christ in Holy Hearts and unblamable Lives which must adorn true Religion To which he adds the Testimony of Dr. Holsworth So that it is a thing notorious and past contradiction that the Arminianism Innovations and supposed excesses and exorbitances of one part of the Prelatists gave occasion to the other part then accounted the Church and the more Protestant to vent their displeasure and fear in many Parliaments and at last to take up Arms and when they found themselves too weak to invite the Scottish Presbyterians to their Aid who fell at last into the Hands of the Sectaries And therefore I excuse or justifie none of the Parties but those that say that the beginners of the War against the King are guilty of his death as well as they that kill'd him must confess that it was the Prelatists or they must be impudent And therefore I again advise you to forbear the defence of Hooker and such Conformists and call them first to repentance who were first of the English in taking up Arms against the King § 34. It 's well you disclaim
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
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
your career that you would not act the part so jovially Militis tam gloriosi You say there is something else in that Declaration as not to endeavour alteration of Government in Church c. But this makes me to nauseate your Principles as much as the former What Peace can be expected whilst Men in effect tell their Governours they will let them alone whilst they can do no otherwise but when they have an opportutunity they 'l throw them out of the Saddle Shall you not say you endeavour the alteration of Government by Lay-Chancellors Yes by petition as becomes Subjects if you do not bring a Sword in the other hand But you must do it in your Places that is in your Ministry You must pray and preach them down If you turn Soldiers you must fight them down So the old Covenant Evasion will stand you in little stead You sent me to the Confessions of Forreign Churches to learn what their Discipline was I gave you some Instances of their practise and I could have given you many more as in Prague and other Places Are not these the best Commentary on their practise Sir what think you of these disciplinarian Principles If Princes hinder the Discipline they are Tyrants and may be depos'd The Supreme Magistrate must have no place in Synodical Meetings unless he be chosen for an Elder You know then what follows So that it has not been suggested amiss That the Genevian Principles make those in whom they are rooted Enemies to the Power and guidance of all Sovereign Princes That the Principles of Presbyters are Tyranical and Antimonarchical That Puritans and Sectaries though two of them scarcely agree in what they would have yet they are haters of Government and they would have the Kings Power extinguish'd in matters Ecclesiastical and limited in Civil I shall the less value publick Confessions since I call to mind what a glorious King the Long Parliament promised to make our late blessed Sovereign If any should deny now that this King was fought against by the same Men and murdered and for a proof should send me to their Declarations how Posterity may be cheated by this way of arguing I know not I shall never so far baffle and hoodwink my own knowledge and sad experience as to believe them I took the same way to convince you That Episcopal Men being faithful to their Principles could not be the beginners of the late War because our Liturgy Catechism Articles Homilies are against such practises Then you even pitied my poor silly kind of defence You send me often to Rushworth Heylin and lay much stress on Du Moulins Answer to Philanax though I have read him all over yet I find not that he does patronize your Cause at all His design is and he makes it out that Popish Tenents lead to Rebellion but may not other Men have that Fire-brand in their Tails though they look quite a contrary way But see your own partiality when I refer you to Sions Plea Travers Bancroft Sir Thomas Aston that you might see the Discipline and nauseate it as well as I You check me and reject them I may allude to the words of God himself I hope without offence Is your way equal is my way unequal Our own Brats it seems are beautiful and others of the same Symmetry are deform'd 37. After you had said the War was not founded in Theological differences but in Political and Law-Controversies I inferr'd that you intended to excuse the Divines If this was not suitable to your mind pray pardon me But since you say the difference was not Theological pray review your own words The extirpation of Piety was the great design Many able Ministers silenced Lectures suppress'd the Lords-day reproach'd and devoted to pastimes a multitude of Humane Ceremonies took place This was the Work which we took up Arms to resist Those that scruple the lawfulness of our War did not scruple the lawfulness of subverting our Churches among us Were not these things Theological Yet for these you took up Arms speak no more of Political Lawdifferences As if States-men were only in the fault Did not you say before that the Quarrel was begun by Episcopal Men whereof some were Arminian Anti-Arminian and were not these differences Theological Should I insult now and say Are you fit to torture the Press and make it groan with so numerous a Progeny of Books and yet do so grosly contradict your self 40. You confess your Error in denying Dr. Manton to have written upon Jude and I confess my misnomore of John for Cornelius Burges I was a stranger to this Cornelius until these latter days and could scarce believe he could be the Author of so Orthodox a Book If we be thus ingenious we shall come near together at last 41. This Section is spent about taking up Arms but the latter Clause of the Oath does most stick with you and the word endeavour much troubles you but if we look upon it in reference to former Transactions it must be reasonably understood of a tumultuous and arm'd Endeavour and this has as I am inform'd been declar'd by the Judges who are the true Interpreters of the Law As King Charles the first told them Anno 1628. and may not the Justices in the Country declare what was the sense of the Judges If every word in an Oath must be strain'd to the most unfavourable sense and no Interpreters be allowed to explain it it is the best way for us to turn Quakers and not to swear at all Not in Christs sense but theirs for 't is easie to turn the plainest Oaths into Snares How shall it be known that Men by vertue of the Covenant do not hold themselves oblig'd to subvert Ecclesiastical Government by Bishops if it be unlawful to swear not to endeavour the Alteration of the Government Then they may lie at catch to play their former Game over again and who knows but there is so much pleading to keep this Sally-port open to this purpose This bogling makes me think your Retractation is not so sincere as St. Austins and then 't is no wonder you fall short of his Glory As for those Titles of want of ingenuity not understanding what I say O happy Quieter of Conscience They are so common that like those that live near the falling of Nilus though it roar never so much they take little notice of it so I am inur'd to your Buffetings that I am almost turn'd into a Callum 44. Your refusal of that Oath it seems is bottom'd on this That Lay-Chancellors make up the Church-Government which is not to be altered I think it will not be easie to prove this and I am sure I never yielded it to you They may be appendants to which are not the essential parts of a Government If you peruse the Oath 1640. which occasioned so much dust at that time you will find the Church-Governours set down at large Arch-bishops
Country People do not dote upon such as take their Tithes Therefore if they cannot be avenged on their Parsons any other ways they will leave them in their Pulpits by themselves CAP. IV. The Indulgence Confutes our Books which have been written in the behalf of Conformity BEsides other Malignant Influences which the sad Comet of a Toleration sheds abroad Though it cuts our hearts deep enough to have our People ravished out of our Bosoms and decoy'd out of our Assemblies For these are our glory And you know who said it that he had rather die than that his glorying in the progress of the Gospel should be made void yet there is another fatal disaster which attends the motion of that Monster Some have endeavoured by their Pens to vindicate their Mother-Church from the Imputation of being an Harlot and have asserted that she requires nothing that is sinful in order to her Communion How this has been manag'd in an Argumentative and Perswasive way How the Policy Government and Liturgy of the Church have been defended you are not ignorant and other Learned and Pious men are abundantly satisfied But now on a suddain some there are who being sheltered under the Command of this Toleration as if they were men of Gath have with one breath blow'd away all the Paper that hath been written One tells the world in Print He that thinks that such toyes as Mr. Fulwood Mr. Stileman Mr. Hinckley c. should satisfie them He thinks contemptibly of their Vnderstandings But Sir Is this a sufficient Answer to all those Books to call them toys without attempting any thing in particular against them Who will care what Volumes were written against him if the meer calling them toys were an Orthodox Confutation When you disputed in the Schools would you have taken it for a good Answer if your Respondent had Nick-nam'd your Argument and cry'd nugae As if he had triumph'd before the Victory Yet here is a Thrasonical Fencer comes upon the Stage looks scornfully cryes pish And then his deluded followers who are no small number take it for granted That whatever has been said for Conformity is quite overthrown But he goes on Let him procure us leave but to publish our Reasons against Conformity and then let him tell us that we were better Conform when he hath answered them 'T is easie to talk when none must Confute him and to brave it against one whose tongue is tyed You may imagine this man standing with his hands upon his sides strutting and vaunting as if he would beat down all before him with the fierce aspect of his Eyes As if he would fly over the Alps had he but the wings of an Hawk and that he would hew us all in pieces had he but Scanderberg's Sword Let him but procure us leave to publish our Reasons against Conformity The man is grown modest and mannerly He has done as much as this amounts to formerly without asking leave But what need is there of elaborate Reasons against toyes must Cannons be planted against a Paper-wall Are there any Laws so Draconical Severe and Keen as to hinder any man from answering toyes Or has this Champion nothing else to do had he leave but to encounter Flies Non vacat exigius c. one would think He could shew as many feats as a Mountebank's man if his hands were untied or that he had strange Discoveries in his Budget only the mouth of it is seal'd up and tied with a Gordian knot He complains that his Tongue is tyed If he had spoken the truth their had not been much loss to this part of the World Had his tongue been tyed with a Cable-Rope to his Jaws Ill betide him that should cut it for by so doing he would have loosed a Chain that had hamper'd a wild Beast and pluck't up a Floodgate that would indanger another Deluge Those that have known this Author for above these thirty years never knew him subject to this Infirmity or once guilty of such a Distemper His tongue has been rolling in his mouth continually And ever and anon like Mount Aetna has belch'd forth some wildfire wherewith he has scorch't those that stood in his way this is not that Ignitum Eloquium which was said to be in St. Bernard His tongue has been like a troubled Sea casting up dirt and mire into the face of the Church He has been no more Tongue-ty'd than some of those poor wretches in Bedlam that rave day and night or some Impetuous chiding Women whose tongues do seldom take any rest longer than they are hush't and silenc'd or as it were ty'd to their good Behaviour by a dead Sleep I am sure you read better Books and place your time better than to stoop to Canting Gibberish But we in the Country either for want of Money to buy the Volumes of the Greek and Latine Fathers or else want of Skill to understand them or leisure to read them are forc't to take up with Pamphlets in our Mother-tongue such as the Pedlars furnish us with at our Doors Among others this Tongue-ty'd Scribe furnishes us with the greatest plenty His pregnant Invention voids a Book almost every Month. He is as fruitful as a Rabbit Nay He tells the world he made some of them as that of the Grotian Religion in four or five days He had little cause to say 'T is easie to talk where none must confute whereas we do not find that he either fears Laws or Men. Nor can any man give him a word but he has receiv'd three for it You may as easily bind the Influences of Orion or stop the ebbing or flowing of the Sea as tye his tongue or be a Remora to his Pen in the career of Writing But Quid tanto dignum feret hic promissor hiatu what must we expect when this Mountain this Behemoth shall groan and bring forth Some Masculine Offspring sure If so It is more than all the Non-Conformists have hatch'd these hundred years T. C. saw as far into this Controversie as R. B. yet what said he which did not receive a full and Adaequate Answer from Archbishop W. Others have but lick't up his Vomit It may be with Bolsech or Aretine this great Undertaker may snort out his foam and be-dirt us with his Reproaches But if neither he nor his might have a Toleration of all Religions until they can evince by Dint of Argument that they cannot have Communion with our Church without Sin so that there is a Necessity to come out of her and separate from her we need not fear that our peace and quiet should be disturb'd either by the lowing of the Oxen on the one hand or the braying of the Asses on the other But Sir Take notice of his Threatners Ingenuity and Candour He would make the world believe his tongue is ty'd He cannot Print his Sentiments on this Subject I am inform'd and I dare ingage to make it good That after