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
Bishop with his Presbyters and Deacons is as lawful at least as one Bishop only to a thousand or 500 Churches And I believe that it is in the Power of the King and Parliament to reduce our Episcopacy to that ancient Form And if they do it I will not swear to disobey them if they command my Service under them I was once commissioned among others under the Broad Seal to endeavour such an alteration of the Liturgy c. And before what was done about Episcopacy the Kings Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs sheweth and I will not swear to disobey the King if he command me the like again nor I will not swear universally and mean particularly till the Law-givers so expound themselves 8. I know by what Oaths the Roman Clergy got their Supremacy and mastered Kings and Emperors 9. I know that till Roman Tyranny invaded the Church the Clergy was not put to swear to the Bishops 10. I love but one King in a Kingdom nor any thing that is injurious to him and I am willing to swear Allegiance to my lawful King as I have done and to take his Office as a Constitutive part of the Kingdom But not to twist any other with him by Oaths into the Constitution nor any thing that looks like it especially not to swear to the Church-Governours before the Kings State-Government And now what is the connexion of your Premises and Conclusion The King is the Center of our Happiness c. ergo none that are Natives and Christians and expect protection should once demur whether he may swear to Diocesanes and Lay-Chancellors yea not to endeavour any alteration of their Government by Petition or if the King command them ergo they that doubt of this have even shaken off the Yoke of Subjection ergo they all deserve not only to be forbidden preaching Christ but to be hanged as all do no doubt that have shak'd off the Yoke of Subjection ergo not only the Non-conformists but the Conformists that swear doubtingly should be all hanged Thus differ the Priest and the Levite that pass by the bleeding Church from us wretched Samaritanes Turba gravis paci placidaeque c. As to the Popish malicious Slanders long since by them vented against Geneva c. Beza the Scottish and English Encouragers of Bothwell which you intimate on the by the first are long ago refuted by King James Bishop Jewel Bishop Bilson c. And lately by Dr. Pet. Moulin Junior in his Answer to Philanax Anglicus where he will let you know that Geneva Holland c. shook off their Governours while they were Papists before they turned Protestants And of the later learn more truth from Buchanans History of the Queen of Scots and of Bothwells Murder of the King I am weary of following your Treatise so far I will add but a little more as to your Letters In the first Letter these words astonish me I hope there is not so much Gall and Acrimony in the whole Book Wonderful that any Man should so little perceive what he saith and doth and be so blinded by Self-love as to think he speaketh Oyl and Sugar when he speaketh Fire and Swords You say you find me not so peremptory as to hold Conformity simply and absolutely sinful I pray you could you judge so hardly of me as to think that I left my Ministerial Labours to which I was vowed to escape but that which I account no sin You say Some of my own Books have not an Imprimatur why would you say so before you knew it I know of none of them that want it that were then printed since the Law required it though the Imprimatur be not printed in them But since you have so urged me to print without License I cannot say that the last Book the Defence of my Cure is licensed nor that it is not but if it come without you have taught it the way You so far credit your Neighbour Lee's Report as to give me the advice for restitution of his Horses Charity is not so easie of belief Why did he never make such a demand of me while I lived there in sixteen years space This is like Dr. Boremans printing that it is said I killed a Man in cold Blood with my own Hand but if that be not true I am not the first that have been slandered Very true Whereas I know not that ever I struck one Man in anger except Boys at School in my life nor did I ever kill or wound any Man in War or Peace Nor did I ever take any Mans Horses with my own Hand nor was I ever to my knowledge in Northfield or Kings-norton Parish nor ever with any that were employed about taking up Horses in the War to my knowledge but once which was when the Kings Soldiers had taken up about a thousand in Warwick-shire and 500 in Northamptonshire the Earl of Essex gave a Commission to Colonel Mitton and others to take up some three hundred in the Kings Quarters in Worcester-shire And about twenty Men went three or four times about it of which times I went once with them to see that they committed no abuse by taking from such as they were not warranted to do and they brought away about twenty or less and some were restored and I touch'd not one of them nor was their Guide and I never heard that they that went the two other times which was towards Northfield where and when I had nothing to do with them nor knew what they did took about thirty more which I heard were many of them restored and if your Neighbour had come to me and given me any probability that he had lost by me injuriously it 's like I had repayed it but his slander obligeth me not to restitution I will say no more about your Rule with relation to all that were present on either side when any were wronged in that War Your acquaintance with the Huxters that so readily print and sell unlicensed Books is no direction to me that know them not A few Sheets many will venture on but I know not them that will venture on a large Book lest they be undone by the surprizing of it In your Letter you could find a Categorical Affirmation that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Verb whereas you may see in the Errata of another Book then at the Press because that Book had no Errata prinâ—ed that Verb was misprinted for Wordâ— And if I know not a Verb from a Participle yet that little concerneth our Case in hand And though my own opinion be that the Parts of Speech should be reduced to three c. I will not trouble you with my Gramatical ignorance any further than to tell you that I am contented that you take liberty to judge it as great as you please but that Man should be more temperate in censuring the Errors of the Press Scribe and Author who citeth Dr. Manton then in Prison upon Jude
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
an Answer And is it not as easie with you to contemn another in stead of answering it as that I crave your Answer especially to the first Questions because your Importunity would force me into a hope that at last I have met with the Man though unknown that will procure me the liberty of writing and publishing an Account of my Non-conformity For Charity forbiddeth me till constrained to charge you with such vile Inhumanity and Impudency as publickly to call to a Man for that which you take both for Sin and Impossibility and to reproach him for not printing when you know the Press is shut up from him and know that it were like to be his death or ruine especially when you appeal in defense of the Reasonableness and Equity of your Demand and when you are a Preacher of the Gospel and as much wiser and better than the Non-conformists as your Book importeth Craving your Answer I rest your greatly obliged Servant if you procure what you seem to promise me Ri. Baxter Aug. 18. 1670. AN ANSWER TO Mr. Baxter's first Letter SIR I Receiv'd yours this Afternoon directed to the Author of the Perswasive I will not tell you that shooting at Rovers you have miss'd the Mark. Though I glory not in such kind of Tactica but prefer any plain Sermon I preach before them The main design of of that Essay I hope was not only innocent but commendable To c ham down fiery Spirits not to raise them And to call in your Charitable Assistance not to provoke you Therefore after such candid dealing especially with your self I am not a little surpriz'd with these rough Passages as Desiring your Imprisonment your Death vile Inhumanity and Impudency Reproaching yo◠Accounting my self wiser and better than the Non-conformists besides that Sacrasme now you have met with a Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I hope there is not so much Gall and Acrimony in that whole Book you stumble at Sir I beseech you set a stricter Watch over your Spirit that you offend not in your Tongue Let not your Saul-like Parts elevate you so high as to overlook others I will assure you I have no malignant thoughts towards your own Person or any that are of your Judgment Those that know me will be my Compurgators I had and still have a deeper sense of the gasping condition of our bleeding Church The struglings of her own Children within her Womb I well knew procur'd these Throws If therefore according to the sentiment of my Judgment which I neither receiv'd from extraction or education but from deliberate and impartial study I ventur'd on an Expedient to reconcile them and antidote her utter Deliquium I had thought I might have escaped the Gauntlet and only have been pointed at by this Spit Magnis tamen excidit Ausis If I could discover by the narrowest scrutiny that I was acted with any other Principles than the Fear of God and Honour of the King I would both abhor my self and abandon my Enterprize But till then Dii coeptis aspirate meis I little look'd for this Complaint from you for when Fame lately spread a Report that you would return to your old Province in these Parts I did heartily rejoyce not only in respect of the publick good but that I should be happy in such a Neighbour from whose Torch I might borrow Light to illuminate those dark and opacous Parts which are in my self Before I come to an Answer to your Queries I must premise my hearty thanks in that you have gratified me in one of my Requests by the Retractation of your political Aphorisms The other which you stick at is as modest and as rational As hereafter we must give an Account to him that is ready to judge the Quick and the Dead So what absurdity was it to desire the Reasons of your Judgment since you are pleased to walk Antipodes to us That you who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might extricate us out of the Labyrinth of our Errors if you can make them appear so That so we may come over to you and walk on the safest part of the Globe The Occasion moving me to that boldness was a startling Assertion from a Friend of yours That Conformity is in it self simply and absolutely sinful And was it not time to call in Aid Let this appear and then farewell Tythes How shall I do such wickedness and sin against God I do not find you so peremptory but rather to favour sober painful and conscionable Conformists In which Classis I desire to be found I had thought some Principles of yours formerly laid down had inclin'd you to us Not to mention your Approbation of Dr. Brians 6th Sermon and your late Book wherein you affirm many Catholick Truths Though if I rearch your meaning All things are not therein calculated to the pleasing of the Diocesan Party as you call them And the deluded Proselytes in these Parts are as much exasperated with you on the other hand for your deserting them And as they apprehend too much compliance I am asham'd to stain my Paper with what they do eruct are in their Frenzy-sits As double-minded Men are unstable in all their ways so those are never fix'd that steer their course according to the Notions of Mans Wisdom But to your Queries I 2. Q. Whether I hnow any that will License such a Book as contains the Reasons of Non-conformity And whether it be lawful to print such a Book A. These Queries are captious and fallacious Implying that all Books de sacto are licens'd The contrary whereof is by daily experience evinc'd in Books of the like Argument and against the Royal Society it self Nay some of your own Books are not licens'd And does your Conscience cheek you at this Instant only These Pangs will not be permanent Were I Chaplain to his Grace of Canterbury or the Bishop of London I could give you a more direct Answer to the former and as for the latter you are your own Casuist 3. Q. Whether it be lawful to write against the Laws of the Land A. I am glad you are now so tender Ab initio non fuit sic Far be it from me to advise you to be disobedient to the Laws Better my desire should be frustrated than you should commit the least sin But see that your Obedience be aequabilis commensurate to one Law as well as another and to the same Law at all times There is a Relaxation you well know of the Law sometimes And who knows but Authority if desir'd may dispense with the Letter of the Law in such a Case If you had been always so cautious there had been no need to have complain'd in your next Query of your Imprisonment But upon what Basis you should ground a Promise of security from me I am utterly ignorant Q. 4 5. How you shall be kept out of Goal Whether I desire your Death A. May not this be done
of those that are Modern and English And yet had you no acquaintance with these You say and you ingeminate it That there is not any Non-Conformist but is ready to swear he holds it not lawful to take up Arms against the King Why did so many of them then flit their Habitations five Miles from any Corporation or their own ancient Homes What was the Sum of that Oath was it not plainly and directly against taking up Arms Did it any way hinder Parliament Mens speaking or others peaceable petitioning for such Reformation as is necessary were not those who were commissione'd to administer it ready to declare the sense of it yet down it would not go with many latet aliquid But I find it is with many of you as I have found it experimentally with some who have been troubled in Conscience When I have apply'd the best Balm I could to these tender Souls so that they had nothing to say against their own Peace yet still they would be starting some black doubts against themselves turning their very Shadows into Gorgons that so they might continue in the Valley of Baca. Just so will you find knots in Bulrushes Mysteries in Cabbalistical Titles and Anexes spin Webs to intangle your selves out of your own Imaginations and with Thrushes pinion your own Wings that so you may scrupulously vex your selves You say well in your Book of Conscience That Melancholy is often mistaken for Conscience So I fear this shieness and skittishness of these Men is rather the result of an hot and feavourish Brain than any well-weighed conclusion of a sound Heart But put out the other Clauses out of the Oath let us have no more Oaths of Allegiance to Diocesans or Lay-Chancellors put upon us than Christs Churches had for six or eight hundred years imposed upon them Why do you lay this Injunction upon me and others in my Sphere Are we the King and Parliament Have private Men a Legislative Power Can they reverse and retrench Laws It is very plausible in you to bring all things to the Institutions of Christ and in things doctrinal 't is also necessary But as to what concerns all the Modes of External Policy and Administrations it is not only difficult but impossible Nay I think he may be impleaded of Schism and Singularity that stands up too stifly for the immediate Dispensations especially where they are so uncertain in opposition to the Instrumental teachings and directions of Men. You may find my Ground 1 Cor. 1. 12. It seems you are much troubled at Lay-Chancellors as if they hindered your Conformity by exercising the Power of the Keys in decreeing Excommunications and Absolutions Me thinks a Person of your ingenuity should rest satisfied with that modest declaration of our Rubrick concerning the Censures of the Church in the Preface to the Communion But since you say That Lay-Chancellors exercise the Power of the Keys in Excommunications do they do this of themselves as Lay-men or do they not You see 't is easie to push with your Horns and to evince that you are either ignorant or absurd But I shall only remember you what you cannot but know already That Lay-Chancellors though commonly very knowing in the Civil Law which is an excellent Hand-maid to Divinity yet they excommunicate not as Lay-men but by vertue of those Surrogates who are delegated for this purpose originally by the Bishop himself This Abstraction is not too hard for you to conceive But why are you so incens'd against Lay-Chancellors I 'le warrant you have more kindness for Lay-Elders if they were joyn'd with you in things Sacred as Catechising admission to the Sacrament and the Censures of the Church But as Luther distinguishes of little and great Devils so I think this of Lay-Chancellors is but a Gnat in your way The Camel or Belzebub is Diocesan Bishops The Episcopacy of Bishop Usher you are for and the Episcopacy of Ignatius you say is lawful I am glad you grant this for one of your Brethren maintained to my Face That there is no difference betwixt a Bishop and a Presbyter in Ignatius But you are kinder to Bishops for where there is one I suppose you wish there were many hundreds And if this were allowable we that are minorum gentium as to our own Interest have no cause to oppose it For then it may be you and I might in some time of our Ages commence Bishops But me thinks we should now agree especially if you would call to mind that Maxim in Logick Magis minus non variant speciem If Bishop Vsher were now alive he would give you but small thanks for pressing his Model of Episcopacy if his now the King and Laws are restor'd which he only calculated as that which could be born by the iniquity of the latter times Sequestered Ministers who would gladly then have received a fifth part out of their Revenue would be loth now to be bound up to the same terms The Counsel Bishop Vsher gave to the late King Rather to part with his Life than Episcopacy And his Notes upon Ignatius concerning the division of Asia confuting Dr. Meric Causabon affirming that Episcopacy crept into the Church in the second Century do sufficiently discover his Judgment If Thieves should strip me of all my Cloths I I will rather accept from them my old Coat than go naked yet if the time come that honest Men may come to their Goods I would have all again to a very Shoo-string Let us not take up the old trick and method of the Papists they have given out that some famous Men who liv'd Protestants dyed Papists So let not us extract Presbyterian Government out of the dead Trunks of Episcopal Cedars Calvin seems to excuse his New Government at Geneva Habemus qualecunque Presbyterorum Judicium formam qualem ferebat temporum infirmitas What is there any Sorcery or Necromancy in the word Diocesan As Tertullian once jested De nomine Chameleontis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a modest word in Greek and is it become Babylonish by being rendred into English Beza was more propitious than you are to the Diocesan Bishops of England Fruatur says he ista singulari Dei beneficio quae utinam sit illi perpetua But you think they have too many Parishes under their Inspection and Jurisdiction This is but obliquely to reflect upon former Kings and Statesmen who have allowed such large Provinces Some of them have been much canton'd in latter Ages if we look into our own Stories What think you of Crete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephesus Rome were there not many Parishes in these And I cannot think but as Jerusalem had her Daughters the Cities and Towns adjacent So many Regiones suburbicariae did belong to the Bishops of those great Cities ergo they had their Chorepiscopi to assist them Tell me true were there not Bishops before there wery any Parishes If so Christ never ordained they should be Parochial Do
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
cut off Laud is none of the Question All that I say was that Williams was an Arch-bishop and a Commander for the Parliament in Arms. § 31. When you turn me from Heylins Life of Laud to Heylins History of Presbytery you do but trifle and seek a Subterfuge I justifie not the Presbyterians in that he chargeth on them though you may know what Peter Moulin Prebend of Canterbury in his Answer to Philanax Anglicus hath said about the Forreign Churches But what 's that to the Question whether it was an Episcopal Parliament or a Presbyterian that began the English War will the fault of one excuse the other § 32. As to what you say of the Change of the Puritans since Jewel Andrews c. wrote for them and that they are not such as Ball c. I Answer 1. Is the Discipline changed which you speak of or the whole Chorus which you speak to Was there no Martin-Marprelates then Have we retracted our Doctrine or Consent to the Church Articles or to the Oaths of Allegiance or Supremacy Have we not in 1660. yielded to more than ever Ball or any of the old Non-conformists yielded to Deny it if you can 2. As for personal Charges others will be as ready to requite you with the like But neither you nor they should charge any more than you can prove guilty § 33. You tell me If Hooker were alive he would make such as me to quake so strong should we find his Breath in his deep close and strenuous Arguments I have read him over again and again yet I never observed him to be an Enemy to Monarchy You can find out if not New Worlds yet new Inhabitants and make strange Discoveries Answ A learned Confutator I say not that Hooker or Bilson were Enemies to Monarchy But I say that it was theirs and such Prelatists Principles that led me to what I did and wrote in the Book which I have retracted And must I be put to defend the King against such Men and Principles at the same time when we are charged with that which we oppose And will you indeed cry out of the Discipline of the whole Chorus of Dissenters as not Loyal and at the same time defend such Principles in the Prelatists Come on then I will cite you some of their words send me your defence of them in your next and you shall if I be able have my Reply and I begin with Bishop Bilson because he was the more Learned Man Difference of Christ. Subject c. Pag. 520. he saith Except the Laws of those Realms do permit the People to stand on their right if the Prince would offer that wrong I dare not allow their Arms I busie not my self in other Mens Common-wealths as you do neither will I rashly pronounce all that resist to be Rebels Cases may fall out even in Christian Kingdoms where the People may plead their Right against the Prince and not be charged with Rebellion If a Prince should go about to subject his Kingdoms to a Forreign Realm or change the form of the Common-wealth from Imperie to Tyranny or neglect the Laws established by common consent of Prince and People to execute his own pleasure in these and other Cases which might be named if the Nobles and Commons joyn together to defend their ancient and accustomed Liberty Regiment and Laws they may not well be counted Rebels I never denyed that the People might preserve the Foundation Freedom and Form of their Common-wealth which they foreprized when they first consented to have a King I never said that Kingdoms and Common-wealths might not proportion their States as they thought best by their publick Laws which afterward the Princes themselves may not violate And in Kingdoms where Princes bear Rule by the Sword we do not mean the Princes private Will against his Laws but his Precept derived from his Laws and agreeing with his Laws which though it be wicked yet may it not be resisted by any Subject with armed violence Marry when Princes offer their Subjects not Justice but Force and despise all Laws and practise their Lusts not every or any private Man may take the Sword to redress the Prince but if the Laws of the Land appoint the Nobles as next the King to assist him in doing right and with-hold him from doing wrong then be they licensed by Mans Law and so not prohibited by Gods to interpose themselves for the safety of Equity and Innocency It is easie for a running and railing Head to sit at home in his Chamber and call Men Rebels himself being the rankest Hooker Eccles Polit. lib. 1. § 10. Pag. Ed. ult 21. That which we speak of the Power of Government must here be applied to the Power of making Laws whereby to govern which Power God hath over all and by the natural Law whereto he hath made all subject the lawful Power of making Laws to command whole politick Societies of Men belongeth so properly to the same entire Societies that for any Prince or Potentate of what kind soever upon Earth to exercise the same himself and not either by express Commission immediately and personally receiv'd from God or else by Authority deriv'd at first from their consent upon whose person they impose Laws it is no better than meer Tyranny Laws they are not therefore which publick approbation hath not made so And lib. 8. Pag. 192. Unto me it seemeth almost out of doubt and controversie that every Independent Multitude before any certain Form of Regiment established hath under God Supream Authority full Dominion over it self And Pag. 193. In Kingdoms of this quality the highest Governour hath indeed universal Dominion but with dependency upon the whole entire Body over the several Parts whereof he hath Dominion so that it standeth for an Axiom in this Case The King is Singulis Major Vniversis Minor And Pag. 194. Neither can any Man with reason think but that the first Institution of Kings a sufficient Consideration wherefore their Power should always depend on that from which it did always flow by original influence of Power from the Body into the King is the cause of Kings dependency in Power upon the Body by dependency we mean sub-ordination and subjection ☜ A manifest Token of which dependency may be this As there is no more certain Argument that Lands are held under any as Lords than if we see that such Lands in defect of Heirs fall unto them by Escheat in like manner it doth follow rightly that seeing Dominion when there is none to inherit it returneth unto the Body therefore they which before were Inheritors of it did hold it in dependence on the Body So that by comparing the Body with the Head as touching Power it seemeth always to reside in both fundamentally and radically in one in the other derivatively In one the Habit in the other the Act of Power And The Axiomes of our Royal Government are these Lex facit Regem
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
named them in that whole Book Yet if they be guilty of Non-conformity and Disobedience in our Case I make but little difference 'twixt these I mean them However your Application to a particular Rank of Men of what was spoken to the Non-conformists in general is a transgression from the Laws of Discourse Who gave you Commission to make an Inclosure of that which lay in Common or to limit my meaning without Authority from my words You cannot be ignorant that there are other Non-conformists besides these that are Classical and such that not long since were the more predominant and such that will not conform now to the Church of England yet could then dance after the Pipes of those grand Masters There were but few who were not then tantum non Independents and are they all now of a sudden become Presbyterians sure they are like the Elements which agree in second qualities they are easily exchanged one into another § 3. When I had opened your strange dealing in calling for our Reasons of Non-conformity which you knew we must not publish you can neither hide your disingenuity nor well confess it Conviction you know must go before Confession you say indeed you have opened my strange dealing but if what you hitherto said be called opening 't is like the publishing of Aristotles Physicks Editum non Editum What you have opened is still abstruse and mystical to me Is it strange dealing and disingenious to call for the Reasons of Non-conformity since you say you cannot conform without sin Is it disingenious to learn of you where the sin lies that we may avoid it I know not to this day why you may not publish such Reasons I am sure you take liberty to publish things of as dangerous consequence yet you would make Men believe that you must not write on this Subject lest you should traduce the Government yet you dare traduce the Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo in the difference 'twixt the Magistrates and the Church-Pastors P. 19 27 39 40 41 c. Alas the Church-Censurers without the Civil Arm are but Brutum fulmen yet that Writ is incorporated into our Law Is it not better that the Civil Magistrate should take the excommunicated Person in hand than that he should be delivered over unto Satan and visible Judgments which in the Primitive Times followed Anathema and Maranatha Before King Charles the first High Sheriffs took an Oath to assist and be helpful to all Ordinaries and Commssioners of Holy Church as often as should be required You dre affirm that Pastors have the sole power of Discipline and he that exercises an Authority over his Neighbours Churches is an Vsurper Is not this to traduce Government You dare say that Kings may not be excommunicated unless perhaps in some rare Case pray who shall be Judges of that Case You rightly observe the tendency of the Romanists Doctrine in that Particular I will not say you leave a gap open for the same end You dare say that Magistrates forbidding faithful able Ministers to preach the Christian Faith where there are not enough more to do the Work sin hainously against Christ and the Souls of Men. You dare say that Lay-Chancellors are such a sort of Church-Government that you will never swear not to endeavour to alter it yet I am disingenious to call for your Reasons of Non-conformity Once more you dare joyn Popery and Church-tyranny together and ' its easie to discern who you mean by Church-tyrants You dare speak against a lofty Faction that perswade the People that there must be no King any longer than their Dominion is upheld Such as shall twist the very grandure of their Function by Oaths into the Constitution of the State Tell me no more that I am disingenious in desiring your Reasons of Non-conformity for then you should traduce Government § 4. In my last I nam'd some palpable Contradictions but you pass them by in silence Had you shewed me one Contradiction properly called so you should have seen I would not have wasted my Ink in any other things before I had acknowledged my inadvertency 'T is like a Female Impotency to resolve to have the last word with whom soever we contend This is like Valentine and Orson and Knights Errant that boast of Battels and Victories in such Fields where they never drew Sword and slew such Enemies who never were in rerum natura 'T is true I did contradict you but this must not pass for a culpable Contradiction shew me any one and you shall have another Answer in the mean time your Atchievments shall pass for a Rodomantado Ostentation You deal craftily in speaking interrogatively for a Question cannot be false Some Lines before you accus'd me of Ignorance and now of Craft Are not you often guilty of the same Craft by arguing frequently by way of Question But Sir consider your Dogmatical Aphorism Cannot a Question be false What think you of this Will you cease to preach false Doctrine and slander your Brethren Are not negative and affirmative Interrogations in Scripture equivalent to plain Negations and Affirmations nay do not they vehementius negare affirmare If you will be coining more Aphorisms you should examine them better before you obtrude them on others § 5. I had said that of those 1800 silent Ministers how many of them have much more learning than your English Books have taught them You reply Do you mean good Mr. Sam. Hildersham Mr. Fisher Mr. Brian Mr. Wilsby Mr. Reignolds Mr. Baldwin Sen ' or Mr. Spilsbury You have reckon'd up several of my Neighbours but not all if you would put me upon the proof of my words you should have given me leave to be my own Accountant It is Answer enough to your arguing you have rekon'd without your Host I could give you another List of such Men that have leap'd out of their mechanical Shops into the Pulpit If these had learning enough to pass your Hands in Ordination yet were they well examin'd they would scarce befound fit to teach a petty School or be Interpreters to some Latin Mendicant As for those Persons you mention I have as much esteem for them as you can have but not for their Non-conformity yet for their gravity sobriety learning peaceableness May not I say that Abraham was the Father of the Faithful and David a Man after Gods own Heart though the one was pusillanimous in Aegypt and the other had his falls May not I say that Venus was beautiful though she had her Mole But this is a usual Stratagem with you to possess particular Persons with an opinion that I detract from them though I named them not As this is bad arguing Syllogizare ex particulari so 't is worse Morality Those which I intended have your suffrage You had rather hear a meer English Divine than an Hebrew or Syriack Sot You are I see for the liberty of prophesying 't is
Ministers Yet you say Sect. 7. Where I was acquainted the Witnesses that swore to the Scandals of the outed Ministers were reputed as honest Men as any in the Place and they got nothing by their Oaths What honest Men and charge the Sequestred Ministers of Scandal upon their Oaths no more justly and truly than my Neighbours have charged you with taking their Horses Whereas you affirm you was never in my Parish nor never took Horse in your life I could say much from my Neighbours in confirmation of their Charge for since I check'd them for putting me upon such an odious Imployment they brought a creditable Person in this Neighbourhood who asserts much of that they say Sir you gave the first occasion to this harsh and unpleasing discourse by saying that your Imprisonment came from the Place of my Ministry thereby tacitely impeaching my Innocency But Manus de Tabula I shall touch no more upon this except you provoke me and draw me by the Head and Shoulders into this Field Only your prementioned honest Witnesses puts me in mind what you have printed concerning some honest Conformists What Conformists and honest too when you say Conformity is an avowed deliberate sin i. e. As I conceive is a sin against Knowledge which the Scripture calls a Presumptuous Sin and if I mistake not it is such a Sin that borders upon that against the Holy-Ghost Honest Conformists then in your Dialect must be tantamount to Honest Sinners But who are the Honest Conformists are they not such that swear declare subscribe one thing and speak and act another Like Ephraim half bak'd or like the Laodiceans neither hot nor cold So many Simons within the Walls of the Church like those Priests in time of Jeroboam that said Put us into the Priests Office that we may eat a piece of Bread So these conform that they may enjoy the Patrimony of the Church yet make you believe their Hearts are with you Are not these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have an Heart and an Heart like Tumblers squint-ey'd look one way and aim another § 17. I mentioned your words in a late Book I never medled with the War till after Naseby Fight not a true word say you yet your words were as you acknowledge I never entred into the Army till after Naseby Fight ad Populum Phaleras I had thought such a Fly had not been worthy the notice of your Eagle-Eyes you will get little by this ficulna Evasio this little poor Criticism It seems you medled with the War by your Prayers Counsel Sermons and Endeavours though you entred not as a Soldier into the Army into the high Places of the Field But if your Confession to Mr. Bagshaw be sincere I shall look upon you as Innocent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When I call on you to retract your State-Aphorisms you mention one and ask me whether I mean that May not a Mans Arm be sound and all the other Members be leprous gouty and rotten If one or more of your Aphorisms be sound must they all needs be so Was Bishop Abbot a Presb. implying he was not I dare not contradict you for I am sure you said before that a Question cannot be false What Arch-bishop Abbot was or whom he favoured most I list not to enquire let his Dust rest quietly for me There are those that will tell you that it is no Paradox for a Bishop to be a Presbyter What think you of the Bishop of Lincoln He turn'd his back on the Conformable Ministers and where the Puritans were conveen'd he would not admit any Proceedings in Leicester-shire against them But said He was sure they would carry all at last They are the words of your own Author and is it any wonder to see this Man in Arms against the King He was no more truly Episcopal than Julian after his Apostacy was a Christian And why may not Bishops be Presb as well as Presb Episcopal for you chide me in traducing the Presbyterians when I spake only to the Non-conformists And it was Episcopacy say you that the present Non-conformists mov'd to obtain What you say of the Prelatists that they began to offend the King by striving against his Will I shall meet with the same again and again The Prelatists are much in your thoughts it seems you encounter them so often though you charge them with such things that three parts of the Non-conformists will be their Compurgators You cannot deny but that you printed about the Savoy Business that which you understand not I printed what I found in print and you disclaim that Book wherein the Savoy Business is describ'd And in stead thereof you give another Narrative I thank'd you for your pains but I am a Fool for my Ingenuity How shall I please you I know not that I differ in any Point of Worship Discipline or Ceremonies from Dr John Reynolds I do not find that he inveighed against Diocesans or Prelates Did not he live and die in the full Conformity with the Church of England There are those alive yet of the same Colledge who can tell you that on his Death-bed he received Absolution according to our Liturgy Were he now alive I believe he would be as hard a Maul to Schismaticks as he was to the Papists He would not say as you do I will be a Non-conformist a little longer rather than give Baptism or the Lords Supper Absolution and use the justifying Assertion at Funerals 24. When I had beyond all Contradictions prov'd to you that it was Episcopal Men in England that raised the War against the King you do the poorliest put it off which you cannot confute This is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which runs through the whole woof of your discourse and I said the less to this Assertion because I look'd upon it as the strangest Parodox in Historical Transactions that ever saw the Light A serious Confutation would have shew'd me to be in a Delirium I thought the Jesuite might as well justifie that the whole Body of Popery is contain'd in our 39 Articles as you can prove that Episcopal Men were beginners of the War I said but a little out of abundance of store not knowing what to say first yet you answer not that little Who knows not that many Episcopal Parliaments cryed out still of Monopolies Liberty Arminianism Lauds Innovations c. Was it not as true that the Spirit of Presb was stirring in those Parliaments though not known by those Names There were many troublesome Members in Parliament in Queen Elizabeth's days promoting the Discipline for the Scottish Ministers who had been banished Scotland did great hurt in England Did you never hear that when those Parliaments were in full cry against the Duke of Buckingham as the source of all their grievances that they secretly mov'd him that Dr. Preston should be made Arch-bishop and then all Complaints should be hush'd Those Popular Patriots