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
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
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
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
there was such a fatality in it that after I had beseech'd her Ladiship that I might convey him to some House of his Fathers and this not being yielded unto but I was intreated to keep him longer I could not preserve the Walls of my House from being broken in the night time this is this must be for a lamentation I presume you had not pour'd this Vinegar into my Wound had I not been your Remembrancer about your taking the Horses of Will. Lees. And though you deny the Fact both he and his Wife offer to swear it They say they followed you to Coventry and obtain'd an Order from the Committees there to have the Horses restor'd but you refused to obey it Nay they followed you to London and and at Mr. Foley's House came to your Bed-Chamber If their Relation be false or your Memory fail I cannot help it Many and many a time they desir'd me to write unto you for some satisfaction towards maintaining them in their poor decrepit Age. You confess you came into the Kings Quarters in those Parts to take Horses ergo Retract again For in your late Book you say you medled not with the War until after Naseby Fight yet you pray'd and preach'd to the Coventry Garrison Could you forbear to besprinkle your Prayers and Sermons with some of those Principles which after carried you into the Field Although I moved you to retract your Political Aphorisms yet 't was only such as were erroneous and dangerous to our Peace That which you mention about an unlimited Power in Princes or universal Obedience in Subjects even to turn Mahumitans if they command I do as much abhor in the Leviathan as I did dislike those Rotations and fond Principles of Government in the Oceana ergo you might have sav'd the labour of your Dilemma Austin did not retract all that ever he wrote How does it follow I account it my chiefest preferment to preach the Gospel ergo you ask me whether this Gospel which I preach be the unlimited Power of Princes Sure you think I live not in England but in Turkey or else that I am an errand Stranger to the Nature and Latitude of that Embassage which is committed to my trust Well! Injoy your own pleasing Conceit You will be a Gnostick do what I can This is not very stranger For you conclude that since Arch-bishop Abbot refus'd to License Dr. Sybthorpes Book I must suppose him to be a Presbyterian And because I say the King is the Center of our Happiness ergo I must say None must demur to swear to Diocesans or Lay-Chancellors and that those that petition for an alteration of their Government if the King command must not preach The Consequent is not here question'd but the Consequence and your Metaphysical Head will hardly find Enthymems enough to make it good Since you so often tell me in your Letter of the Presbyterians as if you were their great Patron and would set them against me though under that Name I never disturb'd them to gratifie your importunity take my naked Thoughts Many of them I think are good sober religious Men especially such as are deluded and seduc'd into that Sect Errours but if they be Gerrones Men devoted to a Party and addicted to a distinct Government from that under which we live accounting themselves oblig'd to the endeavouring the pulling down Episcopacy establish'd by Law and to set up Presbyterian Government in the Church against the consent of the Supreme Magistrate I think such a Presbyterian quatenus such in the Kingdom of England as things now stand is neither a good Man nor a good Subject but is rather factious seditious schismatical As for your large Narrative concerning the Savoy Transactions wherein you inform my nescience or negative Ignorance for I was not bound to know every Secret of that Assembly I thank you for it I only took notice of what was reveal'd to the World in Print And I heartily wish the Result thereof had been the same with that of Hampton-Court But I perceive the older the World grows the more stiff and inflexible Men are in their own Notions and Opinions Your non-compliance then seems to me as pernicious as Bezâ—'s heat at the Colloquy at Poissy I had almost said as the abrupt breaking up of the Treaty at Vxbridge I wish some such Men as Dr. John Reynolds had been the Commissioners who might have suppl'd and oyl'd your Wheels and so have allayed the starkeness of your Joynts I will pray for you still in the words of Optatus Vtinam qui jam malam viam intraverant agnito peccato super se reverterentur revocarent quam fugarent Pacem Is not the Roman Eagle ready to prey and quarry upon us all And shall we scatter our selves into Parties and crumble and divide our selves into small Gobbets as if we would facilitate our own Captivity and fit our selves for her Talons You are at much expence of pains to clear the Non-conformists of the guilt of the late War A very few of a Multitude were ingaged in it You lay this Brat at the doors of Bilson Abbot Hooker Of an Episcopal Parliament not above one Presbyterian among four hundred Parliament Men An Episcopal Army Episcopal Lords and Episcopal Lieutenants of Counties I had thought currente Rota whilst your hand was in you would have said that the Regicides had been Episcopal too Sir I do now perceive that Cataline was a Fool If he had laid the Conspiracy against Rome upon Tully might not he have gone free But I foresee also that in process of time it is like to fall out with the late unnatural War as it did with the Gunpowder-Treason Cecil and the Puritanes were accused for this by the Papists And the other though acted but yesterday and by whom is too fresh in our Memories is like to be father'd on Episcopal Men Or else like Filius Populi it will be hard to find the true Father or like Nilus the true Original Give me leave to use the words of a good Author Primo accusant Rei ut crimina in siletium mitterent sua vitam infamare conati sunt alienam ut cum possint ab innocentibus argui innocentes arguere studuerunt Ahab told Elijah Thou art he that troubleth Israel 1 Kings 18. 17. If Episcopal Men began and carried on that War and Presbyterians were free I had almost said Sit anima mea cum Presbyterianis For I hate nothing more than Rebellion But sure you were too credulous and easie to be deceiv'd by your Informer were they Episcopal Men that cry'd To your Tents O Israel That preach'd Curse ye Meroz first voted and then fought against the King If they were they were degenerous from the English Episcopacy They did not keep close to our Church which were my words to our Articles our Canons our Liturgy and our Homilies If they were Episcopal Men they had found out some new model'd Episcopacy I will
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
for what I said than meer hear-say 53. Here you repeat concerning the Oath of non-endavouring the Alteration of Government But as you say nothing but what hath been said before so I have nothing to say but what I have said already until something be produc'd de novo 54. Who it is that does most to drive people from the Parish Churches I am satisfied by experience and whether all Nonconformist Dissenters be such children of hell as you describe them Methinks you are like a waspish or cholerick Disputant who being impatient of contradiction and having spent his stock of reason falls to chiding and supplies the want of argument with the overflowing of the gall and 't is no wonder you begun to faulter and rage at the latter end of the day after so tedious a Journey I mean so long a discourse But when you are refreshed revolve with your self in your retirement and solitude 1. Whether we that now bear the heat of the day I might ask you according to your procedure whether you mean me do drive men from the Parish Churches 2. Whether I describe dissenters all of them to be the children of hell Reverende Pater in hisce duabus Quaestionibus expecto animi tui sententiam Take heed of that pernicious Luciferian Counsel Calumniari fortiter haerebit aliquid Let St. Paul rather instruct you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak the truth in love Away with these Heats let 's tear one the other in pieces no longer Can you blame me for saying such dissentions make Musick at Rome Let us shew our selves to each other like Joseph and his Brethren at their interview in Aegypt Though my Judgment leads me to be Pius Inimicus to the Non-conformity of the Non-conformists yet nothing shall make me uncharitable to their Persons 55. To write a just Defence of the Non-conformity which I own would take up more time than I have to spare unless I saw a probability of better effect than by putting it into your Hand as now you motion I will not say this is a Tergiversation for if there be any that comes near St. Johns Hyperbole of writing more Books than the World can contain you are the Man If you do but open the Flood-gates of your Lips out there gushes such a Torrent I allude still to St. John but 't is to the Dragon in the Revelation that is enough to overwhelm such a Pigmy as I am Your Foam is the more grievous because it is brackish I expect nothing from you but scorn and that you should pronounce your wonted Raca against me in a higher Key and a more Emphatical Accent You will have the Lions Motto Nemo me impune lacessit Yet I could wish that if your Writing be no sweeter it might be shorter and that you would contract your swelling thoughts and like the Oracle speak much in a little for I am weary in following you I hope you will no more tell me that I call upon you to blow against a flaming Oven and to do Impossibilities when I call'd for your Reasons of Non-conformity You tell me I know no such Book could be licens'd yet when I made the motion in assisting you in the Birth you utterly waved my Overture If you are under affliction I hope it will make you to judge as one that must be judged Sir I told you the very truth I was entering into the Furnace in my last and since that God has been pleas'd to drench and plunge me deeper both as to my Person and Family else you had receiv'd this Return much sooner Though I might have thought such an Intimation might have procur'd your forbearance and that you would not have come upon me when I was sore I thank you that you have any hope that I may improve my afflictions by sucking some Honey out of such a hard Rock and I can bless God that of very faithfulness he hath caused me be troubled I can kiss the Rod without any murmuring Sobs and adore him that has made me to smart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is God that beareth Rule in the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth therefore I praise honour and extoll him all whose Works are Truth and his Ways Judgment What Talents the same God hath bestowed on me I shall lay them out not to drive Men from the Congregation but to invite and wooe them more and more into the Church that they may come under the Net of the Gospel and the droppings of Heaven Herein I should rejoyce to have your Co-operation and the assisting Labours all little enough of all our dissenting Brethren Whilst I am an unworthy Labourer in the Lords Vineyard and Your Devoted Friend Jo. Hinckley Northfeild Octob. 13. Mr. BAXTER'S Fourth Letter SIR WHen I had written an Answer to your last the Transcriber moved slow in his Work and it being somewhat long fourteen Sheets before he had finished it I heard from a double report of your own acquaintance that you purposed to print what you got from me At the first hearing I was not sorry for it But upon second thoughts these four Reasons put a stop to the mission of the Papers to you 1. I have written more plainly and smartly than I would have done if it had been for any ones use besides your own A secret conviction and reproof may be sharper than an open one 2. I am confident that you cannot get the whole licensed and I cannot easily think that you are willing Upon your encouragement a few sheets against Bagshaw since dead were printed without License and were surprized in the Press and if you should print mine by scraps and not entirely I should take it for a great injury and dishonesty 3. And I doubt it would be offensive to some and so might tend to my own disquiet for to make it so plain as that nothing but a high degree of Ignorance or Impudence can contradict it that the Parliament that raised Arms against the King were by profession Episcopal such as Heylin describes Abbot to be as against those whom they accused of Innovation and rais'd suspitions that they were reconciling us to Popery at the price of our loss of Propriety and Liberty I have been fain to name so many Men of whom some are yet living that I know not how they will take it to have their Military Acts recited after the Act of Oblivion and I believe those Clergy-men that have used this false Visor to put on the Non-conformists to make them odious that it was they only and not the Episcopal that began the English War will be very angry to have their fraud detected 4. But all these are small matters in comparison of the last Though God hath given us a King who is so firm to the Protestant Religion as to make a severe Law against all that shall cast out suspitions of his being inclin'd to Popery yet all Men are mortal and God knoweth into
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
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
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
of Souls This has been an old contrivance in Scotland to bring all Causes within the Kirks Jurisdiction saying it is the Churches Office to judge of slander and by that means they hook'd in the cognisance of all Causes because all Causes were either Slanders against God the King or their Neighbours In Rome too the Pope intermeddles with all Temporal Things in Ordine ad Spiritualia Just so you plead for Arms starving Men Women and Children If it be for the good of Souls You say that they had a fifth part yet you know Mr. Lea endeavoured to dismount that Ordinance as unlawful and unreasonable and some I am sure for very want were ready to swoon in the Streets the number was not small It has been maintain'd that more Ministers were depriv'd in three years when your Friends sate at the Sern than in all Queen Mary's Reign I thank you that you say you never lik'd turning out such a Man as my self You are more propitious than the Commissioners were who threatned to silence me for preaching on Christmas-day The Tryars were not of your mind they would not have had me to preach at all and the Soldiers would scarce let me live I still bear about me the Badges of their Cruelty But tell me true should you re-assume your Chair would you continue in this courteous Moode You say you lived under five ignorant and unlearned Teachers before you were ten years old You complain elsewhere of the prophaness of your Native Town You had hard fate to live amongst such Men yet the greater is your excellency to thrive into so polish'd a bulk among such Barbarians and to keep your integrity amidst such temptations I cannot but admire at your Praecox Ingenium that you could judge you began betimes who were ignorant who learned Preachers before you were ten years of age I fear 't is still the greatest part of some Mens devotion to censure the Parts and Gifts of the Preacher § 10. Your intermediate Sertions contain nothing of Argument or Contradiction therefore I shall tell you once for all I shall neither now or hereafter trouble you or my self with your Narratives or Excursions I am not so fond of superfluous labour or prodigal of my precious time as to oppose every thing that you say or to trace you in all your Meanders Here you go to the Heart of the Controversie If you had either prov'd what you say or disprov'd what had been said 1. You cannot lie deliberately and say you assent and consent to all things in three Books when you do not yet you shew no reason to the contrary Inform your self better Judge charitably and candidly of those Books and then the fault may be in your self and not in them If you approach to the Borders of a Lie every thing that suits not to your present apprehension is not presently a Lie Had you declar'd formerly what you do now you would not willingly have been tax'd for a Lyar. In your first Letter you call this assenting and our new Conformity yet the same thing in substance was subscribed to in Archbishop Whitgifts Time Art 2. viz. That the Book of Common-prayer and Ordination of Bishops contain'd nothing contrary to the Word of God but might lawfully be used and that they would use it and no other 2. You should absolve many Thousands from an Oath when you never knew in what sense they took it Here you nibble at the Covenant yet you take no notice of what has been said on that Particular But Sir take an unlawful Oath in what sense you please and there will be much need of Absolution Must the sense of an Oath be measur'd by him that receives it or from the Authority and Intention of him that does impose it Affirmatio aut negatio quaestionis propositae si ex Conscientia respondentis non vere conformetur sensui quaerentis aut rogantis est mendacium You mention some good things in the Covenant As the Declaration against Popery Schism Prophaness But you pass by the second Article with other Passages in the rest and the Power imposing the whole what was good in it we are oblig'd to in another former Covenant what was naught do not you strain your Parts to justifie The worst of Hereticks maintain some Truths the better to usher in Errour as it were with Sugar and Syrups § 12 13 14. I took it for granted that you own'd my Quotation out of the Book of Rest You said you had expung'd the words in a latter Edition and I was satisfied yet now you challenge me to cite the words In one breath you say you did and you did not retract them The Passage I quoted was in the 5th Edition P. 258. If you are so unsteady you will never arrive to the glory of the Bishop of Hippo for you do even retract your Retractation and whilst you do plangere commissa you do committere plangenda You perform this Work with regret and reluctancy wrapping your self up in obscurity A true Penitent will not extenuate his fault but set it forth in the fullest Character and in the most bloody Colours Indeed you make Mr. Bagshaw your Confessor and say something to the purpose and though you deal not so plainly with me yet I love and honour ingenuity where soever I find it If I am not so strict always as to mention terminos terminantes your very syllabical words yet I give the result of them for brevity sake Such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or funiculi ex arena will not serve your turn before equal and prudent Judges How oft did Christ and his Apostles quote Texts out of the Old Testament and yet did not observe the Identical Words Will you say they were unfaithful or not a true word § 15. You tell me of the inconformity of some that grew under my Shadow I tell you again this is no evidence of an hearty recantation when you go about to deny justifie or extenuate what is notorious in these Parts and is Matter of Fact so legible that a Man may run and read What was your highest reputation formerly in being the Coryphaeus of a Country Association you now interpret a Reproach Just as Amnon did passionately court Tamar to day and on the morrow thrust her out of doors Hereafter build the Pyramid of your Fame upon a sure Foundation and then it will last Such Glory will not turn into shame This freeness of mine it seems provok'd you to make me smart by laying before me what I shall never forget the miscarriage of one in my own Family The best is my Conscience tells me it proceeded not from want of Vigilancy Advice and Prayers or Example but from a defect of that which neither you nor I have power to bestow and that is Grace § 16. If your Neighbour and his Wife will swear what you say wonder not that so much scandal was charg'd on your Sequestred