the Politicks of Grotius But what abundance more Authors of Politicks could I name you that make the Majestas Realis to be in the People yea and the Power of judging Kings Such as Willius he whom Bishop Hall wrote his Epistle to in his Remains Alstedius c. Besides the Papists and if you agree with me in disliking those do not own the same in Hooker or other Prelatists § 35. Because you said Who can choose but nauseate that way of Discipline which startles at renouncing War against the King I desire you ro tell me what Discipline you mean You will not say Prelatical Discipline If you mean Presbyterian 1. I told you it was Episcopacy which the present Non-conformists offered to the King and Bishops 2. I desired you to peruse the Confessions and Descriptions of the Discipline of the Forreign Churches and to tell me which words do deny renouncing such War And what say you to this why first you deride the motion as a thing not to be required of you and say their Actions are quite contrary to their Confessions Will not your Conscience mark here 1. How your own Pen doth acquit their Confessions and yet you nauseate the way of Discipline that startles c. And where is the way of Discipline to be found but in those Confessions which even the Accuser now absolveth 2. And now you lay it on Practice and what 's that 1. to the way of Discipline 2. or to the whole Chorus which you speak to or any one Man whose Practice you have not proved such as you accuse And is your printed Clamour come to this § 36. And what say you of the Practice now 1. You tell me of Davila I pray next go to Parsons Image of both Churches and to Philanax Anglicus where you shall find the Prelatists as deeply charged And must Davila a Papist be credited against Bishop Jewel Bishop Bilson King James and many other on the other side And is not Davila a false Historian For instance he falsely saith That Carpenter was kill'd in the Massacre who dyed of the fright and that Peter Ramus the Father of the Independents was a Papist c. And is a false Forreigner and a Papist to be believed against the French Protestants I again refer you to the late notable Vindication of the Forreign Presbyterians in France Holland Embden Geneva c. by Pet. Moulin Jun. in his Answer to Philanax Anglicus And yet his Father might well blame them for some Instances as you cite him For as to the last Business at Saumurs and Rochel he was a noted and suffering Dissenter from that Party and so were other Protestants as well as he But one would think by your Progress that I had justified all the Wars or Actions of the Presbyterians because I told you that the Prelatists begun the English War which if you would insinuate or else you speak not sense you want either that understanding or that sincerity which beseemeth a Historian and a Divine But if really you will stand to it that their way of Discipline is to be nauseated who are guilty in practice of resisting Kings who do you not speak out then that the Prelatical Discipline is to be nauseated when you have not spoken a word of sense to disprove the aforesaid Charge against the Prelatists As to your Margin 1. I have no more to do with Martyn than you have 2. If you had any thing to have justifyed your Calumny out of T. C. or Travers you should have cited it for it 's but a silly shift to set down their bare Names 3. And I will no further believe Bancroft or Sir Th. Aston than they prove what they say no more than your self And I have reason for so saying § 37. Next you feign me to say That the Divines Presbyterian or Episcopal medled little with it whereas I had no such word but on the contrary told you That the Divines on both sides were too guilty if not the forwardest And are you a fit Man to state these matters in print for Posterity and pour out such Invectives against other Men that have not so much patience or care as to heed what you read in a Letter or what you write in answer to it What use can such Writings as these be of but to abuse the simple I only told you the differences were Political and Legal and not Theological but I said not that Divines medled not in them § 38. I did as you say desire you to name the Theological Differences if you know any for I never did And what say you to this would not any Reader here expect that you should have named some one difference But instead of that you exclaim This is strange and you ask me Did I never hear of Dr. Ferne Mr. Dudley Digs yes and of Mr. Weldon and Michael Hudson and Sir Francis Nethersole and more and have long ago read them all And what of that And I have read Jo. Goodwin Mr. Bridges Mr. Calamy c. And what of all that Why did you not name the Theological Difference You say That it was called the Cause of God Religion c. Did you think that you spake to the purpose when you said this It was Gratia materiae finis effect us that they accounted it the Cause of Religion They thought it had been the liberation of their Church and Country and the defence of Religion against Innovators But what 's that to the lawfulness of taking up Arms Is any Man so mad especially an Episcopal Parliament as to think all War lawful against the King which is for Religion Will a good end justifie ill means Your own Instance of Mr. Vines and Mr. Marshal to prove that in Rom. 13. by the higher Powers was meant the Parliament-houses c. if you had been a Man of consideration would have clearly shewed you how it confuteth your self That and many Texts of Scripture were agitated by Dr. Ferne Mr. Digs and those that answered them Upon all which it was agreed as far as I know that the Higher Powers were not by Arms to be resisted And this is all the Theological part But did you think that they thought that Rom. 13. or other Scriptures did tell the World whether Caesar or the Senate was the higher Power or which is the higher Power in Venice Germany Poland Hungary France England or any Country in the World Will you put the King to prove all his Power from Scripture What ever you take it I and all that ever I met with that were above the Rank of those you describe by Jobs Wife did take this to be a Point of Policy and Law and not of Theology and that Scriptures tell us not who is the Supream in every Republick but supposing that known commands us not to resist them And then comes in Bishop Bilson and saith what is before cited for Lords and Commons vindicating their Librerties and then comes in
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
have found some of them at leisure for a more particular Consideration If it be our Liturgy offered them that you mean the Hypothesis there is That those forms there offered were fit to be taken into consideration as the Addenda mentioned in the Commission If this be false what can you imagine to be the reason that we could by no importunity ever procure any by word or writing to open to us the faults of that Liturgy and that L'Estrange himself had no more to say against it Though being drawn up in eight days only we desired we might have had leisure to have made it more perfect which might easily be done If it be the Petition for Peace that you mean the Hypothesis was That our Concord was so desirable as that they should make the abatements there mentioned to attain it but especially rather than silence so many Ministers and choose the other ill Consequents that would follow If this be it you mean and you are ambitious of acquainting your Rulers that you will stand at Gods Judgment as an approver of all that enjoy the pleasure and fruit of your desire If the silence of so many hundred Ministers and the Consequents to so many thousand ignorant Souls be a Blessing to be rejoyced in put not your Sickle into other Mens Harvest but let the Labourer who is worthy have the hire If it be otherwise what need any Man say Their be on us and on our Children 4. And when you talk of Vulgar Capacities do you not reproach the Reverend Bishops as Vulgar Capacities in print To whom were they given but to them And I never heard of any that they shewed them to If you say That they were printed afterward I answer 1. Some were and some were not 2. How could we then foretel that when we gave them in 3. They were done as far as I can learn by a poor reading Curate that gave the Printer Copies through meer poverty to get a little Money without our knowledge For he was thâ— Scribe that we were forced to use for Copies and I hear he kept some for himself 4. I sent to the Kings Secretary Sir IV. Morrice when I heard they were in the Press to desire him to search the Press and apprehend them 5. The printing of them by offending our Antagonists and by the intollerable falseness of the impression was a very great injury to us Moreover you dare publish to the world Had Men kept close to the Church of England they needed not have stumbled at swearing That it is not lawful to take up Arms against the King I must tell the whole Chorus of my dissenting Brethren that this very Fly is enough to spoil the Box of pretended Oyntment who can choose but nauseate that way of Discipline which startles at renouncing War against the King Do you think you were able to bear it patiently if I should tell you how much of the Diabolical Spirit is in these Lines and how unfit such a Spirit is for the Sacred Ministry 1. You know that it is a time in which our Rulers are justly exasperated for the horrid Murder of the King and for the Treasons and Rebellions that have been committed And you know that no design could more gratifie the Prince of Darkness than to bring the Odium of all this upon the Ministry or upon any part of the Ministry whose labours are needful to the Church 2. I suppose you know that it is not one of a Multitude of the Non-conformable Ministers that ever took up Arms against the King I suppose in all Worcester-shire there is not now two for I remember not one though there are some Conformists that were in Arms against him 3. I suppose you cannot be ignorant because you dwell in England that they were Episcopal Parliaments that were long quarreling with the King and that still cried out of the danger of Popery Arminianism Monopolies c. of which Rushworths Collections sufficiently inform you And that Dr. Heylin in the Life of Arch bishop Laud hath fully acquainted the World that it was one Party of Episcopal Men of whom he would make Arch-bishop Abbot the head that contended against the other and put in the difference about the Subjects Propriety into the Quarrel and that besides Neile Laud Buckridge Howson Corbet and Mountague the Bishops went all the other way So that by Andrew's advice it was thought unsafe to let a Convocation meddle in their Cause 4. I suppose you cannot easily be ignorant that the War in England against the King was begun by an Episcopal Parliament where as some of the Members aver to me there was but one known Presbyterian in both Houses and there or four Independants and two or three Sectaries and about four hundred Episcopal Men and Erastians And also by an Episcopal Army for such was the Earl of Essex and almost all his Chief Officers and by almost all Episcopal Lord-Lieutenants who were first put into possession of the Militia against the Kings Commissioners of Array In so much that even the Propositions sent to the King at Nottingham were but for the Regulation of Episcopacy and not the Extirpation And among all the Westminster Assembly there were not called ten Non-conformists nor I think eight Nor indeed was Presbytery then well known in England till the notice of it came in long after with the Scots and Covenant So that it is past doubt with any but the desperately impudent that it was Episcopal Men in England on both sides that raised War against each other though one Party of them afterward fell in with the Presbyterians of Scotland and the Sectaries for fear of wanting help and of being overthrown 5. You cannot but know that it is not the whole Chorus of your dissenting Brethren that scrupled swearing that it is not lawful to take up Arms against the King That twenty in London took the whole Oxford Oath at once and more after That the chief Nonconformable Ministers took it in Northamptonshire Somerset-shire Devon-shire and some other Places That many Non-conformists were against the War as Mr. Geery Mr. Capel and almost all the Gloucester-shire Ministers and many others Poor Mr. Martin of Weedon lately in Goal near you for preaching in private lost an Arm in the Kings Service in his Oxford Army when the only Arch-bishop left in England Williams was a General in Wales in the Parliaments Army 6. You have not given the World any Proof of any Presbyterian Minister in England much less the whole Chorus that ever scrupled swearing what you mention I should know their minds as well as you and I know not one that I remember that is not ready to swear that It is not lawful to take up Arms against the King I say again I know not one And shall a Levite stand up and intimate though it be not so spoken out To the King and to Papists and to Posterity that it is the whole Chorus of Dissenters
in this neither own them for my Fathers nor my Brethren They were Monsters sure for would Episcopal Men conspire to root up Episcopacy The only Arch-bishop in England say you Williams was in Arms against the King pudet haec But if he was the only Arch-bishop in England more shame for some who had remov'd a better out of this World The best use we can make of his miscarriage is to take heed of pride and discontent lest God should give us over to the Byas of our own Hearts and so we should also fall into the condemnation of the Devil What you say of Arch-bishop Abbot out of Dr. Heylins Life of Arch-bishop Laud as if he began the Quarrel about the Subjects property Do but read the Drs. last Book concerning the History of Presbytery and then you may see who have been the best Subjects to Princes Bishops or Presbyterians As for Bishop Jewel and Bishop Andrews Defence of Calvin and our Puritans do not wrest their Charity as the Romanists do ours when we say they may be saved I much fear lest the Complexion of those Men be much altered since the days of those famous Prelates So that could they start out of their Graves and see how their Claws are grown what havock they have made in this Church they would like the Partus Saguntinus for very grief and shame retire into their former Dormitories Or were they to write more Polemicks they would scarce write Apologies for some amongst our selves So unlike are they to such as Mr. Ball who wrote so nervously for stinted Liturgies and Communion with our Church Mr. Hooker you say is under your exagitation I pray use him kindly trample not on a dead Lyon For were he alive he would make many such as you are to quake So strong would you find his Breath in his deep close and strenous Arguments As those that disputed with Stephen were not able to resist the Wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake Acts 6. 10. I have read him over again and again yet I never observ'd him to be an Enemy to Monarchy You can find out if not new Worlds yet new Inhabitants in the upper part of this in the Stars and Planets and if you can look beyond Galileo's Glass it may be with your Lynceus Eyes and strange Telescope you may make strange Discoveries Though I honour the Memory of Learned Grotius yet 't is not a Duty incumbent on me to defend his ipse dixit I have a Tract by me wherein are collected some Political Aphorisms out of him and others which I have not examin'd by his Writings but if truly his I do as little approve them as I do yours You would have me read the Confession of the French Church and of others and see whether they allow of taking up of Arms. Sir this is not to do I have also read Davila concerning their practise And if he be impartial I cannot boast The unlawfulness of the Arms of the French Protestants in several Risings cannot be denied Du Moulin P. 28. And how it was with the Disciplinarians in Scotland I have learned sufficiently in Spotswood Neither can you be ignorant what the Grand Master of the Discipline ascribes to English Parliaments against Kings if you read his fourth Book of Institutions What need we speak of Mens Confessions and Declarations Have not we seen their Actions quite contrary Until the Scottish Presbyterian Covenant be utterly renounced and forgotten it will stand upon Record what is to be expected from those of the Discipline All the Foam you can gather in your angry Fits will never obliterate this or wash such a Blackmoor white When you challenge me to shew from the Confessions of any Presbyterian Churches that they allow the taking up of Arms against Princes you deal just as the Papists do when we urge them with that odious Doctrine from Mariana and others of their Jesuits and also with their practise in this case they say as you do Shew us any Decree of the Church shew us any Canons of Counsels wherein the Doctrine of Killing Kings is allowed What shall we say I can find no such Canon in the Counsel of Trent I know no such Edict of the Church Nay the Counsel of Constance condemneth the Doctrine of killing Tyrants as erroneous yet indirectly and obliquely they do maintain the same by giving the Pope a Power to exexcommunicate Heretical Princes and to absolve their Subjects from their Allegiance And as Bellarmine says though the Pope does not teach Men to disobey their Kings yet he makes them who were their Kings to be their Kings no more So though this Doctrine be not expressed in the Confessions of Disciplinarians yet if it be suitable to their practise and follows a posteriori from their Covenant and other Principles by a parity of Reason it is enough to prove them guilty However the War was managed yet the Divines whether Presbyterian or Episcopal medled little with it If I know any you bid me name them Your dull Brains could never find out any Point of difference in Theology about the Power of the King or the Duty of Obedience in the People This is strange you liv'd in England as you often tell me And were you such a Stranger in our Israel that you heard nothing of the clashing of Pens as well as the brandishing of Swords Was the Controversie only betwixt Lawyers and Statesmen I have much ado to forbear an allusion to the words of Job to his Wife Thou speakest as one of the foolish Women speaketh So you speak of these things like some rude and ignorant People in the Country Did you never hear of Dr. Ferne Mr. Dadley Diggs and many others who wrote in behalf of the King against the lawfulness of taking up of Arms And did you never hear of Mr. John Goodwin Mr. Bridges Mr. Calamy's Speech in the City of London What was the great design of most Sermons preach'd at Westminster for some years by the Smectimnians but to tell their Auditors that the Ingagement of that War was pro aris as well as focis for the Cause of God and of Christ against Idolatry and Superstition as well as for the Priviledges of Parliaments and against Monopolies The King and Martyr suffer'd for his Religion says your Du Moulin P. 110. Did you never hear what pains Mr. Vines and Mr. Marshal took to prove that the higher Powers Rom. 13. were to be understood of the two Houses of Parliament The Scottish Douglas says plainly The Hostility against the King was from his setting himself against Religion I do not so much wonder at this your inadvertency since you affirm That Dr. Manton never wrote upon Jude but only upon James Will not the Doctor take it amiss that you take no more notice of his Labours And as for Dr. Burges it is now in the Hand of a Friend Are you such a walking Library Such an Heluo Librorum especially
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
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
other than you name let any Man that understands sense read the Papers and perpend the state of the Controversie and I dare boldly say he will fall into the same Toil. Your Explicatory Clavis has expedited me out of that intanglement And I am resolved not to be resolute in quarreling It is a strange courtesie you tender me of sending me your Lads scraps If I had not a competent measure of that kind of Learning I could have a better Tutor who as I told you is the Glory of his Age. I have known pregnant Boys praecocis Ingenii come from Westminster School fraught with a Cyclopaedy of Languages and yet before they have left the Colledge they have scarce retain'd any foot-steps thereof unus in omnibus c. Just as you have seen the beauty of a fair Face either by Sickness or Age so obliterated and furrow'd that there 's no more remainder of Beauty left than there is of Troy in those plow'd Fields where it once stood The Fathers were good Divines yet as Dr. Hackwell observes Among the Latins St. Jerom and Origen Among the Graecians did excel in the Oriental Languages The last part of your Charge I cannot but take unkindly You say I prefer Shreds before true Knowledge in Divinity and real Science Sir here you speak without Book For I have neither said so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor can you charitably infer it from any thing I have spoken I know not how to confute you but by wishing you knew me better When I have heard Sermons at the University as smooth as Glass so that the Art in wording them did opus superare I have declar'd to Persons of no small Place that such slippery Preaching and Cadencies of words will spoil all in the Country Such Sermons will reach no further than the Ears and be look'd on as Romantick Harrangues You know what Austin said of Tullies Hortensius The same say I of such Preaching which tends not to advance Piety and Holiness Now worthy Sir For as Calvin said of Luther Think of me what you please I will acknowledge your worth in many Particulars And as for Absoluteness it is so incompetible an Attribute to Man that I know you do not aspire unto it I am sorry and it shall be for a lamentation to see in your late Writings a Foundation laid for a grand Schism in this Church as things now stand Give me leave supra totam materiam to re-inforce my Perswasive by this Consideration Have not you seen Presbytery supplanting Episcopacy Independency Presbytery Have not you seen Anabaptism with one foot in the Stirrup And who knows but as Montanus said of the Holy Ghost Quakers and Fifth-monarchy-men might have had their turns Nay Papists and Atheists if those days of Anarchy and Non-conformity had continued If you saw the boldness of Papists and their great Numbers where I sometimes exercise my Ministry you would count it no small happiness that such fluctuations are limited by Reformed Bishops in a Reformed Church It shall be my Prayer therefore that you were not almost but altogether a Conformist John Hinckley Feb. 2. 1671. Respondi c. A LETTER TO AN Oxford-Friend FROM A Countrey-MINISTER Concerning the INDULGENCE Anno 1671 2. CAP. I. The Commendation of an Oxford-Life Dear Sir I Have always had a great Veneration for that Bishop who never approach'd your Oxon though in his Episcopal Grandeur and Declining years but whil'st he was in the way when he first saw your rising Towers he alighted from his Horse And in the open Field prostrating himself upon our Common Mother the Earth He paid his Duty to his Mother the University or rather the Tribute of Praises unto God who first brought him thither In like manner Sir The Sense of that Mercy and Goodness which I have seen and tasted within your Walls has prompted me to say How beautiful are thy Tents O Oxford If at any time from Shot-Over or any of those Adjacent Hills I have as from Mount Nebo beheld your Land of Canaan And well I may call it so where there has been such a torrent of Milk and Honey The Sincere milk of Gods Word And that which is sweeter than honey I earning and Religion These are the genuine streams of that Fountain except it be mudded by some strange Cattle or poysoned by Principles of a Forreign growth If any come from you either loose or illiterate they are but degenerous Plants that never tasted the sweetness of your Soil nor bow'd themselves to your Discipline They are but the Wenns and Cancers of your body Or rather Insects hatch'd out of their own ill humours which they brought with them thither out of their Countrey Schools or Families Sir Our Friendship is no Mushrome sprung up the other Night But it is almost immemorial of so long standing that I am even puzzled to trace it up to its first original or to shew where was the head of this Nile She was a very unhappy Girle who had so long liv'd under an Act of wanton Indulgence that she could scarce ever remember that she had been a Virgin But it is the Crown of your Kindness that I am not able to tell when It was otherwise Yet All this while I never Acquainted you with one notable change or dispensation which befell me at Oxon. I came thither blessed be God well principled in the First Table Religion towards God My dearest Friends were accounted Puritanes in those days yet I had not learn'd my Duty to the King I look'd upon him as an ordinary Man And if things went not well that is in my Apprehension I was too ready to murmur against his Government But to Pray for him to speak Reverently of him as God's Vicegerent And to give him that Obedience which was his Due I had not learn'd Conscience was not so well Edified as to concern It self in these things They seem'd to me Indifferent Acts they might be done or they might be left undone They were no Essential parts of my Religion But altogether Extrinsecal to it until with David I went into the house of God I mean upon a day of Inauguration I heard Dr. Wentworth of Baliol Colledg Preach at St. Maries on 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. I exhort that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and Giving of Thanks be made for all men for Kings and all that are in Authority c. He shew'd so Invincibly from hence That all these do belong even to wicked Emperors and Kings that I was thorowly convinc't of my Former Errour And had Cause to Report That God was there of a truth Had you sate in Mr. Nye's Chair among the Triars you would have look'd on such a Transmutation as an Act of Conversion But such a Confession before those Rabbies would have been so far from an Evidence of grace so much was this word Abus'd that it had been enough to have drawn down an Anathema It would not have been easie
Rectory of your own you can gratifie your Friends As the Earl of Warwick took more pleasure in making another Man King than being so himself Do not stop their way to preferment because they shew their Parts in their first Essayes in the Eloquent Efforts of their Oratory Such Colts as trot high at the first may at long-running become good Pad-naggs We were Children before we were strong Men Hercules had not all his vigour at once You will betray less Judgment than they if nothing will please you in a young Divine below the skill and dexterity of an old Chrysostome As for those amongst us who are Sots as you say and spend their time in Ale-houses I am no Proctor for them sighs and groans shall be all my Answer Yet if I would recriminate I could point out some of your own Minions that might bear them company All your 1800 are not clear from such stains But since you have now so good opinion of the Common-prayer and Homilies I see Mens Judgments will vary as well as Fashions He that durst have said so formerly should scarce have any Place in the Church As Hazael once thought he should not have been so inhumane as to rip up Women with Child c. So you little thought heretofore that you should ever have spoke so favourably of the Common-prayers and Homilies Therefore it is not good you see to drive on too furiously according to our present apprehensions without long deliberation But I have something else to observe Some Men are so much afraid of moderation and a mediocrity that whilst they avoid one Extream in contraria currant You impose a Task on me to tell you What one Nonconformist was silenc'd for insufficiency You might have forborn this unless you could have grounded it on my words as my Assertion But 't is usual with you to wave the subject Matter of Contest and to move impertinent Doubts As if he that has to do with you must answer Quodlibets The grand reason of your silence is of another nature You do not give security to Authority that you will preach up no more Wars and carry your selves like obedient Subjects and peaceable Ministers of the Gospel Until you do so you are suspended from the exercise of that Ministry When Marchiomont Needham wrote a Book to entitle the Protector to all the Revenues of the Church and that it was in his Power to admit whom he pleas'd to partake thereof This was good Doctrine in the days of the Tryars they imbrac'd it as the foundation of their arbitrary Power But now there is a Shibboleth of Peace and Loyalty to be pronounced by all those that will practise in the Ministerial Calling You either lisp it out in distinctions or cry out of Tyranny So that your Question is a Fallacy a non Causa ut Causa putting insufficiency for the Cause when in truth it was quite another thing You ask me again whether the worst of those that joyned with you being re-ordained are not received when they do conform If they were not the worst among you who do conform no doubt you think them so yet I could name some who were of the chief Rank who so far have denied themselves as to draw forth their Breasts to feed the Hungry Sure they did not see with your Eyes that Conformity is absolutely sinful Now Sir If the worst among you are received when they Conform what a shame is it that you and others of the higher Rank should stand idle in the Market-place whilst you suffer God to be serv'd with your Bran the Blind and the Lame it seems are good enough for your Heavenly Prince and you may see how favourable and indulgent the Governours of the Church are in that they are loath to disparage your Judgments in rejecting those whom you had approved After I had deducted out of the gross Sum of 1800 those that had been nested in other Mens Livings 1. You faintly demand How many of these were never in any Sequestrations and must not they preach the Gospel Yes both they and the others too and woe unto them if they do not There is never a Cherubim with a drawn Sword in his hand to keep them out of the Churches Paradise 2. You give up the Cause and say ingeniously I deny not the great Crime you charge upon them Yet as if you repented of your own Concession you say that many of those that were turned out formerly were accus'd of insufficiency and gross scandal So hard a thing is it fully and without reserves to acknowledge a fault The Serpent was Eve's Cloak and the Woman Adam's Nay God himself must be reflected on the Woman whom Thou gavest before Adam will be silent and have nothing to say You know that the insufficiency and scandal of many of them was that their Consciences could not dispense with their former Oaths in asserting of an ungodly Cause yet had they been as vile as you can make them their Freeholds ought not to be taken from them illegally Then 3. you vindicate your self as if I had aim'd at you When the truth is I had not the least thought of you I must do you so much justice as to say I have heard you dealt transcendently civilly with the Incumbents in comparison of many whom I knew and since you speak of these things with some regret I will not like a Coward press and prosecute this advantage I have touch'd this Sore very softly that you may not smart Here you chide me for minding you of a Retalliation as you supplanted others so God requited you Does this say you savour of any sense at all to Souls Must many Thousands go to Hell that we may be requited The Peoples Souls had been forsaken The Damnation of a multitude of Souls is too dear a price c. 1. It is no up-start practice to soar high in Pretences and yet with the Raven and the Kite have our Eyes fix'd on some Carcass here below We have heard some cry loud the Temple of the Lord the Salvation of Souls Yet they were not the Souls of every Soil such as did inhabit poor Villages but such as dwelt in the fattest Parsonages or else in great Towns where these Men who were so much for the good of Souls might act their parts with most popularity and success both in respect of themselves and the Cause 2. What good was done to Souls by these Intruders late Posterity will find Those unquiet Principles which were then instill'd will not be worn out in one Age nor those Breaches and Gashes in the Church made by them be cemented and heal'd by the Hands of the most skilful Bezaliels or Spiritual Chirurgeons of the highest value 3 The good of Souls is a most glorious aim yet St. Austin held it not good to tell a lie to save a Soul Much less may we preach down lawful Authority and plunder others living under the pretext of the good