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
what Rulers Hands my Papers may be put by the Papists for their advantage when they see them And they may say You see Sir that it was not only the Non-conformists but the Episcopal Protestants also that raised War against the King therefore no Party of them are to be trusted by you as Philanax Anglicus attempted and Arguments from Interest take much in the World And I had rather the Non-conformists alone were distated and cast out than the Conformists also lest worse succeed them On all which Considerations I shall suspend my sending you these Papers till you give me sufficient Reasons to believe that they shall not be used to more hurt than good and then you shall have them by the next Messenger But I doubt whether it will not offend you to see it so undeniably proved that your Papers contain so great a number of gross mistakes Among which one of the most excusable-willing one is your mistake of my Apology in tantum for one or two Non-conformists near you I know of no more that had not Academical Education or might be suspected to be half as low in Learning as you defined them to be when I told you how much I preferred Matter before strange Words and an English Divine before a Syriack Sot or a few Shreds c. For though I had no thought of accusing the Conformists more than others of being guilty of acquaintance with the Oriental or other Languages yet I confess I had mentioned the Conformists somewhere in the same Sheet and you were like enough in the contradicting humour to think that all that was mentioned to you was spoken by way of opposition to your Party when you found some crums of credit in it But to disabuse you I assure you 1. That I thought not in those words of comparing Conformists with Non-conformists at all but only Pedantick smattering in strange words with real solid understanding and preaching of Theology in what Parties soever they were found 2. That I never yet heard any of your Youths in our Pulpits that shewed any higher Matters of that poor kind of ostentation than a few words of Hebrew 3. That really it was a Lad in my own House at my Elbow the remembrance of whom suggested to me the matter of my Comparison who is yet no Conformist and I assure you no judicious Divine what ever he may be hereafter and yet seeing you seem to differ from me in this Point also and so prefer such Shreds before true Knowledge in Divinity is able to gratifie you with somewhat more than Shreds of Welch English Latin Greek Hebrew Chalde Syriack Arabick Persian Samaritan Aethiopick and if these be not enough for you we can make shift between us to send you some Shreds of Armenian French Italian Spanish yea and of the Indian Language of our Americans in which Mr. Eliot hath printed the Bible And if you signifie your desire or willingness to accept them he shall send you some Shreds of these by the next in stead of solid Divinity that you may have that which you prefer And I further assure you that he never had these from any University nor from any Tutor that is fond of Conformity which I say because you tell me how we would boast of such if they were among us And would you have me send out such a Lad of nineteen or twenty years of age to be a Preacher or a Pastor because he can talk nonsense or at least but little profound Divinity in so many Tongues Had I set as light by Languages as you dreamed I had not taken care to help him to this much But because I set more by real Science than you seem to do by your contradiction of my preference of it I count him that is without it and without the Holy Love and Life which it tendeth to to be but as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal Your Servant R. B. Jan. 20. 1671. AN ANSWER TO Mr. Baxter's fourth Letter SIR I Received yours directed to the Curate of Northfeild Now there is some hope your Language is truly Episcopal For we are in truth the Bishops Curates and under that Title we are pray'd for in the Collect though more at large in the Littany But I think the King will shortly give me a Writ of Ease so that I shall neither be Rector nor Curate there long All Times involve me in Sufferings May I hereby know Reduplicative the Fellowship of my Saviours Sufferings And so thereby with him be made perfect Those that told you what I might say about Printing our Papers might have told you the whole truth which was with this reserv'd Hypothesis If you should approve of it Though you well know how you have urg'd me to it Such Apocopes do too much resemble the Legerdemain of the grand Impostor I may be ignorant I cannot be dishonest I had rather your Devoto's should take it for granted that you have mangled the whole Book you oppose and laid the whole Compages of it in the Dust than confute them by doing you the least injury Your four Reasons are satisfactory unto me And I am glad that you are convinc'd that your Ink did overflow with Gall towards one who treated you with much humanity But I am sorry you do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in still asserting that the War was raised by Episcopal Men. Herein you are singular and are deserted by your own Friends who are concern'd to lay hold on such a Doctrine if true with both hands But this History is too fresh in our Memories to be transpos'd or deprav'd It is true Dr. Heylin and many others thought Arch-bishop Abbot a great Mecaenas and favourer of Puritans who were afterward call'd Presbyterians There were hot Disputes by other Episcopal Men against the five Articles against incroachments upon our Liberty Civil and Religious therefore these Episcopal Men rais'd the War This Sequel or Consequence you cannot make good or if you set down this Argument categorically I will deny the Major in Aeternum You may as well bottom our late difference betwixt King and Parliament on the remote Quarrel betwixt York and Lancaster Had Bishop Abbot liv'd do you think he would have espoused the Parliaments Cause Qui pauca respicit de facili pronuntiat What you say about the many Sheets you have prepar'd I tell you as formerly I do not court your trouble I cannot suppose that you have taken so much pains to be buried in my Desk nor shall I willingly examine such a Bundle without the exposing my Sentiments to the Suffrages of the learned World You excuse the expression of a Syriack Sot And because you tell me the occasion of it I will tell you my surmise I had thought you had perstring'd a dear and old Acquaintance of mine who for his humble self-denial and deep Learning in the Languages is stupor Mundi both at home and abroad You speak of my gross mistakes But if there be no
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
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
these several years when that great Body the Parliament reap nothing but the Whirlwind and have brought forth nothing but untimely fruit for several Centuries One brush of this Besom sweeps away the Webs of all their Church-Laws It was not so in the time of H. 3. for when there was a Motion tending to the Retrenching of one Law the Barons and Earls gave this short Answer Nolumus leges Angliae mutari and good reason for a City may be as safe without Walls as a Kingdom without Laws Nay as if the Plague of Athens had been amongst us we began to stand off and stare one upon another as if we had forgotten That ever we went to the House of God as Friends I am sure you are such an exact Master in Story that you well know what is said of Those that recover'd from that Pestilence That they were so stupify'd that they had forgotten their nearest Friends But though they are willing on a sudden to forget and cast us off and to reject our Doctrines of Piety Peace and Obedience yet will they not return to their former Vomit Have they forgotten to Judge Censure and to shed the blood of their Brethrens names Have they forgotten to Sequester and Banish Had they but another Declaration to Authorise them thereunto The Lion they say may be so tam'd that you may stroke him and he may lick you yet if his tongue which is rough draw the least blood with his slaver he is so ravish'd with the Savouriness of it that he is put into a rage So the fiercest Schismaticks may be so gentle that they will fawn upon you for a time yet if they do but taste the sweetness of Power and Liberty you are in danger of begging a Toleration of them who were so free to let them loose and to take off from them the Awe of Legal Restraint If Beasts break out of their own Pastures and feed on the other side of the Hedge it will not be easie to reduce them from their wandring Purlieus into their ancient bounds many Children have been utterly undone by too Indulgent Parents I wish this Religious liberty do not make them wanton in matters Civil And that this Toleration in the Church do not make way for another in the State Some Birds when they are let out of the Cage will not stoop presently to the Lure And Head-strong Horses having once shak'd off the Bridle will never cease running until they have thrown off the Saddle too I have always thought that Regularity in the Church and faithful Preaching there has been the best School to educate and train up the best and most conscionable Subjects Therefore it was the Saying of a wise man That Schism is worse than Corruption of Manners For that tends to the dissolution of the Compositum and this is but an ill humour in the Body that ends in Death This in a Distemper We see this in a mirrour before our faces How are we crumbled as it were into Atoms by the late Thunderbolt who stood together a little before as an Army with Banners terrible to our Enemies lovely and beautiful to our Friends How hath the Lord cover'd the Daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger and cast down from Heaven the beauty of Israel and remembred not his foot-stool in the day of his anger Sir I am in so Tragical a vein that I could even transcribe the whole Book of the Lamentations for we are not only broken into shivers our strength and spirits wasted in vain and our pleasant fruit blasted But the Peoples ears are precluded and stopt like the Companions of Vlysses that they will not hearken to our Charms If we Preach up Peace and Unity this is to cast Pearls before Swine who are ready to turn again and rent us in pieces for our labours This is not their Element They must have more of the Whirlwind What Preach up Obedience to the Law This is little better than Rebellion against the Law-maker And Treason against the King The wind is turn'd and beats back our Arrows into our own faces we told them formerly of an ungodly War against the King How justly let Heaven and Earth bear witness Now they tell us we are the King's Enemies if we speak a tittle against private Meetings And this venomous shaft pierces deepest of all What Shall those that have pray'd paid fought against the King Reproach those for Traitors who have lost Blood and Estates and jeoparded their very Lives for him who Preach up Obedience and Loyalty to his Sacred person and Government I dare say that never any King had a more Loyal Clergy The poor Levites of old did never put forth their strength more chearfully to carry the Ark than we do to support the Throne As if it were not only our Duty but our Ambition to Honour the King I say not this as if we did supererogate or merit but that we are most willing to do what we can towards the Discharge of our Consciences to God and the King And should the King think it fit in his Ratio de Stato to devest us of all our Imployments and to put us under the very Harrows of our Adversaries to tyrannize over us as in the days of Yore yet we would be as Zealous for the Honour and Safety of his Sacred Majesty as when we wept by the Waters of Babylon fasted and pray'd for his Return to his just Inheritance Nay when we trudged many a Mile to Persons of Quality and Estates who were propitious to us in those days of Persecution to pay some Tribute to their exil'd Prince You well know who carried their Lives in their hands that they might convey it like David's Worthies they rush'd thorow the very Army of the Philistims that they might refresh their drooping King with the waters of Bethlem and who they were that were deeply engaged in all Designs to dethrone Olofernes that our Rightful Sovereign might be restor'd to his Crown when some of these very Men who are now shielded and shelter'd under this Indulgence said where is now your King Nay where is young Tarquine Ch. St. Just as David's Enemies insulted over him in his distress saying Where is now thy God yet neither Reproaches nor Threatnings though we saw the blood of our Fathers and Brethren shed before our faces could abate our Resolution and Courage in so good a Cause Were it not for this I should be like a man that passes over a narrow Bridge and then looks back and wonders how he came over so should I be amaz'd how we that were bred up in Calls and wrapt up in soft Gowns should pass thorow so many hazards were it not for the Integrity of Conscience within and the Providence of a good God without And what are we transformed now Are Men turn'd into Hogs and Hogs into Men If this Indulgence has made them loyal to all intents and purposes without Reserves and Equivocations
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