promoting serious Godliness and the Sword or Force used only by the Magistrate Dissent will turn to Love and Concord But if they may Suspend Silence or Excommunicate Arbitrarily or according to their present Canons which Excommunicate ipso facto all Men Magistrates Ministers and People who do but affirm that the Book of Common Prayer containeth any thing repugnant to the Scriptures or that there is any thing unlawful to be Subscribed in the Thirty nine Articles or Ceremonies or that there is any thing repugnant to the Word of God in the Church Government by Archbishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons and THE REST THAT BEAR OFFICE IN THE SAME without excepting so much as Lay-Chancellor's use of the Keys And if Men Excommunicate must as continuing such be undone and laid in Prison we must be content with our Peace with God and Conscience and good Men and that we did our best for more and mourn under the calamitous Effects of the Publick Enemies of Peace whom the God of Peace will shortly judge To the Right Worshipful Sir E. H. SIR THE Healing of Christians endangered as we are by our own Diseases is one of the greatest Works in this World and therefore not to be marred by haste or for want of due Consultation and Advice Three ways are now pleaded for among us Of which two are Extreams and much of our Disease I. One is by the forcing Prelates who would have all forced to full Conformity to their Canons and other Impositions and none endured be they never so wise or godly or peaceable who think any thing in them to be sinful This way was long tried heretofore and these last Twenty years it hath shewed us what it will effect The Shepherds have been smitten and the Flocks scattered about Two thousand godly Ministers Silenced adjudged to lye in Jail with Rogues and to utter Ruine by paying Twenty and Forty pound a Sermon c. The People hereby imbittered against the Prelates and alienated from their Party as malignant Persecutors and as Gnelphes and Gibelines all in discontent and dangerous contention and on both sides growing worse and worse And is this the only healing way II. The other Extream is those that are too far alienated into unlawful Separations whose talk is earnest against that which is called a Comprehension that is such a Reformation of the Parish Churches as may there unite the main Body of the faithful Ministers And they had rather the things which we cannot there consent to were continued unreformed that so the best People might be still alinated from them and driven all into their Tolerated Churches Concerning this way I offer to your Consideration 1. Is it the part of good Men thus to be guilty of that which themselves account intolerable Sin and that in many Hundred thousands desiring it might not be reformed and this on pretence of promoting Godliness when once their Leaders drew it up as a Fundamental That he that alloweth others in known sin cannot be saved 2. It is certain that there is no way so orderly and advantageous to the common Interest of Christianity as Reformed Parish Churches 3. The most of the People that most need the Ministry will come to the Parish Churches and will grow worse and worse if they have not faithful Teachers and we shall please a few good People till they are worn out and for want of a serious believing converting Ministry a Generation of ignorant Malignants will succeed them And we shall come short of the main end of the Ministry 4. So many good and scrupulous People will leave the Parish Churches as will set the Nation or rather London in an even balance and increase the envy of the other part and one side will talk more contemptuously of the Parish Churches and the Parish Pulpits will daily ring with Reproach against them so that the Common People who will be in the Parish Churches will increase their hatred against the Tolerated and they will live in a mutual and wordy War 5. The violent Prelatists will by this have their ends and will triumph over them in these Confusions and say Did not we tell you what would be the Effect of Alteration and Toleration 6. When it is intended that this be but the Introduction of a better Settlement the next Attempt will by this be disabled and they will say You see that they are never satisfied but are still changing and know not where to rest 7. The next Parliament having Experience of these Confusions will recall and and abrogate all their Tolerations These things are easily foreseen And you that were One of the Eleven excluded Members know what such Hands have formerly done III. The middle true way therefore is Parochial Reformation This is necessary in it self This is consistent with the Interest of those that justly desire Toleration In a well constituted Christian Nation tolerated Churches should be but as Houses of Charity Zenodochia Hospitals for the Aged Weak Lame Blind and Sick It is consistent with the just Episcopal Interest and indeed is its most necessary support for want of which a Succession of godly Adversaries will be against it to the end Let us have Christ's true Doctrine Worship and Church-Communion and let General Bishops over us keep their Baronies Lordships Wealth and Honour And we will be responsible to them or any Rulers for our Mal-Administration But let them have no Power as Bishops but of the Church-Keys Et valeat quantumvalere perest Let them teach and reprove us and if they do injuriously pronounce us Excommunicate we will bear it But keep the Sword only in the hand of Magistrates and be not the Lictors of Anathematizers and Horners by your Writs de Excommunicato capiendo The Truth is Civil and Church Government will be well done if we knew how to get still good Men to use it And the chief Point of Political Wisdom is to secure a Succession of such Men. Give us but such Diocesans as Grindal Iewel Usher c. and let them be but Pastors and not armed with the Sword and who will expect that they should hurt us If Kings that choose Bishops and Patrons that choose Incumbents should be always certainly wise and holy Men and lovers of all such they would choose us such But if they be not and Christ tells you how hardly the Rich are saved they will mostly choose such as are of their mind or as Favourites obtrude and bad Bishops and Priests are the mortal Disease of the Church And if I tell King and Patrons that the Clergy and Communicants should have a Consenting or Dissenting Vote and so the Door should have three Locks the Consent of the Ordainers Communicants and Magistrates I cannot hope that they should regard me But I will repeat what Mr. Thorndike saith a Man as far as most from the Nonconformists Treatise of Forbearance It is to no purpose to talk of Reformation in the Church unto Regular Government without
Rome where none shall be admitted that will not swear to do wickedly and to false Ways And in the great Arrian Defection when scarce Six or Seven Bishops were to be found that did not turn Arrians among whom the Bishop of Rome was one that revolted and they would ordain none but those that would be of their Way and so would engage Men against Christ. God did not give them Power to destroy the Church but to preserve Order and propagate it They can do nothing by any Power from God against the Truth but for the Truth When Ergo They will not ordain to the Preservation but to the apparent Destruction of the Church we are not obliged to receive their Ordination And that the failing of regular Ministerial Ordination doth not destroy the Ordination or Law of God de Specie conservandâ and that it was never the Will of God that there should be no Ministry at all longer than they might be so regularly Ordained appears thus 1. The Office of the Ministry is of standing Necessity to the very Being of a Political Church whereas the Ecclesiastical Authoritative Ordination is but necessary to the well being and ordering of it Ergo the failing of the later causeth not a failing of the former The Reason of the Consequence may appear in that God hath oft suffered his Church in all Ages to fall into Disorders and Distempers when yet he hath preserved the Being 2. God hath not inseparably tyed a necessary certain End to one only mutable uncertain means But the Office of the Ministry is the necessary certain End of Regular Ecclesiastical Ordination viz. by one in Just Power and this is a mutable uncertain means Ergo God hath not tyed the Office of the Ministry to this alone The Necessity of the Ministry and the certain Continuance of it to the Church I suppose will be granted even to every Church while it remains a Church Political The Uncertainty and Mutability of that means is before proved 3. God hath not put it into the Power of Bishops or other Ordainers to destroy his Church for ever but if the Ministry were inseparably annexed to their authoritative Ordination it would be so Ergo It is in the Power of their Wills whether they will ordain any other Bishops to succeed them which if they should not do the Succession is interrupted and the Office must for ever fail If you say it is not to be supposed that all will deny to Ordain others I answer 1. What Promise or Certainty of the contrary 2. It is not possible their own Judgments may be turned against Bishops and so renounce that Calling or may they not turn most of them Heretical and so will ordain none that will not be so too As it was actually when the whole World turned Arrian except six or seven Bishops there were none left and a tenth Part nay the Hundredth part of the Church could not have recourse to six or seven persecuted Bishops hidden in Wildernesses or Corners or Fugitives that Men knew not where to find And that it was then unlawful to have submitted to the Arrians Ordination on their Terms I suppose will not be denied And the few that do not turn Hereâ—icks may yet clogg their Ordinations with such unlawful Impositions and Engagements as that no Man fearing God may justly submit to them which is at best the Case of all the Romish Church as is said So that if all Men else obey God they must not be Ordained by these Men and consequently these Men have Power to destroy the Church which if it were affirmed but of the Churches in one Nation is not true No nor of one Congregation for the Sense of the Precept for Ordination is this That the Churches may be edified and well guided and my Worship rightly performed do you ordain Elders c. 4. God hath made it indispensably necessary to his People to the World's End to assemble in solemn Congregations and then to perform his publick Worship viz. In Prayer Praises Sacraments Preaching and Hearing c. But without the Ministry this cannot be performed Ergo he hath made it indispensably necessary that they have a Ministry and consequently the failing of Authoritative Ecclesiastical Ordination doth not destroy the Ministry Both by necessity of Precept and of Means is Publick Worship necessary to the World's End Ordinary teaching publickly and being the Mouth of the People in Praising God and Administring Sacraments and blessing the People c. are Ministerial Actions Now suppose you come into a Nation or Country where such Ordination fails as if you had lived in the Reign of the Arrians durst you absolve all the Churches from all God's Publick Worship Durst you have said to whole Countries Never Assemble to Worship God by Solemn Praises Never baptize any Never communicate in the Lord's Supper This were to contradict a Precept in Force that binds them to do what you forbid them and it were to destroy their Souls and bid them forsake God and quench his Graces For without God's Publick Ministerial Ordinances Grace and Christianity it self could not be long continued at least ordinarily and in many Witness the Unchristianing of the vast Kingdom of Nubia for want of Ministers If you would have such to appoint Private Men to do these Things pro tempore in this Case of Necessity that is to grant all for then the People do make those Private Men Ministers pro tempore whether they give them that name or not for the Office is but Power to do those Works which belong thereto and if they have Power to do the Work they have the Office The like may be said of those Reformed Christians that live under the Romish Power if they must have no Miniâ—â—â—rs they must have no Worship or Sacraments which Ministers are to perform If they must have Ministers either Romish or Reformed Not Romish for they cannot follow them or join with them but by known sinning in wicked Engagements and wicked Actions Not Reformed if there be a Necessity of Authoritative Ordination For the Romish Bishops if they have Authority will not Ordain without forcing Men to open Sin nor may any Pious Man submit to their Ordinations on their Terms and many People cannot have Reformed Bishops no nor Presbyters to ordain them 5. The Law of Nature and the express unchangable written Word agreeing thereto do require Men to do the Offices of Ministers who have a fitness for it and where there is an undeniable Necessity of their Help But the failing of Authoritative Ecclesiastical Ordination will not dispence with the Law of Nature and the express moral written Law agreeing therewith Ergo It will not dispense with such Men for the neglect of such Ministerial Works I think none will question the Minor For the Major understand that those whom I call fit are they that have the Qualifications which I mentioned before Here I take it as undenyable that Duty and
and silly Preachers whose Performances were so mean that they had better kept to the Reading of the Homilies and many of these were of Scandalous Lives Hereupon the Disciplinarians cried out of the ignorant scandalous Ministers and almost all the scandalous Ministers and all that studied Preferment cried out of the Nonconformists The name Puritan was put upon them and by that they were commonly known when they had been called by that name awhile the vicious Multitude of the Ungodly called all Puritans that were strict and serious in a Holy Life were they ever so conformable So that the same name in a Bishops mouth signified a Nonconformist and in an ignorant Drunkards or Swearers mouth a godly obedient Christian. But the People being the greater number became among themselves the Masters of the Sense And in Spalatensi's time when he was decrying Calvinism he devised the name of Doctrinal Puritans which comprehended all that were against Arminianism Now the ignorant Rabble hearing that the Bishops were against the Puritans not having wit enough to know whom they meant were emboldened the more against all those whom they called Puritans themselves and their Rage against the Godly was increased and they cried up the Bishops partly because they were against the Puritans and partly because they were earnest for that way of Worship which they found most consistent with their Ignorance Carelesness and Sins And thus the Interest of the Diocesans and of the Prophane and Ignorant sort of People were unhappily twisted together in England And then on the other side as all the Nonconformists were against the Prelates so other of the most serious godly People were alienated from them on all these foresaid conjunct Accounts 1. Because they were derided and abused by the Name of Puritans 2. Because the Malignant Sort were permitted to make Religious Persons their common Scorn 3. Because they saw so many insufficient and vicious Men among the Conformable Clergy 4. Because they had a high esteem of the Parts and Piety of most of the Nonconformable Ministers 5. Because they grieved to see so many Excellent Men silenced while so many Thousand were perishing in Ignorance and Sin 6. Because though they took the Liturgy to be lawful yet a more orderly serious Scriptural way of Worship was much more pleasing to them 7. Because Fasting and Praying and other Exercises which they found much benefit by were so strictly lookt after that the High Commission and the Bishops Courts did make it much more perillous than common Swearing and Drunkenness proved to the Ungodly 8. Because the Book that was published for Recreations on the Lord's Day made them think that the Bishops concurred with the Prophane 9. Because Afternoon Sermons and Lectures though by Conformable Men began to be put down in divers Counties 10. Because so great a number of Conformable Ministers were suspended or punished for not reading the Book of Sports on Sundays or about Altars or such like and so many Thousand Families and many worthy Ministers driven out of the Land 11. Because when they saw Bowing towards Altars and the other Innovations added they feared worse and knew not where they would end 12. And lastly Because they saw that the Bishops proceeded so far as to swear Men to their whole Government by the Et caetera Oath and that they approved of Ship-money and other such incroachments on their Civil Interests All these upon my own knowledge were the true Causes why so great a number of those Persons who were counted most Religious fell in with the Parliament in England insomuch that the generality of the stricter diligent sort of Preachers joyned with them though not in medling with Arms yet in Judgment and in flying to their Garrisons and almost all those afterwards called Presbyterians were before Conformists Very few of all that Learned and Pious Synod at Westminster were Nonconformists before and yet were for the Parliament supposing that the Interest of Religion lay on that side Yet did they still keep up an honourable esteem of all that they thought Religious on the other side such as Bishop Davenant Bishop Hall Bishop Morton Archbishop Usher c. But as to the generality they went so unanimously the other way that upon my knowledge many that were not wise enough to understand the Truth about the Cause of the King and Parliament did yet run into the Parliaments Armies or take their part as Sheep go together for Company moved by this Argument Sure God will not suffer almost all his most Religious Servants to err in so great a matter And If all these should perish what will become of Religion But these were insufficient Grounds to go upon And abundance of the ignorant sort of the Country who were Civil did flock in to the Parliament and filled up their Armies afterward meerly because they heard Men swear for the Common Prayer and Bishops and heard others pray that were against them and because they heard the King's Soldiers with horrid Oaths abuse the name of God and saw them live in Debauchery and the Parliaments Soldiers flock to Sermons and talking of Religion and praying and singing Psalms together on their Guards And all the sober Men that I was acquainted with who were against the Parliament were wont to say The King hath the better Cause but the Parliament hath the better Men Aud indeed this unhappy Complication of the Interest of Prelacie and Prophaneness and Opposition of the Interest of Prelacie to the Temper of the generality of the Religious Party was the visible Cause of the overthrow of the King in the Eye of all the understanding World that ever was capable of observing it § 50. And whereas the King's Party usually say that it was the seditious Preachers that stirred up the People and were the Cause of all this I answer 1. It is partly true and partly not It is not true that they stirred them up to War except an inconsiderable Number of them one perhaps in a County if so much But it is true that they discovered their dislike of the Book of Sports and bowing to Altars and diminishing Preaching and silencing Ministers and such like and were glad that the Parliament attempted a Reformation of them 2. But then it is as true that almost all these were conformable Ministers the Laws and Bishops having cast out the Nonconformists long enough before insomuch that I know not of two Nonconformists in a County But those that made up the Assembly at Westminster and that through the Land were the Honour of the Parliaments Party were almost all such as had till then conformed and took those things to be lawful in case of necessity but longed to have that necessity removed § 51. When the War was beginning the Parties set Names of Contempt upon each other and also took such Titles to themselves and their own Cause as might be the fittest means for that which they designed The old Names of Puritans
thereabouts though the Cases be not named by way of Question But where it was necessary the Cases are distinctly named and handled My intent in writing this was at once to satisfie that motion so earnestly made by Bishop Usher mentioned in the Preface to my Call to the Unconverted which I had been hindred from doing by parts before And I had some little respect to the request which was long ago sent to him from some Transmarine Divines to help them to a Sum of Practical Divinity in the English method But though necessary brevity hath deprived it of all life and lustre of Stile it being but a Skeleton of Practical Heads yet is it so large by reason of the multitude of things to be handled that I see it will not be of so common a use as I first intended it To young Ministers and to the more intelligent and diligent sort of Masters of Families who would have a Practical Directory at hand to teach them every Christian Duty and how to help others in the practice it may be not unserviceable 2. Another Manuscript is called A christian indeed It consisteth of two Parts The first is a Discovery of the calamities which folow the weakness and faultiness of many true Christians and Directions for their strengthening and growth in Grace which was intended as the third particular Tractate in fulfilling the foresaid request of Bishop Usher The Call to the Unconverted being for that sort and the Directions for a sound Conversion being for the second sort who are yet as it were in the birth And this being for the weaker and faultier sort of Christians which are the third sort To which is added a second Part containing the just Description of a sound confirmed Christian whom I call a Christian indeed in sixty Characters of Marks and with each of them is adjoyned the Character of the weak Christian and of the Hypocrite about the same part of Duty But all is but briefly done the Heads being many without any life or ornament of Stile This short Treatise I offered to Mr. Thomas Grigg the Bishop of London's Chaplain to be licensed for the Press a man that but lately Conformed and professed special respect to me but he utterly refused it pretending that it favoured of Discontent and would be interpreted as against the Bishops and the Times And the matter was that in several Passages I spake of the Prosperity of the Wicked and the Adversity of the Godly and described Hypocrites by their Enmity to the Godly and their forsaking the Truth for fear of Suffering and described the Godly by their undergoing the Enmity of the wicked World and being stedfast whatever it shall cost them c. And all this was interpreted as against the Church or Prelatists I asked him whether they would license that of mine which they would do of another man 's against whom they had not displeasure in the same words And he told me No because the words would receive their interpretation with the Readers from the mind of the Author And he askt me whether I did not think my self that Nonconformists would interpret it as against the Times I answered him yes I thought they would and so they do all those Passages of Scripture which speak of Persecution and the Suffering of the Godly but I hoped Bibles should be licensed for all that I asked him whether that was the Rule which they went by that they would license nothing of mine which they thought any Readers would interpret as against the Bishops or their Party And when he told me plainly that it was their Rule or Resolution I took it for my final Answer and purposed never to offer him more For I despair of writing that which men will not interpret according to their own Condition and Opinion especially against those whose Crimes are notorious before the World This made me think what a troublesome thing is Guilt which as Seneca saith is like a Sore which is pained not only with a little touch but sometime upon a conceit that it is touched and maketh a man think that every Bryar is a Sergeant to Arrest him or with Cain that every one that seeth him would kill him A Cainites heart and life hath usually the attendance of a Cainities Conscience I did but try the Licenser with this small inconsiderable Script that I might know what to expect for my more valued Writings And I told him that I had troubled the World with so much already and said enough for one man's part that I could not think it very necessary to say any more to them and therefore I should accept of his discharge But fain they would have had my Controversal Writings about Universal Redemption Predetermination c. in which my Judgment is more pleasing to them but I was unwilling to publish them alone while the Practical Writings are refused And I give God thanks that I once saw Times of greater Liberty though under an Usurper or else as far as I can discern scarce any of my Books had ever seen the Light 3. Another Manuscript that lyeth by me is a Disputation for some Universality of Redemption which hath lain by me near Twenty years unfinished partly because many narrow minded Brethren would have been offended with it and and partly because at last came out after Amyraldus and Davenant's Dissâ—rtations a Treatise of Dallaeus which contained the same things but especially the same Testimonies of concordant Writers which I had prepared to produce 4. There is also by me an imperfect Manuscript of Predetermination 5. And divers Disputations of sufficient Grace 6. And divers miscellaneous Disputations on several Questions in Divinity cursorily managed at our Monthly Meetings 7. And my two Replies to Mr. Cartwright's Exceptions against my Aphorisms 8. And my two Replies to Mr. Lawson's Animadversions on the same Book 9. And my Reply to Mr. Iohn Warren's Animadversions which being first done is least digested 10. And the beginning of a Reply to Dr. Wallis's Animadversions 11. And a Discourse of the Power of Magistrates in Religion against those that would not have them to meddle in such Matters being an Assize Sermon preached at Shrewsbury when Coll. Thomas Hunt was Sheriff 12. And some Fragments of Poetry 13. And a Multitude of Theological Letters 14. And an imperfect Treatise of Christ's Dominion being many popular Sermons preached twenty Years ago and very rude and undigested with divers others § 212. And concerning almost all my Writings I must confess that my own Judgment is that fewer well studied and polished had been better but the Reader who can safely censure the Books is not fit to censure the Author unless he had been upon the Place and acquainted with all the Occasions and Circumstances Indeed for the Saints Rest I had Four Months Vacancy to write it but in the midst of continual Languishing and Medicine But for the rest I wrote them in
within four or five days I happened to find Sir Ralph Clare with the Bishop again and shewed him the hands of Sixteen hundred Communicants with an offer of more if they might have time all very earnest for my Return Sir Ralph was silenced as to that point but he and the Bishop appeared so much the more against my Return § 155. The Letter which the Lord Chancellour upon his own offer wrote for me to Sir Ralph Clare he gave at my request unsealed and so I took a Copy of it before I sent it away as thinking the chief use would be to keep it and compare it with their Dealings and it was as followeth To my noble Friend Sir Ralph Clare These SIR I Am a little out of Countenance that after the discovery of such a desire in his Majesty that Mr. Baxter should be setled at Kidderminster as he was heretofore and my promise to you by the King's Direction that Mr. Dance should very punctually receive a Recompence by way of a Rent upon his or your Bills charged here upon my Steward Mr. Baxter hath yet no fruit of this his Majesty's good intention towards him so that he hath too much reason to believe that he is not so frankly dealt with in this particular as he deserves to be I do again tell you that it will be very acceptable to the King if you can perswade Mr. Dance to surrender that Charge to Mr. Baxter and in the mean time and till he is preferred to as profitable an Imployment whatever Agreement you shall make with him for an Annual Rent it shall be paid Quarterly upon a Bill from you charged upon my Steward Mr. Clutterbucke and for the exact performance of this you may securely pawn your full Credit I do most earnestly intreat you that you will with all speed inform me what we may depend upon in this particular that we may not keep Mr. Baxter in suspense who hath deserved very well from his Majesty and of whom his Majesty hath a very good Opinion and I hope you will not be the less desirous to Comply with him for the particular Recommendation of SIR Your very affectionate Servant Edw. Hyde § 156. Can any thing be more serious and cordial and obliging than all this For a Lord Chancellour that hath the Business of the Kingdom upon his hand and Lords attending him to take up his time so much and often about so low a Person and so small a thing And should not a Man be content without a Vicaridge or a Curatship when it is not in the power of the King and the Lord Chancellour to procure it for him when they so vehemently desire it But O thought I how much better a Life do poor Men live who speak as they think and do as they profess and are never put upon such Shifts as these for their present Conveniences Wonderful thought I that Men who do so much over-value worldly Honour and Esteem can possibly so much forget futurity and think only of the present day as if they regarded not how their Actions be judged of by Posterity For all this extraordinary favour since the Day that the King came in I never received as his Chaplain or as a Preacher or upon any account the value of one farthing of any Publick Maintenance so that I and many a hundred more had not had a piece of bread but for the voluntary Contribution whilst we preached of another sort of People Yea while I had all this excess of favour I would have taken it indeed for an excess as being far beyond my expectations if they would but have given me liberty to preach the Gospel without any Maintenance and leave me to beg my Bread § 157. And this bringeth to my remembrance the Motion which I oft made to my Brethren when they were oft admitted to the King and thought themselves in so great favour and had Bishopricks and Deaneries offered them and the Ministers of the Land had such high Expectations I motioned to them that now while the World would blush at the denial we might Petition for a bare Liberty to preach for nothing in the Publick Churches at those hours of the Lord's Day and those days of the week when the Ministers that are put into our Places are vacant and are not there But the Brethren thought this was to come down our selves before they took us down But the time quickly came when we would have been glad of this much § 158. A little after this Sir Ralph Clare and others caused the Houses of the People of the Town of Kidderminster to be searcht for Arms and if any had a Sword it was taken from them And meeting him after with the Bishop I desired him to tell us why his Neighbours were so used as if he would have made the World believe that they were Seditious or Rebels or dangerous Persons that should be used as Enemies to the King He answered me That it was because they would not bring out their Arms when they were commanded but said they had none whenas they had Arms upon every occasion to appear with on the behalf of Cromwell This great disingenuity of so ancient a Gentleman towards his Neighbours whom he pretended kindness to made me brake forth into some more than ordinary freedom of reproof and I answered him That we have thought our Condition hard in that by Strangers that know us not we should be ordinarily traduced and misrepresented but this was most sad and marvellous that a Gentleman so Civil should before the Bishop speak such words against a Corporation which he knew I was able to confute and are so contrary to truth I asked him whether he did not know that I publickly and privately spake against the Usurpers and declared them to be Rebels and whether he took not the People to be of my mind and whether I and they had not hazarded our Liberty by refusing the Engagement against the King and House of Lords when he and others of his Mind had taken it He confessed that I had been against Cromwell but they had always on every occasion appeared in Arms for him I told him that he struck me with admiration that it should be possible for him to live in the Town and yet believe what he said to be true or yet to speak it in our hearing if he knew it to be untrue And I professed that having lived there Sixteen years since the Wars I never knew that they once appeared in Arms for Cromwell or any Usurpers and challenged him upon his word to name one time I could not get him to name any time till I had urged him to the utmost and then he instanced in the time when the Scots Army fled from Worcester I challenged him to name one Man of them that was at Worcester Fight or bare Arms there or at any time for the Usurpers And when he could name none I told him that all that
I must confess I have great reason to believe the clean contrary if by Light they mean Knowledge that the old Non-conformists had much more insight into these Controversies than Professors have of late For 1. We know that when the Parliament had cast out Bishops Liturgy and Ceremonies the generality both of Ministers and People took it for granted that they were all bad and so had more Light than their Forefathers had before they ever studied the Controversies I have asked many of them that have boasted of this Light whether ever they read what Cartwright Bradshaw Ames Parker Baynes Gersome Bucer Didoclavius Salmasius Blondell Beza c. have said on one side and what Saravia Bilson Whitgift Covell Downham Burges Hooker Paybody Hammond c. have said on the other side and they have confest they never throughly studied any one of them 2. And we see it by experience that one of those Men have written more on these Subjects than any of these can say or understand who boast that they have greater Light How weakly do they talk against Bishops Liturgy and Ceremonies in comparison of these ancient Non-conformists However that which was Truth then is Truth now And we have the same Scripture to be our Rule as they had Therefore let them that say they have more Knowledge bring it forth and try it by the Law and Testimony Isa. 8. 20. § 439. Having lived three years and more in London and finding it neither agree with my health or studies the one being brought very low and the other interrupted and all Publick Service being at an end I betook my self to live in the Country at Action that I might set my self to writing and do what Service I could for Posterity and live as much as possibly I could out of the World Thither I came 1663. Iuly 14. where I followed my Studies privately in quietness and went every Lord's Day to the Publick Assembly when there was any Preaching or Catechizing and spent the rest of the Day with my Family and a few poor Neighbours that came in spending now and then a day in London and the next year 1664. I had the Company of divers godly faithful Friends that Tabled with me in Summer with whom I solaced my self with much content Having almost finished a large Treatise called A Christian Directory or Sum of Practical Divinity that I might know whether it would be Licensed for the Press I tried them with a small Treatise of The Characters of a Sound Christian as differenced from the Weak Christian and the Hypocrite I offered it Mr. Grig the Bishop of London's Chaplain who had been a Non-conformist and profest an extraordinary respect for me But he durst not Licence it Yet after when the Plague began I sent three single Sheets to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Chaplain without any Name that they might have past unknown but accidentally they knew them to be mine and they were Licensed The one was Directions for the Sick The second was Directions for the Conversion of the Ungodly and the third was Instructions for a Holy Life for the use of poor Families that cannot buy greater Books or will not read them § 440. March 26. being the Lord's Day 1665. as I was preaching in a Private House where we received the Lord's Supper a Bullet came in at the Window among us and past by me and narrowly mist the Head of a Sister-in-law of mine that was there and hurt none of us and we could never discover whence it came § 441. In Iune following an ancient Gentlewoman with her Sons and Daughter came four Miles in her Coach to hear me Preach in my Family as out of special Respect to me It fell out that contrary to our custom we let her knock long at the Door and did not open it and so a second time when she had gone away and came again and the third time she came when we had ended she was so earnest to know when she might come again to hear me that I appointed her a time But before she came I had secret intelligence from one that was nigh her that she came with a heart exceeding full of Malice resolving if possible to do me what Mischief she could by Accusation and so that Danger was avoided § 442. Before this divers Forreign Divines had written to me and expected such Correspondence as Literate Persons have with one another But I knew so well what eyes were upon me and how others had been used in some such accounts that I durst not write one Letter to any beyond the Seas By which some were offended as little knowing our Condition here Among others Amyraldus sent one upon the occasion of a word of honest Ludae Molinaeus a Dr. of Physick who had said that he had heard that Amyrald had said somewhat as slighting the Non-conformists in England and me in particular which with what vehemency and great respect he disowneth his Letter following will shew Another was from a Minister in Helvetia who would have had my Advice about setting up the Work of Ministerial Instruction of the Families and Persons of their Charge particularly which I will also add but I sent him an Answer by his Friend by word of mouth only And so I refused the answering of all others Literae D. Amyraldi Ad Reverendum Virum Dom. Dominum Baxterum Fidelem Evangelis Jesu Christi Ministerium Londinum VIrtutum tuarum fama Vir Reverende ad aures meas ante aliquot annos pervenit nec omnino me latuerat quam honorifice de me privatam sentias publice loquaris Verum quia audio scripsisti Anglice tantum modo cognitio autem linguoe vestrae quam ante quadraginta Annos qualemcunque Londini adeptus eram e memoria mea desuetudine obliterata est parum commercii mihi est cum libris vestris nec hactenus contigit ut quidquam quod à te prodixerit oculis usurpaverim Eo de causâ quamvis nonnunquam ceperit me impetus aliquis ad te scribendi ut honorem quo te prosequor testificarer ut significarem quod me publice laudasti ingrato non accidisse Etsi enim tenuitatem meam agnosco non dissimulabo tamen non esse mihi fibram adeo corneam qui◠laudari amen à te potissimum laudato Viro Attamen quotiuscunque id in Animum induxi vel occasio literas ad te mittendi suppeditata non est vel me repressit aliquis metus nequid de me suspicaveris At quod hucusque distuleram Vir Reverende expressit à me indignatio concepta ex lectione literarum Domini Simonii ad me in quibus vidi nescio quem male feriatum hominem etenim eum ne de nomine quidem novi scripsisse ad Molinaeum Amyraldum de te deque Scriptis tuos loqui valde contemptem adeo ut si verum esset quod ille quisquis est dicit justissimam causam haberes cur
themselves believed it that the love of Kiderminster would make me Conform and they concurred in vending the Report insomuch that one certainly told me that he came then from a worthy Minister to whom the Arch-bishop of York Sterne spake these Words Take it on my Word Mr. Baxter doth Conform and is gone to his Beloved Kiderminster And so both Parties concurred in the false Report though one only raised it § 151. Another Accident fell out also which promoted it For Mr. Crofton having a Tryal as I hear upon the Oxford Act of Confinement at the King's Bench Judge Keeling said You need not be so hasty for I hear that Mr. Crofton is about to Conform And Judge Morton said And I hear that Mr. Baxter hath a Book in the Press against their private Meetings Judge Rainsford said somewhat that he was glad to hear it and Judge Morton again That it was but time for the Quakers in Buckingham-shire he was confident were Acted by the Papists for they spake for Purgatory already This Talk being used in so high a Court of Justice by the Grave and Reverend Judges all Men thought then that they might lawfully believe it and report it So Contagious may the Breath of one Religious Man be as to infect his Party and of that Religious Party as to infect the Land and more than one Land with the belief and report of such ungrounded Lies § 152. At the same time in the end of my Life of Faith I Printed a Revocation of my Book called Political Aphorisms or A Holy Common-wealth which exasperated those who had been for the Parliament's War as much as the former but both together did greatly provoke them Of which I must give the Reader this Advertisement I wrote that Book 1659. by the provocation of Mr. Iames Harrington the Author of Oceana and next by the Endeavours of Sir Hen. Vane for a Common-wealth Not that I had any Enmity to a well ordered Democracy but 1. I knew that Cromwell and the Army were resolved against it and it would not be 2. And I perceived that Harrington's Common-wealth was fitted to Heathenism and Vane's to Fanaticism and neither of them would take Therefore I thought that the improvement of our Legal Form of Government was best for us And by Harrington's Scorn Printed in a half Sheet of Gibberish was then provoked to write that Book But the madness of the several Parties before it could be Printed pull'd down Rich. Cromwell and chang'd the Government so oft in a few Months as brought in the King contrary to the hopes of his closest Adherents and the expectations of almost any in the Land And ever since the King came in that Book of mine was preached against before the King spoken against in the Parliament and wrote against by such as desired my Ruine Morley Bishop of Worcester and many after him branded it with Treason and the King was still told that I would not retract it but was still of the same mind and ready to raise another War and a Person not to be indured New Books every Year came out against it and even Men that had been taken for Sober and Religious when they had a mind of Preferment and to be taken notice of at Court and by the Prelates did fall on Preaching or Writing against me and specially against that Book as the probablest means to accomplish their Ends. When I had endured this ten Years and found no stop but that still they proceeded to make me odious to the King and Kingdom and seeking utter ruine this way I thought it my Duty to remove this stumbling Block out of their way and without recanting any particular Doctrine in it to revoke the Book and to disown it and desire the Reader to take it as non Scriptum and to tell him that I repented of the writing of it And so I did Yet telling him That I retracted none of the Doctrine of the first Part which was to prove the Monarch of God but for the sake of the whole second Part I repented that I wrote it For I was resolved at least to have that much to say against all that after wrote and preach'd and talk'd against it That I have revoked that Book and therefore shall not defend it And the incessant bloody Malice of the Reproachers made me heartily wish on two or three accounts that I had never written it 1. Because it was done just at the fall of the Government and was buried in onr ruines and never that I know of did any great good 2. Because I find it best for Ministers to meddle as little as may be with Matters of Poliâ—y how great soever their Provocations may be and therefore I wish that I had never written on any such Subject 3. And I repented that I meddled against Vane and Harrington which was the second Part in Defence of Monarchy seeing that the Consequents had been no better and that my Reward had been to be silenced imprisoned turned out of all and reproached implacably and incessantly as Criminal and never like to see an end of it He that had wrote for so little and so great displeasure might be tempted as well as I to wish that he had sat still and let GOD and Man alone with Matters of Civil Policy Though I was not convinced of many Errors in that Book so called by some Accusers to recant yet I repented the writing of it as an infelicity and as that which did no good but hurt § 153. But because an Appendix to that Book had given several Reasons of my adhering to the Parliament at first many thought I changed my Judgment about the first part of the Parliament's Cause And the rather because I disclaimed the Army's Rebellious Overthrows of Government as I had always done I knew I could not revoke the Book but the busie pevishness of censorious Professors would fall upon me as a Revolter And I knew that I could not for bear the said Revocation without those ill Effects which I supposed greater And which was worst of all I had no possible Liberty further to explain any Reasons § 154. When my Cure of Church Divisions came out the sober Party of Ministers were reconciled to it especially the Ancienter sort and those that had seen the Eviâ—s of Separation But some of the London Ministers who had kept up Publick Assemblies thought it should have been less sharp and some thought because they were under the Bishop's Severities that it was unseasonable For the Truth is most Men judged by Sense and take that to be good or bad which they feel do them good or hurt at the present And because the People's Alienation from the Prelates and Liturgy and Parish-Churches did seem to make against the Prelates and to make for the Nonconformist's Interest they thought it not Prudence to gratifie the Prelates so far as to gain-say it And so they considered not from whence dividing Principles come
Pinch upon his Cause would fain persuade us that this could yet be no Ordination till afterwards when he came in and submitted to the Solemnities Baron in An. 233. p. 407 408. we will not contend about the Word Ordination but it was an authoritative Consecration to God as a Bishop and a Constituting him over that Church by Prayer and solemn Words of Consecration And it seems Apollos and many others preached in the Apostles Days without Ordination But our Divines having dealt so much with the Papists on this Subject I suppose you may see more in their Writings than you can expect from Your Brother and Fellow Servant Rich. Baxter Sept. 9. 1653 Mr. Iohnson's Second Letter to Mr. Baxter SIR I Have here enclosed sent you back the Papers which I borrowed of you and I have been so scrupelous in sending them back exactly the same as they were first sent to you that I have not so much as mended some Errata which I observed in the Copying them over to have slipt my Pen when I wrote them first I have since I received my own Papers perused the Answer which you make to them but what I am like to return I cannot guess For I cannot yet tell whether you have satisfied my Arguments or not This I know and shall not be ashamed to confess that if you have I have not yet Wit enough to understand you But before I will say you have not I will a little more consider your Answer and try my own Reason a little farther Only this I will venture to say in the mean time that if I can any whit judge of my own Heart I never enquired more unbiassedly after any Truth than I do after this present Question and therefore I do not doubt but if Light be before me I shall at length see it though for the present it be hid from me For as I said if I know my own Heart I can sincerely say that in this Question I could be well content to find the Truth though it ran cross against every Line in my own Papers But I must needs confess if I have Truth on my side in this Question and after the most diligent Examination which I can make it shall still appear that to plead for an uninterrupted Succession be of absolute necessity for the justifying of our Ministry I shall never dispute the other Matters with the like indifferency For in this combat I could be content to take a foyl and it is in a manner all one to me whither of us get the better But in the other matters which I am after to proceed upon I have many temptations before me to be afraid of owning Truth if I should meet with her out of my own Quarters And therefore beside the Pains which it will cost me to discharge the Task the very Fear which I shall be in least I should miscarry in the Managing makes me more than willing to take a Supersedeas here But if this cannot be done you shall have the rest which I promised performed in the same order as your self have stipulated viz. before I make any Reply to yours I shall endeavour to discharge the three other Particulars which remain behind and all in due time from SIR Your Fellow-labourer and Enquirer after Truth M. Iohnson Wamborn Octob. 6. 1653. For my Reverend c. very worthy Friend Mr. Baxter Minister of the Word at Kidderminister These Mr. Johnson's Third Letter to Mr. Baxter SIR IN my late Letter which I sent you I told you That I could not resolve my self whether you had answered my Arguments or not but intended to try my own Reason a little farther before I would say positively that you had not And now upon further Consideration I return you this to your whole Discourse 1. Whereas you say to my first Argument that it was necessary for our English Bishops to prove an interrupted Succession against the Papists because they might thereby argue ad hominem more strongly against them I answer That such learned Men as I have had the luck to meet withal do not intend their Arguments or their Pains to any such end and I prove that sufficiently thus Because they that do use such kind of Replies do usually frame their Answers thus 1. That there is no necessity of such a Succession But Secondly If there was a necessity yet the nullity of our Calling would not follow because we can prove such a Succession But say I the learned Authors which I have hitherto met withal have no such Concessions And because you seem often to hint some such thing I desire you would point me out to some English Bishop who having written about this Subject do concede that a Succession in Office or a Succession of legitimate Ordination is not necessary And I do the more confidently require this from you because I have it from one who is much better acquainted with Authors than my self that the Socinian Faction were the first that ever owned that Assertion And if he be able to make good what he saith you gain as little Credit by abetting such a Faction as they are in your Assertions as we get by abetting the Papists while we plead for the quite contrary But Secondly Whereas you deny the Consequence and tell me that all which they thought necessiary is not necessary they being not infallible I answer that you lay more stress upon my first Argument than I intended For I never intended to argue thus That therefore it was infallably necessary because they thought it necessary but that it was a good inducing Motive to persuade that it was a matter of more consequence than your Papers made of it since learned Men took so much Pains about it And though this indeed will not extend to a Demonstration yet it may serve as far as I intended it viz. as far as an Argument will reach drawn only from that inartificial Topick a Testimonio which you know in all contests is familiarly used and not to be rejected if the Testees be Men of Worth and Learning And if so then this Argument will stand good so far as it will serve or was intended notwithstanding any thing that hath been said to the Contrary To the Second Argument Whereas you doubt not to say That if you answer me well in this you carry the whole Cause afore you I shall so far gratify you as to acknowledge that you have sufficiently answered it though I must also profess that I cannot find wherein you have given a formal answer to it For the Apex or the Quick of the Argument as you are pleased to phrase it was laid down in this Proposition That there is no where in Scripture such a Form of Words as these That they that are thus and thus qualified may Preach the Word Now to this you answer That there is quod sensum And I reply That this will serve my turn if you do but make it
either take it upon himself or the People may be the Judges to call him out to it or the Magistrate either Then they have the same Authority which we must have if the Succession be interrupted and the Door of the Vineyard nailed up by Providence and so their Authority seems built upon your own Principles Now to all this if you say that it is their Error to be Anabaptists and it is their Error to Judge the visible Ministry of England to be no Church-Offices and that it is their Duty to quit themselves of these Errors that they may be in a Capacity to receive Ordinations and the Presbytery in a Capacity to Ordain them as you do in effect say To this I answer that I think as well as you that these are their Errors and that these Errors ought to be laid aside But yet this being said doth not absolve them from the case of extream Necessity which I speak of An erroneous Conscience binding as strongly as a sound and an Error appearing Truth lays as great a Necessity upon the Party to frame his Practise to it as Truth And so the Necessity becomes still as importunate Methinks this Answer which you give may be made â—y Papists to us Protestants and by the Episcopal Party to you Presbyteries when we tell the Papists that we dare not take Orders from them or the Presbyterian tells the Episcopacy that they dare not take Orders from them How easily may the Papists say to us it is our Error how seriously may the Episcopal say to the Presbyterian it is your Error You create Impossibilities and Necessities upon your selves by your erronious Consciences But if we Protestants cannot reject that Necessity which lies upon us of refusing Orders from the Papists or if the Presbyterian cannot reject the Impossibility that lies before them of taking Orders from the Prelates whilst their Conciences tells them they may not Why may not the Sectary upon as good Ground and as justifiable Principles refuse Orders from the Presbyterian and plead as strongly a moral Impossibility and a nailing up the Vineyards Door by Providence whilst their Consciences tells them they may not and so baulking those that we call Church Officers enter as regularly into the Ministry or at least as inconfutably as any other Men if the Succession be interrupted And therefore I cannot think that you have answered this Argument except the two first Lines contains it where you say That the best things may be made use of as Occasions to encourage Men in Sin c. because I think that there is much Truth in that and that the Inconvenience which this Argument hath hanged upon that Assertion is but incommodum per accidens which may be fastened upon most of the Truths of God I supersede likewise in that Answer to my third Argument As for my Fourth Argument I confess it was frivolously urged to the present Question and I have wondered at my self how I came to hoole it in under the present Debate and therefore I will return you nothing to what you have said against it But giving you many Thanks for that Help which you have held out to my Understanding towards that weighty Question of justifying the Calling of the Ministry I beseech the Almighty long continue your Life to the Advantage of his Church And this done without further Ceremony I bid you farewell and rest Your Fellow Labourer in the Gospel of Christâ— M. Johnson Wamborne Nov. 9. 1653. For my Reverend c. very worthy Friend Mr. Baxter Minister of the Word at Kidderminister These Mr. Baxter's Second Letter to Mr. Johnson Reverend Brother I Know not whether I am more glad of your Satisfaction or sorrowful that you will needs supercede the Task which you undertook I confess it is a Labour which I apprehend would be useful to me many ways but a strong Conceit of the Impossibility of performing it did slack my Desires But now you tantalize me expressing here a higher Confidence of the Feaseableness of your Work than before in your defying all the World on the contrary So that I must again renew my suit to you that you would perform that Work and prove de facto an uninterrupted Succession I profess it is for my own Edification that I desire it and if you suspect whether it be to cavil or enter a Quarrel with you mistake me Such a Discovery would dispatch several Difficulties with me in several Controversies As for your Animadversions last sent I shall reply to the substance of them in brief 1. The First I conceive little worth the insisting on because first you confess it is but a Motive to induce you to think there is weight in the Point 2. Because if there were any thing in it the contrary Judgments of all the Learned Divines of France Belgia upper Germany Helvetia Denmark Sweeden Scotland Transilvania Hungary with a great part of the English who are against the necessity of an uninterrupted Succession is as strong a motive to an unprejudiced Man as is the Judgment of the Bishops of England alone But 2. It is a known Case past all doubt that the English Bishops opposed the Papists in this Point till of later Years and to name you more what need I when you know I named you so many in my Book To all which add That even the late exasperated Episcopal Divines whereof some have been suspected of halting do yet confess the Truth of the Reformed Churches and Ministry that have no Bishops as doth Dr. Fern Dr. Stewart's Answer to Fountain's Letter Bishop Bromhall against Militerius who yet would have the Pope to be principium Unitatis to all the Church I do not think you can find one of twenty that wrote against the Papists before the late King's Reign or the Treaty of the Spanish Match but were all against the Papists in this Point of the necessity of uninterrupted Succession if they medled with the Point Ad 2 um The Reason why you saw not a Formal Answer in my Words I conceive was your Oversight you took no notice of the Force of my Answer You required this Proposition to be proved from Scripture They that are thus and thus qualified may preach the Word I told you it is contained in this which is in Scripture Men thus and thus qualified shall be appointed to preach the Word Here you overlook the Strength of my Answer which is in the Word shall and you not only obscure the Emphasis but change the Word and put may for shall Here is contained a Precept comprehensive both of the Preacher's Work and the Ordainers conjunctly Now all my Business was to shew you that as in this there are more Precepts than one so that secundum materiam subjectam they have not the same Degree of Obligation and that though God do lay down together his Law both de re de modo of the Work and the Order of entring on it yet that the
Reasons of it 2. And what we desired as better Mr. Calamy and others said This was plainly to deny the Conference which we were commissioned for and they would there have broke off had it not been for me who requested them rather to yield and undertake it than give them occasion to charge us with Tergiversation and Refusal of any lawful thing though I easily saw that the Motioner thought thereby to break us as disagreeing when we came to perform the Undertaking While others drew up their Exceptions against the Liturgy they appointed me to draw up the Additional Forms But remembring the Bishops Words What we desired instead I drew up a Liturgy It must needs be very imperfect being done in necessary haste in Eight Days Dr. Reignolds only thought that we should be blamed for offering a whole Liturgy instead of Additional Forms I told him 1. It was but to be added to the old if reformed 2. And they might cut off all that they thought superfluous upon debates even all that the Bishops should except justly against for we did but offer it to them professing we were ready to alter any thing upon their Reasons Hereupon Dr. Reignolds yielded and it was oft read over among us only the Prayer for the King being thought too long Dr. Wallis was appointed to draw up a shorter which he did all the rest standing as I wrote it It was agreed to without one dissenting Vote nor had we one Objection sent us in by any other I was appointed at a meeting with the Bishops at the Savoy at once to deliver them them this Liturgy A Reply to their Answer to our Exceptions and A Petition for Peace and Concord all which they had appointed me to draw up and had examined and consented to We waited for an Answer to all and never had an Answer to any one of them but they kept them and said nothing of them I was especially desirous to have heard their Exceptions against our Liturgy when they thought we would have disagreed among our selves and urged some of them to it and could never get a Word of Answer or Exception which made me wonder as well knowing 1. How very willing some were to have found it faulty 2. And how hard it is in necessitated haste to write such a thing that shall not be liable to many Exceptions Yea when Roger L'Strange after wrote against us he saith little at all against the Liturgy save that we left Men at too much Liberty to which we then said That imposing and restraining was not our work but the Bishops who we supposed upon Debate would have too much done it Now if this full Concord and no Answer or Exceptions from them that extorted this Work from us be agreeable to the Report you make or if you have dealt here like a Minister of Truth I pray you help me to discern it The Book with the rest was printed long ago most of them by some poor Scriviners that being used in transcribing had got a Copy and did it for Gain II. Another Passage is P. 293. No sinful Act being required to make ministerial Conformity unlawful which if there had been they or some others would and ought to have discovered it and then I doubt not it would by Authority have been taken away but that being not done Here I desire you to satisfy me in a few things 1. When even our Publick Reply and foresaid Petition against the old Conformity were never answered to this Day is it ingenuous to take this for a Consutation barely thus to say it is not done should I say it was never yet discovered that Episcopacy is lawful would you not have called me as long as Saravia Bilson Hooker c. are unanswered 2. Do you not know what abundance of old have thought they discovered the sinfulness of Conformity Bradshaw Nicolas Ames Parker Iacob Cartwright c. and what Aloundel Salmasius Gersom Bucer Didoclave c. have written against Prelacy and some of late against our Conformity Cawdry Hickman and others yet unanswered And is this your dry Denyal a rational Confutation 3. Would not your Words make the ignorant believe that we have the Liberty of the Press and may do it if we will and do not the Act of Parliament and the severe Searches of the Press and the Printers Refusal shew how false such an Intimation is It may be some small Pamphlet may with much a do creep out but so cannot any thing that is full and satisfactory Our Cause is a meer Stranger to our Accusers it seems even to such as you because we cannot have leave to print it A few have heretofore when the watch was less strict got somewhat out to little purpose Mr. Hickman's was beyond Sea But nothing that may make us well understood And is it fit work for a Minister to blame Men thus Publickly for not doing Impossibilities 4. It must be supposed that you know these things 1. That the Law forbids us to deprave or speak against the Liturgy upon grievous Penalties 2. That the Canon excommunicateth us ipso facto that is sine Sententia Iudicis if we do but say that there is any thing that a Man may not with a good Conscience conform to 3. And that our present Governors are against it 4. And that for doing it we are sure by Conformists to be called disobedient to Authority and Seditious 5. And that we are so accused by you commonly for Preaching when forbidden which is as much our vowed Duty sure as Writing And do you now tell us that we ought to discover it if there be any sinful Act Commanded Will you warrant us against the Charge of Disobedience or do you drive us on that which if we do you know we are already judged to excommunicated Jailes and Ruine We have long beg'd of Parliament men that we might but once have leave to speak for our selves which we never yet had as to the new Conformity to this Day and yet we might petition for such leave and they tell us these Fifteen Years almost there is no hope it will but ruine you I have offered two of the most eminent Bishops to beg it of them or any on my Knees that we might but once publish the Case and Reasons of our dissent And is it not enough to be Fifteen or Sixteen Years ejected silenced scorned accused as unworthy to be endured and to be silently Patient and never answer for our selves nor have the common Justice of being heard but we must have the additional Abuse to be told that we ought to do it Yea many of the Conformists O with what a Face have published to the World that we take not the things which we refuse for Sins or daâ—e not say so of them when even the far easyer Conformity 1660. We did by Word and Writing declare to be sinful and in our Petâ—â—ion for Peace Printed protested that did we not take it to
be sinful and hazarding our Souls c. We should never have stuck at Conformity to them And it is no small Number of Sins so heiâ—ous which we suppose since imposed that we dare not so much as name them least we displease you and make you say that we render the Conformists such heinous Sinners But I will alledge your Authority when any of us are next blamed for discovering the â—einous Sinfulness of Conformity as we yet believe it would be to us If you say that the Licensers would licence our Writings if we did it with Sobriety 1. You know that the Canon and Law is against it 2. I shall then in Justice challenge you to make it good and here promise you an account of my Nonconformtiy whenever you will procure it licensed 6. And which way got you so strong a Faith as to be past doubt that did we discover any sinfulness it would by Authority have been taken away Make this true yet after neer Two Thousand Ministers have been neer Sixteen Years ejected and silenced and many killed by Imprisonment and the People of the Land divided and distracted by the training Engines and you shall have the Honour of being the greatest healer of our Breaches that ever rose in the Days of my Remembrance But if it be not true III. The Third Passage is p. 69 70. throughout These are great things to be spoken so boldly 1. Do you suppose your Reader one that never read Church-History What Work the Bishops made for Arrianism for Nestorianism for the Eutychians and Aâ—â—phalites against Nazianzen Chrysostom c. for the Monothelites about the tria Capitula for Images against Emperors and Kings setting up the Pope and decreed the Deposition of all Princes that obey him not and making Loyalty to be Heresis Henriciana How the River Oronte at Antioch hath been coloured with the Blood and the Graves of the Monks and People that fought it out in the Streets for the several Bishops what work they made at the first Council at Constance the first and the second of Ephesus the Council at Calcedon and many another How many Ages they were and yet are the Army of the Pope to subdue Princes and Nations Truth and Justice and set up the Evil that now reigneth in the Christian World How even against the Popes Will they made the best King and Emperor Ludovicus Pius as a Pennance resign his Crown and Scepter on the Altar to a Rebel Son and sent him to Prison He that ever read but Baronius Binnius or other Episcopal History will pity you can you name one Presbyter for very many Bishops that have been the Heads or Fomenters of Heresie Schism or Rebellion and yet Presbyters were more in Number than Bishops Innumerable Bishops saith Binnius were in the Monothelite Council under â—hilipicuâ— Of all things that ever befel the Christian Church I scarce know any thing comparable in Shame and Mischievous Effects to the horrid perfideousness Contention Schism and Pride of Bishops Cursing one Year by Hundreds all that were of one Opinion and another Year all that were of the contrary as the times and Interest and Emperor changed And if Arius or Novatus Aerius and Donatus which are all you name were the Beginners of any Schism how many hundred Bishops were the Promoters of them all save that of Aerius against themselves And is it any honour to Episcopacy that Arius and Aerius an Arian were not Bishops when they were said to be Seekers of Bishopricks and to divide because they could not obtain them Sure they were Prelatical Presbyters what honour were it to Episcopacy that you are no Bishop if all these and such things were vended by you in hope of a Bishoprick or some Preferment I will never whilst I breathe trust a Presbyter that sets himself to get Preferment no more than I will trust a But did you know or did you not that as for Novatus and Novatian one of them was an ill-chosen Bishop of Rome and the other a Promoter of his Prelacy and that as for Donatus there were two of them one of them a Bishop and that the Donatists Schism was meerly and basely Prelatical even whether their Bishop or Cecilianus should carry it and that their Re-baptizing and Re-ordaining and Schism was because they took none to have power that had it not from their Bishop as being their right like our Re-ordainers And are these Instances to prove what you assert Were it not for entring upon an unpleasing and unprofitable Task I would ask you 1. Who that Iuncto of Presbyters was that dethroned the King was it they that petitioned and protested against it 2. Whether it was not an Episcopal Parliament forty to one if not an hundred that began the War against the King 3. Whether the General and Commanders of the Army twenty to one were not Conformists 4. Whether the Major Generals in the Countries were not almost all Episcopal Conformists The Earl of Stamford was over your Country 5. Whether the Admiral and Sea-Captains were not almost all Episcopal Conformists As Heylin distinguisheth them of Archbishop Abbots mind disliking Arminianism Monopolies c. 6. Whether the Archbishop of York were not the Parliaments Major General 7. Whether the Episcopal Gentry did not more of them take the Engagement and many Episcopal Ministers than the Presbyterians 8. Whether if this Parliament which made the Acts of Uniformity and Conventicles should quarrel with the King it would prove them to be Presbyterians and Nonconformists 9. Whether the Presbyterian Ministers of London and Lancashire did not write more against the Regicides and Usurpers and declare against them than all the Conformists or as much And the Long Parliament was forced and most of them cast out before the King could be destroyed And when they were restored it made way for his Restoration And Sir Thomas Allen Lord Mayor and the City of Londons inviting General Monk from the Rump into the City and joyning with him was the very Day that turned the Scales for the King But all these are Matters fitter for your better Consideration than our Debate I rest Your Servant Rich. Baxter Iuly 26. 1678. To Mr. Long of Exeter Numb VI. A Resolution of this Case What 's to be done when the Law of the Land commands Persons to go to their Parish-Church and Parents require to go to private Meetings Quest. THE Law of the Land commandeth me to go to the Publick Churches the Canon commandeth me to go to my own Parish-Church and not to another Parish Both forbid me to go to Conventicles and silenced Preachers My Father and Mother forbid me to go to the Publick Churches and command me to go constantly to a silenced Minister in Meetings forbidden by the Law But specially not to go to my Parish Priest saying he is an insufficient and drunken Railer but to a Neighbour Parish if I will not obey their first Command Am I now bound to obey my Parents