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A43841 Fasciculus literarium, or, Letters on several occasions I. Betwixt Mr. Baxter, and the author of the Perswasive to conformity, wherein many things are discussed, which are repeated in Mr. Baxters late plea for the nonconformists, II. A letter to an Oxford friend, concerning the indulgence Anno 1671/2, III. A letter from a minister in a country to a minister in London, IV. An epistle written in Latin to the Triers before the Kings most happy restauration / by John Hinckley ... Hinckley, John, 1617?-1695.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1680 (1680) Wing H2046; ESTC R20043 157,608 354

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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
The Kings Grant of any favour made contrary to Law is void Rex nihil potest nisi quid jure potest And Pag. 210. When all which the Wisdom of all sorts can do is done for the devising Laws in the Church it is the general consent of all that giveth them the Form and Vigour of Laws without which they could be no more to us than the Counsels of Physitians to the Sick well might they seem as wholesom admonitions and instructions but Laws could they never be without the consent of the whole Church to be guided by them Whereunto both Nature and the Practise of the Church of God set down in Scripture is found every way so fully consonant that God himself would not impose no not his own Laws upon his People by the Hand of Moses without their free and open consent O fearful Passage And P. 220. It is a thing even undoubtedly natural that all free and independent Societies should themselves make their own Laws and that this Power should belong to the whole not to any certain part of a Politick Body And P. 221. For of this thing no Man doubteth namely that in all Societies Companies Corporations what severally each shall be bound unto it must be with all their assents ratified Against all equity it were that a Man should suffer detriment at the Hands of Men for not observing that which he never did either by himself or by others mediately or immediately agree to And P. 205. If Magistrates be Heads of Church they are of necessity Christians as if no Magistrates but Christians were Chief Governours of the Church which is meant by Heads And P. 218 223 224. What Power the King hath he hath it by Law The Bounds and Limits of it are known The entire community giveth order c. P. 223. As for them that exercise Power altogether against Order although the kind of Power which they have may be of God yet is their exercise thereof against God and therefore not God otherwise than by permission as all injustice is P. 224. Usurpers of Power whereby we do not mean them that by violence have aspired unto Places of highest Authority but that use more Authority than ever they did receive in form and manner afore-mentioned such Usurpers thereof as in the exercise of their Power do more than they have been authorized to do cannot in Conscience bind any Man to obedience ☜ And Pag. 194. May a Body-politick then at all times withdraw in whole or in part the Influence of Dominion which passeth from it if inconveniences do grow thereby It must be presumed that Supream Governours will not in such case oppose themselves and be stiff in detaining that the use whereof is with publick detriment c. Sir I do not by reciting it dissent from every word that I cite but I am against Mr. Hookers Popular Fundamentals themselves and desire you to let me know whether these be the Prelates Principles which you defend And for an Exposition of Mr. Hooker remember that Sir Edwin Sandys was his Pupil and chief Bosom-friend But you say you have read his Book over and over and therefore it is not from ignorance of what he wrote that you become a defender of him I suppose you are not ignorant that these are the very Principles which I will not say the Long Parliament but the very Rump and Regicides went upon that Power is originally in the People and escheateth to them and that the King is Singulis Major but Vniversis Minor c. See Parkers Observations 1642. If I were writing to such as Mr. Walton who would tempt Men to question whether the 8th Book be not corrupted I would tell them 1. That the Passage in the first Book is the Sum of all the rest and sheweth that they came from the same Author 2. Dr. Spencer was not a Person so to be suspected as one that would befriend a corrupted Copy 3. I can yet give you the Testimony of one of the famousest Men in England for Learning in the Laws and Integrity who had long ago a Copy in M. S. agreeing with the printed Copy 4. Bishop Guuden dedicated it to the King and saith That even the eighth Book is interlined in many places with Mr. Hookers own Characters as owned by him and he proveth it by other Reasons And the same Bishop Gauden saith P. 18. He admirably expresseth the original of all Laws And yet Bishop Carlton Treat of Jurisdiction Pag. 12. saith This I observe the rather because some of the Popes Flatterers of late as others also to open a wide gap to Rebellions have written That the Power of Government by the Law of Nature is in the Multitude I conjecture that Mr. Hooker was the chief Man whom he meant by others And his foresaid Pupil and Friend was far from being a Presbyterian as his Europae Speculum sheweth and yet it 's well known how close he stuck to Abbot's Party and how great a Man he was in Parliaments for the Subjects Liberty and the restraint of Monarchy And even Bishop Gauden his last Publisher saith Pag. 4. of his Life This is certain that the strength of the Church of England was much decayed and undermined before it was openly battered partly by some superfluous illegals and unauthorized Innovations in Point of Ceremony which some Men affected to use in publick and impose upon others which provoked People to jealousie and fury even against things lawful every Man judging truly that the measure of all publick Obedience ought to be the publick Laws ☜ Partly by a supine neglect in others of the main Matters in which the Kingdom of God the peace of Conscience and the Churches Happiness do chiefly consist while they were immoderately intent upon meer Formalities and more zealous for an outward conformity to those Shadows than for that inward or outward conformity with Christ in Holy Hearts and unblamable Lives which must adorn true Religion To which he adds the Testimony of Dr. Holsworth So that it is a thing notorious and past contradiction that the Arminianism Innovations and supposed excesses and exorbitances of one part of the Prelatists gave occasion to the other part then accounted the Church and the more Protestant to vent their displeasure and fear in many Parliaments and at last to take up Arms and when they found themselves too weak to invite the Scottish Presbyterians to their Aid who fell at last into the Hands of the Sectaries And therefore I excuse or justifie none of the Parties but those that say that the beginners of the War against the King are guilty of his death as well as they that kill'd him must confess that it was the Prelatists or they must be impudent And therefore I again advise you to forbear the defence of Hooker and such Conformists and call them first to repentance who were first of the English in taking up Arms against the King § 34. It 's well you disclaim
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
152 153. 166 167. Nulla periculosiora vitia quàm quae virtutem imitantur Nam praeterquam quod bonis etiam lubricus in ea lapsus est nulla difficilius corriguntur propterea quòd vulgus imperitum Religionem violari credit dum istiusmodi Reprehenduntur Reclamet ilico mundus oblatrent clamosi quidam Concionatores qui ista libenter intus Canunt non ad Christum sed ad suum compendium respicientes Erasmus Enchirid. p. 101. Eccles 8. 11. Because Sentence against an evil act is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil If any Presbyter set light by his Bishop and set up Separate Meetings He shall be depos'd and the People Communicating shall be excommunicated Apostol Can. 31. Conc. Antioch Can. 5. The same is affirm'd by the Synod of Illibeus and Counc of Gangra A LETTER To a MINISTER in LONDON From a MINISTER in the COUNTREY Good Brother I Want such a Friend as your Self in these Times into whose Bosom I might empty and impart my Pensive Thoughts and so give ease to my Troubled Mind And also enjoy the Balsom of your Counsel for the healing of my wounded Spirit My Ears are not only grated upon and fill'd with the Din of a Discontented World but my very Heart throbs and Palpitates in my Breast when I consider the Divisions of our Reuben It is not long since we sang the Songs of Zion our Mouths were fill'd with Laughter and our Hearts with Joy when after a long and wearisom Night the Sun brake forth in our Hemisphere and cheer'd our Drooping Spirits Our Rightful Prince came leaping over all the Mountains that were in his way And under the shadow of this Cedar we have sate safe and quiet ever since That which sweeten'd the Mercy was this It was bestow'd by way of Answer to our Prayers After many frustraneous Contrivances Combinations and Attempts of our own We gave Heaven no Rest either day or night until He by whom Kings Reign gave us our Rulers as at the first and our Governors as in Ancient days But as if with Aaron and Hur we had let down our hands and intermitted those Devotions which must Contribute to the continuing and preserving of Mercies as well as Influence the procuring of them we are again surrounded with Affrightments The Clouds gather and the shadows are stretching themselves over us as if there were a Storm and another Eclipse of the Sun approaching The Archers are fitting their Arrows in their Quivers Nay upon their Strings as if they had some Game in view some signal Mark to aim at Neither great nor small but the King of Israel All this while we stand amaz'd and cannot tell out of what Coast this Storm may arise or from whence this showre of Artillery may assault us Like men devoted to fall a Sacrifice yet we know not whose hands may be imbrued in our Blood All Parties are lowing after their Calves and are ready to Gore those that meddle with them or stand in their way Of old we read but of two in all Israel But now Calves have gender'd and brought forth a numerous Generation There 's scarce a great Town where there are not whole Droves and Herds of them They leap and Sport and take their Pastime like Leviathan in the Waters without Controul None so fierce that dare stir them up who is able to stand before them They esteem Iron as Straw and Brass as rotten Wood Darts are counted as stubble they laugh at the shaking of a Spear At their first appearing in the World their Pens were at a considerable distance one from the other Dan and Bethel but now they couch so near together that they are almost Contiguous And as Herrings when they meet in Sholes they do not only threaten but indanger the tallest Ships so the Adorers of these Calves combining together and swelling into a Prodigious Bulk do even threaten the downfal of Church and State though rooted in Adamant Joab himself would be confounded if he were to Number these People You see how Sparks neglected may grow into a Flame and a Flame not extinguish'd in time may become a Conflagration Then it will be too late to say We thought Calves had been so far from having Horns that they had been harmless and innocent Creatures so that Children may even play upon the holes of these Asps The Lacedaemonians in their Common-wealth and the Chineses to this day will not permit Strangers to continue in their Cities above three Days lest their People should learn any Manners or Customs which might Adulterate or Subvert those of their own growth It is Death among the Turks to do any thing openly whereby the Religion Professed among them may seem to be slighted or contradicted And Porcius Cato told the Romans in a set Speech How careful their Ancestors had been that no external Rites of Worship or Sacrifices of other Countries should creep in and incroach upon their City This made it and them so formidable unto their Enemies It may be hereafter scann'd by Sober Politicians whether Mercury or Prudence was the Ascendant in this Nation when Thistles and Nettles were suffer'd to multiply and grow to that height that they threaten all the Flowers in the Garden either to choak or over top them The poor Husbandman weeds out the Tares and Darnel out of his Field lest they should rob his Corn of that Sap which should feed it or twist about it with Mortal imbraces until they humble and level it with the Earth Who would nourish a Viper in his Bosom until he come to that strength and vigour that 't is able to sting him to the very heart Governors even of private Societies and Houses are commonly jealous of any Incroachments that may undermine their Power or confront their Authority Now he is an errant Stranger in our Israel that sees not how several Parties swell increase every day and all Combine against the Powers that are Where one Man speaks the Language of Canaan what savours of Loyalty and Obedience to his Prince what tends to the Peace and welfare of the Church There 's twenty speak the Dialect of Ashdod what smells of Nitre and Sulphur Discontent and Confusion And what they do not express in Articulate Sounds they make out in Nods and Whispers A naughty Man winketh with his Eyes and speaketh with his Feet Some think the Blow we fear will come from Rome And indeed that City was founded in Blood Her very Walls were cemented with the same And since it became Christian how have the Streets thereof been fill'd with Blood from one end to the other in the several Persecutions Jerusalem it self in the days of Titus can scarce Parallel those Tragoedies Nay Since the Roman Eagle has given place to the Cross And the Bishop has supplanted the Emperor How easie would it be in each Countrey where the Pope's Horse has set his foot