Nothing in all this which concerns the Sanhedrim nothing which speaks of such a power as the bringing of the Kings unto corporal â—punishment this punishment being onely such as the Kings had condemned themselves unto in the way of penance for their transgression of the Laws This is enough to show how little credit is to be given to the full and general consent of the Talmudists whom Grotius builds upon for proving the supream power in the Sanhedrim in bringing their Kings to corporal punishment which they never had And yet to make the matter clearer he presently subjoyns these words unto those before but whether they be his own words or the words of some of his Hebrew Writers let them judge that list viz. a paenis autem coactivis adeo liberi erant reges ut etiam excalceationis lex quippe cum ignominia conjuncta in ipsis cessaret There Kings saith he were so far exempted from the coactive power of Law that they were not liable to the penance of going barefoot because it carried with it a mark of infamy If there be any other place in Grotius which may serve your turn you must first direct me where to find it before you can expect it should have an answer 33. The Talmudists having failed you you have recourse unto the Scripture and to the Authority of Josephus a right good Historian but with no more advantage to the point in hand then if you had never lookt upon them You tell us of a Restitution of the Sanhedrim was made by King Jehoshaphat as I think it was for so I find it 2 Chron. 19. v. 8. Moreover saith the Text in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites and of the Priests and the chief of the Fathers in Israel for the judgement of the Lord and for controversies when they return to Jerusalem But how can you inferre from hence that by the manner of this Restitution admitting that it relates unto the Sanhedrim as I think â—it may though other Writers make it doubtful doth so plainly show that ever under the Monarchy the power of the Sanhedrim was co-ordinate with that of the King which consequent if it can be rationally collected from that text of Scripture or any which depends upon it I have lost my Logick Jehoshaphat though a just King and a godly man could neither be so unskilful in his own affairs or so careless of the regalities of his posterity as to erect another power which might be co-ordinate with his own and might hereafter give a check to himself and them in all Acts of Government But then supposing Jehoshaphat to be so improvident as to erect a power which was to be co-ordinate with him yet being but a co-ordinate power it gave them no Authority to bring their King to corporal punishment as you say they did I know it is a rule in Logick Co-ordinate se invicem supplent that one co-ordinate doth supply the defects of another But I never heard of any such Maxime as Co-ordinata se invicem tollent that one co-ordinate power may destroy the other and if it hath no power to destroy the other then can it pretend to no power correcting the other which is the next degree to a totall destruction For par in parem non habet potestatem as the saying is Besides all which if any such power had been given the Sanhedrim either at the first institution of it by Almighty God or at the Restitution by Jehoshaphat there is no question to be made but that we should have either found it in the Original Grant or by some exemplications of it in point of practise but finding neither of the two in the Book of God or in any approved humane Authors I take it for a very strong Argument that no such power was ever given them Non apparentium non existentium eandem esse rationem was a good maxime in the Schools and I build upon it 34 But on the contrary you hope to help your self by two examples one of them being taken out of the Prophet Jeremiah the other out of the Jewish Antiquities you instance first in Zedekias who to the Sanhedrim demanding the Prophet Jeremiah made answer Behold he is in your hands for the King is not he that can do any thing without you Out of which words you would infer First that the King according to the opinion of some of the Talmudists was not to judge in some cases which whether he was or not is not much material most Kings conceiving it most agreeable to their own ease the content of their Subjects to divolve that power upon their Judges obliged by oath to administer equal Justice betwixt the King and his people You infer secondly from those words that the Sanhedrim were co-ordinate with the Kings of Judah though there be no such matter in them My answer unto this objection and my reasons for it you must needs have met with in the Book against Calvin as you call it of which since you have took no notice I am forced to bring them here to a repetition My answer is That Calvin whom it most concerned to have it so finds fault with them who did expound the place to that end or purpose which you most desire or though the King did speak so honourably of his Princes ac si nihil iis sit negandum as if nothing was to be denied them whereas he rather doth conceive that it was amarulenta Regis quaerimonia a sad and bitter complaint of the poor captivated King against his Councellors by whom he was so over-ballanced ut velit nolit cedere iis cogeretur that he was forced to yield to them whether he would or not which he punctually and expresly calls inexcusabilem arrogantiam an intolerable piece of sawciness in those Princes and an exclusion of the King from his legal rights This makes the matter plain enough that the Princes by whom you understand the Sanhedrim had no such power in Calvins Judgment as might make them equal to the King or legally enable them to controul his rections but the reason which I there give makes the matter plainer and my reason is that Calvin who is said by some to have composed his Expositions on the Scripture according to the Doctrine of his institutions would not have lost so fair an evidence for the advancing of his popular Magistracy and consequently of the three Estates in most Christian Kingdomes had he conceived he could have made it serviceable to his end and purpose for then how easy had it been for it in stead of the Demarchy of Athens in which you say he was mistaken to have understood the Jewish Sanhedrim in which he could not be mistaken if you judge aright Besides we are not very sure that the Princes mentioned in that place did make up the Sanhedrim or came unto the King in the name of Councell of which some of them might be members but rather that
Heylyn Abingdon Mar. 28. 1659. 8. This Letter being sent after the other it was no hard matter to divine of the answer to it if any answer came at all I might have learned by my address to M. Baxter that there was nothing to be gained by such civilities but one reproach upon another men of that spirit being generally for quod scripsi scripsi as we know who was seldome accustomed to retract or qualify what they once had written But as my own ingenuity invited me to write the first so to the sending of the second I was directed in a manner by the Justificator pag. 15. where he complains that you M. Peirce did not endeavour to purge the peccant humor by a private Letter before you made the passionate adventure of calling him obstinate This made me not without some thoughts that a private Letter might prevail upon such a person who desired not to be accounted obstinate in his own opinions from which modesty I might collect a probable hope that he would not persevere in any error when he was once convinced of it but rather make amends to truth and reparation to the parties which were injured by him The least I could expect if he vouchsaft me any answer was to learn the name or names of those by whom the yong man had been abused in the information which might entitle me perhaps to some other adversary whom I had more desire to deal with But if no answer came at all as perchance there might not I should be able to conclude that he had neither proof nor Author for either calumny which whether he had or not will evidently appear by the following Letters which though unlookt for came at last to make good the Proverb and are here subjoyned verbatim without alteration M. Hickman's Answer to D. Heylyn's first Letter SIR 9. YOu are pleased to honour me with a Letter and to subscribe your self my very loving Friend and Christian Brother I take it for a great favour and shall be heartily glad if my Answer may procure a good understanding betwixt us and prevent any further trouble Your charge is threefold 1. That in the Preface to my first Edition I say That your Book had as I was informed received the desert of its bitterness being burnt by the hand of the common hang-man I deny not the words nor can I see any reason to be ashamed of them For 1. There is an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons still in force commanding that all Books of the complexion yours is of should be seized and publiquely burnt 2. It was commonly noised that your Book against the Arch-Bishop of Armagh was actually burned 3. I proceeded not barely upon common report but had my intelligence from one of no mean employment who hath his constant residence at White Hall and I am pretty confident your Book had been de facto so disgraced if the sickness and death of the late Protector had not put the Privy counsel upon minding matters of higher concernment And will you now say that I was so zealous in fastening a reproach upon you that I cared not whether it were true or false You have in your own Books printed many matters of fact with more confidence for which you cannot pretend so much ground 2. You charge me that I have made bold with you in my second Edition Novum crimen ante haee tempora inauditum You had in your Examen Historicum bestowed some ugly words upon a Colledge never to mentioned without honour and I by a true relating the whole business against which you so much exclaim labour to vindicate the credit of the Society and for this I must be accounted bold Who can help it 3. You charge me for laying a fouler reproach on the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury because I intimate that he was disgracefully turned out of the Divinity Schooles by Dr. Holland and for this you say I would be troubled to produce my Author It may be you and I are not agreed what it is to be disgracefully turned out of the Schools but if this be it to be publiquely checkt for a seditious person who would unchurch the Protestant Churches beyond the Sea and sow division betwixt us and them by a novel Popish Position You cannot sure think that it will be any trouble to me to produce my Author For you censure and therefore I presume have read M. Prinne's Breviate in which all this is extant totidem verbis That Author having laid such a charge and none of the Arch-Bishops friends having all this while pleaded not guilty I might take it pro Confesso yet I must tell you M. Prinne's is not the onely Ground on which I proceed though what my other Grounds be I shall not declare till I well understand what use you intend to make of my Letters And now Sir I hope that lamentable jeer of my standing in need to pray for Ignorant Readers and such as are fit to be abused might have been spared been bestowed upon some Temporizer whose design it is to ingratiate himselfe with great ones who can complement a Prince so Highly as to style himselfe his Creature and the workmanship of his hands For my own part Favour and Riches I neither want nor seek I have so much of a man in me to be very subject to Errors but I hope I have not so little of a Christian in me as not to be very willing to recall any Error which by any learned man shall be discovered to me The Design of the Historical part of my Book is to prove that till Bishop Laud sat in the Saddle our Divines of prime Note and Authority did in the Five points deliver themselves consonantly to the determinations of the Synod of Dort and that they were enjoyn'd Recantation who were known either to Broach or Print that which now is called Arminianism Can any one deny this In my Doctrinal part I assert that malum morale quà tale non est Ens positivum In which I promise my self that I shall not have you who profess to take your Opinions from the Fathers an Adversary I deny not whose name you so much honour hath in many things deserved well of the University but that his name should be so precious as you intimate to all who love the Church of England I am not yet convinced Me thinks the Character Isidor Pelus gives of Eusebius lib. 2. Epist 246. doth too well suit him That whole Epistle is most heartily recommended to your Reading and so are you to the Grace of Jesus Christ by Your most humble Servant Henry Hickman Mr. Hickmans Answer to Dr. Heylyns second Letter SIR 10. THis Letter was drawn up the last week and had been sent but that I was necessitated to be absent from the University for two or three days I have now received a second Letter wherein you desire by virtue of a promise made in my second Edition to know
but know the manner of those Assemblies which Charles Martel thought good to introduce and settle in the Realm of France that giving them some influence in the publick Government and binding them unto him by so great a favour he might make use of their Authority to preserve his own as his Son Pepin after did to obtain the Crown But that the. Assembly of Estates in either Kingdom did take upon them to fine imprison or to depose or murder any of their Kings as the Tribunes sometimes did the Consuls and the Ephori did the Kings of Sparta you cannot easily prove out of all their stories 15. But you go on and tell me first that the estates in a Gothish Moddel are such by virtue of their estates that is of their over ballance in dominion and then you put it upon me to show both why the over ballance in dominion should not amount to Empire and practically that it amounteth not to Empire in quiet and well governed times But this by your leave is a strange way of Disputation by cutting out what â—work you please and sending it to me to make it up as well as I can But being sent to me I am bound to dispatch it out of hand for your satisfaction I say then first that the Estates in a Gothish Moddel are not such by virtue of their Estates that is to say by being above the rest of the people in titles of Honour and Revenue which you call an over ballance in Dominion For were it so they were of power to exercise the same Authority as you suppose the Tribunes and the Ephori to have done before them in all times alike and not when they are called together by the Kings command For being Masters of their Estates as well out of as in those Generall Assemblies and Conventions and consequently in all times alike what reason can you show me that they should make no use of that Power which belongs to them in right of their Estates but in those General Assemblies and Conventions onely Secondly If they have that power by virtue of their Estates and yet cannot exercise but in such Conventions how doth it come to pass that such Conventions are not of their own appointment but onely at the pleasure and command of their several Kings And Thirdly If they hold and enjoy that Power by virtue of their said Estates you may do well to show some reason why all that are above the rest of the people in Titles of Honour and Revenue should not be called to those assembly of Estates but onely some few out of every Order as in France and Spain to represent the rest of their several Orders For being equal or somewhat near to an equality with one another in Estates and Honours those which were pretermitted have the greater wrong in not being suffered to make use of that natural power which their over balance in dominion hath conferred upon them And then I would be glad to right whether this over ballance in Dominion be ascribed unto them in reference to the King or the common people If in relation to the King you put the King into no better condition then any one of his subjects by making him accomptable to so many Masters who may say to him whensoever they shall meet together Redde rationem villicationis tuae and tell him plainly That he must give up an account of his stewardship for he shall be no longer steward And then have Kings done very ill in raising so many of their subjects to so great a Power and calling them together to make use of that power which they may make use of if they please to his destruction And if they have this over-ballance of Dominion in reference onely to the common people above whom they are raised in Estates and Honours what then becomes of that natural liberty of Mankind that underived Majesty of the common people which our great Masters in the School of Politie have so much cryed up The people must needs take it as ill as the King to be deprived of their natural Liberty without giving their consent unto it or to be deposed from that Majesty which is inherent in themselves without deriving it from any but their first Creator But on the other side if the three Estates in a Gothick Moddel receive that power which they enjoy in those Conventions either from the hands of the King as the Lords Spiritual and Temporal which make up two of the three Estates did here in England or from the hands of the People as the 3d. Estate have done in all Kingdoms else which is the generall opinion and practise of all Nations too you must stand single by your self in telling me that they have that power by virtue of those Estates which they are possest of And this may also serve to show you that an over ballance in Dominion or the greatness of Estate which some subjects have above the rest amounteth not to such an Empire as may give them any power over Prince or people unless it can be showed as I think it cannot that the King doth not over ballance them in the point of Dominion as they do the rest of their fellow subjects or that the whole body of the people cannot as well pretend to Dominion over themselves as any of their fellow-subjects can pretend to have over them And then if this Dominion do amount to an Empire also we shall have three Empires in one Kingdom that is to say the King the three Estates and the Common people I must confess I have not weigh'd all Orders and degrees of men in so even a scale as to resolve which of them ballanceth counter-ballanceth or over-ballanceth the other which must be various and uncertain according to the Lawes of severall Countrys and the different constitutions of their several Governments And I conceive it altogether as impossible to make a new Garment for the Moon which may as well fit her in the full as in her wainings and increasings as to accommodate these Metaphisical speculations to the rules of Government which varying in all places must have different forms And having different forms must have different ballances according to the Lawes and constitutions of each several Country And yet I am not altogether so dimme sighted as not to see what these new Notions which otherwise indeed would prove new Nothings do most chiefly aim at the chief design of many of the late Discourses being apparently no other then to put the supream Government into the hands of the common people or at least into the hands of those whom they shall chuse for their Trustees and Representors which if it could be once effected the underived Majesty of the common people would not appear so visibly in any one person whatsoever as in those Trustees and Representors and then the King or supream Magistrate being thus out shined would seem no other then a Star of the lesser Magnitude which
shall please to let me understand in what such Authors as I trusted have not well informed me let it be done in jest or earnest in love or anger in a fair manner or a foul with respect or disrespect unto me in what way soever I shall most thankfully receive the instruction from him and give him the honour of the Reformation when that Book shall come to another Edition I am not of the humour of the Appealant or my Doughty Squire either in kicking against those who rub upon such sores as I have aboutme or flinging dirt on them who shall take the pains to bestow a brushing on my Coat I was trained up when I was a child to kiss the Rod and I can do it I thank God now I am a man Cur nescire pudens pravae quam discere mallem rather to be ashamed of mistaking in any thing I have written then to learn of any body what I was to write was taken up by me both for a rule and resolution in the very first putting out of my Geography and I shall be at the same pass to the very last 39. In the Raign of King James there remain onely two passages which are to be brought under consideration all the rest being either confessed Traversed or Avoided as before is said The first relates to Dr. Hackwel whom he affirms to have been put out of his Chaplains place for opposing the Spanish Match when first tendred to Prince Henry But by his leave Dr. Hackwel was not put out of his Chaplains place for opposing the Match but for some indiscretion in the managing of it for having written a well studyed peece against that Match not without some reflections on the Spaniard which could not be pleasing to the King he to whom he presented it the King soon undermined him and blew him up For finding it to be transcribed in a very fair Character he gave the Doctor thanks for it within few days after adding that he had seen few great Scholars which were Masters of so good a hand To which when the Doctor modestly answered that it was none of his own hand-writing but that he was fain to make use in it of another mans the King reply'd in no small choller that he that would commit a matter of such weight and secresie to the trust of a Clark or common Scrivener was not fit to live about a King and so dismist him of his place without more ado The second Relates to Dr. Davenant Bishop of Salum whom he affirms to have received consecration from Arch-bishop Abbot notwithanding the Irregularity under which he was supposed to lie by some squemish and nice conscienced Elects which before refused it But our Author is as much out in this as in any thing else for first we find in the late Arch-bishops Breviat published by M. Prinne An 1644. that he the said Bishop Laud was consecrated Bishop of S. Davids at the Chapel in London House Novemb. 18. 1621 the solemnities of the Consecration being performed by the Bishops of London Worcester Chichester Ely Landaff and Oxford the Archbishop being thought irregular for casual Homicide Then look into the continuation of Godwins Catalogue of Bishops and we shall find it thus exprest Novemb. 18. 1621. Johannes Davenant Sacrae Theologiae Doctor c. ad hanc sedem that is to say the See of Salisbury Consecratus est una cum Exoniensi menevensi Electis And certainly if he were consecrated on Sunday together with the Bishops of Exeter and St. Davids as he saith he was he must be consecrated in the same place and by the same hands also as the others were Whereof see more in the said Continuation for Laud and Cary. 40. Proceed we next unto the Raign of King Charles where the first thing in which I am to grapple with him relates unto his making dependance of the Kings Coronation upon the sufferage of the People Disproved by such passages as occur in the same particular in the Coronations of King James and King Edward the 6. But neither being willing to acknowledge the dangerous consequences of that Error nor able to deny their words with which he was charged he hopes to reconcile all parties by making little or no difference betwixt the peoples acknowledging their Allegiance to their Soveraign when required to do it at the Solemnities of the Coronation of the said two Kings and the asking of their consent unto it as is affirmed by our Author in the case of King Charles Which words or Phrases he finds to encline to an agreement there being as he saith not onely a vicinity but an affinity betwixt them and much condemns the Animadvertor for endeavouring to make the difference to be vast exceeding vast and utterly against the will of the words But fearing that these Grammatical speculations would be no fit plaister for the sore he hopes to salve the help of an old Receipt taken out of Mills but in what age he hath not told us in which it is recorded That after the King had a little reposed himself in the Chair or Throne erected upon the Scaffold then the Archbishop of Canterbury shall go unto the fore-squares of the Scaffold and with a loud voice ask the good liking of the people concerning the Coronation of the King To which it will be easily answered that when the good liking or consent of the People was publickly required to a Coronation it was at such times onely and in such cases when the Kings came in by broken Titles for maintenance whereof the favour and consent of the people seemed most considerable which consent I find to have been asked at the Coronations of King Hen. 4. and K. Rich. 3. to whose times it is very possible that the old precedent found in Mills is to have relation such arts were used by Otho in the Roman story scattering abroad his Complements distributing his Embraces prostituting the most affectionate pledges of love and friendship omnia serviliter pro dominatione as it is in Tacitus Courses not used by any of the Kings of England who claimed the Crown in their own Right as their lawful inheritance and not as Tenants to the people 41. The next particular which we meet with is the substituting of Viscount Doncaster whom he makes to be assisting at his late Majesties Coronation Feb. 2. 1625. by virtue of an office which his Father is affirmed to have had in the Wardrobe But I must needs confess my self to be much unsatisfied in the one and the other the charge of the Wardrobe being at that time in the E. of Denbigh and Viscount Dorchester two young to perform that service When I have more of Assurance of the truth hereof I shall conceive the place to be rightly mended but till then I shall suspend my beliefe therein The next thing which occurreth comes in upon occasion of Bishop Andrews the footsteps of whose moderation are proposed as a
of which argument as I kept myselfe within the bounds of Modesty and Christian Charity so I expected I should have been encountred with no other weapons then such as I brought into the field out of the Magazines and Store-houses of the ancient Fathers and some of the most Learned Writers of these latter times But contrary to my expectation I was advertised on Saturday night that certain Articles have been presented against that Book to the Lords of the Council and that it is ordered thereupon by some of their Lordships that the Lord Mayor of London and one Mr. Weeler of Westminster shall seize upon the said books and see them burnt I have so much charity as to think that this is done without your privity and consent but I cannot but conceive withall that if the business be carried on to such extreamities the generality of men will not be so perswaded of it but that it will be rather thought that since the matter of that book was not otherwise to be answered it was thought fittest to confute it by fire and faggot How little such a course may possibly redound to your honour amongst men of ingenuity and learning I leave you to judge And though I am no fit Counsellour for such a business in which I am concerned as the principal party yet if you please to take the matter into your serious consideration you will perhaps find no councel more fit to be followed then that you presently appear in putting some stop to those proceedings which though for the present they may end with some disgrace to me will bring no credit to your self If there be any thing in that Book either for matter or expression which you stumble at try it ouâ— with me by the Pen or by personal conference as becomes a Scholar and Divine and if you bring better reason on your side then I have on mine I shall be your Convert if not the burning of the Book will neither suppress the Argument nor confute the Author but only shew how passionately some men are carried to their private ends under the pretence of publique justice Your answer hereunto shall be attended in the afternoon In the mean time I recommend these my desires to your consideration as I do you unto the grace and blessings of almighty God with the affection which becomes SIR Your very humble Servant and Christian Brother Peter Heylyn Lond. Jun. 28. 1658. D. Barnard's Letter to D. Heylyn SIR 54. FOr that Order mentioned in your Letter I find your charity prevented me in any further assurance of you that I was not the mover of it Since your Servant was here I have further enquired after the ground of it and this I am told That it was not in relation to the Primate or me or any disputes between us but only to the Ordinance of the Lords and Commons Anno 1644. For the better observation of the Lords day wherein there is such a clause as this That whosoever have or shall write against it the Books shall be burned by the hands of justice For my part I have no minde either by personal conference or the Pen as you write to have any disputes or contentions with you in that or any other subject neither do I intend to give any answer to your last Book And had I been acquainted with you I should have advised you as a friend for your own sake not to have shewn so much disaffection to that eminent and pious Primate for which I find you condemned by most if not by all sorts of persons as the sole man so declared against him and as he is too high in the esteem of the world to receive any injury by you so what liberty you have been pleased to take in some expressions concerning me either in your former Book or this I can easily pass it over in silence without the least breach of Charity and notwithstanding shall be ready to do you what service may lye within my compass But for the Order seeing I was no mover of it to the Lords of the Council and that it doth no ways concern me it is not proper for me to interpose in it I rest SIR Your very humble Servant and Christian Brother N. Barnard Grays Inn Jun. 28. 1658. 55. Having received this Letter and considered the contents thereof I found it no way necessary nor convenient for me to trouble my self with a reply for first I was unwilling to be brought under a new temptation in having more to do in any thing which related to the late Lord Primate but where extream necessity should compel me to it though D. Barnard very unadvisedly that I say no way endeavoured in the last part of his Letter to put me upon fresh ingagements to what else tended those upbraidings of my disaeffction to that eminent and pious Prelate from which I had cleared my self before and that twice for failing His reproaches of my being condemned for I know not what by most if not by all sorts of persons Whereas I have reason to believe that he hath spoke with very few upon that subject and therefore cannot know the mind of the most and much less of all sorts of men or the reiteration of the high esteem in the world which the Lord Primate had above me being so willingly acknowledged by me in the beginning of that Book which was then in question Had I not tied my self to this resolution I could have directed D. Barnard to a passage in the Preface of a Book called Canterburys Doom by which he might be satisfied that as I was not the first so I am not the only one who had declared against his eminent pious Prelate as he saith he was But howsoever had he been greater then he was and I less then I am I should not have been terrified from writing in my own defence or doing the best service I was able to the Church of England whose Doctrine Government and established Order I found so openly opposed And secondly I had the less reason to make any reply because I found no hopes that D. Barnard would be perswaded to do himself or me any right in either of the ways proposed For first he had declared before hand when he published the Lord Primates Papers that he would not take upon him the defence of any thing contained in them For thus he tells us in his Preface If saith he the Readers opinion shall descent any of the above-named or swell into an opposition let him not expect any defensive arms to be taken up by me it being my part to declare his judgment as I find it c. By which it seems that D. Barnard had no other intention then to add more fewel unto those combustions which had so long embroyled the Church and not to bring any water to quench the flame Secondly He declared in this present Letter That for his part he had no mind either by the Pen or
Certamen Epistolare Or The Letter Combate PART II. Containing the Intercourse of Letters between Peter Heylyn D. D. And Mr. Hickman of Magd. Coll. Oxon. Relating To the Historicall part of a Book Intituled The Justification of the Fathers and Schoolmen c. Vell. Puterc Histi Lib. 2. Ubi semel a recto deerratum est in preceps pervenitur nec quisquam sibi turpe putat quod aliis est Fructósum Ide ibid. Familiare est hominibus omnia sibi remittere nihil aliis Et invidiam non ad causam sed advoluntatem personasque dirigere LONDON Printed in the Year 1659. To His much Respected Friend Thomas Peirce Master of Arts and Rector of Bringhton in the Diocess of Peter-burrough SIR 1. BEfore you had writ your Letter of the 8th of March I had received another from an unknown hand by which I was made acquainted that your Antagonist of Magdalen Coll. had published his Pamphlet a second time and made bolder with me in the second then the first Edition And having given me some account of the Book which I could find no time of sufficient leisure to Enquire much after he makes this request that I would undertake an answer to the Historical part thereof in which he labours to Evince that the Calvinistical opinions were the avowed doctrines of this Church I had then some other work in hand from which I was not willing to be taken off by this diversion and therefore desired him to excuse me from that ingagement which he so zealously but very modestly withal recommended to me It was not long before I had received the like Advertisement from a friend nere London which I past over with as little Apprehension of the indignities and affronts which were done unto me as I did the other But yours of the Date above mentioned following close upon them I began to consider with my selfe that there was somewhat more then ordinary in this invitation in which so many men concurred of such different dwellings without communicating their designs and thoughts unto one another I found many Reasons in my selfe to decline the business my growing into years my decay of Sight my want of necessary helps the disparity between the persons and that having Adversaries enough already it would be a great imprudence in me to encrease their number and make them swell into an Army But on the other side I considered also the multiplicity of your Employments the Charity which might be shown in easing you of some part of your burthen the bitterness of the man against persons of Eminence on whom he ought not to have looked without veneration but most especially that as I had appeared in defence of the Church in my younger dayes so it might ill become me to desert her now being as yet in some Capacity of doing that service which you and others have so earnestly desired of me Defendi Rem publ Adolescens non deseram senex was Cicero's Resolution once and shall now be mine And because it was your Letter which prevailed upon me more then any other I have made bold to render my account to you from whose hand most especially I received the charge First laying down the narrative of such preparatory Entercourse as passed betwixt me and your Antagonist before I setled positively on the undertaking and then descending to the satisfaction of so many good friends as far as I am able to serve them and the Church in performance of it Give me your patience for a time whilest I address my lines unto you in my own behalf and I shall little doubt of it when I write of him who hath made one Enemy of both Alterum a te pâ—to ut me pro me benigne Alterum ipse Efficiam ut contra illum cum dicam attente audias in the Orators words But it is time to end my preamble and begin my story which is thus 2. It was by accident that Mr. Baxters Book of the Grotian Religion was unexpectedly offered to me with intimation that I should find somewhat in the preface which concerned my selfe By the like accident and with the same intimation also I came to know of Mr. Hickmans late Book in Justification of the Fathers and Schoolmen c. It is not to be wondred if my Curiosity or desire of self satisfaction first carried me to the consideration of my own concernments as before it did or that I should be much amazed to find my self so coursely handled by a person I never heard of nor perhaps never might have done but on that account The Positivity of Sinne might be a Paradox or a truth and so declared on either side without drawing me into the Quarrel who have not hitherto engaged on the one side or the other But Mr. Hickman that thinks so well of his own abilities as to conceive no one man was to be looked upon as a competent Adversary on whom to exercise his Pen and therefore must raise up another who had not the least thoughts of contending with him And that he might be sure to sharpen me to the Encounter he doth not onely touch upon me and so pass it over as Mr. Baxter did before but spends the best part of a leafe in loading me with Reproach and infamy He had before given this unhandsome Character of you whom he looks on as his principal Adversary that you are one that drinks up scorning like water and knows not how to mention the worthiest man alive if of a different judgment without contempt which he concludes with this smart Expression that rather then you will not fight you would contend with your own shaddow Which said he calls me a Bird of the same feather makes me to take my flight from the Angel in Ivy-lane intitles it to no small wonder that a Doctor in Divinity should so unworthily handle a Reverend Person it is the Lord Primate whom he means and finally declares that a Book of mine had received the desert of its bitterness in being burnt for so he saith he was informed by the hand of the Hangman But let not these vinegar expressions be a trouble to you which I assure you stirre not me who have long learnt with him in the old Historian civili animo laceratam existimationem ferre to bear with an undisturbed mind the greatest Calumnies which either the tongues or pens of malitious men can lay upon me 3. For though this provocation might have been sufficient to have awakened one of a duller spirit yet I resolved to sleep on still and lookt no otherwise on this passage then as the inconsiderable Phantasme of an Idle Dream I had before resolved not to put my hand to any controversie in which the Lord Primate was concerned and so far satisfied Mr. Baxter in the not burning of the Book that I conceived all further answer to that scandalous charge to be altogether as unnecessary as the Charge was false In satisfying him I should have satiâ—fied all others
what Grounds I had had to affirm that Dr. Burlow did declare his trouble for some wrong done to Dr. Reynolds c. in relating the Hampton-Court Controversie Sir I will not censure you to have no Ingenuity but yet you must pardon me if I refuse to give you any further account of the matter till I understand first whether you will deal as plainly with me about some things contained in your own Examen Historicum Will you send me word what the names of those men are who said two of your Sermons about the Tares had done more mischief to the Papists then all the Sermons that ever Dr. Prideaux preached against them and what the name of that man is who did by Bishop Williams his appointment give a pension out of his place for the maintenance of a Scholar 2. I would gladly know whether you intend what I write onely for your own private satisfaction and not for publick view 3. I would willingly be informed what you would take for satisfaction whether it will suffice if I prove the business from the mouth of one who was a lover of the English Prelacy Liturgy and Ceremony When you have satisfied me you may suddenly expect an answer from him who again subscribes himself Your humble Servant Henry Hickman Magd. Coll. Ap. 1. 1659. 11. These Answers leaving me as unsatisfied as before I was I found that I had lost both my hopes and labour for the declining of a business which I was not willing to appear in if any satisfaction had been given me otherwise And therefore since he was not pleased to declare himselfe so freely to me in a private way as to beget between us such a right understanding as might prevent all further trouble which his first Letter seemed to wish I see not how I can avoid the making of a more publick business of it then I first intended unless I should betray my self unto scorn and censure My Letters being in his hands cannot be recalled and if I should not now proceed to give the world that satisfaction which I lookt for from him in the retracting of his Calumnies and salfe Reports he and his friends might think I could not In the pursuit whereof I purposed to have gone no further then the vindicating of my self and those whose names are dear unto me from the obstinacy of his Reproaches But he hath hinted me I thank him to another Argument relating to the Historicall part of his discourse of which perhaps I may render you an account also before we part Beginning at the lowest step I shall ascend at last by leisure to the top of the Stairs that having answered for my self I may be credited the more when I speak for others The Answer of P. Heylyn D. D. to Mr. Hickman's Letters of April 1. Relating to some Passages in a Book called The Justification of the Fathers c. 11. IT was good Councel which Demaratus of Corinth gave to Philip of Macedon when he advised him to settle all things well at home before he intermedled in the differences amongst the Grecians In correspondence whereunto I shall first do my best Endeavour to acquit my self from those Reproaches which the Justificator with a Prodigal hand hath bestowed upon me and thereby fit my self the better for advocating in behalf of those eminent persons of whose Renown I am more solicitous then my one Concernments Beginning therefore with my self in the first place I must take notice of his practise to make me clash with the Lord Primate whose Rest I desire not to disturbe upon any occasion He should have first reconciled those two passages which I proposed to D. Barnard p. 103. 104. of Respondit Petrus before he had made it such a wonder that a Doctor of Divinity should so unworthily handle a Reverend person and fasten upon him a dissent from the Church of England in a mater wherein he doth so perfectly agree with her If so if he agree so perfectly with the Church of England how comes he to differ from himselfe and speak such contradictions as D. Barnard nor no other of his great Admirers can find a way to reconcile to the sence of the Church Or if they can or that they think those contradictions not considerable for making his Agreement the lesse perfect with the Church of England you have gained the point which you contended for in your dispute which M. Buâ—le and D. Barnard laboured to deprive you of in his Book of the Lord Primates Judgment intended against none by name but your selfe and me though others be as much concerned in the General Interess 12. Much good may the Concession do you What comes after next the burning of the Book by the common Hangman I thought that Ignis fatuus had had been quencht sufficiently by the assurance which I gave him to the contrary in my Letter of the 19th of March But his desire to have it so is so prevalent with him that he neither doth deny the words nor can find any Reason to be ashamed of them be they never so false And what Ground can we find for so great a confidence 1. He appeals unto an Ordinance made in the year 1646. Which Ordinance he pretends to be still in force but whether it be so or not is a harder Question then a greater Lawyer can determine That Ordinance making â—o Report he flyes next to a common noise which Rings still in his Ears and must gain credit either as a noise or common or as both together though for the most part the louder the noise is and the more common it grows the less credit to be given unto it You know well what the two great Poets say of Fame Fama malum velox quae veris addere falsa Gaudet Eminimo sua per mendacia crescit But yet not seeming to lay much strength upon common Fame though it be one of his best Authors in some other cases he pretends unto a special Revelation from the Privy Council and grows so confident upon the strength of the intelligence that he holds at White-Hall which all great States-men must pretend to that he is sure the Book de Facto had been so disgraced though whether disgraced by being so burnt is another question if the sickness and death of the late Protector had not put the Privy Council upon minding maters of higher concernment The contrary whereof my Postscript unto M. Baxter hath most clearly Evidenced 13. The second charge wherein I stand single by my self is onely toucht at in the Letter where I am said to have bestowed some ugly words upon a Colledge not to be mentioned without honour insisted on more largely in the fag end of the Book without the least coherence or relation to it And there this man of brass makes me worse then a Tinker a rude Expression which declares him to be better studied in his Metaphisicks then his Moral Philosophy in committing more and fouler
spoil'd of their good name and living fame by such undeserved reproaches as he layes upon them He speaks unto us now in the voice of Jacob but in the History he handleth both the Church and Church-men even from the highest to the lowest with the hands of Esau so that it might be said two justly quid verba audiam cum facta videam What credit may be given to words when they are confuted by our Actions 21. But whatsoever suspitions and sinister opinions might formerly have been conceived of him he either is not the same man he was or hath been hitherto mistaken for the man he was not At the least intimation of disloyal thoughts he flyes out into an open defiance fol. 55. and wishes that the Ravens of the valley who he beholds as Loyal subjects would in vindication of the Eagle their soveraign pick out his eyes If any such Rebellious Doctrine can be found in his book as he conceives himself to be charged withal by the Animadvertor fol. 45. He now professeth that he doth not derogate in the least degree from the power of the Church fol. 55. and wished without Pharisaical pride that his Mother would not onely spit in his face but spew him also out of her mouth if either by his Pen or practise he had done any thing unworthily to the best of his knowledge to the destroying of her interess by his Pen or his Practise fol. 14. He now declares himself so well affected to the late Arch-Bishop as to have spoken two and twenty lines in his commendation fol. 46. Referring us to the places in his History where they are to be found and rancking them under four Heads in as many Columes in reference to his Naturals Morals Intellectuals and spirituals fol. 67. so much affection he expresseth for the sequestred Clergy that he appealeth to the searcher of all hearts if he did not desire to do them all just favour as he hoped to find favour from him when he most needed it so far forth as it might be done without running himself into apparent danger assuring all who chance to read him that his Tongue and Pen hath been and shall be tender of their reputations p 3. fol. 56. He now declares that he doth cordially wish well to the cause of the Hierarchy fol. 46. and affirms absolutely not onely that he hath not in any place of his Books declared himself for a Presbyterian in point of Government but that if ever he had scattered such a syllable which might countenance such presumption he would presently snatch it up again for fear if I rightly understand him of giving scandal to himself and offence to others p. 2. fol. 91. Yet as Basurius in the Comedy said of Captain Bessus that he was none of those that believed his conversion from Coward so I much fear that very few will believe any conversion in our present Appealant as the former passages and protestations do pretend unto But for my part I have such an easinesse of nature in me as to give credit to so many asseverations though many passages in this Appeal might encline me otherwise not being willing to force any man out of the Church as was Tertullian by the continual clamours and reproaches of the Roman Clergy as long as he desires to remain in the bosome of it All therefore I shall say at the present time is that which he himself hath said of Dr. Theodore Price with a little variation onely that is to say That if he be a true Sonne of the Church 't is the better for him but the contrary hath been generally reported Printed and believed p. 3. fol. 79. 22. These preparations being thus laid down the points which he denyeth still remain in difference between us will be very few His Confessions being all allowed as of common course be Traverses submitted to the Rule of the Court His first Avoidings being offered to the judgement and his last presented and directed to the Eye of the Reader And first beginning with the Brittains the Arguments which he hath offered against the judgement of Bishop Goodwin and Mr. Cambden two Right Learned Antiquaries prove nothing to the contrary of that which I have affirmed that is to say that though the Brittains had many Topical and Tutelar Gods yet that the Druides instructed them in the knowledge of one supream deity as had been taught by many of the learned Gentiles both Greeks and Romans no more then it may be truly said of the present Papists that they acknowledge and adore but one supream God notwithstanding their superstitious worshipping of so many National Typical and Tutelor Saints whom they embrace as Patrons of their persons and their several Countrys And as for his Derivation of the name of London from the western Llan-dian it stands but as it did before as a fancy onely no proof being made that Diana was known by that name amongst the Brittains before the coming of the Romans The great Welsh Antiquary whom he speaks of might say well enough that the Brittains called Diana by the name of Dain but proves not that she was so called before the Romans came amongst them the Argument which he brings from Guarthey Demol that is to say Diana's Castle being so farre fetched considering the little or no Analogy betiwixt Dain and Demol that nothing can be built upon it Nor finds he any countenance in it from the Annotations of the famous Selden and the Polyol bion For Selden was not Selden when he made those Notes which were were written in the year 1612. as one of the first Essayes of his Great Abilities And being that the whole depends on the story of Brute which all our learned Antiquaries have exploded as an idle fiction the Derivation from Llan-Dian falls together with it For Selden doth otherwise plead for the story of Brute for to come up to the design of Drayton or to show rather how much he could be able to say in defence of a truth who hath delivered so much Learning in defence of a Fable as commonly men spend their greatest wits in maintaining Paradoxes When M. Fuller can point me out to that Isle of Largeria where Bruit is said to make his Prayers unto Diana I shall not only entertain the story of Bruit and the Etymologie of London from Llan-dian but shall give that Island some fit place in my Cosmography whensoeuer it shall come to a new Edition till then I must behold it as one of those Islands which is not to be found in all or any of our Mapps as Don Quixot said right truly to Sancho Pancha 23. Next coming to the time of the Saxons deviding Gloster-shire into three chief parts * laying the parts beyond the Severn to the Welsh or Brittanes those on this side the Severn to the Realm of West-Sex and Cotswald with the Vail adjoyning between Glosester and Worcester to the Kingdom of Mercia makes not that place were Augustine
fair and flattering hopes of an easie victory whensoever you shall enter the Lists again yet as unfurnished as I am of all humane helps but such as I have within my self I little doubt of making good the cause against you if every point thereof should stand in need of re-examining as I think none doth However I have learned of Christ our common Master to agree with mine Adversary while I am in the way with him especially where it may be done not only salva Charitate but salva Veritate also where the agreement may be made as well without any loss to truth as improvement to charity I must needs say you have offered me very fair conditions whereby I am put into the way toward this agreement which I shall follow with the greater chearfulness you may call it passion if you please when I shall see some good effects of your Protestations such reparation made to INJVRED INNOCENCE as is professed in your Appeal Which happy hour whensoever it comes I shall not only give you the right hand of Fellowship as the Apostles did to Paul when from a Persecutor of the Church he became one of the chief Pillars in it but the right hand of precedency also which the old and dim-sighted Patriarch gave to Ephraim though the younger Brother We shall not then enter into the Dispute which of us goes first out of the field or turn our backs toward one another according to your Emblem of the two Lions endorsed which you have very well noted out of Gerrard Leigh for avoiding contentions in the way but hand in hand together as becometh Brethren the Sons not only of the same Father but of the same Mother too Nor shall we then enter into a Dispute which of the two shall be reputed for the good Philemon or which the Fugitive Onesimus there being as great a readiness in me to submit unto you in all points of civility as there can be aversness in you to acknowledg me for your Superiour by way of Argument So doing we shall both be Victors though neither can be said to be vanquished and shall consolidate a friendship without the intervening of a reconcilement And on these tearms none shall be readier to preserve either a valuable esteem whilst we live together or a fair memory of you if you go before me then SIR The most unworthy of your Brethren amongst the true Sons of the Church of England Pet. Heylyn Lacies Court in Abingdon May 16. 1659. The Contents of this Book 1. AN Exchange of Letters with Mr. Baxter occasioned by a passage in the preface to his Grotian Religion page 1. 2. An Exchauge of Letters with Dr. Barnard relating to the Book called Respondit Petrus and the supposed burning of it p. 97. 3. The Intercourse with Mr. Hickman in answer to some passages in his Justification of the Fathers and Schoolmen c. p. 113. 4. A Declaration about Forms of Government the power of the Spartan Ephori and the Jewish Sanhedrim managed Letter-wise with J. H. Esq p. 205. 5. An Appendix to the former Papers in Answer to some passages in M. Fullers late Appeal for Injured Innocence p. 311. An Advertisement touching the Errata THe Reader is to be Advertised touching some mistakes which have occurred at the Press and are desired to be corrected with his Pen before he set himself to peruse these Papers As first p. 159. for these words viz. Should command the Paraphrases of Erasmus to be translated into English studied by Priests c. read thus viz. Should commend the Paraphrases of Erasmus translated into English to be studied by Priests c. And p. 183. for which but only determined not having commanded silence in those points read thus which determined nothing but onely commanded silence c. p. 108. dele these words that information had been made as to the burning of the Book The rest of Erratas being onely literal may be mended thus Page 2. l. 10. for described r. ascribed p. 10 l. 1. for difference r. distance p. 23. l. 8. for instancing r. in standing p. 27. l. 4. for our r. of our p. 29. l. 30. f. lay r. lay not p. 40. l. 5. f. any r. to p. 50. l. 3. f. Spirator r. Spirans p. 53. l. 8. f. no r. any p. 54. l. 19. f. baser r. border p. 68. l. 18. f insue r. be true p. 86. l. 15. d. owning p. 87. l. 1. f. 29. r. 25. p. 95. l. 26. f. Fame r. Tame p. 96. l. ult f. laesives r. Laeseris ibid l. 9. f. Consul r. Councel 105. l. 16. f. way r. worse p. 109. l. 2. 3. f. lata r. tota In the Second Part f. Burlow r. Barlow ubique p. 126. l. 34. f. whos 's r. but he whose p. 130. l. 13. f. Burle r. Barlee p. 135. l. 21. f. Burechus r. Purchas p 145. l. 4. f. 24. r. 246. p. 147. l. 10. f. manner r. all manner ibid l. 19. f. supra r. Sublapsarians p. 148. l. 19. f. Barrow r. Baroe p. 167. l. 13. f. nine ten r. ninteen twenty p. 174. l. 3. for a Mother r. another p. 238. f. Tachee r. Rochel p. 243. l. 5. f. sinking r. six Kings p. 244. l. 17. r. Abeyance p. 251 l. 8. f. Kings r. Consuls p. 253. l. 14. d. it was no. p. 258. l. 30. f. right r. know p. 292. l. 3. Agraramine p. 297. f. Rubbige r. Rabine p. 310. l. 1. to new disputes ad you have had my Answer p. 316. for Bullick r. Ballick p. 317. l. 16. d. Thesulri FINIS * Isa 42. 3. in Mat. 12. c. * Hist of K. Charles fol. 144. * Ch. Hist lib. 11. 207 Preface to the Grotian Religion Ser. 23. Hickmans defence of the Fathers c. * Act. Apost 14. 5. M. Fuller's Appeal was sent unto the Author about four days after the date of this Preface Aesopi Fabuloe * Tac. An. lib. 13. * Mat. 5. v. 11. 12. 1 Pet. c. 2. v. 12. 15. 1 Pet. 2. 23 a Snape to Field b Knewstub to Field c Blake to Field H. B. for Gek. p. 127. pag. 39 40 41. pag. 45. de lege 3. Pol. l. 2. de leg 31. Cal. Just l. c. 20. Sect. 31. Iudg. 20. p. 29. Num. 1. 46. Gro. ad Ex. 18. 21. Num. 21. Deut. 17. 8. Arist Pol. 3. c. 12. Hos 8. 4. Bâ— 5. c. 2 Judg. 1. 3. Pacuviâ—â— ap Livi. lib. 23. Dan. 1. 7. De jure Blac. p. lib. 1. ch 1. Jer. 38. 5. p. 289 * Iliad p. 254. * I am forced to omit the Greek verses because my Amanuensis is not Scholar enough to transcribe them distinctly for me Vell. Pater Hist 121. * Aliudque cupido mens aliud suadet video melioraproboque deteriora sâ—equor Ap. p. 23. Ap. p. 2. fol. 20. * Epist Ded. before the Sermons on the Tares Ob. Rese p. 8. p. 2 p. 52. p. 2. fol. 6. p. 1. p. 67. p. 2. fol. 14. p. 2. flâ— 15. p. 2. p. 24. Appeal p. 2. f. 56. â— 2. f. 59. p. 2. f. 70. p. 1. f. 47. Judgement of the L P. p. 112. p. 2. f. 43 I see a Lambe in his own can be a Lion in Gods and the Churches cause Ch. Hist l. 9. f. 130. p. f. 2. 19. p. 2 f. 101 p. 3. f. 5. p. 3. f. 4. p. 3. f. 7. C. Hist l. 11. p. 147 p. 3. f. 15. p 3. f. 20. p. 3. f. 54. * 1 Sam. 15. 14. Gâ— 48. 14
John Popham Lord Chief Justice at the Assizes held at Bury and thereunto I subjoyned these words viz. Good remedies indeed had they been soon enough applied yet not so good as those which formerly were applied to Thacker and his fellow Copping in the aforesaid Town of Bury for publishing the Books of Brown against the Service of the Church But here is no mention not a syllable of burning the said Books of Sabbath-Doctrines but only of suppressing and calling in Which makes me apt enough to think that you intended that for a private nip relating to a Book of mine called Respondit Petrus which was publiquely voyced abroad to have been publiquely burnt in London as indeed the burning of it was severely prosecuted though itscaped the fire a full account whereof being too long to be inserted in this place I may perhaps present you with in a place by it self And secondly what find you in that latter passage which argueth me to be guilty of such bloody desires as I stand accused for in your Letter Cannot a man report the passages of former times and by comparing two remedies for the same disease prefer the one before the other as the case then stood when the spirit of sedition moved in all parts of the Realm but he must be accused of such bloody desires for makeing that comparison in a time of quietness in a time of such a general calm that there was no fear of any such tempest in the State as did after follow If this can prove me guilty of such bloody desires the best is that I stand not single but have a second to stand by me of your own perswasion for in the same page where you find that passage viz. page 254. you cannot chuse but find the story of a Sermon Preached in my hearing at Sergeants Inn in Fleetstreet in which the Preacher broach'd this Doctrine That temporal death was at this day to be inflicted by the Law of God on the Sabbath breaker on him who on the Lord's day did the works of his daily calling with a grave application to my Masters of the Law that if they did their ordinary works on the Sabbath day in taking fees and giving counsel they should consider what they did deserve by the Law of God The man that Preached this was Father Foxly Lecturer of S. Martins in the Fields Superintendent general of the Lecturers in S. Antholin's Church and Legate à Latere from the Grandees residing at London to their friends and agents in the Countrey who having brought these learned Lawyers to the top of the Ladder thought it a high piece of mercy not to turn them off but there to leave them either to look after a Reprieve or sue out their Pardon This Doctrine you approve in him for you have passed it quietly over qui tacet consentire videtur as the saying is without taking any notice of it or exceptions against it and consequently may be thought to allow all those bloody uses also which either a blind superstition or a fiery zeal shall think fit to raise But on the other side you find such bloody desires in the passages before remembred which cannot possibly be found in them but by such a gloss as must pervert my meaning and corrupt my text and it is Male dicta glossa quâ corrumpit textum as the old Civilians have informed us 20. But to come nearer to your self May we be sure that no such bloody desires may be found in you as to the taking away of life in whom we find such merciless resolutions as to the taking away of the livelyhood of your Christian Brethren The life of man consists not only in the union of the soul and body but in the enjoyment of those comforts which make life valued for a blessing for Vita non est vivere sed valere as they use to say there is as well a civil as a natural death as when a man is said to be dead in law dead to the world dead to all hopes of bettering his condition for the time to come and though it be a most divine truth that the life is more then food and the body then rayment yet when a man is plundered both of food and cloathing and declared void of all capacities of acquiring more will not the sence of hunger and the shame of nakedness be far more irksome to him then a thousand deaths How far the chiefs of your party have been guilty of these civil slaughters appears by the sequestring of some thousands of the Conformable and Established Clergy from their means and maintainance without form of Law who if they had done any thing against the Canons of the Church or the Laws of the Land were to be judged according to those Laws and Canons against which they had so much transgressed but suffering as they did without Law or against the Law or by a Law made after the fact aâ—ainst which last his Highness the late LORD PROTECTOR complaineth in his Speech made in the year 1654. they may be truly said to have suffered as Innocents and to be made Confessors and Martyrs against their wills Either they must be guilty or not guilty of the crimes objected If they were guilty and found so by the Grand Inquest why were they not convicted and deprived in due form of Law If not why were they suspended sine die the profits of their Churches sequestered from them and a Vote passed for rendring them uncapable of being restored again to their former Benefices Of this if you do not know the reason give me leave to tell you The Presbyterians out of Holland the Independents from New England the beggerly Scots and many Trâ—n châ—r-Chaplains amongst our selves were drawn together like so many Vultures to seek after a prey for gratifying of whom the regular and established Clergy must be turned out of their Benefices that every Bird of r pine might have its nest some of them two or three for failing which holding by no other Tenure then as Tenants at will they were necessitated to performe such services as their great Patrons from time to time required of them 21. Now for your part how far you are and have been guilty of these civil slaughters appears abundantly in the Preface which is now before us in which you do not only justifie the sequestring of so many of the regular and established Clergy to the undoing of themselves and their several families but openly profess That you take it to be one of the charitablest works you can do to help to cast out a bad Minister and to get a better in the place so that you prefer it as a work of mercy before much sacrifice Which that it may be done with the better colour you must first murther them in their fame then destroy them in their fortunes reproaching them with the Atributes of utterly insufficient ungodly unfaithful scandalous or that do more harm then good
and reckoning their ejection to be one of the most pious and charitable worke you can put your hand to And as if this had not been enough you tell us that many of them have long been a burden to the Church instead of a blessing that they understood neither the Catechism nor the Creed that many of them lived more in the Ale-house then the Church which might be done though they spent but three hours at the Ale house in all the week and use to lead their people in drunkenness cursing swearing quarrelling and other ungodly practises and that such of them as were better then the rest would be drunk but now and then and lived in much worldlâ—ness and profaneness though not so disgracefully as the rest Our Ecclesiastical Historians tell us of one Ithasius a professed enemy of the Prisciliâ—nists a potent Sect at that time in the West of Christendome who if he met with any man that walked not directly in his own way put him down presently in his Catalogue of suspected Priscilianists Take heed I beseech M. Baxter that you be not of the same humour as Ithasius was and that you put not every one into your â—able book for a good fellow or a drunkard c. in whom you finde not such an affected austerity of deportment such an unsociableness of conversation such a disguisedness in their countenanceâ— as if their faces were not made at the same time with the rest of their bodies And take heed also that you be not of their minde who think that God sees no sin in his Elect and that you put not some men out of their Benefices who never were at an Ale-house and put such others in their places who neverâ—ly out of it as hath been done and I could tell you where and when if it were material under pretence of such a Reformation as you are in hand with And that you do not in this case as LEWIS XI of France did in another of whom it is Recorded That when he had lost the Battel of Mount le Herie he took many Offices and Commands from some who ran a little out of the Field conferred them upon those who ran ten miles further In order whereunto I desire you to let me know what justice these poor men of whom you have undertaken the prosecution are to look for from you whom you have thus prejudge before hand and condemned without hearing Or with what equity you can charge me with useing such unjust and uncharitable speeches which you call afterwards by the name of bitter reproaches against my brethren when you have shewed your self more really guilty in that kind then you have unjustly reported me to be And in the turn thereof I shall let you know how vast the difference is between the old Incumbents and the new Intruders the greatest part of those who have been sequestered or ejected being far more eminent in all parts of learning and no less eminent for their exemplary piety then the best of them who have been thrust into their places Had I observed the passages in your Preface before I writ my first Letter to you I should not have so much commended the modesty of your expressions as I did therein when I had looked upon no more of it then that which did concern my self and then passed directly to your description of the Grotian Religion which gives the Title to your Book 22. But then admitting that some of those who have been sequestred and ejected had not been altogether so unblamable in their conversation as the dignity of their calling and the strictness of the time required yet might they take heed unto themselves and unto Doctrine and continue therein which you make to be God's appointed means to save themselves and them that hear them as indeed it is But then I hope you do not think that the Doctrine becomes ineffectual by proceeding from an unclean mouth for veritas à quocunque est est à spiritu sancto as S. Ambrose hath it or that the waters of Life contract any corruption by passing through an impure Channel for if you do you cross not only with the Church of England but with Christ himself The Church of England in the twenty sixth Article teacheth thus viz. Although in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good and sometimes the evil have chief authority in the ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name but in Christs and do minister by his Comission and Authority we may use their ministry both in hearing the Word of God and in the receiving the Sacraments neither is the effect of Christ's Ordinance taken away by their wickednesses nor the grace of God's gifts diminished from such as by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministred unto them which are effectual because of Christ's institution and promise although they be administred by evil men and Christ our Saviour having told the Multitude in Mat. 23. That the Scribes and Pharisees whose palpable Hypocrisie and corruptions he describeth at large sit in Moses Chair adds this viz. All therefore whatsoever they bid you do that observe ye and do but after their works do not for they say and do not Had you been present at that time you would have interposed and said There was no such need the Scribes and Pharisees having by their own vitiousness rendred themselves uncapable of it should sit any longer in that Chair but rather be sequestred ejected and turned out of all that so the Gaulonites men eminent for their zeal to the publique liberty and such as taught the people not to give to Caesar that which belonged unto Caesar might possess their places It s true that we find this clause in the former Article viz. Nevertheless it appertaineth to the Discipline of the Church that enquiry be made of evâ—â— Ministers and that they be accused by those that have knowledg of their offences and finally being found guilty by just judgment be deposed And it is true that I find the name of Richard Baxter of Keederminster in the front of those Ministers of Worcester shire who are to be subservient to the Commissioners authorised by the Ordinance of August 29. 1654. For the ejecting of scandalous ignorant and insufficient Ministers But as the one gives you no authority to prejudge your brethren before hand by your bitter reproaches and your uncharitable speeches or to accuse any of them on a partial fame but only on the certain knowledg of their offences So neither are you impowered by the other to sit as Judge upon the life and conversation of any Minister but only to deliver your opinion if it be required touching his ignorance and insufficiency and no more then so And therefore M. Baxter let me advise you to follow the counsel of the old Proverb and be good in your Office that you may continue longer in it and