I think meet But I wonder and rejoyce that they are so few Had it been about London an usual thing they had heard more of it before now § 10. And for your second Caution it is not you nor I that make those Laws which denominate Duty and Sin And if I would hold it to be no sin in me to lie deliberately and say that I assent and consent to all things in three Books when I do not or to absolve from an Oath many hundred thousands when I never knew in what sense they took it or other such like if I incourage the Laity to conform to the Corporation Declaration that no man is bound by any thing in the Vow no not against Schism Popery nor Prophaness nor to repent of his sins c. Gods Law will never the more justifie any of this for my Conformity to it Nor will he accept of disobedience for a Sacrifice nor needeth my lie or other sin to his Service or Glory But it 's a fine World when fearing sin and no less sin than aforesaid is become the sin and danger of the Church § 11. I will add one observation on this Subject to make up your comparison what those whom I and others of my acquaintance succeeded were not silenced but sequestred for is said before but. I never yet heard of one Non-conformist silenced for Insufficiency or Scandal but for Nonconformity alone Let not your talk and mine but the Laws and Court-Records judge and tell Posterity the Truth But I have known silly Anabaptists and Sectaries whom we never approved received into the Ministry of the Church of England upon their Conformity § 12. You say I am glad you own my quotation out of your Book of Rest c. Answ Alas Sir is not repentance better than hiding slander by palpable untruth I told you truly I never wrote so I never thought so but have proved the contrary at large c. Why did not you cite the words where I say it § 13. You add for a Cover another untruth that I say I have retracted and expunged it in a later Edition not a true word I only said That I had retracted and expunged not only that which you pervert but all the rest from end to end which seemed to savour the late Wars And is it all one to say I expunged what you accuse me of and to say I expunged that which you pervert But you have more learning than we that are strangers to the Universities and therefore can make good one untruth with another and sport your self with the Image of a jumping Deer and a playing Fish so hard is it to convince you of visible sin § 14. You add If you be so rash'in obtruding your immature Notions c. Answ I justifie none of my Juvenile Errors or Crudities But how suitably cometh this from the same Pen that tells me how glorious it would be P. 128. to retract with the great Bishop of Hippo c. And in the same Book not only urgeth but falsifyeth what I did so many years before retract and now again upbraideth me with that which I did retract I know Innocency is best But can any Man think it would please such Men I confess had I never wrote at all I had never wrote any word amiss And had I never preached at all I had never preached word amiss which is the cure used on us now and the innocency of Priests which I have heard some plead for § 15. I neither had nor have any mind to pour Vinegar into the Wound which you lament only when in your Book you tell me of the inconformity of some that grew up under my Shadow Pag. 129. you forgot that you would not be responsible for one Man in your own Family and yet I am chargeable with that which you suppose the fault of I know not who § 16. If your Neighbour and his Wife will swear what you say wonder not that so much scandal was charged by Oath on your sequestred Ministers I tell you again that I was never to my knowledge in your Parish in my life that I never took Horse in my life that I medled not my self with any one at that time that I told you I went out that I never kept or possessed one of them Therefore no Committee could order me to restore them But a Week after another Company as I told you did fetch some from that Parish and were ordered by the Committee to restore some of them which must needs prove your Neighbours mistake No Man to my best remembrance ever came to me with any Order from the Committee for they knew that I was no Officer and kept not a Horse And if he followed me to London it must be at least sixteen years after For I was never at Mr. Foley's House in London till 1660. and the time he speaketh of was 1644. § 17. You say In your late Book you say you medled not with the War till after Naseby Fight Answ Not a true word What should move you to do thus I see Mr. Bagshaw is not the only temerarious Writer I tell you the clean contrary in that Book and only say That I never entered into the Army till after Naseby Fight And is that all one as to say I never medled with the War § 18. The Aphorisms which you called me to retract you thus noted Those especially which are gathered by an Eminent Hand I instanced but in the first which that Eminent Hand had gathered And now this is not one of those that you meant § 19. You say That since Arch-bishop Abbot refused to License Dr. Sybthorpes Book I must suppose him a Presbyterian Answ Yet not a word true I only said Was Arch-bishop Abbot a Presbyterian implying that he was none and so that the prelatists were they that began to offend the King by striving against his Will as I further told you § 20. The inconsequence which you bring in with I must say should have been turned into I did say Did I not recite your own words Doth he not swear to Diocesanes and Lay-Chancellors who sweareth That he will not at any time endeavour any alteration of the Government of the Church which is in their Hands And doth not he endeavour an alteration who Petitioneth the King or Parliament for it Shall we swear universally and say we meant it but particularly § 21 In your description of Presbyterians you talk of pulling down Episcopacy and setting up Presbyterian Government in the Church against the consent of the Supream Magistrate when you were told that it was Episcopacy that the present Non-conformists moved to obtain And I know none of them that take it not for Rebellion to pull down or set up forcibly or by the Sword any thing against the Supream Ruler or without him except only what a Parent or Master may do in his Family on Children with the Rod. § 22. Seeing you cannot deny but
Fasciculus Literarum 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 the Country to a Minister in London IV. An Epistle written in Latin to the Triers before the Kings most happy Restauration By JOHN HINCKLEY D. D. Rector of Northfeild in Worcester-shire LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset at the George near St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street MDCLXXX THE PREFACE THe Sun has run its course nine times through the Zodiack since these Papers passed betwixt Mr. Baxter and my self He was pleased to be the Aggressor and he also sounded the Retreat far be it from me to invite and Re-assume such grinning trouble I shall ever imbrace my own rest and quiet in making a Golden Bridge for such an impetuous Adversary laying hold on any generous overture whereby I may both save my credit and my pains that I may the better pursue without distraction my calmer and more profitable Studies I had indeed given him some fraternal advice in order to the peace of the Church But his restless and distemper'd Stomach turn'd this wholesome Dose into Foam and Choler He made himself ready for War And presently snatches up his angry Pen made of a Porcupines Quil to gore me for my Charity As if it had been provocation enough to presume to see one inch farther than his Eyes could reach or once to suppose that his daring Judgment could any way stag or warp with errour and fallibility so as to need advice and counsel Hence it is that his Strain is lofty and Magisterial Had another let fall one drop of such corroding Vitriol he must immediately have 〈◊〉 that he dealt in proud wrath So that it is not the least thing observable in these Papers we may divine of what spirit these Men are of and with what Scorpions we had smarted if Providence had not delivered us from such Aegyptian tyrannical Task-masters Herein indeed they are like to the Disciples of Christ when their dark side was towards us they are still aspiring to be greatest and ready to call down Fire from Heaven upon those that stand in their way I hope that I have not requited him with his scornful and slighting Rhetorick Better to fall short in answering his Arguments and remain in his debt than pay him in his own Coin and strive who shall be the proudest sinner I have not so learn'd Christ to revile when I 〈◊〉 revil'd Such a Conquest deserves no Triâ—â—h Nay he that overcomes in this Amphiâ—â—â—ter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo Judaeus is in a worse condition than he that gets the mastery He is the greater and more forlorn Captive He deserves no other Garland than one made of Nettles and Hemlock He merits little better that makes a loud profession of Christ seems to ingross Religion and monopolize all Piety yet neither shews Meekness Humilty Self-denial Obedience Love or any other Christian Grace in his Life pretending more than ordinary kindness to the Husband yet rending and mangling his Spouse the Church into more parts than the Levite did his Concubine With the Heretical Crow so Prosper calls that ravenous Bird they run out of the Ark and will not return they leave it desolate and their deluded Hearts feed upon Carkasses those Inventions that float upon the Surges of their own Brains For never were Men more guilty of what they condemn in others They declaim against Innovations Superstition and Will-worship And yet their own darling-discipline with the whole Compages of their affected Devotions especially as to the manner of them is little else but a Cento and Miscellany of the same As singular as their looks garb and utteranee What poor Sacrifices are these to Atone a most wise and heart-searching God to win upon and ingage the Judgments of such Men as know that a reasonable Service is required at their hands The more united we are in Gods Worship the more we throng and flock together to Gods House the more God will be glorified we comforted and confirmed and the greater awe and terror will be upon our Adversaries These Men have and do make St. Austin's Complaint to be justly ours Epist 147. Husbands and Wives can agree together to lye in the same Bed Parents and Children to live in the same House yet Domum Dei non habent unam they cannot agree to go together to the same Place of Worship We may ask with St. Pauls amazement Is Christ divided A better account must be given of publishing these Papers after they had so long been thrown aside as wast Papers devoted either to Moths or the Oven especially since Mr. Baxter in his last seemed unwilling they should see the Light And I did heartily comply with him It was no small joy that he did supersede his trouble of writing I still wish it may not only be a Truce but a lasting Resolution for he is indefatigable in raising Clouds of polemick dust and makes Books faster than I can read them I do not say this in the words of the Father Decolorare famam to fasten any blot upon his Name but to gratifie and applaud my own happiness in being delivered from so importunate and voluminous an Author 1. Did I stand at his Elbow I would whisper to him That the Issues and Products of his Head would be more lively and masculine if his retentive faculty were more costive and vigorous If he teem'd with the deliberation of the Elephant rather than slip his burden before it come to maturity Those Animals that are most pregnant have the most imperfect Births 2. Had he taken as much pains to edifie and save Souls to teach Men Piety Obedience and Loyalty to press Men to Vnity Peace and mutual Love as he has in making Parties distracting and dividing Mens minds and inflaming the Church and State with his Aetna-Granadoes and Eructations his Name might have been imbalm'd with a fragrant savour in the Ages to come 3. Since he hath told us almost in every Book he hath printed for above twenty years past how infirm he is in his bodily health and that he is daily dropping into his Grave If I durst presume to be his Counsellor I would mind him of spending the remainder of his time in writing Books of Heavenly Devotions that so laying aside the Sword and taking up the Trowel he may make some satisfaction to the Church for those wounds and breaches he hath either made or kept open in her Bowels And also Antidote the Souls whom he hath poisoned with his vexatious Divinity before all the Sands of his Glass be run out and he go hence to give up his Account before an All-seeing and Impartial Judge Though I had escaped thus out of his Talons and there was a kind
mean while we that live in the Valleys are so far from envying your Happiness that we make it our own by exulting and triumphing in the same and praising God for your numerous and generous Progeny Though ours be as thin as Grapes after the Vintage As lean and meagre as Pharoah's Kine Many of your People are as the Sons of Anak of a transcendent growth and stature both for Parts and Piety your Assemblies as so many Synods How beautiful are thy Gates thy Tents O London when a Man enters into your orderly Congregations He stands as it were in the Porch and Suburbs of Heaven so that he must say God is among you of a Truth Your Faces look towards Zion and shine with the lustre thereof like Moses's in the Mount Your Reverence and Devotion declare That Heaven is your aim and that you are in good earnest in seeking the Countrey that is above It is true Gebal Ammon and Amaleck do what they can to weaken your hands and blast this your Success They grudge and gnash with their Teeth to see those so prosperous in their Ministery whom they traduce and undervalue and in their Prosperity set them with the Dogs of their Flock Therefore they set up Altars of their own and decoy your People into their Mountains Mountains did I say Nay into their African Corners and Vaults Yet thorow your Primitive diligence and dexterity your bow does still continue in strength And Maugre all their Contrivances and Blocks they lay in your way to divert you in your Evangelical race and hinder the erecting of Jerusalem's Walls your work goes on thorow the Power of the Almighty God of Jacob And theirs moulters and dwindles at least It does not thrive being set together with untemper'd Mortar Though they have this Advantage They drive down the Hill and woe the People to what both Naturally and by Instigation they are too much inclin'd and that is Disobedience to Authority and all that is called God This suits too well to that Gun-Powder that deprav'd Activity and Elastick Virtue which they bring into the world with them May you and all our Brethren go on with undaunted Courage notwithstanding their barking to keep your Flocks from ravenous Wolves and to save the Souls of your People from Schism Faction and Sedition here from Satan and Hell hereafter We cannot deny but there was much Zeal such as it was in that place formerly But this was as Fire in our Thatch or like the career of a blind Horse that has much Spirit but no eyes to guide him Now there is not only Zeal but according to knowledge Not only a partial Religion in observing the first Table but also conscionable Obedience to the second that Faith towards God may appear to be true and Genuine by works towards Men Love to God whom we have not seen by Love to our Brethren whom we have seen In the midst of our late Fears This very Consideration kept me from drooping and sinking What Shall men that have a Religious well-grounded fear of God bandy together against their lawful Governors Men that are so taught such Proficients in Christ's School shall these brandish that Sword to which they have no Right This would even have justified the worst of Times when those in your places pleaded Scripture and Conscience for Resistance Others made Harangues to the Representatives of the City in their Common Council to inflame them to an ungodly War against their Prince nor were there wanting such Orators among them that muster'd up all the sinews of their Eloquence and Rhetorick to sway and bow the great Council of the Land the same way You have better learn'd Christ and you have better taught your People It is the Physitian 's glory to check and chastise any predominant and luxuriant humour in the Body and to reduce it into an even and Moderate temper with the rest So it shews the Ministers Skill to allay the vehement Efforts of an irregular People in perswading them to this Sobriety to leave the Government of the World to the Providence of God and the disposal of Church and State to the Wisdom of the King We may be too Pragmatical and deprive our selves of present Injoyments by being too solicitous for the time to come I will Pray for the welfare of this and succeeding Ages May true Piety Peace and Plenty be ever within the Walls of this Church and State And may God raise up such Men to sit at the Stern of both that may be nursing Fathers indeed yet I will leave my Prayers at the feet of God and trust him with the success of them It has been the great Mercy of God in putting it into the heart of the Prince and the signal Prudence of the Right Reverend Bishops successively to place in and encourage Able and Regular Ministers in the chief City of the Land both to root up those dangerous and unpeaceable Doctrines which have been formerly settled there and cast a Malignant Influence upon the head of all our Tribes And also to plant such sound Catholick and Orthodox Truths whereby men may be guided into the ways of Peace and Holiness The fruit and benefit of such Preaching and Preachers has appear'd in hushing those Discontents that were amongst you In restraining and preventing the madness of the People and their Tumultuous Practices Faithful Ministers are not only Necessary to Conduct men to Heaven but also to establish Peace here below and to support the King's Throne The Sun it self may as well be spared out of the Firmament as these Luminaries out of the Church Had it not been for Faithful Preachers in the City and Countrey to stand in those Gaps that are trodden down by the Furioso's of our times we had been over-run e're this with Herds of feral and unruly Beasts Many there are that complain and find faults They declaim against Abuses and Exorbitancies especially in the Church not that they may be redress'd except they themselves may be the Reformers but that they may Disgrace and Wound the Civil State thorow the sides of the Ecclesiastick For if we would study how to be reveng'd of those that Dissent from us To Crucifie them and Countermine their Projects we cannot take a more Compendious way than to agree together in a vigorous pursuit of the fear of God and the Honour of the King to teach our People true Piety and Allegiance our Sores are their Repast and our Peace is their Torment May we always thus goad their Sides and rend their Caules by being good Men and Orthodox Preachers By maintaining God's Honour the King's Repose the Tranquillity of the Church and Kingdom promoting our own Salvation and our Peoples eternal Happiness It may be some Grief to you that some of your Flocks are cluck'd away and purloin'd from their own Shepherds Christ himself was troubled at the loss of one Apostle He also put an Accent of Sorrow upon these words to his Disciples
time of Figgs was not yet In another for then was the time of Figgs Will he burn these Bibles yet he would have the Liturgy utterly cashier'd and rejected because of some divers Translations which are not contradictory for they are not Secundum idem or in the same respect 4. How does he strain some things in the Act for uniformity and also in the Liturgy until the very Blood follow As if he were resolv'd to stand with a flaming Sword in his hand Either to keep some tender minded men out of the Vineyard and Paradise of our Church I have too much cause to justify what I say Or else to Affright Puzzle and Perplex those that have entred already that they may drive more heavily Proceed with Trepidation and carry on the Lords work with less expedition Whereas some grains of Charity in taking words and things in the best sense they are capable of as every honest man ought to do might have prevented and spoiled the greatest part of his Book When the Covenant was justly charged to be unlawful from the very articulate sound of the words with what tenderness and softness was it sens'd What Salvo's were invented to Palliate the Vlcer But in our case how are words and sentences wrested and tenter'd beyond the Grammar and intention of them that snares may be spread upon Mispeh to keep men from going to the House of the Lord will the great God thank these Mormo-makers another day Quam sapiens argumentatrix sibi videtur ignorantia humana in the words of Tertullian How fond and wise do they seem to themselves that by a Carnal kind of subtilty doe affect to be accounted the disputers of this World I may well call such wisdome carnal how Angelical and Seraphick soever it appear from the authority of the great Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 3. whereas there are among you Envying Strife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sidings or making of Parties and factions are ye not Carnal will nothing satisfie some supercilions Humorists but that the whole frame of our Church and Religion must be taken asunder Ravell'd and Cancell'd to please them Why did they not Petition the King and Parliament to erect a scruple Office or a standing Committee that might assoil their growing doubts And by some Scolia upon the Liturgy and their own Arts give the meaning of every Paragraph and word in both They are now so mudded by these mens strugling and trampleings that like Aristotles Physicks they are Edita non Edita dark and Aenigmatical until they are clear'd by the Lamp of some supervening Commentary That common sense which satisfies many thousands of their Brethren will not serve their nice and squeamish stomachs But as if there were some Snake lurking in the Grass and some invisible knot in the Bulrush every leaf every sprig of Grass must be turn'd and shaken every little feavourish doubt must be Excuss'd As if a new Targum Misna or Paraphrase must be calculated on purpose for the Meridian of their swimming heads And none must do this but the first Authors and Legistators Magnus Revocetur ab orcis Tullius If the noise of their Axes and Hammers were once abated there wight be hope that the Temple of God would rise If Schism that battering Engine were dismounted the Walls of Zion would flourish and mount towards Heaven What could hinder Nourishment to be Ministred to the Body of the Church by Joynts and Bands that so being knit together it might encrease with the encrease of God Our peace would not only be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the words of Basil the great A means to charm the Devil that he should not approach us but our consenting together as Ignatius would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the means to crush his very head in frustrating his dividing designs so we might also defeat his Instruments too that wait for our fall Nam neque perire nos neque salvi esse nisi una Possumus as Otho in Tacitus said to his Army If we sink we shall sink together And if we arrive to a safe Haven it will be whilst we are united into one Body Therefore if Mr. Baxter would either do good or prevent mischief in his Generation May he be as Nazianzen said of Athanasius An Adamant and a Loadstone An Adamant to break the Conspiracies of naughty men and a Loadstone to draw together and to close the differences of dissenters I am thy Servant said David and the Son of thy Hand-maid that is as Prosper glosses those words the Son of thy Church He adds also He is not the Lords Servant who is not such a Son A Son of Peace For Christ is the King of Salem the Prince of Peace And Hierusalem which is the Spouse of Christ and the Mother of us all signifies the Vision of Peace But Invidiae quondam stimulis incanduit atrox Alecto placidas latè cum cerneret urbes Mr. BAXTER'S First Letter Directed thus To the AUTHOR of the Perswasive to Conformity SIR THE vehemency and importunity of your Call for an Account to the World of the Reasons of my Judgment and Practise have sufficiently made me willing of the Work and put me upon craving your assistance in it and to answer me these few Questions 1. Whether you know of any one that will License it if I should write it or can procure me so great a favour and who it is 2. Or whether you think it lawful to print it unlicensed contrary to the Law of the Land 3. Whether you think it lawful by my Reasons which you call for to write that which the Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws forbid under the Name of depraving the Liturgy and appugning the Church-Government 4. Whether you know how I may be kept out of Goale when I have done I hear you are now Minister of the Place whence a Letter was sent which occasioned my last imprisonment where I am virtually still being adjudged to go to New-gate when I am apprehended 5. Or if a Prison and in probability thereby Death be that you desire whether you think it lawful to suffer so much and die to satisfie your desire and do that Work 6. Whether you know of any Printer and Bookseller who would Print and Publish such a Book and who they are The Savoy Papers which you talk of were written by the Warrant of the Kings Commission and published some of them for others were never published by poor Scriveners that had the Copies to get Money without my knowledge and to our injury in a Time when the Act against Printing was not made 7. Whether you think if I should write such a Book that the Diocesane Party would not be much more offended and angry than if I had said nothing 8. Whether I should be called so earnestly to do that which will give so great offence against the New Conformity when that which you mention which was done by Commission against the Old Conformity could never have
have found some of them at leisure for a more particular Consideration If it be our Liturgy offered them that you mean the Hypothesis there is That those forms there offered were fit to be taken into consideration as the Addenda mentioned in the Commission If this be false what can you imagine to be the reason that we could by no importunity ever procure any by word or writing to open to us the faults of that Liturgy and that L'Estrange himself had no more to say against it Though being drawn up in eight days only we desired we might have had leisure to have made it more perfect which might easily be done If it be the Petition for Peace that you mean the Hypothesis was That our Concord was so desirable as that they should make the abatements there mentioned to attain it but especially rather than silence so many Ministers and choose the other ill Consequents that would follow If this be it you mean and you are ambitious of acquainting your Rulers that you will stand at Gods Judgment as an approver of all that enjoy the pleasure and fruit of your desire If the silence of so many hundred Ministers and the Consequents to so many thousand ignorant Souls be a Blessing to be rejoyced in put not your Sickle into other Mens Harvest but let the Labourer who is worthy have the hire If it be otherwise what need any Man say Their be on us and on our Children 4. And when you talk of Vulgar Capacities do you not reproach the Reverend Bishops as Vulgar Capacities in print To whom were they given but to them And I never heard of any that they shewed them to If you say That they were printed afterward I answer 1. Some were and some were not 2. How could we then foretel that when we gave them in 3. They were done as far as I can learn by a poor reading Curate that gave the Printer Copies through meer poverty to get a little Money without our knowledge For he was thâ— Scribe that we were forced to use for Copies and I hear he kept some for himself 4. I sent to the Kings Secretary Sir IV. Morrice when I heard they were in the Press to desire him to search the Press and apprehend them 5. The printing of them by offending our Antagonists and by the intollerable falseness of the impression was a very great injury to us Moreover you dare publish to the world Had Men kept close to the Church of England they needed not have stumbled at swearing That it is not lawful to take up Arms against the King I must tell the whole Chorus of my dissenting Brethren that this very Fly is enough to spoil the Box of pretended Oyntment who can choose but nauseate that way of Discipline which startles at renouncing War against the King Do you think you were able to bear it patiently if I should tell you how much of the Diabolical Spirit is in these Lines and how unfit such a Spirit is for the Sacred Ministry 1. You know that it is a time in which our Rulers are justly exasperated for the horrid Murder of the King and for the Treasons and Rebellions that have been committed And you know that no design could more gratifie the Prince of Darkness than to bring the Odium of all this upon the Ministry or upon any part of the Ministry whose labours are needful to the Church 2. I suppose you know that it is not one of a Multitude of the Non-conformable Ministers that ever took up Arms against the King I suppose in all Worcester-shire there is not now two for I remember not one though there are some Conformists that were in Arms against him 3. I suppose you cannot be ignorant because you dwell in England that they were Episcopal Parliaments that were long quarreling with the King and that still cried out of the danger of Popery Arminianism Monopolies c. of which Rushworths Collections sufficiently inform you And that Dr. Heylin in the Life of Arch bishop Laud hath fully acquainted the World that it was one Party of Episcopal Men of whom he would make Arch-bishop Abbot the head that contended against the other and put in the difference about the Subjects Propriety into the Quarrel and that besides Neile Laud Buckridge Howson Corbet and Mountague the Bishops went all the other way So that by Andrew's advice it was thought unsafe to let a Convocation meddle in their Cause 4. I suppose you cannot easily be ignorant that the War in England against the King was begun by an Episcopal Parliament where as some of the Members aver to me there was but one known Presbyterian in both Houses and there or four Independants and two or three Sectaries and about four hundred Episcopal Men and Erastians And also by an Episcopal Army for such was the Earl of Essex and almost all his Chief Officers and by almost all Episcopal Lord-Lieutenants who were first put into possession of the Militia against the Kings Commissioners of Array In so much that even the Propositions sent to the King at Nottingham were but for the Regulation of Episcopacy and not the Extirpation And among all the Westminster Assembly there were not called ten Non-conformists nor I think eight Nor indeed was Presbytery then well known in England till the notice of it came in long after with the Scots and Covenant So that it is past doubt with any but the desperately impudent that it was Episcopal Men in England on both sides that raised War against each other though one Party of them afterward fell in with the Presbyterians of Scotland and the Sectaries for fear of wanting help and of being overthrown 5. You cannot but know that it is not the whole Chorus of your dissenting Brethren that scrupled swearing that it is not lawful to take up Arms against the King That twenty in London took the whole Oxford Oath at once and more after That the chief Nonconformable Ministers took it in Northamptonshire Somerset-shire Devon-shire and some other Places That many Non-conformists were against the War as Mr. Geery Mr. Capel and almost all the Gloucester-shire Ministers and many others Poor Mr. Martin of Weedon lately in Goal near you for preaching in private lost an Arm in the Kings Service in his Oxford Army when the only Arch-bishop left in England Williams was a General in Wales in the Parliaments Army 6. You have not given the World any Proof of any Presbyterian Minister in England much less the whole Chorus that ever scrupled swearing what you mention I should know their minds as well as you and I know not one that I remember that is not ready to swear that It is not lawful to take up Arms against the King I say again I know not one And shall a Levite stand up and intimate though it be not so spoken out To the King and to Papists and to Posterity that it is the whole Chorus of Dissenters
Bishop with his Presbyters and Deacons is as lawful at least as one Bishop only to a thousand or 500 Churches And I believe that it is in the Power of the King and Parliament to reduce our Episcopacy to that ancient Form And if they do it I will not swear to disobey them if they command my Service under them I was once commissioned among others under the Broad Seal to endeavour such an alteration of the Liturgy c. And before what was done about Episcopacy the Kings Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs sheweth and I will not swear to disobey the King if he command me the like again nor I will not swear universally and mean particularly till the Law-givers so expound themselves 8. I know by what Oaths the Roman Clergy got their Supremacy and mastered Kings and Emperors 9. I know that till Roman Tyranny invaded the Church the Clergy was not put to swear to the Bishops 10. I love but one King in a Kingdom nor any thing that is injurious to him and I am willing to swear Allegiance to my lawful King as I have done and to take his Office as a Constitutive part of the Kingdom But not to twist any other with him by Oaths into the Constitution nor any thing that looks like it especially not to swear to the Church-Governours before the Kings State-Government And now what is the connexion of your Premises and Conclusion The King is the Center of our Happiness c. ergo none that are Natives and Christians and expect protection should once demur whether he may swear to Diocesanes and Lay-Chancellors yea not to endeavour any alteration of their Government by Petition or if the King command them ergo they that doubt of this have even shaken off the Yoke of Subjection ergo they all deserve not only to be forbidden preaching Christ but to be hanged as all do no doubt that have shak'd off the Yoke of Subjection ergo not only the Non-conformists but the Conformists that swear doubtingly should be all hanged Thus differ the Priest and the Levite that pass by the bleeding Church from us wretched Samaritanes Turba gravis paci placidaeque c. As to the Popish malicious Slanders long since by them vented against Geneva c. Beza the Scottish and English Encouragers of Bothwell which you intimate on the by the first are long ago refuted by King James Bishop Jewel Bishop Bilson c. And lately by Dr. Pet. Moulin Junior in his Answer to Philanax Anglicus where he will let you know that Geneva Holland c. shook off their Governours while they were Papists before they turned Protestants And of the later learn more truth from Buchanans History of the Queen of Scots and of Bothwells Murder of the King I am weary of following your Treatise so far I will add but a little more as to your Letters In the first Letter these words astonish me I hope there is not so much Gall and Acrimony in the whole Book Wonderful that any Man should so little perceive what he saith and doth and be so blinded by Self-love as to think he speaketh Oyl and Sugar when he speaketh Fire and Swords You say you find me not so peremptory as to hold Conformity simply and absolutely sinful I pray you could you judge so hardly of me as to think that I left my Ministerial Labours to which I was vowed to escape but that which I account no sin You say Some of my own Books have not an Imprimatur why would you say so before you knew it I know of none of them that want it that were then printed since the Law required it though the Imprimatur be not printed in them But since you have so urged me to print without License I cannot say that the last Book the Defence of my Cure is licensed nor that it is not but if it come without you have taught it the way You so far credit your Neighbour Lee's Report as to give me the advice for restitution of his Horses Charity is not so easie of belief Why did he never make such a demand of me while I lived there in sixteen years space This is like Dr. Boremans printing that it is said I killed a Man in cold Blood with my own Hand but if that be not true I am not the first that have been slandered Very true Whereas I know not that ever I struck one Man in anger except Boys at School in my life nor did I ever kill or wound any Man in War or Peace Nor did I ever take any Mans Horses with my own Hand nor was I ever to my knowledge in Northfield or Kings-norton Parish nor ever with any that were employed about taking up Horses in the War to my knowledge but once which was when the Kings Soldiers had taken up about a thousand in Warwick-shire and 500 in Northamptonshire the Earl of Essex gave a Commission to Colonel Mitton and others to take up some three hundred in the Kings Quarters in Worcester-shire And about twenty Men went three or four times about it of which times I went once with them to see that they committed no abuse by taking from such as they were not warranted to do and they brought away about twenty or less and some were restored and I touch'd not one of them nor was their Guide and I never heard that they that went the two other times which was towards Northfield where and when I had nothing to do with them nor knew what they did took about thirty more which I heard were many of them restored and if your Neighbour had come to me and given me any probability that he had lost by me injuriously it 's like I had repayed it but his slander obligeth me not to restitution I will say no more about your Rule with relation to all that were present on either side when any were wronged in that War Your acquaintance with the Huxters that so readily print and sell unlicensed Books is no direction to me that know them not A few Sheets many will venture on but I know not them that will venture on a large Book lest they be undone by the surprizing of it In your Letter you could find a Categorical Affirmation that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Verb whereas you may see in the Errata of another Book then at the Press because that Book had no Errata prinâ—ed that Verb was misprinted for Wordâ— And if I know not a Verb from a Participle yet that little concerneth our Case in hand And though my own opinion be that the Parts of Speech should be reduced to three c. I will not trouble you with my Gramatical ignorance any further than to tell you that I am contented that you take liberty to judge it as great as you please but that Man should be more temperate in censuring the Errors of the Press Scribe and Author who citeth Dr. Manton then in Prison upon Jude
there was such a fatality in it that after I had beseech'd her Ladiship that I might convey him to some House of his Fathers and this not being yielded unto but I was intreated to keep him longer I could not preserve the Walls of my House from being broken in the night time this is this must be for a lamentation I presume you had not pour'd this Vinegar into my Wound had I not been your Remembrancer about your taking the Horses of Will. Lees. And though you deny the Fact both he and his Wife offer to swear it They say they followed you to Coventry and obtain'd an Order from the Committees there to have the Horses restor'd but you refused to obey it Nay they followed you to London and and at Mr. Foley's House came to your Bed-Chamber If their Relation be false or your Memory fail I cannot help it Many and many a time they desir'd me to write unto you for some satisfaction towards maintaining them in their poor decrepit Age. You confess you came into the Kings Quarters in those Parts to take Horses ergo Retract again For in your late Book you say you medled not with the War until after Naseby Fight yet you pray'd and preach'd to the Coventry Garrison Could you forbear to besprinkle your Prayers and Sermons with some of those Principles which after carried you into the Field Although I moved you to retract your Political Aphorisms yet 't was only such as were erroneous and dangerous to our Peace That which you mention about an unlimited Power in Princes or universal Obedience in Subjects even to turn Mahumitans if they command I do as much abhor in the Leviathan as I did dislike those Rotations and fond Principles of Government in the Oceana ergo you might have sav'd the labour of your Dilemma Austin did not retract all that ever he wrote How does it follow I account it my chiefest preferment to preach the Gospel ergo you ask me whether this Gospel which I preach be the unlimited Power of Princes Sure you think I live not in England but in Turkey or else that I am an errand Stranger to the Nature and Latitude of that Embassage which is committed to my trust Well! Injoy your own pleasing Conceit You will be a Gnostick do what I can This is not very stranger For you conclude that since Arch-bishop Abbot refus'd to License Dr. Sybthorpes Book I must suppose him to be a Presbyterian And because I say the King is the Center of our Happiness ergo I must say None must demur to swear to Diocesans or Lay-Chancellors and that those that petition for an alteration of their Government if the King command must not preach The Consequent is not here question'd but the Consequence and your Metaphysical Head will hardly find Enthymems enough to make it good Since you so often tell me in your Letter of the Presbyterians as if you were their great Patron and would set them against me though under that Name I never disturb'd them to gratifie your importunity take my naked Thoughts Many of them I think are good sober religious Men especially such as are deluded and seduc'd into that Sect Errours but if they be Gerrones Men devoted to a Party and addicted to a distinct Government from that under which we live accounting themselves oblig'd to the endeavouring the pulling down Episcopacy establish'd by Law and to set up Presbyterian Government in the Church against the consent of the Supreme Magistrate I think such a Presbyterian quatenus such in the Kingdom of England as things now stand is neither a good Man nor a good Subject but is rather factious seditious schismatical As for your large Narrative concerning the Savoy Transactions wherein you inform my nescience or negative Ignorance for I was not bound to know every Secret of that Assembly I thank you for it I only took notice of what was reveal'd to the World in Print And I heartily wish the Result thereof had been the same with that of Hampton-Court But I perceive the older the World grows the more stiff and inflexible Men are in their own Notions and Opinions Your non-compliance then seems to me as pernicious as Bezâ—'s heat at the Colloquy at Poissy I had almost said as the abrupt breaking up of the Treaty at Vxbridge I wish some such Men as Dr. John Reynolds had been the Commissioners who might have suppl'd and oyl'd your Wheels and so have allayed the starkeness of your Joynts I will pray for you still in the words of Optatus Vtinam qui jam malam viam intraverant agnito peccato super se reverterentur revocarent quam fugarent Pacem Is not the Roman Eagle ready to prey and quarry upon us all And shall we scatter our selves into Parties and crumble and divide our selves into small Gobbets as if we would facilitate our own Captivity and fit our selves for her Talons You are at much expence of pains to clear the Non-conformists of the guilt of the late War A very few of a Multitude were ingaged in it You lay this Brat at the doors of Bilson Abbot Hooker Of an Episcopal Parliament not above one Presbyterian among four hundred Parliament Men An Episcopal Army Episcopal Lords and Episcopal Lieutenants of Counties I had thought currente Rota whilst your hand was in you would have said that the Regicides had been Episcopal too Sir I do now perceive that Cataline was a Fool If he had laid the Conspiracy against Rome upon Tully might not he have gone free But I foresee also that in process of time it is like to fall out with the late unnatural War as it did with the Gunpowder-Treason Cecil and the Puritanes were accused for this by the Papists And the other though acted but yesterday and by whom is too fresh in our Memories is like to be father'd on Episcopal Men Or else like Filius Populi it will be hard to find the true Father or like Nilus the true Original Give me leave to use the words of a good Author Primo accusant Rei ut crimina in siletium mitterent sua vitam infamare conati sunt alienam ut cum possint ab innocentibus argui innocentes arguere studuerunt Ahab told Elijah Thou art he that troubleth Israel 1 Kings 18. 17. If Episcopal Men began and carried on that War and Presbyterians were free I had almost said Sit anima mea cum Presbyterianis For I hate nothing more than Rebellion But sure you were too credulous and easie to be deceiv'd by your Informer were they Episcopal Men that cry'd To your Tents O Israel That preach'd Curse ye Meroz first voted and then fought against the King If they were they were degenerous from the English Episcopacy They did not keep close to our Church which were my words to our Articles our Canons our Liturgy and our Homilies If they were Episcopal Men they had found out some new model'd Episcopacy I will
of those that are Modern and English And yet had you no acquaintance with these You say and you ingeminate it That there is not any Non-Conformist but is ready to swear he holds it not lawful to take up Arms against the King Why did so many of them then flit their Habitations five Miles from any Corporation or their own ancient Homes What was the Sum of that Oath was it not plainly and directly against taking up Arms Did it any way hinder Parliament Mens speaking or others peaceable petitioning for such Reformation as is necessary were not those who were commissione'd to administer it ready to declare the sense of it yet down it would not go with many latet aliquid But I find it is with many of you as I have found it experimentally with some who have been troubled in Conscience When I have apply'd the best Balm I could to these tender Souls so that they had nothing to say against their own Peace yet still they would be starting some black doubts against themselves turning their very Shadows into Gorgons that so they might continue in the Valley of Baca. Just so will you find knots in Bulrushes Mysteries in Cabbalistical Titles and Anexes spin Webs to intangle your selves out of your own Imaginations and with Thrushes pinion your own Wings that so you may scrupulously vex your selves You say well in your Book of Conscience That Melancholy is often mistaken for Conscience So I fear this shieness and skittishness of these Men is rather the result of an hot and feavourish Brain than any well-weighed conclusion of a sound Heart But put out the other Clauses out of the Oath let us have no more Oaths of Allegiance to Diocesans or Lay-Chancellors put upon us than Christs Churches had for six or eight hundred years imposed upon them Why do you lay this Injunction upon me and others in my Sphere Are we the King and Parliament Have private Men a Legislative Power Can they reverse and retrench Laws It is very plausible in you to bring all things to the Institutions of Christ and in things doctrinal 't is also necessary But as to what concerns all the Modes of External Policy and Administrations it is not only difficult but impossible Nay I think he may be impleaded of Schism and Singularity that stands up too stifly for the immediate Dispensations especially where they are so uncertain in opposition to the Instrumental teachings and directions of Men. You may find my Ground 1 Cor. 1. 12. It seems you are much troubled at Lay-Chancellors as if they hindered your Conformity by exercising the Power of the Keys in decreeing Excommunications and Absolutions Me thinks a Person of your ingenuity should rest satisfied with that modest declaration of our Rubrick concerning the Censures of the Church in the Preface to the Communion But since you say That Lay-Chancellors exercise the Power of the Keys in Excommunications do they do this of themselves as Lay-men or do they not You see 't is easie to push with your Horns and to evince that you are either ignorant or absurd But I shall only remember you what you cannot but know already That Lay-Chancellors though commonly very knowing in the Civil Law which is an excellent Hand-maid to Divinity yet they excommunicate not as Lay-men but by vertue of those Surrogates who are delegated for this purpose originally by the Bishop himself This Abstraction is not too hard for you to conceive But why are you so incens'd against Lay-Chancellors I 'le warrant you have more kindness for Lay-Elders if they were joyn'd with you in things Sacred as Catechising admission to the Sacrament and the Censures of the Church But as Luther distinguishes of little and great Devils so I think this of Lay-Chancellors is but a Gnat in your way The Camel or Belzebub is Diocesan Bishops The Episcopacy of Bishop Usher you are for and the Episcopacy of Ignatius you say is lawful I am glad you grant this for one of your Brethren maintained to my Face That there is no difference betwixt a Bishop and a Presbyter in Ignatius But you are kinder to Bishops for where there is one I suppose you wish there were many hundreds And if this were allowable we that are minorum gentium as to our own Interest have no cause to oppose it For then it may be you and I might in some time of our Ages commence Bishops But me thinks we should now agree especially if you would call to mind that Maxim in Logick Magis minus non variant speciem If Bishop Vsher were now alive he would give you but small thanks for pressing his Model of Episcopacy if his now the King and Laws are restor'd which he only calculated as that which could be born by the iniquity of the latter times Sequestered Ministers who would gladly then have received a fifth part out of their Revenue would be loth now to be bound up to the same terms The Counsel Bishop Vsher gave to the late King Rather to part with his Life than Episcopacy And his Notes upon Ignatius concerning the division of Asia confuting Dr. Meric Causabon affirming that Episcopacy crept into the Church in the second Century do sufficiently discover his Judgment If Thieves should strip me of all my Cloths I I will rather accept from them my old Coat than go naked yet if the time come that honest Men may come to their Goods I would have all again to a very Shoo-string Let us not take up the old trick and method of the Papists they have given out that some famous Men who liv'd Protestants dyed Papists So let not us extract Presbyterian Government out of the dead Trunks of Episcopal Cedars Calvin seems to excuse his New Government at Geneva Habemus qualecunque Presbyterorum Judicium formam qualem ferebat temporum infirmitas What is there any Sorcery or Necromancy in the word Diocesan As Tertullian once jested De nomine Chameleontis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a modest word in Greek and is it become Babylonish by being rendred into English Beza was more propitious than you are to the Diocesan Bishops of England Fruatur says he ista singulari Dei beneficio quae utinam sit illi perpetua But you think they have too many Parishes under their Inspection and Jurisdiction This is but obliquely to reflect upon former Kings and Statesmen who have allowed such large Provinces Some of them have been much canton'd in latter Ages if we look into our own Stories What think you of Crete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephesus Rome were there not many Parishes in these And I cannot think but as Jerusalem had her Daughters the Cities and Towns adjacent So many Regiones suburbicariae did belong to the Bishops of those great Cities ergo they had their Chorepiscopi to assist them Tell me true were there not Bishops before there wery any Parishes If so Christ never ordained they should be Parochial Do
cut off Laud is none of the Question All that I say was that Williams was an Arch-bishop and a Commander for the Parliament in Arms. § 31. When you turn me from Heylins Life of Laud to Heylins History of Presbytery you do but trifle and seek a Subterfuge I justifie not the Presbyterians in that he chargeth on them though you may know what Peter Moulin Prebend of Canterbury in his Answer to Philanax Anglicus hath said about the Forreign Churches But what 's that to the Question whether it was an Episcopal Parliament or a Presbyterian that began the English War will the fault of one excuse the other § 32. As to what you say of the Change of the Puritans since Jewel Andrews c. wrote for them and that they are not such as Ball c. I Answer 1. Is the Discipline changed which you speak of or the whole Chorus which you speak to Was there no Martin-Marprelates then Have we retracted our Doctrine or Consent to the Church Articles or to the Oaths of Allegiance or Supremacy Have we not in 1660. yielded to more than ever Ball or any of the old Non-conformists yielded to Deny it if you can 2. As for personal Charges others will be as ready to requite you with the like But neither you nor they should charge any more than you can prove guilty § 33. You tell me If Hooker were alive he would make such as me to quake so strong should we find his Breath in his deep close and strenuous Arguments I have read him over again and again yet I never observed him to be an Enemy to Monarchy You can find out if not New Worlds yet new Inhabitants and make strange Discoveries Answ A learned Confutator I say not that Hooker or Bilson were Enemies to Monarchy But I say that it was theirs and such Prelatists Principles that led me to what I did and wrote in the Book which I have retracted And must I be put to defend the King against such Men and Principles at the same time when we are charged with that which we oppose And will you indeed cry out of the Discipline of the whole Chorus of Dissenters as not Loyal and at the same time defend such Principles in the Prelatists Come on then I will cite you some of their words send me your defence of them in your next and you shall if I be able have my Reply and I begin with Bishop Bilson because he was the more Learned Man Difference of Christ. Subject c. Pag. 520. he saith Except the Laws of those Realms do permit the People to stand on their right if the Prince would offer that wrong I dare not allow their Arms I busie not my self in other Mens Common-wealths as you do neither will I rashly pronounce all that resist to be Rebels Cases may fall out even in Christian Kingdoms where the People may plead their Right against the Prince and not be charged with Rebellion If a Prince should go about to subject his Kingdoms to a Forreign Realm or change the form of the Common-wealth from Imperie to Tyranny or neglect the Laws established by common consent of Prince and People to execute his own pleasure in these and other Cases which might be named if the Nobles and Commons joyn together to defend their ancient and accustomed Liberty Regiment and Laws they may not well be counted Rebels I never denyed that the People might preserve the Foundation Freedom and Form of their Common-wealth which they foreprized when they first consented to have a King I never said that Kingdoms and Common-wealths might not proportion their States as they thought best by their publick Laws which afterward the Princes themselves may not violate And in Kingdoms where Princes bear Rule by the Sword we do not mean the Princes private Will against his Laws but his Precept derived from his Laws and agreeing with his Laws which though it be wicked yet may it not be resisted by any Subject with armed violence Marry when Princes offer their Subjects not Justice but Force and despise all Laws and practise their Lusts not every or any private Man may take the Sword to redress the Prince but if the Laws of the Land appoint the Nobles as next the King to assist him in doing right and with-hold him from doing wrong then be they licensed by Mans Law and so not prohibited by Gods to interpose themselves for the safety of Equity and Innocency It is easie for a running and railing Head to sit at home in his Chamber and call Men Rebels himself being the rankest Hooker Eccles Polit. lib. 1. § 10. Pag. Ed. ult 21. That which we speak of the Power of Government must here be applied to the Power of making Laws whereby to govern which Power God hath over all and by the natural Law whereto he hath made all subject the lawful Power of making Laws to command whole politick Societies of Men belongeth so properly to the same entire Societies that for any Prince or Potentate of what kind soever upon Earth to exercise the same himself and not either by express Commission immediately and personally receiv'd from God or else by Authority deriv'd at first from their consent upon whose person they impose Laws it is no better than meer Tyranny Laws they are not therefore which publick approbation hath not made so And lib. 8. Pag. 192. Unto me it seemeth almost out of doubt and controversie that every Independent Multitude before any certain Form of Regiment established hath under God Supream Authority full Dominion over it self And Pag. 193. In Kingdoms of this quality the highest Governour hath indeed universal Dominion but with dependency upon the whole entire Body over the several Parts whereof he hath Dominion so that it standeth for an Axiom in this Case The King is Singulis Major Vniversis Minor And Pag. 194. Neither can any Man with reason think but that the first Institution of Kings a sufficient Consideration wherefore their Power should always depend on that from which it did always flow by original influence of Power from the Body into the King is the cause of Kings dependency in Power upon the Body by dependency we mean sub-ordination and subjection ☜ A manifest Token of which dependency may be this As there is no more certain Argument that Lands are held under any as Lords than if we see that such Lands in defect of Heirs fall unto them by Escheat in like manner it doth follow rightly that seeing Dominion when there is none to inherit it returneth unto the Body therefore they which before were Inheritors of it did hold it in dependence on the Body So that by comparing the Body with the Head as touching Power it seemeth always to reside in both fundamentally and radically in one in the other derivatively In one the Habit in the other the Act of Power And The Axiomes of our Royal Government are these Lex facit Regem
thanks for pressing his Model of Episcopacy if his now the King and Laws are restored which he only calculated as that which could be born by the iniquity of the later times Answ 1. That the Model was his he told me with his own Tongue 2. That he thought better of it than of that which you set against it and did not offer it as a less desirable thing appeareth by the Reasons which he giveth for it from Antiquity and from the nature of the Pastoral Office to which he saith a part in the Keys or Discipline belongeth And he took this to be the true ancient frame of Government used for many hundred year after Christ and to be the true means of our union And he told me that he offered it his Majesty before the War and it was not accepted and after the War and then it might have passed And in conference with me he came lower than that Model as the Minimum that might serve for our agreement which I mentioned publickly to the Parliament in my Sermon the day before the Kings Restoration was voted by them printed by their Order And he told me That moderate Men would unite on those terms but he had tryed that others would not 2. But what is there in that Model that is so intolerable now Is one tittle taken from the Bishops or Arch-bishops Honour Is one farthing taken by it from their Estates Is any of their Power or Negative Voice taken away or is not the stated Ministry only made their Presbytery instead of a few uncertain Presbyters that must be present when they ordain and instead of the present Form of some Courts c. O humble Clergy-men that take this for more intolerable than all the contrary evils that we undergo Dishonour not our Church so as to tell Forreigners That to be reduced to such an Episcopal Government by Bishops with their Presbyters as was commonly in use for six hundred years at least as that which could be born by the iniquity of the latter times but cannot be born by the Clergy now if it pleased His Majesty so to order it But mistake me not I only speak of Ushers Model I do not now speak against the Government nor plead for a Change for the Law forbiddeth me As to what you say concerning Vshers Notes on Ignatius concerning the division of Asia I suppose you should have said His Notes on Ignatius and his Discourse of the Proconsular Asia which are two Books if you knew the Books you talk of But I know very well that he supposed Episcopacy to have been before the second Century but the question is what sort of Episcopacy and that Question his Model doth resolve § 50. To all that you talk after on this Subject I cannot find in my heart to trouble my self with any other Answer than to tell you that all you say is utterly impertinent to those you write of and sheweth that you do not at all understand the Case of the present Non-Conformists nor the state of the Controversie § 51. But about swearing Obedience to the Bishops you say 1. It is but in Licitis Honestis 2. That of old Presbyters have been obedient to their Bishops under the Penalty of an Anathema Answ 1. The Question is not only of Swearing to obey them but swearing never to endeavour any alteration of Church-Government 2. The King himself is to be obeyed but in licitis honestis And must we be sworn as much to the Clergy as to the King 3. Those that think the English Species of Diocesanes to be unlawful take them to be quoad jus divinum Usurpers And they say they would not swear to obey the Pope in licitis honest is nor Cromwel if he were alive lest it prove Treason against the true Sovereign to swear Obedience to an Usurper even in licitis honestis And how impertinently do you speak of Presbyters Obedience sub poena Anathematis when I only spake of antecedent swearing to them Nay not to them but to Men of another Office though of the same name Are we not now under Anathema's enough in the Canons if we obey not Yet how little have you heard the Non-Conformists say against those Canons these eleven years I mean such as have ever publickly agitated their Cause If you Anathematize me unjustly it is none of my sin But if I swear unjustly it is my sin I can obey many a Man that I cannot swear obedience to He that taketh away my Coat may have my Cloak also and if you bid me go a Mile for you I may rather go two than do worse And we must submit our selves to one another but yet I will not swear Obedience to all that I may thus obey And I may obey a Justice or Constable as my duty and yet not swear to the perpetuity of their Office and that before the Kings But if Obedience under pain of Anathema served above a thousand years without swearing it why may it not serve turn now Are new Oaths necessary to be sworn by us to the Clergy which never were necessary till of late You mean not I perceive that Antiquity or Universality shall be the Character of your Church or Impositions Nor to stand to Lerinensis Test quod ab omnibus ubique semper c. If we may neither have Ignatius his Episcopacy in specie nor be under such Bonds only as Ignatius speaks for without such Oaths as he never mentioned it is self-condemnation for you to cite the words of Ignatius § 52. You say Mr. Cartwright wrangled himself at last into Conformity Answ It is not well done of you to write Historical untruths so boldly You have no way to come off but either to say some body told you so or that by Conformity you mean that he separated not from the Parish Churches which he never did or that he was favourable to kneeling at Sacrament and not peremptory against the Surplice into none of which he wrangled but studyed himself And saith Amesius retracted his moderation about the Surplice But did he conform to Diocesanes to Subscription to the Oath of Canonical Obedience to the Cross c. How is the World abused by false Historians Thus one of my Antagonists chargeth him after Suttliffe with acquaintance with Hackets Villany and other such things from which he so fully vindicateth himself in a Manuscript of his own which I have by me given me by old Mr. Simeon Ash as may make the Reader wonder at the hardened front of Calumny § 53. When you say you will secure me about the Oath I have no confidence in your security till I see it to be better back'd than your bare word with a fallacious unlike supposed Simile when I must subscribe and swear That I will not at any time endeavour any alteration of Government in this Army Colledge Vniversity or Corporation nor of the State putting them conjunct with the State and before
what Rulers Hands my Papers may be put by the Papists for their advantage when they see them And they may say You see Sir that it was not only the Non-conformists but the Episcopal Protestants also that raised War against the King therefore no Party of them are to be trusted by you as Philanax Anglicus attempted and Arguments from Interest take much in the World And I had rather the Non-conformists alone were distated and cast out than the Conformists also lest worse succeed them On all which Considerations I shall suspend my sending you these Papers till you give me sufficient Reasons to believe that they shall not be used to more hurt than good and then you shall have them by the next Messenger But I doubt whether it will not offend you to see it so undeniably proved that your Papers contain so great a number of gross mistakes Among which one of the most excusable-willing one is your mistake of my Apology in tantum for one or two Non-conformists near you I know of no more that had not Academical Education or might be suspected to be half as low in Learning as you defined them to be when I told you how much I preferred Matter before strange Words and an English Divine before a Syriack Sot or a few Shreds c. For though I had no thought of accusing the Conformists more than others of being guilty of acquaintance with the Oriental or other Languages yet I confess I had mentioned the Conformists somewhere in the same Sheet and you were like enough in the contradicting humour to think that all that was mentioned to you was spoken by way of opposition to your Party when you found some crums of credit in it But to disabuse you I assure you 1. That I thought not in those words of comparing Conformists with Non-conformists at all but only Pedantick smattering in strange words with real solid understanding and preaching of Theology in what Parties soever they were found 2. That I never yet heard any of your Youths in our Pulpits that shewed any higher Matters of that poor kind of ostentation than a few words of Hebrew 3. That really it was a Lad in my own House at my Elbow the remembrance of whom suggested to me the matter of my Comparison who is yet no Conformist and I assure you no judicious Divine what ever he may be hereafter and yet seeing you seem to differ from me in this Point also and so prefer such Shreds before true Knowledge in Divinity is able to gratifie you with somewhat more than Shreds of Welch English Latin Greek Hebrew Chalde Syriack Arabick Persian Samaritan Aethiopick and if these be not enough for you we can make shift between us to send you some Shreds of Armenian French Italian Spanish yea and of the Indian Language of our Americans in which Mr. Eliot hath printed the Bible And if you signifie your desire or willingness to accept them he shall send you some Shreds of these by the next in stead of solid Divinity that you may have that which you prefer And I further assure you that he never had these from any University nor from any Tutor that is fond of Conformity which I say because you tell me how we would boast of such if they were among us And would you have me send out such a Lad of nineteen or twenty years of age to be a Preacher or a Pastor because he can talk nonsense or at least but little profound Divinity in so many Tongues Had I set as light by Languages as you dreamed I had not taken care to help him to this much But because I set more by real Science than you seem to do by your contradiction of my preference of it I count him that is without it and without the Holy Love and Life which it tendeth to to be but as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal Your Servant R. B. Jan. 20. 1671. AN ANSWER TO Mr. Baxter's fourth Letter SIR I Received yours directed to the Curate of Northfeild Now there is some hope your Language is truly Episcopal For we are in truth the Bishops Curates and under that Title we are pray'd for in the Collect though more at large in the Littany But I think the King will shortly give me a Writ of Ease so that I shall neither be Rector nor Curate there long All Times involve me in Sufferings May I hereby know Reduplicative the Fellowship of my Saviours Sufferings And so thereby with him be made perfect Those that told you what I might say about Printing our Papers might have told you the whole truth which was with this reserv'd Hypothesis If you should approve of it Though you well know how you have urg'd me to it Such Apocopes do too much resemble the Legerdemain of the grand Impostor I may be ignorant I cannot be dishonest I had rather your Devoto's should take it for granted that you have mangled the whole Book you oppose and laid the whole Compages of it in the Dust than confute them by doing you the least injury Your four Reasons are satisfactory unto me And I am glad that you are convinc'd that your Ink did overflow with Gall towards one who treated you with much humanity But I am sorry you do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in still asserting that the War was raised by Episcopal Men. Herein you are singular and are deserted by your own Friends who are concern'd to lay hold on such a Doctrine if true with both hands But this History is too fresh in our Memories to be transpos'd or deprav'd It is true Dr. Heylin and many others thought Arch-bishop Abbot a great Mecaenas and favourer of Puritans who were afterward call'd Presbyterians There were hot Disputes by other Episcopal Men against the five Articles against incroachments upon our Liberty Civil and Religious therefore these Episcopal Men rais'd the War This Sequel or Consequence you cannot make good or if you set down this Argument categorically I will deny the Major in Aeternum You may as well bottom our late difference betwixt King and Parliament on the remote Quarrel betwixt York and Lancaster Had Bishop Abbot liv'd do you think he would have espoused the Parliaments Cause Qui pauca respicit de facili pronuntiat What you say about the many Sheets you have prepar'd I tell you as formerly I do not court your trouble I cannot suppose that you have taken so much pains to be buried in my Desk nor shall I willingly examine such a Bundle without the exposing my Sentiments to the Suffrages of the learned World You excuse the expression of a Syriack Sot And because you tell me the occasion of it I will tell you my surmise I had thought you had perstring'd a dear and old Acquaintance of mine who for his humble self-denial and deep Learning in the Languages is stupor Mundi both at home and abroad You speak of my gross mistakes But if there be no
the Lord and his Anointed Qui non vitat peccare c. And will any dare to run upon the thick Bosses of his Buckler There is a sad Text in the tenth of Hosea The Princes of Juda were like to them that remove the bound That is They neglected the Laws which were as bounds in matters of Religion Now it was a great Sin in the Law to remove the ancient Landmark Therefore it follows in that Text I will pour out my wrath upon them like water Josiah and Hezekiah Constantine and Theodosius have embalmed their Names to all Posterity The former by beating down Idolatrous Altars and Groves The latter by encouraging the true Christian Religion not only against its open Enemies the Heathen But defending it too against the Arrians and other dangerous Hereticks who endeavour'd in the very bosom of the Church to eat out the very Bowels of it Those Churches have been most commended which have been most Zealous for the Truth against those that have oppos'd it As the Church of Ephesus That she hated the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans The Church of Thyatira was condemned because she suffered the woman Jezebel who call'd her self a Prophetess to teach and seduce his Servants to commit fornication that is the impure Gnosticks The Lord had also a quarrel with the Church of Pergamus that she suffered them that held the Doctrine of Balaam And if these things be blameable in Churches it cannot be for the Honour of the chiefest Magistrates who are the Supreme Governors of them to suffer Jews and Gentiles Barbarians and Scythians Parthians Medes and Elamites Papists Arrians Independents Anabaptists Quakers to set open their Shops and expose their Trinkets in their Dominions for though these look several ways yet they are mov'd and carried about with one and the same Primum Mobile or Spring of Confusion Miserable are the People that are in such a Case As once it was in Israel when every one did that which seemed good in his own Eyes It shew'd the Impotency of Julian that when he saw his Cruelty would not abate the Zeal of the Christians He gave every one leave to follow his own Religion This is not the Case of our Constantine His Garments are not dy'd with the blood of his Subjects nor are our Streets prophan'd with the doleful cries of poor Orphans But by mildness clemency and gentleness both he and his Subordinate Officers had made such a Conquest upon the hearts of the People that even by the Cords of love they were drawn into an happy Harmony except some few Obdurate Caitiffs who can only be melted and softned by an hotter Element But alas There comes an unlucky wind out of the wilderness which on a suddain blasts all our Hopes and throws all our Doors from off their Hinges All the Bars of our Gates are broken Come Foxes Come Leopards Here 's a free and open passage we shall be an easie prey who will may sport themselves in our gore and lay wast our pleasant Plants Although our Laws were almost asleep before this Hurricano came yet the very Image and Picture of them did fright away the Birds of Prey The Woolf durst not Approach our Folds so long as there was but the Resemblance of a Mastiffe-Dog But now these Terriculamenta these Scare-crows being taken away the Laws being fallen into a Swoon I had almost said the Laws being extinct the Frogs Croak up and down in every corner I hope they will never be so impudent and saucy as those were in Pharaoh's days to hop or dance their Hays in Kings Chambers By this you will easily see that this Indulgence is not the way to procure God's blessed favour upon Magistrates and their Government nor does it tend to their safety for though these Dissenters seem to be Innocent harmless Creatures without either Tushes or Talons yet they have rooted and ayowed Principles in them against the Grandeur and Majesty if not the very Being of Kings and though they fawn at present and bless God who hath put such a thing as this into the heart of the King and are ready to say They have a greater share in David than we Yet let but a warm gleam ripen them into Maturity let their Fangs and Sampson's Locks grow out again or let them be cross'd in their darling Dalilah by brideling them up from then beloved liberty and then will they not lift up their heels or Curse him to his Face Looking backward in this Case will be looking forward And History will be down-right Prophecy Pelle sub agninâ latitat mens saepe lupina You Remember that when the late King Declar'd That the Right according to Law was in him to Arrah his Subjects for the Defence of his Person and Government And accordingly He did Commissionate many worthy Persons to put the same in Execution that not one of these Dissenters would Comply with that Declaration When also He Prohibited any to take the Covenant by his Royal Proclamation Do you call to mind any one of these new Royalists that did obey it But now there comes out a Declaration Mouth-meet which throws the Reins upon their own Necks and permits them like unbroken Colts to go whither they will and now who better Subjects than they What Not obey the King's Declaration It is their Duty So that should the King rule by Edicts as our Stories tell us His Predecessors have done before the Reign of Henry the First who began the Foundation of Parliaments these men are like to be his most sequacious and obsequious Followers Ready fixt to make him an Absolute and Glorious Prince Some it may be will be ready to add Yes as they did his Father before him For I much fear That if it should please His Sacred Majesty to set forth another Declaration to try the temper of their Obedience to Reinforce the Laws concerning Episcopacy and the Liturgy that these Men would not then obey the same for Conscience sake It is strange to see what queazy Stomachs these men have one Morsel which is Cook'd to their Palats they will swallow without chewing And at another which is every whit as wholsom they will sputter as if it were Poison Mr. Baxter himself has had Experience of this Inconstancy If he call upon them to Confederate and associate themselves in Private Meetings they say he is return'd to his first love and his old Principles But if he tell them of his receiving the Sacrament on his Knees and call on them to stand up at the Hymns in the Common-Prayers then they say he is an Apostate It may be this Indulgence like a thick Gobbet may stop their mouths at present The King may sleep securely for a time whil'st Jacob and Esau are struggling in the Womb whil'st York and Lancaster are in Aequilibrio poised in an even Ballance But alas this would be but a serene Calm before a Tempest The drinking a Cup of Wine before a Feverish Fit or