that you printed about the Savoy Business that which you understood not and cannot justifie why do you not rather retract it than wish things had been managed worse Do you not know how much yea very much more we yielded to than ever Hildersham whom you praise or the other old Non-conformist would have done See but the Kings Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs and read Dr. John Reignolds Papers to Sir Francis Knowles against Episcopacy and judge whether he himself would have gone any further Indeed I know not that I differ in any Point of Worship Ceremonies or Discipline from that learned Doctor whom you praise § 23. You make me wonder to read what you urge us with about Popery when we so long together spake aloud when we were allowed and told them Our union is our strength and all the faithful Ministers of England are too few to cast and keep out Ignorance Popery and Sensuality and if we were all never so conformable our selves we do know the Land so well that we are sure if such and such things be made necessary to Ministration and Communion many hundred worthy Ministers will be silenced and many thousand religious People will become Separatists and more be offended and our Divisions will involve us in discontents and murmurings on one side and severities on the other and Popery and Prophaness will prosper under our Divisions And you will be necessitated to fill up our Places with many such Ministers as will increase all this misery and all this may now be prevented by that which will do you no harm at all And when after all our endeavours the Flood-gates are pluck'd up which we would have kept down it is now pretended that if we cannot nimbly and deeply swear and subscribe and do all that is imposed on us Popery forsooth will come in and it 's long of us that would fain have prevented it and stop'd the gap § 24. When I had beyond all sober contradiction proved to you that it was Episcopal Men in England that raised the War against the King that I might move you to impartiality and to call them to Repentance you do the poorliest put off that which you cannot confute and yet will not acknowledge as if nothing were criminal in them that are of the Church of England Who knoweth not that many Episcopal Parliaments before had begun the same Quarrels against the King which the Long Parliament prosecuted and cryed out still of Monopolies loss of Liberties and Propriety Arminianism and Innovations in Religion toleration and increase of Popery Read but Rushworths Collections and Heylins Life of Arch-bishop Laud and deny it if you can You cannot deny but that the Long Parliament began in the same temper as the former ended having the irritation of that which they accounted Lauds Innovations to go higher You cannot I think name two in all the House of Commons that were Presbyterians when the War began I provoke you to read over the List of the Lord-Lieutenants of the Parliaments first Militia throughout all England and prove but one of them to be then a Presbyterian or any of them that survive yet to this day I provoke you to name me one General Officer yea or three Collonels in all the Earl of Essex his first Army that were Presbyterians I might have gone further and wish'd you to peruse the Names of all the Parliaments old Major-Generals or Chief Commanders in the several Counties the Earl of Stamford Sir William Waller M. G. Massey the Earl of Denbeigh Sir John Gell Ferdinando Lord Fairfaix Dointz Mitton Sir Tho. Middleton Morgan the Earl of Manchester c. and tell me how many you can find that were Presbyterians I can witness that many greatlyest famed of late for Presbyterians have earnestly pleaded with me for the present Episcopacy I asked you whether it was not only the taking down that which they took to be the Innovations and Exorbitances and civil Power of the Bishops which the Parliament asked when the War began You can give me no answer to any of this that savoureth of sense and modesty but what must grant that it is notoriously certain that it was not a Presbyterian but an Episcopal and Erastian Parliament in England which began the Wars And yet you will rather hide their fact and fault while you aggravate the same in others than you will call the Episcopal Party to repentance What credit shall we ever give to History when a thing so publick and notorious as a Parliament an Army the Lord-Lieuteants the Major-Generals yea and the Synod shall all be represented to be Men of another Party and that had another Cause than indeed they were and had If in the same Age the same Land even where and when a great part of them are yet living and the rest lately were our Neighbours and Familiars there shall yet be found such Men yea Preachers as have the face to tell the World that these at the raising of the War were Presbyterians we may next expect that History may make Posterity believe that they were not English-men I my self knew many of the Parliament many Lord-Lieutenants many of Essex his Army many of the Major-Generals and I scarce remember one Presbyterian among them all at the beginning of the War except two or three Scottish Soldiers that were in Essex's Army and I do not know that they were such but only that they were Scots And for the Westminster Assembly except only the six or seven Independents that were there I provoke you still to name me three English Divines that were Presbyterians or that were not Conformists Now what do you say to all this Do you deny Do you confute any of it Do you name a Man as an instance of my mistake or can you do it § 25. First you tell me I am at much pains to clear the Non-conformists of the guilt of the late War Answ No such matter I only tell you that it was not a Presbyterian Parliament or Army that began the English War 1. The beginning of the War is one thing and the progress is another the Presbyterians or saith Dr. Heylin the Scots Lords for their Church-Lands and Tyths sake began it in Scotland the Papists began it in Ireland one part of the Episcopal against another began it in England 2. All Non-conformists were not Presbyterians 3. Cannot I say that the Episcopal began it without clearing those that did second them or the Sectaries that carried it on to the end You feign me to say that A very few Non-conformists of a multitude were engaged in it whereas my words were It is not one of a multitude of the Nonconformable Ministers that ever took up Arms against the King I speak there of Ministers only and those that are now Non-conformists of whom the far greatest number were then Children and many unborn and many of the elder yea most never medled with Arms But as for the beginning of the
in this neither own them for my Fathers nor my Brethren They were Monsters sure for would Episcopal Men conspire to root up Episcopacy The only Arch-bishop in England say you Williams was in Arms against the King pudet haec But if he was the only Arch-bishop in England more shame for some who had remov'd a better out of this World The best use we can make of his miscarriage is to take heed of pride and discontent lest God should give us over to the Byas of our own Hearts and so we should also fall into the condemnation of the Devil What you say of Arch-bishop Abbot out of Dr. Heylins Life of Arch-bishop Laud as if he began the Quarrel about the Subjects property Do but read the Drs. last Book concerning the History of Presbytery and then you may see who have been the best Subjects to Princes Bishops or Presbyterians As for Bishop Jewel and Bishop Andrews Defence of Calvin and our Puritans do not wrest their Charity as the Romanists do ours when we say they may be saved I much fear lest the Complexion of those Men be much altered since the days of those famous Prelates So that could they start out of their Graves and see how their Claws are grown what havock they have made in this Church they would like the Partus Saguntinus for very grief and shame retire into their former Dormitories Or were they to write more Polemicks they would scarce write Apologies for some amongst our selves So unlike are they to such as Mr. Ball who wrote so nervously for stinted Liturgies and Communion with our Church Mr. Hooker you say is under your exagitation I pray use him kindly trample not on a dead Lyon For were he alive he would make many such as you are to quake So strong would you find his Breath in his deep close and strenous Arguments As those that disputed with Stephen were not able to resist the Wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake Acts 6. 10. I have read him over again and again yet I never observ'd him to be an Enemy to Monarchy You can find out if not new Worlds yet new Inhabitants in the upper part of this in the Stars and Planets and if you can look beyond Galileo's Glass it may be with your Lynceus Eyes and strange Telescope you may make strange Discoveries Though I honour the Memory of Learned Grotius yet 't is not a Duty incumbent on me to defend his ipse dixit I have a Tract by me wherein are collected some Political Aphorisms out of him and others which I have not examin'd by his Writings but if truly his I do as little approve them as I do yours You would have me read the Confession of the French Church and of others and see whether they allow of taking up of Arms. Sir this is not to do I have also read Davila concerning their practise And if he be impartial I cannot boast The unlawfulness of the Arms of the French Protestants in several Risings cannot be denied Du Moulin P. 28. And how it was with the Disciplinarians in Scotland I have learned sufficiently in Spotswood Neither can you be ignorant what the Grand Master of the Discipline ascribes to English Parliaments against Kings if you read his fourth Book of Institutions What need we speak of Mens Confessions and Declarations Have not we seen their Actions quite contrary Until the Scottish Presbyterian Covenant be utterly renounced and forgotten it will stand upon Record what is to be expected from those of the Discipline All the Foam you can gather in your angry Fits will never obliterate this or wash such a Blackmoor white When you challenge me to shew from the Confessions of any Presbyterian Churches that they allow the taking up of Arms against Princes you deal just as the Papists do when we urge them with that odious Doctrine from Mariana and others of their Jesuits and also with their practise in this case they say as you do Shew us any Decree of the Church shew us any Canons of Counsels wherein the Doctrine of Killing Kings is allowed What shall we say I can find no such Canon in the Counsel of Trent I know no such Edict of the Church Nay the Counsel of Constance condemneth the Doctrine of killing Tyrants as erroneous yet indirectly and obliquely they do maintain the same by giving the Pope a Power to exexcommunicate Heretical Princes and to absolve their Subjects from their Allegiance And as Bellarmine says though the Pope does not teach Men to disobey their Kings yet he makes them who were their Kings to be their Kings no more So though this Doctrine be not expressed in the Confessions of Disciplinarians yet if it be suitable to their practise and follows a posteriori from their Covenant and other Principles by a parity of Reason it is enough to prove them guilty However the War was managed yet the Divines whether Presbyterian or Episcopal medled little with it If I know any you bid me name them Your dull Brains could never find out any Point of difference in Theology about the Power of the King or the Duty of Obedience in the People This is strange you liv'd in England as you often tell me And were you such a Stranger in our Israel that you heard nothing of the clashing of Pens as well as the brandishing of Swords Was the Controversie only betwixt Lawyers and Statesmen I have much ado to forbear an allusion to the words of Job to his Wife Thou speakest as one of the foolish Women speaketh So you speak of these things like some rude and ignorant People in the Country Did you never hear of Dr. Ferne Mr. Dadley Diggs and many others who wrote in behalf of the King against the lawfulness of taking up of Arms And did you never hear of Mr. John Goodwin Mr. Bridges Mr. Calamy's Speech in the City of London What was the great design of most Sermons preach'd at Westminster for some years by the Smectimnians but to tell their Auditors that the Ingagement of that War was pro aris as well as focis for the Cause of God and of Christ against Idolatry and Superstition as well as for the Priviledges of Parliaments and against Monopolies The King and Martyr suffer'd for his Religion says your Du Moulin P. 110. Did you never hear what pains Mr. Vines and Mr. Marshal took to prove that the higher Powers Rom. 13. were to be understood of the two Houses of Parliament The Scottish Douglas says plainly The Hostility against the King was from his setting himself against Religion I do not so much wonder at this your inadvertency since you affirm That Dr. Manton never wrote upon Jude but only upon James Will not the Doctor take it amiss that you take no more notice of his Labours And as for Dr. Burges it is now in the Hand of a Friend Are you such a walking Library Such an Heluo Librorum especially
the Politicks of Grotius But what abundance more Authors of Politicks could I name you that make the Majestas Realis to be in the People yea and the Power of judging Kings Such as Willius he whom Bishop Hall wrote his Epistle to in his Remains Alstedius c. Besides the Papists and if you agree with me in disliking those do not own the same in Hooker or other Prelatists § 35. Because you said Who can choose but nauseate that way of Discipline which startles at renouncing War against the King I desire you ro tell me what Discipline you mean You will not say Prelatical Discipline If you mean Presbyterian 1. I told you it was Episcopacy which the present Non-conformists offered to the King and Bishops 2. I desired you to peruse the Confessions and Descriptions of the Discipline of the Forreign Churches and to tell me which words do deny renouncing such War And what say you to this why first you deride the motion as a thing not to be required of you and say their Actions are quite contrary to their Confessions Will not your Conscience mark here 1. How your own Pen doth acquit their Confessions and yet you nauseate the way of Discipline that startles c. And where is the way of Discipline to be found but in those Confessions which even the Accuser now absolveth 2. And now you lay it on Practice and what 's that 1. to the way of Discipline 2. or to the whole Chorus which you speak to or any one Man whose Practice you have not proved such as you accuse And is your printed Clamour come to this § 36. And what say you of the Practice now 1. You tell me of Davila I pray next go to Parsons Image of both Churches and to Philanax Anglicus where you shall find the Prelatists as deeply charged And must Davila a Papist be credited against Bishop Jewel Bishop Bilson King James and many other on the other side And is not Davila a false Historian For instance he falsely saith That Carpenter was kill'd in the Massacre who dyed of the fright and that Peter Ramus the Father of the Independents was a Papist c. And is a false Forreigner and a Papist to be believed against the French Protestants I again refer you to the late notable Vindication of the Forreign Presbyterians in France Holland Embden Geneva c. by Pet. Moulin Jun. in his Answer to Philanax Anglicus And yet his Father might well blame them for some Instances as you cite him For as to the last Business at Saumurs and Rochel he was a noted and suffering Dissenter from that Party and so were other Protestants as well as he But one would think by your Progress that I had justified all the Wars or Actions of the Presbyterians because I told you that the Prelatists begun the English War which if you would insinuate or else you speak not sense you want either that understanding or that sincerity which beseemeth a Historian and a Divine But if really you will stand to it that their way of Discipline is to be nauseated who are guilty in practice of resisting Kings who do you not speak out then that the Prelatical Discipline is to be nauseated when you have not spoken a word of sense to disprove the aforesaid Charge against the Prelatists As to your Margin 1. I have no more to do with Martyn than you have 2. If you had any thing to have justifyed your Calumny out of T. C. or Travers you should have cited it for it 's but a silly shift to set down their bare Names 3. And I will no further believe Bancroft or Sir Th. Aston than they prove what they say no more than your self And I have reason for so saying § 37. Next you feign me to say That the Divines Presbyterian or Episcopal medled little with it whereas I had no such word but on the contrary told you That the Divines on both sides were too guilty if not the forwardest And are you a fit Man to state these matters in print for Posterity and pour out such Invectives against other Men that have not so much patience or care as to heed what you read in a Letter or what you write in answer to it What use can such Writings as these be of but to abuse the simple I only told you the differences were Political and Legal and not Theological but I said not that Divines medled not in them § 38. I did as you say desire you to name the Theological Differences if you know any for I never did And what say you to this would not any Reader here expect that you should have named some one difference But instead of that you exclaim This is strange and you ask me Did I never hear of Dr. Ferne Mr. Dudley Digs yes and of Mr. Weldon and Michael Hudson and Sir Francis Nethersole and more and have long ago read them all And what of that And I have read Jo. Goodwin Mr. Bridges Mr. Calamy c. And what of all that Why did you not name the Theological Difference You say That it was called the Cause of God Religion c. Did you think that you spake to the purpose when you said this It was Gratia materiae finis effect us that they accounted it the Cause of Religion They thought it had been the liberation of their Church and Country and the defence of Religion against Innovators But what 's that to the lawfulness of taking up Arms Is any Man so mad especially an Episcopal Parliament as to think all War lawful against the King which is for Religion Will a good end justifie ill means Your own Instance of Mr. Vines and Mr. Marshal to prove that in Rom. 13. by the higher Powers was meant the Parliament-houses c. if you had been a Man of consideration would have clearly shewed you how it confuteth your self That and many Texts of Scripture were agitated by Dr. Ferne Mr. Digs and those that answered them Upon all which it was agreed as far as I know that the Higher Powers were not by Arms to be resisted And this is all the Theological part But did you think that they thought that Rom. 13. or other Scriptures did tell the World whether Caesar or the Senate was the higher Power or which is the higher Power in Venice Germany Poland Hungary France England or any Country in the World Will you put the King to prove all his Power from Scripture What ever you take it I and all that ever I met with that were above the Rank of those you describe by Jobs Wife did take this to be a Point of Policy and Law and not of Theology and that Scriptures tell us not who is the Supream in every Republick but supposing that known commands us not to resist them And then comes in Bishop Bilson and saith what is before cited for Lords and Commons vindicating their Librerties and then comes in
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
you whom we leave to your own Master Yet do you make a hainous matter of it that we thus by fearing sin our selves do seem to think that Conformity is any sin at all and say we weaken your Hands prejudice your Ministry and make the People cold in joyning with you What then should we do if we published the Reasons of our Non-conformity and opened all that sin which we fear which yet you so vehemently call for Yea you say Who would unmuzzle a fierce Panther that would worry him that set his Chops at liberty even then when I ask you but to get me a License for that which you so openly call for which is all one as to say Do it if thou dare and if thou do it not thou abjurest thy Calling and refusest to give the World a reason of it You can tell the World that in my Book of Rest I seem to go their way that hold That they may fight against the King if it were for the cause of Religion to purge the Church of Idolatry and Superstition and cite P. 123. in which Edition of 12 I know not when I never wrote so never thought so but have proved the contrary at large in several Writings Yet this is done deliberately in print You fetch your Charge from the old Editions of that Book eleven years after I had retracted and expung'd and left out of that same Book not only that which you pervert but all the rest from end to end which seemed in the least to favour the late Wars Either you knew this or you did not If you did was that done like a peaceable Minister to aggravate with such gross and odious untruth things retracted and utterly expunged even long before the Act of Oblivion and that so as directly tendeth to the temporal ruine of him you charge them on If you knew it not did it beseem you to meddle in Print where you know no better what you do oppose What good will Austins Retractations do him if he shall ten or eleven years after be freshly charged with all that he retracted and much more yea I gave Mr. Hampden Pie one of the Books of One of the latter Editions so altered but a little before he came to your House to his utter undoing If you did not see it you might have done before you had written against it Yea as not regarding your self-contradiction at the same time you call me to retract my Political Aphorisms and tell me how excellent a Work it would be when I had done it before and had so long before retracted what you aggravate Though the one was done so lately that you could scarce know of it the other that was done eleven years before might have been known And if so long time excuse not the Book or Author yet from your bloody Charge why do you desire him to retract another What good will retracting it do if you will nevertheless so many years after make such use of it from what Principles and to what Ends I leave to you The Aphorisms which you would have retracted you say are those especially which are gathered by an Eminent Hand Who can think but here you condemn all those which that Eminent hand hath gathered And the first of all is Governours are some limited some de facto unlimited The unlimited are Tyrants and have no right to that unlimited Government The next words are For they are all Subjects themselves and under the Sovereignty and Laws of God Because it is your highest Preferments as you say to preach the Gospel I beseech you give me some such light here as is necessary to a Retractation If any Governours are not limited by God tell me whether it be any sin in them if they make Laws commanding Men to deny God and blaspheme him to worship themselves as Gods as Caligula did to worship Mahomet or Idols to kill all the Innocent People of the Land I talk not of the absolute Power of all Mens Estates and Lives Nay whether there be any thing imaginable which they may not command or whether it be possible for that Man at all to sin that is not limited by God And tell me if this be the Doctrine which you count it your chief preferment to preach And whether you can think that any wise Governours in the World will take those for friendly Promoters of their Interest who would so calumniate them as to make their Subjects believe that they lay any such claim You can gather that I approve of Mens terms of Ministration because I joyn with the Church which they teach As if no more were required of a Curate than of a Communicant And as if the same Reasons which warrant my Worship as a private Man would warrant all my Subscriptions Declarations Oaths and all the rest of Ministerial Conformity You can blame me for not Actively submitting to the Laws when you can name no Law which commandeth me what you mean You can Magisterially say Not that loose paralitick Discourse given to the Kings Commissioners at the Savoy written rather Rhetorically ad Captandum Populum to insinuate into vulgar Capacities than Logically to evince the Hypothesis contended for strip'd of its multifarious Fallacies ungrounded Surmises and erroneous Suppositions c. 1. As if you knew what was given in at the Savoy when a considerable part of the Papers were never published Yea I have reason enough to believe that no Man living can give an account of them to you but my self because no Copies were taken and some Papers only read 2. There are many Papers printed which were given in upon that occasion and who knows by this Character which of them it is that is called the Loose paralitick Discourse 3. You talk of a Hypothesis contended for as if you had a mind to be thought to say somewhat though you understand not about what For no Hypothesis is named by you and no wonder If you mean the first second or third Paper given in at the beginning of the Business to the Lord Chancellor the Hypothesis was that union is desirable the means whereto we offered as we were commanded If you mean our exceptions against the Liturgy the Hypothesis was that the Liturgy was corrigible and to be altered in some things And do you oppose that Hypothesis which the King had expresly put into the words of his Commission so far as to appoint Men to alter it and which the Convocation by their actual alterations owned If you mean our Reply to the Answer of the Exceptions the Hypothesis general is the same And what made all those Learned Persons who wanted neither Time nor Will forbear ever to give an Answer to that Reply if it were so loose and contemptible as you make it Was it because contempt was fitter than a Confutation that could not be because smaller matters not written by Men commissioned by the King for such a Treaty nor offered by their own importunity
for what I said than meer hear-say 53. Here you repeat concerning the Oath of non-endavouring the Alteration of Government But as you say nothing but what hath been said before so I have nothing to say but what I have said already until something be produc'd de novo 54. Who it is that does most to drive people from the Parish Churches I am satisfied by experience and whether all Nonconformist Dissenters be such children of hell as you describe them Methinks you are like a waspish or cholerick Disputant who being impatient of contradiction and having spent his stock of reason falls to chiding and supplies the want of argument with the overflowing of the gall and 't is no wonder you begun to faulter and rage at the latter end of the day after so tedious a Journey I mean so long a discourse But when you are refreshed revolve with your self in your retirement and solitude 1. Whether we that now bear the heat of the day I might ask you according to your procedure whether you mean me do drive men from the Parish Churches 2. Whether I describe dissenters all of them to be the children of hell Reverende Pater in hisce duabus Quaestionibus expecto animi tui sententiam Take heed of that pernicious Luciferian Counsel Calumniari fortiter haerebit aliquid Let St. Paul rather instruct you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak the truth in love Away with these Heats let 's tear one the other in pieces no longer Can you blame me for saying such dissentions make Musick at Rome Let us shew our selves to each other like Joseph and his Brethren at their interview in Aegypt Though my Judgment leads me to be Pius Inimicus to the Non-conformity of the Non-conformists yet nothing shall make me uncharitable to their Persons 55. To write a just Defence of the Non-conformity which I own would take up more time than I have to spare unless I saw a probability of better effect than by putting it into your Hand as now you motion I will not say this is a Tergiversation for if there be any that comes near St. Johns Hyperbole of writing more Books than the World can contain you are the Man If you do but open the Flood-gates of your Lips out there gushes such a Torrent I allude still to St. John but 't is to the Dragon in the Revelation that is enough to overwhelm such a Pigmy as I am Your Foam is the more grievous because it is brackish I expect nothing from you but scorn and that you should pronounce your wonted Raca against me in a higher Key and a more Emphatical Accent You will have the Lions Motto Nemo me impune lacessit Yet I could wish that if your Writing be no sweeter it might be shorter and that you would contract your swelling thoughts and like the Oracle speak much in a little for I am weary in following you I hope you will no more tell me that I call upon you to blow against a flaming Oven and to do Impossibilities when I call'd for your Reasons of Non-conformity You tell me I know no such Book could be licens'd yet when I made the motion in assisting you in the Birth you utterly waved my Overture If you are under affliction I hope it will make you to judge as one that must be judged Sir I told you the very truth I was entering into the Furnace in my last and since that God has been pleas'd to drench and plunge me deeper both as to my Person and Family else you had receiv'd this Return much sooner Though I might have thought such an Intimation might have procur'd your forbearance and that you would not have come upon me when I was sore I thank you that you have any hope that I may improve my afflictions by sucking some Honey out of such a hard Rock and I can bless God that of very faithfulness he hath caused me be troubled I can kiss the Rod without any murmuring Sobs and adore him that has made me to smart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is God that beareth Rule in the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth therefore I praise honour and extoll him all whose Works are Truth and his Ways Judgment What Talents the same God hath bestowed on me I shall lay them out not to drive Men from the Congregation but to invite and wooe them more and more into the Church that they may come under the Net of the Gospel and the droppings of Heaven Herein I should rejoyce to have your Co-operation and the assisting Labours all little enough of all our dissenting Brethren Whilst I am an unworthy Labourer in the Lords Vineyard and Your Devoted Friend Jo. Hinckley Northfeild Octob. 13. Mr. BAXTER'S Fourth Letter SIR WHen I had written an Answer to your last the Transcriber moved slow in his Work and it being somewhat long fourteen Sheets before he had finished it I heard from a double report of your own acquaintance that you purposed to print what you got from me At the first hearing I was not sorry for it But upon second thoughts these four Reasons put a stop to the mission of the Papers to you 1. I have written more plainly and smartly than I would have done if it had been for any ones use besides your own A secret conviction and reproof may be sharper than an open one 2. I am confident that you cannot get the whole licensed and I cannot easily think that you are willing Upon your encouragement a few sheets against Bagshaw since dead were printed without License and were surprized in the Press and if you should print mine by scraps and not entirely I should take it for a great injury and dishonesty 3. And I doubt it would be offensive to some and so might tend to my own disquiet for to make it so plain as that nothing but a high degree of Ignorance or Impudence can contradict it that the Parliament that raised Arms against the King were by profession Episcopal such as Heylin describes Abbot to be as against those whom they accused of Innovation and rais'd suspitions that they were reconciling us to Popery at the price of our loss of Propriety and Liberty I have been fain to name so many Men of whom some are yet living that I know not how they will take it to have their Military Acts recited after the Act of Oblivion and I believe those Clergy-men that have used this false Visor to put on the Non-conformists to make them odious that it was they only and not the Episcopal that began the English War will be very angry to have their fraud detected 4. But all these are small matters in comparison of the last Though God hath given us a King who is so firm to the Protestant Religion as to make a severe Law against all that shall cast out suspitions of his being inclin'd to Popery yet all Men are mortal and God knoweth into
go to every Feast and place where he is invited If his lips preserve Knowledge the People are to seek the Law at his Mouth Christ taxes the People that they would not come to him Though sometimes He was found of them that sought him not He that teaches School does not go to several Houses where his Scholars dwell but thinks he discharges his Duty if he teach them when they meet in the place appointed for them If we should go to all Houses and deal with the People there in private how soon might we wound our Names and bring a Scandal upon our Persons Besides other Reproaches This would too much resemble false Teachers who had only a Form of Godliness without the Power thereof who crept into Houses and led Captive silly Women This Practice has been very serviceable to such as have made it their Business to set up for themselves and to make Parties in the Church Great has been this Diana of the Independents and other Sectaries But we have not so learned Christ Wo be to us if we preach not the Gospel publickly when we may Such Assemblies are most for God's Honour And Wo be to them that attend not at the Posts of Wisdom's Temple when there is no invincible Impediment to keep them back and prefer Pest-Houses before the Gates of Heaven You know who set up an Exercise of Prophecying among Ministers This was very plausible in its time yet afterwards there was Cause to discontinue the same And if this Preaching from House to House has ever been useful to the Church of God there may be Reason enough now to forbear the Practice of it since it is not of Divine Institution when so many speak in the Language of Ashdod and under this Pretence may easily Insinuate their Hetrodoxies into the minds of weak but Well-meaning People Those that are so minded may bring in damnable Heresies and countermine all our Labours by this Jesuitical Stratagem So that we shall weave Penelope's Webb Besides some there are who will have none of our Divinity They will even thrust us out of their Doors others are poor and must maintain themselves and their Families by a diligent following of their Callings And no doubt but they may serve God on the Week-days as well in their honest and conscionable labours as if they should every day hear a Sermon Therefore to tender our selves to interrupt them in their Vocations by our Preaching unto them in such a Land of light under the very Tropick of the Gospel will either beget in them a Nauseating of God's Word or else it will be as unseasonable unto them as Singing the Songs of Zion to those that sit by the waters of Babylon Every Master of a Family is a Priest in his own house And after we have done our Duty in the Church we must leave something for him to do at home otherwise it may be he may become a Drone and devolve his whole care upon us At least he will be slack and sluggish as to the Publick He will not care to go to the Market If others must Cater for him and bring his Meat to his own Doors We our selves also shall have but little time to study in if we must be Domestick Chaplains to every House within our Precincts Our Breasts will quickly be dry if we do not supply what is exhausted and give Attendance unto Reading as well as to Exhortation There had need be as many Ministers as there were Dii penates among the Heathen And the Doctrine of these Men doth suppose the Lord's Vineyard so furnish'd with Labourers that there may be one allotted to every Tree A Guardian Angel to every House But there lurks a Serpent under these Verdant Leaves They would set up Preaching from house to house either that there may be matter of ostentation to glory in their singular diligence How often have we heard this from the Press And the Actors themselves have been the Trumpeters or else there are some who under this Umbrage would sow Tares in the furrows of our Field and give a vent to their own Singularities and Discontents May we ever give thanks unto God in the great Congregation May Jerusalem be as a City that is at Vnity in it self and may the Tribes have liberty to go up thither to worship that so Those evils which the craft and subtilty of the Devil or Man worketh against us may be brought to nought that we his Servants being hurt by no Persecutions may evermore give thanks in his Holy Church through Jesus Christ our Lord. CAP. VII A Toleration of all Religions is not like to contribute to the welfare of the King himself THe true glory of Princes said the Royal Martyr consists in advancing God's glory in the maintenance of true Religion and the Churches Good And as it is a Prince's Glory so it is his Safety and Security to Countenance the truth and to discourage Error When the People chose new Gods we presently read That war was in the Gate By me said God do Kings Reign And as they Reign by his powerful Assignment so they should Reign for the glory of his Name and the Comfort of his Houshold the Church here they must be Nursing Fathers the Guardians of his Spouse And the Keepers of the first Table which concerns Religion towards God as well as of the second towards Men. Christ is no Polygamist He has not a Wife in every Corner Unity is an Essential mark of the true Church It is a sign of the last times to say Loe Christ is here or loe he is there It argues no less than proud Donatism to say the true Church is in this Conclave or the other Town-Hall exclusively to other places The Papists are not the only Usurpers and Ingrossers in the World consining the Church within the compass of the seven Hills Every Sect is guilty of the same incroachment And though some of these are contrary one to the other yet every one will lay claim to some kind of Infallibility They would be look'd upon as the peculiar Darlings and chosen People of God almost to the dispaleing and Reprobating all the rest Now It is the Honour of Magistrates first to discern what is the Catholick and Apostolick Faith and then to Shield and defend the same lest if they should suffer God to be Blasphem'd by various and contrary Modes of Worship they should not only not shew themselves to be God's Vicegerents and Defenders of the Faith but provoke his wrath against themselves for the not keeping up the Mounds of his Vineyard I had almost said for laying it wast The breaking down the Hedge and the not maintaining it is almost Tantamount And the Hogs that root up the Garden are not more Accessory to the defacing of it than those that let them in Where God's Honour and the Churches Peace and Unity are not asserted There it will be interpreted little less than taking counsel against
moving one foot towards them The time was these Men were full of Jealousies and Fears They dreaded a Pope in every bush They were afraid where no fear was but now they are fool-hardy and rush into the Pope's Conclave without either fear or wit Sir I must now pause a little and fetch my breath very deep My heart has been sad and heavy as lead all the time I have been writing unto you But now my Spirits have such a damp upon them that I can scarce form another Letter It was my great Joy to see the face of a Church to Return together with the King And though I had but little to leave behind me yet it was my Comfort that my Posterity was like to Inherit a pure Religion in the best Church of the World This was the richest Portion I had to Bequeath unto my surviving Family But when I come now to look about me there is such a Change so many Vndutiful Daughters sprung up that are ready to pull out the Eyes of their Mother The poor wafaring Church is fluctuating betwixt wind and water and struggling for life and the Ravens are ready to devour her So that I cannot promise my self the Injoyment of that happiness which once I hoped to transmit to those that were to come after These pensive and melancholy thoughts and fears are very much inhanc't when I consider the Confusions of Holland A place much fam'd for Integrity of Religion and a Sanctuary for the Distressed yet the Inhabitants hereof have so long encourag'd all Religions until at last they have scarce any at all Profit is become their Godliness and Gain is their Idol And because they did not receive the love of the Truth but prostituted this Virgin to be adulterated by every Sect God first gave them over to strong Delusions and then made them a prey to the teeth of their Enemies So that what Religion is like to be Predominant or whether any at all Time only will shew It is observ'd that before the late Rebellion in Ireland there was an Indulgence of Religion at least by way of Connivence The Priests and Jesuits had liberty without controul to exercise their Religion and presently after we heard the Tragical News that no fewer than an Hundred and fifty Thousand were murder'd The Present State of Ireland p. 134 135 c. When Julian went about to bring in Heathenism he first scoffed at the Christians in general And then he derided the Priests and Preachers amongst them as a Company of Dotards and such as taught the People Old Womens Fables He well knew that the slighting of the Priesthood and bringing it into contempt by levelling and laying it common with the Laity was the most Compendious way to overturn all Religion Never were there a People so destitute of Reason but they owned some God And then it followed of course that some Priests were to be maintain'd to assist the People in the Service of that God And it has been the special Honour of Kings to defend and countenance these in their work One that was much vers'd in the Antiquities of the Jews tells us That whil'st Solomon was ascending those six Steps which led to his Throne the Herauld cry'd aloud Meddle not with the Priests Office How things go with us in this kind I need not tell you If we have been accessary to this contempt which is cast upon us by our Idleness Pride Earthliness may we Reform or else may we be cast forth as Salt which has lost its savour and let better be put into our places that so the Church may not suffer for our sakes I know your Sentiments do jump with this Prayer for you have often said That no men do more resemble the Prince of Darkness than debauch'd and unworthy Clergy-men Yet I think it is a Problem which will puzzle you to tell which are most dangerous to the Church Those that stand up for Loyalty to the King and Regularity in the Church yet stain both by their loose and irregular lives or those that transform themselves into so many Angels of light Cry up Religion and Purity of Worship yet affront and wound the Church by their Spiritual Pride and stubbornness in not yielding to her just Commands When St. Paul wrote to Timothy to flee youthful Lusts it is thought he did not mean those of the lower and sensual Appetite as Drunkenness Uncleanness c. for he was call'd upon to Drink some Wine but wantoness in the understanding Pragmatical and Hot-headed Courses How happy would it be If there were a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If all Members out of Joint those and these were rightly set and rectified If all the Ministers of the Gospel did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make strait steps without declining to prophane looseness on the one hand or factious unpeaceableness on the other Then we might hope to see our Church to flourish like the Garden of Eden when such Cherubims shall be the Keepers of it Then we need not fear Auspice Christo Auspice Carolo that either Atheists or Papists shall lay it wast But it is time to check my sliding Pen when I have first begg'd your Pardon for my interrupting your more weighty Studies with so Prolix and tedious a Discourse You may well guess by the bulk of it that it comes out of the Countrey for we are so accustomed to beat our plate thin by dilating mincing and inlarging our Sermons that they may suit with the Capacity of our People that we forget our Laconick strain to say much in a little even when we write to our betters I look not for a Requital from you in length If at your leisure you vouchsafe me some few Lines by way of Return provided you do not chide me for my Countrey Rudeness it will be very comfortable in these days of Desolation And nothing can be more welcom in this Solitude of a Country Retirement To him that is Ambitious to be Your Devoted Friend and Servant Aut transeamus ad illa instituta si potiora sint aut nova Cupientibus auferatur dux Author Vt imperium evertant Libertatem praeferunt si perverterint libertatem ipsam aggredientur Tacitus I infer this Conclusion in despight of all black Devils and white Devils Hereticks and Hypocrits That the Reformed and Conformed Protestants in the Church of England do justly Condemn both Papists and Puritans as Upstarts and Novelists in removing the most ancient Bounds of our Forefathers Concerning Schismaticks and Separatists they be worthily sirnamed Novelists For their Platform of Government is a new Device which no Fathers ever witnessed no Councels ever favoured no Church ever followed until within these few years it was unhappily dug out of the Alps. Therefore they that forsake the Church of England to Suck the Breasts of Rome or Amsterdam may cry with Naomi I went out full but the Lord hath caused me to Return empty Dr. Boys in his Remains p.