Laws â—…ainst Dissenters which yet says he all did not Yet Mr. Baxter spares none nor doth Dr. Maurice in his Vindication of the Primitive Church and Diocesan Episcopacy in answer to Mr. Baxter's Church History of Bishops c. spare him for whoever reads the Preface to that Answer and Chap. 8. p. 276. where he abundantly proves Mr. Baxter's ignorance and scandalous imputation of the Heresies Schisms and Troubles which were raised by several Presbyters against their Orthodox Bishops to those Primitive Fathers he will be of the same mind that I am That there never was any School-boy more justly though severely chastised for any Fault than Mr. Baxter is for that Treatise which he says is very elaborate and unconfuted Mr. Baxter in a Preface to his Penitent Confession Sect. 9. hath this Question and Answer Quest How should one have the better of any Adversary that blamed him Answ Speak and do things that are most odious as Perjury Lying Persecution c. and cover them with Sacred Pretences and then all that accuse thee will be taken for uncharitable Railers This method Mr. Baxter useth for Confutation of his Adversaries Thus he answered the Bishop of Worcester's Sermon against Separation calling it A Schismatical Sermon in his Preface to his second Defence p. 12 and says That the Bishop's Book is made up 1. Of untrue Accusations 2. Vntrue Historical Relations 3. Fallacious Reasonings And that in writing that Book against the Bishop he felt so little Passion that he thought verily that he sinned all the while for want of a livelier sence of the sin and hurt which he was detecting by his Confutation And which is to be noted in an Epistle Dedicatory to the Bishop he confesseth That he answered him in a manner that required his Patience and if it was too provoking he beggs his pardon But afterwards adds I doubt that I took advantage of his temerity and confuted him in too provoking terms and that some meer impertinent noise was made to his Answer by some one that is confuted But the Bishop sheweth what kind of Confutation it was p. 59. of the History of Separation Mr. Baxter discovered so much anger and unbecoming Passion that I truly pitied him and was so far from being transported by it that it was enough to cure an indecent Passion to see how ill it became a Man of his Age Profession and Reputation for he seems to have written the whole Book in one continued fit of anger For which and the scurrility of his Preface wherein having in twenty particulars described the most unskilful proud partial obstinate cruel and impertinent Adversaries he could think of places of Scripture or Similitudes for he thus concludes Though all this be not the Case of the Reverend Bishop c. which the Bishop notes to be a malicious way of Reproaching to name so many very ill things and leave the Reader to apply as much as he pleaseth And in p. 63. the Bishop complains that Mr. Baxter says That his Principles overthrow all Religion and that he was a secret Vnderminer of the Proofs of a Deity p. 63. of the Bishop's Preface After the same manner he confutes Bishop Morley's Letter concerning him saying It is most shameless for untruths in publick matters of fact and adds Ironically the Accuser is a Member of the best Church in the World but is this bundle of his gross untruths a proof that he is one of the best men in the World In the like manner he reflects on Bishop Patrick's Friendly Debate That his Book was so disingenious and virulent as caused most religious People to abhor it for the strain and tendency and probable effects Baxter's Life part 2. p. 39. As for Dr. Sherlock he thinks it Confutation enough of his former and latter Writings that they were virulent and ignorant p. 198. of his Life part 3. But Dr. Sherlock's Practical Treatises whereof we have many are as sound pious and useful I need not say as any of Mr. Baxter's but as any other on such Subjects as he hath written on as of Death and Judgment of Providence c. Dr. Fulwood though Mr. Baxter had formerly commended him for a Learned Man yet for some Reflections on his Book called Sacrilegious Desertion he calls him railing Russian p. 6. and his Reflections are a few confident silly Reasonings And p. 60. tells him of his want of common sence and modesty P. 113. part 1. of his Life he says That Dr. Pierce wrote a bitter Book against him full of malignant bitterness against godly men and breathing out blood-thirsty malice in a fluent stile abundance of lies are also in it against the old Puritans and me And that he wrote a much more railing malicious Volume than the former the liveliest express of Satan's image malignity bloody malice and falshood cover'd in handsom railing Rhetorick I have not heard saith he of three such railing men in England as Tylenus junior Pierce and Gunning of the Jesuits Opinion in Doctrinals and of the old Dominical complexion the ablest men that their Party hath in all the Land of great diligence in study and reading of excellent oratory and temperate lives but all their parts so sharpned with a furious persecuting Zeal against those that dislike Arminianism high Prelacy or full Conformity that they are like Bryars and Thorns not to be handled but by a fenced hand breathing out threatnings against God's Servants better than themselves and seem unsatisfied with blood and ruins and still cry Give Give bidding as loud Defiance to Christian Charity as every Arius or any Heretick did to Faith I fear I have offended my Reader by spreading before him such heaps of putrid and noisome Garbage But Mr. Baxter offering no matter of Argument for how could he against his own Relations and undeniable Matters of Fact except he had given himself the lye I thought nothing else needful but to shew the temper of the Man and the usual manner of his Communication to convince the Reader that he too often calls evil good and good evil and supplies the want of Argument and Reason with Invectives and Railing As to his Charge that my Book was full of Falshood half Sentences none was more concerned or better able to have shewn a few instances if the Book had been so full And for quoting any retracted Lines I never heard much of Mr. Baxter's Retractations though he had reason enough to have written as largely upon that Subject as St. Augustine did I do not think that his expunging out of his Kalender of Saints the names of Brook Pym White c. amounted to a Retractation because he told us that he did it not as altering his judgment of them but because it gave offence Yet Mr. Baxter shews reason enough to have expunged the Lord Brook for p. 63. of Mr. Baxter's Life part 1. he says That the Lord Brook was known and noted as a gross Sectary in the House of Peers
the Grotian design i.e. Popery was carrying on saith he in the Church of England and that this was the cause of all our Wars and Changes in England p. 105. Another Cause of the War not Episcopal where he thus talks concerning the Royal Martyr beyond any thing that his barbarous Judges could accuse him of How far the King was inclined to a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome I only desire you to judge 1. By the Articles of the Spanish and French Match sworn to 2. By his Letter to the Pope written in Spain 3. By his choice of Agents in Church and State 4. By the Residence of the Pope's Nuntio here and the Colledge of the Jesuits c. 5. By the illegal Innovations in Worship so resolvedly gradatim introduced All which I speak not with the least desire to perswade Men that he was a Papist but only to shew that while he as a moderate Protestant i.e. a Papist in Masquerade as they are now termed took hands with the Queen a moderate Papist the Grotian design had great advantage in England which he himself boasted of p. 106. Of this indignity to that Religious Prince the Learned Bishop Bramhal p. 617. of his Works took notice and vindicated him of which Mr. Baxter being told by a Book called the Impleader who said only that Mr. Baxter gave several intimations that the King was Popishly affected he numbers that among other lies of that Author p. 100. of his third Defence and says Why did not the Man tell where and when and that he had printed the contrary in times of Vsurpation and that he is a Calumniator unless he prove it Why did he not cite Bishop Bramhal 's proof and you see that a Calumniator with them is no singular person they are not ashamed to tell the world that their Archbishops lead them and are as bad as they It seems Mr. Baxter was pinched by this Relation which makes him cry out I have printed the contrary See what these sort of Men are come to What credit is to be given to such Men's Reports Is this it in which the Authority of Archbishops consists that they must be followed in slanders c. I have saved the Impleader the labour of quoting the place and desire the Reader to consult it and see how maliciously and groundless he urged those things against the King at such a time as that But Mr. Baxter says he printed the contrary in times of Vsurpation That time which now he calls a time of Highest Usurpation was the same which he then lookt on as a blessed time when Richard Cromwel piously prudently and faithfully to his immortal honour exercised the Government 1659. and to him he dedicated that Book wherein he says he wrote the contrary p. 327. where having accused the new Episcopal Party for following Grotius he adds As for the King himself that was their Head if any conjecture that he was a flat Papist c. Mr. Baxter believes him not but he was the head of the Grotian Papists and he himself boasted of it ubi suprà Now if any would know how far Grotius was a Papist he says he was a more arrant Papist than Cassander and one that owned the Council of Trent And such I think are flat Papists And therefore it was no lie in the Impleader to say Mr. Baxter gave intimations that the King was Popishly affected but a gross one in Mr. Baxter to deny it and give him the lie as he doth impudently to others But Mr. Baxter says He did not believe it himself that the King was a flat Papist Then his iniquity was the greatter to give so many instances by way of proof that others might believe it Did not Mr. Baxter know that the fear of introducing Popery was made one ground of the War against the King and may he not make it a ground of another War because the King adheres to his Bishops whom Mr. Baxter calls Popish Clergy-men And he says That the Parliament whom they were bound to believe made it their great Argument and Advantage against the King that he favoured the Papists and on this supposition saith he Thousands came in to fight for their Cause And they made one Article against the Archbishop of Canterbury That he endeavoured to introduce Popery though he were indeed one of their greatest Adversaries whose Life on that account they endeavoured to take away And the Relation of Dr. Du Moulin That at the Death of the King a known Papist was heard to say That now their greatest Enemy was cut off is very credible But Mr. Baxter knew that old Maxime Fortiter Calumniare aliquid adhaerebit It is no honest Man's part first to break a Man's Head and then to give him a Plaister which if it be not too narrow to heal the Sore or ineffectual to cure it yet may leave some ugly Scar behind Dr. Pierce hath given many more Arguments to prove Mr. Baxter a Papist than he hath given of King Charles the First And if his actings for Forty years together be well considered it will appear he hath been made use of as one of the most keen and Catholick Tools that ever the Papacy did employ whether he knows it or not It is I confess a difficult thing to tell the World what Perswasion Mr. Baxter was of as to Church-government whether Episcopal Presbyterian or Independant he hath been of all and I think he is now of neither having a peculiar Model of his own In a Book called A Method for Peace c. printed 1653. I find him to favour Lay-Elders though in other Writings he condemned them as Superstitious but by a passage in p. 341. he seems reconcileable to them for thus he saith Nothing almost is wanting to us to set our Congregations in the Order of Christ and to the great Work of Reformation so much as want of Maintenance for a competent number of Ministers or Elders to attend the Work We have divers godly private Christians capable of helping us as Officers in our Churches by which I suppose he intends Lay-Elders although I cannot certainly affirm what his Judgment is concerning them for he would willingly set up a new Model of his own i.e. a mixture of Episcopal Presbyterian Independent Government but declares for neither of them It is more certain that he once professed himself a Conformist and disputed for Bishops and Liturgy as by Law established and he thought he had ever the better yet if it be true that he had a prejudice against them ever since he was Nineteen years old it was rather to betray than defend them But in an Assize-Sermon preached 1654. at Worcester p. 191. he pleads for the Presbyterian Government in these words How long hath England rebelled against his Christ's Government Mr. Udal told them in the days of Queen Elizabeth That if they would not set up the Discipline of Christ in the Church Christ would set it up himself
Priests p. 44. He talks of Per and Pers p. 49. but lays his Scene in Vtopia and says I know this is not our case in England but if we must follow you into Utopia Lest the Reader should not understand this he speaks plainer p. 74. I have been long of the opinion which you viz. that are of a contrary opinion will one day pardon that perjury perfidiousness and persecution proud contending who shall be greatest and covenanting never in certain points to obey Christ against the world and the flesh is not the way of God p. 56 57. Such confidence upon such insignificant reasons is a great dishonour to the wit and humility of the Authour p. 59. Our excellent Successours that do nothing but see the Peoples faces in the Church You forbid Baptism and the Lord's Supper to all that have not as large a Swallow as your selves p. 60. His want of common sense and modesty p. 65. O with what face p. 66. He tells us p. 96. of some of the Nonconformists Principles and Purposes They suppose that the Ministry doth not save Men as Wizards think that Charms do heal Men by their presence titles names or habits by standing in the Reading-place or Pulpit or being called the Parson of the Parish or saying his set words over them when dead As if the Conformists did believe all this P. 10. They suppose that a greater number of the conformable Priests than they are willing to mention do preach so ignorantly and dully in the Pulpits and do so little of their private work besides that there is great need of a far greater number of Assistants than all the present Non-conformists be They are not able to confute the People who tell them that their publick Priests are so defective in their necessary qualifications for their Office as that they hold it unlawful to own such for true Ministers and encourage them by their presence or commit the care of their Souls to such P. 11. They think that the ejecting the Non-conformists from the Temples and Tythes did not degrade nor make them no true Pastors to their Flocks and that the Magistrates putting another Parish Minister in possession of the Temple and Tythes did not dissolve the foresaid relation They think that the ejected Minister foro Conscientiae Ecclesiae vere sic dictae retaineth still his ancient relation to his Flock and part of them schismatically separate from him and joyn with another Intruder that never had a lawful Call P. 14. They think that Conformity would be in them such a composition of heinous crimes as they forbear to name for fear of seeming Accusers of others and unpeaceable P. 31. Look up man without blushing alas for these poor People that cannot try Sence from Nonsence P. 61. His next hath no bounds it grieveth me to read it O Posterity how will you know what to believe P. 62. Here is much that would as handsomely serve Celsus Julian Porphyry or Eunapius p. 72. P. 25. I will not offend the Readers ears by giving them the names I think they deserve but wish them to read 1 Thess 2.15 which in words at length he puts in his Title page They both killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and persecuted us And tell them by what Names or Titles soever they be distinguished that I that am a dying man would be loth to stand in their case before God And if we were well agreed that there is indeed a God and a Christ a Heaven and a Hell we should easily be agreed in all the rest i.e. Seeing you are not of Mr. Baxter's mind you are very Atheists and in a state of Damnation P. 132. I must tell you that we cannot but think that you need Repentance great Repentance that your Souls yet if possible may be saved p. 74. for sinning more and that by publick deliberate chosen covenanted ministerial sin protesting against Repentance I conclude this Collection of many such great Calumnies which that little Book doth abound with with his impudent Challenge Come and impartially debate the Case with us who have been the greatest Causes of Protestant Divisions Conformists or Nonconformists These putrid Pestilential Stinks and Corruptions are so unlike the Breathings of a mortified Christian that the like never proceeded from any dying Man except such a one as hath been dying Twenty years together of which this is a shrewd Symptome and another is as bad that as they say of dying Beasts he bites deadly Animamque in vulnere ponit I challenge any Man to shew in so little a Book so great Pride Malice and Obloquy on so slender occasion as the Indulgence prepared by the means and in favour of the Papists as well as the Presbyter Mr. Baxter knew the Person against whom he wrote to be a Person of Great Learning and Moderation as he had acknowledged under his own hand in his Book of Conformation where he often quotes him he calls him The Learned Mr. Fulwood in the Postscript but now he is a meer trifler But there is yet ultimus conatus naturae And his restless Spirit grows more brisk and sparkling as it is pouring forth from the crazy Vessel By the great mercy of God that most execrable Plot of the Papists to Assassinate the King whom God hath hitherto by a series of Miracles preserved and the Church of England against which the Gates of Hell have not and we hope never shall prevail was discovered to the great joy of all true Protestants And now while they are undermining the Foundations Mr. Baxter though a dying Man lifts up himself and gets on the top of the Fabrick to throw it down with all his might This Polity he learnt of his Predecessors who on the intended Invasion 88. and the Gunpowder-Treason when the Papists thought to have swallowed us up quick took their advantage to thrust us into their Jaws or at least to devour us themselves if we should escape our other Adversaries That he might act with less suspition and more success he calls his Engines A Plea for Peace which as Bishop Stillingfleet observes might be better called A Plea for Discord and Division And another called The true and only way of Concord so full fraught with impracticable Notions and dividing Principles as if his whole design had been to prove that there is no true way of Concord among the Churches Bishop Stillingfleet But of this Book hereafter Another Book claims precedency whereof after great labour Mr. Baxter is delivered but it proved a Monster full of Teeth and Claws which he calls Church-History of the Government of Bishops but is indeed though very partial a History of those Confusions which were raised in the Church by such as opposed the Orthodox Bishops That the sight of this Monstrous Birth may not offend let the Reader fortifie his Eye-sight with what Mr. Baxter himself hath prepared For telling us what History is credible p. 2. n. 4. of that
to Subscriptions Covenants Declarations and Practices which we durst not do because we feared God As if the Magistrates had no fear of God The reason of which Impositions it is God and not we must have an account of from the Convocation c. By which c. he must mean the Law-makers He says He had read the Books written for Conformity and thinks Mr. Tombs had written more for Anabaptistry a late Hungarian for Polygamy many for Drunkenness Stealing and Lying in case of Necessity than they for the terms of Conformity as the Conformists describe them His second Plea is to the same tune It was published saith he in the Title Page to save our lives and the Kingdoms peace from the false and bloody Plotters who would perswade the King and People that the Non-conformists are Presbyterians and Fanaticks And next that it was such Presbyterians that killed his Father That our Principles are rebellious c. and in the Preface makes this Challenge I desire those that seek our blood and ruine to tell me if they can what Body or Party of Men on Earth have more sound and loyal Principles of Government and Obedience He says indeed p. 109. We are far from designing any abasement of the Clergy nor do we deny or draw others to deny any due reverence to them yet he calls the Bishops Popish Clergy-men Thorns and Thistles and the Military Instruments of the Devil and complains of tearing Engines Goals starving and bloody persecution ruine and death The very reading of such things are to an ingenuous Person a sufficient Confutation of his Books which being so many for he tells us he hath written Eighty Books and many of them in the Plural Number by a consult it seems with the Brotherhood I am fearful to meddle farther with lest I should provoke the Legion as some Learned Men already have to rent and tear them in pieces Such a Character as I have begun if it were drawn by some Person that hath known the Man and his Communication from the beginning of our Wars for I have discovered no more than what he was pleased to tell the World in his Writings would be more effectual to silence and shame him than all the Laws of the Land or all the Arguments of his Learned Adversaries how cogent soever for he is resolved as long as he lives to have the last word and to answer all that shall be said against him with down-right railing Exclamations to the People sophistical Evasions and rather than fail with plain Self-contradictions And of late days his wont is to confute his Adversaries as a young Scholar did Bellermine in one word Mentiris But if contradictio sit oppositionum Maxima as Mr. Baxter grants there is not a more common Lyar than he who hath beyond any other so frequently and flatly contradicted himself for of contradictory Propositions if the one be true the other is false i.e. a lye And this being another fit medium to confute many of his Writings I may if occasion serve make up one Volume more of Mr. Baxter's Works such as though he be able to split a hair he shall never be able to reconcile Sir Roger L'Estrange hath given an Essay how far Richard differs from Baxter So did the Reflector on his Sacrilegious Desertion and though but in a few Particulars yet it put him to a Nonplus and set him a whining saying I can reconcile my own words though he cannot And all is not contradiction which Men that understand not words think so p. 148. of his third Defence And p. 151. I never taught Mr. L'Estrange to understand my Writings but I can reconcile more than he can as if they understood not the difference between a Negative and Affirmative Proposition So that considering with what Contumely instead of Argument he hath answered the Bishop of Worcester I think no discreet Man will trouble himself to answer his Impertinences The Impleader of his first and second Plea answered all that was considerable in those Books and reflected on his Book of Concord and Prognostication who returns scarce any thing but a Mentiris even sometimes when the Impleader repeated Mr. Baxter's own words The Impleader answered that bold Challenge of Mr. Baxter in his second Plea to shew what Party of Men were of more sound Judgment than the Non-conformists in point of Obedience p. 72. shews who were Presbyterians who began the War who killed the Royal Martyr on what rebellious Principles they went and who are plotting a Rebellion of what dangerous consequence his immoral Prognostication is like to be Which things Mr. Baxter takes notice of in his third Defence but in all haste seeks to evade them and complains p. 146. of his third Defence that the Impleader rakes up the actions of the evil Civil War as if that were any thing to the present Cause that he heaps up abundance of untruths that he had fully confuted them before and then takes up an Exclamation O miserable World where the very Preachers of Holiness Love and Peace go on to the Grave and Judgment and Eternity fighting against Holiness Love and Peace And whether Mr. Baxter be one of that number let the Reader Judge If any shall demand to what purpose I have collected all this I should not have presumed to give such an Answer as Mr. Baxter hath prompted p. 151. of his third Defence To shew whether I be not a giddy mutable self-contradicting Fool and Knave I should only have inferred that notwithstanding all his Pretences to Piety and Peace he may probably have some evil Designs against both for the Things related are mostly Matters of Fact recorded by his own hand and therefore I hope his seduced Followers will consider to what manner of Guide they have committed the conduct of their Souls and what probability there is of gathering Grapes from such Thorns And because by the mouth of two or three Witnesses every thing is established I shall conclude with the Testimony of two or three credible Persons of his own Fraternity The first is Mr. Herle a noted Presbyterian who as Mr. Bagshaw reports said of Mr. Baxter That it had been happy for the Church of God if Mr. Baxter 's Friends had never sent him to School The second is Mr. Cawdry who was of the same Opinion And he mentions a third Person as knowing in the Mystery of Godliness as either of them who said That notwithstanding the great noise raised about Mr. Baxter he would end in flesh and blood But these Testimonies are nothing to that whereby the great Judge before whom he hath so often Summoned others will sentence him ex ore suo If any think Mr. Baxter is too severely handled let him consider it is by a Rod of his own making though it be smartly applied and that though he be a thousand times more obnoxious than the worst of those Bishops whom he so Calumniates yet hath he spoken maliciously and falsly
him their Almoner He tells us That this did begin and end at home to help the silenced Ministers and the Poor Such Poor probably as frequented their Conventicles for these are every where the Objects of the Presbyterian Charity though none boast more that they are Men of Catholick and Universal Charity But it was particularly designed to increase the number of such as followed them for their Loaves Had any Man the opportunity to inspect the Subscriptions of the several Bishops Deans and Chapters and other Dignitaries of the Church as also of both the Universities towards the Relief of the Refugees he may find not only a bountiful Supply for the present but Provision made for their future Subsistance as Brethren and professed Members of the same Church with us who want not the countenance or incouragement of the Conforming Clergy to this day My great Age and Infirmities being now within one year as old as Mr. Baxter was at the time of his death do enforce me to omit many other Remarks of Pride Hypocrisie and Contradictions which he that runs may read in this and other Writings of our Author which I leave to the Observation of such as better knew the Man and his Communication and shall make only this one Reflection more on his partiality in censuring the Conformists and Non-conformists of all sorts and degrees And first the Reader may see his hyperbolical Commendations of his Non-conforming Brethren from p. 90. to p. 99. of his Life where he gives the Character of such of the Eighteen hundred silenced Ministers as were his Neighbours not speaking by hearsay but personal acquaintance which were between Forty and Fifty besides many whom he had forgotten and about Forty London Ministers with Fifteen Independants and others of several parts that were Fellow-sufferers with himself All which if they deserved the Titles which he gives them he might have Canonized them as Saints in Heaven on better grounds than he hath done by Brooks Pym and White in his Saints Everlasting Rest. As to the Lay-Brethren of the Separation he gives the preheminence to those of his own Flock at Kidderminster And p. 85. part 1. he says Some of the poor Men did competently understand the Body of Divinity and were able to judge in difficult Controversies and so able in Prayer that few Ministers did match them in order and fulness in apt Expressions and holy Oratory with fervency And of Six hundred Communicants which Mr. Baxter had there he says there were not above Twelve of whom he had not good hopes of their Sincerity And this he imputes to his own Labours For before I came thither there was about one Family in a Street that worshipped God and called on his Name but before I came away there was not past one Family in the side of a Street that did not so p. 88 89. And he adds this reason of their proficiency That being Weavers they could set a Book before them standing in their Looms and edifie one another by reading or talking Of such Trades-men and Freeholders he says that they are the strength of Religion and Civility in the Land though such made up the Mob which begun and continued our Wars and destroyed our Religion by dividing it into innumerable Sects and Factions So that Mr. Edwards observed in his Gangreena that in the space of four years after that Episcopacy was laid aside there were more Heresies started in this Land than had been known in the Universal Church from the foundation thereof As to his Censures of such as lived in Conformity to the established Religion he is as impartial as Death condemning them all as a prophane and persecuting Generation in a Book called Cain and Abel How he hath branded the best of our Kings and the Clergy hath been already shewn How he Censures the Parliament and their Laws which he calls the tearing Engines that woried Two thousand Ministers casting them out of their Possessions into Poverty and Prisons to starve and pine away and for imposing such Oaths Subscriptions and Declarations as any Man that feared God could not comply with is such a Common Place that I wonder it was no more taken notice of After this Censure of the Parliament Mr. Baxter speaks of the Nobility and Gentry in general p. 134. where he saith I more than ever lament the unhappiness of the Nobility and Gentry and great Ones of the World who live in such temptations to Sensuality Curiosity and Wasting of Time about a multitude of little things whose Lives â—…re too often a Transcript of the Sins of Sodom Pride Fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness and want of Compassion to the Poor And p. 89. That Gentlemen and Beggars and Servile Tenants are the strength of Iniquity in the Land though it was not very civil to put the Beggar on the Gentleman yet it was much worse to joyn them in the Bonds of Iniquity and make the Comparison between them and the Trades-men so odious that these are reputed the strength of Religion and Civility but the Gentry and their Tenants and Beggars the strength of Iniquity And he instanceth in Sir R. Clare and Sir John Packington who much hindred his Success in gathering Proselytes in Kidderminster He gives this Character of Sir R. Clare p. 94. part 1. That he was an old Man of great Courtship and Civility very temperate as to Diet Apparel and Sports seldom swore any louder than by his troth one that shewed him much personal reverence and respect beyond his deserts and conversed with love and familiarity One that sent his Family to be Catechised and personally Instructed which swayed with the worst among that People to do the like But being ruled by Dr. Hammond he liked not of Mr. Baxter's Preciseness and Extemporary Prayer and abstained from the Sacrament which Mr. Baxter delivered to such as sate or stood at the receiving it which gave offence to Sir R. Clare whereby he says Sir R.C. did more to hinder his Success than a multitude of others could have done And on such an account all the Conforming Gentry are the strength of Iniquity And although the Poverty of Mr. Baxter's People whereof the Master-workmen lived but little beter than their Journey-men from hand to mouth p. 94. was a help to his Success the Poor receiving the glad tidings of the Gospel and being usually rich in faith Yet for those that frequent the Churches and Common Prayer they are coupled with the Gentry as the strengtheners of Iniquity whereas the Laws have provided such a Competency for their Maintenance as may keep them from beggary which the Law alloweth not but in truth the multitude of Beggars in occasioned and increased by those many Families that depend upon the Trade of Weaving who living but from hand to mouth are forced on the decay of Trade for a few Weeks to beg for their Subsistance or to do worse of which such places as abound with Men of that
as their Leaders with their united Force beset him and railed lowdly against him yet durst not Attack him but evaded his weighty Arguments And Mr. Sylvester in his Preface tells us That the present Archbishop the Bishops of Worcester and Ely their greatest Antagonists were expresly mentioned by Mr. Baxter as Persons greatly admired and highly valued by him and of their readiness to serve the Publick Interest both Civil and Religious he doubted not Yet such is the Hypocrisie of these Men that they will openly Scandalize and Defame such Persons for the Edification of their Party whom they inwardly approve of and admire for their Personal Vertues and constant Endeavours to serve the Publick Interest of Church and State And though I despair of meriting their good Opinion by what I have done yet I have learnt to care less for their Calumnies and Reproaches which though plentifully and with great vehemence thrown out will not stick And now my Lord begging your pardon for this tedious Address and too confident Interruption of your more important Affairs I bless the good Providence of Almighty God who under Christ the Great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls hath placed me under the Tuition and Patronage of a Person of such Primitive Courage and undaunted Resolution as hath constantly and successfully stem'd that Spring-Tide of Popery and Socianism which was violently overflowing of us and I trust will as effectually withstand those raging Waves of Fanaticism which so impetuously assault the Ark of God on every side that we being delivered from the Hand of all our Enemies may serve God with one Consent in Righteousness and Holiness all the Days of our Life is the earnest Prayer of Your Lordships Dutiful and Devoted Servant Tho. Long. Exon Jan. 1. 1696. THE Introduction I Think it reasonable to give the Reader an Account how I became obliged to ingage in this troublesome Adventure and for his Satisfaction and my own Justification I shall declare the first occasion of my Contest with Mr. Baxter It is generally known how many Books Mr. Baxter hath written to justifie that Separation which he and others of his Perswasion had printed some of which he called elaborate and unconfutable and as another Goliah despised all the Hosts of Israel whoever appeared against him was presently born down with such a Flood of Gaul and bitter Language whereof he had an inexhaustible store that it was enough to affright any considerate Man from approaching near him he was resolved to have the last word to every Opposer and his word was as Law and Gospel to all his Party These Considerations occasioned me to think of dealing with Mr. Baxter in some other Method and having read something and heard more of his ingaging in our late War in which he continued well-nigh from the beginning to the end about 71 years and had been present at most of the great Fights and Sieges in that war as you will find hereafter from his own relation I resolved to be at some pains to trace his progress throughout the War and because I wanted opportunity to enquire it from others and partly because I might neither be truly or fully informed either from some of the Party with whom he was or the Party against whom he was ingaged I thought it much more safe and unquestionable to relate such of his Actions and his Principles and Reasons on which he acted as I could glean up from his own undoubted Writings which being done though I now perceive I were in the dark as to many other considerable Passages recorded by himself in his Life at large I caused my Collections to be printed in the Year 1682. while Mr. Baxter was living upon which he Reflects as followeth Mr. Long of Exeter if Fame misreport not the anonimous Author wrote so fierce a Book to prove me out of my own Writings to be one of the worst Men living on Earth full of Falshoods and râ—…fred Lines and half Sentences that I never saw the like of it and being overwhelmed with work and weakness and pains and having least zeal to defend a Person so bad as I know my self to be I yet never answered him it being none of the matter in Controversie whether I be good or bad God be merciful to me a sinner P. 188. of his Life Answ I will not gainsay his Conjecture of the Author of the Book in question which was intituled The second Part of the unreasonableness of Separation which was printed 1682. The Book could not seem to be so fierce being an account of his own Relations concerning his Actions and Writings which if they represent him to be one of the worst Men living upon Earth I could not help that Mr. Baxter himself in his History of Bishops pleads for his justification That he made use of their own words In the Preface to that Book he says in a Parenthesis That the Book was full of Falshoods retracted Lines and half Sentences but that he never answer'd it which is very strange seeing he lived above 9 years after he had perused the Book in which interval he wrote several large Treatises which less concerned him than that wherein he says he was so much mis-represented And in all probability if the Book which he reflects on had been so full of Falshoods retracted Lines and half Sentences he might during that interval have found leisure enough to have given some Instances of what he pretended against with his Plea of being overwhelmed with work weakness and pains appears to be but a vain Excuse for he had zeal enough to defend himself against several others that charged him with much lesser Miscarriages And it was very considerable to the Matter in Controversie whether the Person so fiercely accused were good or bad whether he were an honest and peaceable Man one wholly devoted to serve a private interest against the publick welfare Mr. Baxter thought this a Reason why so many adhered to the Parliament That though the King had the Cause the Parliament had the better Men Mr. Baxter's Life p. 37. For my part I should have been extreamly confounded if either Mr. Baxter whilst he was living or any one since his death could have discovered an hundredth part of that Fierceness Falshood or imperfect Sentences in my Book which Dr. Maurice hath observed in Mr. Baxter's Church History of Bishops wherein he strikes at Christianity it self by the Reproaches which he casts on the Primitive Bishops calling them A few turbulent Spirits p. 46. silencing and destroying Prelates p. 73. proud contentious ambitious and hereticating Bishops p. 77. firebrands of the world p. 98. merciless furious and confounders of Churches p. 183. Nor doth he deal more mercifully with our Diocesan Bishops whom he calls Silencing damning Prelates Bryars and Thorns and Military Instruments of the Devil Though in a good mood he saith That none of the Bishops had silenced them unless by voting as Peers in the House of Lords for the
and Sir Henry Vane in the House of Commons As for the retracted Lines in his Holy Commonwealth it is evident that they also gave offence but that his judgment of them was altered appears not He seemed willing sometime that some of his Maxims in that Book should be taken as not written but finding that he hath in other Writings since that written much to the like purpose I think he continued to be of the same mind that Pilate was Quod scripsi scripsi Page 177. part 3. of Mr. Baxter's Life he says In June 1676. Mr. Jane the Bishop of London's Chaplain preached to the Lord Mayor and turned his Sermon against Calvin and me charging me that I had sent as bad men to Heaven as some that be in Hell because I had said in my Saints Rest of Brook Pym Hampden and White that I thought of Heaven with the more pleasure because I should meet them there This made me blot out those Names after 1659. not as changing my mind but not to give offence For which Reason he should have blotted out those hard Speeches and uncharitable Sentences which there follow These damning Prelatists are for our Silencing Imprisonment and Ruine and Factious Damners that for preferment condemn good men are ordinarily self-condemned Mr. Baxter's handling my Betters so rudely makes me less concerned at his railing on me And this may satisfie the Reader why I took the pains to Review Mr. Baxter's Life as written by himself to enquire what Discovery he had made of Falshoods retracted Lines or half Sentences of which I found not any Instance which made me to wonder because I found in the Appendix to his Life p. 108 109 110 111. a large and scandalous Letter directed to me and dated July 26. 1678. wherein he calls me to an account for three Particulars which I had mentioned in my Examination of Mr. Hales's Treatise of Schism in which I represented Mr. Baxter as a Person of a peaceable Temper and made use of his Arguments to confute those of Mr. Hales which pleaded for Schism for which he ought as he seems to do in the beginning of his Letter to give me thanks yet he that reads that angry Letter may perceive that he sought occasions to quarrel and defame me when there was no Provocation given him But when he says I represented him as the worst Man on Earth and that by Falshoods c. he shuns the Occasion of justifying himself or proving any of his Accusations against me A PREFACE Concerning the Power of Prejudice IT is a Caution necessary to be observed by all Christians which St. Paul gives us 1 Cor. 3.21 Not to glory in Men i.e. not to prefer the Parts or professed Piety of some Men so as to contemn or despise the Ministry of others The reason of which he gives us vers 4. For while one says I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo are ye not i.e. ye are carnal This partiality begets Envying Strife and Divisions which are the works of the Flesh And this Prejudice causeth men to be puffed up one against another chap. 4.6 as the Corinthians were on behalf of false Teachers to an opposition of the Apostles themselves This St. Jude observes to have been the fault of the Gnostick Disciples who had the Persons of Seducers in admiration because of advantage viz. the liberty impunity and temporal accommodations which were permitted and promised by them And by such means St. Paul observes that his Galatians chap. 3.1 were so bewitched that they obeyed not the Truth And Tertullian deservedly chides the Christians in his Age And ex personis probamus sidem an ex fide personas De Praescript c. 3. It is a good Rule which Mr. B. says he had learnt but practised not to contradict Errours but not meddle with Persons Page 107. part 1. of his Life Do we approve of the Faith by the Persons of Men or of their Persons by the Faith The Faith once delivered to the Saints should always be the Rule by which we judge of the Ministry of Men. Though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 There are many false Teachers that transform themselves into Angels of Light and mix some precious Truths with their damnable Errours But if they teach any thing for Doctrine contrary to the Word of God any Doctrine that tends to Impiety Disobedience or Divisions it is our duty to reject and withold Communion from them be their parts never so excellent and their pretences never so plausible lest it fares with us as with those silly Larks who being first taken with the glitterings of the Glass do play so long about it till they are also taken in the Net to their destruction For being once dogmatized and captivated by Men of ill Principles it will prove a matter of great difficulty to extricate our selves If we consider how rare a thing it is for Men of great Learning and perhaps of good Conscience too to deliver themselves from those Snares in which by Education and Custom by Prepossession and Carnal Prejudices they have been involved whereof St. Paul himself being bred up as a Pharisee may be an instance for whose Conversion no less than a Miracle was thought sufficient And no other account can be given why so many Learned Men in the Church of Rome do against Scripture Reason and Sense believe and defend such great Errours as they generally do but the tyranny of Prejudice and Education for quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem testa diu The ways which we are trained up in from our youth we will not depart from when we are old For as Justin Martyr observed Non Ratione componitur sed consuetudine Senec. Epist 123. Custom having once got the advantage of long continuance insinuates Errors and Impostures into the Minds of Men under the notion and representation of Truth and some Men have told lyes so long that at last they have believed them to be truths And Scripture it self doth intimate that it is morally as impossible for a Man to learn to do well that hath been accustomed to do evil as for an Ethiopian to change his skin or a Leopard his spots And Origen affirms that of all Customs those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning Opinions and Matters of Doctrins are most prevalent for when other Advantages do conspire with our received Opinions facile credimus quod maxime volumus and our religious Opinions being rivited into our minds by the weighty Arguments of temporal and eternal Happiness it must be a power above that of Nature to vindicate us from the Captivity Hear Mr. Baxter on this Subject Take heed of suffering Fancy and Opinion to go for Reason and raise in your Minds unjustifiable Mistakes of any Way or Mode of Worship It is wonderful to see what Fancy and Prejudice can do Get once a hard Opinion of a
of the peaceable the discountenance of godliness and the insulting scorn of the profanest in the Land And many hundred swearing drunken ignorant scandalous negligent Ministers are cast out and we have now many humble godly painful Teachers in a County And as for the People he says in the same Epistle to his Gildas That most of them wherever he came did make Religion and reading the Sacred Scriptures or speaking of the way to Heaven the matter of their bitter scorn and reproach He spares not to Revile the Royal Martyr as if he intended to justifie his Murder King Charles saith he by the Bishops instigation kept Mr. Pryn long in Prison and twice cropt his Ears for writing against their Masks and Plays and the high and hard proceedings of the Prelates though the Archbishop whose Head they cut off for less shewed greater Crimes of which he was proved guilty in his Speech in the Star-Chamber This was not such a fast as God required to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burthens to break every yoak and to let the oppressed to free This was the Hypocrite ' s fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness and to make their voice to be heard on high Isai 58.4 in the words of the proud Pharisee God I thank thee I am not as other men nor as this Publican as will appear to him that reads chap. 4. sect 1. and p. 154. where he raileth intolerably against the Rulers as Haters of practical godliness and of all that would but speak seriously of Heaven and tell Men of Death and Judgment and spend the Lord's day in preparation thereto that did but pray in their Families or reprove Drunkenness or Swearing What could any Papist say more to disparage the Church of England As to the inferiour Clergy he says p. 157. The Churches were pestered with abundance of meer Readers Drunken Profane and Debauched Men and many that had more plausible Tongues made it their chief business to bring those they called Puritans into disgrace So that I must needs say I knew no place in those times for he speaks of Men and Places within his knowledge where a Man might not more safely have been drunk every Week than to have gone to hear a Sermon if he had none at home Nor doth he spare those that died long before his memory p. 143. What Toys and Trifles did the ancient Reverend Fathers of the Church pester the Church with And what useless Stuff are many of their Canons composed of Three lamentable Vices did the Prelates of the Church commonly abound in Pride the Root and Contention and Vain-glory the Fruit c. to p. 149. where he is not ashamed to tell the World what Troubles the first Nonconformists raised at Frankfort against those Reformers and Confessors that were Exiled for maintaining the same Worship and Liturgy for the defence of which many Bishops and Ministers were suffering Martyrdom under the Papists No sooner were they the Nonconformists called home saith he p. 150. but some of them were so intemperate impatient and unpeaceable that some turned to flat Separation and flew in the faces of the Prelates with reviling Yet Mr. Baxter doth the same and accounts the requiring of Uniformity in the same or a better Worship to be a Persecution As for his Brethren he professeth to believe That England never had so able and faithful a Ministry since it was a Nation as at this day viz. Decemb. 4. 1655. in the heat of Rebellion yet he affirms Sure I am the change is so great within these Twelve years that it is one of the greatest joys that ever I had in the World to behold it But for the Prelatical Party he brings in some saying They are all empty careless if not scandalous and ungodly men And may we not conclude as Mr. Baxter doth p. 167. This is not a confessing sin but an applauding those whose sins they pretend to confess Mr. Baxter calls this Book Gildas Salvianus but he might have more truly entitled it Excidium Britannicum for that followed on it How Mr. Baxter can be excused from the guilt of Schism in the departing from the Communion of the Church after his Ordination and Subscription and Solemn Vows then made for more than Twenty years before the Impositions and Penalties enjoyned by the Secular Powers which he pleaded in his justification after the year 63. will be a very difficult if not an impossible work to him that considers Mr. Baxter's circumstances and actings I shall therefore only shew the heinous nature of that Sin as described by Mr. Baxter himself p. 741. of his Christian Directory That Schism is a sin against so many clear and vehement words of the Holy Ghost that it is utterly without excuse Whoredoms and Treason and Perjury are not oftner forbidden in the Gospel than this That it is contrary to the very design of Christ in our Redemption which was to reconcile us all to God That it is contrary to the design of the Spirit of Grace and the Nature of Christianity a sin against the nearest bonds of our highest relations a dividing of Christ or robbing him of a great part of his Inheritance That it is accompanied with Self-ignorance Pride and Vnthankfulness to God That Church-dividers are the most successful Servants of the Devil and serve him more effectually than open Enemies That it is a sin which contradicteth all God's Ordinances and Means of Grace a sin against as great and lamentable Experiences as almost any sin can be and this is a heinous aggravation of it that it is commonly justified and not repented of by those that commit it and the more heinous that it is commonly fathered upon God Therefore remember this that Schism and making Parties in the Church is not so small a thing as many take it for Yet this pious Man to keep his Proselytes from ever returning or repenting for Schism tells them in the Preface to his Plea for Peace That more like truth hath been said for the lawfulness of Anabaptism Polygamy Drunkenness Stealing and Lying in case of Necessity than any thing he ever yet read of for a full Conformity as he their describeth it Behold here the great Charity of Mr. Baxter which he extends rather to the Congregations of Schismatical Anabaptists and such as live in those detestable sins of Polygamy Drunkenness Lying and Stealing than to the most Solemn Assemblies of Conformists to which yet he hath often joyned himself in Communion How great soever his Knowledge was how strong soever his Faith yet wanting Charity the Sacred Scripture assures us that such a Man is but as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal In the year 1658. just Ten years after that the best of Kings suffered by the worst of Men Mr. Baxter sets forth his Grotian Religion and through Grotius's sides strikes at the Head and Members of the Church of England with one blow For
in a way that should make their hearts to ake I think saith Mr. Baxter their hearts have aked by this time and as they judged him to the Gallows for his Prediction so hath Christ executed them by Thousands for their Rebellion against him Now it is evident what Discipline Vdal meant by his Confederacy with Coppinger Penry c. of which Cambden p. 420. of his Eliz. Angl. says Some of those Men who were great Admirers of the Geneva Discipline thought there was no better way for establishing it in England than by railing against the English Hierarchy and stirring up the People to a dislike of Bishops They therefore set forth scandalous Books against the Government of the Church and Prelates as Martin Mar-Prelate Minerals Diotrephes A Demonstration of Discipline c. In which Libels they set forth virulent Calumnies and opprobrious Taunts and Reproaches in such manner as the Authours seemed rather Scullions out of the Kitchin than pious and godly Men yet the Authours were Penry and Vdal Ministers of the Word Bishop Bancroft quoteth a Pamphlet of Mr. Vdal's called A Dialogue where he says That the Bishops Callings are meer Antichristian p. 59. of Dangerous Positions and p. 45. he says They were very devilish and infamous Dialogues and that there was a Conspiracy between Coppinger Wigginton c. by some extraordinary means such as Vdal had prophesied should make their hearts to ake for releasing of some that stood in danger of their lives meaning as I suppose says the Bishop Vdal Newman c. The dangers threatned by such extraordinary means to disturb the Goverment hastned the Trial of Vdal who with three others took occasion from the intended Invasion in 88 to alarm the Nation at home as also they did on the Powder Plot and to this day do by scattering seditious Pamphlets Vdal was charged with a Book called A Demonstration of Discipline which Christ hath prescribed in his Word for the government of his Church in all times and places to the Worlds end The Preface was directed To the supposed Governours of the Church of England to whom he says Who can deny you without blushing to be the cause of all ungodliness seeing your Government is that which giveth leave to a Man to be any thing save a sound Christian for certainly it's more free in these days to be a Papist Anabaptist of the Family of Love yea as any most wicked rather than what we should be And I could live these Twenty years as well as any such in England yea in a Bishop's House it may be and never be molested for it So true is that you are charged with in a Dialogue lately come forth and by you burnt that you care for nothing but the Maintenance of your Dignities be it to the damnation of your own Souls and infinite millions more The whole Book being like this Preface he was indicted at the Assizes held at Croyden and found guilty He pleaded That he was indicted on the Statute of 23 of Eliz. c. 2. for publishing seditious words against the Queen but that the Book charged on him contained no seditious words against the Queen but the Bishops only But it was answered by the Judges N.B. That they who spake against her Majesty's Government in Cases Ecclesiastical her Laws Proceedings or Ecclesiastical Officers which ruled under her did defame the Queen And on clear proof that he was the Authour of that Libel he was found guilty and received Sentence of Death but by intercession of Archbishop Whitgift was Reprieved Mr. Baxter's actings have been so like Mr. Vdal's that it is no wonder to find him labouring to justifie him in a Cause wherein himself is so nearly concerned In 1659. came forth Mr. Baxter's Key for Catholicks dedicated To his Highness Richard Lord Protector p. 323. where he asserts That if the Body of a Commonwealth or those that have part in the Legislative Power and so in the Supremacy should be unwillingly engaged in a War with the Prince suppose the Long Parliament or the Commonwealth under Oliver against King Charles the First and after many years Blood and Desolations judiciously take away his Life as guilty of all this Blood and not to be trusted any more with Government as the Parliaments Vote for Non-address to the King And all this they do not as Private Men but as the remaining Soveraign Power and say they do it according to Law undoubtedly this case doth very much differ from the Powder Plot or Papists murdering of Kings With much more to the same evil purpose And doubtless the difference is great it is more horrid for Subjects to pretend Justice than for the Pope to attempt by secret Plots to destroy a Protestant Prince In the year 58. he prints his Five Disputations of Church Government which were designed against restoring the extruded Episcopacy and Liturgy and to justifie the Presbyterian Ordination where as also in his Method for Peace p. 389. he saith We have taken down the superfluous honour of Bishops viz. their power over Presbyters as Antichristian This disputatious Book he says was written against Dr. Hammond who was then his Neighbour and he dealt very friendly with him for he scarce touched one of his Arguments but the design of the Book was to destroy the whole Order as Optatus said of a Donatist Dei Episcopos linguae gladio jugulasti fundens sanguinem non corporis sed honoris Opt. Milevit l. 2. And because after No Bishop follows No King in 1659. he sets forth his Holy Common-wealth which was no other than a Plot to keep out the King as the other was to keep out the Bishops for there being great hopes that upon so many Revolutions of Government we should settle again on our ancient Foundations he says He suited that Book to the demands and doubts of those times And his endeavour is to prove That the King being secluded and his Subjects discharged of their Obedience ought not to be readmitted Thus in the Preface That a Succession of wise and godly Men may be secured to the Nation in the highest Power is that I have directed you the way to in this Book And thus he explains himself First as to the higher Powers Prove saith he that the King was the highest Power in the times of Division and that he had power to make that War that he made and I will offer my Head to Justice as a Rebel These confident Assertions of his were such as brought a far better Head to the Block But what would Mr. Baxter have My wish is saith he that our Parliaments may be holy and this ascertained from Generation to Generation by such a necessary Regulation of Elections that all those who by wickedness have forfeited their Liberties i.e. the King and Loyal Party may neither choose nor be chosen And the reducing Elections to faithful honest upright men such as he says were then in Richard Cromwel 's Parliament is the only
Order or violently imposing their own We have one instance more of their dutiful behaviour to his Majesty in a Pamphlet called The due Account and Petition which was after the Debate where they say We must needs believe that when his Majesty took our consent to a Liturgy to be a Foundation that would infer our Concord you i.e. his Majesty meant not that we should have no Concord but by consenting to this Liturgy without any considerable alterations Whereby they would cast the Odium of the Rupture on his Majesty which they themselves notoriously caused being resolved before-hand their Profession in a Liturgy and accepting his Majesties Commission only to make some reasonable Alterations and Additions notwithstanding to have a new or rather no Liturgy but to be left at liberty to use their own Liturgy or extemporary Effusions in all the most Solemn Administrations And whether their Hypocrisie or Insolency in dealing thus with his Majesty to whom they owed their lives were greater let the Reader judge The Kings Commission dated March 25th in the 13th of his Reign was directed to an equal number of Divines as well on the behalf of the Church Party as of the Dissenters among these two that had been Covenanters were made Bishops being esteemed Men of Moderation and Learning viz. Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Gauden Three others were of the Smectimnian Club viz. Edmund Calamy Matthew Newcomen and William Spurstow who wrote several scandalous Pamphlets against Episcopacy and Liturgy in Answer to the Right Reverend Bishop Hall the rest were Persons that had been educated under the Discipline of the Covenant and Directory Among these we find Mr. Richard Baxter who had made himself considerable by his Turbulent Spirit and Bitter Zeal against Episcopacy and Liturgy ever since the Year 1640 and was become the Head and Protector of divers Factions And who so fit to be the Disputer and Chief Scribe in this Grand Debate as Mr. Baxter It was he that drew up the Petitions and Addresses to the King It was he that in Eight days time drew up another Liturgy or rather a Directory and insisted to have that received as the Rule of Publick Devotion to the excluding of our Liturgy which had been used by the Church of England for more than One Hundred Years and highly approved of by all the Reformed Churches It was he that drew up the Exceptions against the Liturgy though not like a Wise Scribe for he brought nothing new out of his Treasury but only such old Scruples as had been long before confuted by the two Arch-Bishops Bancroft and Whitgift and other Divines And these with many other such Factious Pamphlets he procures to be Printed and Dispersed through the Nation And as is if all his Fellow-Commissioners were but Cyphers and he the only Person that made any Figure Mr. Baxter undertakes to be the Disputant At the first Congress of the Commissioners there happened some Discourse among the Episcopal Party how unreasonable it was to disturb the Peace of the Church for some inconveniencies in the Liturgy at the hearing whereof Mr. Baxter says He wondred at the marvellous Oscitancy of the Bishops p. 343 as mistaking the matter to be Discoursed of for Mr. Baxter had found out first Eight then Ten afterwards Thirty or Forty Tremendous Points so Unlawful and Sinful that Men fearing God could not submit to Among these the first unlawful Imposition which was by Mr. Baxter chosen to be the Subject of the first Disputation was That to injoyn all Ministers to deny Communion to all that dare not kneel in the reception of it on the Lords day is sinful I shall not transcribe the whole Disputation which the Reader may find p. 346 c. And only observe what Mr. Baxter hath spoken concerning that Ceremony For he judgeth that posture as lawful as for a Person to receive a Pardon from his Prince upon his knees And Part 3. Of Christ Direct That no reason can been given why a lawful thing should become unlawful because a lawful Superior doth command it else saith he Superiors might take away all our Christian Liberty and make all things unlawful to us by commending them And it is observable that Mr. Baxter hoped to enforce his Argument by adding to the Question of Administring the Sacrament c. On the Lords day because kneeling was forbidden to the Primitive Christians by a temporary injunction on such days in honour of our Saviours Resurrection but was not intended as a standing Rule nor practised in after Ages in any Church The Case of Kneeling c. by the London Divines Answers Mr. Baxter's and all other Objections against it It can't be expected that I should ingage to Answer all the Cavils which Mr. Baxter hath raised against Episcopacy and Liturgy which makes up well nigh one half of his Life and indeed of his Conversation yet I have seen a little Posthumous Book called Mr. Richard Baxter 's last Legacy c. out of which sufficient Arguments may be urged to confute all the Objections which he hath made in this or any other of his Books against our Episcopacy Liturgy or Conformity So unformable was Mr. Baxter to himself as well as to our Church Yet I cannot pass by those Scandalous Reflections with which he defames those Learned Bishops and other Divines with whom he treated Bishop Morly says he Was often there and with fluent words and much carnestness was the chief Speaker of all the Bishops and the greatest Interrupter of us This Bishop was a Person well known beyond the Seas by his Discourse against Militere and other Papists in defence of our Religion In his Exile he best knew Mr. Baxter and affirms as is noted p. 13. of a Letter concerning him That his furious eagerness to engage in a Disputation to which his Brethren shewed themselves unwilling did wholy frustrate the way that tended to an amicable and fair compliance and Mr. Baxter was sensible that he spake too much and too boldly and therefore might deserve to be interrupted by his Diocesan Bishop Cosins was there constantly and had a great deal of talk with so little Logick natural or artificial that none was moved by any thing he said but two Virtues he shewed one that he was excellently well versed in Canons Councils and Fathers which he remembred when we tryed him the other was that as he was of a rustick Wit and Carriage so he would endure more freedom of our discourse and was more affable than the rest but we took him not for a Magician It was no sign of a Rustick wit and carriage that he could endure freely the Language and Behaviour of Mr. Baxter with which the rest of the Commissioners were more offended And his Two excellent Treatises of the Canon of the Sacred Scripture and Transubstantiation which were Two such Bones as brake the Teeth of the Doctors of the Sorbone and stick in their Throats to this day nor will they ever
of Mr. Baxter's a token of his Gratitude to those Bishops who gave him license to preach in their Diocess or to his Subscription to the Bishop of London then Shelden to those terms of peaceableness which the Bishop accepted and Mr. Baxter voluntarily subscribed p. 12. of his late Apology If ever he did any thing toward Publick Peace he was drawn to it in vitâ Minervâ and soon retracted it but to promote Divisions he laboured manibus pedibusque with all his strength His Book called The Cure of Church Divisions is the only Work of Mr. Baxter that hath any thing of Moderation and yet as if he were sorry for what he had done at Mr. Bagshaw's Exceptions against he he says Doth it not speak against Church Tyranny unjust Impositions Violence and taking away Men's Liberties and Rigour to Dissenters from end to end p. 7. of his Defence It seems it was expected of Mr. Baxter that he should have called the Bishops Sacrilegious Silencers of the faithful Ministry Murderers of many hundred thousand Souls perjurious proud tyrannical covetous formal Hypocrites malignant haters of good Men and then he had not incurred the blame of the People p. 20. And to regain their good opinion of him he hath since said all this again and again Another part of Mr. Baxter's Character appears in what was done about the Indulgence which by a Book called The peaceable Design agreeing well with Mr. Baxter's Plea for Peace seems to have been procur'd by the joynt Endeavours of the Papists and those that call themselves Protestant Dissenters in which Book p. 71. is this Objection What shall we say then to the Papists Answ The Papist in our account is but one sort of Recusants and the conscientious and peaceable among them must be held in the same predicament with those among our selves that likewise refuse to come to Common Prayer And p. 72. As for the common Papist who lives innocently in his way he is to us as other Separatists and so comes under the like toleration So that Herod and Pontius Pilate are confederate against Christ But Mr. Baxter must lead the Chorus here also for he much exceeds the Author of that Treatise in his good opinion of the Papists yet he says Mr. Humphry is a man of latitude and tyeth himself to no Party or Opinions of other men And I saith Mr. Baxter so little fear the noise of the Censorious that even now while the Plot doth render them most odious say freely 1. That I would have Papists used like men And 2. I would have no man put to death for being a Priest 3. I would have no Writ de Excommunicato capiendo or any Law compel them to our Communion and Sacraments And is not this to open the door for Papists and Fanaticks to enter together If the Laws how severe soever cannot keep them out would not this Liberty bring them in See p. 19. of Second Defence If you will not bring the Papists in he is resolved for ought I see to go to them for p. 235. of First Plea he says It is but reasonable if on such necessity i.e. the Penalties for Nonconformity they should accept of favour from any Papist that should save them c. By which the Reader may judge who is a greater Friend to Popery the old Protestants who have made Laws to keep it out or the Dissenters who would destroy those Laws to let it in To put life into the languishing Cause he inspires it with a Dose called Sacrilegious Desertion of the Ministry rebuked and declares That as they had preached formerly without leave so they would do it much more now and says That though it had cost some excellent men their lives yet nothing but death or utter disablement should make them desist So that his Pleas and his Practice before and since the Indulgence shew that he owned the King no great thanks for it Yet being advised by a moderate hand not to abuse that Indulgence he rails at him most intolerably you shall hear it by and by I will only ask Mr. Baxter why the neglect to administer the Holy Sacraments was not as much Sacrilegious Desertion of the Ministry whereof it is a chief Work as the omission of preaching For Mr. Baxter confesseth That he had not baptized any nor administred the Lord's Supper for eighteen or nineteen years together nor adhered to any Sect no not the Sect of Diocesan Bishops for twenty five years See p. 119. of Answ to Dr. Hinkley Which to me seems to be not only a Desertion of the Ministry but of Christianity it self Certainly if he ought to do the one he ought not to leave the other undone That he and others are Pastors to no Church that he never gathered a Church nor hath he constantly joyned in Communion with any Church Answ to the Bp. of Worcester's Serm. p. 64. 24. 62. 86. Yet p. 76. of his Book of Concord he says I constantly joyn with my Parish Church in Liturgy and Sacraments and hope so to do while I live But if he thought it his duty to preach it was his duty to administer the Sacraments also for preaching was never esteemed the sole Work of the Ministers And they that omit this Duty to refuse to hear the Vniversal Church of Christ as well as the Church of England For by Canon Apost the 9th Whoever of the Faithful enter and hear the Sacred Scriptures but stay not at Prayers and Communion ought to be excommunicated as Disturbers of the Church All Churches in the Primitive times did on every Sunday celebrate this Holy Sacrament and all the faithful were wont to receive it It is also very observable that when our Church was to be setled that some of the Presbyterians moved to have the Rubrick struck out which obligeth the People to Communicate three times yearly whereas some modern Churches have found it necessary to declare as the Council of Agatho did which Mr. Baxter accounts one of the best Councils That those who receive not the Sacrament ought not to be reputed as Christians And St. Cyprian saith This bread we crave every day lest we who are in Christ by the interposing of any grievous Crime while restrained and not communicating should be separate from the Body of Christ. And now prepare your ears against that nauseous Billinsgate Language and barbarous Censures wherewith Mr. B. answers his learned Adversary * Dr. Fulwood in his Sacrilegious Desertion for want of Arguments p. 6. Railing Ruffian p. 13. Selfish envious Conformists the doleful pride and selfishness of the carnal part of the Clergy a Silencing Diocesan p. 25. Church-tearers p. 105. Such Toys p. 31. A few confident and silly Reasonings of Dr. Fulwood and other Pamphleteers Vsurpers p. 39. Hear it now for you shall shortly hear it from God p. 8. I would give all the Money in my Purse to make me understand what the Church of England is p. 35. Foolish superstitious
others as corrupters of History when it appears he had no other design in this Collection but to serve his Hypothesis and implacable malice against the Bishops and inrage the People to set the Nation in a Flame It is but a small matter for Mr. Baxter to support himself in Church History He can bid open defiance to the Laws of the Land which he calls tearing Engines and Enemies to God's publick Worship and ought to be disobeyed because it is written Whether it be better to obey God or Man judge ye He begins with a modest complaint p. 101. of first Plea It is not the sence of the Liturgy in that they seem satisfied but a Statute of Parliament which we doubt of it seems insufficient if not impertinent to tell us what is taken for the sence of the Church for the doubt is what is the sence of the Parliament which we cannot otherwise know but by their plain words till they will otherwise declare their meaning i.e. They must declare a meaning contrary to their plain words But Mr. Baxter speaks plain enough Plea the first That the Laws required of them such Subscriptions Covenants Declarations and Practices as they durst not do because they feared God A strange Parliament to make so many Laws as a Man that feareth God cannot obey If Mr. Baxter had any Fear or Reverence of Men he would not thus Reproach the Governours and Defame their Laws and all the while cry out of Persecution But what are those impious Laws This you find in another Book called A search for the English Schismatick where he states the Case between the Diocesan Canoneers and the present meer Nonconformists and though he determine not as he says which of them is the Schismatick yet he makes the Book to be a pair of Spectacles for the Purblind to discern it p. 43. This is just as he dealt by his first Plea where he tells us he will not urge the Case but mention Matters of Fact only Yet in his Book of Concord he says To answer the earnest demand of our Reasons against Conformity by you the Lord Bishop of Ely I have published an Historical Narration c. How did this answer the Bishop's earnest demand of Reasons if it did not contain them when Mr. Baxter says that was the end of publishing that Book Any one that useth Mr. Baxter's Spectacles may see they were his Reasons though he might well be ashamed to call them so But as for those Spectacles that will so plainly discover the English Schismaticks a very skilful Artist hath turned into a Looking-glass which if Mr. Baxter be not afraid to make use of he may thereby see him whom he pretends to search for it is called A Discourse about Church Vnity in defence of the Bishop of Worcester The Laws opposed are such as were made on mature deliberation to secure our Peace The Act for Uniformity and Renouncing the Covenant The Declaration that it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever c. The Book last mentioned shews his Malice to the Parliament in making false and odious Representations of them to the People p. 457. It is scarce worth the notice that he says the Parliament was drawn in by the Convocation to make those Acts P. 13. of his Search this is but Scandalum Magnatum He comes near to Blasphemy p. 107. of his third Defence where he pleads for excusing the ignorant People who when Divisions fall out between King and Parliament do doubt which it is that should be obeyed He adds Christ was drawn by Hypocrites to pay Tribute to Caesar rather than offend as if our Saviour did what he never intended or really approved to comply with Hypocrites And who can wonder if he that speaks thus of the Master should not stick to revile his Disciples making the Conformists so many deliberately perjured Persons and which is in his own Language Mendacium magnum That about Six thousand Persons that had gone the other way did declare their assent and consent to a Book which they never saw p. 69. of his second Defence Mr. Baxter complains Preface to Diocesan Bishops That at such time as he was turned out of all he was never in so good a condition as to keep a Man-servant except when he travelled nor a Maid-servant except an old Woman to provide him Necessaries and lived in some upper Rooms of another Man's House and yet he says he built a Tabernacle in St. Martins to preach in himself p. 55. of his second and lost One thousand pounds in the Exchequer He hoped it seems to gain a reputation among the Factious of being their great Centurion who loved their Nation and built them a Synagogue But it is very observable that if at such time as Mr. Baxter was turned out of all he was in so low a Condition that he got well by his Non-conformity being able to part with a considerable Sum to build Tabernacles One Intreague I find darkly delivered p. 250. of his first Plea Even Bishops saith Mr. Baxter need to be remembred that while the Wheel is turning the upper side should not tempt Men to forget what side will be uppermost shortly and for ever The words are ambiguous like the old Oracles and may be interpreted pro captu Lectoris but whether he means the Revolutions of Providence as by the turning of the Wheel seems most proper or the Divine Judgment at last it savours of equal Pride Malice and Uncharitableness In Mr. Corbet's Funeral Sermon p. 33. preacht by Mr. Baxter he speaks more plain It seems saith he there is some great evil to come when God takes away the best yea if it should be a fore-runner of a better state yet all save two of the old stock that dishonoured God perished And it was by bloody Wars that Joshua and the new GENERATION were to possess the Land of Promise But the Oracle is expounded by other Cabalistical Rabbies who tell us boldly the time of the Episcopal Persecution is but short And on that confidence invite those whom Mr. Baxter calls the passive Conformists to come over to them promising them a kinder entertainment than they have had from their Brethren of the Conformity Spes est fore ut Fanatici quos vocant utamur illis aequioribus saith the Celeusma p. 34. There is now good hope that we whom they call Fanaticks may shew them more favour Now whether these Men be not engaged in some Plot for the extirpation of the Ecclesiastical Government by Law established to which end they so importunately plead for the Obligation of the Covenant let the Reader judge Time may discover what an ingenious Man hints in his Defence of the Bishop of Worcester p. 68. I will tell Mr. Baxter a Secret which I have heard but hope he will not put me to prove it That the Parliament made good Laws the Papists out of a pretended reverence to tender Consciences hindred the Execution of
them and some leading Fanaticks had private Encouragement to say no more to set up a mighty cry of Persecution to cast all the odium on a persecuting Church and Diocesan Canoneers Dr. Owen noses this hint Some have reported says he that some of the Non-conformists at least do receive or have received Money from the Papists to act their Affairs and promote their interest which he very angrily calls a putrid Calumny a malicious Falshood a frontless Lye and for himself he avows that never any Person in Authority Dignity or Power in the Nation or any that had any relation to Publick Affairs nor from them Papist or Protestant did once speak one word to him or advise with him about any Indulgence or Toleration to be granted to the Papists He says not that he never received any Money to promote a general Toleration which he thinking himself particularly reflected on might have done in few words And my Author desires Dr. O. to resolve him Why a Fast was appointed by a certain Independent Pastor at that time on the fifth of November which as he notes is no Popish Festival 'T is a miserable shift which the Doctor useth speaking at large of the plain open uncontroulable Evidence which the Non-conformists always gave and continue to give of their faithful cordial adherence to the Protestant Religion and Interest in the Nation whereas ever since Forty one they have notoriously scandalized and as much as in them lay ruined the Protestant Religion and National Interest His dealing with Mr. Cheney is most unchristian for in the Preface of his third Defence he judgeth him a godly serious Man yet saith he his Book is so dismal a piece in its extraordinary privation of common Reason Truth Charity Tenderness and Modesty that I am constrained to think that honest Man is diseasedly Melancholy and reports that his Book is 〈◊〉 away as a fardle of dotage and shameless lyes p. 2. of Second Part. Yet if a sober Reader be admitted to judge this melancholy Man hath so provoked Mr. Baxter's choler that he seems quite to have lost his Reason and betakes himself to Railing One Argument Mr. Cheney may well boast of which Mr. Baxter calls his Catholicon concerning a confident Tenet of Mr. Baxter That the Acts for Vniformity and Prefaces are parts of the Book of Common Prayer to which we are to declare our Assent c. Now it is said in a Preface concerning the Service of the Church That forasmuch as nothing can be so plainly set forth but doubts may arise in the use and practice of the same to appease all such diversity if any arise and for the resolution of all doubts concerning the manner how to understand do and execute the things contained in this Book the parties that so doubt or diversly take any thing as do now the Conformists and Non-conformists for Mr. Baxter says they could do and declare as the Conformists do if they could get the sence of the Acts c. to be expounded so as the Conformists understand them N.B. shall always resort to the Bishop of the Diocess who by his discretion shall take order for the quieting and appeasing of the same so that the same Order be not contrary to any thing contained in this Book And if the Bishop of the Diocess be in doubt then he may send for the Resolution of the Archbishop Mr. Baxter answers That the words make not the Bishops Expositors of the Law or Book as Judge but as a Teacher only Mr. Cheney replies Any intelligent Man may help the ignorant to understand the things in the Book but the Bishops are made decisive Judges to order in what manner to understand do and execute all doubtful things in the Book p. 212. And p. 213. he tells Mr. Baxter The late Covenanters had not such Security for their Consciences in taking that Oath in a sense varying from the precise Letter as the Conformists have for their Subscriptions c. And thus the melancholy Man beat the Conjurer out of his Circle and in his third Defence he takes no notice of it As for Mr. Hooker how contemptibly doth he speak of him p. 74. saying That a long tedious Discourse in him hath as much substance as one might put into a Syllogism of six Lines And in his Preface to the Answer of the Bishop of Worcester I am says Mr. Baxter past doubt that Richard Hooker Bp. Hall Bp. Usher were they now alive would be Non-conformists In the year 1681. comes forth Mr. Baxter's Apology for the Non-conformist Ministers in justification of their preaching against Law This he directs to the Right Reverend Bishops of London Lincoln Hereford Carlisle St. Davids and Peterborough and others of their moderation in some hope though evil Men and Deceivers wax worse and worse What his hope is he tells them If the ancient Christians might present their Apology in hope to Heathen Emperours may I not so much more to Christian Bishops You are more sensible than we with what deep sense Men will shortly hear Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my Brethren you did it unto me See his Charity to those whom he calls our best Bishops But in p. 233. he thus concludes And now we humbly lay these Petitions at your feet and beseech you for the souls of many hundred thousands that you who call your selves their Pastors and the Fathers of the Church will not deny them the bread of Life We beseech you to come out of your Palaces a while and be familiar with the People and confer with all the Poor of the Parish and dwell in some Country Village as we have done who choose the greatest Cities and Towns that you may not see many hundred thousands damned by your means and you have nothing to say when it is to late but a non putaram That the Instances of the Obduration of Pharaoh and the Pharisees make you not afraid lest wrath come upon you to the utmost while you please not God and are contrary to all Men forbidding Christ's Labourers to preach to the Ignorant and Impenitent that they may be saved 1 Thess 2.15 And O that God would make them sensible how many thousand Persons damnation is like to be charged upon them for what they have already done for seventeen years hindring so many faithful Ministers I must profess if it were the last word that I should speak in the world that I had rather be the basest Scavenger yea and suffer many deaths than be found at the Judgment Seat of Christ in the place and guilt of those of you who have done what is done against the Gospel and Church of Christ in this Land Doth not the Reader blush for Mr. Baxter to read such arrogant Censures from a dying Man concerning his betters and all this too causelesly as I shall prove out of his own words He asks the Question p. 236. Why I write all this to you
and Kites that live on flesh and devour those that are better than themselves p. 201. Yet contrary to all this clamour he says p. 104. No Bishops have silenced as by spiritual Government i.e. as Bishops but only as Barons by the Secular Laws to which they gave their Votes which yet all did not Yea Mr. Baxter acknowledgeth their favour to himself in particular For my part saith he ibidem I have one or two of their Licenses never recalled nor nulled Are these Men such horrible Persecutors who did no more than the whole Nation in Parliament have done for Peace sake yet all their Silencing and Sufferings are charged most invidiously on the Bishops as if it were done by their sole Authority for one reason why they cannot give over Preaching is p. 241. n. 11. It will be an encouraging compliance with Church-tyranny to give over preaching as oft as Bishops forbid us because we will not take their Oaths and be stigmatiz'd with their PER. The Bishops as Bishops require no more now than what was required when Mr. Baxter and others subscribed at their Ordination and they are most likely to bear the PER who act contrary not they who act conformably to their Subscription The great cry of Perjury is raised in favour of the Covenant Yet Mr. Baxter p. 112. of his Apology says I never heard abjuring the Covenant was required of the Ministers they are only to subscribe That there is no obligation on them or any other Person to endeavour any change or alteration of Government in the Church And can this be thought a sufficient reason for Mr. Baxter a Man of 74 years old to cry out as a Child that hath fancied a Bugbear till he puts himself into dangerous fits and afrights all the Neighbourhood So bold and bloody are his accusations against the Bishops and Clergy especially for Persecution and Perjury that if a Stranger should read them he might think them meer Cannibals that lived on Humane flesh or incarnate fiends that delighted in Sacrifices of Blood though Mr. Baxter all the while knows them to be very innocent and tame persons For though he represent them as Lions greedy of prey yet dares he pluck them by the Beards and disgorge his filth in their mouths and after all imaginable provocations trusts himself between their Teeth and Claws as he is pleased to phrase it So great a Master of Discipline is Mr. Baxter But though he deal thus with the Bishops yet he should not make so bold with the King and Parliament and their Tearing Engines of the Laws as to write whole Volumes in defiance of them When the two Cromwels were on the Throne he taught a Doctrine quite contrary to his Apology for their practice then under King Charles Then he taught us That God never instituted Churches to be kept up in disobedience to those Christian Magistrates which he commands us to obey upon pain of Damnation p. 352. of his H. Commonwealth And Thesis 319. That Disobedience to our Rulers is in Ministers double treason and wickedness And 240 Thesis That it is necessary to the Churches peace that no private Congregations may be gathered or Antichurches erected without approbation or toleration from the Magistrates And that if private Assemblies be permitted unlimitedly then 1. It will be impossible to restrain Heresie Infidelity or Impiety Yea 2. They may meet to plot against the Magistrate And no Assemblies whatsoever he means besides those of the Parish-Church are to be allowed by the Magistrate And Thes 263. If Magistrates forbid Ministers to preach or exercise the rest of their Office in their Dominions they are to be obeyed as he instances in David and Solomon taking down and setting up Priests and ordering Officers in the House of God Were the two Cromwels such as David and Solomon to be intrusted with the House of God and is King Charles like Jeroboam whose interest it was to suppress the true Worship of God and permit Calves to be set up at Dan and Bethel I would fain see Mr. Baxter's Reasons for the Vniformity of the Churches then more than now and wherein Oliver and Richard did more Piously Faithfully and Prudently exercise the Government than King Charles I know it will grate on Mr. Baxter's spirit to have his Theses so often urged seeing he hath desired the whole Book might be taken as non Scriptus and that he retracts some things though he adds not all nor tells us any particulars But Quid verba audiam quum fact a videam To what purpose serves a Protestation against plain matter of Fact and daily practice whereby Mr. Baxter still vindicates many ill things delivered in that Book which he doth expresly also in the close of his Preface to the Second Plea where he affirms That in all the times of Vsurpation he said and wrote that the Kings Person is inviolable and to be judged by none either Peer or Parliament and that neither the King may destroy nor hurt the Kingdom nor the Kingdom the King And then adds That the very Book accused viz. The H. Commonwealth goeth on such principles and hath not a word meet to tempt a man in his wits to this accusation The contrary to which hath been often rehearsed to Mr. Baxter's great regret And his Brother Dr. Owen rightly tells him That they who will take liberty to speak what they please must be content to hear sometime what will displease And I would desire him to reconcile the former Theses of the Obedience of Ministers under Cromwel to his late Doctrine of resolved Disobedience to our present Governours For p. 226. of his First Plea he teacheth That Pastors preached against the will of Princes for Three hundred years And p. 26. That God wrought Miracles to justifie such Preachers when forbidden by Christian Princes who spake freely after their Tongues were cut out That there is a wo unto them if they preach not and many woes to them that shall forbid them which is the subject of his Apology Can Mr. Baxter wonder that no Man Answers these Books of his when the smoak and flame and stink of them is so horribly mischievous and inaccessible as if it came forth from the Bottomless-pit And this is the work of his Fellow-labourers of whom he says p. 163. There is not this day on Earth a more conscionable godly faithful Party of the Ministers of the Gospel than those that are now ejected silenced Nonconformists in England And his Testimony he speaks it of himself shall be believed when the Defamers and Calumniators shall not These Books and some other of which hereafter he covers over with much combustible matter prepared many years past against such false and bloody Plotters i.e. the Bishops as would perswade the King and People that the Nonconformists are Presbyterians and Fanaticks That it was such Presbyterians that killed his Father and that their principles are rebellious and that they are plotting a Rebellion
and his death and lastly that this is the Genius of the Parliament I hope whatever Mr. Baxter may do no other Mans Conscience doth accuse him of such horrid crimes All this we have in the Title-page of his Second Plea for Peace But as the Learned Doctor observed of the First Plea it looks as if he had designed these Books on purpose to represent the Clergy of our Church as a company of notorious lying and perjured Villains These and divers other Fire-brands he fixeth in the top of the Fabrick as if that could not be purged but with Fire pretending it was guilty of many heinous Sins in the Constitution of it And when that Reverend Doctor endeavored to quench those Juniper-coals which had well-nigh set all in a flame he flies in his face charging him with pleading for Presumption Profanation Vsurpation Vncharitableness and Schism p. 73. of his Answer to the Dr's Sermon Again when the Dr. said that preaching in opposition to the Laws established is contrary to the Doctrine of all the Nonconformists of former times Mr. Baxter replies p. 21. This Assertion is so rash and false in matters of notorious fact that it weakeneth his reverence of the Doctors judgment in matters of Right p. 8. So that the Doctor might well say that he wrote that Book in a continued fit of Anger And how could it be otherwise seeing that as Bishop Burnet relates of the Earl of Rochester when God gave him a sight of his sins that he confessed he had been drunk five years together So Mr. Baxter had been distempered with an habit of wrath and rage against the Government of the Church ever since he was Nineteen years old how could he chuse but write with the spirit of Gall and bitternest against such an Adversary as would dissect him alive and discover all the Distempers of that dying Man And what could Mr. Baxter do less than call the Doctor 's Sermon a Schismatical Sermon that would so divide Mr. Baxter that makes Union impossible in any Church but what he himself shall give being and union to And yet this Man of Wrath is angry with himself that he was not more angry with the Doctor For p. 12. of Second Defence I profess says he I felt so little passion in writing that Book that I think verily I sinned all the while for want of a livelier sense of the sin and hurt which I was detecting by my Confutation And in his Title-page dividing the Doctor 's Book into Accusations Reasonings and History he pronounceth them all untrue i.e. in plain English You lie Sir in all that you have written Perhaps Mr. Baxter may not account this Passion but Zeal And his admirers say he is a Stranger to Spite and Anger but he hath a very quick and earnest temper of mind and his stile is very keen and pungent Yea and they think it lawful for him too to make the Scripture serve his passion and rail in holy Language for doubtless his Disciples think that in the Title-page 1 Tim. 6.5,6 well applied to the Doctor Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness from such withdraw thy self which in plain English is that the Doctor is one of those Men and you are bound to have no communion with him For Mr. Baxter though under another name represents the Doctor to be a most unskilful proud partial obstinate cruel impertinent Adversary Yet Mr. Silvester in his Preface speaking of the Author i.e. Mr. Baxter says I have heard him great and copious in commendation of several Prelates and Conformists and that he particularly mentioned the Reverend Bishops of Worcester and Eli i.e. Bishop Stillingfleet and Bishop Patrick as Persons greatly admired and highly valued by him and of their readiness to serve the Publick interest both Civil and Religious he doubted not it was therefore his bitter Zeal that transported him to write such scandalous invectives contrary to his Knowledge and Conscience But as Mr. H. says in defence of Mr. Baxter Some Men have humours and ways of their own And this it seems is the proper humour of that Party They think with Jonah they do well to be angry that God hath spared us so long and because he suffered their Gourd to spring up and cover their heads for a time whereof they were exceeding glad now that he hath suffered a Worm to strike it and make it wither and the Wind and the Sun beats on their heads they are desperately angry for their Gourd and justifie their anger even against God they do well to be angry even unto death Jonah 4.9 His Treatise of Episcopacy he says in the Title-page was meditated 1640. when the c. Oath was imposed written 1671. and published 1680. by the call of Mr. H.D. and the importunity of our Superiours who demanded the reason of our Nonconformity The design was the concord of all the Protestants who can never unite in the present impositions and for necessary reformation of Parish-Churches and those abuses which else will keep up in all Ages a succession of Nonconformists and to give an account why we dare not covenant by Oath or Subscription to endeavour the amending alteration of the Church-government c. i.e. in plain English against an Act of Parliament P. 140. of his Second Part we have this pathetical Exclamation Alas Lord How long shall Christs enemies the Bishops be Pastors of his Flocks and the seed of the Serpent be the great Instrument that must break the Serpents head and the lovers of sin be they that must be the suppressers of it and those employed to teach in Knowledge who themselves will not know and to preach up Holiness that will not endure it And p. 124. The truth is that is an excellent person to us who is an odious and contemptible person to the Prelates If he will make the People believe that Presbyterians are Rebels and Disciplinarians are seditious brain-sick fellows living in Hypocrisie And that praying without Book and much preaching is Fanaticism and that none are worthy to Preach the Gospel who will not swear to be true to the Prelatical interest That Drunkenness in a conformable Man is a tolerable infirmity and that their ignorantest Nonsence is fitter to save Souls and edifie the Church than the Labours of the Holy and Learned Non-conformists That Calvin was a Rogue as Salmasius said of the Learned Dr. Hammond That Cartwright and Amesius were discontented factious Schismaticks unworthy to preach or be endured this is a Son of the Church and an excellent Person P. 213. of the second Part Confect 3. He says That to Swear Subscribe c. That though Millions should swear to endeavour a Reformation of Episcopacy in their Places and Callings by lawful means which is his addition there is no obligation lieth on any one of them so to endeavour it the Lord have mercy on that Land City or Soul that is guilty of
it And Consect 4. All carnal Interest and all carnal Reason is on the Diocesans side and all the lusts of the heart of Man and consequently all that the Devil can do and therefore while carnal Christians make a Religion of their Lusts and Interests and Pride and Covetousness and Idleness are more predominant than the fear of God and the love of Souls no wonder if the Diocesans Cause prevail with such Consect 7. Take but from such Prelates the Plumes it hath stollen from Magistrates and Presbyters and it will be a naked thing and simple name He says in the Preface The Sufferers will call the Prelates Persecutors Wolves in Sheeps clothing who are known by their fruits their teeth and claws P. 163. part 1. It is the Prelacy that maketh almost all the Sects that be in England this day whereas those little Foxes were not heard of until the Wild-boars had broken down the Fences of Episcopacy and when they see what Ministers and how many hundred of them are silenced and what Fellows are set up in their stead they think they can never â—…y far enough from such Prelates and we that dwell among them do take them that dislike their course and ways to be generally the most religious and sober People in the Land but I think Mr. Baxter spake in jest when he adds excepting always the King and Parliament And p. 167 168. That before the Prelates had again ruled seven years there were seven and seven against them for one that was so before Which is a notorious falshood there being a general Conformity until a Toleration was granted And p. 161. he proclaims thus I am one of the eighteen hundred that have been silenced by better Authority than the Prelates alone yet I think I am bound in Conscience to exercise the Ministry which I received whatever I suffer and if the Sword straitned me no more than my Conscience of the Bishops prohibition I should be very little hindred for that saith he is vanished into Air p. 163. And so it seems is the power of the Sword too with him for that he means by better Authority the Laws established by King and Parliament And yet this Man had taught other Doctrine for p. 30. of his first Plea Princes and Rulers may forbid all that preach Rebellion and Sedition and punish them if they do it and may hinder the incorrigible whose preaching will do more hurt than good from exercising the Ministry in their Dominions P. 32. They should see that their Kingdoms be well provided of publick Preachers and Catechists and may be due means compel the ignorant to hear and learn what Christianity is Sect. 36. They may when a Peoples ignorance faction or wilfulness make them refuse all that are truly fit for them urge them to accept the best and may possess such of the publick Temples and Maintenance and make it the Peoples duty to consent as is aforesaid No great need then of the Peoples consent which Mr. Baxter so much contends for Sect. 37. They ought to hinder Preachers from uncharitable and unrighteous railing at each other and unpeaceable controversies and contentions And p. 35. sect 40. They may make their own Officers circa Sacra to execute their Magistratical Power and if they authorize any particular Bishops or Pastors to exercise any such power as belongs to the Prince to give not contrary to Christ's Laws c. we judge that the Subjects should obey all such even for Conscience sake P. 117. We deny not saith he but if the generality of the Ministry obtain their liberty by some small tolerable sin or errour and the sounder part be few and unnecessary in that Country prudence obligeth them to go to some other place that needeth them and never to exercise their Ministry where in true Reason it is like to do more hurt than good And of this he maketh the Magistrate Judge p. 265. of his Way of Concord Yet p. 244. of his Plea he says That though the execution of the Laws have cost some excellent Men their lives already we may know that no execution short of death or utter disablement will make the most conscionable forsake their duty And p. 249. Why we should not speak openly rather than in secret and what but a Spirit of Envy or Carnal Interest cross to the interest of Christ should grudge at such preaching we cannot tell Nor can any one reconcile these Contradictions One thing I shall observe from his Church-Historian mentioned in the Preface That when Philip Nerius set up his Oratorian Exercises at Rome it was found necessary to win the people to use large affectionate extemporate Prayers Expositions and Sermons Yet when the Bishop of Worcester says This practice was brought into England by the Jesuits to bring the Liturgy into Contempt in the Preface to his History of Separation Mr. Baxter replies p. 12. That this is a sad saying and that there is no probability that the Jesuits should be the first setters up of this way in England though the Bishop gave two instances of it in Matter of Fact And says in the Preface to his second Defence That the Bishops's Book is made up of three parts 1. Of untrue Accusations 2. Vntrue historical Citations abundance 3. Fallacious Reasonings As if there were not one true word in the whole Book though even this imitating of Philip Nerius in extemporary Exercises and separate Meetings is by Mr. Baxter himself parallel'd with ours as the Original and Copy p. 22. of Preface to Mr. Baxter's Now or Never The Meetings of the Oratorians and their Exercises are so like those now abhorred by many c. Then comes forth his first and second Plea for Peace Of the first the Bishop of Worcester says It seems to be designed on purpose to represent the Clergy of our Church as a company of notorious lying perjured Villains for conforming to the Laws of the Land and Orders established with no less than thirty Aggravations of the Sin of Conformity And Mr. Baxter in his Answer seems to justifie it And with a great deal of vain-glory in the latter end of that Book printeth a complemental Letter sent him from Mr. Glanvil in 1661. to shew how he loves the Applause of Men of which he says he had been surfeited with Humane Applause p. 133. which rather than he would want he blows a Trumpet himself in another Book called the Only way to Concord saying in the Preface to Bishop Morley and Bishop Gunning I am fully perswaded that in this Book I have told you a righter way of Christian Concord more divine sure harmless and comprehensive fitted by Christ himself to the interest of all good Men yea of the Church and all the World He speaks as if he had gotten an infallible Spirit and had not only the Presbyter but the Pope in his belly Whereas that way of Concord will rather prove a means of perpetuating Discord and Divisions in the
Rabble are stirred up to Petition against them Mr. Baxter himself having in Anno 1640. conceived a dislike of them began to write his History of Bishops to represent them as the Lords of Misrule twelve Bishops are sent to the Tower the Archbishop beheaded the rest-sequestred the Nation drawn into a Covenant against them their Revenues imployed to maintain a War against the King and to gratifie such Presbyters as had defamed and opposed them Under those grew up the several Factions of Independents Anabaptists Quakers and a Fanatical Army that set the whole Nation into a Flame that continued to devour for 20 years together Now suppose the Supream Power i.e. the Parliament as Mr. Baxter says had advanced some of the most active Presbyters as Superintendents or Bishops and Archbishops for Mr. Baxter approves of this last Order as Overseers of Bishops would it become a true Historian to impute all the Disorders and Confusions that were acted by and under the several Factions and thus made Bishops to that Order which were deposed prescribed and driven into Corners or exposed to innumerable Affronts and Sufferings during all that time and yet this is the manner of Mr. Baxter's dealing with those more ancient Bishops which he mentioneth as a true Historian throughout his History of Bishops Mr. Baxter Did you know or not that Novatus was an ill chosen Bishop of Rome and Novatian a promoter of his Prelacy Answ I doubt not but Mr. Baxter knew that Novatus was meerly a Presbyter and that in his time Cornelius was Bishop of Rome with whom Novatus had a quarrel for admitting such to his Communion as in the days of Persecution under Decius had denied the Faith Novatus affirming That they could not repent after their Fall and hereupon he calls his Faction the Cathari This pure Presbyter being at Rome se sends for three Rustick Bishops as my Author calls them to come to him from Italy to Rome where he caresseth them with plenty of good Victuals and Wine and when they had well drank some of Novatus his Party prevail with those Bishops to lay their hands on Novatus and make him a Bishop but whether a Bishop of Rome as Mr. Baxter says I have not read but that Novatus and Novatian who espoused his Opinion and promoted his Faction to the great disturbance of Cornelius the lawful Bishop is notorious in Ecclesiastical History Mr. Baxter As for Donatus there were two of them one of them a Bishop and the Donatist Schism was meerly and basely Prelatical Answ Here I question your Fidelity and have proved at large in my History of the Donatists that the Schism was wholly Presbyterial for the Bishoprick of Carthage being void Botrus and Celesius two Presbyters sought to supplant Cecilian a Person of known Integrity who was chosen Bishop of that Church But Lucilla a Woman descended from a Noble Family of Spain abets their quarrel and by great Gifts prevail with Botrus and Celesius who had been defeated to appear for Majorinus who was Domestick Chaplain to Lucilla and had been Deacon to Cecilian these gather a great number of persons whom they had drawn from the Communion of Cecilian to meet at Cirta where they pronounce Cecilian deposed as a Traditor and set up Majorinus to be Bp. of Carthage who dying shortly after Donatus is by his Party chosen to succeed him whom Cecilian accused for re-baptizing those that came to his Party from the Catholick Church and for degrading Bishops and Priests And this was the rise of the Sect of the Donatists under whom the Arian Heresie spread it self and the Crew of Circumcellians arose as may be seen at large in the History of the Donatists This is a second Instance of the Schism begun by Presbyters and of Mr. Baxter's fidelity in relating Church History and imputing the Troubles caused and continued by Presbyters to the Bishops The third instance is Arius a Presbyter of Alexandria in Egypt who was bred up under Melitus another Presbyter from whom Arius was taught That Christ was not the Eternal Son of God but meer Man from both his Parents This Meletius held it lawful in times of Persecution to deny Christ as he had done and pleaded That he had not denied God but Man For these Tenets Peter Bp. of Alexandria Excommunicated them both but Peter dying Achillus succeeded him under whom Arius reading Lectures in Alexandria began to publish his Heresie and infected great numbers insomuch that Achillus dying he became Competitor for that Bishoprick with Alexander who being a Person of known Abilities and Integrity was chosen by a general Suffrage of that Church by this good Bishop Arius was Excommunicated for opposing the Divinity of Christ and teaching that he was not from Eternity nor did partake of the Substance of the Father being created in time and was indeed more excellent than other Creatures but not equal with the Father He challenged to dispute these his heretical Opinions with Alexander and a time and place was appointed but as Arius was come to the place an extream pain in his Bowels seiz'd on him and going aside to ease himself his very Bowels fell from him But his Name and Heresie survived in another Arius or as History stiles him Arianus homo potius quam Arius who opposed Athanasius in the Council of Nice but upon a full discussion of the Arian Doctrines by that Council his Heresie was condemned the Books written for it were burnt and an Edict set forth by Constantine threatning Death to such as should conceal any of their Books Now how long this Heresie prevailed how many Catholick Bishops were banisht and murthered for opposing it how it spread like a Gangreen through all the Members of the Church as you have set forth in your History of Bishops is mostly true but your imputing those Confusions to the Catholick Bishops who were the Sufferers in all that time being the defensive Party I am bold to say is false for under the Arian Schism and by such as took part with them as the Donatists Nestorians Eutychians Macedonians Acephalites Monothelites who often made havock of one another and all united to distress the true Bishops all those Mischiefs which you mention in this Letter and more largely in your Hist of Bishops were put in Execution for 140 years together i.e. from the days of Constantine to the days of Constantius nec dum finitus Orestes Mr. Baxter Were it not for entering on an unpleasing and unprofitable task I would ask you Who that Juncto of Presbyters was that dethroned the King Answ They were such as the Westminster Assembly that dispersed their Members into the Country to animate the People to ingage in the War against the King and with Mr. Baxter assisted in carrying on the War from the beginning to the end and drew many thousands to ingage in that War Those that incouraged the Rabble of London to go to Westminster and demand Justice of him in such
Tumults as forced him to leave his Palace for fear of losing his Life Those that seiz'd his Towns Forts Magazines and Ships to maintain the War against him Those that animated Armies with whom he was often present in Person till they forced him to fly to the Scots Those that sold and bought him as a Prisoner of War and voted no more Addresses to him but left him to such as at last barbarously murdered him Mr. Baxter Was it they that petitioned and protested against it Answ The King was dethron'd long before any Presbyterians petitioned or protested against putting him to death then indeed when it was too late the Ministers of London plead for him in these words That the woful Miscarriages of the King himself which we cannot but acknowledge to be very many and great in his Government have cost the three Kingdoms so dear and cast him down from his Excellency into a horrid pit of Misery beyond Example this is as one Paraphraseth it We affirm and testifie that besides those of his evil Counsellors the King 's Personal Crimes and fundamental Errors in Government too many and great to be mentioned have cost England Scotland and Ireland so dear that all the bloodshed devastations and rapine might be charged on him and for these he is justly cast down from his Throne into so horrid a Pit of Misery as to fall under a Sentence of Condemnation This is such a Petition and Plea for the King as those that are made for Peace which are Arguments for Separation and Discord Mr. Love a great Presbyterian in his Vxbridge Sermon laid a Foundation of this in that Maxim Melius pereat unus quam unitas But Mr. Baxter exceeds all in representing him as the Head of the Grotian Religion which he says were arrant Papists This is such a Slander as his barbarous Judges were ashamed to charge him with Mr. Baxter Was it not an Episcopal Parliament forty or one hundred to one that began the War against the King Answ They were indeed Episcopal Men and Conformists for the most part at their first meeting but there was a Juncto among them that soon prevailed to silence and banish the Loyal Members and then openly declared War against the King and ruin to the Bishops Mr. Baxter was one of those Episcopal conforming Men but what he did hath been related and he well knew of what Perswasion the five Members were and those whom he Canonizeth as Saints in his Everlasting Rest These had sometime been zealous Conformists and the King 's most Loyal Subjects but did they continue such The Bishops that began the Reformation had been Popish but when they renounced the Pope's Supremacy and Romish Doctrines and setled the Church on a new Foundation for Doctrine and Worship no sober Man can say that the Reformation was either begun or carried on by Popish Bishops The Case is the same Those that began our war had been most of them Episcopal Men and Conformists but when they imprison'd and sequestred the Bishops threw off the Liturgy and entred into a Covenant against King and Church they were neither Episcopal Men nor Conformists Of this sort were the Generals Admirals and other Officers by Land and Sea Mr. Baxter Whether the Archbishop of York was not the Parliaments Major-General Answ Not at the beginning of the War certainly nor ever that I heard but from Mr. Baxter that he had such a Commission from them That Archbishop was with K. Charles at Oxford and well receiv'd by him nor did he ever appear in any Hostile Actions till 6 years after the beginning of the War and the reason of that was to vindicate a particular right of his own and not on account of the war against the King as hath been proved in that Bishop's Life Mr. Baxter Whether the Episcopal Gentry and Ministry did not take the Engagement more than the Presbyterians Answ I pray Mr. Baxter remember what you were to prove viz. who began the War and and is this which was done after the King's death if it had been true an Argument to prove that they began the War I have read in several of your Books such a Relation of the beginning of our War which will remain after you are gone That the War was begun by Episcopal Men such as were of Archbishop Whitgift's mind That the great Commanders in War by Sea and Land were Conformists and I suppose I have said enough to disprove it Let me therefore remind you of a foregoing passage in your Letter viz. That it is a part of Satan's work to perswade the World that no History hath any certainty of Truth that so Sacred History may be disadvantaged and now let the impartial Reader judge whether Lucian or Mr. Baxter be the truest Historian I confess you have ingaged me in an unpleasing Work but in may not be unprofitable if what I shall add be duly considered Let the Troubles at Frankfort be read over and the groundless Contests and Animosities of some Presbyterians against such as adhered to the Doctrine and Worship of the Church of England while both Parties were in Exile and what you your self have observed of their behaviour after they returned home especially of Knox Goodman and others how they flew in the face of Authority and incessantly woried Q. Elizabeth during her Reign No sooner were they called home but some of them were so intemperate impatient and unpeaceable that some of them turned to flat Separation and flew in the Faces of the Prelates with reviling c. p. 150. of Gildas Salvianus And if the History of the Factious for Presbytery during the Reign of King James and especially of King Charles I. be impartially read you will find this odious Comparison incomparably out-done This is proper to them to overthrow whatsoever Estate they are admitted to says Bertius in Orbis Breviario And this is the reason why Grotius was so condemned for a Papist because in his Book de Antichristo he wrote so much truth against these Men Circumferamus oculos per omnem historiam quod unquam seculum vidit tot subditorum in Principes bella sub religionis titulo horum concitatores ubique reperiuntur Ministri Evangelici ut quidam se vocant quod genus hominum in quae pericula etiam nunc Optimos Civitatis Amsteladomensis Magistratus conjecerit videat si cui libet de Presbyterorum in reges andacia librum Jacobi Britanniarum Regis cui nomen Donum Regium videbit eum ut erat magni Judicij ea praedixisse quae nunc cum dolore horrore perspicimus King James spake by Experience and first he tells the Reader in his Preface These rash heady Preachers think it their honour to contend with Kings and perturbe whole Kingdoms And in p. 41 42. Take heed my Son to such Puritans very Pests in the Church and Commonweal whom no Deserts can oblige neither Oaths or Promises bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own imaginations without any warrant of the Word the square of their Conscience I protest before the great God and since I am here as upon my Testament it is no place for me to lye in that ye shall never find with any Highland or Border Thieves greater ingratitude and more lyes and vile perjuries than with these Phanatick Spirits And suffer not the Principles of them to brook your Land if you like to sit at rest except you would keep them for trying your patience as Socrates did an evil Wife He told his Parliament in his Speech March 19. 1603. The third which I call a Sect rather than Religion is the Puritan and Novelist who do not differ so much from us in points of Religion as in their confused Forms of Polity and Parity being ever discontented with the present Government and impatient to suffer any Superiority which maketh their Sect unable to be suffered in any well-governed Commonwealth And now you may research your voluminous Baronius and Binius and collect the Maxims and Practices of the Jesuits who are not much elder than the Presbyterians and if I do not match them in both from the Authors before-named all which will not make up above one Volume of your twenty and relate only the History of about six or sevenscore years for yours of about sixteen hundred I shall need to add only your own Theses concerning Government and what I said will still appear to be true That such horrid things as have been done by that Generation have not been out-done by any other since Judas betrayed his Master By these Relations Mr. Baxter may be inform'd That something hath befal'n the Church that for shame and mischievous effects hath exceeded the Persidiousness Contention Schism and Pride of Bishops POSTSCRIPT WHereas near half of Mr. Baxter's Life is filled up with repeated Cavils and frivolous objections against our Episcopacy and Conformity to the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church which have been fully answered by many Worthies of our Church to the satisfaction of imprejudiced Readers yet because nothing will satisfie his Admirers but what is Mr. Baxter's own sence I have collected such Answers as Mr. Baxter himself hath given to his own Objections and printed them in a little Treatise called Mr. Baxter's last Legacy to all sober Dissenters which I doubt not may give them satisfaction if they deserve that Title FINIS