A REVIEW OF Mr. Richard Baxter's LIFE WHEREIN Many Mistakes are Rectified some False Relations Detected some Omissions supplyed out of his other BOOKS WITH REMARKS on several Material Passages By THOMAS LONG B.D. One of the Prebendaries of St. Peter's Exon. I have been in the heat of my Zeal so forward to Changes and Ways of Blood that I fear God will not let me have a hand in the peaceable building of his Church Mr. Baxter's Letter to Dr. Hill LONDON Printed by F.C. and are to be sold by E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1697. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND Father in GOD JONATHAN Lord Bishop of Exeter May it please your Lordship I Am very sensible how Criminal it is for any Christian to do what the very Heathen have forbid to speak any thing of the Dead but what is well and yet there are so many ill things recorded of Mr. Baxter in the following Treatise that I might justly incur your Lordships displeasure if I could not plead very necessary and satisfactory Reasons for this Undertaking First therefore I plead that I have said little or nothing in what is now published but what Mr. Baxter reported of himself as Matters of Fact in the History of his Life and other Books printed in his Life time or what is fairly inferred from the same 2. That the Substance of what is now published was printed about nine years before his Death which it is evident he had perused and acknowledgeth he had given no Answer to it except a Mentiris which was his usual Reply to other Adversaries for want of Reason and Argument 3. I say that though dead he hath first provoked me for in p. 188. part 3. of his Life he saith Long of Exeter 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 old retracted Lines and half Sentences that I never saw any like it and yet though so much concerned and surviving about Nine years he hath not discovered that fulness of Falshoods c. which he suggested but tells his Readers that it is none of the Matter in Controversie whether he be good or bad whereas it is certain that a good Man would never ingage in so bad a Cause as he hath defended by his Personal Actions as well as in many Writings and he himself tells us That a true Description of Persons is much of the Life of History p. 136. of his Life And an evil Tree cannot bring forth good Fruit. 4. I plead not my own Cause but the Cause of the Church and National Constitutions and in truth of all Degrees of Persons in the Nation for this Historical Relation of his own Life contains a virulent invective and grinning Satyr against all that live in conformity to the Ecclesiastical or Civil Laws the King is represented as a Papist and Authorizer of the Irish Insurrection the Parliament is Tyrannical making such Laws as proved Taring Engines and such as no Man fearing God could submit to the established Order of Episcopacy as Antichristian the Clergy as perjured and persecuting Persons the Nobility and Gentry as strengthners of Iniquity in the Land And do not such Scandals demand a Reply 5. It is necessary to disperse those Clouds and Umbrages with which he would cover his mischievous Designs his Pleas for Peace first second and third and his Only way of Concord being nothing else but Seeds of Discord and Confusion and necessary it was that such ill things should have good Names given them those that would propagate Schisms and Heresies need a Form of Godliness to set them off Arius Aerius and Donatus were Men of good Learning and as to appearance of good Lives also yet the one most strangely propagated that damnable Error of denying the Lord that bought him and the other those Schisms which have divided the Body of Christ his Church to this present Age 'T is but an Artifice therefore of all Seducers of which the Apostle forewarns us 2 Tim. 3.2,3 That in the last days men should be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than of God and all this under a Form of Godliness and when even Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light it is no marvel if his Ministers be transformed as the Ministers of Righteousness 6. I remember that our Excellent Bishop of Worcester prudently foretold of Mr. Baxter That he would dye leaving his sting in the wounds of the Church which Mr. Baxter hath abundantly fulfilled in this and many other of his Writings which Stings must be pluckt out or the Wounds which they have made will be still kept open and bleeding for though Mr. Baxter be dead he hath done what he could to raise up and arm a Succession of such a Generation of Dissenters as shall still eat into the Bowels of the Church and he hath provided a Magazine of Ammunition for them Mr. Sylvester tells us How much he was delighted in a hopeful Race of young Ministers and Christians how much he valued young Divines and hopeful Candidates for the Ministry how liberal he was of Counsel and Encouragement to them and inquisitive after and pleased with their growthful Numbers and Improvement And he told me that he had the greatest hopes and expectations from the succeeding Generation of them that they would do God's Work much better than we had done before them To which end he acquaints us in the beginning of his Preface That Mr. Baxter left the orderly disposal of his bequeathed Library to young poor Students So that here is a Fund provided for a perpetual Schism And Mr. Sylvester hath discovered a hidden Treasure of Mr. Baxter's which he is improving as a Supply of Deficiencies in another Volume Having shewn your Lordship the Reasons of my Undertaking I shall briefly give you an Account of what I have performed to frustrate these pernicious Attempts Your Lordship knows I have served as a Veterane Souldier in these Parts of the Church Militant about Fifty years and might now sue for a Dismission being somewhat elder than Mr. Baxter was when he left writing which was as Mr. Sylvester says Seven years before his death when he was as I compute it Sixty nine years old and I am now entred into the Seventy sixth year yet to excite and encourage men of greater Abilities I have as I were able performed these two things First Whereas a great part of this and other Writings of Mr. Baxter as also of his whole Life hath been spent in framing Objections against and Defamations of our well-establish'd Discipline and Liturgy which he blameth as too confused for want of Method and for its Matter abstracted from the Penal Laws as abounding with Thirty or Forty such tremendous things as a man
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
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
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
they made the best King and Emperour Lodovic Pius as a Penance resign his Crown and Scepter on the Altar to a Rebel Son and sent him to Prison He that ever read but Baronius Binius or other Episcopal History will pity you Can you name one Presbyter for very many Bishops that have been the Heads or Fomenters of Heresie Schism or Rebellion And yet Presbyters were more in number than Bishops Innumerable Bishops saith Binius were in the Monothelite Council under Philippicus Of all things that ever befel the Christian Church I scarce know any thing comparable in shame and mischievous effects to the horrid Perfidiousness Contention Schism and Pride of Bishops Cursing one year by hundreds all that were of one Opinion and another year all that were of the contrary as the Times and Interest and Emperours changed And if Arius or Novatus Aerius and Donatus which are all you name were the beginners of any Schism how many hundred Bishops were the promoters of them all save that of Aerius against themselves And is it any honour to Episcopacy that Arius and Aerius an Arian were not Bishops when they are said to be Seekers of Bishopricks and to divide because they could not obtain them Sure they were Prelatical Presbyters What honour were it to Episcopacy that you are no Bishop if all these and such things were vended by you in hope of a Bishoprick or some Preferment I will never whilst I breathe trust a Bresbyter that sets himself to get Preferment no more than I will trust a But did you know or did you not that as for Novatus and Novatian one of them was an ill chosen Bishop of Rome and the other a promoter of his Prelacy And that as for Donatus there were two of them one of them a Bishop and that the Donatists Schism was meerly and basely Prelatical even whether their Bishop or Cecilianus should carry it and that their rebaptizing and re-ordaining and Schism was because they took none to have power that had it not from their Bishop as being the right like our re-ordainers And are these Instances to prove what you assert Were it not for entering upon an unpleasing and unprofitable task I would ask you 1. Who that Juncto of Presbyters was that dethroned the King was it they that petitioned and protested against it 2. Whether it was not an Episcopal Parliament forty to one if not an hundred that began the War against the King 3. Whether the General and Commanders of the Army twenty to one were not Conformists 4. Whether the Major-Generals in the Counties were not almost all Episcopal Conformists The Earl of Stamford was over your Country 5. Whether the Admiral and Sea-Captains were not almost Episcopal Conformists As Heylin distinguisheth them of Archbishop Abbot's mind disliking Arminianism Monopolies c. 6. Whether the Archbishop of York were not the Parliaments Major-General 7. Whether the Episcopal Gentry did not more of them take the Engagement and many Episcopal Ministers than the Presbyterians 8. Whether if this Parliament which made the Acts of Vniformity and Conventicles should quarrel with the King it would prove them to be Presbyterians and Non-conformists 9. Whether the Presbyterian Ministers of London and Lancashire did not write more against the Regicides and Vsurpers and declare against them than all the Conformists or as much And the Long Parliament was forced and most of them cast out before the King could be destroyed And when they were restored it made way for his Restoration And Sir Thomas Allen Lord Mayor and the City of London's inviting General Monk from the Rump into the City and joyning with him was the very day that turned the Scales for the King But all these are Matters fitter for your better Consideration than our Debate Your Servant Ri. Baxter Mr. LONG 's Answer Mr. Baxter SIR I find that in a Book of yours defending Schism against Mr. Hales on pretence of opposing it you were pleased to think many passages in my writings worthy of your recital to your ends Answ Whether my Book which you mention or that of Mr. Hales do most oppose Schism is sub judice Had Mr. Hales opposed it I wonder how you and so many Schismaticks quoted him against Obedience to Authority Episcopacy and Liturgy barely on pretence of things scrupled and seeing I oppose Mr. Hales in most of the Passages that concern Schism by your Arguments it must be you or he that defend it and not I. That I thought some Passages in your Writings worthy of my recital and to my end was first Because I thought your end to be the same with mine i.e. to promote Peace and Unity and to destroy Schism and Division For it was once your Resolution to speak for Peace while you had a Tongue to write for Peace while you had a Hand and to live to the Churches Peace while you had an hour to live and could do any thing that could promote it And I hope you did not verba dare Secondly Because as Mr. Hales was a Man in great esteem with you upon the account of that Tract so are you with some others and therefore I could not think of a better Argument ad homines And I find that you with others did urge fiercely the Authority of Mr. Hales p. 2. of the Exceptions at the Savoy in these words To load our publick Forms with private Fancies on which we differ is the most soveraign way to perpetuate Schism to the Worlds end c. which you resume p. 8. of your Reply Though the Reverend Bishops had answered We heartily desire that according to this Proposal great care may be taken to suppress private Conceptions of Prayer lest private Opinions be made the Matter of Prayer in publick is it hath and will be if private Persons take liberty to make publick Prayers And on second thoughts I find you to agree with them p. 201. of the Cure of Divisions in these words Every Separatist Anabaptist Antinomian doth too willingly put his Errours into his Prayers On which words Mr. Bag shaw in his Antidote p. 7. doth thus Paraphrase By mentioning of Separatists as a distinct Body of Men from the Antinomians Quakers and Anabaptists it is evident he can mean no other but his Presbyterian and Congregational Brethren This I have noted by the way that what I said of his Brethrens dissenting from his Reformed Liturgy as he calls it may not seem strange seeing he so far differs from it himself for there he gives liberty to all Ministers to Pray and Exhort as they think fit and here he declares against the Inconveniencies of it Mr. Baxter I thank you that you chose any words of mine for Peace which some may make a better use of than your self But I think if you had referred Men to my own Books to read what goeth before and after they would have been more easily understood Answ They that read your words which I have for the most