by sheet and thereupon I trusted to the promised Care of the Booksellers but I found upon review the Errata to be more numerous and gross by far than ever I expected But if the Candid Reader will correct the Errata as they are render'd corrigible to his view I shall think my self greatly obliged to him But if the Reader 's first Historical Salute displease him as being much beneath his expected Entertainment one hours reading I hope he will find to be the utmost Exercise of his Patience from the meanness of the Matter at his Entrance into the Book II. As to the Author 's ordering and digesting of his own Memoirs a Rhapsody it now appears and as to method and equality of Stile somewhat below what curious Readers might expect yea and from what it had been had it but passed the Author's stricter Thoughts and View Yet we shall find the History greatly useful though not exactly uniform nor is it so confused as to be incapable of easie References and Reductions to such proper Order as may best please the Reader if the Design be clear and worthy viz. to set in open Light the degenerate Age he lived in the magnalia of Grace and Providence as to himself his Self-censurings on all occasions Caution and Conduct unto others and tracing all Events to their genuine Sources and Originals the judicious Reader will improve such things There were several Papers loosely laid which could not easily be found when needed And the defectiveness of my very much declining Memory made me forget and the more because of haste and business where I had laid them after I had found them And some few Papers mention'd and important here are not yet found though search'd after which yet hereafter may be brought to light amongst some others intended for the Publick View if God permit The Reverend Author wrote them at several times as his other Work and Studies and frequent Infirmities would admit of And he was more intent upon the Matter than the Method and finding his Evening Shadows growing long as the Presage of his own approaching and expected Change he was willing through the importunity of his Friends to hasten the compleating of his Works before he died And he had rather that the Work was done somewhat imperfectly than not at all It is true indeed that he hath left us nothing of the last Seven years of his Life save his Apology for his accused Paraphrase and Notes on the New Testament for which he was so fiercely prosecuted imprisoned traduced and fined And though some pressed me to draw up the Supplemental History of his Life yet the wisest that I could consult advised me to the contrary and I did take their counsel to be right and good for I well knew my self very unable to do that uniformly with the rest and I was not inclined to obtrude upon the World what was not Mr. Baxters Precarious Reputation I affect not That Fame cannot be rightfully my own which is not deserved by me And if this Preface and my subjoyned Sermon be but candidly received or moderately censured and any way tributary to the Reader 's benefit I shall rejoyce therein and not expect his undeserved Commendation III. I am well aware and think it worth my while to take notice of several Things which may awaken Prejudice Censure or Displeasure and occasion if not cause Objections and Offence as to the Treatise and my self which I would obviate and prevent at least allay if possible I neither love to kindle Flames nor to enrage them nor to contribute the least breath or fewel to them I am for Faithfulness and Truth in the softest stile and way consistent with the Ends and Interest thereof Flattering Titles and needless Pungencies I distast What was the Author's is not mine To publish is not always to assent And if Modesty and Self-diffidence do make me refrain from Censures and Corrections and Expunctions can that be esteemed culpable Especially when it is vel sole Meridiano clarius to both my self and every Man how much my Knowledge Parts Judgment Holiness and Advantages to know what he Reports and Censures come short of what his were Most of the Persons if not well nigh all censured by him were altogether unknown to me Nor do I find them all or many mentioned by him as utterly ungodly or undone But as far as Miscarriages or Neglects upon the Publick Stage did minister to Suspicion and to the prejudice thereof affect the Publick Interest so far they are remarked by him with resentment If justly the Equity will justifie the Censure and evidently shew how much the Interest of Church and State lay nearer to and more upon his Heart than private Friendship or Concerns But if unjustly it is the undoubted right and duty of those that can to clear the Censured from all their undue Imputations and Aspersions and could I do it for them my Obligations to and value for this quondam excellent Historian and Divine should not prevent my utmost cordial Engagements in that matter namely to wipe of all Aspersions from the Innocent or to abate and lessen them as far as they are capable duly of Allays But let me meet the Reader with these cautionary offers I. Perhaps it may be thought unmeet by some that a Divine should turn Historian Answ. 1. Why not as well as Grotius Du Plessis Lassitius c. yea and King Iames the First meddle with writing about Sacred Things 2. Mr. Baxter was neither ignorant of nor unconcerned in nor unfit for such a Work as this who knew him better than he knew himself or did more intirely search into Affairs or lay under greater Advantages for pious and just Informations 3. He had no Advantages nor heart for Gain or Honour by this his Undertaking It is known he hath refused Preferment even by King Charles the Second but sought for none 4. Writing of Histories rather refer to Abilities than to Office Men may not govern Kingdoms Cities nor Societies till called thereto by solemn Designation be they never so throughly qualified nor can they administer in Publick Worship till called thereto by Solemn Ordination or as Probationers in order to that Office But Men may write for God and Common Good if they be able so to do For their Abilities Opportunities and Capacity for Publick Service are a Call sufficiently and safely to be depended on 5. The Author's Modesty Humility and well known Self-denial and evident Remoteness from all Pragmaticalness and Affectation may well prevent Suspicion of his Exorbitancy in this his Enterprize And 6. his great Ability and Concern to serve the Publick Interest when as all possible help was needful requisite and grateful may well implead such bold Retorts upon his Undertaking Who stays for a particular Commission to extinguish Flames or to give needful Informations of instant Dangers or of necessary Conduct when great Calamities or Miscarriages cannot otherwise be prevented 2. It is
him as knowing no better my self and it suited well with my Parents minds who were willing to have me as near to them as possible having no Children but my self And so I left my School-master for a supposed Tutor But when I had tried him I found my self deceived his business was to please the Great Ones and seek Preferment in the World and to that end found it necessary sometimes to give the Puritans a flirt and call them unlearned and speak much for Learning being but a Superficial Scholar of himself He never read to me nor used any savoury Discourse of Godliness only he loved me and allowed me Books and Time enough So that as I had no considerable helps from him in my Studies so had I no considerable hinderance And though the House was great there being four Judges the King's Attorney the Secretary the Clerk of the Fines with all their Servanâ—s and all the Lord President 's Servants and many more and though the Town was full of Temptations through the multitude of Persons Counseâ—lors Attorneys Officers and Clerks and much given to tipling and excess it pleased God not only to keep me from them but also to give me one intimate Companion who was the greatest help to my Seriousness in Religion that ever I had before and was a daily Watchman over my Soul We walk'd together we read together we prayed together and when we could we lay together And having been brought out of great Distress to Prosperity and his Affections being fervent though his Knowledge not great he would be always stirring me up to Zeal and Diligence and even in the Night would rise up to Prayer and Thanksgiving to God and wonder that I could sleep so that the thoughts of God's Mercy did not make me also to do as he did He was unwearied in reading all serious Practical Books of Divinity especially Perkins Bolton Dr. Preston Elton Dr. Taylor Whately Harris c. He was the first that ever I heard pray Ex tempore out of the Pulpit and that taught me so to pray And his Charity and Liberality was equal to his Zeal so that God made him a great means of my good who had more knowledge than he but a colder heart Yet before we had been Two years acquainted he fell once and a second time by the power of Temptation into a degree of Drunkenness which so terrified him upon the review especially after the second time that he was near to Despair and went to good Ministers with sad Confessions And when I had left the House and his Company he fell into it again and again so oft that at last his Conscience could have no Relief or Ease but in changing his Judgment and disowning the Teachers and Doctrines which had restrained him And he did it on this manner One of his Superiours on whom he had dependance was a man of great Sobriety and Temperance and of much Devotion in his way but very zealous against the Nonconformists ordinarily talking most bitterly against them and reading almost only such Books as encouraged him in this way By converse with this Man my Friend was first drawn to abate his Charity to Nonconformists and then to think and speak reproachfully of them and next that to dislike all those that came near them and to say that such as Bolton were too severe and enough to make men mad And the last I heard of him was that he was grown a Fudler and Railer at strict men But whether God recovered him or what became of him I cannot tell § 5. From Ludlow Castle after a year and half I returned to my Father's House and by that time my old School-master Mr. Iohn Owen was sick of a Consumption which was his Death and the Lord Newport desired me to teach that School till he either recovered or died resolving to take his Brother after him if he died which I did about a quarter of a year or more After that old Mr. Francis Garbett the faithful learned Minister at Wroxeter for about a Month read Logick to me and provoked me to a closer Course of Study which yet was greatly interrupted by my bodily weakness and the troubled Condition of my Soul For being in expectation of Death by a violent Cough with Spitting of Blood c. of two years continuance supposed to be a deep degree of a Consumption I was yet more awakened to be serious and solicitous about my Soul 's everlasting State And I came so short of that sense and seriousness which a Matter of such infinite weight required that I was in many years doubt of my Sincerity and thought I had no Spiritual Life at all I wondred at the sensless hardness of my heart that could think and talk of Sin and Hell and Christ and Grace of God and Heaven with no more feeling I cried out from day to day to God for Grace against this sensless Deadness I called my self the most hard hearted Sinner that could feel nothing of all that I knew and talkt of I was not then sensible of the incomparable Excellency of Holy Love and Delight in God nor much imployed in Thanksgiving and Praise But all my Groans were for more Contrition and a broken Heart and I prayed most for Tears and Tenderness And thus I complained for many Years to God and Man and between the Expectations of Death and the Doubts of my own Sincerity in Grace I was kept in some more care of my Salvation than my Nature too stupid and too far from Melancholy was easily brought to At this time I remember the reading of Mr. Ezek. Culverwell's Treatise of Faith did me much good and many other excellent Books were made my Teachers and Comforters And the use that God made of Books above Ministers to the benefit of my Soul made me somewhat excessively in love with good Books so that I thought I had never â—now but scrap'd up as great a Treasure of them as I could Thus was I long kept with the Calls of approaching Death at one Ear and the Questionings of a doubtful Conscience at the other and since then I have found that this method of God's was very wise and no other was so like to have tended to my good These Benefits of it I sensibly perceived 1. It made me vile and loathsome to my self and made Pride one of the hatefullest Sins in the World to me I thought of my self as I now think of a detestable Sinner and my Enemy that is with a Love of Benevolence wishing them well but with little Love of Complacency at all And the long continuance of it tended the more effectually to a habit 2. It much restrained me from that sportful Levity and Vanity which my Nature and Youthfulness did much incline me to and caused me to meet Temptations to Sensuality with the greatest fear and made them less effectual against me 3. It made the Doctrine of Redemption the more savoury to me and my
for serious Piety would have had me taken in his stead a very grave ancient Doctor of Divinity who had a most promising Presence and tolerable Delivery and reverend Name and withal was my Kinsman But I found at last that he had no relish of serious Godliness nor solid Learning or Knowledge in Divinity but stole Sermons out of printed Books and set them off with a grave Delivery But Mr. Sergeant so increased in Ability that he became a solid Preacher and of so great Prudence in Practical Cases that I know few therein go beyond him but none at all do I know that excelleth him in Meekness Humility Self-denial and Diligence No Child ever seemed more humble No Interest of his own either of Estate or Reputation did ever seem to stop him in his Duty No Labour did he ever refuse which I could put him to When I put him to travel over the Parish which is near 20 miles about from House to House to Catechize and Instruct each Family he never grudged or seemed once unwilling He preached at a Chappel above two miles off one half the day and in the Town the other and never murmured I never heard of the Man or Woman in all that Town and Parish that ever said This Fault he did This Word he spake amiss against me This Wrong he did me nor ever one that once found fault with him save once one man upon a short mistake for being out of the way when he should have baptized a Child This admirable blamelesness of Life much furthered our work And when he was removed two miles from us I got Mr. Humphrey Waldern to succeed him who was very much like him and carried on his work 12. Another Advantage was the Presence and Countenance of honest Justices of Peace Colonel Iohn Bridges a prudent pious Gentleman was Patron of the Church and lived in the Parish and was a Justice of Peace And a Bailiff and Justice were Annually chosen in the Corporation who ordinarily were godly men and always such as would be thought so and were ready to use their Authority to Suppress Sin and promote Goodness And when once a Sabbath-breaker thought to have overthrown the Officers at Law Serjeant Fountain being then Judge of Assize did so repress his Malice as discouraged all others from any more such attempts But now the World is changed 13. Another help to my Success was that small relief which my low Estate enabled me to afford the Poor though the Place was reckoned at near 200 l. per Annum there came but 90 l. and sometimes 80 l. per Annum to me Besides which some years I had 60 l. or 80 l. a year of the Booksellers for my Books which little dispersed among them much reconciled them to the Doctrine which I taught I took the aptest of their Children from the School and set divers of them to the Universities where for 8 l. a year or 10 l. at most by the help of my Friends there I maintained them Mr. Vines and Dr. Hill did help me to Sizers places for them at Cambridge And the Lady Rous allowed me 8 l. a year awhile towards their Maintenance and Mr. Tho. Fowley and Col. Bridges also assisted me Some of them are honest able Ministers now cast out with their Brethren But two or three having no other way to live turned great Conformists and are Preachers now And in giving that little I had I did not enquire whether they were good or bad if they asked Relief For the bad had Souls and Bodies that needed Charity most And I found that Three pence or a Groat to every poor Body that askt me was no great matter in a year but a few pounds in that way of giving would go far And this Truth I will speak to the encouragement of the Charitable that what little Money I have now by me I got it almost all I scarce know how in that time when I gave most And since I have had less opportunity of giving I have had less increase 14. Another furtherance of my work was the Writing's which I wrote and gave among them Some small Books I gave each Family one of which came to about 800 and of the bigger I gave fewer And every Family that was poor and had not a Bible I gave a Bible to And I had found my self the benefit of reading to be so great that I could not but think it would be profitable to others 15. And it was a great Advantage to me that my Neighbours were of such a Trade as allowed them time enough to read or talk of holy Things For the Town liveth upon the Weaving of Kidderminster Stuffs and as they stand in their Loom they can set a Book before them or edifie one another whereas Plowmen and many others are so wearied or continually employed either in the Labours or the Cares of their Callings that it is a great Impediment to their Salvation Freeholders and Trades-men are the Strength of Religion and Civillity in the Land and Gentlemen and Beggers and Servile Tenants are the Strength of Iniquity Though among these sorts there are some also that are good and just as among the other there are many bad And their constant Converse and Traffick with London doth much promote Civility and Piety among Trades-men 16. And I found that my single Life afforded me much advantage For I could the easilier take my People for my Children and think all that I had too little for them in that I had no Children of my own to tempt me to another way of using it And being discharged from the most of Family Cares keeping but one Servant I had the greater vacancy and liberty for the Labours of my Calling 17. And God made use of my Practice of Physick among them as a very great advantage to my Ministry for they that cared not for their Souls did love their Lives and care for their Bodies And by this they were made almost as observant as a Tenant is of his Landlord Sometimes I could see before me in the Church a very considerable part of the Congregation whose Lives God had made me a means to save or to recover their health And doing it for nothing so obliged them that they would readily hear me 18. And it was a great advantage to me that there were at last few that were bad but some of their own Relations were Converted Many Children did God work upon at 14 or 15 or 16 years of Age And this did marvellously reconcile the Minds of the Parents and Elder sort to Godliness They that would not hear me would hear their own Children They that before could have talkt against Godliness would not hear it spoken against when it was their Childrens Case Many that would not be brought to it themselves were proud that they had understanding Religious Children And we had some old Persons of near Eighty years of Age who are I hope in Heaven and the
Churches Good must be first regarded As to the other Question Why we dealt not thus by all the Parish and took them not all for Members without question We knew some Papists and Infidels that were no Members We knew that the People would have thought themselves wronged more to be thus brought under Discipline without and against their own Consent than to 〈◊〉 them to withdraw And we thought it not a Business â—it for the unwilling â—â—â—â—ually at such a time as that But especially I knew that it was like to be their utter undoing by hardening them into utter Enmity against the means that should recover them And I never yet saw any signs of hope in any Excommunicate Person unless as they are yet men and capable of what God will do upon them except one that humbled himself and begged Absolution Now either Discipline is to be exercised according to Christ's Rule or not If not then the Church is no purer a Society as to its Orders than those of Infidels and Pagans but Christ must be disobeyed and his House of Prayer made a Den of Thieves If yea then either impartially upon all obstinate impenitent Sinners according to Christ's Rule or but on some If but on some only it will be a Judgment of Partiality and Unrighteousness whereas where there is the same Cause there must usually be the same Penalty If on all then the multitude of the Scandalous in almost all places is so great and the Effects of Excommunication so dreadful that it would tend to damning of multitudes of Souls which being contrary to the design of the Gospel is not to be taken for the Will of Christ we have our Power to Edification and not to Destruction A few in case of necessity may be punished though to their hurt for the good of all but multitudes must not be so used Indeed a Popish Interdict or mock Excommunication by the Sentence of a Prelate or Lay-Chancellour may pass against multitudes and have no considerable Effect but as it is enforced by the Sword But the Word of God is quick and powerful and when it is thus personally applyed in the Sentencing of a guilty obstinate Sinner doth one way or other work more effectually Therefore in this difficulty there can be but two Remedies devised One is with the Anabaptists to leave Infants unbaptized that so they may not be taken into the Church till they are fit for the Orders of the Church But this is injurious to Infants and against the will of God and hath more inconveniences than benefits Though for my part as much as I have wrote against them I wish that it were in the Church now as it was in the days of Tertullian Nazianzen and Austin where no man was compelled to bring his Infants to Baptism but all left to their own time For then some as Augustine c. were baptized at full Age and some in Infancy The second therefore is the only just and safe Remedy which is That by the due performance of Confirmation there may be a Soleman Transition out of the state of Infant Church-Membership into the state of Adult Church-Membership and due qualifications therein required and that the unfit may till then be left inter Auditores without the Priviledges proper to Adult Members of which I have fully written in my Book of Confirmation 26. Another Advantage which I found to my Success was by ordering my Doctrine to them in a suitableness to the main end and yet so as might suit their Dispositions and Diseases The thing which I daily opened to them and with greatest importunity laboured to imprint upon their minds was the great Fundamental Principles of Christianity contained in their Baptismal Covenant even a right knowledge and belief of and subjection and love to God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and Love to all Men and Concord with the Church and one another I did so daily inculcate the Knowledge of God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and Love and Obedience to God and Unity with the Church Catholick and Love to Men and Hope of Life Eternal that these were the matter of their daily Cogitations and Discourses and indeed their Religion And yet I did usually put in something in my Sermon which was above their own discovery and which they had not known before and this I did that they might be kept humble and still perceive their ignorance and be willing to keep in a learning state For when Preachers tell their People of no more than they know and do not shew that they excel them in Knowledge and easily over-top them in Abilities the People will be tempted to turn Preachers themselves and think that they have learnt all that the Ministers can teach them and are as wise as they and they will be apt to contemn their Teachers and wrangle with all their Doctrines and set their Wits against them and hear them as Censurers and not as Disciples to their own undoing and to the disturbance of the Church and they will easily draw Disciples after them The bare Authority of the Clergy will not serve the turn without over-topping Ministerial Abilities And I did this also to increase their Knowledge and also to make Religion pleasant to them by a daily addition to their former Light and to draw them on with desire and Delight But these things which they did not know before were not unprofitable Controversies which tended not to Edification nor Novelties in Doctrine contrary to the Universal Church but either such Points as tended to illustrate the great Doctrines before-mentioned or usually about the right methodizing of them The opening of the true and profitable method of the Creed or Doctrine of Faith the Lord's Prayer or Matter of our Desires and the Ten Commandments or Law of Practice which afford matter to add to the knowledge of most Professors of Religion a long time And when that is done they must be led on still further by degrees as they are capable but so as not to leave the weak behind and so as shall still be truly subservient to the great Points of Faith Hope and Love Holiness and Unity which must be still inculcated as the beginning and the end of all 27. Another help to my Success was that my People were not Rich There were among them very few Beggers because their common Trade of Stuff-weaving would find work for all Men Women and Children that were able And there were none of the Trades-men very rich seeing their Trade was poor that would but find them Food and Raiment The Magistrates of the Town were few of them worth 40 l. per An. and most not half so much Three or four of the Richest thriving Masters of the Trade got but about 500 or 600 l. in twenty years and it may be lose 100 l. of it at once by an ill Debtor The generality of the Master Workmen lived but a little better than their
convinced me how unfit we are to write about Christ's Government and Law and Iudgment c. while we understand not the true Nature of Government Laws and Iudgment in the general and that he that is ignorant of Politicks and of the Law of Nature will be ignorant and erroneous in Divinity and the sacred Scriptures § 157. 2. The Second Book which I wrote and the first which I began was that called The Saints everlasting Rest Whilst I was in Health I had not the least thought of writing Books or of serving God in any more publick way than Preaching But when I was weakened with great bleeding and left solitary in my Chamber at Sir Iohn Cook 's in Derbyshire without any Acquaintance but my Servant about me and was sentenced to Death by the Physician I began to contemplate more seriously on the Everlasting Rest which I apprehended my self to be just on the Borders of And that my Thoughts might not too much scatter in my Meditation I began to write something on that Subject intending but the Quantity of a Sermon or two which is the cause that the Beginning is in brevity and Style disproportionable to the rest but being continued long in Weakness where I had no Books nor no better Employment I followed it on till it was enlarged to the bulk in which it is published The first Three Weeks I spent in it was at Mr. Nowel's House at Kirkby-Mallory in Leicestershire a quarter of a Year more at the Seasons which so great Weakness would allow I bestowed on it at Sir Tho Rous's House at Rous-Lench in Worcestershire and I finished it shortly after at Kidderminster The first and last Parts were first done being all that I intended for my own use and the second and third Parts came afterwards in besides my first Intention This Book it pleased God so far to bless to the Profit of many that it encouraged me to be guilty of all those Scripts which after followed The Marginal Citations I put in after I came home to my Books but almost all the Book it self was written when I had no Book but a Bible and a Concordance And I found that the Transcript of the Heart hath the greatest force on the Hearts of others For the Good that I have heard that Multitudes have received by that Writing and the Benefit which I have again received by their Prayers I here humbly return my Thanks to him that compelled me to write it § 159. 3. The Third Book which I published was that which is entituled Plain Scripture Proof for Infants Church-Membership and Baptism being the Arguments used in the Dispute with Mr. Tombes and an Answer to a Sermon of his afterward preached c. This Book God blessed with unexpected Success to stop abundance from turning Anabaptists and reclaming many both in City and Country and some of the Officers of the Irish and English Forces and it gave a considerable Check to their Proceedings Concerning it I shall only tell the Reader 1. That there are towards the latter part of it many enigmatical Reflections upon the Anabaptists for their horried Scandals which the Reader that lived not in those times will hardly understand But the cutting off the King and rebelling against him and the Parliament and the Invading Scotland and the approving of these with the Ranters and other Sects that sprang out of them were the Crimes there intended which were not then to be more plainly spoken of when their Strength and Fury was so high 2. Note that after the writing of that Book I wrote a Postscript against that Doctrine of Dr. Burges and Mr. Tho. Bedford which I supposed to go on the other Extream and therein I answered part of a Treatise of Dr. Sam. Warks's which Mr. Bedford published and it proved to be Mr. Thomas Gataker whom I defended who is Dr. Ward 's Censor But I knew it not till Mr. Gataker after told me But after these Writings I was greatly in doubt whether it be not certain that all the Infants of true Believers are justified and saved if they dye before actual Sin My Reason was because it is the same justifying saving Covenant of Grace which their Parents and they are in And as real Faith and Repentance is that Condition on the Parents part which giveth them their right to actual Remission and Adoption So to be the Children of such is all the Condition which is required in Infants in order to the same Benefits And without asserting this the Advantage of the Anabaptists is greater than every one doth imagine But I never thought with Dr. Ward that all Baptised Children had this Benefit and Qualitative Sanctification also nor with Dr. Burgess and Mr. Bedford that all converted at Age had inherent seminal Grace in Baptism certainly given them nor with Bishop Davenant that all justly baptised had relative Grace of Justification and Adoption But only that all the Infants of true Believers who have right to the Covenant and Baptism in foro Coeli as well as in foro Ecclesiae have also thereby Right to the Pardon of Original Sin and to Adoption and to Heaven which Right is by Baptism to be sealed and delivered to them This I wrote of to Mr. Gataker who returned me a kind and candid Answer but such as did not remove my Scruple and this occasioned him to print Bishop Davenants Disputations with his Answer My Opinion which I most incline to is the same which the Synod of Dort expresseth and that which I conjecture Dr. Davenant meant or I am sure came next to Here note also that Mr. Tombes sollicited me yet after all this to write him down my Proofs of Infants Church-membership out of the circumcised Church which I did at large as from the Creation downward as far as Proof could be expected in Proportion to the other Histories of those Times Instead of sending me an Answer to my Papers he printed some of them with an insufficient Answer in his last Book These Papers with a Reply to him I have since Printed § 159. 4. The Fourth Book which I published is a small one called The right Method for Peace of Conscience and spiritual comfort in thirty two Directions The Occasion of it was this Mrs. Bridgis the Wife of Col. Iohn Bridgis being one of my Flock was often weeping out her Doubts to me about her long and great Uncertainty of her true Sanctification and Salvation I told her that a few hasty Words were not Direction enough for the satisfactory resolving of so great a Case and therefore I would write her down a few of those necessary Directions which she should read and study and get well imprinted in her Mind As soon as I had begun I found 1. that it would not be well done in the Brevity which I expected 2. And that when it was done it would be as useful to many others of my Flock as to her and therefore I bestowed more time
for that way now which most suiteth with the Inclination of the People who most esteem them which is to go far enough from the Conformists or too far but the rest who are less followed by the People are generally more for Peace and Moderation § 163. This Year the Act against Conventicles was renewed and made more severe than ever And as all that ever I spake with of it supposed with an Eye upon my Case they put in divers Clauses As that the fault of the Mittimus should not disable it that all doubtful Clauses in the Act should be interpreted as would most favour the suppression of Conventicles that they that fled or removed their Dwelling into another County should be pursued by Execution to this Sense What a strait is a Man in among People of such Extremes One side pursueth us with implacable Wrath while we are charged with nothing but Preaching Christ's Gospel in the most peaceable manner we can And the other censureth us as Compliers with Persecutors and Enemies to Piety because we desire to live peaceable with all Men and to separate from them no further than they separate from God § 164. Their own Laws against Conventicles hinder us from doing their own Wills They write and clamour against me for not perswading the People to Conformity And when I would draw them but to that Communion which I had within my self the Law disableth me to Communicate a Letter to them seeing no more than four must meet together which way among many hundred or thousand Dissenters would make many Years work of Communicating that one part of my Advice Thus do our Shepherds use the Flocks § 165. At this time Mr. Giles Firmin a worthy Minister that had lived in New-England writing against some Errors of Mr. Hooker Mr. Shepherd Mr. Daniel Rogers and Mr. Perkins gave me also also a gentle reproof for tying Men too strictly to Meditation whereto I wrote a short answer called A Review of the Doctrine of Meditation § 166. A worthy Lady was perverted from the Lord's Day to the Saturday-Sabbath desiring my Judgment and Mr. Francis Bamfield a Minster who hath lain about seven Years in Dorchester-Goal the Brother of Sir Iohn Bamfield deceased being gone to the same Opinion and many following them I wrote by the Perswasion of some Friends a small Tractate also on that Subject to prove the divine appointment of the Lord's Day and the cessation of the Iewish Sabbath § 167. Dr. Manton though he had the greatest Friends and promise of Favour of any of the Presbyterians vvas sent Prisoner to the Gatehouse for Preaching the Gospel in his own House in the Parish vvhere he had been called formerly to the Ministery and for not taking the Oxford-Oath and coming within five Miles of a Corporation where he continued six Months but it proved convenient to his â—ase because those six Months were spent in London in a hot pursuit of such private Preaching by Bands of Soldiers to the terrour of many and the death of some § 168. Madam the King's Sister dyed in France when she returned from visiting His Majesty in England to his very great grief § 169. Sir Iohn Babor talk'd to the Lord Arlington of our late Treaty upon the Lord Keeper's Invitation with Bishop Wilkins whereupon Dr. Manton sent to me as from him to Communicate the Terms and Papers But they were at Acton from whence they had driven me and I had medled enough in such Matters only to my cost So that though he said the King was to see them I could not then answer his desire and I heard no more of it § 170. Upon the Publication of my Book against Divisions and the Rumour of my Conforming the Earl of Lauder dale invited me to speak with him Where he opened to me the purpose of taking off the Oath of Canonical Obedience and all Impositions of Conformity in Scotland save only that it should be necessary to sit in Presbyteries and Synods with the Bishops and Moderators there being already no Liturgy Ceremonies or Subscription save only to the Doctrine of the Church Hereupon he expressed his great Kindness to me and told me he had the King's Consent to speak with me and being going into Scotland he offered me what place in Scotland I would choose either a Church or a Colledge in the University or a Bishoprick And shortly after as he went thither at Barnet he sent for me and I gave him the Answer following in these Papers besides what I gave him by word to the same purpose But when he came thither such Acts against Conventicles were presently made as are very well worthy the Reader 's serious Persual who would know the true Complexion of this Age. § 171. My Lord BEing deeply sensible of your Lordship's Favours and in special of your Liberal Offers for my Entertainment in Scotland I humbly return you my very hearty Thanks But these Considerations forbid me to entertain any hopes or further thoughts of such a remove 1. The Experience of my great Weakness and decay of Strength and particularly of this last Winter's Pain and how much worse I am in Winter than in Summer doth fully persuade me That I shall live but a little while in Scotland and that in a disabled useless Condition rather keeping my Bed than the Pulpit 2. I am engaged in Writing a Book which if I could hope to live to finish is almost all the Service that I expect to do God and his Church more in the World A Latin Methodus Theologiae And I can hardly hope to live so long it requiring yet near a Years labour more Now if I should go spend that one half Year or Year which should finish that Work in Travel and the trouble of such a Removal and then having intended Work undone it would disappoint me of the ends of my Life For I live only for Work and therefore should remove only for Work and not for Wealth and Honour if ever I remove 3. If I were there all that I could hope for were liberty to Preach the Gospel of Salvation and especially in some Vniversity among young Scholars But I hear that you have enough already for this Work that are like to do it better than I can 4. I have a Family and in it a Mother-in-Law of 80 Years of Age of Honourable Extract and great Worth whom I must not neglect and who cannot Travel And it is to such a one as I so great a business to remove a Family and all our Goods and Books so far as deterreth me to think of it having paid so dear for Removals these 8 Years as I have done and being but yesterday settled in a House which I have newly taken and that with great trouble and loss of time And if I should find Scotland disagree with me which I fully conclude of to remove all back again All this concurreth to deprive me of this Benefit of your Lordship's Favour But
pain suddenly surprized in my house by a poor violent Informer and many Constables and Officers who rusht in and apprehended me and served on me one Warrant to seize on my person for coming within five miles of a Corporation and five more Warrants to distrain for an Hundred and ninty pounds for five Sermons They cast my Servants into fears and were about to take all my Books and Goods and I contentedly went with them towards the Justice to be sent to Jail and left my house to their will But Dr. Thomas Cox meeting me forced me in again to my Couch and bed and went to five Justices and took his Oath without my knowledge that I could not go to Prison without danger of Death Upon that the Justices delayed a day till they could speak with the King and told him what the Doctor had sworn and the King consented that at the present imprisonment should be forborn that I might die at home But they Executed all their Warrants on my Books and Goods even the bed that I lay sick on and sold them all and some friends paid them as much money as they were prized at which I repayed and was faint to send them away The Warrant against my person was signed by Mr. Parrey and Mr. Phillips The five Warrants against my Goods by Sir Iames Smith and Sir Iames Butcher And I had never the least notice of any accusation or who were the Accusers or Witnesses much less did I receive any Summons to appear or answer for my self or ever saw the Justices or Accusers But the Justice that sign'd the Warrants for Execution said that the two Hiltons sollcited him for them and one Bucke led the Constables that distreined But though I sent the Justice the written Deeds which proved that the Goods were none of mine nor ever were and sent two Witnesses whose hands were to those Conveyances I offered their Oaths of it and also proved that the books I had many years ago alienated to my kinsman this signified nothing to them but they seized and sold all nevertheless And both patience and prudence forbad us to trie the Title at Law when we knew what Charges had been lately made of Justices and Jurles and how others had been used If they had taken only my Cloak they should have had my Coat also and if they had taken me on one Cheek I would have turned the other for I knew the case was such that he that will not put up one blow one wrong or stander shall suffer two yea many more But when they had taken and sold all and I borrowed some Bedding and Necessaries of the Buyer I was never the quieter for they threatned to come upon â—e again and take all as mine whosesoever it was which they found in my possession So that I had no remedy but utterly to forsake my House and Goods and all and take secret Lodgings distant in a stranger's House But having a long Lease of my own House which binds me to pay a greater Rent than now it is worth when-ever I go I must pay that Rent The separation from my Books would have been a greater part of my small Affliction but that I found I was near the end both of that Work and Life which needeth Books and so I easily let go all Naked came I into the World and naked must I go out But I never wanted less what Man can give than when Men had taken all My old Friends and Strangers to me were so Liberal that I was fain to restrain their Bounty Their kindness was a surer and larger Revenue to me than my own But God was pleased quickly to put me past all fear of Man and all desire of avoiding suffering from them by Concealment by laying on me more himself than Man can do Their Imprisonment with tolerable Health would have seemed a Palace to me And had they put me to death for such a Duty as they Persecute me it would have been a joyful end of my Calamity But day and night I groan and languish under God's just afflicting hand The pain which before only tired my Reins and tore my Bowels now also fell upon my Bladder and scarce any part or hour is free As Waves follow Waves in the Tempestuous Seas so one pain and danger followeth another in this sinful miserable Flesh I die daily and yet remain alive God in his great Mercy knowing my dulness in health and ease doth make it much easier to repent and hate my sin and loath my self and contemn the World and submit to the Sentence of death with willingness than otherwise it was ever like to have been O how little is it that wrathful Enemies can do against us in comparison of what our sin and the Justice of God can do And O how little is it that the best and kindest of Friends can do for a pained Body or a guilty sinful Soul in comparison of one gracious look or word from God Woe be to him that hath no better help than Man And blessed is he whose help and hope is in the Lord. But I will here tell the Reader what I had to say if I had been allow'd a hearing The CASE of R. B. § 79. HAving been prosecuted as offending against the Oxford Confining-Act and finding that my silence may occasion the guilt of such as understand not my Case and being by God's hand disabled personally to appear and plead it I am necessitated to open it by Writing to undeceive them that mistake it 1. As to the Sence of that Law I conceive that it reacheth to none but Noncouformists and that because they are suspected to teach Schism and Rebellion For though the body of a Law someteme extend further than the Title yet when the title containeth both the end of the Law and the Description of the persons meant as hear it doth it is expository to the Law Therefore the words all such in the third Paragraph must mean all such as aforesaid viz. Nonconformists and not all such others viz. Conformists For 1. The Conformists are supposed to be from under the Suspicion 2. And else it may ruin many Churches If the Curate omit the Liturgy or part and the Incumbent Preach it will be made an Unlawful Assembly by the same reason that House-Meetings are so called for want of the Liturgy For the Law imposeth the Liturgy on Churches but not on Houses 3. Many Conformists have still used to repeat their Sermons in their Houses to more than four Neighbours without the Liturgy And if any such thing be judg'd a Conventicle to Fine the Incumbent Forty pounds and Banish him Five Miles from his parish ever after seems contrary to our Discipline II. My Case is this 1. I am no Nonconformist in Law-Sence and my Conscience hath no Judge but God For I Conform to the Liturgy and Sacrament as far as the Law requireth me I was in no place of Ecclesiastical Promotion on May
fear God to obey Men in doing what they think God forbiddeth and leaving undone what they think he commandeth 3. Or else to punish those that will not do this to utter Disablement Extirpation or Death The two first ways I was sure would never prevail And I knew that the third would cost so dear as that no Ceremonies Forms or unnecessary Oaths or Covenants would finally bear the Charges of it The Blood of the faithful is of hard digestion and Iudas his Conscience hath an awakening Day when his Companions in Guilt will cast him off And God essemeth such Blood precious And when the Jobb is done by it it leaveth an Everlasting Odium on the Doers and Shame upon their Cause And their own Successors disown it and say If we had lived in the days of our Fathers we would not have been Partakers with them in this Blood And they build their Sepulchres whom their Fathers slew and Saint them that were despised as Martin c. And the Moderate must come after to heal all by crying Shame on the Cruelty of their Predecessors as Salvian Clemangis Erasmus Espencaeus Cassander Grotius and such others do and say as Tertullian Solitudinem faciunt pacem vocant But the final Reckoning will pay for all Some say We and other Countries have lived in Peace on the Terms that you call impossible Answ. It 's true of some kind of Peace So they do in Spain Italy Turky Moscovy c. keep Men so ignorant that they shall not know Duty from Sin nor trouble their Heads about God's Law and in Satan's Darkness you may keep Men in his Peace and they will venture their Souls on the Opinion of them that can hurt their Bodies But when Christ battereth this Garrison of Satan he breaks this Peace And I knew that in England many score Thousands would never return to this ignorant Peace XIX As I was sure that there was no hopes of Peace in any but the way of plain Christianity so I found that all the wisest and famoustest Lights of the Church and greatest Peace-makers had still been of the same mind The Primitive Churches for Three hundred years did lay their Unity on this ground and by Degrees Divisions grew up as needless Impositions grew Nazianzen Hillary Vincentius Lerin c. and since Erasmus Ferus Cassender Grotius Acontius Bergius Iunius Usher Hall Daâ—â—enant Chillingworth Hales c. go all this necessary way And when my dearest Friend the Lord Chief Justice Hale was not far from death I wrote to him to leave his Judgment in Writing to the World of the true way to Heal our present Breaches And he left for me to that use three small Tractates before written which I published shewing that all our Divisions and Calamities come by making that to seem part of Religion which is none and that to be necessary which is not so XX. But lest any racked words of mine should be interpreted to be for Sedition or Schism these being the things that my Soul abhorreth I wrote near Twenty Books almost wholly against Schism and Sedition and all the Principles and Reasonings that favour them on all Extreams I was discouraged a while to find that the Stream of Philosophies Politicks Canonists Casuists Papists and Protestants and the greatest Lawyers that I could meet with agreed that the People are the Fountain of Civil Power and give the Soveraign what he hath and many such Notions I feared to contradict such a stream as this But being satisfied I first confuted it in Harrington 1659. and then punctually in Richard Hooker though dedicated by a Bishop to the King and then in many others of all sorts And for Church-Concord no Man living hath written half so much as I. And now after all I am singled out as accused for that which I have written near Twenty Books purposely against and above an Hundred in which this Doctrine of Love Unity and Subjection hath it due part XXI The words which are misinterpreted as Seditious by feigning me to mean worse than I speak leave me and all Writers to the mercy of Mistakers which are most that have ignorance and ill-will I mean no more than I speak If other Men say that my words signifie more they thereby make them theirs and not mine God only is the Judge of secret Thoughts Humane Converse hath made these Rules of Exposition First That words be taken in the usual sence of Men that Treat on the Subject that they handle unless the Speaker otherwise expound them Secondly That the whole Scope and Context must expound particular words Thirdly That an odd strained word is not to be taken contrary to the Author's Declaration of his Judgment in many whole Copious Volumes such as I have written against Disloyalty and Schism XXII Almost all the most approved Writers speak far more sharply without Sedition The words of Nazianzen Eusebius Chrysostom Hillary Salvian and many Fathers the words of Petrarch Clemangis Alvarus Pelagius Erasmus Iansenius Glandav Grotius Iewel Bilson I am ready to cite far more sharply speaking of the Sins of Civil and Church Rulers than ever I did besides such as Gildas Grosthead c. XXIII By such Accusers measures I am condemnable if I say but the Lord's Prayer or the Common Prayer when I am commanded They may say that I accuse the Church when I say that we have left undone the things that we ought to have done and done the things that we ought not to have done and there is no health in us And that I mean Rulers when I say Deliver us from Evil and Forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and turn their Hearts and From our Enemies defend us O Christ Graciously look upon our Afflictions That we thy Servants being hurt by no Persecution may evermore c. That God will defend us in all the Assaults of Our Enemies That the Evils which the Craft or Subtilty of the Devil or Man worketh against us be brought to nought If at the Sacrament a Minister say If any be a hinderer of God's Word Repent or come not to this Holy Table lest the Devil enter into you as he did into Iudas and fill you full of all Iniquities and bring you to Destruction of Body and Soul What Remedy have I if any will say that I mean Rulers by these words as Silencers and Persecutors Yea or when I read all the dreadful Passages against Persecutors in the Gospel There is bound up with our Bibles and Liturgies a Prayer for Families which saith Confound Satan and Antichrist with all Hirelings and Papists whom thou hast already cast off into a reprobate sense that they may not by Sects Schisms Heresies and Errours disquiet thy little Flock And because O Lord we be fall'n into the latter days and dangerous times wherein Ignorance hath got the upper hand and Satan by his Ministers seeks by all means to quench the Light of thy Gospel we beseech thee to maintain thy
Vera Effigies RICHARDI BAXTERI Ministri Iesu Christi Reliquiae Baxterianae OR Mr. RICHARD BAXTERS NARRATIVE OF The most Memorable Passages OF HIS LIFE AND TIMES Faithfully Publish'd from his own Original Manuscript By MATTHEW SYLVESTER Mihi quidem nulli satis Eruditi videntur quibus nostra ignota sunt Cic. de Finib lib. 1. Quibus ergò rectè dem non praetermittam Sic habeto me cum illo re saepe communicatâ de illius ad te sententiâ atque authoritate Scribere Cic. Epist. 7. ad Lentul Lib. 1. LONDON Printed for T. Parkhurst I. Robinson I. Lawrence and I. Dunton M DC XC VI. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Sir Henry Ashhurst Bar. SIR I Am not a little sensible of the great Obligations you laid upon the Reverend Author of this following Narrative of which neither was his Sense small 'T is well known to me and others how great a Veneration he had for your deceased Father whom he took to be one of the liveliest Instances and Emblems of Primitive Christianity that ever he was acquainted with Neither am I ignorant of the very great Respects he deservedly bore to your Self and Family The remembrance of your so firm and generous adherence to him in the Day of his Trial and Distress seems to me greatly to justifie your Title to the Dedication of this Account of the Person and Labours which you so greatly valued so publickly own'd He took your resolute Appearance for him as a delightful demonstration of your great Respects to his great Master and for the same Master's sake unto himself He ventur'd his All for God and you expos'd your Self for him to the severely trying Entertainments which he met with in open Court from Men of Place and Figure in that Day wherein their indecent Carriages reflected great Honour both on him and you tho' not a little Disreputation was thereby contracted to themselves Had not the Reverend Author plac'd great Confidence in you so great a Trust as his last Will and Testament repos'd in you had never been your Lot To be Executor to two such Excellent Persons as Mr. Baxter and Mr. Boyle fixes great Honour upon your Name and cannot but raise great Expectations in the World from you of answering that Character which it appears you had obtain'd with two Persons of so great Eminence But Sir Give me leave to tell you that the Eye of God is upon you and that his Claims and Expectations must be answer'd by you Men judge charitably but God judges of us as we are indeed God cannot be deceiv'd Men may Pardon me if I add what he once said to me concerning my own self Sir I think I know you but I am not sure I do The Word came close to me and it may possibly be of use to you it may awaken us both intimately to consider to whose Iudgment we all must stand The Lord fulfil in you and your hopeful Issue all the good pleasure of his Goodness and the Work of Faith Labour of Love and Patience of Hope with power so as to heighten and compleat your Faithfulness and Figure in your Generation This is the Prayer and Hope of Right Worshipful Yours Humbly Thankfully and faithfully in the best Services and fastest Bonds whilst MATT. SYLVESTER THE PREFACE TO THE READER § I. I Am very sensible that this Memorial of Mr. Baxter and his Historical Accounts of the Times which went over him have been long expected and much desired by the World And the greater the impatience the more severely the delay is like to be resented But he that well considers 1. How confusedly a great quantity of loose Papers relating thereunto came into my hands all which were to be sorted and reduced to their proper places 2. How much other work was then incumbent on me 3. How little my indisposed and weak hand can write not an Octavo page in a competently great character in an hour 4. How many uncomfortable Providences have since diverted me and could not but do so 5. How much time the orderly disposal of his bequeathed Library to young poor Students according to his Injunctions on me took up 6. How much time my Ministerial Work required together with the unavoidable removal of my Habitation and Meeting Place and the Setling of my Congregation thereupon He that I say well considers these things and more that I could say were it expedient so long to detain the Reader from the more profitable and delightful Entertainment of the Book it self will at least abate his Censures if not quite lay them by However I must and shall submit my self unto what Constructions the Reader shall think fit to make of my Apology for its delay so long § II. As to the Authour of the ensuing Treatise he appears Par negotio as being very Sagacious Observant Impartial and Faithful The Things here treated on were Things transacted in his day quaeque ipse vidit Et quorum pars magna fuit Much he knew and felt and was himself actively and passively concerned in and the rest he was inquisitive after observant of and acquainted with And being himself an hater of false History he gave the greater heed and diligence to enter into the depths and springs of what was in his day upon the Theatre of Action Much he must be inform'd of by others necessarily and yet he was greatly averse from the reception of things as true upon too loose reports He fanned Intelligence and was not easily imposed upon in things of moment Credulity Rashness Partialicy and Persidiousness Ignorance and Injudiciousness do ill become Historians Quis nescit primam historiae Legem esse me quid falsi dicere audeat deinde ne quid veri non audeat Nequa suspicio gratiae sit in scribendo nequa simultatis Cic. de Orat. lib. II. and he had reason for this thought in that as the Lord Bacon well observes the Examples of our Ancestors the Vicissitudes of Affairs the Grounds of Civil Prudence and Mens Names and Reputations do depend upon the Knowledge the Judiciousness and Faithfulness of Historians Diligent Searches deep and wise Thoughts faithful Representations and Reports with honest Intentions and generous Designs and Aims at Publick Good render Mens Histories of Things and Persons as influential upon others pleasant and advantageous Every one is not fit to tell the World the History of his own Life and Times Who liv'd therein what Post and Station Trust and Business was their assigned Province what Characters they bore through their deportment therein what were the regent Principles the genuine Spirit and main End and Scope of what they did what they pretendedly or really design'd what was the Conduct Tendency and Result of their Consults and Actions wherein they truly failed and how and why Such things as these call for the greatest Clearness Freedom and Sincerity Pains and Judgment and I may add a great Concern for Publick Good which is the loveliest Property and clearest
Gospel will convince you to great Satisfaction as also of what Oppositions and Deâ—iverances and Preservations he met with there And you have here some Taâ—â—s and Informations of his Thoughts and Studies and of his Books and Letters to divers Persons of different Stations and Quality and also of what Pens and Spirits wrote against him He was of such Repute and Figure in his day as that many coveted to see his Face to hear his Voice and to receive his Resolution of weighty Cases of Conscience proposed to him And in all this you will find that verified of him which the Lord Bacon hath deliver'd from his Pen viz. Much Reading makes Men full Much Writing makes them judicious and acute and much Conversation makes them ready I have been amazed to see how hastily he turned over Volumes how intimately he understood them how strangely he retained his Reading and how pertinently he could use it to every proposed Case Men stayed not long for what they wrote to him about and what he wrote was to great satisfaction and to the purpose He wrote his Books with quick dispatch and never but when he thought them needful and his duty then to write them And when as the Reader well considers his Apology for his Books hereafter mentioned let him but seriously weigh what is alledged and accordingly form his Censures His mentioned and recited Casuistical Letters and Books savour at least of Thought and Pains and perhaps the Reader 's patient and attentive minding of both his mention'd Books and Letters will not be loss of time and pains And though through too much haste and heedlesness some few Escapes perhaps Inaccuracies in the beginning may distaste his curious eye yet a very few Pages following will yield him better Entertainment § VII But the great things which are as the Spirit of this History are the Accounts he gives of the Original Springs and Sources of all these Revolutions Distractions and Disasters which happen'd from the Civil Wars betwixt King Charles the First to the Restoration of Charles the Second and whaâ— was Consequent after thereupon to Church and State And here we shall find various and great Occurrences springing from different Principles Tempers and Interests directed to different Ends and resolved into different Events and Issues The Historian endeavours to be faithful candid and severe Nothing of real serviceable Truth would he conceal Nothing but what was influential on and might or did affect the Publick Interest would he expose to Publick View Nothing that might be capable of candid Interpretation or Allay would he severely censure Nothing notoriously criminal and fatal to the Common Good would he pass by without his just Resentments of it and severe Reflections on it As to his immediate Personal acquaintance with or knowledge of the things reported by him I know no further of that than as he himself relates As to what he received from others by Report how far his Information was true or false I know not Indeed I wrote with tender and affectionate respect and reverence to the Doctors Name and Memory to Madam Owen to desire her to send me what she could well attested in favour of the Doctor that I might insert it in the Margent where he is mentioned as having an hand in that Affair at Wallingford House or that I might expunge that passage But this offer being rejected with more contemptuousness and smartness than my Civility deserved I had no more to do than to let that pass upon Record and to rely upon Mr. Baxter's report and the concurrent Testimonies of such as knew the Intreagues of those Times Yet that I might deal uprightly and upon the square I have mention'd this though obiter to testifie my Respects to him with whom I never was but once but I was treated by him then with very great Civility indeed § VIII I cannot deny but it would have been of great advantage to the acceptableness and usefulness of this Book had it's Reverend Author himself revised compleated and corrected it and published it himself I am sure it had ministred more abundantly to my satisfaction for I neither craved nor expected such a Trust and Legacy as his Manuscripts Nor knew I any thing of this his kind purpose and will till two or three days before he dyed My Heart akes exceedingly at every remembrance of my incumbent Trust and at the thoughts of my Account for all at last I am deeply sensible of my inability for such Work even to discouragement and no small Consternation of Spirit I want not apprehensions of the Pardon which I shall need from God and Candour from Men both which I humbly beg for as upon the knee I know the heart and kindness and clemency of my God through Jesus Christ But I know not yet what Men will think speak write concerning me God speak to Men for me or give me Grace and Wisdom to bear and to improve their Censures and Reflections if such things must be my Discipline and Lot Quo quisque est major magis est placabilis ira Et faciles motus mens Generosa capit Corpora Magnanimo satis est prostrasse Leont Pugna suum sinem cum jacet hostis habet At lupus turpes instant Morientibus ursi Et quaecunque minor nobilitate fera est Ovid. Trist. Eleg. iv However let the Reader bear with me if I attempt to obviate what I apprehend most likely for Men to reply and urge upon me by offering these things to serious and impartial Thoughts relating to 1. The Author 2. The Treatise 3. The Publication And 4. My self First the Author 1. He was one who lov'd to see and set things in their clearest and most genuine Light he well considered what sort and size of Evidence and Proof all things were capable of Matters of Sense are evident by their due Appulses on the Senses Matters of Doctrinal Truth by Demonstration Matters of History by credible report and he could consider well how Certainty and Probability differed Nor was he willing to he imposed upon or deceived through Prejudice Laziness Interest or a factious Spirit To say he never was mistaken for undoubtedly he had his Errours and Mistakes some of them retracted and publickly acknowledg'd by him when discern'd is to attribute more to him than any meer Man can say and more than any impartial and severe Student will arrogate to himself I shall never call the Retractation of a discovered Errour or Mistake a Fault but rather a commendable Excellence and I judge it better to argue closely than bitterly to recriminate or traduce Truth needs neither Scoff nor Satyr to defend it 2. This made him so solicitous to leave behind him such an Impartial Account of the History of his Times and of his own Endeavours in his place and day to promote Holiness Truth and Peace 3. He hence observ'd how these great Concerns were either promoted or obstructed and by whom What was
and some Temptations so strong and the Soul in so sluggish a case to resist that good Thoughts which are in deliberation used against them are borne down at last and are less effectual 11. And our present stock of Habitual Grace is never sufficient of it self without Co-operating Grace from Christ And therefore when we provoke him to withhold his help no wonder if we shew our weakness so far as to stumble in the way to Heaven or to step out into some by-path or break over the hedge and sometimes to look back and yet never to turn back and go again from God to the World 12. And because no fall of a Saint which is Venial an Infirmity consistent with Grace doth either destroy the habit of Love and Grace or set up a contrary habit above it nor yet pervert the scope and bent of the Conversation but only prevaileth to a particular Act it therefore followeth that the Soul riseth up from such a Sin by true Repentance and that the new Nature or Habit of Love within us will work out the Sin as soon as it hath advantage As the Needle in the Compass will return to its proper Point when the force that moved it doth cease and as a running Stream will turn clear again when the force that muddied it is past And this Repentance will do much to increase our hatred of the Sin and fortifie 〈◊〉 against the next Temptation so that though there be some Sins which through our great Infirmity we daily commit as we daily repent of them as disordered Thoughts defects of Love neglect of God c. yet it will not be so with those Sins which a willing sincere habituated Penitent hath more in his power to cast out 13. And yet when all is done Sin will breed fears and the more by how much the more deliberate and wilful it is And the best way to keep under Doubts and Terrours and to keep up Comfort is to keep up Actual Obedience and quickly and penitently return when we have sinned This much I thought meet to say for the sake of others who may fall into the same Temptations and Perplexities § 7. The Means by which God was pleased to give me some Peace and Comfort were 1. The Reading of many Consolatory Books 2. The observation of other Mens Condition When I heard many make the very same Complaints that I did who were People of whom I had the best esteem for the uprightness and holiness of their Lives it much abated my fears and troubles And in particular it much comforted me to read him whom I loved as one of the holiest of all the Martyrs Mr. Iohn Bradford subscribing himself so often The hard-hearted sinner and the miserable hard-hearted sinner even as I was used to do my self 3. And it much increased my peace when God's Providence called me to the comforting of many others that had the same Complaints While I answered their Doubts I answered my own and the Charity which I was constrained to exercise for them redounded to my self and insensibly abated my Fears and procured me an increase of quietness of Mind And yet after all I was glad of Probabilities instead of full undoubted Certainties and to this very day though I have no such degree of Doubtfulness as is any great trouble to my Soul or procureth any great disquieting Fears yet cannot I say that I have such a certainty of my own sincerity in Grace as excludeth all Doubts and Fears of the contrary § 8. At that time also God was pleased much to comfort and settle me by the acquaintance of some Reverend peaceable Divines Mr. Garbet aforesaid and Mr. George Baxter of Little Wenlock very holy men and peaceable who laboured faithfully with little success till they were above fourscore years of Age apiece especially old Mr. Samuel Smith sometime of Prittlewell in Essex but then of Cressage in Shropshire who hath written on the 6th of Hosea the first Psalm the 23d Psalm the 51st Psalm the 90th Psalm the Eunuch's Conversion Noah 's Dove the Great Assize and other Books This good Man was one of my most familiar Friends in whose Converse I took very much delight who was buried but this Winter 1664. at his Native place at Dudley in Worcestershire § 9. And because the Case of my Body had a great Operation upon my Soul and the History of it is somewhat necessary to the right understanding of the rest and yet it is not a Matter worthy to be oft mentioned I shall here together give you a brief Account of the most of my Afflictions of that kind reserving the mention of some particular Deliverances to the proper place I was naturally of a sound Constitution but very thin and lean and weak and especially of a great debility of the Nerves At seven years old I had the Measils and at fourteen the Small-pox I too soon after them went into the cold and after in a Loosness went into a River or Brook to wash me and I eat raw Apples and Pears and Plumbs in great quantities for many years All which together brought me into a violent Catarrh and Cough which would not let me sleep quietly in the Night When this had continued about two years my Body being very thin and Consumptions then common in the Country I was much afraid of a Consumption And first I did eat great store of raw Garlick which took off some part of my Cough but put an Acrimony into my Blood which naturally was acrimonious After this the Spitting of Blood increased my fears After that Sir Henry Herbert advised me to take the Flower of Brimstone which I continâ—ed till I had taken seven Ounces which took off most of the remainder of my Cough but increased the Acrimony of my Blood Then an unskilful Physician perswaded me that I had a Hectick and to cure that I took much Milk from the Cow and other pituitous cooling things and constantly anointed my Stomach and Reins with refrigerating Oils of Violets and Roses and was utterly restrained from my usual Exercise By this time I had an extream chilliness without and yet a strange scurf on my Tongue with a constant extream desire of stretching that I thought I could almost have endured a Rack and an incredible flatulency at the Stomach and a bleeding at the Nose The next Physician an Aged and Experinced Doctor was confident the Scurvy was my chief Distemper and thereupon prescribed me more Acrimonious Medicaments Scurvy-grass Horse-radish Mustard Wormwood c. which abundantly increased my bleeding at the Nose insomuch as I bled many times half a Pint or a Pint a day and it continuing long I was much weakned Yet under this fear of the Scurvy I continued two years taking excessive quantities of Acrimonious Things eating abundance of Mustard at every Meal and drinking only Wormwood-beer c. and using some Exercise as much as time would give me leave By this time divers
eminent Physicians agreed that my Disease was the Hypocondriack Melancholy and not the Scurvy To recite a Catalogue of my Symptoms and Pains from Head to Feet would be a tedious interruption to the Reader I shall therefore only say this that the Symptoms and Effects of my General Indisposition were very terrible such as a flatulent Stomach that turn'd all things into Wind a Rheumatick head to a very great degree and great sharpness in my Blood which occasioned me no small trouble by the excoriation of my Fingers ends which upon any heat I us'd or Aâ—omatick thing I took would be raw and bloody and every Spring and Fall or by any kind of heating my Nose still fell a bleeding and that with such a great violence and in such excessive quantities as often threatned my Life which I then ascribed to such Causes as I have since liv'd to see my self mistaken in for I am now fully satisfied that all proceeded from Latent Stones in my Reins occasioned by unsuitable Diet in my Youth And yet two wonderful Mercies I had from God 1. That I was never overwhelm'd with real Melancholy My Distemper never went so far as to possess me with any inordinate Fancies or damp me with sinking Sadness although the Physicians call'd it the Hypocondriack Melancholy I had at several times the Advice of no less than Six and thirty Physicians by whose order I us'd Druggs without number almost which God thought not fit to make successful for a Cure and indeed all Authors that I read acquainted me that my Disease was incurable whereupon I at last forsook the Doctors for the most part except when the urgency of a Symptom or Pain constrained me to seek some present ease 2. The second Mercy which I met with was that my Pains though daily and almost continual did not very much disable me from my Duty but I could Study and Preach and Walk almost as well if I had been free of which more anon At last falling into a sudden and great decay and debility I went to Sir Theodore Mayerne who kept me in a long Course of Physick which did me some good for the present and after that riding much in the Army did me some good than any thing But having one Symptom on me the constant excoriation of my three formost Fingers ends on both Hands to the raw flesh he sent me to Tunbridge-Waters where I staid three Weeks and after that my Defluctions and Agitation of the Serous Matter much encreased though the Excoriation ceased at that time and hastned my greater ruine Especially one Errour of his did me hurt He vehemently persswaded me to the eating of Apples which of all things in the World had ever been my most deadly Enemies so that when it was too late Dr. Mayerne perceived that though Acrimony disposed the matter yet meer flatulency pumped up the Blood and was the most immediate Cause of the Haemorrhagie Having taken cold with riding thin clothed in the Snow and having but two days eaten Apples before Meat as he perswaded me I fell into such a bleeding as continued six days with some fits of intermission so that about a Gallon of Blood that we noted was lost and what more I know not Upon this both he and other Physicians gave me up as hopeless through the weakness thereby occasioned and concluding that all would end in a Dropsie for my Leggs began to swellâ— By a Friend's perswasion I wrote to Dr. George Bates Archiater to King Charles the Second as Sir Theodore Mayerne was to King Charles the First who concurred so exactly in all points with Dr. Mayerne as if they had consulted the Case and the Medicaments prescribed being unusual that I marvelled at their Concord and by both their Counsels though neither of them had any considerable hope of my Life I was necessitated besides other Remedies to be oft in purging for all my weakness to prevent a Dropsie Within a quarter of a year I was able weakly to Preach again but continued divers years in languishing Pains and Weaknesses double or fourfold to what I had before So that besides all my former Inâ—â—â—mities ever after this Bleeding my chief Disease is a Praematura Senectus through the great Diminution of Nature's Stock And just the same Symptoms as most men have about Fourscore years of Age are added to those which I had before In some seeming Necessities my latter Physicians after all this did four or five times take some Blood from me and once a spoonful in about seven Ounces of Serum did coagulate but at no other time would one jot of it ever coagulate or cohere but was a meet putrilage sine fibris like thin Ink or Saw-pit Water To keep this Blood in the relaxed Vessels was now all my Cares which daily shed abroad upon my Eyes and Teeth and Jaws and Joynts so that I had scarce rest night or day of some of the Effects and my Remedy which God blessed to my ease I shall speak more afterward With such Blood in a kind of Atrophie which hath caused a very troublesome Drowsiness to seize upon and follow me I have lived now these many years and wrote all the Books that ever I wrote and done the greatest part of my Service My chiefest Remedies are 1. Temperance as to quantity and quality of Food for every bit or spoonful too much and all that is not exceeding easie of digestion and all that is flatulent do turn all to Wind and disorder my Head 2. Exercise till I sweat For if I walk not hard with almost all my strength an hour before Dinner and an hour before Super till I sweat well I am not able to digest two Meals and cannot expect to live when I am disabled for Exercise being presently overwhelmed with chilliness flatulency and serosity 3. A constant Extrinâ—ick Heat by a great Fire which may keep me still near to a Sweat if not in it for I am seldom well at ease but in a Sweat 4. Beer as hot as my Throat will endure drunk all at once to make me Sweat These are the Means which God hath used to draw out my days and give me ease with one Herb inwardly taken which I write for the sake of any Students that may be near the same Distempers but almost all Physick did me harm And no Aromatical Thing now can I taste but it setteth my Nose a bleeding though since I bled a Gallon I am not so prone to it as before I have cast in all this here together that the Reader may better understand other things and may not too oft be troubled with such Matters But now at the Age of near Seventy years what Changes and sad Days and Nights I undergo I after tell § 10. About the Eighteenth year of my Age Mr. Wickstead with whom I had lived at Ludlow had almost perswaded me to lay by all my Preparations for the Ministry and to go to London and get
acquaintance at Court and get some office as being the only rising way I had no mind of his Counsel who had helped me no better before yet because that they knew that he loved me and they had no great inclination to my being a Minister my Parents accepted of his Motion He told them that if I would go up and live a while with Sir Henry Herbert then Master of the Revels he would quickly set me in a rising way I would not be disobedient but went up and stayed at Whiteball with Sir H. H. about a month But I had quickly enough of the Court when I saw a Stage-Play instead of a Sermon on the Lord's-days in the Afternoon and saw what Course was there in fashion and heard little Preaching but what was as to one part against the Puritans I was glad to be gone And at the same time it pleased God that my Mother fell sick and desired my return and so I resolved to bid farewel to those kind of Employments and Expectations While I was in London I fell into Acquaintance with a sober godly understanding Apprentice of Mr. Philemon Stephens the Bookseller whose Name was Humphrey Blunden who is since turned an extraordinary Chymist and got Iacob Behem his Books translated and printed whom I very much loved and who by his Consolatory Letters and Directions for Books did afterwards do me the Offices of an useful Friend § 11. When I was going home again into the Country about Christmas-day the greatest Snow began that hath been in this Age which continued thence till Easter at which some places had it many yards deep and before it was a very hard Frost which necessitated me to Frost-nail my Horse twice or thrice a day On the Road I met a Waggon loaded where I had no passage by but on the side of a bank which as I passed over all my Horses feet split from under him and all the Girths brake and so I was cast just before the Waggon Wheel which had gone over me but that it pleased God that suddenly the Horses stopt without any discernable cause till I was recovered which commanded me to observe the Mercy of my Protector § 12. This mindeth me of some other Dangers and Deliverances which I past over At Seventeen years of Age as I rode out on a great unruly Horse for pleasure which was wont on a sudden to get the Bitt in his Teeth and set on running as I was in a Field of high Ground there being on the other side a Quick-set Hedge a very deep narrow Lane about a Stories height below me suddenly the Horse got the Bridle as aforesaid and set on running and in the midst of his running unexpectedly turned aside and leapt over the top of the Hedge into that deep Lane I was somewhat before him at the Ground and as the Mire saved me from the hurt beneath so it pleased God that the Horse never touched me but he light with two feet on one side of me and two on the other though the place made it marvellous how his feet could fall besides me § 13. While I look back to this it maketh me remember how God at that time did cure my inclination to Gaming About Seventeen years of Age being at Ludlow Castle where many idle Gentlemen had little else to do I had a mind to learn to play at Tables and the best Gamester in the House undertook to teach me As I remember the first or second Game when he had so much the better that it was an hundred to one besides the difference of our skills the standers by laugh'd at me as well as he for not giving it up and told me the Game was lost I knew no more but that it was not lost till all my Table-men were lost and would not give it over till then He told me that he would lay me an hundred to one of it and in good earnest laid me down ten shillings to my six pence As soon as ever the Money was down whereas he told me that there was no possibility of my Game but by one Cast often I had every Cast the same I wished and he had every one according to my desire so that by that time one could go four or five times about the Room his Game was gone which put him in so great an admiration that I took the hint and believed that the Devil had the ruling of the Dice and did it to entice me on to be a Gamester And so I gave him his Ten shillings again and resolved I would never more play at Tables whilst I lived § 14. But to return to the place where I left When I came home from London I found my Mother in extremity of Pain and spent that Winter in the hearing of her Heart-piercing Groans shut up in the great Snow which many that went abroad did perish in till on May the 10th she died At Kiderminster the Town being in want of fire went all to shovel the way over the Heath to Stone-bridge from whence their Coals come and so great and sudden a storm of Snow fell as overwhelmed them so that some perished in it and others saved their Lives by getting into a little Core that standeth on the Heath and others scaped home with much ado § 15. Above a year after the Death of my Mother my Father married a Woman of great Sincerity in the Fear of God Mary the Daughter of Sir Tho. Hunkes whose Holiness Mortification Contempt of the World and fervent Prayer in which she spent a great part of her Life have been so exceeding Exemplary as made her a Special Blessing to our Family an Honour to Religion and an honourable Pattern to those that knew her She lived to be 96 years old § 16. From the Age of 21 till near 23 my Weakness was so great that I expected not to live above a year and my own Soul being under the serious apprehension of the Matters of another World I was exceeding desirous to Communicate those Apprehensions to such ignorant presumptuous careless Sinners as the World aboundeth with But I was in a very great perplexity between my Encouragements and my Discouragements I was conscious of my personal insufficiency for want of that measure of Learning and Experience which so great and high a Work required I knew that the want of Academical Honours and Degrees was like to make me Contemptible with the most and consequently hinder the Success of my Endeavours But yet expecting to be so quickly in another World the great Concernments of miserable Souls did prevail with me against all these Impediments and being conscious of a thirsty desire of Mens Conversion and Salvation and of some competent perswading Faculty of Expression which â—ervent Affections might help to actuate I resolved that if one or two Souls only might be won to God it would easily recompence all the dishonour which for want of Titles I might undergo from Men And
strict against an Oath or Gaming or Plays or Drinking nor troubled themselves so much about the Matters of God and the World to come and the Ministers and People that were for the King's Book for Dancing and Recreations on the Lord's Days and those that made not so great a matter of every Sin but went to Church and heard Common Prayer and were glad to hear a Sermon which lasht the Puritans and which ordinarily spoke against this strictness and preciseness in Religion and this strict Observation of the Lord's Day and following Sermons and praying Ex tempore and talking so much of Scripture and the Matters of Salvation and those that hated and derided them that take these Courses the main Body of these were against the Parliament Not but that some such for Money or a Landlord's Pleasure served them as some few of the stricter sort were against them or not for them being Neuters but I speak of the notable Division through the Land If you ask how this came to pass it requireth a longer Answer than I think fit here to give But briefly Actions spring from natural Dispositions and Interest There is somewhat in the Nature of all worldly Men which maketh them earnestly defirous of Riches and Honours in the World and they that value them most will seek them and they that seck them are more like to find them than those that despise them and he that taketh the World and Preferment for his Interest will estimate and choose all means accordingly and where the World is predominant Gain goeth for Godliness and serious Religion which would mortifie their Sin is their greatest Enemy Yet Conscience must be quieted and Reputation preserved which can neither of them be done without some Religion Therefore such a Religion is necessary to such as is consistent with a worldly Mind which Outside-formality Lip-service and Hypocrisie is but Seriousness Sincerity and Spirituality is not On the other side there is that in the new Nature of a spiritual Believer which inclineth him to things above and causeth him to look at worldly Grandeur and Riches as things more dangerous than desirable and he is dead to the World and the World to him by the Cross of Christ no wonder therefore if few such attain great Matters in the World or ever come to Preferment or Greatness upon Earth And there is somewhat in them which maketh them more fearful of displeasing God than all the World and will not give them leave to stretch their Consciences or turn aside when the Interest or Will of Man requireth it And the Laws of Christ to which they are so devoted are of such a stream as cannot suit with carnal Interest There is an universal and radicated Enraity between the Carnal and the Spiritual the Serpent's and the Woman's Seed the fleshly Mind and the spiritual Law of God through all the World in all Generations Gen. 3. 15. Rom. 8. 6 7 8. Thus Enmity is found in England as well as in other Countries between the Godly and the Worldly Minds as he that was born after the Flesh did persecute him that was born after the Spirit even so was it here The vulgar Rabble of the carnal and prophane the Fornicators Drunkards Swearers c. did every where hate them that reproved their Sin and condemned them by a holy Life This Difference was universal and their Enmity implacable farther than common Grace abated it or special Grace cured it So that every where serious godly People that would not run with others to excess of Rvot were spoken against and derided by the Names of Precisians Zealot Over-strict the holy Brethren and other Terms of Scorn These things being supposed it unhappily fell out that in the Days of Queen Mary that we may fetch the matter ab origine our Reformers being Fugitives at Frankford fell into a Division One part of them were for Diocesans and the English Liturgy and Ceremonies that they might no more than needs depart from the Papists nor seem unconstant by departing from what King Edward had begun The other were for Calvin's Discipline and way of Worship for the setting up of a Parochial Discipline instead of a Diocesan and to have a Government in every particular Church and not only One over a Thousand or many Hundred Churches and for a plain and serious way of Worship suited as near as possible to God's Word When these two Parties returned into England the Diocesan Party got Queen Elizabeth's Countenance and were preferred and their way set up The other Party petitioned and hoped and waited but were discountenanced rebuked and by Law suppressed This lamentable Breach was never healed The discountenanced Party were servent Preachers of holy Lives and so were many of the Bishops also in those days But if those that succeeded them had been as holy and as diligent Preachers they had kept up their Honour and Places without such Assaults as they have undergone But when Iewel Pelkington Grindal and such like were dead many succeeded them whom the People took to be other kind of Men. And the silenced Disciplinarians as then they were called did by their Writings their secret Conference and Preaching and their Godly Lives work much upon such as were religiously addicted And moreover besides what they received from such Teachers there is I know not perfectly whence among the most of the Religious serious People of these Countreys a suspicion of all that is Ceremonious in God's Service and of all which they find not warrant for in Scripture and a greater inclination to a rational convincing earnest way of Preaching and Prayers than to the written Forms of Words which are to be read in Churches And they are greatly taken with a Preacher that speaketh to them in a familiar natural Language and exhorteth them as if it were for their Lives when another that readeth or faith a few composed Words in a reading Tone they hear almost as a Boy that is saying his Lesson And they are much perswaded that a just Parochial Discipline would greatly reform the Church and that Diocesans by excluding it cherish Vice Now upon the Difference between the Diocesans and the Disciplinarians the Diocesans found that their very Places and Power and Lands and Lordships were assaulted by the contrary Opinion and therefore they thought it necessary to suppress the Promoters of it And so putting Episcopacy Liturgy Ceremonies and all into the Subscriptions which they imposed on all that would be Ministers or Schoolmasters they kept and cast out very many worthy Men For some that were for Liturgy and Ceremonies were not for Diocesans but for Parish Discipline and some that were for Bishops were not for the Ceremonies and some that were for the rest yet scrupled some one and he that could not Subscribe to all was forbidden to preach the Gospel whereas in the mean time many Bishops preached very seldom and abundance of Places had ignorant Readers that could nor preach
and silly Preachers whose Performances were so mean that they had better kept to the Reading of the Homilies and many of these were of Scandalous Lives Hereupon the Disciplinarians cried out of the ignorant scandalous Ministers and almost all the scandalous Ministers and all that studied Preferment cried out of the Nonconformists The name Puritan was put upon them and by that they were commonly known when they had been called by that name awhile the vicious Multitude of the Ungodly called all Puritans that were strict and serious in a Holy Life were they ever so conformable So that the same name in a Bishops mouth signified a Nonconformist and in an ignorant Drunkards or Swearers mouth a godly obedient Christian. But the People being the greater number became among themselves the Masters of the Sense And in Spalatensi's time when he was decrying Calvinism he devised the name of Doctrinal Puritans which comprehended all that were against Arminianism Now the ignorant Rabble hearing that the Bishops were against the Puritans not having wit enough to know whom they meant were emboldened the more against all those whom they called Puritans themselves and their Rage against the Godly was increased and they cried up the Bishops partly because they were against the Puritans and partly because they were earnest for that way of Worship which they found most consistent with their Ignorance Carelesness and Sins And thus the Interest of the Diocesans and of the Prophane and Ignorant sort of People were unhappily twisted together in England And then on the other side as all the Nonconformists were against the Prelates so other of the most serious godly People were alienated from them on all these foresaid conjunct Accounts 1. Because they were derided and abused by the Name of Puritans 2. Because the Malignant Sort were permitted to make Religious Persons their common Scorn 3. Because they saw so many insufficient and vicious Men among the Conformable Clergy 4. Because they had a high esteem of the Parts and Piety of most of the Nonconformable Ministers 5. Because they grieved to see so many Excellent Men silenced while so many Thousand were perishing in Ignorance and Sin 6. Because though they took the Liturgy to be lawful yet a more orderly serious Scriptural way of Worship was much more pleasing to them 7. Because Fasting and Praying and other Exercises which they found much benefit by were so strictly lookt after that the High Commission and the Bishops Courts did make it much more perillous than common Swearing and Drunkenness proved to the Ungodly 8. Because the Book that was published for Recreations on the Lord's Day made them think that the Bishops concurred with the Prophane 9. Because Afternoon Sermons and Lectures though by Conformable Men began to be put down in divers Counties 10. Because so great a number of Conformable Ministers were suspended or punished for not reading the Book of Sports on Sundays or about Altars or such like and so many Thousand Families and many worthy Ministers driven out of the Land 11. Because when they saw Bowing towards Altars and the other Innovations added they feared worse and knew not where they would end 12. And lastly Because they saw that the Bishops proceeded so far as to swear Men to their whole Government by the Et caetera Oath and that they approved of Ship-money and other such incroachments on their Civil Interests All these upon my own knowledge were the true Causes why so great a number of those Persons who were counted most Religious fell in with the Parliament in England insomuch that the generality of the stricter diligent sort of Preachers joyned with them though not in medling with Arms yet in Judgment and in flying to their Garrisons and almost all those afterwards called Presbyterians were before Conformists Very few of all that Learned and Pious Synod at Westminster were Nonconformists before and yet were for the Parliament supposing that the Interest of Religion lay on that side Yet did they still keep up an honourable esteem of all that they thought Religious on the other side such as Bishop Davenant Bishop Hall Bishop Morton Archbishop Usher c. But as to the generality they went so unanimously the other way that upon my knowledge many that were not wise enough to understand the Truth about the Cause of the King and Parliament did yet run into the Parliaments Armies or take their part as Sheep go together for Company moved by this Argument Sure God will not suffer almost all his most Religious Servants to err in so great a matter And If all these should perish what will become of Religion But these were insufficient Grounds to go upon And abundance of the ignorant sort of the Country who were Civil did flock in to the Parliament and filled up their Armies afterward meerly because they heard Men swear for the Common Prayer and Bishops and heard others pray that were against them and because they heard the King's Soldiers with horrid Oaths abuse the name of God and saw them live in Debauchery and the Parliaments Soldiers flock to Sermons and talking of Religion and praying and singing Psalms together on their Guards And all the sober Men that I was acquainted with who were against the Parliament were wont to say The King hath the better Cause but the Parliament hath the better Men Aud indeed this unhappy Complication of the Interest of Prelacie and Prophaneness and Opposition of the Interest of Prelacie to the Temper of the generality of the Religious Party was the visible Cause of the overthrow of the King in the Eye of all the understanding World that ever was capable of observing it § 50. And whereas the King's Party usually say that it was the seditious Preachers that stirred up the People and were the Cause of all this I answer 1. It is partly true and partly not It is not true that they stirred them up to War except an inconsiderable Number of them one perhaps in a County if so much But it is true that they discovered their dislike of the Book of Sports and bowing to Altars and diminishing Preaching and silencing Ministers and such like and were glad that the Parliament attempted a Reformation of them 2. But then it is as true that almost all these were conformable Ministers the Laws and Bishops having cast out the Nonconformists long enough before insomuch that I know not of two Nonconformists in a County But those that made up the Assembly at Westminster and that through the Land were the Honour of the Parliaments Party were almost all such as had till then conformed and took those things to be lawful in case of necessity but longed to have that necessity removed § 51. When the War was beginning the Parties set Names of Contempt upon each other and also took such Titles to themselves and their own Cause as might be the fittest means for that which they designed The old Names of Puritans
the People this Protestation which caused some to be offended with me About that time the Parliament sent down an Order for the demolishing of all Statues and Images of any of the three Persons in the blessed Trinity or of the Virgin Mary which should be found in Churches or on the Crosses in Church-yards My Judgment was for the obeying of this Order thinking it came from just Authority but I medled not in it but left the Churchwarden to do what he thought good The Churchwarden an honest sober quiet Man seeing a Crucifix upon the Cross in the Church-yard set up a Ladder to have reacht it but it proved too short whilst he was gone to seek another a Crew of the drunken riotous Party of the Town poor Journey-men and Servants took the Allarm and run altogether with Weapons to defend the Crucifix and the Church Images of which there were divers left since the time of Popery They Report was among them that I was the Actor and it was me they sought but I was walking almost a mile out of Town or else I suppose I had there ended my days when they mist me and the Churchwarden both they went raving about the Streets to seek us Two Neighbours that dwelt in other Parishes hearing that they sought my Life ran in among them to see whether I were there and they knockt them both down in the Streets and both of them are since dead and I think never perfectly recovered that hurt When they had foamed about half an hour and met with none of us and were newly housed I came in from my walk and hearing the People Cursing at me in their Doors I wondered what the matter was but quickly found how fairly I had scaped The next Lord's Day I dealt plainly with them and laid open to them the quality of that Action and told them Seeing they so required me as to seek my Blood I was willing to leave them and save them from that Guilt But the poor Sots were so amazed and ashamed that they took on sorrily and were loth to part with me § 57. About this time the King's Declarations were read in our Market-place and the Reader a violent Country Gentleman seeing me pass the Streets stopt and said There goeth a Traitor without ever giving a syllable of Reason for it And the Commission of Array was set afoot for the Parliament medled not with the Militia of that Country the Lord Howard their Lieutenant not appearing Then the rage of the Rioters grew greater than before And in preparation to the War they had got the word among them Down with the Round-heads Insomuch that if a Stranger past in many places that had short Hair and a Civil Habit the Rabble presently cried Down with the Round-heads and some they knockt down in the open Streets In this Fury of the Rabble I was advised to withdraw a while from home whereupon I went to Glocester As I past but through a corner of the Suburbs of Worcester they that knew me not cried Down with the Round-heads and I was glad to spur on and be gone But when I came to Gloucester among Strangers also that had never known me I found a civil courteous and religious People as different from Worcester as if they had lived under another Government There I stayed a Month and whilst I was there many Pamphlets came out on both sides preparing for a War For the Parliaments Cause the principal Writing which very much prevailed was Observations written by Mr. Parker a Lawyer But I remember some Principles which I think he misapplieth as also doth Mr. Thomas Hooker Ecclis polit lib. 8. viz. That the King is singulis major but universis minor that he receiveth his Power from the People c. For I doubt not to prove that his Power is so immediately from God as that there is no Recipient between God and him to convey it to him Only as the King by his Charter maketh him a Mayor or Baliff whom the Corporation chuseth so God by his Law as an Instrument conveyeth Power to that Person or Family whom the People consent to and their Consent is but a Conditio sine quâ non and not any Proof that they are the Fountain of Power or that ever the governing Power was in them and therefore for my part I am satisfied that all Politicks err which tell us of a Magestas Realis in the People as distinct from the Majestas Personalis in the Governors And though it be true that quo ad naturalem bonitatem in genere Causae finalis the King be universis minor and therefore no War or Action is good which is against the common Good which is the end of all Government yet as to governing Power which is the thing in question the King is as to the People Universis Major as well as Singulis For if the Parliament have any Legislative Power it cannot be as they are the Body or People as Mr. Tho. Hooker ill supposeth who lib. 1. Polit. Eccles. maketh him a Tyrant that maketh Laws himself without the Body but it is as the Constitution twisteth them into the Government For if once Legislation the chief Act of Government be denied to be any part of Government at all and affirmed to belong to the People as such who are no Governors all Government will hereby be overthrown Besides these Observations no Books more advantaged the Parliament's Cause than a Treatise of Monarchy afterwards published and Mr. Prin's large Book of the Soveraign Power of Parliaments wherein he heapeth up Multitudes of Instances of Parliaments that exercised Soveraign Power At this time also they were every where beginning the Contention between the Commission of Array and the Parliaments Militia In Gloucestershire the Country came in for the Parliament In Worcestershire Herefordshire and Shropshire they were wholly for the King and none to any purpose moved for the Parliament § 58. Whilst I was at Gloucester I saw the first Contentions between the Ministers and Anabaptists that ever I was acquainted with For these were the first Anabaptists that ever I had seen in any Country and I heard but of few more in those parts of England About a dozen young Men or more of considerable Parts had received the Opinion against Infant Baptism and were re-baptized and laboured to draw others after them not far from Gloucester And the Minister of the Place Mr. Winnel being hot and impatient with them hardened them the more He wrote a considerable Book against them at that time But England having then no great Experience of the tendency and consequents of Annabaptistry the People that were not of their Opinion did but pity them and think it was a Conceit that had no great harm in it and blamed Mr. Winnel for his Violence and Asperity towards them But this was the beginning of the Miseries of Gloucester for the Anabaptists somewhat increasing on one side before I came away
that was the fourth Sect the Quakers who were but the Ranters turned from horrid Prophaneness and Blasphemy to a Life of extream Austerity on the other side Their Doctrines were mostly the same with the Ranters They make the Light which every Man hath within him to be his sufficient Rule and consequently the Scripture and Ministry are set light by They speak much for the dwelling and working of the Spirit in us but little of Justification and the Pardon of Sin and our Reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ They pretend their dependance on the Spirit 's Conduct against Set-times of Prayer and against Sacraments and against their due esteem of Scripture and Ministry They will not have the Scripture called the Word of God Their principal Zeal lyeth in railing at the Ministers as Hirelings Deceivers False Prophets c. and in refusing to Swear before a Magistrate or to put off their Hat to any or to say You instead of Thou or Thee which are their words to all At first they did use to fall into Tremblings and sometime Vomitings in their Meetings and pretended to be violently acted by the Spirit but now that is ceased they only meet and he that pretendeth to be moved by the Spirit speaketh and sometime they say nothing but sit an hour or more in silence and then depart One while divers of them went Naked through divers chief Towns and Cities of the Land as a Prophetical act Some of them have famished and drowned themselves in Melancholy and others undertaken by the Power of the Spirit to raise them as Susan Pierson did at Claines near Worcester where they took a Man out of his Grave that had so made away himself and commanded him to arise and live but to their shame Their chief Leader Iames Nayler acted the part of Christ at Bristol according to much of the History of the Gospel and was long laid in Bridewell for it and his Tongue bored as a Blasphemer by the Parliament Many Franciscan Fryers and other Papists have been proved to be Disguised Speakers in their Assemblies and to be among them and it 's like are the very Soul of all these horrible Delusions But of late one William Penn is become their Leader and would reform the Sect and Set up a kind of Ministry among them § 124. The fifth Sect are the Bethmenists whose Opinions go much toward the way of the former for the Sufficiency of the Light of Nature the Salvation of Hearthens as well as Christians and a dependence on Revelations c. But they are fewer in Number and seem to have attained to greater Meekness and conquest of Passions than any of the rest Their Doctrine is to be seen in Iacob Behmen's Books by him that hath nothing else to do than to bestow a great deal of time to understand him that was not willing to be easily understood and to know that his bombasted words do signifie nothing more than before was easily known by common familiar terms The chiefest of these in England are Dr. Pordage and his Family who live together in Community and pretend to hold visible and sensible Communion with Angels whom they sometime see and sometime smell c. Mr. Fowler of Redding accused him before the Committee for divers things as for preaching against Imputed Righteousness and perswading married Persons from the Carnal Knowledge of each other c. but especially for Familiarity with Devils or Conjuration The Doctor wrote a Book to vindicate himself in which he professeth to have sensible Communion with Angels and to know by sights and smells c. good Spirits from bad But he saith that indeed one Month his House was molested with Evil Spirits which was occasioned by one Everard whom he taketh to be a Conjurer who stayed so long with him as desiring to be of their Communion In this time he saith that a fiery Dragon so big as to fill a very great Room conflicted visibly with him many hours that one appeared to him in his Chamber in the likeness of Everard with Boots Spurs c. that an impression was made on the Brick-wall of his Chimney of a Coach drawn with Tygers and Lions which could not be got out till it was hewed out with Pick-Axes and another on his Glass-window which yet remaineth c. Whether these things be true or false I know not but the chief Person of the Doctor 's Family-Communion being a Gentleman and Student of All Souls in Oxford was thus made known to me His Mother being a sober pious Woman being dissatisfied with his way could prevail with him to suffer her to open it to none but me of whole Conversion to them their Charity was much desirous Upon discourse with the young man I found a very good Disposition aspiring after the highest Spiritual state and thinking that visible Communion with Angels was it he much expected it and protest in some measure to have attained it for some lights and odd sights he had seen but upon strict Examination he knew not whether it were with the Eye of the Body or of the Mind nor I knew not whether it were any thing real or but fantastical He would not dispute because he thought he knew things by a higher light than Reason even by Intuition by the extraordinary Irradiation of the Mind He was much against Propriety and against Relations of Magistrates Subjects Husbands Wives Masters Servants c. But I perceived he was a young raw Scholar of some Fryar whom he understood not and when he should but have commended the Perfection of a Monastical Life which is the thing that they so highly magnifie he carried it too far and made it seem more necessary than he should They then professed to wait for such a Coming down of the holy Ghost upon them as should send them out as his Missionaries to unite and reconcile and heal the Churches and do wonders in the World But its fifteen years ago and yet they are latent and their work undone § 125. Among these fall in many other Sect-makers as Dr. Gell of London known partly by a printed Volume in Folio and one Mr. Parker who got in to the Earl of Pembroke and was one that wrote a Book against the Assemblies Confession In which as the rest he taketh up most of the Popish Doctrines and riseth up against them with Papal Pride and Contempt but owneth not the Pope himself but headeth his Body of Doctrine with the Spirit as the Papists do with the Pope And if they could bring men to receive the rest it will be easie to spurn down the Idol of their Fantasie or pretended Spirit and to set on the proper Head again To these also must be added Dr. Gibbon who goeth about with his Scheme to Proselyte men whom I have more cause to know than some of the rest All these with subtile Diligence promote most of the Papal Cause and get in with the Religious sort
Journey-men from hand to mouth but only that they laboured not altogether so hard And it is the Poor that receive the glad Tidings of the Gospel and that are usually rich in faith and heirs of the heavenly riches which God hath promised to them that love him Iames 2. 5. Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the Iudgment Seats As Mr. George Herbert saith in his Church Militant Gold and the Gospel never did agree Religion always sides with Poverty Usually the Rich are Proud and Obstinate and will not endure the due Conduct of the Ministry Let them be never so ignorant they must not be crost in their Conceits and Way and if they be they storm and raise Persecution upon it or at least draw away a Faction after them Let them be never so Guilty unless it be some swinish inexcusable Sin they will not endure to be told of it Their Gentility seemeth to allow them in the three or four Sins of Sodom Pride Fulness of Bread and Abundance of Idleness and not considering the Poor and Needy And their fulness and idleness tempt them to further Voluptuousness and Sensuality to Filthiness or to Time wasting needless kinds of Sports And they must not be crost in any of this Do but offer to Exercise Christ's Discipline upon any of these and tell them of their Faults alone and then before two or three and when they hear not tell the Church and you will make them hate both you and Discipline and say you affect a Domination and to trample upon your Superiours and are as proud as Popes Christ knew what he said when he said How hardly shall a Rich Man enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Even as a Camel through the Eye of a Needle But if a poor man be bad and hate both Piety and Reproof yet his opposition is not so fierce or so significant he maketh not so much ado nor engageth so many with him nor is so much regarded by the rest One Knight Sir R. C. which lived among us did more to hinder my greater Successes than a multitude of others could have done Though he was an old Man of great Courtship and Civility and very temperate as to Dyet Apparel and Sports and seldom would Swear any lowder than By his Troth c. and shewed me much Personal Reverence and Respect beyond my desert and we conversed together with Love and Familiarity yet having no relish of this Preciseness and Extemporary Praying and making so much ado for Heaven nor liking that which went beyond the pace of Saying the Common Prayer and also the Interest of himself and his Civil and Ecclesiastical Parties leading him to be ruled by Dr. Hammond his coming but once a day to Church on the Lord's days and his Abstaining from the Sacrament c. as if we kept not sufficiently to the old way and because we used not the Common Prayer Book when it would have caused us to be Sequestred did cause a great part of the Parish to follow him and do as he did when else our Success and Concord would have been much more happy than it was And yet Civility and yielding much beyond others of his Party sending his Family to be Catechized and personally Instructed did sway with the worst almost among us to do the like Indeed we had two other Persons of Quality that came from other places to live there and were truly and judiciously Religious who did much good Col. Iohn Bridges and at last Mrs. Hanmer For when the Rich are indeed Religious and overcome their Temptations as they may be supposed better than others because their Conquest is greater so they may do more good than others because their Talents are more But such comparatively are always few 28. Another thing that helped me was my not medling with Tythes or Worldly Business whereby I had my whole time except what Sickness deprived me of for my Duty and my Mind more free from Entanglements than else it would have been and also I escaped the offending of the People and contending by any Law Suits with them And I found also that Nature it self being Conscious of the Baseness of its Earthly Disposition doth think basely of those whom it discerneth to be Earthly and is forced to Reverence those whose Converse is supposed to be most with God and Heaven Three or Four of my Neighbours managed all those kind of Businesses of whom I never took Account and if any one denied to pay their Tythes if they were poor I ordered them to forgive it them After that I was constrained to let the Tythes be gathered as by my Title to save the Gatherers from Law-Suits But if they were able I ordered them to seek it by the Magistrate with the Damage and give both my Part and the Damages to the Poor for I resolved to have none of it my self that was recovered by Law and yet I could not tollerate the Sacriledge and Fraud of covetous Men But when they knew that this was the Rule I went by none of them would do the Poor so great a Kindness as to deny the Payment of their Tythes that were able And in my Family I had the Help of my Father and Mother in Law and the Benefit of a godly understanding faithful Servant an ancient Woman near Sixty Years old who eased me of all Care and laid out all my Money for House-keeping so that I never had one Hour's trouble about it nor ever took one Day 's Account of her for Fourteen Years together as being certain of her Fidelity Providence and Skill 29. And it much furthered my Success that I stayed still in this one Place near Two Years before the Wars and above Fourteen Years after for he that removeth oft from Place to Place may sow good Seed in many Places but is not like to see much Fruit in any unless some other skilful Hand shall follow him to water it It was a great Advantage to me to have almost all the Religious People of the Place of my own Instructing and Informing and that they were not formed into erroneous and factious Principles before and that I stayed to see them grown up to some Confirmedness and Maturity 30. Lastly Our Successes were enlarged beyond our own Congregations by the Lectures kept up round about To divers of them I went as oft as I was able and the Neighbour Ministers ofter than I especially Mr. Oasland of Bewdley who having a strong Body a zealous Spirit and an earnest Utterance went up and down Preaching from Place to Place with great Acceptance and Success But this Business also we contrived to be universally and orderly managed For besides the Lectures set up on Week-days fixedly in several Places we studied how to have it extend to every Place in the County that had need For you must understand that when the Parliament purged the Ministry they cast out the grosser sort of insufficient and scandalous ones
as their Estates and Honour and Lives came to to have stood it out to the very utmost that had professed so much of their Wisdom and Religiousness and had declared such high Resolutions against Monarchy I say that such an Army should have one Commander among themselves whom they accounted not Religious that should march against them without Resistance and that they should all stand still and let him come on and restore the Parliament and bring in the King and disband themselves and all this without one bloody Nose Let any Man that hath the use of his Understanding judge whether this were not enough to prove that there is a God that governeth the World and disposeth of the Powers of the World according to his Will And let all Men behold this Pillar of Salt and standing Monument of Divine Revenge and take heed of over-valuing Human Strength and of ever being puffed up by Victories and Success or of being infatuated by Spiritual Pride and Faction And let all Men take warning how they trample upon Government rebel against it or vilifie the Ministers and Ordinances of Christ and proudly despise the Warnings of their Brethren § 152. And at the same time while Monk was marching against them into England the sober godly Officers of Ireland were impatient of the Anabaptists Tyranny So that Col. Iohn Bridges the Patron of Kidderminster with his Lieutenant Thompson and some few more Officers resolved upon a desperate surprizal of Dublin Castle which the Anabaptists possest with most of the strong Holds and so happily succeeded that without any bloodshed they got the Castle And that being won the rest of the Garrisons of all the whole Kingdom yielded without any loss of Blood and unless one or two without so much as any appearance of a Siege Thus did God make his wonders to concur in time and manner and shewed the World the instability of those States which are built upon an Army He that will see more of this Surprize of Dublin Castle may read it as printed by Colonel Bridges in a short Narrative Had it not been for that Action it is probable that Ireland would have been the Refuge and Randezvouz for the disbanded or fugitive Army and that there they would not only have maintained the War but have imbodied against England and come over again with Resolutions heightned by their Warnings The Reward that Col. Bridges had for this Service was the peaceful Testimony of his Conscience and a narrow escape from being utterly ruined being sued as one that after Edghill Fight had taken the King's Goods in an Action of Fourscore Thousand pound But all was proved false and he being cleared by the Court did quickly after die of a Fever at Chester and go to a more peaceable and desirable World § 153. For my own Actions and Condition all this time I have partly shewed them in the Second Part How I was called up to London and what I did there and with how little Success I there continued my Pacificatory Endeavours When I had lived there a few Weeks I fell into another fit of Bleeding which though it was nothing so great as formerly yet after my former depauperation by that means and great debility did weaken me much Being restored by the mercy of God and the help of Dr. Bates and the moss of a dead man's skull which I had from Dr. Michlethwait I went to Mr. Thomas Foley's House where I lived in Austin-Fryars about a year and thence to Dr. Michlethwait's House in Little Brittain where I tabled about another year and thence to Moorfields and thence to Action from which being at the present driven by the Plague I wait for the further disposal of my Almighty and most Gracious Lord. § 154. And now I shall annex for the Reader 's satisfaction an Account of my Books and Writings on what occasion they were written and what I now judge of them on a review and after so much sopposition § 155. The Books which I have written and those that are written against me are so numerous that I confess if they plead not to the Reader for themselves I cannot easily excuse my putting the World to so much trouble And I was once almost faln out with my self when I saw such abundance of Sermon Books printed in Oliver's days because I concurred with them in over-loading the World But God was pleased to keep me from Repentance by their Success and since then I am more Impenitent herein than ever as seeing more of the reason of God's disposal than I saw before For since so many hundred Ministers are silenced and an Act is now past in the Parliament to forbid us coming withing five miles of any City Corporation or Burgess Town and a former Act forbiddeth us speaking to above four that are not of a Family and knowing what Persons are Ministers in many of our places I now bless God that his poor Servants have the private help of Books which are the best Teachers under God that many thousand Persons have And whereas there are about Fifty Books as I remember that in whole or in part are written against me or some Passages in mine I bless the Lord that they have not disturbed or discomposed my mind nor any more hindered me from my greater duty by Replies nor been altogether unprofitable to me And that none of them nor all of them any whit disabled me from the Service of God by diminishing my Estimation with those that I have opportunity to serve or with the common Readers that may profit by my Labours but only with the Members of the several Factions Some are written against me by Quakers Iames Nayler and many others Some by Clement Writer and other Seekers and Infidels Some by Papists some by Anabaptists Mr. Tombes Fisher and many others some by Reverend Brethren that understood not all Points of Doctrine as I did which-ever of us was in the right as Mr. Rutherford Mr. Blake Mr. Burgess Dr. Kendall c. some by Antinomians and some by Separatists and some by good Men that were but half possest with their Opinions as Mr. Eires Mr. Crandon Mr. Warner c. some by proud impatient Men and some by the Prelatical Party some by young Men that wanted Preferment and thought that this was the way to get it and some by obscure Men that desired to be taken notice of and some by Flatterers that desired to please others on whom they did depend and some by malicious blood-thirsty Calumniators some by factious Temporizers as Stubbs Rogers Needham c. and abundance by erroneous impatient Men that could not endure to be contradicted in their Mistakes To many of these I have returned Answers and that some others remain unanswered is through the restraint of the Press § 156. The first Book that ever I published is a small one called Aphorisms of Iustification and the Covenants c. I had first begun my Book called The Saints
the Shell to a few more than else they would do Whereas upon my deepest search I am satisfied that a Credible Profession of true Christianity is it that denominateth the Adult visible Christians And that this must contain Assent and Consent even all that is in the Baptismal Covenant and no more and therefore Baptism is called our Christning But withal that the Independants bring in Tyranny and Confusion whilst they will take no Profession as Credible which hath not more to make it credible than God and Charity require And that indeed every man's word is to be taken as the Credible Profession of his own mind unless he forfeit the Credit of his word by gross ignorance of the Matter professed or by a Contrary Profession or by an inconsistent Life And therefore a Profession is credible as such of it self till he that questioneth it doth disprove it Else the Rules of Humane Converse will be overthrown for who knoweth the Heart of another so well as he himself And God who will save or damn men not for other mens Actions but their own will have mens own choosing or refusing to be their inlet or exclusion both as to Saving Mercy and to a Church state And if they be Hypocrites in a false Profession the sin and loss will be their own But I confess mens Credibility herein hath very various degrees But though my fears are never so great that a man dissembleth and is not sincere yet if I be not able to bring in that Evidence to invalidate his Profession which in foro Ecclesiae shall prove it to be incredible I ought to receive him as a credible Professor though but by a Humane and perhaps most debile Belief § 172. 17. After that I published four Disputations of Justification clearing up further those Points in which some Reverend Brethren blamed my Judgment and answering Reverend Mr. Burgess who would needs write somewhat against me in his Treatise of Imputed Righteousness and also answering a Treatise of Mr. Warner's of the Office and Object of Iustifying Faith The Fallacies that abuse many about those Points are there fully opened If the Reader would have the Sum of my Judgment about Justification in brief he may find it very plainly in a Sermon on that Subject among the Morning Exercises at St. Giles's in the Fields preached by my worthy Friend Mr. Gibbons of Block-Fryars in whose Church I ended my Publick Ministry a Learned Judicious Man now with God And it is as fully opened in a Latin Disputation of Monsieur le Blanc's of Sedan and Placaeus in Thes. Salmur Vol. 1. de Iustif. hath much to the same purpose § 173. 18. Near the same time I published a Treatise of Conversion being some plain Sermons on that Subject which Mr. Baldwin an honest young Minister that had lived in my House and learnt my proper Characters or short-hand in which I wrote my Sermon Notes had transcribed out of my Notes And though I had no leisure for this or other Writings to take much care of the stile nor to add any Ornaments or Citations of Authors I thought it might better pass as it was than not at all and that if the Author mist of the Applause of the Learned yet the Book might be profitable to the Ignorant as it proved through the great Mercy of God § 174. 19. Also I published a shorter Treatise on the same Subject entituled A Call to the Unconverted c. The Occasion of this was my Converse with Bishop Usher while I was at London who much appoving my Method or Directions for Peace of Conscience was importunate with me to write Directions suited to the various States of Christians and also against particular Sins I reverenced the Man but disregarded these Persuasions supposing I could do nothing but what is done as well or better already But when he was dead his Words went deeper to my Mind and I purposed to obey his Counsel yet so as that to the first sort of Men the Ungodly I thought vehement Persuasions meeter than Directions only And so for such I published this little Book which God hath blessed with unexpected Success beyond all the rest that I have written except The Saints Rest In a little more than a Year there were about twenty thousand of them printed by my own Consent and about ten thousand since besides many thousands by stollen Impressions which poor Men stole for Lucre sake Through God's Mercy I have had Informations almost whole Housholds converted by this small Book which I set so light by And as if all this in England Scotland and Ireland were not Mercy enough to me God since I was silenced hath sent it over on his Message to many beyond the Seas for when Mr. Elliot had printed all the Bible in the Indians Language he next translated this my Call to the Unconverted as he wrote to us here And though it was here thought prudent to begin with the Practice of Piety because of the envy and distaste of the times against me he had finished it before that Advice came to him And yet God would make some farther use of it for Mr. Stoop the Pastor of the French Church in London being driven hence by the displeasure of Superiors was pleased to translate it into elegant French and print it in a very curious Letter and I hope it will not be unprofitable there nor in Germany where it is printed in Dutch § 175. 20. After this I thought according to Bishop Usher's Method the next sort that I should write for is those that are under the work of Conversion because by Half-Conversion Multitudes prove deceived Hypocrites Therefore I published a small Book entituled Directions and persuasions to a sound Conversion which though I thought more apt to move than the former yet through the Fault of the covetous Booksellers and because it was held at too high a Price which hindred many other of my Writings there were not past two or three Impressions of them sold. § 176. 21. About that time being apprehensive how great a part of our Work lay in catechising the Aged who were Ignorant as well as Children and especially in serious Conference with them about the Matters of their Salvation I thought it best to draw in all the Ministers of the Country with me that the Benefit might extend the farther and that each one might have the less Opposition Which having procured at their desire I wrote a Catechism and the Articles of our Agreement and before them an earnest Exhortation to our Ignorant People to submit to this way for we were afraid lest they would not have submitted to it And this was then published The Catechism was also a brief Confession of Faith being the Enlargement of a Confession which I had before printed in an open Sheet when we set up Church Discipline § 177. 22. When we set upon this great Work it was thought best to begin with a Day of Fasting and
Prayer by all the Ministers at Worcester where they desired me to preach But Weakness and other things hindered me from that Day but to compensate that I enlarged and published the Sermon which I had prepared for them and entitled the Treatise Gildas Salvianus because I imitated Gildas and Salvianus in my Liberty of Speech to the Pastors of the Churches or The reformed Pastor I have very great Cause to be thankful to God for the Success of that Book as hoping many thousand Souls are the better for it in that it prevailed with many Ministers to set upon that Work which I there exhort them to Even from beyond the Seas I have had Letters of Request to direct them how they might bring on that Work according as that Book had convinced them that it was their Duty If God would but reform the Ministry and set them on their Duties zealously and faithfully the People would certainly be reformed All Churches either rise or fall as the Ministry doth rise or fall not in Riches and worldly Grandure but in Knowledge Zeal and Ability for their Work But since Bishops were restored this Book is useless and that Work not medled with § 178. 23. When the part of the Parliament called the Rump or Common-wealth was sitting the Anabaptists Seekers c. flew so high against Tythes and Ministry that it was much feared lest they would have prevailed at last Wherefore I drew up a Petition for the Ministry which is printed under the Name of the Worcestershire Petition which being presented by Coll. Iohn Bridges and Mr. Thomas Foley was accepted with Thanks and seemed to have a considerable tendency to some good Resolutions § 179. But the Sectaries greatly regard against that Petition and one wrote a vehement Invective against it which I answered in a Paper called The Defence of the Worcestershire Petition which by an Over-sight is mained by the want of the Answer to one of the Accusers Queries I knew not what kind of Person he was that I wrote against but it proved to be a Quaker they being just now rising and this being the first of their Books as far as I can remember that I had ever-seen § 180. 24. Presently upon this the Quakers began to make a great Stirr among us and acted the Parts of Men in Raptures and spake in the manner of Men inspired and every where railed against Tythes and Ministers They sent many Papers of Queries to divers Ministers about us And to one of the chief of them I wrote an Answer and gave them as many more Questions to answer entiâ—uling it The Quakers Catechism These Pamphlets being but one or two Days Work were no great Interruption to my better Labours and as they were of small Worth so also of small Cost The same Ministers of our Country that are now silenced are they that the Quakers most vehemently opposed medling little with the rest The marvellous concurrence of Instruments telleth us that one principal Agent doth act them all I have oft asked the Quakers lately why they chose the same Ministers to revile whom all the Drunkards and Swearers rail against And why they cryed out in our Assemblies Come down thou Deceiver thou Hireling thou Dog and now never meddle with the Pastors or Congregations And they answer 1. That these Men sin in the open Light and need none to discover them 2. That the Spirit hath his times both of Severity and of Lenity But the Truth is they knew then they might be bold without any Fear of Suffering by it And now it is time for them to save their Skins they suffer enough for their own Assemblies 181. 25. The great Advancement of the Popish Interest by their secret agency among the Sectaries Seekers Quakers Behmenists c. did make me think it necessary to do something directly against Popery and so I published three Disputations against them one to prove our Religion safe and another to prove their Religion unsafe and a third to shew that they overthrew the Faith by the ill Resolution of their Faith This Book I entituled The safe Religion § 182. 26. About the same time I fell into troublesom Acquaintance with one Clement Writer of Worcester an ancient Man that had long seemed a forward Professor of Religiousness and of a good Conversation but was now perverted to I know not what A Seeker he profest to be but I easily perceived that he was either a jugling Papist or an Infidel but I more suspected the latter He had written a scornful Book against the Ministry called Ius Divinum Presbyterii and after two more against the Scripture and against me one called Fides Divina the other 's Title I remember not His Assertion to me was that no Man is bound to believe in Christ that doth not see confirming Miracles himself with his own Eyes By the Provocations of this Apostate I wrote a Book called The unreasanableness of Infidelity consisting of four Parts The first of the extrinsick Witness of the Spirit by Miracles c. to which I annexed a Disputation against Clement Writer to prove that the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles oblige us to believe that did not see them The Second part was of the intrinsick Witness of the Spirit to Christ and Scripture The Third was of the Sin or Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost And the Fourth was to repress the Arrogancy of reasoning against Divine Revelations All this was intended but as a Supplement to the Second Part of The Saints Rest where I had pleaded for the Truth of Scripture But this Subject I have since more fully handled in my Reasons of the Christian Religion At the time Mr. Gilbert a learned Minister in Shropshire wrote a Small concise Tractate in Latin as against a Book of Dr. Owen's though his intimate Friend to prove that Christ's Death was not necessary absolutely but of Divine Free Choice and in answer to that Book I wrote a brief Premonition to my Treatise against Infidelity to decide that Controversy § 183. 27. Mr. Tho. Foley being High Sheriff desired me to preach before the Judges which I did on Gal. 6. 16. and enlarged it to a Treatise entituled The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ for Mortification and put an Epistle somewhat large before it to provoke rich Men to good Works § 184. 28. Some Men about this time persuaded me that if I would write a few single Sheets on several Subjects though the Style were not very moving yet it would do more good than larger Volumes because most people will buy and read them who will neither buy nor read the larger Whereupon I wrote first One Sheet against the Quakers containing those Reasons which should satisfie all Sober Men against their way § 185. 29. The Second Sheet I called A Winding Sheet for Popery containing a Summary of Moderate and Effectual Reasons against Popery which single sheet no Papist hitherto hath answered §
I do believe all the Sacred Canonical Scripture which all Christian Churches do receive and particularly I believe in God the Father Almighty c. The second Part instead of Books of unnecessary Canons containeth seven or eight Points of Practice for Church-Order which so it be practised it is no great matter whether it be subscribed or not And here it must be understood that these are written for Times of Liberty in which Agreement rather than Force doth procure Unity and Communion The third Part containeth the larger-Description of the Office of the Ministry and consequently of all the Ordinances of Worship which need not be subscribed but none should preach against it nor omit the practice except Peace require that the Point of Infant Baptism be left free This small Book is called by the Name of Universal Concord which when I wrote I thought to have published a Second Part viz. a large Volume containing the particular Terms of Concord between all Parties capable of Concord But the Change of the Times hath necessarily changed that purpose § 198. 42. The next published was a Sermon before the Parliament the day before they voted in the King being a Day of Humiliation appointed to that end It is called A Sermon of Repentance of which more afterward § 199. 43. The next published was a Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen at Pauls being on their Day of Rejoycing for General Monk's Success to bring in the King It is called A Sermon of Right Rejoycing § 200. 44. The next was a Sermon of the Life of Faith preached before the King being all that every I was called to preach before him when I had been sworn his Chaplain in Ordinary of which more afterward § 201. 45. The next was called A Believer's last Work being prepared for the Funeral of Mrs. Mary Hanmer Mother to my Wife then intended but after married Its use is to prepare for a Comfortable Death § 202. 46. Before this which I forgot in its proper place I published a Treatise of Death called The last Enemy to be overcome shewing the true Nature of the Enmity of Death and its uses Being a Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Elizabeth Baker Wife to Mr. Ioseph Baker Minister at Worcester with some Notes of her Life § 203. 47. Another was called The vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite A Discovery of the Nature and Mischief of a Formal vain Religion preached at Westminister-Abby with a Sermon annexed of the Prosperity of Fools This being preached at Covent-Garden was unjustly accused and published by way of Vindication with the former § 204. 48. The next was a Treatise on Luke 10. 42. One thing is needful called A Saint or a Bruit shewing the Necessity Utility Safety Honour and Pleasure of a Holy Life and evincing the Truth of our Religion against Atheists and Infidels and Prophane ones § 205. 49. The next was a Treatise of Self-knowledge preached at Dunstan's West called The Mischiefs of Self-ignorance and Benefits of Self-acquaintance which was published partly to vindicate it from many false Accusations and partly at the desire of the Countess of Balcarres to whom it was directed It was fitted to the Disease of this â—urious Age in which each man is ready to devour others because they do not know themselves § 206. 50. The next was a Treatise called The Divine Life which containeth three Parts The first is of the Right Knowledge of God for the imprinting of his Image on the Soul by the knowledge of his Attributes c. The second is Of walking with God The third is Of improving Solitude to converse with God when we are forsaken by all Friends or separated from them The Occasion of the publishing of this Treatise was this The Countess of Balcarres being going into Scotland after her adobe in England being deeply sensible of the loss of the Company of those Friends which she left behind her desired me to preach the last Sermon which she was to hear from me on those words of Christ Iohn 16. 32. Behold the hour cometh yea is now come that ye shall be Scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone and yet I am not alone because the Father is with me At her request I preached on this Text and being afterward desired by her to give it her in Writing and the Publication being her design I prefixed the two other Treatises to make it more considerable and published them together The Treatise is upon the most Excellent Subject but not elaborate at all being but Popular Sermons preached in the midst of diverting Businesses Accusations and malicious Clamours When I offered it to the Press I was fain to leave out the quantity of one Sermon in the end of the second Treatise That God took Henoch wherein I shewed what a mercy it is to one that hath walked with God to be taken to him from this World because it is a dark a wicked a malicious and implacable a treacherous deceitful World c. All which the Bishop's Chaplain must have expunged because men would think it was all spoken of them And so the World hath got a Protection against the force of our Baptismal Vow § 207. Because I have said so much in the Epistles of these two Books of the Countess of Balcarres the Reader may expect some further satisfaction of her Quality and the Cause She is Daughter to the late Earl of Seaforth in Scotland towards the High-lands and was married to the Earl of Balcarres a Covenanter but an Enemy to Cromwell's perfidiousness and true to the Person and Authority of the King with the Earl of Glencarne he kept up the last War for the King against Cromwell and his Lady through dearness of Affection marched with him and lay out of doors with him on the Mountains At last Cromwell drove them out of Scotland and they went together beyond Sea to the King where they long followed the Court and he was taken for the Head of the Presbyterians with the King and by evil Instruments fell out with the Lord Chancellor who prevailing against him upon some advantage he was for a time forbidden the Court the Grief whereof added to the Distempers he had contracted by his Warfare on the cold and hungry Mountains cast him into a Consumption of which he died He was a Lord of excellent Learning Judgment and Honesty none being praised equally with him for Learning and Understanding in all Scotland When the Earl of Lauderdaile his near Kinsman and great Friend was Prisoner in Portsmouth and Windsor-Castle he fell into acquaintance with my Books and so valued them that he read them all and took Notes of them and earnestly commended them to the Earl of Balcarres with the King The Earl of Balcarres met at the first sight with some Passages where he thought I spake too favourably of the Papists and differed from many other Protestants and so cast them by and sent the
the Saints Rest where I have not said half that should have been said and the Reason was because that I had not read any of the fuller sort of Books that are written on those Subjects nor conversed with those that knew more than my self and so all those things were either new or great to me which were common and small perhaps to others and because they all came in by the way of my own Study of the naked matter and not from Books they were apt to affect my mind the more and to seem greater than they were And this Token of my Weakness accompanied those my younger Studies that I was very apt to start up Controversies in the way of my Practical Writings and also more desirous to acquaint the World with all that I took to be the Truth and to assault those Books by Name which I thought did tend to deceive them and did contain unsound and dangerous Doctrine And the Reason of all this was that I was then in the vigour of my youthfull Apprehensions and the new Appearance of any sacred Truth it was more apt to affect me and be highlyer valued than afterward when commonness had dulled my Delight and I did not sufficiently discern then how much in most of our Controversies is verbal and upon mutual Mistakes And withal I know not how impatient Divines were of being contradicted nor how it would stir up all their Powers to defend what they have once said and to rise up against the Truth which is thus thrust upon them as the mortal Enemy of their Honour And I knew not how hardly Mens Minds are charged from their former Apprehensions be the Evidence never so plain And I have perceived that nothing so much hindreth the Reception of the Truth as urging it on Men with too harsh Importunity and falling too heavily on their Errors For hereby you engage their Honour in the business and they defend their Errors as themselves and stir up all their Wit and Ability to oppose you In controversies it is fierce Opposition which is the Bellows to kindle a resisting Zeal when if they be neglected and their Opinions lie a while despised they usually cool and come again to themselves though I know that this holdeth not when the Greediness and Increase of his Followers doth animate a Sectary even though he have no Opposition Men are so loth to be drenched with the Truth that I am no more for going that way to work and to confess the Truth I am lately much prone to the contrary Extream to be too indifferent what Men hold and to keep my Judgment to my self and never to mention any thing wherein I differ from another or any thing which I think I know more than he or at least if he receive it not presently to silence it and leave him to his own Opinion And I find this Effect is mixed according to its Causes which are some good and some bad The bad Causes are 1. An Impatience of Mens weakness and mistaking frowardness and Self-conceitedness 2. An Abatement of my sensible Esteem of Truth through the long abode of them on my Mind Though my Judgment value them yet it is hard to be equally affected with old and common things as with new and rare ones The better Causes are 1. That I am much more sensible than ever of the necessity of living upon the Principles of Religion which we are all agreed in and uniting these and how much Mischief Men that over-value their own Opinions have done by their Controversies in the Church how some have destroyed Charity and some caused Schisms by them and most have hindered Godlyness in themselves and others and used them to divert Men from the serious prosecuting of a holy Life and as Sir Francis Bacon saith in his Essay of Peace that it 's one great Benefit of Church-Peace and Concord that writing Controversies is turned into Books of practical Devotion for increase of Piety and Virtue 2. And I find that it 's much more for most Mens Good and Edification to converse with them only in that way of Godliness which all are agreed in and not by touching upon Differences to stir up their Corruptions and to tell them of little more of your knowledge than what you find them willing to receive from you as meer Learners and therefore to stay till they crave Information of you as Musculus did with the Anabaptists when he visited them in Prison and conversed kindly and lovingly with them and shewed them all the Love he could and never talkt to them of their Opinions till at last they who were wont to call him a Deceiver and false Prophet did intreat him to instruct them and received his Instructions We mistake Mens Diseases when we think there needeth nothing to cure their Errors but only to bring them the Evidence of Truth Alas there are many Distempers of Mind to be removed before Men are apt to receive that Evidence And therefore that Church is happy where Order is kept up and the Abilities of the Ministers command a reverend Submission from the Hearers and where all are in Christ's School in the distinct Ranks of Teachers and Learners For in a learning way Men are ready to receive the Truth but in a Disputing way they come armed against it with Prejudice and Animosity 3. And I must say farther that what I last mentioned on the by is one of the notablest Changes of my Mind In my youth I was quickly past my Fundamentals and was running up into a multitude of Controversies and greatly delighted with metaphisical and scholastick Writings though I must needs say my Preaching was still on the necessary Points But the elder I grew the smaller stress I layd upon these Controversies and Curiosities though still my intellect abhoâ—reth Confusion as finding far greater Uncertainties in them than I at first discerned and finding less Usefulness comparatively even where there is the greatest Certainty And now it is the fundamental Doctrines of the Catechism which I highliest value and daily think of and find most useful to my self and others The Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments do find me now the most acceptable and plentiful matter for all my Meditations They are to me as my daily Bread and Drink And as I can speak and write of them over and over again so I had rather read or hear of them than of any of the School Niceties which once so much pleased me And thus I observed it was with old Bishop Usher and with many other Men And I conjecture that this Effect also is mixt of good and bad according to its Causes The bad Cause may perhaps be some natural Infirmity and Decay And as Trees in the Spring shoot up into Branches Leaves and Blossoms But in the Autumn the Life draws down into the Root so possibly my Nature conscious of its Infirmity and Decay may find it self insufficient for numerous Particles and
on the Wax is caused by that on the Seal Therefore I do more of late than ever discern a necessity of a methodical procedure in maintaining the Doctrine of Christianity and of beginning at Natural Verities as presupposed fundamentally to supernatural though God may when he please reveal all at once and even Natural Truths by Supernatural Revelation And it is a marvellous great help to my Faith to find it built on so sure Foundations and so consonant to the Law of Nature I am not so foolish as to pretend my certainty to be greater than it is meerly because it is a dishonour to be less certain nor will I by shame be kept from confessing those Infirmities which those have as much as I who hypocritically reproach me with them My certainty that I am a Man is before my certainty that there is a God for Quod facit notum est magis notum My certainty that there is a God is greater than my certainty that he requireth love and holiness of his Creature My certainty of this is greater than my certainty of the Life of Reward and Punishment hereafter My certainty of that is greater than my certainty of the endless duration of it and of the immortality of individuate Souls My certainty of the Deity is greater than my certainty of the Christian Faith My certainty of the Christian Faith in its Essentials is greater than my certainty of the Perfection and Infallibility of all the Holy Scriptures My certainty of that is greater than my certainty of the meaning of many particular Texts and so of the truth of many particular Doctrines or of the Canonicalness of some certain Books So that as you see by what Gradations my Understanding doth proceed so also that my Certainty differeth as the Evidences differ And they that have attained to greater Perfection and a higher degree of Certainty than I should pity me and produce their Evidence to help me And they that will begin all their Certainty with that of the Truth of the Scripture as the Principium Cognoscendi may meet me at the same end but they must give me leave to undertake to prove to a Heathen or Infidel the Being of a God and the necessity of Holiness and the certainty of a Reward or Punishment even while he yet denieth the Truth of Scripture and in order to his believing it to be true 6. In my younger years my trouble for Sin was most about my Actual failings in Thought Word or Action except Hardness of Heart of which more anon But now I am much more troubled for â—nward Defects and omission or want of the Vital Duties or Graces in the Soul My daily trouble is so much for my Ignorance of God and weakness of Belief and want of greater love to God and strangeness to him and to the Life to come and for want of a greater willingness to die and longing to be with God in Heaven as that I take not some Immoralities though very great to be in themselves so great and odious Sins if they could be found as separate from these Had I all the Riches of the World how gladly should I give them for a fuller Knowledge Belief and Love of God and Everlasting Glory These wants are the greatest burden of my Life which oft maketh my Life it self a burden And I cannot find any hope of reaching so high in these while I am in the Flesh as I once hoped before this time to have attained which maketh me the wearier of this sinful World which is honoured with so little of the Knowledge of God 7. Heretofore I placed much of my Religion in tenderness of heart and grieving for sin and penitential tears and less of it in the love of God and studying his love and goodness and in his joyful praises than now I do Then I was little sensible of the greatness and excellency of Love and Praise though I coldly spake the same words in its commendations as now I do And now I am less troubled for want of grief and tears though I more value humility and refuse not needful Humiliation But my Conscience now looketh at Love and Delight in God and praising him as the top of all my Religious Duties for which it is that I value and use the rest 8. My Judgment is much more for frequent and serious Meditation on the heavenly Blessedness than it was heretofore in my younger days I then thought that a Sermon of the Attributes of God and the Joys of Heavenâ— were not the most excellent and was wont to say Every body knoweth this that God is great and good and that Heaven is a blessed place I had rather hear how I may attain it And nothing pleased me so well as the Doctrine of Regeneration and the Marks of Sincerity which was because it was suitable to me in that state but now I had rather read hear or meditate on God and Heaven than on any other Subject for I perceive that it is the Object that altereth and elevateth the Mind which will be such as that is which it most frequently feedeth on And that it is not only useful to our comfort to be much in Heaven in our believing thoughts but that is must animate all our other Duties and fortifie us against every Temptation and Sin and that the Love of the end is it that is the poise or spring which setteth every Wheel a going and must put us on to all the means And that a Man is no more a Christian indeed than he is Heavenly 9. I was once wont to meditate most on my own heart and to dwell all at home and look little higher I was still poring either on my Sins or Wants or examining my Sincerity but now though I am greatly convinced of the need of Heart-acquaintance and imployment yet I see more need of a higher work and that I should look often upon Christ and God and Heaven than upon my own Heart At home I can find Distempers to trouble me and some Evidences of my Peace but it is above that I must find matter of Delight and Ioy and Love and Peace it self Therefore I would have one thought at home upon my self and sins and many thought above upon the high and amiable and beatifying Objects 10. Heretofore I knew much less than now and yet was not half so much acquainted with my Ignorance I had a great delight in the daily new Discoveries which I made and of the Light which shined in upon me like a Man that cometh into a Country where he never was before But I little knew either how imperfectly I understood those very Points whose discovery so much delighted me nor how much might be said against them nor how many things I was yet a stranger to But now I find far greater Darkness upon all things and perceive how very little it is that we know in comparision of that which we are ignorant of and and have
when they have none to contradict them and how possible it is that those that never knew me may believe them though they have lost their hopes with all the rest I take 〈◊〉 to be my Duty to be so faithful to that stock of Reputation which God hath intrusted me with as to defend it at the rate of opening the Truth Such as have made the World believe that Luther consulted with the Devil that Calvin was a stigmatized Sodomite that Beza turned Papist c. to blast their Labours I know are very like to say any thing by me which their Interest or Malice tell them will any way advantage their Cause to make my Writings unprofitable when I am dead 3. That young Christians may be warned by the Mistakes and Failings of my unriper Times to learn in patience and live in watchfulness and not be fierce and proudly confident in their first Conceptions And to reverence ripe experienced Age and to take heed of taking such for their Chief Guides as have nothing but immature and unexperienced Judgments with fervent Affections and free and confident Expressions but to learn of them that have with holiness study time and trial looked about them as well on one side as the other and attained to clearness and impartiality in their Judgments 1. But having mentioned the Changes which I think were for the better I must add that as I confessed many of my Sins before so since I have been guilty of many which because materially they seemed small have had the less resistance and yet on the review to trouble more than if they had been greater done in ignorance It can be no small sin formally which is committed against Knowledge and Conscience and Deliberation whatever excuse it have To have sinned while I preacht and wrote against Sin and had such abundant and great obligations from God and made so many promises against it doth lay me very low not so much in fear of Hell as in great displeasure against my self and such self abhoâ—â—ence as would cause revenge upon my self were it not forbidden When God forgiveth me I cannot forgive my self especially for any rash words or deeds by which I have seemed injurious and less tendeâ— and kind than I should have been to my near and dear Relations whose Love abundantly obliged me when such are dead though we never differed in point of Interest or any great Matter every sowr or cross provoking word which I gave them maketh me almost unreconcileable to my self and tells me how Repentance brought some of old to pray to the Dead whom they had wronged to forgive them in the hurry of their Passion 2. And though I before told the Change of my Judgment against provoking Writings I have had more will than skill since to avoid such I must mention it by way of penitent Confession that I am too much inclined to such words in Controversal Writings which are too keen and apt to provoke the Person whom I write against Sometimes I suspect that Age sowreth my Spirits and sometimes I am apt to think that it is long thinking and speaking of such things that maketh me weary and less patient with others that understand them not And sometimes I am ready to think that it is out of a hatred of the flattering humour which now prevaileth so in the World that few Persons are able to bear the Truth And I am sure that I cannot only bear my self such Language as I use to others but that I expect it I think all these are partly Causes but I am sure the principal Cause is a long Custom of studying how to speak and write in the keenest manner to the common ignorant and ungodly People without which keeness to them no Sermon nor Book does much good which hath so habituated me to it that I am still falling into the same with others forgetting that many Ministers and Professors of Strictness do desire the greatest sharpness to the Vulgar and to their Adversaries and the greatest lenity and smoothness and comfort if not honour to themselves And I have a strong natural inclination to speak of every Subject just as it is and to call a Spade a Spade verba rebus aptare so as that the thing spoken of may be fulliest known by the words which methinks is part of our speaking truly But I unfeignedly confess that it is faulty because impruâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 that is not a good means which doth harm because it is not fitted to 〈…〉 and because whilst the Readers think me angry though I feel no 〈…〉 times in my self it is scandalous and a hinderance to the usefulness of 〈…〉 write And especially because though I feel no Anger yet which is worse I know that there is some want of Honour and Love or Tenderness to others or else I should not be apt to use such words as open their weakness and offend them And therefore I repent of it and wish all over-sharp passages were expunged from my Writings and desire forgiveness of God and Man And yet I must say that I am oft afraid of the contrary Extream lest when I speak against great and dangerous Errours and Sins though of Persons otherwise honest I should encourage men to them by speaking too easily of them as Eli did to his Sons and lest I should so favour the Person as may befriend the Sin and wrong the Church And I must say as the New-England Synodists in their Defence against Mr. Davenport pag. 2. Pref. We heartily desire that as much as may be all Expressions and Reflexions may be forborn that tend to break the Bond of Love Indeed such is our Infirmity that the naked discovery of the fallacy or invalidity of anothers Allegations or Arguings is apt to provoke This in Disputes is unavoidable And therefore I am less for a disputing way than ever believing that it tempteth Men to bend their Wits to defend their Errours and oppose the Truth and hindereth usually their information And the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all Men c. Therefore I am most in Judgment for a Learning or a Teaching way of Converse In all Companies I will be glad either to hear those speak that can teach me or to be heard of those that have need to learn And that which I named before on the by is grown one of my great Diseases I have lost much of that Zeal which I had to propagate any Truths to others save the meer Fundamentals When I perceive People or Ministers which is too common to think they know what indeed they do not and to dispute those things which they never throughly studied or expect I should debate the Case with them as if an hours talk would serve instead of an acute understanding and seven years study I have no Zeal to make them of my Opinion but an impatience of continuing Discourse with them on such Subjects and am apt to be silent
managing the Lord's Work in our Hands were convinced that for Reformation of our People more ought to be done by us than bare Preaching a brotherly Association of Ministers appeared to be the likeliest course for the attainment of our Desires and accordingly was resolved on And because we knew that many of our Brethrâ—â—â— the Ministry differed from us we resolved to draw up several Proposals wherein we and they by a mutual Condescention might agree as Brethren in Love and Peace to carry on the same Work and therefore required nothing of them but what we proved by the Confessions of the Congregational Brethren their own Party to be of less Moment and not of absolute Necessity Wherein we â—rged they might and ought to yield for the Churches Peace But our Endeavours to gain them were frustrated they were so resolved that they would not so much as read our Proposals and Reasons We therefore set about the Work our selves and made some Progress in it by this time we began to feel what we expected at the first setting out viz the Rage and Malice of wicked Men vented in Railings and Slanders on the one hand and bitter Censures and Suspicions of the Brethren on the other In the midst of all this we received your Book as a seasonable Refreshment Our Hands were much strengthned by it it was a great Encouragement to us to see that other godly and learned Men had walked much what in the same Steps and had pleaded our Cause almost by the same Arguments wherewith we endeavoured to strengthen it But 2. we are hereby quickned up to carry our Design higher Our Propositions for the Substance of them are near the same with yours we agree in a great part of your Discipline our Rules of Admission are competent Knowledge Unblameableness of Conversation and assent to the Convenant of Grace the means to carry it on are the Peoples Consent and Association of Ministers and where we differ from you 't is not because we differ in Opinion but because our People whose Condition and Temper we were forced to set before us in framing our Agreement differ from yours Hence our Examination of the People Knowledge is more general than yours if we understand you right in Prop. 19. Reg. 9. hence instead of your Parish Assistants we are forced to make use of one anothers help in private Examinations and Determination of Fitness as well as in more publick Debates and Consultations Yet in twothings we come short of your Agreement 1. In that we have not as yet propounded to our People your height of Discipline though we never thought secret and private Admonitions and Suspension from the Sacrament such a Measure of Discipline wherein we might comfortably satisfie our selves without farther Progress yet our Hands being much weakened by our Brethrens refusal to join with us our People stubborn and Suspension from the Supper being a piece of Discipline that hath not been here practised till of late and therefore a matter of greater Shame till Custom shall make it more common we resolved to propound and Practise this first as an Essay to try what Success and Entertainment a farther Discipline might find For though the Fear of People flying off and separating is not by us looked upon as a sufficient Discharge for the neglect and laying aside all endeavours to reform Yet we look upon it as a sufficient Ground of proceeding warily 2. Though we always required People Consent to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace and Discipline yet have we not been so full in this as you That which kept us off was a fear of offending some of our Brethren who being more likely to hear of our Practice than of the Grounds and Reasons of it might easily mistake our meaning But now the way of Discipline being made more smooth both by what we have put in Practice already and by what you have declared we are encouraged in both these Respects to make a farther Addition to our former Proposals Some thing there are wherein a farther Explication of your meaning would have been very grateful to us 1. Whether the Infants of such as are suspended from the Lord's Supper and of such as delay or refuse Consent to your Discipline only from Dissatisfaction about the matter of its Management are to be excluded from Baptism 2. Why you reslove to exercise your Discipline upon those only which testifie their Consent seeing you acknowledge your present Parishes before the exercise of this Discipline true particular Organized Churches of Christ if some of those whom you accounted Members should fly off why may they not be Sharers in your Discipline and upon their Refusalâ—cast out rather than silently left out 3. Why if you limit your publick Censures and Admonition to those only that give express Consent Prop. 18 you reslove to censure the scandalous Sinner upon such an offer of Consent as carrieth in the Front of it a plain Refusal of your Discipline Prop. 19. Reg. 10. and how this will stand with the fourth and fifth Reasons of that Proposition in pag. 12. of the Explanation We know that you have of purpose left may things undetermind and that which you have propounded is fitted to the Temper of Parishes in general rather than to some of yours in particular and therefore we do not mention these as an Accusation against your Proposals but for our own Advantage and Satisfaction in case we should receive any Letters from you Brethren pray for us we dwell in the midst of Opposition and as it will be our great Ioy to hear that the Work doth prosper in your hands so shall we be earnest with the Lord for a Blessing upon your Endeavours Thus rest Your unworthy Fello Labourers in the Work of the Gospel Ri. Gilpin Pastor at Graystock John Makmillane Pastor at Odenhall Roger Baldwin Minister of Penrith John Billingssey Minister of Addingham Elisha Bourne Minister at Skelton John Jackson Pastor of Hutton Thomas Turner Preacher of the Gospel Penrith Cumberland Sept. 1. 1653. For the Reverend our much esteemed Brother Mr. Richard Baxter and the rest of the Associated Ministers in the Country of Worcester These To this Letter we return'd the following Answer Reverend and Beloved Brethren WE received your Letters with the love and gladness as for their savour of Piety in general so of Peaceableness and Zeal for Unity in special which we have now learned to take not as a separable Accident of true Religion but as an Essential part We have reverent Thoughts of many Brethren for their singular worth and work who yet for their Activity in dividing ways are the grief of our Souls We further honour many as abhorring such ways and being no Friends to any Dividing Principles nor active either as Leaders or Followers in the promoting them who yet are so passively and passionately unpeaceable in an impatient Entertainment of every Dissenter and making the lesser Errours of their Brethren to seem
no fixing any more Diocesses in the World than Twelve or Thirteen and whoever since pretended to succeed them in those Twelve or Thirteen Diocesses 3. And if following Bishops or Princes fixt Diocesses that is no divine nor unalterable Law 4. We never read that an Apostle claimed any Diocess as proper to him or forbad any other to officiate in it or blamed them for so doing 5. It is certain that while they went themselves from Country to Country they fixed Bishops to every Church or City Act. 14. 23. Yit 1. 5 6. Ad 9. 1. The Apostles fixed not Bishops of the lowest Rank Vicatim nor Rigionatim but in every Church which was then in every City where were Christians even the same Church that had Deacons and Presbyters fixed 2. Bishops preached to Infidels to whom they were not Bishops but Preachers 3. The Christians of neighbour Villages came to the City-Church and when they had Oratories or Chappels there it made them not another Parish and excluded not such from personal Communion with the Bishops Church nor extended to such as by Distance or Numbers were uncapable of such personal Communion 4. Titus was either an ambulatory Evangelist to go about as the Apostles gathering and Setling Churches as I think or if fixed he was an Archbishop who was to settle Bishops under him in every City as Dr. Hammond judged It followeth not that a meer Bishop may have a Multitude of Churches because an Archbishop may who hath many Bishops under him 5. As the Magnitude of human Body so also of a particular Church hath its Limitation suited to its Ends Communion by Delegates or Officers only is the Case of many Churches associated But Personal Communion in Doctrine Worship Conversation and Discipline is the End of each particular Church and if you extend the Form to more than are capable of that End even to many such Societies by so doing the Species is changed § 38. About this time a reverend learned Brother Mr. Martin Iohnson being of the Judgment of Dr. Hammond and Dr. Gunning and yet a Lover of all honest peaceable Men and constant at our Meetings Lectures and Disputations was pleased to write to me about the Necessity of Episcopal Ordination I maintained that it was not necessary ad esse Ecclesiae and that he might be a true Minister who was ordained by Presbyters and that in Cases of Necessity it was a Duty to take Ordination from them He opposed this with Modesty and Judgment being a very good Logician till at last he yielded to the Truth These Letters with their Answers are added in the Appendix § 39. A little after this an Accident fell out that hindered our Concord with the Episcopal Party and is pretended at this Day by many to justifie the Silencing of all the Ministers that were afterward put out Oliver Cromwell who then usurped the Government being desired by some to forbid all Ministers of all Parties whatsoever to officiate who were notoriously insufficient or scandalous taketh hence Occasion to put in with the rest all those that took part with the King against the Parliament and so by offending them hindred our Agreement with them which provoked me then to protest against it and publish my Judgment against the hindering of any Man to preach the Gospel upon the Ground of such Civil Controversies as those § 40. And about the same time Experience in my Pastoral Charge convinced me that publick Preaching is not all the ordinary Work of a faithful Minister and that personal Conference with every one about the State of their own Souls together with Catechising is a Work of very great Necessity For the Custom in England is only to catechise the younger sort and that but by teaching them the Words of the Catechism in the Liturgy which we thought besides the Doctrine of the Sacrament had little more explicatory than the Words themselves of the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue Therefore I propounded the Business to the Ministers and they all upon Debate consented that I should â—â—rn our brief Confession into a Catechism and draw up a Form of Agreement for the Practising of that Duty I drew up the Catechism in Two leaves in 8 vâ— comprehending 〈◊〉 is necessary to be believed consented to and practised in as narrow â— room and just a Method as I thought agreeable to the Peoples Understandings And I proposed a Form of Agreement for the Practice which might engage the 〈…〉 to go through with the Work And when I brought it in it was conseâ—â—ed to and subscribed and many neighbouring Ministers of other Countries desired to join with us and we printed the Catechism and Agreement together § 41. Of all the Works that ever I 〈◊〉 this yielded me most Comfort in the practice of it All Men thought that the People especially the ancienter sort would never have submitted to this Course and so that it would have come to nothing But God gave me a 〈◊〉 willing People and gave me also interest in them and when I had 〈◊〉 and my People had given a good Example to other Parishes and especially the Ministers so 〈◊〉 concurring that none gainsayed us it prevailed much with the Parishes 〈◊〉 I set two Days Week apart for this Employment 〈◊〉 faithful unwearied Assistant and my self took fourteen Families every Week those in the Town came to us to our Houses those in the Parish my Assistant 〈…〉 to 〈◊〉 Houses besides what a Curate did at a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 to us a Family only being present as a 〈◊〉 and no Stranger admitted after that I first helpâ— them to understand it and next enquired modestly into the State of their Souls and lastly endeavoured to set all home to the convincing awakening and resolving of their Hearts according to their several Conditions bestowing about an Hour and the Labour of a Sermon with every Family and I found it so effectual through the Blessing of God that few went away without some seeming Humiliation Conviction and Purpose and Promise for a holy Life and except half a dozen or thereabouts of the most ignorant and senseless all the Families in the Town came to me and though the first time they came with Fear and Backwardness after that they longed for their turn to come again So that I hope God did good to many by it And yet this was not all the Comfort I had in it § 42. For my Brethren appointing me to preach to them about it on a Day of Humiliation at Worcester when we set upon it I printed the Sermon prepared for that use with necessary Additions containing Reasons and Directions for this Work in a Book called The Reformed Pastor which excited so many others to take the Course that we had taken that it was a far greater Addition to my Comfort than the profiting of the Parish or County where we lived Yea a Reverend Pastor from Switzerland wrote me word that it excited
Peace on these Terms how easily and safely might you grant them without any wrong to your Consciences or the Church Yea to its exceeding benefit How lowd do our Miseries cry for such a Cure How long hath it been neglected If there be any more than what is here granted by us that you think necessary for us to yield to on our parts we shall gladly revive your Demands and yield for Peace as far as is possible without forsaking our Consciences And what shall be agreed on we shall promise faithfully to endeavour in our places that the Magistrate may consent to it The inclosing Paper signified a readiness to yield to an Agreement on the primitive Simplicity of Doctrine Discipline and Worship as Dr. Heylin also doth We are agreed and yet never the nearer an Agreement O that you would stand to this in the Particulars We crave no more Q. 1. Did the â—â—imitive Church require Subscription to all in our 39 Articles or to any more than the words of Scripture and the Ancient Creeds in order to Mens Church-Communion and Liberty Were such Volumes as our Homiliâ—s then to be subscribed to Q. 2. Were any required as necessary to their Ministry in the Primitive Times to Subscribe to the Divine Right of Diocesan Prelacy and promise or swear Obedience to such Or to Subscribe to all that is contained in our Book of Ordination Q. 3. Were all most or any Bishops of the first Age of the lowest rank now distinguished from Archbishopâ— the fixed Pastors of many particular Churches or of more Souls than one of our ordinary or greater Parishes Much less of so many as are in a Diocess Let us but have no more Souls or Congregations under the lowest rank of Bishops now than were in the first Age or second either ordinarily and we shall soon agree I think in all the Substance of Government Q. 4. Was our Common Prayer used and necessary to a Pastor's Liberty in the first or second Age Or all that is in it Or will you leave out all that you cannot prove to have been then used and that as necessary as now it is supposed Q. 5. Were the Cross Surplice and Restriction to kneeling in receiving the Eâ—charist enjoyned by Peter or Paul or any in the first Age or second either or many after If you say that some Form of Prayer was used though not ours I answer 1. Prove it used and imposed as necessary to the Exercise of the Ministry and that any was enjoyned to Subscribe to it and use it on pain of Deprivation or Excommunication 2. If the first supposed Book of Prayers was necessary in Specie for continuance we must have it and cast away this thatâ—s pleaded for If it were not then why may you not as well dispense with this and change it seeing you cannot plead it more immutable than the supposed Apostolical or Primitive Prayer Book 3. When Forms of Liturgy came up had they not divers in the same Empire and also changed them in particular Churches as the Controversie between Basil and the Church of Neocaesarea shews c. And why then may not as much be granted now in England at least to procure Unity and Peace in other things after so long uncharitable Alienations and doleful Effects of them in the Church and State N. B. That the foresaid Exceptions against imposing the Subscription of the 39 Articles are urged ad hominem because though the Doctrinal Part of those Articles be such as the generality of the Presbyterians would Subscribe to yet I see not how the Reverend Brethren on the other side can possibly Subscribe them as reconcileable to the Principles published by many of them § 67. Shortly after this when Sir George Booth's Rising failed Major General Monk in Scotland with his Army grew so sensible of the Infolencies of Vane and Lambert and the Fanaticks in England and Ireland who set up and pull'd down Governments as boldly as if they were making a Lord of a Maygame and were grasping all the Power into their own Hands so that he presently secured the Anabaptists of his Army and agreed with the rest to resist these Usurpers who would have England the Scorn of all the World At first when he drew near to England he declared for a Free Commonwealth When he came in Lambert marched against him but his Soldiers forsaking him and Sir Arthur Haselrigge getting Portsmouth and Col. Morley strengthning him and Major General Berry's Regiment which went to block it up revolting to them the Clouds rose every where at once and Lambert could make no resistance but instead of fighting they were fain to treat And while Monk held them Treating his Reputation increased and theirs abated and their Hearts failed them and their Soldiers fell off and General Monk consulted with his Friends what to do Many Countreys sent Letters of Thanks and Encouragement to him Mr. Tho. Bampfield was sent by the Gentlemen of the West and other Countreys did the like so that Monk came on but still declared for a Commonwealth against Monarchy Till at last when he saw all ripened thereto he declared for the King The chief Men as far as I can learn that turned his Resolution to bring in the King were Mr. Clarges and Sir William Morrice his Kinsman and the Petitions and Affections of the City of London principally moved by Mr. Calamy and Mr. Ash two ancient leading able Ministers with Dr. Bates Dr. Manten Dr. Iacomb and other Ministers of London who concurred And these were encouraged by the Earl of Manchester the Lord Hollis the late Earl of Anglesey and many of the then Council of State And the Members of the Old Parliament that had been formerly ejected being recalled did Dissolve themselves and appoint the Calling of a Parliament which might Re-call the King When General Monk first came into England most Men rejected in hope to be delivered from the Usurpation of the Fanaticks Anabaptists Seekers c. And I was myâ—self so much affected with the strange Providence of God that I procured the Ministers to agree upon a Publick Thanksgiving to God And I think all the Victories which that Army obtained were not more wonderful than their Fall was when Pride and Errour had prepared them for it It seemed wonderful to me that an Army that had got so many great and marvellous Victories and thought themselves unconquerable and talkt of nothing but Dominion at home and marching up to the Walls of Rome should all be broken and brought into Subjection and finally Disbanded without one blow stricken or one drop of Blood shed and that by so small a power as Monk's Army in the â—â—â—ginning was So Eminent was the Hand of God in all this Change § 68. Yet were there many prudent pious Men that feared greatly the return of the Prelates an exasperated Party that had been before subdued and as they saw that the Fanaticks would bring all to Confusion under
whom we have to do that our Business is to request you of the Clergy not to provoke the Law-givers to make any Law against this That it may not become a Crime to Men to pray together and provoke one another to Love and to good Works when it is no Crime to talk and play and drink and feast together And that it may be no Crime to repeat a Sermon together unless you resolve that they shall hear none which is worth their repeating and remembring And whereas you speak of opening a Gap to Sectaries for private Conventicles and the evil Consequents to the State we only desire you to avoid also the cherishing of Ignorance and Prophaneness and suppress all Sectaries and spare not in a way that will not suppress the means of Knowledge and Godliness As you will not forbid all praying or preaching lest we should have Sectarian Prayers or Sermons so let not all the People of the Land be prohibited such Assistance to each others Souls as Nature and Scripture oblige them to and all for fear of the Meetings of Sectaries We thought the Cautions in our Petition were sufficient when we confined it Subjectively to those of our Flocks and Objectively to their Duties of exhorting and provoking one another to Love and to good Works and of building up one another in their most holy Faith And only by religious peaceable means of furthering each other in the ways of eternal Life And for the Order They being not opposite to Church-Assemblies but subordinate nor refusing the Guidance and Inspection of their Pastors who may be sometime with them and prescribe them their Work and Way and direct their Actions and being responsible for what they do or say their Doors being open there will not want Witnesses against them if they do amiss And is not all this enough to secure you against the Fear of Sectaries unless all such Helps and mutual Comforts be forbidden to all that are no Sectaries This is but as the Papists do in another Case when they deny People Liberty to read the Scriptures lest they make Men Hereticks or Sectaries And for the Danger of the State cannot Men plot against it in Ale-houses or Taverns or Fields or under Pretence of Horse-Races Hunting Bowles or other Occasions but only under pretence of Worshipping God If they may why are not all Men forbidden to feast or bowl or hunt c. lest Sectaries make advantage of such Meetings as well as to fast and pray God and wise Men know that there is something more in all such Jealousies of Religious Duties § 4. Do you really desire that every Congregation may have an able godly Minister Then cast not out those many Hundreds or Thousands that are approved such for want of Re-ordination or for doubting whether Diocesans with their Chancellors c. may be subscribed to and set not up ignorant ungodly ones in their Places Otherwise the poor undone Churches of Christ will no more believe you in such Professions than we believed that those Men intended the King's just Power and Greatness who took away his Life But you know not what we mean by Residence nor how far we will extend that Word The Word is so plain that it 's easily understood by those that are willing But he that would not know cannot understand as King Charles told Mr. Henderson I doubt the People will quickly find that you did not understand us And yet I more fear lest many a Parish will be glad of Non-residence even if Priest and Curate and all were far enough from them through whose Fault I say not § 5. Two Remedies you give us instead of what we desired for the Reformation of Church-Communion 1. You say Confirmation if rightly and solemnly performed will alone be sufficient as to the point of Instruction Answ. But what we desired was necessary to the right and solemn Performance of it Doth not any Man that knoweth what hath been done in England and what People dwell there know that there are not more ignorant People in this Land than such as have had and such as desire Episcopal Confirmation Is it Sufficient in point of Instruction for a Bishop to come among a company of little Children and other People whom he he never saw before and of whom he never heard a Word and of whom he never asketh a Question which may inform him of their Knowledge or Life and presently to lay his Hands on them in order and hastily say over a few Lines of Prayer and so dismiss them I was confirmed by honest Bishop Morton with a multitude more who all went to it as a May-game and kneeled down and he dispatched us with that short Prayer so fast that I scarce understood one word he said much less did he receive any Certificate concerning us or ask us any thing which might tell him whether we were Christians and I never saw nor heard of much more done by any English Bishop in his course of Confirmation If you say that more is required in the Rubrick I say then it is no Crime for us to desire it 2. And for your Provision in the other Rubrick again scandalous Communicants it enableth not the Minister to put away any one of them all save only the malicious that will not just then be reconciled Be not angry with us if in sorrow of Heart we pray to God that his Churches may have experienced Pastors who have spent much time in serious dealing with every one of their Parishes personally and know what they are and what they need instead of Men that have conversed only with Books and the Houses of great Men or when they do sometimes stoop to speak to the ignorant do but talk to them of the Market or the Weather or ask them what is their Name § 6. To your Answer we reply Those Laws may be well made stricter They hindred not the Imposition of a Book to be read by all Ministers in the Churches for the Peoples Liberty for Dancing and other such Sports on the Lord's Day and this in the King's Name to the ejecting or suspending of those Ministers that durst not read it And those Laws which we have may be more carefully executed If you are ignorant how commonly the Lord's Day is prophaned in England by Sporting Drinking Revelling and Idleness you are sad Pastors that no better know the Flock If you know it and desire not the Reformation of it you are yet worse Religion never prospered any where so much as where the Lord's Days have been most carefully spent in holy Exercises Concerning Church-Government § 7. Had you well read but Gersom Bucer Didoclavius Parker Baynes Salmasius Blondell c. yea of the few Lines in Bishop Usher's Reduction which we have offered you or what I have written of it in Disp. 1. of Church-Government you would have seen just Reason given for our Dissent from the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy as stated in England and have known
effectual with none but wicked Men and Hypocrites who dare Sin against their Consciences for fear of Men And is it worth so much ado to bring the Children of the Devil into your Church The third way of Efficacy is but to kill or banish all the Children of God that are not of your Opinion for it is they that dare not Sin against Conscience whatever they suffer And this is but such an Efficacy as the Spanish Inquisition and Queen Mary's Bonfires had to send those to God whom the World is not worthy of You know every Man that is true to his God and his Conscience will never do that which he taketh to be Sin till his Judgment is changed and therefore with such it can be no lower than Blood or Banishment or Imprisonment at least that is the Efficacy which you desire And if no such rigour be too much its pity the French that murthered 30000 or 40000 at their Bartholoâ—â—ew days or as Dr. Peter Moulin saith 100000 within a few Weeks and the Irish that murthered 200000 had not had a better Cause For they took the most effectual way of rigour But when God maketh Inquisition for the Blood of his Servants he will convince Men that such rigour was too much and that their Wrath did not fulfil his Righteousness You shew your Kindness to Men's praying in the Pulple without your Book Make good what you say that such Praying is of no great Antiquity and we will never contradict you more Or if we prove it not the Ancientest way of Praying in the Christian Church we will give you free leave to hang or banish us for not Subscribing to the Common Prayer Book which the Apostles used and which was imposed on the Church for some hundred years But it seems you think that we are beholden to meer Sufferance without Law or Canon for conceived Prayers How long then it will be suffered we know not if we must live by your Patience § 20. It seemeth that our Converse and yours much differ The most that we know or meet with had rather be without the Liturgy and you say That the People generally are well satisfied with it By this time they are of another Mind If it were so we take it for no great honour to it considering what the greater Number are in most places and of what Lives those Persons are of our Parishes and Acquaintance generally or for the most part who are for it Or what those are that are against it and whom for itsâ— sake you desire your effectual rigour may be exercised against The Lord prepare them to undergo it innocently § 21. Doth there need no more to be said for the Ceremonies How little will satisfie some Men's Consciences Lawful Authority hath in other Countreys cast out the same Bishops and Ceremonies which are here received Doth it follow that they are good in one Country and disorderly and undecent in another Or that our Authority only is infallible in judging of them Is not God's Worship perfect without our Ceremonies in its Integrals as well as its Essentials As for Circumstantials when you saw us allow of them you need not plead for them as against us But the Question is whether our Additions be not more then Circumstances § 22. We suppose that you give all to the Cross in Baptism which is necessary to a Humane Sacrament And this we are ready to try be just Dispute When you say that never was Moral Efficacy ascribed to them you seem to give up all your Cause for by denying this ascribed Efficacy you seem to grant them unlawful if it be so And if it be not so let us bear the blame of wronging them The informing and exciting the dull mind of Man in its duty to God is a Moral Effect from Moral Efficacy But the informing and exciting the dull Mind of Man in its Duty to God is an Effect ascribed to our Ceremonies Ergo a Moral Effect from Moral Efficacy is ascribed to our Ceremonies The major cannot be denied by any Man that knoweth what a Moral Effect and Efficacy is that which worketh not per modum Naturae in genere Causae efficientis naturalis only but per modum objecti vel in genere causae finalis upon the Mind of Man doth work morally but so do our Ceremonies Ergo sure the Arminians that deny all proper Physical Operations of God's Spirit as well as his Word and reduce all to Moral Efficacy will not say that Ceremonies have such a Physical Efficacy more than Moral And if not so the good Effects here mentioned can be from no lower Efficacy than Moral And the minor which must be denied is in the words of the Preface to the Common Prayer Book and therefore undeniable The Word of God it self worketh but moraliter proponendo objectum and so do our Ceremonies § 23. There is a great difference between Sacramental Ceremonies and meer Circumstances which the Reformed Churches keep These we confound not and could have wished you would not Our Cross in Baptism is A dedicating sign saith the Canon or transient Image made in token that this Child shall not be ashamed of Christ crucified but manly fight under his Banner against the Flesh the World and the Devil and continue Christ's faithful Servant and Soldier to his Lives end So that 1. It is a Dedicating Sign performed by the Minister and not by the Person himself as a bare Professing Sign is 2. It engageth the Party in a Relation to Christ as his Soldier and Servant 3. And in the Duties of this Relation against all our Enemies as the Sacramentum Militare doth a Soldier to his General and that in plainer and fuller words than are annexed to Baptism 4. And it is no other than the Covenant of Grace or of Christianity it self which this Sacrament of the Cross doth enter us into as Baptism also doth It is not made a part of Baptism nor called a Sacrament but as far as we can judge made essentially a Humane Sacrament adjoyned to Baptism The Reformed Churches which use the Cross we mean the Lutherans yet use it not in this manner § 24. This is but your unproved Assertion That the Fault was not in the Ceremonies but in the Contenders we are ready to prove the contrary but if it had been true how far are you from Paul's mind expressed Rom. 14. 15. and 1 Cor. 8. You will let your weak Brother perish and spare not so you can but charge the Fault on himself and lay Stumbling-blocks before him and then save him by your effectual rigour by Imprisonment or Punishment § 25. Those seem a few to you that seem many to us Had it been but one hundred such as Cartwright Amesius Bradshaw Parker Hildersham Dod Nicolls Langley Paget Hering Baynes Bates Davenport Hooker Wilson Cotton Norton Shephard Cobbet Word c. they had been enough to have grieved the Souls of many Thousand godly
have a hand in executing it But having as I was coming to him seen the King's Declaration and seeing that by it the Government is so far altered as it is I take my self for the Churches sake exceedingly beholden to his Lordship for those Moderations and my desire to promote the Happiness of the Church which that Moderation tendeth to doth make me resolve to take that Course which tendeth most thereto But whether to take a Bishoprick be the way I was in Doubt and desired some farther time of Consideration But if his Lordship would procure us the settlement of the matter of that Declaration by passing it into a Law I promised him to take that way in which I might most serve the Puplick Peace § 119. Dr. Reignolds Mr. Calamy and my self had some Speaches oft together about it and we all thought that a Bishoprick might be accepted according to the Description of the Declaration without any Violation of the Covenant or owning the ancient Prelacy but all the Doubt was whether this Declaration would be made a Law as was then expected or whether it were but a temporary means to draw us on till we came up to all the Diocesans desired and Mr. Calamy desired that we might all go together and all refuse or all accept it § 120. But by this time the rumour of it fled abroad and the Voice of the City made a Difference for though they wish'd that none of us should be Bishops yet they said Dr. Reignolds and Mr. Baxter being known to be for moderate Episcopacy their acceptance would be less scandalous But if Mr. Calamy should accept it who had preached and written and done so much against it which were then at large recited never Presbyterian would be trusted for his sake so that the Clamour was very loud against his acceptance of it And Mr. Matthew Newcomen his Brother in Law wrote to me earnestly to dissuade him and many more § 121. For my own part I resolved against it at the first but not as a thing which I judged unlawful in it self as described in the King's Declaration But 1. I knew that it would take me off my Writing 2. I looked to have most of the godly Ministers cast out and what good could be done upon ignorant vile uncapable Men 3. I feared that this Declaration was but for a present use and that shortly it would be revok'd or nullified 4. And if so I doubted not but the Laws would prescribe such work for Bishops in silencing Ministers and troubling honest Christians for their Consciences and ruling the vicious with greater Lenity c. As that I had rather have the meanest Imployment amongst Men. 5. And my Judgment was fully resolved against the Lawfulness of the old Diocesane Frame § 122. But when Dr. Reignolds and Mr. Calamy askt my Thoughts I told them that distinguishing between what is simply and what is by Accident Evil I thought that as Episcopacy is described in the King's Declaration it is lawful when better cannot be had but yet Scandal might make it unfit for some Men more than others Therefore to Mr. Calamy I would give no Counsel but for Dr. Reignolds I persuaded him to accept it so be it he would publickly declare that he took it but on the Terms of the King's Declaration and would lay it down when he could no longer exercise it on those terms only I left it to his Consideration whether it be better stay till we see what they will do with the Declaration and for my self I was confident I should see cause to refuse it § 123. When I came next to the Lord Chancellor the next day save one he asked me of my Resolution and put me to it so suddenly that I was forced to delay no longer but told him that I could not accept it for several Reasons and it was not the least that I thought I could better serve the Church without it if he would but prosecute the establishment of the Terms granted And because I thought that it would be ill taken if I refused it on any but acceptable Reasons and also that Writing would serve best against misreports hereafter I the next Day put this Letter into the Lord Chancellor's Hand which he took in good Part In which I concealed the most of my Reasons and gave the best and used more Freedom in my farther Requests than I expected should have any good Success My Lord YOUR great Favour and Condescention encourages me to give you more of my Sense of the Business which your Lordship was pleased to propound I was till I saw the Declaration much dejected and resolved against a Bishoprick as unlawful But finding there more than on Octob. 22. his Majesty granted us in the Pastor's Consent c. the Rural Dean with the whole Ministry enabled to exercise as much persuasive Pastoral Power as I could desire who believe the Church hath no other kind of Power unless communicated from the Magistrate Subscription abated in the Universities c. And finding such happy Concessions in the great point of Parochial Power and Discipline and in the Liturgy and Ceremonies c. my Soul rejoiced in thankfulness to God and his Instruments and my Conscience presently told me it was my Duty to do my best with my self and others as for as I had Interest and Opportunity to suppress all sinful Discontents and having competent Materials now put into my Hands without which I could have done nothing to persuade all my Brethren to Thankfulness and obedient Submission to the Government And being raised to some joyful hopes of seeing the Beginnings of a happy Union I shall crave your Lordship's Pardon for presuming to tell you what farther endeavours will be necessary to accomplish it 1. If your Lordship will endeavour to get this Declaration pass into an Act. 2. If you will speedily procure a Commission to the Persons that are equally to be deputed to that work to review the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book according to the Declaration 3. If you will further effectually the Restoration of able faithful Ministers who have and will have great Interest in the sober part of the People to a setled station of Service in the Church who are lately removed 4. If you will open some way for the ejection of the insufficient scandalous and unable 5. If you will put as many of our Persuasion as you can into Bishopricks if it may be more than three 6. If you will desire the Bishops to place some of them in inferior Places of trust especially Rural Deanries which is a Station suitable to us in that it hath no Sallery or Maintenance nor coercive Power but that simple pastoral persuasive Power which we desire This much will set us all in joint And for my own part I hope by Letters this very Week to disperse the Seeds of Satisfaction into many Countries of England But my Conscience commanding me to make this my very Work and Business unless
only your Labours but also your special Assistance in a time of need unto the promoting the welfare of this poor Country certified unto us by Captain Leveret upon which account our General Court thought good to return unto you their Thanks in a Letter which I hope before this is received have made your Name both known and precious to us in these Parts The Occasion of these is in the behalf of one Mr. William Leet Governour of New Heven Jurisdiction whose Case is this He being conscious of indiscretion and some neglect not to say how it came about in relation to the expediting the Execution of the Warrant according to his Duty sent from his Majesty for the apprehending of the two Colonels is not without fear of some displeasure that may follow thereupon and indeed hath almost ever since been a Man depressed in his Spirit for the neglect wherewith he chargeth himself therein His endeavours also since have been accordingly and that in full degree as besides his own Testimony his Neighbours attest they see not what he could have done more Sir If any report prejudicial to this Gentleman in this respect come unto your Ear by your prudent Enquiry upon this Intimation or otherwise so far as the signification of the Premises unto his Majesty or other eminent Person may plead for him or avert trouble towards him I assure my self you may report it as a real Truth and that according to your Wisdom you would be helpful to him so far therein is both his and my desire The Gentleman hath pursued both others and my self with Letters to this effect and yet not satisfied therewith came to Boston to disburden his heart to me formerly unacquainted with him only some few times in Company where he was upon issue of which Conference no better Expedient under God presented it self to us than this So far as you shall see cause as the matter requireth to let the Premises be understood is finally left with your self under God Sir The Author of these Lines it shall be your favour and a pledge of Love undeserved to conceal farther than the necessity of the End desired shall call for And if hereby you shall take occasion being in place of discovery to intelligence the Writer touching your observances with relation to the concernments of this People your Advertisements may not only be of much use unto this whole Country but further your account and minister unto many much cause of Thansgiving on your behalf And I shall be bold upon such encouragement if God permits to give you a more distinct account how it fareth with us I mean of the steps of Divine Providence as to the Publick both in our Civils and Ecclesiasticks which at some spare time may hapâ—y be looked at as a matter of contentful Meditation to your self I crave now pardon for being thus bold with you and will not presume any further to detain you The Lord Jesus be with your Spirit and let him also be remembred by you in your Prayers who is in chief SIR Yours in any Service of the Gospel John Norton Boston Sept. 23. 1661. For the Reverend and his much Honoured Friend Mr. Baxter Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty Reverend and much esteemed in the Lord HOwever black the Cloud is and big the Storm yet by all this the Work and Design of Jesus Christ goeth on and prospereth and in these Clouds Christ is coming to set up his Kingdom Yea is he not come in Power and great Glory When had the Truth a greater or so great and glorious a Cloud of Witnesses Is not this Christ in Power and great Glory and if Christ hath so much Glory in the slaughter of his Witnesses what will his Glory be in their Resurrection Your Constancy who are in the heat of the Storm and Numbers ministers matter of humbling and quickning to us who are at a distance and ready to totter and comply at the noise of a probable approach of our Temptation We are not without our Snares but hitherunto the Lords own Arm hath brought Salvation Our Tents are at Ebenezer However the trials and troubles be we must take care of the present Work and not cease and tarry for a calm time to work in And this Principle doth give me occasion to take the boldness to trouble you with these Lines at present My Work about the Indian Bible being by the good hand of the Lord though not without difficulties finished I am meditating what to do next for these Sons of this our Morning they having no Books for their private use of ministerial composing For their help though the Word of God be the best of Books yet Humane Infirmity is you know not a little helped by reading the holy Labours of the Ministers of Jesus Christ. I have therefore purposed in my heart seeing the Lord is yet pleased to prolong my life to translate for them a little Book of yours intituled A Call to the Unconverted The keenness of the Edge and liveliness of the Spirit of that Book through the blessing of God may be of great use unto them But seeing you are yet in the Land of the Living and the good Lord prolong your days I would not presume to do such a thing without making mention thereof unto your self that so I might have the help and blessing of your Counsel and Prayers I believe it will not be unacceptable to you that the Call of Christ by your holy Labours shall be made to speak in their Ears in their own Language that you may preach unto our poor Indians I have begun the Work already and find a great difference in the Work from my former Translations I am forced sometime to alter the Phrase for the facilitating and fitting it to our Language in which I am not so strict as I was in the Scripture Some things which are fitted for English People are not fit for them and in such cases I make bold to fit it for them But I do little that way knowing how much beneath Wisdom it is to shew a Man's self witty in mending another Man's Work When this Work is done if the Lord shall please to prolong my Life I am meditating of Translating some other Book which may prescribe to them the way and manner of a Christian Life and Conversation in their daily Course and how to worship God on the Sabbath fasting feasting Days and in all Acts of Worship publick private and secret and for this purpose I have Thoughts of translating for them the Practice of Piety or some other such Book In which Case I request your Advice to me for if the Lord give opportunity I may hear from you if you see cause so far to take Notice hereof before I shall be ready to begin a new work especially because the Psalms of David in Metre in their Language are going now to the Press which will be some Diversion of me from a present
the rest might not be unintelligible and the whole defective 6. I put in the Forms and Order of Discipline partly because else we should never have had Opportunity therein to express our Minds and partly because indeed it belongeth to the Integrity of the Work and to shew the difference between their kind of Discipline in Chancellors Courts and ours by Pastors in Christian Congregations 7. Note that the method of the Litany and general Prayers is according to the Direction of the Lord's Prayer of which and the Ten Commandments it is a Commentary The first Commandment falleth in with the Preface and the three first Petitions of the Lord's Prayer All the other Commandments with the Evangelical Precepts come in under the third Petition Thy Will be done and then I proceeded to the other three Petitions and the Conclusion Doubtless the Lord's Prayer is the most perfect method for universal Prayer or holy Desires that can be possibly invented § 174. When I brought my Draught to the Brethren I found them but entring on their Work of Exceptions against the Common-Prayer and so I was fain to lay by mine above a Fortnight longer till their work was done In which divers of them took their Parts The chief Actors in that part were Dr. Reignolds Dr. Wallis Mr. Calamy Mr. Newcomen Dr. Bates Mr. Clarke Dr. Iacomb c. Dr. Horton never came among us at all nor Dr. Tuckney alledging his backwardness to speak though he had been the Doctor of the Chair in Cambridge nor Dr. Lightfoot but once or twice nor Mr. Woodbridge but twice or thrice dwelling far off Mr. Clarke brought in that large Enumeration of Corruptions in the Liturgy recited in the Abridgment of the Lincolnshire Ministers but it was refused because we would be as little querulous as possible lest it should offend and hinder our desired Accommodation and what Passages soever seemed to make the Common-Prayer-Book odious or savour of Spleen and Passion they did reject whoever offered them My principal Business was to keep out such Accusations as would not bear weight and to repress the Opinions of one of the Brethren who came from far and so came not till late among us who was absolutely against all parts of the Common-Prayer because they had been used by Papists to Idolatry And I drew up such Faults as in perusing the Common-Prayer-Book it self did occur to me and which were they which I most disliked in the Forms being not so much offended with some other things as some others were But the Brethren reduced it to a few brief Exceptions in general and would not by so particular an Enumeration of Faults provoke those that we had to do with which I misliked not But from the begining I told them that I was not of their Mind who charged the Common-Prayer with false Doctrine or Idolatry or false Worship in the Matter or Substance nor that took it to be a Worship which a Christian might not lawfully join in when he had not Liberty and Ability for better And that I always took the Faults of the Common Prayer to be chiefly Disorder and Defectiveness and so that it was a true Worship though imperfect and Imperfection was the Charge that we had against it considered as distinct from the Ceremonies and Discipline I looked at it as at the Prayers of many a weak Christian that I have heard who prayed with Disorder and Repetitions and unfit Expressions I would not prefer such a weak Christian in Prayer before a better but yet if I separated from such an one or thought it unlawful to join with him I should be sinfully Curious and Uncharitable And I think this was the Mind of all our Brethren save one as well as mine And old Mr. Ash hath often told us that this was the Mind of the old Nonconformists and that he hath often heard some weak Ministers so disorderly in Prayer especially in Baptism and the Lord's Supper that he could have wish'd that they would rather use the Common-Prayer Yet when we desired the Reformation of it especially at a time when the Peoples Hearts were so much set against it I thought it best to open the true Disorders that they might be reformed The Paper which I offered and we laid by lest it should offend them was this following The Exceptions against the Common-Prayer which I offered the Brethren when they were drawing up theirs The common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book is guilty of great Defectiveness Disorder and vain Repetitions and therefore unfit to be the common imposed Frame of Worship to the God of Order without Amendment when we may do it 1. ORDER requireth that we begin with Reverent Prayer to God for his Assistance and Acceptance which is not done 2. That the Creed and Decalogue containing the Faith in which we profess to assemble for God's Worship and the Law which we have broken by our Sins should go before the Confession and Absolution or at least before the Praises of the Church which they do not 3. The Confession omitteth not only Original Sin but all actual Sin as specified by the particular Commandments violated and almost all the Aggravatious of those Sins and instead thereof it containeth only the repeated Confession that we have erred and strayed from God's ways That we have followed the Devises and Desires of our Hearts That we have offended against his Laws That we have left undone those things that we ought to have done c. which is but to say We have sinned by Omission and Commission Whereas Confession being the Expression of Repentance should be more particular as Repentance it self should be 4. When we have craved help for God's Prayers before we come to them we abruptly put in the Petition for speedy Deliverance O God make speed to save us O Lord make haste to help us without any Intimation of the Danger that we desire deliverance from and without any other Petition conjoined 5. It is disorderly in the Manner to sing the Scripture in a plain Tune after the manner of reading 6. The Lord be with you And with thy Spirit being Petitions for Divine Assistance come in abruptly in the midst or near the end of Morning Prayer And Let us Pray is adjoined when we were before in Prayer 7. Lord have Mercy upon us Christ have Mercy upon us Lord have Mercy upon us seemeth an affected Tautologie without any special Cause or Order here And the Lord's Prayer is annexed that was before recited And yet the next Words are again but a Repetition of the foresaid oft repeated General O Lord shew they Mercy upon us 8. The Prayer for the King O Lord save the King is without any Order put between the foresaid Petition and another General Request only for Audience And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee 9. The second Collect is intitled for Peace and hath not a Word in it of Petition for Peace but only for Defence in Assaults of Enemies and
about this time many Books if so they may be called were written against me One by Mr. Naufen forementioned a Justice of Peace in Worcestershire who being a great Friend of the Papists had spoken against me on the Bench at the Sessions behind my back as the Author of a Petition against Popery heretofore and was angry with me for evincing to him his mistake temerity and injustice And when he saw his time he had nothing else to be the fewel of his Revenge but that very Book which I wrote against the Papists and therein against the killing of the King which I aggravated against the Army and the Popish Instigators and Actors But because in Answer to the Papists I made their Doctrine and Practise of King killing to be worse than these Sectaries were guilty of and thereupon recited what the Sectaries said for themselves which the Jesuites have not to say he took up all these Reasons of the Sectaries and answered them as if they had been my own and I had pleaded for that which I condemned by writing in a time when it might have cost me my Life when the Gendeman that thus would have proved me a Traytor did himself act under the Usurpers and took their Impositions which we abhorred and refused § 244. And here I shall insert a Passage not contemptible concerning the Papists because I am fall's into the mention of them In Cromwells days when I was writing that very Book and my Holy Commonwealth and was charging their Treasons and Rebellions on the Army one Mr. Iames Stansfield a Reverend Minister of Glocestershire called on me and tod me a Story which afterwards he sent me under his Hand and warranted me to publish it which was this One Mr. Atkins of Glocestershire Brother to Judge Atkins being beyond Sea with others that had served the late King fell into intimate acquaintance with a Priest that had been or then was Governour of one of their Colledges in Flanders They agreed not to meddle with each other about Religion and so continued their Friendship long A little after the King was beheaded Mr. Atkins met this Priest in London and going into a Tavern with him said to him in his familiar way What business have you here I warrant you come about some Roguery or other Whereupon the Priest told it him as a great secret That there were Thirty of them here in London who by Instructions from Cardinal Mazarine did take care of such Affairs and had sate in Council and debated the Question Whether the King should be put to death or not and that it was carried in the Affirmative and there were but two Voice for the Negative which was his own and anothers And that for his part he could not concur with them as foreseeing what misery this would bring upon his Country That Mr. Atkins stood to the Truth of this but thought it a Violation of the Laws of Friendship to name the Man I would not print it without fuller Attestation left it should be a wrong to the Papists But when the King was restored and setled in Peace I told it occasionly to Privy Councellor who not advising me to meddle any further in it because the King knew enough of Mazarine's Designs already I let it alone But about this time I met with Dr. Thomas Gnad and occasionally mentioning such a thing he told me that he was familiarly acquainted with Mr. Atkins and would know the certainty of him whether it were true And not long after meeting him again he told me that he spoke with Mr. Atkins and that he assured him that it was true but he was loth to meddle in the publication of it Nor did I think it prudence my self to do it as knowing the Malice and Power of the Papists Since this Dr. Peter Moulin hath in his Answer to Philanax Anglicus declared that he is ready to prove when Authority will call him to it that the King's Death and the Change of the Government was first proposed both to the Sorborne and to the Pope with his Conclave and consented to and concluded for by both § 245. Another Book wrote against me was as was thought by one Tompkins a young Man of All-Souls Son to Mr. Tompkins of Worcester and a School-boy there when I lived in that County He called it The Rebel's Plea being a Confutation of such Passages in my Holy Commonwealth as he least understood and could make most odious All these Men made me think what one advised the Papists to do for the effectual Confutation of the Protestants viz. Not to dispute or talk with them at all but to preach every day against them in the Pulpits for there they may speak without any Contradiction and need not fear an Answer § 246. Shortly after our Disputation at the Savoy I went to Rickmersworth in Hartfordshire and preached there but once upon Matth. 22. 12. And he was speechless where I spake not a word that was any nearer kin to Sedition or that had any greater tendency to provoke them than by shewing that wicked men and the refusers of grace however they may now have many things to say to excuse their sin will at last be speechless and dare not stand to their wickedness before God Yet did the Bishop of Worcester tell me when he silenced me that the Bishop of London had shewed him Letters from one of the Hearers assuring him that I preached seditiously so little Security was any Man's Innocency that displeased the Bishops to his Reputation with that Party who had but one Auditor that desired to get favour by accusing him So that a multitude of such Experiences made me perceive when I was silenced that there was some Mercy in it in the midst of Judgment for I should scarce have preached a Sermon nor put up a Prayer to God which one or other through Malice or hope of Favour would not have been tempted to accuse as guilty of some heinous Crime And as Seneca saith He that hath an Ulcer crieth Oh if he do but think you touched him § 247. Shortly after my return to London I went into Worcestershire to try whether it were possible to have any honest Terms from the Reading Vicar there that I might preach to my former Flock But when I had preached twice or thrice he denied me liberty to preach any more I offered him to take my Lecture which he was bound to allow me under a Bond of 500 l but he refused it I next offered him to be his Curate and he refused it I next offered him to preach for nothing and he refused it And lastly I desired leave but once to Administer the Sacrament to the People and preach my Farewel Sermon to them but he would not consent At last I understood that he was directed by his Superiours to do what he did But Mr. Baldwin an able Preacher whom I left there was yet permitted § 248. At that time my aged Father
Action I was commonly censured by them as one that had granted them too much and wronged my Brethren by entring into this Treaty oâ—t of too earnest a desire of Concord with them Thus were Men on both extreams offended with me and I found what Enmity Charity and Peace are like to meet with in the 〈◊〉 But when these Papers were printed the Independents confess that we had dealt faithfully and satisfactorily And indifferent men said that Reason had once whelmed the Cause of the Dioâ—esans and that we had offered them so much a test them utterly without Excuse And the moderate Episcopal Men said the same But the engaged Prelatist were vehemently displeased that these Papers should 〈◊〉 câ—me abroad Though many of them here published were never before printed because none had Copies of them but my self § 264. Bishop Morley told me when he Silenced me that our Papers would be answered 〈◊〉 long But no Man to this day that ever we could hear of hath answered them which were unanswered Either our Reasons for Peace or our Litugy or our large Reply or our Answers to Dr. Pierson's Argument c. only Roger L'Estrange the writer of the News Book hath raised out a great many words against some of them And a nameless Author thought to be Dr. Wommock hath answered one part of one Subject in our Reply which is about excluding all Prayers from the Pulpit besides Common Prayer and in very plausible Language he saith as much as can be said for so bad a Cause viz. for the prohibiting all Extemporary Prayer in the Church And when he cometh to the chief strength of our Reasons he passeth it by and faith that in answering so much as he did the Answer to the rest may be gathered And to all the rest of the Subjects he faith nothing much less to all our other Papers § 265. Also another nameless Author commonly said to be Sir Henry Yelverton wrote a Book for Bishop Morley against me But neither he nor Boreman nor Wommâ—â—k ever saw me for ought I know and I am sure he is as strange to the Cause as to me For he taketh it out of Bishop Morley's Book and supposing what he hath written to be true he findeth some words of Censorious Application to make a Book of § 266. And about the same time Sir Robert Holt a Knight of Warwickshire near Brâ—â—â—â—châ—m spake in the Parliament House against Mr. Calamy and me by name as preaching or praying seditiously but not one syllable named that we said And another time he named me for my Holy Commonwealth § 267. And about that time Bishop Morley having preferred a young Man named Mr. S Orator of the University of Oxford a fluent witty Satyrist and one that was sometime motioned to me to be my Curate at Kidderminster this Man being Houshold Chaplain to the Lord Chancellour was appointed to preach before the King where the Crowd had high Expectations of some vehement Satyr But when he had preached a quarter of an hour he was utterly at a loss and so unable to recollect himself that he could go no further but cryed The Lord be merciful to our Infirmities and so came down But about a Month after they were resolved yet that Mr. S should preach the same Sermon before the King and not lose his expected Applause And preach it he did little more than half an hour with no admiration at all of the Hearers And for his Encouragement the Sermon was printed And when it was printed many desired to see what words they were that he was stopped at the first time And they found in the printed Copy all that he had said first and one of the next Passages which he was to have delivered was against me for my Holy Common-wealth § 268. And so vehement was the Endeavour in Court City and Country to make me contemptible and odious as if the Authours had thought that the Safety either of Church or State did lye upon it and all would have been safe if I were but vilified and hated Insomuch that Durell the French Minister that turned to them and wrote for them had a senseless snatch at me in his Book and Mr. Stoope the Pastor of the French Church was banished or forbidden this Land as Fame said for carrying over our Debates into France So that any Stranger that had but heard and seen all this would have asked What Monster of Villany is this Man and what is the Wickedness that he is guilty of Yet was I never questioned to this day before a Magistrate Nor do my Adversaries charge me with any personal wrong to them nor did they ever Accuse me of any Heresie nor much contemn my Judgment nor ever accuse my Life but for preaching where another had been Sequestred that was an insufficient Reader and for preaching to the Soldiers of the Parliament though none of them knew my Business there nor the Service that I did them These are all the Crimes besides my Writings that I ever knew they charged my Life with But Envy and Carnal Interest was so destitute of a Mask that they every where openly confessed the Cause for which they endeavoured my Defamation and Destruction especially the Bishops that set all on work 1. As one Cause was their own over-valuing of my Parts which they made account I would employ against them 2. Another was that they thought the Reputation of my blameless Life would add to my ability to deserve them 3. Another was that they thought my Interest in the People to be far greater than indeed it was 4. But the principal of all was my Conference before the King and at the Savoy in both which it fell out that Bishop Morley and I were the bassest Talkers except Dr. Gunning and that it was my lot to contradict him who was not so able either to bear or seem to bear it as I thought at least his Honour would have instructed him to be 5. And my refusing a Bishoprick increased the indignation And Colonel Birth that first came to offer it me told me that they would ruine us if we refused it Yet did I purposely forbear ever mentioning it on all occasions 6. And it was not the least Cause that my being for Primitive Episcopacy and not for Presbytery and being not so far from them in some other Points of Doctrine and Worship as many Nonconformists are they thought I was the abler to undermine them 7. And another Cause was that they judged of the rest of my Talk and Life by my Conference at the Savoy not knowing that I took that to be my present Duty which Fidelity to the King and Church commanded me faithfully to do whoever was displeased by it and that when that time was over I took it to be my Duty to live as peaceably as any Subject in the Land and not to use mâ— Tongue or Pen against the Government which the King was pleased to appoint
lawfully do we may swear to do § 291. 5. The fifth Controversie is about Re-ordination of such as were not Ordained by Diocesans but by the Presbyteries which then were at home or abroad And here they are also of two minds among themselves The one sort say That Ordination without Diocesans is a Nullity and those that are so Ordained are no Ministers but Laymen and therefore their Churches no true Churches in sensu politico And therefore that such must needs be Re-ordained The other sort say That their Ordination was valid before in foro spirituali but not in foro cioili and that the repeating of it is but an afoertaining or a confirming Act as publick Marrying again would be after one is privately married in case the Law would bastardize or disinherit his Children else § 292. 6. The sixth Controversie is about the lawfulness of the Assent and Consent to be declared which is to all contained in the Book of Articles the Book of Ordination and the Book of Common Prayer These comprehend abundance of Particulars some Doctrinal some about the Offices and Discipline of the Church and some about the Matter the Order and Manner and Ceremonies of Worship Here they are also divided among themselves some few of them take the words plainly and properly viz. the willing Conformists and think that indeed there is nothing in these Books which is not to be assented and consented to And indeed all the Convocation must needs be of that mind or the Major part and also the Parliament because they had the Books before them to be perused and did examine the Liturgy and Book of Ordination and make great Alterations in them and therefore if they had thought there had been any thing not to be assented and consented to they would have altered it by correction before they had imposed it on the Church But for all that the other Party is now so numerous that I could yet never speak with any of them but went that way viz. with the Latitudinarians to expound the words all things contained in the Books which they assent and consent to All things which they are to use and their Assent and Consent they limit only to the use q. d. I do dissent that there is nothing in these Books which may not lawfully be used and I do consent to the use of so much as belongeth to me Though yet they think or will not deny but that there may be something that may be ill framed and ill imposed The reason of this Exposition they fetch from the word use which is found after in the Act of Uniformity though it be not in the words of the Delaration And for the Books they say It is lawful to use the Common-Prayer and the Ceremonies Cross Surplice Copes and Kneeling at the Sacrament and all that is in that or the other Books to be used and therefore to declared so much § 293. More particularly 1. Concerning the Kalendar imposing the use of so many Apocryphal Lessons they say that they are read but upon Week-days and that not as Scripture but as edifying Lessons as the Homilies are and as many Churches have long used them And that the Church sufficiently avoideth the Scandal by calling them Apocryphâ—◠§ 294. And 2. for the parcelling and ordering of the Prayers and Responses as they are some of them say that it is the best Form and Order and it 's only Fancy and 〈◊〉 which 〈◊〉 them Others say that they are disorderly indeed but that is not the Sin of the Users when they are imposed but of the Framers and 〈◊〉 § 295. And 3. as for the Doctrine of the Salvation of Baptized Infants in the Rubrick of Baptism and all the rest in that Book and in the Nine and thirty Arâ—â—â—â—â— some of them say that they are all found viz. the willing Conformists but the unwilling Conformists say that these are not things to be used by themâ— and therefore not within the Compass of the declared Assent or Consent in the Act. § 296. And 4. as to the Charitable Applications excepted against in Baptism Confirmation the Lord's Supper Absolution of the Sick and Burial they say they are but such as according to the Judgment of Charity we may use And if there be any fault it is not in the Common Prayer Book which useth but such words as are fit to be used by the Members of the Church but it is in the Canons and Discipline of the Church which suffereth unfit Persons to be Church-Members § 297. And 5. as for the Ceremonies they say 1. That Kneeling is freed from all suspicion of Idolatry by the annexing of the Rubrick out of King Edward the Sixth's Common Prayer Book which though the Convocation refused yet the Parliament annexed and they are the Imposers and it is their sence that we must stand to And as it is lawful to Kneel in accepting a sealed Pardon from the King by his Messenger so is it in accepting a sealed Pardon from God with the Investiture of our Priviledges § 298. And 2. they say that the Surplice is as lawful as a Gown it being not imposed primarily because significant but because decent and secondarily as significant say some Or as others say It is the better and fitter to be imposed because it is significant and that God hath no where forbidden such Ceremonies § 299. And 3. for the Cross in Baptism they say that it is no part of the Sacrament of Baptism but an appendant Ceremony that it is the better for being significant that it is but a transient Image and not a fixed much less a graven Image and is not adored that it is but a professing sign as words are or as standing up or holding up the hand and not any Seal of God's part of the Covenant and though it be called in the Canons a Dedicating Sign it is but as it signifieth the Action of the Person or the Church and not as it signifieth the Action of God receiving the dedicated Person And some say That it cannot be de denied but that according to the old and common use of the word Sacrament as a Military Engagement it is a Sacrament yet it is not pretended to be a Divine but a Humane Sacrament and such are lawful it being in our definition of a Church Sacrament that it is Ordained by Christ himself And though Man may not invent New Sacraments as God's sealing or investing Signs and so pretend that to be Divine which is not yet man may invent New Human Sacraments which go no further than the signifying of their own Minds and Actions And they say That if such mystical Signs as these had been unlawful it is a thing incredible that the Universal Church should use such as far as can be found from the Apostles days even the Milk and Honey and Chrysm and White Garment at Baptism and the Station on the Lord's Days and the oft use of the Cross and
the Dutch whom the French assisted § 28. The Plague which began at Acton Iuly 29. 1665. being ceased on March 1. following I returned home and found the Church-yard like a plow'd field with Graves and many of my Neighbours dead but my House near the Church-yard uninfected and that part of my Family which I left there all safe thro' the great mercy of God my merciful Protector § 29. About this time the French surprized St. Christophers and some other of our Plantations in the West Indies and the Dutch took our Plantation of Siranam And the Wars proceeding nearer home in the end of Iune 1666. in the which many were kill'd on both sides and the D. of York so near the danger as that he ventured himself in fight no more Among others the E. of Marlborough being slain there was found about him a Letter written to Sir Hugh Pollard Comptroller of the King's Houshold in which being awaken'd by Sea-dangers he disclaim'd Sadducism and pleaded for the Soul's Immortality which was Printed because being intimate Friends they were both before supposed to be Infidels and Sadducees that believed no Life after this § 30. On Iuly 25. was the 2d great Sea-fight in which the English had the better And in August we seemed to prevail yet more insomuch that Monk was said to proceed so far as to enter their Harbour and burn 120 Ships in the River and to burn a Thousand Houses on the Land and give the Seamen the Plunder for which in the end of August the King appointed a Day of Thanksgiving to be kept in London which was done though many muttered that it was not wisely done to provoke the Dutch by burning their houses when it was easy for them to do the like by us on our Sea-Coasts and so to teach them the way of undoing us while neither party gained by such doings And that it was no good sign of future prosperity when those that believed not that there is a God or at least that his providence disposeth of such things would give God solemn Thanks for an unprofitable burning of the Houses of innocent Protestants And our Confidence was then grown so high that we talkt of nothing but bringing down the Dutch to our mercy and bringing them to Contempt and Ruine But our Height was quickly taken down by the loss of many Hamborough ships first and then by a loss of many of our men in an Attempt upon their Merchant ships in the Sound at Denmark but especially by the firing of the City of London § 31. On Septemb. 2. after midnight London was set on fire and on Sept. 3. the Exchange was burnt and in Three Days almost all the City within the Walls and much without them The season had been exceeding dry before and the Wind in the East where the Fire began The people having none to conduct them aright could do nothing to resist it but stand and see their Houses-burn without Remedy the Engines being presently out of Order and useless The streets were crowded with People and Carts to carry away what Goods they could get out And they that were most active and befriended by their Wealth got Carts and saved much and the rest lost almost all The Loss in Houses and Goods is scarcely to be valued And among the rest the Loss of Books was an exceeding great Detriment to the Interest of Piery and Learning Almost all the Booksellers in St. Paul's Church-Yard brought their Books into Vaults under St. Paul's Church where it was thought almost impossible that Fire should come But the Church it self being on fire the exceeding weight of the Stones falling down did break into the Vault and let in the Fire and they could not come near to save the books The Library also of Sion-Colledge was burnt and most of the Libraries of Ministers Conformable and Nonconformable in the City with the Libraries of many Nonconformists of the Countrey which had been lately brought up to the City I saw the half burnt Leaves of Books near my Dwelling at Acton six miles from London but others found them near Windsor almost twenty miles distant At last some Seamen taught them to blow up some of the next Houses with Gunpowder which stopt the Fire And in some places it stopt as wonderfully as it had proceeded without any known Cause It stopt at Holborn-Bridge and near St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street and at Sepulchre's Church when the Church was burnt and at Christ's Church when the Church was burnt and near Aldersgate and Cripplegate and other places at the Wall and in Austin Friars the Dutch Church stopt it and escaped and in Bishopsgate-street and Leadenhall-street and Fenchurch-street in the midst of the Streets and short of the Tower and all beyond the River Southwark escaped Thus was the best and one of the fairest Cities in the world turn'd into Ashes and Ruines in Three Days space with many score Churches and the Wealth and Necessaries of the Inhabitants The Number of Houses are recorded by others § 32. It was a fight that might have given any Man a lively sense of the Vanity of this World and all the Wealth and Glory of it and of the future confâ—agration of all the World To see the Flames mount up towards Heaven and proceed so furiously without restraint To see the streets filled with people astonished that had scarce sense left them to lament their own calamity To see the fields filled with heaps of Goods and sumptuous Buildings curious Rooms costly Furniture and Houshold-Stuff Yea Warehouses and furnished Shops and Libraries c. all on a flame and none durst come near to receive any thing To see the King and Nobles ride about the streets beholding all these Desolations and none could afford the least Relief To see the Air as far as could be beheld so filled with the smoak that the Sun shined through it with a colour like Blood yea even when it was setting in the West it so appeared to them that dwelt on the West side of the City But the dolefullest sight of all was afterwards to see what a ruinous confused place the City was by Chimneys and Steeples only standing in the midst of Cellars and heaps of Rubbish so that it was hard to know where the streets had been and dangerous of a long time to pass through the Ruines because of Vaults and fire in them No man that seeth not such a thing can have a right apprehension of the dreadfulness of it § 33. The Extent of the Fire consuming the City within the Walls calleth to my remembrance that a Fortnight before one Mr. Caril a Gentleman of a great Estate in Sussex and said to be one of the most understanding and sober sort of Papists first sent and then come to have visited me as earnestly desiring my Acquaintance and then sent me a Paper to answer being Exceptions against the Preface to my book called The â—afe Religion written by one
went away to another place And this especially with the great discontents of the people for their manifold payments and of Cities and Corporations for the great decay of Trade and the breaking and impoverishing of many Thousands by the burning of the City together with the lamentable weakness and badness of great Numbers of the Ministers that were put into the Nonconformist's places did turn the hearts of the most of the Common people in all parts against the Bps. and their ways and enclined them to the Nonconformists tho fear restrained men from speaking what they thought especially the richer fort § 59. Here Ralph Wallis a Cobler of Glocester published a book containing the Names and particular histories of a great Number of Conformable Ministers in several Parishes of England that had been notoriously scandalous and named their scandals to the great displeasure of the Clergy And I fear to the great temptation of many of the Nonconformists to be glad of other Mens sin as that which by accident might diminish the interest of the Prelatists § 60. The Lord Mohune a young man gave out some words which caused a Common Scandal in Court and City against the Bp. of Rochester as guilty of most obscure Actions with the said Lord the reproach whereof was long the talk of many sorts of persons who then took liberty to speak freely of the Bishops § 61. About this time Ian. 1668. the news came of the Change in Portugal where by no means of the Queen the King who was a debanched person and Charged by her of insufficiency or frigidity was put out of his Government tho not his Title and his brother by the consent of Nobles was made Regent and marryed the Queen after a Declaration of Nullity or a divorce and the King was sent as a Prisoner into an Island where he yet remaineth Which News had but an ill sound in England as things went at that time § 62. In Ian. 1668. I received a Letter from Dr. Manton that Sir Iohn Barber told him that it was the Lord Keeper's desire to speak with him and me about a Comprehension and Toleration Whereupon coming to London Sir Iohn Barber told me that the Lord keeper spake to him to bring us to him for the aforesaid end and that he had certain proposals to offer us and that many great Courtiers were our friends in the business but that to speak plainly if we would carry it we must make use of such as were for a Toleration of the Papists also And he demanded how we would answer the Common Question What will satisfie you I answered him That other Mens Judgments and Actions about the Toleration of Papists we had nothing to do with at this time though it was no work for us to meddle in But to this question we were not so ignorant whom we had to do with as to expect full satisfaction of our desires as to Church-Affairs But the Answer must be suited to the Sense of his Question And if we knew their Ends what degree of satisfaction they were minded to grant we would tell them what means are necessary to attain them There are degrees of satisfaction as to the Number of Persons to be satisfied and there are divers degrees of satisfying the same Person 1. If they will take in all Orthodox Peaceable Worthy Ministers the Terms must be the larger 2. If they will take in but the greater part somewhat less and harder Terms may do it 3. If but a few yet less may serve for we are not so vain as to pretend that all Nonconformists are in every particular of one mind And as to the Presbyterians now so called whose Case alone we were called to consider 1. If they would satisfie the far greatest part of them in an high degree so as they should think the Churches setled in a good condition the granting of what was desired by them in 1660. would do it which is the setling of Church-Government according to that of A. Bp. Vsher's Model and the granting of the Indulgences mentioned in his Majestie 's Declaration about Eccles. Affairs 2. But if they would not give so high satisfaction the Alterations granted in his Majestie 's Declaration alone would so far satisfie them as to make them very thankful to his Majesty and not only to exercise their Office with Chearfulness but also to rejoice in the Kingdom 's happiness whose Union would by this be much promoted 3. But if this may not be granted at least the taking off all such impositions which make us uncapable of Exercising our Ministry would be a mercy for which we hope we should not be unthankful to God or the King § 63. When we came to the Lord Keeper we resolved to tell him That Sir Iohn Barber told us his Lordship desired to speak with us left it should be after said that we intruded or were the movers of it or left it had been Sir Iohn Barber's Forwardness that had been the Cause He told us why he sent for us to think of a way of our Restoration to which end he had some Proposals to offer to us which were for a Comprehension for the Presbyterians and an Indulgence for the Independents and the rest We askt him Whether it was his Lordship's pleasure that we should offer him our Opinion of the means or only receive what he offered to us He told us That he had somewhat to offer to us but we might also offer our own to him I told him That I did think we could offer such Terms no way injurious to the welfare of any which might take in both Presbyterians and Independents and all found Christians into the Publick Established Ministry He answered That that was a thing that he would not have but only a Toleration for the rest Which being none of our business to debate we desired him to consult such persons about it as were concerned in it And so it was agreed that we should meddle with the Comprehension only And a few Days after he sent us his Proposals § 64. When we saw the Proposals we perceived that the business of the Lord Keeper and his way would make it unfit for us to debate such Cases with himself And therefore we wrote to him requesting that he would nominate Two Learned peaceable Divines to treat with us till we agreed on the fittest Terms and that Dr. Bates might be added to us He nominated Dr. Wilkins who we then found was the Author of the Proposals and of the whole business and his Chaplain Mr. Burton And when we met we tendered them some Proposals of our own and some Alterations which we desired in their Proposals for they presently rejected ours and would hear no more of them so that we were fain to treat upon theirs alone § 65. The Copy of what we offered them is as followeth I. That the Credenda and Agenda in Religion being distinguished no Profession of Assent be required but
which was necessary to deal with such an Adversary he was quickly answered by fastening on the weakest parts with new reproach and triumph And the Author was doubly exposed to suffering For whereas he was so neer Conformity as that he had taken the Oxford Oath and read some Common prayer and therefore by connivance was permitted to preach in South-Work to an Hospital where he had 40 l. per Ann. and was now in expectation of Liberty at a better place in Bridewell he was now deprived of that And 〈◊〉 had little relief from the Nonconformists because he Conformed so far as he did And having a numerous family was in great want § 93. The next year came out a far more virulent book called Ecclesiastical Policy written by Sam. Parker a young Man of pregnant parts who had been brought up among the Sectaries and seeing some weaknesses among them and being of an eager Spirit was turned with the Times into the contrary extreme for which he giveth thanks to God And judging of 〈◊〉 called Puritans and Nonconformists by the people that he was bred amongst and being now made Arch-Bishop Sheldon's houshold Chaplain where such work was to be done he writeth the most scornfully and rashly and prophanely and cruelly against the Nonconformists of any man that ever yet assaulted them that I have heard of And in a fluent fervent ingenious style of Natural Rhetorick poureth out floods of Odious reproaches and with incautelous Extremities saith as much to make them hated and to stir up the Parliament to destroy them as he could well speak And all this was to play the old game at once to please the Devil the Prelates and the prophane and so to twist all three into one party than which if prelacy be of God a greater injury could not be done to it being the surest tryed way to engage all the Religious if not the Sober also of the Land against it § 93. Soon after Dr. Iohn Owen first tryed to have engaged me to answer it by telling me and others that I was the fittest Man in England for that work on what account I now enquire not But I had above all men been oft enough searched in the malignant fire and contended with them with so little thanks from the Independents tho they could say little against it that I resolved not to meddle with them any more without a clearer call than this And besides Patrick and that Party by excepting me from those whom they reproached in respect of Doctrine disposition and practice made me the unfittest person to rise up against them Which if I had done they that applauded me before would soon have made me seem as odious almost as the rest For they had some at hand that in evil speaking were such Masters of Language that they never wanted Matter nor Words but could say what they listed as voluminously as they desired § 94. Whereupon Dr. Owen answered it himself selecting the most odious Doctrinal Assertions with some others of Parker's book and laid them so naked in the Judgment of all Readers that ever I met with that they concluded Parker could never answer it Especially because the Answer was delayed about a year By which Dr. Owen's esteem was much advanced with the Nonconformists § 95. But Parker contriv'd to have his Answer ready against the Sessions of the Parliament in Octob. 1670. And shortly after it came out In which he doth with the most voluminous torrent of naturall and malicious Rhetorick speak over the same things which might have been Comprized in a few Sentences viz. The Nonconformists Calvinists Presbyterians Hugonots are the most villanous unsufferable sort of sanctified Fools Knaves and unquiet Rebels that ever were in the World With their naughty Godliness and holy Hypocrisie and Villanies making it necessary to fall upon their Teachers and not to spare them for the Conquering of the rest But yet he putteth more Exceptions here of the Soberer honest peaceable sort whom he loveth but pittyeth for the unhappiness of their Education and in particular speaketh kindly of me than he had done before For when he had before persuaded men to fall upon the Ministers and said What are an hundred men to be valued in Comparison of the safety of the whole When Dr. Owen and others commonly understood him as meaning that there was but a 100 Nonconformable Ministers when 1800 were silenced he found out this shift to abate both the Charge of malignant Cruelty and Untruth and saith that he meant that he hoped the seditious hot headed party that misled the people were but a few Whereby he vindicated fifteen hundred Nonconformable Ministers against those Charges which he and others frequently lay on the Nonconformists by that name But the second part of the Matter of his book was managed with more advantage because of all the Men in England Dr. Owen was the Chief that had Headed the Independents in the Army with the greatest height and Confidence and Applause and afterward had been the greater persuader of Fleetwood Desborough and the rest of the Officers of the Army who were his Gathered Church to Compel Rich. Cromwell to dissolve his Parliament which being done he fell with it and the King was brought in So that Parker had so many of his Parliament and Army Sermons to cite in which he urgeth them to Justice and prophesyeth of the ruine of the Western Kings and telleth them that their work was to take down Civil and Ecclesiastical Tyranny with such like that the Dr. being neither able to repent hitherto or to justify all this must be silent or only plead the Art of Oblivion And so I fear his unfitness for this Work was a general injury to the Nonconformists § 96. And here I think I ought to give Posterity notice that by the Prelatist's malice and unreasonable implacable Violence Independency and Separation got greater advantages against Presbytery and all setled accidental extrinsick order and means of Concord than ever it had in these Kingdoms since the World began For powerful and Godly Preachers though now most silenced had in twenty years liberty brought such numbers to serious Godliness that it was vain for the Devil or his Servants to hope that suffering could make the most forsake it And to the Prelatists they would never turn while they saw them for the sake of their own Wealth and Lordships and a few Forms and Ceremonies silence so many hundred worthy self-denying Ministers that had been Instruments of their Good and to become the Son of the prophane malignant Enmity to the far greatest part of the most serious Religious People in Three Kingdoms And Presbyterians were forced to forbear all Exercise of their way they durst not meet together Synodically unless in a Goal They could not ordinarily be the Pastors of Parish-Churches no not for the private part of the Work being driven five Miles from all their former Charges and Auditors and from every City
the same Justices saw that I was thus discharged they were not satisfied to have driven me from Acton but they make a new Mittimus by Counsel as for the same supposed Fault naming the Fourth of Iune as the Day on which I preached and yet not naming any Witness when the Act against Conventicles was expired long before And this Mittimus they put into an Officer's hands in London to bring me not to Clerkenwell but among the Thieves and Murderers to the common Jail at Newgate which was since the Fire which burnt down all the better Rooms the most noisom place that I have heard of except the Tower Dungeon of any Prison in the Land § 132. The next Habitation which God's Providence chose for me was at Totteridge near Barnet where for a Year I was fain with part of my Family separated from the rest to take a few mean Rooms which were so extreamly smoaky and the place withal so cold that I spent the Winter in great pain one quarter of a Year by a sore Sciatica and seldom free from such Anguish § 133. It would trouble the Reader for me to reckon up the many Diseases and Dangers for these ten Years past in or from which God hath delivered me though it be my Duty not to forget to be thankful Seven Months together I was lame with a strange Pain in one Foot Twice delivered from a Bloody Flux a spurious Cataract in my Eye with incessant Webs and Net-works before it hath continued these eight Years without disabling me one Hour from Reading or Writing I have had constant Pains and Languors with incredible Flatulency in Stomach Bowels Sides Back Legs Feet Heart Breast but worst of all either painful Distentions or usually vertiginous or stupifying Conquests of my Brain so that I have rarely one Hour's or quarter of an Hour's ease Yet through God's Mercy I was never one Hour Melancholy and not many Hours in a Week disabled utterly from my Work save that I lost time in the Morning for want of being able to rise early And lately an Ulcer in my Throat with a Tumour of near half a Year's continuance is healed without any means In all which I have found such merciful Disposals of God such suitable Chastisements for my Sin such plain Answers of Prayer as leave me unexcusable if they do me not good Besides many sudden and acuter Sicknesses which God hath delivered me from not here to be numbred his upholding Mercy under such continued weaknesses with tolerable and seldom disabling Pains hath been unvaluable § 134. I am next to give some short account of my Writings since 1665. 1. A small MS. lyeth by me which I wrote in Answer to a Paper which Mr. Caryl of Sussex sent me written by Cressy called now Serenus about Popery § 135. 2 Mr. Yates of Hambden Minister sending me the Copy of a Popish Letter as spread about Oxford under the Mask of one doubting of Christianity and calling the Scholars to a Trial of their Faith in Principles did by the Juggling Fraud and the slightness of it provoke me to write my book called The Reasons of the Christian Religion And the Philosophy of Gassendus and many more besides the Hobbians now prevailing and inclining men to Sadducism induced me to write the Appendix to it about the Immortality of the Soul § 136. 3. Oft Conference with the Lord Chief Baron Hale put those Cases into my mind which occasioned the writing of another short Piece of the Nature and Immortality of the Soul by way of Question and Answer not printed § 137. 4. The great Weaknesses and Passions and Injudiciousness of many Religious Persons and the ill effects and especially perceiving that the Temptations of the Times yea the very Reproofs of the Conformists did but increase them among the separating party caused me to offer a book to be Licensed called Directions to weak Christians how to grow in grace with a second part being Sixty Characters of a Sound Christian with as many of the Weak Christian and the Hyyocrite Which I the rather writ to imprint on men's minds a right apprehension of Christianity and to be as a Confession of our Judgment in this malignant Age when some Conformists would make the World believe that it is some menstruous thing composed of Folly and Sedition which the Nonconformists mean by a Christian and a Godly Man This Book came forth when I was in Prison being long before refused by Mr. Grigg § 138. 5. A Cristian Directory or Summ of Practical Divinity in Folio hath lain finished by me many years and since twice printed § 139. 6. My Bookseller desiring some Additions to my Sermon before the King I added a large Directory of the whole Life of Faith which is its Title which is published § 140. 7. Abundance of Women first and Men next growing at London into separating Principles Some thinking that it was sin to hear a Conformist and more That it is a sin to pray according to the Common Prayer with them and yet more That it is a sin to Communicate with them in the Sacrament And the Conformists abominating their House-Meetings as Schismatical and their Distance and Passions daily increasing even among many to earnest desires of each other's Ruine I thought it my Duty to add another part to my book of Directions to weak Christians being Directions what course they must take to avoid being Dividers or troublers of the Churches The rather because I knew what the Papists and Infidels would gain by our Divisions and of how great necessity it is against them both that the honest moderate part of the Conformists and the Nonconformists be reconciled or at least grow not into mortal Enmity against each other This Book was offered to Mr. Sam. Parker the Archbishop's Chaplain to be Licensed but he refused it and so I purposed to cast it by But near two years after Mr. Grove the Bishop of London's Chaplain without whom I could have had nothing of mine Licensed I think did License it and it was published of which more anon § 141. 8. About this time I heard Dr. Owen talked very yieldingly of a Concord betweent the Independents and Presbyterians which all seemed willing of I had before about 1658. written somewhat in order to Reconciliation and I did by the invitation of his Speeches offer it to Mr. Geo. Griffiths to be considered And near a twelve-month after he gave it me again without taking notice of any thing in it I now resolved to try once more with Dr. Owen And though all our business with each other had been contradiction I thought it my Duty without any thoughts of former things to go to him and be a Seeker of Peace which he seemed to take well and expressed great desires of Concord and also many moderate Concessions and how heartily he would concur in any thing that tended to a good agreement I told him That I must deal freely with him that
themselves believed it that the love of Kiderminster would make me Conform and they concurred in vending the Report insomuch that one certainly told me that he came then from a worthy Minister to whom the Arch-bishop of York Sterne spake these Words Take it on my Word Mr. Baxter doth Conform and is gone to his Beloved Kiderminster And so both Parties concurred in the false Report though one only raised it § 151. Another Accident fell out also which promoted it For Mr. Crofton having a Tryal as I hear upon the Oxford Act of Confinement at the King's Bench Judge Keeling said You need not be so hasty for I hear that Mr. Crofton is about to Conform And Judge Morton said And I hear that Mr. Baxter hath a Book in the Press against their private Meetings Judge Rainsford said somewhat that he was glad to hear it and Judge Morton again That it was but time for the Quakers in Buckingham-shire he was confident were Acted by the Papists for they spake for Purgatory already This Talk being used in so high a Court of Justice by the Grave and Reverend Judges all Men thought then that they might lawfully believe it and report it So Contagious may the Breath of one Religious Man be as to infect his Party and of that Religious Party as to infect the Land and more than one Land with the belief and report of such ungrounded Lies § 152. At the same time in the end of my Life of Faith I Printed a Revocation of my Book called Political Aphorisms or A Holy Common-wealth which exasperated those who had been for the Parliament's War as much as the former but both together did greatly provoke them Of which I must give the Reader this Advertisement I wrote that Book 1659. by the provocation of Mr. Iames Harrington the Author of Oceana and next by the Endeavours of Sir Hen. Vane for a Common-wealth Not that I had any Enmity to a well ordered Democracy but 1. I knew that Cromwell and the Army were resolved against it and it would not be 2. And I perceived that Harrington's Common-wealth was fitted to Heathenism and Vane's to Fanaticism and neither of them would take Therefore I thought that the improvement of our Legal Form of Government was best for us And by Harrington's Scorn Printed in a half Sheet of Gibberish was then provoked to write that Book But the madness of the several Parties before it could be Printed pull'd down Rich. Cromwell and chang'd the Government so oft in a few Months as brought in the King contrary to the hopes of his closest Adherents and the expectations of almost any in the Land And ever since the King came in that Book of mine was preached against before the King spoken against in the Parliament and wrote against by such as desired my Ruine Morley Bishop of Worcester and many after him branded it with Treason and the King was still told that I would not retract it but was still of the same mind and ready to raise another War and a Person not to be indured New Books every Year came out against it and even Men that had been taken for Sober and Religious when they had a mind of Preferment and to be taken notice of at Court and by the Prelates did fall on Preaching or Writing against me and specially against that Book as the probablest means to accomplish their Ends. When I had endured this ten Years and found no stop but that still they proceeded to make me odious to the King and Kingdom and seeking utter ruine this way I thought it my Duty to remove this stumbling Block out of their way and without recanting any particular Doctrine in it to revoke the Book and to disown it and desire the Reader to take it as non Scriptum and to tell him that I repented of the writing of it And so I did Yet telling him That I retracted none of the Doctrine of the first Part which was to prove the Monarch of God but for the sake of the whole second Part I repented that I wrote it For I was resolved at least to have that much to say against all that after wrote and preach'd and talk'd against it That I have revoked that Book and therefore shall not defend it And the incessant bloody Malice of the Reproachers made me heartily wish on two or three accounts that I had never written it 1. Because it was done just at the fall of the Government and was buried in onr ruines and never that I know of did any great good 2. Because I find it best for Ministers to meddle as little as may be with Matters of Poliâ—y how great soever their Provocations may be and therefore I wish that I had never written on any such Subject 3. And I repented that I meddled against Vane and Harrington which was the second Part in Defence of Monarchy seeing that the Consequents had been no better and that my Reward had been to be silenced imprisoned turned out of all and reproached implacably and incessantly as Criminal and never like to see an end of it He that had wrote for so little and so great displeasure might be tempted as well as I to wish that he had sat still and let GOD and Man alone with Matters of Civil Policy Though I was not convinced of many Errors in that Book so called by some Accusers to recant yet I repented the writing of it as an infelicity and as that which did no good but hurt § 153. But because an Appendix to that Book had given several Reasons of my adhering to the Parliament at first many thought I changed my Judgment about the first part of the Parliament's Cause And the rather because I disclaimed the Army's Rebellious Overthrows of Government as I had always done I knew I could not revoke the Book but the busie pevishness of censorious Professors would fall upon me as a Revolter And I knew that I could not for bear the said Revocation without those ill Effects which I supposed greater And which was worst of all I had no possible Liberty further to explain any Reasons § 154. When my Cure of Church Divisions came out the sober Party of Ministers were reconciled to it especially the Ancienter sort and those that had seen the Eviâ—s of Separation But some of the London Ministers who had kept up Publick Assemblies thought it should have been less sharp and some thought because they were under the Bishop's Severities that it was unseasonable For the Truth is most Men judged by Sense and take that to be good or bad which they feel do them good or hurt at the present And because the People's Alienation from the Prelates and Liturgy and Parish-Churches did seem to make against the Prelates and to make for the Nonconformist's Interest they thought it not Prudence to gratifie the Prelates so far as to gain-say it And so they considered not from whence dividing Principles come
dead 2. Mr. Iohn Warren of Hatfield Broadoke in Essex a man of great Judgment and ministerial Abilities-moderation Piety and Labour The place whence he was cast out hath had no minister since to this day though a great Town and in the Bishop of London's Gift because the means is so small that none will take it And yet he cannot have leave to preach rather than none But he gets now and then one by his Interest to Preach occasionally and he heareth them in publick and then himself instructeth the People in private as far as he can obtain connivance 3. Mr. Peter Ince in Wiltshire a solid grave pious worthy able minister living with Mr. Grove that excellent humble holy Learned Gentleman who himself is now driven out of his his Country for receiving and hearing such in his House 4. Mr. Iohn How mâ—nister of Torrrington in Devonshire sometime Houshold-Preacher to Oliver Cromwell and his Son Richard till the Army pulled him down but not one that medled in his Wars He is a very Learned judicious godly man of no Faction but of Catholick healing Principles and of excellent ministerial Ablities as his excellent Treatise called The Blessedness of the Righteous sheweth 5. Mr. Ford of Exeter is a man of great Ability as his Book called The Sinner's Araignment at his Bar sheweth a Reverend Divine of great esteem for all ministerial worth with the generality of sober men And I hear a high Character of Mr. Clare near him and many more there but I know not those 6. Mr. Hughes of Plymouth a very Reverend Learned Ancient Divine long ago of London an excellent Expositor of Scripture was in his Age laid so long in Prison for silencing was not suffering enough for so excellent a Man that he fell by it into the Scurvy and died soon after His Treatife of the Sabbath is Printed since his Death 7. Mr. Berry in Devonshire an extraordinary humble tender-conscienced serious godly able Minister 8. Mr. Benj. Woodbridge of Newbury who came out of New-England to succeed Dr. Twisse a Man of great Judgment Piety Ability and moderate Principles addicted to no Faction but of a Catholick Spirit 9. Mr. Simon King some-time of Coventry since near Peterborough who first Entertain'd me at Coventry in the beginning of the Wars when I was forced to fly from Home a Man of a solid Judgment an honest Heart and Life and addicted to no Extremes and an able Scholar long ago chief School-Master at Bridgnorth Divers others of my own Acquaintance I could describe in Wales in Derby-shire Cheshire York-shire and other Counties but I will end with a few of my old Neighbours that I had forgotten 10. Old Mr. Samuel Hildersham about 80 Years old only Son to the Famous Arthur Hildersham a Conformist formerly but resolved enough against the New Conformity A grave peaceable pious learned Divine cast out of Welsh-Felton in Shrop-shire 11. Mr. Tho. Gilbert of Edgmond in Shropshire an Ancient Divine of extraordinary Acuteness and Conciseness of Stile and a most piercing Head as his small Lat. Tract of the necessity of Christ's Satisfaction sheweth 12. Mr. Samuel Fisher an Ancient Reverend Divine some-time of Withington then of Shrewsbury turned out with Mr. Blake for not taking the Engagement against King and House of Lords then lived in Cheshire and thence cast out and Silenced a very able Preacher and of a goldy Life 13. My old Friend Mr. Will. Cook bred up under Mr. Iohn Ball a Learned Man and of a most godly Life and unwearied Labour Like the first Preachers he can go in poor Clothing live on a little travel on Foot Preach and Pray almost all the Week if he have opportunity in Season and out of Season trampling on this World as dirt and living a mortified laborious Life Being an old Nonconformist and Presbyterian he was greatly offended at the Anabaptists Separatists and Sectaries and Cromwel's Army for Disloyalty to the King whom they Beheaded and this King whom they kept out and therefore joyned with Sir George Booth now Lord Delamere in his Rising to have brought in the King And being then Minister in Chester persuaded the Citizens to deliver up the City to Him For which he was brought to London and long Imprisoned But all this would not procure his Liberty to Preach the Gospel of Christ without the Oaths Subscriptions Declarations Re-ordination and Conformity required 14. To these I may subjoyn my old Friend Mr. Pigot chief School-master of Shrewsbury 15. And my old Friend Mr. Swaine some-time School-master at Bridgnorth and since a godly fervent Preacher in Radnor-shire But I must stop § 209. Let the Reader note That there is not one of all these that was put out for any Scandal but meerly not Subscribing c. and Conforming nor one of them all that ever I heard any Person charge or once suspect of Wantonness Idleness Surfetting Drunkenness or any scandalous Sin And of those of the Prelatists that were Sequestred by the Parliament I knew not one that I remember that was not accused upon Oath of Witnesses of Scandal though doubtless others knew some such Not including the siding in the Wars which each side called scandalous in the other and which yet but a small part of these named by me medled in that ever I could learn § 210. Therefore I conclude That we that know not the Mysteries of God's Judgments saw not what a Mercy it was that God took to Himself before they were Silenced such Excellent Men as Dr. Twiss Dr. Gouge Mr. Iohn Ball Mr. Gataker Mr. Ier. Whitaker Dr. Arrow Smith Dr. Hill Mr. Strong Mr. Herbert Palmer and most of the Assembly with many more such Nor yet that God took away such Men as Bishop Davent Bishop Hall Arch-Bishop Vsher Bishop Morton yea and Dr. Hammond before they were under a Temptation to have a Hand in the casting out of so many excellent worthy Men which yet I am confident by my own personal Knowledge of him that Vsher had he lived would never have done § 211. This Year the King began the War upon the Dutch in March 1671 2. About the 16 or 17 Day was a hot Sea-fight while our Ships Assaulted their Smirna Fleet of Merchants and many on both sides were killed which was most that was done And about the 18 th Day the King Published a Proclamation for War by Sea and Land The French the Elector of Cologne and the Bishop of Munster being with dreadful Preparations to invade them by Land § 212. Now came forth a Declaration giving some fuller Exposition to those that doubted of it of the Transactions of these Twelve Years last viz. His Majesty by Virtue of His Supreme Power in Matters Ecclesiastical suspendeth all Penal Laws thereabout and Declareth That he will grant a convenient number of Publick Meeting-Places to Men of all sorts that Conform not so be it 1. The Persons be by Him approved 2. That they never meet in any Place not
received as gifts of Bounty from any whosoever since I was silenced till after An. 1672. amount not in the whole to 20 l. besides ten Pouud per Annum which I received from Serjeant Fountain till he died and when I was in Prison twenty pieces from Sir Iohn Bernard ten from the Countess of Exeter and five from Alderman Bard and no more which just paid the Lawyers and my Prison Charge but the expences of removing my Habitation was greater And had the Bishop's Family no more than this In sum I told the Bishop that he that cried out so vehemently against schism had got the Spirit of a Sectary and as those that by Prisons and other sufferings were too much exasperated against the Bishops could hardly think or speak well of them so his cross Interests had so notoriously spoiled him of his Charity that he had plainly the same temper with the bitterest of the Sectaries whom he so much reviled Our Doctrinal Discourse I overpass § 236. This May a Book was Printed and cried about describing the horrid Murther of one 〈◊〉 Baxter in New-England by the Anabaptists and how they tore his Flesh and flead him alive and persons and time and place were named And when Mr. Kiffen sensible of the Injury to the Anabaptists searcht it out it proved all a studied Forgery Printed by a Papist and the Book Licensed by Dr. Sam. Paâ—ker the Arch-bishop's Chaplain there were no such Persons in being as the Book mentioned nor any such thing ever done Mr. â—issen accused Dr. Parker to the Kiug and Council The King made him confess his Fault and so it ended § 237. In Iune was the second great Fight with the Dutch where again many were killed on both sides and to this day it is not known which Paâ—ty had the greater Loss § 238. The Parliament grew into great Jealousies of the prevalency of Popery There was an Army raised which lay upon Black-Heath encamped as for Service against the Dutch They said that so many of the Commanders were Papists as made Men fear the design was worse Men feared not to talk openly that the Papists having no hope of getting the Parliament to set up their Religion by Law did design to take down Parliaments and reduce the Government to the French Model and Religion to their State by a standing Army These Thoughts put Men into dismal Expectations and many wish that the Army at any rate might be disbanded The Duke of York was General The Parliament made an Act that no man should be in any office of Trust who would not take the Oaths of Supremacy aud Allegiance and receive the Sacrament according to Order of the Church of England and renounee Transubstanstiation Many supposed Papists received the Sacrament and renounced Transubstantiation and took the Oaths Some that were known sold or laid down their Places The Duke of York and the new Lord Treasurer Clifford laid down all It was said they did it on supposition that the Act left the King impowered to renew their Commissions when they had laid them down But the Lord Chancellor told the King that it was not so and so they were put out by themselves This settled Men in the full belief that the Duke of York and the Lord Clifford were Papists and the Londoners had before a special hatred against the Duke since the burning of London commonly saying that divers were taken casting Fire-balls and brought to his Guards of Soldiers to be secured and he let them go and both secured and concealed them 239. The great Counsellors that were said to do all with the King in all great matters were the Duke of York the Lord Clifford the Duke of Lauderdaile the Lord Arlington the Duke of Buckingham the Lord Chancellor that is Sr. Anthony Ashley-Cooper Earl of Shaftsbury and after them the Earl of Anglesey lately Mr. Annesley Among all these the Lord Chanchellor declared so much Jealosie of Popery and set himself so openly to secure the Protestant Religion that it was wondered how he kept in as he did but whatever were his Principles or Motives it is certain he did very much plead the Protestant Cause § 240. In Iune Mastricht was taken by the French but with much loss where the Duke of Monmouth with the English had great Honour for their Valour § 241. In August four of the Dutch East-India Ships fell into our Hands and we had the third great Sea-fight with them under the Command of Prince Rupert where we again killed each other with equal Loss But the Dutch said they had the Victory now sand before and kept days of Thanksgiving for it Sir Edward Sprag was killed whose death the Papists much lamented hoping to have got the Sea-power into his Hands But Prince Rupert who declared himself openly against Popery and had got great Interest in the Hearts of the Soldiers complained sharply of the French Admiral as deserting him to say no worse And the success of these Fights was such as hindered the Transportation of the Army against the Dutch and greatly divided the Court-Party and discouraged the Grandees and Commanding Papists c. § 242. In September I being out of Town my House was broken by Thieves who broke open my Study-Doors Closets Locks searcht near 40 Tills and Boxes and found them all full of nothing but Papers and miss'd that little Money I had though very near them They took only three small pieces of Plate and medled not considerably with any of my Papers which I would not have lost for many hundred Pounds Which made me sensible of Divine Protection and what a Convenience it is to have such a kind of Treasure as other men have no mind to rob us of or cannot § 343. The Duke of York was now married to the Duke of Modena's Daughter by Proxy the Earl of Peterborough being sent over to that end § 244. The Lady Clinton having a Kinswoman wife to Edward Wray Esq who was a Protestant aâ—d her Husband a Papist throughly studied in all their Controversies and oft provoking his Wife to bring any one to dispute with him desired me to perform that office of Conference They differed about the Education of their Children he had promised her as she said at Marriage that she should have the Education of them all and now would not let her have the Education of one but would make them Papists I desired that either our Conference might be publick to avoid mis-reports or else utterly secret before no one but his Wife that so we might not seem to strive for the Honour of Victory nor by dishonour be exasperated and made less capable of benefit The latter way was chosen but the Lady Clinton and Mr. Goodwin the Lady Worsep's Chaplain prevailed to be present by his consent He began upon the point of Transubstantion and in Veron's Method would have put me to prove the Words of the Article of the Church of England by express Words of
Scripture without Exposition I distinguished the two parts of the Controversie 1. Whether there be Bread after Consecration 2. Whether there be Christ's Body And the first I proved by express Scripture and I thought gave him enough And after two or three hours he brake off fairly but yielding nothing He after affirmed that a Woman was but a Nurse aud no Governour to her Children and that if he commanded them to deny Christ they were bound to obey him else Families would be Confounded § 245. I had fourteen Years been both a necessary and voluntary stranger at the Court but at this time by another's invitation called to attend the Duke of Lauderdaile who still professed special kindness to me and some pious Scotsmen being under suffering one absconding another sequestred and undone and craving my interposition for them I went to him and desired his Pardon and Clemency for them which he readily granted And being to reprint my Key for Catholicks where his Name was in too low a manner in the Epistle he being then a Prisoner in Windsor-Castle I told him that to omit it might seem a Neglect and so to mention him would be an injurious dishonour and therefore if he pleased I would put to it an Epistle Dedicatory which he consented to and approved of the Epistle before it was Printed But being fain to leave out the second part of the Book and much of the first that the rest might be licensed I printed instead of that left out a new Treatise on the Subject on which I disputed with Mr. Wray called Full and easie Satisfaction which is the true Religion Wherein Popery is brought to sence of the meanest Wit But some were offended that I prefixed the Duke's Name as if it tended to honour him at that time when he was decried as a chief Counsellour for absolute Monarchy for the War with the Dutch and a standing Army and he was threatned as soon as the Parliament sat but went into Scotland as Commissioner and called a Parliament there for my part I never lookt for a Farthing Profit by any great Man nor to my remembrance ever received the worth of a farthing from any of them But I would not in Pride deny any Man his due honour nor be so uncharitable as to refuse to make use of any Man's favour for Sufferers in their distress The matters of their State Counsels are above my reach § 246. In October the Lord Clifford called the chief of the secret Council having the Summer before been at Tunbridge Water fell into several Distempers and shortly after died So near is the fall of the greatest to his Rising which was a great blow to his Party § 247. Mr. Falkener Minister of Lin a sober learned Man wrote a book for Conformity which that Party greatly boasted of as unanswerable Indeed he speaketh plausibly to many of the Nonconformists smallest Exceptions against some particular words in the Liturgy and some Ceremonies but as to the great Matters the Declaration and the Oxford Oath and Subscription and Re-ordination and the Image of the Cross as a Symbol of Christianity and dedicating sign in Baptism the Ministers denying Baptism to those that scruple the Cross or to the Children of those that dare not forbear Covenanting for their own Children in Baptism and lay it all on Godfathers the rejecting those from the Lord's Supper that dare not take it kneeling the Thanksgiving at Burials for the happiness of notorious impenitent wicked Men and other such like his Defence is so poor and slight as is fit to satisfie no Judicious Man that is not prepared for Errour by Interest and Will But pro captu Lectoris c. § 248. On the 20 th of October the Parliament met again and suddenly voted that the King should be sent to about the Duke of York's Marriage with an Italian Papist a-kin to the Pope and to desire that it might be stopt he being not yet come over And as soon as they had done that the King by the Chancellour prorogued them till Monday following because it is not usual for a Parliament to grant Money twice in one Session § 249. On Monday when they met the King desired speedy Aid of Money against the Dutch and the Lord Chancellour set forth the Reasons and the Dutch unreasonableness But the Parliament still stuck to their former resentment of the Duke of York's Marriage and renewed their Message to the King against it who answered them that it was debated at the open Council and resolved that it was too late to stop it § 250. Some one laid in the Parliament-House they say near the Speaker's Chair a wooden Shooe such as the Peasants wear in France with some Beads and on one end drawn the Arms of France and on the other the Arms of England and written between Vtrum horum mavis accippe And Henry Stubbs now Physician once under Library-Keeper in Oxford who was accounted an Infidel and wrote against Monarchy for Sir Henry Vane and against me perswading the Army and Rump to question me for my Life and after was drawn by the Court to write against the Dutch now Printed a Half-Sheet called The Parit Gazette containing many Instances where Marriage by Proxy had been broken for which he was sent to the Tower § 251. On Friday Oct. 31. The Parliament went so high as to pass a Vote that no more Money should be given till the eighteen Months of the last Tax were expired unless the Dutch proved obstinate and unless we were secured against the danger of Popery and Popish Counsellours and their Grievances were redressed 252. The Parliament Voted to ask of his Majesty a day of Humiliation because of the Growth of Popery and intended solemnly to keep the Powder-Plot and appointed Dr. Stillingfleet to Preach to them who is most engaged by writing against Popery but on the day before being Nov. 4. the King to their great discontent prorogued the Parliament to Ian. 7. § 253. The seventh of Ianuary the Parliament met again and voted that their first work should be to prevent Popery redress Grievances and be secured against the Instruments or Counsellours of them And they shortly after voted the Dukes of Buckingham and Lauderdale unfit for trust about the King and desired their Removal But when they came to the Lord Arlington and would have accordingly Characterized him without an Impeachment it was carried against that Attempt And because the Members who favoured the Nonconformists for considerable Reasons were against the rest and helped off the Lord Arlington the rest were greatly exasperated against him and reported that they did it because he had furthered the Nonconformists Licenses for tolerated Preaching § 254. Sir Anthony Ashley Cowper â—ometimes one of Oliver's Privy-Council having been a great Favourite of the King for great Service for him and made Earl of Shaftshury and Lord Chancellour and great in the secretest Councils at last openly set against others on the
their Lawful Pastors to prevent all ill Effects 6. And for the Minister himself to repeat his Sermon or Catechize or Instruct his People that will come to him And is this the intolerable Evil worthy to be avoided at the rate of all our Calamities Are all our Divisions better than the enduring of this If any Limitations necessary had been omitted I might have expected to have found them named which I do not But 1. No Man's denial can make us ignorant of it that too great a Part of the People in most places know not what Baptism Christianity or the Catechism are and many hundred thousands cannot Read 2. And that few Ministers so personally instruct them as their need requireth nor can do for so many or by their Instruction they have not cured them 3. That to go to their Neighbours on the Lord's Day to hear again the Sermon which they had forgotten and to Praise God and hear the Scripture or a good Book that is Licens'd read hath done great good to many Souls 4. That otherwise such Ignorant Persons as we speak of except at Church-time cannot spend the Lord's Day to any Edification of themselves or Families 5. Men are not hinder'd from Feasting Drinking Playing together frequently and in greater Numbers Why then by Bishops from reading the Scripture or a Licens'd Book or Sermon 6. That God hath Commanded Provoke one another to Love and to good works And exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 10. 24. and 3. 13. And Cornelius had his Friends with him in his House for God's Servics Acts 10. and Acts 12. 12. In Mary's House many were gathered together praying And we find not that even the Iews were ever forbidden it by the Pharisees themselves And he that seeth his Brother have bodily need and shutteth up the Bowels of his Compassion from him how dwelleth the Love of God in him And the need of Souls is more common and to be Compassionated Rules may Regulate Charity in both cases but may forbid it or the necessary Exercises of it in neither He shall Perish as guilty of Murder that lets the Poor Die for want of his Relief tho he be forbidden to relieve them unless when the hurt would be greater than the good Love and Mercy are too great duties for a Bishop to null or dispense with We put no private Man on Ministerial Actions but in his own place to shew mercy to Souls To say that on this pretence Schismatical Meetings will be held is no more to the people than to say that all Errours and Wickedness may be kept up by Pretences of Reason Truth Piety Scripture Honesty c. But we must not therefore say Away with Reason Truth c. But I hope God's Servants will Die rather than desert their Master's Work 4. Prop. 1. The greatest part of it once a Quarter of Reading the Liturgy by Lectures Strict i Why not all as well as the greatest part Why not always as well as once a Quarter Answ. 1. I know that here and there a word may be scrupled as the reading of Bell and the Dragon or such like which silently past by maketh no disturbance And I think the Scrupling of such a word deserveth not that all the Peoples Souls be Punished for it with the loss of all their Teachers Labours 2. I never hear one Conformist that saith it all And why may not one be forborn as well as another 3. All the Liturgy for the day will be work too long and great that weak Men that have no Curates cannot Read all and Preach or Catechize also If you say that Preaching and Catechizing then may be omitted I answer They are God's Ordinances and needful to Men's Souls And seeing Prayer and Preaching are both Duties proportion is to be observed that neither may be shut out If you account the Liturgy better than Preaching yet every parcel of it intirely is not sure of so great worth as to cast out Preaching for it Rich parsons that have Curates may between them do both but so cannot poor Countrey Ministers that are alone and are sickly And as to the Always 1. The Canon limiteth some but to once in half a year which is less 2. The Conformable City-Preachers that have Curates very rarely Read it 3. Else what should Men do with Curates if they must always Read themselves 4. A weak Man may do both once a Quarter that is not able to do it every day 4. Prop. 2. It is supposed it will be done Strict k Yes once a Quarter for you would have no Man obliged to do it oftner nor all of it then neither Answ. Read and believe as you can The words were If in the Congregation where he is Incumbent the greatest part of it appointed for that time be sometimes as once a Quarter used by himself and every Lord's-day ordinarily unless Sickness c. either by himself or by his Curate or Assistant Is every Lord's-day but once a Quarter Or can it be every day done and no one obliged to do it 4. Prop. 3. Let not Christian Parents be forbidden to dedicate their Children publickly c. Strict l Christian Parents are not forbidden to present their Children to be Baptized But the Church in favour to the Infants appoints others in case the Parents should die or neglect their duty to have a Paternal care of them in order to their Education for the performance of their Baptismal Covenant That which follows is not worth the Animadverting being nothing else but an Uncharitable and Scandalous Insinuation Ans. 1. Read and believe what is forbidden Then shall the Priest speak to the Godfathers and Godmothers on this wise Dearly Beloved This Infant must also faithfully promise by you that are his Sureties That he will renounce the Devil c. I demand therefore Dost thou in the name of this Child renounce c. The Godfathers and Godmothers must say I renounce them all Dost thou believe c. Answ. All this I stedfastly believe Quest. Wilt thou be Baptized in this Faith Answ. That is my desire Q. Wilt thou obediently keep c. Answ. I will They are after to Name the Child After the Priest shall say to the Godfathers and Godmothers For asmuch as this Child hath promised by you that are his Sureties to renounce to believe in God and to serve him It is your parts and duties to see that this Infant be taught so soon as he shall be able to learn what a Solemn Vow Promise and Profession he hath here made by you c. See the rest So that here All the Covenanting Action on the Infant 's part is made the proper work of his Sureties called Godfathers and Godmothers without one word of the Parents doing it or any part of it And then cometh the Canon and farther saith Can. 29. No Parent shall be urged to be present nor be
food to the hazard of their Eternal Souls Among many Arguments therefore for Liberty in other Papers from Policy Convenience Reason of State and Reason of Religion I have this one to offer you of a more binding Nature an Argument from Iustice Righteousness and Restitution to the Displaced It is true that the Places they once had are filled and disposed but there are others enough There are many of those who possess theirs do also keep their own and keep more There are many who are Canons Deans Prebeâ—daries that are also Parsons Rectors Vicars who have Benefices and Honours by heaps and by the bushel If it shall please you therefore in this Bill on the Anvil or in another to take Cognizance of Pluralities that for the preventing an Idle Scandalous Covetously overgrown unprofitable Ministery every Man who hath more than one Cure of Souls or one Dignity shall give them up into a publick stock or to a general Distribution you shall do the Church right and the Ejected right you shall give such Drones their Due and God his Due and strew the way by this means for the making your Grace intended in this Bill of signification In the Name of God Sirs let me move you to this if it were only Hac vice for a present needful Conjunction of us at this season We see the jaws of Popery and the Sectary opening upon us if the sober Protestant Interest be not united we perish I know who will be ready to stamp here and throw dust in the Air for it is these Sons of the Horse-Leâ—ch whose voice is still Give Give that will never be contented with a single portion A Dignity therefore with a Living let them be allowed but one Dignity and one Cure of Souls should be all tho they cuâ— themselves with Lanees It is this damn'd hard objection at the bottom the Priests Covetousness and Corruption rather than their Dispute about things indifferent that really hinders the Church's peace and prosperity To Conclude According to what every Man's mind is most upon the Publick Interest or his own such is his value more or less § 263. About this time was a great change of Affairs in Scotland their Parliament concurring with this of England in distasting the present Councils and Proceedings but not so much Proclaiming the danger of Popery as Aggravating the Burdens and Grievances of the People against the great Commissioner the Duke of Lauderdail So that Duke Hamilton became the Head of the Opposition and most of the Nobility and Commons adhered to him and were against D. of Lauderdail And the Parliament went so high that D. Lauderdail was fain to Adjourn them Whereupon D. Hamilton came to England with their Grievances to the King with some of the Nobility But the King tho he gave him fair respect sharply rebuked him and their Proceedings and stuck close to D. Lauderdail against all opposition § 264. At last D. Lauderdail found the way to turn their own Engin against themselves and whereas many of their Grievances had been settled by themselves by Act of Parliament while they were ruled by him he acquainteth the King how heavy and unsufferable they were and so the King by a Letter releaseth them And among their burdens was a great income settled upon D. Hamilton for some service Loss or Loan to the King by his Predecessors which he that had complained of Grievances was now to loss by the King removing the Grievances Whereupon he professed that he had been still ready to remit those Revenues but he could not do it in this way of a Letter against a Law lest by the same way another Letter should take away the rest of his Estate And he got the hands of Lawyers to testify it was against Law and sent it to the King who in displeasure rejected his Narrative and so the Dissention in Scotland increased § 265. At this time April 1674 God hath so much increased my Languishing and laid me so low by an incessant inflation of my head and translation of my great flatulency thither to the Nerves and Members increasing these ten or twelve weeks to greater pains that I have reason to think that my time on Earth will not be long And O how Good hath the Will of God proved hitherto to me And will it not be best at last Experience causeth me to say to his praise Great peace have they that love his Law and nothing shall offend them And tho my flesh and heart do fail God is the Rock of my heart and my portion for ever § 266. At this time came out my Book called The poor Man's Family Book which the remembrance of the great use of Mr. Dents Plain Man's path way to Heaven now laid by occasioned me to write for poor Countrey Families who cannot buy or read many Books § 267. I will not here pass by the Commemoration of one among many of the worthy silenced Ministers of London that such Examples may provoke more to some imitation viz. Mr. Thomas Gouge He is the eldest Son of old Dr. William Gouge Deceased He was Pastor to that great Parish called Sepulâ—hres whence he was ejected with the rest of his brethren at the time when the restored Prelates acted like themselves I never heard any one person of what rank sort or sect soever speak one word to his Dishonour or Name any fault that ever they charged on his Life or Doctrine no not the Prelatists themselves save only that he conformed not to their impositions and that he did so much good with so great Industry God blessed him with a good Estate and he liberally used it in works of Charity When the fire consumed much of it and when he had settled his Children and his wife was taken from him by Death of an hundred and fifty pound a year that he had left he gave an hundred of it to charitable uses His daily work is to do all the good he can with as great diligence and constancy as other Men labour at their Trades He visiteth the poor and seeketh after them He writeth books to stir up the rich to devote at least the tenth part of their Estates to works of Charity He goeth to the rich to perswade and urge them He collecteth moneys of all that he can prevail with and travelleth himself tho between 60 and 70 years old into Wales Winter and Summer and disperseth the money to the poor labouring persecuted Ministers He hath settled himself in the chief Towns of Wales a great number of Schools for Women to teach Children to read having himself undertaken to pay them for many hundred Children He printeth many thousands of his own practical Books and giveth them freely throughout Wales at his own charge And when I do something of the like by mine he undertaketh the Distribution of them He preacheth in Wales himself till they drive him from place to place by persecution when he returneth home he visiteth the
Prisoners and helpeth them to books and preacheth repentance to them The poor and the ignorant are those that he liveth for doing good to Soul and Body daily save that he Soliciteth the Rich to contribute to such uses The reading of Mr. Ios. Allen's Life hath raised his Resolution and Activity to such a Course of Life which was far higher than other Mens before § 268. Mr. Sherlock's book before mentioned making a great noise and he and the Author of the sober Inquiry and others of them when they reproached other Nonconformists being pleased to put in some Exceptions of me by Name I thought my self the more obliged to disown their Miscarriages And I first in Discourse sought to convince Mr. Sherlock and lest he should not either understand or report me aright Writings being surer Vindications than Memory I sent him some Animadversions which have since been Printed § 269. My old friend Dr. Thomas Good now published a book called Dubitantius and Firâ—ianus against Atheism Infidelity Popery and then Presbytery Independency and Anabaptistry very superficial He was formerly indeed a professed Prelatist but moderate and himself never hindered from his Ministerial work and maintenance and joyned with us in our Disputations at Kederminster and our Concord in Worcestershire among the dissenting parties Yet being Canon of Hereford and Mr. of Baliol Colledge in Oxford tho old waiting for more he asserted in his Book that they were confessed things indifferent that we refused Conformity for and that all the Nonconformists without Exception had a hand in the late King's Death one way or other by Consent c. The Impudency of which assertion moved me to write the Contradiction here adjoined To my Reverend Friend Dr. Good Mr. of Baliol Coledge in Oxford Reverend and Worthy Sir IT is now about a Month since I received a Letter from you for the furthering of a good work which I sent to Mr. Foley by his Son Mr. Paul F. not having opportunity my self to see him I have stayed so long for an Answer not hearing yet from him that I think it not meet any longer to forbear to acquaint you with the Reasons of the delay He liveth quite at the other end of London from me and my weakness and business keep me much within Doors and it 's hard to find him within except at those hours when I am constrained to be in bed But I have reason to Conjecture that his Answer will be 1. That the Rich men whose Judgments are for Conformity are far more Numerous than those of another mind and therefore fitter to promote that work And there are so very few that do any thing for the ejected Ministers that some of them live on brown bread and water which hindereth these Gentlemen from other kind of Charitable works 2. And I must crave your patience being confident by your ancient kindness of your friendly Interpretation while I tell you that this day I heard one say we can expect that Dr. Good do make his Scholars no beter than himself And what reason have we to maintain and breed up Men to use us as he hath done in his late Treatise I got the book and was glad to find much good and several moderate passages in it And I knew you so well that I could not but expect moderation But when I perused the passages referred to I could say no more for them but that I would write to you to hear your Answer about them For I confess they surprized me Tho at the same time I received many new books of a sanguine Complexion from other hands without Admiration I. The first passage referred to was pag. 104. Which are confessedly things indifferent This is spoken indefinitely of the Presbyterians Where have I lived I know not one Presbyterian living that divideth from you for any thing which he confesseth indifferent I crave your Answer containing the proof of this At least to name some one of them that we may reprove him We take conformity to be so far from indifferent that we forbear to tell the World the greatness of the Sin which we think to be in it lest Men cannot bear it and lest it should disaffect the people to the Ministry of the Conformists II. Your pag. 156. I pass by The main matter is pag. 160. 161. that tho All the Nonconformists were not in Actual Arms against the King nor did they all as natural Agents cut off his head but morally that is very sinfully and wickedly they had their hand stained with that Royal blood For whosoever did Abet these Sons of Belial in their Rebellions Treasons Murders of their King and fellow Subjects either by consenting to their Villanies praying for their Prosperity praising God for their Successes c. The Charge is high If it be not true 1. They are almost as deeply wronged as you can wrong them 2. Our Rulers are wronged by being so provoked to abhor them Silence and Destroy them 3. Posterity is wronged by a misinforming History I. You are too old to be ignorant that it was an Episcopal and Erastian Parliament of Conformists that first took up those Arms in England against the King The Members yet living profess that at that time they knew but one Presbyterian in the House of Commons Interest forced or led them to call in the Scots and Presbytery came in with them If you doubt of it see the Propositions to the King at Nottingham where a Limited Episcopacy is one II. The Lord Lieutenants that seized on the Militia were far most Conformists and scarce any Presbyterians at all III. The General Officers and Colonels of the Earl of Essex Army were ten to one Conformists and few if any Presbyterians save after deboist Mercenary Scots if they were such which I know not And the General Episcopal himself IV. The Major Generals of the Militia in the several Countries were mostly Conformists and Scarce any Presbyterians V. The assembly at Westminster when they went thither were all Conformists save about 8 or 9 and the Scots Commissioners VI. One of the two Arch-Bishops was a General in the Parliament's Army VII Many of the present Conformable Ministers were in Arms against the King and some wrote for his Death and many of them took the Covenant and Engagement VIII The most of the conformable Gentry of my acquaintance that were put upon it took the Engagement against the King and House of Lords IX The Non-conformable Ministers of Gloucestershier Mr. Geery Mr. Capell Mr. Marshall c. were against the Parliament's War though the Parliament's Gaâ—â—ison was over them Mr. Bampfield who hath lain 6 or 7 years in the common Jail for Preaching with his Brother sometimes Speaker of the House of Commons were so much against the Parliament's Cause that to this day even while he lay in Jail he most zealously made his followers renounce it Many Non-conformists in many Counties were of the same mind X. Many of the Non-conformists lived in
Dr. Tillotson to offer him my Chappel in Oxenden-Street for Publick Worship which he accepted to my great Satisfaction and now there is constant Preaching there Be it by Conformists or Nonconformists I rejoice that Christ is Preached to the people in that Parish whom ten or twenty such Chapels cannot hold § 8. About March 1677. fell out a trifling business which I will mention lest the fable pass for truth when I am dead At a Coffee-House in Fuller's Rents where many Papists and Protestants used to meet together one Mr. Dyet Son to old Sir Richard Dyet Chief Justice in the North and Brother to a deceased dear Friend of mine the some-time Wife of my old dear friend Colonel Sylvanus Tailor one that profest himself no Papist but was their Familiar said openly That I had killed a Man with my own hand in cold blood that it was a Tinker at my door that because he beat his Kettle and disturbed me in my Studies I went down and Pistol'd him One Mr. Peters occasioned this wrath by oft challenging in vain the Papists to dispute with me or answer my Books against them Mr. Peters told Mr. Dyet That this was so shameless a slander that he should answer it Mr. Dyet told him That a hundred Witnesses would testifie that it was true and I was tryed for my Life at Worcester for it To be short Mr. Peters ceased not till he brought Mr. Dyet to come to my Chamber and confest his fault and ask me forgiveness and with him came one Mr. Tasbrook an emiment sober prudent Papist I told him that these usages to such as I and far worse were so ordinary and I had long suffered so much more than words that it must be no difficulty to me to forgive them to any man but especially to one whose Relations had been my dearest Friends and he was one of the first Gentlemen that ever shewed so much ingenuity as so to confess and ask forgiveness he told me He would hereafter confess and un-say it and Vindicate me as openly as he had wronged me I told him to excuse him that perhaps he had that Story from his late Pastor at St. Giles's Dr. Boreman who had Printed it that such a thing was Reported but I never heard before the particulars of the Fable Shortly after at the same Coffee-house Mr. Dyet openly confess'd his Fault and an Ancient Lawyer one Mr. Giffard a Papist Son to old Dr. Giffard the Papist Physician as is said and Brother to the Lady Abergaveny was Angry at it and made Mr. Dyet a weak Man that would make such a Confession Mr. Peters answered him Sir Would you have a Gentleman so disingenuous as not to right one that he hath so wronged Mr. Giffard answered That the thing was True and he would prove it by an Hundred Witnesses Mr. Peters offered him a great Wager that he would never prove it by any but urging him hard he refused the Wager He next offered that they would lay down but five Guinea's to be laid on 't on an Entertainment there by him that lost the Wager He refused that also Whereupon Mr. Peters told him He would cause my friends if I would not my self to call him to justifie it in Westminster-Hall referring the Judgment of Equity to the Company The Papist Gentlemen that were present it 's like considering that the Calumny when opened publickly would be a Slur upon their Party Voted That if Mr. Giffard would not confess his Fault they would disown him out of their Company and so he was constrained to yield but would not come to my Chamber to confess it to me Mr. Peters moderated the business and it was agreed that he should do it there He would do it only before his own Party Mr. Peters said Not so for they might hereafter deny it So it was agreed That also before Mr. Peters and Captain Edmund Hambden he should confess his Fault and ask forgiveness which he did § 9. Near this time my Book called A Key for Catholicks was to be Reprinted In the Preface to the first Impression I had mentioned with Praise the Earl of Lauderdale as then Prisoner by Cromwell in Windsor-Castle from whom I had many Pious and Learned Letters and where he had so much Read over all my Books that he remembred them better as I thought than I did my self Had I now left out that mention of him it would have seem'd an Injurious Recantation of my kindness and to mention him now a Duke as then a Prisoner was unmeet The King used him as his special Counsellour and Favourite The Parliament had set themselves against him He still professed great kindness to me and I had reason to believe it was without dissembling 1. Because he was accounted by all to be rather a too rough Adversary than a Flatteter of one so low as I. 2. Because he spake the same for me behind my back that he did to my face And I had then a New Piece against Transubstantiation to add to my Book which being desirous it should be Read I thought best to joyn it with the other and prefix before both an Epistle to the Duke in which I said not a word of him but Truth And I did it the rather that his Name might draw some Great Ones to Read at least that Epistle if not the short Additional Tractate in which I thought I said enough to open the Shame of Popery But the Indignation that Men had against the Duke made some blame me as keeping up the Reputation of one whom Multitudes thought very ill of Whereas â—owned none of his Faults and did nothing that I could well avoid for the aforesaid Reasons Long after this he professed his Kindness to me and told me I should never want while he was able and humbly intreated me to accept Twenty Guinea's from him which I did § 10. After this one Mr. Hutchinson another of the Disputants with Dr. Stillingfleet and Mr. Wray's Friend one that had revolted to Popery in Cambridge long ago having pious Parents and Relations Wrote two Books for Popery one for Transubstantiation and another in which he made the Church of England Conformists to be Men of no Conscience or Religion but that all Seriousness and Conscience was in the Papist and Puritan and sought to flatter the Puritans as he call'd them into kindness to the Papists as united in Conscience which others had not I Answered these Books and after fell acquainted with Mr. Hutchinson but could never get Reply from him or Dispute § 11. Two old Friends that I had a hand heretofore in turning from Anabaptistry and Separation Mr. Tho. Lamb and William Allen that followed Iohn Goodwin and after became Pastors of an Anabiptist Church though but Tradesmen fell on Writing against Separation more strongly than any of the Conformable Clergy But in Sense of their old Errour run now into the other Extreme especially Mr. Lamb and Wrote against our gathering
Assemblies and Preaching when we are Silenced Against whose Mistaken Endeavours I Wrote a Book called The Nonconformist's Plea for Peace § 12. One Mr. Hollingworth also Printed a Sermon against the Nonconformists and there tells a Story of a Sectary that Treating for Concord with one afterward a Bishop motion'd That all that would not yield to their Terms should be Banished to shew that the Nonconformists are for Severity as well as the Bishops The Reader would think that it was Me or Dr. Manton or Dr. Bates that he meant that had so lately had a Treaty with Dr. Wilkins and Dr. Burton I Wrote to him to desire him to tell the World who it was that by naming none he might not unworthily bring many into Suspicion He Wrote me an Answer full of great Estimation and Kindness professing That it was not me that he meant nor Dr. Manton nor Dr. Bates nor Dr. Iacomb but some Sectary that he would by no means Name but seemed to cast Intimations towards Dr. Owen one unlikely to use such words and I verily believe it was all a meer Fiction § 13. About that time I had finished a book called Chatholick Theologie in which I undertake to prove that besides things unrevealed known to none and ambiguous words there is no considerable difference between the Arminians and Calvinists except some very tolerable difference in the point of perseverance This book hath hitherto had the strangest fate of any that I have written except our Reformed Liturgy not to be yet spoken against or openly contradicted when I expected that both sides would have fallen upon it And I doubt not but some will do so when I am dead unless Calamities find men other work § 14. Having almost then finished a Latin Treatise called Methodus Theologiae containing near Seventy Tables or Schemes with their Elucidations and some Disputations on Schism containing the Nature Order and Ends of all Beings with three more I gave my Lord Chief Justice Hale a Specimen of it with my foresaid Catholick Theologie but told him it was only to shew my respects but desired him in his weakness to read things more directly tending to prepare for death But yet I could not prevail with him to lay those by so much as I desired but he oft gave me special Thanks above all the rest for that book and that scheme And while he continued weak Mr. Stevens his familiar Friend published two Volumes of his own Meditations which though but plain things yet were so greedily bought up and read for his sake even by such as would not have read such things of others that they did abundance of good And shortly after he published himself in Folio a Treatise of the Origination of Man to prove the Creation of this World very Learned but large He left many Manuscripts One I have long ago read a great Volumn in Folio to prove the Deity the Immortality of the Soul Christianity the Truth of Scripture in General and several books in particular solidly done but too copious which was his fault Two or three smal Tractates written for me I have published expressing the simple and excellent Nature of true Religion and the Corruption and great evils that follow Men's Additaments called wrongfully by the Name of Religion and contended for above it and against it and shewing how most Parties are guilty of this sin I hear he finished a Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul a little before he dyed But unhappily there is contest about his Manuscripts whether to Print them or not because he put a clause into his Will that nothing of his should be Printed but what he gave out himself to be Printed before he dyed He went into the Common Church-yard and there chose his grave and died a few daies after on Christmassday Though I never received any money from him save a Quarter 's Rent he paid when I removed out of my house at Acton that he might buy it and succeed me yet as a token of his love he left me forty shillings in his Will with which to keep his memory I bought the greatest Cambridge Bible and put his picture before it which is a Monument to my house But waiting for my own Death I gave it Sir William Ellis who laid out about Ten pounds to put it into a more curious Cover and keeps it for a Monument in his honour § 15. I found by the people of London that many in the sense of the late Confusions in this Land had got an apprehension that all Schism and Disorder came from Ministers and People's resisting the Bishops and that Prelacy is the means to cure Schism and being ignorant what Church Tyranny hath done in the World they fly to it for refuge against that mischief which it doth principally introduce Wherefore I wrote the History of Prelacy or a Contraction of all the History of the Church especially Binnius and Baronius and others of Councils to shew by the testimony of their greatest flatterers what the Councils and Contentions of Prelates have done But the History even as delivered by Binnius himself was so ugly and frightful to me in the perusing that I was afraid lest it should prove when opened by me a temptation to some to contemn Christianity it self for the sake and Crimes of such a Clergy But as an Antidote I prefixed the due Commendation of the better humble sort of Pastors But I must profess that the History of Prelacy and Councils doth assure me that all the Schisms and Confusions that have been caused by Anabaptists Separatists or any of the Popular unâ—uly Sectaries have been but as flea-bitings to the Church in comparison of the wounds that Prelatical Usurpation Contention and Heresies have caused And I am so far from wondering that all Baronius's industry was thought necessary to put the best visor on all such Actions that I wonder that the Papists have not rather employed all their wit care and power to get all the Histories of Councils burnt and forgotten in the World that they might have only their own Oral flexible tradition to deliver to Mankind what their interest pro re nata shall require Alas how small was the hurt that the very Familists the Munster Fanaticks the very Quakers or Ranters have done in comparison of what some one Pope or one Age or Council of Carnal Tyrannical Prelats hath done The Kingdom of Satan is kept up in the World next to that Sensuality that is born in all by his usurping and perverting the two great Offices of God's own institution Magistracy and Ministry and wring the Sword and Word against the Institutor and proper end But God is just § 16. There years before this I wrote a Treatise to end our common Controversies in Doctrinals about Predestination Redemption justification assurance perseverance and such like being a Summary of Catholick reconciling Theology § 17. In November 1677. Dyed Dr. Thomas Manton to the great loss of London
Being an able judicious faithful man and one that lamented the intemperance of many self conceited Ministers and people that on pretence of vindicating free grace and providence and of opposing Arminianism greatly corrupted the Christian Doctrin and Schismatically oppugned Christian love and concord hereticating and making odious all that spake not as erroniously as themselves many of the Independents inclining to half Antinomianism suggested suspicions against Dr. Manton Dr. Bates Mr. Howe and my self and such others as if we were half Arminians On which occasion I Preached two Sermons on the words in Iude They speak evil of what they understand not Which perhaps may be published § 18. This year 1678. dyed Mr. Gabriel Sanger a Reverend faithful Nonconformist sometimes Minister at Martin's in the fields And this day on which I write this I Preached the Funeral of Mr. Stubbs a holy Excellent Man which perhaps may be published if it can be licensed § 16. Mr. Long of Exeter wrote a book against the Non-conformists as Schismaticks on pretense of confuting Mr. Hale's book of Schism and in the end cited a great deal of my writings against Schism and let fall divers passages which occasioned me to write the Letter to him which is inserted in the Appendix No. 5. § 29. Some young Gentlemen wrote me a Letter desiring me publickly to resolve this Case The King Laws and Canons command us to joyn in the publick Parish-Churches and forbid us to joyn in private Meetings or unallowed with Non-conformists Our parents command us to joyn with Non-conformists in their Meetings and forbid us to hear the Conformists in publick which yet we think lawful which of these must we obey I answered the Case in the Pulpit and drew it up in writing and have inserted it among other papers with the end No. 6. § 21. My Bookseller Nevil Simons broke which occasioned a clamour against me as if I had taken too much money of him for my books When before it was thought he had been one of the richest by my means and I supposed I had freely given him in meer charity the gains of above 500 pounds if not above 1000 pounds Whereupon I wrote a Letter to a Friend in my own necessary Vindication which see also at the end No. 7. § 22. The controversie of Predetermination of the acts of sin was unhappily shared this year among the Non-conformists on the occasion of a sober modest book of Mr. How 's to Mr. Boil against an objection of Atheistical men And two honest self-conceited Non-conformists Mr. Dauson and Mr. Gale wrote against him unworthily And just-now a second book of Mr. Gale's is come out wholly for Predetermination superficially and inperficially touching many things but throughly handling nothing falsely reporting the sense of Augustin or at least of Prosper and Fulgentius and notoriously of Iansenius c. and passing divers inconsiderable reflections on some words in my Cath. Theol. Especially opposing Strangius and the excellent Theses of Le Blank with no strength or regardable Argument Which inclineth me because he writeth in English to publish an old Disput in English against Predetermination to sin written 20 years ago and thought not fit to be published in English but that an antidote against the porson of Mr. Gale's Book and the scandal that falls by it on the Nonconformists is made necessary Mr. Gale fell sick and I supprest my answer lest it should grieve him And he then dyed § 23. A paper from Mr. Polehill an excellent learned Gentleman occasioned the answer which perhaps may be published § 24. Continued backbitings about my Judgment concerning justification occasioned me to write the summ of it in two or three sheets with the solution of above thirty controversies unhappily rais'd about it § 25. One Mr. Wilson of Lancashire long importuned me by a friend to write somewhat against needless Law-suits and for the way of voluntary reference and arbitration which I did in a Sermon on 1 Cor. 6. Is there not a wise Man among you which is lost by the Bookseller § 26. I wrote an Answer to Mr. Iohnson Alias Terret his Rejoynder against my book of the Churche's visibility But Mr. Iane the Bishop of London's Chaplain refused to License it But at last when the Papists grew odious he Licensed it and my Methodus Theologiae And the former is Printed but by the Bookseller's means in a Character scarce legible § 27. About Oct. 1678. Fell out the murder of Sir Edmond Berry Godfrey which made a very great change in England One Dr. Titus Oats had discovered a Plot of the Papists of which he wrote out the particulars very largely telling how they fired the City and contriving to bring the Kingdom to Popery and in order thereto to kill the King He named the Lords Jesuits Priests and others that were the chief contrivers and said that he himself had delivered to several of the Lord 's their Commissions that the Lord Bellasis was to be General the Lord Peter Lieutenant General and the Lord Stafford Major General the Lord Powis Lord Chancellor and the Lord Arundel of Warder the chief to be Lord Treasurer He told who were to be Arch Bishops Bishops c. And at what Meetings and by whom and when all was contrived and who were designed to kill the King He first opened all this to Dr. Tongue and both of them to the King and Council He mentioned a multitude of Letters which he himself had carried and seen or heard read that contained all these contrivances But because his father and he had once been Anabaptists and when the Bishops prevailed turned to be Conformable Ministers and afterward he the Son turned Papist and confessed that he long had gone on with them under many Oaths of Secrecy many thought that a man of so little Conscience was not to be believed But his Confessions were received by some Justices of the Peace and none more forward in the Search than Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey an Able Honest and diligent Justice While he was following this Work he was suddenly missing and could not be heard of Three or Four Days after he was found kill'd near Marybone-Park It was plainly found that he was murthered The Parliament took the Alarm upon it and Oates was now believed And indeed all his large Confessions in every part agreed to admiration Hereupon the King Proclaimed Pardon and Reward to any that would confess or discover the Murder One Mr. Bedlow that had fled to Bristow began and confessed that he knew of it and who did it and named some of the Men the Place and Time It was at the Queen's House called Somerset-House by Fitz-Gerald and Kelley Two Papist Priests and Four others Berry the Porter Green Pranse and Hill The Priests fled Pronse Berry Green and Hill were taken Pranse first confest all and discovered the rest aforesaid more than Bedlow knew of and all the Circumstances and how he was carried away and by whom
Mother the old Lady 〈◊〉 died at my Father's House between Eighty and One Hundred years old And my Mother-in-Law died at Ninety six of a Cancer in 〈…〉 having lived from her youth in the greatest Mortification 〈◊〉 to her Body and 〈…〉 of Prayer and all Devotion of any one that ever I knew In the hatred of all sin strictness of Universal obedience and for Thirty years longing to be with Christ In constant daily acquired infirmity of body got by avoiding all Exercise and long secret prayer in the coldest Seasons and such like but of a constitution naturally strong afraid of recovering when ever she was ill For some days before her death she was so taken with the Ninty first Psalm that she would get those that came near her to read it to her over and over which Psalm also was a great means of Comfort to Old Beza even against his Death § 68. Soon after dyed Iane Matthews aged Seventy six My House-keeper fourteen years though mean of quality very eminent in Kiderminster and the parts about for Wisdom Piety and a holy Sober Righteous Exemplary Life And many of my Old Hearers and Flock at Kiderminster dyed not long before Among whom a mean Freeholder Iames Butcher of Wanmerton hath left few equal to him for all that seemeth to approach perfection in a plain Man O how many holy Souls are gone to Christ out of that one Parish of Kiderminster in a few years and yet the Number seemeth to increase § 69. The Book which I published called The Poor Man's Family Book was so well accepted that I found it a useful work of Charity to give many of them with the Call to the Vnconverted abroad in many Countries where neither I nor such others had leave to Preach and many Hundreds since with good success § 70. The times were so bad for selling Books that I was fain to be my self at the charge of Printing my Methodus Theologiae some friends contributed about Eighty pounds towards it It cost me one way or other about Five hundred pounds About Two hundred and fifty pounds I received from those Non-conformists that bought them The Contrary party set themselves to hinder the sale of it because it was mine tho' else the Doctrine of it being half Philosophical and half Conciliatory would have pleased the Learned part of them But most lay it by as too hard for them as over Scholastical and exact I wrote it and my English Christian Directory to make up one Compleat Body of Theology The Latin one the Theory and the English one the Practical part And the latter is commonly accepted because less difficult § 71. My short piece against Popery called The Certainty of Christianity without Popery proved of use against Infidels as well as Papists But most deceived men will not be at the labour to study any thing that is distinct and exact but take up with the first appearances of things § 72. The Miserable State of Youngmen in London was a great trouble to my mind Especially Rich men's Sons and Servants Merchants and Lawyers Apprentices and Clarks carried away by the flesh to drinking Gluttony Plays Gaming Whoring Robbing their Masters c. I wrote therefore a smal Tractate for such called Compassionate Counsel to Young men Sir Robert Atkins contributed towards the charge of Printing it and I gave of them in City and Country One thousand five hundred besides what the Bookseller sold But few will read it that most need § 73. About this time dyed my dear friend Mr. Thomas Gouge of whose Life you may see a little in Mr. Clark's last book of Lives A wonder of sincere industrie in works of Charity It would make a Volume to recite at large the Charity he used to his poor Parishioners at Sepulchres before he was Ejected and Silenced for Non-conformity His Conjunction with Alderman Ashurst and some such others in a weekly Meeting to take account of the honest poor samilles in the City that were in great want he being the Treasures and Visiter his voluntary Catechizing the Christ's Church boyes when he might not preach The many thousand Bibles Printed in Welsh that he dispersed in Wales The Practice of Piety The Whole Duty of Man My Call and many thousands of his own Writing given freely all over Wales his setting up about Three hundred or Four hundred Schools in Wales to teach Children only to read and the Catechise his industry to beg money for all this besides most of his own Estate laid out on it His Travels over Wales once or twice a year to visite his Schools and see to the Execution This was true Episcopacy of a silenced Minister who yet went constantly to the Parish Churches and was authorized by an old University License to Preach occasionally and yet for so doing was Excommunicate even in Wales while he was doing all this good He served God thus to a healthful age Seventy four or seventy six I never saw him sad but always chearful About a fort-night before he dyed he told me that sometime in the night some small trouble came to his heart he knew not what And without sickness or pain or fear of death they heard him in his sleep give a groan and he was dead O how holy and blessed a Life and how easie a Death § 74. Finding the Success of my Family Dialogue I wrote a second part 1681 and 1682 called The Catechising of Housholds teaching Housholders how to instruct their Families Expounding First the Law of Nature Secondly The Evidence of the Gospel Thirdly the Creed Fourthly the Lord's Prayer Fifthly the Commandments Sixthly the Ministry Seventhly Baptism Eighthly the Lord's Supper It is suited to those that are Past the common little Catechism And I think these two family-Family-books to be of the greatest Common use of any that I have published If Houshoulders would but do their parts in reading good books to their Houshoulds it might be a great Supply where the Ministry is defective and no Ministry will serve sufficiently without Men's own Endeavours for themselves and families § 75. Having been for retirement in the Countrey from Iuly till August 14. 1682 returning in great weakness I was able only to Preach twice of which the last was in my usual Lecture in New-street and it fell out to be August 24. just that day twenty year that I and near Two thousand more had been by Law forbidden to Preach any more I was sensible of God's wonderful mercy that had kept so many of us Twenty years in so much Liberty and Peace while so many severe Laws were in force against us and so great a number were round about us who wanted neither malice nor power to afflict us And so I took that day my leave of the Pulpit and publick Work in a thankful Congregation And it is like indeed to be my last § 76. But after this when I had ceased Preaching I was being newly risen from Extremity of
sinful Omission of the People that will not first privately and then before witness and then to the Church or Pastor admonish the Offenders this is the Sin of Pastors and People but nullifieth not the Church or Office 12. Through God's great Mercy the Doctrine professed by the Church of England and usually preached in many thousand Parish Churches is sound and as well preached as in any other known Kingdom on Earth though Ministers have had their Sins which we still smart for and by 13. There is nothing in the Liturgy-worship which the Laity in the Congregation are ordinarily to perform or joyn in which they may not lawfully do or joyn in or be present at most that needeth Reformation being in Rubricks and By-Offices Baptizing Confirmation Excommunications Absolutions Burials and in the Ministers part 14. The Ministers have all the three parts that can be accounted by any party necessary to an outward Call 1. They have the Magistrates Consent by his Law who is Judge whom he will maintain and tolerate 2. They have the Ordainers Consent and Mission Bishops and Presbyters who are Judges whom to Ordain 3. They have the Communicants Consent expressed in their constant Attendance and Communicating who are the discerning Judges to whom to commit the Pastoral Care and Conduct of their own Souls And though more be desirable no more is of necessity 15. The Confederate Parish-Churches of England that have able godly Pastors want nothing which CHRIST or his APOSTLES or the UNIVERSAL CHURCH of Christ for Six hundred years yea or to this day did ever make or judge necessary to the being of Ministers or Church Nor have the said Churches any Errour or Sin in Doctrine Worship or Government which either Christ or his Apostles or the Universal Church for Six hundred years after Christ did judge inconsistent with the being of a valid Minister and true visible Churches The large proof of these Fifteen Propositions I offer though too long now to perform which though they will not justifie such Ministerial Conformity as I have been urged to yet you may easily see by them 1. What Church-Frame is most agreeable to Scripture 2. And what to judge of the false Accusers of the Church 3. How far Separation is sinful Division and contrary to Christian Love and Union I know the Dividers say 1. That I am turned Conformist 2. And why do I not Conform if I think so well of the Parish Churches and Liturgy And 3. Why have I lost above Twenty thousand pounds in Five and twenty years by refusing a Bishoprick and other Preferments To whom I answer If our printed Proposals Disputes and Petitions for Peace in 1661. and my first second and third Plea for Peace and many more such Writings and my Cure of Church Divisions and my Book for the true and only way of Church Concord and my Confutation of many that made me a Separatist while I Communicated in my Parish Church and never gathered a Church meerly because I forsook not my Ministry but gratis preached a Lecture and my Book against Sacrilegious Desertion of the Ministry I say if all these Books will not silence these ignorant Objectors nor restrain them from speaking evil of that which they understand not I owe them no more nor can hope to cure their quarrelsome Ignorance should I say or write never so much more They have contemned so many excellent Rulers and Pastors single and Assemblies far wiser than I and so censoriously condemn almost all the Body or Church of Christ on Earth that I am not so vain as to expect to escape their Censure Even in New-England not only Mr. Wilson Mr. Norton and such other single Independent Ministers lived and died in lamented Separation and warning the Land against it as their danger but their Synods have been at much trouble thereby and left their Healing Determinations and Testimony against that Dividing Spirit and Way They that would see more may read a small Book of Mr. Philip Nye for Hearing the Parish Preachers and a bigger Book of Mr. Iohn Tombes the greatest and most learned Writer against Infant-Baptism vindicating the Lawfulness and Duty of joyning in ordinary Communion in Word Prayer and Sacrament with the Parish-Churches Dr. Thomas Goodwin on Ephes. 1. Serm. 36. pag. 488. explaining some Words in the foregoing Sermon IT was understood as if I said That all Parish Churches and Ministers generally were Churches and Ministers of Christ such as with whom Communion might be held I said not so I was wary in my Expressions I will only say this to you about it There is no Man that desireth Reformation in this Kingdom as the generality of all godly People do but will acknowledge and say That multitudes of Parishes where Ignorance and Prophaneness overwhelmeth the Generality Scandalousness and Simony the Ministers themselves that these are not Churches and Ministers fit to be held Communion with Only this The Ordinances that have been administred by them so far we must acknowledge them that they are not to be recalled or repeated again But here lyeth the Question my Brethren and my meaning Whereas now in some Parishes in this Kingdom there are many godly Men that do constantly give themselves up to the Worship of God in publick and meet together in one place to that end in a constant way under a godly Minister whom they themselves have chosen to cleave to though they did not choose him at first These notwithstanding their mixture and want of Discipline I never thought for my part but that they were true Churches of Christ and Sister-Churches and so ought to be acknowledged And the contrary was the Errour that I spake against Secondly For holding Communion with them I say as Sister-Churches occasionally as Strangers Men might hold Communion with them And it is acknowledged by all Divines that there is not that Obligation lying upon a Stranger that is not a Member of a Sister-Church to find fault in that Church or in a Member of it as doth on the Church it self to which one belongeth I will give you my Reasons that moved me to speak so much It was not simply to vent my own Judgment or simply to clear my self from that Errour but the Reasons or rather the Motives and Considerations that stirred me in it were these First If we should not acknowledge these Churches thus stated to be true Churches of Christ and their Ministers true Ministers and their Order such and hold Communion with them too in the Sence spoken of we must acknowledge No Church in all the Reformed Churches None of all the Churches in Scotland nor in Holland nor in Germany for they are All as full of mixture as ours And to deny that to our own Churches which we do not to the Churches abroad nothing can be more absurd And it will be very hard to think that there hath been no Church since the Reformation Secondly I know nothing tendeth more to the
the Transgressors of it and the Curse of what Covenant it was that Christ redeemed us from in being made a Curse for us For touching these things I confess my self not well resolved The hanging on the Tree was but a Temporal Curse and was not all that Christ redeemed us from And when you have a fitting Opportunity I pray you return them to Your obliged Servant Will. Allen. London May 27. 1671. Those of the Separation that are more moderate do blame Mr. Bagshaw and think you need not answer him and his Temper is to have the last word If you think otherwise a calm Answer will be best Dear Sir I Received your Preface by which you have been pleased to add unto all former Obligations wherein I stand bound I have moved Mr. Simmons about printing the Copy acquainting him with your Preface but not with the Author of the Papers but I perceive he hath no mind to undertake it since when I have not spoken to any other Sir It hath been sometimes on my thoughts to draw up some thing against Separation more then what is in my Retractation at least to be published after my death if surviving Friends should think fit but have â—orborn to publish any thing of that nature hitherto partly to avoid suspition of strengthening the hand of Severity against the Separatists to the doing of hurt to whom I would not be in the least accessary and likewise to avoid the suspition of being acted therein by Carnal Motives However something I have now prepared and herewith sent you presuming yet once more to give you the trouble at your leisure of casting your eye upon it And do pray that you will please to correct or direct me to correct what needs correction and to give me advice whether it will be best to make it publick or to forbear I confess I have been induced to do what I have done at this time upon occasion of the Indulgence as conceiving it not less necessary nor less seasonable to say no more than it was before And your motion of reprinting my Reâ—ractation had its share in inclining me to this present Undertaking As I have been taken in the Snare of Separation for a time so I was in that of Anâ—inomianism about 37 or 38 years ago not long after my first coming to London as not being able to withstand the Insinuations of it and yet to retain the Opinion of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in that Notion of it in which I had been instructed and never fully recovered my self till I heard Mr. Iohn Goodwin The Experience of what I suffered my self and occasioned others to suffer by my running into those Errours hath put me upon doing more to warn others against them or recover them out of them then otherwise I should have thought fit for me to have done You may perceive in part how frail my memory was by my often blottings and interlinings Excuse me for this time and you are never like to be troubled with any of my Papers more whether I live or die The good God that hath out of good will to the World made you so meet to be serviceable to it continue you long in it and still strengthen you to succeed and prosper you in his Word So prays Your very much obliged Servant Will. Allen. London Iune 29. 1672. I live next the Green-Man in Prince's-street by Stocks-Market and not at the Bottle in the Poultrey Dear Friend I This Day received and read your Book and knowing so well the Author's Experience Judgment and Sincerity it hath made a great change upon my Judgment viz. Whereas I once thought that some Mens Usage of this poor Kingdom and Christ's Ministers and the false Reports and Representations made of them did shew not only Charity but common Honesty and Humanity by which the civil differ from others to be with such Men very low I find now my better Thoughts of those Men much revived by finding that so good a Man as you can in any Measure in such a time and place so far mistake the case as you have done But long Experience hath acquainted me with more of the Cause than perhaps you have observed your self That is 1. All Mens Capacities are narrow and we cannot look every way at once Our thoughts are like a Stream of Water which will run but one way at once and carry down all that 's moveable in that Stream When you were for Anabaptistry and Separation it 's like the Stream of your Thoughts run all that way and you studied more what was for you than what was against you and now the Sense of your Error hath turned your Thoughts the contrary way I may judge by the Effects that you think more what may be said against Nonconformity than what may be said for it 2. And Experience makes me take it for granted that to judge hastily before they fully understand or hear the Cause is the common Disease of Man's depraved Intellect which few are cured of in any great Degree I would not be guilty of it while I blame it if my Frailty can avoid it and therefore I will suppose that you have more Reasons for what you say that I yet understand and shall only as a Learner desire you to help me to understand them And 1. Seeing almost all your Book is against Anabaptistry and Separation I desire you to acquaint me why you entituled it An Address to the Nonconformists when it is certain that the ignorant Multitude who have some such Thoughts already will hence be more persuaded that the Nonconformists are commonly for Separation which being a Calumny I suppose you thus indirectly propagate it for some Reason which I know not Falshood and Hatred are so befriended by common corrupted Nature that they need no Books to be written to encourage them If a Philosopher wrote against Manicheism and called it An Address to the Christians Or a Papist wrote against Anabaptistry and Separation and called it An Address to the Protestants the Intimation were unjust Quest. 2. Will not the Conformists think that you prevaricate in pretending to plead for a National Church p. 101. and when you explain your self speak but of a Church Inorganical that is equivocally and ineptly so called seeing forma denominat and the Word Church in the common Controversy about National Provincial Diocesan Churches is taken for an Ecclesiastical Polity and Society and not for a meer Community A Family without a Master a School without a Schoolmaster a Kingdom without a King and a Church without a Pastoral Regiment are equivocal improper Denominations a materia when you knew that the Nonconformists have long asked which is the true constitutive Ecclesiastical Head of this National Church When you were upon the Subject it would have done well to have told them for an accidental Head the King they confess as much as others Quest. 3. When you plead so much for Parish-Churches are you therein
Publick Worship which yet Mahometans offer him some it is Schism not to obey But if the Bishop do but say the word we may meet daily without Schism and the Place Person Exercise that before was Schismatical if he do but licence them are presently lawful So that the Bishop's word against the King's yea against God's command to preach in season and out can make a thing Schism and his word can make it none again in a moment 17. Whether it be Schism to go to a better Minister in another Parish in the same Diocess though we separate from no Church in their sense the Diocesan being the lowest proper Church is not well agreed on Feigning Schisms is making Schism by turbulent noise and 〈◊〉 Accusations We that impose on no Man and that obey them in lawful things that we for Universal Love and Peace even with that meet in different Assemblies and in different Forms we that hold Communion with all true Churches as aforesaid and yet because we can be but in one place at once do choose the best obeying God's Command Let all things be done to edification and knowing best what edifieth our selves we suppose are farther from Schism than those that as from the Throne of Authority pronounce Schism and never help us to understand the sense and reason of their words but use it as for the advantage of their Cause And as one lately writeth Have led that Bear so long about the streets till the Boy lay by fear and do but laugh at it Nor are there many more effectual Causes of Schism and that harden true Schismaticks against all Conviction then when it is seen that Men of Contention Pride and Worldly Interest first make the Schism by sinful or impossible terms of Unity and next falsly call the most Innocent that obey not their Domination Schismaticks and the greatest Duties even Preaching where many and many thousands have no Preaching nor no Publick Worship of God by the Name of Schism as if we must let London turn Heathens for fear of being Schismaticks Dear Friend though these things have these Forty years had my deep and I hope impartial thoughts and I dare not for a thousand Worlds think to do otherwise than I do in the main yet I shall heartily thank you if by true light you help me to see any Errour which I yet perceive not And seeing Experience hath justly taught you to dread Anabaptistry and Separation think further 1. Whether they that forbid Parents to enter their Children into Covenant with God in Baptism and lay all that Office on those that have no power to covenant in their names nor shew any purpose to perform what they promise and deny Baptism as aforesaid to the Children of such as submit not to this and the Cross be not quantum in se Destroyers of Infant Baptism which is no Baptism if there be no Covenant 2. Again Whether they be not Separatists that both un-Church all the Parish-Churches quantum in se and also deny Communion with the Nonconformists Churches as null or unlawful even when they had his Majesties Licence Be impartial against Antipedobaptists and Separatists I constantly heard and communicated with the Parish-Church where I lived but the Conformists usually fly from the Nonconformists Assemblies as unlawful but if both sides were heard in their Charge against the other I know which would have the more to say Accept this freedom from the unfeigned Love of Your much obliged Friend Rich. Baxter May 13. 1626. The Instances promised you I. WHen I was cast out at Kidderminster and you know what a Minister was there I offered while the Indulgence of the King's Declaration continuâ—d to have been the Reading Vicar's Curate and to have preached for nothing and could not prevail I was by the Bishop forbidden to preach in his Diocess and when I offered him to preach only Catechistical Principles to some poor Congregation that else must have none he told me It was better they had none than me My presence at Kidderminster was thought so dangerous that Force was assigned to have apâ—â—â—hend me and had I stayed it must have been in the Jail and many another for my sake When I was forced away at Venner's Rising I wrote but a Letter to my Mother in-â—aw and it was way-laid intercepted opened and sent up to the Court though there was nothing concerning them in it but some sharp Invectives against the Rebellion which my Lord Chancellour acknowledging caused my Lord Windsor personally to bring me back my Letter so that I durst not write to them of many years My Neighbours I had perswaded to do as you advise to joyn in the Publick Church and help each other as private Men and for so doing repeating Sermons and praying and singing a Psalm many of them lay long among Rogues in the Common Jail and others of them impoverished by Fines II. When I came to live at Acton I drew all the People constantly to Church that were averse sometime I repeated the Parsons Sermon and sometimes taught such as came to my House between the Sermons When the Reverend Parson saw them come into Church he would fall upon them c. And not being able to bear my little Endeavours for their Instruction he caused me to be sent to the Common Jail not one Witness or Person being suffered to come into the Room while I was examined and committed III. I am now in a Parish where some Neighbours say that there are Fourscore thousand Souls suppose they be fewer Not above Two thousand of all these can hear in the Parish Church so that it 's like above Sixty thousand have no Church to go to no not so much as to hear the Scripture or the Common-Prayer Here I need not tell you what Prohibitions I have had and what my Endeavours to teach a few Publickly have lost me and others And lately because one that preached for me did without my knowledge at the importunity of a Parent Baptize a poor man's Child when they told him it was in danger of death the Curate of the Parish came to my House to expostulate the matter when yet many are baptized by Papist Priests for want of others to do it as they say I never my self Baptized a Child or administred the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper these fifteen years but ordinarily received it in the Parish Church at Totterridge and elsewhere one of the first times that I received it in private a Bullet was shot into the Room among us and came near to the Heads of divers of us I never gathered any Church from among them and yet have been usually the first sought after to be imprisoned or ruined in each assault and was put to sell my Goods and Books to save them from Distress Near me in the same Parish liveth Mr. Gabriel Sanger the late Incumbent Pastor of the Parish a Man of Age and Gravity great Moderation and Peaceableness and far from
what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice You shall answer for your own Souls Neither Parents nor Princes have an absolute or a destroying Power over them nor any that divesteth you of the Charge or Government of your selves Prudence therefore in such Cases must look to Order to Publick Good and to your own Edification and preserve all as far as you are able and God will accept you if you do your best though interess'd Factions â—e offended with you XXI It is a great Doubt among Casuists Whether and when the Breach of Humane Laws oblige Men to any other than Humane Penalties So far as God is offended and his Law broken by the breach of Mans so far Punishment from God also is deserved but no further And a Council at Toletum hath an express Canon that lest Subjects by the Churches Laws should have their Souls ensnared in Guilt towards God it is declared that their Provincial Canons bind only ad poenam non ad culpam to bear the Penalty but not to conclude men Sinners The Expressions want skill but the Meaning is manifest XXII The Persons belief that an evil Course is lawful maketh it not lawful to him The esse is before the scire If God's Law have forbidden or commanded Man's Errour may ensnare himself in sin but cannot change the Law of God XXIII Some that I love and honour that have heretofore been ensnared in Anabaptistry and Separation in the sense of their Errour as is usual warp to the contrary Extream and fear not the dreadful guilt of perswading Christ's faithful Ministers to lay by the Sacred Office which they are devoted to yea and would blind us to believe there is no need save only to speak to particular persons privately whereby they should be a year in speaking to those whom they may speak to in an hour and few be able to do it and perhaps be thrust out with wrath by the Parish Ministers as creeping into Houses to seduce silly women or reproached and suspected for it They say truly that he that hath gone their former way of unjust Separation is like one that an travel seeth here a Leg and their an Arm lye in his way and therefore should fear to go on in danger But I tell them further he that readeth Church History and Councils what work Church Tyranny and striving to be greatest hath made with Kings and Kingdoms Churches and Families and the Blood of an hundred thousand Christians for about a thousand years at least is like one that in his travel seeth here a hundred Carkasses and there an hundred and there a stream of Blood and there a City ruined and there a good King surrendring his Crown as an Act of Penance as Ludovicus Pius did and there the Streets covered with the Blood and Carkasses of Monks and others and then cast into the Rivers by the wars and broils of contending Bishops as at Antioch c and if this Man will go on he overcometh another kind of warning than here a Leg and there an Arm Read but the History throughly and judge But what will not Ignorance make men say XXIV Some think that if Sacramental Communion only were left free it would alone heal most of our English differences I confess I that think Men may be forced to hear and be catechized do think the great Priviledges of Sacramental Communion and a sealed Pardon should be given to none by Cramming or as a Drench I mean to none against their wills none but Volunteers or Consenters being capable of so great Benefits according to Christ the Donor's mind But this requireth many Cautions and belongeth not to the Case in hand Numb VII A Letter of Mr. Baxter's about the Case of Nevil Symmons SIR I Think not the Confuting of any of the Calumnies that are cast upon me by Backbiters whether from Ignorance or Envy worth any great care or labour were it not for the sake of the Guilty themselves and others whom they may draw into the same Guilt or hinder from profiting by my Labours in the Calling that God hath placed me in But I will not despise all these so much as not to think them worthy the labour of a few Lines It is not long since some Gentlemen at a Coffee-House affirmed That I had kill'd a Man in cold Blood with my own Hand that is a Tinker beating his Kettle at my Door and disturbing me in my Studies I pistoll'd him and was tired at Worcester for my Life But these Gentlemen were so ingenuous as to ask Forgiveness and confess their Fault and one of them openly to my Vindication Though Dr. Boreman Parson of St. Giles's in the Fields that in a printed Pamphlet led the way never did so Yet lived three or four years Suspended or supposing himself Suspended and so died Another caracterized Iames 3. reporteth that I am so hot a Disputant that at a Gentleman's Table I threw the Plate at him that I disputed with The whole Story feigned nor did I ever know the least occasion for the Report The greatest Reproach that 's laid on me is by Conformists for not Conforming or not giving over my Preaching and Ministry And if they accuse me for not turning Papist and for not giving over Prayer as they did Daniel it would have the same effect with me But now comes a new one my Sufferings are my Crimes my Bookseller Nevil Symmons is broken and it is reported that I am the Cause by the excessive Rates that I took for my Books of him and a great Dean whom I much value foretold that I would undo him Of all Crimes in the World I least expected to be accused of Covetousness Satan being the Master of this Design to hinder the Success of my Writings when I am dead it is part of my warfare under Christ to resist him I tell you therefore truly all my Covenants and Dealings with Booksellers to this day When I first ventured upon the publication of my Thoughts I knew nothing of the Art of Booksellers I did as an act of meer kindness offer my Book called The Saints Rest to Thomas Underbill and Francis Tyton to print leaving the Matter of Profit without any Covenants to their Ingenuity They gave me Ten pounds for the first Impression and Ten pounds apiece that is Twenty pounds for every after Impresion till 1665. I had in the mean time altered the Book by the Addition of divers Sheets Mr. Underhill dieth his Wife is poor Mr Tyton hath Losses by the Fire 1666. They never gave me nor offered me a Farthing for any Impression after nor so much as one of the Books but I was fain out of my own Purse to buy all that I gave to any Friend or poor Person that asked it This loosening me from Mr. Tyton Mr. Symmons stept in and told me That Mr. Tyton said he had never got Three pence by me and brought witness Hereupon I used Mr. Symmons only When I
lived at Kidderminster some had defamed me of a covetous getting many hundred pounds by the Booksellers I had till then taken of Mr. Underhill Mr. Tyton and Mr. Symmons for all save the Saints Rest the fifteenth Book which usually I gave away but if any thing for Second Impressions were due I had little in Money from them but in such Books as I wanted at their Rates But when this Report of my great Gain came abroad and took notice of it in print and told the World that I intended to take more hereafter and ever since I took the fifteenth Book for my Friends and self and Eighteen pence more for every Rheam of the other fourteen which I destinated to the Poor With this while I was at Kidderminster I bought Bibles to give to all the poor Families And I got Three hundred or Four hundred pounds which I destinated all to Charitable Uses At last at London it increased to Eight hundred and thirty pounds which delivering to a worthy Friend he put it into the Hands of Sir Robert Viner with an Hundred pounds of my Wives where it lyeth setled on a Charitable Use after my Death as from the first I resolved If it fails I cannot help it I never received more of any Bookseller than the fifteenth Book and this Eighteen pence a Rheam And if for after Impressions I had more of those Fifteenths than I gave away I took about two third parts of the common price of the Bookseller or little more and oft less And sometimes I paid my self for the printing many Hundreds to give away and sometimes I bought them of the Bookseller above my number and and sometimes the Gain was my own necessary Maintenance but I resolved never to lay up a Groat of it for any but the Poor Now Sir my own Condition is this Of my Patrimony or small Inheritance never took a Penny to my self my poor Kindred needing much more I am fifteen or 16 years divested of all Ecclesiastical Maintenance I never had any Church or Lecture that I received Wages from But within these three or four years much against my Disposition I am put to take Money of the Bounty of special particular Friends my Wives Estate being never my Propriety nor much more that half our yearly Expence If then it be any way unfit for me to receive such a Proportion as aforesaid as the Fruit of my own long and hard Labour for my Necessary and Charitable Uses and if they that never took pains for it have more right than I when every Labourer is Master of his own or if I may not take some part with them I know not the reason of any of this Men grudge not at a Cobler or a Tailor or any Day-labourer for living on his Labours And why an ejected Minister of Christ giving freely five parts to a Bookseller may not take the sixth to himself or to the Poor I know not But what is the Thought or Word of Man Dr. Bates now tells me that for his Book called the Divine Harmony he had above an Hundred pounds yet reserving the Power for the future to himself For divers Impressions of the Saints Rest almost twice as big I have not had a Farthing For no Book have I had more than the fifteenth Book to my self and Friends and the Eighteen pence a Rheam for the Poor and Works of Charity which the Devil so hateth that I find it a matter past my power to give my own to any Good Use he so robs me of it or maketh Men call it a Scandalous Thing Verily since I devoted all to God I have found it harder to Give it when I do my best than to get it Though I submit of late to him partly upon Charity and am so far from laying up a Groat that though I hate Debt I am long in Debt c. c. c. SIR Yours R. B. Numb VIII The general defence of my Accused Writings called Seditious and Schismatical 1. MAtter of Right cannot be determined without foreknowing the following Matter of Fact I. There is an Enmity and War through all the Earth between Christ and Satan Christ and his Soldiers strive for Light Love and Mercy or Beneficence Satan fighteth for Darkness against Light and for Harred against Love and for Hurting and Destroying against Mercy and Good Works All Christians in Baptism are Vowed and Listed in this Warfare to Christ against Satan All Ministers are vowed in their Ordination to be Leaders in Christ's Army and to preach the Gospel according to the Holy Scriptures In all Ages and Nations Satan hath wofully prevailed against this Light Love and Mercy by hindering Preachers partly by Persecution and mostly by Corrupting them Till Christ came as the Light of the World the Darkness of Ignorance and Idolatry overspread the Earth Three hundred years all Princes were against the Gospel when Constantine owned it the rest of the Empires of the World long resisted and to this day all that receive it are but a sixth part of the World And in the Christian Empire and Churches the erroneous and corrupt Princes and Bishops took up Satan's Silenceing Work Constantius and Valens and the Arrian Bishops almost extinguished the Orthodox Light The Gothes did the like The Macedonians Nâ—storians Eutychians and the Parties for and against the Council of Ephesus of 〈◊〉 the â—ria Capitula the Monâ—thelites the Adoration and Use of â—mages and the Councils for and against Photius and Ignatius c. left but few Bishops of Note in the Eastern Empire that were not by turns Condemned and Deposed by the contrary side when it was upper most The Pope himself was an hundred years at once renounced by a great part of Italy II. But the corrupt sort of Popes out did all others They Silenced the Christians that reproved their Crimes and murdered say Historians above a Million calling them Hereticks Hunnericus and the Gothish Arrians had before kill'd many and cut the Tongues of some that after spake by miracle but the Pope made more general Desolation In the Wars between many Emperours and Popes Bishops that were for the Emperours were damned as Henrician Hereticks and decreed by Councils to be burnt when dead General Councils decreed to Excommunicate and Depose all Temporal Lords that would not Exterminate as Hereticks all that were against Transubstantiation and such like Divers Popes did so notoriously do Satan's Work that they interdicted the Preaching of the Gospel and all Publick Worship of God to England France and other whole Nations for a Quarrel with the King Robert Grosthead the holy Bishop of Lincoln wrote to Innocent the Fourth That the hindering of the preaching of the Gospel was next the Sin of Lucifer and Antichrist the greatest in the World and not to be obeyed by any Christian whoever commanded it As Reforming Light arose Papal Silenceing and Cruelty increased till Inquisitions Flames Massacres in Spain Low-Countries Bohemia Germany France
restoring the Liberty of choosing Bishops and the Priviledge of enjoying them in the Synods Clergy and People of each Diocess so evident is the right of Synods Clergy and People in the making of those of whom they consist and by whom they are to be Governed that I need make no other reason of the neglect of Episcopacy than the neglect of it As for them that must needs have all our Cure dispatcht in fewer words than this half Sheet of Paper containeth they are unfit Men to do so great a Work and will do it accordingly if at all Statute Books and Councils are much greater Sir though Experience depress my Hopes the Case exciteth my Desires which I here offer you not for my self who am not capable of any Kindness from King Parliament or Prelateâ— that I know of unless it be to do me no harm and much I aâ— sure they cannot do me but for Publick Good which is the great Desire of Your Servant Richard Baxter Nov. 9. 1680. The Reasons of these several Articles I. WE cannot treat of the Government and Concord of Christians till we agree what a Christians is and who they are who are the Subjects So for the IId. III. 1. If Ministers be commanded to Baptize those Children who are brought by no Parent or Pro-parent who taketh the Child as his own and undertaketh his Education it will cast out Multitudes of faithful Ministers who know no right that the Children of Atheists and Infidels as such have no Baptism 2. This Article for owning the Baptismal Covenant is but what the Liturgy pleads for But when it is said We shall admit none to the Sacrament but those that are Confirmed or desire it it supposeth that they must give us notice of it IV. This is only for a liberty to help memory in great Parishes where it is impossible to remember all the Communicants and avoid confusion by the unknown V. Without this much power in the Parish Minister the thing must be undone it being impossible for the Diocesan alone to do it and the ancient Discipline will be unavoidably cast out of the Church But if the Bishops will not yield to this much that will instead of an Appeal from the Incumbent take the whole Work of Publick Admonition and Censure on themselves We shall submit to the Obliteration of all those underlined Words and thankfully use the Power of Suspending our own Acts and that also under the Government and Correction after mentioned VI. 1. How is he by Office a Teacher who hath not Authority to Teach 2. We ask none of the Bishop's Office for him but his own We leave him under Government and responsible for his Mal-administration 3. No Man's Ministry is safe if he may be Suspended for not saying his Lesson as prescribed just to a Sentence 4. This will make no Alteration in the Publick Offices of the Churches VII Christ hath made the Symbols of Christianity and Communion And he that in these Things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of wise Men Rom. 14. 18. 2. Needless Oaths and Covenants and Professions are more useful to Satan as Engines to tear than to the Church as means to Concord 3. But if under the Pretenses of Renouncing Heresie Popery Rebellion and Usurpation Men will draw up ensâ—aring words against the Law of Nature or Scripture it is no such Snares that will heal the Churches To say I renounce all contrary to this Profession is enough To the Renunciation of Popery there needs no more than the Oath of Supremacy it self if to the renunciation of Forreign Iurisdiction were but added Civil or Ecclesiastical 4. If the Church Articles were more exact it were better VIII 1. Those that cannot submit to a Legal Ordination must be content with Toleration 2. The questioning of those already Ordained need not make a breach as long as no Patron is forced to present such nor the major part of Communicants forced to accept them nor the minor if they dissent forbidden their Communion elsewhere And this quarrelling at each others Ordination is endless As the Bishops say on one side None should be Ordained without a Bishop so they say on the other side 1. The chief Minister of every Church is a Bishop specially of a City Church 2. That Ordination is valid which is better than the Papists For 1. we Re-ordain them not 2. Our Bishops claim Succession from them But the Ordination used here after 1646. is better than the Papists For 1. Theirs is to an unlawful Office to be Mass-Priests 2. It is into a false Church that is as headed by a pretended Universal Head 3. And it is from the Pope who as such hath no power They profess themselves his Subjects 4. And the Roman Seat hath had oft and long Intercisions 5. They say that Ordination is valid which is better than the English Diocesans But c. 1. The English Diocesans is derived from Rome which wanted power and was as aforesaid false and interrupted 2. They have neither the Election or known Consent of the Clergy or People but are chosen by the King And the old Canons for many Hundred years null such Bishops 3. It is meet that the Temples Tythes and Pastoral Office go together to the same Men and therefore that the Patron Communicants and Ordainers do all agree But if they cannot agree the Patron or Magistrates Judge who shall have the Temples and Tythes Memorandum Here wants the Reasons of the rest of the Articles if not something more to the Eighth Article FINIS An. 1664 An. 1634 An. 1640 An. 1639 An. 1640 An. 1641 An. 1641 An. 16. 14 An. 16 45 An. 1648 An. 1649 Mr. Eaton wrote a Book to prove that the Oath of Allegiance nor the Covenant bind not An. 1651 * Capt. Adams †Mr. Gibbons Very like to Maximus in the days of Gratian and Theodosius An. 1653 A post humous Book of Mr. Sterry's is since Published They were so very few and of short continuance that I never saw one of them * As it is currently reported without any Contradiction thâ—t ever I heard of Mean men in their rising must adhere to a Faction but great Men that have strength in themselves were better to maintain themselves indifferent and neutral yet even in beginners to adhere so moderately as that he be a Man of that one Faction which is most passable with the other commonly giveth best way The lower and weaker Faction is the firmer in Conjunction And it is often seen that a few that are stiff do tire out a great number that are more moderate when one of the Factions is extinguished the other remaining subdivideth It is commonly seen that Men once placed take in with the contrary Faction to that by which they enter Lord Verulam Essay 51. p. 287. * The advantage of Mens present cruel Malice was only from the Epistle of 2 Books wherein I never justified his Usurpation But Iudicis officium
last Sermon there upon Christ's words on the Cross Father forgive them for they know not what they do I was accused of it as a heinous Crime as having preached against the burning of the Covenant which I never medled with nor was it done till after the Sermon nor did I know when it was done no mind it nor did I apply the Text to any Matters of those present Times but only in general to perswade the Hearers to the forgiving of Injuries and maintaining Charity in the midst of the greatest Temptations to the contrary and to remember that it was the Tempter's Design by every wrong which they received to get advantage for the weakening of their Love to those that did it which therefore they should with double care maintain This was the true scope of that Sermon which deserved Death or Banishment as all my Pacificatory Endeavours had done § 257. When I came back to London my Book called The Mischiefs of Self-ignorance and Benefits of Self-acquaintance was coming out of the Press And my affection to my People of Kidderminster caused me by a short Epistle to direct it to them and because I could never after tell them publickly being Silenced I told them here the occasion of my removal from them and my silencing for brevity summing up the principal things in my Charge And because I said This was the Cause the Bishop took advantage as if I had said This was the whole Cause when the Conference between him and me was half an hour long and not fit to be wholly inserted in a short Epistle where I intended nothing but the sum But the Bishop took occasion hereupon to gather up all that ever he could say to make me odious and especially out of my Holy Commonwealth and our Conference at the Savoy where he gathered up a scrap of an Assertion which he did not duly understand and made it little less than Heresie and this he published in a Book called A Letter which I truly profess is the fullest of palpable Untruths in Matter of Fact that ever I saw Paper to my remembrance in all my Life The words which he would render me so abhorred for are our denial of Dr. Pierson's and Dr. Gunning's c. Propositions about the innocency of Laws which command Things evil by Accident only where the Bishop never discerned unless he dissemble it the Reasons of our Denial nor the Proposition denied The very words of the Dispute being printed before and I having fully opened the Bishops Mistakes in an Answer to him I shall not here stope the Reader with it again § 258. But this vehement Invective of the Bishop's presently taught all that desired his Favour and the improvement of his very great Interest for their Ends to talk in all Companies at the same rates as he had done and to speak of me as he had spoken and those that thought more was necessary to their hopes presented the Service of their Pens Dr. Boreman of Trinity Colledge wrote a Book without his Name and had no other design in it than to make me odious nor any better occasion for his writing than this There had many years before past divers Papers between Dr. Thomas Hill then Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and me about the Point of Physical efficient Predetermination as necessary to every Action natural and free I had written largely and earnestly against Predetermination and he a little for it In the end of it the Calamities of the Sectarian times and some Sicknesses among my Friends had occasioned me to vent my moan to him as my Friend and therein to speak of the doubtfulness of the Cause of the former War and what reason there was to be diligent in search and prayer about it When Dr. Hill was dead Dr. Boreman came to see these Papers Both the Subjects he must needs know were such as tended rather to my Esteem than to my Disparagement with the Men of these Times Certainly the Arminians will be angry with no Man for being against Predetermination and I think they will pardon him for questioning the Parliaments Wars Yet did this disingenious Dr. make a Book on this occasion to seek Preferment by reproaching me for he knew not what But to make up the matter he writeth that it is reported That I killed a Man in 〈…〉 with my own hands in the Wars Whereas God knoweth that I never hurt 〈◊〉 in my Life no never gave a Man a stroke save one Man when I was a Boy whose Legg I broke with wrestling in jest which almost broke my heart with â—reif though he was quickly cured But the Dr. knowing that this might be soon disproved cautiously gave me some Lenitives to perswade me to bear it patiently telling me that if it be not true I am not the first that have been thus abused but for ought I know he is the first that thus abused me I began to write an Answer to this Book but when I saw that Men did but laugh at it and those that knew the Man despised it and disswaded me from answering such a one I laid it by § 259. When the Bishop's Invective was read many Men were of many minds about the answering of it Those at a distance all cried out upon me to answer it Those at hand did all disswade me and told me that it would be Imprisonment at least to me if I did it with the greatest truth and mildness possible Both Gentlemen and all the City Ministers told me that it would not do half so much good as my Suffering would do hurt and that none believed it but the engaged Party and that to others an Answer was not necessary and to them it was unprofitable for they would never read it And I thought that the Judgment of Men that were upon the place and knew how things went was most to be regarded But yet I wrote a full Answer to his Book except about the words in my Holy Commonwealth which were not to be spoke to and kept it by me that I might use it as there was occasion At that time Mr. Ioseph Glanvile sent me the offer of his Service to write in my Defence He that wrote the Vanity of Dogmatizing and a Treatise for the Praexistence of Souls being a Platonist of free Judgment and of admired Parts and now one of the Royal Society of Philosophers and one that had a too excessive estimation of me as far above my desert as the malicious Party erred on the other side But I disswaded him from bringing himself into Suffering and making himself unserviceable for so low an end Only I gave him and no Man else my own Answer to peruse which he returned with his Approbation of it § 260. But Mr. Edward Bagshaw Son to Mr. Bagshaw the Lawyer that wrote Mr. Bolton's Life without my knowledge wrote a Book in Answer to the Bishops I could have wisht he had let it alone For the Man hath
no great disputing Faculty but only a florid Epistolary Stile and was wholly a Stranger to me and to the Matters of Fact and therefore could say nothing to them But only being of a Bold and Roman Spirit he thought that no Suffering should deter a Man from the smallest Duty or cause him to silence any useful Truth And I had formerly seen a Latin Discourse of his against Monarchy which no whit pleased me being a weak Argumentation for a bad Cause So that I desired no such Champion shortly after he went over with the E. of Anglesey whose Houshold Chaplain he was into Ireland and having preached there some times and returning back was apprehended and sent Prisoner to the Tower where he continued long till his Means was all spent and how he hath since procured Bread I know not When he had been Prisoner about a year it seems he was acquainted with Mr. Davis who was also a Prisoner in the Tower This Mr. Davis having been very serviceable in the Restoration of the King and having laid out much of his Estate for his Service thoâ—â— the might be the bolder with his Tongue and Pen and being of a Spirit which some called undaunted but others furious or indiscreet at best did give an unmannerly liberty to his Tongue to accuse the Court of such Crimes with such Aggravations as being a Subject I think it not meet to name At last he talkt so freely in the Tower also that he was shipt away Prisoner to Tangier in Africa Mr. Bagshaw being surprized by L'Estrange and his Chamber searched there was found with him a Paper called Mr. Davis's Case Whereupon he was brought out to speak with the King who examined him of whom he had that Paper and he denied to confess and spake so boldly to the King as much offended him whereupon he was sent back to the Tower and laid in a deep dark dreadful Dungeon When he had lain there three or four Days and Nights without Candle Fire Bed or Straw he fell into a terrible fit of the Haemorrboids which the Physicians thought did save his Life for the pain was so vehement that it kept him in a sweat which cast out the Infection of the Damp. At last by the solicitation of his Brother who was a Conformist and dearly loved him he was taken up and after that was sent away to Southsea-Castle an unwholesome place in the Sea by Portsmouth where if he be alive he remaineth close Prisoner to this day with Vavasor Powel a Preacher of North-Wales and others speeding worse than Mr. Crofton who was at last released § 261. While I was in Shropshire and Worcestershire it fell out that some one printed one of our Papers given into the Bishops And though I was above an hundred miles off yet was it all imputed to me and Roger L'Estrange put it in the News Book that it was supposed to be my doing Indeed when Dr. Gunning had asked me Whether we would keep ours from the Press if they would do the same by theirs I would not promise him but told him though I supposed that none of us intended to be so presumptuous as to publish them without Authority yet I could promise nothing for all them that were absent nor could any one promise it when so many Scriveners were intrusted to Transcribe them that the King and Bishops might have Copies and whether any of those Scriveners might keep a Copy for themselves I knew not And after this most of the other Papers were printed by I know not whom to this day But I conjectured that a poor Man that I paid for writing me a Copy Dr. Reignolds's Curate was likeliest to do it to get some what to supply his very great wants but I am utterly uncertain But I had intelligence that the second Papers were in the Press and that Malice might impure it to me no more I went to Secretary Morrice and acquainted him with it that he might send a Messenger to surprize them But he told me that if I could assure him that the Bishops had not given consent I should have a warrant to search for them I told him that I knew not what the Bishops had done but he might easily conjecture Nor would I search for them but having told him left him to do what he thought meet § 262. And here I must give notice That whereas there are then printed 1. Our first Proposals for Concord in Discipline 2. Our Papers upon the sight of the first Draught of the King's Declaration 3. Our Petition and Reasons to the Bishops for Peace 4. Our Reformed Liturgy 5. Our Exceptions against the Faults of the Common Prayer Book 6. Our Reply to the Bishops Answer to these Exceptions with the Answer it self verbatim inserted 7. Our last Account and Petition to the King 8. A Copy of all their Disputation for the Liturgy with our Answers all these being surreptitiously printed save the first piece by some poor Men for gain without our Knowledge and Correction are so falsly printed that our wrong by it is very great Whole Lines are left out the most significant words are preverted by Alterations and this so frequently that some parts of the Papers especially our large Reply and our last Account to the King are made Nonsence and not intelligible But the last Paper Dr. Pierson's and Dr. Gunning's Disputation I confess was not printed without my knowledge For Bishop Morley's misreports with so great confidence uttered had made it of some necessity But I added not one Syllable by way of Commentary the words themselves being sufficient for his Confutation If I remember I will give you in the end of this Book the Errata of them all that they that have the printed Copies may know how to correct them § 263. The coming forth of these Papers had various effects It increased the burning indignation which before was kindled against me on one side and it somewhat mitigated the Censures that were taken up against me on the other side For you must know that the Chief of the Congregational or Independent Party took it ill that we took not them with us in our Treaty and so did a few of the Presbyterian Divines all whom we so far passed by as not to invite them to our Councils though they were as free as we to have done the like because we knew that it would be but a hinderance to us partly because their Persons were unacceptable and partly because it might have delayed the Work And most of the Independents and some few Presbyterians raised it as a common Censure against us that if we had not been so forward to meet the Bishops with the offers of so much at first and to enter a Treaty with them without just cause we had all had better Terms and standing off would have done more good so that though my Person and Intentions had a more favourable Censure from them than some others yet for the
that professed great Respect to me and a desire to debate those Controversies with me and it proved to be Cressy the Champion that at that time was most forward and successful in Disputes And in that Paper speaking of the Pope's Licensing Whore-houses at Rome he saith that it is worse in London where are whole streets that have not so much as the Rebuke of any Penalty but when they die the Churchmen bury them as the rest with confidence that God in mercy hath taken to himself the Souls of those dear Brethren and Sisters departed I answered his Paper and to that passage said That I was not acquainted in the Suburbs towards the Court but I never heard of any such thing and if he knew it he would do well to tell the Magistrates who know it not what streets those be But for the City within the Walls my Acquaintance more enabled me to say that I did not believe that there was in all the World such a City for Piety Sobriety and Temperance And about a Fortnight after that part was burned and the rest that he accused did escape § 34. And this is the Third terrible Judgment which London suffered since the King's Return First many score of their Faithful Teachers were silenced and cast out and afterwards banished or confined Five Miles from the City And next in 1665. the Plague and other sickness consumed about an Hundred Thousand And when they began to be setled in their Habitations again the Flames devoured their Houses and their substance And it is not hard for the Reader here to imagine how many Thousands this must needs cast into utter Want and Beggary And how many Thousands of the formerly Rich were disabled from relieving them And how doleful the Case then must needs be when good people that were wont to relieve others were cast into such distress and few able to help them And at the same time so many Hundred Families of silenced Ministers to be relieved that looked to London most for Help And after the Fire the Charitable were disabled and also were in no small straits when they had a little to give between the Ministers and the distressed Citizens whom to give it to such are easilier heard of than felt And it was not the least part of the Calamity that when people saw the Number of the indigent to be so great that when they had done their best it seemed as if they had done nothing and also that on this pretence other lying Beggars pretended themselves to be Londoners it discouraged many from doing what they could and ought § 35. Among others the Famousest Person in the City who purposely addicted himself to works of Mercy was my very dear Friend Mr. Henry Ashurst a Draper a man of the Primitive sort of Christians for Humility Love Blamelessness Meekness doing good to all as he was able especially needy silenced Ministers to whom in Lancashire alone he allowed 100 l. per Ann. and in London was most famous for their succour and doing hurt to none His care now was to solicit the Rich abroad for the relief of the poor honest Londoners And Mr. Thomas Gouge the silenced Minister of Sepulchres Parish Son to Dr. Will. Gouge and such another man who made Works of Charity a great part of the business of his Life was made the Treasurer And once a Fortnight they called a great Number of the needy together to receive their Aims I went once with Mr. Ashurst to his Meeting to give them an Exhortation and Counsel as he gave them Alms and saw more cause than I was sensible of before to be thankful to God that I never much needed relief from others § 36. It was not the least observable thing in the time of the Fire and after considering the late Wars and the multitudes of disbanded Soldiers and the great grief and discontent of the Londoners for the Silencing and Banishing of their Pastors that yet there were heard in the time of their Calamity no passionate Words of discontent or dishonour against their Governours even when their Enemies had so oft accused them of feditious Inclinations and when Extremity might possibly have made them desperate § 37. But yet alas the Effect of all these dreadful Judgments was not such as might have been hoped for but still one Party cast all the Cause upon another and the two Extreams did look more at each other's Faults than at their own There was no confessing the Sin of Persecution or silencing Christ's Ministers by the one side but they justified their ways and hated those that differed from them as much as ever There was no lamenting the Corporation PERJURY by the Citizens that had taken the Declaration and Oath and had succeeded them that were put out because they feared an Oath There was no lamenting former Scandals Rebellions or Divisions by the other Extreme but the Dividers cryed out it s long of the Persecutors and the persecuters cryed out its long of the Schismaticks and it is God's just Judgment on the City that hath been so much against the King and the Bishops and God would not pardon them tho the King did So that while each side called the other to repentance they did both fly from repentance more and more And if there were not between them a sober party that lamented sin most but were guilty of least We should see no Prognosticks of any thing but utter desolation § 38. The great talk at this time was Who were the burners of the City And there came in so many Testimonies to prove that it was the plotted weapon of the Papists as caused the Parliament themselves to appoint a Committee to enquire after it and receive information Whereupon a Frenchman proved a Papist at last tho the prodigal Son of a French Protestant confest openly and constantly to the last that he began the fire hired to it by another French Papist a debauch'd fellow that was gone The Man was sent through all the ruines and shewed them truly the house which he fired where it began which then the Neighbours themselves could not easily have done For which he was tryed at the Sessions and upon his constant Confession was condemned and hanged Sir Robert Brooks being Chairman of the Committee abundance of Testimonies were received that in many parts of the City men were seen to cast fire balls into the houses and some strangers taken with fiery materials in their pockets and some that were taken firing houses were brought to the Guard of Soldidiers and to the Duke of York and never heard of afterward With more such matter out of the Countrey where Divers Papists foretold the fire And the Testimonies were shortly after Printed which is the reason why I give them to you no more parcularly And many stories go about with very credible and undenied Reports that be not in the Printed papers As that of Sir Francis Peter a Jesuited Papist who had Lodgings