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book_n	king_n	write_v	year_n	5,160	5	4.8919	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94086	Malice rebuked, or A character of Mr. Richard Baxters abilities. And a vindication oe [sic] the Honourable Sr. Henry Vane from his aspersions in his Key for Catholicks, as it was sent in a letter formerly to Mr. D.R. and is now printed for the publike satisfaction. / By Henry Stubbe of Ch. Ch. in Oxon.	Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676.; Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676. Vindication of that prudent and honourable knight, Sir Henry Vane, from the lyes and calumnies of Mr. Richard Baxter, minister of Kidderminster.	1659 (1659)	Wing S6060; Thomason E1841_2; ESTC R209630	32,090	64

displeased at it so neither is it good for the people who hereby are nourished up in a biting devouring wrathfull spirit one against another and are found transgressors of of that Royall law which forbids us to doe that unto another which we would not have them doe unto us were we in their condition This tenderness of Sr. H. V. might have been entertained with lesse opposition at least rage then it hath yet found in the spirits of many I never reflect thereon but methinks I see Stephen praying for them that stoned him and admire a Charity so diffusive as not to comprise onely friends but even enemies a love beyond that of Publicans towards them which hate despitefully use and persecute in fine a perfection like that of our Heavenly Father who besides that he makes them so endureth with much long suffering the vessells of wrath fitted for destruction though he wont not power though his knowledge by infallibly discerning and his justice in punishing both would be unquestionable He knoweth who are his yet doth he tolerate in his great house not only vessels of Gold and silver but also of wood and earth and some to honour some to dishonor But Mr. Richard Baxter Mr. Richard Baxter teacher of the Church at Kederminster Mr. Richard Baxter a Catholick Christian and pastour of a Church of such at Kederminster Mr. Baxter Envoy from heaven and Embassadour of Christ as he calls himself in the Dedicat of Saints everlast Rest he cannot endure this Tenet this compassionate tender and peaceable frame of spir it From this Candid principle and which allowed Mr. Baxter the liberty of his sentiments hath he taken an occasion in a late infamous Libell if so great a farce may be so termed called a Key for Catholiques to decry the Vanists with such language as may justly deserve that reply of Michael to the devill THE LORD REBUKE THEE But however this may be an Answer suitable to the Christian temper of Sr. H. V. and the quality of the person he hath to do with yet because severall weake ones may be betrayed into an ill opinion of that Honourable personage thorough that generall though undue esteem which Mr. Baxter hath gained in the World for Learning judgement and moderation whereby innocence may be distressed and railing become hallowed I shall vindicate Sr. H. V. from the reproaches of this Philistim or Shimei or Rabshakeh and defend that invidious Assertion but you must first give me leave to premise a character of the man As the man is so is his strength I cannot give you any account of the Birth or Education of Mr. Richard Baxter but I think I may say that he either never was at any Vniversity or made little stay there nor took any Degree unlesse the late perswasions of some may have prevailed with him who apprehended something of worth in him and were sensible how great a detriment might arise if Qualifications without university degrees should capacitate one for the Ministry in our days in a Time when ignorance or terrour or both had taken off the Ministers of this Nation from opposing those called Anabaptists then He tooke occasion to signalize himself by an intricate Dispute with honest Mr. Tombes and the Act being plausible the performance was thought great Since that time he hath aggrandized himself in the World and wanting not confidence to print what made for the interest of others he knew he could not faile of the applauds of such as however they might discover his weakness were concerned nor of the reall admiration of such as could not discerne I am a stranger to his life and report speaks not much to his disadvantage nor is he wanting to his own praises Whatever become of the precept let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth he in severall of his works acquainteth us with his charitableness to the poore and his care for the sick to whom he administers Physick Not that this successour of the Apostles delegated by the same commission Anoints them with oyle and so heales them or cures them as he walks by vertue of his shadowe nor doth he distribute hand-kerchiefes but all as I am told is atchieved by looch sanum and a liquorish stick or Gascoines powder c. Yea in his saints everlasting rest he is no lesse tiresome with the recitall of his infirmities and indisposition then is Balzac or Voiture in their letters with the Colick and feavour As for his learning the account he gives of himself is to have spent much time in reading over the Fathers of whose use or rather inutility read Daille the Schoole-men an upstart study unknown to the purer times modelled professed by that Order which now manageth the Inquisition and was at first erected for the suppressing the truth in the Abbigenses and Philosophers such as if the Apostle had not Authorised us to call Vaine their own writings would How much he hath benefited in these studies he hath endeavoured to give the World an account in a multitude of books which he voides continually Joachimus Fortius who was resolved to write a booke every yeere whilest he lived was but a slight pretender in comparison to Mr. Baxter's works And what Henry the fourth King of France said of King James that he was a fine King and wrote pretty little bookes this makes up but a part of Mr. Baxters commendations he writes not onely single sheets and little bookes but large volumes This tedious impertinent having run thorough the usuall method of English controvertists now assumes the fashion of the Dutch and that our countreymen may have something of novelty in his papers they who are in love with a lowe-dutch dresse may have recourse to Mr. Baxters disputations at Kederminster yea he out-goeth his pattern for theirs are disputes managed in vniversities but these Kederminsterian disputations have onely Mr. Br. for President Mr. Br. for respondent Mr. Br. for Opponent Thus I have seen some play at shittle-cock managing their battledoores in their right and left hands Thus children play by themselves at Cards thus the mad-man in Horace imagined himself at the Roman sports in vacuo sessor plausorque Theatro But for such as admire the man and buy his books for whose sakes the price is printed on the title-page or at the end at three farthings a sheet though that rate be not extraordinary for one or two books yet they had need of faire estates that are in a possbility of buying according to the Quotient in the Revelations Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of sheets God Almighty thought it sufficient to give us one booke if I may so call it and that such as to make the man of God perfect thoroughly furnished to all good works But Mr. Baxter affordes us more not furnishing men to all good works unlesse railing and uncharitableness doe that and of that value that one may cheaper buy the Bible that TRVE SAINTS

Ahaz ten degrees which was a signe of recovery to disconsolate and languishing Hezechiah But though I am confident of the finall issue of things that the prisoners of hope shall receive double satisfaction and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to ●…ion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away However these may be my thoughts yet I suppose I may justly be afflicted for the attempts of such as labour to reinslave us Shall I say onely re-inslave us and put upon our necks the former yoake No Sr. we are not so little versed in the World as to ignore that New Governments though Good create advantages for after-times and not those wherein they are erected but such as are bad threaten all with perpetuity of misfortunes unlesse God be more mercifull then man is wise Perswasions now are of that Nature as if they should bid us not returne to Goshen but the most dismall parts of Egypt rather then proceed on to our Felicity Nay this is not all which my soul regrets though to recede from Engagements Remonstrances Declarations and Protestations to forsake that providence to slight those mercies which we implored with tears be things meriting our highest resentments and the consequences whereof may involve not the Actours alone but such as afflict their righteous souls for the sins of Sodom and they who are strangers to their crimes participate often in the punishments of the wicked as Elijah suffered by the famine though Ahab and his Father's house troubled Israel certainely we ought all to lay it to Heart That the Ambitious ones of these times are not content to render others miserable by depriving them of or endangering them in their Liberties and fortunes unlesse they can make them criminall to and since the integrity of our Patriots is so well known that Envy it self can fasten no real imputation upon them they must be blemished with surmises and imaginations and what is defective in the proofe of the charge the Authority of those that divulge it must supply I could instance in many persons of such worth that this Age may blush they are not in greater dignities to which they would give a lustre rather then receive any thence themselves It was a complaint of the wise man an evill under the sun and an errour that folly should be set in great dignity and the rich sit in lowe place that servants were upon horses and Princes walked as servants upon the Earth How much more ought we to be aggrieved to see the most pious and prudent counsellours outed and disgraced and men of different qualifications advanced yet these men are aspersed and vilified thoroughout the Nation and by an uncouth barbarity they are assassinated in their reputes and whose names should be as pretious ointments powred forth these are represented as such which dead flies have infected with a stinking savour But their implacable malice hath discovered it self against no man so much as the Honourable Sr. Henry Vane one whom not to have heard of is to be a stranger in this land and not to honour and admire is to be an Enemy to all that is good and vertuous One whose integrity whose uprightness in the greatest employments hath secured him from the effects of their Hatred veiled with justice in whom his sincere piety Zeal for the publick and singular wisdom may have raised envy and dread Against him have they set themselves him have they damnified in his Estate prejudiced in his Liberty and laboured to disgrace unto the people of his native countrey but finding the Court-artifices to fail and that his inocence was not so to be prevailed upon they have at length incensed the Pulpit against him and made use of Mr. Richard Baxter's pen to serve their ends Sr. Henry Vane published in 1655 a book called The retired mans meditations in which he hath discovered the most glorious Truths that have been witnessed unto these 1500 years and more in a manner as extraordinary I mean not in the perswasive words of humane wisdom not in the sophistry of School-learning not as the Scribes and Pharisees but as one having Authority and in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit in that Booke upon which none hitherto hath animadverted but Mr. Finch who had never yet found a name in the World but by the esteem of his Adversary he hath layed down this position That the Mystery of iniquity working in men of a legall conscience is the Magistrates entermedling with Christs power over the judgments of men Upon which saying that may serve for a paraphrase which is layed down by the same Author in his Healing Question where speaking of freedom to be exercised and enjoyned in matters of religion or that concern the service and worship of God He saith Vnto this freedom the Nations of the World have right and title by the purchase of Christ's blood who by vertue of his death and resurrection is become the sole Lord and ruler in and over the conscience for to this end Christ died rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living and that every one may give an account of himself in all matters of God's worship unto God and Christ alone as their own Master unto whome they stand or fall in judgement and are not in these things to be oppressed or brought before the judgement seats of men For why shouldst thou set at nought thy Brother in matters of his Faith and conscience and herein intrude into the proper office of Christ since we are all to stand before the judgement-seat of Christ whither Governors or Governed and by his decision onely are capable of being declared with certainty to be in the right or in the wrong By vertue then of this supream law sealed and confirmed in the blood of Christ unto all men whose soules he challenges a propriety in to bring under his inward rule in the service and worship of God it is that all Magistrates are to fear and forbear intermedling with giving rule or imposing in those matters They are to content themselves with what is plain in their commission as ordained of God to be his Minister unto men for good whilest they approve themselves the doers of that which is good in the sight of men and whereof earthly and Wordly judicatures are capable to make a clear and perfect judgment in which case the Magistrate is to be for praise and protection to them In like manner he is to be a Minister of terrour and revenge to those that doe evill in matters of outward practise converse and dealings in the things of this life between man and man for the cause whereof the judicatures of men are appointed and set up But to exceed these limits as it is not safe nor warrantable for the Magistrate in regard he who is higher then the highest regards and will shew himself

no defence but an appeall to the searcher of hearts since words and actions are not sufficient fruits whereby to be known Might not I say that Mr. Br. is a close papist too and give you the like answer when you should alledge his frequent writings against them Nay could not I adde that many men may prevaricate as Mr. Baxter saith the Jefuites do amongst our forces and maintain what is not their judgment onely to create us new divisions and that the Romanists abound no where so much as near Mr. Br Might not I either fix any odious imputation upon Mr. Br. as Arminianisme Socinianisme upon another account then that his booke of infidelity is borrowed from Socinus yea Atheisme and say that he ownes all or any of these but closely If this procedure be once admitted of the whole world must become criminall and when surmises or bold assertions shall be taken for proofes none will be able to plead not-guilty There is not any thing more that I know of which Mr. Br. Mr Rogers in his Vindication of Sir H. V. gives this full account of his having no hand in the Kings death That upon that great change and alteration of affairs in the year 1648 he absented himself from the Parliament and Lievtenant General Cronwell who sat upon the Tryal of the King and encouraged the H●gh Court of Justice to sentence h●● could hardly and after much importunity prevail w●●h Sir H. V. to resume his place in Parliament and Council of State Now Mr Ba●●er the matter of f●ct being thus stated if you would have been impartial you should rather have said That your Lord Protector and his followers had a chief hand in the death of the King whether upon a publique or private account I leave it to the Lord then that Sir Henry Vane and the Vanis●● were the chief Actors in it But you were resolved to cast dirt in the face of this Gentleman and so to ingratiate your self with the New Court the glory whereof is now layd in the dust together with all your stattering Addresses hath objected to this Honorable personage or reproached him with for I do not esteem my self bound to take notice of that Satyr against those Patriots of the long Parliament and Army who executed justice upon the late King and erected a Common-wealth I have recommended that part of his book to the souldiery who if either their own repute or the cause of God and of the good people of this land in their religious civil concernes be dear unto them will not suffer the language of the Pedant to be unpunished If he had not been interested in making the Vanists odious how come they who were none at all to be more Regicides then the late Protector If Mr. Br. were so impartial as some would have him thought why did he spare his memory since many of those things which are charged upon the Vanists Anabaptists c. had their rise and management principally from him Some were onely his Acts. Did not he debauch the Army if to engage them to the true service of their countrey were to debauch them was not he an enemy to Ministry and Tithes did not he maintain and uphold a toleration why then was not he upbraided with close popery c. If Mr. Br. is resolved to meddle with no man but such whose names affoord him occasion for a Quibble he could not have missed of a Dozen in him besides that which is as obvious from the Greeke as is that on Sr. H. from the Latin Viz. that he endevoured to reduce us to our primitive slavery to the onyons and garlick of Egypt and that he would stink in the sense of all posterity these had genuinely issued from the name of Cromwell and the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying an onyon But I shall leave this discourse to entertain you more seriously with an enquiry into that invidious question which doth so much disquiet Mr. Br. and others amongst us Whither the civil Magistrate hath any thing to do in matters of spiritual concernment Upon that subject I intend to set down what my own thoughts are without interesting any therein but my self being no lesse resolved alone to receive all that the Obloqui and malice of others can throwe upon me then to continue all my life Ch. Ch. April 20. 1659. Sir your most affectionate humble servant H. S.