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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	read_v	scripture_n	time_n	3,299	5	3.8026	3	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

EVERLASTING REST then Mr. Baxter's FALSE one He one told us That he judged those Tostatus's impudently proud who think the World should read no bodie 's works but theirs yet for ought I can see Tostatus will be but a puny scribler to him It was a pretty peice of Drollery in our Illustrious Romancist to desire Mr. Br. to finish his Saints everlasting rest which he mistakeing for a complement possibly upon that ground may have created the Saints that have leisure-time from the sincere word of God and hours for which they are not accountable more trouble His works are stuffed with Citations and school-notions and unsetling debates yet he cannot but know that the Judicious hold no part of Theology or scholasticall deductions to be matter of faith which Assertion if it were as candidly owned amongst Protestants as it is ingenuously professed amongst Papists our faith-confessions would be much shorter and the number of Herasies without a persecution soone abate Whither he hath read all the books he quoteth I know not but the false names of Authors not recorded amongst the errata makes his dealing suspicious In his Metaphysicks he hath so profited that he hath incurred manifold reproofes thereupon as for example he hath been charged with high blasphemy about the immanent Acts of God from which tenet common reason would have acquitted him as ordinary skill in reall philosophy would have shewed him the ridiculousness and falsity of his simile of the Looking-glasses I cannot insist long upon these things it being not my design to Catalogue Mr. Br. errours but to give you a sample of his proficiency in those courses he hath taken and oblige my credit unto you that I shall upon any warning furnish you with such an after-reckoning as will make good my opinion of him As for Church-Herory I shall by and by tell you that he understands not Greeke and so is not likely to have any perfection or assurance in that or Chronology judge of his skill however therein by his declaiming against democraticall Government which notwithstanding was the Government of Christian assemblies till the people were deprived of their votes and which was the Government of Israel instituted by God himself besides in his Key c. p. 330. he maketh the Jesuites to spawn the doctrine of Liberty of conscience which is as absur'd as that Serarius call'd Herod a Machiavellian I shall have occasion elsewere to shew how it is the doctrine of primitive Christians now let it suffice that S●… H. Vane is not more full in his judgment then Constantine the great nor doth he insist upon any other practise then what was the decree and usage of that Emperour If Eusebius had not written in Greek I should referre Mr. Br. to him in his life of Constantine lib. 2. c. 5.59 The Heathens had in his time their expenses of publick sacrifices defrayed out of the treasury and their Temples though not all yet most openly were frequented their Sophisters were maintained by the publick purse they were employed in places of trust and dignity civill and military and all this not onely in the time of Constantine but even till Justinian's time in great part as Procopius in his secret history tells us Theodosius did indeed refuse to defray the sacrifices of the Heathens out of the publick treasury yet even in his time the Senate were generally pagans and untill the time of Gratian if not after it was the custom of the Flamines or Heathen Priests to present the new Emperour though Christian with a Stole or Pontificall garment so that they had not onely a toleration free and open but even the Emperours were Christian Emperours but Heathen Priests Thus you see what others think would introduce Heathenisme this was the course that brought in and established Christianity But these things being to be fetched out of Greek authours I forgive Mr. Baxter his ignorance thereof and onely tell him that the great souldier and eminent protestant Monsieur La Nove was of no other judgment then Sr. H. V. as one may read in his discourses and that Possevin the Jesuite wrote against him for it As for his skill in languages it is so mean that I am amazed to see him quoted by the name of learned The Syriack the Arabick both which are of great use for understanding the Scripture of which you may read in Mr. Beveridge's discourse of the Eastern tongues upon the vulgar Analysis of faith of these I may suppose him totally ignorant His skill in Hebrew is as little Mr. Robertson hath said so much upon this subject in a particular book that I shall not urge it onely tell you that two or three days study in that tongue would have prevented some of his mistakes and one moneths diligence would have corrected such lapses as are not to be excused or endured Dare he boast unto the World what time he hath spent in impertinencies and yet be ignorant of that which is almost the unum necessarium in his function There is not that Quaker or most fanaticall sectarian whom he so undervalues but can ground his truthes upon the true version and his errours upon the mistakes of our English translatours Of this you will be much more convinced when I shall ascertain you he is no better at Greeke then other tongues weigh him in any ballance and you will finde him light I shall not run over all his works but attacque the most renowned Olio of practicall and Schoole-Divinity the latter of which is apt to create everlasting disputes rather then rest and made no part of the rest of the primitive whither Christians or Antichristians I meane his Saints everlasting rest In this book I observe he cites other Authours at large in their originall Latin and English but with the Greeks he deals not so Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus Athanasius Laertius these are cited either in English or Latine A man so ambitious to stuff his Margin cannot be thought to have declined this out of modesty which he ought to have done out of necessity since in rationall discourses other proofs are not allowed then which are fetched out of the tongue in which the Authour wrote To evince this more he hath adventured sometimes to checquer his booke with Marginall Greeke words though but seldome as p. 74. there are placed two Greek words out of Polycarp to no purpose that I can imagine but to let men see Mr. Baxter is not ignorant of Greeke p. 118. There stands a Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an animadversion that women shall not rise again in their own Sex which is a thing improbable I would say false if all the philosophy I have together with colourable texts of Scripture were a ground for such peremptoriness p. 551. you have Greeke quoted out of Ignatius but it is onely to disgrace our Army viz. that souldiers are Leopards and the more they are favoured and regarded the worse But he hath so

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