know the Truth the Truth shall set you free indeed But this Baxter and all such teach it for Doctrine That they are so far from being free from sin that their very prayers and best performances are not free from sin but sin is in them all Oh sad that ever they should dare to pretend to the Ministry of the Gospel who preach such a Doctrine as make nothing perfect but leaves them in sin all their lives long And no wonder that they and their Doctrine should be void of all good Fruit for saith God They have run and I have not sent them therefore they shall not profit the People at all And yet they would gladly have People know them and learn of them though they can do them no good at all and this is that sorry and bad Proof that the Hirelings make of their great knowledge they pretend unto which they have gotten with their natural Parts and hard Studies and so thy own words shall witness against thee Oh Baxter and thy Brethren who have given no good proof of your knowledge to this day nor have thereby preserved Peace and Concord amongst Believers but done what you can to break it for that Doctrine that makes not men free from sin leaves all the seeds of Discord and Dissention still in Peoples Minds for as sin separated man from God at first so doth it to this day keep them asunder and so keeps them from Love for God is Love and none live or dwell in Love but such as live and dwell in God But such as live in sin and never pray without it are out of God as the Apostle said of People in unbelief They were without God in the World It is not any outward Conformity that will or can make them to be at peace with or love one another for if it were possible to bring Papist Athist and Carnal Protestants and Professors of all sorts into one Form of outward Worship as for Time Place Words or the like Yet there would be neither Love Peace nor Concord amongst them for want of Unity with God and his good Spirit the onely true Ground and Foundation of all true Love Peace and Concord And so Oh R. Baxter we have known thee this many years to be a great Enemy of God and therefore we may not learn of thee nor any such but of Christ do we learn ever praised be his Name who teaches his People to profit and so it s onely the poor deluded Multitude that knowâ— thee not who learn of thee and suck in such poysoned Doctrine as makes them most uncapable of the pure Word of Life and Doctrine of Salvation so that Publicans and Harlots who make little or no Profession enter into the Kingdom of God before you And as for making a stir with thy knowledg and striving to set up thy own Name thereby though thou set the whole World on fire by it who more notorious then thy self in this R. Baxter as witness all thy lying frothy words Books and Pamphlets which thou hast spoken and written against the appearance of Christ and his Truth in these late years but thy Studies and thy Works God hath cursed for no Child of Light will ever buy any of thy Merchandize nor the deceitfull Wares of any other Merchants of Babylon for evermore Blessed be God for his unspeakable Gift Amen But the end of these words of setting the World on fire set down here by this Baxter is easily seen to be this to wit to perswade People that those who are zealous for God in these days in publishing his everlasting Gospel upon the Earth in a cross to the World are such as set up themselves and would set the World on fire And so he is manifest to be one of the old evil Generation of Priests who accused Christ for a mover of Sedition and Paul for a pestilent Fellow Oh it was that good stirring Spirit of the Lord Jesus in himself and his Followers which did so trouble the World the combustible World in all Ages that made and doth make the Hrieling Priests and their deluded Followers so rage and cry out but as for setting the World on fire in a goodsence Christ Jesus saith That he came to set Fire in the Earth But for setting the World on fire in Baxter's sence that is sowing discord and dissention amongst People this is the work and ever was the work of the Hireling Priests who loved to be called of men Masters as this R Baxter is as is said before witness not onely our own Age but the holy Scripture and the Histories of all Times and Ages as those that read may understand And yet these proud Masterly and false Teachers were ever the first and for wardst that cryed against Christ and his Followers for disturbing the World's Peace when as this Doctrine of Christ's Spirit though it did alwayes disturb the Devil's yet it did alwayes tend to the working of the hearts and Souls of the People into God's Peace and did ever and doth at this day work this glorious and blessed Effect in all that believe Whereof we are Witnesses praised be God though for the Testimony of Christ we are troubled on every side by the wicked World So that even now when the Wicked have no peace for there is no peace to the Wicked we whom the World mock stone and persecute under the Nick-Name of Quakers or so have peace in all our Dwellings And within Egypt is full of Darkness that one may feel it yet in our Goshen is plenty of Light ever praised be God And when the World of false Christians are learning War and preparing Weapons we are ceasing from War and not to learn it any more as the Lord hath said And therefore Oh ye Inhabitants of the Earth if ye knew us ye would not hate us and persecute us but love us with your Hearts because of the good will of our Hearts towards you for our Weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual Not for pulling down or Destroying of you but your Enemies your sins which wars against your Souls And the Reason why we cannot joyn with you in your Liturgyes and Worship-actions is not because we hate you but because we Love God and your Souls for if we should joyn with you in your defiled Worship as your selves confess they are we should strengthen you in an evil Way But by our separating from you because of the unholiness of your Sacrifices occasion may be ministred to you to question your State and so some of you in time may come out of your Darkness into the marvellous Light of the Lord Jesus with us and praise the Lord in the Land of the Living so be it Another of this Baxter's Follies and false Doctrines I may here mention as one may read it in that Book of his that I have under hand to wit in Pag. 114. are these words It may be unlawfull saith he in a Ruler to command
are not Christians and the greater number of vulgar Christians be not in the right perhaps in many Points of Learning and Scholastick Controversies because they are not learned in such Controversies but all Godly men and Christians are in the right in all Points Essential to Godliness and Christianity And therefore they are in the certain way of Life And if in any integral or accedental Point you think you are wiser then the greater part of men as Learned and as Godly as your selves you must give very good Proofs of it to your selves and others before it is to be believed I know that in all Ages God giveth some few men more excellent natural Parts then others and he engageth some in deeper and more laborious Studies then others and he Blesseth some mens Studies more then others and therefore there are still some few who know more then the rest of the Country or Mankind and it were well for the rest if they knew these and would learn of them But these are such as come to their Knowledge by hard and laborious Studies and Meditation though also by the Spirit 's Blessing their endeavours and they are such as give proof of the Knowledge they pretend to and they are such as imploy their Knowledge to preserve the Peace and Concord of Believers and do not proudly make a stir with it to set up their own Names though hereby they set the World on fire To which by way of reply I answer and say That there is not the least Child of Light But doth truely and easily see the nature of the Spirit by which this R. B. is still acted and the end he drives at for as for the Spirit by which he is acted it still appears plainly to be the spirit of this World that never knew God nor the Mysteries of his holy and Heavenly Kingdom by which Earthly spirit by much poring on Books without him he hath attained to a deal of Unsanctified graceless Knowledge as himself speaks Pag. 114. to deceive the simple People by who are Ignorant of Satans Devises and as for his end it is also as manifest to be this to wit to bring People who were in some measure pressing out of Babylon back into Egypt and Babylon again and yet to cover his deceit lest the Simple should see him without an Interpreter he brings in the Spirit as to help his Humane Labour and Carnal Endeavours But the Spirit of God which he strikes at in all his writing will be no Drudge or Slave to any such Vain Self-ended Proud Mind in any But of these words where he saith That all Godly men and Christians are in the right in all Points Essential to Godlyness and Christianity and therefore in the certain Way of Life as he saith Let us consider for in his sence they are most notoriously false and wicked for as for Godly men who ever imagined otherwise much less denied in words or so that they were in the right but as for that he saith That all Christians viz. all that were sprinkled when they were Children and that so being grown up make an outward Profession of Christ for such in Spiritual manner he means by Christians as is most manifest are in the right in all Points Essential to Christianity and so in the certain Way of Life It is such a notorious peice of falshood and so impudent an assertion that no one saying can more gratifie the Devil and so help to build up his Kingdom then it doth Nay it certainly gives the Lye to the certain experience and Testimony of all the holy men of God both formerly and now for Paul said in his day That many professed and nominal Christians do so walk as that they were Enemies to the Cross of Christ whose god was their their Belly and who gloried in their shame and whose end was destruction Phil. 3. and were these in the right Points Essentiall to Christianity and in the certain Way of Life what Contradiction and Blasphemy is this And the same Apostle tells some among the Corinthians That they had not the knowledge of God Cor. 15. and what were these right also in all Essentials what is not the knowledge of God an Essential Point of Christianity Nay without the knowledge of God no Eternal Life and yet this Baxter is not ashamed to affirm That such as know not God are in the certain Way of Life And further to the experience of all that know God do I appeal whether this R. B. doth not here in his blindness justifie the very Papist Yea and all other sorts of People who any way in the outward profess Christ especially if they be outwardly sprinkled with Water young or old for saith he in his Preface Pag. 33. Christ hath solemnly and purposely made the baptismal Covenanting with him to wit by outward washing to be the Tearm and Title to Church-Member-ship and Communion and the owning of this same Covenant is the sufficient Title of the Adult or those of ripe years and the Imposers that come after and require another kind of Evedence of Conversion or Sanctification then this do confound the Church and enslave the People and leave no certain way of Tryal Thus far R. B. by which it appears whether this Baxter by endeavouring to keep his credit with the world is wandred beyond all the Bounds of Reason and Modesty Nay Mystery Babylon her self though she be become a Cage of every unclean and barefull Bird and a very Habitation of Devils must not pass unjustified by him but be reckoned to be right in all the Essentials of Christianity and in the certain Way of Life For without all Controversie this Mystery Babylon is of that Number who in words profess God and Christ and have a Name to live though they be dead as this Baxter is or it were not a Mystery if it were not covered from the Worlds Eye with a shew of what it is not Revel 17 18 19. Chapters Yet so far is this Baxter sunk into the Dark Pit of Antichristian Abomination that he acounts it an abuse and false Interpreting of Scripture to perswade any from that Command Come out of Babylon to separate from professed or nominal Christians though full of Iniquity Page 32. then which nothing more can gratifie his Father the Wicked One and his Adulterous Mother the Synagogue of Rome for though he would seem in some words here and there in his Book to be no Papist yet there is never an Argument he brings for the Fellow-ship with Dead and Corrupted Members and against those that separate from such but they will fully serve to prove the Company of the Pope to be a Church and all them to blame who have separated from him in outward Church-Fellowship upon any pretence whatsoever So foolish is the World's Wisdom when it is set against Truth But this Baxter having laid his Wicked and False Ground That all that are called Christians are in the
out of the Church as prophane c. And so for this thy suming up and concluding God hath concluded thee with the wicked Persecutors for the Judgement of his great Day O Baxter But hold Baxter thou that art thus hot and without all fear in pleading for the Devil's Kingdom I say when the Lord bids us and we obey him in separating from the Wicked is this all one with the Sin of Persecution Oh thou unjust man the Lord will be terrible to thee in the day of his Wrath which is nigh at hand to come upon thee for all thy Villany against him and for all thy daubing deceitful words in the beginning and end of this Direction the Lord sees thee to be a Fighter against him and thy Reward will be according to thy Works as he hath said and all the Rocks and Mountains of the wicked World for whom thou pleadest shall not hide thee from his strook As testifies the good Spirit of the Lord Jesus in his Servant Some more of the bad and strange sayings of this Baxter in his Book Pag. 219. GOdly men are much liker to be in the right then Ungodly men Answ. This shows what a Stranger he is to the certainty of Godliness Pag. 220. Sometimes the worser sort of men may hold fast the Truth Answ. This is a gross Lye for the bad cannot hold fast the good unless in Prison or so If any better Persons deny Infant Baptism the worser Sort of People would be all against them and yet be in the right Answ. Thus sprinkling of Infants for which there is no Scripture must needs be wrong whosoever hold it and the corruption of it appears so much the more because the worser Sort are so much for it Many do take a Form of Prayer or Liturgy to be unlawful meerly because the most of the worser Sort are for it Answ. What deceit is this If thy Hearers so badly taught by thee do such things yet those that are taught of God deny things because they know them to be evil in themselves but what Form or Liturgy is that which the most of the worser Sort of the People are for even that which speaks peace to the Wicked by telling them they were Regenerated by sprinkling a little Water on their Faces or the like when Infants And that they shall be saved though they continue in sin all their lives long but the Hour cometh and now is that neither in the invented Forms of the Hypocrite's long Prayers nor in the short invented Forms and Liturgies of the Prophane but in Spirit and Truth as the Lord Jesus enables them will God be worshipped and served by his People for the Day is dawned and Shaddows 〈◊〉 and as the Day doth more and more arise in its Glory with all the things of vain Men pass away so be it Pag. 221. The some of his 44. Direction by his own setting down runs thus Ye take the Examples of religious Men to be one of your most perilous Temptations and therefore labour to discover especially what are the sins of Professors in the Age that you live in that you may especially watch and fortifie your Souls against them And adds That sometimes the strictest Sort run in a Gang after one Opinion and sometimes after another Answ. Here I appeal to that of God in all that fear his Name and are alive to Truth whether this do not wholly tend to the hardening of Pharaoh's Heart against the People of God in these dayes who are in the Truth it self and not in Opinions as the Hypocrites are for though such as are begotten into Forms of Religion without the Truth by the Hirelings do never cease from erring yet the truely Religious who are begotten to God by Christ walk in the Way undefiled which the Fools who are upright in Heart cannot err in But this his telling of running in a gang is a filthy and reproachful Speech wholly of Ashdod and the Lord will judge thee O Enemy for thy work R. B. and therefore let all that fear God take heed of this Baxter's Soul-defiling and Heart-hardning Doctrine for out of the dark and wicked Kingdom wherein he and all such live is the Lord calling his People And to conclude If any would see this Harlot in its fine dress and the crooked Serpent in its glittering colour on the Head which must be bruised and yet with his Sting in his Tail which is full of Venom let them consider that 44. Direction which runs thus Desire the highest Degree of Holiness and to be free from the corruptions of the Times but affect not to be odd and singular from ordinary Christians in lawful things for instance If it were to go in a meaner Garb then others and as the Quakers not to put off the Hat or with the Friars to go bare Foot or in a distinguishing Habit that all men may see and say This is a singular Person in Religion it is easie to see how this gratifieth Pride Answ. But now that the Lord is arisen according to his Promise Isa. 27.1 which saith In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong Sword shall punish Leviathan the peircing Serpent even Leviathan that crooked Serpent and he shall slay the Dragon that is in the Sea Therefore I say it is that the Dragon is so wrathful to pour forth his Floods of Persecution after the heavenly Woman and her Man-child and therefore it is that the crooked Serpent in such men as this Baxter is is so at work every way seeking with their cunning and crafty deceitful Doctrines to peirce the Heart the Life of Truth by their Darts and so with their fair colourable words as the Apostle speaks To deceive the hearts of the Simple and Ignorant People but the Lord taketh the Wily in their own craftiness and the Pit they digg for others themselves fall into and the Lord 's Spiritual Sword of Truth pierces through all their lives and dead in the great Sea and Puddle of their own Iniquities before the Lord and his Saints this day they lie Glory to his Name the mighty God over all who is worthy For what more glistering and fair seeming words can the Serpent give then to say Desire the highest Degree of Holiness and to be free from the corruptions of the Time But that this Baxter intends no such thing no nor believes that any shall ever attain to any such thing whilst on the Earth is most manifest by the whole current of his Doctrine for not onely in his former Books where he hath publickly declared That sinless Perfecttion is the Doctrine of the Devil hatch'd in Hell c. But even in this very Book it fully appears what an Enemy he is not onely to the highest Degree but even to Holiness it self where amongst his other Unholy Doctrines he saith as is before mentioned from pag. 195. That there is no man alive that worshippeth God without some sin and