and his death and lastly that this is the Genius of the Parliament I hope whatever Mr. Baxter may do no other Mans Conscience doth accuse him of such horrid crimes All this we have in the Title-page of his Second Plea for Peace But as the Learned Doctor observed of the First Plea it looks as if he had designed these Books on purpose to represent the Clergy of our Church as a company of notorious lying and perjured Villains These and divers other Fire-brands he fixeth in the top of the Fabrick as if that could not be purged but with Fire pretending it was guilty of many heinous Sins in the Constitution of it And when that Reverend Doctor endeavored to quench those Juniper-coals which had well-nigh set all in a flame he flies in his face charging him with pleading for Presumption Profanation Vsurpation Vncharitableness and Schism p. 73. of his Answer to the Dr's Sermon Again when the Dr. said that preaching in opposition to the Laws established is contrary to the Doctrine of all the Nonconformists of former times Mr. Baxter replies p. 21. This Assertion is so rash and false in matters of notorious fact that it weakeneth his reverence of the Doctors judgment in matters of Right p. 8. So that the Doctor might well say that he wrote that Book in a continued fit of Anger And how could it be otherwise seeing that as Bishop Burnet relates of the Earl of Rochester when God gave him a sight of his sins that he confessed he had been drunk five years together So Mr. Baxter had been distempered with an habit of wrath and rage against the Government of the Church ever since he was Nineteen years old how could he chuse but write with the spirit of Gall and bitternest against such an Adversary as would dissect him alive and discover all the Distempers of that dying Man And what could Mr. Baxter do less than call the Doctor 's Sermon a Schismatical Sermon that would so divide Mr. Baxter that makes Union impossible in any Church but what he himself shall give being and union to And yet this Man of Wrath is angry with himself that he was not more angry with the Doctor For p. 12. of Second Defence I profess says he I felt so little passion in writing that Book that I think verily I sinned all the while for want of a livelier sense of the sin and hurt which I was detecting by my Confutation And in his Title-page dividing the Doctor 's Book into Accusations Reasonings and History he pronounceth them all untrue i.e. in plain English You lie Sir in all that you have written Perhaps Mr. Baxter may not account this Passion but Zeal And his admirers say he is a Stranger to Spite and Anger but he hath a very quick and earnest temper of mind and his stile is very keen and pungent Yea and they think it lawful for him too to make the Scripture serve his passion and rail in holy Language for doubtless his Disciples think that in the Title-page 1 Tim. 6.5,6 well applied to the Doctor Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness from such withdraw thy self which in plain English is that the Doctor is one of those Men and you are bound to have no communion with him For Mr. Baxter though under another name represents the Doctor to be a most unskilful proud partial obstinate cruel impertinent Adversary Yet Mr. Silvester in his Preface speaking of the Author i.e. Mr. Baxter says I have heard him great and copious in commendation of several Prelates and Conformists and that he particularly mentioned the Reverend Bishops of Worcester and Eli i.e. Bishop Stillingfleet and Bishop Patrick as Persons greatly admired and highly valued by him and of their readiness to serve the Publick interest both Civil and Religious he doubted not it was therefore his bitter Zeal that transported him to write such scandalous invectives contrary to his Knowledge and Conscience But as Mr. H. says in defence of Mr. Baxter Some Men have humours and ways of their own And this it seems is the proper humour of that Party They think with Jonah they do well to be angry that God hath spared us so long and because he suffered their Gourd to spring up and cover their heads for a time whereof they were exceeding glad now that he hath suffered a Worm to strike it and make it wither and the Wind and the Sun beats on their heads they are desperately angry for their Gourd and justifie their anger even against God they do well to be angry even unto death Jonah 4.9 His Treatise of Episcopacy he says in the Title-page was meditated 1640. when the c. Oath was imposed written 1671. and published 1680. by the call of Mr. H.D. and the importunity of our Superiours who demanded the reason of our Nonconformity The design was the concord of all the Protestants who can never unite in the present impositions and for necessary reformation of Parish-Churches and those abuses which else will keep up in all Ages a succession of Nonconformists and to give an account why we dare not covenant by Oath or Subscription to endeavour the amending alteration of the Church-government c. i.e. in plain English against an Act of Parliament P. 140. of his Second Part we have this pathetical Exclamation Alas Lord How long shall Christs enemies the Bishops be Pastors of his Flocks and the seed of the Serpent be the great Instrument that must break the Serpents head and the lovers of sin be they that must be the suppressers of it and those employed to teach in Knowledge who themselves will not know and to preach up Holiness that will not endure it And p. 124. The truth is that is an excellent person to us who is an odious and contemptible person to the Prelates If he will make the People believe that Presbyterians are Rebels and Disciplinarians are seditious brain-sick fellows living in Hypocrisie And that praying without Book and much preaching is Fanaticism and that none are worthy to Preach the Gospel who will not swear to be true to the Prelatical interest That Drunkenness in a conformable Man is a tolerable infirmity and that their ignorantest Nonsence is fitter to save Souls and edifie the Church than the Labours of the Holy and Learned Non-conformists That Calvin was a Rogue as Salmasius said of the Learned Dr. Hammond That Cartwright and Amesius were discontented factious Schismaticks unworthy to preach or be endured this is a Son of the Church and an excellent Person P. 213. of the second Part Confect 3. He says That to Swear Subscribe c. That though Millions should swear to endeavour a Reformation of Episcopacy in their Places and Callings by lawful means which is his addition there is no obligation lieth on any one of them so to endeavour it the Lord have mercy on that Land City or Soul that is guilty of
only only way to a certain and perpetual Peace and Happiness He commends Richard Cromwel as one that inherited his Father's Vertue one that piously prudently and faithfully to his immortal Honour exercised the Government perswades all men to live in obedience to him and stiles himself in the Epistle to his Five Disputations desiring his favourable acceptance of the tendered Service of a faithful Subject to his Highness as an Officer of the Vniversal King R.B. Doth not this Man affirm notwithstanding all the Confusion that had covered the Land all the Blood that had been shed and all the Heresies and Blasphemies that had poisoned millions of Souls that he is one that rejoyceth in the present happiness of England and honoureth all the Providences of God by which we have been brought to what we are Epistle Dedic to Richard before his Key for Catholiks and in his Holy Commonwealth p. 487. Nor can I be so unthankful as to say for all the sins and miscarriages of Men since that we have not received much mercy from the Lord. And therefore he sets up his Stone of Remembrance with this Inscription in great Letters HITHERTO HATH THE LORD HELPED VS Is it possible that a Man who hath said and done such barbarous unnatural Deeds and stirred up many Thousands to do and say the same things with him should still deceive the meanest Christians Is it possible he should still persist in the same and yet retain the opinion of a Saint and be reputed the chiefest Guide of a Godly People Yet thus it is He is consulted as the Oracle of the Non-conformists All of them as a late Encomiast says do light their Fires at his Torch And he hath the forehead with the strange Woman to wipe his mouth and say What have I done You may guess by what he says I must profess that if I had taken up Arms in that War against the Parliament he says it p. 488. of Holy Commonwealth my Conscience tells me I had been a Traytor and guilty of resisting the Higher Powers And in his Key for Catholicks where the Legislative Power and highest Judicial Power is divided by Constitution of the Government between the Prince and Senate as he determines the English Monarchy to be he says modestly there many will think but he elsewhere delivers it as his own Sentiment That the Prince invading the Senates Right may justly be resisted and lose his Right p. 324. Yet this Man says Further than I was for the King I never was one year with the stronger side As if he had been always Loyal And p. 489. of Commonw If any of them i.e. his Accusers can prove that I was guilty of hurt to the Person or destruction to the Power of the King or of changing the Fundamental Constitution of the Commonwealth not the Kingdom taking down the House of Lords without consent of all three Estates that had a part in the Soveraignty I will never gain-say them if they call me a most perfidious Rebel and tell me that I am guilty of far greater sin than Murder Whoredom or Drunkenness And Anno 1680. he is not ashamed to say in his Preface to the second part of the Nonconformists Plea In all the times of Vsurpation and since I said and wrote that the King's Person is inviolable and to be judged by none either Peer or Parliament And the Book accused i.e. the Holy Commonw goeth on these Principles So that notwithstanding his pretence of recanting what was there said he still seems to justifie those Theses and adds The Book accused hath not a word meet to tempt a Man in his wits to such accusation Yet he says Thes 352. Though a Nation wrong their King and so quoad meritum Causae they are on the worser side yet may he not lawfully war against the Common Good i.e. the rebellious Party or on that account nor any help him in that War And Thes 374. If a Prince that hath not the whole Soveraignty which he says of our King be conquered by the Senate that hath the other part and that in a just defensive War as he thought the late War to be the Senate cannot assume the whole Soveraignty but supposeth that Government in specie to remain and therefore another King must be chosen This was pleasing Doctrine in the Protector 's time And Thes 137. If Providence i.e. Success in Rebellion statedly disable him that was the Soveraign from executing of Laws protecting the Just and other ends of Government it maketh him an uncapable Subject of the Power and so deposeth him And being so made uncapable of Government by Thes 146. Though he were unjustly dispossest it is not the duty of his Subjects to seek his Restitution The Reader hath heard of a famous Roman Saint called Ignatius who if compared with others of that Church we may say of him as one doth of Mr. Baxter That he exceeds them as much as a Flint doth a Freestone because out of him so many Fires have and may be kindled If such an Historian as Plutarch were now living how easily might he run a Parallel between these two Generals Both were famous tam Marte quam Mercurio but whether of them was the greater Souldier or the better Saint might occasion some dispute the reading whereof would not be altogether so sad as the restless endeavours of the Disciples of them both who however they seem to differ in other things joyn all their hands to pull down our Church Impiety being grown to such an height I should think it a thing impossible that it should proceed any farther the wickedness and shame of it being notwithstanding any pretence manifested to all Men and that upon the joyful tidings of his Majesty's most happy return in peace by a most miraculous and admirable Providence the Authours of such Opinions and Practices should seek where to hide their heads But we are told that Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft which seldom admits repentance and though they have power to do hurt yet they have none to do good Hence it is that this confident Man appears still with open face and pursues the same ungodly ends I know not how it came to pass but this same Man was admitted to preach a Fast Sermon to the House of Commons when they were consulting of inviting home the King to his Father's Throne and with great boasting he tells us often That the King was called home the next day after that Sermon of his as if it had not been done if he had not preached whereas it is very observable that in all the Sermon there was not one word that might be interpreted to promote that noble Design but many things that were intended to hinder it or clog it with very dishonourable terms He intimates the Supream Power to be still in the two Houses He tells us indeed that Rom. 13. is part of the Rule of his Religion and adds but unhappily there hath been