those things now which many did at the rising of the Sect and if I could I would believe they never did them 2. This Book of Mr. Danvers with the rest of the same kind increase my hatred of the Disputing Contentious way of writing and my trouble that the Cause of the Church and Truth hath so oft put on me a necessity to write in a Disputing way against the Writings of so many Assailants 3. It increaseth my Grief for the Case of Mankind yea of well-meaning godly Christians who are unable to judg of many Controversies agitated otherwise than by some Glimpses of poor Probability and the esteem which they have of the Persons which do manage them and indeed take their Opinions upon trust from those whom they most reverence and value and yet can so hardly know whom to follow whilst the grossest Mistakes are set off with as great confidence and holy pretence as the greatest Truths O how much should Christians be pitied that must go through so great Temptations 4. It increaseth my Resolution had I longer to live to converse with Men that I would profit or profit by either as a Learner hearing what they have to say without importunate Contradiction or as a Teacher if they desire to Learn of me A School way may do something to increase Knowledg but drenching Men and striving with them doth but set them on a fiercer striving against the Truth And when they that have need of seven and seven years Schooling more under some clear well studied Teacher are made Teachers themselves and then turned loose into the World as Sampsons Foxes to militate for and with their Ignorance what must the Church suffer by such Contenders 5. It increaseth my dislike of that Sectarian dividing hurtful Zeal which is described James 3. and abateth my wonder at the rage of Persecutors For I see that the same Spirit maketh the same kind of Men even when they most cry out against Persecutors and separate furthest from them 6. It resolveth me more to enquire less after the Answers to Mens Books than I have done And I shall hereafter think never the worse of a Mans writings for hearing that they are answered For I see it is not only easie for a Talking Man to talk on and to say something for or against any thing but it is hard for them to do otherwise even to hold their Tongues or Pens or Peace And when I change this Mind I must give the greatest belief to Women that will talk most or to them that live longest and so are like to have the last word or to them that can train up militant Heirs and Successors to defend them when they are dead and so propagate the Contention If a sober Consideration of the first and second writing yea of positive Principles will not inform me I shall have little hope to be much the wiser for all the rest 7. I am fully satisfied that even good 〈◊〉 are here so far from Perfection that they must bear with odious faults and injuries in one another and be habituated to a ready and easie forbearing and forgiving one another I will not so much as describe or denominate Mr. Danvers Citations of Dr. Pierce to prove my Popery and Crimes nor his passages about the Wars and about my Changes Self-contradictions and Repentances lest I do that which savoureth not of Forgiveness O what need have we all of Divine Forgiveness 8. I shall yet less believe what any Mans Opinion yea or Practice is by his Adversaries Sayings Collections Citations or most vehement Asseverations than ever I have done though the Reporters pretend to never so much Truth and pious Zeal 9. I shall less trust a confounding ignorant Reader or Writer that hath not an accurate defining and distinguishing Understanding and hath not a mature exercised discerning Knowledg than ever I have done and especially if he be engaged in a Sect which alas how few parts of the Christian World escape For I here and in many others see that you have no way to seem Orthodox with such but to run quite into the contrary Extream And if I write against both Extreams I am taken by such Men as this but to be for both and against both and to contradict my self When I write against the Persecutors I am one of the Sectaries and when I write against the Sectaries I am of the Persecutors side If I belie not the Prelatists I am a Conformist If I belie not the Anabaptists Independants c. I am one of them If I belie not the â—â—pists I am a Papist if I belie not the Arminians I am an Arminian if I belie not the Calvinists I am with Pseudo-Tilenus and his Brother purus putus Puritanus and one Qui totum Puritanismum totus spirat which Joseph Allen too kindly interpreteth If I be for lawful Episcopacy and lawful Liturgies and Circumstances of Worship I am a temporizing Conformist If I be for no more I am an intollerable Non-Conformist at this time forced to part with House and Goods and Library and all save my Clothes and to possess nothing and yet my Death by six months Imprisonment in the Common Goal is sought after and continually expected If I be as very a Fool and as little understand my self and as much contradict my self as all these Confounders and Men of Violence would have the World believe it is much to my cost being hated by them all while I seek but for the common peace 10. But I have also further learned hence to take up my content in Gods Approbation and having done my duty and pitying their own and the Peoples snares to make but small account of all the Reproaches of all sorts of Sectaries what they will say against me living or dead I leave to themselves and God and shall not to please a Censorious Sect or any Men whatever be false to my Conscience and the Truth If the Cause I defend be not of God I desire it may fall If it be I leave it to God how far He will prosper it and what Men shall think or say of me And I will pray for Peace to him that will not hate and revile me for so doing Farewell Septemb. 4. 1675. FINIS 1 Not by imputing Faith it self part of Believing or any other Evangelical Obedience to them as their Righteousness 2 For their sole Righteousness Mark Virtually Not absolutely Mark by a Trope Mark how far
think I know better what they teach than his Book will truly tell me § 9. But he addeth Humane Justifying Works are in reality adverse to the free Mercy of God therefore to be accounted of no value to Righteousness Answ 1. But whose phrase is Justifying Works 2. Doth not the Holy Ghost say That a Man is justified by Works and not by Faith only Jam. 2. 3. Doth not Christ say By thy words thou shalt be justified 4. Do not I over and over tell the World That I hold Justification by Works in no sense but as signifying the same as According to Works which you own And so both Name and Thing are confessed by you to be Scriptural 5. I have before desired the Reader to turn to the words Righteous Righteousness Justification c. in his Concordance And if there he find Righteousness mentioned as consisting in some Acts of Man many hundred times let him next say if he dare that they are to be had in no price to Righteousness Or let him read the Texts cited by me in my Confession of Faith 6. Because Faith Repentance Love Obedience are that whose sincerity is to be judged in order to our Life or Death ere long I will not say that they are to be vilified as to such a Righteousness or Justification as consisteth in our vindication from the charge of Impenitency Infidelity Unholiness Hypocrisie c. The reading of Mat. 25. resolved me for this Opinion § 10. Next he noteth our detesting such Works as are against or instead of Christ's Sacrifice Righteousness Merits c. To this we have the old Cant The Papists say the like Reader I proved that the generality of Protestants are agreed in all those twenty Particulars even in all the material Doctrines about Man's Works and Justification while this warlike Doctor would set us all together by the ears still he is over-ruled to assert that the Papists also are agreed with us The more the better I am glad if it be so and will here end with so welcome a Conclusion that maketh us all herein to be Friends only adding That when he saith that such are all Works whatever even Faith it self which are called into the very least part of Justification even as a Condition or subordinate personal Evangelical Righteousness such as Christ and James and a hundred Texts of Scripture assert I answer I cannot believe him till I cease believing the Scriptures to be true which I hope will never be And am sorry that so worthy a Man can believe so gross an Opinion upon no better reasons than he giveth And yet imagine that had I the opportunity of free conference with him I could force him to manifest That he himself differeth from us but in meer words or second Notions while he hotly proclaimeth greater discord AN ANSVVER TO Dr. TULLIES Angry Letter By Rich. Baxter LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons and Jonath Robinson at the Princes-Arms and Golden-Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard 1675. An Answer to Dr. Tullies Angry Letter Reverend Sir If I had not before perceived and lamented the great Sin of Contenders the dangerous snare for ignorant Christians and the great Calamity of the Church by making Verbal Differences seem Material and variety of some Arbitrary Logical Notions to seem tantum non a variety of Religions and by frightning Men out of their Charity Peace and Communion by Bugbear-Names of this or that Heresie or dangerous Opinion which is indeed but a Spectrum or Fantasm of a dreaming or melancholy Brain your Justificatio Paulina and your Letter to me might be sufficient means of my full Conviction And if once reading of your Writings do not yet more increase my love of the Christian simplicity and plain old Divinity and the amicable Communion of practical Christians upon those terms and not medling with Controversies in a militant way till by â—ong impartial studies they are well understood I must confess my non-proficience is very unexcusable With your self I have no great business I am not so vain as to think my self able to understand you or to be understood by you and I must not be so bold as to tell you why much less will I be so injurious to the Reader as by a particular examining all your words to extort a confession that their sense is less or worse than I could wish For cui bono What would this do but more offend you And idle words are as great a fault in writing as in talk If I have been guilty of too many I must not so much add to my fault as a too particular examination of such Books would be But for the sake of your Academical Youth whom you thought meet to allarm by your Caution I have answered so much of your Treatise as I thought necessary to help even Novices to answer the rest themselves For their sakes though I delight not to offend you I must say That if they would not be deceived by such Books as yours it is not an Answer to them that must be their preservative but an orderly studying of the Doctrines handled Let them but learn truly the several senses of the word Justificaâ—ion and the several sorts and what they are and still constrain ambiguous words to confess their sense and they will need no other Answer to such Writings And as to your Letter passing by the spume and passion I think these few Animadversions may suffice § 1. Between twenty and thirty years ago I did in a private Disputation prove our guilt of the sins of our nearer Parents and because many doubted of it I have oft since in other writings mentioned it About three years ago having two Books of Mr. William Allens in my hand to peruse in order to a Publication a Perswasive to Vnity and a Treatise of the Two Covenants in a Preface to the latter I said That most Writers if not most Christians do greatly darken the Sacred Doctrine by overlooking the Interest of Children in the Actions of their nearer Parents and think that they participate of no guilt and suffer for no original sin but Adam ' s only c. You fastened on this and warned seriously the Juniors not rashly to believe one that brings forth such Paradoxes of his or that Theologie which you added to your O caecos ante Theologos quicunque unquam fuistis The charge was expressed by aliud invenisse peccatum Originale multo citerius quam quod ab Adamo traductum est Hereupon I thought it enough to publish that old private Disputation which many before had seen with various Censures Now you send me in your Letter the strange tidings of the success You that deterred your Juniors by so frighful a warning seem now not only to agree with me that we are guilty of our nearer Parents sin and contract additional pravity from them as such which was my Assertion but over-do all others and Truth it self in your Agreement Now you take it for
so to p. 80. l. 17. r. if you will sontes p. 91. l. 20. dele the. p. 94. l. 2. for but r. as l. 11. dele and. p. 102. l. 1. r. per. p. 104. l. antipen r. Albericus p. 135. l. 20. r. praeditus l. 23. r. aliquem p. 112. l. 28. r. relatione p. 116. l. 21. r. fulfillers p. 120. l. 11. r. Vasquez p. 150. l. 26. r. indebitae p. 167. l. 29. for if r. is p. 184. l. penult for as r. and. In a Cursory view of some Pages I since see these faults PReface Page 8. Line 22. for and r. as Book 1. P. 172. l. 1. r. is it true Answer to the Letter P. 93. l. ult for Conformists r. Nonconformists Book 2. Part 3. P. 16. l. 20. for tum r. tu P. 54. l. 14. for apt r. yet l. 28. for produceth r. proceedeth P. 56. l. 13. for still r. not P. 65. l. 13. for Guilt r. Gift Book 2. Part 1. P. 259. l. 8. r. Causas P. 268. l. 4. for first r. full P. 269. l. 28 fore Jure r. iu re And I must tell the Reader that it is so long since the Papers to Mr. Cartwright were written that if there be any passage which in my later Writings I correct I must desire him to take the latter as my Judgment For I am none of those that pretend my Youthful Writings to be sufficiently Accurate much less Faultless or that to avoid the Imputation of Mutability profess to be no wiser than I was between twenty and thirty Years ago I find somewhat Book 2. Part 3. P. 51 52. which needeth this Explication viz. God as Judg of lapsed Man when He was judging him added an Act of Grace which in several respects is 1. A Promise 2. A Deed of Gift 3. An Act of Oblivion or universal conditional Pardon 4. A Law 5. And as it hath respect to Christs absolutely promised and foreseen Merits it may be said to be like or Equivolent to an universal conditional Sentence But taking the word Sentence strictly as it is a Sentence of the Individuals according to the Rule of a Law as kept or broken so it is not properly a Sentence as to us as is after proved A POSTSCRIPT ABOUT Mr. DANVERS ' s Last BOOK WHen this Book was coming out of the Press I received another Book of Mr. Danvers against Infants Baptism in which he mentioneth Dr. Tullies proving what a Papist I am in his Justif Paul with Dr. Pierces former Charges and lamenting that no more yet but one Dr. Tully hath come forth to Encounter me Epist and Pag. 224. The perusal of that Book with Mr. Tombs short Reflections directeth me to say but this instead of any further Confutation That it is as the former so full of false Allegations set off with the greatest Audacity even a few Lines of my own about our meeting at Saint James's left with the Clerk grosly falsified and former falsifications partly justified and partly past over and his most passionate Charges grounded upon Mistakes and managed by Misreports sometime of Words sometime of the Sense and sometime of Matters of Fact in short it is such a bundle of Mistake Fierceness and Confidence that I take it for too useless and unpleasant a Work to give the World a particular Detection of these Evils If I had so little to do with my Time as to write it I suppose that few would find leisure to read it And I desire no more of the willing Reader then seriously to peruse my Book More Reasons for Infants Church-membership with his and to examine the Authors about whose Words or Sense we differ Or if any would be Informed at a cheaper rate he may read Mr. Barrets Fifty Queries in two sheets And if Mr. Tombes revile me for not transcribing or answering more of his Great Book when I tell the Reader that I suppose him to have the Book before him and am not bound to transcribe such a Volume already in Print and that I answer as much as I think needs an Answer leaving the rest as I found it to the Judgment of each Reader he may himself take this for a Reply but I must judg of it as it is I find but one thing in the Book that needeth any other Answer than to peruse what is already Writtâ—n And that is about Baptizing Naked My Book was written 1649. A little before common uncontrolled Fame was that not far from us in one place many of them were Baptized naked reproving the Cloathing way as Antiscriptural I never heard 〈◊〉 deny this Report I conversed with divers of 〈…〉 Church who denied it not As 〈…〉 denied it to me so I never read one that did 〈…〉 to my knowledg He now tells me Mr. Fisher Mr. Haggar and Mr. Tombes did Let any Man read Mr. Tombes Answer to me yea and that Passage by him now cited and see whether there be a word of denial Mr. Fisher or Haggar I never saw Their Books I had seen but never read two Leaves to my remembrance of Mr. Fishers though I numbered it with those that were written on that Subject as well I might I knew his Education and his Friends and I saw the Great Volume before he turned Quaker but I thought it enough to read Mr. Tombes and others that wrote before him but I read not him nor all Mr. Haggars If I had I had not taken them for competent Judges of a fact far from them and that three years after Could they say that no one ever did so The truth is that three years after mistaking my words as if I had affirmed it to be their ordinary practice as you may read in them which I never did nor thought they vehemently deny this And such heedless reading occasioneth many of Mr. Danvers Accusations I never said that no Man ever denied it for I have not read all that ever was written nor spoken with all the World But no Man ever denied it to me nor did I ever read any that denied it And in a matter of Fact if that Fame be not credible which is of things Late and Near and not Contradicted by any one of the most interessed Persons themselves no not by Mr. Tombes himself we must surcease humane Converse Yet do I not thence undertake that the same was true either of those Persons or such as other Writers beyond Sea have said it off I saw not any one Baptized by Mr. Tombes or any other in River or elsewhere by Dipping at Age If you do no such thing I am sorry that I believed it and will recant it Had I not seen a Quaker go naked through Worcester at the Assizes and read the Ranters Letters full of Oathes I could have proved neither of them And yet I know not where so long after to find my Witnesses I abhor Slanders and receiving ill Reports unwarrantably I well know that this is not their ordinary Practice The Quakers do not