as their Leaders with their united Force beset him and railed lowdly against him yet durst not Attack him but evaded his weighty Arguments And Mr. Sylvester in his Preface tells us That the present Archbishop the Bishops of Worcester and Ely their greatest Antagonists were expresly mentioned by Mr. Baxter 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 Yet such is the Hypocrisie of these Men that they will openly Scandalize and Defame such Persons for the Edification of their Party whom they inwardly approve of and admire for their Personal Vertues and constant Endeavours to serve the Publick Interest of Church and State And though I despair of meriting their good Opinion by what I have done yet I have learnt to care less for their Calumnies and Reproaches which though plentifully and with great vehemence thrown out will not stick And now my Lord begging your pardon for this tedious Address and too confident Interruption of your more important Affairs I bless the good Providence of Almighty God who under Christ the Great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls hath placed me under the Tuition and Patronage of a Person of such Primitive Courage and undaunted Resolution as hath constantly and successfully stem'd that Spring-Tide of Popery and Socianism which was violently overflowing of us and I trust will as effectually withstand those raging Waves of Fanaticism which so impetuously assault the Ark of God on every side that we being delivered from the Hand of all our Enemies may serve God with one Consent in Righteousness and Holiness all the Days of our Life is the earnest Prayer of Your Lordships Dutiful and Devoted Servant Tho. Long. Exon Jan. 1. 1696. THE Introduction I Think it reasonable to give the Reader an Account how I became obliged to ingage in this troublesome Adventure and for his Satisfaction and my own Justification I shall declare the first occasion of my Contest with Mr. Baxter It is generally known how many Books Mr. Baxter hath written to justifie that Separation which he and others of his Perswasion had printed some of which he called elaborate and unconfutable and as another Goliah despised all the Hosts of Israel whoever appeared against him was presently born down with such a Flood of Gaul and bitter Language whereof he had an inexhaustible store that it was enough to affright any considerate Man from approaching near him he was resolved to have the last word to every Opposer and his word was as Law and Gospel to all his Party These Considerations occasioned me to think of dealing with Mr. Baxter in some other Method and having read something and heard more of his ingaging in our late War in which he continued well-nigh from the beginning to the end about 71 years and had been present at most of the great Fights and Sieges in that war as you will find hereafter from his own relation I resolved to be at some pains to trace his progress throughout the War and because I wanted opportunity to enquire it from others and partly because I might neither be truly or fully informed either from some of the Party with whom he was or the Party against whom he was ingaged I thought it much more safe and unquestionable to relate such of his Actions and his Principles and Reasons on which he acted as I could glean up from his own undoubted Writings which being done though I now perceive I were in the dark as to many other considerable Passages recorded by himself in his Life at large I caused my Collections to be printed in the Year 1682. while Mr. Baxter was living upon which he Reflects as followeth Mr. Long of Exeter if Fame misreport not the anonimous Author wrote so fierce a Book to prove me out of my own Writings to be one of the worst Men living on Earth full of Falshoods and râ—…fred Lines and half Sentences that I never saw the like of it and being overwhelmed with work and weakness and pains and having least zeal to defend a Person so bad as I know my self to be I yet never answered him it being none of the matter in Controversie whether I be good or bad God be merciful to me a sinner P. 188. of his Life Answ I will not gainsay his Conjecture of the Author of the Book in question which was intituled The second Part of the unreasonableness of Separation which was printed 1682. The Book could not seem to be so fierce being an account of his own Relations concerning his Actions and Writings which if they represent him to be one of the worst Men living upon Earth I could not help that Mr. Baxter himself in his History of Bishops pleads for his justification That he made use of their own words In the Preface to that Book he says in a Parenthesis That the Book was full of Falshoods retracted Lines and half Sentences but that he never answer'd it which is very strange seeing he lived above 9 years after he had perused the Book in which interval he wrote several large Treatises which less concerned him than that wherein he says he was so much mis-represented And in all probability if the Book which he reflects on had been so full of Falshoods retracted Lines and half Sentences he might during that interval have found leisure enough to have given some Instances of what he pretended against with his Plea of being overwhelmed with work weakness and pains appears to be but a vain Excuse for he had zeal enough to defend himself against several others that charged him with much lesser Miscarriages And it was very considerable to the Matter in Controversie whether the Person so fiercely accused were good or bad whether he were an honest and peaceable Man one wholly devoted to serve a private interest against the publick welfare Mr. Baxter thought this a Reason why so many adhered to the Parliament That though the King had the Cause the Parliament had the better Men Mr. Baxter's Life p. 37. For my part I should have been extreamly confounded if either Mr. Baxter whilst he was living or any one since his death could have discovered an hundredth part of that Fierceness Falshood or imperfect Sentences in my Book which Dr. Maurice hath observed in Mr. Baxter's Church History of Bishops wherein he strikes at Christianity it self by the Reproaches which he casts on the Primitive Bishops calling them A few turbulent Spirits p. 46. silencing and destroying Prelates p. 73. proud contentious ambitious and hereticating Bishops p. 77. firebrands of the world p. 98. merciless furious and confounders of Churches p. 183. Nor doth he deal more mercifully with our Diocesan Bishops whom he calls Silencing damning Prelates Bryars and Thorns and Military Instruments of the Devil Though in a good mood he saith That none of the Bishops had silenced them unless by voting as Peers in the House of Lords for the
A REVIEW OF Mr. Richard Baxter's LIFE WHEREIN Many Mistakes are Rectified some False Relations Detected some Omissions supplyed out of his other BOOKS WITH REMARKS on several Material Passages By THOMAS LONG B.D. One of the Prebendaries of St. Peter's Exon. I have been in the heat of my Zeal so forward to Changes and Ways of Blood that I fear God will not let me have a hand in the peaceable building of his Church Mr. Baxter's Letter to Dr. Hill LONDON Printed by F.C. and are to be sold by E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1697. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND Father in GOD JONATHAN Lord Bishop of Exeter May it please your Lordship I Am very sensible how Criminal it is for any Christian to do what the very Heathen have forbid to speak any thing of the Dead but what is well and yet there are so many ill things recorded of Mr. Baxter in the following Treatise that I might justly incur your Lordships displeasure if I could not plead very necessary and satisfactory Reasons for this Undertaking First therefore I plead that I have said little or nothing in what is now published but what Mr. Baxter reported of himself as Matters of Fact in the History of his Life and other Books printed in his Life time or what is fairly inferred from the same 2. That the Substance of what is now published was printed about nine years before his Death which it is evident he had perused and acknowledgeth he had given no Answer to it except a Mentiris which was his usual Reply to other Adversaries for want of Reason and Argument 3. I say that though dead he hath first provoked me for in p. 188. part 3. of his Life he saith Long of Exeter wrote so fierce a Book to prove me out of my own Writings to be one of the worst Men living on Earth full of Falshoods and old retracted Lines and half Sentences that I never saw any like it and yet though so much concerned and surviving about Nine years he hath not discovered that fulness of Falshoods c. which he suggested but tells his Readers that it is none of the Matter in Controversie whether he be good or bad whereas it is certain that a good Man would never ingage in so bad a Cause as he hath defended by his Personal Actions as well as in many Writings and he himself tells us That a true Description of Persons is much of the Life of History p. 136. of his Life And an evil Tree cannot bring forth good Fruit. 4. I plead not my own Cause but the Cause of the Church and National Constitutions and in truth of all Degrees of Persons in the Nation for this Historical Relation of his own Life contains a virulent invective and grinning Satyr against all that live in conformity to the Ecclesiastical or Civil Laws the King is represented as a Papist and Authorizer of the Irish Insurrection the Parliament is Tyrannical making such Laws as proved Taring Engines and such as no Man fearing God could submit to the established Order of Episcopacy as Antichristian the Clergy as perjured and persecuting Persons the Nobility and Gentry as strengthners of Iniquity in the Land And do not such Scandals demand a Reply 5. It is necessary to disperse those Clouds and Umbrages with which he would cover his mischievous Designs his Pleas for Peace first second and third and his Only way of Concord being nothing else but Seeds of Discord and Confusion and necessary it was that such ill things should have good Names given them those that would propagate Schisms and Heresies need a Form of Godliness to set them off Arius Aerius and Donatus were Men of good Learning and as to appearance of good Lives also yet the one most strangely propagated that damnable Error of denying the Lord that bought him and the other those Schisms which have divided the Body of Christ his Church to this present Age 'T is but an Artifice therefore of all Seducers of which the Apostle forewarns us 2 Tim. 3.2,3 That in the last days men should be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than of God and all this under a Form of Godliness and when even Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light it is no marvel if his Ministers be transformed as the Ministers of Righteousness 6. I remember that our Excellent Bishop of Worcester prudently foretold of Mr. Baxter That he would dye leaving his sting in the wounds of the Church which Mr. Baxter hath abundantly fulfilled in this and many other of his Writings which Stings must be pluckt out or the Wounds which they have made will be still kept open and bleeding for though Mr. Baxter be dead he hath done what he could to raise up and arm a Succession of such a Generation of Dissenters as shall still eat into the Bowels of the Church and he hath provided a Magazine of Ammunition for them Mr. Sylvester tells us How much he was delighted in a hopeful Race of young Ministers and Christians how much he valued young Divines and hopeful Candidates for the Ministry how liberal he was of Counsel and Encouragement to them and inquisitive after and pleased with their growthful Numbers and Improvement And he told me that he had the greatest hopes and expectations from the succeeding Generation of them that they would do God's Work much better than we had done before them To which end he acquaints us in the beginning of his Preface That Mr. Baxter left the orderly disposal of his bequeathed Library to young poor Students So that here is a Fund provided for a perpetual Schism And Mr. Sylvester hath discovered a hidden Treasure of Mr. Baxter's which he is improving as a Supply of Deficiencies in another Volume Having shewn your Lordship the Reasons of my Undertaking I shall briefly give you an Account of what I have performed to frustrate these pernicious Attempts Your Lordship knows I have served as a Veterane Souldier in these Parts of the Church Militant about Fifty years and might now sue for a Dismission being somewhat elder than Mr. Baxter was when he left writing which was as Mr. Sylvester says Seven years before his death when he was as I compute it Sixty nine years old and I am now entred into the Seventy sixth year yet to excite and encourage men of greater Abilities I have as I were able performed these two things First Whereas a great part of this and other Writings of Mr. Baxter as also of his whole Life hath been spent in framing Objections against and Defamations of our well-establish'd Discipline and Liturgy which he blameth as too confused for want of Method and for its Matter abstracted from the Penal Laws as abounding with Thirty or Forty such tremendous things as a man
be able to digest them shew that he wanted neither Logick nor any part of Learning becoming an excellent Divine though he never pretended to be a Magician or to work such wonders as Mr. Baxter and his Disciples at Kidderminster are reported to have done p. 80 81 c. Of Mr. Baxter 's Life Bishop Hichman was of the most Grave Comely Reverend Aspect of any of them and of a good insight in the Fathers and Councils he spake calmly and slowly but was as high in his Principles and Resolutions as any He was a Person of a Sedate and Christian Temper contrary to the passionate and furious transports of Mr. Baxter a Person of serious deliberation and constant resolution as fit for a Privy Councellor as any of his Order and this which was his singular Vertue Mr. Baxter represents as his Crime Bishop Sanderson of Lincoln seldom spake but his great Learning and Worth are known by his Labours and his aged Peevishness not unknown Mr. Baxter more than once noted this Bishop for a Partial and Peevish Old Man but his profound Judgment and Mature Determination of such Subjects as he considered such as his Tracts De Juramento De Conscientia his Volume of Sermons and his occasional Cases of Conscience are not to be paralel'd by any Ancient or Modern Writer Nor was he mistaken when he told the Bishop of Chester as Mr. Isaak Walton affirms that there was at the Savoy Meeting one that appeared so bold troublesome and illogical as forced this meek Bishop to say with unusual earnestness That he never met a Man of more confidence and less abilities in all his Conversation Dr. Sterne lookt so honestly and gravely and soberly that I scarce thought such a face could deceive me but when I talkt of many Dissenters in the Nation he turn'd to the other Bishops and said He will not say in the Kingdom least he own a King This is that Person that is supposed to be the Authour of that excellent Book The whole Duty of Man and some other Works collected into a Volume in Folio nor did he fail in his Conjecture that Mr. Baxter was unwilling to own a King Mr. Thorndike spake a few impertinent passionate words Such as galled Mr. Baxter but whatever his Presence seemed to Mr. Baxter his Words and Writings are weighty and full of useful Knowledge and Learning Dr. Sparrow spake but a little yet with a Spirit enough for the imposing dividing Cause That is he was constant to his Principles a Vertue wanting in Mr. Baxter Dr. Walton Bp. of Chester askt me Whether I did not say that if our Churches had no more than bare Liberty as others had without the compulsion of the Sword that none but Drunkards would joyn in them I answered I only said that as they had been ordered if they had but equal liberty for Volunteers they would be like Ale-houses where many honest men may come but the number of worse comers is so great as maketh it dishonourable This Man set forth the Polyglot Bible which for its worth exceeded the Bibles set forth by the Kings of Spain or France And what he charged on Mr. Baxter he himself proves to be true in declaring the Conformists to be guilty of Schism and Perjury which he says are worse than Drunkards Dr. Pierson and Dr. Gunning did all their work Dr. Pierson was their true Logician and Disputant without whom as far as I could discern we should have had nothing from them He disputed accurately soberly and calmly being but once in a passion He was the strength and honour of that Cause which we doubted whether he heartily maintained i.e. They thought him to be an Hypocrite or Presbyterian but his Vindication of Ignatius hath struck Mr. Baxter's and others Discourses against Episcopacy to the very heart so as noon need to strike again And his Treatise on the Creed hath done the like to the Cause of the Atheists and Socinians But the reason why he speaks so well of this Doctor was to raise his own Trophies in his conceited Victory over him Dr. Gunning was the forwardest and greatest Speaker understanding well what belonged to a Disputant a Man of greater study and industry than any of them well read in Fathers and Councils and of a ready Tongue and I hear and believe of a very temperate Life as to all Carnal Excesses but so vehement for his high imposing Principles and so over-zealous for Arminianism and Formality and Church Pomp and so very eager in his Discourse that I conceived his Prejudice and Passion much perverted his Judgment and I am sure they made him lamentably over-run himself in his Discourses The University of Cambridge where he long and deservingly possessed and adorned the Chair give him a better Character viz. for an accurate Disputant and excellent Divine as well as for a Person who had a great power over his Passions and Appetite but all these things made against him for when some Persons of note interceded for him with the Committee that cast him out of his Chair their Plea of his Learning and Holy Living was silenced by one of the Committee who said He was the more like to do hurt On our part saith Mr. Baxter Dr. Bates spake very solidly judiciously and pertinently when he spake And for my self I thought the day and Cause commanded me these two things which were objected as my Crimes viz. speaking too boldly and too long I shall only refer the Reader to p. 90. of the third part of his Life where to p. 98. he gives transcendent Encomiums to his Non-conformist Brethren every one almost hath some extraordinary Praises for Learning and Godliness But wherever he speaks of the Conforming Clergy he bestows some of these black Characters on them That they are proud worldly covetous domineering malignant lazy the Plague of the World Troublers of Princes Dividers of Churches that will being Hypocrites as to Christianity and Godliness like Judas that loved the Bag better than Christ make themselves a Religion consisting of meer Corps and the dead Image of true Religion See his Prognostication dated he says when by the King's Commission we in vain treated for Concord 1661. p. 12 13. of his Prognostication with such Prejudice it seems he came to that Conference which waxed so gross that he quite lost his Faculty of discerning Light from Darkness or good from Evil. So that though he was constrained to acknowledge the great Learning of the Bishops with whom he contended yet he thought it sufficient to blacken them all to say that they were for Conformity i.e. in his sense for Persecution and Perjury How unfit Mr. Baxter was to commit to History either the Relation of our late War against the King or of this Debate or of the Primitive or Modern Bisops appears by those Qualifications which he himself requires to the credibility of an Historian as in his Preface to his Church History of Bishops c. viz. That