Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bad_a	good_a	reason_n	1,431	5	5.5448	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65556	The Protestant peace-maker, or, A seasonable persuasive to all serious Christians who call themselves Protestants that laying aside calumnies, and all exasperating disputes, they would pursue charity, peace, and union, as the only means (now left us) of safety and reformation of the publick manners : with a postscript, or notes on Mr. Baxter's and some others late writings for peace / by Edward, Lord Bishop of Cork and Ross in Ireland.	Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713.	1682 (1682)	Wing W1513; ESTC R38252	74,674	136

Matter of fact be most Obligatory or of the Divinest and most Excellent nature in the World yet if the Affectation of Applause or of the popular Eye and Vogue interpose in its performance it unhallows the Action and deprives us of the Reward This our Lord teacheth as to Alms and Liberality Matth. VI. 2. As to Prayer and Devotion ver 5. As to Fasting and Humiliation ver 16. And by parity of reason 't is true of any other otherwise good works 2. That Liberties or things free be ever used without scandal By Scandal I mean with the Scripture generally the Drawing or Encouraging others to do what they are not in Conscience convinced they may do Which notion we shall do well to take notice of as well for the satisfying and confirming our Consciences against unreasonable scruples and fears as for the guiding our Practice For this being admitted to be the nature of Scandal it is not then every one which is capable of administring matter of Scandal by the use of his Liberty but only such Personages by whose examples others are apt to frame their lives Nor again is it every one that is apt to be scandalized or receive scandal but only the Weak People who understand not duly the rule of life or are not able to distinguish betwixt Duty Liberty and Sin But if it so come to pass that any of us being persons of reputed prudence and piety and so of authority and considerable remark in the world use such freedom in words or deeds before unskilful Judges of things that they clearly are drawn in or likely to be drawn in to do what they doubt lawful or believe unlawful be the matter of fact on our sides never so just or innocent and our hearts never so sincere therein yet we by becoming thus a stumbling-block to others are not only sinners against them but also against their Lord and ours Christ himself For 1 Cor. VIII 12. When ye sin against the Brethren and wound their weak Conscience ye sin against Christ Upon the whole then that any Action be good and warrantable we see it is necessary That the Matter be Right or Lawful That our Intention be truly Honest and both these points to us distinctly known to be so That lastly in our management such Integrity or Harmlesness of Circumstances do concur as that by or in none of them we violate any Law of God And particularly Duties must be performed without Ostentation Liberties used without Scandal And now to sum up our Evidence If good Intention change not the Nature of things but Impiety be impiety still injustice Injustice still and so as to all Acts of Uncharitableness Intemperance Impurity and whatsoever is of like nature none of them all are sanctified by a good intent however real not pretended If to constitute any Cause or Action there be diverse other Material points requisite besides the sincerity of our Intentions any one of which points failing the Cause or Action good according to the nature of the failure partakes of true and proper guilt and all these things are abundantly proved then is it evident that no mans good intention will warrant or justifie either his engaging or proceeding in a bad cause Nay if we will be just to our own Sense and Reason it is further ex abundanti and beyond what we in the beginning propounded conclusible from what has been evinced That good Intentions will not warrant mens ingaging and proceeding even in a good Cause it self under any undue Circumstances It remains now that I bring all home to bear upon the design I laid down in the beginning and that I press upon all sorts practice suitable to the Truths I have asserted I shall only have time for a double Exhortation 1. And the first of them shall be That we all of us again and again consider every Cause which tempts our espousal before we engage our selves or if already without due consideration engaged before we further proceed therein It is not enough that our Intentions in the General be good We have heard they may be generally good when they want maturity of praevious thought and consideration to make them distinctly such Besides there are other points of great moment to be looked after I will not be troublesome in recapitulations I will only put the Case in short to all our Consciences We are haply most of us zealous in our ways and for our own Party But have we to full resolution and satisfaction of Conscience weighed the present state and interest of the Common Christianity Have we stated the Causes upon which we mutually Separate Are they such which we judge in good earnest will bear us out And then do we withdraw from one another no farther nor affect or maintain any greater distance than these Causes will warrant Finally in the whole have we no by and sinister ends no design but sincerely of Conscience and such which we dare carry to and own before God's Tribunal Happy were it for the Christian World would our Divisions endure this Test or had Christian men generally considered or would yet consider these things as they ought But alas even in Religion it self the far greatest part walk at a meer peradventure At least they are carried along with that Current into which their Interest Condition or Genius happens to cast them And being once engaged Vestigia nulla retrorsum almost as few return from their respective Zealotry as from the Grave They rather rush on like the Horse into the Battle and the Similitude holds also farther than it were to be wisht they are rid too often even to their own destruction My Brethren if we have any of us been unhappy in rash and inconsiderate Divisions or in addicting our selves to any so divided Parties yet let us not perpetuate and as far as in us lies eternise our own and the Churches miseries If either our Reason or our Christianity or our own or the Common safety be significant to us Let us gird up the loins of our mind and be sober Let us recollect and summon together our considerative powers and endeavour to judge like Men and Christians Where we are and how we stand And if upon the whole all be clear and Conscience fully satisfied yet let us remember we owe somewhat to the World and the least that can be will be by all honest means to endeavour its quiet And verily he is unworthy of his own quiet at least will not long enjoy it who is not content a little to deny himself of his own fancies for others and the Publick satisfaction To bring this Exhortation a little nearer to our present Circumstances and Condition Let us remember we here are not Law-givers nor are therefore to consider what is our own will and pleasure what we would have Enacted nay not perhaps what is in our judgment fit to be injoyned but what actually is already injoyned and what it is lawful for us

of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men that walk in their Integrity as in the Text. The Promises in matter of Religion to which again I admonish my Discourse confines it self are usually 1. Of greater Purity 2. Of more Christian Liberty And though it be very true that the sober plain strict Christianity which we know consists in an holy heart and li●e possesses men really of the most of these so great promised goods yet is there not the wildest vilest Religion in the World the Professors whereof are not still cracking of these Golden Mountains wheresoever they have any hopes of Proselytes They will promise you liberty though at the same time themselves are the Servants of corruption 2 Pet. 2. 19. Their Mouth shall speak great swelling words of perfection perhaps and they shall separate themselves though all the while they are sensual not having the Spirit Jude v. 16 19. In all probability the language I use was meant of the old Gnosticks and impurer slaves of Villany cannot well be conceived than they were notwithstanding these so contrary Promises The Pretences commonly are of the greatest Zeal and Love for their Souls whom they would gain to themselves Thus the false Apostles in Galat. iv 17. They zealously affect you yea they would exclude us that you might affect them so with some good Copies I read those words Now Liberty is a tempting bait to all men and what more proper to draw in men of honest hearts than Sanctity and Purity Especially when all is set off with the greatest Love to mens better parts when 't is pleaded by those that would win them that it is the Persons thus to be brought in that will be the great gainers that themselves have no interest of their own at least none secular or of this World Such plausible Topicks as these can scarce fail of being effectual if we consider what was the second member desired to be reflected on some Infelicities naturally attending the temper of good and honest-hearted men As 1. Easiness Sweetness and Ductility They are not nor haply ever have been conscious to themselves of such Falseness as rules and actuates others therefore do they scarce imagine it incident unto Christian men they being the properties of Charity of which Grace such mens hearts are full to bear all things believe all things hope all things 1 Cor. 13. 7. and especially where yet nothing appears evident to the contrary to believe and hope the best these kind of men too readily swallow the bait For it is plain this their Christian temper renders them at once less Suspicious and more Credulous Nor is it to be denied 2. That in many men of very honest hearts there is more short-sightedness and want of judgment than is commonly found in persons of much worse Morals The uprightest men are not ever the profoundest It is not given to all to smell Consequences at a great distance Even in the beginning of Christianity when the Evidences of it were more fresh and the Power more miraculous Not many of the wise men after the flesh were called 1 Cor. 1. 27. And be sure Artis est celare artem in this case also the Persons who practise remove at first as far as may be out of reach not only the downright mischievous and wicked part of their design but whatever might give jealousie or suspicion thereof These poor men in the Text heard of a Vow but not a word of a Conspiracy To be brief 3. Inconsideration Half-consideration or perhaps Prejudicate consideration may betray men of very sincere Minds into very unwarrantable Causes and Practices The first and second of these namely Inconsideracy or Half-considering must needs be admitted in these men here following Absalom and the last of these viz. Prejudice and the force of it no mans Honesty forthwith exempts him from though by degrees it may work it out Education Custom Affection to their own Country-men and Laws fear of displeasing c. so clouded the Judgments at least swayed the Practice even of St. Peter and Barnabas that they went aside to some acts of Judaism Gal. 2. 11 12 13 14. They walked not uprightly but were to be blamed and even others were carried away with their dissimulation Upon the whole now supposing those who study to make or maintain Parties have the Art which few of them want to apply such Promises and Pretences as above-mentioned to honest men of sweet and Charitable tempers indeed but not of the deepest Judgments and besides a little inconsiderate naturally perhaps and by an unlucky Age or juncture of Circumstances prejudiced too it will move no reasonable persons wonder though it may do his pity that such men should be thus led aside I have now proved my first Observation sufficiently Application for my design and give me leave briefly to apply it thereto I therefore humbly and passionately Expostulate with persons of all sorts who will be just to their own Reason whether this Consideration That men of upright and sincere intention may be many times drawn in into a bad Cause or Party deserve so much their Indignation as Affections contrary namely Commiseration and Compassion Even the Laws L. Perspiciendum D. de Poenis themselves I mean the Civil Laws distinguish betwixt mens Crimes and their Misfortunes The Philosopher is yet more accurate and puts a difference betwixt Misfortunes Faults and Injuries Misfortunes saith he are such which are neither done with ill intent nor could be foreseen Faults which might have been foreseen but were done with no ill intent Injuries or downright vicious acts are such Rhetoric l. 1. c. 13. which are designed and done with evil intent When therefore we see men engaged in a Profession and way which to us seems gross let it suffice us at first to judge of the Cause they are in and that according to evidence and because all is not yet clear as to their Persons to suspend as to them any severe and merciless Sentence let us be content to think the men no more guilty than their circumstances which too may be to us much unknown do make them We understand not first what intentions they carry perhaps as honest as they are capable of Nor secondly what Temptations were upon them how far they have been practiced on Nor yet again what Natural or Morally unavoidable Infelicities they are or have been under For these and many other Reasons we are not we cannot be their Judges Especially we want Authority we have not yet our Commission the season is not yet come Judge nothing before the time 1 Cor. iv 5. Admit the Saints are to judge the World 't is only as Assessors of Christ Let us stay then till the Lord come and wait our time Things are not yet ripe nor come to light We may adjudge that to be mens Crime which is not so much as their fault if all could be duly opened Much more Iniquitous will it be

after such immature unwarrantable and hard Sentence past to pursue them whom we have thus censured with such irreconcileable heats and keeness which if all were true that we have too rashly judged would be more than perhaps even in such case Christianity would allow But admit there were some particular Persons of the Factions we dislike every whit as bad as their cause incorrigibly guilty and uncurable yet can we perswade our selves All are so 'T is a bad Religion indeed of which there are none good And perhaps amongst all those several Professions which lay a claim to the style of Christian there is none so bad in which some excellenc● is not to be sound If we survey all impartially and with Candour haply in each we may discover Peculiar Commendables In Nonconformists Fervour in Prayer Indefatigableness in Holy duties Care in instructing and governing their Families strict observation of the Lords day c. besides a great deal of Negative Sanctity at the least No Profaneness no common Swearing Cursing or the like In Quakers Plainess of habit general simplicity modesty and frugality of living Reverence of Oaths even to excess Faithfulness in their words and perhaps divers other good qualities which occur not to me now Even in the Papists themselves amongst the very Common People at some seasons what Mortification Fasting Abstinence Obedience to Superiours though blind And in a multitude of those of their Religious Orders what frequent what Zealous devotions what strictness perpetually what Self-denial Observance of Vows though those perhaps in many rash and highly insnaring and generally of things beyond what the Christian Law ever intended to enjoyn what strange abandoning of their own wills though too often to the conduct of those who are much worse than themselves But in these several sorts mentioned can any say All are Hypocritical in these Observances The Pharisees in our Lords time were a vile Sect insomuch that from them then Pharisaism is become a name for Pride Vain-glory Hypocrisie and many such qualities concurring in one cursed mixture But even amongst them in those very daies was there a Nicodemus a Zacheus a Joseph of Arimathea nay a Paul too and perhaps divers more whose Names the Holy Ghost did not think fit to honour in Sacred Records Let us not therefore with such unlimited Zeal which for want of Omnisciency must needs be sometimes without knowledge run against whole Parties but only against Crimes and Criminals Let us temper our Resolution with Christian pity Gentleness Charity and the consequents hereof hoping and believing the best Of some have compassion making a difference Jude vers 22. betwixt the Abused and the Abusers being readier to save as many as we can by pulling them out of the fire than to give any up for lost and call for Fire down from Heaven upon them As amongst the Gnosticks of old so amongst those of the vilest Professions amongst us there may be many who have not known the depths of Satan or at least who would be Revel 2. 24. glad fairly to be drawn out of them But I have too long I fear insisted on this general From moving Pity therefore unto others let us proceed to take Caution as to our selves For the second thing we observ'd upon the matter related in the Text was that Honest intentions will not justifie mens engaging or proceeding in an ill Cause They do undoubtedly before God in some considerable measure extenuate the guilt and 't is fit that before humane Justice when they really appear they should prevail for alleviating punishment But that which is in its own nature evil will be evil still though a man of upright heart was surprized or betray'd thereinto First If the Matter be more properly against God although the mans Intentions were right it will be an Act of Impiety and so though a sin of Ignorance yet a sin still No man will maintain Ignorance warrants an Act nay it does not fully excuse it He that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes was to be beaten though but with few stripes Luke xii 48. And it will be difficult to assign a good reason why that passage should not be interpreted of Invincible Ignorance though God knows the Ignorance of this Age and Nation must be imputed generally to Idleness Heedlessness Stubborness or Affectation And these are such Excuses and Pleas as no wise man would be fond of or can hope will mend his case In the Old Law The Soul which committed a Trespass and sinned even through Ignorance in the Holy things of the Lord was to bring his Trespass Offering to the Sanctuary And besides that to make amends also for the harm that he had done in the Holy thing and add the fifth part thereto and give it to the Priest Not till this was done was the Priest to make Attonement for him nor without Attonement thus made would it be forgiven him Levit. V. 15 16. Again If the matter more directly be against my Neighbour 't is truly and really Trespass or Hurt though I did not intend it as such nor is his damage the less because I designed it not And therefore also under the Law Restitution and Sacrifice was to be made in case of Trespasses of Ignorance against man as well as against God If a Soul swear pronouncing with his lips to do evil or to do good we must supply as is apparent by the scope of the Context in matters appertaining to his Neighbour whatsoever it is that the man shall pronounce with an Oath and it be hid from him when he knoweth it then shall he be guilty that is obliged to Sacrifice and Restitution for the Trespass of his Ignorance Levit. V. 4. That I say this Text is to be interpreted of Common matters betwixt man and man and not of the Holy or Devoted things is evident by its Antithesis to vers 15 16 above touched And further the parallel place Numb V. 6 7 8. which prescribes expresly the like amends with addition of the fifth part to the principal to be restored to him against whom the Trespass was done or in case of his being dead to his next Kinsman is an ample proof of the intent of the Law in this case Acts by which the Right and Property of God or our Neighbour is invaded or suffers are really in the judgment of the Law of God Trespasses though we did not intend a Trespass but were ignorant The same must I say Thirdly of sins against our own selves If I fall into a sin against my self and such perhaps by which I really scandal others that is Embolden or encourage them to do the like my Honest intention takes not off the Nature of Sin nor Reality of the Scandal We will instance in Drunkenness we cannot well deny that Charity to many of them who in the language of the World sometimes play the good Fellows but to think they do not ordinarily meet with

to obey As to those of us who have obeyed the Laws we desire only thus much charity from Dissenters which we will surely repay good measure pressed down shaken together and running over we desire I say only thus much charity that we may not all of us be thought to have acted blindfold or upon corrupt inducements There is a multitude of us can in the fear of God profess we have again and again considered the Ecclesiastical Laws and according to our duty as we believe we have been and are obedient not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake Conscience we can say not meerly our own but others of whom we are and must be tender And we doubt not but in this our obedience we please God and are not unserviceable unto Men. We hope further we are able to approve our selves to the Great Judge of all in the several fore-mentioned Particulars at least according to that equitable allowance which our gracious God through Jesus Christ gives to humane infirmities and which the best of us all must crave even in our best Actions Now as to those who withdraw from us We call not into question the sincerity of their intentions we neither are nor desire to be Judges thereof We profess we generally judge the best and where we cannot so judge we suspend our judgment But we desire them to resume and reiterate the consideration of the Rectitude of their Cause For we must acknowledge and avow we neither could see nor have been shewen any warrant which makes it lawful to any much less their duty as many pretend to separate from that Church which neither urges nor receives any Article of Faith but what must be confessed pure which worships God by no Office more or less than what is of his own institution and the forms thereof not dissonant to his word whose Government if the sense of Christendom in all Ages till within this hundred and few more years and of the Generality of it still interpreting Holy Scriptures may be heard is truly Apostolical and in fine whose Discipline though forced in some things to truckle under the iniquity of times suffers few or none to be so bad as they would and encourages all to be as good as they can If it be lawful to separate from such a Church where shall we find that from which we may not separate And where then will be an end of Divisions In the Church of Corinth where were sundry greater Disorders and Corruptions tolerated than can be pretended amongst us that we know of the Apostle does not tolerate but severely reprove their Divisions and both censure the Authors of them as Persons to be avoided and the Abettors as Carnal Then lastly as to the Management of this departure we passionately beseech and in the Lord conjure all who are guilty of withdrawing that they will consider whether the Circumstances either of making or maintaining it be warrantable or indeed well excusable Particularly and briefly Suppose things stood so that Separation were their Duty yet is Theirs without Ostentation as all Duties ought to be Do not they publickly value themselves thereupon and despise others Are not they in their own Language The Saints and the rest of the Nation Those who are without the People of the World not to take up more odious Names Again admit Separation from us were lawful yet is theirs without scandal Without scandal to the weak of their own Church without scandal to the weak of Ours Without scandal to Papists or scandal even to Jews Without scandal to men of all Religions or scandal to men of None The good God be merciful unto us and deliver Christian men from Partiality and Self-flattery But I must Contract 2. My Second Exhortation shall be That being satisfied in Conscience touching the Right or Lawfulness of our own engaging in all points of our Cause or as some had rather speak touching the Excellency and Superlativeness of the way we are in we would not spoil a good Cause by our ill Management That the Religious amongst us are Divided at present there is none who sees not Nor that all the Petty Divisions are reducible to these three Grand ones Papists Regular Protestants and Non-Conforming Protestants The Cause or way of the First I do declare I judge no Power on Earth no nor with all reverence be it spoken of Heaven it self can make just For God cannot Ly that is contradict himself The Doctrine they teach profess and if we will credit them believe is against express Scripture the Analogy of Faith and the Consent of the Ancient and true present Catholick Church And indeed in divers Points also against Sense and Reason the common Principles of Mankind And too much of their Morals is no better The Cause or Way of the Second is just if any under Heaven I need not speak my mind again I do not say there is nothing amongst us defective nor that there is nothing which may be amended nor again that there is no mismenagement or no evil People amongst us I do not believe there is or will be ever such a Church on Earth That accusation to the end of the world will justly ly against the Purest Church I have a few things against thee Revel II. 4. 14 20. But I must avow I know not that Church which would take the Mote out of our Eye that has not a Beam in her own The Cause of the Third must be acknowledg'd by all indifferent and considerative men at least doubtful For he is void of reason who shall deny that disputes with the lightest Probabilities are manag'd against it and such which with the most rational persons turn the Scales Possibly to some of them who have espoused it it may not seem doubtful But whatever my Charity may induce me to think it in any of them were I my self a mainteiner of it I could not judge it in my self any thing less than Formal as well as Material Schism But for the present we 'll not dispute the Point Admit it to be lawful I only move that it be not mismanaged that Good men would not prosecute a lawful Cause in an unlawful manner or by undue means and so intangle themselves and Cause in Injustice and Iniquity Having then concluded the Cause of the Regular Protestants good and excellent and for the present admitted though not granted that of the Nonconformists to be lawful there is chiefly a double mismenagement which I must tax at present and that on both sides for I would not be partial and which the Exhortation in hand proceeds against 1. The former of which is Overcharging one another This besides that it renders us guilty of sin and makes still our matters worse does further expose us Both to our Common Enemies and create to them sweet Sport and to our selves Scorn and Contempt The Nonconformists charge us most unjustly with Popery Give me leave to beseech these our Accusers

consideration and I suppose not excepted against And the Oath of Canonical Obedience which binding expresly only In licitis honestis I wonder men make such a clamour of and the Oath against Simony are administred only to such who are instituted into Livings So that upon the whole a man would think the business of Swearing should never hinder any Loyal Subj●ct from Conformity being that Swearing properly so called is not required to Conformity And then Secondly as to Subscribing and Declaring those who pretend they more scruple these than they do the performing the things they thereby engage to would either without them perform those things that is observe the Liturgy and Ceremonies constantly or only when they saw fit and as they pleased If the Later this would be much worse than plain Nonconformity Magis ingenuè Peribomius If the former when they shall have proved that it is much more to declare a thing lawful and promise either to do it or submit to the Penalty for not doing it than it is without any such promise ordinarily to practice it when I say they shall have proved this by any consent they shall be accounted Conformists upon such practice without any Subscription or Declaration Nay further I dare engage let any of them come into our Churches put on the Surplice read Prayers orderly go up and Preach they shall have leave so to do though they never Subscribe or Declare and for their so doing they shall suffer no Penalty And till they will prove the one or do the other I must conceive Subscribing and Declaring is reasonable For seeing they have to do these things how shall we know they will do them except they tell us so beforehand and that 's Declaring or else write so and that 's Subscribing This abatement therefore was not to be expected and so not to be proposed 6. I add hereto Mr. Baxter does not propound to do what yet he says he can in Conscience do and what he judges lawful no neither does he or his Brethren ordinarily practice so much as far as I can hear 1. He very honestly tells us pag. 8 9. he can Communicate with our Parish Churches in the Churches Prayers and hear the Ministers where he lives if they be but tolerable in the Sacred Office Nay he is exceedingly moved against the Separation as well by the Arguments of many of the famous old Nonconformists as by four excellent Considerations he there subjoins 2. It appears by what he discourses at large from pag. 14. to 20. and pag. 139. sub fin 240. and in divers other places that he does not at all judge it unlawful but many times very expedient to forbear their preaching in the time of the Publick Prayers and Sermons of the Church on Lords days Whether these two be his and their practice we leave it to themselves we hope it is only I do not find he propounds to do this as a Mean of Peace 3. He says he himself never scrupled Kneeling at the receiving the Lords Supper pag. 155. 4. I have heard also that in his Five Disputations pag. 409. he hath these words speaking upon a Supposal that one certain habit were enjoyned Ministers in their Ministration The thing in it self being therefore lawful I would obey him i. e. The Magistrate and use that Garment if I could not be dispensed with yea though secondarily the Whiteness be to signifie Purity and so it be made a Teaching Sign yet would I obey Now it would appear hence that he does not think the Surplice unlawful Yet do I not expect he should propound either of these two last in general whatever himself in particular might think good to do for reconciling himself to our Church because he intimates Better men than himself scruple them However this very matter I may justly mention as the Seventh and Last Defect I will take notice of in his Proposals that we can build upon little or nothing in them as Conclusive to the Body of the Dissenters Because What are his thoughts to Two thousand that are Absent or not consulted Third Part of Plea pag. 195. I have thus dealt very faithfully with Mr. Baxter and his Writings as to the matter of Peace and I hope he will approve himself so wise and good a man as not to take with the left what is given him with the right hand but if he think fit to write more on this Subject that he will study rather the closing Wounds than making or widening them He complains himself he has had but bad success in solliciting the Cause of Peace I will therefore adventure to take my leave of him in recommending to him what I am of the mind he may do to much better purpose and what were I in his Circumstances I should if not judge my self bound unto yet accept as the best Works with which I could close my Labours First Whereas he intimates pag. 71. that he has wrote above Seventy Books wherein his Doctrine and Religion are visible were I their Author lest People should take all that to be my Doctrine and Religion which is visible in them I would immediately with what care I could run them over and conscientiously retract either under some general heads or in particular as the case and my leisure would permit whatever I should judge had been said amiss or less sound Mr. Baxter well knows how great a mans Works in the Usual Editions begin with his Books of Retractations and Confessions Secondly Whereas it is apparent Mr. Baxter has been intangled miserably in the Calamities of the times and perhaps contracted thence such Circumstances as render it highly unexpedient for him as he conceives to speak in his present Condition as he would or might have done if never so intangled I would were I as he at least in conceipt disembarass my self and sit down and considering the present state of the Church what is imposed what are the pretences of those who oppose what a fair Gaim these oppositions put into the hands of the Common Enemy considering I say and comprehending as near as I could the whole I would freely present to the World my calm and uninteressed thoughts and give a candid and impartial Account what I could in Conscience do and what in prudence I would do were I to begin the World again in order to the fair and successful Exercise of any Ministry I humbly beg his pardon if I think he never can do the Christian Church and himself a greater Service than two such Works of these would amount to and so from my heart I commend him to the Grace of God I should now reflect on some others upon the same Subject and I am sorry that I can truly say I have met with some who taking up Mr. Baxter's Principles out-going him acting only like those who cast abroad Firebrands and Arrows and Death I will not name them nor their Books for neither does it conduce to Peace