the strength of the Empire hath taken away all the seeds of Impiety Edictum Theodosii in fine Concilii I see no reason why Mr. Baxter should speak so favourably of Nestorius though I have considered all that he writes but that he might make his Readers think more contemptible of Cyril who was so great learned and good a Bishop Vincentius Lyrinensis an approved Author who lived near that time writes thus Infelix ille Nestorius subito ex Ove conversus in Lupum gregem Christi lacerare cepit Cum enim hi ipsi qui rodebantur ex magna adhuc parte Ovem crederent morsibus ejus magis patebant Nam quis eum facile errare arbitraretur quem tanto Imperii Judicio electum tanto Sacerdotum studio prosecutum videret Qui cum magno Sanctorum amore Summo populi favore celebraretur quotidie palam divina tractabat eloquia noxios quoque Judaeorum Gentilem confutabat errores This is as much as Mr. Baxter could say for him But what follows Qui ut uni haeresi suae aditum patefaceret cunctarum Haeresewn blasphemias insectabatur cap. 16. and cap. 17. In audito scelere duos vult esse filios Dei unum Deum alterum hominem unum qui ex patre alterum qui sit generatus ex matre atque ideo asserit Sanctam Mariam non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. dicendam quia scilicet ex eâ non ille Christus qui Deus sed qui homo erat natus Quod si quis eum putat in literis unum Christum dicere unam Christi personam non temere credat hoc enim fraudulentiae causâ conceptus sen partus virginei tempore duos Christos fuisse contendit Who will not believe this Father that lived in those days a Man of great Learning and Integrity before a late prejudiced Person that serves a Party Another instance of Mr. Baxter's racking Ecclesiastical History to make it speak his sence against Bishops is his account of Novatus and Novatian one of which he calls an ill chosen Bishop of Rome i.e. Novatian though indeed they were both ambitious Presbyters and Novatus and African Priest saith Mr. Baxter went to Rome to make Novatian a Bishop p. 36. when Cornelius was duly elected before Of which St. Cyprian saith Agnoscant atque intelligant Episcopo semel facto collegarum ac plebis testimonio judicio comprobato alium constitui nullo modo posse Epist 4. ad Cornel. For indeed Novation was an ambitious Presbyter that contended against Cornelius to thrust him out of his Chair for admitting those to his Communion who in the time of Persecution under Decius had denied the Faith supposing that they could not repent after such a fall In opposition to such he calls his Faction the Cathari which Mr. Baxter knows how to English This pure Presbyter sent for three Rustick Bishops as my Author calls them from Italy to come to him at Rome under pretence of mediating for him with Cornelius and the other Bishops Being come he entertains them with plenty of good Chear and Wine which is still in fashion with that sort of People and when they had well drank some of his Party force the Bishops to lay their hands on Novatian and make him an Vtopian Bishop for it will puzzle Mr. Baxter to name his Title though he call him an ill chosen Bishop of Rome which Title he gives him only to draw an Odium on the Bishops though the great troubles brought upon the Church by their Errours and Schisms were wholly the fruit of their Envy against Cornelius the lawful Bishop of Rome Of which St. Cyprian also gives a full account who caused the meeting of some Councils to suppress them Yet Mr. Baxter such is his Zeal for Anti-Prelatical Men thus excuseth the matter It was Zeal against Errour which made both the Novatians and the Donatists run into Errour p. 32. And though that long and sad Schisms did ensue yet he thus excuseth it The Rigour of the Novatians was increased by their offence at other mens sinful latitude and tepidity p. 35. Chap. 3. Mr. Baxter treats of the Council of Nice and the Heresie of Arius P. 45. Mr. Baxter says That Athanasius refusing to admit Arius to his Communion caused much Calamities And p. 46. They that had gathered Separate Churches did communicate with Arius that they might be delivered from the Persecution of a godly Bishop i.e. from Athanasius whom Mr. Baxter confesseth to be a godly Bishop but being Bishop and opposing the Arian Conventicles he is a Persecutor That you may see the Partiality of this Historian I shall give you a brief History of the growth of Arianism Arius a Presbyter was condemned in the first General Council at Nice for denying the Deity of Christ making him a Creature for which he was banished by Constantine as the cause of great Division and Corruption in the Church But there was a certain Presbyter who grew into so great familiarity with Constantia the Emperours Sister as to perswade her that Arius had been abused by the Council and did not hold the Opinions for which he was condemned Whereupon Constantine recals Arius and enquires into the truth of that report and Constantia dying recommends this Presbyter to the Emperour her Brother as worthy of his favour and when Constantine died this Presbyter carrieth the News to Constantius that his Father had bequeathed the Eastern Empire to him Which being what he hoped for he received the Presbyter into his Favour and kept him in his Court where first he infected some of the Eunuchs with that Errour and by their means the Empress also and so the Emperour himself Socrates l. 1.19 and l. 2.2 This revived the Arian Faction Arius is restored to Alexandria from whence the multitude of his Followers having conspired the death of Athanasius Constantine had removed Athanasius into Gallia where Constans his Son then lived who entertained him with some respect and writes to his Brother Constantius to admit him again to Alexandria or threatneth him with War lib. 2. cap. 18. Whereupon Athanasius is restored but his life is in perpetual danger the Arians being more in number than the Orthodox Hosius Bishop of Corduba a Man of great Age and Learning and a constant Assertor of the Truth was shamefully whipped and tortured by them lib. 2. cap. 26. And though they were condemned by the Councils of Milain and Ariminum Constantius favours them and threatneth the Councils To him succeeded Julian the Apostate then Jovianus who reigned but Seven Months then Valentian who admitted Valens and Arian to partake of the Empire All which time the Arians exercised great cruelty not only on the Orthodox Bishops but against each other for under them sprang up the Novatians and Eunomians lib. 4. cap. 23. and lib. 5. cap. 20. who all agreed in the Arian Heresie but persecuted one another So did the
the Grotian design i.e. Popery was carrying on saith he in the Church of England and that this was the cause of all our Wars and Changes in England p. 105. Another Cause of the War not Episcopal where he thus talks concerning the Royal Martyr beyond any thing that his barbarous Judges could accuse him of How far the King was inclined to a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome I only desire you to judge 1. By the Articles of the Spanish and French Match sworn to 2. By his Letter to the Pope written in Spain 3. By his choice of Agents in Church and State 4. By the Residence of the Pope's Nuntio here and the Colledge of the Jesuits c. 5. By the illegal Innovations in Worship so resolvedly gradatim introduced All which I speak not with the least desire to perswade Men that he was a Papist but only to shew that while he as a moderate Protestant i.e. a Papist in Masquerade as they are now termed took hands with the Queen a moderate Papist the Grotian design had great advantage in England which he himself boasted of p. 106. Of this indignity to that Religious Prince the Learned Bishop Bramhal p. 617. of his Works took notice and vindicated him of which Mr. Baxter being told by a Book called the Impleader who said only that Mr. Baxter gave several intimations that the King was Popishly affected he numbers that among other lies of that Author p. 100. of his third Defence and says Why did not the Man tell where and when and that he had printed the contrary in times of Vsurpation and that he is a Calumniator unless he prove it Why did he not cite Bishop Bramhal 's proof and you see that a Calumniator with them is no singular person they are not ashamed to tell the world that their Archbishops lead them and are as bad as they It seems Mr. Baxter was pinched by this Relation which makes him cry out I have printed the contrary See what these sort of Men are come to What credit is to be given to such Men's Reports Is this it in which the Authority of Archbishops consists that they must be followed in slanders c. I have saved the Impleader the labour of quoting the place and desire the Reader to consult it and see how maliciously and groundless he urged those things against the King at such a time as that But Mr. Baxter says he printed the contrary in times of Vsurpation That time which now he calls a time of Highest Usurpation was the same which he then lookt on as a blessed time when Richard Cromwel piously prudently and faithfully to his immortal honour exercised the Government 1659. and to him he dedicated that Book wherein he says he wrote the contrary p. 327. where having accused the new Episcopal Party for following Grotius he adds As for the King himself that was their Head if any conjecture that he was a flat Papist c. Mr. Baxter believes him not but he was the head of the Grotian Papists and he himself boasted of it ubi suprà Now if any would know how far Grotius was a Papist he says he was a more arrant Papist than Cassander and one that owned the Council of Trent And such I think are flat Papists And therefore it was no lie in the Impleader to say Mr. Baxter gave intimations that the King was Popishly affected but a gross one in Mr. Baxter to deny it and give him the lie as he doth impudently to others But Mr. Baxter says He did not believe it himself that the King was a flat Papist Then his iniquity was the greatter to give so many instances by way of proof that others might believe it Did not Mr. Baxter know that the fear of introducing Popery was made one ground of the War against the King and may he not make it a ground of another War because the King adheres to his Bishops whom Mr. Baxter calls Popish Clergy-men And he says That the Parliament whom they were bound to believe made it their great Argument and Advantage against the King that he favoured the Papists and on this supposition saith he Thousands came in to fight for their Cause And they made one Article against the Archbishop of Canterbury That he endeavoured to introduce Popery though he were indeed one of their greatest Adversaries whose Life on that account they endeavoured to take away And the Relation of Dr. Du Moulin That at the Death of the King a known Papist was heard to say That now their greatest Enemy was cut off is very credible But Mr. Baxter knew that old Maxime Fortiter Calumniare aliquid adhaerebit It is no honest Man's part first to break a Man's Head and then to give him a Plaister which if it be not too narrow to heal the Sore or ineffectual to cure it yet may leave some ugly Scar behind Dr. Pierce hath given many more Arguments to prove Mr. Baxter a Papist than he hath given of King Charles the First And if his actings for Forty years together be well considered it will appear he hath been made use of as one of the most keen and Catholick Tools that ever the Papacy did employ whether he knows it or not It is I confess a difficult thing to tell the World what Perswasion Mr. Baxter was of as to Church-government whether Episcopal Presbyterian or Independant he hath been of all and I think he is now of neither having a peculiar Model of his own In a Book called A Method for Peace c. printed 1653. I find him to favour Lay-Elders though in other Writings he condemned them as Superstitious but by a passage in p. 341. he seems reconcileable to them for thus he saith Nothing almost is wanting to us to set our Congregations in the Order of Christ and to the great Work of Reformation so much as want of Maintenance for a competent number of Ministers or Elders to attend the Work We have divers godly private Christians capable of helping us as Officers in our Churches by which I suppose he intends Lay-Elders although I cannot certainly affirm what his Judgment is concerning them for he would willingly set up a new Model of his own i.e. a mixture of Episcopal Presbyterian Independent Government but declares for neither of them It is more certain that he once professed himself a Conformist and disputed for Bishops and Liturgy as by Law established and he thought he had ever the better yet if it be true that he had a prejudice against them ever since he was Nineteen years old it was rather to betray than defend them But in an Assize-Sermon preached 1654. at Worcester p. 191. he pleads for the Presbyterian Government in these words How long hath England rebelled against his Christ's Government Mr. Udal told them in the days of Queen Elizabeth That if they would not set up the Discipline of Christ in the Church Christ would set it up himself
he doth by the whole Order of Church Governours that he may make ours the more odious He says as in divers places p. 252. 253. of Saints Rest That the first rage of the Prelates in silencing as learned able Ministers and incessantly persecuting as godly Christians as the World enjoyed was just before the War begun increased an hundred fold P. 251. As I am certain by sight and sense that the extirpation of Piety was the then great design which so far prevailed that very many of the most able Ministers were silenced Lectures and Evening Sermons on the Lord's-day suppressed Christians imprison'd dismembred and banished He speaks as if it were done by Heathen for no other cause but as being Christians That it was as much at least as a mans Estate was worth to hear a Sermon abroad when he had none or worse at home to meet for Prayer or any other godly Exercise and that it was a matter of Credit and a way to Preferment to Revile and be Enemies to those that were most Conscientious and every where safer to be a Drunkard or an Adulterer than a painful Christian and that multitudes of Humane Ceremonies took place when the Worship of Christ's Institution was cast out besides the slavery that invaded us in Civil respects So I am most certain that this was the Work which we took up Arms to resist and those were the Offenders whom we endeavour to offend You see Mr. Baxter is armed with Prejudice and Zeal Cap-a-peé for a War wherein to resist his Superiours under a pretence of Reformation though to that Resistance the Word of God threatens Damnation Yet Mr. Baxter p. 271. says As I cannot yet perceive but that we undertook our Defence upon warrantable grounds so I am most certain God hath wonderfully appeared through the whole Success was the great Argument of which p. 250. Having been an Eye-witness of a very great part of the eminent Providences from the first of the War I have plainly seen something above the common Course of Nature in almost every Fight that I have beheld The War saith Mr. Baxter was begun in our Streets before the King or Parliament had any Armies between the Puritans and drunken Rabble that hated the Parliaments Reformation and so I was forced to be gone before the Wars And a Man that was more pious and devout than the Multitude could not live by them in most places but were forced into Garrisons and Arms to save their Lives p. 252. of Saints Rest i.e. in plain English Mr. Baxter with the other Reformers put themselves into Arms and seized the King's Forts making them Garisons against the King I desire the Reader to reflect on this part of the Narrative Mr. Baxter often accuseth the Conforming Clergy with deliberate Lying and Perjury What was it in Mr. Baxter being prejudiced against the Bishops at Nineteen yea against Bishop Morton at Fourteen being familiar with Non-conformist Ministers and knowing their Minds yet to submit to Episcopal Ordination and Subscribe and Swear to obey the Bishop in licitis honestis and presently omit the Cross and Surplice and dispute openly against Bishops and prosecute and defend the War against the King against the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and when his taking of Holy Orders seems to be for no other end but to inable him to do the more mischief Was not this to be deliberately perjured But to go on he says in cold blood His engaging in that War was the greatest outward Service that ever he performed to God That Neutrality had been sinful and to have been against the Parliament in that Cause had been Treachery p. 481. of H.C.W. And p. 480. If I had known that the Parliament in that Cause had been the beginners and in most fault yet the ruine of our Trustees is a punishment greater than any fault of theirs though it were the cutting off his Head against a King can deserve and that their faults cannot disoblige me from defending the Commonwealth I knew the King had all his Power for the Common Good and none against it and therefore that no Cause can warrant him to make the Commonwealth the Party which he shall exercise Hostility against and that War against the Parliament especially by such an Army in such a Cause is Hostility against them and so against the Commonwealth All this seemed plain to me and especially when I knew how things went before who were the Agents how they were minded and what were their purposes against the People Would not this Man have made a better Solicitor against the Royal Martyr than Cooke who said he was another Solomon for his parts Did Cromwel or Bradshaw ever object such things against him as Mr. Baxter hath done Who could think that Mr. Baxter who pretends for so much Peace was ever a Man of such a Temper With what heart could he be an Eye-witness of the Humane Butcheries that were made in almost every Fight from the beginning of the War or with what Face could he say there appeared more of Christ's Interest on the one side than on the other as in the first occasion so in the Prosecution p. 252. of Saints Rest. And again Whatever the end may prove I am sure I have seen the Lord in the means p. 251. And That as we undertook our Defence on warrantable grounds so I am most certain God hath wonderfully appeared through the whole ibid. He says in the Epistle he was wonderfully rescued from many dangers in four years Wars and after many tedious nights and days and many doleful sights and tidings he and many of his Kederminsters whom he it seems had led on to the War were returned in peace that he was twenty several times delivered when he was near to death O the sad and heart-piercing Spectacles says he p. 115. that mine eyes have seen in four years space In this Fight a Friend fall down by me from another a precious Christian brought home wounded or dead precious Christians no doubt that died in such a horrid Rebellion scarce a Month scarce a Week without the sight or noise of Blood Surely there is none of this in Heaven our eyes shall then be filled no more nor our hearts pierced with such Fights as at Worcester Edge-hill Newbury Nantwich Montgomery Horn-Castle Naseby Langport c. it seems he was present in these Fights For he adds Mine eyes shall never more behold the Earth covered with the Carcasses of the slain And he saith He had travelled over the most part of England to pursue the War Illi robor aes triplex circum praecordia Mr. Baxter says the War began first in their Streets at Kederminster between those that would have pull'd down Painted-glass and Pictures and the People that opposed them which Parties were so violent against each oother that he was forc't to fly for his Safety And having been a while at Bridge-North 〈◊〉 Parties of the King's Soldiers
War and was supported fourteen years in a languishing estate wherein he had scarce a waking hour free from pain And thus though against his will he is forced to leave the Army And might not Mr. Baxter justly say and the Reader believe him in this as he writes in a Letter to Dr. Hill 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 And the Judgment of God is eminently upon him who hath been so far from building that it hath ever since been his great business to destroy the best established Church in the World which will appear by taking a view of this mortified Man in his retirement from the War And we find him sitting down on the sequestred Living of Mr. Dance at Kedderminster he had inticed many of that place and neighbourhood to the War and some few returned with him again How far he was given to Plunder in the time of War whereof he hath been accused I affirm not but it will draw a shrewd suspicion on him that he was not afraid to take a Horse or two in time of War who seized on the Person of a Neighbour to serve as an Exchange for his Father and possessed himself of the Livelyhood of Mr. Dance of whom he confessed as the then Bp. of Worcester's Letter p. 3. informs That he was a Man of an unblameable Life and Conversation though not of such Parts as might qualifie him for the Cure of so great a Congregation And though Mr. Baxter was not welcomed here by a Miracle as he was at * See Mr. Baxter's Relation of this in a Postscript to his True Catholick p. 294. Bridgenorth where the Report is that it rained Manna on the Church wherein he was to officiate yet he was convinced by Providence as he says in that Epistle That it is the Will of God it should be so a strange Argument from God's permission of an unrighteous Act that it is his Will it should be so For this saith he I clearly discerned in my first coming to you in my former abode with you and in the time of my forced absence from you But the truth is Mr. Baxter had too much adhered to the Presbyterian Interest to be advanced by that Army though he desires them to remember how far he had gone with them in the War and pleadeth their acknowledgment that a special Presence of God was with the Parliament and presseth on them the Sin of forcing out 140 Members first and then 120 and their proclaiming it Treason to say that the Parliament was in being And then he urgeth those Scriptures to them which himself had shewn them an example to contemn Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 and that they might know his meaning he tells them That the secluded Members were the best Governours in all the World that they had the Supremacy and yet had been resisted and deposed in England It was a Sin with Mr. Baxter to oppose the Usurpers and a Duty to resist the King and fight against him which Mr. Baxter did for four years together And it is to be believed saith Mr. Baxter that a man would kill him against whom he fights p. 423. Holy Commonwealth But Mr. Baxter was not very constant to his own Profession concerning his long beloved Parliament For in the same place and breath almost he says Secondly I mean the Powers that were last layed by viz. Richard and his Parliament of whom he says as to Richard That he piously prudently and faithfully to his immortal honour did exercise the Government how ill soever you have used him But wherein did all this Piety and Prudence appear was it that he did inherit from his Father Oliver a tender care of the Cause of Christ of which you seem to give an instance in the Protestants of Piedmont when it was notorious that a great part of the Charity of the Nation for their Relief was employed in maintaining the War against the King Was it that at the instance of a few of his Officers he dissolved that Parliament of his Was it in swearing that he would to the utmost of his power maintain and preserve the just Rights and Priviledges of the People and govern according to Law which he could not do Was it in making a tame Submission to some of his Army calling them The present Government from whom he expected Protection and held himself obliged to live peaceably under them and to procure to the utmost of his power that others should do so too These things argue no great stock of Piety Prudence or Faithfulness And as to Richard's Parliament which had an Upper House consisting mostly of Military Mechanical and Fanatick Members a Lower House of Men of none or very ill note Of this Parliament Mr. Baxter says He never had known a Parliament more inclined to Piety and Peace the Long Parliament not excepted whereof he gives this instance Because it was their desire to have setled Elections according to Mr. Baxter's advice i.e. to keep out all whom he calls ungodly from chusing or being chosen See the Preface to the Holy Commonwealth These and such like were they of whom Mr. Baxter says They were the best Governours in all the World such as they had sworn and sworn to obey again and again such as might not be imposed on pain of Damnation and that he would with great rejoycing give a thousand thanks to that Man that would acquaint him of one Nation in the World that had better Governours in Soveraign Power as to Holiness and Wisdom conjunct than these who yet had been resisted and deposed It seems Mr. Baxter could have been easily reconciled to any Governours but those to whom of right the Government did belong And any Reader conversant in Mr. Baxter's Writings may observe that Mr. Baxter never complained so much of Arbitrary Government and Persecution under any of the Revolutions of Usurped Powers as he hath done since the King and Church were restored nay he wrote as industriously for Obedience to some of them as he hath since to incourage Disobedience to these And let me desire the Reader to consider what ground Mr. Baxter had for his great veneration of the Secluded Members more than for those who were called the Rump Did not they agree in that accursed Vote of Non-Addresses to the King before their Seclusion Did not they upon their re-admission re-enforce the Engagement to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth without a King or House of Lords Did not some of them provide an Oath of Abjuration of the King to be taken by such as were to sit in the Council of State Did not some of them send to General Monk to advise him that he must take that Oath before his admittance into that Council Did they not offer to settle Hampton-Court on General Monk and desire him to take
the Government on himself under what Title he pleased And because they did this and might justifie themselves in so doing upon Mr. Baxter's Theses in his Holy Commonwealth they are all these things notwithstanding the Supream Powers the best Governours in all the World and such as to resist is to incur Damnation Mr. Baxter during the time of his abode at Kedderminster was not employed in writing only as he did against Dr. Pierce justifying the Trade of Sequestrations and against others representing them as Men that had neither hatred to Sin nor love to Godliness or common Honesty because he says they published so many so gross and shameless Falsehoods and over-acted the part of the Accusers of the Brethren p. 308. of Postscript to the True Catholick But he was employed also in assisting the Commissioners for Sequestrations p. 297. ibid. Yet he excuseth the matter and says He never persecuted or cast out any or endeavoured it by word or deed unless for notorious scandal or insufficiency and we know that Dr. Pierce and such as he were then accounted such as not having the Grace of God in them Upon some such account it was that Dr. Sanderson and Dr. Pocock were ejected to the perpetual Infamy of the Ejectors How vainly doth Mr. Baxter still plead for Sequestrations p. 78. of his Apol. First That the Ministers were ejected by the Secular Power But were not they animated by the Clergy who as Mr. Baxter had then no Benefices Secondly That some of the Parish were the Accusers Witnesses and Sollicitors And such may be still found in most Parishes where there are very good Ministers But Thirdly The People should not be left as Heathen and therefore 't is an excusable errour and when the love of Souls makes them spend themselves for the Peoples good this should not be thought their unpardonable Crime And they did think that the Salary was for the Work and if they had a lawful Call to the Work of the place they thought they had so to the Salary Now though Mr. Baxter framed these Reasons for them he adds I justifie not their Reasons but my Opinion is That being young Men mostly in the Vniversities that had little or nothing of their own they could not well otherwise have got Bread and Clothing much less Fire House-room c. Those young Men could better have shifted for their Maintenance than by turning so many aged Ministers with Wives and Children out of all Of such as say We may do evil that good may come of it the Apostle says Their damnation is just But Mr. Baxter concludes p. 79. To say the truth many of them thought it a good work yea very good to cast out those thousands of them whose Livings were desirable by false Accusations as insufficient or vicious These are that learned godly faithful Clergy who to requite Mr. Baxter hath chosen him their Prolocutor to justifie them in all their Disobedience and Violences and to accuse the Conformists of Perjury Persecution and other heinous Sins in those Books which he calls his Pleas for Peace Because Mr. Baxter thinks himself abused in the account which Mr. Durel and others have given of his Sequestration at Kedderminster take his own account In the year 40. the Parliament began to Sequester such Ministers as appeared most Loyal and so early the People of Kedderminster article against their Vicar it was worth then about Eightscore pounds per Annum now more The Vicar fearing to lose all is forced to give a Bond of 500 l. to pay 60 l. yearly to a Lecturer Mr. Baxter is invited to accept of it and holds it for a year and half being driven off by the Wars which he followed four years and thinks it a kindness that he did not sue the Vicar for his 60 l. per Annum which he did nothing for But at his return the Vicar is sequestred by a Committee and Mr. Baxter is importuned to take it which he refuseth to do in his own name but thus it was contrived I got all the Magistrates and Chief of the Town together who openly subscribed to give me 100 l. per Annum as their Lecturer and that no part of this should accrue from the Vicaridge But mark the Juggle He said immediately before I told them that by an Augmentation which I had procured making my 60 l. an 100 l. and a House I would be their Lecturer as before This 60 l. was to come out of the Vicaridge notwithstanding that Proviso to the contrary But the Sequestrators who gathered the Tythes gave him no account nor needed they if it be true that Mr. Baxter had 80 or 90 l. and an Assistant about 60 l. more there was not much left for the Vicar But Mr. Baxter asked them whether any of the Money they gave him came out of the Tythes They told him the 60 l. due by Bond and an Augmentation granted by Parliament was more than he had i.e. all that he had came out of the Vicaridge though it were not full as much as was promised him for the Bond and Augmentation came to 100 l. whereas he received but 80 or 90 l. And they used my name saith Mr. Baxter in letting the Tythes for they had privily got an Order to put me in the sequestred Vicaridge which when I knew I consented to for their indemnity So that after all his Art to evade the guilt of a Sequestrator it is plain the Vicaridge was sequestred in his name the Tythes agreed for in his name the Pay was made out of the Tythes and to all this though post factum Mr. Baxter consented And this was my taking the Sequestration p. 81. of Apol. I know that some Persons have minded Mr. Baxter to make Restitution but he thinks he had a Right to it and wants but a Secular Power to place him in it again yea he thinks himself wrong'd that he hath not the fifth part still payed him for p. 85. Eveâ— the Vsurpers allowed the Wives of the sequestred Ministers the fifth part for my part I never asked you so much He expected to have it offered him as his due without asking But I suppose his many hundred pounds of Arrears from the Army and his Fifths from Kedderminster will be payed together Mr. Baxter says the Protector Oliver never had any respect for him and he would now perswade the World that he had as little for the Protector although in an Epistle to his Son Richard before the Key for Catholicks he thus applauds him The serious Endeavours of your Renowned Father for the Protestants of Savoy discovered to the World by Mr. Morland hath won him more esteem in the hearts of many that fear the Lord than all his Victories in themselves considered We pray that you may inherit a tender Care of the Cause of Christ When Mr. Baxter could not be so great a stranger as to be ignorant how the Charity of the People which was very large at
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
Tract It ought to be saith he of One that is impartial a lover of Peace and not ingaged by Faction or Interest to one side against the other a calm and considerate Man not a passionate hasty Judge a Man of manifest Honesty Conscience and Fear of God not a Worldly Wicked Bloody Vnconscionable Man Now let the Reader consider whether this Character agree with our Author And then let the Reader take that other Antidote in the Preface The Sectaries saith Mr. Baxter who rashly separate from some Churches because of some Forms Opinions or Ceremonies which almost all Christians on Earth have used in the former purer Ages and still use should be more cautelous in examining their grounds and should hardly venture to separate from any Church for that which for the same reason would move them to separate from almost all Christians in the whole World if not unchurch the Church of Christ And let the Reader satisfie himself whether Mr. Baxter's Model be not such a Form And may it not be said of Mr. Baxter as he says of Dr. Heylin He is so palpably partial and of so malicious and bloody a strain representing excellent persons as odious intolerable Rogues that he is not to be believed Judge by this one passage p. 120. If our Neighbours that commonly these Thirty Years last use the word God dam me had put but thee instead of me I should have suspected that the Councils and Bishops had made their Religion To which add p. 464. Have not the Ministers themselves been the principal instruments of taking down the Bishops c And what have they got by it I doubt not but the Reader will find the whole Collection to be a History of the Confusion and Bloodshed occasioned by discontented and ambitious Presbyters and their party against the Orthodox who suffered under Heathen Arian and other heretical Emperours by Popes Hereticks and Schismaticks misapplied all to the Bishops and Councils and often speaks more favourably of Hereticks viz. of Arius the Novatians and Donatists who though they were usurping Presbyters he calls them Bishops and through their sides strikes at the Sacred Office p. 276. of his Plea for Peace It was by Bishops striving who should be Chief that the Donatists set up Whereas the Donatists were discontented Presbyters And in the Schisms of those times the Bishops were almost ever the chief Cause The Almost will not save it from a Lye But evident it is whatever quarrel there was in all Church-History wherein a Bishop was concerned how Innocent how Orthodox soever Mr. Baxter makes him the cause of the Quarrel and is his Adversary Hereof I could give many instances had not Mr. Baxter prevented me having said and done enough to overthrow the credit of his History However I will shew the Reader a Specimen of Mr. Baxter's Candour and Truth in relating Church-History Doth not Mr. Baxter know however he dissembles it that Arius and Aërius Novatus and Novatian Majorinus Chaplain to Lucilla a Noble Woman with Botruus and Silesius who first opposed Cecilian Bishop of Carthage and set up for Bishops by the help of Donatus who succeeded them and gave name to the Schism were all Presbyters Till they dub'd one another Bishops and then with whole Armies opposed their lawful Bishops who with great patience and constancy withstood their malice Read the History of the Donatists lately set forth and see how they used St. Augustin himself Mr. Baxter may as well ascribe all the Rebellion and Outrages all the Blasphemies and Faction that have been made within Forty Years past to the Bishops of this Land whereto it's well known the Presbyterians opened the way and led the dance as to impute what he doth to the ancient Bishops and indeed he is not ashamed to assert both these notorious falshoods Mr. Baxter asks the Question p. 429. of his Cure of Divisions Who brought in the errours of the Arians Eunomians c. And he Answers They were Bishops or Presbyters He would be sure to speak one true word I shall not trouble the Reader with all that Mr. Baxter writes of the Arians Nestorians c. in that voluminous Book but refer him to what he says more briefly in his other late Works for he repeats it in many of them P. 27. of his Plea He would not have the Arian Emperours made worse than they were because they were for Toleration of both Parties nor were the Arians themselves like the Socinians saith he because they acknowledged all save the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. save the Divinity of Christ which was all then in Controversie How dangerously saith he as if he were pleading for the Arians did Justine and most of the Ancient Doctors before the Nicene Council speak hereabout and how certainly Eusebius and other great Bishops were Arians and how the Council at Ariminum laid by the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 endeavouring reconcilation I need not send you to Philostorgus or Sondeus Arian Authors for proof If the Conformist should have said half so much he and the whole Church should have smarted for it In the Dispute between St. Cyril and Nestorius whether the Virgin Mary might be called the Mother of God you may see how partially he describes both the Persons and Opinions p. 271. of his Plea Nestorius saith he was a Man of Study and Retirement a poor garb and a strict life i.e. a Presbyterian abhorring publick Contentions and loving Quietness till he got to be uppermost and then he shewed a peevish Zeal against Dissenters called Hereticks Then for St. Cyril of Alexandria whose Works praise him in all the Churches Mr. Baxter hath scarce a good word for him because he was the first Bishop that used the Sword and persecuted the Dissenters He was a Man saith he of great Parts Spirit and Power but the Head of a Turbulent People As to their Opinions the Errour of the Nestorians lay in his want of skill in speaking saith Mr. Baxter and the Controversie was about words rather than matter Most of the People were for Nestorius and most of the Courtiers and Clergy against him and so was the Emperour who deposed Nestorius and restored Cyril but Nestorius returned to his Monastery and there lived four Years in Peace and great Reputation but afterwards was Banished into Foreign Countries and died I wonder why after Four Years he should be Banished if he had lived peaceably and quietly Did not Mr. Baxter ever read how the Emperour Theodotius confirming the Decrees of the Third General Council at Ephesus commanding That none should dare to keep read or transcribe the wicked Books of the profane and sacrilegious Nestorius but search them out cause them to be burnt publickly and that none permit them to have any House or Field to hold private or publick Assemblies and whoever adhered to Nestorius should suffer the loss of his Goods By which Edict saith the Perfect our pious Emperour knowing the Orthodox Religion to be
Macedonians lib. 2. cap. 13. and 35. and the Nestorians who burnt the Arian Church at Constantinople lib. 7. cap. 20. vexed the Novatians and Macedonians lib. 7. cap. 31. And all this by the instigation of Anastatius a Presbyter lib. 7. cap. 32. Yet all these Tâ—mults are imputed to the Bishops who all the while suffered from the heretical Presbyâ—… the true Ancestors of Mr. Baxter Majorum quisquis fuit ille tuorum Aut Pastor fuit aut illud quod dicere nolo Chap. 7. Mr. Baxter treats of the Tria Capitula The Tria Capitula were three Chapters mentioned in the Council of Chalcedon in which the Nestorians who could not longer defend their Heresie under the Name of its Author sought to cloke it under the Name and Writings of Theodorus Bishop of Mopsuestia of Theodoret's Writings against St. Cyril and an Epistle of Ibas unto Maris These made the Tria Capitula for which Pope Vigilius and some of his Party appeared But the Emperour Justinian and the Catholick Bishops appeared against them Many Sectaries who were condemned under the name of the Acephali disclaimed this Council others pretended it had approved of the Tria Capitula Great Divisions ensued hereupon Justinian knowing that the Council of Chalcedon had exploded that Heresie sends forth his Imperial Edict wherein accursing the Authors and Abettors of those Tria Capitula he summons the Fifth General Council of Constantinople at which the Pope refused to be present noluit interesse saith Bellarmine and the true reason was because he favoured that Heresie and approved not of the Council of Chalcedon which was held without him and did determine for the Prerogative of Constantinople against him Vigilius though he came not himself sent his Decree which maintained that Heresie and was confuted in the Sixth Collation of the Council of Constans And they set forth a most holy Confession of their Faith consonant in all points to that which the Holy Apostles preached which the four former Councils explained and the holy Fathers with uniform consent maintained Now I would desire Mr. Baxter to resolve me whether the blame of those Commotions which followed on this Dissention is to be laid on the Emperour and the Catholick Bishops who sided with him in defence of the true Faith against Nestorianism as Binius and Baronius would have it or on the Pope and his Italians who pleaded for that Heresie and together with the Agnoites Gainaites Theodosians Themistians and the rest of the Acephali promoted and continued those Broils Chap. 9. Consisting of about Sixty Pages is spent about the Worshipping of Images whereof he makes the Bishops Patrons Whereas many both Emperours and Bishops suffered very much as Iconoclastes i.e. the destroyers of Images Bishop Jewel challengeth the Church of Rome to shew but one Authority during Six hundred Years of the Church for worshipping Images and is not yet answered The rise of which in brief was this The Arcans and Donatists having wasted the Church made way for vast numbers of Infidels to enter in who brought with them and superstitiously honoured the Images of their Benefactors and many ignorant Christians learned their customs The Pictures of St. Peter and St. Paul we read of in Ancient History but withal we read they were not permitted to be brought into the Churches The opposition made against them may be seen in the Magdeburg In the year 754 the Bishops disputed against them and in a Council at Constantinople consisting of 338 Bishops How Leo Isauricus and Gregory Bishop of Neocaesaria opposed them is too large to repeat It was about the year 787 that Irene who was Daughter to a Pagan King of Tartaria gave publick countenance to Image-worship She ruling as Empress in the minority of Constantine her Son promoted this Pagan custom for as Mr. Hales observes Dux femina facti she was a Woman of so Tyrannous a Spirit that she caused the eyes of her Son Constantine to be put out which struck a great awe into the Christians under her One cause of her Cruelty to her Son being his opposing this Image-worship But finding one Tarasius to be of her mind she makes him Patriarch of Constantinople and calls a Council at Nice consisting of 350 Bishops most of them Arians and so about the year 787 they Decreed for Image-worship But in the year 792 all was reversed by Charles the Great in a Council at Frankfort One Decree mentioned by Mr. Baxter I shall remind him of it is p. 213. A man that had his hands in blood must not be a Bishop Another Heresie which makes the Church History to swell is that of the Monothelites of which Mr. Baxter speaks ch 8. And because he saith nothing of the rise of it I shall It was occasioned by one John Philoponus a Presbyter who wrote subtilly concerning it and drew many to his Opinion Anno 517. but all the time that Justinian was Emperour they hid themselves and propagated their Heresie in Conventicles for it was condemned by 175 Bishops in the fifth Synod of Constantinople and confuted by the Learned Bishop Gregory Nazianzene and by 603 Bishops in the fourth General Council at Chalcedon and in the sixth Synod of Constantinople by 170 Bishops But after the death of Theodosius Philippicus succeeded of whose Succession a Monotholite Monk had foretold him and that if he would rescind the Decrees of the sixth Synod and favour the Monothelites he should raign long and happily This made Philippicus to espouse that Cause and presently he banisheth Cyrus Patriarch of Constantinople and many Orthodox Bishops He maketh one John a Presbyter Patriarch and filleth up the vacant Bishopricks with Presbyters of that Faction and then assembles them and confirms that Heresie But the Bishops of the Western Churches resisted it and sent thundering Letters against it And it is no wonder that the Orthodox Bishops did hide themselves under this Tyranny or that Philippicus found Presbyters to make Bishops in their room who defended him and the Faction For it is well known how many such in our Age adhered to usurping Powers and defended as great both State and Ecclesiastical Heresies as this of the Monothelites and would not permit the Bishops to appear But if these Presbyters had taken the name of Bishops under Cromwel as the Monothelites did under Philippicus you might with as much truth have affirmed that innumerable Bishops did in the times of our Confusions defend Rebellion and Heresie as that the Bishops who suffered all manner of indignities from the Monothelites did defend that Errour or raise those Tumults This Philippicus within a year and half was deprived of the Empire by the same Souldiers that set him up who put out his Eyes and left him to die in Prison as a Tyrant These instances for I remember that I am writing a Character of Mr. Baxter and not of the ancient Hereticks may suffice to acquaint the Reader of the ingenuity of this Man who rails intolerably against
and not to his Majesty and the Parliament I answer It is not them nor any of their Laws or Actions which in all this Book I intend to speak against Mend. Mag. For though he had indeed done it sufficiently in other yet this Book was penned on purpose to justifie the preaching of Nonconformists though forbidden by Law P. 102. He raiseth the Objection of preaching in Cities c. against Laws And Answ Did not the ancient Christians also disobey a lawful â—…er when forbidden c. As if Christian Magistrates were to be reputed as the Heathen Persecutors But to omit this p. 104. he says N.B. No Bishops have silenced us by Spiritual Government that we know of but only as Barons by the Secular Laws to which they gave their Votes and he acknowledgeth all did not And if any shall read the Preambles to those Acts he may plainly see the cause of making them was not only the late dreadful Experience which the Nation had of the Confusions caused by the preaching of such Men but their present endeavours to reduce us to the like again which all those Acts notwithstanding they are still labouring for This is evident that Mr. Baxter though he were Ordained by a Bishop and subscribed though as he confesseth he had not read the Book of Ordination nor exactly weighed what he subscribed to p. 59. for it seems he was a passive Conformist and one that came into the Church to find a better opportunity to pull it down he did partake with Mr. Pryn in an Antipathy against Lordly Prelacy and glorieth in being stiled the Antisignanus Presbyterorum p. 11. And p. 6. he tells us of one Fenne a famous Country Non-conformist who with a loud voice would say Amen to all the Prayers in the Liturgy except that for Bishops to which his silence was accounted a dissent Doubtless Mr. Baxter is of the same mind he cannot pray for them lest it should seem a compliance with Church Tyranny and a frame of Government destructive of the Churches Ministry p. 241. and with such Persons as professing themselves Fathers of the Church are grand Enemies of Christ and Souls and the Captains in the Army of the Devil p. 243. I have heard a late Report of a Rebel in Scotland who being under Condemnation was put in mind of begging Pardon and to say God bless the King but his Answer was He would not purchase his life at so dear a rate Let the Reader judge how near Mr. Baxter approacheth that temper who will not and cannot indeed pray for the Bishops as such but rather suffer many deaths than be in their case c. How amazing a passage is that p. 135. When you are in the dust the world will not be afraid of you but freely tread upon you Hic Jacet Mr. Love did as bad by Archbishop Land while he was alive and cast up your bones to make room for others and talk of you and your acts as freely as of King Henry the Eighth Queen Mary Bishop Bonner and Gardner are now talked of As if our Bishops were the Successours of those and not of Cranmer Latimer Ridly Hooper and other Martyrs of that Age who died for the Defence of that Reformation which our Bishops still defend against both Papists and Fanaticks But Etiam post mortem invidia How sollicitous is dying Mr. Baxter to bequeath a double portion of his Anti-Prelatical Spirit to the People who by prophesying what they will be tells them what he would have them to be i.e. Perpetual and implacable Enemies to the Bishops p. 187. And in his Prognostick to which he refers how often doth he croak over his Cant of Perjury a sin meet for none but utterly debauched Consciences and such as threatneth dreadful ruine Such principles and practices would make us guilty of the perjury and impenitence of many hundred thousand persons p. 154. And p. 219. Aggravated perjury deliberate lying rebellious profession of disobedience to God owning great and publick sins corrupting holy Worship c. P. 221. The sins which we fear viz. in Conformity be of the greatest sort that Hell suggesteth perjury and owning the perjury of thousands and doing that which is equivalent to the preaching of impenitency and saying Repent not for I declare it is no sin and lying deliberately and making a publick Ministerial profession of Vsurpation and Church Corruptions and of our resolution never to obey God in doing any duty of ours in order to a Reformation c. Will any Man believe that Mr. Baxter is so grievously persecuted who hears him thus affronting the Laws and reviling and provoking Authority P. 200. It may be your great Patrons may die or fall or forsake you and then your hearts are broken It may be death he seemeth to speak of a violent death as p. 204. One Felton may end the great Duke of Buckingham p. 205. Or they may meet with such Executioners as Cardinal Beton may enter into your Families and make you think what blood-thirstiness doth tend to And you must consider also that if blood or destruction be the means you trust to you must set up a Shambles or Trade of Butchery and make it the profession of all your lives c. which I abhor to relate what he there talks at large And p. 226 227. The world already thinks that the Clergy are so covetous proud and envious that like the great Dog that hath got the Carrion snarls at every little Dog that looketh at them suspecting they come to take some from him it is the common opinion that the Clergy are the Incendiaries Troublers of the World and that the worst Princes left to themselves are not half so cruel against the faithful preachers and practisers of Christianity as if they persecuted it eo nomine as the proud and covetous Clergy are Now that it hath been Mr. Baxter's work to effect this temper in the People he gives us this instance besides what I might mention in London and Kedderminster p. 90. I love to instance where I dwell and see because of certainty This Market Town of Barnet ten miles from London was so extreamly addicted to your way so impatient of the Directory and Ministry now cast out that one who was their Minister in times of Vsurpation told me he was fain to leave them and professed he was really afraid lest they would have put him into the Grave and buried him alive for burying a Corps without Common Prayer according to the Directory And now the Case is so much altered that though the Town consists so much of Inns and Ale-houses a private meeting near the Church is so much crowded as the Churches were and the Church is almost empty Egregias vero laudes spolia ampla the Inns and Ale-houses are become Conventicles by Mr. Baxter's Reformation and the Church forsaken From p. 197 to 210. you have a continued cry of the bloodiness of Bishops comparing them to Foxes Wolves
part quoted and heartily desire them to peruse shall find that I did not wrest or misreport them But in truth if Men shall read your Actions before and after they would find a great disparity between them and your Words And if I had shewn any fowl dealing in my Quotations why did you not deal so fairly as to give one Instance Mr. Baxter I understand by your Book that you think that you are in the right which is the most that I have learned out of it unless it be also that you think the Non-conformists be not yet hated and afflicted enough or that he that sweareth must ascend by treading upon him that feareth an Oath Answ I am the more confirmed that I am in the right because you say nothing to convince me of my Errour for which I should have thanked you And if you have learned nothing by my Book you may thank your self some Men must unlearn a great deal before they are capable of learning any thing against their Prejudices and Interests That I think the Non-conformists not hated and afflcted enough is more than you can learn from my Book and I challenge you to shew any Passage there tending to the punishment of Nonconformists equal to that which your own Principles suggest For you say The Magistrate will quickly find that the Distractions of the Church will quickly breed and feed such Distractions in the Commonwealth as may make them wish they had quenched the fire while it was yet quenchable The fire that began in the Church may if let alone reach the Court p. 209. of Confirm You objected the like to another moderate Antagonist p. 160. Sacril Desertion What good will our Sufferings do you Do you feel your selves ever the more at liberty when we are in the Common Goals Are you the fuller when some Non-conformists want bread but upon better information you saw cause then and may now to retract that obloquy As for that other Insinuation that you should learn from me That he that sweareth must ascend by treading upon him that feareth an Oath you came too late to learn it out of my Book If it had been there the swearing to the Covenant taught that Lesson perfectly how to ascend into their places that feared that unlawful Oath Our lawful Subscriptions injure no Man Pray where did you learn to load the Conforming Ministry with a Charge of Perjury Perfidiousness and Persecution greatest and covenanting never in certain Points to obey Christ against the World and the Flesh as you too plainly insinuate p. 74. of Sacr. Desertion Mr. Baxter I am in some doubt lest you have wronged our Prelacy by so openly proclaiming the enmity of so great a Man as Hales against them and by inticing Men by your noise to read his Book which you contradict which if they do I doubt that your Confutation will not save them from the light Answ I am out of doubt why Mr. Hales is accounted so great a Man with you viz. for opposing our Prelacy and I perceive you practice the same way of growing popular But the reading that Book of mine which if it have not answered Mr. Hales's Arguments yet shews how he confuted them himself when in his later days he was perfectly reconciled to that Sacred Function and died as a Martyr in its Communion cannot prejudice our Prelacy He had indeed a fit of distempered Zeal as other good Men may but it was not hectical and inveterate He had a strong Brain and sound Vitals which restored him to a better Judgment and that is all the hurt I wish you But I pray Sir when you say That I defend Schism had not you such a Notion as Mr. Hales That the Bishops who endeavour Conformity are Schismatical I find p. 29. of your Sacril Desertion that you call them the Sect of the Diocesan Prelates and Schism in Fact must lye on them or you and those of your Perswasion who declare That upon just Reasons you dissent from the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy or Prelacy disclaimed in Covenant as it was stated and exercised in these Kingdoms p. 5. of your first Paper to the King But your just Reasons for so doing are still in the dark Reasons indeed you suggest as well against the Primitive Bishops in your History of Bishops throughout as against our Prelacy But oh with what Injustice with how much Malice are they insinuated The Grotian Bishops as you term them were destructive of Religion animating the haters of Piety and driving Multitudes out of the Land the most of them twenty for one being Conformists Preface to Grotian Religion So that it was safer in all places that ever you knew for Men to live in constant Swearing Cursing and Drunkenness than to instruct a Man's Family on the Lord's Day p. 109. And again p. 113 114. Should one of you i.e. of the Episcopal Clergy pretend to be the Bishop of a Diocess you would have a small Clergy and none of the best and the People in most of the Parishes that are most ignorant drunken prophane and unruly with some civil Persons of your mind who would be inconsiderable in the Croud of the ungodly for the cause of their Love to Episcopacy is because it was a shadow if not a shelter to the Prophane heretofore so that the Prelatical Church would be in the common account near kin to an Ale-house or Tavern to say no worse Thus have you poured out as much Contempt upon that Sacred Order as so slender a Vessel could hold But none of this Filth will stick upon it with those that can remember The Agreement that was in the Worship of God the solemn Sanctification of the Sabbaths the discountenancing and punishing of Vice the Love and Charity among Neighbours which I my self do yet remember in this City where I had my Education under that happy Government before our late unhappy Wars all which Blessings we do now again in some good measure enjoy And if this be the way which you call Schism I do resolve by the Grace of God living and dying so to worship the God of my Fathers nor will any but a Romanist account me a Schismatick for so doing Mr. Baxter But the reason of troubling you with these Lines is only to crave some satisfaction about two or three Matters of Fact in your Book which would seem strange to me did I not find such things too common in Invectives against the silenced Ministers and did I not know that it is part of Satan's work to perswade the World that no History hath any certainty of Truth that so Sacred History may be disadvantaged Answ How strange soever the Matters of Fact may seem to you I doubt not but they will appear to be true to the indifferent Reader but that I have acted the part of Satan to perswade the World that no History is true that so I might disadvantage Sacred History is most untrue Nor have you because you could