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
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
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
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
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