10. Ib. But he professeth that he dealeth thus in Zeal to the Glory of God Love to the Cause of Christ and Non-conformity which I have deserted Where 1. It is a repeated falshood that I have deserted the Cause of Non-conformity I challenge him openly to name even one point of it in which I have changed my judgment these 31 yeares which I speak not as my praise who in those things have grown no wiser except in knowing the same things better to this day 2. What sin will you call it to father all these falshoods on the Glory of God and the Cause of Christ Doth his Cause and Glory need mens Lies How many hundreds thus in a few more Libels may you publish if Satan bless them as hitherto he hath done with an Increase and Multiply Sect. 11. pag. 5. He reciteth many words of my Disputations of Church Government and laboureth whether by gross Ignorance or malice I know not to perswade the Reader that I retract or contradict them and saith We stand amazed you should so soon and so much forget all that you have said This is not a single falshood but maketh up no small part of his Book Reader do but hear and judge whether any thing except his Amareduci can excuse such horrid deliberate untruths 1. I never retracted any of that book setting aside the Dedication 2. I do still profess that I am of the same judgment which that book expresseth 3. I have in the greatest audience told the Bishops that I stand to it and provoked them to answer it 4. There is not a word of contradiction to that Book in my Cure of Church-Divisions which he writes against And am I not as like to understand my own writings as this man is 5. That very Book pleadeth as much and much more for a moderate Episcopacy the lawfulness of a Liturgy and those circumstances or ceremonies which I judge lawful as kneeling at the Sacrament than my later Books have done 6. It was to me a considerable Providence which drew me when the Sectaries were at the very highest to write that Book which had I written since the King returned they would have imputed to temporizing or a change 7. The very same men that now rail so loud against me said nothing that ever I could hear of against that book that contained more than Now I have written for But then it passed uncontradicted by them that now rail at half as much So Is it not a strange fate which that poor Book incurreth that the men of both sides plead it as for them and commend it whilst they condemn the Author as if he were himself against it The Reverend Bishop whom Mr. Bagshaw wrote against alledged it in the greatest audience before his Majesty Dukes Lords and Bishops with no less commendation than these words No man hath spoken better of this than Mr. Baxter And now Mr. Bagshaw citeth it with applause Reader who is in such a case as I The Bishop is for my Book Mr. Bagshaw is for it And I am the man that am against my self whilst I openly tell them both that I still stand to it as my judgment only not owning any words that any party shall justly find to be too sharp Surely they labour to bring me to that reputation among these contenders as Plato was among the Philosophers whom every Sect took to be the second or next the best Sect. 12. But pag. 6. he thinks that he talketh like a man of brains when he inferreth that if they be such kind of persons as I have represented them they ought immediately to be forsaken and forborn as to any acts of Church-communion Answ. But 1. I never said of them that they printed besides false Doctrines fourscore untruths in two small Libels as you have done and give the world neither vindication nor repentance And yet you or your disciples will not inferr thus against your self 2. Deceitful man Did I ever lay the charge you mention against all the honest conformable Pastors of the Parish Churches in the Land who have no hand in any thing that you can call an imposition or a persecution Nay that own not as they think the Diocesan Prelacy as such but only Episcopacy in general and Diocesans as the Kings Officers Did I ever lay that charge against all the Christians in the Parish Churches No nor against all the Bishops neither 3. And must all the Churches in a Kingdome be excommunicated or forsaken for the cause of a few men whom few of them ever knew or saw This is like the Popes interdicting Kingdomes 4. And if you separated but from the individual offenders should it not be done in a regular way Why go you about to blind the ignorant with such palpable fallacies as these Is it truth that men must be thus cheated into with errours Sect. 13. pag. 6. From what I said the Episcopal Churches would then have been if they had but had a meer toleration in the times that openly discountenanced them when the countenanced parties should set up by themselves he inferreth as if I had called them such now when no other are tolerated and that in all those Parishes where are good Ministers and no other Churches Thus palpable falshood is the very life of all his Libel Sect. 14. Ib. The self-contradicting man professeth to follow the Light which I once had in this and yet that my present Light is nothing else but confusion of darkness when I said the same then in that very Book that now I do and now own that book which I wrote then And all to carry on a cheating falshood as if in this I had changed my judgment Sect. 15. I had almost pass'd over a shameless falshood pag. 4. And that you may know I do not speak at randome particularly when at Gloucester you preached upon Curse ye Meroz and now you say you do repent do you expect ever to be believed again which is a mere composition of Vntruths 1. I never preached on Curse ye Meroz in my life if he mean that text or those words I never was at Gloucester but about one month before the Wars in which I preached thrice or four times of which one on a Fast had respect to the times which was on Ezek. 37. 3. Son of man Can these bones live And my business was to shew the Difficulty of the reparation and reformation of a sinful lapsed Church In which I mentioned many things and sorts of people that would hinder it but neither my Notes which I yet have by me or memory have any thing at all that tended unto War or resistance of Authority Yet if any other Sermon there did touch the times which I remember not I am sure it was not on that Text which I never preached on 2. And he as falsly insinuateth that I say I repent of what I preached at Gloucester so hard is it to him to speak that which is not
THE CHURCH TOLD OF Mr. ED. BAGSHAW's SCANDALS AND Warned of the dangerous snares of Satan now laid for them in his LOVE-KILLING PRINCIPLES WITH A farther proof that it is our common duty to keep up the interest of the Christian Religion and Protestant Cause in the Parish Churches and not to imprison them by a confinement to tolerated meetings alone By RICHARD BAXTER A Militant Servant of Christ for Faith Hope and Love Unity Concord and Peace against their contraries on both extremes LONDON Printed in the Year MDC LXX II. ERRATA PAge 13. l. 32. for Amareduci r. Amazedness p. 25. l. 6. for Care r. Cure l. 13. for impertinently r. impenitently p. 31. l. 12. for Perry r. Peury p. 33. l. 2. r. up by some l. 3. dele the. l. 13. r. live l. 38. for unmeasurably r. unanswerably THE CHURCH TOLD OF Mr. BAGSHAW's SCANDALS And warned of his Dangerous Snares THE SVMME 1 Cor. 5. 6. Your glorying is not good Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump Rom. 3. 8. Let not us do evil that good may come whose Damnation is just Jam. 1. 20. For the wrath of man worketh not the Righteousness of God Jam. 3. 6 8 9 13 14 15 16. The tongue is a fire a world of iniquity So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell The tongue can no man tame it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meckness of wisdome But if ye have bitter zeal envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lye not against the truth This wisdome descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devillish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work Rom. 16. 17 18. Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them But not the Churches or the innocent for their sake For they that are such serve not the Lord Iesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Act. 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking pervâ—rse things to draw away disciples after them 1 Cor. 11. 19. For there must be also heresies or sects among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you Matth. 22. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21. Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not But Iesus perceived their wickedness and said Why tempt ye me ye hypocrites shew me the Tribute-money Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Matth. 17. 26 27. Then are the Children free Notwithstanding lest we should offend them Rev. 22. 15. For without are dogs and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye Psal. 15. 2 3. Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacles who shall dwell in thy holy hill He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart that backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour Christs own Doctrine and Practice Luke 4. 16. As his custome was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read John 18. 20. I spake openly to the world I ever taught in the Synogogue and in the Temple whither the Iews alwayes resort and in secret have I said nothing Mark 1. 44. Shew thy self to the Priest and offer for thy cleansing ... Matth. 23. 2. 3. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe observe and do but do not ye after their works for they say and do not what they were see in the rest of the Chapt. Mat. 7. 1 2 3 4. Iudge not that ye be not judged For with what judgement ye judge ye shall be judged and with what measure ye measure it shall be measured to you again And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thy own eye TO THE CHURCH AND TO POSTERITY CHAP. I. HAd I seen as I have done the spring multiplication growth and fruits of Dividing Principles Dispositions and Practices in these Kingdomes not being totally innocent therein my self in my unexperienced youth Had I seen so much bloud shed so many Governments overturned and so many Ministers openly reviled abused ejected silenced and so many damnable heresies risen up and all this done in the Name of God Had I my self been one of them that have been cast out of my publick Ministry and maintenance with about 1800 more at once and seen the pittiful case of too many Congregations in the land and all this as the fruit of former Church-Divisions obstinately continued twenty years to look no farther and the new effect of the same spirit still working in both extremes I say Had I seen and felt all this and yet taken the spirit the principles and practises of Division in one side or other for a virtue or a little sin I had been guilty of such horrid wilful blindness as every Christian's soul should hate And had I seen what strong temptations are lately given to propagate these evils and what advantage Satan hath got by the malignity of some to increase the bitter censoriousness of others and to pull down the good old principles of Concord on pretence that now the case is changed Had I seen the fruits of Gods indignation against a self-destroying people in Londons plague and dreadful flames and in our present Church-convulsions Had I seen what visible dangers are over us of a condition yet worser than all this Had I seen how many thousand honest Christians are in danger of being sinners or sufferers by this evil I say had I stood by and seen all this and held my tongue and let men sight like Dog and Bear and not interposed a word of counsel or controulment to the wasting fire I had been guilty of an obduratious self-saving and perfidious silence unbeseeming the Ministry or the Christian name Having therefore begun long ago to publish my Testimony and Council against the Dividing-evils in 1660 fore-seeing the critical day and danger I took the liberty of the season once more to discharge my Conscience though with slender hopes and to reason and even beg for Peace that had it been possible as much as in us lay we might have lived peaceably with all When those opportunities and hopes were gone and some glimmering once and again since vanished one side having
discharged me from speaking to them any more and God I think discharged me at present I saw nothing more to be attempted but with the other whose duty for Concord and Christian Love after many years silence I opened in a Treatise called The Cure of Church-Divisions But yet would not publish it without an Addition of the Duty of those Pastors that most complain against separation lest I should exasperate their minds against those that I instructed and should tempt them to overlook their own miscarriages But more of this then I there adjoyned it could not be expected that the Licenser should pass The only man that rose up against this Writing with furious indignation was Mr. Edw. Bagshaw a man that had before written against Bishop Morley's Letter published against me and lain in prison many years And gave the world a notable proof of one of the chief passages displeasing to them in my Book viz. That there is a marvellous affinity between the spirit of Persecution and of sinful SEPARATION though several opinions or capacities cause them to operate several wayes By this time I discerned the guilty from the innocent by the Cry which signified their smart I had seen so much of the workings of that spirit that I expected not to escape their sharpest censure And verily I expected neither preferment nor so much as Liberty to preach as a reward from the other side instead of the favour of those that I knew I was to lose Nor yet had I such a contempt of them or a desire to be bitterly censured and reviled as to invite men to it as the Circumcellians importuned men to kill them I foresaw that some interessed men would be angry as supposing that I would hinder their alienating work though they could not deny but that I spake the truth I foresaw that many that look but to the present day and place would say It was unseasonable and served the Prelates design not considering that their design is not to bad but that some things which seem their design do also seem the design of Christ and his Churches good and mens salvation I foreknew those that make uncharitable Divisions their very Religion would make it a part of their religious dutys to call me as bad as their distempers do incline them These things I prognosticated in my Preface As Tertullian saith of the Christians martyrdome It is more the choice of our own will than the effect of your power i. e. We dye because we will dye rather than not do our duty by the omission of which we could escape so I say I could easily have kept as large an interest in the favour and applause of all the parties that ever railed at me as most men of my profession as their own words have told me What did it gain me in the world to do what I have done to lose the favour of the Papists the Ithacian Prelatists the Anabaptists the Separatists the Quakers the seekers c. But I saw whither the temptations of this age did tend And this was a work that some body must do or else woe to the Ministry that in their very sufferings would be so unfaithful And I thought my reputation with the Uncurable as fit to be cast away and my self as fit to bear their slanders as most of my brethrens who had more use for an interest in them than I had And I remembred that ill-gotten goods must be restored and without restitution no remission Though I can truly say that I disliked and decryed this spirit from my beginnings yet when I preached first the favour and loud applause of some good people tainted a little with this disease did tempt me to please them too often by exclaiming too smartly against the corruptions of the Church Though I said nothing but what I was confident was true yet I think I did not well to cherish their inorâ—inate censoriousness in such matters And having gotten sometime a great stock of estimation with such angry persons by means which I dare not wholly justifie though it made me the more capable to do them good I did voluntarily surrender it to them again before they took it from me and I did yield to serve God at the rate of so small a part of self-denial rather than be silent at such a time as this I have long ago preached to Drunkards and other ungodly people till they openly rose against me in tumults in the streets and sought my life And shall I forbear to speak that truth to Ignorant-proud Dividers which is necessary to heal the Church and them and all for fear lest their passion and partiality should shew their guilt by their calling me what they are themselves They call out for Valiantness in suffering themselves And shall I be so cowardly as to fear their false reports They cry out against the fear of man And shall I fear their impotent revilings They will be my witnesses that it is a duty to deny our selves and to forsake all for the Cause of Christ And I am as certain that Love and Unity are his Cause as I am that he is the Christ And shall I think the good thoughts and words of some of his froward Children too great a matter to forsake and lose They themselves think that we should rather suffer a prison or death then joyn with the holiest Minister and people in the use of the Common Prayer And should I that know the difference think that LOVE and CONCORD are not matters more worthy to be suffered for When first the City and Countrey had sounded with abundance of untruths about my Book while it was yet but in the Press at last the man that openly assaulted it when it came forth did use the same instruments which himself decryed and filled his Libel with as many untruths as ever I saw heaped up in so small a room except once in such another piece that was about eight years elder And the Cause it self he shamefully slip'd over as if his spirit and interest had directed him to no other means but only to attempt to asperse the person that was against him I wondred that no soberer a man rose up to defend Dividing-Principles And I was glad that in an age of such Temptations he had no more approvers among the Ministers When I had answered that Libel he sent forth another which instead of professing repentance did double the number of his Vntruths and cast out more of his bilious excrements but pretended also to say somewhat for his Separating Principles and Cause When I had replyed to that and Admonished him to repent of his false Doctrines and Crimes and above fourscore visible Vntruths he hath vented a third Libel of which I am now to give you a more particular account CHAP. II. I Must needs again remember the Readers 1. That the design of my Book was not particular to reconcile men only to the Parish Churches but universal against
left us and yet will be one that shall mourn for the reproach of the solemn assemblies 26. Moreover it is one of Satans plots upon you to prepare for the reproach of the Non conformists when greater necessity shall drive them to the Parish assemblies and Communion Do not you make any doubt of it but that if the wrath or rigour of superiours should bring them to the same condition as the old Non-conformists were the most of the present Non-conformists would come to the Parish Churches even in Common Prayer and Sacraments as they did And you are preparing reproach for them that they may then be called Changelings who forsake their former principles and cause 27. And verily you will keep up the Papists hope that by an universal Toleration they may at last come in on equal terms with you or by connivance be endured as much as you And if they be equal in England with you their transmarine advantages will make them more than equal notwithstanding their disadvantages in their Cause and in their contrariety to Kingly interest which Henry Fowlis hath in folio most fully and unanswerably laid open 28. And though God in mercy hath at present given us a King that owneth the Protestant Cause so resolvedly as to make a Law against any that shall report him inclined to Popery England hath no promise that it shall be so for ever And if we should ever have a King more indifferent in his Religion do you know what a temptation it would be to him to pull down the Protestant Religion if he found it but in corners under a connivance and found it under the reproach of such crimes as Bâ—gshaw's books contain It were the next way to procure the fatal word Down with them even to the ground Though I know we have the greater security against this because Popery is so much against Princes interest and is the delâ—vering up the Kingdome in part to a foreign power 29. In a word Satan is playing by Mr. Bagshaw no lower a game than by turning all the people from the Parish assemblies while there are not in England had they liberty 〈◊〉 Ministers enow to supply the tenth part of the Churchâ—â— to 〈◊〉 the generality of them to live like open Atheists that give God no publick worship at all and so to extinguish knowledge Christianity and all Religion in most of the Land These things I see and because I see them I do as I have done 30. There is another reason that sticks much with me as knowing what silly peevish souls are employed in against themselves but I will add no more Brethren I have discharged my conscience Some will hear I will bear the censures and obloquy of the rest Your sins are no more lovely to me than the sins of other men nor no more merciful to England We all suffer by and for such sins as I have reproved I am one of the sufferers and therefore should have leave to speak I am long ago engaged in the cause of Concord Love and Peace and will not betray it for the shadow of Purity nor for the pleasing of any party whatsoever Though no duty when such is to be omitted nor any sin committed for Peace And to prevent the Calumny of Papists and the mis-information of Posterity I add that besides one hot-headed honest young man Mr. Brown I hear of no Non-conformable Minister in England that openly owneth Mr. Bagshaw's 〈◊〉 or secondeth him in his defence of the Love killing Principles of unlawful Separation Which with the other evidences of quietness and patience in the private assemblies of these times I take to be a marvellous thing considering mens great and manifold temptations which in time I hope God will abate FINIS