of Nature did warrant them But it stopt not here for the Lord Mazarine and others of Ireland did so far prosecute the Cause as that the Marquess of Antrim was forced to produce in the Parliament of England in the House of Commons a Letter of King Charles the First 's by which he gave him Order for his taking up Arms which being read in the House put them into a silence But yet so egregious was their Loyalty and Veneration of Majesty that it put them not at all one step out of the way which they had gone in But the People without doors talked strangely Some said Did you not perswade us that the King was against the Irish Rebellion And that the Rebels belied him when they said they had his Warrant or Commission Do we not now see with what mind he would have gone himself with an Army into Ireland to fight against them A great deal more not here to be mention'd was vended seditiously among the People the sum of which was intimated in a Pamphlet which was printed called Murder will out in which they published the King's Letter and Animadversions on it Some that were still Loyal to the King did wish that the King that now is had rather declared that his Father did only give the Marquess of Antrim Commission to raise an Army as to have helped him against the Scots and that his turning against the English Protestants in Ireland and the murdering so many hundred thousands there was against his will but quod scriptum erat scriptum erat Although the old Parliamentarians expounded the Actions and Declarations both of the then King and Parliament by the Commentary of this Letter yet so did not the Loyal Royalists or at least thought it no reason to make any change in their Judgments or stop in their Proceedings against the English Presbyterians and other Non-conformable Protestants Mr. Baxter adds in the Margin We are not meet Judges of the Reasons of our Superiours Actions p. 83. part 3. of Mr. Baxter's Life By which he seemeth to intimate that the Matter of Fact how odiously and maliciously soever reported by him is true but he leaves it to others to consider and judge of the Reasons of it He might with much more Ingenuity and Candor have practised himself that Advice which he gives to others in the second part of the Non-conformists Plea for Peace p. 16. That if Subjects saw a Commission under the Broad Seal to seize the Guards destroy the Kingdom or deliver it to Forreigners they were bound to judge that the King was not the Author of that Commission Subjects should not have ill thoughts of Kings though they be sinful their Faults are neither to be aggravated nor divulged This is good Advice and would have utterly destroyed the pretence of Sir Phelim O Neale and those bloody Papists that joyned with him in that execrable Massacre for which they pretended a Commission under the Broad Seal whereas it appeared that the Broad Seal then in Scotland See Burlace's Hist of that War p. 29. part 2. had not been applied to any Commission or Patent in some months before the date of that pretended Commission And the Forgery plainly appeared at the Trial of Sir Phelim O Neale who at his Trial and also at his Execution though he was offered Pardon for Life and Restitution of his Estate if he would own that he had a Commission from the King to Authorize what he had done he affirmed constantly That he had no such Commission from the King nor was his Majesty privy to their Insurrection This Relation is attested by Dr. Ker Dean of Ardah who was present at his Trial and Execution and affirms the same in a Letter printed Febr. 28. 1681. a Copy of which I shall give you when I have told another part of his Confession viz. That he having found a Patent of the Lord Caulfield's when he seiz'd on Charlemount-Castle to which the Broad Seal was annexed he caused a Commission to be drawn agreeable to his own purpose and caused that Broad Seal to be affixed to it and so gave it out that he had the King's Commission for what he did Now for the further clearing of the Royal Martyr from this foul Imputation it will appear that he had Intelligence from abroad that great Companies of Priests and Soldiers were from several Countries hastening into Ireland and that others from Ireland held Correspondence with divers Soldiers of that Nation then in Forreign Service which gave Suspicion that there would be some Trouble in that Nation whereupon his Majesty in a Letter drawn by Sir Henry Vane and sent to the Lords Justices in that Kingdom charged them with great Care and Diligence to secure themselves against what was likely to happen a Copy whereof is subjoyned DR John Ker of Ardagh being present in the Court in Dublin when Sir Phelim O Neale was Tried and Examined about a Commission which as was said he had from Charles Stuart for levying the War in Ireland did testifie that the said Sir Phelim O Neale answered That he never had any such Commission and that it being proved in Court by Joseph Travers and others that the said Sir Phelim had such Commission and did show it unto the said Joseph and others in the beginning of the Irish Rebellion the said Sir Phelim confessed That when he surprized the Castle of Charlemount that he ordered one Mr. Harrison and another Gentleman to cut off the King 's Broad Seal from a Patent of the Lord Caulfield's which he found in Charlemount and to affix it to a Commission which Sir Phelim had ordered to be drawn And the said Mr. Harrison did in the face of the whole Court confess that by Sir Phelim's order he did stitch the silk Cord or Label of that Seal and fixed the Label and Seal to the said Commission And the Court urging the said Sir Phelim to declare why he did so deceive the People he answered That no Man could blame him to use all means to promote the Cause he had so far engaged in And upon the second day of his Trial some of the Judges told him That if he could produce any material proof that he had such a Commission from Charles Stuart to declare and prove it before Sentence had passed against him that he the said Sir Phelim should be restored his Estate and Liberty But he answered That he could prove no such thing Nevertheless they gave him time to consider of it till the next day upon which day Sir Phelim being urged again by the Court he declared again That he never could prove any such thing and that he could not in Conscience calumniate the King though he had been frequently sollicited thereunto by fair Promises and great Rewards while he was in Prison And proceeding further in this discourse he was stopt before he had ended what he had to say And the Sentence of Death was pronounced against him And
in a way that should make their hearts to ake I think saith Mr. Baxter their hearts have aked by this time and as they judged him to the Gallows for his Prediction so hath Christ executed them by Thousands for their Rebellion against him Now it is evident what Discipline Vdal meant by his Confederacy with Coppinger Penry c. of which Cambden p. 420. of his Eliz. Angl. says Some of those Men who were great Admirers of the Geneva Discipline thought there was no better way for establishing it in England than by railing against the English Hierarchy and stirring up the People to a dislike of Bishops They therefore set forth scandalous Books against the Government of the Church and Prelates as Martin Mar-Prelate Minerals Diotrephes A Demonstration of Discipline c. In which Libels they set forth virulent Calumnies and opprobrious Taunts and Reproaches in such manner as the Authours seemed rather Scullions out of the Kitchin than pious and godly Men yet the Authours were Penry and Vdal Ministers of the Word Bishop Bancroft quoteth a Pamphlet of Mr. Vdal's called A Dialogue where he says That the Bishops Callings are meer Antichristian p. 59. of Dangerous Positions and p. 45. he says They were very devilish and infamous Dialogues and that there was a Conspiracy between Coppinger Wigginton c. by some extraordinary means such as Vdal had prophesied should make their hearts to ake for releasing of some that stood in danger of their lives meaning as I suppose says the Bishop Vdal Newman c. The dangers threatned by such extraordinary means to disturb the Goverment hastned the Trial of Vdal who with three others took occasion from the intended Invasion in 88 to alarm the Nation at home as also they did on the Powder Plot and to this day do by scattering seditious Pamphlets Vdal was charged with a Book called A Demonstration of Discipline which Christ hath prescribed in his Word for the government of his Church in all times and places to the Worlds end The Preface was directed To the supposed Governours of the Church of England to whom he says Who can deny you without blushing to be the cause of all ungodliness seeing your Government is that which giveth leave to a Man to be any thing save a sound Christian for certainly it's more free in these days to be a Papist Anabaptist of the Family of Love yea as any most wicked rather than what we should be And I could live these Twenty years as well as any such in England yea in a Bishop's House it may be and never be molested for it So true is that you are charged with in a Dialogue lately come forth and by you burnt that you care for nothing but the Maintenance of your Dignities be it to the damnation of your own Souls and infinite millions more The whole Book being like this Preface he was indicted at the Assizes held at Croyden and found guilty He pleaded That he was indicted on the Statute of 23 of Eliz. c. 2. for publishing seditious words against the Queen but that the Book charged on him contained no seditious words against the Queen but the Bishops only But it was answered by the Judges N.B. That they who spake against her Majesty's Government in Cases Ecclesiastical her Laws Proceedings or Ecclesiastical Officers which ruled under her did defame the Queen And on clear proof that he was the Authour of that Libel he was found guilty and received Sentence of Death but by intercession of Archbishop Whitgift was Reprieved Mr. Baxter's actings have been so like Mr. Vdal's that it is no wonder to find him labouring to justifie him in a Cause wherein himself is so nearly concerned In 1659. came forth Mr. Baxter's Key for Catholicks dedicated To his Highness Richard Lord Protector p. 323. where he asserts That if the Body of a Commonwealth or those that have part in the Legislative Power and so in the Supremacy should be unwillingly engaged in a War with the Prince suppose the Long Parliament or the Commonwealth under Oliver against King Charles the First and after many years Blood and Desolations judiciously take away his Life as guilty of all this Blood and not to be trusted any more with Government as the Parliaments Vote for Non-address to the King And all this they do not as Private Men but as the remaining Soveraign Power and say they do it according to Law undoubtedly this case doth very much differ from the Powder Plot or Papists murdering of Kings With much more to the same evil purpose And doubtless the difference is great it is more horrid for Subjects to pretend Justice than for the Pope to attempt by secret Plots to destroy a Protestant Prince In the year 58. he prints his Five Disputations of Church Government which were designed against restoring the extruded Episcopacy and Liturgy and to justifie the Presbyterian Ordination where as also in his Method for Peace p. 389. he saith We have taken down the superfluous honour of Bishops viz. their power over Presbyters as Antichristian This disputatious Book he says was written against Dr. Hammond who was then his Neighbour and he dealt very friendly with him for he scarce touched one of his Arguments but the design of the Book was to destroy the whole Order as Optatus said of a Donatist Dei Episcopos linguae gladio jugulasti fundens sanguinem non corporis sed honoris Opt. Milevit l. 2. And because after No Bishop follows No King in 1659. he sets forth his Holy Common-wealth which was no other than a Plot to keep out the King as the other was to keep out the Bishops for there being great hopes that upon so many Revolutions of Government we should settle again on our ancient Foundations he says He suited that Book to the demands and doubts of those times And his endeavour is to prove That the King being secluded and his Subjects discharged of their Obedience ought not to be readmitted Thus in the Preface That a Succession of wise and godly Men may be secured to the Nation in the highest Power is that I have directed you the way to in this Book And thus he explains himself First as to the higher Powers Prove saith he that the King was the highest Power in the times of Division and that he had power to make that War that he made and I will offer my Head to Justice as a Rebel These confident Assertions of his were such as brought a far better Head to the Block But what would Mr. Baxter have My wish is saith he that our Parliaments may be holy and this ascertained from Generation to Generation by such a necessary Regulation of Elections that all those who by wickedness have forfeited their Liberties i.e. the King and Loyal Party may neither choose nor be chosen And the reducing Elections to faithful honest upright men such as he says were then in Richard Cromwel 's Parliament is the only
be whether it were morally possible for such a Person who so passionately and for many years till his very death almost daily bewailed his constrained and unwilling assent to his death to have a Conscience so seared and void of all sense as in case he had been wilfully and designedly guilty of promoting and maintaining that barbarous War wherein as well the Blood of those that fought under my Lord Ormond by his undoubted Commission as of those that fought against him by a falsly pretended one might justly have been charged on him if that pretence had been true to have lived about Seven years and died without any regret of Conscience for so much Blood-guiltiness Bishop Hacket's Testimony on July 24. 1654. AT Rigate in Surry I had conference about this Defamation with that excellent Primate of Armagh saith he Stop their mouths with this that I shall faithfully tell you Sir Will. Parsons our Chief Justice was much intrusted with the King's Affairs in Ireland he deceasing his Friends sent his Papers to me In his Cabinet I found a Letter written by the King to warn him to look well to the meetings of the Popish Irish for he had received certain Intelligence out of Spain that they were upon some great Design of Blood and Confusion c. I was so scrupulbus saith Bishop Hacket to forget nothing of this Relation that before I stirr'd I wrote down the speaker the words the place the year and day Page 197. part 2. of Archbishop Williams 's Life There needs nothing more to be said of Mr. Baxter's being past doubt that Antrim had the King's Commission for the Irish first Insurrection than what the King replied to that virulent Remonstrance of no farther Addresses p. 289. of the Kings Works printed 1662. That if the Irish Rebellion can be justly charged on the King then I shall not blame any for believing all the rest of the Allegations against him The Regicides in the last Charge against the King did not impute to him any hand in the first Insurrection in Ireland but only his continuing Commissions to the Prince and other Rebels and to the Earl of Ormond and to the Irish Rebels and Revolters associated with him Mr. Baxter it seems could have proved much more that he gave a Commission to Antrim for that War wherein two hundred thousand Protestants were slain I am not so well read in the managing of that War as to find Antrim named either as Commander Counsellor or Confederate until the Cessation was treated of July 19 1643. and the first publick Imployment of Antrim was his being sent with Muskerry into France to the Queen when the Confederate Papists were in a low Condition to desire her and the Prince to compassionate them and restore them to their Protection making many Protestations of their Duty and applying themselves to his Majesty's Service but this was when the King was in Prison and what rhey promised for the King's Service or what they performed we find not See Burlace's Hist p. 119. His Majesty's Answer to the two Papers concerning Ireland delivered by the Parliaments Commissioners at Vxbridge which is to be seen p. 553. in his Works do abundantly justifie the Cessation of Arms made with the Irish by Ormond The Letter of Charles the Second printed in the Pamphlet called Truth brought to Light which I suppose is the same in that other Pamphlet called Murder will out says Our Referrees report that they have seen several Letters of our Royal Fathers hand writing and several Instructions to the said Marquess concerning his treating and joyning with the Irish in order to the King's Service by reducing them to their Obedience and by drawing some Forces to them for the service of Scotland and that besides the Letters under the King's hand they had sufficient Evidence and Testimony of several private Messages and Instructions from our Royal Father and from our Royal Mother N.B. This was probably in 1648. when the King was like to be murdered for then we find Antrim and Muskerry were with the Queen and Prince in France with the privity and direction of the King our Father So that this was done to reduce the Papists to Obedience and to draw some Forces for his Service he being then in Extremity Supposing then that all this were true of which I doubt because Antrim still adhered to the Pope's Nuncio and opposed Ormond who can justly blame the King for imploying and interfering one Rebel against another to save his Life To conclude although the Protestations of Sir Phelim O Neale Muskerry and Mackguire at the time of their deaths denying that they knew of any Commission of the King 's for raising or countenancing that Irish Insurrection when if they had owned it they might have saved their Lives and Estates and the Regicides could not mention it in their Charge at his Trial be a sufficient Evidence of the King's Innocency yet his Majesty's frequent Asseverations solemn Imprecations and dying Protestations make it past doubt that Marquess Antrim had not a Commission from Charles the First for raising or encouraging that bloody War wherein Two hundred thousand Protestants were murdered When I first read this Relation of Mr. Baxter's it called to my mind that which the present Bishop of Worcester said concerning him That he would die leaving his sting in the wounds of the Church which he hath verifed in the History of his Life And I may add That he hath poured forth the very bottom of his Gaul to blacken the Memory of the Royal Martyr I cannot therefore let it pass without some Remarks upon it And first I considered what Authority he had for this Report and I found in the Margine that he quoted only a Pamphlet called Murther will out which was a scurrilous Libel written as is believed by the infamous Ludlow who was one of the King's Judges Now to give some colour to this Pamphlet Mr. Baxter bestows Notes of Admiration as that it is of great remark and put him into Amazement and he seems to wonder how he should forget it in his former Relation of that War The Substance of the Relation is That Antrim's Estate being sequestred when Charles the Second was restored and that having applied himself to Ormond and the Council in Ireland they judged against him as a Rebel so that in all probability he had no Order or Commission from Charles the First to produce but coming into England he pleads to Charles the Second that he had his Father's Consent and Authority For proof whereof the King referred his Cause to some of his Privy Council who on Examination found that he had his Fathers the King's Consent But none besides Mr. Baxter says the Letters were a Commission for the first rising and probably the Plea which Antrim then made was grounded upon some Order which he had received from Charles the First while confined or from King Charles the Second whilst he was yet but Prince of
fearing God could not comply with though many men such as Dr. Beveredge Comber Falkner and the Authors of the London Cases have convincingly Answered and Vindicated them yet conceiving that none could so effectually confute them ad homines at least as Mr. Baxter himself hath done I recommended them that are unsatisfied to the serious use of Mr. Baxter's Last Legacy and Admonitions to Dissenters lately printed which if they would read without prejudice and malice well weigh the force of his Arguments they would do much right to Mr. Baxter and themselves For whoever shall think of opposing what Mr. Baxter hath said in Passion or heat of Disputation against what is proposed in those Admonitions will but shew how often Mr. Baxter hath contradicted himself nor will any sober Person that hath sound and wholsome Reasons offered by Mr. Baxter for the informing of his Judgment and Conscience pass by those and fasten on such putrified Soars and Ulcers and like the Horse-leach continue sucking in Corruption till he bursts and dyes when Salutary Food is provided Secondly Whereas Mr. Baxter and his Admirers value him for his great Zeal and constant Endeavours for Catholick Charity and particularly for Unity Love and Concord between all Parties in this Nation I have shewn in this Abridgment of his Life and mostly ex Ore suo from his own Relations that as much as in him lay he hath made the Terms of Love and Union impossible and that as he was a great Incendiary of our Unnatural Wars from the beginning to the end having engaged some Thousands in the Rebellion and served as a Chaplain to the Garrison at Coventry in 1642. so he was a Chaplain to Whaley the King's Jaylor in 1647. so in our unchristian Divisions he hath been the most forward Agent and Disputant Quorum pars magna fuit as testifieth Mr. Sylvester and that elaborate History of Bishops and Councils which he began to meditate in the Year 1640. and after many years was printed to shew as the Learned Dr. Maurice hath proved how much he wanted of being a Scholar or a Christian For Mr. Baxter himself was afraid lest that History as opened by him should prove a Temptation to some to contemn Christianity it self for the sake and crimes of such a Clergy p. 181. part 3. And indeed they had been intolerable in any Nation if they had been such as Mr. Baxter represents them But whoever shall consult the Catalogues of Ancient Heresies or the Histories of Schisms and Ecclesiastical Feuds and Tumults whether those Sixty Heresies reckoned by Epiphanius or those Eighty eight by St. Augustine or those greater Numbers by Philastrius and Theodoret or those Schisms occasioned by Novatus and the Donatists will have a hard Task to prove any lawful Bishop to be the Founder of any of those Heresies or Schisms It is evident therefore that he hath endeavoured to ruine the Primitive Government of the Church to raise a new Model of his own disturbed Imagination So that if there be any such Sins as Schism and Rebellion and such as Endeavour to defend and perpetuate them are guilty this Dux gregis may bear the Bell. Yet lest it should be thought that I have disquieted my self and others in vain and being an old Man have dreamt a Dream and Combat with Fears and Jealousies of my own Imagination let it be considered That as of old a Man of Gath came forth defying the Armies of Israel saying Give me a man that we may fight together and if he kill me we will be your Servants but if I prevail against him you shall be our Servants at whose words all Israel was dismayed and greatly afraid and the Philistines shouted and cried Victoria So there hath been a Defiance published in the Life of Mr. Baxter to the whole Host of Israel whereat great Insultation and Triumph among the Non-Conformists is heard in our Streets and is there not a Cause why an obscure Shepherd how meanly soever he be otherwise armed having got Goliah's own Sword wherewith to fight him should enter the Lists against him My Lord There is another such Disease as the Pice that hath infected both Sexes among us and is become Epidemical Mankind still longs for forbidden Fruit they loath Manna and require Meat for their Lusts How hath that damnable Heresie of the Socinians spread it self of late and corrupted the Faith of many though the Authors are either unknown or Persons of a very ill Character who under the Name of Deists and Vnitarians design the Contempt of all Revealed Religion and to unite us all in Atheism But as Mr. Baxter's Person was had in admiration among many Thousands of his Proselytes so his Remains are esteemed by them as precious and venerable as any Relicks of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Superstitious Papists Whatever raw and undigested Notions uncharitable Censures malicious Scandals and false Histories he hath uttered are lickt up and swallowed by a giddy Multitude as Rarities and luscious Dainties and the Dictates of an Infallible Teacher I shall trouble your Lordship but with one Instance Mr. Baxter hath asserted as past doubt That the Marquess Antrim had a Commission from King Charles the First for Raising that Irish Rebellion wherein Two hundred thousand Protestants were Massacred this is published again from Mr. Baxter by Dr. O. in the later end of his second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And though the ground of this Report hath no other Foundation but a Libel published by some Regicides yet the confirming it by two such Evidences as Mr. Baxter and the Doctor hath authorized it to pass as Common Discourse in Cabals and Coffee-Houses I cannot but wonder that the Doctor should so little consult for his own Credit for who will regard his Testimony against other Persons who hath so confidently asserted such a Blasphemy against the Lord 's Anointed whatever he hath deserved of the Nation by his former Evidences he deserves another sort of Pension for this Scandalous Imputation for we must blot out of our Calendar the Celebrated Memory of the Royal Martyr or shew a Mark of our just Indignation against such a One as hath so publickly affronted the Authority and Wisdom of the whole Nation Pudet haec opprobria This may be worthy of the Cognizance of the Parliament My Lord I am conscious that I have moved a Nest of Wasps and Hornets that will be buzzing about my Ears but I am an old Man and hard of Hearing so that I shall not be troubled with their Noise and as for their impotent Stings they have been so vainly spent on the Church of England that they are become very Drones And I well remember that when the present Bishop of Worcester had provoked them by his incomparable Sermon against Separation almost as soon as it was published a Forlorn Party of Reformado's appeared publickly against it such as Humphries Alsop Lob a Country and City Non-Conformist with Dr. Owen and Mr. Baxter
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
of the peaceable the discountenance of godliness and the insulting scorn of the profanest in the Land And many hundred swearing drunken ignorant scandalous negligent Ministers are cast out and we have now many humble godly painful Teachers in a County And as for the People he says in the same Epistle to his Gildas That most of them wherever he came did make Religion and reading the Sacred Scriptures or speaking of the way to Heaven the matter of their bitter scorn and reproach He spares not to Revile the Royal Martyr as if he intended to justifie his Murder King Charles saith he by the Bishops instigation kept Mr. Pryn long in Prison and twice cropt his Ears for writing against their Masks and Plays and the high and hard proceedings of the Prelates though the Archbishop whose Head they cut off for less shewed greater Crimes of which he was proved guilty in his Speech in the Star-Chamber This was not such a fast as God required to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burthens to break every yoak and to let the oppressed to free This was the Hypocrite ' s fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness and to make their voice to be heard on high Isai 58.4 in the words of the proud Pharisee God I thank thee I am not as other men nor as this Publican as will appear to him that reads chap. 4. sect 1. and p. 154. where he raileth intolerably against the Rulers as Haters of practical godliness and of all that would but speak seriously of Heaven and tell Men of Death and Judgment and spend the Lord's day in preparation thereto that did but pray in their Families or reprove Drunkenness or Swearing What could any Papist say more to disparage the Church of England As to the inferiour Clergy he says p. 157. The Churches were pestered with abundance of meer Readers Drunken Profane and Debauched Men and many that had more plausible Tongues made it their chief business to bring those they called Puritans into disgrace So that I must needs say I knew no place in those times for he speaks of Men and Places within his knowledge where a Man might not more safely have been drunk every Week than to have gone to hear a Sermon if he had none at home Nor doth he spare those that died long before his memory p. 143. What Toys and Trifles did the ancient Reverend Fathers of the Church pester the Church with And what useless Stuff are many of their Canons composed of Three lamentable Vices did the Prelates of the Church commonly abound in Pride the Root and Contention and Vain-glory the Fruit c. to p. 149. where he is not ashamed to tell the World what Troubles the first Nonconformists raised at Frankfort against those Reformers and Confessors that were Exiled for maintaining the same Worship and Liturgy for the defence of which many Bishops and Ministers were suffering Martyrdom under the Papists No sooner were they the Nonconformists called home saith he p. 150. but some of them were so intemperate impatient and unpeaceable that some turned to flat Separation and flew in the faces of the Prelates with reviling Yet Mr. Baxter doth the same and accounts the requiring of Uniformity in the same or a better Worship to be a Persecution As for his Brethren he professeth to believe That England never had so able and faithful a Ministry since it was a Nation as at this day viz. Decemb. 4. 1655. in the heat of Rebellion yet he affirms Sure I am the change is so great within these Twelve years that it is one of the greatest joys that ever I had in the World to behold it But for the Prelatical Party he brings in some saying They are all empty careless if not scandalous and ungodly men And may we not conclude as Mr. Baxter doth p. 167. This is not a confessing sin but an applauding those whose sins they pretend to confess Mr. Baxter calls this Book Gildas Salvianus but he might have more truly entitled it Excidium Britannicum for that followed on it How Mr. Baxter can be excused from the guilt of Schism in the departing from the Communion of the Church after his Ordination and Subscription and Solemn Vows then made for more than Twenty years before the Impositions and Penalties enjoyned by the Secular Powers which he pleaded in his justification after the year 63. will be a very difficult if not an impossible work to him that considers Mr. Baxter's circumstances and actings I shall therefore only shew the heinous nature of that Sin as described by Mr. Baxter himself p. 741. of his Christian Directory That Schism is a sin against so many clear and vehement words of the Holy Ghost that it is utterly without excuse Whoredoms and Treason and Perjury are not oftner forbidden in the Gospel than this That it is contrary to the very design of Christ in our Redemption which was to reconcile us all to God That it is contrary to the design of the Spirit of Grace and the Nature of Christianity a sin against the nearest bonds of our highest relations a dividing of Christ or robbing him of a great part of his Inheritance That it is accompanied with Self-ignorance Pride and Vnthankfulness to God That Church-dividers are the most successful Servants of the Devil and serve him more effectually than open Enemies That it is a sin which contradicteth all God's Ordinances and Means of Grace a sin against as great and lamentable Experiences as almost any sin can be and this is a heinous aggravation of it that it is commonly justified and not repented of by those that commit it and the more heinous that it is commonly fathered upon God Therefore remember this that Schism and making Parties in the Church is not so small a thing as many take it for Yet this pious Man to keep his Proselytes from ever returning or repenting for Schism tells them in the Preface to his Plea for Peace That more like truth hath been said for the lawfulness of Anabaptism Polygamy Drunkenness Stealing and Lying in case of Necessity than any thing he ever yet read of for a full Conformity as he their describeth it Behold here the great Charity of Mr. Baxter which he extends rather to the Congregations of Schismatical Anabaptists and such as live in those detestable sins of Polygamy Drunkenness Lying and Stealing than to the most Solemn Assemblies of Conformists to which yet he hath often joyned himself in Communion How great soever his Knowledge was how strong soever his Faith yet wanting Charity the Sacred Scripture assures us that such a Man is but as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal In the year 1658. just Ten years after that the best of Kings suffered by the worst of Men Mr. Baxter sets forth his Grotian Religion and through Grotius's sides strikes at the Head and Members of the Church of England with one blow For
of them which the Collector hath not done by him The best is the words of such a scandalous Person will not be taken as a blot And I desire my conforming Brethren not to be troubled at the Railings or Reproaches of this Zealot and that they would forbear troubling him who as he saith hath been a dying Man almost these forty years And though I never spake nor thought half so ill of him as he hath recorded of himself yet I shall charitably hope and pray That if he live to see himself in this his own Glass he will yet at last repent of those Sins which he cannot but condemn as very heinous and dangerous in the sight of God and Man I shall be so charitable as to propose a method to ease him from one great fear Mr. Baxter seems much troubled to think that his Adversaries may have the last word of him Now I perceive that Mr. Hicringle by opposing the Bishop of Worcester hath ingratiated himself with Mr. Baxter Preface to Second Defence of whom he doth not come much short in confident boasting of himself It is a difficult matter to infuse to him the Art of Defining and Distinguishing by which Mr. Baxter is able to evade any Argument But this defect may be supplied if Mr. Baxter bequeath him his Eighty Books and enjoyn him especially to study his Arguments for Separation and the heinous sins of Conformity which he shall find often repeated and to apply them on all occasions But let him not do as in his Naked Truth conceal the Name of his Benefactor but quote him totidem verbis and so Mr. Baxter may have the last word as long as the Faction continueth But if this fear be thus removed I question whether a greater will not follow viz. of being like Jeroboam who having set up Calves at Dan and Bethel in opposition to the established Worship is recorded to have made Israel to sin not in his life-time only but long after his death and how dreadful the final Sentence of such a one may be I commend to Mr. Baxter's most serious Meditations But if Mr. Baxter who so solemnly cites others to Judgment continueth to go on impenitently to that dreadful day I shall yet pray for him as he doth for the Conformists Lord have mercy on him And because I doubt not but his Friends and Disciples will raise a Monument to perpetuate the Memory of their Master I shall commend this Characteristical epitaph Hic jacet RICHARDUS BAXTER Theologus Armatus Loiolita Reformatus Haeresiarcha Aerianus Schismaticorum Antisignanus Cujus pruritus disputandi peperit Scriptitandi Cacoethes nutrivit Praedicandi zelus intemperatus maturavir ECCLESIAE SCABIEM Qui dissentitab iis quibuscum consentitmaximè Tum sibi cùm aliis Nonconformis Praeteritis praesentibus futuris Regum Episcoporum Juratus Hostis Ipsumque Rebellium Solennae foedus Qui natus erat per Septuaginta Annos Et Octoginta Libros Ad perturbandas Regni Respublicas Et ad bis perdendam Ecclesiam Anglicanan Magnis tamen excidit ausis Deo Gratias REFLECTIONS ON Some Material Passages First concerning the Marquess Antrim MR. Baxter had related in his Penitent Confession N. 22. That he had read the King's Letter in Spain to the Pope promising to venture Crown and Life for the Union of Christian Churches including the Roman and whether it be true as the Scots say That the King put the Broad Seal to a Commission for the Irish Rebellion he determines not but it 's past doubt that the Marquess of Antrim had his Commission if Mr. Baxter means that he had a Commission for the Irish Rebellion in the first Insurrection yet he himself says That if a Subject had seen such a Commission he was bound not to believe that the King was the Authour of it p. 16. of second Plea for Peace What ground then had he for his confidence that Sir Philem O Neale had such a Commission as was boasted of But the Cheat was undeniably proved but Antrim's Commission was not heard of till after the end of the War and then there appeared no Evidence of it nor do we find it mentioned in any History of that War I shall therefore set before the Reader Mr. Baxter's Relation of that pretended Commission and then shew that his presumption could have no other ground but his vile Opinion that the Royal Martyr was a Papist as he maliciously represents him or from the Relation of Ludlow or some other of the Regicides in that Scandalous Pamphlet which is Mr. Baxter's chief Authority called Murder will out That I may clear the Prejudice of such Readers as are too ready to give Credit to this Relation of Mr. Baxter I desire them to take notice that this Commission to Antrim is pretended to be granted to authorize that Insurrection of the Irish wherein Two hundred-thousand Protestants were massacred which if it had been true how vainly and foolishly did Sir Phelim O Neale act in Counterfeiting another Commission and pleading that to countenance their Rebellion if they had an Authentick one Had Antrim such a Commission and never made it known to Sir Phelim O Neale or to the Lord Muskerry and Mackguire Or if these Men had known of such a Commission would not they or one of them at least have confessed it when their Lives and Estates were offered them upon that Condition before their Execution And did not all three deny that they knew of any Commission from the King or that he was privy to their Rising How then is Mr. Baxter past doubt that the Marquess of Antrim had that King's Commission which he aggravates as followeth I had forgotten one Passage in the former War of great remark which put me into an amazement Part 3. of Mr. Baxter's Life p. 83. The Duke of Ormond and Council had the Cause of the Marquess of Antrim before them who had been one of the Irish Rebels in the beginning of that War when two hundred thousand Protestants were murdered His Estate being sequestred he sought Restitution of it when Charles the Second was restored Ormond and the Council judged against him as one of the Rebels He brought his Cause over to the King and affirmed that what he did was by his Father's Consent and Authority The King referred it to some worthy Members of his Privy Council to examine what he had to show Vpon Examination they reported that they found that he had the King's Consent or Letter of Instructions for what he did which amazed many Hereupon his Majesty Charles the Second wrote to the Duke of Ormond and Council to restore his Estate because it appeared that what he did was by his Father's Order or Consent Whereupon the Parliaments old Adherents grew more confident than ever of the righteousness of their Wars And the very Destroyers of the King whom the first Parliamentarians called Rebels did presume also to justifie their Cause and said That the Law