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
A REVIEW OF Mr. Richard Baxter's LIFE WHEREIN Many Mistakes are Rectified some False Relations Detected some Omissions supplyed out of his other BOOKS WITH REMARKS on several Material Passages By THOMAS LONG B.D. One of the Prebendaries of St. Peter's Exon. I have been in the heat of my Zeal so forward to Changes and Ways of Blood that I fear God will not let me have a hand in the peaceable building of his Church Mr. Baxter's Letter to Dr. Hill LONDON Printed by F.C. and are to be sold by E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1697. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND Father in GOD JONATHAN Lord Bishop of Exeter May it please your Lordship I Am very sensible how Criminal it is for any Christian to do what the very Heathen have forbid to speak any thing of the Dead but what is well and yet there are so many ill things recorded of Mr. Baxter in the following Treatise that I might justly incur your Lordships displeasure if I could not plead very necessary and satisfactory Reasons for this Undertaking First therefore I plead that I have said little or nothing in what is now published but what Mr. Baxter reported of himself as Matters of Fact in the History of his Life and other Books printed in his Life time or what is fairly inferred from the same 2. That the Substance of what is now published was printed about nine years before his Death which it is evident he had perused and acknowledgeth he had given no Answer to it except a Mentiris which was his usual Reply to other Adversaries for want of Reason and Argument 3. I say that though dead he hath first provoked me for in p. 188. part 3. of his Life he saith Long of Exeter wrote so fierce a Book to prove me out of my own Writings to be one of the worst Men living on Earth full of Falshoods and old retracted Lines and half Sentences that I never saw any like it and yet though so much concerned and surviving about Nine years he hath not discovered that fulness of Falshoods c. which he suggested but tells his Readers that it is none of the Matter in Controversie whether he be good or bad whereas it is certain that a good Man would never ingage in so bad a Cause as he hath defended by his Personal Actions as well as in many Writings and he himself tells us That a true Description of Persons is much of the Life of History p. 136. of his Life And an evil Tree cannot bring forth good Fruit. 4. I plead not my own Cause but the Cause of the Church and National Constitutions and in truth of all Degrees of Persons in the Nation for this Historical Relation of his own Life contains a virulent invective and grinning Satyr against all that live in conformity to the Ecclesiastical or Civil Laws the King is represented as a Papist and Authorizer of the Irish Insurrection the Parliament is Tyrannical making such Laws as proved Taring Engines and such as no Man fearing God could submit to the established Order of Episcopacy as Antichristian the Clergy as perjured and persecuting Persons the Nobility and Gentry as strengthners of Iniquity in the Land And do not such Scandals demand a Reply 5. It is necessary to disperse those Clouds and Umbrages with which he would cover his mischievous Designs his Pleas for Peace first second and third and his Only way of Concord being nothing else but Seeds of Discord and Confusion and necessary it was that such ill things should have good Names given them those that would propagate Schisms and Heresies need a Form of Godliness to set them off Arius Aerius and Donatus were Men of good Learning and as to appearance of good Lives also yet the one most strangely propagated that damnable Error of denying the Lord that bought him and the other those Schisms which have divided the Body of Christ his Church to this present Age 'T is but an Artifice therefore of all Seducers of which the Apostle forewarns us 2 Tim. 3.2,3 That in the last days men should be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than of God and all this under a Form of Godliness and when even Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light it is no marvel if his Ministers be transformed as the Ministers of Righteousness 6. I remember that our Excellent Bishop of Worcester prudently foretold of Mr. Baxter That he would dye leaving his sting in the wounds of the Church which Mr. Baxter hath abundantly fulfilled in this and many other of his Writings which Stings must be pluckt out or the Wounds which they have made will be still kept open and bleeding for though Mr. Baxter be dead he hath done what he could to raise up and arm a Succession of such a Generation of Dissenters as shall still eat into the Bowels of the Church and he hath provided a Magazine of Ammunition for them Mr. Sylvester tells us How much he was delighted in a hopeful Race of young Ministers and Christians how much he valued young Divines and hopeful Candidates for the Ministry how liberal he was of Counsel and Encouragement to them and inquisitive after and pleased with their growthful Numbers and Improvement And he told me that he had the greatest hopes and expectations from the succeeding Generation of them that they would do God's Work much better than we had done before them To which end he acquaints us in the beginning of his Preface That Mr. Baxter left the orderly disposal of his bequeathed Library to young poor Students So that here is a Fund provided for a perpetual Schism And Mr. Sylvester hath discovered a hidden Treasure of Mr. Baxter's which he is improving as a Supply of Deficiencies in another Volume Having shewn your Lordship the Reasons of my Undertaking I shall briefly give you an Account of what I have performed to frustrate these pernicious Attempts Your Lordship knows I have served as a Veterane Souldier in these Parts of the Church Militant about Fifty years and might now sue for a Dismission being somewhat elder than Mr. Baxter was when he left writing which was as Mr. Sylvester says Seven years before his death when he was as I compute it Sixty nine years old and I am now entred into the Seventy sixth year yet to excite and encourage men of greater Abilities I have as I were able performed these two things First Whereas a great part of this and other Writings of Mr. Baxter as also of his whole Life hath been spent in framing Objections against and Defamations of our well-establish'd Discipline and Liturgy which he blameth as too confused for want of Method and for its Matter abstracted from the Penal Laws as abounding with Thirty or Forty such tremendous things as a man
he doth by the whole Order of Church Governours that he may make ours the more odious He says as in divers places p. 252. 253. of Saints Rest That the first rage of the Prelates in silencing as learned able Ministers and incessantly persecuting as godly Christians as the World enjoyed was just before the War begun increased an hundred fold P. 251. As I am certain by sight and sense that the extirpation of Piety was the then great design which so far prevailed that very many of the most able Ministers were silenced Lectures and Evening Sermons on the Lord's-day suppressed Christians imprison'd dismembred and banished He speaks as if it were done by Heathen for no other cause but as being Christians That it was as much at least as a mans Estate was worth to hear a Sermon abroad when he had none or worse at home to meet for Prayer or any other godly Exercise and that it was a matter of Credit and a way to Preferment to Revile and be Enemies to those that were most Conscientious and every where safer to be a Drunkard or an Adulterer than a painful Christian and that multitudes of Humane Ceremonies took place when the Worship of Christ's Institution was cast out besides the slavery that invaded us in Civil respects So I am most certain that this was the Work which we took up Arms to resist and those were the Offenders whom we endeavour to offend You see Mr. Baxter is armed with Prejudice and Zeal Cap-a-peé for a War wherein to resist his Superiours under a pretence of Reformation though to that Resistance the Word of God threatens Damnation Yet Mr. Baxter p. 271. says As I cannot yet perceive but that we undertook our Defence upon warrantable grounds so I am most certain God hath wonderfully appeared through the whole Success was the great Argument of which p. 250. Having been an Eye-witness of a very great part of the eminent Providences from the first of the War I have plainly seen something above the common Course of Nature in almost every Fight that I have beheld The War saith Mr. Baxter was begun in our Streets before the King or Parliament had any Armies between the Puritans and drunken Rabble that hated the Parliaments Reformation and so I was forced to be gone before the Wars And a Man that was more pious and devout than the Multitude could not live by them in most places but were forced into Garrisons and Arms to save their Lives p. 252. of Saints Rest i.e. in plain English Mr. Baxter with the other Reformers put themselves into Arms and seized the King's Forts making them Garisons against the King I desire the Reader to reflect on this part of the Narrative Mr. Baxter often accuseth the Conforming Clergy with deliberate Lying and Perjury What was it in Mr. Baxter being prejudiced against the Bishops at Nineteen yea against Bishop Morton at Fourteen being familiar with Non-conformist Ministers and knowing their Minds yet to submit to Episcopal Ordination and Subscribe and Swear to obey the Bishop in licitis honestis and presently omit the Cross and Surplice and dispute openly against Bishops and prosecute and defend the War against the King against the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and when his taking of Holy Orders seems to be for no other end but to inable him to do the more mischief Was not this to be deliberately perjured But to go on he says in cold blood His engaging in that War was the greatest outward Service that ever he performed to God That Neutrality had been sinful and to have been against the Parliament in that Cause had been Treachery p. 481. of H.C.W. And p. 480. If I had known that the Parliament in that Cause had been the beginners and in most fault yet the ruine of our Trustees is a punishment greater than any fault of theirs though it were the cutting off his Head against a King can deserve and that their faults cannot disoblige me from defending the Commonwealth I knew the King had all his Power for the Common Good and none against it and therefore that no Cause can warrant him to make the Commonwealth the Party which he shall exercise Hostility against and that War against the Parliament especially by such an Army in such a Cause is Hostility against them and so against the Commonwealth All this seemed plain to me and especially when I knew how things went before who were the Agents how they were minded and what were their purposes against the People Would not this Man have made a better Solicitor against the Royal Martyr than Cooke who said he was another Solomon for his parts Did Cromwel or Bradshaw ever object such things against him as Mr. Baxter hath done Who could think that Mr. Baxter who pretends for so much Peace was ever a Man of such a Temper With what heart could he be an Eye-witness of the Humane Butcheries that were made in almost every Fight from the beginning of the War or with what Face could he say there appeared more of Christ's Interest on the one side than on the other as in the first occasion so in the Prosecution p. 252. of Saints Rest. And again Whatever the end may prove I am sure I have seen the Lord in the means p. 251. And That as we undertook our Defence on warrantable grounds so I am most certain God hath wonderfully appeared through the whole ibid. He says in the Epistle he was wonderfully rescued from many dangers in four years Wars and after many tedious nights and days and many doleful sights and tidings he and many of his Kederminsters whom he it seems had led on to the War were returned in peace that he was twenty several times delivered when he was near to death O the sad and heart-piercing Spectacles says he p. 115. that mine eyes have seen in four years space In this Fight a Friend fall down by me from another a precious Christian brought home wounded or dead precious Christians no doubt that died in such a horrid Rebellion scarce a Month scarce a Week without the sight or noise of Blood Surely there is none of this in Heaven our eyes shall then be filled no more nor our hearts pierced with such Fights as at Worcester Edge-hill Newbury Nantwich Montgomery Horn-Castle Naseby Langport c. it seems he was present in these Fights For he adds Mine eyes shall never more behold the Earth covered with the Carcasses of the slain And he saith He had travelled over the most part of England to pursue the War Illi robor aes triplex circum praecordia Mr. Baxter says the War began first in their Streets at Kederminster between those that would have pull'd down Painted-glass and Pictures and the People that opposed them which Parties were so violent against each oother that he was forc't to fly for his Safety And having been a while at Bridge-North 〈◊〉 Parties of the King's Soldiers
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
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
of Mr. Baxter's a token of his Gratitude to those Bishops who gave him license to preach in their Diocess or to his Subscription to the Bishop of London then Shelden to those terms of peaceableness which the Bishop accepted and Mr. Baxter voluntarily subscribed p. 12. of his late Apology If ever he did any thing toward Publick Peace he was drawn to it in vitâ Minervâ and soon retracted it but to promote Divisions he laboured manibus pedibusque with all his strength His Book called The Cure of Church Divisions is the only Work of Mr. Baxter that hath any thing of Moderation and yet as if he were sorry for what he had done at Mr. Bagshaw's Exceptions against he he says Doth it not speak against Church Tyranny unjust Impositions Violence and taking away Men's Liberties and Rigour to Dissenters from end to end p. 7. of his Defence It seems it was expected of Mr. Baxter that he should have called the Bishops Sacrilegious Silencers of the faithful Ministry Murderers of many hundred thousand Souls perjurious proud tyrannical covetous formal Hypocrites malignant haters of good Men and then he had not incurred the blame of the People p. 20. And to regain their good opinion of him he hath since said all this again and again Another part of Mr. Baxter's Character appears in what was done about the Indulgence which by a Book called The peaceable Design agreeing well with Mr. Baxter's Plea for Peace seems to have been procur'd by the joynt Endeavours of the Papists and those that call themselves Protestant Dissenters in which Book p. 71. is this Objection What shall we say then to the Papists Answ The Papist in our account is but one sort of Recusants and the conscientious and peaceable among them must be held in the same predicament with those among our selves that likewise refuse to come to Common Prayer And p. 72. As for the common Papist who lives innocently in his way he is to us as other Separatists and so comes under the like toleration So that Herod and Pontius Pilate are confederate against Christ But Mr. Baxter must lead the Chorus here also for he much exceeds the Author of that Treatise in his good opinion of the Papists yet he says Mr. Humphry is a man of latitude and tyeth himself to no Party or Opinions of other men And I saith Mr. Baxter so little fear the noise of the Censorious that even now while the Plot doth render them most odious say freely 1. That I would have Papists used like men And 2. I would have no man put to death for being a Priest 3. I would have no Writ de Excommunicato capiendo or any Law compel them to our Communion and Sacraments And is not this to open the door for Papists and Fanaticks to enter together If the Laws how severe soever cannot keep them out would not this Liberty bring them in See p. 19. of Second Defence If you will not bring the Papists in he is resolved for ought I see to go to them for p. 235. of First Plea he says It is but reasonable if on such necessity i.e. the Penalties for Nonconformity they should accept of favour from any Papist that should save them c. By which the Reader may judge who is a greater Friend to Popery the old Protestants who have made Laws to keep it out or the Dissenters who would destroy those Laws to let it in To put life into the languishing Cause he inspires it with a Dose called Sacrilegious Desertion of the Ministry rebuked and declares That as they had preached formerly without leave so they would do it much more now and says That though it had cost some excellent men their lives yet nothing but death or utter disablement should make them desist So that his Pleas and his Practice before and since the Indulgence shew that he owned the King no great thanks for it Yet being advised by a moderate hand not to abuse that Indulgence he rails at him most intolerably you shall hear it by and by I will only ask Mr. Baxter why the neglect to administer the Holy Sacraments was not as much Sacrilegious Desertion of the Ministry whereof it is a chief Work as the omission of preaching For Mr. Baxter confesseth That he had not baptized any nor administred the Lord's Supper for eighteen or nineteen years together nor adhered to any Sect no not the Sect of Diocesan Bishops for twenty five years See p. 119. of Answ to Dr. Hinkley Which to me seems to be not only a Desertion of the Ministry but of Christianity it self Certainly if he ought to do the one he ought not to leave the other undone That he and others are Pastors to no Church that he never gathered a Church nor hath he constantly joyned in Communion with any Church Answ to the Bp. of Worcester's Serm. p. 64. 24. 62. 86. Yet p. 76. of his Book of Concord he says I constantly joyn with my Parish Church in Liturgy and Sacraments and hope so to do while I live But if he thought it his duty to preach it was his duty to administer the Sacraments also for preaching was never esteemed the sole Work of the Ministers And they that omit this Duty to refuse to hear the Vniversal Church of Christ as well as the Church of England For by Canon Apost the 9th Whoever of the Faithful enter and hear the Sacred Scriptures but stay not at Prayers and Communion ought to be excommunicated as Disturbers of the Church All Churches in the Primitive times did on every Sunday celebrate this Holy Sacrament and all the faithful were wont to receive it It is also very observable that when our Church was to be setled that some of the Presbyterians moved to have the Rubrick struck out which obligeth the People to Communicate three times yearly whereas some modern Churches have found it necessary to declare as the Council of Agatho did which Mr. Baxter accounts one of the best Councils That those who receive not the Sacrament ought not to be reputed as Christians And St. Cyprian saith This bread we crave every day lest we who are in Christ by the interposing of any grievous Crime while restrained and not communicating should be separate from the Body of Christ. And now prepare your ears against that nauseous Billinsgate Language and barbarous Censures wherewith Mr. B. answers his learned Adversary * Dr. Fulwood in his Sacrilegious Desertion for want of Arguments p. 6. Railing Ruffian p. 13. Selfish envious Conformists the doleful pride and selfishness of the carnal part of the Clergy a Silencing Diocesan p. 25. Church-tearers p. 105. Such Toys p. 31. A few confident and silly Reasonings of Dr. Fulwood and other Pamphleteers Vsurpers p. 39. Hear it now for you shall shortly hear it from God p. 8. I would give all the Money in my Purse to make me understand what the Church of England is p. 35. Foolish superstitious
Priests p. 44. He talks of Per and Pers p. 49. but lays his Scene in Vtopia and says I know this is not our case in England but if we must follow you into Utopia Lest the Reader should not understand this he speaks plainer p. 74. I have been long of the opinion which you viz. that are of a contrary opinion will one day pardon that perjury perfidiousness and persecution proud contending who shall be greatest and covenanting never in certain points to obey Christ against the world and the flesh is not the way of God p. 56 57. Such confidence upon such insignificant reasons is a great dishonour to the wit and humility of the Authour p. 59. Our excellent Successours that do nothing but see the Peoples faces in the Church You forbid Baptism and the Lord's Supper to all that have not as large a Swallow as your selves p. 60. His want of common sense and modesty p. 65. O with what face p. 66. He tells us p. 96. of some of the Nonconformists Principles and Purposes They suppose that the Ministry doth not save Men as Wizards think that Charms do heal Men by their presence titles names or habits by standing in the Reading-place or Pulpit or being called the Parson of the Parish or saying his set words over them when dead As if the Conformists did believe all this P. 10. They suppose that a greater number of the conformable Priests than they are willing to mention do preach so ignorantly and dully in the Pulpits and do so little of their private work besides that there is great need of a far greater number of Assistants than all the present Non-conformists be They are not able to confute the People who tell them that their publick Priests are so defective in their necessary qualifications for their Office as that they hold it unlawful to own such for true Ministers and encourage them by their presence or commit the care of their Souls to such P. 11. They think that the ejecting the Non-conformists from the Temples and Tythes did not degrade nor make them no true Pastors to their Flocks and that the Magistrates putting another Parish Minister in possession of the Temple and Tythes did not dissolve the foresaid relation They think that the ejected Minister foro Conscientiae Ecclesiae vere sic dictae retaineth still his ancient relation to his Flock and part of them schismatically separate from him and joyn with another Intruder that never had a lawful Call P. 14. They think that Conformity would be in them such a composition of heinous crimes as they forbear to name for fear of seeming Accusers of others and unpeaceable P. 31. Look up man without blushing alas for these poor People that cannot try Sence from Nonsence P. 61. His next hath no bounds it grieveth me to read it O Posterity how will you know what to believe P. 62. Here is much that would as handsomely serve Celsus Julian Porphyry or Eunapius p. 72. P. 25. I will not offend the Readers ears by giving them the names I think they deserve but wish them to read 1 Thess 2.15 which in words at length he puts in his Title page They both killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and persecuted us And tell them by what Names or Titles soever they be distinguished that I that am a dying man would be loth to stand in their case before God And if we were well agreed that there is indeed a God and a Christ a Heaven and a Hell we should easily be agreed in all the rest i.e. Seeing you are not of Mr. Baxter's mind you are very Atheists and in a state of Damnation P. 132. I must tell you that we cannot but think that you need Repentance great Repentance that your Souls yet if possible may be saved p. 74. for sinning more and that by publick deliberate chosen covenanted ministerial sin protesting against Repentance I conclude this Collection of many such great Calumnies which that little Book doth abound with with his impudent Challenge Come and impartially debate the Case with us who have been the greatest Causes of Protestant Divisions Conformists or Nonconformists These putrid Pestilential Stinks and Corruptions are so unlike the Breathings of a mortified Christian that the like never proceeded from any dying Man except such a one as hath been dying Twenty years together of which this is a shrewd Symptome and another is as bad that as they say of dying Beasts he bites deadly Animamque in vulnere ponit I challenge any Man to shew in so little a Book so great Pride Malice and Obloquy on so slender occasion as the Indulgence prepared by the means and in favour of the Papists as well as the Presbyter Mr. Baxter knew the Person against whom he wrote to be a Person of Great Learning and Moderation as he had acknowledged under his own hand in his Book of Conformation where he often quotes him he calls him The Learned Mr. Fulwood in the Postscript but now he is a meer trifler But there is yet ultimus conatus naturae And his restless Spirit grows more brisk and sparkling as it is pouring forth from the crazy Vessel By the great mercy of God that most execrable Plot of the Papists to Assassinate the King whom God hath hitherto by a series of Miracles preserved and the Church of England against which the Gates of Hell have not and we hope never shall prevail was discovered to the great joy of all true Protestants And now while they are undermining the Foundations Mr. Baxter though a dying Man lifts up himself and gets on the top of the Fabrick to throw it down with all his might This Polity he learnt of his Predecessors who on the intended Invasion 88. and the Gunpowder-Treason when the Papists thought to have swallowed us up quick took their advantage to thrust us into their Jaws or at least to devour us themselves if we should escape our other Adversaries That he might act with less suspition and more success he calls his Engines A Plea for Peace which as Bishop Stillingfleet observes might be better called A Plea for Discord and Division And another called The true and only way of Concord so full fraught with impracticable Notions and dividing Principles as if his whole design had been to prove that there is no true way of Concord among the Churches Bishop Stillingfleet But of this Book hereafter Another Book claims precedency whereof after great labour Mr. Baxter is delivered but it proved a Monster full of Teeth and Claws which he calls Church-History of the Government of Bishops but is indeed though very partial a History of those Confusions which were raised in the Church by such as opposed the Orthodox Bishops That the sight of this Monstrous Birth may not offend let the Reader fortifie his Eye-sight with what Mr. Baxter himself hath prepared For telling us what History is credible p. 2. n. 4. of that
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
Church In that Book he calls the Bishops Thorns and Thistles the Military Instruments of the Devil and accounts them to be mad Dogs applying a Welch Proverb to them Though thy Dog be thy own trust him not when he is mad in the Premonition He rails at the Laws in a Verse of Ovid Id quod natura a remittit Invidiè Jura negant After the Contents The Bishop of Worcester propounded several Concessions to be made for the ease of the Dissenters viz. The use of the Cross the Surplice Kneeling at the Sacrament c. in the close of his Preface which Mr. Baxter rejects saying That the benefit would redound sibi suis i.e. to the Bishop and his Party not reaching our necessities but much better than nothing p. 21. of his second Defence Nothing will satisfie him but the altering the Species of Episcopacy changing the Liturgy for a Directory and repealing such Acts of Parliament as were made to secure the Peace of the Nation against such seditious Persons and Practices as had once destroyed it And p. 84. of his third Defence part 2. Mr. Baxter threatneth another destruction to it for comparing the Constitution of our Church to a separating Wall or dividing thorny Hedge he professeth That he An. 1660. once made it the most earnest action of his life to prevent the building of this Wall or Hedge And adds I will do the best I can while I live to pull it down And I believe him for then he hopes he shall be set up not as a Parochial Bishop but an Archbishop succeeding the Apostles in the ordinary Office of Government or at least as an Officer of the King And I have heard of a Proposal that Dr. Owen and Mr. Baxter may be two of the first Archbishops P. 66. of the last part of that Book he says That which hath been the chief cause and engine of Division will never become the means or terms of concord but such are the multitude of unnecessary uncertain humane Decrees Laws and Canons of Faith and Religion whatever the proud and ignorant say to the contrary Yet Solomon said In the multitude of Counsellors there is safety P. 59. In a word saith he Councils of Bishops have been but Church Armies of which at first the Patriarchs were Generals and afterward Popes and Emperours who fought it out for victory And p. 71 72. he condemns the Lutheran and Calvinist the Erastians and Behemists as well as the Diocesan ways of Concord And adds What the Independants have done towards Division and Separation it is in vain in this Age to recite and many wise Men think that the Presbyterians over-violent rejecting of all Episcopacy setting up unordained Elders and National Churches as headed by National Assemblies are divisive and unwarrantable as their making by the Scotch Covenant the renouncing of the Prelacy to be the Test of National Concord also was What remains then Nothing but Mr. Baxter's Model is the Only Only Only way of Concord More sure divine appointed by Christ himself c. But where any Person should find that Rule of which Mr. Baxter speaks so confusedly himself is the great Question for thus he concludes that Book 1. Approving the best 2. Tolerating the tolerable 3. Sacraments free and not forced 4. The intolerable restrained the Test of Toleration being this 5. Whether such tolerated Worship do more good or hurt 6. Magistrates keeping all in peace would heal us But alas Magistrates Laws and Power are resisted Every Faction count themselves more tolerable than others yea condemn others as intolerable and judge of men and things at best by their agreeing with their own perswasions and so the Only way of Concord will leave us still in Confusion Yet Mr. Baxter fearing the Book would fall into the hands of bad Neighbours he sends it forth with the highest Commendations In the Preface to his second Defence I value it saith he above all the rest being assured that the Churches will never otherwise be healed than by that impartial sure and easie Catholick way which some have reviled but none since that I know of confuted nor need they for it so confutes it self that there needs no other confutation but the reading of it Here it is that he calls the Clergy Tyrants p. 37. Thorns and Thistles grievous Wolves and the Military Instruments of the Devil P. 123. Vnder the name of Bishops they are Troublers Persecutors and Destroyers P. 47. Here he says That to tell them as Mr. Dodwel doth that no unlawful thing is imposed will as much satisfie them as if he had said that lying perjury and deliberately covenanting against God's Precepts and for corrupting his sacred Doctrine Worship and Discipline are lawful things P. 9. of his last part He accounts all Bishops and Pastors that have not the consent of the People to be Vsurpers And infers p. 10. If the Temple or Tythes be given to a Priest of Bishop not lawfully called or consented to by the Flock and another be lawfully called i.e. by the People whom the Magistrate casteth out of the Temple and Tythes it is the Peoples duty to adhere to him that is justly called it is not always a duty to adhere to him whom the Magistrate imposeth the Churches met against the will of the Magistrates above three hundred years As if our Magistrates were Heathen Persecutors for Christian Magistrates he says p. 143. must keep peace among all both approved and tolerated and not suffer any unpeaceable Preaching or Disputes which tend to destroy Love and Quietness nor suffer railing Calumnies against each other to be published or printed Now whether Mr. Baxter's way be the Only way of Concord or needs any other Confutation let the Reader judge And such as the Way of Concord such are the Pleas for Peace i.e. Pleas for Schism and Division and such Trumpets as give no uncertain sound to a War For he proclaims the terms for Vniformity to be to them morally impossible and is grieved that he must set forth an unarmed Defence He tells the People of many heinous sins in their Conformity though he had formerly encouraged it and conformed himself as a Lay-man But now God-fathers and God-mothers the Sign of the Cross and kneeling at Sacrament reading the Apocrypha the Office of Burial all are offered to the People as sinful or they are encouraged to think them so for Mr. Baxter thinks it is a sin in Magistrates to punish them for their Non-conformity But the great quarrel is against the Laws for Subscription and Renounceing the Covenant c. of which he speaks dreadful things calls them the tearing Engines of the Law represents the Magistrates as Persecutors and the Clergy as a company of notorious lying and perjured Villains And tells the Magistrates in the Epistle for they were the Legislators It is now seventeen years since near two thousand Ministers of Christ were by Law forbidden the Exercise of their Office unless they did conform
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