that must end this Controversie Wherefore turn your Plowsheres into Swords and your Pruninghooks to Spears to fight the Lords Battles to avenge the Blood of the Saints which hath been spilt It must be avenged by us or upon us I have prayed that too much pitty in our State Physicians do not retard the healing of the Land here are Malignant Humours in the Nobles and Gentry to be purged out before they be healed O that in this our State Physicians would resemble God to cut off those from the Land who have distempered it You may know what he means by his Latin sentence Melius pereat unus quam unitas Men that be under the guilt of much Innocent Blood are not fit to be at Peace with till all the guilt of Blood be expiated by the Sword of the Law or the Law of the Sword It is true saith he at his Execution I did in my place and calling oppose the Forces of the late King and were he alive again and I should live longer the Cause being as then it was I should oppose him longer But the present Power saw it not fit to trust him with a longer Life And it is very remarkable that Prideaux the Atturney General repeated most of those passages which Mr. Love had urged against the King and his Party to ruine them to shew that he ought not to have any Mercy shewed him See the Printed Tryal of Mr. Love Mr. Baxter pag. 67. of his Life says That the Souldiers said he was so like to Love that he would not be right till he was shorter by the head But Mr. Baxter acted more warily and as he says p. 84. of his Life that after Wars he had Fourteen Years Liberty in such sweet imployment and that in times of Usurpation when under a Rightful King and Governour he was laid by as a broken Vessel suspected and vilified scarce Tolerated to live privately and quietly in the Land But if Mr. Baxter had complied but half so much with the rightful Government in things lawful as he had done with usurped Powers in things unlawful he might have lived more than twice as long as quietly and godly as other good Men did Yet after the clamour of his Sufferings he thrived in those worst Times as he accounted them for he had a stock of Money out of which he could spare a Thousand pound to the Exchequer intended most of it for pious uses as he says p. 89. part 3. But in Seven years he endeavoured a purchase of House or Land but could not find it So that he perceived the Devils resistance of it and that there are Devils that keep up a War against Goodness in the World yet he found the Devil did not hinder his disbursing almost as great a Sum to build a Synagogue for his Conventicle He did not thrive so well in the Service of the Army for his Arrears of many hundred pounds were never paid him Nor was he dealt with as Mr. Love Ille crucem sceleris precium tulit hic diadema But to return This or some other Relick of this Assembly who themselves ran before they were sent did send Mr. Baxter to the Army under Cromwel after the King's death where he says he accompanied Commissary-General Whaley a Person who was sometime the King's Jailor and whom you may find in that black List of his Majesty's Judges a fit Conductor and great Confident of Mr. Baxter's to him Mr. Baxter dedicates his Apology by the Name of The Honourable c. With this Achitophel our Shemei hunts David from Mountain to Mountain cursing and railing at him as he goes the Sword of his Tongue being longer and sharper than his furbished Sword Curse ye Meroz and Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully and Cursed be he that holdeth back his Sword from Blood were the common Texts of the Army-Chaplains And the Maxims of his Holy Commonwealth were the Subjects of some of his Sermons He says in the Epistle to his first Plea for Peace My honest Friend a Proselyte of his whom it seems he had engaged in the War when he saw here a Leg and there an Arm was faint-hearted and said it was time for him to stop But the valiant Mr. Baxter though he had seen many sadder sights even the Carcasses of some Thousands Streams of Blood the Ruine of Cities Towns Churches and Castles goes on as undauntedly as the Horse that rusheth into the Battle Let the Reader view if he can without horrour what Mr. Baxter reports of himself in two Epistles dedicated to two of his Army-Saints In that to Whaley he saith Providence did so clear his way viz. in that War and draw him on and sweeten unusual Troubles with unusual Mercies and issue all in Testimonies of Grace that he had great mixtures of Comfort with Sorrow in the performance And that he had more eminent Deliverances and other Mercies in those years and ways of Blood and Dolour than in most of his Life besides It seems he was of the mind which our Saviour foretold of some that should kill his Disciples and think they did God Service He adds The best is we now draw no blood it seems he had done that sufficiently they were now as Conquerours to divide the Spoil And great things did this Champion promise himself though it appears that he was disappointed of his hopes For in another Epistle to Colonel Berry whom Stilo Novo he calls Honourable too as being one of the Council of State he thus expostulates Was I not capable of Secular and Military Advancement as well as others it seems he thought so but they did not Did I ever sollicite you as much as for my Arrears which is many hundred pounds it seems he had served them long and was well promised for his pains but this Man of Conscience was content with the pleasing work of drawing Blood gratis he scorn'd to open his mouth for the many Hundreds due to him hoping they would have advanced a Man of so generous a Spirit to some eminent Military Preferment whereof his Ministry notwithstanding he thought himself capable But this great Warriour partly through regret at his disappointments of which he complains p. 2. of his Epistle before his Saints Everlasting Rest against ungrateful men and partly through his bodily infirmities for however willing his Spirit was his Flesh was grown weak being exhausted by the Accidents of War For in the same Page he tells us that being in his Quarters far from home he was cast into extream languishing by the sudden loss of about a gallon of Blood which should have minded him of the many Gallons of Blood whereof he had been the cause of effusion after many years foregoing weakness by which his Body was ruined beyond hopes of recovery the sentence of present death being by the ablest Physicians past upon him from which he was delivered by a wonder in the midst of his duties i.e. in the
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
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
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
as their Leaders with their united Force beset him and railed lowdly against him yet durst not Attack him but evaded his weighty Arguments And Mr. Sylvester in his Preface tells us That the present Archbishop the Bishops of Worcester and Ely their greatest Antagonists were expresly mentioned by Mr. Baxter as Persons greatly admired and highly valued by him and of their readiness to serve the Publick Interest both Civil and Religious he doubted not Yet such is the Hypocrisie of these Men that they will openly Scandalize and Defame such Persons for the Edification of their Party whom they inwardly approve of and admire for their Personal Vertues and constant Endeavours to serve the Publick Interest of Church and State And though I despair of meriting their good Opinion by what I have done yet I have learnt to care less for their Calumnies and Reproaches which though plentifully and with great vehemence thrown out will not stick And now my Lord begging your pardon for this tedious Address and too confident Interruption of your more important Affairs I bless the good Providence of Almighty God who under Christ the Great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls hath placed me under the Tuition and Patronage of a Person of such Primitive Courage and undaunted Resolution as hath constantly and successfully stem'd that Spring-Tide of Popery and Socianism which was violently overflowing of us and I trust will as effectually withstand those raging Waves of Fanaticism which so impetuously assault the Ark of God on every side that we being delivered from the Hand of all our Enemies may serve God with one Consent in Righteousness and Holiness all the Days of our Life is the earnest Prayer of Your Lordships Dutiful and Devoted Servant Tho. Long. Exon Jan. 1. 1696. THE Introduction I Think it reasonable to give the Reader an Account how I became obliged to ingage in this troublesome Adventure and for his Satisfaction and my own Justification I shall declare the first occasion of my Contest with Mr. Baxter It is generally known how many Books Mr. Baxter hath written to justifie that Separation which he and others of his Perswasion had printed some of which he called elaborate and unconfutable and as another Goliah despised all the Hosts of Israel whoever appeared against him was presently born down with such a Flood of Gaul and bitter Language whereof he had an inexhaustible store that it was enough to affright any considerate Man from approaching near him he was resolved to have the last word to every Opposer and his word was as Law and Gospel to all his Party These Considerations occasioned me to think of dealing with Mr. Baxter in some other Method and having read something and heard more of his ingaging in our late War in which he continued well-nigh from the beginning to the end about 71 years and had been present at most of the great Fights and Sieges in that war as you will find hereafter from his own relation I resolved to be at some pains to trace his progress throughout the War and because I wanted opportunity to enquire it from others and partly because I might neither be truly or fully informed either from some of the Party with whom he was or the Party against whom he was ingaged I thought it much more safe and unquestionable to relate such of his Actions and his Principles and Reasons on which he acted as I could glean up from his own undoubted Writings which being done though I now perceive I were in the dark as to many other considerable Passages recorded by himself in his Life at large I caused my Collections to be printed in the Year 1682. while Mr. Baxter was living upon which he Reflects as followeth Mr. Long of Exeter if Fame misreport not the anonimous Author 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 râ—…fred Lines and half Sentences that I never saw the like of it and being overwhelmed with work and weakness and pains and having least zeal to defend a Person so bad as I know my self to be I yet never answered him it being none of the matter in Controversie whether I be good or bad God be merciful to me a sinner P. 188. of his Life Answ I will not gainsay his Conjecture of the Author of the Book in question which was intituled The second Part of the unreasonableness of Separation which was printed 1682. The Book could not seem to be so fierce being an account of his own Relations concerning his Actions and Writings which if they represent him to be one of the worst Men living upon Earth I could not help that Mr. Baxter himself in his History of Bishops pleads for his justification That he made use of their own words In the Preface to that Book he says in a Parenthesis That the Book was full of Falshoods retracted Lines and half Sentences but that he never answer'd it which is very strange seeing he lived above 9 years after he had perused the Book in which interval he wrote several large Treatises which less concerned him than that wherein he says he was so much mis-represented And in all probability if the Book which he reflects on had been so full of Falshoods retracted Lines and half Sentences he might during that interval have found leisure enough to have given some Instances of what he pretended against with his Plea of being overwhelmed with work weakness and pains appears to be but a vain Excuse for he had zeal enough to defend himself against several others that charged him with much lesser Miscarriages And it was very considerable to the Matter in Controversie whether the Person so fiercely accused were good or bad whether he were an honest and peaceable Man one wholly devoted to serve a private interest against the publick welfare Mr. Baxter thought this a Reason why so many adhered to the Parliament That though the King had the Cause the Parliament had the better Men Mr. Baxter's Life p. 37. For my part I should have been extreamly confounded if either Mr. Baxter whilst he was living or any one since his death could have discovered an hundredth part of that Fierceness Falshood or imperfect Sentences in my Book which Dr. Maurice hath observed in Mr. Baxter's Church History of Bishops wherein he strikes at Christianity it self by the Reproaches which he casts on the Primitive Bishops calling them A few turbulent Spirits p. 46. silencing and destroying Prelates p. 73. proud contentious ambitious and hereticating Bishops p. 77. firebrands of the world p. 98. merciless furious and confounders of Churches p. 183. Nor doth he deal more mercifully with our Diocesan Bishops whom he calls Silencing damning Prelates Bryars and Thorns and Military Instruments of the Devil Though in a good mood he saith That none of the Bishops had silenced them unless by voting as Peers in the House of Lords for the
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
that time was abused and employed to very ill uses yet with Mr. Baxter Oliver is as David and his Son Richard as Solomon Mr. Baxter's Key for Catholicks was dedicated to Richard Cromwel where he gives this Character of himself One that rejoyceth in the present happiness of England and wisheth earnestly that it were but as well with the rest of the World and that honoureth all the Providences of God by which we have been brought to what we are One that concurs in the common hopes to these Nations under your Government And in another Epistle before his Five Disputations of Church-Government when all Religions were tolerated except that of the Church of England to prevent the toleration of that he says If you give Liberty to all that is called Religion you will soon be judged of no Religion and loved accordingly How Mr. Baxter and his Party behaved themselves during the Imprisonment of the King and while he was in the hands of his Murderers they are not willing to discover Mr. Baxter for his part says That he proved in the times of Usurpation that the Presbyterians detested it that the London Ministers printed their Abhorrence of it to the World Preface to Second Plea As for the London-Ministers I read that about 59 of them in number pleaded for the King in these words That the woful Miscarriages of the King himself which we cannot but acknowledge to be very many and great in his Government have cost the three Kingdoms so dear and cast him down from his Excellency into a horrid Pit of Misery beyond example This Plea for the King is like their late Pleas for Peace i.e. Justifications of Schism and Sedition for in it they say enough to excuse the Regicides We cannot but acknowledge i.e. we affirm and bear witness that the woful Miscarriages of the King himself not of his evil Counsellors only but his personal Crimes and fundamental Errours in Government too many and great to be here mentioned have cost the three Kingdoms so dear as that all the Bloodshed and Rapine and Devastations that have been made in England Scotland and Ireland might be charged on him and for these he is justly cast down from his Excellency into so horrid a pit of Misery beyond example i.e. Though the like were never done in the World he is justly fallen under a Sentence of Condemnation As to Mr. Baxter's particular abhorrence of that barbarous Fact and his proving that the Presbyterians detested it I suppose the place he refers to is his Key for Catholicks p. 321 c. he says in p. 323. That the Case of Murdering our King differs very much from the Powder Plot or Papists murdering of Kings and teaching that it is lawful for a private hand to do it A War and a treacherous Murder are not all one nor is a part of the Soveraign Power all one with a private hand p. 324. I have read what John Goodwin and Milton have written in Vindication of that horrid Murder and do believe that Mr. Baxter hath out-done them both Let the Reader seriously peruse that part of his Writings which he quotes to prove the contrary from p. 323. to p. 326. and I believe he will be of the same opinion for the design of it is to prove that p. 323. If the Body of a Commonwealth or those that have part in the Legislative Power and so in the Supremacy should unwillingly be engaged in a War with the Prince 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 and all this they do not as private Men but as the remaining Soveraign Power and say they do according to Laws undoubtedly the Case differs very much from Papists murdering of Kings I speak not this by way of Justification saith Mr. Baxter p. 325. whether they were in the right or wrong I am not the Judge but surely it was the Judgment of the Parliament upon the Division between the King and them the Power was in them to defend themselves and the Commonwealth and suppress all Subjects that were in Arms against them and that those that did resist them did resist the Higher Powers set over them by God and therefore were guilty of the Damnation of Resisters And this they assured the People was a Truth And so hath Mr. Baxter done too in his Political Aphorisms more at large but expresly enough in this place where under the name of Grotius p. 324. he asserts That the Legislative Power being divided between the Prince and Senate the Prince invading the Senates Right may justly be resisted and lose his Right And this was well understood by all that engaged in the War against the King from the beginning that in case they Conquered the King he was no more to be trusted with the Government For if it were known before-hand saith Mr. Baxter that if they should purchase a Victory by their Blood when they have done all they must be all governed by him whom they have conquered and lye at his mercy they would hardly ever have an Army to defend them So that the King was never more to be trusted i.e. either with Government or Life As for Mr. Love Mr. Baxter in the cited Preface intimates that he was Beheaded for his Loyalty which I think he sufficiently demonstrated in these two passages Not to take notice here of his barbarous insulting over that truly great Prelate when he was brought to the Block waving his Handkerchief and crying out Art thou come little Will c. the one in his Sermon at Vxbridge It was the Lord that troubled Achan and cut him off because he troubled Israel O that in this our State Physicians would resemble God to cut off those from the Land that have distempered it and he tells us plainly whom he means Melius pereat unus quam unitas Men that lye under the guilt of much Innocent Blood are not fit persons to be at peace with till all the guilt of Blood be expiated and avenged either by the Sword of the Law or by the Law of the Sword else the Peace can never be safe or just The other passage was in his Speech Sect. 14. of his Trial where speaking of his opposing the Tyranny of a King he says I did it is true in my place and calling oppose the Forces of the late King and where he alive again and should I live longer the Cause being as then it was I should oppose him longer That is he had lived and would die a Rebel An hundred Instances of such fatal Reflections on that excellent Prince have been noted in the Sermons and other Writings of Men of Mr. Baxter's Perswasion and yet to shew that he dares do any thing to justifie his Party he makes a bold Challenge to those whom he calls their Accusers to shew if they can what Body or Party of Men on Earth
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
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
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
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
Objection from any other Yet I saw a Treatise by a very learned hand about that time called The grand Debate in case of Prayer resumed proving that those Free Pravers which you so earnestly contended for had no advantage above the prescribed Liturgy and by that Person and many other Writers there was not one Objection made which was not answered and confuted I desire therefore such Readers as do still adhere to Mr. Baxter's Arguments against the Common Prayer to do themselves so much right as to peruse what Dr. Comber hath written concerning the Method observed in the several parts of Devotion throughout the Liturgy against the disorder of it objected by Mr. Baxter and the several Cases of the London Divines against all Mr. Baxter's or any other Objectors concerning the Unlawfulness of any thing therein prescribed And seeing in the Preface of his Majesty's Commission he did express his Esteem of the Liturgy and authorized the Commissioners to make such reasonable and necessary Alterations as by and between them should be agreed upon avoiding as much as might be all unnecessary Abbreviations of Form and Liturgy not only the King had been disobeyed but the most pious Members of the Church might justly be offended if any of the Commissioners should have condescended to such Alterations as were insisted on which would have amounted to a confession that the Liturgy was a heavy burden to tender Consciences a just cause of Schism a Superstitious Usage c. upon which pretences the Alterations were desired But first It is not true that there was a full Concord as to your Liturgy for the Reader may observe that the King's Commission was granted to about forty Persons to review the Liturgy and to make such reasonable and necessary Alterations and Amendments as by and between the said Commissioners should be agreed upon to be needful and expedient avoiding as much as might be all unnecessary Abbreviations of the Form and Liturgy wherewith the People are altogether acquainted and have so long received in the Ch. of England can any Man believe there was a full Concord I will not say of all the Commissioners to Mr. Baxter's new Liturgy but among those of the Dissenters that there should be a new Liturgy presented when the Commission confined them to make only some necessary Alterations and Amendments of the old expresly cautioning them to avoid as much as might be all unnecessary Abbreviations of the Form and Liturgy for the Reasons therein alledged For though Mr. Baxter glorieth in this Exploit of drawing up a new Liturgy in eight days yet he acknowledgeth it was very imperfect and that Dr. Reignolds said they should be blamed for it and the Reason of the thing as well as the Example of Dr. Reignolds was sufficient to convince all such as had any sense of their Duty or hope of an Agreement We find also though Mr. Baxter intimates the contrary that there was a particular Exception against the Prayer which he had made for the King which was to be altered by Dr. Wallis his Rubrick also was disliked by them as he confesseth Besides it is certain that a great part of the dissenting Brethren had sometime before conformed to the old Liturgy not only Dr. Reignolds and Mr. Baxter himself but Dr. Conant Spurstow Wallis Manton and generally all the rest and the Amendments and Alterations which were made being about Six hundred were thought so reasonable and satisfactory that divers who had dissented did conform to it notwithstanding that by reason of some other Subscriptions and Declarations their Conformity was made more difficult as did Dr. Reignolds Dr. Gauden Dr. Conant Dr. Wallis and Dr. Lightfoot c. Where then was this full Concord and no Exceptions when they all agreed to a Liturgy and Mr. Baxter's Model was a draught of Nepenthe compounded of unknown Ingredients as every one should fancy And this I hope may be a competent help to make Mr. Baxter discern that the Report that I made viz. that some of the Brotherhood had prepared another Form but some of them objected many things against that and never as yet that I heard did agree upon any other and I think never will is a true Report and such as becomes a Minister of Truth Mr. Baxter But I well know it is a part of Satan's work to perswade the World that no History hath any certainty of Truth that so Sacred History may be disadvantaged Answ If it be Satan's work falsly to relate Matters of Fact recorded in History and if it tends to so impious a Design as to disadvantage the Credit of Sacred History I doubt not to make it appear in two instances viz. in that Historical Relation which Mr. Baxter hath given concerning Bishops and in that of the beginning of our detestible Civil War of which I shall take occasion to speak on two Assertions of Mr. Baxter in this Letter the one is where he affirms That of all things that ever befel the Christian Church he scarce knew any thing comparable in shame and mischievous effects to the horrid Perfidiousness Contention Schism and Pride of Bishops The second is That it was an Episcopal Parliament forty or an hundred to one that began the War against the King On these two Assertions of Mr. Baxter I say I shall make it evident that none hath done more to disadvantage the credit of Sacred History than Mr. Baxter hath done in the false Relation of other Histories be a ready way to it Mr. Baxter Another passage is p. 293. which being imperfectly related by Mr. Baxter I shall give it the Reader in full viz. Ministerial Conformity being submitted to by many of the Assembly of Divines and no sinful act required to make it unlawful which if there had been they or some others ought to have discovered it and then I doubt not it would by Authority have been taken away but that being not done the Ministers ought to conform by the same Rules as the People ought which is granted by Proposition the fourth and confirmed by Mr. Baxter 's practice in receiving the Sacrament Answ Mr. Baxter repeats only so much as is within the Parenthesis on which he runs out into six grand Divisions and under them into two or three and so under one into five Sub-divisions The whole may be comprehended in these two 1. That the Sinfulness of Conformity hath been already proved And then 2dly That we require impossibilities of them because they have not the liberty of the Press Though the Liberty of the Pulpit be as much denied them yet it is no impossibility to use that But I shall for the Reader 's satisfaction consider the Particulars Mr. Baxter Do you not know what abundance of old have thought they discovered the sinfulness of Conformity Bradshaw Nicols Ames Parker Cartwright c. and some of late against our Conformity Cawdry Hickman and others yet unanswered Answ I know what the most of those you name have