like must needs go for a better knowing Christian with him then the dearest Child of God especially if he be young in Years and want those natural Helps and outward appearances Oh what havock hath such Doctrine as this of Baxter's made amongst his deluded Hearers and Admirers in this Nation so that now let the Man of God come to one of them in the purest Evidence and most powerful demonstration of the Spirit of Truth if he appear not to them cloathed and accompanied with these Natural and Worldly Abilities and Indowments they are fenced against the Lord's Messenger with such Arguments as these You are but young you have but studied a while you are of slender and mean Natural Parts and little or no Schollar-ship and have Prayed but little c. in comparison of our Grave and Learned Divines and the like So that as Christ said so we find now true That Publicans and Harlots enter into the Kingdom of God before such and now what a Curer of Church-divisions this Baxter is like to prove is easily seen and therefore that charge which his self-condemned Heart fear'd would come upon him may justly be brought upon him here which in his Preface to his Book he sets down thus They will affirm saith he That I have clawed with one party and have girded at the other and have sought to make them odious by bringing them under the Reproach of separation of censuring and avoiding the Ungodly and that being luke-warm my self and a Complier with sin I would have others to do so too And that these Reconcilers are neither Flesh nor Fish and attempt impossibilities even to reconcile Light and Darkness Christ and Belial and that for the sake of peace we would sell the Truth and would let in Church Corruptions out of an over eager desire of agreement and when they have all done neither Parties will regard them These are this Baxter's words in that Preface of his to that Book which is justly come upon him And indeed He may as well go about to reconcile Light and Darkness as bring the Children of Light whom God hath delivered our of the Darkness of and filthiness of Egypt and Sodom spiritual into Unity with them again for there is Enmity put between the two Seeds and those words of Christ in John 17.21 22. c. which he deceitfully puts in the Title Page of his Book are only proper to the living Members of the Spiritual Body of Christ which he calls mystical and not to any of the Worlds Churches or visible mixt Congregations of People whatsoever the words of the Apostle in John 17.21 c. are weightier then any Hypocrite can bear and they are these That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that thou also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me and the Glory which thou hast given me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me God is arisen to drive Hypocrites from under all such shelter of words as they would hide themselves under for now is the City and Kingdom truly manifested and witnessed into which no Uncircumcised or Unclean shall enter but only the Redeemed born Babes and living Members of Christ. And now to the knowledge and experience not of the Evil World but of all that know God do I appeal to judge whether this R. Baxter or any of like spirit with him can be said to know any thing of the Oneness betwixt the Father and Son the Members of his holy Heavenly Body much less can be any of them who are not afraid to affirm That such are not to be disallowed from being Ministers of the Gospel though they want Grace totally And that Gifts are more necessary to the validity of Ministration then Grace is and that he may perform the Office of a Minister to the benefit of the Church that hath no saving Grace at all as Pag. 114. of his Book aforementioned and that there is no man alive that Worshippeth God without some sin and adds Do you ever pray your selves in secret or in your Families with out sin as in Pag. 19.5 And in Pag. 30. of his Preface to that Book That there is no Person Church on Worship on Earth faultless and with out Corruption and saith there further I justifie not the faults of my own daily Prayers and yet I never pray without them And in Pag. 34. c. That Cain was the first born Member in the Church of Adam's Family and cursed Cham was of the Church of Noah and reckons Lot's two Sons in law and Esau yea and the ten Tribes in their Apostacy to be of the Church And so having reckoned up and raked together all the Faults of the Blessed Seed of Abraham before Christ's coming in the Flesh and of all those called Christians after that mentioned in Scripture he most wickedly and imprudently sayes Pag. 44. That no one Member is in all these Scriptures or any other commanded to come out and separate from any one of all these Churches as if their Communion in Worship were Unlawful Directly contrary to 2 Cor. 5.11 Revel 18.4 5 6. c. Come out of Mystery Babylon the false Church saith God to his People Oh the Blasphemy of such mens Hearts that dare Intitle wicked men for a bear Profession sake of Religion to the Glory of the benefit of this Prayer of Christ's who prayes and his Prayers were alwayes heard That his might be one as he and the Father were and are one the Father in Christ and Christ in them and so made fellow Heirs and Pertakers of the Glory of Christ by free Gift But neither R. Baxter nor any graceless Minister nor sinful praying People whom he pleads for can ever be one as the Father and Son are one Therefore I may safely say to you all Who desires the good of your Souls and the Glory of God Come out from amongst them and joyn not with them No not in their Worship Actions as he calls them nor be ye Partakers in any of their sins or sinful Worship lese ye partake of their Plagues for the Temple of God is Holy and the Worship of God is Holy And so R. Baxter with all his own Corruptions and all his heaps of Lyes and false Accusations of the Brethren of Christ are for the Lake It is so And so I return to set down Baxter's Unchristian Answer to that former Objection against the singularity of separation the Objection is as before The greater Number are not alwayes in the right therefore why should my singularity discourage me Now to this Baxter answers Pag. 17.18 The greater Number saith he through the World are not in the right about Christianity for they
Imprison you deny you civil Liberties and Privileges and count you unworthy to be suffered in the Land yet all this by Baxter's Doctrine is far less then you do to us Jews for you think us so bad that you avoid Communion with us and deny us Church Liberty and Privileges yea and think us unworthy to be suffered in the Churches Come Baxter Would this have been good and true reasoning by the Jews against the Christians or by the Papists against the Protestants then if it would not as no sober man can say it would then forever stop thy mouth and let shame cover thy face for ever speaking any more of things pertaining to Christian or Christ's Religion for an Enemy to Christ and his People thou art here manifest to be And lest thou shouldst want any thing to make thee compleat in wickedness thou goest on and in answer to an Objection which is to this purpose That the Persecutors separated from are bad and prophane and he that separates saith he charges them truely but he is not Schismatical or Heretical but they accuse him falsly To this I say this Baxter with a Whores fore-head on the behalf of the Persecutors answers and saith You to wit you that separate say so and they to wit the Persecutors say the same of you They say you are Schismatical but they are not Prophane Now how shall a Stander by know saith Baxter which of you are in the Right doubtess by the Witnesses and Evidences saith he they try you in some Court or before some Magistrate before they punish you saith he You never try them nor hear then speak for themselves nor examine any Witness publickly against them nor allow them any Church Justice but avoid their Communion upon Reports or pretence of private knowledge They judge you Personally one by one You condemn whole Parishes in the lump unheard They condemn you as for a positive Crime but you condemn them without charging any one Crime upon them c. To which I answer for the Lord and his Truth in this day of Israel's trouble and tryals and say The Lord rebuke thee thou lying spirit in this R. Baxter was there ever heard such notorious Falshoods and Abominations come from one professing the Gospel yea professing himself to be a Minister of the Gospel yea and taking upon him to be a Teacher of the Teachers as is here from this R. B. Oh the Envy Oh the Malice the deep rooted Iniquity of this man against them that depart from Iniquity in these Islands and cannot joyn with the People of this wicked World in their bloody Offerings Oh the Patience and long suffering of God towards such though they continue long in their Wickedness but the Lord will certainly plead with thee O Baxter and all his Adversaries for your great envy to his People and Work in these dayes But come let us see again if these Lyes of Baxter's would not have suted as well for the Persecuting Jews against the first Christians or the persecuting Papists against the Protestants as it doth for the Persecutors in these dayes against those that in obedience to God are separated from them For what it Tertullus or any Jewish lying Orator had stood up in behalf of the Jews against the Christians and said The Jews try you in some Court or before some Magistrate before they punish you but you Christians never try them nor hear them speak for themselves nor examine any Witnesses publickly against them nor allow them any Church Justice but avoid their Communion upon report or pretence of private knowledge and so condemn them by the lump yea a whole Nation together c. And so if the Papist against the Protestants had used the like reasoning would it have been any thing but gross untruth and falshood in either of their Mouthes Or were either the first Christians or first Protestants any more to be blamed for their separation because of such Lyars Nay nay neither are the People of God in these dayes any worss to be thought of for separating from the Wicked notwithstanding all these gross lyes of Baxter or any of his spirit I say they are most gross Lyes if they be said of us the People of God whom the World in scorn calls Quakers that we have not Tryed them c. For we have Tryed them and heard them often what they can say for themselves and we have by the Spirit of the Lord found them wanting of the Life and Power of Godliness like the Heathen who profess not Christ and publick Witnesses there are of it not onely their own works which are daily manifest in the face of the Sun but also their own words and confessions when they meet to worship for they say they have left undone what God commands and done what he forbids and so have no spiritual Health in them which signifies plainly they have denied Christ come in the Flesh for whosoever receives him receives God's saving Health and are saved People Spiritually healthful they have condemned themselves by their unbelief and evil Deeds from the Common-wealth and Inheritance of Israel And so not onely the Spirit of the Lord in us but even the Witness of God in their own Consciences charges not onely one but even many great and greivous Crimes upon them And so Baxter with all his Lyes and evil Inventions is for the Lake and if ever he be saved it must be through fiery terrible Judgment which will consume the Adversary For Oh! how hath Satan blinded his Eye that he should thus rise up against the People and Work of God in these dayes to his hurt And when it is objected that of all men living no man think that a Persecutor is godly and fit for Church Communion he doth not like a Christian Confess to the truth there 〈◊〉 but after his accustomed manner Heathen-like he invents his sorry shifts to avoid the force of the Truth by saying Did all the Ministers and common People persecute you and then asking a Question concerning the doings of the Souldiers under Oliver and the like which are meer shifts For what is the doings of any Men to make void the Truth by it for whatsoever any in their Ignorance of the Truth have done against the Truth serves nothing to the making void of this to wit That a Persecutor of the Godly is not godly nor fit for Church Communion but instead of giving Glory to God by confessing to truth this Baxter after he hath wearied himself with his words of what was done in Oliver's time or so he sums up his devilish Doctrine of pleading for the Persecutors and against those whom God hath separated from them saying to the same wicked purpose as before It is but one and the same sin in Persecutors and the Separates which causeth the one to smite their Brethren and the other to Excommunicate them the one to cast them into Prison as Schismaticks and the other to cast them
are not Christians and the greater number of vulgar Christians be not in the right perhaps in many Points of Learning and Scholastick Controversies because they are not learned in such Controversies but all Godly men and Christians are in the right in all Points Essential to Godliness and Christianity And therefore they are in the certain way of Life And if in any integral or accedental Point you think you are wiser then the greater part of men as Learned and as Godly as your selves you must give very good Proofs of it to your selves and others before it is to be believed I know that in all Ages God giveth some few men more excellent natural Parts then others and he engageth some in deeper and more laborious Studies then others and he Blesseth some mens Studies more then others and therefore there are still some few who know more then the rest of the Country or Mankind and it were well for the rest if they knew these and would learn of them But these are such as come to their Knowledge by hard and laborious Studies and Meditation though also by the Spirit 's Blessing their endeavours and they are such as give proof of the Knowledge they pretend to and they are such as imploy their Knowledge to preserve the Peace and Concord of Believers and do not proudly make a stir with it to set up their own Names though hereby they set the World on fire To which by way of reply I answer and say That there is not the least Child of Light But doth truely and easily see the nature of the Spirit by which this R. B. is still acted and the end he drives at for as for the Spirit by which he is acted it still appears plainly to be the spirit of this World that never knew God nor the Mysteries of his holy and Heavenly Kingdom by which Earthly spirit by much poring on Books without him he hath attained to a deal of Unsanctified graceless Knowledge as himself speaks Pag. 114. to deceive the simple People by who are Ignorant of Satans Devises and as for his end it is also as manifest to be this to wit to bring People who were in some measure pressing out of Babylon back into Egypt and Babylon again and yet to cover his deceit lest the Simple should see him without an Interpreter he brings in the Spirit as to help his Humane Labour and Carnal Endeavours But the Spirit of God which he strikes at in all his writing will be no Drudge or Slave to any such Vain Self-ended Proud Mind in any But of these words where he saith That all Godly men and Christians are in the right in all Points Essential to Godlyness and Christianity and therefore in the certain Way of Life as he saith Let us consider for in his sence they are most notoriously false and wicked for as for Godly men who ever imagined otherwise much less denied in words or so that they were in the right but as for that he saith That all Christians viz. all that were sprinkled when they were Children and that so being grown up make an outward Profession of Christ for such in Spiritual manner he means by Christians as is most manifest are in the right in all Points Essential to Christianity and so in the certain Way of Life It is such a notorious peice of falshood and so impudent an assertion that no one saying can more gratifie the Devil and so help to build up his Kingdom then it doth Nay it certainly gives the Lye to the certain experience and Testimony of all the holy men of God both formerly and now for Paul said in his day That many professed and nominal Christians do so walk as that they were Enemies to the Cross of Christ whose god was their their Belly and who gloried in their shame and whose end was destruction Phil. 3. and were these in the right Points Essentiall to Christianity and in the certain Way of Life what Contradiction and Blasphemy is this And the same Apostle tells some among the Corinthians That they had not the knowledge of God Cor. 15. and what were these right also in all Essentials what is not the knowledge of God an Essential Point of Christianity Nay without the knowledge of God no Eternal Life and yet this Baxter is not ashamed to affirm That such as know not God are in the certain Way of Life And further to the experience of all that know God do I appeal whether this R. B. doth not here in his blindness justifie the very Papist Yea and all other sorts of People who any way in the outward profess Christ especially if they be outwardly sprinkled with Water young or old for saith he in his Preface Pag. 33. Christ hath solemnly and purposely made the baptismal Covenanting with him to wit by outward washing to be the Tearm and Title to Church-Member-ship and Communion and the owning of this same Covenant is the sufficient Title of the Adult or those of ripe years and the Imposers that come after and require another kind of Evedence of Conversion or Sanctification then this do confound the Church and enslave the People and leave no certain way of Tryal Thus far R. B. by which it appears whether this Baxter by endeavouring to keep his credit with the world is wandred beyond all the Bounds of Reason and Modesty Nay Mystery Babylon her self though she be become a Cage of every unclean and barefull Bird and a very Habitation of Devils must not pass unjustified by him but be reckoned to be right in all the Essentials of Christianity and in the certain Way of Life For without all Controversie this Mystery Babylon is of that Number who in words profess God and Christ and have a Name to live though they be dead as this Baxter is or it were not a Mystery if it were not covered from the Worlds Eye with a shew of what it is not Revel 17 18 19. Chapters Yet so far is this Baxter sunk into the Dark Pit of Antichristian Abomination that he acounts it an abuse and false Interpreting of Scripture to perswade any from that Command Come out of Babylon to separate from professed or nominal Christians though full of Iniquity Page 32. then which nothing more can gratifie his Father the Wicked One and his Adulterous Mother the Synagogue of Rome for though he would seem in some words here and there in his Book to be no Papist yet there is never an Argument he brings for the Fellow-ship with Dead and Corrupted Members and against those that separate from such but they will fully serve to prove the Company of the Pope to be a Church and all them to blame who have separated from him in outward Church-Fellowship upon any pretence whatsoever So foolish is the World's Wisdom when it is set against Truth But this Baxter having laid his Wicked and False Ground That all that are called Christians are in the
first thing that this Baxter would have you his principal and best taught Hearers to confess to wit That Pride is in your very Hearts which if you were sensible of you would cease calling God your Father and Christ your Redeemer in this wretched State for to you in this State it may be truely said as Christ said to those unbelieving Jews Ye are of your Father the Devil for Pride of Heart is the chief part of his wicked Image and indeed the main thing in this day which hinders you from coming to Christ the meek pure and lowly Lamb of God is the Pride of your corrupt Hearts as Jeremiah said to the Jews If you will not give Glory to God before your feet stumble upon the dark Mountains my Soul shall mourn in secret for your Pride It was the Pride of their Hearts that was the ground of all their Evils as it is of yours for from the Pride of your Hearts comes your Ignorance of Mind and partiallity and want of all good to the dishonouring of your Profession and what not So that it may easily be known who sent this Baxter who hath profited you nothing at all For they have ran and I have not sent them saith God Therefore they cannot profit the People at all Jer. 23. And that this R. B. might make it fully appear under whose Banner he fights and for whose Kingdom he pleads lest the rest of his Book should leave it doubtful He is now come forth in his proper shape as the absolute Enemy of God and all good men that in any measure are looking Heaven-ward being burdened with the fellowship of the Wicked and instead of helping the Lord 's little Ones against the great Power of the Dragon in the Persecutors he hath hammered forth all the wicked Weapons that he can for the Wicked Persecutors and against the tender hearted ones of God who are travelling to the holy Land with Egypt left behind as in that 55. Direction so called and Pag. 254. of his said Book appears where he hath these words Little do many real Separates who cry out against the spirit of persecution suspect that the same spirit is in them Whence is Persecution but from thinking ill of others and abhorring them or not loving them And do you not so by those saith he whom you causlesly separate from Answ. Here by way of Answer before I set down any more of this naughtiness of his I cannot but take notice of this word causlesly which here this Baxter puts in to cover his deceit for though at the first look one might judge he intended only causless or unwarrantable or wicked separation yet Reader thou must know he intends as well the truely tender hearted People of England who in conscience to God and according to his holy Commandment are come out and separated from the fellowship of the Wicked in these dayes and so cannot take part in the Offerings of the dead as well as others and at these in a special manner he strikes after his accustomed manner through the sides of others for his main Envy is against the living Members of Christ And so though those that separate without cause may have the like mind to those they separate from being different onely in Form but not in Heart from them yet such as are separated by the Power of God as Paul was whom God separated from his Mothers Womb calling him by his Grace have not for these stand out of their own thoughts and are in the Will and Work and Worship of God whose Worship is in Spirit and Truth But to proceed Baxter saith further You will say that though you think them not to be true Christians yet you love them as men and wish their good and so will those say by you saith he whom you call your Persecutors though they think you to be proud and humerous and disobedient yet they say they love you as men and do but correct you to cure your self-willedness and humor and to do you good and to preserve the publick Peace They think you to be bad and therefore Imprison you You think them to be bad and therefore avoid Communion with them To this I cannot but by the way speak a word Who is there that sees not the very spirit of the Egyptian Sorcerers acting in this very thing to the hardening of Pharoah's Heart lest he should let Israel go But this Baxter goes on in his wickedness and saith They to wit the Persecutors think you so bad as to be unworthy of civil Liberty and Priviledges You think them so bad as to be unworthy of Church Priviledges and Liberties They think you unworthy to be suffered in the Land perhaps and you think them unworthy to be suffered in the Churches they cry against you Away with them they are Schismatical or Heretical you cry against them Away with them they are Prophane Answ. Now in answer to this I say That we who are of the World scornfully called Quakers have everlasting cause to praise the Lord who hath redeemed our Souls from among such devouring Wolves as this R. B. and from such a venomous spirit as he is acted by What Heathen upon Earth could strengthen the hands of the Persecutors against the Righteous more then this Baxter by such Arguments as this doth what if this Baxter had lived in the dayes of the Apostles and first Christians when God separated them from the Congregation of the unbelieving Jews surely he could not but have been but accounted famous and worthy of great Honour amongst those persecuting Jews for such Arguments as these for never an Argument he brings for the Persecutors now but it would as much have fitted the Persecutors then against the Christians yea and it would formerly yea and doth at this day fit the Papists against the Protestants as well as the persecuting prophane superstitious Protestant against them whom God hath drawn by his mighty Power this day from amongst them For seeing he sets but thought against thought the Persecutors thoughts of the Righteous against the persecuted man's thoughts of him and seeing all thoughts are questionable he leaves this ground for the persecuting Jew to reason to excuse himself against the first Christians according to his hellish Invention on this wise viz. ' You Christians who separate from us are of as bad a spirit as us Jews whom you call your Persecutors for what is Persecution but a thinking ill of others and abhorring them or not loving them And do you not so by us whom you causlesly separate from And though you say though you think us not as Servants of God or so yet you love us as men and wish our Good so do we you and that which we do against you which you call Persecution is but a correcting of you to cure your self-willedness and humor and to do you good and to preserve the publick Peace And though you think much you Christians that we