all the Land into the Sole power of the King who was himself in the power of Papists and Delinquents did clearly tell us where the present danger of the Kingdom lay But future Changes we could not foresee 〈…〉 part I was a young Novice and knew not what War was 〈…〉 considerable interest in any to have prevented it But 〈…〉 that I more repent of than that I feared it so little and that I did not speak more earnestly for the preventing of it by mutual pacificatory means and that I said any thing towards unpeaceable irritations Who could have forethought that all those doleful Events would follow which make up Whitlock's impartial Memorials § 67. Yet I must truely say though it displease the guilty that the effects were quite different on the Land from what the Malignants commonly report They would falsly perswade the World that all ancient Piety was despised the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue and all sober Ministers cast out and Tub preachers set up to vent their Nonsence The truth is among 10000 of the Clergy about 300 or more were turn'd out as Ignorant and Scandalous and with them unjustly some for being for the King against the Parliament The number I know not but conjecture that there might be an hundred such at least In the places of these the most seriously Religious young Men that the Universities would afford with some few old Nonconformists and but few such as the Parishioners chose were set up Most of these young Men were such as had no hand in the Wars but were Lads or young Students while the War continued It pleased God that very many of them became such fervent able Preachers that a great change followed among their Hearers and multitudes of the Ignorant Debauch'd and Worldlings became Serious Godly Christians And the younger sort grew up accordingly For instance in the County of Worcester where I lived where before there was one Family that minded Piety or the Life to come or Prayed or Read the Scripture there were many after that did it In the Town where I lived where there was before one or two Houses in a Street that worshipped God by Prayer in their Families and avoided Profaneness and minded the Concerns of their Souls at last there was scarce more than two Houses on a Street-side that did not learn the Catechism read the Scripture pray and live soberly and this in great love and peace and humility towards others commonly disowning the Cromwellians and Sectarians Disloyalties Rebellions and Schisins But indeed when the Sectaries got dominion many Anabaptists and Self conceited Novices set up themselves for Preachers where they could get Hearers but the sober godly people kept so much Concord and Integrity that these others were but here and there and that as a disgraced broken Sect as the Quakers be among us now But Harrison took the advantage of the ignorance and badness of the Parish Ministers in Wales to set up Itinerant Anabaptists and Separatists in many places This is the truth of the Consequents about Religion And it fell out that the Cromwellians and Anabaptists professing more Zeal for Godliness than ordinary did much of their work by suppressing sin and profaneness and countenancing Godliness Which hath taught us to wish that of two Evils rather Hypocrisie than Malignity may be in power It 's better Godliness be promoted for evil Ends than hated and persecuted 68. Whereas therefore the Diocesane Church of England exclusive of all Nonconformists and such as these Men accuse is so oft called The best Church in the World It must mean that it is best in Constitution and Laws or in the Men that are Ministers and Members If the first be their meaning 1. The best Laws without the best Men never make the best Church 2. Is one sole Bishop over a Thousand or many Hundred Parishes without any Bishop or Pastoral Church under him a better Form of Government than the contrary that was continued for many hundred years and described by Archbishop Usher and others 2. Is a Church Governed by Lay Civilians decretive use of the Keys so much better than that which is Governed by the Keys in the hands of the Clergy only 3. Is a Church Governed by Canons that ipso facto Excommunicate all that affirm any of their Offices Ceremonies or Forms to have any thing sinful better than those that unite in things necessary and bear with such as these 4. Are Bishops and Deans chosen by Kings perhaps Papists and Incumbents chosen by any that can buy a Presentation better than those that are chosen by the Clergy and People and Invested by the Prince and Patron 5. Is a Church where the ignorant sinful and unwilling are forced to Communicate unless they will lye Beggar'd in Goals better than those that receive none to Communion but the Desirers 2. But if it be the best Church in the World for Men they should let others praise them rather than their own Mouths Are they so much better Men than the Nonconformists Do their Lives shew it Doth credible fame speak it Though Mr. White was blamed for publishing the Names of such as by credible Oaths were ejected for Drunkenness or other Scandal this was no proof that they were the best Men in the World Nor yet that of 10000 that Conformed 8000 of them had Conformed before to the Directory and Declared their Assent and Consent to the altered Common Prayer Book before ever they saw it as I have proved Whereas I remember not that ever I heard of one Nonconformist these twenty eight years that was accused and punished for any such crime unless preaching Christs Gospel be a crime even when Power and Malice watcht for advantages against them and crouded them into Goals for preaching and praying Nor do I remember more than two single instances of Im norality by credible accusations of fame which was of Fornication lamented in all these years But alas how different is the common fame of too many of the publick Clergy And are these the best Men in all the World § 69. You may partly judge by their Works their Writings and their Lives Compare the Writings and Ministerial Labours of the Conformists and Nonconformists these thirty years or since the New Impositions Some pious Conformists have done extraordinarily well Especially Dr. Barrow Dr. Tillotson Dr. Patrick Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Tennison c. And is there not the same Spirit of Wisdom Piety and Peace in the Writings of Anthony Burgesse Mr. Charnock Dr. Manton Dr. Bates Mr Hâ—w Richard Alleine Joseph Alleine Tho. Gouge Mr. Swinnock Dr Gâ—lpin many Volumes of the Morning Lectures Mr. Flavel's Mr. Steel's Mr. Ambrose's and many more such This Man singleth out me for one of the worst Men living and Bishop Morley bid Men judge of all the rest by me ab uno disce omnes And he was accounted one of the most Eminent of the Clergy for Parts and Orthodoxness One Book
RICHARD BAXTER's Penitent Confession And His Necessary VINDICATION In Answer to a BOOK called The Second Part of the Mischiefs of Separation Written by an Unnamed Author With a PREFACE to Mr. Cantianus D Minimis in Answer to his LETTER which extorted this Publication Psal 32. 5. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Psal 19. 12 13. Who can understand his Errours Cleanse thou me from secret faults Keep back thy Servant also from presumptuous sins Let them not have dominion over me Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression John 8. 44 45. Ye are of your Father the Devil and the Lusts of your Father you will do He was a Murderer from the beginning and abode not in the Truth because there is no truth in him When he speaketh a Lie he speaketh of his own for he is a Liar and the Father of it And because I tell you the truth ye believe me not Isa 5. 20. Woe to them that call Evil Good and Good Evil That put darkness for light and light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Prov. 24. 24. He that saith to the wicked Thou art Righteous him shall the People Curse Nations shall abhor him Sharp words LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1691. For the very Reverend Dr. Edward Stilling fleet Lord Bishop of the Diocess of Worcester Reverend Sir SUpposing the Book which I answer as injurious to you as to me I judge it meet to propose to you this Opportunity of your own Vindication Or if I be herein mistaken to crave your help for my own Conviction Your former Accusation of such as I of the heinous Sin of Schism or Separation I confess I answered in a manner that required your Patience If it was too free and provoking I beg your pardon and do not Justifie it My Reasons were 1. That I thought that to take such as I for Schismaticks or Separatists was a great hardening and strengthening of the real Separatists when my Character and such others should seem to be theirs and if we were falsly accused they should seem to be so too 2. Because I knew how much your Authority and just Reputation would add as a Whet-stone to the keenness of their Zeal who thought us unmeet to live out of the common Goals 3. Because I knew whatever is said against it how great a Loss it would be to Souls to have all silenced Ministers give over preaching to any more than four and what Sacrilege we should be guilty of to give over our Ministery which we were vowed to and to be banished five Miles from all Corporations or there to avoid all publick worshiping of God And your Pacificatory Accommodation so earnestly restraining Parents without excepting the Nobility from chusing School-masters for their own Children seemed to one to be an unsufferable Overthrow of that Family Government which is of Divine Institution antecedent to Regal and most literally required in the Fifth Commandment These Reasons carrying me to Earnestness I perceive the Conceit or Suspition is too common that your Exasperation was the Spring both of Dr. Morrice's Defence of you and of this Book which is commonly famed to be written by Mr. Long of Exeter a Member of the Representative Church of England of whom I will not say as Bishop Morley of me Ex uno omnes This Concest is increased by the Title of his Book the same with yours as The Second Part and by your Collocutor's Title The Army-Chaplain and such other Circumstances For my part I take it for my duty to believe that you abhor such a Fardel of malicious impudent Lyes And that he that hath written so many excellent Books of which I thankfully acknowledge the Receipt of many as your Gift will by no Temptation be poysoned to the Approbation of so venomous a Label But if I should be in any part mistaken and while you own not the manner of his Writing you should own the main Cause or Accusation I humbly and earnestly beg that before I dye if it may be you will afford me that help of Conviction and Repentance which may be expected from a Man of Learning Piety and Truth and the now Bishop of that Diocess where the surviving part of my only Flock that ever I had remain among whom you may learn more of the falshood of this Man's Accusations And as I cannot but think that the present Necessity brought about by God's Providence without us will engage a Man of your Knowledge and Temper to use your Interest and Parts to the uttermost both in Parliament and Convocation for the strengthening of this Nation and Church by Concord and necessary Amendment and unlocking the â—oors of the parish-Parish-Churches to the Lovers of Unity and Peace So Acquaintance enableth me to be confident that though such as I are past having our part in such a Blessing on Earth yet a great number of young Preachers will be ready joyfully to accept of any lawful Terms for so good an End who now serve God on Terms of Sâ—lfdenial and are Men of greater Orthodoxness Piety Learning and skilful powerful Preaching than you would have believed our Nonconformists Schools would have brought forth And if that blessed Day may hasten I doubt not but those of the suffering Ministers that have overlived their long Silencing Imprisonments and Distresses will gladly do as Joseph forgive the Envy and Injuries of their Brethren and Afflicters observing how much of the Hand of God was in the Over-ruling of all and making use of that Sin which he did neither cause nor justifie Sir As the Importunity of Cantianus with many others drew me to publish this Writing which I once cast by as never to have been seen so the opportune Occasion of my desiring your own Vindication or your help for my Conviction hath caused this Address to you from Jun. 13. 1691. A willing Learner And Penitent Ri. Baxter A LETTER to Mr. BAXTER Reverend SIR I am a stranger to your person but not to your Excellent Writings for which I praise God and give you my hearty thanks I have many I have read many I have given away and recommended many to others to read and I bless God have received much light and warmth from many of them whereby I am engaged to pray for you and to take all occasions to speak write and act whatsoever may tend to your good here and hereafter And to that end I cannot be at peace with my self until I have desir'd you to take into your serious dying thoughts how you have walk'd towards the Church of England in your Practice and your Writings that before you appear at Gods Tribunal you may foresee your Sentence what it will be and whether your Writings and Practice have done or are likely after your death to do
more Good or Evil to the Professors of the Christian Religion for this is generally said by many of your Friends concerning your Writings Ubi benè nemo melius ubi malè nemo pejus And for your Enemies they are generally so prejudiced with your Malè that they are not able to read or think or speak well of your Benè but discourage many good Souls from reading or minding your most profitable Discourses Now my humble suit to you is to consider whether as St. Augustine that great Light and voluminous Writer Crowned all his Works with his Retractations of what was amiss Mr. Baxter might not do the same to Gods Glory the establishing of good Christians in the Truth bringing the misled out of their Errors stopping the Mouths of your Enemies and causing your Person and good Works to be had in Everlasting Remembrance and the preventing the ill consequences of what has been acted and writ by you which may attend the Church of God for many Ages after your death Sir I doubt not but you have heard and read the dreadful things that you are charged withal I have been amazed at them and heartily sorry for them I beseech you consult some Religious Wise Faithful Person whom you know to be a true Son of the Church of England as no doubt there are some among so many learned Bishops and Pastors and desire them freely to deal with you in helping you to see the great Errata's of your Sarcastical Writings against the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England or take but that one Book call'd The Unreasonableness of Separation the Second Part c. with special Remarks on the Life and Actions of Mr. R. Baxter 1681. and let God and Men see that you cannot only write well of Humility Repentance and Self-denial but you can act them also Where a Cross in time of Plagues is upon the Door every Man that passes by is ready to pray Lord have mercy on that Family Sir if you with your own Hand would please to acknowledge which of your Works is Infectious and may hurt Souls all Men that read it would bless God for you and heartily send up their Prayers to Heaven if they be but Persons that ever frequent the Throne of Grace with a Domine Miserere R. B. wherefore I beseech you think of the advice of a mean Brother of yours in the Work of the Ministry who in real gratitude for the benefit he has received by your Works and for your own Comfort Honour and Happiness and Gods Glory above all presumes before he goes to his Grave to express his Love and Duty to you before you go to yours for he finds that you and we both entred into the Church of Christ March 12. 1614 and therefore cannot be long from appearing before Almighty God to receive a Sentence to an Eternal state Liberavi animam meam Deus Omnipotens dirigat Te in omnibus viis tuis Many years past I met with an Expression in a Preface to another Mans Writing with your Name to it which much troubled me that it should fall from that Pen which had writ such Excellent Helps to follow Christ Jesus his Rules and Example It was this You was speaking of Hell and the Government and Order among Devils and clapt in that common Pulpit-prayer Expression concerning the Ministry of the Church of England viz. By what Names or Titles soever Dignified or Distinguished which I thought one of the bitterest unchristian Reflections I ever read and I was heartily troubled to read it because I thought it impossible for Hell to have crouded it in where there was so much of Heaven Sir You have the best Prayers I can put up to God for you and humbly beg your Prayers that I may follow Paul's advice to Timothy in taking heed to my Self and Doctrine and continue therein that thorough Gods Mercy and Christs Merits my own Soul may be saved and theirs that hear me So I hope we shall meet in Heaven for we have an Advocate with the Father Feb. 169◠Cantianus D Minimis THE PREFACE TO Mr. Cantianus D Minimis Salutem SIR § 1. I unfeignedly thank you for your Invitation to Repentance O pray for me that neither Ignorance nor Prepossession and Prejudice keep me in Impenitency so near my Death I daily wait for my last day on Earth and it is dreadful to die in the guilt of Impenitence But who knoweth all his secret faults I hope God will accept my willingness to know them and openly to confess them what Party or Person soever be displeased with it Upon your Letter I began to practise it and finding the Book which you refer me to begin with my Childhood and Youth in his Accusations I thought my Answer must follow him and begin there also But shewing it to a Friend more prudent than my self he disliked it that I should tell the World of my Childish sins when it is Schism and Rebellion that are my Charge by the Accuser And I have oft heard bis pueri senes as if such passages were the effects of aged weakness which better remembereth the passages of Youth than of later years I suspect that this is true And yet a dying Man is afraid of such prudence as would stifle penitent Confession when I am so loudly called to it by you and the Accuser I will therefore satisfie Him and You and such other and my Conscience though I bear the derision of prudent dislikers It wrongeth no Man and to be accounted weak and simple I can easily bear § 2. But I doubt it is confessing too little and not too much that you will blame me for And I cannot remedy that neither Your Liturgy denieth Christian Burial to all that kill themselves and it is no Virtue to belie our selves I am sure it is sin to belie a Neighbour whom I must love but as my self Yea or not seasonably to vindicate his Reputation against malignant Slanderers I have many years left the Book unanswered to which you refer me for the Confession of my sins though many told me it was my Duty to answer it It is you now that have call'd me to it Would you have me confess all that he falsly accuseth me of Then you would make your self guilty of all his Lies by presuming that they are true and judging before you ever heard the defence of the accused You write too honestly to allow me to judge so hardly of you But truely I durst not put by your Call to my necessary defence The chief reason is that as you doubt whether my Books will do more good or hurt and your Author thinks it would be good that They were all burnt and the Papists are of the same mind so I am fully perswaded is the Devil And till he can get the Conquering Papists or Tories to do it he will Endeavour to make them as useless as if they were burnt by rendering them odious for their own
faults and for mine And you tell me that my Enemies will not read them Now till my Opinion of them be the same with theirs you cannot expect that I that have spent so great a part of above Seventy five years in writing above an hundred and twenty Books should be content to lose my Labour and End and that all Men lose the benefit of them rather than I shall confute a most impudent Liar If you say I over-value them why do you speak the over-valuing of many of them That is good that doth Good About Twelve of them are Translated into the German Tongue and the Lutherans say They have done good Some are Translated into French One into the Language of the New-England Americans by Mr. Eliots Multitudes say they have been the means of their Conversion and more of their Information Confirmation and Consolation And the Chief benefit that I expect by them to the World is when I am dead and gone And can you expect that after so much labour for the Church and Souls I should so far despise both it and them as not to think all worthy of a just defence § 3. But you think that the way of Confessing his Accusations will better do it and will make Men write on the Doors a Domine Miserere for my Soul But have you known me better than I have known my self Or did he know me better who I suppose never spake with me but hath lived two hundred and lately and hundred Miles from me Or is there no way to win the love of your Party but by my known confessing such a multitude of shameless Lies as an Irish Tory or a Pagan would abhor I think it enough that I have to satisfie my Conscience and such as you exposed my self to the Censure of imprudent weakness by my Confessions § 4. But as to my Account of my Opinion about the Wars I must intreat you to take it as it is given you Not as a peremptory justification of all that I did but as the reasons which yet I see not answered desiring that where I erre God will better inform me that I may neither condemn the just nor justifie any sin § 5. But besides your Authors Accusations you have added two heinous ones of your own 1. That before some Book of anothers speaking of Order among Devils I clapt in that Expression By what Names or Titles soever Dignified or Distinguished And you did not think Hell could have done the like because it is a common Pulpit Expression I fear that you are over-tender of your Parties honour to some degree of melancholy suspiciousness that could find so much of Hell in those words I think I have not heard those words in the Pulpit thrice to my remembrance in forty years Our Preachers that I have heard mention only Archbishops Bishops and the Inferiour Clergy I hope you pray for more than England But what Obligation you have to pray for the Three Patriarchs of Antioch the Two Patriarchs of Alexandria or him of Constantinople or the Catholick of Armenia or the Abuna of Abassia or him of Moscovy or the Pope or the Cardinals Priests and Deacons or the Archbishop of Rhemes quâ tales as so Dignified and Distinguished I know not Is not a General Prayer for them enough Did Paul speak the Language of Hell in calling Devils Principalities and Powers and Spiritual Wickedness in High Places no nor in calling Satan The God of this World And is any Name more tenderly to be used than Gods Is it a wrong to Princes that Beelzebub is called The Prince of the Devils and the Prince that Ruleth in the Air Doth Scripture use Hellish Language in calling wicked Rulers GODS But I gave you not the least cause to think that I meant that Devils were Bishops or Bishops Devils I I spake not of Bishops And do you not know that Devils are dignified and distinguished in superiority by Names and Titles Why did you not name the Book which I prefaced that I might examine it Do you think that I can remember all that I have written before mens Books Seneca saith truly that he that hath a Sore or Ulcer thinks that you hurt him when you touch him not if he do but think you touch him However Dignities Dominions and Titles being words of Political common use if when we talk of spiritual heavenly or hellish Policy we must not use the same terms as of Humane Policy we must devise new Languages and Lexicons and correct the Bible Your second Accusation of me being my writings against the Bishops and Church of England I must suppose you mean truly not Bishops as Bishops nor the true Church of England as such or as heretofore But those Changers that since Laud have called themselves the Church If you speak truth this is your meaning § 6. And I cannot but think that as your honest and kind admonition obligeth me to be truly thankful to you and to renew the tryal of my ways so I am obliged by the same principle of Love and Fidelity humbly to intreat you to consider if possible without partiality 1. How you can answer the owning of such a Volume of a Lying Slanderers Accusations before you hear the defence of the Accused 2. But much more how you can so far countenance the heinous sins of those that you call the Church as not at all to blame them and to take it for so great a crime to name them and call men to repentance for them Can you find so much of Hell in the mention of the Dignities and Distinctions of Devils and yet see nothing but blamelesness in the silencings of about Two thousand such Ministers seizing on the goods and books and beds of so many as were so used laying many so long in common `fails with Rogues even divers to their death ruining so many hundred godly Families shutting the Church doors against so many Scholars that were educated and devoted to the Ministry causing and continuing the woful divisions of the Land to the great weakning of the Church and hinderances of Piety and Love and the great advantage of Popery and Forrein Enemies O how much more of such work have some to answer for Is Repentance for feeling and bewailing all this so great a duty as you suppose and is committing it and preaching it up a virtue not to be repented of Doth God require us to mourn and cry for the common evils if we will escape our selves Ezek. 9. 4. and to mourn for the reproach of the solemn Assembly as a burden Zeph. 3. 17. and is it now a heinous crime Hath Satan got so much right to his possession that if he use but the name of the Church for it they must repent as of hellish evil that so much as blame it and call men to Repentance O how hard is it to be impartial § 7. And when you look back on the Wars why do you not call them to Repentance
been tryed therein by many but would not so easily resign what he had got He once admitted me to his Discourse and before the Lord Broghil Lambert and Thurloe I urged him to tell us what the People of England had done to forfeit their right to the Enjoyment of their ancient constituted Government which they professed to be for and still desired And all the answer that I could have was that God had changed it by his Providence the passages of which he talkt over near two hours till Lambert took on him to be asleep for we must not interrupt him Then Sir Francis sent me his Printed Books and some Papers to have disputed over all the Case of the War And not knowing how many such I might be put to answer I thought best in Print to tell him on what Grounds and Principles I had gone not undertaking that I had not mistaken but to desire him if I had erred to shew it by answering my Reasons there given But before I could have his Answer the distracted Armies had overturned all the present Government I repented Writing that Book 1. Because it came out unseasonably too late 2. Because in opposition to Harrington I had pleaded for Monarchy with some excess and I wisht that I had not medled with Government but left all to the Providence of God 3. Because it did occasion more hurt than good so that it became the common Theme of ambitious young Preachers especially at Court before K. Ch. II. as the way to Preferment to talk against The Holy Commonwealth falsly perswading men that by a Commonwealth I meant Democracy or Popular Government which the Book was purposely written against So that when the Oxford University burnt that Book with Dr. Whitby's excellent Reconciler and some others though I expostulated with the Vice-Chancellor concerning its Principles I told them I consented that the Book was burnt though I told them not why as now I do XXXVII Though both Nature and Grace inclined me to hate Lying and specially in Writers and Preachers and I honoured Jul. Caes Scaliger the more because his Son Joseph tells us how vehemently he hated a Lie so that he could not be reconciled to a Liar yet I confess that my impatience herein was faulty It was long before I well perceived that the Father of Lies doth Govern his Kingdom most of the World by meer Lying Call it Errour or Mistake or Falshood or what you will all signifieth the same thing It is delivering Falshood for Truth Christ had told us that the Devil is the Father of Lies and when he speaketh a Lie he speaketh his own Deceit is by Lying and by this he ruleth his World As God's Image consisteth in Life Light and Love the Devil's Image is Hatred Falshood and Hurtfulness or Murder Joh. 8 But alas to take this for some strange thing and to be over-impatient with Liars was my fault when now I find it is but the very state of corrupt unreneved Nature And Pride the Father and Ignorance the Mother make Kingdoms Cities and Persons like a rotting Carkass that swarms with Maggots You that read Histories read with Judgment and due Suspicion for the common corrupt Nature is a lying Nature And it is not about Religion only but the Fool rageth and is confident in all his Errours O what abundance of Lying Books are Shops and Libraries fill'd with even in History and Theology What abundance of false Counsels do Physicians give what abundance of false accusations doth Envy and Malice vend What abundance of false Doctrines and Censures doth ignorant Sectarian Zeal foment How many Lies for one Truth is carried for News or for Slander about the Streets And how few scruple receiving and reporting them how fewer rebuke them It 's useful for the World to know how common this Malady is but it was almost in despair that I lately wrote a Book against it of pretended Knowledge and Love I blame not my self for hating it but being too impatient with it especially in Books and Preachers as if it had been a strange thing XXXVIII When I wrote my five Disputations of Church Government I too hastily mis translated some words of Ignatius and though I then owned Apostolick Successors in the continued part of their Work I did not so fully as now understand how Christ by Institution then founded a National Church nor what a National Church was nor how that which was ultimum in executione a Christian Soveraignty was primum in intentione to which bare Preaching was preparatory XXXIX When I wrote my Treatise of Episcopacy I Calculated it to the Laudian Faction then prevalent that called it self the Church of England and though I distinguished them that put down all the Parochial Pastors and Churches and turned them all into meer Curates and Chappels or partes Ecclesiarum infimarum and so put down hundreds of Bishops and Churches under pretence of magnifying One from the old Reformed Church of England that put not down these but only sinfully fettered them yet I did not so largely open the difference as I ought which gave Mr. Lobb occasion to write confidently for Separation XL. When my Books against Conformity had irritated Dr. Stillingfleet to make me an instance of mischievous Separation who had constantly heard and communicated with my Parish Churches and for my private or occasional Preaching had the Bishops Licence approved under the hands of two the greatest Lawyers of England the Lord Chief Justice Sanders and the now Lord Chief Justice Polixâ—en I doubt that I too provokingly took the advantage of his temerity and confuted him in too provoking terms not considering enough that a Man of great Learning Labour and Merit and Name hath a great interest of Reputation which he would not be insensible of And if it were true as many without proof report that his exasperation engaged first Mr. Morrice and after the second Author of the Mischief of Separation whose writing against me is the transcript of the Character given by Christ John 8. 44. yet I honour the Reading Learning Labour and great Worth of Dr. Stillingfleet now Bishop of Worcester and what ever hand he had in it I unfeignedly forgive him XLI And in defence of the Nonconformists against the false accusation of Shism laid on them by the Imposing Schismaticks I doubt I was too keen in confuting Mr. Sherlocke I found it hard to discern whether the defence of truth and slandered suffering Servants of Christ or not exasperating false Accusers should command my style XLII What other Errors there are or have been in my Life or Writings I daily beg of God to discover to me and pardon For I never did any thing which might not and ought not to have been done better Particularly I beg pardon for too frequent hastiness and harshness of Speech to my nearest Domesticks from whom I never differed one moment in point of Interest or Love but had too often sour over-hasty
me Mr. Baldwin yet living was present 17. When Lying same accused me for almost every Sermon that I preached in London after Bishop Sheldon told me plainly that he had some to hear me and could they have got any thing against me I had soon heard from him 18. When we were all silenced on Aug. 24. 1662. I forbore both preaching and privater Meetings till after the great Plague 1665. to see whether our obedience would mollifie Mens exasperated Minds All that while and after constantly I went to my Parish Church Morning and Evening and staid from the beginning of Common Prayer to the end and after the Plague I only taught such Neighbours as came into my House between the publick Exercises and led all the people into the Church to Common Prayer In so much that my Excellent Neighbour Judge Hale countenanced me therein by his Carriage and thought I did great Service to the Church of England I remember not two of all that heard me that went not with me to the publick Church And that One that would not refused because the Dr. Rieves would Swear in his common talk But I told her that he did not Swear in the Pulpit 19. When in his Sermon he told them that It was because we could not be Bishops that we Conformed not the people look'd at me as a confutation But I forbore not ever the more to hear him 20. When he was no longer able to bear the peoples coming to my House though he converst with me placidly and never spake to me against it he went to the King and got his Order to the Bishop Hinchman and by him to Justice Rosse and Auditor Philips for my Imprisonment And when these Justices at Brainford Examined me they shut the Doors against all Witnesses and would let none in but their Clerk though Alderman Ashhurst Captain Yarrington and many others at the Door claimed open audience as a Legal Priviledge And after they raised false reports of my words to them when I was allowed no one Witness 21. I lay quietly in New Prison though kept waking by the constant noise of rude Prisoners and knocking under me at the Gate And upon my Habeas Corpus all the four Judges of the Common Pleas were for my Deliverance 22. When I was delivered the Parliament making a new Act against Conventicles added three new clauses which drove me to dwell in another County Where also I went constantly Morning and Evening to the publick Church and Common Prayer and gave 2 l. per Annum to increase the Ministers Maintenance 23. When Ministers had some time forborn publick Sacraments in the Parish Churches I got many of the most Eminent in London together and in writing gave them so many reasons for such Communion as they approved But the Oxford Parliament having by an Act Banished us five Miles from all Corporations forc'd them from the London Churches when in Conscience they durst not leave London Service when 100000 had died of the Plague and the Ministers fled and left the dying without their help many Nonconformists ventured their lives among them beg'd Money for them and relieved them and found the dying Persons so much inclined to hear repent and pray that this brake the Bonds of the Acts of Uniformity and Banishment so that they resolved rather to die than to cease preaching while they were out of Prison and could speak And the City being burnt the next year confirmed their resolution the Conformists ceasing to preach long for want of Churches But all this time had a Nonconformist Minister been seen in a Parish Church he must for Six Months have lain in Goal with Rogues So that the sum of their imposed Obedience was Either inhumanely desert the deserted City after Plagues and Flames left desolate or go to the Parish Ministers when they return and Communicate with them and go Six Months to Goal or else be Excommunicate and lye in Goal for not Communicating with them Of these three they had their choice But in all this time I was driven far off and kept constantly to the publick Church at Toteridge 24. I never became the Pastor of any Church since I was expelled from Kiderminster I offered when I refused a Bishoprick to preach there for nothing under the ignorant Reader that was Vicar But the Lord Chancellor Hyde wrote to Sir Ralph Clare that his Majesty thought himself not well dealt with that Mr. Baxter that had deserved so well of him had not the Vicaridge and he promised to pay the Vicar the worth of it by his own Steward Mr. Clutterbuke out of his own Rents But durst not give a Prebend much less a Pastoral Charge to the Vicar lest it disgrace the Ministry I was not so ignorant as not to know what the King and Chancellor meant by all this and by the Gracious Declaration But he gave me unsealed the Copy of his Letter to send And the Vicar answered as he was taught that he would not quit his place for an uncertainty nor would Bishop Morley let me preach for nothing under him 25. When the King sent out his Declaration that gave us leave to preach I returned to London and chose only St. Martins Parish to preach in because there were said to be above Sixty Thousand Souls more than could hear in the Church and hiring a room over the Market-house at St. James's where we were all delivered by almost a Miracle from a crack in the Floor I published to the Hearers and left to them in writing that I came not thither to gather or preach to any new Church or as separating from the Parish Church but being Vowed to the Ministry in necessary compassion pro tempore to help part of the many thousands that could not come into the Parish Church For which some Separatists censured me And we used the Scripture part of the Liturgy and more 26. Being driven from that Room by the breach of the Main-beam I built a Room and Leased the Ground at too dear rates in Oxenden-street near But had preached but one Sermon but Secretary Henry Coventree with two Justices more came with a Warrant to apprehend me and I being twenty Miles distant they seized on Mr. Sedden a stranger that preached for me And though he had by the Cromwellians suffered Imprisonment for seeking to bring in King Charles the Second they sent him to the Goal where it cost me twenty pound for his Charges but my Wisest and most Over-valuing Friend Judge Hale proved the Mittimus void and released him by the Sentence of all the Court. 27. When I could not be suffered there I hired a Room to preach in for nothing in Swallow-street and ask'd the Bishops leave who gave some hope of his favour But after a few days many Constables Church-wardens and other Officers were set at the Door to take me had I come and so continued about three Months till another came 28. I then that the people might
in words 46. Thence I went quietly to a costly Prison where I continued in pain and languor near two years Enjoying more quietness in that Confinement than I had done of many years before Because they had no further to hunt me And God there healed my Bloody Urine that had continued two years 47. Being Fined 500 Marks and to give Bond for the Behaviour when they saw that I did neither pay the Fine nor Petition the King and Papists who all this while did their work by Men called Protestants resolved to have the thanks for my Release and offered me deliverance by the Marquess of Powis his endeavour But they would not abate my Bonds to the Behaviour 48. When I was released the Protestant Justices at the Sessions that declared they had nothing against me would not take up my former Bonds but made me long wait with Counsel at Hicks Hall and I know not that they have given up my Bonds to this day But Patience is my remedy 49. Before while I lived in St. Giles's Parish I went Morning and Evening to the Parish Church to Common Prayer and Sermon And I Communicated kneeling at the Rails But I first told Dr Sharp now Dean of Canterbury that I am ipso facto Excommunicate by Canon 7 8 9. and left it to his consideration But after Consultation he admitted me because the Canon bound him not before prosecution or declaration 50. In Prison and since my Release I have written divers Books for Communion with the publick Churches And one of Government and one against Schism and others pacificatory that are not printed And I have continued to preach only as a helper to another not related to any gathered Church as their Teacher though Licensed by Law to have gathered such a Church as well as others 51. The reason why I have not these four years gone to any Parish Church is because Prisons and utter disability of Body hindered me being scarce able to creep once a day to our Assembly but the fourth Door from my House 52. To conclude Whoever after reading my many great and small Writings for Concord and Peace and for the Church especially my Cure of Church Divisions my Treatise of the way of Unity my Catholick Theology my Christian Directory my Methodus Theologiae and the numerous Volumes of Controversie written all to end Controversies and shall know that it hath been my chief study and labour these forty four years to promote Unity Peace and Concord and what I have suffered for it and yet will accuse my Heart and Life as quite contrary to all this must bring to any sober impartial Man very clear evidence to prove me so mad and deadly an Enemy to so long and painful Labours § 14. I am next therefore further to enquire what this Evidence is But his words do seem to forbid an answer for they are capable of none but what will sound harshly even to name them as they are Most Impudent Lies meer forgeries or the most unquestionable Duties made most odious sins and most of the pretence fetcht from some words of my Writings and Confessions depraved and impudently falsified The General Accusation is page 14. I dare challenge any Historian that hath observed or read the Tragedies of the late times to shew a parallel in any one person I say not only among the Apostate Clergy but the Laity and the worst of them that may equal Mr. B. Accus I. Particularly Who is there among the Living that entertained more early Prejudices against the Bishops Ans Mendac I. I thought them to be of Divine Institution till after I was Ordained And since then I have proved it of the Primitive Episcopacy And opposed none but that sort of Diocesans who put down all the Bishops and Churches that should be under them and will be the sole Bishops of many hundred or score Parishes making true Episcopal Discipline impossible and substituting a delusion § 15. Accus II. That left his Calling as a Minister of Peace and entred with the first into a War against the King Mendac II. I never left my Calling nor ever took Command or Office or so much as a Chaplains relation to any Souldiers nor pay for it Save that when Naseby Fight almost ended the War I went a Chaplain to have tryed to save the Land from Rebellion I always was for King and Parliament and never against the Kings Person Power or Prerogative but only for his return to his Parliament and against his Will and Instruments When Hen. VI. was carried about by his Enemies his Friends fought for him that fought against the Army where his Person was I was so far from going into a War with the first that I only fled to Coventry for a private Refuge when I was forced from Home of which enough before § 16. Accus III. And for four years space which was the heat of the Wars was an Agent as well as an Eye-witness of most of the terrible Battles that were fought in England Mendac IV. I never so much as saw one of those terrible Battles The first that ever I saw was that at Langport when the Field War ended And there I saw not the killing of one Man Because I said that I saw some Fields and Dead he forgeth me to have seen the Fights I never saw the Fight at Edgehill but being at Alcester I went to see the Ground and some unburied Bodies the following day I never saw either of the two Newberry Fights nor the Countrey I never saw the Fight at Horncastle at Allford or any in the East South West or North. I never saw the greatest Fight at York nor ever was in or near the County I saw not that at Mongomery nor that at Nampwich nor any Fight in England save that aforesaid at Langport and the flight of our Coventry Men from Banbury And I went to see the Ground at Naseby when the Armies were gone a day or two before And I once saw at a distance about thirty Men of a side Fight between Linsell and Longford where one was kill'd Some Sieges I was not far off while I was with the Armies on the Accounts at large before recited § 17. Accus IV. Who ever boasted of drawing thousands to that War Ans He falsly calleth a Confession a Boasting To convince Cromwell's Soulders that pull'd down the Government I that had drawn thousands into the Parliaments defensive War could not have denied the heinousness of my Crime if I had done as they did or been against King and Parliament united or for the changing of the Government I said by aggravation that I had drawn in thousands because at Coventry and Wem I had publickly preach'd against the accusations of the Cause that I then thought just § 18. Accus V. Who hath said more to justifie not the War only but the Death of the Royal Martyr Ans Mendac V. What can a Reader say of such Men that shall find 1. That
than I do that I have been put oft to confute them Yet how is Hooker extolled by them while I that have confuted his popular Principles am a Rebel King Charles II. verbally by a Declaration diso ned his Fathers Wars he honoured many Generals and Colonels of the Parliaments Army with the highest Offices One of them General Monk by a Parliament Presbyterian Army restored him yet I that never was a Commander or Soldier nor ever stroke or hurt Man or drew a drop of Blood in War am the great instance of the Rebellion Who did what I did to avoid the guilt of Rebellion and to save England from being made like Ireland where I thought it was Rebellion that Murdered two hundred thousand And we were then so ignorant of War that we commonly thought that one Battel would have ended all and setled peace As for the Charge of Schism I verily think that the Irish may as modestly transfer on the Protestants the charge of Rebellion as King Charles II. his Prelates can lay on such as I the charge of Schism which they have so powerfully caused and continued He that will read my Search for the Schismatick needeth no further proof And he that will not may keep his beloved Errour § 23. Accus X. Answered I said that I was bred up under eight Reading School masters of whom divers were beggar'd by drinking Must I repent of that Or of disliking such Churchmen O I should have said nothing ill of the dead No nor of their living Successors for hence is the rage O how intolerable to these Men is reproof and repentance in comparison of Sin I must repent for telling that one of my Reading Masters that only officiated in the Church never preach'd but once and that with the notorious signs of being Drunk in Eyes and Tongue on that terrible Text Mat. 25. Go ye cursed c. What enmity to the Church is it to complain of such Men But we were so often whipt when he came in Drunk that made us as weary of him as the Fined and Imprisoned Ministers are of the Persecuting Bishops § 24 Page 17. Accus XI At Nineteen years of Age he had a distaste against Bishops as Persecutors Ans But not as Bishops I cannot repent of distasting Persecutors It was Born in me and New born May not one be a Christian that loveth not Persecution § 25. Accus XII Whether Mr. B. made his Father a Rebel or his Father him he tells us his Father was twice a Prisoner Ans By this proof all the Imprisoned Nonconformists are Rebels How easily can such Prelates and their Agents make thousands of Rebels My Father lived in the Kings Quarters and never was Nonconformist nor medled with Wars But being plundered was made Collector of the Kings Taxes and brought in all that was paid but would not distrain and for that was Imprisoned And at last fled for safety to Worcester a Garrison of the Kings Who can escape the charge of Rebellion from such Accusers § 26. Accus XIII His first adventure was to Seize the Person of a Neighbour in exchange for his Father but Quo Warranto I find not Ans By the Law of God in Nature and the Fifth Commandment and â—ege Talionis the Party being obnoxious and suffering no hurt nor loss by it Yet from these false Conjectures about my Father he saith You see how early Mr. B's Spirit was fermented with Principles of Faction and Sedition Ans Readers you see what Faction and Sedition signifie in this Mans Mouth § 27. Accus XIV Here accusing me for telling how Bishop Morton Confirmed me and many more saying a short Collect without a word of Examination or Instruction he heapeth up divers falshoods 1. That my Master was a Minister I think is false 2. He querieth Did not your Master Examine you Ans He was the best of all my Masters and heard us say the Catechism but never told us any thing of the sence nor ever examined whether we understood any of it 3. He asketh How know you but your Master certified of you Ans If he certified that I understood what Baptismal Covenantings or Confirmation was or much of the rest or what Consent I gave to that Covenant I doubt he certified too much And I being the Head Scholar all the rest were liker to be ignorant than I Except Richard Allestree who though two or three years younger had been diligently Catechized by a Nonconforming Minister He saith This was Mr. B's fault not the Bishops Ans I confess I was faulty in not understanding as much at Fourteen years as I understood many years after I cannot say that a Child of Seven years old is sinless in not understanding all the Articles of Faith But though it be the fault of the Ordained if they seek it unqualified in gross Ignorance or Wickedness the Ordainers will not long believe such Deceivers that it is not their fault to Ordain such He that believeth Dr. Hammond and Mr. Eldersfield two the Learnedst Conformists of this Age of the grand importance of the solemn understanding and serious owning of the Baptismal Covenant in Confirmation when young Men pass into the rank of Communicants should shed streams of Tears to think how contrary common practice is hereto and how this Ordinance is not only frustrate but turned to a deluding Ceremony § 28. Accus XV. He was a Controuler of Bishops at Fourteen Ans A meer Forgery I liked the sport It was too long after that I disliked it § 29. Accus XVI Page 19. I am reproached that the Grave Neighbour Conforming Ministers that kept me from Nonconformity were such as had rather have had the Church rid of such dividing Things whence he slanderously concludeth that they waited an opportunity to be active in Ruining the Church Because when Conformity was forbidden by the Parliament they forsook not their Flock What can escape Satanical reproach when a great part of the County had scarce any able and pious Ministers but four or five such as these and they shall be falsly branded by such as never knew them § 30. Accus XVII His charge of my ignorant Subscribing at my Ordination I confess and lament and beg of God to forgive But the report of raining Manna at Bridgnorth at my coming thither is the Forgery of his Trade A Grain like dryed Rie rained there almost a year before my coming thither which I kept some of long and the like at Shrewsbury about two years ago And he forgeth that there were six Parishes at Bridgnorth because I said there were six under the Ordinaries Power § 31. Accus XVIII He accuseth me for being against the Et caetera Oath and Canons and yet saith not a word to prove it lawful but through me condemneth not only the Parliament that condemned it before the Division but even the long Parliament that made all their cruel Laws that never would own that Oath or authorize those Canons nor any Parliament
this be a Character of the best Church in the World to have such Ministers But if there be no Obligation from that Vow to the things aforesaid 1. Dr. Sanderson and most sober Casuists are mistaken who say That though a Vow be unlawfully imposed and unlawfully taken and part of the Matter be unlawful to be kept it bindeth us nevertheless to keep the necessary part And what am I that I should swear or say that I am wiser than all these Doctors and sure that they are mistaken 2 And then I must swear or say that neither King nor Lords nor any one took it in a lawful sense which else would oblige them And must I become a Voucher for Thousands whom I never knew 3 And then I must swear or say that the King was brought in by Errour and Deceit Monk's Presbyterian Army and the Presbyterian Gentry and Ministry of England brought in the King as bound to it by this Covenant as they declared And must I say it did not bind them to it But our Accusers are no Self-accusers but God will difference between him that sweareth and him that feareth an Oath and dare not take God's Name in vain § 76 Accus LIX He dipped his Pen not in Gall and Vinegar but in the very poyson of Asps to keep open the wounds of the expiring Church To which end he endeavours to draw his Neighbour-Ministers into an Association and procures the Worcestershire Agreement the design of which you may see in his Gildas Salvianus Ans I have here some help to understand Christ They that kill you shall think they do God service What Duty so great that some will not say is a Crime that deserveth death The Agreement accused is printed in a Book called Christian Concord The terms of it were that Episcopal and Presbyterians and Independents should agree in the practice of so much of the Ministry and Church-Discipline as they were agreed about in their Judgments or Principles and be left in the rest to their several Liberties Was this a Crime Is an Attempt of voluntary Concord and Peace the poyson of Asps Or is not the poyson of Asps under their lips that are haters of it and have not known the way of peace I have had thanks from Helvetia and other parts of Germany for that Gildas Salvianus and that pacificatory Attempt which is to these Men the poyson of Asps § 77. Accus LX. But there was then a Petition that scandalous and insufficient Ministers might not administer Sacraments on which the Loyal Party were restrained Ans And is it a Crime to be against a scandalous insufficient Ministry and a Duty to be for them that we may be the best Church in the World Reader the truth is this There was a Petition by some that those of what side soever for King or Parliament whose Insufficiency and Scandal was so great as to render them utterly uncapable of Ministry might not be allowed it And I petitioned withal that no Man might be cast out or restrained for being for the King against the Parliament and their Cause Is this so poysonous Doth not this Man more disgrace his Church than me that taketh it for the poyson of Asps to cast out only the uncapable and keep in the rest § 78. Accus LXI He accuseth me for telling the World truly how the English Prelates had encouraged the Enemies of serious Godliness in the Land and at how much cheaper a rate a Man might be a Swearer a Drunkard a Whoremonger an open Scorner of Godliness than to fast and pray or to hear a Conformist in the next Parish when there was no Sermon at home Ans What doth the Man mean by rendering this odious If he mean that all this was well done and that as in Armies he hath most Honour that killeth most so in their Church he is the best Man that doth most against serious Piety this is to profess themselves the Devil's Militia But if he mean that I mis-report the matter of fact and this was not so he may as well persuade us that we lived not then in England or that we knew not our Neighbours or that Men spake not English Can we chuse but know that which every Corner in all the Land did speak Doth he say a word to confute all this And it was a meritorious work to silence and imprison with Rogues all that obeyed not their ungodly Canons but it must go for a heinous Crime to feel their Malice or blame their Cruelty § 79. Accus LXII Pag 66 c. He accuseth me as accusing King Charles the First of too much favouring the Grotian design of Union with the Papists But 1. Doth he say a word so much as to deny his Letter to the Pope to venture Crown and all for Union 2. Or to deny his sworn Articles for Toleration mentioned in Rushworth's Collections and others 3. Or to deny the Papists Murders in Ireland and their power in the King's Armies in England 4. Or that he set up such Bishops as Laud Bromhall and others But if accusing these Men be my Crime when I would have saved England from them Reader peruse but a full Treatise which I have long ago written and hope to get speedily printed with the very words of Laud Bromhall Gunning Saywell Thorndike Heylin Pierce Parker Sparrow Beveridge c. for our Subjection to a Foreign Jurisdiction which the Kingdom is sworn against and then judge whether I accuse them wrongfully Must we be brought under Aristocratical Popery or French Church-Government merely by saying It is not Popery And must the Land so tamely be perjured and enslaved § 80 Accus LXIII Pag. 67. He hath been made use of as one of the most keen and Catholick Tools that ever the Papacy did employ Ans 1. 'T is an unrighteous Honour to Popery to call it Catholick while they are a Sect contrary to Catholicism But why then do not these Men love and cherish me while they are striving for a Foreign Jurisdiction if I be so much for them § 81. Accus LXIV Pag. 68. That I am for a mixture of Episcopal Presbyterian and Independent Government Ans And what harm is that I am for that which is good in all and for the Faults of none But these Men must needs be faultless and curse all others that they may bless themselves But am I Episcopal and yet the greatest Enemy to Episcopacy Are they for Episcopacy that put down hundreds to set up one in their stead § 82. Accus LXV The next Accusation is That my five Disputations of Church-Government came out to keep out Episcopacy and justifie our Ordination Ans 1. It was to bring in a threefold Episcopacy which our Diocesans kept out viz. Episcopos Gregis Episcopos Praesides and Archbishops over these 2. Chancellor Hide and Morley produced that Book before the King Lords and Bishops at the great Meeting at Worcester-house and Morley said No Man hath written better
if he eat saith Paul England yet feeleth such Mens Mercy There is I think but one of their Commissioners now surviving nor on our side but few even Dr. Tho. Pierce Dean of Salisbury And he moved for leave by Disputation there to prove that it is a work of mercy to all that think it unlawful to receive the Sacrament kneeling to deny it them and the Communion of the Church though the prohibition of all kneeling in Adoration on any Lords Day was one of the Ancient Ceremonies of the Church setled also at the great Council of Nice and continued near a Thousand years saith Dr. Heylin But Morley had the wit to take him off that dispute § 90. Accus LXXIII Page 96. After other Harangues he alledgeth false Causes of my refusing a Bishoprick I satisfied the Lord Chancellor Hide by a Letter with truer Reasons too long here to repeat § 91. Accus LXXIV He next accuseth my Moral Prognostication Ans Let it answer for it self to the Impartial Reader § 92. Accus LXXV He threateneth me for blaming the Laws Ans And do not many Bishops now blame the Laws If Laws be made engines of Schism and Persecution let them justifie them that can and that love them David saith Shall the Throne of Iniquity have Fellowship with thee that frameth mischief by a Law How many German Divines blamed the Interim imposed by the Emperor as for Peace § 93. Accus LXXVI He next reciteth Bishop Morley's Accusations in his printed Letter Ans Which I have proved to abound with falshood in a full Answer which for want of printing hath lain by me these six and twenty years Mr. Baldwin is yet living who was present when he forbad me to preach And Dr. William Bates is yet living who joyned with me in the Savoy Disputation which he misreported § 94. Accus LXXVII He accuseth my Book called The Cure of Church Divisions and yet saith It is the only Book that Mr. B. hath written that hath any thing of moderation Ans Must the World have a confutation of so gross a Liar after the visibility of above Sixscore Books that are an evidence against him and after the testimony that the Lord Chancellor Hide and Morley gave of me producing one of these Books before the King Lords and Drs. at Worcester-House If I understand them above a hundred Books have been written by me with a special design for Moderation Unity and Concord § 95. Accus LXXVIII Page 101. He is not ashamed to be a procurer of the Indulgence for Popery 1. Because I said I would have Papists used like Men. 2. I would have no Man put to death for being a Priest 3. I would have no writ de Excommunicato capiendo or any Law to compel them to our Communion and Sacraments Ans This Man is for Moderation Do you think he or I is more for Popery or hath written more against it Would he not have them used like Men nor suffered to live And must they be cast out of a Church that they were never in It seems he would receive them all to his Sacramental Communion if they will but chuse his Church before the Goal § 96. Accus LXXIX Page 102. Because I hold that If a Bishop or their Church Party would lay us in Goal for our Duty to God it is lawful to accept deliverance from a Papist that is in Authority He feigneth that If they will not come to us I would go to them And if a Protestant did Hang this Man himself would he take it for Popery or Sin to consent that a Papist cut the Rope You see what kind of crimes we Nonconformists are guilty of A willingness to live out of Goals against the Churchmens will Nay it is yet more our Crime is that we will not damn our selves by Subscribing or Swearing falsly and breaking our Ordination Vow by giving over our Ministry The proof that these Men are against Popery is that they would have the Nonconformists die in Goals and have no Papist seek to deliver them § 97. Accus LXXX Accusing my Book against Sacrilegious Desertion of the Ministry he asketh me Why I Baptize not nor Administer the Lords Supper and so seem to desert Christianity Ans Because I was called to preach and not to Baptize and Administer the Lords Supper by the Necessities of the people where I lived There were in Martins Parish about 60000 more than could come into the Church to hear But they had Curates enough to Baptize and they were compelled to the Lords Supper or might have come and neither Minister nor People desired my help And if these Men believe it not I do That we may and must preach to many that yet are not capable of Sacraments And to many whose Pastors and Judges herein we are not Shall every Minister that preacheth occasionally for him presume to Congregate his Flock and give them the Sacrament Or is he displeased that I gathered not a separated Church § 98. Accus LXXXI As to his Accusation of the Book I leave it to the Readers Judgment that will impartially peruse it But I am not yet convinced by him that it is a Crime to name the heinous sins that have torn this poor Nation and no Crime to commit them Most of his Accusations are that I tell them of their sin and perswade them to repent § 99. Accus LXXXII He accuseth my Plea for Peace and my Book called The true and only way of the Churches Concord as being utterly against Peace Ans Read them and Judge § 100. Accus LXXXIII He accuseth my History of turbulent Bishops and Councils and their Anathematizing as if it were false and almost all was done by Presbyters Ans Let him that hath read it and the proof I cite freely judge who is the falsifier As to his talk about Nestorius had he read David Derodon and what I have said in my Reply to the Defender of Dr. Stillingfleet Mr. Morrice it might have acquainted him with more than he seemeth to know about the Nestorians Eutychians and Monothelites As to his talk against the Arrians I am as much against them as he but not so much against Peace Dr. Henry More a Learned Conformist saith that those after the Council of Nice were to be numbered with the Catholicks and not with the Antichristians Though a Presbyter began their Sect it was Bishops and Persecuting Emperors that upheld it As to my words of many Writers mistakes therein before the Council of Nice he may find them with abundance more in Petavius de Trinitate As to his words of the Controversies and Councils de tribus Capitulis he that excuses the said Councils and Bishops as faultless as to all the doleful Divisions that followed hath not a due love to peace and prudence The same I say of the Monothelites § 101. Accus LXXXIV His great Accusation Page 126. is that If I had any fear of God or reverence of Man I would not reproach the