him their Almoner He tells us That this did begin and end at home to help the silenced Ministers and the Poor Such Poor probably as frequented their Conventicles for these are every where the Objects of the Presbyterian Charity though none boast more that they are Men of Catholick and Universal Charity But it was particularly designed to increase the number of such as followed them for their Loaves Had any Man the opportunity to inspect the Subscriptions of the several Bishops Deans and Chapters and other Dignitaries of the Church as also of both the Universities towards the Relief of the Refugees he may find not only a bountiful Supply for the present but Provision made for their future Subsistance as Brethren and professed Members of the same Church with us who want not the countenance or incouragement of the Conforming Clergy to this day My great Age and Infirmities being now within one year as old as Mr. Baxter was at the time of his death do enforce me to omit many other Remarks of Pride Hypocrisie and Contradictions which he that runs may read in this and other Writings of our Author which I leave to the Observation of such as better knew the Man and his Communication and shall make only this one Reflection more on his partiality in censuring the Conformists and Non-conformists of all sorts and degrees And first the Reader may see his hyperbolical Commendations of his Non-conforming Brethren from p. 90. to p. 99. of his Life where he gives the Character of such of the Eighteen hundred silenced Ministers as were his Neighbours not speaking by hearsay but personal acquaintance which were between Forty and Fifty besides many whom he had forgotten and about Forty London Ministers with Fifteen Independants and others of several parts that were Fellow-sufferers with himself All which if they deserved the Titles which he gives them he might have Canonized them as Saints in Heaven on better grounds than he hath done by Brooks Pym and White in his Saints Everlasting Rest. As to the Lay-Brethren of the Separation he gives the preheminence to those of his own Flock at Kidderminster And p. 85. part 1. he says Some of the poor Men did competently understand the Body of Divinity and were able to judge in difficult Controversies and so able in Prayer that few Ministers did match them in order and fulness in apt Expressions and holy Oratory with fervency And of Six hundred Communicants which Mr. Baxter had there he says there were not above Twelve of whom he had not good hopes of their Sincerity And this he imputes to his own Labours For before I came thither there was about one Family in a Street that worshipped God and called on his Name but before I came away there was not past one Family in the side of a Street that did not so p. 88 89. And he adds this reason of their proficiency That being Weavers they could set a Book before them standing in their Looms and edifie one another by reading or talking Of such Trades-men and Freeholders he says that they are the strength of Religion and Civility in the Land though such made up the Mob which begun and continued our Wars and destroyed our Religion by dividing it into innumerable Sects and Factions So that Mr. Edwards observed in his Gangreena that in the space of four years after that Episcopacy was laid aside there were more Heresies started in this Land than had been known in the Universal Church from the foundation thereof As to his Censures of such as lived in Conformity to the established Religion he is as impartial as Death condemning them all as a prophane and persecuting Generation in a Book called Cain and Abel How he hath branded the best of our Kings and the Clergy hath been already shewn How he Censures the Parliament and their Laws which he calls the tearing Engines that woried Two thousand Ministers casting them out of their Possessions into Poverty and Prisons to starve and pine away and for imposing such Oaths Subscriptions and Declarations as any Man that feared God could not comply with is such a Common Place that I wonder it was no more taken notice of After this Censure of the Parliament Mr. Baxter speaks of the Nobility and Gentry in general p. 134. where he saith I more than ever lament the unhappiness of the Nobility and Gentry and great Ones of the World who live in such temptations to Sensuality Curiosity and Wasting of Time about a multitude of little things whose Lives â—…re too often a Transcript of the Sins of Sodom Pride Fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness and want of Compassion to the Poor And p. 89. That Gentlemen and Beggars and Servile Tenants are the strength of Iniquity in the Land though it was not very civil to put the Beggar on the Gentleman yet it was much worse to joyn them in the Bonds of Iniquity and make the Comparison between them and the Trades-men so odious that these are reputed the strength of Religion and Civility but the Gentry and their Tenants and Beggars the strength of Iniquity And he instanceth in Sir R. Clare and Sir John Packington who much hindred his Success in gathering Proselytes in Kidderminster He gives this Character of Sir R. Clare p. 94. part 1. That he was an old Man of great Courtship and Civility very temperate as to Diet Apparel and Sports seldom swore any louder than by his troth one that shewed him much personal reverence and respect beyond his deserts and conversed with love and familiarity One that sent his Family to be Catechised and personally Instructed which swayed with the worst among that People to do the like But being ruled by Dr. Hammond he liked not of Mr. Baxter's Preciseness and Extemporary Prayer and abstained from the Sacrament which Mr. Baxter delivered to such as sate or stood at the receiving it which gave offence to Sir R. Clare whereby he says Sir R.C. did more to hinder his Success than a multitude of others could have done And on such an account all the Conforming Gentry are the strength of Iniquity And although the Poverty of Mr. Baxter's People whereof the Master-workmen lived but little beter than their Journey-men from hand to mouth p. 94. was a help to his Success the Poor receiving the glad tidings of the Gospel and being usually rich in faith Yet for those that frequent the Churches and Common Prayer they are coupled with the Gentry as the strengtheners of Iniquity whereas the Laws have provided such a Competency for their Maintenance as may keep them from beggary which the Law alloweth not but in truth the multitude of Beggars in occasioned and increased by those many Families that depend upon the Trade of Weaving who living but from hand to mouth are forced on the decay of Trade for a few Weeks to beg for their Subsistance or to do worse of which such places as abound with Men of that
A REVIEW OF Mr. Richard Baxter's LIFE WHEREIN Many Mistakes are Rectified some False Relations Detected some Omissions supplyed out of his other BOOKS WITH REMARKS on several Material Passages By THOMAS LONG B.D. One of the Prebendaries of St. Peter's Exon. I have been in the heat of my Zeal so forward to Changes and Ways of Blood that I fear God will not let me have a hand in the peaceable building of his Church Mr. Baxter's Letter to Dr. Hill LONDON Printed by F.C. and are to be sold by E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1697. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND Father in GOD JONATHAN Lord Bishop of Exeter May it please your Lordship I Am very sensible how Criminal it is for any Christian to do what the very Heathen have forbid to speak any thing of the Dead but what is well and yet there are so many ill things recorded of Mr. Baxter in the following Treatise that I might justly incur your Lordships displeasure if I could not plead very necessary and satisfactory Reasons for this Undertaking First therefore I plead that I have said little or nothing in what is now published but what Mr. Baxter reported of himself as Matters of Fact in the History of his Life and other Books printed in his Life time or what is fairly inferred from the same 2. That the Substance of what is now published was printed about nine years before his Death which it is evident he had perused and acknowledgeth he had given no Answer to it except a Mentiris which was his usual Reply to other Adversaries for want of Reason and Argument 3. I say that though dead he hath first provoked me for in p. 188. part 3. of his Life he saith Long of Exeter wrote so fierce a Book to prove me out of my own Writings to be one of the worst Men living on Earth full of Falshoods and old retracted Lines and half Sentences that I never saw any like it and yet though so much concerned and surviving about Nine years he hath not discovered that fulness of Falshoods c. which he suggested but tells his Readers that it is none of the Matter in Controversie whether he be good or bad whereas it is certain that a good Man would never ingage in so bad a Cause as he hath defended by his Personal Actions as well as in many Writings and he himself tells us That a true Description of Persons is much of the Life of History p. 136. of his Life And an evil Tree cannot bring forth good Fruit. 4. I plead not my own Cause but the Cause of the Church and National Constitutions and in truth of all Degrees of Persons in the Nation for this Historical Relation of his own Life contains a virulent invective and grinning Satyr against all that live in conformity to the Ecclesiastical or Civil Laws the King is represented as a Papist and Authorizer of the Irish Insurrection the Parliament is Tyrannical making such Laws as proved Taring Engines and such as no Man fearing God could submit to the established Order of Episcopacy as Antichristian the Clergy as perjured and persecuting Persons the Nobility and Gentry as strengthners of Iniquity in the Land And do not such Scandals demand a Reply 5. It is necessary to disperse those Clouds and Umbrages with which he would cover his mischievous Designs his Pleas for Peace first second and third and his Only way of Concord being nothing else but Seeds of Discord and Confusion and necessary it was that such ill things should have good Names given them those that would propagate Schisms and Heresies need a Form of Godliness to set them off Arius Aerius and Donatus were Men of good Learning and as to appearance of good Lives also yet the one most strangely propagated that damnable Error of denying the Lord that bought him and the other those Schisms which have divided the Body of Christ his Church to this present Age 'T is but an Artifice therefore of all Seducers of which the Apostle forewarns us 2 Tim. 3.2,3 That in the last days men should be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than of God and all this under a Form of Godliness and when even Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light it is no marvel if his Ministers be transformed as the Ministers of Righteousness 6. I remember that our Excellent Bishop of Worcester prudently foretold of Mr. Baxter That he would dye leaving his sting in the wounds of the Church which Mr. Baxter hath abundantly fulfilled in this and many other of his Writings which Stings must be pluckt out or the Wounds which they have made will be still kept open and bleeding for though Mr. Baxter be dead he hath done what he could to raise up and arm a Succession of such a Generation of Dissenters as shall still eat into the Bowels of the Church and he hath provided a Magazine of Ammunition for them Mr. Sylvester tells us How much he was delighted in a hopeful Race of young Ministers and Christians how much he valued young Divines and hopeful Candidates for the Ministry how liberal he was of Counsel and Encouragement to them and inquisitive after and pleased with their growthful Numbers and Improvement And he told me that he had the greatest hopes and expectations from the succeeding Generation of them that they would do God's Work much better than we had done before them To which end he acquaints us in the beginning of his Preface That Mr. Baxter left the orderly disposal of his bequeathed Library to young poor Students So that here is a Fund provided for a perpetual Schism And Mr. Sylvester hath discovered a hidden Treasure of Mr. Baxter's which he is improving as a Supply of Deficiencies in another Volume Having shewn your Lordship the Reasons of my Undertaking I shall briefly give you an Account of what I have performed to frustrate these pernicious Attempts Your Lordship knows I have served as a Veterane Souldier in these Parts of the Church Militant about Fifty years and might now sue for a Dismission being somewhat elder than Mr. Baxter was when he left writing which was as Mr. Sylvester says Seven years before his death when he was as I compute it Sixty nine years old and I am now entred into the Seventy sixth year yet to excite and encourage men of greater Abilities I have as I were able performed these two things First Whereas a great part of this and other Writings of Mr. Baxter as also of his whole Life hath been spent in framing Objections against and Defamations of our well-establish'd Discipline and Liturgy which he blameth as too confused for want of Method and for its Matter abstracted from the Penal Laws as abounding with Thirty or Forty such tremendous things as a man
he doth by the whole Order of Church Governours that he may make ours the more odious He says as in divers places p. 252. 253. of Saints Rest That the first rage of the Prelates in silencing as learned able Ministers and incessantly persecuting as godly Christians as the World enjoyed was just before the War begun increased an hundred fold P. 251. As I am certain by sight and sense that the extirpation of Piety was the then great design which so far prevailed that very many of the most able Ministers were silenced Lectures and Evening Sermons on the Lord's-day suppressed Christians imprison'd dismembred and banished He speaks as if it were done by Heathen for no other cause but as being Christians That it was as much at least as a mans Estate was worth to hear a Sermon abroad when he had none or worse at home to meet for Prayer or any other godly Exercise and that it was a matter of Credit and a way to Preferment to Revile and be Enemies to those that were most Conscientious and every where safer to be a Drunkard or an Adulterer than a painful Christian and that multitudes of Humane Ceremonies took place when the Worship of Christ's Institution was cast out besides the slavery that invaded us in Civil respects So I am most certain that this was the Work which we took up Arms to resist and those were the Offenders whom we endeavour to offend You see Mr. Baxter is armed with Prejudice and Zeal Cap-a-peé for a War wherein to resist his Superiours under a pretence of Reformation though to that Resistance the Word of God threatens Damnation Yet Mr. Baxter p. 271. says As I cannot yet perceive but that we undertook our Defence upon warrantable grounds so I am most certain God hath wonderfully appeared through the whole Success was the great Argument of which p. 250. Having been an Eye-witness of a very great part of the eminent Providences from the first of the War I have plainly seen something above the common Course of Nature in almost every Fight that I have beheld The War saith Mr. Baxter was begun in our Streets before the King or Parliament had any Armies between the Puritans and drunken Rabble that hated the Parliaments Reformation and so I was forced to be gone before the Wars And a Man that was more pious and devout than the Multitude could not live by them in most places but were forced into Garrisons and Arms to save their Lives p. 252. of Saints Rest i.e. in plain English Mr. Baxter with the other Reformers put themselves into Arms and seized the King's Forts making them Garisons against the King I desire the Reader to reflect on this part of the Narrative Mr. Baxter often accuseth the Conforming Clergy with deliberate Lying and Perjury What was it in Mr. Baxter being prejudiced against the Bishops at Nineteen yea against Bishop Morton at Fourteen being familiar with Non-conformist Ministers and knowing their Minds yet to submit to Episcopal Ordination and Subscribe and Swear to obey the Bishop in licitis honestis and presently omit the Cross and Surplice and dispute openly against Bishops and prosecute and defend the War against the King against the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and when his taking of Holy Orders seems to be for no other end but to inable him to do the more mischief Was not this to be deliberately perjured But to go on he says in cold blood His engaging in that War was the greatest outward Service that ever he performed to God That Neutrality had been sinful and to have been against the Parliament in that Cause had been Treachery p. 481. of H.C.W. And p. 480. If I had known that the Parliament in that Cause had been the beginners and in most fault yet the ruine of our Trustees is a punishment greater than any fault of theirs though it were the cutting off his Head against a King can deserve and that their faults cannot disoblige me from defending the Commonwealth I knew the King had all his Power for the Common Good and none against it and therefore that no Cause can warrant him to make the Commonwealth the Party which he shall exercise Hostility against and that War against the Parliament especially by such an Army in such a Cause is Hostility against them and so against the Commonwealth All this seemed plain to me and especially when I knew how things went before who were the Agents how they were minded and what were their purposes against the People Would not this Man have made a better Solicitor against the Royal Martyr than Cooke who said he was another Solomon for his parts Did Cromwel or Bradshaw ever object such things against him as Mr. Baxter hath done Who could think that Mr. Baxter who pretends for so much Peace was ever a Man of such a Temper With what heart could he be an Eye-witness of the Humane Butcheries that were made in almost every Fight from the beginning of the War or with what Face could he say there appeared more of Christ's Interest on the one side than on the other as in the first occasion so in the Prosecution p. 252. of Saints Rest. And again Whatever the end may prove I am sure I have seen the Lord in the means p. 251. And That as we undertook our Defence on warrantable grounds so I am most certain God hath wonderfully appeared through the whole ibid. He says in the Epistle he was wonderfully rescued from many dangers in four years Wars and after many tedious nights and days and many doleful sights and tidings he and many of his Kederminsters whom he it seems had led on to the War were returned in peace that he was twenty several times delivered when he was near to death O the sad and heart-piercing Spectacles says he p. 115. that mine eyes have seen in four years space In this Fight a Friend fall down by me from another a precious Christian brought home wounded or dead precious Christians no doubt that died in such a horrid Rebellion scarce a Month scarce a Week without the sight or noise of Blood Surely there is none of this in Heaven our eyes shall then be filled no more nor our hearts pierced with such Fights as at Worcester Edge-hill Newbury Nantwich Montgomery Horn-Castle Naseby Langport c. it seems he was present in these Fights For he adds Mine eyes shall never more behold the Earth covered with the Carcasses of the slain And he saith He had travelled over the most part of England to pursue the War Illi robor aes triplex circum praecordia Mr. Baxter says the War began first in their Streets at Kederminster between those that would have pull'd down Painted-glass and Pictures and the People that opposed them which Parties were so violent against each oother that he was forc't to fly for his Safety And having been a while at Bridge-North 〈◊〉 Parties of the King's Soldiers
did conclude his own Prayer with it a great part of his Auditory would presently depart out of the Church as if it were impossible for them to be edified by such a Preacher as had no better Gift of Prayer And thus to make a thorough Reformation they first agreed on no more Addresses unto God before they Voted no more Addresses to the King The Creed and Commandments suffer the same Indignities being generally omitted in their Publick Worship and in many places especially at their Lectures scarce a Chapter of the Holy Scripture read to the People the whole Exercise being made up of Extemporary Prayer and Preaching the best of their Sermons if I may account them so that are printed and were preached in the greatest Congregations on most Solemn Occasions abounding with such Invectives against the King such Arguments and Motives to Rebellion and Shedding of Blood as will be an indelible Reproach to the Presbyterian Party who so taught others the Doctrine of Resisting their Superiours that they soon felt it to be practised against themselves who had broken down all the Fences of Government and opened those wide Breaches by which so many Heresies and so great Confusion overflowed the Nation so that the Pulpit-Drums exceeded those of the Field in doing Mischief drawing on more Souls to Destruction than the other did Bodies Mr. Baxter p. 43. of his Life tells us what Chaplains were in Essex's Army Abundance of famous excellent Divines were Chaplains to his Army Stephen Marshal and Dr. Burgess to Essex 's Regiments Obadiah Sedgwick to Col. Hollis Calibut Downing to the Lord Roberts John Sedgwick to the Earl of Stamford Dr. Spurstow to Hamden 's Mr. Perkins to Col. Goodwin 's Mr. Moore to the Lord Wharton 's Adoniram Bifield to Sir Henry Cholmley 's Mr. Nalton to Col. Grantham 's Mr. Simeon Ash to the Lord Brooks Mr. Morton of Newcastle to Sir Arthur Haslerigge with many more These were the first Incendiaries Boutefew's that first kindled and continued the Wars and such of the King's Friends as escaped the mouth of the Armies Swords were sentenc'd to a worse Death by the Sword of these Mens mouths In the Year 43. when the Parliaments Army were worsted and weakned by the King and they thought themselves in danger of being overcome they intreated help from the Scots who taking advantage of their straits brought in the Covenant as the Condition of their help Thus Mr. Baxter p. 127. of his first Plea who confesseth it was contrived as a Stratagem of War to bind the Faction in both Nations in a Confederacy against the King and strengthen the War against him for the doing whereof they pawned their Souls to each other as his Majesty observes in the Chapter of the Covenant And if it be considered by how many Solemn Oaths and Protestations the Subjects of both Nations as well as by the Laws of God and Nature were obliged to defend his Majesty's Person and the Laws and Government established it will appear to be true as Mr. Philip Nye observed concerning the Covenant That for Matter Persons and other Circumstances the like hath not been in any Age or Oath we read of in Sacred or Humane Story But it did the work for which it was designed it brought in the Scots Armies by by the promised hopes of dividing the Church Lands upon the Extirpation of Episcopacy and was as fatal to the King as to the Bishops For the King's Forces being broken he withdraws from Oxford where he was besieged and commits himself to the Scots Army who sollicite him to take the Covenant and sign their Propositions for the Presbyterial Government Henderson is sent to dispute the point with the King and he being baffled Mr. Cant Blaire and Douglas endeavoured the same but more by railing than reasoning with him One of them besides many rude expressions in his Sermon before the King called for the 52 Psalm which begins thus Why dost thou Tyrant boast abroad Thy wicked works to praise Whereupon the King presently stood up and called for the 56 Psalm which begins thus Have mercy Lord on me I pray For men would me devour Which the People readily sung leaving the other And the Commissioners of the General Assembly resolved That if the King be excluded from Government in England for not granting the Propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant it was not lawful for that Kingdom to assist him for the Recovery of the Government Nay they threaten to deliver him up to the Parliament of England as shortly after they did for 400000 l. for the raising of which Sum an Ordinance is past for Sale of the Bishops Lands at Ten years value Nov. 16. And by another Ordinance Febr. 8. none were to bear any Office Civil or Military that refused to take the Covenant The Parliament having gotten the King in their power thought themselves very secure and therefore resolves to disband the whole Army Horse and Foot and to send a good part of them for Ireland which so startled the Army that they began to take new measures And first they demand their Arrears for 56 Weeks Next that a Declaration against the Army March 13. might be recalled and they secured for what had been done in the late Wars which things at a general Rendezvouz they petition the Parliament for who being under great fears Vote all that was desired But the Army had a farther design and by 1000 Horse under Cornet Joyce seize the King's Person and detain him in the power of the Army which was Cromwel's design who though he sate with the Members at Westminster and protested there with Execrations against himself and his Family that he was ignorant of the Fact yet he told his Considents that having got the King into his hands he had the Parliament in his Pocket And presently he falls to purging of the House impeaching Eleven of the chief Presbyterians of High Treason and secluded them the House and afterward got the Militia of London into their hands for the Army being drawn up on Hounslow-heath marched up to the Parliament House and gave it a second purge of many more Members and marching triumphantly through London did demolish their Works and never left till he had setled the Parliament to his own liking But to return to Mr. Baxter Four years he says he was a Member of the Army part of which time by what follows will appear to be after that the Independent Party was predominant and the Army new modelled yet he tarried with this Army under Cromwel until the King was murthered and till Richard the Protector was cast out of the Government by those that had placed him in it Hear what Mr. Baxter says p. 14. of his Answer to Bagshaw Is it possible for any sober Christian in the World to take them to be blameless or these to be little sins What the violating of the King's Person and the Life of so good a King and the Change
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
War and was supported fourteen years in a languishing estate wherein he had scarce a waking hour free from pain And thus though against his will he is forced to leave the Army And might not Mr. Baxter justly say and the Reader believe him in this as he writes in a Letter to Dr. Hill I have been in the heat of my Zeal so forward to changes and ways of blood that I fear God will not let me have a hand in the peaceable building of his Church And the Judgment of God is eminently upon him who hath been so far from building that it hath ever since been his great business to destroy the best established Church in the World which will appear by taking a view of this mortified Man in his retirement from the War And we find him sitting down on the sequestred Living of Mr. Dance at Kedderminster he had inticed many of that place and neighbourhood to the War and some few returned with him again How far he was given to Plunder in the time of War whereof he hath been accused I affirm not but it will draw a shrewd suspicion on him that he was not afraid to take a Horse or two in time of War who seized on the Person of a Neighbour to serve as an Exchange for his Father and possessed himself of the Livelyhood of Mr. Dance of whom he confessed as the then Bp. of Worcester's Letter p. 3. informs That he was a Man of an unblameable Life and Conversation though not of such Parts as might qualifie him for the Cure of so great a Congregation And though Mr. Baxter was not welcomed here by a Miracle as he was at * See Mr. Baxter's Relation of this in a Postscript to his True Catholick p. 294. Bridgenorth where the Report is that it rained Manna on the Church wherein he was to officiate yet he was convinced by Providence as he says in that Epistle That it is the Will of God it should be so a strange Argument from God's permission of an unrighteous Act that it is his Will it should be so For this saith he I clearly discerned in my first coming to you in my former abode with you and in the time of my forced absence from you But the truth is Mr. Baxter had too much adhered to the Presbyterian Interest to be advanced by that Army though he desires them to remember how far he had gone with them in the War and pleadeth their acknowledgment that a special Presence of God was with the Parliament and presseth on them the Sin of forcing out 140 Members first and then 120 and their proclaiming it Treason to say that the Parliament was in being And then he urgeth those Scriptures to them which himself had shewn them an example to contemn Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 and that they might know his meaning he tells them That the secluded Members were the best Governours in all the World that they had the Supremacy and yet had been resisted and deposed in England It was a Sin with Mr. Baxter to oppose the Usurpers and a Duty to resist the King and fight against him which Mr. Baxter did for four years together And it is to be believed saith Mr. Baxter that a man would kill him against whom he fights p. 423. Holy Commonwealth But Mr. Baxter was not very constant to his own Profession concerning his long beloved Parliament For in the same place and breath almost he says Secondly I mean the Powers that were last layed by viz. Richard and his Parliament of whom he says as to Richard That he piously prudently and faithfully to his immortal honour did exercise the Government how ill soever you have used him But wherein did all this Piety and Prudence appear was it that he did inherit from his Father Oliver a tender care of the Cause of Christ of which you seem to give an instance in the Protestants of Piedmont when it was notorious that a great part of the Charity of the Nation for their Relief was employed in maintaining the War against the King Was it that at the instance of a few of his Officers he dissolved that Parliament of his Was it in swearing that he would to the utmost of his power maintain and preserve the just Rights and Priviledges of the People and govern according to Law which he could not do Was it in making a tame Submission to some of his Army calling them The present Government from whom he expected Protection and held himself obliged to live peaceably under them and to procure to the utmost of his power that others should do so too These things argue no great stock of Piety Prudence or Faithfulness And as to Richard's Parliament which had an Upper House consisting mostly of Military Mechanical and Fanatick Members a Lower House of Men of none or very ill note Of this Parliament Mr. Baxter says He never had known a Parliament more inclined to Piety and Peace the Long Parliament not excepted whereof he gives this instance Because it was their desire to have setled Elections according to Mr. Baxter's advice i.e. to keep out all whom he calls ungodly from chusing or being chosen See the Preface to the Holy Commonwealth These and such like were they of whom Mr. Baxter says They were the best Governours in all the World such as they had sworn and sworn to obey again and again such as might not be imposed on pain of Damnation and that he would with great rejoycing give a thousand thanks to that Man that would acquaint him of one Nation in the World that had better Governours in Soveraign Power as to Holiness and Wisdom conjunct than these who yet had been resisted and deposed It seems Mr. Baxter could have been easily reconciled to any Governours but those to whom of right the Government did belong And any Reader conversant in Mr. Baxter's Writings may observe that Mr. Baxter never complained so much of Arbitrary Government and Persecution under any of the Revolutions of Usurped Powers as he hath done since the King and Church were restored nay he wrote as industriously for Obedience to some of them as he hath since to incourage Disobedience to these And let me desire the Reader to consider what ground Mr. Baxter had for his great veneration of the Secluded Members more than for those who were called the Rump Did not they agree in that accursed Vote of Non-Addresses to the King before their Seclusion Did not they upon their re-admission re-enforce the Engagement to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth without a King or House of Lords Did not some of them provide an Oath of Abjuration of the King to be taken by such as were to sit in the Council of State Did not some of them send to General Monk to advise him that he must take that Oath before his admittance into that Council Did they not offer to settle Hampton-Court on General Monk and desire him to take
the said Dr. Ker further declares That he was very near the said Sir Phelim when he was upon the Ladder at his Execution and that one Marshal Peak and another Marshal before the said Sir Phelim was cast off came riding towards the place in great haste and cried aloud Stop a little and having passed the Throng of Spectators one of them whispered with the said Sir Phelim and the said Sir Phelim answered in the hearing of several hundreds of whom I was one I thank the Lieutenant-General for his intended mercy but I declare before God and his holy Angels and all you that hear me that I never had any Commission from the King for what I have done in Levying or Prosecution of this War and do heartily beg your pardon c. To the Testimony whereof the said Dr. Ker did subscribe his Seal Febr. 28. Anno Dom. 1681. Sir Henry Vane's Letter to the Lords Justices concerning some Informations of Danger in Ireland Right Honourable HIS Majesty hath commanded me to acquaint your Lordships with an Advice given him from abroad and confirmed by his Ministers in Spain and elsewhere which in this Distempered Time and Conjuncture of Affairs deserves to be seriously considered and an especial Care and Watchfulness to be had therein which is That of late there have passed from Spain and the like may well have been from other parts an unspeakable number of Irish Church-men for England and Ireland and some good old Soldiers under pretext of asking leave to raise Men for the King of Spain whereas it is observed among the Irish Friars there a Whisper runs as if they expected a Rebellion in Ireland and particularly in Connaught Wherefore his Majesty thought sit to give your Lordships this Notice that in your Wisdoms you might manage the same with that dexterity and secresie as to discover and prevent so pernicious a Design if any such there should be and to have a watchful Eye on the Proceedings and Actions of those who come thither from abroad on what pretext soever And so herewith I rest Your Lordships most humble Servant Henry Vane Whitehall March 16. 1640. The Original Letter was found among the Papers of Sir John Parsons one of the Lords Justices Moreover Archbishop Vsher saw a Letter of the King 's own Writing to the Lords Justices to the same purpose about the same time as he affirm'd to Bp. Hacket who relates the thing in the Life of Archbishop Williams part 2. p. 19. So that there can be no colour of his Majesty's designing such an Insurrection against which he often repeated his Solemn Protestations published Declarations and made many Overtures to the Parliament of England for the Suppression of that Rebellion concerning which his Meditations in the Twelfth Chapter of his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he says enough to satisfie any but an Infidel as first That the Sea of Blood which had been there barbarously and cruelly shed was enough to drown any Man in eternal infamy and misery whom God should find the malicious Author or Instigator of its effusion and that there was nothing that could be more abhorring to him being so full of sin against God disloyalty to himself and destructive to his Subjects Yet some Men saith he took it very ill not to be believed that what the Irish Rebels did was by my privity at least if not by my Commission But these knew too well that it is no news for some of my Subjects to fight not only without my Commission but against my Command and Person too and yet to pretend they fight by my Authority and for my Safety But as I have no Judge but God above me so I can have comfort to appeal to his Omniscience Which he doth with this Imprecation in a Soliloquy immediately following in these words If I have desired or delighted in the woful day of my Kingdoms Calamities if I have not earnestly studied and faithfully endeavoured the preventing and composing of these bloody Distractions then let thy hand be against me and my Father's house And the Restoration of his Son in so wonderful a manner seems strongly to assert the Father's Innocency The beginning and progress of that barbarous Massacre will appear in divers Authentick Papers in Mr. Nalson's Collection part 2. p. 543. But I need mention no more concerning the King 's obstinate aversion to Popery then what he says in the following Letter to the Heads of the Popish Party A Letter by the King's Order to the Lord Muskerry c. HE tells the Rebels Your Party it seems is not satisfied with the utmost that his Majesty can grant in Matters of Religion that is the taking away the Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks in that Kingdom and his Majesty hears that you insist upon the Demands of Churches for the Publick Exercise of your Religion which is the occasion that his Majesty hath commanded me to write thus frankly unto you and to tell you That he cannot believe it possible that rational and prudent Men had there been no Professions made to the contrary can insist upon that which must needs be so destructive to his Majesty at the present and to your selves in the consequences of his Ruin Wherefore my Lords and Gentlemen to disabuse you I am commanded by his Majesty to declare unto you That were the condition of his Affairs much more desperate than it is he would never redeem them by any Concession of so much wrong both to his Honour and Conscience It is for the defence of Religion principally that he hath undergone the Extremities of War here and he will never redeem his Crown by sacrificing it there So that to deal clearly with you as you may be happy your selves and be happy Instruments of his Majesty's Restoring if you will be contented with Reason and give him that speedy assistance which you well may so if nothing will content you but what must wound his Honour and Conscience you must expect that how low soever his Condition is and how detestable soever the Rebels of this Kingdom are to him he will in that point joyn with them the Scots or any of the Protestant profession rather than do the least act that may hazard that Religion in which and for which he will live and die Having said thus much by his Majesty's command I have no more to add but that I shall think my self very happy if this take any such effect as may tend to the Peace of that Kingdom and make me Your affectionate humble Servant Cardiff Aug. 1. 1845. This Lord also at the time of his Execution did most solemnly as he hoped for Salvation declare the Kings Innocency as to that War When the Reader hath seriously considered the import of this Letter I earnestly intreat him to read the second Meditation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relating to the Death of the Earl of Strafford and I dare appeal to his Conscience of what quality soever he
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