dead 2. Mr. Iohn Warren of Hatfield Broadoke in Essex a man of great Judgment and ministerial Abilities-moderation Piety and Labour The place whence he was cast out hath had no minister since to this day though a great Town and in the Bishop of London's Gift because the means is so small that none will take it And yet he cannot have leave to preach rather than none But he gets now and then one by his Interest to Preach occasionally and he heareth them in publick and then himself instructeth the People in private as far as he can obtain connivance 3. Mr. Peter Ince in Wiltshire a solid grave pious worthy able minister living with Mr. Grove that excellent humble holy Learned Gentleman who himself is now driven out of his his Country for receiving and hearing such in his House 4. Mr. Iohn How mâ—nister of Torrrington in Devonshire sometime Houshold-Preacher to Oliver Cromwell and his Son Richard till the Army pulled him down but not one that medled in his Wars He is a very Learned judicious godly man of no Faction but of Catholick healing Principles and of excellent ministerial Ablities as his excellent Treatise called The Blessedness of the Righteous sheweth 5. Mr. Ford of Exeter is a man of great Ability as his Book called The Sinner's Araignment at his Bar sheweth a Reverend Divine of great esteem for all ministerial worth with the generality of sober men And I hear a high Character of Mr. Clare near him and many more there but I know not those 6. Mr. Hughes of Plymouth a very Reverend Learned Ancient Divine long ago of London an excellent Expositor of Scripture was in his Age laid so long in Prison for silencing was not suffering enough for so excellent a Man that he fell by it into the Scurvy and died soon after His Treatife of the Sabbath is Printed since his Death 7. Mr. Berry in Devonshire an extraordinary humble tender-conscienced serious godly able Minister 8. Mr. Benj. Woodbridge of Newbury who came out of New-England to succeed Dr. Twisse a Man of great Judgment Piety Ability and moderate Principles addicted to no Faction but of a Catholick Spirit 9. Mr. Simon King some-time of Coventry since near Peterborough who first Entertain'd me at Coventry in the beginning of the Wars when I was forced to fly from Home a Man of a solid Judgment an honest Heart and Life and addicted to no Extremes and an able Scholar long ago chief School-Master at Bridgnorth Divers others of my own Acquaintance I could describe in Wales in Derby-shire Cheshire York-shire and other Counties but I will end with a few of my old Neighbours that I had forgotten 10. Old Mr. Samuel Hildersham about 80 Years old only Son to the Famous Arthur Hildersham a Conformist formerly but resolved enough against the New Conformity A grave peaceable pious learned Divine cast out of Welsh-Felton in Shrop-shire 11. Mr. Tho. Gilbert of Edgmond in Shropshire an Ancient Divine of extraordinary Acuteness and Conciseness of Stile and a most piercing Head as his small Lat. Tract of the necessity of Christ's Satisfaction sheweth 12. Mr. Samuel Fisher an Ancient Reverend Divine some-time of Withington then of Shrewsbury turned out with Mr. Blake for not taking the Engagement against King and House of Lords then lived in Cheshire and thence cast out and Silenced a very able Preacher and of a goldy Life 13. My old Friend Mr. Will. Cook bred up under Mr. Iohn Ball a Learned Man and of a most godly Life and unwearied Labour Like the first Preachers he can go in poor Clothing live on a little travel on Foot Preach and Pray almost all the Week if he have opportunity in Season and out of Season trampling on this World as dirt and living a mortified laborious Life Being an old Nonconformist and Presbyterian he was greatly offended at the Anabaptists Separatists and Sectaries and Cromwel's Army for Disloyalty to the King whom they Beheaded and this King whom they kept out and therefore joyned with Sir George Booth now Lord Delamere in his Rising to have brought in the King And being then Minister in Chester persuaded the Citizens to deliver up the City to Him For which he was brought to London and long Imprisoned But all this would not procure his Liberty to Preach the Gospel of Christ without the Oaths Subscriptions Declarations Re-ordination and Conformity required 14. To these I may subjoyn my old Friend Mr. Pigot chief School-master of Shrewsbury 15. And my old Friend Mr. Swaine some-time School-master at Bridgnorth and since a godly fervent Preacher in Radnor-shire But I must stop § 209. Let the Reader note That there is not one of all these that was put out for any Scandal but meerly not Subscribing c. and Conforming nor one of them all that ever I heard any Person charge or once suspect of Wantonness Idleness Surfetting Drunkenness or any scandalous Sin And of those of the Prelatists that were Sequestred by the Parliament I knew not one that I remember that was not accused upon Oath of Witnesses of Scandal though doubtless others knew some such Not including the siding in the Wars which each side called scandalous in the other and which yet but a small part of these named by me medled in that ever I could learn § 210. Therefore I conclude That we that know not the Mysteries of God's Judgments saw not what a Mercy it was that God took to Himself before they were Silenced such Excellent Men as Dr. Twiss Dr. Gouge Mr. Iohn Ball Mr. Gataker Mr. Ier. Whitaker Dr. Arrow Smith Dr. Hill Mr. Strong Mr. Herbert Palmer and most of the Assembly with many more such Nor yet that God took away such Men as Bishop Davent Bishop Hall Arch-Bishop Vsher Bishop Morton yea and Dr. Hammond before they were under a Temptation to have a Hand in the casting out of so many excellent worthy Men which yet I am confident by my own personal Knowledge of him that Vsher had he lived would never have done § 211. This Year the King began the War upon the Dutch in March 1671 2. About the 16 or 17 Day was a hot Sea-fight while our Ships Assaulted their Smirna Fleet of Merchants and many on both sides were killed which was most that was done And about the 18 th Day the King Published a Proclamation for War by Sea and Land The French the Elector of Cologne and the Bishop of Munster being with dreadful Preparations to invade them by Land § 212. Now came forth a Declaration giving some fuller Exposition to those that doubted of it of the Transactions of these Twelve Years last viz. His Majesty by Virtue of His Supreme Power in Matters Ecclesiastical suspendeth all Penal Laws thereabout and Declareth That he will grant a convenient number of Publick Meeting-Places to Men of all sorts that Conform not so be it 1. The Persons be by Him approved 2. That they never meet in any Place not
Gospel will convince you to great Satisfaction as also of what Oppositions and Deâ—iverances and Preservations he met with there And you have here some Taâ—â—s and Informations of his Thoughts and Studies and of his Books and Letters to divers Persons of different Stations and Quality and also of what Pens and Spirits wrote against him He was of such Repute and Figure in his day as that many coveted to see his Face to hear his Voice and to receive his Resolution of weighty Cases of Conscience proposed to him And in all this you will find that verified of him which the Lord Bacon hath deliver'd from his Pen viz. Much Reading makes Men full Much Writing makes them judicious and acute and much Conversation makes them ready I have been amazed to see how hastily he turned over Volumes how intimately he understood them how strangely he retained his Reading and how pertinently he could use it to every proposed Case Men stayed not long for what they wrote to him about and what he wrote was to great satisfaction and to the purpose He wrote his Books with quick dispatch and never but when he thought them needful and his duty then to write them And when as the Reader well considers his Apology for his Books hereafter mentioned let him but seriously weigh what is alledged and accordingly form his Censures His mentioned and recited Casuistical Letters and Books savour at least of Thought and Pains and perhaps the Reader 's patient and attentive minding of both his mention'd Books and Letters will not be loss of time and pains And though through too much haste and heedlesness some few Escapes perhaps Inaccuracies in the beginning may distaste his curious eye yet a very few Pages following will yield him better Entertainment § VII But the great things which are as the Spirit of this History are the Accounts he gives of the Original Springs and Sources of all these Revolutions Distractions and Disasters which happen'd from the Civil Wars betwixt King Charles the First to the Restoration of Charles the Second and whaâ— was Consequent after thereupon to Church and State And here we shall find various and great Occurrences springing from different Principles Tempers and Interests directed to different Ends and resolved into different Events and Issues The Historian endeavours to be faithful candid and severe Nothing of real serviceable Truth would he conceal Nothing but what was influential on and might or did affect the Publick Interest would he expose to Publick View Nothing that might be capable of candid Interpretation or Allay would he severely censure Nothing notoriously criminal and fatal to the Common Good would he pass by without his just Resentments of it and severe Reflections on it As to his immediate Personal acquaintance with or knowledge of the things reported by him I know no further of that than as he himself relates As to what he received from others by Report how far his Information was true or false I know not Indeed I wrote with tender and affectionate respect and reverence to the Doctors Name and Memory to Madam Owen to desire her to send me what she could well attested in favour of the Doctor that I might insert it in the Margent where he is mentioned as having an hand in that Affair at Wallingford House or that I might expunge that passage But this offer being rejected with more contemptuousness and smartness than my Civility deserved I had no more to do than to let that pass upon Record and to rely upon Mr. Baxter's report and the concurrent Testimonies of such as knew the Intreagues of those Times Yet that I might deal uprightly and upon the square I have mention'd this though obiter to testifie my Respects to him with whom I never was but once but I was treated by him then with very great Civility indeed § VIII I cannot deny but it would have been of great advantage to the acceptableness and usefulness of this Book had it's Reverend Author himself revised compleated and corrected it and published it himself I am sure it had ministred more abundantly to my satisfaction for I neither craved nor expected such a Trust and Legacy as his Manuscripts Nor knew I any thing of this his kind purpose and will till two or three days before he dyed My Heart akes exceedingly at every remembrance of my incumbent Trust and at the thoughts of my Account for all at last I am deeply sensible of my inability for such Work even to discouragement and no small Consternation of Spirit I want not apprehensions of the Pardon which I shall need from God and Candour from Men both which I humbly beg for as upon the knee I know the heart and kindness and clemency of my God through Jesus Christ But I know not yet what Men will think speak write concerning me God speak to Men for me or give me Grace and Wisdom to bear and to improve their Censures and Reflections if such things must be my Discipline and Lot Quo quisque est major magis est placabilis ira Et faciles motus mens Generosa capit Corpora Magnanimo satis est prostrasse Leont Pugna suum sinem cum jacet hostis habet At lupus turpes instant Morientibus ursi Et quaecunque minor nobilitate fera est Ovid. Trist. Eleg. iv However let the Reader bear with me if I attempt to obviate what I apprehend most likely for Men to reply and urge upon me by offering these things to serious and impartial Thoughts relating to 1. The Author 2. The Treatise 3. The Publication And 4. My self First the Author 1. He was one who lov'd to see and set things in their clearest and most genuine Light he well considered what sort and size of Evidence and Proof all things were capable of Matters of Sense are evident by their due Appulses on the Senses Matters of Doctrinal Truth by Demonstration Matters of History by credible report and he could consider well how Certainty and Probability differed Nor was he willing to he imposed upon or deceived through Prejudice Laziness Interest or a factious Spirit To say he never was mistaken for undoubtedly he had his Errours and Mistakes some of them retracted and publickly acknowledg'd by him when discern'd is to attribute more to him than any meer Man can say and more than any impartial and severe Student will arrogate to himself I shall never call the Retractation of a discovered Errour or Mistake a Fault but rather a commendable Excellence and I judge it better to argue closely than bitterly to recriminate or traduce Truth needs neither Scoff nor Satyr to defend it 2. This made him so solicitous to leave behind him such an Impartial Account of the History of his Times and of his own Endeavours in his place and day to promote Holiness Truth and Peace 3. He hence observ'd how these great Concerns were either promoted or obstructed and by whom What was
thoughts of Christ to be more serious and regardful than before they were I remember in the beginning how savoury to my reading was Mr. Perkin's short Treatise of the Right Knowledge of Christ crucified and his Exposition of the Creed because they taught me how to live by Faith on Christ. 4. It made the World seem to me as a Carkass that had neither Life nor Loveliness And it destroyed those Ambitious desires after Literate Fame which was the Sin of my Childhood I had a desire before to have attained the highest Academical Degrees and Reputation of Learning and to have chosen out my Studies accordingly but Sickness and Solicitousness for my doubting Soul did shame away all these Thoughts as Fooleries and Childrens Plays 5. It set me upon that Method of My Studies which since then I have found the benefit of though at the time I was not satisfied with my self It caused me first to seek God's Kingdom and his Righteousness and most to mind the One thing needful and to determine first of my Ultimate End by which I was engaged to choose out and prosecute all other Studies but as meant to that end Therefore Divinity was not only carried on with the rest of my Studies with an equal hand but always had the first and chiefest place And it caused me to study Practical Divinity first in the most Practical Books in a Practical Order doing all purposely for the informing and reforming of my own Soul So that I had read a multitude of our English Practical Treatises before I had ever read any other Bodies of Divinity than Ursine and Amesius or two or three more By which means my Affection was carried on with my Judgment And by that means I prosecuted all my Studies with unweariedness and delight And by that means all that I read did stick the better in my memory and also less of my time was lost by lazy intermissions but my bodily Infirmities always caused me to loâ—e or spend much of it in Motion and Corporal Exercises which was sometimes by Walking and sometimes at the Plow and such Country Labours But one loss I had by this Method which hath proved irreparable That I mist that part of Learning which stood at the greatest distance in my thoughts from my Ultimate End though no doubt but remotely it may be a valuable means and I could never since find time to get it Besides the Latin Tongue and but a mediocrity in Greek with an inconsiderable trial at the Hebrew long after I had no great skill in Languages Though I saw than an accurateness and thorow inâ—ight in the Greek and Hebrew were very desirable but I was so eagerly carried after the Knowledge of Things that I too much neglected the study of Words And for the Mathematicks I was an utter stranger to them and never could find in my heart to divert any Studies that way But in order to the Knowledge of Divinity my inclination was most to Logick and Metaphysicks with that part Physicks which treateth of the Soul contenting my self at first with a slighter study of the rest And these had my Labour and Delight Which occasioned me perhaps too soon to plunge my self very early into the study of Controversies and to read all the School men I could get for next Practical Divinity no Books so suited with my Disposition as Aquinus Scotus Durandus Ockam and their Disciples because I thought they narrowly searched after Truth and brought Things out of the darkness of Confusion For I could never from my first Studies endure Confusion Till Equivocals were explained and Definition and Distinction led the way I had rather hold my Tongue than speak and was never more weary of Learned Mens Discourses than when I heard them long wrangling about unexpounded Words or Things and eagerly Disputing before they understood each others Minds and vehemently asserting Modes and Consequences and Adjuncts before they considered of the Quod sit the Quid sit or the Quotuplex I never thought I understood any thing till I could anatomize it and see the parts distinctly and the Conjunction of the parts as they make up the whole Distinction and Method seemed to me of that necessity that without them I could not be said to know and the Disputes which forsook them or abused them seem but as incoherant Dreams § 6. And as for those Doubts of my own Salvation which exercised me many years the chiefest Causes of them were these 1. Because I could not distinctly trace the Workings of the Spirit upon my heart in that method which Mr. Bolton Mr. Hooker Mr. Rogers and other Divines describe nor knew the Time of my Conversion being wrought on by the forementioned Degrees But since then I understood that the Soul is in too dark and passionate a plight at first to be able to keep an exact account of the order of its own Operations and that preparatory Grace being sometimes longer and sometimes shorter and the first degree of Special Grace being usually very small it is not possible that one of very many should be able to give any true account of the just Time when Special Grace began and advanced him above the state of Preparation 2. My second Doubt was as aforesaid because of the hardness of my heart or want of such lively Apprehensions of Things Spiritual which I had about Things Corporal And though I still groan under this as my sin and want yet I now perceive that a Soul in Flesh doth work so much after the manner of the Flesh that it much desireth sensible Apprehensions but Things Spiritual and Distant are not so apt to work upon them and to stir the Passions as Things present and sensible are especially being known so darkly as the state and operations of separated Souls are known to us who are in the Body And that the Rational Operations of the higher Faculties the Intellect and Will may without so much passion set God and Things Spiritual highest within us and give them the preheminence and subject all Carnal Interest to them and give them the Government of the Heart and Life and that this is the ordinary state of a Believer 3. My next Doubt was left Education and Fear had done all that ever was done upon my Soul and Regeneration and Love were yet to seek because I had found Convictions from my Childhood and found more Fear than Love in all my Duties and Restraints But I afterward perceived that Education is God's ordinary way for the Conveyance of his Grace and ought no more to be set in opposition to the Spirit than the preaching of the Word and that it was the great Mercy of God to begin with me so soon and to prevent such sins as else might have been my shame and sorrow while I lived and that Repentance is good but Prevention and Innocence is better which though we cannot attain in perfection yet the more the better And I understood that
Removal 3. Let divers of these Classes meet once or twice a year in a Provincial Assembly and let the fittest Man in the Province be their standing President Hitherto there is no Concession on the Presbyterian side but that the President pro tempore be turned to a standing President nor any on the Episcopal side but that most necessary one that every Presbyter be acknowledged a Church Guide and not a meer Preacher 4. Let it be left to each Man's Conscience whether the President be called by the Name of Bishop President Superintendent Moderator c. seeing a Name is no meet Reason of a Breach 5. Let no Man be forced to express his Judgment de Iure whether the President have a Negative Voice in Ordination or Excommunication nor whether he be distinct in order or only in degree seeing it is not the unonimous and right belief concerning these things that is of Necessity for then they must have been in our Creed but the unanimous and right practice But let all agree that they will joyn in these Classical and Provincial Assemblies and then only Ordain and that they will not Ordain but when the President is one unless in case of flat necessity which is never like to befal us if this way be taken My Question now is Whether the godly moderate Episcopal and Presbyterian Divines on supposition that they can at present come no nearer to each other may not and ought not thus far to close and thus live in Christian Love and Unity seeing that we are bound to Concord in Practice so far as we agree in Judgment and seeing that if any nearer Closure be yet necessary in such United Bodies and Amicable Associations Assemblies and Correspondencies its most likely to be attained this way and indeed no other that I can as yet discern These Terms I once propounded to one most Reverend Prelate now near you who told me That with moderate Men they might suffice for an Union If you are of the same Judgment I should have the stronger hopes and if you are not I shall the sooner let them fall Were your leisure such as to admit of further trouble I would crave a word for the Resolution of my own Judgment in these Points 1. I am satisfied that the Apostles have Successors in all those Works that are of standing Necessity and that Church-Government is one of those Works and that its improbable that Christ should settle one Species of Church-Government in the Apostles Hands for an Age and then change it for ever after and that they that affirm such a Change must prove it and this Argument sticks close But then I would crave one of your strongest Arguments to prove though I know that the Presbyterians grant it that indeed the Apostles had a power by Office to Govern the Seventy or the Presbyters as inferiour Officers besides the power that they had by the meer interest of their Gifts and priviledge of being Eye-witnesses of the Works of Christ and Ear-witnesses of his Word 2. If the Apostles Examples will prove the Right of an unfixed Ambulatory Episcopacy yet I would see how it appears that ever they were fixed to particular Churches or ever any of them had a distinct and limited Diocess where the rest had not Charge as well as they 3. I am satisfied that very early after the Apostles the common Government of each Church was by a Bishop and Presbytery but I can yet see no Evidence that this Church for 150 or 200 Years was any more than one Congregation like one of our Parishes for number of People which was Congregate in a City and from the Circumjacent Villages as our Independant or Anabaptist Churches now are while the Multitude were Infidels I would therefore crave one clear Proof that the first fixed Bishops ruled any more standing Congregations having ordinary Assemblies and Communion in the Lord's Supper than one only And whether the multiplying of Believers did not make a real Change of the former Species of Government while the Bishop of the City took on him the Government of many Particular Churches who had but one before and when Bishops should have been multiplied as fast as Churches were and as Presbyters were Some Passages in the eldest Writers incline me to these Thoughts of which if they be wrong your Correction will be most acceptable May I crave if not your Solution of all these Doubts yet at least your Advice in the first Case of Practice and your Pardon of my Boldness I shall under great Obligations remain A humble Reverencer of your great Abilities and Dignity Rich. Baxter Kiderminster in Worcestershire June 8. 1655. If you return any thing Mr. Underhill at the Anchor and Bible in Paul's Church-yard will convey it me To the very Reverend and much Honoured Dr. Brownrigg Bishop of Exeter These Whereto the Bishop made this short Reply Worthy Sir I Have received your kind and â—â—â—â—teous Letter the Evidence of your very pioâ—â— and peaceable Spirit which I heartily desire may be a Provocation to others to lead them into the ways of Peace Sir Your Esteem of me and of my Abilities is the Errour of your Love and of those that have represented me to you in too great a Character quod non humiliter tantùm sed veraciter dico only I shall desire to be serviceable to God and his Church in what I am able Your Letter came to my hands at the time of my removal from Highgate into the Country here I have continued many Months suffering the trouble and pain of the Stone which which hath put me into a long and tedious Course of Physick Now I am upon my Iourney homewards from whence God willing I will write to you being truly sensible of your Religious Endeavours for so good a Work as the Composing of those woful Rents made in this Church The God of Truth and Peace guide us into the Ways of Truth and Peace to whose Grace and Blessing I do heartily recommend you resting SIR Your very respectful Friend who embraceth your Love and returns his to you very heartily Ra. Exon. Highgate July 3. 1655. And not long after I received this Answer Worthy Sir I Am indebted to you for an Answer to your Inquiries which I received from you It should have been more speedy but in truth I brought from London my crasie and ill-affected Body which since my coming home hath bred me much pain of the Stone and taken up my time in suffering those Distempers and using the Remedies prescribed to me I have now sent you my Thoughts which I doubt not but you will receive as candidly as I impart them to you The Age is quarrelsome but I apprehend you as one of a peaceable Spirit aiming only at the Settlement of our unhappy Distractions The God of Peace compose all our hearts to Peace and make the Rents of our Church to be the Matter of our chief Compassion Charitas Ecclesiae
saved unless they will be my Subjects If you say that those may be saved that Sin for want of Light I answer 1. On this account your Doctors teach the Salvation of Heathens Are those of your Church and so no otherwise of Christians than of Heathens 2. Either these wanting your Light are in the Church or out If in it then a Man may be of the Church without being a Papist which is against your Faith If out of it then it seems Men out of the Church may be saved and Christ is the Saviour of more than his Body which is against your Faith and ours 3. Who is it that hath sufficient Light if all that have heard or read the frivolous Reasonings of the Papists then your Parents and almost all of us must perish But if it be any other Light which must be had you know not what measure to give us to discern it nor ever will know and so you make your Church invisible while the Members of it cannot be known For none can know of another by your Rule whether his Light be sufficient or not And I pray you are not all the Indians of America that never heard of Christ the Members of your Church for their Light sure is not sufficient to shew them either the Pope or Christ. Hath he the heart of a right Christian that can thus damn two or three parts of all the Christians in the World for not believing in a Wretch at Rome that sometime is an Infidel himself for so was Pope Iohn 23. judged to be by the great General Council at Constance even one that believed no Resurrection which is worse than a Turk or Jew or some Heathens And it 's a wonder to me that if your own Soul hath ever been seriously conversant with God in Holy Worship you can savour and suit with the Cantings and Repetitions and Stage Devotions of the Papists and that a Latin Mass should be believed to be the acceptable way of Worship when the Holy Ghost hath so plainly and copiously disowned that serving of God in an unknown tongue 1 Cor. 14. Pardon me if I intreat you to make a deliberate search into your Heart and former Ways and try whether you conversed with God in the Spirit and were serious in your Faith and Love and Worship If you were not no wonder if an unsound superfical Religion be easily let go and such an unexperienced Heart can suit with a Canting Carnal Iudicrous kind of Devotion or if God so far forsake a Soul that was not sound and serious in the Religion once professed by you But if it was better with you then its strange your Soul can so lose its relish and its stranger that one that was a Member of Christ and in the Church and justified before should turn to a Sect that tells them they were not what they were and must come to them for what they had already And whereas all the pretence you shew me for your Change was the difference that you found amongst us Protestants and our condemning one another do you not know that in Policy greater Differences are tolerated among the Papists under the Names of divers Orders by far than any are between the Presbyterian Independant and Episcopal Protestants And that none but ungodly or uncharitable passionate People with us do deny any of these Parties to be true Members of the Universal Church If you here met with any one that doth condemn the other as no parts of the Church of Christ they spake not according to the Protestant Religion and you can no more charge us with the Railings of every Fellow that is drunk with domineering Pride or Passion than with the words of the next Scold or Quaker or Papist that you shall hear Reviling us I have said more to you than at first I intended I look on you as one about that Age when Conscience useth to receive its first serious deep Impressions and the Papists falling in with you just at that time I doubt before you had heartily received the Life of what before you professed and had time to be rooted and stablished in the Truth the opportunity served them to your Delusion That it may not prove to your everlasting Destruction shall be the Prayers and if you admit them the faithful Endeavours of Your Servant in obedience to Christ though to no Vice-Christ Rich. Baxter Dec. 1. 1660. The Answer to the Lady Anne Lindsey's Letter to her Mother Madam IT pleased the truly honourable Lady your Mother to shew me your Letter directed to her from Calice and to give me leave to send you my Animadversions upon it which I am the willinger to do because I perceive you have there contracted the Reasons most commonly used for the perverting of the Ignorant and which its likely have prevailed most with your self You must give me leave to be free and plain with you in the Matters of God and of Salvation I think it meet to leave the first part of your Letter of the Point of Obedience to your Mother's Animadversions It is the Doctrinal Part that I shall speak to You say that Heresies against Faith expressed by the Name of Sects cut us off from Heaven and that an Aâ—athema is on them that preach any other Doctrine than what was preached by the Apostles How far Heresie cuts off from the Church I have distinctly shewed you in the end of my Book against Mr. Iohnson on that Question but while you expect your Mother should consider of your Reasons you will not your self peruse an Answer to them which before was tendered you whom then can you blame if your Soul be cheated Briefly you err in Confounding Sects and Heresies which are not the same Heresies indeed which are false Doctrines practically inconsistent with the Essentials of Christian Faith do cut Men off from a state of Life or shew them to be Aliens but lesser Errours called Heresies by ignorant or uncharitable Men do un-Church none Herein I plead for you for if they did then wo to the Church of Rome that hath so many Errours And if it be damnable to be a Sect all Papists must be damned they being as certainly a Sect as there is any in the World A corrupt part of the Universal Church condemning the rest and pretending to be it self the whole is a Sect or Party of Schismaticks but such are the Papists Therefore they are a Sect c. But this is not the worst You consequently Anathematize all Papists by your Sentance for Heresies by your own Sentance cut off Men from Heaven But Popery is a bundle of Heresies Therefore it cuts off Men from Heaven The minor I prove according to your Churches Principles that Doctrine is Heresie which is contrary to a point of Faith But many of the Papists Doctrines are contrary to Points of Faith Ergo c. To pass by now all those Points of Popery which are contrary to what the Holy
Physician 17. At Avely was silenced Mr. Lovel formerly Schoolmaster at Walverley who having been supposed still to be not only against the Parliament's Cause but for the Prelates and Conformity and never coming into our ministerial Meetings where we monthly kept up disputations and Discipline but only extraordinary constant at my Lecture at Kiderminster he was as a stranger to us all till the silencing time came and then he suffered with the most patient and resolved and hath since appeared on fuller notice a prudent and very worthy Man and is yet living in his patient Silence aged about sixty two 18. At Bromsgrove was silenced Mr. Iohn Spilsbury born in Bewdley a man accounted an Independent but of extraordinary worth for moderation peaceableness ability and ministerial diligence and an upright Life 19. At Whitley was silenced Mr. Ioseph Read born in Kiderminster and sent by me to Cambridge and after living in my House and for one Year my assistant at Kiderminster a man of great sincerity and worth 20. At Churchil was cast out Mr. Edward Boucher another young man born in Kiderminster-Parish of great humility sincerity peaceableness and good ministerial parts Brother to Iames Boucher a Husbandman who can but write his Name and is of as good understanding in Divinity as many Divines of good account and moreable in Prayer than most Ministers that ever I heard And of so calm a Spirit and blameless a life that I never saw him laugh or sad nor ever heard him speak an idle Word nor ever heard Man accuse him of a sinful Word or Deed which I note with Joy and to tell the Reader that he and others of his Temper in Kiderminster did by their Example exceedingly farther my success 21. At Clent was silenced Mr. Tho. Baldwin a godly calm sober Preacher of a blameless Life 22. From Chaddesley was cast out Mr. Thomas Baldwin Senior who had been our Schoolmaster at Kiderminster sent to me by Mr. Vines from Cambridge a good Schollar a sober calm grave moderate peaceable minister whose Conversation I never heard one Person blame for any one Word or Deed an extraordinary Preacher Wherefore I desired when I was driven from Kiderminster that the People would be ruled by him and Mr. Serjeant and he liveth yet among them and teacheth them privately from House to House He was present with me when I had Conference with Bishop Morley when he silenced me and the witness of our Discourse which with the imprisonment of the most Religious and blameless of the Flock and the experience of the Quality of some Preachers that were sent to the People in my stead and the rest of the havock made in the Churches did alienate him so much from Prelacy and Conformity and the People with him that though afterward they got a godly Conformable Minister I could not get them to Communicate with him though I got them constantly to hear him On this occasion I will mention the great Mercy of God to that Town and Country in the raising of one Man Mr. Thomas Foley who from almost nothing did get about five Thoosand Pound per Annum or more by Iron-works and that with so just and blameless Dealing that all Men that ever he had to do with that ever I heard of magnified his great Integrity and Honesty which was questioned by none And being a Religious Faithful Man he purchased among other Lands the Patronage of several great places and among the rest of Stourbridge and Kiderminster and so chose the best Conformable Ministers to them that could be got And not only so but placed his Eldest-Son's Habitation in Kiderminster which became a great Protection and Blessing to the Town having placed two Families more elsewhere of his two other Sons all three Religious worthy Men. And in thankfulness to God for his Mercies to him built a well-founded Hospital near Stourbridge to teach poor children to read and write and then set them Apprentices and endowed it with about five hund Pounds a Year per Annum Such worthy Persons and such strange Prosperity and holy use of it are so rare and the interest of my poor Neighbours in it so great that I thought meet to mention it to God's Praise and his § 203. There were more Ministers silenced of that Countrey but I will not be tedious i◠naming more of them A word of the other places where I my self had lived In Coventry both the Ministers were cast out 1. Dr. Iohn Bryan an ancient Learned Divine of a quick and active Temper very humble faithful and of a Godly upright Life who had so great a fitness to teach and educate Youth that there have gone out of his House more worthy Ministers into the Church of God than out of many Colledges in the University in that time And he had three Sons that were all worthy Non-conformable Ministers all silenced 2. Dr. Grew a Man of a different natural temper yet both Concordant lovingly in the work of God a calm Grave sober sedate Divine more retired and of less activity but godly able and faithful in his Ministry 3. At Birmingham was silenced Mr. Wills a sedate retired peaceable able Divine also born in Coventry 4. As for Mr. Anthony Burgess of Sutton Coldfield a place of near 300 l. per Annum which he left I need not describe him he was so famously known in the Assembly and London and by his many Learned Godly Writings for a Man eminently Learned and Pious And though in the old Conformity he was before a Conformable Man yet he was so far from the New Conformity that on his Death-bed he professed great satisfaction in his Mind that he had not Conformed 5. From Walshall was cast out Mr. Burdall a very Learned able and Godly Divine of more than ordinary parts and worth now dead also 6. At Wedgbury was silenced Mr. Fincher whom I have seen but was not much acquainted with but he was reputed a very Godly Man and a good Preacher But I pass by all those I knew not my self 7. From Rowley had lately removed Mr. Ioseph Rock and was silenced a very calm humble sober peaceable godly and blameless Minister and of very good Abilities like our Worcestershire Ministers before described as to his temper and judgment of Church-Government 8. At Kings-Norton was silenced Mr. Tho. Hall an ancient Divine known by his many Writings of a quick Spirit a Godly upright man and the only Presbyterian whom I knew in that County 9. At Tippon Mr. Hinks was silenced a Godly Preacher a moderate Independent 10. At Hales-Owen was silenced Mr. Paston a sober moderate peaceable Minister of a godly upright Life 11. Near Newcastle was silenced Mr. Sound an ancient Divine of great Learning moderation judgment and calmness of Spirit and of a Godly upright Life born by Worvile near Bridgworth known to me about thirty years ago who though with others he was of old a Conformist is far enough from the new
Nomination of the Person is by the meer Election of Inferiors as the Apostles did bid the Church of Hierusalem choose out seven Men whom they might constitute Deacons I have been tedious perhaps without need on this but the Summ is this that a subordinate efficient Cause is no necessary Medium for the conveyance of Power if at all yet not always I mean a Person but the Mediatio Signi Voluntatis Divinae may oft serve without any more or plainly in serveral Cases mediatio legis cum personae qualificatione may suffice sine mediatione judicis But to come closer where you say the written Word is no fit Medium I answer 1. The written Word in case of a failing of Ordainers is a sufficient mediate Instrument but though in suo genere it be sufficient yet other things must concur in their kind also viz. For the Qualification of the Subject whereof one is the effect of Nature Art and Grace that is Abilities another of the Spirit that is Willingness which may also be moved by other Causes and the third of Providence viz. Opportunity 2. Magistrates Constitution in the said Case of Ministerial failing is a further Medium distinct from Scripture So that if Ministers fail Magistrates are the Judges if both fail the People have sine regemine judicium discretionis Their Judgment of Discretion hath a sufficient Object and Discovery of Godâ—s efficient Constitution 1. In the Law which is then the instrumental Efficient 2. In the Persons Abilities 3. His Willingness 4. The Peoples own Willingness 5. Opportunity You add the giving of Authority which we talk of is an Action terminated upon an Individuum in this Age But the Scripture meddles not with any of the Individuums of these Times Ergo I suppose by meddles not with you mean terminateth it not on The Minor which you knew I would deny you prove thus if it do either quoad nomen or quoad adjunctum aliud incommunicabile or per descriptionem I answer per descriptionem ab adjunctis but it is not always necessary that that they be incommunicable at least most of them for God may possibly propound to the People more than one or two that may seem fit and leave them to choose and so their Choice shall be the thing that makes the difference and God thereupon convey the Power You add if the Word do it by description it must be by some such Form of Words They that are thus and thus qualified may be Ministers of the Word But there is no such Form Ergo I answer I suppose that by Form you mean quoad sensum and not quoad verba And then I say there is such a Sentence in the Law as this If by thus and thus Qualified you include all the Signs that were before expressed And because we are now at the Quick I will not put you off with the bare part of a Respondent but give you the Reasons of my denying your Minor I first suppose it granted that God hath in his Law determined 1. De genere that there shall be Ministers 2. De specie that there shall be such sorts of Ministers in his Church and that not only quoad nomen but quoad defiuitionem differentiam constitutivam that is the Nature of their Work and Power the Object about which and the end to which it is to be employed 3. That the Persons are described from their necessary Qualifications who shall be Subjects of this Form 1 Tim. 3. Tit. 1. and in other Places 4. That all that is now left to be done is but to judge and determine of the particular Person who is most capable of this Form and so far to be the Medium of his receiving the Power 5. That this Judging and Determination must be per signa from the Persons Qualifications agreeing to the Rule 6. That God hath made Ecelesiastical Officers the ordinary authoritative Judges of this Question Who is the qualified Person Thus much I conjecture that we are agreed in so that the Form in the Law is not only They that Preach the Word shall be thus and thus qualified but Men thus and thus qualified shall be appointed to Preach the Word Now that which I am to prove is that the first part of the Constitution remains in force that there shall be Ministers thus qualified though the other Part concerning the way of their Ordination may cease and that Magistrates Designation or Peoples Election upon the discerning of the Qualifications is a sufficient Nomination of the Person and so God doth by his Law convey the Power as truly to the Person thus Nominated as he doth to the Person Nominated by a Bishop ordinarily The same Law being God's only Instrument of this Conveyance whoever nominates To this end I shall lay down divers Arguments and though I conclude not still the same thing you shall see that all doth ad eundem scopum collimare and that either the Obligation to regular ministerial Ordination may cease or that all ways cease not when that ceaseth or that the other ways are sufficient for Nomination of the individual Person and so of preserving the Existence of the Species for these three are the things to be proved 1. Cessante materia cessat obligatio sed hic vel cessat vel cessare potest materia Ergo The Major is past question The Minor is proved 1. From the Silence of Scripture God hath no where obliged himself to give all Churches the Opportunity of regular Ministerial Ordination 2. From undeniable Experience of many Places that could not have Regular Ordination not only through the Imperfection of their own Understandings not able after utmost Industry to know which was the regular Way for that I stick not on but also the moral or natural Impossibility of the thing some living where they could have no Ordination but upon sinful Terms as by wicked Oaths or Professions as it is throughout the Romish Church and Ergo There is a moral Impossibility for trupe inhonestum est impossibile saith the Law Some being cast in most remote parts of the World where no Ministers are and many where no Bishops are nor can be had in any competent time and uncertain whether at all And the Possibility of such a thing is evident in Nature though it never had been till this Day 2. Cessante fine cessat Obligatio sed hic cessat vel cessare potest finis Ergo The Minor only is to be proved The End why I am obliged to seek Ordination rather from an Ecclesiastical Officer than from a Magistrate or to take the other forementioned Courses it is because God hath appointed him Ordinis gratiâ as one that ought to be the fittest to do it least by Mens voluntary Intrusion or the Constitution of others less able to judge the Church should be wronged Now in case the regular Ordainers do prove unsufficient or wicked these Ends fail as in the Church of
and Applications 5. Inasmuch as he stands an Elder over them and is weakened in his Confidence against Infant Baptism which they are so confident against and also cannot baptize Believers otherwise than to satisfie their Scruple of Conscience that shall desire it out of doubt of the Defect is in their Infant Baptism and with Cautioning of such to take heed of their taking it up so as to denominate their Christianity Saint-ship or Church-ship thereby if any Party of the Congregation can not bare him thus but should separate and so want means of Edification or as some say rather be Quakers than so indifferent or as one of them says he would join with the Church of Rome if he thought that true which Mr. Lambe says namely That he may have Communion with Persons not so baptized whether considering their Danger he ought not hide or cease to desist on his Sense or what he ought to do 6. Considering his present Temptatious and Assaults to his Faith and Sense of God's Love it be his present Work to study to be setled in a full Persuasion one way or other about Baptism But to mind his spiritual Defence against these Violent Assaults which makes him say O that he were in his late confidence again and so is resolved to study the Arguments that are against Infant Baptism And he is directed to your Twenty Arguments in the Book about right to Sacraments about the necessity of Faith to interest in Baptism Now sweet Mr. Baxter shall I have so much Grace in your Sight as to have your distinct Answer to these Particulars truly it will be Service to Jesus Christ whom we have desired to serve in all singleness of Heart from our Youth up and have no desire in this World like to this to know his Will and do it whose Love and the Light of whose Countenance is better than Life to our Souls having no Design but to serve our Lord upon the best Terms who hath dealt bountifully with us whose Mercy and Faithfulness we have often experienced I trust it is of God that put it into my Heart to write to you and I will wait that the Son of Righteousness may shine through you a Star in his Right Hand to our Guidance in this Night of our Temptation I acquaint none that I do it were it known it might occasion me some farther Tryals Therefore I intreat your Secrecy in it My Husband hath indeed sometimes said he would write to you but hath said again Mr. Baxter will not regard me and indeed he hath scarce freedom of Mind to any Business he should take a Journey to Worcester which if he do he says he will come to you I do not acquaint him with this but your Advice I know I shall be able to help him by Now our Lord Jesus Christ who still giveth Gifts to Men and doth continue Means in his Church sufficient to the help of all his poor Servants be your Helper to us ward with craving Pardon for my great Boldness I take leave and remain YOURS in our Lord Iesus Barbara Lambe London in Great St. Bartholomews this 12th of August 1658. I have inclosed sent a Copy of the mentioned Arguments which pray peruse and keep private Sir I desire what you write in answer to me may be inclosed in a Cover to Mr. James Marshal in Friday-Street at the Half Moon who is my Son in Law and so I shall have it with privacy I shall long to know that these come safe to your Hands For Mr. Rich. Baxter Minister of the Gospel in Kidderminster These present Dear Mrs. Lambe HOW true did I feel it in the reading of your Husband's Lines and yours which you say in the beginning that unacquaintedness with the Face is no hindrance to the Communion of the Saints So much of Christ and his Spirit appeared to me in both your Writings that my Soul in the reading of them was drawn out into a strong a Stream of Love and closing Unity of Spirit as almost ever I felt it my Life There is a Connaturality of Spirit in the Saints that will work by Sympathy and by closing uniting Inclinations through greater Differences and Impediments than the external Act of Baptism As a Load-stone will exercise its attractive Force through a Stone Wall I have an inward Sense in my Soul that told me so feelingly in the reading of your Lines that your Husband and you and I are one in our dear Lord that if all the self-conceited Dividers in the World should contradict it on the account of Baptism I could not believe them About a Year ago Sir Henry Herbert gave me one of your Husband's Books about Baptism which when I had read I told him that the Author and I were one in Love though not of one Opinion and that he wrote in the most savory honest moderate Style of any of that Mind that ever I read But truly the perusal of these Arguments persuade me yet to higher Thoughts of him much more may be said than he hath said in that great and weighty Case but yet I have met with none that hath said so much in so small a room It delighteth me to feel the workings of a Catholick Spirit in his Lines Nothing hath more undone us except flat Ungodlyness than the loss of Catholick Principles and Affections among Christians few are more void of them than the Papists that boast of them It must be this loving a Christian as a Christian that must hold when all is done He that loveth Christ in Christians will love all Christians where Christ appears Should not Dividers fear least Christ say to them that castoff most of his Holy Members for this Opinion sake Ye did it unto me Is Christ in these Saints or his he not What! a Saint and Christ not in him that cannot be And is he in them and shall he be used so unkindly so uncharitably as to be cast by Oh dear Mrs. Lambe the Lamb of God hath reconciled greater Differences and closed greater Differences than these and his tender Bowels yearn over those that we sullenly reject He that said to his sluggish Followers The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak and that sent so kind a Message to Peter that lately denyed him as soon as he was risen and that still shewed such matchless Compassions to the weak will give little Thanks to dividing Spirits that cast out his poor Servants whom he himself doth not cast out I know not Mr. Lambe by Face but Mr. Allen I know could he find in his Heart to deny me Brotherly Communion if I desired it of him and protested that I would be of his Opinion and Practice if I durst and my contradicting Judgment did not hinder me I have told the Pastors of the Re-baptized Churches here that if any of their Judgment and Practice will satisfie themselves with being again Baptized and will live in peaceable Communion with us they shall
Church of Christ such danger will be but by Accident as every necessary Duty hath its Danger A loving melting Lamentation for that Violation of Charity which your own and their Division hath been guilty of is like to profit humble Souls that love the Truth and if they are such as will not indure the Doctrine of Love and Unity what are they better than our Parishes 7. None will be sad for the Return of a Brother to Unity or Love but those that grieve for your Felicity not knowing what they do You would not forbear a Return to God from any gross Sin for fear of grieving Men Is not Schism a gross Sin Are they not great that are directly against Love and Unity the Soul and Life of the Church of Christ and were you no whit partial you would think that Twenty Hearts made glad at your Recovery for one that 's made sad should at least here leave the Ballance even A Publish'd Exhortation from you such as it seems you intended to draw your Party to Unity and Communion with all true Christians and dissuade them hereafter from Censoriousness opposition to the Ministry and Separation upon the Account of so difficult a Point and so far from the Heart of the new Man might do more good than your overseeing that Church an Hundred Years it is not a Trifle to hold an Opinion that would warrant a Man to have denied or separated from the universal visible Church for so many Hundred Years even for almost all the time of its Existence since Christ. I forbear sending you the Form of Concord mentioned till you are readier for it and shall desire it as judging it useful and then God willing I shall send it The Lord I hope will clear up to you his Mind concerning the way in which he would have you walk and in the way of Duty give you the Peace which you desire and expect I rest Your unworthy Brother Rich. Baxter To Mr. Lambe Sept. 29. 1658. London the 15th of Ianuary 1658. Dear Sir THESE are to return you many Thanks for your two Letters which have been a very great Comfort to me in my Affliction and Warfare that I am now ingaged in Sir I thought good to be silent a while and not to trouble you with any more Letters till I had some new thing to say to you Now what I have to say is reducible to Three Heads 1. I would inform you what God hath done for me since my last 2. What I have done I hope in his Strength and that I may not doubt to say 't is for him in the Point of Union And 3. The present Frame of my Spirit and State 1. For God's dealing with me Sir after waiting on the Lord in his way sighing for Light and panting after him for refreshing as the Heart panteth after the Water Brook My Light hath broke forth as the Morning It hath rose in obscurity and my Darkness became as the Noon Day I see by Experience that though I am dark God is Light and though I am poor he is Rich and I believe there is nothing I want but Heaven is full of it The right Notion of God's Universal Church and the Unity he would have amongst the Members and indeed the necessity thereof upon the Penalty of infinite Dammage to the most excellent Body of Christ is that God hath blest me with the Sght of and shewn me as in a Glass the Condition of all our Congregations that refuse Communion with other Churches of Christ standing off from the main body of the Church militant as Christ's Part of that Body as Antichristian and so refusing to give or take Influences for their Comfort and Succour It healeth the whole but dreadfully endangereth those small Parts so divided Just as it would endanger a Troop or Company that should stand off from the main Body of a great Army that hath a potent Enemy engaged in the Field against them By this Light I perceive our Case namely that we are as you say guilty of Schism The Light in this Matter being clear to me I now begin to be satisfied that the Lord hath visited me from an high in Mercy and that all my inward Oppositions and outward too from my Friends are of Satan to stop me in a blessed Work I praise God I am now help'd to bear the Reproaches of my dear Friends that pour Contempt upon me daily as a most dreadful Apostate a Iudas one that it had been good for never to have been born one that though I were as the Signet on God's Right Hand I should be pluck'd from thence others wishing they had followed me to my Grave when they went with me to Baptism But it stirreth me not much for though their Zeal for God and his Truth and their Love to Christ and Holiness and Ability to suffer for Christ be more than mine yet my Conscience telleth me they are in an Error and that I am sincere in all I do not swayed by carnal Considerations in which I am so manifest to their Consciences that they are more troubled with me for that things sake Oh Sir I admire how a Man without the Brest-plate of Righteousness holdeth up his Head in such a Day But withal I experience the Worth and Excellency thereof By the Grace of God my Righteousness I will hold fast and my Heart shall not reprove me all my Days My conscience telleth me which is my great Comfort that I have not wickedly departed from my God that I would not break the least of his Laws willingly to gain a Thousand Worlds That the Love I bear to my Saviour and his most excellent Body the Church is the chief thing that inspireth me in all I do Now 2. Touching what I have done towards Union since I wrote last it is as followeth 1. I have been at Mr. G.'s Congregation from whom I departed to acknowledge my Sin in separating from them upon such silly Grounds and have offered my self to break bread with them if they pleased But withal told the whole Church that for two Reasons I could not come so close to them as heretofore 1. because of my Relation to the poor People I now serve being not yet well lodged in some safe Place And 2. because of some Scruples in my Mind whether Independency did not infer Schism in the Church Universal As that Independency upon the narrow foot I mean that which divideth Communion with Saints as Saints doth so my refusing Communion with them made me guilty of Schism in respest of that particular I do not doubt it and our Anabaptists are their natural Offspring But how to determine my Duty in respect of Mr. Goodwin's Church from whom I separated and with whom I was for many Years joined I know not considering their Principles are larger for Communion than others 2. Amongst our selves I have privately urged to my Friends enlarging considerably 3. I have my self with my Family frequented