Baxter's Book Entitul'd The Cure of Church-Divisions ANSWER'D CONFUTED And he prov'd to be a Physitian of NO VALUE Who hath manifested his Folly and Weakness in undertaking a Work which he hath so little Understanding in By Thomas Taylor For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to Covetousness c. They have Heal'd also the Hurt of the Daughter of my People with sweet words saying Peace Peace when there is no Peace Jer. 6.13 14. But ye are Forgers of Lyes ye are all Physitians of no Value Job 13.4 Printed in the Year 1671. Baxter's Book Entitul'd The Cure of Church-Divisions ANSWER'D CONFUTED RICHARD BAXTER a man who through a shew of Learning and Religion had gotten in Oliver Crumwel's dayes a great esteem in the minds of the ignorantly Zealous Professors of Religion in this Nation and especially in the parts of Worcester-shire about Kidderminster where he then resided hath since the change of the Times and coming in of the Old Common-prayer-Book again much manifested his Nakedness Confusion and Unsoundness to every Eye that in any measure is open to see the difference of Truth and Error in the ground of it as by his works appear and that it is so amongst other things that Book of his falsly call'd The Cure of Church-Divisions which I have now under-hand to answer doth plainly manifest For instead of curing Divisions he hath shew'd himself to be a Physitian of no value so instead of curing hath struck at under a Judas Kiss of Unity Concord the very Life and Foundation of all true Christian Unity and Amity to wit The Free and Perfect Teachings and Gifts and Work of the Spirit of Truth the Spirit of the Father and Son in his believing Members whereby they cry in a spotless Mind Abba Father and freely and powerfully declare the Glory of his Kingdom to the Children of Men and instead thereof would bring in and establish that Soul-deceiving and Church-dividing doctrine of Humane Learning and Humane Helps as absolutely necessary to the procuring and engaging as it were the Holy unlimited God to give unto the Creature his holy Spirit and the Knowledge of the Mysteries of his Eternal Will and Kingdom for the same as in Answer to an Objection in the 6th page of his Book in his first Direction so call'd is to be seen The Objection against his carnal Reasonings for Old Men's knowledge is in pag. 5. where he saith I know those that I have to do with will say That Divinity is not learn't by Labour and Men's-teaching as other Sciences and Arts are but by Teaching I add yea and most free Gift of the Spirit of God and therefore the Youngest may have as much of it as the Eldest And to this R. B. there thus answers Answ. There is some Truth saith he and some Falshood and much Confusion in this Objection Reply But O the Darkness ye◠rather Enmity that is in Baxter's heart against the free Teaching of God's Spirit that he would find any thing against so plain and manifest Truth as is in this Objection But what will not Flesh do that is lifted up with Conceits of his own wisdom to keep up its Honour before the people rather then the Pure Undoubted Truth of the Gospel and Self-abasing Spirit of Truth should Raign and have the Preheminence But let us hear how this R.B. proves that that there is either 〈◊〉 or Confusion in the Objection It is true saith he that the saving Knowledge of Divinity must be taught by the Spirit of God but it is false that Labour and Humane Teaching are not the Means which must be us'd by them who will have the Teaching of the Spirit But to this I say That a Child of Light in the least Measure doth easily see the Falshood of that spirit by which this R.B. is acted in this his answer For the wind of the Spirit bloweth where it listeth and thou hear'st the sound thereof thou natural Man but neither knows whence it comes nor whither it goes so is every one that 's born of God And without this Birth all thy knowledge is damning not saving John 3.7 8. c. And Job 32.7 8. I said dayes should Speak and multitude of years should Teach Wisdom but there is a Spirit in man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth them Understanding And saith God It shall come to pass in the last dayes that I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh and they shall all know me from the least to the greatest yea and Young-men shall see Visions and Servants and Hand-maids shall Prophesie and ye have receiv'd an Unction from the Holy One and ye know all things saith the Apostle John and ye need not that any man teach you This is the Day of the Lord wherein these things are fulfill'd prais'd be God And the new Covenant aboundantly witness'd in the Children of Light whom this wicked Book of Baxter's strikes at but his Wickedness turns upon his own Pate and his own Inquities shall slay him For he by his carnal Wisdom would darken Knowledge and shut the Kingdom of Heaven against men as his Predecessors of old the Pharisees mention'd Mat. 23. did But the Lord hath open'd a Door to the Believing Souls this Day which all the powers of Darkness shall never be able to shut Glory to his Name forever But what is that Labour and Humane Means that People must use for getting the Spirit of God or saving Knowledge of Divinity as he calls it Is it tumbling over a Ruck of Books stuffed with art and Humane Wisdom or Learning from below as this R.B. hath long done to the darkning of his Heart from the Knowledge of God and Way of his Spirit so that he knows nothing of it after all his long lost labour but what he knows naturally as a bruit Beast and that 's plain for it sanctifies him not as by his confessing That his best Duties even his Prayers are not without sin and affirming that no man prayes without sin as in his Book is to be seen page 195 and in his Preface And so the Prayer of Faith and Preaching by the Spirit he is ignorant of yea Preaching by the Spirit is become a Mock and a Derision to him and his Brethren at this day but Paul and all the Ministers of Christ Magnifie the Free Grace and Infinite Gift of the Spirit of God according to that 2 Cor. 3. Saying Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think a good Thought but our Ability is of God who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter kills but the Spirit gives Life And that which the Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath entred into the Heart of man or Humane Heart to conceive hath God reveal'd to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the Deep Things of
first thing that this Baxter would have you his principal and best taught Hearers to confess to wit That Pride is in your very Hearts which if you were sensible of you would cease calling God your Father and Christ your Redeemer in this wretched State for to you in this State it may be truely said as Christ said to those unbelieving Jews Ye are of your Father the Devil for Pride of Heart is the chief part of his wicked Image and indeed the main thing in this day which hinders you from coming to Christ the meek pure and lowly Lamb of God is the Pride of your corrupt Hearts as Jeremiah said to the Jews If you will not give Glory to God before your feet stumble upon the dark Mountains my Soul shall mourn in secret for your Pride It was the Pride of their Hearts that was the ground of all their Evils as it is of yours for from the Pride of your Hearts comes your Ignorance of Mind and partiallity and want of all good to the dishonouring of your Profession and what not So that it may easily be known who sent this Baxter who hath profited you nothing at all For they have ran and I have not sent them saith God Therefore they cannot profit the People at all Jer. 23. And that this R. B. might make it fully appear under whose Banner he fights and for whose Kingdom he pleads lest the rest of his Book should leave it doubtful He is now come forth in his proper shape as the absolute Enemy of God and all good men that in any measure are looking Heaven-ward being burdened with the fellowship of the Wicked and instead of helping the Lord 's little Ones against the great Power of the Dragon in the Persecutors he hath hammered forth all the wicked Weapons that he can for the Wicked Persecutors and against the tender hearted ones of God who are travelling to the holy Land with Egypt left behind as in that 55. Direction so called and Pag. 254. of his said Book appears where he hath these words Little do many real Separates who cry out against the spirit of persecution suspect that the same spirit is in them Whence is Persecution but from thinking ill of others and abhorring them or not loving them And do you not so by those saith he whom you causlesly separate from Answ. Here by way of Answer before I set down any more of this naughtiness of his I cannot but take notice of this word causlesly which here this Baxter puts in to cover his deceit for though at the first look one might judge he intended only causless or unwarrantable or wicked separation yet Reader thou must know he intends as well the truely tender hearted People of England who in conscience to God and according to his holy Commandment are come out and separated from the fellowship of the Wicked in these dayes and so cannot take part in the Offerings of the dead as well as others and at these in a special manner he strikes after his accustomed manner through the sides of others for his main Envy is against the living Members of Christ And so though those that separate without cause may have the like mind to those they separate from being different onely in Form but not in Heart from them yet such as are separated by the Power of God as Paul was whom God separated from his Mothers Womb calling him by his Grace have not for these stand out of their own thoughts and are in the Will and Work and Worship of God whose Worship is in Spirit and Truth But to proceed Baxter saith further You will say that though you think them not to be true Christians yet you love them as men and wish their good and so will those say by you saith he whom you call your Persecutors though they think you to be proud and humerous and disobedient yet they say they love you as men and do but correct you to cure your self-willedness and humor and to do you good and to preserve the publick Peace They think you to be bad and therefore Imprison you You think them to be bad and therefore avoid Communion with them To this I cannot but by the way speak a word Who is there that sees not the very spirit of the Egyptian Sorcerers acting in this very thing to the hardening of Pharoah's Heart lest he should let Israel go But this Baxter goes on in his wickedness and saith They to wit the Persecutors think you so bad as to be unworthy of civil Liberty and Priviledges You think them so bad as to be unworthy of Church Priviledges and Liberties They think you unworthy to be suffered in the Land perhaps and you think them unworthy to be suffered in the Churches they cry against you Away with them they are Schismatical or Heretical you cry against them Away with them they are Prophane Answ. Now in answer to this I say That we who are of the World scornfully called Quakers have everlasting cause to praise the Lord who hath redeemed our Souls from among such devouring Wolves as this R. B. and from such a venomous spirit as he is acted by What Heathen upon Earth could strengthen the hands of the Persecutors against the Righteous more then this Baxter by such Arguments as this doth what if this Baxter had lived in the dayes of the Apostles and first Christians when God separated them from the Congregation of the unbelieving Jews surely he could not but have been but accounted famous and worthy of great Honour amongst those persecuting Jews for such Arguments as these for never an Argument he brings for the Persecutors now but it would as much have fitted the Persecutors then against the Christians yea and it would formerly yea and doth at this day fit the Papists against the Protestants as well as the persecuting prophane superstitious Protestant against them whom God hath drawn by his mighty Power this day from amongst them For seeing he sets but thought against thought the Persecutors thoughts of the Righteous against the persecuted man's thoughts of him and seeing all thoughts are questionable he leaves this ground for the persecuting Jew to reason to excuse himself against the first Christians according to his hellish Invention on this wise viz. ' You Christians who separate from us are of as bad a spirit as us Jews whom you call your Persecutors for what is Persecution but a thinking ill of others and abhorring them or not loving them And do you not so by us whom you causlesly separate from And though you say though you think us not as Servants of God or so yet you love us as men and wish our Good so do we you and that which we do against you which you call Persecution is but a correcting of you to cure your self-willedness and humor and to do you good and to preserve the publick Peace And though you think much you Christians that we
profess And praised be God for ever who through his Grace gives our Souls the Victory but as for this Baxter and his Followers who are so full of that earthly faln wisdom which receives honour of men and judges of things according to the Flesh I say for them to seek God's Honour and glorifie him in such low contemptible things as this is is at present far from them but to put off the Hat in honour to proud Flesh And to love greetings in the Markets and to go in long Robes as the old Pharisees did and to be called of men Master and the like which gets praise and applause of the World though Christ forbid it never so much I say these things they like better the more is the pitty see Mat. 23. and so it appears who are in the Selfishness Pride and Hypocrisie and who are not and so is the Scripture fulfilled which saith In that day it shall be seen who are they that fear God and who not Glory to God for his unspeakable Gift and not unto us but to thy Name be the Praise O Lord. What would this Baxter if he had been in those dayes have said of Christ of whom it was said That he taught the Way of God truely and regarded not the Persons of Men then surely he put not off his Hat in honour to proud Flesh as ye do I say would not this Baxter have called him some odd conceited singular proud Fellow as his Predecessors the Pharisees of those dayes Who received Honour one of another did no question but he would for if he do thus to us his Servants What would he have done to him our Lord and Master but happy are all they in this day who chuse rather to suffer the Affliction and Reproach with Christ and his People then to enjoy the Pleasures of sin which are but for a Season so be it ALso because this R. Baxter in pag. 27. of his Preface saith That People are far more averse that is contrary or against to Communion or Concord with the Parish Churches then the conforming Ministers are and yet he seems in his Epistle to Bryan's Book to be unwilling that People should think he hath conformed though he hath pleaded for it and against separaing from the Parish Assemblies and Worships as now manag'd and also seeing that Bryan as he saith is or was silenced for non-conformity himself I desire all that reads these Lines to take notice of what a strange uneven and unrighteous Spirit these men are of in their creeping and twisting and twining to and fro yet the Eye of the Lord and his Blessed Spirit in his Children this day doth easily spy them out Sometimes they are all for Conformity and against Separation by any means and plead the Common-Prayer-Peoples Cause with all their might as it were and yet presently they are all on a fire against any that shall think they are Conformists Nay says Baxter How can any judge him to be a Conformists who is silenced for Nonconformity But if this Baxter sometime a Head to those called Presbyterians at and about Kidderminster and Bryan of the same nature sometimes a Teacher at Coventry be not conformed or be not yet Conformists as well as others of their Brethren who have long since licked up their Vomit the old Common-Prayer Service which they vomited up in Oliver's time because it hindred them then from swallowing the Peoples Labours and seeing they plead so shamelesly for it and also seeing this Baxter in express words confesseth That they are not so much against Conformity with the Common-Prayer Service as the People are What may be the Reason of this strange thing to wit That they do not in all things conform to wit in Deed and Practice as well as in words save only as is plain to me this to wit because they judge that their Admirers are not yet sufficiently wearied out with keeping off nor sufficiently moulded and fitted in their Minds for coming in and therefore they have lingred and may do yet linger a while longer before they do openly and before all appear Conformists desiring if possible to see the People in before them for these two chief Presbyterian Priests so called are wholly already in the Parish Stuff in their Judgement and with their Minds and Hearts already or at lest would be thought so to be by the wicked World of whom they are Lovers Yet they see not how to vend their flattering Doctrines if their Admirers conform not and come not in with them or rather be not in the Pit before them so weak and wretched a thing is man yea the best seeming of the Sons of Men out of the Truth oh how truely fulfilled by these men are those words of the Apostle where he speaking of the false hypocritical out-side-Teachers of that Time saith With good words and fair speeches they deceive the Hearts of the Simple Therefore ever praised be Christ who hath opened our Eyes to see and perswaded our Hearts to avoid such Wolves in Sheeps-clothing as this Baxter and Bryan are For what finer and higher Talk or Skin or Clothing can the Wolf get then to make Sermons of dwelling with God and the like as this Bryan doth when it s manifest he neither knows God nor his Way nor his dwelling-Place but is inwardly ravened from that good and Blessed Spirit of Truth and Honesty which should commend him to God The Wolves nature in R. Baxter is already in this Writing set down and manifest and now I come in the Light of the Lord to make manifest some of his Brother Bryan's And first shall set down that blasphemous Passage of his in p. 291. and 292. of his sixth Sermon in that Book of his intituled dwelling with God c. where he saith I am not ignorant that many of you whose Habitation I question not but the Lord is who have your Habitation in several Countries of this Kingdom have drunk a deep Prejudice against all the Parochial Congregations whereof you are legal Members and where all you were baptized and thereby were made the Members of Christ the Children of God and Heirs of his Kingdom I fear some of you will startle at these expressions found in the Common-Prayer But if you consult the Holy Scriptures you will find them warranted in a sacramental Sence and your prejudice hath so far wrought upon you that you have forsaken the assembling of your selves together with your Neigbours in the publick Meeting-places thus far this Bryan Answer But ever praised be the Lord who hath delivered us from the mouthes of such manifest Wolves as these are who in times past were hidden but are now fully seen who though his Brother Baxter sayes his Mouth was stopt or silenced for not conforming yet here it seems it is wide open still according to his and their custom to manifest his folly and wicked-inside against the Truth and for deceit that the Simple-hearted might forever be