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
Sins by the Merits of Christ and vouchsafed by his Spirit to Renew and Seal me as his own and to moderate and bless to me my long Sufferings in the Flesh and at last to sweeten them by his own Interest and comforting Approbation who taketh the Cause of Love and Concord as his own Now let the Reader judge whether any thing in all this can in the least infer his Doubting or Denial of a Future State or any Repentance of the Pains he took to establish others in the Belief and Hopes of what the Gospel tells us of as future It is strange to see how Men can trifle in their Soul-affairs and how easily they can receive whatever may mortifie the Life and Joy of Christian Godliness But we read of some that have been led Captive by the Devil at his will But this we may believe and all shall find that the Hell which they gave no credit to the report of they shall surely feel and that they shall never reach that Heaven which they would never believe Existent and worth their serious looking after Were it but a meer probability or possibility who will have the better of it When we reach Heaven we shall be in a Capacity of Insulting over Inâ—idels But if there be no Future State they can never live to upbraid us And it is but folly madness and a voluntary cheating of themselves for Men to think that Honour Parts or Learning or Interest or Possessions can ever skreen them from the Wrath of a neglected and provoked God And one would think that such a Spirit that can so boldly traduce and asperse Men is much below what has acted a Pagan Roman for even one of them could say Compositum jus fasque animi Sanctosque recessus Mentis incoctum genoroso pectus â—onesto Da cedò Pers. How little of this Spirit was in the Author and Promoter of this Aspersion I leave to his own and others Thoughts to pause on who he is I know not But for the sake of his Honour Soul and Faculty I must and will request of God that he may have those softer Remorses in his own Spirit in due season which may prevent a smarter Censure from the universal awful Judge and that he would soberly pause upon what that great Judge has uttered and left upon record in Matth. 12. 36 37. for it is what that Judge will abide and try us by I can easily foresee that Readers of different sorts are likely to receive this Work with different Sentiments 1. The Interested Reader in things related here will judge of and relish what he reads as he finds himself concerned therein He may possibly look upon himself as either commended or exposed blamed or justified whether justly or unjustly he may best know But I would hope that his Concernedness for the Interest of Equity and Truth and for the Publick Good will rather make him candid than severe 2. The Impartial Reader is for knowing Truth in its due and useful Evidence and for considering himself as liable to Imperfections if engaged in such work as this and thus he will allow for others Weaknesses as he would have his own allowed for 3. Should any Reader be censorious and stretch Expressions and Reports beyond their determin'd Line and Reach sober and clear Conviction in this Case may be their Cure 4. As to the Judicious Reader he loves I know to see things in their Nature Order Evidence and Usefulness and if he find Materials he can dispose them easily and phrase them to his own Satisfaction and at the same time pity the injudiciousness of a Publisher and the imperfections of the Author 5. As to the weak Reader for judiciousness is not every sober Person 's Lot it will be harder to convince him beyond his ability of discerning things in their distinctness truth and strength 6. As to the byassed Reader it is hoped that his second serious Thoughts may cure him of his Partiality 7. As to the selfish Reader it is bold for any Man to think himself Superiour to the rest of Men and that all must be a Sacrifice to his own Concerns and Humour A narrow Soul is a great Inâ—elicity both to its self to others and the Publick Interest 8. The Publick Spirited Reader is more concern'd for Truth than for any Thing that Rivals it his Thoughts and Motto is Magna est veritas praevalebit and he will think himself most gratified when Publick Expectations and Concerns are answered and secured best 9. Those that are perfectly ignorant of what the History is most concerned in will be glad of better Informations and the Things recorded will be as being Novel most grateful to him 10. As to those that were acquainted mostly with the Things here mentioned they will have their Memories refreshed and meet with some Additions to their useful Knowledge 11. And as to my self if there be any thing untrue injurious or unfit as to either Publick or Personal Concerns the Publisher hopes that the Reader will not look upon him as obliged to justifie or espouse whatever the Author may have misrepresented through his own Personal Infirmities or Mistakes for all Men are imperfect and my Work was to publish the Author's Sentiments and Reports rather than my own Nor will I vouch for every Thing in this History nor in any meer Humane Treatise beyond its Evidence or Credibility But let the Reader assure himself that I am his in the best of Bonds and Services whilst I am M. S. London May 13. 1696. A BREVIATE OF THE CONTENTS OF THE Ensuing Narrative Which was written by Parts at different Times PART I. Written for the most part in 1664. AFter a brief Narrative of his Birth and Parentage and large one of his School-masters Mr. Baxter proceeds to an Account of the means of his coming to a serious sense of Religion and of his perplexing Doubts and their Solutions to page 9. of his bodily weakness and indispositions to p. 11. of several remarkable Deliverances â—e met with viz. from the Temptations of a Court Life from being run over by a Waggon in a fall from a Horse and from Gaming p. 11 12. His applying himself to the Ministry Ordination by the Bishop of Worcester and Settlement in Dudley School as Master p. 12 13. His studying the Matter of Conformity and Iudgment about it at that time p. 13 14. His removal from Dudley to Bridgnorth and success there p. 14 15. of the coming out of the Etcaetera Oath and his further studying the point of Episcopacy upon that occasion p. 15 16. Upon occasion of this Etcaetera Oath he passes to the Dissatisfactions in Scotland on the account of the imposition of the English Ceremonies thence to Ship-money in England thence to the Scots first coming â—ither and so to the opening of the Long Parliament p. 16 17. After an Account of their Proceedings till such time as a Committee was chosen to hear Petitions
Conversion of their own Children was the chief means to overcome their Prejudice and old Customs and Conceits 19. And God made great use of Sickness to do good to many For though Sick-bed Promises are usually soon forgotten yet was it otherwise with many among us And as soon as they were recovered they first came to our private Meetings and so kept in a learning state till further Fruits of Piety appeared 20. And I found that our disowning of the Iniquity of the Times did tend to the good of many For they despised those that always followed the stronger side and justified every wickedness that was done by the stronger Party Though we had judged the Parliaments War to be lawful and necessary to save themselves and us from the Irish and their Adherents and to punish Delinquents in a Course of Law while we believed that nothing was intended against the King or Laws yet as soon as ever we saw the Case changed and Cromwell's Army enter into a Rebellion against King and Parliament and kill the King and invade the Scots and fight against the King that should have succeeded c. we openly disowned them and on all just occasions exprest our abhorrence of their Hypocrisie Perjury and Rebellion except two or three idle drunken Fellows that thought to live by flattering the Times this was the Sense of all the Town And had I owned the Guilt of others it would have been my shame and the hinderance of my work and provoked God to have disowned me 21. Another of my great Advantages was the true Worth and Unanimity of the honest Ministers of the Country round about us who associated in a way of Concord with us Their Preaching was powerful and sober their Spirits peaceable and meek disowning the Treasons and Iniquities of the times as well as we they were wholly addicted to the winning of Souls self-denying and of most blameless Lives Evil spoken of by no Sober Men but greatly beloved by their own People and all that knew them adhering to no Faction neither Episcopal Presbyterian nor Independent as to Parties but desiring Union and loving that which is good in all These meeting weekly at our Lecture and monthly at our Disputation constrained a Reverence in the People to their Worth and Unity and consequently furthered my Work such were Mr. Andrew Trisham Minister of Bridgnorth Mr. Tho. Baldwin Minister at Chadsley Mr. Tho. Baldwin Minister of Clent Mr. Ioseph Baker Minister in Worcester Mr. Henry Oasland Minister of Bewdley Mr. William Spicer Minister of Stone an old man since dead Mr. Richard Sergeant last Minister of Stone Mr. Wilsby of Womborne Mr. Iohn Reignolds of Wolverhampton Mr. Ioseph Rocke of Rowley Mr. Richard Wolley of Sallwarp Mr. Giles Wolley Mr. Humphrey Waldern of Broome Mr. Edw. Bowchier of Church-hill Mr. Ambrose Sparry of Martley Mr. William Kimberley of Ridmarley Mr. Benj. Baxter of Upton upon Severn Mr. Dowley of Stoke Mr. Stephen Baxter Mr. Tho. Bromwick of Kemsey Mr. I. Nott of Sheriff-hales with many others to whom I may adjoyn Mr. Iohn Spilsbury and Mr. Iuice one of Bromsgrove and the other of Worcester Independants and very honest sober and moderate men who were all of them now silenced and cast out though not one of them all had any hand in the Wars for the Parliament or any Military Employment only Mr. George Hopkins of Evesham was in the Army a worthy faithful Minister also and no other of our Association that I know of besides my self in all the County 22. Another Advantage to me was the quality of the Sinners of the place There were two Drunkards almost at the next Doors to me who one by night and the other by day did constantly every Week if not twice or thrice a Weak roar and rave in the Streets like stark-madmen and when they have been laid in the Stocks or Gaol they have been as bad as soon as ever they came out And these were so beastly and ridiculous that they made that Sin of which we were in most danger the more abhorred 23. Another Advantage to me was the quality of the Apostates of the place If we had been troubled with meer Separatists Anabaptists or others that erred plausibly and tollerably they might perhaps have divided us and drawn away Disciples after them But we had only two Professors that fell off in the Wars and one or two at most that made no Profession of Godliness were drawn in to them They that fell off were such as before by their want of grounded Understanding Humility and Mortification gave us the greatest suspicion of their Stability And they fell to no less than Familism and Infidelity making a jest of the Scripture and the Essentials of Christianity Though they so carefully hid it that we could never possibly have known their Minds but from the Alehouse and Companions with whom they were more free And as they fell from the Faith so they fell to Drinking Gaming furious Passions horribly abusing their Wives and thereby saving them from their Errours and to a vicious Life So that they stood up as Pillars and Monuments of God's Justice to warn all others to take heed of Self-conceitedness and Heresies and of departing from Truth and Christian Unity And so they were a principal means to keep out all Sects and Errours from the Town 24. Another great help to my Success at last was the fore-described Work of Personal Conference with every Family apart and Catechising and Instructing them That which was spoken to them personally and put them sometime upon Answers awakened their Attention and was easilier applyed than publick Preaching and seemed to do much more upon them 25. And the Exercise of Church-Discipline was no small furtherance of the Peoples Good For I found plainly that without it I could not have kept the Religious sort from Separations and Divisions There is something generally in their Dispositions which inclineth them to dissociate from open ungodly Sinners as Men of another Nature and Society and if they had not seen me do something reasonable for a Regular Separation of the notorious obstinate Sinners from the rest they would irregularly have withdrawn themselves and it had not been in my power with bare words to satisfie them when they saw we had liberty to do what we would It was my greatest Care and Contrivance so to order this Work that we might neither make a meer Mock-shew of Discipline nor with Independants un-church the Parish-Church and gather a Church out of them anew Therefore all the Ministers Associate agreed together to practice so much Discipline as the Episcopal Presbyterians and Independants were agreed on that Presbyters might and must do And we told the People that we went not about to gather a new Church but taking the Parish for the Church unless they were unwilling to own their own Membership we resolved to exercise that Discipline with all Only because there are some Papists and Familists or Infidels
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
call it self and such Men Holy Dare you read what I have written of their Holiness in my Key chap. 34. Detection 25. or procure them to answer that and the rest there 2. Are all that are Holy the Rule or Rulers to all others when you have conversed among the Papists one seven Years if Delusion leave you Reason and impartiality you will be more capable of comparing them with your own Parents and such as you lived amongst here and judging which were the more holy 3. As Catholick signifieth a Member of the Church Catholick or such is hold the Catholick Faith so other Churches are much more such than Rome As it signifieth the universal Church Rome is none such The same I say of Apostolick Those that are most exactly of the Apostolick Faith are to be called Apostolick but Woe to us if we were in that no better than Rome 14. You may see now what pitiful Grounds you have for flying into a Pest-house as a City of Refuge or for 〈◊〉 all the cleanest Rooms in the House of God and 〈◊〉 your self to that Room that hath the most leprous infected Persons in it as if it were the only Church of God And for Novelties O that the whole Case 〈◊〉 there be tried and let that Church that hath introduced most Novelties in Faith and Discipline and Worship be most rejected as unclean Were you impartial the several 〈◊〉 of our Religion might put that part of the Controversy 〈…〉 you For our Rule of Religion is only the Holy Scripture if you shew 〈◊〉 that we misunder stand it we shall renounce that misunderstanding but to misunderstand Scripture is to make a new Rule no more than to understand your Councils And you know the Scripture is no Novelty but the Eldest Your Rule is Councils and Papal Decrees which are new contradictory and endless and you never know when you have all and when your Faith is at its maturity and no more to be added under pretence of Determinations If you dare read my 24th 25th and 35th Decection in my Key you may see quickly who are the Novelties One chief Reason of my abhorring Popery is that I am absolutely certain of its Novelty Madam I must take the freedom to say That when your Priests dare neither Dispute in your hearing upon all the provoking offers that I made not yet will answer the Books that I have written nor yet give you leave to read them they have imprisoned your Soul in the partiality of a Sect and while you are so unfaithful to your self if you be miserable because you would not make use of the Remedy and deluded because you are resolved or obliged from coming into the Light your Friends will have an easier account to make for you before God than your self as having discharged their Duty when you wilfully refuse yours What you read formerly against Popery before you doubted or heard their Fallacies was as nothing I suppose for I do not think you observed or remember the stress of the Argumentation which you read We will have leave to pray for you though we cannot have leave to instruct you and God may hear us when you will not which I have the more hopes of because of the Piety of your Parents and the Prayers and Tears of a tender Mother poured out for you and your own well-meaning pious disposition I have known some such Piety bred among us carried by mistake into their Church but little initially bred there Though they pretend that Persons of Charity and the Spirit of God with us must go to them to receive it I would I knew whether you can say by true Experience I felt no true Love of God in my Soul before but as soon as I turned Papist I did and have now the Spirit of God and his Image which before I never had Sure the Change of an Opinion about your Pope and Church is one thing and the Renewing Grace and Love of God and Heavenly mindedness is another I fear not your Prayers bringing your Delusions and Idolatry in your Mother's Chamber as to her self while she walks uptightly with God Nothing that I find in your Manual or the Mass-Book will ever have that power For the Liberty of your Religion which you say you hope for on the Grounds of the King's Declaration I have no more to say but 1. That I never loved Cruelty in any and it hath increased my version to Popery that I still observed that lying and uncharitable cruelty have been the two Hands by which it makes such a bustle in the World 2. And that i◠Italy Spain and Austria Bavaria c. would grant Liberty to Protestants we should see more Equality in the Expectations of it here but if you get Dominion as well as Liberty it will be no Evidence of the Truth and Goodness of your Cause Our God our Rule our Hope our End and Portion are the same in the Inquisition Prison and Flames as in Prosperity We have a Kingdom that cannot be moved and Treasure that none can rob us of It is for that and not for Worldly Prosperity that we renounce all Sensuality Heresie Superstition Idolatry Tyranny and false Worship and desire in Pure and Spiritual Worship with Faith and Patience to wait for the Coming and Righteous Judgment of the Lord. Who with the Spirit of his Mouth and the brightness of his Coming will destroy that wicked One the Son of Perdition 2 Thess. 2. Madam I rest your Servant for and in the Truth of Christ Rich. Baxter London Ian. 29. 1660. Since the Writing of this I am informed that Mr. Iohnson is the Person that you would have had to Dispute for you and that did now and formerly Dispute with Dr. Gunning If so I like your Condition or Religion never the better for your denying it◠when you confessed he feared not any injury from me Our Religion is more a Friend to Truth For the honourable Lady Anne Lindsey at Calice This. § 87. When the King was received with the General Acclamation of his People the Expectations of Men were various according to their several Interests and Inducements Some plain and moderate Episcopal Men thought of Reconciliation and Union with the said Presbyterians yea and a Reward to the Presbyterians for bringing in the King The more Politick Men of the Diocesan way understood that upon the King's Return all the Laws that had been made in Nineteen Years viz. since his Father's departing from the Parliament were void and so that all their Ancient Power and Honour and Revenues would fall to them without any more ado and that they had nothing to do but to keep the Ministers and People in quietness and hopes till Time should fully do the work Some few Presbyterians thought the King would favour them as well as others for stirring up the Soldiers and City to restore him In London I found that Mr. Calamy for his Age and Political Understanding and
disrelishing the Practices and Assertions of some in unchurching all besides themselves he began to be provoked and pressed much in Spirit to consider the Grounds of separating upon the account of Baptism and in that Survey still their Weakness which appeared the more by reading yours Mr. Io. Goodwin and Homes Books of Baptism begot in him not only a Sight of Weakness in his Grounds about Separating but weakened his Confidence as to the opposing of Infant Baptism In this time as things appeared to him he being free and open Hearted was ready to express his Thoughts to those he conversed with who being rigid about Separation still persuaded him these new Thoughts were Satan's Temptations to hinder him in the Lord's Work Which occasioned much Prayer and Fasting and Prayer that if these Thoughts were not of God's Holy Spirit they might dye from his Soul But still they increased and came with such Light and Power argumentative from Scripture detecting his former Principles as to Separation In this interim he conversed with divers Ministers in Town as Mr. Goodwin's Book Mr. Manton Dr. Reignold's about the meaning of 1 Cor. 12. 13 c. his thoughts still carrying him on till he had formed them into three Sheets of Paper but all the way it was a Fight with Temptations as often is declared yet his Light plainly evincing the evil of Saints dividing upon the account of Baptism although it should stand good Baptism should belong only to believers And as I conceive those Temptations partly occasioned by Friends who out of their Love would charge him to take heed for some Rooâ— of Bitterness or other was the Ground of these Thoughts and some Carnal end he had and was weary of Christ's Yoke and the Woes to Backsliders would be his Portion c. and that never any owned these Principles that forsook them but they became sad Objects of God's Displeasure Satan sitting in when these did occasion great Distress and Searchings of Heart many Fears Prayers and Tears fore Temptations that he was not sincere which was heightened by one Thought that he had espied in his Heart when he was amidst these thoughts namely that to break the Neck of those straiâ— Principles which would not permit any to Marry but to those in their own way would be a Freedom in respect of his Daughters in their Marriages who are but now Ten and Eleven Years of Age the Fears least the having of this in his Thoughts should in answer to this argue the Predominancy of the interest of the Flesh hath filled his Soul with great distress which I declare to you as a spiritual Physician that you may know the whole Case After seeking God a little help was attained in this and he received some Testimony of Conscience that this Thought was not the moving Cause of his change of Mind or any predominant end only an after Thought which had some encouragement in it When this Temptation was over then as bitter Fears about apostacy all those Texts seeming to apply themselves to him as speaks of an evil Heart of unbelief in departing from God of being cast out as a withered Branch and these attended with Tears and woundings of Spirit If he did cease from drawing up his Arguments then be should have ease but the Light of them was so pressing upon his Mind that he could not forbear This hath been his Life for these Eight or Nine Months having declared his Arguments the People to whom he is Elder they grow offended and disturbed if he have any thought of returning to Mr. Goodwin's Church again then nothing but Horror and as it were a flaming Sword in his Spirit is not that a Ground that he ought not return thither He finds most ease in his tender and fair Intreaties of the People he is now with to keep them from Separating to the further prejudice of their Souls Having a little ease about the Fear of Apostacy by finding by Experience that his Soul never went out in such strong Desires and high Praisings of Jesus Christ and earnest Desires to serve him in his Gospel and having in this time more abundantly than ever found his Soul emptied of self-esteem and sence of his need of Christ's Nourishing and Cherishing After this the next Temptation which now he wrestles with is hard Thoughts of God as if he were hard not easy to be intreated c. These sore Temptations hath made him ready to saint saying sometimes O that he were setled in his former Thoughts against Infant Baptism and could practice with a good Concience as he had done the other to this it 's suggested no now it shall be hid from him he received not the Truth in the Love of it c. and Heb. 12. 17. made use of to wound him that he obtained not the Blessing though he sought it carefully with Tears These Thoughts occasioned strong Cryes and Tears and great Distress of Soul Yet Sir take notice that all this while his now Arguments to one Communion with all Saints as Saints are never questioned in his Judgment but all admitted to him nay all that have seen them who are divers of the Re-baptism have not any of them as yet offered any thing to detect them but contrarywise they have had their force in the Minds of some Now dear Sir I hope you understand my Scriblings the end of all is to intreat your help as one that Christ hath set in his Church for the edifying and establishing of his Members judging you faithful and one of a Thousand in experience I have taken the boldness to intreat your Answer to the following Particulars 1. Whether God doth use to leave any of his Servants to such bitter Temptations when they are about a Service acceptable to him If so what his Ends may be in it 2. Whether these Distresses of Spirit can be any Demonstration that his former Practices and Principles about restraining Communion to after Baptism nor more pleasing to God's Spirit which hath seemed to be proved and so Dependant These latter Arguments about largeness in that kind 3. Whether considering his former Relation to Mr. Goodwin's Congregation from whom he withdrew upon the Thought he had of unlawfulness to communicate with unbaptised Persons which now he sees the Vanity of it be not now his Duty to return thither and if so then 1. What should be the Reason that his Conscience though very tender in other things should have little or no sense of that as his Duty And 2. What should then be the Reason that when he hath had any Thoughts tending that way such Terrors like a flaming Sword should pierce his Soul 4. Whether having been an Instrument to draw so many together into this way it be not rather his Duty to continue with them applying himself in all ways of Love and Forbearance to inlarge their Spirits which he judges his Duty because he finds a sensible ease in his Soul upon such Resolutions
the publick Lectures 4. In the Strength of God taken Courage to preach to the Congregation the Doctrine of the Church Universal and its Unity from 1 Cor. 12. 26. and from thence to shew them the Schismatical state wherein we are which Sermons hath brought the Anabaptists about my Ears from other Parts Four or five of them opposed me the last first day after my Sermon and because of what I had preached the Day before half my own Congregation never came to hear me Their Hearts are quite gone from me Not any of the Church cometh to see me or ask me any Question Now 3. and Lastly As to the present frame of my Spirit and State it is thus As to the uniting Work I have in Hand I thank God I am bold and am waiting on God upon whose Influences I live to guide me in Thought Word and Deed about it but I have lately been sorely troubled with one Temptation What should I preach or write any thing for concerning Religion I cannot endure Toâ—ments for Christ if I should be triedâ— 't is not for such faint hearted Creatures as I to meddle in such Work Now the Conscience of this that indeed I am a poor Creature weak both in Faith and Spirit hath made way for this Temptation to seize upon me to the saddening of my Soul and to the enâ—eebling of me to so great a Degree that for this two or three Days I have not been able to do any thing As for my present State in respect of the Church I am still with them and purpose God willing to Morrow to apply what I have preached about Schism The next Wednesday is appointed to debate things our Friends call in the Heads of other Churches to their Assistance and I hear those from abroad intend to stir up our Friends to cast me out of the Church what the Issue will be God knoweth and what to do with my self afterwards I know not I know I shall be sorely beset by the Enemy but my hope is in God that he will not suffer me to be tempted above that I am able and that my merciful Redemer and High Priest will be touched with the Feeling of my Infirmities himself being tempted he knoweth how to succour those that are tempted Heb. 4. 16. saith Grace hath a Throne and 5. 20 21. saith Grace reigneth Oh blessed be God! 1 Ephes. saith he hath given him to be Head over all things to the Church not to govern it only but to influence it with all necessary Supplies to fill all in all He supposed while we are here we shall be in an indigent Condition divers ways but at that Throne where Grace Reigneth there is Grace enough to supply all our Wants Therefore 1 Ioh. Of his fulness we have all received Grace for â—race and because such poor Creatures as I sensible of much Unworthiness are very apt to doubt our Entertainment and fear where no fear is blessed Jesus calleth us to come boldly Sir when I shall have done my Work where I am which I believe will be shortly I could be content to return to Mr. Goodwin's if God would like it and that my Re-union with that Church would not hinder my main Work They have of their own accord made a Vote to receive me when my Spirit should be free to return and indeed always have manifested much Love to me but the Truth is I am so clog'd with Scruples about popular Government and such like things that though to Will be present with me to perform I find not Mr. Goodwin never renounced his Ordination to take it from the People and is for Free Communion and saith will join in such a Uniting Draught as I hope you will now draw up and prosecute presently and which I will labour in God willing to promote when it cometh here That which mainly sticketh with me in respect of returning to Mr. Goodwin's is that when I shall publish what is in my Heart about the Causes of the Churches Malady in England I shall reflect upon the Independant Principles exceedingly Now my fear is that my Relation to them will be a Curb to me I know not what to do but my Eye is up towards God I am sure I have reaped Benefit by your Counsel and hope I have had an Interest in your Prayers which I still beg being confident God will hear you Sir the Lord preserve your Life and bless your Labours I hope it will not be long e're I shall hear from you who am Your affectionate Friend and Brother in Christ Iesus Tho. Lambe From my House in Great St. Bartholomews My Wife presents her Love with many Thanks to you To his very worthy Friend Mr. R. Baxter Preacher of God's Word at Kidderminster in Worcestershire Dear Brother IF I understand any thing of the Ways of the Love of God and can perceive by the Effects below what Souls the Light of his Countenance doth shine upon you owe much to his Love and are used by him as he useth the dearest of his own what a Mercy is his Illumination and how much greater his quickening Life that possesseth you with Love to God and Man O did we but know when we feel one Spark of Love to God and his Servants in our Souls from what an infinite Love it comes and to what it tends and what it signifieth surely there would be more studying comparatively for Charity that edifieth than for the Knowledge that puffeth up If your Work for God did cost you nothing it would not be so comfortable to you symptomatically or effectively Though I confess it is harder to bear the Censures of Godly Men than of the World yet the â—iger the Tryal the fuller will be the Evidence of Sincerity in Submission and the greater that Grace and Peace that is used to be given in for Encouragement or Reward And yet I must tell you that your Tryal here is not of the greatest when your Recovery is like to procure you the Esteem of Ten if not an Hundred of God's Servants for one that you are like to lose and I am glad that you give your Censurers so good a Description for if they are such as you describe them I am persuaded many of them will come after you in time And is it not a great Encouragement to you that your Brother and Fellow-labourer comes over with you and so your Hands are strengthned and half your Opposition taken off and turned into Comfort For though I never told him of your Letters to me nor you of his yet I take it for granted that you know each others Minds and ways and yet you know that he is satisfied and resolved for Catholick Communion I pray you go together and do what you do as one Man while you have one Mind and Heart I perceive the Signs of Iudgment and Charity also in him I beseech you also both to hold on your Charity even to them that are offended with
Symptom of a large and noble Soul History should inform admonish instruct and reclaim reform encourage Men that read it And therefore they that write it should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. discern things Excellent and those things in their difference each from other and in their importance to the Reader and so take care that nothing doubtful false impertinent mean injurious cloudy or needlesly provoking or reflecting be exposed to Publick View by them nor any thing excessive or defective as relating to the just and worthy Ends of History The Author of the subsequent History now with God had an Eagle's Eye an honest Heart a thoughtful Soul a searching and considerate Spirit and a concerned frame of Mind to let the present and succeeding Generations duly know the real and true state and issues of the Occurrences and Transactions of his Age and Day and how much Judgement Truth and Candour appear in his following Accounts of Things the Candid and Impartial Reader will easily and quickly be resolved about Scandals arising from Ignorance and misreports of what related to our Church and State greatly affected his very tender Spirit and the removal and prevention of them and of what Guilt Calamities and Judgments might or did attend those Scandals was what induced Mr. Baxter to leave Posterity this History of his Life and Times § III. Memorable Persons Consultations Actions and Events with their respective Epochs Successions and Periods are the Subject Matter of History Propriety clearness and vigour of Expression is what duly and gratefully represents the Matter to the Reader Accurate Method gives advantage to the Memory as well as satisfaction to the Judgment The faithfulness fulness and freedom of relation conciliates a good Reputation to the Writer by its convincing Influences upon the Reader 's mind and thus it powerfully claims and extorts his Submission to the evident credibility of what he peruses and the weight and usefulness of the Things related makes the Reader serious and concerned to observe what he reads for finding the Matter great the Expression proper and lively the Current of the History orderly and exact and the Purposes and Ends various and important which the History subserves he accordingly values and uses it as a Treasure And from thence he extracts such Maxims and Principles as may greatly bestead him in every Exigence and in every Station and Article of Trust and Concern and Negotiation History tells us who have been upon the Stage how they came into Business and Trust what was the Compass and Import of their Province what they themselves therein signified to others and what others to them and what all availed to Posterity and how they went off and so what Figure they most deserv'd to make in the Records of Time § IV. He that well considers the Nature of Man his Relation to God God's governing of Man and the Conduct of Providence pursuant to God's concerns with Men and their concerns with him as also the Discipline and Interests of the Holy War with Satan will read History with a finer Eye and to better purpose than others can To covet endeavour and obtain ability and furniture from History Philology Divinity c. to minister to discursive Entertainment or Self-conceitedness Ambition Preferment or Reputation with Men is a design when ultimate so mean in God's Eye so odious and noysom to others when by them discerned and so uncomfortable and fatal to our selves when at last accounâ—ed for as that no wise Man would terminate and center himself or his Studies there I have seen all sorts of Learning differently placed used and issued I can stay patiently to see the last Results of all I have seen Learning excellently implanted in a gracious heart So it was in Mr. Baxter and in several Prelates and Conformists and Non-conformists and others it is so at this day I have seen it without Grace or not so evidently under the influences and conduct of Grace as I have greatly desired it might have been and here what Partiality Malignity Faction Domination Superciliousness and Invectives hath his History and other Learning ministred unto Indeed sanctified Learning hath a lovely show And the Learning of graceless Persons hath in many Instances and Evidences greatly befriended God's Interest in the Christian World And the Knowledge which could not keep some from doing Mischief in the World and from their being fitted for Hell and from drawing others after them thither hath yet helped others to heavenliness and Heaven But he that well considers what Man is to God and God to Man what an Enemy degenerate Man is to God and himself what a state and frame and posture of War sin hath put Men into both against God themselves and each other what an Enemy Satan is to all and what advantages Sin gives him against us and how Christ is engaged against Satan for us as the Captain of our Salvation and how he manages this War by his Spirit Oracles Ordinances Officers and under-Agents in Church and State and by the Conduct of Providence over crowned Heads Thrones Senates Armies Navies greater and less Communities and single Persons in all things done by them for them or upon them or against them how he uses and influences the Faculties Actions Projects Confederacies and Interests of Men by poizing them changing them and turning them to his own purposes and praise He I say that well attends to these things in his Historical Readings and Studies will to his profit and delight discern God's Providence in and over the Affairs of Men to be expressive of God's Name ministring to his avouched purposes and a great Testimony to his Word and Son and to his Covenant and Servants § V. And such a Person was the Reverend Author and in part the Subject Matter of the subsequent Treatise He was an early Votary to his God so early as that he knew not when God engaged him first unto himself And hence he in great measures escaped those Evil Habits and Calamities which old Age ordinarily pays so dear for though he laments the carelesness and intemperance of his first childish and youthful days And if the Reader think it strange and mean that these and some other passages inferioris subsellij should be inserted amongst so many things far more considerable written by himself and published by me I crave leave to reply 1. That Conscience is a tender thing and when awaken'd it accounts no sin small nor any Calamity below most serious Thoughts and sensible and smart Resentments that evidently springs from the least Miscarriage which might and ought to have been prevented 2. That the apprehension of approaching Death made him severer in his Scrutinies and Reflections 3. That he thence thought himself concerned and bound in duty to warn others against all which he thought or found so very prejudicial to his own Soul and Body 4. That as mean passages as these are to be found in Ancient and Modern Lives and
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
not impossible that some will judge him too impudent and unworthy in branding Persons with such ungrateful Characters as do so evidently expose the Memory of the Dead and Living or their Posterity and intimate to disgrace But 1. Matters of Fact notoriously known are speaking things themselves and their Approbation or Dislike from others should be as Publick as the Things themselves Matters of Publick Evidence and Influence are as the Test of Publick Sentiments and of the prevailing temper of those Communities wherein such things were done And can Civilities of Conversation or Interest or Personal Respects and Tenderness be an Equivalent with God to what is expected by him from Bodies Politick or from his faithful Servants in them 2. The Author blames himself as freely and as publickly confesseth and blames his own Miscarriages as he doth any other 3. He spares no Man nor Party which he saw culpable and verily thought reproveable on just grounds Nor is he sparing of fit Commendations nor of moderating his Reprehensions where he saw the Case would bear it 4. He was far from Partiality and addictedness to any Party Good and Evil Truth and Falshood Faithfulness and Persidiousness Wisdom and Folly Considerateness and Temerity c. they were respectively commended or dispraised wherever they were found 5. Though Oliver Cromwell once Protector Dr. Owen and others seem to be sharply censur'd by him in the thoughts of those that valued them yet let the assigned Reasons be considered by the Reader and let him fairly try his own strength in either disproving the Matters of Fact and so impeach the Truth of the History or in justifying what was done and so implead the Criminal Charge or in allaying the Censure by weighing well how much of their reported or arraigned Miscarriages may and ought to be ascribed to meer Infirmity or Mistake or by preponderating their censured Crimes with other worthy Deeds and Characters justly challenging Commendations For as to Oliver Cromwell what Apprehensions and Inducements governed him and what hold they took upon his Conscience and how far he acted in faithfulness thereto as in designed reference to God's Glory to the Advancement of Religion to the Reformation of a debauched Age and to the Preservation of these Kingdoms from Popery Slavery and Arbitrariness the general Fear and Plea of these Kingdoms at that time whether without or with good ground let others judge is not for me here to determine I have heard much of his Personal and Family Strictness and Devotion Of his Appeals to God for the Sincerity of his Designs and Heart from some who have heard him make them as they have credibly told me Of his Encouragement of â—â—â—ious Godliness and of the great Discouragement which Irreligion and Prophâ—neness and Debauchery ever met with from him These Things were good and great But from what Principles they came and by what right from God and Man they were his Rectoral Province and to what ultimate End he really did direct them these Things require deeper Thoughts than mine in order to a sober Judgment on them It is more than I can do to vindicate his Right to Govern and to behead our King and to keep out another but I am alway glad of any thing which may allay the Guilt of Men though I had rather find no Guilt nor any appearance or suspicion of it that shall need Charity or Industry to extenuate or allay it God grant these Kingdoms greater Care and Wisdom for time to come and cause us to sit peaceably orderly obediently submissively and thankfully under the gracious Government of King William our present rightful and lawful Soveraign in so great Mercy to these Kingdoms whom may the most high God long preserve conduct and greatly prosper 6. As to the Relatives and under Agents of Oliver Cromwell I offer these things 1. The Author would not charge them with what they never did 2. Their Disadvantages through the Exigencies Influences and Temptations of their Day ought to be well considered lest otherwise Men be intemperate and excessive in their censorious Reflections on them Things now appear perhaps in a far clearer Light than heretofore 3. Instant Necessities may admit of greater Pleas and Men at a greater distance may not so sitly judge of present Duty or Expediency And 4. there is undoubtedly such a thing as interpretative Faithfulness and Sincerity which so far cheers Mens hearts and spirits resolution and appeals to God although the Principles which bear Men up herein may be and frequently are erroneous and but meer Mistakes 5. We know not all that men can say when calmly heard and fairly dealt with for their own censured Actions by way of Apology or Defence 6. We must consider our own selves as in this World and Body and as liable to equivalent if not the same Dangers and Temptations The sence and provident reach of that Divine Advice Gal. 6. 1. is vastly great and greatly useful and would prevent rigid Constructions if well attended to 7. Oliver Cromwell's Progeny those that are yet alive are chargeable no further with his Crimes than they are approved by them and this I never heard them charged with since 60. I know them not but I have been told that they are serious peaceable useful commendable Persons and make a lovely Figure in their respective though more private Stations 8. As to Dr. Owen 1. It is too well known to need my proof how great his Worth and Learning was How soft and peaceable his Spirit for many of his last years if credible Fame bely him not And perrar'o in melius mendax fama He was indeed both a burning and a shining Light 2. As to the Wallingford-House Affair and the Doctor 's Hand therein our Reverend Author considered him and others as to what he thought culpable and of pernicious Consequence and scandalous Report and Influence as to both the present and succeeding Ages He had no Personal Prejudice against him or others But as both Church and State were so disorderly endangered and affected by what was there consulted and done so Mr. Baxter did so much resent the thing as to think it fit to be recorded and accented with fit aggravations as a Remonstrance to the Crime and as a Warning to the Christian World And he is not the only Person who hath believed noticed and blamed that Matter But that the Doctor is in his great Master's joys is what our Author hath reported his very firm perswasion of in print 9. As to our Brethren the Independants 't is true that no mean Ferment appears to have been upon the Author's Spirit But 1. is he sharper upon them then on the Presbyterians Anabaptists Prelates where he thought or found them culpable 2. What Party did our Author wholly side with 3 What bosom Friend did he ever spare wherein he sound him reprehensible 4. He was so intent upon Orthodox Doctrines Catholick Union Christian Concord and Behaviour and Peaceable Usefulness and
Conversation amongst all Protestants and upon avoiding Divisions amongst Christ's Followers as that whatever obstructed these Concerns he was impatient of and warm against Truth Peace and Love was he a Votary to and Martyr for and hereunto did he devote most of his Life and Labours Dicam quod res est It is scandalous that there should be Divisions Distances Animosities and Contentions amongst Christians Protestants Dissenters against each other and in the Bowels of each Party But much hereof arises from unhappy Tempers Self-ignorance Confidence and Inobservance want of frequent patient and calm Conference and impartial Debates about things controverted addictedness to Self-Interest and Reputation with our respective Parties impatience of severe Thoughts and Studies and of impartial Consideration before we fix and pass our Judgment taking things too much upon Trust Prejudice against those whose Sentiments are different from our own laying too great a weight upon eccentrical and meaner things prying too boldly into and talking too confidentlyâ— about things unrevealed or but darkly hinted to us in the Sacred Text and representing the Doctrine of our Christianity in our own Artificial Terms and Schemes and so confining the Interest Grace and Heart of God and Christ to our respective Parties as if we had forgot or had never read Rom. 14. 17 19. Acts 10 34 35. Gal. 6. 14 16. and Eph. 4. 1 〈◊〉 That Person whose Thoughts Heart and Life shall meet me in the Spirit and Reach of 2 Pet. I. I II. shall have my hearty Love and Service although he determine never to hear me Preach or to Communicate with me all his days through the Impression of his Education or Acquaintance though at the same time I should be loth that such a narrow Thought should be the Principle Poise and Conduct of my Church Fellowship Spirit or Behaviour God hath I doubt not his eminent and valuable Servants inâ—all Parties and Perswasions amongst Christians An heavenly mind and Life is all in all with me I doubt not but that God hath many precious faithful Ones amongst the Men called Independants Presbyterians â—â—â—nabapâ—ists Prelatical And I humbly judge it reasonable that 1. The Miscarriages of former Parties be not imputed to succeeding Parties who own not nor abet their Principles as productive of such practical Enormities 2. That the Miscarriages of some particular Persons be not charged on the rest until they profess or manifest their Approbation of them 3. That what is repented of and pardoned be not so received as to foment Divisions and Recriminations 4. That my trust from Mr. Baxter and faithfulness to him and to Posterity be not constrâ—ed as the Result of any Spleen in me against any Person or Party mentioned in this following History 5. And that we all value that in one another which God thinks lovely where he forms and finds it And 6. O Utinam that we form no other Test and Canon of Christian Orthodoxy and Saving Soundness and Christian Fellowship than what the Sacred Scriptures give us as Explicatory of the Christian Baptismal Creed and Covenant as influencing us into an holy Life and heavenly Hopes and Joys I thought once to have given the World a faithful Abstract of Mr Baxter's Doctrines or Judgment containing the Sence of what he held about Justification Faith Works c. and yet laying aside his Terms of Art that hereby the Reader might discern the Consonancy of it to the Sacred Text and to the Doctrinal Confessions of the Reformed Churches his Consistence with himself and his nearer approach in Judgment to those from whom he seems to differ much than the prejudiced Adversaries are aware of But this must be a Work of Time if not an Enterprize too great for me as I justly fear it is But I will do by him as I would do by others and have them do by me viz. give him his owned Explication of the Baptismal Creed and Covenant as a fit Test to try his Judgment by and if his Doctrines in his other Treatises consist herewith others perhaps will see more Cause to think him Orthodox in the most weighty Articles and less to be suspected notwithstanding his different Modes of Speech The Things professedly believed by him as may be seen in his Christian Concord were THat there is one only God The Father Infinite in Being Wisdom Goodness and Power the Maker Preserver and Disposer of all things and the most just and merciful Lord of All. That Mankind being fallen by Sin from God and Happiness under the Wrath of God the Curse of his Law and the Power of the Devil God so loved the World that he gave his only Son to be their Redeemer who being God and one with the Father did take to him our Nature and became Man being conceived of the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Mary and born of her and named JESUS CHRIST and having liv'd on Earth without Sin and wrought many Miracles for a witness of his Truth he gave up himself a Sacrifice for our Sins and a Ransom for 〈◊〉 in suffering Death on the Cross and being buried he is Lord of all in Glory with the Father And having ordained that all that truly repent and believe in him and love him above all things and sincerely obey him and that to the Death shall be saved and they that will not shall be damned and commended his Ministers to preach the Gospel to the World He will come again and raise the Bodies of all Men from Death and will set all the World before him to be judged according to what they have done in the Body and he will adjudge the Righteous to Life Everlasting and the rest to Everlasting Punishment which shall be Executed accordingly That God the Holy Ghost the Spirit of the Father and the Son was â—â—nt from the Father by the Son to inspire and guide the Prophets and Apostles that they might fully reveal the Doctrine of Christ And by multitudes of Evident Miracles and wonderful Gifts to be the great Witness of Christ and of the Truth of his Holy Word And also to dwell and work in all that are drawn to believe that being first joyned to Christ their Head and into one Church which is his Body and so pardoned and made the Sons of God they may be a peculiar People sanctified to Christ and may mortifie the Fesh and overcome the World and the Devil and being zealous of good Works may serve God in Holiness and Righteousness and may live in the special Love and Communion of the Saints and in hope of Christ's Coming and of Everlasting Life In the belief hereof the Things consented to were as followeth THat he heartily took this one GOD for his only GGD and his chief Good and this IESUS CHRIST for his only Lord Redeemer and Saviour and this HOLY GHOST for his Sanctifier and the Doctrine by him revealed and sealed by his Miracles and now contained in the Holy Scriptures he took for the Law of God
though Fear without Love be not a state of Saving Grace and greater Love to the World than to God be not consistent with Sincerity yet a little predominant Love prevailing against worldly Love conjunct with a far greater measure of Fear may be a state of Special Grace And that Fear being an easier and irresistible Passion doth oft obscure that measure of Love which is indeed within us And that the Soul of a Believer groweth up by degrees from the more troublesome but safe Operations of Fear to the more high and excellent Operations of Complacential Love even as it hath more of the sense of the Love of God in Christ and belief of the Heavenly Life which it approacheth And that it is long before Love be sensibly predominant in respect of Fear that is of Self-love and Self-preservation though at the first it is predominant against Worldly Love And I found that my hearty Love of the Word of God and of the Servants of God and my desires to be more holy and especially the hatred of my Heart for loving God no more and my Love to love him and be pleasing to him was not without some Love to himself though it workt more sensibly on his nearer Image 4. Another of my Doubts was because my Grief and Humiliation was no greater and because I could weep no more for this But I understood at last that God breaketh not all Mens hearts alike and that the gradual proceedings of his Grace might be one cause and my Nature not apt to weep for other Things another And that the Change of our Heart from Sin to God is true Repentance and a loathing of our selves is true Humiliation and that he that had rather leave his Sin than have leave to keep it and had rather be the most holy than have leave to be unholy or less holy is neither without true Repentance nor the Love of God 5. Another of my Doubts was because I had after my Change committed some Sins deliberately and knowingly And be they never so small I thought he that could sin upon knowledge and deliberation had no true Grace and that if I had but had as strong Temptations to Fornication Drunkenness Fraud or other more heinous Sins I might also have committed them And if these proved that I had then no Saving Grace after all that I had felt I thought it unlikely that ever I should have any This stuck with me longer than any of the rest and the more because that every Sin which I knowingly committed did renew it And the terms on which I receive Consolation against it are these Not as those that think every Sin against Knowledge doth nullifie all our former Grace and Unregenerate us and that every time we Repent of such we have a new Regeneration but 1. All Saving Grace doth indeed put the Soul into a state of Enmity to Sin as Sin and consequently to every known Sin 2. This Enmity must shew it self in Victory for bare striving when we are overcome and yielding to sin when we have a while striven against it proveth not the Soul to be sincere 3. Yet do not God's Children always overcome for then they should not sin at all But he that saith he hath no sin deceiveth himself 4. God's Children always overcome those Temptations which would draw them to a wicked unholy state of Life and would unregenerate them and change their State and turn them back from God to a fleshly worldly Life and also to any particular Sin which proveth such a state and signifieth a Heart which hath more habitual Love to the World than unto God which may well be called a Mortal Sin as proving the Sinner in a state of Death as others may be called Venial Sins which are consistent with Spiritual Life and a Justified State 5. Therefore whenever a justified Person sinneth the Temptation at that time prevaileth against the Spirit and the Love of God! not to the Extinction of the Love of God nor to the Destruction of the Habit nor the setting up of the contrary Habit in predominancy as setting up the Habitual Love of any Sin above the habitual Love of God! The inclination of the Soul is still most to God And he esteemeth him most and preferreth him in the adherence of his Will in the main bent and course of Heart and Life only he is overcome and so far abateth the actual Love and Obedience to God as to commit this particular Act of Sin and remit or omit that Act of Love 6. And this it is possible for a Justified Person to do upon some deliberation For as Grace may strive one instant only in one Act and then be suddenly overcome so it may strive longer and keep the Mind on Considerations of restraining Motives and yet be overcome 7. For it is not the meeâ— Length of Consideration which is enough to excite the Heart against Sin but there must be clearness of Light and liveliness in those Considerations And sometimes a sudden Conviction is so clear and great and sensible that in an instant it stireeth up the Soul to an utter abhorrence of the Temptation when the same Man at another time may have all the same thoughts in so sleepy a degree as shall not prevail And sometimes the weakness of Grace as much appeareth by making no resistance at all by causing deliberation even in Sins of Passion and Surprize as at other times it doth by yielding after dull deliberations 8. And though a little Sin must be hated and universal Obedience must prove our Sincerity and no one Sin must be wilfully continued in yet it is certain that God's Servants do not oft commit Sins materially great and heinous as Fornication Drunkenness Perjury Oppression Deceit c. and yet that they often commit some lesser Sins as idle thoughts and idle words and dulness in holy Duties defectiveness in the Love of God and omission of holy Thoughts and Words c. And that the Tempter oft getteth advantage even with them by telling them that the Sin is small and such as God's Servants ordinarily commit and that naturally we fly with greater fear from a great danger than from a less from a wound at the heart than a cut finger And therefore one reason why idle words and sinful thoughts are even deliberately oftner committed than most heinous Sins is because the Soul is not awaked so much by fear and care to make resistance And Love needeth the help of fear in this our weak condition 9. And it is certain that ususally the Servants of God being men of most knowledge do therefore sin against more knowledge than others do for there are but few Sins which they know not to be Sins They know that idle Thoughts and Words and the omissions of the contrary are their sins 10. There are some Sins of such difficulty to avoid as the disorder or omission of holy Thoughts and the defects of Love to God c.
our Governour and our Benefactor in that he is related to us as our Creator and that therefore we are related to him as his own his Subjects and his Beneficiaries which as they all proceed by undeniable resultancy from our Creation and Nature so thence do our Duties arise which belong to us in those Relations by as undeniable resultancy and that no shew of Reason can be brought by any Infidel in the World to excuse the Rational Creature from Loving his Maker with all his heart and soul and might and devoting himself and all his Faculties to him from whom he did receive them and making him his ultimate End who is his first Efficient Cause So that Godliness is a Duty so undeniably required in the Law of Nature and so discernable by Reason it self that nothing but unreasonableness can contradict it 3. And then it seemed utterly improbable to me that this God should see us to be Losers by our Love and Duty to him and that our Duty should be made to be our Snare or make us the more miserable by how much the more faithfully we perform it And I saw that the very Possibility or Probability of a Life to come would make it the Duty of a Reasonable Creature to seek it though with the loss of all below 4. And I saw by undeniable Experience a strange Universal Enmity between the Heavenly and the Earthly Mind the Godly and the Wicked as fulfilling the Prediction Gen. 3. 15. The War between the Woman's and the Serpent's Seed being the daily Business of all the World And I saw that the wicked and haters of Godliness are so commonly the greatest and most powerful and numerous as well as cruel that ordinarily there is no living according to the Precepts of Nature and undeniable Reason without being made the Derision and Contempt of Men if we can scape so easily 5. And then I saw that there is no other Religion in the World which can stand in competition with Christianity Heathenism and Mahometanism are kept up by Tyranny and Beastly Ignorance and blush to stand at the Bar of Reason And Judaism is but Christianity in the Egg or Bed And meer Deism which is the most plausible Competitor is so turned out of almost all the whole World as if Nature made its own Confession that without a Mediator it cannot come to God 6. And I perceived that all other Religions leave the People in their worldly sensual and ungodly state even their Zeal and Devotion in them being commonly the Servants of their Fleshly Interest And the Nations where Christianity is not being drowned in Ignorance and Earthly mindedness so as to be the shame of Nature 7. And I saw that Christ did bring up all his serious and sincere Disciples to real Holiness and to Heavenly mindedness and made them new Creatures and set their Hearts and Designs and Hopes upon another Life and brought their Sense into subjection to their Reason and taught them to resign themselves to God and to love him above all the World And it is not like that God will make use of a Deceiver for this real visible Recovery and Reformation of the Nature of Man or that any thing but his own Zeal can imprint his Image 8. And here I saw an admirable suitableness in the Office and Design of Christ to the Ends of God and the Felicity of Man and how excellently these Supernatural Revelations do fall in and take their place in subserviency to Natural Verities and how wonderfully Faith is fitted to bring Men to the Love of God when it is nothing else but the beholding of his amiable attractive Love and Goodness in the Face of Christ and the Promises of Heaven as in a Glass till we see his Glory 9. And I had felt much of the Power of his Word and Spirit on my self doing that which Reason now telleth me must be done And shall I question my Physician when he hath done so much of the Cure and recovered my depraved Soul so much to God 10. And as I saw these Assistances to my Faith so I perceived that whatever the Tempter had to say against it was grounded upon the Advantages which he took from my Ignorance and my Distance from the Times and Places of the Matters of the Sacred History and such like things which every Novice meeteth with in almost all other Sciences at the first and which wise well-studied Men can see through § 35. All these Assistances were at hand before I came to the immediate Evidences of Credibility in the Sacred Oracles themselves And when I set my self to search for those I found more in the Doctrine the Predictions the Miracles antecedent concomitant subsequent than ever I before took notice of which I shall not here so far digress as to set down having partly done it in several Treatises as The Saints Rest Part 2. The Unreasonableness of Infidelity A Saint or a Bruit in my Christian Directory and since more fully in a Treatise called The Reasons of the Christian Religion my Life of Faith c. § 36. From this Assault I was forced to take notice that it is our Belief of the Truth of the Word of God and the Life to come which is the Spring that sets all Grace on work and with which it rises or falls flourishes or decays is actuated or stands still And that there is more of this secret Unbelief at the Root than most of us are aware of and that our love of the World our boldness with Sin our neglect of Duty are caused hence◠I observed easily in my self that if at any time Satan did more than at other times weaken my Belief of Scripture and the Life to come my Zeal in every Religious Duty abated with it and I grew more indifferent in Religion than before I was more inclined to Conformity in those Points which I had taken to be sinful and was ready to think why should I be singular and offend the Bishops and other Superiours and make my self contemptible in the World and expose my self to Censures Scorns and Sufferings and all for such little things as these when the Foundations themselves have so great difficulties as I am unable to overcome But when Faith revived then none of the Parts or Concernments of Religion seemed small and then Man seemed nothing and the World a shadow and God was all In the begining I doubted not of the truth of the Holy Scriptures or of the Life to come because I saw not the Difficulties which might cause doubting After that I saw them and I doubted because I saw not that which should satisfie the mind against them Since that having seen both Difficulties and Evidences though I am not so unmolested as at the first yet is my Faith I hope much stronger and far better able to repel the Temptations of Satan and the Sophisms of Infidels than before But yet is my daily Prayer That God would
Our Disputations proved not unprofitable Our Meetings were never contentious but always comfortable We took great delight in the Company of each other so that I knew that the remembrance of those days is pleasant both of them and me when Discouragements had long kept me from motioning a way of Church-order and Discipline which all might agree in that we might neither have Churches ungoverned nor fall into Divisions among our selves at the first motioning of it I found a readier Consent than I could expect and all went on without any great obstructing difficulties And when I attempted to bring them all conjunctly to the work of Catechizing and Instructing every Family by it self I found a ready consent in most and performance in many So that I must here to the praise of my dear Redeemer set up this Pillar of Remembrance even to his Praise who hath employed me so many years in so comfortable a Work with such encouraging Success O what am I a worthless Worm not only wanting Academical Honours but much of that Furniture which is needful to so high a Work that God should thus abundantly encourage me when the Reverend Instructors of my Youth did labour Fifty years together in one place and could scarcely say they had Converted one or two of their Parishes And the greater was this Mercy because I was naturally of a discouraged Spirit so that if I had preached one Year and seen no Fruits of it I should hardly have for born running away like Ionah but should have thought that God called me not to that Place Yea the Mercy was yet greater in that it was of farther publick Benefit For some Independents and Anabaptist that had before conceited that Parish Churches were the great Obstruction of all true Church Order and Discipline and that it was impossible to bring them to any good Consistency did quite change their Minds when they saw what was done at Kiderminster and began to think now that it was much through the faultiness of the Parish Ministers that Parishes are not in a better Cafe and that it is a better Work thus to reform the Parishes than to gather Churches out of them without great Necessity And the Zeal and Knowledge of this poor People provoked many in other parts of the Land And though I have been now absent from them about six Years and they have been assaulted with Pulpit-Calumnies and Slanders with Threatnings and Imprisonments with enticing Words and seducing Reasonings they yet stand fast and keep their Integrity many of them are gone to God and some are removed and some now in Prison and most still at home but not one that I hear of that are fallen off or forsake their Uprightness § 137. Having related my comfortable Successes in this Place I shall next tell you by what and how many Advantages this much was effected under that Grace which worketh by means though with a free diversity which I do for their sakes that would have the means of other Mens Experiments in managing ignorant and sinful Parishes 1. One Advantage was that I came to a People that never had any awakening Ministry before but a few formal cold Sermons of the Curate For if they had been hardened under a powerful Ministry and been Sermon Proof I should have expected less 2. Another Advantage was that at first I was in the Vigour of my Spirits and had naturally a familiar moving Voice which is a great matter with the common Hearers and doing all in bodily Weakness as a dying Man my Soul was the more easily brought to Seriousness and to preach as a dying Man to dying Men for drowsy Formality and Customariness doth but stupisy the Hearers and rock them asleep It must be serious Preaching which must make Men serious in hearing and obeying it 3. Another Advantage was that most of the bitter Enemies of Godliness in the Town that rose in Tumults against me before in their very Hatred of Puritans had gone out into the Wars into the King's Armies and were quickly kill'd and few of them ever returned again and so there were few to make any great Opposition to Godliness 4. Another and the greatest Advantage was the Change that was made in the Publick Affairs by the Success of the Wars which however it was done and though much corrupted by the Usurpers yet it was such as removed many and great Impediments to Mens Salvation For before the riotous Rabble had Boldness enough to make serious Godliness a common Scorn and call them all Puritans and Precisians that did not care as little for God and Heaven and their Souls as they did especially if a Man were not fully satisfied with their undisciplined disordered Churches or Lay Chancellors Excommunications c. then no Name was bad enough for him And the Bishops Articles enquiring after such and their Courts and the High Commission grievously afflicting those that did but Fast and Pray together or go from an ignorant drunken Reader to hear a godly able Preacher at the next Parish c. this kept Religion among the Vulgar under either continual Reproach or Terror encourageing the Rabble to despise it and revile it and discouraging those that else would own it And Experience telleth us that it is a lamentable Impediment to Mens Conversion when it is a way every where spoken against and prosecuted by Superiors which they must embrace and when at their first Approaches they must go through such Dangers and Obloquy as is fitter for confirmed Christians to be exercised with than unconverted Sinners or young Beginners Therefore though Cromwell gave Liberty to all Sects among us and did not set up any Party alone by Force yet this much gave abundant Advantage to the Gospel removing the Prejudices and the Terrours which hindered it especially considering that Godliness had Countenance and Reputation also as well as Liberty whereas before if it did not appear in all the Fetters and Formalities of the Times it was the way to common Shame and Ruine Hearing Sermons abroad when there were none or worse at home Fasting and Praying together the strict Observation of the Lord's Day and such like went under the dangerous Name of Puritanism as well as opposing Bishops and Ceremonies I know in these Times you may meet with Men that confidently affirm that all Religion was then trodden down and Heresy and Schism were the only Piety but I give Warning to all Ages by the Experience of this incredible Age that they take heed how they believe any whoever they be while they are speaking for the Interest of their Factions and Opinions against those that were their real or supposed Adversaries For my part I bless God who gave me even under an Usurper whom I opposed such Liberty and Advantage to preach his Gospel with Success which I cannot have under a King to whom I have sworn and performed true Subjection and Obedience yea which no Age since the Gospel came into this Land
and that they were allowed to make odious any thing that was amiss and because it was faulty if any Man had rebuked them for belying it and making it far more faulty than it was instead of confessing their Sin they called their Reprover a Pleader for Antichrist or Baal every Error in the Mode of the Common Worship they had no fitter Name for than Idolatry Popery Antichristianism Superstition Will-worship c. when in the mean time many of their own Prayers were full of Carnal Passion Selfishness Faction Disorder vain Repitions unfound and loathsom Expressions and their Doctrine full of Errors and Confussion and these Beams in their own Eyes were matter of no Offence to them They would not communicate with that Church where ignorant Persons or Swearers were tollerated though they themselves never did their Part to have them cast out but look'd the Ministers should do all without them but without any scruple they would communicate with them that had broke their Vow and Covenant with God and Man and rebelled against both King Parliament and all kind of Government that was set up even by themselves and did all the fore-recited Evils I know these same Accusations are laid by some in Ignorance or Malice against many that are guilty of no such things and therefore some will be offended at me and say I imitate such Reproachers But shall none be reproved because some are slandered Shall Rebells be justified because some innocent Men are called Rebels Shall Hypocrites be free from Conviction and Condemnation because wicked Men call the Godly Hypocrites Woe to the Man that hath not a faithful Reprover but a Thousand Woes will be to him that hateth reproof And woe to them that had rather Sin were credited and kept in Honour than their Party dishonoured and Woe to the Land where the Reputation of Men doth keep Sin in Reputation Scripture it self will not spare a Noah a Lot a David a Hezekiab a Iosiah a Peter but will open and shame their Sin to all Generations And yet alas the Hearts of many who I hope are truly Religious in other Points will rise against him that shall yet tell them of the Misdoings of those of their Opinion and call them to Repentance The poor Church of Christ the sober sound religious Part are like Christ that was crucified between two Malefactors the prophane and formal Persecutors on one hand and the Fanatick dividing Sectary on the other hand have in all Ages been grinding the spiritual Seed as the Corn is ground between the Milstones And though their Sins have ruined themselves and us and silenced so many hundred Ministers and scattered the Flocks and made us the Hatred and the Scorn of the ungodly World and a by Word and Desolation in the Earth yet there are few of them that lament their Sin but justify themselves and their Misdoings and the penitent Malefactor is yet unknown to us And seeing Posterity must know what they have done to the Shame of our Land and of our sacred Profession let them know this much more also to their own Shame that all the Calamities which have befallen us by our Divisions were long foreseen by seeing Men and they were told and warned of it year after year They were told that a House divided against it self could not stand and told that it would bring them to the Halter and to Shame and turn a hopeful Reformation into a Scorn and make the Land of their Nativity a Place of Calamity and Woe and all this Warning signified nothing to them but these Ductile Professors bldinly followed a few selfconceited Teachers to this Misery and no warning or means could ever stop them Five dissenting Ministers in the Synod begun all this and carried it far on Mr. Philip Nye Mr. Tho. Goodwin Mr. Sydrach Sympson and Mr. William Bridge to whom that good Man Mr. Ieremiah Burroughs joined himself in Name but as he never practised their Church-gathering way so at last he was contented to have united on the Terms which were offered them and wrote his excellent Book of Heart Divisions After this they encreased and Mr. Burroughs being dead Dr. Iohn Owen arose not of the same Spirit to fill up his place by whom and Mr. Phillip Nye's Policie the Flames were encreased our Wounds kept open and carried on all as if there had been none but they considerable in the World and having an Army and City Agents fit to second them effectually hindred all remedy till they had dash'd all into pieces as a broken Glass O! what may not Pride do and what Miscarriages will not false Principles and Faction hide One would think that if their Opinions had been certainly true and their Church-Orders good yet the Interest of Christ and the Souls of Men and of greater Truths should have been so regarded by the Dividers in England as that the Safety of all these should have been preferred and not all ruined rather than their way should want its carnal Arm and Liberty and that they should not tear the Garment of Christ all to pieces rather than it should want their Lace § 148. And it must be acknowledged also impartially that some of the Presbyterian Ministers frightned the Sectaries into this Fury by the unpeaceableness and impatiency of their Minds They ran from Libertinism into the other Extream and were so little sensible of their own Infirmity that they would not have those tollerated who were not only tollerable but worthy Instruments and Members in the Churches The Reconcilers that were ruled by prudent Charity always called out to both the Parties that the Churches must be united upon the Terms of primitive Simplicity and that we must have Unity in things necessary and Liberty in things unnecessary and Charity in all But they could never be heard but were taken for Adversaries to the Government of the Church as they are by the Prelates at this Day Nay when in Worcestershire we did but agree to practice so much as all Parties were agreed in they said we did but thereby set up another Party We told them of Archbishop Usher's Terms in his Sermon before the King on Eph. 4. 3. but they would not hear The Lord Bacon in his Third Essay and his Considerations Mr. Hales in his Treatise of Schism and all men of sound Experience and Wisdom have long told the World that we must be united in things Necessary which all Christians agree in or which the Primitive Churches did unite in or not at all But nothing shorter than the Assemblies Confession of Faith and Catechisms and and Presbytery would serve turn with some Their Principles were that no others should be tolerated which set the Independants on contriving how to grasp the Sword They were still crying out on the Magistrate that he was irreligious for suffering Sects and because he did not bring Men to Conformity And now they cannot be tollerated themselves to preach nor scarce to dwell in the Land
Assurgency to the attempting of difficult thing and so my Mind may retire to the Root of Christian Principles and also I have often been afraid lest ill-rooting at first and many Temptations afterwards have made it more necessary for me than many others to retire to the Root and secure my Fundamentals But upon much Observation I am afraid lest most others are in no better a Case and that at the first they take it for a granted thing that Christ is the Saviour of the World and that the Soul is Immortal and that there is a Heaven and a Hell c. while they are studying abundance of a Scholastick Superstructures and at last will find cause to study more soundly their Religion it self as well as I have done The better Causes are these 1. I value all things according to their Use and Ends and I find in the daily Practice and Experience of my Soul that the Knowledge of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Truth of Scripture and the Life to come and of a Holy Life is of more use to me than all the most curious Speculations 2. I know that every Man must grow as Trees do downwards and upwards both at once and that the Roots increase as the Bulk and Branches do 3. Being nearer Death and another World I am the more regardful of those things which my Everlasting Life or Death depend on 4. Having most to do with ignorant miserable People I am commanded by my Charity and Reason to treat with them of that which their Salvation lyeth on and not to dispute with them of Formalities and Neceties when the Question is presently to be determined whether they shall dwell for ever in Heaven or in Hell In a Word my Meditations must be most upon the matters of my Practice and my Interest And as the Love of God and the seeking of Everlasting Life is the Matter of my Practice and my Interest so must it be of my Meditation That is the best Doctrine and Study which maketh men better and tendeth to make them happy I abhor the Folly of those unlearned Persons who revile or despise Learning because they know not what it is And I take not any piece of true Learning to be useless And yet my Soul approveth of the Resolution of Holy Paul who determined to know nothing among his Hearers that is comparatively to value and make Oftentation of no other Wisdom but that Knowledge of a Cruchfied Christ to know God in Christ is Life Eternal As the Stock of the Tree affordeth Timber to build Houses and Cities when the small though higher multiâ—arious Branches are but to make a Crowns Nest or a Blaze So the Knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ of Heaven and Holyness doth build up the Soul to endless Blessedness and affordeth it solid Peace and Comfort when a multitude of Schoolâ—Niceties serve but for vain Janglings and hurtful Diversions and Contentions And yet I would not dissuade my Reader from the perusal of Aquinas Scotus Ockam Arminiensis Durandus or any such Writer for much Good may be gotten from them But I would persuade him to study and live upon the essential Doctrines of Christianity and Godliness incomparably above them all And that he may know that my Testimony is somewhat regardable I presume to say that in this I as much gainsay my natural Inclination to Subtilty and Accurateness in Knowing as he is like to do by his if he obey my Counsel And I think if he lived among Infidels and Enemies of Christ he would find that to make good the Doctrine of Faith and of Life Eternal were not only his noblest and most useful Study but also that which would require the height of all his Parts and the utmost of his Diligence to manage it skilfully to the Satisfaction of himself and others 4. I add therefore that this is Another thing which I am changed in that whereas in my younger Days I never was tempted to doubt of the Truth of Scripture or Christianity but all my Doubts and Fears were exercised at home about my own Sincerity and Interest in Christ and this was it which I called Unbelief since then my soreft Assaults have been on the other side and such they were that had I been void of internal Experience and the Adhesion of Love and the special help of God and had not discerned more Reason for my Religion than I did when I was younger I had certainly Apostatized to Infidelity though for Atheism or Ungodliness my Reason seeth no stronger Arguments than may be brought to prove that there is no Earth or Air or Sun I am now therefore much more Apprehensive than heretofore of the Necessity of well grounding Men in their Religion and especially of the Witness of the indwelling Spirit For I more sensibly perceive that the Spirit is the great Witness of Christ and Christianity to the World And though the Folly of Fanaticks tempted me long to over-look the Strength of this Testimony of the Spirit while they placed it in a certain internal Assertion or enthusiastick Inspiration yet now I see that the Holy Ghost in another manner is the Witness of Christ and his Agent in the World The Spirit in the Prophets was his first Witness and the Spirit by Miracles was the second and the Spirit by Renovation Sanctification Illumination and Consolation assimilating the Soul to Christ and Heaven is the continued Witness to all true Believers And if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Even as the Rational Soul in the Child is the inherent Witness or Evidence that he is the Child of Rational Parents And therefore ungodly Persons have a great disadvantage in their resisting Temptations to unbelief and it is no wonder if Christ be a stumbling block to the Jews and to the Gentiles foolishness There is many a one that hideth his Temptations to Infidelity because he thinketh it a shame to open them and because it may generate doubts in others but I doubt the imperfection of most mens care of their Salvation and of their diligence and resolution in a holy Life doth come from the imperfection of their belief of Christianity and the Life to come For my part I must profess that when my belief of things Eternal and of the Scripture is most clear and firm all goeth accordingly in my Soul and all Temptations to sinful Compliances Worldliness or Flesh-pleasing do signifie worse to me than an invitation to the Stocks or Bedlam And no Petition seemeth more necessary to me than Lord increase our Faith I Believe help thou my unbelief 5. Among Truths certain in themselves all are not equally certain unto me and even of the Mysteries of the Gospel I must needs say with Mr. Richard Hooker Eccl. Polit. that whatever men may pretend the subjective Certainty cannot go beyond the objective Evidence for it is caused thereby as the print
Heresies of not Truths to seem Errours and putting such odious Constructions on their Opinions and Practices that they do thereby make their godly and peaceable Brethren seem Firebrands or Monsters to be avoided or contemned and so affright Men into disunion and disaffection We yet more honour many who are more free both from active and passive unpeaceableness who yet do satisfie their Consciences with this much but while they exclaim against Divisions do little for the healing them But too small is the number of such as you who are up and doing in this healing work Your Names dear Brethren are doubly precious to us as are your Lives We have many helpers in other Works of Piety but too few in this Indeed we are following on the Work as being conscious of our duty but concerning the Success we are between hope and fear Among our selves in this Country God hath strangely facilitated all and satisfied most of those that seem faithful in this Work on the Terms which we have published We hear also that in many other Counties they are stirred up to Consultations for these Ends and we perceive that the Excellency and Necessity of Unity Peace and some Reformation is a little more observed than it hath been heretofore and that God begins to disgrace Divisions and to put a zeal for Reconciliation into many of his Ministers Also we have made some Attempts with some Brethren of another County where are some Men of great Learning and Piety that are of the Episcopal way and we found them not only much approving the Work but forward to promote it with the rest of their Neighbour Ministers Our godly people also through God's great mercy are almost all very tractable to yea and rejoice in the Work These things give as hope that God is about the Restoring of his People and that he is kindling that Zeal for Unity and Reformation which shall overcome the Fire of Contention that hath been wasting us so long And O that we were as sure that this Work should prosper as we are that it is preceptively of God! For our parts we cannot think that God is building his Church till we see him bring the Materials nearer together and providing Cement for a setled Combination Of which as we have these grounds of hope so have we much cause of trouble and fear both from the backwardness of Pastors and People to the Work For we understand from other parts how heartless some are to such a Work and how averse those are that are deeply engaged already in Parties We hear not of those hearty inclinations to Peace in the party whose aversness you mention as we hoped to have done when we came so near them as we do not crossing that we know of any of their Principles though silencing some They do in some neighbour Counties zealously preach against us and cry alown our way as formal and delusory making the People believe that we make a Parish and a Church all one and that to cast them out of the Church is to cast them out of the Parish and that we take in all that will come be they never so bad Though we have fully told them that we are taking in none but discerning who are in and shall cast out all whom they can prove fit to be cast out Some Brethreâ— alos of sounder Iudgments do stand at a distance and will not come amongst us to tell us the Reasons of it Some in other Counties that are zealous to promote the Work do meet with so much opposition tergiversation and discouragement that we hear it is like to hinder it with them Also we find not that love and peaceable inclination in the exasperated part of the Episcopal Brethren as might be expected from the Sons of Peace But the greatest discouragement with us is from our People for though through the mercy of God divers of us have encouragement yet in most places the Multitude hold off and will not own us And though God so orders it that the worst do generally keep off themselves and few but Men seeming to fear God do joyn with us yet some few of the most zealous of our People in some places do hold off as disliking the broadness of our way We find it is not only in Doctrinals but Practicals that most are for the Extreams and the mean pleaseth few but is censured of both No Party will come to us unless we will reject all other Parties but them It is in those disengaged Christians that are truly Catholick and are the Servants of Christ and not of Men and that love their Brethren as Christians and not chiefly as of their Party that the great hope of our Success doth consist Though smart Experience may possibly recover some of the rest Our hopes depending in this doubtful state we give thanks to God that he addeth somewhat to our encouragement by you We adventured not rashly on what we have done It is near a year and half since we begun our Consultations Our Profession was perused by Bishop Usher and others Our Propositions scand by many for and near and all was altered in them that any of them were offended at Yet it is far from our Expectations that all should joyn only on our Terms Could we get then to Consultations for Unity and Reformation and to hold on till they did succeed we had our desire But indeed we see such exceeding difference in Mens Apprehensions and such addictedness to their Party in too many and such a loathness in others to displease the People or weaken their own Interest in them and hazard part of their maintenance that comes from them that we do expect this Work should go heavily on and if it prove otherwise we shall ascribe it to the meer good pleasure of God and his extraordinary blessing for no doubt but all the force will be raised against it that the interest of Satan in the ungodly the heretical Dividers the dark imperfect Saints can procure But though our greatest Comforts would lye in the Success because we work not for our selves but for God and his Church yet we find very much in our upright Endeavours Indeed we have Experience of much sweetness in the Work Our very Thoughts and Speeches and Consultations of Peace are sweet That our Minds should be hereby occasioned to dwell so much on such a blessed Subject we find a great advantage to our own Souls it much composeth and calmeth our Minds and killeth the contrary Corruptions and disposeth us to love and tenderness to our Brethren So that were we sure to have no other Success we have a plentiful Reward As our studies of Heaven and preaching of it to our People occasioneth such foretasts that are worth our labour a thousand fold so do the studies and attempts for Peace Brethren our hearts desire is that as the Lord hath let fall on you some of the same Spirit of Peace as on us his unworthy
and Reasons of Dissent and enquire of their Lives and on the same Terms I admit Dissenters also to the Lord's Supper viz. if there be no Charge against their Lives and they come to me before hand and satisfie me of their fitness Still letting them know it is a dangerous case to live from under Order and Discipline and that I do this to them but for a time till they can be satisfied as I would do for a Stranger Your Brother Ri. Baxter To our Reverend and Beloved Brethren the Associated Ministers in the County of Cumberland § 35. Upon the Publication of our Agreement the Ministers in most Counties began to take the Business into consideration and though some few of the ancient Presbyterians were against it and thought it would bring the Presbyterian Government into Contempt or hinder the Execution of it when it had been agreed on by so grave a Synod at Wâ—stminster and established by the Parliament and therefore they rather desired a strict Execution of the Ordinance of Parliament and an Agreement on those Terms yet the most of the godly faithful Ministers as far as I could learn were for it For as we hindered no Man from following his own Judgment in his own Congregation so we Evinced beyond denial that it would be but a partial dividing Agreement to agree on the Terms of Presbyterians Episcopal or any one Party because it would unavoidably shut out the other Parties which was the principal thing which we endeavoured to avoid it being not with Presbyterians only but with all Orthodox faithful Pastors and People that we are bound to hold Communion and to live in Christian Concord so far as we have attained Phil. 3. 15 16. § 36. Hereupon many Counties began to Associate as Wiltshire Dorsetshire Somersetshire Hampshire Essex and others And some of them printed the Articles of their Agreement In a word a great desire of Concord began to possess all good People in the Land and our Breaches seem'd ready to heal And though some thought that so many Associations and Forms of Agreement did but tend to more Division by shewing our diversity of Apprehensions the contrary proved true by Experience For we all agreed on the same Course even to unite in the practice of so much of Discipline as the Episcopal Presbyterians and Independants are agreed in and as crosseth none of their Principles And they that thought the Expression of the Churches desires in various words of Prayer in Publick was better than a stinted Form for all Churches necessarily to use should not think that the Expression of our Consent to the same things is a dividing way because it is done in various Expressions for this Liberty greatly helped Unity for many a one would have scrupled some particular words in such an imposed Form of Concord who yet would accord in the Substance of the Work The Essex Agreement was printed to the same purpose with ours The Wiltshire Ministers were so strictly held to it by the Independant Party that they could get them but to these following preparatory Articles WE whose Names are Subscribed Ministers of the Gospel in the County of Wilts being humbly sensible of our many Failings in the Work of the Ministry by the Lord Christ committed to us and of the great need wherein we stand of the mutual help of our Brethren for Advice Encouragement and Strengthning herein And sadly bawailing the Corruptions of the People in our several Congregations the want of Christian Reformation Love and Unity and the Power of Godliness the breaking in of destroying Errours and the prevailing of Ignorance and Profaneness among them have consented and resolved through God's Grace and in Expectation of his Blessing on our weak Endeavours as fellow Servants to the same Lord Jesus Christ the Great Shepherd of Souls to acquaint our selves one with another and to joyn together and assist each other to the uttermost in the promoting of Gospel Truth Peace Love and the Power of Godliness in our selves and all those that have the Name of Christ upon them in the places wherein we live For the Effecting whereof we desire and purpose if God permit to meet together at Sarum on the 26th of Octob. 1653. for the end hereafter specified First In some publick Place on the same day where any others whose hearts are inclined thereunto may joyn with us by Fasting and Prayer to seek unto God for pardon of our former Failings and for Direction and Strength of his Spirit for the future Work of the Ministry which lyeth upon us in the instructing and ordering of our several Congregations according to the Word of God Secondly After the said Publick Duty discharged to come together more privately in some convenient place And there First Jointly and Solemnly as in the presence of God to testifie our sincere purpose of heart for the time to come in dependence upon the Lord's Strength to take heed unto our selves and to our Doctrine and to continue therein that in doing this we may both save our selves and them that hear us Secondly To testifie to each other our Conscionable readiness as Servants and fellow Labourers to afford and receive Assistance to and from each other in the Work of the Lord committed to us as any occasion shall be offered to us in this kind and accordingly to advise together thereupon Thirdly To Promise and Engage to one another according to our Duty in all Humility Tenderness and Brotherly Love Yet faithfully to admonish one another of any Miscarriage or Neglect which we shall know or be daily informed of which in any of us bringeth Reproach upon the Name of God and his Ways upon the Gospel and the Administration of the same And we shall all of us likewise seriously promise humbly and thankfully to accept of such Admonition from any Brother as a Fruit of Christian Love and Fidelity and without Anger Clamour or Recrimination either to clear our selves to the Brother which Admonisheth us being free from the Crime objected or else endeavour Reformation in what we have offended Fourthly At the same Publick Meeting to appoint some other fit time to meet together in the same manner further to carry on the Work of mutual Brotherly Advice concerning such Courses as conduce to God's Glory the Good of the People and the Discharge of our Duty in the place wherein God hath set us And in this our Meeting we fully resolve through the help of our God First Not to meddle in word or deed with any Matter of Civil Government further than to stir up one another if any just occasion be offered conscionably to maintain and exercise all Christian Obedience to Magistrates as an Ordinance of God Secondly Not to soment any Breaches amongst Brethren but to study to the uttermost of our power that all who accord in the Fundamentals of Gospel Truth and Holiness may be brought to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And for
observing or laying to Heart the strict Commands of the Lord herein as if there had been no such Passages in our Bibles But blessed be the Lord that beginneth mightily to awaken the Hearts of his Servants and cause them to observe the Truths which they overlook'd and at last to lay to heart the Duty so much neglected We now hear from many Countries of this Nation the Voice of the Spirit of Peace our Brethren begin to get together and consult of the means of reparing our Breaches and in many Places are associated and though the Work be but beginning and mightily resisted by the Enemies of Holyness and Peace yet are we in great Hopes that these Beginnings do promise more and that God hath not awakened us to this Work in vain And now by the Tidings of your Concord we have received an increase of these our Hopes and Consolations Go on dear Brethren as One in the Centre of Unity and prevail in the Strength of the great Reconciler This is the way that will prevail at last and however it be thought of by others will certainly be comfortable to ourselves in the review when dividing ways will be all disgraced and look with another Face than now they do He that is for Vanity and Love is likest to have his Approbation who is one and who is Love Our Hearts are with you and our Prayers shall be for you that you may abundantly reap the Fruits of Concord in the Conviction of Gain-sayers and the farther Confirmation and Edification of your own Your Motion for a Correspondency we gladly entertain and shall rejoice in the Assistance of your Advice and Prayers and willingly to that end communicate our Affairs We are now upon a joint Agreement to bring all the ancient Persons in our Parishes who will not do it in the Congregation to our Houses on certain Days every Week by turns to be catechised or instructed as shall be most to their Edification A Work that requireth so much unwearied Diligence Self-denial and holy Skill and wherein we are like to meet with so much Resistance and yet doth appear to us of great necessity and use that we earnestly crave your Prayers for such Qualifications and Successes The State of your Affairs we partly understand by the Information of Coll. Bridges We heartily pray the Lord of the Harvest to send forth more Labourers among you and could we contribute any thing to so good a Work we should willingly do it But able Ministers fit for the Work with you are too few and many of them so weak of Body that they are unfit for Travel and most of them so engaged to their Godly People and the People so impatient of a Motion for their remove that the Work will be very hard but we hope to be faithful in our Endeavours whatever be the Success Brethren we crave your Prayers to God that we may be faithful and Successful in his Work as also that Brotherly Correspondency which you motion might abide and we remain Your Brethren in the Faith of Christ Rich. Baxter Teacher of the Church at Kiderminster Jarvis Bryan Teacher of the Church at Old Swinford Henry Oasland Teacher of the Church at Bewdeley Andr. Tristram Teacher of the Church at Clent Tho. Baldwin Minister at Wolverly In the Name of the associated Ministers meeting at Kiderminster August 12. 1655. To the Reverend our much honoured Brother Dr. Winter Pastor of the Church at Dublin to be communicated by him to the associated Churches in Ireland These They wrote us also a Second Letter which I here subjoin Reverend and much valued Brethren YOUR Affectionate Letter in Answer to ours by that Honourable Person we have received and do desire that these Lines may testify our Thankfulness to you for your loving and free Acceptation of our Desires of a Brotherly Correspondency Those Pantings of yours for the Peace and Union of the Saints we doubt not will be to your Comfort at the great Day of your Account God is not unjust to forget your Work and Labour of Love Go on therefore dear Brethren in his Strength whose work it is and of whose Power and Presence you have had so great Experience We trust as our Hearts are with you so our Prayers shall not be wanting for you at the Throne of Grace We thank you for your Ioy at our Association and Success and that we still breath after that happy Work Surely if after our long Experiences of those woful Desolations that Divisions and Dissentions have involved the Saints in our Hearts should not be enlarged after Union and Peace that must repair our Breaches we should have Cause to suspect our Union with and Love to our Head We are not ignorant how much the Self-love and Pride of some and the misguided Zeal of others of approved Sincerity have advanced the Design of the grand Enemy by over eager and unbrotherly Bitterness even in matters circumstantial Neither are we altogether ignorant how subtilly that old Serpent and Deceiver hath laboured by a pretext of Love to swallow up Truth it being for a while the only Cry Love Love yet not the least hint of Truth which had most need of their Charity being miserably torn and mangled To which our Charity leads us to attribute the Praise of many of our Brethren as being unwilling to buy Love with the Loss of Truth It is the Apostles Advice that the Truth should be spoken in Love and that we should contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints But Thanks be to the Lord God of Truth that hath preserved his Darling from the Devourer making the way of Love exceeding aimable because of Truth so that we trust it will not lie untrodden by the Lord's People through circumstantial Differences whilst all hold the Form of wholesom Words considering one another and walking together in what they are agreed and waiting upon the Lord for the revealing of that wherein they differ perfection being reserved for another World That there are any Beginnings and that by you we hear of more we earnestly desire our Hearts may be duly and thankfully affected therewith praying the God of truth and Peace to uphold his Truth and to shower down plentifully the Spirit of Love and Peace that at the Lord is One so his People may be One. Your present Work we are in some measure sensible of its Necessity and Weightiness Wherefore our Prayers shall be for you that the Lord whose Servants ye are and whose work it is would be with you to counsel encourage strengthen and prosper you in it as we crave your daily Prayers for these Infant Churches that our God may vouchsafe his Spirit and Presence to us whose lot is cast in this Wilderness having many Enemies to conflict withal from within as well as without your Advice and brotherly Assistance we request as we shall have Occasion and Opportunity to communicate our Affairs to you Lastly the deep
yield to us for Concord that seeing both together we might see what probability of success we had And the King promised that it should be so § 95. Hereupon we departed and appointed to meet from day to day at Sion Colledge and to consult there openly with any of our Brethren that would please to join with us that none might say they were excluded Some City Ministers came among us and some came not and Divers country Ministers who were in the City came also to us as Dr. Worth since a Bishop in Ireland Mr. Fulwood since Archdeacon of Totnes c. But Mr. Matth. Newcomen was most constant in assisting us § 96. In these Debates we found the great inconvenience of too many Actors though there cannot be too many Consenters to what is well done For that which seemed the most convenient Expression to one seemed inconvenient to another and that we that all agreed in Matter had much ado to agree in Words But after about two or three Weeks time we drew up the following Paper of Proposals which with Archbishop Usher's Form of Government called his Reduction c. we should offer to the King Mr. Calamy drew up most with Dr. Reynolds Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Worth drew up that which is against the Ceremonies I only prevailed with them to premise the four first Particulars for the countenancing Godliness the Ministry Personal Profession and the Lord's Day They were backward because they were not the Points in Controversy but yielded at last on the Reasons offered them About Discipline we designedly adhered to Bishop Usher's Model without a Word of alteration that so they might have less to say against our Offers as being our own and that the World might see that it was Episcopacy it self which they refused and that they contended against the Archbishop as well as against us and that we pleaded not at all with them for Presbytery unless a Moderate Episcopacy be Presbytery Yet was there a Faction that called this Offer of Bishop Usher's Episcopacy by the Name of the Presbyterians impudent Expectations I also prevailed with our Brethren to offer an Abstract of our larger Papers lest the reading of the larger should seem tedious to the King which Abstract verbatim as followeth at their Desire I drew up and have here after adjoined The first Address and Proposals of the Ministers May it please Your most excellent Majesty WE your Majesty's most Loyal Subjects cannot but acknowledge it as a very great Mercy of God that immediately after your so wonderful and peaceable Restoration unto your Throne and Government for which we â—less his Name he hath stirred up your Royal Heart as to a zealous Testimony against all Prophaneness in the People so to endeavour an happy composing of the Differences and healing of the sad Breaches which are in the Church And we shall according to our bounden Duty become humble Suitors at the Throne of Grace that the God of Peace who hath put such a thing as this into your Majesty's Heart will by his heavenly Wisdom and holy Spirit to assist you therein and bring your Resolutions unto so perfect an Effect and Issue that all the good People of these Kingdoms may have abundant Cause to rise up and bless you and to bless God who hath delighted in you to make you his Instrument in so happy a Work That as your glorious Progenitor Henry VII was happy in uniting the Houses of York and Lancaster and your Grandfather King Iames of blessed Memory in uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland so this Honour may be reserved for your Majesty as a Radiant Jewel in your Crown that by your Princely Wisdom and Christian Moderation the Hearts of all your People may be united and the unhappy Differences and Misunderstandings amongst Brethren in matters Ecclesiastial so composed that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the midst of your Dominions In an humble Conformity to this your Majesty's Christian Design we taking it for granted that there is a firm Agreement between our Brethren and us in the Doctrinal Truths of the reformed Religion and in the substantial parts of Divine Worship and that the Differences are only in some various Conceptions about the ancient Form of Church-Government and some particulars about Liturgy and Ceremonies do in all humble Obedience to your Majesty represent That in as much as the ultimate end of Church-Government and Ministry is that Holiness of Life and Salvation of Souls may be Effectually promoted we humbly desire in the first place that we may be secured of those things in Practice of which we seem to be agreed in Principles 1. That those of our Flocks who are serious and diligent about the matters of their Salvation may not by Words of Scorn or any abusive Usages be suffered to be reproachfully handled but have Liberty and Encouragement in those Christian Duties of exhorting and provoking one another unto Love and good Works of building up one another in their most holy Faith and by all religious and peaceable means of furthering one another in the ways of eternal Life they being not therein opposite to Church-Assemblies nor refusing the guidance and due Inspection of their Pastors and being responsible for what they do or say 2. That each Congregation may have a learned orthodox and godly Pastor residing amongst them to the end that the People might be publickly instructed and edified by preaching every Lord's Day by Catechising and frequent Administration of the Lord's Supper and of Baptism and other Ministerial Acts as the Occacasions and the Necessity of the People may require both in Health and Sickness and that effectual Provision of Law be made that such as are Insufficient Negligent or Scandalous may not be admitted to or permitted in so Sacred a Function and Imployment 3. That none may be admitted to the Lord's Supper till they competently understand the Principles of Christian Religion and do personally and publickly own their baptismal Covenant by a credible Profession of Faith and Obedience not contradicting the same by a contrary Profession or by a Scandalous Life And that unto such only Confirmation if continued in the Church may be administred And that the Approbation of the Pastors to whom the catechising and instructing of those under their Charge do appertain may be produced before any Person receive Confirmation which Course we humbly conceive will much conduce to the quieting of those sad Disputes and Divisions which have greatly troubled the Church of God amongst us touching Church-Members and Communicants 4. That an effectual Course be taken for the Sanctification of the Lord's Day appropriating the same to holy Exercises both in publick and private without unnecessary Divertisements it being certain and by long Experience found that the Observation thereof is a special means of preserving and promoting the Power of God liness and obviating Prophaneness Then for the Matters in Difference viz. Church-Government
only your Labours but also your special Assistance in a time of need unto the promoting the welfare of this poor Country certified unto us by Captain Leveret upon which account our General Court thought good to return unto you their Thanks in a Letter which I hope before this is received have made your Name both known and precious to us in these Parts The Occasion of these is in the behalf of one Mr. William Leet Governour of New Heven Jurisdiction whose Case is this He being conscious of indiscretion and some neglect not to say how it came about in relation to the expediting the Execution of the Warrant according to his Duty sent from his Majesty for the apprehending of the two Colonels is not without fear of some displeasure that may follow thereupon and indeed hath almost ever since been a Man depressed in his Spirit for the neglect wherewith he chargeth himself therein His endeavours also since have been accordingly and that in full degree as besides his own Testimony his Neighbours attest they see not what he could have done more Sir If any report prejudicial to this Gentleman in this respect come unto your Ear by your prudent Enquiry upon this Intimation or otherwise so far as the signification of the Premises unto his Majesty or other eminent Person may plead for him or avert trouble towards him I assure my self you may report it as a real Truth and that according to your Wisdom you would be helpful to him so far therein is both his and my desire The Gentleman hath pursued both others and my self with Letters to this effect and yet not satisfied therewith came to Boston to disburden his heart to me formerly unacquainted with him only some few times in Company where he was upon issue of which Conference no better Expedient under God presented it self to us than this So far as you shall see cause as the matter requireth to let the Premises be understood is finally left with your self under God Sir The Author of these Lines it shall be your favour and a pledge of Love undeserved to conceal farther than the necessity of the End desired shall call for And if hereby you shall take occasion being in place of discovery to intelligence the Writer touching your observances with relation to the concernments of this People your Advertisements may not only be of much use unto this whole Country but further your account and minister unto many much cause of Thansgiving on your behalf And I shall be bold upon such encouragement if God permits to give you a more distinct account how it fareth with us I mean of the steps of Divine Providence as to the Publick both in our Civils and Ecclesiasticks which at some spare time may hapâ—y be looked at as a matter of contentful Meditation to your self I crave now pardon for being thus bold with you and will not presume any further to detain you The Lord Jesus be with your Spirit and let him also be remembred by you in your Prayers who is in chief SIR Yours in any Service of the Gospel John Norton Boston Sept. 23. 1661. For the Reverend and his much Honoured Friend Mr. Baxter Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty Reverend and much esteemed in the Lord HOwever black the Cloud is and big the Storm yet by all this the Work and Design of Jesus Christ goeth on and prospereth and in these Clouds Christ is coming to set up his Kingdom Yea is he not come in Power and great Glory When had the Truth a greater or so great and glorious a Cloud of Witnesses Is not this Christ in Power and great Glory and if Christ hath so much Glory in the slaughter of his Witnesses what will his Glory be in their Resurrection Your Constancy who are in the heat of the Storm and Numbers ministers matter of humbling and quickning to us who are at a distance and ready to totter and comply at the noise of a probable approach of our Temptation We are not without our Snares but hitherunto the Lords own Arm hath brought Salvation Our Tents are at Ebenezer However the trials and troubles be we must take care of the present Work and not cease and tarry for a calm time to work in And this Principle doth give me occasion to take the boldness to trouble you with these Lines at present My Work about the Indian Bible being by the good hand of the Lord though not without difficulties finished I am meditating what to do next for these Sons of this our Morning they having no Books for their private use of ministerial composing For their help though the Word of God be the best of Books yet Humane Infirmity is you know not a little helped by reading the holy Labours of the Ministers of Jesus Christ. I have therefore purposed in my heart seeing the Lord is yet pleased to prolong my life to translate for them a little Book of yours intituled A Call to the Unconverted The keenness of the Edge and liveliness of the Spirit of that Book through the blessing of God may be of great use unto them But seeing you are yet in the Land of the Living and the good Lord prolong your days I would not presume to do such a thing without making mention thereof unto your self that so I might have the help and blessing of your Counsel and Prayers I believe it will not be unacceptable to you that the Call of Christ by your holy Labours shall be made to speak in their Ears in their own Language that you may preach unto our poor Indians I have begun the Work already and find a great difference in the Work from my former Translations I am forced sometime to alter the Phrase for the facilitating and fitting it to our Language in which I am not so strict as I was in the Scripture Some things which are fitted for English People are not fit for them and in such cases I make bold to fit it for them But I do little that way knowing how much beneath Wisdom it is to shew a Man's self witty in mending another Man's Work When this Work is done if the Lord shall please to prolong my Life I am meditating of Translating some other Book which may prescribe to them the way and manner of a Christian Life and Conversation in their daily Course and how to worship God on the Sabbath fasting feasting Days and in all Acts of Worship publick private and secret and for this purpose I have Thoughts of translating for them the Practice of Piety or some other such Book In which Case I request your Advice to me for if the Lord give opportunity I may hear from you if you see cause so far to take Notice hereof before I shall be ready to begin a new work especially because the Psalms of David in Metre in their Language are going now to the Press which will be some Diversion of me from a present
Lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all Opposition and promote the same according to our power against all Lets and Impediments whatsoever And that we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many Sins and Provocations against God and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present Distresses and Dangers the Fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the World our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own Sins and for the Sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the Causes of other Sins and Transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all Duties we owe to God and Man to amend our Lives and each one to go before another in the Example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his Wrath and heavy Indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the Searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great Day when the Secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his Holy Spirit for this end and to bless our Desires and Proceedings with such Success as may be Deliverance and Safety to his People and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the Yoke of Antichristian Tyranny to ioyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the Glory of God the Inlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the Peace and Tranquility of Christian Kingdoms and Common-wealths The Oath and Declaration imposed upon the Lay-Conformists in the Corporation Act the Vestry Act c. are as followeth The Oath to be taken I. A. B. do declare and believe That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him So help me God The Declaration to be Subscribed I. A. B. do declare That I hold there lyes no Obligation upon me or any ot her Person from the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant and that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom All Vestry Men to make and Subscribe the Declaration following I. A. B. do declare That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him And that I will Conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by Law established And I do declare That I do hold there lyes no Obligation upon me or any other Person from the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant to indeavour any Change or Alteration of Government either in Church or State and that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom The Declaration thus Prefaced in the Act of Uniformity Every Minister after such reading thereof shall openly and publickly before the Congregation there assembled declare his unfeigned Assent and Consent to the use of all things in the said Book contained and prescribed in these words and no other I. A. B. do here declare my unfeigned Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book Instituted The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England together with the Psalter or Psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches and the Forms or Manner of Making Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops Priests and Deacons The Declaration to be Subscribed I. A. B. d◠declare That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and that I abhor that Trayterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissionated by him and that I will Conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by Law established And I do declare that I do hold there lyes no Obligation upon me or any other Person from the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant to endeavour any Change or Alteration of Government either in Church or State and that the same was in it self a◠unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom The Oath of Canonical Obedience EGo A. B. Iuro quod praestabo Veram Canonicam Obedientiam Episcopo Londinens◠ejusque Successoribus in omnibus licitis honestis § 302. II. The Nonconformists who take not this Declaration Oath Subscription c. are of divers sorts some being further distant from Conformity than others some thinking that some of the forementioned things are lawful and some that none of them are lawful and all have not the same Reasons for their dissent But all are agreed that it is not lawful to do all that is required and therefore they are all cast out of the Exercise of the Sacred Ministry and forbidden to preach the Word of God § 303. The Reasons commonly given by them are either 1. Against the Imposing of the things forementioned or 2. Against the Using of them being imposed Those of the former sort were given into the King and Bishops before the Passing of the Act of Uniformity and are laid down in the beginning of this Book and the Opportunity being now past the Nonconformists now meddle not with that part of the Cause it having seemed good to their Superiours to go against their Reasons But this is worthy the noting by the way that all that I can speak with of the Conforming Party do now justifie only the Using and Obeying and not the Imposing of these things with the Penalty by which they are Imposed From whence it is evident that most of their own Party do now justifie our Cause which we maintained at the Savoy which was against this Imposition whilst it might have been prevented and for which such an intemperate Fury hath
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
that God enlightened me in these things on purpose to appear against them and lead others out of them in this Confidence I grew bold and began to preach something publickly that I knew would turn the Congregation against me and so prepare me for my Return to Mr. Iohn Goodwin's from whom I separated about Five Years ago But the Truth is as I began to widen from the Church I relate to my Soul sank into deep Mire where there was no standing into a horrible Pit the Arrows of the Lord stuck fast in me and his Hand pressed me sore the Poyson of them drunk up my Spirit and the Terrors of the Lord set themselves in array against me instead of the Smiles of Christ and the comfortable Testimony of Conscience as to a service pleasing to God and the Lord Jesus Christ I met with hellish Horrors Temptations to dâ—spair of God's Love to me and much ado to keep my Head above Water Whereupon I humbled my self under the mighty Hand of God and stopt my present Prosecutions of my Purposes which was to have burnt my Books to have returned to Mr. Goodwin's again to have provided my Papers with some Additions and a solemn Address to all the Churches under that Form But meeting with this wonderful Opposition from God my Hand hangeth down and my Knee feeble I am in an amaze not knowing what to say think or do But this I have found That as widening from the People I am with brought us great distress so joining with them again assuageth the Waters of my Affliction upon these Terms I stand not daring to stir from them nor do any thing to prejudice my esteem with them But yet not satisfied neither through Fear least by going on the way I am engaged in I should countenance a By-way not pleasing to God And thus by degrees I have opened to you the perfect State of my Case but it was because you would ask me what matter the Enemy if it were the Enemy wrought on to make me so great Affliction upon it one thing was some Thoughts of Heart that I had had concerning my Children That made it indeed a matter desirable to me to be out of this way but my Conscience telleth me the Thoughts was lawful and good and that they had not the least influence in the change of my Judgment Another thing is the way we are in is a very narrow way and we have some Christians my dear and intimate Friends that walk in it that excell in holiness and are gone somewhat farther out of the World with their Hearts through their Faith and Sense of future things than ordinarily Christians go these all frown'd on me And then 3. The way I should return to was more open and the Persons less sensible Oh Sir there is abundance have Knowledge but there is but a few have a rich Sense 4. I should leave the Poor and go among the Rich that minded more the adorning of the outward Man than the glorious Gospel of Christ ordinarily whereas my Spirit is much set against gay Apparel and following of Fashions not but that Mr. Goodwin's Church is as sober as most I think as any But the Truth is it is a Sin in my Apprehension at least that few are sufficiently sensible of 5. My Conscience telleth me that as for Parishes there is no proceedings in Parishes that are worthy the Name of Church-Proceedings ordinarily There is indeed in some few an able Man to Preach and the People go to hear but as for watching visiting and nourishing and such like faithful Proceedings for the Health of Souls there are but few lay any such things to Heart so that the Parishes for the most part are but like a dead Corps without Life The living Stones are gone into one gathered Church or other but I confess I do not find them blessed after 6. Another thing was the Danger that the Souls of our Friends would be in upon my leaving them 7. The making of thousands of Hearts sad who have their Eyes upon me I perceive your Propositions at the end of your Letter Alas for me I shall be fit for nothing except God be pleased to heal my wounded Spirit that is my great Care for the present how to behave my self to obtain the Light of his Countenance If God would go before me and lead me I would do any thing the Joy of the Lord is our Strength but however I thank God that enableth me to hold out waiting I am sure my Soul hungereth and thirsteth after Righteousness more than all Riches and therefore I am under the Promise of being fill'd at last I have indeed covered to serve God and secretly plotted how to cast my Affairs so that I might be free for it I have in order to the Devotion of my Soul to the Word and Prayer wholly taken my self off all Converse with the World and supposing I should not long stay where I am I was considering where I might be useful At last I thought of going into some Country with the leave of Mr. Goodwin's Church where there was much People and no means and there to seat my self having a good Estate of my own by which I could not only serve freely but do much good This I thought would have been pleasing to God I resolved not to meddle with the Point of Baptism one way or other but have striven the Conversion of Souls to Jesus Christ But his late Frowns on me maked me fear he will take no delight in me But however since I call him Father it is fit I should say Thy will be done even so Father let it be Amen Amen If you would draw up such a Model of Agreement as you write of I know not how much it may conduce to the Glory of God I believe some here would subscribe it I hope many I propounded it to Mr. Manton he said he should like such a thing very well The Lord preserve your Life Health and Strength that you may live to do God more Service your Zeal provoketh many I am fully persuaded and I think upon good Grounds that had the Ministers taken the Course that I hear you take at Kidderminster it had prevented Separation The good Lord fill you with his Holy Spirit and enable you to do yet more abundantly Dear Sir I intreat you to use your Interest in Heaven for me that my Faith may be strengthned which the Enemy layeth at daily to enlighten my Understanding to give me good knowledge and good Judgment to deliver my Conscience from unnecessary Scruples to manifest his Love to me and increase my Love to him and if it be his Will to use and comfort me in his Service which he knoweth is Meat and Drink to me who am Your affectionate Friend and Brother in Christ Iesus Tho. Lambe I hope shortly to hear from you Dear Mr. Baxter I Do return my many Thanks for your excellent Letter which I have received with