Sin from dark and doubtful Providences which are not our Rule but only some Effects of the Will of God that as to Events are clear but as to Truth and Duty can tell us nothing or very little but in full Subordination to our Rule from which they must receive their Light And of all Providences few are darker than Motions and Troubles from our own Thoughts so many and secret and powerful Causes are there within us and about us of Misapprehensions and misled Passions that its very dangerous boldly to Judge of the Mind of God by our own disturbed Minds when it is our Duty to judge our own Minds by God's and God's Mind by his Word his particular Providences being mostly but to help the Word in working in a Subordination to it 2. I cannot be sure that know him not but I suspect by the Narrative that this is Mr. L.'s Case 1. His Heart being upright in what he had before done God in Mercy gave into his Mind that Light concerning Catholicism and Brotherly Love and other Truths contained in his Papers which tended to his Satisfaction and Recovery 2. Upon the sight of this much Truth it must needs raise some Trouble in his Mind that he had acted contrarily before and yet the Words of the contrary Minded holding him in suspence and unresolved about his future Practice at least increased his Trouble an unresolved Mind in great Matters being a Burden to it self 3. And the terrible Threats and hard Prognosticks of these Dissenters and their Censures of him might yet sink deeper For it is the way of some to fall upon our Passions instead of our Judgments and stir up Fears in us instead of convincing us As the Papists win abundance by telling them that no others can be saved as if we should be frightened to the Party that will be most uncharitable when Charity is the Christians Badge So I doubt too many do that we have now to speak of 4. The Apprehension of his Peoples Discontent and some bad Consequents to them and himself that he Apprehended would follow his Return did yet make the disturbance more 5. The long and serious Study of the Matter with much Intention might yet go farther 6. And by all these means I conjecture he is somewhat surprized with Melancholy 7. And then if that prove so its very hard to gather the Mind of God from his Disturbances for they will follow the Impresses on his own disturbed Mind But all these are but my distant Conjectures from what you write But to come nearer 3. Whether he have contracted any Melancholy or no this is my Judgment of the Causes of his Changes 1. God caused his Light and Convictions in much Mercy that 's evident by the Conformity of his Assertions here to the Word of God and the Principles of Christianity 2. Satan envyed him and others the Mercy that was given in and therefore I verily think he is the cause of his Horrors and Troubles when he thinks of returning to Unity with others and wholly withdrawing himself from the Schism My Reasons are 1. Because I know that the Work is of God and Ergo who but Satan should be against it 2. Because that Troubling and Terrifying and Disturbing the Passions is usually his Work especially when it is against God's Light God worketh by Light and drawing the Heart to Truth and Goodness But Satan usually worketh by stirring in the Passions to muddy the Judgment 3. Common Experience tells us That it is his ordinary way where once he hath got Power to give quiet in Sin and to trouble and terrify upon Thoughts of Recovery Quest. But how should he have such Power with a Servant of God This leadeth me more particularly to answer your first Question God frequently giveth him such Power over his own Servants 1. When the Service we are upon is a recovering Work which implyeth our former Guilt It was no small Sin though ignorantly committed by an honest Heart for Mr. L. to separate and draw so many with him and put so much Credit and Countenance upon a Cause that hath made such sad and miserable work among the Saints O! What Churches might we have had by this time in England if the Enemy had not made use of our dividing Friends to his Advantage and to do his Work Now you must not marvel if the Accuser and Executioner have some Power given him to be a Vexation to a Godly Man after such Guilt And indeed so few look back that fall into Divisions that Mr. L. should not grudge at a little Perplexity that meets him in the way of so great a Mercy An ingenuous Mind would not come out of so great a Sin whithout some moderate Trouble for it and for it it is meritoriously and should be intentionally 2. Especially if Melancholy give him advantage Satan that commonly worketh by that means and Instrument may do Wonders 3. And I shall tell you of some other ends in the conclusion that I conjecture at To your Second Question I say it seems to me as is said a hard thing yea impossible to judge of his Cause by these his Passions But it 's most probable by far that this Distress of Spirit is for his former Sin in separating to say nothing of Re-baptizing and that it is also a gracious Providence for some further Good that yet he knows not of To the Third Question I answer I know not the State of Mr. Goodwin's Church and Ergo can say nothing to it whether he should return thither But my Judgment is 1. That he should in Prudence a little forbear deserting his separated Church for the ends in the Conclusion mentioned 2. That when he removeth he should preach the Gospel on the Terms in the end 3. That if he must be a private Member he should rather go to Mr. Goodwin's Church than another if it be rightly constituted because he thence removed But if it be disorderly gathered out of many Parishes without Necessity were I in his case I would rather join with another Church and that in the Parish where he lives if there be a Church that is fit to be joined with if not I would remove my Dwelling to the Parish that I would join with Cohabitation is the Aptitude requisite to Church-Membership To Your Question Why his Conscience feels not this Duty I know not unless providence mean as I shall speak anon But I marvel if he feels not the Sin of his Separation To your Fourth I answer Having drawn so many into a Schism it is his great unquestionable Duty to do all that he can to get them out of it and if he cannot to leave them and partake no longer in their Sins yea and do more than this for his Recovery and theirs To your Fifth Question It is answered in the former he ought openly to disown the Sin of Separation To the Sixth If he be Melancholy let him forbear Studies if not he should
did before possess as far as I can learn from History Sure I am that when it became a matter of Reputation and Honour to be Godly it abundantly furthered the Successes of the Ministry Yea and I shall add this much more for the sake of Posterity that as much as I have said and written against Licentiousness in Religion and for the Magistrates Power in it and though I think that Land most happy whose Rulers use their Authority for Christ as well as for the Civil Peace yet in Comparison of the rest of the World I shall think that Land happy that hath but bare Liberty to be as good as they are willing to be and if Countenance and Maintenance be but added to Liberty and tollerated Errors and Sects be but forced to keep the Peace and not to oppose the Substantials of Christianity I shall not hereafter much fear such Toleration nor despair that Truth will bear down Adversaries 5. Another Advantage which I found was that Acceptation of my Person which Bishop Morley and Dean Warmstry so vehemently dissuaded them from in vain Though to win Estimation and Love to our selves only be an end that none but proud Men and Hypocrites intend yet it is most certain that the Gratefulness of the Person doth ingratiate the Message and greatly prepareth the People to receive the Truth Had they taken me to be Ignorant Erroneous Scandalous Worldly Self-seeking or such like I could have expected small Success among them 6. Another Advantage which I had was by the Zeal and Diligence of the Godly People of the Place who thirsted after the Salvation of their Neighbours and were in private my Assistants and being dispersed through the Town were ready in almost all Companies to repress seducing Words and to justify Godliness and convince reprove exhort Men according to their needs as also to teach them how to pray and to help them to sanctifie the Lord's Day For those People that had none in their Families who could pray or repeat the Sermons went to their next Neighbour's House who could do it and joined with them so that Some House of the ablest Men in each Street were filled with them that could do nothing or little in their own 7. And the holy humble blameless Lives of the Religious sort was a great Advantage to me The malicious People could not say your Professors here are as proud and covetous as any But the blameless Lives of godly People did shame Opposers and put to Silence the Ignorance of foolish Men and many were won by their good Conversation 8. And our Unity and Concord was a great Advantage to us and our freedom from those Sects and Heresies which many other Places were infected with We had no private Church though we had private Meetings we had not Pastor against Pastor nor Church against Church nor Sect against Sect nor Christian against Christian. There was none that had any odd Opinions of his own or censured his Teacher as erronious nor questioned his Call At Bewdley there was a Church of Anabaptists at Worcester the Independents gathered theirs But we were all of one Mind and Mouth and Way Not a Separatist Anabaptist Antinomian c. in the Town One Journeyman Shoemaker turned Anabaptist but he left the Town upon it and went among them When People saw diversity of Sects and Churches in any Place it greatly hindred their Conversion and they were at a loss and knew not what Party to be of or what Way to go and therefore would be of no Religion at all and perhaps derided them all whom they saw thus disagreed But they had no such Offence or Objection there they could not ask which Church or Party shall I be of for we were all but as one Nay so Modest were the ablest of the People that they never were inclined to a preaching way nor to make Ostentation of their Parts but took warning by the Pride of others and thought they had teaching enough by their Pastors and that it was better for them to bestow their Labour in digesting that than in Preaching themselves 9. And our private Meetings were a marvellous help to the propagating of Godliness among them for thereby Truths that slipt away were recalled and the seriousness of the Peoples minds renewed and good desires cherished and hereby their knowledge was much increased and here the younger sort learned to pray by frequent hearing others And here I had opportunity to know their Case for if any were touched and awakened in publick I should presently see him drop in to our private Meetings Hereby also idle meetings and loss of time was prevented And so far were we from being by this in danger of Schism or Divisions that it was the principal means to prevent them For here I was usually present with them answering their Doubts and silencing Objections and moderating them in all And some Private Meeting 's I found they were exceeding much inclined to and if I had not allowed them such as were lawful and profitable they would have been ready to run to such as were unlawful and hurtful And by encouraging them here in the fit exercise of their parts in Repetition Prayer and asking Questions I kept them from inclining to the disorderly exercise of them as the Sectaries do We had no Meetings in opposition to the Publick Meetings but all in subordination to them and under my over-sight and guidance which proved a way profitable to all 10. Another thing which advantaged us was some publick Disputations which we had with Gainsayers which very much confirmed the People The Quakers would fain have got entertainment and set up a Meeting in the Town and frequently railed at me in the Congregation But when I had once given them leave to meet in the Church for a Dispute and before the People had opened their deceits and shame none would entertain them more nor did they get one Proselyte among us Before that Mr. Iohn Tombes being Lecturer of Bewdley two miles off us who was reputed the most Learned and able Anabaptist in England we kept fair Correspondence for a long time and I studiously avoided all Debates with him about Infant Baptism till at last he forced me to it as I shall shew further anon And after one days Dispute with him of Bewdley my Hearers were more setled and the course of his Infection stopt How mean soever my own Abilities were yet I had still the advantage of a good Cause and thereby easily opened the vanity of all Pretenders Deceivers and Dividers that came among us 11. Another advantage was the great honesty and diligence of my Assistants When I came first to Kidderminster after the Wars I found Mr. Richard Sergeant there received as their Preacherâ— whom they took in a Case of Necessity when they could get no other I found him very honest but of no extraordinary Learning and of no taking utterance so that some that were more for Learing than
prosecute them or cast them out as it is against the nature of the body to dismember it self by cutting off any of the parts And it is easie to bring such Persons to Agreement at least to live in Charitable Communion But on the other side the Carnal Selfish and Unsanctified of what Party or Opinion soever have a Nature that is quite against holy Concord and Peace They want that love which is the natural Balsom for the Churches wounds They are every one Selfish and ruled by Self-Interest and have as many Ends and Centres of their Desires and Actions as they are individual Men. They are easily deceived and led into Errour especially in Practicals and against Spiritual Truths for want of Divine Illumination and Experience of the Things of God and a Nature suitable thereto Their Designs are Carnal Ambitious Covetous as Worldly Felicity is their Idol and their End God is not taken for their highest Governour his Laws must give place to the Desires of their Flesh Their very Religion is but Pride and Worldliness or subject to it They have a secret Enmity against a holy spiritual Life and therefore against the People that are holy They love not them that are serious in their own Religion and that go beyond their dead Formality This Enmity provoked by Self-interest or Reproof doth easily make them Persecutors of the Godly if they have but power And their carnal worldly hearts incline them to the carnal worldly side in any Controversies about Religion and to corrupt it and make it a carnal thing These Hypocrites in the Church do betray its Purity and Peace and â—ell Christ's Interest and the Gospel for as small a price as Iudas sold his Lord for And though in a time when God's Providence setteth his own Cause on the higher ground and giveth it the advantage of holy Governours these Men may possibly be serviceable to its welfare as finding it to serve their carnal Ends yet ordinarily they will â—ell the Peace of the Church for Preferment and are either imposing persecuting Dividers or discontented humourous Dividers and hardly brought to the necessary terms of a just and holy and durable Peace of whom I have more largely written in my Book called Catholick Unity These and many more Impediments do rise up against all conciliatory endeavours § 22. But I found not all these alike in all the disagreeing Parties though some of both Sorts in every Party The Erastian Party is most composed of Lawyers and other Secular Persons who better understand the Nature of Civil Covernment than the Nature Form and Ends of the Church and of those Offices appointed by Christ for Men's Spiritual Edification and Salvation The Diocesan Party with us consisted of some grave learned godly Bishops and some sober godly People of their mind and withal of almost all the carnal Politicians Temporizers Prophane and Haters of Godliness in the Land and all the Rabble of the ignorant ungodly Vulgar Whether this came to pafs from any thing in the Nature of their Diocesan Government or from their accommodating the ungodly Sort by the formal way of their Publick Worship or from their heading and pleasing them by running down the stricter sort of People whom they hated or all these together and also because the worst and most do always fall in with the Party that is uppermost I leave to the Judgment of the considerate Reader The Presbyterian Party consisted of grave orthodox godly Ministers together with the hopefullest of the Students and young Ministers and the soberest godly ancient Christians who were equally averse to Persecution and to Schism and of those young ones who were educated and ruled by these As also in those places where they most prevailed of the soberest sort of the well-meaning Vulgar who liked a godly Life though they had no great knowledge of it And this Party was most desirous of Peace The Independant Party had many very godly Ministers and People but with them many young injudicious Persons inclined much to Novelties and Separations and abounding more in Zeal than Knowledge usually doing more for Subdivisions than the few sober Persons among them could do for unity and Peace too much mistaking the Terms of Church Communion and the difference between the Regenerate invisible and the Congregate or visible Church The Anabaptists Party consisted of some but fewer sober peaceable Persons and orthodox in other Points but withal of abundance of young transported Zealots and a medley of Opinionists who all hasted directly to Enthusiasm and Subdivisions and by the Temptation of Prosperity and Success in Arms and the Policy of some Commanders were led into Rebellions and hot Endeavours against the Ministry and other Ioandalous Crimes and brought forth the horrid Sects of Ranters Seekers and Quakers in the Land § 23. But the greatest Advantage which I found for Concord and Pacification was among a great number of Ministers and People who had addicted themselves to no Sect or Party at all though the Vulgar called them by the Name of Presbyterians And the truth is as far as I could discover this was the Case of the greatest number of the godly Ministers and People throughout England For though Presbytery generally took in Scotland yet it was but a stranger here And it found some Ministers that lived in conformity to the Bishops Liturgies and Ceremonies however they wisht for Reformation and the most that quickly after were ordained were but young Students in the Universities at the time of the change of Church Government and had never well studied the Point on either side And though most of the Ministers then in England saw nothing in the Presbyterian way of practice which they could not cheerfully concur in yet it was but few that had resolved on their Principles And when I came to try it I found that most that ever I could meet with were against the Ius Divinum of Lay Elders and for the moderate Primitive Episcopacy and for a narrow Congregational or Parochial Extent of ordinary Churches and for an accommodation of all Parties in order to Concord as well as my self I am sure as soon as I proposed it to them I found most inclined to this way and therefore I suppose it was their Judgment before Yea multitudes whom I had no converse with I understood to be of this mind so that this moderate Number I am loth to call them a Party because they were for Catholicism against Parties being no way pre-engaged made the Work of Concord much more hopeful than else it would have been or than I thought it to be when I first attempted it § 24. Things being in this Case I stood still some years as a looker on and contented my self to wish and pray for Peace and only drop now and then a word for it in my practical Writings which hath since been none of my smallest troubles The Reasons were 1. Because I was taken up in Practicals and in such
Removal 3. Let divers of these Classes meet once or twice a year in a Provincial Assembly and let the fittest Man in the Province be their standing President Hitherto there is no Concession on the Presbyterian side but that the President pro tempore be turned to a standing President nor any on the Episcopal side but that most necessary one that every Presbyter be acknowledged a Church Guide and not a meer Preacher 4. Let it be left to each Man's Conscience whether the President be called by the Name of Bishop President Superintendent Moderator c. seeing a Name is no meet Reason of a Breach 5. Let no Man be forced to express his Judgment de Iure whether the President have a Negative Voice in Ordination or Excommunication nor whether he be distinct in order or only in degree seeing it is not the unonimous and right belief concerning these things that is of Necessity for then they must have been in our Creed but the unanimous and right practice But let all agree that they will joyn in these Classical and Provincial Assemblies and then only Ordain and that they will not Ordain but when the President is one unless in case of flat necessity which is never like to befal us if this way be taken My Question now is Whether the godly moderate Episcopal and Presbyterian Divines on supposition that they can at present come no nearer to each other may not and ought not thus far to close and thus live in Christian Love and Unity seeing that we are bound to Concord in Practice so far as we agree in Judgment and seeing that if any nearer Closure be yet necessary in such United Bodies and Amicable Associations Assemblies and Correspondencies its most likely to be attained this way and indeed no other that I can as yet discern These Terms I once propounded to one most Reverend Prelate now near you who told me That with moderate Men they might suffice for an Union If you are of the same Judgment I should have the stronger hopes and if you are not I shall the sooner let them fall Were your leisure such as to admit of further trouble I would crave a word for the Resolution of my own Judgment in these Points 1. I am satisfied that the Apostles have Successors in all those Works that are of standing Necessity and that Church-Government is one of those Works and that its improbable that Christ should settle one Species of Church-Government in the Apostles Hands for an Age and then change it for ever after and that they that affirm such a Change must prove it and this Argument sticks close But then I would crave one of your strongest Arguments to prove though I know that the Presbyterians grant it that indeed the Apostles had a power by Office to Govern the Seventy or the Presbyters as inferiour Officers besides the power that they had by the meer interest of their Gifts and priviledge of being Eye-witnesses of the Works of Christ and Ear-witnesses of his Word 2. If the Apostles Examples will prove the Right of an unfixed Ambulatory Episcopacy yet I would see how it appears that ever they were fixed to particular Churches or ever any of them had a distinct and limited Diocess where the rest had not Charge as well as they 3. I am satisfied that very early after the Apostles the common Government of each Church was by a Bishop and Presbytery but I can yet see no Evidence that this Church for 150 or 200 Years was any more than one Congregation like one of our Parishes for number of People which was Congregate in a City and from the Circumjacent Villages as our Independant or Anabaptist Churches now are while the Multitude were Infidels I would therefore crave one clear Proof that the first fixed Bishops ruled any more standing Congregations having ordinary Assemblies and Communion in the Lord's Supper than one only And whether the multiplying of Believers did not make a real Change of the former Species of Government while the Bishop of the City took on him the Government of many Particular Churches who had but one before and when Bishops should have been multiplied as fast as Churches were and as Presbyters were Some Passages in the eldest Writers incline me to these Thoughts of which if they be wrong your Correction will be most acceptable May I crave if not your Solution of all these Doubts yet at least your Advice in the first Case of Practice and your Pardon of my Boldness I shall under great Obligations remain A humble Reverencer of your great Abilities and Dignity Rich. Baxter Kiderminster in Worcestershire June 8. 1655. If you return any thing Mr. Underhill at the Anchor and Bible in Paul's Church-yard will convey it me To the very Reverend and much Honoured Dr. Brownrigg Bishop of Exeter These Whereto the Bishop made this short Reply Worthy Sir I Have received your kind and â—â—â—â—teous Letter the Evidence of your very pioâ—â— and peaceable Spirit which I heartily desire may be a Provocation to others to lead them into the ways of Peace Sir Your Esteem of me and of my Abilities is the Errour of your Love and of those that have represented me to you in too great a Character quod non humiliter tantùm sed veraciter dico only I shall desire to be serviceable to God and his Church in what I am able Your Letter came to my hands at the time of my removal from Highgate into the Country here I have continued many Months suffering the trouble and pain of the Stone which which hath put me into a long and tedious Course of Physick Now I am upon my Iourney homewards from whence God willing I will write to you being truly sensible of your Religious Endeavours for so good a Work as the Composing of those woful Rents made in this Church The God of Truth and Peace guide us into the Ways of Truth and Peace to whose Grace and Blessing I do heartily recommend you resting SIR Your very respectful Friend who embraceth your Love and returns his to you very heartily Ra. Exon. Highgate July 3. 1655. And not long after I received this Answer Worthy Sir I Am indebted to you for an Answer to your Inquiries which I received from you It should have been more speedy but in truth I brought from London my crasie and ill-affected Body which since my coming home hath bred me much pain of the Stone and taken up my time in suffering those Distempers and using the Remedies prescribed to me I have now sent you my Thoughts which I doubt not but you will receive as candidly as I impart them to you The Age is quarrelsome but I apprehend you as one of a peaceable Spirit aiming only at the Settlement of our unhappy Distractions The God of Peace compose all our hearts to Peace and make the Rents of our Church to be the Matter of our chief Compassion Charitas Ecclesiae
our particular Churches we yet offer that we may at that distance that our Infirmities have set us maintain unfeigned Brotherly Love and acknowledge our several Churches for Christian Congregations and hold a Correspondency by Delegates or other convenient Means for the strengthening of each other and observe the Rules exprest in the following Offer 3. To all those that joyn with us in the foregoing Profession of Christianity and yet through their dissent from our Baptizing the Infants of Believers dare not hold Local Communion with us nor yet acknowledge our Churches to be true Instituted Particular Churches we yet offer 1. That we may acknowledge each other for Members of Christ supposing the foresaid Profession of Christianity to be solemnly and credibly made and Members of the Church Universal 2. And that we may converse in the World together in a faithful Observance of these following Rules 1. That we addict our selves heartily to the promoting and exercising of Brotherly Love towards one another and take heed of all things contrary thereto in Word and Deed. 2. That we addict our selves to preserve the Unity of the Church Catholick and Concord of true Christians and the Common Interest of the Godly and to farther the Cause of Christ in the World and take heed of so managing our different Opinions as may be a hinderance to these 3. That we study and addict our selves to promote the Conversion of ignorant ungodly People and the building up of the Weak and that we take great heed lest in the managing of our different Opinions or opposing one another we should hinder these Works hardening the Wicked and offending the Weak 4. That we always in our esteem and industry prefer the greater common Truths that we are all agreed in before the lesser Points that we differ in And that we take heed of so managing our Differences publickly or privately as may tend to hinder the Reception or Success of those greater common Truths in which we are agreed 5. That we publish our Agreements and profess our Christian Love and Resolutions for Peace in our several Congregations and profess there our joynt disowning and detestation of all Errours Heresies and Ungodliness contrary to the Profession wherein we are agreed 6. That we will not preach publickly for our differing Opinions in each others Congregations without the Pastor's consent nor privately to speak for them as is like to tend to the hinderance of God's greater Work in that Place nor hold any private Assemblies in one anothers Parishes which shall be more to the distracting of each others Societies than for common Christian Edification 7. That in our Preaching and Conference we will allow the greater and common Truths such a proportion of our Time and Zeal and Speech as the Nature Necessity and Number doth require and not lay out inordinately such an undue proportion of Zeal and Time and Speech for our different Opinions as shall be injurious to those Truths 8. That we will avoid in Publick and Private all unbrotherly scornful reproachful Speeches of each other especially before ungodly People And that we will not to them dishonour one anothers Ministry so as may hinder their profiting by it but will rebuke all such ungodly Persons that we hear reproaching the Ministers or Brethren of either part 9. That we will not receive into any of our Churches any Scandalous Persons that fly from the Discipline of other Churches and pretend a Change of Opinion to cloak their Scandals but will impartially hear what Accusations shall be sent in against them and proceed accordingly 10. That we will upon any Defamations or Accusations or Rumours of Injury against one another or of violating our Profession by contrary Doctrine or breaking this Agreement be responsible to each other as Brethren and will forbear divulging private or uncertain Faults or censuring or reproaching one another till we have either conferred together to give and receive Satisfaction and duly admonished each other or tendered such Conferences and Admonitions seasonably till we see they are wilfully rejected OFFERERS Richard Baxter Pastor of the Church at Kiderminster c. c. c. WE whose Names are Subscribed dissenting from Infant-Baptism heartily accept this Offered Agreement as followeth In the first Rank In the second Rank In the third Rank Optatus Adv. Parm. l. 3. p. 75. EUM qui ad Deum so conversum esse professus est Paganum vocas Paganum vocas eum qui Deum Patrem per filium ejus ante eram rogaverit 〈◊〉 enim crediderit in nomine Patris Filii Spiritâ—â— Sancti credidit Et tu eum Paganum vocas post confessionem Fidei Siâ—aliquid Christiâ—â—â—â— quod absit unâ—squisque delinquerit peccator dici potest Paganus iterum esse non potest Sed haeâ— omnia vultis nullius esse momenti At si tibi ipsi consenserit quem seducis unus consensus manâ—â— tuae porrectio pauca Verba jam tibi Christianum faciunt de Christiano Et ille vobie videbitur Christianus qui quod vultis fecerit non quem fides adduxerit Lib. 5. p. 86. Denique vos qui baptisma quasi libenter duplicare contenditis si datis alterum baptisma date alteram fidem si datis alteram Fidem alterum Christum Sidatis alternum Christum date alterum Deum Deus Unus est De Uno Deo Unus est Christus Qui rebaptizatur jam Christianus fuerat Quomodo dici potest iterum Christianus Lib. 4. p. 76. Sâ— tu non vis esse Frater ego esse incipio Impius si de nomine isto â—â—cuero Vid. Lib. 1. Fol. 1. § 46. Before this I had occasion to make a more particular tryal for Union with the Independent Brethren I knew Mr. Phil. Nye had very great power with them and he being in the Country I desired him to give me in Writing all those things which of necessity must be granted them by the Presbyterians in order to Concord and Conjunction in the same Associations and Communion He referred me to the Debates in the Assembly at Westminster which are in print I urged him to give them me under his Hand which at that time he did not but the next Year I prevailed with him and he wrote down these two as sufficient Concessions to our desired End The first was that they might have Liberty to take Church-Members out of other Parishes And the second that they might have all Church Power within themselves in their several Congregations I asked him if I accommodated them in both these whether really they would unite with us as aforesaid And he told me that they would Whereupon I drew up this Form of Agreement following which I thought granted them both these But so as that they should be Members of constant Associations and meet with us in our Synods and that they should do this not as subject to the Government of those Synods but as using them for Concord between the Churches and so
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
of Homilies as we do And the Contradictions to their own Confessions which too many are guilty of we thought not just to charge upon the Party because it is but Personal guilt As to the differences which in Charity and for Peace we had rather extenuate than aggravate it is of Objective Conceptions that we speak there being a difference in the things as well as in our apprehensions And we conceive that The Ancient Form of Church-Government and the Soundness of the Liturgy and freedom from corrupting unlawful Ceremonies are Matters that are worthy a conscionable regard and no such little inconsiderable things as to be received without sufficient trial or used against the Disswasions of our Consciences No Sin should seem so small as to be wilfully committed especially to Divines He that will sin for little or nothing is not to be trusted when he hath great Temptations Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5. 19. And whether the Imposor or the Forbearers do hazard and disturb the Church the nature of the thing declareth To you it is indifferent before your Imposition and therefore you may without any regret of your own Consciences forbear the Imposition or perswade the Law-makers to forbear it But to many of those that dissent from you they are sinful and therefore cannot be yielded to by them without the wilful violation of their Duty to the absolute Soveraign of the World If in the Church of Rome the Conscience of a Subject forbid the use of Crucifixes and Images and Chrism and Holy Water c. is it therefore they or is it the Pastors that needlesly impose these Things that are the Disturbers of the Church The Princes might have forborn to make a Law restraining Daniel three days from Prayer but Daniel could not forbear praying three days though the Law commanded it And which of them then was the Disturbers of the Peace If you say that we are wilful and our Consciences are peevish and misinformed Charity and Modesty requireth you not to overvalue your own or groundlesly vilifie the Judgments and Consciences of your Brethren We study as hard as you and are ready to joyn with you in the solemnest Protestations as before the Lord that we are earnestly desirous to know the Truth and we suppose we stand on the calmer side the Hedge in point of Temptation for if we err it is to our cost and loss and have little but Reproach and Suffering to entice us willingly to mistake And we are always ready to try by Argument which Side it is that is mistaken § 2. May not we crave that necessary things may be secured to us without being interpreted to seem to insinuate Accusations against you As it is not the Authors of this Answer personally considered that we could be imagined to accuse because we knew them not so there are others besides the party with whom we are seeking a Reconciliation that may be averse to the practice of those things about which Divines are doctrinally agreed in especially that part of the Vulgar who are practically of no Religion And it is very displeasing to us to be called out to an Accusation of others as being a Course that will tend more to exasperate than reconcile Fain we would have had leave to Petition for our Liberty and for the security of Religion without accusing any of being injurious to it But it is the unhappy Advantage of those that are uppermost that they can cut out at pleasure such work for those that they would use as Adversaries that shall either make them seem their Adversaries or appear to be really the Adversaries or Betrayers of the Truth and cast them upon Inconveniences and Odium which way soever they go But to be plain with you if you would but agree with us in the practising and promoting the Practice of those things about which you profess to be agreed in Principles our Differences in all other things would quickly be at an End The great Controversies between the Hypocrite and the true Christian whether we should be serious in the Practice of the Religion which we commonly profess hath troubled England more than any other None being more hated and derided as Puritans than those that will make Religion their Business and make it predominant in their Hearts and Lives while others that hate them take it up in custom for Fashion or in jest and use it only in Subserviency to the Will of Man and their Worldly Ends and honour it with Complements and paint the Skin while they stab the Heart Reconcile this Difference and most others will be reconciled § 3. Whether this signifie any Repentance for the voluminous Reproaches which many of you have written against those you call Puritans your Amendment will interpret That you will give us Liberty in our Family-Duties alone is a Courtesy that you cannot well deny a Papist or a Mahometan because you have there no Witnesses of what they do and yet we shall take our selves beholden for it so low are our Expectations But is there no Duty that private Christians owe to one another for the furthering their Salvation but only for their several Families why may not those that on the Lord's Day repeat a Sermon in their Families admit a Neighbour-Family to be present which is not able so to help themselves A great part of the Families among the Poor are composed of such as can neither write nor read and therefore know not how to spend the Lord's Day when they are out of the Congregation And a Sermon forgotten will hardly be so well practised as if it were remembred and the Ignorant will hardly remember it if they never hear it but once At least methinks it should be an Encouragement to you when you have studied what to say to the People rather than matter of Offence to see them so far value it as to desire to fasten it in their Memories And if several Families join also in the singing of Psalms of Praise to God and calling on him for a Blessing on the Minister and themselves is this a Crime when perhaps most of those Families either cannot pray at all or not with such cheerful Advantage by themselves If you are against such mutual Helps as these you are against the Benefit of the Peoples Souls The Lord pity the Flocks that have such Pastors If you are not against them why are you against our Desires of encouragement in them Have the Laws of the Land secured any of these to us against your Canons If they have why have so many Families formerly been undone for such Exercises as these and for fasting and praying together for the Pardon of their Sins To deal freely with you we are constrained so well to know with
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
containeth 1. The Wisdom of the Mind which is the Knowledge of God 2. The Rectitude of the Will which is the Love of God And 3. The Promptitude Obedience and Fortitude of the Executive Power in and for the Service of God and this is the moral Part of God's Image 3. God having the only Aptitude by his three great Properties Infinite POWER WISDOM and GOODNESS and the only Right Iure Creationis and since Redemptionis Regenerationis immediately stood related to Man in the three great Relations contained expressively in the Name God 1. Our absolute proprietary Owner or Lord. 2. Our Supreme Rector 3. Our bountiful Benefactor or Father and End all flowing from his Relation of our most potent wise good CREATOR Man is related to him 1. As his own to be wholly at his dispose 2. As his Subject to be wholly at his Government 3. As his Beneficiary or Child to love him with all the Heart Now God hath given Man to bear his Image in these Relations which is in Unity caled his Dominion over the bruit Creatures And in Trinity containeth 1. That we are their Owners and they our own 2. we are their Governors according to their Capacities 3. We are their Benefactors and they have and had more dependance on us and were made for us as their End as we were immediately for God as our End This part of God's Image is partly not totally lost The moral part is that which the Spirit restoreth The Wisdom of the Mind the Righteousness or Rectitude of the Will and the Holiness and Obedience of the Life If we had a right Scheme of Theology which I never yet saw Unity in Trinity would go through the whole Method It 's easy to follow it a little way and to see how God's three grand Relations of Owner Ruler and Father or End and chief God and the Correspondent Relations in Man and the mutual Expressions go far in the great parts of Theology But when we run it up to the Numerous and small Branches our narrow Minds are lost in the search But the Day is coming when all God's Works of Creation and Providence and all his Truths shall be seen to us uno intuitu as a most entire perfect Frame Pardon my too many words to you on this As for the divine Government by the Saints which you mention I dare not expect such great Matters upon Earth lest I encroach upon the Priviledge of Heaven and tempt my own Affections downwards and forget that our Kingdom is not of this World Certainly if Christianity be the same thing now that it was at first it is much unsuitable to a reigning State on Earth Bearing the Cross Persecution Self-denial c. found something of another Nature The Rich will rule in the World and few rich Men will be Saints He that surveyeth the present State of the Earth and considereth that scarcely a sixth Part is Christian and how small a Part of them are reformed and how small a part of them have much of the Power of Godliness will be ready to think that Christ hath called almost all his Chosen and is ready to forsake the Earth rather than that he intendeth us such blessed Days below as we desire We shall have what we would but not in this World As hard as we think God dealeth with us our King's Dominions are yet for the Power of Godliness the Glory and Paradise of the Earth Success tempted some here into reigning Expectations and thence into sinful Actions and Attempts and hardened them in all but God hath done much already to confute them Through Faith and Patience we must inherit the Promise May I know Christ crucified on Earth and Christ glorified in Heaven I shall be happy Dear Sir the Lord be your Support and Strength I rest Your Weak Fellow-Servant Richard Baxter § 403. That you may the better understand these Letters and many other such Passages you must know that the great Reason why my self and some of my Brethren were made the King's Chaplains in Title was that the People might think that such Men as we were favoured and advanced and consequently that all that were like us should be favoured and so might think their Condition happy And though we our selves made no doubt but that this was the use that was to be made of us and that afterward we should be silenced with rest in time yet we thought that it was not meet to deny their Offer The People at London who were near judged as we did and were not much deceived But those in the Country that were further off understood not how things went above But especially those in France and in New-England who were yet more remote were far more deceived by these Appearances and the more ready to bless us in our present State and almost wish it were their own Insomuch that there grew on a sudden in New-England a great Inclination to Episcopal Government For many of them saw the Inconveniencies of Separations and how much their way did tend to Divisions and they read my Books and what I said against both the Souldiers and Schismaticks in England and they thought that the Church-Government here would have been such as we were pleased with so that these and many other Motives made them begin to think of a Conformity Till at last Mr. Norton with one Mr. Broadstreet a Magistrate came over and saw how things went and those in New-England heard at last how we were all silenced and cast out And then they began to remember again that there is something beside Schism to be â—eared and that there lyeth as perilous an Extreme on the other side But they have in their Synod past some such moderating Conclusions about Baptism and constant Synods as have ended most of the Differences between them and the moderate Presbyterians § 151. I am next to insert some Businesses of my own which fell in at this same time When I had refused a Bishoprick I did it on such Reasons as offended not the Lord Chancellor and therefore instead of it I presumed to crave his Favour to restore me to preach to my People at Kidderminster again from whence I had been cast out when many hundreds of others were ejected upon the Restoration of all them that had been sequestred It was but a Vicaridge and the Vicar was a poor unlearned ignorant silly Reader that little understood what Christianity and the Articles of his Creed did signifie but once a Quarter he said something which he called a Sermon which made him the Pity or Laughter of the People This Man being unable to preach himself kept always a Curate under him to preach Before the Wars I had Preached there only as a Lecturer and he was bound in a Bond of 500 l. to pay me 60 l. per An. and afterward he was sequestreâ— as is before sufficiently declared my People were so dear to me and I to them that I would
account of Religion earnestly declaming against Popery and becoming the Head of the Party that were zealous for the Protestant Cause and awakened the Nation greatly by his Activity And being quickly put out of his place of Chancellourship he by his bold and skillful way of speaking so moved the House of Lords that they began to speak higher against the danger of Popery than the Commons and to pass several Votes accordingly And the Earl of Shaftsbury spake so plainly of the Duke of York as much offended and it was supposed would not long be born The Earl of Clare the Lord Hollis the Lord Hallifax and others also spake very freely And among the Bishops only that I heard of Sir Herbert Crofts who had sometimes been a Papist the Bishop of Hereford And now among Lords and Commons and Citizens and Clergy the talk went uncontrolled that the Duke of York was certainly a Papist and that the Army lately raised and encamped at Black-heath was designed to do their Work who at once would take down Parliaments and set up Popery And Sir Bucknall told them in the House of such Words that he had overheard of the late Lord Treasurer Clifford to the Lord Arundell as seemed to increase their Satisfaction of the Truth of all but common observation was the fullest satisfaction In a word the offence and boldness of both Houses grew so high as easily shewed men how the former War began aâ—d silenced many that said it was raised by Nonconformists and Presbyterians § 255. The third of February was a publick Fast against Popery the first as I remember that besides the Anniversary Fasts had ever been since this Parliament sate which hath now sate longer than that called the long Parliament did before the major part were cast out by Cromwell But the Preachers Dr. Cradock and Dr. Whitchcot medled but little with that Business and did not please them as Dr. Stillingfleet had done who greatly animated them and all the Nation against Popery by his open and diligent endeavours for the Protestant Cause § 256. During this Session the Earl of Orery desired me to draw him up in brief the Terms and Means which I thought would satisfie the Non-conformists so far as to unite us all against Popery professing that he met with many Great Men that were much for it and particulary the New Lord Treasurer Sir Thomas Osborn and Dr. Morley Bishop of Winchester who vehemently profess'd his desires of it And Dr. Fullwood and divers others had been with me to the like purpose testifying the said Bishop's resolution herein I wisht them all to tell him from me that he had done so much to the contrary and never any thing this way since his Professions of that sort that till his real Endeavours convinced Men it would not be believed that he was serious But when I had given the Earl of Orery my Papers he returned them me with Bishop Morley's Strictures or Animadversions as by his Words and the Hand I had reason to be confident by which he fully made me see that all his Professions for Abanement and Concord were deceitful Suares and that he intended no such thing at all And because I have inserted before so much of such transactions I will here annex my Proposals with his Strictures and my Reply To the Right Honourable the Earl of Orery My Lord I Have here drawn up those Terms on which I think Ministers may be restored to the Churches Service and much union and quietness be procured But I must tell you 1. That upon second Thoughts I forbore to distribute them as I intimated to you into several Ranks but only offer what may tend to a Concord of the most though not of every man 2. That I have done this only on the suppositions that we were fain to go upon in our Consultation with Dr. 〈◊〉 viz. That no change in the Frame of Church-Government will be consented to Otherwise I should have done as we did in 1660 offered you Arch-bishop Vsher's Reduction of the Government to the primitive state of Episcopacy and have only desired that the Lay-Chancellours have not the Power of the Keys and that if not in every Parish at least in every Rural Deanry or Market-Town with the adjacent Villages the Ministers might have the Pastoral power of the Keys so far as is necessary to guide their own Administrations and not one Bishop or Lay-Chancellour's Court to have more to do than Multitudes can well do and thereby cause almost all true Discipline to be omitted 3. I have forborn to enumerate the Particulars which we cannot subscribe or swear to or practise because they are many and I fear the naming of them will be displeasing to others as seeming to accuse them while we do but say what a Sin such Conformity would be in our selves But if it should be useful and desired I am ready to do it But I now only say that the matters are far from being things doubtful or indifferent or little Sins in our Apprehensions of which we are ready to render a Reason But I think that this bare Proposal of the Remedies is the best and shortest and least offensive way In which I crave your Observation of these two Particulars 1. That it is the matter granted if it be even in our own Words that will best do the Cure For while other men word it that know not our Scruples or Reasons they miss our Sence usually and make it ineffectual 2. That the Reason why I crave that Ministers may have impunity who use the greatest part of the Liturgy for the Day is 1. To shorten the Accommodation that we may not be put to delay our Concord till the Liturgy be altered to the Satisfaction of Dissenters which we have cause to think will not be done at all Now this will silently and quietly heal us and if a Man omit some one Collect or Sentence without debate or noise it will not be noted nor be a matter of offence 2. And he is unworthy to be a Minister that is not to be trusted so much as with the using or not using of a few Sentences or words in all his Ministration 3. And almost every Minister that I hear all the Year of the most Conformable do every day omit some part or other and yet are not Silenc'd nor taken notice of as offenders at all And may not as much for our Concord be granted to Dissenters in the present case He that thinks that these Concessions will be more injurious to the Church and the Souls of Men than our Uncharitableness and Divisions have been these Eleven Years and are yet like to be is not qualified to be at all an Healer In Conclusion I must again intreat you that this Offer may be taken but as the Answer of your desire for your private use and that no Copy be given of it nor the Author made known unless we have encouragement from our Governours to
the Parish Churches through the greatness of some Parishes the lowness of the Minister's voices and the paucity of Churches since the burning of the City And they confess that the knowledge of the Gospel is ordinarily necessary to salvation and teaching and hearing necessary to knowledge and that to leave the people untaught especially where so many are speaking for Atheism Beastiality and Infidelity is to give them up to Damnation But yet they say that to do so is my duty because the Bishop is against my Preaching And I ought to rest satisfied that it is the Bishop and not not I that must answer for their Damnation Alas poor Souls Must they needs be damned by thousands without making any question of it as if all the question were who should answer for it I will not believe such cruel men I undertake to prove to them to them 1. That our English Species of Dioâ—â—san 〈◊〉 and Lay Choncellours power of the Keys is contrary to God's Word and destructive of true Discipline and of the Church form and Offices instituted by Christ. 2. That were the Offices Lawful the men have no true calling to it being not chosen or consented to by the Clergy or the People 3. That if their Calling were good they have no power to forbid the present Silenced Ministers to Preach the Gospel but thereby they serve Satan against Christ and Men's salvation Paul himself had his power to edification and not to destruction And Christ the Saviour of the World giveth his Ministers only a saving power and to none a power to samish and damn the people's Souls 4. That we are Dedicated as Ministers to the Sacred Office and it is Sacriledge in our selves or others to alienate us from it while we are not unfit or unable for it 5. That we are Charged as well as Timothy before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the Dead at his appearing that we Preach the Word and be in season and our ef season reprove rebuke exhort c. 6. That the Ancient Pastors for many Hundred years did Preach the Gospel against the Wills of their Lawful Princes both Heathens and Aâ—â—ians 7 That the Bishop hath no more power to forbid us to Preach than the King hath And these men confess that Ministers unjustly Silenced may Preach against the Will of Kings but not say they of Bishops 8. That were we Lay-men we might teach and exhort as Lay-men as Origen did though we might not do it as Pastors much more being Ordained the Ministers of Christ. And that now to us it is a work which both the Law of Nature and our Office or Vow do bind us to even a Moral Duty And that when Christ judgeth men for not Feeding Clothing Visiting his Members it will not excuse us to say that the Bishop forbad us That if King or Bishop forbid us to feed our Children or to save the lives of drowning or famishing men we must disobey them as being against a great command of God Love and the Works of Love being the great indispensable Duties And Souls being greater Objects of Charity than Bodies 9. That it was in a Case of Pharifaical Church Discipline when Christ avoided not converse with sinners when their good required it that Christ sent the Pharisees to learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice and at two several times repeateth the same words 10. That Order is for the thing Ordered and it's ends and a power of Ordering Preachers is not a power to depose necessary Preaching and famish Souls 11. And I shew them that I my self have the License of the Bishop of this Diocess as well as Episcopal Ordination and that my License is in force and not recalled 12. And that I have the King's License 13. And therefore after all this to obey these Silencers nay no Bishop doth forbid me otherwise than as his Vote is to the Acts of Parliament which is as Magistrates and to fulfill their will that will be content with nothing but our forsaking of poor Souls and ceasing to Preach Christ this were no better than to end my Life of Comfortable Labours in obeying the Devil the Enemy of Christ and Souls which God forbid § 272. Yet will not all this satisfie these men but they cry out as the Papists Schism Schism unless we will cease to Preach the Gospel And have little to say for all but that No society can be governed if the Rulers be not the Iudge Yet dare they not deny but a Iudgment of discerning duty from sin belongeth to all Subjects or else we are Brutes or must be Atheists Idolaters Blasphemers or what ever a Bishop shall command us But under the Censures of these unreasonable Men who take our greatest Duties for our heinous sin must we patiently serve our Lord But his approbation is our full reward § 273 On Iuly 5th 1674. at our Meeting over St. Iamses's Market-house God vouchsafed us a great Deliverance A main Beam before weakened by the weight of the People so cracked that three times they ran in terrour out of the room thinking it was falling But remembring the like at Dunstan's West I reproved their fear as causeless But the next day taking up the boards we found that two rends in the Beam were so great that it was a wonder of providence that the floor had not faln and the roof with it to the destruction of multitudes The Lord make us thankful § 274 A person unknown professing Infidelity but wâ—ether an Infidel or a jagling Papist I know not sent me a Manuscript called Examen 〈◊〉 charging Scripture with Immorality Falshoods and Contradictions from the beginning to the end and with seeming Seriousness and Respectfulness importâ—ned me to Answer him I was in so great pain and weakness and engaged in other work that I sent him word that I had not time or strength for so long a Work He selected about a Dozen Instances and desired my Answer to them I gave him an Answer to them and to some of his General accusations but told him That the rational Order to be followed by a Lover of Truth is first to consider of the proofs brought for Christianity before we come to the Objections aganst it And I proved to him that Christianity was proved true many years before any of the New Testament was Written and that so it may be still proved by one that doubted of some words of the Scripture and therefore the true order is to try the truth of the Christian Religion first and the perfect Verity of all the Scriptures afterwards And therefore Importuned him first to Answer my Book called The Reasons of the Christian Religion and then if I lived I would answer his Accusations But I could not at all prevail with him but he still insisted on my Answering of his Charge And half a year or more after he sent me a Reply to the Answer
the Error For if I had understood that it contained two Propositions 1. That Men thus and thus qualified shall preach the Word or it is the Duty of Men thus and thus qualified to preach the Word And then 2. That Men thus and thus qualified ordinis gratia shall be set apart to it or shall be appointed to Preach I never had made this Animadversion but should have acknowledged a formal Answer But I understood it only thus that Men thus and thus qualified shall be appointed that is it is their Duty being so and so qualified to seek for Ordination or it is their Duty being so and so qualified to be appointed to the Work which I thought might be true and yet they no Ministers till they were de facto set apart But now very well understanding that it may well bear both Propositions and the first coming up close to the Question in hand I shall willingly retract all that I said upon that Point and acknowledge a formal Answer which I think may satisfie But whereas you say that by disclaiming my last Argument I denied Imposition of Hands to be so necessary and by urging something hereabouts did seem to forget what I said anon I answer I did never intend to deny Imposition of Hands to be of necessity to legitimate Ordination I said indeed an Argument drawn from thence against the Question in Hand was frivolous But I did not intend to disparage the thing it self any farther than Relatively to the Question then in debate And whereas you say that Fasting was not used I answer that there never was any Ordination but Fasting was previous to it by the Appointment of the Church in Ember-Weeks which were constantly kept by the Sons of the Church though neglected by others and this I think might serve though it was not the same Day and I believe you will say so too But in these things neither will I be boisterous till I am better informed what may be the substantial or essential Parts of Christ's Ordinances and what not which I confess I have not yet such an Idea of So as to say in every Ordinance what is essential and what not Ad. 3 um Whereas you wonder that upon such slight Grounds I should so tenaciously stand to part of my third Argument I answer that I did not intend to inforce that the Case of extream inculpable necessity was the Sectaries Case But such a Necessity as did inevitably intangle them in their Invasion of the Ministry which though it doth no ways make them lawful Ministers yet it makes them inconfutably lawful Ministers till the Opinions which first made them separate be proved to them to be erroneous my meaning is this I think if this Hypothesis be true that in case of extream Necessity Men may and some must enter irregularly into the Ministry it is not possible to convince an Anabaptist that his Invasion of the Ministerial Work is unlawful till we can first convince him that Anabptism is erroneous Now hereupon I thought their Hands was much strengthened over what it would have been had that Hypothesis been false For then we could incontroulably have cleared their Invasion of the Work though they had in the mean time remained unconvinced of their erroneous Opinion But now if we cannot convince them of their Error but their way still appear Truth to them then they need do no more to justifie their Practice to themselves but borrow our Principle and that sets them right and so their Invasion is inconfutable from what they borrow from our selves And so though they do not justifie themselves to us because we think their Necessity culpable and through their own default yet they so far justifie by this very Principle their Practice to themselves that it renders them unconfutably lawful till we can prove and make it out plain to them that their very Opinions are erroneous So that you mistook while you thought that I intended to prove their Practice lawful whereas all that I intended was to shew that upon such a Principle their Invasion became less confutable and their Hands something strengthned over they could have been upon the contrary Hypothesis by which you may perhaps see what Link of your Chain I intended to break But enough of this I shall now come to the Business I first spake of First therefore you lay down the Episcopal Principles pag. 65. viz. That no Church is a true Church without Ministers and no Man a Minister that is not Ordained by a Bishop and no Man a Bishop that is not ordained by a Bishop lawfully called and not deprived again of his Power And this Bishop must be Ordained by a former Bishop and he by a former and so the Succession must be followed up to the Apostles Having done thus you catechize these Seekers as you call these Doctors And then proceed to prove that these Reverend Learned Pious Bishops which you acknowledge to be now in this Nation are no lawful Bishops upon the Principles laid down because they were ordained by such as had no Authority to ordain This you prove because they were Ordained at length by the Popish Bishops in Hen. VIII Time who had no Authority to Ordain this you prove because they derived their Authority from the Pope who had no Authority to give them any That the Pope had no Authority you prove by an Interruption of Succession of lawful Bishops in that Chair That there hath been an Interruption in that Chair you prove by the Instances of Liberius Honorias Dame Ione and many others as you say out of Bishop Iewel The Strength of these Instances depend upon that Hypothesis that Heresy or notorious Impiety doth evacuate holy Orders Now if it can be infallably proved that Heresy or Impiety doth not evacuate Holy Orders or rather if you cannot infallably prove as it is my part at this time to deny I being upon the defensive that Impiety or Heresy doth evacuate Holy Orders then it will not follow that there was an Interruption though Liberius was an Heretick And if no Interruption then Pope Clement the Incumbent at Rome in Henry VIII Days was notwithstanding what is urged in full Power to Ordain And then if he had Authority then the Popish Bishops which derived from him had full Authority and if they had then our Bishops who at length derive from them have also full Athority and so the whole Structure will fall at once in that Hypothesis which is the Foundation of all shall chance to shake And therefore Sir in the first place I pray you take notice that I deny that Heresy or Impiety doth evacuate Holy Orders and expect the Proof of it â—â—But then suppose I should grant this which I never intend I may I conceive falsly debate that though there should be an Interruption in the Succession of the Chair at Rome yet the Pope that now is or the Pope that sat at Rome in Hen. VIII Days were
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
to Day I should be an Infidel to Morrow Besides the plainness of Scripture against it But that this Author is no Dullard is apparent by his ingenuous Writing I meet with few that err so far that write in so clear and judicious a Stile So that I still profess be he what he will I much value the clearness of the Author Being then in a necesity of Judging him either lamentably weak and worse or else to be one that thinks better than he writes Reason and Charity commanded me to judge the latter to be more likely And that likelihood is all that I have asserted But if he had rather that I judged much worse of him viz. that he hath as contemptible Thoughts of the Kingdom and Design of Christ as he expresseth if I may know his Mind I shall consent Will you do me the Favour as to tell me his Name To your other Objections 1. Not Infidels but yet all Christians with us that deny Infant Baptism are commonly called Anabaptists and in that Sense I did intend it But so as that I distinguish between Anabaptists and meer Anabaptists some are only Anabaptists and those I distinguish from other Parties of their Mind some are Anabaptists and more and those are commonly denominated from the greatest Differences The greater Error in the Denomination is to carry it before the less And yet E. G. a Quaker pleading against Infant-Baptism ceaseth not to be an Anabaptist because he is a Quaker but yet is to be entituled from the worst And this distinguished from meer Anabaptists This all know is the common Custom of Speech and a Man should not be well understood that departs from it 2. An after owning proveth guilty though not Agents But I know well of abundance in the Army more than you mention that pleaded against Infant Baptism before and I can easily prove that even the best that ever I knew of the Anabaptist Churches petitioned for Justice on the King and laboured for Hands from others to it I am loath to Name Men publickly and stir in this least it occasion Offence But I intreat you freely give me your Advice in it I purposed not to have answered Stubs's Vindication and the Ministers commonly were the Cause by dissuading me saying none regarded it and that I should exasperate Sir H. V. against them all for my sake But now I am told that some very honest Anabaptists take it for granted that I have written Untruths of Sir H. V. and that I owe him a Recantation and they question History that speaks against them for my sake Hereupon I have changed my purpose and writ a plain Confutation of Stubs's Vindication Now I crave your Advice in Three Things 1. Whether indeed it be best publish the Answer I have prepared or not supposing it true and satisfactory 2. Whether I were best take any Notice of the Offence of the Author of the Sober Word and say as much to him only as I have here done 3. Whether I were best take notice of the Anabaptists Offence I pray deal freely with me and if it may be by the next Post for I shall delay for your Advice because you know the Minds of these People better than I. My own Thoughts are 1. To publish that against Stubs as necessary 2. To say nothing about the Anabaptists because I must name Pastors and People that petitioned for the King's Death and such things that are utterly unsavoury to me and unseasonable and will increase Displeasure and I had rather bear their Displeasure as it is than increase it 3. And as to the Sober Word I am indifferent I received yours but a little before Mr. Lambe's Departure but my own Thoughts had led me to harp on the same String that you directed me to I was very glad to find you jealous of that Extreme that is in it self much worse than Anabaptism in our Thoughts that dissent from both But I hope yet that he hath no liking of Popery or Formality but only Charity for the Men. I told him not of any thing concerning him in your Letters but only afterwards I told him that I heard Mr. Gunning judged him of his Mind but told him nothing whence I had it As to Mr. Tombes Book I shall much refer it to your Advice 1. I resolved not to meddle with it unless he signify his Desire for it would be an abuse of him to meddle with his Works without his Consent I should not take it well my self nor unless I first see the printed Sheets which we ordinarily see before we write Epistles but on these two Suppositions I should do it not only willingly but gladly 1. Because I would further any Work against Popery that is sollid and am troubled that no more turn their Studies and Labours that way 2. Because I would have the World see that Mr. Tombes and I can agree against the common Adversary and for the common Truths But one thing only a little scruples me which I charge you to conceal from him and all Men A great Scandal hath been long raised of him by Collonel Clieve who about two Years ago put it by Letters into my Hands and I caused Mr. Tombes to have the Knowledge of it but otherwise stifled it as well as I fairly could But now Collonel Clieve hath made it very publick and told it the Commissioners for Approbation who greatly resent it c. If you know not of it you shall know no more for me Now whether under the heat of this Scandal the prefacing to his Book will savour well and do more good or harm is a thing that I am willing to be advised and ruled by you in supposing that he desires the thing and hears not of this my Scruple which you should not have heard from me but that it 's publick My Confidence of your Fidelity makes me thus free and bold with you O Brother Must we be all divided in this Day of Peril when we are ready to be assaulted by the common Enemy O pray and strive for Love and Unity and if my Ignorance and Rashness hath done any thing against it pray that I may have Pardon and more Grace I rest Yours unfeignedly Rich. Baxter July 18. 1659. To my Loving Friend Mr. William Allen in London Worthy Sir I Received yours of the 18th Instant and was very glad to see you took so well that which I looked on as somewhat rude in my self and was troubled after the Letter was out of my Hands that I should give you any occasion of Trouble by medling so far as in my Letter I had done As to Advise in the Particulars you mention I count my self very incompetent for such Consultations and do know you are so well able to make Judgment in such Cases that if I should undertake to gratiâ—y your Desire it would signify little As for your answering the Vindication I do acknowledge Your Resolution herein is attended with Difficulties
Faction or Turbulency who preacheth but to a few in his own House And where should he use his Ministry if not in so vast a Parish where so many Thousands are untaught and where he is not sure that his old relation is dissolved though the Tythes and Temple be given to another One Mr. Grove that oft heard me being lately dead and his Widow sick she sent for Mr. Sanger to visit her who after a short Instruction prayed with her while he was at Prayer Dean Lampley the Parson or Vicar of the Parish came in and heard him at Prayer staying till he had done in an outer Room and as soon as he had done as Mr. Sanger affirmeth came in upon him and fiercely askt him What he did there He told him Nothing but what beseemed a Minister of the Gospel to visit the Sick when he was sent for And to the second Expostulation told him That he thought he should be thankful to him for helping him in such a Parish To which the Doctor answered That then he should have done it according to the Liturgy fiercely adding Get you out of the Room At which when he demurred he more fiercely took him by the breast and thrust him and said Get you out of the Room which to avoid unpeaceableness he forthwith did I saw not this but I think no Man that knoweth Mr. Sanger will question the Truth of his deliberate Affirmation of it In what Parish of England should a Man expect leave to visit the Sick when sent for rather than in St. Martins From what Minister in England should one rather expect leave than from Dr. Lampley who hath so many Thousands more than he and his Curate and Lecturer can suffice to teach and visit and who I hear is a very worthy Man and a Teacher of more than ordinary diligence and especially excelleth almost all that I hear of in Constancy in the needful Work of Catechising for which though I know him not I do much honour him And what Minister in England may expect leave to visit the Sick or privately help the Peopleâ— if not Mr. Sanger who was lately the Publick Incumbent himself and is a man as unlikely to stir up any Man to Envy or Wrath as most that ever I knew I will not parallel my own Case with his If I be unworthy of such liberty might not such as he be tolerated so far This being our Case will you be the Man that shall tell us and the world that we should have kept our Residence and joyned with the succeeding Ministers in private helps and how well we and Religion had then sped as if you had not lived in England to make Men think that the Parish Ministers are willing of this Yet I will again say Necessity is laid upon me and wo be to me if I preach not the Gospel though Men forbid it And if I either give but to one poor Man when I might give to a thousand or teach but one ignorant Sinner when I might teach a thousand how shall I look my Judge in the Face who gave me that terrible warning 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. as well as Matth. 2â— And did I think that ever you would have been one that should publickly have perswaded us to this When it is the grand Work of Satan to Silence the Preachers of the Gospel and the great Character of all sorts of his Agents one way or other on their various pretences to effect it Papists would silence me Prelatists would silence me Quakers Anabaptists Antinomians and Separatists would silence me and would my dear and judicious and experienced Friends silence me also Alas how many Difficulties have we to overcome while our weary Flesh and too cold Love and the Relicks of Sloth and Selfishness which loveth not a laborious suffering Life doth hinder us more than all the rest But the Judge is at the Door To Mr. W. Allen. Number V. SIR I Find that in a Book of yours defending Schism against Mr. Halis on pretence of opposing it you were pleased to think many Passages in my Writings worthy of your Recital to your ends I thank you that you chose any Words for Peace which some may make a better use of than your self But I think if you had referred Men to my own Books to read them with what goeth before and after they would have been more easily understood I understand by your Book that you think that you are in the Right which is the most that I have yet learned out of it unless it be also that you think the Nonconformists be not yet hated and afflicted enough or that he that sweareth must ascend by treading upon him that feareth an Oath I am in some doubt least you have wronged our Prelacy by so openly proclaiming the Enmity of so great a Man as Hales against them and by enticing Men by your Noise to read his Book which you contradict which if they do I doubt your Confutation will not save them from the Light But the Reason of my troubling you with these Lines is only to crave some Satisfaction about two or three Matters of Fact in your Book which would seem strange to me did I not find such things too common in Invectives against the silenced Ministers and did I not know that is part of Satan's Work to persuade the World that no History hath any certainty of Truth that so sacred History may be disadvantaged I. One is in these Words p. 101. When they had in the gand Debate given in their Objections to the Liturgy some of the Brotherhood had prepared another Form but a great part of their Brethren objected many things against that and never as yet did as I hear of agree upon any other nor I think ever will I crave the Justice of you to tell us which was that you call the Grand Debate and who those were that dissented or what Proof you have of any such thing Either you knew what you say or not If not and publish it in such a manner while you are accusing others of Sin What is this to be called if you did it is yet far worse either you speak of the Westminster Assembly which made the Directory or of the Commissioners in 1660. Not the first sure for none I think was yet ever vain enough to pretend that they thus drew up another Liturgy It must needs then be the latter Of which this is past denyal by any but the 1. That the King's Commission under the Broad-Seal authorizing to make some Additional Forms 2. The late Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Sheldon when we came according to appointment to try by Friendly Conference what Alterations each Party might yield to for our desired Concord without any injury to their Consciences began with a Declaration that we being the Plaintiffs they would no farther proceed or treat with us till we had given them in entirely in Writing 1. What we blamed in the Liturgy and our
Reasons of it 2. And what we desired as better Mr. Calamy and others said This was plainly to deny the Conference which we were commissioned for and they would there have broke off had it not been for me who requested them rather to yield and undertake it than give them occasion to charge us with Tergiversation and Refusal of any lawful thing though I easily saw that the Motioner thought thereby to break us as disagreeing when we came to perform the Undertaking While others drew up their Exceptions against the Liturgy they appointed me to draw up the Additional Forms But remembring the Bishops Words What we desired instead I drew up a Liturgy It must needs be very imperfect being done in necessary haste in Eight Days Dr. Reignolds only thought that we should be blamed for offering a whole Liturgy instead of Additional Forms I told him 1. It was but to be added to the old if reformed 2. And they might cut off all that they thought superfluous upon debates even all that the Bishops should except justly against for we did but offer it to them professing we were ready to alter any thing upon their Reasons Hereupon Dr. Reignolds yielded and it was oft read over among us only the Prayer for the King being thought too long Dr. Wallis was appointed to draw up a shorter which he did all the rest standing as I wrote it It was agreed to without one dissenting Vote nor had we one Objection sent us in by any other I was appointed at a meeting with the Bishops at the Savoy at once to deliver them them this Liturgy A Reply to their Answer to our Exceptions and A Petition for Peace and Concord all which they had appointed me to draw up and had examined and consented to We waited for an Answer to all and never had an Answer to any one of them but they kept them and said nothing of them I was especially desirous to have heard their Exceptions against our Liturgy when they thought we would have disagreed among our selves and urged some of them to it and could never get a Word of Answer or Exception which made me wonder as well knowing 1. How very willing some were to have found it faulty 2. And how hard it is in necessitated haste to write such a thing that shall not be liable to many Exceptions Yea when Roger L'Strange after wrote against us he saith little at all against the Liturgy save that we left Men at too much Liberty to which we then said That imposing and restraining was not our work but the Bishops who we supposed upon Debate would have too much done it Now if this full Concord and no Answer or Exceptions from them that extorted this Work from us be agreeable to the Report you make or if you have dealt here like a Minister of Truth I pray you help me to discern it The Book with the rest was printed long ago most of them by some poor Scriviners that being used in transcribing had got a Copy and did it for Gain II. Another Passage is P. 293. No sinful Act being required to make ministerial Conformity unlawful which if there had been they or some others would and ought to have discovered it and then I doubt not it would by Authority have been taken away but that being not done Here I desire you to satisfy me in a few things 1. When even our Publick Reply and foresaid Petition against the old Conformity were never answered to this Day is it ingenuous to take this for a Consutation barely thus to say it is not done should I say it was never yet discovered that Episcopacy is lawful would you not have called me as long as Saravia Bilson Hooker c. are unanswered 2. Do you not know what abundance of old have thought they discovered the sinfulness of Conformity Bradshaw Nicolas Ames Parker Iacob Cartwright c. and what Aloundel Salmasius Gersom Bucer Didoclave c. have written against Prelacy and some of late against our Conformity Cawdry Hickman and others yet unanswered And is this your dry Denyal a rational Confutation 3. Would not your Words make the ignorant believe that we have the Liberty of the Press and may do it if we will and do not the Act of Parliament and the severe Searches of the Press and the Printers Refusal shew how false such an Intimation is It may be some small Pamphlet may with much a do creep out but so cannot any thing that is full and satisfactory Our Cause is a meer Stranger to our Accusers it seems even to such as you because we cannot have leave to print it A few have heretofore when the watch was less strict got somewhat out to little purpose Mr. Hickman's was beyond Sea But nothing that may make us well understood And is it fit work for a Minister to blame Men thus Publickly for not doing Impossibilities 4. It must be supposed that you know these things 1. That the Law forbids us to deprave or speak against the Liturgy upon grievous Penalties 2. That the Canon excommunicateth us ipso facto that is sine Sententia Iudicis if we do but say that there is any thing that a Man may not with a good Conscience conform to 3. And that our present Governors are against it 4. And that for doing it we are sure by Conformists to be called disobedient to Authority and Seditious 5. And that we are so accused by you commonly for Preaching when forbidden which is as much our vowed Duty sure as Writing And do you now tell us that we ought to discover it if there be any sinful Act Commanded Will you warrant us against the Charge of Disobedience or do you drive us on that which if we do you know we are already judged to excommunicated Jailes and Ruine We have long beg'd of Parliament men that we might but once have leave to speak for our selves which we never yet had as to the new Conformity to this Day and yet we might petition for such leave and they tell us these Fifteen Years almost there is no hope it will but ruine you I have offered two of the most eminent Bishops to beg it of them or any on my Knees that we might but once publish the Case and Reasons of our dissent And is it not enough to be Fifteen or Sixteen Years ejected silenced scorned accused as unworthy to be endured and to be silently Patient and never answer for our selves nor have the common Justice of being heard but we must have the additional Abuse to be told that we ought to do it Yea many of the Conformists O with what a Face have published to the World that we take not the things which we refuse for Sins or daâ—e not say so of them when even the far easyer Conformity 1660. We did by Word and Writing declare to be sinful and in our Petâ—â—ion for Peace Printed protested that did we not take it to
be sinful and hazarding our Souls c. We should never have stuck at Conformity to them And it is no small Number of Sins so heiâ—ous which we suppose since imposed that we dare not so much as name them least we displease you and make you say that we render the Conformists such heinous Sinners But I will alledge your Authority when any of us are next blamed for discovering the â—einous Sinfulness of Conformity as we yet believe it would be to us If you say that the Licensers would licence our Writings if we did it with Sobriety 1. You know that the Canon and Law is against it 2. I shall then in Justice challenge you to make it good and here promise you an account of my Nonconformtiy whenever you will procure it licensed 6. And which way got you so strong a Faith as to be past doubt that did we discover any sinfulness it would by Authority have been taken away Make this true yet after neer Two Thousand Ministers have been neer Sixteen Years ejected and silenced and many killed by Imprisonment and the People of the Land divided and distracted by the training Engines and you shall have the Honour of being the greatest healer of our Breaches that ever rose in the Days of my Remembrance But if it be not true III. The Third Passage is p. 69 70. throughout These are great things to be spoken so boldly 1. Do you suppose your Reader one that never read Church-History What Work the Bishops made for Arrianism for Nestorianism for the Eutychians and Aâ—â—phalites against Nazianzen Chrysostom c. for the Monothelites about the tria Capitula for Images against Emperors and Kings setting up the Pope and decreed the Deposition of all Princes that obey him not and making Loyalty to be Heresis Henriciana How the River Oronte at Antioch hath been coloured with the Blood and the Graves of the Monks and People that fought it out in the Streets for the several Bishops what work they made at the first Council at Constance the first and the second of Ephesus the Council at Calcedon and many another How many Ages they were and yet are the Army of the Pope to subdue Princes and Nations Truth and Justice and set up the Evil that now reigneth in the Christian World How even against the Popes Will they made the best King and Emperor Ludovicus Pius as a Pennance resign his Crown and Scepter on the Altar to a Rebel Son and sent him to Prison He that ever read but Baronius Binnius or other Episcopal History will pity you can you name one Presbyter for very many Bishops that have been the Heads or Fomenters of Heresie Schism or Rebellion and yet Presbyters were more in Number than Bishops Innumerable Bishops saith Binnius were in the Monothelite Council under â—hilipicuâ— Of all things that ever befel the Christian Church I scarce know any thing comparable in Shame and Mischievous Effects to the horrid perfideousness Contention Schism and Pride of Bishops Cursing one Year by Hundreds all that were of one Opinion and another Year all that were of the contrary as the times and Interest and Emperor changed And if Arius or Novatus Aerius and Donatus which are all you name were the Beginners of any Schism how many hundred Bishops were the Promoters of them all save that of Aerius against themselves And is it any honour to Episcopacy that Arius and Aerius an Arian were not Bishops when they were said to be Seekers of Bishopricks and to divide because they could not obtain them Sure they were Prelatical Presbyters what honour were it to Episcopacy that you are no Bishop if all these and such things were vended by you in hope of a Bishoprick or some Preferment I will never whilst I breathe trust a Presbyter that sets himself to get Preferment no more than I will trust a But did you know or did you not that as for Novatus and Novatian one of them was an ill-chosen Bishop of Rome and the other a Promoter of his Prelacy and that as for Donatus there were two of them one of them a Bishop and that the Donatists Schism was meerly and basely Prelatical even whether their Bishop or Cecilianus should carry it and that their Re-baptizing and Re-ordaining and Schism was because they took none to have power that had it not from their Bishop as being their right like our Re-ordainers And are these Instances to prove what you assert Were it not for entring upon an unpleasing and unprofitable Task I would ask you 1. Who that Iuncto of Presbyters was that dethroned the King was it they that petitioned and protested against it 2. Whether it was not an Episcopal Parliament forty to one if not an hundred that began the War against the King 3. Whether the General and Commanders of the Army twenty to one were not Conformists 4. Whether the Major Generals in the Countries were not almost all Episcopal Conformists The Earl of Stamford was over your Country 5. Whether the Admiral and Sea-Captains were not almost all Episcopal Conformists As Heylin distinguisheth them of Archbishop Abbots mind disliking Arminianism Monopolies c. 6. Whether the Archbishop of York were not the Parliaments Major General 7. Whether the Episcopal Gentry did not more of them take the Engagement and many Episcopal Ministers than the Presbyterians 8. Whether if this Parliament which made the Acts of Uniformity and Conventicles should quarrel with the King it would prove them to be Presbyterians and Nonconformists 9. Whether the Presbyterian Ministers of London and Lancashire did not write more against the Regicides and Usurpers and declare against them than all the Conformists or as much And the Long Parliament was forced and most of them cast out before the King could be destroyed And when they were restored it made way for his Restoration And Sir Thomas Allen Lord Mayor and the City of Londons inviting General Monk from the Rump into the City and joyning with him was the very Day that turned the Scales for the King But all these are Matters fitter for your better Consideration than our Debate I rest Your Servant Rich. Baxter Iuly 26. 1678. To Mr. Long of Exeter Numb VI. A Resolution of this Case What 's to be done when the Law of the Land commands Persons to go to their Parish-Church and Parents require to go to private Meetings Quest. THE Law of the Land commandeth me to go to the Publick Churches the Canon commandeth me to go to my own Parish-Church and not to another Parish Both forbid me to go to Conventicles and silenced Preachers My Father and Mother forbid me to go to the Publick Churches and command me to go constantly to a silenced Minister in Meetings forbidden by the Law But specially not to go to my Parish Priest saying he is an insufficient and drunken Railer but to a Neighbour Parish if I will not obey their first Command Am I now bound to obey my Parents