find answered by the University of Oxford and seconded by the University of Cambridge The King told his Parliament March 19. 1603. The third which I call a Sect rather than Religion is the Puritan and Novelist who do not differ so far from us in points of Religion as in their confused forms of Polity and Parity being ever discontented with the present Government and impatient to suffer any superiority which makes their Sect unable to be suffered in any well governed Common-wealth And it is one reason why Grotius was so condemned for a Papist among this people because in his Book de Anti-Christo he hath left this Character of them Circumferamus oculos per omnem historiam quod unquam seculum vidit tot subditorum in principes bella sub religionis titulo horum concitatores ubique reperiuntur Ministri Evangelici ut quidam se vocant quod genus hominum in quae pericula etiam nunc opti mos Civitatis Amstelodamensis magistratus conjicerit videat si cui libet de Presbyterorum in Reges audacia librum Jacobi Britanniarum Regis cui nomen Donum Regium videbit eum ut erat magni judicii ea praedixisse quae nunc cum dolore horrore conspicimus I will give it you presently in that Kings English But the King giving them a fair hearing in the conference at Hampton Court partly by his Arguments and partly by his Authority suppressed them for that time Yet this restless people so incensed him by their murmurings and reproaches that he frequently in his Writings and Speeches in Parliament professed both his jealousie of them and caution against them in his Preface to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These rash heady Preachers says he think it their honour to contend with Kings and perturb whole Kingdoms and p. 41. 42. Take heed my Son to such Puritans very Pests in the Church and Common-weal whom no Desert can oblige neither Oaths nor Promises bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own Imaginations without any warrant of the word the square of their Consciences I protest before the great God and since I am here as upon my Testament it is no place for me to lye in that ye shall never find with any Highland or border Thieves greater ingratitude and more lies and vile perjuries than with these Fanatick-spirits and suffer not the principles of them to brook your Land if ye like to sit at rest except ye would keep them for trying your patience as Socrates did an evil Wife The good King Charles found this Prophecy to be true for notwithstanding all the care that himself and Arch-bishop Laud who apprehended the approaching danger to suppress them in so much as that Mr. Baxter says in that 7. § That the old Non-conformists being most dead and the latter gone most to America we cannot learn that in 1640. there were many more Nonconformists Ministers in England than there be Counties if so many the Wolves be like had got on the Sheeps Cloathing and not being able to ruine the Church by open force seek to undermine it by secret Arts being got within the Pale In 37. says Mr. Baxter Arch-bishop Laud using more severity than formerly and the Visitations inquiring more after private Fasts and Meetings and going out of their Parishes to hear And in many Places Lectures and Afternoon Sermons being put down which was done only where Faction and Sedition were Sown and there Catechizing a much more useful exercise was injoyned in its room by these things and some other which he there mentioneth the minds of Men were made more jealous than before and fears and jealousies were made the grounds of the War the King and Arch-bishop being reported to be Popishly affected though they both as well in their Life time as at their Deaths gave irrefragable Arguments for the contrary sealing the truth of their Professions with their Blood And after the Imprisonment of some the stigmatizing of others and the removal of many beyond the Seas all which both many and some amounted not to above Three or Four whom though the Parliament received in Triumph and plentifully rewarded yet they found them to be turbulent Persons viz. Prin Burton and Bastwick for I hear not of any removed beyond the Seas by authority these were the causes of Alienating the peoples Minds from the Bishops and made them afraid of Popery more than before and so it is still any restraint from Faction is Condemned for Popery Mr. Baxter tells us there of another Intregue Then was the New Liturgy imposed on the Scots with other changes there attempted which were the resuming of some Lands belonging to the Church and Crown which had been Sacrilegiously withheld during a great part of King James and King Charles's Reign with the fear of losing the Tithes that some great Men there detained from the Clergy whereupon the Scots Armed and Invaded England and some English Lords saith Mr. Baxter took advantage to prevail with the King to call a Parliament once again And here doubtless was the beginning of the War the Scots and such English as were in confederacy and had agreed upon a Covenant for Reformation being the first Aggressors But let Mr. Baxter proceed The Irish observing it is like how the Scots thrived in their Rebellion on Oct. 23. 1641. rose and murdered 200000. Persons and Mr. Baxter is not ashamed to say the News was here reported that they said they had the Kings Commission just as much as the Parliament had to fight by his Authority against his Person whereupon the Parliaments Declarations raised in multitudes of the people a fear that they had partakers in England and when they had done their work there they would come hither And mark the consequence there was no way of safety but to adhere to the Parliament for their own defence i. e. to strengthen the War against the King And in 42. says he the lamentable Civil War broke out but between whom did the Bishops fight against the King or against one another or against the Parliament no such matter How began the War then Mr. Baxter says the Houses of Lords and Commons consisted of such as had been Conformists except an inconsiderable number Some number then were apparently Non-conformists and it seems they had infected many others for Mr. Baxter says they were such as had been Conformists they were not so when the War began and N.B. their fear of being over-powr'd by the Loyal party of whom they thought themselves in sudden danger caused them to countenance such Petitionings and Clamours of the Londoners Apprentices and others as we think disorders and Provocations of the King This doubtless was a beginning of the War of which see the Kings complaint in his Ch. of Tumults Mr. Baxter says farther the first open beginning was about the Militia which by an Act of Parliament is thus determined That the
sole Command and disposition thereof is and by the Laws of England ever was the undoubted right of His Majesty and that both or either of the Houses of Parliament cannot nor ought to pretend to the same c. How then did the controversie between the Bishops and Conformists begin the War when the dispute of the Militia did it In truth there were as Wilson in his History of King James confesseth Regians and Republicans and the dispute in several Parliaments was between the Prerogative and Priviledges and as Mr. Baxter says where other Parliaments ended that of 40. began And is it not strange that there should be so few Non-conformists in 41. and 42. and yet in 43. when the Covenant was brought in all the Parliament and Assembly and Officers in any Court in the Army and in the Navy should generally take the Covenant for that was made the Test of all such as should be intrusted and we hear of very few that refused and I think there is no great difference between a Covenanter and a Presbyterian who still cry up the Scottish Discipline as the very Scepter and Kingdom of Jesus Christ to which all Kings and Scepters must bow or break The Third Accusation is the death of the King of which Mr. Baxter says that he proved in times of Usurpation that the Presbyterians detested it and that it was done by a Proud Conquering Army Answ Who rose that Army and carried on that War wherein the King perished it was not the last stroak given by the Independents that felled that Royal Oak there were many repeated blows at the very Root of Majestie given by others which cut all the Ligaments of his Power and Authority in sunder chopt off all the Branches his two great Ministers as Mr. Baxter calls them the whole Order of Bishops His power of the Militia Forts Garrisons and Navy and exposed the declining trunk to the fury of a Rascal party whom themselves had Armed to the Kings ruine I shall freely give you my thoughts of it in an answer to another writing of Mr. Baxters where he seeks more at large to excuse the Presbyterians from this horrid Crime Mr. Baxter says were it not for entring upon an unpleasing and unprofitable task I would ask you who that Juncto of Presbyterians was that dethron'd the King Answ The question I confess is very unpleasing for Infandum renovare jubes Baxtere dolorem Yet because it may be profitable to know the truth I say that the dethroning so good a King was a fact of an unparalled nature to which the Sins of the whole Nation contributed as well as yours and mine and whereof we ought still to repent and beg pardon notwithstanding the Act of Oblivion Yet there was a Select Juncto that had a more immediate influence into it and you ask me who they were though I believe you know them better than my self I will tell you my thoughts freely First they were the Men whom Mr. Baxter Canonizeth for Saints in his Everlasting Rest p. 83. in my Edition viz. Brook and Prin and Hambden and White c. For I suppose you could have named many more of your own Coat as precious Saints as they of whom you say with an Asseveration Surely they are now Members of a more knowing unerring well-ordered right-aiming self-denying unanimous honourable Triumphant Senate than this from whence they were taken or ever Parliament will be But what if they are gone to another place than what your Everlasting Rest intended have you not made a scurvy Reflection on your long beloved Parliament and some Men do fear they were never admitted into Gods everlasting rest because you that fancied them there were ashamed to continue them in yours being left out in your latter Editions Secondly I say it was that Juncto who procured great numbers of factious and tumultuous people in a rude and illegal way to affright the Loyal and most considerable part of the Parliament from their duties and trust reposed in them by God and Man such were the Kings Majesty and the Prince the Loyal Nobles the Bishops and chosen Gentry posting them up as Malignants and exposing them to the fury of the Rabble of which tumults one of your Saints Mr. Pym by name said God forbid that the House of Commons should dishearten their people to obtain their just desires in such a way Exact Collect p. 531. Mr. Baxter p. 474. of the Holy Common-wealth makes this Objection The tumults at Westminster drove him away to which he answereth Only by displeasing him not by indangering or meddling with him and another eminent Man of Mr. Baxters acquaintance in his Jehovah Jireth p. 65. says the Apprentices and Porters were stimulated and stirred up by Gods Providence Thousands of them to Petition the Parliament for speedy redress Whereas the Five Members and their favourers had inraged the multitude not so much to Petition the Parliament as to affront the King Thirdly It was that Juncto who against His Majesties Crown and Dignity against the known Laws and his express Proclamation to the contrary did contrive and impose under heavy penalties the Solemn League and Covenant upon the Nation whereby they did justify the Rebellion and avow the maintenance of it against the King and his Forces And having first vowed with their Lives and Estates to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament they add and to preserve the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom Which experience sheweth they no more intended though it be here put in as it was in Essex's Commission than it was in Fairfax's where as I am informed they left it out and if they meant as they speak they had no great care of his person having actually deprived him of his Authority And besides that limitation they preserve the Kings Person in defence of the true Religion Covenanted to introduce another Religion in Doctrin and Worship in opposition to that which was established by Law and resolutely defended by his Majesty and to root out Episcopacy which as he had sworn to support so had it been a great prop to the Throne and therefore his Majesty declared concerning the 19. Propositions that he could not consent unto them without violating his Conscience and a total extirpation of that Government whose Rights they had a mind to invade and which was necessary to the well being of His Majesty as by many Arguments in the Chapter concerning Church Government it appears This certainly was one of the keenest Instruments that hewed down the Throne For the Speech without Doors defending Mr. Challoners Speech within Doors tells the Parliament that they are bound by their Covenant for bringing evil Instruments to Condigne Punishment to destroy the King and his Posterity and that they cannot justifie the taking away of Strafford's and Canterbury's Lives for Delinquency while they suffered the chief Delinquent to go
Prognostication and some other of Mr. Baxters Books among the Almanacks for 1661. In perpetuam Rei oblivionem A FAREWEL TO Mr. Baxter IN the Preface to your late Book of Concord you desire That if you erre they to whom you write would faithfully detect your errour that you may repent before you die and may leave behind you a Recantation of all your mistakes and miscarriages as you say you intend to do upon Conviction You confess that by our differences Satan hath got great advantage in England against that Christian Love which is the Life and Character of Christs Disciples and to cause Wrath Envy Hatred and Strife that the honour and success of the Ministry is thereby hindered The Wicked and Infidels are hardned the weak scandalized the Papists incouraged to despise us all and many turn to them scandalized by our discord Sects are advantaged the Church and Kingdom by Division weakned and the King denyed the comfort which he might have in a loving united and Concordant people Now I beseech you lay your hand upon your heart and consider whether your actions and writings have not notoriously contributed to these mischiefs You confess that you were one that blew up the Coals of our unhappy Divisions and that if you had been for the King you had incurred the danger of Condemnation you gave several intimations that the King was Popishly affected as Bishop Bramhal affirms you incouraged great numbers to that War many of which perished in it You applauded the grand Regicide as one that prudently piously and faithfully to his immortal honour did exercise the Government you have since the establishment incouraged and defended separation notwithstanding you did sometime seem to oppose it And now at last you proclaim the terms of our Communion to be such as have increased an impossibility of Conforming And why may I not now expostulate with you as you do with those whom you thought guilty of the like evil p. 14. of your answer to Bagshaw Is it possible for any sober Christian in the World to take them to be blameless or those to be little sins what both the violating the person and the Life of so good a King and the change of the fundamental Government or Constitution and the Armies force upon the Parliament which they promised Obedience to the making their General Protector The making an instrument of Government themselves without the people The setting up their second Protectour The setting up the remnant of the Commons again the pulling them presently down again of whom he said that they had sworn and sworn and sworn again to be faithful to and to defend them and that they were the best Governours in all the World and such as 't is forbidden Subjects to oppose upon pain of damnation Was all this lawful and to do all this with dreadful appeals to God and as for God If all this was not Rebellion or Treason or Murder is there any such crime think you possible to be committed are Papists insulting over us in our shame are thousands hardned by these and such like dealings into a scorn of Religion are our Rulers exasperated by all this into the severities which we feel are Ministers silenced by the occasion of it are we made by it the by-word and hissing of the Nations and the shame and pitty of all our friends and yet is all this to be justified or silenced and none of it at all to be openly repented of I openly profess to you that till this be done we are never like to be healed and restored and that it is heinous gross impenitence that keepeth Ministers and people under their distress And I take it for the sad Prognostick of our future Woe and at best our lengthned affliction to read such writings against Repentance and to hear so little open profession of Repentance even for unquestionable heinous crimes for the saving of those that are undone by these scandals and for the Reparation of the honour of Religion which is most notoriously injured to see Men still think that their Repentance is the dishonour of their party and cause whose honour can no other way be repaired to see Men so blind as to think that the silencing of these things will hide them as if they were not known to the world That man or party that will justifie all those heinous crimes and still plead Conscience or Religion for them doth grievous injury to Conscience and Religion I have told you truly that Gods way of vindicating the honour of Religion is for us by open free Confession to take all the shame to our selves that it be not injuriously cast upon Religion And the Devils way of preserving the honour of the godly is by justifying their Sins and pleading Religion for them that so religiousness it self may be taken for Hypocrisie and wickedness as maintaining and befriending wickedness And p. 12. Is Repentance an unbecoming thing I hope the Act of Oblivion was not made to frustrate Gods Act of Oblivion which giveth pardon to the penitent doth it forbid us to repent of sin or to perswade our Brethren to repent where sin is hated Repentance will not be hated and if sin were as bitter as it must be Repentance would not be bitter if I was guilty of such sins as you affirm I do openly confess that if I lay in Sack-cloth and in Tears and did lament my sins before the world and beg pardon both of God and Man and intreat all Men not to impute it to Religion but to me and to take warning by my fall which had done such unspeakable wrong both to Christ and Men I should do no more than the plain light of nature assureth me to be my great and needful duty p. 17. Now all that Bagshaw accused Mr. Baxter of was p. 1. That he was as guilty of stirring up and fomenting that War as any one whatever concerning which if we take his own Confession and consider his circumstances being an Episcopal Ordained Minister whose Office was to Preach Obedience and Peace his applauding the first Boutefeus as glorious Saints in Heaven his vindicating the Authority and War of the Parliament against the King his pertinacious adhering to the Covenant crying down the Royal Martyr as a Papist after he had sealed the sincerity of his heart to the Reformed Religion by his blood and the crying up of his Murtherer for a prudent pious and faithful Governor His principles in his Holy Common-wealth and his present practices in defending Schism and so sowing Sedition and reproaching the established Laws and Government in Church and State if these do not prove him guilty of what Mr. Bagshaw accused him yet I am sure they cry aloud for his Repentance and Retractations which he once promised the world p. 26 27. of his Defence of the Principles of Love but never that I hear of hath been so ingenious to perform as he ought It is an ill diversion for such a