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A49130 A review of Mr. Richard Baxter's life wherein many mistakes are rectified, some false relations detected, some omissions supplyed out of his other books, with remarks on several material passages / by Thomas Long ... Long, Thomas, 1621-1707. 1697 (1697) Wing L2981; ESTC R32486 148,854 314

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in a way that should make their hearts to ake I think saith Mr. Baxter their hearts have aked by this time and as they judged him to the Gallows for his Prediction so hath Christ executed them by Thousands for their Rebellion against him Now it is evident what Discipline Vdal meant by his Confederacy with Coppinger Penry c. of which Cambden p. 420. of his Eliz. Angl. says Some of those Men who were great Admirers of the Geneva Discipline thought there was no better way for establishing it in England than by railing against the English Hierarchy and stirring up the People to a dislike of Bishops They therefore set forth scandalous Books against the Government of the Church and Prelates as Martin Mar-Prelate Minerals Diotrephes A Demonstration of Discipline c. In which Libels they set forth virulent Calumnies and opprobrious Taunts and Reproaches in such manner as the Authours seemed rather Scullions out of the Kitchin than pious and godly Men yet the Authours were Penry and Vdal Ministers of the Word Bishop Bancroft quoteth a Pamphlet of Mr. Vdal's called A Dialogue where he says That the Bishops Callings are meer Antichristian p. 59. of Dangerous Positions and p. 45. he says They were very devilish and infamous Dialogues and that there was a Conspiracy between Coppinger Wigginton c. by some extraordinary means such as Vdal had prophesied should make their hearts to ake for releasing of some that stood in danger of their lives meaning as I suppose says the Bishop Vdal Newman c. The dangers threatned by such extraordinary means to disturb the Goverment hastned the Trial of Vdal who with three others took occasion from the intended Invasion in 88 to alarm the Nation at home as also they did on the Powder Plot and to this day do by scattering seditious Pamphlets Vdal was charged with a Book called A Demonstration of Discipline which Christ hath prescribed in his Word for the government of his Church in all times and places to the Worlds end The Preface was directed To the supposed Governours of the Church of England to whom he says Who can deny you without blushing to be the cause of all ungodliness seeing your Government is that which giveth leave to a Man to be any thing save a sound Christian for certainly it's more free in these days to be a Papist Anabaptist of the Family of Love yea as any most wicked rather than what we should be And I could live these Twenty years as well as any such in England yea in a Bishop's House it may be and never be molested for it So true is that you are charged with in a Dialogue lately come forth and by you burnt that you care for nothing but the Maintenance of your Dignities be it to the damnation of your own Souls and infinite millions more The whole Book being like this Preface he was indicted at the Assizes held at Croyden and found guilty He pleaded That he was indicted on the Statute of 23 of Eliz. c. 2. for publishing seditious words against the Queen but that the Book charged on him contained no seditious words against the Queen but the Bishops only But it was answered by the Judges N.B. That they who spake against her Majesty's Government in Cases Ecclesiastical her Laws Proceedings or Ecclesiastical Officers which ruled under her did defame the Queen And on clear proof that he was the Authour of that Libel he was found guilty and received Sentence of Death but by intercession of Archbishop Whitgift was Reprieved Mr. Baxter's actings have been so like Mr. Vdal's that it is no wonder to find him labouring to justifie him in a Cause wherein himself is so nearly concerned In 1659. came forth Mr. Baxter's Key for Catholicks dedicated To his Highness Richard Lord Protector p. 323. where he asserts That if the Body of a Commonwealth or those that have part in the Legislative Power and so in the Supremacy should be unwillingly engaged in a War with the Prince suppose the Long Parliament or the Commonwealth under Oliver against King Charles the First and after many years Blood and Desolations judiciously take away his Life as guilty of all this Blood and not to be trusted any more with Government as the Parliaments Vote for Non-address to the King And all this they do not as Private Men but as the remaining Soveraign Power and say they do it according to Law undoubtedly this case doth very much differ from the Powder Plot or Papists murdering of Kings With much more to the same evil purpose And doubtless the difference is great it is more horrid for Subjects to pretend Justice than for the Pope to attempt by secret Plots to destroy a Protestant Prince In the year 58. he prints his Five Disputations of Church Government which were designed against restoring the extruded Episcopacy and Liturgy and to justifie the Presbyterian Ordination where as also in his Method for Peace p. 389. he saith We have taken down the superfluous honour of Bishops viz. their power over Presbyters as Antichristian This disputatious Book he says was written against Dr. Hammond who was then his Neighbour and he dealt very friendly with him for he scarce touched one of his Arguments but the design of the Book was to destroy the whole Order as Optatus said of a Donatist Dei Episcopos linguae gladio jugulasti fundens sanguinem non corporis sed honoris Opt. Milevit l. 2. And because after No Bishop follows No King in 1659. he sets forth his Holy Common-wealth which was no other than a Plot to keep out the King as the other was to keep out the Bishops for there being great hopes that upon so many Revolutions of Government we should settle again on our ancient Foundations he says He suited that Book to the demands and doubts of those times And his endeavour is to prove That the King being secluded and his Subjects discharged of their Obedience ought not to be readmitted Thus in the Preface That a Succession of wise and godly Men may be secured to the Nation in the highest Power is that I have directed you the way to in this Book And thus he explains himself First as to the higher Powers Prove saith he that the King was the highest Power in the times of Division and that he had power to make that War that he made and I will offer my Head to Justice as a Rebel These confident Assertions of his were such as brought a far better Head to the Block But what would Mr. Baxter have My wish is saith he that our Parliaments may be holy and this ascertained from Generation to Generation by such a necessary Regulation of Elections that all those who by wickedness have forfeited their Liberties i.e. the King and Loyal Party may neither choose nor be chosen And the reducing Elections to faithful honest upright men such as he says were then in Richard Cromwel 's Parliament is the only
War and was supported fourteen years in a languishing estate wherein he had scarce a waking hour free from pain And thus though against his will he is forced to leave the Army And might not Mr. Baxter justly say and the Reader believe him in this as he writes in a Letter to Dr. Hill I have been in the heat of my Zeal so forward to changes and ways of blood that I fear God will not let me have a hand in the peaceable building of his Church And the Judgment of God is eminently upon him who hath been so far from building that it hath ever since been his great business to destroy the best established Church in the World which will appear by taking a view of this mortified Man in his retirement from the War And we find him sitting down on the sequestred Living of Mr. Dance at Kedderminster he had inticed many of that place and neighbourhood to the War and some few returned with him again How far he was given to Plunder in the time of War whereof he hath been accused I affirm not but it will draw a shrewd suspicion on him that he was not afraid to take a Horse or two in time of War who seized on the Person of a Neighbour to serve as an Exchange for his Father and possessed himself of the Livelyhood of Mr. Dance of whom he confessed as the then Bp. of Worcester's Letter p. 3. informs That he was a Man of an unblameable Life and Conversation though not of such Parts as might qualifie him for the Cure of so great a Congregation And though Mr. Baxter was not welcomed here by a Miracle as he was at * See Mr. Baxter's Relation of this in a Postscript to his True Catholick p. 294. Bridgenorth where the Report is that it rained Manna on the Church wherein he was to officiate yet he was convinced by Providence as he says in that Epistle That it is the Will of God it should be so a strange Argument from God's permission of an unrighteous Act that it is his Will it should be so For this saith he I clearly discerned in my first coming to you in my former abode with you and in the time of my forced absence from you But the truth is Mr. Baxter had too much adhered to the Presbyterian Interest to be advanced by that Army though he desires them to remember how far he had gone with them in the War and pleadeth their acknowledgment that a special Presence of God was with the Parliament and presseth on them the Sin of forcing out 140 Members first and then 120 and their proclaiming it Treason to say that the Parliament was in being And then he urgeth those Scriptures to them which himself had shewn them an example to contemn Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 and that they might know his meaning he tells them That the secluded Members were the best Governours in all the World that they had the Supremacy and yet had been resisted and deposed in England It was a Sin with Mr. Baxter to oppose the Usurpers and a Duty to resist the King and fight against him which Mr. Baxter did for four years together And it is to be believed saith Mr. Baxter that a man would kill him against whom he fights p. 423. Holy Commonwealth But Mr. Baxter was not very constant to his own Profession concerning his long beloved Parliament For in the same place and breath almost he says Secondly I mean the Powers that were last layed by viz. Richard and his Parliament of whom he says as to Richard That he piously prudently and faithfully to his immortal honour did exercise the Government how ill soever you have used him But wherein did all this Piety and Prudence appear was it that he did inherit from his Father Oliver a tender care of the Cause of Christ of which you seem to give an instance in the Protestants of Piedmont when it was notorious that a great part of the Charity of the Nation for their Relief was employed in maintaining the War against the King Was it that at the instance of a few of his Officers he dissolved that Parliament of his Was it in swearing that he would to the utmost of his power maintain and preserve the just Rights and Priviledges of the People and govern according to Law which he could not do Was it in making a tame Submission to some of his Army calling them The present Government from whom he expected Protection and held himself obliged to live peaceably under them and to procure to the utmost of his power that others should do so too These things argue no great stock of Piety Prudence or Faithfulness And as to Richard's Parliament which had an Upper House consisting mostly of Military Mechanical and Fanatick Members a Lower House of Men of none or very ill note Of this Parliament Mr. Baxter says He never had known a Parliament more inclined to Piety and Peace the Long Parliament not excepted whereof he gives this instance Because it was their desire to have setled Elections according to Mr. Baxter's advice i.e. to keep out all whom he calls ungodly from chusing or being chosen See the Preface to the Holy Commonwealth These and such like were they of whom Mr. Baxter says They were the best Governours in all the World such as they had sworn and sworn to obey again and again such as might not be imposed on pain of Damnation and that he would with great rejoycing give a thousand thanks to that Man that would acquaint him of one Nation in the World that had better Governours in Soveraign Power as to Holiness and Wisdom conjunct than these who yet had been resisted and deposed It seems Mr. Baxter could have been easily reconciled to any Governours but those to whom of right the Government did belong And any Reader conversant in Mr. Baxter's Writings may observe that Mr. Baxter never complained so much of Arbitrary Government and Persecution under any of the Revolutions of Usurped Powers as he hath done since the King and Church were restored nay he wrote as industriously for Obedience to some of them as he hath since to incourage Disobedience to these And let me desire the Reader to consider what ground Mr. Baxter had for his great veneration of the Secluded Members more than for those who were called the Rump Did not they agree in that accursed Vote of Non-Addresses to the King before their Seclusion Did not they upon their re-admission re-enforce the Engagement to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth without a King or House of Lords Did not some of them provide an Oath of Abjuration of the King to be taken by such as were to sit in the Council of State Did not some of them send to General Monk to advise him that he must take that Oath before his admittance into that Council Did they not offer to settle Hampton-Court on General Monk and desire him to take