Macedonians lib. 2. cap. 13. and 35. and the Nestorians who burnt the Arian Church at Constantinople lib. 7. cap. 20. vexed the Novatians and Macedonians lib. 7. cap. 31. And all this by the instigation of Anastatius a Presbyter lib. 7. cap. 32. Yet all these Tâ—mults are imputed to the Bishops who all the while suffered from the heretical Presbyâ—… the true Ancestors of Mr. Baxter Majorum quisquis fuit ille tuorum Aut Pastor fuit aut illud quod dicere nolo Chap. 7. Mr. Baxter treats of the Tria Capitula The Tria Capitula were three Chapters mentioned in the Council of Chalcedon in which the Nestorians who could not longer defend their Heresie under the Name of its Author sought to cloke it under the Name and Writings of Theodorus Bishop of Mopsuestia of Theodoret's Writings against St. Cyril and an Epistle of Ibas unto Maris These made the Tria Capitula for which Pope Vigilius and some of his Party appeared But the Emperour Justinian and the Catholick Bishops appeared against them Many Sectaries who were condemned under the name of the Acephali disclaimed this Council others pretended it had approved of the Tria Capitula Great Divisions ensued hereupon Justinian knowing that the Council of Chalcedon had exploded that Heresie sends forth his Imperial Edict wherein accursing the Authors and Abettors of those Tria Capitula he summons the Fifth General Council of Constantinople at which the Pope refused to be present noluit interesse saith Bellarmine and the true reason was because he favoured that Heresie and approved not of the Council of Chalcedon which was held without him and did determine for the Prerogative of Constantinople against him Vigilius though he came not himself sent his Decree which maintained that Heresie and was confuted in the Sixth Collation of the Council of Constans And they set forth a most holy Confession of their Faith consonant in all points to that which the Holy Apostles preached which the four former Councils explained and the holy Fathers with uniform consent maintained Now I would desire Mr. Baxter to resolve me whether the blame of those Commotions which followed on this Dissention is to be laid on the Emperour and the Catholick Bishops who sided with him in defence of the true Faith against Nestorianism as Binius and Baronius would have it or on the Pope and his Italians who pleaded for that Heresie and together with the Agnoites Gainaites Theodosians Themistians and the rest of the Acephali promoted and continued those Broils Chap. 9. Consisting of about Sixty Pages is spent about the Worshipping of Images whereof he makes the Bishops Patrons Whereas many both Emperours and Bishops suffered very much as Iconoclastes i.e. the destroyers of Images Bishop Jewel challengeth the Church of Rome to shew but one Authority during Six hundred Years of the Church for worshipping Images and is not yet answered The rise of which in brief was this The Arcans and Donatists having wasted the Church made way for vast numbers of Infidels to enter in who brought with them and superstitiously honoured the Images of their Benefactors and many ignorant Christians learned their customs The Pictures of St. Peter and St. Paul we read of in Ancient History but withal we read they were not permitted to be brought into the Churches The opposition made against them may be seen in the Magdeburg In the year 754 the Bishops disputed against them and in a Council at Constantinople consisting of 338 Bishops How Leo Isauricus and Gregory Bishop of Neocaesaria opposed them is too large to repeat It was about the year 787 that Irene who was Daughter to a Pagan King of Tartaria gave publick countenance to Image-worship She ruling as Empress in the minority of Constantine her Son promoted this Pagan custom for as Mr. Hales observes Dux femina facti she was a Woman of so Tyrannous a Spirit that she caused the eyes of her Son Constantine to be put out which struck a great awe into the Christians under her One cause of her Cruelty to her Son being his opposing this Image-worship But finding one Tarasius to be of her mind she makes him Patriarch of Constantinople and calls a Council at Nice consisting of 350 Bishops most of them Arians and so about the year 787 they Decreed for Image-worship But in the year 792 all was reversed by Charles the Great in a Council at Frankfort One Decree mentioned by Mr. Baxter I shall remind him of it is p. 213. A man that had his hands in blood must not be a Bishop Another Heresie which makes the Church History to swell is that of the Monothelites of which Mr. Baxter speaks ch 8. And because he saith nothing of the rise of it I shall It was occasioned by one John Philoponus a Presbyter who wrote subtilly concerning it and drew many to his Opinion Anno 517. but all the time that Justinian was Emperour they hid themselves and propagated their Heresie in Conventicles for it was condemned by 175 Bishops in the fifth Synod of Constantinople and confuted by the Learned Bishop Gregory Nazianzene and by 603 Bishops in the fourth General Council at Chalcedon and in the sixth Synod of Constantinople by 170 Bishops But after the death of Theodosius Philippicus succeeded of whose Succession a Monotholite Monk had foretold him and that if he would rescind the Decrees of the sixth Synod and favour the Monothelites he should raign long and happily This made Philippicus to espouse that Cause and presently he banisheth Cyrus Patriarch of Constantinople and many Orthodox Bishops He maketh one John a Presbyter Patriarch and filleth up the vacant Bishopricks with Presbyters of that Faction and then assembles them and confirms that Heresie But the Bishops of the Western Churches resisted it and sent thundering Letters against it And it is no wonder that the Orthodox Bishops did hide themselves under this Tyranny or that Philippicus found Presbyters to make Bishops in their room who defended him and the Faction For it is well known how many such in our Age adhered to usurping Powers and defended as great both State and Ecclesiastical Heresies as this of the Monothelites and would not permit the Bishops to appear But if these Presbyters had taken the name of Bishops under Cromwel as the Monothelites did under Philippicus you might with as much truth have affirmed that innumerable Bishops did in the times of our Confusions defend Rebellion and Heresie as that the Bishops who suffered all manner of indignities from the Monothelites did defend that Errour or raise those Tumults This Philippicus within a year and half was deprived of the Empire by the same Souldiers that set him up who put out his Eyes and left him to die in Prison as a Tyrant These instances for I remember that I am writing a Character of Mr. Baxter and not of the ancient Hereticks may suffice to acquaint the Reader of the ingenuity of this Man who rails intolerably against
Theological Differences but Law Differences Letter to Mr. Hinckley p. 25. The first open beginning was about the Militia says Mr. B. And how then did the Bishops begin it The Commons wrested it from the King and by one Order after another seized his Forts and Magazines the Tower of London and his Navy Had any of the Bishops a hand in this They all did and now do own That the sole command and disposition of it 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 They were such Conformists who begun the War as Mr. B. who taught That the Law that saith the King shall have the Militia supposeth it to be against Enemies and not against the Commonwealth nor them that have a part in the Soveraignty and to resist him here is not to resist Power but Vsurpation and private Will And where the Soveraignty is divided into several hands as into King and Parliament and the King invades the other part they may lawfully defend their own by War and the Subject lawfully assist them yea though the power of the Militia be expresly given to the King unless it be also expressed that it shall not be in the other H.C.W. Thes 363. Another beginning of the War was a Confederacy with the Scots then in the Bowels of the Nation with whom the King was informed that some of the Parliament held Correspondence with The Earls of Essex of Warwick Bedford Clare Bullingbrook Mulgrave Holland the Lords Say and Brook and many more were said to be of this Confederacy p. 17. of B's Life with the five Members and Kimbolton whom the Parliament and City protected from the hands of Justice and procured and countenanced armed Tumults Mr. B. makes an Objection p. 474. of H.C.W. That Tumult at Westminster drove him i.e. the King away Answ Only by displeasing not by endangering or medling with him though the King tells us otherwise in his Chapter of Tumults to which I refer and observe Mr. B's Account p. 19. of his Life That too great numbers of Apprentices and others emboldned by proceedings of Parliament not fore-knowing what fire the sparks of their Temerity would kindle did too triumphingly and disorderly urge the Parliament as they had done the King crying Justice Justice the King called these Tumults the Parliament called them City Petitioners which in the end did more than displease the King So that his Report of an Episcopal War was but a Dream of his own though he affirms he was as sure of it as of any thing that he saw yet elsewhere he says no Man can tell where and when and by whom the War was begun Confessions p. 61. Mr. B. knows another sort of five Members that begun the War who were no Episcopal Men I mean the Smectymnuans who wrote so insolently and pedantickly against that meek pious and learned Bishop Hall And how Isaac Pennington brought a Petition of 15000 Londonners against Archbishops Bishops c. which was seconded by the like from several Counties And on March 10. 1640. a Bill is read in the House against Episcopacy and their Vote in Parliament taken away and many of them sent to the Tower for entring a Protest for their Priviledge Did any of the Bishops call in the Scots or promote the Covenant or sit in the Assembly who were chosen to that very end that they might stir up the People to assist the Parliament against the King Though all these things be left on Record yet Mr. B. thinks by his bare Authority to perswade the present and succeeding Generations that the War was begun by Bishops and carried on by a Parliament an Army and Assembly of Conformists yet to excuse the Presbyterians he says p. 26. that the Separatists and Anabaptists began the War Mr. B. will not say that Bishop Hall whom he so frequently commends had any hand in the beginning of our Wars nor will he ever be able to perswade others that what he hath written and publickly delivered as Matter of Fact in the beginning of our Troubles is false I therefore refer the Reader to that Treatise written with his own hand May 29. 1647. having first given you part of a Speech delivered by this excellent Prelate in the House of Lords p. 425. of his Remains My Lords It is a foul and dangerous Insolence which is now complained of to you in the Petitions against Bishops but it is but one of an hundred of those which have of late been done to the Church and Government The Church of England as your Lordships cannot but know hath been and is miserably infested on both sides with Papists on one side and Schismaticks on the other The Psalmist hath of old distinguished the Enemies of the Church into wild Boars out of the Wood and little Foxes out of Burroughs the one whereof goes about to root up the very Foundation of Religion the other to crop the Branches and Blossoms and Clusters thereof both of them conspire the utter ruine and devastation of it As for the former of them I do perceive a great deal of good zeal for the remedy and suppression of them and I do heartily congratulate it and bless God for it and beseech him to prosper it But for the other give me leave to say I do not find many that are sensible of the danger of it which yet in my apprehension is very great and apparent Alas my Lords I beseech you to consider what it is that there should be in London and the Suburbs and Liberties no fewer than fourscore Congregations of several Sectaries as I have been credibly informed instructed by Guides fit for them Coblers Taylors Felt-makers and such like Trash which all are taught to spit in the face of their Mother the Church of England and defile and revile her Government From hence have issued those dangerous assaults of our Church Governours from hence that inundation of base and scurrilous Libels and Pamphlets wherewith we have been of late over-born in which Papists and Prelates like Oxen in a Yoke are still matched together O my Lords I beseech you to be sensible of this great indignity do but look on these Reverend Persons Do not your Lordships see here sitting on these Benches those that have spent their time their strength their bodies and lives in preaching down and writing down Popery and which would be ready if occasion were offered to sacrifice all their old blood that remains to the maintenance of that Truth of God which they have taught and written And shall we be thus despightfully ranged with them whom we do thus professedly oppose But alas this is but one of those many scandalous Aspersions and intolerable Affronts that are daily cast upon us My Lords if these Men may with freedom and impunity thus beat down Ecclesiastical Authority it is to be feared they will not
a difference amongst us which is the higher Power And be it remembred that he had offered his Head to Justice as a Rebel if any could prove that the King was the highest Power in the time of Division Whereas he himself confesseth that a Heathen persecuting Nero must be obeyed Yet he affirms That it was not the intent either of St. Peter or St. Paul to determine whether the Emperour or Senate was Supream though St. Peter plainly determines it when he calls the King Supream and St. Paul by appealing not to the Senate but to Caesar In that Sermon he magnifies the Loyalty of the Presbyterians adjures the Commons to an opposition of Episcopacy though the King in his Message commended it to be as ancient as the Monarchy in this Island And under the Titles of Sound Doctrine and Church Government pleads for Presbytery and would p. 46. have the Church Revenues setled on them p. 43. saying Give first to God the things that are Gods For these he pleads under the name of the godly peaceable and prudent people of the Land in opposition to the prophaneness And to insinuate new fears and jealousies cries out O what happy times did we once see When were those happy times Not in the peaceable time of King Charles the First those were days of Profaneness and Persecution He must mean either under the Long Parliament when so much Loyal Blood was shed or under the Protection of Oliver when the best of Princes was butchered or under Richard of whom and his Mock-Parliament he gives such large Encomiums But now Nox una perpetuo mansura The days of Light and Jubilee are gone And as it is with Bats and Owls when the Sun appears their Night is come He was it seems of the same mind with his Brother Jenkins who said in a Sermon preached Sept. 25. 1656. That the removal of Prelatical Innocations countervailed for the Blood and Treasure shed and spent in the late Distractions nor would he redeem all those by the return of the same if it might be done For Mr. Baxter speaking of Prelatical Men who condemn the Ministers and Churches that had not Prelatical Ordination says They would surely silence such Ministers and dissolve such Churches through all the Land if it were in their power as it may be says he when our sins have ripened us for SO GREAT A PLAGVE Postscript to True Cath. p. 335. CHAP. II. Nec dum finitus Orestes IF Great Theodosius as Mr. Baxter says Treatise of Bishops part 1. p. 147. did cast himself down on the Earth before Ambrose to beg pardon and re-admission with tears and was not received till some Months continued penance If Great Mr. Baxter being so heinous a Criminal as he hath under his own hand acknowledged should after such a miraculous return of the King humble himself before the King and his Nobles in such manner as he promised once he would do it was no more than was his duty and perhaps not enough to expiate his Crime Thus then Mr. Baxter expostulates p. 14. of his Answer to Bagshaw Is it possible for any sober Christians 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 The setting up the Protector and pulling him down again c. If all this were no Rebellion Treason or Murder is there any such Crimes to be committed If I was guilty of such sins Habemus confitentem Reum I do openly confess that if I lay in sackcloth and in tears and did lament my sins before the World and beg pardon both of God and Man and beg all Men 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. But he that had the confidence to meet the old King and his Armies in the Field now that the Sword is taken out of his hands wants not confidence to take up his Pen as dangerous a Weapon and most maliciously handled and to affront the then present King before he be well setled on his Throne in this Military way as he terms it in his Third Plea page the last And though his Fraternity could not be permitted to bring him under Articles before yet they vigorously attempt it after his return The first attempt was concerning a Declaration to be extorted from the King about Ecclesiastial Affairs We offered his Majesty and the Bishops at first the Archbishop Usher 's Model for Concord Treatise of Episc Part 2. p. 53. The Bishops would not once take it into consideration nor so much as vouchsafe to talk of it or bring it under any deliberation They knew whence it came not from the Archbishops but the Presbyterian Forge Mr. Baxter confesseth p. 87. second part They that would have conformed to his Majesty's Declaration which as you shall hear anon they had caused to be drawn according to their Model went on this Supposition that the Species of Prelacy was altered by it and yet on these terms they would unite with the Prelatists only so far as to go in a peaceable performance of their Office p. 116. just as now they do In that 116 p. Mr. Baxter supposeth this Objection against the Declaration for I can scarce call it his Majesty's being by the necessity of times and the importunity of troublesome Men extorted from him Obj. You did but obtrude on us your own Opinions for when you had drawn up most of those words his Majesty was forced to seem for the present to grant them to you for the quieting of you Answ p. 117. If we did offer such things for it was in vain to deny it let the World judge what we sought by them 2. There is most of that about Rural Deans put in I suppose by the Bishops consent who were to word it after it went FROM VS a good office indeed to whet a Sword to cut their own Throats and be the Presbyterians Journey-men to their own undoing For Thirdly Whoever mentioned or desired it it appears that the work of Jurisdiction Excommunication Absolution no nor Ordination was not thought to be above the Office of a Presbyter that is They would have robbed the Bishops of all their Power and Authority and taken it to themselves and then they would go on peaceably in the performance of their Office and therefore it is no wonder that the Bishops refused to consider of such a Model And that very Parliament that had so much manners as to thank his Majesty for that Declaration which others have not done for the Act of Oblivion did lay it by so that it was never done but other Laws established which we feel saith Mr. Baxter I cannot pass by that vain-glorious boasting of his so often mentioned how
and Kites that live on flesh and devour those that are better than themselves p. 201. Yet contrary to all this clamour he says p. 104. No Bishops have silenced as by spiritual Government i.e. as Bishops but only as Barons by the Secular Laws to which they gave their Votes which yet all did not Yea Mr. Baxter acknowledgeth their favour to himself in particular For my part saith he ibidem I have one or two of their Licenses never recalled nor nulled Are these Men such horrible Persecutors who did no more than the whole Nation in Parliament have done for Peace sake yet all their Silencing and Sufferings are charged most invidiously on the Bishops as if it were done by their sole Authority for one reason why they cannot give over Preaching is p. 241. n. 11. It will be an encouraging compliance with Church-tyranny to give over preaching as oft as Bishops forbid us because we will not take their Oaths and be stigmatiz'd with their PER. The Bishops as Bishops require no more now than what was required when Mr. Baxter and others subscribed at their Ordination and they are most likely to bear the PER who act contrary not they who act conformably to their Subscription The great cry of Perjury is raised in favour of the Covenant Yet Mr. Baxter p. 112. of his Apology says I never heard abjuring the Covenant was required of the Ministers they are only to subscribe That there is no obligation on them or any other Person to endeavour any change or alteration of Government in the Church And can this be thought a sufficient reason for Mr. Baxter a Man of 74 years old to cry out as a Child that hath fancied a Bugbear till he puts himself into dangerous fits and afrights all the Neighbourhood So bold and bloody are his accusations against the Bishops and Clergy especially for Persecution and Perjury that if a Stranger should read them he might think them meer Cannibals that lived on Humane flesh or incarnate fiends that delighted in Sacrifices of Blood though Mr. Baxter all the while knows them to be very innocent and tame persons For though he represent them as Lions greedy of prey yet dares he pluck them by the Beards and disgorge his filth in their mouths and after all imaginable provocations trusts himself between their Teeth and Claws as he is pleased to phrase it So great a Master of Discipline is Mr. Baxter But though he deal thus with the Bishops yet he should not make so bold with the King and Parliament and their Tearing Engines of the Laws as to write whole Volumes in defiance of them When the two Cromwels were on the Throne he taught a Doctrine quite contrary to his Apology for their practice then under King Charles Then he taught us That God never instituted Churches to be kept up in disobedience to those Christian Magistrates which he commands us to obey upon pain of Damnation p. 352. of his H. Commonwealth And Thesis 319. That Disobedience to our Rulers is in Ministers double treason and wickedness And 240 Thesis That it is necessary to the Churches peace that no private Congregations may be gathered or Antichurches erected without approbation or toleration from the Magistrates And that if private Assemblies be permitted unlimitedly then 1. It will be impossible to restrain Heresie Infidelity or Impiety Yea 2. They may meet to plot against the Magistrate And no Assemblies whatsoever he means besides those of the Parish-Church are to be allowed by the Magistrate And Thes 263. If Magistrates forbid Ministers to preach or exercise the rest of their Office in their Dominions they are to be obeyed as he instances in David and Solomon taking down and setting up Priests and ordering Officers in the House of God Were the two Cromwels such as David and Solomon to be intrusted with the House of God and is King Charles like Jeroboam whose interest it was to suppress the true Worship of God and permit Calves to be set up at Dan and Bethel I would fain see Mr. Baxter's Reasons for the Vniformity of the Churches then more than now and wherein Oliver and Richard did more Piously Faithfully and Prudently exercise the Government than King Charles I know it will grate on Mr. Baxter's spirit to have his Theses so often urged seeing he hath desired the whole Book might be taken as non Scriptus and that he retracts some things though he adds not all nor tells us any particulars But Quid verba audiam quum fact a videam To what purpose serves a Protestation against plain matter of Fact and daily practice whereby Mr. Baxter still vindicates many ill things delivered in that Book which he doth expresly also in the close of his Preface to the Second Plea where he affirms That in all the times of Vsurpation he said and wrote that the Kings Person is inviolable and to be judged by none either Peer or Parliament and that neither the King may destroy nor hurt the Kingdom nor the Kingdom the King And then adds That the very Book accused viz. The H. Commonwealth goeth on such principles and hath not a word meet to tempt a man in his wits to this accusation The contrary to which hath been often rehearsed to Mr. Baxter's great regret And his Brother Dr. Owen rightly tells him That they who will take liberty to speak what they please must be content to hear sometime what will displease And I would desire him to reconcile the former Theses of the Obedience of Ministers under Cromwel to his late Doctrine of resolved Disobedience to our present Governours For p. 226. of his First Plea he teacheth That Pastors preached against the will of Princes for Three hundred years And p. 26. That God wrought Miracles to justifie such Preachers when forbidden by Christian Princes who spake freely after their Tongues were cut out That there is a wo unto them if they preach not and many woes to them that shall forbid them which is the subject of his Apology Can Mr. Baxter wonder that no Man Answers these Books of his when the smoak and flame and stink of them is so horribly mischievous and inaccessible as if it came forth from the Bottomless-pit And this is the work of his Fellow-labourers of whom he says p. 163. There is not this day on Earth a more conscionable godly faithful Party of the Ministers of the Gospel than those that are now ejected silenced Nonconformists in England And his Testimony he speaks it of himself shall be believed when the Defamers and Calumniators shall not These Books and some other of which hereafter he covers over with much combustible matter prepared many years past against such false and bloody Plotters i.e. the Bishops as would perswade the King and People that the Nonconformists are Presbyterians and Fanaticks That it was such Presbyterians that killed his Father and that their principles are rebellious and that they are plotting a Rebellion
it And Consect 4. All carnal Interest and all carnal Reason is on the Diocesans side and all the lusts of the heart of Man and consequently all that the Devil can do and therefore while carnal Christians make a Religion of their Lusts and Interests and Pride and Covetousness and Idleness are more predominant than the fear of God and the love of Souls no wonder if the Diocesans Cause prevail with such Consect 7. Take but from such Prelates the Plumes it hath stollen from Magistrates and Presbyters and it will be a naked thing and simple name He says in the Preface The Sufferers will call the Prelates Persecutors Wolves in Sheeps clothing who are known by their fruits their teeth and claws P. 163. part 1. It is the Prelacy that maketh almost all the Sects that be in England this day whereas those little Foxes were not heard of until the Wild-boars had broken down the Fences of Episcopacy and when they see what Ministers and how many hundred of them are silenced and what Fellows are set up in their stead they think they can never â—…y far enough from such Prelates and we that dwell among them do take them that dislike their course and ways to be generally the most religious and sober People in the Land but I think Mr. Baxter spake in jest when he adds excepting always the King and Parliament And p. 167 168. That before the Prelates had again ruled seven years there were seven and seven against them for one that was so before Which is a notorious falshood there being a general Conformity until a Toleration was granted And p. 161. he proclaims thus I am one of the eighteen hundred that have been silenced by better Authority than the Prelates alone yet I think I am bound in Conscience to exercise the Ministry which I received whatever I suffer and if the Sword straitned me no more than my Conscience of the Bishops prohibition I should be very little hindred for that saith he is vanished into Air p. 163. And so it seems is the power of the Sword too with him for that he means by better Authority the Laws established by King and Parliament And yet this Man had taught other Doctrine for p. 30. of his first Plea Princes and Rulers may forbid all that preach Rebellion and Sedition and punish them if they do it and may hinder the incorrigible whose preaching will do more hurt than good from exercising the Ministry in their Dominions P. 32. They should see that their Kingdoms be well provided of publick Preachers and Catechists and may be due means compel the ignorant to hear and learn what Christianity is Sect. 36. They may when a Peoples ignorance faction or wilfulness make them refuse all that are truly fit for them urge them to accept the best and may possess such of the publick Temples and Maintenance and make it the Peoples duty to consent as is aforesaid No great need then of the Peoples consent which Mr. Baxter so much contends for Sect. 37. They ought to hinder Preachers from uncharitable and unrighteous railing at each other and unpeaceable controversies and contentions And p. 35. sect 40. They may make their own Officers circa Sacra to execute their Magistratical Power and if they authorize any particular Bishops or Pastors to exercise any such power as belongs to the Prince to give not contrary to Christ's Laws c. we judge that the Subjects should obey all such even for Conscience sake P. 117. We deny not saith he but if the generality of the Ministry obtain their liberty by some small tolerable sin or errour and the sounder part be few and unnecessary in that Country prudence obligeth them to go to some other place that needeth them and never to exercise their Ministry where in true Reason it is like to do more hurt than good And of this he maketh the Magistrate Judge p. 265. of his Way of Concord Yet p. 244. of his Plea he says That though the execution of the Laws have cost some excellent Men their lives already we may know that no execution short of death or utter disablement will make the most conscionable forsake their duty And p. 249. Why we should not speak openly rather than in secret and what but a Spirit of Envy or Carnal Interest cross to the interest of Christ should grudge at such preaching we cannot tell Nor can any one reconcile these Contradictions One thing I shall observe from his Church-Historian mentioned in the Preface That when Philip Nerius set up his Oratorian Exercises at Rome it was found necessary to win the people to use large affectionate extemporate Prayers Expositions and Sermons Yet when the Bishop of Worcester says This practice was brought into England by the Jesuits to bring the Liturgy into Contempt in the Preface to his History of Separation Mr. Baxter replies p. 12. That this is a sad saying and that there is no probability that the Jesuits should be the first setters up of this way in England though the Bishop gave two instances of it in Matter of Fact And says in the Preface to his second Defence That the Bishops's Book is made up of three parts 1. Of untrue Accusations 2. Vntrue historical Citations abundance 3. Fallacious Reasonings As if there were not one true word in the whole Book though even this imitating of Philip Nerius in extemporary Exercises and separate Meetings is by Mr. Baxter himself parallel'd with ours as the Original and Copy p. 22. of Preface to Mr. Baxter's Now or Never The Meetings of the Oratorians and their Exercises are so like those now abhorred by many c. Then comes forth his first and second Plea for Peace Of the first the Bishop of Worcester says It seems to be designed on purpose to represent the Clergy of our Church as a company of notorious lying perjured Villains for conforming to the Laws of the Land and Orders established with no less than thirty Aggravations of the Sin of Conformity And Mr. Baxter in his Answer seems to justifie it And with a great deal of vain-glory in the latter end of that Book printeth a complemental Letter sent him from Mr. Glanvil in 1661. to shew how he loves the Applause of Men of which he says he had been surfeited with Humane Applause p. 133. which rather than he would want he blows a Trumpet himself in another Book called the Only way to Concord saying in the Preface to Bishop Morley and Bishop Gunning I am fully perswaded that in this Book I have told you a righter way of Christian Concord more divine sure harmless and comprehensive fitted by Christ himself to the interest of all good Men yea of the Church and all the World He speaks as if he had gotten an infallible Spirit and had not only the Presbyter but the Pope in his belly Whereas that way of Concord will rather prove a means of perpetuating Discord and Divisions in the
were those Two thousand In your Letter to Mr. Bagshaw you speak but of about Eighteen hundred and you are not wont to mince the matter A great number of them had possessed themselves of other Mens Rights and it was an Act of Justice to restore the Owners to their Rights Mr. Baxter I hear was he that invaded Kidderminster the Property of one Mr. Dance whom he confest to be a Man of an unblameable Life but not thought fit for so great a Congregation much more to have any Restitution made for all that was taken from him As for those that had lawful Titles some of them were altogether unqualified as to Learning or good Lives the rest ejected themselves for not obeying the Laws There were no tearing Engines made use of The lawless Practises of the Presbyterians under the Long Parliament deserved that name whenas Mr. White their Centurist writes There were about Eighteen thousand Ministers all lawful Ministers illegally ejected both Vniversities deprived of their Scholars who were driven to great Necessities not suffered to teach Schools no not in a Gentleman's House for the Education of their Children twelve Bishops clapt into the Tower at once the rest Sequestred without any Provision or Respect to their Age Learning or Piety And I need not prove it to Mr. Baxter who knows the truth of what I say That that one Engine of the Scottish Covenant destroyed more in one year both Laity and Clergy than all the tearing Engines did ever since they were formed into Laws Mr. Baxter The third passage is p. 69 70. which though Mr. Baxter hath not I shall here transcribe and it may serve to Answer Mr. Baxter's Question Can you name says he one Presbyter for very many Bishops that have been the Heads or Fomenters of Heresie Schism or Rebellion and that for his part he knows nothing comparable in shame and mischievous effects to the horrid Persidiousness Contention Schism and Pride of Bishops In opposition to this I said in the place quoted That Novatus and Novatian Aerius and Arius Donatus and his Fellow Presbyters who assumed the Episcopal Power to themselves had shed more Blood and committed more Outrages than were done under any instance of Episcopal Ambition and that our late Schism at home and the Wounds made by it are yet so open that there needs no Rhetorick but our own Experience to teach us that the little Finger of the Presbyterians is heavier than the Episcopal Loyns Let any Man sum up together the Mischiefs occasioned by the Avarice and Ambition of Bishops for One hundred Years together in this our Nation and I dare ingage to demonstrate that for Wickedness in contriving for Malice and Cruelty in Executing for Pride and Arrogance in Usurping in Obstinacy and Implacableness in endeavouring to perpetuate unparallel'd Confusions Though some Bishops had done amiss yet our Presbyterians have exceeded them all For let me be informed Whether for a Juncto of Presbyters who had often sworn Fidelity to their Prince and Obedience to their lawful Ordinaries to abrogate these Sacred Obligations and by dethroning one incomparable Prince to set up many Tyrants and by covenanting against one Bishop in a Diocess to erect Two or Three hundred and expose all the Clergy that would not partake with them in their sins to contempt and misery be not an unparallel Mischief Mr. Hales himself whom Mr. Baxter so magnifies for his Book of Schism found their tender Mercies to be cruel whom they deprived of that plentiful Estate which he enjoyed under the Episcopal Government being reduced to that Extremity that he was forced to sell his Books to supply his Necessities Let me be informed I pray you whether this be not more than any Bishop did or could be guilty of Such Indignities Perjuries Usurpations and Cruelties as these Men have acted against their just lawful and excellent Governours in Church and State I believe have not been acted since Judas betrayed his Master Mr. Baxter These are great things to be spoken so boldly saith Mr. Baxter Answ And they were bolder Men that acted them say I. But I am at a loss what to say of them who were the first Incendiaries the Boutefews that blew up the Coals and scattered such Wild-fire through the Nation as ran through every City Town and Village in the Nation let Mr. Baxter speak his own thoughts of such They may justly fear of being Firebrands in Hell for their being Fire-brands on Earth The passage which Mr. Baxter thought not fit to recite led me to consider what Mischief had been occasioned by the Ambition of Factious Presbyters such as Novatus and Novatian Aerius and Arius Donatus and his Followers of old and by a Juncto of Presbyterians in our own days and he confesseth that Arius and Aerius were not Bishops and he might have said it of Novatus and Novatian Donatus and his Fellows that they were not Bishops but seekers of Bishopricks and divided because they could not obtain them Surely says Mr. Baxter they were Prelatical Presbyters And concludes thus I will never while I breathe trust a Presbyter that sets himself to get Preferment no more than I will trust a he might have said as King James did a Highland or Border Robber I doubt not but the Reader will observe with me what a pitiful shift Mr. Baxter was put to when he says That if Arius or Novatus Aerius and Donatus which he says are all the Presbyters that I name though I had named Novatus and Novatian and could have mentioned many more if an Answer to a Letter would have permitted it were the beginners of any Schism many hundred Bishops were the promoters of them all which is as much as if he had said That when these Presbyters had supplanted their Bishops and assumed both the Name and Authority of Bishops to themselves then those Bishops and their Successors promoted and formented the Schisms and Heresies which the first Inventers had broached against those Orthodox and Legal Bishops with all manner of violence and cruelty And this is that fallacy that runs through Mr. Baxter's whole History of Episcopacy wherein all the Tumults and Confusions which the Off-spring of those ambitious Presbyters had acted is by him imputed to Bishops Whereas in truth they were not otherwise Bishops than of their own making and having usurped that title did with force and bloodshed defend their several Schisms and Heresies to the great molestation and disturbance of the true Bishops I shall make this appear in what was transacted here at home Thus we had an order of Orthodox and Learned Bishops as ever was in the Church from the Reformation but were always maligned by the Presbyters In the Year 1640. this malignity vented it self Concerning other Particulars as that of the Tria Capitula and Philippicus mentioned by Mr. Baxter under this Head I refer the Reader to the former Treatise for an answer The Smectymnians write scurrilous Pamphlets against them the London