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
unpunished Oxford Reasons p. 22. And the Speeches within Doors spake no less for Sir H. Martyn told them the Kings Office was forfeitable and that the happiness of the Kingdom depended not on him or any of the Royal Branches of that Stock Exact Collect. p. 552. and Sir H. Ludlow that he was not worthy to be King of England That this was the sense which their own Creatures had of the Covenant appears by the Answer of the Army to the Scots Declaration 1648. Who pleading that they had Covenanted for preservation of the King reply in a Paper Printed for Robert White before the Kings death That it was conceived to be absurd and hypocritical to swear the Preservation of the Kings Person as a Man and at the same time to be ingaged in a War against him and he in the Field And Mr. Marshal had said long before That if the King had been so slain it had been none of the Parliaments fault for he might have kept himself farther off if he pleased p. 19. of his Letter The same Man said in his Sermon Jan. 8. 1647. The question is now whether Christ or Anti-Christ shall be King And in a Sermon to the Mayor and Aldermen 1644. These are miserable and accursed men Factors for Hell Satans Boutefeus and as true zealots are set on fire from Heaven so these Mens Fire is kindled from Hell whither also it carrieth them Mr. Arrowsmith in a Sermon 1643. It is not a Kingdom divided against it self but one Kingdom against another the Kingdom of Christ against Anti-Christ So my Countryman John Bond told them they fought against Babylon Dagon and Anti-Christ and exhorted them to pull it down though like Samson they dyed with it In a Sermon 1644. Joseph Boden said they were fighting for the Lamb against the Beast Anno 1644. And Mr. Marshal in his Meroz I pray look on me as one that comes to beat a Drum in your Ears to see who will come out to follow the Lamb. This use the Covenanters made of that limitation defending the Kings Person in the preservation of Religion and you know who says p. 423. of the Holy Common-wealth We are to believe that Men would kill them whom they fight against And doubtless if His Majesty had perished in the War the guilt had lain not only on the Souldiers but chiefly on those that gave them their Commission The Author of Bounds and Bonds spake home at that time If by the Covenant you thought your selves indispensably bound to preserve the Royal Person how comes it to pass that you thought your selves obliged by the same Covenant to wage War against him I have heard of a distinction saith he between his Power and his Person but never between his Person and himself And if the Covenant would have dispensed with any Souldier of England or Scotland to kill his Person by accident of War as his Life was oft in danger before he came to the Scaffold his death had been violent and the Obligation to preserve him had ended and yet according to this argument the Covenant had not been broken why then should those Men think the World so dull as not to understand plainly enough that the Covenant provided for his death more ways than one 4. They that permitted such Pamphlets to be published without controle as declared the King to be a Tyrant Oxford Reasons p. 21. That judged his Actions to be illegal and his Declarations false and scandalous and his suggestions as false as the Father of lies could invent Exact Collect p. 494. That banished the Queen as a Traitor Imprisoned the Bishops in the Tower That held him to such unreasonable Articles and Propositions at Newcastle and Carisbrook as His Majesty declared he could not consent unto without devesting him of his Authority That rejected all his offers for peace And in January 17. 1647. Voted no more Addresses and that they could repose no more trust and confidence in him which was a year before they were secluded the House which by the Army was understood of their intention to proceed in Justice against him They who deprived him of all the Comforts of his Life his Wife and Children his Counsellours and Chaplains as if with an Italian hatred they would have destroyed his Soul as well as his Body These were they that did diminuere Caput Regis as the Civil Law speaks and they who afterward finding him thus bound and fettered defamed and condemned did obtruncare Caput Regis were but the others Executioners What action was more barbarous than that of the Scots selling their Native Prince that cast himself upon them to his declared and avowed Enemies after which he was hurried up and down from one Prison to another and inhumanly treated till he was forcibly taken from them Whoever shall compare the Declaration of the Scots when they Invaded England upon their Covenant with the actings of the High Court of Justice against His Majesty may see what Coppy they wrote after and whose Journy-men they were in bringing him to the Block whom they had pulled out of the Throne They were Roman Souldiers that actually Crucified our Saviour but we know who Sold him and how long the Chief Priests and Elders took Counsel against him Matth. 27.2 And St. Peter tells the Men of Israel Acts 2.23 Him have ye taken and with wicked hands Crucified though the Roman Souldiers did it There is this only difference between the Graves and the Prisons of Kings that in the Prisons they dye daily or are buried alive in the Grave they are at rest from all their fears and sorrows But to this it may be replied that these were not Presbyters properly so called though they were a Juncto of Presbyterians I would therefore have it considered whose Scholars these were who taught and animated them to these practices and upon whose principles they acted I could set down such maximes of the Consistorian Brethren as the Jesuites would blush to own but I shall forbear to foul my Paper with such Collections as I have among my Adversaria The Reader may satisfie himself usque ad nauseam if he observe what is Authentickly mentioned in His Majesties large Declaration in Bishop Bancrofts dangerous positions in Bishop Spotswood and the Writings of the several Presbyteries of Scotland in the result of false Principles the Calvinists Cabinet and which is instar omnium the Holy Common-wealth What fruit could such bitter Roots produce but Wormwood and Hemlock as indeed they did in every Furrow of our Fields It was said of Cato that he did good not that he might appear to be good but because he could not do otherwise and some Men do espouse such principles that if they Act according to them they cannot do any thing but what is notoriously evil What shall we say of Mr. Andrew Ramsey that Preached That it was Gods will that the Primitive Christians should confirm the Truth by suffering but now the Truth
you know it or no for as I suppose in the beginning of the First War very few of them that were ingaged intended a Plot against the King and the Church yet were acted to the ruine of them both So now a great many that call themselves Protestants may be over-acted by the Papists who if they can once destroy the Church of England by means of our divisions which is the most likely means may cry Victoria and boast that we have destroyed our selves And then you may say truly p. 123. of the second part of your Plea The blood will be on you and your Children Mr. Baxter professeth in his Preface a detestation of the lying Malignity and bloody Cruelty of the Papists but p. 235. of his first part he concludes it to be but reasonable if on such necessity i. e. the penalties for Non-conformity they should accept of favour from any Papists that would save them And that if one party viz. the authority of the Nation would bring them to such a pass that they must be hanged imprisoned ruined or worse unless the favour of the Papists deliver them And the other party viz. the Non-conformists had rather be saved by the Papists than be hanged or ruined by Protestants they ought not to be suspected of Popery this shews that he hath a better Opinion of the Papists than of the Conformists Some blush not saith Mr. Baxter to accuse the Non-conformists as the bringers in of Popery by desiring Liberty p. 245. that is that there is a door opened to them by our Divisions Answ None hath more reason to blush at this than Mr. Baxter for in his defence of the principles of Love As to Popery says he the interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by means of the Parish Ministers and by the Doctrine and Worship there performed not by Conventicles then for they that think and endeavour contrary to this of which side soever shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists who then are in the Plot. Nor am I causelesly afraid saith Mr. Baxter that if we suffer the Principles and practices which I write against i. e. the dividers and destroyers of peace and love to proceed without our contradiction Popery will get by it so great advantage as may hazard us all and we may lose that which the several parties do contend about Three ways especially Popery will grow out of our divisions 1. By the Odium and scorn of our divisions inconsistency and multiplied Sects Thousands have been drawn into Popery or Confirmed in it already and I am perswaded saith he that all the Arguments in Bellarmine and all other Books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the multitude of Sects among our selves 2. Who knows not how fair a game the Papists have to play by our Divisions methinks I hear them hissing on both parties saying to one side lay more upon them and abate them nothing And to the other stand it out and yield to nothing hoping that our divisions will carry us to such practices as will make us accounted Seditious Rebellious and dangerous to publick peace and so they may pass for better Subjects than we or else they may get a Toleration with us And shall they use our hands to do their work we have already served them unspeakably both in this and in abating the Odium of the Gunpowder Plot and other Treasons 3. It is not the least of our dangers lest by our follies extremities and rigours we so exasperate the Common People as to make them readier to joyn with the Papists than with us in case of Competitions Invasions or Insurrections against the King and Kingdoms peace And in the Key for Catholicks The Papists saith he account that if the Puritans get the Day they shall make great advantage of it for they will be unsetled and all in pieces factions and distractions say they give us footing for continual attempts to make all sure we will have our party secretly among Puritans also that we may be sure to maintain our interest And in his Holy Common-wealth Let the Magistrate cherish the Disputations of the Teachers and let him procure them often to debate together and reprove one another for so when all Men see that there is nothing certain among them they will easily yield saith Contzen the Jesuite Pudet haec opprobria c. You conclude your second part of the Plea with some Petitions out of the Liturgy which I have reason to think you do with an ill design praying that he whose Service is perfect freedom would defend you his Humbled Servants non satis humiliati quia nondum humiles in all assaults of your Enemies c. Whom you mean by your Enemies all parties will guess But I shall commend to you the same advice which Bishop Prideaux gave the Assembly when they consulted him what they should do his direction was that they would consider their ways and return to their Obedience and say in the Confession of the Church Almighty and most Merciful Father we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost Sheep We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts we have offended against thy Holy Laws we have left undone those things which we ought to have done and we have done those things which we ought not to have done and there is no health in us c. And the God of Heaven give us all Grace so to confess and forsake our Sins that we may find Mercy POSTSCRIPT SInce my dispatch of the former Papers I met with a Prognostication written by Richard Baxter which though it were Calculated chiefly for England yet it presumes First to foretel what shall befal the Churches on Earth until their Concord and Secondly what from thence to the end But the first part though it be a Contradiction in terms may be called more agreeably to the matter A Prognostication of what is past for it hath been twice Acted over in this Nation And the Second part is a Prognostication of what never shall be For by Mr. Baxters method it is impossible we should ever see such a Golden Age of Love There are but two things worthy of the Readers notice The First is the time when it was written viz. When by the Kings Commission we in vain treated for Concord 1661. This circumstance he doth with so much concern and diligence labour to convince the Reader of that as if his Reputation of being a Prophet depended on it he tells you again in the first words of the Epistle It is many years since this Prognostication was written 1661. Except the sixteen last Lines and in the end of the Epistle he cautioneth the Reader not to mistake it for Historical Narratives And again at the end of the Book he tells us of several Books of his viz. The true and only Terms of Concord Catholick Theology and
Sections and this is the result of all If every Pastor might be a Bishop in his Parish Independent and free from any Superiour to controul him if he may have an arbitrary power if they may be arbitrary in exercise of the power of the Keys without appeal such as he says p. 265. the Jews had where there was a Village of Ten Persons there was a Presbyter that had power of Judging Offenders Then we should be so far says he from using the controversie about the Divine Right of Episcopacy as a distinct Order from Presbyters to any Schisme or injury to the Church as hitherto they have done that we should thankfully contribute our best endeavours to the Concord Peace Safety and Prosperity thereof i. e. they would give the Bishops leave to exercise their Authority in Vtopia having provided that they shall have nothing to do in England But the Magistrates must yield to them also Might we be freed from Swearing Subscribing Declaring and Covenanting unnecessary things which we take not to be true and from some few unnecessary practices which we cannot justify And if they might have power of Ordaining such as they please and of Confirming the Adult not according to the Order of the Church of England for that comes too near to Popery but according to Mr. Baxters or Mr. Hanmers Model that is May the power of altering the Laws in Church and State then and not till then when these necessary terms are granted they will serve the Church so modelled in poverty and raggs But of so great a mercy says he experience hath made our hopes from Men to be very small and the Reason of the thing makes our hopes as small of the happiness of the Church of England till God Unite us on these necessary terms To what great streights do some Men reduce themselves that they cannot live unless they Rob and ruine their neighbours subvert whole Churches and Kingdoms and grasp all Power and Authority over the Bodies and Consciences of their Brethren into their own hands Did ever any Bishop aspire to such Tyranny as this the Pope only excepted is not the King and whole Nation greatly Culpable not to trust themselves with the Ingenuity of this people of whose Loyalty and Charity they have had such experience and is it not pitty that they should be constrained to attempt these things against Law when they so humbly desire to have them established by Law and when the reason of the thing i. e. their resolution to have it so it being their great concern as he calls it makes the hopes of the happiness of the Church of England to be very small which Men so resolved as they are may foretel as Mr. Baxter doth without a Spirit of Prophecy Sect. 2. p. 207. Mr. Baxter proceeds to the second part of Conformity which he calls Re-ordination and says it was either intended as a second Ordination or not If yea it is a thing condemned by the ancient Churches by the Canons called the Apostles c. If not then they take such Mens former Ordination to be Null and consequently all such Churches to be no Churches their Baptizings and Consecration of the Lords Supper c. to be Null Answ Although the Ordination by Presbyters alone especially when it hath been done in opposition to * P. 237. of the five Disputations We Ordain not presente but Spreto Episcopo and Contempt of Bishops hath been ever condemned in the Church and the validity thereof is still questioned yet granting it to be valid a Submission to Episcopal Ordination is no renouncing of that which was performed by Presbyters no more than the submission of the Disciples of John who had been Baptized by him with the Baptism of Repentance to the Baptism of Christ Nor doth the Law any where require them to declare that their former Ordination was Null because then it would have pronounced their Baptizings and other Ministerial Offices to be Null if therefore we did juge as charitably of our Legislators as we ought and Interpret the Laws by the practice we cannot find any such thing as Re-ordination intended For first the word is no where mentioned but the Ordination required is to qualify them for the exercise of their Ministry in the Church of England and to capacitate them for it Thus in the Preface to the Book of Ordination it is said None shall be taken as Ministers of the Church of England but who are so Ordained It denyeth not but they may be Ministers elsewhere and the Act for Vniformity renders them uncapable of any Parsonage Vicaridge c. in the Church of England But the same Act allows of the Ministers Presbyterially Ordained in other Reformed Churches to exercise their Ministry here by His Majesties Authority Yea the same Parliament permits them to meet and exercise many Ministerial duties so that the number above that of their own Families do not exceed Five and Mr. Baxter knows that the most eminent Divines of our Church ever held the Ordination by Presbyters in forraign Churches to be lawful 2. It is Mr. Baxters Opinion that the outward part of Ordination may be repeated Directory l. 3. Q. 21. And that the Ordainer doth but Ministerially invest the person with Power whom the Spirit of God hath qualified for it by the Inward Call now the Inward Call being the Essential part as he accounts and the Ministerial Investiture of the person with power being the outward part P. 311. of the Plea I see no reason why one Ordained by Presbyters may not submit to Episcopal Ordination by his own Argument Yea Mr. Baxter there affirmes That the mutual consent of the people and themselves may suffice to the orderly admittance into the Office especially if the Magistrate consent and the Ordainers should refuse For which see more in his Dispute of Ordination from whence I propose this case suppose a person fitly qualified for Parts and Piety Chosen and Ordained a Minister by an Independent or Anabaptistical people should afterward submit himself to Presbyterial Ordination I doubt not but the Presbyters would think it lawful to Ordain him and I believe they would not admit him into their Churches without such Ordination which may justifie our Superiours in requiring that they who will be admitted Ministers of the Church of England should be Episcopally Ordained For here is nothing repeated but the outward part or Ceremony of Investiture which by Mr. Baxters Confession may be repeated and is no more than the Marriage of such by a Minister who had been Married before by a Justice of Peace Or as he makes another Comparison it is no more than if a person very expert in Physick should practice without a License Upon which he tells you a story of his great success in Physick which he practiced many years gratis and saved the Lives of multitudes p. 78. of the Third part of the way of Concord and yet he there grants that it
some openly and others under hoods to Act for the Parliament and they wanted not invitation and temptations to have been all of that side as the Royal Martyr declared 2. Mr. Baxter says the contrary is so well known to Men yet living that the reporters can hope to seduce none but young men and strangers Doth Mr. Baxter mean by the contrary That the Papists were not the Kings party and the Presbyterians were not the Parliaments party or that the Papists were the Parliaments party and the Presbyterians were the Kings party at the beginning of our War this I take to be contrary and I think no Man living can affirm it But he tells us that the controversie was begun between Arch-bishop Abbot and his adherents and Bishop Laud and those that adhered to him Answ There was no War begun in Arch-bishop Abbots time nor long after but the controversie which made way for the War was of another kind and a more ancient date as Mr. Baxter relates it § 7. of his Plea part 1. To which I suppose he refers the Reader and there he says the root of the difference between the old Non-conformists and the Conformists was this That one sort thought they should stick to the meer Scripture rule and simplicity and go far from all Additions which were found invented or abused by Papists The other side thought they should shew more reverence to the Customs of the Ancient Church and retain that which was not forbidden in Scripture which was introduced before the ripeness of Popery or before the year 600. at least and which was found lawful in the Roman Church and common to them with the Greek And herein I have reason to believe Mr. Baxter was of the same mind with the Conformists against the Non-conformists See Directory part 3. ch 2. This difference was begun among the Exiles at Franckfort says Mr. Baxter some striving for the English Liturgy and others for a freer way of praying i. e. from the present sense and habit of the Speaker which by Mr. Baxters favour was not any where publickly practised at that time no not by Calvin himself at Geneva But farther Queen Elizabeth and King James saith Mr. Baxter discountenancing and suppressing Non-conformists They attempted in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to set and keep up private Churches and governed them in a Presbyterian way but the attempt was broken by the industry of Arch-bishop Whitgift and Bancroft Some Conformed and some were Connived at which kept them from gathering secret Churches yet some Preached secretly in Houses and some publickly for a day and away some were further Alienated from the English Prelacy and separated from their Churches and some of them called Brownists were so hot at home that they were put to death Mr. Ainsworth Johnson Robinson and others fled beyond Sea and there gathered Churches and broke by divisions among themselves as their Successors did in our memory It will not be impertinent to shew from Mr. Cambden how troublesome this sort of Men were under Queen Elizabeth p. 420. of the English Translation of Cambden They chose that season when the Spaniards amused the whole Nation from abroad by their Invincible Armado as they called it to disturb her at home And never did contumacious impudency against Ecclesiastical Magistrates shew it self more bold and insolent for when the Queen would not give Ear to Innovators in Religion who designed to cut in sunder the very sinews of Ecclesiastical Government and her Royal Prerogative at once some of those Men who were great admirers of the Discipline of Geneva thought there was no better way to be taken for establishing it in England than by inveighing and 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 belched forth most virulent Calumnies and opprobrious taunts and reproaches in such a manner that the Authors seemed rather scullions out of the Kitchen than pious and godly Men yet the Authors were Penry and Vdal Ministers of the word and George Throckmorton a Learned Man their favourers were Richard Knightly and Wigston Knights Others exercised their Discipline in corners in despight of Authority and the Laws holding Classes in several places and forming Presbyteries for which Thomas Cartwright Edmund Snape Andrew King Proudlow Payne and other Ministers were called in question whom some of the zealots conspired to deliver out of the Magistrates hands p. 451. He tells us how one Hacket insinuated himself into certain Divines which with a burning zeal laboured to bring the Presbyterial Discipline of Geneva into England among whom was one Wiggington a silly Brain-sick Minister a despiser and enemy of the Magistrates by Wiggintons means he was acquainted with Coppinger a Gentleman who perswaded Arthington an admirer of that Discipline First that himself and then that Arthington was extraordinarily called of God for the good of the Church and that way was revealed from Heaven to draw the Queen and Council to a better mind meaning to admit of the Discipline of Geneva Coppinger imparted this to Hacket who by his counterfeit holiness and fervent praying ex tempore his fasting on the Lords days and boasting that he had been buffeted by Satan and had Revelations from God He Prophesied that there should be no more Popes and that England should be lamentably afflicted that year with Pestilence and Famine except the Discipline of the Lord and Reformation were admitted in the Realm They conspired as was proved by their Letters to accuse the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellour of Treason and one of the party stabbed one Hawkins a famous Sea-Captain supposing him to be the Lord Chancellor Hacket had such an implacable malice to the Queen that he said often she had forfeited her right to the Crown he defaced her Arms and Picture striking his Dagger through the Breast of it to omit many things Hacket being Indicted for Treason Confessed it and was Executed dying he lift up his Eyes to Heaven and grinning said Dost thou thus repay me instead of a Kingdom I come to revenge it Coppinger shortly after starved himself in Prison Arthington repented seriously and set forth a Book of it Yet many others opposed the Discipline of the Church reproaching the Prelates and drawing some common Lawyers to their party but the Queen knowing that her authority was struck at through the Bishops sides broke the force of the adversaries without noise and maintained the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction inviolate against all Opposers Presbyterians and Fanaticks Nor were these Men less troublesome under King James having conceived great hopes from his Education in Scotland but he knew them so well that he never shewed them any favour In his first year they frame a Petition in the names of a Thousand Ministers for Reformation which I
from these words until he come to the period where he says As I have here described the Judgment of such Non-conformists as I have Conversed with I do desire those that seek our blood and ruine by the false accusation of Rebellious principles to tell me if they can what body or party of Men on Earth have more sound and Loyal principles of Government and Obedience And if any person can extract any such principles within all that period I will say he hath turn'd Mr. Baxter's Whetstone into the Philosophers Stone He says indeed we are all bound if it be possible and as much as in us lyeth to live peaceably and follow peace with all men But how have they followed this principle We have he saith many years beg'd for peace of those that should have been the Preachers and wifest promoters of peace and cannot yet obtain it nor quiet them that call for fire and sword not knowing what spirit they are of This is the Presbyterian way of Petitioning for Peace to rail against their Superiours charging them with persecution fire and sword and asserting that there can be no peace until the Laws for Conformity be all reversed the Bishops Authority and the Kings too in Ecclesiastical affairs taken away the Liturgy exchanged for Mr. Baxters new Directory as he hath at large declared in the first part and such a desolation as this they call peace solitudinem volunt pacem vocant He says the Declaration about Ecclesiastical affairs telleth us that the King would have given the people peace Answ And there were a sort of men whom the King for peace sake desired to read only so much of the Liturgy as was beyond exception and they would not did not these tell the World they would have no peace but victory So true it is as Mr. Baxter says with unpeaceble Clergy-men no Plea no Petition no not of the King himself could prevail but the things that have been are and the Confusions of our age come from the same causes and sorts of men as the Confusions in former ages did for which we need not go to Mr. Baxters Church History the Men and methods of 41. and 42. are well nigh revived They told His Majesty in their second Paper for Peace That if he would grant their desires it would revive their Hearts to daily and earnest Prayers for his Prosperity But what if he deny them Then p. 12. it astonisheth us to foresee what doleful effects our Divisions would produce which we will not so much as mention in particular lest our words should be misunderstood And it is obvious enough to whom they would apply that passage p. 117. of their reply to the Exceptions As Basil said to Valens the Emperour that would have him pray for the Life of his Son If thou wilt receive the true Faith thy Son shall live which when the Emperour refused he said the Will of the Lord be done So we say to you if you will put on Charity and promote peace God will honor you but if you will do contrary the Will of the Lord be done with your honors Amen say I Let them fall into the hands of God who is still exceeding gracious to them and not into the hands of such cruel men who have War in their Hearts while they Petition for Peace And will Mr. Baxter still demand what party of Men on Earth have more Loyal Principles Our English Papists who as Mr. Baxter grants adhered to the King would be offended if I should say they that fought against the King were more Loyal than they who with Lives and Fortunes fought for him dares he compare with the Church of England who lived and died and rose again with their King to the great regret and envy of those Men I will not say only that the Primitive Christians but even the Old Greeks and Romans had better Principles than any you practise by and will rise up in Judgment against such a Generation How vainly do you inquire what Hottoman or Bodin have written Consider the Precepts of our great Lord and the Practice of the Primitive Christians for the first 600. years and how night the true Members of the Church of England followed those Principles and Examples for Twenty years together and how far the Presbyterians Acted contrary to them and then convince the World whether the party you Boast of or these were most Loyal But Mr. Baxter demands Must this Age answer for their Fathers deeds what is all this to the present Non-conformists Answ If they follow the deeds of their Fathers we cannot deny them the reputation of being their Children who without controversie begat and Nurtured them And though I have not the opportunity to ask those Noble Lords and Gentlemen whom Mr. Baxter names concerning the Conformity of their Fathers yet I can give you their Sense and the Opinion of the whole Nation concerning the behaviour of their Children who have as great a mind to begin a second War And take it in the best English Dialect i. e. in the Acts of Parliament And first in the Act against Conventicles 16. Car. 2di N. 2. For providing of further and more speedy remedies against the growing and dangerous practice of Seditious Sectaries and other disloyal persons who under pretence of tender Consciences do at their meetings contrive insurrections as late experience hath shewn c. And in the Oxford Act they say of those that Preach in unlawful Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings under colour or pretence of the Exercise of Religion contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom have settled themselves in divers Corporations of this Kingdom three or more in a place thereby taking opportunity to distill the poysonous principles of Schisms and Rebellion into the hearts of His Majesties Subjects to the great danger of the Church and Kingdom c. Now how little difference there is between such Seditious tumults and meetings the late Rebellion in Scotland doth demonstrate where the chief Masters of those Assemblies Preached an Evangelium Armatum and having in cold Blood barbarously murthered the most Reverend Arch-Bishop drew many Thousands into the Field and would have done the like by the King himself had he been in their power as by their Declarations we may guess I do not accuse their Brethren of England of Rebellion the Parliament says their actions tend to it and that is Tantamount to a Plot. Sedition and tumults open and professed disobedience to the Laws adhering to a Rebellious Covenant refusing the Tests of Obedience which require only the disclaiming of Rebellious Principles and Practices Preaching and Printing what is actually Seditious and tends directly to Rebellion and all this when our Parliament hath declared that there is an horrid Plot on foot for the destroying of the King and established Religion to the latter whereof you are avowed Enemies this may draw at least a suspition on you that you are in the Plot whether
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