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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94087	A vindication of that prudent and honourable knight, Sir Henry Vane, from the lyes and calumnies of Mr. Richard Baxter, minister of Kidderminster. In a monitory letter to the said Mr. Baxter. By a true friend and servant of the Commonwealth of England, &c.	Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676.	1659 (1659)	Wing S6068; Thomason E985_21; ESTC R203679	15,324	23

M●rtyrs but their sayings are recorded by Mr. Fox in his Acts and Monuments 10. This practise of Persecution meerly for Religion hath been likewise disavowed by some of the most learned and famous Princes of Christend●m King James in his Speech in Parliament saith That it is a sure Rule in Divinity That God never leves to plant his Church by violence and bloodshed and in his Apology pag. 4. and 60. I have good proof that I intended no persecution against the Papists for conscience sake but onely desired to be secured for civil obedience which for conscience sake they are bound to perform And speaking of the Arch-priest Blackwel he faith It was never his intention to lay any thing to the Arch-priests charge as he never did to any for the cause of conscience The saying of Stephen that wise King of Poland is observable That he was King of men not of consciences a Commander of Bodies not of Souls and that it is one of the three things which God hath kept in his own hands to urge the conscience this or that way and to cause a man to profess a Religion by working it first in his hea●t And the King of Bohemia writeth thus That the success of latter Times wherein sundry opinions have been hatched about the subject of Religion may make one clearly discern with his eye and as it were touch with his finger That according to the verity of holy Scripture and a Maxime heretofore maintained by the antient Doctors of the Church That mens consciences ought in no sort to be violated urged or constrained And whensoever men have attempted any thing by this violent course whether openly or by secret means the issue hath been pernicious and the cause of great and wonderful innovation in the migh●iest Kingdomes and Countries of CHRISTENDOM I might also reci●e the sayings of those potent and famous Princes CHARLS the Fifth Emperour of Germany Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth Kings of France with other Christian Princes who after many Trials and much experience of men and times grew weary of the practise of Persecution for the cause of Religion as having seen the sad and dreadful effects of it in Christendom And if this practise should be again re-assumed in these poor distracted Nations what can we expect therefrom as the condition of our affairs stands but greater troubles wars and bloodshed then yet we have seen Whereas you Mr. Bax●er●nd other Minister● who I Sect. X could wish were better imployed do endeavour by your Sermons and writings ●o bring an ●dium upon the present Government and Gove●nour● a● i●●hey who have such considerable Estates and inte●est in the Land had a desi●n to pull down the Ministry level me●● E●●●●es and proprie●y and reduce all to ●n An●●chy and confusion because forsooth they think it not meet to fulfil your ambitious lusts and desires I would ●aine know of you whether ever the Godly Ministry of this N●●ion had ●o much incouragement and maintenance allowed ●h●m by any power or authority as they had and may have ●rom the long Parliament Ungrateful men what would you have them do for you will nothing content you unless you may Exercise a Lordly and Tyrannical Domination over the consciences of your Brethren and bring the civil Magistrate under your Girdle to be at your Beck and Command that you may dispose of civil ●ffairs as you please in ordine ad spiritualia Are there not many pretious Godly Ministers now with the Lord no whit inferior to you that would have blessed God for and rejoyced in tha● liberty freedome and incouragement which you enjoy or may enjoy if you will ca●ry your selves as you ought to do under this ●overnment They good men prized their condition though they had but for●y or fifty pounds per annum But many of our Ministers are so peevish and unthankful That they grow weary of and mourn under their mercies and inveigh most bitterly against the famous long Parliament by whose means they have obtained greater incoura●ements and revenues then ever was enjo●ed by men of their parts and principles Is this your kindness to your Ben●factors and do you thus requi●e them for all their good offices Surely it is high time for them to look about them and to have a watchful eye over such men as you are And when it sh●ll please God to bring the●e Nations to a better consistency and to establish an equal and righteous Government by just and good laws ●or the benefit of the whole Community If you or any other party shall go about by promo●i●g a faction to disturbe the peace and orders of the Commonwealth by your words or actions under what p●etence soever Truly Mr Baxter in such a case you will have but little comfort if you be exposed to sufferings for your miscarriages Let no man suffer saith the Apostle as an evil doer or as a busy body in other mens matters but he that suffereth let him suffer as a Christian 1 Pet. 4. 15 16. Is it your desire that Church-Government should be established in this Land why then If it be such a Government as is ●ure Divino you may set it up by the spiritual Sword though you have no assistance from the civil Magistrate The Kingdome of Christ is not of this world and we know that when the Churches of Christ had least countenance from Earthly powers they were best governed and had most beauty unity and order among themselves You and we have the like liberty and opportunity to improve our spiritual weapons and skill But if one party will impose upon another and go about to supplant those that conscientiously differ from them doubtless the Lord who loves and tenders his people under many weaknesses and mistakes will still witness against such an unchristi●n practise That Counsel which is of God shall stand but that which is not shall be brought to nothing To conclude give me leave Sir to propound something to you by way of advise T is true you have to give you your due a pregnant wit and many commendable natural parts and you are fluent in your words and writings But I beseech you be earnest with the Lord to give you true humility and self-denyal and that wisdom which is from above and which is pure and peaceable and easy to be intreated Lean not too much to your own understanding and reasonings Be not high in your own conceit you know who saith that there is more hope of a fool then of a man that is wise in his own conceit Prov. 26. 12. Hence it is that you are so apt to sleight and undervalue others as deserving as your self which your best friends have noted in you and do much complain of Consider and digest your thoughts well before you speak or write Remember what a wise man saith m That the heart of the Righteous studieth to answer and the heart of the wise Teacheth his mouth and addeth learning to his lips A fool uttereth all his mind but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards Look up to God for spiritual strength that you may be crucified to the fame and praise of men upon which Rock many have split themselves who have had as excellent parts and as much seeming piety as Mr. Baxter He that thinketh he knoweth any thing let him know that he knoweth nothing as he ought to know I write this in true love to you and I wish you may accept it accordingly For better are the wounds of a true friend then the kisses of an Enemy FINIS a Prov. 4 3 * K●y of catholiques b Prov. 21. 23. Prov. 29. 20. Jam. 1. 26. * Antisthenes Exod. 23. 2. * K●y of Cathol. pag. 312 313. 3●● 331 335 391 c Job 13. 7. Rom. 3. 7. d Vide Declar of Parliam 〈…〉 Fr●e State March 17. 1648. * See Mr. Tho. Barlowe Mr. Owen Mr. Kendall Mr. Ly●●r● Mr. Burgess Mr. Eyre Mr. Crandon Mr. Warner their Books against Mr. Baxter K●y p●g 312 313. Key pag. 331. Matth. 7. 5. e Aphoris of Justif. p. 70. 78. 82 83. 91. 45. Direction for Comfort afflict Cons● pag. 34 37 38 45 39 42 44 45 47 49 51 c. f Saints●●●rlasting Rest g Ad Scapulam h Hillary Contra Aux●nt i Jerom. in poenit lib 4. in Jerem. k Luth. postil Dom. 1. post Epiph Comment in 1 Pet. 3. m Prov. 15. 24. Prov. 16. 23. Prov. 29. 11.

44. Luke 6. 27. 45. And so according to your opinion we must first love God before he communicate his love to us That finall impenitency and unbelief is properly the sin against the holy Ghost That no man is perfectly justified nor hath perfect remission of sins till the day of judgement If this Doctrine be true we must all go to Purgatory That though a Christian may be assured of his election and justification yet not of his perseverance of which he hath only strong probability and yet in another place you say if a man be sure that he truely believes he may be sure of his salvation and thus you contradict your self and say and unsay That generall Grace affords true consolation and that speciall Grace is built upon it and that we may gather a world of comfort from generall grace That believing is easie the conditions of the new Covenant being more facile then those of the old That God is the father of the graceless though not in so strict a sense as of the gracious That doubts and fears must be removed by considering the universality of Christs ransome for the whole world and that this is the foundation of all solid peace and comfort That unbelievers may have some good desires which God will accept and though they be not yet come to saving faith yet they may have many good prayers which God will hear That none ever missed of grace and eternall life that improved their naturalls to the utmost as a naturall man may do What is this but down-right Pelagianisme That seeing our acts are cur Evangelicall righteousnesse without which we ●●ve no part in Christs righteousness we may safely build our peace and comfort u●on them That Salvation is promised as the crown and reward to our duties That Grace in the spirituall man f differs not specifically but onely gradually from that which is in the natu●all man and that a Christian must gather his assurance from the degree and not from the kind of grace This is but cold comfort for a weak Believer I know none of them that you call Vanists so vain corrupt and rotten in their principles as you are in these or some of these positions besides others that might be mentioned wherewith under pretence of Piety and Practicall Divinity you have infected and poisoned many young Scholars in the Universities and Ministers in the Land who wanting experience and being not able spir●tually to judge of things that differ have your person and gifts in admiration So that truely Mr. Baxter all things considered you have already done more mischief by your writings then you will be able to do good if you should repent and live an hundred years for since your books were published many Ministers Professors have sadly departed from the simplicity and plainnesse of the Scriptures and Truths of Christ giving ear to your vain Philosophicall Distinctions and thereby ingendring strife and puzzling both themselves and their hearers Sect. IIX Once more you quarrell with Sir Henry Vane and cry out against him for holding an universall Liberty and Toleration in matters of Religion and yet you do not take upon you to answer those Scriptures ar●uments and reasons of State which are alledged for an universall Liberty For my part I am not fully acquainted with his judgment touching this point which hath been so much controverted in our time but if he ●e for such a Liberty without exception or restraint why should you quarrel with him specially considering how the case stands with us in these Nations both as to the Parliament Army Navy Ministry and Churches more then with Luther Austin and other Fathers Admit their opinion that are for an universall Liberty be a mistake yet it is far lesse dangerous then theirs that would have few or none tolerated but such as concurre with them in every thing as if they onely had monopolized to themselves a spirit of infallibility The weapons of your warfare should be spirituall and heavenly not carnall and worldly Nor is the Gospel in the power of it planted or propagated by the Civil or Martiall Sword but by the Spirit of God in preaching prayer Christian conference and a holy conversation This is the best way to convince opposers and gainsayers instructing them in meekn●sse and in a spirit of love whereas if you take violent courses and fignt against the errors of the times with prisons dungeons fetters this will but make men the greater hypocrites and even times more the children of the devil●hen they were before nay they will glory in their suffrings and by this means their number will dayly increase in the Land as the Quakers have done of late years for which we may thank such as you are who by your passionate and violent actings have made them the more confide●t of their d●ngerous and wicked opinions Would to God the Ministers of the Gospel would not onely preach well out of a pulpit but also expresse more self deniall wisdome meeknesse charity and mortification in their actions and live up to the rules of the Gospel and then I doubt not but the Ministry would be more reverenced and Errors would vanish and disappear as the clouds do at the bright shining of the Sun Most men that now plead against Toleration of diversity of R●ligions their own being most countenanced by the Civil power would plead as much for a generall Toleration if they were once under hatches and their Religion discountenanced by the Magistrate Herein commonl●Christians are disposed and affected according to the practise of that Countrey or Kingdome where they live If a Protestant yea a Calvinist live in a Pop●sh Countrey he will plead for Toleration so will a Papist living in a Protestant Countrey where diversity of Religions is not Tolerated The Ancient fathers that lived in times of persecution the first three hundred yeares after Christ pleaded against all kind of violence for Religion as appears by the sayings of Lactantius Tertullian and others But on the contrary the latter Fathers having the Emperours Christian and on their side pleaded against Toleration and incited the Magistrate to violent courses against such as were of a different perswasion Sect. IX I dare not positively affirm that the Civil Magistrate is not to intermeddle at all in matters of Religion for it is his duty to provide for and incourage all the faithfull Preachers and Professours of the Gospel and to be a nursing Father to the Churches of Christ but how far the Magistrate is to proceed in suppressing erroneous Doctrines and where the bounds are to be set beyond which he is not to go I suppose a wiser man then Master Baxter cannot easily determine Ke●kerman a learned Writer saith that the bond between the Magistrate and his Subjects is essentially Civil It seems he was not of your opinion that Magistracy is from Christ as Mediator for if this were true then every Magistrate that doth not submit to

the Mediatory Kingdome of Christ is a mee●Usurper and may be lawfully deposed and so whilst you seem to attribute much to the Christian Magistrate you destroy Magistracy in most Nations and Countries in the world where neither Magistrate nor people acknowledge the Lord Jesus Concerning this point of Toleration let it be considered 1. That Christ commands that both the tares and the wheat should remain together in the world and not be plucked up till the day of harvest which is the end of the world Matth. 13. 30 38. 2. He reproved his Disciples who would have had fire come down from heaven to destroy the Samar●tans that would not entertain him in these words You know not what spirit you are of for the Son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Luk. 9. 54 55. 3. The Apostle Paul would not have the servant of God to strive but to be gentle towards all men in meekness in●tructing those that are contrary minded if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth 2 ●im 2 ●4 25. and it is prophesied of Gospel times Isa. 11. 9. that none sha●l hurt or destroy in the mountain of Gods holiness i. e. in his Churches and the assemblies of his people 4. The weapons wherewith the Ministers of the Gospel should fight are not carnal 2 Cor. 10. 4. And Christs Disciples shou●d be so far from persecuting those that are not of their Religion that when they themselves are persecuted they should pray when they are cursed they should bless Mat. 5. 44. outward violence and rigor is so far from being the Character of the Christian Church that it is the undoubted mark of the An●ichristian Synagogue 5. They who now are tares may hereafter become wheat they that are now blinde may hereafter see they that are now Blasphemers may obtain mercie as Paul did 1 Tim. 1. 13. Some there are that come not in till the eleventh hour Mat. 20. 6. if you destroy them that come not in till the last hour because they come not at the first then they are never like to come 6. We know that God is not pleased with hypocritical unwilling worshippers forced thereunto by outward violence nor are Christian Societies bettered no nor the persons themselves by such outw●rd force but the plain contrary God alone being Lord over the conscience for as Solomon saith There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit Eccles. 8. 8. 7. 'T is hard for the most judicious and learned men to give a right Judgement of many points now in Controversie and yet not withstanding many ingaged persons are ready to force dissenters in such Controversies by the coercive power of the Magistrate if the Magistrate were as forward to execute as they are to propose 8. Persecution for Religion hath caused or at least occasioned most of the Wars Devastations and Bloodshed in Christendome whilst Princes would force their Subjects to be of their Religion against the light of their own consciences witness the VVars in G●rmany the Low-Countries France Poland England Scotland c. nor doth it agree well with a Free-State or Common-wealth to exercise outward force in matters of Religion there being various apprehensions and diversity of opinions among all sorts and ranks of men and perhaps if Mr. Baxter were called to consult about the weighty affairs of the State as you may be in due time for you pretend to some skill in the Politicks as appears by your most judicious censure on the Commonwealth of Oceana and its Author in your political Epistle to the Nobility and Gentry of England you may after some grave debates be more for Toleration then now you are 'T is far more easie for you to write Syllogisms in your study sutable to your own private and narrow apprehensions then to ke●p three Nations in peace and hinder godly men of different Judgements from supplanting one another by force and violence and putting an opportunity into the hand of the common Enemy to destroy them all 9. Outward violence in the cause of Religion is condemned by divers antient and modern VVriters of the best note No man is forced by the Christians against his will saith Lactantius seeing he that wants faith and devotion is unserviceable to God and God not being contentious would not be worshipped of the unwilling Tertullian saith g That it is of humane right and of natural liberty that every man worship God uncompelled and believe what he will Nor doth it beseem any Religion to compel another to be of their Religion which willingly and freely should be embraced and not by constraint forasmuch as God requires a free-will offering The Christian Church saith Hillary h doth not persecute but is persecuted 'T is lamentable to see the great folly of these times in that men think by humane ayde to help God and by worldly pomp and power to defend the Christian Church And Hi●rom saith i That heresie must be cut off by the sword of the spirit and that we should strike all misled hereticks thorough with the sharp arrows of the Spirit that is with the T●stimonies of the Scriptures the slaughter of hereticks being by the word of God Luther in his book of the civil Magistrate saith That the Laws of the civil Magistrate extend no farther then the body and go●ds and that which is external for over the conscience God alone ruleth therefore whosoever undertakes to give Laws to the conscience he usurpeth the Government that appertains onely to God In the building of the Temple saith he there was no sound of Iron heard to signifie that Christ will have in his Church a free and willing people not compelled by humane Laws and Statutes And upon Luk. 22. It is not the true Catholique Chur●h which is defended by the secular arm or humane power but the false and fa●ned Church And again upon Psal. 17. he saith That the true Church of Christ knoweth not Brachium Seculare which the Bishops now adayes chiefly use And in his other books k he saith Let no Christian be commanded but exhorted for he that willingly will will not do that whereunto he is friendly exhorted is no Christian wherefore they that compel those that are not willing shew thereby that they are not Christian preachers but worldly beadles If the Civil Magistrate shall command me thus and thus saith he I would answer him after this manner Sir look you to your worldly or civil government your power extends not so far as to command any thing in Gods Kingdom therefore herein I may not hear you for if you cannot bear it that any should usurp authority where you are to command how should you think that God will suffer you to usurp that government that belongs to him I might here mention the sayings of Brentius and other for●aign Writers upon this subject and also divers of our English