in a way that should make their hearts to ake I think saith Mr. Baxter their hearts have aked by this time and as they judged him to the Gallows for his Prediction so hath Christ executed them by Thousands for their Rebellion against him Now it is evident what Discipline Vdal meant by his Confederacy with Coppinger Penry c. of which Cambden p. 420. of his Eliz. Angl. says Some of those Men who were great Admirers of the Geneva Discipline thought there was no better way for establishing it in England than by railing against the English Hierarchy and stirring up the People to a dislike of Bishops They therefore set forth scandalous Books against the Government of the Church and Prelates as Martin Mar-Prelate Minerals Diotrephes A Demonstration of Discipline c. In which Libels they set forth virulent Calumnies and opprobrious Taunts and Reproaches in such manner as the Authours seemed rather Scullions out of the Kitchin than pious and godly Men yet the Authours were Penry and Vdal Ministers of the Word Bishop Bancroft quoteth a Pamphlet of Mr. Vdal's called A Dialogue where he says That the Bishops Callings are meer Antichristian p. 59. of Dangerous Positions and p. 45. he says They were very devilish and infamous Dialogues and that there was a Conspiracy between Coppinger Wigginton c. by some extraordinary means such as Vdal had prophesied should make their hearts to ake for releasing of some that stood in danger of their lives meaning as I suppose says the Bishop Vdal Newman c. The dangers threatned by such extraordinary means to disturb the Goverment hastned the Trial of Vdal who with three others took occasion from the intended Invasion in 88 to alarm the Nation at home as also they did on the Powder Plot and to this day do by scattering seditious Pamphlets Vdal was charged with a Book called A Demonstration of Discipline which Christ hath prescribed in his Word for the government of his Church in all times and places to the Worlds end The Preface was directed To the supposed Governours of the Church of England to whom he says Who can deny you without blushing to be the cause of all ungodliness seeing your Government is that which giveth leave to a Man to be any thing save a sound Christian for certainly it's more free in these days to be a Papist Anabaptist of the Family of Love yea as any most wicked rather than what we should be And I could live these Twenty years as well as any such in England yea in a Bishop's House it may be and never be molested for it So true is that you are charged with in a Dialogue lately come forth and by you burnt that you care for nothing but the Maintenance of your Dignities be it to the damnation of your own Souls and infinite millions more The whole Book being like this Preface he was indicted at the Assizes held at Croyden and found guilty He pleaded That he was indicted on the Statute of 23 of Eliz. c. 2. for publishing seditious words against the Queen but that the Book charged on him contained no seditious words against the Queen but the Bishops only But it was answered by the Judges N.B. That they who spake against her Majesty's Government in Cases Ecclesiastical her Laws Proceedings or Ecclesiastical Officers which ruled under her did defame the Queen And on clear proof that he was the Authour of that Libel he was found guilty and received Sentence of Death but by intercession of Archbishop Whitgift was Reprieved Mr. Baxter's actings have been so like Mr. Vdal's that it is no wonder to find him labouring to justifie him in a Cause wherein himself is so nearly concerned In 1659. came forth Mr. Baxter's Key for Catholicks dedicated To his Highness Richard Lord Protector p. 323. where he asserts That if the Body of a Commonwealth or those that have part in the Legislative Power and so in the Supremacy should be unwillingly engaged in a War with the Prince suppose the Long Parliament or the Commonwealth under Oliver against King Charles the First and after many years Blood and Desolations judiciously take away his Life as guilty of all this Blood and not to be trusted any more with Government as the Parliaments Vote for Non-address to the King And all this they do not as Private Men but as the remaining Soveraign Power and say they do it according to Law undoubtedly this case doth very much differ from the Powder Plot or Papists murdering of Kings With much more to the same evil purpose And doubtless the difference is great it is more horrid for Subjects to pretend Justice than for the Pope to attempt by secret Plots to destroy a Protestant Prince In the year 58. he prints his Five Disputations of Church Government which were designed against restoring the extruded Episcopacy and Liturgy and to justifie the Presbyterian Ordination where as also in his Method for Peace p. 389. he saith We have taken down the superfluous honour of Bishops viz. their power over Presbyters as Antichristian This disputatious Book he says was written against Dr. Hammond who was then his Neighbour and he dealt very friendly with him for he scarce touched one of his Arguments but the design of the Book was to destroy the whole Order as Optatus said of a Donatist Dei Episcopos linguae gladio jugulasti fundens sanguinem non corporis sed honoris Opt. Milevit l. 2. And because after No Bishop follows No King in 1659. he sets forth his Holy Common-wealth which was no other than a Plot to keep out the King as the other was to keep out the Bishops for there being great hopes that upon so many Revolutions of Government we should settle again on our ancient Foundations he says He suited that Book to the demands and doubts of those times And his endeavour is to prove That the King being secluded and his Subjects discharged of their Obedience ought not to be readmitted Thus in the Preface That a Succession of wise and godly Men may be secured to the Nation in the highest Power is that I have directed you the way to in this Book And thus he explains himself First as to the higher Powers Prove saith he that the King was the highest Power in the times of Division and that he had power to make that War that he made and I will offer my Head to Justice as a Rebel These confident Assertions of his were such as brought a far better Head to the Block But what would Mr. Baxter have My wish is saith he that our Parliaments may be holy and this ascertained from Generation to Generation by such a necessary Regulation of Elections that all those who by wickedness have forfeited their Liberties i.e. the King and Loyal Party may neither choose nor be chosen And the reducing Elections to faithful honest upright men such as he says were then in Richard Cromwel 's Parliament is the only
that time was abused and employed to very ill uses yet with Mr. Baxter Oliver is as David and his Son Richard as Solomon Mr. Baxter's Key for Catholicks was dedicated to Richard Cromwel where he gives this Character of himself One that rejoyceth in the present happiness of England and wisheth earnestly that it were but as well with the rest of the World and that honoureth all the Providences of God by which we have been brought to what we are One that concurs in the common hopes to these Nations under your Government And in another Epistle before his Five Disputations of Church-Government when all Religions were tolerated except that of the Church of England to prevent the toleration of that he says If you give Liberty to all that is called Religion you will soon be judged of no Religion and loved accordingly How Mr. Baxter and his Party behaved themselves during the Imprisonment of the King and while he was in the hands of his Murderers they are not willing to discover Mr. Baxter for his part says That he proved in the times of Usurpation that the Presbyterians detested it that the London Ministers printed their Abhorrence of it to the World Preface to Second Plea As for the London-Ministers I read that about 59 of them in number pleaded for the King in these words That the woful Miscarriages of the King himself which we cannot but acknowledge to be very many and great in his Government have cost the three Kingdoms so dear and cast him down from his Excellency into a horrid Pit of Misery beyond example This Plea for the King is like their late Pleas for Peace i.e. Justifications of Schism and Sedition for in it they say enough to excuse the Regicides We cannot but acknowledge i.e. we affirm and bear witness that the woful Miscarriages of the King himself not of his evil Counsellors only but his personal Crimes and fundamental Errours in Government too many and great to be here mentioned have cost the three Kingdoms so dear as that all the Bloodshed and Rapine and Devastations that have been made in England Scotland and Ireland might be charged on him and for these he is justly cast down from his Excellency into so horrid a pit of Misery beyond example i.e. Though the like were never done in the World he is justly fallen under a Sentence of Condemnation As to Mr. Baxter's particular abhorrence of that barbarous Fact and his proving that the Presbyterians detested it I suppose the place he refers to is his Key for Catholicks p. 321 c. he says in p. 323. That the Case of Murdering our King differs very much from the Powder Plot or Papists murdering of Kings and teaching that it is lawful for a private hand to do it A War and a treacherous Murder are not all one nor is a part of the Soveraign Power all one with a private hand p. 324. I have read what John Goodwin and Milton have written in Vindication of that horrid Murder and do believe that Mr. Baxter hath out-done them both Let the Reader seriously peruse that part of his Writings which he quotes to prove the contrary from p. 323. to p. 326. and I believe he will be of the same opinion for the design of it is to prove that p. 323. If the Body of a Commonwealth or those that have part in the Legislative Power and so in the Supremacy should unwillingly be engaged in a War with the Prince and after many years Blood and Desolations judiciously take away his Life as guilty of all this Blood and not to be trusted any more with Government and all this they do not as private Men but as the remaining Soveraign Power and say they do according to Laws undoubtedly the Case differs very much from Papists murdering of Kings I speak not this by way of Justification saith Mr. Baxter p. 325. whether they were in the right or wrong I am not the Judge but surely it was the Judgment of the Parliament upon the Division between the King and them the Power was in them to defend themselves and the Commonwealth and suppress all Subjects that were in Arms against them and that those that did resist them did resist the Higher Powers set over them by God and therefore were guilty of the Damnation of Resisters And this they assured the People was a Truth And so hath Mr. Baxter done too in his Political Aphorisms more at large but expresly enough in this place where under the name of Grotius p. 324. he asserts That the Legislative Power being divided between the Prince and Senate the Prince invading the Senates Right may justly be resisted and lose his Right And this was well understood by all that engaged in the War against the King from the beginning that in case they Conquered the King he was no more to be trusted with the Government For if it were known before-hand saith Mr. Baxter that if they should purchase a Victory by their Blood when they have done all they must be all governed by him whom they have conquered and lye at his mercy they would hardly ever have an Army to defend them So that the King was never more to be trusted i.e. either with Government or Life As for Mr. Love Mr. Baxter in the cited Preface intimates that he was Beheaded for his Loyalty which I think he sufficiently demonstrated in these two passages Not to take notice here of his barbarous insulting over that truly great Prelate when he was brought to the Block waving his Handkerchief and crying out Art thou come little Will c. the one in his Sermon at Vxbridge It was the Lord that troubled Achan and cut him off because he troubled Israel O that in this our State Physicians would resemble God to cut off those from the Land that have distempered it and he tells us plainly whom he means Melius pereat unus quam unitas Men that lye under the guilt of much Innocent Blood are not fit persons to be at peace with till all the guilt of Blood be expiated and avenged either by the Sword of the Law or by the Law of the Sword else the Peace can never be safe or just The other passage was in his Speech Sect. 14. of his Trial where speaking of his opposing the Tyranny of a King he says I did it is true in my place and calling oppose the Forces of the late King and where he alive again and should I live longer the Cause being as then it was I should oppose him longer That is he had lived and would die a Rebel An hundred Instances of such fatal Reflections on that excellent Prince have been noted in the Sermons and other Writings of Men of Mr. Baxter's Perswasion and yet to shew that he dares do any thing to justifie his Party he makes a bold Challenge to those whom he calls their Accusers to shew if they can what Body or Party of Men on Earth
A REVIEW OF Mr. Richard Baxter's LIFE WHEREIN Many Mistakes are Rectified some False Relations Detected some Omissions supplyed out of his other BOOKS WITH REMARKS on several Material Passages By THOMAS LONG B.D. One of the Prebendaries of St. Peter's Exon. I have been in the heat of my Zeal so forward to Changes and Ways of Blood that I fear God will not let me have a hand in the peaceable building of his Church Mr. Baxter's Letter to Dr. Hill LONDON Printed by F.C. and are to be sold by E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1697. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND Father in GOD JONATHAN Lord Bishop of Exeter May it please your Lordship I Am very sensible how Criminal it is for any Christian to do what the very Heathen have forbid to speak any thing of the Dead but what is well and yet there are so many ill things recorded of Mr. Baxter in the following Treatise that I might justly incur your Lordships displeasure if I could not plead very necessary and satisfactory Reasons for this Undertaking First therefore I plead that I have said little or nothing in what is now published but what Mr. Baxter reported of himself as Matters of Fact in the History of his Life and other Books printed in his Life time or what is fairly inferred from the same 2. That the Substance of what is now published was printed about nine years before his Death which it is evident he had perused and acknowledgeth he had given no Answer to it except a Mentiris which was his usual Reply to other Adversaries for want of Reason and Argument 3. I say that though dead he hath first provoked me for in p. 188. part 3. of his Life he saith Long of Exeter wrote so fierce a Book to prove me out of my own Writings to be one of the worst Men living on Earth full of Falshoods and old retracted Lines and half Sentences that I never saw any like it and yet though so much concerned and surviving about Nine years he hath not discovered that fulness of Falshoods c. which he suggested but tells his Readers that it is none of the Matter in Controversie whether he be good or bad whereas it is certain that a good Man would never ingage in so bad a Cause as he hath defended by his Personal Actions as well as in many Writings and he himself tells us That a true Description of Persons is much of the Life of History p. 136. of his Life And an evil Tree cannot bring forth good Fruit. 4. I plead not my own Cause but the Cause of the Church and National Constitutions and in truth of all Degrees of Persons in the Nation for this Historical Relation of his own Life contains a virulent invective and grinning Satyr against all that live in conformity to the Ecclesiastical or Civil Laws the King is represented as a Papist and Authorizer of the Irish Insurrection the Parliament is Tyrannical making such Laws as proved Taring Engines and such as no Man fearing God could submit to the established Order of Episcopacy as Antichristian the Clergy as perjured and persecuting Persons the Nobility and Gentry as strengthners of Iniquity in the Land And do not such Scandals demand a Reply 5. It is necessary to disperse those Clouds and Umbrages with which he would cover his mischievous Designs his Pleas for Peace first second and third and his Only way of Concord being nothing else but Seeds of Discord and Confusion and necessary it was that such ill things should have good Names given them those that would propagate Schisms and Heresies need a Form of Godliness to set them off Arius Aerius and Donatus were Men of good Learning and as to appearance of good Lives also yet the one most strangely propagated that damnable Error of denying the Lord that bought him and the other those Schisms which have divided the Body of Christ his Church to this present Age 'T is but an Artifice therefore of all Seducers of which the Apostle forewarns us 2 Tim. 3.2,3 That in the last days men should be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than of God and all this under a Form of Godliness and when even Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light it is no marvel if his Ministers be transformed as the Ministers of Righteousness 6. I remember that our Excellent Bishop of Worcester prudently foretold of Mr. Baxter That he would dye leaving his sting in the wounds of the Church which Mr. Baxter hath abundantly fulfilled in this and many other of his Writings which Stings must be pluckt out or the Wounds which they have made will be still kept open and bleeding for though Mr. Baxter be dead he hath done what he could to raise up and arm a Succession of such a Generation of Dissenters as shall still eat into the Bowels of the Church and he hath provided a Magazine of Ammunition for them Mr. Sylvester tells us How much he was delighted in a hopeful Race of young Ministers and Christians how much he valued young Divines and hopeful Candidates for the Ministry how liberal he was of Counsel and Encouragement to them and inquisitive after and pleased with their growthful Numbers and Improvement And he told me that he had the greatest hopes and expectations from the succeeding Generation of them that they would do God's Work much better than we had done before them To which end he acquaints us in the beginning of his Preface That Mr. Baxter left the orderly disposal of his bequeathed Library to young poor Students So that here is a Fund provided for a perpetual Schism And Mr. Sylvester hath discovered a hidden Treasure of Mr. Baxter's which he is improving as a Supply of Deficiencies in another Volume Having shewn your Lordship the Reasons of my Undertaking I shall briefly give you an Account of what I have performed to frustrate these pernicious Attempts Your Lordship knows I have served as a Veterane Souldier in these Parts of the Church Militant about Fifty years and might now sue for a Dismission being somewhat elder than Mr. Baxter was when he left writing which was as Mr. Sylvester says Seven years before his death when he was as I compute it Sixty nine years old and I am now entred into the Seventy sixth year yet to excite and encourage men of greater Abilities I have as I were able performed these two things First Whereas a great part of this and other Writings of Mr. Baxter as also of his whole Life hath been spent in framing Objections against and Defamations of our well-establish'd Discipline and Liturgy which he blameth as too confused for want of Method and for its Matter abstracted from the Penal Laws as abounding with Thirty or Forty such tremendous things as a man
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
that must end this Controversie Wherefore turn your Plowsheres into Swords and your Pruninghooks to Spears to fight the Lords Battles to avenge the Blood of the Saints which hath been spilt It must be avenged by us or upon us I have prayed that too much pitty in our State Physicians do not retard the healing of the Land here are Malignant Humours in the Nobles and Gentry to be purged out before they be healed O that in this our State Physicians would resemble God to cut off those from the Land who have distempered it You may know what he means by his Latin sentence Melius pereat unus quam unitas Men that be under the guilt of much Innocent Blood are not fit to be at Peace with till all the guilt of Blood be expiated by the Sword of the Law or the Law of the Sword It is true saith he at his Execution I did in my place and calling oppose the Forces of the late King and were he alive again and I should live longer the Cause being as then it was I should oppose him longer But the present Power saw it not fit to trust him with a longer Life And it is very remarkable that Prideaux the Atturney General repeated most of those passages which Mr. Love had urged against the King and his Party to ruine them to shew that he ought not to have any Mercy shewed him See the Printed Tryal of Mr. Love Mr. Baxter pag. 67. of his Life says That the Souldiers said he was so like to Love that he would not be right till he was shorter by the head But Mr. Baxter acted more warily and as he says p. 84. of his Life that after Wars he had Fourteen Years Liberty in such sweet imployment and that in times of Usurpation when under a Rightful King and Governour he was laid by as a broken Vessel suspected and vilified scarce Tolerated to live privately and quietly in the Land But if Mr. Baxter had complied but half so much with the rightful Government in things lawful as he had done with usurped Powers in things unlawful he might have lived more than twice as long as quietly and godly as other good Men did Yet after the clamour of his Sufferings he thrived in those worst Times as he accounted them for he had a stock of Money out of which he could spare a Thousand pound to the Exchequer intended most of it for pious uses as he says p. 89. part 3. But in Seven years he endeavoured a purchase of House or Land but could not find it So that he perceived the Devils resistance of it and that there are Devils that keep up a War against Goodness in the World yet he found the Devil did not hinder his disbursing almost as great a Sum to build a Synagogue for his Conventicle He did not thrive so well in the Service of the Army for his Arrears of many hundred pounds were never paid him Nor was he dealt with as Mr. Love Ille crucem sceleris precium tulit hic diadema But to return This or some other Relick of this Assembly who themselves ran before they were sent did send Mr. Baxter to the Army under Cromwel after the King's death where he says he accompanied Commissary-General Whaley a Person who was sometime the King's Jailor and whom you may find in that black List of his Majesty's Judges a fit Conductor and great Confident of Mr. Baxter's to him Mr. Baxter dedicates his Apology by the Name of The Honourable c. With this Achitophel our Shemei hunts David from Mountain to Mountain cursing and railing at him as he goes the Sword of his Tongue being longer and sharper than his furbished Sword Curse ye Meroz and Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully and Cursed be he that holdeth back his Sword from Blood were the common Texts of the Army-Chaplains And the Maxims of his Holy Commonwealth were the Subjects of some of his Sermons He says in the Epistle to his first Plea for Peace My honest Friend a Proselyte of his whom it seems he had engaged in the War when he saw here a Leg and there an Arm was faint-hearted and said it was time for him to stop But the valiant Mr. Baxter though he had seen many sadder sights even the Carcasses of some Thousands Streams of Blood the Ruine of Cities Towns Churches and Castles goes on as undauntedly as the Horse that rusheth into the Battle Let the Reader view if he can without horrour what Mr. Baxter reports of himself in two Epistles dedicated to two of his Army-Saints In that to Whaley he saith Providence did so clear his way viz. in that War and draw him on and sweeten unusual Troubles with unusual Mercies and issue all in Testimonies of Grace that he had great mixtures of Comfort with Sorrow in the performance And that he had more eminent Deliverances and other Mercies in those years and ways of Blood and Dolour than in most of his Life besides It seems he was of the mind which our Saviour foretold of some that should kill his Disciples and think they did God Service He adds The best is we now draw no blood it seems he had done that sufficiently they were now as Conquerours to divide the Spoil And great things did this Champion promise himself though it appears that he was disappointed of his hopes For in another Epistle to Colonel Berry whom Stilo Novo he calls Honourable too as being one of the Council of State he thus expostulates Was I not capable of Secular and Military Advancement as well as others it seems he thought so but they did not Did I ever sollicite you as much as for my Arrears which is many hundred pounds it seems he had served them long and was well promised for his pains but this Man of Conscience was content with the pleasing work of drawing Blood gratis he scorn'd to open his mouth for the many Hundreds due to him hoping they would have advanced a Man of so generous a Spirit to some eminent Military Preferment whereof his Ministry notwithstanding he thought himself capable But this great Warriour partly through regret at his disappointments of which he complains p. 2. of his Epistle before his Saints Everlasting Rest against ungrateful men and partly through his bodily infirmities for however willing his Spirit was his Flesh was grown weak being exhausted by the Accidents of War For in the same Page he tells us that being in his Quarters far from home he was cast into extream languishing by the sudden loss of about a gallon of Blood which should have minded him of the many Gallons of Blood whereof he had been the cause of effusion after many years foregoing weakness by which his Body was ruined beyond hopes of recovery the sentence of present death being by the ablest Physicians past upon him from which he was delivered by a wonder in the midst of his duties i.e. in the
War and was supported fourteen years in a languishing estate wherein he had scarce a waking hour free from pain And thus though against his will he is forced to leave the Army And might not Mr. Baxter justly say and the Reader believe him in this as he writes in a Letter to Dr. Hill I have been in the heat of my Zeal so forward to changes and ways of blood that I fear God will not let me have a hand in the peaceable building of his Church And the Judgment of God is eminently upon him who hath been so far from building that it hath ever since been his great business to destroy the best established Church in the World which will appear by taking a view of this mortified Man in his retirement from the War And we find him sitting down on the sequestred Living of Mr. Dance at Kedderminster he had inticed many of that place and neighbourhood to the War and some few returned with him again How far he was given to Plunder in the time of War whereof he hath been accused I affirm not but it will draw a shrewd suspicion on him that he was not afraid to take a Horse or two in time of War who seized on the Person of a Neighbour to serve as an Exchange for his Father and possessed himself of the Livelyhood of Mr. Dance of whom he confessed as the then Bp. of Worcester's Letter p. 3. informs That he was a Man of an unblameable Life and Conversation though not of such Parts as might qualifie him for the Cure of so great a Congregation And though Mr. Baxter was not welcomed here by a Miracle as he was at * See Mr. Baxter's Relation of this in a Postscript to his True Catholick p. 294. Bridgenorth where the Report is that it rained Manna on the Church wherein he was to officiate yet he was convinced by Providence as he says in that Epistle That it is the Will of God it should be so a strange Argument from God's permission of an unrighteous Act that it is his Will it should be so For this saith he I clearly discerned in my first coming to you in my former abode with you and in the time of my forced absence from you But the truth is Mr. Baxter had too much adhered to the Presbyterian Interest to be advanced by that Army though he desires them to remember how far he had gone with them in the War and pleadeth their acknowledgment that a special Presence of God was with the Parliament and presseth on them the Sin of forcing out 140 Members first and then 120 and their proclaiming it Treason to say that the Parliament was in being And then he urgeth those Scriptures to them which himself had shewn them an example to contemn Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 and that they might know his meaning he tells them That the secluded Members were the best Governours in all the World that they had the Supremacy and yet had been resisted and deposed in England It was a Sin with Mr. Baxter to oppose the Usurpers and a Duty to resist the King and fight against him which Mr. Baxter did for four years together And it is to be believed saith Mr. Baxter that a man would kill him against whom he fights p. 423. Holy Commonwealth But Mr. Baxter was not very constant to his own Profession concerning his long beloved Parliament For in the same place and breath almost he says Secondly I mean the Powers that were last layed by viz. Richard and his Parliament of whom he says as to Richard That he piously prudently and faithfully to his immortal honour did exercise the Government how ill soever you have used him But wherein did all this Piety and Prudence appear was it that he did inherit from his Father Oliver a tender care of the Cause of Christ of which you seem to give an instance in the Protestants of Piedmont when it was notorious that a great part of the Charity of the Nation for their Relief was employed in maintaining the War against the King Was it that at the instance of a few of his Officers he dissolved that Parliament of his Was it in swearing that he would to the utmost of his power maintain and preserve the just Rights and Priviledges of the People and govern according to Law which he could not do Was it in making a tame Submission to some of his Army calling them The present Government from whom he expected Protection and held himself obliged to live peaceably under them and to procure to the utmost of his power that others should do so too These things argue no great stock of Piety Prudence or Faithfulness And as to Richard's Parliament which had an Upper House consisting mostly of Military Mechanical and Fanatick Members a Lower House of Men of none or very ill note Of this Parliament Mr. Baxter says He never had known a Parliament more inclined to Piety and Peace the Long Parliament not excepted whereof he gives this instance Because it was their desire to have setled Elections according to Mr. Baxter's advice i.e. to keep out all whom he calls ungodly from chusing or being chosen See the Preface to the Holy Commonwealth These and such like were they of whom Mr. Baxter says They were the best Governours in all the World such as they had sworn and sworn to obey again and again such as might not be imposed on pain of Damnation and that he would with great rejoycing give a thousand thanks to that Man that would acquaint him of one Nation in the World that had better Governours in Soveraign Power as to Holiness and Wisdom conjunct than these who yet had been resisted and deposed It seems Mr. Baxter could have been easily reconciled to any Governours but those to whom of right the Government did belong And any Reader conversant in Mr. Baxter's Writings may observe that Mr. Baxter never complained so much of Arbitrary Government and Persecution under any of the Revolutions of Usurped Powers as he hath done since the King and Church were restored nay he wrote as industriously for Obedience to some of them as he hath since to incourage Disobedience to these And let me desire the Reader to consider what ground Mr. Baxter had for his great veneration of the Secluded Members more than for those who were called the Rump Did not they agree in that accursed Vote of Non-Addresses to the King before their Seclusion Did not they upon their re-admission re-enforce the Engagement to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth without a King or House of Lords Did not some of them provide an Oath of Abjuration of the King to be taken by such as were to sit in the Council of State Did not some of them send to General Monk to advise him that he must take that Oath before his admittance into that Council Did they not offer to settle Hampton-Court on General Monk and desire him to take
have more sound and loyal Principles of Government and Obedience And yet they have preacht and publisht to the World the same Doctrines which were voted January the 4th 1648. That the Representative of the People in Parliament have the Supream Power of the Nation and whatever is enacted or declared for Law by the Commons in Parliament hath the form of a Law and the People are concluded thereby though the Consent of King and Peers be not had thereunto Which Votes were passed in order to the King 's Trial. Were not they the King 's most Loyal Subjects that carried on a War against him until they made him their Prisoner and then used him as a captiv'd Slave denying him the liberty of a Man the society of Wife Children and any Attendant whom he could trust and of a Christian denying him the assistance of his Chaplains leaving him no Comfort that might make his Life desirable but perpetually baiting him with the Covenant and such unreasonable Propositions as they knew before-hand the King could not in Honour or Conscience comply with Being thus bound and chain'd the Independants take him out of their hands and put an end to his Sufferings Salmasius a great Presbyterian himself truly represents the Case If a Thief says he p. 353. of his Defensio Regia apprehends a Traveller disarms him robs him of his Money and leaves him naked and fast bound to some Tree and some ravenous Beast finding him in that condition kills and devours him to whom ought the cause of his Death to be imputed to the Thief or to the Beast And he concludes Ita justum Regem sanctum extinxere Presbyteriani These disarmed him of his Militia these bought and sold him as a Captive these covenanted to preserve his Life with a Condition of his preserving their Religion which when he should refuse they thought themselves bound by Covenant to desert him The Army in a Remonstrance from St. Albans Novemb. 16. say that Whereas it might be objected that the Covenant obliged them to preserve the King's Person They say It was with this restriction In the preservation of the true Religion Religion and Publick Interest were to be understood the principal and supream Matters engaged for the King's Person and Authority were inferiour and subordinate which being not consistent with the preservation of Religion and Publick Interest they were by the Covenant obliged against it And what was it less that the Commissioners of the General Assembly of the Scots resolved on viz. That if the King were excluded from Government in England for not granting the Propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant it was not lawful for that Kingdom to assist him for the recovery of his Government yet this is that Solemn Covenant for the obligation whereof Mr. Baxter so contumaciously pleads against the Authority of the whole Nation And upon these and such like Proposals from Scotland the Parliament vote That no more Addresses be made from them to the King nor any Letters or Message received from him And That it should be Treason for any person to receive Letters from the King or deliver any to him without leave from both Houses And were not these the King 's most Loyal Subjects Or what Body or Party of Men have in Mr. Baxter's sence more sound or loyal Principles of Government and Obedience How often and how deeply this incomparable King was wounded at the heart by those barbarous Declarations of the Parliament and Presbyterian Incendiaries as if he were a witless worthless faithless Person not to be trusted in his most Solemn Protestations against his Intentions for Tyranny and Popery is beyond any Man's expressions but his own These had often murdered him in his Honour and Reputation before his last Execution Nor could his last Speech silence those malicious Blasphemies he was no sooner dead but he was executed in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as much as lay in the power of his Adversaries rob'd of that immortal Jewel more worth than his Crown though no Man was so qualified for such pious and excellent Meditations as himself Those two Disputes about Episcopacy against Henderson and a Junto of Presbyterians at Newport of which his greatest Enemies could not deny him to be the genuine Author sufficiently shew his great Abilities both for Learning and Acurateness of Stile of which Debates the Bishop of Worcester says that his Majesty understood the Constitution of our Church as well as any Bishop in it and defended it with as clear and strong Reasons whereof that Learned Bishop made great use against Mr. Baxter's opposition of Episcopacy p. 271 280. of his History of Separation Yet from the beginning of the War to the end of the Life of that best of Kings and I may add to the end of Mr. Baxter's Life no one hath endeavoured to defame him more and render him odious to Posterity than Mr. Baxter by charging him with granting Commissions to those Irish Papists that massacred Two hundred thousand Protestants of which more hereafter Though Mr. Baxter was disabled to combate any longer with the Sword yet is he resolved to do it with the Pen which he dips not in Gall and Vinegar but in the very Poyson of Asps to keep open the Wounds of the expiring Church To which end he endeavours to draw his Neighbour-Ministers into an Association and procures the Worcestershire Agreement the design of which you may see in Mr. Baxter's Gildas Salvianus which was intended as a Humiliation Sermon to those that would enter into the Association not that they should humble themselves but the Clergy that yet adhered to the King For one effect of it was the promoting a Petition That notoriously insufficient and scandalous persons and as such Mr. Baxter represented the Loyal Clergy though as himself observes in the same Book the Synod of Dort called them Stupor Mundi the Astonishment of the World by reason of their Eminency should not be permitted to meddle with the Mysteries of Christ especially the Sacraments Upon which Petition as Mr. Baxter hath been told there issued that rigid Proclamation for Silencing all sequestred Ministers and forbidding them not only the Exercise of their Ministry but of keeping any Schools c. A design as witless as it was wicked for Mr. Baxter notes in the Preface to that Book That it had been put to a Vote in Parliament to take away both Ministry and Maintenance which was carried in the Negative by two Voices only yet like another Sampson he is pulling down the Pillars of that House whose Ruines would bury himself and all his Order A little taste of his Malice at that season must needs distaste the impartial Reader One sort that will be offended at me says he are some of the Divines of the Prelatical way as indeed they all justly might for reproaching not as by hear-say but from sight and feeling first the Silencing of most godly able men the Persecution even
he be impartial a lover of peace and not ingaged in a faction a sober calm considerate man not one that is passionately rash that shews a malignant spirit one that extenuates or denies all the good that was in his Adversaries and fastneth on them all the Odium he can without proof one that is not deeply ingaged in a party one that is of manifest honâ—… 〈◊〉 conscience c. For want of which qualifications it is truly observed by Dr. Maurice that as his Church History was designed to disgrace Diocesan Bishops so the Preface looks as if it were intended to disgrace his History Nor must we believe our Senses if we must believe that they were Episcopal men that begun the late War when the contrary appears by many other acknowledged Proofs and continued visible Effects related by Mr. Baxter himself The Parliament having had long and late experience how troublesome and implacable such as Mr. Baxter were proceeded to the establishment of the Church and publick Worship excluding none but such as would exclude themselves And as a signal of his Majesty's impartial favour he offered Bishopricks to three Deanries to two or three more and other Dignities were given to several sober Persons that had been of another Perswasion One Bishoprick was accepted one which I suppose was Mr. Baxter refused it See p. 134. of First Plea His reason I suppose was the same that he gave for not reading Common Prayer p. 105. of Sacr. Desert Should the Ministers that have suffered so long but use any part of the Liturgy and Scripture Forms though without any motive but the pleasing of God and the Churches good it seems these Motives would not prevail for this Reason what muttering and censuring would there be against them This bold Man was afraid of the People And in truth he has made it morally impossible for him to accept a Bishoprick having often declared by word and published it in print That the Office of a Bishop as exercised in the Church of England was Antichristian And saith in his Method for peace of Conscience p. 389. We had taken down the superfluous honour of Bishops as Antichristian upon which N.B. the Devil set them to cry down also as Antichristian Tythes Maintenance Priests and Ministers And moreover that the return of such Men would be a great Plague to the Land in Postser to the True Catholick p. 335. And Mr. Baxter knows there is an ancient Canon That a man that had his hand in blood might not be a Bishop See p. 213. of his History And p. 36. A Government which gratifieth the Devil and wicked Men. And now he begins to defame the Laws as he had formerly done the Liturgy and not having other means he discovers his impotent malice in writing a Prognostication dated when by the King's Commission we in vain treated for Concord 1661. He observed p. 40. That the Sectarian Spirit was like Gunpowder ready to take fire on such injuries And Mr. Baxter with his Prognostication like Guy Faux with his Dark Lanthorn is ready for the Exploit and sorry only that it is not done He intimates the Clergy to be proud worldly covetous domineering malignant lazy the plague of the world troublers of Princes dividers of Churches that will being Hypocrites as to Christianity and Godliness like Judas that loved the Bag better than Christ make themselves a Religion consisting of meer Corps and the dead Image of true Religion See p. 12 13. He cries out of New Impositions Subscriptions and Oaths words and Actions which they believe to be against God's Word Doth not this aim directly at the Laws P. 14. he says Their Sufferings will make many otherwise sober Ministers too impatient and to give their Tongues leave to take down the Honour of the Clergy And this will stir up the People and make them pray for the downfal of the Clergy which they take to be Enemies of God and Godliness and that to speak easily or charitably of such Men is but to be lukewarm and indifferent between GOD AND THE DEVIL p. 20. Some of the Non-conformist Ministers will think these Passions of the People needful to check the sierceness of the Afflictors Some of the more injudicious hot-brain'd sort who are the greatest number will put them on and make them believe that all Communion with any Conforming Ministers or Parish Churches is unlawful and that they are all Temporizers and Betrayers of Truth and Purity that communicate with them and carry about among themselves false Reports and Slanders because they will think that the upholding of their Cause which they think is God's doth need the suppression of these mens Credit and Reputations p. 25 26. The godly and peaceable Conformists will get the love of the sober by their Doctrine and Lives but will be despised by the Sectaries because they conform and will be separated by the proud and persecuting Clergy as leaning to the Dissenters and thereupon will be under continual Jealousies and Rebukes And perhaps new Points of Conformity shall be devised to be imposed on them which it is known their Consciences are against that so they also may be forced to be Non-conformists because secret Enemies are more dangerous than open Foes and so part of them will turn downright Non-conformists and the other part will live in displeasure till they see an opportunity to shew it And these are the likeliest to cross and weaken the worldly persecuting Clergy This is such a Prognostication as that for which Mr. Baxter observes Mr. Vdal was condemned in Queen Elizabeth's Reign in an Assize-Sermon on Psal 2. And it is no otherwise a Prognostication than Astrologers observe of Blazing-stars they do irritate and dispose the Humours and Spirits of Men to disorderly Actions to which the event shews that this Prognostication and Mr. Baxter's influence on the People hath had a malign Aspect not unlike the Prophesie of Nostredamus's Son That a certain great City should be burnt and to fulfil his Prophesie did procure it to be set on fire My next Remark is on Mr. Baxter's behaviour at Kedderminster where the Bishop of Worcester publickly declared That he made the People believe that it was lawful for them to take up Arms against the King and suffered or made them to scruple at those things which were lawful which he himself confesseth to be lawful and that he himself heard him to maintain such a Position as was destructive to the Legislative Power both of both of God and Man viz. That the enjoyning of things lawful by lawful Authority if they might by accident be the cause of sin was sinful This was the chiefest Argument urged against Kneeling c. by Mr. Baxter See the Bishops Letter p. 4. and 6. Now though the known integrity of the Bishop is enough to make all good Men believe this Relation yet the consideration of the Premises puts the truth of it beyond all doubt or exception Was this behaviour
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
of them which the Collector hath not done by him The best is the words of such a scandalous Person will not be taken as a blot And I desire my conforming Brethren not to be troubled at the Railings or Reproaches of this Zealot and that they would forbear troubling him who as he saith hath been a dying Man almost these forty years And though I never spake nor thought half so ill of him as he hath recorded of himself yet I shall charitably hope and pray That if he live to see himself in this his own Glass he will yet at last repent of those Sins which he cannot but condemn as very heinous and dangerous in the sight of God and Man I shall be so charitable as to propose a method to ease him from one great fear Mr. Baxter seems much troubled to think that his Adversaries may have the last word of him Now I perceive that Mr. Hicringle by opposing the Bishop of Worcester hath ingratiated himself with Mr. Baxter Preface to Second Defence of whom he doth not come much short in confident boasting of himself It is a difficult matter to infuse to him the Art of Defining and Distinguishing by which Mr. Baxter is able to evade any Argument But this defect may be supplied if Mr. Baxter bequeath him his Eighty Books and enjoyn him especially to study his Arguments for Separation and the heinous sins of Conformity which he shall find often repeated and to apply them on all occasions But let him not do as in his Naked Truth conceal the Name of his Benefactor but quote him totidem verbis and so Mr. Baxter may have the last word as long as the Faction continueth But if this fear be thus removed I question whether a greater will not follow viz. of being like Jeroboam who having set up Calves at Dan and Bethel in opposition to the established Worship is recorded to have made Israel to sin not in his life-time only but long after his death and how dreadful the final Sentence of such a one may be I commend to Mr. Baxter's most serious Meditations But if Mr. Baxter who so solemnly cites others to Judgment continueth to go on impenitently to that dreadful day I shall yet pray for him as he doth for the Conformists Lord have mercy on him And because I doubt not but his Friends and Disciples will raise a Monument to perpetuate the Memory of their Master I shall commend this Characteristical epitaph Hic jacet RICHARDUS BAXTER Theologus Armatus Loiolita Reformatus Haeresiarcha Aerianus Schismaticorum Antisignanus Cujus pruritus disputandi peperit Scriptitandi Cacoethes nutrivit Praedicandi zelus intemperatus maturavir ECCLESIAE SCABIEM Qui dissentitab iis quibuscum consentitmaximè Tum sibi cùm aliis Nonconformis Praeteritis praesentibus futuris Regum Episcoporum Juratus Hostis Ipsumque Rebellium Solennae foedus Qui natus erat per Septuaginta Annos Et Octoginta Libros Ad perturbandas Regni Respublicas Et ad bis perdendam Ecclesiam Anglicanan Magnis tamen excidit ausis Deo Gratias REFLECTIONS ON Some Material Passages First concerning the Marquess Antrim MR. Baxter had related in his Penitent Confession N. 22. That he had read the King's Letter in Spain to the Pope promising to venture Crown and Life for the Union of Christian Churches including the Roman and whether it be true as the Scots say That the King put the Broad Seal to a Commission for the Irish Rebellion he determines not but it 's past doubt that the Marquess of Antrim had his Commission if Mr. Baxter means that he had a Commission for the Irish Rebellion in the first Insurrection yet he himself says That if a Subject had seen such a Commission he was bound not to believe that the King was the Authour of it p. 16. of second Plea for Peace What ground then had he for his confidence that Sir Philem O Neale had such a Commission as was boasted of But the Cheat was undeniably proved but Antrim's Commission was not heard of till after the end of the War and then there appeared no Evidence of it nor do we find it mentioned in any History of that War I shall therefore set before the Reader Mr. Baxter's Relation of that pretended Commission and then shew that his presumption could have no other ground but his vile Opinion that the Royal Martyr was a Papist as he maliciously represents him or from the Relation of Ludlow or some other of the Regicides in that Scandalous Pamphlet which is Mr. Baxter's chief Authority called Murder will out That I may clear the Prejudice of such Readers as are too ready to give Credit to this Relation of Mr. Baxter I desire them to take notice that this Commission to Antrim is pretended to be granted to authorize that Insurrection of the Irish wherein Two hundred-thousand Protestants were massacred which if it had been true how vainly and foolishly did Sir Phelim O Neale act in Counterfeiting another Commission and pleading that to countenance their Rebellion if they had an Authentick one Had Antrim such a Commission and never made it known to Sir Phelim O Neale or to the Lord Muskerry and Mackguire Or if these Men had known of such a Commission would not they or one of them at least have confessed it when their Lives and Estates were offered them upon that Condition before their Execution And did not all three deny that they knew of any Commission from the King or that he was privy to their Rising How then is Mr. Baxter past doubt that the Marquess of Antrim had that King's Commission which he aggravates as followeth I had forgotten one Passage in the former War of great remark which put me into an amazement Part 3. of Mr. Baxter's Life p. 83. The Duke of Ormond and Council had the Cause of the Marquess of Antrim before them who had been one of the Irish Rebels in the beginning of that War when two hundred thousand Protestants were murdered His Estate being sequestred he sought Restitution of it when Charles the Second was restored Ormond and the Council judged against him as one of the Rebels He brought his Cause over to the King and affirmed that what he did was by his Father's Consent and Authority The King referred it to some worthy Members of his Privy Council to examine what he had to show Vpon Examination they reported that they found that he had the King's Consent or Letter of Instructions for what he did which amazed many Hereupon his Majesty Charles the Second wrote to the Duke of Ormond and Council to restore his Estate because it appeared that what he did was by his Father's Order or Consent Whereupon the Parliaments old Adherents grew more confident than ever of the righteousness of their Wars And the very Destroyers of the King whom the first Parliamentarians called Rebels did presume also to justifie their Cause and said That the Law
of Nature did warrant them But it stopt not here for the Lord Mazarine and others of Ireland did so far prosecute the Cause as that the Marquess of Antrim was forced to produce in the Parliament of England in the House of Commons a Letter of King Charles the First 's by which he gave him Order for his taking up Arms which being read in the House put them into a silence But yet so egregious was their Loyalty and Veneration of Majesty that it put them not at all one step out of the way which they had gone in But the People without doors talked strangely Some said Did you not perswade us that the King was against the Irish Rebellion And that the Rebels belied him when they said they had his Warrant or Commission Do we not now see with what mind he would have gone himself with an Army into Ireland to fight against them A great deal more not here to be mention'd was vended seditiously among the People the sum of which was intimated in a Pamphlet which was printed called Murder will out in which they published the King's Letter and Animadversions on it Some that were still Loyal to the King did wish that the King that now is had rather declared that his Father did only give the Marquess of Antrim Commission to raise an Army as to have helped him against the Scots and that his turning against the English Protestants in Ireland and the murdering so many hundred thousands there was against his will but quod scriptum erat scriptum erat Although the old Parliamentarians expounded the Actions and Declarations both of the then King and Parliament by the Commentary of this Letter yet so did not the Loyal Royalists or at least thought it no reason to make any change in their Judgments or stop in their Proceedings against the English Presbyterians and other Non-conformable Protestants Mr. Baxter adds in the Margin We are not meet Judges of the Reasons of our Superiours Actions p. 83. part 3. of Mr. Baxter's Life By which he seemeth to intimate that the Matter of Fact how odiously and maliciously soever reported by him is true but he leaves it to others to consider and judge of the Reasons of it He might with much more Ingenuity and Candor have practised himself that Advice which he gives to others in the second part of the Non-conformists Plea for Peace p. 16. That if Subjects saw a Commission under the Broad Seal to seize the Guards destroy the Kingdom or deliver it to Forreigners they were bound to judge that the King was not the Author of that Commission Subjects should not have ill thoughts of Kings though they be sinful their Faults are neither to be aggravated nor divulged This is good Advice and would have utterly destroyed the pretence of Sir Phelim O Neale and those bloody Papists that joyned with him in that execrable Massacre for which they pretended a Commission under the Broad Seal whereas it appeared that the Broad Seal then in Scotland See Burlace's Hist of that War p. 29. part 2. had not been applied to any Commission or Patent in some months before the date of that pretended Commission And the Forgery plainly appeared at the Trial of Sir Phelim O Neale who at his Trial and also at his Execution though he was offered Pardon for Life and Restitution of his Estate if he would own that he had a Commission from the King to Authorize what he had done he affirmed constantly That he had no such Commission from the King nor was his Majesty privy to their Insurrection This Relation is attested by Dr. Ker Dean of Ardah who was present at his Trial and Execution and affirms the same in a Letter printed Febr. 28. 1681. a Copy of which I shall give you when I have told another part of his Confession viz. That he having found a Patent of the Lord Caulfield's when he seiz'd on Charlemount-Castle to which the Broad Seal was annexed he caused a Commission to be drawn agreeable to his own purpose and caused that Broad Seal to be affixed to it and so gave it out that he had the King's Commission for what he did Now for the further clearing of the Royal Martyr from this foul Imputation it will appear that he had Intelligence from abroad that great Companies of Priests and Soldiers were from several Countries hastening into Ireland and that others from Ireland held Correspondence with divers Soldiers of that Nation then in Forreign Service which gave Suspicion that there would be some Trouble in that Nation whereupon his Majesty in a Letter drawn by Sir Henry Vane and sent to the Lords Justices in that Kingdom charged them with great Care and Diligence to secure themselves against what was likely to happen a Copy whereof is subjoyned DR John Ker of Ardagh being present in the Court in Dublin when Sir Phelim O Neale was Tried and Examined about a Commission which as was said he had from Charles Stuart for levying the War in Ireland did testifie that the said Sir Phelim O Neale answered That he never had any such Commission and that it being proved in Court by Joseph Travers and others that the said Sir Phelim had such Commission and did show it unto the said Joseph and others in the beginning of the Irish Rebellion the said Sir Phelim confessed That when he surprized the Castle of Charlemount that he ordered one Mr. Harrison and another Gentleman to cut off the King 's Broad Seal from a Patent of the Lord Caulfield's which he found in Charlemount and to affix it to a Commission which Sir Phelim had ordered to be drawn And the said Mr. Harrison did in the face of the whole Court confess that by Sir Phelim's order he did stitch the silk Cord or Label of that Seal and fixed the Label and Seal to the said Commission And the Court urging the said Sir Phelim to declare why he did so deceive the People he answered That no Man could blame him to use all means to promote the Cause he had so far engaged in And upon the second day of his Trial some of the Judges told him That if he could produce any material proof that he had such a Commission from Charles Stuart to declare and prove it before Sentence had passed against him that he the said Sir Phelim should be restored his Estate and Liberty But he answered That he could prove no such thing Nevertheless they gave him time to consider of it till the next day upon which day Sir Phelim being urged again by the Court he declared again That he never could prove any such thing and that he could not in Conscience calumniate the King though he had been frequently sollicited thereunto by fair Promises and great Rewards while he was in Prison And proceeding further in this discourse he was stopt before he had ended what he had to say And the Sentence of Death was pronounced against him And