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
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 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
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
Wales for by Burlace's Relation p. 199. the Confederate Catholicks being distressed by their Enemies they sent Antrim and Muskerry to the Queen and the Prince in France to take Compassion of their miserable Condition and both the Queen and Prince told them That they would shortly send a Person qualified to treat with them who should have power to give them whatever was requisite to their Security and Happiness And they returned to Ireland well satisfied with what was then granted them which probably was very large the Prince being then wholly at his Mothers dispose and how far the King might remember what Orders and Concessions he had made them at that time or some time afterwards this was that which prevailed for the restoring of Antrim to his Estate and not any Order from K. Charles the First But here it is to be noted that these things were transacted in the Year 1648. when the King was a close Prisoner and therefore no Commission could be had from him much less is it like that he had given Antrim a Commission in the beginning of that War which was in 41 which was denied by Sir Phelim O Neale and the Lords Mackguire and Muskerry at their several Executions and was never pretended by any of the leading Papists in their Declarations or Confessions Or if they had pretended any such Order or Commission who could believe any reality or truth in it when it is most certain that the King did commission the Noble Ormond as his Lord Deputy to manage that War for his Protestant Subjects against those bloody Rebels which continued for several years which as the good King complains in that Twelfth Chapter of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were to represent him to the World as a Cyclopick Monster whom nothing would serve to eat and drink but the Flesh and Blood of his own Subjects Mr. Baxter adds That Antrim was forced to produce in Parliament a Letter of King Charles the First by which he gave him order to take up Arms. Mr. Baxter is the first that I have heard or read to mention this particular and by the event it appears that either there was never such a Letter produced or what he pretended to be the King's Order and Instructions was not for raising the first War for then doubtless some of that Parliament who had ingaged against the King in the late War would have been loud and clamorous enough but they were all silent and went not a step out of their way but a Cessation being agreed on some of the Popish Party being beaten and in fear of utter ruine thought it more eligible to joyn themselves with my Lord Ormond than become a Prey to the Parliaments Army who were resolved on their utter Extirpation This was in the Year 1648. and then for ought I know he might have something to plead for himself with Charles the Second I remember that there was a Case brought into the House of Peers between the Lord of Ormond and the Lord of Anglesey wherein the former was Accused by the latter for the Cessation of Arms made by him and his joyning with some of the Papists wherein the Lord of Ormond was acquitted by his Peers I have not the Case by me but it will give much light to this Affair All the talk without doors which Mr. Baxter says was murmured by the People was probably the scandalous Suggestion of his inveterate Malice to that good King against whom he had been an active Enemy during that War and would now justifie himself and others upon this late and false pretence That the King gave his Commission to Antrim for that Insurrection wherein Two hundred thousand were slain But that the Veracity of Mr. Baxter in relating of History may appear I will set before the Reader one notorious Instance which he produceth p. 199. of the third part of his Life in these words Many French Ministers sentenced to death and banishment came hither for refuge and the Church-men relieve them not because they are not for English Diocesans and Conformity Where I shall take notice of the gross falshood of first the Matter of Fact and secondly of the Reason and Occasion of it First As to Matter of Fact viz. That the Church-men did not relieve those French Ministers who being Sentenced to Death and Banishment fled hither for refuge this is so loud a Lie as needs no Bell to proclaim it The Matter of Fact is so notoriously evident to the contrary of what Mr. Baxter reports that almost every Church-man in England can disprove it The Reverend Bishop of London did most affectionately compassionate their Case and made competent provision for a great number of them as tenderly as a Father could do for his Children He sent down some into every Diocess of the Province of Canterbury with earnest desire to the several Bishops to provide for them in order whereto several of those distressed Ministers were fixed in beneficial Curacies The Register for the Bishop of Exon hath Recorded the several Names of such French Ministers as were Ordained by him to Exercise their Ministry in the places hereafter mentioned Mr. Johannis Jacobus Mauzino was Ordained Presbyter to Officiate at Barnstable March 22. 1685. Mr. Jacobus Sanxay Ordained Presbyter and setled in the Parish-Church of St. Olaves Exon. Mr. Johannis Calvetus and Mr. Johannis Gardian Giury were both Ordained Presbyters Mr. Daniel Cauniers was Ordained Presbyter and Inducted to a competent Benefice called East-Budly in Devon May 25. 1686. Mr. Peter Pabouleus was Ordained and Setled at Falmouth Mr. Andrew Coyaldus de Sante Ordained and Setled at Darmouth Mr. Lodovicus Beenaudea◠Ordained and Setled at Biddiford Divers others who had been Ordained at London were sent hither and provided for But how great the number was which were Setled in and about London and other Diocesses is too large to be inserted here Therefore Mr. Baxter's Affirmation That the Church men relieved them not is notoriously false and a Scandalum Magnatum Secondly Nor is the Reason which he gives for their not relieving them less scandalous for it was saith Mr. Baxter because they were not for English Diocesans nor Conformity whereas all the Persons above-named did submit to Episcopal Ordination and declared their Conformity which accordingly they did practise in their several Congregations having the English Liturgy translated into French for that purpose Could Mr. Baxter have discovered so gross a falshood in any Writing of a Conformist he would have branded it with all the Notes of Infamy that his snarling Rhetorick and Malice could have invented But I shall make only this Reflection upon it viz. That this Calumny is one of the last Periods in the close of his written Life which once more called to my remembrance what the Bishop of Worcester said of Mr. Baxter That he would die leaving his sting in the wounds of the Church But where went the Charity of Mr. Baxter and those liberal Friends who made
as their Leaders with their united Force beset him and railed lowdly against him yet durst not Attack him but evaded his weighty Arguments And Mr. Sylvester in his Preface tells us That the present Archbishop the Bishops of Worcester and Ely their greatest Antagonists were expresly mentioned by Mr. Baxter as Persons greatly admired and highly valued by him and of their readiness to serve the Publick Interest both Civil and Religious he doubted not Yet such is the Hypocrisie of these Men that they will openly Scandalize and Defame such Persons for the Edification of their Party whom they inwardly approve of and admire for their Personal Vertues and constant Endeavours to serve the Publick Interest of Church and State And though I despair of meriting their good Opinion by what I have done yet I have learnt to care less for their Calumnies and Reproaches which though plentifully and with great vehemence thrown out will not stick And now my Lord begging your pardon for this tedious Address and too confident Interruption of your more important Affairs I bless the good Providence of Almighty God who under Christ the Great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls hath placed me under the Tuition and Patronage of a Person of such Primitive Courage and undaunted Resolution as hath constantly and successfully stem'd that Spring-Tide of Popery and Socianism which was violently overflowing of us and I trust will as effectually withstand those raging Waves of Fanaticism which so impetuously assault the Ark of God on every side that we being delivered from the Hand of all our Enemies may serve God with one Consent in Righteousness and Holiness all the Days of our Life is the earnest Prayer of Your Lordships Dutiful and Devoted Servant Tho. Long. Exon Jan. 1. 1696. THE Introduction I Think it reasonable to give the Reader an Account how I became obliged to ingage in this troublesome Adventure and for his Satisfaction and my own Justification I shall declare the first occasion of my Contest with Mr. Baxter It is generally known how many Books Mr. Baxter hath written to justifie that Separation which he and others of his Perswasion had printed some of which he called elaborate and unconfutable and as another Goliah despised all the Hosts of Israel whoever appeared against him was presently born down with such a Flood of Gaul and bitter Language whereof he had an inexhaustible store that it was enough to affright any considerate Man from approaching near him he was resolved to have the last word to every Opposer and his word was as Law and Gospel to all his Party These Considerations occasioned me to think of dealing with Mr. Baxter in some other Method and having read something and heard more of his ingaging in our late War in which he continued well-nigh from the beginning to the end about 71 years and had been present at most of the great Fights and Sieges in that war as you will find hereafter from his own relation I resolved to be at some pains to trace his progress throughout the War and because I wanted opportunity to enquire it from others and partly because I might neither be truly or fully informed either from some of the Party with whom he was or the Party against whom he was ingaged I thought it much more safe and unquestionable to relate such of his Actions and his Principles and Reasons on which he acted as I could glean up from his own undoubted Writings which being done though I now perceive I were in the dark as to many other considerable Passages recorded by himself in his Life at large I caused my Collections to be printed in the Year 1682. while Mr. Baxter was living upon which he Reflects as followeth Mr. Long of Exeter if Fame misreport not the anonimous Author 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 râ—…fred Lines and half Sentences that I never saw the like of it and being overwhelmed with work and weakness and pains and having least zeal to defend a Person so bad as I know my self to be I yet never answered him it being none of the matter in Controversie whether I be good or bad God be merciful to me a sinner P. 188. of his Life Answ I will not gainsay his Conjecture of the Author of the Book in question which was intituled The second Part of the unreasonableness of Separation which was printed 1682. The Book could not seem to be so fierce being an account of his own Relations concerning his Actions and Writings which if they represent him to be one of the worst Men living upon Earth I could not help that Mr. Baxter himself in his History of Bishops pleads for his justification That he made use of their own words In the Preface to that Book he says in a Parenthesis That the Book was full of Falshoods retracted Lines and half Sentences but that he never answer'd it which is very strange seeing he lived above 9 years after he had perused the Book in which interval he wrote several large Treatises which less concerned him than that wherein he says he was so much mis-represented And in all probability if the Book which he reflects on had been so full of Falshoods retracted Lines and half Sentences he might during that interval have found leisure enough to have given some Instances of what he pretended against with his Plea of being overwhelmed with work weakness and pains appears to be but a vain Excuse for he had zeal enough to defend himself against several others that charged him with much lesser Miscarriages And it was very considerable to the Matter in Controversie whether the Person so fiercely accused were good or bad whether he were an honest and peaceable Man one wholly devoted to serve a private interest against the publick welfare Mr. Baxter thought this a Reason why so many adhered to the Parliament That though the King had the Cause the Parliament had the better Men Mr. Baxter's Life p. 37. For my part I should have been extreamly confounded if either Mr. Baxter whilst he was living or any one since his death could have discovered an hundredth part of that Fierceness Falshood or imperfect Sentences in my Book which Dr. Maurice hath observed in Mr. Baxter's Church History of Bishops wherein he strikes at Christianity it self by the Reproaches which he casts on the Primitive Bishops calling them A few turbulent Spirits p. 46. silencing and destroying Prelates p. 73. proud contentious ambitious and hereticating Bishops p. 77. firebrands of the world p. 98. merciless furious and confounders of Churches p. 183. Nor doth he deal more mercifully with our Diocesan Bishops whom he calls Silencing damning Prelates Bryars and Thorns and Military Instruments of the Devil Though in a good mood he saith That none of the Bishops had silenced them unless by voting as Peers in the House of Lords for the
Thing and your Judgments will make light of all that is said for it and will see nothing that should reconcile you to it Partiality will carry you away from Equity and Truth Abundance of Things appear now false and evil to Men that once imagiue them to be so which would seem harmless if not laudable if they were tried by a Mind that is free from Prejudice Christ Direct p. 66. part 3. Our Saviour also forbids us to call any Man Father or Master upon Earth so as to make them the Authours of our Faith Matth 23.9 For this is the Genius of all Sectaries saith Dr. Manton on Jude 16. to cry up all of their own way as Gnosticks i.e. Men of great Knowledge as if none were to be compared to them and as Tertullian said Illuc ipsum esse est promeriri it were Religion enough to be one of their Party Now suppose that I had made this Discourse to a Papist you cannot but think it reasonable that he should in a matter of so great concern as his Salvation make diligent inquiry whether the Principles in which he hath been instructed from his youth be agreeable to the Rules of Godliness revealed in the Holy Scriptures and whether he ought to believe and practise all things which the Doctors of that Church require of him particularly concerning the Infallibility and Supremacy of the Pope the giving of Divine Worship to consecrated Wafers to Saints and Images or concerning Prayers to Saints and for the Dead and that in an unknown Tongue c. And there is as great reason for such as have been educated under erroneous Parents or Teachers in Heretical or Schismatical Principles notwithstanding their too great credulity and fond opinion of the Persons and Opinions of their Leaders to have recourse to the Word of God and search the Scriptures whether the Dictates that they so tenaciously adhere unto be agreeable to them or not Amicus Socrates Amicus Plato sed magis Amica veritas Let the Persons be never so neerly related to us and their Opinions never so well approved by us yet if they be contrary to the revealed Will of God we ought to reject them And if this practice be necessary as to the National Church wherein we are educated every one being bound to give a reason of the Hope that is in him and not to give himself up to an implicite Faith to believe as the Church doth believe much more is it our duty in those parts of Religion wherein we differ from the established Profession when it is oppugned by private Persons be they Parents or Teachers for as it is probable that they may err so it may be justly suspected that they do err when they lead us into such Opinions and Practices as have been condemned by the generality of Christians from the most primitive and purest times of the Church which they that do err from will most vigorously oppose as knowing that if they should appeal to them they will most certainly be condemned by them Of this sort are the avowed Opinions and Practices of Mr. B. and many other Writers of this Age and to know well the Authors of them will be a means to undeceive us and set us right in our Judgment of their Writings who have caused the many Controversies and Confusions which have disturbed the Peace and good Order both of our Church and State To which end I did compose such a Character of the Man and his Communication with whom I had to do as he had in several Treatises left upon record for the informanion of succeeding Ages as well as for the undeceiving of the present unto which I have now added several considerable Relations from the History of his Life written by himself A REVIEW OF Mr. Baxter's LIFE CHAP. I. THE English Nation heard little of Mr. Baxter until the beginning of the late unnatural War in the Year 1640. when Mr. B. says he conceived a Prejudice against Bishops and from that time meditated on that History of Bishops which was printed Anno 1680. of which History Dr. Maurice says that it seems to be written to shew how much Mr. B. wanted of being a Christian or a Scholar for therein through their sides he wounds Christianity it self by imputing all the Mischiefs that had troubled the Christian World to that Sacred Order As he doth also all the Confusions which for Twenty years together kept the Nation wallowing in Blood and the Church rent in pieces by divers Sectaries as by so many Evil Spirits crying Down with it even to the ground Yet Mr. B. confidently asserts in several Papers That the War was begun between the Episcopal Parties the one adhering to Archbishop Whitgift and the other to Bishop Laud and that the Parliament the Army and Assembly consisted generally of such as were he should have said such as had been Conformists I shall not to disprove him repeat what others have said who refer the rise of it as far back as King James in whose Reign the Parliaments were divided into Regians and Republicans as Wilson reports who tells us of many Disputes between Prerogative and Priviledge There was a Party that perswaded that King and his Son to a War for recovery of the Palatinate and having engaged them denied them the assistance which was promised intending to work upon their Necessities And where other Parliaments left that of 1640. begun as Mr. B. says But Mr. B. brings the Matter ab origine p. 32. of his Life thus Our Reformers in the days of Q. Mary being fled to Frankford fell into a division one part were for Diocesans the English Liturgy and Ceremonies that they might no more than needed depart from the Papists nor seem unconstant by departing from what King Edward had done The other were for Calvin 's Discipline and Worship setting up Parochial Discipline instead of Diocesan that Queen Elizabeth did countenance and set up the Diocesan Party The other Party as Mr. B. elsewhere says flew in the Faces of the Bishops with bitter Revilings And he notes That the Bishops were Jewel Pelkington Grindal Men of great Learning good Preachers and of Holâ— Lives but the Disciplinarians petitioned against their Establishment till they were by Law suppressed but this lamentable Breach Mr. B. saith was never healed Here observe that the War was not begun by two Episcopal Parties as Mr. B. often affirms for this was in truth the Origine of that War All the Nonconformists were against the Prelates p. 33. Sometimes he says it was for Reformation and to recover our Liberties to relieve the Country and to punish Delinquents p. 25. of his Life And then it was begun by the Parliaments stirring up Apprentices in great numbers to Petition with them and that these went tumultuously to Westminster and meeting with some Bishops cried out No Bishops p. 26 27. and crying for Justice drove the King from Whitehall Again he says the War was not founded in
rest there but will be ready to affront Civil Power too Your Lordships knows that the Jack Straws and Cades and Wat Tylers of former times did not more cry down Learning than Nobility and those of your Lordships that haâ—… read the History of Munster will need no other Item c. Bishop Hall's hard measure p. 45. Nothing could be more plain than that upon the Call of this Parliament and before there was a general Plot and Resolution of the Faction to alter the Government of the Church especially The Parliament was no sooner sate than many vehement Speeches were made against the established Church Government and enforcement of extirpation Root and Branch It was contrived to draw Petitions accusatory from many parts of the Kingdom against Episcopal Government the Promoters of the Petitions were entertained with great respects The Petitions of the opposite Party subscribed with many thousand hands were slighted and disregarded The Rabble of London were stirred up to come armed by thousands to the Houses offering foul Abuses crying out No Bishops no Bishops and professed they would pull the Bishops in pieces The House of Lords sent Messages to disperse them they hold on The Marquess of Hartford told the Bishops they were in great danger advising them to continue in the House that night Messages were sent to the House of Commons but nothing done for their security At last the Earl of Manchester undertook the protection of the Archbishop of York and his Company and the rest by long stay and secret passages escaped home This Archbishop perswades the Bishops to petition his Majesty that they might be secured in the performance of their Duties and to protest against such Acts as should be made during their forced absence He drew up the Petition and Protestation in our presence avowing it to be legal just and agreeable to former proceedings and got our Subscriptions And whereas this Paper was first to have been delivered to his Majesty's Secretary then to his Majesty and after to the Parliament by the Lord Keeper these professed they never perused it and the Lord Keeper to ingratiate himself with the House of Commons and the Faction reads it in the House of Lords aggravates the matter as highly offensive and of dangerous consequence and so sends it to the House of Commons where Glyn cries it up for High Treason yea preferring it to the Powder Plot. The Bishops are called to the Bar on their knees charged with High Treason and on Jan. 30. at eight a clock in the Night in extremity of Frost voted to the Tower The Citizens entertained the News with Bells and Bonfires While we were under restraint the Faction renew the Bill which had been twice rejected to take away the Bishops Votes in Parliament and prevail Their greatest Lawyers were employed to advance our Impeachment to the highest but found nothing to fasten on us One of their Oracles professed they might as well accuse us of Adultery as Treason The House of Commons who first desired we might be brought to a speedy Trial suffered us to languish at last on our Petition we obtain it Our Impeachments being read we plead Not guilty modo formâ and desired speedy Trial. A day is appointed Wild and Glyn aggravate our pretended Treason which our Counsel being ready to answer we were put off to another day which never came The Circumstances of that days hearing were more grievous than the substance we were all thronged so miserably in that strait Room before the Bar sweating and strugling with a merciless Multitude and when dismissed exposed to a new and greater danger for in the dark we must back to the Tower and shoot the Bridge with no small peril There we lye expecting new Summons but the Parliament wave their Impeachment of Treason and accuse us of High Misdemeanours and in a Bill preferred against us desire our Spiritual Means may be taken away After some Weeks more finding the Tower to be chargeable we petition for Liberty on Bail the Lords grant it and we were freed but the Commons hearing of it expostulate with the Lords for freeing us without their consent so we are remanded to the Tower Having tarried there from New-years-eve till Whitsontide where by turns we preached every Lord's-day to a great Auditory of Citizens upon our Petition and 5000 l. Bonds with a Clause of Revocation at a short warning we were dismissed From this Relation the indifferent Reader may perceive how far the Bishops were from beginning the War who suffered most of these Indignities before the War begun and â—ow causless and shameless the Clamours of Mr. B. and his Party concerning their persecution by Bishops are when they openly affront the known Laws by keeping up publick Conventicles in the chiefest Cities of the Naâ—ion and those Reverend Bishops were so â—arbarously treated by their Predecessors against all Law and Humanity And I desire the Reader to observe whether from the year 1660. to this present time it hath not been his chief work to pour out the like Contempt Malice and Violence as was begun in 1640. and as Quintilian says Maledicus à Malefico non distat nisi occasione From these Injuries to the Bishops they proceeded to abuse and affront the King and force from him his two principal Counsellors whom they by unparallel'd proceedings cut off as their most formidable Enemies And having driven the King away by Tumults they endeavour by Remonstrances Declarations and Propositions to make his Return impossible In June 42. the Faction sends a Petition with Nineteen Propositions to his Majesty to which he made many gracious Concessions as he was ready to do even to the one half of his Prerogative to prevent that Deluge of Blood which he foresaw would follow on the War Out of these Concessions saith Mr. B. and likely he knows by whom there was framed a Catechism that would justifie the Parliament in all their proceedings against the King Yet many of those Propositions were such as his Majesty declared he could neither in Honour nor Conscience consent unto One was saith the Royal Martyr in his Chapter of the Nineteenth Proposition To bind my self to a general and implicite consent to whatever they shall desire or propound which were as if Sampson should have consented not only to bind his own hands and cut off his hair but to put out his own eyes that the Philistins might with the more safety mock and abuse him which they chose rather to do than quite to destroy him when he was become so tame an Object and fit Occasion for their Sport and Scorn This use Mr. B. and the Faction make of all his Majesty's Condescensions P. 37. B's Life The King's Answer to the Nineteen Propositions greatly confirmed many that his declaring that the Legislative Power was in King Lords and Commons and that the Government was mixt and not Arbitrary but as soon as the Parliament assumed it they exercised as
he doth by the whole Order of Church Governours that he may make ours the more odious He says as in divers places p. 252. 253. of Saints Rest That the first rage of the Prelates in silencing as learned able Ministers and incessantly persecuting as godly Christians as the World enjoyed was just before the War begun increased an hundred fold P. 251. As I am certain by sight and sense that the extirpation of Piety was the then great design which so far prevailed that very many of the most able Ministers were silenced Lectures and Evening Sermons on the Lord's-day suppressed Christians imprison'd dismembred and banished He speaks as if it were done by Heathen for no other cause but as being Christians That it was as much at least as a mans Estate was worth to hear a Sermon abroad when he had none or worse at home to meet for Prayer or any other godly Exercise and that it was a matter of Credit and a way to Preferment to Revile and be Enemies to those that were most Conscientious and every where safer to be a Drunkard or an Adulterer than a painful Christian and that multitudes of Humane Ceremonies took place when the Worship of Christ's Institution was cast out besides the slavery that invaded us in Civil respects So I am most certain that this was the Work which we took up Arms to resist and those were the Offenders whom we endeavour to offend You see Mr. Baxter is armed with Prejudice and Zeal Cap-a-peé for a War wherein to resist his Superiours under a pretence of Reformation though to that Resistance the Word of God threatens Damnation Yet Mr. Baxter p. 271. says As I cannot yet perceive but that we undertook our Defence upon warrantable grounds so I am most certain God hath wonderfully appeared through the whole Success was the great Argument of which p. 250. Having been an Eye-witness of a very great part of the eminent Providences from the first of the War I have plainly seen something above the common Course of Nature in almost every Fight that I have beheld The War saith Mr. Baxter was begun in our Streets before the King or Parliament had any Armies between the Puritans and drunken Rabble that hated the Parliaments Reformation and so I was forced to be gone before the Wars And a Man that was more pious and devout than the Multitude could not live by them in most places but were forced into Garrisons and Arms to save their Lives p. 252. of Saints Rest i.e. in plain English Mr. Baxter with the other Reformers put themselves into Arms and seized the King's Forts making them Garisons against the King I desire the Reader to reflect on this part of the Narrative Mr. Baxter often accuseth the Conforming Clergy with deliberate Lying and Perjury What was it in Mr. Baxter being prejudiced against the Bishops at Nineteen yea against Bishop Morton at Fourteen being familiar with Non-conformist Ministers and knowing their Minds yet to submit to Episcopal Ordination and Subscribe and Swear to obey the Bishop in licitis honestis and presently omit the Cross and Surplice and dispute openly against Bishops and prosecute and defend the War against the King against the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and when his taking of Holy Orders seems to be for no other end but to inable him to do the more mischief Was not this to be deliberately perjured But to go on he says in cold blood His engaging in that War was the greatest outward Service that ever he performed to God That Neutrality had been sinful and to have been against the Parliament in that Cause had been Treachery p. 481. of H.C.W. And p. 480. If I had known that the Parliament in that Cause had been the beginners and in most fault yet the ruine of our Trustees is a punishment greater than any fault of theirs though it were the cutting off his Head against a King can deserve and that their faults cannot disoblige me from defending the Commonwealth I knew the King had all his Power for the Common Good and none against it and therefore that no Cause can warrant him to make the Commonwealth the Party which he shall exercise Hostility against and that War against the Parliament especially by such an Army in such a Cause is Hostility against them and so against the Commonwealth All this seemed plain to me and especially when I knew how things went before who were the Agents how they were minded and what were their purposes against the People Would not this Man have made a better Solicitor against the Royal Martyr than Cooke who said he was another Solomon for his parts Did Cromwel or Bradshaw ever object such things against him as Mr. Baxter hath done Who could think that Mr. Baxter who pretends for so much Peace was ever a Man of such a Temper With what heart could he be an Eye-witness of the Humane Butcheries that were made in almost every Fight from the beginning of the War or with what Face could he say there appeared more of Christ's Interest on the one side than on the other as in the first occasion so in the Prosecution p. 252. of Saints Rest. And again Whatever the end may prove I am sure I have seen the Lord in the means p. 251. And That as we undertook our Defence on warrantable grounds so I am most certain God hath wonderfully appeared through the whole ibid. He says in the Epistle he was wonderfully rescued from many dangers in four years Wars and after many tedious nights and days and many doleful sights and tidings he and many of his Kederminsters whom he it seems had led on to the War were returned in peace that he was twenty several times delivered when he was near to death O the sad and heart-piercing Spectacles says he p. 115. that mine eyes have seen in four years space In this Fight a Friend fall down by me from another a precious Christian brought home wounded or dead precious Christians no doubt that died in such a horrid Rebellion scarce a Month scarce a Week without the sight or noise of Blood Surely there is none of this in Heaven our eyes shall then be filled no more nor our hearts pierced with such Fights as at Worcester Edge-hill Newbury Nantwich Montgomery Horn-Castle Naseby Langport c. it seems he was present in these Fights For he adds Mine eyes shall never more behold the Earth covered with the Carcasses of the slain And he saith He had travelled over the most part of England to pursue the War Illi robor aes triplex circum praecordia Mr. Baxter says the War began first in their Streets at Kederminster between those that would have pull'd down Painted-glass and Pictures and the People that opposed them which Parties were so violent against each oother that he was forc't to fly for his Safety And having been a while at Bridge-North 〈◊〉 Parties of the King's Soldiers
did conclude his own Prayer with it a great part of his Auditory would presently depart out of the Church as if it were impossible for them to be edified by such a Preacher as had no better Gift of Prayer And thus to make a thorough Reformation they first agreed on no more Addresses unto God before they Voted no more Addresses to the King The Creed and Commandments suffer the same Indignities being generally omitted in their Publick Worship and in many places especially at their Lectures scarce a Chapter of the Holy Scripture read to the People the whole Exercise being made up of Extemporary Prayer and Preaching the best of their Sermons if I may account them so that are printed and were preached in the greatest Congregations on most Solemn Occasions abounding with such Invectives against the King such Arguments and Motives to Rebellion and Shedding of Blood as will be an indelible Reproach to the Presbyterian Party who so taught others the Doctrine of Resisting their Superiours that they soon felt it to be practised against themselves who had broken down all the Fences of Government and opened those wide Breaches by which so many Heresies and so great Confusion overflowed the Nation so that the Pulpit-Drums exceeded those of the Field in doing Mischief drawing on more Souls to Destruction than the other did Bodies Mr. Baxter p. 43. of his Life tells us what Chaplains were in Essex's Army Abundance of famous excellent Divines were Chaplains to his Army Stephen Marshal and Dr. Burgess to Essex 's Regiments Obadiah Sedgwick to Col. Hollis Calibut Downing to the Lord Roberts John Sedgwick to the Earl of Stamford Dr. Spurstow to Hamden 's Mr. Perkins to Col. Goodwin 's Mr. Moore to the Lord Wharton 's Adoniram Bifield to Sir Henry Cholmley 's Mr. Nalton to Col. Grantham 's Mr. Simeon Ash to the Lord Brooks Mr. Morton of Newcastle to Sir Arthur Haslerigge with many more These were the first Incendiaries Boutefew's that first kindled and continued the Wars and such of the King's Friends as escaped the mouth of the Armies Swords were sentenc'd to a worse Death by the Sword of these Mens mouths In the Year 43. when the Parliaments Army were worsted and weakned by the King and they thought themselves in danger of being overcome they intreated help from the Scots who taking advantage of their straits brought in the Covenant as the Condition of their help Thus Mr. Baxter p. 127. of his first Plea who confesseth it was contrived as a Stratagem of War to bind the Faction in both Nations in a Confederacy against the King and strengthen the War against him for the doing whereof they pawned their Souls to each other as his Majesty observes in the Chapter of the Covenant And if it be considered by how many Solemn Oaths and Protestations the Subjects of both Nations as well as by the Laws of God and Nature were obliged to defend his Majesty's Person and the Laws and Government established it will appear to be true as Mr. Philip Nye observed concerning the Covenant That for Matter Persons and other Circumstances the like hath not been in any Age or Oath we read of in Sacred or Humane Story But it did the work for which it was designed it brought in the Scots Armies by by the promised hopes of dividing the Church Lands upon the Extirpation of Episcopacy and was as fatal to the King as to the Bishops For the King's Forces being broken he withdraws from Oxford where he was besieged and commits himself to the Scots Army who sollicite him to take the Covenant and sign their Propositions for the Presbyterial Government Henderson is sent to dispute the point with the King and he being baffled Mr. Cant Blaire and Douglas endeavoured the same but more by railing than reasoning with him One of them besides many rude expressions in his Sermon before the King called for the 52 Psalm which begins thus Why dost thou Tyrant boast abroad Thy wicked works to praise Whereupon the King presently stood up and called for the 56 Psalm which begins thus Have mercy Lord on me I pray For men would me devour Which the People readily sung leaving the other And the Commissioners of the General Assembly resolved That if the King be 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 the Government Nay they threaten to deliver him up to the Parliament of England as shortly after they did for 400000 l. for the raising of which Sum an Ordinance is past for Sale of the Bishops Lands at Ten years value Nov. 16. And by another Ordinance Febr. 8. none were to bear any Office Civil or Military that refused to take the Covenant The Parliament having gotten the King in their power thought themselves very secure and therefore resolves to disband the whole Army Horse and Foot and to send a good part of them for Ireland which so startled the Army that they began to take new measures And first they demand their Arrears for 56 Weeks Next that a Declaration against the Army March 13. might be recalled and they secured for what had been done in the late Wars which things at a general Rendezvouz they petition the Parliament for who being under great fears Vote all that was desired But the Army had a farther design and by 1000 Horse under Cornet Joyce seize the King's Person and detain him in the power of the Army which was Cromwel's design who though he sate with the Members at Westminster and protested there with Execrations against himself and his Family that he was ignorant of the Fact yet he told his Considents that having got the King into his hands he had the Parliament in his Pocket And presently he falls to purging of the House impeaching Eleven of the chief Presbyterians of High Treason and secluded them the House and afterward got the Militia of London into their hands for the Army being drawn up on Hounslow-heath marched up to the Parliament House and gave it a second purge of many more Members and marching triumphantly through London did demolish their Works and never left till he had setled the Parliament to his own liking But to return to Mr. Baxter Four years he says he was a Member of the Army part of which time by what follows will appear to be after that the Independent Party was predominant and the Army new modelled yet he tarried with this Army under Cromwel until the King was murthered and till Richard the Protector was cast out of the Government by those that had placed him in it Hear what Mr. Baxter says p. 14. of his Answer to Bagshaw Is it possible for any sober Christian in the World to take them to be blameless or these to be little sins What the violating of the King's Person and the Life of so good a King and the Change
of the Fundamental Government and The Armies Force upon the Parliament the setting up a Protector and pulling him down again the setting up the Remnant of the Commons and presently pulling them down to whom as Mr. Baxter said they had sworn and sworn and sworn again to be faithful to and defend them and that they were the best Governours in all the World If all this was not Rebellion or Treason or Murder there is no such Grime possible to be committed If I was guilty of such sins I do openly confess that if I lay in Sackcloth and in Tears and did lament my sins before the World which had done such unspeakable wrong to Christ and to Men I should do no more than the plain Light of Nature assureth me to be my great and needful duty p. 17. Now that which Mr. Bagshaw accused Mr. Baxter of was That he was guilty of stirring up and fomenting that War against Charles the First which Mr. Baxter had confessed and that he had drawn some Thousands into it of this we have him boasting often but not of his Repentance for it And N.B. he thinks the pulling down of the Protector and the Remnant of the Commons to whom they had often sworn to be faithful and defend them and says they were the best Governours in the World to be as great a Sin as the violating the King's Person and Life in Mr. Baxter's Opinion Mr. Baxter pretends he was sent among the Army by an Assembly of Divines And I find that such Divines as attended the Westminster Assembly were ordered Aug. 28. 1643. to go into the Country to stir up the People to rise for the defence as they call it of the Parliament but indeed to strengthen the Rebellion against the King For against this Assembly consisting of half Lay and half Clergy but wholly of disaffected Persons we find the King thus declaring by Proclamation That many of them were persons who had openly preached Rebellion and excited the People to take up Arms against him That the far greater part of them were Men of no Reputation or Learning and eminently disaffected to the Government of the Church of England and therefore he forbad their meeting But Mr. Baxter was of another judgment he says I have not read of many Assemblies of worthier Men since the Apostles days Answ to the Bishop of Worcester p. 84. Mr. Baxter p. 73. of his Life says of this Assembly That the Divines there congregate were Men of excellent Learning and Godliness and Ministerial Abilities and Fidelity and I speak it in the Face of Malice and Envy that as far as I am able to judge the Christian World since the days of the Apostles had never a Synod of more excellent Divines than this Synod and the Synod of Dort To these were added many Lords and Commons and six or seven Independents five proved dissenting Brethren Nye Goodwin Burroughs Simpson and Bridges For my part saith Mr. Baxter I honour the Men but am not of their mind as to the Government they would have set up and some words in their Catechism I could wish had been more clear And above all I could wish that the Parliament and their more skilful hand had done more to heal our Breaches N.B. The Assembly had a skilful hand the Parliament a more skilful but Mr. Baxter was Magnus Apollo that could have healed all our Breaches by his only way of Concord But which of these three Parties were more skilful to divide and destroy we need a greater Oracle than that of this Apollo to determine I cannot pretend to know much more of the Learning and Godliness of these Assembly-Divines than by what I have read in their Sermons preached upon special Occasions Several of them are named among the Chaplains that attended the Earl of Essex's Army Mr. Marshal was one who in a Letter of his p. 19. says That if the King had been slain in the Battel at Edge-hill it had not been the Parliaments fault for he might have kept himself farther off if he pleased And in his Sermon January 8. 1647. The question is now saith he whether Christ or Antichrist shall be King And in another Sermon to the Mayor and Aldermen 1644. speaking of the King's Party he saith These are miserable and accursed Men Factors for Hell Satan's Boutefews and as true Zealots are set on fire from Heaven so these Mens fire is kindled from Hell whether also it carrieth them And in his Sermon Curse ye Meroz I pray lock on me as one that comes to beat a Drum in your Ears to see who will come out to follow the Lamb with much more to the like purpose John Goodman another of them saith That the Doctrine of Resistance was reserved for our times Mr. Arrowsmith in a Sermon 1643. We are not a Kingdom divided against it self but one Kingdom against another that is the Kingdom of Christ against Antichrist So Mr. John Bond told the Parliament That they fought against Babylon Dagon and Antichrist and exhorted them to pull it down though like Sampson they died with it Mr. Case in a Sermon 1644. says God would have no Mercy shewed where the quarrel is against Religion p. 16. Those who would bring in Idolatry and false Worship to depose Christ from his Throne and set up Antichrist Christ hath doomed to destruction St. Luke 19.27 As for these mine Enemies bring them out and slay them before me p. 18. Mr. Thomas Palmer said That God saw it good to bring Christ into his Kingdom by a bloody way Dr. Downing told the Artillery-men It was lawful for Defence of Religion to take up Arms against the King And so did Mr. Calamy 'T is commendable to fight for Peace and Reformation against the King's Command And in a Sermon Decemb. 25. 1644. he calls them the Judas 's of England that made their Peace with the King at Oxford What a sad thing is it saith Mr. Case to see our King in the Head of an Army of Babylonians refusing as it were to be called the King of England Scotland and Ireland and choosing rather to be called the King of Babylon Serm. on Isa 43.4 1644. p. 18. Mr. Herle in a Sermon to the Commons Nov. 5th Anno 1644. exhorts them to do Justice to the greatest Saul 's Sons are not spared nor Agag or Benhadad though Kings Brooks to the Commons Decemb. 26.48 Set some of these Grand Malefactors in Mourning that caused the Kingdom to mourn so many Years in Garments rouled in Blood by the execution of Justice Mr. Love was chosen as the fittest Person to assist at the Treaty at Vxbridge who in compliance with the sense of his Masters called Episcopacy and Liturgy Two Plague Sores and tells the Commissioners That while their Enemies go on in wicked practises and they keep their Principles they may as soon make Fire and Water nay he had almost said Heaven and Hell to agree it is the Sword not Disputes
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
the Grotian design i.e. Popery was carrying on saith he in the Church of England and that this was the cause of all our Wars and Changes in England p. 105. Another Cause of the War not Episcopal where he thus talks concerning the Royal Martyr beyond any thing that his barbarous Judges could accuse him of How far the King was inclined to a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome I only desire you to judge 1. By the Articles of the Spanish and French Match sworn to 2. By his Letter to the Pope written in Spain 3. By his choice of Agents in Church and State 4. By the Residence of the Pope's Nuntio here and the Colledge of the Jesuits c. 5. By the illegal Innovations in Worship so resolvedly gradatim introduced All which I speak not with the least desire to perswade Men that he was a Papist but only to shew that while he as a moderate Protestant i.e. a Papist in Masquerade as they are now termed took hands with the Queen a moderate Papist the Grotian design had great advantage in England which he himself boasted of p. 106. Of this indignity to that Religious Prince the Learned Bishop Bramhal p. 617. of his Works took notice and vindicated him of which Mr. Baxter being told by a Book called the Impleader who said only that Mr. Baxter gave several intimations that the King was Popishly affected he numbers that among other lies of that Author p. 100. of his third Defence and says Why did not the Man tell where and when and that he had printed the contrary in times of Vsurpation and that he is a Calumniator unless he prove it Why did he not cite Bishop Bramhal 's proof and you see that a Calumniator with them is no singular person they are not ashamed to tell the world that their Archbishops lead them and are as bad as they It seems Mr. Baxter was pinched by this Relation which makes him cry out I have printed the contrary See what these sort of Men are come to What credit is to be given to such Men's Reports Is this it in which the Authority of Archbishops consists that they must be followed in slanders c. I have saved the Impleader the labour of quoting the place and desire the Reader to consult it and see how maliciously and groundless he urged those things against the King at such a time as that But Mr. Baxter says he printed the contrary in times of Vsurpation That time which now he calls a time of Highest Usurpation was the same which he then lookt on as a blessed time when Richard Cromwel piously prudently and faithfully to his immortal honour exercised the Government 1659. and to him he dedicated that Book wherein he says he wrote the contrary p. 327. where having accused the new Episcopal Party for following Grotius he adds As for the King himself that was their Head if any conjecture that he was a flat Papist c. Mr. Baxter believes him not but he was the head of the Grotian Papists and he himself boasted of it ubi suprà Now if any would know how far Grotius was a Papist he says he was a more arrant Papist than Cassander and one that owned the Council of Trent And such I think are flat Papists And therefore it was no lie in the Impleader to say Mr. Baxter gave intimations that the King was Popishly affected but a gross one in Mr. Baxter to deny it and give him the lie as he doth impudently to others But Mr. Baxter says He did not believe it himself that the King was a flat Papist Then his iniquity was the greatter to give so many instances by way of proof that others might believe it Did not Mr. Baxter know that the fear of introducing Popery was made one ground of the War against the King and may he not make it a ground of another War because the King adheres to his Bishops whom Mr. Baxter calls Popish Clergy-men And he says That the Parliament whom they were bound to believe made it their great Argument and Advantage against the King that he favoured the Papists and on this supposition saith he Thousands came in to fight for their Cause And they made one Article against the Archbishop of Canterbury That he endeavoured to introduce Popery though he were indeed one of their greatest Adversaries whose Life on that account they endeavoured to take away And the Relation of Dr. Du Moulin That at the Death of the King a known Papist was heard to say That now their greatest Enemy was cut off is very credible But Mr. Baxter knew that old Maxime Fortiter Calumniare aliquid adhaerebit It is no honest Man's part first to break a Man's Head and then to give him a Plaister which if it be not too narrow to heal the Sore or ineffectual to cure it yet may leave some ugly Scar behind Dr. Pierce hath given many more Arguments to prove Mr. Baxter a Papist than he hath given of King Charles the First And if his actings for Forty years together be well considered it will appear he hath been made use of as one of the most keen and Catholick Tools that ever the Papacy did employ whether he knows it or not It is I confess a difficult thing to tell the World what Perswasion Mr. Baxter was of as to Church-government whether Episcopal Presbyterian or Independant he hath been of all and I think he is now of neither having a peculiar Model of his own In a Book called A Method for Peace c. printed 1653. I find him to favour Lay-Elders though in other Writings he condemned them as Superstitious but by a passage in p. 341. he seems reconcileable to them for thus he saith Nothing almost is wanting to us to set our Congregations in the Order of Christ and to the great Work of Reformation so much as want of Maintenance for a competent number of Ministers or Elders to attend the Work We have divers godly private Christians capable of helping us as Officers in our Churches by which I suppose he intends Lay-Elders although I cannot certainly affirm what his Judgment is concerning them for he would willingly set up a new Model of his own i.e. a mixture of Episcopal Presbyterian Independent Government but declares for neither of them It is more certain that he once professed himself a Conformist and disputed for Bishops and Liturgy as by Law established and he thought he had ever the better yet if it be true that he had a prejudice against them ever since he was Nineteen years old it was rather to betray than defend them But in an Assize-Sermon preached 1654. at Worcester p. 191. he pleads for the Presbyterian Government in these words How long hath England rebelled against his Christ's Government Mr. Udal told them in the days of Queen Elizabeth That if they would not set up the Discipline of Christ in the Church Christ would set it up himself
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
only only way to a certain and perpetual Peace and Happiness He commends Richard Cromwel as one that inherited his Father's Vertue one that piously prudently and faithfully to his immortal Honour exercised the Government perswades all men to live in obedience to him and stiles himself in the Epistle to his Five Disputations desiring his favourable acceptance of the tendered Service of a faithful Subject to his Highness as an Officer of the Vniversal King R.B. Doth not this Man affirm notwithstanding all the Confusion that had covered the Land all the Blood that had been shed and all the Heresies and Blasphemies that had poisoned millions of Souls that he is one that rejoyceth in the present happiness of England and honoureth all the Providences of God by which we have been brought to what we are Epistle Dedic to Richard before his Key for Catholiks and in his Holy Commonwealth p. 487. Nor can I be so unthankful as to say for all the sins and miscarriages of Men since that we have not received much mercy from the Lord. And therefore he sets up his Stone of Remembrance with this Inscription in great Letters HITHERTO HATH THE LORD HELPED VS Is it possible that a Man who hath said and done such barbarous unnatural Deeds and stirred up many Thousands to do and say the same things with him should still deceive the meanest Christians Is it possible he should still persist in the same and yet retain the opinion of a Saint and be reputed the chiefest Guide of a Godly People Yet thus it is He is consulted as the Oracle of the Non-conformists All of them as a late Encomiast says do light their Fires at his Torch And he hath the forehead with the strange Woman to wipe his mouth and say What have I done You may guess by what he says I must profess that if I had taken up Arms in that War against the Parliament he says it p. 488. of Holy Commonwealth my Conscience tells me I had been a Traytor and guilty of resisting the Higher Powers And in his Key for Catholicks where the Legislative Power and highest Judicial Power is divided by Constitution of the Government between the Prince and Senate as he determines the English Monarchy to be he says modestly there many will think but he elsewhere delivers it as his own Sentiment That the Prince invading the Senates Right may justly be resisted and lose his Right p. 324. Yet this Man says Further than I was for the King I never was one year with the stronger side As if he had been always Loyal And p. 489. of Commonw If any of them i.e. his Accusers can prove that I was guilty of hurt to the Person or destruction to the Power of the King or of changing the Fundamental Constitution of the Commonwealth not the Kingdom taking down the House of Lords without consent of all three Estates that had a part in the Soveraignty I will never gain-say them if they call me a most perfidious Rebel and tell me that I am guilty of far greater sin than Murder Whoredom or Drunkenness And Anno 1680. he is not ashamed to say in his Preface to the second part of the Nonconformists Plea In all the times of Vsurpation and since I said and wrote that the King's Person is inviolable and to be judged by none either Peer or Parliament And the Book accused i.e. the Holy Commonw goeth on these Principles So that notwithstanding his pretence of recanting what was there said he still seems to justifie those Theses and adds The Book accused hath not a word meet to tempt a Man in his wits to such accusation Yet he says Thes 352. Though a Nation wrong their King and so quoad meritum Causae they are on the worser side yet may he not lawfully war against the Common Good i.e. the rebellious Party or on that account nor any help him in that War And Thes 374. If a Prince that hath not the whole Soveraignty which he says of our King be conquered by the Senate that hath the other part and that in a just defensive War as he thought the late War to be the Senate cannot assume the whole Soveraignty but supposeth that Government in specie to remain and therefore another King must be chosen This was pleasing Doctrine in the Protector 's time And Thes 137. If Providence i.e. Success in Rebellion statedly disable him that was the Soveraign from executing of Laws protecting the Just and other ends of Government it maketh him an uncapable Subject of the Power and so deposeth him And being so made uncapable of Government by Thes 146. Though he were unjustly dispossest it is not the duty of his Subjects to seek his Restitution The Reader hath heard of a famous Roman Saint called Ignatius who if compared with others of that Church we may say of him as one doth of Mr. Baxter That he exceeds them as much as a Flint doth a Freestone because out of him so many Fires have and may be kindled If such an Historian as Plutarch were now living how easily might he run a Parallel between these two Generals Both were famous tam Marte quam Mercurio but whether of them was the greater Souldier or the better Saint might occasion some dispute the reading whereof would not be altogether so sad as the restless endeavours of the Disciples of them both who however they seem to differ in other things joyn all their hands to pull down our Church Impiety being grown to such an height I should think it a thing impossible that it should proceed any farther the wickedness and shame of it being notwithstanding any pretence manifested to all Men and that upon the joyful tidings of his Majesty's most happy return in peace by a most miraculous and admirable Providence the Authours of such Opinions and Practices should seek where to hide their heads But we are told that Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft which seldom admits repentance and though they have power to do hurt yet they have none to do good Hence it is that this confident Man appears still with open face and pursues the same ungodly ends I know not how it came to pass but this same Man was admitted to preach a Fast Sermon to the House of Commons when they were consulting of inviting home the King to his Father's Throne and with great boasting he tells us often That the King was called home the next day after that Sermon of his as if it had not been done if he had not preached whereas it is very observable that in all the Sermon there was not one word that might be interpreted to promote that noble Design but many things that were intended to hinder it or clog it with very dishonourable terms He intimates the Supream Power to be still in the two Houses He tells us indeed that Rom. 13. is part of the Rule of his Religion and adds but unhappily there hath been
a difference amongst us which is the higher Power And be it remembred that he had offered his Head to Justice as a Rebel if any could prove that the King was the highest Power in the time of Division Whereas he himself confesseth that a Heathen persecuting Nero must be obeyed Yet he affirms That it was not the intent either of St. Peter or St. Paul to determine whether the Emperour or Senate was Supream though St. Peter plainly determines it when he calls the King Supream and St. Paul by appealing not to the Senate but to Caesar In that Sermon he magnifies the Loyalty of the Presbyterians adjures the Commons to an opposition of Episcopacy though the King in his Message commended it to be as ancient as the Monarchy in this Island And under the Titles of Sound Doctrine and Church Government pleads for Presbytery and would p. 46. have the Church Revenues setled on them p. 43. saying Give first to God the things that are Gods For these he pleads under the name of the godly peaceable and prudent people of the Land in opposition to the prophaneness And to insinuate new fears and jealousies cries out O what happy times did we once see When were those happy times Not in the peaceable time of King Charles the First those were days of Profaneness and Persecution He must mean either under the Long Parliament when so much Loyal Blood was shed or under the Protection of Oliver when the best of Princes was butchered or under Richard of whom and his Mock-Parliament he gives such large Encomiums But now Nox una perpetuo mansura The days of Light and Jubilee are gone And as it is with Bats and Owls when the Sun appears their Night is come He was it seems of the same mind with his Brother Jenkins who said in a Sermon preached Sept. 25. 1656. That the removal of Prelatical Innocations countervailed for the Blood and Treasure shed and spent in the late Distractions nor would he redeem all those by the return of the same if it might be done For Mr. Baxter speaking of Prelatical Men who condemn the Ministers and Churches that had not Prelatical Ordination says They would surely silence such Ministers and dissolve such Churches through all the Land if it were in their power as it may be says he when our sins have ripened us for SO GREAT A PLAGVE Postscript to True Cath. p. 335. CHAP. II. Nec dum finitus Orestes IF Great Theodosius as Mr. Baxter says Treatise of Bishops part 1. p. 147. did cast himself down on the Earth before Ambrose to beg pardon and re-admission with tears and was not received till some Months continued penance If Great Mr. Baxter being so heinous a Criminal as he hath under his own hand acknowledged should after such a miraculous return of the King humble himself before the King and his Nobles in such manner as he promised once he would do it was no more than was his duty and perhaps not enough to expiate his Crime Thus then Mr. Baxter expostulates p. 14. of his Answer to Bagshaw Is it possible for any sober Christians in the World to take them to be blameless or those to be little sins What both the violating the Person and the Life of so good a King and the change of the fundamental Government or Constitution The setting up the Protector and pulling him down again c. If all this were no Rebellion Treason or Murder is there any such Crimes to be committed If I was guilty of such sins Habemus confitentem Reum I do openly confess that if I lay in sackcloth and in tears and did lament my sins before the World and beg pardon both of God and Man and beg all Men to take warning by my fall which had done such unspeakable wrong both to Christ and Men I should do no more than the plain Light of Nature assureth me to be my great and needful duty p. 17. But he that had the confidence to meet the old King and his Armies in the Field now that the Sword is taken out of his hands wants not confidence to take up his Pen as dangerous a Weapon and most maliciously handled and to affront the then present King before he be well setled on his Throne in this Military way as he terms it in his Third Plea page the last And though his Fraternity could not be permitted to bring him under Articles before yet they vigorously attempt it after his return The first attempt was concerning a Declaration to be extorted from the King about Ecclesiastial Affairs We offered his Majesty and the Bishops at first the Archbishop Usher 's Model for Concord Treatise of Episc Part 2. p. 53. The Bishops would not once take it into consideration nor so much as vouchsafe to talk of it or bring it under any deliberation They knew whence it came not from the Archbishops but the Presbyterian Forge Mr. Baxter confesseth p. 87. second part They that would have conformed to his Majesty's Declaration which as you shall hear anon they had caused to be drawn according to their Model went on this Supposition that the Species of Prelacy was altered by it and yet on these terms they would unite with the Prelatists only so far as to go in a peaceable performance of their Office p. 116. just as now they do In that 116 p. Mr. Baxter supposeth this Objection against the Declaration for I can scarce call it his Majesty's being by the necessity of times and the importunity of troublesome Men extorted from him Obj. You did but obtrude on us your own Opinions for when you had drawn up most of those words his Majesty was forced to seem for the present to grant them to you for the quieting of you Answ p. 117. If we did offer such things for it was in vain to deny it let the World judge what we sought by them 2. There is most of that about Rural Deans put in I suppose by the Bishops consent who were to word it after it went FROM VS a good office indeed to whet a Sword to cut their own Throats and be the Presbyterians Journey-men to their own undoing For Thirdly Whoever mentioned or desired it it appears that the work of Jurisdiction Excommunication Absolution no nor Ordination was not thought to be above the Office of a Presbyter that is They would have robbed the Bishops of all their Power and Authority and taken it to themselves and then they would go on peaceably in the performance of their Office and therefore it is no wonder that the Bishops refused to consider of such a Model And that very Parliament that had so much manners as to thank his Majesty for that Declaration which others have not done for the Act of Oblivion did lay it by so that it was never done but other Laws established which we feel saith Mr. Baxter I cannot pass by that vain-glorious boasting of his so often mentioned how
others as corrupters of History when it appears he had no other design in this Collection but to serve his Hypothesis and implacable malice against the Bishops and inrage the People to set the Nation in a Flame It is but a small matter for Mr. Baxter to support himself in Church History He can bid open defiance to the Laws of the Land which he calls tearing Engines and Enemies to God's publick Worship and ought to be disobeyed because it is written Whether it be better to obey God or Man judge ye He begins with a modest complaint p. 101. of first Plea It is not the sence of the Liturgy in that they seem satisfied but a Statute of Parliament which we doubt of it seems insufficient if not impertinent to tell us what is taken for the sence of the Church for the doubt is what is the sence of the Parliament which we cannot otherwise know but by their plain words till they will otherwise declare their meaning i.e. They must declare a meaning contrary to their plain words But Mr. Baxter speaks plain enough Plea the first That the Laws required of them such Subscriptions Covenants Declarations and Practices as they durst not do because they feared God A strange Parliament to make so many Laws as a Man that feareth God cannot obey If Mr. Baxter had any Fear or Reverence of Men he would not thus Reproach the Governours and Defame their Laws and all the while cry out of Persecution But what are those impious Laws This you find in another Book called A search for the English Schismatick where he states the Case between the Diocesan Canoneers and the present meer Nonconformists and though he determine not as he says which of them is the Schismatick yet he makes the Book to be a pair of Spectacles for the Purblind to discern it p. 43. This is just as he dealt by his first Plea where he tells us he will not urge the Case but mention Matters of Fact only Yet in his Book of Concord he says To answer the earnest demand of our Reasons against Conformity by you the Lord Bishop of Ely I have published an Historical Narration c. How did this answer the Bishop's earnest demand of Reasons if it did not contain them when Mr. Baxter says that was the end of publishing that Book Any one that useth Mr. Baxter's Spectacles may see they were his Reasons though he might well be ashamed to call them so But as for those Spectacles that will so plainly discover the English Schismaticks a very skilful Artist hath turned into a Looking-glass which if Mr. Baxter be not afraid to make use of he may thereby see him whom he pretends to search for it is called A Discourse about Church Vnity in defence of the Bishop of Worcester The Laws opposed are such as were made on mature deliberation to secure our Peace The Act for Uniformity and Renouncing the Covenant The Declaration that it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever c. The Book last mentioned shews his Malice to the Parliament in making false and odious Representations of them to the People p. 457. It is scarce worth the notice that he says the Parliament was drawn in by the Convocation to make those Acts P. 13. of his Search this is but Scandalum Magnatum He comes near to Blasphemy p. 107. of his third Defence where he pleads for excusing the ignorant People who when Divisions fall out between King and Parliament do doubt which it is that should be obeyed He adds Christ was drawn by Hypocrites to pay Tribute to Caesar rather than offend as if our Saviour did what he never intended or really approved to comply with Hypocrites And who can wonder if he that speaks thus of the Master should not stick to revile his Disciples making the Conformists so many deliberately perjured Persons and which is in his own Language Mendacium magnum That about Six thousand Persons that had gone the other way did declare their assent and consent to a Book which they never saw p. 69. of his second Defence Mr. Baxter complains Preface to Diocesan Bishops That at such time as he was turned out of all he was never in so good a condition as to keep a Man-servant except when he travelled nor a Maid-servant except an old Woman to provide him Necessaries and lived in some upper Rooms of another Man's House and yet he says he built a Tabernacle in St. Martins to preach in himself p. 55. of his second and lost One thousand pounds in the Exchequer He hoped it seems to gain a reputation among the Factious of being their great Centurion who loved their Nation and built them a Synagogue But it is very observable that if at such time as Mr. Baxter was turned out of all he was in so low a Condition that he got well by his Non-conformity being able to part with a considerable Sum to build Tabernacles One Intreague I find darkly delivered p. 250. of his first Plea Even Bishops saith Mr. Baxter need to be remembred that while the Wheel is turning the upper side should not tempt Men to forget what side will be uppermost shortly and for ever The words are ambiguous like the old Oracles and may be interpreted pro captu Lectoris but whether he means the Revolutions of Providence as by the turning of the Wheel seems most proper or the Divine Judgment at last it savours of equal Pride Malice and Uncharitableness In Mr. Corbet's Funeral Sermon p. 33. preacht by Mr. Baxter he speaks more plain It seems saith he there is some great evil to come when God takes away the best yea if it should be a fore-runner of a better state yet all save two of the old stock that dishonoured God perished And it was by bloody Wars that Joshua and the new GENERATION were to possess the Land of Promise But the Oracle is expounded by other Cabalistical Rabbies who tell us boldly the time of the Episcopal Persecution is but short And on that confidence invite those whom Mr. Baxter calls the passive Conformists to come over to them promising them a kinder entertainment than they have had from their Brethren of the Conformity Spes est fore ut Fanatici quos vocant utamur illis aequioribus saith the Celeusma p. 34. There is now good hope that we whom they call Fanaticks may shew them more favour Now whether these Men be not engaged in some Plot for the extirpation of the Ecclesiastical Government by Law established to which end they so importunately plead for the Obligation of the Covenant let the Reader judge Time may discover what an ingenious Man hints in his Defence of the Bishop of Worcester p. 68. I will tell Mr. Baxter a Secret which I have heard but hope he will not put me to prove it That the Parliament made good Laws the Papists out of a pretended reverence to tender Consciences hindred the Execution of
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
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
be whether it were morally possible for such a Person who so passionately and for many years till his very death almost daily bewailed his constrained and unwilling assent to his death to have a Conscience so seared and void of all sense as in case he had been wilfully and designedly guilty of promoting and maintaining that barbarous War wherein as well the Blood of those that fought under my Lord Ormond by his undoubted Commission as of those that fought against him by a falsly pretended one might justly have been charged on him if that pretence had been true to have lived about Seven years and died without any regret of Conscience for so much Blood-guiltiness Bishop Hacket's Testimony on July 24. 1654. AT Rigate in Surry I had conference about this Defamation with that excellent Primate of Armagh saith he Stop their mouths with this that I shall faithfully tell you Sir Will. Parsons our Chief Justice was much intrusted with the King's Affairs in Ireland he deceasing his Friends sent his Papers to me In his Cabinet I found a Letter written by the King to warn him to look well to the meetings of the Popish Irish for he had received certain Intelligence out of Spain that they were upon some great Design of Blood and Confusion c. I was so scrupulbus saith Bishop Hacket to forget nothing of this Relation that before I stirr'd I wrote down the speaker the words the place the year and day Page 197. part 2. of Archbishop Williams 's Life There needs nothing more to be said of Mr. Baxter's being past doubt that Antrim had the King's Commission for the Irish first Insurrection than what the King replied to that virulent Remonstrance of no farther Addresses p. 289. of the Kings Works printed 1662. That if the Irish Rebellion can be justly charged on the King then I shall not blame any for believing all the rest of the Allegations against him The Regicides in the last Charge against the King did not impute to him any hand in the first Insurrection in Ireland but only his continuing Commissions to the Prince and other Rebels and to the Earl of Ormond and to the Irish Rebels and Revolters associated with him Mr. Baxter it seems could have proved much more that he gave a Commission to Antrim for that War wherein two hundred thousand Protestants were slain I am not so well read in the managing of that War as to find Antrim named either as Commander Counsellor or Confederate until the Cessation was treated of July 19 1643. and the first publick Imployment of Antrim was his being sent with Muskerry into France to the Queen when the Confederate Papists were in a low Condition to desire her and the Prince to compassionate them and restore them to their Protection making many Protestations of their Duty and applying themselves to his Majesty's Service but this was when the King was in Prison and what rhey promised for the King's Service or what they performed we find not See Burlace's Hist p. 119. His Majesty's Answer to the two Papers concerning Ireland delivered by the Parliaments Commissioners at Vxbridge which is to be seen p. 553. in his Works do abundantly justifie the Cessation of Arms made with the Irish by Ormond The Letter of Charles the Second printed in the Pamphlet called Truth brought to Light which I suppose is the same in that other Pamphlet called Murder will out says Our Referrees report that they have seen several Letters of our Royal Fathers hand writing and several Instructions to the said Marquess concerning his treating and joyning with the Irish in order to the King's Service by reducing them to their Obedience and by drawing some Forces to them for the service of Scotland and that besides the Letters under the King's hand they had sufficient Evidence and Testimony of several private Messages and Instructions from our Royal Father and from our Royal Mother N.B. This was probably in 1648. when the King was like to be murdered for then we find Antrim and Muskerry were with the Queen and Prince in France with the privity and direction of the King our Father So that this was done to reduce the Papists to Obedience and to draw some Forces for his Service he being then in Extremity Supposing then that all this were true of which I doubt because Antrim still adhered to the Pope's Nuncio and opposed Ormond who can justly blame the King for imploying and interfering one Rebel against another to save his Life To conclude although the Protestations of Sir Phelim O Neale Muskerry and Mackguire at the time of their deaths denying that they knew of any Commission of the King 's for raising or countenancing that Irish Insurrection when if they had owned it they might have saved their Lives and Estates and the Regicides could not mention it in their Charge at his Trial be a sufficient Evidence of the King's Innocency yet his Majesty's frequent Asseverations solemn Imprecations and dying Protestations make it past doubt that Marquess Antrim had not a Commission from Charles the First for raising or encouraging that bloody War wherein Two hundred thousand Protestants were murdered When I first read this Relation of Mr. Baxter's it called to my mind that which the present Bishop of Worcester said concerning him That he would die leaving his sting in the wounds of the Church which he hath verifed in the History of his Life And I may add That he hath poured forth the very bottom of his Gaul to blacken the Memory of the Royal Martyr I cannot therefore let it pass without some Remarks upon it And first I considered what Authority he had for this Report and I found in the Margine that he quoted only a Pamphlet called Murther will out which was a scurrilous Libel written as is believed by the infamous Ludlow who was one of the King's Judges Now to give some colour to this Pamphlet Mr. Baxter bestows Notes of Admiration as that it is of great remark and put him into Amazement and he seems to wonder how he should forget it in his former Relation of that War The Substance of the Relation is That Antrim's Estate being sequestred when Charles the Second was restored and that having applied himself to Ormond and the Council in Ireland they judged against him as a Rebel so that in all probability he had no Order or Commission from Charles the First to produce but coming into England he pleads to Charles the Second that he had his Father's Consent and Authority For proof whereof the King referred his Cause to some of his Privy Council who on Examination found that he had his Fathers the King's Consent But none besides Mr. Baxter says the Letters were a Commission for the first rising and probably the Plea which Antrim then made was grounded upon some Order which he had received from Charles the First while confined or from King Charles the Second whilst he was yet but Prince of
him their Almoner He tells us That this did begin and end at home to help the silenced Ministers and the Poor Such Poor probably as frequented their Conventicles for these are every where the Objects of the Presbyterian Charity though none boast more that they are Men of Catholick and Universal Charity But it was particularly designed to increase the number of such as followed them for their Loaves Had any Man the opportunity to inspect the Subscriptions of the several Bishops Deans and Chapters and other Dignitaries of the Church as also of both the Universities towards the Relief of the Refugees he may find not only a bountiful Supply for the present but Provision made for their future Subsistance as Brethren and professed Members of the same Church with us who want not the countenance or incouragement of the Conforming Clergy to this day My great Age and Infirmities being now within one year as old as Mr. Baxter was at the time of his death do enforce me to omit many other Remarks of Pride Hypocrisie and Contradictions which he that runs may read in this and other Writings of our Author which I leave to the Observation of such as better knew the Man and his Communication and shall make only this one Reflection more on his partiality in censuring the Conformists and Non-conformists of all sorts and degrees And first the Reader may see his hyperbolical Commendations of his Non-conforming Brethren from p. 90. to p. 99. of his Life where he gives the Character of such of the Eighteen hundred silenced Ministers as were his Neighbours not speaking by hearsay but personal acquaintance which were between Forty and Fifty besides many whom he had forgotten and about Forty London Ministers with Fifteen Independants and others of several parts that were Fellow-sufferers with himself All which if they deserved the Titles which he gives them he might have Canonized them as Saints in Heaven on better grounds than he hath done by Brooks Pym and White in his Saints Everlasting Rest. As to the Lay-Brethren of the Separation he gives the preheminence to those of his own Flock at Kidderminster And p. 85. part 1. he says Some of the poor Men did competently understand the Body of Divinity and were able to judge in difficult Controversies and so able in Prayer that few Ministers did match them in order and fulness in apt Expressions and holy Oratory with fervency And of Six hundred Communicants which Mr. Baxter had there he says there were not above Twelve of whom he had not good hopes of their Sincerity And this he imputes to his own Labours For before I came thither there was about one Family in a Street that worshipped God and called on his Name but before I came away there was not past one Family in the side of a Street that did not so p. 88 89. And he adds this reason of their proficiency That being Weavers they could set a Book before them standing in their Looms and edifie one another by reading or talking Of such Trades-men and Freeholders he says that they are the strength of Religion and Civility in the Land though such made up the Mob which begun and continued our Wars and destroyed our Religion by dividing it into innumerable Sects and Factions So that Mr. Edwards observed in his Gangreena that in the space of four years after that Episcopacy was laid aside there were more Heresies started in this Land than had been known in the Universal Church from the foundation thereof As to his Censures of such as lived in Conformity to the established Religion he is as impartial as Death condemning them all as a prophane and persecuting Generation in a Book called Cain and Abel How he hath branded the best of our Kings and the Clergy hath been already shewn How he Censures the Parliament and their Laws which he calls the tearing Engines that woried Two thousand Ministers casting them out of their Possessions into Poverty and Prisons to starve and pine away and for imposing such Oaths Subscriptions and Declarations as any Man that feared God could not comply with is such a Common Place that I wonder it was no more taken notice of After this Censure of the Parliament Mr. Baxter speaks of the Nobility and Gentry in general p. 134. where he saith I more than ever lament the unhappiness of the Nobility and Gentry and great Ones of the World who live in such temptations to Sensuality Curiosity and Wasting of Time about a multitude of little things whose Lives â—…re too often a Transcript of the Sins of Sodom Pride Fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness and want of Compassion to the Poor And p. 89. That Gentlemen and Beggars and Servile Tenants are the strength of Iniquity in the Land though it was not very civil to put the Beggar on the Gentleman yet it was much worse to joyn them in the Bonds of Iniquity and make the Comparison between them and the Trades-men so odious that these are reputed the strength of Religion and Civility but the Gentry and their Tenants and Beggars the strength of Iniquity And he instanceth in Sir R. Clare and Sir John Packington who much hindred his Success in gathering Proselytes in Kidderminster He gives this Character of Sir R. Clare p. 94. part 1. That he was an old Man of great Courtship and Civility very temperate as to Diet Apparel and Sports seldom swore any louder than by his troth one that shewed him much personal reverence and respect beyond his deserts and conversed with love and familiarity One that sent his Family to be Catechised and personally Instructed which swayed with the worst among that People to do the like But being ruled by Dr. Hammond he liked not of Mr. Baxter's Preciseness and Extemporary Prayer and abstained from the Sacrament which Mr. Baxter delivered to such as sate or stood at the receiving it which gave offence to Sir R. Clare whereby he says Sir R.C. did more to hinder his Success than a multitude of others could have done And on such an account all the Conforming Gentry are the strength of Iniquity And although the Poverty of Mr. Baxter's People whereof the Master-workmen lived but little beter than their Journey-men from hand to mouth p. 94. was a help to his Success the Poor receiving the glad tidings of the Gospel and being usually rich in faith Yet for those that frequent the Churches and Common Prayer they are coupled with the Gentry as the strengtheners of Iniquity whereas the Laws have provided such a Competency for their Maintenance as may keep them from beggary which the Law alloweth not but in truth the multitude of Beggars in occasioned and increased by those many Families that depend upon the Trade of Weaving who living but from hand to mouth are forced on the decay of Trade for a few Weeks to beg for their Subsistance or to do worse of which such places as abound with Men of that
they made the best King and Emperour Lodovic Pius as a Penance resign his Crown and Scepter on the Altar to a Rebel Son and sent him to Prison He that ever read but Baronius Binius or other Episcopal History will pity you Can you name one Presbyter for very many Bishops that have been the Heads or Fomenters of Heresie Schism or Rebellion And yet Presbyters were more in number than Bishops Innumerable Bishops saith Binius were in the Monothelite Council under Philippicus Of all things that ever befel the Christian Church I scarce know any thing comparable in shame and mischievous effects to the horrid Perfidiousness Contention Schism and Pride of Bishops Cursing one year by hundreds all that were of one Opinion and another year all that were of the contrary as the Times and Interest and Emperours changed And if Arius or Novatus Aerius and Donatus which are all you name were the beginners of any Schism how many hundred Bishops were the promoters of them all save that of Aerius against themselves And is it any honour to Episcopacy that Arius and Aerius an Arian were not Bishops when they are said to be Seekers of Bishopricks and to divide because they could not obtain them Sure they were Prelatical Presbyters What honour were it to Episcopacy that you are no Bishop if all these and such things were vended by you in hope of a Bishoprick or some Preferment I will never whilst I breathe trust a Bresbyter that sets himself to get Preferment no more than I will trust a But did you know or did you not that as for Novatus and Novatian one of them was an ill chosen Bishop of Rome and the other a promoter of his Prelacy And that as for Donatus there were two of them one of them a Bishop and that the Donatists Schism was meerly and basely Prelatical even whether their Bishop or Cecilianus should carry it and that their rebaptizing and re-ordaining and Schism was because they took none to have power that had it not from their Bishop as being the right like our re-ordainers And are these Instances to prove what you assert Were it not for entering upon an unpleasing and unprofitable task I would ask you 1. Who that Juncto of Presbyters was that dethroned the King was it they that petitioned and protested against it 2. Whether it was not an Episcopal Parliament forty to one if not an hundred that began the War against the King 3. Whether the General and Commanders of the Army twenty to one were not Conformists 4. Whether the Major-Generals in the Counties were not almost all Episcopal Conformists The Earl of Stamford was over your Country 5. Whether the Admiral and Sea-Captains were not almost Episcopal Conformists As Heylin distinguisheth them of Archbishop Abbot's mind disliking Arminianism Monopolies c. 6. Whether the Archbishop of York were not the Parliaments Major-General 7. Whether the Episcopal Gentry did not more of them take the Engagement and many Episcopal Ministers than the Presbyterians 8. Whether if this Parliament which made the Acts of Vniformity and Conventicles should quarrel with the King it would prove them to be Presbyterians and Non-conformists 9. Whether the Presbyterian Ministers of London and Lancashire did not write more against the Regicides and Vsurpers and declare against them than all the Conformists or as much And the Long Parliament was forced and most of them cast out before the King could be destroyed And when they were restored it made way for his Restoration And Sir Thomas Allen Lord Mayor and the City of London's inviting General Monk from the Rump into the City and joyning with him was the very day that turned the Scales for the King But all these are Matters fitter for your better Consideration than our Debate Your Servant Ri. Baxter Mr. LONG 's Answer Mr. Baxter SIR I find that in a Book of yours defending Schism against Mr. Hales on pretence of opposing it you were pleased to think many passages in my writings worthy of your recital to your ends Answ Whether my Book which you mention or that of Mr. Hales do most oppose Schism is sub judice Had Mr. Hales opposed it I wonder how you and so many Schismaticks quoted him against Obedience to Authority Episcopacy and Liturgy barely on pretence of things scrupled and seeing I oppose Mr. Hales in most of the Passages that concern Schism by your Arguments it must be you or he that defend it and not I. That I thought some Passages in your Writings worthy of my recital and to my end was first Because I thought your end to be the same with mine i.e. to promote Peace and Unity and to destroy Schism and Division For it was once your Resolution to speak for Peace while you had a Tongue to write for Peace while you had a Hand and to live to the Churches Peace while you had an hour to live and could do any thing that could promote it And I hope you did not verba dare Secondly Because as Mr. Hales was a Man in great esteem with you upon the account of that Tract so are you with some others and therefore I could not think of a better Argument ad homines And I find that you with others did urge fiercely the Authority of Mr. Hales p. 2. of the Exceptions at the Savoy in these words To load our publick Forms with private Fancies on which we differ is the most soveraign way to perpetuate Schism to the Worlds end c. which you resume p. 8. of your Reply Though the Reverend Bishops had answered We heartily desire that according to this Proposal great care may be taken to suppress private Conceptions of Prayer lest private Opinions be made the Matter of Prayer in publick is it hath and will be if private Persons take liberty to make publick Prayers And on second thoughts I find you to agree with them p. 201. of the Cure of Divisions in these words Every Separatist Anabaptist Antinomian doth too willingly put his Errours into his Prayers On which words Mr. Bag shaw in his Antidote p. 7. doth thus Paraphrase By mentioning of Separatists as a distinct Body of Men from the Antinomians Quakers and Anabaptists it is evident he can mean no other but his Presbyterian and Congregational Brethren This I have noted by the way that what I said of his Brethrens dissenting from his Reformed Liturgy as he calls it may not seem strange seeing he so far differs from it himself for there he gives liberty to all Ministers to Pray and Exhort as they think fit and here he declares against the Inconveniencies of it Mr. Baxter I thank you that you chose any words of mine for Peace which some may make a better use of than your self But I think if you had referred Men to my own Books to read what goeth before and after they would have been more easily understood Answ They that read your words which I have for the most
Rabble are stirred up to Petition against them Mr. Baxter himself having in Anno 1640. conceived a dislike of them began to write his History of Bishops to represent them as the Lords of Misrule twelve Bishops are sent to the Tower the Archbishop beheaded the rest-sequestred the Nation drawn into a Covenant against them their Revenues imployed to maintain a War against the King and to gratifie such Presbyters as had defamed and opposed them Under those grew up the several Factions of Independents Anabaptists Quakers and a Fanatical Army that set the whole Nation into a Flame that continued to devour for 20 years together Now suppose the Supream Power i.e. the Parliament as Mr. Baxter says had advanced some of the most active Presbyters as Superintendents or Bishops and Archbishops for Mr. Baxter approves of this last Order as Overseers of Bishops would it become a true Historian to impute all the Disorders and Confusions that were acted by and under the several Factions and thus made Bishops to that Order which were deposed prescribed and driven into Corners or exposed to innumerable Affronts and Sufferings during all that time and yet this is the manner of Mr. Baxter's dealing with those more ancient Bishops which he mentioneth as a true Historian throughout his History of Bishops Mr. Baxter Did you know or not that Novatus was an ill chosen Bishop of Rome and Novatian a promoter of his Prelacy Answ I doubt not but Mr. Baxter knew that Novatus was meerly a Presbyter and that in his time Cornelius was Bishop of Rome with whom Novatus had a quarrel for admitting such to his Communion as in the days of Persecution under Decius had denied the Faith Novatus affirming That they could not repent after their Fall and hereupon he calls his Faction the Cathari This pure Presbyter being at Rome se sends for three Rustick Bishops as my Author calls them to come to him from Italy to Rome where he caresseth them with plenty of good Victuals and Wine and when they had well drank some of Novatus his Party prevail with those Bishops to lay their hands on Novatus and make him a Bishop but whether a Bishop of Rome as Mr. Baxter says I have not read but that Novatus and Novatian who espoused his Opinion and promoted his Faction to the great disturbance of Cornelius the lawful Bishop is notorious in Ecclesiastical History Mr. Baxter As for Donatus there were two of them one of them a Bishop and the Donatist Schism was meerly and basely Prelatical Answ Here I question your Fidelity and have proved at large in my History of the Donatists that the Schism was wholly Presbyterial for the Bishoprick of Carthage being void Botrus and Celesius two Presbyters sought to supplant Cecilian a Person of known Integrity who was chosen Bishop of that Church But Lucilla a Woman descended from a Noble Family of Spain abets their quarrel and by great Gifts prevail with Botrus and Celesius who had been defeated to appear for Majorinus who was Domestick Chaplain to Lucilla and had been Deacon to Cecilian these gather a great number of persons whom they had drawn from the Communion of Cecilian to meet at Cirta where they pronounce Cecilian deposed as a Traditor and set up Majorinus to be Bp. of Carthage who dying shortly after Donatus is by his Party chosen to succeed him whom Cecilian accused for re-baptizing those that came to his Party from the Catholick Church and for degrading Bishops and Priests And this was the rise of the Sect of the Donatists under whom the Arian Heresie spread it self and the Crew of Circumcellians arose as may be seen at large in the History of the Donatists This is a second Instance of the Schism begun by Presbyters and of Mr. Baxter's fidelity in relating Church History and imputing the Troubles caused and continued by Presbyters to the Bishops The third instance is Arius a Presbyter of Alexandria in Egypt who was bred up under Melitus another Presbyter from whom Arius was taught That Christ was not the Eternal Son of God but meer Man from both his Parents This Meletius held it lawful in times of Persecution to deny Christ as he had done and pleaded That he had not denied God but Man For these Tenets Peter Bp. of Alexandria Excommunicated them both but Peter dying Achillus succeeded him under whom Arius reading Lectures in Alexandria began to publish his Heresie and infected great numbers insomuch that Achillus dying he became Competitor for that Bishoprick with Alexander who being a Person of known Abilities and Integrity was chosen by a general Suffrage of that Church by this good Bishop Arius was Excommunicated for opposing the Divinity of Christ and teaching that he was not from Eternity nor did partake of the Substance of the Father being created in time and was indeed more excellent than other Creatures but not equal with the Father He challenged to dispute these his heretical Opinions with Alexander and a time and place was appointed but as Arius was come to the place an extream pain in his Bowels seiz'd on him and going aside to ease himself his very Bowels fell from him But his Name and Heresie survived in another Arius or as History stiles him Arianus homo potius quam Arius who opposed Athanasius in the Council of Nice but upon a full discussion of the Arian Doctrines by that Council his Heresie was condemned the Books written for it were burnt and an Edict set forth by Constantine threatning Death to such as should conceal any of their Books Now how long this Heresie prevailed how many Catholick Bishops were banisht and murthered for opposing it how it spread like a Gangreen through all the Members of the Church as you have set forth in your History of Bishops is mostly true but your imputing those Confusions to the Catholick Bishops who were the Sufferers in all that time being the defensive Party I am bold to say is false for under the Arian Schism and by such as took part with them as the Donatists Nestorians Eutychians Macedonians Acephalites Monothelites who often made havock of one another and all united to distress the true Bishops all those Mischiefs which you mention in this Letter and more largely in your Hist of Bishops were put in Execution for 140 years together i.e. from the days of Constantine to the days of Constantius nec dum finitus Orestes Mr. Baxter Were it not for entering on an unpleasing and unprofitable task I would ask you Who that Juncto of Presbyters was that dethroned the King Answ They were such as the Westminster Assembly that dispersed their Members into the Country to animate the People to ingage in the War against the King and with Mr. Baxter assisted in carrying on the War from the beginning to the end and drew many thousands to ingage in that War Those that incouraged the Rabble of London to go to Westminster and demand Justice of him in such
Tumults as forced him to leave his Palace for fear of losing his Life Those that seiz'd his Towns Forts Magazines and Ships to maintain the War against him Those that animated Armies with whom he was often present in Person till they forced him to fly to the Scots Those that sold and bought him as a Prisoner of War and voted no more Addresses to him but left him to such as at last barbarously murdered him Mr. Baxter Was it they that petitioned and protested against it Answ The King was dethron'd long before any Presbyterians petitioned or protested against putting him to death then indeed when it was too late the Ministers of London plead for him 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 is as one Paraphraseth it We affirm and testifie that besides those of his evil Counsellors the King 's Personal Crimes and fundamental Errors in Government too many and great to be mentioned have cost England Scotland and Ireland so dear that all the bloodshed devastations and rapine might be charged on him and for these he is justly cast down from his Throne into so horrid a Pit of Misery as to fall under a Sentence of Condemnation This is such a Petition and Plea for the King as those that are made for Peace which are Arguments for Separation and Discord Mr. Love a great Presbyterian in his Vxbridge Sermon laid a Foundation of this in that Maxim Melius pereat unus quam unitas But Mr. Baxter exceeds all in representing him as the Head of the Grotian Religion which he says were arrant Papists This is such a Slander as his barbarous Judges were ashamed to charge him with Mr. Baxter Was it not an Episcopal Parliament forty or one hundred to one that began the War against the King Answ They were indeed Episcopal Men and Conformists for the most part at their first meeting but there was a Juncto among them that soon prevailed to silence and banish the Loyal Members and then openly declared War against the King and ruin to the Bishops Mr. Baxter was one of those Episcopal conforming Men but what he did hath been related and he well knew of what Perswasion the five Members were and those whom he Canonizeth as Saints in his Everlasting Rest These had sometime been zealous Conformists and the King 's most Loyal Subjects but did they continue such The Bishops that began the Reformation had been Popish but when they renounced the Pope's Supremacy and Romish Doctrines and setled the Church on a new Foundation for Doctrine and Worship no sober Man can say that the Reformation was either begun or carried on by Popish Bishops The Case is the same Those that began our war had been most of them Episcopal Men and Conformists but when they imprison'd and sequestred the Bishops threw off the Liturgy and entred into a Covenant against King and Church they were neither Episcopal Men nor Conformists Of this sort were the Generals Admirals and other Officers by Land and Sea Mr. Baxter Whether the Archbishop of York was not the Parliaments Major-General Answ Not at the beginning of the War certainly nor ever that I heard but from Mr. Baxter that he had such a Commission from them That Archbishop was with K. Charles at Oxford and well receiv'd by him nor did he ever appear in any Hostile Actions till 6 years after the beginning of the War and the reason of that was to vindicate a particular right of his own and not on account of the war against the King as hath been proved in that Bishop's Life Mr. Baxter Whether the Episcopal Gentry and Ministry did not take the Engagement more than the Presbyterians Answ I pray Mr. Baxter remember what you were to prove viz. who began the War and and is this which was done after the King's death if it had been true an Argument to prove that they began the War I have read in several of your Books such a Relation of the beginning of our War which will remain after you are gone That the War was begun by Episcopal Men such as were of Archbishop Whitgift's mind That the great Commanders in War by Sea and Land were Conformists and I suppose I have said enough to disprove it Let me therefore remind you of a foregoing passage in your Letter viz. That it is a part of Satan's work to perswade the World that no History hath any certainty of Truth that so Sacred History may be disadvantaged and now let the impartial Reader judge whether Lucian or Mr. Baxter be the truest Historian I confess you have ingaged me in an unpleasing Work but in may not be unprofitable if what I shall add be duly considered Let the Troubles at Frankfort be read over and the groundless Contests and Animosities of some Presbyterians against such as adhered to the Doctrine and Worship of the Church of England while both Parties were in Exile and what you your self have observed of their behaviour after they returned home especially of Knox Goodman and others how they flew in the face of Authority and incessantly woried Q. Elizabeth during her Reign No sooner were they called home but some of them were so intemperate impatient and unpeaceable that some of them turned to flat Separation and flew in the Faces of the Prelates with reviling c. p. 150. of Gildas Salvianus And if the History of the Factious for Presbytery during the Reign of King James and especially of King Charles I. be impartially read you will find this odious Comparison incomparably out-done This is proper to them to overthrow whatsoever Estate they are admitted to says Bertius in Orbis Breviario And this is the reason why Grotius was so condemned for a Papist because in his Book de Antichristo he wrote so much truth against these Men Circumferamus oculos per omnem historiam quod unquam seculum vidit tot subditorum in Principes bella sub religionis titulo horum concitatores ubique reperiuntur Ministri Evangelici ut quidam se vocant quod genus hominum in quae pericula etiam nunc Optimos Civitatis Amsteladomensis Magistratus conjecerit videat si cui libet de Presbyterorum in reges andacia librum Jacobi Britanniarum Regis cui nomen Donum Regium videbit eum ut erat magni Judicij ea praedixisse quae nunc cum dolore horrore perspicimus King James spake by Experience and first he tells the Reader in his Preface These rash heady Preachers think it their honour to contend with Kings and perturbe whole Kingdoms And in p. 41 42. Take heed my Son to such Puritans very Pests in the Church and Commonweal whom no Deserts can oblige neither Oaths or Promises bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own imaginations without any warrant of the Word the square of their Conscience I protest before the great God and since I am here as upon my Testament it is no place for me to lye in that ye shall never find with any Highland or Border Thieves greater ingratitude and more lyes and vile perjuries than with these Phanatick Spirits And suffer not the Principles of them to brook your Land if you like to sit at rest except you would keep them for trying your patience as Socrates did an evil Wife He told his Parliament in his Speech March 19. 1603. The third which I call a Sect rather than Religion is the Puritan and Novelist who do not differ so much from us in points of Religion as in their confused Forms of Polity and Parity being ever discontented with the present Government and impatient to suffer any Superiority which maketh their Sect unable to be suffered in any well-governed Commonwealth And now you may research your voluminous Baronius and Binius and collect the Maxims and Practices of the Jesuits who are not much elder than the Presbyterians and if I do not match them in both from the Authors before-named all which will not make up above one Volume of your twenty and relate only the History of about six or sevenscore years for yours of about sixteen hundred I shall need to add only your own Theses concerning Government and what I said will still appear to be true That such horrid things as have been done by that Generation have not been out-done by any other since Judas betrayed his Master By these Relations Mr. Baxter may be inform'd That something hath befal'n the Church that for shame and mischievous effects hath exceeded the Persidiousness Contention Schism and Pride of Bishops POSTSCRIPT WHereas near half of Mr. Baxter's Life is filled up with repeated Cavils and frivolous objections against our Episcopacy and Conformity to the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church which have been fully answered by many Worthies of our Church to the satisfaction of imprejudiced Readers yet because nothing will satisfie his Admirers but what is Mr. Baxter's own sence I have collected such Answers as Mr. Baxter himself hath given to his own Objections and printed them in a little Treatise called Mr. Baxter's last Legacy to all sober Dissenters which I doubt not may give them satisfaction if they deserve that Title FINIS
and his death and lastly that this is the Genius of the Parliament I hope whatever Mr. Baxter may do no other Mans Conscience doth accuse him of such horrid crimes All this we have in the Title-page of his Second Plea for Peace But as the Learned Doctor observed of the First Plea it looks as if he had designed these Books on purpose to represent the Clergy of our Church as a company of notorious lying and perjured Villains These and divers other Fire-brands he fixeth in the top of the Fabrick as if that could not be purged but with Fire pretending it was guilty of many heinous Sins in the Constitution of it And when that Reverend Doctor endeavored to quench those Juniper-coals which had well-nigh set all in a flame he flies in his face charging him with pleading for Presumption Profanation Vsurpation Vncharitableness and Schism p. 73. of his Answer to the Dr's Sermon Again when the Dr. said that preaching in opposition to the Laws established is contrary to the Doctrine of all the Nonconformists of former times Mr. Baxter replies p. 21. This Assertion is so rash and false in matters of notorious fact that it weakeneth his reverence of the Doctors judgment in matters of Right p. 8. So that the Doctor might well say that he wrote that Book in a continued fit of Anger And how could it be otherwise seeing that as Bishop Burnet relates of the Earl of Rochester when God gave him a sight of his sins that he confessed he had been drunk five years together So Mr. Baxter had been distempered with an habit of wrath and rage against the Government of the Church ever since he was Nineteen years old how could he chuse but write with the spirit of Gall and bitternest against such an Adversary as would dissect him alive and discover all the Distempers of that dying Man And what could Mr. Baxter do less than call the Doctor 's Sermon a Schismatical Sermon that would so divide Mr. Baxter that makes Union impossible in any Church but what he himself shall give being and union to And yet this Man of Wrath is angry with himself that he was not more angry with the Doctor For p. 12. of Second Defence I profess says he I felt so little passion in writing that Book that I think verily I sinned all the while for want of a livelier sense of the sin and hurt which I was detecting by my Confutation And in his Title-page dividing the Doctor 's Book into Accusations Reasonings and History he pronounceth them all untrue i.e. in plain English You lie Sir in all that you have written Perhaps Mr. Baxter may not account this Passion but Zeal And his admirers say he is a Stranger to Spite and Anger but he hath a very quick and earnest temper of mind and his stile is very keen and pungent Yea and they think it lawful for him too to make the Scripture serve his passion and rail in holy Language for doubtless his Disciples think that in the Title-page 1 Tim. 6.5,6 well applied to the Doctor Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness from such withdraw thy self which in plain English is that the Doctor is one of those Men and you are bound to have no communion with him For Mr. Baxter though under another name represents the Doctor to be a most unskilful proud partial obstinate cruel impertinent Adversary Yet Mr. Silvester in his Preface speaking of the Author i.e. Mr. Baxter says I have heard him great and copious in commendation of several Prelates and Conformists and that he particularly mentioned the Reverend Bishops of Worcester and Eli i.e. Bishop Stillingfleet and Bishop Patrick as Persons greatly admired and highly valued by him and of their readiness to serve the Publick interest both Civil and Religious he doubted not it was therefore his bitter Zeal that transported him to write such scandalous invectives contrary to his Knowledge and Conscience But as Mr. H. says in defence of Mr. Baxter Some Men have humours and ways of their own And this it seems is the proper humour of that Party They think with Jonah they do well to be angry that God hath spared us so long and because he suffered their Gourd to spring up and cover their heads for a time whereof they were exceeding glad now that he hath suffered a Worm to strike it and make it wither and the Wind and the Sun beats on their heads they are desperately angry for their Gourd and justifie their anger even against God they do well to be angry even unto death Jonah 4.9 His Treatise of Episcopacy he says in the Title-page was meditated 1640. when the c. Oath was imposed written 1671. and published 1680. by the call of Mr. H.D. and the importunity of our Superiours who demanded the reason of our Nonconformity The design was the concord of all the Protestants who can never unite in the present impositions and for necessary reformation of Parish-Churches and those abuses which else will keep up in all Ages a succession of Nonconformists and to give an account why we dare not covenant by Oath or Subscription to endeavour the amending alteration of the Church-government c. i.e. in plain English against an Act of Parliament P. 140. of his Second Part we have this pathetical Exclamation Alas Lord How long shall Christs enemies the Bishops be Pastors of his Flocks and the seed of the Serpent be the great Instrument that must break the Serpents head and the lovers of sin be they that must be the suppressers of it and those employed to teach in Knowledge who themselves will not know and to preach up Holiness that will not endure it And p. 124. The truth is that is an excellent person to us who is an odious and contemptible person to the Prelates If he will make the People believe that Presbyterians are Rebels and Disciplinarians are seditious brain-sick fellows living in Hypocrisie And that praying without Book and much preaching is Fanaticism and that none are worthy to Preach the Gospel who will not swear to be true to the Prelatical interest That Drunkenness in a conformable Man is a tolerable infirmity and that their ignorantest Nonsence is fitter to save Souls and edifie the Church than the Labours of the Holy and Learned Non-conformists That Calvin was a Rogue as Salmasius said of the Learned Dr. Hammond That Cartwright and Amesius were discontented factious Schismaticks unworthy to preach or be endured this is a Son of the Church and an excellent Person P. 213. of the second Part Confect 3. He says That to Swear Subscribe c. That though Millions should swear to endeavour a Reformation of Episcopacy in their Places and Callings by lawful means which is his addition there is no obligation lieth on any one of them so to endeavour it the Lord have mercy on that Land City or Soul that is guilty of