sole Command and disposition thereof 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 c. How then did the controversie between the Bishops and Conformists begin the War when the dispute of the Militia did it In truth there were as Wilson in his History of King James confesseth Regians and Republicans and the dispute in several Parliaments was between the Prerogative and Priviledges and as Mr. Baxter says where other Parliaments ended that of 40. began And is it not strange that there should be so few Non-conformists in 41. and 42. and yet in 43. when the Covenant was brought in all the Parliament and Assembly and Officers in any Court in the Army and in the Navy should generally take the Covenant for that was made the Test of all such as should be intrusted and we hear of very few that refused and I think there is no great difference between a Covenanter and a Presbyterian who still cry up the Scottish Discipline as the very Scepter and Kingdom of Jesus Christ to which all Kings and Scepters must bow or break The Third Accusation is the death of the King of which Mr. Baxter says that he proved in times of Usurpation that the Presbyterians detested it and that it was done by a Proud Conquering Army Answ Who rose that Army and carried on that War wherein the King perished it was not the last stroak given by the Independents that felled that Royal Oak there were many repeated blows at the very Root of Majestie given by others which cut all the Ligaments of his Power and Authority in sunder chopt off all the Branches his two great Ministers as Mr. Baxter calls them the whole Order of Bishops His power of the Militia Forts Garrisons and Navy and exposed the declining trunk to the fury of a Rascal party whom themselves had Armed to the Kings ruine I shall freely give you my thoughts of it in an answer to another writing of Mr. Baxters where he seeks more at large to excuse the Presbyterians from this horrid Crime Mr. Baxter says were it not for entring upon an unpleasing and unprofitable task I would ask you who that Juncto of Presbyterians was that dethron'd the King Answ The question I confess is very unpleasing for Infandum renovare jubes Baxtere dolorem Yet because it may be profitable to know the truth I say that the dethroning so good a King was a fact of an unparalled nature to which the Sins of the whole Nation contributed as well as yours and mine and whereof we ought still to repent and beg pardon notwithstanding the Act of Oblivion Yet there was a Select Juncto that had a more immediate influence into it and you ask me who they were though I believe you know them better than my self I will tell you my thoughts freely First they were the Men whom Mr. Baxter Canonizeth for Saints in his Everlasting Rest p. 83. in my Edition viz. Brook and Prin and Hambden and White c. For I suppose you could have named many more of your own Coat as precious Saints as they of whom you say with an Asseveration Surely they are now Members of a more knowing unerring well-ordered right-aiming self-denying unanimous honourable Triumphant Senate than this from whence they were taken or ever Parliament will be But what if they are gone to another place than what your Everlasting Rest intended have you not made a scurvy Reflection on your long beloved Parliament and some Men do fear they were never admitted into Gods everlasting rest because you that fancied them there were ashamed to continue them in yours being left out in your latter Editions Secondly I say it was that Juncto who procured great numbers of factious and tumultuous people in a rude and illegal way to affright the Loyal and most considerable part of the Parliament from their duties and trust reposed in them by God and Man such were the Kings Majesty and the Prince the Loyal Nobles the Bishops and chosen Gentry posting them up as Malignants and exposing them to the fury of the Rabble of which tumults one of your Saints Mr. Pym by name said God forbid that the House of Commons should dishearten their people to obtain their just desires in such a way Exact Collect p. 531. Mr. Baxter p. 474. of the Holy Common-wealth makes this Objection The tumults at Westminster drove him away to which he answereth Only by displeasing him not by indangering or meddling with him and another eminent Man of Mr. Baxters acquaintance in his Jehovah Jireth p. 65. says the Apprentices and Porters were stimulated and stirred up by Gods Providence Thousands of them to Petition the Parliament for speedy redress Whereas the Five Members and their favourers had inraged the multitude not so much to Petition the Parliament as to affront the King Thirdly It was that Juncto who against His Majesties Crown and Dignity against the known Laws and his express Proclamation to the contrary did contrive and impose under heavy penalties the Solemn League and Covenant upon the Nation whereby they did justify the Rebellion and avow the maintenance of it against the King and his Forces And having first vowed with their Lives and Estates to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament they add and to preserve the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom Which experience sheweth they no more intended though it be here put in as it was in Essex's Commission than it was in Fairfax's where as I am informed they left it out and if they meant as they speak they had no great care of his person having actually deprived him of his Authority And besides that limitation they preserve the Kings Person in defence of the true Religion Covenanted to introduce another Religion in Doctrin and Worship in opposition to that which was established by Law and resolutely defended by his Majesty and to root out Episcopacy which as he had sworn to support so had it been a great prop to the Throne and therefore his Majesty declared concerning the 19. Propositions that he could not consent unto them without violating his Conscience and a total extirpation of that Government whose Rights they had a mind to invade and which was necessary to the well being of His Majesty as by many Arguments in the Chapter concerning Church Government it appears This certainly was one of the keenest Instruments that hewed down the Throne For the Speech without Doors defending Mr. Challoners Speech within Doors tells the Parliament that they are bound by their Covenant for bringing evil Instruments to Condigne Punishment to destroy the King and his Posterity and that they cannot justifie the taking away of Strafford's and Canterbury's Lives for Delinquency while they suffered the chief Delinquent to go
is meet for the safety of Mens Health that none practise Physick but a Licensed Physician And until there be a greater want of Divines or Physicians than now there is it is pitty that such as are not Licensed should be permitted The Third part of Conformity begins p. 208. concerning the Renunciation of the Covenant whereof he treats § 11. and 12. Ministers saith he must onely subscribe that there is no Obligation on me or any other person from the Oath c. to endeavour any change or alteration of Government in the Church to which he adds the Oxford Oath That we will never endeavour any alteration And the Articles for Prelacy the Ordination promise and Oath of Canonical Obedience Against all which he Objects that even those Non-conformists that are for the lawfulness yea the need and desireableness of Bishops and Arch-bishops are unsatisfied in these things That some Hundred of Parishes are without any particular appropriate Bishops and consequently are without the Discipline of such Bishops and so are no Churches but only parts of a Diocesan Church that the Bishops have more work than they can do and the Keys are to be exercised by Lay-men Answ I have already shewed Mr. Baxters judgment of Bishops and Lay-Chancellours and shall only add that the Laws which Impower the Ministry with the Exercise of Discipline are so full and exact that if each Minister did faithfully perform his duty there would be no need to complain for want of work or of authority to do it effectually Every Minister is to admonish his Parishioners not to delay the Baptism of their Children whereby they are entred into a Covenant with God and by their Sureties ingaged to Faith Repentance and new Obedience as soon as they come to years of Discretion they are to be instructed out of the Church Catechism every Sunday which Catechism Mr. Baxter himself commends to be better for its Method than most others Then upon their knowledg of the Principles of Religion and owning their Baptismal Vows whereof the Minister is to take cognizance and certify to the Bishop they are to be Confirmed and none but such are to be admitted Communicants and none but Communicants to be admitted as Godfathers c. The Minister ought both publickly and privately to admonish such as are scandalous and to deny them the Communion until they manifest their Repentance which is a kind of Excommunication He is constantly to Celebrate publick Worship to Preach the Word of God and Administer the Holy Sacraments frequently to visit his Parishioners that he may know the State of his Flock to instruct the Ignorant rebuke the Wicked incourage the Good to visit the Sick absolve the Penitent and to strengthen them by the Word of God and the Comforts of the Holy Sacrament against the fear of death If these things were duly done as they might and ought to be there would be no cause to complain either that the Bishop hath too much or the Pastor too little work the fault is not in the Laws or Constitution of Government but in the want of due Execution To omit the many impertinencies in the 12. § there are Three things only on which he grounds his Plea for the Covenant The First is p. 214. Whether when Charles the II. had though injuriously been drawn to take the Covenant it doth not oblige those that took it afterward and whether the King having taken it no one person be bound by it p. 143. Answ Mr. Baxter leads me by this Question to consider how His Majesty was dealt with by the Scots in this matter how they tortured him with various temptations of hopes and fears and so affronted him with many horrible Reproaches of his own Sins as well as of the Sins of His Father and Grandfather that he often attempted to leave them what Provocations he met with in private may be guessed at by their publick Actions The Thursday before the Coronation was set apart as a Solemn day of Humiliation throughout the Land for the Sins of the Royal Family Robert Douglas in the Coronation Sermon told the King That His Grandfather King James remembred not the kindness of them who had held the Crown upon his Head yea he persecuted faithfull Ministers he never rested till he had undone Presbyterial Government and Kirk Assemblies setting up Bishops and bringing in Ceremonies In a word he laid the foundation whereupon his Son our late King did build much mischief in Religion all the days of his Life 73. P. 52. He tells the King to his Face That a King abusing his Power to the overthrow of Religion Laws and Liberties which are the fundamentals of that Covenant may be controlled and opposed And if he set himself to overthrow all these by Arms they who have power as the Estates of the Land may and ought I suppose by obligation of the Covenant to resist by Arms because he doth by that opposition break the very Bonds and overthrow the Essentials of this Contract and Covenant This may serve says he to justify the proceedings of this Kingdom against the late King who in a Hostile way set himself to overthrow Religion Parliaments Laws and Liberties Thus was the Kings Crown lined with Thorns and he had Gall and Vinegar given him to drink instead of the Royal Unction which that prophane Scot thus derides p. 34. The Bishops behoved to perform this Rite and the King behoved to be Sworn to them But now by the Blessing of God Popery and Prelacy are removed let the anointing of Kings with Oyl go to the door with them and let them never come in again If the King ought by the Laws of the Kingdom to have been Sworn to the Bishops this may make void the Obligation of the Covenant for the Coronation Oath is a right of the Subject and concerns their interest and security and the King as Heir to the Crown is obliged to that Oath and if any subsequent Oath may violate that in one particular it may also in others and then farewel to Magna Charta the priviledges of Parliament and Liberty of the Subject See more in the Review of the grand Case p. 139. 140. P. 92. He tells the King That God in his Righteous judgments suffereth Subjects to conspire and rebel against their Princes because they rebel against the Covenant made with God and adds I may say freely that a chief cause of the Judgment upon the Kings House hath been the Grandfathers breach of Covenant with God and the Fathers following steps in opposing the work of God and his Kirk within these Kingdoms and probably too many do still think they may rebel again in Defence of the Covenant But I argue from the manner of the Kings taking the Covenant as it is related p. 75. c. that the King is not obliged by it to make any alteration in the Government of our Church for thus it is related That the National Covenant and the
find answered by the University of Oxford and seconded by the University of Cambridge The King told his Parliament March 19. 1603. The third which I call a Sect rather than Religion is the Puritan and Novelist who do not differ so far from us in points of Religion as in their confused forms of Polity and Parity being ever discontented with the present Government and impatient to suffer any superiority which makes their Sect unable to be suffered in any well governed Common-wealth And it is one reason why Grotius was so condemned for a Papist among this people because in his Book de Anti-Christo he hath left this Character of them Circumferamus oculos per omnem historiam quod unquam seculum vidit tot subditorum in principes bella sub religionis titulo horum concitatores ubique reperiuntur Ministri Evangelici ut quidam se vocant quod genus hominum in quae pericula etiam nunc opti mos Civitatis Amstelodamensis magistratus conjicerit videat si cui libet de Presbyterorum in Reges audacia librum Jacobi Britanniarum Regis cui nomen Donum Regium videbit eum ut erat magni judicii ea praedixisse quae nunc cum dolore horrore conspicimus I will give it you presently in that Kings English But the King giving them a fair hearing in the conference at Hampton Court partly by his Arguments and partly by his Authority suppressed them for that time Yet this restless people so incensed him by their murmurings and reproaches that he frequently in his Writings and Speeches in Parliament professed both his jealousie of them and caution against them in his Preface to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These rash heady Preachers says he think it their honour to contend with Kings and perturb whole Kingdoms and p. 41. 42. Take heed my Son to such Puritans very Pests in the Church and Common-weal whom no Desert can oblige neither Oaths nor Promises bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own Imaginations without any warrant of the word the square of their Consciences I protest before the great God and since I am here as upon my Testament it is no place for me to lye in that ye shall never find with any Highland or border Thieves greater ingratitude and more lies and vile perjuries than with these Fanatick-spirits and suffer not the principles of them to brook your Land if ye like to sit at rest except ye would keep them for trying your patience as Socrates did an evil Wife The good King Charles found this Prophecy to be true for notwithstanding all the care that himself and Arch-bishop Laud who apprehended the approaching danger to suppress them in so much as that Mr. Baxter says in that 7. § That the old Non-conformists being most dead and the latter gone most to America we cannot learn that in 1640. there were many more Nonconformists Ministers in England than there be Counties if so many the Wolves be like had got on the Sheeps Cloathing and not being able to ruine the Church by open force seek to undermine it by secret Arts being got within the Pale In 37. says Mr. Baxter Arch-bishop Laud using more severity than formerly and the Visitations inquiring more after private Fasts and Meetings and going out of their Parishes to hear And in many Places Lectures and Afternoon Sermons being put down which was done only where Faction and Sedition were Sown and there Catechizing a much more useful exercise was injoyned in its room by these things and some other which he there mentioneth the minds of Men were made more jealous than before and fears and jealousies were made the grounds of the War the King and Arch-bishop being reported to be Popishly affected though they both as well in their Life time as at their Deaths gave irrefragable Arguments for the contrary sealing the truth of their Professions with their Blood And after the Imprisonment of some the stigmatizing of others and the removal of many beyond the Seas all which both many and some amounted not to above Three or Four whom though the Parliament received in Triumph and plentifully rewarded yet they found them to be turbulent Persons viz. Prin Burton and Bastwick for I hear not of any removed beyond the Seas by authority these were the causes of Alienating the peoples Minds from the Bishops and made them afraid of Popery more than before and so it is still any restraint from Faction is Condemned for Popery Mr. Baxter tells us there of another Intregue Then was the New Liturgy imposed on the Scots with other changes there attempted which were the resuming of some Lands belonging to the Church and Crown which had been Sacrilegiously withheld during a great part of King James and King Charles's Reign with the fear of losing the Tithes that some great Men there detained from the Clergy whereupon the Scots Armed and Invaded England and some English Lords saith Mr. Baxter took advantage to prevail with the King to call a Parliament once again And here doubtless was the beginning of the War the Scots and such English as were in confederacy and had agreed upon a Covenant for Reformation being the first Aggressors But let Mr. Baxter proceed The Irish observing it is like how the Scots thrived in their Rebellion on Oct. 23. 1641. rose and murdered 200000. Persons and Mr. Baxter is not ashamed to say the News was here reported that they said they had the Kings Commission just as much as the Parliament had to fight by his Authority against his Person whereupon the Parliaments Declarations raised in multitudes of the people a fear that they had partakers in England and when they had done their work there they would come hither And mark the consequence there was no way of safety but to adhere to the Parliament for their own defence i. e. to strengthen the War against the King And in 42. says he the lamentable Civil War broke out but between whom did the Bishops fight against the King or against one another or against the Parliament no such matter How began the War then Mr. Baxter says the Houses of Lords and Commons consisted of such as had been Conformists except an inconsiderable number Some number then were apparently Non-conformists and it seems they had infected many others for Mr. Baxter says they were such as had been Conformists they were not so when the War began and N.B. their fear of being over-powr'd by the Loyal party of whom they thought themselves in sudden danger caused them to countenance such Petitionings and Clamours of the Londoners Apprentices and others as we think disorders and Provocations of the King This doubtless was a beginning of the War of which see the Kings complaint in his Ch. of Tumults Mr. Baxter says farther the first open beginning was about the Militia which by an Act of Parliament is thus determined That the
unpunished Oxford Reasons p. 22. And the Speeches within Doors spake no less for Sir H. Martyn told them the Kings Office was forfeitable and that the happiness of the Kingdom depended not on him or any of the Royal Branches of that Stock Exact Collect. p. 552. and Sir H. Ludlow that he was not worthy to be King of England That this was the sense which their own Creatures had of the Covenant appears by the Answer of the Army to the Scots Declaration 1648. Who pleading that they had Covenanted for preservation of the King reply in a Paper Printed for Robert White before the Kings death That it was conceived to be absurd and hypocritical to swear the Preservation of the Kings Person as a Man and at the same time to be ingaged in a War against him and he in the Field And Mr. Marshal had said long before That if the King had been so slain it had been none of the Parliaments fault for he might have kept himself farther off if he pleased p. 19. of his Letter The same Man said in his Sermon Jan. 8. 1647. The question is now whether Christ or Anti-Christ shall be King And in a Sermon to the Mayor and Aldermen 1644. These are miserable and accursed men Factors for Hell Satans Boutefeus and as true zealots are set on fire from Heaven so these Mens Fire is kindled from Hell whither also it carrieth them Mr. Arrowsmith in a Sermon 1643. It is not a Kingdom divided against it self but one Kingdom against another the Kingdom of Christ against Anti-Christ So my Countryman John Bond told them they fought against Babylon Dagon and Anti-Christ and exhorted them to pull it down though like Samson they dyed with it In a Sermon 1644. Joseph Boden said they were fighting for the Lamb against the Beast Anno 1644. And Mr. Marshal in his Meroz I pray look on me as one that comes to beat a Drum in your Ears to see who will come out to follow the Lamb. This use the Covenanters made of that limitation defending the Kings Person in the preservation of Religion and you know who says p. 423. of the Holy Common-wealth We are to believe that Men would kill them whom they fight against And doubtless if His Majesty had perished in the War the guilt had lain not only on the Souldiers but chiefly on those that gave them their Commission The Author of Bounds and Bonds spake home at that time If by the Covenant you thought your selves indispensably bound to preserve the Royal Person how comes it to pass that you thought your selves obliged by the same Covenant to wage War against him I have heard of a distinction saith he between his Power and his Person but never between his Person and himself And if the Covenant would have dispensed with any Souldier of England or Scotland to kill his Person by accident of War as his Life was oft in danger before he came to the Scaffold his death had been violent and the Obligation to preserve him had ended and yet according to this argument the Covenant had not been broken why then should those Men think the World so dull as not to understand plainly enough that the Covenant provided for his death more ways than one 4. They that permitted such Pamphlets to be published without controle as declared the King to be a Tyrant Oxford Reasons p. 21. That judged his Actions to be illegal and his Declarations false and scandalous and his suggestions as false as the Father of lies could invent Exact Collect p. 494. That banished the Queen as a Traitor Imprisoned the Bishops in the Tower That held him to such unreasonable Articles and Propositions at Newcastle and Carisbrook as His Majesty declared he could not consent unto without devesting him of his Authority That rejected all his offers for peace And in January 17. 1647. Voted no more Addresses and that they could repose no more trust and confidence in him which was a year before they were secluded the House which by the Army was understood of their intention to proceed in Justice against him They who deprived him of all the Comforts of his Life his Wife and Children his Counsellours and Chaplains as if with an Italian hatred they would have destroyed his Soul as well as his Body These were they that did diminuere Caput Regis as the Civil Law speaks and they who afterward finding him thus bound and fettered defamed and condemned did obtruncare Caput Regis were but the others Executioners What action was more barbarous than that of the Scots selling their Native Prince that cast himself upon them to his declared and avowed Enemies after which he was hurried up and down from one Prison to another and inhumanly treated till he was forcibly taken from them Whoever shall compare the Declaration of the Scots when they Invaded England upon their Covenant with the actings of the High Court of Justice against His Majesty may see what Coppy they wrote after and whose Journy-men they were in bringing him to the Block whom they had pulled out of the Throne They were Roman Souldiers that actually Crucified our Saviour but we know who Sold him and how long the Chief Priests and Elders took Counsel against him Matth. 27.2 And St. Peter tells the Men of Israel Acts 2.23 Him have ye taken and with wicked hands Crucified though the Roman Souldiers did it There is this only difference between the Graves and the Prisons of Kings that in the Prisons they dye daily or are buried alive in the Grave they are at rest from all their fears and sorrows But to this it may be replied that these were not Presbyters properly so called though they were a Juncto of Presbyterians I would therefore have it considered whose Scholars these were who taught and animated them to these practices and upon whose principles they acted I could set down such maximes of the Consistorian Brethren as the Jesuites would blush to own but I shall forbear to foul my Paper with such Collections as I have among my Adversaria The Reader may satisfie himself usque ad nauseam if he observe what is Authentickly mentioned in His Majesties large Declaration in Bishop Bancrofts dangerous positions in Bishop Spotswood and the Writings of the several Presbyteries of Scotland in the result of false Principles the Calvinists Cabinet and which is instar omnium the Holy Common-wealth What fruit could such bitter Roots produce but Wormwood and Hemlock as indeed they did in every Furrow of our Fields It was said of Cato that he did good not that he might appear to be good but because he could not do otherwise and some Men do espouse such principles that if they Act according to them they cannot do any thing but what is notoriously evil What shall we say of Mr. Andrew Ramsey that Preached That it was Gods will that the Primitive Christians should confirm the Truth by suffering but now the Truth
howl over the Carcass because he could not devour him wholly Mr. Baxt. Whether it was not an Episcopal Parliament forty to one if not an hundred that began the War against the King Answ With what face can one that pretends to Truth say this when it is so notoriously known that till by a prevailing Faction in that Parliament the Bishops and the Loyal and Episcopal party were forced away nothing could be done against the King Mr. Baxt. Whether the General and Commanders of the Army Twenty to one were not Conformists Answ They had been such indeed but when they began the War they neither feared God nor honoured the King but made the Reformation of Religion the pretence of the War which as the Covenant shews was the abollishing of Bishops Liturgy c. Mr. Baxt. Whether the Major Generals in the Countries were not almost all Episcopal Conformists The Earl of Stamford was over your Country Answ Stamford I knew and one Baxter his Engineer but that he was either a Major General or a Conformist I never heard The first Major General that I knew in these parts was Desborough after that the Kingdom was Cantonized and I believe the Turkish Bashaws were as much Conformists as any of them Mr. Baxt. Whether the Admiral and Sea-Captains were not almost all Episcopal Conformists as Heylen distinguisheth them of Arch-Bishop Abbots mind disliking Arminianisme Monoplys c. Answ I suppose the Admiral and his Officers had well studied the points of Arminianisme when as Mr. Baxter that fought against them wrote for them in the judgment of his Brethren and as I have heard that Dr. Hammond said of him he was an Arminian too though he did not know it Mr. Baxt. Whether the Episcopal Gentry did not more of them take the Engagement and many Episcopal Ministers more than the Presbyterians Answ The King was dethroned before the engagement was imposed and if you drove any of the Episcopal party into that Snare I hope that as Peter for denying his Master they have repented of it and so are pardoned I wish I could say so much of the Covenanters Mr. Baxt. Whether the Arch-bishop of York were not the Parliaments Major-General Answ That he was a Traitor if he took any such Commission is no doubt and when among the Twelve there was one that sold his Master 't is not strange if there were one of Twenty four Bishops that betrayed his Liege Prince it was pitty that any Apostate Clergy-man should have an higer Office in that Army than Mr. Baxter but I think you did them more service as an Adjutant General than he as a Major General Mr. Baxt. Whether if this Parliament which made the Act for Uniformity and Conventicles should quarrel with the King it would prove them to be Presbyterians and Non-conformists Answ This is that which I know too many did expect and I hope they will never live to see it but if it should have happened I would say they had as much contradicted their principles and falsified their ingagements as Mr. Baxter had done almost Mr. Baxt. Whether the Presbyterian Ministers of London and Lancashire did not write more against the Regicides and Usurpers and declare against them than all the Conformists or as much Answ What they did against the Regicides was long after the King was dethron'd and so is not pertinent to the question yet I have somewhere read that the London Ministers about 59. in number as I remember in an endeavour to vindicate themselves from the Blood of the Royal Martyr Printed 1678. did say thus 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 was a Repentance somewhat like that of Judas when he had irrecoverably ruined his Lord and Master but he could not wash his hands from that innocent Blood Mr. Baxt. And the Long Parliament was forced and most of them cast out before the King could be destroyed Answ But not before the King was Actually dethroned and it was about Twelve Moneths before they were forced off by the Army that they Voted their Non-addresses Mr. Baxt. And when they were restored it made way for his Restoration Answ Surely they could not do it on your principles which assert that the King may be deposed nor are the Subjects afterward to trouble themselves for his Restoration nor is the injured Prince himself to seek his resettlement if the Common-wealth may prosper without him and so he is obliged to resign his Government and thus the people being free from any Obedience to him may chose another King or if not a Common-wealth may be pitcht on And had it been left to the Presbyterians to bring in the King on their Articles he had not been admitted to this day Mr. Baxt. And Sir Thomas Allen Lord Mayor and the City of London inviting General Monck from the Rump into the City and joyning with him was the very day that turned the Scales for the King Not forgetting that Mr. Baxter Preached to the Parliament as he often tells us the day before the King was Voted home Answ Sir Thomas Allen and the City did their duty Nobly and Worthily but what turned the Scales against the Rump that you reflect so upon that Rump which while it had a better name and a little more power though then its nakedness appeared sufficiently you prayed for it in these words May the Parliament be holy and this ascertained from Generation to Generation by such a necessary regulation of Elections as I have hereafter described and that all those that by wickedness have forfeited their Liberties may neither choose nor be chosen p. 14. 15. And again That they were sworn and sworn and sworn again to be faithful to and to defend them and that they were the best Governors in all the World and such as it is forbidden Subjects to oppose upon pain of Damnation So that I conclude whoever restored this King for which let God have all the praise I still affirm it was a Juncto of Presbyters that dethroned his Royal Father This may suffice concerning the third and fourth part of the Accusation of destroying the King and disloyal principles The Fifth That they are plotting a Rebellion to which Mr. Baxter forgat to make any defence Only he thought it his duty to give this account of their principles as far as they are known to him Where First he seems rather to defend than disclaim his Political Aphorisms though he desires the Book may be taken as Non scriptus This will not satisfie If he be of another Judgment now he ought to have undeceived his party by confuting those dangerous principles whereas he rather continueth to practise them still But what I Judge undeniable saith Mr. Baxter I here declare Now let the Reader go on
from these words until he come to the period where he says As I have here described the Judgment of such Non-conformists as I have Conversed with I do desire those that seek our blood and ruine by the false accusation of Rebellious principles to tell me if they can what body or party of Men on Earth have more sound and Loyal principles of Government and Obedience And if any person can extract any such principles within all that period I will say he hath turn'd Mr. Baxter's Whetstone into the Philosophers Stone He says indeed we are all bound if it be possible and as much as in us lyeth to live peaceably and follow peace with all men But how have they followed this principle We have he saith many years beg'd for peace of those that should have been the Preachers and wifest promoters of peace and cannot yet obtain it nor quiet them that call for fire and sword not knowing what spirit they are of This is the Presbyterian way of Petitioning for Peace to rail against their Superiours charging them with persecution fire and sword and asserting that there can be no peace until the Laws for Conformity be all reversed the Bishops Authority and the Kings too in Ecclesiastical affairs taken away the Liturgy exchanged for Mr. Baxters new Directory as he hath at large declared in the first part and such a desolation as this they call peace solitudinem volunt pacem vocant He says the Declaration about Ecclesiastical affairs telleth us that the King would have given the people peace Answ And there were a sort of men whom the King for peace sake desired to read only so much of the Liturgy as was beyond exception and they would not did not these tell the World they would have no peace but victory So true it is as Mr. Baxter says with unpeaceble Clergy-men no Plea no Petition no not of the King himself could prevail but the things that have been are and the Confusions of our age come from the same causes and sorts of men as the Confusions in former ages did for which we need not go to Mr. Baxters Church History the Men and methods of 41. and 42. are well nigh revived They told His Majesty in their second Paper for Peace That if he would grant their desires it would revive their Hearts to daily and earnest Prayers for his Prosperity But what if he deny them Then p. 12. it astonisheth us to foresee what doleful effects our Divisions would produce which we will not so much as mention in particular lest our words should be misunderstood And it is obvious enough to whom they would apply that passage p. 117. of their reply to the Exceptions As Basil said to Valens the Emperour that would have him pray for the Life of his Son If thou wilt receive the true Faith thy Son shall live which when the Emperour refused he said the Will of the Lord be done So we say to you if you will put on Charity and promote peace God will honor you but if you will do contrary the Will of the Lord be done with your honors Amen say I Let them fall into the hands of God who is still exceeding gracious to them and not into the hands of such cruel men who have War in their Hearts while they Petition for Peace And will Mr. Baxter still demand what party of Men on Earth have more Loyal Principles Our English Papists who as Mr. Baxter grants adhered to the King would be offended if I should say they that fought against the King were more Loyal than they who with Lives and Fortunes fought for him dares he compare with the Church of England who lived and died and rose again with their King to the great regret and envy of those Men I will not say only that the Primitive Christians but even the Old Greeks and Romans had better Principles than any you practise by and will rise up in Judgment against such a Generation How vainly do you inquire what Hottoman or Bodin have written Consider the Precepts of our great Lord and the Practice of the Primitive Christians for the first 600. years and how night the true Members of the Church of England followed those Principles and Examples for Twenty years together and how far the Presbyterians Acted contrary to them and then convince the World whether the party you Boast of or these were most Loyal But Mr. Baxter demands Must this Age answer for their Fathers deeds what is all this to the present Non-conformists Answ If they follow the deeds of their Fathers we cannot deny them the reputation of being their Children who without controversie begat and Nurtured them And though I have not the opportunity to ask those Noble Lords and Gentlemen whom Mr. Baxter names concerning the Conformity of their Fathers yet I can give you their Sense and the Opinion of the whole Nation concerning the behaviour of their Children who have as great a mind to begin a second War And take it in the best English Dialect i. e. in the Acts of Parliament And first in the Act against Conventicles 16. Car. 2di N. 2. For providing of further and more speedy remedies against the growing and dangerous practice of Seditious Sectaries and other disloyal persons who under pretence of tender Consciences do at their meetings contrive insurrections as late experience hath shewn c. And in the Oxford Act they say of those that Preach in unlawful Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings under colour or pretence of the Exercise of Religion contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom have settled themselves in divers Corporations of this Kingdom three or more in a place thereby taking opportunity to distill the poysonous principles of Schisms and Rebellion into the hearts of His Majesties Subjects to the great danger of the Church and Kingdom c. Now how little difference there is between such Seditious tumults and meetings the late Rebellion in Scotland doth demonstrate where the chief Masters of those Assemblies Preached an Evangelium Armatum and having in cold Blood barbarously murthered the most Reverend Arch-Bishop drew many Thousands into the Field and would have done the like by the King himself had he been in their power as by their Declarations we may guess I do not accuse their Brethren of England of Rebellion the Parliament says their actions tend to it and that is Tantamount to a Plot. Sedition and tumults open and professed disobedience to the Laws adhering to a Rebellious Covenant refusing the Tests of Obedience which require only the disclaiming of Rebellious Principles and Practices Preaching and Printing what is actually Seditious and tends directly to Rebellion and all this when our Parliament hath declared that there is an horrid Plot on foot for the destroying of the King and established Religion to the latter whereof you are avowed Enemies this may draw at least a suspition on you that you are in the Plot whether
Prognostication and some other of Mr. Baxters Books among the Almanacks for 1661. In perpetuam Rei oblivionem A FAREWEL TO Mr. Baxter IN the Preface to your late Book of Concord you desire That if you erre they to whom you write would faithfully detect your errour that you may repent before you die and may leave behind you a Recantation of all your mistakes and miscarriages as you say you intend to do upon Conviction You confess that by our differences Satan hath got great advantage in England against that Christian Love which is the Life and Character of Christs Disciples and to cause Wrath Envy Hatred and Strife that the honour and success of the Ministry is thereby hindered The Wicked and Infidels are hardned the weak scandalized the Papists incouraged to despise us all and many turn to them scandalized by our discord Sects are advantaged the Church and Kingdom by Division weakned and the King denyed the comfort which he might have in a loving united and Concordant people Now I beseech you lay your hand upon your heart and consider whether your actions and writings have not notoriously contributed to these mischiefs You confess that you were one that blew up the Coals of our unhappy Divisions and that if you had been for the King you had incurred the danger of Condemnation you gave several intimations that the King was Popishly affected as Bishop Bramhal affirms you incouraged great numbers to that War many of which perished in it You applauded the grand Regicide as one that prudently piously and faithfully to his immortal honour did exercise the Government you have since the establishment incouraged and defended separation notwithstanding you did sometime seem to oppose it And now at last you proclaim the terms of our Communion to be such as have increased an impossibility of Conforming And why may I not now expostulate with you as you do with those whom you thought guilty of the like evil p. 14. of your answer to Bagshaw Is it possible for any sober Christian in the World to take them to be blameless or those to be little sins what both the violating the person and the Life of so good a King and the change of the fundamental Government or Constitution and the Armies force upon the Parliament which they promised Obedience to the making their General Protector The making an instrument of Government themselves without the people The setting up their second Protectour The setting up the remnant of the Commons again the pulling them presently down again of whom he said that they had sworn and sworn and sworn again to be faithful to and to defend them and that they were the best Governours in all the World and such as 't is forbidden Subjects to oppose upon pain of damnation Was all this lawful and to do all this with dreadful appeals to God and as for God If all this was not Rebellion or Treason or Murder is there any such crime think you possible to be committed are Papists insulting over us in our shame are thousands hardned by these and such like dealings into a scorn of Religion are our Rulers exasperated by all this into the severities which we feel are Ministers silenced by the occasion of it are we made by it the by-word and hissing of the Nations and the shame and pitty of all our friends and yet is all this to be justified or silenced and none of it at all to be openly repented of I openly profess to you that till this be done we are never like to be healed and restored and that it is heinous gross impenitence that keepeth Ministers and people under their distress And I take it for the sad Prognostick of our future Woe and at best our lengthned affliction to read such writings against Repentance and to hear so little open profession of Repentance even for unquestionable heinous crimes for the saving of those that are undone by these scandals and for the Reparation of the honour of Religion which is most notoriously injured to see Men still think that their Repentance is the dishonour of their party and cause whose honour can no other way be repaired to see Men so blind as to think that the silencing of these things will hide them as if they were not known to the world That man or party that will justifie all those heinous crimes and still plead Conscience or Religion for them doth grievous injury to Conscience and Religion I have told you truly that Gods way of vindicating the honour of Religion is for us by open free Confession to take all the shame to our selves that it be not injuriously cast upon Religion And the Devils way of preserving the honour of the godly is by justifying their Sins and pleading Religion for them that so religiousness it self may be taken for Hypocrisie and wickedness as maintaining and befriending wickedness And p. 12. Is Repentance an unbecoming thing I hope the Act of Oblivion was not made to frustrate Gods Act of Oblivion which giveth pardon to the penitent doth it forbid us to repent of sin or to perswade our Brethren to repent where sin is hated Repentance will not be hated and if sin were as bitter as it must be Repentance would not be bitter if I was guilty of such sins as you affirm I do openly confess that if I lay in Sack-cloth and in Tears and did lament my sins before the world and beg pardon both of God and Man and intreat all Men not to impute it to Religion but to me and to take warning by my fall which had done such unspeakable wrong both to Christ and Men I should do no more than the plain light of nature assureth me to be my great and needful duty p. 17. Now all that Bagshaw accused Mr. Baxter of was p. 1. That he was as guilty of stirring up and fomenting that War as any one whatever concerning which if we take his own Confession and consider his circumstances being an Episcopal Ordained Minister whose Office was to Preach Obedience and Peace his applauding the first Boutefeus as glorious Saints in Heaven his vindicating the Authority and War of the Parliament against the King his pertinacious adhering to the Covenant crying down the Royal Martyr as a Papist after he had sealed the sincerity of his heart to the Reformed Religion by his blood and the crying up of his Murtherer for a prudent pious and faithful Governor His principles in his Holy Common-wealth and his present practices in defending Schism and so sowing Sedition and reproaching the established Laws and Government in Church and State if these do not prove him guilty of what Mr. Bagshaw accused him yet I am sure they cry aloud for his Repentance and Retractations which he once promised the world p. 26 27. of his Defence of the Principles of Love but never that I hear of hath been so ingenious to perform as he ought It is an ill diversion for such a