<!DOCTYPE ETS PUBLIC "-//UMDLPS//DTD EEBOPROOF 2.0//EN">
<ETS>
<TEMPHEAD>
<REVDESCR>
<CHANGE>
<DATE>2011-11-03</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Holly (Beeman) Smith</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM> Checklist: x Add TEMPHEAD, change DATE, validate x Add DIV TYPEs, validate x Review structure, use TEXT, FRONT, BODY, BACK or rarely GROUP x Check PB placement and completeness, ensure sequence of N="" x Proof title page(s) x Check HEAD TRAILER ARGUMENT EPIGRAPH OPENER SALUTE CLOSER SIGNED BYLINE x Check ^, oe, abq, italic I / J, _Initals, &amp;c. x Check # @ -- UNCLEAR LB FIGURE x Check E&s;q; by searching ABBR x Check q; startq endq Q&#62; x Check &punc; (if several, search [[:alpha:]]&punc;[[:alpha:]] w / regular expression checked) x Check for capital U in black letter (should be V) x Check ligatures if in blackletter &abper; &abpro; &abus; &abquod; &absed; &abser; &abcon; &abrum; &abis; and any miscellaneous ABBR's x Check GAPs x Correct illegibles from proofsheet x Correct errors from proof sample x Check illegible page, para, line, span, word, dollar signs x Final validate and check Corrected [ ] illegible groups out of [ ]. Converted [ ] illegible groups to GAP DESC="illegible". DONE</ITEM>
</CHANGE>
</REVDESCR>
</TEMPHEAD>
<EEBO>
<IDG S="marc" R="UM" ID="A94086">
<STC T="W">S6060</STC>
<STC T="T">E1841_2</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99868495</BIBNO>
<VID>170450</VID>
</IDG>
<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P><HI>MALICE REB&V;KED,</HI> OR A CHARACTER OF Mr. <HI>Richard Baxters</HI> ABILITIES. AND A VINDICATION OE THE Honourable Sr. HENRY VANE FROM HIS ASPERSIONS in his <HI>Key for Catholicks.</HI></P>
<P>As it was &s;ent in a Letter formerly to Mr. <HI>D.R.</HI> and is now printed for the publike Satisfaction.</P>
<P><HI>By HENRY STUBBE of</HI> Ch. Ch. <HI>in</HI> Oxon.</P>
<Q><BIBL><HI>Prov. 12.19.</HI></BIBL>
<P>The lip of truth &s;hall be e&s;tabli&s;hed for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment.</P></Q>
<P><HI>LONDON,</HI> Printed in the Year MDCLIX.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="to the reader">
<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD>READER,</HEAD>
<P><HI>I</HI> Know many per&s;ons will be apt to cen&s;ure this en&s;uing piece, as being too <HI>virulent,</HI> con&s;idering the di&s;parity of <HI>years, repute,</HI> and that <HI>calling</HI> in which <HI>Mr. Baxter</HI> lives. I profe&s;&s;e I have no <HI>per&s;onall quarrell</HI> with the man, nor have I read more of his workes then I was nece&s;&s;itated unto for the penning of this letter: he &s;hould &s;till have en|joyed his <HI>ill-founded e&s;teem,</HI> if it had not been <HI>abu&s;ed</HI> to the preju|dicy of the <HI>Good old cau&s;e,</HI> and the <HI>Common-wealths-men:</HI> I have followed an <HI>example</HI> of his own giving, and it were not fitting that <HI>Court-para&s;ites</HI> &s;hould be wore
<PB REF="3"><HI>forward</HI> and <HI>&s;ervent</HI> to <HI>en&s;lave</HI> us, then we to defend our Liberty. As I <HI>voluntarily</HI> engaged in a vindica|tion of the Honourable <HI>Sr. Henry Vane,</HI> &s;o be&s;ides the <HI>re&s;entments of Gratitude</HI> which I have for his many favours, I brought with me tho&s;e of a more <HI>generall concerne:</HI> and I make it my mo&s;t humble re|que&s;t to that <HI>Honourable per&s;o|nage,</HI> if I have fallen into any mi&s;-becoming tran&s;ports in a di&s;cour&s;e wherein <HI>his name</HI> was mentioned, that he would not interpret my <HI>zeal</HI> and <HI>ardour</HI> for the publique, as a <HI>dimini&s;hing</HI> of that <HI>re&s;pect</HI> which is due to him from <HI>me</HI> and <HI>all the VVorld.</HI></P>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="letter">
<PB N="1" REF="3">
<OPENER><SALUTE>Sir,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>_I Could wi&s;h the &s;ubject of this letter could yeeld you more diverti&s;ement then the pre&s;ent po&s;ture of our Affaires will permit, and that I might en|tertain you with a <HI>plea&s;ing</HI> as well as <HI>nece&s;&s;a|ry</HI> di&s;cour&s;e. The <HI>Age</HI> wherein <HI>we live</HI> hath been all Miracles; and the coming forth of the <HI>Woman</HI> out of the <HI>Wilderne&s;s</HI> hath been attended with &s;o many wonders, that a <HI>pious heart</HI> can never want Employ|ment in its contemplations. <HI>We</HI> have &s;een and our eyes bear witne&s;s to the Actings of our <HI>God,</HI> the overturning of a <HI>Monarchy</HI> &s;etled upon the foundation and <HI>u&s;age</HI> of many hundreds of years, &s;trenthened by what <HI>humane policy</HI> could contribute to it's e&s;tabli&s;hments, and what of <HI>buttre&s;&s;e</HI> a <HI>com|plying Clergy</HI> could a&s;&s;i&s;t it with, out of the <HI>Pulpit:</HI> yet have <HI>we</HI> &s;een a <HI>change</HI> &s;o brought about by our <HI>Jehovah,</HI> that he may in ex|traordinary, acknowledgements be pro|claimed, <HI>Wonderfull, Coun&s;ellour the mighty God, the Everla&s;ting Father, Prince of peace.</HI>
<PB N="2" REF="4">We have &s;een the <HI>mo&s;t glorious cau&s;e</HI> in the World accompanied with no le&s;&s;e <HI>&s;ucce&s;&s;e,</HI> and the Lord in his <HI>mercy</HI> to us, and <HI>ju&s;tice</HI> to them, <HI>Hath bound our King in chaines, and Nobles in fetters of iron,</HI> &s;uch as where|with they had formerly oppre&s;&s;ed the <HI>good people</HI> of this land. <HI>This honour have all his Saints;</HI> (P&s;. 149. v. 9.) Vengeance hath he returned upon their heads, and their own &s;hame hath covered them. The <HI>true anointed ones</HI> of the Lord have appeared, for <HI>their &s;akes</HI> hath he <HI>rebuked Monarchs,</HI> and the <HI>former</HI> have reaped the fruits of that <HI>Holine&s;s</HI> and <HI>Sacriety,</HI> whereunto the <HI>latter</HI> vainly pretended. But Sr. to our no &s;mall di&s;couragement after &s;uch expence of <HI>blood</HI> and <HI>trea&s;ure,</HI> after &s;uch high <HI>di&s;|putes</HI> and <HI>conte&s;ts</HI> in the field, after &s;o many <HI>prayers</HI> and <HI>teares</HI> &s;hed, and that we were in hopes to &s;ee our &s;elves (in a literall &s;en&s;e) no longer <HI>aliens from the Common-wealth of I&s;rael,</HI> but enjoying tho&s;e <HI>Liberties, Spiri|tuall,</HI> and <HI>Civill,</HI> into which the Lord had enfranchi&s;ed us; that <HI>God</HI> who had &s;ecured us from the <HI>malice</HI> of our <HI>foes,</HI> and broken their violence, hath occa&s;ioned our &s;tum|bling by <HI>counterfeit friends;</HI> and <HI>fal&s;e-hearted brethren</HI> have almo&s;t reduced us in|to <HI>Egypt,</HI> to the <HI>hou&s;e of bondage,</HI> after all our endeavours for &s;uch immunities, as, when we thought our &s;elves <HI>po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed</HI> of them, we did not &s;ufficiently <HI>improve.</HI> The&s;e things to a <HI>Cato,</HI> to a &s;pirit acted onely by <HI>Gallen|try,</HI>
<PB N="3" REF="4">would be in&s;upportable; and a <HI>Soul</HI> a|gitated onely with the concerns of the <HI>Na|tural man</HI> in his <HI>grandeur,</HI> would not out live. But <HI>we have not &s;o learned Chri&s;t:</HI> we know it is God's u&s;uall way to endear his favours to his children, by heightning their <HI>Expectation,</HI> and profering onely at fir&s;t that wherein he will afterwards en&s;tate them. When <HI>I&s;rael</HI> began to think <HI>Cana|an</HI>-wards <HI>Pharaoh's</HI> taskma&s;ters &s;aid the <HI>people</HI> were <HI>idle,</HI> and thereupon they en|crea&s;ed their oppre&s;&s;ions: when the <HI>gene|rous Engli&s;h</HI> put on thoughts of <HI>Liberty,</HI> and claimed their priviledges in <HI>Spirituall</HI> and <HI>Civill</HI> intere&s;ts; it was objected that <HI>riches</HI> and <HI>ea&s;e</HI> had made them rebellious; our <HI>Parliaments</HI> became di&s;continued, the <HI>Court</HI> employed their utmo&s;t Artifices to rein|troduce a <HI>Va&s;&s;allage:</HI> but after that <HI>pro|vidence</HI> had di&s;engaged us from tho&s;e in|cumbrances, and that we were upon our way to <HI>Freedom</HI> by the help and conduct not of one <HI>Mo&s;es,</HI> but many <HI>illustrious per|&s;onages,</HI> who&s;e <HI>Memory</HI> &s;hall live when that of <HI>Thra&s;ybulus, Timoleon, Epaminondas, Brutus, Valerius</HI> or any worthies <HI>Greece</HI> or old <HI>Rome</HI> could ever boa&s;t of, &s;hall <HI>cea&s;e</HI> to be mentioned. When we were upon the way to <HI>freedom</HI> and <HI>happine&s;s,</HI> when we were within &s;ight of the <HI>Cape of good hope,</HI> after a perillous voyage thorough an <HI>Ocean</HI> of blood: then it befell us, as it did the <HI>I&s;raelites</HI> after they had ca&s;t off <HI>Pharaoh's</HI>
<PB N="4" REF="5">yoake, and pa&s;&s;ed the <HI>red &s;ea</HI> under the protect on of God vi&s;ibly appearing in their behalf, the <HI>Spies</HI> brought an <HI>ill report</HI> upon the land, <HI>Corah, Dathan,</HI> and <HI>Abiram</HI> muti|ned, (men que&s;tionle&s;&s;e, of extraordinary Endowments, and <HI>pretenders to &s;anctity</HI>) the&s;e created divi&s;ions, <HI>Aaron</HI> together with <HI>Miriam</HI> murmured, and &s;uch confu&s;ion up|on &s;undry occa&s;ions aro&s;e, that what might have proved a journey of a <HI>few days,</HI> was protracted 40 Years, and tho&s;e men who had been in&s;trumentall in bringing the peo|ple out of <HI>Egypt,</HI> and felt the comfort of the vi&s;ible pre&s;ence of God, and had eaten <HI>Monnah,</HI> all the&s;e <HI>lo&s;t</HI> their <HI>workes</HI> (if not them&s;elves) and after much wandring and travaile <HI>two onely</HI> of them (though their <HI>children</HI> lived to enjoy what their <HI>Fathers</HI> had the <HI>promi&s;e</HI> of) entred into <HI>Canaan.</HI> Sr. Our ca&s;e hath been parallell to tho&s;e accidents, and we may therein read the grounds of our Confidence, that thorough a <HI>re&s;emblance</HI> of events the <HI>&s;ame providence</HI> operateth now in us, which did of old, and we expect the <HI>&s;ame i&s;&s;ue,</HI> though (I hope) &s;o farre bettered, that a <HI>greater number</HI> &s;hall enjoy the benefit of their fir&s;t intend|ments, then did formerly in the wilder|ne&s;s. Truly, I am nothing di&s;couraged at tho&s;e emergencies, tho&s;e di&s;orders, and that lo&s;&s;e which we are at; I a&s;&s;ure my &s;elf the&s;e are but the <HI>pangs</HI> of that <HI>birth</HI> in which we &s;hall at la&s;t with joy cry out, <HI>A
<PB N="5" REF="5">man-child is born:</HI> and not the paines at|tending a fal&s;e conception, a dead of-&s;pring, or &s;uch as whereto there <HI>wants strength</HI> to <HI>bring forth.</HI> God will not <HI>loo&s;e</HI> his <HI>own mercies,</HI> and all is but as the wandrig <HI>Jews</HI> in the <HI>de&s;ert,</HI> or as the <HI>going back</HI> of the <HI>&s;un</HI> upon the dyall of <HI>Ahaz</HI> ten degrees, which was a <HI>&s;igne</HI> of <HI>recovery</HI> to di&s;con&s;olate and langui&s;hing <HI>Hezechiah.</HI> But though I am confident of the <HI>finall i&s;&s;ue</HI> of things, that the <HI>pri&s;oners of hope</HI> &s;hall receive double &s;atisfaction, and the <HI>ran&s;omed of the Lord &s;hall return, and come to <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1+ letters">ion with &s;ongs, and everla&s;ting joy upon their heads; they &s;hall obtain joy, and gladne&s;s, and &s;orrow and &s;ighing &s;hall flee away:</HI> However the&s;e may be my thoughts, yet I &s;uppo&s;e I may ju&s;tly be afflicted for the attempts of &s;uch as la|bour to rein&s;lave us. Shall I &s;ay onely, <HI>re|in&s;lave</HI> us, and put upon our necks the <HI>former yoake.</HI> No, Sr. we are not &s;o little ver&s;ed in the World, as to ignore, that <HI>New Go|vernments,</HI> though <HI>Good,</HI> create advantages <HI>for after-times,</HI> and not tho&s;e <HI>wherein they are erected;</HI> but &s;uch as are <HI>bad</HI> threaten all with <HI>perpetuity</HI> of misfortunes, unle&s;&s;e <HI>God</HI> be more <HI>mercifull</HI> then <HI>man</HI> is <HI>wi&s;e.</HI> Per|&s;wa&s;ions now are of that Nature, as if they &s;hould bid us, not returne to <HI>Go&s;hen,</HI> but the mo&s;t <HI>di&s;mall parts</HI> of <HI>Egypt,</HI> rather then proceed on to our <HI>Felicity.</HI> Nay this is not all which my &s;oul regrets (though to re|cede from <HI>Engagements, Remon&s;trances, De|clarations</HI>
<PB N="6" REF="6">and <HI>Prote&s;tations,</HI> to <HI>for&s;ake</HI> that <HI>providence</HI> to &s;light tho&s;e mercies which we implored with tears, be things meriting our highe&s;t re&s;entments, and the con&s;e|quences whereof may involve, not the <HI>Actours</HI> alone, but &s;uch as <HI>afflict their righte|ous &s;ouls</HI> for the &s;ins of <HI>Sodom;</HI> and they who are <HI>&s;trangers</HI> to their <HI>crimes participate</HI> often in the puni&s;hments of the wicked, as <HI>Elijah</HI> &s;uffered by the famine, though <HI>Ahab and his Father's hou&s;e troubled I&s;rael</HI>) cer|tainely we ought all to lay it to Heart, That the <HI>Ambitious</HI> ones of the&s;e times are not content to render others <HI>mi&s;erable,</HI> (by depriving them of, or endangering them in their Liberties and fortunes) unle&s;&s;e they can make them <HI>criminall</HI> to: and &s;ince the <HI>integrity</HI> of our <HI>Patriots</HI> is &s;o well <HI>known,</HI> that <HI>Envy</HI> it &s;elf can fa&s;ten no <HI>real imputa|tion</HI> upon them, they mu&s;t be blemi&s;hed with <HI>&s;urmi&s;es</HI> and imaginations, and what is <HI>defective</HI> in the <HI>proofe</HI> of the <HI>charge,</HI> the <HI>Authority</HI> of tho&s;e that divulge it, mu&s;t &s;upply. I could in&s;tance in many per&s;ons of <HI>&s;uch worth,</HI> that this Age may blu&s;h they are not in <HI>greater dignities,</HI> to which they would give a <HI>lu&s;tre</HI> rather then receive any thence them&s;elves: (It was a <HI>complaint</HI> of the wi&s;e man, <HI>an evill under the &s;un,</HI> and <HI>an errour,</HI> that <HI>folly &s;hould be &s;et in great digni|ty, and the rich &s;it in lowe place,</HI> that <HI>&s;ervants were upon hor&s;es, and Princes walked as &s;er|vants upon the Earth.</HI> How much more
<PB N="7" REF="6">ought we to be aggrieved to &s;ee the mo&s;t <HI>pious</HI> and <HI>prudent</HI> coun&s;ellours outed, and di&s;graced, and men of <HI>different qualificati|ons</HI> advanced?) yet the&s;e men are a&s;per&s;ed and vilified thoroughout the Nation, and by an uncouth barbarity they are a&s;&s;a&s;&s;ina|ted in their reputes, and who&s;e <HI>names</HI> &s;hould be as <HI>pretious ointments powred forth,</HI> the&s;e are repre&s;ented as <HI>&s;uch</HI> which <HI>dead flies have infected with a &s;tinking &s;avour.</HI> But their <HI>implacable malice</HI> hath di&s;covered it &s;elf again&s;t no man &s;o much, as the Ho|nourable Sr. <HI>Henry Vane,</HI> one whom not to have <HI>heard</HI> of, is to be a <HI>&s;tranger</HI> in this land; and not to <HI>honour</HI> and <HI>admire,</HI> is to be an <HI>Enemy</HI> to all that is <HI>good</HI> and <HI>vertuous:</HI> One, who&s;e <HI>integrity,</HI> who&s;e <HI>uprightne&s;s</HI> in the greate&s;t employments hath &s;ecured him from the effects of their Hatred, (veiled with ju&s;tice) in whom his <HI>&s;incere piety, Zeal for the publick,</HI> and <HI>&s;ingular wi&s;dom</HI> may have rai&s;ed <HI>envy</HI> and <HI>dread.</HI> Again&s;t him have they &s;et them&s;elves, him have they damnified in his E&s;tate, prejudiced in his Liberty, and laboured to di&s;grace unto the people of his native countrey; but finding the <HI>Court-artifices</HI> to fail, and that his <HI>inocence</HI> was not &s;o to be prevailed upon, they have at length incen&s;ed the Pulpit again&s;t him, and made u&s;e of Mr. <HI>Richard Baxter's</HI> pen to &s;erve their ends.</P>
<P><HI>Sr. Henry Vane</HI> publi&s;hed (in 1655) a book called, <HI>The retired mans meditations,</HI> in
<PB N="8" REF="7">which he hath di&s;covered the mo&s;t glorious Truths that have been <HI>witne&s;&s;ed</HI> unto the&s;e 1500 years and more, in a manner as ex|traordinary. I mean not in the <HI>per&s;wa&s;ive words</HI> of humane wi&s;dom, not in the <HI>&s;o|phi&s;try</HI> of School-learning, not as the <HI>Scribes</HI> and <HI>Phari&s;ees,</HI> but <HI>as one having Authority,</HI> and in the <HI>evidence</HI> and <HI>demon&s;tration of the Spirit:</HI> in that Booke (upon which none hitherto hath animadverted but Mr. <HI>Finch,</HI> who had never yet found a name in the World, but by the e&s;teem of his Adver&s;ary) he hath layed down this po&s;ition: That <Q><HI>the My&s;tery of iniquity working in men of a le|gall con&s;cience, is the Magi&s;trates entermed|ling with Chri&s;ts power over the judgments of men.</HI></Q> Upon which &s;aying that may &s;erve for a paraphra&s;e which is layed down by the &s;ame Author in his <HI>Healing Que&s;tion,</HI> where &s;peaking of <HI>freedom to be exerci&s;ed and en|joyned in matters of religion, or that concern the &s;ervice and wor&s;hip of God,</HI> He &s;aith, <Q><HI>&V;nto this freedom the Nations of the World have right and title by the purcha&s;e of Chri&s;t's blood; who by vertue of his death and re&s;urrection is become the &s;ole Lord and ruler in and over the con&s;cience; for to this end Chri&s;t died, ro&s;e, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living; and that every one may give an account of him&s;elf, in all matters of God's wor&s;hip, unto God and Chri&s;t alone, as their own Master, unto whome they &s;tand or fall in judgement, and are not in the&s;e things to be oppre&s;&s;ed, or
<PB N="9" REF="7">brought before the judgement &s;eats of men. For why &s;hould&s;t thou &s;et at nought thy Bro|ther in matters of his Faith and con&s;cience, and herein intrude into the proper office of Chri&s;t, &s;ince we are all to &s;tand before the judgement-&s;eat of Christ, whither Governors or Governed, and by his deci&s;ion onely are capable of being declared with certainty, to be in the right, or in the wrong?</HI></Q></P>
<P><Q>By <HI>vertue then of this &s;upream law, &s;ealed and confirmed in the blood of Chri&s;t unto all men (who&s;e &s;oules he challenges a propriety in, to bring under his inward rule in the &s;ervice and wor&s;hip of God) it is that all Magi&s;trates are to fear and forbear inter|medling with giving rule or impo&s;ing in tho&s;e matters. They are to content them&s;elves with what is plain in their commi&s;&s;ion, as or|dained of God to be his Minister unto men for good, while&s;t they approve them&s;elves the doers of that which is good in the &s;ight of men, and whereof earthly and Wordly judicatures are capable to make a clear and perfect judg|ment, in which ca&s;e the Magistrate is to be for prai&s;e and protection to them. In like manner he is to be a Mini&s;ter of terrour and revenge to tho&s;e that doe evill in matters of outward practi&s;e, conver&s;e, and dealings in the things of this life between man and man, for the cau&s;e whereof the judicatures of men are appointed and &s;et up. But to exceed the&s;e limits, as it is not &s;afe, nor warrantable for the Magistrate (in regard he who is higher
<PB N="10" REF="8">then the highe&s;t, regards, and will &s;hew him|&s;elf di&s;plea&s;ed at it) &s;o neither is it good for the people, who hereby are nouri&s;hed up in a biting, devouring, wrathfull &s;pirit one a|gain&s;t another, and are found tran&s;gre&s;&s;ors of of that Royall law which forbids us to doe that unto another, which we would not have them doe unto us, were we in their condition.</HI></Q></P>
<P>This <HI>tenderne&s;s</HI> of Sr. H. V. might have been entertained with <HI>le&s;&s;e oppo&s;ition,</HI> at lea&s;t <HI>rage,</HI> then it hath yet found in the &s;pirits of many. I never reflect thereon, but me|thinks I &s;ee <HI>Stephen praying</HI> for them that <HI>&s;toned</HI> him; and admire a <HI>Charity</HI> &s;o <HI>diffu&s;ive</HI> as not to compri&s;e onely <HI>friends</HI> but even <HI>enemies:</HI> a <HI>love</HI> beyond that of <HI>Publicans,</HI> towards them which <HI>hate, de&s;pitefully u&s;e,</HI> and <HI>per&s;ecute:</HI> in fine, a <HI>perfection</HI> like that of our <HI>Heavenly Father,</HI> who (be&s;ides that he <HI>makes</HI> them &s;o) <HI>endureth with much long &s;uffering the ve&s;&s;ells of wrath fitted for de|&s;truction,</HI> though he wont not <HI>power,</HI> though his <HI>knowledge</HI> by <HI>infallibly di&s;cerning,</HI> and his <HI>ju&s;tice</HI> in <HI>puni&s;hing,</HI> both would be <HI>un|que&s;tionable:</HI> He <HI>knoweth who are his,</HI> yet doth he <HI>tolerate in</HI> [his] <HI>great hou&s;e not only ve&s;&s;els of Gold, and &s;ilver, but al&s;o of wood and earth, and &s;ome to honour, &s;ome to di&s;ho|nor.</HI> But Mr. <HI>Richard Baxter,</HI> Mr. <HI>Richard Baxter teacher of the Church at Kedermin|&s;ter,</HI> Mr. <HI>Richard Baxter a Catholick Chri&s;ti|an, and pa&s;tour of a Church of &s;uch at Keder|min&s;ter,</HI> Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> Envoy from heaven,
<PB N="11" REF="8">and <HI>Emba&s;&s;adour of Chri&s;t</HI> (as he calls him|&s;elf in the Dedicat <HI>of Saints everla&s;t. Re&s;t</HI>) he cannot endure this <HI>Tenet,</HI> this <HI>compa&s;&s;io|nate, tender</HI> and <HI>peaceable frame of &s;pir it.</HI> From this <HI>Candid principle,</HI> and which al|lowed Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> the <HI>liberty</HI> of his <HI>&s;enti|ments,</HI> hath he taken an occa&s;ion [in a late infamous Libell, if &s;o great a <HI>farce</HI> may be &s;o termed, called a <HI>Key for Catholiques</HI>] to decry the <HI>Vani&s;ts</HI> with &s;uch language as may ju&s;tly de&s;erve that reply of <HI>Michael</HI> to the <HI>devill,</HI> THE LORD REBUKE THEE. But, however this may be an <HI>An&s;wer</HI> &s;uita|ble to the <HI>Christian temper</HI> of Sr. H. V. and the <HI>quality of the per&s;on</HI> he hath to do with: yet becau&s;e &s;everall <HI>weake ones</HI> may be <HI>be|trayed</HI> into an <HI>ill opinion</HI> of that <HI>Honourable per&s;onage</HI> thorough that generall [though <HI>undue</HI>] e&s;teem which Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> hath gain|ed <HI>in the World</HI> for <HI>Learning, judgement</HI> and <HI>moderation,</HI> whereby <HI>innocence</HI> may be <HI>di&s;tre&s;&s;ed</HI> and <HI>railing</HI> become <HI>hallowed;</HI> I &s;hall vindicate Sr. H. V. from the reproa|ches of this <HI>Philistim,</HI> or <HI>Shimei,</HI> or <HI>Rab|&s;hakeh,</HI> and defend that <HI>invidious A&s;&s;ertion,</HI> but you mu&s;t fir&s;t give me leave to premi&s;e a <HI>character</HI> of the man, <HI>As the man is, &s;o is his strength.</HI></P>
<P>I cannot give you any account of the <HI>Birth</HI> or <HI>Education</HI> of Mr. <HI>Richard Baxter,</HI> but I think I may &s;ay that he either <HI>never</HI> was at any <HI>&V;niver&s;ity,</HI> or made <HI>little stay</HI> there, nor took any <HI>Degree;</HI> (unle&s;&s;e the late per|&s;wa&s;ions
<PB N="12" REF="9">of &s;ome may have prevailed with him, who apprehended &s;omething of worth in him, and were &s;en&s;ible how great a detri|ment might ari&s;e if <HI>Qualifications</HI> without <HI>univer&s;ity degrees</HI> &s;hould capacitate one for the <HI>Ministry</HI> in our days) in a Time when <HI>ignorance,</HI> or <HI>terrour,</HI> or <HI>both,</HI> had taken off the <HI>Ministers</HI> of this Nation from oppo&s;ing tho&s;e called <HI>Anabaptists,</HI> then <HI>He</HI> tooke oc|ca&s;ion to <HI>&s;ignalize him&s;elf</HI> by an <HI>intricate Di&s;pute</HI> with hone&s;t Mr. <HI>Tombes,</HI> and the <HI>Act</HI> being <HI>plau&s;ible</HI> the <HI>performance</HI> was thought <HI>great.</HI> Since that time he hath <HI>ag|grandized</HI> him&s;elf <HI>in the World,</HI> and wan|ting not <HI>confidence</HI> to print what made for the <HI>interest of others,</HI> he knew <HI>he</HI> could not faile of the <HI>applauds</HI> of &s;uch as (however they might di&s;cover his weakne&s;s) were <HI>concerned,</HI> nor of the <HI>reall admiration</HI> of &s;uch as could not <HI>di&s;cerne.</HI> I am a <HI>stranger</HI> to his <HI>life,</HI> and report &s;peaks not much to his di&s;advantage, nor is he <HI>wanting</HI> to his <HI>own prai&s;es.</HI> Whatever become of the pre|cept, <HI>let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth,</HI> he in <HI>&s;everall</HI> of his <HI>works</HI> ac|quainteth us with his <HI>charitablene&s;s</HI> to the <HI>poore,</HI> and his care for the <HI>&s;ick</HI> to whom he admini&s;ters <HI>Phy&s;ick.</HI> Not that this <HI>&s;ucce&s;|&s;our of the Apostles, delegated by the &s;ame com|mi&s;&s;ion, Anoints them with oyle, and &s;o heales them:</HI> or cures them as he walks by vertue of his <HI>&s;hadowe;</HI> nor doth he di&s;tribute <HI>hand-kerchiefes:</HI> but all (as I am told) is
<PB N="13" REF="9">atchieved by <HI>looch &s;anum</HI> and a <HI>liquori&s;h &s;tick,</HI> or <HI>Ga&s;coines powder,</HI> &amp;c. Yea in his <HI>&s;aints everla&s;ting re&s;t</HI> he is no le&s;&s;e tire&s;ome with the recitall of his <HI>infirmities</HI> and indi&s;|po&s;ition; then is <HI>Balzac</HI> or <HI>Voiture</HI> in their letters, with the <HI>Colick,</HI> and <HI>feavour.</HI></P>
<P>As for his <HI>learning</HI> the account he gives of him&s;elf is to have &s;pent much time in read|ing over the <HI>Fathers,</HI> (of who&s;e <HI>u&s;e</HI> or rather <HI>inutility</HI> read <HI>Daille</HI>) the <HI>Schoole-men</HI> (an up&s;tart &s;tudy unknown to the purer times, modelled &amp; profe&s;&s;ed by that Order which now manageth the <HI>Inqui&s;ition,</HI> and was at fir&s;t erected for the &s;uppre&s;&s;ing the truth in the <HI>Abbigen&s;es</HI> (and <HI>Philo&s;ophers,</HI> &s;uch as if the <HI>Apo&s;tle</HI> had not <HI>Authori&s;ed</HI> us to call <HI>Vaine,</HI> their <HI>own writings</HI> would) How much he hath benefited in the&s;e &s;tudies <HI>he</HI> hath endeavoured to give the World an ac|count in a multitude of books, which he <HI>voides</HI> continually: <HI>Joachimus Fortius,</HI> who was re&s;olved to write <HI>a booke every yeere</HI> while&s;t he lived, was but a <HI>&s;light pretender</HI> in compari&s;on to Mr. <HI>Baxter's</HI> works. And what <HI>Henry the fourth,</HI> King of <HI>France,</HI> &s;aid of <HI>King James,</HI> that <HI>he was a fine King and wrote pretty little bookes:</HI> this makes up but a part of Mr. <HI>Baxters</HI> commendations, he writes not onely <HI>&s;ingle &s;heets,</HI> and <HI>little bookes,</HI> but <HI>large volumes.</HI> This <HI>tedious impertinent</HI> having run thorough the u&s;uall method of <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> controverti&s;ts, now a&s;&s;umes the fa&s;hion of the <HI>Dutch,</HI> and that our countrey|men
<PB N="14" REF="10">may have &s;omething of <HI>novelty</HI> in his papers, they who are in love with a <HI>lowe|dutch dre&s;&s;e,</HI> may have recour&s;e to Mr. <HI>Bax|ters di&s;putations</HI> at <HI>Kedermin&s;ter:</HI> yea he out-goeth his pattern, for theirs are di&s;|putes managed in <HI>vniver&s;ities,</HI> but the&s;e <HI>Ke|dermin&s;terian di&s;putations</HI> have onely Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> for <HI>Pre&s;ident,</HI> Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> for <HI>re&s;pondent,</HI> Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> for <HI>Opponent:</HI> Thus I have &s;een &s;ome play at <HI>&s;hittle-cock</HI> managing their <HI>battle|doores</HI> in their <HI>right</HI> and <HI>left</HI> hands: Thus children play by them&s;elves at <HI>Cards:</HI> thus the mad-man in <HI>Horace</HI> imagined him&s;elf at the <HI>Roman &s;ports, in vacuo &s;e&s;&s;or plau&s;or|que Theatro.</HI> But for &s;uch as admire the man and buy his books, for who&s;e &s;akes the <HI>price</HI> is printed on the <HI>title-page,</HI> or at the <HI>end,</HI> at three farthings a &s;heet; though that rate be not extraordinary for <HI>one</HI> or <HI>two</HI> books, yet they had need of faire e&s;tates that are in a po&s;&s;bility of buying according to the Quotient in the Revelations, <HI>Ten thou&s;and times ten thou&s;and, and thou&s;ands of thou&s;ands of &s;heets.</HI> God Almighty thought it &s;ufficient to give us <HI>one booke,</HI> (if I may &s;o call it) and that &s;uch as <HI>to make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furni&s;hed to all good works:</HI> But Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> affordes us <HI>more,</HI> not <HI>furni&s;hing men to all good works,</HI> (unle&s;&s;e <HI>railing</HI> and <HI>uncharitablene&s;s</HI> doe that) and of that value, that one may <HI>cheaper</HI> buy the <HI>Bible</HI> that TRVE SAINTS EVERLASTING REST, then Mr. <HI>Bax|ter's</HI>
<PB N="15" REF="10">FALSE one. He one told us, That, <Q><HI>he judged tho&s;e Tostatus's impudently proud, who think the World &s;hould read no bodie's works but theirs:</HI> yet for ought I can &s;ee <HI>To&s;tatus</HI> will be but a <HI>puny &s;cribler</HI> to him.</Q> It was a pretty peice of <HI>Drollery</HI> in our <HI>Il|lustrious Romanci&s;t,</HI> to de&s;ire Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> to fi|ni&s;h his <HI>Saints everlasting rest,</HI> which he mi&s;takeing for a <HI>complement,</HI> po&s;&s;ibly upon <HI>that ground</HI> may have created the <HI>Saints</HI> (that have <HI>lei&s;ure-time</HI> from the <HI>&s;incere word of God,</HI> and <HI>hours</HI> for which they are not <HI>accountable</HI>) more <HI>trouble.</HI> His works are &s;tuffed with <HI>Citations</HI> and <HI>&s;chool-notions</HI> and <HI>un&s;etling debates,</HI> yet he cannot but know, that the <HI>Judicious</HI> hold no part of <HI>Theology,</HI> or <HI>&s;chola&s;ticall deductions</HI> to be matter of <HI>faith:</HI> which A&s;&s;ertion if it were as <HI>candidly</HI> owned among&s;t <HI>Prote&s;tants,</HI> as it is <HI>ingenuou&s;ly</HI> profe&s;&s;ed among&s;t <HI>Papists,</HI> our <HI>faith-confe&s;&s;ions</HI> would be much <HI>&s;horter,</HI> and the number of <HI>Hera&s;ies</HI> without a <HI>per&s;ecution</HI> &s;oone abate Whither he hath read all the books he quoteth, I know not, but the <HI>fal&s;e names of Authors</HI> (not recorded a|mong&s;t the <HI>errata</HI>) makes his dealing <HI>&s;u&s;|picious.</HI> In his <HI>Metaphy&s;icks</HI> he hath &s;o pro|fited, that he hath incurred manifold re|proofes thereupon, as (for example) he hath been charged with <HI>high bla&s;phemy</HI> a|bout the <HI>immanent Acts of God:</HI> from which <HI>tenet common rea&s;on</HI> would have acquitted him; as <HI>ordinary skill</HI> in <HI>reall philo&s;ophy</HI>
<PB N="16" REF="11">would have &s;hewed him the <HI>ridiculou&s;ne&s;s</HI> and fal&s;ity of his <HI>&s;imile</HI> of the <HI>Looking-gla&s;|&s;es.</HI> I cannot in&s;i&s;t long upon the&s;e things, it being not my de&s;ign to Catalogue Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> errours, but to give you a <HI>&s;ample</HI> of his proficiency in tho&s;e cour&s;es he hath ta|ken: and oblige my <HI>credit</HI> unto you, that I &s;hall upon any warning furni&s;h you with &s;uch an <HI>after-reckoning,</HI> as will make good my opinion of him. As for <HI>Church-Herory</HI> I &s;hall by and by tell you that he under&s;tands not <HI>Greeke,</HI> and &s;o is not likely to have any <HI>perfection</HI> or <HI>a&s;&s;urance</HI> in that, or <HI>Chronology:</HI> judge of his skill however therein by his de|claiming again&s;t <HI>democraticall Government,</HI> which notwith&s;tanding was the Govern|ment of <HI>Christian a&s;&s;emblies</HI> till the people were deprived of their <HI>votes:</HI> and which was the Government of <HI>I&s;rael</HI> in&s;tituted by <HI>God him&s;elf,</HI> be&s;ides, in his <HI>Key,</HI> &amp;c. p. 330. he maketh the <HI>Je&s;uites</HI> to <HI>&s;pawn</HI> the doctrine of <HI>Liberty of con&s;cience;</HI> which is as ab|&s;ur'd, as that <HI>Serarius</HI> call'd <HI>Herod</HI> a <HI>Machi|avellian: I</HI> &s;hall have occa&s;ion el&s;ewere to &s;hew how it is the doctrine of primitive Chri&s;tians: now let it &s;uffice that <HI>S<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1+ letters"> H. Vane</HI> is not more full in his judgment then <HI>Constantine the great,</HI> nor doth he in&s;i&s;t up|on any <HI>other practi&s;e</HI> then what was the <HI>de|cree</HI> and <HI>u&s;age</HI> of that <HI>Emperour.</HI> If <HI>Eu&s;ebi|us</HI> had not written in <HI>Greek</HI> I &s;hould referre Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> to him in his life of <HI>Constantine</HI> lib. 2. c. 5.59. The <HI>Heathens</HI> had in his time their
<PB N="17" REF="11"><HI>expen&s;es of publick &s;acrifices</HI> defrayed out of the <HI>trea&s;ury,</HI> and their <HI>Temples</HI> [though not all, yet mo&s;t] <HI>openly</HI> were <HI>frequented;</HI> their <HI>Sophi&s;ters</HI> were <HI>maintained</HI> by the <HI>pub|lick pur&s;e:</HI> they were employed in places of tru&s;t, and dignity; <HI>civill</HI> and <HI>military:</HI> and all this not onely in the time of <HI>Con|&s;tantine</HI> but even till <HI>Ju&s;tinian's</HI> time in great part, as <HI>Procopius</HI> in his <HI>&s;ecret history</HI> tells us. <HI>Theodo&s;ius</HI> did indeed refu&s;e to <HI>defray</HI> the &s;acrifices of the <HI>Heathens</HI> out of the publick trea&s;ury, yet even in his time the <HI>Senate</HI> were generally <HI>pagans,</HI> and un|till the time of <HI>Gratian</HI> (if not after) it was the cu&s;tom of the <HI>Flamines</HI> or <HI>Heathen Priests</HI> to pre&s;ent the new <HI>Emperour</HI> (though <HI>Chri&s;tian</HI>) with a <HI>Stole</HI> or <HI>Pontificall garment,</HI> &s;o that they had not onely a <HI>toleration,</HI> free and open, but even the <HI>Emperours</HI> were <HI>Chri&s;tian Emperours,</HI> but <HI>Heathen Priests.</HI> Thus you &s;ee, what others think would in|troduce <HI>Heatheni&s;me,</HI> this was the cour&s;e that brought in and e&s;tabli&s;hed <HI>Chri&s;tianity.</HI> But the&s;e things being to be fetched out of <HI>Greek</HI> authours, I forgive Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> his ig|norance thereof, and onely tell him that the <HI>great &s;ouldier and eminent prote&s;tant Mon&s;ieur La Nove</HI> was of no other judgment then Sr. H. V. as one may read in his di&s;|cour&s;es; and that <HI>Po&s;&s;evin</HI> the <HI>Je&s;uite</HI> wrote again&s;t him for it.</P>
<P>As for his skill in <HI>languages</HI> it is &s;o mean that I am amazed to &s;ee him quoted by the
<PB N="18" REF="12">name of <HI>learned.</HI> The <HI>Syriack,</HI> the <HI>Arabick,</HI> both which are of great u&s;e for under&s;tand|ing the <HI>Scripture</HI> (of which you may read in Mr. <HI>Beveridge's</HI> di&s;cour&s;e of the Ea&s;tern tongues) upon the vulgar <HI>Analy&s;is</HI> of faith, of the&s;e I may &s;uppo&s;e him <HI>totally</HI> ig|norant. His skill in <HI>Hebrew</HI> is <HI>as little:</HI> Mr. <HI>Robert&s;on</HI> hath &s;aid &s;o much upon this &s;ubject in a particular book, that I &s;hall not urge it: onely tell you that <HI>two</HI> or <HI>three days</HI> &s;tudy in that tongue would have pre|vented &s;ome of his mi&s;takes; and <HI>one moneths</HI> diligence would have corrected &s;uch <HI>lap&s;es</HI> as are not to be <HI>excu&s;ed,</HI> or <HI>endured.</HI> Dare he <HI>boa&s;t</HI> unto the World, what time he hath &s;pent in <HI>impertinencies,</HI> and yet be ig|norant of that which is almo&s;t the <HI>unum ne|ce&s;&s;arium</HI> in his function! There is not that <HI>Quaker,</HI> or mo&s;t <HI>fanaticall &s;ectarian</HI> (whom he &s;o undervalues) but can ground his <HI>truthes</HI> upon the <HI>true ver&s;ion,</HI> and his <HI>errours</HI> upon the <HI>mistakes</HI> of our <HI>Engli&s;h tran&s;latours.</HI> Of this you will be much more convinced, when I &s;hall a&s;certain you he is no better at <HI>Greeke</HI> then other tongues; weigh him in any <HI>ballance</HI> and you will finde him <HI>light.</HI> I &s;hall not run over all his works, but at|tacque the mo&s;t renowned <HI>Olio</HI> of <HI>practicall</HI> and <HI>Schoole-Divinity</HI> (the latter of which is apt to create <HI>everla&s;ting di&s;putes</HI> rather then <HI>rest:</HI> and made no part of the <HI>rest</HI> of the <HI>primitive,</HI> whither <HI>Chri&s;tians</HI> or <HI>Anti|chri&s;tians</HI>) I meane his <HI>Saints everla&s;ting re&s;t.</HI>
<PB N="19" REF="12">In this book I ob&s;erve he cites other Au|thours at large in their originall <HI>Latin</HI> and <HI>Engli&s;h,</HI> but with the <HI>Greeks</HI> he deals not &s;o. <HI>Ju&s;tin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, Atha|na&s;ius, Laertius,</HI> the&s;e are cited either in <HI>En|gli&s;h</HI> or <HI>Latine.</HI> A man &s;o <HI>ambitious</HI> to &s;tuff his <HI>Margin,</HI> cannot be thought to have <HI>de|clined</HI> this out of <HI>mode&s;ty,</HI> which he <HI>ought</HI> to <HI>have done</HI> out of <HI>nece&s;&s;ity,</HI> &s;ince in <HI>rationall</HI> di&s;cour&s;es other proofs are not allowed then which are fetched out of the tongue in which the Authour wrote. To evince this more, he hath adventured &s;ometimes to checquer his booke with <HI>Marginall</HI> Greeke words, though but &s;eldome, as p. 74. there are placed two <HI>Greek</HI> words out of <HI>Polycarp,</HI> to no purpo&s;e that I can imagine, but to let men &s;ee Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> is not igno|rant of <HI>Greeke;</HI> p. 118. There &s;tands a Greeke word <GAP DESC="foreign">, with an animadver&s;ion that <HI>women &s;hall not ri&s;e again in their own Sex,</HI> which is a thing <HI>improbable,</HI> I would &s;ay <HI>fal&s;e,</HI> if all the <HI>philo&s;ophy</HI> I have, together with colourable texts of Scripture were a ground for &s;uch peremptorine&s;s. p. 551. you have Greeke quoted out of <HI>Ignatius,</HI> but it is onely to di&s;grace <HI>our Army,</HI> viz. that <HI>&s;ouldiers are Leopards,</HI> and <HI>the more they are favoured and regarded, the wor&s;e.</HI> But he hath &s;o be&s;patter'd the <HI>Army</HI> pub|lickly in his <HI>Key,</HI> &amp;c.
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Key for Catholi|ques, p. 319.</NOTE> that I may forgive him this reflection, but I hope they will not pardon him that: &s;o much lying and in|&s;olence
<PB N="20" REF="13">de&s;erves to be taken notice of, and they who have re&s;ented, the di&s;graces thrown upon the famous <HI>long Parliament;</HI> they who have avowed the puni&s;hment of the late <HI>King</HI> to have been condigne; they who have complained of <HI>catalogues</HI> being &s;catter'd abroad of &s;uch as tried him, they in ju&s;tice ought to demand exemplary &s;a|tisfaction from Mr. <HI>Richard Baxter,</HI> who hath dealt with them more bitterly and unde&s;ervedly, then all the virulent pam|phlets put together, which have come out fine the&s;e wars. But to proceed? p. 105. there Mr. Br. makes &s;ome &s;hew of learning in a pa&s;&s;age out of <HI>Ignatius,</HI> which too was not greatly materiall to any bu&s;ine&s;s he was then upon, but yet had &s;omething of <HI>Novelty</HI> in it according to Mr. <HI>Baxter's</HI> judgment. Viz. that <HI>Ignatius</HI> &s;hould call his <Q><HI>condemnation to Martyrdome</HI> the DAMNA|TION of the devill, <HI>becau&s;e his judges were but the Devills mouth and in&s;truments.</HI> Fire, the Cro&s;&s;e, cutting off, &s;eparating, break|ing of my bones, rending of my members, de&s;truction of my whole body, and the damnation of the Devil (<GAP DESC="foreign">) let them all come upon me, &s;o I but de|&s;erve to obtain Chri&s;t.</Q> Ignar. ep. ad. Rom. p. 86. edit. U&s;&s;er. Indeed Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> will find that he hath receded very much in this text from the minde of <HI>Ignatius:</HI> he might have excu&s;ed him&s;elf by the <HI>Latin ver&s;ion</HI> which he follows, but that the inter|mixture
<PB N="21" REF="13">of the <HI>Greeke</HI> deprives him of that excu&s;e. The words are, <GAP DESC="foreign">. It is pretty how Mr. Br. was put to it in this &s;entence, <GAP DESC="foreign"> is interpreted in the lattin <HI>belluarum con|&s;tantia;</HI> out of this Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> could not frame any meaning and therefore omitted it in his Engli&s;h: it &s;ignifies either a <HI>collection of wilde beasts</HI> for the devouring men, as the <HI>Roman</HI> cu&s;tom was; or a <HI>letting them loo&s;e to fight over the prey;</HI> and &s;o alludes to the <GAP DESC="foreign"> of the ancients, or <HI>fighting with beasts;</HI> to which malefactours, and &s;everall <HI>Martyrs</HI> were condemned. <GAP DESC="foreign"> the&s;e are not well rendred cutting off, &s;epa|rating: but the Latine had it, <HI>Ab&s;ci&s;&s;io, &s;e|paratio:</HI> the former &s;ignifies a <HI>cutting up by beginning from the bottom of the belly:</HI> (as <HI>Eustathius</HI> &s;omewhere expounds the word) and the later &s;ignifies a <HI>cutting in two,</HI> or <HI>in the middle;</HI> as the prophet <HI>I&s;aiah</HI> is &s;aid to have been <HI>&s;awed in two.</HI> So <GAP DESC="foreign"> is not <HI>breaking the bones,</HI> but the Latine had <HI>confractio o&s;&s;ium,</HI> it was the <HI>&s;cattering of the bones</HI> (or a&s;hes thereof) after that the <HI>body</HI> had been <HI>devoured</HI> or <HI>burned.</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign"> is not the <HI>de&s;truction of the body,</HI> but it was in his tran&s;lation <HI>interitus totius cor|poris.</HI> It &s;ignifies nothing but onely a <HI>re&s;t|le&s;s jactation,</HI> or <HI>inquietude of the body when one tumbles and to&s;&s;es.</HI> The word is an u&s;uall
<PB N="22" REF="14">medicinall term, and Mr. Br. &s;hould not be &s;o little read in <HI>Hippocrates,</HI> as not to know the meaning of it,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">It is an Allu&s;ion to <GAP DESC="foreign">, 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 3.6. where <HI>Cal|vin</HI> ob&s;erves it to be taken <HI>pa&s;|&s;ively</HI> not <HI>actively.</HI></NOTE> and that one might be under &s;uch a <HI>re&s;tle&s;ne&s;&s;e</HI> without the <HI>de&s;truction of the body.</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">, is not the <HI>damnation</HI> but <HI>puni&s;hment of the devill,</HI> viz. <HI>angui&s;h of mind,</HI> or <HI>ejectment out of Heaven:</HI> but his tran&s;latour deceived him, there he found <HI>damnatio diaboli.</HI> As for that <GAP DESC="foreign"> it &s;ignifies only <HI>that I may gain Christ,</HI> not <HI>that I may de|&s;erve to obtain him:</HI> but he read in the &s;ame place, ut <HI>Chri&s;tum merear adipi&s;ci.</HI> In &s;um, upon peru&s;all of the place I find no induce|ment why I &s;hould put Mr. <HI>Baxter's</HI> inter|pretation upon <HI>Ignatius:</HI> he expre&s;&s;es in mo&s;t pa&s;&s;ionate terms his love and Zeal for Chri&s;t, and his defire to be with him: he wi&s;hes to be, <HI>devoured by bea&s;ts,</HI> and pro|fe&s;&s;eth he is ready upon occa&s;ion to force them to tear him: then addes, <Q><HI>let me be con&s;umed with fire,</HI> crucified, <HI>torne by wilde bea&s;ts, &s;la&s;hed or cut in pieces,</HI> let <HI>my bones be &s;catterd abroad:</HI> [the&s;e were puni&s;h|ments u&s;ually inflicted upon malefactours and Martyrs]</Q> <HI>let my limbs be &s;eiz&s;ed with aches</HI> [for I think <GAP DESC="foreign"> is the &s;ame with what phy&s;icians call <GAP DESC="foreign">, but he having u&s;ed the word <GAP DESC="foreign"> before, did de|cline that phra&s;e afterwards] <HI>let a re&s;tle&s;|ne&s;&s;e po&s;&s;e&s;s my whole body,</HI> [the&s;e are not
<PB N="23" REF="14">effects of extrin&s;ick violence in puni&s;hing, but of corporall indi&s;po&s;ition] <HI>and the pu|ni&s;hment of the devill</HI> [this refers to afflicti|ons of mind] <HI>let all this come upon me &s;o I may gain Chri&s;t,</HI> This is all he &s;ays, and neither in what precedes, or follows, does he leave any ground for Mr. <HI>Br's.</HI> a&s;&s;ertion, that <HI>Ignatius</HI> calls his <HI>condemnation to Mar|tyrdom</HI> the <HI>Damnation of the Devill, his judges being the Devills mouth and instru|ments.</HI> For &s;uch his opinion I find no proof, but the deceit of a fraudulent interpreter, to whom if he had remitted us, all the&s;e errours (of &s;o many in &s;o little a compa&s;s you &s;hall hardly find a man guilty of, though of never &s;o mean parts) had not been imputed to his ignorance, which yet no le&s;&s;e di&s;covers it &s;elf (and with more danger to his <HI>Auditours</HI> and <HI>readers</HI>) in his &s;cripturall interpretations: I &s;hall in|&s;tance in one or two, that you may &s;ee however he may not in his <HI>devotions &s;erve an unknown God,</HI> yet in his di&s;putes he ur|geth an <HI>unknown word of God,</HI> as Mr. <HI>Ro|bert&s;on</HI> ob&s;erved in his <HI>Old-te&s;tament</HI> mi&s;|&s;takes. In his <HI>&s;econd &s;heet</HI> for the <HI>Mini&s;try,</HI> he urgeth for the perpetuity of the Mi|ni&s;teriall office (which, if I had lei&s;ure, I would evidently &s;hew how he hath over|thrown it) Matth. 28. v. 20. <HI>loe I am with you alway, even to the end of the World</HI> This text &s;eems indifferently clear (in Engli&s;h) and to give ground to Mr <HI>Baxter's</HI> in&s;ulta|tion
<PB N="24" REF="15">viz. <Q>To this EXPRESSE promi&s;e <HI>Clem. Writer</HI> had no WISER an an&s;wer, but that <HI>[it is conditionall; if they teach all things that Chri&s;t hath commanded them, then he will be with them el&s;e not]</HI> Repl. This is your FORGERY: here is no &s;uch words, but an ABSOLUTE promi&s;e. His being with them is to &s;upport and help them in their work; and will you feign Chri&s;t to promi&s;e them help on conditi|on they do it without?</Q> But notwith&s;tand|ing this confidence of Mr. <HI>Richard Baxter,</HI> there is <HI>not any &s;uch thing</HI> in the <HI>Text</HI> as he lays down, and the <HI>London Mini&s;ters.</HI> And in the &s;econd place <HI>Clem. Writer's</HI> an&s;wer participates neither of that folly, nor for|gery, with which Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> pre&s;&s;eth him. It is evident, that <HI>Chri&s;t &s;pake</HI> to his <HI>eleven di&s;ciples onely:</HI> that he intended any more, cannot be proved, or &s;aid without addition to the written word: Nay, &s;ince that Commi&s;&s;ion is admitted by the <HI>Harmoni&s;ts</HI> to be the &s;ame with that in Mark 16. v. 15. It is certainly per&s;onall, &s;ince tho&s;e that are to be converted by the preaching of tho&s;e commi&s;&s;ioners to whom Chri&s;t &s;pake, and to believe, &s;everall <HI>&s;ignes were to follow them,</HI> which <HI>are not</HI> now, nor <HI>have been</HI> the&s;e <HI>many years</HI> vi&s;ible. Furthermore, The text &s;aith not, I <HI>am with you alway, even un|to the end of the World.</HI> But either, <HI>Behold I am with you all the days</HI> [or time] <HI>untill the end of this Age</HI> Or, <HI>I am with you all</HI>
<PB N="25" REF="15">[your] <HI>days untill the end of</HI> [your] <HI>life.</HI> Upon any occa&s;ion but this, which is a di&s;|pute of intere&s;t, the words <HI>[for ever]</HI> (though it be a pa&s;&s;age onely of the En|gli&s;h ver&s;ion] &s;hould have been interpre|ted by the &s;ubject &s;poken of; as where it is &s;aid, the &s;ervant, who&s;e ear was bored, &s;hould &s;erve for ever. Exod. 21.6. Deut. 15.17. I have not &s;een any divine argue thence (as Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> doth here) that he &s;hould live for ever, or that he mu&s;t needs have &s;ucce&s;&s;ours to verifie &s;o EXPRESSE and ab&s;olute a command: but that <HI>as long as he lived &s;o long he &s;hould &s;erve;</HI> which is a man's <HI>for ever.</HI> The word in the <HI>Septua|gint</HI> there, is the &s;ame that here, and I could inform Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> that <GAP DESC="foreign"> in Scripture [<HI>Ezech.</HI> 26.] &s;tands onely for the term of 70. years; and in other writers commonly for 100. or 110, as corre&s;ponding to the latin, <HI>Seculum.</HI> If any &s;hall object that the text doth not contain the words [your days] nor <HI>end</HI> of [your] <HI>life.</HI> I an&s;wer, that it is u&s;uall for <HI>Divines</HI> interpreting Scripture to repeat &s;uch pronounces <GAP DESC="foreign"> as they call it, or from the pa&s;&s;ages fore|going or &s;ub&s;equent in the &s;ame &s;entence: I could in&s;tance in &s;undry places, but I will give you a <HI>parallell</HI> one out of the <HI>Septua|gint.</HI> Deuter. 6. v. 24. <GAP DESC="foreign">. Sr. you may judge of this expo&s;ition, and &s;ee how much more <HI>facile</HI> and <HI>naturall</HI> it is to <HI>repeat</HI> the pro|noune,
<PB N="26" REF="16">then to in&s;ert [your &s;ucce&s;&s;ours] I &s;hall now come to that which I fir&s;t alled|ged, viz. I <HI>am with you all the time untill the end of this age.</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign"> I will not begge the lea&s;t addition or glo&s;&s;e to make out this: read it without a comma after <GAP DESC="foreign">, and the article <GAP DESC="foreign"> cannot be ju&s;tly denyed to be <HI>Emphaticall</HI> and determine the promi&s;e (&s;o expre&s;&s;e! &s;o ab&s;olute!) to the <GAP DESC="foreign">, which is again re&s;trained by the arti|cle <GAP DESC="foreign">. Now I would fain know, &s;ince &s;uch articles are in the <HI>writing,</HI> and <HI>Sermons</HI> of <HI>divines</HI> &s;o often made <HI>Emphaticall,</HI> why I may not be allowed to make it &s;o here? Is there <HI>a ballance and a ballance?</HI> God hates that. Shall we have different <HI>weights</HI> and <HI>mea&s;ures,</HI> one for the <HI>commonalty,</HI> and ano|ther for the <HI>Sanctuary.</HI> If you read it with a <HI>comma</HI> after <GAP DESC="foreign">, the latter words art <HI>exegeticall,</HI> and (after the accu&s;tomed dia|lect of the Scripture) explain the prece|dent. Give me leave to digre&s;&s;e a little in way of illu&s;trating this interpretation. <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> being to depart, gives his Apo&s;tles their <HI>Commi&s;&s;ion,</HI> and telleth them what they mu&s;t doe: They mu&s;t <HI>teach all nations,</HI> &amp;c. <HI>go into all the World</HI> (Marc. 16. <HI>v.</HI> 15.) and <HI>&s;hould be witne&s;&s;es to him both in Sama|ria and Jeru&s;alem, and all Judea, and unto the uttermo&s;t parts of the earth.</HI> This was a great work, and incumbred with many difficulties; per&s;ecution, Scoffs, yea death
<PB N="27" REF="16">it &s;elf was likely to be their portion. He had told them (Math. 24.) what was to &s;uc|cede upon their preaching, that he came not to &s;end <HI>peace,</HI> but a <HI>&s;word,</HI> that they &s;hould be hated by them without, betrayed by them within, oppo&s;ed by fal&s;e Chri&s;ts, finally, that they &s;hould fall under &s;o <HI>great</HI> a <HI>tribulation, as had not happened from the beginning of the World to that time, nor ever &s;hould be again</HI> Math, 24.21. Marc. 13.19. Luc. 21.22. &amp;c. And this An&s;wer he had given them upon an occa&s;ionall que&s;tion Math. 24. v. 3. The di&s;ciples asked him privately, Ma&s;ter <HI>what &s;hall be the &s;igne of thy coming,</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">; <HI>and of the end of the World?</HI> The words are the <HI>&s;ame</HI> with tho&s;e <HI>now</HI> controverted: and you may in the ch. 24. read an an&s;wer to that query, what is, as well as <HI>what &s;hall be the &s;ignes of the end of the World?</HI> I &s;hall not &s;tay to prove that <HI>Chri&s;ts</HI> an&s;wer is to be under|&s;tood of the <HI>destruction of Jeru&s;alem,</HI> and o|verthrow of the <HI>Jewi&s;h polity, Jan&s;enius</HI> and Dr. <HI>Hammond</HI> have done that for me. In the recitall of the&s;e <HI>afflictions</HI> he foretells them, we find frequent mention of the <HI>con|&s;ummation</HI> (as the <HI>vulgar</HI> calls it) or <HI>End.</HI> Math. 24. v. 6. <HI>but the end is not yet.</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">. he might have &s;aid (and it is evi|dent from the <HI>que&s;tion</HI> that he meant) <GAP DESC="foreign">. And v. 14. <HI>then &s;hall the end come</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">. In the <HI>Syriack</HI> (which language our <HI>Saviour</HI> &s;pake in) not onely
<PB N="28" REF="17">(as in the <HI>Greeke</HI>) is there the &s;ame com|mon expre&s;&s;ion for the <HI>end of the World,</HI> but where the <HI>Greeke</HI> differenceth <GAP DESC="foreign"> and <GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>that language</HI> doth not. It is &s;aid al&s;o (and there is the like allu&s;ion in the <HI>Syriack</HI>) that, <GAP DESC="foreign">, &amp;c. Matth. 10.23. <HI>ye &s;hall not have gone over</HI> [or <HI>fini&s;hed] all the cities of I&s;rael till the &s;on of man be come.</HI> It is true in this la&s;t place, he &s;ends them out <HI>onely</HI> to <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> but his prediction of their being <HI>per&s;ecuted</HI> &s;o <HI>&s;ore|ly</HI> agrees with his iterated <HI>prophecy,</HI> Matth. 24. we <HI>neither</HI> read that they were <HI>per&s;ecu|ted</HI> in that <HI>voyage,</HI> nor doe we find that <HI>Chri&s;t came to them,</HI> but <HI>they to Chri&s;t.</HI> From the&s;e con&s;iderations, I &s;uppo&s;e that the <HI>A|postles,</HI> who had heard of what was like to be their <HI>lot</HI> and <HI>portion</HI> when the <HI>bride|groom</HI> &s;hould be <HI>taken away:</HI> the&s;e children of the <HI>bridegroom</HI> (being not <HI>over-confident</HI> in Chri&s;t's promi&s;es, nor <HI>over-well-skilled</HI> in go&s;pell-my&s;teries; as he that reads the pa&s;&s;ages after <HI>Christ's re&s;urrection,</HI> and the <HI>question</HI> they propo&s;ed to him at his <HI>a&s;cen&s;i|on,</HI> Act. 1.6. may ea&s;ily judge) might be &s;orrowfull and troubled, as they had been at the di&s;cour&s;es made in <HI>John,</HI> being pre|vious to his <HI>departure,</HI> and withall, it is probable, that they might weigh <HI>their abi|lities,</HI> the <HI>greatne&s;s of the work,</HI> and the <HI>difficulties</HI> and <HI>dangerous</HI> attending, it which [to humane appearance] were likely to be <HI>greater</HI> then they could go thorough with,
<PB N="29" REF="17">and bear up again&s;t for the <HI>fir&s;t generation,</HI> when all would <HI>strive</HI> (and the <HI>attempt</HI> would be <HI>ea&s;ie</HI>) to &s;uppre&s;&s;e the <HI>growing &s;ect,</HI> while&s;t it was in it's <HI>infancy.</HI> And upon this account Chri&s;t bidding them go out to preach (which act could not but renew the memory of former prediction) he addes for their comfort, and to prevent <HI>Objections, And behold I am with you to the end of the World.</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">. He who knew what was in the Heart of man, he anticipates all their objections and feares; The great <Q>difficulty is in removing the &s;etled law of <HI>Mo&s;es,</HI> and fir&s;t e&s;tabli&s;hment of the go|&s;pel: after the go&s;pel is once prevalent o|ver men, and that <HI>Mo&s;es's</HI> pre&s;cripts &s;hall have vani&s;hed before the <HI>Antitype,</HI> then indeed my pre&s;ence would not be &s;o ne|ce&s;&s;ary, as at the beginning; why? I came to this end that I &s;hould by fulfil|ing aboli&s;h the <HI>Leviticall law,</HI></Q> and I will <HI>extraordinarily</HI> be with <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 word"> untill this <HI>generati|on,</HI> this pre&s;ent <HI>age,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Pe&s;id<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">s he told them that the <HI>greate&s;t per&s;ecution that ever could happen,</HI> was then to be; &s;o that it was nece&s;&s;ary to promi&s;e an <HI>uncommon &s;trength</HI> for an <HI>unwonted tryal.</HI></NOTE> and po&s;ture of affaires have an <HI>end</HI> or <HI>period.</HI> What is there in all this more then is commonly &s;aid that <HI>miracles</HI> and an <HI>extraordinary pre&s;ence</HI> of <HI>Christ</HI> was nece&s;&s;ary for the <HI>planting,</HI> but not <HI>continuing</HI> of the <HI>Church?</HI> And is it not further &s;aid <HI>Hebr.</HI> 9.26. that Chri&s;t
<PB N="30" REF="18">came <GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>in the end of the World,</HI> which <HI>end of the World</HI> is to be un|der&s;tood of the de&s;truction of the <HI>Mo&s;aicall</HI> laws and rites, which was not done till the &s;ubver&s;ion of <HI>Jeru&s;alem:</HI> then <HI>Shilo</HI> came and the <HI>&s;cepter</HI> departed from <HI>Judah:</HI> The <HI>old World</HI> or time <HI>before the law,</HI> and that other <HI>under the law,</HI> were the <HI>Worlds</HI> in the fini&s;hing of which Chri&s;t appeared. And you may further think, whether the <HI>Apo&s;tle</HI> doth not inply this in that he faith to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 10.11) <HI>the&s;e things were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">. This <HI>di&s;con&s;olatene&s;&s;e</HI> of the <HI>Apo&s;tles</HI> gave Chri&s;t occa&s;ion to name the <HI>Holy Gho&s;t,</HI> the <HI>Comforter:</HI> and [for the fir&s;t age of the Church] he pro|mi&s;eth to be <HI>with them</HI> (John. 14. v. 18.) and &s;o to continue with them in a &s;peciall manner rai&s;ing them up others be&s;ides, <HI>&s;ome prophets, &s;ome Evangeli&s;ts, and &s;ome pa&s;tours and teachers</HI> (not that they &s;hou<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="2 letters"> continue in a <HI>&s;ucce&s;&s;ive ministry,</HI> but th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="2 letters"> the <HI>Saints might be fitted</HI> for the propaga|ting the Church, and <HI>building up the body of Chri&s;t.</HI> Which is not onely the rea&s;on of <HI>Mi&s;&s;ion,</HI> Rom. 10.15. (where to <HI>preach without &s;ending</HI> is repre&s;ented not as <HI>unlaw|full,</HI> but as <HI>impo&s;&s;ible;</HI> as <HI>impo&s;&s;ible</HI> as to <HI>heare without preaching,</HI> or <HI>calling upon one of whom they have not heard.</HI>) which is ne|ce&s;&s;ary onely <HI>at first,</HI> and not to <HI>after-de|&s;cants;</HI>
<PB N="31" REF="18">but is the plain meaning of Ephe&s;. 4. v. 11, 12 as I &s;hall &s;hew you, after I have &s;hewed more fully Mr. <HI>Baxter's</HI> ignorance in <HI>Scripture-di&s;putes,</HI> by his exception again&s;t <HI>Clem. Writer.</HI> What <HI>Clem. Writer</HI> objected is not <HI>forgery:</HI> How <HI>expre&s;&s;e</HI> and <HI>ab&s;olute</HI> &s;oever the <HI>promi&s;e</HI> be, yet often <HI>in Scrip|ture</HI> &s;uch denunciations are to be <HI>limited.</HI> Is the <HI>&s;aying</HI> of <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> more <HI>expre&s;&s;e</HI> then that of <HI>Jonah,</HI> Yet 40. <HI>dayes and Niniveh &s;hall be de&s;troyed?</HI> Viz. <HI>if</HI> they per&s;evere in their wickedne&s;s. They who were in the &s;hip with <HI>Paul</HI> had an <HI>ab&s;olute</HI> promi&s;e of their &s;afety, Act. 27. v. 22.24. yet that was but <HI>conditionally</HI> to be under&s;tood. <HI>Ex|cept the&s;e</HI> [&s;hipmen] <HI>abide in the &s;hip, you cannot be &s;aved v.</HI> 31. God <HI>&s;ware</HI> he would bring the <HI>I&s;raelites</HI> that came out of <HI>Egypt</HI> into <HI>Canaan &s;c. if</HI> they obeyed his voice, and murmured not. Numb. 14. v. 30. <HI>Doubt|le&s;&s;e ye &s;hall not come into the land concerning which</HI> I &s;ware <HI>to make you dwell therein.</HI> And to in&s;tance more particularly, the prophet tells <HI>Gehezi</HI> that the lepro&s;ie of <HI>Naaman</HI> the <HI>Syrian</HI> &s;hould cleave <HI>to him,</HI> and <HI>to his i&s;&s;ue for-ever,</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign"> &s;ay the Septuagint. Yet hence it <HI>canno<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter"></HI> be infer|red, that <HI>Gehezi</HI> and his po&s;terity &s;hould live <HI>for ever,</HI> or his ofspring &s;hould <HI>never fail:</HI> but that as long as he, or any of his po&s;terity &s;hould <HI>continue to live, &s;o long</HI> they &s;hould be leprous. Again, what <HI>Clem. Writer</HI> &s;aid was not <HI>meer folly,</HI> for
<PB N="32" REF="19">can any <HI>con&s;idering man</HI> deny, but in a <HI>Scripture-dialect, Go, teach all nations</HI> &amp;c <HI>teaching them to ob&s;erve all things what&s;oe|ver I have commanded you; And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the World:</HI> this may pa&s;&s;e for <HI>Conditionall?</HI> Is it not allowable in common talke, <HI>Go, do this, or that,</HI> and <HI>lo I give you, &amp;c.</HI></P>
<P>I now come to explain Ephe&s;. 4.11, 12. in which place I find Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> to be the <HI>&s;ame man</HI> &s;till: and no better a <HI>textuary</HI> in one place then another. As in <HI>Matthew</HI> Chri&s;t promi&s;ed the <HI>di&s;ciples</HI> he would be <HI>with them</HI> till the totall remove of the <HI>Jew|i&s;h ordinances,</HI> and e&s;tabli&s;hment of <HI>Chri&s;ti|anity;</HI> &s;o the <HI>Apostle</HI> Ephe&s;. 4. &s;aith that he made good his word; <HI>when he a&s;cended</HI> (near which time he made the promi&s;e in <HI>Matthew</HI>) <HI>he gave &s;ome Apostles; and &s;ome prophets; and &s;ome Evangeli&s;ts; and &s;ome pa&s;tours and teachers; for the perfecting of the Saints, for the worke of the mini&s;try, for the edifying of the body of Christ.</HI> Thus our <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> reads it: But the <HI>Greeke bible</HI> prin|ted <HI>Compluti,</HI> hath it thus, <GAP DESC="foreign">. <HI>He gave &s;ome Ap<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">les, &s;ome prophets, &s;ome Evangeli&s;ts, &s;ome pastours and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints unto the worke of the mini&s;try for the edifying of the body of Chri&s;t.</HI> So the Latine ver&s;ion there hath it&mdash; <HI>pa&s;tores &amp;
<PB N="33" REF="19">doctores ad con&s;ummationem &s;anctorum in opus ministerii in edificationem corporis Christi.</HI> Here is no <HI>&s;ucce&s;&s;ion</HI> of <HI>Ministers,</HI> no di&s;tincti|on of ordinary and extraordinary officers, &s;ome to build, others to lay the foundati|on: But <HI>Apo&s;tles, Prophets, Evangelists, pa&s;tours and teachers,</HI> all are given [not to perpetuate in a <HI>&s;ucce&s;&s;ion,</HI> but] <HI>to perfect the Saints for the worke of the ministry.</HI> The per&s;ons to <HI>carry on</HI> the <HI>work</HI> are the <HI>&s;aints</HI> perfected for it, and the end of their mi|ni&s;try is the <HI>building up of the body of Christ.</HI> Judge now, Sir, how Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> is out in his <HI>Greeke,</HI> who from <HI>Ephe&s;.</HI> 4. &s;aith, <Q><HI>Pa|&s;tours and teachers</HI> [are given to the Church] <HI>for the perfecting of the &s;aints, for the worke of the mini&s;try, for the edifying of the body of Christ</HI> &amp;c. Extraordinary and ordinary officers are here conjoyned, who between them are to perfect the building, the fir&s;t laying the foundation,</Q> and the latter building thereon. The&s;e la&s;t words contain a <HI>di&s;tinction</HI> not recorded in Scripture, and it is an u&s;uall &s;aying, <HI>non e&s;t di&s;tinguendum ubi lex non di&s;tinguit.</HI> None ought to di&s;tingui&s;h where the law (e&s;pecially <HI>God's law</HI>) is &s;ilent. Oh! that Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> would prove <HI>pa&s;tours</HI> and <HI>teachers</HI> to be <HI>di&s;tinct:</HI> or that the <HI>latter</HI> together with <HI>prophets</HI> (what&s;oever become of <HI>Evan|geli&s;ts</HI>) were any way <HI>Officers:</HI> or, that we are to <HI>recede</HI> from a <HI>literall</HI> &s;en&s;e to a <HI>figu|rative</HI> one, when there is no nece&s;&s;ity; yet
<PB N="34" REF="20">it is ob&s;erved by <HI>Grotius</HI> upon the place, that here is a <HI>Trajection,</HI> the <HI>immediate end</HI> of the <HI>Apo&s;tles,</HI> &amp;c. <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">eing given, was the <HI>work of the mini&s;try.</HI> But not onely doth the <HI>literall placing</HI> favour me, but al&s;o the <HI>con&s;truction</HI> of the words in <HI>Greeke</HI> that <HI>change,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">.</NOTE> of <HI>prepo&s;itions</HI> [e&s;pecially the pro|per Syntaxe of <GAP DESC="foreign"> being with <GAP DESC="foreign">] cannot be in&s;ignificant. The <HI>text</HI> as I have repre&s;ented it, and expounded it, agrees with the <HI>be&s;t manu&s;cripts,</HI> with the <HI>Bohemi|an, Dani&s;h, German, Polinian</HI> Ver&s;ions. The <HI>Spani&s;h</HI> Te&s;tament hath it, <HI>for the con&s;ummation of the Saints in the work of the Mini&s;tery,</HI> &amp;c. (&s;ee <HI>Elias Hutterus</HI>) In &s;umme, the very <HI>vulgar edition</HI> of Pope <HI>&s;ixtus</HI> reads it no otherwi&s;e: And he mu&s;t have no skill in <HI>Greeke</HI> that admits it not, &s;ince <HI>all peri|ods, commas, parenthe&s;es, accents, di&s;tincti|ons into chapter and ver&s;e,</HI> all the&s;e are <HI>no|vell</HI> and of <HI>no authority.</HI> You may now give me, leave to di&s;mi&s;s Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> from his <HI>Greeke</HI> examen, I hope I have not been <HI>tedious</HI> though <HI>long;</HI> and that the effect of the&s;e la&s;t <HI>digre&s;&s;ions</HI> will be more then an <HI>u&s;e of humility</HI> to Mr. <HI>Baxter.</HI> For his <HI>La|tine,</HI> as to the <HI>compo&s;ure</HI> thereof, if one of the <HI>Articles</HI> for condemning <HI>John Hu&s;&s;e</HI> the <HI>Martyr</HI> to the fire, was that he wrote <HI>fal&s;e Latine,</HI> Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> would not have e&s;caped at the <HI>Councill</HI> of <HI>Constance.</HI> There is a marginall account of his maladies in <HI>Latine</HI> p. 90. <HI>Po&s;tea autem affectione Hipo|chandriac&acirc;
<PB N="35" REF="20">innumerabilibus for&egrave; stipat&acirc; &s;ymptomatibus p&egrave;r annos</HI> 14 <HI>labor&acirc;&s;&s;et, in longam tandem &amp; inexpugnabilem inciderit debilitatem &amp; contabe&s;centiam, &amp; demum in narium haemorrhagiam ad l.</HI> 8. <HI>&amp; inde in Atrophiam, pro deplorato a medicis pe|titi&s;&s;imis relictus est: in qu&acirc; tamen Atrophi&acirc; ex immen&s;&acirc; Dei bonitate debilis ad huc &s;uper|vivit: modis etiam po&s;te<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter"> mirabilibus ex orci favibus &s;aepi&ugrave;s ereptus.</HI> If I had a better ac|compt of the <HI>state of his body,</HI> I &s;hould, I think, as much <HI>laugh</HI> at the <HI>miraculous</HI> reci|tall of his <HI>infirmities,</HI> as I now do at his <HI>Latine elegancies:</HI> my pre&s;ent thoughts are, that if he under&s;tood [by all his <HI>phi|lo&s;ophy,</HI> and <HI>phy&s;ick</HI>] the <HI>nature</HI> of the <HI>blood,</HI> and <HI>life</HI> of man, and had con&s;idered the &s;tory of the man <HI>in Oeneadis</HI> Hippocr. Epi|dem. 5. &sect;. 6. his <HI>cure</HI> would have &s;eemed le&s;&s;e <HI>miraculous,</HI> and <HI>Phy&s;icians more igno|rant.</HI> But &s;ome may &s;ay, that one who cannot <HI>write Latine</HI> may <HI>understand</HI> it, and &s;o he may be <HI>&s;ufficiently</HI> qualified for the re|pute of <HI>learning,</HI> if he have but &s;o much as will enable to apprehend others: he quotes Latine Authors, <HI>Fathers, Councils</HI> and <HI>Schoole-men</HI> in abundance. There are not wanting tho&s;e that will &s;ay he hath not <HI>capacity</HI> enough to <HI>understand</HI> the lat|ter [and I would evince it in &s;ome particu|lars, but I will re&s;erve &s;everall things till a further occa&s;ion, when I may either have <HI>time</HI> to read over his works, or the <HI>publick
<PB N="36" REF="21">concerns</HI> may require it though I grant him knowledge enough for that purpo&s;e, as farre as a <HI>&s;mall skill in Latine</HI> will advan|tage him, and a <HI>very &s;mall skill</HI> is &s;ufficient for that de&s;ign: But that any man &s;hould think without a <HI>profound knowledge</HI> in <HI>Greeke,</HI> and <HI>I atine</HI> to determine of <HI>anti|quity, affaires of the Church,</HI> or to be able to under&s;tand the <HI>primitive Fathers,</HI> is to me the <HI>greate&s;t folly</HI> that an <HI>Hypochondri|ack</HI> can be po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed withall. That &s;ingle controver&s;ie of <HI>Epi&s;copacy</HI> is of &s;uch difficul|ty, and requires &s;o much of this <HI>learning</HI> an conve r&s;e with an infinity of <HI>Greeke</HI> Au|thours, (the ver&s;ions of which are very bad) that I pitty Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> if any &s;olid <HI>Epi&s;coparian</HI> &s;hall <HI>daign</HI> to make him his adver&s;ary.</P>
<P>Though the in&s;ertion here be un&s;ea&s;on|able, yet give me leave to tell Mr. Br. that it was ignorantly &s;aid of him in his <HI>&s;econd &s;heet for the ministry,</HI> p. 12. &s;hat the <Q><HI>Quae|kers had no being in the World till a few years agoe.</HI></Q> If he means as to the name, I grant it; but &s;o had not the <HI>protestants;</HI> as he admitteth of: but if as to the gene|rality of their opinions and deporment, I DOE A VOW it out of as &s;ure and good records as any can be produced, that they can plead more for them&s;elves from the fir&s;t 270. years, then Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> for the pre|&s;ent <HI>Orthodox religion</HI> laid down in the <HI>Saints ever lasting rest,</HI> or the <HI>confe&s;&s;ion of
<PB N="37" REF="21">the A&s;&s;embly.</HI> It is fal&s;e that he &s;aith, the <HI>Puritans</HI> were <HI>Presbyterians.</HI> It is fal&s;e that he &s;aith the <HI>Protestants</HI> allow not of <HI>wars a|gainst their Magi&s;t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">ates,</HI> and <HI>of depo&s;ing them:</HI> let the practices of <HI>France, Geneva, Savoy, Holland, Germany, Swedeland, Switzer|land, Scotland</HI> be examined. It is a <HI>ba&s;e belying</HI> of the <HI>Engli&s;h Papists</HI> to charge them with <HI>di&s;loyall doctranes</HI> in generall: They have written better again&s;t the <HI>Pope's power in temporal's</HI> then Mr. <HI>Baxter.</HI> They do not own his infallibility, nor will they grant him any power to <HI>deprive Kings of their Kangdoms,</HI> and civill &s;ubjection by encommunication. They hate the <HI>Je&s;uites,</HI> (and many <HI>noble families</HI> will not admit them <HI>within their doores</HI>) and revere the memory of <HI>Widdrington, Pre&s;ton,</HI> &amp;c. as much as they dete&s;t <HI>Par&s;ons,</HI> and <HI>Garnets</HI> actings. Their Remon&s;trances to Q. Eliz. their &s;ubjection to K. Edw. 6. K. <HI>James,</HI> and the te&s;timonies they gave in the late wars, be&s;ides the tran&s;actions under a <HI>Prote&s;tant King</HI> in <HI>France</HI> and the State of <HI>Venice,</HI> abate the Vniver&s;ality of a charge, whereof the <HI>Spanyards, Je&s;uites</HI> and Court|party of <HI>Italy</HI> are onely guilty. The&s;e things may &s;atisfie you, or any el&s;e, of Mr. <HI>Baxter's</HI> great abilities in &s;everall &s;tudies, of an whereof the <HI>Apo&s;tle</HI> &s;aid, <HI>who is &s;uf|fierent for it!</HI> To conclude his <HI>Extrava|gancies</HI> he is of late turned <HI>State-Tinker,</HI> and demeanes him&s;elf in <HI>politiques</HI> as &s;ucce&s;&s;e|fully
<PB N="38" REF="22"><HI>as in other matters.</HI> Oh! what pitty it is I cannot write him Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> of <HI>Banbury,</HI> as well as <HI>Kedermin&s;ter!</HI> I know not who&s;e <HI>pen&s;ioner</HI> he is of late become; but any man may &s;ee who&s;e <HI>projects</HI> he venteth: if he be not bribed, I am told he hath been <HI>cajolled,</HI> and care&s;&s;ed with complements and pre|&s;ents into an e&s;teem for a compliance with them whom he ought to dete&s;t no le&s;&s;e then others. Po&s;&s;ibly this is not true; and po&s;&s;ibly our <HI>young-&s;tates-man</HI> may be &s;uch a novice as to be in&s;en&s;ibly drawn in by <HI>Court|artifices.</HI> In his addre&s;&s;e to his <HI>Highne&s;&s;e</HI> before his <HI>Key, &amp;c.</HI> He de&s;ires that he <Q>would <HI>fru&s;trate the &s;ubtility</HI> of the <HI>Demo|craticall politicians that are bu&s;y about the change of Government, and would bring all into confu&s;ion under the preten&s;e of the peo|ple's liberty or power, and would have the major part of the Subjects to be the Sove|raign of the rest, that is the wor&s;t, that are &s;till the most; and the ignorant, that can|not rule them&s;elves; and the vitious, that are enemies and hinderers of piety; and the worldlings, that mind nothing but what is under their feet, and have no time to think on Heaven, they have &s;o much to doe on Earth; as Augu&s;tine &s;aith, had rather their were one Star le&s;&s;e in Heaven, then one cowe le&s;&s;e in their pa&s;tures:</HI></Q> <HI>the&s;e mu&s;t be our</HI> SOVERAIGNES. If <HI>Politicians</HI> be ta|ken by him in an evill &s;en&s;e, it &s;eems Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> hath no great quarrell with them, &s;o
<PB N="39" REF="22">they be not <HI>Democraticall:</HI> according to what is u&s;ually ob&s;erved, if one fawn upon the <HI>Clergy</HI> though he be as perfidious in all his actings as the mo&s;t proflicate politique, yet &s;hall he po&s;&s;e&s;&s;e their regards: But for a <HI>Democraticall politician,</HI> I under&s;tand not the name, if it be a co<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">umely; for to &s;eeke the publick good, to decry and &s;ub|vert all &s;elf-intere&s;ted de&s;ignes, to continue all power in the hand of the people, have &s;o little of particular advantages in them, that it is not for corrupt policy to embrace that party <HI>Aristotle</HI> tells us that they who are ruled by the arbitrary commands of men (and all governments are &s;uch where the <HI>Magistrate</HI> is no otherwi&s;e bound by law, then that he is judge of his own de|viations) are governed by bea&s;ts; but they who are governed by laws are ruled by <HI>God. They are bu&s;y to change the Govern|ment!</HI> are not the <HI>Baxterians</HI> &s;o too? Is there any for the pre&s;ent modell of affaires? But Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> mi&s;takes; they would pre&s;erve the Government, and the <HI>Monarchiall poli|ticians</HI> would change it; they would con|tinue that liberty wherein the long <HI>Parlia|ment</HI> en&s;tated us; and to perfect a fabrick, is not to alter it: it is one thing to be <HI>Pro|tectour,</HI> and another to be <HI>Soveraigne</HI> of a <HI>Common-wealth.</HI> They <HI>would bring all things unto confu&s;ion!</HI> becau&s;e they would bring all things to a <HI>&s;ettlement,</HI> and fix the <HI>moun|tain</HI> (as farre as prudence permits) be|yond
<PB N="40" REF="23">a po&s;&s;ibility of removal: they would &s;ecure the laws and immunities, the the &s;pirituall and civill enjoyments of the good people of this land, and that unde|nyably: yet with Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> the&s;e are but preten&s;es! &s;hadows! not worth the &s;tri|ving for! However all change is not to be condemned, but &s;uch as is for the wor&s;t; nor all confu&s;ion, if the i&s;&s;ue thereof be the publick &s;afety. Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> is a practitioner in phy&s;ick; poy&s;ons and whole&s;ome medi|cines, both alter the body, both create a confu&s;ion in the humours, yet doth the one de&s;troy, and the other Save. But they would have the Major part to be Sove|raign of the re&s;t. If &s;o, then not Sove|raignes, as he afterwards &s;ayes: you may &s;ee how much he hath thought on what he &s;ayes, who in &s;o few lines cannot onely &s;peak non-&s;en&s;e, but contradict him&s;elf. In a Democracy neither all, nor the Ma|jor part of the people are Soveraignes, but that Soveraignty which one <HI>Monarch</HI> po&s;|&s;e&s;&s;es, the people &s;hare by actuall exerci&s;e of their naturall right: Nor is any mem|ber of a well-formed common-wealth can|cluded by any majority to which he hath not previou&s;ly con&s;ented, or in the Electi|on of which he hath not demeaned him&s;elf with as much prudence, as they who plow and &s;owe not fearing a deluge or drought. It is fal&s;e that the mo&s;t are &s;till the wor&s;t, and ignorante&s;t: Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> that is accounted,
<PB N="41" REF="23">probable which &s;eems &s;o to the mo&s;t: and Ari&s;totle &s;aith, that the multitude, (<GAP DESC="foreign">) judgeth better then any one man who&s;oe|ver: The multitude too is not &s;o bad as Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> thinks: &s;uch vices as render men unfit for &s;tate employments are the debau|cheries of a few, and not of a multitude, unle&s;&s;e that multitude be under one. I ne|ver yet read of a <HI>Monarchy</HI> which did not in it's own tendency corrupt the be&s;t men; nor can I imagine a regulated Democracy, upon a ballance, ballot, and rotation of Governours which will not amend the wor&s;t of men: Wickedne&s;s and Ignorance univer&s;al are the con&s;equences of <HI>Monarchy;</HI> they who plead that all may be free, and capable of bearing &s;uch offices as they can merit, it is their intere&s;t as well as intent all &s;hould de&s;erve. The&s;e trifling argu|ments of Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> will not per&s;wade the &s;tate of <HI>Venice, Holland, Switzerland, Ge|neva,</HI> the <HI>Han&s;e-townes</HI> out of their liberty, nor overthrow the reall happine&s;&s;e <HI>Rome, Athens, Sparta, Syracu&s;e,</HI> &amp;c. enjoyed un|der that form of Government. I am &s;orry Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> did not live in the time of <HI>Caligula,</HI> he who brought his hor&s;e into the <HI>Senate,</HI> would have allowed Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> a place in his Cabinet, where he might have argued about the conveniency of a change of the principality of <HI>Rome</HI> into a <HI>Kingdom.</HI> God Almighty e&s;tabli&s;hed a Common-weal a|mong&s;t the &s;tiffe-necked <HI>I&s;raelites:</HI> Chri&s;t
<PB N="42" REF="24">endowed his Church therewith; yea the name thereof, and others therein u&s;ed are taken from this popular Government. Was not <HI>Christ Je&s;us</HI> then faithfull to him that apointed him? was not <HI>Mo&s;es faithfull in all his hou&s;e?</HI> Or are not the&s;e things written for our in&s;truction, who are &s;o farre from being incapable of a Democracy, that we are not capable of a <HI>Monarchy.</HI> (It is one|ly for the ignorant, and unexperienced to commend a <HI>Lin&s;ey-wool&s;ey mixt-Monarchy:</HI> nor is it for a Chri&s;tian here to practi&s;e an ab&s;olute one) I would this puny &s;tati&s;t had &s;hewed his Highne&s;s how he mu&s;t have de|bauched the Gentry out of their e&s;tates, and advanced a Nobility to &s;uch riches and e&s;teem, as that their power might over|ballance the Commons; (without which there is no &s;ecurity) or that he had divi|ded the land unto <HI>Timariots,</HI> and &s;o erected a <HI>Monarchy</HI> upon a military intere&s;t: or &s;hewed a third way of &s;ettlement. But I leave this cau&s;e to be managed by better pennes, though I may remit Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> to the Lord <HI>Broghill,</HI> who in his <HI>Partheni&s;&s;a</HI> hath ex|cellently debated the ca&s;e of a Republick, let them give, or receive &s;atisfaction one of another. As for Mr. <HI>Harrington</HI> there is too much of learning and judgment in his works that I &s;hould referre Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> thereunto: his modell is &s;o farre above the prai&s;es, as it agrees with the po&s;ture of our Nation.</P>
<PB N="43" REF="24">
<P>Sr. I &s;hould entertain you with more raillery about Mr. <HI>Br's.</HI> Catholici&s;me (that is a <HI>Greeke</HI> word, but not the onely one which he makes u&s;e of though he under|&s;tand them not) and with his de&s;ignes for peace, in which there is nothing almo&s;t good but the de&s;ignes them&s;elves. But I &s;hall no longer detain you from reading a vindication of the truly Honourable Sr. <HI>Henry Vane,</HI> which was the principall mo|tive (next to the concerns of the publick) that induced me to this writing. You may from what I have already &s;aid frame a character of this Retailer of other mens reading, and Quoter of quotatations? Mr. <HI>Baxters</HI> his abilities, and di&s;cretion; the latter cannot be &s;o little, but the former is le&s;&s;e; and if you will any way uphold his credit, it mu&s;t be by &s;uch a di&s;tinction as whereby <HI>Strafford</HI> lo&s;t his <HI>Head;</HI> though the parts of his accu&s;ation were not trea&s;on|able, yet put together they did amount to Accumulative Trea&s;on, &s;o Mr. Br. may own an accumulative learning though he be deficient in all manner of knowledg.</P>
<P>Had this Honourable and pious <HI>Knight</HI> had any other name, Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> had lo&s;t &s;eve|rall jea&s;ts and clinches, which I &s;hall en|deavour to pre&s;erve to po&s;terity, that they may know the man had &s;ome wit though no learning. In the dedication to his <HI>Highne&s;&s;e</HI> he calls &s;uch as adhere to Sr. H. <HI>Vane</HI> the <HI>Vani.</HI> and p. 342. <Q>The <HI>Vane</HI>
<PB N="44" REF="25">and <HI>Steril</HI> language of <HI>Paracel&s;ian Behme|ni&s;ts</HI> and popi&s;h juglers doth &s;erve me for no other u&s;e but to rai&s;e me into &s;u&s;picion of their de&s;ignes and doctrines, and to &s;ig|nifie a <HI>Vaine</HI> and <HI>Steril</HI> minde.</Q> I am heartily &s;orry (out of compa&s;&s;ion to the new edition of <HI>Archy,</HI> the Court-fool, his jea&s;ts) that for Sr. <HI>Henry</HI> his adver&s;aries name was not Sr. <HI>Walter;</HI> and a contro|ver&s;ie was not agitated, whether the Sir|name were <HI>FANE</HI> or <HI>VANE,</HI> then we &s;hould not have been put to repetition for want of fre&s;h wit, but out of phy&s;ick we might have heard of the <HI>Tela Gualiteri;</HI> I am <HI>Scandit Gualter</HI> had not been lo&s;t; nor would Mr. <HI>Br's</HI> per&s;ecuting &s;pirit (I am informed that he &s;trook a <HI>Quaker</HI> openly) have omitted the raillery of an Halter. We &s;hould have heard of fictions too (as now of Hiding) and a Grammaticall di&s;pute might have been moved, whether the new <HI>Cavaliers</HI> &s;hould not be called the <HI>profane, profani tanquam procul a fano,</HI> as being oppo|&s;ites to the <HI>Fanes:</HI> you will pardon me if I took notice of this <HI>Kedenminster wit; it</HI> is remarkable in regard both of the Vanity and Sterility of the man, that neither Malice (which u&s;ually &s;upplies naturall deficiencies in point of wit) nor Melancholy (which <HI>Ari&s;totle</HI> ob&s;erveth to di&s;po&s;e men to ingenuity) &s;hould not furni&s;h him with better Quibbles; yet they are as good as what he objecteth in earne&s;t again&s;t the a|fore&s;aid
<PB N="45" REF="25"><HI>Patriot.</HI> So certain it is that we can do nothing again&s;t the truth, but for the truth. He very often reflects upon him under the term of an <HI>Hider.</HI> I do not ap|prehend his rea&s;on for it; fince Sr. <HI>H. V.</HI> hath never declined to give forth an ac|count of that hope that is in him. He &s;peaks plain and good Engli&s;h, and if in his words the &s;pirituality of the matter make all &s;eeme to be hidden, it is but the fate of the grea|te&s;t &s;oul-&s;aving truths, that they are hid to them that peri&s;h: the <HI>Calumny</HI> of Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> is very old, and made u&s;e of by the old Ser|pent in the <HI>Apostles</HI> time: but they having renounced the hidden things of di&s;hone&s;ty, gave this rea&s;on of their hidden words. <HI>If our go&s;pel be hid, it is hid to them that are lo&s;t: in whom the God of this World hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, least the light of the glorious go&s;pell of Chri&s;t, who is the image of God, &s;hould &s;hine unto them.</HI> 2. Cor. 4. v. 3.4. But what rea&s;on is there Sr. <HI>H.</HI> &s;hould &s;uffer for Mr. <HI>Br's</HI> intellectualls? thou&s;ands bear witne&s;&s;e to the pretion&s;ne&s;&s;e of tho&s;e truths, they are his &s;eale, and experiment the comfort of what Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> condemnes as vain and empty. This will be of no &s;trength till our great phy&s;ician avow that we ought to re&s;ign up our &s;en&s;es to the delu&s;ions of <HI>Hypochondriaques;</HI> and becau&s;e the &s;tupid do not, we mu&s;t not &s;ay we do feel. What if <HI>Paul</HI> be reputed a babler by the <HI>Grecians</HI> (as Sr. <HI>H.</HI> is by one that is no <HI>Grecian</HI>)
<PB N="46" REF="26">what if the doctrine of &s;aving grace be a &s;tumbling-block to the <HI>Jews,</HI> and folly to the <HI>Greekes?</HI> mu&s;t the &s;aints therefore quit their hopes of Salvation, and that which is to them a Savour of life unto life? We know what it is that the animall man en|tertaineth not, becau&s;e it is fooli&s;hne&s;s un|to him, neither can he, becau&s;e it is &s;piri|tually to be di&s;cerned: But &s;hall the man of God be concluded by tho&s;e his &s;enti|ments, that he &s;hould thereupon renounce him, who is made unto us wi&s;dome, and &s;anctification? &s;hall the enlightned com|plain of Darkne&s;s, becau&s;e to others the light &s;hineth in darkne&s;&s;e, and the darkne&s;s comprehendeth it not? If Sr. <HI>H. Vane</HI> had opened his mouth in parables, how &s;hould he have been called an <HI>Hider?</HI> And may not Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> be called an <HI>Hider,</HI> that he ob|&s;cures the light of the Go&s;pell by intricate di&s;putes? is there any thing more hid then the Aphori&s;mes, which if no man &s;hould be ju&s;tified but who under&s;tand them upon Mr. <HI>Brs.</HI> propo&s;al, the redeemed of the Lord will make up a le&s;&s;e flock, then is con|ceived? Might not he al&s;o be called an <HI>Hider,</HI> becau&s;e under a pretended zeal he hides the malice of others in his &s;launderous books.</P>
<P>He tells his Highne&s;&s;e in the dedication that the <Q><HI>Vani</HI> have been confounded by God by wonders in New England, but have here prevailed farre in the dark.</Q> As for their prevailing in the Dark, I am not acquainted therewith. I am &s;ure Sr. H.
<PB N="47" REF="26">never hid his candle under a bu&s;hell; what he hath taught, he hath done it openly, before great Auditories, and as great per|&s;onages for &s;pirituall di&s;cernings as this nation affordes. He may almo&s;t reply in <HI>Chri&s;t's</HI> words, <HI>I &s;at daily with you teaching in the Temple, and ye laid no hold of me.</HI> But &s;uppo&s;e the <HI>Vani</HI> had encrea&s;ed in the darke: ought that to prejudice a good ca&s;e? Or is it not a reflection upon the ini|quity of &s;uch Governours as forced truth into corners. Truth and errour may en|crea&s;e in the darke, but the former brings a light to di&s;pell darkne&s;s, which the o|ther augmenteth, or doth onely vary.</P>
<P>As for the wonders wherewith, God hath witne&s;&s;ed again&s;t them in <HI>New England I</HI> am a &s;tranger to the tran&s;actions of that land; yet I may very well &s;uppo&s;e Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> hath not omitted any thing that might tend to their di&s;repute in that digre&s;&s;ion which he on purpo&s;e framed again&s;t them. p. 330. The principall of the&s;e <HI>Hiders</HI> are <Q>the <HI>Vani,</HI> who&s;e game was fir&s;t played o|penly in <HI>America</HI> in <HI>New England,</HI> where God gave in his te&s;timony again&s;t them from Heaven upon their two prophete&s;&s;es, Mrs. <HI>Hutchin&s;on</HI> and Mrs. <HI>Dyer:</HI> the lat|ter brought forth a mon&s;ter with the parts of a bird, bea&s;t, fi&s;h, and man, which you may &s;ee de&s;cribed in Mr. <HI>Welds's</HI> narra|tive, with their di&s;covery, the concomi|tants, and con&s;equents. The former brought forth many (near 30) mon&s;trous births
<PB N="48" REF="27">at once, and was after &s;lain by the <HI>Indi|ans.</HI> This providence &s;hould at lea&s;t have a|wakned England to &s;uch a Godly jea|lou&s;ly, as to have better tryed the doctrines which God thus &s;eemed to ca&s;t out, before they had &s;o greedily entertain|ed them, as in part of <HI>Lincolne-&s;hire, Cam|bridg-&s;hire,</HI> and many other parts they have done. At lea&s;t it &s;hould have wakened the Parliament to a wi&s;e and godly jea|lou&s;ly of the councels and de&s;ignes of him that was in <HI>New England</HI> the ma&s;ter of the game, and to have carefully &s;earched how much of his doctrine and de&s;ign were from Heaven, how much of them he brought with him from <HI>Italy,</HI> or at lea&s;t was begotten by the progenitour of mon&s;ters. Such extraordinary pro|vidences ought not to be de&s;pi&s;ed.</Q></P>
<P>I am not in a place where I can either informe my &s;elf of tho&s;e accidents in <HI>New England,</HI> and how farre what Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> &s;aith out of Mr. <HI>Weld's</HI> is true: nor can I meet with Mr. <HI>Weld's</HI> narrative that I might &s;ee whither Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> do more truly vouch him, then the word of God, or <HI>Greek</HI> writers: <HI>I</HI> would therefore grant his <HI>A&s;&s;ertions,</HI> did not that pa&s;&s;age of Sr. <HI>H. Vane's</HI> bringing his doctrines with him out of <HI>Italy</HI> (where he never was) make me tender of crediting all Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> &s;ayes.
<NOTE PLACE="marg">I have &s;ince the writing here|of &s;poken with Mr. <HI>Clerke</HI> of <HI>New England,</HI> who was there at the time of the&s;e mon&s;trous births. As for Mrs. <HI><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">yer</HI> he could not &s;ay any thing of his own knowledg, but that &s;he was privatly delivered, two wo|men onely being by, of a fal&s;e|birth, which was buryed imme|diately: and from the&s;e <HI>two women</HI> comes this <HI>Narrative:</HI> for though it was digged up eight days after, yet the &s;hape was not determinable. He was at Mrs. <HI>Hutchin&s;on</HI> when &s;he was delivered of what he had <HI>long foretol<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter"></HI> would be a <HI>Mola:</HI> it was a mi&s;hapen bea&s;t, which being &s;eparated from its <HI>c<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">ates</HI> and integuments, did put into <HI>four</HI> pieces, <HI>two</HI> were like clotted blood in a tunicle, and <HI>two</HI> like clu&s;te<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">s of grapes, bein<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter"> a <HI>congeries</HI> of litle <HI>round bladders</HI> full of water onely. This he was an eye witne&s;s of; and Mr. <HI>Cotton</HI> having related openly &s;uch &s;tories as Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> doth, did in the open Congre|gation at <HI>Bo&s;ton</HI> retract them, as I expect Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> should do no<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">, or prove each ve&s;icula of wa|ter to be a <HI>m<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1+ letters">&s;ter.</HI></NOTE> The name of prophete&s;&s;es is made u&s;e of by way of
<PB N="49" REF="27">reproach (I &s;uppo&s;e) God forgive him! <HI>Lu|ther</HI> was not again&s;t <HI>women's</HI> prophecying; nor <HI>God,</HI> who, be&s;ides in&s;tances in the <HI>old,</HI> un|der the <HI>new te&s;tament</HI> endowed <HI>Philip's</HI> daugh|ters with prophecying; and <HI>Peter</HI> &s;aith Act. 2. v. 16.17.18. <HI>This is that which was &s;poken by the prophet Joel, And it &s;hall come to pa&s;&s;e in the la&s;t dayes, (&s;aith God) I will poure out of my &s;pirit upon all fle&s;h, and your &s;onnes and your DA&V;GH|TERS &s;hall prophe&s;y, and your young</HI> men <HI>&s;hall &s;ee vi&s;ions, and your old men &s;hall dream dreams: and on my &s;ervants, and on my HANDMAIDENS, I will poure out in tho&s;e days of my &s;pirit, and they &s;hall prophe&s;y.</HI> But Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> liketh not this di&s;pen&s;ation of the &s;pirit; the Holy <HI>Gho&s;t</HI> though it be given to every one to profit with [<GAP DESC="foreign">] yee women mu&s;t be excepted untill Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> learn <HI>Greeke.</HI> It is ob&s;ervable that Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> in the <HI>body of his booke</HI> &s;peakes <HI>timorou&s;ly,</HI> as if his Objection from the providentiall actings of God were of no great moment. The&s;e things
<PB N="50" REF="28">&s;hould have awakened at lea&s;t England to &s;uch a godly jealou&s;ie as to have better tryed the doctrines which God thus &s;eem|ed to ca&s;t out, before they &s;o greedily en|tertained them.&mdash; I am confident S. H. V. never de&s;ired any man to embrace his doctrine without trying it: the example of the <HI>Beraeans</HI> doth not offend him: be|ing a&s;&s;ured of the truthes he layes down, that they will abide in the <HI>day of the Lord,</HI> he feares not <HI>man's day.</HI> Yet he conceives that the precept to trye all things, doth not exclude the holding fa&s;t [or laying fa&s;t hold on] that which is good. To &s;uch enquiries he wi&s;hes all men were inclined, and that not upon the motives Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> layes down, but upon the accompt of <HI>&s;oule|concernes.</HI> As for <HI>Godly jealou&s;y,</HI> I under|&s;tand not the term; I &s;ee Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> is not al|wayes <HI>Zaphnath Pahaneach</HI> (as <HI>Pharaoh</HI> named <HI>Jo&s;eph,</HI> Gen. 41. v. 45.) or a <HI>di&s;|coverer of what is Hidden;</HI> he is now got among&s;t the <HI>Hiders;</HI> and indeed it is no commendation for him to <HI>Hide Malice.</HI> Godly jealou&s;ie is of a de&s;troying nature: <HI>Phinehas</HI> the &s;onne of <HI>Eleazer</HI> when he &s;lew <HI>Zimri</HI> and <HI>Cozbi</HI> is &s;aid to have had a <HI>Godly jealou&s;ie,</HI> Num. 25. v. 11.13. <HI>Zeal</HI> and <HI>jea|lou&s;ie</HI> for God being all one, both there and el&s;ewhere. How farre then this <HI>Godly jealou&s;ie</HI> &s;hould have extended, Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> limits not: nor yet that <HI>wi&s;e and godly jea|lou&s;ie in the Parliament,</HI> which Sr. <HI>H. Vane</HI> is &s;o farre from dreading, that he would
<PB N="51" REF="28">joyne (I dare &s;ay) with Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> in the advice: he ownes no doctrine nor de&s;ignes but &s;uch as <HI>Heaven in&s;pires</HI> him with, and which he will not be a&s;hamed of on earth, lea&s;t <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> &s;hould be <HI>a&s;hamed of him before his father.</HI> If he had been in <HI>Italy</HI> he would have brought thence no other de|&s;ignes, no other <HI>faith</HI> then what <HI>Paul</HI> plan|ted there, and of which he telleth the <HI>Ro|mans,</HI> that their <HI>faith was &s;poken of over the whole earth.</HI> Yet is not Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> &s;o mode|rate here as he might have been, for if God did but <HI>Seeme to cast out the Vani&s;ts,</HI> how comes he to &s;ay that <HI>God hath given in his testimony again&s;t them from Heaven upon their two prophete&s;&s;es.</HI> Who taught Mr. <HI>B.</HI> to make po&s;itive conclu&s;ions from &s;eeming premi&s;es? Thus he told the Protectour, that <HI>God had confounded them by wonders.</HI></P>
<P>All this is but a remote argument drawn from the providentiall actings of God in and upon two per&s;ons that witne&s;&s;ed &s;ome of tho&s;e truths (though with &s;everall weakne&s;&s;es) unto which Sr. <HI>H. Vane</HI> hath given out a te&s;timony among&s;t us. There are &s;ome that cry up Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> for a rationall di&s;putant, unle&s;&s;e he have given them o|ther evidence then I &s;ee, it mu&s;t be for &s;ome hidden excellencies. I know not how he came to be of God's coun&s;ell, and to under&s;tand the intent of his various di&s;|pen&s;ations. He was a wi&s;e man (without di&s;paragement to Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> be it &s;poken) who &s;aid Eccle&s;. 9. <HI>v.</HI> 1. 2. 3. <HI>All this I con|&s;idered
<PB N="52" REF="29">in my heart, even to declare all this, that the righteous and the wi&s;e and their workes are in the hand of God: no man knoweth</HI> [except Mr. <HI>B.] love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all, there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean:</HI> it is a very un&s;afe way then to argue from events to the ju&s;tice of a cau&s;e, or it's in|ju&s;tice, for tho&s;e things Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> urgeth, (though it be not nece&s;&s;ary that <HI>Mon&s;ters</HI> &s;hould be ominous, as <HI>Licetus</HI> and <HI>Riolanus</HI> ob&s;erve) they may as well [unle&s;&s;e Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> hide a part of his evidence] have been warnings to the <HI>Colony</HI> or natives, as <HI>Va|ni&s;ts.</HI> When a <HI>Sheep</HI> of old yeaned a <HI>Lyon,</HI> it was no ill-aboading pre&s;age to the <HI>&s;heep,</HI> but to the <HI>Common-wealth</HI> that &s;hould fall under <HI>Tyranny.</HI> God often times takes a|way the righteous, but in mercy, and out of judgment to the &s;urviving wicked. The Eclip&s;e at Chri&s;t's death, the di&s;turbances and de&s;truction en&s;uing in <HI>Judea,</HI> were no declarations again&s;t Chri&s;tianity: no more then the &s;ad ends to which many of the <HI>Apo&s;tles</HI> and other eminent Servants of God came, <HI>James</HI> was &s;lain by the &s;word, <HI>Paul</HI> &s;courged, and &s;h<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">p-wracked at <HI>Melite,</HI> there a viper fa&s;tened on his hand, and the people (like Mr. <HI>Br.</HI>) concluded, No <HI>doubt this man is a murtherer, whom though he hath e&s;caped at &s;ea, yet vengeance &s;uffereth not to live.</HI> The Calamities that befell the <HI>Roman</HI> Empire upon the preaching of
<PB N="53" REF="29">the <HI>Go&s;pell,</HI> if Mr. <HI>Brs.</HI> arguing hold good, (contrary to <HI>Tertullian</HI>) were by them ju&s;tly attributed to the Gods atte&s;ting a|gain&s;t the Chri&s;tians. <HI>The new Starre,</HI> the <HI>comet</HI> at the beginning of the reformation, was differently expounded by the <HI>Papi&s;ts</HI> and <HI>Protestants.</HI> At <HI>Charenton</HI> (not many years agoe) there was a boate ca&s;t away on the Lords day full of <HI>French Gentry</HI> and others, [either coming from, or going to Church] which the <HI>Papists</HI> avowed for a judgment; but <HI>Moun&s;ieur Daille</HI> in a &s;er|mon about tho&s;e on whom the tower <HI>Silo|am</HI> fell, refuted tho&s;e conjectures. As they upon whom the tower of <HI>Siloam</HI> did fall, and they who&s;e blood <HI>Pilate</HI> mingled with their &s;acrifices, were not greater &s;in|ners then others; but &s;uffer'd for example, that all might repent: &s;o I hope Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> will acquit O. P, from an ominous di&s;&s;olution; that day being famous for the vanqui&s;h|ing of one, and death of another u&s;urper.</P>
<P>But might not one &s;ay, that the prodigi|ous birth of Mrs. <HI>Dier's,</HI> was a witne&s;&s;e a|gain&s;t the polity of tho&s;e days in it's &s;eve|ral corruptions: men de&s;iring then <HI>&V;nity,</HI> though of per&s;ons as <HI>Heterogeneous</HI> as was her <HI>mon&s;ter?</HI> Or, might it not be an <HI>Em|blem</HI> of the various temptations, thorough the influence whereof they who either re|ject or hold the truth in unrighteou&s;ne&s;s are in&s;tigated; and &s;uch are the &s;poiles of birds, bea&s;ts, and fi&s;hes, wherewith man ei|ther <HI>prideth</HI> or <HI>pampereth</HI> him&s;elf. It is <HI>an
<PB N="54" REF="30">adulterous generation that asketh a &s;igne;</HI> and it is none of the wi&s;e&s;t that judgeth there|by.
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Her death is to be laid at the doores of th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">m that per&s;ecute her, &s;o as that to avoid the ter|rours th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">y affrighted her with, flee fled, and was &s;lain by the Indians as they &s;et upon the Dutch planters.</NOTE> As for Mrs. <HI>Hutchin|&s;on's</HI> being &s;lain by the <HI>Indians,</HI> Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> ought to know, that <HI>there is a ju&s;t man that peri&s;heth in his righteou&s;ne&s;s, and there is a wicked man that prolon|geth his life in Wickedne&s;s.</HI> Eccle&s;. 7.15. <HI>There be ju&s;t men to whom it happeneth according to the worke of the wicked: again there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the worke of the righteous:</HI> And if <HI>Solo|mon</HI> &s;ay that <HI>this is vanity</HI> (Eccle&s;. 8. v. 14.) I may &s;ay &s;o of Mr. <HI>Brs.</HI> arguing I am &s;ure: I could enter upon a di&s;cour&s;e about the <HI>cau&s;e of Monsters,</HI> but that what I have &s;aid is enough to cha&s;ti&s;e Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> for his <HI>pe|remptory cen&s;ure,</HI> which (though twice re|peated) hath little of the two-edged &s;word, but much of an edged picture, which according to the different Station of the beholder entertaines him with a dif|ferent repre&s;entation. If one &s;hould ar|gue again&s;t Mr. <HI>Brs.</HI> opinions, that an evill di&s;ea&s;e cleaveth unto the <HI>Authour,</HI> that God hath declared again&s;t his tenets by the &s;ad afflictions which he hath layed up|no him, that he hath vi&s;ited him in wrath, and cha&s;ti&s;ed him in his &s;ore di&s;plea&s;ure: that by <HI>Hypochondriacall</HI> di&s;tempers he hath witne&s;&s;ed again&s;t the flatulency of his brain; that by the maladies of his
<PB N="55" REF="30">&s;pleen, and rivers of blood i&s;&s;uing from his no&s;e, he doth wonderou&s;ly confound his malice, and &s;anguinary principles. <HI>Sa|tia te &s;anguine quem &s;itivi&s;tr:</HI> that tho&s;e profu&s;ions from the neighbouring parts warne him to employ his eyes in lamen|ting the troubles to which he contributes in this Nation; in fine, that the <HI>Atrophy of his body</HI> is a manife&s;tation of the <HI>Sterility</HI> of his principles. The&s;e di&s;cour&s;es have a &s;hew of as much rea&s;on as Mr. <HI>Baxter's,</HI> and not le&s;&s;e ingenuity.</P>
<P><Q>But Sr. <HI>Henry Vane</HI> is &s;undry times by him called clo&s;e-papi&s;t; and &s;uch are de|&s;ired that they may be kept out of <HI>Par|liaments, Armies, Councills,</HI> &amp;c.</Q> There is none that know the frame of Sr. <HI>Henry Vane's</HI> &s;pirit, but can bear me witne&s;&s;e, that if the cau&s;e of God, and the good of his people among&s;t us, did not prevaile mightily upon him, and the apprehen&s;ions thereof as it were eat Him up, he had ra|ther enjoy a retiredne&s;&s;e under the imme|diate teachings of God's &s;pirit, then be taken up with di&s;tracting employments in <HI>Parliaments</HI> and <HI>Councills.</HI> This would be to him an infinite &s;atisfaction, (and to be valued above all tho&s;e preferments, and dignities, which he as much de&s;erves, as o|thers can ambition them) to &s;pend his time in <HI>&s;oule-conver&s;es with his beloved,</HI> and tho&s;e delights which attend the highe&s;t &s;pirituall entertainments, that &s;o much Meekne&s;s, Humility; and unfeigned piety
<PB N="56" REF="31">is capable of. As for his being a clo&s;e-pa|pi&s;t, it is a <HI>calumny</HI> that nothing but a <HI>tongue &s;et on fire by Hell</HI> (and not <HI>touched with a coale from the Altar</HI>) could utter: which the mo&s;t bare-faced enemies of the publick good and tranquility of the Nati|on, the mo&s;t ambitious and &s;elf-&s;eeking men (with who&s;e intere&s;t Sr. <HI>H. Vane's</HI> uprightne&s;s doth enterfere) never yet charged him with. But Mr. <HI>Richard Bax|ter</HI> may &s;ay any thing, either as tran&s;por|ted with Zeal (though not according to knowledg) or bribed, or enveigled into &s;uch language. There is not a man in this Nation who hath more layed his Ax to the roote of Popery, then Sr. <HI>Henry Vane;</HI> no man hath &s;o thoroughly endeavour'd to extingui&s;h that My&s;tery of iniquity, in which Mr. Baxter, (moderate and healing Mr. Baxter) &s;aith he walkes. How farre Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> hath been wronged in the charges of <HI>Arminiani&s;m, Sociniani&s;me, Pelagiani&s;me,</HI> and <HI>Bla&s;phemy</HI> I &s;hall not now di&s;cu&s;&s;e: certain I am that they who charged him therewith, had colourable preten&s;es for tho&s;e imputations; and the very &s;en&s;e hereof might have made him le&s;&s;e precipi|tate to a&s;per&s;e others; but his earne&s;tne&s;&s;e for <HI>Bethel</HI> made him not apprehend thoughts of <HI>Sion.</HI> The Authour to the <HI>Hebrews, c.</HI> 2. <HI>v.</HI> 17. &s;aith, <HI>in all things it be|hooved Chri&s;t to be made like unto his brethe|ren, that he might be a mercifull and faith|full high-prie&s;t&mdash;for in that he him&s;elf hath
<PB N="57" REF="31">&s;uffer'd being tempted, he is able to &s;uccour them that be tempted.</HI> But though Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> hath had his &s;hare in <HI>tongue-&s;ufferings,</HI> and tho&s;e of the <HI>wor&s;t quality,</HI> yet hath not that di&s;po&s;ed him to a <HI>tenderne&s;s</HI> towards others; and that which was &s;o effectuall in <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> hath lo&s;t it's prevalency upon this <HI>p&s;eudo-minister.</HI> If <HI>to destroy all Spirituall power that u&s;urpeth upon the rule and king|dom of our Lord Je&s;us, all &s;oule-oppre&s;&s;ion, and con&s;cience-di&s;tre&s;&s;ing per&s;ecution,</HI> be to <HI>be an Abettour of Rome, it's power, and in|qui&s;ition;</HI> If <HI>to cry grace, grace to the build|ing and builders of Sion,</HI> be <HI>to comply with Babylon, and make one a parti&s;an of Anti|christ;</HI> Farewell <HI>all the declarations of af|flicted innocency, and let not Chri&s;t</HI> [nor Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI>] call for a <HI>confe&s;&s;ion or profe&s;&s;ion of faith, which though never &s;o po&s;itive, evident and clear, cannot defend a man from the im|putation of</HI> CLOSE PAPIST. Are tho&s;e doctrines fetched from <HI>Bellarmine, Per&s;ons,</HI> and <HI>Gret&s;er,</HI> which are as oppo&s;ite to them, as to Mr. <HI>Baxter's</HI> de&s;ignes; Did <HI>Sr. H. V.</HI> deve&s;t the civill <HI>Magi&s;trate</HI> of &s;pirituall power to inve&s;t the <HI>Pope</HI> therewith, Mr. <HI>Brs.</HI> words had not been groundle&s;&s;e, as now they are, &s;ince he no more advanta|geth the <HI>Pope</HI> by &s;uch his opinions, then the <HI>Presbyterians,</HI> out of which number I do not yet here of any that think Sr. H. V. doth agitate clo&s;ely their cau&s;e, and is un|derhand an abettour of <HI>Presbytery.</HI> To deny the <HI>Civill Magi&s;trate</HI> power of <HI>enter|medling
<PB N="58" REF="32">in religion;</HI> for this he needed not have gone to <HI>Italy,</HI> nor con&s;ult <HI>Bellarmine, Par&s;ons</HI> or <HI>Gret&s;er</HI> (names made u&s;e of meerly to draw an <HI>odium</HI> upon him) The <HI>Scotch</HI> and <HI>Dutch</HI> Presbyters in the <HI>Era&s;tian</HI> and <HI>Vedelian</HI> controver&s;ies would have furni&s;h'd Him with arguments; as Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> may have furni&s;hed him&s;elf from their <HI>An|tagonists,</HI> or from <HI>Golda&s;tus's</HI> collection of <HI>Popi&s;h</HI> writers, that defended the <HI>Emperour's</HI> authority again&s;t the <HI>Popes.</HI> You will per|haps reply, that what I have &s;aid may ac|quit Sr. <HI>H. V.</HI> from being an <HI>open papi&s;t,</HI> but not from being one <HI>in &s;ecret.</HI> Oh! ac|cur&s;ed malice! again&s;t which there is <HI>no defence</HI> but an appeall to <HI>the &s;earcher of hearts,</HI> &s;ince <HI>words</HI> and <HI>actions</HI> are not <HI>&s;uf|ficient fruits whereby to be known!</HI> Might not I &s;ay that Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> is a clo&s;e papi&s;t too? and give you the like an&s;wer when you &s;hould alledge his frequent <HI>writings again&s;t them?</HI> Nay, could not I adde that <HI>many</HI> men may <HI>prevaricate</HI> (as Mr. <HI>Baxter</HI> &s;aith the <HI>Jefuites</HI> do among&s;t <HI>our forces</HI>) and maintain what is not their judgment, one|ly to create us new <HI>divi&s;ions?</HI> and that the <HI>Romanists</HI> abound no where &s;o much, as near Mr. <HI>Br?</HI> Might not I either, fix any <HI>odi|ous imputation</HI> upon Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> as <HI>Arminia|ni&s;me, Sociniani&s;me</HI> (upon another account then that <HI>his booke of infidelity</HI> is borrowed from <HI>Socinus</HI>) yea <HI>Athei&s;me,</HI> and &s;ay that he <HI>ownes all, or any of the&s;e,</HI> but <HI>clo&s;ely.</HI> If this procedure be once admitted of, the <HI>whole
<PB N="59" REF="32">world</HI> mu&s;t become <HI>criminall,</HI> and when <HI>&s;urmi&s;es</HI> or <HI>bold a&s;&s;ertions</HI> &s;hall be taken for <HI>proofes</HI> none will be able to plead <HI>not-guilty.</HI></P>
<P>There is not any thing more (that I know of) which Mr. <HI>Br.</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Mr <HI>Rogers</HI> in his Vindication of Sir <HI>H. V.</HI> gives this full account of his having no hand in the Kings death: <Q>That upon that great change and alteration of affairs in the year 1648, he ab&s;ented him|&s;elf from the Parliament, and Lievtenant General <HI>Cronwell</HI> who &s;at upon the Tryal of the King, and encouraged the <HI>H<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">gh Court of Ju&s;tice</HI> to &s;entence h<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="2 letters">) could hardly, and after much importu|nity, prevail w<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="2 letters">h Sir <HI>H. V.</HI> to re|&s;ume his place in <HI>Parliament</HI> and <HI>Council of State:</HI> Now Mr <HI>Ba<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="2 letters">er</HI> (the matter of f<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">ct being thus &s;tated) if you would have been <HI>impartial,</HI> you &s;hould rather have &s;aid, That <HI>your Lord Protector</HI> and his followers had a chief hand in the death of the King (whe|ther upon a publique or private account, I leave it to the Lord) then that Sir <HI>Henry Vane</HI> and the <HI>Vani&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="2 letters"></HI> were the <HI>chief Actors</HI> in it: But you were re&s;olved to ca&s;t dirt in the face of this Gentle|man, and &s;o to ingratiate your &s;elf with the <HI>New Court,</HI> the glo|ry whereof is now layd in the du&s;t, together with all <HI>your &s;tat|tering Addre&s;&s;es.</HI></Q></NOTE> hath ob|jected to this Honorable per&s;onage, or reproach|ed him with: for I do not e&s;teem my &s;elf bound to take notice of that <HI>Satyr</HI> again&s;t tho&s;e <HI>Patriots of the long Parliament</HI> and Army, who <HI>executed ju|stice</HI> upon the <HI>late King,</HI> and erected a <HI>Common|wealth,</HI> I have recommen|ded that part of his book to the <HI>&s;ouldiery,</HI> who if either their <HI>own repute,</HI> or the <HI>cau&s;e of God and of the good people of this land</HI> in their <HI>religious</HI> &amp; <HI>civil</HI> concernes be dear unto them, will not &s;uf|fer the language of the <HI>Pedant</HI> to be unpu|ni&s;hed. If he had not been intere&s;ted in ma|king the <HI>Vanists</HI> odious, how come they (who were none at all) to be more <HI>Regicides</HI> then the late <HI>Protector?</HI> If Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> were &s;o <HI>impartial,</HI> as &s;ome would have him thought, why did he &s;pare <HI>his memory,</HI> &s;ince many of tho&s;e things which are charged upon the <HI>Vanists Anabaptists,</HI> &amp;c. had their <HI>ri&s;e</HI> and
<PB N="60" REF="33"><HI>management</HI> principally <HI>from him,</HI> Some were onely his Acts. Did not he debauch the Army, if to engage them to the true &s;ervice of their countrey were to debauch them? was not he an enemy to <HI>Ministry</HI> and <HI>Tithes?</HI> did not he maintain and up|hold a <HI>toleration?</HI> why then was not he upbraided with <HI>clo&s;e popery,</HI> &amp;c. If Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> is re&s;olved to meddle with no man, but &s;uch who&s;e names affoord him occa&s;ion for a <HI>Quibble;</HI> he could not have mi&s;&s;ed of <HI>a Dozen</HI> in <HI>him,</HI> be&s;ides that which is as ob|vious from the <HI>Greeke</HI> as is that on Sr. <HI>H.</HI> from the <HI>Latin.</HI> Viz. that he endevoured to reduce us to our <HI>primitive &s;lavery,</HI> to the <HI>onyons</HI> and garlick of <HI>Egypt:</HI> and that he would <HI>&s;tink</HI> in the &s;en&s;e of all po&s;terity: the&s;e had <HI>genuinely</HI> i&s;&s;ued from the name of <HI>Cromwell,</HI> and the Greeke <GAP DESC="foreign"> &s;ignify|ing an <HI>onyon.</HI> But I &s;hall leave this di&s;cour&s;e to entertain you more &s;eriou&s;ly with an en|quiry into that invidious que&s;tion, which doth &s;o much di&s;quiet Mr. <HI>Br.</HI> and others among&s;t us.</P>
<P><HI>Whither the civil Magi&s;trate hath any thing to do in matters of &s;piritual concernment?</HI></P>
<P>Upon that &s;ubject I intend to &s;et down what <HI>my own thoughts</HI> are, without inte|re&s;ting any therein but <HI>my &s;elf:</HI> being no le&s;&s;e re&s;olved <HI>alone</HI> to receive all that the <HI>Obloqui</HI> and <HI>malice</HI> of others can throwe upon me, then to continue all my life.</P>
<CLOSER><DATELINE>Ch. Ch. <DATE><HI>April.</HI> 20. 1659.</DATE></DATELINE>
<SALUTE>Sir</SALUTE>
<SIGNED>your mo&s;t affectionate humble &s;ervant <HI>H. S.</HI></SIGNED></CLOSER>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
