Baxters Narrative of His Life and Times, Part 2 · Section 12 · Letter 4 – Floating text 5
SIR,
YOur first Question is, Whether the way of Comprehension or Indulgence be more desirable?
Answ. If the Comprehension were truly Charitable and Catholick, upon the Terms of the Primitive Simplicity in Doctrine, Discipline and Worship, extending to all that the Apostolick Churches in their times received; it would end all our Differences and Miseries, except what in this imperfect state of the Church Militant must be still expected: and it would prevent the sin and everlasting woe of multitudes of Souls. But because there is no hope of this, by reason of the ignorance, impiety, uncharitableness, malice and factiousness of the Times; rebus sic stantibus, it is most evident that no Friend of the Church should be for Comprehension without Indulgence; nor for Indulgence without the Enlargement of the Act of Uniformity to a greater Comprehension; but for the Conjunction of both: which will attain the ends of both, and avoid the chief Inconveniencies of either alone.
1. The way of Comprehension alone is not sufficient (on Terms not Catholick, which must be expected): 1. Because such Comprehension will still leave out many worthy Persons, whose Gifts God would have exercised for his Churches Service. And he that rightly valueth the preaching of the Gospel, and the saving of Souls, would rather choose to have a Milstone hang'd about his Neck, and be cast into the Sea, than unnecessarily to silence any faithful Ministers of Christ. 2. Because even the Culpable should be punished but according to the measure of their offence: Those therefore whose Labours are like to do more good in the Church than their Faults to do harm, should be Corrected for those Faults, with such personal gentle Chastisement, as may not take them off their Labours for the Church. It is a lighter Punishment to honest Ministers, to make Brick as the Israelites in Egypt, so they may withal but preach the Gospel, than to be forbidden to preach for the Saving of the People. See 1 Thess. 2. 14, 15, 16. 3. Especially considering that the loss by silencing them redoundeth to the Souls of others, especially the ignorant and prophane: and why should other Men be denied the Means of their Salvation, and so perish, because a Minister differeth from the State in some lesser things? 4. Considering also that there are not competent Men enough to do the Work of the Gospel without them: Nay, there will be much want when all are employed. 5. It is desirable that his Majesty have Power to indulge the Peaceable, and abate Penalties, as in his Wisdom he shall see most conducible to the Peace of Church and State, and not to be too much tied up by an indispensable Establishment. These Reasons (and many more) are considerable for the way of Indulgence.
2. The way of Indulgence alone is not sufficient; but first, the Law should be made more Comprehensive: 1. Because indeed the present Impositions and Restrictions of the Law (considering also the direful Penalty) are such (especially the Declaration and Subscription required), as the Age that is further from the heels of Truth, will so describe and denominate, as will make our Posterity wish too late that the good of Souls, the welfare of the Church, and the Honour of our Nation had been better provided for. 2. Because it is exceeding desirable that as much strength and unity as may be, may be found in the established Body of the Clergy: which will be the glory of the Church, the advantage of the Gospel, the prevention of many sins of Uncharitablness, and the great safety and ease of his Majesty and the Realm: When as meer Indulgence, (if frustrated by Restrictions, will be unsatisfactory, and not attain its ends; but if any thing large and full) will drain almost all the established Churches, of a more considerable part of the People than I will now mention; and will keep much disunion among the Ministers. 3. If there be no way but that of Indulgence, it will load his Majesty with too much of the…ffence and murmur of the People. If he indulge but few, those that expected it … lay all the blame on him: If he indulge all or most that are meet for it, he will much offend the Parliament and Prelates, who will think the Law is vain: But a power of indulging a small Number, when the most are embodied by a Comprehension, will be serviceable to God and the King, and the Common Peace, and justly offensive unto none. 4. The Indulgence will be hardly attained by so many as need it, and are meet for it; most being distant, many friendless and moneyless, and too many misrepresented by their Adversaries as unworthy. 5. If the Indulgence be for private Meetings only, it will occasion such Jealousies that they preach Sedition, &c. as will not permit them long to enjoy it in peace. These and many more Reasons are against the way of Indulgence alone. It is therefore most evident that the way desirable, is first a Comprehension of as many fit Persons as may be taken in by Law; and then a power in his Majesty to indulge the Remnant so far as conduceth to the Peace and Benefit of Church and State.
Your second Question is, What abatement is desirable for Comprehension?
I answer; Suppose there is no hope of the Terms of Primitive Simplicity and Catholicism, but that we speak only of what might now be hoped for.
1. It is most needful that the old and new Subscriptions and Professions of Assent and Consent to all things in the Book of Ordination, Liturgy, and the two Articles concerning them be abated.
2. That the Declaration be abated; especially as to the disobliging all other Persons in the Three Kingdoms from the endeavouring in their places any lawful Alterations of the Government of the Church: And that the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy be the Test of Mens subjection:
3. That the Minister be not bound to use the Cross and Surplice, and read the Liturgy himself, if another (by whomsoever) be procured to do it: So be it he preach not against them.
4. That (according to Pope Leo III. determination in such a Case) the Bishops do by a general Confirmation (in which each Man approveable to have his part, upon due trial) confirm the Ordination formerly made by lawful Pastors without Diocesans, without reordaining them.
5. That what the Courts will do about Kneeling at the Receiving of the Lord's Supper may be done by others, and not the Minister forced to refuse Men meerly on that account.
6. It is very desirable that Oaths of Obedience to the Diocesan be forborn, as long as Men may be punished for Disobedience.
7. It is exceeding desirable that Reformation of Church Government (by Suffragans, and the Rural Deanries, &c.) be made according to his Majesty's Will expressed in his Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs.
To your third question, Of the Extent and Terms of the Indulgence, it being to be left to his Majesty's Wisdom, I shall not presume to give you my Answer.
§ 428. Instead of Indulgence and Comprehension, on the last day of Iune 1663. the Act against Private Meetings for Religious Exercises past the House of Commons, and shortly after was made a Law. The Sum of it was, That [every Person above sixteen years old, who is present at any Meeting under colour or pretence of any Exercise of Religion, in other manner than is allowed by the Liturgy or Practice of the Church of England, where there are five Persons more than that Household, shall for the first Offence by a Iustice of Peace be Recorded, and sent to Iail three Months till he pay five pound; and for the second Offence six Months till he pay ten pound; and the third time, being convicted by a Iuly, shall be banished to same of the (American) Plantations, excepting New-England or Virginia. The Calamity of the Act, besides the main Matter was, 1. That it was made so ambiguous, that no man that ever I met with, could tell what was a violation of it, and what not; not knowing what was [allowed by the Liturgy or Practise of the Church of England in Families], because the Liturgy medleth not with Families, and among the diversity of Family Practice, no man knoweth what to call the Practice of the Church. 2. Because so much Power was given to the Justices of Peace, to record a man an Offender without a Jury, and if he did it causelesly, we are without any remedy, seeing he was made a Judge: According to the plain words of the Act, if a man did but preach and pray, or read some licensed Book and sing Psalms he might have more than four present, because these are allowed by the practice of the Church in the Church; and the Act seemeth to grant an Indulgence for … and number, so be it the quality of the Exercise be allowed by the Church; which must be meant [publickly] because it medleth with no private Exercise. But when it cometh to the trial, these Pleas with the Justice are vain: and life men do but …, it is taken for granted, that it is … Exercise not allowed by the Church of England and to Jail they go.
§ 429. And now came in the Peoples Trial, as well as the Ministers: While the Danger and Sufferings lay on the Ministers alone, the People were very couragious, and exhorted them to stand it out, and Preach till they went to Prison: But when it came to be their own Case, they were as venturous till they were once Surprized and Imprisoned; but then their Judgments were much altered, and they that censured Ministers before as Cowardly, because they preached not publickly whatever followed, did now think that it was better to preach often in secret to a few, than but once or twice in publick to many; and that Secrecy was no sin when it tended to the furtherance of the Work of the Gospel, and to the Churches Good: Especially the Rich were as cautelous as the Ministers. But yet their Meetings were so ordinary, and so well known, that it greatly tended to the Jailor's Commodity.
§ 430. It was a great Strait that People were in, especially that dwell near any busie Officer, or malicious Enemy (as who doth not?) Many durst not pray in their Families, if above four Persons came in to dine with them. In a Gentleman's House it is ordinary for more than four, of Visitors, Neighbours, Messengers, or one sort or other, to be most or many days at Dinner with them: and then many durst not go to Prayer, and some durst scarce crave a Blessing on their Meat, or give God thanks for it: Some thought they might venture if they withdrew into another Room, and left the Strangers by themselves: But others said, It is all one if they be but in the same House, though out of hearing, when it cometh to the Judgment of the Justices. In London, where the Houses are contiguous, some thought if they were in several Houses, and heard one another through the Wall or a Window, it would avoid the Law: But others said, It is all in vain whilst the Justice is Judge whether it was a Meeting or no. Great Lawyers said, If you come on a visit or business, though you be present at Prayer or Sermon, it is no breach of the Law, because you met not [on pretence of a Religious Exercise]: But those that tried them said, Such Words are but Wind when the Justices come to judge you.
§ 431. And here the Fanaticks called Quakers did greatly relieve the sober People for a time: for they were so resolute, and gloried in their Constancy and Sufferings, that they assembled openly (at the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate) and were dragged away daily to the Common Jail; and yet desisted not, but the rest came the next day nevertheless: So that the Jail at Newgate was filled with them. Abundance of them died in Prison, and yet they continued their Assemblies still! And the poor deluded Souls would sometimes meet only to sit still in Silence (when, as they said, the Spirit did not speak): And it was a great Question, Whether this Silence was a Religious Exercise not allowed by the Liturgy, &c. And once upon some such Reasons as these, when they were tried at the Sessions in order to a Banishment, the Jury acquitted them; but were grievously threatned for it. After that another Jury did acquit them, and some of them were fined and imprisoned for it. But thus the Quakers so employed Sir R. B. and the other Searchers and Prosecutors, that they had the less leisure to look after the Meetings of Soberer men; which was much to their present ease.
§ 432. And now the Divisions, or rather the Censures of the Non-conforming People against their Ministers and one another, began to increase: which was long foreseen, but could not be avoided, and I that had incurred so much the displeasure of the Prelates, and all their Party, by pleading for the Peace of the Non-conformists, did fall under more of their displeasure than any one man besides, as far as I could learn: And with me they joyned Dr. Bates, because we went to the Publick Assemblies, and also to the Common Prayer, even to the beginning of it: Not that they thought worse of us than of others; but that they thought that our Example would do more harm: For I must bear them witness, that in the midst of all their Censures of my Judgment and Actions, they never Censured my Affections and Intentions, nor abated their Charitable Estimation of me in the main. And of the leading Prelates I had so much favour in their hottest Indignation, that they thought what I did against their Interest was only in obedience to my Conscience. So that I see by experience, that he that is impartially and sincerely for Truth and Peace and Piety, against all Factions, shall have his Honesty acknowledged by the several Factions, whilst his Actions, as cross to their Interest, are detested: Whereas he that joyneth with one of the Factions, shall have both his Person and Actions condemned by the other, though his Party may applaud both.
§ 433. My Judgment was for the holding of Communion with Assemblies of both Parties; and ordinarily I went to some Parish Church, where I heard a Learned Minister that had not obtruded himself upon the People, but was chosen by them, and preached well, (as Dr. Wilkins, Dr. Tillotson, Mr. Nest, &c.) and I joyned also in the Common Prayers of the Church: And as oft else as I had fit opportunity, I privately preached and prayed my self, either with Independents or Presbyterians that desired me! And I professed to all upon all occasions, that though I justified not all things which they held or did in any of their Churches, yet as long as they made not any Sin of mine a Condition of my Communion with them, I would occasionally joyn with any true Church in publick or private; so be it they preached not for Heresie, nor against a holy and peaceable Life, nor turned not their Strein to Sedition or uncharitable Reviling one another: Even as I would hold occasional Communion with a Church of Lutherans, or Greeks, or Abassines, if I passed through their Countreys. Though caeteris paribus I preferred Publick Assemblies, which have the Magistrates Countenance, before Private; yet I more preferred those that have pure Worship and Discipline and powerful Preaching, before the scandalous, undisciplined, ignorant Churches, of ignorant and formal lifeless Ministers. And so far as I had my choice, my most usual Communion should be with those Assemblies that I thought the best; yet would I have occasional Communion with others, as Members of the Catholick Church, to shew my Catholick Communion with all the Body of Christ. Yea, and my ordinary Communion should be with a Church that used the Common Prayer, rather than with none, or with a worse: And the Lord's Day I would spend in Church Communion (it being principally appointed to that end), and not in any meer Family Worship, or Meetings with a few Christians occasionally which met not as a Church. This was my Resolution: But the confidence of many on the other side was as great as mine could be: And their Arguments as many (though I thought not so good): Many Books came out against hearing Common Prayer, and against hearing any of the present Parish Ministers: One said to be by Mr. Iohn Godwin, and another by one Mr. Brown of Worcestershire (a fervent, injudicious, honest Fifth-Monarchy-man) and many more that made the Common Prayer to be no less than Idolatry. Because it was not prescribed by the Scripture, they said it is false Worship; and false Worship they said was one Species of Idolatry; by which arguing they would have made every fault in any of our Prayers or other Worship to be Idolutry: For Scripture prescribeth not any disorder or other fault in Prayer, but forbiddeth it: and so they may on the same account call it false Worship and Idolatry: But many honest People were led to depart too far from the Parish Assemblies, and from Charity and Unity it self, by such weak reasonings as these Yea, many turned Quakers, because the Quakers kept their Meetings openly, and went to Prison for it cheerfully; and because they would not joyn with the late imposed Ministry and Worship, which was so bad in their esteem, that their hearts rose against any Debate in which we would but question it.
When I hear men cry out against us as dangerous Schismaticks, even when we deny not Communion with the conformable Parish Ministers, meerly because we cease not preaching when the Magistrates and Prelates command us so to do, notwithstanding the notorious necessity of the People; it bringeth to my thoughts two remarkable Passages there met with.
The first of the Eastern Churches (Alexandria, Anti…ch, C…sares, &c.) which stuck to their old Pastors in private Meetings, and refused the new obtruded Bishops suspected of Arrianism, notwithstanding the Emperour Valens his Prohibition, and his contrary Commands, and his personal violent Impedition. The like was done in Constantine's time.
The second is of many Bishops in Africa who by Genseric… were forbid to preach, and when they obeyed him not, their Tongues were cut out: And God by a Miracle justified their Disobedience to the King, and they spake as well as when they had their Tongues: Among many Historians who report this, I remember two credible ones, who profess that they saw and heard the men speak themselves, after the cutting out of their Tongues: One is Victor Uticensis, and as I remember the other is Aenaem Gazem.
§ 434. I confess some of those that were for Separation from the Parish Churches spake so plausibly, that it was no wonder that most of the Religious sort followed them. They said that
1. We have but lately sworn in the Covenant against Superstition, and for a Reformation: and shall we all so soon return to Liturgies and Ceremonies, &c. at the Will of Man?
2. As Conformity, so Separation, is now another thing than it was when the old Non-conformists wrote against the Brownists, the Churches being far more polluted.
3. We are commanded to avoid them that walk disorderly, and not to bid them good speed that bring false Doctrine, and not to eat with them,&c. And Cyprian saith, That it belongeth to the People to avoid a bad Pastor, and that if they do it not, they must not think themselves innocent, though Synods cast them not out. And what sin, say they, can be more heinous, than to break their Vows with God so solemnly, and in such dreadful Expressions, made? and to Subscribe under their Hands, That neither Prince nor People in Three Kingdoms, ought to reform such a corrupted undisciplin'd Church, no not though they have Sworn to endeavour it? and not only to be Perjured themselves, but to justifie Three Kingdoms in the Guilt of Perjury; to dishonour our Nation before all the World, and teach them to name it Insula Perfidorum, the Perjured Island: To declare openly for the absolute Slavery of the Kingdoms, whose Liberty their Ancestors preferred before their Lives; declaring that it is not lawful by Arms to save my Purse or Throat from Thieves, if they say they have the King's Commission for it! …or shew it: To Assent and Consent unfeignedly to all the Corruptions imposed on them! To make all this a Ministerial Sin, by Publishing or Reading it before all the Congregation: To turn to all this unfaithfully, without ever Debating the Case with the ablest that differed from them; or else going on when they were Silenced in Conference, and had nothing to say! Are these men for us to hold Communion with?
4. God will be worshipped with the best, and curseth them that offer him the blind and lame, when they have better in their Flocks.
5. The Churches are not only undisciplined, but the Pastors by Subscription justifie it, and compel by cruel Persecution all Men to Communicate with them thrice a year, both the Good against their Consciences, and the Bad against the Word of God, to their Condemnation: And shall we Communicate with such?
§ 435. To these sad and heavy Accusations we answered,
1. The Covenant bound us to our best to reform: but did not bind us to sin, that is, to forsake all Christian Churches among us, and all Publick Worship, when we cannot reform as we desire. As I am bound to amend all the Disorders and Faults of my own Prayers, but not to give over praying till I can amend them. Nay, the Covenant bindeth us to come to the Assemblies, in that it bindeth us against Schism, Prophaneness, and whatsoever is against sound Doctrine and Godliness.
2. I confess that Conformity is not the same thing as it was in the Brownists time: But yet the Difference is not so great as to make Separation lawful now, which was unlawful then. In one great Point the Case of the Church was worse then, than it is now: in that the multitude of the People being new turned from Popery by the bare Will of the Queen and Parliament, were far more ignorant than now they are, when the Gospel hath made the People much more understanding and reformed; insomuch that in some (few) great Towns and Parishes, a considerable part of the People, are zealous Professors of Religion that daily worship God in their Families.
3. There is a great deal of Difference between God's Commands to a Church to cast out and avoid particular Sinners by way of Disciplinary Reformation, and a particular Person's avoiding whole Churches, and that before the Neighbouring Churches have in any Synod declared them unfit for our Communion: The former may be found, but any Command for the latter you will hardly find in Scripture; but contrarily it was the practice of Schismaticks and Hereticks: For how can you proceed in Christ's method of Admonition with such whole Churches? At least, till they are notoriously Heretical, or intolerably corrupt and obstinate therein you cannot avoid them. The Churches of Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Sardis, Laodicea, Thiatyra, &c. had foul Corruptions, and are commanded to execute Discipline on the Members; but no Members commanded to forsake the Churches, but the contrary. As to Cyprian's words, it's true, that a People that care for their Souls must depart from an Heretical or utterly intolerable Minister, as they that love their Lives will do from a Physician that would kill them: But there is a great deal of difference between Personal Faults, and Ministerial Faults, (as between a Drunkard and an Heretick), and between a tolerable ministerial Fault (as all imperfect Men are guilty of in their several measures) and an intolerable one: and between the Desertion of a whole Congregation, and of the lesser part, when the rest will not forsake the Minister. I deny not but you are bound to forbear committing the care and guidance of your Souls to a Man whose Ministerial Faults are intolerable. And such are, 1. The utterly Ignorant and Insufficient; 2. The Preachers of Heresie, or Doctrine contrary to the necessary Points of Religion; 3. And those that set themselves to preach down Godliness, or preach for a wicked Life, (if any such there be): But you must remember how in their Factious Zeal, all Parties or Sects of late among us, were wont to preach against one another, and yet that was not taken for preaching against Godliness, though the Persons were never so godly that they preached against. And as you recount all that may aggravate their sin, so you must in justice remember all that may extenuate it: Remember therefore, 1. That for the Common Prayer and Ceremonies and Prelacy, multitudes of worthy holy Men conformed to them heretofore, from whom you would not have separated; such as Dr. Preston, Dr. Sibbs, Dr. Taylor, Dr. Staughton, Mr. Gattaker, and most (by far) of the late Synod at Westminster: And for the rest of the Conformity, remember the Matter and the Temptation: For the Matter, it is much about Political Things, where it is no wonder if Divines on either side are ignorant or erroneous: and if they be unacquainted with the Power of Kings and Parliaments, when Lawyers and Parliaments themselves are disagreed about them. And for the Temptation, remember that such horrid Miscarriages, as the Rebellious pulling down of King and Parliament, killing the one, and casting out and imprisoning the Members of the other, and the attempting the taking down of all the Ministry, and the ruining of all Order by armed Sectaries, with the multitude of Sects that swarm'd among us, I say these Effects, with the King's miraculous Restoration, and the ruine of such an Army without one drop of Blood, are things that might easily draw Men to judge that the Covenant was but a League for the promoting of an unlawful War, and therefore is utterly null: And specially it concerneth you to remember, that it was the Independents that first taught them the nullity or non-obligation of the Covenant, calling it a ceased League, and an Almanack out of date, which they were forced to do that they might violate it: And yet you do not now call them Perjured, and aggravate their Sin, and say, They kill'd the King and conquered Scotland, when they had sworn the contrary in the Covenant: Nor do you separate from them on this account: Nay, it is mostly the Independents that are now for Separation from the Prelatists as Perjured, who went before them in the nullifying of this Vow.
4. We disswade you not from worshipping of God with the best you have, so you will but remember, that Love and Concord and honourable Solemnity are considerable Ingredients to make up the best: and that it is not best to spend the Lord's Days in no Church-worship at all, but meerly with a few that are met occasionally, because you cannot worship him publickly as you would; and that that may be the best which you have liberty to perform, which is not the best which you could do if you had liberty.
5. And though the Churches be too much undisciplined, and all Communicate, so are the Reformed Churches of Helvetia, which are numbered with the best, where Discipline never was set up. In Conclusion, He that separateth from one Church, for a Cause common to almost all the Churches in the World, doth go too near a Separating from all the Churches in the World: But so it is here: For almost all the Churches in the World have worse Ministers and worse Members, and as bad a form or way of Worship as these in England: And it is a terrible thing to think of Separating from all or most of the Universal Church of Christ on Earth.
§ 436. But the Ejected Presbyterian Ministers that would not come to Common Prayer in Publick, went more moderately to work, and said,
1. We do not separate from every Congregation that we joyn not with in Person: Else every Man doth separate every day from all the Congregations in the World save one: If they are not Separatists for not joyning with us, then neither are we for not joyning with them, no more than for not joyning with the Anabaptists and Independents: We may confess them to have a true Ministry, and be true Churches; but their faultiness we must not countenance.
2. We were lawfully called by Christ to feed our particular Flocks: And if these Men cast us out of the Temples and Maintenance, and get into our Places, and the more ungodly half of the Parishes, for fear of Man, conform to them, it doth not follow that we are absolved from our Office and Duty for the rest, or must bring them to the disorderly way of Worship which they violently imposed on us.
§ 437. To these I answered,
1. That it's true, that meer Absence is no Separation: But when a Party call and invite you to joyn with them, and you publickly accuse their way, and never joyn with them at all, you seem to tell the World that you take it to be unlawful: And that hath some degree of Separation; to avoid them as a Company unmeet to be joyned with.
2. Though you Offices to your People cease not, yet you have your power to Edification and not to Destruction: And if a tolerable Minister be put into your Places, it's considerable whether it be not most to your Peoples Edification, Unity, Charity and Peace, to take them with you to the Publick Assemblies, and help them nevertheless at other times your selves as much as you can: And whether both helps be not more than one: Especially when you cannot preach to above four your selves, without Imprisonment and Banishment, and then you cannot preach at all. And whereas it's easie to let a passionate Stoutness transport us, and think that Tyrannical Church-Usurpers must not be encouraged by our Compliance; the meek Spirit of Christianity, when it sifteth these reasonings, will find in them too much of Self and Passion when Unity, Charity and the Churches Edification is on the other side.
§ 438. And whereas some Men are much taken with this Reason, That these times have more Light than the old Non-conformists ever had, and therefore that is not excusable in us which was so in them, I must confess I have great reason to believe the clean contrary, if by Light they mean Knowledge, that the old Non-conformists had much more insight into these Controversies than Professors have of late: For,
1. We know that when the Parliament had cast out Bishops, Liturgy and Ceremonies, the generality both of Ministers and People, took it for granted that they were all bad, and so had more Light than their Forefathers had, before they ever studied the Controversies: I have asked many of them that have boasted of this Light, whether ever they read what Cartwright, Bradshaw, Ames, Parker, Baynes, Gersome, Bucer, Didoclavius, Salmasius, Blondell, Beza, &c. have said on one side; and what Saravia, Bilson, Whitgift, Covell, Downham, Burges, Hooker, Paybody, Hammond, &c. have said on the other side; and they have confest they never throughly studied any one of them.
2. And we see it by experience, that one of those Men have written more on these Subjects, than any of these can say or understand, who boast that they have greater Light. How weakly do they talk against Bishops, Liturgy, and Ceremonies in comparison of these ancient Non-conformists! However, that which was Truth then, is Truth now: And we have the same Scripture to be our Rule as they had: Therefore let them that say they have more Knowledge, bring it forth and try it by the Law and Testimony, Isa. 8. 20.
§ 439. Having lived three years and more in London, and finding it neither agree with my health or studies, (the one being brought very low, and the other interrupted) and all Publick Service being at an end, I betook my self to live in the Country (at Action) that I might set my self to writing, and do what Service I could for Posterity, and live as much as possibly I could out of the World. Thither I came 1663. Iuly 14. where I followed my Studies privately in quietness, and went every Lord's Day to the Publick Assembly, when there was any Preaching or Catechizing, and spent the rest of the Day with my Family (and a few poor Neighbours that came in); spending now and then a day in London, and the next year 1664. I had the Company of divers godly faithful Friends that Tabled with me in Summer, with whom I solaced my self with much content. Having almost finished a large Treatise, called, A Christian Directory, or Sum of Practical Divinity, that I might know whether it would be Licensed for the Press, I tried them with a small Treatise of The Characters of a Sound Christian, as differenced from the Weak Christian and the Hypocrite: I offered it Mr. Grig the Bishop of London's Chaplain, who had been a Non-conformist, and profest an extraordinary respect for me: But he durst not Licence it. Yet after, when the Plague began I sent three single Sheets to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Chaplain (without any Name that they might have past unknown, but accidentally they knew them to be mine) and they were Licensed: The one was Directions for the Sick: The second was Directions for the Conversion of the Ungodly; and the third was Instructions for a Holy Life: for the use of poor Families that cannot buy greater Books, or will not read them.
§ 440. March 26. being the Lord's Day 1665. as I was preaching in a Private House, where we received the Lord's Supper, a Bullet came in at the Window among us, and past by me, and narrowly mist the Head of a Sister-in-law of mine that was there, and hurt none of us; and we could never discover whence it came.
§ 441. In Iune following an ancient Gentlewoman with her Sons and Daughter, came four Miles in her Coach to hear me Preach in my Family, as out of special Respect to me: It fell out that (contrary to our custom) we let her knock long at the Door, and did not open it; and so a second time when she had gone away and came again; and the third time she came when we had ended: she was so earnest to know when she might come again to hear me, that I appointed her a time: But before she came, I had secret intelligence from one that was nigh her, that she came with a heart exceeding full of Malice, resolving, if possible, to do me what Mischief she could by Accusation: and so that Danger was avoided.
§ 442. Before this, divers Forreign Divines had written to me, and expected such Correspondence as Literate Persons have with one another: But I knew so well what eyes were upon me, and how others had been used in some such accounts, that I durst not write one Letter to any beyond the Seas: By which some were offended, as little knowing our Condition here: Among others, Amyraldus sent one upon the occasion of a word of honest Ludae. Molinaeus, a Dr. of Physick, who had said that he had heard that Amyrald had said somewhat as slighting the Non-conformists in England, and me in particular, which with what vehemency and great respect he disowneth, his Letter following will shew. Another was from a Minister in Helvetia, who would have had my Advice about setting up the Work of Ministerial Instruction of the Families and Persons of their Charge particularly, which I will also add: but I sent him an Answer by his Friend by word of mouth only. And so I refused the answering of all others.
Literae D. Amyraldi, Ad Reverendum Virum Dom. Dominum Baxterum, Fidelem Evangelis Jesu Christi Ministerium, Londinum.
VIrtutum tuarum fama, Vir Reverende, ad aures meas ante aliquot annos pervenit, nec omnino me latuerat quam honorifice de me & privatam sentias & publice loquaris. Verum quia & audio scripsisti Anglice tantum modo, cognitio autem linguoe vestrae quam ante quadraginta Annos qualemcunque Londini adeptus eram, e memoria mea desuetudine obliterata est, parum commercii mihi est cum libris vestris, nec hactenus contigit ut quidquam quod à te prodixerit oculis usurpaverim. Eo de causâ, quamvis nonnunquam ceperit me impetus aliquis ad te scribendi, ut honorem quo te prosequor testificarer, & ut significarem quod me publice laudasti, ingrato non accidisse; (Etsi enim tenuitatem meam agnosco, non dissimulabo tamen, non esse mihi fibram adeo corneam, qui… laudari amen, à te potissimum laudato Viro:) Attamen quotiuscunque id in Animum induxi vel occasio literas ad te mittendi suppeditata non est, vel me repressit aliquis metus nequid de me suspicaveris: At quod hucusque distuleram, Vir Reverende, expressit à me indignatio concepta ex lectione literarum Domini Simonii ad me, in quibus vidi nescio quem male feriatum hominem (etenim eum ne de nomine quidem novi) scripsisse ad Molinaeum, Amyraldum de te, deque Scriptis tuos loqui valde contemptem; adeo ut si verum esset quod ille quisquis est dicit, justissimam causam haberes cur gravissime mihi succenseres, meque judicares indignum iis laudibus, iisque benevolentiae tuoe significationibus, quibus me prosequi ac decorare voluisti. Illico igitur calamum arripui, & nulla interposita mora, scripsi ad D. Simonium Gallice quoe velim à te legi atque intelligi posse, ut qualis sit animus erga te meus liquido cognosceres. Tibi vero, Vir Reverende, hanc Epistolam destino, in qua quantâ possum bonâ fide & luculentis verbis testor atque pronuntio, falsa illa omnia esse, & emendacii officina profecta, quoe vel audivisti vel legisti quasi dicta de te à me secus quam oportuit. Non enim te novi nisi de fama, quoe de tua pietate atque eruditione & eloquentia egregie loquitur; nec aliter erga te sum affectus quam ut decet erga virum multis laudibus ornatum, & proeterea de me optime meritum, & cui eo nomine multum debeo. Noli ergo quaeso, Vir Reverende, quidquam istiusmodi credere; & ubicunque id vel occasio feret, vel necessitas postulabit, ostende hasce literas me à manu, & ex Animi mei Sententia conscriptas, ut post hocce testimonium quid de te judicem nemo dubitare queat. Vale, Vir Reverende, & communis ille noster Doctor atque Dominus, qui nos redemit sanguine suo, cum Ecclesioe Anglicanoe tum tui perculiarem curam suscipere dignetur. Quid de rebus vestris existimem… scire potes ex Epistola quâ Paraphrasmi meam in Psalmos serenissimo vestro Regi dicavi. Itaque nihil hic addam nisi quod qui ad te scribit, est tibi,
Vir Reverende, Ad omne obsequium paratissimus AMYRALDVS.