Baxters Narrative of His Life and Times, Part 3
THE LIFE Of the Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter. The Third Part.
Novemb. 16. 1670. I began to add the Memorials following.
§ 1. SEing God hath been pleased to add these few Years more to my Pilgrimage, I will add some Account of His Providences towards me, and his People in this Land, in these additional Years. When I ended my last Narrative, the dreadful Plague was laying waste, especially the City of London; and thence spread into the neighbouring Parts, and into many distant Cities and Corporations of the Land. Yet did we hear of no publick Repentance professed by any one City or Corporation, for that Profession by which they were all at that time even Constituted, whilst that all that had any Office or Trust therein, declared, That there was no Obligation from the Vow called the Solemn League and Covenant on any Person; no not from their Vow against Popery, Schism, or Prophaneness, nor their Vow to Defend the King, nor their Promise of Repentance for their Sins. And who can but fear that such an universal Sin must be yet more sharply punished, when such a Scourge as this had no better effects?
§ 2. The Number that died in London (besides all the rest of the Land) was about an Hundred Thousand, reckoning the Quakers, and others, that were never put in the Bills of Mortality, with those that were in the Bills.
§ 3. The richer sort removing out of the City, the greatest …low fell on the Poor. At the first so few of the Religiouser sort were taken away, that (according to the mode of too many such) … began to be puffed up, and boast of the great difference which God did make… But quickly after, they all fell alike. Yet not many pious Ministers were taken away; I remember but Three, who were all of my own Acquaintance. 1. Mr. Grunman, a German, a very humble, holy, able Minister; but being a Silenced Non-conformist was so poor, that he was not able to remove his Family. 2. Mr. Cross, a worthy Minister,Mr. Spinage dyed then, but I think not of the Plague. that had long ago lived with the famous Religious Lady Scudamore; and being Silenced, was entertained by Richard Hambden, Esq in his House at London; and flying from the Plague into the Country, died with his Wife, and some Children, as soon as he came thither, in the House of that Learned and Worthy Man, Mr. Shaw, another Silenc'd Mi…ister, and his Brother in Law; who being shut up, gave God Thanks for his Deliverance, in a very Learned and Profitable Treatise, which he Published thereupon. And since being found (not only very Learned, but) moderate, and holding Communion in the Publick Assemblies, and a peaceable Man, hath got connivance to Teach a Publick School, a great favour in these Times. 3. Mr. Roberts, a Godly Welsh Minister, who also flying from the Plague, fell Sick, as far off, as between Shrewsbury and Oswestry, and died on a little Straw, while none durst entertain him.
§ 4. It is scarce possible for People that live in a time of Health and Security, to apprehend the dreadfulness of that Pestilence! How fearful People were, thirty or forty, if not an hundred Miles from London, of any thing that they bought from any Mercer's, or Draper's Shop; or of any Goods that were brought to them; or of any Person that came to their Houses. How they would shut their Doors against their Friends; and if a Man passed over the Fields, how one would avoid another, as we did in the time of Wars; and how every Man was a Terrour to another! O how sinfully unthankful are we for our quiet Societies, Habitations and Health!
§ 5. Not far from the place where I sojourned, at Mrs. Fleetwood's, three Ministers of extraordinary worth were together in one House, Mr. Clearkson, Mr. Sam. Cradock, and Mr. Terry, Men of singular Judgment, Piety, and Moderation; and the Plague came into the House where they were, one Person dying of it, which caused many (that they knew not of) earnestly to pray for their Deliverance; and it pleased God that no other Person dyed.
§ 6. But one great Benefit the Plague brought to the City, that is, it occasioned the Silenc'd Ministers more openly and laboriously to Preach the Gospel, to the exceeding comfort and profit of the People; insomuch, that to this Day the freedom of Preaching, which this occasioned, cannot, by the daily Guards of Soldiers, nor by the Imprisonments of Multitudes, be restrained. The Ministers that were Silenced for Nonconformity, had ever since 1662. done their Work very privately, and to a few (not so much through their timorousness,It was the Plague that brought them out of their secret narrow Meetings into publick. as their loathness to offend the King, and in hope still that their forbearance might procure them some Liberty; and through some timorousness of the People that should hear them.) And when the Plague grew hot, most of the Conformable Ministers fled, and left their Flocks, in the time of their Extremity: whereupon divers Non-comformists pitying the dying and distressed People, that had none to call the impenitent to Repentance, no… to help Men to prepare for another World; nor to comfort them in their Terrors, when about Ten Thousand dyed in a Week, resolved that no obedience to the Laws of any mortal Men whosoever, could justifie them for neglecting of Men's Souls and Bodies in such extremities; no more than they can justifie Parents for fanishing their Children to death: And that when Christ shall say, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these, ye did it not to me, It will be a poor excuse to say, [Lord I was forbidden by the Law.] Therefore they resolved to stay with the People, and to go in to the forsaken Pulpits, though prohibited, and to preach to the poor People before they dyed; and also to visit the Sick, and get what relief they could for the Poor, especially those that were shut up. Those that set upon this work, were Mr. Thomas Vincent, late Minister in Milk-street; with some Strangers that came thither, since they were Silenced, as Mr. Chester, Mr. Ianeway, Mr. Turner, Mr. Grimes, Mr. Franklin, and some others. Those heard them one Day oft, that were sick the next, and quickly dyed. The Face of Death did so awaken both the Preachers, and the Hearers, that Preachers exceeded themselves in lively, fervent Preaching, and the People crowded constantly to hear them; and all was done with so great Seriousness, as that, through the Blessing of God, abundance were converted from their Carelesness, Impenitency, and youthful Lusts and Vanities; and Religion took that hold on the Peoples Hearts, as could never afterward be loosed.
§ 7. And at the same time, whilst God was consuming the People by these Judgments, and the Nonconformists were labouring to save Men's Souls, the Parliament (which sate at Oxford, whither the King removed from the danger of the Plague) was busie in making an Act of Confinement, to make the Silenc'd Ministers Case incomparably harder than it was before, by putting upon them a certain Oath, which if they refused, they must not come (except the Road) within five Miles of any City, or of any Corporation, or any place that sendeth Burgesses to the Parliament; or of any place where-ever they had been Ministers, or had preached since the Act of Oblivion. So little did the Sense of God's terrible Judgments, or of the necessities of many hundred thousand ignorant Souls, or the Groans of the poor People, for the Teaching which they had lost, or the fear of the great and final Reckoning, affect the Hearts of the Prelatists, or stop them in their way. The chief Promoters of this among the Clergy, were said to be the Arch-bishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Seth-Ward, the Bishop of Salisbury: And one of the greatest Adversaries of it in the Lord's House, was the very Honourable Earl of Southampton, Lord Treasurer of England, a Man that had ever adhered to the King, but understood the interest of his Country, and of Humanity. It is without Contradiction Reported, that he said, No honest Man would take that Oath. The Lord Chancellor Hide also, and the rest of the Leaders of that mind and way, promoted it, and easily procured it to pass the Houses, notwithstanding all that was said against it.
§ 8. By this Act the Case of the Ministers was made so hard, that many thought themselves necessitated to break it, not only by the necessity of their office, but by a natural impossibility of keeping it, unless they should murder themselves and their Families.
As to a moral Necessity, as they durst not be so Sacrilegious as to desert the Sacred Office wholly, to which they were consecrated (which would be worse than Ananias and Sapphird's Alienating their devoted Money) so they could hardly exercise any part of their Office, if they did obey this Act. For,
1. The Cities and Corporations are the most considerable part of the Kingdom, and also had, for the most part, the greatest need of help; partly, because of the numerousness of the People: For in many Parishes in London, the fourth part (nay in some the tenth part) cannot be contained in the publick Temples, if they came, so as to hear what is said. Partly also, because most Corporations having smaller Maintenance than the Rural Parishes, are worse provided for by the Conformists: And every where the private Work of Over-sight, and Ministerial Help, is through their Numbers, greater than many Ministers can perform; and it is a work that I never yet knew one Prelatist well perform, to my remembrance; and few of them meddle with it at all, any farther than to read Common Prayer some time to a dying Man, if any one of a Multitude desire it.
2. Many of them had Pastoral Charges in Cities and Corporations, from the obligation of which they take not themselves to be well released, by the bare prohibition of Man, while then Peoples needs and desires continue, and where their places are supplyed with Men so ignorant and vicious, as to be un-meet for such a charge of Souls: And it must be more than the Will of Man, that must warrant them to fly and forsake their Flocks, to which they had a lawful Call, and to leave their Souls to those notorious Perils, as in very many places they must do.
3. And in the rest of the Land, where can a Minister labour with advantage, but with those that know him, and are known of him, and have formerly profited by him, and will afford him Entertainment?
4. If it be lawful to desert the Souls of all Cities and Corporations, and all other Parishes where-ever we preach'd, it will follow that it is lawful to desert all the rest, and so sacrilegiously to desert our office.
5. Christ saith, When they persecute you in one City, fly to another. Therefore we are not obliged to desert them all, as soon as we are commanded.
6. The Preaching of Christ's Apostles, and of all his Ministers, for 300 Years, was against the will of the Princes, and Rulers of the Countries where they preached: And yet they planted Churches, and ordained Elders principally in all the Cities where they came, and would rather suffer Imprisonment and Death, than to desert them any further, than by flying from one to another.
§ 9. 2. But natural necessity also constrained many: For many had Wives, and many Children to maintain, and had not one Penny of yearly Revenue, nor any thing but the Gifts of charitable People to maintain them: And if they had a poor Cottage to live in, and no Money to pay their Rent, nor to buy Fire, Food, or Cloathing, they had much less enough to take another House, and pay for the removal of their Goods far off, and the Charges of a new Settlement; and there to dwell among Strangers, far from those whose Charity relieved them, was but to turn their Families to famish, which is more inhumane, than to see a Brother have need, and to shut up the Bowels of our compassion from him, which yet is contrary to the Love of God.
§ 10. And indeed, in many Countries, it was hard to find many places which were not within five Miles of some Corporation, or of some place where we had Preached before (for some Ministers preached in a great number of Parishes at several times:) And if such a place were found, was it like that there would be Houses enough found untenanted, to receive so many Ministers? Or, if there were, perhaps the Landlords would be so much for Prelacy, as to refuse such Tenants, or so timorous as to be afraid, lest by receiving such, they should bring themselves under Suspicion of favouring Non-conformists, and so be ruined, or so covetous, as knowing their advantage, to ask more for their Houses, than poor Ministers that had hardly any thing left to subsist on, could be able to give. Besides that, almost all Country Houses are annexed to the Farms or Land belonging to them. And Ministers are ill Farmers, especially when they have no Money to Stock their Land.
§ 11. Yea, they allowed them not to be kept as common Beggars, on the Alms of the Parish; but when by the Law, every Beggar is to be brought to the place of his Birth, or last abode, and there to be kept on Alms; No Minister must come, within five Miles of the Parish where he ever exercised his Ministry; nor any that were born in Cities and Corporations, must come within five Miles of them for relief.
§ 12. In this strait, those Ministers that had any Maintenance of their own, did find out some Dwellings in obscure Villages, or in some few Market-Towns, which were no Corporations: And those that had nothing, did leave their Wives and Children, and hid themselves abroad, and sometimes came secretly to them by night. But (God bringing Good out of Men's Evil) many resolved to preach the more freely in Cities and Corporations till they went to Prison: Partly, because they were then in the way of their Calling, in which they could suffer with the greater peace; and partly, because they might so do some good before they suffered; and partly, because the People much desired it, and also were readier to relieve one that laboured for them, than one that did nothing but hide himself; and partly, because when they lay in Prison for preaching the Gospel, both they, and their Wives and Children, were like to find more pity and relief, than if they should forsake their People, and their Work. Seeing therefore the Question came to this, Whether Beggary and Famine to themselves and Families, with the deserting of their Callings, and the People's Souls, was to be chosen, or the faithful performance of their Work, with a Prison after, and the People's Compassion? They thought the latter, the more eligible.
§ 13. And yet when they had so chosen, their Straits were great, for the Country was so impoverished, that those of the People who were willing to relieve the Ministers, were not able: And most that were able, were partly their Adversaries, and partly worldly-minded, and strait-handed, and unwilling. And, alas! it is not now and then a Shilling, or a Crown given (very rarely) which will pay House-Rent, and maintain a Family. Those Ministers that were unmarryed, did easilier bear their Poverty; but it pierceth a Man's Heart to have Children crying, and Sickness come upon them for want of wholsom Food, or by drinking Water, and to have nothing to relieve them. And Women are usually less patient of Suffering than Men; and their Impatience would be more to a Husband than his own wants. I heard but lately, of a good Man, that was fain to Spin as Women do, to get something towards his Family's relief (which could be but little;) and being Melancholy and Diseased, it was but part of the Day that he was able to do that. Another (Mr. Chadwick in Somerset) for a long time had little but brown Rye Bread and Water for himself, his Wife, and many Children, and when his Wife was ready to lye in, was to be turned out of Door, for not paying his House-Rent. But yet God did mercifully provide some Supplies, that few of them either perished, or were exposed to sordid unseemly Beggary: But some few were tempted against their former Judgments to Conform.
§ 14. The Oath imposed on them was this.
I A B, De Swear, That it is not lawful, upon any pretence whatsoever, to take Arms against the King: And that I do abhor that Traytorous Positon, of taking Arms by his Authority, against his Person, or against those that are Commissionated by Him, in pursuance of such Commission: And that I will not at any time endeavour any alteration of Government, either in Church or State.
The Reasons of Men's refusal to take this Oath, were such as these following.
1. Because they that were no Lawyers must Swear, not only that they think it is unlawful, but that it is so indeed.
2. Because they think that this setteth a Commission above an Act of Parliament. And that if one by a Law be made General or Admiral, during Life, another by a Commission may cast him out: And though the Law say, He shall be guilty of Treason, if he give up his Trust to any upon pretence of a Commission: Yet by this Oath he is a Traytor, if he resist any one that hath a Commission.
3. Because they fear they are to Swear to a contradiction, viz. to set the King's bare Commission above a Law, which is the Act of King and Parliament; and yet not to endeavour the Alteration of Government, which they fear least they endeavour by taking this Oath.
4. Because they think that by this means the Subject shall never come to any certain Knowledge of the Rule of his Duty, and consequently, of his Duty it self For it is not possible for us to know, 1. What is to be called a Commission, and what not; and whether an illegal Commission be no Commission (as the Lawyers, some of them, tell us) and what Commission is illegal, and what not; and whether it must have the broad Seal, on only the little Seal, or none. 2. Nor can we know when a Commission is counterfeit. The King's Commanders in the Wars, never shewed their Commissions to them that they fought against, at least ordinarily. There was a*Coll. Turner. Collonel of the King's, since his coming in, that brought a Commission, Sealed with the broad Seal, to seize on all the Goods of a Gentleman in Bishopsgate-street, in …; by which he carried them away: But the Commission being proved counterfeit, he was hanged for it. But a Man that thus Seizeth on any Gentleman's Money, on Goods, may be gone before they can try his Commission, if they may not resist him. But the Parliament, and Courts of Justice, are the Legal, publick Notifiers of the King's mind; and by them the Subjects can have a regular certain notice of it. So that if the Parliament were concluded to have no part in the Legislative Power, but the King's meer will to be our Law; yet if the Parliament and Courts of Justice, be erected as the publick Declarers of his will to the People, they seem more regardable and credible, than the words of a private unknown Man, that saith he hath a Commission.
5. And they think that this is to betray is to the King, and give the Chancellour, or Lord-Keeper, power at his pleasure, to depose him from his Crown, and dispossess him of his Kingdoms. For if the King (by Law or Commission) shall settle any Trusty Subject in the Government, of Navy, or Militia, or Forts, and command them to resist all that would disposse… them; yet if the Lord Chancellor have a design to depose the King, and shall Seal… Commission to any of his own Creatures or Confidents, to take possession of the said Forts, Garisons, Militia and Navy, none, upon pain of Death, must resist them, but …e taken for Traytors; if they will not be Traytors, yea, though it were but whilst they send to the King to know his Will. And when Traytors have once got possession of all the Strengths, the detecting of their stand will be too late, and to Sue them at Law will be in vain. And he that remembreth, That our Lord Chancellor is now banished, who lately was the chief Minister of State, will think that this is no needless fear.
6. And they think that it is quite against the Law of God in Nature which obligeth …s to quench a Fire, or save the Life of one that is assaulted (much more of our selves) against one that would kill him; and that else we shall be guilty of Murder. And according to the preper Sense of this Oath, If two Foot-boys get from the Lord Chancellor a Commission to kill all the Lords and Commons in Parliament, or to set the City and all the Country on Fire, no Man may be Force of Arms resist them; Lords and Commons may not save their Lives by force, not the City their Houses: And by this way no Man shall dwell or travel in safety; while any Enemy or Thief may take away his Life, or Purse, or Goods, by a pretended Commission; and if we defend our selves, but while we send to try them, we are Traytors: and few have the means of such a Tryall.
7. They think by this means, no Sheriff may by the Posse Comitatus execute the Decrees of any Court of Justice, if … can but get a Commission for the contrary.
8. They think that Taxes and Subsidies may be raised thus without Parliaments; and that all Men's Estates and Lives are at the meer will of the King, or the Lord Chancellor: For if any be Commissioned to take them away, we have no remedy: For to say that we have our Actions against them in the Courts of Justice, is but to say, that when all is taken away, we may cast away more if we had it. For what good will the Sentence of any Court do us, if it pass on our side, as long as a Commission against the Execution of that Sentence must not be resisted, unless a piece of Paper be as good as an Estate?
9. And they think that by this Oath, we Swear to disobey the King, if at any time he command us to endeavour any alteration of the Church-Government, as once by this Commission to some of us, he did, about the Liturgy.
10. And they think that it is a serving the Ambition of the Prelates, and an altering of the Government, to Swear never to endeavour any alteration of Church-Government; yea, and to put the Church-Government before the State-Government, and so to make the Prelacy as unalterable as Monarchy, and to twist it by an Oath into the unalterable Constitution of the Government of the Land, and so to disable the King and Parliament from ever endeavouring any alteration of it. For if the Subjects may not at any time, nor by any means endeavour, the King will have none to execute his Will if he endeavour it. And if Divines, who should be the most tender avoiders of Perjury, and all Sin, shall lead the way in taking such an Oath, who can expect that any others after them should scruple it? And it was endeavoured to have been put upon the Parliament.
11. And they think that there is a great deal in the English Diocesian Frame of Church-Government, which is very sinful, and which God will have all Men in their places and callings to endeavour to reform (as that the Bishop of the lowest degree, instead of ruling one Church with the Presbyters, ruleth many hundred Churches, by Lay-Chancellors, who use the Keys of Excommunication and Absolution, &c.) And they take it for an Act of Rebellion against God, if they should Swear never to do the Duty which he commandeth; and so great a Duty as Church-Reformation in so great a Matter: If it were but never to pray, or never to amend a fault in themselves, they durst not Swear it.
12. This Oath seemeth to be the same in Sence, with the Et caetora Oath, in the Canons of 1640. That we will never consent to an alteration of the Government, by Arch-Bishops, Bishops, Deans, &c. And one Parliament voted down that, and laid a heavy charge upon it; which no Parliament since hath taken off.
13. As the National Vow and Covenant seemeth a great Snare to hinder the Union of the Church among us, in that it layeth our Union on an exclusion of Prelacy; and so excludeth all those learned worthy Men from our Union, who cannot consent to that Exclusion; so the laying of the Kingdoms and Churches Union upon the English Prelacy, and Church-Government, so as to exclude all that cannot consent to it, doth seem as sure an Engine of Division. We think that if our Union be centered but in Christ the King of all, and in the King, as his Officer, and our Soveraign under him, it may be easie and sure: But if we must all unite in the English Frame of Prelacy, we must never Unite.
§ 15. Those that take the Oath, do (as those that Subscribe) resolve that they will understand it in a lawful Sense (be it true or false) and so to take it in that Sense: To which end they say that nullum iniquum est in Lege praesumendum, and that all publick Impositions must be taken in the best Sense that the Words will bear. And by force and stretching, what words may not be well interpreted? But the Nonconformists go on other grounds, and think that about Oaths Men must deal plainly and sincerely, and neither stretch their Consciences, nor the Words; nor interpret universal. Terms particularly, but according to the true meaning of the Law-givers, as far as they can understand it; and where they cannot, according to the proper and usual signification of the Words. And the Parliament themselves tell us, That this is the true Rule of interpreting their Words. Beyond which therefore we dare not stretch them.
§ 16. And therefore, 14. They dare not take the Oath, because if it be not to be taken in the proper or ordinary Sense of the Words, then they are sure that they cannot understand it (for it doth not please the Parliament to expound it.) And Oaths must be taken in Truth, Judgment, and Righteousness, and not ignoranatly, when we know that we understand them not.
§ 17. The Lawyers (even the honestest) are commonly for a more stretching Exposition. And those that speak out, say, That an illegal Commission is none at all. But we our selves go further than this would leads us; for we judge, That even an illegally commissioned Person, is not to be resisted by Arms, except in such Cases as the Law of Nature, or the King himself, by his Laws, or by a contrary Commission, alloweth us to resist him. But if Commissions should be contradictory to each other, or to the Law, we know not what to Swear in such a case.
§ 18. But, because much of the Case may be seen in these following Questions, which upon the coming out of that Act, I put to an able, worthy, and sincere Friend, with his Answers to them. I will here Insert them, (viz. Serjeant Fountain.)