Baxters Narrative of His Life and Times, Appendix · Item
The Instances promised you.
I. WHen I was cast out at Kidderminster, (and you know what a Minister was there) I offered, while the Indulgence of the King's Declaration continu…d, to have been the Reading Vicar's Curate, and to have preached for nothing, and could not prevail: I was by the Bishop forbidden to preach in his Diocess; and when I offered him to preach only Catechistical Principles to some poor Congregation that else must have none, he told me, It was better they had none than me. My presence at Kidderminster was thought so dangerous, that Force was assigned to have ap…hend me, and had I stayed it must have been in the Jail, and many another for my sake. When I was forced away, at Venner's Rising I wrote but a Letter to my Mother in-…aw, and it was way-laid, intercepted, opened, and sent up to the Court, though there was nothing concerning them in it, but some sharp Invectives against the Rebellion, which my Lord Chancellour acknowledging, caused my Lord Windsor personally to bring me back my Letter: so that I durst not write to them of many years. My Neighbours I had perswaded to do as you advise, to joyn in the Publick Church, and help each other as private Men, and for so doing, (repeating Sermons, and praying and singing a Psalm) many of them lay long among Rogues in the Common Jail, and others of them impoverished by Fines.
II. When I came to live at Acton, I drew all the People constantly to Church that were averse; sometime I repeated the Parsons Sermon, and sometimes taught such as came to my House, between the Sermons. When the Reverend Parson saw them come into Church, he would fall upon them, &c.—And not being able to bear my little Endeavours for their Instruction, he caused me to be sent to the Common Jail, (not one Witness or Person being suffered to come into the Room while I was examined and committed.)
III. I am now in a Parish where some Neighbours say that there are Fourscore thousand Souls; suppose they be fewer: Not above Two thousand of all these can hear in the Parish Church: so that it's like above Sixty thousand have no Church to go to, no not so much as to hear the Scripture or the Common-Prayer. Here I need not tell you what Prohibitions I have had, and what my Endeavours to teach a few Publickly, have lost me and others: And lately, because one that preached for me did (without my knowledge) at the importunity of a Parent, Baptize a poor man's Child, when they told him it was in danger of death, the Curate of the Parish came to my House to expostulate the matter: when yet many are baptized by Papist Priests, for want of others to do it, as they say. I never my self Baptized a Child, or administred the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper these fifteen years, but ordinarily received it in the Parish Church at Totterridge, and elsewhere, (one of the first times that I received it in private, a Bullet was shot into the Room among us, and came near to the Heads of divers of us). I never gathered any Church from among them; and yet have been usually the first sought after to be imprisoned or ruined in each assault: and was put to sell my Goods and Books to save them from Distress. Near me, in the same Parish, liveth Mr. Gabriel Sanger, the late Incumbent Pastor of the Parish, a Man of Age and Gravity, great Moderation and Peaceableness, and far from Faction or Turbulency; who preacheth but to a few in his own House: And where should he use his Ministry, if not in so vast a Parish where so many Thousands are untaught, and where he is not sure that his old relation is dissolved, though the Tythes and Temple be given to another? One Mr. Grove (that oft heard me) being lately dead, and his Widow sick, she sent for Mr. Sanger to visit her, who after a short Instruction prayed with her: while he was at Prayer, Dean Lampley the Parson (or Vicar) of the Parish came in, and heard him at Prayer, staying till he had done in an outer Room, and as soon as he had done, as Mr. Sanger affirmeth, came in upon him, and fiercely askt him, What he did there? He told him, Nothing but what beseemed a Minister of the Gospel, to visit the Sick when he was sent for. And to the second Expostulation, told him, That he thought he should be thankful to him for helping him in such a Parish. To which the Doctor answered, That then he should have done it according to the Liturgy: fiercely adding, Get you out of the Room. At which when he demurred, he more fiercely took him by the breast, and thrust him, and said, Get you out of the Room: which to avoid unpeaceableness he forthwith did. I saw not this, but I think no Man that knoweth Mr. Sanger will question the Truth of his deliberate Affirmation of it.
In what Parish of England should a Man expect leave to visit the Sick, when sent for, rather than in St. Martins? From what Minister in England should one rather expect leave than from Dr. Lampley, who hath so many Thousands more than he and his Curate and Lecturer can suffice to teach and visit? and who, I hear, is a very worthy Man, and a Teacher of more than ordinary diligence, and especially excelleth almost all that I hear of in Constancy in the needful Work of Catechising, for which, though I know him not, I do much honour him. And what Minister in England may expect leave to visit the Sick, or privately help the People… if not Mr. Sanger, who was lately the Publick Incumbent himself, and is a man as unlikely to stir up any Man to Envy or Wrath, as most that ever I knew: I will not parallel my own Case with his: If I be unworthy of such liberty, might not such as he be tolerated so far?
This being our Case, will you be the Man that shall tell us and the world, that we should have kept our Residence, and joyned with the succeeding Ministers in private helps, and how well we and Religion had then sped, as if you had not lived in England? to make Men think that the Parish Ministers are willing of this. Yet I will again say, Necessity is laid upon me, and wo be to me if I preach not the Gospel, though Men forbid it. And if I either give but to one poor Man, when I might give to a thousand, or teach but one ignorant Sinner, when I might teach a thousand, how shall I look my Judge in the Face, who gave me that terrible warning, 2 Tim. 4. 1, 2. as well as Matth. 2…. And did I think that ever you would have been one that should publickly have perswaded us to this. When it is the grand Work of Satan to Silence the Preachers of the Gospel, and the great Character of all sorts of his Agents (one way or other, on their various pretences) to effect it: Papists would silence me: Prelatists would silence me: Quakers, Anabaptists, Antinomians and Separatists would silence me! and would my dear and judicious and experienced Friends silence me also! Alas, how many Difficulties have we to overcome! while our weary Flesh, and too cold Love, and the Relicks of Sloth and Selfishness, which loveth not a laborious suffering Life, doth hinder us more than all the rest. But the Judge is at the Door.
To Mr. W. Allen.