Admonition to William Eyre, To the reader 2
READER,
SInce this Book was Printed I am able to give thee a more certain account of Mr Crandon's Learned Examination of my Aphorisms: If thou wouldst know the Contents, I'le tell thee the main substance of this Book in one word, viz. [That I am a Papist, and one of the worser sort of them too.] This one dish adorned with the flowers of Billingsgate Rhetorick, and sawced with many hundred palpable falshoods, is the precious feast which Mr Eyre hath invited thee to. But if thou think that I tell thee this for my own ends, and as envying thee such felicity as the reading of his Volume, take thy course, and believe me when thou hast tried, Fisher, Haggar, Reyes, Mr Eyre, and all that have opened their mouths against me, are but meal-mouth'd fellows to this Mr Crandon. But if it work on thee as it did on me, thou wilt have some mirth at least for thy money: For I confess I was not able to forbear laughter to see the ridiculous monster come forth, and act such a Tragedy before my face: Nor can I yet forbear when I cast my eye on it, and think how seriously the man perswades me that I am a Papist. But then remember that thy mirth must cost thee sorrow, as mine doth, when I consider that I laugh at the signes of a mans misery, and at that which discovereth our common depravedness, and the misery of our poor people that must be both corrupted and distracted by such Teachers as these. But if thou have a minde to learn Mr Crandon's Ethicks, or Theology, take them and make thy best of them; but I pray thee expect not that ever I should particularly Reply to it, till I have so much time that I know not how better to spend, or dare give an account to God of such an expence of it, and till I am more inclined to stirre in such a puddle as that is. If thou be not able to confute Mr Crandon's strong lines without my help, its not long of me, nor can I have while to help thee, though I pity thee: Yet lest thou say I shift it off, I intend God willing, to give thee that which shall be the matter of an Answer, to the exceptions of him and many others, even a plain and full Confession of my Faith, and especially in the Point in question: How much it is that I ascribe to man or any of his actions in the work of Justification? with so much more against the main charges of Mr Cr. and Mr Eyre, as shall give thee cause enough to lament, that Opinion, Faction, and Passion, should make Christians so cruel to their own consciences, as these men have been; and shall convince thee, that whatever they do by the rest of the Law, the ninth Commandment is used but little better by them, then the second is by the Papists. For all these crying sins, I am in hope, by their zealous pretendings to the honour of Free-Grace, that they mean well in the main: And then I desire those that fear God to consider, what crooked pieces the best of us are, what need we have of daily pardon of sin, and what great cause to bear with abundance of darkness even in Teachers themselves, and to put up many and great injuries from one another, if ever we expect any quietness to the Church: and not only to see that we forgive them our selves, but also to pray for them in imitation of our Lord, [Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.] And though Mr Eyre hath clawed his Brother with this commendations, that he is [a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, and a workman that need not be ashamed.] Yet I intreat Mr Cr. to see that he be not hardened in impenitency by this warrant: For Mr E. cannot secure him hereby from future shame, though he may do somewhat to destroy the remnants of his present modesty. If such a mass of Railing Accusation, that is, Slander and Reviling twisted together, be the work of [A Workman that need not be ashamed] I confess I know not what men should be ashamed of and must say, that such men are not over-bashfull. Indeed if there were no Law, and so no transgression, they might prove that they need not be ashamed: Or had they well proved that all their sinne was perfectly pardoned before they were born, I should yield that they need not be ashamed, so far as shame is a punishment for sinne: and therefore must cease upon a perfect Remission. But Impenicency and Impudency have no good foundation.
FINIS.
End of the text · Richard Baxter, Admonition to William Eyre (1654)