The Casuist Uncased, IN A DIALOGUE Betwixt RICHARD AND BAXTER, With a MODERATOR Between Them, For QUIETNESS Sake.  
By Roger L' Estrange.  
The Second Edition.  
LONDON, ●rinted for H. Brome at the Sign of the Gun in S. Paul's Churchyard. 1680.   

upon the Manners, as well as the Services of the Royal Party. What can I do better, then to face him with the Acts of the Assembly, and the Proceedings of the Two Houses, to the Contrary? And to produce his own Act and Deed in evidence against his Profession? On the One hand, you have Mr. Baxter valuing himself up●● his Principles of Loyalty, and Obedience; And on the Other ha●●, you have the very same Mr. Baxter, (according to the Outward Man) not only pleading the Cause, but Celebrating the Justice, and Canonising (as in his Saints Rest, Pa. 101. of the Old Editions) the Prime Directors and Instruments of The Late Rebellion: Asserting the very Doctrine of Those Positions, whereupon it was founded. When Mr. Baxter Sets up for a Toleration; wh●● can be fairer than to show him his own Arguments against it? Or to ask him, how HE, (a kind of Heteroclite in his opinions,) that has Chalked out so singular a Platform of Church-Regiment 〈◊〉 himself, comes now to be a Common Advocate for all the Dissenting Parties? Take him in One Mood, (as in his Five Disputations, and elsewhere) and he tells ye, that a Diocesan Prelacy is plainly Antichristian, and Intolerable. And yet in his Non-conformists' Plea, and other parts of his Writings, he tells ye again, that the Nonconformists would have submitted to it. Now if the Constitution was so Abominable, why should they submit to it▪ And if it was not so, why does Mr. Baxter say that it was? An● why does he still persist, in Debauching and Alienating the hea●● of the People from their Rulers, in matters which he himself acknowledges to be Warrantable, and Established by Law? And so for 〈◊〉 Liturgy and Ceremonies, he's at the same Variance with himself, about the Lawfulness, or Unlawfulness of Those Points also.  
Now since Mr. Baxter has been pleased to take upon himself, the Patronage of the Non-Conformists Cause, and to put forth his Plea, and his Plea again for That Interest; what can be more Obliging then to take him at his word, and consider him under the Public Character of Their Representative? At This Rate, Mr. Baxters' Works will be as good as a Non-conformists Dictionary to us: and assist the World toward the Understanding of the Holy Dialect, i● a Wonderful manner. For the Purity of the Gospel; the ways of Christ: the Ordinances of the Lord; the Power of Godliness; the Foundations of Faith; the Holy Discipline: A Blessed Reformation, etc. These are Words, and Expressions, that signify quite another thing to Them, than they do to Us. Faithful Pastors; Laborious Ministers; Heavenly Guides; Zealous Protestants; The Upright in the Land: Humble Petitioners; Just Privileges; Higher Powers; Glorious Kings; Holy Covenanting unto the Lord, etc. This is not to be taken now, as the Language C●rrant of the Nation, but only as a Privy cipher of Intelligence betwixt Themselves, and the Cant, or Jargon of the Party. Nay, they fly from us in their Speech, their Manners, their Meaning, as well as in their Profession. The very Christ-cross in the Hornbook is as much a Scandal to them, as the Cross in Baptism; and they make it a point of Honour to maintain the Freedom of their Own Tongue, in token, that they are not as yet a Conquered Nation.  
But are the Non-conformists agreed upon it, or not; that Mr. Baxter shall be their Speaker; and that what he delivers in Their Name, shall be taken and deemed as the sense of the Party? If it be so; we have no more to do then to Consult Mr. Baxter himself, and from his o●n Writings, (which I have here Cited, and Applied, with exact Faith, and Justice) to take our Measures of the Dissenting Brethren.  
No man presses Obedience to the HIGHER POWERS, more Imperiously than He does: But then he makes Those Higher Powers to be still the Usurpers, one after another, as they get into ACTUAL POSSESSION. [Prove (says he) in the Preface to his Holy Commonwealth) that the KING was the HIGHEST POWER, in the time of Division,— and I will offer my Head to Justice, as a Rebel.] His meaning must Inevitably be This; Either that the King had no Right to the Crown before the Divisions, or that he forfeited his Title, by the Rebellion; which is an Admirable way of Transition, from rank Treason, to Lawful Authority. But in all Th●se Cases, he has still a Recourse for a Salvo to his Box of Distinctions: and tells ye, that they Shot at CHARLES STUART in the Field, for the Honour and Safety of the KING in the Two Houses: And then, Good Lord! How he runs himself out of Breath with Detesting, and Renouncing, and Renouncing, and Detesting KING-KILLING! And yet upon Occasion when Oliver the King-killer falls in his Way; How does he lay himself out in Euloyges, upon the PIOUS Defunct! Praying, (as the highest Instance of the Veneration he had for That Usurper) that the Spirit of the Father might descend upon the Son. [We pray (says he to Richard) that you may INHERIT a tender care of the Cause of Christ] Key for Catholics, Ep. Ded. But then in another Fit, he shall advance ye into, his Politics, with a Troop of Aphorisms; Lay Principalities and Powers Level with the Ground, and tear up the very Ordinance itself of Government by the Roots. [If Providence (Says he) STATEDLY, disable him that was the Governor etc.] Ho. Com. Thes. 136.  
[And yet he does not down-Right ●vow the Doctrine of King-Killing; He does indeed approve of giving Battle to the King's WILL: but whether to aim at it, in his Maiesties HEAD, or in his HEART, is not, as yet, STATEDLY determined. Now t● moderate the matter, The Presbyterians only cut off his Majesties Hands, and Feet, so that he could neither Help nor Shift for himself, and then gave him (Sold him I should say) to the Independents, Who cut off his Head. If Mr. Baxter speaks the Sense of the Non-Consormists, as he pretends to do, then must This serve for an Exposition of their Loyalty; But if not; Why does not the Party either disown or take away his Commission?  
This is it, which the Restless, and Implacable Adversaries of our Common Repose, make such a noise in the World with, as the work of the spirit of Persecution; the Enflaming of Differences; the Widening of Breaches; and the Violation of the Act of Oblivion. Whereas, in Truth, there's nothing in it of a Spiteful Invective, but on the other side, it is only a plain, and a necessary defence.  
Mr. Baxter, in his Non-Conformists Pleas, delivers (in his way) a kind of Deduction of the War. Particularly, under the Head of [Matters of Fact to be fore-known, to the True Understanding of the Cause.] 2d Part. Pag. 120. In This Chapter, from the Question of the Constitution of Churches; the Powers of Princes, and Pastors in Eccclesiastical Matters, and Cases of Lawful Separation; he makes a Sally, without any manner of Connexion, or Provocation, into the State and Right of the War. Pa. 123. He charges it upon a Faction among the Bishops, and the falling in of the Majority of the Parliaments, to the Popular part of them; in That division: which is a Calumny, as remote from the Subject of his Discourse as it is from Truth. If it had been as he would have it; how comes the whole Order of Bishops to be Assaulted? Their Persons Affronted; and their Votes in Parliament taken away; without distinction? Was the Feud so deadly, as to make them destroy Themselves; and Ruin the whole Hierarchy in Revenge? How came it to pass, that Bishop Hall, a Person Celebrated even by Mr Baxter himself for his Piety and Moderation: How came This Reverend Prelate I say, te be so Coarsely handled by the Corporation of the Smectymnuans, Martial, Calamy, Young, Newcomen, and Spurstow: and Treated by Five of the most Eminent men of the Par●y, with Scurrilitys fitter for the Priests of Priapus, than the Ministers of the Gospel. Pa. 124. He goes on with his Remarks upon Bishop Laud, over and over. The Book of Sports, on the Lord's day, the business of [Altars, Rails, and Bowing towards them. Afternoon-Sermons and Lectures put down; Imprisonments, Stigmatising, Removals, etc.] And then Pa. 125. He p●oceeds to [the new Liturgy Imposed on the Scots, etc.] But says he, (a little below) we are Unwilling to be the Mentioners of any More than Concerneth our Present Cause, and the Things are Commonly known.] Which is such a way of Mentioning no more, as giveth to understand without speaking, all the Ill Imaginable that was Left unsaid.  
Methinks Mr. Baxter might have let This most Reverend, Pious, Loyal and ANTIPAPAL Archbishop have slept quietly in ●is Grave, and out of pure Gratitude to our Present Sovereign, to whose Mercy this very Gentleman owes his Life, setting aside the Veneration that belongs to Majesty, and Truth; Methinks Mr. Baxter might have spared this L●bell, ander the Government of the Son, against the Administrations of the Father. But it is no new thing, ●or Criminals to Arraign Innocents'; or for Those that a●e Pardoned for Subverting the Government, to shoot th●ir Arrows (●v●n ●itter Words) against Those that h●ve been Persecuted and Murdered for Endeavouring to defend it.  
And now after all These Imputations upon the King, the Church, and the Loyal Party, ●v●n to the Degree of making them Answerable for all the Blood that has been spilt: We must not so much as presume to say that we are Innocent. But every Vindication of the King, the Church, and the Law from the Insults of the Common Enemy, is exclaimed against as an Inroad upon the Act of Indemnity. If Mr. Baxter will needs be laying the Rebellion at the wrong d●or, and Discharging the Presbyterians: Why m●y not any Honest man Reply upon him; and say, (in agreement with Mr. Baxter himself, Non-Conformists Plea, I. Part. Pa. 127. that it was the Solemn League and Covenant that did the work: Which Solemn League was not only an Express Oath of Allegiance to Presbytery, but to the most Tyrannical of all Presbyteries, Th●t of t●e Scottish Kirk itself. But why do I call it an Oath of Allegiance to Presbytery? When it was in Truth, a direct Conjuration against the Government, both Ecclesiastical, and Civil, for the Introducing of it?  
It would be Tedious, and Superfluous, to Crowd all the Particulars of This Pamphlet into a Preface; so that I shall rather refer the Reader, to the Book, for the rest; where he may compare Mr. Baxter with himself: for it is, Effectually, but an Abstract out of Mr. Baxter's Writings. By the Paradoxes, Disagreements, and Contradictions he will be able to judge of the Author; and by the Author, in a great Measure of the Party. He that would see them drawn more to the Life, may repair to the Original of our Saviour's for the Pharisees, in the Gospel. Examine them Narrowly and you shall not find so much as the semblance of a Colourable Argument; but they are still changing their Battery, and Pretence, according to the various Accidents, and dispositions of State: and it is but tracing the History of the Late times to find every Round of the Ladder, that advanced them from Petitioners to Rulers. They Plead the Cause of Thousands in the Land, they tell us, and yet there's not a Single man in all Those Thousands, that understands one bit of the Controversy. They cry aloud against Idolatry, Superstition, Abominations, Symbolical Ceremonies, Will-Worship, Humane Inventions, and Order their Disciples just as they do their Children: They dress up a Terrible thing of Clouts, and call it a Bullbeggar, which is no other than a Mormo of their own Creating. They have a certain Routin of Words, and Sayings, that have the tone of Magic in the very Sound of them, and serve only (without any other Meaning) like the Drum, and the Trumpet, to rouse up the Multitude to Battle. But the Lord's Ordinance, and the Primitive Pattern stand them in Mighty stead. For though they have been Foiled as often as Encountered upon This Question; yet the very Terms of the Controversy being is good as Syriack, to the Common people; there is a Mist cast before their Eyes, and they are never in so good time, to see Visions as when they are stark blind.  
To Conclude, I have exposed these She●●s to the ●●●●ck, rather as Mr. Baxters' work, than my own. If 〈…〉, it was none of my Fault that my Author would not me 〈…〉. Nor have I any more to say upon the whole matter, but that I have been as fair to Mr. Baxter, as He hath been to Himself.   

A DIALOGUE, etc.  Moderator. Richard and Baxter. Moderator. 
YEs, yes. I remember the Conference at the Savoy perfectly well; by This Token, that Dr. Gunning and Dr. Pearson (the Bishops of Ely and Chester) delivered you this very Proposition.  
That Command which Commandeth an Act in itself Lawful, 
The Proposition at the Savoy about the command of lawful Superiors.  and no other Act whereby any unjust Penalty is enjoined, nor any Circumstance whence directly, or per accidens, any Sin is Consequent which the Commander ought to provide against, hath in it all things requisite to the Lawfulness of a Command, and particularly cannot be guilty of commanding an Act per accidens Unlawful; nor of Commanding an Act under an Unjust Penalty. [B of Worcester's Letter, in his Vindication against M. Baxter. P. 36.]  Ri. 
Very Good; 
Richard's Resolution ●●●●er his hand.  and I gave them under my hand my Opinion to the Contrary. [Because (said I) the fi●st Act commanded may be per accidens Unlawful, and be Commanded by an unjust Penalty; tho' no other Act or Circumstance Commanded be such.] Ibid. Pa. 36.  Ba. 
Nay hold you Brother, I'm of another Opinion. 
Baxter of another opinion.  [If the thing Commanded be such as is simply ill, and forbidden us by God in all Cases whatsoever, than no one's Commands can make it Lawful: But if it it be a thing that is only Inconvenient, or Unlawful by some Lesser accident; then the Command of Authority may pre-ponderate, as a more weighty Accident] R. B's Church-Divisions, 
Many Commands anlawful which the subject aught yet to obey.  P. 194. Nay [Many a Ruler sinneth in his Commands, when it is no Sin, but a Duty of the Inferior to Obey them. As if a Magistrate Command Religious Duties in mere Policy: or if he force a Lawful Command with Unlawful Penalties; and Yet it will be the Subjects Duty to Obey.] Ibid. 
No Rule● is bound ●o provide against Events not to be foreseen.  [Nor is any Ruler bound to suspect, and prevent such Unusual Dangers of men's Sin, or Ruin, as fall out beyond all Rational Foresight, or Expectation; of whose Probable Event (or Possible at least), there was no just Evidence.] R. B's Non-Conformists judgement. P. 60.  Mo. 

Magistracy cut off at a blow.  Your Argument (Mr. Richard) has cut off all Magistracy at a Blow: For there is not any Command Imaginable that falls not within the Reach of your Exception. And Mr. Baxter is in the Right on't. But what do ye think now (Gentlemen) of the Operation, or further Extent of such a Power?  Ri. 

The Civil Power must not make Laws about God's Worship.  If you mean as to matters concerning Religion [No man 〈◊〉 any Authority to make Laws about God's Worship, but 〈◊〉 Christ hath given him.] Non-Conformists Plea 2d Part. P. 28.  Ba. 
pray hold me a little Excused There too; for [we renounce the Opinion of them that hold that Circa Sacra the King hath no Power to Command the Circumstances of Worship. 
But Baxter says, that Circa Sacra he may. ] Non-conformists' Plea. Part 2 d. P. 73.  Mo. 

Richard and Baxter still at variance.  There is but a Right and a Wrong in the case (my Masters) and you have hit them both again, I make no doubt on't, but your Circa Sacra comprehends Liturgies, Ceremonies, and other Circumstances of Order, relating to the Church, pray tell me how your Consciences stand affected that way: Not as to the Merits of the Cause (for the world is already clogged with That Controversy) but I would willingly know what thoughts, You, and the Party you plead for, entertain of our Ecclesiastical matters.  Ri. 
[When the King called us to signify our desires in 1660. the Ministers of London were commonly invited to come to Zion College, 

Richard's Account of the Savoy-Conference.  
Usher's Primitive Episcopacy offered, but rejected,   that their Common Consent might be known: And There we agreed, to desire or offer nothing for Church-Government but A.B. Ushers Model of the Primitive Episcopal Government. When his Majesty would not grant us That Model, nor the Bishops once Treat about it, he was pleased in his Gracious Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs to offer and prescribe the Episcopacy of England as it stood, with little alteration, etc. (A Government (says his Majesty) Fol. 10. Which is established by Law, and with which the Monarchy hath flourished through so many Ages, and which is in truth as ancient in this Island as the Christian Monarchy thereof. 
The English Episcopacy submitted to by Richard, &c ) [This Declaration we joyfully and thankfully accepted, as a hopeful means of a Common Conformity and Concord.] Non-Con's Plea, 2d. Part Pref.  Ba. 
[The English Prelacy (I tell you) is the product of proud Ambition and Arrogancy; 
But held Antichristian and Diabolical by Baxter.  and contrary to the express Command of Christ] R. B's. Five Disputations P. 45. Bishops are Thorns and Thistles, and the Military Instruments of the Devil.] R. B's. Concord. P. 122. How could you ●ustify then a Submission to such a Prelacy?  Mo. 
If an Angel from Heaven I perceive were employed to bring 〈◊〉 two to an Agreement, 
Richard and Baxter never 〈◊〉 ●e reconciled.  he shoul● lose his Labour; Fo● That which is highly acceptable to the One, and the hopeful Foundation of a Common Concord, is Antichristian, Diabolical, and Unsufferable to the Other.  
You a●e up (I find) at every Turn with the 〈◊〉 Projectpunc; and in such a manner too, as if the most ●●●●onable thing in the World ●ad been offered o● the One 〈◊〉▪ and refused on the Other: 
The Ground of A.B. Usher Project of Episcopacy.  Whereat That 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 accommodated to the ●ard 〈…〉 the King's Affairs, at the time of Framing 〈…〉 any man, in a case of Extremity, 〈…〉 of an Arm ●r a Leg, for the 〈…〉 yet he a very strange request to ask a man in a state of Freedom, and Safety, to part with a Leg or an Arm from his Body: And as wild a thing, on the other side, to Grant it. But the very offer at it under a pretence of Conscience, was highly disingenuous, especially when upon the Issue the Scruple was removed by the Refusal; and This Satisfaction given to the world, by your own Acknowledgement, that Conformity and Episcopacy may stand well enough together, when you please.  Ri. 
I cannot deny but that [ma●y proposed to have yielded to Prelacy, 
Many would have yielded to Prelacy, &c  Liturgy, and Ceremonies.] Non-Con. Plea, Part I. P. 136.  Ba. 
Why truly [a Certain Episcopacy may be yielded to, for the Peace (if not for the Right Order) of the Church; 
The Diocesan Episcopacy gratifies the Devil, says Baxter, and not to be readmitted. ] [But the Diocesan Episcopacy which was lately in England, and is now laid by may not be lawfully reassumed, or readmitted, as a means for the Right Order or Peace of the Church.] R. B's. Five Disputation, P. 2. 1659. [A Government which gratif●eth the Devil, and wicked men.] Ibid. P. 36.  Mo. 

R. and B. still Clashing.  Still upon the Contradiction. But if they were so well disposed to come In, what was it I beseech you that put them off again?  Ri. 

The New Uniformity spoil d all.  When they saw the New Act for Uniformity, th●ir Deliberations were at an End. Ibid. P. 26.  Ba. 
[After proving Prelacy to be against the ●ill of Christ▪ and the Welfare of the Churches, 
Prelacy Unlawful in it s●lf says Baxter.  Five Disp. Pref. 1●. and contrary to the word of God, and Apostolical Institution, Ibid P. 51. what need was there then of any further Dissuasion?  Mo. 

Why not Prelacy as lawful after the Act, as before?  pray tell me Mr. Richard; Was Prelacy Lawful Before the Act for Uniformity, and not After? You are Angry at the One, and therefore you Renounce the Other; for it was no longer Prelacy, Liturgy, or Ceremonies, it seems that you boggled at, but the New Act. Now since you yourselves were convinced, that such a Conformity as aforesaid would have been Warrantable, and only transferred your Exceptions to the New Act; how comes it that you go on still decrying the State, Rites, and Offices of the Church to the Multitude; and make That a matter of Conscience in One breath which you left at Liberty in Another? The Uniformity does not alter the case one jot to the Common People; 
It is the same case still to the People.  but the Laity may as lawfully submit to Prelacy, Liturgy and Ceremonies, After the Act, as they did before.  Ri. 
[The People who now adhere to the Non-Conformists, 
Hard thoughts of Episcopacy and Bishops, and upon what groun●●  who were at age before the Wars, had very hard thoughts of the Bishop's Persons; and some, of Episcopacy itself; because of the Silencing of Ministers, and ruining of Honest men about Sundays-sports, Reading That Book, and other su●h things, beside Nonconformity, etc. Non-Con. Plea. Part I. P. 139.  Mo. 
the Bishops and Episcopacy itself you say were thought hardly of; partly for Silencing your Mi●isters. Which was yet a way of proceeding Conformable to the directions of the Law; and in part, (among Other Provocations) for the Book of Sports upon the Lord's day. Be it spoken with Reverence to the Honour and Duty of that Holy Day; I should have thought that the Rebels assaulting of their Sovereign at Edge hill upon That day, 
A Gr●●ter Scandal to travel upon the Lord's day then to give theKing ba●●le.  might have given your Scrupulists as hard thoughts of the Faction that did it, and of those Sanguinary Casuists that sounded the Trumpet to That Battle. But how came they off I beseech you, from That froward Humour?  Ri. 
[When the Ministers that guided them, 
Richard Confesses that the Minister's guided the people▪ and says that the Non-conformists undertook for the next Bishops good behaviour.  began to seem more reconciled to the Episcopal Party, and upon the Reports and Promises which they had heard, that the next Bishops would prove more moderate, pious, and peaceable than the Former, and would by experience avoid Divisions and Persecution; the said People began to be inclined to more Reverend and Favourable Thoughts of the Bishops, and were upon experience of the late Confusions in a far fairer way to Union and Submission to them then before. Non-Con. Plea, Part I. P. 139.  Mo. 
If it be True that the People were induced to have a more Charitable Opinion of the Prelates, by the Hopes which their Guides gave them of having better Bishops next bout▪ It appears, fi●st that the Quarrel was not to the Office, 
The Quarrel not to the Office of Bishops but to the persons.  but to the Persons. And Secondly, it shows that the Ministers menage the Multitude, For or Against their Superiors, as They please: which lays a stronger Obligation upon the Government, to secure a Well-affected Ministry, when the Public Peace lies at the Mercy of the Dissenting Clergy. But what becomes of us next?  Ri. 
When they saw their Teachers taken from them, and some 〈◊〉 set over them against their Wills who were better known to them th●●●o the Obtruders: 
Richard● Reasons why the People sell from the Church again  And when they heard of about 2000, Silenced at once, This so much Alienated them from the Bishops, that it was never since in Our Power to bring them to so much Esteem of them, and Re●●rence for them as might have been. Non-Con. Plea, Part I. P. 140  Mo. 


The Uniformity made Episcopacy and Commonprayer unlawful.  
'Tis the Law that Silences, an● not the Bishops.   So that upon the Upshot, there passed an Act for Uniformity, Ergo, Episcopacy and Commonprayer are Unlawful.  
See now what it is that you call Silencing of so many Ministers. It is no more than a fair Revival of those necessary Provisions for the Safety of the Government, which had been violently overborne and discontinued in our late Troubles: Upon which violation, ensued our Deplorable Confusion's And to take the business aright, ●he Law does not s●e●ce your Ministers more than it does Ours: but holds forth one Comm●n Rule indifferently to All men, with a respect to Political, as well as Eccl●siast●●al-Concord. Every man sees before him the Conditions of his Freedom; and he that either Cannot, or Will not comply with the Terms of a General Rule, 
Non-Conformists silence themselves.  Silenceth himself. And is not the Man neither that is Silenced by This Law, but this or that Incongruous Practice or Opinion. If Richard thinks fit to come In, there's no body hinders him; and if john will not come in, who can help it? In short, This way of Silencing amounts to no more than a very Gentle Expedient for the stopping of those Mouths that would be blowing the Coal towards a Rebellion. Wherefore I beseech ye Gentlemen for the Act of Oblivion's sake, which has done a great deal more for you then This comes to, have some pity for the poor Act of Uniformity.  
As to your account of about two thousand Silenced Ministers, a matter of 8● or 900. difference shall break no squares betwixt you and me. 
Berter particulars suffer then 〈◊〉 Order o●●●vernment be dissolved.  But what yet if they Were two thousand? must the divine Ordinance of Government be profaned, and the harmony of Order Dissolved, in favour of that Inconsiderable Party of Irregulars; and to the scandal of six times as many Conscientious and Obedient Subjects of the State both Ecclesiastical, and Civil?  Ri. 
For my own part [I do not know that I differ in any point of Worship, Ceremonies, or Discipline, 
Richard agrees with Dr▪ Reynolds 〈◊〉 conformed.  from the Learned Dr. John Reignolds] R. B's Letter to Mr. Hinckley, P. 89. And my Judgement is, that [a Peace with the Divines of the Episcopal Judgement is much to be desired, and earnestly endeavoured.] Five Disp. Pag. 1.  Mo. 
If you agree in the Conclusion with that Reverend Dr. you are safe; and take This for a Rule; Out of the ways of Love and Peace there can be no Comfort.  Ri. 
Alas [It is a Sect, as a Sect, and a F●ction, as a Faction, and not this or that Sect or Faction which I blame: 
Richard pleads altogether for Love.  It is Unity, Love, and Peace which I am pleading for; and he that is angry with me for calling men to Love, is angry for calling them to Holiness, to God, and Heaven. Holiness which is against Love, is a Contradiction; it is a deceitful name which Satan putteth upon Unholynesse. Church Divisions. ●ref.  Ba. 
Your Churches bear with Drunkards, Whoremongers, Railers, 
Ba●ters way of expressing.  Open Scorners at Godliness, Five Disp. P. 37. [T●e most ungodly of the Land are the forwardest for your ways. You may have almost all the Drunkards, Blasphemers, and Ignorant Haters of Godliness in the Country to Vote for you.] Five Disp. Pref. Pag. 17. To the Adherers to Prelacy.  Ri. 

●ichard against rash censuring 〈…〉.  [He is as Mortal an Enemy to Love, who backbiteth, and s●ith he's Profane; Or he is an Empty Formalist, or he is a lukewarm, Temporising, Complying Man-Pleaser; As he that sait● he is a peevish, Factious Hypocrite.] To Preach without Love, and to hear without Love, and to pray without Love, and to communicate without Love to any that differ from your Sect, Oh what a loathsome Sacrifice is it to the God of Love!] Church-Divisions. Preface. Love is the fulfilling of all the Law; the End of the Gospel; the Nature, and mark of Christ's Disciples, the Divine Nature; the Su● of Holiness to the Lord; the Proper Note by which to know what is the man, and what his State; and how far any of his Other Acts are acceptable unto God. Ibid.  Ba. 

Baxter against Rich●rd  How many years have we begged for Peace of those that should have been the Preachers and wisest Promoters of Peace; and cannot yet obtain it; nor quiet them that call for fire and sword, not knowing what Spirit they are of? Non-Con. ●lea, Pref. [The Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs telleth us, that the King would have given the People Peace, but with Vnpeacea●●● Clergymen, No Petition could prevail.] Ibid. [And all This is out of a bitter enmity to God's word and ways; 
Mr Ba●ters Cha●ity to the Clergy and discipline of ●he Church  for they will be at more pains than This, in any way that is Evil; or in any Worship of Man's devising. They are as zealous for Crosses and Surplices, Processions, and P●rambulations, reading a Gospel at a Crossway, the Observation of Holy days, the repeating of the Litany, or the like Forms in the Common Prayer, the bowing at the name of the word jesus, (while they reject his Worship) the receiving of the Secrament when they have no Right to it, and that upon their Knees, as if they were more Reverend and Devout than the true Laborious servants of Christ; with a Multitude of things which are only the Traditions of their Fathers; I say they are as zealous for These, 
His brotherly Love.  as if Eternal Life consisted in them. Where God forbids them, there they are as forward as if they could never do enough, and where God Commands them, There they are as backward to it; yea as much against it as if they were the Commands of the Devil himself. And for the Discipline of Christ, 
Church ann State arraign d.  though all parts of the world have much opposed it, yet where hath it been so fiercely and powerfully resisted? The Lord grant that this hardened, wilful, malicious Nation fall not under that Heavy Doom, Luke 19.27. But those mine Enemies which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me. R. B's. Saints Rest, Part. 3. P. 91.  Mo. 
To see the difference now Gentlemen, betwixt your two Spirits! The One, so meek, 
Richard and Baxter of two quite different spirits.  and like a Christian, the Other, so clamorous, and so Uncharitable. What hopes of Unity and Peace; or what Pretence to't; so long as these dividing and defaming Liberties are kept a foot? Your Friend Richard tells you very well (Mr. Baxter) that Such Holiness is a deceitful Name that S●tan puts upon Unholynesse, 
The persecuted are the perssecutors.  and a loathsome Sacrifice to the God of Love. You revile the Government, and those that Conform to it, and yet at the same time you tell the People that you are persecuted.  
You would be thought kinder to his Majesty however, in devolving the severity from the King upon the Clergy; and yet his Majesty is pleased to mind you that [Since the Printin this Declaration, several Seditious Pamphlets and Quaeres have been Published, and Scattered abroad, to infuse dislike and jealousies into the hearts of the People; and of the Army, and some who ought rather to have repent the former mischief they have wrought, then to have endeavoured to emprove it, have had the hardiness to publish that the Doctrine of the 〈◊〉 (against which no man with whom we have conferred 〈◊〉 excepted) ought to be reform as well as the Discipline. ● So that all this yielding was too little, it seems to stop the Mouths of an Insatiable Faction. But what is it at last that you would be at?  Ri. 

Be sure first of what spirit ●he Non-conformists' are.  I beg of the Clergy that before they any more render Odious These whom they never heard, and Urge Rulers to Execute the Laws against them; that is, to confine, Imprison, Excommunicate, Silence, and Undo th●m, they would be sure, what manner of spirit they are of. Non-con. Plea, Part I. Epistle.  Mo. 
[Sure of what spirit you are] do ye say! Why Certainly your own Conscience tells you that we are sure of that, 
The spirit of the Non-Conformists.  as Hearing, Seeing, Feeling, and Understanding can make us. You are by your own Professions of the Presbyterian Spirit. The Spirit that made Perjury the Condition of Life, Liberty and Estate, to every man in the Case of your Covenant. The Spirit that Entered upon Sequestered Livings, and left not the Loyal Clergy the Freedom, so much as of Teaching a School, to supply themselves, and their Miserable Families with Bread. The Spirit that denied the King in his Distresses, the Comfort of so much as a Common-Prayer Book, or the Assistance of his own Chaplains.  

His Late Majesty's Judgement & Experience upon it.  [A greater Rigour and Barbarity than is ever used by Christians, to the meanest Prisoners, and Greatest Malefactors; whom though the justice of the Law, deprive of Worldly Comforts, yet the mercy of Religion allows them the Benefit of their Clergy, as not aiming at once to destroy their Bodies, and to damn their souls, EIK. BAS. 207. [They that envy my being a King, 
The spirit that Richard pleads, ●or.  are loath I should be a Christian; while they seek to deprive me of all things else, they are afraid I should save my Soul. Ibid.] Behold here in a few words the Spirit that you plead for.  〈◊〉. 
〈…〉 poor Creatures, [We would [only] have a Toleration of all ●ha●'s Tolerable [he that will Tolerate All, is Bad; 
Richards ●oleration.  and he that will Tolerate▪ none that differ, is Mad.] R. B's. answer to Dr. Stillingfleet. P. 84.  Mo. 
If the Church may be judge, all that are Tolerable are Tolerated already; 
Who are the Judges, the Government, or the People.  If the People must be the judges, the Intolerable must be Tolerated for Company. For so long as every Party Makes, or Pretends itself, to be in the Right, all the Dissenters have one Common Plea. But in case of any Indulgence to be allowed, it is certainly due to these in preference, that are quietest without it. I cannot but have great Compassion for any Party that labours under a Religious and Invincible Disagreement, 
Modest Dissenters deserve pity.  and Modesty applies to Authority for Relief: For so long as they only tell their own Tale, I cannot but in charity believe that they have no other design then to do their own business. But when a Conscientious Pretence comes to be carried on by Scandal, Invective, Reproach, and such Methods as are directly Irreligious; the dispute is no longer matter of Scruple, or Worship, but Superiority, and Power. 
The Dispute is not Scruple but Power.  There may be Religion in telling the Government what you desire, but the exposing of your Superiors to the People▪ is Down right Sedition. And, as you have handled the matter, you might even with as good a Grace tell the Rabble in plain English: Look ye my Master's, 
Plain▪ dealing.  here's a company of Antichristian Swearing, Drinking Fellows, that will not let us have Liberty of Conscience; But I would fain hear you two debate the business of Tolera●on a little betwixt your selves.  Ri. 
What [if you shall smite or cast out a supposed Schismatique, and Christ shall find an able, holy peaceable Minister, 
Richard puts the Case of a Saint and a Schismatic.  or other Christian Wounded, or Mourning out of doors. Pet. for Peace. P. 12. [Or see a schismatic wounded and a Saint found Bleeding, etc. Saints Rest. P. 1ST.  Ba▪ 
And now you talk of Saints, Richard [to think of such a Friend died at such a time, 
Baxter's Saints  and such a one at another time, such a precious Christian slain in such a Fight, and such a one at ●uch a Fight, (O what a number of them could I name) and that all these are entered into Rest; and we shall surely go to Them, but They shall not return to Us. 
Baxter sully resolved to go to them that died in Rebellion.  Saints Rest. P. 100 In That State of Rest, Angels as well as Saints will be Our blessed Associates. Ibid. P. 101. [I think Christians, This will be a more Honourable Assembly than you ever here beheld, and a more happy Society than you were ever of before. Surely Py● and White, 
He joys to think what Company he shall have.  etc. are now members of a more Knowing, Vnerri●g, Well-ordered, Right-aiming, Selfdenying, unanimous, Honourable, Triumphant Senate, than This from whence they were taken, is or ever Parliament will be. It is better to be doorkeeper to That Assembly whither Twisse etc. are Translated; then to have continued here the Moderator of This. Saints Rest. P. 101. [Nay how many Professors will rashly rail and lie in their Passions? 
Baxter says, that Professors will rail, and lie, etc.  How few will take well a Reproof, but rather defend their sin? how many in these times that we doubt not to be Godly have been guilty of Disobedience to their Guides, and of Schism, and doing much more to the hurt of the Church, a very great Sin. Peter, Lot, and 'tis like David did oft commit greater Sins, R. B's Five Disdutes▪ of Right to Sacraments P. 329. But a man must be guilty of more sins than Peter was in denying and forswearing Christ, 
But that neither Perjury, drunkenness, Incest, Concubines, nor Idols, can make them dotoriously ungodly.  that is notoriously ungodly; yea, then Lot was, who was drunk two nights together, and committed Incest twice with his own Daughters; and that after the miraculous destruction of Sodom, of his own wife, and his own miraculous Deliverance. Nay, a man that is notoriously ungodly (in the sense in hand) or Unsanctifyed, must be a greater sinner than Solomon was with his Seven hundred Wives, three hundred Concubines, and gross● Idolatries, P. 326.327.  Mo. 
And are These the Saints (Gentlemen) that you are afraid should be cast out, 
The Saints that are cast out for heretics.  for Schismatics? They must be of your own Canonising then, for I assure you I find no such Saints in our Calendar. But let me hear I beseech you whom we are to keep out, and whom to take in.  Ri. 
We must either Tolerate All men to do what they will, 
Either Tolerate All or None, but upon a Penalty▪  which they will make a matter of Conscience or Religion; and then some may offer their Children in sacrifice to the Devil; and some may think they do God service in killing his Servants, etc. [Or else you must Tolerate no Error or fault in Religion; and than you must advise what measure of Penalty you will Inflict. Church-Divis. P. 363, 364.  Mother 
The two great Difficulties will be to say what Errors are Tolerable, and what not; and then to bring the Magistrate and the People to an Agreement upon the matter.  Ri, 
[If no Error were to be a Tolerated, 
No men must be Tolerated, if no Error.  no men were to be Tolerated and the Wisest in the World must be numbered with the Intolerable, as well as the rest. Church Divis. P. 348.  Ba. 
[But some People make those things to be Duties which are no Duties, and Sins which are no Sins, calling Evil Good, 
Baxter shows the Inconveniences of Toleration.  and Good Evil; and having made a Religion of their own, confidently think that it is of God, valuing all men that they have to do with according as they are nearer or further off from This, which they account the way of God; choosing a Church or Party to join with, by the Test of This Religion, which their Pride has C●osen. Church Divis. P. 11. [Thus they divide the Kingdom and Family of Christ; 
Pride makes one man's Religion.  destroying first the Love of Brethren and Neighbours in themselves, and then labouring to destroy it in all Others; by speaking against those that are not in their own way with Contempt, and Obloquy, 
Faction another's.  to represent them as an Unlovely sort of Men; and if the Interest of their Cause and Party require it, 

Which ends in blood.  
And yet pass●● for doing God good service. And the motion of the spirit.   perhaps they will next destroy their Persons: And yet all this is done in zeal of God, and as an Acceptable service to him. Ibid. P. 12. [And they think it a resisting of the Spirit to resist their Judgement. P. 13. [I have known too many very honest-hearted Christians, especially Melancholic Persons and Women who have been in great doubt about the Opinions of the Millenaries, the Separatists, the Anabaptists, the Seekers, and such like; and after earnest Prayer to God, 
Enthusiastic▪ zeal▪  they have been strongly resolved for the way of Error, and Confident by the strong Impression that it was the Spirits Answer to their Prayers, and thereupon they have set themselves into a Course of Sin. Ibid. P. 162. And [In truth it is very Ordinary with poor phancyfull Women, 
Dotage●●a●en fo● Revelations.  and Melancholy Persons to take all their deep Apprehensions for Revelations. Ibid. P. 167.  Mo. 
Well; but these people all this while take themselves to be in the right.  Ba. 

Scripture the Ru●e.  But as for that which is Contrary to Scripture, I am sure it is contrary to the Will of God. Church Divis. P. 166.  Mo. 

But who must expound it?  Out of all doubt; but what if They expound the Scripture One way, and You Another?  Ba. 

One man's Faith must not Impose upon another's.  [Why if they believe That themselves which they can give you no reason to believe, they must be content to keep their belief to themselves; and not for shame persuade any other to it without proof. If they say that God hath revealed it to them, tell them that he hath not revealed it to You, and therefore That's nothing to You, till they prove their Divine Revelation. If God reveal it to them, but for themselves they must keep it to themselves. Ibid. P. 166. [If they say that the spirit hath told Them the meaning of the Scripture, say as before that it is not told to you which is not proved to you. Ibid 167. [But if we do through weakness or perverseness take lawful things to be unlawful, 
Mistake will not justify the Error, nor excuse a Disobedience. Men will be zealous even in Error. More zeal than understanding is not good. None so fierce and bold as ●he Ignorant.  That will not excuse Us in our disobedience. Our Error is our Sin, and one Sin will not excuse another R. B's. Five Disput. P. 483. [He that mistakingly thinks any thing is good or bad, Duty or Sin which is not so, will be zealous in pursuit of his Mistake if he be serious for God. Cath. Theol. Pref. [It is an Ill sign when your zeal is beyond the proportion of your Understanding: And your Prudence and Experience is much less than other men's, as your zeal is greater. Church Divis. P. 123. [Beside that the more weak and worthless, and Erroneous any one's Judgement is, usually the more furious are they in the prosecution of it, as if all were most certain Truth which they apprehend. These are the boldest both in Schisms, and persecutions. Ibid. 357.  Mo. 
But you will say, that in cases where the common people may be imposed upon by Credulity, Fancy, or Weakness, they may repair to their Teachers to set them right.  Ba. 
Even the most of Teachers take abundance of things for true and good that are false and evil, and for false and bad, 
Even Teachers themselves are false Guides.  which are true and good: Much more are godly vulgar people Ignorant, and consequently err in many things, Cath. Theol. Pref. [And I myself was mistaken in my Aphorisms of justification and the Covenants, 
M●. Baxter himself has been mistaken▪  as I have acknowledged in the same Preface.  Mo. 
You have had very ill luck, Sir, 
Ill luck with his Aphorisms.  with your Aphorisms.  Ri. 
[I must confess that when God had first brought me from among the more Ignorant sort of people, 
How Richard was wheedled in.  and when I heard Religious Persons pray without Form, and Speak affectionately, and seriously of Spiritual and Heavenly things, I thought verily that they were all undoubted Saints, till e'er long, of those whom I so m●ch honoured, one fell of to Sensuality, and to Persecuting Formality; and another fell to the foulest Heresy, 
i e. he was reconci'd to the Church.  and another to disturb the Church's Peace, by Turbulent Animositys and Divisions. Church Devil. P. 23.24. etc.  Ri. 
[I thought once, that all the talk against Schism and Sects, did but vent their Malice against the best Christians, u●der those Names; But since Then, 
Richards best Christians found to ●e Schismatics.  I have seen what Love-killing-Principles have done. I have long stood by while Churches have been divided, and Subdivided; one Congregation of the Division labouring to make the other Contemptible, and odious; and This called, the Teaching of Truth, and the purer Worshipping of God; Church-Divisions. Pref.  Ba. 
[When so great a man as Tertullian was deceived by Montanus, and his Prophetess: 
Great m●n misled, and why not 〈…〉.  When such a one as Hacket could deceive not only Coppinger, and Arthington, but abundance more; when David George in Holland, john of Leiden in Munster, etc. could deceive so many persons as they did; when the pretended Revelations of the Ranters, First, and the Quakers After, could so marvellously transport many Thousands of professors of Religion in this Land, 
Believe not every spirit.  I think we have fair warning to take the Counsel of St. john. Believe not every Spirit, but try the Spirit whether they be of God. Church Divis. P. 164.  


T●e Dissenters 'Cause is still God's cause.  
Their false Prophets. T●e Kings death directed by a Revelation.  
Sedgwicks' day of Judgement.  
Vavas●r Pours Prophecy of no more Kings or Taxe●.   [Alas? how common was this in the Army, to set up and Pull down, do an undo, own and disown, as by the Spirit of God There was Mr. Erbery, Mr. Saltmarsh, Mr. del, Mr. William Sedgwick, who as from God wrote one week to the Army, against their putting the King to Death, and the next week wrote to them quite on the other side, and that set London by a Prophecy or Vision on looking for the day of Judgement, on a set day. Second. Admon. to Bagshaw. P. 68 Vavasor powel at Clifton upon Thame in Worcestershire, quickly after Worcester Fight, said in his Sermon that he would tell them these things as from God that they should have no more Kings, nor any more Taxes, nor pay any more Tithes. Ibid. P. 69.  Mo. 
pray do but consider now, if your particular Pastors disagree among themselves; if you yourself, Mr. Baxter, have been mistaken in your Judgement as well of Truth in Notion, as of Persons; If those that you took for Saints, proved Schismatics; and Persecutors, those that you took for Conscientious Professors, are we not much better in the hand of a known and Impartial Law that cannot deceive us, then at the Mercy of a wild Multitude, 
Rather the Law of the Land then the Humour of the people.  Unknown and Prepossessed, who in all probability will impose upon us?  Ri. 
A Fear of sinning is necessary in all that will be Obedient to God, and will be saved: 
A Fear of sinning aught to be cherished, even in a mistake.  It is that Fear of God which is the beginning of Wisdom. It is therefore to be loved and cherished, even when Scrupulousness mistaketh the matter. Non-Con. Plea. 2d. Part. P. 163.  Ba. 

Dangerous trusting to scruples.  There's no trusting to Scruples. [I have known some that have lived long in douhts and fears of Damnation who have turned Anabaptists, and suddenly had Comfort; and yet in a short time they forsook that Sect, and turned to another. I have known those also that have lived many years in timorous Complaints, and fears of Hell, and they have turned to the Antinomians, and suddenly been comforted; and others have turned Arminians (which is clear contrary) and been comforted; and others have but heard of that Doctrine of Perfection in this Life, and suddenly been past their fears, as if hearing of Perfection had made them perfect: And from thence they have turned Familists, and at last showed their Perfection by Fornication,, and Licentiousness and mere Apostasy; who yet lived very conscientiously and blamelessely, as long as they lived in their Fears and Troubles, P. 170. Church Divis.  
[Could I have believed him that would have told me five years ago (This bearing date jan. 15. 1649. 
Who would have thought it? ) that when the * Scorners of Godliness were subdued, and the bitter persecutors of the Church overthrown; that such should succeed them who suffered with us, 
Th● Episcopal Clergy.  who were our Intimate Friends, with whom we took sweet Counsel, and went up together to the House of God? 
Simeon and Levi.  Did I think it had been in the hearts of men professing such zeal to Religion, and the ways of Christ to draw their Swords against each other: and to seek each others Blood so fiercely? Alas! if the Judgement be once perverted, and Error hath perverted the Supreme Faculty, whether will men go, and what will they do? 
O the force of a misguided Conscience!  O what a potent Instrument for Satan is a misguided Conscience! It will make a man kill his dearest Friend, yea Father or Mother, yea, the Holiest Saint, and think he doth God good service by it: 
The very Case of the seduced multitude.  And to facilitate the work, it will first blot out the Reputation of their Holiness, and make them take a Saint for a Devil▪ Saints Rest. P. 133. [Whence can it be, but for want of self-denial, that Magistrates professing a zeal for Holiness regard no more the Interest of Christ; but that the Name (and but the Name) of Liberty, (a Liberty that hath neither Moral Good, 
The Name of Liberty does mo●e ●●en ●he consideration 〈◊〉 Heaven itself.  or Evil in it) is set in the balance against the things of everlasting Consequence, and thought sufficient to over weigh th●m; And that the mere pretence of this Indifferent Carnal Liberty is thought an Argument of sufficient weight for the Introduction of a wicked, Damning Liberty, even a liberty to deceive, and destroy as many as they can, and to hinder those that desire men's Salvation. R. B's Self-denial Epist. Monitory. [Shall every man have leave to do evil, 
Baxt●r against Liberty.  that can be Ignorant enough to think (or say he thinks) that he doth well? And must Magistrates rule as men that are Uncertain whether there be a Christ, or a Church, or Heaven, or Hell; because some are found in their Dominions so foolish, or Impious as to be Uncertain of it? 
And Toleration.  Ibid. [Will merciful Rulers set up a trade for butchering of Souls, and allow men to set up a shop of poison, for all men to buy and take that will, yea to proclaim this poison for Souls in Streets, and Church Assemblies? etc. I●i●. But the same Argument that tempts the sensual to Hell; doth tempt such Magistrates to set up Liberty for drawing men to Hell. Ibid. Is Faith and Holiness propagated by Persuasion, and not by Force? Surely then Infidelity, Popery and ungodliness ar● Propagated by Persuasion too; Again I tell yo●, self-love doth make such Rulers wiser than to grant Commission at liberty to all that will, to 'tice the Soldiers to Mutinies and Rebellion, etc. Ibid. Liberty, in all mat er of Worship, and of Faith, is the open and apparent way to set up Popery in the Land. 
Liberty the way to set up Popery▪  N●●-Con. Plea. Pref.  M●. 
Well Mr. Richard: After this frank and sensible Declaration of yourself upon this Chapter, do but teach me which way in the world to reconcile your Practice and your Conscience; for you are a Person certainly of all men Living, the most Improper Advocate for a Toleration; 
Mr. Richard an Improper Advocate for Toleration.  and the most unfit Solicitor of a Popular Petition. First, as your judgement lie● directly against the thing you plead for. Secondly, as you are conscious of the danger, as well as the Injustice of such a Licence. Thirdly, you have been a very unhappy Instrument already betwixt his Majesty and his Subjects. And Lastly, In demanding That over again from This King, by which his Father was destroyed, you make yourself suspected to have some Ill Design: For to Triumph and Rejoice (as you do) after the Thing is done, is less, a great deal, then to forethink the doing of it. And it is not only that you are sufficiently convinced of the mischiefs of a Toleration, but your Conscience (if I be not much mistaken) will make as good a shift as any man's without it.  Ri. 
W● are against no Bishop or Church-Government of God's Appointment. Prof. of Non-consormists P. 89. 
Richard is a Conformist.  [We hold it not unlawful to take Oaths, and make Covenants, Subscriptions, or Declarations of things Lawful, when Authority commandeth us. Ibid. P. 98. We readily Subscribe the doctrine of the 39 Articles. Ib. 98. We are far from condemning all Forms of Prayer, and Public Liturgy, P. 100 We pick no Quarrels about Forms and Words. Church-Div. p. 176. [Tell me if you can, where God forbids you to use Good and Lawful Words in Prayer, merely because the Magistrate, or Pastor bids you use them. Is this the meaning of all the Precepts of Honouring, and Obeying your Superiors? [Do nothing which they bid you do, though otherwise Lawful] O Strange Exposition of the 4 th' Commandment? p. 178. [I take the Common Prayer to be Incomparably better than the Prayers or Sermons, of many that I hear; and to be the best that I expect in many places when I go to Church. R.Bs. Letter to Mr. Hinckly p. 78. [It's like, the Pharisees Long Liturgy, was in many things worse than Ours, though the Psalms were a great part of it: and yet Christ, and his Apostles oft joined with Them, and never Condemned them. Ch. Diu. P. 176. [He is void of Common sense that thinketh that his Extemporary Prayer is not as truly a Form to all the People, as if it had been written in a Book. And every Public Minister Imposeth a Form of Prayer upon all the Congregation. Ibid. 179. [We hold, not all the use of Images, even the Images of Holy Persons, to be Unlawful. Profession of Nonconformists. P. 104. [We hold not a Gown, or other mere distinctive Garment for Ministers to be Unlawful. And some of us hold a Surplice rather to be used, than the Ministry forsak●●. Ibid. [Many of us hold it Lawful to communicate Kneeling Ibid. p. 105. [We all hold that God must be Orderly, and Decently Worshipped with the Body, as well as Spiritually, with the mind. And that Reverend Gestures, and Behaviours are fit, not only to express Mental Reverence to God, but also to Excite it, in ourselves and others. Ibid. 105. We are for the use of the Creed, Commandments, and Lords Prayer. p. 106.  Ba. 
[It is now about Twenty Years since I Preached at a Fast to the Parliament for Loyalty; the King the next morning was voted home to his Crown, and Government, 2 d part● of Non-Con. Plea. Preface. In This Sermon, I have given the World a Taste of my Affections to the Church. 
Mr. Baxter's Sermon that brought the King in.  [Gentlemen, I have nothing to ask of you for myself, nor any of my Brethren, as for Themselves; but that you will be Friends to Serious Preaching, and Holy Living, and will not ensnare our Consciences with any Vnscripturall Inventions of men. 
Presbytery for the Lords sake  This I would beg of you as on my Knees. 1. As for the sake of Christ. 2. for the sake of Thousands of poor Souls. 3. For the Sake of Thousands of the dear Friends of the Lord. 4. For your own sakes. 5. For the sake of your Posterity. 6. For the Honour of the Nation and yourselves. 7. For the Honour of Sound doctrine, and Church-Government. etc. Pa. 45. and 46. For if you Frown on Godliness, under pretence of Uniformity in Unnecessary things; and make things worse than when Libertinism, and Schism so prevailed: the people will look back with Groans, 
Oh the happy times when Presbyterians ruled.  and say; What happy times did we once See! And so will honour Schism, and Libertinism, and Usurpation, through Your Oppression. 8. I beg this of you for the Honour of Sovereignty, and the Nations Peace. Ibid. And then for your [new-made Religions, 
Have a care of scandalous Inventions. The Ignorant Church-Tyrants.  and needless Scandalous Inventions, and an adoring of your Titles and Robes of Honour, covering your Ignorance, Pride, and Sensuality, which Church Tyrants call the Order of the Church. etc. [All the Images of Piety, Government, Unity, Peace, and Order, which Hypocrites and Pharisees sat up, are despised Engines to destroy the Life and Serious Practi●e of the things Themselves, and are set up in Enmity against Spirituality, and Holiness, that there might be no other Piety, Government, Unity, Peace, or Order in the Church, but These Liveless Images. Ch. Diu. Pa. 105. & 106.  Ri. 
[Though we are not satisfied of the lawfulness of using the Transient Image of the Cross, 
Richard not absolutely against the Cross.  as a dedicating Sign, and Symbol of Christianity, so much Sacramental (much less to refuse from Baptism, and Christendom, all Christian Infants, unless they will have them so Crossed, no more than if a Crucifix were so Imposed, and used) yet do we not Condemn all use of either Cross, or Crucifix. Nor do we presume Conscientiously to Reproach, and dishonour the Ancient Christians, who living among Pagans that derided Christ Crucify'd, did show them, by oft using this sign, that they were not ashamed of the Crosse. And though we find, that they used more Rites, and significations, devised Signs, and Ceremonies, than we think they should have done, yet we judge it our Duty to love and honour their Memorial; Nor do we take all Rites to be Sinful that are significant. Non-conformists Profession Pa. 103.104.  Ba. 
You are not satisfied of the Lawfulness, etc. you say. 
baxter's a loyalist.  But are you convinced of the Unlawfulness? For [we must obey Magistrates though we know not that their Commands are Lawful, so long as they are so Indeed, and we have no sufficient reason to believe them Unlawful. Holy C●m. Thesis'. 323. For [It is not our Erroneous Conceits, 
Error is no e●cuse for disobedience.  that a Lawful Command is Unlawful, that will excuse any man from the Gild of Disobedience. Ibid. 357. [But if a thing seem to you very needful to a Good End, and yet the word be against it, avoid it: etc. 
The Pre●eoce of Nature, and true Reason avoids ●ll Law  [And if you ●hink that the Scripture commandeth you This or That Positive means, if Nature and True Reason assure you that it is against the End, and is like to do much more harm, then good, be assured that you mistake That Scripture▪ Ch. Divis. pa. 205.  Mo. 
It is a strange thing Mr Richard, that your Conscience should be so easy to your self, and yet so Troublesome to the Government. 
A Popular Fallacy.  But your Reserve of leaving every Pivate man to judge, First, of the Condition of the Law, by the Word; and Then, of his judgement of That Scripture, whether it be Right or Wrong, by Nature and Right Reason: This Reserve I say undoes all again: For every man that does Ill, with a Good Intention, reckons that he has Nature and Right Reason on his side.  
Now for You Mr. Baxter; you tell us over and over so often of your Fast S●rmon to the H●●se of Commons, and the Kings being called in the n●xt day, as if That very Sermon had wrought his Majestiss Restauration, But I find up●● Perusal of it ●hat you are just as kind to the Church in this Piece of 1660. as you were a little before to his Majesty in your Holy Common Wealth of 1659. That is to say; you are begging, arguing, and Casing of it all that is in you, to keep them both out; and truly This Particular piece of yours makes almost as bold with the King himself, 
The Presbyterian way of b●in●ing in ●he King.  as with the Episcopal Clergy: as you shall hear by and by. Was it not enough for you to Adjure the Commons into an Opposition o● That Order in the Church, which (as he t●lls you) is as Ancient as the Monarchy of This Island? An Order, that you and your Confederates most Undutifully destroyed? But could you now have the Confidence to demand the spoils again, which you first ravished from the Church, and the Independents afterward took from you, as the Reward of your Sedition, and Schism? And could you yet have the greater Confidence, in case of a Disappointment, to break out into this most Unchristian Exclamation, on the behalf of the People? Oh: [What happy times did we on●● see! That is to say; when the Kingdom was Laid in Blood, and Ashes; all that was Sacred, trampled under Foot, And all this Confusion, only to heave the Presbyter into the Saddle.  Ri. 

Richard's challenge,  I have described the judgement of such Non-conformists 〈◊〉 I have Conversed with, (not undertaking for every odd person wh●● I know not) I do desire those that seek our Blood, and Ruin, by the false Accusation of Rebellious Principles, 
In justification o● the Non-conformists'.  to tell me if they can, [wh●t Bodies, or Party of men on Earth have more sound and Loya●● Principles of Government, and Obedience. 2d. Part. Non-Co●. Plea. Pref. [Our Accusations are. 1. That we are Presbyteria●s, and fanatics. 
The Non-Conformists charge.  2. That we began the War in 1641. and 16●●▪ 3. That we destroyed the King. 4. That our Principles are Disloyal. 5. That we are Plotting a Rebellion. Ibid. But what is a Presbyterian?  Mo. 
A Presbyterian is a Member of a State Faction, under a Religious denomination. 
A Presbyterian defined.  For by that 〈◊〉 we do not understand such as are really of That Classical and Whymsical Profession; but a sort of People tha● drive on a Political design, under the Colour of an Ecclesiastical Scruple of persuasion. And in as extensive a Latitude do you take the Word, yourselves. 
Presbyterians swallow ap all other Sects at ●irst, and t●en sp●w the● up ag●in.  For all the Sects are Presbyterians (or Dissenting Protestants, as you call them) when you have need of them in Con●●ederacy against the Government; though the Presby●terians spews all the rest up again, (as they did in 1647. when they had done th●ir work;) But pray what say ye to the Beginning o● the War?  Ri. 
[In 1642. the Lamentable Civil War ●●ok● out; 
Richard say● that the Episcopal m●n b●gan ●he war. T●e two House's, Lord ●ieu●e●●n●s. Officer, Civil and Mi●i●●●y, Assembly 〈◊〉 Divine●, a●m●st all Episcopal m●n.  At which time as far as ●ver we could learn by Acquaintance with s●m● of them, and Report of others, excepting an Inconsiderable number, the Houses of Lords and Commons consisted of Those that had still lived in Conformity to the Church of England, and the Episcopal Government, etc. 1 Part. Non-Conform. Plea. p. 126. [The Lord Lieutenant's whom the Parliament chos●, were almost all Episcopal Conformists, Ibid. [Thenar ●ar Greater Part of the General Officers, Colonels, Li●utenant-Colonells, and Majors of the Earl o● Essex his Army; And of the Sea-Cap●ai●s, and of the M●jor-G●nerals of Brigades, and Counties about the Land, bid [The Assembly of Divines at Westminster also, were m●n that had liure in Conformity, except about 8. or 9 and the Scots, p. 12●.  Mo. 
You do well Richard to say that ●hey HAD Lived in Conformity, for the Complying humour was now going off apace; Insomuch that a profe●t opposition to the Orders of the Church became quickly a distinguishing mark of the disloyal Party: 
The Kings ●●gag'd Enem●●●●ere all 〈◊〉.  And all those Parliament men, Officers, and Assembly-Div●nes, Contributed Unanimously in their several S●at●●n● toward the Common Ruin. On [Fryd●y D●c. 1●. 1640. 
〈…〉  A Petition was brought into the 〈…〉 All●derman Pennington from the Citizens of Lon●●n▪ in 〈◊〉 name of 15000. Complaining of the Church- 〈◊〉, in having Arch-Bishops, Bishops, etc. Usin● the Cr●sse in Baptism; Kneeling at the Communion-Table, 〈◊〉 unlawful in the Protestant Church. Diurnal Occurrences. Pa. 12. jan 13. Petition against the Government of Bishops from Several Counties. P. 16. jan. 13. The Remonstrance with 700. hands against the Bishops and their Prelacy was read, P. 33. March 7. A Bill against Episcopacy read in the House of Commons, etc. Pa. 47. Mar. 10. 1640. Bishop's Votes in Parliament taken away, Pa. 49. in Novem. 1641. several Tumults against Bishops, and Dec. 11, 12. Bishops accused of High-Treason. The Bishops in the mean time Petitioning his Majesty, and entering a Protest of their Privileges, and against Tumults. Apr. 2. 1642. A due and necessary Reformation of the Government and Liturgy of the Church pretended. Ex. Col. P. 135.  
It is to be hoped, that all These violences upon the Ecclesiastical State, and the Persons of the Bishops, were not acted by Conformists. And it will not be denied, I suppose that after the Posting and Proscribing of the Greater part of the Clergies Friends, (as well as the Kings) The Schismatical Interest was carried on by the Major vote of the Remaining Fragment; and all This was before the Eruption of the War; the Earl of Essex not receiving his Commission, till july 12. 1642. Unless you'll say that Episcopal men themselves, were for the Extirpation o● Bishops.  Ri. 

The Parliament b●ought in the Scots.  [When the Parliaments Arms were worsted and weakened by the King, and they found themselves in danger of being Overcome, th●y entreated help from the ●cots ('tis true) who taking advantage of thei● straits, brought in the Covenant, as the Condition of their help. Non-Conf. 1 part. p. 27. And ●or the Assembly 1 [I think I have not read of m●ny Assemblies o● Worthier men since the Apostles days. 
Few worthier Assemblies since the Apostles days.  Answ. to Dr. Stillingfle●t. p 84. The Covenant ●●d Vow, was taken by the Parliament, and by their Garrisons, ●nd Soldiers that would voluntarily take it as a Test whom they mig●● Trust Non-Conf. Plea. p. 128. 
Their good na●u●e toward the Independents.  [The Assembly never endeavoured to turn the Independents out of the Parish-Churches, and Benefices, nor to Silence them; forbidding them Public Preaching, as you do us, etc. Answ. to Dr. Stillingf. p. 14. They Imposed no Liturgy, no one Ceremony; no Practice on them, contrary to their Conscience, p. 85. The Presbytery being only a Tolerated, or Intended thing, without any Imposition that ●ver we knew of.  Mo. 
It is very well known what pains your Celebrated Assembly took to make the City bleed for That Scottish expidition, 
The Guild-Hall ha●●ngue● 〈◊〉 brought in the Scots.  and we have the Guild hall Harangues on That Occasion, still upon Record. But I shall rather mind you of some Proceedings which you would be thought to have forgotten; to the Immortal Honour of your Confederates. Only half a dozen Words in the way to it-  
It is no wonder for men that have so low an Esteem for General Counsels, as both You Sir, and Mr. Baxter profess to have, in several of your Writings, to entertain yet very Reverend Thoughts of the Pybald Assembly. His Late Majesty had quite another Opinion of them. See his Proclamation, Inhibiting the Assembly of Divines, an● others Summoned to Westminster, by an Ordinance of Both Houses of Parliament. Bibliotheca Regia. P. 328. jun. 22. 1643.  
Whereas there hath been a long time, a desperate and Seditious design amongst divers Factious persons, 
His Majesty's Proclamation against the Assembly of Divines. Jun▪ 22. 1643.  to alter the whole Frame, Constitution, and Government of this Church; so long and so happily Established within this Kingdom; in pursuance whereof they have discountenanceed, and in a manner suppressed the Book of Common Prayer, settled by Law; driven away, Imprisoned, Removed, very many Learned, Orthodox, Godly Divines, and Ministers from their Cures, for discharging their duty and Conscience in Preaching: and in their places, without the least colour or shadow of Lawful Authority, have Instituted, or Deputed mean Factious Persons Unqualifyed with Learning or Virtue; 
Painful, Able, Laborious Ministers.  to corrupt and poison the minds of our Good Subjects, with Principles of reason and Rebellion, and have seized the Rents and Revenues of our Bishops, 
The Loyal Presbyterians.  Deans, and Chapters, for their own private Lucre, or Benefit, and for the Maintenance of the Army in Rebellion against us. 
The 〈…〉.   
Pray Observe my Friends, that this was before the Scots were called in; and the work of men too in Opposition to the Church: I come now to your Apostolical Assembly.  
Since These bloody distempers, and when so many Armies are on Foot in several parts of the Kingdom, 
King's Proclamation.  a Bill hath been presented to us for the Calling of an Assembly, of such Divines, as are mentioned in the said Bill, the far greater part whereof are men of no Reputation or Learning; 
A Dutiful Proposition.  and eminently disaffected to the Government of the Church of England▪ 
The Worthy 〈◊〉.  and very many of them are persons who have openly preached Rebellion, and incited the People to take up Arms against us, and so are not like to be proper Instruments of Peace, in Church, or State; which Bill having many Clauses in it very derogatory to our Honour, and Just Rights, 
The 〈…〉  and very Scandalous to the Reformed Protestant Religion: not so much as any part being left to Us, either in the Choice of the Persons, or in Adjourning or Dissolving the Assembly. Bib. Regia. Pa. 329.  
What do you think now of the Worthy Assembly? your [Men of sound, and Loyal Principles of Government, and Obedience. These are the Men that you declare yourselves Resolved to stand or fall by; (and out of your own mouths a Man may warrant This Assertion; that you are no better Friends to This King, than that Parliament and that Assembly were to the La●●. Methinks This Testimony of his Late Majesty against your designs, and Proceedings, should move your Consciences and stare you in the Faces, as if it were his Ghost.  
You would have the world believe that the Covenant was never Imposed, but that people might take it, or let it alone, as they pleased; That the Assembly silenced no body; forced nothing; and that Presbytery was only as a Tolerated, or Intended thing, etc. Now how great an Abuse this is upon That part of the Nation that does not know the story, 
An Abuse put upon the Nation.  will appear out of the Memorials of These Times, under the Authority of the Faction itself.  
The Lords and Commons took the Vow and Covenant jun. 6. 1643. Husband's Collections. Fol. 203. 
An Extract of Parliament Proceedings 1643.  and thought fit to have it taken by the Ar●ie●, and Kingdom. Ibid. Archbishop of Canterburian Temporal Livings, Dignities, and Ecclesi●st●●●● P●●motions Sequestered, june 10. 1143. 〈…〉 for calling an Assembly of Learned 〈…〉 (Thirty of the Laity, in the Commission.) june 24. 208. An Order for Ministers upon the Fastday to pray for a blessing on this Assembly. june 27.43. The Assembly Petitions Both Houses for a Fast, and the removing of Blind Guides, and Scandalous Ministers; destroying Monuments of Idolatry, 
The Assembly stir up the people to rise.  etc. july 10. 19●3. Fol. 240. [An Order for Divines that attend the Assembly, to go into the Country to stir up the people to rise for their Defense. Aug. 10. 1643. Fol. 285. [An Ordinance for taking away of Superstitious Monuments. Aug. 28. 1643. Fol. 307. An Ordinance to examine Witnesses against Scandalous Ministers, Sep. 6. 164●. Fol. 311. Soldiers to take the Covenant, Octob. 10 Fol. 359. An Order for the Assembly of Divines, to treat of a Discipline and Government, the present to be abolished, and to prepare a Directory▪ Octo. 1●. 16●●. 〈…〉 An Order for returning the Names of such as take not the Covenant to the House of Commons, Nou. 30. 1643. Fol. 390. An Order for divers persons to take the Covenant at Margaret's Westminster. Dec. 12. 1643. Fol. 399. An Ordinance disabling any person within the City of London, from any place of Trust, that shall not take the Covenant. Dec. 20. 1643. Fol. 404. An exhortation for taking the Covenant, etc. Feb. 9 1644. Fol. 422. An Order for taking it throughout the Kingdoms of England, and Scotland, with Instructions▪ Feb. 9 1644. Fol. 420. A Second Order for demolishing Superstitious Monuments. May 9 1644. Fol. 487. An Order for none to Preach, but Ordained Ministers, except allowed by Both Houses of Parliament, May 6. 1645. Fol. 646. An Order for putting the Directory in Execution. Aug. 11. 1645. Fol. 715. Several Votes for choice of Elders throughout all England, and Wales. Feb. 20. 1646. Fol. 809. An Order for taking the Negative Oath, and National Covenant. jun. 2. 1646. Fol. 889. An Order for putting the Orders of Church-Government in execution. jun. 9 1646. Fol. 889. An Order for dividing the County of Lancashire, into 9 Classes, Octob. 2. 1646, Fol. 919. An Order for Abolishing Arch-Bishops, and Bishops, and settling their Lands upon trusties for the use of the Commonwealth. Octob. 9 1646. Fol. 992. An Order for the speedy dividing and settling of several Counties of This Kingdom, into distinct Classical Presbyteries, and Congregational Elderships. jan. 19 1647. Scobells' Acts, 139. The Form of Church-Government to be used in the Church of England, and Ireland, agreed upon by the Lords and Commons, assembled in Parliament, after Advice had with the Assembly of Divines. Aug. 29. 1648. Fol. 165.  
By this time I hope you are satisfied that it was a Presbyterian War according to the very Letter, 
Proved to he a Presbyterian War.  Or if the Nonconformists did not begin the War, pray who bid?  Ri. 
Our Calamities began in Differences about Religion, 
Richard says, the War began about Religion.  and still That's the wound that most needs Closing, &c, R. B's. Fast Sermon. 1660. p. 41.  Ba. 
Do not you know, that write about the Cause, 
Baxter says, it began about matter of Law.  that the War was not founded in Theological differences, but in Law differences? R. B's. Letter to Mr. Hi●ckly. p. 25.  Ri. 
The first open beginning was the Militia, 
Richard says, 'twas about the Militia.  Non. Conf. Plea. p. 126.  Ba. 
I know how unsatisfied many are concerning the lawfulness of the War; 
Baxter says, the War was made for Reformation.  I cannot yet perceive by any thing which they object, but that we undertook our Defence upon warrantable Grounds. The extirpation of Piety was the then great Design, which had so far succeeded, that very many of the most able Ministers were silenced; Lecturers, and Evening-Sermons on the Lord's Day suppressed; Christians imprisoned, dismembered, and Banished; the Lords Day reproached, and devoted to Pastimes; that it was as much as a man's Estate (at least) was worth, to hear a Sermon abroad, when he had none, or worse at home; To meet for Prayer, or any Godly Exercise; 
A lewd scandal upon the late King's Government.  and that it was a matter of Credit, and a way to Perferment to revile at, and be enemies against those that were most Conscientious; And every where safer to be a drunkard, or an Adulterer, than a painful Christian: And that multitudes of Humane Ceremonies took place, when the worship of Christ's Institution was cast out, besides the slavery that Invaded us in Civil Respects: So am I MOST CERTAIN that this was the work which We took up Arms to resist: And these were the Offenders whom we endeavoured to Offend. And many of those that scruple the Lawfulness of our War, did never Scruple the lawfulness of destroying us; nor of that doleful havoc, and Subversion that was made in the Church of Christ amongst us. The fault was, that we would not more willingly change the Gospel for Ignorance, and our Religion for a Fardel of Ceremonies. R. B's. Saints Rest. p. 257.258.  Ri. 
[But the King's Subjects may not enter into Leagues, Covenants and Arms against him, 
R●c●ard will not allow of war ●ot Religion.  without his consent, and Laws, m●●ly to propagate Religion and Reformation in the Kingdom. Non-conf. Plea, 2d. part, pa. 77. [If Governors command us to sin against G●●, Subjects must not obey, but yet not Resist; Much less take up Arm● 〈◊〉 Reform Others, or even to bring in a True Religion by Vnauthoris●● Violence. Ibid. p. 56.  Ba. 
It is but a delusory course of some in These Times t●●t write many Volumes, 
Baxter i● for a Religious Wer.  to prove, that Subjects may not be●t Arms against th●i● Prince's fo● Religion. Ho. Commonwealth, p. 4●1. 
They are fools that think ●ther 〈◊〉.  [It is either Confusion and Ignorance of the State of th●●uestion, or palpable error in them that maintain, that it is 〈◊〉 lawful to fight for Religion. It is one thing to fight to ma●e o●●ers Religious, and another thin● to sight to preserve 〈◊〉 ●wn Religion, and to preserve t●e means of Religion, to Us, ●nd the Nation, and our Posterity, Ibid. Persecutors 〈◊〉 ta●e away our Lives or Liberties, if we worship God accordi●●●o his Will, 
In ca●● o● p●r●secuti●● we figh●●or our own, and our pos●eri●●●●●al●ation.  and use the necessary means of Salvation. It ●●ghting against this Persecution▪ we sight principally, and ultimately, for our Own, and Posterities Salvation, and nex●, for the Necessary means thereto, and Proximately for 〈◊〉 Lives and Liberties. Ibid.  Mo. 
The Rancour, and Inhumanity of This Scandal makes me take the Less notice of your shifts and contradictions; so that I shall wave the Course of your Reasoning, and speak a Word to your Conscience.  
pray cast a back Thought upon the Piety, the Moderation, 
The late King's sufferings forgot en among greater 〈…〉.  the Unexampled sufferings and Constancy of That Incomparable Prince, whose Government, and Administration is here so Diabolical▪ Traduced. It is a wonderful thing to me, that th● Legal Justice that was executed upon two or thr●● Contumacious Schismatics, should be so fresh in your Memory, and yet the Tragedy of that Royal, and Protestant Martyr that fell a Sacrifice to the Idol of your Enthusiastical Reformation should be so utterly forgotten. 
Pryn, Burton, and Bastwick lamented, but not a word ●f the Royal Martyr.  How can you so call to mind the silencing of a Stubborn Cabal of Lawless Mutineers; And the Blood of Canterbury, your Sacrilegious Robbing, and Taking Possession, not fly in the ●aces of your Complices? Especially considering how much you yourselves have contributed to the common Fate.  Ri. 
[How far the parliament was f●om being Presbyterians, may b● s●●n in t●e Propositions sent from them by the Earl of Essex, to the King at ●otin●ham, and partly their defeating all the desires and endeavours of ●hose that would have Presbytery settled thorough the Land. We know of no places, 
Presbytery not settled, say● Rich●rd.  but London and Lanca●hire, where it was commonly taken up, and some little of 〈◊〉 at Coventry, and some few such places, Non-Cons. Plea, ●st. part, 128.  Ba. 
[It is not known that the Presbyterian Government hath been exercised in London, in Lancashire, 
Baxter contradicts hi●, And co●fo●●s himself with comparing 〈◊〉 day of Richard Protector wi●h Charle. ●.  and in many Counties these many years? 5. Disp. Pr●f. 28.29. [Look into this County where I live, and you shall find a faithful, humble, laborious Ministry, Associated, and walking in as great Unity as ever I read of since the Apostles Days: No Difference, no Quarrels, but sweet and amicable Correspondency, and Communion, that I hear of. Was there such a Ministry, or such Love and Concord, or such a Godly People under them in the Prelate's Reign? There was not: Where we had Ten drunken Readers Then, we have not One now; 
Ten 〈◊〉 Hypocrites Now 〈◊〉 One 〈◊〉  and where we had One Able, Godly Preacher Then, we have many Now: and This is our Loss and misery in these times, which yo● so much lament. Ibid.  Mo. 
This last passage I find in a Preface Entitled [To those of the Nobility, Gentry, 
baxter's Comp●e●en● to the Sons of the 〈◊〉. 1659.  and Commons of This Land that adhere to Prelacy: Published in the year 1659. and ushered in, by an Epistle Dedicatory, [To his ●ighness Richard Lord Protector of the Common Wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland: with this expression in the last Page. [Your zeal for God will kindle in your SUBJECTS a zeal for You: 
Richard Cromwell's faithful Subjects.  and for a Farewell, [A Faithful Subject to your Highness, as you are an Officer of the Universal King.  
Richard Baxter.  
It is worthy of a Note Mr. Baxter, that your Pen cuts more still in 1659. then it did in seven years before, and that your Humour runs much, (about That season) upon Casuistical Points, and the Collation of Affairs, and Times. Now all the Reason I can discern for your change of Topique still upon That Crisis, is This. The Wheel was almost come round again, and Rebellion upon the very point of finishing its Course. ●or they had run the Monorchy down, into an Aristocracy; That, into a Democracy; Cromwell took up the Government next, in a Single Person. But all these Successive Usurpations were so Grievous, and Insupportable to the people, that necessarily the next Remove must be the Restoring of the King, to perfect the Revolution. Now so soon as ever you discovered the dawning but of the least hope for his Majesty's Restauration. 
Mr. Baxters, Political Aphorisms composed expressly to keep out the King.  what Mists did you presently cast before the People's Eyes in your Political Aphorisms, upon the Question of Authority, and Obedience? What pains did you take to possess the Nation with an Opinion of the blessed differences betwixt the State of Matters voder Richard the Usurper, and Charles the Martyr? and to hammer into the heads of the Multitude, the danger of Readmitting their Lawful Sovereign? pray tell me Sir, was Mr. Dance's Sequestered Living, and your Little Worcestershire Association so Inestimable a Prize, that you could part with the Blood of a most Religious Prince; the Lives of at least Fourscore Thousand Christians; the Order of the Government, both in Church and State; your Lives, Liberties, and Estates; the Peace, Honour, and Well being of Three Kingdoms, and all This, in Exchange for Infamy, Beggary, and Bondage, and yet reckon yourself a Gainer by the Bargain?  Ri. 
The Commonwealths-men persecuted me and Others, so far as to make Orders to Sequester us, for not taking the Engagement▪ 
Poor R●chard like 〈…〉 and pr●ying against the Scots.  and for not keeping their Fasts and Thanksgivings for the 〈◊〉 against Scotland. R. B's. 2d. Admonition to Bagshaw. p. 9●.  Ba. 
[It is a dreadful Observation to see so much of the Spirit of Malignity possessing those that once said they sought against Malignants; 
The spirit of Malignity has taken 〈◊〉 the Army.  and that the minister's and Servant's of the Lord, are railed at by 〈…〉 as formerly they were by the worst of Those 〈…〉 destroyed; and with this dreadful Aggravation, that Then it ●as but Some that were Reviled, and now, wi●h many, 〈◊〉 is All. Th●●, it was but under the Name of Puritan●, and Roundheads; 
The Presbyterians Persecuted.  and Now it is openly, as Ministers, under the Name of Priests, and Black-C●ats, and Presbyters and Pulpiteers. Self-denial, Ep. Monitory.  Mo. 
This is to Intimate that the P●●sbyterians were under a Persecution, Who were the Persecutors, 
The Presbyterians Journeymen (the Army) se● up for themselves.  I beseech ye? Even Your own journey men; who when they had wrought Sedition long enough under you, took the Trad● into their Own hands, and set up for Themselves. And that you may not value yourselves upon the Merits of your sufferings; pray what was it that you suffered for? Presbytery is too Tyrannical for the spirit of an Independent to bear. The Stomach of That Party would not brook it, 
Somewhat of an accomoda-Generosi●y in the Independents.  and so they cast it up again: For there is, though a Licentious, yet somewhat of a Practical, and Accomodable Generosity in that Party. But are not you aware, Gentlemen, that the worse you speak of these people, the greater is your Condemnation; for making the Episcopal Party still, more Insupportable than These, at the very Worst?  Ri. 
[Was it not Persecution, when many Anabaptists and Separatists made such work in England, 
The poor Presbyterians persecuted by the Army, for not joining against the Scots.  Scotland, and Ireland, in Cromwell's time, and after, as they did? when so many were turned out of the Universities for not Engaging, and so many out of the Magistracy, and Corporation-Priviledges? And when an Ordinance was made to cast out all Ministers who would not pray for the success of the Wars against Scotland, or that would not give God thanks for their Victories. When I have heard them pro●ess, that there were many Thousand Godly men, that were killed at Dunba● (〈◊〉 instance in no other) and yet WE were all by their Ordinance to be cast out, that would not give God thanks for This. Ch. Diu. Pa. 256. 1668. What more harsh kind of Persecution could there be then to force men to go Hypocritically to God against their Consciences, 
Oh the persecution o● forcing men against their Consciences.  and take on them to beg for the Success of a War which they Judged Unlawful. and to return him a Public Counterfeit Thanks for Bloodshed; yea, for the blood of Thousands? etc. Ibid.  Ba. 
Only See to This Brethren, that none of you suffer as an evil-doer; 
But so long as ●hey do not suffer as evil-doers.  as a busy-Body in other men's Matters; as a Resister of the Commands of Lawful Authority; as Ungrateful to Those that have been Instruments of our Good; as evill-Speakers against Dignities; as Opposers of the Discipline, and Ordinances of Christ; as Scornful Revilers of you● Christian Brethren; as Reproachers of a Laborious, Judicious, Conscientious Ministry, etc. Saints Rest. Pa. 131.  Mo. 
You do not speak I suppose of the Seven or Eight and Twenty cathedrals that were Defaced; 
No persecution to oppress the Church and all that love it.  The 115. Ministers forced out of their Livings within the Bills of Mortality: nor of the History of Querela Cantabrigiensis. You accounted it no Persecution the forcing of men to Pray for the Success of a Rebellion against their Sovereign; and to give God thanks for the Victories over the King, and the Loyal Assertors of his Majesties, and the Church's Rights and Government.  
As for you, Mr. Baxter, 
Mr. Baxt●r places the Crown upon the wrong Head.  your Counsel is very good, if it were not that in the Dignities, and Lawful Powers you have placed the Crown upon the wrong head: and directed an Obedience to the Faction, in stead of the King: after your usual Method of Crushing the One, to Advance the Other. 
The King destroyed by Presbyterians, as Presbyterians.  But it will be a hard matter I believe to convince you that the Presbyterians destroyed the King, and that they did it as Presbyterians too, though I reckon it to be very easily Probable both from their Practices, and Positions. And T●is I should not at This time have made the Question, but that yourself Mr. Baxter, have been pleased to bring it upon the Carpet.  Ba. 
[The Generality of the Orthodox, Sober Ministers, 
The Loyalty of baxter's Orthodox sober Ministers.  and Godly people of This Nation, did never consent to King-Killing, and Resisting Sovereign Power, nor to the Change of the Ancient Government of this Land. But they have been True to their Allegiance, and Detesters of Unfaithfulness and Ambition in Subjects; and Resisters of Heresy and Schism in the Church, and of Anarchy, and democratical Confusions in the Commonwealth. R.B. Sermon before the Commons, Anno. ●0. 1660. Pa. 44.  Ri. 
It is most certain Brother, that we did never directly consent, 
Richard subject to the Higher power, but not resolved which it is.  (as you say) But Unhappily there hath been a difference among us which is the higher Power, when Those that have their Share in the Sovereignty, are divided: But whether we should be Subject to the higher Power, is no question with us. Ibid. 45.  Mo. 
If by your Orthodox, Sober Ministers you mean, the Episcopal Divines, your Assertion holds good, or in a Literal Construction either; but if you intent the Non-Conformists, under these Two Epithets of Orthodox, and Sober; What do ye think of Mr, Manton, 
An Even score of Orthodox sober Divines.  Calamy, Case, Douglas, Burton, Herle, Goodwin, Woodcock, Brooks, Bridges, Martial, Cockayn, Faircloath, Saltmarsh, Sterry, Strictland, Newcomen? And for Brevity sake, I. O. W. I. and R. B. shall make them up an even score. I could show ye how these Reverend Authors have traced the King killing Cause, from the very Egg to the Apple; (as they say) Preached the lawfulness of the War; the People into a Rebellion; the King's Head to the Block; and then Justified all when they had done. And yet who but these men of Blood, to Quarrel with the Government, because they cannot get themselves Privileged above the Peaceable and Obedient Sons of the Church?  
What do ye think of the Author of CELEUSMA; that told the Commons in a Sermon Sept. 25. 1656. 
The last King's blood not valued at a Ceremony.  [That the Remove of Prelatical Innovations Countervailed for the Blood and Treasure shed and spent in the Late Distractions:] Is not this person now with his Clamour ad Coelum, a very hopeful Solicitor for a Second Reformation? He that has Solemnly declared, that [If the Re-Imposing of Ceremonies could have brought the Late King to Life again, he would never have yielded to it.] At the Rate of Computation, why shall not a Ceremony at this day, outweigh the Life of the Son, as Formerly it did That of the Father? But what needs more proof than the very Order of Aug. 10. 1643. 
☞  For the Assembly-Divines to 〈◊〉 the People to rise for their Defence?  
There is another person also who is engaged i● This present Controversy, to whom I would gladly Recommend a due Consideration of this following Extract.  
[When Kings Command Unrighteous things, 
The Kings Murder justified the day after it was committed.  and people suit them with willing Commplyance, none doubts but the destruction of them both, is Just and Righteous] A Fast Sermon to the House of Commons. jan. 31. 1648. Pa. 5.  
He that is Entrusted with the Sword, and dares not do Justice, on every one that dares do Jnjustice, is afraid of the Creature, but makes very bold with the Creator. Pa. 15.  
[The Kings of the Earth have given their Power to Anti Christ. How have they earned their Titles? 
All Christian Kings Anti-christianized▪  Eldest Son of the Chuach; The Catholic, and most Christian King; Defender of the Faith; and the Like. Hath it not been by the Blood of Saints? is there not in every corner of These Kingdoms, the Slain and the Banished ones of Christ to Answer for? A Fast Sermon of Apr. 19 1649. Pa. 22. 
☜  Do not the Kings of all these Nations stand up in the Room of their Progenitors; with the same Implacable Enmity to the Power of the Gospel? Pa. 22.  
There are Great and Mighty Works in hand, 
A Reflection upon ●is Majesty a●●er his De●e●t at Wo●cester.  in this Nation. Tyrant's are punished; the Jaws of Oppressors are broken; bloody Revengeful people in Wars, disappointed, A Thanksgiving Sermon for the Scots defeat at Worcester, Octo, 24. 1651. P. 2.  
[What is This Prelacy? 
Prelacy Antichristian.  A mere Antichristian Encroachment upon the Inheritance of Christ, Pa. 5.  
[A Monarchy of some hundred years' continuance, always affecting, 
A Pedant triumphing over Charles the II. and Monarchy itself.  and at length wholly degenerated into Tyranny; destroyed, pulled down. Swallowed up a great mighty Potentate that had caused terror in the Land of the Living, and laid his Sword under his head, brought to Punishment for Blood, P. 6.  

And calling the King Tyrant.  [If any persons in the World had cause to sing the Song of Moses, and the Lamb, We have this day. The Bondage prepared for us was both in Spirituals, and temporals, about a Tyrant full of Revenge; and a Discipline full of Persecution, hath been our Contest: whether the Yoke of the One and the Other, should by the Sword and Violence, be put upon our Necks, and Consciences, is our Controversy, Pa. 7.  

Are These Fit Agents for Unity and Peace?  Is it not a Prodigious boldness for such Spirits as These, to obtrude themselves, either upon the Government, or the People, as men of Scruple, and the most competent Agents for the Promoting of Unity, and Peace? And you yourself Mr. Baxter, have not been out neither at this great work of Reforming Confusion, as your own Confessions in some measure, but your Conversation and Writings do Abundantly bear Witness.  

Richard True to the King, but he mistook the King.  Mr. Richard here I must confess, furnishes you with a Salvo that Ignatious Loyola himself would have blushed at. You were ever True to the King, you say, but you did not know Who was King. Some would have him to be where he was NOT, and Others would not allow him to be where he WAS. Sir, This doctrine might have done well enough in a Pulpit at Coventry, 
Baxter's Re●stauration Sermon. Asserts the Presbyterian Loyalty. Makes the King a Subject, and worse. Pleads for Presbytery, without a word of restoring the King.  when you were helping the Lord against the Mighty; but from such a Restauration Sermon, the Lord deliver us! There is first not one word of Restoring the King in't, though it was a Fast that had a Particular Regard to That Debate. 2. It Asserts the Loyalty of the Presbyterians, and yet at the same time, supposes the Supreme Power in the Two Houses, which, in few words makes the Late King both a Subject, and (with Reverence) a Rebel. 3. The Settling of the Presbytery, for that's always the English of their SOUND DOCTRINE, and CHURCH GOVERNMENT, Pa. 46.) is violently pressed as the first thing to be done. Give FIRST to God, the Things that are Gods. 43. with a Pharisaical Ostentation of the Conscionable, Prudent, Godly, People of the Land, Pa. 46. in opposition to the Profane. You could not do any thing in the world more to obstruct his Majesties Return, and yet you are pleased to make this Sermon an Instance of your Zeal to advance it.  Ri· 
[The Parliament did not raise War against the Person or Authority of the King, 
The War raised for King and Parliament.  nor did I ever serve them on any such Account: but to defend themselves against the King's Misguided will. Holy Commonwealth. Pa. 476. Their Commissions, (all that ever I saw) were for King and Parliament. We had Two Protestations, and a Solemn League and Covenant Imposed upon the Nation, to be for King and Parliament. And if Declarations, 
Their Oaths & Covenants were fast and loose at pleasure.  Professions, Commissions, and National Oaths and Covenants will not tell us, what the cause of the War was, th●n there is no Discovery. Ibid. Pa. 477.  Mo. 
These Commissions, 
The pretext of the War, Religion; the Cause, Ambition.  Oaths and Covenants tell you the Pretext of the War, but you must go to their Proceedings, and Practices to find the Cause of it. The Two Houses Seize the King's Towns, Magazines, Forts, and Shipping. 
The Loyal Presbyte●ians usurp Sovereign Power.  They violently take the Militia into their own hands; Vote an Ordinance of Both Houses as binding as an Act of Parliament. Declare his Majesties Commissions Void, Issue out Orders for Securing the Kingdom: Vote the Maintaining of a War, and the Seizing of his Majesties Magazines; Sequester the Church and Crown Revenues: and justify all these Injuries, as done in pursuance of their Protestations, and Covenants, and This is your way now of being FOR the King. Suppose that any man had beaten you, and Plundered ye, and Imprisoned ye, and abused your Friends for your sake, and a body should tell you all this while that this man was FOR Mr. Baxter. 
The Two Houses were the King in the Covenant.  If you were really for the King: why would not For the King according to the Oath of Allegiance do the business as well as For the King according to the Covenant? Or how came you to Alienate yourself from his Majesty's jurisdictino, and to turh Subject, to the Two Houses? Who Absolved you from the One Oath, 
No Reconciling of the Covenant King & the Legal.  or who Authorised you in the Other? or when you found that the King in the Covenant clashed with the King in the Oath of Allegiance, why did you not rather comply with the Law, then with the Usurpation? For it is Impossible to be True to both Interests, under so manifest an Opposition. You see the Colour of the War, and I shall not need to tell you that the Cause of it was Ambition, of Dominion, which was exercised to the highest degree of Tyranny.  Ri. 

Richard holds Oaths to Princes to be Dispensable  If a People that by Oath and Duty are obliged to a Sovereign, shall sinfully dispossess him, and contrary to their Covenants, choose and Covenant with Another; they may be obliged by their Latter Covenants, notwithstanding the Former. Holy-Common-Wealth. Pag. 188.  Ba. 

Baxter holds Oaths of Allegiance to be Indispensable.  That cannot be, my Friend; for we hold it [Impious and Papal to pretend to absolve Subjects from their Oaths to their Sovereign. Holy Com. Pa. 359. [It is not in Subjects Power, by Vows to withdraw themselves from Obedience to Authority. Non-Confor. Plea. P. 213.  Mo. 
But why can ye not now dispense with your Covenants, as well as you did formerly with the Oath of Allegiance?  Ri. 

Richard will hate the Covenant binding as it is a Vow.  Part of This Covenant is [against Popery, Superstition, and Profaneness; and all that is against Sound Doctrine and Godliness, etc. which the Non-Conformists take to be Lawful and Necessary things. Non-Conf. Plea. 1st. Part. P. 142. But the Controversy is not This, and That, but whether as a Vow made to God, it bind to things Necessary. P. 143.  Ba. 
Soft a little. 
The League and Covenant and Vow and Covenant.  This that you speak of is the League and Covenant, not the Vow, and Covenant. The Latter was only a Bond of Confederacy to assist the Parliaments Forces against the King; and taken by the Lords ane Commons jun. 6. 1673. and then Ordered jun. 27. to be taken all over the Kingdom. But the Other was Composed afterwards and upon closing with the Scots accommodated to the Scottish Model, and Ordered, Feb. 2. 1643. to be taken throughout England and Wales, 
The League and Covenant Impoes d.  and Entitled, For Reformation, and Defence of Religion; the Honour and Happiness of the KING, etc. [By this Covenant, you are bound, not only to an Extirpation of Bishops, 
Baxter is his own on●essor ●nd bsolves himself.  but to endeavour the Introducing of a Scottish Presbytery: How can you then dispense with an Admittance of the Primates Episcopacy, as you propounded, in Contradiction to the Terms of that Engagement?  Mo. 
Favour me with a word I pray. Did ye not Covenant [to preserve and defend the King's Majesties Person, and Authority?]  Ri. 
Yes, 

The Covenant for the King, qualified for Religion.  
If the King be against Religion the Covenant is against him.   [in the Preservation and Defence of the True Religion.  Ba. 
But in case of the Kings Opposing it, we are still Obliged [to continue therein, against all Opposition, and ●o promote the sam●, according to our Power, against all Lets, and Impediments whatsoever. See the Covenant.  Mo. 
Let it suffice Gentlemen that your Party destroyed the King; it is no great matter How.  Ri. 
[As to the Death of the King, I have in the times of Usurpation, proved that the Presbyterians detested it. 
Richard lays the Death of the King to Oliver.  That it was a Proud Conquering Army, by the Contrivance of Ol. Cromwell, and the applause of a Few fanatics that did it by the consent of a small care of the Old Parliament, called the Rump, that durst not trust the King in Power. Non-Conf. Plea. part. 2. Preface.  Ba. 

The Baxterians attacked the King.  Prithee Dick Speak truth and shame the Devil. What did we raise Armies for? And Attaque the King himself in the Head of his Troops? we'll maintain That, by our Principles, and Aphorisms. [War is not an Act of Government, but Hostility. Men are not in Reason to be supposed to Intent their Enemies Good, if they fight we are to believe, they would Kill: 
And they fought to kill.  and Nature believeth not Killing to be an Act of Friendship. Holy Commonwealth. Pa. 422.  

Baxter's Unfeigned Repentance.  ● do Unfeignedly Repent that I did no more for ●eace in my Place than I did; and that I did not pray more heartily against Con●●ntion▪ and W●r, b●for● it cam●: and spoke no more against it th●n I 〈…〉 that I spa●e so much to blow the Coals. For ●his 〈…〉 forgiveness of the Lord, through the Precious b●o●d of t●● Gr●●t Reconciler. The hatred of strife, and War, a●d Love of P●a●e, and Observation of the Lamentable Miscarriages si●ce, 
Mr. Baxter consulted the Word of God about Opposing the King.  have called me often to search my heart, and try my ways by the word of God; whether I did Lawfully engage in That War, or not: (which I was confident then, was the Greatest outward service that ever I performed to God. And whether I Lawfully encouraged so many Thousands to it. Holy Commonwealth. Pa. 485.486.  


Mr Baxter would be the same man if another King were to be Deposed and Murdered.  
Mr. Baxter very cautious of Treason against the two Houses.  
Baxter fails foul upon Richard.   [But yet I cannot see that I was mistaken in the main Cause; nor dare I repent of it, nor forbear the same, if it were to do again, in the same State of Things. I should do all I could to prevent such a War, but if it could not be prevented, I must take the same side as then I did. And my Judgement tells me, that if I should do otherwise, I should be Guilty of Treason or disloyalty against the SOVEREIGN POWER of the Land, and of Perfidiousness to the Commonwealth, and of preferring Offending Subjects, before the Laws, and Justice; and the Will of the King above the safety of the Commonwealth, and consequently above his own Welfare. Ibid, And then for you so Impudently and Impertinently—  Mo. 
Nay, let's have none of this, gentlemans I beseech ye, 
The Moderator interposes  why You Two are Old Acquaintances; Fellow-Labourers, Fellow-Sufferers, and One Woman's Children as we say.—  Ba. 
I shall not eat my words I assure ye; I may forget myself perhaps, 
Baxter vindicates Oliver.  but I am not a man for Recantations. I say again, that it was Impudently and Impertinently done to reflect upon Oliver Cromwell, as if he had done an Ill thing. My Holy Commonwealth [was written while the Lord Protector (prudently, Piously, Faithfully, to his Immortal Horror, 
A prudent, pious, Faithful Prince.  how ill soever you have used him) did Exercise the Government. Holy Common wealth, Preface to the Army. [And I have forborn to change any One Word of it all, that you may see the worst of my Intendments. And that True Principles will stand in all Times, and Changes, though to the shame of those Changes that make bad Times. Ibid. These are my own words, and do you think that I would ever have bestowed upon a detestable wretch, the Epithets of PRUDENT, PIOUS and FAITHFUL? And again; If Oliver had not been a Religious, and Gracious Prince, 
Baxter prays that Richard Cromwell may▪ Inherit the Piety of his Father.  can you Imagine that I should ever have treated his Son Richard with this Compliment? [We pray that you may INHERIT a Tender care of the Cause of Christ. Key for Catholics, Ep. Ded. which shows both that Oliver had a Tenderness for Christ's Cause; and necessarily Implys that the Cause he Managed was the Cause of Christ.  
And then you shuffle it again upon the fanatics, and the Rump, that durst not trust the King with Power. 
The Presbyterians Disarmed the King, and the Independents Killed him.  Why prithee what Power did we allow him? We took away his Arms and his Men, and his Money, and his Credit, and his Towns, and his Ships, and his Laws, and his Liberty, and all the Ensigns of Royalty: and the Maxims whereupon we supported our Proceedings, did his business. The Two Houses and the Army were no more than the Gun and the Ball; The one gave fire and the other killed him.  Mo. 
Mr. Baxter; I (as you say) you do Unfeignedly Repent, that you spoke so much Formerly to blow the Coals. 
Baxter reputes, and then reputes of his Repentance.  Why are ye blowing of them again? You carried Thousands you say, into the War, and Engaged in it yourself, and would do the same thing over again upon the like Occ●sion: And your Judgement tells you that it were Treason against the Sovereign Power of the Land to do otherwise. According to This Doctrine, a Remnant of the Lords and Commons may do as much to This K●●g as they did to his Father, and the Presbyterians Pulpits shall justify the Prooc●eding. You do Generously however to own your Positions. But yet methinks you should have some regard to the dismal Consequences that have ●nsu'd upon this Controversy.  Ba. 
[It were too great Folly, by Following Accidents, that were then unknown, 
Baxter thanks God for his Blessings upon this Nation in consequence of the Rebellion.  for me to Judge of the Former Cause. That which Is Calamitous in the Event, is not always sinful in the Enterprise. Should the Change of Times make me forget the State that we were formerly in, and Change my Judgement, by losing the sense of what then conduced to its Enformation, This Folly and forgetfulness would be the way to a sinful, and not an Obedient Repentance. Nor can I be so Unthankful as to say, for all the sins and Miscarriages of Men since, that we have not received much mercy from the Lord: Holy Commonwealth. Pa. 487.  
When Godliness was the Common Scorn, the Prejudice, and shame most lamentably prevailed to k●ep men from it, 
The Blessed Difference betwixt the Government of the Late King, & of Cromwell  and so encouraged them in Wickedness: But through the great mercy of God, many Thousands have been converted to a Holy, upright Life, proportionably more than were before, since the Reproach did cease, and the Prejudice was removed, and Faithful Preachers took the Place of Scandalous ones, or Ignorant Readers. When I look upon the Place where I live, and see that the Families of the Ungodly are here one, and there one in a street, as the Families of the Godly were heretofore (though my own Endeavours have been too weak and cold) it ●orceth me to set up the stone of Remembrance, and to say [HITHERTO HATH THE LORD HELPED US. Ibid. [Oh the sad, and Heart-piercing Spectacles that mine Eyes have seen in four years' space. [This was Jan. 15. 1649.] [In this Fight, a dear Friend falls down by me: From another, a Precious Christian b●ought home wounded, or dead: Scarce a month, scarce a week, without the sight or Noise of Blood. Saints Rest, P. 139.  Mo. 
Here's first a most Evangelicall account of the blessed Effects of a Civil War: 

Baxter's Comfortable Effects of a Civil War.  
The Blessed Times we had till the Army got the better of the Two Houses   [The Propagation of Holiness. And Then, a most Remarkable Calculation of the date of your Calamities, which commences precisely from the Armies getting the Ascendent of the Two Houses, without any respect to the Outrages both upon the Church and State, while the Presbyterians Governed.  Ri. 
pray will ye [patiently read over the Representation, ●r Letter of the London Ministers to the Lord General, Jan. 18. 1648.  Mo. 
Very well, and since you are pleased to cast the Cause, and the Integrity of your Party upon That Issue, we'll see what they say.  
[It is already sufficiently known (besides all former Miscarriages) what Attempts of late have been put in Practice against Lawful Authority: Letter P. 3. 

London-Ministe●s Letter to the Lord-General. jan 18. 1648.  
The Army's Crime wa● the opposing of the Parliament, and Imprisoning t●e King without Leave.  
Only a Seizure of the King's Person. But an Vnparall●l'd Violence upon t●e Members of the House.  
Being men of Eminent Worth and Integrity.   [This Lawful Authority was a Faction of the Two Houses] Especially by the Late Remonstrance, and Declaration, published in Opposition to the Proceedings in Parliament. [H●re's the Crimen lesae Majestatis.] [As also by seizing, and Imprisoning the King's Person without the Knowledge, and Consent of Parliament. Ibid.  
[Here's only a plain Seizure of the King's Person, without the Parliaments Privity or Leave; No Condemnation of the Thing itself, further than as it was done without his Master's Consent. Nor was the King more a Prisoner in the hands of the Army, than he had been at Newcastle, in the hands of the Presbyterians.]  
But now they come to [That late Vnparalled violence offered to the Members of it; forcibly hindering above one hundred of them (if we mistake not the Number) from sitting in Parliament: Imprisoning many of their Persons; though many of them are known to us to be men of Eminent worth, and Integrity; and who have given most Ample Testimony of their Real Affection to the good of the Kingdom. Ibid.  
pray take notice, that it was upon the Members, an Unparallelled violence; upon the King, no more than a Simple Seizure; and methinks they might have bestowed some kind Epithet upon his Majesty, as well as upon the Eminent and Worthy Members. But 'tis only the bare King; and That's All.  
[And besides All This, [There is an Intent of Framing and contriving a New Model, as well of the Laws, and Government of the Kingdom, as of the Constitution of a new kind of Representative. All which Practices we cannot but Judge, 
A Factious Re●nant, th● Magistrate's which God h●t● set ove● us.  to be manifestly opposite to the Lawful Authority of those Magistrates which God hath set over us; and to the Duty and Obedience, which by the Laws of God and man, and by our manifold Oaths, and Covenants, we stand obliged to render to them. Ibid.  

The London· Ministers Mediation little less than Treason.  You are not aware, Mr. Richard, that to Justify the Doctrine of these Letters falls very little short of Justifying downright Treason; unless you can show a Law that places the Supreme Power in the Two Houses.  

God's Ordinance violated when Magistracy is opposed.  [The Fear of God therefore, (whose Ordinance is violated, when Magistracy is opposed) makes us afraid of meddling with Those who without any Colour of Legal Authority, merely upon the Presumption of strength, shall attempt such Changes as these are. And we cannot but be deeply Affected with Grief and Astonishment, 
The Divines fear ull of opposing God, in an Ordinance of the Two Houses.  to see that an Army raised by Authority of Parliament, for the Preservation of the Privileges thereof, and of our Religion, Laws, and Liberties, should contrary to their Trust, and many engagements, do That which tends to the Manifest subversion of them All. P. 4.  

None of these scruples in the case of the King.  pray where was the Fear of Cod, when the King was opposed? what Legal Authority had the Two Houses over his Majesty, more th●n the Army had over the Two Houses! Or by what Law did That Parliament raise That Army?  

Th● Presbyterians ●rue to the Faction from the beginning.  [We have not forgotten those Declared Grounds and Principles, upon which the Parliament first took up Arms: and upon which we were induced to join with them: (from which we have not hitherto declared, and we trust through God's Grace, we NEVER SHALL.) Pa. 5.  

The Standard of the Presbyterian Loyalty why not as tender of a breach of Trust, according to Law, as against it?  We have here in few words, the Judgement, and the Resolution of the Presbyterian Divines, and the standard of their Loyalty, from the Lips of the very Oracle of the Party. I would fain know now which wa● the fouler breach of Trust, That of the Two Houses toward his Majesty, to whom both by Law and Conscience they were obliged, (besides so many Gracious Concessions) or that of the Army, to the Two Houses! The one being like the Robbing of an Honest man, and the other, the Pillaging of That Thief: Over and above that the Army was Trained up in the Trade of turning out their Masters.  

There was no Intent to divest the King of hi● Legal Right.  [And moreover; although the PARLIAMENT thus too● up Arms for the defence of their Persons & Privileges, and the Preservation of Religion, Laws, and Liberties; yet was it not their Intention, thereby to do violence to the Person of the King, or divest him of ●is Regal Authority, and what of Right belongeth to him. Pa. 7.  
Do but show me now any one Essential of Sovereignty which those people left hi●, if they could take it away, 
But he had a Righ● to nothing then, for t●e●●ook all away.  and I will be answerable to forfeit my head for't. But still it is but what [of Righ●] belongeth to him; and That's a Salvo for all the Violences Imaginable.  
[We disclam, detest, and abhor the Wicked, 
The Presbyterians ●ell us they are no Jes●it●.  and bloody Tenants, and Practices of jesuits (the whrst of Papists) Concerning the opposing of Magistrates, by Private persons, and the Murdering of Kings by any, though under the most specious, and Colourable Pretences. Pa. 11.  
This is All, which upon that desperate Crisis of State was said for that Pious and unfortunate Prince: 
Not one word for the King in the whole Letter.  the saving of the King, being (if any) Incomparably the least part of the Ministers business. Beside that the dethroning of him was more Criminal than the beheading of him. And in such a case, it would have been no longer a Murder, when they should once have voted the Fact to be an Execution of Justice.  
[We desire (Say they) that you would not be too Confident on former successes. 

The Army in God's way w●ile they joined with the Presby●erians.  
Sworn to preserve his Majesties·s People and Privileges of Parliament.  
Who absolved the Presbyteri●ns of their former Oaths.   If God have made you prosper while you were in his way, this can be no Warrant for you to walk in ways of your Own. P. 12. [So that the Old Cause is Gods still, to this very day.]  
And besides; [you have engaged yourselves by an Oath to preserve his Majesties Person, and the Privileges of Parliament; and This is most clear, that no Necessity can justify Perjury, or dispense with Lawful Oaths. Pa. 15.  
I should be glad to know now, how you came to be absolved of the Oath of Allegiance, or how you can honestly pretend to Stand up for any Interest, that renders the King Accountable to his Subjects.  Ba. 
[Yet if I had taken up Arms against the Parliament 
If Baxt●r had served the king he had been a Traitor.  in That War, my Conscience tells me I had been a Traitor, and Guilty of Resisting the Highest Powers. Holy Com. Pa. 433.  Mo. 
At This Rate, the King was a Traitor on the other side.  Ba. 

Baxter's Holy Com. wealth, to ●e taken as Non-Scriptus.  Why do you cite the Holy Common Wealth, so often? for I have desired that the Book be taken as non Scriptus. Non-Con. ●lea 2 d part. Pref.  Mo. 

A sh●ft, not a Recantation.  And would not any Malefactor that were deprehended in the manner, say as much as this amounts to; and wish that the thing might be taken as Non Factum? This is rather a Shift, than a Retractation.  

For the Aphorisms ●ere ●e●el'd directly against the King.  And then again; it is a wonderful thing that you should overshoot yourself so much upon a Subject that was expressly [Suited to the demands, and doubts of Th●se Tim●s,] Holy Com. Pa. 102. That is to say; The Restoring of the King was the point then in Agitation, and out comes your Book of Aphorisms expressly to possess the People against it.  Ba. 
If you would have a Recantation more in Form, [I do here freely Profess that I repent of all that ●●er I thought, 
Ba●te●● Recantation.  Said, Wrote, or did, since I was Born, against the ●●ace of Church or State, Against the King, his Person, or ●●thority, as Supreme in himself; or as Derivative in any of his Officers, Magistrates, or any Commissioned by him. 2 d Admonition to Bagshaw. Pa. 52.  Mo. 

A Repentance that will pass neither upon God, nor Man  This Mock Repentance is a Trick that will not pass either upon God or Man. The King's Headsman might have Said as much, and yet account that execrable Office a meritorious work. You are at your Fast Sermon again; Always Obedient to the Highest Powers, but divided somewhere about the Receptacle of the Sovereignty. You ask God forgiveness for all that ever you Thought, Said, Wrote, or Did, against the King, and the Publick-Peace. And what signifies This Repentance, so long as you persist in maintaining, that all the violences acted upon the Person, Crown and Dignity of his Sacred Majesty, in the Name of the King and Parliament, were not AGAINST the King, but FOR him, This is All, but the Hypothesis of a Transgression. Lord forgive me all that ever I did amiss. That is to say, if ever I did any thing amiss. But I charge myself with no Particulars. Why do ye not Touch the Thesis that you condemn; and say This, That, and t'other Aphorism I Renounce? Nay, why do ye not Reform and Correct your mistakes, and state the matter aright, toward the bringing of These people into their Wits again, that have been Intoxicated by your false Doctrine, and Poisoned from your very Pulpit?  Ba. 
[If you Quarrel with my Repentance as not In Particulars enough; I answer you, 
Baxter Reason's why his Repentance is not Particular  that as in the Revocation of the Book, I thought it best to Revoke the whole, (though not as Retracting all the Doctrine of it) because if I had named the Particular Passages, some would have said I had mentioned too Few, and some too many, and few would have been satisfied. Admon. to Bagshaw. Pag. 53.  Mo. 
You have Marked [Revoke, 
Mr. baxter's Pi● Fraus. ] and [Retract] with an Emphatical Character, to give to Understand, that you do not Retract, though you do Revoke, and you have put them in Italique, to show that there lies a stress upon Those two Words. You Revoke the whole [Book] you say, not as Retracting all the Doctrine of it: If by Revoke you mean Call in, or Suppress; you might as well call back your Breath again, as the venom that was diffused by those Aphorisms. And then to say that you do not [Retract All the Doctrine of it] does not necessarily Imply, that you Retract any part of it. Or if you do, 
A Jesuitism.  your Repentance is yet Frivolous, for want of distinguishing the Right from the Wrong; that your Disciples may not take the One from the Other.  
Your Apprehension indeed of saying too much, 
For fear of too Much or too Little, Mr. Ba●ter confesses just nothing at all.  or too little if you should come to Particulars, is very Reasonable: For to please the Lovers to their Prince, Church, and Country, you must not leave one Seditious, or Schismatical Principle behind ye. But then on the other side, if you come to pronounce the Levying of Arms, the making of a Great Seal, and Exercising other Acts of Sovereignty, without, and against the King's Commission, to be High Treason by the Established Law, you are lost to all Intents and Purposes, with your own Party. So that for fear of disobliging the One side or the Other, by Confessing too much, or too little, you have resolved upon the middle way of confessing just nothing at all.  Ba. 

Mr. Baxter proceeds in ●is repentance  [I do Repent (again) that I no more discouraged the spirit of p●evish Quarrelling with Superiors, and Church-Orders; and (though I ever disliked and opposed it, yet) that I sometimes did too much Encourage such, as were of this Temper, by speaking too sharply against Those things which I thought to be Church-Corruptions: 
He ever opposeth what he sometimes encouraged. A Baxterism.  and was too loath to displease the Contentious, for fear of being Uncapable of doing them good, (knowing the Profane to be much worse than They) and meeting with too few Religious persons, that were not too much pleased with such Invectives. Ibid.  Mo. 
This Clause of Repentance, is every jot as much a Riddle to me as the former. You did not sufficiently discourage the spirit of Quarrelling with Superiors. [Which spirit you your self Raised.] You were a little too sharp upon what you thought to be Church-Corruptions, 
●'s very Repentances are Calumnies.  [So that here's a Bit, and a Knock, You were a little too sharp; but it was against Corrup●ions in the Church; Your very Repentances are Calumnies. But you were willing to oblige a Contentious Religious Party that was pleased with Invectives, you could have done them no good else. And what good I beseech ye did you do them by it, but misled, and confirm them in Principles of Disobedience? only you considered you say, that the Profane were much worse than the Other.  

He Reputes and Relapses in the same breath.  What is the reason that Mr. Baxter will be perpetually thus Inconsistent with himself; First you Repent for no more Discouraging, and then (by a side wind) for Encouraging; and before the Repentance is out of your Mouth, you are at it again, with your CHURCH-CORRUPTIONS, and your opposition of the PROFANE forsooth to the Godly, to Inflame the D●vision, and to Harden the Non-Conformists in their Dissent.  
Now as to your Stigmatising Character of Profane, There is a Personal Profaneness, 
Profaneness in Habit, and in Conspiracy  and there is a Profaneness of Association, and Confederacy. There are many men I know, that have gotten so diabolical a Habit of Swearing, Cursing and Blaspheming the holy name of God, that they can hardly speak Ten words without an Oath, or a Curse: This is without dispute a most abominable Sin; But it is withal so Disagreeable, and so offensive, that it gives a man a Horror for the Imitation, and Practice, of so Unprofitable, and so Monstrous a Crime; and though it be a grievous Wickedness, it is not of so dangerous an Example. But what say you to Sacramental Leagues against Order, and Law? To the forcing of a whole Nation either to Swear or starve? 
A Covenanting profaneness worse than a Personal.  to the calling God into a Conspiracy against Government and Religion? To the Robbing of Altars; demolishing of Temples; dethroning of Kings; degrading of Bishops? etc. And all This, in the Name of the most High God, and with hands held up unto the Lord. But go on with your Repentance.  Ba. 
[I do Repent (also) that I had not more Impartially and diligently Consulted with the best Lawyers that were against the Parliaments Cause, 
He reputes that he did not advise with Lawyers.  (for I know of no Controversy in Divinity about it, but in Politics and Law;) and that I did not use all possible means of full Acquaintance with the Case. Ibid.  
[And that for a little while the Authority of such Writers as Mr. Richard Hooker, Lib. I. Eccles. Polit. and Bishop Bilson, 
An Invidious Reflection upon Hooker.  and other Episcopal Divines did too much sway my Judgement toward the Principles of Popular Power.  
[And seeing the Parliament Episcopal, and Erastian; and not hearing when the War began, of Two Presbyterians amongst them all, nor among all their Lord Lieutenant's, Generals, Major Generals, or Colonels, till long after; I was the Easilyer drawn to think, that hooker's Political Principles had been commonly Received by all; which I discerned soon after upon stricter Enquiry, to be Unsound, and have myself written a Confutation of them. Pa. 53.  Mo. 
This way of Dodging, in one of the Profane (as you style us) would have been jesuitical. 
Jesuitical Dodging▪  Here's only a bare wish that you had made a stricter Enquiry into the Cause, but no Acknowledgement that you were in the Wrong. And again, If you knew of no Controversy in Divinity about it; why are all your Writings stuffed with such a Huddle of Texts for Obedience to the Two Houses? What did you search the Word of God for, in the Case? Holy Com. Pa. 486.  
〈…〉 were misled by Mr. hooker's First Book of Ecclesiastical 〈…〉 Favour of Popular Power; 
Why could not Hooker set him Right to the Church, as well as wrong to the State. hooker's popular po●er nothing to Co-ordination.  why would ye not let him set the Right in your Ecclesiastical politics, and in your Duty to the Authority, and Discipline of the Church, to make ye some amends? the Bias which you will have him to take, in favour of Popular Power, being not one jot to your purpose, but regarding only the Specification of Government, and not the Fountain; and wholly Foreign to your Fancy of a Co-ordination: Whereas That Great man's discourse in vindication of the Rites and Injunctions of the Church comes directly to your Point: and stands as sirm as a Rock against all the Insults of Calumny, and Opposition; without any pretence to a Reply. But you serve Mr. Hooker in This, and the King himself, and the English Clergy in Other Cases, 
Baxter's Writings a●e a direct satire upon Government.  as you do the Bishops in your Church-History: you turn over Indices and Common-Places for matter of Reproach against them, and then obtrude upon the World, the Frailties of some, and your own most Uncharitable mistakes of Others, for the History of the Order; but not one word of Their Virtues. (It would make a black book, the Story of the Presbytery drawn up at the same Rate.) It is your way still, under a Pretext of advancing the Mystical Church, to depress the Visible, and to put the people out of Love w●th both Civil and Ecclesiastical Constitutions.  Ba. 
[pray do but observe and see of what manner of persons the Visible Church hath be●n Constituted, 
B's quarrel to the Visible Church.  in all Ages of the World, till now. In the first Church, in Adam's Family, a Cain, In a Church of Eight persons, the Father and Pastor overtaken with Gross Drunkenness, and one of his Sons was a Cursed Cham. In a Church of six persons, Two of them perished (in Sodom (in the flames among the Unbelievers, and a Third turned into a Pillar of Salt: The Two remaining Daughters, committed Incest. In Abraham's Family, an Ishmael; in Isaac●s, an Esau: even Rebecca, and jacob guilty of deceitful Equivocation; an Abraham and Isaac denied their Wives to save themselves in their Unbelief. In Jacob's Family a Simeon and Levi, that sold their brother joseph. Of the Church of the Isralites in the Wilderness but Two permitted to enter into the Land of Promise, etc. [The Ten Tribes were drawn by Ieroboa● to Sin, by setting up Calves at Dan in Bethel, and making Priests of the Vilest of the People; and forsaking the Temple, and the True Worship of God and the Lawful Priests. And these Lawful Priests at jerusalem were Ravening Wolves and Greed● Dogs, and careless, and cruel Shepherds. The false Pro phets who deceived the People were most Accepted.] Changed Diu. Pa. 35. ●6. 37. And if you run through the Churches of Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Colosse, Ephesus, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Laodicea.] Pa. 39.40.41. you'll find it to be the same case.  Mo. 
But what's your end in all This?  Ba. 
[Not to make Sin less Odious, nor the Church or Godly less Esteemed: but to show you the Frame of the Visible Church, 
The Reasons of B's Unkindness to the Visible Church▪  in all Generations, and how it differeth from the jewish; lest you should take on you to be wiser than God, and to build his house after a better Rule than his Gospel and the Primitive Pattern. Ibid. Pa. 36.  Mo. 
This is by Interpretation, The Non-Conformists are the Invisible Church; 
He makes Dissenters the Invisible Church and Conformists the Visib●●.  and the Episcopal Clergy are the Ravening Wolves, and the Greedy Dogs, and all the Sons of the Church of England, are the Church Visible, According to your most obliging way of Allusion. But there's one thing I forgot.  
You say, the Presbyterians did not begin the War; which with your Favour is a great mistake, and yet not a pin matter to the case in Question; whether they did or not. Did not the Kirk lead the Dance, and the Republican Faction in England pay them their wages, 
Presbyterians began the War  and call them their Dear Brethren for their pains? And then the Presbyterian war was denounced in the Pulpit, and in the Parliament-house too, long before the Republican broke out openly in the Field. What if the first Public Sticklers, were not at that time Declared Presbyterians? They were yet in the Conspiracy against Bishops, though under another Notion; and quickly after they Listed themselves under That very Profession, as the best cover in nature for their purpose; for That Schism was never without a State-faction in the Belly on't. But nothing is more Notorious, than the Intelligence that was held, from the Beginning, betwixt the Republican cabal, and the Presbyterian Divines! The one drew the bellows, and the Other Played the Tune. And take notice likewise, That Presbyterian was a mark of the Faction rather than a note of the Religion, and used in Contradistinction to royalist. 
A State Faction as well as a Schism.  But pray finish your Repentance.  Ba. 

B's Implicit Repentance.  For [All the rest of my Sins in this business, which I know not of Particularly, I do Implicitly and generally Repe●● of, and ask of God to give me a particular Conversion, etc.] Ibid 53.  Mo. 

B's account soon cast up.  If you have told all the Particulars you know of, yo●● Account, Mr. Baxter, is soon cast up.  
You begin with a Gen●rall Supposition. All that ever I Thou●●●, Said, etc. without any One Instance; or Acknowledgement. If you had said, I have committed many Sins of This kind, and 〈◊〉 That, it had been something.  
Your Second Branch of Repentance, is for no more discouraging Peevishness toward Superiors; and Then sometimes too 〈◊〉 Encouraging it by being too Sharp yourself against what yo● took to be Church Corruptions. Why Sorry for no MORE discouraging, 
A General Particular Repentance.  when you were so far from discouraging at all, th●● on the Contrary, you Repent in the same Period, for too 〈◊〉 Encouraging? This is, at the best; but a Lame and a Gene●●● Particular Repentance. 
Rebellion and Peevishness.  That which you make no more of th●● the Spirit of Peevish Quarrelling (as if the people had only 〈◊〉 upon a Nettle) you should have spoken out, and called it the Spirit of Contumacy, and Rebellion. And what is it that yo● charge upon yourself here, more than that you were a little too Mealy-mouthed? 
B. Reputes of being too mealy-mouthed.  But where's your Vindication of the Ch●r●●-Orders you mention? where's your Determination which 〈◊〉 the Right Superiors. Why do ye not tell the People that yo● were mistaken in the Opinion of our Church-Corruptions; and Instruct them in their Duties of Obedience to God, and the King? Without so doing, That which you call Repentance, is o●l● a Snare to the Multitude, and a Scandal to the Government.  
Your next Pang of Repentance, is for not Consulting t●e best Lawyers that were against the Parliament, more Impartially and diligently than you did.  

A Repentance without a Confession.  Is This the Repentance, Mr. Baxter, of a Confessor? A Repentance, without a Confession: an arrant piece of Artifice, a●d Design, to put on the Disguise of a Recantation, and without any charge or discharge of Conscience, to keep in with Bo●h Parties. The Sin does not lie in your not Advising with Lawyers concerning the State of the Controversy, but in Plunging yourself and Others into Blood, hand over head, contrary to the Laws of God and man, without so much as consulting the grounds of the Quarrel. To the Royalists it looks like an excuse of your Disloyalty to the King; as who should say; 'Tis true, I was to blame: It was a Point of Law, 
And an abuse upon Both Parties.  and I should have taken better Advise upon't. And if the Other Side accuse you as a desertor of the Cause, you can acquit yourself There too, that you have not Repent of any one Point to their Prejudice. If it be not as I say, and that you mean Good Faith, do but publish your Loyalty to the World, in the manner, or to the effect Following, and I'll ask your Pardon.  
I Do Declare, that the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament, 
Mr. Baxter's Test.  are still the King's Subjects, and that it is not Lawful for them to exercise any Act of Sovereign Power, without or Against the King's Command, or Consent. I do likewise declare that the War, Raised by the pretended Authority of the Lords and Commons in 1642. with all their Orders, Ordinances, and Impositions in pursuance thereof, were also unlawful: And that All Acts of Hostility done by Them or their Order, against the King, or the Party Commssioned by h●m, during the Command of the Earl of Essex, were Acts of disloyalty, and Rebellion.  
If you be really the man that you would be thought to be, you'll never Boggle at This Test: But if This will not down with ye, (let me tell you Sir, that to my knowledge worse than this, has) you will make me think of the Lady in the Proverbs, that [Eateth, and wipeth her Mouth, and saith I have done no Wickedness.  Ba. 

Mr Baxter's Challenge.  You Reflect in These Reproaches either upon my Particular Principles, or upon the Principles of the Party, or upon Both. As to myself; [If any man can prove, that I was Guilty of, hurt to the Person, or destruction of the Power of the King, or of Changing the Fundamental Constitution of the Commonwealth] etc. Holy Com. Pa. 489.490. [I will never gainsay him if he call me a most perfidious Rebel; and tell me that I am Guilty of far greater Sin, than Murder, Whoredom, Drunkenness, or such like. Ibid.  
Or if they can solidly Confute my Grounds, I will tha●● them, and Confess my Sin to all the World. Ibid.  Ri. 

Richard takes him up and proves him guilty as ●o the King's Person.  Nay Brother Baxter, you must give Me leave to put in ● Word now; and first to your Practice, then to your Grounds. Di● not you animate the Party that was in Arms against the King; 〈◊〉 much as any man, and was That no hurt to his Person? [Remem●● (say you to the Army) how far I have gone with you in the W●●— And shall I be afraid of my Old most Intimate Friends? etc. Holy Com. Pref. Will you have it now that This Army, your O●●, and intimate Friends, did no Hurt to his Majesty's Person? A●● now bethink yourself, of your Challenge in the Preface to your Ho●● Common wealth. 
An Opposer of the King's Power.  [Prove that the King was the Highest Pow●●, in the time of Divisions, and that he had Power to make 〈◊〉 War, which he made, and I will offer my Head to justice as a ●●bell.] Is not This Destructive of the King's Power? And is not 〈◊〉 a Change of the Fundamental Constitution of the Common-wea●●●, 〈◊〉 say that [the Members of Parliament considered disjunctly, 〈…〉 Subject's, 
And the Fundamental Constitution.  but that Conjunctly, as a House or Body, they 〈◊〉 the Sovereignty.] Holy Com. Pa. 433. And again, pa. 462. [Te●● the Parliament hath a part of the Legislative Power, (eve● 〈◊〉 ENACTING, and not only of Proposing) is undoubted.  Ba. 
Nay if you go to That Richard, I shall call You to Account for your Practices and Propositions too. Do not you remember a certain Dedicatory Epistle, 
He acknowl●dgeth the Protectors Sovereignty. And blesseth the Providences that brought Richard to the Government.  to Richard Protector, i● your Key for Catholics, where you have these words? [Gi●● not leave to every seducer to do his worst to damn men's So●l● when you will not Tolerate every Traitor to draw your Am●ie● or PEOPLE into Rebellion.] And again, [This is one th●t rejoiceth in the present happiness of England, and honoureth all the Providences of God, by which we have been brought 〈◊〉 what we are.] Do not you here acknowledge Richard the Pr●tectors Sovereignty? and bless all the Providences that have brought matters so Comfortably about?  Ri. 
Ay, Ay, Baxter; 
Richard had his Principles from Baxter.  That's a Doctrine you taught me in your Commonwealth. [I am bound to submit to the Present Government, as set over us by God, and to Obey for Conscience-sak●, and to behave myself as a Loyal Subject towards Them. 
Baxter make● the Protect●rs Title as good as the Kings.  For a Full and Free Parliament hath owned it, and so there is notoriously the Consent of the People, which is the Evidence that former Princes had to justify their Best Titles. Pa. 484. Whereas in Truth neither was This a Free Parliament, nor any Parliament at all; neither w●s your submission to the present Power, an Act of Conscience, for the same Conscience would have obliged you as well to the King, upon the same Grounds.  Ba. 
In good time Mr. Richard: And who taught ye, I wonder your Compliments to Prince Richard in the Five disputations? Where you Address yourself [To His Highness, Richard, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
Baxter's Addresses to Richard Protector.  Scotland, and Ireland.] Ep. Ded. And further [ 
Your Zeal for God will kindle in your SUBJECTS, a zeal for you. The more your Life & Government is Divine, the more Divine will you appear; and therefore, the more Amiable, and Honourable to the Good, and Reverend to the Evil. Parliaments will Love and honour you, and abhor the Motions that tend to a Division, or your Just Displeasure. Ministers will heartily pray for you, and praise the Lord for his Mercies by you, and Teach all the People to Love, Honour and Obey you. The People will Rejoice in you; and you will be loved or Feared of All. Such Happiness attendeth Serious Piety, when Impiety, selfishness, and Neglect of Christ, is the shame and Ruin of Prince and People. I crave your Highness' Pardon for this Boldness, and your Favourable Acceptance of the Tendered Service of,  
A Faithful Subject to your Highness, as you are an Officer of the Universal King, Richard Baxter.  Ri. 

Ba●ters Resolution in ●●ree Cases, expressly to keep out the King.  I keep still to my Old Master Doctor of the Aphorisms, [If a Person enter into a military State against the People, and by Them be Conquered, they are not obliged to Restore him, unless there be some other Special Obligation upon them, beside their Allegiance.] Thes. 145. And moreover [If the Person dispossessed, though it were Unjustly▪ do afterward become Uncapable of Government, It is not the Subjects du●y to seek his Restitution.] Thes. 146. And yet again [Whosoever expels the Sovereign, though Injuriously, and resolves to revive the Commonwealth, rather than he shall be restored: and if the Commonwealth may prosper without his Restauration, It is the Duty of such an Injured Prince, for the Common Good to resign his Government; and if he w●ll not, the People ought to judge him as m●de Incapable by Providence, and not to seek his Restitution to the Apparent Ruin of the Commonwealth.] Thes. 147.  Mo. 
Pray let me put in a Word betwixt ye. What do you call Incapacitys?  Ba. 
[When Providence depriveth a man of his UNDERSTANDING, 
Baxter's Incapacities for Government.  He is Materia Indisposita, and Uncapable of Government, though not of the Name.] Thes. 135. [If God permits Princes to turn so WICKED, as to be Uncapable of Governing, 
Dominion is founded in Grace. Want of Power deposes a Prince.  So as is consistent with the Ends of Government, he permits them to depose Themselves.] Thes. 136. Again; [If Providence Statedly disable him that was the Sovereign, from the executing of Laws, Protecting the Just, and other Ends of Government, it maketh him an Uncapable Subject of the Power and so deposeth him.] For a Government so Impotent, is None. A capacity for the Work and Ends is necessary in the Person; and when That ceaseth, the Power ceaseth.] H●l. Comm. Pag. 137.138.  Ri. 
And then you say further, Thes. 153. That [Any thing that is a sufficient Sign of the Will of God, that This is the Person, by whom we should be Governed, is enough (as joined to God's Laws) to oblige us to Consent, and Obey him, as our Governor.) Upon which Ground, you yourself do justify all that I have either said, or do●e, in submission to Richard. And so you do likewise in your Thesis 149. [If the Rightful Governor be so long dispossessed, that the Commonwealth can be no longer be without Government, 
A Case against his Majesty's restauration.  but to the apparent hazard of its Ruin, we ought to judge that Providence has disp●●sest the Former, and presently consent to another.] We must not say, that [because we cannot have such a man, we'll have none, but be Vngoverned; This is to break an Express Commandment, and to cast off the Order and Ordinance of God, for a Persons sake.] P. 162. And then there's another thing; You put all the Cases that ever you could muster up, against the Kings Return. [If a King (you say) dissolves the Government he can be no Governor. 
Cases of Forfeiture.  If an Enemy, no King. A destroyer cannot be a Ruler, and Defender; He proclaimeth Hostility, and is Therefore not to be Trusted.] Pa. 539.  Ba. 
Well, well? Richard. If you had pleased, you might have found out some other Aphorisms, where I have done as much Right I'm sure to Sovereign Power as any man living. 
Baxter asserts Obedience at all hazards.  Do not I say Thes. 326. That [It is the Subjects Duty to defend their Prince, with their Strength, and hazard of their Lives, against all Foreign and Domestic Enemies, that seek his Life, or Ruin?]  Ri. 
If you speak This to the Cause in Question; 
Baxter against the King though the Parliament had been in the wrong.  how will you come off where you say [If I had known that the Parliament had been the Beginners; and in most fa●●t, yet the Ruin of our trusties, and Representives, and so of all the Security of the Nation, is a Punishment greater than any fault of theirs against a King, can from him deserve: and That Their saul●s cannot disoblige me from defending the Commonwealth. ● Owned not all that ever they did: but I took it to be my Duty to look to the main End. And I kn●w that the King had all his Power for the Common Good, and therefore had none against it; and Therefore that no Cause can Warrant him, to make the Commonwealth the Party, which he shall exercise Hostility against.] Ho. Com. Pa. 480. [All this s●●med plain to me] And [When I found so many things Conjunct, as Two of the Three Estates against the Will of the King Alone, the Kingdoms Representatives and trusties assaulted in the Guarding of our Liberties, and the Highest Court defending them against offending Subjects, 
●. does n●● love to rub old sores.  and se●king to bring them to a Legal Trial; and the Kingdom's Safety, and the Common Good, involved in their Cause (which may be more fully manifested, 
Neutrality a sin, and Treachery ●o serum the King.  but that I would not stir too much in the Evils of times past;) All these, and many more concurring, persuaded me, that it was Sinful to be Neutrals, and Treacherous to be against the Parliament in that Cause.]— [It were a wonder if so many humble, honest Christians, fearful of sinning, and Praying for Direction, 
T●e praying Rebels against the Loyal Damme's.  should be all mistaken in so weighty a Case, and so many Damme's all in the Right.] pa. 481.  Ba. 
Very Learnedly applied. But do not I say Pa. 437▪ That [if a Parliament would wrong a King, and depose him Unjustly, 
A just way of Deposing a King employed.  and change the Government, for which they have no Power, the Body of the Nation may refuse to serve them in it, yea, may forcibly restrain them? If they Notoriously betray their Trust, not in some Tolerable matters, but in the Fundamentals, 
A Parliament may betray their Trust 100  or Points that the Common Good dependeth on, and engage in a Cause that would destroy the Happiness of the Commonwealth; It is then the People's duty to forsake them, an● cleave to the King against them, if they be Enemies to the Commonwealth.] Pag. 438.  Ri. 

Tho a Prince be injured, the people may join with his Enemies.  Now I beseech ye Mr. Baxter be pleased to Compare pa. 43●. with pa. 424. where you lay down This Thes●● [Though some injury to the King be the Occasion of the War, it is the Duty of all the P●●ple to defend the Commonwealth against him; Y●t so, as th●t t●●y protest against That Injury.]  Ba. 
But what say ye all this while to the Case of making Co●nt to an Usurper? 
No Obedience due to an Usurper.  [When it is Notorious (say I) that where a ma● has no Right to Govern, People are not bound to Obey him, unless by Accident.] Thesis' 339.  Ri. 
[We detest their Opinion, who think that a strong and prosperous Usurper, 
Usurpr rsmust be opposed  may be defended, against the King, or that the King is not to be defended against him, to the hazard of our Estates, 〈◊〉 Lives.] Non-Conf. 2d. part. Pa. 77. [Mere Conquest with●●● Consent, 
They have no true power.  is no Just Title.] Ibid. P. 108. And again, [Vs●rp●● have no True Power, nor do their Commands bind anb one in Conscience to formal Obedience: 
Who are Usurpers.  nor may they be set up and defended against the Lawful Governor.] Pa. 55. [And Those are Usurper's 〈◊〉 by Force or Fraud depose the Lawful Governor and take his place. Ibid. [If Usurper's claim the Crown, the Subject must judge wh●● is their King and must defend his Right. 
The people to be Judges. ] Non-Con. Plea. 70.  Ba. 
But what if the People shall Miss-Judge? [All things are not destructive to the Commonwealth, 
The people may mis-judge.  that are Judged so by Dissenting Subjects.] Holy Com. Pref. [Nor are Subjects allowed to Resist, 

Baxt. laments the loss of the late Ruler's.  
Sworn, and sworn, to King Lords ●nd Commons.  
The Lords & Commons rule alone, and ●he Government not changed.   whenever they are confident that Rulers would destroy the Commonwealth.] Ibid. [Oh how happy would the best of Nations under Heaven be, If they had the Rulers that our Ingratitude hath cast off.] [Our old Constitution, was King, Lords, and Commons, which we were sworn and sworn, and sworn again to be faithful to, and to Defend. The King withdrawing, the Lords and Commons Ruled alone, though they Attempted not the Change of the Species of Government. Next This, we had the Major part of the House of Commons in the Exercise of Sovereign Power, the Corrupt Majority, (as the Army called them) being cast out.] Ibid. etc. 'Tis no matter for the Following Revolutions; [To resist, or depose the Best Governors in all the world, that have the Supremacy, is forbidden to Subjects on point of Damnation. Ibid.  Ri. 
pray hold your hand a little Mr. Baxter. 
Baxter charged wi●h contradiction.  If the Government was i● King, Lords, and Commons, how came the Two Houses ●o Rule Alone, with an Usurpation? And without changing the Species of the Government? or how came we, that you say were sworn over and over to all Three, to depose the Head, and Submit to the other Two; and to let the Government sink from a Monarchy, into a● Aristocracy? and why might not the Commons, cast out the Lords, and the Army the Commons, as well as the Two Houses cast off the King? Especially by your own Comment upon, [Let every Soul be Subject to the Higher Powers.] Ho. Com. 3E9. 
The Higher Pours 〈◊〉 the Gove●nor● in possession.  Where you expound the Higher Power, to be Intended of the Governors in Actual Possession. What hindered this Argument from holding, when the King was in Actual Possession?  Ba. 
[A people may give an Honourary Title to the Prince, and not give the same to Others, 
'Tis not th● N●me th●t makes the King.  that have part in the Sovereignty.] [So that Names are not the only Notes of Sovereignty. Wherefore one must not Judge of the Power of Princes by their Titles, or Names.] Ho. Com. Pa. 432. 
The people Judges of the King and o● the Law.  [The Law saith the King, shall have the Power of the Militia, supposing it to be against Enemies, and not against the Commonwealth, nor them that have part of the Sovereignty with him. To Resist him here is not to Resist Power, but Usurpation, and Private Will. In such a Case, the Parliament is no more to be Resisted than he, because they are also the Higher Power.] Ho. Com. Pa. 431. 
Seize the King's Revenue, and ●e is no longer a King.  And there's more in't yet. [If a Prince be statedly made a Beggar, or forsaken, or Ejected by a Conqueror, and so Uncapable of Governing, if it be but pro Tempore, the Subjects for That time, (that have no opportunity to Restore him) are disobliged from his Actual Government. [Pa. 139.  Ri. 
So that the Seizing of a Prince's Revenue, deposes him from 〈◊〉 Sovereignty, and descharges his Subjects of their Obedience. But I took [Inferior Magistrates to be Subjects of the King as well as the meanest men; 

Inferior Magistrates still Subjects.  
Richard e●er True to t●e Crown.   and to have no more Power to Depose, or take up Arm● against him, than other Subjects.] Non-Con. Plea, 2d. part p. 5●. And [In all the times of Usurpation, and since, I said, and wrote, that the King's Person is Inviolable, and to be Judged by none, either Pe●r, or Parliament, and that it is none but Subjects, that they m●y call to Account, judge, and Punish.] Pref.  Ba. 

The Law of Nature i● above the Law of the Land.  I shall leave [Others to Judge, in what Cases Subjects may Resist Kings by Arms; We shall only Conclude, that no Humane Power can Abrogate the Law of Nature, Non-C●●. Plea. 2 d. Part Pa. 57  Ri. 

Modest Subjects study their own Duty not t●e Kings.  And may not the Two Houses be Resisted by the Law of Nature as well as they oppo●●● the King? [Mod●●● Subjects should rather study what Laws God hath made for Themselves, than what 〈◊〉 he hath made for Kings; and what 〈…〉 Own duty th●● wh●t i● the Kings: [Though 〈…〉 are not bound to be 〈◊〉.] Non-Con. Plea, 2 d. Part. Pa. 48.  Ba. 

Sovereign Power not to be restrained by t●e people.  Nay I am as little for Restraining of Sovereign Power as any ●lesh breathing. [It is not sa●e or Lawful for the People to Limit, or Restrain the Sovereign Power, from disposing so far of the Estates of All, as is necessary to the safety of A●l, which is the End of Government.] Thesis' 115. Nay [A Governor cannot Lawfully be Restrained by the People from preserving them.] Thes. 120. [For the Multitude are Covetous, 
The Multitude no Judges of Government.  Tenacious, Injudicious, and Incompetent Judges of the Necessities, or Commodity of the Commonwealth.] Pa. 115.  Ri. 
But what was it you were saying even now of the Best Governors in the World?  Ba. 
I was saying, that [the Best Governors in all the World that have the Supremacy have been Resisted or deposed in England. I mean 1. Them that the Army called the Corrupt Majority: or an Hundred Forty and Three Imprisoned, and Secluded Members of the Long Parliament, who, as the Majority, had, you know what power. 
The Secluded Members and the too Cr●mwells t●e be●t Governors.  2. The Powers that were last laid by. I should with great Rejoicing give a Thousand Thanks to That man, that will acquaint me of One Nation upon all the Earth, that hath better Governors in Sovereign Power (as to Wisdom and Holiness Conjunct) then those that have been Resisted, or deposed in Engl●●●. Ho. Com. Pref.  Ri. 
You Speak of the Secluded Members, 
Rebellion to oppose the supreme Rulers.  and the Two Cromwell's. But they all came in by Violence; And [I know none of the Non-Conformists that take it not for Rebellion, to pull down or s●t up forcibly by the Sword, any thing against the Supreme Ruler, or Without him] R. Bs. Letter to Mr. Hinckly. Pa. 8●.  Ba. 
[The Parliament did Remonstrate to the Kingdom, the danger of the Subversion of Religion, and Liberties, 
The Parliament to●d us our danger.  and of the Common Good and Interest of the People whose trusties they were] Ho. Com. Pa. 471. And [If a Nation Regularly choose a Representative Body, of the most Noble, Prudent, Interested Members, to discern their dangers and the Remedies, and preserve their Liberties and Safety, the People themselves are to discern These Dangers, and Remedies by THEIR eyes.] Thes. 356. 
And we we●e b●und to 〈◊〉 with Their Eyes▪  And I think [it was time for us to believe a Parliament concerning our Danger, and Theirs, when we heard so many Impious persons rage against them] Pa. 472. [the Irish professing to raise Arms for the King, to defend his Prerogative and their own Religion against the Parliament. I say, in such a time as This, we had Reason to believe our entrusted Watchmen, that told us of the danger, and no Reason to suffer our Lives and Libertyes to be taken out of their Trust, and wholly put into the hands of the King. We had rather of the two, 
TheKing himself opposed and Baxte● ●e●o●ved to justify it.  be put upon the Inconvenience of Justifying our Defence, then to have been Butchered by Thousands, and fall into such hands as Ireland did.] Pa. 473. But [all the Wars that have been since the Opposition to the Parliament, and Violence done to the Person of the King: were far from being owned by the Common Sort of the Now Non-Conformists, etc.] Non-Conf. Plea. Pa. 138.  Ri. 
You were saying a while ago as I remember, that a Parliament that destroys Fundamentals, is an Enemy to the Commonwealth, and the People ought to oppose them. pray Say: 〈◊〉 not the Freedom and Right of the Electors, as much a Fundamental, 
A Fundamental destroyed.  as the Privilege, and Trust of the Elected? How comes it then that you propound the Reducing of Elections to the Faithf●●l, honest Upright men,] etc. Pref. to the Ho. Com.  Ba. 

Baxter defends it. Parliaments may be corrupt.  Let me speak afterwards of the Necessity, and of the Utility of This Cause.  
1. [It is known that Parliaments quà Tales, are not Divine, Religious, Protestant, or Just. The Six Articles by which the Martyrs were burnt, were made by a Parliament. All the Laws for the Papal Interests in the days of Popery▪ have been made by them. They have often Followed the Wills of Princes to and fro, and therefore they are not Indefectible, nor Immutable, as such. Ho. Com. Pa. 243.  Mo. 
Very right; and all the late Orders and Ordinances 〈◊〉 Sequestering Crown and Church-Revenues, 
Instances of Parliamentary Co●ruptions.  Commitments, Plunders, Decimations and the like, were made by that which you call a Parliament. But see now in what a Condition Th●t people must be, that sees with the Parliaments Eyes, in ca●● of such Parliaments, as you suppose: and the Remedy you prescribe, is worse than the disease; for take away the Freedom of Choice, and the Persons Chosen are a Faction rather than a Parliament.  Ba. 
2. [It is known that there are Mambers of Vario●● minds in them all, 
Votes may be c●rried by Faction.  and sometime, the miscarrying Party is so strong, that by a few more voices they might brsng Misery o● the Commonwealth.] Ibid.  Mo. 

A● appears to our cost.  This we have found in several cases upon Experiment; to the Ruin of three Kingdoms.  Ba. 

The major part of Electors are ill me●.  3. [It is well known that in most parts, the Majo●-Vote of the Vulgar that are Choosers are Ignorant, selfish, of Private Spirits, ruled by money, and therefore by their Landlords, and other Great and Powerful men, and withal, they are bitterly distasted against the Serious, diligent Practice of Religion, according to the Rules of Christ] Ibid.  
4. [It is therefore apparent, that if they had their Liberty, 
And will choose others like themselves.  They would choose such as are of their minds; and it was by Providence, and Accident that heretofore they did not so.] Ibid.  Mo. 
Here's a Compendious Model Mr. Baxter of your Project [for the due Regulation of the Electours, 
Baxter's model for Reg●lation of Elections. The People's Right of Election taken away by partial qualifications. A Faction packed under he name of a Parliament.  and Elections of Parliament] Thes. 211. First, you propound to take away from the People of England, their Ancient, and Undoubted Right of Choosing their own Representatives. 2. to Unqualify all the Nobility, Gentry, and Commonalty of the Land that are Well Affected to the Government of Church and State. And 3ly. To Pack a Faction under the name of a Parliament of your own Leaven. Or if that will not do, 'tis but employing the Rabble again to give the House a swinging Purge, and you are at your Journeys End. Proceed.  Ba. 
5. [It is certain, that the Wars, 
The People are disobliged, and not trusted with choosing their own Representative.  the Change of Church-Government, and Forms of Worship, the Differences of Religious men, and the many Sects that have lately risen up among us, and the strict Laws of Parliament about the Lords day, etc. and Specially their Taxes, have deeply discontented them, and exasperated them against such as they think have caused these, so that many would now purposely design Their Ruin.] Ibid. In fine, [Without Regulating Elections, what Probability is there, but the next that is chosen by a Majority of Votes, with absolute Freedom, will undo all that hath been done; and be revenged to the full on all that were so odious to them, and Settle our Calamity by a Law?  Mo. 
This is a more Candid Account Mr. Baxter, 
The people sick of their Representative.  than you Intended it. For the People may well be allowed to have Cursed the Authors of those bloody Broils; The Profaning of our Temples; The suppressing of our Church-Government, and Liturgy, the Propagating of so many Sects and Schisms; and bringing the Nation to Grone under Their Taxes, like the Ass under the Burden. But how is That the People's Representative, that Shuts the people out of the Election, and acts both Without, and Against their Consent? The Tenth part of this encroachment upon the Common Liberty, from the King, would have been Cried out against, as Arbitrary And Tyrannical. But what way would you direct for the Limiting of the Qualifications?  ba. 

The Pastors to approve of the Electors.  [Let all Pastors in England, that are Approved, have an Instrument of Approbation, and all that are Tolerated, an Instrument of Toleration; and let no man be a chooser or a Ruler that holdeth not Communion with an Approved or Tolerated Church, and is not signified under the Pastor's hand, to be a Member thereof.] Thes. 219.  Mo. 
A most excellent Invention to advance the Empire of Presbytery, 
The Empire of Presbytery.  and enslave all other degrees and Persuasions of men whatsoever.  Ba. 
[The Humble Petition and Advice determineth, that under the Penalty of a Thousand pounds, 
The Petition and Advice concerning Elections.  and Imprisonment till it be paid, no person be Elected and sit in Parliament but] [Such as are persons of known Integrity, fear God, and of Good Conversation. 
Baxter's admirable Expedient.  They are sworn also for Fidelity to the Protector, etc.] A more excellent Act hath not been made, for the happiness of England, concerning Parliaments, at least, since the Reformation. 
☞ ] Ho. Com. 257.258.  Mo. 
But what is it that you mean by this Known Integrity? or who are to be the judges of it? 
His qualifications accepted.  I take That man that Publicly Sacrifices his Life, his Fortune, his Family, and his Freedom to the service of his Prince and Country, according to the Law, to be a man of Known Integrity: and him that Acts in opposition to the Law, and to his duty, to be clearly the contrary. 
The Pharisee and the Publican.  I take the Publican, that smites his breast, and cries, Lord be merciful unto me a sinner; to have more of the Fear of God in him, than the Pharisee, that Prays in the Market Place, and thanks God that he is not as Other men are: And I take him to be of as Good a Conversation, that submits quietly to the Rules of the Government; Reverences Authority, and contents himself with his Lawful Lot, As he is that values himself upon Outbraving Public Order, Reviling his Betters; Living upon the spoil, and devouring the Bread of the Oppressed.  
What would you say now to the turning of the Tables, and setting up of your Qualifications on the other side? and to the Kings excluding of the Non-Conformists by an Oath of Fidelity to himself, 
What if the King should take upon him so?  as your Richard [excluded delinquents in the late Eections.] Ho. Com. P. 244. [So that the People durst not go according otheir Inclinations.] Ibid. But why do I argue from your Practices, when your Positions do naturally lead to the same undutyfull Ends?  Ba. 
[My dull Brain could never find out any one point of difference in Theology, about the Power of Kings, 
Baxt●r feddes Presbyterian and Episcopal Loyalty the same.  and the Duty of Obedience in the People, between the Divines called Presbyterians, and Episcopal. If you know any, name them me, and tell me your Proofs. R. B's. Letter to Mr. Hinckly,] Pa. 26.  Ri. 
'Tis a Confounding of your Metaphysics methinks with your Politics, to talk of Points of Theology, 
Baxter confounds hisM●taphsiycks with his Politics.  in matters of Civil Power and Obedience; without distinguishing between our Credenda and Agenda, Notion and Practice; Supernatural Truths and Moral Duties. And why [The Divines CALLED Presbyterians] and not rather the Presbyterian Divines? For they are not ALL, Presbyterians, that are so CALLED; and there's a great deal of difference betwixt the Principles of Presbyterian Divines, as Presbyterian, and the 〈◊〉 of those very Presbyterians, as they are range● under ●he B●nner of a Civil Interest. But over and above all Thi●, you have carried it a great deal ●oo far, to say that the Episcopal, and the Presbyterian Divines hold the same Principles in the Point of King and Subject. You should rather have acknowledged▪ the disagreements, and maintained the Principle.  
We hold, 1. [Th●t the Parliament by the Constitution, 
Presbyterian Positions.  have part of the Sovereignty.] Ho. Com. Pa. 457. [2. That the Sovereignty is jointly i● K●●g, Lords and Commons, as Three Estates.] 465. [3. The Parliament have a Power of Enacting Laws as well as of proposing them.] Pa. 462. Whereas The Episcopal Party pronounce the Sovereignty to be only in the King; 
Episcopal Positions.  2. They assert the King's sole Supremacy in all Causes, and over all Persons, whatsoever as well Ecclesiastical, as Civil, and 3. That the two Houses have no share at all in the Sanction. We hold likewise that It was Treason to resist the Parliament, as the Enemy did, apparently in Order to their Subversion.] Ho. Com. 478 
Presbyt. Posit.  [That the Parliament was the highest Interpreter of Laws that was then Existent, in the Division.] Ibid. And so we find that every step of the Parliamentary War was Iustify'd by the Assembly, and the whole Current of the Presbyterian-Divines: 
Episc. Posit.  The Episcopal Clergy unanimously declaring themselves to the contrary. Who but the Assembly July 19 43. in the Names of Themselves and Others, 

The Assembly cries out for blood.  
And stir up the people.   to call for the Execution of justice, on All delinquents? Husband 2d. Vol. of Collections, 241. And who again, Aug. 10. 1643. but The Divines of the Assembly that are Re●iants of the Associated Counties, and now Attending the Assembly, are desired to go down into their several Counties, to stir up the people in Those several Counties, to rise for their Defence.] Ibid. 285. So that in the Main, we differ upon the very Constitution of the Government; the Power of the Prince, the Duty of the Subject, and upon every point of the Parliamentary War: And we are no less divided upon the Scheme of Forms, and Ceremonies.  Ba. 

Mr. ●axter never wronged any man.  [Prove that I or any of my Acquaintance ever practised Ejecting, Silencing, ruining men for things Unnecessary; yea or for Greater things. Whom did we ever forbid to Preach the Truth? Whom did we cast out of all Church-Maintenance? Whom did we Imprison!] R. R's. Answ. to Dr. Stillingfleet. Pa. 97.  Ri. 
You forget yourself Brother: and I am for speaking the Truth, though I shame the Devil. 
Richard refreshes his memory.  Pray look into Mercurius Rusticus his Account of the London Clergy that were Ejected, Silenced, and Ruined by Order of Parliament: See his Querela Cantabrigiensis, for the Heads, Fellows, and Students, of Colleges, that were There Ejected, Plundered, Imprisoned, or Banished for their Affections to the King, and the Established Religion. Consider th●● You yourself took the liberty to Graze upon another man's Past●re: And all these Violence were carried on by your Encouragement, Influenced by your Approbation; and the Principal directors of the●, extolled to the Skies, 
Mr. Baxters Governors.  as the [Best Governors for Wisdom a●d Holiness,] Ho. Com. Pref. under the Cope of Heaven.  Ba. 

A Plot upon the Presbyte●ians.  But however, [Either they must prove that we hold Rebellious Principles, or they show that they do but in Plot accuse us.]  
I know very well that [The Transproser Rehearsed, Pa. 48. saith Mr. Baxter in his Holy Commonwealth mayntainteth that he (the King) may be called to Account by any Single Peer. 
A bloody slander. ] [Must we say nothing to such bloudly slanders? Never such a Thought was in my mind, nor word spoken or Written by me. But▪ all is a mere False-Fiction: Nay in all the times of Usurpation, and Since, I said and Wrote, that the King's Person is Inviolable, and to be Judged by none, either Peer, or Parliament, and that it is none but Subjects that they may call to account, and Judge, and Punish; and that neither the King may destroy or hurt the Kingdom, nor the Kingdom the King, (much less a Peer) but their Union is the Kingdom's Life. And the very Book Accused, goeth on such Principles, 
Alas! the Ho. Com. a most Innocent Book.  and hath not a word meet to tempt a man in his Wits to This Accusation. Judge now by this one Instance, and by the Cry of the Plotters now against Us, [Catilina Cethegum,] seeking our destruction, and the Parliaments, as supposed to favour us (which for aught I know never did any thing for our Relief, or Ease) whether it be meet, that I should die in silence under such horrid Accusations: 
Mr. Baxter lies under horrid Accusations.  Against which I appeal to the Great and Righteous Judge, before whom I am shortly to appear, begging his Pardon and Reforming Conviction wherever I Err.] Apr. 16. 1680. Non-Con. Plea, 2 d Part. Preface. last Page.  Mo. 
Be not so Transported Mr Baxter at the bloody Slander, as you call it: 
Mr. Baxter transported.  for the very excusing of yourself after This Manner, falls heavier upon you, than the Accusation itself. There was a Gentleman of a Good Family, that had Stolen a Silver-Spoon; and it was laid home to him, as a mighty Aggravation of the Crime, t●at a man of his Quality could let himself so low, as to pilfer for such a Trifle. Ay Sir, Says he, you say very Right, if That had been All; But in good Faith Sir, my Aim was at the Great Tankard, If it had been a Single Peer, it had been indeed a bloody Slander; But your Aim was the calling of the King to an Account, by the Authority of the Two Houses. And then you are pleased to bless God for the next Change that called Them to Account too: 
Any Government but the Right.  for you give the Two Usurpers much better Words, than any you could afford to the Lords Anointed. You call Them the Higher Powers, and enjoin Obedience to Them upon the pain of Damnation; which is a Favour you would never allow to his Late Majesty. Any Government but the Right will down with ye, and Still That which was a Rebellion in the Enterprise, proves to be a Providence in the Execution.  
But do you say Mt Baxter, that you have always asserted the King's Person to be Inviolable, & and that the very Bo●● accused goeth on such Pronciples? Why then it is no hurt to the King, to be Assaulted, despoiled of his Regalitys; Deposed, Imprisoned, Tried, Condemned and Executed. For the King you say is but a Title of Respect, not a Character of Power: a Nominal, Empty business. 
A King is a name of Respect not Power.  A kind of Dignity, Party-perpale, Half-Prince, half-Subject; and 'tis but taking him on the Popular side, and you may do what you will with him. This is the Chimaera of a Prince, according to your Aphorisms: A kind of Mock-Majes●● set up, for every Seditious Libertine to throw a Cudgel at. You make his Authority to be so Conditional, and Precarious, that he is upon his good behaviour for his Crown. 
The King's Authority made precarious.  If his Administration be not answerable to the Ends of Government: If he wants either Power, or Money, or Grace, or Understanding; or (which is worst of All) If the Licentious Rabble will but say, that he wants This, 
And under several Incapacities.  or That, he's gone, and Deposed, ●pso facto, as an Unqualifi'd Person. For according to your These, The Multitude are to be the Judges of These Incapacities▪ I● is a hardy Adventure, M. Baxter (unless you can make Almanacs) to set up such Positions as These, at This time of day. 'Tis True, They were printed in Fifty-nine, But they are no● Resumed, and Avowed in Eighty. But your Patience yet a little further Sir.  
Is it such a Horrid Accusation, to say that Mr Baxter Maintains the King, 
Baxter's Horrid Accusation.  may be called to Account by a Single Peer? Consider first, that it is a Churchman charges it upon you, and yo● are beforehand with him: for you have over and over, set forth Those of the Churchway (without exception either of King, 
His Character of ou● Churchmen.  Lords, or Commons) to be a Crew of Superstitious, Form●l, Profane Wretches that out of a mere Enmity to Godliness, set themselves in Opposition to the ways of Christ. Take notice again, if you have not delivered the Doctrine aforesaid in express Terms, It is already made appear that you have said as much as That amounts to. And over and above the Whyms●● of your Aphorisms; your Thirteenth Chapter, of the Late Wars is one of the Rudest and the falsest pieces of Calumny against the Late King, that I know anywhere Extant.  
Your Appeal upon This One Instance (as you call it) for Equity of judgement, and Liberty of Speech, would move the very Stones in the Walls, to give you a Hearing. And yet if, I had been of your Counsel Mr. Baxter, you should have bethought yourself, before you Exclaimed, whether the Enquiry into the Subject-matter of your Complaint, might not possibly lay open something that was worse, As undoubtedly it has; for This Holy Commonwealth of yours, is a kind of (send me well delivered of the Word) a kind of Theologico-Political Wholesale Shop; and furnished with Cases, 
Baxter's damnable Cases of Conscience.  of all Sorts and Sizes. for the Consciences of the Weak, and the Pretensions of the Malicious. In One Case, the King is Dispossessed by Providence; In another, he is deposed for Incapacity; In a Third, he must not so much as dare to Return, even if the Door were set open to him: In Such or such a case, the People are bound not to Re-admit him; and in such another, they may if they please, but they are not obliged to't: and every one of These Cases, Calculated for this very Point, which was at That Time in Agitation. Insomuch, that the Application of your Arguments was yet more Criminal than the Error of them.  
But what do ye mean, I beseech ye, by the Cry of the Plotters against ye? 
Baxt. dreams of a Plot upon him.  As if they knew their Friends no better then So. Their business is the Subversion of the Government, and of the Protestant Religion, that falls with it. What should they cry out for against the Separatists, that are all this while, doing the Papists business to their hands? The Kings Witness Speak no such matter; but on the Contrary; that the Priests and Jesuits make use of the Schismatics toward our Common Ruin. So that by Plotters in This place Mr. Baxter, it is Intended (I presume,) according to your Wont Benignity) not the Popish Plotters, but the Episcopal Plotters against ye; which (as you would gladly have the World to believe) Seek your Destruction, and the Parliaments, as supposed to Favour ye etc. Now to my thinking, the Parliaments Destruction, and Ours, would have run every jot as well, as Our Destruction and the Parliaments. Beside that it is not yet come to That Pass I hope, that Parliaments, and Schismatics, 
The Cart before the Horse  must Stand or fall together. Neither can I Imagine why This Parliament should be supposed more Inclinable to favour ye, then former Parliaments have been. The Reasons for Uniformity are the same now that ever they were; and the same, Here, as in other Places. And then the boldness, and Importunity of the Dividers increase the necessity of the Injunction. If you have forgotten the Common Votes, and Address of Feb 25. 1662. upon This Subject, Pray let me remember you of them.  
Resolved, etc. Nemine Contradicente.  
That the humble Thanks of This House, be returned to his Majesty, 
Votes for Uniformity.  for his Resolution to maintain, the Act of Uniformity.  
Resolved, etc.  
That it be presented to the King's Majesty, as the humble Advise of the House, that no Indulgence be granted to the dissent●● from the Act of Uniformity.  


For these Reasons.  

Reasons against Toleration.  1. It will establish Schism, by a Law, and make the 〈◊〉 Government of the Church Precaeious, and the Censures of it, of no moment or Consideration at all.  
2. It will no way become the Gravity or Wisdom of a Parliament to pass a Law at One Session for Uniformity, and 〈◊〉 the next Session, (the Reasons of Uniformity continuing still the Same,) to pass Another Law to frustrate, or Weaken the Execution of it.  
3. It will expose your Majesty to the Restless Importunity of every Sect or Opinion, and of every single person also, who shall presume to Dissent from the Church of England.  
4. It will be a cause of increasing Sects, and Sectaries, 〈◊〉 Numbers will weaken the true Protestant Religion so far, th●t it will at least be difficult for it, to defend itself against the●. And which is yet further Considerable, those Numbers which by being Troublesome to the Government, find they can arrive to 〈◊〉 Indulgence, will as their Numbers increase, be yet more Troublesome, that so at length they may arrive to a General Toleration; which your Majesty hath declared against; and in time, some prevalent Sect, will at last contend for an Establishment, which for 〈◊〉 can be fore-seen, may end in Popery.  
5. It is a thing altogether without Precedent, and will take away all means of Convicting Recusants, and be inconsistent with the Method, and Proceedings of the Laws of England.  
Lastly, It is humbly conceived, that the Indulgence Proposed will be so far from tending to the Peace of the Kingdom, that it is rather likely to Occasion great Disturbance. And on the Contrary; that the Asserting of the Laws, and the Religion Established, according to the Act of Uniformity, is the most probable means to produce a settled Peace, and Obedience throughout your Kingdom: Because the Variety of Professions in Religion, when openly divulged, doth directly distinguish men into Parties, and withal gives them opportunity to count Their Numbers; which considering the Animosities that out of a Religious Pride will be kept on foot, by the several Factions, doth tend directly, and Inevitably to open disturbance.    
Nor can your Majesty have any security, that the Doctrine or Worship of the several Factions, which are all governed by a several Rule, shall be Consistent with the Peace of your Kingdom.  
And if any Persons shall presume to disturb the Peace of the Kingdom, We do in all Humility declare, that we will for ever and in all Occasions, be ready with our utmost Endeavours, and Assistance, to adhere to, and serve your Majesty, 
☜  according to our bounden Duty, and Allegiance.  
Only one Word more: and That must be to tax you with Infinite Ingratitude; in saying, that [Parliaments, 
Mr baxter's Ingratitude.  for ought you know, never did any thing for your Relief or Ease] what do ye think of the Act of Indemnity, I beseech ye? Was it Nothing? to give you your Lives, Liberties, and Estates again, when all was Forfeited? Nay and it is come to that Point now too; that those very Instruments that were forgiven by the King, for the Ruin of the Church and Three Kingdoms, will not at this day forgive his Majesty, for Endeavouring according to the Advice of his Parliament, to Re-establish and Preserve them.  Ri. 
If you would understand us aright, 
How to understand the Presbyterians.  you must repair to our [Declarations, Professions, Commissions, National Oaths and Covenants,] and the Like. Ho, Com. Pag. 477. And pray Observe the Tenor of our Style, Address. Protestations, and other Proceedings.  
[Your Majesty's most Humble, and Loyal Subjects, the Lords and Commons, 
Words.  Dec. 14. 1641. [Most Humble and Faithf●●● Subjects,] Dec. 15. [Most Humble and Obedient Subjects,] Exact Collections. ●a. 2.  Mo. 
And now put That Libellous Remonstrance of Dec. 15. in the Scale against Three or Four Words of Course, 
Practices.  of the same date.  Ri. 
The Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of the House of Commons, 
Words.  your Faithful and Loyal Subjects, etc. Ibid. Pa▪ 44. Dec. 31. 1641.  Mo. 
This was a Message to his Majesty for a Guard, which the King most graciously offered them, 
Practices.  but One of his Choosing it seems would not do the Business.  Ri. 
[Your most faithful and Obedient Subjects, the Lords and Commons in this Present Parliament. 
Words. ] etc. Ibid. Pa. 65. Jan. 29.  Mo. 
They Petitioned to have the Tower of London, and all oeher Forts, 
Practices.  and the whole Militia of the Kingdom to be FORTHWITH put into the hands of such Persons, as both Houses should Recommend, &c, Ex. Coll. Jan. 29. 1641. And what did his Majesty now get by the Compliment?  Ri. 

Words.  [Your Humble and Loyal Subjects, the Lords and Commons,] etc. Ibid. Feb. 22. 1641. Pa. 80.  Mo. 
His Majesty's Humble and Loyal Subjects, are pleased to declare in this Petition; 
Practices.  that if the King does not Instantly grant them their Petition about the Militia, they are bound by the Laws of God and man to take the Militia into their own hands.  Ri. 
Your Majesty's most Loyal, and Obedient Subjects, the Lords and Commons; 
Words. ] etc. Ib. Mar. 1. 1641. Pa. 92.  Mo. 
In this Petition they threaten to dispose of the Militia by the Authority of the Two Houses. 
Practices.  They Order his Majesty where to dispose of his Person: and absolutely deny the Kings Pow●● of the Militia, but by Authority and consent of Parliament.  Ri. 
Your most Dutyful and Loyal Subjects, the Lords and Commons,] etc. Ib. 138. Apr. 1642. 
Words.  Your Majesty's most Loyal and Faithful Subjects, the Lords and Commons, etc.] Ib. Apr. 8. 1642. Pa. 141.  Mo. 
Very Good! And the Former of These was for Leave to remove the Magazine at Hull, to the Tower of London: 
Practices▪  And the Other was to divert the King from going into Ireland to supptesse the Irish Rebellion: (which had certainly been done) and to tell him, that if he went contrary to the Advice of his Parliament, They were resolved, in his Absence, not to submit to any Commissioners he should appoint: but to preserve, and Govern the Kingdom by the Counsel and Advice of Parliament.] etc.  Ri. 
Your Majesty's Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons in his Parliament.] Ibid. 258. May 1642. 
Words:   Mo. 
Here His Majesty's Loyal Subjects press the King to disband his Troops at York, 
Practices.  or otherwise they'll take the Quiet of the Kingdom into their own Care. And pass These following Votes.  
Resolved upon the Question.  


1. That it appears that the King (seduced by wicked Counsels) intends to make War against the Parliament. etc. 
The War charged upon the King.   
2. That whensoever the King maketh War upon the Parliament, it is a Breach of the Trust reposed in him by his People, Contrary to his Oath, and tending to the Dissolution of This Government.  
3. That whosoever shall serve, or Assist him in such Wars, 
Treason to serve the King.  are Traitors by the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom, and have been so Adjudged by Two Acts of Parliaments, and aught to suffer as Traitors.] etc.    Ri. 
Your Majesty's most humble and Faithful Subjects, 
Words.  the Lords and Commons in Parliament.] etc. Ib. Jun. 2. 1642. Pa. 307.  Mo. 
This was the Petition that Accompanied the Nineteen Propositions: 
The 19 Deposing Propositions.  demanding from the King [the discharge of all his Ministers and Ambassadors, and none to be taken into their Places but what the Parliament shall approve. That all matters of State may be transacted only in Parliament; the Privy Counsel to be by Them approved from time to time and supplied. All Great Officers to b● Chosen by their Approbation: They to have the Education of the King's Children, and the Choice of their Servants. No Ma●ch to be treated of without them. A Reformation of Church-Government and Liturgy to be contrived by their Advice: The Militia to be settled in them till settled by a Bill; and all Proclamations against it to be recalled. New Oaths for Privy Councillors, and judges. All judges and Officers to hold their Places, Quamdi● se bene Gesserint: Parliament-Iustice upon all Delinquents. An Amnestry with such exceptions as the Parliament shall advise. All Forts and Castles under Governors approved by Parliament. All Forces to be Disbanded; and a Prohibition of any Peers hereafter to be made, from Sitting or Voting in Parliament, without the Consent of Both Houses.] Are not these the Propositions think ye, of Most Humble and Faithful Subjects?  Ri. 

Words.  Yo ur Majesties Loyal Subjects, the Lords and Commons in Parliament, Ibid. Sept. 24. 1642. Pa. 617.  Mo. 

Practices.  His Majesty's Loyal Subjects had now sent the Earl of Essex to fall upon the King's Army, and desired his Majesty to leave them and come to his Parliament: And they Petitioned his Majesty to the same Purpose again. Pa. 630. And so as the Humour took them, to the very Treaty at the Isle of Wight: But whether These were the Actions of Rebels, or Loyal Subjects, be you yourself the Judge.  Ri. 

Words.  Well, But what say ye to the Style of [We your Humble and Loyal Subjects of both Kingdoms.] Appendix to Husbands Ex. Coll. 2 d. Part. Fol. 22. Jan. 13. 1645.  Mo. 
These were the Humble, and Loyal Subjects, that, in the same Paper, 
Practices.  Refused his Majesties Proffer of a Personal Trea●● with Them at Westminster. [Your Majesty (say they) desires 〈◊〉 Engagement, not only of the Parliament, but of the Lord Mayor, Alderm●n, common-council and Militia of the City of London; 〈◊〉 Chief Commanders of Sir. Tho. Fairfaxes Army; and Those of the Scots Army; which is against the Privileges and Honour of the P●●liamen●, those being Joined with them, who are Subject and Subordinate to their Authority.  
At the same rate they Proceeded in Their Professions; [They desire only to Lay a Foundation of Honour, 
Their Professions.  Safety, and Happiness to the King's Person and Throne.] Ex. Coll. dec. 14. 1641. [The Greatness and Prosperity of his Majesty, and his Royal Posterity.] Ib. Dec. 15. Pa. 2. [His Majesties greatness and Honour] ●b. Mar. 1.41. Pa. 94. [Honour and greatness] Mar. 2. P. 102. [Honour, Safety, and Prosperity of your Majesty] Mar. 16. P. 118. [We seek nothing but your Majesty's Honour] Mar. 15. P. 123. [The Safety of his Majesty's Person, and his Royal Posterity] May 5. 42. Pa. 173. [Our most Dutiful care for the Safety of your Royal Person] May 9 P. 180. [For the Preserving and maintaining the Royal Honour, Greatness, and Safety of your Majesty, and Posterity] Jan. 2. 42. P. 310. And then see their Remarkable Protestation of Octob. 22. 1642. 
In the presence of the Almighty.  [We the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled, do in the Presence of Almighty God, for the Satisfaction of our Consciences, and the Discharge of That Great Trust which lies upon us, make this Protestation and Declaration to The Kingdom and Nation, and to the whole World; That no Private Passion or Respect, no Evil Intention to his Majesties Person, no design to the Prejudice of his Just Honour and Authority, Engaged us to raise Forces, and take up Arms against the Authors of This War, wherewith the Kingdom is now Inflamed] Ibid. Page 663. [Without any Intention or desire, (as we do here profess before the Everliving God) to hurt, 
A Rebellion in t●eName of the everlasting God.  or Injure his Majesty, Either in his Person, or Just Power.] b. P. 666.  
I could give you Instances of this kind, without End, and as many, of the gross and Unquestionable violations of These Professions; For every Order they passed, and every pistol that they Fired, was a poynt-blank Contradiction, to their Pretensions. Beside that in the same Breath, they Usurped all the Regalities of the Crown, and yet Wrote Themselves, His Majesty's most Obedient SUBJECTS. 
Covenant. Loyalty.  So that This Style of Loyalty was at the same time a Blind to the Well-meaning Multitude, and a Note of Confederacy among Themselves: a Loyal Subject, according to the Covenant, Importing, in plain Terms, a Traitor, in the eye of the Law. And yet the Cause, and the Obligation of this Covenant, and the Proceedings upon it, are openly Asserted at This very day.  Ba. 
Yes, yes; There's The Counterminer, the Popish Dialogue, 
Slanders upon ●he ha●m es● Presbyterians.  and many others, that continue loudly to Accuse us, and make men believe that we are Plotting a new War, and that our Principles are Rebellious etc.] Non Conf. Plea. 2d Part. Pref.  Mo. 
What do ye think of maintaining, 
Presbyte●i●ns Positions.  that [Whatsoever the Tw● Houses declare for Law, must pass for Law, without Control, both upon King and People] Ex. Coll. 297. [That they may do whatever they please] Ibid. [That the Major Part of Both Houses are the absolute Masters of the Lives and Liberties of the Subject?] Ibid. [That no member of the House of Comm●ns be meddled with for Treason, Felony etc. Without Leave of the House.] Ibid. [That th● S●v●reignty resides in the two Houses, and that the King has no Negative Voice] Ibid. That there lies no Treason against the Person of the King. Ibid. [That the Two Houses may Depose the King and not be blame● for so doing. Ibid.  
Now in calling Those people that did all This, [The Bell Governors in the World] as in the Preface to your Holy Commonwealth: 
Mr. Baxters best Governor's in the world.  And in Vindicating That Book, from any Principles of Disloyalty toward the Person of the King, as you do, toward the close of your Preface as to the 2 d. Part of the Non-conformists Ple● Apri. 16. 1680. What is This, but the Asserting of Rebellious Principles? And the Preaching of the old Doctrine to the people over again, What Is it but the Preface to another War?  Ba. 
[What have we done these Twenty years against the King or State? 
The Innocent Non-Conformists.  Unless it be our Crime to live under Reproach, and Scorn, and Poverty. and sometime Imprisonments; and never once so much as Petition a Parliament, either to Pity us, or to Hear us once Speak for ourselves etc.] Ibid. If any Odd persons, or whosoever have said or done any thing against the King or Kingdom, or their Neighbours Right or Peace, or have been Guilty of any Fraud, Drunkenness, Perjury or Immorality besides their unavoidable Nonconformity, let them be punished as the Law requires, but let not the Innocent, yea Thousands be Slandered, and Designed to Destruction for Them.] Ibid.  Mo. 
If you Speak of the Nonconformists, they have justified, from Sixty to Eighty, 
The principles of the Late Rebellion revived.  all the Indignities that were put upon the Government, from Forty, to Sixty: and there is not any one Seditious, or Schismatical Principle of the Old Stamp, which they have not afresh, Revived, and Recommended to the People. And for the Moderation you boast of, I dare be answerable to produce almost as many Hundreds of Clamorous Libels against Authority from the Dissenting Party, as you reckon Years of Silence, 
Mr. baxters Odd persons.  and Forbearance. But these are ODD Persons you say; and so is every Dissenter in the Kingdom: for Ten Millions of men, are but as so many Individuals, when disencorporate, and L●pp'd off from the Body. If I durst be so bold Sir, I should venture to say that Mr. Baxter himself is one of the ODDEST persons that I know in the whole Party. You have First, a Persuasion, 
He Himself One.  to your self; for you are neither a Presbyterian, nor an Independent, nor an Anabaptist, nor of any Tribe of the Division that ever yet had a Nam● to be known by; but a pure Original, and a ●●ristian of your own making: You have Secondly, as Peculiar a Conscience too; that had rather leap a Precipice, then keep the King's highway. It rises and falls like a Weatherglass, upon Change of Air: and makes St. Paul blow Hot or Cold at pleasure: [Let every soul be Subject to the Higher Powers] requires Obedience to Dick Cromwell, upon pain of Damnation, and Disobedience to Charles the First, upon the same penalty, (as we have had it already.) And then you have this further Advantage, 
Mr. Baxter his o●n King and Pop●.  Sir, that you are your own King, and your own Pope; you Prescribe your own Laws, and Grant your own Pardons.  Ba. 
You may prate as long as you will. [I am against the Imposing of Mystical Ceremonies, as Crossing, or Surplice] etc. 
Baxter's Agument against Ceremonies.  Five Disp. Pa. 467. [For to Impose new Symbolical Rites upon the Church, which Christ hath not Imposed, doth seem to me an Usurpation of his Sovereign Power.] Ibid. [And to accuse Christ of Ignorance, or Negligence, in that he himself hath not Imposed them.] And so doth it Imply an Accusation of his Laws, and of the Holy Scriptures, as if they were Insufficient,] Ibid. 468. [And These Impositions seem to be plain Violations ●f These Prohibitions of God, in which we are forbidden to Add to his Worship, or diminish FROM IT.] 469. And moreover; [God hath already given us so perfect a Directory for his Worship, that there is nothing more that we can reasonably desire.] Ib. 481.  Ri. 
Now for my part, I am for the Amiable way. [Christians should not be Overbusy in Prying into the work of their Governors; 
The C●se w●ll Resolved.  nor too forward to suspect their d●terminations.] [The Duty of Obeying them being Certain, and the Sinfulness of the thing Commanded, being Uncertain, and Unknown, and only Suspected; we must go on the surer side.] Ibid. 484. [In disobeying the Lawful Commands of our Superiors, we disobey Christ] Ibid. 485. Beside that [Disobedience in matters of Circumstance, will exclude, and Overthrow the Substance of the Worship itself. Pa. 486.   

POSTSCRIPT, To the Reader  
MR. Baxter has certainly given, in this Extract, the 〈◊〉 blow to the Non-conformists that ever they 〈◊〉 For there are no Arguments against That Party like their 〈…〉 against Themselves. To the clearest Evidences of 〈◊〉, and Reason, they'll oppose Clamour, and Passion; 〈◊〉 make a shift to wriggle themselves Off and On, with 〈◊〉 drawn Texts and Riddling distinctions. But when the very 〈◊〉 of That Interest comes to play Fast and Loose, and shift 〈◊〉 Conscience with the Season, the Masque is then taken off; 〈◊〉 there can be no Denial of the Fact, so there can be no 〈◊〉 the Hypocrisy. How comes Toleration to be a Sin, under 〈◊〉 Presbyterians, and a Duty under the Bishops? How comes it 〈◊〉 be Damnation, in the case of the Late King, and Richard 〈◊〉 well, to Obey the Former, and destroy the Latter? Even 〈◊〉 to Mr. baxter's own Exposition, which is, that by St. 〈◊〉 Higher Powers, is Intended Those in Actual Possession? How 〈◊〉 Bishops to be Antichristian, at one time, and Warrantable at 〈◊〉? Or the Civil Magistrate to have more power in 〈◊〉 matters, under an Usurper, then under a Lawful 〈◊〉 How comes an Episcopal Uniformity to be more a Persecution 〈◊〉 a Presbyterian? Or a Common Prayer-Book more Intolerable 〈◊〉 a Directory? What can more expose the Credit of the 〈◊〉 than this double-dealing in the Foreman of the Party? to 〈◊〉 Mr. Baxter Lie down in One Opinion, and Rise, in Another▪ 〈◊〉 Accommodating his Scruples to every Crisis of State? And Consummate the Iniquity of the Pretence; He has no soone● veigled the People into a Schism, but he presently 〈◊〉 with a Platform of Sedition: and having wrought a 〈◊〉 from the Ecclesiastical, he falls to work, in his Cases and 〈◊〉, upon the Foundations of the Civil Government.  
The End.