Baxter - BR161 B28 1680

And when Satan hath done his worfl, the very writings of filch men as Calvin, Beza, Melarc &.hon, Perkins, HilderJham, Ames, Dod, Barges, Gataker, 7lfher, Davenant, Hall, eh c. will not Puffer men to believe their odious re- vilers :.Even among Papifis , when I read the works of Bernard, Gerfon, Kempis, Thaulerus, Sales, and the Lives of Nerius, Renti, &c. ì cannot be- lieve him that would tell me they were wicked men. though faulty : And the Lives written by Adam, Clerk, Fuller, &c. (hall be believed before Ca. lumniators. Alas, how littlearemolt Hiftories to be believed, where they prove nor what they fay;- there are about lixty that fay there was a Pope Joan, and near as many that fay nofuch thing. Hildebrand to one half of-the Bifhops wasthe holy Reftorerof the Church, to-the other half the Rebel. We are not agreed here in London who burnt Me City in 1666. nor what parties bi- got/ the late War, nor what party brought the King to death, while we are 'a. live that law thefe publick fads: Not only Lads that knew it not, but Heylin (the great Reproacherof the Reformers) would make men believe that it was Presbyterians in England that began the ftrife and War, when yet he had himfelf laid fo much of it on Archbifhops, and Bifhops,_are n the Parliaments cowjlaints of Popery, Arminianifm, and Arbitrary Ille- galities; and after faith (Hitt. Presb. p. 465. 470.) The truth is, that as the Englifh generally were not willing to receive that yoák; fo neither did the Hoeft! really intend ti¿`mpofe it on them, though for a while to hold fair quar.. ter with the Scots, they feemed forward in it. This appears by theirDeclaration of April 1646 --- Nor have they lived to fee their dear Presbytery fitted, or their Lay- Elders entertained in any one Parifhof the Kingdome (that's falle on the other fide) and yet all mull be done 'by this Parliament; as Presbyterians,, fouryears before, when they were Epifcopal, diflafling only the perlons and actionsof Bifhop Laud, Wren, and (òmeother prefentBi(hops. IfI find a man like 'Schlu lburgius ; fall Pell -mell with reproachon.all that differ from him, or Dr. Heylin, fpeak of blood with pleafure, and as thinly after more (as of Thacker, `Udall, &c.) or as defigning to make Dif fenters odious, as he and moftof the Papifts Hiftoriansdo.. (as the Imageof both Churches, Philanax Anglicus, the Iaiftorieal Collcdions out of Hey lin) I will believenone of thefe revilers, further than, theygive me Cogent proof. I hear of a Scots Narrative of the Treafons; Fornicaiions, Witchcraft', and ': other wickednefs of fome of theScottijh Presbyterians ; and as for me, the Author knoweth not what to call me, unlifi it be a Baxterian, as intending to be a Harefiarcha, being neitherPapift, nor of the Church of England, nor Preaby; terian, nor Independent; &c. To this I fay, I have no acquaintance with any Scots Minifler,.noe ever had in My life, except with Bifhdp Sharp that was murdered, and two o- eher Bifhops (and two or three that live herein London) therefore what they are I. knownet, fave by Fame: But though I have heard that Coun- try afperli, as too much inclin'd.to.Fornication, 'I .never .before heard the . Religious

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