Baxter - BX5202 B29 1689

C 234 . rnffirer all. with Rage and confidence, and only conclude that th .r4uthor. is a Fool, or Rope, or Rebel ; 'and, it's lake enough, aán- fwer you with an ,Excommunication, or jail, where among Wale- faEtors you fhall lie and die. Ifyou fpèak for, and not againff their preconceived ()pinion and Irrtereft, theywill hear you ; but if you [peak agair"ft any of their worldly Ylrealth, or Honour, or Gran. de.' r, you may almoft as hatefully tlifpute an hungry Mg porn biis Carrion ; and' you mutt" not wonder if they fart, or fly upon yoia and tear you. And though I confefs,ìthat all your P.o, of>ls Teem very confiftent with your A-;taóonifls wealth andQreatcfs; yet remem6Nr the truth of Seneca's nords, That Men that have a fore, do not only flart and complain when they are touchy, but even when they think that they are touchy, though it be not fo. There is no expeufation of juftice from fufpicious Jealou!ie ; much lets if it be animated by Intereft and Ma_ Ike. 11/. My expeaations are not much higher than your de- fçription. But when my own life is fo coníantly a painful burden, and I am fo near the Grave, I am utterly unexcu- fable, if I think fo Ihort and painful a life too good to fa orifice byway ofObedience to the will 'of God', who bath long and wonderfullypreferved it ; and if I do not live and die with St. Paul's refolution, Ali 20. 23, 2,4. Bonds and 4ffliFtions a- bide me, but none of theft things move me, neither count I my life dear unto my felf; fo that 'might fanifh my Courfe with goy, and:. the Miniftry which I have received of the Lord yefus, to ieftifie the Gofpcl of the Grace ofGod., And indeed, if all our bad Laws and Ceremonies were refor- med, and all granted" therein which I have propofed, alas there is fo much to be done for the Reformation of the Per - fons that mutt execute good Laws, (Lords, Bithops, Patrons,. Priefts, &c.) without whom L' ws are but a dead letter, and againfl whofe enmity and oppofitions, they are unlikely to pre- vail, that I die the more willingly, becaufe I fee no appea- rance of any fuch Golden Age, or amiable Reformation, and general Concord, as might tempt me to delire to live much longer on Earth. The Reformation of our Univerfities,, Clergy, Nobility, Gentry, and licentious Youth, and malig- Cant Haters of Serious Godlinefs, is a work for Omnipoten rya, and would .affordme matter ,for..a Volume, were I to write

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