407 / 846
P
A
It
T
II.
Reverend
Mr.
Richard
Baxter.
403
242. And
now our Calamities began to
be
much greater
than
before
:
We
were
called all by
the Name
of
Presbyterians
( the
odious
Name )
:
though
we never
put
up one
Petition
for
Presbytery, butpleaded
for
Primitive
Epifcopacy. We were
reprefented in
the common
talk
of
thole
who thought it their Inrereft
to
be
our
Ad.
verfaries,
as
the molt
Seditious People,
unworthy to
be ufed like
Men
,
or
to enjoy
our common Liberty among them. We could
not
go abroad
but
we met with
daily Reproaches and
falfe Stories
of
us :
Either
we were feigned to
he
Plotting, or
to
be Difaffeaing the People,
&c. Andno
Sermon
that
'preached,
fcarce efèaped
the
Cenfure
of
being
Seditious,
though I preached only for
Repentance and Fait
,
and Morality and Common Vertue, yea,
if it
were-againft Difobedience and
Se-
dition,
all was
one
as
to
my Eftimation
with
thofe Men.
And the great Increa(er
of
all this was,.
that there were
a
multitude
of
Students
that ftudiedfor Preferment,
and many Gentlemen that aimed at their Riling
in
the World, who
found
out
quickly what
was
moft
pleafing
to
thole whofe Favour they muff rife
by,
and to
let-themfelves induftriouffy
to
Reviling, Calumniating and Cruelty, againft
all
thole
whom they perceived to be odious! And
he
that
can but convince
a
world-
ly Generation
of
any
thing
that's
the
ready
way to their Preferment,
!hall be
fore
to
have
it
clofely
followed, and throughly done with
all
their might.
§
243. Before
and
about this time many
Books (
if
fo
they may
be called )
were
written againft
me.
One
by
Mr.
Naafen
(forementioned
)
a
Juftice
of
Peace in
Worse;erfhire,
who
being
a
great Friend
of
the Papifts, had
fpoken
againft
me
on
the
Bench
atthe
Seffions
behind
my back, as
the Author
of
a
Petition againft
Po-
pery heretofore
:
and was angry with me forevincing to him
his
miftake,
remeti-
ty
and injúftice
:
And when he
raw
histime,
he had
nothing
elfeto
be
the fewel
of
his
Revenge,
but
that
very
Book
which
¡wrote
againft
the Papilis:'and
there-
in againft the killing
of
the King, which I aggravated againft the
Army
and the
Popifh Inftigators'and
Aaors:
But becaufe in
Anfwerto
the Papifts,
I
made their
Doctrine and
Praaife
of, King killing to be
work
than
thefe Sectaries were guilty
-of,
and thereupon recited what the Sectaries
faid
for
themfelves,
which the
Jefuites
,have
not
to
fay ;
-.
he
took
up
all
thefe Reafons
of
the Seaaries, and anfwered them
as
if
they had
been my
own, and
I
had, pleaded
for that, which
I
Condemned by
writing
ín
a
time when it
might have colt
me
my
Life,
when
the
Gendeman that
thus would have proved me
aTraytor,
did
hirnfèlf
as
under
the
Ufùrpers, and
took their Impofitions,
which
we abhorred and
refuted.
4
244.
And here
IIhallinfèrta
Paffage:not contemptible concerning the Papifts,
becautel
am fall'n
into
the mention
of
them.
In
Cromnells
days,
when
I was
writing that
very Book, and my
Holy
Commonwealth,
and
was
chargingtheir
Trea-
fans
and Rebellions on the Army, one Mr.
yams,
Stamfreld,
a
Reverend
Minifter
of
Glocefterfbire,
called on me,
and tod
me a Story
i
which afterwards he
fene
me
under
his
Hand, and
warranted me
to
publifh
it
i
which
was
this.:
One
Mr.
Atkins
of
Glocefterflare,
Brother.
to
Judge
Atkins,
being beyond
Sea,
with
others that had
ferved
the
late
King,
fell
into intimate acquaintance with
a Prieft,
that
had been
(or
then was) Governour
of
one
of
their
Colledges in Flanders:
They
agreed, not to meddle with
each other
about
Religion,
and
fo
continued their
Friendlhip
long.
A little
after
the King
was
beheaded, Mr.
Atkins
met
this
Prieft
in
London,
and going
into
a
Tavern with him,
faM
to
him
in
his
familiar
way,
[What
bufméeß
have
you bere?
I
warrant
you
come
aboutfome Roguery
orother
I.
Where-
upon
the Prieft told
it
him
as
a
great fecret, [That
there were
Thirty
of
them bere
in
London,
who
by
laftruitions from
Cardinal'Mazarine,.
did
take
care
of
f
ch
Aff
àirsj
and
bad
fate
in
Council,
and
debated
the
Queftion, Whether
the.
King (build
be
put
to
death
or
not
?
and
that it was
carried
in the
Affirmative,and
there
were
but
two
Voices
far
the
Nega-
tive,
which was his own
and
another,
:
And tbat for
his
part
be
could not
concur:
-wich
them
,
as
forefeeìng
what
mìféry this
would bring
upon
his Country!.
That
Mr. Atkin,
flood to the
Truth of
this,
but thought
it
a
Violation
of
the Laws
of Friendlhip,
to name
the Man.
I.
would
not print it without
fuller
Atteftation, left
it
lhould be a
wrong
to
the
Papifts.
But when
the King-
was ,rel'tored and felled
in
Peace, Itold
-it
occafionly
to
a
Privy Councellor, who not
advifing me
to
meddleany further in
it,
becaufe the
King
knew enough
of
Mazarine's
Delignsalready,
-:
I
let
it
alone. But
about
this
time
I met with Dr.
ThomasGoad,
and occafionally
mentioning
fuch
a
thing,he
[told
me that he
was
familiarly-acquainted with
Mr.
Atkins,
and
would
know-
the cer-
tainty
of
him, whether
it
were
true:
And
not
long after meeting him
again,
he
told me
that
he fpoke
with Mr.
Atkins,
and
that
he
affured him
that
it
was
true
:
but