,28o The LIFE ifthe LIB. I. Theother was as followeth : Dr. Pierce called Mr. Baxterbold, impudent, fancyFellow, for preaching fetch a Ser- »ton to theRing, andfor printing himfe f his Map'efly s Chaplain, and bis Sermon to be printedat his Maje#y's Command, when neither were true ; and called Mr. Baxter, Thief Murderer, the greatefi of Reber, wade than a Whore-mailer or Dmnkard, &c. Same of this 1 beardhim teak my 'elf; the refl 1 bad from a Friend which heard it fromMr. Price. George Brent By this tafte, the Reader that knew not the Men, may judge with what fort of Men we had to do ; for Dr. Pierce was not without coo many Companions of his Temper. Thefe Men that witnefs there Words of his were godly Men, who ha- ving been Mr. John Goodwin's Difciples, had been made Arminian; by him ; and fell in with Dr. Pierce, for his Agreement with them in the Arminian Points: But they could.not layby Piety and Charity in Partiality for Opinions, and being im- patient of his Impudence, thus made it known to me. I purpofed to have:produ- cod it before all the Bilkops, when Dr. Pierce was there ( having no other Oppor- tunity to fee him ) : But I had no fit Occafion, and was loth in Bùfinefs of pub- , lick refpeót, to interpofe any thing that meerly concerned my felf; and fo Inever yet told him of it. 117. That the Reader may underftand this the better, by knowing the occafion of his Malice, this Mr. no. Pierce ( being a confident Man, that had a notable Stile and Words at Will, and avenomous railing Pen and Tongue against the Puritans and Calvanifls) having written fomewhat in Defence of Grotius, as a judicious peaceable Proteftant, in Oppofition to fotne Paffages in my [ChriflianConcord] where I warn the Epifcopal Party to take heed of Grotianifm that was creeping ih upon them, I did thereupon write a little Colle&ion out of thelateWritings of Grotius (efpecially his Di/cup Apologetici Rivetiani) to prove him to have turned Papift ; and that Popery was indeed his Religion ( though he communica- ted with no Church] ( for he exprelly pleadeth tor our confenting to the Council of Trent, and all other general Councils'asthe Churches Law, and to the Pope's So. vereign Government ; fo it be according to thofe Laws, and to theMiftrefs(hip of the Church of Rome over all other Churches, and to Pope Pim's Oath, with much more to that purpofe : and telleth us that he was turned fromus becaufe he law that the Proteftant Churches had no potl.ibilicy ofUnion among themfelves; &c. and there is a Book written (I think by Vinsentit.) a French Minifter, called Gretius Papizans, whichproveth it : And Claud. Suravia, an honourable learned Counfel- lor of Paris, in his printed Epiftles publifheth the fame fromGratiods own Mouth) But Mr. Pierce was vehemently furious at my Book, and wrotéaVolume againft me full of ingenuous Lies and Railing ; for he had nobetter way to defend Gratiut or himfelf. In that Book he fcrapes up all the Words through all my Writings where Ifpeak any thingof my (elf, and puts them together, more impudently in- terpreting them, than could have been expelled from a Man : Becaufe I confers that the place I liv'd in was a Sequeftration ( whence an ignorant Reader had been put out before my coming to them) therefore hecalls me Thief, as if I liv'd on another's Bread ; As if no Manmuff ever have been theTeacher ofthePeople till that ignorant Wretch were reftored to his Soul murdering Condition :Becaufe I had , written to perfuade fame honeftfcrupulous Perfons,that they should not forfake the 'Churches Communion, though force were there that had been-drunken -or other- wife fcandalous, and had fpoken force Words to draw them to torn charitable hopes of a Man that had beendrunken, oradulterous, if he werenot impenitent; and all this to reconcile them to the Prelatical Party, whom they took to be the fcandalous People of the Land ; fo little Thanks Both hegive me for this Exalting of hisParty, that he calls me [ werfe than a Drunkard or Whoremonger ] as if I had pleaded for thefe Sins, and yet in his former Book he had Paid, that [ if learnt way, and would communicate with bim and his Church, no Man in the whole -World Jbouldbe more welcome] (dreaming that I had difowned Communion with the Pre- latifts, which I never did for all their publick and perfonal Corruptions.) But . -Venomagainft the Puritans is meetly Serpentine: He defcribeth them as the mod bloody, traiterous, wicked Generation; unworthy to live; andblameth the for- mer Bishops that ufed them fa' gently, and provoketh the Governors to hang them in greater Nusdbers than heretofore; and efpecially againft Cartwright he faltly but
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