P A F. T IL ReverendMr;',Richard Baxter. 375 lady to recite in my Anf ver to him, according as I noted it down when I canio home ; and therefore I (hail herepals it by. And lince then I never preached in his Diocels. 5 zyo. When he Silenced me, he told me that he marvelled that I fhould think my own preaching fo neceffary, as to offer to preach for nothing, as if o- ther Men could not do as much good as I ? I told him , That when they arcl, had all done our bell, there wouldhe many Places unfuppiyed ; and asked }rim; Whether he thought that loch an one as I werenot better than none ! He told inc, That he thought not meanly ofmy Abilities ; but nil I was better affected , l:.e thought they were better that had none. I urged him to tell me what he thought was the Errour of my Mind or Affetttons , and what he would hate uae do to- wards theCure? My ErromS he would not tell ma (lave the ridiculous recital of that Sentence at theSavoy, of Sin per accidena, which I havé fpoken of in my Ari, fiver to him at large ) ; but for my Cure ( ofI know not what) he v.ould have me read Bilfonand Hooker. I told him that was not now to do : But when, at his perfwaion, I reviled them, I admired at their Infatuation , that ever they fuffered filch Books as Hooker's Eighth Book, and Bishop ßi ton of Obedience, .to fee the Light : When Hooker goeth Co much further than the Long Parliament went, as to affirm that the Legiflative Power is fo naturally belonging to the whole Body ; that it is Tyranny for a tingle Person to exercife it, (Lib. r.) And that the King is f gui Major,féd Ueaverfis. Minor, and receiveth his Power from the People , with many llore Antimonarchical Principles, which I have confuted in the Fourth Part of my Chriflian Direilory particularly, as judging them unfound. And in that excellent Bookof ChriilianObedience, bath this paffage, which methinks fhould make them burn it , and not commend it to us for our Cure, [ Pag. gzo. If a Prince Amid go about to fubjett his Kingdom to a Forreign Realm,or change the Form of tbé Commonwealth, or neglei` the Laws eflablfbed by commonConfer of Prince and People, to execute his own pleafure : In thefe, andother Cafes Which might be named, if the MI6' and the Commons joyn together to defend their ancient and accuflomed Liberty, Regiment and Laws, they maynot, well be counted Rebels] [Inever deny'd that the People might, preferve the Foundation, Freedom andFarm. f their Cosnmonwealth,which they fore-prized when theyfirft confuted to have a King . Ifay, the Law cf God giveth tra Man leave to refill his Prince : but Ì never lard, that Kingdoms andCommonwealths night not proportion their States ar they thought belt, by their publick Laws ; which afterwards the Princes the(elves may not violate. By [ Sáperiour Paw(rt ordained cf God ] we under- fand, net only Princes, but all Politick .States and Regiments s f mewhere the People, frm- where the Nobles, having the fame Intereso to the Sword that Princes have in their Icing- dome. And in Kingdomswhere Princes bear rue, by [the Sword], we do not mean the Princes private Will, againfl bù Laws ; but his Precept derived ikon, his Laws, and a-. greeing with his Laws which though it be wicked, yet may it not be raftfied by .any Sub- yell witharmed violence. Marry, when Princesoffer their Subjeils, not ]uflice, but Force, and delif all Laws to praílife their Lulls, not every nor any private Man, may take the Sword and redrefi the Prince ; but if the Laws of the Land appoint the Nobles, am next the King, to ffi him in doing right, andwithhold himfrom doing wrong, than be they lìcenfedby Man's Law, andfo not prohibited by God's, to interpofe themfeloco for the fafety of Equity and Innocency, and by all lawful and needful means , to procure the Prince to be reformed but in no cafe deprived, where the Scepter is inherited ]. So far Bishop Bilfon to whom I was fent. § ap r. 'To return to Bishop Manley; He toldme when he Silenced me, that he would takecare that the People should be no lofers, but fhould be taught as well as they were byme. And whenI was gone, he got awhile a few fcandalous Men, with Tome that were more civil, to keep up the Letture, till the paucity of their Auditorsgave them a pretence to put it down. And he came hinifelfone day and preached to them, a long Invettive againll them and me, as Presbyterians, and I know not what ; fo that the People wondered that ever a Man would ventura to come up into a Pulpit, and (peak fo confidently to a People,that he knewnot, the thingswinch they commonly knew to be untrue. And this Sermon was fo far from winning any of them to the eftimation of their NewBishop, or curing that which he called the Admiration of my Perlon, ( which was his great endeavour ) that they were much confirmed in their former Judgments. But Gill the Bishop looked at Kidderminfler as a Faékious, Schifmadcal, Presbyterian People, that mull be cured of their over - valuing of me, and then they would be cured of all the reff: Whereas if he had lived with them the twentieth part fo long as I had done, he would have known that they were neither Presbyterians, nor Factious not Schif.
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