Baxter - BX5207 B3 A2 1696

32 The LIEE of the LIB. 1. than common Grace abated it, or fpecial Grace cured it. So that every where ferious, godly People, that wouldnot runWith others td excels Of Ryot, were fpo_ ken againft and deridedby theNames of Precifians, Zealot, Over-fìriEt, the holy Brethren, and other Terms of Scorn. Thefe things being fuppofed, it unhappily fell our that in the Days of Queen Nary (that we may fetch the matter ab origin) our Reformers, being Fugitivesat Frankfard, fell into a Divifron : One part of them were for Diocefans, and the Englifb Liturgy and Ceremonies, that they might no more than needs depart from the Papilts, nor feem uneonftant by departing fromwhat King Edward had be- gun. The otherwere for Ca/vin's Difcipline and way of Worfhip ; for the feeling up of a Parochial Difcipline infteadof a Diocefan; and to havea Government in every particular Church, and not only One over a Thoufand , or many Hundred Churches : and for a plain and ferious way of Worihip, fuited as near as pollible to God's Word. When thefe two Partiesreturned into England, the Diocefan Party got Queen Elizabeth's Countenance, and were preferred, and their way fet up. The other Parrypetitioned, and hoped,,and waited, but were difcountenanced,rebuked,and by Law fùppreffed. This lamentable Breach was never healed : The difcounte- nanced Party were fervent Preachers, of holy Lives, and fo were many of the Bilhops alfo rn thole days ! But if thole that fucceeded them had been as holy and as diligent Preachers, they had kept up their Honour and Places without filch Af- faults as they have undergone. But when yewel; Pedkingron , Grindal , and fuch like weredead, many fucceeded them whom the People took to beother kind of Men. And the filenced Difciplinarians (as then they were called ) did by their Writings, their fecret Conference and Preaching, and their Godly Lives, work much upon filch aswere religiouky addi6ted. And moreover , bef,de, what they received from fuch Teachers, there is (I know notperfeEily whence), among the molt of the Religiousferious People otthefe Countreys,, a fufpicion of all that is Cerembnious in God's Service, andofall which they findnot warrant for in Scrip- ture, and a greater inclination toa rational convincing earnek way of Preaching and Prayers, than to the writtenForms of Words which are to be read in Churches. And they are greatly taken with a Preacher that fpeaketh to them in a familiar natural Language, and exhorteth them as if it were for their Lives; when another that readeth or faith a few compofed Words ina reading Tone, they hear almoll as a Boy that is faying his Leffon : And they are much perfwaded that a jolt Pa- rochial Difciplinewould greatly reformthe Church, and that Diocefans by exclu- ding it,cherifh Vice. Now upon the Difference between the Diocefans and the Difciplinarians , the Diocefans found that their very Places,and Power, and Lands, and Lordfhips were alfaultedby the contraryOpinion ; and therefore they thought it neceffary to flip_ prefs the Promoters of it And fo putting Epifcopacy, Liturgy, Ceremonies, and all into the Subfcriptionswhich they impofed'on all that would be Minihers or Schoolmaflers,'they kept and cast out very many worthy Men : For force that were for Liturgy and Ceremonies, were not for Diocefans, but for Parifh Difci- pone; and fomethat werefor Bifhops were not for the Ceremonies s and tome that were for the reifyet templedfomé one, and he that could not Subfcribeto all, was forbidden to preach the Gofpel: whereas in the mean time many Bilhops preached very feldom, and abundance of Places had ignorant Readers that could not preach, and filly Preachers,whore Performances were fo mean, that they had better kept to the Readingofthe Homilies; and many of thef wereof Scandalous Lives. Hereupon the Difciplinarians cried out of the ignorant fcandalous Minihers; andalmoft all the fcandalous Milliken (andall that ftudied Preferment) cried outpf theNonconformifs: The namePuritan wasput uponthem, andby that they were commonly known : when they had been called by that name awhile, the vicious Multitude of the'Ungodly called all Puritan., that were ftrid and ferious in a Ho- ly Life, were they ever foconformable ! So that the fame name in a Bithopsmouth frgnifieda Nonconformik, and in an ignorant Drunkards or Swearers mouth, a godly obedient Chriftian. But the People being the greater number, became a- mongthemfelves the Makers of the Senfe. And in Spalatenfr,'s time, when he was decrying Calvinífm, he devifed the name of DoPrinal Puritan,, which com- prehended all that wereagain!' Arminianijm. Now the ignorant Rabble hearing that the Bithops were againft the Puritans, ( not having wit enough to know whom they meant) were emboldened the more againft all thole whom they cal - led

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