802 The HISTORY of the PURITANS. Chap. XII, K, Charles I, ecclefiafltcal courts ? Did they amafs to themselves great riches or large 1164z. efiates? No; they renounced all civil power and juritdiEtion, as well as lordly titles and dignities ; and were for the molt part, content v; i ^h a ve.. ry moderate (hare of the world. If they ferved the parliament cattle, it was in vititing their parishioners, and by their fermons from the pulpits t here they (pent their zeal, praying and preaching as men who were is earnefl, for what they apprehended the caute of God and their country. But 'tiseafy to remark, that the noble h.iforian obfeives no measures when thepuritan clergy fall in his way. Nor were the parliament divines the chief incendiaries between the king and people, if we may believe Mr. Baxter, who knew the puritans of Baxter's bfe, thofe times much better than his lord(hip. " It is not true (lays this di.. P. 34. " vine) that they furred up the people to war, there was hardly one fuch " man in a county, though they difliked the late innovations, and were. " glad the parliament was attempting a reformation." They might in- veigh too freely in their fermons againft the vices of the clergy, and the feverities of the late times ;. but in all thefallsermons that I have read, for tome years after the beginning of the war, I have met with no reflec tions upon the person of the king, but a religious obfervation of that po litical maxim, the king can do no wrong. His lord(hipadds, that theyprofanely andblafphemoufly applied what had been /'pokers by the prophets again/I the molt wicked and impious kings, tostir up the people against their moft gracious fovcreign. If this was really the cafe, yet the king's divines came not behind them in applying the abfolute dominionof the kingsof .7udah in fupport of the unbounded preroga- tive of the kings of England, and in curling the parliament, and pro- nouncing damnation upon all who died in their fervice. I could produce a large catalogue of (hocking expreffions to this purpofe, but I with fuch offences buried in oblivion, and we ought not to form our judgments of great bodies of men, from the exceffes of a few. We (hall have anopportunity hereafter, of comparing the learning of the puritan divines with the royalifls, when it will appear, that there were men ofno lefs eminence for literature with the parliament than with the king, as the Seldens, the Lightfoots, the Cudworth!, the Pococks, the Witchcots, the Arrowfmiths, &c. but as to their morals, their very adver- faries will witnefs for them. Dr. G. Bates an eminent royalia in his Elenchus, gives them this charadter, moribusfeveris e /ent, inconcionibus vehementes, precibus & piis efficiis prompti, uno verbo ad cætera bcni, i. e. they were menoffevereandftriâ3 morals, warm andaffetlionate preachers, fervent inprayer, ready toall pious oces, and in a word, otherwi/e [that is, abating their political principles] good men.. And yet with all their goodnef
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