The ready way of confuting Mr. Baxter a specimen of the present mode of controversie in England.

The ready way of confuting Mr. Baxter a specimen of the present mode of controversie in England.

Table of contents

THE Ready Way OF Confuting Mr. Baxter, A SPECIMEN OF THE PRESENT MODE OF Controversie in England.

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THE Ready Way OF Confuting Mr. Baxter, A SPECIMEN OF THE PRESENT MODE OF Controversie in England.

Ioh. 8. 44. 1 King. 22. 22. Prov. 29. 12. & 19. 5, 9. Rev. 21. 8. & 22. 15.

IN 1662. Dr. Boreman of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge, Published a Book against me, as having written to Dr. Hill against Physical-Predetermination to Sin; and in it saith, That it is reported, That I kill'd a Man with my own Hand in cold Blood; and if it be not true, I am not the first that have been wronged. The Man, though promoted to the Charge of this Parish, St. Giles in the Fields, [Page] was accounted so weak, (for bearing his Ministry, and saying he was suspended some Years before he died) that I thought it vain to take publick Notice of his Words; neither imagining whence he had them, nor ever hearing of them before.

But a few Weeks before the late Plot was reported, one Mr. P. came to me, and told me, That at the Coffee-House in Fullers-Rents, where Papists and Protectants used familiarly to meet; he provoking the Papists to Answer my Books, or to Dispute with me, was answered by a Gentleman of this Parish, said to be of the Church of England, That [Mr. Baxter had kill'd a Man in cold Blood with his own Hand.] Mr. P. provoked him by a Wager to make it good. [...]e refusing the Wager, was told, He should hear of it publickly, unless he would ask me Forgiveness, After some time, the Gentleman came to me with Mr. Tasborough, (since imprisoned, as is known) and with great Civility, ask't me Forgiveness. He was the Son of a Knight, and Judge, of my Acquaintance; and had an Aunt, that had been my very dear Friend. I told him, That Slandering is so common, and asking Forgiveness so rare, that I took it for a note of great Ingenuity in him; and, as I must forgive all Men as a Christian, so I could easily forgive any wrong to one related to such a Friend of mine. He told me, He was resolved openly to confess his Fault, and to vindicate me on all Occasions.

Accordingly, at the same Coffee-House, he openly declared his Repentance. Upon which, Mr. P. tells me, That Mr. G. an Aged Lawyer, Brother to the Lady Ab. was displeased, and said, He would prove the thing true by many Witnesses: (And, saith Mr. P. the Story among some of them was, That a Tinker did beat his Kettle at my Door, and being disturbed by him, I pistoll'd him, and was tryed for my Life at Worcester.) Mr. P. said, He provoked Mr. G. to lay a Wager on it: And he refusing, was told, [Then he should hear of it in Westminster-Hall.] Upon this, saith Mr. P. his Fellow-Catholicks ingenuously resolved to disown him, unless he would ask Forgiveness; which he being unwilling to come to me to do, Mr. P. saith, He at last performed before Him, and Capt. Edmund Hampden.

All this being done without my Knowledge (till after,) I was relating it to Mr. Iohn Humfrey: Why (saith he) I did twelve Years ago hear Dr. Allestry, now Regius-Professor in Oxford, say the like, [...]hat he could not think well of that Man, that had kill'd a Man in cold Blood with his own Hand.

[Page] I little regarded all the rest: But Dr. Allestry had many Years been my old School Fellow; many a time I had taught him; and he was the best at Learning, and of the honestest Disposition of any Boy that eve [...] I knew; and I thought, If Parties could draw such as he into such Guilt, there was little Account to be made of the Reports or History of Men, if once they fell into different Factions. Wherefore I wrote to him what Mr. Humfrey told me, and received from him this honest ingenuous Letter, which I here annex.

And as to all this Story, I do here solemnly profess, That I never killed, wounded, or hurt any Man in my Life, (save one Man, whose Leg I hurt with playful Wrestling, when I was a Boy, and once or twice boxing with School-Boys, and correcting Lads when I was one Year a School-Master.) Nor in all the Wars, or in my Life, did I ever see any other kill any Man, save one; and that was at the same Bickering, (about Forty of a Side) when Iennings was wounded: While they were Fighting with him in one great Field, I being in another near the House, saw the Souldiers offering Quarter to a Foot-Souldier, and promising him Safety, if he would lay down his Musket; which he did not, but struck at them; and Captain Holdich shot him dead: And it proved after to be a Welsh-man, that understood not English; which grieved them when they knew it.

I have gone the next day where Fights have been, and seen many dead, when I had nothing to do with the Armies of either Part. But I never saw any, to my Knowledge, kill or hurt any Man, but this one.

Dr. Allestry's Letter: (Which I should not Publish, but that even in Oxford, and elsewhere among the Clergy, the Report yet goeth on.)

SIR,

I Must profess sincerely, That I cannot recollect I ever said such Words of you to Mr. Humfrey, as it seems he does affirm I did: But yet I cannot but acknowledge, it is very possible, that I related, (and may be, to Him) That I had heard, you kill'd a Man in cold Blood: Since I very well remember, that above Thirty Years since, at the End of the War, I heard that publickly [Page] spoken before Company; and with this farther Circumstance, that it was a Souldier, who had been a Prisoner some Hours. Now this Report relating to the Wars, in which (I fear) such Things were no great Rarities, and from my very tender Youth, I having not had the least Converse with you, nor likely-of any for the future, did not therefore apprehend, at present, any Concern or Occasion of inquiring, whether it were true; of which, upon that confident Asseveration, I did make no doubt. And I took so little thought of laying up the Relation, that I protest to you, as in the Presence of Almighty God, it is impossible for me to recover, who made up that Company in which I heard it, or from whom I heard it: And I wonder, how it came into my Mind, to say that I had heard it, so long after. But however, though it be some Ease to me, to believe the late Discourses of it, do not come from my relating so long since that I heard it, neither are likely to receive any Confirmation from it, unless it be made more Publick than I have made it; yet I do profess, it is a great Affliction to me, to have spoken that, though but as a Report, which (it seems) was a Slander, (for so I believe it, upon your Asseveration) and not having endeavoured to know whether it were true. And, as I have beg'd God's Forgiveness of it; so I heartily desire, You will forgive me: And if I could direct my self to any other way of Satisfaction, I would give it. This is the whole Account I can give of this Matter; to which I shall only add, That I am,

SIR,

Your very Affectionate Servant, Richard Allestry.

Eaton-Coll. Dec. 13. 1679.

II. In the Preface to the Life of Dr. Heylin are these Words.

Mr. Baxter may be pleased to call to mind, what was done to one Major Jennings, the last War, in that Fight that was between Lyndsel and Longford, in the County of Salop; where the Kings Party, having unfortunately the worst of the Day, the poor Man was stript almost naked, and left [Page] for dead in the Field: But Mr. Baxter, and one Lieutenant Hurdman, taking their Walk among the wounded and dead Bodies, perceived some Life left in the Major, and Hurdman run him through the Body in cold Blood; Mr. Baxter all the while looking on, and taking off with his own Hand, the Kings Picture from about his Neck; telling him, as he was swiming in his Goar, That he was a Popish Rogue, and that was his Crucifix: Which Picture was kept by Mr. Baxter for many Years, till it was got from him (but not without much difficulty) by one Mr. Somerfield, who then lived with Sir Thomas Rous, and generously restored it to the poor man, now alive at Wick near Pershore in Worcestershire, although at the Fight supposed to be dead: being, after the Wounds given him, drag'd up and down the Field by the merciless Souldiers; Mr. Baxter approving of the inhumanity, by feeding his Eyes with so bloody, and so barbarous a Spectacle.

I Thomas Jennings, Subscribe to the truth of this Narrative abovementioned; and have hereunto put my Hand and Seal this second Day of March 1682. Thomas Jennings. Signed and Sealed, March 2. 1682. in the Presence of John Clark, Minister of Wick, Thomas Dacke. Published by George Vernon, Minister.

The like was before Published by Roger L'Strange.

Answ. I do not think Major Iennings knowingly made this Lye, but was directed by some bodies Report, and my sending him the Medal. I do solemnly protest, 1. That, to my Knowledge, I never saw Major Iennings: 2. That I never saw Man wound, hurt, strip, or touch him: 3. That I never spake a word to him, much less any word here affirmed: 4. That I neither took the Picture from about his Neck, nor saw who did it: 5. That I was not in the Field, when it was done: 6. That I walked not among any wounded or dead; nor heard of any kild, but the one Man before-mentioned. 7. That the Picture was never got from me with difficulty. But that this is the Truth: The Parliament had a few Men in Longford House, and the King at Lyndsel, about a Mile and a half a-sunder; who used oft to skirmish, and dare each other in the Fields between: My Innocent Father being Prisoner at Lyndsel, and I being at Longford, resolved not to go thence till he was delivered. I saw the Souldiers go out, as they oft did, and in another Field discerned them to meet and Fight: I knew not, that they had seen Iennings; but, being in the House, a Souldier shewed a small Medal of Guilt Silver, bigger than a Shilling; and told us, That he wounded Iennings, and took his Coat, and took that Medal from about his Neck: I bought it of him for 18. d. no one offering him more. And some Years after (the first time that [Page] I heard where he was, freely desired Mr. Somerfield to give it him from me, that had never seen him; supposing it was a mark of Honour, which might be useful to him. And now all these Lies, are all the Thanks that ever I had.

III. The Observator, N. 96. saith, [Tor. Who saith, they (the Presbyterians) brought in the King, besides your self? Wh. Mr. Hunt, the Author of the Conformists Plea, Mr. Baxter and who not?

Tor. Prethee ask Mr. Baxter, If he knows who it was, that went with five or six more of his own Cloth and Character, to General Monk, upon his coming up to London, in 1659; and finding a great deal of Company with him, told his Excellency, That he found his time was precious, and so would not trouble him with many Words: But as they were of great weight, so he hoped, they would make an answerable Impression on him: I hear a Report, Sir, (saith he) that you have some thoughts of calling back the King; but it is my Sense, and the Sense of these Gentlemen here with me, that it is a thing you ought not to do on any termes: For Prophanness is so inseparable from the Royal Party, that if ever you bring the King back the Power of Godliness will most certainly depart from this Land.

Answ. Dr. Manton (and whether any other, I remember not) went once with me to General Monk, and it was to congratulate him; but with this request, That he would take care, that Debauchery and Contempt of Religion might not be let loose, upon any mens pretence of being for the King, as it already began with some to be. But there was not one word by me spoken, (or by any one, to my remembrance) against his calling back the King, nor any of the rest here adjoyned; but as to me, it is a meer Fiction.

And the King was so sensible of the same that I said, that he sent over a Proclamation against such Men, as while they called themselves the Kings Party, did live in Debauchery and Prophanness; which Proclamation so rejoyced them that were after Nonconformists, that they read it publickly in the Churches. Such gross Falshoods as these, are part of the Evil deprecated.

As to his Question, Whether the Presbyterians brought in the King? Who can affirm or deny any thing of equivocal Words? A Presbyterian is, who these Men will call such. They that in the Face of the World deny the Publick Acts of Three Kingdoms, in the Age, they were done in, no wonder if they multiply the grossest Lies of such as I. The Parties that restored the King, were these; 1. The Excluded Members of the Long Parliament, the Ministers that were [Page] since silenced; and the frustrated endeavours of the Scotch Armies, and Sir George Booth, Sir Thomas Middleton, joyning with some of the Kings Souldiers, prepared Mens minds to it. 2. General Monke, and his Army, who were Fighting against the King a little before, repres [...] Cromwels Army. 3. The Long-Parliament Members restored, agreed to dissolve themselves, and set up a Council to call home the King. 4. Sir Thomas Allen, Lord Mayor, and the Aldermen, invited General Monk into the City, who joyning with him, turned the Scales. 5. The City Ministers (called Presbyterians) perswaded the Lord Mayor to this, and wrote to Monks Colonels (called Presbyterians) to be for the King: (specially Mr. Ash, by Mr. Calamy's Counsel.) 6. The Lord Mazarine, Lord Broghil, and others of the same Party in Ireland, contributed their help; and Colonel Bridges, with others, surprized Dublin Castle. 7. Many of the Old Parliament Men openly provoked Gen' Monk, and secretly perswaded and treated with him, to bring in the King (whom the Earl of Anglesey, the Earl of Shaftsbury, and others yet living, can Name to you.) 8. The Parliament called by General Monk, (by agreement with the Long-Parliament,) accounted mostly of the same Party, Voted the Kings Return: Which no doubt also, the Old Royalists most earnestly desired, and endeavoured.

This is the Historical Truth; which if in this Age, Men will deny, I will bear any lies that they shall say or swear of me.

Now, either the foresaid Armies, Parliament men, Ministers, &c. were Presbyterians, or not. If they were not; then, 1. Say no more, that it was Presbyterians that raised War against the King; but that it was the Episcopal Men, if these were such. 2. Why then have you called them Presbyterians so long, and do so still? But if they were Presbyterians, then it was such that Restored the King. But alas, how contemptible, yea, how odious is Truth grown to this Generation!

IV. There is yet a more Famous Historian, than any of these, though unnamed; who pretending to militate after Dr. Stillingfleet, as in a 2d. Part against Separation, takes on him to give you the History of my Life. Partly making it my Reproach, that when I grew to Understanding, I remembred how many Drunken or Ignorant Readers had been my Teachers: Partly raking up retracted and obliterated Passages of Old Writings; while at once they perswade me to Reviews and Retractations: Partly heaping up abundance of down right Falshoods: Partly clipping Sentences, and leaving out [Page] the part that should make them understood, and turning true Words, by perversion, into Falshoods: And partly by mixing this known Truth, [That I was on the Parliaments side, and openly declared it.]

But when at the new Model, I saw that they changed their Cause, I changed my Practice, & was from the Day that I went into the Army, a resolved Opposer of all that they did, to the Changing of the Government, & their Vsurpation; & was sent among them to that end; which was immediately after Naseby Fight: And continued openly disowning the Usurpation, and the Means that set it up. And though I was Preaching and Writing against the said Usurpers, when an Army was Fighting for them, against the King, and the King knew how to forgive and Honour them, that did so much to his Restoration; yet are the Accusers so far from forgiving those that never personally hurt a Man, that they forbear not multiplying false Accusations; yea, and accusing those Ministers, and private Men that never had to do with Wars: Yea, the same Men that then wrote against me for the Changers and Usurpers, have since been the fierce Accusers of us, that opposed them.

And if these Men be unsatisfyed of my present Judgment, I have no hope of giving them Satisfaction, if all will not do it, which I have largely written in my Second Plea for Peace, for Loyalty, and against Rebellion; and all my Confutation of Hcoker's Politicks, in the Last Part of my Christian Directory; with much more.

But this Book must have (if any) a Peculiar Answer.

V. Lately, when I taught my Hearers, That we must not make the World believe, that we are under greater Sufferings, than we are, nor be unthankful for our Peace, and that we must when any hurt us, love and forgive them, and see that we fail not of our Duty to them; but not forsake the owning, and just defending by Scripture-Evidence the Truth opposed. They Printed, that I Bid the People Resist, and not stand still, and dye like Dogs. And I was put the next Day to appeal to many Hundred Hearers, who all knew, that the Accusation was most impudent Lies. This is our present Case.

VI. The Players, I hope, expect no Answer to their Part.

§

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London, Printed for R. Ianeway, in Queens-Head-Alley, in Pater-Noster-Row, 1682.

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Title statement

The ready way of confuting Mr. Baxter a specimen of the present mode of controversie in England.

Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.

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1682

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2004-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

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A27003

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Wing B1366

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ESTC R28364

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10547820

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ocm 10547820

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45244

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(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A27003)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 45244)

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— The ready way of confuting Mr. Baxter a specimen of the present mode of controversie in England., Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691., Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681..

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8 p.

Printed for R. Janeway,. London :: 1682.. (Caption title.) (Imprint from colophon.) (Letter signed: Richard Allestry.) ("Baxter's answer to certain slanderous stories"--NUC pre-1956 imprints.) (Reproduction of original in the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign Campus). Library.)

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