he so passionately cursed the day of his birth, will love the faith and patience of his people, notwithstanding the mixtures of unbelief and impatience; he is ready with his gracious excuse," (Matt. xxvi. 41,) "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak;" and he considereth that our "strength and flesh is not of stones or brass." (Job vi. 12.) He will therefore revive the spirit of the contrite, and will not contend for ever, nor be always wroth, lest the spirit should fail before him, and the souls which he hath made,” (Isa. Ivii. 15, 16.) "And though no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; yet the end is, that he may make us partakers of his holiness, and afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby." (Heb. xii. 10, 11.) "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love him." (James i. 12.) "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teacheth him out of thy law, that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked: for the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance." (Psal. xciv. 12, 13, 14.)

Madam, If nothing in all the world be more certain, than that there is a God, who is true and just, and delighteth in his people when they are lowest in the world: If nothing be more sure, than that there is a heaven for persevering penitent believers than are our arguments for the comfort of God's afflicted ones, no fancies, but fetched as from the highest excellencies, so from the surest realities that ever were presented to the understanding of a man. And though the best of saints have been put to wrestle with the temptations that arise from the adversity of believers, and the prosperity of the wicked, yet this is still the result of all their perplexing thoughts; "Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. Though sometimes their feet are almost gone, and their paths do well nigh slip, and they are ready to say, we have cleansed our hearts in vain, and washed our hands in innocency; for all the day are we plagued, and chastened every morning; yet they soon learn in the sanctuary of God, that the wicked are set in slippery places, and cast down into destruction, and brought to desolation as in a moment, and utterly consumed with terrors

as a dream when one awaketh, so the Lord when he awaketh, will despise their image." (Psal. lxxiii.) "But mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace." (Psal. xxxvii. 37.) "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil: but though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know, that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him." (Eccles. viii. 11, 12.) If not here, yet certainly at last all shall say, " Verily there is a reward for the righteous," (Psal. lviii. 11.) “Rest therefore in the Lord, and wait patiently for him; commit your way to him; trust in him, and he shall bring it to pass: for the needy shall not alway be forgotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever." (Psal. ix. 18.) How happy are you, that God doth thus save you from the temptations of prosperity, which you see befool and undo so many before your eyes! And that you are not left in the number of those that are men of the world, which have their portion in this life! (Psal. xvii. 14,) “and are given up to their own heart's lusts, to walk in their own counsels," (Psal. lxxxi. 12,) and must hear at last, "Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedest thy good things," but that here you have your evils, and shall be comforted when the now prosperous wicked are tormented. (Luke xvi. 25.) If heaven be enough to make you a felicity, and eternity be long enough for your fruition of it, then never think hardly of God for any of his chastisements. Lazarus repenteth not there that he was poor; nor Job that he was covered with sores; nor David, that he washed his couch with tears, and that his sore ran and ceased not. The longest of our sorrows will there be reviewed, as short in respect of our endless joys; and the sharpest of our pains as nothing to those pleasures. Madam, experience as well as faith assureth me, that it is good for us that we are afflicted; and though for the sake of others, I shall earnestly beseech the Lord, that he will not unseasonably remove such as you from this unworthy generation; yet I doubt not but your removal and sufferings in the way, will advantage you for your everlasting rest. And for myself, I desire, that my lot may still fall with those that follow Christ through tribulation, bearing the cross, and crucified to the world, and waiting for his ap

pearance, desiring to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord; and not with those that are fed as beasts for the slaughter, and prosper a while in their iniquity, till sudden destruction come upon them, and at last their sins do find them out, "when the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." (Psal. ix. 17; Numb. xxxii. 23; 1 Thess. v. 3; Phil. iii. 19.) And that these words of life may be engraven upon my heart, (Psal. Ixiii. 3,) "Thy lovingkindness is better than life;" (Psal. lxxiii. 26;) 'My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever;" (Rom. viii. 28;) All things work together for good to them that love God ;" (John xiv. 19;)" Because I live, ye shall live also;" (Col. iii. 3,4;) Our life is hid with Christ in God: when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory; and that I may be fit for the title of the beloved apostle, (Rev. i. 9,) though as a servant to you and the Church of God,

66

Your Brother and Companion in Tribulation, and

in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ,

Nov. 1, 1661.

RICH. BAXTER.

TO MY DEARLY BELOVED

THE INHABITANTS

OF THE

BOROUGH AND PARISH OF KIDDERMINSTER

IN THE

COUNTY OF WORCESTER. *

As I never desired any greater preferment in this world, than to have continued in the work of my ministry among you, so I once thought my days would have been ended in that desired station: but we are unmeet to tell God how he shall dispose of us: or to foreknow what changes he intends to make. Though you are low in the world, and have not the riches which cause men's estimation with the most, I see no probability that we should have been separated till death, could I but have obtained leave to preach for nothing.

But being forbidden to preach the Gospel in that diocese, I must thankfully take the liberty which shall any where else be vouchsafed me: and while I may enjoy it, I take it not for my duty to be over querulous, though the wound that is made by my separation from you be very deep. And though to strangers it will seem probable that such severity had never been exercised against me, but for some heinous crime, yet to you that have known me, I shall need to say but little in my defence. The great crime which is openly charged on me, and for which I am thought unworthy to preach the Gospel, (even where there is no other to preach) is a matter that you are unacquainted with, and therefore, as you have heard me publicly accused of it, I am bound to render you such an account as is necessary to your just information and satisfaction.

It pleased the king's majesty, (in the prosecution of his most Christian resolution, of uniting his differing subjects by the way of mutual approaches and abatements,) to grant a commission to twelve bishops and nine assistants on the one side, and to one bishop and eleven other divines and nine assistants on the other side, to treat about such altera

*

Giving an account of the causes of his being forbidden to preach in the diocese of Worcester, by Dr. GEORGE MORLEY, then bishop there.

tions of the Liturgy, as are necessary to the satisfying of tender consciences, and to the restoring of unity and peace. My experiences in a former treaty (for reconciliation in matter of discipline) made me entreat those to whom the nomination on the one side was committed, to excuse me from the service which I knew would prove troublesome to myself, and ungrateful to others; but I could not prevail. (But the work itself, I very much approved, as to be done by fitter and more acceptable persons.) Being commanded by the king's commission, I took it to be my duty to be faithful, and to plead for such alterations as I knew were necessary to the assigned ends; thinking it to be treachery to his Majesty that entrusted us, and to the Church and cause for which we were entrusted, if under pretence of making such alterations as were necessary to the two forementioned ends, I should have silently yielded to have no alterations, or next to none. In the conclusion (when the chief work was done by writing) a committee of each part, was appointed to manage a disputation in presence (by writing also). Therein those of the other part formed an argument, whose major proposition was to this sense (for I have no copy), 'Whatsoever book enjoineth nothing but what is of itself lawful, and by lawful authority, enjoineth nothing that is sinful:' We denied this proposition; and at last gave divers reasons of our denial; among which one was that It may be unlawful by accident, and therefore sinful.' You now know my crime, it is my concurring with learned, reverend brethren, to give this reason of our denial of a proposition yet they are not forbidden to preach for it, (and I hope shall not be ;) but only I. You have publicly heard, from a mouth that should speak nothing but the words of charity, truth, and soberness, (especially there) that this was a desperate shift that men at the last extremity are forced to,' and inferring that then neither God nor mán can enjoin without sin.' In city and country this soundeth forth to my reproach. I should take it for an act of clemency to have been smitten professedly for nothing, and that it might not have been thought necessary to afflict me by a defamation, that so I might seem justly afflicted by a prohibition to preach the Gospel. But indeed is there in these words of ours so great a crime? Though we doubted not but they knew that our assertion made not every evil