Richard Baxter's penitent confession and his necessary vindication in answer to a book called…

Long did heart-burnings continue between these discordant Parties, one side blaming, and the other side ruining those that were against them: Till Laud's attempts for Innovation, stirred up such opposition in Scotland, and distaste in England, as I cannot justify. The Parliament encouraged by the Scots went higher in provoking the King than they ought: And the King too much occasioned their Jealousy that he intended to have Invaded Property and Liberty, and to subdue them by force if they restrained or punished the Executioners of his Illegal Will. But this brake out by such degrees, that no Man can name the beginning. As a small breach in a Pond of Water groweth wider till it let out the whole: And as Personal Duels begin in a word, or a suspicion, and proceed to wrath, and then to reproach, and thence to revenge. When Division was the Death of the Constituted Form of Government, both sides should have hated and feared it more than either did. But the Parliament thought the King would soon return as deserted: And the Devil among us all was as if he had cast among Boys red hot pieces of Brass or Iron, and they scrambled for it, thinking by the Colour that it was Gold, till it stuck to their Fingers and burnt them to the Bone. And the dread of 200000 Murdered in Ireland put such a panic fear in the Antipapists in England, as darkened their Wits. ⟨p. 62⟩And yet if the Captain and Mariners fall out by folly, the Ship may be preserved by the innocent. If the Citizens could not agree about quenching the Fire in 1666. the Inhabitants may endeavour it, and pull down Houses to that end without the guilt of injury to the Owners. I think that King and Parliament grievously sinned (but not equally) in doing so much to cause and no more to prevent a Civil War: I would they had hearkened to Whitlock's Speech, and other Mens healing motions 1641. But who in the beginning fore-knows the end? And when once the breach is made, usually there is no hope left of any better end than one of the two Parties ruin. True is the old saying, He that draweth his Sword against his King must throw away the Scabbard. When all mutual Trust is gone, all hope of Reconciliation is gone.

Long did heart-burnings continue between these discordant Parties, one side blaming, and the other side ruining those that were against them: Till Laud's attempts for Innovation, stirred up such opposition in Scotland, and distaste in England, as I cannot justifie. The Parliament encouraged by the Scots went higher in provoking the King than they ought: And the King too much occasioned their Jealousie that he intended to have Invaded Property and Liberty, and to subdue them by force if they restrained or punished the Executioners of his Illegal Will. But this brake out by such degrees, that no Man can name the beginning. As a small breach in a Pond of Water groweth wider till it let out the whole: And as Personal Duels begin in a word, or a suspicion, and proceed to wrath, and then to reproach, and thence to revenge. When Division was the Death of the Constituted Form of Government, both sides should have hated and feared it more than either did. But the Parliament thought the King would soon return as deserted: And the Devil among us all was as if he had cast among Boys red hot pieces of Brass or Iron, and they scrambled for it, thinking by the Colour that it was Gold, till it stuck to their Fingers and burnt them to the Bone. And the dread of 200000 Murdered in Ireland put such a pannick fear in the Antipapists in England, as darkened their Wits.