Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his…

Our Answer whereto was as follows: Much honoured and beloved Brethren in the Lord, WE received your welcome Lines from the Hand of our faithful and much honoured Friend Coll. John Bridges.. It much rejoiceth us to hear of your brotherly Affection, and the Success, and more, that your Hearts are enlarged with such Desires for the farther promoting of this healing Work; and that you thus breath after the Union of the Saints. It doth not only rejoice us on your own behalf, and on the behalf of that desolate Land where you abide, but also on the behalf of the Churches in general; because we seem to discern the gracious Thoughts of God unto his People, in sounding a Retreat to their unbrotherly Contentions, by sending forth that Spirit of Love and Peace, which we know must build us up if ever we are built: When God was pulling down and laying Waste, be withheld this Mercy, and let out upon his Churches a Spirit of Contention, Bitterness and Division, which hath gone on to demolish and break in pieces, and made our own Hands the Executioners of those heavy Judgments, which have laid us so long in Shame and Sorrow, and filled our Enemies Mouths with Scorn. While this evil Spirit that made desolate did prevail, Division seemed amiable and dividing Principles seemed glorious Truths; and all Motions to Reconciliations were unsavoury things, and rejected as a Defection from Truth or Zeal, and as a carnal Compliance with the ways of Darkness; and even those that were zealous for Truth and Holiness were too many of them cold for Peace and Unity; reading those Scriptures which so earnestly press them, as if they read them not; never observing or laying to Heart the strict Commands of the Lord herein, as if there had been no such Passages in our Bibles. But, blessed be the Lord that beginneth mightily to awaken the Hearts of his Servants, and cause them to observe the Truths which they overlooked and at last to lay to heart the Duty so much neglected. We now hear from many Countries of this Nation, the Voice of the Spirit of Peace; our Brethren begin to get together and consult of the means of repairing our Breaches, and in many Places are associated; and though the Work be but beginning, and mightily resisted by the Enemies of Holiness and Peace, yet are we in great Hopes that these Beginnings do promise more, and that God hath not awakened us to this Work in vain.

Our Answer whereto was as follows: Much honoured and beloved Brethren in the Lord, WE received your welcome Lines from the Hand of our faithful and much honoured Friend Coll. John Bridges.. It much rejoiceth us to hear of your brotherly Affeciation, and the Success, and more, that your Hearts are enlarged with such Desires for the farther promoting of this healing Work; and that you thus breath after the Union of the Saints. It doth not only rejoice us on your own behalf, and on the behalf of that desolate Land where you abide, but also on the behalf of the Churches in general; because we seem to discern the gracious Thoughts of God unto his People, in sounding a Retreat to their unbrotherly Contentions, by sending forth that Spirit of Love and Peace, which we know must build us up if ever we are built: When God was pulling down and laying Waste, be witheld this Mercy, and let out upon his Churches a Spirit of Contention, Bitterness and Division, which hath gone on to demolish and break in pieces, and made our own Hands the Executioners of those heavy Iudgments, which have laid us so long in Shame and Sorrow, and filled our Enemies Mouths with Scorn. While this evil Spirit that made desolate did prevail, Division seemed aimable and dividing Principles seemed glorious Truths; and all Motions to Reconciliations were unsavory things, and rejected as a Defection from Truth or Zeal, and as a carnal Compliance with the ways of Darkness; and even those that were zealous for Truth and Holiness were too many of them cold for Peace and Unity; reading those Scriptures which so earnestly press them, as if they read them not; never observing or laying to Heart the strict Commands of the Lord herein, as if there had been no such Passages in our Bibles. But, blessed be the Lord that beginneth mightily to awaken the Hearts of his Servants, and cause them to observe the Truths which they overlook'd and at last to lay to heart the Duty so much neglected. We now hear from many Countries of this Nation, the Voice of the Spirit of Peace; our Brethren begin to get together and consult of the means of reparing our Breaches, and in many Places are associated; and though the Work be but beginning, and mightily resisted by the Enemies of Holyness and Peace, yet are we in great Hopes that these Beginnings do promise more, and that God hath not awakened us to this Work in vain.