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

If you ask the Reasons of this Difference, ask also, why in France it is not commonly the Nobility nor the Beggars, but the Merchants and middle sort of Men, that were Protestants. The Reasons which the Party themselves gave was, Because (say they) the Tradesmen have a Correspondency with London, and so are grown to be a far more Intelligent sort of Men than the ignorant Peasants that are like Brutes, who will follow any that they think the strongest, or look to get by: And the Freeholders, say they, were not enslaved to their Landlords as the Tenants are: The Gentry, (say they) are wholly by their Estates and Ambition more ⟨p. 31⟩dependent on the King, than their Tenants on them; and many of them envied the Honour of the Parliament, because they were not chosen Members themselves. The other side said, That the Reason was because the Gentry (who commanded their Tenants) did better understand Affairs of State than half-witted Tradesmen and Freeholders do.

If you ask the Reasons of this Difference, ask also, why in France it is not commonly the Nobility nor the Beggars, but the Merchants and middle sort of Men, that were Protestants. The Reasons which the Party themselves gave was, Because (say they) the Tradesmen have a Correspondency with London, and so are grown to be a far more Intelligent sort of Men than the ignorant Peasants that are like Bruits, who will follow any that they think the strongest, or look to get by: And the Freeholders, say they, were not enslaved to their Landlords as the Tenants are: The Gentry, (say they) are wholly by their Estates and Ambition more ⟨p. 31⟩dependent on the King, than their Tenants on them; and many of them envied the Honour of the Parliament, because they were not chosen Members themselves. The other side said, That the Reason was because the Gentry (who commanded their Tenants) did better understand Affairs of State than half-witted Tradesmen and Freeholders do.

But though it must be confessed, That the Public Safety and Liberty wrought very much with most, especially with the Nobility and Gentry, who adhered to the Parliament, yet was it principally the differences about Religious Matters that filled up the Parliaments Armies, and put the Resolution and Valour into their Soldiers, which carried them on in another manner than mercenary Soldiers are carried on. Not that the Matter of Bishops Or no Bishops was the main thing, (for Thousands that wished for Good Bishops were on the Parliaments side) though many called it Bellum Episcopal; (And with the Scots that was a greater part of the Controversy.) But the generality of the People through the Land (I say not all, or every one) who were then called Puritans, Precisions, Religious Persons, that used to talk of God, and Heaven, and Scripture, and Holiness, and to follow Sermons, and read Books of Devotion, and pray in their Families, and spend the Lord's Day in Religious Exercises, and plead for Mortification, and serious Devotion, and strict Obedience to God, and speak against Swearing, Cursing, Drunkenness, Profaneness, &c. I say, the main Body of this sort of Men, both Preachers and People, adhered to the Parliament. And on the other side, the Gentry that were not so precise and strict against an Oath, or Gaming, or Plays, or Drinking, nor troubled themselves so much about the Matters of God and the World to come, and the Ministers and People that were for the King's Book, for Dancing and Recreations on the Lord's Days; and those that made not so great a matter of every Sin, but went to Church and heard Common Prayer, and were glad to hear a Sermon which lashed the Puritans, and which ordinarily spoke against this strictness and preciseness in Religion, and this strict Observation of the Lord's Day, and following Sermons, and praying Ex tempore, and talking so much of Scripture and the Matters of Salvation, and those that hated and derided them that take these Courses, the main Body of these were against the Parliament. Not but that some such for Money, or a Landlord's Pleasure, served them; as some few of the stricter sort were against them, or not for them (being Neuters): but I speak of the notable Division through the Land.