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

§ 80. All this while, as I had friendly Converse with the sober part, so I was still employed with the rest as before, in Preaching, Conference, and Disputing against their Confounding Errors: And in all Places where we went, the Sectarian Soldiers much infected the Countries, by their Pamphlets and Converse, and the People admiring the conquering Army, were ready to receive whatsoever they commended to them: And it was the way of the Faction to speak what they spake as the Sense of the Army, and to make the People believe that whatever Opinion they vented, (which one of forty in the Army, owned not) it was the Army's Opinion. When we quartered at Agmondesham in Buckinghamshire, some Sectaries of Chesham had set up a Public Meeting as for Conference, to propagate their Opinions through all the Country; and this in the Church, by the encouragement of an ignorant Sectarian Lecturer, one Bramble, whom they had got in (while Dr. Crook the Pastor, and Mr. Richardson his Curate, durst not contradict them). When this Public Talking day came, Bethel's Troopers (then Capt. Pitchford's) with other Sectarian Soldiers must be there, to confirm the Chesham Men, and make Men believe that the Army was for them: And I thought it my Duty to be there also, and took divers sober Officers with me, to let them see that more of the Army were against them than for them. I took the Reading Pew, and Pitchford's Cornet and Troopers took the Gallery. And there I found a crowded Congregation of poor well-meaning People, that came in the Simplicity of their Hearts to be deceived. There did the Leader of the Chesham Men begin, and afterward Pitchford's Soldiers set in, and I alone disputed against them from Morning until almost Night; for I knew their trick, that if I had but gone out first, they would have prated what boasting words they listed when I was gone, and made the People believe that they had baffled me, or got the best; therefore I stayed it out till they first rose and went away: The abundance of Nonsense which they uttered that day, may partly be seen in Mr. Edward's Gangraena: for when I had wrote a Letter of it to a Friend in London, that and another were put into Mr. Edward's Book, without my Name. But some of the sober People of Agmondesham gave me abundance of thanks for that Days work, which they said would never be there forgotten:

§ 80. All this while, as I had friendly Converse with the sober part, so I was still employed with the rest as before, in Preaching, Conference, and Disputing against their Confounding Errours: And in all Places where we went, the Sectarian Soldiers much infected the Countreys, by their Pamphlets and Converse, and the People admiring the conquering Army, were ready to receive whatsoever they commended to them: And it was the way of the Faction to speak what they spake as the Sense of the Army, and to make the People believe that whatever Opinion they vented, (which one of forty in the Army, owned not) it was the Army's Opinion. When we quarter'd at Agmondesham in Buckinghamshire, some Sectaries of Chesham had set up a Publick Meeting as for Conference, to propagate their Opinions through all the Country; and this in the Church, by the encouragement of an ignorant Sectarian Lecturer, one Bramble, whom they had got in (while Dr. Crook the Pastor, and Mr. Richardson his Curate, durst not contradict them). When this Publick Talking day came, Bethel's Troopers (then Capt. Pitchford's) with other Sectarian Soldiers must be there, to confirm the Chesham Men, and make Men believe that the Army was for them: And I thought it my Duty to be there also, and took divers sober Officers with me, to let them see that more of the Army were against them than for them. I took the Reading Pew, and Pitchford's Cornet and Troopers took the Gallery. And there I found a crowded Congregation of poor well-meaning People, that came in the Simplicity of their Hearts to be deceived. There did the Leader of the Chesham Men begin, and afterward Pitchford's Soldiers set in, and I alone disputed against them from Morning until almost Night; for I knew their trick, that if I had but gone out first, they would have prated what boasting words they listed when I was gone, and made the People believe that they had baffled me, or got the best; therefore I stayed it out till they first rose and went away: The abundance of Nonsense which they uttered that day, may partly be seen in Mr. Edward's Gangraena: for when I had wrote a Letter of it to a Friend in London, that and another were put into Mr. Edward's Book, without my Name. But some of the sober People of Agmondesham gave me abundance of thanks for that Days work, which they said would never be there forgotten: