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

Therefore I spake and preached against the Engagement, and dissuaded Men from taking it: The first hour that I heard of it, being in Company with some Gentlemen of Worcestershire, I presently wrote down above twenty Queries against it, intending as many more almost against the Obligation, as those were about the Sense and Circumstances: And one that was present got the Copy of them, and shortly after, I met with them verbatim in a Book of Mr. Henry Hall's as his own: (one that was long imprisoned for writing against Cromwell.)

Therefore I spake and preach'd against the Engagement, and dissuaded Men from taking it: The first hour that I heard of it, being in Company with some Gentlemen of Worcestershire, I presently wrote down above twenty Queries against it, intending as many more almost against the Obligation, as those were about the Sense and Circumstances: And one that was present got the Copy of them, and shortly after, I met with them verbatim in a Book of Mr. Henry Hall's as his own: (one that was long imprisoned for writing against Cromwell.)

Some Episcopal Divines that were not so scrupulous it seems as we, did write for it (private Manuscripts which I have seen) and plead the irresistibility of the Imposers, and they found starting holes in the Terms, viz. That by the Commonwealth they will mean the present Commonwealth in genere, and by [Established] they will mean only de facto, and not de jure, and by [without a King, &c.] they mean not quatenus but Etsi; and that only de facto pro tempore; q. d. I will be true to the Government of England, though at the present the King and House of Lords are put out of the Exercise of their power]. These were the Expositions of many Episcopal Men, and others that took it: But I endeavoured to evince, that this is mere juggling and jesting with Matters too great to be jested with: And that as they might easily know that the Imposers had another sense, so as easily might they know that the words in their own obvious usual sense among men, must be taken as the Promise or Engagement of a Subject as such to a Form of Government now pretended to be established: And that the Subjects Allegiance or Fidelity to his Rulers can be acknowledged and given in no plainer words: And that by such Interpretations and Stretchings of Conscience, any Treasonable Oath or Promise may be taken, and no Bonds of Society can signify much with such Interpreters.