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

what selfishness and ill designs can do, to bribe the Conscience, and corrupt the Judgment, and make men justify the greatest Errors and Sins, and set against the clearest Truth and Duty: what Bloodshed and great Enormities of Life, an Erring deluded Judgment may draw Men to, and patronize; and That when God hath dreadful Judgments to execute, an Erroneous Sectary, or a proud Self-seeker, is oftener his Instrument, than an humble, Lamb-like, innocent Saint].

what selfishness and ill designs can do, to bribe the Conscience, and corrupt the Iudgment, and make men justifie the greatest Errours and Sins, and set against the clearest Truth and Duty: what Bloodshed and great Enormities of Life, an Erring deluded Judgment may draw Men to, and patronize; and That when God hath dreadful Judgments to execute, an Erroneous Sectary, or a proud Self-seeker, is oftner his Instrument, than an humble, Lamb-like, innocent Saint].

§ 145. Cromwell being dead, his Son Richard by his Will and Testament, and the Army was quietly settled in his place; while all Men looked that they should presently have fallen into Confusion and Discord among themselves; the Counties, Cities, and Corporations of England send up their Congratulations, to own him as Protector: (But none of us in Worcestershire, save the Independents, meddled in it.)

§ 145. Cromwell being dead, his Son Richard by his Will and Testament, and the Army was quietly setled in his place; while all Men look'd that they should presently have fallen into Confusion and Discord among themselves; the Counties, Cities, and Corporations of England send up their Congratulations, to own him as Protector: (But none of us in Worcestershire, save the Independants, medled in it.)

He interred his Father with great Pomp and Solemnity: He called a Parliament, and that without any such Restraints as his Father had used: The Members took the Oath of Fidelity or Allegiance to him at the Door of the House before they entered. And all Men wondered to see all so quiet, in so dangerous a Time. Many sober Men that called his Father no better than a Traitorous Hypocrite, did begin to think that they owed him Subjection. They knew that the King was by Birth their Rightful Sovereign; and resolved to do their best while there was hopes to introduce him, and defend him: But they were astonished at the marvellous Providences of god, which had been against that Family all along, and they thought that there was no rational probability of his Restoration, having seen so many Armies and Risings and Designs overthrown, which were raised or undertaken for it: They thought that it is not left to our liberty, whether we will have a Government, or not; but that Government is of Divine Appointment; and the Family, Person or Species is but of a subservient, less necessary determination: And that if we cannot have him that we would have, it followeth not that we may be without: That twelve years time (from the Death of the last King) was longer than the Land could be without a Governor, without the Destruction of the Common Good, which is the End of Government! Therefore that the Subjects, seeing they are unable to restore the King, must consent to another: That the House of Commons, having sworn Allegiance to him, have actually subjected the Nation to him: And though his Father Traitorously made the Change, yet the Successor of a Traitor may by the Peoples consent, become a Governor, whom each Individual must acknowledge by Subjection: That the Bishops and Churches both of East and West, as all History showeth, have professed their Subjection to Usurpers, in a far shorter time, and upon lighter Reasons: That this Man having never had any hand in the War, (but supposed to be for the King) nor ever seeking for the Government, and now seeming to own the Sober Party, was like to be used in the healing of the Land, &c.] Such Reasonings as these began to take with the minds of many, to subject themselves quietly to this Man (though they never did it to his Father) as now despairing of the Restitution of the King: