Reference code
DWL/RB/i.1
Level of description
item
Title
Brief of the charges against Baxter
Date
1685
Extent and Medium
Extent:ff 2-13b, ff 2v, 3v, 4v, 5v, 6v, 7v, 8v, 9v, 10v, 11v are blank. Various sizes
Dimensions:372 x 304 mm
Genre/Physical Characteristic:w/m: Ornate shield; post horn (75 x 52 mm) f.3
Fine quality paper
Creator
Scope and content
Brief of the charges against Baxter when prosecuted in 1685 on the publication of his 'A Paraphrase on the New Testament'. Includes ‘the accused words’ selected from same, with answers to the charges by his Counsel altered and enlarged throughout by Baxter together with arguments for his own defense. Treats individually of the accusations with reference to New Testament passages: ff 2-3, Matthew. 5.19; ff 4-5, Mark 3:6; ff 6-7, Mark 9:39; ff 8-9, Mark 11:31; f 9, Mark 12.38.39.40; ff 10-11, Luke 10:2; f 11, John 11.57; f 12, Acts 15.1-2; f 13, ‘The danger of Charging Ministers with unexpressed feigned meanings’. Neat clerical hand, with flourishes, interspersed with Baxter’s own comments and emendations… All the above are sermons or sermon notes, chiefly aimed against the Church of England hierarchy, namely Dr Henry Hammond – dating from post 1662 and the ecclesiastical settlement.
Finding aids
Argent / Black i.1; Thomas p.21
Publication note
- Rel. iii 198-200; for a treatise compiled from these allegations and arguments see DWL/RB/1/4
- Baxter added to his A Paraphrase on the New Testament 1685) an account of his notes on some particular scriptural texts, for which he was arrested and imprisoned on 28 February 1685 and charged with seditious libel. See also Corr 1146, 1146, 1148, 1149, 1150, 1151, 1158, 1179 and 1188. Baxter’s A Paraphrase on the New Testament went into a second edition in 1695. According to Term Catalogues, 1668-1709 (ed Edward Arber. 3 vols 1903-6) The Axe laid at the root of Separation was published anonymously in late 1684, although other authorities state the publication year as 1685.
Personal name