A26860:486
An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlock, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical…An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlocke, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical…
An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlock, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical and monarchical, as church-tyranny and popery : and defending Dr. Isaac Barrow's treatise against it by Richard Baxter ; preparatory to a fuller treatise against such an universal sovereignty as contrary to reason, Christianity, the Protestant profession, and the Church of England, though the corrupters usurp that title.An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlocke, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical and monarchical, as church-tyranny and popery : and defending Dr. Isaac Barrow's treatise against it by Richard Baxter ; preparatory to a fuller treatise against such an universal soveraignty as contrary to reason, Christianity, the Protestant profession, and the Church of England, though the corrupters usurp that title.
London: printed for Thomas Parkhurst, 1682
Chapter 5: Wherein Mr. Dodwell's deceits, and the danger of them do consist.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Therefore I am […] to give you, 1. My Concessions in what cases it […] to […] the Magistrate in Preaching where he forbiddeth […]. 2. […] in what cases it is a great duty. But to say that it is a sin because that the Clergy forbiddeth it, must have better proof ••an I have seen, even, 1. That such Clergymen are truly called by God. 2. And that they have from him the assignation of this space of ground. And 3. are by him empowered to forbid all others to preach on their land. 4. And that even when Gods general Laws do make it our duty, that they can suspend the obligation of such Laws, even the greatest: I am ready upon any just occasion to prove to you, that I were a heinous sinner, if I should have ceased such Preaching as I have used upon all the reasons that you allege against it. And woe to them that make our greatest and dearest duties to pass for sin, and our greatest sin, Isa. 5.20. Were it but one of the least commands, I would be loth to break it, and teach men so to do, much less one of the greatest; when men whose consciences tell them, that they are totally devoted to God; as Christians and as Ordained Ministers, deny their worldly interest and preferments, and serve him in poverty, beholden for their daily bread, and to the ruin of their worldly Estates, and the hazard of their lives in the Common Goals, endeavour nothing but to Preach Christs Gospel to save mens souls from ignorance, unbelief, sensuality, worldliness, &c. in case of the peoples undeniable necessity; I say, when such meet with men of the same profession, who think not the Common Goals among Rogues, and the forfeiture of Forty pound a Sermon, as Enacted by Law, to be enough to restrain them, but also as in the name of Christ they will charge us with heinous sin unless we will perfidiously break our obligations to Christ, and sacrilegiously alienate our selves from the work which we are devoted to (many of us under the Bishops hands) and unless we will be cruel to miserable souls, and shut ⟨p. 139⟩up the bowels of our compassion from them, while we see them in need and in danger of damnation, what fortitude do we need against such kind of Tempters, and such Temptations? If Drunkards and boys in the street only scorned me as a Puritan, or Precisian, it were less. If Turkish Rulers did persecute me for my Preaching Christ, it were less.
Therefore I am to give you, 1. My Concessions in what cases it to the Magistrate in Preaching where he forbiddeth . 2. in what cases it is a great duty. But to say that it is a sin because that the Clergy forbiddeth it, must have better proof an I have seen, even, 1. That such Clergymen are truly called by God. 2. And that they have from him the assignation of this space of ground. And 3. are by him empowered to forbid all others to preach on their land. 4. And that even when Gods general Laws do make it our duty, that they can suspend the obligation of such Laws, even the greatest: I am ready upon any just occasion to prove to you, that I were a heinous sinner, if I should have ceased such Preaching as I have used upon all the reasons that you alledg against it. And wo to them that make our greatest and dearest duties to pass for sin, and our greatest sin,