A26865:184
An apology for the nonconformists ministry containing I. the reasons of their preaching, II.…
An apology for the nonconformists ministry containing I. the reasons of their preaching, II. an answer to the accusations urged as reasons for the silencing of about 2000 by Bishop Morley ..., III. reasons proving it the duty and interest of the bishops and conformists to endeavour earnestly their restoration : with a postscript upon oral debates with Mr. H. Dodwell, against his reasons for their silence ... : written in 1668 and 1669, for the most of it, and now published as an addition to the defence against Dr. Stillingfleet, and as an account to the silencers of the reasons of our practice / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for T. Parkhurst and D. Newman, 1681
AN APOLOGY FOR THE SILENCED MINISTERS, Especially for their not cea… › Part › Objection 1
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.
1. If men do not know who Christ is, or what he came into the world for, nor what he hath done for us, nor what the Holy Ghost is, nor what he is to do for us, nor what a Saviour or a Sanctifier is, nor what is the plain sense of most Articles of the Creed, or Petitions in the Lords-prayer, have such men need of Teaching to save their souls, or not?
2. If men follow the world eagerly all the week, and talk of it on the Lords day, and love not to hear any talk of another world, or how they must be pardoned and saved; but swear, and curse, and rail, and many of them are drunkards, gluttons, or fornicators; and if they never teach their children or families, or pray with them any more than Infidels, and show no Religion but going to Church, or perhaps sometimes say the Lords-prayer and the Creed without understanding; and if we advise them to prepare for death, and the life to come, and tell them the need of a ⟨p. 53⟩Saviour, a Sanctifier, and of faith, repentance, and a holy life, they tell us, that they will trust God with their souls, and not trouble their heads with things so high; they shall speed as well as their neighbours. Have these mens souls any need of teaching?
2. If men follow the world eagerly all the week, and talk of it on the Lords day, and love not to hear any talk of another world, or how they must be pardoned and saved; but swear, and curse, and rail, and many of them are drunkards, gluttons, or fornicators; and if they never teach their children or families, or pray with them any more than Infidels, and shew no Religion but going to Church, or perhaps sometimes say the Lords-prayer and the Creed without understanding; and if we advise them to prepare for death, and the life to come, and tell them the need of a ⟨p. 53⟩Saviour, a Sanctifier, and of faith, repentance, and a holy life, they tell us, that they will trust God with their souls, and not trouble their heads with things so high; they shall speed as well as their neighbours. Have these mens souls any need of teaching?