A26865:236
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 5
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.
I remember when Mr. Thomas Wadsworth Minister at Newington-Buts was put out, the Parishioners came to me with a Petition to the King for some pity to their souls in his Restoration, and would have had me to have directed them how to get it delivered. I told them it was a thing not to be attempted, being contrary to the course of the present Laws, and so it never was delivered (that I know of.) But when I read it, I saw the difference between man and man. They therein expressed that he had been a prudent, constant, painful Preacher to them, that he was of a most blameless exemplary life; that he spent all that he had in charitable works; that he visited, and instructed, and Catechised every family, house by house, that he hired a Minister to assist him in such private Catechising and instructing; that he bought Bibles to give all the poor of the Parish that could not buy them; with much more of the like. And he was not successless, nor is not since his silencing to this day. It would be endless to multiply such instances of the now silenced Ministers in this Land.
I remember when Mr. Thomas Wadsworth Minister at Newington-Buts was put out, the Parishioners came to me with a Petition to the King for some pity to their souls in his Restoration, and would have had me to have directed them how to get it delivered. I told them it was a thing not to be attempted, being contrary to the course of the present Laws, and so it never was delivered (that I know of.) But when I read it, I saw the difference between man and man. They therein expressed that he had been a prudent, constant, painful Preacher to them, that he was of a most blameless exemplary life; that he spent all that he had in charitable works; that he visited, and instructed, and Catechised every family, house by house, that he hired a Minister to assist him in such private Catechising and instructing; that he bought Bibles to give all the poor of the Parish that could not buy them; with much more of the like. And he was not succesless, nor is not since his silencing to this day. It would be endless to multiply such instances of the now silenced Ministers in this Land.
But because I am Purus putus Puritanus, as its said, and you will have it so that I must be named more than others, as one by whom the world may know the rest, even with an Ex uno omnes, to use some of your own expressions; I shall tell you what was my course, and how far I am guilty of the matter of these accusations.