A26865:269
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 6
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.
2. That the people of each Parish, or some of them, were the accusers, witnesses, and solicitors of the cause; who begged for deliverance, and a better Ministry, as if it concerned the benefit of their souls.
2. That the people of each Parish, or some of them, were the accusers, witnesses, and sollicitors of the cause; who beg'd for deliverance, and a better Ministry, as if it concerned the benefit of their souls.
3. That it was somewhat an excusable error in the Ministers that succeeded them, to think that if the Parliament or any Usurpers, did turn out the former Ministers of any place, the people should not therefore be left as Heathens, and all Gods Worship be forsaken, and the doors shut up as in the Venetian and other Interdicts by the Pope, and this for ten or twelve years together, yea almost twenty; and that if the Parliament had cast out the overseers of the poor, or the nurses of your children, it's hard that all they that after relieved them, and saved their lives, must be accused as so greatly injurious; and that it's hard that when the love of souls doth make them unweariedly spend themselves for the peoples good, that this should be one of their unpardonable crimes! How different are mens judgments of vice and virtue? and they did think also that really before God and man the Salary was for the work. And if they had a lawful calling to the work of the place, they thought they had so to the Salary. They thought that if a Pilot of a Ship were on pretence of insufficiency and utter ignorance cast out by usurpers of the power, that all Shipping must not therefore stand still, nor all men be proclaimed sinners that take the place and maintenance. I justify not their reasons; but I may tell you my opinion, that being young men (mostly) in the Universities, that had little or nothing of their own, they could not well otherwise have got bread and clothing, much less Books, Fire, House-room, &c. nor long have Preached without bread and clothing. And I knew few of them that when they were cast out, were able to refund or restore that which bought them bread and ⟨p. 79⟩fire, and clothing; unless you would sell them as slaves to work it out.