A26865:360
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 11
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.
3. That our conjunction with this or that particular Church, is a matter left to humane prudence, and to be changed according to the interest of our own souls, and the public good; and that God bindeth me not to one Church more than to another, by any Law, except that general Law which directeth us what choice to make of matters undetermined.
3. That our conjunction with this or that particular Church, is a matter left to humane prudence, and to be changed according to the interest of our own souls, and the publick good; and that God bindeth me not to one Church more than to another, by any Law, except that general Law which directeth us what choice to make of matters undetermined.
4. That the Magistrate is the Governor of these Churches as to their external ordering, which supposeth the Pastors to be Governors governed by him; (as Schoolmasters, Philosophers, Pilots, Architects, &c.) and that the Pastors are essential to the Church, (in a Political sense, as we now take it) as a Schoolmaster is to a School; but so is not the Magistrate.
4. That the Magistrate is the Governour of these Churches as to their external ordering, which supposeth the Pastors to be Governours governed by him; (as Schoolmasters, Philosophers, Pilots, Architects, &c.) and that the Pastors are essential to the Church, (in a Political sense, as we now take it) as a Schoolmaster is to a School; but so is not the Magistrate.
5. That the ordinary instituted way of the Pastors call to a particular Church, is by the Direction of the Ordaining Pastors, and by the Election or Consent of the Congregation. And that as the Churches had true Pastors without and against the Magistrates consent, so may it have still; seeing then and now the Magistrate had Power of Governing Churches already made, by exterior order, rather than of making or unmaking Churches. And therefore that a Pastor may still be a true Pastor, when he is prohibited to Preach.