A26865:401
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 13
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.
Ans. 1. The [Church] is an ambiguous word. If you mean the Bishops, all those whom you call to be re-ordained, deny that ever the Bishops gave them their power.
2. And it was One Bishop who ordained each of the rest, or two at most, who are both dead, and cannot take away what they gave.
3. I have answered this before, and more largely in my Dispute of Ordination: Men give us not our Power at all, as from themselves; but as Servants of Christ invest them solemnly to whom he giveth it. And a servant cannot dispossess him whom by his Masters Orders he hath invested.
4. You give us our Baptism and Matrimony, as truly as our Ministry: And yet you cannot take them from us.
5. But indeed, if the Church, that is, the People, refuse us, we cannot teach and edify them against their wills.