A26865:425
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 15
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. Who were the Changers when you put your new clauses into the Liturgy (as the doctrine of Baptized Infants salvation, without distinguishing of them that were baptized Rightfully, or without right, &c.) If all the new Oaths, Subscriptions and Declarations be imposed by your advice, surely it was you that were in that the Changers. Changes then will do well, and be laudable when they serve your ends, but they are dangerous when they are against your minds. What changes doth Thorndike plead for?
4. When the New Canons and Oath were made 1640, and when Rails and Altars were set up, and bowing towards the Altar recommended, there was no danger in these changes: But if an Oath or Subscription of seven years age be abated, how dangerous would such changes be!
5. The Kings Majesty, when he published his Declaration about Ecclesiastical affairs, did not take those changes there made to be so dangerous: Nor did the Commons in Parliament, who gave him thanks for that Declaration. We may know then by that much, whence the noise of danger cometh.
6. If a needless Subscription or a Ceremony have burdened so many and considerable Subjects an hundred years and more; and if the calamitous attempts of change, that have been made unlawfully in the Land, have been occasioned by mens differences about those things, and if they are still the burden of so many as are now against Conformity: Let impartial persons then be judges, whether the removing of those troublesome unnecessary burdens, were not the likest means imaginable to prevent any more ill attempts of change?