A26865:437
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 17
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. But if the accusers of the Brethren do believe themselves, they tell the world the little charity that is among them; who had rather so many Ministers were silenced, (to say nothing of their bodily sufferings), and so many thousand souls want their Ministry, than abjuring the Covenant should be dispensed with, when a fuller security for loyalty and peace is offered.
4. It is either the Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Independent Nonconformists (for all these sorts there be at least) that he meaneth, by most of them, or most as mixed: 1. The Episcopal Nonconformists are not for the Covenant, but stick most at consenting and swearing to the English Hierarchy and Discipline, and Church-state, as it differeth from the old Episcopacy described in Archbishop Ushers Reduction. 2. The Presbyterians surely have told the world by Books enow, that they are Nonconformists in more things than abjuring the Covenant. And in good sadness, doth not England know that (call them what you will) the Divines commissioned by the King did give their reasons against more? 3 And the Independents are so far from being to be numbered with his [most of them] that I know not if you would free them from the rest of Conformity, whether the leaders would not yield in this. For when Scotland was invaded, and Mr. Love Beheaded, it was pleaded that the Covenant was as an Almanac out of date. And Mr. Eaton hath written a Book to prove, that the Covenant, and the Oath of Allegiance bind not.
4. It is either the Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Independent Nonconformists (for all these sorts there be at least) that he meaneth, by most of them, or most as mixt: 1. The Episcopal Nonconformists are not for the Covenant, but stick most at consenting and swearing to the English Hierarchy and Discipline, and Church-state, as it differeth from the old Episcopacy described in Archbishop Ushers Reduction. 2. The Presbyterians surely have told the world by Books enow, that they are Nonconformists in more things than abjuring the Covenant. And in good sadness, doth not England know that (call them what you will) the Divines commissioned by the King did give their reasons against more? 3 And the Independents are so far from being to be numbered with his [most of them] that I know not if you would free them from the rest of Conformity, whether the leaders would not yield in this. For when Scotland was invaded, and Mr. Love Beheaded, it was pleaded that the Covenant was as an Almanack out of date. And Mr. Eaton hath written a Book to prove, that the Covenant, and the Oath of Allegiance bind not.