A26865:470
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 22
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.
22 Obj. You overthrow all principles of Government, while you say that the Magistrate may not command things evil by accident; And while you allow doubting or scrupling persons to disobey authority, as oft as they are but pleased to question their Commands; whereas if you are uncertain whether the matter be lawful, you are bound to obey; because you are certain that Governors must be ⟨p. 121⟩obeyed, and being uncertain that the thing is evil, the certain part must prevail against the uncertain.
22 Obj. You overthrow all principles of Government, while you say that the Magistrate may not command things evil by accident; And while you allow doubting or scrupling persons to disobey authority, as oft as they are but pleased to question their Commands; whereas if you are uncertain whether the matter be lawful, you are bound to obey; because you are certain that Governours must be ⟨p. 121⟩obeyed, and being uncertain that the thing is evil, the certain part must prevail against the uncertain.
Ans. We have long been silent at such accusations, supposing by this time they would have been ashamed of themselves: Had we read such Moral Divinity, as some would teach us, in Father Banny, Escobar, or other such Jesuits, we had been like to have found it in the Collection of their Morals, which the Jansenists published.
1. I never read or heard man yet say, that the Magistrate may not command any thing evil by accident: But I have said my self, that His Commands of things evil by accident may be sinful; that is, that it is not all things that are evil by accident that he may command. But because some men will not understand till they are constrained against their wills; I shall elsewhere open the truth about this so plainly, as that they shall hardly avoid the understanding of it, but by refusing to read it: And I will show them what it is to maintain, that men may command any thing that is evil by accident only.