A26865:585
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 › Accusation 30
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. And why do the Papists (and such Arminians as Episcopius) who are Nonconformists, claim kindred and kindness to and from the Conformists, rather than the Nonconformists, if they know not to whom they are best affected?
4. Did not the Heathens do thus also by the ancient Christians, when Sects swarmed among them, and deride and accuse them for their divisions? And did not the Papists so by the Reformers? yea, and do to this day? What more common with them, than to say, All these Sects swarm out from you? And so did the persecutors of the old Waldenses, when the Manichees were among them.
5. If Nonconformity cause all these Sects, then they are the causes of them that cause Nonconformity. And if you will call in your Impositions, there will be no Nonconformists. Let impartial sober reason judg who it is that causeth all these Sects. If all the Decrees of General Councils were imposed on all men to be subscribed, would not thousands be Nonconformists that are now conformable? Who cry out against Sects so much as the Papists? and yet who in all the world more cause them, even by the manifold Laws by which they pretend to cure them? If only a peaceable communion with the Church had been required, instead of all the Covenants, Oaths, Declarations, and Subscriptions, how many thousand fewer Nonconformists had there been? If any should impose Oaths, Covenants or Subscriptions, against Episcopacy, and for lay-Elders, would it not make most of the Conformists Nonconformable? And what is it that those do who subscribe the same doctrine with you, to make other men heterodox?