A26865:781
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
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.
20. Is it possible that any partiality, interest or passion can make you think, either that the people of England need not as much Teaching, and Exhortation, and Ministerial help, to bring them to Repentance and Salvation, as all the qualified Ministers in the Land together are able to afford them? or that God may not bless the labours of such men as Burges, Allen, Norman, and hundreds more that now are silenced, to the conversion of many hundred or thousand sinners, unto Repentance and a holy life? And if you cannot, or dare not deny this, have you considered whether your reasons for silencing them be so weighty, as will countervail the salvation of so many Souls, and will comfort and excuse you at the bar of God? And whether then you can justify your selves by saying, Lord, though so many Souls persisted in sin, and are damned, that might have been saved by the Ministry of these learned, grave and godly Preachers; yet the good which we obtained by their silencing, and all their other sufferings, was greater than so many mens salvation would have amounted to.
20. Is it possible that any partiality, interest or passion can make you think, either that the people of England need not as much Teaching, and Exhortation, and Ministerial help, to bring them to Repentance and Salvation, as all the qualified Ministers in the Land together are able to afford them? or that God may not bless the labours of such men as Burges, Allen, Norman, and hundreds more that now are silenced, to the conversion of many hundred or thousand sinners, unto Repentance and a holy life? And if you cannot, or dare not deny this, have you considered whether your reasons for silencing them be so weighty, as will countervail the salvation of so many Souls, and will comfort and excuse you at the bar of God? And whether then you can justifie your selves by saying, Lord, though so many Souls persisted in sin, and are damned, that might have been saved by the Ministry of these learned, grave and godly Preachers; yet the good which we obtained by their silencing, and all their other sufferings, was greater than so many mens salvation would have amounted to.
And if deliberately you will venture on such a cause your selves, what would you wish the silenced Ministers to do? You say it is our duty to forbear preaching when we are forbidden. But what if it prove otherwise, and that we must be judged as sacrilegious for alienating consecrated persons from Gods work? and as guilty of the blood of all those souls that have perished by our silence and neglect? What say you? Will you undertake to justify us, and answer for us, and bear all the divine displeasure your selves which shall fall upon us for our obeying your silencing commands? Are you willing to run all that danger for us? But why do I ask you such a question, when your undertaking would but show your greater obdurateness, and neither save us nor your selves?