A26924:656
The English nonconformity as under King Charles II and King James II truly stated…
The English nonconformity as under King Charles II and King James II truly stated and argued by Richard Baxter ; who earnestly beseecheth rulers and clergy not to divide and destroy the land and cast their own souls on the dreadful guilt and punishment of national perjury ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1689
Chapter 43: Point XL. Of forsaking our Ministry, and ceasing to Preach the Gospel, and Banishment F…
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.
M. THE last part of Ministerial Conformity which I named to you, is, that if we cannot conform to all aforesaid, for fear of Damnation, we must cease our Ministry, and must not Preach Christs Gospel to any more than four besides our Family, nor perform any Worship of God with more, (but in their way) and we must neither dwell nor come within Five Miles of any (Burgess) Corporation, or any place where-ever we lived or travelled, and preached since the Act of Oblivion: Otherwise we must lye in the common Goal.
L. Doubtless they that made this Law against you, thought you very wicked intolerable men, and thought your Preaching very dangerous: And indeed so they say of you in the Preface of the Oxford Act.
M. They do so; and I am glad to find that falseness, and wickedness as such is yet disowned in the World, and that men do not glory in the very names of them. It is a notable evidence that there is a Life of retribution, that naughtiness is disowned by all Mankind, and the worst would be thought and called honest, and true, and good; and that the World would not Crucify Christ, nor Persecute and Murder his Apostles under the name of righteous holy men, but under the name of Malefactors, Enemies to Caesar, Breakers of the Law, and Pestilent Fellows ⟨p. 152⟩that troubled the Peace, and turned the World upside down. The Devil himself dare not own the name of Lying, Malignity and Murder, nor of Persecuting Men for Truth and Goodness, and Gods Cause. And verily it seemeth the Controversy of many in this Age, whether they that scarce speak of God but in Swearing and Cursing, nor of Religion, but in scorning or threatening the serious practisers of it, and that savour little but Eating and Drinking to the full, and Playing, and getting Riches, and hating all that are stricter than they, or those that make Gods Law their rule, and Obedience to him the work of their Lives, and his serious Worship their delight, and Heaven their hope, and dare not wilfully sin against God, nor be Perjured or Lie; I say, which of these be the honester Men?