A26948:152
Mr. Richard Baxter's last legacy in select admonitions and directions to all sober dissenters
Mr. Richard Baxter's last legacy in select admonitions and directions to all sober dissenters.
London : Printed and are to be sold by E. Whitlock, 1697
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Mr. RICHARD BAXTER's LAST LEGACY TO ALL Sober Dissenters. › Of Communion in the Lord's Supper.
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.
Pag. 133. of Mr. B's Life. I cannot be so narrow in my Principles of Church Communion, as many are, who are so much for a Liturgy, or so much against it; so much for ⟨p. 35⟩Ceremonies, or so much against them, that they can hold Communion with no Church that is not of their mind or way. If I were among the Greeks, the Lutherans, the Independents, yea the Anabaptists, I would hold sometime Communion with them as Christians—I cannot be of their Opinion, that think God will not accept him that prayeth by the Common-Prayer-Book, and that such Forms are a Self-invented Worship which God rejecteth.
Pag. 133. of Mr. B's Life. I cannot be so narrow in my Principles of Church Communion, as many are, who are so much for a Liturgy, or so much against it; so much for ⟨p. 35⟩Ceremonies, or so much against them, that they can hold Communion with no Church that is not of their mind or way. If I were among the Greeks, the Lutherans, the Independants, yea the Anabaptists, I would hold sometime Communion with them as Christians—I cannot be of their Opinion, that think God will not accept him that prayeth by the Common-Prayer-Book, and that such Forms are a Self-invented Worship which God rejecteth.
Q. 4. But what if I cannot Communicate, 1but according to the Administration of the Common-Prayer-Book? Answ. 1. That it is not unlawful to receive according to the Administration of the Common-Prayer-Book, because it is a Form, needs no proof to any, that is Judicious. 2. Nor yet, for any evil in this particular Form, for in this part the Common-Prayer is generally approved. 3. Nor yet, because it is imposed; for a Command maketh not that unlawful to us, which is lawful before, but it maketh many things lawful, and duties, that else would have been unlawful accidentally. 4. And the intentions of the Commanders we have little to do with. And for the consequents, they must be weighed on both sides, and the consequents of our refusal will not be found light. In general, I must here tell the People of God, in the bitter sorrow of my Soul, that at last it is time for them to discern that temptation, that hath in all Ages of the Church almost, made this Sacrament of our Union, to be the grand occasion or instrument of our Divisions. And that, true Humility, and Acquaintance with our selves, and Love to Christ, and one another, would show some Men, that it was but their Pride and Prejudice, and Ignorance, that made them think so heinously of other Mens manner of Worship. And that, on all sides, among true Christians, the manner of their Worship is not so odious, as Prejudice, and Faction, and Partiality representeth it. And that God accepteth that, which they reject. And they should see, how the Devil hath undone the common People, by this means, by teaching them every one to expect salvation for being of that Party which he taketh to be the right Church, and for Worshipping in that manner which he, and his Party, thinketh best. And so wonderful a thing is prejudice, that every Party, by this,