A26965:127
The nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of their judgment in certain things…
The nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood written to reconcile and pacify such as by mistaking them hinder love and concord / by Richard Baxter.The nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood written to reconcile and pacifie such as by mistaking them hinder love and concord / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Benj. Alsop, 1679
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.
XXII. Christ and his Spirit have commanded his Ministers to preach the Word, to be instant in season and out of season; to reprove, rebuke and exhort, 2 Tim. 4. 1, 2. And having put their hand to Christ's Plough, not to look back; and none hath power to alter this Law of Christ, or to suspend it. His Ministers by his Authority preached against the will of Princes for above three hundred years; and since then against the wills of erroneous Princes who professed Christianity.
XXIII. If Church-History be not to be believed, the pleas thence used for Prelacy must cease: If it be to be believed, God hath wrought miracles to justify those that would not cease Preaching, when Princes, yea Christian-Princes, have forbidden them: And the Church hath ⟨p. 27⟩honoured their fidelity herein: The case of Athanasius, Basil, Meletius, and abundance more, evince the later: And for the former, we will now instance but in the case of the Bishops of Africa, whose tongues were cut out by the King's command; and they spake freely by miracle after they were cut out; as is testified by Aeneas Gaze•, and by Victor Uticensis, who saw and spake with, and heard the persons when this miracle was wrought upon them; and by Procopius.
XXIII. If Church-History be not to be believed, the pleas thence used for Prelacy must cease: If it be to be believed, God hath wrought miracles to justifie those that would not cease Preaching, when Princes, yea Christian-Princes, have forbidden them: And the Church hath ⟨p. 27⟩honoured their fidelity herein: The case of Athanasius, Basil, Meletius, and abundance more, evince the later: And for the former, we will now instance but in the case of the Bishops of Africa, whose tongues were cut out by the King's command; and they spake freely by miracle after they were cut out; as is testified by Aeneas Gaze, and by Victor Uticensis, who saw and spake with, and heard the persons when this miracle was wrought upon them; and by Procopius.