Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his…

The Article [All the means of Revealing Jesus Christ are subordinate and subservient to the Holy Scriptures; and none of them co-ordinate.] It is no small trouble to me that I was necessitated to be the least delay to your Proceedings, by reason of my unsatisfiedness with the former Article: But that after our Endeavours for a Closure in that point, and when we thought that all had been brought to Agreement, the Matter of our Difference should be again received, by the Addition of this Article, is yet a greater trouble to me. Not so much for my own sake, as others; lest it should offend the Parliament, and open the Mouths of our Adversaries, that we cannot our selves agree in Fundamentals: and lest it prove an occasion for other to sue for an Universal Toleration. I am unsatisfied in the last, that is, the Negative Clause of this Article, as I was in the former: 1. As to the Truth of it, and 2. As to the weight of it, as a Test for the Ministers that shall be allowed to preach. 3. And as to the Necessity of it to Salvation, as a Fundamental. Concerning the first, it must be remembered 1. That you speak of [All means] of revealing Christ, without any Exception, ⟨p. 204⟩Limitation or Restriction; no not so much as to [ordinary] means, nor restraining it to means [sufficient to Salvation]. 2. That you deny them to be [co-ordinate] absolutely also, without any distinction, exception or limitation. 3. I desire it may be observed, that I am not my self imposing any Terms on you, or offering the Terms [subordinate] or any other to be put into the Article, but only giving a Reason why I cannot subscribe it as it is; which I shall now render, having premised these Observations: 1. The word [co-ordinate] being comprehensive and ambiguous, I conceive doth among others contain these several Senses following: 1. As the Species is subordinate to the Genus. 2. As the nearer Causes in the same rank are subordinate to the higher and remote, and all to the first Cause: as in Generation the nearer Parents to the remote. 3. As the Means are subordinate to the End, in order thereto. 4. As the less worthy is subordinate to the more worthy, in degrees of Comparison. Many other common Senses I now pass. These being (at least the three first) common, and the opposed Co-ordination universally denied, I see no Evidence to warrant the denial. 1.

The Article [All the means of Revealing Iesus Christ are subordinate and subservient to the Holy Scriptures; and none of them co-ordinate.] It is no small trouble to me that I was necessitated to be the least delay to your Proceedings, by reason of my unsatisfiedness with the former Article: But that after our Endeavours for a Closure in that point, and when we thought that all had been brought to Agreement, the Matter of our Difference should be again received, by the Addition of this Article, is yet a greater trouble to me. Not so much for my own sake, as others; lest it should offend the Parliament, and open the Mouths of our Adversaries, that we cannot our selves agree in Fundamentals: and lest it prove an occasion for other to sue for an Universal Toleration. I am unsatisfied in the last, that is, the Negative Clause of this Article, as I was in the former: 1. As to the Truth of it, and 2. As to the weight of it, as a Test for the Ministers that shall be allowed to preach. 3. And as to the Necessity of it to Salvation, as a Fundamental. Concerning the first, it must be remembred 1. That you speak of [All means] of revealing Christ, without any Exception,