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

But we were sure that Union would not be attained ⟨p. 277⟩if no Consent were allowed Ministers in any part of the Government of their Flocks, and so they should be only Teachers without any Participation, and the ruling of the People, whose Rectors they are called. And when I perceived some Offence at what I said, I told them that we had not the Judgments of Men at our command: We could not in reason suppose that our Concessions, or any thing we could do, would change the Judgments of any great Numbers; and therefore we must consider what will unite us in case their Judgments be not changed, or else we labour to no purpose.

§ 109. But Bishop Morley told them how great our Power was, and what we might do if we were willing; and he told the King that no Man had written better of these Matters than I had done, and there my five Disputations of Church Government, &c. lay ready to be produced; and all was to intimate, as if I now contradicted what I had there written. I told him, that I had best reason to know what I had written, and that I am still of the same mind, and stand to it all, and do not speak any thing against it. A great many words there were about Prelacy and Re-ordination; Dr. Gunning and Bishop Morley speaking almost all on one side (and Dr. Hinchman and Dr. Cousins sometimes): and Mr. Calamy and my self most on the other side: But I think neither Party doth value the rambling Discourses of that Day, so much, as to think them worthy the recording. Mr. Calamy answered Dr. Gunning from Scripture very well against the Divine Right of Prelacy as a distinct Order. And when Dr. Gunning told them, that Dr. Hammond had said enough against the Presbyterians Cause and Ordination, and was yet unanswered: I thought it meet to tell him, that I had answered the Substance of his Arguments, and said enough moreover against the Diocesan Frame of Government, and to prove the validity of the English Presbyters Ordination, which indeed was unanswered, though I was very desirous to have seen an Answer to it: which I said because they had got the Book by them, and because I thought the unreasonableness of their dealing might be evinced, who force so many hundreds to be Re-ordained, and will not any of them answer one Book which is written to prove the validity of that Ordination which they would have nullified, though I provoked them purposely in such a Presence.