A97353:448
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their…
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their principles about civil and ecclesiastical authority and obedience ... : mostly written many years past, and now published to save our lives and the kingdoms peace, from the false and bloody plotters ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Hancock, 1680
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.
§. 26. p. 310. Laws of burden are always against Charity.—
P. 312. If there be a just cause to omit the observation, the omission is not disobedience.—
Rule 18. p. 313. Ecclesiastical Laws of Ceremonies and Circumstances do not bind the Conscience beyond the case of contempt and scandal—P. 314. Nothing can be religion but that service which God hath chosen of himself, &c. Ceremonies oblige no longer than they minister to the end of their designation. P. 315. The Canons of the Church oblige only for their Reason and Religion, for Edification and for Charity, when the thing is useful to others, or good in it self: But the Authority it self being wholly a Ministry for these purposes, is a Ministry of Religion, but hath in it nothing of Empire, and therefore doth not oblige for it self or by it self, but for the doing good and avoiding evil.
§. 27. Ecclesiastical Laws must be charitable and easy, and when they are not, they oblige not. P. 316. When the Ecclesiastical Law is indicted by the spiritual power, the Civil power only consenting and establishing the Canon, that Corroboration adds no other band to the Canon, than that it be obeyed according to the intention of the spiritual power; only so it becomes a Law indeed; but it is a Law only as the Church can intend a Law, or desire it to be imposed; that is, what the Church might reasonably persuade, and fitly enjoin, so much