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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26948	Mr. Richard Baxter's last legacy in select admonitions and directions to all sober dissenters.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1697 (1697)	Wing B1297_VARIANT; ESTC R25271	57,203	76

now Published by the Collector But I foresee it will be necessary to obviate two Objections that will be made against these Admonitions First That Mr. Baxter hath written plain Contradictions to them and the Separating Brethren will adhere to his First Sentiments which lead them to their Non-conformity to which I Answer That Mr. Baxter gave them this Precaution in one of his first and best Treatises charging them strictly that if God should give him over to any Church-rendring course that they would forsake him and not follow him a step Secondly That what they interpret as Contradictions were in Truth no other then Confessions of his former mis-apprehensions and passionate heats of his intemperate Zeal but these are the Results of his sedate and rational Deliberation The great Apostle St. Paul was not ashamed to record in Holy Writ what enormities a misgrounded Zeal had hurried him into while he was in an estate of Ignorance and Vnbelief 1 Tim. 1. 13. and this doubtless was Mr. Baxter's practice for reflecting upon what he had said or done to countenance the Separating way he saw it had done more hurt than good for which reason he recanted them But these instructions of his are like the Coelestial Bodies which carry light and benign influences with them they are self-evident and speak home to the Judgment and Consciences of all unprejudiced Men who cannot resist the force of that Reason and Demonstration which inspires every part of them with so much Life and Power Beauty and Ornament Consistency and Symmetry as will render them highly Acceptable Amiable and Beneficial to such as shall embrace and practise them As for such Dissenters as have conceived any hard thoughts of Mr. Baxter or these his Admonitions I intreat them to consider whether they can answer or confute them to the satisfaction of their own Consciences and if they cannot then whether it be not rational and pious to walk by these directions which tend so much to the establishment of the publick Peace of this divided Church and Nation and to their own present and eternal welfare 2. Objection It may be said that these Amonitions are now become unseasonable there being a Toleration granted to Men of all Perswasions to Worship God after their several modes Answ To this I say that Schism is a Sin antecedent to all Humane Constitutions as being directly forbid in the Holy Gospel and consequently will continue to be sinful tho' all the Kings and Rulers of the Earth should indulge and tolerate them for the Laws of Men cannot make void the Law of God nor alter the nature of things and justifie or make that to be good which the only Lawgiver of Christians hath condemned as unlawful and as it is said of Poligamy among the Jews that the Law of Moses connived at it for the hardness of their hearts so it is for the hardness and uncharitableness of Mens Spirits that Rulers are constrained for a time to tolerate and bear with many things that are Offensive and Prejudicial to the prosperity of their Government For Toleration far differs from the approbation of a thing and implieth the unlawfulness thereof rather than the Justification of it Besides the present Toleration is far from intending or making an establishment of the Practises which are tolerated to the prejudice of the Church which hath for many Ages and now doth continue in actual possession of all its Powers and Priviledges as in time past So that as the present Schism and Separations is possitively condemned by the Laws of the Gospel so they have not any approbation from the Laws of Men but what the corruptions of Men and their ungovernable Tempers make tolerable on some pressing occasions and unhappy juncture of Affairs I beseech you therefore read the following Admonitions without Prejudice and judge of them by the end for which they were first written by Mr. Baxter and are now published by c. Mr. RICHARD Mr. RICHARD BAXTER's LAST LEGACY TO ALL Sober Dissenters Of the Church IN a Petition drawn by Mr. B. to be presented to the King He makes this a part of the Profession of his Religion I do willingly profess my consent to all the Holy Canonical Scriptures as the Word of God And to the Doctrine of the Church of England professed in the 39 Articles of Religion as in sense agreeable to the Word of God And I renounce all Errors or Heresies contrary to any of these And I do hold that the Book of Common-Prayer and of Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth in it nothing so disagreeable to the Word of God as maketh it unlawful to live in the peaceable Communion of the Church that useth it Mr. Baxters Life Part 3. p. 161. Mr. Baxter in his Reasons for the Christian Religion p. 464. Sect. 2. The Church of Christ being his Body is but one and hath many parts but should have no Parties but Unity and Concord without Division § 3. Therefore no Christian must be of a Party or Sect as such that is as dividing it self from the rest causing Schism or Contention in the Body or making a rent unnecessarily in any particular Church which is a part § 8. Nothing will warrant us to separate from a Church as no Church but the want of something essential to a Church § 11. It is essential to particular Political Churches that they be constituted of true Bishops or Pastors and of Flocks of baptized or professed Christians united for holy Communion in the Worshipping of God and the promoting of the Salvation of the Several Members § 12. It is essential to a true Bishop or Pastor of the Church to be in Office that is in authority and obligation appointed by Christ in Subordination to him in the three parts of his Offices Prophetical Priestly and Kingly That is to teach the People to stand between them and God in Worship and to guide or govern them by the Paternal exercise of the Keys of his Church § 15. If a Church which in all other respects is purest and best will impose any sin upon all that will have any local Communion with it tho' we must not separate from that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their Communion § 1. We do not say you are no true Ministers nor Churches nor that it is unlawful to communicate with you Apology p. 82. See also p. 87. 89. § 2. Where Parish Bounds are judged necessary all Persons living in the Parish may be constrained to hear Publick Teaching and to Worship God either in that or in some other approved or tolerated Church within their convenient reach or Neighbourhood Way of Concord Part 3. p. 139. § 3. The People are no Judges who is fit to be and shall be a Minister of Christ the Supream Civil Magistrate is Judge whom he must countenance maintain and tolerate The disposal of the Tithes and Temples is in the

great advantages that Satan hath got upon the Church through the Sin of the Pastors in these days is by Division by this he hath promoted all the rest of his Designs Our Divisions gratifie the Papists greatly hazard the Protestant Religion more than most of you seem to regard or believe it advantageth Profaneness and greatly hinders the Success of the Ministers it pleaseth Satan and builds up his Kingdom Preface to Confession The hand of God is apparently gone out against the Separatists you see you do but prepare for a further progress Seekers Ranters Quakers and too many professed Infidels do spring up from among you as if this were the Journeys end and perfection of your Revolt By such fearful Dissertions did God formerly witness his detestation of those that withdrew from the Unity of the Church Parties will arise in the Separate Churches and separate again from them till they are dissolved I beseech you my Brethren to open their Eyes so far as to regard Experience How few separated Churches do now Exist that were in being 100 years ago Can you name any and would you have all the Churches of Christ dissolved Of Communion in the Lord's Supper Q. 2. May we communicate with unworthy persons Answ It is your duty to communicate with that Church which hath a true Pastor and where the denominating part of the Members are capable of Church-Communion though there may some Infidels or Heathen or uncapable Persons violently intrude or scandalous Persons are admitted through the neglect of Discipline in case you have not your choice to hold personal communion with a better Church and in case also you be not guilty of the Corruption but by seasonable and modest professing your dissent do clear your self of the guilt of such intrusion and corruption If we Sin not by omitting our own Duty it will be no Sin of ours to communicate with the Church where Scandalous Sinners or Hereticks are permitted the Pastors and Delinquents Sins are not ours Q. 3. But what if I cannot communicate unless I conform to an imposed gesture as kneeling Answ I never yet heard any thing to prove kneeling unlawful there is no Word of God for or against any gesture Christ's example cannot be proved to oblige us in this and his gesture was not such a sitting as ours The nature of the Ordinance is mixt And if it be lawful to take a Pardon from the King upon our Knees I know not what can make it unlawful to take a Sealed Pardon from Christ by his Ambassador upon our Knees As for this Ceremony of kneeling at the Sacrament especially since the Rubrick is inserted which disclaimeth both all Bread-worship and the bodily Real-presence my judgment was ever for it God having made some gesture necessary and confined us to none but left it to humane determination I shall submit to Magistrates in their proper Work I am not sure that Christ intended the example of himself in this as oligatory but I am sure he hath commanded me obedience and peace Mr. Perkins was for kneeling and Mr. Baines in his Letters writes for it and answers objections against it 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 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-Common-Prayer-Book and that such Forms are a Self-invented Worship which God rejecteth Q. 4. But what if I cannot Communicate but according to the Administration of the common-prayer-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 shew 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 is brought to think that ridiculous and vile which the other Party accounteth best But to magnifie any one Church or Party so as to deny due love and communion to the rest is Schism To limit all the Church to your Party and deny all or any of the rest to be Christians and parts of the Universal Church is Schism by a dangerous breach of Charity It is Schism also to condemn unjustly any particular Church as no Church And it is Schism to withdraw your bodily communion from a Church that you were bound to hold communion with upon a false supposition that it is no Church or is not lawfully to be communicated with And it is Schism to make Divisions or Parties in a Church though you divide not from that Church The holiness of the Party that Men adhere to is made a pretence to excuse Schism but this must make but a gradual difference in our esteem and love to some Christians above others If really they are most holy I must love them most and labour to be as holy as they But I must not therefore unjustly deny communion or due respect to other Christians that are less holy nor cleave to them as a Sect or divided Party whom I esteem most holy For the holiest are most Charitable and most against the Divisions among Christians and