Baxter - BX5202 B29 1689

3or . 37, Dare you undertake to jufiifyy at the BarofGod, the iany,hundredMinifters forbidden to Preach, if theyobey you and ceafe their Miniftery ? Or will you anfwer for all the People whom fotne drive away from their worship of God., if theythereupon give over worshipping him, and as thoufands o- thers idle it at home, when all thefe fay [ We Preach no Doaráne,, nor offer God any Worfhtp, contrary to any Word of God, or in a- ny other manner than Chrift and his Apaftles didor allowed] ? Dare you give it under your hands that you will bear the punifhment if we be condemned for obeying you and ceafing our work ? If you would, were that man well in his Wits, who Ihould truft his Soul on your undertaking, who are fo unable to fève your Rives ? 38. Should things Indifferent exclude things Neceífary,. when Chrift faith, 1 will have mercy, and not facrifice ? And is neither our Preaching, nor the Concord of the Churches here Neceffary ? Z. 39. Have you thought what Chrift meant, when after his Refurreetion he thrice faith to Peter (and to others in him) Lo- vei thou me,feedmy Lambs and Flock.? As ifhe had faid, As ever you loved me,feed thole whom 1 loved to the Death : Wouldyou un- mercifully wifhus to renounce our love to Chrift?and whenPatsl faith, Neceffity is laid upon me, and woe unto me if1 Preach not the Gofpcl : Would you with us to run upon filch a Woe, upon the sneer chat of fuch asdo but tell us, that we are not ,called as the Apoftles ; and that we are under Bithops ? As if none but men called the Apoftles,were liable to that NecefIity or Woe ; or God bad allowed us to forfakeHis Work when Bithops pleafe, and will forbid us. 4.0- God bath encouraged us in our work by his undenia- ble blef ng on manySouls. Ifyou take it for nothing, for men to be turned from ignorance, worldlinefs, deceiving, lying, fenfuality and flefhly lufts, to the ferious belief ofa life to come, and to the Love of God andMan,and to the joyful hopes of Glo ry°, and the obedience of Chrift, and confidence in his falvation ; we take this to be worth our labour andour lives. And would you have us fo unthankful to God, who hath Heft us, as to caft away our Callings ? Can you expect that all the threatnings of Men, or the weekly reproach of Pamphlet-writers, fhoulcl' make us with all the Sermons unpreach'd which we have preach'd,

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