187 / 846
P
A
It
r
II.
Reverend
Mr.
Richard
Baxter.
a
May.
[4th,
1655.
An rinfiver
to
the
foregoing Queffion.r,
fine
tb
Sir
R.
Clare.
1d
QaefE.
i
".
rIther
that Confcienceowneth the right
Religion and Difèipiinä
only,
or the right with
fome tolerable accidental Errours, or
A
wrong Religion
and Difcipline in
the
Subftance.
The
firft
the Magiftrate muff
not
only tolerate, but promote.
The
fecond he muff
tolerate rather than
do worfelsy
fuppreffmg it.
The
third
he
mutt
fupprefs by all lawful means,
and tolerate when
he cannot
help
it, without
a
greater Evil.
I
fuppofe no
Judicious Man
will
expel}
an
exa& Solution
of
fo
Cöiltprehenfive
a
Queffion in
few words
:
And
I
find not
thata
large DifcufBon
is
now
expe&ed
from
me
:
There
are four
or
five
Sheets
of
my Manufcripts
in
tome hands abroad
on
this
Poidy
which may
de.
more to-
wards
a fatisfa
&ory Solution,
than
there few words.
Ad a
".
Either the
tender Confcience
is
in the right, or in the wrong
:
-If
in
the
wrong,
the Magißrates Liberty
will
not
make
a Sin
to
be
no
Sin ;
but
the Party
is
bound by God to
re&ifie his
Judgment, and thereby
his
Pra
&ice.
If
in the
right;
it
is
a
ßrange Quehion, Whether
a
Man
may obey
God, that bath theMagihrates
leave, till
he be enforced by
Mens violence
?
Doti
any doubt
of
it
?
Ad
r.
Matter of
Government depending
only on
Fact,
is
a
Contradi
&ion
t
Seeing
Government confißeth
in
a Right, and the
Exercife
of
it.
I
aria
not
able
therefore
to
underhand
this
Quehion. Yet,
if
this
may
afford
any help toward
the Soluti.
on,I
affiirm,That
the general andperpetual
pradiceof
the
Church
from Age to Age;
of
a thing not forbidden
by
theWord
of
God,willwarrant our imitation.l
fay
[of'
a
thingnot forbidden]
becapfe
it bath
been the general and perpetual pra&ice
of
the
Church, to
Sin,
by
vain
Thoughts,
Words, imperfe&
Duties,
&e. wherein our
imitation
is
not warrantable.
The
generaland
perpetual
praEtice
includeth the Apo`
-
files and
that
Age. But
what
is
meant by [Evidencing the
Right
of
a
thing that
de-
pendeth only
of
Fa&] or
by
[Evidencing the
Truth
and
Certainty
of
a Fa&
by
general and
perpetual pra&ice] ( which
is
to prove
idem per
idem),
I
will
not pre-
fume
that
I
.underhand.
Ad 4
".
I
know
not what
Bithops
you mean.
A.
Congregational
Bifhop
overfee+
ing the
People
is
undoubtedly lawful:
fo
is
a Congregational
Bifhop, being Prefi-
dent
of
a
Presbytery which
is
over that Congregation.
Where many Congregati-
onal
Officers are
affociated,
I
do not think that
a
Prefident
for
a
time, or during
his
fitnefs, Banding
and
fixed,
is
unlawful.
The
like
I may
fly
of
a
Prefident
of
ma-
ny of
thofe Affociationsagain affociated,
as
in
a Provine
or
Diocefs
:
And
1
be-
lieve
it were
a
very
eafie
work for wife, godly, moderate
men to
agree about his
Power:
And
I
would
not
feem fo cenfòrious
as
to proclaim that
England
wanteth
fuch, further than the
aecual
want of
fuch Agreement,
or jell
endeavours
there-
to,
doth proclaim
it.
I
am
fatisfied
alto,
that
the
Apoftles themfelves have
de
jure
Succeffors
in
all
that part
of
their work which
is
to
be
perpetuated, or continued
till
now;
though not
in
their extraordinary Endowments
and Priviledges. But
if
the
fence
of
your Queftion be, Whether one Man may
be
the handing
chief
Governour
of
many particular Churches
with their Officers,
having either foie
power
of Ordination
and Jurifdi&ion
(as tome
would
have)
or
a
Negative Voice
in
both
(as
'others)
it
would feem
great arrogancy in me to
be the
confident
Determiner of
fuch a
Quellion,
which fo
wife,
learned,
godly fober Men,have laid
fo
much
of
on
both
fides
already.
Ad
5
".
r. He that
knows
how
fhort
Church Hiftory
is
in
there
Matters for the
fjrft Age after the
Apofles,
at
lean,
and
bath
read impartially
what
Gerfom, Bucerar;
Parker,
Bl,ndellae, Salmafaur,
Altare
Damafcen,
have raid
on one
fide
;
and Saravia,
Downbam,
Dr.
Hammond,
&c.
on the other
;
would fore never expe&
that
I
thould
prefume
to
pats
any confident Sentence in the
Point
:
And it's like he
would-
be
fomewhat
moderate himfelf.
z.
I
fay
as
before,
I know
not what you
glean by
Bithops
:
I
am confident
that
the Church
was
not
of
many
Hundred
years after
Chrilgoverned
as
ours
was
late-
ly
in
England,
by
a
Diocefan
Bifhop
and
a
Chancellor,excluding almoh
all
the Pret
byters.
;.
Why do you
fay
[Since the
ApoDles
days,] when
you
before fpoke
of
the
[General
and perpetual praefice
of
_the
Church
]
?
X
Ad