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accident, to be such as made an imposition unlawful, yet we expressed this by word to them at that time, for fear of being misreported: and I told it to the Right reverend bishop when he forbade me to preach, and gave this as a reason: and I must confess, I am still guilty of so much weakness as to be confident that some things not evil of themselves, may have accidents so evil, as may make it a sin to him that shall command them.' Is this opinion inconsistent with all government? Yea, I must confess myself guilty of so much greater weakness, as that I thought I should never have found a man on earth, that had the ordinary reason of a man, that had made question of it; yea I shall say more than that which hath offended, viz. 'That whenever the commanding or forbidding of a thing indifferent is like to occasion more hurt than good, and this may be foreseen, the commanding or forbidding it is a sin. But yet this is not the assertion that I am chargeable with, but that' some accidents there may be that may make the imposition sinful;' if I may ask it without accusing others, how would my crime have been denominated if I had said the contrary? Should I not have been judged unmeet to live in any governed society? It is not unlawful of itself to command out a navy to sea: but if it were foreseen that they would fall into the enemies' hands, or were like to perish by any accident, and the necessity of sending them were small, or none, it were a sin to send them. It is not of itself unlawful to sell poison, or to give a knife to another, or to bid another do it: but if it were foreseen that they will be used to poison or kill the buyer, it is unlawful; and I think the law would make him believe it that were guilty. It is not of itself unlawful to light a candle or set fire on a straw; but if it may be foreknown, that by another's negligence or wilfulness, it is like to set fire on the city, or to give fire to a train and store of gunpowder, that is under the parliament house, when the king and parliament are there: I crave the bishop's pardon, for believing that it were sinful to do it, or command it: yea or not to hinder it (in any such case,) when' qui non vetat peccare cum potest, jubet.' Yea though going to God's public worship be of itself so far from being a sin, as that it is a duty, yet I think it is a sin to command it to all in time of a raging pestilence, or when they should be defending the city against the assault of an enemy.

It

may rather be then a duty to prohibit it. I think Paul spake not any thing inconsistent with the government of God or man, when he bid both the rulers and people of the church, not to destroy him with their meat for whom Christ died: and when he saith that he hath not his power to destruction, but to edification. Yea, there are evil accidents of a thing not evil of itself, that are caused by the commander: and it is my opinion that they may prove his command unlawful. But what need I use any other instances than that which was the matter of our dispute? Suppose it never so lawful of itself to kneel in the reception of the sacrament, if it be imposed by a penalty that is incomparably beyond the proportion of the offence, that penalty is an accident of the command, and maketh it by accident sinful in the commander: If a prince should have subjects so weak as that all of them thought it a sin against the example of Christ, and the canons of the General Councils, and many hundred years' practice of the church, to kneel in the act of receiving on the Lord's-day, if he should make a law that all should be put to death that would not kneel, when he foreknew that their consciences would command them all, or most of them, to die rather than obey, would any man deny this command to be unlawful by this accident? Whether the penalty of ejecting ministers that dare not put away all that do not kneel, and of casting out all the people that scruple it, from the church, be too great for such a circumstance, (and so in the rest,) and whether this, with the lamentable state of many congregations, and the divisions that will follow, being all foreseen, do prove the impositions unlawful which were then in question, is a case that I had then a clearer call to speak to than I have now. Only I may say that the ejection of the servants of Christ from the communion of his church, and of his faithful ministers from their sacred work, when too many congregations have none but insufficient or scandalous teachers, or no preaching ministers at all, will appear a matter of very great moment, in the day of our accounts, and such as should not be done upon any but a necessary cause, where the benefit is greater than this hurt, and all the rest amounts to.

Having given you, to whom I owe it, this account of the cause for which I am forbidden the exercise of my ministry in that country, I now direct these Sermons to your

hands, that seeing I

teach you as I can.

cannot teach you as I would, I may And if I much longer enjoy such liberty as this, it will be much above my expectation.

My dearly beloved, stand fast in the Lord; And "fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings for the moth shall eat them up a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but the righteousness of the Lord shall be for ever, and his salvation from generation to generation." (Isa. li. 7, 8.) If I have taught you any doctrine of error or impiety, of disobedience to your governors in lawful things, of schism or uncharitableness, unlearn them all, and renounce them with penitent detestation: but if otherwise, "I beseech you mark them which cause divisions and offences, contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them: for they are such as serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Rom. xvi. 17.) If any shall speak against truth or godliness, remember what you have received; and how little anyfadversary could say, that ever made such assaults upon you, while I was with you: and that is easy for any man to talk confidently when no man must contradict him. I denied no man liberty upon equal terms, to have said his worst against any doctrine that ever I taught you. And how they succeeded, I need not tell you: your own stability tells the world. As you have maintained true catholicism, and never followed any sect, so I beseech you still maintain the ancient faith, the love of every member of Christ, and common charity to all, your loyalty to your king, your peace with all men: and let none draw you from catholic unity to a faction, though the declaiming against faction and schism should be the device by which they would accomplish it. And as the world is nothing, and God is all, to all that are sincere believers; so let no worldly interest seem regardable to you, when it stands in any opposition to Christ; but account all loss and dung for him. (Phil. iii. 8.) And if you shall hear that I yet suffer more than I have done, let it not be your discouragement or grief; for I doubt not but it will be my crown and joy: I have found no small consolation, that I have not suffered, for sinful, or for small and indifferent things and if my pleading against the ejection of the ministers of Christ, and the excommunicating of his mem

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bers for a ceremony, and the divisions of his church, and the destruction of charity, shall be the cause of my suffering (be it never so great,) it shall as much rejoice me to be a suffering witness for CHARITY and UNITY, as if I were a martyr for the faith. I participate with Paul in an “expectation and hope, that Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or death: and as to live will be Christ, so to die will be gain; only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ; that whether I ever see you more, or be absent, till the joyful day, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel; and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God, if to you it shall be given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." (Phil. i. 20, 21. 27-29.) But let no injury from inferiors provoke you to dishonour the governors that God himself hath set over you. "Be meek and patient; the Lord is at hand; honour all men; love the brotherhood: fear God; honour the king for so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." (1 Pet. ii. 15. 17.) It is soon enough for you and me, to be justified at the bar of Christ (by himself that hath undertaken it) against all the calumnies of malicious men. Till then let it seem no greater a malicious matter than indeed it is, to be slandered, vilified or abused by the world. Keep close to him that never faileth you, and maintain your integrity, that he may maintain the joys that none can take from you. Farewel, my dear brethren, who are my glory and joy in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. (1 Thess. ii. 18, 19.)

:

Your faithful,

Though unworthy Pastor,

Nov. 11th, 1661.

RICH. BAXTER.

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THE Corinthians being much abused by false teachers, to the corrupting of their faith and manners, and the questioning of the apostle's ministry, he acquainteth them in my text with an obvious remedy for both these maladies; and lets them know, that their miscarriages call them to question themselves rather than to question his authority or gifts, and that if they find Christ in themselves, they must acknowledge him in his ministry.

He therefore first most importunately urgeth them to the mediate duty of self-examination: "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith: prove your own selves:" Selfexamination is but the means of self-knowledge. This therefore he next urgeth, and that first in general; and this by way of interrogation, "Know ye not your own selves?" and then more particularly he tells them, what it is of themselves, that it most concerneth them to know, "How that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates." As if he should say, 'Alas, poor souls; you have more cause to question yourselves than me: go to therefore, examine and prove yourselves. It is a shame for a man to be ignorant of himself. Know ye not your own selves? Either Christ is in you, by faith, and by his Spirit, or he is not: if he be not, you are yet but reprobates, that is, disapproved of God, and at present in a forsaken, or condemned state yourselves; (which is a conclusion that you will be loath to admit, but more concerneth you:) if Christ be in you, it was by the means of my ministry; and therefore that ministry hath been powerful and effectual to you, and you are my witnesses; the seal of my ministry is upon your own souls: Christ with

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