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the world ; and to dissuade all from murinuring , censoriousnes and
separation ; for which , by the separating party , I have by word and many writings been reproached . Love and concord was my study \ when I could not have them as extensive as I desired , I laboured to obtain as much of them
as I could , by drawing all men to peaceablecommunion with the Church . He that will never live peaceably till he have all that is desirable , must forsake the earth . My request to you to communicate your sense of ray case to the Lord Chiefe Justice and
my Diocesane , ( to whom I presume not to expect access and audience , ) is not any more to deprecate punishxoent . The constancy of paine , and the sentence of wellcome death , put me past the fear of man : and if God will turne a death for my sin into a
death by imprisonment for my faithful serving him , and that at 70 years of age , when I am past serving him actively any more , what greater mercy could I expect on earth ? But , 1 ° . I am bound to disown the scandal of
"drawing men into schism and sedition when the cure of them hath been the study of my life . 2 ° . I would not have men tempted to censure the Church by thinking they are implacable enemies to such as I , and must live by such sacrifices , and so to encrease
men s alienation who , abroad and at home , overvalue me and my writings . 3 ° . And T would not be a precedent to subject all the clergy ' s books and sermons , and consequently their lives and liberties , to the arbitrary power of any illiterate jury that hath but ignorance or prejudice enough to
misunderstand them , b § r whom perhaps they need to be catechised . Sir , I have done my duty ; I leave the rest to you and my other superiors - y remaining , hovv weak soever , your fellow-servant , who hath no master above God , and no hope above his love and reward , RICHARD BAXTER . June 23 , 1685 .
2 . Letter to Compton , Bishop of London , his Dioeesan , My Lord , Being by Episcopal Ordination vowed to the sacred ministry , and bound lot to desert it , when l > y painful dis-
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eases and debility I waited for my change , I durst not spend my last days in idleness , and knew not how better to serve the Church than by writing a Paraphrase on the New Testament ,
purposely fitted to the use of the most ignorant , and the reconciling of doctrinal differences about texts variously expounded . Far was it from my design to reproach the Church or draw men from it , having therein pleaded for diocesans as successors of the
apostles over many churches ; though I confute the overthrowing opinion which setteth them over but one church , denying the parishes to be churches . But some persons , it is like , offended at some other passages in the book , have thought fit to say that I scandalized the Church of
England ; and an information being exhibited in the King ' s Bench 3 and a tryal before a common jury ^ on my owning the book , they forthwith found me guilty without hearing my defence , and I have cause to expect a severe judgement , the beginning of the next
term , and all this on a charge that my unquestionable words were meant by me to scandalize the Church , which I utterly deny : if God will have me end a painful , weary life , by such a suffering , I hope I shall finish my course with joy ; but my conscience commandeth me to value the churches
strength and honour before my life , and I ought not to be silent under the scandal of suffering as an enemy to it . Nor would I have my sufferings increase men ' s prejudice against it . I have lived in its communion , and conformed to as much as the Act of
Uniformity obliged one in my condition ; I have drawn multitudes into the Church , and written to justify the Church and ministry against separation , when the Paraphrase was in the
press : and my displeasing writings ( whose eagerness and faults I justify not ) have been my earnest pleadings for the healing of a divided people , and the strengthening of the Church
by love and concord on possible terms . I owe satisfaction to you that are my Diocesan , and therefore presume to semi you a eopy of the information against me , and my answer t < o the particular accusations ; humbly entreating you to spare so much time from your weighty business as to peruse them , or to refer them to be perused
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148 Original Letters from and to Richard Baxter .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1825, page 148, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2534/page/20/
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