194.
By the establishment of what is contained in these twelve propositions
or articles following, the Churches in these nations may have a holy
communion, peace and concord, without any wrong to the consciences or
liberties of Presbyterians, Congregational, Episcopal, or any other
Christians.
Painfully instructive are these proposals from so wise and peaceable a
divine as Baxter. How mighty must be the force of an old prejudice when
so generally acute a logician was blinded by it to such palpable
inconsistencies! On what ground of right could a magistrate inflict a
penalty, whereby to compel a man to hear what he might believe dangerous
to his soul, on which the right of burning the refractory individual
might not be defended as well?
Ib. p. 198.
To which ends * * I think that this is all that should be required of
any Church or member ordinarily to be professed: In general I do
believe all that is contained in the sacred canonical Scriptures, and
particularly I believe all explicitly contained in the ancient Creed,
&c.
To a man of sense, but unstudied in the context of human nature, and
from having confined his reading to the writers of the present and the
last generation unused to live in former ages, it must seem strange that
Baxter should not have seen that this test is either all or nothing. And
the Creed! Is it certain that the so called Apostles' Creed was more
than the mere catechism of the Catechumens? Was it the Baptismal Creed
of the Eastern or Western Church, especially the former? The only test
really necessary, in my opinion, is an established Liturgy.
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