122 CIWRCH UNITY 



chief objection to the Westminster As- 

 sembly was (1) against their making pres- 

 byterial orders a matter of divine right. 

 This, he saw, would form another separat- 

 ing barrier. Baxter was a Presbyterian, 

 but would be now classed as a Low-Church 

 Episcopalian. That is, he believed Epis- 

 copacy to be a convenient and very ancient 

 form of polity, though without Scriptural 

 authority. " As to fixed bishops of parti- 

 cular churches, that were superior in de- 

 gree to presbyters, though I have nothing 

 at all in Scripture for them, yet I saw that 

 the reception of them was so very early 

 and so very general, I thought it most 

 improbable that it was contrary to the 

 mind of the apostles." 1 Baxter would 

 have had a modified presbyterial episcopate 

 as a centre of union for all parties, and 

 would have thrown overboard all " divine 

 right " theories of the ministry as divisive 

 and false. But more important still was his 

 objection (2) to their doctrine of coercion. 

 He saw that this would only accentuate 

 Church divisions and embitter all parties. 

 He says : " I disliked the course of some 

 of the more rigid of them, grasping at a 



1 Autobio^., quoted in Davies, 1. c, p. 104. 



