1REN1C MOVEMENTS 123 



kind of secular power. They reproach 

 the ministerial power, as if it were not- 

 worth a straw, unless the magistrate's 

 sword enforce it. What then did the 



primitive Church for three hundred years? 

 Till magistrates keep the sword them- 

 selves, and learn to deny it to every angry 

 clergyman who would do his own work by 

 it, and leave them to their own weapons, 

 the Word and spiritual keys, and, va/eant 

 quantum valere ftossunt, the Church will 

 never have unity and peace. I disliked 

 also some of them that were not tender 

 enough to dissenting brethren, but too 

 much against liberty, as others were too 

 much for it, and thought by votes and 

 numbers to do that which love and reason 

 would have done." l This is as noble a 

 testimony for toleration as it is for Chris- 

 tian union. 



Baxter wrote to John Howe, the illus- 

 trious chaplain to the Protector, in reply 

 to Howe's statement that the Protector 

 desired Church union. Baxter says: 

 " The Lord Protector is noted as a man 

 of a catholic spirit, desirous of the unity 

 and peace of all the servants of Christ. 



1 Autobiog., quoted in Duvies, 1. c, p. 105. 



