A26860:317
An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlock, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical…An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlocke, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical…
An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlock, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical and monarchical, as church-tyranny and popery : and defending Dr. Isaac Barrow's treatise against it by Richard Baxter ; preparatory to a fuller treatise against such an universal sovereignty as contrary to reason, Christianity, the Protestant profession, and the Church of England, though the corrupters usurp that title.An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlocke, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical and monarchical, as church-tyranny and popery : and defending Dr. Isaac Barrow's treatise against it by Richard Baxter ; preparatory to a fuller treatise against such an universal soveraignty as contrary to reason, Christianity, the Protestant profession, and the Church of England, though the corrupters usurp that title.
London: printed for Thomas Parkhurst, 1682
Chapter 5: Wherein Mr. Dodwell's deceits, and the danger of them do consist.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
I have no Copy of my first Letter to Mr. Dodwell upon a Book which he sent me. This is his Answer.
Reverend and Worthy Sir, I Have received your very kind Letter, wherein I hardly know whether I should be more thankful for your approbation or your reproof, both of them being in their kind so useful, and both of them being by you performed with so great civility. I am confident that if our modern disputes had been moderated with that candour, men would certainly have been more peaceful, and very Orthodox, than now we find them. I could very heartily have wished that the opinions wherein we differ, had not been of that nature as to separate Communion, (for this I look upon as the only circumstance that can make such differences grievous to a pious person; for as for those others which exasperate many that Dissenters are not so wise to discern the truth, or so fortunate in avoiding prejudices, or lighting on faithful informations, in a time when they are capable of receiving them; or that they are not so submissive as themselves expect to that Pope which Luther has long since observed in every mans heart, &c. are reasons either sinful, or at least insufficient to excuse the sin of uncharitableness upon such an account) but as they a•e, considering them as tempered with that piety and moderation which may expiate their other malignities, that they are rather alleged as Apologies for your selves, than as obligations on others, rather to excuse your deformity in assisting at our Altars, than erecting others in opposition to them; that you are still inquisitive and desirous of further information, and ready to lay down your mistakes where you are convinced that they are such; that still you preserve a peaceable mind, and embrace our Communion it self in voto, though perhaps not actually; these are so valuable considerations, even before God as well as man, for excusing from the guilt of error, as that whatever I may think of your opinions, I hope it shall not hinder me from a cordial respect and veneration for your person. As I do very much esteem the good opinion of so great a lover of p••ce and piety as your self, and should have been sorry to have given any ju•t occasion of offence to you so I am not a little glad that upon a review of the particulars mentioned in your Letter, I find my self so very innocent.