A26871:253
Cain and Abel malignity that is, enmity to serious godliness, that is, to an…
Cain and Abel malignity that is, enmity to serious godliness, that is, to an holy and heavenly state of heart and life : lamented, described, detected, and unanswerably [sic] proved to be the devilish nature, and the militia of the devil against God and Christ and the church and kingdoms, and the surest sign of a state of damnation / by Richard Baxter, or, Gildas Salvianus ...Cain and Abel malignity that is, enmity to serious godliness, that is, to an holy and heavenly state of heart and life : lamented, described, detected, and unananswerably [sic] proved to be the devilish nature, and the militia of the devil against God and Christ and the church and kingdoms, and the surest sign of a state of damnation / by Richard Baxter, or, Gildas Salvianus ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1689
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.
Obj. If they are so ignorant that they cannot know Church Orders to be lawful, they are not fit to communicate with the Church.
Ans. Make no Church Orders necessary to Communion, but what Christ and his Apostles have made necessary to it; and ⟨p. 116⟩then cast out and spare not all as ignorant that refuse them.
2. But again, do you believe that most, or all that you keep in, are wiser and more knowing than those that you cast out? How shall such as I believe you, who know that in all the Parishes which my cohabitation allowed me to know, it is the most knowing and religious part that most dissent, and the generality of the grossly ignorant that understand few Articles of the Creed, do conform. As ignorant as I am, and hundreds of my calling and mind, I would I were not only silenced and imprisoned, but put to death, on condition that all that you now receive as Members of the Church, had no more ignorance than we have. But it's our lot, to tire our selves with teaching poor people to understand their Baptism, Christianity, Creed, Lords Prayer, and Ten Commandments, and leave most ignorant when all's done, and yet our selves after our hardest and longest study, to be judged so ignorant about some Indifferent things, as to be unfit for Ministry or Communion.
2. But again, do you believe that most, or all that you keep in, are wiser and more knowing than those that you cast out? How shall such as I believe you, who know that in all the Parishes which my cohabitation allowed me to know, it is the most knowing and religious part that most dissent, and the generality of the grosly ignorant that understand few Articles of the Creed, do conform. As ignorant as I am, and hundreds of my calling and mind, I would I were not only silenced and imprisoned, but put to death, on condition that all that you now receive as Members of the Church, had no more ignorance than we have. But it's our lot, to tire our selves with teaching poor people to understand their Baptism, Christianity, Creed, Lords Prayer, and Ten Commandments, and leave most ignorant when all's done, and yet our selves after our hardest and longest study, to be judged so ignorant about some Indifferent things, as to be unfit for Ministry or Communion.