A26885:91
Catholic unity, or, The only way to bring us all to be of one…Catholick vnity, or, The only way to bring us all to be of one…
Catholic unity, or, The only way to bring us all to be of one religion by Rich. Baxter.Catholick vnity, or, The only way to bring us all to be of one religion by Rich. Baxter.
London: printed by R. W. for Thomas Underhill and Francis Tyton, 1660
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.
The Simonians, and Nicolaitan• and Gnostics of old, did hold that men might do any outward action, when there is no other way to escape suffering, as long as they keep their hearts to God. So think the ungodly, as appeareth by their practice: Before they will lose their ⟨p. 53⟩estates and be brought to poverty, or before they will lie in prison, or be burnt at a stake, they will say any thing, or do any thing: They would worship a piece of bread as if it were God: they would turn to Papists or any that can do them a mischief, if it were the Turks.
The Simonians, and Nicolaitan• and Gnosticks of old, did hold that men might do any outward action, when there is no other way to escape suffering, as long as they keep their hearts to God. So think the ungodly, as appeareth by their practice: Before they will lose their ⟨p. 53⟩estates and be brought to poverty, or before they will lie in prison, or be burnt at a stake, they will say any thing, or do any thing: They would worship a piece of bread as if it were God: they would turn to Papists or any that can do them a mischief, if it were the Turks.
Alas, the particular sects among us, do play a small game in comparison of the ungodly; and hold but petty errors to theirs: One sect is against one Ordinance, and another sect is against another Ordinance; but the ungodly are against all. The Sectaries are against something in the manner or out-side of the work: but the ungodly are against the Spirit and Life, and substance of the duty it self: One sect depraveth the doctrine of Faith; and another the doctrine of Repentance, and another the doctrine of Obedience: But the ungodly deprave all the doctrine ⟨p. 54⟩of Godliness; yea deny it, and not only deprave it: They sweep away all before them, and go by wholesale: They stand not to speak as other Heretics, against this Grace or that Grace, but against all: It is Godliness it self that the ungodly are against.