A26906:412

The cure of church-divisions, or, Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being…

Name: The cure of church-divisions, or, Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being…
Author: Richard Baxter

The cure of church-divisions, or, Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being dividers or troublers of the church with some directions to the pastors how to deal with such Christians / by Richard Baxter.

Richard Baxter 1615–1691London: printed for Nevil Symmons, 1670

[48], 430, [15] p. · 130k words · Wing B1234 · ESTC R1684

Title page: Internet Archive scan of the Early English Books microfilm (opens the Internet Archive in a new tab)

DIRECTIONS FOR Weak Christians, How they may escape the troubling,… › Direction 21: DIRECT. XXI.DIRECTIONS FOR VVeak Christians, How they may escape the troubling,… › Direction 21: DIRECT. XXI.

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.

[ Earlier:410–424 of 1,298

:410p. 127

DIRECT. XXI.

:411p. 127

Lend not a patient ear to back-biters; much less must you hastily believe them when they speak ill of others: But show your detestation of that sin, though they should be most religious people that use it, and do it upon a religious pretence.

Lend not a patient ear to back-biters; much less must you hastily believe them when they speak ill of others: But shew your detestation of that sin, though they should be most religious people that use it, and do it upon a religious pretence.

:412p. 127–129

I Do not say that it is always unlawful to speak that which is ill of another behind his back. Sometime wicked men will take occasion to justify sin it self, by the advantage of a sinners name: And sometime they will magnify the virtues of some wicked man, or of some of their sect, on purpose to cast reproach on godliness, or to make others odious by the comparison. Yet in such cases we must repress their malignity more by a defensive than an offensive opposition. But the usual course of back-biting in all sorts of men, is sinful. The back-biter (how great or learned or religious soever) is but the devils minister, to ⟨p. 128⟩preach down the love of others, and to exhort you to hate your brother, or to abate your charity to him. And he that patiently hearkeneth to such, is a partaker of their sin. And he that believeth them, hath taken the infection. Most of our odious thoughts of others, and our false and uncharitable censures, do come in this way. For the most part, men censure and separate and persecute most, where they are acquainted least, but go by hear-say, and judge of men by back-biters mis-reports: And acquaintance and familiarity usually reconcileth them, and showeth them their error. You think it is a fair excuse for you, when you either believe or report evil of another, to say, that you heard it from very honest and religious, or reverend persons; or you heard it from many, and confidently uttered. But God hath not allowed you to receive back-biters, because they are godly, or because they are many. This very age and time doth experimentally confute this excuse: In which it is so common a thing, for false reports and news to be uttered with confidence, and that by multitudes, and many of them religious, and yet neither truth nor ground at all, for what is said. Back-biters, and haters of God are conjoined

[ Earlier passages Later passages ]

The book

Title as printed

Author

Richard Baxter 1615–1691

Place

London

Bookseller

Nevil Symmons

Year

1670

Size

[48], 430, [15] p.

Words

130,067

Catalogue

Wing B1234 · ESTC R1684

Text

EEBO-TCP A26906

Passages

1,298

Sections

105

Title page

The cure of church-divisions, or, Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being…

DIRECT. XXI.

Lend not a patient ear to back-biters; much less must you hastily believe them when they speak ill of others: But show your detestation of that sin, though they should be most religious people that use it, and do it upon a religious pretence.

Lend not a patient ear to back-biters; much less must you hastily believe them when they speak ill of others: But shew your detestation of that sin, though they should be most religious people that use it, and do it upon a religious pretence.

DIRECT. XXII.

Make not your selves judges of other mens actions, much less of their state, before you have a call, and before you have sufficient acquaintance or proof, of the person and of the case.

DIRECT. XXIII.

Mistake not the nature of the sin of scandal: Think not that it is the bare displeasing or grieving of another; For it is the laying of a stumbling block, that is, a temptation, or occasion of sinning before another.

Reformers309

Puritans1,782

Westminster Assembly24

Evangelicals36

DIRECT. XXI.

Lend not a patient ear to back-biters; much less must you hastily believe them when they speak ill of others: But show your detestation of that sin, though they should be most religious people that use it, and do it upon a religious pretence.

Lend not a patient ear to back-biters; much less must you hastily believe them when they speak ill of others: But shew your detestation of that sin, though they should be most religious people that use it, and do it upon a religious pretence.

DIRECT. XXII.

Make not your selves judges of other mens actions, much less of their state, before you have a call, and before you have sufficient acquaintance or proof, of the person and of the case.

DIRECT. XXIII.

Mistake not the nature of the sin of scandal: Think not that it is the bare displeasing or grieving of another; For it is the laying of a stumbling block, that is, a temptation, or occasion of sinning before another.