A26906:715
The cure of church-divisions, or, Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being…
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.
London: printed for Nevil Symmons, 1670
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.
Take notice of all the good in others which appeareth, and rather talk of that behind their backs, than of their faults.
IF there were no Good in others, they were not to be loved: For it is contrary to mans nature, to will or love any thing, but sub ratione boni, ⟨p. 238⟩as supposed to be good. The good of nature, is lovely in all men as men, even in the wicked and our enemies (And therefore let them that think they can never speak bad enough of nature take heed lest they run into excess:) And the capacity of the good of holiness and happiness, is part of the good of nature. The good of gifts and of a common Profession, with the possibility or probability of sincerity, is lovely in all the visible members of the Church. And truly the excellent gifts of Learning, judgment, utterance and memory, with the virtues of meekness, humility, patience, contentedness, and a loving disposition inclined to do good to all, are so amiable in some, who yet are too strange to a heavenly life, that he must be worse than a man who will not love them.
To vilify all these gifts in others, savoureth of a malignant contempt of the gifts of the Spirit of God. And so it doth, to talk all of their faults, and say little or nothing of their gifts and virtues: yea, some have so unloving and unlovely a kind of Religiousness, that they backbite that man as a defender of the profane, and a commender of the ungodly, who doth but contradict or reprehend their backbitings: And are ever gain-saying all the commendations which they hear of any whom they think ill of.
To vilifie all these gifts in others, savoureth of a malignant contempt of the gifts of the Spirit of God. And so it doth, to talk all of their faults, and say little or nothing of their gifts and virtues: yea, some have so unloving and unlovely a kind of Religiousness, that they backbite that man as a defender of the prophane, and a commender of the ungodly, who doth but contradict or reprehend their backbitings: And are ever gain-saying all the commendations which they hear of any whom they think ill of.