A26912:104
A defence of the principles of love, which are necessary to the unity and…
A defence of the principles of love, which are necessary to the unity and concord of Christians and are delivered in a book called The cure of church-divisions ... / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed for Nevil Simmons, 1671
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.
3. And it is not the least of our danger (nor which doth least affect me) lest by our follies, extremities and rigours, we should so exasperate the Common people, as to make them readier to join with the Papists, than with us, in Case of any competitions, or their invasions, or insurrections against the King, and Kingdoms peace. Sure I am that the Parliaments and peoples resolutions against them, after the late fire, and in the time of the last war, when they were so much feared, did discourage and depress them more, than all the rest of their opposers. And though we cannot rationally believe that the people of England, much less wise and sober Governors, will ever be such enemies to themselves, as to subject themselves to the Romish Tyranny, and to forget what Ireland and England have seen and felt, yet because it is not only oppression that maketh wise men mad, let us do nothing by unlawful alienations and singularities, or fierce and disobedient oppositions, which tend to make the people like better of the Papists than of us.
3. And it is not the least of our danger (nor which doth least affect me) lest by our follies, extremities and rigors, we should so exasperate the Common people, as to make them readier to joyn with the Papists, than with us, in Case of any competitions, or their invasions, or insurrections against the King, and Kingdoms peace. Sure I am that the Parliaments and peoples resolutions against them, after the late fire, and in the time of the last war, when they were so much feared, did discourage and depress them more, than all the rest of their opposers. And though we cannot rationally believe that the people of England, much less wise and sober Governors, will ever be such enemies to themselves, as to subject themselves to the Romish Tyranny, and to forget what Ireland and England have seen and felt, yet because it is not only oppression that maketh wise men mad, let us do nothing by unlawful alienations and singularities, or fierce and disobedint oppositions, which tend to make the people like better of the Papists than of us.
18. I am not able to bear the thoughts of separating ⟨p. 55⟩