A26912:108
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.
And I pray you mark, that if you are wiser in this point of separation than all these old Non-conformists were, than Johnson, and Can, and Howe, were wiser also in that than they, which doth not appear to us by their writings: And then, for all the greater Light, that you think you have, yet Johnson, Can, and Howe, had as great Light, and were in this as wise as you, though Ames, and the rest of the Nonconformists were not. O that our brethren would but seriously read over the writings of these men, especially Jacob, Paget, Ball, and Bradshaw, and Gifford against the separatists, and try whether the case was not the same.
And I pray you mark, that if you are wiser in this point of separation than all these old Non-conformists were, than Iohnson, and Canne, and Howe, were wiser also in that than they, which doth not appear to us by their writings: And then, for all the greater Light, that you think you have, yet Iohnson, Canne, and Howe, had as great Light, and were in this as wise as you, though Ames, and the rest of the Nonconformists were not. O that our brethren would but seriously read over the writings of these men, especially Iacob, Paget, Ball, and Bradshaw, and Gifford against the separatists, and try whether the case was not the same.
20. Yea I must confess, that when I think what Learned, Holy, Incomparable men, abundance of the old Conformists were, my heart riseth against the thoughts of separating from them! If I had come to their Churches, when they used the Common-prayer, and administered the Sacrament, could I have departed and said, It is not lawful for any Christian here to Communicate with you? What! to such men as Mr. Bolton, Mr. Whateley, Mr. Fenner, Mr. Dent, Mr. Crook, Mr. Dike, Mr. Stock, Mr. Smith, Dr. Preston, Dr. Si•bes, Dr. Stoughton, Dr. Taylor, and abundance other such? yea such as Bishop Jewel, Bishop Grindal, Bishop Hall, Bishop Potter, Bishop Davenant, Bishop Carl•t•n, &c. Dr. Field, Dr. Smith, Dr John White, Dr. Willet, &c. yea and the Martyrs too, as Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper himself, Farrar, Bradford, Philpot, Sanders, &c. To say nothing of