Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and…

And the religious People of the several parts, will say as they hear their Teachers do, and be the Militant followers of their too Militant Leaders: And it will be their House talk, their Shop talk, their Street talk, if not their Church talk, that such a one is an Erroneous, dangerous Man, because he is not as Ignorant and Erroneous as they, especially if they be the followers of a Teacher much exasperated by confutation, and engaged ⟨p. 92⟩in the Controversy; and also if it should be suffering▪ Confessors that are contradicted, or men most highly esteemed for extraordinary degrees of Piety: Then what cruel censures must he expect who never so tenderly would suppress their Errors.

And the religious People of the several parts, will say as they hear their Teachers do, and be the Militant followers of their too Militant Leaders: And it will be their House talk, their Shop talk, their Street talk, if not their Church talk, that such a one is an Erroneous, dangerous Man, because he is not as Ignorant and Erroneous as they, especially if they be the followers of a Teacher much exasperated by confutation, and engaged ⟨p. 92⟩in the Controversie; and also if it should be suffering▪ Confessors that are contradicted, or men most highly esteemed for extraordinary degrees of Piety: Then what cruel censures must he expect who never so tenderly would suppress their Errours.

O what sad Instances of this are, 1. The Case of the Confessors in Cyprian's Days, who as many of his Epistles show, became the great disturbers of that Church. 2. And the Egyptian Monks at Alexandria, in the Days of Theophilus, who turned Anthropomorphites, and raised abominable Tumults, with woeful scandal and odious bloodshed. 3. And O that this Age had not yet greater Instances to prove the matter, than any of these.