A26947:1071
A key for Catholics, to open the juggling of the Jesuits, and satisfy all…A key for Catholicks, to open the jugling of the Jesuits, and satisfie all…
A key for Catholics, to open the juggling of the Jesuits, and satisfy all that are but truly willing to understand, whether the cause of the Roman or reformed churches be of God ... containing some arguments by which the meanest may see the vanity of popery, and 40 detections of their fraud, with directions, and materials sufficient for the confutation of their voluminous deceits ... : the second part showeth (especially against the French and Grotians) that the Catholic Church is not united in any merely humane head, either Pope or council / by Richard Baxter, a Catholic Christian and Pastor of a church ...A key for Catholicks, to open the jugling of the Jesuits, and satisfie all that are but truly willing to understand, whether the cause of the Roman or reformed churches be of God ... containing some arguments by which the meanest may see the vanity of popery, and 40 detections of their fraud, with directions, and materials sufficient for the confutation of their voluminous deceits ... : the second part sheweth (especially against the French and Grotians) that the Catholick Church is not united in any meerly humane head, either Pope or council / by Richard Baxter, a Catholick Christian and Pastor of a church ...
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1659
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.
CHAP. XL.
Detect. 31. Another of their frauds is, By ranking the Protestants among the rabble of Sects and Heresies that are in the world, and then asking ignorant souls, If you will needs be of any sect, how many are here before you? and what reason have you rather to be of the Protestants, then of any other?
Detect. 31. ANother of their frauds is, By ranking the Protestants among the rabble of Sects and Heresies that are in the world, and then asking ignorant souls, If you will needs be of any sect, how many are here before you? and what reason have you rather to be of the Protestants, then of any other?
Answ. Indeed this question is worth the considering by a Papist, or any sectary; but the true Catholic is quite out of the reach of it. The Church of Christ is one, and but One. This one Catholic Church containeth all the true Christians in the world. This is the Church that I am a member of, which is far wider then the Roman Church. The Church that I profess my self a member of, containeth three parts; 1. The most sound and healthful ⟨p. 293⟩part; and that is the Reformed Churches. 2. The most unsound in doctrine, though possest of many Learned men; and that is the Papists themselves; (not as Papists simply, but as Christians, though infected with Popery.) 3. The middle part, which is sounder then the Papists in doctrine, but less learned; and below the Protestants in both: and that is all the Greeks and other Eastern and Southern Churches that are no subjects of the Pope. All these, even all true Christians, are members of the Church that I belong to, though some of them be more sound, and some be leprous or lamentably polluted. To these I may add many particular lesser sects, that subvert not the foundation, as some Anabaptists, and divers others. And will you ask me now why I will not be of another sect, as well as of the Protestants? Why, my answer is ready: A Sect divided from the body, I abhor: I am of no Sect, It is the Unity, Universality and Antiquity of the Church that are its honourable attributes in my eyes. Protestants that unchurch all the rest of the world, and count themselves the whole Church of Christ, do in some sort make themselves a Sect: But where is there any such? I know none such, nor I hope ever shall do: And therefore I may say that Protestants are no more a sect, then the Patients in an Hospital that are almost healed, or then the higher form of Scholars in a school, or then the Merchants or richer sort of Tradesmen in a City: And such a Sect God grant that I may be of, even one in the Church that shall be of soundest understanding, and of purest worship, and of the most careful, holy, honest life; But still I shall acknowledge them of the lowest form, even them that learn the A. B. C. to be in the same School with me: And if they (Papists or any others) will disclaim me, that shall not unchurch me, as long as Christ disclaims me not: Nor shall it provoke me to disclaim them any further then I see Christ leading me the way.