A26962:13
Naked popery, or, The naked falsehood of a book called The Catholic naked truth,…Naked popery, or, The naked falshood of a book called The Catholick naked truth,…
Naked popery, or, The naked falsehood of a book called The Catholic naked truth, or, The Puritan convert to apostolical Christianity, written by W.H. opening their fundamental error of unwritten tradition, and their unjust description of the Puritans, the prelatical Protestant, and the papist, and their differences, and better acquainting the ignorant of the same difference, especially what a Puritan and what a papist is / by Richard Baxter ...Naked popery, or, The naked falshood of a book called The Catholick naked truth, or, The Puritan convert to apostolical Christianity, written by W.H. opening their fundamental errour of unwritten tradition, and their unjust description of the Puritans, the prelatical Protestant, and the papist, and their differences, and better acquainting the ignorant of the same difference, especially what a Puritan and what a papist is / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed for N. Simmons, 1677
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.
The Title of your Religion greatly pleaseth me, and is the same that I assume: For we are, I perceive, agreed in this, that it is [the Apostolical Christianity] that is the true and safe Religion: And hath God left the matter so obscure as that we cannot come to an agreement in so weighty a matter of Fact, as to know what [the Apostolical Christianity] was; when even Common History giveth us notice what the Athenian Philosophers held, and what the ancient Romans held, and so of almost every literate Nation? You study, and we study; You pray, and we pray: You would know the truth, whatever it cost you, and so would We. As a Man that looketh daily when I am called away to God, I solemnly protest, that if I could find that Popery were the true Apostolic Christianity, I would joyfully quit all the Friends, Hope, and Interests of this World, to embrace it. What is it that is your advantage, and what is our disadvantage? Are you more impartial in your search? I am so Conscious of my Impartiality, that I cannot believe that this maketh the difference. Is it that we have not read the Papists writings? I have reason to believe that I have read as many of them, at least, as you have done, if you are not much above sixty years of age (as I hear you are not near it). But you have Conversed with more of them than I have done? It's like you have: But is that the reason of my mistake? You earnestly invite your Relations to Converse with the Papists, because mens writings may be mistaken: And on this ground I perceive you build all the certainty of your Faith, That our Fathers and our Grand-Fathers have told us Infallibly, what they received from their Fathers and Grand-Fathers, and so on. This is your certainty.
The Title of your Religion greatly pleaseth me, and is the same that I assume: For we are, I perceive, agreed in this, that it is [the Apostolical Christianity] that is the true and safe Religion: And hath God left the matter so obscure as that we cannot come to an agreement in so weighty a matter of Fact, as to know what [the Apostolical Christianity] was; when even Common History giveth us notice what the Athenian Philosophers held, and what the ancient Romans held, and so of almost every literate Nation? You study, and we study; You pray, and we pray: You would know the truth, whatever it cost you, and so would We. As a Man that looketh daily when I am called away to God, I solemnly protest, that if I could find that Popery were the true Apostolick Christianity, I would joyfully quit all the Friends, Hope, and Interests of this World, to embrace it. What is it that is your advantage, and what is our disadvantage? Are you more impartial in your search? I am so Conscious of my Impartiality, that I cannot believe that this maketh the difference. Is it that we have not read the Papists writings? I have reason to believe that I have read as many of them, at least, as you have done, if you are not much above sixty years of age (as I hear you are not near it). But you have Conversed with more of them than I have done? It's like you have: But is that the reason of my mistake? You earnestly invite your Relations to Converse with the Papists, because mens writings may be mistaken: And on this ground I perceive you build all the certainty of your Faith, That our Fathers and our Grand-Fathers have told us Infallibly, what they received from their Fathers and Grand-Fathers, and so on. This is your certainty.