A27006:700
Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his…
Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times faithfully published from his own original manuscript by Matthew Sylvester.Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times faithfully publish'd from his own original manuscript by Matthew Sylvester.
London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1696
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.
23. Another Advantage to me was the quality of the Apostates of the place. If we had been troubled with mere Separatists, Anabaptists, or others that erred plausibly and tolerably, they might perhaps have divided us, and drawn away Disciples after them: But we had only two Professors that fell off in the Wars, and (one or two at most) that made no Profession of Godliness were drawn in to them. They that fell off were such as before, by their want of grounded Understanding, Humility and Mortification, gave us the greatest suspicion of their Stability: And they fell to no less than Familism and Infidelity, making a jest of the Scripture, and the Essentials of Christianity: (Though they so carefully hid it, that we could never possibly have known their Minds, but from the Alehouse, and Companions with whom they were more free). And as they fell from the Faith, so they fell to Drinking, Gaming, furious Passions, horribly abusing their Wives ⟨p. 91⟩(and thereby saving them from their Errors) and to a vicious Life. So that they stood up as Pillars and Monuments of God's Justice, to warn all others, to take heed of Self-conceitedness and Heresies, and of departing from Truth and Christian Unity: And so they were a principal means to keep out all Sects and Errors from the Town.
23. Another Advantage to me was the quality of the Apostates of the place. If we had been troubled with meer Separatists, Anabaptists, or others that erred plausibly and tollerably, they might perhaps have divided us, and drawn away Disciples after them: But we had only two Professors that fell off in the Wars, and (one or two at most) that made no Profession of Godliness were drawn in to them. They that fell off were such as before, by their want of grounded Understanding, Humility and Mortification, gave us the greatest suspicion of their Stability: And they fell to no less than Familism and Infidelity, making a jest of the Scripture, and the Essentials of Christianity: (Though they so carefully hid it, that we could never possibly have known their Minds, but from the Alehouse, and Companions with whom they were more free). And as they fell from the Faith, so they fell to Drinking, Gaming, furious Passions, horribly abusing their Wives ⟨p. 91⟩(and thereby saving them from their Errours) and to a vicious Life. So that they stood up as Pillars and Monuments of God's Justice, to warn all others, to take heed of Self-conceitedness and Heresies, and of departing from Truth and Christian Unity: And so they were a principal means to keep out all Sects and Errours from the Town.