A27045:262
The successive visibility of the church of which the Protestants are the soundest members…
The successive visibility of the church of which the Protestants are the soundest members I. defended against the opposition of Mr. William Johnson, II. proved by many arguments / by Richard Baxter ; whereunto is added 1. an account of my judgement to Mr. J. how far heretics are or are not in the church, 2. Mr. Js. explication of the most used terms, with my queries thereupon, and his answer and my reply, 3. an appendix about successive ordination, 4. letters between me and T.S., a papist, with a narrative of the success.The successive visibility of the church of which the Protestants are the soundest members I. defended against the opposition of Mr. William Johnson, II. proved by many arguments / by Richard Baxter ; whereunto is added 1. an account of my judgement to Mr. J. how far hereticks are or are not in the church, 2. Mr. Js. explication of the most used terms, with my queries thereupon, and his answer and my reply, 3. an appendix about successive ordination, 4. letters between me and T.S., a papist, with a narrative of the success.
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1660
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.
Your Paulus Veridicus (Paul Harris Dean of your Academy lately in Dublin) in his Confutation of Bishop Ushers Sermon, saith that the Greeks Doctrine about the Procession of the Holy Ghost à Patre per Filium, and not à Patre Filioque, was such that [When they had explicated it, they were found to believe very Orthodoxly and Catholicly in the same matter, and for such were admitted] and that [He findeth not any substantial point that they differ from you in, but the Primacy] (So the Armenians were received in the same Council of Florence.) Many more I have read of your own writers that all vindicate the Greeks (and others that disown you) from Heresy, I think more then I have read of Protestants that do it. And do you think now that it is not a disgrace to your cause, that man of your learning, and one that I hear hath the confidence to draw others to your opinions, should yet be so unacquainted with the opinions of your own Divines, and upon this mistake so confidently feign that it is our Novel writers forced to it by your arguments that have been so charitable to these Churches against antiquity that knew better? If the Greeks and Latins tear the Church of Christ by their Condemnations ⟨p. 121⟩of each other, they may both be schismatical, as guilty of making divisions in the Church, though not as dividing from the Church. And if they pretend the denial of the Christian faith against each other as the cause, you shall not draw us into the guilt of the uncharitableness, by telling us that they know better then we. If wise men fall out and fight, I will not justify either side, because they are wise and therefore likelier then I to know the cause. But what need we more to open your strange mistake and unjust dealing, then the authority of your so much approved Council of Florence, that received both Greeks and Armenians; and the very words of the Popes Bull of the union, which declare that the Greeks and Latins were found to mean Orthodoxly both? the words are these [Convenientes Latini & Graeci in hac sacrosancta Oecumenica synodo magno studio invicem usi sunt, ut inter alia articulus etiam ille de Divina Spiritus Sancti processione summa cum diligentia & assidua inquisition discuteretur.
Your Paulus Veridicus (Paul Harris Dean of your Academy lately in Dublin) in his Confutation of Bishop Vshers Sermon, saith that the Greeks Doctrine about the Procession of the Holy Ghost à Patre per Filium, and not à Patre Filioque, was such that [When they had explicated it, they were found to believe very Orthodoxly and Catholikely in the same matter, and for such were admitted] and that [He findeth not any substantial point that they differ from you in, but the Primacy] (So the Armenians were received in the same Council of Florence.) Many more I have read of your own writers that all vindicate the Greeks (and others that disown you) from Heresie, I think more then I have read of Protestants that do it. And do you think now that it is not a disgrace to your cause, that man of your learning, and one that I hear hath the confidence to draw others to your opinions, should yet be so unacquainted with the opinions of your own Divines, and upon this mistake so confidently feign that it is our Novel writers forced to it by your arguments that have been so charitable to these Churches against antiquity that knew better? If the Greeks and Latins tear the Church of Christ by their Condemnations