A27054:141
The true and only way of concord of all the Christian churches the desirableness…
The true and only way of concord of all the Christian churches the desirableness of it, and the detection of false dividing terms / opened by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Hancock, 1680
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.
49. But Love to All, must not be Equal to all, nor our Unity with all Equal, as on the same terms, or in the same degree. As the Goodness of mere Humanity, and the mere Profession of Christianity is less, and so less amiable, than is the Goodness of true sanctification; so our Love and Unity must be diversified. All the members of the body must be Loved, and their Unity carefully preserved: But yet not Equally; but the head as an head, and the heart as an heart, and the stomach as a stomach, and all the essential parts as Essential, without which it is not a humane body: and all the integral parts as such, but diversely according to their worth and use: The eye as an eye, and a tooth but as a tooth. Goodness being the object of Love, and Love being the life of our Unity, it varieth in degrees as Goodness varieth.
49. But Love to All, must not be Equal to all, nor our Vnity with all Equal, as on the same terms, or in the same degree. As the Goodness of meer Humanity, and the meer Profession of Christianity is less, and so less amiable, than is the Goodness of true sanctification; so our Love and Vnity must be diversified. All the members of the body must be Loved, and their Unity carefully preserved: But yet not Equally; but the head as an head, and the heart as an heart, and the stomach as a stomach, and all the essential parts as Essential, without which it is not a humane body: and all the integral parts as such, but diversely according to their worth and use: The eye as an eye, and a tooth but as a tooth. Goodness being the object of Love, and Love being the life of our Vnity, it varieth in degrees as Goodness varieth.
50. That Love and Unity which is sincere in kind, may be mixed with lamentable wrath and Schism (as all our Graces are with the contrary sin in our imperfect state:) Not but that all Christians have an habitual inclination to Universal Love and Unity; but the act may be hindered, by the want of ⟨p. 25⟩due information, and by false reports and misrepresentations of our brethren, which hide their amiableness, and render them to such more odious than they are.