A27054:590
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.
§. 34. I conclude this, that the hereticating and Cursing men for doubtful words, or want of skill in aptness of expressions, yea or for errors which consist with saving faith in Christ, is so far from being a means of the Churches good, that it hath been the grand engine of Satan to exercise Tyranny, excite hatred and Schism and Rebellions, and do most lamentable mischiefs in the world, and therefore carefully to be avoided.
§. 34. I conclude this, that the hereticating and Cursing men for doubtful words, or want of skill in aptness of expressions, yea or for errours which consist with saving faith in Christ, is so far from being a means of the Churches good, that it hath been the grand engine of Satan to exercise Tyranny, excite hatred and Schism and Rebellions, and do most lamentable mischiefs in the world, and therefore carefully to be avoided.
§. 35. II. And what I have said of words, I may partly say of actions: Anathematizing men for ⟨p. 196⟩doubtful actions, or for such faults as consist with true Christianity, and continued subjection to Jesus Christ, is a sinful Church-dividing means.
§. 36. More particularly I shall show after in the third part of this book, that it is not all the same things that make a man uncapable of present Communion in this or that single or particular Church, or in a compound Church, Diocesan, Metropolitan, Provincial or National (or Imperial) which make him uncapable of continuing in the Universal Church. Much less doth every continued disobedience to a Bishops or Councils Canons or Commands make him Excommunicable from the Church Universal.
§. 36. More particularly I shall shew after in the third part of this book, that it is not all the same things that make a man uncapable of present Communion in this or that single or particular Church, or in a compound Church, Diocesane, Metropolitane, Provincial or National (or Imperial) which make him uncapable of continuing in the Universal Church. Much less doth every continued disobedience to a Bishops or Councils Canons or Commands make him Excommunicable from the Church Universal.