A27054:609
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.
§. 1. The Schisms in the Church are far more among the Clergy than the people, and have been mostly exercised by Bishops militating against each other, and anathematizing each other as heretics or as not submitting to the challengers of superior jurisdiction: Or else in the Bishops silencing Christs Ministers for not obeying them as they expect: HARD WORDS for want of an equal skill in speaking, and JURISDICTION or superiority through pride and a carnal mind, contended for by the Clergy against each other, have torn the Church, and confounded States, and been the shame of Christianity in the eyes of Infidels, ⟨p. 201⟩and brought us to the low and broken state that we are in.
§. 1. THe Schisms in the Church are far more among the Clergy than the people, and have been mostly exercised by Bishops militating against each other, and anathematizing each other as hereticks or as not submitting to the challengers of superiour jurisdiction: Or else in the Bishops silencing Christs Ministers for not obeying them as they expect: HARD WORDS for want of an equal skill in speaking, and JURISDICTION or superiority through pride and a carnal mind, contended for by the Clergy against each other, have torn the Church, and confounded States, and been the shame of Christianity in the eyes of Infidels, ⟨p. 201⟩and brought us to the low and broken state that we are in.
§. 2. The great cause of all this hath been the introduction of ignorant or bad men into the sacred Pastoral Office. And the remedy doth not yet seem very hopeful to us: And operari sequitur esse: As the man is so will he do. A good tree will bring forth good fruit, and è contra. An ignorant man will err: An erring man will do evil and not repent: none will do more mischief against the Churches peace, than an erring Ruler, that Can do it, and thinketh that he Ought to do it: worldly men will prefer their worldly interest, before the interest of Christianity and mens souls: The carnal mind is not subject to the Law of God, nor (while such) can be: But the Proud while they will not obey God, will rage against the best that obey not them. Read Church-History, and you'll see it proved.