A27058:104
The true history of councils enlarged and defended against the deceits of a pretended…
The true history of councils enlarged and defended against the deceits of a pretended vindicator of the primitive church, but indeed of the tympanite & tyranny of some prelates many hundred years after Christ, with a detection of the false history of Edward Lord Bishop of Cork and Ross in Ireland ... and a preface abbreviating much of Ludolphus's History of Habassta : written to show their dangerous error, who think that a general council, or college of bishops, is a supreme governor of all the Christian world ... / by Richard Baxter ... ; to which is added by another hand, a defence of a book, entitled, No evidence for diocesan churches ...The true history of councils enlarged and defended against the deceits of a pretended vindicator of the primitive church, but indeed of the tympanite & tyranny of some prelates many hundred years after Christ, with a detection of the false history of Edward Lord Bishop of Corke and Rosse in Ireland ... and a preface abbreviating much of Ludolphus's History of Habassta : written to shew their dangerous errour, who think that a general council, or colledge of bishops, is a supream governour of all the Christian world ... / by Richard Baxter ... ; to which is added by another hand, a defence of a book, entituled, No evidence for diocesan churches ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1682
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.
§ 6. I was my self in my Childhood ignorant what Teachers among such diversity I should prefer. And first God had such a witness in my Conscience, that Virtue and Holiness were better than Vice and Sin, that it made me think that the sort of ⟨p. 4⟩Teachers who Traded merely for the World, and never spake a serious, word of Heaven, nor differed from sober Heathens, but in Opinion; yea, that endeavoured to make serious Godliness to seem but Hypocrisy, were not like to be the wisest and most trusty men. And yet how to judge among the serious, which were right, was long too hard for me.
§ 6. I was my self in my Childhood ignorant what Teachers among such diversity I should prefer. And first God had such a witness in my Conscience, that Virtue and Holiness were better than Vice and Sin, that it made me think that the sort of ⟨p. 4⟩Teachers who Traded meerly for the World, and never spake a serious, word of Heaven, nor differed from sober Heathens, but in Opinion; yea, that endeavoured to make serious Godliness to seem but Hypocrisie, were not like to be the wisest and most trusty men. And yet how to judge among the serious, which were right, was long too hard for me.
§ 7. When I came to consider of the Divisions of the Christian World, and •eard the Papists pretend to Catholicism, and call all others Schismatics or Heretics, it sometime seemed a plausible Opinion, that the greatest Power and Dignity of the Clergy, was the Interest of Christianity: By Riches, Honour and Power, they may protect the Godly, and keep Religion from Contempt among the worldly sort of men, or from oppression at the least.
§ 7. When I came to consider of the Divisions of the Christian World, and •eard the Papists pretend to Catholicism, and call all others Schismaricks or Hereticks, it sometime seemed a plausible Opinion, that the greatest Power and Dignity of the Clergy, was the Interest of Christianity: By Riches, Honour and Power, they may protect the Godly, and keep Religion from Contempt among the worldly sort of men, or from oppression at the least.