A27058:1046
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.
§ 32. He hath found matter for a quibble against tasting Poterius Flesh with their Teeth. Teeth taste not: Dangerous false History, or want of Learning is learnedly here discovered. When he cannot deny the most woeful, calamitous dissentions which followed the Calcedon Council, he saith, [Was it the misfortune or the fault of these only not to be able to heal the differences of the Church? Or was the defect in the Councils, or the blame to be imputed to those obstinate men that opposed the Rule established by them?]
Ans. No: They were neither the first nor the last that have miscarried. Nor are we the first that suffer under such miscarriage. It was the misfortune of the Churches to have such Physicians: But as it is the honour of some Physicians to show how many Patients they have cured, so is it of some others, when most die under their hands, to be able to say, that it was long of the Patients that would not be ruled, or that they killed them secundum artem. It was a Proverb in Sutton-Coldfield, [Who begun?] A poor man had but one Ass and he loaded him too hard, and the Ass being in pain bit his Master a little on the Buttock; and his Master knocked him down, and killed him; and when he saw him dying,, [Well, (saith he) But who begun?] But who had the loss? There be Clergy-Men that can impenitently see the Strages, the divisions, the swarms of sin that are the consequents of their needless masterly Impositions, and wipe their mouths and say. It was the obstinacy of those that would not be ruled by us! They kill a Flea on a mans Forehead with a Beetle, and say they meant not to kill the man.
Ans. No: They were neither the first nor the last that have miscarried. Nor are we the first that suffer under such miscarriage. It was the misfortune of the Churches to have such Physicians: But as it is the honour of some Physicians to shew how many Patients they have cured, so is it of some others, when most die under their hands, to be able to say, that it was long of the Patients that would not be ruled, or that they killed them secundum artem. It was a Proverb in Sutton-Coldfield, [Who begun?] A poor man had but one Ass and he loaded him too hard, and the Ass being in pain bit his Master a little on the Buttock; and his Master knockt him down, and killed him; and when he saw him dying,, [Well, (saith he) But who begun?] But who had the loss? There be Clergy-Men that can impenitently see the Strages, the divisions, the swarms of sin that are the consequents of their needless masterly Impositions, and wipe their mouths and say. It was the obstinacy of those that would not be ruled by us! They kill a Flea on a mans Forehead with a Beetle, and say they meant not to kill the man.