A27058:1124
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.
§ 19. That the Bishops charged by me with these Corruptions, were the only Opposers of them that we find in antiquity, as we may see in the Canons of Afric and Spain,] is a saying very near kin to much of his History: I confess that so few Presbyters in comparison of Bishops were public Actors, whose Judgments were notified to the World, that it's no wonder (after Constantine's time) if there be more proofs of their words and deeds than of other mens: But there are a great number of excellent men here slandered against the credit of all Church-History, and ⟨p. 200⟩their own Writings yet in our hands. Would it be worth the Readers Price and Labour, I could swell my Book with the proof that what he speaketh is untrue. Did he think that I could not prove that Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tatianus, Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origene, Arnobius, Lactantius, Macarius, Maternus Firmicus, Ephrem Syrus, Faustinus, Hierome, Ruffinus, Prudentius, Sulpitius Severus, Sedulius, Mammertus, Cassianus, Vincent. Lirinensis, Socrates, Sozomen, Isidore Pelusiota, &c. did something in opposition to some Church-Corruptions? Though some of them promoted some others: Yea, Antony and abundance of Monks that furthered some, opposed others no less dangerous: Though many of them may be accused as Bellarmine doth Sulpit. Severus, for saying, Ecclesiam auro non strui sed destrui.
§ 19. That the Bishops charged by me with these Corruptions, were the only Opposers of them that we find in antiquity, as we may see in the Canons of Africk and Spain,] is a saying very near kin to much of his History: I confess that so few Presbyters in comparison of Bishops were publick Actors, whose Judgments were notified to the World, that it's no wonder (after Constantine's time) if there be more proofs of their words and deeds than of other mens: But there are a great number of excellent men here slandered against the credit of all Church-History, and ⟨p. 200⟩their own Writings yet in our hands. Would it be worth the Readers Price and Labour, I could swell my Book with the proof that what he speaketh is untrue. Did he think that I could not prove that Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tatianus, Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origene, Arnobius, Lactantius, Macarius, Maternus Firmicus, Ephrem Syrus, Faustinus, Hierome, Ruffinus, Prudentius, Sulpitius Severus, Sedulius, Mammertus, Cassianus, Vincent. Lirinensis, Socrates, Sozomen, Isodore Pelusiota, &c. did something in opposition to some Church-Corruptions? Though some of them promoted some others: Yea, Antonie and abundance of Monks that furthered some, opposed others no less dangerous: Though many of them may be accused as Bellarmine doth Sulpit. Severus, for saying, Ecclesiam auro non strui sed destrui.