A27058:191
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.
II. If the doubtful stories of Simon Magus be true, his tumour was more than Papal; And Epiphanius makes Menander, Saturnilus, Basilides, to be but his Off-spring. The Original of the Nicolaitans and Gnostics (who Epiphanius saith, had ensnared himself once) is utterly uncertain; Carpocras, Cerinthus, Ebion, Valentinus, Secundus, Ptolomaeus, were all but Birds of the same Gnostics Nest, a crazed sort of men that mingled Christianity, Platonism, and Magical Imaginations; and what they were themselves, is not known: Such was Marcus, Colarbasus, Heracleon, the Ophitae, the Cainites, the Sethians, Cerdo; Marcion was a Bishop's Son cast out for vice; and Lucian, Apelles and Severus his Off-spring, the Heads of their little Sects; whether Bishops or not, is unknown. What kind of Heretics Tertullian, Tatianus, and Origen were, and how many faults as soul Lactantius, and many not numbered with Heretics have, is well known: And among all these in those early days, till there were Popes and Diocesans (such as now) in the world, none such could be Heretics.
II. If the doubtful stories of Simon Magus be true, his tumor was more than Papal; And Epiphanius makes Menander, Saturnilus, Basilides, to be but his Off-spring. The Original of the Nicolaitans and Gnosticks (who Epiphanius saith, had ensnared himself once) is utterly uncertain; Carpocras, Cerinthus, Ebion, Valentinus, Secundus, Ptolomaeus, were all but Birds of the same Gnosticks Nest, a crazed sort of men that mingled Christianity, Platonism, and Magical Imaginations; and what they were themselves, is not known: Such was Marcus, Colarbasus, Heracleon, the Ophitae, the Cainites, the Sethians, Cerdo; Marcion was a Bishop's Son cast out for vice; and Lucian, Apelles and Severus his Off-spring, the Heads of their little Sects; whether Bishops or not, is unknown. What kind of Hereticks Tertullian, Tatianus, and Origen were, and how many faults as soul Lactantius, and many not numbered with Hereticks have, is well known: And among all these in those early daies, till there were Popes and Diocesans (such as now) in the world, none such could be Hereticks.
III. Many Councils contended about the time of Easter, and Victor with one part of Bishops, excommunicated Polycrates and the Arian Bishops; while, as Socrates and Sozomen tell us, the Churches that left it indifferent had peace.