A27058:32
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
Preface: To the Pious and Peaceable Protestant-Conforming Ministers, who are against our Subject…
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.
This is the Abyssinians Opinion of the Council and Controversy, false no doubt in our Canoneers Judgment, (for alas they are unlearned men;) but indeed much truer and wiser than their Adversaries.
This is the Habassines Opinion of the Council and Controversie, false no doubt in our Canoneers Judgment, (for alas they are unlearned men;) but indeed much truer and wiser than their Adversaries.
He proceedeth, Primo reperi omni dubio carere, quod Habessini rejiciunt consilium Chalcedonense—2. Observavi eos in hoc errore esse, quasi Patres Concilii Calced. Hypostasin Christi dividere, & contra praecedens Concilium Ephesinum ex una duas personas facere voluerint—Hanc ob causam damnant Leonem Papam, & in coelum extollunt suum Dioscorum tanquam Orthodoxae fidei hyperaspisten qui justo zelo diploma Leonis ad se datum di•aceravit; eumque Martyri assimilant, ob accepta verbera, excussos dents & evulsam barbam.] (But it eased the Spleen of the Bps. at present, and then all the following loss seems tolerable.) He addeth, [4. Constat ex multis locis, quod utrumque abstractum, Divinitatem & Humanitatem, conjunctim in Christo aperte confiteantur. Quid autem hoc aliud est, quam agnoscere duas simul naturas in Christo. 5. Tellezius ex Relatione Patrum societatis testatur [utramque naturam] reperiri in eorum libris. 6. He shows that the Abyssinians ⟨image 7⟩words have various signification, and by two natures, they mean two Persons—Which (saith Ludolphus) when I read and consider, I find all to be confused and perplexed: There is no certain state of the question, and the words are out of measure equivocal. Perhaps Eutyches himself could not tell what sort of Nature was made of two, and what was its name, and what was its qualities: But that he was such a fool as to think that the Natures in Christ were so confused as Water is with Wine, and that in so absurd an Opinion he had most wise men agreeing with him; this almost exceedeth all belief: Certainly the Ethiopians are not guilty of so gross a Heresy. Wherefore I confess I cannot understand what those frequent Disputations were, which the Jesuits had with the Habassiines, of two Natures in Christ, in which they say they had still the worse, being convicted by their own Books, which I easily believe, seeing they most willingly confess Christs Divinity and Humanity. To me it seemeth likely only that they could not agree in words. Do but explain to them that by Natures in Christ we mean his Divinity and Humanity, & then ask them which Nature is it that faileth in Christ. Most certainly they will answer that neither the Divinity nor Humanity failed, but both continue eternally.