A27058:563
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.
XX. But the boldest part of their History, is their description of the two sorts of the People in England, those that are for the present Nonconformists, and those that are against them. Those that are against them, they account the most Religious, Temperate, Chaste, Loyal, Credible, and in a word, the best people through the Land (for of our Rulers I am not speaking.) And those that are for the Nonconforming Ministers, they defame as the most proud, hypocritical, treacherous, disloyal, covetous, false, and in a word, the worst people in the Land; or as Fowlis saith, the worst of all mankind, and unfit to live in humane Society. How long will it be ere the sober people of this Land believe this Character? One would think that the quality of the common Inhabitants of the Land should not be a Controversy, or unknown thing. All that I will say to this History, is, to tell the Reader the utmost of my observation and experience from my Youth up, concerning these two sorts of men.
XX. But the boldest part of their History, is their description of the two sorts of the People in England, those that are for the present Nonconformists, and those that are against them. Those that are against them, they account the most Religious, Temperate, Chast, Loyal, Credible, and in a word, the best people through the Land (for of our Rulers I am not speaking.) And those that are for the Nonconforming Ministers, they defame as the most proud, hypocritical, treacherous, disloyal, covetous, false, and in a word, the worst people in the Land; or as Fowlis saith, the worst of all mankind, and unfit to live in humane Society. How long will it be ere the sober people of this Land believe this Character? One would think that the quality of the common Inhabitants of the Land should not be a Controversie, or unknown thing. All that I will say to this History, is, to tell the Reader the utmost of my observation and experience from my Youth up, concerning these two sorts of men.
Where I was bred before 1640. (which was in divers places) I knew not one Presbyterian Clergy man, nor Lay, and but three or four Nonconforming Ministers. Nay till Mr. Ball wrote for the Liturgy and against Can, and Allen, &c. and till Mr. Burton Published his Protestation protested, I never thought what Presbytery or Independency were, nor ever spake with a man that seemed to know it: And that was in 1641. when the War was brewing. In the place where I first lived, and the Country about, the People were of two sorts: The generality seemed to mind nothing seriously but the body and the world: They went to Church and would answer the Parson in Responds and thence go to dinner, and then to play: They never prayed in their families, but some of them going to bed, would say over the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, & some of them the Hail Mary: All the year long, not a serious word of holy things, or the Life to come, that I could hear of, proceeded from them. They read not the Scripture, nor any good Book or Catechism. Few of them could read, or had a Bible: They were of two ranks; the greater part were good Husbands as they called them, and savoured of nothing but their business or Interest in the World; the rest were Drunkards: Most were Swearers, but not equally: Both