A27058:565
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.
would read the Scripture on the Lord's Day, when others were playing:▪ These were, where I lived, about the number of two or three Families in twenty; and these by the rest were called Puritans, and derided as Hypocrites and Precisians, that would take on them to be Holy: And especially if they told any one of his Swearing, Drunkenness, or Ungodliness, they were made the common scorn. Yet not one of many of them ever scrupled Conformity to Bishops Liturgy or Ceremonies, and it was godly Conformable Ministers that they went from home to hear: And these Ministers being the ablest Preachers, and of more serious Piety, were also the Objects of the Vulgar Obloquy as Puritans and Precisians themselves; and accordingly spoke against by many of their Tribe, and envied for being preferred by godly men.
would read the Scripture on the Lord's Day, when others were playing:▪ These were, where I lived, about the number of two or three Families in twenty; and these by the rest were called Puritanes, and derided as Hypocrites and Precisians, that would take on them to be Holy: And especially if they told any one of his Swearing, Drunkenness, or Ungodliness, they were made the common scorn. Yet not one of many of them ever scrupled Conformity to Bishops Liturgy or Ceremonies, and it was godly Conformable Ministers that they went from home to hear: And these Ministers being the ablest Preachers, and of more serious Piety, were also the Objects of the Vulgar Obloquy as Puritanes and Precisians themselves; and accordingly spoke against by many of their Tribe, and envyed for being preferred by godly men.
This being the Condition of the Vulgar where I was, when I came into the acquaintance of many Persons of Honour and Power, and reputed Learning, I found the same seriousness in Religion in some few before described, and the same daily scorn of that sort of men in others, but differently clothed: For these would talk more bitterly, but yet with a greater show of reason against the other, than the ignorant Country People did: And they would sometime talk of some Opinions in Religion, and some of them would use some of the Common-Prayer in