A27058:835
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.
§ 5. He saith [His censure of Councils that he knew none of them that have any happy End, was not the fault of the expedient, but of the men] Ans. And what did I ever say more. It is his custom when he hath stormed at me, to say in Effect the same that he stormed at. Some Papists would persuade men, that it was only Arian Councils that he meant, but most Protestants that Write about Councils against them, do cite & vindicate these words of Gregory: And the impartial Papists confess that it was the Councils also of the Catholics that there and else where he spake of.
§ 5. He saith [His censure of Councils that he knew none of them that have any happy End, was not the fault of the expedient, but of the men] Ans. And what did I ever say more. It is his custom when he hath stormed at me, to say in Effect the same that he stormed at. Some Papists would persuade men, that it was only Arian Councils that he meant, but most Protestants that Write about Councils against them, do cite & vindicate these words of Gregory: And the impartial Papists confess that it was the Councils also of the Catholicks that there and else where he spake of.
§ 6. In the Case of Meletius, and Paulinus, two Bishops in a City, and the Case of Lucifer Calaritanus made a Heretic for separating from lapsed Arians, he saith over the same that I do; that good men cannot rightly understand one another, and so it ever hath been, and it's the Effect of humane frailty and not Episcopacy. In all this I agree. But 1. If humane frailty make Bishops swell in pride and ambition, and domineering, it hath far worse Effects than in other men: 2. And Bishops are bound to excel their flocks in Piety, humility, Self-denial, peaceableness, as well as in knowledge. If the Physicians of this city should prove unskilful, and yet confident where they err, it is not quatenus Physicians that they are such: But if it be qui Physicians that are such, they may kill thousands, while the same faults in all their neighbours may kill few or none. If your Interest made you not smart and angry without cause, you would not cavil against such plain truth.
§ 6. In the Case of Meletius, and Paulinus, two Bishops in a City, and the Case of Lucifer Calaritanus made a Heretick for separating from lapsed Arians, he saith over the same that I do; that good men cannot rightly understand one another, and so it ever hath been, and it's the Effect of humane frailty and not Episcopacy. In all this I agree. But 1. If humane frailty make Bishops swell in pride and ambition, and domineering, it hath far worse Effects than in other men: 2. And Bishops are bound to excell their flocks in Piety, humility, Selfdenyal, peaceableness, as well as in knowledge. If the Physicians of this city should prove unskilful, and yet confident where they err, it is not quatenus Physicians that they are such: But if it be qui Physicians that are such, they may kill thousands, while the same faults in all their neighbours may kill few or none. If your Interest made you not smart and angry without cause, you would not cavil against such plain truth.