A37042:521
The dying man's testament to the Church of Scotland, or, A treatise concerning scandal…
The dying man's testament to the Church of Scotland, or, A treatise concerning scandal divided into four parts ... : in each of which there are not a few choice and useful questions, very shortly and satisfyingly discussed and cleared / by ... Mr. James Durham ... who being dead (by this) yet speaketh ; and published by John Carstares ... ; to which is prefixed an excellent preface of famous Mr. Blair ... ; together with a table of the contents of the several chapters of each part.
Edinburgh: printed by Christopher Higgins, 1659
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.
1. Because such divisions are as really scandalous1 and hurtful to the Church, as either scandals in practice or doctrine are. 2. Because the Word of God hath as fully discovered and abundantly condemned the offensiveness of this, as of any of the former. 3. Because there is such a connection amongst these sorts of scandals, that often one is not without the other. Hence we see, 1. that contention and offences and the woe that followeth them, are joined together, Matth. 18. 1, 2, 3, &c. 2. Divisions and corrupt doctrine, or heresies, are knit together, 1 Cor. 11. 18, 19. so that seldom there is corrupt doctrine, but it hath division with it; and never is division, but it hath offence, As in the Epistles to these of Corinth and Galatia is clear: Hence dogs and evil workers, that is, the spreaders of corrupt doctrine, are also called the concision, Phil. 3. 1, 2, &c. and in experience we often find, that a spirit of division waiteth upon delusion, and oftentimes doth take up and prevail, even over those who have been preserved from the delusion; As in a great storm, some places have great and dreadful blasts and drops, who yet may be kept free from the violence of the tempest; Even so, this deluge of error, hath showers of divisions waiting upon it, which often may affect these who are preserved from the violence of delusion it self; which maketh, that the speaking something to this, doth not impertinently follow upon the former. 4. Because if this be wanting, what is said in the former cases, is palpably defective, especially at such a time, when there is no less cause to observe this evil, than any of the former. This being, as to them, in some respect a cause that bringeth them forth and fostereth them, and, in some respect, an effect which necessarily and naturally followeth upon them: for, ⟨p. 272⟩divisions breed both scandals in practice and doctrine; And again, scandal in these, doth breed and entertain divisions.
1. Because such divisions are as really scandalous1