A37042:566
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
Part 4 › Chapter 4: The causes why Division usually cometh to so great an height.
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.
with 11, 12, 13, 14. 3. It becometh an burden, grief and offence to the weak, such division ⟨p. 297⟩being a main stumbling-block to the little ones that believe, Matth. 18. 1, and 6. 4. It proveth a1 great confirmation and ground of hardening to the adversaries of the truth, who are thereby exceedingly hardened, and brought to applaud themselves in their own way, as if such divided instruments could not be of the one body, the Church, which is guided by one Spirit; And this was cast up by heathens in the primitive times, as we may find by the apologies of many of the Fathers; and the same way hath been followed by Antichrist and his followers unto this day; they insult in nothing more than the divisions of the Orthodox▪ and are more proud of nothing than their pretended unity, which they make a mark of the true Church. And when all these are considered, we suppose, it may be evident that such divisions are, when they are, a great plague unto the Church, and may justly be called a woe unto the world.
with 11, 12, 13, 14. 3. It becometh an burden, grief and offence to the weak, such division ⟨p. 297⟩being a main stumbling-block to the little ones that believe, Matth. 18. 1, and 6. 4. It proveth a1 great confirmation and ground of hardening to the adversaries of the truth, who are thereby exceedingly hardened, and brought to applaud themselves in their own way, as if such divided instruments could not be of the one body, the Church, which is guided by one Spirit; And this was cast up by heathens in the primitive times, as we may find by the apologies of many of the Fathers; and the same way hath been followed by Antichrist and his followers unto this day; they insult in nothing more than the divisions of the Orthodox and are more proud of nothing than their pretended unity, which they make a mark of the true Church. And when all these are considered, we suppose, it may be evident that such divisions are, when they are, a great plague unto the Church, and may justly be called a wo unto the world.