A55307:106
The Samaritan showing that many and unnecessary impositions are not the oil that must…The Samaritan shewing that many and unnecessary impositions are not the oyl that must…
The Samaritan showing that many and unnecessary impositions are not the oil that must heal the church together with the way or means to do it / by a country gentleman who goes to common-prayer and not to meetings.The Samaritan shewing that many and unnecessary impositions are not the oyl that must heal the church together with the way or means to do it / by a country gentleman who goes to common-prayer and not to meetings.
London: printed for Tho. Simmons, 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.
8. Let the Ministers of the Gospel be obliged to declare their Fai h in, and Assent unto, no more than some such brief Symbol, or Confession, or rather to those three Summaries of Christianity abovesaid. Let them not be obliged to subscribe unto a multifarious number of Articles, or to profess a Faith or Consent unto them. Let them heartily believe those few great things, and reduce their Faith to Practice, and persuade others (I mean their several Congregations) to do so, and this will be a more effectual way of producing and preserving Peace and Union, than any other way or means whatsoever, and with less mischief and inconveniences. 'Tis true, good, large, numerous and swinging Impositions, ratified by severe Laws, and prosecuted by something like an Inquisition, would peradventure silence more Disputes and Controversies; but then there are two small mischiefs consequent thereunto, The one is, it would destroy the best part of Mankind from off the face of the Earth: The other is, it will destroy all serious Religion, and leave ⟨p. 64⟩nothing but an empty name or shadow of it in the World. And I am of the mind that some serious Religion, though attended with Controversies and Contentions about some smaller things, is more eligible than no Religion, or an outside Formality and Visor of it, though accompanied with the greatest Agreement, Union, and Sameness of Judgment and Apprehension imaginable. Men are not Masters of their own Persuasions, and cannot change their Thoughts as they please. He that believes any thing concerning Religion, cannot turn as the Prince commands him, or accommodate himself to the Law, or his present Interests, unless he arrive at that pitch of Atheism as to look on Religion only as a matter of Policy, or as an Engine for Civil Government. Burnet in his Preface to his late Book of the Right of Princes.
8. Let the Ministers of the Gospel be obliged to declare their Fai h in, and Assent unto, no more than some such brief Symbol, or Confession, or rather to those three Summaries of Christianity abovesaid. Let them not be obliged to subscribe unto a multifarious number of Articles, or to profess a Faith or Consent unto them. Let them heartily believe those few great things, and reduce their Faith to Practice, and persuade others (I mean their several Congregations) to do so, and this will be a more effectual way of producing and preserving Peace and Union, than any other way or means whatsoever, and with less mischief and inconveniencies. 'Tis true, good, large, numerous and swinging Impositions, ratified by severe Laws, and prosecuted by something like an Inquisition, would peradventure silence more Disputes and Controversies; but then there are two small mischiefs consequent thereunto, The one is, it would destroy the best part of Mankind from off the face of the Earth: The other is, it will destroy all serious Religion, and leave