A55307:85
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.
4. The incongruousness of Laws, Penalties, and Executions, to make men wise, or give them largeness of understanding, to bring them to this Concord. Will Laws and Penalties give Eyes to the Blind, or Ears to the Deaf? Or will they enable a weak and impaired Eye to see Hairs, or the Webs of Spiders? Will they enable the quickest. sight to see the Woods and Forests, the Rocks and Mountains, the Towns and Villages, the Castles and Forts that are in the Moon? Laws and Penalties may sometimes put men on study and consideration, (though I think 'tis not very often, they rather warm and enrage mens Spirits, and put them upon the defence of their own Opinions, than on the consideration of the truth of those that are imposed on their assent and Faith) but they can never make men understand beyond their Capacities: All the Teaching and Instruction in the World will not make some men wise and learned, and what Instruction can't do, I am sure Laws will not do.
4. The incongruousness of Laws, Penalties, and Executions, to make men wise, or give them largeness of understanding, to bring them to this Concord. Will Laws and Penalties give Eyes to the Blind, or Ears to the Deaf? Or will they enable a weak and impaired Eye to see Hairs, or the Webs of Spiders? Will they enable the quickest. sight to see the Woods and Forrests, the Rocks and Mountains, the Towns and Villages, the Castles and Forts that are in the Moon? Laws and Penalties may sometimes put men on study and consideration, (though I think 'tis not very often, they rather warm and enrage mens Spirits, and put them upon the defence of their own Opinions, than on the consideration of the truth of those that are imposed on their assent and Faith) but they can never make men understand beyond their Capacities: All the Teaching and Instruction in the World will not make some men wise and learned, and what Instruction can't do, I am sure Laws will not do.
5. That Laws and Executions may make some men Lie and Dissemble, and Consent against their Consciences to Impositions: but of all men such are the sharpest and most enraged Enemies; And none upon Earth will be more ready to revenge themselves upon the Imposers, than they will be, whenever an opportunity be offered to them. Thus in the Days of Queen Mary, many dissembled, and assented to the Roman Impositions, to preserve their Estates and Lives, but they retained their Old Opinions, and conceived a mortal hatred against those that put them on those straits and difficulties, as Dr. Burnet observes (Hist. Refor. part 2. page 364): And there is no doubt but they were the keenest, and most eager Enemies to the Romanists, in the Days of Queen Elizabeth, when they had the opportunity of revenging themselves upon them.