A76157:322
Confirmation and restoration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…Confirmation and restauration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…
Confirmation and restoration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of the corruptions and divisions of the churches: submissively, but earnestly tendered to the consideration of the sovereign powers, magistrates, ministers, and people, that they may awake, and be up and doing in the execution of so much, as appeareth to be necessary as they are true to Christ, his Church and Gospel, and to their own and others souls, and to the peace and welfare of the nations; and as they will answer the neglect to Christ, at their peril. / By Richard Baxter, an unworthy minister of Christ, that longeth to see the healing of the churches.Confirmation and restauration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of the corruptions and divisions of the churches: submissively, but earnestly tendered to the consideration of the soveraigne powers, magistrates, ministers, and people, that they may awake, and be up and doing in the execution of so much, as appeareth to be necessary as they are true to Christ, his Church and Gospel, and to their own and others souls, and to the peace and wellfare of the nations; and as they will answer the neglect to Christ, at their peril. / By Richard Baxter, an unworthy minister of Christ, that longeth to see the healing of the churches.
London: printed by A.M. for Nevil Simmons book-seller, 1658
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.
But if we shall exercise the Discipline of Christ upon all in our ordinary Parishes, what work shall we make? I will tell you what work, from so much experience, as that no reasonings can any more persuade me to believe the contrary, then that wormwood is not bitter, or snow not cold.
But if we shall exercise the Discipline of Christ upon all in our ordinary Parishes, what work shall we make? I will tell you what work, from so much experience, as that no reasonings can any more perswade me to believe the contrary, then that wormwood is not bitter, or snow not cold.
1. We shall have such a multitude to excommunicate, or reject that it will make the sentence grow almost contemptible by the commonness. 2. We shall so extremely enrage the spirits of the people, that we shall go in continual danger of our lives: Among so many that are publicly reproved, and cast out, it's two to one, but some desperate villains will be studying revenge. But all this is nothing: but that which sticks upon my heart is this:1 3. We shall be the cruellest enemies to the Souls of our poor people in the world: and put them the very next step to Hell. For as soon as ever we have rejected them, and cast them under public ⟨p. 175⟩shame, they hate us to the heart, and either will never hear us more, or hear us with so much hearted and malice, or bitterness of spirit, that they are never like to profit by us. If you say that doubtless Discipline will have better fruits, if it be an Ordinance of God: I Answer 1. It's no time now in the end of the world, to question whether that be an Ordinance of God, which Scripture speaks for so fully, and so plainly; and which the Catholic Church hath so long practised, and that with such severity as it hath done. 2. I know the Discipline is of excellent use, and is likely to have excellent effects: But upon whom? Upon such as are fit to come under Discipline, and with such I have seen the usefulness of it: but with the rest it makes them next to mad. They that before would patiently hear me, in the plainest, sharpest Sermons that I could preach, and would quietly bear any private admonition, when once they are publicly admonished and cast out, are filled with the gall of malice and indignation, and never more likely to profit by a Sermon. Nay they set themselves with malice, to reproach and oppose, and stir up others; and fall in to any party, that will receive them that are enemies to the Ministry: so that I look upon