A90287:32
A review of the true nature of schism, with a vindication of the Congregational…A review of the true nature of schisme, with a vindication of the Congregationall…
A review of the true nature of schism, with a vindication of the Congregational churches in England, from the imputation thereof unjustly charged on them by Mr D. Cawdrey, preacher of the Word at Billing in Northampton-shire. / By John Owen D.D.A review of the true nature of schisme, with a vindication of the Congregationall churches in England, from the imputation thereof unjustly charged on them by Mr D. Cawdrey, preacher of the Word at Billing in Northampton-shire. / By John Owen D.D.
Oxford: printed by Henry Hall printer to the University for Thomas Robinson, 1657
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
What satisfaction now this Reverend Author shall judge it ⟨p. 21⟩necessary for him to give me, for the public injury which voluntarily he hath done me, in particular for his attempt to expose me to the censure and displeasure of so many godly ministers and Churches as I own in England, as a person denying their ministry, and Church station, I leave it to himself to consider. And by the declaration of this mistake how great a part of his book is waved as to my concernments therein, himself full well knows.
What satisfaction now this Reverend Author shall judge it ⟨p. 21⟩necessary for him to give me, for the publicke injury which voluntarily he hath done me, in particular for his attempt to expose me to the censure and displeasure of so many godly ministers and Churches as I owne in England, as a person denying their ministry, and Church station, I leave it to himselfe to consider. And by the declaration of this mistake how great a part of his book is waved as to my concernments therein, himsefe full well knows.
A second principle of like importance which he is pleased to make use of, as a thing granted by me, or at least which he assumes, as that which ought so to be, is that what ever the Presbyterian ministers and Churches be, I have separated from them, as have done all those whom he calls Independents. This is another fountain out of which much bitter water flows. Hence we must needs be thought to condemn their ministry and Churches. The Brownists were our fathers, and the Anabaptists are our elder Brothers, we make an harlot of our mother, and are Schismatics ⟨p. 22⟩and Sectaries from one end of the book to the other. Quod erat demonstrandum. But doth not this Reverend Author know that this is wholly denied by us? Is it not disproved sufficiently in that very Treatise which he undertakes to answer?