A97353:715
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their…
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their principles about civil and ecclesiastical authority and obedience ... : mostly written many years past, and now published to save our lives and the kingdoms peace, from the false and bloody plotters ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Hancock, 1680
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.
46. I my self have found by experience, that Christians may be kept in Unity and peace, without any heresies, factions or divisions, by means of Scripture, Reason and Love, by their own consent, without compulsion.
47. many of us have found, that in case of the peevish self-conceitedness of any of our people, that fall into heretical dispositions, noise and violence are the bellows of their zeal, and the chief increasers of their folly and fury: And neglect extinguisheth it: so be it that they be but solidly confuted to the more judicious, and the rest kept in Unity and peace; The very neighbourhood of the Orthodox that are unanimous and concordant, doth quickly drain the heretical conventicles, and make the erroneous ashamed of themselves, and a weary of their impetuousness.
48. They that can bear with such in their constant congregations and Communion, who understand not the essentials of Christianity, or whose understanding they are utterly unacquainted with; and also with drunkards, tipplers, swearers, cursers, railers, prayerless families, fornicators, gluttons, sensual riotous persons, &c. and yet will rather cast Kingdoms into confusion than they will bear with an honest godly Christian, that differeth from their way of worship in no greater matter than a Ceremony, have something more amiss within than a Ceremony.
48. They that can bear with such in their constant congregations and Communion, who understand not the essentials of Christianity, or whose understanding they are utterly unacquainted with; and also with drunkards, tiplers, swearers, cursers, railers, prayerless families, fornicators, gluttons, sensual riotous persons, &c. and yet will rather cast Kingdoms into confusion than they will bear with an honest godly Christian, that differeth from their way of worship in no greater matter than a Ceremony, have something more amiss within than a Ceremony.