A97353:848
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.
43. It is a great injury to Christianity and the souls of men, when disagreeing States men will not suffer the Clergy to live quietly by them, but will constrain or tempt them to interess themselves in any of their Factions, ⟨p. 202⟩(except in the necessary discharge of their Allegiance and Fidelity to their King and Country) And will force them that are unstudied in humane Laws, to decide those State controversies, even by assertive Oaths, which Lawyers and Parliaments cannot agree about: And it is a […] heinous cruelty and injustice, when after all this, they will pretend that their political differences are controversies in Religion, when it is not so, and will thence denominate parties in the Church.
43. It is a great injury to Christanity and the souls of men, when disagreeing States men will not suffer the Clergy to live quietly by them, but will constrain or tempt them to interess themselves in any of their Factions, ⟨p. 202⟩(except in the necessary discharge of their Allegiance and Fidelity to their King and Countrey) And will force them that are unstudied in humane Laws, to decide those State controversies, even by assertive Oaths, which Lawyers and Parliaments cannot agree about: And it is a 〈…〉 heinous cruelty and injustice, when after all this, they will pretend that their political differences are controversies in Religion, when it is not so, and will thence denominate parties in the Church.
44. The difference between the aforesaid Extremes (the formal and malignant persecutors, and the censorious Fanatic Sectaries) is more in the manner and way of Exercise, than in their Principles themselves. For they are both agreed in the main, against the true nature and principles of Christian Love and Concord. They both think others more odious and less amiable than they are: And they both are possessed with an envious zeal (which S. James saith is earthly, sensual, and Devilish,