Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT763 .B35 1655

The Prefati is the _Readers, truly and confcionably willing : For my part, I 'fee no greater difficulty in the bufinefs. 4. The forwardnefs that is.in many men to keep open divifions, and to think th6fe that faynot as they, tobe fo great Hereticks or fo erroneous, that we muff affth no communion with them, and thus making fuch grounds of their own for Church Union, whichwill not bear it,is a downright mark of a Schifinatical Spirit, how earneft- ly foever they may fpeak againff Schifin. Therewill ne ver be a found Clofure and Union but on Chrifts Ground,work, and in him as the Center. The Papifts are the greateft Schifinaticks in the world(that I knowof) andyet they are the greateft pretenders to Unity,and de- Fryers. of Schifm, and all by makinga new . Center for Unity: which who fo doth not dole mtift be difclaitn- ed by them as Schifinatical ; that is, by making new Ar- ticles of Faith, and a new Head to the Church, Catho- lick. And do not foie enemies of Popery, turn fo far. to Popery, in appropriating the Church; to their own: party, and making their opinions (which the Church. never owned,at leaft for four hundred years ) to be the groundof Unity, and Teaof true Chriftians 5. I never thought that whenever men differ,it is my . duty to go in a middle between both, (for fo that middle will be next taken for an extream5 and men muff feek.out another middle to avoid that :) but yet I have obferved not only that in molt differences, men can hardly keep, out of extreams, and that Truth and Peace do exceed- ingly befriend each other : but alfo that Auffins Argo:- anent is very probable,in Epifi.204. Donato: perfwading him to return from Schifm to the Church, Ibi eft veritas pietas quit; ibi e Chrifiiana unitas e 4;1614 Spiritus Ckaritas. However I am certain that our torn condition is not fodefirable toany fenfible well-tempered Chrifti- an

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