Baxter - BV669 B3 1681

`2CàO) the Trinity, that Pbiloftorgins of Old, and out of him Sandius of late, would make us believe that alnoft all the ancient Bill-lops indeed were Arrians. But the fadtieft inftanceof the mifchief of toomuch ferving Church- men by the fword, is the cafe of the Papal faHion : whenCyril had begun the trade at Alexandria,' faith Socrates, [Epifcopus Romanus non aliter atque /1texandrinus quaff extra ficerdotis'fines egrefuî, ad fecularem principatum Brat jam ante delapfurl (it teems Rome had the primacy in a Sanguinary Prelacys) And, faith he Then Pope Ce'leftine deft took their Churches from the Novations, and compelled their Bilhop Ruricele to keep their meetings privately in houles: And though the Bithops commended them as Orthodox, yet they fpoiled them of their fortunes, Socrat. 1.7. C. I I. Io impatient are-armed Prelates of any that are not of their mind and .way;flow honeft othern ile foever they acknowledge them. But,alas, fince then what fireams of blood have been fhed to back the Romane difcipline ? How many hundred thoufandof the Waldenfes and Albigenfes did theymurther? How many thoufands in Belgia,Frarïce,Ger- mány,Poland, Ireland, &c. And when at firfi they precarioufly got theMa- giftrates to ferve them voluntarily with the fword, at lafithey would conftrain them to it, as their duty ; and fuch a duty as theymuff per- form on pain of lófing their dominions: For the Pope having firft ex- communicated them, 'next may give away their dominions to others,asis fully expreffed, Coned. Lateran. fub.Innoc.3. Can. 3.' & Concil. Rom. fob. Gregor. y. And do I yet need to fay more, what mifchief path come by o- vermuchbacking Church difcipline by the (word ? If I do, let this be the clofe,that Godknoweth howmany Great men and Commanders arenow inHell, for the perlécutions and en orders, which Church men have thus drawn them to. a. Laftly, mofi certain this conrfe (of forcing all men into the Church and to the Sacrament by prifon and fword) will keep. up perpetual divifì- ons in the Churches. The more religious fort of people will hill in all ages be flying away from fuels Churches as from a Pei-houle,or infeted place, or ruinous houle that's ready to fall. The unexperienced Prelates - think that it is but Thine few preachers that teach the people fuch ffriét opinions, and if thofe werecut off all would bewell : But their ignorance is theChurches plague and their own. e. There is fomewhat in Scripture that perfwadeth them thatGod hateth all the workers of iniquity; and thatholinefs and unholinefs are as'Light and Darltnefs, and that he that nameth the nameof Chrift mutt depart from iniquity, and that the impe- nitent and fcandalous muti be avoided and afhamed, and hereticks after ä firfl and fecond admonition, and that he that bids thetn Good fpeed is partaker of their evil deeds, and that a little Ieaven leaveneth the whole lump, and therefore the wicked muff be aft out, and muff be tous (if obflinate after admonition) as Heathens and Publicans ; Thefe are not the words of phanaticks but of Chrift. 2. There is fomething in the laid

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