The Prcfa.ce.• · unto thetn, I Joh.t. 1 o, 17. clJap.4.1, 1, 3. 1 ]oh. 8·9· All true Believers ·in their feveral frations,by mutual watch– fulnefs, preaching or vvriting, according unto their calls and abilities, effectually ufed the outward means for the prefervation · and propagation of the· Faith of the Church. And "the fame means are frill fufficient unto– the fame ends, were they attended unto vvith confciet~ce and diligence. The pretended Defence of Truth vvith Arts and Anns ·of another kind, hath been the bane of Religion, and loft the Peace ofChriftians b~yond reco– very. And it tnay beobferved,tharwhilfl: this way alone for the prefervation of the Truth \Vas in.Gfl:ed on and purfued, that although innumerable Herefies arofe one after another, and fometimes many together, yet they never made any great progrefs, nor arrived unto any_ .h1ch confii1:ency, as to make a fiated oppofition unto the Truth, · but the Err ours then1felves and their Au– thors \vere as vagrant Meteors, ·which appeared for a · little \vhile, and vanifhed away. Afterwards it \Vas not f.o, when other \vaies and means for the fuppreffion of Herefies v;ere judged convenient and needful. _ For in procefS of cin1e, when the Po\ver ofthe ~man Ernpire gave countenance and proteCtion unto Chri– fhan Religion, ctnother \Vay \Vas fixed on for this end, namely, the ufe of fuch Alfemblies of Bifbops and o– thers as they called general Counccls, armed \Vith a mixt Po\Y~r, partly Civil, and partly Ecclefiafl:icAl, yvid~ . refpect
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