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A64259
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Baxter's book entitul'd The cure of church-divisions answer'd & confuted and he prov'd to be a physitian of no value who hath manifested his folly and weakness in undertaking a work which he hath so little understanding in / by Thomas Taylor.
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Taylor, Thomas, 1618-1682.
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1671
(1671)
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Wing T579; ESTC R26282
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49,732
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64
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out of the Church as prophane c. And so for this thy suming up and concluding God hath concluded thee with the wicked Persecutors for the Judgement of his great Day O Baxter But hold Baxter thou that art thus hot and without all fear in pleading for the Devil's Kingdom I say when the Lord bids us and we obey him in separating from the Wicked is this all one with the Sin of Persecution Oh thou unjust man the Lord will be terrible to thee in the day of his Wrath which is nigh at hand to come upon thee for all thy Villany against him and for all thy daubing deceitful words in the beginning and end of this Direction the Lord sees thee to be a Fighter against him and thy Reward will be according to thy Works as he hath said and all the Rocks and Mountains of the wicked World for whom thou pleadest shall not hide thee from his strook As testifies the good Spirit of the Lord Jesus in his Servant Some more of the bad and strange sayings of this Baxter in his Book Pag. 219. GOdly men are much liker to be in the right then Ungodly men Answ. This shows what a Stranger he is to the certainty of Godliness Pag. 220. Sometimes the worser sort of men may hold fast the Truth Answ. This is a gross Lye for the bad cannot hold fast the good unless in Prison or so If any better Persons deny Infant Baptism the worser Sort of People would be all against them and yet be in the right Answ. Thus sprinkling of Infants for which there is no Scripture must needs be wrong whosoever hold it and the corruption of it appears so much the more because the worser Sort are so much for it Many do take a Form of Prayer or Liturgy to be unlawful meerly because the most of the worser Sort are for it Answ. What deceit is this If thy Hearers so badly taught by thee do such things yet those that are taught of God deny things because they know them to be evil in themselves but what Form or Liturgy is that which the most of the worser Sort of the People are for even that which speaks peace to the Wicked by telling them they were Regenerated by sprinkling a little Water on their Faces or the like when Infants And that they shall be saved though they continue in sin all their lives long but the Hour cometh and now is that neither in the invented Forms of the Hypocrite's long Prayers nor in the short invented Forms and Liturgies of the Prophane but in Spirit and Truth as the Lord Jesus enables them will God be worshipped and served by his People for the Day is dawned and Shaddows 〈◊〉 and as the Day doth more and more arise in its Glory with all the things of vain Men pass away so be it Pag. 221. The some of his 44. Direction by his own setting down runs thus Ye take the Examples of religious Men to be one of your most perilous Temptations and therefore labour to discover especially what are the sins of Professors in the Age that you live in that you may especially watch and fortifie your Souls against them And adds That sometimes the strictest Sort run in a Gang after one Opinion and sometimes after another Answ. Here I appeal to that of God in all that fear his Name and are alive to Truth whether this do not wholly tend to the hardening of Pharaoh's Heart against the People of God in these dayes who are in the Truth it self and not in Opinions as the Hypocrites are for though such as are begotten into Forms of Religion without the Truth by the Hirelings do never cease from erring yet the truely Religious who are begotten to God by Christ walk in the Way undefiled which the Fools who are upright in Heart cannot err in But this his telling of running in a gang is a filthy and reproachful Speech wholly of Ashdod and the Lord will judge thee O Enemy for thy work R. B. and therefore let all that fear God take heed of this Baxter's Soul-defiling and Heart-hardning Doctrine for out of the dark and wicked Kingdom wherein he and all such live is the Lord calling his People And to conclude If any would see this Harlot in its fine dress and the crooked Serpent in its glittering colour on the Head which must be bruised and yet with his Sting in his Tail which is full of Venom let them consider that 44. Direction which runs thus Desire the highest Degree of Holiness and to be free from the corruptions of the Times but affect not to be odd and singular from ordinary Christians in lawful things for instance If it were to go in a meaner Garb then others and as the Quakers not to put off the Hat or with the Friars to go bare Foot or in a distinguishing Habit that all men may see and say This is a singular Person in Religion it is easie to see how this gratifieth Pride Answ. But now that the Lord is arisen according to his Promise Isa. 27.1 which saith In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong Sword shall punish Leviathan the peircing Serpent even Leviathan that crooked Serpent and he shall slay the Dragon that is in the Sea Therefore I say it is that the Dragon is so wrathful to pour forth his Floods of Persecution after the heavenly Woman and her Man-child and therefore it is that the crooked Serpent in such men as this Baxter is is so at work every way seeking with their cunning and crafty deceitful Doctrines to peirce the Heart the Life of Truth by their Darts and so with their fair colourable words as the Apostle speaks To deceive the hearts of the Simple and Ignorant People but the Lord taketh the Wily in their own craftiness and the Pit they digg for others themselves fall into and the Lord 's Spiritual Sword of Truth pierces through all their lives and dead in the great Sea and Puddle of their own Iniquities before the Lord and his Saints this day they lie Glory to his Name the mighty God over all who is worthy For what more glistering and fair seeming words can the Serpent give then to say Desire the highest Degree of Holiness and to be free from the corruptions of the Time But that this Baxter intends no such thing no nor believes that any shall ever attain to any such thing whilst on the Earth is most manifest by the whole current of his Doctrine for not onely in his former Books where he hath publickly declared That sinless Perfecttion is the Doctrine of the Devil hatch'd in Hell c. But even in this very Book it fully appears what an Enemy he is not onely to the highest Degree but even to Holiness it self where amongst his other Unholy Doctrines he saith as is before mentioned from pag. 195. That there is no man alive that worshippeth God without some sin and
Baxter's Book Entitul'd The Cure of Church-Divisions ANSWER'D CONFUTED And he prov'd to be a Physitian of NO VALUE Who hath manifested his Folly and Weakness in undertaking a Work which he hath so little Understanding in By Thomas Taylor For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to Covetousness c. They have Heal'd also the Hurt of the Daughter of my People with sweet words saying Peace Peace when there is no Peace Jer. 6.13 14. But ye are Forgers of Lyes ye are all Physitians of no Value Job 13.4 Printed in the Year 1671. Baxter's Book Entitul'd The Cure of Church-Divisions ANSWER'D CONFUTED RICHARD BAXTER a man who through a shew of Learning and Religion had gotten in Oliver Crumwel's dayes a great esteem in the minds of the ignorantly Zealous Professors of Religion in this Nation and especially in the parts of Worcester-shire about Kidderminster where he then resided hath since the change of the Times and coming in of the Old Common-prayer-Book again much manifested his Nakedness Confusion and Unsoundness to every Eye that in any measure is open to see the difference of Truth and Error in the ground of it as by his works appear and that it is so amongst other things that Book of his falsly call'd The Cure of Church-Divisions which I have now under-hand to answer doth plainly manifest For instead of curing Divisions he hath shew'd himself to be a Physitian of no value so instead of curing hath struck at under a Judas Kiss of Unity Concord the very Life and Foundation of all true Christian Unity and Amity to wit The Free and Perfect Teachings and Gifts and Work of the Spirit of Truth the Spirit of the Father and Son in his believing Members whereby they cry in a spotless Mind Abba Father and freely and powerfully declare the Glory of his Kingdom to the Children of Men and instead thereof would bring in and establish that Soul-deceiving and Church-dividing doctrine of Humane Learning and Humane Helps as absolutely necessary to the procuring and engaging as it were the Holy unlimited God to give unto the Creature his holy Spirit and the Knowledge of the Mysteries of his Eternal Will and Kingdom for the same as in Answer to an Objection in the 6th page of his Book in his first Direction so call'd is to be seen The Objection against his carnal Reasonings for Old Men's knowledge is in pag. 5. where he saith I know those that I have to do with will say That Divinity is not learn't by Labour and Men's-teaching as other Sciences and Arts are but by Teaching I add yea and most free Gift of the Spirit of God and therefore the Youngest may have as much of it as the Eldest And to this R. B. there thus answers Answ. There is some Truth saith he and some Falshood and much Confusion in this Objection Reply But O the Darkness ye◠rather Enmity that is in Baxter's heart against the free Teaching of God's Spirit that he would find any thing against so plain and manifest Truth as is in this Objection But what will not Flesh do that is lifted up with Conceits of his own wisdom to keep up its Honour before the people rather then the Pure Undoubted Truth of the Gospel and Self-abasing Spirit of Truth should Raign and have the Preheminence But let us hear how this R.B. proves that that there is either 〈◊〉 or Confusion in the Objection It is true saith he that the saving Knowledge of Divinity must be taught by the Spirit of God but it is false that Labour and Humane Teaching are not the Means which must be us'd by them who will have the Teaching of the Spirit But to this I say That a Child of Light in the least Measure doth easily see the Falshood of that spirit by which this R.B. is acted in this his answer For the wind of the Spirit bloweth where it listeth and thou hear'st the sound thereof thou natural Man but neither knows whence it comes nor whither it goes so is every one that 's born of God And without this Birth all thy knowledge is damning not saving John 3.7 8. c. And Job 32.7 8. I said dayes should Speak and multitude of years should Teach Wisdom but there is a Spirit in man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth them Understanding And saith God It shall come to pass in the last dayes that I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh and they shall all know me from the least to the greatest yea and Young-men shall see Visions and Servants and Hand-maids shall Prophesie and ye have receiv'd an Unction from the Holy One and ye know all things saith the Apostle John and ye need not that any man teach you This is the Day of the Lord wherein these things are fulfill'd prais'd be God And the new Covenant aboundantly witness'd in the Children of Light whom this wicked Book of Baxter's strikes at but his Wickedness turns upon his own Pate and his own Inquities shall slay him For he by his carnal Wisdom would darken Knowledge and shut the Kingdom of Heaven against men as his Predecessors of old the Pharisees mention'd Mat. 23. did But the Lord hath open'd a Door to the Believing Souls this Day which all the powers of Darkness shall never be able to shut Glory to his Name forever But what is that Labour and Humane Means that People must use for getting the Spirit of God or saving Knowledge of Divinity as he calls it Is it tumbling over a Ruck of Books stuffed with art and Humane Wisdom or Learning from below as this R.B. hath long done to the darkning of his Heart from the Knowledge of God and Way of his Spirit so that he knows nothing of it after all his long lost labour but what he knows naturally as a bruit Beast and that 's plain for it sanctifies him not as by his confessing That his best Duties even his Prayers are not without sin and affirming that no man prayes without sin as in his Book is to be seen page 195 and in his Preface And so the Prayer of Faith and Preaching by the Spirit he is ignorant of yea Preaching by the Spirit is become a Mock and a Derision to him and his Brethren at this day but Paul and all the Ministers of Christ Magnifie the Free Grace and Infinite Gift of the Spirit of God according to that 2 Cor. 3. Saying Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think a good Thought but our Ability is of God who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter kills but the Spirit gives Life And that which the Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath entred into the Heart of man or Humane Heart to conceive hath God reveal'd to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the Deep Things of