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Order of Contents
Articles 2
Book 1
Quotes 5
Latin 1
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Articles
1600’s
Leigh, Edward – pp. 358-59 in 18. ‘Of Envy, Error…’ in A System or Body of Divinity… (London, A.M., 1654), bk. 4
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1700’s
De Moor, Bernard – ch. 3, section 17, ‘On Error’ in A Continuous Commentary on John Marck’s Compendium of Didactic & Elenctic Christian Theology, vol. 1 Buy (Leiden, 1761-71), ch. 3, ‘On Religion’
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Book
1600’s
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Quotes
Order of
London Presbyterians
Calixtus
Pascal
Ross
Machen
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1600’s
London Provincial Assembly
A Vindication of the Presbyterial-Government & the Ministry… (London, 1650)
“Error is of an encroaching nature: as the little thief opens the door oftentimes to the great thief, so a little error paves a cause-way to a greater. The Popish superstition at first grew secretly, the tares were hidden under the corn; but in a little while the tares grew up, so as no corn could be seen. Images, at first were brought into the Church only for an historical use; afterwards, to stir up devotion, at last, they came to be worshipped.
Let the serpent but wind in his head and he will quickly bring in his whole body… he that says ‘yea’ to the Devil in a little shall not say ‘nay’ when he please. He that tumbles down the hill of error will never leave tumbling till he comes to the bottom.”
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“For the truth is, corruption in the judgment will quickly bring corruption in the conversation [conduct]. Our actions are guided by our apprehensions; and if our apprehensions be erroneous, our actions will quickly be tainted with wickedness.
And therefore it is very observable that in the old Law, when the leprosy was in the head, the priest was not only to pronounce the man unclean, but utterly unclean (Lev. 13:14). For leprosy in the head will quickly beget a leprosy in the whole man. As the sun is to the world, so is the understanding to man: If the sun be dark, all the world is in darkness; and ‘if the light that is in thee’ (says Christ) ‘be darkness, how great is that darkness?’
We wonder not at the looseness of your practices when we consider the looseness of your principles. For doctrines contrary to godliness must needs bring forth a conversation contrary to the Gospel. And this is an evident token to us, that the New-Lights (as they are called) which you hold forth to the world proceed not from the Father of Lights, but the Prince of Darkness, because they lead men into the works of darkness.”
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George Calixtus
Judgment on Theological Controversies agitated between the Lutherans & Reformed, and on the mutual brotherhood and tolerance of parties because of consensus in the fundamentals tr. by AI by WesternCatholike (1650; Leiden, 1652)
pp. 4-5
“VII. An example is [the Lutheran] Matthias Flacius Illyricus, who, in a dispute against Victorinus Strigelius in the sixties of the last century, asserted that original sin is substantial and continued to assert it.
He did not realize this implied that God, if not the author of sin as he denied, was not the Creator of all substances and things, thus implying two creators and two gods. Flacius did not understand or admit that this followed from his premises. It is unjust to say that Flacius held there were two gods, although this could be deduced from his opinions by sound consequences.”
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pp. 5-6
“X. If I say that God, pitying mankind, who through their own crime and the devil’s deceit have fallen into sin and destruction, sent His only-begotten Son. He became man for the sake of men, suffered and died, rose again, and ascended into heaven, obtaining remission of sins and eternal life for them. This great benefit of His Son, God makes known and proclaims to men through the preaching of the Gospel. Those who acknowledge and grieve over their sins, assent to the Gospel, believe in the Son, and trust in His merit and death, are reconciled to God, obtain remission of sins, and are transferred from a state of wrath and damnation to a state of glory and salvation, in which they will remain and surely become partakers of eternal glory, if, since they have believed and been reconciled to God, they strive to observe the divine commandments, do not live according to the flesh, and, with the help of divine grace, avoid committing sins against conscience. Thus, a man will be justified in this life and glorified in the future. If, I say, we use such words, taken from common usage and easily understood by anyone, there can be no disagreement among pious and gentle Christians about the doctrine. No one of them, unless afflicted by a vile and malicious urge to contend and quibble, will question this.
But if I say, this is the principal efficient cause; this is the proximate principal cause; this is instrumental on the part of God, this on the part of man; this is merely a disposition; this is the formal cause itself; this is material, this necessary per se, this according to the hypothesis, if I start speaking this way, then it may easily happen that some will misunderstand or plainly not understand me, or interpret me differently than I intend; and thus, a controversy will arise over the use and application of such terms, which is purely scholastic and should not be given such importance that it disrupts the bond of Christian love and concord.”
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Blaise Pascal
Pensees, section 14, Appendix: ‘Polemical Fragments’ in Pensees – The Provincial Letters in The Modern Library (d. 1662; NY: Modern Library, 1941), pp. 305-6
“The Church has always been attacked by opposite errors, but perhaps never at the same time, as now. And if she suffer more because of the multiplicity of errors, she derives this advantage from it; that they destroy each other.”
“All err the more dangerously, as they each follow a truth. Their fault is not in following a falsehood, but in not following another truth.”
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1800’s
Charles Ross
The Inner Sanctuary
“Truth is catholic; error is sectarian, and tends to divide. For there is such a thing as Christian principle, and the force of conscience. And he is the sectarian—not who adheres to fundamental truth and high Christian principle—but who deviates from the truth, and forsakes Christian principle.”
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1900’s
J. Gresham Machen
Christianity & Liberalism, p. 50
“It is often said that the divided condition of Christendom is an evil, and so it is. But the evil consists in the existence of the errors which cause the divisions and not at all in the recognition of those errors when once they exist.”
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Latin Articles
1600’s
Voet, Gisbert – Select Theological Disputations (Utrecht, 1659), vol. 3
48. pt. 2 703
49. pt. 3 713
50. pt. 4 722
51. pt. 5 736
52. pt. 6 750
53. pt. 7 768
54. pt. 8 791
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Related Pages
Heresiographies, Surveys of Sects & other Religions, & on Heresy