For we cannot deny the Church of
God both in Asia and Africa, if we do not forget the peregrinations of
the apostles, the deaths of the martyrs, the sessions of many, and, even
in our reformed judgment, lawful councils, held in those parts in the
minority and nonage of ours. Nor must a few differences, more remarkable
in the eyes of man than perhaps in the judgment of God, excommunicate
from heaven one another, much less those Christians who are in a manner
all martyrs, maintaining their faith in the noble way of persecution, and
serving God in the fire, whereas we honour Him in the sunshine. It is
true we all hold there is a number of elect, and many to be saved; yet
take our opinions together, and from the confusion thereof there will be
no such thing as salvation, nor shall any one be saved. For first, the
Church of Rome condemneth us, we likewise them; the sub-reformists and
sectaries sentence the doctrine of our Church as damnable; the atomist,
or familist, reprobates all these; and all these them again. Thus,
whilst the mercies of God do promise us heaven, our conceits and opinions
exclude us from that place. There must be therefore more than one St.
Peter. Particular churches and sects usurp the gates of heaven, and turn
the key against each other: and thus we go to heaven against each other's
wills, conceits, and opinions, and, with as much uncharity as ignorance,
do err, I fear, in points not only of our own, but one another's
salvation.
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