A26898:195
Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part…
Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part of the government of Christian princes and popes, and a true account of the most troubling controversies and heresies till the Reformation ... / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed by B. Griffin for Thomas Simmons, 1680
Church-History OF BISHOPS And their COUNCILS ABRIDGED, &c. › Chapter 1
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
X. And it must be remembered, that God hath made use of many proud and turbulent men, to propagate and defend the truth of the Gospel: And their Gifts have served for the good of the sincere. As the husk or chaff and straw is useful to the Corn; so many worldly Prelates and Priests have been learned Expositors and useful Preachers, and taught others the way to life, which they would not go in themselves. Besides that, their very Papal power and grandeur, which hath corrupted the Church, hath yet been a check to some, that would have assaulted it by force; and as a hedge of thorns about it. Worldly interest engageth Pope, Patriarchs, and Prelates, to stand up for the Christian Religion, because they gain by it (as Leo the 10th is said to have odiously confessed.)
X. And it must be remembred, that God hath made use of many proud and turbulent men, to propogate and defend the truth of the Gospel: And their Gifts have served for the good of the sincere. As the husk or chaff and straw is useful to the Corn; so many worldly Prelates and Priests have been learned Expositors and useful Preachers, and taught others the way to life, which they would not go in themselves. Besides that, their very Papal power and grandure, which hath corrupted the Church, hath yet been a check to some, that would have assaulted it by force; and as a hedge of thornes about it. Worldly interest engageth Pope, Patriarchs, and Prelates, to stand up for the Christian Religion, because they gain by it (as Leo the 10th is said to have odiously confessed.)
§. 42. And the old Fathers, till Constantine's time, did most of them think that the last thousand years would be a time of fuller glory to the Church; as many yet think, though I confess my self unskilful in the Prophesies.
§. 42. And the old Fathers, till Constantines time, did most of them think that the last thousand years would be a time of fuller glory to the Church; as many yet think, though I confess my self unskilful in the Prophesies.