A26898:200
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.
When the Rulers, Scribes, and Pharisees were against Christ, and persecuted him and the truth, the common people so much adhered to him, that the persecutors durst not seize on him openly by force, but were fain to use a Traitor, to apprehend him in the night, and in a solitary place, lest they should be stoned by the people, who said, Never man spake as this man speaketh.
When the Rulers, Scribes, and Pharisees were against Christ, and persecuted him and the truth, the common people so much adhered to him, that the persecutors durst not seize on him openly by force, but were fain to use a Traytor, to apprehend him in the night, and in a solitary place, lest they should be stoned by the people, who said, Never man spake as this man speaketh.
§. 44. Let us not therefore turn Church-History into a temptation, nor think basely of the Church, or Christianity, or Christ, because of Papal and Prelatical pride and tyranny. God can make use of a surly porter to keep his doors; yea, a mastiff-dog may be a keeper of the house; and his Corn hath grown in every Age, not only with straw and chaff, but with some tares: And yet he hath gathered, and will gather, all his chosen.
§. 44. Let us not therefore turn Church-History into a temptation, nor think basely of the Church, or Christianity, or Christ, because of Papal and Prelatical pride and tyranny. God can make use of a surly porter to keep his doors; yea, a mastiff-dog may be a keeper of the house; and his Corn hath grown in every Age, not only with straw and chaffe, but with some tares: And yet he hath gathered, and will gather, all his chosen.
§. 45. Nor is the Ministry it self to be therefore dishonoured: For as at this day, while a few turbulent Prelates persecute good men, and much of the Ministry is in too many Countries lamentably corrupted, yet is Religion, piety, and honesty kept up by the Ministry, and never was well kept up without it: For the Faithful Ministers labour still, and their very sufferings, further the Gospel, and what they may not do publicly they do privately.