A26975:101
Of national churches their description, institution, use, preservation, danger, maladies and cure, partly applied…
Of national churches their description, institution, use, preservation, danger, maladies and cure, partly applied to England / written by Richard Baxter for promoting peace ... and for the fuller explication of the Treaty for Concord in 1660 and 1661, and of the Kings gracious declaration about ecclesiastical affairs ... and for further explication of his treatise of episcopacy ...
London: printed by T. Snowden for Thomas Parkhurst, 1691
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.
3. And if a man speaketh but what Scripture speaketh for Christ's Government of the Churches by Magistrates, they call him an Erastian: Whereas the Error of Erastus (an excellent Protestant Physician) was not his being for the Government of Princes, but his taking down the Power of the Keys too much, which was the Office of Pastors, and making Church-Communion over-common, and too much denying Excommunication: (Of which I have written a peculiar Treatise to Dr. Ludov. Molinaeus, showing the true difference between the Power of Magistrates and Pastors.)
3. And if a man speaketh but what Scripture speaketh for Christ's Government of the Churches by Magistrates, they call him an Erastian: Whereas the Errour of Erastus (an excellent Protestant Physicion) was not his being for the Government of Princes, but his taking down the Power of the Keys too much, which was the Office of Pastors, and making Church-Communion over-common, and too much denying Excommunication: (Of which I have written a peculiar Treatise to Dr. Ludov. Molinaeus, shewing the true difference between the Power of Magistrates and Pastors.)
4. And hence great disorder hath arisen from the undervaluing of the Confederacy of all particular Churches in the same Kingdom; and from a disobedience to the lawful determinations of Princes in Church Affairs, and even from the causeless singularity of every humorous Sect, as slighting the Concord of the Confederate Churches; what abundance of Schisms had it prevented (with their dismal Effects) if men had but retained. a due Reverence to Church Confederacies and Concord, and to the Christian Magistrates Power? which caused the Presbyterians in Scotland and Ireland, so marvellously to keep up Concord, and keep out Sects, though they were against Diocesans, because they maintained National Church Confederacy.
4. And hence great disorder hath arisen from the undervaluing of the Confederacy of all particular Churches in the same Kingdom; and from a disobedience to the lawful determinations of Princes in Church Affairs, and even from the causless singularity of every humorous Sect, as slighting the Concord of the Confederate Churches; what abundance of Schisms had it prevented (with their dismal Effects) if men had but retained. a due Reverence to Church Confederacies and Concord, and to the Christian Magistrates Power? which caused the Presbyterians in Scotland and Ireland, so marvelously to keep up Concord, and keep out Sects, though they were against Diocesans, because they maintained National Church Confederacy.