A26975:253
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
Chapter 6: Who must be the Lay-Members of National Churches.
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.
Ans. 1. Under Infidel or Heathen Kings that are out of the Church themselves, the Church is in the Common Wealth. 2. And under Christian Kings or other Sovereigns, the Particular Churches are in the Common Wealth as parts in the ⟨p. 27⟩whole. 3. And as the Common Wealth is taken so largely as to comprehend Pagans in Inferior Magistracy (as in the days of the first Christian Emperors; there the Church is in the Common Wealth.
Ans. 1. Under Infidel or Heathen Kings that are out of the Church themselves, the Church is in the Common Wealth. 2. And under Christian Kings or other Soveraigns, the Particular Churches are in the Common Wealth as parts in the ⟨p. 27⟩whole. 3. And as the Common Wealth is taken so largely as to comprehend Pagans in Inferior Magistracy (as in the days of the first Christian Emperors; there the Church is in the Common Wealth.
But take the Common Wealth as merely and truly Christian, and it is the same thing with the National Church, and one is not in the other, being but two Names for one thing.
But take the Common Wealth as meerly and truly Christian, and it is the same thing with the National Church, and one is not in the other, being but two Names for one thing.
§ 6. The appropriating the Name of the Church to the Clergy as distinct from the Laity, is the Plot or Part of Popish Tyranny and Fallacy: Implying falsely that the National Church must be specified and unified by a Priestly Head, Monarchical or Aristocratical; and that a King is not a person sacred enough to be the Supreme Head in his own National Church; Nor the people Holy enough to be its Materials: As if Lords, Commons, Citizens and other Lay Christians were no parts of the Church, when Great Magistrates are Nobler parts than a multitude of Ignorant Vicious Curates and Priests.