A26975:255
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.
§ 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.
§ 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 falsly 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 Supream 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.
§ 7. From this Cheat they have claimed the sole Power as of Divine Right, of making Canons that shall be obliging Laws, and of being the sole determiners of Religious Cases. Too many Presbyterians, and Independents are for this Clergy claim, calling only the Ministers work, the exercise of Christs Kingly Office. But the Frenchified Prelatists much more.
§ 7. From this Cheat they have claimed the sole Power as of Divine Right, of making Canons that shall be obliging Laws, and of being the sole determiners of Religious Cases. Too many Presbyterians, and Independants are for this Clergy claim, calling only the Ministers work, the exercise of Christs Kingly Office. But the Frenchified Prelatists much more.