A26975:291

Of national churches their description, institution, use, preservation, danger, maladies and cure, partly applied…

Name: Of national churches their description, institution, use, preservation, danger, maladies and cure, partly applied…
Author: Richard Baxter

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 ...

Richard Baxter 1615–1691London: printed by T. Snowden for Thomas Parkhurst, 1691

[9], 72 p. · 30k words · Wing B1329 · ESTC R13726

Title page: Internet Archive scan of the Early English Books microfilm (opens the Internet Archive in a new tab)

Chapter 8: How far this Confederacy and Concord bindeth the Members of a National Church to Confor…

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.

[ Earlier:288–303 of 529

:288p. 34

But the People are Proprietors, and may limit the Ruler in the dispose of their Propriety: And they have the choice of the Person, or Line, and Family that shall rule them; who it shall be, and whether One, or Many, or How many: For these and other circumstances God hath not previously determined, (save that his Providence making some one by Conquest or strength to be only able to rule and protect them, imposeth on them a necessity of consenting to that One.) And in these things the Ruler is the Trustee of the People, but not in the former; so that in the prime essential parts of power the People are but the Objects, and the King is to them (in different degrees) the Trustee of God for the People, as the Shepherd is his Masters Trustee for the Sheep, and not the Trustee of the Sheep.

:289p. 34

The same I say of true Pastors of the Churches: God hath specified their Office, tho' the People may circumstantiate it.

:290p. 34–35

§ 10. Princes having the Power of Legislation even about the undetermined circumstances of Religion, as well as things secular, and also to enforce Obedience to God's Laws, all Subjects are bound to obey them herein; yea tho' they so far mistake as to choose the circumstances that might have been better chosen, if they command not sin: For who doth any thing so well but it might have been done better? For instance, should they choose a tolerable, but less perfect Version and Metre of Psalms, or Translation of Scripture, or form of Public Worship, or Time, Place, Utensils, Ministers, &c. Concord in those otherwise not the best, may be better and a greater duty, than for better to be ⟨p. 35⟩singular, disobedient and dividers, or the encouragers of other mens singularity and divisions.

§ 10. Princes having the Power of Legislation even about the undetermined circumstances of Religion, as well as things secular, and also to enforce Obedience to God's Laws, all Subjects are bound to obey them herein; yea tho' they so far mistake as to chuse the circumstances that might have been better chosen, if they command not sin: For who doth any thing so well but it might have been done better? For instance, should they chuse a tolerable, but less perfect Version and Meeter of Psalms, or Translation of Scripture, or form of Publick Worship, or Time, Place, Utensils, Ministers, &c. Concord in those otherwise not the best, may be better and a greater duty, than for better to be

[ Earlier passages Later passages ]

The book

Title as printed

Author

Richard Baxter 1615–1691

Place

London

Printer

T. Snowden

Bookseller

Thomas Parkhurst

Year

1691

Size

[9], 72 p.

Words

29,710

Catalogue

Wing B1329 · ESTC R13726

Text

EEBO-TCP A26975

Passages

529

Sections

Title page

Of national churches their description, institution, use, preservation, danger, maladies and cure, partly applied…

Chap. IX. That Christ hath Instituted no true Ecclesiastical Government in Man, of any larger extent than National, much less Universal; nor of Foreign Jurisdiction: And that the French pretended Aristocracy, with the Popes Primacy and Patriarchate, is as bad or worse than Papal Monarchy.

Transcription key

Reformers309

Puritans1,782

Westminster Assembly24

Evangelicals36

Chap. IX. That Christ hath Instituted no true Ecclesiastical Government in Man, of any larger extent than National, much less Universal; nor of Foreign Jurisdiction: And that the French pretended Aristocracy, with the Popes Primacy and Patriarchate, is as bad or worse than Papal Monarchy.

Transcription key