A26975:314
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 9: That Christ hath Instituted no true Ecclesiastical Government in Man, of any larger ext…
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.
§ 2. To this day Popery is upheld by the same means by which it was set up; especially by the Ignorance, Ungodliness, and Slothfulness of Kings and Lords: Did they exceed the Clergy as much as Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, Nehemiah, Zorobbabel, did the Priests, and as much as the Heathen Emperors, Titus, Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, Antoninus Philosophus, Alexander Severus, &c. did their Priests, they would be honoured above the Priests as they were: The Emperors then were thought fit to be Pontifices Maximi; and as in the times of the Ancient Family-power, an Abraham, an Isaac, and a Jacob, and a Job, and a Melchizedek, were thought fit to have the highest Government in matters of Religion, so would it be still. And a Samuel would be Prophet, and King. But as God will honour those that honour him, so those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed.
§ 2. To this day Popery is upheld by the same means by which it was set up; especially by the Ignorance, Ungodliness, and Slothfulness of Kings and Lords: Did they exceed the Clergy as much as Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Jehosaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, Nehemiah, Zorobbabel, did the Priests, and as much as the Heathen Emperors, Titus, Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, Antoninus Philosophus, Alexander Severus, &c. did their Priests, they would be honoured above the Priests as they were: The Emperors then were thought fit to be Pontifices Maximi; and as in the times of the Ancient Family-power, an Abraham, an Isaac, and a Jacob, and a Job, and a Melchizedeck, were thought fit to have the highest Government in matters of Religion, so would it be still. And a Samuel would be Prophet, and King. But as God will honour those that honour him, so those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed.
§ 3. The true way therefore to put down Popery, is for the Prince and Magistrates to claim their proper Power (yet not to usurp the Priesthood) and to study, love, and practise the Law of God, and take their Power and Laws to be only and merely subservient to the Power and Laws of God: And to strive to understand these so clearly, as to be able to judge sound Preachers from unsound, and to know whom to countenance, whom to tolerate, and whom to suppress. It is Kings that have set up Popes, by putting down themselves, and Popes have set in to pull them down, to set up themselves: And it is Kings that must pull down Popes by reassuming their own Power and Work; and that must be by becoming fit for it.