A26975:383
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 12: The Three other Reasons for Popery answered briefly.
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. We deny not but Unity, Concord, Power and Riches, and the great number of Adherents, is a great advantage to Christianity against Infidels: And all these are Gods Gifts, and as such do good.
2. But the abuse of them though it do not quite frustrate the genuine Effects, yet so depraveth them, that it's a doubt whether the hurt to the common Christianity be not greater than the advantage. If Unity were maintained in Christs way it would have far better Effects than in the Papists way.
3. Yet we deny not but the Providence of God hath made use of the Roman Power, Numbers, Concord and Riches, to uphold the common Cause. But all is not Good that God overruleth and useth to good, permitting Man to cause the Evil. As a Man may use the Cruelty without causing it, of a Hound, a Ferret, or a Hawk, against the Prey, to fulfil his just will.
Had National Kingdom Churches been kept up under true Christian Kings and Pastors, and these Kings and Pastors in Diets and Councils, kept due Confederacies by Consultation and Contract without mutual Jurisdiction, the common Cause had been better promoted than it hath been by Popery, that hath shamed it and weakened it by Persecutions, Divisions, Treasons and Wars.