A26975:412
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 13: What are the dangerous Diseases of a National Church.
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.
Magistracy and Ministry are Gods great Ordinances, by which as his Instruments, and partly Representatives, he doth by an established Order, govern and keep up Order and Piety in the World. Magistrates represent him in his Super-eminence and Ruling Power: And Ministers in his Guiding and Sanctifying Wisdom and Love. And God (that will not ordinarily turn settled Order into Miracles) worketh by these, according to the aptitude of the Instruments, and the Receivers. And where there is kept up a wise and holy Magistracy and Ministry, when and where did it ever go ill with such a people, by any public desolation?
Magistracy and Ministry are Gods great Ordinances, by which as his Instruments, and partly Representatives, he doth by an established Order, govern and keep up Order and Piety in the World. Magistrates represent him in his Super-eminence and Ruling Power: And Ministers in his Guiding and Sanctifying Wisdom and Love. And God (that will not ordinarily turn setled Order into Miracles) worketh by these, according to the aptitude of the Instruments, and the Receivers. And where there is kept up a wise and holy Magistracy and Ministry, when and where did it ever go ill with such a people, by any publick desolation?
§ 8. If Ministers be Ignorant, or unskilful in their public Work, they will be despised. If they be Worldly and Covetous the Poor will reproach them. If they be Drunkards, Gluttons, Unclean, Idle, or any way Sensual, they will become the common Scorn: But if they be Enemies to serious Godliness, or Revilers, or Persecutors of Godly Men, the wicked will be encouraged to be like them and hardened in their Sin; but Pious and Sober men will abhor them as the Servants of Satan, though they will not therefore cast off their Honour to the true Ministerial Office and Work.
§ 8. If Ministers be Ignorant, or unskilful in their publick Work, they will be despised. If they be Worldly and Covetous the Poor will reproach them. If they be Drunkards, Gluttons, Unclean, Idle, or any way Sensual, they will become the common Scorn: But if they be Enemies to serious Godliness, or Revilers, or Persecutors of Godly Men, the wicked will be encouraged to be like them and hardned in their Sin; but Pious and Sober men will abhor them as the Servants of Satan, though they will not therefore cast off their Honour to the true Ministerial Office and Work.