A26975:416
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.
§ 10. And it will yet render the case more desperate, if the same carnal, worldly, malignant Bishops and Clergy shall grow justly reputed the Adversaries of the most Learned, Judicious, Godly, and Laborious, and Powerful Preachers, and shall seek to Silence, Disgrace and Oppress them. The sober part of the Nation will then be tempted to take them as the Devils Militia, armed against Christ and Mens Salvation; and this the more wickedly as doing it in Christs Livery and in his Name.
§ 11. And if such a Clergy shall in enmity to the Godly, flatter the profane Lords, Knights and Rich men of the World, and make them their upholders and patrons and party, to strengthen them in their sin, the Confederacy will threaten Gods Vengeance on them all.
§ 12. And yet the case will be more desperate, if the wicked in such power shall bring an Universal Infection of Idleness, Sensuality, and Factious Enmity to serious Godliness, on the Universities and other Schools of Learning, and shall make them to be Nurseries of Ignorance, Error, Impiety and Malignity. And if the Prelates and Priests shall teach their Pupils and Candidates to account men of Conscience that obey not their sinful Impositions, to be Fanatical Schismatics, and on pretence of bringing Schism into disgrace, shall cast their dirt in the Face of Piety, and so train up youth into an enmity and scorn of that which should have their chiefest Love and Labour. Alas, if such ⟨p. 57⟩a Serpentine Generation, shall for staying so many years in Idleness and Lust in Universities, be thought to have right to take the charge of multitudes of Souls, that never took just care of their own, and to have right to Church Dignity and Maintenance, if any bad Patron will but present them; how sad a case is such a Church and Nation in? They will bring their Ignorance and Malice into the Pulpit, and then those hearers that know bitter from sweet, and the unclean from the clean, will loath their folly: And when the Priest seeth that he is despised or loathed, he will become the Enemy of those that disesteem him; and so he will become a Wolf to the Flock: And then it is the Ungodly part that must be his Friends and Companions in Sin, whom he will harden to their own Destruction: Thus hath a bad Clergy been the ruin of many Churches.