A97353:837
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their…
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their principles about civil and ecclesiastical authority and obedience ... : mostly written many years past, and now published to save our lives and the kingdoms peace, from the false and bloody plotters ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Hancock, 1680
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.
32. If we thought that mere Civil good neighbourhood, and the common state and life of men in their unrenewed naturals, were better, or as good as the state and life of imperfect believers, with all their troublesome mistakes and […], we would next become humble Petitioners to Authority, that they would put down both Prelates and Presbyters, and take their lands and Tithes into their own lands, and employ them to some better use; and that they would shut up the Church doors, and banish the Clergy as the plague and troublers of the land, that do but vex the world with fables, and will not let men live in peace. For experience assureth us that Perfection is not the state of Christians in this life.
32. If we thought that meer Civil good neighbourhood, and the common state and life of men in their unrenewed naturals, were better, or as good as the state and life of imperfect believers, with all their troublesome mistakes and 〈…〉, we would next become humble Petitioners to Authority, that they would put down both Prelates and Presbyters, and take their lands and Tythes into their own lands, and employ them to some better use; and that they would shut up the Church doors, and banish the Clergy as the plague and troublers of the land, that do but vex the world with fables, and will not let men live in peace. For experience assureth us that Perfection is not the state of Christans in this life.
33. Nor can we think that it is any real disgrace to Christianity, Religiousness or the Scriptures, that men are so faulty and of so many minds, any more than it is a disgrace to Health that men are sick, or to food that some are weak, or to wisdom that most have little of it; or to a Schoolmaster, that his Scholars have defects, and various degrees of knowledge and apprehension. And if we would concur with them that hence argue against the common use of Scripture and Religion, because men abuse them, or imperfectly receive them, we must much more condemn humane Reason it self, and wish that all the world were beasts; because there is nothing so troubleth the peace of Church and State, nothing so much causeth rebellions, treasons, contentions, injustice, and all the villainy of the world, as imperfect and abused Reason.