Baxter - BV649 B3 1670

1-4& L earn tojuf er dy Pagers and Friends is a thing which fometimes mutt be born. I have obferved that Religious people when a Magigrate though a nfurper ) perfecuteth them, they can in force fort undergo it,asno ftrange thing. And they are not fo forward to call off the office 'and abhor theperrons by whom they fuffer. But if they fuffer never fo little by a Alinifter, they flye a- way from him , and are uncapable of comforta- ble communion with him, and the breach is.hard- 41y ever made up. I confefs there is foìne more colour for this impatiency; (to be mentioned in another place.) But yet Gods fervants have been tryed by this kind of fuffering alfo, and therefore you muff not be fo tender of it, nor be driven by it into finful feparations,or into a con- tempt of theMinifters of the Gofpel, as too ma- y felts in there times have been. Read what at large is faidof the aftli&ing Shepherds, Etek, 34.0. Zech. pro. i r. And you will fee that it is not a thing to be wondered at, to have Shep- %érds which fleece and dejtroy the flocks, and tread down their paftwre and middy their waters, and feed themrelves and not theflecks,and gather not that which goeth eftray : Nay their on Shepherds pitied thew not. Zech. i i. S, I 'know that it is the Magi- strates that are often meant by Shepherds in the Prophets : but the Priefts alfo are ufual! meant with them, and fometime diftinaly by the fame word. And their falihood and crueltyoft expref- fed, as in fer. z. 8, 26. 6° 5. 31. and 26. 7,`,8, II. & 32.32. Etek. 22. 26, Hof.6.9. Mich. 3. it =. Zeph. 3.4. Mal. t. 6, &2.I. ej7C. And remember that all the wickednefsof therePriefis, and their abufe of the people,'did not warrant the people

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