Baxter - BV669 B3 1681

(147.) ?:peoplelbe Rebelliousand wicked, it is the prefent Palor who than be molt + hated and oppofed (which if it be for Chinn isa good and comfortable thing, andbath a fpccial promife'Mat. 5, so. r r, i2. ) And that Pallor who is molt beloved ofthe good people, and moil hated by the bad, is he that will do mofgood for mens falvation, and'will havemoll comfort in his Soul, and at lab the rcaeeft reward from God ; and that is exteris ,paribes the prefent Pallor. And itwere worth the noting (if blind men would fee) that this isour great reafonof thecommon calamities of the Churches : that when the bell of thg people love their prefect faithful] Paßors and the worn bate them .molt,ard eve heft the ,hfent &]hops that trouble them (as they do the dead Saints for whom they keep holy daies) thefe wicked people fly to the _ Bithop and leek to make theprefent Paflors futpe ied, or odious to him, .as Schifmaticks, or fuch as are againit the Bithops mind and honour: and becaufe thefe Villains Love the abfent Bifhop better then theprefent Tailors, therefore the Bifhop (that knoweth them not but by hearfay), .taketh fuch for the honeflefl men in the Parini, and fo taketh their words againit the Minifters: and(to the utmoll ofmy experienceI (peak it)or- elinarily, that Miniller (hall paps with the Bifhop fora Schifinatick, a Puritan, a fictitious Fellow, or a !lark knave, let him be more Learned thanHierom, snore indultrious than Augußin, more holy thanMacaress, or at leafi asfufpe6ted ofthefe crimes, whom the flattering malignant, will foreprefent to him.: efpccially ifhe be a fenfualGentleman,that can-, not endure to have his lulls and licentioufnes reproved, or controlled by a Miniller of Chríf}. And when thefe lies and Slanders have encoura- ged theungodly accufers by their fuccelle, while theyengage the Bithop againit the prefent Pallors, andcaufe him to turn their troubler, hin- derer orperfecutor, then is the Prelateand the Pallor become asenemies, whole interelts aregrown incontinent, and then they come tohave their feveral Parties, and the, debauched take one fide, and the lober and religious the other, and what followeth upon this, he is mad in this age who is ignorant afterfo great experience. But I thall add more ofthis fubjeetin the Chapterfollowing. CHAP. XII. The. jrft opening and underflanding of the tree nature, of the Pajtoral office and Church Government, would end thefe con- traveller about Epjopacy. He nacre of Church Government fo far deceiveth ùndifinguifhing J. grofs cr inconf aerate wits, as that they take the ccot :troverfie to be but

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