PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
A Christian Directory, Part 3: Christian Ecclesiastics
Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691 · 243,835 words · 308 reading sections
Part 241
3. Such an anniversary fast as is meet for the remembrance of some great sin or judgment, if commanded, is to be kept, both for the reason of it, and for the authority of the commander. For, 1. It is not unlawful as anniversary. (For, (1.) It is not forbidden, and, (2.) There may be just occasion. Some arbitrarily keep…
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Quest. CII. _May we continue in a church, where some one ordinance of Christ is wanting, as discipline, prayer, preaching, or sacraments, though we have all the rest?_ _Answ._ Distinguish, 1. Of ordinances. 2. Of a stated want, and a temporary want. 3. Of one that may have better, and one that cannot. 1. Teaching, pr…
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2. But in judging of what is best for the church, I must take in every accident and circumstance, and look to many, more than to a few, and to distant parts as well as to those near me, and to the time and ages to come, as well as to the present, and not go upon mistaken suppositions of the church's good; he that doth …
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The reasons are plain from what is said; and also, 1. He is no more bound to the people, than they are to him; but they are not so bound to him, but they may remove on just occasion. 2. If he may not remove, it is either because God forbids it, or because his own contract with them hath obliged him against it. But, 1. …
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3. Synods themselves are not ordinarily necessary, by nature or institution; (let him that affirmeth it, prove it;) but that which is statedly necessary is, The concord of the churches as the end, and a necessary correspondency of the churches as the means, and synods when they may well be had, as a convenient sort of …
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So, 2. He that saith, You shall not assemble but at forty miles' distance one from another; or you shall meet only in a room, that will hold but the twentieth part of the church; or you shall never preach in any city or populous place, but in a wilderness far from the inhabitants, &c. doth but determine the circumstanc…
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1. By worship is meant either _cultus in genere_, any honour expressed to another; or some special act of honour. We must understand the question in the first general sense, or else we cannot answer it, till men tell us, what acts of honouring they mean. 2. By religious is meant, either in general, that which we are b…
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6. The scandal of seeming idolatry is a heinous sin, and not to be excused by the contrary meaning of the heart, no more than lying, idolatrous professions are. Because to blaspheme God as if he were like a creature, or to tell the world by our actions that a creature is God, are both very heinous. And so is it to murd…
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6. Therefore all images of such idols or feigned deities are unlawful, as are like to be any temptation to any to believe in them, or worship them. 7. Therefore also all images of such creatures as others use to give unlawful worship or honour to, are unlawful when they are like to be a temptation to us or others to d…
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1. All images painted or engraven are not unlawful; for God himself commanded and allowed the use of many in the Old Testament. And Christ reprehendeth not Cæsar's image on his coin.[359] 2. The civil use of images in coins, sign-posts, banners, ornaments of buildings, or of books, or chambers, or gardens, is not unla…
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11. It is lawful to use hieroglyphics, or images expressing virtues and vices, as men commonly make images to decipher prudence, temperance, charity, fortitude, justice, &c. and envy, sloth, pride, lust, &c. As they do of the five senses, and the four seasons of the year, and the several parts of man's age, and the sev…
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As the crucifix for aught I know might thus have been arbitrarily used as a seal, or as a transient, arbitrary professing sign, as the cross was by the ancients at the beginning. If any man had scorned me for believing in a crucified Christ, I know not but I might have made a crucifix by art, act, or gesture, to tell h…
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19. It is not unlawful to make an image (out of the cases of accidental evil before named) to be _objectum vel medium excitans ad cultum Dei_, an object or medium of our consideration, exciting our minds to worship God. (As a death's-head, or a crucifix, or an historical image of Christ or some holy man, yea, the sight…
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3. To personate a bad man, in a bad action, is more dubious; but seemeth not in all cases to be unlawful. To pass by David's feigning himself mad, (as of uncertain quality,) it is common with preachers, to speak oft the words of wicked men, as in their names or persons, to disgrace them: and Prov. v. 11, 12, &c. cometh…
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14. Thousands of young people in our time have been undone by them; some at the gallows, and many apprentices who run out in their accounts, neglect their masters' business, and turn to drunkenness, and whoredom, and debauchery, do confess that stage-plays were not the last or least of the temptations which did overthr…
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For, 1. All sects and erroneous persons may turn holy words and duties into symbols of their errors. 2. All christians in the world being imperfect, do sometimes err in matter or manner in their worship. And he that will materially avoid all the badges or symbols of their errors, shall have no communion with any church…
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4. In such cases the true solution of the question must be by weighing accidents and foreseen consequents together wisely and impartially; and he that can foresee which way is likely to do most good or hurt, may satisfactorily know his duty. Quest. CXIX. _Is it lawful to pray secretly when we come first into the churc…
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For, 1. He is a minister of Christ for the church, and not the minister of the church properly. And he is subordinate to Christ in his priestly office, as well as in his teaching and ruling office: and the priests did always take it for their office, not only to speak as the people's mouth, but as sub-mediators or inte…
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6. Yet it must be noted, that the Scripture useth the word sacrifice about ourselves, and our thanksgivings, and praises, and works of charity, rather than of the Lord's supper; and the word priests, of all men, lay or clergy, that offer these foresaid sacrifices to God. Though the ancient doctors used them familiarly,…
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3. They that cannot speak every word in a psalm just as their own case, may yet speak it as instructive; otherwise they might not read or say it. But the sectarian objections against singing David's psalms are so frivolous, that I will not tire the reader with any more.[371] [370] Matt. xxvi. 30; Mark xiv. 26; Luke i…
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And as it is the very nature of true holiness, to be so suited to holy things, as that they may be our delight, and he is the genuine saint, and the best of christians, who most delighteth in God and holiness; so that is the best means to make us the best christians, which helpeth us best to these delights; and if any …
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_Answ._ All the cases about the Lord's day (except those practical directions for keeping it, in the Economical part of this book) I have put into a peculiar treatise on that subject by itself; and therefore shall here pass them over, referring the reader to them in that discourse. Quest. CXXIX. _Is it lawful to appoi…
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13. It giveth to magistrates, pastors, parents, and other superiors, all that power by which they are authorized to oblige us, under God, to any undetermined particulars. 14. It is the perfect rule of Christ's judging, rewarding, and punishing at last, according to which he will proceed. 15. It is the only law that i…
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16. Any thing which setteth up those judaical laws and ceremonies which Christ hath abrogated, in that form and respect in which he abrogated them. 17. Where there is a doubt among sober, conscionable christians, lest in obeying man they should sin against God and disobey his laws, and the matter doubted of is confess…
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I add this so distinctly, lest any should misapply Mr. Rich. Hooker's doctrine aforesaid, Eccl. Pol. lib. viii. p. 223, 224. "As for them that exercise power altogether against order, though the kind of power which they have may be of God, yet is their exercise thereof against God, and therefore not of God, otherwise t…
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2. All such additions are lawful as are merely subordinate and subservient to God's laws and orders, and not forbidden by him, among the forementioned prohibited additions. Instances are many. 1. All such modes of a duty as are necessary _in genere_, or one way or other to be determined of, but left to human prudence …
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3. It is also a lawful invention of man, to find, choose, and use, such natural helps, as are useful to further us in the obedience of God's laws, and the practice of his worship, and are not forbidden by him. Yea, _in genere_ they are commanded, and yet never particularly determined of in the Scripture: as, 1. What wi…
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7. The same is to be said of church utensils; as table, cups, linen, pulpits, fonts, clock, hour-glass, bells, seats, decent habit of clothes, &c. 8. The same may be said of decent gestures, not particularly commanded; as what gesture to preach in, standing or sitting? What gesture to read in? What gesture to hear in?…
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_Answ._ Alas! many and great. 1. They tend to dethrone Christ from his sovereignty, and legislative prerogative. 2. And to advance man, blind and sinful man, into his place. 3. And thereby to debase religion, making it but a human or a mixed thing (and it can be no more noble than its author is). 4. And thereby they de…
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_Answ._ 1. They fill their own minds with a multitude of causeless scruples, which on their principles can never be resolved, and so will give themselves no rest. 2. They make themselves a religion of their own, and superstition is their daily devotion; which being erroneous, will not hang together, but is full of con…
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20. Lastly, and rulers will be tempted in church and state, to take such persons for intolerable in all societies, and such whose principles are inconsistent with government. And no thanks to this opinion, if they be not tempted to dislike the Scripture itself, and instead of it to fly to the papists' traditions, and t…
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So also anointing was in those countries taken for salubrious, and refreshing to the body, and a ceremony of initiation into places of great honour; whereupon it was used about the sick, and God's giving the gift of healing in those times was frequently conjunct with this means. So that hence the anointing of the sick …
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_Answ._ 1. Those papists' perverseness can mean no better than that Christianity itself is not necessary to salvation, to those that have not opportunity to know it (as Johnson's Rejoinder to me, and Sancta Clara, and many others, plainly intimate); and were that never so true and certain, it were nothing to the questi…
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The _diligenda_ are the same three Persons in these three relations as good in themselves and unto us, which includeth the grand benefits of reconciliation and adoption, justification, and sanctification, and salvation. The _agenda_ in the time of baptism that make us christians, are, 1. The actual dedition, resignati…
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5. It is not to be doubted of, but the apostles did appoint and use a creed commonly in their days. And that it is the same with that which is now called the apostles' and the Nicene in the main; but not just the same composure of words, nor had they any such precise composure as can be proved. But this much is easily …
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_Answ._ Yes: for the Scripture itself telleth us what is necessary to salvation; it describeth to us the covenant of grace, both promises and conditions; and it were strange if so large a volume should not as plainly tell us what is necessary to salvation, as fewer words! The Scripture hath not less than the creed, but…
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And it is the great wisdom and mercy of God, which hath so ordered it, that the Scripture shall have enough to exercise the strongest, and yet that the weakest may be ignorant of the meaning of a thousand sentences, without danger of damnation, so they do but understand the marrow or essentials, and labour faithfully t…
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_Answ._ 1. And there are many things easy to be understood. 2. We never said that men should not use the help of their teachers, and all that they can to understand it. 3. Were not those teachers once ignorant? And yet they did read it by the help of teachers; and so may others. 4. As the king for concord commandeth al…
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3. The sanctifying Spirit still in all ages and christians, attested the divinity and truth of the doctrine of the main body of the Bible, especially the gospel; and then if we should err about the authority of a particular book, it would not overthrow our faith. It is not necessary to salvation to believe this particu…
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3. In those meetings they may do all that followeth. 1. They may pray together; a layman being the speaker. 2. They may sing psalms. 3. They may read the Scriptures. 4. They may read some holy, edifying writings of divines, or repeat some minister's sermons. 5. Some that are ablest may speak to the instruction and exho…
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(4.) If one that is in an unlawful ecclesiastical office, be also at once in another that is lawful, we may swear obedience to him in respect of the lawful office. So it is lawful to swear obedience to the pope in Italy, as a temporal prince in his own dominions; and to a cardinal, (as Richelieu, Mazarine, Ximenes, &c.…
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_Answ._ 1. The covenant of innocency is ceased _cessante subditorum capacitate_, as a covenant or promise. And so are the positive laws proper to Adam, in that state, and to many particular persons since. 2. The covenant mixed of grace and works, proper to the Jews, with all the Jewish law as such, was never made to u…
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II. As to the second question, Though the Scripture as a writing bound not all the world, yet, 1. The law of nature as such which is recorded in Scripture did bind all. 2. The covenant of grace was made with all mankind in Adam and Noah; and they were bound to promulgate it by tradition to all their offspring. And no d…
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_Answ._ This question being fitter for another place, what hope there is of the salvation of the people that are not christians, I have purposely handled in another treatise, (in my "Method. Theologiæ,") and shall only say now, 1. That those that receive not Christ and the gospel revealed and offered to them cannot be …
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16. God hath appointed no means in vain, which men must either not use, or use despairingly. But his command to use any means for any end, containeth (though not an explicit promise, yet) great and comfortable encouragement to use that means in hope.[424] 17. Therefore the world is now in comparison of the catholic ch…
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But though none but proud fools will deny the need of that human learning which improveth nature, and is subservient to our knowledge of supernatural revelations, yet well doth Paul admonish us, to take heed that none deceive us by vain philosophy; and saith that the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, and tha…
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1. That it is certain that God will make no other covenant, testament, or universal law, for the government of mankind or the church, as a rule of duty and of judgment. Because he hath oft told us, that this covenant and law is perfect, and shall be in force as our rule till the end of the world.[429] _Object._ So it …
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2. By the law and covenant of innocency, the Creator eminently ruled omnipotently. And the Son ruled eminently sapientially, initially under the covenant of promise or grace from Adam till his incarnation and the descent of the Holy Ghost, and more fully and perfectly afterward by the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost eve…
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3. Therefore the holy Scriptures which were the infallible dictates of the Spirit in the apostles, are more perfect than any of our apprehensions which come by the same Spirit (which we have not in so great a measure).[437] 4. Therefore we must not try the Scriptures by our most spiritual apprehensions, but our appreh…
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4. He that thinketh that the prophets, sacred historians, evangelists, and apostles, were guided to an infallible delivery and recording of all the great, substantial, necessary points of the gospel, but not to an infallibility in every by-expression, phrase, citation, or circumstance, doth disadvantage his own faith a…
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12. And they that say that all passages in the Scripture were equally obligatory to all other places and ages, as to those that first received them, (as the kiss of peace, the veils of women, washing feet, anointing the sick, deaconnesses, &c.) 13. And they that make Scripture so perfect a rule to our belief, that not…
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4. The Spirit by illumination, quickening, and sanctification, giveth us an habitual acquaintance with our sins, our wants, with the word of precept and promise, with God, with Christ, with grace, with heaven. And it giveth us a habit of holy love to God, and goodness and thankfulness for mercy and faith in Christ, and…
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2. But if we give to reason, memory, study, books, methods, forms, &c. but their proper place in subordination to Christ and to his Spirit, they are so far from being quenchers of the Spirit, that they are necessary in their places, and such means as we must use, if ever we will expect the Spirit's help. For the Spirit…
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4. All that are duly called of God to the place of kings, and judges, and rulers of families, are relatively sacred, as their offices and they are of God and for him, and devoted to him. 5. Temples and other utensils designed by God himself, are holy, as related to him by that designation. 6. Temples, utensils, lands…
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3. That, _cæteris paribus_, all christians should prefer such public worship before private; and no private meetings should be kept up, which are opposite or prejudicial to such public meetings. 4. And therefore if such meetings (or any that are unnecessary to the ends of the ministry, the service of God and good of s…
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But it must be still remembered, that, 1. Rulers that are infidels, papists, heretics, or persecutors, that restrain church meetings to the injury of men's souls, must be distinguished from pious princes that only restrain heretics and real schismatics for the church's good. 2. And that times of heresy and schism may m…
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For if once the soul be truly sanctified, then, 1. Their salvation is much secured, and the main work of their lives is happily begun, and they are ready to die safely whenever God shall call them hence. 2. It will possess them with a right end, in all the studies and labours of their lives; which is an unspeakable adv…
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_Direct._ VIII. Be sure in all your progress that you keep a distinct knowledge of things certain and things uncertain, searchable and unsearchable, revealed and unrevealed; and lay the first as your foundation, yea, rather keep the knowledge of them as your science of physics by itself, and let no obscurity in the res…
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Therefore if I must direct you according to my judgment, I must advise you, 1. To suppose that philosophers are all still in very great darkness, and there is much confusion, defectiveness, error, and division, and uncertainty among them. 2. Therefore addict not yourselves absolutely to any sect of them. 3. Let your fi…
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And when you have gone through the catechisms, read over three or four of the soundest systems of divinity. And after that proceed to some larger theses, and then to the study of the clearest and exactest methodists; and think not that you well understand divinity, till, 1. You know it as methodized and jointed in a du…
562 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.