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A26914 The difference between the power of magistrates and church-pastors and the Roman kingdom & magistracy under the name of a church & church-government usurped by the Pope, or liberally given him by popish princes opened by Richard Baxter. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1671 (1671) Wing B1241; ESTC R3264 44,016 63

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Heathens Infidels and all that would come even purposely to pollute and scorn the holy Mysteries 1 Cor. 10. 16. 2 Cor. 6. 14. Acts 2. 47 c. 16. It is necessary therefore that some men be the Judges who are fit and who shall be admitted Else there can be no difference Of this see my Treatise of Confirmation 17. Every man is not to be the sole publick Judge for himself For then there would be still no difference nor the Mysteries kept from common scorns 18. The Magistrate is not made the first and proper Judge For then he must make a Calling of it and attend upon this very thing to try the baptized and the admitted which is no small work For he that judgeth must first try the Case and that with the diligence which the weight of it requireth Acts 8. 37. 19. The People are not to be the ordinary Judges for else they must all leave their Callings to attend baptizings and such works as th●se and must do that which most of them are unfit to do And Christ hath put all out of doubt by putting the Keys into the Pastors hands and commanding their study and attending to this work and calling them the Rulers Guides Pastors Fathers Stewards Overseers c. and commanding the people to obey them with submission and telling not the people or Magistrates but the Pastors of the great and dreadful account that they must give Heb. 13. 17. Matth. 24. 45 46 47. 1 Cor. 4. 1 2. 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. 1 Tim. 4. 15 16. 20. He that will lay this work upon people or Magistrates is their cruel enemy and brings on them a most heavy burden and consequently makes it their duty to prepare and study for it and to avoid all other business that hindereth it and would lay them under the terrors of a most tremendous reckoning unto God 21. Seeing it is a trust that must be committed to some or other common reason tells us that it is better in their hands that Christ hath put it in by Office and who spend their lives in preparation for it than in theirs that neither have the preparations nor the Office 1 Cor. 9. 16. 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. 1 Cor. 4. 1 2. 22. It is the great end of Christs coming into the world to destroy the works of the Devil and to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works and to save his people from their sins and to vindicate the Holiness of God And the world is so apt to judge of Christs doctrine by his followers that the Holiness and Concord of Christians is one of Christs great appointed means for his own and his Fathers glory in the world That as Gods greatness shineth forth in the frame of nature so might his Holiness in the Church And the Enemies of Holiness and condemned by their Creed when they profess to believe the Holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints And Rome it self doth own the name and pretence of Holiness 23. Travellers well know that the great hinderance of the Conversion of Infidels and Heathens Turks Persians Indians Tartarians c. is the wicked lives of the professed Christians that are next them when they see that Christians are more false and cruel and drunken and beastly and divided c. than themselves 24. Those therefore that would have the Church lye common without Christs Discipline to all the most prophane and wicked that will come in and have communion with it are indeed Antichristian even open enemies to the Church to holiness and to the saving of the Infidel and Heathen world 1 Cor. 5. 6 11 12 13. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Tit. 2. 14. 25. The Devil hath fought in all Ages as subtilly and diligently against the holy Discipline of Christ as against the Christian Doctrine 26. True Discipline doth so wonderfully displease the guilty and lose mens love and especially the Richer sort and all mens carnal interest and nature inclineth them so much to man-pleasing and flattery that Ministers have abundance more need to be driven to the exercise of Discipline than restrained from it except it be the corrupt and carnal Discipline which the Popish and tyrannizing Clergy do exercise where the Magistrate himself upholdeth them in Grandure and lendeth them his Sword Let Discipline be but such as Christ appointed and stand of it self and then it is but few that will have any more cause to be restrained from it than from too much preaching Though still I yield that there must be limits for the wilful and the indiscr●et 1 Cor. 5. 3 John 9. 27. The true Discipline of Christ hath been acknowledged to be his Ordinance in all the Churches almost in the world since the Apostles dayes till now save that as you open it since Constantines time it hath been much corrupted by the mixture of the secular force and the Emperours lending his Church-power to the Bishops and Councils 28. Government hath two parts Antecedent to mens facts which is Legislation and Consequent which is Judgement and Execution Christ is the only Lawgiver of Universal Laws to the universal Church and the Author of his own Doctrine and the substantials of his Worship But yet there are many undetermined circumstances which may and must be antecedently determined some by each Pastor some by a consent of Pastors and some by Magistrates if they please I will name you twenty lately named elsewhere 1. What day besides the Lords day and what hour the Church shall meet 2. How long the Prayers Reading and Sermons shall be 3. When and how often publick Fasts and Thanksgivings be 4. What place the Church shall meet in 5. Of the Form Ornaments Seats c. of the Temples 6. The place and form of the Pulpit 7. The subject of the present Sermon and the Chapter to be read 8. The Method of the Sermon 9. The Words of Sermons and Prayers 10. Of using or not using Books and Sermon Notes for memory 11. What Translation of Scripture to use 12. And what Version and Meeter of the Psalms 13. And what Tune to sing in 14. What form of Catechism to use 15. Of decent Habits especially in publick Worship 16. By what professing sign to testifie our consent to the Churches Confession of faith Whether by speaking or lifting up the hand or standing up 17. Of decent Gestures in the acts of publick Worship 18. Of Font Table Cups Cloathes and other Utensils 19. Making new Officers for these actions circa sacra as Door-keepers Clarks Churchwardens c. 20. Judging when any private man shall speak in the Church and when he shall be silent and such other Orders necessary to peace and Edification 1 Cor. 14. 28 29. 33. 26 40. 29. Most of these should be left to every Pastors judgement some may be determined by the Magistrate but yet some are fittest for the Concordant determination of Consociated Churches in a Synod or by consent But none of them