Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	church_n	particular_a	pastor_n	2,231	5	9.9163	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26895	The Christian religion expressed I, briefly in the ancient creeds, the Ten commandments, and the Lords prayer, and, II, more largely in a profession taken out of the Holy Scriptures, containing 1, the articles of the Christian belief, 2, our consent to the gospel covenant, 3, the sum of Christian duty, according to the primitive simplicity, purity, and practice, fitted to the right instruction of the ignorant, the promoting of holiness, and the charitable concord of all true believers ... / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1660 (1660)	Wing B1221; ESTC R25270	38,730	88

Preachers of the Gospel is the word of God as to the Doctrinal sense but not as to the terms or Grammatical sense except when they recite the Scripture words as in the original or translated 8. Baptism is a holy Sacrament instituted by Christ in which a person professing the Christian faith or the Infant of such a Professor is regularly by a minister of Christ baptized in water into the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in signification and solemnization of the holy Covenant in which as a Penitent Believer or the seed of such he giveth up himself or is by the Parent given up to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost from henceforth or from the time of natural capacity to Believe in Love and serve this blessed Trinity against the Flesh the World and Devil and this especially on the account of Redemption and if he sincerely make this Covenant is solemnly entred a member of Christ and his Church a justified reconciled Child of God and an heir of Heaven all which with the other present benefits of the Covenant he is hereby instated or invested in they being thus solemnly delivered to him by the Promise thus sealed and applyed by an appointed Minister of Christ Or if some of us doubt whether these special benefits of the Covenant are delivered thus to all the Infants that are sincerely dedicated unto God yet we are all agreed that they are assured to them as soon as they believe and in the interim of their incapacity they have a general promise that God will be their God and his mercy shall be to them 9. It is a notable part of the ministerial Office to Baptize and consequently to try and judge of their Profession who are thus solemnly to be admitted into the Church and estated by Baptism in these benefits Therefore hath Christ given the Keys of his Kingdom to their trust both that his holy Church may be preserved from the unjust intrusions of uncapable persons and that the faithful Covenanters may have the fuller consolation by receiving a sealed promise and pardon from the hand of a minister of Christ commanded by him to seal and deliver it in his name 10. We are perswaded that it is the Will of Christ that the Infants of the faithful shall be dedicated to him in Baptism and engaged in his Covenant and made members of his visible Church because we find that under the promise before Christs Incarnation it was their duty to devote and engage their Children to God in the holy Covenant and that God did accept them as visible members of his Church And we never find where Christ had discharged Parents from this duty or turned all Infants out of his Church and reversed this blessing of their Church-membership but contrarily we find him offering to have taken the Jewish Nation to be still his Church if they would have taken him for their Saviour and telling us that it was for Unbelief that they were broken off and that it is but some of the branches that were broken off and we are graffed in amongst them into the same Olive-tree and that all Israel shall be saved when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in And we find Christ rebuking his Disciples for hindering little Children from being offered to him and that he charged them to forbid it no more and that he received and blessed them himself and tels us that of such is the Kingdom of God and we find it the Commission given to his Ministers that they were to Disciple the Nations Baptizing them All which and much more especially having not the least intimation of his Will against that which was even then the Duty and Practice of the Parents and the Infants benefit do deter us from forbidding the dedication of Children unto Christ and receiving them into his Church by Baptism 11. Baptism being so great a work should be deliberately seriously and reverently performed if it may be publikely before the Church where the person or Parent should make their solemn profession and be received with the joy and prayers of the Church whether Infant or Adult 12. The Catholick Church consisteth of all the Christians in the world Those that have the sanctifying Spirit of Christ are the living members Those that openly profess Christianity and enter into Covenant with Christ and are not yet Baptized are visible members initially but the solemnization and investiture is defective If it be where Baptism cannot be had the defect is innocent If where it may be had it is sinful but yet not such as nullifieth the persons visible Christianity And no errours offences or differences do exclude any totally from the Catholick Church while all the essentials of Christianity are kept 13. It is the will of Christ that all Christians that have opportunity be members of some particular Church as well as of the universal that he may have the honour and they the great and necessary benefits that by the Ministry Ordinances and Communion of Saints is there to be expected 14. A particular Christian Church is A competent number of Christians cohabiting who by the appointment of Christ and their own expressed Consent are united or associated under one or more Pastors for the right worshipping of God in publick and the Edification of the members in Knowledge and Holiness and the maintaining of their obedience to Christ for the safety strength and beauty of the society and thereby the Glorifying and pleasing of the Lord It is a Political organized society that is here defined and not a meer Community that is incapable of the Sacraments and other Ordinances and the benefits of them for want of Overseers 15. Those Ministers that are placed in Parishes where are many sorts of people some Ignorant of the essentials of Christianity some Apostates some impious and of wicked lives and some that consent not to be members of their Pastoral charge should teach them all that will submit and learn For we are called to it by the Magistrate and obliged by the publike maintenance which we receive to that end and engaged by the general command of improving our talents and the special opportunity that we have thereunto 16. This teaching of all our Parishioners that will submit must be both personally and publikely as far as we have ability and opportunity The former must be by Catechizing and conference wherein we must teach them first the essential points of Christianity and labour to help them to the clearest understanding of the doctrine of Salvation and press it on their affections and help them to discern their sin and misery and do all that we can to procure their conversion or edification according to their several states manageing the whole work with those holy affections that the weight of it doth require 17. The great necessity of our neighbours and the advantages of this familiar way do tell us that this work of catechizing and conference is so

now in the end of the world to find out the certain practice of the Apostles better then all the Churches which they planted 53. Seeing the Lords Day is purposely set apart for the celebrating of the memoriall of the Resurrection of Christ and so of the work of our Redemption as the Sabbath was for the Commemorating of the work of Creation the work of the day must be very much Eucharistical and the Church should be taken up in the thankful admiration of the mysterie and mercy of our Redemption and in the affectionate praises of the Lord our Redeemer and an aspiring after the everlasting Rest which he hath purchased and promised and prepared for us with himself 54. Ministers must not only perform the publike worship of God upon this day but also exhort the people to improve the rest of it in private by prayer and meditation and holy conference and calling to mind the Word which they have heard especially the Parents and Masters of families who must instruct their children and servants and watch over them and restrain them from the violation of the day and call them to an account of the doctrine they have heard and the duties to be performed 55. It is lawful and a duty on other daies also according to our necessities and opportunities to Redeem some time for the publike worship of God And whenever the Pastors shall call the Church together to hear the Word or perform holy worship it is the peoples duty obediently and gladly to attend if greater duties do not prohibit them 56. When great afflictions lie upon the Church or any useful members of it or when any great sins have been committed among them it is meet that in publike by fasting and prayer we humble our selves before the Lord for the averting of his displeasure And on such occasions it is the Pastors duty to confess his own and the peoples sins with penitence and tenderness of heart and by his doctrine and exhortation to endeavour effectually to bring the people to the sight and sense of their sin and the deserts of it and to a firm resolution of better obedience for the time to come being importunate with God in Prayer for pardon and renewed Grace 57. Upon the receipt of any notable extraordinary mercies the Church having opportunity should Assemble for publike Thanksgiving unto God wherein the Pastors should stir them up to the livelyest sense of the greatness of their mercies and lead them in a joyful celebration of the praises of their bountiful benefactor And it is lawful on these daies to express our joy in feasting and outward signs of mirth provided that they be moderately and spiritually used and not to gratifie our sensual desires and that we relieve the poor in their necessities which also on daies of Humiliation and other seasons we must not forget 58. It is not unlawful or unmeet to keep an anniversary commemoration of some great and notable mercies to the Church the memory whereof should be transmitted to posterity 59. In all the modes and circumstances of worship which God himself hath left undetermined all Christians must take heed of making unnecessary things to be necessary and laying the unity and peace of the Church on things indifferent and laying snares for the consciences of others but must leave much to the prudence of the particular Pastors that are upon the place to whom it belongs to fit such circumstantials to their peoples state and the Churches in such things wherein they may safely differ must be left to their liberty Long and sad experience having taught us that the violent imposing of unnecessary things is the engine of the Devil to tear the Church 60. The marriage of Christians being a work of great concernment to themselves and meet to be publikely performed and accordingly to be sanctified by the Word and Prayer it is convenient that it be solemnized by the Minister or at least that he counsell and exhort them and pray for a blessing on them being first sufficiently satisfied of their capacity and necessary preparations Herein he is to acquaint them with the Institution Nature and Ends of their Relations and the duties severally and joyntly by them to be performed and the difficulties and temptations to be expected and provided for Especially they are to be directed to live together in holiness as the heirs of life and to be very carefull and diligent in the holy education of their children and governing their families for the Lord and to use the world as not abusing it remembring their approaching separation by death And he is to see that they solemnly enter into the Matrimonial Covenant engaging themselves to conjugal fidelity to each other until they are separated by death 61. The Pastors of the Churches must not only Teach the people and guide them in the publike worship but also must faithfully Oversee them in private endeavouring to know and watch over each member of their flock preserving them from heresies errours and divisions defending the Truth confuting gainsayers and seducers instructing the Ignorant exciting the negligent encouraging the despondent comforting the afflicted confirming the weak rebuking and admonishing the disorderly and scandalous and directing all according to their needs in the matters of their Salvation And the people in such needs should have ordinary recourse to them as the Officers of Christ for guidance and resolution of their doubts and for assistance in making their Salvation sure and procuring maintaining or restoring the peace of their consciences and spiritual consolation 62. Those persons that are known to commit any gross and scandalous sin should first by private reproof and admonition unless where the notoriousness and heinousness of the crime doth presently call for publike reproof be called to Repentance And if they hear not the Reprovers or will not Reform the Church must be told of it and therein it is most convenient that the Pastors be first acquainted with the case to avoid contention and confusion before it be brought into the publike assembly And to that end it is convenient that there be stated meetings where the Pastors and some chosen members of the Church not as Officers but the Deputies or Trustees of the rest should in their several capacities take cognizance of such offences that so a unity and full correspondence may be held between the Pastors and the flock and all things may be done advisedly orderly and concordantly but where this cannot well be done the Pastor or Pastors must do their work without it 63. Those persons that by more private means will not be brought to necessary Repentance and Reformation must by the Pastor be publikely reproved and admonished before the Church and there called to Repentance by the opening of their sin and the judgements of the Lord and pleading with them those Gospel mercies and motives that should melt them into contrition And if the success do not appear it is ordinarily meet that the

by the death and long absence of the Pastors through so many hundred and thousand miles travail and so long attending which the state and work of proper Universal Councils will require Yea the said distance with the age and weakness of the Pastors and the different languages and the poverty of many disabling them from such tedious voyages and journies and the dissent of the Princes many of them Heathens Infidels Mahometans under whose Government they live or through whose dominions they must pass these with many the like Impediments do make a true Universal Council like an Universal Parliament or Senate to be so far from necessary or desirable as to be Morally Impossible or next to Impossible as to the very Being of it The way that God hath appointed for Church-Government and deciding controversies is 1. That Princes and Magistrates govern by the sword or force and judge who are fit to be Punished by the sword And though most Princes on the earth by Infidelity have made themselves uncapable of this part of the work of their Office yet cannot that disoblige them from the Commands of God or free them from his punishments for not performing them nor make the Office of Magistrates another thing nor disable Christian Princes and Magistrates or disoblige them who have not made themselves uncapable 2. That these Princes and Governors of several Nations do hold a Loving Christian Correspondency for the management of their affairs and Government of the Churches under them so as may be most to the advantage of the Cause of Christ and the union strength and defence of Christians The General Rules and Ends of their Trust and Power do oblige them to hold such Assemblies by their Messengers as are needful for their Agreement and the Unity and Safety of the Churches under them as well as they oblige Pastors to such necessary correspondencies 3. That the Pastors of particular Churches be the Governors of those Churches by the word and holy Discipline not having the power of the sword or violence and that they Judge who is fit or unfit for Communion with that Church which each or any of them over-see and who is to be thence Excommunicated or there Absolved 4. That these Bishops Pastors or Elders of particular Churches should hold Communion among themselves with all their Brethren of other Churches as far as their natural capacity will allow and the need or benefit of the Churches require it and that they handle in common the causes that belong to all in common and settle and maintain Agreements for the Unity and Communion of the Churches And they are Judges as Associate who is to be received into their Associate Communion and who to be excluded from it and what Pastors or Churches they should hold such Communion with as they are capable of and which they should admonish or renounce 5. The Christian people have allowed them a Judgement of Discretion by which they must prove all things and hold fast that which is good and must discern and obey the Lawfull commands and directions of their Magistrates and Pastors 6. And as Men have thus their several shares alloted them in Government Judgement and decisions limitedly and not Absolutely judging even to the Execution which belongs to their several Judicatures So the Finall Absolute Judgement and Decision of all Controversies and Causes is reserved to the dreadfull Tribunal of the Lord to which we may make our last Appeal where all the world shall be judged in Righteousness and all the Judgements of men be themselves Judged and Truth and Error Good and Evil Right and Wrong will be more perfectly manifested unto all and it shall be irreversibly determined by Jesus Christ who shall go into Life Everlasting and who to everlasting punishment Come Lord Jesus Come quickly Novemb. 16. 1658. THE Author thought it not unfit here to annex the Description of that Order and Discipline which is exercised by him with his Assistant fellow-Pastors in the Parish-Church of Kederminster in Association with many Pastors of those parts who have Agreed to exercise so much of the Ministerial Office as by the consent of the Episcopal Presbyterian and Congregationall belongeth to them Which being published 1. May prevent mens injurious mis-reports of our Associations and Discipline which they may be drawn to by fallacious fame 2. And may be an example for those Churches that by the Magistrates are left at liberty to worship God in that Communion and Order which they judge most agreeable to the Word of God and the Vniversal Consent and Practice of the Primitive Church The Order and Discipline of this Church agreeable to the Word of God I. WE are willing to Teach all in our Parish the doctrine of Life that are willing to learn And desire them all to hear the Word publikely preached and to come to us to be Catechized or Instructed II. We own all those as visible Christians and members of the Universal Church that make a credible Profession of Christianity and destroy it not by Heresie or ungodly lives III. So many of these as also Consent to hold Communion with this Church as members of it submitting to the Ministers and Discipline of Christ we shall esteem our flock and special charge and faithfully perform the duties of our Office for their good as we are able IV. We desire that all the Youth of the Parish will learn the principles of the Christian Religion and as soon as they understand it and are heartily resolved to give up themselves to God in Christ through the spirit and to lead a holy life that they will come and acquaint us with their Faith and Resolution and before the Church will make a solemn Profession thereof and give up themselves to God in the personal owning their Baptismal Covenant either reciting the fore-going Creed or Profession or if they are unfit for publike speaking by Consenting when we propound it to them or by any other fit expressions That so we may publikely pray for their confirmation and if they Consent also to hold Communion with this Church we may know them as our Charge and Register their names V. Those Parishoners that desire us to Baptize their children or to be themselves admitted to the Lords Supper and are not members of this Church because they will not we desire to come to us some dayes before that so we may be satisfied of their Faith and Life And if they seem true Christians and either bring a Certificate that they are members of any other Church with which we are to hold Communion or shew that it is not from ungodliness that they refuse to live under Order and Discipline we shall Baptize their children and occasionally admit them to our Communion But if they are scandalous we shall require them first to Profess their serious Repentance And if they return to scandal we shall after stay till we see their Reformation or of one of the parents in case of

and impious Ordinations that tend to the corrupting or dividing of the Churches And to avoid Division upon a tolerable difference of Opinions where we may agree in Practice we Consent that the Associations that have no stated Presidents or that give not to such a Negative voice shall receive into their Communion those that are of the contrary opinion giving them leave if they desire it to profess or record their opinion in that particular so they will afterward walk among them in Love and Peace And that the Associations that choose a stated President and give him a Negative voice in Ordination shall in like manner and on like terms receive into their Communion such as dissent in that particular and having professed or recorded their dissent will walk submissively in Love and Peace Which liberty also of professing and recording their different principles we desire may be allowed them that joyn in Synods as being only for Communion of Churches and them that joyn in them as having a direct superiour Governing Power over the particular Pastors of the Churches VIII Though it be the surest way to Peace and Concord to take up with these necessary things and we cannot approve of the narrow dividing Principles of those men that will impose things unnecessary to the excluding of the necessary yet if our lawful Rulers shall command it or the peace of the Church through the distempers of the Brethren shall require it we shall obey and consent in things that God hath not forbidden and if we suffer for well-doing and for obeying God rather then men we shall endeavour to imitate our Lord who being reviled reviled not again and when he suffered threatned not but committed all to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2. 23. The Office of Christs Ministers more largely opened 1. THE Lord Jesus Christ having purchased our Salvation by his blood and stablished his Testament or Covenant of Grace and left us his example of perfect holiness ascended to the Father and is there the Glorified Lord of all and Head over all things to his Church all power being given him in Heaven and Earth that interceding for us with the Father he might be the Treasury of our Light and Life and offering salvation to the miserable world might gather and cleanse and save the Church which is his Body Communicating to them that grace that is here necessary to them in their way and warfare and perfecting them in Glory with himself when their warfare is accomplished 2. Christ Being thus invisible to us in Glory with the Father performeth not these works below by himself in person immediately and alone but by his Spirit Ministers and Word The Holy Ghost being his Advocate or Agent to these ends and his Ministers the Instruments used by his Spirit and himself to indite and bear witness to his word and to Preach it to the world as that infallible Truth which must guide them to Salvation 3. The first Prophetical and Apostolical Ministers being sent by himself and qualified by the inspiration conduct and miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost did found the Church and enlarge it unto many nations of the world and left them the holy Scriptures which contain the doctrine which they preached that it might be certainly and fully preserved and propagated till the coming of Christ And they setled by the appointment of Christ and his Spirit an ordinary ministry to succeed them not to deliver a new Law or Gospel but to preserve and preach the doctrine which in the holy Scriptures and conjunctly at first also from the mouths of the Apostles they had received as once delivered to the Saints and to guide the Churches by it to the end 4. Though Christ appointed Ministers that should have so far a charge or care of the whole Church as not to be limited to any one part but to extend their labour and oversight as far as their capacity and opportunities would permit yet did he never make any man his Vicar or Vicegerent as Head of the universal Church nor lay upon any one whether Peter Paul or any other the charge and oversight of the whole nor did ever Peter or any one Apostle exercise such an Office in governing all the Catholike Church especially when it ceased to be confined to Jerusalem and the adjacent parts and was dispersed through the world Never did the Apostles receive their Commissions from Peter or all the Ministers then in the world perform their work by his Commission or by any power received from him nor were accountable to him and judged by him for what they did Much less is this universal Head-ship committed to the Pope of Rome through all or any generations But because a certain Primacy of Order was granted him by Emperours and Councils within the limits of the Roman Empire long after the Apostles days therefore doth he take advantage thence to pretend a Title to the universal Head-ship As if the Roman and the Christian world had been the same or the Emperor and his Clergy had been the Rulers of all the Christian subjects of all other Princes or Pastors upon earth and his limited Primacy had been an universal Soveraignty This claim of the Pope of Rome to be the Vice-Christ or universal Pastor of all the Christian world is a tyrannical impious irrational usurpation contrary to the holy Scripture and the state of the Primitive Church and contrary to nature and common sense which declare his incapacity of the work far more then any Prince is uncapable of being the universal Monarch of the world And therefore all Christians should abhor this proud and impious usurpation and fly from the guilt of that horrible schism and those corruptions in doctrine worship and government which it hath introduced 5. Christ calleth his ordinary ministers to that office by enduing them with his gifts and disposing them thereunto and moving the hearts of the people to consent and by ordination of the senior Pastors and giving them opportunities for the work and sometime the Magistrates command hath a hand in the obligation 6. It belongeth to the Office of the Ministers of Christ to Preach the Gospel to the nations of the world and make them Christs Disciples Baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost 7. This Preaching or publishing the Gospel is done by voice or by writing that by voice is done by Reading by publike Sermons or interlocutory conference that by writing is either by translating the holy Scriptures into the languages used by the Nations or by expounding and applying them So that the holy Scriptures in the original languages are the word of God both as to the terms and sense Grammatical and Doctrinal The same Scriptures in a Translation are the word of God as to the sense both Grammatical and Doctrinal but not as to the Terms The holy doctrine of the Scriptures delivered in the writings and Sermons and conferences of the

must be opend and the people excited to the exercise of the duties before mentioned Sin must be confessed and lamented and mercy implored and thankfully acknowledged and the goodness of God especially manifested in the work of our Redemption must with the greatest admiration alacrity and joy that we can attain to be magnified and praised till this unspeakable love of God in Christ hath drawn out our hearts in fervent love to him again And it will be most suitable to this Eucharistical Ordinance that the Church do sing some Psalm or Hymn of praise to God for the mercies of our Redemption 47. Those are to be invited to the Supper of the Lord that have these necessary qualifications in some degree and the rest to be acquainted with the danger of eating and drinking unworthily Those only are to be admitted to the Table of the Lord that have the use of reason and can examine themselves and are members of the Church and have made a personal credible profession of faith and holiness and are not justly for heresie or any scandalous sin removed from present communion with the Church 48. The using or not using of forms of prayer in the administration of this Sacrament is to be determined of as aforesaid in the other parts of worship according to the different abilities of Ministers and state of the several congregations and other accidents that should weigh in such indifferent things But as in the Administration of Baptism it is ordinarily meetest and most safe to use the express form of words which Christ hath directed us to and the Church hath still used viz. I Baptize thee in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost so in the Administration of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper it is safest and meetest that we use the words that Christ by his example hath directed us to use As Matth. 26. 26 27 28. Luk. 22. 19 20. 1 Cor. 11. 24 25. viz. Take ye eat ye this is my Body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me and This is the Blood of Christ even of the New Testament or this is the New Testament in the Blood of Christ which is shed for many for the remission of sins drink ye all of it in remembrance of him 49. As it is not unmeet for the Church at other times when they assemble to make a solemn profession of the Christian faith and of holy obedience to manifest their constancy therein and to declare what doctrine it is that we assemble to profess and to preserve it in the minds of all so is it more especially meet that at Baptism and the Lords Supper when we are solemnly to renew our Covenant with the Lord the Covenanters do renew this solemn Profession To which end it is most safe to make use of the ancient forms of Confession called The Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed and also to recite the Ten Commandments with a profession of our consent to the terms of the Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost To which if we at lest sometimes adjoyn some fuller Explication of the Creed and Decalogue such as is our Profession here before set down it will not be unprofitable or unmeet And in such manner it may all be managed and such signs or expressions of consent required as the Pastors shall judge meet for the attainment of the desired ends with liberty for such variations as are necessary to prevent a dead formality 50. At the dismission of the Assembly it is meet that the Pastor do solemnly bless them in the name of Christ to which he is authorized as an act of his Ministerial Office 51. Deacons are Church-Officers instituted by the Holy Ghost to be serviceable to the Pastors and the Church by the distribution of the Creatures dedicated to the Church-Communion and taking care for the supplying of the necessities of the poor out of the contributions or stock of the Church 52. The first day of the week is appointed or separated by the Holy Ghost for the holy Assemblies and publike worship of the Church and other holy exercises and is herein to be improved to the honour of God and the edification of our selves and others and all other imployments are therein to be avoided that any way hinder the holy duties of the day except such as become a greater duty upon the account of Piety Justice or Mercy That some stated time be separated to the publike service of God and the benefit of our souls is a thing that the law of Nature doth command that this stated time should be at least one day in seven the reason and equity at least of the fourth Commandment doth acquaint us that this day should be every first day of the week the Holy Ghost in the New Testament hath revealed to us acquainting us with Christs rising on that day which laid the foundation of the change and of the Assembling of his Disciples on that day and his owning their Assembly by his appearing to them and teaching them and blessing them and giving them their commission and the Holy Ghost Joh. 20. 19 to 24. The same they did the next first day where he again appeared and owned their Assembly and revealed himself unto them Joh. 20. 26 27. And that this was the practice of the Apostles and the Primitive Christian Churches directed by them appeareth Act. 20. 7 8. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. so that it was called the Lords Day as the last day before was called the Sabbath Rev. 1. 10. And to put us out of all doubt of the matter of fact and consequently of the meaning of these texts of Scripture the certain Tradition and most Concordant history of the Church assureth us that ever since the days of the Apostles the universal Church in all parts of the world hath constantly observed the Lords Day in Commemoration of the Resurrection of Christ which it is not possible that they could have done without contradiction and rebukes from the Apostles themselves or some of the Churches which they planted if it had not been a certain truth Those therefore that will be against the holy observation of the Lords Day must either impudently deny the Testimony of all Church History and Tradition which with one consent assure us that it was observed universally in the Christian Churches from the Apostles daies as a thing by them established and practised or else they must imagine that all the dispersed Churches through the world conspired in the teaching and practising of such an error without any known rebuke wherein it had been most easie for any to have convicted them to be slanderers of the Apostles or the Ages that were before them Having therefore so much in Nature in the fourth Commandment in the New Testament and the Doctrine and Practice of the universal Church for our holy observation of this day it ill beseems any Christian to forsake all or any of these and think

Church should joyn in prayer for the offender that God would give him repentance unto life 64. If after sufficient waiting in the use of these means the offendor still remain impenitent it is the duty of the Church to reject him out of their communion Wherein the Pastors must compassionately declare his offence and his Impenitency and the Judgements that God hath threatned to such and the Laws of Christ commanding the Church to put such from among them and avoid them and have no company with them that they may be ashamed or to take them as Heathen men or Publicans and must accordingly declare the person offending to be unmeet for Christian Communion and charge the people to avoid him and have no fellowship with him and himself to forbear the Communion of Christians binding him over to answer it at the bar of Christ Which sentence must be accordingly executed by the Pastors in refusing him the Ordinances proper to the Church and by the people in avoiding familiarity and communion with him till he be restored upon his Repentance 65. It must be a credible Profession of Repentance only that must be accepted by the Church either for the preventing of such a rejection or for restoring the rejected And usually when the case is heinous and notorious or the Church hath had the publike cognizance of it they must also have publike notice of the penitence of the offendor who should with remorse of conscience and true contrition confess his sin before the Congregation and heartily lament it and crave the prayers of the Church to God for pardon and reconciliation through Christ and also crave an Absolution by the Minister and a restoration into the communion of the Church But because it much dependeth on circumstances of the case whether the Confession should be publike or private or in what manner made it is therefore to be much left to the Prudence of the Pastors whom the people in such cases are commanded to obey 66. When a credible Profession of Repentance is made whether voluntarily by the Converted or upon the Churches admonition by the scandalous or after excommunication it is the duty of the Pastors to declare such Penitents in the name of Christ to be pardoned and absolved and Ministerially to give them this Mercy from the Lord in case their Repentance be sincere as they profess And if the person were excommunicate it is the duty of the Pastor to declare him again meet for the Communion of the Church and require the Church to receive him with joy as a returning sinner and not to reproach him with his falls but to forgive him as Christ forgiveth him all which they are accordingly to perform and the Penitent with Joy to receive his absolution and to return to the Communion of the Church and to a more holy careful obedient life 67. When any by frequent Covenant-breaking have forfeited the Credit of their words the Church must have testimony of the actual Reformation of such persons before they can receive their professions and promises as credible any more Though yet there is so great difference here in persons and offences that the particular cases must be much left to the prudence of the Pastors that are present and know the persons and the whole case 68. So great is the necessity of the sick and so seasonable and advantagious the opportunity that Ministers should not negligently omit them but in Love and tenderness instruct them according to their several conditions endeavouring the Conversion of the ungodly and the strengthening of the weak and comforting such as need Consolation directing them how to improve their affliction and helping them to be truly sensible of the evil of sin the miscarriages and negligences of their lives the vanity of the world the necessity and sufficiency of Christ and the certainty and excellency of the everlasting Glory Perswading them to a pious just and charitable disposal of their worldly estate and to forgive such as have wronged them and to be reconciled to those with whom they have been at variance and believingly to hope for that life with Christ which he hath promised to all that are sanctified by his Spirit and comfortably to commit their souls to their Redeemer and quietly rest in the Will and Love and Promises of God Resolving if God should recover them to health to Redeem their time and live as a people devoted to his Glory It is meet also that the Pastors pray for the sick both privately and publikely when it is desired and thought fit 69. The Burial of Christians should be decent and honourable and though it be a thing indifferent in it self whether Exhortations Funeral Sermons or Prayers be then used yet because the season is very advantagious for mens reception of holy instructions it is convenient at least when desired that the Minister do take that season as often as he can to mind people of their mortality and the necessity of a speedy preparation for their change so prudently managing all his Exhortations and Prayers that the due end may be attained and the abuse prevented as far as may be 70. The lives of Christs Ministers should be conformable to their holy doctrine and so exemplary in Innocency Love Humility Meekness Patience Contempt of the world crucifying the desires of the flesh and in a zealous heavenly conversation and in all works of Piety Justice and charity within their power that the mouths of the enemies may be stopped and the people may learn and be convinced and directed even by their holy examples and our selves may be saved and the Christian Church and doctrine may be honoured to the glory of the Holy Ghost and of our Redeemer and our heavenly Father 71. As we have all one God one Christ one Spirit one Faith and Hope and Love one Covenant and one Catholike Church so should the Communion of Saints extend as far as their capacity and opportunities will allow And as particular persons must Associate for personal Communion in publike worship so particular Churches should associate for such Brotherly correspondency and communion as they are capable of and their needs require That by communicating the Truths and Mercies which they have received and advising together and by a brotherly collation of their apprehensions and improvement of their several gifts the unity of the Churches may be preserved and discords and uncharitableness may be avoided and the beauty and strength of the Churches maintained And therefore the Pastors of the neighbour Churches not excluding others that are fit should meet as frequently and at such times and places as the ends and works of the Association do require 72. Into these Associations such Pastors and Churches should be received that make a credible Profession of Faith and Holiness and no other And they that are Hereticks or of scandalous ungodly lives must after a first and second admonition if they remain impenitent be rejected and disowned by the Faithful Pastors

and Churches 73. Where the fixing of a stated President in each of these Associations is requisite for the peace and edification of the Brethren it may well be yielded to but however a special care must be had to prevent contentions and divisions and therefore perverse disputings must be suppressed and proud self-conceited domineering persons and such as are of fiery turbulent contentious spirits and also subtile hereticks and dividers must be watched against as the plague of the Churches and all possible charity humility meekness self-denyal and zeal for holy concord must be exercised 74. Those that through distance or impediments cannot or through mistakes or peevishness will not joyn in such stated brotherly Associations and Assemblies are yet to be allowed the due estimation and affection of Brethren and so much Communion as at a distance they are capable of if they do but agree with us in a sound profession of the faith and a holy conversation and Ministerial fidelity in the main but yet we must disown the sin of their dividing or neglect and as we have opportunity testifie against it 75. These Churches that cannot hold local Communion with one another through differences that destroy not the Essentials of Christianity should yet maintain a dear and tender Christian Love to one another and profess their owning each other as Christians and Churches of Jesus Christ and should agree together upon certain just and equal Rules for the management of their unavoidable differences so as may least prejudice charity and common good and least harden the ungodly or grieve the weak or dishonour God or hinder the success of Common great and necessary Truths upon the souls of men contriving and amicably promoting the Cause of Christianity and every part of it in which they are agreed and should open their disagreements to the people as little as they can 76. In cases of tolerable difference as Ministers and People must maintain a special holy Love and Communion as far as their differences will admit so must they desire the well-fare and the Peace of one another and not stir up hatred or persecution against each other by odious nick-names or exasperating the Magistrate or people against dissenters but should consent to the Liberty of each other and help to take off unjust hatred and to hinder all unmerciful violence or rigor against one another And all of us should watch against and abhor that proud self-conceited domineering disposition that would make us censorious malicious or cruel against the weakest servants of the Lord 77. Yet must we not under pretence of Charity consent to any such noxious Liberty as plainly tendeth to the wrong of the Church and the poysoning of the souls of others nor yet must we consent to the errours of the best Though we are not the judges of the secrets of mens hearts nor may not deal uncharitably with any yet must not heretical self-conceited persons be tolerated in the obstinate dispersing of their errours to the destruction or danger of mens souls nor to reproach and speak against the weighty necessary truths of God Nor should any be tolerated to kindle the flames of uncharitableness and contentions in the Churches by railing reproachful language against the tolerable dissenters But a healing merciful and profitable and not a destructive Toleration should be promoted 78. The Pastors of the Churches of Christ have the power of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven but not of the Temporal sword on earth And though we determine not whether in cases of Necessity it be lawful for Pastors to be also Magistrates yet it is certain that without Necessity it should not be allowed their work requiring all their time and strength and that as Pastors it belongeth not to them But as the Magistrate is the appointed officer of God to Govern even Churches Pastors and People in the way of outward force and Pastors are his Officers to govern them by Spiritual Conduct so must we be so far from desiring to usurp a secular power that we should still advise the Magistrate to keep the sword in his own hand and to take heed of putting compulsive power in the hands of Pastors or enabling them to execute their passionate displeasure against their brethren And as the Magistrate must not usurp the Pastors office but only see that we perform it our selves and punish us if we do not so must not the Pastors usurp the Magistrates office but humbly and modestly teach and advise him from the word of God and reprove him and threaten him and in cases of extremity denounce the Wrath of God against him and bind him over to the Tribunal of Heaven to answer for his obstinate impenitent contempt and then leave all the matter to that bar and patiently suffer if we be persecuted by him Not doing any thing in the management of any of our work without a due respect and reverence to his Authority and a care of the common good that dependeth on his honour but remembring what is meet for him to hear and for us as Messengers of Christ to speak 79. Those Churches of several Nations that through distance and diversity of secular Governours are uncapable of personal or local Communion with others should yet consent as neer as may be in their holy professions and practises not tying each other to any of their unnecessary modes or forms nor uncharitably censuring any tolerable dissenters but owning those Churches that agree with them in the great and necessary things holding such correspondence with them by Messengers as shall be needful to the promoting of their Unity Love and Peace and of the Gospel and common cause of Christ and the defence of each other against the common enemies of those as emergent occasions shall require and direct them 80. To the aforesaid uses the Councils or Synods of Pastors are lawful and convenient in cases that require them where the Pastors of several Churches and Nations may diliberate and determine in order to their Unity of Doctrines and Practices to be Agrreed in and may strengthen the hands of one another But yet the Canons of such Councils are rather Agreements then proper Laws to their several members or absent Brethren and bind in order to Unity and Concord by vertue of those General Commands that require us to do the work of God in such Unity and Concord and not by vertue of any proper superior Regimental power which that Council hath over the particular Bishops of the Churches of Christ And as for General Councils as we should to the forementioned ends regard and honour them above all other if really such were lawfully assembled so in this enlarged and dispersed state of the Militant Church we may easily see that full and proper Universal Councils are neither the Stated Governors of the Universal Church nor necessary to its well-being no nor Lawful to be attempted as a Course that would certainly destroy or grievously wrong the Churches