Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	bishop_n	communion_n	schism_n	2,982	5	9.7506	5	false

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

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

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