A26862:6
Aphorisms of justification, with their explication annexed wherein also is opened the nature of…Aphorismes of justification, with their explication annexed wherein also is opened the nature of…
Aphorisms of justification, with their explication annexed wherein also is opened the nature of the covenants, satisfaction, righteousness, faith, works, &c. : published especially for the use of the church of Kidderminster in Worcestershire / by their unworthy teacher Ri. Baxter.Aphorismes of justification, with their explication annexed wherein also is opened the nature of the covenants, satisfaction, righteousnesse, faith, works, &c. : published especially for the use of the church of Kederminster in Worcestershire / by their unworthy teacher Ri. Baxter.
Hague: printed by Abraham Brown, 1655
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
To the Learned, zealous, Faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ, Mr. Richard Vines, Master of Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge, and Mr. Anthony Burges, Pastor of Sutton-Cold-field in Warwickshire, Members of the Reverend Assembly of Divines, my very much valued Friends and Brethren in the work and Patience of the Gospel.
To the Learned, zealous, Faithfull Ministers of Jesus Christ, Mr. Richard Vines, Master of Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge, and Mr. Anthony Burges, Pastor of Sutton-Cold-field in Warwickshire, Members of the Reverend Assembly of Divines, my very much valued Friends and Brethren in the work and Patience of the Gospel.
Most Dear Brethren,
I Never well understood their meaning, who crave Patronage to their Writings from the mere great ones of the times. If they need or desire a borrowed honour, methinks they quite mistake their way, and go for water to the top of Teneriffe, which they should seek in the valleys or still-flowing Springs. To give them our Writings to instruct them, is agreeable to our Office and duty: but to submit them to their censures, or crave the protection of their Greatnesses, and prefix their names as the Signatures of Worth, as if Truth did ever the more dwell within, where this gilded sign is hanged without: this seemeth to me, to be as needless, as absurd. The self-idolizing sin of Pride is so natural to all men, especially when furthered by dignities and worldly pomp, that they are apt enough without a tempter, to take themselves for the summum genus in every ⟨image 3⟩Predicament as well as their own. A little help will mount them above their Teachers, and a little more above Ordinances; but the top of the ambition is to be above God; that on them as the Alpha all may depend, and to them as the Omega all may ascribe. I think it a more needful work (not for our honour, but their own safety) to make them understand, that Princes and Parliaments are Scholars in that School where Christ is the Master, and we his Ushers: and that (at least) in respect of our Nuncupative, Declarative power, we are their Rulers in spirituals, whom they are bound to obey,