A26892:5990
A Christian Directory
A Christian directory, or, A sum of practical theology and cases of conscience directing Christians how to use their knowledge and faith, how to improve all helps and means, and to perform all duties, how to overcome temptations, and to escape or mortify every sin : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.A Christian directory, or, A summ of practical theologie and cases of conscience directing Christians how to use their knowledge and faith, how to improve all helps and means, and to perform all duties, how to overcome temptations, and to escape or mortifie every sin : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons, 1673
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
3. Every particular Church hath its own particular Pastor (one or more), and its own particular place or bounds of habitation or residence: Therefore he that will be a member of a particular Church, 1. Must cohabit, or live in a proximity capable of Communion. 2. And must Consent to be a member of that particular Church, and to be under the Guidance of its particular Pastors in their Office work. For he cannot be made a member without his own Consent and Will; nor can he be a member, that subjecteth not himself to the Governor or Guide.
3. Every particular Church hath its own particular Pastor (one or more), and its own particular place or bounds of habitation or residence: Therefore he that will be a member of a particular Church, 1. Must cohabite, or live in a proximity capable of Communion. 2. And must Consent to be a member of that particular Church, and to be under the Guidance of its particular Pastors in their Office work. For he cannot be made a member without his own Consent and Will; nor can he be a member, that subjecteth not himself to the Governour or Guide.
4. He therefore that will intrude into their Communion and privileges without expressing his consent before hand to be a member, and to submit to the Pastoral oversight, is to be taken for an invader.
4. He therefore that will intrude into their Communion and priviledges without expressing his consent before hand to be a member, and to submit to the Pastoral oversight, is to be taken for an invader.
5. But no other personal qualification is to be exacted of him as necessary, but that he be a member of the Church Universal. As he is not to be baptized again, so neither to give again all that account of his Faith and Repentance particularly which he gave at Baptism: Much less any higher proofs of his sincerity: But if he continue in the Covenant and Church-state which he was Baptized into, he is capable thereby of reception into any particular Church upon particular Consent. Nor is there any Scripture proof of any new examinations about their Conversion or sincerity, at their removals or entrance into a particular Church.