A26892:6536
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.
Part 3 › Question 56: Quest. 56. Is any Form of Church Government of Divine Institution
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.
8. And as this cannot be done but by stated Pastors, so neither on transient persons, ordinarily: For who can teach them that are here to day and gone to morrow: When the Pastor should proceed from day to day in adding one instruction to another, the hearers will be gone, and new ones in their place? And how can vigilancy and discipline be exercised upon such transient persons, whose faults and cases will be unknown? Or how can they mutually help each other? And seeing most in the world have fixed habitations, if they have not also fixed Church-relations, they must leave their habitations and wander, or else have no Church Communion at all.
9. And as this Necessity of fixed Pastors and flocks is confessed, so that such de facto were ordinarily settled by the Apostles is before proved, if any Scriptures may pass for proof.
9. And as this Necessity of fixed Pastors and flocks is confessed, so that such de facto were ordinarily setled by the Apostles is before proved, if any Scriptures may pass for proof.
The Institution and settlement then of particular worshipping Churches is out of doubt: And so that two Forms of Church Government are Jure Divino, the Universal Church Form, and the particular.
The Institution and setlement then of particular worshipping Churches is out of doubt: And so that two Forms of Church Government are Iure Divino, the Universal Church Form, and the particular.