A26892:7008
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.
Quest. 103. Must the Pastors remove from one Church to another when ever the Magistrate commandeth us, though the Bishops contradict it, and the Church consent not to dismiss us; And so of other Cases of disagreement?
Answ. 1. AS in mans soul, the Intellectual Guidance, the Will, and the executive power do concur, so in Church Cases of this nature, the Potestative Government of the Magistrate, the Directive Guidance of the senior Pastors, and the Attractive Love of the people (who are the chief inferior final Cause) should all concur: And when they do not, it is confusion: And when Gods order is broken which commandeth their concurrence, it is hard to know what to do, in such a division which God alloweth not: As it is to know whether I should take part with the Heart against the Head, or with the Head against the Stomach and Liver, on supposition of cross inclinations or interests; when as Nature supposeth either a concord of inclination and interests, or else the ruin, sickness or death of the person: And the Cure must be by reconciling them, rather than by knowing which to side with against the rest.
Answ. 1. AS in mans soul, the Intellectual Guidance, the Will, and the executive power do concur, so in Church Cases of this nature, the Potestative Government of the Magistrate, the Directive Guidance of the senior Pastors, and the Attractive Love of the people (who are the chief inferiour final Cause) should all concur: And when they do not, it is confusion: And when Gods order is broken which commandeth their concurrence, it is hard to know what to do, in such a division which God alloweth not: As it is to know whether I should take part with the Heart against the Head, or with the Head against the Stomach and Liver, on supposition of cross inclinations or interests; when as Nature supposeth either a concord of inclination and interests, or else the ruine, sickness or death of the person: And the Cure must be by reconciling them, rather than by knowing which to side with against the rest.