A26895:110
The Christian religion expressed I, briefly in the ancient creeds, the Ten commandments, and…
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.
London : s.n., 1660
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. 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 settled 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.
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 ⟨p. 27⟩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 Catholic 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 Emperors 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