A26895:189
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.
80. To the aforesaid uses, the Councils or Synods of Pastors are lawful and convenient in cases that require them, where the Pastors of several Churches and Nations may deliberate and determine in order to their Unity, of Doctrines and Practices to be Agreed in, and may strengthen the hands of one another. But yet, the Canons of such Councils are rather Agreements, then proper Laws, to their several members or absent Brethren; and bind in order to Unity and Concord by virtue of those General Commands that require us to do the work of God in such Unity and Concord, and not by virtue of any proper superior Regimental power, which that Council hath over the particular Bishops of the Churches of Christ. And as for General Councils, as we should to the forementioned ends regard and honour them above all other, if really such were lawfully assembled; so in this ⟨p. 77⟩enlarged and dispersed state of the Militant Church, we may easily see, that full and proper Universal Councils, are neither the Stated Governors of the Universal Church, nor necessary to its well-being, no nor Lawful to be attempted, as a Course that would certainly destroy or grievously wrong the Churches, by the death and long absence of the Pastors, through so many hundred and thousand miles travail, and so long attending, which the state and work of proper Universal Councils will require: Yea the said distance, with the age and weakness of the Pastors, and the different languages, and the poverty of many disabling them from such tedious voyages and journeys, and the dissent of the Princes. (many of them Heathens, Infidels, Mahometans) under whose Government they live, or through whose dominions they must pass, these with many the like Impediments do make a true Universal Council (like an Universal Parliament or Senate) to be so far. from necessary, or desirable, as to be Morally Impossible, or next to Impossible, as to the very Being of it.
80. To the aforesaid uses, the Councils or Synods of Pastors are lawful and convenient in cases that require them, where the Pastors of several Churches and Nations may diliberate and determine in order to their Unity, of Doctrines and Practices to be Agrreed in, and may strengthen the hands of one another. But yet, the Canons of such Councils are rather Agreements, then proper Laws, to their several members or absent Brethren; and bind in order to Unity and Concord by vertue of those General Commands that require us to do the work of God in such Unity and Concord, and not by vertue of any proper superior Regimental power, which that Council hath over the particular Bishops of the Churches of Christ. And as for General Councils, as we should to the forementioned ends regard and honour them above all other, if really such were lawfully assembled; so in this