A26914:132
The difference between the power of magistrates and church-pastors and the Roman kingdom &…
The difference between the power of magistrates and church-pastors and the Roman kingdom & magistracy under the name of a church & church-government usurped by the Pope, or liberally given him by popish princes opened by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Nevil Simmons, 1671
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.
53. Whether such Synods be stated, or occasional, and whether the President shall be still the same or changed, with such other circumstances, are things not determined in Scripture, but left to the determination of humane prudence, as the case shall require, for the end intended.
54. Though the Major part in these Synods, be not the proper Governors of the Minor, yet the Pastors there assembled are still the Governors of the flocks, and they are also bound to Concord in things lawful among themselves. Therefore their Decrees about such things, are Obligatory to the People ratione authoritatis, and they are obligatory to one another (I mean the Pastors) ratione concordiae: And this is the true state of the binding power of Synods.
54. Though the Major part in these Synods, be not the proper Governours of the Minor, yet the Pastors there assembled are still the Governours of the flocks, and they are also bound to Concord in things lawful among themselves. Therefore their Decrees about such things, are Obligatory to the People ratione authoritatis, and they are obligatory to one another (I mean the Pastors) ratione concordiae: And this is the true state of the binding power of Synods.
55. Though the usual phrase of [binding the Conscience] be unapt, (Conscience being an act of science; and it is not to know that by the obligation now in question we are bound to primarily) yet as to the sense intended, it is certain, that the Commands of Parents, Magistrates and Pastors, in their proper places, do all truly bind the soul, or will, or man, or as they say, the Conscience; But it is only by a secondary obligation, from a derived power; as God bindeth it by a primary obligation by the primitive power. He that hath no power of obliging, hath no power of Governing. And he that obligeth not the soul and will, obligeth not the man at all, by any Moral obligation: The body alone or immediately is bound by Cords and Chains, but not by Commands and Laws: He that may not bind the soul by a Command, hath no commanding authority,