A26924:907
The English nonconformity as under King Charles II and King James II truly stated…
The English nonconformity as under King Charles II and King James II truly stated and argued by Richard Baxter ; who earnestly beseecheth rulers and clergy not to divide and destroy the land and cast their own souls on the dreadful guilt and punishment of national perjury ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1689
Chapter 58: Whether Communion with so Faulty a Church be Lawful.
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.
M. Sic stulti vitia vitant, drunken men reel from side to side; to keep one right tract, or to cut by a thread, seemeth impossible to them. I. You must distinguish between the Diocesan Churches as constituted by their Courts of Government and Canons, and the Parish Churches. II. Between those Parish-Churches which have godly or tolerable Pastors, and those that have not. III. Between Ministry and Lay-Communion. IV. Between stated and occasional Communion. V. Between preferring their Churches before better, and not avoiding them as null, or as unlawful to be Communicated with. Understand these five distinctions well, and I shall satisfy you.
M. Sic stulti vitia vitant, drunken men reel from side to side; to keep one right tract, or to cut by a thred, seemeth impossible to them. I. You must distinguish between the Diocesan Churchs as constituted by their Courts of Government and Canons, and the Parish Churches. II. Between those Parish-Churches which have godly or tolerable Pastors, and those that have not. III. Between Ministry and Lay-Communion. IV. Between stated and occasional Communion. V. Between preferring their Churches before better, and not avoiding them as null, or as unlawful to be Communicated with. Understand these five distinctions well, and I shall satisfy you.
L. Apply them, and let us hear your judgment.
M. I. The Diocesan Churches, as they depose all inferior Bishops and Churches, and Rule by their Lay-Civilians, Church-Censures, I disown and hold no Communion with in those errors, but only in their Christianity. But I peaceably submit to them, and would live quietly under them, if I might. II. Those Parishes that have notoriously uncapable Priests, either through utter insufficiency, heresy or hurtfulness, doing more harm than good, I own not to be Organized Churches, nor have Communion with their Ministers as Ministers, not owning them for such. III. I hold it utterly unlawful to be Ministers with them, on the terms now required of us; and therefore I have no such Ministerial Communion with them. IV. I prefer them not before better. V. I hold not fixed Communion as a fixed Member of their Churches, with all that I hold occasional Communion with.