A27006:986
Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his…
Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times faithfully published from his own original manuscript by Matthew Sylvester.Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times faithfully publish'd from his own original manuscript by Matthew Sylvester.
London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1696
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.
§ 14. 4 And in the Independent way I disliked many things: As
1. That they made too light of Ordination.
2. That they also had their Office of Lay-Eldership.
3. That they were commonly Stricter about the Qualification of Church Members, than Scripture, Reason, or the Practice of the Universal Church would allow; not taking a Man's bare Profession as Credible, as a sufficient Evidence of his Title to Church Communion, unless either by a holy Life, or the Particular Narration of the Passages of the Work of Grace, he satisfied the Pastors (yea, and all the Church) that he was truly Holy; whereas every Man's Profession is the valid Evidence of the thing professed in his Heart, unless it be disproved by him that questioneth it, by proving him guilty of Heresies or Impiety, or Sins inconsistent with it. And if once you go beyond the Evidence of [a serious sober Confession] as a credible and sufficient sign of Title, you will never know where to rest; but the Churches Opinion will be both Rule and Judge, and Men will be let in or kept out, according to the various Latitude of Opinions or Charity in the several Officers or Churches: and he will be passable in one Church who in another is intolerable; and so the Churches will be heterogeneous and confused. And there is in all this a little (if not more than a little) spiritual Pride of the Weaker sort of Professors, affecting to be visibly set at a greater Distance from the colder Professors of Christianity, than God would have them, that so they may be more observable, and conspicuous for their Holiness in the World: And there is too much uncharitableness in it, when God hath given sincere Professors the Kernel of his Mercies, even Grace and Glory, and yet they will grudge to cold Hypocritical Professors, so small a thing as the outward Shell, and visible Communion and external Ordinances; Yea, though such are kept in the Church for the Sakes and Service of the Sincere.