A69533:1066
Five disputations of church-government and worship
Five disputations of church-government and worship by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1659
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.
§. 12. 4. The good of the Church requireth it that this disproportion ⟨p. 312⟩of Ministers gifts in one and the same Congregation should be the ordinary case (And rules must be fitted to ordinary cases, rather then to extraordinary.) For God doth not (as we see by long and sad experience) bestow his excellent gifts so commonly, as that one Church (ordinarily) should have many Learned able men: There are but few that are of eminency for judgement and other Ministerial abilities: Not one for many Parishes: If therefore many of these should be placed together in one Church, it would be against the common good, and an unjust engrossment, and injurious unto others. Providence therefore by the rarity of eminent parts, doth teach us to make it the ordinary course, that in every Congregation where there are many Pastors, some one of chiefest parts be chosen to be standing Moderator of the rest.
§. 12. 4. The good of the Church requireth it that this disproportion ⟨p. 312⟩of Ministers gifts in one and the same Congregation should be the ordinary case (And rules must be fitted to ordinary cases, rather then to extraordinary.) For God doth not (as we see by long and sad experience) bestow his excellent gifts so commonly, as that one Church (ordinarily) should have many Learned able men: There are but few that are of eminency for judgement and other Ministerial abilities: Not one for many Parishes: If therefore many of these should be placed together in one Church, it would be against the common good, and an unjust ingrossment, and injurious unto others. Providence therefore by the rarity of eminent parts, doth teach us to make it the ordinary course, that in every Congregation where there are many Pastors, some one of chiefest parts be chosen to be standing Moderator of the rest.
§. 13. 5. That which is lawful for Private men to do towards one another, is lawful Prudentially for Pastors that are conscious of their own imperfection, to do towards one that they think more able then themselves. But it is lawful for Private men to be subject one to another in humility: therefore it is lawful for such Pastors,