A69533:1345
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.
The Fifth DISPUTATION: Of Humane CEREMONIES: Whether they are necessary, or profitable to the Church, and how far they may be imposed or observed? By Richard Baxter.
LONDON, Printed by Robert White, for Nevil Simmons, Bookseller in Kidderminster, Anno Dom. 1658.
LONDON, Printed by Robert White, for Nevil Simmons, Bookseller in Kederminster, Anno Dom. 1658.
Qu. Whether Humane Ceremonies be Necessary or Profitable to the Church?
CHAP. I. Distinctions and Propositions in order to the Decision.
§. 1. THE discussion of the Controversy about the Etymology of the word [Ceremony] is unnecessary to our ends, and would be more troublesome then useful. Whether it be derived ab oppido Caere, or à carendo, or à Caritate, or à Cerere, as several mens conjectures run, or rather as Scaliger and Martinius think, from Cerus, which in veteri lingua erat sanctus; it sufficeth us that it signifieth a sacred rite. Servius saith that all sacred things among the Greeks were called [Greek or Hebrew], and among the Latins Ceremoniae: But by Ceremonies we mean only external Rites or Orders in or about the worship of God. And by Humane, we mean such