A69533:507

Five disputations of church-government and worship

Name: Five disputations of church-government and worship
Author: Richard Baxter

Five disputations of church-government and worship by Richard Baxter.

Richard Baxter 1615–1691London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1659

[10], 38, [10], 24, 492 p. · 215k words · Wing B1267 · ESTC R13446

Title page: Princeton Theological Seminary Library copy, digitized by the Internet Archive (opens the Internet Archive in a new tab)

Assert. Those who nullify our present Ministry and Churches, which… › Chapter 1Assert. Those who nullifie our present Ministry and Churches, which… › Chapter 1

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.

[ Earlier:504–519 of 1,637

:504p. 136

Sect. 18. 11. Hence is the doubt resolved, Whether the Pastor, or Church be first in order of time or Nature? I answer: The Minister as a Minister to Convert and Baptize and gather Churches, is before a Church gathered in order of Nature and of time. But the Pastor of that particular Church as such, and the Church it self whose Pastor he is, are as other Relations, together and at once; as Father and Son, Husband and Wife, &c. As nature first makes the Nobler parts, as the Heart and Brain and Liver; and then by them as instruments formeth the rest; And as the Philosopher or Schoolmaster openeth his School, and takes in Scholars; and as the Captain hath first his Commission to gather Soldiers: But when the Bodies are formed, then when the Captain or Schoolmaster dieth, another is chosen in his stead; So is it in this case of Pastors.

Sect. 18. 11. Hence is the doubt resolved, Whether the Pastor, or Church be first in order of time or Nature? I answer: The Minister as a Minister to Convert and Baptize and gather Churches, is before a Church gathered in order of Nature and of time. But the Pastor of that particalar Church as such, and the Church it self whose Pastor he is, are as other Relations, together and at once; as Father and Son, Husband and Wife, &c. As nature first makes the Nobler parts, as the Heart and Brain and Liver; and then by them as instruments formeth the rest; And as the Philosopher or Schoolmaster openeth his School, and takes in Schollars; and as the Captain hath first his Commission to gather Soldiers: But when the Bodies are formed, then when the Captain or Schoolmaster dieth, another is chosen in his stead; So is it in this case of Pastors.

:505p. 136–137

Sect. 19. 12. Hence also is the great controversy easily determined, Whether a particular Church or the universal be first in order, and be the Ecclesia Prima: To which I answer 1. The Question is not de ordine dignitatis, nor which is finally the Ministers chief End: For so it is past controversy that the Universal Church is first. 2. As to order of existence, the universal Church is considered either as consisting of Christians as Christians, converted and Baptized: or further as consisting of Regular Ordered Assemblies, or particular Churches. (For all Christian•

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Reformers309

Puritans1,782

Westminster Assembly24

Evangelicals36

CHAP. II. Of the Nature and Ends of Ordination.