A69533:619

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 4: An uninterrupted Succession of Regular Ordination, is not Necessary.Assert. Those who nullifie our present Ministry and Churches, which… › Chapter 4: An uninterrupted Succession of Regular Ordination, is not Necessary.

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:616–631 of 1,637

:616p. 171

Sect. 14. Argument 2. If uninterrupted Regular Ordination of all our Predecessors be Necessary to the Being of the Ministry, then can no Bishop or Pastors whatsoever comfortably Ordain: For who dare lay his hand on the head of another, and pretend to deliver him authority, in the name of Christ, that hath no assurance (nor probability neither) that he hath any Commission from Christ to do it? But the Consequent will be disowned by those that dispute against us? therefore so should the Antecedent be also.

:617p. 171

Sect. 15. Argument 3. If there be a Necessity of an uninterrupted succession of true Regular Ordination, then no man can know of the Church that he is a member of, or of any other Church on earth, that it is a true Church. (By a Church I mean not a Community, but a Society: not a company of private Christians living together as Christians neighbours, but a Politic Church consisting of Pastor and people associated for the use of public Ordinances and Communion therein:) But the consequent is false; — &c.

Sect. 15. Argument 3. If there be a Necessity of an uninterrupted succession of true Regular Ordination, then no man can know of the Church that he is a member of, or of any other Church on earth, that it is a true Church. (By a Church I mean not a Community, but a Society: not a company of private Christians living together as Christians neighbours, but a Politick Church consisting of Pastor and people associated for the use of publick Ordinances and Communion therein:) But the consequent is false; — &c.

:618p. 171

Sect. 16. The Major, or consequence is certain: For no man can know that the Church is a true Political Organized Church, that knows not that the Pastor of it is a true Minister of Christ. Because the Pastor is an Essential constitutive part of the Church in this acceptation. And I have proved already that the truth of the Ministry cannot be known upon the Opponents terms. And for the Minor, I think almost all Church members will grant it me. For though they are ready enough to accuse others, yet they all take their own Churches for true, and will be offended with any that question or deny it.

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Westminster Assembly24

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