A69533:620

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:617–632 of 1,637

: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.

:619p. 171–172

Sect. 17. Argument 4. If there be a Necessity of an uninterrupted ⟨p. 172⟩succession of true Ordination, then cannot the Church or any Christian in it, know whether they have any true Ministerial administrations, whether in Sacraments or other Ordinances. For he that cannot know that he hath a Minister, cannot know that he hath the administration of a Minister) But the consequent is untrue, and against the comfort of all Christians, and the honour of Christ, and is indeed the very doctrine of the Infidels and Papists, that call themselves Seekers among us.

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Reformers309

Puritans1,782

Westminster Assembly24

Evangelicals36