A69533:928
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.
Sect. 52. Prop. 3. If any shall cull out two or three or more of the weakest injudicious, facile Ministers, and procure them to Ordain him, his course is irregular, and his call unsatisfactory, though the formal part be obtained to the full. For it is not for mere formality, but to satisfy the person called, and the ⟨p. 269⟩Church, and to secure the Ministry and sacred works and souls of men, from injury by Usurpers, that God hath appointed the way of Ordination: And therefore it is fraud, and not obedience, for any man so to use it, as to cheat himself and the Church with a formality, and frustrate the Ordinance, and miss its ends.
Sect. 52. Prop. 3. If any shall cull out two or three or more of the weakest injudicious, facile Ministers, and procure them to Ordain him, his course is irregular, and his call unsatisfactory, though the formal part be obtained to the full. For it is not for meer formality, but to satsfie the person called, and the ⟨p. 269⟩Church, and to secure the Ministry and sacred works and souls of men, from injury by Usurpers, that God hath appointed the way of Ordination: And therefore it is fraud, and not obedience, for any man so to use it, as to cheat himsef and the Church with a formality, and frustrate the Ordinance, and miss its ends.
Sect. 53. Prop. 4. If any man, avoiding the Orthodox and Unanimous Ministry, shall apply himself for Ordination to some divided schismatical or heretical persons, that will Approve him, and Ordain him, when the others would reject him, this also, as the former, is fraud and self-deceit, and not obedience; upon the last mentioned grounds. It is the basest treacherous kind of sinning, to turn Gods Ordinances against himself, and to sin under the shelter and pretence of an institution. By using the means in opposition to its end, they make it no means, and use it not as a means at all. Though Pastors must Ordain, yet is it not all kind of Pastors Ordination that should satisfy an honest meaning man; but that which hath the qualifications suited to the Rule and end.