A Christian Directory, Part 3: Christian EcclesiasticsBaxter, Richard
Religion
A Christian Directory, Part 3: Christian Ecclesiastics
Baxter, Richard
Casuistry; Christian sociology
_Prop._ XI. He that is judged a heretic and no christian justly by
others, must be lawfully cited, and heard plead his cause, and be
judged upon sufficient proof, and not unheard, or upon rash
presumption.[216]
_Prop._ XII. Christianity and heresy being personal qualities, and no
where found but in individuals, nor one man guilty of another's error,
it followeth that it is single persons upon personal guilt that must
be judged.[217]
_Prop._ XIII. Any man may judge another to be a christian or heretic,
by a private judgment of discerning, or the reason which guideth all
human actions; but only church rulers may judge him by that public
judgment, which giveth or denieth him his public privileges and
communion.[218]
_Prop._ XIV. If by notorious injustice church rulers condemn
christians as no christians, though they may thereby deny them
communion with those public assemblies which they govern, yet do they
not oblige the people to take such injured persons for no christians.
Else they might oblige all to believe a lie, to consent to malicious
injuries, and might disoblige the people from truth, righteousness,
and charity.[219]
_Prop._ XV. There is no one natural or collective head and governor of
all the churches in the world (the universal church) but Jesus Christ;
and therefore there is none that by such governing power, can
excommunicate any man out of the universal church; and such usurpation
would be treason against Christ, whose prerogative it is.[220]
_Prop._ XVI. Yet he that deserveth to be excommunicated from one
church, deserveth to be excommunicated by and from all, if it be upon
a cause common to all; or that nullifieth his christianity.[221]
_Prop._ XVII. And where neighbour churches are consociate and live in
order and concord, he that is orderly excommunicate from one church,
and it be notified to the rest, should not be taken into the communion
of any of the rest, till he be cleared, or become fit for their
communion.[222] But this obligation ariseth but from the concord of
consociate churches, and not from the power of one over the rest; and
it cannot reach all the world, where the person cometh not, nor was
ever known; but only to those who through neighbourhood are capable of
just notice, and of giving or denying communion to that person.
_Prop._ XVIII. From all this it is clear, that it is not either
papists alone, or Greeks alone, or protestants alone, or any party of
christians, who are the universal church, seeing that church
containeth all christians.[223] And that reviling others (yea, whole
nations) as heretics, schismatics, and no christians or churches, will
no more prove the revilers to be the only church or christians, than
want of love will prove a man to be one of Christ's disciples, who by
love are known to all men to be his.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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