A Christian Directory, Part 3: Christian EcclesiasticsBaxter, Richard
Religion
A Christian Directory, Part 3: Christian Ecclesiastics
Baxter, Richard
Casuistry; Christian sociology
2. He that is no pastor of a particular church, may be a pastor in the
universal, obliged as a consecrated person to endeavour its good, by
the works of his office, as he hath a particular opportunity and call.
3. Yet he that hath a particular charge is especially and nearlier
related and obliged to that charge or church, than to any other part
of the universal (though not than to the whole); and consequently hath
a peculiar authority, where he hath a peculiar obligation and work.
4. He that is (without degrading) removed from a particular church,
doth not cease to be a general minister and pastor related to the
universal church; as a physician put out of an hospital charge, is a
physician still. And therefore he needeth no new ordination, but only
a special designation to his next particular charge.
5. No man is the bishop of a diocess as to the measure of ground, or
the place, by divine right, that is, by any particular law or
determination of God; but only a bishop of the church or people: for
your office essentially containeth a relation to the people, but
accidentally only to the place.
6. Yet natural convenience, and God's general laws of order and
edification, do make it usually (but not always) best, and therefore a
duty, to distinguish churches by the people's habitation: not taking a
man for a member _eo nomine_, because he liveth on that ground; but
for order's sake taking none for members that live not on that ground,
and not intruding causelessly into each other's bounds.
7. He that by the call or consent of a neighbour pastor and people
doth officiate (by preaching, sacraments, excommunication, or
absolution) in another's special charge for a day, or week, or month,
or more, without a fixed relation to that flock, doth neither
officiate as a layman, nor yet unlawfully or irregularly; but, 1. As a
minister of Christ in the church universal. 2. And as the pastor of
that church for the present time only, though not statedly; even as a
physician called to help another in his hospital, or to supply his
place for the time, doth perform his work, 1. As a licensed physician.
2. And as the physician of that patient or hospital for that time,
though not statedly.
8. No man is to intrude into another's charge without a call; much
less to claim a particular stated oversight and authority. For though
he be not a usurper as to the office in general, he is a usurper as to
that particular flock. It is no error in ordination to say, Take thou
authority to preach the word of God, and administer the holy
sacraments, when thou shalt be thereto lawfully called; that is, when
thou hast a particular call to the exercise, and to a fixed charge, as
thou hast now a call to the office in general.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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