The Practical Works of Richard Baxter: with a Life of the Author and a ... - Richard Baxter - Google Libros

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Q. 19. Wherein consisteth the power and nature of ordina-

tion? And to whom doth it belong? And is it an act of

jurisdiction? And is imposition of hands necessary in it?

Q. 20. Is ordination necessary to make a man a pastor of a

particular church as such? And is he to be made a gene-

ral minister, and a particular church elder or pastor at once,

and at one ordination ?

Q. 21. May a man be oft, or twice ordained?

Q. 22. How many ordainers are necessary to the validity of

ordination by Christ's institution, whether one or more?

Q. 23. What if one bishop ordain a minister, and three, or

many, or all the rest protest against it, and declare him no

minister or degrade him, is he to be received as a true mi-

Q. 24. Hath a bishop power by Divine right to ordain, de-

grade or govern, excommunicate or absolve in another's

diocese or church, either by his consent or against it? And

doth a minister that officiateth in another's church, act as

a pastor, and their pastor, or as a private man? And doth

his ministerial office cease when a man removeth from his

Q. 25. Whether canons be laws, and pastors have a legisla-
tive power?

.....

Q. 26. Whether church-canons or pastors' directive deter-

minations of matters pertinent to their office, do bind the

conscience, and what accidents will disoblige the people;

you may gather before in the same case about magistrates'

laws in the Political Directions; as also by an impartial

transferring the case to the precepts of parents and school-

masters to children, without respect to their power of the

rod, (or supposing that they had none such) ?

Q. 27. What are Christ's appointed means of the unity and

concord of the universal church, and consequently of its

preservation, if there be no human universal head and go-

vernor of it upon earth? And if Christ hath instituted

none such, whether prudence and the law of nature oblige

not the church to set up and maintain an universal ecclesias-

tical monarchy or aristocracy; seeing that which is every
man's work, is no man's, and omitted by all? ..

Q. 28. Who is the judge of controversies in the church?

About the exposition of the Scriptures and doctrinal points

in themselves. 2. About either heresies or wicked prac-

292

295

296

302

304

306

309

tices, as they are charged on the persons accused of them :

that is, 1. Antecedently to our practice, by way of regula

tion. 2. Or consequently by judicial sentence (and execu

tion) on offenders ?

Q. 29. Whether a parent's power over his children, or a pas-

tor's, or many pastors or bishops over the same children as

parts of their flocks, be greater, or more obliging in mat-

ters of religion and public worship? . . . .

Q. 30. May an office-teacher or pastor be at once in the stated

relation of a pastor, and a disciple to some other pastor?..

Q. 31. Who hath the power of making church-canons? ... 316

Q. 32. Doth baptism as such enter the baptized into the uni-

versal church; or into a particular church, or both? And

is baptism the particular church-covenant as such? ...

Q. 33. Whether infants should be baptized, I have answered

long ago in a Treatise on that subject? :

Q. What infants should be baptized? And who have right to

sacraments? And whether hypocrites are unequivocally or

equivocally Christians and church-members, I have resolved

in my "Disputation of Right to Sacraments."

Q. 34. Whether an unbaptized person who yet maketh a pub-

lic profession of Christianity be a member of the visible

church? And so of the infants of believers unbaptized? ibid.

Q. 35. Is it certain by the Word of God, that all infants bap-

tized, and dying before actual sin are undoubtedly saved?

Or what infants may we say so of?

Q.36. What is meant by this speech, that believers and their

seed are in the covenant of God; which giveth them right

Q. 37. Are believers' children certainly in covenant before

their baptism; and thereby in a state of salvation ; or not

till they are baptized?.

Q. 38. Is infants' title to baptism and the covenant benefits

given them by God in his promises upon any proper moral

condition, or only upon the condition of their natural rela-

tion; that they be the seed of the faithful?

Q. 39. What is the true meaning of sponsors, ( patrimi'), or

godfathers, as we call them; and is it lawful to make use

Q. 40. On whose account or right is it that the infant hath

title to baptism and its benefits? Is it on the parent's, an-

cestor's, sponsor's, the church's, the minister's, the magis-

trate's, or his own?...

Q. 41. Are they really baptized who are baptized according to

the English liturgy and canons, where the parent seemeth

excluded, and those to consent for the infant who have no

power to do it?

Q. 42. But the great question is, How the Holy Ghost is

given to infants in baptism, and whether all the children of

true Christians have inward sanctifying grace? Or whether

they can be said to be justified and to be in a

vation, that are not inherently sanctified?

any fall from this infant state of salvation?

Q. 43. Is the right of the baptized (infants or adult) to the

sanctifying operations of the Holy Ghost now absolute; or

suspended on further conditions? And are the parents'

further duty for their children such conditions of their

children's reception of the actual assistances of the Spirit?

Or are children's own actions such conditions?
And may

apostate parents forfeit the covenant benefits to their bap-

tized infants or not?

Q. 44. Doth baptism always oblige us at the present, and

give grace at the present, and is the grace which is not

given till long after, given by baptism, or an effect of bap-

Q. 45. What is a proper violation of our baptismal covenant?

Q.46. May not baptism in some cases be repeated; and when?

Q. 47. Is baptism by laymen or women lawful in cases of ne-

cessity; or are they nullities, and the person to be re-bap-

Q. 48. May Anabaptists that have no other error, be permit-

ted in church-communion ?...

Q. 49. May one offer his child to be baptized, with the sign

of the cross, or the use of chrisms, the white garment,

milk and honey, or exorcisms as among the Lutherans,

who taketh these to be unlawful things?..

Q. 50. Whence came the ancient universal custom of anoint-

ing at baptism, and putting on a white garment, and

tasting milk and honey; and whether they are lawful to us?

Q. 51. Whether it be necessary that they that are baptized in

infancy, do solemnly at age review and own their baptis-

mal covenant before they have right to the state and pri-

vileges of adult members; and if they do not, whether

they are to be numbered with Christians or apostates ?•••• 369

Q. 52. Whether the universal church consist only of particu-

lar churches and their members ?

Q. 53. Must the pastor first call the church and aggregate

them to himself, or the church first congregate themselves

and then choose the pastor?

Q. 54. Wherein doth a particular church of Christ differ

from a consociation of many churches ?•••••

Q. 55. Whether a particular church may consist of more as-

semblies than one; or must needs meet all in one place? 372

Q. 56. Is any form of church-government of Divine institution? 373

Q. 57. Whether any forms of churches and church-govern-

ment or any new church-officers may lawfully be invented

and made by man?

Q. 58. Whether any part of the proper pastoral or episcopal

power may be given or deputed to a layman, or to one of

any other office ; or their proper work may be performed

Q. 59. May a layman preach or expound the Scriptures; or

what of this is proper to the pastor's office?.. ... ... ....

Q. 60. What is the true sense of the distinction of pastoral

power in foro interiore et exteriore,' rightly used? • • • • • •

Q. 61. In what sense is it true, that some say that the ma-

gistrate only hath the external government of the church,

and the pastor the internal ?

Q. 62. Is the trial, judgment, or consent of the laity neces-

sary to the admittance of a member into the universal or

particular church?

Q. 63. What power have the people in church-censures

and excommunication?

Q. 64. What is the people's remedy in case of the pastor's

mal-administration? .

Q. 65. May one be a pastor or a member of a particular

church who liveth so far from it, as to be incapable of

personal communion with them?

Q. 66. If a man be injuriously suspended or excommunicated

by the pastor or people, which way shall he have remedy?

Q.67. Doth presence always make us guilty of the evils or

faults of the pastor in God's worship, or of the church?

or in what cases are we guilty? ....

ibid.

Q. 68. Is it lawful to communicate in the sacrament with

Q. 69. Have all the members of the church right to the

Lord's table, and is suspension lawful?......

Q. 70. Is there any such thing in the church, as a rank, or

classis, or species of church-members at age, who are not

to be admitted to the Lord's table, but only to the hear-

ing of the Word, and prayer, between infant members, and

adult, confirmed ones?..

Q.71. Whether a form of prayer be lawful?..

Q. 72. Are forms of prayer or preaching in the church lawful? 415

Q. 73. Are public forms of man's devising or composing

Q. 74. Is it lawful to impose forms on the congregation or

the people in public worship?

Q. 75. Is it lawful to use forms composed by man, and im-

posed not only on the people, but on the pastors of the

Q. 76. Doth not the calling of a minister so consist in the ex-

ercise of his own ministerial gifts, that he may not officiate

without them, nor make use of other men's gifts instead of

Q. Is it lawful to read a prayer in the church?..

Q. 77. Is it lawful to pray in the church without a prescribed

or premeditated form of words?...

Q. 78. Whether are set forms of words, or free praying with-

out them the better way; and what are the commodities,

and incommodities of each way?....

Q. 79. Is it lawful to forbear the preaching of some truths,

upon man's prohibition, that I may have liberty to preach

the rest? yea, and to promise to forbear them, or to do it

for the church's peace ?

Q. 80. May or must a minister silenced, or forbid to preach

the Gospel, go on still to preach it against the law?

Q. 81. May we lawfully keep the Lord's day as a fast?

Q. 82. How should the Lord's day be spent in the main ?

Q. 83. May the people bear a vocal part in worship, or do

any more than say, Amen?....

Q. 84. Is it not a sin for our clerks to make themselves the

mouth of the people, who are not ordained ministers of Christ?

Q. 85. Are repetitions of the same words in church-prayers

Q. 86. Is it lawful to bow at the name of Jesus?..

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