Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BX5151 .B3 1659

(409) Power of man to add to the ten commaudments any univerfal precept for obedience. 2. Nor toadd to the Lords Prayer and other holy Scripture, any general article of requeft to God. 3. Nor to add any officers to his Church, that are ftridly Divine, orfor Divine ufes. 4. Nor to add anyfubflantial ordi- nance ofrvorfhip. 5 Nor to addany fisbflantial part of holyDifci -, pline. 6. Nor to inftitute any new Sacrament in the Church, or anything that hash the NatureofaSacrament,though it have not the name. 4.37. It feemeth to me that A'fjflicalfiges hated by man in Gods publickworfhip, directly to work grace on his foul front God, and that as inftituted, and alto toobligeman to God again, are unlawfully brought into the Church: 38. By what bath been faid, you may fee which of the late Englifh Controverted Ceremonies I take to have been Lawful, and which unlawful!. Toomany years did I fpend long agoeabout tlaefe controverfies; and the judgement that then I arrived at, I could never find reafon Pnce to change, notwith- ftanding all the changes of the times, and thehelps I that have fince had ; And itwas and is as followeth. §.. 3 9. I. About Epifcopacy (which was the principal point; concomitant with the Ceremonial Controverfie) I have given you my thoughts before. 2. The ceremonies controverted among us, were efpecially, Thefurplice, thegeflureofKneelingin Receiving theLords fupper, the ring in Marriage, Laying the handon theBoolein takng an Oath,thcOrgans andChurchmufick, Holydaies, Altars, Rails, and the Crofs in Baptifm. (To fay no- thing ofthe matter or formof the Prayers.) §. 4o. And z. IfthefurplicebeImpofedby the Magiftrate (as it was) who is a lawfull Governor, and that directly but as a Decent Habit for a Minifter in Gods fervice, I think he need- IdlyBrained his Power,and finfully madean engine todivide the Church, by making fuck a needlefs law, and laying the Peaceof the Church upon it ; But yet he medled with nothing but was within the reach ofhis Power in the general. Some Decent HA. bit is Neceffary ; Either the Magiftrateor the Minitier bimfelf, or the Affociated Paftors mull determine what. I think neither Magifirate nor Synod fhould doany more then hinderundecen- cy; isut yet ifthey domore,and tye all to one Habit, (and fuppofe G gg it,

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