Church Concord, Summary – Question 1
The Sum of our Agreement reduced to Practice.
1. WE are Agreed that Adult Church Members, must be such as make [A Credible Profession] of Faith and Repentance, and so of Holy Resolved Obedience: Or such as personally own and accept the Covenant of Grace, and give up themselves to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Let us therefore take up with this Description in our future Agreements; and in the practice, the Prudent, and Charitable will not presume to censure any Mans Profession as Incredible, coram Ecclesiâ without proof.
Let us therefore unanimously set up Confirmation, or (if you dislike the Name) the Tryal and Approbation of the Profession of all that are entered among the Adult Church Members. And if any are too loose on one side, or too rigid on the other in the practical part; the judging, and accepting or refusing of the tryed, let the Matter be debated, at the Synods of the Consociate Pastors, if there be any Accusatio… put in.
2. We are Agreed that Consent is necessary to Church-Membership: And that it must be a signified consent: And that the most express consent is best to the well being of the Church caeteris paribus; but yet that a darker way of signifying may serve to the Being of the Church.
Let us therefore thank God that we live in days of Liberty, wherein we may all use the most edifying way, and accordingly let us Agree to call our people to an express consent. But if any deny this, let them not be thereupon disowned, but forborn, so be it they will perform the whole work of their Ministry faithfully towards all that they take for their Charge.
3. We are Agreed that it's lawful for a particular Church to consist of no more than can meet in one place: And yet that it is not necessary to its Being that actually they do all meet in a place.
Let us therefore resolve to confine our particular Churches ordinarily to a Parish: Unless it be where Parishes are so small, or fit persons so few, that it is fit to lay divers of them together, as to Church ends. Yet so that if any refuse this Agreement, and will needs take four or five Parishes for distinct worshipping Churches, and yet but one Governing Church, (in the Officers) we bear with them, and allow them the liberty of their way, so be it they will faithfully perform the work both of Worship and Discipline to them all.
4. We are Agreed that it is lawful and meet that Neighbour Pastors be advisers and helpers in the Ordinations of Presbyters; and yet that they are truly Presbyters if they be Ordained but by the Presbyters of a particular Church. (And in cases of Necessity, if unordained.)
Let us therefore Agree in practice that Ordinations be ordinarily performed by the Advice and Assistance of the Synod of the Associated Pastors, or some deputed Members of it. (The case of Ordination by Bishops I handle elsewhere, and not here.) And if any refuse this, let them be forborn, so be it they be Ordained by Lawful Presbyters, of their own Church or any other with whom we be not bound to avoid Communion.
And if any Congregation through Error have no true Officers (in the judgment of the Synod) for want of true Ordination, yet let us hold such Communion with that Congregation (if other things correspond) as is due to a Neighbour Community of Christians, though not as is due to a Political Society.
5. We are Agreed that the Pastors are by Commission from Christ appointed to be the Rulors of the Churches, and the people commanded to obey them: And that it is they that are the Authorized Teachers of the Flocks, and are to Administer the Sacraments, and Ministerially to bind or loose: And yet that the people are to be Governed as Freemen, and are not to obey apparently unrighteous censures, and therefore are by an Obediential Judgment, to discern what is fit to be obeyed, and what not.
Let us therefore practise according to this Agreement; and let the Pastors Rule, and let the people Obey; but not Obey against Gods Word: And therefore let the people have so far cognizance of the Cause, and their conse be required, as is necessary to their free, discerning, safe Obedience, and to the Churches Peace. And if any Pastors will make more use of the peoples consent, and others less, let us forbear each other, till some ill consequents produce an accusation at the Synod; and then let the case be heard and judg'd.
6. We are Agreed that a Pastor of one Church may Exercise divers acts of the Pastoral Office in another if he be called to such Exercise pro tempore. We need not therefore mention this in our further Forms of Concord; but leave each Man to his Liberty. If any Pastor think he may not Exercise his Pastoral Office abroad, let him stay at home: But let them have Liberty that are otherwise minded.
7. We are Agreed that a particular Church that hath a Presbytery, may Exercise all Acts of Worship and Government within it self, that are appertaining only to it self. And that Synods should be used for Communion of Churches, where things that concern the Churches in common, or their Communion with one another, should be heard and judged.
Let us therefore give way to particular Churches to enjoy their Liberty; and let all the Churches be link'd together, and the Pastors associate, and meet in Synods for such Communion. Yet so that if any one in weakness shall refuse to Associate, or be an Ordinary Member of such Synods, (being caetera sanus) we shall not therefore withdraw our Brotherly Love, nor that distant sort of Communion of which he is capable: Though we must disown his way, lest others be tempted to the like Division.
8. We are Agreed that no Men should bury their Talents, and that the Gifts of our people that are suited to the profiting of others, should be used to as publick benefit as may be, so it be orderly, regularly, in their Callings, in a due subordination to the Ministry, and under their direction, for the helping and not the hindering of their Work (according to the forementioned limitations.)
There is no Difference therefore among us here that is needful to be taken notice of in our Form of Concord, it being between particular persons, and not parties that the difference lyeth. And actual miscarriages are to be enquired after as other Crimes in the several Churches and Associations.
9. We are Agreed that all Parishes that have in them a people professing Christianity, and consent to live as particular Churches in Communion for Gods Worship, are true Churches, as that word doth signifie a Community of Christians: And if they have true Pastors, they are true Churches, as the word [Church] doth signifie a Political Society of Christians, capable of the ordinary actual worshipping of God in the publick use of all Church Ordinances.
But because it is not to be expected that we should all be acquainted with the qualifications, consent or practice of the people in all the Parishes of the Land, nor of the Ministers call; it is not therefore to be expected that we be made Judges of the state of all Parishes, nor that we put our judgment of all, or any of them by Name, into our Form of Concord. But if practically any of us shall either slander any particular Church to be No Church, or shall use it as no Church, the case must be heard and judged of in our Churches and Associations.
10. We are Agreed that no Member should forsake a Church and be received into another, without sufficient Reason to be given to the Church that he forsaketh; if they require it: And that much less should any part of a Church make an unnecessary Separation from the rest, and become a distinct Church by themselves: And we are Agreed that private Antichurches, (I mean, separated Assemblies set up against the publick Assemblies, and as Rivals drawing persons to themselves and keeping up Faction, and Contention in the place) should be carefully avoided by us all; unless there were a certain Necessity of such Separations. We are Agreed also that no publick Pastors or Churches should refuse the Communion of any of their Neighbours, that are [Credible Professors of Faith and Repentance, and Holiness of Life;] much less should they cast off the greatest part of their Parishes that are such! And yet we are Agreed that there are several cases in which Persons may withdraw from Churches; or for those of one Parish to join with a Church in another Parish; though the bounds of our Habitations are usually meet to be observed for the bounding of our Churches (not that all in the Parish be therefore of the Church, but that ordinarily none be of the Church that is not in the Parish.)
Let us therefore put only the necessary Generals into the Form of our Agreement, and leave the particular cases of any that shall be accused of any violalation thereof, to be heard at the Synods of the Associations: Where if the Accused will appear, they may have a Brotherly hearing; if not, the case may be judged according to the Evidence that shall be given in▪ and the Associated Brethren proceed accordingly, in admonishing the Offenders, and holding or not holding Communion with them, and declaring this.
The yet Briefer Sum of our Agreement is, 1. To avoid Unnecessary Separations and Contentions. 2. To hold an Ordinary course in Synods, for the Communion of Churches, and strengthning each other for the work of God.
For the attainment of these we must yield as far as Lawfully we may in lesser things: But to deny us these, viz. Union, and Communion, and Peace, is todeny us our end, and all.
Yet Note, that it is not our Intention to impose upon all others, all points that these two parties are agreed in, nor to put all their Agreements into our Form of Concord, as if we regarded Agreement with no others. For instance, both parties are Agreed of the Divine Institution of meer Ruling Elders: But so are not all others that are fit for their Communion. And therefore let that point be left out, to the liberty of each Church. So both parties are Agreed that the Moderators (or Presidents) of the Associated Synods, should rather (in point of convenience at least) be temporary, than stated, and that they should have no Negative Voice in Ordination. But others that are fit for our Communion think otherwise: And therefore let this be left out of the Form of Concord to our Brethrens Liberty. If they will hold Communion in the Associations that have but temporary Presidents, let them be received: And if those that own not stated Presidents, or at least such as Exercise a Negative Voice in Ordination; will yet hold Communion in Synods (with a signification of their dissent in that point) with them that are of a contrary mind, they are to be received; and will be, by such as more regard the honour of God, and the Churches peace, and the Interest of Christian Charity, Piety and common Truths, than their own conceits, and carnal Interests.
I shall therefore next adjoin the Necessary Terms of an Universal Concord between all the Faithful Pastors and Churches of Christ in these Nations, which yet need not be subscribed, but taken as presupposed; there being in the following Form of Concord, for the General Peace and Communion of the Churches, enough for Subscription, or Express Consent.
Church Concord ABOUT Government and Order.
The Second Part.
The Just Terms of Agreement between all Sober, Serious Christians (by what Names soever now distinguished:) In point, 1. Of Catholick Communion. 2. Of particular Church Communion. 3. Of the Communion of Neighbour Churches; 4. And of Churches of several Kingdoms. 5. And of their Duty as good Subjects to their Prince.
Humbly offered to all the Christian Churches as the true and sufficient remedy of their Divisions, if not rejected or neglected: And as a standing Witness before God and Man, against Dividing Zeal and Church Tyranny.
By RICHARD BAXTER, a Servant of the God of Love and Peace.
We that are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please our selves: Let every one of us please his Neighbour for his good to edification—That ye may with One Mind, and One Mouth glorifie God—Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the Glory of God, Rom. 15. 1, 2, 6, 7.
Be of One Mind, Live in Peace, and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you, 2 Cor. 13. 11.
LONDON, Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel. 1691.
To the READER.
Countreymen,
MY Saviour having made me Believe, that every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation, Mat. 12. 25. I shall the less regard the Ministers of Satan, who will say that such attempts to unite the true Subjects of Christ and the King, is a dangerous Plot to strengthen Rebels against the King, by their Union. If such Fiends should do their will upon me, as Faith is but a means to the final perfective Grace of Love, so I shall as much rejoice, to be a Sacrifice or Martyr, for Christian Love, as for the Christian Faith: And if Peacemakers shall be called the Children of God (by those that are his Children at least,) I am contented with that blessedness, (Mat. 5. 9.) and envy not their kind of Honour or Prosperity.
If this attempt shall speed no better, than many which I have formerly made have done, as to any publick Reconciliation I shall not yet think it vain, while the private minds of many Christians are formed into more peaceable Apprehensions and Dispositions. But if it should succeed for any publick or common healing, how great would be my Ioy? While the Conciliatory Writings and Precious Names, of Usher▪ Hall, Davenant, Dury, Bergius, Burroughs, &c. are so sweet to me; Let Envy gnash the Te…th, and dividing Malice do its worst, I hope in this delightful work to live and die.
One thing I must warn the Reader of, that I have omitted Scripture proofs of my Assertions, because they are self-evident or past Controversie, and because that the proofs which are fetcht from two or three Texts compared, will not be understood, by the usual sleighty Readings of such, as expect the very Syllables: of the Assertions in the proofs. Therefore for brevity I take it to be the better way, … this time to offer here a full sufficient proof of any one of these Assertions, which shall be questioned, to such as shall soberly demand it.
A Servant of Christ for his Churches Unity and Peace, Richard Baxter. Acton, Nov. 2…, 1688.
Q. SEeing you have oft affirmed publickly that the Terms of Concord among Christians are easie to be known, if their unwillingness to practise them were not the hinderance, you are desired to answer these Questions following.
1. What are the necessary Terms of Catholick Communion of Christians as Members of the Church Universal?
2. What are the necessary Terms of the Communion of Christians personally, in a particular Church?
3. What are the Terms on which Neighbour Churches may hold Communion with one another?
4. What are the Terms of Communion between the Churches of several Kingdoms?
5. What is the Magistrates Power and Duty about Religion, and the Churches and Ministers of Christ?
I. It is to be understood that the Universal Church is considered as Spiritual or as Visible: As Spiritual, it is the Universality of true Spiritual or Regenerate Believers, as Headed by Jesus Christ. As Visible, it is the Universality of the Baptized, or Professors of true Faith, as Headed by Christ, (the Author and Object of that Faith.) And accordingly Christians are to be distinguished. And that the Question is of the Visible Church and Christians.
2. This being supposed I answer, that Catholick Visible Communion consisteth, 1. Fundamentally, in being all Baptized or entered into the same Covenant of Grace, with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and so being joyned to the same Head, and entered into the same Universal Body, and professing the same Faith, and Love, and Obedience contained in that Covenant, and not falling away from that Profession, or any Essential part thereof.
2. And consequently that we all acknowledge the extraordinary Ministry of the Prophets and Apostles, and receive their Testimony and Doctrine recorded in the Sacred Scriptures: At least the foresaid Essentials of the Covenant; and so much more as we understand, and are convinced to be Canonical Scriptures, or written by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
3. And also that we acknowledge a stated ordinary Ministry in the Church, appointed by Christ to Disciple and Baptize the Nations of the World, and then to teach them to observe all his Commands. And that we profess our willingness to join in Christian Assemblies under the conduct of such Ministers, for the worshipping of God, and furthering our own and others Salvation; if we have opportunity so to do: And that we do accordingly.