A26880:490
Catholic communion defended against both extremes, and unnecessary division confuted in five parts ...…Catholick communion defended against both extreams, and unnecessary division confuted in five parts ...…
Catholic communion defended against both extremes, and unnecessary division confuted in five parts ... / by Richard Baxter ...Catholick communion defended against both extreams, and unnecessary division confuted in five parts ... / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1684
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
3. But if Relation be all, wherein lieth our damning Schism? We profess Catholic Communion then somewhat more than you do: For as we profess the same Relation that you do to Jesus Christ, so we profess our Relation of Fellow-Members to all his Body, even to those that in such Matters depart from each others; and if I can understand you, to the greatest part of Christ's Church on Earth, which you damn as Rebels. This is our profest Relation: If you can disprove it, […]
3. But if Relation be all, wherein lieth our damning Schism? We profess Catholick Communion then somewhat more than you do: For as we profess the same Relation that you do to Jesus Christ, so we profess our Relation of Fellow-Members to all his Body, even to those that in such Matters depart from each others; and if I can understand you, to the greatest part of Christ's Church on Earth, which you damn as Rebels. This is our profest Relation: If you can disprove it, 〈…〉
§ 9. He adds, [I conclude, it's sufficient to let you understand what the Ancients meant by Christian-Communion, which in a large Notion signifies the Christian Church or Society, which is called Communion, from Communication, which all the Members of it had with each other. The plain and obvious sense is, All the Churches of the World are but one Church or Society, and have the same right, and the same obligation on them to communicate with each other; for the sake of which, Christian Churches are instituted, as the members of a particular Church are].
Ans. 1. Such large Notions may be sufficient to you, but they signify little more than noise to me. Here we are told, that by [Communion] he meaneth [the Church]: And so when we read of [Communion with the Church], it meaneth [the Church with the Church]; and [Church-Communion] are Two Synonimal words, and signify [Church, Church]. And in the Creed (the Catholic Church and Communion of Saints] is a Tautology.