A26892:554
A Christian Directory
A Christian directory, or, A sum of practical theology and cases of conscience directing Christians how to use their knowledge and faith, how to improve all helps and means, and to perform all duties, how to overcome temptations, and to escape or mortify every sin : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.A Christian directory, or, A summ of practical theologie and cases of conscience directing Christians how to use their knowledge and faith, how to improve all helps and means, and to perform all duties, how to overcome temptations, and to escape or mortifie every sin : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons, 1673
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
§. 7. But here consider, that there is but One Universal Church of Christians in the world, of which Christ is the Only King and Head, and every Christian is a member. You were Sacramentally admitted into this Catholic Church by Baptism, and Spiritually by your being born of the Spirit: You have all the promises of the Gospel, that if you Believe in Christ you shall be saved; and that all the living members of this Church are loved by Christ as members of his body, and shall be presented unspotted to the Father, by him who is the Saviour of his body, Eph. 5. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29. And that by One Spirit we are all baptized or entered into this one body, 1 Cor. 12. 12, 13. If then thou hast faith, and love, and the Spirit, thou art certainly a Christian, and a member of Christ, and of this Universal Church of Christians. And if there were any other Church, but what are the Parts of this one, then this were not Universal, and Christ must have two bodies. Thou art not saved for being a member of the Church of Rome, or Corinth, or Ephesus, or Philippi, or Th•ssalonica, or of any other such; but for being a member of the Universal Church or body of Christ, that is, a Christian. And as thou art a subject of the King, and a member of this Kingdom, whatever Corporation thou be a member of (perhaps sometime of one, and sometime of another) so thou art a subject of Christ, what ever particular Church thou be of: For it is no Church, i• they be not Christians, or subjects of Christ. For one Sect then to say, Ours is the true Church, and another to say, Nay, but ours is the true Church, is as mad as to dispute, whether your Hall, or Kitchen, or Parlour, or Cole-house, is your House: and for one to say, This is the House, and another, Nay, but it is that: when a child can tell them, that the best is but a part, and the house containeth them all: And for the Papists that take on them to be the whole, and deny all others to be Christians and saved, except the subjects of the Pope of Rome, it is so irrational, Antichristian a fiction and usurpation, and odious, cruel and groundless a damnation, of the far greatest part of the body of Christ, that its fitter for detestation, than dispute. And if such a crack would frighten the world out of their wits, no doubt but other Bishops also would make use of it, and say, All are damned that will not be subject to us.