A26897:342
Church concord
Church concord containing I. a dissuasive from unnecessary division and separation, and the real concord of the moderate independents with the Presbyterians, instanced in ten seeming differences, II. by Richard Baxter.Church concord containing I. a disswasive from unnecessary division and separation, and the real concord of the moderate independents with the Presbyterians, instanced in ten seeming differences, II. by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1691
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.
13. If a Pastor preach some unsound Doctrines, or faultily perform the public Worship, or neglect just Discipline, and receive the unworthy to the Communion of the Church, or reject the worthy, the presence of the innocent Members, (who make not the fault their own by consent, or by neglecting their Duties to reform it) maketh none of this to be their Sin, nor is to be taken for a sign of their consent: Nor will the presence of the unworthy deprive the Godly of the Blessing or Comfort of God's Ordinance: Nor are they bound to separate from that Church, because of these Corruptions, unless they are so great as to unchurch that Church, or make their Worship and Communion such, as God himself rejecteth and will not accept: or unless by imposing Sin upon them, or some other way, the Church expel them; or they have accidentally some other reason to remove.
13. If a Pastor preach some unsound Doctrines, or faultily perform the publick Worship, or neglect just Discipline, and receive the unworthy to the Communion of the Church, or reject the worthy, the presence of the innocent Members, (who make not the fault their own by consent, or by neglecting their Duties to reform it) maketh none of this to be their Sin, nor is to be taken for a sign of their consent: Nor will the presence of the unworthy deprive the Godly of the Blessing or Comfort of God's Ordinance: Nor are they bound to separate from that Church, because of these Corruptions, unless they are so great as to unchurch that Church, or make their Worship and Communion such, as God himself rejecteth and will not accept: or unless by imposing Sin upon them, or some other way, the Church expel them; or they have accidentally some other reason to remove.
14. The Members of the same Church must live so near to one another, as that they may be capable of the Communion and Duties of their relation. But whether Parish-bounds shall be Church-bounds, and whether there shall be one Church only, or more in the same Parish, is a thing which God hath not directly determined, but only by general Rules to direct our Prudence, as cases are by Circumstances varied.