A26906:229
The cure of church-divisions, or, Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being…
The cure of church-divisions, or, Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being dividers or troublers of the church with some directions to the pastors how to deal with such Christians / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Nevil Symmons, 1670
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.
First, A true belief in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and a Devoting of our selves sincerely to Him, as our reconciled Father our Saviour, and our Sanctifier, in a resolved Covenant, or Consent, renouncing ⟨p. 51⟩the Devil, the world, and the flesh, (expressly or impliedly) is the whole and the only condition of our Communion with the Church mystical or the living body of Christ (which is called The Church, in the first and most famous sense.)
First, A true belief in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and a Devoting of our selves sincerely to Him, as our reconciled Father our Saviour, and our Sanctifier, in a resolved Covenant, or Consent, renouncing ⟨p. 51⟩the Devil, the world, and the flesh, (expresly or impliedly) is the whole and the only condition of our Communion with the Church mystical or the living body of Christ (which is called The Church, in the first and most famous sense.)
Obj. If this must be wrought in us before we are in the mystical Church, then a state of holiness may be found in such, as are yet out of the body of Christ in the world: But if this be after our entrance into the Church, than less may sufficiently qualify us for admittance.
Obj. If this must be wrought in us before we are in the mystical Church, then a state of holiness may be found in such, as are yet out of the body of Christ in the world: But if this be after our entrance into the Church, than less may sufficiently qualifie us for admittance.
Answ. It is neither before not after: but it is our change and entrance it self. To be a member of the Church mystical, and to be a Christian is all one: And this is Christianity. If I should say that the making a man a Rational free agent, is the making him a member of the Rational world; would you think that this must be either antecedent or consequent to his change, which is nothing else but the change it self?