The cure of church-divisions, or, Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being…

Answ. True: But he that is a member of the Universal Church, is fit to be received into a particular Church; And there wanteth no more but mutual consent: And if he have statedly joined with a particular Church in ordinary communion, Consent hath bin manifested, and he is a member of that particular Church, and must not be rejected by it, but in Christs way. And this is the common case in England. The persons who were baptized in Infancy, were at once received into the Universal Church, and into some particular Church, & have held communion at age with both; and have right to that communion till they are publicly proved to have lost their right.

Answ. True: But he that is a member of the Universal Church, is fit to be received into a particular Church; And there wanteth no more but mutual consent: And if he have statedly joyned with a particular Church in ordinary communion, Consent hath bin manifested, and he is a member of that particular Church, and must not be rejected by it, but in Christs way. And this is the common case in England. The persons who were baptized in Infancy, were at once received into the Universal Church, and into some particular Church, & have held communion at age with both; and have right to that communion till they are publikely proved to have lost their right.

And if we had no Churches, but particular Churches were to be gathered anew, yet he that is a baptized member of the Universal Church, and consenteth to communion with that particular Church in all the ordinances of Christs appointment, doth lay a sufficient claim to his admission, and cannot lawfully be refused, unless he stand justly censured by a Church which formerly he was in. Yet this we confess, that he can be no member of that particular Church, who subjecteth not himself to the particular Pastors of it, and to the necessary acts or parts of their ⟨p. 90⟩Office and Ministration: Because he denieth his own consent.