A26911:645
The defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of the matter…
The defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of the matter of their nonconformity against Mr. J. Cheney's answer called The conforming nonconformist, and The nonconforming conformist : to which is added the second part in answer to Mr. Cheney's Five undertakings / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Benjamin Alsop, 1680
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.
2. The difference then must be between the words [Kingdom] and [World.] I say, A Church is such a part of the Universal, as a City is of a Kingdom: He saith, no, but [as a City is of the World.] What a dangerous Error hath he detected? But, All the World is God's Kingdom: And as it hath but one King, so I thought I might liken it to a Kingdom that hath one King, but a multitude of Corporations; without stretching the Similitude to intend that [This Kingdom is not a part of the World.]
§ 2. My second Error is, [He that will be a Member of a particular Church, must cohabit, or dwell near.] The confutation is, [I conceive he is out.]
Ans. What, is he against Parish Churches after all this? No: He only denieth it of a transient Member pro tempore as a Traveller, and granteth it as to a stated Member. And yet I am out. Many and many a time have I written of Churches, and use to distinguish first of the Equivocal Name, saying, That an occasional meeting of Christians for Worship, may be called a Church, and a transient Christian pro tempore a Member: I have written more this way than ever he did. But declared that it is a settled Political Society that I defined, when I speak of what he now accuseth. And why should a wise and good Man thus hastily trouble the World and make discord by pretending, because he cannot have leisure to know, what he speaks against?