A26912:161
A defence of the principles of love, which are necessary to the unity and…
A defence of the principles of love, which are necessary to the unity and concord of Christians and are delivered in a book called The cure of church-divisions ... / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed for Nevil Simmons, 1671
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.
6. To join with a defective faulty true Church, ordinarily, and in a manner of Worship which is defective, when you can have no better, on lawful terms, (as without the public injury, or your own greater hinderance than help) And I prove, that this is the worst that you can charge (as to this matter of Communion) on those Parish Churches in England, that have honest competent Pastors; and the same others charge on the Churches of Independents and Anabaptists. And that it is a duty to hold communion with any one of th•se constantly when you can have no better.
6. To joyn with a defective faulty true Church, ordinarily, and in a manner of Worship which is defective, when you can have no better, on lawful terms, (as without the publick injury, or your own greater hinderance than help) And I prove, that this is the worst that you can charge (as to this matter of Communion) on those Parish Churches in England, that have honest comp•tent Pastors; and the same others charge on the Churches of Independents and Anabaptists. And that it is a duty to hold communion with any one of th•se constantly when you can have no better.
7. That if you can statedly have better; yet sometimes to Communicate with a defective Church, as a stranger may do, that is not interested in their ⟨p. 79⟩discipline, or is no stated member, is not only lawful, but, for the ends sake, is a duty, when our never communicating with them is scandalous, and offensive to our Rulers, and tendeth to make people think that we hold that to be unlawful which we do not, and when our actual Communion is apt and needful to show our judgement, and to cherish love and Christian Concord. On which account, as I would statedly communicate with the Greek Church, if I were among them, and had no better; and would sometimes communicate with them in, their Prayers and Sacraments, if I did but pass through the Country as a stranger, or if I could have better; even so would I do with a Parish Church, if as faulty as you can justly charge it (with the foresaid limitations) or with a Church of Anabaptists or Independents, (if they did not use their meetings to destroy either Piety or Love.)