A27054:291
The true and only way of concord of all the Christian churches the desirableness…
The true and only way of concord of all the Christian churches the desirableness of it, and the detection of false dividing terms / opened by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Hancock, 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.
§. 35. II. But besides this Universal Church-Union and Communion, for ORDER and Advantage to our great end, God hath instituted the ORDER of Christian Assemblies or Particular Churches; which are to the Universal Church as Cities and Corporations to a Kingdom: Which are the noblest and most privileged parts of the Kingdom; but yet not essential parts, but eminently Integral: For it may be a Kingdom without them, and would be if they were all disfranchised and laid common. And if Apostles and Evangelists as Itinerant Preachers, convert and baptize men, they are part of the Church Universal before they are gathered into distinct societies under proper Pastors of their own. The Eunuch Act. 8. was baptized into no particular Church, but into the universal only; and so were many others: And mere Baptism as such without any additional contract, doth no more. If thousands were Converted in America, or cast there without Pastors, they were parts of the Universal Church, if baptized Professing Christians. And before the Apostles ordained any fixed Bishops or Pastors of particular Churches, the Church Universal was in being though small.
§. 35. II. But besides this Universal Church-Union and Communion, for ORDER and Advantage to our great end, God hath instituted the ORDER of Christian Assemblies or Particular Churches; which are to the Vniversal Church as Cities and Corporations to a Kingdom: Which are the noblest and most priviledged parts of the Kingdom; but yet not essential parts, but eminently Integral: For it may be a Kingdom without them, and would be if they were all disfranchised and laid common. And if Apostles and Evangelists as Itinerant Preachers, convert and baptize men, they are part of the Church Universal before they are gathered into distinct societies under proper Pastors of their own. The Eunuch Act. 8. was baptized into no particular Church, but into the universal only; and so were many others: And meer Baptism as such without any additional contract, doth no more. If thousands were Converted in America, or cast there without Pastors, they were parts of the Universal Church, if baptized Professing Christians. And before the Apostles ordained any fixed Bishops or Pastors of particular Churches, the Church Universal was in being though small.