A27054:293
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.
2. So much as that hearty Christian Love may be exercised and maintained, and Christians edified in Communion of Saints.
3. So much as that God shall accept them, delight in them and bless them, their converting, edifying and comforting souls, hearing their prayers and praises, and owning them by his Ministry, Covenants and grace, and differencing them from the people that do not thus confess and worship him, and promoting hereby their salvation.
And if this much be attained, it is not to be vilified for want of more, nor blotted with reproachful names; but acknowledged with thankfulness and praise.
§. 37. III. And yet there is a further degree of concord to be hoped for and endeavoured, and that is the concord of these particular Churches with one another: That they may all Profess, 1. The same faith, and necessary doctrine; 2. and the same Love to God and one another; 3. and the same Hope of life eternal, 4. and may offer to God the same necessary and acceptable sort of worship, viz. by preaching and applying his holy word, recorded in the holy Scriptures, preserving and reading them, calling upon his holy name by Confession, prayer, thanksgiving and praises, and holding respective communion in the use also of the Sacraments of his Covenant and exercising in some measure such holy Government and Discipline, by Pastors overseeing their several flocks, as he himself by his institution hath made universally necessary. And all this, though not in perfection, nor every where with the same degree of purity and care, yet so far, 1. as that