A27054:311
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.
§. 8. Above all men those are bound to consent to what I say, who hold that Christs Laws have not left so much as a ceremony undetermined, and that ⟨p. 101⟩nothing may be added or diminished in his worship. How much less then hath he left the essentiating terms of Church-unity unprescribed?
§. 9. II. And consequently ab effectis we find, that Christ did it.
1. He plainly declared what maketh a Christian. 2. He declared how all Christians should live in love and concord. 3. And how the coalition of these Christians maketh his Church.
§. 10. I. It had been strange, if he that came into the world to make men Christians, had never told men what a Christian is. And if he that sent his Apostles to make Christians, had set them to do they knew not what, and never told them what a Christian is, and consequently what they must persuade men to. And if he that promised Justification, Pardon, Adoption and Glory to all true believers (that is, to true Christians,) had yet never told them how they may know that they are such? And that he that commanded so much Christian duty, public and private, and required Christians to suffer so much for his sake, and to look for a reward in Heaven, should yet never tell them what Christianity is? If Christ made Christianity, (that is, the Laws and description, objects and principle) then he made a Determinate thing: If not, hath he left it to man to make Christianity (objectively)? Then how shall we know to whom he gave this power? And how many several species of Christianity (or faith) may be made in the world?