A27054:322
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.
§. 15. III. And as I have proved, 1. That it must be done, 2. And that Christ did it, so 3. It is part of our proof, that no other did it or could do it.
1. No other had authority to institute Church-Essentials, and to give such necessary universal Laws. 2. No other came early enough to do it, but as his ⟨p. 104⟩Ministers after Christ had done it. 3. No other had wisdom and fitness enough for it; nor were fit to agree to make Church essentials. 4. De facto History proves they did it not. 5. To undertake it, is to invade Christs office. The Apostles themselves found it done to their hands: Much less can any ordinary Pastors since prove any authority from God, or any true capacity in themselves for such a work.
§. 16. And if any pretend to it, they must be such as lived before Christ had any Evangelical Church (that is, of the same species as hath been since the institution of Christian baptism) or such as have lived only since. The former came not in as competitors: The latter were too late to be the do••s of that which was done before. Union is essential to the Church in general: The necessary terms of Union are essential to it in specie as the Christian Church: For necessarium est sine quo res esse non potest: It's no Christian Church, without the necessary terms of Church union. And therefore before those terms were first made or instituted, there was no Church of that species: and after there was such a Church, and consequently such terms of its Union, none could make them, they being made before.