A27054:564
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.
§. 10. Therefore two things must concur in the sin that deserveth an Excommunication from Catholic Communion. 1. That it be such as some call a Mortal sin, that is, Not a sin of mere infirmity and ignorance, which may consist with sincere Love to God and holiness, and subjection to the Government of Christ, but a sin which in an impenitent person proveth the absence of such Subjection and Love: And the mark of this is, That it be a sin which is so much in the power of the Will, that no one can keep it ⟨p. 182⟩that is sincerely willing to leave it, and which must be known to be sin by all that are truly willing to know it: A sin that men may know if they are willing, and had rather keep than leave. 2. And that it be unrepented of, and such as due information and persuasion with patience, do not bring the sinner to repent of. A heinous, mortal, wilful sin unrepented of.
§. 10. Therefore two things must concur in the sin that deserveth an Excommunication from Catholick Communion. 1. That it be such as some call a Mortal sin, that is, Not a sin of meer infirmity and ignorance, which may consist with sincere Love to God and holiness, and subjection to the Government of Christ, but a sin which in an impenitent person proveth the absence of such Subjection and Love: And the mark of this is, That it be a sin which is so much in the power of the Will, that no one can keep it ⟨p. 182⟩that is sincerely willing to leave it, and which must be known to be sin by all that are truly willing to know it: A sin that men may know if they are willing, and had rather keep than leave. 2. And that it be unrepented of, and such as due information and perswasion with patience, do not bring the sinner to repent of. A heinous, mortal, wilful sin unrepented of.
§. 11. By this it appeareth, who is to be sentenced cut off from the Catholic Church, and who not. None but those that first really depart, because the sentence must be true and just: And this departure is either direct, by Apostasy, renouncing God the Father, the Son or the Holy Ghost, or some essential part of Godliness or Christianity: 2. Or indirectly, when men deny not any of these in words, but in works do that which is evidently inconsistent with them, and may be so discerned by any willing mind.