A30136:164
A confession of my faith and a reason of my practice
A confession of my faith and a reason of my practice, or, With who, and who not, I can hold church-fellowship, or the communion of saints
London: printed for Francis Smith, 1672
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Seventhly, Therefore I am for holding communion thus, because ⟨p. 103⟩Love, which above all things we are commanded to put on; is of much more worth then to break about Baptism; Love is also more discovered when it receiveth for the sake of Christ, and grace; then when it refuseth for want of Water: And observe it, as I have also said before, this exhortation to Love is grounded upon the putting on of the new creature; which new creature hath swallowed up all distinctions, that have before been common among the Churches. As I am a Jew, you are a Greek; I am circumcised, you are not: I am free, you are bound. Because Christ was all in all these, Put on therefore, saith he, (as the elect of God, holy and beloved) bowels of mercies kindness, humbleness of mind, long suffering, that is, with reference to the infirmities of the weak, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, If any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye: And above all things put on charity, ⟨p. 104⟩which is the bond of perfectness. Col, 3.8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Which forbearing and forgiving respecteth not only private and personal injuries, but also errors in judgment about inclinations and distinctions tending to divisions, and separating upon the grounds laid down in v. 1•th, which how little soever they now seem to us who are beyond them, were strong, and of weight to them who in that day were entangled with them. Some Saints then, were not free to preach to any but the Jews; denying the word of Life to the Gentiles, and contending with them who preferred it to them: which was a greater error then this of Baptism. Act. 11.1, 2, 3: 19. But what should we do with such kind of Saints? Why love them still, forgive them, bear with them, and maintain Church-communion with them. Why? Because they are new creatures, because they are Christs; For ⟨p. 105⟩these swallow up all distinctions. Farther, because they are elect and beloved of God. Divisions and distinctions are of shorter date then election; let not them therefore that are but momentary and hatched in darkness, break that bond that is from everlasting It is Love, not Baptism that discovereth us to the world to be Christs Disciples. It is Love that is the undoubted character of our interest in, and sonship with God: