A30152:429
The holy city, or, The new-Jerusalem wherein its goodly light walls, gates, angels, and…The holy citie, or, The new-Jerusalem wherein its goodly light walls, gates, angels, and…
The holy city, or, The new-Jerusalem wherein its goodly light walls, gates, angels, and the manner of their standing, are expounded : also, her length and breadth, together with the golden measuring-reed, explained, and the glory of all unfolded : as also, the numerousness of its inhabitants, and what the tree and water of life are, by which they are sustained / by John Bunyan ...The holy citie, or, The new-Jerusalem wherein its goodly light walls, gates, angels, and the manner of their standing, are expounded : also, her length and breadth, together with the golden measuring-reed, explained, and the glory of all unfolded : as also, the numerousness of its inhabitants, and what the tree and water of life are, by which they are sustained / by John Bunyan ...
London: printed for Francis Smith, 1669
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.
First, They that are visible matter for visible Church-Communion, they shall be found within this City, and yet there shall not enter any, but those that are written in the Lambs Book of Life.
Secondly, Now visible Church-Communion ⟨p. 244⟩doth not absolutely call for only invisible Saints, neither can it: for if the Church was to join with none but those whom they knew to be the very Elect of God (as all invisible Saints are) then she must join with none at all; for it is not possible that any Church should be so infallible to judge in that manner of the Elect, as to discern them always, and altogether from the non-Elect, which cannot be an invisible Saint.
Secondly, Now visible Church-Communion ⟨p. 244⟩doth not absolutely call for onely invisible Saints, neither can it: for if the Church was to joyn with none but those whom they knew to be the very Elect of God (as all invisible Saints are) then she must joyn with none at all; for it is not possible that any Church should be so infallible to judge in that manner of the Elect, as to discern them always, and altogether from the non-Elect, which cannot be an invisible Saint.
Thirdly, By Book of Life therefore, in this place, we are to understand, I say, that Book that hath written in it every visible Saint, whether they be Elect, or not; and so such a Book that is capable of receiving in a man at one time, and of blotting of him out again, as occasion doth require, at another: which thing is only applicable to that Book that binds and looses on the account of a mans being a visible Saint, or a visible Apostate: which thing is only applicable to the visible Rules of receiving or shutting out of visible Church-Communion; which Rules being the Rules of Christs New-Testament, it is proper to call it the Book of Life; and is about the matter