A47350:47
A sober discourse of right to church-communion
A sober discourse of right to church-communion wherein is proved by Scripture, the example of the primitive times, and the practice of all that have professed the Christian religion, that no unbaptized person may be regularly admitted to the Lords Supper / by W. Kiffin ...A sober discourse of right to church-communion wherein is proved by Scripture, the example of the primitive times, and the practice of all that have prosessed the Christian religion, that no unbaptized person may be regularly admitted to the Lords Supper / by W. Kiffin ...
London: printed by Geo. Larkin for Enoch Prosser, 1681
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.
1. The Phrase [Wall of Division] is ambiguous; If it be meant of a total Exclusion of other Christians from our Love, Charity, and Christian-Communion, as far as we agree; we do not look upon Baptism to be such a Wall of Division, neither do we so practice it.
2. If it be meant, of an Excluding from immediate Church-fellowship, although we meet not with this Phrase, [viz. Wall of Division] in those very words, yet we find what is equivalent in 2 Thess. 3.6. and several other Texts: and it is remarkable, that the Word Translated 1disorderly, is a metaphor borrowed from the Custom of War, wherein every Soldier hath his Station assigned him, from which, when he swerves, he becomes disorderly, which the Apostle Elegantly uses, to denote, That every Christian is a Soldier ⟨p. 20⟩that's Listed under the Banner of Christ, and must keep his exact Station appointed him, without the least inclining to the right or left hand, backward or forward, without the Word of Command. Beza upon the place tells us, that Livius was wont to use this word of Soldiers, that kept not their Station: And Stephanus calls those Soldiers by this Name, who are disorderly. From this Emphasis of the word, we may gather, That if Military Commanders expect a punctual and regular Obedience from their Soldiers; and severely punish such as break their Array, or quit their Stations; The Lord (who is a Jealous God with respect to his Worship, and positive Institutions) will call any, that presume to break the Order he has prescribed, to a severe account, as hath been, and shall be further demonstrated.
2. If it be meant, of an Excluding from immediate Church-fellowship, although we meet not with this Phrase, [viz. Wall of Division] in those very words, yet we find what is equivalent in