A53671:169
A brief instruction in the worship of God, and discipline of the churches of…
A brief instruction in the worship of God, and discipline of the churches of the New Testament, by way of question and answer with an explication and confirmation of those answers.
London : s.n., 1667
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.
That the Church is a Spiritual corporation, attended with rule and government, is evident from the nature of the thing it self and testimonies of Scripture. Only as the Kingdom of Christ is not of this World, or Worldly, so this rule and government of the Church is not merely external, and secular, but spiritual. Neither doth this rule at all belong unto it, merely as materially considered, in men yielding obedience unto the call which is the foundation of the Church, nor absolutely as it is formally constituted a Church by the consent and agreement described, but moreover it is required that it be organically complete with Officers or rulers; now to the constitution of such a society or corporation there is required.
That the Church is a Spiritual corporation, attended with rule and government, is evident from the nature of the thing it self and testimonies of Scripture. Only as the Kingdome of Christ is not of this World, or Worldly, so this rule and government of the Church is not mearly external, and secular, but spiritual. Neither doth this rule at all belong unto it, merely as materially considered, in men yielding obedience unto the call which is the foundation of the Church, nor absolutely as it is formally constituted a Church by the consent and agreement described, but moreover it is required that it be organically compleat with Officers or rulers; now to the constitution of such a society or corporation there is required.
First, that the persons whereof it is constituted do consent together into it for the attaining of the ends which they design. Without this no society of any kind can exist. This is the form of mens coalescencie into societies. And ⟨p. 118⟩that there is in the Church such a consent and agreement hath been showed.
First, that the persons whereof it is constituted do consent together into it for the attaining of the ends which they design. Without this no society of any kind can exist. This is the form of mens coalescencie into societyes. And ⟨p. 118⟩