A53701:105
A guide to church-fellowship and order according to the gospel-institution
A guide to church-fellowship and order according to the gospel-institution wherein these following particulars are distinctly handled, I. The necessity of believers to join themselves in church-order, II. The subject matter of the church, III. The continuation of a church-state, and of the administration of evangelical ordinances of worship, briefly vindicated, IV. What sort of churches the disciples of Christ may and ought to join themselves unto as unto entire communion / by ... John Owen ...A guide to church-fellowship and order according to the gospel-institution wherein these following particulars are distinctly handled, I. The necessity of believers to joyn themselves in church-order, II. The subject matter of the church, III. The continuation of a church-state, and of the administration of evangelical ordinances of worship, briefly vindicated, IV. What sort of churches the disciples of Christ may and ought to joyn themselves unto as unto entire communion / by ... John Owen ...
London: printed for William Marshall, 1692
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.
Where therefore there is a Church or any Society that pretends so to be, wherein there is an utter Neglect of this Discipline of Christ, or the establishment of another, not administered by the Laws and Rules that he prescribed, no Disciple of Christ can be obliged to join unto, or to continue in the Total sole Communion of such a Church. And whereas there are two Parts of this Discipline of Christ; That ⟨p. 67⟩which is Private, among the Members of the Church, for the Exercise and Preservation of Love; and that which is Public, in and by the Authority of the Rulers of the Church, for the Preservation of Purity and Order, a Neglect in either of them, doth much impeach the Fundamental Constitution of a Church as unto its Practise.
VVhere therefore there is a Church or any Society that pretends so to be, wherein there is an utter Neglect of this Discipline of Christ, or the establishment of another, not administred by the Laws and Rules that he prescribed, no Disciple of Christ can be obliged to joyn unto, or to continue in the Total sole Communion of such a Church. And whereas there are two Parts of this Discipline of Christ; That ⟨p. 67⟩which is Private, among the Members of the Church, for the Exercise and Preservation of Love; and that which is Publick, in and by the Authority of the Rulers of the Church, for the Preservation of Purity and Order, a Neglect in either of them, doth much impeach the Fundamental Constitution of a Church as unto its Practise.
2. There are sundry other things which belong unto this Discipline in General, which are of great consideration in the Discharge of the Duty we enquire into. Among them are,