A53701:20
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.
2. IT is added in the description of the Subject, That it is such an one who takes due care of his own Salvation. Many there are who profess themselves to be Christians, who it may be hear the word willingly, and do many things gladly, yet do not esteem themselves obliged unto a diligent enquiry into, and a precise observation of all the commands of Christ. But it is such whom we intend, who constantly fix their minds on the enjoyment of God, as their chiefest good and utmost end, who thereon duly consider the means of attaining it, and apply themselves thereunto. And it is to be feared, that the number of such persons will not be found to be very ⟨p. 9⟩great in the world; which is sufficient to take off the reproach from some particular Congregations of the smallness of their number. Such they ever were, and such is it foretold that they should be. Number was never yet esteemed a note of the true Church, by any but those, whose worldly interest it is that it should so be; yet at present absolutely in these Nations, the number of such persons is not small.
2. IT is added in the description of the Subject, That it is such an one who takes due care of his own Salvation. Many there are who profess themselves to be Christians, who it may be hear the word willingly, and do many things gladly, yet do not esteem themselves obliged unto a diligent enquiry into, and a precise observation of all the commands of Christ. But it is such whom we intend, who constantly fix their minds on the enjoyment of God, as their chiefest good and utmost end, who thereon duely consider the means of attaining it, and apply themselves thereunto. And it is to be feared, that the number of such persons will not be found to be very ⟨p. 9⟩great in the world; which is sufficient to take off the reproach from some particular Congregations of the smalness of their number. Such they ever were, and such is it foretold that they should be. Number was never yet esteemed a note of the true Church, by any but those, whose worldly interest it is that it should so be; yet at present absolutely in these Nati•ns, the number of such persons is not small.