A53701:45
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. THAT whereas Regeneration is expressly required in the Gospel,1 to give a Right and Privilege unto an entrance into the Church or Kingdom of Christ, whereby that Kingdom of his is distinguished from all other Kingdoms in and of the World, unto an Inte•est wherein never any such thing was required; it must of necessity be something better, more excellent and sublime than any thing the Laws and Polities of men pretend unto or prescribe. Wherefore it cannot consist in any outward Rites, easy to be observed by the worst and vilest of men, besides the Scripture gives us a description of it, in opposition unto its consisting in any such Rite, 1 Pet. 3.21. And many things required unto good Citizens, are far better ⟨p. 25⟩than the mere observation of such a Rite.
2. THAT whereas Regeneration is expresly required in the Gospel,1 to give a Right and Privilege unto an entrance into the Church or Kingdom of Christ, whereby that Kingdom of his is distinguished from all other Kingdoms in and of the World, unto an Inte•est wherein never any such thing was required; it must of necessity be something better, more excellent and sublime than any thing the Laws and Polities of men pretend unto or prescribe. Wherefore it cannot consist in any outward Rites, easie to be observed by the worst and vilest of men, besides the Scripture gives us a description of it, in opposition unto its consisting in any such Rite, 1 Pet. 3.21. And many things required unto good Citizens, are far better ⟨p. 25⟩than the meer observation of such a Rite.