A53701:52
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.
cap 2.
4. THEY must be such as do make an open profession of the subjection of their Souls and Consciences unto the Authority of Christ in the Gospel, 1and their readiness to yield Obedience unto all his Commands. This I suppose will not be denied; for not only doth the Scripture make this Profession necessary unto the participation of any benefit or privilege of the Gospel; but the nature of the things themselves requires indispensably that so it should be. For nothing can be more unreasonable than, that men should be taken into the privileges attending Obedience unto the Laws and Commands of Christ, without avowing or professing that Obedience. Wherefore, our Enquiry is only what is required unto such a Profession, as may render men meet to be Members of a Church, and give them a Right thereunto. For to suppose such a confession of Christian Religion to be compliant with the Gospel, which is made by many who openly live in Sin▪ being disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate, is to renounce the Gospel it self, Christ is not the High Priest of ⟨p. 31⟩such a Profession. I shall therefore declare briefly what is necessary unto this Profession, that all may know what it is which is required unto the entrance of any into our Churches, wherein our Practice hath been sufficiently traduced.
- 1Rom. 10.10. 2 Cor. 8.5. Chap. 9.13. Matth. 10.32, 33. Luke 9.16.