A53701:54
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.
1. THERE is required unto it a competent knowledge of Doctrines and Mystery of the Gospel, especially concerning the Person and Offices of Christ. The Confession hereof, was the ground whereon he granted the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, or all Church Power unto Believers, Matth, 16.17, 18, 19. The first Instruction which he gave unto his Apostles, was, That they should teach men by the preaching of the Gospel, in the knowledge of the Truth revealed by him. The knowledge required in the Members of the Judaical Church, that they might be translated into the Christian, was principally, if not solely, that of his Person, and the acknowledgement of him to be the true Messiah, the Son of God. For as on their unbelief thereof their Eternal ruin did depend, as he told them, if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins; so the confession of him was sufficient on their part unto their Admission into the Gospel Church State. And the Reasons of it are apparent. ⟨p. 32⟩With others, an Instruction in all the Mysteries of Religion, especially in those that are fundamental, is necessary unto the Profession we enquire after. So Justin Martyr tells us what pains they took in those Primitive Times, to instruct those in the Mysteries of Religion, who upon a general Conviction of its Truth, were willing to adhere unto the Profession of it. And what was their Judgment herein, is sufficiently known, from the keeping a multitude in the state of Catechumens, before they would admit them into the Fellowship of the Church. They are not therefore to be blamed, they do but discharge their Duty, who refuse to receive into Church Communion such as are ignorant of the fundamental Doctrines and Mysteries of the Gospel; or if they have learned any thing of them from a form of words, yet really understand nothing of them. The promiscuous driving of all sorts of persons who have been baptized in their Infancy, unto a participation of all Church privileges, is a profanation of the holy Institutions of Christ. This knowledge therefore belonging unto profession is it self to be professed.
1. THERE is required unto it a competent knowledge of Doctrines and Mystery of the Gospel, especially concerning the Person and Offices of Christ. The Confession hereof, was the ground whereon he granted the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, or all Church Power unto Believers,