A53701:94
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.
3. Where the Fundamentals of Religious Worship, are corrupted or overthrown, it is absolutely unlawful to join unto, or abide in any Church. So is it with the Church of Rome. The various ways whereby the Foundations of Divine Religious Worship, are overthrown in that Church by Superstition and Idolatry, have been sufficiently declared. These render the Communion of that Church pernicious.
3. Where the Fundamentals of Religious Worship, are corrupted or overthrown, it is absolutely unlawful to joyn unto, or abide in any Church. So is it with the Church of Rome. The various ways whereby the Foundations of Divine Religious Worship, are overthrown in that Church by Superstition and Idolatry, have been sufficiently declared. These render the Communion of that Church pernitious.
4. Nor can any Man be obliged to join himself with any Church, nor can it be his Duty so to do, where the Eternally fixed Rule and Measure of Religious Worship, namely, that it be of Divine Institution, is varied or change by any Additions unto it, or Substractions from it. For whereas one principal end of all churches is the joint celebration of Divine Worship, if there be not a certain stable Rule thereof in any Church of Divine Prescription, no ⟨p. 61⟩Man can be obliged unto Communion therewith.
4. Nor can any Man be obliged to joyn himself with any Church, nor can it be his Duty so to do, where the Eternally fixed Rule and Measure of Religious Worship, namely, that it be of Divine Institution, is varied or change by any Additions unto it, or Substractions from it. For whereas one principal end of all •hurches is the joynt celebration of Divine VVorship, if there be not a certain stable Rule thereof in any Church of Divine Prescription, no ⟨p. 61⟩Man can be obliged unto Communion therewith.