A53732:791
The true nature of a Gospel church and its government
The true nature of a Gospel church and its government ... by the late pious and learned minister of the Gospel, John Owen ...
London: printed for William Marshall, 1689
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
I SAY then, that the true and only Union of all particular Churches, consists in that which gives Form, Life and Being unto the Church Catholic, with the Addition of what belongs unto them as they are particular. And this is, that they have ⟨p. 242⟩all one and the same God and Father, one Lord Jesus Christ, one Faith and one Doctrine of Faith, one hope of their calling or the promised Inheritance, one Regeneration, one Baptism, one Bread and Wine; united unto God and Christ in one Spirit, through the bond of Faith and Love.
I SAY then, that the true and only Vnion of all particular Churches, consists in that which gives Form, Life and Being unto the Church Catholick, with the Addition of what belongs unto them as they are particular. And this is, that they have ⟨p. 242⟩all one and the same God and Father, one Lord Jesus Christ, one Faith and one Doctrine of Faith, one hope of their calling or the promised Inheritance, one Regeneration, one Baptism, one Bread and Wine; united unto God and Christ in one Spirit, through the bond of Faith and Love.
THIS Description, with what is suited thereunto, and explanatory of it, is all the account which is given us in the Scripture of the constituting form of the Catholic Church, and of the Union of particular Churches among themselves. What Church soever fails in the essential parts of this Description, or any of them, it is separated from the Catholic Church, nor hath either Union or Communion with any true Churches of Christ.
THIS Description, with what is suited thereunto, and explanatory of it, is all the account which is given us in the Scripture of the constituting form of the Catholick Church, and of the Vnion of particular Churches among themselves. What Church soever fails in the essential parts of this Description, or any of them, it is separated from the Catholick Church, nor hath either Union or Communion with any true Churches of Christ.