A53732:799
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.
TAKE in the whole, and the Union of Churches consists in their Relation unto God as their Father, and unto Christ as their only immediate Head of Influence and Rule, with a participation of the same Spirit, in the same Faith and Doctrine of Truth, the same kind of Holiness, the same Duties of Divine Worship, especially the same Mysteries of Baptism and the Supper, the observance of the same Rules or Commands of Christ in all Church-Order, with mutual Love, effectual unto all the ends of their Being and Constitution, or the Edification of the Church Catholic.
TAKE in the whole, and the Union of Churches consists in their Relation unto God as their Father, and unto Christ as their only immediate Head of Influence and Rule, with a participation of the same Spirit, in the same Faith and Doctrine of Truth, the same kind of Holiness, the same Duties of Divine Worship, especially the same Mysteries of Baptism and the Supper, the observance of the same Rules or Commands of Christ in all Church-Order, with mutual Love, effectual unto all the ends of their Being and Constitution, or the Edification of the Church Catholick.
THERE may be failures in them or some of them, as unto sundry of these things; there may be differences among them about them, arising from the Infirmities, Ignorance and Prejudices of them of whom they do consist, the best knowing here but in part; but whilst the substance of them is preserved, ⟨p. 244⟩the Union of all Churches, and so of the Catholic Church is preserved.
THERE may be failures in them or some of them, as unto sundry of these things; there may be differences among them about them, arising from the Infirmities, Ignorance and Prejudices of them of whom they do consist, the best knowing here but in part; but whilst the substance of them is preserved, ⟨p. 244⟩the Union of all Churches, and so of the Catholick Church is preserved.