A76157:574
Confirmation and restoration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…Confirmation and restauration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…
Confirmation and restoration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of the corruptions and divisions of the churches: submissively, but earnestly tendered to the consideration of the sovereign powers, magistrates, ministers, and people, that they may awake, and be up and doing in the execution of so much, as appeareth to be necessary as they are true to Christ, his Church and Gospel, and to their own and others souls, and to the peace and welfare of the nations; and as they will answer the neglect to Christ, at their peril. / By Richard Baxter, an unworthy minister of Christ, that longeth to see the healing of the churches.Confirmation and restauration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of the corruptions and divisions of the churches: submissively, but earnestly tendered to the consideration of the soveraigne powers, magistrates, ministers, and people, that they may awake, and be up and doing in the execution of so much, as appeareth to be necessary as they are true to Christ, his Church and Gospel, and to their own and others souls, and to the peace and wellfare of the nations; and as they will answer the neglect to Christ, at their peril. / By Richard Baxter, an unworthy minister of Christ, that longeth to see the healing of the churches.
London: printed by A.M. for Nevil Simmons book-seller, 1658
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.
Object But ignorance doth not wholly cut a man off from the Church: For such a knowledge goeth not to the •ssence of the Church; for ••s fo•m is society or Community.
Answer. 1. Its sufficient to our present purpose,1 that it excludeth men meritoriously from immediate right to the Communion of the Adult. 2. Ignorance qua talis materially, is no sin (as in Idiots, Paralytics, &c.) and therefore cuts not off. But ignorance in a Subject, where knowledge should be found, is culpable, and complicate always with Infidelity, or not believing; and therefore doth declare the person to be matter uncapable. If you choose to say, it cuts not off, I easily can prove, that it manifesteth that he is not in the Invisible, and ought not to be esteemed of the visible Church, by reason of his incapacity; his former Title ceasing, for want of the condition of its continuation. 3. Knowledge in the capable Adult, is an essential to the Church, as a society. A Church is a society of Christians; As it is a society, Christianity is not essential to it, and so not Knowledge: For there are societies of Heathens, and Infidels enow. But as it is a Christian Society, Knowledge is essential to it; and therefore, as it is a Church. It's essential to a field of wheat, that there be wheat in it: Or to a heap of wheat, that it be of wheat. And yet not as a field, or as a heap: for there are ⟨image 187⟩heaps of dirt also. The aggregation of a number of individuals, makes it a Community, and the form of the body aggregated, as to the mutual relation of the parts, makes it a Body politic or society. But the essential qualification of the Individuals, viz Christianity, is essential to that society in specie, as a Christian Church. And Faith in the Adult is essential to Christianity, and Knowledge is essential to Faith, or inseparable from it.