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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A40426 The case of mixt communion whether it be lawful to separate from a church upon the account of promiscuous congregations and mixt communions? Freeman, Samuel, 1643-1700. 1683 (1683) Wing F2138; ESTC R16753 26,796 45

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THE CASE OF Mixt Communion Whether it be lawful to Separate from a Church upon the Account of promiscuous Congregations and mixt Communions They are not all Israel that are of Israel Rom. 9. 6. Many are call'd but few chosen Matth. 20. 16. LONDON Printed for T. Basset at the George in Fleet-street B. Tooke at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard and F. Gardiner at the White Horse in Ludgate-street 1683. THE CASE OF Mixt Communion Whether it be lawful to Separate from a Church upon the Account of promiscuous Congregations and mixt Communions THE Foundation of this Pretence seems to be the great mistake of some men concerning the matter whereof the Church of Christ is to be composed which they will have to be only real Saints and persons endowed with inherent and substantial holiness Accordingly finding in the Communion of our Church many corrupt Members who lived not answerably to their Holy Vocation they for that reason amongst some others alledg'd by them cry her down as no true Church or which is all one deal by her as if she was so totally separating from her Communion and setting up Churches of their own consisting wholly of persons in their judgment far more pure that is really holy and sanctified Into this most false and dangerous conceit concerning the matter of the Christian Church I cannot tell what it is that should mislead them unless it be The not rightly understanding the notion of that holiness that so often in Scripture is applied to the visible Church of God There is a twofold holiness in Scripture Inherent and Relative Inherent holiness and that can be in none properly but God Angels and Men In God essentially and originally as he is the most perfect Being in whom all excellencies do possess infinite perfection As it 's applied to God it does not only signifie a perfect freedom in him from all those sinful impurities wherewith the sons of men are tainted but all the excellencies of the divine nature as wisdom goodness and power and a super-eminent and incommunicable greatness in them all hence he is call'd the holy One of Israel the excellency of Jacob said to swear by his holiness that is by himself and there is none holy as the Lord said Hannah for there is none besides thee none holy besides thee as the Septuagint renders it none comparable to thee in the heighth and greatness of all thy excellencies In Angels and men by way of participation and as far as their natures are capable hence there are holy Angels and holy men Relative holiness which when it 's applied to persons may be more properly call'd foederal and this is founded in the relation persons and things have to God and the nature of it consists in a separation of them from common uses and in appropriating of them to the peculiar use and service of God hence the Sabbath is call'd an holy Day Judea an holy Land Jerusalem an holy City and the Church and People of God an holy Church that is a Body or Society of men call'd and separated from the rest of the World to God to worship him in a way distinguish'd from the rest of the World having Laws and Promises and Rites of Worship peculiar and appropriate to themselves This account God himself gives of it I have separated you says he to the Israelites from other people that you should be mine and ye shall be an holy people unto me For the same reason do we find the whole Church of the Jews even then when its members had generally very much corrupted themselves were a rebellious people a crooked generation yet upon the account of their being separated to God and in covenant with him stil'd by Moses and other inspir'd men his saints his holy people his peculiar treasure For the same reason also did the Apostles dignifie those Churches to whom they wrote with those great and glorious titles of saints the sanctified the call'd and chosen in Christ Jesus because they as of old the Jews had entertain'd the profession of a Religion distinct from others of the World whereby they might be excited to the attainment of those excellencies which in the object of their Worship they did admire and adore and those Names being of as large a meaning as that of Christian shew rather what they ought to have been than assure us what they really were for amongst those Saints were found strange immoralities altogether contradictory to the sacredness of their Vocation But does not the Apostle say Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish I answer Holiness in this place must be confest to be meant a real and inward holiness but then by Church is not to be understood the whole complex Body of the universal Church in this World but either that part of it that in this World is really tho' imperfectly holy and is every day pressing forwards to higher degrees of it or else that Church which shall be in the future state when all the corrupt and unsound Members shall be by death and the final decision of God for ever excommunicated out of it and all the Members that remain in it only such as were in some acceptable degrees holy here and shall then be perfected in holiness Neither is this to make two Churches of Christ as the Donatists objected one in which good and bad are mingled together and another in which there are good alone but only to assign two different states of the same Church the one in this World compos'd of good and bad externally holy in respect of all by vocation and internally holy in respect of some in it by sanctification the other in the next World where there shall be a separation made betwixt the Sheep and the Goats and all remaining in the Church such as shall at once be perfectly holy and compleatly happy This is that Church which Christ shall present to himself glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish This being suppos'd all that will be needful to say in answer to this Question may be comprehended under these three Propositions 1. That an external Profession of the Christian Faith is enough to qualifie a person to be admitted a Member of Christ's Church 2. That every such Member has a right to all the external Priviledges of the Church till by his continuance in some notorious and scandalous sins he has forfeited that right and by the just censures of the Church he be for such behaviour actually excluded from those Priviledges 3. That some corrupt and scandalous Members remaining in the Communion through the want of the due exercise of discipline in it or