The glory of a true church, and its discipline display'd wherein a true gospel-church is described : together with the power of the keys, and who are to be let in, and who to be shut out / by Benjamin Keach.
About this Item
- Title
- The glory of a true church, and its discipline display'd wherein a true gospel-church is described : together with the power of the keys, and who are to be let in, and who to be shut out / by Benjamin Keach.
- Author
- Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.
- Publication
- London :: [s.n.],
- 1697.
- Rights/Permissions
-
To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
- Subject terms
- Church discipline -- Early works to 1800.
- Baptists -- Government.
- Baptists -- Doctrines.
- Cite this Item
-
"The glory of a true church, and its discipline display'd wherein a true gospel-church is described : together with the power of the keys, and who are to be let in, and who to be shut out / by Benjamin Keach." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A47522.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 14, 2024.
Pages
Page iii
To the Baptized Churches, particularly to that under my Care.
My Brethren,
EVery House or Building con∣sisteth both of Matter and Form: And so doth the Church of Christ, or House of the Living God.
The Matter or Materials with which it is built are Lively Stones, ••. e. Converted Persons: Also the Matter and Form must be according to the Rule and Pattern shewed in ••he Mount, I mean Christ's Insti∣tution, and the Apostolical Churches Constitution, and not after Mens In∣ventions.
Now some Men, because the Ty∣••ical Church of the Jews was Na∣••ional, and took in their Carnal Seed (as such) therefore the same Mat∣••er and Form they would have un∣der the Gospel.
But tho a Church be rightly built in both these respects, i.e. of fit Mat∣ter and right Form, yet without a re∣gular and orderly Discipline, it will
Page iv
soon lose its Beauty, and be polluted.
Many Reverend Divines of th•• Congregational way, have written most excellently (it is true) upon th•••• Subject, I mean on Church-Disci∣pline; but the Books are so voluminou•• that the Poorer Sort can't purchas•• them, and many others have not Tim•• or Learning enough to improve them to their Profit; and our Brethren th•• Baptists have not written (as I ca•• gather) on this Subject by it self•• Therefore I have been earnestly desi∣red by our Members, and also by on•• of our Pastors, to write a small and plain Tract concerning the Rules 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the Discipline of a Gospel-Church that all Men may not only know our Faith, but see our Order in this cas•• also. True, this (tho plain) is bi•• short, but may be it may provoke som•• other Person to do it more fully. Cer∣tainly, ignorance of the rules of Disci∣pline causes no small trouble and dis∣orders in our Churches; and if this may be a Prevention, or prove profit a∣ble to any, let God have the Glory, and I have my End: Who am, Yours
Aug. ••••▪ 1697.
Benj. Keach.