Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th CenturiesJones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Religion
Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries
Jones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Mysticism; Reformers
In close conformity to the teaching of Sebastian Franck,[20] Weigel
thinks of the Church of God as an invisible Assembly of all true
Believers in the entire world, united, not outwardly but inwardly, in
the unity of the Spirit and by the bond of Love and Peace. There are
for him, as for Franck and other "Spirituals," two kinds of churches:
(1) The church composed of a visible group, {146} "to be pointed out
with the finger," located in a definite country, allied with a temporal
government, held together by a body of doctrine, "tied to" certain
sacraments and possessed of force to constrain men, by "carnall
perswasions," to conform.[21] Then there is (2) the real Church of
God, "the upper Jerusalem," a body visible in no one locality, but
dispersed over the earth like wheat in chaff, held together by no
declarations of doctrine, tied to no sacraments, dependent on no
earthly Lieutenant or Vice-gerent, and on no university-trained
Doctors, which recognizes Prince and Ploughman alike, and secures its
unity through Christ and through the invisible cement of Love. "To
this Assembly," writes Weigel, "doe I stick; in this holy Church doe I
rejoice to be. . . . Jesus Christ is my Head, my Teacher. He is
everywhere with me and in me, and I in Him. Although the Protestants
should chase me amongst Papists or Atheists, yet I should still be in
the holy Church and should have all the heavenly Gifts common to all
Believers, and although the Papists should banish me into Turkey, yet
even there should I be in the holy Church."[22]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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