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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76157	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.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1658 (1658)	Wing B1232; Thomason E2111_1; ESTC R209487	172,368	411

me to say but little for the Confirmation of it Arg. 1. The Church cannot judge of things unknown Non entium non apparentium eadem est ratio Not to appear and not to be is all one as to the judgment of the Church We are not searchers of the heart and therefore we must judge by the discoveries of the heart by outward signes Arg. 2. If Profession of Faith were not necessary Coram Ecclesiâ to mens Church-membership and Priviledges then Infidels and Heathens would have Right as was said in the former case and also the Church and the world would be confounded and the Church would be no Church But these are consequents that I hope no Christians will have a favourable thought of and therefore they should reject the Antecedent Arg. 3. It is a granted case among all Christians that Profession is thus necessary the Apostles and Ancient Churches admitted none without it nor no more must we Though all require not the same manner of Profession yet that Profession it self is the least that can be required of any man that layeth claim to Church Priviledges and Ordinances proper to Adult members this we are all agreed in and therefore I need not adde more proof where I find no Controversie But yet as commonly as we are agreed on this yet because it is the very point which most of the stress of our present Disputation lieth on it may not be amiss to foresee what may possibly be Objected by any new comers hereafter Object Perhaps some may say 1. That we find no mention of Professions required in Scripture 2. It is not probable that Peter received a Profession from those thousands whom he so suddenly Baptized 3 Our Churches have been true Churches without such a Profession personally and distinctly made therefore it may be so still To these briefly yet satisfactorily 1. The Scripture gives us abundant proof that a plain Profession was made in those times by such as were baptized at Age and so admitted by reason of their ripeness and capacity into the Church and to the speciall Communion and Priviledges of the Adult at once To say much of the times of the old Testament or before Christ would be but to interrupt you with less pertinent things Yet there it is apparent that all the people were solemnly engaged in Covenant with God by Moses more then once and that this was renewed by Joshua and other godly Princes and that Asa made the people not only enter into a Covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their hearts and with all their Soul But that whosoever would not seek him should be put to death whether smal or great man or woman And they sware to the Lord with a loud voice and with shoutings and with trumpets and with cornets 2 Chron. 15. 12 13 14. So following Princes called the people to this open Covenanting But this is not all To take the Lord only to be their God with the rest of the Law was the very essence of an Isarelites Religion which they did not only openly Profess but excessively sometimes glory in As Circumcision sealed the Covenant and therefore supposed the Covenant to Infants and aged whoever were circumcised so had they many sorts of Sacrifice and other worship in which they all were openly to profess the same Religion and Covenant Many Purifications also and Sanctifyings of the people they had and many figures of the Covenant I am the Lord thy God c. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me c. was the tenour of the Covenant which every Israelite expressly and by frequent acts professed to consent to The Law is called a Covenant which all were to own and avouch the Lord to be their God and themselves his people See Deut. 26. 17 18. chap. 29. 10 11 14 c. 2 King 23. 3. 2 Chron. 23. 3 16. chap. 29. 10. Ezr. 10. 3. Neh. 9. 38. Psal 50. 5. Ezek. 20. 37. Jer. 50. 5. Isa 56. 4 5. Exod. 34. 27. Psal 103. 18. 25. 10. 18. 10 c. And yet I hope no Chhistian would wish that we should deal no more openly and clearly with God the Church and our selves in daies of Gospel Light and worship then the Jews were to do in their darker state under obscure Types and shadows We find that when John Baptist set up his Ministry he caused the people to Cenfess their sinnes Matth. 3. 6. And if we confess our sinnes God is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes 1 Joh. 1. 19. And whereas some say that John Baptized them that he calleth a Generation of Vipers I Answer 1. We will believe that when they prove it It seems rather that he put them back 2. If he did Baptize them it was not till they Confessed their sinnes before that all did and it seems by his charge till they promised to bring forth fruits meet for Repentance Matth. 3. 8. Christ would not have so instructed Nicodemus in the Nature and necessity of Regeneration before he was a Disciple if a Professed or Apparent preparation had not been necessary Nor would he ordinarily have taught men the Necessity of denying themselves and forsaking all for a treasure in Heaven with such like if they would be his Disciples if the Profession of so doing had not been Necessary to their visible Discipleship I grant that so full a Profession was not made before Christs Resurrection as after For many Articles of our Belief were afterward made Necessary And the Apostles themselves were unacquainted with what the weakest Christian did afterwards believe But still the Essentials of Faith then Necessary in existence to mens Justification were Necessary in Profession ●● mens visible Christianity or Church-membership As to those Acts. 2. 37. c. It is plain that they made an open Profession if you Consider 1. That they were openly told the Doctrine which they must be baptized into if they did consent 2. It is said They that gladly received that word were baptized 3. It is certain therefore that they first testified their glad reception of the Word 4. We may not imagine that Peter was God or knew the hearts of all those thousands and therefore he must know it by their Profession that they gladly received the Word 5. Their own mouths cry out for advice in order to their Salvation 6. It had been absurd for the Apostles to attempt to baptize men that had not first professed their Consent 7. The Scripture gives us not the full historical Narration of all that was said and done in such Cases but of so much as was Necessary 8. The Institution and Nature of the Ordinance tells us that Baptism could not be administred without a Profession to the Adult For they were to be Baptzed into the Name of Father Sonne and Holy Ghost and therefore were to profess that they believed in Father Sonne and Holy Ghost Yea the very receiving of

an Infidel or one that Professeth not to be a Christian Baptism is said to save us 1 Pet. 3. 21. And therefore they that will be Baptized must profess the qualifications necessary to the Saved The Key 's of the Kingdom of Heaven are put into the Churches hands and they that are loosed on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven if the Key do not erre And therefore Pastours of the Church must absolve none by Baptism that do not by Profession seem to be Absolvable in Heaven They must Profess to have the old man Crucified with Christ that the Body of sinne might be destroyed that henceforth they might not serve sinne Rom. 6. 5 6 7 8. As many as have been Baptized into Christ have put on Christ and are all one in Christ Jesus and are Abrahams Seed and Heirs according to promise Gal. 3. 27 28 29. This speaks the Apostle of the Probability grounded on a credible Profession And thereforeit is clear that the Profession was presupposed that might support this charitable judgment Our Baptism is the Solemnizing of our Marriage with Christ And it s a new and strang kind of Marriage where there is no Profession of Consent The Baptized are in Scripture called men Washed Sanctified Justified c. 1 Cor. 6. 11. 1 Cor. 14. 33. They are all called Saints and Churches of Saints 1 Cor. 1. 2. All Christians are called Sanctified ones or Saints therefore it s certaine that they professed themselves such But why should I go any further in this when the main substance of my Dispute of Right to the Sacraments proves it I intreat the Reader that would have more to prove not only the Necessity of a Profession but also of the Profession of a Saving Faith to peruse that Book or at least the second Disputation where are Twenty Arguments for it and the sence of all the Ancient Churches there cited out of Mr Gatakers Collections See also Dr Hammonds many testimonies to prove the use of the Abrenuntiation Paraenes pag. 18 19 20. I love not needlesly to recite whath others have already cited But he that knows not that the Universal Church from the daies of the Apostles hath baptized the Adult upon a personal Profession of Faith and Repentance and Vow or Promise or Covenant for obedience knows little of what the Church hath Practised And I hope few sober men will be found that will be so singular and self-conceited as to contradict the Practise of the Universal Church in such a case as this and set up their own private judgment against it and go about to perswade us to a new way of Church enterance and admission now in the end of the world Blame me not to be confident with you where I have so good ground as Scripture and so good company as the Primitive Universal Church To this let me adde that most or too many that we are to receive to the Priviledges of Adult members have violated their Baptism-Covenant and proved ungodly after Baptism and that by open notorious Scandals Now Scripture and the Practice of the Universal Ancient Church direct us to require of these an open Confession of sinne For they need an Absolution and not a meer Confirmation It is past all controversie that such have both an open Confession and Profession to make Yea how scrupulous the Ancient Church was of Receiving and Absolving such violators of the Baptismal Covenant and on how severe terms they did it is known to all that know any thing of those times I pray amongst others see what Grotius Discus Apol. Rivet pag. 221 222. citeth from Irenaeus Tertullian Pacimus Hierom c. ad pag. 235. n. And as to the last Objection that our Churches were true Churches when we made no particular Professions I Answer 1. Without some Profession of true Christianity our Churches could not have been true Churches And therefore against those that would prove them no Churches we plead and justly that a Profession was made by them 2. But I pray you mark that that will prove a Church to be a true Church which will not prove every person in the Parish to be a true Member of that Church 3. And he that thinks it enough that our Churches have a meer Metaphysical Verity such as Bishop Hall and multitudes of Learned Protestants allow the Church of Rome it self is as good a friend to it as he is to his wife or child that will let them go naked yea and be contented that they catch the plague or leaprosie yea and plead for it too and all because they have still the Truth of Humane Nature I know that any thing that may truly be called a Profession will in that point seem to prove the Being of the Church But as it will not seem to prove the well-being so an obscure Profession doth but obscurely prove the Being of it which an open plain Profession doth more clearly prove Let us not befriend either the Kingdom of darkness or the Seperatists so much as to leave our Churches so open to their exceptions and so apt to cherish and befriend their ignorance and infidelity of the world If coming to Church and sitting there be somewhat a probable argument that men do implicitly believe as that Church believes yet it 's a very dark proof that they understand what the Church believes especially when experience hath acquainted us with the Contray of many of them But now I have said this much for a personal and plain Profession I would faine know what any man hath against it The Church through the great mercy of God hath yet liberty to use it And we see how many thousands make a blind kind of shew of Christianity going from one publike duty to another and knowing not what they do And is there not need that they should be brought out into the open light and see their way If Covenanting with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be the Essence of our Christianity in the Name of God I desire you to consider whether it be a thing to be hudled up in the dark Unless it be mens design to hide the Nature of Christianity and keep people in destructive ignorance and delude their Souls with a name and shew of a Religion which they understand not they will surely be willing that men should know the Covenant that they make and understand what they do before they enter into a Marriage bond with Christ if at Age or own it if they have been entered in infancy Why should we choose Darkness rather then Light Why should an Implicit Covenant and Profession be pleaded for when the being of a Profession is palam fateri openly to make known and when we know by sad experience that when we have all done the best we can to make our ignorant people understand we shall find enough ado to accomplish it Ignorance hath no need of frendship especially from Ministers it deserveth none especially in so great

a point as the Covenant that men make with Christ We have wares that deserve the light and need not a dark shop We have a Master that we need not be affraid or ashamed explicitly and publickly to confess It beseemes not so high and honourable a Profession as that of a Christian to be lapt up in obscurity Such a Glorious state as Sonneship to God to be an Heir of Heaven c. should be entered into with great solemnity and owned accordingly at our first rationall acceptance and acknowledgment Kings are Crowned more solemnly then poor men take possession of their cottages Christ will be ashamed of them before the Angels that are ashamed of him before men and will confess them before his Father that confess him before men Christianity is not a game to be plaid under board Why then should any be against an open Professing and Covenanting with Christ If it be needfull that we Covenant certainly the plainest and most explicite Covenanting is the best And what will be his portion that hath a male in his flock and offereth the worst yea the halt and blind to God Let us therefore deal as openly and plainly and understandingly in the Covenant of God as we can and not contrive it in the greatest darkness that is consistent with the Essence of a Church Nay let us not tempt men to unchurch us or separate from us by leaving our cause to such Arguments as this such a man sitteth among other hearers in the Congregation therefore he maketh a Profession of the Christian Faith lest they think it followeth not therefore he seemeth to understand the Christian Faith much less he Professeth it especially when it 's known that so many understand it not and that the Papists in their writings maintain it lawfull for them to be present at our Assemblies and Infidels tell us that they can hear any man and do come thither Nehemiah caused the Jewsto subscribe the Covenant and seal it c. 9 v 38. Even under the Law it was the character of visible Saints to make a Covenant with God by Sacrifice Psal 50. 5. At least now God hath caused us to pass under the Rod. Let us yield to be brought under the bond of the Covenant Ezek. 20. 37. And let us as weeping Israel and Judah Seek the Lord our God and ask the way to Zion with our faces thitherward saying come and let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten Jer. 50 4 5. Let us take hold of his Covenant and choose the things that please him that he may bring us into his holy Mountain and make us joyfull in his house of Prayer and our Sacrifices may be accepted on his Altar Isa 56. 4 6 7. Are not these the daies of which it is said Isa 44. 3 4 5. I will poure water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will poure my Spirit on thy seed and my blessing on thine offspring and they shall spring as among the grass as willows by the water courses One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel I would have as little Covenanting for doubtfull or needless or mutable things in Church or State as is possible but in the great things of our Salvation even the Essence of Christianity we cannot be bound too fast nor deal too understandingly and openly with God Prop. 6. It is not every kind of Profession that is the Condition or necessary qualification of those that are to be admitted to the Priviledges of Adult members but such a Profession as God hath made necessaery by his express Word and by the Nature of the Object and the Vses and Ends to which be doth require it THe Negative is not controverted among us If any were so quarrelsom or ignorant it 's easily proved And I shall do it briefly but satisfactorily in the opening of the Affirmative I have proved in my first Disputation of Right to Sacraments which I desire the Reader that would have further satisfaction to peruse the Necessity of these following Qualifications of this Profession 1. In General as to the Object of our Faith it must be a Profession of true Christianity and no less It must be a Profession of our entertainment both of the Truth of the Gospel and of the Good therein Revealed and offered More particularly it must be a Profession that we believe in God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost as to the Nature persons and works which they have done or undertaken for us Yet more particularly and explicitly It must be a Profession 1. That we Believe in God the Father and so the pure Deity as our Creatour Soveraign and chief Good who gave us the Law of Nature by breaking of which we have lost our selves and all our part in Everlasting Life 2. That we Believe in Jesus Christ God and Man that taking our Nature fulfilled the Law overcame the Devil dyed as a Sacrifice for our sinnes Rose again and conqured death ascened into Heaven where he is Lord of all and the King Prophet and Priest of his Church in Glory with the Father That he hath offered himself with Pardon and Eternal Life to all that will accept him on his terms and that he will come again at last to Raise us from death and judge the world and Justifie his Saints and bring them to Eternal Glory and cast the wicked into utter misery 3. That we Believe in God the Holy Ghost that Inspired the Prophets and Apostles to deliver and confirm the Word of God and who is the Sanctifier of all that shall be saved illuminating their understandings changing their hearts and lives humbling them for their sinne and misery causing them to believe in Christ the Remedie and heartily and thankfully accept him Possessing them with an hearty Love of God and a heavenly mind and a hatred of sinne and Love of Holiness and turning the principal bent of their hearts and lives to the Pleasing of God and the attaining of Eternal Life This much must be believed and the Belief of this much must be somehow Professed 2. As to the Acts of the thing Professed it must be not only the naked Assent of the Understanding but both this Assent that the Gospel is true and a Consent of the Will to take God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost to the forementioned Ends in the forementioned Relations and to give up our selves unfeignedly to him renouncing the flesh the world and the Devil 3. As to the Nature of the Profession it self 1. It must in General be Credible For no man is bound to Believe that which is Incredible The words are the signs of the mind and as such they are to be uttered and received If they be contrary to the mind they are false and