Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	believer_n	church_n	visible_a	1,349	5	9.2573	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26897	Church concord containing I. a disswasive from unnecessary division and separation, and the real concord of the moderate independents with the Presbyterians, instanced in ten seeming differences, II. by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1691 (1691)	Wing B1223; ESTC R14982	99,086	94

such as expect the very Syllables of the Assertions in the proofs Therefore for brevity I take it to be the better way ●● this time to offer here a full sufficient proof of any one of these Assertions which shall be questioned to such as shall soberly demand it A Servant of Christ for his Churches Unity and Peace Richard Baxter Acton Nov. 2● 1688. Q. SEeing you have oft affirmed publickly that the Terms of Concord among Christians are easie to be known if their unwillingness to practise them were not the hinderance you are desired to answer these Questions following 1. What are the necessary Terms of Catholick Communion of Christians as Members of the Church Universal 2. What are the necessary Terms of the Communion of Christians personally in a particular Church 3. What are the Terms on which Neighbour Churches may hold Communion with one another 4. What are the Terms of Communion between the Churches of several Kingdoms 5. What is the Magistrates Power and Duty about Religion and the Churches and Ministers of Christ I. It is to be understood that the Universal Church is considered as Spiritual or as Visible As Spiritual it is the Universality of true Spiritual or Regenerate Believers as Headed by Jesus Christ. As Visible it is the Universality of the Baptized or Professors of true Faith as Headed by Christ the Author and Object of that Faith And accordingly Christians are to be distinguished And that the Question is of the Visible Church and Christians 2. This being supposed I answer that Catholick Visible Communion consisteth 1. Fundamentally in being all Baptized or entered into the same Covenant of Grace with God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and so being joyned to the same Head and entered into the same Universal Body and professing the same Faith and Love and Obedience contained in that Covenant and not falling away from that Profession or any Essential part thereof 2. And consequently that we all acknowledge the extraordinary Ministry of the Prophets and Apostles and receive their Testimony and Doctrine recorded in the Sacred Scriptures At least the foresaid Essentials of the Covenant and so much more as we understand and are convinced to be Canonical Scriptures or written by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost 3. And also that we acknowledge a stated ordinary Ministry in the Church appointed by Christ to Disciple and Baptize the Nations of the World and then to teach them to observe all his Commands And that we profess our willingness to join in Christian Assemblies under the conduct of such Ministers for the worshipping of God and furthering our own and others Salvation if we have opportunity so to do And that we do accordingly II. Q. 1. We speak only of Visible Christians in this second Question also of Church Communion 2. A Particular Church signifieth either 1. A Community of Christians agreed to live under Pastora● Guidance before they have a Pastor or have practised that agreement This is not the Church here mean● 2. Or a Political Society of Christian Pastor and People professedly associated for Personal Communion Exercise of these Relations as such in the publick worshipping of God and for the furtherance of Love and Obedience in each other The Ends difference it from all Civil Societies of Christians and from the associations of many Churches for Communion by delegates The necessary Terms of this Church Communion are these 1. The Pastor whether one or more must have all things essential to his Office 1. As to his Qualifications that is 1. That he understand at least the Essential Points of Christianity and Church Communion 2. That he be able to teach them to others in some competent degree 3. That he be willing to do it and this for Gods Honour the Churches Good and Mens Salvation 2. As to his Call that he have a true notification of the will of God that he should undertake this Office which is ordinarily done 1. By the Ordination that is the Approbation and Investiture of Bishops or Pastors 2. And in this case of his relation to a particular Church by the peoples consent All this in truth is needful before God and in Appearance and Profession before the Church 2. The People must be Baptized persons Sacramentally engaged into Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and such as have not professedly deserted that Covenant by Apostasie nor are proved before a lawful Judicature to be deserters of any Essential part thereof Whether open professed Covenanting may not serve without Baptism in cases of Necessity where Baptism cannot be had is a case so extraordinary that we need not here meddle with it 3. He that was Baptized in Infancy and yet having opportunity at full age doth make no Profession of Christianity nor own his Baptismal Covenant openly by word or deed is to be numbered with Deserters 4. Though the most plain and open profession is usually best where it may be ●ad yet a profession less explicite may serve to the being of Church-members such as is their actual joyning with those Churches who purposely assemble to make publick profession of the Christian Religion Faith Love and Obedience 5. There must be also a signification of consent to their particular Church-Relation either more express and plain or at least by such actions which may be reasonably presumed to signifie it As ordinary joining in Church-worship with that particular Church and submitting to the necessary guidance of the Pastors 6. He that thus consenteth to his Relation to the Pastor and that Church is a Member though he consent not to the Membership or Presence of many particular Members thereof Because they are but Integral and not Essential parts of the Church 7. But if a usual mixture in the Assemblies of Hereticks or Strangers which are not Members of that Church or any other confounding cause do give the Pastors sufficient reason to call all or part of the people to an express signification of their consent to their Relation to put it out of doubt they that causelesly refuse such signification do seem to deny their consent and allow the Pastor and Church to judge of them accordingly 8. The office of the Bishops or Pastors is subordinate to the Teaching and Interceeding and Ruling office of Christ And their work is to Teach the people the Word of God to be their Mouth and Guide in publick Worship in Prayer and in Thanksgiving and Praise to God and to administer his holy Sacraments and to exercise that Power of the Keys which Christ hath committed to their trust in the Prudent and cautelous use of Church-Discipline And all this according to the Laws of Christ recorded in the holy Scriptures These therefore must be the Works and Ends for which these Churches must professedly assemble Especially on the Lord's Days which are separated to these holy Uses 9. The General Command in Nature and Scripture that all be done to Edification decently and

words and that withal make the most imperfect Credible Profession of Faith and Repentance and Resolution for Obedience And that we must not break the bruised Reed nor reject the least of the Lambs of Christ but receive them that are weak in the Faith and not of our own Heads reject any persons Profession as Incredible without sufficient Reasons for such a judgment of it Indeed there is abundance of difference in these points but 1. It is in the Iudgment of particular Persons and Cases and not in the Law or Rule of our Proceedings And 2. It is a difference between Persons and not between Parties Some of the Congregational way are more rigid than many of the Presbyterians in Iudging who are Credible Professors and who not Some will hear the Reports of a change when most Presbyterians will be satisfied with the profession of Holiness though it have grown up with the person from his Infancy and he knew of no change Some look for such Evidence from a Holy Life as may it self directly suffice to ingenerate in the Church a persuasion that the person hath Saving Grace and so they make the Life to be Testimonium primarium vel primario aequale When most Presbyterians take the Profession for the Primary Testimony or condition of Right and so receive it directly as Credible by such a Humane Faith as one Man Credits another by in all Civil Transactions in the World And they look at the Life but as a Secondary Testimony which may Confirm or Invalidate the former Though after Church entrance the Life is directly looked after in the Discipline of the Church But this difference is between Men of the same parties Independents differ from Independents and Presbyterians from Presbyterians and perhaps a hundred Men of the same Congregational way may most of them gradually differ from each other in the strictness or laxness of their Executions as one is more or less Charitable than another or more or less Tender Compassionate Strict or Rigid Censorious or Remiss c. which may occasion difference I conclude therefore that about the great disturbing point viz. The Matter of the Church or Qualification necessary to Members Presbyterians and Independents differ not Doctrinally though practically persons of each party differ among themselves and therefore that here is No Need of a Reconciliation Chap. IV. Difference II. THE second Point supposed to be a Difference is about the Necessity of a Church Covenant Here is no Difference at all between the Learned of each Party that I am able to discover We are Agreed 1. That our consent to the Covenant of Grace is it that makes us Christians and so Members of the Universal Church and the Profession of that Consent which regularly is to be done in Baptism Parents professing their Consent for their Infants benefit and the Adult professing their own Consent doth instate them in their Visible Membership 1. The baptized Person being Offered to God and so solemnizing his own Covenant Act and God by his Minister accepting him into his Church 2. And we are Agreed that a signified Consent is necessary to Membership in a particular Church that is A Consent to the Relation of a Member which includeth a Consent to the necessary Duties of that Relation and an acceptance of the Benefits 3. And we are Agreed that any tolerable signification of this Consent is all that is absolutely necessary And that an express Church Covenant is not necessary to the Being of a Church or Member but that one that by actual Submission and Communion hath signified his Consent may be truly a Member 4. And yet we are Agreed because Ignorantis non est Consensus and for many other weighty Reasons expressed in my Book of Confirmation that where we can require and procure it without a greater accidental Detriment to the Church it is needful ad bene esse to the Churches Reformation and to the Persons firmer engagement to the satisfaction of others and the due execution of Discipline c. that the Consent be as open and express as may be As nothing is more necessary excellent honourable reasonable than a Holy Life and nothing that less feareth the light than the Cause of God so he would have his Cause to be openly owned and managed above board and would be confessed before men and have all men know what they do that take him for their Master It is an honour to God and the Gospel and an excellent advantage to the ordering of the Church and the saving of the People to have all brought to as serious and solemn an Engagement to the Living God as conveniently can be procured I doubt not but the Presbyterians would joyn with their Brethren to Petition the Soveraign Rulers that all our People may be brought to this Let no man think so uncharitably of them as if they desired that Christ should be but darkly and implicitely owned by the Churches and as if they would not have Church Members know what they do Doubtless they cannot but be sensible how much it would further their Ministry with the People if Magistracy would but assist them herein against the stubborness of ignorant and wilful men that men might be compelled to submit to Instruction and Approbation and make a credible Profession of Christianity owning their Baptismal Covenant and by this engage themselves to submit to the Officers Discipline and Ordinances of Christ in the Churches where they desire Communion The thing that the Presbyterians have stood upon is no more but to vindicate the Truth of our Churches against Separatists that have denyed them to be true Churches because they had not an explicite Covenant They deny not that such a Covenant may conduce much to the well-being of the Church especially if we have the Magistrates help to take off the Peoples prejudice Note here also that by a Covenant we mean nothing but exprest Consent and that exprest Consent is indeed a Covenant And that by an Implicite Covenant we mean but a Consent that is less express and not that is not exprest at all For Consent cannot be known to the Church without some Expression I conclude therefore that whatever some particular persons may be guilty of there is no real difference between the Presbyterians and Independents in the Point of a Church Covenant and therefore here is no work for a Reconciler God forbid that any faithful Ministers of Christ should fight against that much which is profitable to the well being of the Church meerly because without it the Church may have a Being Then must we Plead for hunger and want and calamitous Diseases that leave us but the being of men Nature and the Scripture Presidents in the Old Testament and the Doctrine of the Apostles and ancient Practice of the Churches do satisfie us of the usefulness of Holy Covenants prudently seasonably and seriously made Of this I have said more in my Treatise of Confirmation