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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26895	The Christian religion expressed I, briefly in the ancient creeds, the Ten commandments, and the Lords prayer, and, II, more largely in a profession taken out of the Holy Scriptures, containing 1, the articles of the Christian belief, 2, our consent to the gospel covenant, 3, the sum of Christian duty, according to the primitive simplicity, purity, and practice, fitted to the right instruction of the ignorant, the promoting of holiness, and the charitable concord of all true believers ... / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1660 (1660)	Wing B1221; ESTC R25270	38,730	88

and Churches 73. Where the fixing of a stated President in each of these Associations is requisite for the peace and edification of the Brethren it may well be yielded to but however a special care must be had to prevent contentions and divisions and therefore perverse disputings must be suppressed and proud self-conceited domineering persons and such as are of fiery turbulent contentious spirits and also subtile hereticks and dividers must be watched against as the plague of the Churches and all possible charity humility meekness self-denyal and zeal for holy concord must be exercised 74. Those that through distance or impediments cannot or through mistakes or peevishness will not joyn in such stated brotherly Associations and Assemblies are yet to be allowed the due estimation and affection of Brethren and so much Communion as at a distance they are capable of if they do but agree with us in a sound profession of the faith and a holy conversation and Ministerial fidelity in the main but yet we must disown the sin of their dividing or neglect and as we have opportunity testifie against it 75. These Churches that cannot hold local Communion with one another through differences that destroy not the Essentials of Christianity should yet maintain a dear and tender Christian Love to one another and profess their owning each other as Christians and Churches of Jesus Christ and should agree together upon certain just and equal Rules for the management of their unavoidable differences so as may least prejudice charity and common good and least harden the ungodly or grieve the weak or dishonour God or hinder the success of Common great and necessary Truths upon the souls of men contriving and amicably promoting the Cause of Christianity and every part of it in which they are agreed and should open their disagreements to the people as little as they can 76. In cases of tolerable difference as Ministers and People must maintain a special holy Love and Communion as far as their differences will admit so must they desire the well-fare and the Peace of one another and not stir up hatred or persecution against each other by odious nick-names or exasperating the Magistrate or people against dissenters but should consent to the Liberty of each other and help to take off unjust hatred and to hinder all unmerciful violence or rigor against one another And all of us should watch against and abhor that proud self-conceited domineering disposition that would make us censorious malicious or cruel against the weakest servants of the Lord 77. Yet must we not under pretence of Charity consent to any such noxious Liberty as plainly tendeth to the wrong of the Church and the poysoning of the souls of others nor yet must we consent to the errours of the best Though we are not the judges of the secrets of mens hearts nor may not deal uncharitably with any yet must not heretical self-conceited persons be tolerated in the obstinate dispersing of their errours to the destruction or danger of mens souls nor to reproach and speak against the weighty necessary truths of God Nor should any be tolerated to kindle the flames of uncharitableness and contentions in the Churches by railing reproachful language against the tolerable dissenters But a healing merciful and profitable and not a destructive Toleration should be promoted 78. The Pastors of the Churches of Christ have the power of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven but not of the Temporal sword on earth And though we determine not whether in cases of Necessity it be lawful for Pastors to be also Magistrates yet it is certain that without Necessity it should not be allowed their work requiring all their time and strength and that as Pastors it belongeth not to them But as the Magistrate is the appointed officer of God to Govern even Churches Pastors and People in the way of outward force and Pastors are his Officers to govern them by Spiritual Conduct so must we be so far from desiring to usurp a secular power that we should still advise the Magistrate to keep the sword in his own hand and to take heed of putting compulsive power in the hands of Pastors or enabling them to execute their passionate displeasure against their brethren And as the Magistrate must not usurp the Pastors office but only see that we perform it our selves and punish us if we do not so must not the Pastors usurp the Magistrates office but humbly and modestly teach and advise him from the word of God and reprove him and threaten him and in cases of extremity denounce the Wrath of God against him and bind him over to the Tribunal of Heaven to answer for his obstinate impenitent contempt and then leave all the matter to that bar and patiently suffer if we be persecuted by him Not doing any thing in the management of any of our work without a due respect and reverence to his Authority and a care of the common good that dependeth on his honour but remembring what is meet for him to hear and for us as Messengers of Christ to speak 79. Those Churches of several Nations that through distance and diversity of secular Governours are uncapable of personal or local Communion with others should yet consent as neer as may be in their holy professions and practises not tying each other to any of their unnecessary modes or forms nor uncharitably censuring any tolerable dissenters but owning those Churches that agree with them in the great and necessary things holding such correspondence with them by Messengers as shall be needful to the promoting of their Unity Love and Peace and of the Gospel and common cause of Christ and the defence of each other against the common enemies of those as emergent occasions shall require and direct them 80. To the aforesaid uses the Councils or Synods of Pastors are lawful and convenient in cases that require them where the Pastors of several Churches and Nations may diliberate and determine in order to their Unity of Doctrines and Practices to be Agrreed in and may strengthen the hands of one another But yet the Canons of such Councils are rather Agreements then proper Laws to their several members or absent Brethren and bind in order to Unity and Concord by vertue of those General Commands that require us to do the work of God in such Unity and Concord and not by vertue of any proper superior Regimental power which that Council hath over the particular Bishops of the Churches of Christ And as for General Councils as we should to the forementioned ends regard and honour them above all other if really such were lawfully assembled so in this enlarged and dispersed state of the Militant Church we may easily see that full and proper Universal Councils are neither the Stated Governors of the Universal Church nor necessary to its well-being no nor Lawful to be attempted as a Course that would certainly destroy or grievously wrong the Churches

THE Christian Religion Expressed I. briefly in the ancient Creeds the ten Commandments and the Lords Prayer And II. more largely in a Profession taken out of the holy Scriptures Containing 1. The Articles of the Christian Belief 2. Our Consent to the Gospel Covenant 3. The sum of Christian Duty According to the Primitive Simplicity Purity and Practice Fitted to the right Instructing of the Ignorant the promoting of Holiness and the Charitable Concord of all true Believers Which whosoever sincerely Believeth Consenteth to and Practiseth shall certainly be saved It is also by prefixed Questions made a Catechism By Richard Baxter London Printed 1660. To fill up this vacant Page THE Papists Confession of the sufficiency of our Belief Concil. Basil. Orat. Ragus Bin p. 299. The Holy Scripture in the literall sense soundly and well understood is the Infallible and most sufficient Rule of faith Bellarm. de verbo Dei l. 4. c. 11. In the Christian doctrine both of Faith and Manners some things are simply necessary to salvation to all as the knowledge of the Articles of the Apostles Creed of the ten Commandments and of some Sacraments The rest are not so Necessary that a man cannot be saved without the explicite knowledge belief and profession of them These things that are simply necessary and are Profitable to all the Apostles preached to all All things are written by the Apostles which are Necessary to all and which they openly preaclot to all See the place Costenus Enchirid. c 1. p. 49. Non inficiamur praecipua illa fidei capita quae omnibus Christians cognitu sunt ad salutem necessaria perspicuè satis esse Apostolicis scriptis comprehensa The Ancient CREED I Believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was Crucified dead and buried he descended into Hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into Heaven and sittteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead I believe in the Holy Ghost the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting Amen I Believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Iesus Christ the only begotten Son of God begotten of his Father before all worlds God of God Light of Light very God of very God begotten not made being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the holy Ghost of the virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate He suffered and was buried and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead whose kingdom shall have no end And I believe in the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father and the Son who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified who spake by the Prophets And I believe one Catholike and Apostolike Church I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins And I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come Amen WHosoever will be saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholike faith Which faith except every one do keep wholly and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly And the Catholike faith is this that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance For there is one person of the Father another of the Son and another of the holy Ghost But the Godhead of the Father of the Son and of the holy Ghost is all one the glory equal the Majesty coeternal Such as the Father is such is the Son such is the holy Ghost The Father uncreate the Son uncreate and the holy Ghost uncreate The Father incomprehensible the Son incomprehensible and the holy Ghost incomprehensible The Father eternal the Son eternal and the holy Ghost eternal And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal As also there be not three incomprehensibles nor three uncreated but one uncreated and one incomprehensible So likewise the Father is Almighty the Son Almighty and the Holy Ghost Almighty And yet they are not three Almighties but one Almighty So the Father is God the Son is God the holy Ghost is God And yet they are not three Gods but one God So likewise the Father is Lord the Son Lord and the holy Ghost Lord And yet not three Lords but one Lord For like as we be compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord So are we forbidden by the Catholike Religion to say there be three Gods or three Lords The Father is made of none neither Created nor begotten The Son is of the Father alone not made nor created but begotten The holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son neither made nor created nor begotten but proceeding So there is one Father not three Fathers one Son not three Sons one holy Ghost not three holy Ghosts And in this Trinity none is afore or after other none is greater or less then another But the whole three persons be coeternal together and coequal So that in all things as is aforesaid the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is God and man God of the substance of the Father begotten before the worlds and man of the substance of his mother born in the world Perfect God and perfect man of a reasonable soul and humane flesh subsisting Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead and inferiour to the Father touching his manhood Who although he be God and man yet he is not two but one Christ One not by Conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by taking of the manhood into God One altogether not by confusion of substance but by unity of person For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man so God and man is one Christ Who suffered for our salvation descended into hell rose again the third day from the dead He ascended into heaven and sitteth one the right hand of the Father God almighty from whence he shall come to judge the

and impious Ordinations that tend to the corrupting or dividing of the Churches And to avoid Division upon a tolerable difference of Opinions where we may agree in Practice we Consent that the Associations that have no stated Presidents or that give not to such a Negative voice shall receive into their Communion those that are of the contrary opinion giving them leave if they desire it to profess or record their opinion in that particular so they will afterward walk among them in Love and Peace And that the Associations that choose a stated President and give him a Negative voice in Ordination shall in like manner and on like terms receive into their Communion such as dissent in that particular and having professed or recorded their dissent will walk submissively in Love and Peace Which liberty also of professing and recording their different principles we desire may be allowed them that joyn in Synods as being only for Communion of Churches and them that joyn in them as having a direct superiour Governing Power over the particular Pastors of the Churches VIII Though it be the surest way to Peace and Concord to take up with these necessary things and we cannot approve of the narrow dividing Principles of those men that will impose things unnecessary to the excluding of the necessary yet if our lawful Rulers shall command it or the peace of the Church through the distempers of the Brethren shall require it we shall obey and consent in things that God hath not forbidden and if we suffer for well-doing and for obeying God rather then men we shall endeavour to imitate our Lord who being reviled reviled not again and when he suffered threatned not but committed all to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2. 23. The Office of Christs Ministers more largely opened 1. THE Lord Jesus Christ having purchased our Salvation by his blood and stablished his Testament or Covenant of Grace and left us his example of perfect holiness ascended to the Father and is there the Glorified Lord of all and Head over all things to his Church all power being given him in Heaven and Earth that interceding for us with the Father he might be the Treasury of our Light and Life and offering salvation to the miserable world might gather and cleanse and save the Church which is his Body Communicating to them that grace that is here necessary to them in their way and warfare and perfecting them in Glory with himself when their warfare is accomplished 2. Christ Being thus invisible to us in Glory with the Father performeth not these works below by himself in person immediately and alone but by his Spirit Ministers and Word The Holy Ghost being his Advocate or Agent to these ends and his Ministers the Instruments used by his Spirit and himself to indite and bear witness to his word and to Preach it to the world as that infallible Truth which must guide them to Salvation 3. The first Prophetical and Apostolical Ministers being sent by himself and qualified by the inspiration conduct and miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost did found the Church and enlarge it unto many nations of the world and left them the holy Scriptures which contain the doctrine which they preached that it might be certainly and fully preserved and propagated till the coming of Christ And they setled by the appointment of Christ and his Spirit an ordinary ministry to succeed them not to deliver a new Law or Gospel but to preserve and preach the doctrine which in the holy Scriptures and conjunctly at first also from the mouths of the Apostles they had received as once delivered to the Saints and to guide the Churches by it to the end 4. Though Christ appointed Ministers that should have so far a charge or care of the whole Church as not to be limited to any one part but to extend their labour and oversight as far as their capacity and opportunities would permit yet did he never make any man his Vicar or Vicegerent as Head of the universal Church nor lay upon any one whether Peter Paul or any other the charge and oversight of the whole nor did ever Peter or any one Apostle exercise such an Office in governing all the Catholike Church especially when it ceased to be confined to Jerusalem and the adjacent parts and was dispersed through the world Never did the Apostles receive their Commissions from Peter or all the Ministers then in the world perform their work by his Commission or by any power received from him nor were accountable to him and judged by him for what they did Much less is this universal Head-ship committed to the Pope of Rome through all or any generations But because a certain Primacy of Order was granted him by Emperours and Councils within the limits of the Roman Empire long after the Apostles days therefore doth he take advantage thence to pretend a Title to the universal Head-ship As if the Roman and the Christian world had been the same or the Emperor and his Clergy had been the Rulers of all the Christian subjects of all other Princes or Pastors upon earth and his limited Primacy had been an universal Soveraignty This claim of the Pope of Rome to be the Vice-Christ or universal Pastor of all the Christian world is a tyrannical impious irrational usurpation contrary to the holy Scripture and the state of the Primitive Church and contrary to nature and common sense which declare his incapacity of the work far more then any Prince is uncapable of being the universal Monarch of the world And therefore all Christians should abhor this proud and impious usurpation and fly from the guilt of that horrible schism and those corruptions in doctrine worship and government which it hath introduced 5. Christ calleth his ordinary ministers to that office by enduing them with his gifts and disposing them thereunto and moving the hearts of the people to consent and by ordination of the senior Pastors and giving them opportunities for the work and sometime the Magistrates command hath a hand in the obligation 6. It belongeth to the Office of the Ministers of Christ to Preach the Gospel to the nations of the world and make them Christs Disciples Baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost 7. This Preaching or publishing the Gospel is done by voice or by writing that by voice is done by Reading by publike Sermons or interlocutory conference that by writing is either by translating the holy Scriptures into the languages used by the Nations or by expounding and applying them So that the holy Scriptures in the original languages are the word of God both as to the terms and sense Grammatical and Doctrinal The same Scriptures in a Translation are the word of God as to the sense both Grammatical and Doctrinal but not as to the Terms The holy doctrine of the Scriptures delivered in the writings and Sermons and conferences of the