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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

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Church should joyn in prayer for the offender that God would give him repentance unto life 64. If after sufficient waiting in the use of these means the offendor still remain impenitent it is the duty of the Church to reject him out of their communion Wherein the Pastors must compassionately declare his offence and his Impenitency and the Judgements that God hath threatned to such and the Laws of Christ commanding the Church to put such from among them and avoid them and have no company with them that they may be ashamed or to take them as Heathen men or Publicans and must accordingly declare the person offending to be unmeet for Christian Communion and charge the people to avoid him and have no fellowship with him and himself to forbear the Communion of Christians binding him over to answer it at the bar of Christ Which sentence must be accordingly executed by the Pastors in refusing him the Ordinances proper to the Church and by the people in avoiding familiarity and communion with him till he be restored upon his Repentance 65. It must be a credible Profession of Repentance only that must be accepted by the Church either for the preventing of such a rejection or for restoring the rejected And usually when the case is heinous and notorious or the Church hath had the publike cognizance of it they must also have publike notice of the penitence of the offendor who should with remorse of conscience and true contrition confess his sin before the Congregation and heartily lament it and crave the prayers of the Church to God for pardon and reconciliation through Christ and also crave an Absolution by the Minister and a restoration into the communion of the Church But because it much dependeth on circumstances of the case whether the Confession should be publike or private or in what manner made it is therefore to be much left to the Prudence of the Pastors whom the people in such cases are commanded to obey 66. When a credible Profession of Repentance is made whether voluntarily by the Converted or upon the Churches admonition by the scandalous or after excommunication it is the duty of the Pastors to declare such Penitents in the name of Christ to be pardoned and absolved and Ministerially to give them this Mercy from the Lord in case their Repentance be sincere as they profess And if the person were excommunicate it is the duty of the Pastor to declare him again meet for the Communion of the Church and require the Church to receive him with joy as a returning sinner and not to reproach him with his falls but to forgive him as Christ forgiveth him all which they are accordingly to perform and the Penitent with Joy to receive his absolution and to return to the Communion of the Church and to a more holy careful obedient life 67. When any by frequent Covenant-breaking have forfeited the Credit of their words the Church must have testimony of the actual Reformation of such persons before they can receive their professions and promises as credible any more Though yet there is so great difference here in persons and offences that the particular cases must be much left to the prudence of the Pastors that are present and know the persons and the whole case 68. So great is the necessity of the sick and so seasonable and advantagious the opportunity that Ministers should not negligently omit them but in Love and tenderness instruct them according to their several conditions endeavouring the Conversion of the ungodly and the strengthening of the weak and comforting such as need Consolation directing them how to improve their affliction and helping them to be truly sensible of the evil of sin the miscarriages and negligences of their lives the vanity of the world the necessity and sufficiency of Christ and the certainty and excellency of the everlasting Glory Perswading them to a pious just and charitable disposal of their worldly estate and to forgive such as have wronged them and to be reconciled to those with whom they have been at variance and believingly to hope for that life with Christ which he hath promised to all that are sanctified by his Spirit and comfortably to commit their souls to their Redeemer and quietly rest in the Will and Love and Promises of God Resolving if God should recover them to health to Redeem their time and live as a people devoted to his Glory It is meet also that the Pastors pray for the sick both privately and publikely when it is desired and thought fit 69. The Burial of Christians should be decent and honourable and though it be a thing indifferent in it self whether Exhortations Funeral Sermons or Prayers be then used yet because the season is very advantagious for mens reception of holy instructions it is convenient at least when desired that the Minister do take that season as often as he can to mind people of their mortality and the necessity of a speedy preparation for their change so prudently managing all his Exhortations and Prayers that the due end may be attained and the abuse prevented as far as may be 70. The lives of Christs Ministers should be conformable to their holy doctrine and so exemplary in Innocency Love Humility Meekness Patience Contempt of the world crucifying the desires of the flesh and in a zealous heavenly conversation and in all works of Piety Justice and charity within their power that the mouths of the enemies may be stopped and the people may learn and be convinced and directed even by their holy examples and our selves may be saved and the Christian Church and doctrine may be honoured to the glory of the Holy Ghost and of our Redeemer and our heavenly Father 71. As we have all one God one Christ one Spirit one Faith and Hope and Love one Covenant and one Catholike Church so should the Communion of Saints extend as far as their capacity and opportunities will allow And as particular persons must Associate for personal Communion in publike worship so particular Churches should associate for such Brotherly correspondency and communion as they are capable of and their needs require That by communicating the Truths and Mercies which they have received and advising together and by a brotherly collation of their apprehensions and improvement of their several gifts the unity of the Churches may be preserved and discords and uncharitableness may be avoided and the beauty and strength of the Churches maintained And therefore the Pastors of the neighbour Churches not excluding others that are fit should meet as frequently and at such times and places as the ends and works of the Association do require 72. Into these Associations such Pastors and Churches should be received that make a credible Profession of Faith and Holiness and no other And they that are Hereticks or of scandalous ungodly lives must after a first and second admonition if they remain impenitent be rejected and disowned by the Faithful Pastors
quick and the dead At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire This is the Catholike faith which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved The ten Commandments Exod. 20. GOD spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage Thou shalt have no other gods before me Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth Thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy cattel nor the stranger that is within thy gates for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Seventh day and hallowed it Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shat not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife nor his man-servant nor his maid-servant nor his ox nor his ass nor any thing that is thy neighbours The Lords Prayer Mat. 6. OUR Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever Amen The PROFESSION of the CHRISTIAN Religion I. The Articles of the Christian Belief It is a Catechism if you prefix to every Article the Question What do you believe 1 THere is one only God a in three persons * the Father Son and Holy Ghost b Who is Infinite in Being Power Wisdom and Goodness c The Creator of all things d Our most absolute Lord most Righteous Governour and most gracious Father e 2 God made man for himself f in his own image g with Reason and freewill h endued with wisdom and holiness i and put under him the inferior creatures for his use k and bound him by the Law of Nature to adhere to God his Maker to Believe him fear him love him honour him and obey him with all his powers l Moreover forbidding him to eat of the tree of Knowledge upon pain of death m 3 Man being tempted by Satan did wilfully sin and so fell from God and Happiness under the wrath of God a the curse of his Law b and the power of the Devil c And hence we are all conceived in sin and prone to evil d and condemnation is passed upon all e and no meer creature is able to deliver us f 4 God so loved the world that he gave his only Son to be their Redeemer a who being God and One with the Father b did take our nature and become man being conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Mary and born of her and called Jesus Christ c and being free from sin he conquered the tempter fulfilled all righteousness d revealed the Gospel and confirmed it by Miracles e and gave himself a sacrifice for our sins and a ransome for us in suffering death on the cross to reconcile us unto God f and was buried and went among the dead g * and Rose again the third day having conquered death h and afterward ascended into Heaven i where he remaineth God and Man in one person k and is Lord of all in glory with the Father l the chief Priest and Prophet and King of his Church m interceding for us and teaching and ruling us by his Spirit Ministers and Word n 5 The Lord Jesus Christ hath ordained in his Testament that all they that receive him by a true effectual faith and by true Repentance do turn from the flesh the world and the Devil unto God shall freely receive the pardon of their sins a and shall become the Sons of God and heirs of everlasting Life b the Spirit of Christ shall dwell within them c and all that overcome and persevere to the death shall live with Christ in endless glory d But the Unbelievers impenitent and unholy shall be condemned to everlasting fire e And this he hath commanded his Ministers to preach to all the world f And hath told us that All that are given him of the Father shall come to him and that he will in no wise cast them out nor shall any pluck them out of his hands g 6 The Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son did inspire and guide the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists that they might truly and fully reveal the doctrine of Christ and deliver it in Scripture to the Church as the rule of our faith and life a and by abundance of Evident uncontrouled Miracles and wonderfull gifts to be the great witness of Christ and of the truth of his holy word b 7 Where the Gospel is made known the Holy Ghost by it doth enlighten the minds of all that shall be saved and opening and softening their hearts doth draw them to believe in Christ a and turneth them from the power of Satan unto God b Whereupon they are joyned to Christ the Head and into one holy Catholick Church which is his Body consisting of all true believers c and are freely Justified and made the Sons of God d and a sanctified peculiar people unto him e and do Love him above all and serve him sincerely in holiness and righteousness f Loving and desiring the Communion of the Saints g Overcoming the Flesh the World and the Devil h and Hoping for Christs second coming and for
great a part of our duty that we should do it with much diligence prudence and constancy And the general precepts of doing all to edification and in order oblige us ordinarily to appoint a stated time and place where every family may come in order And if we are able we should go to them that cannot or will not come to us if they will but hear us 18. Those that are Baptized in Infancy and there engaged to God in the holy Covenant should with all possible care and diligence be educated by the Parents or any that have the tuition of them in the Nurture and admonition of the Lord and taught betimes to know the doctrine of the Gospel and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to Love God above all and their neighbours as themselves and to hate iniquity and live to God and first to seek his Kingdom and righteousness To which end Parents should Catechize their Children and daily be teaching them the word of God and acquainting them with his fear and holy worship And ministers must with special care and diligence oversee the several families of their charge and excite the Parents to this necessary duty And also should themselves assist them herein and Catechize such youth as well as all others that are Ignorant as often as they can especially where Parents do neglect it 19. As Infants are by baptism admitted among the Infant-members of the Church upon their Parents profession of Christianity and dedicating them to God so must they personally make a profession of their own faith and own their baptismal Covenant and give up themselves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost before they are to be admitted into the number and Communion of the Adult members of the Church Which profession is to be tryed and approved of by the Pastors of the Church And so excellent a duty to be carefully and seriously and solemnly performed that the transition into the state and communion of the Adult may appear to be so great and observable a thing as may excite all to an answerable care and diligence in preparation thereunto and to look after that saving faith and holiness which they must so solemnly profess And Ministers should have a special care that they take nothing for a credible profession that is not so and corrupt not the Church by letting in uncapable members that must either be cast out again to the grievous exasperating them against the Church and way of God and so to the apparent hazzard of their souls or else must live ungoverned in their wickedness to the great dishonour of God and the provocation of his wrath against them and the Church 20. For the publike worshiping of God and our own Edification the Pastors where there is opportunity must congregate the people in a solemn Assembly in a convenient place and time And all that can must constantly there attend preferring the publike worship of God before the private much more before their worldly businesses that are not of flat necessity to themselves or others 21. In these publike Assemblies it is lawful for us to admit even Infidels to be present and such Catechumen's as are yet unfit to be members of the Church and there to teach reprove and exhort them and pray for them according to their state though we may not receive them to be members of the Church nor admit them to our special communion 22. Because it is the holy Scriptures that containe that Gospel of which we are Ministers and because the honour of Gods holy word is to be preserved and the people to be instructed in it and taught to know it it is therefore our duty in the solemn Assemblies to read the word of God to the people in a known tongue as Moses and the Prophets were read every Sabbath day in the Synagogues of the Jews Such portions being chosen and order observed as the Pastors discern to be most for edification 23. Our publike preaching of the Gospel should be from faith and holy experience with plainness and perspicuity with reverence and gravity with convincing evidence and authority with fervent zeal and perswading importunity with the tenderest love and melting compassion with faithfulness impartiality and prudence suiting both matter and manner to the necessity of the hearers and with frequency and unwearied patience waiting on God for the success 24. The Pastor is to lead and the people to consent and joyn in heart in the publike prayers and unanimously to pour out their souls unto the Lord in penitent confession of sin and fervent petition and joyful thanksgiving and praise and this according to the direction of the holy Scriptures and especially of the Lords prayer which is the most perfect comprehensive summary form and pattern of our prayers 25. Confession is to be made both of our own sin and the sins of the Church and Nation of Magistrates Ministers and People yet so as that we turn it not into a reproaching and dishonouring of our superiours or an abusing of mens persons by venting our malice or distempered passions or uncharitable censures against them we must confess our original and actual sin The great corruption of our hearts and lives our sinful thoughts affections words and actions our privative and positive sin out omissions and commissions our secret and unknown sins in general and our known and open sins by name our sins of ignorance and sins against knowledge our sins before and since conversion our sins against the Lord himself consisting in our unholiness contrary to the first table and our unjustice and uncharitableness against our neighbour and our folly and injury against our selves The sins of our relations and of our more private life our sins against the light and law of nature and our sins against the Gospel and grace of a Redeemer Against the outward means of Grace and against the inward motions of the Spirit and of our consciences against mercies and judgements against the examples of Christ and his servants and the warning-falls of others especially those sins by which we have most dishonoured God and our holy profession and have most scandalized hardened or tempted others And all our confessions should proceed from true contrition and hatred of the sin 26. Our petitions must be only for things agreeable to the revealed will of God And principally for the hallowing of his name and the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his will in earth as it is in heaven And therefore we must have compassionate thoughts of the dark and miserable parts of the world where by Heathenism Infidelity and Mahometanism the name of God is grievously dishonoured and his Soveraignty denied or rejected and Satans Kingdom doth prevail and where the will of God is partly unknown and partly willfully disobeyed And our eye and heart must be on the state of the universal Church that all this interest of God-in-Christ may be there preserved and advanced And in order to
them to expiate their sins by his sacrifice and sanctifie them further by his Spirit and confirm their right to everlasting life and they are received eaten and drunk by the Church to profess that they willingly receive Christ himself to the ends aforesaid their Justification Sanctification and Glorification and to signifie and solemnize the renewal of their Covenant with him and their holy Communion with him and with one another 35. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper containeth in it these three parts 1. The Consecration of the Bread and Wine 2. The Representation and Commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ 3. And the giving to and participation by the Church The Consecration hath chief respect unto God the Father the Representation and Commemoration to the Son as sacrificed and the Giving and Participation to the applying operations of the Holy Ghost As it must first be the Body and Blood of Christ before it be sacrificed and first offered in sacrifice to God before it is offered for nourishment and salvation unto men so is it in the order of Sacramental representation 36. The Consecration is performed by the Churches offering up the Creatures of Bread and Wine to God to be accepted to this holy use and by Gods acceptance of them as dedicated thereunto The Churches dedication is expressed by the present action and Gods acceptance is expressed by his command and promise and the ministerial acception and benediction The Minister in this action is the agent of the people in offering or dedicating these creatures unto God and he is Gods Agent or Minister in receiving and blessing them 37. In this dedication of the Bread and Wine to God to be the consecrated matter of the commemorative representative sacrifice the Church acknowledgeth the three grand relations of God to his people 1. We acknowledge him the Creator and Owner of all the Creatures 2. We acknowledge him our Righteous Soveraign Ruler whose Law we have offended and who hath received the attonement and whose Laws we do herein obey And 3. We acknowledge him our Father or bounteous benefactor by whom we are sustained and whose love we have forfeited and with whom we desire by Christ to be reconciled 38. This consecration maketh not the Bread to be no Bread or the Wine to be no longer Wine nor doth it make any addition to or change upon the glorified real Body of Christ but it maketh the Bread to be Sacramentally Christs Body and the Wine to be Sacramentally his Blood that is representatively as an Actor in a Tragedy is the person whom he representeth or as in Investitures a sword is the honour of Knighthood or a key is the house or a twig or turf is the land 39. Because Christ was to be invisible to us and the heavens must receive him till the restoration of all things therefore as he hath sent his Spirit within to be his Agent in his members so hath he appointed his Ordinances without and especially this visible solemn Representation and Commemoration of his sacrifice that our faith might hereby be helped and our souls might be raised to such apprehensions of his love and the mercy of our Redemption as if we had even seen him crucified before our eyes and this till his glorious return when we shall enjoy him visibly in his glory 40. As Christ in his Intercession as our high Priest in the heavens procureth and conveyeth his benefits of salvation upon the account of his sacrifice once offered on the Cross so doth the Church in this Commemoration present him unto God the Father as the sacrificed Lamb in whom they profess themselves to believe and by whom alone they expect salvation and all the blessings tending thereunto 41. In this Commemoration the Minister is chiefly the Agent of Christ in representing his voluntary offering up himself unto the Father in sacrifice for sin And he is the Agent of the people in that part of the Commemoration in which they profess their Believing in a crucified Christ and thankfulness for him and dependance on him as their hope 42. Jesus Christ having finished the work of Redemption which he was to do on earth in the days of his flesh ascended and is glorified with the Father and being become the perfect head and treasure of the Church hath in his Testament or new Covenant made a free gift of himself and life to all that will receive him as he is offered and he hath appointed his Ministers not only to proclaim this gift unto the world but also in his name to deliver it to the Church And it is a great encouragement and comfort to Believers that it is a Minister or Agent of Christ himself that by his command and in his name doth say to them Take ye eat ye this is my Body which is broken for you And this is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for you drink ye all of it Christ himself with his saving benefits being herewith as truly offered to their faith as the signs and representations are offered to their hands and mouths Though it be still but consecrated bread and wine that doth represent yet is it the very Body and Blood of Christ that is represented and Christ himself as the Head of the Church and fountain of our renewed life and as our spiritual nourishment that is truly given us and received by us 43. It is therefore unmeet for any but a lawful Minister of Christ who is authorized hereunto to administer this holy Sacrament both because no other are called to it in the holy Scripture nor can shew any warrant for such an undertaking and because it is very injurious to the comfort of the Church when they know not that the person hath any authority to deliver them so great a mercy from the Lord nor whether Christ will own his ministration 44. The Ministers must partake of this holy Sacrament with the Church not as they are the Agents of Christ for the delivery of it but as they themselves are his Disciples and members of the Chruch 45. Before the receiving of this holy Sacrament we ought to examine our selves that we may come preparedly with repentance for all known sin and faith in Christ and an humble feeling of our own necessities and a thankful sense of the love of God expressed in our redemption by Christ and a hungring and thirsting after him and his righteousness and with an unfeigned love unto our brethren and a high estimation of the union and communion of the Saints and with a resolution to walk in holy obedience to God in patient hope of the coming of Christ and of the everlasting Kingdom where we shall be perfectly in him united which holy affections are also to be exercised in the time of our Communion in this Sacrament and afterwards upon the review of what we have here received and done 46. The Word and Prayer must be joyned with the Sacrament The nature and use of it