Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	faith_n	justify_v	object_n	1,744	5	9.2095	5	false

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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

professeth himself to be a Believer which cannot be without knowledge This must satisfie them till he nullifie this evidence by a clean bewraying of his Infidelity Object But the Scripture saith not that ignorant persons cannot be Church-members or so much as that they ought meerly for their ignorance to be excommunicate Answ Doth not the Scripture exclude visible unbelievers and take in only visible believers of the Adult and make the Church a society of Believers separated from unbelievers Such ignorance therefore as is essentiall to or inseparable from Infidelity is in Scripture made the very brand of them that are without excluded from the Church If our Gospell be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded the mindes of them that believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ c. 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. That Preaching which Discipleth men Mat. 28. 19. Doth give them Knowledg or else it could not give them Faith For it openeth their eyes and turneth them from darkness to light c. Act. 26. 18. And surely we are translated out of the power of darknesse into the Kingdome of Christ Col. 1. 14. Those that in time past were not a people but now are the people of the living God are called out of darknesse into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9 10. And what Communion hath light with darknesse righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse Christ with Beliall the Believer with the Infidell 2 Cor. 6. 14 15 16. Object If Knowledg as such were necessary to membership then none could be a member without it But that 's not so Answ 1. Knowledg as such is necessary no otherwise then Faith as such and all one you may therefore as well plead thus against the necessity of Faith 2. And we grant that neither Knowledg nor Faith are necessary to uncapable Subjects that is in themselves You know Faith in Infants such as we call Faith is not necessary to their Justification and yet will you say it is not necessary to the Adult The promise hath made it necessary to the Capable 3. And we grant that neither Knowledg nor Faith justifying or dogmaticall are necessary to the being of a visible Member that is meerly such God only seeth the heart But yet the appearance or profession of Faith and so of Knowledge in the essentials of Christianity is of necessity 4. But though a personall Faith or Knowledg in truth or in profession be not necessary to an Infant either for Membership or Justification yet their Parents Faith or Profession is necessary or else the promise is to more then Believers and their Seed quod restat probandum Object But a Negative consent is sufficient to continue such in Covenant as before were admitted in Infancy or at age And this Negative consent is but non-actuall dissent or a non-renouncing of the Gospell And therefore as Posi●ive consent so actuall Faith and Knowledge are not necessary Answ A dangerous doctrine A negative consent is no consent Why then should the ears of men be abused by the ●ame when there is nothing to answer it A Negative Faith in english is Infidelity or not believing Is not this a delusory teaching of the Church to call unbelief by the name of Negative Faith or Negative Consent If a block a bruit or a Subject otherwise Naturally uncapable be the Subject then indeed it is inculpable and your Negative Consent or Faith is properly but a Negative dissent or unbelief But if a capable oblieged person be the Subject which is our case then your Negative consent is in english privative not consenting and privative unbelief or rejecting Christ What a meanness is here to convey flat Infidels into the Church or continue them there under the Cloake of an abusive name even by calling a non-dissenting conjunct with their Infidelity or not consenting to the Covenant of grace by the name of Negative consent Were it a person that had entered at age yet if he have afterward but your Negative consent which is neither to consent or dissent he is an Apostate And if he refuse consent when called to it by his lawfull governours he gives occasion to be suspected of Apostacie much more when he continueth to refuse consent when so much of the life and practise of Christianity consisteth in it and in the manifestation of it But especially when persons were Baptized in Infancy and never yet professed a Faith or Consent of their own If that man that had no Faith but his Parents and his being a Believers seed which you call Faederall Faith shall be continued at age a Member of the Church by a not-actuall dissenting or renouncing Christ by expresse words then le ts talk no more of a Church nor abuse poor Heathens and Infidels so much as to question their salvation or let them below us But again I answer you that not consenting is dissenting in the inward act it is undoubted that he that for one year or moneth doth not consent doth certainly dissent There 's no middle state between Believers and Infidels Consenters and Refusers How shall they escape that neglect of so great salvation Neglecting and not consenting in a capable invited Subject is certain Infidelity and therefore in the externall profession we must judge accordingly He that will not confess Christ even in a Christian Church and a peaceable age deserves not to be called a Christian He that is not for him is against him Object But Gods Covenant-people under the Law were not only admitted without their voluntary consent or knowledg but commanded to renue their Covenant in such a manner as that they that were absent and not in place to expresse consent were included in those that were present Answ 1. None but Infants were admitted without consent nor they without the consent of their Parents naturall or civill that had the power of disposing of them 2. Those that were admitted upon others consent were not continued at age without their own 3. The Covenant Deut. 29. 11 12 15. Was no mutuall Covenant to the absent or unborn there mentioned but only a Covenant offered to the Nation and conditionally made on Gods part as a promise to them and their posterity even to many generations But those unborn generations were not in Covenant on their parts as promisers in the stipulation Object Wickedness it self doth not put a man out of the Visible Church For a man is said to be cut off but either de jure or de facto Meritoriously or Effectually the former is improperly called cutting off being but the Desert of it therefore if those baptized in Infancy prove afterward wicked they are not thereby cut off Answ 1. Such persons as we have in question lose their Right and title by a Cessation for want of that personal Condition which the Covenant made Necessary to its continuance So that we need not prove any other cutting off 2. If he

Two sorts we know this to be true by 1 Papists that are for Equivocation and Mental Reservation in their Professions and Oathes or for the Popes to dispense with them 2. Heathens and Infidels that believe not that there is any sinne or Devil or Hell or Heaven and therefore care not what they sweare And indeed these are the two Sects that now are up and all other are like to fall into these Alas by sad experience I speake it Those that will openly and to my face make an Orthodoxe confession do secretly harden many poor Souls by making a scorne of Scripture as a fable and of the Immortality of the Soul and of Christ and the Holy Ghost and Heaven and Hell and say all these are nothing but the inventions of men and that the K●ave-Priests do perswade men that there are Devils and Hell as a bugbeare to make them do what they would have them and all Religion is but deceit Such Heathens are the predominant Sect in many places and higher in England then once I thought to have seen them And if all such perfidious Infidels and Jesuites shall have leave to B●aspheame God Christ and Scripture because they once made an Orthoeoxe Profession then let Hell be turned loose upon our people and the Devil that was bound up from deceiving the Nations have a Toleration from the Magistrate to do his worst Thus I have shewed that Magistrates if they will may helpe the Church without any danger of persecuting the Truth if they take not Popery damnable Heresie and Heathenism for Truth 1. If the Approvers keep the doore of Toleration as well as of Publike Maintenance and Ministry 2. If a Church Justice or Civil Agent do keep the Churches Peace 3. If the Civil Visiter do purposely take cognisance of the state of Parishes and see the Laws put in execution 4. If the Commissioners for Ejections have power of Judging all Seducers and Blaspheamers as well as the publike Ministers And if these only have the Coercive Power but some able chosen godly Ministers be joyned with them for Advice and Exhortation as Magistrates and Ministers sate together before the daies of William the Conquerour Joh. 13. 17. If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them Luke 12. 47. And the servant which knew his Lords will and prepared not nor did according to his will shall be beaten much Finitur Hebr. 13. 1648. Postscript READER AS great and needfull a duty as this is that I have here proposed and as clear as it is and commonly agreed on by all the Parties before mentioned I am yet far from expecting that all men should acknowledg it and obey it or that no person of contrary apprehensions or intentions should rise up against it as an enemy with all the strength that the measure of his wit and passions can prepare We cannot speak for God himself for Christ for Scripture for mens own Salvation but we meet with contradiction and resistance even from them that we would save And were it not for this what blessed work would the Gospel make and why might we not hope that all our people should be saved No wonder then if when ever we attempt Reformation or Reconciliation we meet with Learned Reverend Brethen that come against us armed with plausible cavils and contempts and cast away the medicine as dangerous or ungratefull and strenuously vindicate the Disease that should be healed And were it not that the Church hath many very many such what should have kept us unhealed so long And who could have continued our deformities and divisions and frustrated such means as have been used for our cure Satan is not so poore a Politician as to be without his Agents in our Ecclesiastike Armies and Councils and Pulpits to speak for his cause and do his work and resist and frustrate that which would displease him and all this under pretence of enmity to Satan and friendship to Christ and a better doing of his work As the names of the chiefest of Christ Servants were not cast out as Holy but as evil Luk. 6. 22. So their Doctrine was not cast out as Truth nor as Saving but as Deceit And his Meanes will not be openly resisted at least by those that are building with us as Reforming or Reconciling but as groundless or unproved or troublesome or unseasonable or as suspected of some ill designe or event Some will say it is meere Prelacie or a Prelatical designe and some that it is Independancie or an Independant designe and some that it is but Presby●erian Examination Whereas they might know that it is proper to none of them which is common to them all If it be Prelacie how comes it to be found with Independants If it be Independancy how comes it to be approved by Prelates and Presbyterians Is it not rather like Christianity it self and the Truths and Duties which we commonly own and therefore not to be appropriated to any By all that I have heard and read of late concerning this Subject I understand that the principal Objections that are likely to be used against the Doctrine of this Treatise are these following Object We were all Baptized in our Infancy and therefore are Church-members and have Right to the Priviledges of the Adult when we are Adult without any new Title or Condition Our first Right continueth though we never make Profession of the Christian Faith nor personally renewed the Covenant with God that we made in Baptism And therefore though in some cases such an approved Profession be a duty yet is not any more Necessary to our Church-state and Right to the Communion of the Adult then that we were borne Church-members and so Baptized Nothing but Heresie Schisme or Apostacie can cut us ●ff And therefore all that were Baptized and are not thus cut off are still Church-members and have Right to all the Ordinances in the Church Answ 1. I have said enough to this already to satisfie the considerate impartial Reader proving the Necessity of a personall Faith before God and of some Profession of it Ecclesia Judice before the Church to the Being of the said Title of the Adult as its Condition and that all Scripture-Examples do make for the Confirmation of this Truth Moreover let me adde to answer the new or foreseen assaults 1. If there be no word of Promise in the Scripture that giveth the Priviledge of Adult-Communion to any upon their Infant title-condition only nor any example in the Gospel or the ancient Church that any possessed or used that Priviledg upon that Title-condition only then are we not to imagine that the Infant Title-condition alone is sufficient to the said Priviledge But the Antecedent is true as hath in part been manifested and will be more when the Dissenter shall bring forth his pretended Evidences by which his Title should be proved 2. The Title-condition of Infants is not sufficient to make any morally capable of

whether some of them have but lower Priviledges is not here to be determined but in a fitter place And therefore I determine not what Priviledges they are that will cease if our Infant Title cease But that according to the tenour of the Promise the Continuance of them with the Addition of the Priviledges proper to the Adult are all laid upon a New Condition 4. Note also that when I call it another or different Condition I mean not that it is different in the Nature of the Act but in the Agent or Subject It is the same kind of Faith which at first is required in the Parent for the Childs behoof and that afterward is required in our selves But the Condition of the Infants Title is but this that he be the Child of a Believer Dedicated to God But the Condition of the Title of persons at Age is that they be themselves Believers that have Dedicated themselves to God The Faith of the Parent is the Condition of Infant Title and the Faith of the person himself is the Condition of the Title of one at Age. That their own Faith is not the Condition of an Infants Title I think I need not prove For 1. They are uncapable of Believing without a Miracle 2. If they were not as some Lutherans fondly think yet it 's certain that we are uncapable of discerning by such a sign I think no Minister that I know will judge what Infants do themselves believe that he may baptise them 3. And I think no man that looks on the Command or Promise and the Person of an Infant will judge that he is either Commanded then to believe or that his Believing is made the Condition of his Infant Title But that a Personal Believing is the Condition of the Title of them at Age is as farre past doubt and it 's proved thus Arg. 1. The Promise it self doth expresly require a Faith of our own of all the Adult that will have part in the Priviledges therefore it is a Faith of our Own that is the Condition of our Title Mark 16 16. He that Believeth and is Baptized shall be saved and he that Believeth not shall be damned Act. 8. 36 37. And the Eunuch said See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized And Philip said If thou believest with all thy heart thou maist Act. 2. 38 41. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the Remission of sinnes c. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized Act. 10. 44 47 48. Act. 16. 14 15. 30. 32 33. Rom. 10. 12 13 14. With many other Texts do put this out of doubt Argument 2. We were engaged in our Infant baptismal Covenant to Believe and Repent when we came to Age as a means to our reception of the Benefits of the Covenant proper to the Adult therefore we must perform our Covenant and use this means if we will have the benefits Arg. 3. If another Condition were not of Necessity to the Aged beside the Condition that was necessary to them in Infancy then Turks Jews and Heathens should have right to Church-membership and Priviledges of the Adult But the Consequent is notoriously false therefore so is the Antecedent The Reason of the Consequent is evident Because a man that hath believing Parents may turn Turk as is known in thousands of Janizaries or Jew or Pagan and therefore if it were enough that he was the Child of a Believer his Title to Church Priviledges would still continue And so among professed Christians the Child of a Believer may turn Heretick or notoriously prophane and scandalous and yet have Title to Church Priviledges if his first Title still hold and a personal Faith be not a necessary Condition of his Right Adde to these the many Arguments tending to confirm the point in hand which I have laid down on another occasion in my D●sputations of Right to Sacraments But I think I need not spend more words to perswade any Christians that our Parents Faith will not serve to give us Title to the Church Priviledges of the Adult but we lose our Right even to Church-membership it self if when we come to Age we adde not a personal Faith or profession at least of our own I only adde that this is a truth so farre past doubt that even the Papists and the Greekshave put it into their Canons For the former you may find it in the Decrees Part. 3. dist 3. pag. mihi 1241 cited out of Augustinin these words Parvulus qui baptizatur fi●ad anne●s rationales veniens non crediderit nec ab illicitis abstinuerit nihil ei prodest quod parvulus accepit That is An Infant that is baptized if comming to years of discretion he do not believe nor abstain from things unlawfull that which he received in Infancy doth profit him nothing And for the Greeks that this is according to their mind you may see in Zonaras in Comment in Epist Canon Can. 45. cited ex Basilii Mag. Epist 2. ad Amphiloch thus Siquis acc●pto nomine Christianismi Christum contumeliâ afficit nulla est illi appellationis utilitas that is If any one having received the Name of Christianity shall repreach Christ he hath no profit by the Name On which Zonaras addeth Qui Christo credidit Christianus appellatus est cum ex Divinis praecept is vitam instituere oportet ut hac ratione Deus per ipsum glorificetur quemadmodum illis verbis praecipitur sic luceat Lux vestra coram hominibus c. Siquis autem nominatur quidem Christianus De● vero praecepta transgreditur contumeliam irregat Christo cujus de nomine appellatur nec quicquam ex eâ appellatione utilitatis trahit That is Seeing he believed in Christ and is called a Christian ought to order his life by the Commandements of God that so God may be glorified by him according to that Let your light so shine before men c. If any one that is called a Christian shall transgress Gods Commands he brings a reproach on Christ by whose name he is called and he shall not receive the least profit by that Title or Name This is somewhat higher then the point needs that I bring it for And indeed it were a strange thing if all other Infidels should be shut out of the Priviledges of the Church except only the treacherous Covenant-breaking Infidel for such are all that being baptized in Infancy prove no Christians when they come to Age. As if persidiousness would give him right Prop. 5. As a Personal Faith is the Condition before God of Title to the Priviledges of the Adult so the Profession of this Faith is the Condition of his Right before the Church and without this Profession he is not to be taken as an Adult member nor admitted to the Priviledges of such THis Proposition also as the Sunne revealeth its self by its own light and therefore commandeth

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

and proved them to be Christ's Disciples No man knew the hearts of others and therefore knew not whom to Love as Christians infallibly discerned But the Profession of Saving Faith and Holiness being then and ever the test of Adult-members they took all the members of the Visible Church as credibly of the invisible though with different degrees of Credibility And accordingly they loved them all with a Christian special Love of the same species though with different degrees of that Love Whereas this Popish new found trick of making a new common sort of Faith and Visible membership that hath no respect to saving Faith doth teach all Christians to Love the members of the Visible Church but with a common love and relieve and help them but with a common Charity And so the device is to confine our special Brotherly Love and Charity to a corner of the Visible Church to a few whom we will please to think to be godly I have oft marvelled in observing some Learned Divines that bend that way that they think compassion and Christian Charity is on their side What Charity can their Doctrine glory of They will be so mercifull to Infidels that are uncapable of a Church-state as to plead them into the Church and when they are there they leave them under the curse and in a state of damnation in their own judgments teaching us to judge uncharitably of the Visible Church in general for their sakes and to look on them as without respect to any saving grace and so without any special Love A cold comfort I to bring them into no more capacity of Gods Mercy nor of our Charity but into much more capacity of aggravated damnation which they might better have prevented by being kept in their proper station till they were capable of more I confess though my belief of mens Profession have different degrees as I see in them different degrees of Credibility yet I have Charitabler thoughts of the members of the Visible Church then these that make so low and miserable a description of them And though I know that there are abundance among them that are Hypocrites and unsanctified yet know I none but Saints and Hypocrites that are tolerable in the Church nor will I accuse particular persons of Hypocrisie till I have cause Neither in my secret or open censures will I pluck up the tares upon any such terms as will not stand with the safety of the wheate but rather let them grow together in my esteeme in the Church till the time of harvest And that I may think charitably of the Church and walk charitably in and towards it therefore I would not have it consist of such notorious ungodly or heretical men as are uncapable objects of Christian Brotherly Love For Heresie the foresaid learned Brother tells us that it cuts men off from the Church I say so to meritoriously at least if by Heresie be meant the exclusion of any essential Article of the Christian Faith But pag. 199 where he saith the Controversie may be easily ended by parting stakes viz. that some Heresie which absolutely denyeth some particular fundamental truth and taketh up some one or few stones thereof is consistent with Church interest and other Heresie which raiseth up the very foundation of Religion denying most or the most chief if not all of the Articles of our Christian Faith is inconsistent therewith I must humbly but very confidently say that this answer will not serve the turne If by Fundamentals be meant as commonly the Essential Articles of Christian Faith then the absolute denying of any one Article doth prove that person to be no Christian nor capable of a Church state For the form is wanting where any Essential part is wanting But if any thing else be meant by Fundamentals no man can decide the Controvesie by it till it be known what it is And it will be hard to fasten it on any thing where the absolute denyal of many points shall unchurch and the absolute denial of one or two points of the same rank and kind not do it Saith he p. 198. The Jews held that an heretical Isralite had no communion with the Church of Israel and why but because Communion supposeth union and union with Israel or the true Church is lost with Faith They also held as Selden noteth that an Israelite turning an Heretike i. e. denying any of the thirteene fundamental Articles to be as an Heathen man And a few lines before he saith that historical Faith which hath the Doctrine of Faith for its Object none do doubt to be an Essential requisite to a true Church-member Yet that with me is a Visible member that hath not this much which is said to be Essential no man doubting of it If they Profess true Faith though they are stark Atheists at the heart and have not so much as historical Faith I shall believe them till they nullifie their own Profession But if they profess not also to consent to have Christ to be their Saviour I shall not take it for a Profession of Christianity Certain I am that the ancient Doctours with one consent did look on the baptized generally as pardoned justified and adopted and therefore thought that Visible Church-membership did imply a credibility at least of a state of saving grace Saith Cyprian Epist 76. Magn. In Baptismo unicuique peccata sua remittuntur And upon this supposition run the Arguments of the councell of Carthage and Firmilian Epist ibid. Saith Augustine De Catechizandis rudibus cap. 26. His dictis interrogandus est an haec credat atque observare desideret Quod cum responderit solemniter utique signandus est ecclesiae more tractandus Obedience it self was promised and a consent to it professed before Baptism then and ever since Christian Baptism was known Idem Epistol 119. Ad Januar. cap. 2. Secundum hanc fidem spem dilectionem quâ caepimus esse sub gratia jam commortui sumus cum Christo consepulti per baptismum in morte c. Baptism then supposeth credibly Faith Hope and Love Idem Epist 23. Having shewed why Parents Faith profiteth Infants and yet their after-sins hurt them not saith Cum autem homo sapere caeperit non illud Sacramentum repetit sed intelligit ejusque veritati consonâ etiam voluntate coaptabitur Hoc quamdiu non potest N. B. valebit Sacramentum ad ejus tutelam adversus contrarias potestates tantum valebit utsi ante rationis usum ex hac vita emigraverit per ipsum Sacramentum Ecclesiae charitate ab illa condemnatione quae per unum hominem intravit in mundum Christiano adjutorio liberetur Hoc qui non credit fieri non posse arbitratur profecto infidelis est etsi habeat fidei Sacramentum longeque melior est ille parvulus qui etiamsi fidem nondum habeat in cogitatione non ei tamen obicem contrariae cogitationis opponit undè Sacramentum

the visible Church of the called 3. We are deeply sensible of the increase of Infidels here in England They are too thick about us under severall garbs especially under the maske of Seekers and are perswading people against the Christian Faith and truth of Scripture and the life to come and so much do these Apostates now abound that we have reason to be jealous of them And if any of you should strike in with good men that are of this censorious over rigorous way consider how farre they may make use of such to accomplish their designs If by you they can get almost all the world un-Churched in estimation and fifty for one if not an hundred for one in England actually un-Christened and their children after them left unbaptized what will follow I doubt this if God should not save us from your miscarriages When there is but one of an hundred in all the Land that is a Christian the rest will want neither malice nor power to put an end here to the Christian name or at least to the liberty and glory of Christianity They may choose our Parliaments for us and in a word do with us what they list when they are exasperated to the greatest hatred of us and cut off our liberties and set up Infidelity or Heathenism by a Law I trust God will never suffer this But let us take ●eed of gratifying Infidels and casting all our safety upon miracles lest we be found to be but foolish builders and tempters of God still you may find that over-doing is the most effectuall undoing And if you would find out the most dangerous enemies of the Gospell look for them among those that seem over zealous against the enemies of the Gospell and seem to over-doe in the work of the Gospell I desire to bring no party● of godly men into suspicion or odium by this but indeed I desire to counter-mine the Apostates and it would be the most amazing consounding thing that could befall us in this world if we should see the Church of God betraied into the hands of Infidels and the Gospell lost by the indiscreet and inconsiderate over-doing of those well-meaning men that did the work of Infidels and ungodly men for them while they thought that none were so much against them If the neck of Religion be broken among us I am afraid the imprudent will be some cause that would lead us above the top of the Ladder Sure I am between you both you have the easiest way to the flesh that run into extreams Durst I cast off Discipline and only preach and please all the parish in Sacraments and other Ordinances how easie a life should I have to the flesh And if I durst take out one of a hundred that are eminent in Piety that will scarce ever call me to any penall acts of Discipline I should have a much more easie life then the former But they are both so easie that I the more suspect them to be the fruit of the wisdome of the flesh Indeed both the extreames do cast off Discipline for the most part whatever they pretend One sort never meane to exercise it And the other sort extoll it and when they have done they separate a few of the best that are like to have no need of the troublesome part of it and so sit down without the exercise of it pretending to be Physicians but refusing to receive the sick into their Hospitals Brethren I speake not as an accuser but a Monitour and shall continue to pray for the Churches Purity and Peace while I am R. B. July 30. 1658. Dr H. Hammond In his view of the-Direct § 41. p. 45 46. For Confirmation which being so long and so scandalously neglected in this Kingdome though the Rule have also been severe and carefull in requiring it will now not so easily be digested having those vulgar prejudices against it yet must I most solemny profess my opinion of it That it is a most ancient Christian Custome tending very much to Edification which I shall make good by giving you this view of the manner of it It is this that every Rector of any Parish or Curate of charge should by a Familiar way of Chatechizing instruct the Youth of both Sexes within his Cure in the Principles of Religion so farre that every one of them before the usuall time of coming to the Lords-Supper should be able to understand the particulars of that vow made in Baptism for the Credenda and Facienda yea and Fugienda also what must be Believed what done and what forsaken and be able to give an intelligent account of every one of these which being done every such Childe so prepared ought to be brought to the B P for Confirmation Wherein the intent is that every such Child attain'd to years of Understanding shall singly and solemnly before God the B P and the whole Congregation with his own consent take upon himself the Obligation to that which his God-Fathers and God-Mothers in Baptism promised in his Name and before all those Reverend Witnesses make a Firm Publick Renued promise that by Gods help he will Faithfully endeavour to discharge that Obligation in every point of it and persevere in it all the dayes of his life Which resolution and promise so heightned with all those solemnities will in any reason have a mighty impression on the Child and an influence on his actions for ever after And this being thus performed by him the B P shall severally impose his hands on every such Child a ceremony used to this purpose by Christ himself and bless and pray for him that now that the Temptations of sinne begin more strongly in respect of his age to assault him he may receive Grace and Strength against all such Temptations or Assaults by way of prevention and speciall assistance without which obtained by Prayer from God he will never be able to do it This is the Sum of Confirmation and were it rightly observed and no man admitted to the Lords-Table that had not thus taken the Baptisme-Bond from the Sureties into his own Name and no man after that suffered to continue in the Church which brake it wilfully but turned out of those Sacred Courts by the power of the keys in Excommunication It would certainly prove by the Blessing of God were it begun a most effectuall meanes to keep men at least within some terms of Christian civility from fallings into open Enormious sinnes and that the defaming and casting out of this so blamelesse gainfull order would be necessary or usefull to any policy save only to defend the Devill from so great a blow and to sustaine and uphold his Kingdome I never had yet any Temptation or Motive to suspect or imagine Instead of considering any Objections of the adversary against this piece whether of Apostolicall or Ecclesiasticall Discipline which I never heard with any colour produced I shall rather express my most passionate wish unto my