Certain disputations of right to sacraments, and the true nature of visible Christianity defending…

2. Next I shall show that if any Notorious ungodly person do say he believes the whole, even in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, such saying is not a true Profession, nor valid to its uses. To this end let us enquire what it is to Profess: Profiteor is publicè fateor. Fateor, inquit Perottus, est à fando, quasi vehementer loquor & affirmo; Fateri enim est sponte aliquid affirmare: Confiteri aliquo modo coactum; Profiteri, ad Gloriam aliquid prae see far. Martinius rather a [Greek or Hebrew] dicendus, fandus: [Greek or Hebrew] fatenda, so [Greek or Hebrew] est sermo. Now the natural use of speech is to signify our mind to others. And the very essence of a Profession lieth in the open declaring of the mind, in the very signifying use of the words or actions. For it containeth (as other signs do) 1. The thing signifying, or the matter of the sign, and that is either words, writings or other Actions capable of this use (of which there are divers.) 2. the thing signified; which is our Internal Assent and consent. 3. The party to whom we signify it. 4. The actual signification, or Aptitudinal: that is, that it be a sign Aptitudinal in it self, and actual, when rightly observed by others: in which Aptitude lieth the very formal nature of the sign. This being so, it is most evident that if it have not an Aptitude to signify our mind, it is not a sign. You may say, if he dissemble, yet he may make profession, yet profession is no sign of his mind. I answer, it is no true sign of the thing professed, but the end which he pretendeth to use it for is, to be a sign: and as a sign we expect and receive it; and did we know the heart as God doth, we need not ask men whether they believe, but presently go to their hearts and see, and so baptize ⟨p. 274⟩them or refuse them (or their Children.) It being then the very use that the Church makes of mens profession to signify mens minds, it is clear 1. that where there is nothing that we can justly take as the signification of a mans mind, that he believeth as a Christian, there is no moral profession of it: and where a man signifieth his mind that he doth not so believe, there he professeth not to believe:

2. Next I shall shew that if any Notorious ungodly person do say he believes the whole, even in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, such saying is not a true Profession, nor valid to its uses. To this end let us enquire what it is to Profess: Profiteor is publicè fateor. Fateor, inquit Perottus, est à fando, quasi vehementer loquor & affirmo; Fateri enim est sponte aliquid affirmare: Confiteri aliquo modo coactum; Profiteri, ad Gloriam aliquid prae se ferre. Martinius rather a dicendus, fandus: fatenda, so est sermo. Now the natural use of speech is to signifie our mind to others. And the very essence of a Profession lyeth in the open declaring of the mind, in the very signifying use of the words or actions. For it containeth (as other signs do) 1. The thing signifying, or the matter of the sign, and that is either words, writings or other Actions capable of this use (of which there are divers.) 2. the thing signified; which is our Internal Assent and consent. 3. The party to whom we signifie it. 4. The actual signification, or Aptitudinal: that is, that it be a sign Aptitudinal in it self, and actual, when rightly observed by others: in which Aptitude lyeth the very formal nature of the sign. This being so, it is most evident that if it have not an Aptitude to signifie our mind, it is not a sign. You may say, if he dissemble, yet he may make profession, yet profession is no sign of his mind. I answer, it is no true sign of the thing professed, but the end which he pretendeth to use it for is, to be a sign: and as a sign we expect and receive it; and did we know the heart as God doth, we need not ask men whether they believe, but presently go to their hearts and see, and so baptize