A26911:158
The defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of the matter…
The defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of the matter of their nonconformity against Mr. J. Cheney's answer called The conforming nonconformist, and The nonconforming conformist : to which is added the second part in answer to Mr. Cheney's Five undertakings / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Benjamin Alsop, 1680
A DEFENCE OF THE NON-CONFORMIST'S Plea for Peace, AGAINST Mr. J. CH… › Chapter 18
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§ 4. But the sum of your defence is ad Hominem to my self, for granting the lawfulness of humane private professing Signs, and of the Cross as such: It's strange to me, that you that are so judicious, can discern no more difference between, 1. Private and public Church-actions. And, 2. Between a bare professing Sign in genere, and a Sacramental Covenanting-dedicating Symbolical Sign in specie.
§ 4. But the sum of your defence is ad Hominem to my self, for granting the lawfulness of humane private professing Signs, and of the Cross as such: It's strange to me, that you that are so judicious, can discern no more difference between, 1. Private and publick Church-actions. And, 2. Between a bare professing Sign in genere, and a Sacramental Covenanting-dedicating Symbolical Sign in specie.
1. Every Sacramental Symbol is a professing Sign: But every professing Sign is not a Sacramental Symbol (a solemn Sacramental Celebration of a Mutual Covenant, by an investing signification of the parts of both the Covenants.) Doth it follow then, that because Men (yea, any Man) may make a professing Sign of his Mind, that Man (yea, every Man) may make a new Sacrament? An Israelite might have lift up his ⟨p. 43⟩Hand to signify consent to a Duty, or to answer a Question: But might he therefore have imitated Circumcision, or the Passover? When a Man is Baptized, if you ask him whether he consent, he may signify it by Bowing, lifting up his Hand, by Writing, which are all but to the same use as Speech: But he must Sacramentally signify it by the reception of Baptism, as the instituted solemn Covenanting Symbol of his Religion. But for any to make to the Church of Christ, a new Sacramental Symbol for such a Covenanting use, is another Matter.
1. Every Sacramental Symbol is a professing Sign: But every professing Sign is not a Sacramental Symbol (a solemn Sacramental Celebration of a Mutual Covenant, by an investing signification of the parts of both the Covenants.) Doth it follow then, that because Men (yea, any Man) may make a professing Sign of his Mind, that Man (yea, every Man) may make a new Sacrament? An Israelite might have lift up his