A26959:617
More proofs of infants church-membership and consequently their right to baptism, or, A second…
More proofs of infants church-membership and consequently their right to baptism, or, A second defence of our infant rights and mercies in three parts ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for N. Simmons and J. Robinson, 1675
Chapter 2: More of my Judgement of the Anabaptists and their Cause, with a motion to them for peace.
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.
§. 21. As Baptism is made our great duty under that name, so Profession or Confession of Christ, as such, is oft mentioned as necessary, even to salvation, Rom. 10.9, 10. 1 Joh. 4.2.3.15. Mat. 10.32. Phil. 2.11. 2 John 7.
And Baptism being our Open confessing and Owning Christ by a solemn Vow and Covenant, it is principally as such that it is necessary to salvation, yea and to a perfect membership of the visible Church.
§. 22. Therefore if any man that in a desert or dry Country could have no water, or that lived where there is no Minister, should openly before all the people devote himself to God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, according to the Baptismal Covenant, and solemnly profess himself a Christian, that man were a true member of the visible Church, though defective as to the mode of entrance, and were to be numbered with Christians: And Constantine and many another were called Christians long before they were baptized. And it were injurious to the Rationality and spirituality of Christs Covenant, to feign him to be so ceremonious, as to reject a sound professing believer for want of water.
§. 22. Therefore if any man that in a desart or dry Countrey could have no water, or that lived where there is no Minister, should openly before all the people devote himself to God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, according to the Baptismal Covenant, and solemnly profess himself a Christian, that man were a true member of the visible Church, though defective as to the mode of entrance, and were to be numbered with Christians: And Constantine and many another were called Christians long before they were baptized. And it were injurious to the Rationality and spirituality of Christs Covenant, to feign him to be so ceremonious, as to reject a sound professing believer for want of water.