A27054:511
The true and only way of concord of all the Christian churches the desirableness…
The true and only way of concord of all the Christian churches the desirableness of it, and the detection of false dividing terms / opened by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Hancock, 1680
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.
§. 7. The great difficulty is of the necessary qualification of the baptized: And there 1. the Anabaptists keep out Infants: But besides Baptism and Church-membership, they deny them no offices that their age is capable of: And they are ready to receive them all by baptism as soon as they come to the use of due understanding: And these delays are ⟨p. 165⟩but few in comparison: And 1. the ancient Churches compelled none to be baptized, but only received them that voluntarily came, or were duly brought. 2. And if men will stay without or keep their Children out, they wrong themselves and theirs, but this breaketh no unity of the Christian Church.
§. 7. The great difficulty is of the necessary qualification of the baptized: And there 1. the Anabaptists keep out Infants: But besides Baptism and Church-membership, they deny them no offices that their age is capable of: And they are ready to receive them all by baptism as soon as they come to the use of due understanding: And these delayes are ⟨p. 165⟩but few in comparison: And 1. the ancient Churches compelled none to be baptized, but only received them that voluntarily came, or were duly brought. 2. And if men will stay without or keep their Children out, they wrong themselves and theirs, but this breaketh no unity of the Christian Church.
§. 8. There have been also factious persons that tie the validity of Baptism to their sects: such as were specially the Donatists, supposing that their Prelates had the truest call and power; and that all others were Sectaries or Heretics, and therefore their baptism null and void and to be iterated: But though in other arrogancies some follow them to this day, yet few if any in the nulling of baptism.
§. 8. There have been also factious persons that tye the validity of Baptism to their sects: such as were specially the Donatists, supposing that their Prelates had the truest call and power; and that all others were Sectaries or Hereticks, and therefore their baptism null and void and to be iterated: But though in other arrogancies some follow them to this day, yet few if any in the nulling of baptism.