Confirmation and restoration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…Confirmation and restauration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…

Mr Herbert Thorndike, in his forecited Discourse of the Right of the Church, is full upon it, pag. 32. he saith, As the Power of Judging who is, and who is not thus Qualified, presupposes a Profession, so that an Instruction, obliging the obedience of them; which seek Remission of sins, by the Gospel, and therefore confidently assuring it to them, which conform themselves. In a word, because admitting to, and excluding from the Church, is, or ought to be, a just and lawful presumption of admitting to, or excluding from Heaven, (N. B.) it is morally and legally the same act, that entitleth to Heaven, ⟨p. 73⟩and to the Church; that maketh an heir of Life Everlasting, and a Christian; because he that obeyeth the Church, in submitting to the Gospel, is as certainly a member of the Invisible, as of the Visible Church. You see here in his Judgment, both what kind of Profession it must be, and who is the Judge of it (of which he is more large.) And surely they that see Confirmation, and Penance, or Absolution, grown up to the reputation of proper Sacraments, and understandeth how they came to it, will never question whether the Universal Church, hath still taken the Pastors for the lawful Judges, and Approvers of that Confession, and Profession, which in such Cases was requisite.

Mr Herbert Thorndike, in his forcited Discourse of the Right of the Church, is full upon it, pag. 32. he saith, As the Power of Judging who is, and who is not thus Qualified, presupposes a Profession, so that an Instruction, obliging the obedience of them; which seek Remission of sinnes, by the Gospel, and therefore confidently assuring it to them, which conform themselves. In a word, because admitting to, and excluding from the Church, is, or ought to be, a just and lawfull presumption of admitting to, or excluding from Heaven, (N. B.) it is morally and legally the same act, that entitleth to Heaven, ⟨p. 73⟩and to the Church; that maketh an heir of Life Everlasting, and a C•ristian; because he that obeyeth the Church, in submitting to the Gospel, is as certainly a member of the Invisible, as of the Visible Church. You see here in his Judgment, both what kind of Profession it must be, and who is the Judge of it (of which he is more large.) And surely they that see Confirmation, and Penance, or Absolution, grown up to the reputation of proper Sacraments, and understandeth how they came to it, will never question whether the Universal Church, hath still taken the Pastours for the lawfull Judges, and Approvers of that Confession, and Profession, which in such Cases was requisite.