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…

Christ would not have so instructed Nicodemus in the Nature and necessity of Regeneration, before he was a Disciple, if a Professed or Apparent preparation had not been necessary. Nor would he ordinarily have ⟨p. 25⟩taught men the Necessity of denying themselves, and forsaking all for a treasure in Heaven, with such like, if they would be his Disciples, if the Profession of so doing had not been Necessary, to their visible Discipleship.

I grant that so full a Profession was not made before Christs Resurrection as after: For many Articles of our Belief were afterward made Necessary: And the Apostles themselves were unacquainted with what the weakest Christian did afterwards believe. But still the Essentials of Faith, then Necessary in existence to mens Justification, were Necessary in Profession •• mens visible Christianity or Church-membership.

As to those Acts. 2. 37. &c. It is plain, that they made an open Profession, if you Consider 1. That they were openly told the Doctrine which they must be baptized into, if they did consent: 2. It is said, They that gladly received that word, were baptized. 3. It is certain therefore that they first testified their glad reception of the Word. 4. We may not imagine that Peter was God, or knew the hearts of all those thousands, and therefore he must know it by their Profession, that they gladly received the Word. 5. Their own mouths cry out for advice in order to ⟨p. 26⟩their Salvation. 6. It had been absurd for the Apostles to attempt to baptize men, that had not first professed their Consent. 7. The Scripture gives us not the full historical Narration of all that was said and done in such Cases, but of so much as was Necessary. 8. The Institution and Nature of the Ordinance tells us, that Baptism could not be administered without a Profession, to the Adult: For they were to be Baptized into the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and therefore were to profess that they believed in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Yea the very receiving of Baptism was an Actual Profession. 9. The constant Practice of the Universal Church, hath given us by infallible Tradition, as full assurance of the order of Baptism, and in particular of an Express Profession and Covenant then made, as of any point that by the hands of the Church can be received by us. 10. And it was in those days a more notorious Profession to be so Baptized, and to join in the holy Assemblies then now it is. When the Profession of Christianity did hazard mens liberties, estates, and lives, to be openly then Baptized upon Covenanting with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and openly join with a hated, persecuted sort of men, was