A97353:696
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their…
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their principles about civil and ecclesiastical authority and obedience ... : mostly written many years past, and now published to save our lives and the kingdoms peace, from the false and bloody plotters ... / 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.
29. Because men must do what they do understandingly, in matters of such moment, the Churches in the Apostles times and by their consent, did explain these three Articles of the Baptismal Covenant to the baptized, and required an understanding profession of their Belief and Consent to it, as thus explained: which explication is now called the Apostles Creed; Because though the Churches might not tie themselves to every one of the same words as now they stand (as the Formula's in Irenaeus, Tertullian and others show, and those collected by Usher and Vossius) yet as it cannot be imagined that they took the three words of the Covenant without any explication, so neither can it seem credible that they allowed any such variation of terms, as might hazard a variation or corruption of the sense: Besides what Church History telleth us of the antiquity of the Creed.
29. Because men must do what they do understandingly, in matters of such moment, the Churches in the Apostles times and by their consent, did explain these three Articles of the Baptismal Covenant to the baptized, and required an understanding profession of their Belief and Consent to it, as thus expained: which explication is now called the Apostles Creed; Because though the Churches might not tye themselves to every one of the same words as now they stand (as the Formula's in Irenaeus, Tertullian and others shew, and those collected by Vsher and Vossius) yet as it cannot be imagined that they took the three words of the Covenant without any explication, so neither can it seem credible that they allowed any such variation of terms, as might hazard a variation or corruption of the sence: Besides what Church History telleth us of the antiquity of the Creed.
30. As the Apostles in their times used no stricter or larger tests or terms of Church admittance, so neither did the Churches after them for a long time: But the Catechists expounded the Creed to the Catechumens, and used it as a sufficient test. Nay Synesius was made a Bishop before he well believed the article of the Resurrection.