A Christian Directory, Part 3: Christian EcclesiasticsBaxter, Richard
Religion
A Christian Directory, Part 3: Christian Ecclesiastics
Baxter, Richard
Casuistry; Christian sociology
In this full and proper sense it is taken by Christ when he saith,
Mark xvi. 16, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;" that
is, he that believeth, and is by baptism entered into the covenant of
God; and in this sense the ancients took it, when they affirmed that
all that were baptized were regenerated, pardoned, and made the
children of God. And in this sense it is most true, that he that is
baptized (that is, is a sincere covenanter) shall be saved if he die
in that condition that he is then in.[40] All that the minister
warrantably baptizeth, are sacramentally regenerate, and are _in foro
ecclesiæ_ members of Christ, and children of God, and heirs of heaven:
but it is only those that are sincerely delivered up in covenant to
God in Christ, that are spiritually and really regenerate, and are
such as shall be owned for members of Christ and children of God _in
foro cœli_. Therefore it is not unfit that the minister call the
baptized, regenerate and pardoned members of Christ, and children of
God, and heirs of heaven, supposing that _in foro ecclesiæ_ they were
the due subjects of baptism. But if the persons be such as ought not
to be baptized, the sin then is not in calling baptized persons
regenerate, but in baptizing those that ought not to have been
baptized, and to whom the seal of the covenant was not due.
None ought to be baptized but those that either personally deliver up
themselves in covenant to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
professing a true repentance, and faith, and consent to the covenant;
or else are thus delivered up, and dedicated, and entered into
covenant in their infancy, by those that, being christians themselves,
have so much interest in them and power of them, that their act may be
esteemed as the infants' act, and legally imputed to them as if
themselves had done it. If any others are unduly baptized, they have
hereby no title to the pardon of sin or life eternal, nor are they
taken by God to be in covenant, as having no way consented to it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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