Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	believe_v	faith_n	reason_n	5,276	5	5.9415	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47605	The rector rectified and corrected, or, Infant-baptism unlawful being a sober answer to a late pamphlet entituled An argumentative and practical discourse of infant-baptism, published by Mr. William Burkit, rector of Mildin in Suffolk : wherein all his arguments for pedo-baptism are refuted and the necessity of immersion, i.e. dipping, is evidenced, and the people falsly called Anabaptists are cleared from those unjust reproaches and calumnies cast upon them : together with a reply to the Athenian gazette added to their 5th volume about infant-baptism : with some remarks upon Mr. John Flavel's last book in answer to Mr. Philip Cary / by Benjamin Keach.	Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.	1692 (1692)	Wing K84; ESTC R27451	144,738	231

Men who will not work which all know doth no ways refer to Children so that the Dispute might well here end By your own concession Infants are not concerned in the Commission 2. You say the Adult are here intended we say so too Whither then will you go for your Infants Right to Baptism We can prove from many Texts Infants ought to eat though they cannot work But how will you prove Infants ought to be baptized by any other Scriptures if not from the Commission though they do not believe or have not actual Faith 3. May you not as well argue thus viz. If Children have mortal Bodies they must be fed at their Parents Table and eat Bread though they cannot work So because they have immortal Souls therefore they must be fed at the Lord's Table and eat the Lord's Supper though they can't believe nor discern the Lord's Body by Faith The Apostle saith Let a Man examine himself and so let him eat but this is only required of Adult Persons and 't is such St. Paul means But Infants who are capable to receive spiritual Benefit by Christ's Death they must have the Medicine also may you not argue thus as well Pray Reader observe what a kind of Doctrine this Man asserts I demand say you Whether according to the Mind of God gathered from the words of the Commission the Remedy prescribed should be administred only to grown Persons because they only are capable of understanding and believing the Virtue and Efficacy of it Sure every rational Man among you would conclude his Child capable of the Remedy as well as himself altho ignorant of the Virtue that is in it and only passive in the Administration of it and that it would be Cruelty yea Murder in the Parent to deny the Application of it to all his Children Reply I stand amazed at your Ignorance and Folly Does it follow because Children are capable to receive a Medicine against the Plague or bodily Distemper are they therefore capable of Baptism and the Lord's Supper If capable of one say I of the other also for as a Man is required to examine himself and to discern the Lord's Body in the Lord's Supper so he is required to repent and to believe in Christ that comes to Baptism 4. I would know how you prove Baptism to be the Medicine appointed to cure the Soul of the Plague of Sin Is not this to blind the Eyes of poor People and make them think that an external Ordinance saves the Soul If not thus how can it be Cruelty yea Murder in Parents to deny the Application of Baptism to their Children The Ancient Fathers from that in John 6.53 Vnless a Man eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood he hath no Life in him gave Infants the Lord's Supper thinking our Saviour like as the Papists do meant that Sacrament when indeed he meant only of 〈◊〉 by Faith on Christ crucified But however their Argument for giving Infants one Sacrament was as good as yours for giving them the other But when they are as capable to repent and believe and are helped so to do as they are and do eat Bread let them have both Baptism and the Lord's Supper and till then if God's Word be the Rule of our Faith and Practice and not our own Fancies they ought to have neither yet the Remedy or Medicine which is Christ's Blood we deny not but dying Infants may be capable of 5. Sir You seem to be no true Son of the Church of England for they it seems positively affirm Repentance whereby a Person forsakes Sin and Faith whereby he stedfastly believes the Promise of God made to him in that Sacrament is required of those who are to be baptized nay and of little Babes too therefore the Sureties answer for them that they do believe and repent or forsake the Devil and all his Works c. the Child answers by Proxy Your Church baptizes no Child but as a Believer and a true penitent Person What is this your Argument good for even nothing How now are you wiser than the Church no doubt she believes as we do All that are proper Subjects of Baptism are comprehended in the Commission and must be as such whether Adult or Infants who profess Faith and Repentance But you it may be foresaw the Snake in the Grass viz. that God-fathers and God-mothers is a Tradition and none of God's Appointment nor are they able to perform those things for the Child which they promise for him and in his Name And therefore make use of another Argument and would have them baptized without Faith or upon their Parents Faith of which your Church speaks nothing As to your Comparison 't is not worth mentioning Baptism as I have told you doth not cure the Soul of Sin but 't is the Blood of Christ applied by Faith And now do we say no Child can have the Benefit of that Sovereign Remedy because not capable to believe by reason Men and Women must receive it by Faith or perish God as Dr. Taylor observes may have many ways to magnify his Grace through Jesus Christ to them which we know not of who die in their Infancy yet have we no Authority to baptize them any more than to give them the Lord's Supper 6. Sir You talk at a strange rate as if you regarded not what you say or affirm while you bring Similitudes to teach People to believe Baptism is the Balm to cure the Contagion of Sin and as if the application of it saved a little Babe from Hell and they guilty of murdering the Souls of their Children who deny to baptize them I had thought you would not have lain greater stress upon Childrens Baptism than on Childrens Circumcision since you would fain have them run parallel-wise Pray what became of the Jews Female Infants were they damned And what became of their Male Infants who died before eight days old for they broke God's Law if they Circumcumcised them though sick and like to die if they were not full eight days old Blush for the sake of your precious Soul and take more care for time to come to what you Preach and Write But to proceed In pag. 19. you say Tho Children have not actual Faith yet they have habitual Faith Faith in Semine and so are potentially Believers As for Instance Infants have not Reason yet because they have a Principle we call them reasonable Creatures Thus Infants whilst such have not the Use and Exercise of Faith but have it in the Root and so may be called Believers initially Ans 1. Dr. Taylor clearly confutes this Conceit of yours Some there be saith he who argue stiffly for Infants having habitual Faith but saith he is there any Precedent Concomitant or Consequent to this pretended Habit This strange Invention is absolutely without Art without Scripture Reason or Authority Answ 2. Why may not the Infants of Unbelievers have the same

Righteousness the Shield of Faith and for an Helmet the Hope of Salvation and the Word of God like a Sword in his Hand to cut down all his Enemies Thus by the help of these Sacred Graces of the Spirit he is enabled to fight against Sin the World the Flesh and the Devil But alas you list your poor Babes into this War and make them covenant and vow to forsake the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanities of this Wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh but arm them not Did Baptism confer Grace and arm their Souls it was something but who dares assert that or if he does who will or can believe him 6. God hath also promised to assist stand by help and enable all Believers baptized with further supplies of Grace nay they being actually united to Christ have his blessed Influences flowing to them besides the Promises of God the Death Resurrection and Intercession of Christ and the everlasting Covenant of Grace which is ordered in all things and sure firmly secures all their Souls But thus it is not with those poor Babes you bring into this Covenant you are like Pharaoh's Task-masters command the making of Brick but allow them no Straw 4. Again consider how hereby great part of the Nations are perjured I will appeal to the Consciences of all thinking and understanding People whether according to your Principle and Practice it is not so Mourn O England and lament sad is thy Case If these Men speak right or truly what a Multitude in thee have been made to enter into this Covenant who never performed it O Perjured Nation Perjured People and Perjured Pastors for so are all thy debauched drunken swearing and unclean Teachers Are not these perjured also Have they kept their Vow and Covenant Alas Sir instead of mourning for this Sin we may conclude they never thought of it But let them break off their Sins by Righteousness I mean repent and leave those gross Acts of Wickedness of which many both Priest and People are guilty and get renewing Grace and never let them fear this new devised Sin of Perjury For if God's Word convinces of all Sins and doth not convince of this sort of Perjury this is no Perjury I mean the simple breaking of that Covenant though those Sins by which they are said to break it are horrid Treason and Rebellion against the God of Heaven and provoke him to Wrath every Day But God's Word doth convince of all Sins and doth not convince of this sort of Perjury therefore it cannot be Perjury as is affirmed 'T is not this which is the Self-killing-Murder the damning Sin No no but 't is their Unbelief and Contempt of God's Grace or neglecting the great Salvation offered by Christ in the Gospel 5. Baptism administred in Infancy hath you say this singular Advantage above that which is administred at viper Age in that it gives the pious Parent a good ground of hope that his Children dying in Infancy are certainly saved it makes say you that Ordinance a Channel of Grace c. Answ 1. This is like the rest But Sir by what Authority do you assert all these things You know what wonderful Vertue the Papists say is in many of their Popish Rites Ceremonies and Relicks i. e. in their crossing themselves and in their Holy Water especially in their Agnus Dei but how do they prove it even as well as you do what you speak here upon this Account And we have the same reason to believe them as to believe you in what you speak without Proof or Authority from God's Word 2. Pious Parent But alas how few are there of that sort what hopes hath the impious prophane and ungodly Parent of the Salvation of his dying Children But Sir I thought all the pious and believing or godly Parents Children were born in Covenant with God and that the Parents Faith would have secured them whether baptized or not Were not the Jews Female Children saved they were not circumcised and were not their Male Infants saved who died before the eighth Day 3. From what Scripture is it these pious though ignorant and deceived Parents may have hope that their Children that die in their Infancy shall be saved and none but theirs who are baptized or rather rantized 4. Will you make Baptism their Saviour can Baptism save them And is it so indeed is it then in the Power of Parents to save or damn their Children And how came Baptism to have such Power in it or who made that a Channel of Grace to dying Infants Do you not place that Vertue in an external Rite that only belongs to the Blood of Christ and sanctifying Grace of God's Spirit Mr. Perkins saith That Baptism indeed saveth but saith he that is not the Baptism of Water but the Stipulation of a good Conscience by the Resurrection Again he saith The outward Baptism without the inward is no Mark of God's Child but the Mark of the Fool that makes a Vow and afterwards breaks it 5. May not this Doctrine of yours clearly tend to scare and afright poor Parents with fear that all their Babes that die in their Mother's Wombs or before baptized are damned And O in what a sad Condition are all the Children of ungodly and impious Persons whose little Babes you dare not cannot baptize if you are true to your own Principles But that Text may give us a better ground of hope a thousand times concerning the well-being of our dying Infants where our Saviour saith of such are the Kingdom of Heaven And that which you mention I shall go to him he shall not return to me together with the infinite Mercy of God through the Virtue of Christ's Blood who can convey Help and Healing to dying Infants and Idiots in ways we know not of nor are we to trouble our selves about such secret things that are not revealed 6. You say The Practice of Infant-Baptism appears most beneficial because it prevents such shameful and scandalous Neglects of Baptism to the Blemish of Christianity Answ Is it then a shameful Scandal to neglect a Tradition of Man for so I have proved Infant-Baptism to be Where is the Shame that ought to be in Christians that Christ's Laws and Precepts are neglected and his precious Ordinance of Baptism exposed to Contempt and Shame as it is by you and thousands more whilst the Statutes of Omri are zealously kept and observed as the Prophet of old complained I mean humane Rites and Traditions or Statutes like those of Omri instituted by him and Jeroboam which the Wisdom of your Church and many corrupt Churches have been zealous for to this Day And thus I have ran through and examined your fix Particulars which you bring to prove the Usefulness of Infant-Baptism above the Baptism of Believers which our blessed Saviour instituted And now shall shew you further that Infant-Baptism is so far from being more useful