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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62445	Exercitations and meditations upon some texts of Holy Scripture and most in Scripture-phrase and expression. By Samuel Thomsonn, M.A. and Doctor of Physick; formerly student in Magdalen-Hall in Oxford.	Thomsonn, Samuel, b. 1643?	1676 (1676)	Wing T1035; ESTC R221734	178,823	458

baptized into His death Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it th●● He might sanctifie and cleanse it by the Eph. 5. 25 26. washing of water through the word The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from 1 Joh. 1. 7. all sin As the filthiness of the body is washed away with water so we are purged from our sins by the blood and spirit of Christ Ye are washed ye are sanctified 1 Cor. 6. 11. ye are justified in the Name of the Lor● Jesus and by the Spirit of our God That inward washing is made or done both by the blood and by the spirit of Christ 1. Washing through the blood o● Christ is Justification So we have it Acts 22. 16 Arise and be baptized calling on the name of the Lord. 2. Washing through the spirit is regeneration when we are by the Holy Spirit regenerated or born again to a new life 1 Cor. 6. 11. Thus far of the action of the Minister now to speak of the action of him or her baptized Every faithful person that is baptized receiveth the outward Baptism of water that there may be signified and sealed up unto him that he is assuredly washed from his sins by the blood and spirit of Christ as surely as his body is sprinkled or washed with water Then will I Ezek. 36. 25. sprinkle said the Lord clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthinesses and from all your Idols I will cleanse you To be washed with the blood and spirit of Christ signifieth to be made partakers of the Covenant of Grace namely to be reconciled to God justified regenerated adopted to be the Son or Child of God and to be endowed with the freedom of the Sons of God All are washed with water but believers only by the blood and spirit of Christ Therefore not all that are baptized receive remission of sins and regeneration but the believers only For without a man have his name in the Covenant the seal set to it confirms nothing unto him To the receiving of the Sacrament as very worthily it is in our Liturgy there must be adjoyned thanksgiving which is presently performed by every person that is baptized if he be adult or of years of discretion or by the witnesses in his stead if he be an infant who when he comes to years of discretion all his life long ought to be thankful unto God for this benefit Q. What are the ends of Baptism A. Especially these four 1. To be a seal to us of our receiving into the Covenant of Grace and fellowship with Christ and His Church 2. By the outward washing to represent and confirm to us the inward cleansing of our Souls which standeth in justification and regeneration Eph. 5. 26. So in this sence Baptism as it is 1 Pet. 3. 21. is said to save us because it sealeth unto us eternal salvation 3. To mind us of repentance and reforming our lives for we are baptized with water unto repentance Mat. 3. 11. 4. To be sealed to the certain hope of resurrection and of an eternal blessed life In Baptism Original sin is washed and taken away especially as concerning the guilt that is to say the fault and the punishment there remaining notwithstanding the vitiation and the sickness namely wicked lusts and inclination to evil and that to this end that we might all our life long fight against sin and the Devil who is the Author of sin But the Papists say that by Baptism rightly administred not only the guiltiness but also the corruption of Original sin is so washed away as that it is not afterward properly accounted a sin But we contrarily distinguish thus of sin sin in regard of the guiltiness or obnoxiousness to the wrath of God and also in regard of the punishment together by one act is taken away in Baptism But in regard of that error and corruption of Nature it is not at the first wholly taken away but successively and by little and little or by degrees it is extinguished even as our renovation or renewing by the Holy Ghost is by little and little begun increased and carried on in us And this we evince by these four reasons 1. Else St. Paul would not so greatly bewail his Original sin if after Baptism it ceased to be a sin when-as he cryed out O miserable man that I am who shall Rom. 7. 23 24. deliver me from the body of this death● I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members 2. Original sin is called a sin exceeding or out of measure sinful and a sin that hangeth fast on or easily encompasseth Rom. 7. 13. us about Heb. 12. 1. 3. Concupiscence is the root of actual sin and therefore after Baptism it must needs properly be a sin 4. Unless that concupiscence were a sin where would or could be that vehement and hot combate between the flesh and the spirit for the flesh lusteth against Gal. 5. 17. the spirit and the spirit against the ●lesh and these are contrary the one to the other Q. Why was Christ baptized what could Baptism signifie or seal unto Him He had no sin to wash away A. ● That He might fulfil all righteousness that is for us and on our behalf Mat. 3. 15. 2. That He might in His own person commend and confirm Baptism against all those who so debase and decry it 3. That He might sanctifie our Baptism in Himself 4. That by Baptism we might know Him to have entered into His office and the execution of it Q. How doth Baptism belong to Infants and how are they capable of performing the conditions required A. I have perused the learned Exercitations of Mr. John Tombes B. D. formerly a Cotemporary with me in Magdalen-Hall who is the best and most learned of that opinion and perswasion who hath many arguments against Infant Baptism which require a large volume particularly to answer I shall therefore only lay down some argument to assert the laudable use of the Churches Infant-Baptism which do fully convince and satisfie me and I suppose by God's blessing on serious meditation and consideration may satisfie those which will not wilfully close their eyes against the truth Arguments 1. Because Infants are comprehended in the Covenant of the Grace of God and therefore both the faith of the Parents themselves and also of the Church 1 Cor. 7. 14. is confirmed by this sign that God will be the God and Saviour as of the faithful Parents so of their seed and children which promise of His He at His good Rom. 8. 29 30. Tit. 3. 5. time performeth in His elect 2. Because to them belongeth also the promise of forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ 3. Because they belong to the Church of God 4. Because they are redeemed by the blood of

day is altered The Jews did and do observe Saturday because upon that day God rested from the work of Creation which now is changed into the first day of the week A. This was done not by humane but by Divine authority which appears by the practice of Christ and the Apostles Jo● 20. 19. 26. 20. 7. which should be a sufficient rule to us especially because the Apostles have added a Commandment thereunto And 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. there is no other reason but in regard of the Lord Christ's special institution Rev. 1. 10. why it should be called the Lords-day as the Lords Prayer because of His making and the Lords Supper is so also 1 Cor. 11 2● called because it was of Christ's immediate institution therefore there is no special mention made of it in the New Testament because there was no question made at all of this change in the Apostles time it was so commonly known and another reason which I imagine why it is not mentioned in the New Testament not to deter the Jews from coming into the Church for we read in several places of the Acts of the Apostles how much and how far they Acts 15. 29. 21. 24. condescended to the Jews to win them to Christ So this day is specially dedicated to the Lords service for otherwise all the dayes of the week are the Lords dayes and he is to be served and worshipped in them but on this day wholly and more especially For Christ alone could change the sabbath day who is the Lord of the Sabbath Mat. 12. 8. Athanasiu● plainly saith that Christ himself did change the day There are many more arguments for the change of the Sabbath which we read of but I spare prolixity As God rested from the works of Creation then he sanctified and blessed the seventh day on which He rested so it was meet that our Lord Jesus Christ having finished the work of our Redemption on the Cross when He said It is finished and Joh. 19. 30. bowed His head and gave up the ghost and rested in the grave and was declared to be the Son of God with power Rom. 1. 4. by His resurrection from the dead this same day in which Christ rested from His labour and the work of our redemption which was greater than the work of Creation this day did He sanctifie unto Himself This day as Christ sanctified by His resurrection so by twice Joh. ●● 19. ●● Acts 2 ● ● appearing to His Apostles on the same day and by sending the Holy Ghost upon them on the same day which day Acts 20. ● 1 Cor. 16. ● Apo● ● ●● the Apostles observed and the Churches also But in the words at first read God said that the Sabbath was a sign between Him and the Children of Israel therefore some say it is a type or a ceremony or a representation of something to come We have proved it not to be a ceremony but we may well and will also grant it to be a type or representation of our heavenly rest that perpetual Sabbath Heb. 4. 3. 9. of rest we shall keep there But sign signifies here as much as a document so Christ said By this shall Joh. 13. 35. all men know that ye are My Disciples if ye love one another In the observation of the Lords Day there is a common and publick profession made of that Communion which is between God and us So then every solemn profession is a sign of that thing of which it is a profession so also the Sabbath is called a Sign in that common reason But some will say this Sabbath was enjoyned only to the Children of Israel what is that to us This belongs also to the spiritual Israel and not only to the bodily which Rom. 9. ● were of that lineage by corporal generation The Jews alone were Israel 1 Cor. 10. 18. after the flesh but we also after the spirit for the believing Gentiles are called the Israel of God Gal. 6. 1● The word Remember is prefixed to this fourth Commandment to shew that although all the Commandments are needful diligently to be observed and remembred yet this more especially The word Remember is to put us in mind 1. Of our natural forgetfulness of this Commandment 2. Of the excellency and worth of it 3. To prepare our selves for the due keeping of it For we are naturally most negligent in it suffering our selves to be with-drawn by our worldly businesses from the Lords Service upon the Lords day and therefore such a special warning is needful to be added And as to keep it holy when it is come so also to prepare our selves for it and put our hearts our selves in a ready Sabbath-days posture and to dispose our worldly businesses so that if possible we may have no avocation lett or hinderance on the Lords day To speak a little more of the words read at first in Exodus 31. 13 c. for this word Verily the Septuagint render it see to it or look unto it that ye keep My Sabbath then we have the reasons annexed 1. It is a sign between Me and you of which word Sign we have spoken already 2. That ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you as ye expect a Sabbath-blessing or for Me to instamp My image of holiness upon you see that ye keep holy My Sabbath Observe here also the frequent iterated injunctions ye shall keep it holy therefore 3. It is fenced with such dreadful Comminations Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death And whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people And again he shall surely be put to death and more such expressions here are So then it is not at every man's liberty if he will observe the Sabbath or no. God as He is faithful in His promises of mercy so also in His threatnings of vengeance Although Sabbath-prophaners may escape punishment here God will assuredly without great repentance make them suffer for ever hereafter for slighting neglecting and breaking of His Covenant of the Sabbath For the breaking of the Sabbath is a violation of the whole Worship of God Wo therefore to those prophane ungodly Sabbath-breakers who are also usually addicted to Oaths Cursings and Blasphemies to Whoredom Drunkenness and other notorious abominations for one such hainous sin never goes alone whose judgment lingreth 2 Pet. 2. 3. not and their damnation slumbreth not Wo also to those who idle away the Sabbath spending it in worldly discourses gadding gazing idleness and such-like as if the negative part of keeping the Sabbath thou shalt do no manner of work were enough never looking to the positive part to keep it holy to spend the whole day in God's Service to His glory and for their own spiritual edification and advantage They that will not sanctifie God's rest here shall never enter