Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	apostle_n	baptism_n	infant_n	2,706	5	8.6906	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47167	A refutation of three opposers of truth by plain evidence of the holy Scripture, viz. I. Of Pardon Tillinghast, who pleadeth for water-baptism, its being a Gospel-precept, and opposeth Christ within, as a false Christ. To which is added, something concerning the Supper, &c. II. Of B. Keech, in his book called, A tutor for children, where he disputeth against the sufficiency of the light within, in order of salvation; and calleth Christ in the heart, a false Christ in the secret chamber. II. Of Cotton Mather, who in his appendix to his book, called, Memorable providences, relating to witchcrafts, &c. doth so weakly defend his father Increase Mather from being justly chargeable with abusing the honest people called Quakers, that he doth the more lay open his fathers nakedness; and beside the abuses and injuries that his father had cast upon that people, C. Mather, the son, addeth new abuses of his own. And a few words of a letter to John Cotton, called a minister, at Plymouth in New England. By George Keith.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1690 (1690)	Wing K199; ESTC W21703	49,228	77

Brethren called Baptists most Anti-christianly have done and yet continue to do Oh Pardon Pardon God Almighty give thee pardon through unfeigned Repentance for this thy great sin others not these sober People called in scorn Quakers but Ranters and high Notionists who pretend to own Christ within them but deny him without as come in the Flesh c. And though thou call'st thy self in thy title page A Servant of Iesus Christ yet thou hast plainly discovered that thou yet art ignorant of him and in this thy Work thou hast rather proved thy self a servant of Anti-christ for what greater opposition can Anti-christ make against Christ than to oppose the presence and in-being of Christ in his People who is their Life And if he who is their Life be not in them they cannot live yea if Christ live not in thee thou art dead in thy tre●passes and sins and the old man is alive in thee and his servant thou art and Christ is not like to live in thee as he did in Paul and as he doth in all true Christians so long as thou judgest That the Christ in the heart is a false Christ. Oh Pardon Tillinghast thou hast made too great haste in this thy undertaking as in many other thy works wherein possibly thou mayst imagine thou art tilling and plowing in Gods field but remember that the Scripture saith The plowing of the Wicked is sin and when thou makest haste to till without the true knowledge of God and Christ thou hadst better let alone and imploy thy self in some other lawful occupation Hast thou no other way to defend thy Idol of Water-baptism but to smite against the Lord Jesus Christ in his inward appearance in his Saints But know O vain and foolish man that as that idol Dagon did fall before Gods Ark so thy idol of Water-baptism shall fall before the Lord Jesus Christ inwardly appearing in thousands and ten thousands of his Saints and let none be offended that I call thy Water-baptism an ●dol for whatever man sets up in opposition to the inward appearance of Christ in his People they make it unto themselves an Idol and it will fall and they together with it But as for Iohn's Baptism with Water or that baptism with water that others of the Disciples of Christ used I call it not an Idol far be it from me it had its blessing and service in its day and pointed as a figure to Christs inward and spiritual Baptism and if there be an inward baptism of Christ then is not Christ the inward baptiser and minister of this inward baptism yea certainly and yet thou denyest Christ within calling him A false Christ in the secret Chamber of the heart And as for thy undertaking to prove thy Water Baptism to be a Gospel Precept by plain Scripture I question not but through Gods assistance I shall prove that thou hast grosly perverted mis-applied the scriptures not understanding the scriptures nor the power of God like unto the Sadduces of old Thou comparest thy self to David with his sling his few stones smiting at Goliah But alas poor man that sling and these stones and that River or brook out of which he did take these stones according to the deep Mystery signified under that figure or allegory thou understandst not it is a dark Riddle and Parable unto thee and thou thy self art more a kin to Goliah than to David In the beginning of thy work thou dost not fairly state the Question first that thou takest no notice of my plain and express words in my book pag. 184. where I say expresly as followeth If any were raised up by the Lord as John was and could prove and instruct their being sent to baptize with Water as he was these to whom they should be sent ought gladly to receive it but to do it by bare imitation or a meer pretended Call which they cannot prove to be either mediate or immediate is great Presumption yea Superstition This one short section is enough to overthrow thy whole Work and yet thou hast made no Reply to it nor given the least notice of it in thy book and all that thou hast said for Water-baptism doth not in the least give any ground for thy Water-Baptism thou and thy brethren set up in your vain Imaginations without any call either immediate or mediate from God so that your work in your Water-baptism is a Will-worship Secondly Thou dost not fairly cite my words in thy stating the Question saying That I affirmed that the Apostles practiced it viz. Water-baptism Only by permission c. The word Only is thy addition and is not in my book but my words are these following The Apostles generally thought fit both to use and tolerate the use of Water-baptism that belonged to John and divers other things of the Law which was by permission for a time and not by any Gospel standing Commission c. Now the word Only being added doth derogate from my words as if I did understand that the Apostles only baptized by a bare dry or naked permission whereas I did understand and so I do still that it was not a meer or bare permission but they they thought fit both to use it and tolerate the use of it and that which made them think and judge it fit to use it for sometime was really the Spirit of God in them that gave them not only a spiritual and chearful freedom to use it for some time but let them see a great service and conveniency in it for somtime until men began to contend about it and lay more weight on it and other things of the like nature than they ought to have done for as in the change of an outward form of Government or a new administration of worldly and civil Laws the former Laws and the execution of them cannot in an instant be removed but gradually otherwise great inconveniences would follow as when a house is to be supported with new Pillars the o●d Pillars must not be first removed else the House would be in danger of falling but the new Pillars must first in great part be well placed and fixed and then the old are by degrees safely and wisely removed Even so Iohn's Baptism and other things of like nature were not presently and suddainly to be removed because many both Iews and proselited Gentiles laid great stress and weight on them And therefore I say the Apostles not by a meer bare and naked permission but in the wisdom and counsel of God used water-Water-baptism for a time and yet all this will not prove that it is a Gospel Precept or a standing Gospel Ordinance that was to continue in the Church to the end of the World Nor art thou more successful in managing this Controversy about Water Baptism than in stating it for almost throughout thou fight'st against thy own shadow and takest much pains and usest many Arguments to prove many things no wise denyed by

of God revealed in him and therefore he might vvell command it for that time tho' no Gospel Precept But vvhereas thou sayst That Peter and the Apostles did command in Christ Iesus the Lords Name Water Baptism is a thing utterly false the Scripture saith no such thing but That Peter commanded them to be baptized in the Name of the Lord so that the Name of the Lord is relative to their being baptized not to the command and their being baptized in the Name of the Lord doth plainly signifie that their being baptized vvith Water vvas som outward sign that they became the Lords and were true believers in him Next vvhereas thou sayst I affirm that Water Baptism was at that time an abolished Ceremony is false I said no such thing It was beginning to be abolishing and decaying and was decreasing as John said in respect of his Baptism I must decrease but Christ must encrease But that it vvas then totally abolished I say not for it could not be safely abolished all at once but by degrees and after some time as I have above demonstrated And novv that I call this third and last Dispensation that began to take place after the Death and Resurrection of Christ the pure and perfect Dispensation of the Gospel I understand it not as if the first and second Dispensations before and under Moses or before and under Christ as he vvas present in the flesh had any mixture or impurity of sin or evil nay far be it from me but I call it pure and perfect as having none of these Figures and Types of the Lavv mixed vvith it as formerly And though the Apostles after the giving of the holy Ghost did grovv up into the attainment of this most pure and perfect Gospel state and Dispensation yet many Christians vvho had a measure of sincere Faith in Christ vvere short of it and for the cause of such vvho vvere vveak and but as Babes in Christ they savv it meet in the Wisdom of God to use it for some time But after the days of the Apostles and their Successors about three or four hundred years there-after the true Gospel Spirit was generally lost a Remnant excepted of hidden ones who in some measure retained it and the inward Power of Godliness departed from and then Water Baptism and many other things belonging to the outward form became as a dead thing and was more fit to be buried than to be used And none ought to presume to raise it up again unless it could be said That the Power of God had raised it or renewed it in the users or practisers of it and that they could sincerely say and prove that God had sent them or given them Authority to use Water Baptism and other the like things but this I do not find that any called Baptists so much as pretend unto and if they did pretend to it their bare pretence without some real and effectual prooff were not to be believed And that Peter caused Water-baptism to be administred to Cornelius and other Gentiles doth not prove it to be a Gospel Precept for under the Law the Gentiles who became Proselites of the Covenant so called were generally baptized into Water as well as Circumcised long before Iohn's time as the Iews Books plainly declare and as may be gathered from Scripture and as divers Christian Writers relate from the Iews and particularly Thomas Godwin in his Book called Moses and Aaron lib. 1. cap. 3. And seeing it was so commonly practised by the Iews as well before Iohn's time as then and thereafter as both Iewish and Christian Writers affirm and as the Epistle to the Hebrews doth plainly declare Heb. 9.10 how that the Law had its divers Baptisms so the Greek translated into English Washings and carnal Ordinances until the time of Reformation it doth more plainly evince that Water Baptism was a legal thing tho' both it Circumcision with all the other Types and Figures of the Law pointed at Gospel Mysteries and in so far may be said to relate or belong to the Gospel in its more obscure Administration but that whole Dispensation both of Moses and the Prophets is in Scripture stile call'd The Law altho' Moses himself and all the Prophets saw beyond the Figures of the Law and were truly endowed in great part with a Gospel spirit That thou say'st if Water Baptism had not been comprehended in Paul 's Commission then he had done evil in baptizing so many I Answ. It doth not follow any more than that he did evil in circumcising Timothy for things may be done upon occasions without a Command from God and that not only by a bare or simple permission but in a sweet heavenly freedom of Gods holy Spirit inwardly revealed which is the only chief and principal Rule of every true Christians freedom as well as of their Obedience How many good Christians joyn in Marriage having no command so to do but knowing and enjoying an inward Liberty by the Spirit of the Lord so to do and therein receiving the blessing of the Lord and many other the like cases might be mention'd Thou givest a very strange and exceeding strained Gloss upon Paul's words That he was not sent to baptize but to preach the Gospel to wit that Water Baptism was not so bound to Paul or any other sent to preach the Gospel that they with their own hands must needs perform that Work of Baptizing and Paul and the other Apostles had such and such for their Ministers as John Timothy and others But what then what Paul commanded other Disciples to do is all one as if he had done it himself as thou arguest in another case but not to thy purpose and therefore it cannot be reasonably judged that if Paul had been sent to baptize either by himself or making use of others to assist him in that work he would have said He was not sent to baptize for that would imply a plain Contradiction to be sent and not to be sent But this thy strein'd gloss on Pauls words is grounded upon a meer supposition of thine That Paul was sent to baptize with Water which thou hast not in the least proved nor art ever like to do Matth. 28. saith nothing of Water Thy similitude betwixt Solomons Temple and the Gospel-Church as thou dost apply it is exceeding vain foolish and proceedeth from great Ignorance as if the Stones that were the Foundation of Solomon's Temple cut out of the Mountains and the Timber-work did signifie that the Foundation of God's Spiritual House should be water-Water-Baptism But this is plain contrary to Scripture that saith The Church is built on the Foundation of the Prophets Apostles Iesus Christ himself being the chief Corner Stone And thou that sets up water-Water-Baptism as the Foundation of the Gospel Church preachest another Foundation than Christ Jesus and another Gospel If Solomon's Temple had been built on the Waters thou mightst have had some slender

pretext or colour to use such a Comparison but what Resemblance Stone and Timber hath to Water Baptism I do not understand And if water-Water-Baptism be the Foundation of the Church then the Church hath had no Foundation for many Ages past for Infant Baptism by sprinkling ye Baptists do not acknowledge to be any true Baptism at all but a meer fiction or invention and yet for many Ages there hath been no other water-Water-Baptism used but that of sprinkling Infants for that party or society of People called Baptists or Anabaptists did but appear about Luther's time or since and therefore if Water Baptism be the Foundation of Gods Church the Church hath had no Foundation for many Ages and therefore hath quite ceased to be for she cannot be or subsist without a Foundation And as concerning the Allegorical and Spiritual signifycation of Solomon's Temple it is very well understood without your Water Baptism for Solomon's Temple as it was a figure of Christs Body which was crucified and rose again and ascended into Glory so also it was a figure of the Gospel Church under the pure Gospel Dispensation the Foundation whereof is Christ Jesus as he came in the likeness of sinful flesh and took upon himself the form of a Servant and humbled himself unto Death even the Death of the Cross made of a Woman made under the Law the Seed of Abraham and David I say Christ thus come in the flesh and crucified for our sins as the Mystery of him is inwardly revealed by the holy Spirit in the hearts of all true believers in respect of his thus humbling himself and taking hold of the seed of Abraham may well be compared to the Stone Wood of Solomons Temple which were but mean and not very costly Materials but the fullness of the Godhead that dwelt in Christ Bodily and his being anointed with the holy Spirit without measure being the only begotton Son of God full of Grace and Truth of whose fullness all true believers do plentifully receive and Grace for Grace and the many most rich and excellent divine Virtues wherewith both Christ and his Church are most richly endued and adorned are well signified by that great plenty of Gold and Silver and other precious Furniture wherewith the Temple of Solomon was beautified But it is much thou didst not make the Sea in Solomon's Temple to signifie Water-Baptism possibly some of thy Brethren may judge this a great omission or neglect in thee but hadst thou brought it it could have made nothing for thy Water Baptism for that Sea in Solomon's Temple was not a figure of outward Water which it self was but a figure but of these spiritual Waters of the Sanctuary mentioned by the Prophet Ezekiel chap. 47.1 7 8 9. and by Iohn c. 4. v. 6. and Rev. 22.1 But this most idle and ignorant gloss and comparison of thine is like to that other passage in thy book where thou sayst Repenting Believers baptized with Water being a sign and token from God to them of the remission of sins are the only true Heirs of the Promise of the holy ghost c. Which assertion thou dost falsly ground on Peter's words to the Iews Repent and be baptized every one of you mind it sayst thou every one that expects Salvation in the Name of Iesus Christ for the Remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost But whether Water Baptism is to be here understood or not thy arguing that it must be Water Baptism is most weak and idle as if to render it only Spirit is to charge the Spirit of God in Peter with gross Impertinencies and Tautologies as if he should say Repent and be baptized with the holy Spirit and you shall receive the holy Spirit To this I Answer This is no Impertinency nor Tautology in the least but very proper as it is very proper to say White Cloth being dip't into the Dyers Fat that hath a red dye receiveth the said red dye even so the Soul being dipt into that spiritual Water of Gods holy Spirit receiveth it as the Cloth receiveth the dye But this to thee is a Mystery and Parable and therefore it is not strange thou talkest such gross impertinencies And it is plain by these words of thine thou makest Water Baptism equally necessary to Salvation with Faith and Repentance and therefore all are eternally and finally Lost who have not been baptized or plunged into Water O Monster of uncharitableness This most Uncharitable Doctrine damneth all to the Pit of Hell for many Ages that never received Water Baptism this is like one of thy Brethren who printed a book with this Title Dip or Damn It is no wonder to find you Baptists generally so bitter and peevish for this your Uncharitable Doctrine of Condemning all to Hell who are not baptized into Water begetteth this evil nature in you even as the narrow Doctrine of the Presbyterians as touching the Grace of God maketh them of the like evil nature for evil Principles and Perswasions have a great influence upon mens Hearts and Lives And now I find thee in this thy work against us joyn'd with the Priests of New-England and particularly these of Boston tho' formerly some of thy Brethren suffered great persecution by the Priests of New-England where it seems thou hast got thy book printed and so like Herod and Pontius Pilate joyning together against Christ as he came in the flesh so ye joyn together against him as he is come and coming more abundantly in Spirit but this Stone which ye builders of Babylon have refused will God exalt and is exalting to be the head of the Corner Thou art as idle and impertinent to alledge That by Water and Blood mentioned 1 Iohn 5.6 This is he that came by Water and Blood is to be meant Water Baptism and that call'd the Supper in giving and receiving Bread Wine But this being thy bare alledgance without any shadow of proof it is altogether denyed and the Virtue of both the Water and Blood together with the Spirit are inwardly and spiritually felt which three agree in one and are inseperable but so are not your Water Baptism and Bread and Wine which ye your selves confess are oft seperated from the Spirit as the many vain persons among you and the many dry and barren Souls of your society too palpably demonstrate for who more gawdy and vain in their Attire and Cloathing both men and women than many call'd Baptists as I have seen and observed in part to my great grief Who greater Enemies to the Spirits inward Revelation and to Christ's inward presence and Appearance in Believers than thou and the Baptists generally perhaps some few excepted And therefore the Spirit and your Water Baptism and breaking of Bread agree not in one and are not in unity And whereas thou chargest it on me and my Friends the People called in scorn Quakers as if we did presume or boast of our