Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	dead_a	sin_n	world_n	5,645	5	5.0645	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85422	VVater-dipping no firm footing for Church-communion: or Considerations proving it not simply lawful, but necessary also (in point of duty) for persons baptized after the new mode of dipping, to continue communion with those churches, or imbodied societies of saints, of which they were members before the said dipping; and that to betray their trust or faith given unto Jesus Christ to serve him in the relation and capacity, whether of officers, or other members, in these churches (respectively) by deserting these churches, is a sin highly provoking in the sight of God. Together with a post-script touching the pretended Answer to the Forty queries about Church-communion, infant and after baptism. By John Goodwin, a servant of God in the Gospel of his dear Son.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1653 (1653)	Wing G1213; Thomason E723_15; ESTC R202234	72,402	91

examples of that nature in the Acts of the Apostles do declare how loud an untruth is it There is not so much as any one example throughout the Acts of the Apostles of a person baptized barely or meerly upon his hearing of the Gospel preached unto him But how impertinently this piece of Scripture is alledged either to prove who or what kind of person is the proper and adequate subject of Baptism or a necessitie that all beleevers to the Worlds end should be baptized or otherwise be guilty of Sin hath been argued in the preceding Considerations 2. How little truth or pertinency there is in his second Proof of the aforesaid Position sufficiently appears by the examination of the first For though the Apostles did put the said Commission of Christ into execution according to his Command i. e. did both teach and baptize yet it doth not follow from hence either 1. That they baptized all that they taught the contrary hereunto is evident from the Story Act. 2. 41 43. and 5. 33. and other places Therefore the Teaching mentioned in their Commission was not the Rule of their Baptizing Nor 2. Doth it follow that because upon their first preaching of the Gospel in Jerusalem they baptized those who gladly received their Word and beleeved therefore they baptized in like manner all those or any of those who were converted to the Faith by their after-preaching in the same place We read of no such thing as this in any place of the Acts or elsewhere as we formerly observed Nor did the tenor of their Commission impose this upon them For he that is simply and only commanded to Teach and to Baptize as he is not hereby commanded to teach continually so neither is he commanded to baptize always when he teacheth But whereas he demandeth What is more plain then that the Commission of Christ to them was to teach and baptize first and to admit into Church-fellowship thereupon as is visible in that prime example of theirs Acts 2. 41 42. I answer This is much more plain viz. that they were not commissioned in that Commission we speak of to admit into Church-fellowship either upon terms of Baptism or any other there being not so much as the least mention or hint here about admission into Church-fellowship Nor is it said Acts 2. 41 42. either that the Apostles admitted any into Church-fellowship or 3. That any were admitted into Church-fellowship much less that they were admitted into this fellowship because they had been baptized But all that is here said as to the point now in hand is Then they that gladly received his Word were baptized and the same day {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. there were added or added to not to them as our Antagonist emphaseth or to the Church but rather to the Lord as it is Acts 15. 24 about three thousand Souls Neither is the addition here spoken of ascribed to the Apostles it is not said that they or any of them added so much as one Soul But if we will entitle him unto the addition here spoken of to whom the Holy Ghost ascribeth it vers. 47. we must say that it was made by the Lord And the Lord added unto the Church dayly such as should be saved Here where there is express mention made of adding to the Church there is no mention made of Baptism 3. His third and last Proof is as irrelative to his purpose as both the former For Christians are not said Rom. 65. to be planted together in it is not into as our Anti-querist takes a most unworthy liberty both here and elsewhere more then once or twice to mis-cite his Scriptures the likeness of Christs death by reason or means of their Water-Baptism for then it would follow from the latter clause of the Verse {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that all who are thus baptized should be everlastingly Partakers of his Resurrection but we are said to be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} complanted with Christ in through or by means of a likeness of his death when we are truly and really mortified and become dead unto sin and to the world Which is a kind of death holding some analogy with and carrying in it some resemblance of that death which Christ suffered upon the Cross And the Apostle informs us that by such a death as this we become planted together with Christ i. e. interested with him in that most stable fixed and unchangeable Councel and Purpose of God wherein he hath decreed the immortal Glory and Blessedness of all those that shall obey him This sence of the place considered how frivolous and impertinent is this supercilious Interrogatory which he builds upon it And may you not therefore as well suppose trees to grow together before they are planted together as to suppose Christians to grow together before they are planted together Yes surely as well the latter as the former but the mischief of the impertinency is that Christians may be planted together in Christ by a work of mortification and so grow together whether they be baptized or no and they may be baptized together and so be planted together as far as water can plant them and yet not grow together but some wither and dye whilest others grow and prosper Or however such a plantation which is by Baptism only is no way or means of growth unto any man And yet of the two it is a broader impertinency to make this demand in stead of a Proof that a Church cannot stand but upon Baptism And what house stands without its principles or is built without a foundation only upon occasion of this admonition of the Apostle to the Hebrews Leaving the Word of the beginning of Christ let us advance towards perfection and his making not the practise but the Doctrine not of any one Baptism determinately but of Baptisms plurally a part of the foundation i. e. of the body or systeme of that Doctrine which young beginners in the School of Christ were wont to learn in the first place as in building a foundation is first to be layd in order to a superstruction But what is there in this passage to prove that one Baptism or one kind of Baptism is the foundation of a Church more then another or that any kind of Baptism more then imposition of hands or that either imposition of hands or Baptism in one kind or other more then repentance from dead works or Faith towards God especially considering that these two are named in the first place as the principal parts of the Foundation he speaks of and first to be layd Yea supposing that the Hebrews to whom he writes were a constituted Church and that he had taught them the Doctrine of Baptisms under this Constitution it evidently follows either that they were a Church before they were baptized or that they had been baptized before they had been instructed in the Doctrine of Baptism I

are continually made sad within us viz. that the generality or far greater part of those who turn aside into this way do some more suddenly others by degrees impair and decline in their Graces lose that sweetness meekness love and Christian humility of spirit wherewith they were formerly adorned as if they were baptized in Marah a or in the waters of the Red Sea Never did we know any that by being dipped added thereby so much as an hairs bredth to his spiritual stature or that became in any degree either more meek or more humble or more patient or more merciful or more mortifyed self-denying or the like but very many have we known and heard of who upon such an engagement have made shipwrack of much spiritual treasure wherewith God had blessed them under their first Baptism Many have we known who went into the water Lambs and came out of it Wolves and Tygers many who went in Doves and came out Serpents as if they had met with the spirit that rules in the ayr under the water in stead of the sweet Spirit of Christ Yea we have known some who soon after their dipping have perpetrated and done things so unworthy and unsutable to their former genius which if any man had challenged them before their dipping that they would do after we have reason to judg they would have replied to the challenge as Hazael did to Elisha in somewhat a like case But what is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing 2 King 8. 13. So many sad spectacles and stories wherewith our eyes and ears are fill'd from time to time especially not being ballanced or counterpoysed with any thing desireable or of moment put us into some fears lest as God in his just though secret judgment gives Sathan a permission to haunt some houses and to misuse and terrifie those that shall lodg in them so he should for causes best known to himself though somewhat might with good probability be conjectured in this kind have granted unto this enemy of mankind somewhat a like power over the opinion and practise of Rebaptizing and to tempt those who suffer themselves to be intangled with them more dangerously and prevailingly then those who in simplicity of heart walk before him in the contrary way We are not definitive in this but only crave leave without offence to make known our fears And however God having multiplied grace mercy and peace unto us in that way of his worship wherein at present we walk we judge it no Christian prudence to tempt him in another But whether our Brethren have any just cause to cast us out of their communion for not forsaking a way of experienced peace and safety to walk in a way of so much danger as that they seek to conjure us into we leave to their own consciences and to all considering men to judg and determine CONSIDERATION XXIII The Consideration that sealeth unto me the conclu●ency and force of all the former against the practise of Church-rending upon the p●etence of undipt members is the invalidity of any thing that hath been yet brought to light and I presume of all that ever will or can be in justification of it 1. It is not true is hath been sufficiently proved that circumcision was constitutive of the Jewish Church or gave being of membership to all the leg●●imate members of it Or if this could be made good yet would it not follow from hence that therefore Baptism must needs constitute the Christian Church For what though it be supposed that Baptism succeedeth in the place of circumcision a supposition which though true and demonstrable enough yet neither lives nor dyes to me yet it followeth not that it should succeed it in all its circumstantial ends and relations Solomon succeeded David in his Kingdom yet he did not succeed him in his wives or concubines or any his relations of affinity 2. Nor do the contents of Act. 2. 41. prove so much as in f●ce or appearance that Baptism is of the essence of a Church-member For 1. Those who are said to have been baptized in the former part of the verse are not said in the latter to have been added to the Church but simply {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they were added or added to If the question be to what or to whom they were added if not to the Church the Holy Ghost himself may inform you expressing himself more plainly in a like case Act. 11. 24. And much people was ADDED TO THE LORD And 2. It is said Act. 2 47. And the Lord added unto the Church who Such as were baptized no but Such as should be saved or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. those who are or were saved or delivered viz. from the general impiety of the Jewish Nation which was not by being baptized but by beleeving 3. and lastly for this In case their baptizing having been mentioned in the former part of the verse it should been said in the latter that they were added unto the Church yet {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} would not have proved {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the recording of their addition to the Church after their being baptized will not prove this addition to have been made by vertue or by means of their baptizing In the former part of the verse Ioh. 6. 49. Christ telleth the Jews that their Fathers did eat Manna in the Wilderness he subjoyneth in the latter and are dead Will any man reason from hence because this eating Manna is reported in the former part of the verse and their death or being dead in the latter therefore their death was caused by their eating of manna 3. Nor doth that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 12. 13. make any whit more if not rather less for Church-constitution by Baptism then the former For 1. When the Apostle saith by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body it is not necessary we should understand him to speak of water-Baptisw because 1. Here is another element expresly named wherein this Baptism might be administred viz. the Spirit whereas there is no mention of water at all 2. The phrase of being baptized with the Spirit or with the Holy Ghost as {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} might have been translated here as it is in all other places of like construction as viz. Mat. 3. 11. Mar. 1. 8. Luk. 3. 16. Ioh. 1 33. Acts 1. 5 Acts 11 16. is most usual and frequent in the Scriptures as the several texts now cited sufficiently declare whereas to be with or through the spirit baptized with water is an uncouth and hard expression no where found in the Scriptures nor carrying any regular Sence in it 3. If the unity or oneness of the body here spoken of did or doth depend upon their baptizing with water and was caused by this it had been impertinent for the Apostle to