Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	church_n	faith_n	profess_v	3,565	5	8.8932	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75851	A modest reply humbly offer'd, as an answer to, and confutation of seven arguments collected and deliver'd by Mr. Samuel Lawrence, in a sermon preach'd at his meeting-house in Namptwich, Octob. 16th, 1691, whereby he would shew, that the infants of professing Christians ought to be baptized : with a seasonable word to my brethren of the baptized church / presented by the most unworthiest of her servants, S.A.	Acton, Samuel, d. 1740?; Lawrence, Samuel.	1692 (1692)	Wing A452aA; ESTC R203313	36,660	49

because there is no light in them Isai 8.20 To do more then he hath required or to do one thing that is not required for another that is will be found in a Day of Tryal equally Abominable with a not doing his Requirements at all It 's certain all Persons and Things shall be pronounced good or bad as they have or have not agreed with this perfect Law of GOD's Word all Decrees of Councils all Doctrines of Men all Controversies in Religion must be brought to the Test and abide the Award and Determination thereof Now that I may not detain you here let me humbly and earnestly beg three things of you 1. That you will pass Judgment upon what is commended to your view in the Arguments for with the Answer and Arguments against Infant-Baptism according as they bear proportion to GOD's Sacred Word and not as they accord with far-fetcht Consequences and doubtful Conclusions which at best in Matters of Worship can prove but one uncertain Medium and forged Warrant which through the unwearied Industry of some skilful Artificers is made fatal to many even such who do either affect Art above Truth or such who have not skill to discern and so become no less deceived then certain Country Peasants in some former Troubles in France of whose Folly * Epistle to Jesephus one tell us They attempting and entring into a City not far from them and lighting into an Apothecary's Shop furnisht with all kind of Drugs and Dainties and being allured by the pleasant Odours and delight of the Confections they tasted and supposing all to be of the same kind took and swallow'd down every thing whereupon some fell sick of Feavers some grew Frenzy and many lost their Lives to please their Appetites at least he that scap'd best gave occasion of Laughter to the Lookers on What use I shall make of this shall be only to put you in mind that it is recorded for the eternal Commendation of the noble Bereans That they would not receive any thing though offered by a Paul until by searching the Scriptures they had found whether those things he taught were so or no. 2. In reading of these Lines that you would lay aside all Prejudice that may possess your Minds either against the Person or Subject else the Mind by it will be rendred utterly uncapable of making right Judgment or receiving Truth though it presents itself with never so much Plainness and Evidence Prejudice was one if not the principal Cause why the Jews rejected CHRIST 3. Having thus discharg'd your Minds of what may hinder your Profit be earnest with GOD in Prayer to help you rightly to discern between the Mystery of Godliness the Iniquity that is contain'd and detected in the Scriptures and then I trust the Plainness of Dress in which these Lines appear will not be of considerable Disadvantages to the Truths contain'd therein for the more false any thing is the more artificially it had need to be set off and adorned A blear'd Eye loves not to look on the Sun Art and Humane Eloquence may tickle the Ear and well-pollish'd Discourses may affect the Fancy and yet prove but a mear Sound of Words and empty Husks remembring it's said of Lacon Hearing a Nightingale sing by the briskness of its Warbling and delicate Notes and the clearness and quavering Cadency of its Voyce judg'd it a good Prey but when he found and saw it to be of so small a Size he disdainfully left it and said Thou art a Voyce and nothing else Therefore where the Evidence of Truth appears refuse it not because offer'd in and presented under the Disadvantage of an unpollish'd Style but let the Reason of what is said be considered And that the LORD may give you Vnderstanding shall be the Prayer of him that wisheth you present and eternal Peace from GOD the Father through our LORD JESVS CHRIST in whom though the Vnworthiest of his Servants I am yours S. A. A Modest Reply TO Mr SAMVEL LAWRENCE HIS Seven Arguments FOR Admitting the Infants of Professing Christians into the CHURCH of CHRIST by Baptism deliver'd in a SERMON by him preach'd in Namptwich Octob. 18th 1691. AS it may be safely concluded that the great Interest of Man's present Peace and eternal Felicity is eminently concern'd in Religion and Godliness even so all true Religion is taught and takes its Being only from Divine Revelation which God in former Ages and divers manners gave out until the Knowledge of his Will was most perfectly reveal'd in and by his Son and our Saviour Heb. 1.1 2. who in Faithfulness to his Church discharged the Trust committed to him ceasing not to make known to the least Jot and Tittle every thing which he receiv'd or heard of the Father Joh. 15.15 He alone being found worthy to set up a Standard and to become a Law-giver and Statute-maker unto all Generations in things partaining to the Worship of God who no sooner had transmitted the Mind of Heaven to the Children of Men by a sure and perfect Law but it passes the Royal Assent he fixes the Seal of his own most precious Blood unto it for its Confirmation and then by the Father is advanced to the highest Dignity and Glory as a convincing Evidence not only of his Son's Faithfulness but the Purity and Perfection of that Law which he hath enacted as the only Mediator to the end Man should be perfect in the whole Will of God And in further Testimony thereof how great hath Heaven's care been throughout all Ages in preserving the Scriptures clean from those Corruptions and Errours which the Heart of Man tho' learn'd if unsanctied is too apt to dote on and cleave unto it is no less then wonderful to consider in whose hands the Sacred Scriptures in past Ages have been lodged and by whom they have been handed down to us that they have yet strength so loudly to bear Witness against Errours entertained with such Fondness and maintain'd with such Heat as of late hath appeared particularly in the Defence of that Unscriptural Practice of Infant Baptism and that there is not yet so much as one Word to be produced as their Warrant in doing what they have so earnestly contended for strongly argue that God hath marvelously over-ruled the Heart and Hands of all heretofore concern'd in that blessed Work of Translating the Scriptures into a Language known and understood by every one of us And as to the Sufficiency of Scripture as it contains all things necessary to be believed known or done either for Salvation or Church Communion I know not that what is said in the sixth Article of the Church of England is forreign to the Judgment of any Professing Christian saving those of the Papal Communion and some few of late sprung up who through Temptation and the Delusion of their own Hearts have rejected the Word as it is contain'd in the Scriptures of Truth as Useless the one accounts it insufficient to

charge upon you which truly defin'd is as I shall give it you from the worthy Doctor Hopkin late Bishop of London Derry as I find it in his Exposition upon the Ten Commandments worthy to be printed in Letters of Gold page 142. who says Will-worship is nothing else but an inventing and ascribing any other Worship unto God besides what he hath been pleased to Command and Institute God saith Will worship what it is he will not be worshipped according to our Fancies but his own Appointment for as we must have no other God besides the true so that God must have no other Service performed unto him besides what himself hath required and prescribed for this were to impute folly and weakness unto him as if indeed he would have Servants but knew not what Service to injoyn them And by this time I hope you may see what may hinder if not may not I as industriously inquire why Nadab and Abihu might not bring strange Fire to the Lord's Altar I know of no express Command of God hindering and yet for their unadvised attempt the Lord sends Fire from Heaven and destroys them both Lev. 10.1 2. Let us therefore fear to do any thing in the Worship of God which he hath not commanded nor conclude our selves safe though he hath not in so many express words forbid it To do what he hath commanded is our work not what he hath not prohibited else where would our wild Inventions terminate Further If this be not sufficient to hinder I pray what may hinder your use of the Cross in Baptism Is that Ceremony any more incongruous to holy Writ then your own practice And why find you fault with the Church of England for the use of their Ceremonies whereas many of them are so indifferent in themselves that for ought I know they may or may not be used Nay if any thing can warrant you short of a Command of God to set up this or that in the Worship of God as an Ordinance of God may not the Church of Rome pretend to as good Authority for any part of their practice that is not in so many express words forbid especially their Baptizing with Salt and Spittle as you can for yours I do sincerely profess were I satisfied that either Custom or Consequence were a warrant sufficient to bear you out in this particular I should reckon my dissenting from the Church of England where I may be as holy as I will or can might be justly imputed to my Ignorance or Pevishness You add Nothing in the Sacrament may hinder they may have all that is Essential to Baptism given to them as well as the Adult and grown Persons Answer Sir It is strange that you should so thwart your own practice for I presume there is not any whom you Baptize but you do it upon a Profession of Faith if not their own yet their Parents so that your own practice bespeaks Faith essential And Mr. Baxter in his Poor Man's Family Book pag. 168. affirmeth The Church never knew any Baptism but such as was joyned with a present profession of present Faith and Repentance and Renunciation of the Devil the World and the Flesh and a total devotedness to God in Christ Also the Church of England in her Catechism to this Question What is required of Persons to be baptized The Answer is Repentance whereby they forsake sin and Faith whereby they stedfastly believe Which with Acts 8.36 37. Acts 2.37 38. and Rom. 6.4 is evident that Repentance Faith and devotedness to God is necessary but how doth it appear that Children are capable of these things When did any Child give you the least Evidence that he Believed Repented Renounced the World the Flesh and the Devil and that before he can possibly know the nature or evil of the one or the other Remember Sir that which appears not is not nor let it suffice that the Parent believes for the Child for I pray why may not the Parents Baptism pass currant for the Child as the Parents Faith You add Nothing on the Minister's part but they may Baptize Infants as well as grown Persons Answer I confess some Ministers by permission and through the liberty of their own will may do what they please but in that case what they do is neither in obedience to any Command of Christ nor in Imitation to any Example of the Apostles who neither did nor durst do it but had it been in their liberty without controversie they had done it and then their president had been sufficient But though Paul shunned not to declare unto the Elders and Churches the whole Counsel of God Acts 20.27 yet the Baptizing of Infants no where appears to be either any part of the Lord's Counsel or his Ministers Practice therefore as you would have a comfortable Evidence that you are the Lord's Minister it becomes you publickly to enter your Protest against this practice for the undeceiving of many and for the future that you presume to do nothing in his Name but what you have his Authority for You say further There is nothing on the Childrens part as hath been shewn c. Answer As hath been shewn there is nothing on the Childrens part that renders it needful and as they need it not so they have not the least appearance of right to it As to their Capacity being the same with them that received Circumcision I conceive it to be a wide mistake for they received both Capacity and Right for Circumcision from the words of Institution and not because they were either able or unable immediately to answer the Obligation they were laid under by it which was to keep the whole Law Gal. 5.3 Therefore as your Infants now are able to do no more then they did under the Law and you having no Institution and Divine Authority for your warrant bespeaks both their incapacity and want of right but as to your Females I perceive they have both a larger Capacity and Propriety than those of old in that yours must be baptized though the others were never circumcised I pass to your Seventh ARGUMENT I may add That the practice of the Church of Christ both primitive and modern is a good Comment on all these Texts and though it is not the Foundation we build this Doctrine upon yet it may help to strengthen and confirm us in the belief of it in dark and difficult Cases especially we should have regard what hath been the Stream and Currant of the godly Learned in all Ages the way of good Men for wise Men to walk in Mr. Baxter saith That for his part he cannot find in his small reading that any one Divine or party of Men did certainly oppose or deny Infant Baptism for many hundred years after Christ and adds that you cannot prove so much as one Man except one Herimarus that did once oppose or deny Infant Baptism from the Apostles days till about Luther's time but I

same Right as their Males besides by vertue of the Institution such were to receive Circumcision as you will have much ado to believe were interested in the Covenant to instance only in Ishmael and Esau and the words of the Apostle that saith All are not Israel that are of Israel Abraham's whole Male natural Seed must needs be circumcised yet who will imagine that the numerous Issue proceeding from him were so interested in the Covenant as Abraham and the Faithful were neither was any thing of Duty required as a necessary Prerequisite to qualifie Abraham's Seed for Circumcision more than a descending lineally from him a being his Children according to the Flesh qualified them for and interested them in the Blessing of the Covenant of Circumcision which are inferior to the Blessings of the new Covenant and Gospel Ministration So that it 's evident the carnal Seed of Believers can obtain no greater Priviledge than the Seed of Abraham did by the Covenant of Circumcision whose Priviledge reached not to an Interest in Gospel-Blessings or the New Covenant unless they had obtained that Right for themselves by believing otherwise as one saith well they had no more Right to them by their natural descent from Abraham than Ishmael had in their Covenant of Peculiarity And as of old Circumcision was not to be administred to any but those appointed by the express Will and positive Law of God neither ought Baptism now nor can any man conclude from a good ground for Infant-Baptism till as good Authority be produced for it as they had of old for circumcising the Males of Israel You add further Doubtless if it had not been so the believing Jews would have debated with the Apostles about it c. Ans I confess had they not learned better Manners and been of much a better Temper than many in our days they would not only have debated but quarreled with them as some do thrusting away Truth as a Troubler of their Coasts as the Gadarenes did Christ but the Believers of old learned Christ to better ends than to maintain unnecessary Debates with the Apostles being satisfied from the nature of the Gospel Ministration that there was no room for Controversies in Christ's changing the Subject as well as the Ceremony and you may see that Point as fully decided and resolved as they did would you rid your mind of Prejudice and with a single Eye look into the Commission where Christ bids them to make Disciples and baptize them and into the general Practice of the Apostles which did perfectly correspond with the Command which Command was made the Rule of their Proceedings and not the demolish'd form of the Jewish Church And Christ in faithfulness to his Church and in mercy to little Infants hath as evidently changed the Subject as the Sign Mark 16.15 16. which in conjunction with the general Practice of the Apostles in that they never baptized one Infant puts the thing out of doubt Thus I hope your three topping Arguments are fully answered which you say are equivolent to an express Command an Assertion so impudent that I pray God it may not be laid to your Charge for there is not any thing said in all of them but what may bespeak you to need that some one teach you which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God Hebr. 5.12 And now Brethren I hope as wise men you will judge and seriously consider what is said and the Lord give you understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2.7 I now come to your Argument of lesser magnitude Fourth ARGUMENT Little Children belong to the Kingdom of Heaven therefore are of the Church and ought not to be excluded but admitted by Baptism Matth. 19.14 They how little soever have an interest in the Priviledges of the Gospel Dispensation as well as they had under the Law formerly and accordingly are as capable of Eternal Blessedness in Heaven and the same Objections lye against their being saved as against their being baptized viz. That they cannot actually believe Mark 16.16 If any object Christ means Children in Humility not in Age as he doth Matth. 18.2 3. Answer That cannot be so understood here because he here speaks of such as were brought unto him and he took into his Arms. Besides it would not then be a sufficient ground for the check he gives his Disciples Objection But he did not baptize them Answer We do not know that he baptized any He did that which was greater and that which makes them qualified Subjects for Baptism for grant to them a Church Relation and Baptism will follow upon it if one stands good the other will and that is what we plead for from this Text. Fourth ANSWER That little Children as such belong unto the Kingdom of Heaven we discent not from you one jot in this Truth for since Christ hath said that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven we joyfully and stedfastly believe the certainty of it and that little Children are of the Church of God i e. the Universal and Invisible Church which contains all the Elect of God known and unknown known unto us and that to the most remote Corners of the Earth in which blessed state they abide though their Parents may suffer a change of state by sin yet that alters not the state of Children nor nothing can till by their voluntary departure from God in choosing sinful ways they destroy themselves To prove Infants as such in a visible state of Salvation we conceive not difficult the words of Christ strongly concluding it But if by Church you mean the visible Church of Christ and do say That because little Children are of the Kingdom of Heaven that therefore they are of the visible Church as that most be intended because of your pleading for admission for them then I conceive your Conclusion to be most untrue 1. Because to say the Fleshly Seed of Believers are born within the Pale and Members of the Church of Christ is a Doctrine Forreign to that of the Gospel 2. Because such a Doctrine in a great measure destroys the right end of Baptism which is to make them Members of it that are not Acts 2.41 and 47. and not to bring them into the Church that are in it already 3. Because Infants as such are not capable and fit matter to make right Members of the Church of Christ under the Gospel For says the Apostle writing to Church Members Ye also as lively Stones are built up a Spiritual House an holy Priesthood to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 which Infants can neither be nor do 4. To say Infants are Members of the visible Church is incongruous to all Definitions that ever I met with of a Gospel Church as I might shew by some of your own I forbear to name ours as that which may not pass with you for currant therefore shall assign only that of the Church of England as an