Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	person_n	son_n	true_a	14,186	5	5.5218	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95331	A discourse of baptisme, its institution and efficacy upon all believers. Together with a consideration of the practise of the Church in baptizing infants of beleeving parents: and the practise justified by Jer: Taylor D.D.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1652 (1652)	Wing T315; Thomason E682_2; ESTC R203923	53,917	64

so or no yet upon this account the administration of the Sacrament is not hindred 7. When the Scripture speaks of the effects of or dispositions to Baptism it speaks in general expressions as being most apt to signifie a common duty or a general effect or a more universal event or the proper order of things but those general expressions do not supponere universalitèr that is are not to be understood exclusively to all that are not so qualified or universally of all suscipients or of all the subjects of the proposition When the Prophets complain of the Jews that they are faln from God and turned to Idols and walk not in the way of their Fathers and at other times the Scripture speaks the same thing of their Fathers that they walked perversly toward God starting aside like a broken bow In these and the like expressions the holy Scripture uses a Synecdoche or signifies many onely under the notion of a more large and indefinite expression for neither were all the Fathers good neither did all the sons prevaricate but among the Fathers there were enough to recommend to posterity by way of example and among the Children there were enough to stain the reputation of the age but neither the one part nor the other was true of every single person S. John the Baptist spake to the whole audience saying O generation of vipers and yet he did not mean that all Jerusalem and Judea that went out to be baptized of him were such but he under an indeterminate reproof intended those that were such that is especially the Priests and the Pharisees And it is more considerable yet in the story of the event of Christs Sermon in the Synagogue upon his Text taken out of Isaiah All wondred at his gracious words and bare him witness And a little after All they in the Synagogue were filled with wrath that is it was generally so but hardly to be supposed true of every single person in both the contrary humors and usages Thus Christ said to the Apostles Ye have abidden with me in my temptations and yet Judas was all the way a follower of Interest and the Bag rather then Christ and afterwards none of them all did abide with Christ in his greatest Temptations Thus also to come nearer the present Question the secret effects of Election and of the Spirit are in Scripture attributed to all that are of the outward communion So S. Peter calls all the Christian strangers of the Eastern dispersion Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father and S. Paul saith of all the Roman Christians and the same of the Thessalonians that their faith was spoken of in all the world and yet amongst them it is not to be supposed that all the professors had an unreproveable faith or that every one of the Church of Thessalonica was an excellent and a charitable person and yet the Apostle useth this expression Your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity of every one of you all towards each other aboundeth These are usually significant of a general custome or order of things or duty of men or design and natural or proper expectation of events such are these also in this very Question As many of you as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ that is so it is regularly and so it will be in its due time and that is the order of things and the designed event but from hence we cannot conclude of every person and in every period of time This man hath been baptized therefore now he is clothed with Christ he hath put on Christ nor thus This person cannot in a spiritual sense as yet put on Christ therefore he hath not been baptized that is he hath not put him on in a sacramental sense Such is the saying of S. Paul Whom he hath predestinated them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified this also declares the regular event or at least the order of things and the design of God but not the actual verification of it to all persons These sayings concerning Baptism in the like manner are to be so understood that they cannot exclude all persons from the Sacrament that have not all those real effects of the Sacrament at all times which some men have at some times and all men must have at some time or other viz. when the Sacrament obtains its last intention But he that shall argue from hence that Children are not rightly baptized because they cannot in a spiritual sense put on Christ concludes nothing unless these propositions did signifie universally and at all times and in every person and in every manner which can no more pretend to truth then that all Christians are Gods Elect and all that are baptized are Saints and all that are called are justified and all that are once justified shall be saved finally These things declare onely the event of things and their order and the usuall effect and the proper design in their proper season in their limited proportions 8. A Negative Argument for matters of fact in Scripture cannot conclude a Law or a necessary or a regular event And therefore supposing that it be not intimated that the Apostles did baptize Infants it follows not that they did not and if they did not it does not follow that they might not or that the Church may not For it is unreasonable to argue The Scripture speaks nothing of the Baptism of the holy Virgin-Mother therefore she was not baptized The words and deeds of Christ are infinite which are not recorded and of the acts of the Apostles we may suppose the same in their proportion and therefore what they did not is no rule to us unless they did it not because they were forbidden So that it can be no good argument to say the Apostles are not read to have baptized Infants therefore Infants are not to be baptized but thus We do not finde that Infants are excluded from the common Sacraments and Ceremonies of Christian Institution therefore we may not presume to exclude them For although the Negative of a Fact is no good Argument yet the Negative of a Law is a very good one We may not say the Apostles did not therefore we may not but thus they were not forbidden to do it there is no Law against it therefore it may be done No mans deeds can prejudicate a Divine Law expressed in general terms much less can it be prejudiced by those things that were not done That which is wanting cannot be numbred cannot be effectual therefore Baptize all nations must signifie all that it can signifie all that are reckoned in the Capitations and accounts of a Nation Now since all contradiction to this Question depends wholly upon these two grounds The Negative Argument in matter of Fact and the Pretences That Faith and Repentance are required to Baptism since the first is

baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the sea so by a double figure foretelling That as they were initiated to Moses Law by the Cloud above and the Sea beneath so should all the persons of the Church Men Women and Children be initiated unto Christ by the Spirit from above and the Water below for it was the design of the Apostle in that discourse to represent that the Fathers and we were equal as to the priviledges of the Covenant he proved that we do not exceed them and it ought therefore to be certain that they do not exceed us nor their children ours But after this something was to remain which might not onely consign the Covenant which God made with Abraham but be as a passage from the Fathers thorough the Synagogue to the Church from Abraham by Moses to Christ and that was Circumcision which was a Rite which God chose to be a mark to the posterity of Abraham to distinguish them from the Nations which were not within the Covenant of Grace and to be a seal of the righteousness of faith which God made to be the spirit and life of the Covenant But because Circumcision although it was ministred to all the males yet it was not to the females and although they and all the Nation was baptized and initiated into Moses in the Cloud and the Sea yet the Children of Israel by imitation of the Patriarchs the posterity of Noah used also Ceremonial Baptisms to their women and to their Proselytes and to all that were circumcised and the Jews deliver That Sarah and Rebecca when they were adopted into the family of the Church that is of Abraham and Isaac were baptized and so were all strangers that were married to the sons of Israel And that we may think this typical of Christian Baptism the Doctors of the Jews had a Tradition that when the Messias would come there should be so many Proselytes that they could not be circumcised but should be baptized The Tradition proved true but not for their reason But that this Rite of admitting into mysteries and institutions and offices of Religion by Baptisms was used by the posterity of Noah or at least very early among the Jews besides the testimonies of their own Doctors I am the rather induced to believe because the Heathen had the same Rite in many places and in several Religions so they initiated disciples into the secrets of a Mithra and the Priests of Cotyttus were called b Baptae because by Baptism they were admitted into the Religion and they c thought Murther Incest Rapes and the worst of Crimes were purged by dipping in the Sea or fresh Springs and a Proselyte is called in Arrianus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} intinctus a baptized person But this Ceremony of baptizing was so certain and usual among the Jews in their admitting Proselytes and adopting into institutions that to baptize and to make disciples are all one and when John the Baptist by an order from Heaven went to prepare the way to the Coming of our blessed Lord he preached Repentance and baptized all that professed they did repent He taught the Jews to live good lives and baptized with the Baptism of a Prophet such as was not unusually done by extraordinary and holy persons in the change or renewing of Discipline or Religion Whether John's Baptism was from heaven or of men Christ asked the Pharisees That it was from Heaven the people therefore believed because he was a Prophet and a holy person but it implies also That such Baptisms are sometimes from men that is used by persons of an eminent Religion or extraordinary fame for the gathering of Disciples and admitting Proselytes and the Disciples of Christ did so too even before Christ had instituted the Sacrament for the Christian Church the Disciples that came to Christ were baptized by his Apostles And now we are come to the gates of Baptism All these till John were but types and preparatory Baptisms and John's Baptism was but the prologue to the Baptism of Christ The Jewish Baptisms admitted Proselytes to Moses and to the Law of Ceremonies John's Baptism called them to believe in the Messias now appearing and to repent of their sins to enter into the Kingdom which was now at hand and Preached that Repentance which should be for the remission of sins His Baptism remitted no sins but preached and consigned Repentance which in the belief of the Messias whom he pointed to should pardon sins But because he was taken from his office before the work was compleated the Disciples of Christ finished it They went forth preaching the same Sermon of Repentance and the approach of the Kingdom and baptized or made Proselytes or Disciples as John did onely they as it is probable baptized in the Name of Jesus which it is not so likely John did a And this very thing might be the cause of the different forms b of Baptism recorded in the Acts of baptizing In the Name of Iesus and at other times In the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost the former being the manner of doing it in pursuance of the design of John's Baptism and the latter the form of institution by Christ for the whole Christian Church appointed after his Resurrection the Disciples at first using promiscuously what was used by the same authority though with some difference of Mystery The Holy Jesus having found his way ready prepared by the preaching of John and by his Baptism and the Jewish manner of adopting Proselytes and Disciples into the Religion a way chalked out for him to initiate disciples into his Religion took what was so prepared and changed it into a perpetual Sacrament He kept the Ceremony that they who were led onely by outward things might be the better called in and easier inticed into the Religion when they entred by a Ceremony which their Nation alwayes used in the like cases and therefore without change of the outward act he put into it a new spirit and gave it a new grace and a proper efficacy He sublim'd it to higher ends and adorned it with stars of Heaven He made it to signifie greater mysteries to convey greater blessings to consign the bigger Promises to cleanse deeper then the skin and to carry Proselytes further then the gates of the institution For so he was pleased to do in the other Sacrament he took the Ceremony which he found ready in the Custom of the Jews where the Major domo after the Paschal Supper gave Bread and Wine to every person of his family he changed nothing of it without but transferr'd the Rite to greater mysteries and put his own Spirit to their Sign and it became a Sacrament Evangelical It was so also in the matter of Excommunication where the Jewish practise was made to pass into Christian discipline without violence and noise old things became new while he