Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	church_n	faith_n	necessary_a	1,742	5	6.7179	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87257	Infants baptizing proved lawfull by the Scriptures: objections against it resolved and removed. Aug. 24. 1644. Imprimatur, John White.		1644 (1644)	Wing I162; Thomason E8_31; ESTC R15802	13,658	16

The revealed will of God in this Covenant concerning the good of my children is the rule to the Church and me what to beleeve hope and expect concerning them and what to doe to and for them to prepare and enter them as much as in us lies into and for the whole good of this Promise The secret counsell of God how my children shall prove in the end belongs not to us is no rule for us to walk by towards them till it be revealed And this Promise holds out unto us First A ground comfortably to believe and hope that God will fulfill the whole of the Covenant unto them whence we have as cleere a ground to expect their spirituall as their temporall good and upon this promise we may ground a prayer of faith for both for the children Secondly This Promise binds us to use in faith all meanes that the children are capable of for the interessing of them in the good of this Covenant and among other to baptise them Infants are capable of grace to such belongs the Kingdome of Heaven and for ought we know the Spirit hath sanctified the believers children and from this promise we have ground to hope that it is so they being within it expressely and this Covenant gives them a right to the seale of it and this revealed will is the rule by which the Church and we are to judge leaving secret things to God and therefore without incurring the guilt of infidelity and breach of the command included in this promise of using meanes and without manifest injury to the children and contempt and slighting of this great mercy and kindnesse expressed and assured in this Covenant to believers neither the Church nor they can withhold Baptisme from their children Hence it appeares that this Objection is cast in impertinently to trouble the cleere waters of this sweet Promise and weaken our faith in it What God hath undertaken it being his work and not ours we are to rest upon his truth and faithfulnesse in accomplishing it and not trouble our hearts or heads about it but doing our duties believe in his truth revealed and submit to his soveraignty the exercise whereof is unknown unto us when he shall reveale it It is true that the election only obtaines the invisible grace of this promise as the Apostle saith of Abrahams seed but what is that to us before God manifests who are in his election and who not It ought not being secret to impeach our faith in this Promise nor withhold us from using all meanes to our children for the obtaining of that grace Ob. It is further objected That Baptisme requires a spirituall use and children cannot make such spirituall use of it and by experience it is cleere that many baptised in Infancy after deny it Sol. To which I answer That the spirituall use of Baptisme is either by the Spirit of God and that that is done in the children of believers we have from this Covenant good ground to beleeve or by the Church and parents in bringing the children unto this ordinance in faith which is done in the right administration of it or lastly by the children themselves who being passive in this ordinance it is not necessary that at present they expresse the fruits of it in any activity of theirs no more then in circumcision but this is to be beleeved and expected that God who hath promised will produce it in time And though it fall out that some denie their Baptisme afterwards as some did their circumcision that is not materiall in this question being secret and therefore not considerable in the dispensation of the outward visible grace and priviledges of this Covenant which such children have Covenant-right unto Which also is by this further manifested that though many of them that receive Baptisme at full age after deny it and declare by their apostacy that they are in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity as Simon Magus yet that hinders not the Church to administer Baptisme to others of full age upon their profession of faith and repentance For we are to walke by the revealed will of God and not be hindred by future events which being secret are to be left and referred to God And we are incouraged so to doe in the case in question not only from the Covenant of God but also from the experience of his gratious performance thereof who hath made good this promise to the children of beleevers and professors in the uttermost extent of it specially where there hath been no fault in the believers either in not beleeving this gratious promise or not using the meanes sanctified for the obtaining of the performance of it Ob. It is further objected That religious parents have no other priviledge concerning their children then from the meanes of knowledge for them which unbeleevers have not Sol. To which I answer It is plaine by what I have said that the Scriptures speake great and excellent things of the seed and generation of the godly which it not only excludes the seed of the wicked from but speakes sad and dreadfull things of them of the seed and children of beleevers the holy Scriptures testifie that God is their God will circumcise their hearts to love him poure out his Spirit and blessing upon them will shew mercies to thousands of them they shall be blessed the promises belong unto them and the Kingdome of Heaven they are holy beloved for the Fathers sake c. but of the children of unbelievers they speake no good but contrarily that they are cursed God will visit the iniquities of their fathers * Num. 14.18 Deut. ● 9 Ier. 32.18 Iob ●● 19. upon them unto the third and fourth generation that they are a ● Cor. 7. ●4 uncleane the seed of the serpent farre from safety Job 5.4 God will make their plagues wonderfull Deut. 28.59 c. And by this appeares that there is a broader difference between the children of beleevers and of unbeleevers then that beleevers have the meanes of knowledge for their children Besides many unbeleevers as Papists and open profane persons among us have the meanes of knowledge for their children and so between them and the children of beleevers is no difference nor the condition of the children of beleevers better then of unbeleevers Into what a bottomlesse pit of absurd opinions doth the spirit of error hurry men that turne from the truth and forsake it Ob. It is further objected That this ordinance is not appointed for children Sol. To which I answer First That God includes the children of beleevers in the Covenant Secondly To whom the Covenant belongs the seale belongs b They ●hat have the th●●g signifi●● may not be denied the signe ●f capable of it 〈◊〉 47. A●t ● 7 They hav●ng the lik● 〈◊〉 and promise as we to deny th●m baptisme is to withstand God all Gods Covenants are sealed Covenants Thirdly The children of beleevers are capable of this

breake the constant rule of right interpretation and construction to support their fancy The Scriptures are one intire body of truth Joh 17.17 Thy word is truth and therefore construction must not be made by fraction upon any part of it touching any question raised out of it alone but upon all matters concerning it compared together and therefore we are to search the Scriptures and compare spirituall things with spirituall things Take all the holy Scriptures together concerning Sacraments and it cleerely appeares that when God instituted them in his Church he declared his mind that the children of the Church should be partakers of them as Gen. 17.7 10. of Circumcision the Sacrament then of initiation and regeneration and of the Passeover Exod. 12.16 47. the then Sacrament of edification every soule in the house all the Congregation were to eate it After by the Gospell in the institution of Baptisme there is no change made save only in the outward element water washing for the fore-skins circumcising no word of altering the persons to partake in it as appeares expresly Joh. 1.33 God sent John to baptise with water Here the element and outward matter of the Sacrament of regeneration is altered but no more by the institution no word of altering the persons so as they remaine as before to be determined by the generall rule at first common to all Sacraments But in the institution of the Lords Supper there is made not only a change of the outward matter but also an alteration and limitation of the persons and children excluded and all that examine not and judge themselves and discerne not the Lords body Certainely if the Lord had intended any alteration or restraint of persons in the institution of Baptisme he would have spoken it out as he doth in the institution of the Lords Supper and his silence therein may satisfie any sober spirit that it never came into his mind But these men looke only upon the actuall dispensation of this Sacrament of Baptisme by the Baptist and by the Apostles upon persons of full age expresly recorded and not upon the rules of the Scriptures compared as afore-said nor doe they consider the reason and rule of those practises It appeares expresly that those recorded practises were upon proselites new converts added to the Church and newly brought to the faith of the Gospell and with them they proceeded by the rule concerning proselites set downe Ezek. 47.22 they gave them a portion in the inheritance of the Church and made them partakers of the priviledges thereof can any conclude hence that they intended hereby to disseise the children of the Church and to disinherit them and divest them of the Covenant or seale to which they were borne Certainly no There is enough in the Covenant of grace and priviledges of the Church for both the natives and the stranger that by his profession and conversion is added to the Church To preach to infidels before they be baptised is necessary because else a seale is put to a blanck but to baptise the infants of beleevers is to put the seale to the Covenant as much as it is to baptise professors of full age such infants having the same right as professors These men cleerely erre by not observing the difference between natives of the Church and those that are forreiners and strangers to be received into the Church and by not conferring the whole body of the Scriptures concerning Sacraments to find out the mind of God in this businesse what is the ground whereupon the Church under the Gospell receives women to partake in the Supper of the Lord for which they have neither precept nor example in the new Testament no more then we have for Infant-baptisme Certainly none but that God commanded their partaking in the Passeover * Exod. 12. ●● ●● and thereby declared them to be persons to whom he would have Sacraments administred if they were capable thereof and of this they are capable and nothing in the new institution and alteration induced by the Gospell excludes them Ob. But some object further That there is an expresse declaration of Gods will concerning persons in the institution of baptisme Mat. 28.19 G●● teach all nations baptising them c. from which they inferre that none are to be baptised but those that are taught and therefore only persons of discretion Sol. To which I answer That cleerely here is no institution of Baptisme which was instituted long before Joh. 1. 33. God sent John the Baptist to baptise with water and Jesus Christ that gave this command was himselfe before this baptised Mat. 3. 16. and the Apostles to whom he spake this had baptised before Joh. 4. 2. Secondly It cannot be intended that these two duties of the Ministeriall office preach and baptise should be inseperable in regard of the persons in whom they determine that the same persons that partake not in the one should not be partakers of the other or that those that partake in the one should necessarily partake in the other John baptised Jesus Christ though he did not preach unto him and it is apparantly absurd that Ministers must baptise all they preach unto whether they receive their preaching or not and it is as manifestly absurd that Ministers must deny baptisme to them that by the word have right unto it because they have not preached unto them for it is the right unto it not preaching to them that determines to whom it is to be given and such exposition is to be made of Scripture and of all writings as absurditie may be avoided Thirdly The true sense and scope of this place of Scripture is plainly no more but first to inlarge the Apostles commission which was given them before Mat. 10.5 to all nations at first limited to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and secondly to injoyne them to attend principally and with great care and heed the two principall duties of their office preaching the word and administring the Sacraments and whosoever extends it further apparantly wrongs and abuses it Ob. It is further objected That the words Mat. 28.19 where the Apostles are commanded to teach and baptise all nations in the originall tongue import that they were to baptise none but whom they made disciples and then Infants are excluded Sol. To which I answer The words upon which this cavill and criticisme is grounded are two the one translated * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teach which they would have to meane make disciples and pretend that it ought to be so translated and the other is them which is of the Masculine gender and cannot in Grammaticall construction agree with the word Nations going before being of the Neuter gender and therefore must refer to the word disciples implied in the Verbe usually translated teach In both which it seems to me very evident that they are greatly if not wilfully mistaken For though the word may signifie to teach and to make disciples