Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	christian_a	church_n	world_n	5,052	5	4.5521	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26864	Rich. Baxters apology against the modest exceptions of Mr. T. Blake and the digression of Mr. G. Kendall whereunto is added animadversions on a late dissertation of Ludiomæus Colvinus, aliaà Ludovicus Molinæs̳, M. Dr. Oxon, and an admonition of Mr. W. Eyre of Salisbury : with Mr. Crandon's Anatomy for satisfaction of Mr. Caryl.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1654 (1654)	Wing B1188; ESTC R31573	194,108	184

is as it were engaged to man in the Covenant of Grace and that it is dangerous to make God to be in actual Covenant with men in the state of nature though the conditional covenant may be made to them and though he have revealed his decree for the sanctifying his elect but he is supposed to dispence his mercies to the unregenerate freely as Dominus absolutus or as Rector supra leges and not by giving them a Legal or Covenant-right And indeed in my opinion the Transition is very easie from Mr. Blakes opinion to Arminianism if not unavoidable save by a retreat or by not seeing the connexion of the Consequents to the Antecedent For grant once that common Faith doth coram Deo give right to baptism and it is very easie to prove that it gives right to the end of baptism God having not instituted it to be an emptie sign to those that have true Right to it And it will be no hard matter to prove that it is some special Grace that is the end of Baptism at lest Remission of sin And so upon the good use of common Grace God should be in Covenant obliged to give them special Grace which is taken for Pelagianism §. 53. WHen I had Replyed thus far to Mr. Blake I was much moved in my minde to have Replyed to his answer to Mr. Firmin on the like subject and also to have then proved that the children have no Right to baptism except the immediate Parent be a believer for the sake of any of his Ancestors and that the children of Apostates and wilfull obstinate wicked livers should not be baptized as theirs and to have answered what Mr. Bl. hath said to the contrary and this meerly in love to the Truth lest the reputation of man should cloud it and in love to the Church and the lustre of the Christian name lest this fearful gap should let in that pollution that may make Christianitie seem no better then the other Religions of the world For I fear this loose Doctrine of Baptism will do more 〈◊〉 the pollution of the Church then others loose Doctrine of the Lords Supper or as much But I am very loth to go any further in Controversie then I shall be necessitated And if Mr. Firmin be living I conjecture by his writings that he is able easily to vindicate his own words Not that I have low thoughts of the abilities and worth of my dear and Reverend friend Mr. Blake but that I take his answers on those subjects to be very dilute si pace tanti viri ita dicam so great a disadvantage is an ill cause to the most learned man Mr. Firmin I know not any further then by his Book against Separation But in that Book I see so much Candor Ingenuitie Moderation Love to Peace and some convenient terms for Peace discovered that I am heartily sorrie that there are no more to second him and that his incitements to accommodation are no more laid to heart But the Peace-makers shall be blessed in the Kingdom of Peace how little soever they may succeed in this tumultuous world For as where envy and strife is contentious zeal there is confusion and every evil work so the fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace § 54. I Had thought also at the first view that it would have been necessary to have confuted Mr. Blakes 31. Chapt. when I found this Title A man in Covenant with God and received into the Vniversal Church Visible needs no more to give him accesss to and interest in particular Visible Churches But I know not whether he mean the access and interest of a stranger in passage or a Transient Member or of a fixed Member If of the latter I should have proved moreover that there is Necessary both his Cohabitation and his Consent to be a Member of that Church and his consent to submit to the particular Pastors of that Church as his Teachers and Spiritual Guides in the Lord. But I finde in the following pages Mr. Blake doth acknowledge all this himself I shall therefore pass on to some other subject only remembering Mr. Bl. that as it is not Number of Arguments but Weight that will carrie the Cause so it is not Number that I trust to and therefore if any one of those 26 Arguments foregoing be good though 25 be bad I must needs think the Cause bad which I argue against §. 55. Whether Faith and Repentance be Gods Works Mr Bl. CHap. 15. So Mr. Baxters Questionist qu. How do you make Faith and Repentance to be Conditions of the Covenant on our part seeing the bestowing of them is part of the condition on Gods part Can they be our Conditions and Gods too Answer c. And I shall not stand to distinguish of an Absolute and Conditional Covenant and so making the whole in the Absolute Covenant to be Gods and in the Conditional this part to be ours which I know not whether exactly understood the Scripture will bear but in plain term● deny that they are Gods Conditions and affirm them to be ours I know what God speaks in his Word concerning these works that He will write his Law in our hearts and put it into our inward parts that he will take away the heart of stone and give an heart of flesh which implyes this work of which we speak I know likewise what in particular is affirmed of Christ that he is the Author and Finisher of our Faith c. Yet all this rises not up higher to make them formally Gods acts and not ours Whose acts they be his Conditions they are this is evident But they are our acts we Believe and Repent it is not God that Believes it is not God that Repents c. Faith and Repentance are mans works not Gods works which man in Covenant does respective to salvation in the Covenant tendered But the Apostle some may say in the next words tells us That it is God that works the Will and the Deed. There he seems to take them from us and ascribes the formality of them to God In this Cooperation of Gods whether they be formally our works or Gods let Isaiah determine Isa 26.12 Thou hast wrought all our works in us When God hath wrought it the work is ours we have the reward c. § 55 R. B. MR Blakes business here is to confute the answer that I gave to that objection A brief Reply may easily satisfie this confutation 1. I did explain in what sense these were called Covenants shewing that that which is called the Absolute Covenant is in some respect no part of Gods Legislative Will and so doth not jus conferre but only part of his Decretive Will revealed but that in other respects it belongs to the Legislative Will and may be called an absolute promise And so the word Conditions applyed to God is taken for the thing promised improperly called a condition but applied

all is Doubtfull because so much is Doubted of Though the Tempter seems to be playing such a Game in the world God will go beyond him and turn that to Illustration and Confirmation which he intended for Confusion and Extirpation of the Truth You know it s no news to hear of some Ignorant Proud and Licentious of what Religion soever they be And this Trinity is the Creator of Heresies And as for the sober and Godly it is but in lesser things that they disagree and mostly about words and Methods more then Matter though the smallest things of God are not Contemptible He that wonders to see wise men differ doth but wonder that they are yet Imperfect and know but in part that is that they are yet Mortal sinners and not Glorified on Earth And such wonderers know not what man is and it seems are too great strangers to themselves And if they turn these differences to the prejudice of Gods Truth or dishonour of Godliness they shew themselves yet more unreasonable to blame the Sunne that men are purblinde And indeed were Pride and Passion laid aside in our Disputes and men could gently suffer contradiction and heartily love and correspond with those that in lower matters do gainsay them I see not but such friendly debates might edifie For your self Sir as you were a friend to sound Doctrine to Vnity and to Piety and to the Preachers Defenders and Practisers thereof while I converst with you and as fame informeth us have continued such so I hope that God who hath so long preserved you will preserve you to the end and he that hath been your Shield in corporal dangers will be so in spirituall Your great Warfare is not yet accomplished The Worms of Corruption that breed in our bowels will live in some measure till we die our selves Your Conquest of your self is yet Imperfect To fight with your self you will finde the hardest but most necessary Conflict that ever yet you were engaged in and to overcome your self the most honourable and gainfull Victory And think not that your greatest trials are all over Prosperity hath its peculiar Temptations by which it hath foiled many that stood unshaken in the storms of adversity The Tempter who hath had you on the waves will now assault you in the calm and hath his last game to play on the Mountain till nature cause you to descend Stand this Charge and you win the day To which as one that is faithful to you I shall acquaint you in a few words what his temptations are like to be and how you should resist them If you are already provided a Remembrancer will do you no harm 1. The first and great Assault will be to entice you to Overvalue your present Prosperity and to Judge the Creature to be better then it is and to grasp after a fulness of Honour and Wealth and then to say Soul take thy Rest As you love your Peace your Life your Soul your God take heed of this Judge of Prosperity as one that must go Naked out of the world Esteem of earthly Greatness and Glory as that which will shortly leave you in the dust Why should it be proper to Dying men to be Wise and to Judge truly of this world when all the living undoubtedly know that they must Die 2. At least the Tempter will perswade with you to enjoy your Prosperity to the satisfying of your flesh and tell you that the free use of the Creatures is your Christian Liberty and therefore you need not deny your selves those Delights that God affordeth you But remember that it is the seeming sweetness of the Creature that draws men from God The Pleasantest Condition is the most dangerous If ever you would have your soul Prosper make no provision for the flesh to satisfie its lusts A better man then any of us was fain to tame his body and bring it into subjection Mortification is a necessary but much neglected part of the Christian Religion 3. Should the Tempter prevail in these it would follow that God would be much forgotten former Engagements violated and the Invisible things of the Life to come would be seldom thought on and less esteemed O think on him that remembred you in your greatest straits It s a provoking sin to break those Engagements which depth of Extremity or Greatness of Deliverance did formerly constrain us to make with our God! Ingratitude makes a forfeiture of all we have And think not well of your own heart when you cannot think more sweetly of another world then of this It s unhappy prosperity that makes God to be more sleighted and the Glory to come more unsavoury to our thoughts and makes us say It is best to be here 4. Another dangerous Temptation that will attend these will be to disregard Christs Interest through an over-minding of their own To play your own game and lay out your chiefest care for your self and make Gods business to stoop unto your own Where this prevails the hearts of such are false to Christ While they pretend to serve him they do but serve themselves upon him They will honour Christ no longer then he will honour them And when they are once false to Christ they can be true to no one else Their friends are esteemed but as stepping stones to their Ends. When they can serve them no longer they reject them as unprofitable Ever Remember that man stands safest that espouseth no Interest contradictory to Christs I had almost said None but Christs For even Christs must be made his own and then his own will be Christs God is more engaged to secure his own Interest then ours There is no Policy therefore comparable to this to Engage most deeply where Christs chiefest Interest lieth and to Vnite our own to his in a just subordination He that will needs have a standing divided from Christ Independent on him or Equal with him much more in Opposition to him is sure to fall It will break the greatest Prince on Earth to espouse an Interest inconsistent with Christs when he doth but arise to plead his Cause Study therefore where Christs Interest most lieth and then devote all your own to the promoting of it and hold none that lives not as the Vine on the Wall or rather as the branch in the Vine in Dependance upon his And upon Enquiry you will finde that Christs Interest lies much in these two things the Piety and the Peace of his People The Reformation of his Churches and the Vniting of them at home and abroad are the greatest works that any can be Imployed in To which ends Gods chiefest means is an Able Godly Diligent Ministry to Teach and Rule his flocks according to his Word All the Interest that God hath Given you he expecteth should be speedily diligently and undeservedly imployed to these Ends. Delay not you have but your time Think it not enough to do no harm or no more good then those