Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	doctrine_n	read_v	2,665	5	6.2970	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45681	Infant baptism God's ordinance, or, Clear proof that all the children of believing parents are in the covenant of grace and have as much a right to baptism the now seal of the covenant, as the infant seed of the Jewes had to circumcision, the then seal of the covenant / by Michael Harrison ...	Harrison, Michael, Minister at Potters-Pury.	1694 (1694)	Wing H905; ESTC R9581	26,416	65

INFANT BAPTISM God's Ordinance OR CLEAR PROOF That all the Children of Believing Parents are in the Covenant of Grace And have as much a right to Baptism the now Seal of the Covenant as the Infant Seed of the Jews had to Circumcision the then Seal of the Covenant Rom. 16. 17 18. I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple By MICHAEL HARRISON Minister of the Gospel in P's P. LONDON Printed for Thom. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market 1694. To all into whose hands this may fall especially those who sit under my Ministry Dear Friends THERE are two things which do most evidently prove man by nature a lost Creature The one is the exceeding propensity and inclination in the heart of every man to actual sin Psal 58.3 Job 15.16 Though every man is not actually guilty of every sin yet is there not a sin in the world but is seminally and vertually in every one's Nature The other is that strange infatuation the Vnderstanding lieth under and its proneness to mistake darkness for light damnable and deformed Errors for beautiful and saving Truths And that which is saddest of all a tenacious adherence to and a resolved perseverance in these by-paths of Error is very oft a mournful consequence that follows them Now as these two things do shew the fearful ruines and miserable condition of all by Nature So there are two things which all Gospel-ministers should vehemently urge upon their people as effectual remedies against so dangerous and pernicious a malady The one is the absolute and indispensible necessity of the new birth Joh. 3.3 Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God This new birth is no less than a renovation of all the Powers and Faculties of the Soul a putting off the old man and a putting on Christ a changing that heart into a new gracious tender heart that was by nature an old unbelieving stony heart any thing that persons rest in short of this new birth is short of Salvation The other is soundness of judgment in the Doctrine of Christ it is not like that the Life should be holy if the Vnderstanding be corrupt there are damnable Principles as well as damnable Practices 2 Pet. 2.1 Indeed all Erroneous Opinions are not alike dangerous such as strike at the fundamental Articles of Christianity are most deadly such as err in lesser Points are not in so much danger Therefore as the more fundamental and noble a Doctrine is the more earnestly should we contend for it so the more directly any Erroneous Opinion subverts same fundamental Truth the more zeal and indignation we should shew against it as also the greater care to antidote our selves and others against it Now amongst those Erroneous Doctrines that have been like pricking Briars and wounding Thorns ever since the beginning of the Reformation to the Protestant Churches those wild and Erroneous Doctrines that have been broached by the Antipedo Baptists on Anabaptists have not created the least trouble to the Church of Christ but have been a perpetual vexation and trouble to all our godly Reformers as is evident by the sad complaints of those godly men in their Books as who will but read the Works or Lives of Calvin Luther Zuinglius Melancton Oeculampadius Musculus c. and our English Divines may be abundantly satisfied The danger many of you were in of being sucked in among the Anabaptists or at least to join with them in excluding your Infants from Baptism the Seal of the Covenant was that which first put me upon preaching upon this Subject and it is the earnest request of several of you that makes me consent to the Printing of it The Sermons you have lately heard upon this Text have been glory to Free Grace of admirable use to establish and settle those of you that were staggering in this Doctrine that whereas there was many scruples in many persons about Infant Baptism yet now there are very few if any of those that constantly frequent this Congregation but have attained great satisfaction As God that knows my heart can testify for me that it is not yours but you that I seek your present holiness and eternal happiness so my greatest joy amongst you will be to find that my labour is not in vain that you are gained to Christ and joined to him by so firm a faith as the gates of Hell may never prevail against I bless God for that encouragement I have had amongst you many of you that sprung from Parents of the opposite Persuasion having so chearfully listed your selves in Christ's Service and by receiving Christ's Press-money have more solemnly engaged your selves to be his Servants for ever And that so many of you and many even of adult age have thought it their honour to be catechised in the Publick Congregation which I hope will be followed by many others In short Your exceeding willingnss to wait on the Ministry with those saving impressions which I hope God hath made on many of your hearts are to me a ground of hope that what is so hopefully begun amongst you will be as comfortably finished in the glory of God and your Eternal Salvation If any demand a reason why one who willingly acknowledges himself to be the unfittest of a thousand hath attempted this work which hath been so well performed by several abler Pens I only answer That what others have done being either too voluminous or Answers to other Books were therefore not so proper Besides they that know my Circumstances the confident repeated Challenges the restless Insinuations of the Anabaptists together with the various Attempts that the Persons of that Persuasion have made to ensnare and draw away my Hearers though I bless God with no success to their own way will see that I lay under a kind of necessity for what I have done Christian study thy own heart love all that fear God though differently persuaded in some lesser things And pray for him who desires to serve thee in our common Saviour Michael Harrison INFANT BAPTISM GOD'S Ordinance GEN. 17.7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant To be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee GOD having in Gen. 12.3 promised Abraham that in him all nations should be blessed comes now in this 17th Chapter in a more express and formal manner to establish his Covenant with Abraham In which observe three things 1. The Persons covenanting 1. Ex parte Dei God stands on the one side of the Covenant O the Infinite Condescention of the Great God to take any notice of lost Sinners that when we had broken the First