Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	apostle_n	faith_n	grace_n	1,407	5	5.8253	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94733	An apology or plea for the Two treatises, and appendix to them concerning infant-baptisme; published Decemb. 15. 1645. Against the unjust charges, complaints, and censures of Doctor Nathanael Homes, Mr Iohn Geree, Mr Stephen Marshall, Mr John Ley, and Mr William Hussey; together with a postscript by way of reply to Mr Blakes answer to Mr Tombes his letter, and Mr Edmund Calamy, and Mr Richard Vines preface to it. Wherein the principall heads of the dispute concerning infant-baptism are handled, and the insufficiency of the writings opposed to the two treatises manifested. / By Iohn Tombes, B.D.	Tombes, John, 1603?-1676.	1646 (1646)	Wing T1801; Thomason E352_1; ESTC R201072	143,666	170

begin at the removing it And it is easie to conceive that forasmuch as the grosse ignorance of people is much occasioned by their baptizing afore they know that if they were not baptized till they knew christian Religion as it was in the first ages grosse ignorance in christian professours would be almost wholly reformed and for christian walking if baptisme were administred with a solemn abrenunciation profession and promise by the baptized in his own person upon that were baptized I doubt not but it would have more aw on mens consciences then many other means used or devised considering how in the primitive times men differred baptisme for feare they might not enjoy their lusts and they were counted by some as guilty of inexpiable crime that fell away after baptisme and on the other side infant-baptisme is the ground upon which innumerable people ignorant and profane harden themselves as if they were good christians regenerate and should be saved without holinesse of life never owning or considering any profession or promise made for them as theirs There have been other suggestions hinted by Mr Geree but amplified in clancular whisperings concerning my former conformity to ceremonies and Episcopall government which are carried about in private to render me a person suspected and to lessen the credit of my writing the chiefe part of which I have answered in my Sermon intituled Fermentum Pharisaeorum and the time end necessity manner and circumstances in doing what I did being pleas sufficient to acquit me and the things not belonging to the present cause but being fitter for private audience I will trouble the Reader no further with my Apology assuring my selfe that setting aside this opinion of paedobaptisme and common infirmities my life labours doctrine even in the judgement of those that dissent from me and knew me will abundantly answer for me against all clancular whisperings whatsoever And concerning my two treatises8 notwithstanding Mr Ley's censure passed perhaps afore he had compared mine and my Antagonists writings together I may rather say that by my two treatises there is such a wound given already to Infant-baptisme that however men may play the Mountebanks and skin it over it will never be cured at the bottome For in point of antiquity it still stands good which I asserted That Infant-baptisme is not so ancient as is pretended as now taught is a late Innovation that a great number of those that sought reformation in the thirteenth Century opposed infant-baptisme that the doctrine of Anti-paedobaptisme neither undermines Magistracy Ministery Lords day nor any true interest of the infants of beleevers that the argument from the Covenant to the Seale is either a tautology or invalid without a command that the Covenant made with Abraham Gen. 17. was a mixed Covenant having in it not onely promises of spirituall benefits common to all beleevers but also peculiar promises concerning things temporall that Acts 2. 39. being meant of Christ and saving benefits by him as Master Marshall confesseth cannot serve Master Marshals turn to prove his second conclusion which he denies to be meant of the promise of saving grace as if it were made to beleevers and their naturall seed As for Master Marshals paraphrase which he calls argument pag. 129. 130. of his Defenc● I think it to bee most absurd in that it makes the promise Acts 2. 39. when applyed to the Fathers to be meant of justification when to the children of outward administrations nor so expounded are the words true there being no such promise That Rom. 11. 16. c. proves not that there is the same Church state in the Churches of the Gentiles that was in the Jewes so as that the Infants of Beleevers should by vertue of naturall generation be reckoned as visible members forasmuch as now the Church is not nationall as it was then nor gathered as God did the Jewish Church by taking the whole nation for his people in one day but now the Church of God is gathered by preaching up and down some in one place and some in another in succession of time That 1 Cor. 7. 14. speakes not of federall holinesse but matrimoniall yea if the reason of the lawfulnesse of the living of two persons together in disparity of Religion be taken from the vertue of faith in the one party not from the relation of husband and wife as Mr Marshals exposition makes it the medium of the Apostle to prove the lawfulnesse of the living of a beleeving wife with an unbeleeving husband will as well prove the lawfulnes of the living of a beleeving forni●atrix with an unbeleeving fornicator as may appeare by a syllogisticall analysis of the Apostles argument the major whereof is this according to Mr Marshals exposition That man and wo●an may lawfully dwell together notwithstanding the unbeleefe of the one party whereof one is sanctified by the faith of the other for begetting of a holy seed this is manifestly the force of the Apostles reason after his exposition Nor is it necessary to insert being husband and wife sith the sanctification is not ascribed by him to the relation of husband and wife but to the faith of the one party as the proper cause of it And by Mr Blake Birth priviledge pag. 11. Holinesse in the text is a fruit or result of faith in the parent Now the assumption the unbeleeving form catour is sanctified by the faith of the ●eleeving whore for the begetting a holy seed Master Marshall denies not but salkes only telling me pag. 163 of his Defence he could name Divines who are no whit infer●●ur to my selfe who conceive that a beleever even then when he commits fornication with an infidell doth so remove the barre in the unbeleeving party as that the child is in the beleeving parents right to be r●ckoned to belong to the Covenant of Grace and the Church of God which is in his sense to be sanctified and it must needs be granted for 〈◊〉 causa ponitur effectus if the quality of faith be the cause of that sanctification the sanctification followes in one as well as the other The conclusion then followes from Mr Marshals exposition that the beleeving fornicatrix may still live after conversion with her unbeleeving fornicator for they are still sanctified for the begetting of a holy seed and the children so begotten are federally holy it being Gods rule in this case if Mr Marshall say true partus sequitur meliorem partem But this is so absurd a thing that I beleeve Mr Marshall himselfe will when he understands it quit his chiefe hold and the judicious reader explode the exposition of 1 Cor. 7. 14. of federall holinesse And for the third conclusion of Mr Marshall he hath not yet proved that the rite of Baptisme was appointed by Christ to succeed into the room place and use of circumcision or that a command concerning circumcision should be a command concerning baptisme yea my exposition of Colos 2. 11 12. is

containes either the manner or the matter of my Treatises The defence of the matter of them is the chiefest thing and is first in my intention But the clearing of my selfe from some complaints or charges in the manner of handling the whole businesse is so necessary for the removing of prejudices which would prevent reading and entertaining my writings and do undermine my present station that I am constrained first to plead for my selfe before I engage further in the Controversie wherefore I shall answer those charges by themselves apart that so the main question may be discussed by it selfe First Doctor Homes in his Epistle to the Reader hath these words Meane while I could not but lament the untimely birth of Master T. his Exercitation and his unnecessary falling intravell with it after at least sixe able Brethren and above so many daies by nervous disputation had given him so much Cause to doubt of his Ten●t or at least a while to suspend it And this hath been by sundry persons objected to me that the publishing my Booke was extreamly unseasonable Two reasons are implyed in Doctor Homes his words to insinuate that it was untimely because it was unnecessary Secondly because it was after such a nervous disputation as he mentions To that of needlesnesse I answer If it were necessary to maintaine Truth though generally opposed when few or none were willing to appeare for it and speciall providence called me out to do it if it were necessary to endeavour the preventing of unjust persecution for holding a Truth to which in Sermons and other waies Law-makers and Magistrates were every where instigated if it were necessary when the people of God were perplexed about a poynt of conscience that pertaines to their continuall practice and disputation in publike was declined to endeavour the bringing of Truth to light if it were necessary for a man to keep the solemne Covenant he hath by oath bound himselfe to though it were to his great hazzard if it were necessary in a time of Reformation for a Minister of the Gospell to do what belonged to him to further it if it be necessary for a Minister of the Gospell to provide for the giving of his account at the day of Jesus Christ then it was necessary for me to fall in travell with my Exercitation and examen for all these ends and ties concurred in the writing and publishing of my Treatises And therefore I am assured that what I did was so necessary that had I not done what I did I should neither have been faithfull to Christ nor to his people nor to the State nor to my own soule I confesse my Book was untimely published in reference to my own preferment and outward peace I saw few or none regarded for clearing of Truth but popular Orators such as relate to great men or are usefull to uphold a Party are the men esteemed I could not expect any other then opposition to my opinion being against such a stream of men But I feared that of our Lord Christ He that is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinfull Generation of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his glory with his holy Angels How nervous the disputation he mentions was I suppose the Doctor knowes not but by report forasmuch as I never perceived him present at it The strength and substance of all the Arguments as well as my memory who was then the respondent could beare them away was faithfully digested by me in my Exercitation which was composed not long after in part upon occasion of that disputation In which disputation I was so farre from finding cause to doubt of my Tenet that I professe sincerely both that disputation and the severall Answers of my learned Antagonists and reverend brethren Doctor Homes and Master Geree and Master Marshall have giuen me lesse cause to doubt of my Tenet especially sith Master Marshall Pag. 116. of his Defence saies it was never asserted by him That the C●venant of saving Grace is made to Beleevers and their naturall seed and Pag. 92. The command is the cause of the existence of the duty but the Covenant of Grace is the motive to it and Pag. 182. he grants that the formall reason which is the adequate reason of the Iewes being Circumcised was the command of God the Covenant of Grace or their Church-state he only makes the motive to it and the thing it related to which with many more concessions in his Defence and the others Answers I doubt not but if the Lord vouchi●ase me time and liberty to improve to the overthrow of his first and maine Argument and the inference he makes from the Texts of Scripture he brings to confirme it and consequently his whole Cause as he himselfe confesseth in his Sermon Pag. 26. And for giving me cause to suspend my 〈◊〉 if he mean by suspension stifling my doubts in mine own bosome and never imparting them to learned men for resolution it had been in my apprehension extreame imprudence if not stupidity to have let slip the opportunity of making known the reasons of my doubts in this juncture of time in which by Covenant the State was engaged to settle worship Catechizing confession of faith discipline according to Gods Word to each of which this point is of no small moment if he meane by suspending my Tenet the not printing my writings neither am I justly to be blamed therein considering how long I waited and yet never received any resolution and after I say not a moneth only but ten moneths at least waiting for an answer about my motion to Master Marshall in the Epilogue of my Examen it was plainly rejected And though Master Marshall excuseth himselfe by relating that I declared to him that I could and that I intimated to him I would keep the opinion private to my selfe in which either his memory or his apprehension were defective and therefore took no further thought of examining my Treatises yet I suppose it concerned Master Marshall for many reasons to have contrived some course for my satisfaction or the abatement of height of pride and confidence which the perturbation of his mind rather then the true intelligence of my spirit in that businesse made him imagine in my writings As for the unseasonablenesse in politicke respects though I do not take upon me in●ight therein yet so farre as my reason is able to discerne it could never have come more seasonably to have a matter of such moment discussed while Reformation and Lawes confirming it were yet in fieri all men knowing that it is too late to speake when the Legislative power hath fully enacted a Law And whereas Master Marshall saies he verily thought I would have 〈◊〉 q●iet by down preached kept my opinion to my self and not have any further appeared especially at this time to encrease the flame of 〈…〉 I answer For my quiet sitting