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A79541 Christian consolations taught from five heads in religion I. Faith. II. Hope. III. The Holy Spirit. IV. Prayer. V. The Sacraments. Written by a learned prelate. Learned prelate. 1671 (1671) Wing C3943A; ESTC R232695 66,056 242

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new Creature and to perfect holiness without which no man shall see God 4. Fourthly I have assurance that the Spirit is not disjoyned from the Water for Christs Word cannot sail that we shall be Baptized with the Holy Ghost But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1. Cor. 6.11 The power given to keep the Covenant makes it a Covenant of Grace else we shall administer but the Letter and not the Spirit The outward act of man unless we make our selves unworthy is certainly assisted with the increase of God If the good effect ensue not the Sacrament doth not want its vertue but the receiver marr'd it Very much it s to be ascribed to the Word preacht it is a powerful means to convert us and to save us 1 Tim. 4.15 Take heed unto thy doctrine for in doing this thou shalt save thy self and them that hear thee And 1 Pet. 1.23 Being born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth in you The Word disposeth and prepares God is the efficient cause of our Regeneration Now this Sacrament whether we speak of Infants they are to call to mind how they received the outward Seal of Grace or whether we speak of Converts of ripe years who at the same time were taught the vertue of it it hath reason to work more powerfully and effectually upon their knowledge and affections than doctrine alone because Christ and his Benefits are manifested in a sensible operation which himself did dignifie in his own person at the waters of Jordan and afterward institute it to be used by all his Disciples 5. The fifth thing that I draw from hence gives me exceeding Consolation in Christ that no man who is made the Child of God is in the damnable state of sin therefore in Baptism being made the adopted Child of God I have obtained the pardon of all sins Original and Actual as Naaman was cured of all his leprosie Who saved us by the washing of Regeneration Tit. 3.6 Be Baptized every one of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins Acts 2.38 So Ananias said to Paul Acts 22.16 Arise and be Baptized and wash away thy sins Yea but some will cavil Infants have not Faith and God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through Faith in his Bloud and he that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved Mark 16.16 I will not contend about it whether Baptized Infants have a secret imperceptible habit of Faith I am sure there is Innocency of life in them instead of Faith They that are of Age to come to the knowledge of Faith must bring their own Faith with them to the Font but for Infants they have priviledge to be in Church-communion by the Faith of the Church wherein they were born There is another contest made by some that notwithstanding Baptism Original sin remains in us all the days of our life True the sin is not blotted out in the Infant but it is blotted out of the Book of God And as Actual sins are pardon'd for Christ's sake yet it cannot be brought about that they should never be done which are done and past but it is enough that they shall not be imputed so Original sin cleaves unto us it is not cast out for I feel it in me but it is remitted 6. For the complement of this subject the largest and the longest Comfort flowing from the Grace of Baptism is That we are to rely upon the Covenant made between God and us therein for the remission of all our sins which we commit after Baptism unto the end of our life Far be it from me to say that it sufficeth us to cast our eyes back to the Covenant then made as if the bare and historical memory of it did suffice to blot out sins that 's but an empty flash and a vapour of presumption But this I say Build upon the Eternity and Infallibility of God's Truth and then by a true and sure-grasping Faith joyn'd with Repentance renew your self in God's mercies by the promise of the Old Baptismal Covenant Repentance is a condition never to be omitted to lift us up again when we have been overtaken with sins But Faith doth not comfort it self in the sincerity of Repentance which in us is ever imperfect but in Christ's merits once for all consigned to us in Baptism For the Scriptures speak indefinitely that the Laver of Regeneration purgeth away all our sins it doth not speak restrictively of sins past as if it did operate no longer than in that moment when the water is sprinkled For Baptism doth now at the very present time save us 1 Pet. 3.21 And some collect it out of that figurative place Ezek. 49.9 Every thing where the Waters do come shall live After a shower of rain is fallen and ceaseth the grass continues to grow By grievous and presumptous sins we debar our selves from the sense and comfort of the Covenant for the present yet when we repent we come not to make a new Covenant with God but to beseech him to be gracious to us for the old Covenants sake As an Adulteress if she be received again and pardon'd by her Husband is not new married but accepted for a wife upon the first contract of marriage Take some examples of those in the New Testament that sinned against God and in their return again did not suppose the first Covenant of Baptism to be abolisht but they comforted themselves that the mercies promised then would hold firm and not fail them St. Paul challengeth the Corinthians Chap. 6. Epist 1. that they had been Adulterers Effeminate and much of the like Yet Verse 11. he speaks thus to them Ye are washed sanctified justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus In the same manner he deals with the Galatians who had embraced much false doctrine mingled Judaism with the Gospel yet Chap. 3. Verse 27. As many of you as are Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Can any thing equal all these heart-refreshings that swim in the pool of Baptism Therefore in many Ages past the joy of the Neophytes was excessive that came to be Baptized Many Torches were lighted and carried before them to shew it was the day of their illumination They came in white garments and wore them constantly eight days together a most Festival habit Yet they affected too much to defer their Baptism till their elder nay their latest years out of the erroneous principle that Baptism was the healing water for the remission of sins past and they rather relied upon Repentance than upon the Baptism which they had received for the remission of sins that did follow Whereas Repentance is not a new paction with God but a return to the use of the old a restitution as it were to our bloud when we had been tainted by
God and of Christ compassed with innumerable Angels St. Paul says no less Rom. 8.23 We that have the first fruits of the Spirit groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of the body Here are groans and sighs indeed but we shall never be Sea-sick with that easie tossing having Hope as an anchor of our Soul Heb. 6.19 Hope of the right stamp looking for the appearance of God and the reward that he brings with him hath a good Mate that goes together with it and that 's Patience In the saddest book of the Scripture Lamen 3.26 it is written It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Which that it may not be wanting we must contend for it in prayer as it is 2 Thess 3.5 The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the patient waiting for Christ And it is no difficult thing to be perswaded For when we are held off for a while from the inheritance of Heaven do we not attend God's leisure and will the handmaid wait for her Mistress being in some degrees of place above her and shall not the Creature stay the leisure of the Creator so infinite above us Beside the patient expectation of the recompence will increase the recompence and make it more superlative therefore let not him that believes make haste Isa 28.16 Nay so your Spirit will be patient the Lord will allow you your importunity to call upon him to hasten My strength haste thee to help me Psal 22.19 Finally stay for that contentedly which when it comes it comes but once and shall abide for ever III. Another degree upon which Hope steps higher is this that her aim is possible I have said how that which is proposed to it is good that it is not disconsolate though it be in futurition and not yet obtain'd for it is too good to be yet obtained if patience have its perfect work it can attend chearfully My soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him Psal 62.5 Strike we therefore pleasantly upon this third string that the past object of divine Hope is to be accomplisht For I run not as uncertainly I fight not as one that beateth the air 1 Cor. 9.26 Paul did do all things and suffer all things for that which is seizable and might be atchieved The covetous is a projector for so much wealth as can never be gotten The Epicure longs for so much pleasure as can never be enjoy'd Great Clerks and Philosophers seek for so much knowledge as can never be found which in Isaiahs words is to spend mony for that which is not bread and to labour for that which doth not satisfie Chap. 55.2 This is able to break the brain and to break the heart for there is no labour to lost labour But the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life Prov. 11.30 His Hope stands upon a sound bottom it is all comfort for three Reasons First it is possible because it comes from an Infinite power 2. Because it is derived from Infinite love and goodness 3. It hath abundant satisfaction from long and constant experience and what can we desire more 1. The first pillar that props it up is the Almightiness of God Abba Father all things are possible to thee says our Saviour Mark 14.16 Talk not to me how the Seas should be turned into dry Land or how the poor can be raised up to be set with the Princes of the people or how stones can be raised up to be children of Abraham or how palsies and fevers can be cured with a word I will stop all gaps of infidelity with this one bush That God is able to do it He that is made by no Cause cannot be confined in his Being and he that hath no bounds in his Being can have no bounds and restriction in his Power And if any fancy start out of our weak brain to cavil that somewhat is impossible to God it is soberly spoken by one that it were better to say that this could not be done than that God could not do it There is no possibility therefore for Christian Hope to despair because all things are possible to God There is no Horizon under Heaven or above Heaven that Hope cannot look beyond it For that comfort that is commensurable with the strength and power of God is as large as can be contained in the heart of a creature But if you lean upon the help of men and hosts and Angels they are slender reeds and will give you a fall as God said of the vain trust of the Jews They shall be ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation Isa 20.5 How many do I see to sink under a little sorrow because they have too much temporal comfort the world is too liberal to them it hath given them of all things so largely that they have not the patience to want any thing As God told Gideon that he had too much of Man in his Army to depend upon the Almighty for victory and he bad him retain but the thirtieth part and his foes should flye before him Jud. 7.4 Throw all the miserable comforts of the world out of doors for rubbish and cast your self upon the strength of God and upon that alone and then say Lord receive me for I have driven all other solace from me that I might enjoy thee alone now I am ready for my Saviour for there is none to help me but only thou O Lord. 2. Secondly That which holy Hope hath in its prospect is possible not only for the Infiniteness of power but for the Infiniteness of the mercy of our God 'T is easie to get the favour of a gracious and a gentle nature among the sons and daughters of men and the most generous are the most reconcilable Then what possibility nay what readiness will Hope find to be reconciled to God merciful gracious long-suffering abundant in goodness and truth Exod. 34.6 The Devil is not more frequent nor more strong in any temptation than to undermine Hope in this point that it is too forward and too peremptory to expect remission of sins fain he would have a tender Conscience stick in this mire and never get out of it Some Reverend writers go so far to teach that Satan himself at first when he began his mischief in Paradise was of opinion that sin could not be forgiven it being his own case and that he would never have tempted Eve to disobedience if he had imagin'd the eating of the forbidden fruit could be pardoned not suspecting that God would have given his only Son to die for our redemption Which I pass by because it depends upon a grave question whether God could pardon sin by his absolute power without satisfaction made to his Justice Deep disputings will yield but shallow comforts Of this we are assured that the means which the Father appointed are excellent into which 1 Pet.