Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	baptism_n	circumcision_n	infant_n	1,521	5	9.8764	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76088	The storming of the Anabaptists garrisons, vvith a brief discovery of the weaknesse of the same, & of the inconsiderableness of the sconces and forts of all the other sectaries, in despight and contempt of all the which, any Christian souldier may safely march to Heaven, without the least danger; ... In a word, in the insuing discourse, the vanity of all novell opinions is discovered, the ignorance of all the which can no way hinder any mans happinesse: and the baptisme of little children borne of Christian parents, whether Iewes or Gentiles, is proved by the word of God to be lawfull, ... / By Iohn Bastwick, Doctor in Physick.	Bastwick, John, 1593-1654.; Smart, Richard, fl. 1647.	1647 (1647)	Wing B1071; Thomason E390_23; ESTC R201542	43,659	52

be Papists and without any injury done unto them may so be called if their own practice and the practice of all times and Nations may be an authentick rule to goe by who from the holding of any one principall point of any Religion or Sect makes them to bee denominated from that Sect either Papists Presbyterians Independents or Anabaptists c. But now Master Smart to the matter in hand for farther satisfaction to you and all men as I have according to your desire declared unto you that I was never any Sectary or Anabaptist and what my opinion and judgement is concerning them So at this time I will briefly make known my opinion unto you concerning that point of difference passing by the rest betweene us and the Anabaptists who as you well know hold the baptizing of Infants borne of Christian Parents unlawfull upon these suppositions that there is neither Precept nor President for it in all Gods word and in regard as they say there is no manifestation of faith and repentance in Infants and in regard also that the children of Christian parents as they affirme are no more within the Covenant then the children of Turkes and Infidels and therefore in all these regards they assert they have no more right to Baptisme then Colts and Dogs c. In which their assertions I differ from them as in all their other tenents wherein they declare themselves divers from the doctrine received in all the reformed Protestant Churches And as for the Baptism of Infants born of Christian Parents I not only believe that they have as much as good right to it as the children of the Jewes had to Circumcision but that they being once baptized by our Ministers ought not to be rebaptized being better Christians then any Anabaptists and I not only believe that children of Christian Parents ought to be baptized but hope to prove that there is both Precept and Presidents and most excellent grounds for it in the word of God notwithstanding all the cavills of the Anabaptists and that not only under the Ministry of John the Baptist and the Apostles and Christs seventy Disciples before Christs death and Ascention but after and that they are all within the Covenant as well as the children of the Jewes were Which if I can by the word of God make good I am confident that those that will be guided by that rule will be satisfied and for such as will follow their wilde opinions I shall leave them to the righteous Judge But before I come to dispute this question I will take the liberty to say something by way of Preface to the following Discourse which will give some light to the whole businesse Therefore I shall desire you seriously to consider the Covenant that God made with Abraham and his seed and not only with Abraham but with all such strangers as should embrace the faith and doctrine of Abraham And to begin with Abraham in the seventeenth of Genesis God there established his Covenant with Abraham and with his seed after him in their generations to be a God unto him and his seed after him ver 7. and in the ninth ver he charges Abraham to keep his Covenant both he and his seed after him and in ver 10. he declareth what that Covenant is viz. that every man-child amongst them should be circumcised which the Lord ver 11. calls a token of the Covenant betwixt him and Abraham which Saint Paul Rom. 4. ver 11. calls the signe of Circumcision a seale of the righteousnesse of the faith which he had being yet uncircumcised c. And in the 12. 13. 15. verses God commands that every male child at eight dayes old should be circumcised he that is borne in the house or ●ought with money of any stranger which was not of his seed and that the soule should be cut off that brake that Covenant And in the eighteenth chapter speaking of him he saith Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I now do for I know that Abraham will command his children and his houshold after him to keepe the way of the Lord c. God knew well that Abraham would command his children and family to observe his Covenant and would not leave it to their owne wills whether they will keep it or not And in the twelfth of Exodus we shall find that God gave the same law to strangers and those that should become Proselites and embrace the Jewish Religion that he gave to Abraham himselfe the words are these ver 48. And when a stranger shall sojourne with thee and will keep the Passeover to the Lord let all his males be circumcised and then let him come neere and keep it and he shall be as one that is borne in the land for no uncircumcised person shall ●ate thereof One law shall be to him that is homeborne and unto the stranger that sojourneth amongst you By which it is apparantly evident that the same way of admission into the Church that was used for the ingraffing of those that were growne men ●nd converted from the heathenish religion should be used to those that were their children and of their houshold and under their command which lesson the people of God had well learned as wee may see in Joshua 24. who for himselfe and his family promised that he and his house would serve the Lord ver 15. Yea God made many lawes unto all Parents and Masters of Families to looke unto their children and those that were under them that they kept the commands of the Lord and did as he had b●d them as in the twentieth of Exodus where hee enjoynes all in authority that they and their sonnes and daughters and men servants and maid servants should keepe the commandements of God And in the fourth of Deut. and in the sixth Chapter of the same book and in the eleventh chapter and in many other places he commands all parents that they should teach their children at their rising up and lying downe and upon all occasions the statutes and ordinances of the Lord And this was practised not only by men and people of inferiour ranke but by Kings themselves as wee may see in David Prov. 4. ver 3. Who taught Salomon his son when he was tender and young And Salomon likewise carefully instructed his son and family as we may see through all the Proverbs And in the 22 chapter ver 6. he gives this law to all Israel to traine up their children in the way they should walke shewing the benefit of such education for the future saying that when they were old they would not depart from it Yea in many places he commands them if their children be refractory stubborne and disobedient to good counsell not to spare the rod. Yea God made a speciall law to all Israel Exod. 34. ver 23. and Deut. 16. ver 16. saying Three times in a yeare shall all thy males appeare before the Lord thy God in

whereas Christs yoake is easie and his burthen light ●f Christ himselfe may be beleeved Math. 11. ver 13. and therefore being Christians they are now in a farre better cond●tion and under a better covenant and more sure promises then they wre before which is yet more evident from the Apostle Paul in the second of the Cor. chap. the third who sayth God hath made us able ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit for the letter killeth saith he but the Spirit gives life And then comparing the Covenants together the Old and New though they were both glorious as he asserteth yet he affirmeth that the covenant of the New Testament is farre more glorious that being the ministration of the Spirit the other the ministration of death and concludes in the ninth verse if the ministration of condemnation be glory much more doth the ministration of righteousnesse exceed in glory and in the 18th verse he saith Wee all now with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. So that if we did but duly consider the whole scope of the Apostle in this chapter and in all his other Epistles we should find that he laboureth to set forth the great honour and dignity of Christians above the Jewes not only in regard of the more cleere manifestation of the will of God under the Gospell and freeing them from all those burdensome and painfull yea and costly ceremonies but in that they are in many respects preferred before them for whereas before the male children only and the males in families were to receive the Seale of Circumcision and that at a limited time Now by being Christians that difference is taken away and all the families of Christians both young and old men women and children are to be admitted after one and the same way according to that of Saint Paul Gal. the 4. ver 27. 28. 29. For as many of you saith he as have been baptized into Christ whether young or old have put on Christ there is neither Iew nor Greeke there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for yee are all one in Christ Iesus And if yee be Christs then are ye Abrahams seed and heires according to the promise Out of which words it is easie to gather not only that the believing Gentiles exceed the Iewes in many respects but that they are still in covenant with God and Abrahams seed and heires according to promise That is they have right to all the promises and are in covenant with God as well as Abrahams children were and therefore in all the former respects and from the very testimony of Saint Paul it is most evidently manifest that Christians and their children are under a better covenant and more sure promises by being Christians then the Jewes were but if according to the doctrine of the Anabaptists the children of Christians are not in covenant still with God and are not to be baptised they are inferiour to the Jewes and their children who were all baptized into Christ by Moses in the cloude and in the seas as Saint Paul 1 Cor. 10. ver 1. 2. 3. asserteth whose words are these Brethren I would not that yee should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloude and all passed through the Sea and were all baptized by Moses into Christ in the cloude and in the sea c. Now that children were there as well as men and women which some of the Anabaptists lately denyed it is apparant from the first of Exodus and from the 10th chapeer of the same Booke where it is related that Moses told Pharaoh that they must have their child●en as well as their men to goe to sacrifice in the Wildernesse and would not depart and leave Egypt without their children which from many more places may be proued as in the 14th of Numbers ver third where the people sayd Wherefore hath the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword that our wives and our children should be a prey c. For which their wicked and rebellious murmuring against God in the 30th verse the Lord saith unto them Doubtlesse ye shall not come into the land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein save Caleb the sonne of Iephunnieth and Ioshua the sonne of Nun. But your little ones which yee said should bee a prey them will I bring in and they shall know the land which yee have despised c. Out of all the which places it sufficiently appeareth that their little children were in the sea and in the cloude and were baptized by Moses as well as their men and women which the Anabaptists stifly deny Withall it may here be taken notice of that Baptisme or washing doth not alwayes signifie a dipping over head and eares For all our fathers were baptized into Christ by Moses in the Sea and yet they passed through the Sea on dry land as the story at large declareth the which also might be proved from many other witnesses of holy Writ but this I speake only by the way The maine thing in hand is to prove that Christians whether Jewes or Gentiles and their children are in no priviledges inferiour to the Jewes and their children which was ratified by all the places above quoted and that of Saint Peter Acts the 15th where he saith God put no difference betweene the beleeving Iewes and the beleeving Gentiles and that of Saint Paul Cor. 1. chap. 7. where hee asserteth that the children borne though of but one of the beleeving Parents are cleane and holy and out of the places in the 7th and 8th chapters of his Letter to the Hebrewes where he saith they are under a better Covenant and more sure promises better therefore every manner of way which it could not be if Christians and their children were not still in covenant with God as well as they and if they had not they and their children equall right to Baptisme as the Jewes and their children had to Circumcision and if they did not indeed exceed them in all priviledges which to deny is no better then to deny the Scripture and give the Spirit of God the lye for the Scripture saith that Christians and their children are within the Covenant and are both made one are holy and cleane and that there is no difference betweene the believing Gentiles and the very Apostles yea that Christians are under a better covenant and more sure promises all which truths the Anabaptists stifly deny and spend all their strength to fight against Now I appeale to any understanding Christian whether it be not great flattery in any man to stile the Anabaptist a harmlesse people If any amongst us should but rob his neighbour of a Calfe or a Sheep or of some of his Lambes or should but cause his cattell to

all such opinions as neither Christ not the Prophets nor the Apostles or any of the pen-men of holy Scripture have taught us The Scripture hath sufficiently taught us that this is life eternall to know the only true God and whom hee hath sent Jesus Christ Iohn the 17. ver 3. the knowledge of which any may attaine unto without the knowledge of them and their tenents And Paul disired to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him Crucified and counted all things as dung and drosse in comparison of the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ the Lord and left us for the ordering of our lives to follow the example of Christ in doing and suffering and the rule of the word Phil. 3. And the Scripture hath abundantly declared Acts the 2. that the City of people that receive the Word of God gladly and continue stedfastly in the doctrine of the Apostles and in breaking of Bread and prayer are the Disciples of Jesus Christ and a true Church as that of Ierusalem yea a true formed Church as the Independents themselves hold as is manifest in their Writings although at that time that they say it was a true formed Church it had neither Deacons nor Elders nor distinction of Members nor officers nor discipline or excommunication but they were all sed and governed by Pastors and Teachers in common as all the Primative Churches we read of were Now then what sinne or error is it in me or any at this day to beleeve that wheresoever amongst any people or in any City the Gospell is truly and faithfully preached embraced and believed by them whether by particular Ministers set over them severally which incertaine freemen or bonds or by Ministers in Common and where the Sacraments are duly administred and amongst whom there is the true invocation of God that that people so qualified is a true Church or Churches though there be amongst them neither distinction of members or officers nor that perfection of Discipline as is to be wished I desire I say any man to shew me what error or sin it is in me to believe that any such peop●e so qualified is a true Church for we have the prime and Mother Church the Church of Jerusalem for a patterne of a true Church and so called in the holy Scripture and so esteemed of by the Independents themselves at that time when they only believed and imbraced the Gospell and were baptized and when they continued stedfastly in the doctrine of the Apostles and in breaking of Bread and in prayers although then they had neither distinction of Officers or Members and wanted that part of discipline of casting out of corrupt Members as the Independents themselves and Anabaptists in their writings have taught us Now if the Church of Jerusalem I say at that time was a true formed Church and from the which they ought not to s●parate I can see no reason that it should be a sin or errour in me or any other in these our dayes to believe that in what City or Country soever the people embrace the Gospell and partake in all those ordinances that made them a true formed Church though they be forced and ruled with Ministers in common should not be a true formed Church or Churches as that was or any of the primitive Churches where they were all fed and governed by Ministers in common in their severall bounds and cohabitations as all the story of the New Testament sufficiently declare And I would very gladly also be informed what sinne I commit in not separating from such Assemblies although there should be some failings both in Members and Discipline then seeing we have neither Precept and President allowed o● for any such separation in any of the Prim●tive and Apostolike Churches nor in the whole word of God where we read not only of ordinary errors but of such heresies as razed the very foundation and of such maliversation amongst them in respect of manners as wee shall sc●rce read of greater in prophane histories Now if for neither errors in doctrine discipline or in manners those glorious Christians made no separation from the publick Assemblies of the Saints I see no warrant we have now for lesse matters to make rents and Schismes from the true Churches of Jesus Christ neither doe I believe that any of them shall ever bee able to make it sinfull in any Christian now not to separate upon such occasions for if separations from the publick Assemblies were by the Author to the Hebrews so blamed and found fault with as a sin in them it is sinfull now and no vertue but a grand error and in this faith will I live and die that whosoever doe make needlesse separations from the Assemblyes of those that are as good Christians and as true beleevers as themselves do that which is highly displeasing unto God and that which will bring downe his judgements amongst us especially When they doe it at such times as when all those things are taken away as might in any respect be accounted scandalous or offensive unto them and when for substance there is nothing that they differ from them Againe if I or any Christian stedfastly believe unto the death that there were more Assemblies or Congregations of Believers in the Church of Jerusalem then one because we find it recorded that they met daily in severall houses to communicate and that they were all combined together and subordinate to one Presbytery within that Precinct and were to be governed and ruled by them in common and for ever reject the opinion of Independents who hold there were no more Christians at first and last in that Church or City then did or could ordinarily meet in one place and that their Officers did nothing nor could doe nothing in that Church without the consent of the whole Congregation and that that particular Congregation was Independent and from which there might be no appeale I say if I or any man reject this their opinion can it hinder me or them from salvation or is it any sin in me or them so to believe If they shall say it they must first shew me what law in so beleeving I have transgressed without which there is no sinne Againe if I believe and persevere in this faith that it is sufficient for any that will be made a member of any Christian Church to repent believe and be baptized and reject all those novell opinions of the Independents concerning their walking sometime with the Congr●gation and their making a particular confession of their faith and bringing in the evidences of their conversion and their taking of a particular explicit Covenant and comming in by the consent of the people what transgression I pray is in this my beliefe or what law of God do I violate if I peremptorily to the death persevere in this my opinion that faith repentance and Baptisme is all that God requires of any for their admission into Church fellowship and communion and

if I stedfastly to the last period of my life hold that all the conditions of the Independents are meere novelties and their own inventions and that any Christian may die either in the ignorance or contempt of them without the transgression of the law of God The same may be said of all the Anabaptisticall opinions and of all the other erronious doctrines of all the other Sects Yea the rejecting of them all is so farre from sin or depriving men of happinesse and peace of conscience here and eternall felicity hereafter as it is a great vertue to contend earnestly against them for the faith once delivered to the Saints Jud. 3. Yea which is yet more it is a great sinne in any that shall embrace any of those doctrines and approve of those Novelties in Religion for they are all no better then the traditions of men which our Saviour Christ so often warnes his Disciples to take heed of Math. 15. Mark 7. telling them that they worship him in vain who serve him after the precepts of men and confirmes that his doctrine not only by his own testimony but out of the holy word of God Isa 29. And surely those that offer God a vaine worship sinne and that in an elevated nature and greatly provoke God by it which all the Sectaries do that serve him after their own inventions and traditions But had it been so that I had indeed been either a Brownist or an Anabaptist or any Sectary or had I at any time been carryed about with every wind of doctrine or run after every new light as some daily do it had been my sin so to have transgressed the commandements of God but it would have been my glory and honour upon better information and more mature deliberation and judgement to have renounced all those errors and to have embraced the truth Yea it hath bin ever thought praise-worthy in any to change either their manners or judgements for the better and to relinquish the by-waies of sin and error and to receive the truth in the love of it which because many have forsaken it is the just judgement of God to give them over to strange delusions according to that in the se●ond of the Thessal 2. and this I conceive is one of the chiefe causes of the great wrath of God that is now come upon the world and the principall occasion not only of all those miseries and calamities we are now embroyled with but of all those monstrous errors and blasphemous opinions that are now swarming every where And therefore I say if I had at any time been formerly misled and had renounced error and embraced the truth and so have changed my opinion for the botter I had in that done nothing but what God commands and all sollid Christians cannot but allow of and in so doing I should have brought glory to God and procured peace to my owne soule and been a good example to others of doing the like and have given an occasion to all such as truly feare God of praising his Name which all those will do that leave the error of their wayes and the by-paths of sin and turne their feet into Gods commandements But I constantly affirme God and my conscience bearing me witnesse that I never was in my judgement one of them as they falsly calumniate me not only behind my back but to my face reviling me and and that in an odious manner in the open streets calling me an Apostate a persecutor of the Saints an enemy of the people of God and a stirrer up of mutiny against the faithfull of the earth all the which charges they themselves are most guilty of But this is their ordinary language both in private and publick concerning me who never wronged them except to speak the truth and in their own language be to hurt them with which reproches that rabble rout of the Sectaries that were John Lilburnes followers a yeare and a halfe since abused me in the next chamber to the Committee of Examinations and with the which those impetuous women that accompanied his wife to the Parliament with her Petition the last yeare which you heard of most unchristianly bespatter'd me where they behaved themselves in such uncivill manner towards the very Parliament men as the honourable House was forced to order that they should be kept our of that roome which before their insolency was common not only for all Petitioners but to all such as were civill to the great dishonour of God and the shame of their sex and of their holy profession And as they do upon any occasions most barbarously rayle on me wheresoever they meet me though I know them no● by face so they use all possible mean's they can to disparage me by rayling and fomenting calumnies against me and that against all the laws of God and humanity vilifying my books especially the Utter routing of all the Independent Army hindring by all they might the publishing of it pulling down the Titles through Town and Country wheresoever they were set up so that in one night and day they destroyed and defaced no lesse then three hundred through the City and as often as any of them again were pasted up they pulled them down to the number of eleven hundred at times all which their proceedings shew the sinfulness● of their wayes for whereas it is the duty of all good Christians to contend for the truth against error and with all their best indevour to propagate it and spread it abroad for so we are commanded Jud. 3. they hinder it what they can which manifestly proclaimes to the world that they fight against the truth for our Saviour saith John the third That they that doe the truth come to the light that their deeds may be seen and they that shun the light it is because their deeds are evill This I say hath ever beene the method of the truly godly and of the Saints indeed to publish the truth against error and to come to the light and touchstone the word of God for the discovering of errour and proving and declaring the truth but these men being conscious to themselves that their deeds and doctrines are evill shun the light and labour by all their abilities to extinguish whatsoever glimiring of it should discover them and therefore have conspired together to hinder the devulging of my Books especially the utter Routing and my Postscript because they doe apparently hold forth the truth and disolay and discover both the errours of their opinions and their deceitfull dealings in deluding the poore people and in with-holding the truth from them in unrighteousnesse which is not only to their eternall dishonour but one of the most horrid wickednesses that can be perpetrated against God and men for it is an open fighting against God and a hindring of the salvation of the people which was one of those great sinnes the Jewes were guilty of 1 Thess 2 16. by which they filled up the