Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	baptize_v	child_n	infant_n	1,168	5	9.1746	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27031	A letter from a minister to a person of quality shewing some reasons for his nonconformity.	A. B.	1662 (1662)	Wing B14; ESTC R12373	8,893	4

ruin notwithstanding your engagements What now would be the answer of these persons to the Parents of the Child Should we look after him or you whose child is he yours or ours He is your own proper charge notwithstanding our standing at the Font he is a Talent committed to your trust and therefore if he do otherwise than well for lack of your care the blame will be yours and his blood will be upon your head as the only criminal Indeed none in my observation blame the God-fathers and God-mothers if Children be not well disciplin'd and educated neither do they blame themselves nor shew any conscience in this matter though yet it is evident against them that if Covenants be not performed by them to the utmost of their power they have broken their faith Therefore upon the whole matter I judg it far better that such persons should not be called to be Sureties nor such promises required at their hands 2. Again I cannot approve of the Cross in Baptism especially the Sacramental and mystical way and manner of signing with this sign as thus We receive this Child into the congregation of Christs flock and do sign him with the sign of the Cross in token hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified and manfully fight under Christs banner against Sin the World and the Devil c. This word in token I confess to me is a meer riddle and I know not what to make of it and therefore cannot assent and consent to such an expression and the rather because I am apt to believe the generality may much mistake it as if when it is said in token it had been said in vertue and power of this sign the person baptized should not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified but should fight manfully under Christs banner against Sin the World and the Devil surely even such an occasion of a misunderstanding to the vulgar and injudicious should be taken away The baptizing it self of any person in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost ipso facto does oblige the person baptized to confess the Faith of Christ crucified and withal exhibits a virtue and power also to every worthy partaker of it to fight against Sin the World and the Devil and therefore after such a person is baptized such an obligation is upon him and such a vertue and power supposed to be imparted and communicated unto him and consequently if at all next immediately after washing or sprinkling in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost that form of words In token hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified c. would more properly and congruously be used and applied But now to remove them from their due place and reserve them to the sign of the Cross as if baptizing with water were not sussicient of it self but moreover the sign of the Cross needful to bind the Conscience and confer the blessing this I confess seems to me not only preposterous but very dangerous Crossing in this manner is too too like a Sacrament upon a Sacrament the devised Sacrament of man to the instituted Sacrament of God Though Christians in the Primitive times might make use of the sign of the Cross yet the very same reason which might put them upon that use with a reference to the Heathens should now move us wholly to disuse it with a reference to Papists Professors then signed themselves with the sign of the Cross to distinguish themselves from the Pagans who scorned the Cross together with every sign and token of it and with parity of reason we should now forbear so doing to distinguish our selves from the Idolatrous Papists who superstitiously adore the Cross foolishly fondly and wickedly signing themselves with it upon every occasion thinking themselves no good Catholicks without so doing putting no little hope and confidence in it to free and protect them from all evil and to furnish and invest them with all good Now to witness our dislike and detestation of their vanity herein I cannot unfeignedly assent and consent to the sign of the Cross 3. I cannot approve what is annexed in the end of the Sacrament viz. It is certain by Gods word that children which are baptized dying before they commit actual sin are undoubtedly saved I would they had quoted the place for I confess mine own ignorance that I know no such word in Scripture no such word as will give me a certainty of perswasion beyond all possibility of doubting of the Salvation of Infants though baptized and though dying before they have committed actual sin Are not the Children of wicked Parents filthy Whoremongers and Whores living openly in all notorious sin and wholly without God in the world constantly baptized and many of them dying immediately after Baptisim Now are we sure by the Word of God and without doubt that all these go to Heaven Methinks that in the second Commandment gives some scruple to my faith I will punish the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation Suppose a Christian King should conquer a Country of Pagans and Mahometans or Jews and compel all their Infants forthwith to be baptized and some of them immediately expire at least before they have committed actual sin is the Salvation of all such sure and past all doubt and this to be made out and cleared by the Word of God Is it in the power of man to make Infants sure and certain of Salvation It is in the power of man to kill a poor Infant and to chuse his time for doing of it I am sure many Whores murder their Babes before Baptism and they may as well do it after immediately after and so assuredly send their Infants thither whither they shall never come themselves except they repent And so might the foresaid King and Conqueror after by Baptism he had given them their sure and unquestionable pasport for Paradice he might even in charity and kindness immediately cut them off and without any further hazzard give them possession of eternal bliss I had thought no mortal wight had had such power over souls May a Minister since Baptizing gives such an unquestionable title unto Heaven deny or suspend the Ordinance to any Infant whatsoever if he might be permitted to administer it Suppose Turks or Jews should quietly permit him to baptize their Children yea and desire him to do it for them though meerly upon some by-pretence and foreign to Christianity shall he deny them But suppose a true Believer and a good Christian should bring his own Child to the Font and beg there of the Minister to have it baptized but yet either out of weakness or tenderness of conscience scruples God-fathers and God-mothers and the sign of the Cross and dares not admit of them shall therefore the Minister deny his Babe Christendom which according to his own perswasion would give