Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	body_n	church_n	society_n	1,721	5	9.2198	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47350	A sober discourse of right to church-communion wherein is proved by Scripture, the example of the primitive times, and the practice of all that have prosessed the Christian religion, that no unbaptized person may be regularly admitted to the Lords Supper / by W. Kiffin ...	Kiffin, William, 1616-1701.	1681 (1681)	Wing K425; ESTC R10604	54,122	194

For nothing can be more plain than that Addition to the Church or Church-Fellowship followed after Baptism and did not go before it and why men now find a greater good in their own way than in his is not to be easily resolved Baptism in those days did certainly precede Church-Enjoyments for it was esteem'd as it still ought to be a means of implanting men into Christ or the Body of Christ the Church Gal. 3.27 Rom. 6.3 Now let it be considered what a Planting together imports It must be certainly the first putting of Christians together in order to their Growing together in Christ and yet all this was done by Baptism and may we not suppose Trees to grow together before they are Planted together as this Spiritual Plantation of Christ viz. the Church or Society of Christians who were and should still be Planted together by Baptism not into this or that particular Church but into that one Church of Christ which is distributed into several parts and particular Societies Hence Baptism is called one of the Principles or begining Doctrines of Christ and part of the Foundation Heb. 6.1,2 Now there is no House can stand without its Principle or can be Erected without a Foundation See 1 Cor. 12.13 Where we have an account of all being Baptised into one Body whether Jews or Gentiles Bond or Free which comprehended all Ranks and Degrees of Christians as is elsewhere demonstrated Obj. 5. The Phrase Rom. 6.3 and Gal. 3.27 As many of you as have been Baptised into Christ c. implies that all that were in those Churches of Rome and Galatia were not Baptised Ans If we consult the Scripture with the Coherence it will appear how weak this Objection is 1. For that Rom. 6.3 Let it be considered to whom the Apostle writes Is it not to the whole Church and every individual of them In verse 1 2. When he says What shall we say then Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein If these words in the first and second Verse respect the whole Church as they must be supposed to do unless we will conclude that the Apostle did grant a liberty to some of the Church to continue in sin and live therein then these words Know ye not that as many of us as were Baptised into Jesus Christ c. Are Interrogatively propounded not only to the same persons unto whom the former words relate but also as an Argument or Reason why none of them should live any longer in sin which is the thing from which he was a dissuading not only some of them but even all of them in the foregoing verses and which he improves in an Argumentative way throughout the greatest part of the Chapter and it would not befit the Reason of any ordinary man much less of a Great Apostle to make choice a Reason or Motive to infore his Exhortation or Persuasion which is of less extent in the tendency and concernment of it then are the persons whom he doth Exhort or Dehort Which yet is a piece of weakness of which we must suppose this Apostle to be guilty unless you do conclude that all those of the Church of Rome were dissuaded from continuing any longer in sin upon this ground because they had been all Baptised into the Death of Christ viz. a Conformity to his Death as well as a belief of it To conclude If the whole Church had not been under the Motive the whole Church could not be pressed by it as here you see they are As for the other Text Gal. 3.26,27 Gal 3.26 the Apostle had assured them viz. them to whom he now writes To be all the children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus that is they were lookt upon as children of God by their confessing and owning of Jesus Christ of which he gives this account verse 27. Because they had put on Christ in Baptism You are all the children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus for or because as many of you as have been Baptised into Christ have put on Christ as if he should say if the Owning and Professing Christ does denominate men to be the Children of God now under the Gospel as indeed it does then ye are all the Children of God because by being Baptised into Christ ye have all of you put him on that is so to appear with him wherever ye become as you do appear with the Clothes you wear But now most certain it is they could not all of them have been denominated the Children of God by Faith in Christ upon account of their being Baptised into Christ which yet we see they are unless they had been all of them Baptised into Christ indeed Besides in what hath been said already it does not appear that any in the Apostles days were inchurched without Baptism And for any to assert that some not all were Baptised is to affirm what is void of Scripture Reason and Common Sense As for any countenance in Scripture there is none And it has as little in Reason for if it should be true it will follow that this Great Ordinance was a duty to some only and not to all and the Reason why it should be so will be very difficult to assign was it because it was commanded to some only and not others If so let them be instanced by some kind of Record who were obliged to the Practise and who not was it because some only had need of it and others not or because those glorious mysteries represented by it were useless to some and not to all Or what other Reason was it If none can be assigned then we may safely conclude that all Church-Members were then Baptised and ought to be so still It is confessed that sometimes the Phrase As many has not the same Latitude of signification as the Phrase All men which includes every Individual the term As many being restrained to matter going before being then Partitive But here it has Relation to the whole scope of the Text and must therefore intend all or all of that Church to whom he wrote to confirm which Interpretation we find other Texts As many must of necessity be so understood as 1 Tim. 6.1 Let as many servants as are under the Yoke count their own Masters worthy of all Honour doth he thereby suppose or may it be implyed that there were some servants who were not under the Yoke or that there were some Servants who were not to count their Masters worthy of all Honour But which must be supposed notwithstanding if this form or manner of speaking as many as be always to be understood to intend the dividing of the intire Number of Persons spoken unto which yet to suppose must needs be very absurd Object And if it be said That this Exhortation let as many Servants as c. doth intentionally respect so many Believing Servants as were under

Stewards of the Misteries of Christ Baptizing and Preaching the Gospel being Joyned together by our Saviour in the same Commission c. ' Nor was it accounted enough by some in these times that Baptism was conferred by a Person called to the Ministry unless he was also Orthodox in the Faith Hence sprang that famous controversy between Cyprian and Stephen Bishop of Rome Concerning the Rebaptizing those that had been Baptized by Hereticks Cyprian asserting that they ought to be Rebaptized c. calling a Councel at Carthage of 87. Affrican Bishops who all concluded for his Opinion For they looked upon that Baptism that had been conferred by Hereticks as null and invalid seing Hereticks being out of the Church could not give what they had not and therefore when they Returned to the Union of the Church they could not properly be said to be Rebaptized seing they did but Receive what lawfully they had not before c. ' Then page 305. After he had Discoursed of Infant Baptism adds that those who made up the main Body of the Baptized in those days were Adult Persons who flocking over daily to the Faith of Christ were Received in at this Door Usually they were for some considerable time Catechi'sd and Train'd up in the Principle of the Christian Faith till having given Testimony of their Proficiency in knowledge and of a sober and Regular Conversation they then be-became Candidates for Baptism and were accordingly taken in c. ' Page 308. Persons finding themselves at any time surprized with a dangerous or mortal sickness and not daring to pass into another World without this Badge of their Initiation into Christ they presently signified their earnest desire to be Baptized which was done accordingly as well as the Circumstances of a sick Bed would permit These were called Clinici of whom there is frequent mention in the Antient Writers of the Church because * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptized as they lay along in their Beds This was accounted a less Solemn and perfect kind of Baptism partly because 't was not done by Immersion but by Sprinkling c. ' Page 333. The Persons Communicating at this Sacrament viz. the Lords Supper were at first the whole Church or Body of Christians within such a space that had Embraced the Doctrine of the Gospel and been Baptized into the Faith of Christ used constantly to meet together at the Lords Table As Christians Multiply'd and a more exact Discipline became necessary NONE were admitted to this Ordinance till they had arrived at the Degree of the faithful for who ever were in the State of the Catechumens under Instruction in order to their Baptism or by Reason of any Heinous Crime under the Censures and suspension of the Church and not yet passed through the several Stages of the Penitents might not Commumunicate and were therefore commanded to Depart the Church when the rest went to the Celebration of the Sacrament So far this Learned enquirer into and writer of Primitive Christianity from whom we may positively infer that no Unbaptized person was by the Ancients admitted to the Communion of the Lords Supper It is true that about the third Century from a fatal mistake of John 3.5 Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God God Some began to bring in Infant Baptism conceiving as Cyprian and his Disciples taught them that no person small or great could be saved without it and that it blotted out all sins committed before its Administration Hence Nazianzen exhorts against Infant Baptism unless in case of apparent danger of Death When this dismal Error once took place how many mischiefs did follow it as 1. The Subjects of Baptism were changed from actual Believers to ignorant Babes and the Church altered in its Primitive Constitution viz. from persons professing the Faith to a mixture of both Converted and Unconverted ones 2. It being conceived that the old manner of Administration by Dipping might be dangerous to Young Infants and to the people that Superstitiously delayed their Baptism until their Death Bed because they believed it would take away all sin therefore they contrived Sprinkling to serve the turn for the Infant as well as those sick people which were called Clinici from the Beds or Hamocks they lay in upon which Mr. Rogers writes thus ' He betrays the Church to a disordered error if he cleave not to the Institution to Dip the Infant in Water and this I so averr as thinking it viz. Dipping exceeding material to the Ordinance and no slight thing yea which both Antiquity constantly and without exception of Countrys Hot or Cold witnesses unto and especially the constant word of the Holy Ghost first and last approveth as Causabon in Matth. 3.11 hath noted c. Treat of Sacram. p. 77. which misadministration came in time to be decreed by Counsels and imposed by fierce and severe Anathema's which is all the Authority that can be produc'd and which is indeed nothing at all to us that ought to have Divine Warrant for Practical Duties Now as the Consequences of this error have been so fatal to the Church of Christ and as the prevalency of it was gradual so * Yet so forceable was Truth that they kept the Order tho they mist the Subject it ought to be a very serious warning to us to oppose all the beginings of error that is to contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints because when error is once admitted it comes with a fair and specious Mask of Vizard on to disguise its deformity till it spreads like a Gangrene and infects the whole So this Opinion comes disguised with the plausible Allegation of Charity and Brotherly love c. But was not the same pretence mainly made use of for the introducing Infant Baptism viz. Charity to the Childrens Souls whom they judged in a state of Damnation without it and certainly of the two the introducers of Paedo-Baptism are more excusable than the bringers in of this Opinion because although they mist the Right Subject of Baptism and attributed too much to it yet they kept up a Practise of that name in its due Rank and Order in the Church whereas these on the other hand dispense with the total neglect of Baptism since Baptism in Infancy is by them held for no Baptism for unanswerable Reasons as for instance In Baptism the Covenant struck between God and us implies especially the consent of parties but by Infant Baptism the Infant is not bound for he consented not Again consent must be exprest but the Child wants the just ripeness and formation of Organs inward and outward for such expressions and so cannot will it because he cannot understand it nor can he express that which within him he hath not Nor can he depute others to consent for him nor is there any Authority for such a Deputation given by God nor any Instance in the