Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	call_v	church_n	society_n	1,435	5	9.0715	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37484	Truth defended. or, A triple answer to the late triumvirates opposition in their three pamphlets viz. Mr. Baxter's review, Mr. Wills his censure, Mr. Whiston's postscript to his essay, &c. With Mr. Hutchinson's letter to Mr. Baxter a little before his death. And a postscript in answer to Mr. William Walker's modest plea for infants baptism. By Tho. DeLaune.	De Laune, Thomas, d. 1685.	1677 (1677)	Wing D897; ESTC R213236	99,906	139

goes on p. 9. and tells us that being called to a Review he remembers our Saviour himself was a Church-member in his Infancy even the head though he said in his Plain Scriptare p. 62. that 't is disputable whether ever Christ was a Church-member properly or no And if an Infant was capable of being the head King Priest and Prophet relatively though yet he had never ruled sacrificed or taught then there is nothing in the Infant age which maketh it uncapable of being members subjects and Disciples of Christ Answ 1. This vain plea is already sufficiently answered by Mr. Tombs And to me what Mr. Baxter urges seems to make more against then for his Paedo baptism For if Christ whose title to the headship of Churchmembers in his Insancy was undoubted was not for all that baptized till at age to set a pattern for us in our approaches to that Ordinance then certainly it is an audacious practise to baptize Infants whose title to Churchmembership and Discipleship is impossible to be made out with parallel clearness and that too in exprest dissonancy to that great and most illustrious example of our Christian Baptism 2ly To argue from Christs headship that Children should be baptized is a meer non-sequiter Christ in his Infaney was head of the Church but not in acts exercito so for ought we know Infants may be members of his Mystical hody yet are no actual Disciples till they hear the Gospel and profess the faith And invisible Membership being uncertain to us can be no ground for Baptism Besides as Mr. Tombs says by this Reasoning an Infant in the womb may be a visible member because then Christ was head of the Church and an old man should not be a member for Christ was not an old man And I may add that Infants by this argument should be Prophets Priests and Kings in their Infancy as well as Church-members because Christ was so But Mr. Baxter will not be hasty to make this Conclusion Mr. Baxter queries are not Infants members of other societies families the Kings subjects And why not Christs as well as the Kings Answ So are Pagans Children unbelievers Children c. members of Families Kingdoms c. therefore they also by this Medium should be Baptized 2ly There is a Characteristical mark that distinguishes the Church of Christ from all other societies It must consist of visible Saints 1 Cor. 14.33 Act. 2.41.47 There must be a right dispensation of the word and Sacraments Act. 2.41 Math. 28.19 From every member of this society there is required a profession of his faith and a holy conversation Act. 8.37 1 Pet. 3 16 17 Rom. 10.10 Math. 3.36 Act. 19.18 Now no Parity of Reason drawn from the Constitutions or practise of other societies or corporations is of any force to obtrude any Law upon this society so distinct from all others It must be governed by its own sanctions which are no where to be had but in the word of G●d From a close conformity to which no parallels framed by our carnall Reasoning must sednce us In agreement to our definition of a visible Church Mr. B. thus exprefies him self in his Book of Bpatism p 87. A self society of persons separated from the world to God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called out of the world c. And Dr. Featly p. 4. A particular company of men professing the Christian saith known by two marks the sincere preaching of the word and due administration of the Sacraments And how this Definition can agree to a society of which the Major part are ignorant Babes let them judge Wollebius in his Compend Theol. Edit Cantabr 1642. lib. 1. c. 25. p. 135. defines a visible Church Caetus hominum verbo sacramentis ad gratiae statum vocatorum a company of men and women called by the word and sacraments to a state of grace This book is in great repute in the Univerfities and commonly first read by young students in Divinity and if we adhere to this definition Infants are excluded because they are not called by the word to a state of grace And though the term Sacraments be redundant in the Definition yet 't is certain Wollebius held that the bare application of the Sacraments converts not to a state of grace but in conjunction with the effectual preaching of the word And all Divines agree that Ecclesia a Church coming of a Greek verb that signifies evocare to call from is Caetus hominum ex universo genere humano collectus seu evocatus per Evangelium a company of people gathered or called from the universal race of mankind by the preaching of the Gospel And the greek is derived of the hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a congregation He says p. 11. he could theeasilier bear with our delay of external Baptism if we did not deny all Infants their part in the Covenant of life Answ That we deny all Infants their part in the Covenant of life is a false suggestion we charitably hope and our hope is built upon the free grace of God that though the Scriptures clearly reveal nothing of their salvation or Damnation forasmuch as none can be saved but by Christ Act. 4.12 And that all are guilty of sin Rom. 5.14 Infants by the presentment of the satisfaction of Christ are saved the free gift coming upon all Rom. 5.18 Of this satisfaction there is a two-fold application 1. by Faith in the Adult 2. without Faith to dying Infants by vertue of the election and free grace of God Rom. 11.7 5.18 And if we question how Infants dying after Baptism are saved we must have recourse to this way it being owned by Protestants that Baptism doth not conser grace nor wash away Original sin And if we determine nothing positively in this matter Mr. Baxter should not find fault with us he telling us in his Christian Directory p 821. That almost all Infants cases are to us obscure He says p. 12. That we lay such grounds as destroy and exclude them by a sentence of damnation because if we add them not to the Church we exclude them from salvation Answ This language is spoke without book We limit not salvation to the pale of the Church as this Dictator doth We have no rule to add any to our Churches but such whose professions give us ground to Judge that they belong to the Lord being Converted We pass no such damnable sentence upon any that are not joyned to us we hope the best and our judgement we pass when called to it according to appearance de non apparentibus de non exiftentibus tadem est ratio Is the language of the Schools 2ly This is Mr. Baxters own harsh Divinity to destroy and exclude Multitudes of Infants by a sentence of Damnation when he holds that the vast progeny of such as are in his conceit unbelievers have no right to the Baptismal Covenant and Church membership and consequently according to his

Mr. Wills knows these things is not be disingenuous in corping where he knows no error but the vulgar rules Justifie If he knows them not how can it be thought that he came honestly by the stile of M. A. Or that he is a person qualified to be such a Corrector of Books as he proclaims himself Besides be perverts my meaning in that verse for by patrocinio novo I mean not Mr. Baxters Whistons and Wills's successors in the Controversy But I meant as may be easily understood thus that the cause viz. of Paedobaptism is not to be substituted or set up instead of the true Baptism by that new Patronage or Sanction viz Gen. 17.7 which I call new because it was not made the maine prop of Infant Baptism till the other foundations it was built upon by the Popes grew crazy and the Reformers being ashamed of them as being too rank inverted this in the 16th Century viz. a Covenant made Gen. 17.7 with ●elievers and their Natural seed which they say intitles to Baptism And the participle substituenda is not a prophetick but an ennuciative term An enunciation being defined Oratio in qua aliquid de alio verè vel salsò pronunciatur So that this Bagle-ey'd corrector of small and sometimes no faults is out in his Logical as well as his Grammatical faculty I have one thing more to reckon with him for and that is his presumption that I was the person pitcht upon to examine the particulars of his Appeal who by my ignorance brought them to justifie Mr. Danvers his addition to the Milevitan Canon by the passage in Pervetusto Codice insinuating as if none but my self had examined it which is imply'd in that expression of his that he is sat●sfied some of them have learning enough to have discovered the mistake had they considered it themselves But here also I must inform him that his presumption is false and no better then the petulant excursion of an idle thought that has no umbrage of truth to guide it And to leave him no cloak for that presumption I do assure him that those persons whose learning he acknowledges sufficient to discover the mistake have as well as I individually examined every particular of his Appeal And that they are not under such a mistake as to this of the Milevitan decree is already apparent Thus Reader you see this particular charge against me is no instance of the Baptists partiality in their examination of Mr. Wills his Appeal And to put the matter beyond any surther exception that Epistle of mine which he Cavils at was but then in the Press and was not seen by any of the Subscribers at that time of our examining the Appeal which is enough if no more had been said to clear them from this frivolous insinuation The Reason why I am ●o large in my Return to so incon●iderable a charge as this is because I observe Mr. VVills strikes at the cause he opposes through my sides and therefore I am the more concern'd in my particular vindication For 1. You see he insinuates though nothing more false That I was the only person to whom the examination of his Appeal was committed 2. When he has possest his Reader with that suggestion he represents me as a very ignorant unqualified person for such work on purpose that the Reader may conclude the answer coming from such a person to be but sorry and ignorantly managed and that Mr. VVills is therefore apparently abused But that artifice shall not serve his turn for as I said before I declare that I was so far from being the single Examiner that I was no more then an assistant to those persons whose learned accomplishments parts and worth I readily own far superior to mine And are possessors of a Reputation too well fortified for Mr. VVills his art to Undermine And who I question not will as they see cause vindicate themselves and their professions from the Criminations of such an unrighteous Accuser and Gainsayer The 5th of the 3d. Month 1676. Tho. Delaune FINIS Mr. Richard Baxter's REVIEW Of the State of Christians Infants EXAMINED And his Grounds for the Baptism of such found to be Insufficient and groundless With a Postscript in Defence of Mr. Danvers his Third Reply further discovering Mr. Baxters Notorious Equivocations in palliating his Slanderous methods of Writing against his Opposers By Tho. Delaune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen. ex Passid Quae in singulos essundos inspiciam obiter verborum acrimoniam in os Autoris retorquebo Pu● 12. Diatrib Printed Anno Dom. 1676. Mr. Baxters Review of the state of Christians Infants Examined c. THat Baptism as administred to Believers is a Gospel Ordinance no man I presume but such as reject all Ordinances ever could deny it having so express a san●●ion in the word of God And whether any but such ought to be baptized has been an ancient Controversy and much agi●ated in this and the neighbouring Nations of late years Insomuch that any inquirer into the state thereof may easily ●urnish himself with what 's alleadged on both hands therefore I see no necessity of Polemical A●●ditions Among all the opposites of Antipaedobaptism in this Nation no man in my opinion has with more virulence be stir'd himself then the 〈◊〉 of this Review His Books of Baptism save me the labour of demonstrating it And the experience he has given the world convinces me that he is the person his own Pen describes in the Preface to his More proofs viz. One that can find words at length for almost any cause And p. 45. of this Review where he tells us That there are but few confess so clear that a man may not talk against as long as his talking faculty holds out And that Mr. Baxter hath not yet lost this faculty this Review plentifully instances At every turn he takes in the lists of dispute he rails with plenty of exclamation at such as divert him from doing greater service to the Church and extort such stri●● from him which is an outery without Cause for doubtless he is never more in his Element then when he is tossing the Ball of Contention and I think there is scarce any Sect that call themselves Christians but have been made the objects of his talking faculty and have selt the keeness of his Polemicks and mostly without any challenge from them And what exploits he hath done for the Church in his peaceable Intervals is worth another Review It is known to such as converse with the Writings on the Subject of Baptism what Mr. Tombes Mr. Danvers Mr. Hutchinson c. on the one hand and Mr. Baxter Mr. Wills Mr. Whiston c. on the other have produced about that point For me to re-captiulate it is needless My present task is only to consider briefly what weight there is in this Review The occasion of which is briefly thus Mr Baxter having in some of his VVritings exprest a great deal