Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	christian_a	church_n	member_n	4,529	5	8.2848	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85408	Philadelphia: or, XL. queries peaceably and inoffensively propounded for the discovery of truth in this question, or case of conscience; whether persons baptized (as themselves call baptism) after a profession of faith, may, or may not, lawfully, and with good conscience, hold communion with such churches, who judg themselves truly baptized, though in infancy, and before such a profession? Together with some few brief touches about infant, and after-baptism. By J.G. a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1653 (1653)	Wing G1189; Thomason E702_7; ESTC R207109	25,228	32

Whether did not Paul and Barnabas hold Christian Communion with those Christian Converts which they made at Antioch Acts 13. 43 48 52. and with those also which they made soon after in great numbers at Iconium Acts 14. 1 4 Or doth it any ways appear from the Scripture that these Converts during the continuance of Paul and Barnabas with them yea or at any time after were baptized If not is it any ways necessary that we should believe or ought it to be any Article of our Faith to believe that they were baptized If it be not necessary then we are at liberty to believe that Paul and Barnabas did hold Christian Communion with unbaptized Christians especially considering that the tenor of the History diligently consulted especially concerning those who were converted to the Faith at Antioch and the short abode of Paul and Barnabas with them after their Conversion together with the troublesom oppositions which the Jews of the place made all the while against them makes it probable in the highest that they were not baptized at least whilest these men continued with them XVII Whether in case any member one or more of any Christian Church or Society which he judgeth faithful in the main and willing and ready to walk up to their light shall verily think and be perswaded that he hath discovered some defect or error in this Church may such an one lawfully and with a good conscience give himself a discharge from all care service otherwise due from him unto it by renouncing the communion thereof upon such a pretence or occasion especially before or until he hath with all long-suffering and meekness and with the best of his understanding endevored the information of this Church in the Truth and the rectifying the judgments of the members thereof considering that as in the natural body so in the spiritual or Church-body the members ought to have the same care one for another and if one member suffereth all the members to suffer with it a as the Apostle speaketh and consequently no one member being healthful and sound ought to desert its fellow-members being sickly and weak especially whilest there is yet any hope of their cure and healing XVIII Whether ought a company of true Believers concerning whose lawful Church constitution there can no other thing with reason and truth be objected to be vilified or separated from as a false Church or no Church of Christ at all only because either 1. They do not practice contrary to their judgment and conscience such things one or more which some men conceive it meet they should practice Or 2. because either God hath not enlightened them to see every thing which some other men see or else because Satan hath not blinded them so as to make them ignorant of such Truths one or more whereof some others are ignorant judging them to be Errors XIX Whether is it reasonable or Christian that a company of true Believers who have met together in the simplicity of their hearts in the fear of God in the Name of Jesus Christ mutually engaging themselves as in the presence of God to walk together in all the Ordinances of the Gospel as far as they shall from time to time be revealed unto them and walking accordingly should be infamously stigmatized as no Church no true Church of Christ and consequently be esteemed but as a rabble rout of the world only pretending Churchship and this by some one or a few persons only because they cannot see with their eyes or practice that as necessary the necessity whereof after much and earnest prayer unto God after much enquiry and search and this with all diligence and impartialness in order to their conviction and satisfaction doth no ways to them appear XX Whether is it Christian or meet for any one person man or woman to bid defiance unto an whole Church or fellowship of Saints being many and who are otherwise sober grave and conscientiously faithful in all their walking onely because they cannot with a good Conscience say Amen to every notion and conceit which these persons themselves judg worthy of reverence and honour and particularly because they cannot against the sence Judgment and practise as well of all Christian Antiquity as of all the Reformed Churches very few if any excepted in the Christian world thus spiritually court their private apprehensions about the time and manner of an external Administration especially considering that they neither have nor can either shew precept example or any competent ground otherwise from the Scriptures to commend these their apprehensions unto the conscience of any man Or is there any precept which injoyns baptizing or dipping in the name of Christ after a baptizing in infancy into this name Or is there any example in Scripture of any baptized after profession of Faith who had been baptized or who judged themselves and were generally so judged by others to have been baptized before If neither is it not a clear case that here is neither precept nor example in Scripture which reacheth home to the case or which warranteth the practice of the Children of after-Baptism amongst us And as for any competent ground otherwise to justifie the practice hath such a thing ever seen the light of the Sun hitherto XXI Whether do not they who magnifie the ceremony or external rite of Baptism to such an height as to estimate Christianity by it or to judg them no true or sound Christians who are without it stumble at the same stone of danger and peril of Soul at which the Jews stumbled when they practiced and urged Circumcision as necessary for Justification to whom upon this account Paul testified Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised meaning with an opinion of a necessity of your being circumcised for your Justification before God Christ shall profit you nothing a considering 1. That Circumcision was an Ordinance of God yea as great and solemn an Ordinance as Baptism and 2. That when Paul threatened those who so magnified it as was said with lofing their part and portion in Christ it was as Lawful though haply not so necessary and yet in some cases it was necessary too as Baptism it self yea and the Apostle himself administred it as well as he did Baptism yea and pronounced it profitable rightly understood and practiced Rom. 3. 1. 2. Or might not the same threatening I mean of losing the great blessing of Justification and Salvation by Christ have been with altogether as much truth and necessity administred upon a like occasion and account unto persons so opinionated of circumcision as the Galathians were even when and whilst the use and practice of it was every whit as necessary or rather more necessary as the use of Baptism now is XXII Whether is there any precept or example in the Scriptures of any person Baptized after many years profession of the Gospel or after any considerable measure of assurance

theirs the Apostle here insisteth on as inconsistent with that most dangerous and pernicious Error of denying the Resurrection of the dead which had now gotten head amongst them And if there were such a practise as this in this Church I mean to baptize some of the living members in the name and stead of some that were dead is it not a plain case that there were some of these members who lived and dyed unbaptized VI Whether when Paul soon after his conversion assayed to joyn himself to the Church and Disciples at Jerusalem Act. 9. 26. did this Church make any enquiry after his Baptism as whether he had been baptized or no in order to his reception amongst them or did they know that he had been baptized Or did Barnabas in giving satisfaction to the Apostles and Church concerning his meetness to be admitted into communion with them so much as mention his being Baptized but only declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the Name of Jesus Acts 9. 27. VII Whether upon a supposal that it cannot be proved from the Scriptures that any unbaptized or unduly baptized person was ever admitted into Church-communion by Christians in the Apostles days or that any duly baptized person held communion with a Church the greatest part of whose members he deemed either unbaptized or unduly Baptized is such a defect of proof sufficient to justifie a withdrawing of communion by a person who conceiveth himself duly baptized from such a Church the generality of whose members he supposeth are either not baptized or unduly Baptized considering that very many things may be matter of duty and necessary to be done which are not warranted for so much as lawful by any example in the Scriptures of like action in all circumstances It is the duty of Churches and of every member respectively to admit their women-members to the Lords Table yet cannot this practice be warranted by any example recorded in the Scriptures Yea in case at the time of this Sacramental Administration in a Church all the men-members should occasionally be absent except only the Administrator and it may be a Deacon or two and only the women-members present there is little question to be made but that the Administration ought to proceed notwithstanding and the elements be administred unto this female Congregation though there be no example of such an Administration as this in the Scriptures There is no example in Scripture of any person worshiping the Holy Ghost yet it is a great duty lying upon Christians to worship him When David and the men with him entred into the House of God and did eat the shew-bread a he had no Scripture-example to justifie his action no more had the Disciples to justifie theirs when they plucked the ears of Corn as they passed through the Fields on a Sabbath day yet were both these actions lawful and to a degree necessary The reading of the Scriptures translated out of the Original Languages into English Welch Dutch French c. is not only lawful but necessary in the Christian Churches in these Nations yet is there no example extant in Scripture of any such practice in the primitive Times no nor so much as of any Translation of the Scriptures at all It were easie to add more instances of like consideration VIII Whether is an action or practice suppose in matters relating to the service or worship of God upon this account evicted to be unlawful because it hath neither precept I mean no particular or express precept and wherein the action or practice it self with all the circumstances under which it becomes lawful is named nor example to warrant the lawfulness of it Or hath the practice of admitting women to the Lords Table any such either precept or example to justifie it Or in case a Minister shall preach to a Congregation consisting of young men only and from Rev. 22. 3 or 4 c. would such an act as this be unlawful or is there any such precept as that mentioned or example in Scripture for the warrant of it Or when David and those that were with him went into the House of God and contrary to the letter of an Institution eat the shew-bread had they either such a precept as that mentioned or any example to bear them out in such a practise Or doth not our Saviour in the Gospel justifie that action of theirs notwithstanding Or if the case or law of necessity or of peril either of health or life be pleadable for the justification thereof is not the same Law altogether as yea much more pleadable on the behalf of such persons who being of tender weak and sickly constitutions dare not tempt God or expose themselves to the imminent hazard of health or life by being doused in their apparel over head and ears in the water especially considering that God hath testified from Heaven his dis-approbation of the practice by suffering some to be grievously afflicted in their bodies and some also to miscarry in life it self by means in all likelyhood of the temptation Or hath not God sufficiently and plainly enough declared his mind and pleasure in all such cases as this in saying I will have mercy and not sacrifice a Or if it be pleaded that all danger of miscarrying in either kind may be prevented by chusing a warm room and warm water for the transacting of the Baptismal Dipping is it not queryable hereupon whether this be not to alter and change to new-mold shape and transform the Ordinance of God as men please and this under a pretext of observing it Or is there not as much difference between hot water and cold as is between a child and a man IX Whether when God hath by Faith purified the hearts of a people walking in a Christian Brotherhood and Fellowship together hath he not sanctified them And in case any person shall now despise or decline their fellowship as unholy doth he not sin against that heavenly Admonition delivered by special Revelation unto Peter What God hath cleansed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. sanctified or purified call not thou or make not thou common a Or can a man lightly call or make that common which God hath sanctified in a more opprobrious and contumelious way then by fleeing from it as polluted or unholy X. Whether doth or needs a man contract any guilt of sin before God by walking in such a society of men who being otherwise confessedly Christian and holy have only some practice amongst them in the judgment and conscience of this man not approvable in case 1. he shall at any time openly declare his dislike of this practice and 2. Be no ways constrained or solicited to communicate in this practice Or when men may separate that which is precious from that which is vile and enjoy it thus separated

named See Mark 6. 44. Joh. 6. 10. compared with Mat. 14. 21. If so doth not this argument or plea against Infant-Baptism halt right-down In the Scriptures we find no mention of the Baptizing of Children either by Christ or his Apostles or any others therefore no children were Baptized by them Indeed if we could here find no mention of the Baptizing either men or women then the non-finding any mention neither of children baptized were an argument of some authority and credit to prove that there was none of this capacity or age baptized XXXVII Whether in case it could be proved which yet hath not been proved nor I am full of belief ever will be the proofs lying much more strong and pregnant for it then against it that there were no children baptized during the Apostles days doth it by any whit better consequence follow from hence that therefore children ought not now to be or might not then as to point of simple lawfulness have been baptized then from the non-circumcising of the Jewish children for forty years together Jos. 5. 5. viz during the whole time of their journeying through the wilderness it follows that neither ought they to have been circumcised afterwards especially considering 1. That there may be many more and more weighty reasons though possibly unknown unto us why neither Christ nor his Apostles should baptize children in their days though the lawfulness yea and necessity of their baptizing at other times and in some cases be supposed then there was why the Israelites should omit the circumcising of their children for those forty years together which were specified And 2. That the Apostle Paul saith that he was not sent to baptize but to preach the Gospel meaning that baptizing whether personally or by commissioning or delegating others hereunto was not only not the principal but not any considerable end of his sending but the publishing and preaching of the Gospel for if he was not sent to baptize meaning neither one age nor one sex or other neither could he be sent to baptize children and if he was not sent to baptize either one or other in the sence declared neither was the Lord Christ himself nor the rest of the Apostles sent about this work in such a sence What marvel then is it that Persons sent about matters incomparably greater and more weighty should not be so throughly intent upon things of a secondary and lighter consequence as to prosecute them to the uttermost of what they lawfully might yea and in case of a lighter burthen upon their shoulder in those more important affairs had been bound to do Or are there not many cases wherein a man may break a Law i. e. a standing Law or a Law provided for ordinary cases and yet be blameless yea and some cases wherein he may do it with commendation See Mat. 12. 3 4 5. 2 Cor. 11. 17 18 21. 1 Joh. 3. 16. XXXVIII Whether is not that principle or humor in the children of new Baptism of making such sacred treasure hereof as generally they do estimating Christianity it self and acceptance with God by it counting all persons unclean and unholy and not meet for Church-communion who submit not unto it c. thus making Gods Nothing their All things is not this humor I say the express character of such persons in all ages who have unduly and without cause broken the bands of unity love and peace wherein they had been sometimes bound up in a sweet bundle of Christianity with other Churches to walk in some crooked and by-way of particular choyce by themselves to the offence grief and reproach of those Churches from which upon such an account they rent themselves Or did not Eunomius the Heretique who maintained this Doctrine by way of dissent from the Churches of Christ That the Son of God is altogether unlike the Father and the Holy Ghost unlike the Son notwithstanding the groundlessness and erroneousness of it yet attribute this high and sacred priviledg unto it that whosoever believed it could not possibly perish how wickedly soever he lived a Or did not the Donatists ascribe all Christian worth and excellency to their Sect and Opinions denying that there was any true Church of Christ in all the World but only amongst them and despising all other Christians but themselves and yet giving entertainment to most vile and wicked men in their Communion b as if the giving of the right hand of fellowship unto them in their way rendered men religious and holy in the midst of the practice of all wickedness Or did not Theophanes attribute so much to the use of Images in Religious Worship that he censured Constantine the Emperor by-named Copronymus as an Apostate from God for opposing Images and Idol-worship c Or did not some Jewish Teachers labor to possess men with such an high opinion of their Tradition and practice of washing hands before meat as that they ought to look upon him who should neglect or not observe it as one that lieth with an Harlot d Or did not the Author and Abettors of that hideous Doctrine That God seeth no sin in persons justified pronounce all those Traytors to the Blood of Christ that held the contrary e Or did not the Monks who generally were the compilers of the Histories of this Nation in former times place so much of the very essence as it were of Religion in reverencing Bishops and Monks of these times that as Daniel a late English Historian observeth they personated all their Princes either Religious or irreligious as they humored or offended the Bishops rochet and the Monks belly f Or did not Theodore the Abbot give this advice to a Monk who as himself informed the said Abbot was threatened by the Devil that he would never cease vexing and molesting him by temptations unto fornication until he left worshiping the Image of the blessed Virgin did not I say this Abbot give this advice to the Monk in his case that it were better that he frequented all the stews in the City then not to worship Christ and his Mother in an Image g Or do not all these instances with many more that might be added unto them of like consideration plainly shew and prove that to conceit and speak glorious things of any private opinion or by-practice is an argument of very great probability at least that this both opinion and practice are mens own or from themselves and not from God or agreeable unto his Word Or are there not several grounds and these near at hand very material and weighty to strengthen this conjecture yea and when the Apostle Peter saith that those that are unlearned and unstable pervert or wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction doth not this great danger or misery arise from hence that they who do wrest the Scriptures are inordinately conceited of and confidently rest and build upon such notions sences and opinions which are engendered and

begotten in their minds or consciences by this Scripture-wresting XXXIX Whether is not the Testimony of that worthy zealous and learned Martyr Mr John Philpot recorded in a letter written by him to a freind of his a prisoner in Newgate at the same time worthy credit and beliefe wherein he affirms that Auxentius an Arrian heretique with his adherents was one of the first that denyed the Baptism of children and next after him Pelagius the heretique Or can Augustin be suspected at least by those who have any Competent knowledg of his unparallel'd candor and ingenuity to speake any thing but the truth when he saith that the Baptizing of Infants was a custom of the Christian Church in his days Salubriter firmata wholsomely ratified and confirmed a in another place That the universal Church of Christ always held or retained the custom of Baptizing children even from the Apostles and that it was not instituted by any Council and that no Christian would say that children were impertinently or in vain baptized b with much more to like purpose Or is not the testimony of Ierome worthy to be received who affirmeth that he with the Orthodox Christians in his days held one Baptism which they affirmed ought to be administred in the same Sacramental words unto Infants and those of riper years c XL Whether can it proved from the Scriptures or by any argument whatsoever that either Faith or a profession of Faith is either the only or the best ground either divisim or conjunctim whereon to build a Baptismal administration Or whether did not the Apostles and those who baptized by their direction and order in their days insist upon believing and profession of believing with men and women who were willing or desirous to be baptized onely for want of better and of better assured grounds whereon to proceed to the baptizing of such persons Or did they insist upon either of these qualifications in reference to the said Administration simply and meerly as or because they were such or in respect of their positive and absolute nature and not rather in respect of their relative natures or properties viz. as they were significative or declarative unto them the Baptizers and unto others of the happy estate of those in whome they were found as being persons in Grace and favour with God Otherwise how could the Lord Christ himself having no such Faith as that which the Apostles and their Baptists required together with the profession of it in those whom they Baptized be a meet or duly qualified subject of this Administration Or will any man presume to say that he was Baptized either contrary unto or besides the rule or mind of God touching persons meet to be Baptized especially when as himself renders this account why he submitted himself unto and desired Biptism viz. that it became him to fulfil all RIGHTEOVSNES a And besides is it not altogether irrational to imagine or think that Faith should be required in order unto Baptism simply for Faiths sake or profession of Faith meerly for this Professions sake Or that God or Christ should enjoyn a requirement of them upon such a slender account as this Or that they would ever have been nominated by them for qualifications unto Baptism in men and women unless they had been so significative or declarative as hath been said I mean of the gracious acceptance of such persons in whom they are with God Yea or unless they had been declarative in this kind upon the best terms whereof persons newly converted from ways of sin unto God are capable there being no other way or means more effectual or proper for such persons to make known their standing or being in the favor of God unto others then by a profession of their believing in Jesus Christ how ever it be most true that even such declarations as these many times deceive those who accept of them and trust to them though without sin in those who are so deceived Now then if Faith and profession of Faith qualifie for Baptism meerly in respect of their relation and as they report with such credit as appertains to them and is meet to be given them by men the persons in whom they are and from whom they proceed to be in an estate of Grace and Favor with God is it not as evident as the Sun at noon day that all persons of mankind who are or may be known by more assured testimonies and declarations then any mans own profession of his own Faith amounts unto to be in the same or like grace and favor with God to be every whit as regularly and as compleatly qualified for Baptism as the greatest and loudest Professors of their Faith under Heaven If so are not Infants and Children before the commission of actual sin to whom God himself hath given a loud and express testimony from Heaven that they are in grace and favor with him and that to them and such as they are belongeth the Kingdom of Heaven c. are they not I say upon this account fully declared to be not only or simply regular and meet subjects of Baptism but subjects in this kind of the highest and most unquestionable qualifications For by one Spirit not by one or the same water or dipping we are all baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. What therefore God hath joyned together let no man put asunder Matt. 19. 6. Baptismus sine impietatis scelere contēmni nequit gravissimam reprehensionem coràm Deo hominibus merentur qui tantum beneficium differunt vel sibi vel suis liberis accipere B●za Opusc. p. 334. Tingimus pueros tingimus provectioris aetatis Nullam aetatem praecepit Baptismo Christus sed neque ullam vetuit Ecclesiae Norlingensis Pastores Scultet Annal. Anno 1525. FINIS a Gal 5. 6. b 1 Cor. 7. 19. c 1 Cor. 5. 29. V● Cameron Myroth p. 229. Ambross●m in locum I know the place is much vexed with Interpreters and interpretations but certain I am that the sence here supposed and argued upon is the m●st grammatical and best comporting with the propriety of he words and phrase● a 1 Sam. 21. 6 a Matt. 12. 7 a Acts 10. 15 a Matt. 16. 18 a 2 Tim. 2. 23 b Tit. 3. 9. a 1 Cor. 12. 25 a Gal. 5. 2. u●de multi post Baptismum proficientes maxime qui Infantes vel pueri baptizati sunt c. Aug. de Baptismo contra Donatistas lib. 4. c. 14. d Exod. 21. 33 34 Similia similium occupait nomina Hur Grot. in Act. 13 33. Multa offi●mantur simpliciter formaliter quae per equivalentiam seu comparationem tantum sunt intelligenda Vid. ●ai 66. 3. 1 Tim. 5. 8 Matt. 19. 12 Rom. 11 15 c. c Ezek. 28. 10. 31 18. 32. 19. 21. d Jer. 9. 25. Ezek. 32 19. ●1 Sam. 17. 26 36. a 2 Thes. 3. 10. b Exod. 12. 48. Vide Scultet Annal. Anno 1521 1525 c. * See also Mat 4 4 12 12 besides many others a Eunomius defendit hanc haeresin dissimilem per omnia Pa●r● asse●ens Filium Filio Spiritum sanctum Fertur etiam usque adeo fuisse bonis moribus inimicus ut asseveraret quod nihil cuique obesset quorumlibet perpetratio ac perseverantia peccator rum si hujus quae ab il o docebatur fidei particeps effet Aug. de Haeres c. 54 b Nam illi Donatistae dicebant universum orbem Christianum Ecclesiam non habere Deinde qui prae le omnes alios Christianos condemnabant severitatem censurae in suos relaxaverant in suis coetibus homines impurissimos ut Optato● Gildoniano● Primianosque patiebantur P. Mar●y● Loc. Class. 4. c. 5. sect. 15. c Theophanes miscel. l. 21. c. ult Joseph Mede Apostacy of latter times p. 131 d Ainsworth in Levit. 15. 12 e P. Gunter Sermon of Justification printed anno 1615. Preface to the Reader p. 3. f Smectymnuus Vindicat. p 8. g Mede Apostacy of latter times p. 140 a De peccatonum meritis c. lib. 3. c. 13. b Quod traditum cenet universitas Ecclesi●… Cum parvuli infantes baptizantur nullus Christianorum dixerit eos inaniter baptizari Et si quisquam in hac re authoritatem divinam quaerat quanquam quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi authoritate Apostolica traditum rectissime creditur tamen veraciter continere possumus quid valeat in parvulis baptismi sacramentum ex circumcisione carnis quam prior populus accepit c. Aug. de Baptismo contra Donat. l. 4. c. 23. c Baptisma unum tenemus quod iisdem sacramenti verbis in insantibus quibus etiam in majoribus asserimus esse celebrandum Hieron. t. 4. Symboli explan. ad Dama●um a Mat. 3. 15 That Children are in favor with God and so declared see briefly redemp. Redeemed p. 330 516 517.