Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	church_n	member_n	visible_a	6,329	5	9.5436	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62868	Felo de se, or, Mr. Richard Baxter's self-destroying manifested in twenty arguments against infant-baptism / gathered out of his own writing, in his second disputation of right to sacraments by John Tombes.	Tombes, John, 1603?-1676.	1659 (1659)	Wing T1806; ESTC R33836	48,674	44

haec quatuor recenset Lucas quum desserib●re vult nobis rite constitutam ecclesiae statum Et nos ad hunc ordinem eniti convenit si cupimus vere censeri ecclesia coram Deo Angelis non inane tantum ejus nomen apud homines jactare Therefore we seek out the true Church of Christ its image is here painted to the life and verily it begins from the doctrine which is as it were the soul of the Church neither doth he name any doctrine but of the Apostles that is to say which the Son of God had delivered by their hands therefore wheresoever the pure voice of the Gospel sounds where men remain in the profession of it where they exercise themselves to profit in the ordinary hearing of it there undoubtedly is the Church Wherefore Luke mentions these four things not without just ground when he would describe the duly constituted state of the Church and its convenient that we should endeavour to attain to this order if we desire to be a true Church in the sight of God and Angels and not onely to boast of the vain name thereof before men And vers. 47. it is said that the Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved It describeth them that were added to the Church viz. that they were such as should be saved or as Beza yieldeth to another reading and so Grotius and many others such as saved themselves from that untoward Generation qui sese quotidie servandos recipiebant in ecclesiam Who daily added themselves to the Church that they might be saved The Church is the body of Christ Col. 1. 18. 24. and none are members of his body but such as either are united to him and live by him or at least seem to do so The Church is subject to Christ and beloved of Christ and cherished by him We are members of his body of his flesh and his bones Ephes 5. 24. 25 30. And those that are against the general redemption me thinks should be moved with the consideration that it is the Church that Christ gave himself for even the visible Church which he purchased with his own blood Acts 20. 28. Ephes. 5. 25. and he is the Saviour of his body vers. 23. But so he is not effectively the Saviour of the professors of a faith that doth not justifie {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} according to opinion he is the effective Savior of those that profess a justifying faith and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of the sincere but of others neither way Hitherto Divines have gathered from the plain Texts of Scripture that there is but one Church one faith and one baptism and those that had this faith really were to be baptized and were real members of the Church and that those that professed this faith and so seemed to have it when they have it not are visible members of the Church and are so taken because their profession is sensible to us and by that they seem to have the thing prof●ssed but Pae●obaptists and chiefly Master Baxter are fallen into new conceits in these 1. They feign a new Christian faith to themselves to wit a believing immediate by the faith of a Parent or Proparent so that before there was but one Christian faith and now they have made two 2. And so before there was but one sort of real serious or sincere Christians consisting of such as had that real Christian faith in their own persons and now they have found out another sort of them to wit believers by anothers faith 3. So they have feigned a new baptism for the old baptism was for remission of sin and burial and resurrection with Christ and to ingraffe men into the Church which is the body of Christ upon the profession of a saving faith But now they admit to baptism as they term it Infants without any profession of saving faith made by them to seal an imaginary covenant of grace made by God to believing Parents and their seed without any covenanting or sealing by the baptized person upon a pretended title of Parents and Proparents faith and instead of baptizing as of old they did by putting under Water and coming out again so as to resemble Christs burial and resurrection and their conformity thereto they call that baptism and say falsly they baptize when they onely sprinkle or pour water on an Infant without such dipping as of old Master Baxter pag. 70. confesseth was used and expressed by the Apostle Rom. 6. 4 5. 4. And they have feigned also a new kind of Church For the Church of Christs constitution is but one which is called visible from mens profession and invisible from the faith professed But they have made a Church which consisteth of a third sort of members that is of men that neither have saving faith nor profess it but onely are Infants whose Parents or Proparents have faith 5. To this end they have confounded the Church and the Porch the Vineyard the adjac●nt part of the wilderness those that heretofore were not so much as Catechumeni o● men in preparation for the Church but onely designed to holiness and hoped and expected to be in after time when they came to understand the Christian faith church-Church-members are now brought into it and are annumerated to true Christians before they once profess themselves to be such 6. And hereby by Infant baptism also one of the two sorts of teaching which Christ distinguisheth Matth. 28. 19 20. is taken away to wit that teaching which draweth men to Christ and maketh them Disciples and perswadeth them to receive Christ Jesus the Lord For they take him for a Disciple so Master B●xter of baptism part 1. chap. 3. that is not learning to be a Disciple yea though he do not so much as submit to learn nor hath learned any preparatory truths though yet he be not made a Disciple indeed nor profess to be Master Baxter is deeply offended with Master T. for denying Infants to be Christians or members of the Church mediately c. But I shall say somewhat more concerning those Infants that are asserted by him to be Disciples who do not so much as profess a saving faith viz. that they are no members of the Church at all and are not so much as to be named Christians nor to be admitted into the visible Church No man can prove that ever one man was admitted a church-Church-member in all the New Testament without the profession of a saving faith Otherwise we should have two distinct Churches specially different or two sorts of Christianity and Christians differing tota specie in the whole kind because the profession by a Parent and Proparent which is made by him their qualification doth make a difference specifical between such Christians and church-Church-members and other Christians and Church members When the Jaylor Acts 16. 30 32 33 34. was admitted into the Church by baptism it was upon the

Their first task is to make Disciples which are by Mark called believers The second work is to baptize them whereto is annexed the promise of their salvation The third work is to teach them all other things which are afterward to be learned in the School of Christ To contemn this order as Master Baxter doth in Infant baptism is to contemn all rules of order For where can we expect to find it if not here I profess my conscience is fully satisfied from this Text that it is one sort of faith even saving that must go before baptism and the profession whereof by the Party himself to be baptized He that believeth and is baptized not another then the believer make Disciples and baptize them not others then the Disciples made the Minister must expect of which see what is before cited out of Calvin and I●scator I shall be amazed reading this passage at the blindness of Master Baxter if he see not how unanswerably his own words overthrow Infant baptism or his hypocrisie if being satisfied as he saith in conscience of his own exposition he do not deny Infant baptism and bewail his alledging of Matth. 28. 19. in his Book termed Plain Scripture proof of Infants baptism Part. 1. chap. 3. And I pray God to deliver me from such hardness of heart be adds That it was saving faith that was required of the Jews and professed by them Acts 2. 38 41 48. is shewed already and is plain in the Text Acts 8. The Samaritans believed and had great joy and were baptized into the name of Jesus Christ vers. 8. 12. whereby it appeareth that it was both the understanding and will that were both changed and that they had the profession of a saving faith even Simon himself Acts 8. 37. The condition on which the Eunuch must be baptized was if he believed with all his heart which he professed to do and that was the evidence that Philip did expect Paul was baptized after true conversion Acts 9. 18. The Holy Ghost fell on the Gentiles Acts 10. 44. before they were baptized and they magnified God And this Holy Ghost was the like gift as was given to the Apostles who believed on the Lord Jesus and it was accompanied with repentance unto life Acts 11. 17 18. Acts 16. 14 15. Lydia's heart was opened before she was baptized and she was one that the Apostles judged faithful to the Lord and offered to them the evidence of her faith Acts 16. 30 31 33 34. The example of the Jaylour is very full to the resolution of the question in hand He first asketh what he should do to be saved the Apostle answereth him Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thy house so that it was a saving faith that is here mentioned He rejoyced and believed with all his house and was baptized that same hour of the night or straightway It is here evident that he professed that same faith which Paul required Acts 18. 8. Crispus the chief Ruler of the Synagogue believed on the Lord with all his house● and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized Here we have two proofs that it is saving faith that is mentioned Those in Acts 19. 5. were baptized as believers in Jesus Christ In a word I know of no one word in Scripture that giveth us the least intimation that ever man was baptized without the profession of a saving faith There is constantly this order in the prescribed duty that no man should seek baptism but a true believer and no man should baptize any but those that profess this true belief Acts 8. 37. Philip is determining a question and giveth this in as the decision If thou believe with all thy heart thou mayest And to say that this is but de bene esse meaning that it includeth not the negative otherwise thou mayest not is to make Philip to have deluded and not decided or resolved Use that liberty in expounding all other Scripture and you 'l make it what you please A Dogmatical faith is not the Christian faith nor anywhere alone denominateth men believers in Scripture I remember but one Text John 12. 42. where it is called believing on Christ and but few more where it is simply called believing but none where such are called believers Disciples or Christians or any thing that intimateth them admitted into the visible Church without the profession of saving faith I conclude that all examples in Scripture do mention onely the administration of it to the professors of saving faith and the precepts give us no other direction and I provoke Master Blake as far as is seemly for me to do to name one precept or example for any other and make it good if he can I conclude that all examples of baptism in Scripture do mention onely the administration of it to the same persons who in their own persons were professors of saving faith and the precepts give us no other direction And I provoke Mr. Baxter as far as is seemly for me to do to name one precept or example for baptizing any other and make it good if he can and if not by his own reason he ought to baptize no other but must reject baptism of Infants who do not in their own persons profess saving faith and give over his vain Plea of Parents or Proparents profession of saving faith as entituling Infants to baptism which unless his violence and wilfulness of spirit blind him his own words and arguments will inforce to do Pag. 156. Argum. 17. is from 1 Pet. 3. 21. The like figure whereto even baptism doth also now save us Not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience toward God whence I thus Argue If baptism be appointed for our solemn admission into a state of salvation as Noahs Ark received men into a state of safety from the Deluge then none should be baptized but those that profess that faith which entereth them into a state of salvation but no Infant professeth that faith which entereth them into a state of salvation as is manifest by sense and reason therefore no Infant should be baptized Here it is implied plainly that this is quoad finem instituentis as to the end of him that instituted it the common appointed of baptism which the Text mentioneth though eventually it prove not the common effect through the errours of the receivers and this appeareth 1. In that it was spoken plainly in the text of the very nature and appointed use of baptism and so of baptism as baptism without any exception limitation or distinction Therefore it is not spoken of any different use that it is appointed for to the elect as distinct from its common use to others It s spoken of that signification and common use to which baptism is appointed viz. to save else we shall never be able to understand the use of it or any ordinance from Scripture if we