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	time_n	year_n	4,003	5	4.9349	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67377	A defense of infant-baptism in answer to a letter (here recited) from an anti-pædo-Baptist / by John Wallis ...	Wallis, John, 1616-1703.	1697 (1697)	Wing W568; ESTC R21035	12,184	30

Trade or none at all And so here whether he be of such Years if not the Child of a Christian or have been before neglected as to have been taught somewhat of Christianity or yet an Infant and to know nothing of it And whether as in the former case he offer himself to Baptism or as in the latter he be tender'd to it by his Parents he is to be Baptized and to be Instructed each according to the capacity wherein he is But why it should be neglected when it may be had sooner I see no reason at least if it be allowed to be a thing desirable and advantageous Now this for the most part was the case of the Apostles when they converted Jews or Heathens to the Christian Faith It was not to be expected that Men at Age and at their own Disposal and brought up in another Religion would be willing to declare themselves Christians and be Baptized as such before they knew somewhat of it And therefore I would not lay so much stress upon the Order of Words as if a Person Unbaptized might not be taught if capable of it But when they were so perswaded as to themselves they did with themselves bring in those who were under their Power As Lydia and all her Houshold the Iaylor and all his the Houshold of Stephanas Cornelius and all his and the like I suppose of others And to this purpose I understand that of Act. 2. Repent and be Baptized every one of you whether Jews or Gentiles this being a mixture of many Nations for the remission of sins For the promise is to you and to your Children as well as to Abraham and his Children and to as many as our Lord shall call and to their Children for this I suppose to be understood For though I know that Children doth not always signify Infants yet if no more were meant of their Children than of all the World beside there was no occasion of Naming Children but the Sense had been as full without it Now it cannot reasonably be supposed but that there were Children in some of those Houses at least it is more likely that there were in some than that there were none in any of them and therefore that Children were then Baptized as well as others especially when there is no Intimation to the contrary And in such Cases where there is a silence in matter of Fact it is reasonable to think it was so as was most likely to be especially when nothing appears to the contrary and great Presumptions of it I know there is sometime mention of Faith in order to being Baptized but it is of grown Persons Nor is it always meant of saving Faith and a cordial Conversion but a Profession of Faith or a professed willingness to be Baptized and declaring themselves Christians For 't is said Simon himself believed also and was baptized Which cannot be meant of saving Faith and a real Conversion for we find him afterward in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity And when so many Thousands were Baptized in one Day we cannot think they were all singly Examined so as to give at least a probable Evidence of saving Grace But their willingness to be Baptized was a sufficient Evidence of their declaring themselves Christians or professing Christianity And when all Ierusalem and all Iudea and all the region about Iordan that is great Multitudes from all those Parts went out to Iohn Baptist and were baptized of him confessing their sins it cannot be supposed that such Multitudes were all singly Examined and made particular Confessions of their Sins But the Verbal Expressions of many with the silent Consent of the rest and the concurrent Actings of all was an evident Declaration of their common Sentiments And it can hardly be thought that they did not many of them bring Children with them since we know they had then an Opinion that Children were capable of Benefit from the Benediction of Prophets and Persons extraordinary as appears by their bringing of little Children to Christ such as to be taken up in Arms for him to lay his hands on them and bless them Now if each of these Considerations be not singly convictive Yet so many together of which each is highly probable and when as nothing so much as probable doth appear to the contrary It seems to me so great an Evidence in Matter of Fact that Children were then Baptized that I do not at all doubt but that we are rather to think that Infants were then Baptized than that they were not To which we may add the continual concurrence of the Churches Practice for near Sixteen Hundred Years which in Matter of Fact is a great Evidence For I do not know that in any Age of the Church it was ever so much as questioned or at all doubted but that the Children of Christians might be lawfully Baptized till that about 100 Years since in our Grandfathers time the Anabaptists in Germany did amongst many other extravagant Notions begin to cavil at it When as in all the former Ages of the Church nearer to the Apostles time I do not know that any History doth mention that it was ever questioned Whereas a thing of such Daily Practice if at any time in any part of the Christian Church it had received any considerable Opposition it could not be but that some History would have taken notice of it And in such a Case a constant Silence is to me a sufficient Evidence that it hath been a constant Practice even from the Apostles time without any Opposition And if so no doubt but by them also And I do not know of any thing alleged with any shew of Evidence why we should think the contrary If any who were not the Children of Christians but converted from Heathenism have defer'd their Baptism too long I think they were faulty in so doing But if any will obstinately think that Paul and Peter had not each of them Two Hands and on each Hand Five Fingers because it is no where in Scripture that I know of said that they had so And that therefore we are rather to think they had not than that they had I cannot help it These are my Thoughts hastily drawn up and I pray God they may through his Blessing be effectual to your Satisfaction Yours Iohn Wallis For Mr. C to be left with Mr. at the in St. Paul's Church-yard till it be called for * Perhaps he meant to say Baptism came in the room of Circumcision

Woman or Child examine himself not her self and so let him not her eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. Nor do we any where in Scripture find any express mention of Women receiving it Yet I am satisfy'd notwithstanding this Objection and so I hope are you that they did then and ought now to receive it Because there is no intimation of the contrary and there seems to be the same reason for the Women as for the Men and the like benefit to each And Women were Baptized though not formerly Circumcised and did as we have reason to presume though I do not remember that it is expresly said so eat of the Pass-over notwithstanding it be expresly said Exod. 12. 48. No Vncircumcised Person shall eat thereof The words House and Houshold being reasonably supposed to include Women and Children also and that the whole Family is to be reputed as a Circumcised Family wherein all the Males are Circumcised And the Practice of the Church which is a great Presumption hath been always consonant to admit Women as well as Men to the Lord's Table And in many other cases particular Circumstances may be presumed to be supplied from the Reasonableness of the thing and parallel Cases though not distinctly expressed in the History of the Fact as may be amply shewed if that were necessary Now to apply this to the present Case we are first to consider what Baptism is It is a solemn Rite appointed by Christ for the solemn Admission or Incorporation of the Person Baptized into the Christian Church as Circumcision was into that of the Iews and a Consecration or Dedication of the Person Baptized to the Service or Worship of the Father Son and Holy-Ghost And consequently those who have right to be so admitted and so dedicated have right to the solemn Rite of such Admission and Dedication Next we are to consider that the Children of Christians now have as well a right to be reputed Members of the Christian Church as the Children of Iews of the Jewish Church and consequently to be solemnly received into it that is into God's visible Church both of them and both a like Obligation to be offered or dedicated to the Service of the True God And it is not reasonably to be supposed that God would so often and so emphatically make Promises to the Righteous and their seed if there was not somewhat of peculiar Preference intended them beyond those of the Wicked or those that are out of God's Visible Church For if no more be intended than such a Conditional Promise If they repent and believe this is equally true of the Children of the most Profligate and of Heathens as of Jews or Christians How great that is I will not now dispute but what Preference did then belong to the Jews I think is now common to Christians Otherwise Christ's Coming would render the Condition of Children worse than before And particularly those very Children who in the Jewish Church were Members of the visible Church of God must have ceased to be so when the Christian Church took place Contrary to what Christ seems to intimate in that of Suffer little Children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven Which intimates a Capacity in Children of an Interest in Heaven hereafter and in the visible Church here especially if by Kingdom of Heaven be here meant the Gospel Church As likewise to that of Else were your Children unclean but now are they holy Which implies a certain Holiness as to the Children of One though not of both Believing Parents which they would not have if neither of the Parents were Believers Which seems to me so clear an Evidence of some relative Holiness or Interest in the visible Church or Dedication to the Service of God as is not easy to be avoided And that slight Evasion as if it were meant as to Bastardy is so weak as with me bears no weight at all For though both Parents were Heathen the Child would not be a Bastard And it is to be considered that in all Religions the Children are reputed as of the same Religion with the Parents while under their Care till they do by some act of their own manifest the contrary The Child of a Jew is reputed a Jew of a Christian a Christian of a Heathen a Heathen of a Papist a Papist and so of others Now what belongs to a Church as a Church doth equally belong to the Jewish and Christian Church and needs no new Institution And consequently that of having their Children in the visible Church-Communion with themselves and the Blessing appertaining to that visible Communion as that of I will be a God of thee and of thy Seed And this Blessing of Abraham is come upon the Gentiles also And though it is true that this doth not presently intitle them to Heaven unless their Life be answerable as neither did that of being the Seed of Abraham yet it is to be reputed a real Advantage as putting them into a fairer Prospect of Heaven and in a greater Probability of obtaining saving Grace than if out of the Church And this Advantage of the Iew above the Gentiles which they then had the Apostle tells us is much every way Yet not so but that a Believer though not a Jew might be saved by Faith and an Unbeliever though a Jew would be damned without it And what Advantage was then to the Jews as God's visible Church is now common to the Gentiles also So that the Right of Believers Children to be within the Church is not a new Institution as if we should now look for a distinct Institution of Infant-Baptism beside that of Baptism but as old as Adam for ought I know But the solemn Rite of Admission into this Church to which the Child hath a Right to be admitted is a new Institution then by Circumcision appointed to Abraham and now by Baptism upon a new Institution appointed by Christ. By being Believers Children they have Ius ad rem and by being Baptized they have Ius in re whatever be the Priviledge of being within the Pale and Promise of the visible Church And so long as by our fault we debar them from Baptism we do so much as in us lyeth debar them of that Advantage whatever it be Nor is it only a Priviledge of the Children to be thus early admitted into the visible Church with the Benefits thereto appertaining and thus dedicated to the Service and Worship of God but a Duty of Parents and other Superiors thus to dedicate them and so far as in them lyeth give them up to God And we need not doubt but that the Parent hath a natural Right over the Child of so doing And we do not know how soon the Effect of such Dedication upon God's acceptance may operate Samson before he was born was devoted by Manoah to be a Nazarite And Samuel was by his Mother vowed before