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A42248 The grounds of infant-baptism briefly explained 1693 (1693) Wing G2138C; ESTC R222580 20,167 16

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THE GROUNDS OF Infant-Baptism Briefly EXPLAINED GOD's Word plainly declareth That it is sufficient Qualification for Baptism if Persons be Believers If thou believest withal thine heart thou mayest be baptized Act. 8. 36 37. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved Mark 16.15 16. Now the Infants of Christian Parents are either Believers or Unbelievers or neither Believers nor Unbelievers but a third kind middle between both A third kind of Persons who are neither Believers nor Unbelievers but middle between both cannot be the Scripture knoweth none such it is contrary to the Tenour of God's Word and to the Grounds of Religion and to the Common Belief of Christendom and will Ubi ponis parvulos baptizatos Profecto in numero credentium August de Verbis Apostoli Ser. 14. infer one of these two impious Absurdities either that Infants are bruit Beasts or that dying in Infancy they are neither saved not damned but remain in a Third State middle between Heaven and Hell for ever If you suppose the Infants of Christian Parents to be Unbelievers then in reason you must suppose that they be all so and dying in Infancy Unbelievers they must needs be damned For Christ plainly saith That he which believeth not shall be damned he is condemned already he shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Mark 16. 16. John 3. 18 36. And if all the Infants of Christian Parents dying in Infancy are damned Unbelievers we have much more reason to conclude that all the Infants of Heathen Parents dying in Infancy are so too But sure that Doctrine cannot be true which adjudgeth all Infants taken away in Infancy to inevitable Damnation for ever It remains then that the Infants of Christian Parents are Believers and therefore baptizable § II. Though Infants are not capable of actual Faith after the similitude of vigilant grown Men yet they are capable of the inward Seed and Root thereof after the similitude of grown Men in their Sleep while their Sleep 1 Joh. 3. 9. Luk. 1. 15 35. Jer. 1. 5. lasteth and as Jeremy and John Baptist were sanctified from the Womb and as the Infant Jesus was holy and as David was made to hope when he was upon his Psal 22. 9. mothers breasts The Soul of each Infant is a Spiritual Substance and being so it must needs be immortal and some way or other in act from the time that it is put into the Body and while it is in the Body it doth animate and quicken the Body and is the Life thereof and is always upon its way to Eternity without 1 Cor. 7. 14. all stop or stay and either it is by supernatural Grace inwardly holy in the sight of God and so in the way to Heaven or it is destitute of supernatural Grace and then it is inwardly unholy and unclean in the sight of God and so in the way to Hell Our Brethren the Opposers of Infant Baptism confess That from Their Confession of Faith p. 24. Adam and Eve the Common Parents of us all corrupted Nature was conveyed to all their Posterity descending from them by ordinary Generation being now conceived in Sin and by Nature Children of Wrath the Servants of Sin the Subjects of Death and all other Miseries Spiritual Temporal and Eternal unless the Lord Jesus set them free Now Infants being inwardly infected and defiled with Sin and Corruption as the Great Disease of lapsed Humane Nature they must needs be by Divine Grace capable of Cure and Remedy which Cure and Remedy cannot be without super natural Regeneration whereby their Souls are inwardly renewed and made Partakers of the Divine and Godly Nature conformably to the Image of the Infant Jesus whose Soul while he was an Infant did overflow 2 Pet. 1. 4. H b. 1. 9. 2. 11 12. Rom. 8. 29. Joh. 20. 17. Luk. 1. 35. 2.40 Joh. 3. 3 5 6. with the Seed of Divine Faith Hope Love Meekness Piety and all other Coelestial Graces a degree and measure whereof God worketh in all Elect Infants in respect whereof the Infant Jesus and they are Brethren and Fellows there is spiritual similitude between them The Infant Jesus is considerable two ways First In respect of the Natural Substance of his Soul and Body and so there is similitude between him and all other Infants for they also have Souls and Bodies no less than the Infant Jesus this similitude is natural and common Secondly In the Infant Jesus besides the natural Substance of his Soul and Body there is by supernatural Grace and gracious Donation and Endowment the Seed and Root of all Divine and Heavenly Vertues which are the Life of the Soul like as the Soul is the Life of the Body these Divine and Heavenly Vertues did emidently shine forth in the Life of Christ when grown up Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man The Seed and Luke 2. 52. Root of all Heavenly Vertues was by supernatural Grace in his Soul while he was in the Virgin 's Womb and as soon as he was born of her but did not appear till he was arrived to some maturity When he was grown to Man's Estate he did use to take his Rest in Sleep and while be slept the inward Heavenly Vertues and Graces of his Mind did not appear but the Seed and Root thereof lay hid in his Soul Now between such Infants as Jeremy and John Baptist who are by supernatural Grace born of God and holy from the Womb and the Infant Jesus there is spiritual and special similitude But between Infants unregenerate and unholy and the Infant Jesus there is no spiritual and special similitude Gen. 3. 15. Isa 42. 1. Rom. 9 8. but contrariety as between the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman between Non-Elect and Elect. No reason can be rendred why the Infants of Christian Parents should not be as truly capable of being Believers as the Infant Jesus was of being a Saviour Vnto you is born this day in the city of Luk. 2. 11. Mat. 1. 21. David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. She shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins As if you suppose the Infant Jesus Christ not to be the Saviour of Souls it cannot be declared when he comes to be the Saviour of Souls So if you suppose the Infants of Believing Parents not to be a kind of Believers it cannot be declared when the Children born of Believing Parents come to be in the Number of Believers in what Year of their Lives If the Infancy of Jesus Christ could not barr him from being Jesus Christ the Mediator between God and Men the Head of the Church and the Saviour thereof when he sucked his Mother's Breasts By the same reason the state of
the recompence of the reward so the Man Christ Jesus for the H●b 11. 26. H●b 12. 2. Isa 49 4 53.11 Phil. 2. 8 9. joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God according to the Covenant between God and him Now the Covenant between God and the Man Christ Jesus is for substance the same with the Covenant between God and all godly Christians they are specifically but one everlasting Covenant because Christ considered as Man Heb. 1. 9. 2. 11 12. Rom. 8. 29. Joh. 20. 17. Col. 1. 18. and all godly Christians are Brethren and Fellows only he in all things hath the pre-eminence as being the First-born among many Brethren and anointed with the Oyl of Gladness above his Fellows § VII What advaniage then hath the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision Rom. 3. 1 2. Much every way Certainly the Christian now hath not less advantage then the Jew anciently had and there is not less profit now by Baptism then was of old by Circumcision Christian Parents and their Seed are not Losers but rather Gainers by the Coming of Christ and the New Testament in his Blood because he is a surety of a better testament the mediator of a better covenant But this cannot be if the Infants of Christian Parents be not admittable to Baptism Heb. 7.22 8 6. For how can that be a better Covenant and Testament which abolisheth Circumcision whereby there was much Profit and Advantage to the Infants of Believing Parents anciently and gives them nothing in lieu thereof but excludes them from Baptism coming in the room thereof § VIII That Baptism comes in the place of Circumcision is evident for the Heb. 7. 12. Priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the Law For thô the Law for Circumcision was in force some Hundreds of Years before the Institution of the Levitical Priesthood yet were they both but temporary Institutions designed to last but for a time until the time of Reformation which being come Heb. 9. 10. they cease and have an end and in their room comes Baptism and the Priesthood of Christ and the New Covenant in his Blood Plain it is that as there is a change of the Levitical Priesthood so is there also of Circumcision If ye be Gal. 5. 2. circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Now there cannot be a change of Circumcision but there must needs be another Sign and Token of God's gracious Covenant in its room for therein consisteth the nature of a change and the change here must needs be for the better because Christ is the Mediator of a better Covenant and the time of the New Testament is the time of Reformation more glorious than the time of the Old Testament Accordingly Baptism 2 Cor. 3. 10 ●● is better then Circumcision as better suiting with the State of the Church under the New Testament 1. It is more easie Circumcision was bloody and painful 2. It is more plain and significative of our Communion and Fellowship with Christ in his Death and Resurrection and of the washing away of all our sins in his Blood 3. It is equally applicable to Males and Females 4. It is not limited to the Eighth Day 5. It is enjoyned to all Believers both Jews and Gentiles throughout the World 6. It is to continue to the End of the World 7. It is to be done by none but a Valid Minister of Christ 8. It is to be done publickly in the Assembly of God's People if it may be Look then as we have the Lord's Supper in the room of the Passeover and the Lord's Day in the room of the Seventh Day Sabbath and the Priesthood of Christ in the room of the Levitical Priesthood and the New Testament in Christ's Blood in the room of the Old Testament in the Blood of Beasts So we have Baptism in the room of Circumcision a change every way for the better Either Circumcision is changed for Baptism or for nothing for no other thing imaginable comes in its room But a change there must needs be otherwise the Scripture will be found erroneous in saying The Priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the Law § IX The Opposers of Infant-Baptism deny Baptism to be the Seal of God's Covenant with every Believer and affirm That the Scriptures are altogether silent thereof and conceive the Seal of that Covenant is the Indwelling of the Spirit of Their Confession of Faith p. 117 Christ in the particular and individual Persons in whom he resides and nothing else But this is a manifest Error for before Abraham was Circumcised he was a true Believer in Covenant with God and sealed with the Spirit of Christ afterward he received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised So that besides the Indwelling of the Rom. 4. 11. Spirit there was then clearly another Seal of God's Covenant namely Circumcision The difference between these two Seals stood in this the Indwelling of the Spirit is an internal Seal peculiar to the Elect of absolute Eph. 1. 13 14. 4 30. 2 Cor. 1. 22. necessity to the Salvation of each Person from the Fall of Adam to the end of the World but Circumcision was an external Seal common to Isaac and Ishmael to Jacob and Esau to Elect and Non-Elect Persons not ordained before Abraham's time neither to all then but to some only and to no Infant before the Eighth Day and upon special Reasons dispensed with or omitted for Forty Years in the Wilderness and never esteemed by God of equal excellency and necessity with Regeneration Moreover it is undeniably plain that Circumcision was a token of the covenant between God and Abraham together with his seed after him in their generations And being so it was a Seal thereof Gen. 17 9 10 11. for a Token of God's Covenant and a Seal thereof for substance denote the same thing This Covenant did assure the earthly Canaan to Abraham and all his Natural Seed in common by Sarah and the heavenly Canaan to Abraham and all his Spiritual Seed Those of Abraham's Seed who rested in the Letter of Circumcision without the Spirit in the Circumcision of the Flesh without the Circumcision of the Heart and minded the earthly more than the heavenly Canaan were Abraham's degenerate Seed Children of the Devil born after the Flesh and not after the Spirit ungodly and liable to eternal Damnation But such as together with the Circumcision of the Flesh had the inward Circumcision of the Heart and by supernatural Grace and Regeneration were truly holy before God these were Abraham's Spiritual Seed Elect in Christ Children of God and Christians really though not so called and unto them Circumcision was principally a Seal and Token of God's