Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	jesus_n	law_n	life_n	8,423	5	5.1521	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76157	Confirmation and restauration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of the corruptions and divisions of the churches: submissively, but earnestly tendered to the consideration of the soveraigne powers, magistrates, ministers, and people, that they may awake, and be up and doing in the execution of so much, as appeareth to be necessary as they are true to Christ, his Church and Gospel, and to their own and others souls, and to the peace and wellfare of the nations; and as they will answer the neglect to Christ, at their peril. / By Richard Baxter, an unworthy minister of Christ, that longeth to see the healing of the churches.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1658 (1658)	Wing B1232; Thomason E2111_1; ESTC R209487	172,368	411

a point as the Covenant that men make with Christ We have wares that deserve the light and need not a dark shop We have a Master that we need not be affraid or ashamed explicitly and publickly to confess It beseemes not so high and honourable a Profession as that of a Christian to be lapt up in obscurity Such a Glorious state as Sonneship to God to be an Heir of Heaven c. should be entered into with great solemnity and owned accordingly at our first rationall acceptance and acknowledgment Kings are Crowned more solemnly then poor men take possession of their cottages Christ will be ashamed of them before the Angels that are ashamed of him before men and will confess them before his Father that confess him before men Christianity is not a game to be plaid under board Why then should any be against an open Professing and Covenanting with Christ If it be needfull that we Covenant certainly the plainest and most explicite Covenanting is the best And what will be his portion that hath a male in his flock and offereth the worst yea the halt and blind to God Let us therefore deal as openly and plainly and understandingly in the Covenant of God as we can and not contrive it in the greatest darkness that is consistent with the Essence of a Church Nay let us not tempt men to unchurch us or separate from us by leaving our cause to such Arguments as this such a man sitteth among other hearers in the Congregation therefore he maketh a Profession of the Christian Faith lest they think it followeth not therefore he seemeth to understand the Christian Faith much less he Professeth it especially when it 's known that so many understand it not and that the Papists in their writings maintain it lawfull for them to be present at our Assemblies and Infidels tell us that they can hear any man and do come thither Nehemiah caused the Jewsto subscribe the Covenant and seal it c. 9 v 38. Even under the Law it was the character of visible Saints to make a Covenant with God by Sacrifice Psal 50. 5. At least now God hath caused us to pass under the Rod. Let us yield to be brought under the bond of the Covenant Ezek. 20. 37. And let us as weeping Israel and Judah Seek the Lord our God and ask the way to Zion with our faces thitherward saying come and let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten Jer. 50 4 5. Let us take hold of his Covenant and choose the things that please him that he may bring us into his holy Mountain and make us joyfull in his house of Prayer and our Sacrifices may be accepted on his Altar Isa 56. 4 6 7. Are not these the daies of which it is said Isa 44. 3 4 5. I will poure water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will poure my Spirit on thy seed and my blessing on thine offspring and they shall spring as among the grass as willows by the water courses One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel I would have as little Covenanting for doubtfull or needless or mutable things in Church or State as is possible but in the great things of our Salvation even the Essence of Christianity we cannot be bound too fast nor deal too understandingly and openly with God Prop. 6. It is not every kind of Profession that is the Condition or necessary qualification of those that are to be admitted to the Priviledges of Adult members but such a Profession as God hath made necessaery by his express Word and by the Nature of the Object and the Vses and Ends to which be doth require it THe Negative is not controverted among us If any were so quarrelsom or ignorant it 's easily proved And I shall do it briefly but satisfactorily in the opening of the Affirmative I have proved in my first Disputation of Right to Sacraments which I desire the Reader that would have further satisfaction to peruse the Necessity of these following Qualifications of this Profession 1. In General as to the Object of our Faith it must be a Profession of true Christianity and no less It must be a Profession of our entertainment both of the Truth of the Gospel and of the Good therein Revealed and offered More particularly it must be a Profession that we believe in God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost as to the Nature persons and works which they have done or undertaken for us Yet more particularly and explicitly It must be a Profession 1. That we Believe in God the Father and so the pure Deity as our Creatour Soveraign and chief Good who gave us the Law of Nature by breaking of which we have lost our selves and all our part in Everlasting Life 2. That we Believe in Jesus Christ God and Man that taking our Nature fulfilled the Law overcame the Devil dyed as a Sacrifice for our sinnes Rose again and conqured death ascened into Heaven where he is Lord of all and the King Prophet and Priest of his Church in Glory with the Father That he hath offered himself with Pardon and Eternal Life to all that will accept him on his terms and that he will come again at last to Raise us from death and judge the world and Justifie his Saints and bring them to Eternal Glory and cast the wicked into utter misery 3. That we Believe in God the Holy Ghost that Inspired the Prophets and Apostles to deliver and confirm the Word of God and who is the Sanctifier of all that shall be saved illuminating their understandings changing their hearts and lives humbling them for their sinne and misery causing them to believe in Christ the Remedie and heartily and thankfully accept him Possessing them with an hearty Love of God and a heavenly mind and a hatred of sinne and Love of Holiness and turning the principal bent of their hearts and lives to the Pleasing of God and the attaining of Eternal Life This much must be believed and the Belief of this much must be somehow Professed 2. As to the Acts of the thing Professed it must be not only the naked Assent of the Understanding but both this Assent that the Gospel is true and a Consent of the Will to take God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost to the forementioned Ends in the forementioned Relations and to give up our selves unfeignedly to him renouncing the flesh the world and the Devil 3. As to the Nature of the Profession it self 1. It must in General be Credible For no man is bound to Believe that which is Incredible The words are the signs of the mind and as such they are to be uttered and received If they be contrary to the mind they are false and

Baptism was an Actuall Profession 9. The constant Practice of the Universal Church hath given us by infallible Tradition as full assurance of the order of Baptism and in particular of an Exprss Profession and Covenant then made as of any point that by the hands of the Church can be received by us 10. And it was in those daies a more notorious Profession to be so Baptized and to joyn in the holy Assemblies then now it is When the Profession of Christianity did hazard mens liberties estates and lives to be openly then Baptized upon Covenanting with God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost and openly joyn with a hated persecuted sort of men was an eminent sort of Profession It being also usually Private in houses as separated from the main body of the people and not in publike places like ours where men are justly driven to come as leaners for instruction Moreover it 's said of all that were Baptized being then at Age that they first Believed And how could the Baptizers know that they believed but by their Profession Yea it 's said of Simon Magus that he Believed and was Baptized which though he might really have some historical Faith yet implyeth that he openly Professed more then he indeed had or else he had scarce been Baptized Which hath caused Interpreters to judge that by Faith is meant a Profession of Faith And if so then sure a Profession was still Necessary Yea Christ in his Commission directeth his Apostles to make Disciples and then Baptize them promising that he that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved And who can tell whether a man be a Disciple a Believer or an Infidel but by his Profession How was it known but by their Profession that the Samaritans Believed Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ before they were Baptized both men and women Act. 8. 12. Philip caused the Eunuch to profess before he would Baptise him that he believed that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God which upon his teaching the rest did import the rest if it were not more fully as is likest Professed Act. 8 37 38. Saul had more then a bare Profession before Baptism Acts 9. 5 15 17. Cornelius and his company had a Profession and more for they had the Holy Ghost powred on them speaking with tongues and magnifying God that use of the gift of tongues imparting more then the gift it self Acts 10. 46. Yea the Spirit bid Peter Go and not doubt Acts 11. 12 And it was such a gift of the Spirit as caused the Apostles to conclude that God had granted the Gentiles Repentance unto life Acts 11. 18. How was it known but by their Profession Acts 11. 21. That that great number Believed and turned to the Lord And the Grace of God was such as Barnabas saw vers 23. And when Saul after his Baptism assayed to joyn himself to the Disciples at Jerusalem they so suspected him that they would not receive him till Barnabas took him and brought him to the Apostles and declared to them how God had dealt with him and how boldly at Damascus he had preached in the Name of Jesus which shews that they admitted not men to their Communion till their Profession seemed Credible to them For no doubt but Saul told them himself that he was a Believer before he was put to make use of the testimony of Barnabas The Converted Gentiles Acts 13. 48. shewed their Belief and gladness and openly glorified the Word of the Lord. How but by a Profession did it come to pass that the great multitude at Iconium both Jews and Greeks were known to be Believers Acts 14. 1. The same I may say of the Jaylour Acts 16. Who by works as well as words declared his Conversion And the Bereans Acts 17. 12. And the Athenians Acts 17. 34. And Crispus with the Corinthians Acts 18. 8. Acts 19. 18. The believing Ephesians Confessed and shewed their deeds and many of them burnt as many of their Books of ill Arts as came to fifty thousand pieces of silver In a word it is the standing Rule that If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto Righteousnes and with the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation He that bids us Receive him that is weak in the Faith but not to doubtfull disputations implieth that we must not receive them that Profess not at least a weak Faith Heb. 5. 6. 1 2 3. Shew that the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ were first laid as the Foundation before Baptism And who received those Principles could not be known but by a Profession To this let me adde that Poenitentiam age●e was judged by the Ancient Doctours the Repentance that was prerequisite to Baptism and that is A manifested professed Repentance Gods order is to the Adult first to send Preachers to proclaim the Gospel and when by that men are brought so farre as to Profess or manifest that their cies are opened and that they are turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God then must they be Baptized for the Remission of their sinnes and to receive the Inheritance among the Sanctified by Faith in Christ Acts 26. 17. 18. As their sinnes are not forgiven them till they are Converted Mark 4. 12. So they must not be Baptised for the forgiveness of sinnes till they Profess themselves Converted Seeing to the Church non esse non apparere is all one Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ is the summe of that Preaching that maketh Disciples Acts 20. 21. And therefore both these must by Profession seem to be received before any at age are Baptized If as many as are Baptized into Christ are Baptized into his death and are buried with him by Baptism into his death that like as Christ was raised from the dead so we also should walk in Newness of life Rom. 6. 4 5. Then no doubt but such as were to be Baptized did first Pro●ess this mortification and a consent to be buried and revived with Christ and to live to him in Newness of life For Paul was never so much for the Opus operatum above the Papsts as to think that the Baptizing of an Infidel might effect these high and excellent things And he that Professeth not Faith nor ever did is to the Church an Infidel In our Baptism we put off the body of the sinnes of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ being buried with him and rising with him through Faith quickned with him and having all our trespasses forgiven Col. 3. 11 12 13. And will any man yea will Paul ascribe all this to those that did not so much as Profess the things signified or the necessary Condition Will Baptism in the judgment of a wise man do all this for