Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	apostle_n	false_a	teacher_n	2,669	5	9.2326	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57687	Paedobaptismus vindicatus, or, Infant-baptism stated in an essay to evidence its lawfulness from the testimony of the Holy Scripture, especially St. Matthew, XXVIII, 19 : the grand, if not sole place, so much insisted on by the antipaedobaptists, to prove their mistaken principle : handled in a different method form other tracts on the subject, as appears in the contents : with an account of a conference publickly held with an antipaedobaptist of no small fame / by J.R., A.M., a Presbyter of te Church of England.	Rothwell, John, d. 1661.	1693 (1693)	Wing R2005; ESTC R6073	107,326	230

they cannot do that they ought to confess and declare we have Truth on our side and that they are in an error which though Men out of love to their Reputation or a mistaken Interest they are unwilling to come to yet I am certain it is their Duty to do it CHAP. XVIII An Account whence Infant-Baptism results AND now the business may be determined in this one Enquiry Whether the baptizing of Infants do appear to be a divine Institution and holy Apostolic usage And if it do we have all we can desire in the Case but if it do not we are obliged and bound to disown the Method we have taken for the asserting our Principle or drawing from it what we would conclude thereupon and because the best Method for the solving of this doubt is the urging home what we have said laying the foundation upon a divine Institution and the usage of the holy Apostles Therefore give me leave to press it close upon the Consciences of such Men as love the Truth and value their Souls above all Worldly Considerations in six Particulars 1. Whether by the holy Jesus's laying the Institution of this blessed Sacrament in the Jews usage of baptizing Proselytes which hath been evidenced to appertain unto the Infant Children of such Proselytes 2. By his being so far from rejecting the Age of Children as an impediment of coming unto him i. e. unto their Proselytism that he affirms them to be the Pattern of those of whom his Kingdom consists and though he be not affirmed in the holy Gospel to baptize such when indeed the blessed Jesus baptized not at all St. John iv 2. St. Mark x. 16. but his holy Disciples yet he took them in his Arms and laid his Hands upon them and blessed them which being the Rite customary in the holy Church for those that were qualified for Baptism and directly preparative to it they that were by the Christ allowed that cannot be esteemed by him less fit for Baptism than for that 3. By the express words of the holy Apostle that their Children are holy expounded by the coherence and connexion of the Text as we have already made evident and apparent by giving its proper sense and answering the strongest Objection against what we have offered as its true meaning so as to conclude from the reason of the holy Apostle's Discourse that it was the usage of the days Apostolic to admit the Infants of Christian Parents unto Baptism and so expounded by the Christian Authors of the earliest Centuries 4. By the Authorities of the ancient primitive Fathers that treated of this Doctrin without the least pretence of theirs who were best acquainted with their Customs that this was not an holy Apostolic usage and therefore continued in all the times of the ancient Church successively 5. By the Testimony of Councils when the obstinacy of false Teachers contradicted resisted and gain said it 6. At last enjoyned by the holy Church whence I believe with the other Accounts already given the needfulness of its usage and continuance ariseth and not from any other Grounds Now all I urge with due submission of my Self and the Cause unto the Opinion of unbyassed Persons any Man of Candor and Ingenuity that is freed from Passion Prejudice and Interest is this Whether these six Particulars being duly and seriously considered the Truth of all which is well known unto any learned Man it be not clear enough that admitting Infants to Baptism is a divine Institution and an holy Apostolic usage If it be not I would willingly understand what is more needful for satisfaction in a business of this Concern And whether by any other or more properly convincing Arguments the contrary can be proved to be an holy Apostolic custom or that they denied the Infants of Proselytes the holy Sacrament of Baptism CHAP. XIX An Appeal unto the Reason of Mankind AND now I have one Consideration to offer by way of Appeal unto all disinterested and unbyassed Persons to engage their Belief unto such a comfortable and christian Doctrin as well as so necessary and useful a Practice That whatsoever appointment or precept hath God the Father for its Author whether discovered by the Revelation of the holy Prophets or by the service of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministring Spirits above that are sent forth into all the Parts of the World to Minister for them who shall be the Heirs of Salvation as the Author of the Epistle unto the Hebrews acquaints us or the Holy Jesus for its Institutor whether directly from himself Heb. 1.14 or mediately by his Successors the holy Apostles and those that succeeded them holy Apostolic Men is not of Infallible Obligation unto all to whom it was given and so each Institution of Christ unto all Christians and that the peculiar way of its Derivation unto us whether by the Inspired Discoveries of the Law or Holy Gospel or any different Method is but of an extrinsic Consideration to any such Divine Appointment or Command I say upon this Consideration I have I hope in the Judgment of all sober and rational Men for the full clearing of this Doubt and satisfying this Case of Conscience concerning Infant Baptism by proper and the most highly probable Arguments manifested That by appointing Baptism as a blessed Sacrament to be used amongst Christians the blessed Jesus and his immediate Followers did not deny Children the use of that comfortable and holy Ordinance but freely and willingly admitted them thereunto CHAP. XX. The Conclusion of the whole Matter AND now I have one Proposal to make by way of Importunate Request which I hope is reasonable for me to desire That none of the Antipedobaptists will look upon or account me as their Adversary because according unto the Duty of my Place and the Obligations of my Conscience I declare unto them what I verily believe to be true and have no different purpose or intention in the management of this Controversie but to bring Men to a Great Regard and Reverend Esteem for and an humble and dutiful Submission to the Holy Jesus's Ordination and Appointment Upon the whole Matter then and an impartial and serious Consideration of what hath been offered I cannot imagine what Plea except such as is conducted by Interest Humour or Covetousness any understanding Man can with the least probability use to throw off the concording Agreement of so many Testimonies and great Authorities for so necessary a Practice as well as comfortable a Doctrin And I shall with all Hearty Affection and Brotherly Love conclude and presume no farther than these Arguments and Testimonies will allow me to do surely not be so Censorious as the Antipedobaptists and Anabaptists are when they declare hainous Matters of us and affirm that we by Baptizing Infants Pollute the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant God forbid that we who heartily Pray in our Public Liturgy which all Clergymen are obliged and engaged unto the daily use

my main Argument and then with this Preface and what is in the Book I shall have delivered what not only my self but others of far greater Judgment if they do not flatter me think necessary to be said on the Subject according to the Method I have handled it in and the Topicks I have proved it by What I said next was when I had occasion to preach on that former Text and quoted 1 Cor. VII 14. I thus delivered my self Give me leave now to say something in defence of Infant-Baptism being willing to seize on any Opportunity that inviteth me to speak thereof For being there is a Sect of Men called Antipaedobaptists that have set up a Meeting in this Parish to seduce Men from the Ancient Truth I think it my Duty out of kindness to your Souls Health to preserve you in the true and Catholic because Christian Doctrin of Baptizing Infants that you may by defending your Orthodox Principle of the Church of England be able to Answer some of their weak though they imagine them strong Arguments If then that be true which I do not in the least doubt having no reason for it that the Learned Rabbins among the Jews acquaint us with who best understood their Usages That one Reason of Circumcision was to teach the derivation of God's Covenant to the Seed of the Faithful This place of St. Paul's will hint us a seemingly unanswerable Argument for Infant-Baptism which with an allowable confidence and without too much conceitedness of my self for I have laboured to mortifie such Inclinations I may challenge the most Learned Antipaedobaptist in this Country or possibly in the Kingdom to give any tolerable Answer to or to offer any Sens of this Text different from what I shall now deliver as its true meaning provided it be according to the Testimony of Holy Writ the Connexion of Sacred Scripture the Analogy of sound Faith and the clear Dictates of right Reason I call this Doctrine an Ancient Practise because I do not in any measure Question but it was used in that Age of Christianity next to the Holy Apostles which is as soon as we could expect it to be used because in the Holy Apostle's time there was no one Nation brought over to the Christian Faith but because of the swift propagation of the Christian Doctrin we may reasonably suppose there was such a Conversion by the end of the first Century or Hundred years after the Holy Apostles death Viri Apostolici and the Fathers of that Century were called Apostolic Men and if you will not allow such a Tradition to be Apostolic I know not what Tradition can claim that Ancient and Honourable Name And now I will give you the plain Sens of that place of St. Paul's above-mentioned such as may confirm what I have before offered as its meaning in a Conference on this Subject For the unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the Wife and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband i. e. the Paganish Husband is sanctified by the Wife that is a Christian I mean her Foederal or Covenant Holiness is imputed to the Husband that the Children begotten and born after such a Marriage may be Holy or Partakers of a Foederal or Covenant Holiness For a Personal Holiness cannot be conveyed as some Men of ill Principles particularly the Antinomians think for they believ the Personal Holiness of God and Christ may be transmitted and therefore they declare a Man may be Godded with God and Christed with Christ And so the Paganish Wife is sanctified by the believing Husband That no other sense can be the proper meaning of this Text I appeal to the Context which is the best way to have a right understanding of Holy Scripture or any other Book or Author as will appear by two verses preceding If any Brother hath a Wife that believeth not and she be pleased to dwell with him let him not put her away and the Woman which hath an Husband that believeth not if he be pleased to dwell with her let her not leave him And then the Holy Apostle as an encouragement for Co-habitation and a Reason why the Husband should not Divorce the Wife or the Wife forsake the Husband adds the following Words for the unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the Wife and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband which being so great a Priviledg should be a Motive to dwell together and not by separation to forfeit so considerable an Advantage and when there is so plain Sense in Holy Scripture for the Baptizing Infants it is unreasonable in the Antipaedobaptists to demand a positiv Precept of Holy Scripture in express Words and therefore having so much Reason on our side grounded on the plain sense of Holy Scripture Why may not we with as much Reason retort on them and demand a positiv Prohibition in express terms And ask whether they can shew any Text in the whole Sacred Book of God that saith Infants shall not be Baptized Having therefore so much Reason for our Principles we may rationally presume we have the Holy Scriptures seeing they never contradict Reason though they may in some things transcend Reason but I shall need say no more from this Text having spoken so fully to it in the Book to which I referr my Readers I know but one Objection An Obj. I shall need to take notice of here seeing I have answered so many in the Book and in particular This and therefore shall be the shorter in the Account I now give and what I say shall not be the same with that in the Book and this I am the more willing to because I know some of the Antipaedobaptists think it may have some force in it against our Principle though few of them know how to manage it and I confess it hath been started to me by one that knew not how to use it and this they think the stronger because drawn from our acknowledged Principles I mean from one of our authorized Books and so they take it to be like the Logicians Argumentum ad Hominem as strong as a Dilemma and so hope to gore us with our own Horns and expect we should say as the Apostate Emperor of the Christians in his Age when he was overcome by the Christians ●ropriis 〈…〉 with Arguments drawn out of his own Quiver We are wounded with the Arrows feathered from our own Shafts The Objection is drawn from an Answer to a Question in our Church Catechism To that Question What is required of Persons to be Baptized the Answer is Repentance whereby they forsake Sin and Faith whereby they stedfastly believe the Promises of God made to them in that Sacrament To which I Answer the Repentance here spoken of consists in forsaking Sin which is the same with that Abrenunciation they make at their Baptism by their Com-promisers and Undertakers by whom and by certain Conditions promised by their Sponsors and Sureties

they are admitted to an Holy Gospel-state by the same Reason as a Child may be admitted to a Worldly Inheritance by Guardians who undertake for certain Conditions the Child must perform when he arriveth at years of Discretion and for Faith that the Child hath in the right of his Parent because the Parents Faith giveth him a Title to the Covenant and so by consequence to the Sign of it Baptism beside that Faith may be thus imputed from some Instances in the Holy Gospel we see where we find that Christ makes the Parents Faith necessary to the recovery of the sick Child But there is no necessity of saying ●ny more to this there being a much larger Answer in the Book And now I have but one Account more to give of what I delivered before I come to my main Argument and that I am willing to transcribe because it will the better prepare the way to those Holy Scripture-Proofs I have offered in the Book for evidencing the necessity of Infant-Baptism Preaching at the Festival of the Nativity of the Holy Jesus on that Text Isai VII 14. Therefore the Lord of Hosts shall give you a Sign behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call his name Immanuel I had an Occasion to quote St. Matth. XXVIII 19 20. Go you therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost teaching them to observ all things whatsoever I have commanded you And Lo I am with you always even to the end of the World Amen I thus addressed my self to my People I beg leave to give you the tru Sens of this Text that you may not be seduced from any important Truth of the Christian Religion And this I am willing to do because the Antipaedobaptists do so much triumph in and boast thereof as if it contained an unanswerable Argument against Infant-Baptism but I will evidently shew it hath no force for their purpose And now I will clearly evince and make out That this Text they so much insist on hath nothing in it against our Principles And this I will do by shewing what the Coherence of this Text they think so much for them is and the Design of Christ's Commission to his Blessed Disciples in these Words which is the only proper way of coming to the knowledge of their tru Sens whereby you may understand this place doth not in the least countenance their erroneous Principle Their Argument is because it is said in the Commission Teach before they Baptize Now how could Men understand a Religion that could not be known but by Revelation before they had a knowledge of the Revelation That being the only way of making a discovery and therefore it was necessary the Holy Apostles Commission should be so worded that they might by their Instructions preach to the Heathen World that Holy Doctrin the Blessed Jesus came from Heaven to reveal and which could not be known but by such a Publication For it is impossible that Men could be made Partakers of the sign of the Covenant till they owned and were admitted into the Covenant For as the Covenant supposeth some Promise on God's part so it engages to some Service on ours and we have no Reason to expect the Priviledg if we will not undergo the Service So that with relation to the Context and the Design of the Commission which as I have insinuated is the only way of coming to the knowledge of their tru meaning the Sens is plainly this All Power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth Go you therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them i. e. seeing so great Power is delivered to me by the Father I impart to you so much of that Power as is fit to be communicated and as is necessary for the Message I send you on and the business I have entrusted you with which is to travel all the World and instruct all Nations in the Holy Doctrine I came from the Mansions of Glory to acquaint you with Now that this is the tru Sens appears from the following Words of the next Verse Teaching them to observ all things whatever I have commanded you and then encouraging them with hopes that Success should never be wanting to the diligent performance of their Duty And Lo I am with you always even to the end of the World Amen Now I do not at all question but if the Law had been as extensive a Dispensation as the Holy Gospel Moses their Legislator would have given such a Commission to Twelve Elders of the Twelve Tribes of Israel as our dear Saviour gave his Blessed Apostles and said Go teach all Nations Circumcising them But because the Law was confined to Judea and the Jews God's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his peculiar People therefore that could not be done But supposing it might have been I say such a Commission would have been no Argument against the Circumcising the Jewish Children and by a rational consequence this Commission of Christ to his Blessed Disciples can be no Argument against Infant-Baptism because it is directed only to those that were not in Covenant and had not the least Instruction in that Holy Doctrin that was now revealed For they that were in Covenant had a Power of transmitting their Title and Interest in the Covenant to their Children and it is not only uncharitable but irreligious to believe that because the Holy Gospel was a more extensiv Dispensation than the Law it was not as merciful an one For our Adversaries allow and from Evidence of Revelation are forced Children under the Law were admitted into Covenant and then by Parity of Reason why may they not under the Holy Gospel I am certain St. Paul who I believe understood Religion much better than any of them saith so in express Words for he maketh Children holy as soon as born tho' but one of the Parents were a Christian as I hope I have made unanswerably appear from 1 Cor. VII 14. For the unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the Wife and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband else were your Children unclean but now are they holy and if so they must have a Right to the Sign that conveyeth the Privileges of the Covenant because they actually have a Right to the Covenant by their Birth And this may answer a seemingly strong Objection of the Antipaedobaptists Obj. That it is unreasonable to admit those into Covenant that are not capable of understanding the Terms But not to say this Objection is a Reflection on the Righteousness of God's Dispensations which I might do and prove it It is a sufficient Answer to this their great Objection Answ That this Method of Dispensation is reasonable because according to the Laws of Heaven and Earth too For all that understand Instituted Religion own God did by Circumcision admit Children into Covenant under the Law And St. Paul saith He that is