Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	believe_v	faith_n	justification_n	2,510	5	8.9827	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63006	Of the sacrament of baptism, in pursuance of an explication of the catechism of the Church of England. By Gabriel Towerson, D.D. and rector of Welwynne in Hartfordshire	Towerson, Gabriel, 1635?-1697.	1687 (1687)	Wing T1971A; ESTC R220158	148,921	408

saved from everlasting damnation by Christ And it is not only saith another (n) Hom. of Faith. the common belief of the Articles of our Faith but it is also a sure trust and considence of the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a stedfast hope of all good things to be receiv'd at God's hands In fine saith the same (o) Ibid. Homily the very sure lively Christian faith is not only to believe all things of God which are contained in holy Scripture but also to have an earnest trust and confidence in God c. Which suppos'd as we may because we can have no more Authentick interpretation of it to be the sense of the belief here intended it will not be difficult to shew what our Catechism means by a stedfast one For considering the belief of these Promises as an Assent of the mind to them so a stedfast belief will imply that which is free from all doubts and which the mind of man gives to those Promises without any the least fear of their being any Collusion in them Which the mind of man may well give considering whose those Promises are and that they have both God and Christ for the Authors of them On the other side if we consider the belief intended as including in it also an affiance or trust and by vertue of which the heart or will is prompted to desire as well as believe the matter of those Promises and acquiesce in those Promises for the attaining of it So this stedfast belief will also imply such a one as is firmly rooted in the heart or will and can no more be rooted out of it by the force of temptations than the other by doubts or scruples And indeed as I do not see how any other belief than that can answer such glorious promises as are made to us in the Sacrament of Baptism so I see as little reason to doubt IV. What evidence there is of that being the Faith or belief which is pre-requir'd by Christianity to the receiving of it For though S. Luke may seem to intimate by the account he gives of the Baptism of the Samaritans (p) Acts 8.12 that they were baptiz'd upon a simple belief of what Philip preach'd concerning the things of the Kingdom of God Yet he doth much more clearly intimate afterward that Christianity requir'd another sort of belief and such as was accompani'd with an adherence of the will unto them He making it the condition of the Eunuch's Baptism afterward that he should believe with all his heart (q) Acts 8.37 Which is an expression that in the language of the Scripture referrs rather to the will and affections than to the understanding but however cannot well be thought not to include them there where the believing with all the heart is requir'd And indeed as I do not see considering the Doctrine of our First Reformers why this notion of Faith should be so exploded as it seems to me lately to have been As I do much less see why men should so boyle at that Justification which was wont to be attributed in an especial manner to it So if I live to finish the work I am now upon I will in a Comment upon the Epistle to the Philippians which I have almost gather'd sufficient materials for endeavour to clear both the one and the other that men may neither take occasion from thence to discard good works as unnecessary nor yet stay themselves upon any other than the promises of Christ and on which the holiest men upon earth when they have been approaching near God's tribunal have found themselves oblig'd to cast themselves In the mean time a little to repress the youthful heats of those who can hardly forbear smiling at such antiquated notions I will set before them the advice which was order'd to be given to sick persons when good works to be sure were not without their just repute It is among the Interrogatories which are said (r) Field of the Church Append. to the 3d. Book pa. 303. to have been prescrib'd by Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury and particularly after that which prompts the Priest to ask Dost thou believe that thou canst not be sav'd but by the death of Christ and the sick persons Answer that he did so Go too therefore as the Priest was taught to proceed and whilst thy soul remaineth in thee place thy confidence in this death alone and in no other thing commit thy self wholly to it cover thy self wholly with it immerse fix and wrap thy self wholly in it And if the Lord God will judge thee say I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and thy judgment otherwise I contend not with thee And if he say that thou art a sinner say Lord I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and my sins If he say to thee thou hast deserv'd damnation say Lord I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and my evil deserts and I offer the same death for that merit which I ought to have had and have not If he continue as yet to say that he is angry with thee say Lord I oppose the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and thy displeasure Words which shew what kind of Faith was sometime thought to be a justfying one and what stress was laid upon it before ever Fanaticism or any thing of that nature was heard of in the World. PART XI Of the Baptism of Infants The Contents What ground Infant-Baptism hath in Scripture and particularly in what it suggests concerning Christ's commanding his Disciples to suffer little Children to come unto him S. Paul's giving the Children of the faithful the title of Holy and the Circumcision of Infants The concurrence of Antiquity therein with the Doctrine of the Scripture and that concurrence farther strengthned by the Pelagians so freely admitting of what was urg'd against them from thence A brief account of that remission and regeneration which Infants acquire by Baptism and a more large consideration of the Objections that are made against it More particularly of what is urg'd against the Regeneration of Infants in Baptism or their ability to answer what is pre-requir'd to it on the part of persons to be baptiz'd or is to be performed by them in the reception of it Where the Regeneration of Infants is more largely considered and what is promis'd for them by others shewn to be both reasonable and sufficient FRom the Baptism of those of riper years Question Why then are Infants baptized when by reason of their tender age they cannot perform them Answer Because they promise them both by their sureties which promise when they come to age themselves are bound to perform pass we to that of Infants or Children the only Baptism upon the matter now celebrated and therefore so much the more carefully to be clear'd and establish'd In order whereunto I will enquire I. What

of the more force because it is only about the supposed means of Union to its own Body Justin Martyr after he had spoken of the baptizing of such as offer'd themselves to the Christian Church which he himself expresseth when so baptiz'd by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or conjoyned with themselves affirming that they were immediately brought where the brethren were assembled there to partake with them of the common Prayers that were then offer'd up of the kiss of peace and of the Lord's Supper Which last particular I have the more confidently represented the new baptized persons as then admitted to because the same Father doth not only make no distinction between them and the other brethren in it though he subjoyns the business of the Eucharist to the former Prayers and kiss of peace but affirms the same Eucharist presently after to be lawful to none to partake of but those that believ'd their Doctrine receiv'd the laver of regeneration and liv'd as Christ delivered For as he intimates thereby the admission of those that believ'd and were baptiz'd if they were also such as liv'd as Christ deliver'd which the new baptized were in reason to be accounted till they had given proof to the contrary So there is reason to believe from the use of Excommunication in the Church that that addition of living as Christ deliver'd was not made to bar the new baptized from it till they gave farther proof of such a life but to intimate the exclusion of those who after they had been admitted to it liv'd otherwise than Christianity prescrib'd So making the persons excluded the unbaptiz'd or ill living Christians and consequently the contrary thereto admitted I deny not indeed that the Rite of Confirmation did very antiently come between the receiving of Baptism and the Eucharist I deny not farther because of what was before (d) Expl. of the Sacrament in general Part 4. quoted from Justin Martyr concerning the particular Prayer that was made for the new baptized person that the substance thereof was then in use even prayer for grace for him to live as he had but now profess'd But as the design of Confirmation appears to have been to procure for the new baptiz'd a more plentiful effusion of God's Graces which is no intimation at all of his having been before no perfect Christian or not perfectly united to the Church so Baptism may for all that be look'd upon as the means of our Union to the Church which is all that I have taken upon me to assert For the farther evidencing whereof I will in the next place alledge a passage of Tertullian (e) De Bapt. c. 6. which will though not so directly prove the same thing That I mean where he saith that when the profession of our faith and sponsion of our salvation are pledged under the three witnesses before spoken of there is necessarily added thereto the mention of the Church because where those three are even the Father Son and Holy Ghost there is also the Church which is the body of the Three For as it is evident from thence that Men were even from his time baptiz'd expresly into the belief of the Church as well as into the belief of the Trinity So it will not be difficult to inferr that they were also baptiz'd into the unity thereof and made members of the Church by it Because as he affirms the Trinity to become Sponsors of our Salvation in Baptism as well as either Witnesses or objects of our Profession So he affirms those Sponsors to be as it were emboyed in the Church and consequently to exert their saving influences within it which supposeth Men's being united to it by Baptism in order to their partaking of the salutariness of the other And indeed though in that form which our Saviour prescrib'd (f) Matt 28.19 for Baptism there is mention only of baptizing in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost yet inasmuch as he prescrib'd that very form for the making of Disciples (g) Ibid. by he must consequently be suppos'd to propose it for the aggregating them to that body which he had already begun to frame and making them alike members of it There being therefore no doubt to be made of the outward visible sign of Baptism being a means of our Vnion to Christ's mystical body the Church it may not be amiss if it were only to manifest the great advantages thereof as to that particular to shew the consequences of that Vnion Which we shall find in the general to be a right to all those priviledges which Christ hath purchas'd for it More particularly to the partaking of its Sacred Offices and in and through the means of them of those inward and spiritual Graces which those Sacred Offices were intended to procure or convey For every member of a Society being by that membership of his entituled to all the priviledges that belong to it as such He who becomes a member of Christ's Body the Church as every Man who is united to it by Baptism doth must in his proportion be entituled to all those priviledges which Christ hath purchas'd for it and particularly to the priviledge of partaking of its sacred Offices and in and by the means of them of those inward and spiritual Graces which those sacred Offices were intended to procure or convey Which how great a commendation it is of our Vnion to that Body and consequently of that Baptism by which it was made will need no other proof than the Scripture's assuring us that Christ is the Saviour (h) Eph. 5.23 of that Body and the promises it makes to those Prayers (i) Matt. 18.19 20. that are made by it and to that Euchrist (k) Matt. 26.26 c. which is administred in it The purport of those promises being no other than the granting what is asked by it and particularly all those benefits which Christ's Body and Blood were intended for the procuring of And if these be as no doubt they are the consequences of our union to the Church by Baptism yea so far as I have elsewhere (l) Expl. of the Creed Art. of The forgiveness of sins shewn that they are not ordinarily to be attained out of it That very Union may not improperly be stil'd one of its inward and spiritual Graces because leading to those that are most strictly such and indeed the only ordinary means of obtaining them PART VIII Of the Profession that is made by the Baptized person The Contents The things signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized brought under consideration and shewn from several former discourses which are also pointed to to be an Abrenunciation of sin a present belief of the Doctrine of Christianity and particularly of the Trinity and a resolution for the time to come to continue in that belief and act agreeably to its Laws Our resolution of acting agreeably to the Laws of Christianity more particularly consider'd and