Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	child_n	marriage_n	parent_n	2,707	5	9.3519	5	true

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88809	Of baptisme. The heads and order of such things as are especially insisted on, you will find in the table of chapters.	Lawrence, Henry, 1600-1664.	1646 (1646)	Wing L663; Thomason E1116_1; ESTC R210176	92,194	427

it were the subject matter of marriage Let us see what help this similitude will give us to the notion of infant Baptisme First the great busines of marriage is consent of the parties married this is the efficient or formall cause of it so in our mysticall marriage Baptisme the covenant struck betweene God and us implyes especially the consent of parties But by infant Baptisme the infant is not bound for hee consented not againe consent must be exprest but the child wantes the just ripenesse and formation of organs inward and outward for such expressions that cannot be neither hee cannot will it because he cannot understand it nor can hee expresse that which within he hath not But may not my friends doe it for me Personall consent is required to carnall marriage wheÌ„ much depends upoÌ„ the parents much more to this mysticall therefore as a mad man cannot consent nor expresse it for the trouble distemper of his understanding so nor an infant for the want of the use of it and for parents and Godfathers Godmothers as they call them they provooke to duty incite and incourage and teach but as the covenant is made with us so it must be made by us A child may lawfully marry himself to Christ without the consent of his parents which in the other marriage hee cannot doe here is therefore no covenant no bond because no consent on one party founded on a present impossibility for a covenant is betvveene tvvo consenting partyes It is not therefore the dipping of the child in water gives baptisme no more then the bedd gives marriage where consent is wanting Here you see then a fayle of the great matter in the busines of the covenant namely the formall or as some will have it the efficient cause you will find a great fayle also in the subject matter for here is an error of the person Christ looks for a beleever he makes his covenant in Baptisme onely with such the institution is terminated upon them but here is a poore infant as uncapable for the present of beleeving and repenting as a mad man is of reasoning which yet hee may have in the habit therefore of covenanting consenting which is a fruit of that faith and therefore as a marriage made with a man mad were null so were it much more a madnes to bring to Baptisme such an one and see whether it may not be thought to hold of the same distemper to offer a child to that sacred fountaine that in the matter of reasoning and covenanting can doe no more then a mad man Yee see therefore the great and essentiall fayle of such a Baptisme so essentiall as it makes it a nullity as the like in marriage renders it null and voyd Now then to goe on if there be no bond no covenant in this infant Baptisme no obligation which is the mayne of it then there is no sealing for a seale serves but to ratify confirme a bond and covenant Againe as there is no bond nor sealing so there is no exhibition or conveyance of any thing from Christ for there are no pipes to receive it that is as an ordinance there is no reason in the use of it no faith no sence you may speake aloude and say this signifies the death of Christ this his resurrection by this you are buried and mortified and by this quickned but the child is asleepe or dead or as good here is no receptive faculty proportionable to the ordinance in the manner of conveighing it When Christ will speake in an invisible secret unknowne and unconceavable way hee doth it without the help of an outward visible ordinance when Iohn was sanctified in the wombe hee needed no word or signe to conveigh it to him but here if Christ conveighes not himself SacrameÌ„tally by words signes and representations hee conveyes not himself at all by vertue of the Sacrament So that as there was a fayle in the forme of contract or covenant and in the subject matter of this ordinance there is an error of the person so also in the ends of this Sacrament on Christs part of which you have heard namely sealing up to us our union with Christ and every good thing and exhibiting conveighing himself to us in the use of this ordinance and for us who by this meanes should forme a formall coÌ„tract with God and should give a testimony of our piety and obedience to God Iohn 4.1 And secondly should distinguish our selves by this badge or charracter of our profession from the prophanes of the world with some more of that kind we are capable of doing nothing in a busines so active no more then of receiving so as upon the whole matter as the summe of this discourse Infant Baptisme is a nullity as much as the marrying of infants or the ordination of infants which latter in some parts of the world is also in use which all men will judge a nullity the ordinance hath bene profaned to such out of a well meaning ignorance and hee that will partake of that great ordinance as it is our duty and priviledges must knowingly beleevingly be baptized in the name of the Lord Iesus which ordinance when wee have once received aright it is as I said in the beginning not to be repeated If any man shall say that consent afterwards may make up the defect and that there be many things which were ill done which yet stand good when they are done I answer There may be many great fayles in an action which may not make it null or nothing as for one to marry one of another religion or without some due consents makes it an ill or an unlawfull marriage but it doth not make it no marriage but those essentiall fayles which may be said to nullify it can never be repaired by any act afterwards now such are the fayles of infant Baptisme as I have prooved such as enter into the very essence of it namely the formall and materiall causes so as if you aske what I lay to the charge of infant Baptisme I say that it is nothing as the Scripture saith that an Idole is nothing not but that there is a great deale of busines made of it as if it were something which all can contribute or conferre nothing to the essence or being of it so as he that will affirme that after consent may make that pretended Baptisme reall true must proove first that it hath not failed in its essentialls which I have already prooved Baptisme to have done To conclude a man may receive many wounds and be miserably disfigured loose many members or parts and yet remayne a man but let out the rationall soule which is his forme but by the prick of a pin and that which remaynes is no more a man but a carcasse because the coÌ„stitutive essentiall which is his forme is gone and it must be an Almighty power that must give him his being

abominate also the Christian education of their children so as in this respect the unbeleevinge husband or wife and the children also though themselves for the present unbeleevers by reason of the willingnes of the one to cohabite and the subjection of the other to Christian education may in that sence be said to be sanctified or made holy being as it were deputed to it and in the way of preparation for it so as the unbeleeving parent the childreÌ„ of that mixt birth may be called as Tertullian sayes Candidati timoris and as afterward by others Candidati fidei Probationers or compettitors for feare and faith the words following vers 16. seemes to favour such an interpretation For vvhat knovvest thou O vvife vvhether thou shalt save thy husband or hovv knovvest thou O man vvhether thou shalt save thy vvife there being already wrought a good pleasure or willingnes to abide and cohabite on the unbeleevers part husband or wife and the children in that respect being subjected to Christian education and to the beholding of holy examples true coÌ„version and faith which brings them into estate of salvation may be in time accomplisht in them to which they seeme in some sort destin'd by the providence of God in such a yoake-fellow or such parents So sanctification is predicated of those who are destined or prepared to such an end so God sayes of the Medes and Persians Esay 13.3 I have commanded my sanctified ones that is such as I have prepared for so Calvin upon that place sayes that sometimes sanctification is referred to regeneration which is peculiar to the elect of God sometimes it signifies to prepare or destine to a certain end so those unbeleeving parents by their willingnes to abide with beleevers their children in regard of the opportunity of a holy education seeme to be as it were destined or prepared for regeneration and for that state which accompanies salvation and in that respect as in a large sence may be called sanctified or holy Which consideration if it may give them a greater accesse to ordinances proper for them or stirre up others to lay out themselves in a more peculiar and particular manner for their conversion I shall not hinder it but on the contrary thinke that such providences speake much and that as they give grounds of hope and so of endeavour so there may be much of duty towards them in regard of the opportunity that families and churches that parents masters ministers have to doe good to such who though strictly they may not be called church members no more then strictly sanctified that is regenerated by the holy Spirit yet so farre as in the respects before mentioned they may be tearmed sanctified that is by a providence destin'd as it were and prepared for God so farre the church within whose pole they seeme by a providence to live and to be cast ought to have a more especiall eye after them and care of them by vertue at least of that generall injunction As you have opportunity doe good to all men especially to the houshold of faith under the shadow of which these are come But whether you take either of these sences or both for they may both stand in severall respects and regarding the text with a different aspect you will surely find nothing to ingraft Baptisme upon For whether the children are sanctified to the beleeving parents use as all other things are not unholy in themselves which to the unbeleever are not or whether in the second sence they are sanctified that is as it were destined for holynes of which by vertue of a great providence in respect of their education they are made Candidati that is probationers or competitors as when men stand for a place or office and as the Catechumini of old were called yet can they by no meanes in either of these respects be qualified for or made the subject of Baptisme which presupposeth as hath formerly bene shewed another kind of holynes proper to and inherent in the party namely regeneration and nevvnes of life not such an one as is competible to an unbeleever either parents or children It was but necessary to speake something to this place which beares amongst many the weight of so great a building as infant Baptisme though if I could find here such a holynes for infants as wee all wish to ours namely justifying faith regeneration yet I should no more judge it meete to baptize them then to preach to them or to administer the Lords supper to them they being as capable of the word as baptisme and of one mysterious ceremony as well as another which hath bene a reason I doubt not why many formerly and many at this day doe administer the Lords supper to infants by vertue of a parallell ordinance to Baptisme Nor doe I know the reason why the one should be refused where the other is deem'd a due But enough I hope for this which truely the contests of others rather then any scruple which hath fallen upon my spirit from these words hath made me say so much of CHAP. XV. In which the authority of the Fathers and the practise of antiquity touching the subject of Baptisme is considered THe authority of the Fathers and the practise of ancient times is to many a great argument for the Baptizing of infants to me that looke upon such argumentations as not of the first magnitude collaterall and such as may truely and as often be brought for the patronising of errors as truth they are of no great consideration yet to satisfy others more then my self there must be something spoken to this head In which I shall consider especially these two things first whether by the witnesse of story Infant Baptisme have injoyed a quiet and peaceable possession in the church from the Apostles times downeward till of late it was interrupted by some few evill spirits in the times of Luther as some men would give us to beleeve Secondly upon what grounds those Fathers which are alleadged for the chief patrons of Infants Baptisme went for if they have erred in the reason of the foundation it will be easilyer beleeved that they did also in the building We will consider first of this latter I will give you their grounds either as I have reade them my self or as I find them quoted by Bellarmine Tom. 3. lib. cap. 8. whose quotatioÌ„s I shall take for truth till I find the contrary for here hee hath to doe with the Anabaptists enemies in this point alike common to him with most of those that are tearmed Protestants First hee quotes the testimony Dionisij Areop qui lib. Eccles Hier. c. ult part ult ab Apostolis traditum affirmat ut infantes baptizentur Iusti five quicunque est auctor earum quaest qu. 56. parvulos baptizatos salvari alios non item That infants baptized are saved others not Orig. lib. 5. in cap. 6. ad Rom. Ecclesia inquit ab Apostolis traditionem

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