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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	apostle_n	church_n	successor_n	1,254	5	9.1887	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85422	VVater-dipping no firm footing for Church-communion: or Considerations proving it not simply lawful, but necessary also (in point of duty) for persons baptized after the new mode of dipping, to continue communion with those churches, or imbodied societies of saints, of which they were members before the said dipping; and that to betray their trust or faith given unto Jesus Christ to serve him in the relation and capacity, whether of officers, or other members, in these churches (respectively) by deserting these churches, is a sin highly provoking in the sight of God. Together with a post-script touching the pretended Answer to the Forty queries about Church-communion, infant and after baptism. By John Goodwin, a servant of God in the Gospel of his dear Son.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1653 (1653)	Wing G1213; Thomason E723_15; ESTC R202234	72,402	91

known by his own fruit Luk. 6. 44. then is our Baptism no corrupt Baptism but the Baptism commended by Christ or however far from being a nullity For it is a true rule Nonentis nulli sunt affectus nulla opperatio Nullities or non-entities have neither affections nor effects or operations produce nothing which is proper to be produced by a real and truly excistent cause But that Baptism amongst us which our Brethren very inconsiderately and invita veritate vote to be a nullity is as efficacious as operative in respect of all the main ends of Baptism the Baptism I mean intended by Christ as theirs is or can be yea in respect of some of these ends if not all it hath the preheminency For 1. It doth as solemnly with as much authority and power with as express a signification to the understandings and apprehensions of the world about us testifie and declare us the profesed Disciples and followers of Jesus Christ as that Baptism practized by them can do Nay in this which is one of the most considerable ends of Baptism it is of the two more efficacious then theirs For their Baptism is comparatively a kind of Barbarian to the world nor do the generality of men interpret or look upon it as any thing more significative or assertive of their owning the Name and Faith of Jesus Christ then our Baptism which was also theirs untill they renounced it by substituting another in the place of it Yea the sence of the world and of the generality of persons amongst whom they live is so far from being either that by their Infant-Baptism they stood insufficiently declared the professed Disciples of Christ or that by their new Baptism they make any materiall addition unto that their Declaration that it inclines rather to this viz. That they betake themselves to a Re-baptism more to disobliege themselves from what their Infant-Baptism ingaged them unto then to strengthen or make valid that ingagement which at least as they apprehend cannot receive any addition of strength or validitie by any further Baptism but they are jealous that it may be disinabled or at least disadvantaged by such an after-Baptism Of which apprehension I wish they had not and yet much more that they may not in time have too just a ground But however nothing can be more evident then that that Baptism is most serviceable and efficacious to testifie or demonstrate a person man or woman to be a professor of and to own the Name and Faith of Jesus Christ in the sight of the world whose signification and import in this behalf is best known unto the world If so then is our Baptism as valid as efficacious in respect of this great end of Baptism as our Brethrens new Baptism can be and consequently is far from being a nullity 2. Our Baptism is altogether as operative as bearing as ingaging upon our judgments and Consciences to become the reall loyall and true Disciples of Jesus Christ as theirs can be upon theirs or could be upon ours should we come under it For out of the sence and conscience we have that we have been Baptized and still own and stand by that our Baptism we expect no other but the severest judgment and condemnation which belong to Covenant-breakers with their God from his hand if we shall be found unfaithfull under this our Baptismall ingagement And certain I am that our Brethrens new-Baptism can have no richer no fuller no more vigorous or potent an influence upon their judgements and conscience in this kind then so I wish that theirs may hold weight with ours in this ballance If our Baptism whilst it was theirs also had not the same weight of engagement upon their consciences which it hath upon ours have they reason to judge us for it and not rather themselves Therefore in respect of this great end also of Baptism ours is no whit more a nullitie then theirs 3. And lastly nor can we or they reasonably and upon ground judge that our Baptism as we call Baptism is less edifying strengthening comforting to the inner man then theirs Our souls through the grace and goodness of our good God unto us have prospered as much under that Baptism which we own and by means of it as far as we are able to compute as we can upon consultation had with al Oracles that are like to inform us in the point expect they would or should have done under that Baptism whose threshold our Brethren place so neer the threshold of Christ himself I beleeve there are thousands yet abiding under our Baptism who would not willingly exchange spirituall estates with the best of those who to better their estates in this kind have sought security under the wing and shelter of a new Baptism yea I make very little question but that if our Brethren of this new Baptism at least many of them would deal ingeniously and freely and what is this but Christianly with us in the point they would acknowledge and confess that they carried far the greater part of that spirituall treasure of which they are at present possest from under that Baptism which they forsook unto that which they have taken in exchange for it Yea I heartily wish for the sake of some of them whom I know that their New Baptism doth not help to diminish their Old grace Therefore in respect of this great end also and benefit of Baptism the building up of the inner man in Grace and peace our Baptism is no whit behind theirs but if experience will be allowed to umpire much before it I know no other end of Baptism but what is easily reduceable to one of these three Set them then to judg as the Apostle speaketh in another case who are least esteemed in the Church whether that Baptism be like to be a nullity which acts and performs and this with authority and power all the ends services purposes and intents of Baptism yea and in most of them if not in all quits it self at a more worthy rate of efficacy and success then that which pretends to the honour of being the sole reality and truth CONSIDERATION XVII It is no where to be found in Scripture that any Church of Christ or imbodied society of Beleevers was commanded by God or Christ or his Apostles to be Dipped nor yet threatened or reproved by any of them for the non-practise of Dipping If this be denyed let the Scriptures one or more be produced for as yet none have been for the justification of such a Denyal Is it not then presumption in the Highest and an assuming of an Anti christian power to impose Laws upon Christian Societies which the Lord Christ never imposed yea and to censure and scandalize them with the odious and reproachful terms of Anti-christian and unclean only for the transgressions of their own Laws Nor will it serve the turn to pretend that it is to be found in Scripture that particular members of Churches or

ministeriall or actually Baptizing should continue to the end of the world at least not in all parts or places in the world where the ministery of the Gospel should be continued For 1. Jerom conceiveth that the Apostles themselves are here said to live and so to teach and baptize to the end of the world viz. in and by their writings and other labours in the ministry and that the presence of Christ with them to the end of the world here promised importeth 1 his directing strengthening and incouraging presence whilest they continued in the body and 2 his assisting presence with them in their writings and other labours faithfully performed in the work of the Gospel whereby these should prosper and bring forth fruit to the end of the world This is no hard or far fetcht interpretation a Yet 2. be it granted that Christ here promiseth his presence not unto the Apostles alone but to all their successors in teaching and baptizing though a substantial proof of this requires more I fear then all the abilities of our Brethren of the Dip are able to perform yet neither will it follow from hence that they who should succeed them in both should baptize upon any other terms then the Apostles themselves did yea or are recorded in the Scriptures to have done Now as we lately observ'd it is no where reported of them or any of them that they ever Baptized in any place but onely at and upon their first bringing of the Name of Christ and the Gospel thereunto in case it found any competent entertainment and settlement there But Eightly and lastly Grant we all that can either reasonably or unreasonably be demanded from the words in hand on the behalf of those who were and are to succeed the Apostles in the work of the Gospel viz. Ministers and Teachers and that Christ promiseth his presence with them as well in Baptizing as in teaching yet what presence of his is here promised to private Christians in their Administrations of Baptisme Surely when they Baptize Christ is not with them in the work how much less when persons of this character shall put forth their hand to touch the Ark of Baptism who are not so much as Baptized themselves And yet a Baptism administred upon such polluted terms as these is the mother and Foundress of all those Baptizmall Administrations for which our Brethren so importunately magnifie themselves against us To plead that a person unbaptized may administer Baptism in a case of necessity is a sufficient plea indeed thus understood viz. 1. When God himself adjudgeth and determines the case of necessity and 2. authorizeth from heaven any person one or more for the work as he did John Baptist Otherwise Vzzah had as good or better reason to judge that a case of necessity in which he put forth his hand to stay the Ark then our first unhallowed and undipt dipper in this Nation had to call that a case of necessity wherein to the sad disturbance of the affairs of the Gospel yea and of the civil peace also he set up the Dipping trade We do not intend that any thing hitherto argued in the consideration in hand should be taken as meant for a positive or demonstrative proof that the Ordinance of Baptism is now extinct or not administrable without sin in the world but rather as a demonstration partly of the many Labyrinths and difficulties which they ought to overcom and clear who are so confidently positive and assertive of the contrary partly of the most unreasonable and importune practise of those who pronounce all men unworthy of Christian communion who are not as positive and assertive in matters of so doubtful disputation as themselves CONSIDERATION XIX {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. Variances Emulations Animosities Contentions Divisions or Seditions Sects are by the Holy Ghost himself adjudged works of a the flesh and such which are manifest Yea and are ranged in the middle between adultery fornication uncleanness wantonness Idolatry witchcraft hatred on the one hand and Envyings murthers drunkenness revellings and such like on the other hand Concerning all which joyntly and severally the Apostle denounceth this heavy Sentence Of which I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5 19 20. 21. meaning without repentance Now how can men and women in any other way or upon any other account more manifestly or more directly incur the guilt of the said sins of Variances Emulations animosities Seditions Sects at least of some if not of the most of them and consequently the dreadfull doom of being excluded from the Kingdom of God then by labouring in the very fire to trouble disturb rend tear dismember break into sects and factions such Churches or bodies of Saints who until now were walking Holily and humbly with their God in unity love and peace edyfiing one another in their most holy faith with all good conscience observing all Ordinances of God made known unto them for such and ready and willing further to abserve all other that should in like manner be made known unto them Or can any pretence or plea whatsoever render the children of such high misdemeanors excusable before the Judgment Seat of Christ I draw out my whole heart and Soul in requests unto my God that he will graciously awaken the consciences of such persons who whilst they pull down what Christ hath built up and scatter what he hath gathered together think they do him service Certainly never were the sins of variance emulation wrath strife Church-seaition schism commited in the world by men nor can it be imagined how they should be commited if they who quarrel trouble rend and tear off themselves labour in the very fire to rend and tear off others from Christian Churches and Congregations only for dissenting from them in their private conceits about the ceremony of Baptism be not guilty of them The contentions rents and schisms in the Catholique Church so deeply complained of bewailed and opposed by the Fathers of old were according to a true estimate but as shadows of these sins and of light demerit in comparison CONSIDERATION XX When some of the Brethren of the Church at Ierusalem were unsatisfied about that which Peter did in going to the Gentiles at Cornelius his house in Cesarea and having communion with them Peter in order to their satisfaction and his own justification in holding communion with them doth not insist upon nor so much as mention or hint their being baptized but only the gift of the Holy Ghost given unto them by God in Testimony of their Faith For as much then saith he as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us who beleeved on the Lord Jesus Christ who or what was I that I could withstand God Acts 11. 17. Where by the way it is observable that Peter judged that a

imbodied societies of Saints are commanded to be dipped and by consequence that Churches or whole Churches ought to be so likewise For besides that this is contrary to the avouched principles of those who are like thus to pretend who affirm that the Scripture no where reports or makes any person a member of a Church but only such who were dipped before they entred that relation and consequently could have no such command imposed on them being now members it followeth not that because some particular members of a body were required to be dipped therefore the whole body was commanded to be dipped likewise especially not upon such terms that unless it would be thus wholy universally and in all its members dipt it should be unclean in the sight of God and men and all communion with it sinful Therefore they who impose such a Law as this upon Christian Churches or Societies and make them heynous transgressors for the breach of it punishing and censuring them accordingly are usurpers of the high Prerogative of God and of Christ claiming and exercising a Lordship over the Faith and consciences of men CONSIDERATION XVIII Yea I beleeve it is more then the greatest Oracle of Baptismal Dipping under Heaven will ever be able to prove to the satisfaction of a conscience Christianly considerate that there is any precept or command of Christ in the Scriptures whereby it is made sinful for any person whatsoever not only not to be diped but to be not so much as baptized in one form or other For first certain it is that it is no sin unto any person whatsoever to be un-dipt whilest there is no person to be found sufficiently authorized by Christ to administer dipping unto him And however the camel be swallowed whole either by the largness of the consciences or by the scantness of the understandings of our Metropolitan Dippers yet is it not so easie for them to justifie the authentiqueness or validity of that commission by which they act without fear or trembling the parts of dippers But of this elswhere Secondly that precept of Christ Mat. 28. 19. which as far as I understand they make their cheif treasure to support them in their wars against their Brethren doth at no hand make those transgressors who are not dip-wise baptized no nor yet those who are not baptized either so or otherwise For first here is no precept charge or command given unto any person one or more but unto the Apostles only Go ye therefore i. e. ye Apostles and teach all Nations baptizing them c. Now as a Law imposed upon a Magistrate for the discharge of his office doth not make a subject guilty by his non-performance of it nay he the subject should be more guilty in case he should observe it so neither doth a charge layd by Christ upon his Apostles in reference to their special office ministry oblige any other sort of men to the observation of it * Secondly in these words baptizing them it cannot reasonably be conceived that they were injoyned to baptize any person or persons against their wills or whether they would or no No nor is it a matter of easie resolution what is the Antecedent or Substantive to this Relative pronoun them or whom or what persons they are whom our Saviour here authorizeth his Apostles to baptize Therefore Thirdly Here being no command layd upon any person to be baptized or to desire Baptism of the Apostles it clearly follows that the Apostles are here injoyned only to baptize such persons who shall freely and voluntarily require the same at their hand Nor Fourthly Can it be proved from these words teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded them that the Apostles did teach Saints beleevers or others to require Baptism of them unless it were first proved that this was one particular of those things which Christ commanded his Apostles to teach the Nations to observe But I beleeve there is no day in the year auspicious for our new Baptists to undertake the proof of this Nor Fifthly do we find that the Apostles in the course of their ministry did ever teach either Church or person to demand or seek Baptism at their hand much less threaten them or charge them with disobedience unto Christ for not seeking it Sixthly in case it should be granted that the Apostles by the tenor and vertue of their commission might and did teach Beleevers to observe the Law of requiring Baptism at their hands yet it followeth not from hence that by vertue of this commission they had power also given them to make it a standing Law for all Pastors and teachers to the worlds end who were to succeed them in the preaching the Gospel to impose the observation of the same Law upon all Beleevers considering 1. That water-Baptism as appears partly by the express intentions of God about it in the first setting it on foot in the world Ioh. 1. 31. partly also in that there is never mention made of any administration of Baptism in any place but only upon the first coming or preaching of the Gospel therein although there were never so many converted to the Faith in the same place afterwards I mean upon a second publication of the Gospel in this place Acts. 2. 41. compared with Acts. 4. 4 5. 14 9. 42 and 19. 3. with vers. 18. by these two considerations I say it fully appears that water-Baptism was never intended by God but either only or chiefly for an Introductory or planting Ordinance i. e. to attend the Gospel for a time at its first coming unto and reception by a People Citty or Nation until it should get some considerable rooting and Interest amongst them not for a staple or standing ordinance in one and the same place whereof good reason might be given but that we are now upon a pin of brevity Secondly That wheresoever either the work and office of Pastors and Teachers or their qualifications are described or the Intentions of God in and about the erections of them in the Church declared there is not the least mention made either of any charge given them to baptize nor of any qualifications requisite in those who should baptize nor of any intent of God or of Christ that they should baptize See and compare 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 4 c. 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. Tit. 1. 7 8. Ephes. 4. 11 12 13 14. Thirdly When the Apostle Paul directeth Timothy to commit unto Faithful men the things which he had heard of him among many witnesses the end why he thus directeth him is signified in these words who be able to teach others also 2 Tim. 2. 2. plainly intimating that what is deriveable from the Apostles unto standing Pastors and Teachers respects cheifly if not only their abilities to teach or preach the Gospel Seventhly Concerning these words And lo I am with you to the end of the World neither do these necessarily prove that a

examples of that nature in the Acts of the Apostles do declare how loud an untruth is it There is not so much as any one example throughout the Acts of the Apostles of a person baptized barely or meerly upon his hearing of the Gospel preached unto him But how impertinently this piece of Scripture is alledged either to prove who or what kind of person is the proper and adequate subject of Baptism or a necessitie that all beleevers to the Worlds end should be baptized or otherwise be guilty of Sin hath been argued in the preceding Considerations 2. How little truth or pertinency there is in his second Proof of the aforesaid Position sufficiently appears by the examination of the first For though the Apostles did put the said Commission of Christ into execution according to his Command i. e. did both teach and baptize yet it doth not follow from hence either 1. That they baptized all that they taught the contrary hereunto is evident from the Story Act. 2. 41 43. and 5. 33. and other places Therefore the Teaching mentioned in their Commission was not the Rule of their Baptizing Nor 2. Doth it follow that because upon their first preaching of the Gospel in Jerusalem they baptized those who gladly received their Word and beleeved therefore they baptized in like manner all those or any of those who were converted to the Faith by their after-preaching in the same place We read of no such thing as this in any place of the Acts or elsewhere as we formerly observed Nor did the tenor of their Commission impose this upon them For he that is simply and only commanded to Teach and to Baptize as he is not hereby commanded to teach continually so neither is he commanded to baptize always when he teacheth But whereas he demandeth What is more plain then that the Commission of Christ to them was to teach and baptize first and to admit into Church-fellowship thereupon as is visible in that prime example of theirs Acts 2. 41 42. I answer This is much more plain viz. that they were not commissioned in that Commission we speak of to admit into Church-fellowship either upon terms of Baptism or any other there being not so much as the least mention or hint here about admission into Church-fellowship Nor is it said Acts 2. 41 42. either that the Apostles admitted any into Church-fellowship or 3. That any were admitted into Church-fellowship much less that they were admitted into this fellowship because they had been baptized But all that is here said as to the point now in hand is Then they that gladly received his Word were baptized and the same day {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. there were added or added to not to them as our Antagonist emphaseth or to the Church but rather to the Lord as it is Acts 15. 24 about three thousand Souls Neither is the addition here spoken of ascribed to the Apostles it is not said that they or any of them added so much as one Soul But if we will entitle him unto the addition here spoken of to whom the Holy Ghost ascribeth it vers. 47. we must say that it was made by the Lord And the Lord added unto the Church dayly such as should be saved Here where there is express mention made of adding to the Church there is no mention made of Baptism 3. His third and last Proof is as irrelative to his purpose as both the former For Christians are not said Rom. 65. to be planted together in it is not into as our Anti-querist takes a most unworthy liberty both here and elsewhere more then once or twice to mis-cite his Scriptures the likeness of Christs death by reason or means of their Water-Baptism for then it would follow from the latter clause of the Verse {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that all who are thus baptized should be everlastingly Partakers of his Resurrection but we are said to be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} complanted with Christ in through or by means of a likeness of his death when we are truly and really mortified and become dead unto sin and to the world Which is a kind of death holding some analogy with and carrying in it some resemblance of that death which Christ suffered upon the Cross And the Apostle informs us that by such a death as this we become planted together with Christ i. e. interested with him in that most stable fixed and unchangeable Councel and Purpose of God wherein he hath decreed the immortal Glory and Blessedness of all those that shall obey him This sence of the place considered how frivolous and impertinent is this supercilious Interrogatory which he builds upon it And may you not therefore as well suppose trees to grow together before they are planted together as to suppose Christians to grow together before they are planted together Yes surely as well the latter as the former but the mischief of the impertinency is that Christians may be planted together in Christ by a work of mortification and so grow together whether they be baptized or no and they may be baptized together and so be planted together as far as water can plant them and yet not grow together but some wither and dye whilest others grow and prosper Or however such a plantation which is by Baptism only is no way or means of growth unto any man And yet of the two it is a broader impertinency to make this demand in stead of a Proof that a Church cannot stand but upon Baptism And what house stands without its principles or is built without a foundation only upon occasion of this admonition of the Apostle to the Hebrews Leaving the Word of the beginning of Christ let us advance towards perfection and his making not the practise but the Doctrine not of any one Baptism determinately but of Baptisms plurally a part of the foundation i. e. of the body or systeme of that Doctrine which young beginners in the School of Christ were wont to learn in the first place as in building a foundation is first to be layd in order to a superstruction But what is there in this passage to prove that one Baptism or one kind of Baptism is the foundation of a Church more then another or that any kind of Baptism more then imposition of hands or that either imposition of hands or Baptism in one kind or other more then repentance from dead works or Faith towards God especially considering that these two are named in the first place as the principal parts of the Foundation he speaks of and first to be layd Yea supposing that the Hebrews to whom he writes were a constituted Church and that he had taught them the Doctrine of Baptisms under this Constitution it evidently follows either that they were a Church before they were baptized or that they had been baptized before they had been instructed in the Doctrine of Baptism I