Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	conscience_n	faith_n	unfeigned_a	1,225	5	10.9966	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26886	Certain disputations of right to sacraments, and the true nature of visible Christianity defending them against several sorts of opponents, especially against the second assault of that pious, reverend and dear brother Mr. Thomas Blake / by Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1658 (1658)	Wing B1212; ESTC R39868	418,313	558

of a good conscience is we shall further enquire anon Both the common expositions fully confirm the point which I maintain The Assemblies Annot. recite both thus Hence by the answer of a good conscience we may understand that unfeigned faith whereof they made confession at their Baptism and whereby their consciences were purified and whereby they received the remission of their sins c. Some understand by the Answer of a good Conscience that Covenant whereinto they entered at their Baptism the embracing whereof they testified by their unfeigned confession of their Faith viz. such a Faith as is aforesaid so that I conclude that this Tex● doth plainly shew that Baptm is for the saving of the Baptized as to the instituted use and may not be used meerly to any lower ends then to put them into a present state of Salvation A●gum 18. No one may be admitted to Baptism who may not be admitted a Member of the Church of Christ. No one may be admitted to be a Member of the Church of Christ without the profession of a saving faith by himself or Parents or Proparents therefore no one may be admitted to Baptism without the profession of a saving faith I speak of such admission to Church-membership as is in the power of the Ministers of Christ who have the Keyes of his Kingdom to open and let in as well as to cast out The Major is past question because Baptism is our solemn entrance into the Church who were before entred by private consent and Accepted by the Covenant of God All the question is of the Minor which I shall therefore prove 1. It is before proved that all the Members of the Church must be such as are visibly solemnly or by profession sanctified from former sin cleansed justified persons of God the Heirs of the Promise c. But this cannot be without the profession of a saving faith Ergo c. 2. This also is before proved where it was shewed that no others are Christians or Disciples 3. In Acts 2.41 42 c. The many thousands were added to the Church were such as received gladly the doctrine of saving Faith and Repentance and continued in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and Prayer and so far contemned the world as to fell all and make it common And doubtless no man continued in those wayes of doctrine fellowship prayer c. without the profession of saving Faith Repentance for the very use of these is such a profession Of which saith Calvin in Act. 2.42 Quaerimus ergò veram Christi ecclesiam Hìc nobis ad vivum depictum est ejus Imago Ac initium quidem facit à doctrinâ quae veluti ecclesiae anima est not as barely heard but as professed or Received Nec quamlibet doctrinam nominat sed Apostolorum hoc est quam per ipsorum manus filius Dei tradiderat Ergo ubicunque personat pura vox Evangelii ubi in ejus professione manent homines ubi in ordinario ejus auditu ad profectum se exercent illic indubiè est Ecclesia c. Quare non temere haec quatuor rece●set Lucas quum describere vult nobis ritè constitutum ecclesiae statum Et nos ad hunc ordinem eniti convenit si cupimus verè censeri Ecclesia coram Deo Angelis non inane tantum ejus nomen apud homines jactare And ver 47. It is said that the Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved Obj. It saith not that all shall be saved that are added to the Church Answ. But it describeth them that were added to the Church viz. that were such as should be saved or as Beza yielded to another reading and so Grotius and many others such as saved themselves from that untoward Generation quisese quotidie servandos recipiebant in Ecclesiam The Church is the Body of Christ Col. 1.18 24. and none are members of his Body but such as either are united to him and live by him or at least seem to do so The Church is subject to Christ and beloved of Christ and cherished by him we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephe. 5.24 25 30. And those that are against the General Redemption me thinks should be moved with the consideration that it is the Church that Christ gave himself for even the visible Church which he purchased with his own blood Act. 20.28 Ephe. 5.25 and he is the Saviour of his body ver 23. But so he is not effectively the Saviour of the Professors of a Faith that doth not justifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is the effective Saviour of those that profess a Justifying faith and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the sincere but of others neither way Hitherto Divines have gathered from the plain texts of Scripture that there is but One Church One Faith and One Baptism and that those that had this Faith really were to be baptized and were real members of the Church and that those that professed this faith and so seemed to have it when they have it not are visible members of the Church and are so taken because their Profession is sensible to us and by that they seem to have the thing professed But the Opponents are fallen into a new conceit in all these 1. They feign a New Christian faith to themselves viz. A faith that is short of Justifying which Scripture and the Church of God have taken to be but a preparatory to the Christian faith subjectively or but a common part of it objectively considered so that before there was but one Christian faith and now they have made two 2. And so before there was but one sort of real serious or sincere Christians consisting of such as had that real Christian faith and now they have found out another sort of them that hold another sort of faith 3. So have they feigned a new Baptism for the Old Baptism was for Remission of sin and Burial and Resurrection wi●h Jesus Christ and to engraff men into the Church wich is the body of Christ upon the profession of a saving faith but the new feigned ends of Baptism are far different 4. And they have feigned also a new kind of Church For the Church of Christs constitution is but one which is called visible from mens Profession and invisible from the faith professed But they have made a Church which consisteth of a third sort of members that is of men that neither have saving faith nor profess it but only have or profess to have a faith of a lower orb 5. To this end they have confounded the Church and the Porch the Vineyard and the adjacent part of the Wilderness those that heretofore were but Catechumeni or men in preparation for the Church are now brought into it and are annumerated to true Christians before they once profess themselves such and that upon a lower profession 6 And hereby also the

from 1. Pet. 3.21 I be like figure whereto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience toward God Whence I thus argue If Baptism be appointed for out solemn admission into a state of salvation as Noahs Ark received men into a state of safety from the deluge then none should be baptized but those that profess that saith which entereth them into a state of salvation But the former is true therefore so is the later 1. Here it is implyed plainly that this is quoad finem Instituentis the common appointed use of Baptism which the Text mentioneth though eventually it prove not the common effect through the error of the Receivers And this appeareth 1. In that it was spoken plainly in the Text of the very Nature and appointed use of Baptism and so of Baptism as Baptism without any Exception Limitation or Distinction Therefore it is not spoken of any d●fferent use that it is appointed for to the Elect as distinct from its common use to others It s spoken of that signification and common use to which Baptism is appointed viz. to save Else we shall never be able to understand the use of it or any Ordinance from Scripture if we shall take liberty to say It is this to one but not to another when the Scripture saith no such thing but speaks of the nature and use of it without distinction Else when it saith C●rcumcision is a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith we may lay with the Anabaptists It was so to Abraham but not to all others And when the Lords supper is said to be appointed for the remembrance of Christ we may say That 's but to some and not to others when as the Text plainly speaks of the stated use of the Ordinances to all 2. And in the type its clear for it was not some only but all that entered Noahs Ark that entered into a state of salvation from the deluge therefore so it is here as to the commanded use 2. When Baptism is said to save us it s plainly meant of the state of salvation that Baptism entereth us into and not of Baptism ex ●pere operato effecting our salvation And so Baptism comprehendeth the state into which we are solemnly by it initiated As a woman that is married to an honourable man or a Sou●dier listed under an honourable Commander is said to be honoured the one by marriage the other by listing Where antecedent consent is the great foundation on both sides of the honorable relations and the subsequent state is the condition or state it self which is honourable but the solemn signification is but the expression of the former and passage to the latter 3. Hereby its apparent that though the answer of a Good conscience be the principal thing intended and that saveth yet the external Baptism is here included as the sign and solemnization so that when the Apostle saith Not the putting away the filth of the flesh he means not the bare outward act of washing alone or as such but baptism as it is entire having the thing professed on our part together with the professing sign 4. It is therefore but by way of signification obsignation and complemental exhibition that Baptism saveth it being neither the first or principal efficient or condition of it But is valid as it is conjunct with the principal causes and condition for the attainment of these ends 5. It is not a meer remote means leading towards a state of salvation that Baptism is here affirmed to be but an enterance or means of entrance into that state of salvation it self As the heart covenant or Faith doth it principally so Baptism signally and complementally This is plain 1. Because it is not said to help us towards a state of salvation but expresly to save 2. Because the Type which is here mentioned viz. The Ark was such a means that all that entred into it for preservation from the Flood were actually saved from it All this laid together doth confirm both the Antecedent and Consequence of my Argument Calvin on the Text saith Hoc in baptismo liquidò apparet ubi Christo consepelimur ut mundo carni mortui Deo vivamus ergo sicut Noe vitam adeptus est per mortem quum in Arcâ non secus atque in sepulcro inclusus fuit toto mundo pereunte servatus fuit cum exigua familia sic hodic Mortificatio quae in Baptismo figuratur nobis ingressus est in vitam nec salus speranda est nisi à mundo simus segregati Poterat quispiam objicere baptismo Noe nostrum esse longè dissimilem quia plerosque hodie baptizari contingat Respondet autem Non sussicere externum symbolum nisi verè efficaciter baptismum suscipiant mark verè Atqui ejus veritas in paucis reperietur And least you should think that Calvin takes it for a means towards a state of salvation and not the solemn entrance into it mark what follows Nec hic docere voluit Petrus inane inefficax esse Christi institutum that is as to salvation sed tantum excludere hypocritas à spe salutis qui Baptismum quantum in se est dep●avant ac corrumpunt Mark here that no Baptized men are excluded from salvation but Hypocrites 2. That they that are excluded from salvation for all their Baptism are such as did deprave and corrupt it and not justly use it I conclude my sentence in his following words Quid ergò agendum est Nè separemus quae à Domino conjuncta sunt Debemus in baptismo agnoscere spirituale lavacrum debemus illìc testimonium remissi●nis peccatorum renovationis nostrae pignus amplecti sic tamen relinquere Christo Spiritui sancto suum honorem c. His verbis docet Baptismum praecipuâ sui parte spiritualem esse deinde peccatorum remissionem reformationem veteris hominis in se complecti Beza in loc Hoc loco B●ptismus dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ejus liberationis qua contigit ecclesiae in diluvio Nam haec liberatio Baeptismus adumbrant ecclesiae sanct sicationem emerfionem à peccati mortis gurgite Yet another Argument may hence be raised thus Argum. 2. If according to the Institution the Answer of a good Conscience must be joyned with Baptism for the attaining of its end then must we admit none that profess not that answer of a good conscience But the former is certain from the Text For Baptism is said to save that 's its appointed use yet not the external washing but the answer of a good conscience doth it therefore this is of necessary conjunction and without it Baptism cannot attain its end But it is to be administred received only in order to the attainment of its end and therefore never in a way by which the end is apparently not attainable What this answer