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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	article_n	believe_v	church_n	2,906	5	4.9640	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75851	A modest reply humbly offer'd, as an answer to, and confutation of seven arguments collected and deliver'd by Mr. Samuel Lawrence, in a sermon preach'd at his meeting-house in Namptwich, Octob. 16th, 1691, whereby he would shew, that the infants of professing Christians ought to be baptized : with a seasonable word to my brethren of the baptized church / presented by the most unworthiest of her servants, S.A.	Acton, Samuel, d. 1740?; Lawrence, Samuel.	1692 (1692)	Wing A452aA; ESTC R203313	36,660	49

because there is no light in them Isai 8.20 To do more then he hath required or to do one thing that is not required for another that is will be found in a Day of Tryal equally Abominable with a not doing his Requirements at all It 's certain all Persons and Things shall be pronounced good or bad as they have or have not agreed with this perfect Law of GOD's Word all Decrees of Councils all Doctrines of Men all Controversies in Religion must be brought to the Test and abide the Award and Determination thereof Now that I may not detain you here let me humbly and earnestly beg three things of you 1. That you will pass Judgment upon what is commended to your view in the Arguments for with the Answer and Arguments against Infant-Baptism according as they bear proportion to GOD's Sacred Word and not as they accord with far-fetcht Consequences and doubtful Conclusions which at best in Matters of Worship can prove but one uncertain Medium and forged Warrant which through the unwearied Industry of some skilful Artificers is made fatal to many even such who do either affect Art above Truth or such who have not skill to discern and so become no less deceived then certain Country Peasants in some former Troubles in France of whose Folly * Epistle to Jesephus one tell us They attempting and entring into a City not far from them and lighting into an Apothecary's Shop furnisht with all kind of Drugs and Dainties and being allured by the pleasant Odours and delight of the Confections they tasted and supposing all to be of the same kind took and swallow'd down every thing whereupon some fell sick of Feavers some grew Frenzy and many lost their Lives to please their Appetites at least he that scap'd best gave occasion of Laughter to the Lookers on What use I shall make of this shall be only to put you in mind that it is recorded for the eternal Commendation of the noble Bereans That they would not receive any thing though offered by a Paul until by searching the Scriptures they had found whether those things he taught were so or no. 2. In reading of these Lines that you would lay aside all Prejudice that may possess your Minds either against the Person or Subject else the Mind by it will be rendred utterly uncapable of making right Judgment or receiving Truth though it presents itself with never so much Plainness and Evidence Prejudice was one if not the principal Cause why the Jews rejected CHRIST 3. Having thus discharg'd your Minds of what may hinder your Profit be earnest with GOD in Prayer to help you rightly to discern between the Mystery of Godliness the Iniquity that is contain'd and detected in the Scriptures and then I trust the Plainness of Dress in which these Lines appear will not be of considerable Disadvantages to the Truths contain'd therein for the more false any thing is the more artificially it had need to be set off and adorned A blear'd Eye loves not to look on the Sun Art and Humane Eloquence may tickle the Ear and well-pollish'd Discourses may affect the Fancy and yet prove but a mear Sound of Words and empty Husks remembring it's said of Lacon Hearing a Nightingale sing by the briskness of its Warbling and delicate Notes and the clearness and quavering Cadency of its Voyce judg'd it a good Prey but when he found and saw it to be of so small a Size he disdainfully left it and said Thou art a Voyce and nothing else Therefore where the Evidence of Truth appears refuse it not because offer'd in and presented under the Disadvantage of an unpollish'd Style but let the Reason of what is said be considered And that the LORD may give you Vnderstanding shall be the Prayer of him that wisheth you present and eternal Peace from GOD the Father through our LORD JESVS CHRIST in whom though the Vnworthiest of his Servants I am yours S. A. A Modest Reply TO Mr SAMVEL LAWRENCE HIS Seven Arguments FOR Admitting the Infants of Professing Christians into the CHURCH of CHRIST by Baptism deliver'd in a SERMON by him preach'd in Namptwich Octob. 18th 1691. AS it may be safely concluded that the great Interest of Man's present Peace and eternal Felicity is eminently concern'd in Religion and Godliness even so all true Religion is taught and takes its Being only from Divine Revelation which God in former Ages and divers manners gave out until the Knowledge of his Will was most perfectly reveal'd in and by his Son and our Saviour Heb. 1.1 2. who in Faithfulness to his Church discharged the Trust committed to him ceasing not to make known to the least Jot and Tittle every thing which he receiv'd or heard of the Father Joh. 15.15 He alone being found worthy to set up a Standard and to become a Law-giver and Statute-maker unto all Generations in things partaining to the Worship of God who no sooner had transmitted the Mind of Heaven to the Children of Men by a sure and perfect Law but it passes the Royal Assent he fixes the Seal of his own most precious Blood unto it for its Confirmation and then by the Father is advanced to the highest Dignity and Glory as a convincing Evidence not only of his Son's Faithfulness but the Purity and Perfection of that Law which he hath enacted as the only Mediator to the end Man should be perfect in the whole Will of God And in further Testimony thereof how great hath Heaven's care been throughout all Ages in preserving the Scriptures clean from those Corruptions and Errours which the Heart of Man tho' learn'd if unsanctied is too apt to dote on and cleave unto it is no less then wonderful to consider in whose hands the Sacred Scriptures in past Ages have been lodged and by whom they have been handed down to us that they have yet strength so loudly to bear Witness against Errours entertained with such Fondness and maintain'd with such Heat as of late hath appeared particularly in the Defence of that Unscriptural Practice of Infant Baptism and that there is not yet so much as one Word to be produced as their Warrant in doing what they have so earnestly contended for strongly argue that God hath marvelously over-ruled the Heart and Hands of all heretofore concern'd in that blessed Work of Translating the Scriptures into a Language known and understood by every one of us And as to the Sufficiency of Scripture as it contains all things necessary to be believed known or done either for Salvation or Church Communion I know not that what is said in the sixth Article of the Church of England is forreign to the Judgment of any Professing Christian saving those of the Papal Communion and some few of late sprung up who through Temptation and the Delusion of their own Hearts have rejected the Word as it is contain'd in the Scriptures of Truth as Useless the one accounts it insufficient to

same Right as their Males besides by vertue of the Institution such were to receive Circumcision as you will have much ado to believe were interested in the Covenant to instance only in Ishmael and Esau and the words of the Apostle that saith All are not Israel that are of Israel Abraham's whole Male natural Seed must needs be circumcised yet who will imagine that the numerous Issue proceeding from him were so interested in the Covenant as Abraham and the Faithful were neither was any thing of Duty required as a necessary Prerequisite to qualifie Abraham's Seed for Circumcision more than a descending lineally from him a being his Children according to the Flesh qualified them for and interested them in the Blessing of the Covenant of Circumcision which are inferior to the Blessings of the new Covenant and Gospel Ministration So that it 's evident the carnal Seed of Believers can obtain no greater Priviledge than the Seed of Abraham did by the Covenant of Circumcision whose Priviledge reached not to an Interest in Gospel-Blessings or the New Covenant unless they had obtained that Right for themselves by believing otherwise as one saith well they had no more Right to them by their natural descent from Abraham than Ishmael had in their Covenant of Peculiarity And as of old Circumcision was not to be administred to any but those appointed by the express Will and positive Law of God neither ought Baptism now nor can any man conclude from a good ground for Infant-Baptism till as good Authority be produced for it as they had of old for circumcising the Males of Israel You add further Doubtless if it had not been so the believing Jews would have debated with the Apostles about it c. Ans I confess had they not learned better Manners and been of much a better Temper than many in our days they would not only have debated but quarreled with them as some do thrusting away Truth as a Troubler of their Coasts as the Gadarenes did Christ but the Believers of old learned Christ to better ends than to maintain unnecessary Debates with the Apostles being satisfied from the nature of the Gospel Ministration that there was no room for Controversies in Christ's changing the Subject as well as the Ceremony and you may see that Point as fully decided and resolved as they did would you rid your mind of Prejudice and with a single Eye look into the Commission where Christ bids them to make Disciples and baptize them and into the general Practice of the Apostles which did perfectly correspond with the Command which Command was made the Rule of their Proceedings and not the demolish'd form of the Jewish Church And Christ in faithfulness to his Church and in mercy to little Infants hath as evidently changed the Subject as the Sign Mark 16.15 16. which in conjunction with the general Practice of the Apostles in that they never baptized one Infant puts the thing out of doubt Thus I hope your three topping Arguments are fully answered which you say are equivolent to an express Command an Assertion so impudent that I pray God it may not be laid to your Charge for there is not any thing said in all of them but what may bespeak you to need that some one teach you which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God Hebr. 5.12 And now Brethren I hope as wise men you will judge and seriously consider what is said and the Lord give you understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2.7 I now come to your Argument of lesser magnitude Fourth ARGUMENT Little Children belong to the Kingdom of Heaven therefore are of the Church and ought not to be excluded but admitted by Baptism Matth. 19.14 They how little soever have an interest in the Priviledges of the Gospel Dispensation as well as they had under the Law formerly and accordingly are as capable of Eternal Blessedness in Heaven and the same Objections lye against their being saved as against their being baptized viz. That they cannot actually believe Mark 16.16 If any object Christ means Children in Humility not in Age as he doth Matth. 18.2 3. Answer That cannot be so understood here because he here speaks of such as were brought unto him and he took into his Arms. Besides it would not then be a sufficient ground for the check he gives his Disciples Objection But he did not baptize them Answer We do not know that he baptized any He did that which was greater and that which makes them qualified Subjects for Baptism for grant to them a Church Relation and Baptism will follow upon it if one stands good the other will and that is what we plead for from this Text. Fourth ANSWER That little Children as such belong unto the Kingdom of Heaven we discent not from you one jot in this Truth for since Christ hath said that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven we joyfully and stedfastly believe the certainty of it and that little Children are of the Church of God i e. the Universal and Invisible Church which contains all the Elect of God known and unknown known unto us and that to the most remote Corners of the Earth in which blessed state they abide though their Parents may suffer a change of state by sin yet that alters not the state of Children nor nothing can till by their voluntary departure from God in choosing sinful ways they destroy themselves To prove Infants as such in a visible state of Salvation we conceive not difficult the words of Christ strongly concluding it But if by Church you mean the visible Church of Christ and do say That because little Children are of the Kingdom of Heaven that therefore they are of the visible Church as that most be intended because of your pleading for admission for them then I conceive your Conclusion to be most untrue 1. Because to say the Fleshly Seed of Believers are born within the Pale and Members of the Church of Christ is a Doctrine Forreign to that of the Gospel 2. Because such a Doctrine in a great measure destroys the right end of Baptism which is to make them Members of it that are not Acts 2.41 and 47. and not to bring them into the Church that are in it already 3. Because Infants as such are not capable and fit matter to make right Members of the Church of Christ under the Gospel For says the Apostle writing to Church Members Ye also as lively Stones are built up a Spiritual House an holy Priesthood to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 which Infants can neither be nor do 4. To say Infants are Members of the visible Church is incongruous to all Definitions that ever I met with of a Gospel Church as I might shew by some of your own I forbear to name ours as that which may not pass with you for currant therefore shall assign only that of the Church of England as an

Evidence against you which speaks in the Nineteenth Article as follows The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful Men in the which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duly administred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same which strongly bespeaks the Church of Christ to be exclusive of Infants Further your grant that Children before Baptism belong to the Kingdom of Heaven doth call into question that part of the Church Catechism which teacheth her Catticuminies to say That in their Baptism they were made Members of Christ Children of God and Inheritors or Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven and if they are Members of the Church as you confess they belong to the Kingdom of Heaven is not your own practice as forreign when as in your baptizing any do tell the People that thereby that Child becomes a Member of the Church of God a goodly favour you do 'em indeed by Baptism you make them what it seems they were before and no more by your own Grant Again That your Conclusion is not true that saith Because little Children are of the Kingdom of Heaven therefore they are of the Church and ought to be admitted by Baptism is further evident in that there are many that shall be saved as have not the least shew of Right to a Place in and to the Priviledges of the Church of Christ of which Infants are some who have not fin'd actually against the Law of Nature and the rest are those Heathens who do live and walk up to that Light and Law of Nature which God hath placed in them who are not blest with the Gospel Light nor any Divine Revelation over and above the Light of Natural Conscience and surely some such there may be of whom the Apostle speaks Rom. 2.14 who do by Nature the things contain'd in the Law and with reference to such in all probability Christ spake saying Many shall come from the East and from the West meaning the most remote parts of the Earth and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven but the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out Matth. 8.11 12. If it be granted that there may be any such it 's evident the Kingdom of Heaven will be a Receptacle for them but who in the least can imagine that they have any right to Gospel Priviledges so that your Conclusion must needs fall A right to Heaven from this Text is granted them but it yields them not the least Evidence of a Right to a Church Relation and Priviledge So that I conceive all your pains in pleading from this Text vain and in all that you have said to be but like one that beateth the Air. A gallant Vapour brandishing a Sword that hath no Enemy to strike at 1 Cor. 9.26 You say the same Objections lye against their being saved as against their being baptized if they cannot actually believe Mark 16.16 Answer That Faith in Jesus Christ is made the Condition on which all Men must be saved to whom the Gospel either was is or ever shall be preached is certain yet as the Gospel never was appointed to be preached to Infants as such neither is it by you nor any Man in this day so it is not required any where of them to believe in order to their bring saved If it be who required it and where And since their natural Capacities is such as renders the work of Believing impossible to them without a Miracle whose Faith shall save them their immediate Parents nay rather the Faith of our remote Father to wit Adam as his Unbelief at first destroyed them so in likelyhood his Faith should interess them in the Grace of Eternal Life but we say the Faith of neither for the Faith and Righteousness of all believing Parents in the World considered in one will not be of Merit sufficient to save one Victim Ezek. 14.14 No this Benefit flows purely from the Fountain of all Grace and is conveyed to them by another Stream to wit God's free and full imputing the Righteousness of Christ the second Adam by whose Righteousness Life and Meritorious Death they are inverted with a Justification unto Life Eternal Rom. 5.18 As by the offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free Gift came upon all Men unto Justification of Life Were it so that the Faith of Parents did intitle their Children to Salvation how unworthily would it reflect upon our Lord Jesus as if he could not save Innocent Babes without their Parents believing and strongly conclude God to be more prone to Severity then Mercy in saving a very few i. e. the Children of believing Parents and Eternally damns all the rest from their Mothers Womb for what they could not help viz. a remote Fathers sinning and an immediate Fathers not believing but how contrary is this to that God whose Mercies are over all his Works Psalm 145.8 9. So that it 's evident the Salvation of dying Infants is sure though they believe not in the sence of that Text Mark 16.16 or with that Faith which alone qualifies a Person for Baptism So I come to your Fifth ARGUMENT The Children of Believers are said to be holy this is plainly set down in the Text which cannot be meant are Legitimate not Bastards for that could not be accounted if both the Parents had been Unbelievers neither was that the Question which the Apostle here handles Neither can it be understood absolutely of real holiness for then Parents could convey Grace to their Children and a gracious Man could not have graceless Children but it must be meant of foederal Holiness as they who were born of the Jews were Jews not common and unclean as Heathen but accounted as in the Church and within the Covenant so that you that are born of Christians are to be accounted Christians therefore have a right to the Priviledges of Christians 2. Scripture doth explain and confirm this Acts 10.15 28. and Rom. 11.16 if the Root be holy so are the Branches And it 's very observable that of the little that 's spoke of the case of Children in the New Testament all is for it and not one word against it Fifth ANSWER That the Children of Believers are holy we believe and that their Holiness is founded upon a better Basis than the Faith of their immediate Parents and also that it is different from that of their Parents and such a Holiness as is so far from inrighting them to Baptism as that till they come to sin it doth much rather exempt them For if Baptism be a Sign that signifies to all that submit to it the Remission of Sins as Scripture sufficiently shews Acts 2.38 and Mark 1.4 c. then I pray of what use can Baptism be to those who are under no actual Commission of Sin and as such