Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	work_n	work_v	wrought_v	25	3	7.2834	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45181	Infants faith, and right to baptism, proved from Scripture with the chief objections against it answered. By John Hunt, pastor of a particular congregation in Northampton.	Hunt, John, fl. 1704.	1682 (1682)	Wing H3739A; ESTC R221348	61,988	172

prove thus from this following Argument and it seems cogent Argument 2. Those that the Scripture give us good ground to hope are Believers may and ought to be Baptized but the Infant Seed of Believers are such as we have good ground from Scripture to hope are Believers therefore such may and ought to be Baptized All that I can conceive can be said against my Major Proposition is to deny that we are to Baptize any upon hopes that they are Believers and to affirm that we ought to Baptize none but such as we are sure have true Justifying Faith But sure I am such an Objection savours of high Presumption since this is to pretend to be Wiser than the Apostles and as Wise as God himself First Wiser than the Blessed Apostles as you may see by comparing Acts 8.13 with 22.23 where you read of one Baptized that was in the Gall of Bitterness and Bonds of Iniquity and yet we cannot be so uncharitable as to think they had no hopes of him when they Baptized him But if any should so judge it makes the more for me for if the Apostles themselves Baptized such as they had no hopes had true Faith then sure we may Baptize such 〈◊〉 we have good ground to hope 〈◊〉 Faith But if they had Hope 't is evident it was but Hope unless he could lose his Faith or have Faith and at the same time be in the Gall of Bitterness and Bonds of Iniquity neither of which could be Secondly This is to pretend to be as wise as God at least in this point since he only that works Faith can infallibly judge where it is 'T is peculiar to God to search the Heart where Faith is seated the Lord only knows who are his we see the best of Churches have been mistaken in taking in of Members The Apostles did not know Judas to be a Hypocrite till he betrayed his Lord unless we can suppose they would take in known Hypocrites And I would ask my Friends the Anabaptists if they themselves have not Baptized some as Believers who have afterward discovered themselves to be in the Gall of Bitterness So that in a word if we must Baptize none but such as we are sure have true Justifying Faith we must Baptize none in this World For though many have such a Faith yet no Man can infallibly tell the Anabaptist themselves not excepted who they are This is that new Name which none knows but God and them that have it So that I think it needless to add any more to confirm the former part of my Argument viz. That we can only hope that this or the other Person hath true Faith Minor Proposition But the Infant Seed of Believers are such as we have good ground from Scripture to hope are Believers Now if any thing of force be Objected it must be against this and therefore I shall labour the more to confirm it But before I come to the Proof I must add a Caution that when I speak of Faith in Infants I mean Habitual Faith for though it cannot on good ground be denyed but that some Infants may actually Believe since God is able to cause them so to do and hath no where in his Word declared he will not yet it may easily be proved that some Infants have Habitual Faith and that will render one as truly a Believer as the Act. He that hath the Habit of Faith is a Believer though asleep and so as uncapable of Acting Faith as an Infant having during that time no more use of Reason than a Child at the Breast nor perhaps so much for an Infant hath so much Sense as to know when it is Hungry or to Cry for Food and if it be in Pain But let a Man be never so Hungry or in Pain yet when asleep he is unsensible of either And yet such may be Believers in the mean time they having the Habit of Faith Now by the Habit of Faith in Infants I mean a Principle of Grace or Internal Renovation which is wrought in Regeneration for Regeneration is an infusing the Seeds of all Grace into the Soul and consequently of Faith This being premised I come to lay down a Proposition for the clearing the Way to that which I intend more largely to insist upon Proposition That Infants are capable of having the Habit of Faith wrought in them And though we cannot from hence conclude that all such have it yet it is a good Foundation for my following Argument And because in all Cases the Foundation had need stand fast I shall therefore confirm it that Infants are capable of Grace is not my Judgment alone however strange a Doctrine it may seem to some for I have the Judgment of all the Church of England on my side their Words after Baptism are Seeing now Dearly beloved Brethren that this Child is by Baptism Regenerate c. And again We yield thee most hearty thanks most merciful Father that it hath pleased thee to Regenerate this Infant by thy Holy Spirit c. Now though I am far from being of the Judgment which they seem to be in this that all that are Baptized are in that Ordinance Regenerated and so consequently many fall from Grace My Soul abhorrs that Popish Doctrine that Baptism confers Grace ex opere operato from the Work-wrought but while they thank God for the Work done 't is evident they suppose them capable of having that Work wrought in them and so far I agree with them But because the very citing any thing from the Church of England may make some giddy-headed People who have more Zeal than sound Knowledge nauseate what I have said I shall therefore proceed to prove that both they and I have Divine Testimony on our side in this that Infants are capable of Grace and I shall make use of plain Scripture since the Anabaptists pretend so much delight in it and I shall produce several Instances that in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses this truth may be established Jer. 1.5 Before thou camest out of the Womb I Sanctified thee and Luke 1.15 of John it is said He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his Mothers Womb and then no doubt Sanctified And of Christ it is said verse 35. That Holy Thing that shall be born of thee c. mind born of thee was Holy when Born From whence it is past all dispute unless we dare dispute with God that Infants even in the Womb and as soon as Born are capable of Grace nor doth it seem harder to me to conceive that Infants should have Grace wrought in them than Adult since the latter are purely passive in the Work and so may the former be If it was a Work of Reason or performed by Humane Power or Policy something might be said but it is not Eph. 1.19 Nay according to our apprehension it seems harder to work Grace in Adult than in Infants for as a Tender Plant