Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	justification_n	justify_v	sanctification_n	6,333	5	10.3320	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96712	The summe of diverse sermons preached in Dublin, before the L. Deputie Fleetwood, and the Commissioners of Parliament for the affairs of Ireland. wherein the doctrine of infant-baptism is asserted, and the main objections of Mr. Tombs, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Blackwood, and others, answered / by Samuel Winter ...	Winter, Samuel, 1603-1666.	1656 (1656)	Wing W3089; ESTC R43829	127,074	209

arbitramur quia spiritus otiosus non est quemadmodum ratio etsi se non nisi paulatim exerat Idem Wal. the minor proposition is proved 1. From scripture Mat. 18.3 4 5. compared with Mar. 9.36 Whosoever shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me but whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me it were better that a milstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the midst of the sea The opposition shews he speaks of children For it 's an undoubted maxim Where terms stand as opposits the one is to be taken in the sense opposit to the other Now it 's clear from ver 3 4 5. that he speaks of children whom we are visibly to receive in Christ's name to such Ordinances as they are capable of therefore the words are so to be taken ver 5. little ones that believe in me There is the like phrase Rev. 9.4 It was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth neither any green thing neither any tree but onely those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads Which exception shews you That by grass green things and trees he means men For the exception as we say must be of the same kinde Exceptio est ejus dem generis See Rev. 7.3 2. We may see this exemplified in many Psal 22. 9. Thou madest me hope when I hung upon my mothers brests This is true in the antitype Christ who had faith from the very womb it 's true also in David Psal 71.5 Thou art my trust from my childhood by thee I have been holden from the womb v. 17. Thou hast taught me from my childhood now also when I am grey headed forsake me not We see original sin lies dormant in the child for a while but quickly puts forth it being peccatum actuosum Psal 58. They go astray from the belly and why may may not faith put forth betimes in some as in Esaias ch 49. Jeremiah ch 1.5 and John Baptist the first in the new Testament Now the first in every kinde is the rule of all the rest I see no reason but when a child puts forth acts of reason he may put forth an act of faith and when he begins to know his natural he may also know his heavenly father though it wants that reflect act whereby it knows that it knows the former we have seen verified in many children in New-England and elsewhere 3. 〈◊〉 If some be sanctified from the womb then they have faith quicunque renascitur fidem habet Luther For all the graces are concatenated but some are sanctified from the womb for Christ as he sanctifies our natures so he sanctifies every age as Hos 12 4. Jacob being actuated by the spirit began to act betime and to wrestle with his brother Esau in his mothers womb for the blessing See Zanchy 4. Children have faith in heaven therefore in earth For 1. If the Lord irradiate upon the souls of children in heaven Quos pleno lucis suae fulgore illustraturus est Dominus cur non iis quoque in presens si ita libuerit exiguà scintillâ irradiaret Cal. Inst l. 4. c. 16. and they do behold the face of God which is an act of faith Heb. 11.27 then have they faith in heaven if so why not on earth 2. They rest in hope of the resurrection else they were miserable Psal 16.9 that is the soul doth rest in hope for the bodie properly is not the subject of hope now hope is the daughter of faith 3. There will be this use of faith in heaven to believe that which we cannot comprehend for faith is the evidence of things not seen even the infinite being of God who dwells in that light that none can approach unto therefore we conclude infants in heaven have faith and why may they not have the seed of it here seeing there is no grace in heaven which was not wrought on earth Hence it is that regeneration is called an earthly thing Ioh. 3. because as for other reasons so this it must be wrought on earth 4. The first Adam had power to convey grace as faith to his posterity and hath not the second Adam much more power Was not the faith of Adam of the like nature with the faith of believers though it do not put forth that act whereby we are justified 5. Can any live without faith or be saved for ever without it and shall we denie it to infants who stand in need of justification by faith as well as we Obj. How can they be justified by faith which cannot act Ans Faith may be said to be passive in our justification because the habit of faith is passive before it put forth any act now we are justified so soon as by the habit of faith we are alive in Christ in the first moment of our conversion before faith put forth any act Thus children are justified by the habit of faith for as we were guilty of Adams sin which is imputed to us before we were active in giving consent unto it so is the rightousness of Christ imputed to children before they put forth any elicit act of faith Therefore I say they are capable of that passive Ordinance of baptism Obj. Children have no knowledge therefore no faith therefore no interest in the Covenant or seal thereof Ans Are they not reasonable souls because for the present they make no use of reason and may they not have habitual knowledge lying dormant in them though no actual is it not Christ that enlighteneth every one not that is going out but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coming into the world doth not the reasonable soul lie dormant in the body till organized doth it not live though it move not for the present when a man is asleep he acts not grace doth it therefore follow he hath none may not a child be included in a lease and conditions made which render him capable of the benefit of it if he perform the conditions therein specified though at the making of the lease he give no consent at all and were not the children in the Evangelist blessed by Christ because they understood it not or was Peter washed in vain because he knew not what Christ did as yet Mr Tombs saith If he knew an infant such an one as John was such a one he would baptize and farther he saith that such as Christ blessed might be baptized if therefore baptism belong to one infant it 's enough to confute them who denie it to all but according to this account if onely the elect and faithful are to be admitted to the Ordinance of baptism there is no subject left to whom we may dispense that Ordinance 6. Arg. Taken from examples in scripture whole families were baptized Observe the families are made the precedent If any one say here is a Synecdoche the whole being put for part We answer with

according to the teno● of Abraham's Covenant for saith the Apostle we are all one in Christ Jesus and if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise But children are Christ's Erg. Abraham's seed and therefore consequently alike priviledged with Abraham's children Add to this the words of the Text Acts 2 And let every one of you be baptized for the promise is to you Jews and Proselytes and your children This was the first open promulgation of the Covenant The Jews were so accustomed to that great personal promise I will be thy God and the God of thy seed as that there needed not any explanation of it it being ordinarily put for the Covenant and contrariwise the Covenant put for it Gal. 3.14 17. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles that we might receive the promise of the spirit Thus vers 17 This I say therefore that the Covenant which was confirmed of God in Christ before the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disanul that it should make the promise of none effect Sometimes the Apostle useth the plural Number v. 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made Observe he saith to Abraham and his seed were the promise made Which relates to Gen. 17. For in Gen. 12. he saith in thee Yea Gal. 3 16. The inheritance was given by promi●e Now in Gen. 12 1 he only saith he will shew him the land but in the 17. he gives it Because this proposition I will be thy God being the mother promise containeth all other promises in the womb of it Thus Rom. 4 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the promise that is the Covenant made to Abraham is to be understood being mentioned in that chapter no less than four times This promise saith the Apostle Acts 2 is to you and your children and to the Gentiles when called and their children To you Jews actually for they were not as yet cut off and to the Gentiles intentionally answering the call of the Gospel As for that * Mr. Tom his rev interpretation of sending Christ which is given by some we say It 's improper to say the promise i● for it was already fulfilled though it was included in Abrahaham's Covenant but as for remission of sins and pouring out the spirit on them and theirs they are included in that great promise I will be thy God and the God of thy seed Thus the Apostle Gal. 3 14 That we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith This the Apostle had chiefly in his ey For the giving of the Messiah was the great promise of the old Testament as the giving of the spirit is the great promise of the new Testament See Luk. 24.49 Acts 1.4 5. and 2.33 Having received of the Father the promise of the holy Ghost Compare Acts 10.47 and 11.16 and 15.8 9. Giving them the holy Ghost as he did unto us and put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by faith Which words shew you that it 's not meant onely of the extraordinary gifts but of the ordinary gifts of sanctification By spirit then Act. 2 37 he meaneth not so much or solely the extraordinary gifts of the spirit as regenerating graces with the degrees of them We have now proved the first Proposition namely That such as are in Covenant are to be sealed with the seal of the Covenant It remains that we prove the second sc That Children are incovenanted For the proof of which mind well the words of the Text The promise is to you and to your Children Obj. The promise runs to children when they are called Ans Calling in the Jews did not go before the Covenant but followed after as appears by Act. 3.25 Ye are the Children of the Covenant which God made with our Fathers saying unto Abraham and in thy seed shall all the families 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where children must of necessity be included as the word imports of the earth be blessed The promise was not made to their seed because they did believe but some of their seed did believe because they were under the promise which promise reaches to spirituals as well as carnals even to turn them from their iniquities To the Jew first and also to the Gentile was this promise made The Jew before had a jus ad rem but upon their repentance a jus in re Act. 2 39. That being suspended till they came in and then the promise runs clear without any interruption 2. The Apostle sheweth not onely that baptism cometh instead but that it 's administered on the same grounds sc That God is our God and the God of our seed we need not fear the seal is put to a blank because no visible faith appears for here is a Covenant to which this seal of baptism is annexed and the Covenant I hope none will say is a blank to which the name JEHOVAH is added that gives being to all those promises Which name is so often repeated in Jer. 31 to shew that as he was known by that name when he brought them out of Egypt So now much more in these later days in bringing them out of all countries whether they are scattered 3. An exclusion of their children would have exceedingly perplexed them as is undeniably evident they being conscious to themselves of that bitter curse which was pronounced by them his bloud be upon us and our children 4. Act. 2.41 They gladly received that word namely the promise is to you and to your Children and therefore were baptized by which it appears that they understood that their children were included in that Covenant If then the Proselytes upon the receiving of the word were circumcised they and their Children then doubtless those and their children were baptized on the same ground 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ came not to loosen the Law much less the Prophesies and promises of old made to believers Rom. 15 8. To confirm the promises made to our fathers Because this might be questioned whether the Gentiles might be partakers with the Jews of the promises and their appertenances For he is not a God of the Jews onely but also of the Gentiles parents and children as he was to the Jews Rō 2.29 therefore the Apostle doth abundantly labour to prove by four several places of Scripture That Christ is a minister of the Circumcision to confirm the promises made to the fathers and that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his mercie held forth in the same promise See v. 9 11 12. I do not remember any place of Scripture where the Apostle doth bring so many proofs as he doth in this one place shewing that the Gentiles have an interest in the promises made unto the Jews that so he might remove all scruples and drive the nale to the head and clinch it fast For First If children in the new Testament had been left

and are therefore true if performed to any person in any fort Heb. 11.27 Many spiritual and so temporal promises are indefinitely propounded and so to be understood not that the Lord intends an absolute and universal obligation of himself neither is the act of faith in the application of it required to be an absolute and infallible persuasion that God will bestow these particular things upon us but the Lord expects we should rely on him to do what is most for his glory and our good But let me tell you faith may do much Mat. 9. When he saw their faith he said to the sick of the palsie Be bold thy sins are forgiven thee When he saw their faith that is the faith of them that brought him So when he sees the faith of parents bringing their children to Christ in the visible way of this Ordinance for I know no other visible way to bring children to Christ he saith to them Your sins are forgiven you Thus children are saved by the faith of the parents begetting faith in them Hence that passage of David concerning his child I shall go to it it shall not return to me he means not of that state of death in the grave for what comfort could that be to David that he should go to the the grave with it but the state of glory to which he was assured it was gone and to which he should follow after Tenthly I am apt to be very charitable to the Infants of all believers that dy before they commit actual transgression Cedo quo nomine filij vestri salvantur nisi ex illo verbo Ego sum deus seminis tui ac nisi illud verbum ad illos pertin●ret ne ad baptismum quidem admittendi essent Cal. Inst Quicunque in dei foedere gratiose semel est neque unquam ab illo foeder● se avertit ille ●ona promissa consequitur nunquam enim descrit de●● nisi deserent●m See Forb heaven surely is fuller of such Infants than of others and therefore as he said so say I If I had 20 Children I would not bate God one But how are these Children saved if not by that Covenant I will be thy God and the God of thy seed from which gracious Covenant if afterwards they turn not away they obtain the things promised and their souls are bound up in a bundle of life for ever See p. 69. Obj. There was no promise of eternal life mentioned in that Covenant Ans In that Covenant God promised them temporals more largely spirituals more sparingly according to his secret dispensations of these and those times they were children Hence the motto of the Prince of Wales I SERVE Gal. 5.4 a child differs not from a servant and thus the Hebrew naguo● the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latine word puer signifie either a child or a servant and a child differs not from a servant in his nonage now children are more taken with childish things therefore they had more of temporals and less of spirituals more of the spirit of bondage than the spirit of adoption that is that spirit that makes us sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and testifies we are sons but yet we say in that Covenant life is propounded implicitly in that he saith I will be thy God which is interpreted by our Savior to include not onely spirituel life here but eternal life hereafter Christ by virtue of his spiritual dwelling in us will raise us up at the last day for as the union betwixt Christ's humane and divine nature ceased not even in the grave so neither doth the union betwixt Christ and the soul and the body cease Rom. 8. Seeing that we are not raised by the graces of the spirit but by the spirit it self dwelling in us it is true Christ as Mediator shall cease having yielded up that vicarium Regnum to his father but he continues head of the Church for ever 2. When the Lord explains that Covenant Ier. 31.33 Doth he not say I will be their God their sins and iniquities will I remember no more and are not our souls bound up in this as in a bundle of life is not here justification of life for children to lay hold upon Nay when the Lord saith I will write my Law in their hearts and they shall all know me from the lest to the greatest that is yong and old is not this the Law of the spirit of life and will not he write the Law of faith too by which we live the life of the sons of God Gal. 2.20 3. That blessedness spoken of Gen. 12.3 is explained by Paul to be justification by faith Gal. 3.8.14 called there the blessing of Abraham which comes upon the Gentiles that is parents and children Act. 3. blessedness is expressed by turning every one from his evil way Esa 44.3 I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy offspring Is not here a spirit of life are not the essentials of regeneration promised here to babes and is not that mother promise I will be thy God the ground of all these Gal. 3.14 4. What is the meaning of that phrase Do this and live may it not evangelically be taken as well as legally Ezek. 20. Neh. 9 Which if a man keep he shall live therein What force is there in these words with reverence be it spoken if understood in their sense for might not the spiritual Israelites say To what purpose is it What hopes have we of attaining to that perfection and so consequently to life It 's granted the carnal Israelites being not sensible of their own weakness and imperfections looked at that Covenant as a Covenant of works and so seemingly it was propounded but the spiritual Israelites look'd at it with another ey as it was propounded with evangelical purposes that is Do this in Christ and live Hence it was that the Lord bid Moses put the Tables into the Ark as signifying That Christ was to keep Covenant with them and for them as hath been formerly shewed Obj. None ever had any interest in that Covenant but such as were in Christ Ans Never any had any saving interest in that absolute Covenant but such as are in Christ in truth and reality but there are others that are in Christ as the unprofitable branch in the Vine Some render the words as the Syr. renders it viz. Every branch that beare not fruit in me Joh 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that bringeth forth fruit to it self these having entered into Covenant with God may be said to be under the Covenant conditionally of which conditional promises the Sacraments are seals and by virtue of it be made partakers not onely of temporals but also of those common graces by which they are sanctified for this or that particular service Heb. 10.29 And hath counted the bloud of the Covenant an unholy thing wherewith he was sanctified Which grace is sometimes called life