Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	abraham_n	covenant_n	natural_a	2,822	5	8.0344	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63778	A discovrse of baptisme its institution and efficacy upon all beleevers : together with a consideration of the practice of the church in baptizing infants of beleeving parents and the practice justified / by Jer. Taylor.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1653 (1653)	Wing T316; ESTC R27533	53,917	65

baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea so by a double figure foretelling That as they were initiated to Moses Law by the Cloud above and the Sea beneath so should all the persons of the Church Men Women and Children be initiated unto Christ by the Spirit from above and the Water below for it was the design of the Apostle in that discourse to represent that the Fathers and we were equall as to the priviledges of the Covenant he proved that we doe not exceed them and it ought therefore to be certain that they doe not exceed us nor their children ours But after this something was to remain which might not only consign the Covenant which God made with Abraham but be as a passage from the Fathers through the Synagogue to the Church from Abraham by Moses to Christ and that was Circumcision which was a Rite which God chose to be a mark to the posterity of Abraham to distinguish them from the Nations which were not within the Covenant of Grace and to be a seal of the righteousnesse of faith which God made to be the spirit and life of the Covenant But because Circumcision although it was ministred to all the males yet it was not to the females and although they and all the Nation was baptized and initiated into Moses in the Cloud and the Sea therefore the Children of Israel by imitation of the Patriarchs the posterity of Noah used also Ceremonial Baptisms to their women and to their Proselytes and to all that were circumcised and the Jews deliver that Sarah and Rebecca when the were adopted into the family of the Church that is of Abraham and Isaac were baptized and so were all strangers that were married to the sons of Israel And that we may think this to be typical of Christian Baptism the Doctors of the Jews had a Tradition that when the Messias would come there should be so many Proselytes that they could not be circumcised but should be baptized The Tradition proved true but not for their reason But that this Rite of admitting into mysteries and institutions and offices of religion by Baptisms was used by the posterity of Noah or at least very early among the Jews besides the testimonies of their own Doctors I am the rather induced to believe because the Heathen had the same Rite in many places and in several Religions so they initiated disciples into the secrets of a Mithra and the Priests of Cotyttus were called b Baptae because by Baptism they were admitted into the Religion and they c thought Murther Incest Rapes and the worst or Crimes were purged by dipping in the Sea or fresh Springs and a Proselyte is called in Arrianus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} intinctus a baptized person But this Ceremony of baptizing was so certain and usual among the Jews in their admitting Proselytes and adopting into institutions that to baptize and to make disciples are all one and when Iohn the Baptist by an order from Heaven went to prepare the way to the Coming of our blessed Lord he preached Repentance and baptized all that professed they did repent He taught the Jews to live good lives and baptized with the Baptism of a Prophet such as was not unusually done by extraordinary and holy persons in the change or renewing of Discipline or Religion Whether Iohn's Baptism was from heaven or of men Christ asked the Pharisees That it was from Heaven the people therefore believed because he was a Prophet and a holy person but it implyes also That such Baptisms are sometimes from men that is used by persons of an eminent Religion or extraordinary fame for the gathering of Disciples and admitting Proselytes and the Disciples of Christ did so too even before Christ had instituted the Sacrament for the Christian Church the Disciples that came to Christ were baptized by his Apostles And now we are come to the gates of Baptism All these till Iohn were but types and preparatory Baptisms and Iohn's Baptism was but the prologue to the Baptism of Christ The Jewish Baptisms admitted Proselytes to Moses and to the Law of Ceremonies Iohn's Baptisme called them to believe in the Messias now appearing and to repent of their sins to enter into the Kingdom which was now at hand and preached that Repentance which should be for the remission of sins His Baptism remitted no sinnes but preached and consigned Repentance which in the belief of the Messias whom he pointed to should pardon sins But because he was taken from his office before the work was compleated the Disciples of Christ finished it They went forth preaching the same Sermon of Repentance and the approach of the Kingdom and baptized or made Proselytes or Disciples as Iohn did onely they as it is probable baptized in the Name of Iesus which it is not so likely Iohn did a And this very thing might be the cause of the different forms of b Baptism recorded in the Acts of baptizing In the Name of Iesus and at other times In the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost the former being the manner of doing it in pursuance of the design of Iohn's Baptism and the latter the form of institution by Christ for the whole Christian Church appointed after his resurrection the Disciples at first using promiscuously what was used by the same authority though with some difference of Mysterie The Holy Jesus having found his way ready prepared by the preaching of Iohn and by his Baptism and the Jewish manner of adopting Proselytes and Disciples into the Religion a way chalked out for him to initiate Disciples into his Religion took what was so prepared and changed it into a perpetual Sacrament He kept the Ceremony that they who were led onely by outward things might be the better called in and easier inticed into the Religion when they entred by a Ceremony which their Nation alwayes used in the like cases and therefore without change of the outward act he put into it a new spirit and gave it a new grace and a proper efficacy He sublim'd it to higher ends and adorned it with stars of Heaven He made it to signifie greater mysteries to convey greater blessings to consign the bigger Promises to cleanse deeper then the skin and to carry Proselytes further then the gates of the institution For so he was pleased to do in the other Sacrament he took the Ceremony which he found ready in the custome of the Jews where the Major domo after the Paschal Supper gave Bread and Wine to every person of his family he changed nothing of it without but transfer'd the Rite to greater mysteries and put his own Spirit to their Sign and it became a Sacrament Evangelical It was so also in the matter of Excommunication where the Jewish practise was made to passe into Christian discipline without violence and noise old things became new while

sometimes where Repentance is not and sometimes Repentance and Faith together and sometimes otherwise When Philip baptized the Eunuch he onely required of him to believe not to repent But S. Peter when he preached to the Jews and converted them onely required Repentance which although in their case implyed faith yet there was no explicit stipulation for it they had crucified the Lord of life and if they would come to God by Baptism they must renounce their sin that was all was then stood upon It is as the case is or as the persons have superinduced necessities upon themselves In children the case is evident as to the one part which is equally required I mean Repentance The not doing of which cannot prejudice them as to the susception of Baptism because they having done no evil are not bound to repent and to repent is as necessary to the susception of Baptism as Faith is but this shews that they are accidentally necessary that is not absolutely not to all not to Infants and if they may be excused from one duty which is indispensably necessary to Baptism why they may not from the other is a secret which will not be found out by these whom it concerns to believe it And therefore when our blessed Lord made a stipulation and expresse Commandement for faith with the greatest annexed penalty to them that had it not He that believeth not shall be damned the proposition is not to be verified or understood as relative to every period of time for then no man could be converted from infidelity to the Christian faith and from the power of the Devil to the Kingdome of Christ but his present infidelity shall be his final ruine It is not therfore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not a sentence but a use a praediction and intermination It is not like that saying God is true and every man a lyar Every good and every perfect gift is from above for these are true in every instant without reference to circumstances but He that believeth not shall be damned is a prediction or that which in Rhetorick is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or a use because this is the affirmation of that which usually or frequently comes to passe such as this He that strikes with the sword shall perish by the sword He that robs a Church shall be like a wheel of a vertiginous and unstable estate He that loves wine and oyle shall not be rich and therefore it is a declaration of that which is universally or commonly true but not so that in what instance soever a man is not a believer in that instant it is true to say he is damned for some are called the third some the sixth some the ninth hour and they that come in being first called at the eleventh hour shall have their reward so that this sentence stands true at the day and the Judgement of the Lord not at the judgement or day of man And in the same necessity as faith stands to salvation in the same it stands to Baptisme that is to be measured by the whole latitude of its extent Our Baptism shall no more doe all its intention unlesse faith supervene then a man is in possibility of being saved without faith it must come in its due time but is not indispensably necessary in all instants and periods Baptism is the seal of our Election and Adoption and as Election is brought to effect by faith and its consequents so is Baptism but to neither is faith necessary as to its beginning and first entrance To which also I adde this Consideration That actual faith is necessary not to the susception but to the consequent effects of Baptism appears Because the Church and particularly the Apostles did baptize some persons who had not faith but were hypocrites such as were Simon Magus Alexander the Coper-smith Demas and Diotrephes and such was Iudas when he was baptized and such were the Gnostick Teachers For the effect depends upon God who knows the heart but the outward susception depends upon them who doe not know it which is a certain argument That the same faith that is necessary to the effect of the Sacrament is not necessary to its susception and if it can be administred to hypocrites much more to Infants if to those who really hinder the effect much rather to them that hinder not And if it be objected That the Church does not know but the pretenders have faith but she knows Infants have not I reply That the Church does not know but the pretenders hinder the effect and are contrary to the grace of the Sacrament but she knows that Infants doe not The first possibly may receive the grace the other cannot hinder it But beside these things it is considerable That when it is required persons have faith it is true they that require Baptism should give a reason why they doe so it was in the case of the Eunuch baptized by Philip But this is not to be required of others that doe not ask it and yet they be of the Church and of the Faith for by Faith is also understood the Christian Religion and the Christian Faith is the Christian Religion and of this a man may be though he make no confession of his faith as a man may be of the Church and yet not be of the number of Gods secret ones and to this more is required then to that to the first it is sufficient that he be admitted by a Sacrament or a Ceromony which is infallibly certain because hypocrites and wicked people are in the visible Communion of the Church and are reckoned as members of it and yet to them there was nothing done but the Ceremony administred and therefore when that is done to Infants they also are to be reckoned in the Church Communion And indeed in the examples in Scripture we finde more inserted into the number of Gods family by outward Ceremony then by the inward grace of this number were all those who were circumcised the eighth day who were admitted thither as the womans daughter was cured in the Gospel by the faith of their mother their natural parents or their spiritual To whose faith it is as certain God will take heed as to their faith who brought one to Christ who could not come himself the poor Paralytick for when Christ saw their faith he cured their friend and yet it is to be observed That Christ did use to exact faith actual faith of them that came to him to be cured According to your faith be it unto you The case is equal in its whole kinde And it is considerable what Christ saith to the poor man that came in behalfe of his son All things are possible to him that believeth it is possible for a son to receive the blessing and benefit of his fathers faith and it was so in