Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	baptism_n	covenant_n	seal_n	5,819	5	9.5412	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60243	The Romish priest turn'd protestant with the reasons of his conversion, wherin the true Church is exposed to the view of Christians and derived out of the Holy Scriptures, sound reason, and the ancient fathers : humbly presented to both houses of Parliament / by James Salago.	Salgado, James, fl. 1680.	1679 (1679)	Wing S380; ESTC R28844	30,919	39

requires at the end of the greatest Controversies which are handled betwixt us and the Romanists yields to the truth and is more though an Italian a Protestant than a Papist So then we have by the grace of God shewn Justification as in relation to God to be a forensick pronunciation of the righteousness of a sinner and the passive one to be only by faith and a living faith which applys to her the merits of our Saviour As to Sanctification we will not speak any thing of it by reason the Papists do not dispute much against the Protestants in this matter only I utterly deny these works which we do to be meritorious which are conducing and necessary to our salvation necessitate medit as a means by which we should arrive to everlasting salvation Bernhard saith very handsomely of them Bernhard Opera bona sunt via ad regnum non causa regnandi Good Works are a way to Heaven but not the cause of it Neither doth the distinction of the Papists betwixt the works de congruo and de condigno mitigate their assertion For besides that the congruency of Gods reward for our works consists only in his own pleasure Fear not little flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Luk. 12.32 Likewise which I always admired they have found no other place out of the Scriptures or in them for the asserting the condignity or meritoriousness as it is considered in it self of good works besides this place which doth contradict them to their faces Non sunt condignae passiones hujus temporis gloriae in nobis revelandae This is the only place where the word condignae is to be found Ex ungue leonem It is enough to give a small portraiture of truth because Wisdom which hath many sons can be justified by them I will go further and shew how the Protestant Church teacheth well of the Sacraments that are seals of the righteousness of faith Rom. 4.11 and give a short view of the Papists Errors As touching Baptism both of the parties confesseth the same to be a Sacrament of Initiation by which we are implanted in fide parentum which I hold in the faith of our Parents into the Church which is the Body of Christ But falsly do the Papists affirm that first it doth work ex opere operate by its own vertue in order to our Regeneration and the taking away of the Original sin not only because a thing corporal and outward can have no influence into things spiritual as to their amendment but all proceeds from God only Omne bonum donum omnis perfecta Donatio descendit a patre luminum saith James But because a sign of the Covenant cannot contribute the things in it comprehended neither is it apparent by the effect by reason those that have been baptized are and have been subject to everlasting damnation and have fallen from that former Illumination of which speaketh the Apostle Heb. 6.4 And if this Sacrament should work ex opere operato Heb. 6.4 Rom. 4.9 10. Grace or Regeneration c. Surely Abraham could not have been as he was counted righteous by faith in uncircumcision Moreover in the times Primitive and especially as to them that were baptized being at age Faith was required before the seal of Righteousness was stamp'd upon their souls and consciences Now being that faith is a cause of other vertues and graces and hath adjoyned to it self that great work of Repentance it must needs follow that the Apostle requiring faith as to the aged did suppose in them other graces not thinking that the same should be conferred upon them by the Baptism but rather sealed and confirmed Yea because the Sacrament of Baptism is a seal of the Righteousness of faith and not a thing working out by its internal Power Faith and Regeneration This same reason hath moved Austin and other of the ancient Fathers to affirm that Children are baptized either in fide parentum in the faith of their parents if faithful Christians or else in fide Ecclesiae in the faith of the Church viz. if their parents be unknown or Infidels because they were perswaded that faith is required before baptism rather than conferred by it So that we think that in these Children which are elected there is an operation of the Holy Ghost from the beginning which although not sensibly yet efficaciously worketh upon their tender hearts and minds and if it doth not work in them subjectively some kind of faith or else an actual faith yet it objectively applieth the benefits of Christ which are otherwise received by an actual faith Now that no body should think we do charge falsly our Adversaries the Papists with this assertion I will shew the Courteous Reader the reason why they do assert thus and then evince the same out of another custom of theirs in this holy Sacrament As to the reason why it is this Because they say that Children dying without being baptized cannot be saved but are in a limbus infantum a kind of a hole prepared for Children where they suffer paenam damni sed non paenam sensus that is they are deprived only from the Vision of God but are not subject to any sensible torment If then their election which is unchangeable Act. 2.39 and the being under the Covenant of Grace which as well belongeth to them as their Parents cannot save them because of their not being baptized Surely baptism which maketh them able to demand Heaven must work these graces by its internal vertue by which they may arrive to the eternal happiness 2. They say none can be saved without the Church and none can be counted as a Member of it unless he be baptized So then if the baptism only maketh us Members of the Church without which we cannot be saved Baptism likewise must operate by its internal vertue those graces by which we are saved As to the custom in some particulars it is this They think the holy Baptism to be so absolutely necessary to salvation that they in case of necessity do approve the baptism of Women if they only observe the form of the baptism Which evinces that they think baptism to work as we said formerly ex opere operato Having shewed the truth of our charge laid unto them I will shew with one argument the falsness of them both As to the first That not all Children that die without baptism are to be deprived of the beatifical Vision 2 Sam. 12.18 23. is as sure as that David who was saved was to go after his death to his child which was dead without circumcision instead of which baptism succeeded as we may infer out of Col. Col. 2.11 12. Act. 2.39 2.11 12. It is as fure as that the promise of everlasting salvation belongeth to the Children which argument is to be pressed as well against Anabaptists denying the seal to the Children unto whom belongeth

the promise for which belonging of the promise Peter was willing to confer Baptism upon some Converts as we may see out of the fore-mentioned place Act. 2.38 39. Act. 2.38 39. as against the Papists denying to the Children albeit they be under the promise and the Covenant of Grace dying without being baptized the life everlasting by reason he that is in the Covenant of Grace or under the promises is in Christ he that is in Christ Eph. 2.12 Act. 4. must necessarily be saved Therefore he that is under the promise of life or in the Covenant of Grace as Children are must necessarily be saved But they have an argument against us Obj. Verily I say unto you except a man he born of water Joh. 3.6 and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Out of which words they conclude that baptism is of that efficacy that none can be saved without it But I answer Resp It is a vain exception because by this water and spirit is nothing else to be understood but the Holy Ghost himself who is of the same nature as water is as to the ablution of our sins Another like expression is to be found in the Gospel of Matthew Mat. 3.11 He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire that is the Holy Ghost who is of a fiery nature in cleansing as Gold seven times refined in the fire Therefore such expressions are metaphorical or figurative and improper and are call'd Hendiadis a like expression there is in Virgil Poculis libamus auro Virgil. We drink out of Cups of Gold Aeneid 1. Arma virumque cano id est armatum virum Joh. 3.3 that is out of golden Cups so that to be born of water and spirit is nothing else but to be born out of a watery or out of a fiery spirit Hence what Christ saith here by way of Hendiadis he expresseth the same in its own proper words a little higher Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. So that hence we may inter by the authority and explaining of our Saviour himself in this place to be understood only the spiritual Regeneration and not the external Ablution of the water As to the second we do utterly deny the Baptism performed by Women to be lawful and irrevocable They have nothing else to alledg only the example of Zipporah Obj. that circumcised her Son Exod. 4.25 26. and so they think a Woman may as lawfully baptize as circumcise I will not answer according to the usual answer of some Divines Ans that Zipporah sinned in doing so because I believe the Almighty God doth never bless men for sin as he did Moses for that doing of Zippora But I answer thus that in the Old Testament circumcision was indifferently performed by any byreason it was not so strictly joyned with the office of Preaching as Baptism is in the New Testament made so by Christ himself Go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. Mat 28.19 So that now it is unlawful for any one to administer the holy Baptism besides him who is ordained for Preaching Now we are minded to speak of the second Sacrament for we will not regard their assertion of the rest of their five Sacraments which have no ground neither in Scriptures nor in the ancient Fathers which is the Lords-Supper This according to the true Doctrine is nothing else but only a visible sign of an invisible grace by which visible sign that is Bread and Wine 1 Cor. 10.16 17. we receive the body and blood of our Saviour as a seal of the Covenant of Grace tending unto our salvation We do not deny the body and blood of Christ to be really present in this holy Sacrament But we deny the same 1. To be there corporally because the body of our Saviour being circumscriptive and in heavens is not everywhere And then 2. We deny this Supper of our Lord to be a sacrifice for the living and the dead Which is my greatest point in this case and I accordingly will endeavour to declare it As to the first the Papists do urge very much their Transubstantiation It is a question and a Controversie very well known but I hope to add some light to it I go on By this Transubstantiation they understand nothing else but the corporal presence of the body and blood of our Saviour under the accidents of Bread and Wine So that they think the substance of those Elements to be turned into the first nothing out of which they were formerly created and the accidents only to remain which acts in the senses of our sight feeling and taste This is the description or 〈◊〉 Transubstantiation upon which we say the same to be quite false and erroneous 1. The name of it nor the matter in it contained is not to be found in Scriptures 1 Cor. 10.17 by reason after the consecration it is still called bread of which we are partakers where not only we are said to be partakers of bread which could not be if it was annihilated but likewise no Papist will admit this Sacrament to be call'd bread after Consecration which nevertheless the Scripture doth 2. The name of it is newly come up nor was it ever heard before the Council of Lateran when Berengarius was forced to recant the truth and fall into a most abominable error as to say that Christs body was eaten and bitten with teeth c. Atteri dentibus in alvum demitti 3. It is a most improper name to a thing yea it is as much to be called Transubstantiation as creation could be called annihilating because Transubstantiation is nothing else but a mutation of one substance into another as in Cana of Galilee Wine was turned into water but here the Papists say that one substance doth not become another but that the one which is the bread and wine is annihilated and the other which is the body and blood of Christ is induced under the accidents or species of bread and wine although here likewise they have a thousand distinctions about the introduction or adduction of the body of Christ underneath the accidents which I will pass over so that by this way it must be call'd annihilation of one and introduction of another substance rather than Transubstantiation but because the thing is false the name must be of that same nature Conveniunt rebus nomina saepe suis 4. There can be no Transubstantiation where the thing that is given in the distribution of the Sacrament is call'd by the ancients a sign a figure because none can be a sign or a figure of himself as Christ should be if he should be given as present corporally or bodily under the accidents Austin Now Austin saith Non dubitavit Dominus dicere hoc est corpus meum ●um daret figuram corporis sui The Lord was pleased to say This is my body