Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n
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B02147
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Christendom; or, The nature of Christ's kingdom opened, and the chiefest difficulties in divinity cleared in order to ending the controversies among Christian philosophers, scool-men [sic], and divines of all parties.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing C3933; ESTC R171319
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44,677
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48
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not then the Infant will outlive the State of Infancy and will live and die ungodly and perish in which Case his Baptism will be an everlasting Witness against him it being supposed that his Conscience was privy to it Baptism is a Seal of the Covenant of Grace which Covenant importeth God's Purpose to give Perseverance and Salvation to all the Regenerate and to Regenerate such and so many as he from Eternity foresees will by his Grace and Free-gift sincerely believe And yet while Unregenerate they are in a State of Damnation As to Life Temporal and Humane Society on Earth ungodly Men have Power over their own Will and Liberty to act or not to act as themselves list and they can if they will refrain from all Sin outwardly and do all Good outwardly and be blameless before Men. But as to Life Eternal and Heavenly Conversation they have no Power they are dead in Sin under the Power of Satan their Power is Impotency Sin hath Dominion over them they are not Lords but Slaves and lorded over by their Lusts and if God shall not prevent them with his Heavenly Grace it is certain that they will never deserve it Therefore the first step to Salvation is holy Despair thereof by all that we of our selves can do without God's eternal Grace in Christ And look what is First in Divinity that same is Last even All in All. CHAP. XIII Of the Lord's Supper 1. LOok as all in God is God without Parts and Composition So all in the Lord's Supper is the Lord's Supper Considered as a Supper so the whole is visible Food for the Belly eaten and drunk with the Mouth outwardly Considered as the Lord's Supper so the whole is invisible Food for the Soul eaten and drunk with the Heart inwardly There may be the Lord's Supper without saving Belief but not without Belief For he that believeth not makes God a Liar and by Consequence the Sacrament a Lie also 1 Joh. 5.10 2. There is no Change at all of the Elements by Consecration but only Religious Use If the Religious Use of Things do necessarily infer a Change in the Things used then God must needs be changed and then he is not God. We use God's Name religiously and God's Name is God Himself as named by this or that Name Jehovah Lord God. I am the Lord that is my Name Isa 42.8 What Change is by Consecration is in the Communicants not at all in the Elements Consecration importeth in all Godly Communicants a real Heavenly Change as to Conversation Conversion from Sin to God they are new Creatures 2 Cor. 5.17 This heavenly Change they evidence exercise and shew forth at the Lord's Table in religious partaking of the Elements in Remembrance of Christ crucified All Change in the Elements by Consecration is simply repugnant to intellectual Sense in all Men and is therefore simply incredible 3. These Words This is my Body as understood without Christian Faith are false and absurd But as understood through Christian Faith they are indeed mysterious yet Superlatively plain true apt and proper The Lord's Supper is truly a Figure as is Baptism 1 Pet. 3.21 yet not a Verbal and Rhetorical Figure common to Us and Heathens but a Divine Celestial and Mysterious Figure instituted by Christ and not understood without Christian Belief which Heathens have not In Points that concern us as Men in common with all the World Christ spake with the Vulgar and so as to be understood of very Heathens But in Points mysterious and Supernatural as is the Doctrine of the Lord's Supper he spake above the Vulgar and so as not to be understood aright without Faith which Heathens have not Ungodly Communicants considered as Ungodly do not eat Christ's Body but inwardly contemn and shut their Hearts against it And thus their partaking doth differ in kind from the inward partaking of the Godly But Ungodly Communicants considered as Communicants do with their Mouth outwardly eat the Bread which is really and not chimerically yet sacramentally and symbolically the Body of Christ no less than do Godly Communicants outwardly And thus their partaking is the same for kind with the partaking of the Godly 1 Cor. 10.1 2 3 4 5. 4. Unto worthy Communicants the Lord's Supper is the Communion of the Lord's Body and Blood the holy Memorial of his Death heavenly Nourishment for the Soul a sure Pledge Seal Sign and Token of Pardon of Sin Perseverance and Life eternal and a Divine Engagement to Watchfulness and holy Fear of Apostacy No Godly Man doth partake unworthily he may partake not so worthily as some do but the least degree of true Godliness doth produce a degree of worthy communicating differing but in measure and degree from the most Godly Communicants Unto unworthy Communicants the Lord's Supper through their own Sin is a Seal of their Damnation if they die without sound Repentance And in the mean time it layeth a Divine Bond and Engagement upon them instantly to repent If their Repentance by God's eternal Decree be future then the Lord's Supper is a Divine Sign and Seal that it is future If their Repentance be not future then they will die in their Sins and perish and will remember with eternal Self-tormenting Anguish in Hell their partaking without Godly Sincerity Those who contend that Men Unregenerate sin less in not coming than in coming to the Lord's Table do yet expresly grant But yet they that do come unworthily and unwarrantably do find that there which tendeth to their Conversion and frequently effecteth it Mr. B. in his Disputations of Right to Sacraments pag. 31 32. And they who contend that the Unregenerate sin less in coming than in not coming do yet hold and contend that the Persons so come must be adult baptized orthodox and not heretical free from enormous Crimes and Scandals before Men. The bare Elements as distinct from the Word can neither convert nor confirm But the Word as distinct from the Elements and giving being to the whole Sacramental Service may through God's Grace prove effectual for sound Conversion of the Unconverted and certainly will be effectual for building up of the Converted 5. The Flesh and Manhood of Christ is under God the prime instrumental Cause of Life eternal to the Godly in all Ages through Faith As such his Flesh is heavenly Meat and his Blood is heavenly Drink and we through Faith do really and not chimerically spiritually and not corporally eat and drink it What is eaten in that it is eaten must be really present For no Man can eat a thing that is absent There is Relation between the Manhood of Christ and the whole intellectual World as between sole Supream under God and Subjects This Relation is real and not imaginary eternal and not temporal From Eternity it was future and it remains to Eternity by the free Pleasure of God. What is eternal is truly infinite above all Predicaments and consequently above Time and Place
Love we are to become all Things to all Men and bear all Things rather than rend and divide the Church by nefarious and lewd Schism Ungodly Christians considered as Ungodly are not Christians and Members of the Church But Ungodly Christians considered not as Ungodly but as Christians are a sort of Christians and Church-Members and are not meer Heathens and Persons without They are of the Church and yet they are not the Church Rom. 9.6 5. Loyalty is a Fundamental in Religion as without which human Society cannot subsist and no human Society no Religion Human Society cannot subsist without some to Rule and some to be Ruled If the Ruled may resist and rise in Rebellion against their lawful Rulers set over them by God Mankind is no longer a Society but a Rout and a Foundation is laid for endless War Desolation and Confusion of all Things The Nature of a Fundamental in Religion is to expel its Contrary as Light doth Darkness As then no Man can in the same Instant be both Godly and Ungodly So can no Man in the same Instant be both Loyal and Disloyal Loyalty is not Loyalty unless it be so out of Conscience either Natural and Common such as may be in Heathens and Men not Regenerate or Supernatural and Special such as is in the Regenerate He that is only Loyal out of Self-ends and for Worldly Interest is not Loyal before God. Human Law considered as Human cannot bind the Conscience But considered as subservient to the Divine Law so it is in a large Sense Divine and as Divine it binds the Conscience For all that lies in us we are to live peaceably with all Men. Yet where the Thing enacted and enjoyned is not intrinsecally necessary to the publick Good there a Man hath his choice whether to do the thing or to pay the Penalty In no case may we resist Authority Supream and Subordinate In no case may we obey Man against God. Therefore when no way is left but either we must Suffer or Sin we must patiently and meekly Suffer and lay down our Lives rather than resist or allow the least Sin. CHAP. XII Of Original Sin the state of Infants and their Baptism 1. AS to Life Temporal there are in the Soul Habits distinct from Act and by frequent Acts Men get a Habit. But as to Eternity there is no such Distinction For the Soul as being a spiritual and immortal Substance is the Image of God and is therefore ever in act invisibly From the time that it is first formed in the Womb it ceaseth not to live a Life differing in kind from Brutes and while in the Body is still upon its way to Eternity and either it is Godly and so in the way to Heaven and invisibly active for God or it is Ungodly and so in the way to Hell and invisibly active against him 2. If God shall give unto Adam after his Fall Children by natural Generation and shall not also give them inward heavenly Grace and supernatural Regeneration it is most certain that inwardly and invisibly they will be Graceless and Unregenerate As Graceless and Unregenerate they are Unholy dead in Sin and full of enmity against God and so dying it is above me to prove that they have not in them the never-dying Worm This Original Sin in Infants is neither from God nor from Adam nor from their immediate Parents but it is wholly from themselves inwardly and unsearchably neither by natural necessity nor after the similitude of Adam's Transgression Rom. 5.14 but by legal Necessity Which is a sort of Necessity innocently and unsearchably permitted by God but not willed by him and is not avoidable by either Parents or Children without supernatural Grace in Christ Jesus Even as ungodly grown Men in their Sleep while their Sleep lasteth are unavoidably and inexcusably ungodly 3. The adequate ground of Hope concerning the whole Off-spring of Adam is Divine Election in Christ Jesus If we bottom it not entirely upon this we must needs bottom it upon Reprobation there being no middle or third imaginable Elect and Reprobate as Godly and Ungodly divide all the World. And to bottom Hope of Salvation upon Reprobation is to destroy Hope All the Infants of Godly Parents both or one dying in meer Infancy we may well think are elect and saved as a Part of that holy Catholick Church which consists of the Elect in all Ages And of this Baptism to me seems to be a sacred Sign and Seal 1 Pet. 3.21 Ungodly Christians as hath been said considered not as Ungodly but as Christians are a sort of Christians and not meer Heathens The Infants of such being brought unto us by the Parents or some other Christian in their stead themselves being reasonably letted with desire to have them baptised I conceive it is our Duty as we are Christ's Ministers in Obedience to his Command Mat. 28.19 20. Well suiting with the Grounds of Faith the approved Practice of the Church before Christ's Incarnation the Words and Example of Christ touching Infants Mark. 10.13 14 15 16. and the Practice of the Apostles in baptizing Housholds to baptize there Infants And if they shall be taken away in meer Infancy by Death we may well think that they also are Elect and Saved and that of such also is the Kingdom of God. Though the Parents have not Godly Sincerity yet a sort of Sincerty they have and they do really and not dissemblingly desire Baptism for their Infants and are truly glad of it Either some Infants are eternally elect and endued with the Holy Ghost savingly or not If yea can any Man forbid Water that these should not be baptized which are eternally elect and endued with the Holy Ghost savingly as well as grown Men Act. 10.47 48. If not then all Infants are eternally reprobate and damned the Infant Jesus not excepted Isa 42.1 Luk. 1.35 4. The Contempt of Baptism is damnable in the Contemners but Infants cannot contemn it Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 1.17 The Gospel that is Life eternal through Faith in Christ is simply necessary for all Persons in all Places at all Times from the Fall of Adam to the End of the World But so is not Baptism If the Person die inwardly holy and regenerate as he may though not baptized he is undoubtedly saved 5. If the baptized Infant be not inwardly holy and regenerate as all are not then I conceive it is not in a State of Salvation it is not set free from Guilt eternal yet is its Baptism as ordained of God and dispensed by his Minister neither Nullity nor Mockery but a Divine Bond Oath and Covenant laid upon the Infant to be what all the Off-spring of Adam by God's Law indispensably are bound to be truly holy and God's faithful Servant Either its Regeneration is future or it is not If yea then Baptism is a sure Pledg Seal and Token that it is future If