Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	child_n	covenant_n	seal_n	2,756	5	9.5397	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57955	A vindication of the baptized churches from the calumnies of Mr. Michael Harrison, of Potters Pury in Northampton-shire. Being an answer to his two books, intituled, Infant baptism God's ordinance. By William Russel, M.D. A lover of primitive Christianity.	Russel, William, d. 1702.	1697 (1697)	Wing R2360A; ESTC R218555	79,105	138

be a true Visible Church who do not thus admit Members by Regeneration but by Generation only and we have great reason so to do because they have only Humane Invention for their Foundation and not the Authority of God's Word as I have already shewed in this Treatise to which I refer you 2. He tells his People that we are you see no Churches no Ministers no Christians c. whereas there is nothing of Ministers intended in this Article as all may see that read it but that of Ministers under the Name of Elders or Pastors is contained in the 15th Article But he that writes in haste may repent at leisure 3. He saith We do by that make them no Christians I must confess I know not what his People are but I hope they are men of greater Charity and Moderation than their Priest or else I am sure they are not well qualified Christians But how can he think so from that Article when the design thereof is to shew who are orderly Members of a true visible Church and do therein declare that every one before they are admitted to baptism are to be true penitent Believers and he knows 't is our avowed principle not to admit any other but such only that in the judgment of Charity are so What sorts of Persons he accounts Christians I know not but I do account such to be so that are true penitent Believers and I hope there are many such in the World altho' they do not agree with us about some of the external modes of Worship but this seems to be done on purpose to exasperate the Spirits of his People against us but I hope they will not be so unwise as to mind what such a Clamorous Pen saith against us without better evidence Having cleared our selves from this Abuse I think it highly reasonable to know who it is he owns for Churches and Ministers for those that are rightly constituted according to the Primitive Pattern he is against so that it must be some others Now in Part 1. page 6. Mr. H. saith Whoever will be a Member of the Christian Church must be baptized 2. He tells us That Persons being knit to Christ by a vital union as they are living branches in him and the Elect of God is not a ground for Baptism and yet he confesses that thus only the Elect are in Covenant 3. When he comes to give us an account who are in the visible Covenant which in his Language is visible Church-members he saith page 7. Thus all who profess Christ Tares and Wheat Wise Virgins and Foolish this is the ground of Baptism He is much mistaken about the Parable of the Tares in Mat. 13. to apply it to Visible Church-members for our Lord doth not say the Field is the Church but the field is the World The good Seed are the Children of the Kingdom i. e. the Church and the Tares are the Children of the Wicked One i. e. the Devil the Harvest is the end of this World and the Reapers are the Angels c. Now had I been to plead against some of the cursed persecuting Tyrants of the World or against those bloody persecuting Principles and Practices of your Old Friend John Calvin I would have used this Text for an Argument against them as genuine and proper but it hath no relation to the visible Church for the Tares are the Rabble of the wicked out of the visible Church and such who shall be damned ●ternally for the Angels shall cast them into a Furnace of fire c. But however it seems they will serve Mr. H. to make Church-members of for he saith in the words following They are to be accounted Believers in Covenant and their Children to be baptized and that all Infants of such believing Parents are in the Covenant of Grace and yet in the same page he saith We do not baptize persons as the Elect of God or Infants as the Infants of the Elect for we do not know who belong to the Election of Grace But self-contradictions are common with him I shall make some few Remarks upon it and so proceed to what I intend 1. That if all the unconverted Hypocrites among all that profess the Christian Name be but baptized they are Believers in the Covenant of Grace then by his own Principle they must all be saved for they can never fall totally and finally 2. That if all the Infants of such are in the Covenant of Grace then they also must needs be saved by his Doctrine It 's an easie way to bring Persons into the Covenant of Grace if sprinkling a little cold Water on their Faces will do it 3. That notwithstanding all this it seems he doth not know that any one either of his Church-members or their Infants are in the Covenant of Grace neither doth he baptize them as such for he plainly confesses he doth not know who belongs to the Election of Grace Then it 's as plain that he is not sure that any of his Members or their Infants shall be saved and then they are at charge to maintan him to very little purpose Nay further he doth not know by this confused way of arguing that any of those Churches Ministers or Christians that belong to those visible Churches he talks of are in any more hopes of Salvation than those Heathens he speaks of in another place whom he with Calvin of old condemns to the pit of Hell for no other imaginable Reason than the Decree of God built only upon this Supposition because God will have it so But God will not entrust these rasn Men to be Judges of the World For he hath committed all Judgment to the Son otherwise the poor Anabaptists would be under bad Circumstances I now proceed to prosecute my Design to discover who it is that he intends by Ministers By Ministers he must needs intend those that were before described to be Members viz. Either his carnal Professors or Infants born of them Infants he cannot mean because they are not capable If you would therefore be satisfied he hath told you it is all the Ministers that profess Christ besides those of our way For there lyes the Antithesis For he saith we disown them all so to be but our selves and he owns them or else he hath no reason to be angry with us I hope we are not to understand that he is displeased with us for disowning them whom he disowns To be short The Membership and Ministry of the Presbyterians Episcopal and Romish Church are all built upon the same foundation which will appear if you ask but a few Questions 1 Que. Whether the Presbyterians do not own the Church of England to be a true Church Their Answer must be Yes because we received our Baptism from them and never repeated it and therefore they must be a true Church or else our Baptism is no true Baptism 2 Que. Whether the Presbyterians do not own the Bishops and their

it for he hath written two Books already and not one Argument in either of them that concludes the thing in Question And to tell you my Thoughts upon it I am of Opinion if he should write a hundred Books it will be still the same for he hath run over nine Arguments twice to no purpose For there is nothing of the Point in question inferr'd in any of them And I know the Reason It is not simply for want of Parts and Learning but for want of Matter for that which is not cannot be proved to be but Infant-baptism is not an Ordinance of God and therefore it cannot be proved so to be And whereas he doth allow he cannot shew us a Command for it by abusing us for but demanding it of him I am sure his Attempt to prove that to be an Ordinance of God by Consequence only when he hath granted there is no express Command is too great a Task for him ever to perform And if he would take my Advice I would not have him so much as attempt it any more because it 's im●ossible to be done But why doth Mr. H. tell us Baptism is a Seal of the New Covenant If it be his Arguments are all out of doors for a Seal is not to be set to a Blank as it must be if applied to Infants Besides he is mistaken in the whole of his Position for Circumcision is only said to be a seal of the Righteousness of Faith to Abraham and not to the rest of his Posterity Rom. 4.9 Faith is reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness And in the 10th Verse he tells us it was before he was circumcised But in Ver. 11. he received the sign of Circumcision a seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had yet being uncircumcised that he might be the Father of all them that believe tho' they be not circumcised that Righteousness might be imputed unto them also This is the only Text that I find the Word is used in as applied to Circumcision and here it is restrained to Abraham only and not applied to any other Person whatsoever I do think therefore it was an unwary Expression of Mr. H. to make Circumcision a Seal of the Covenant of Grace under the Law to all circumcised Infants when it 's applied by Paul to Abraham only and not to any one of his Posterity Nor could it be because it was to him as a Seal of that Promise that he should be the Father of all Believers which could not be true of Individuals nor of any other but himself it being commanded to them for other Ends. As for his calling Baptism a Seal of the New Covenant I must say the same of it as of the other For 1. It is no where called so in all the Holy Scripture and therefore no metaphorical Use to be made of it 2. The Holy Scriptures do tell us 〈◊〉 other thing that is the Seal of the New and everlasting Covenant wherewith Believers are sealed under the Gospel and that is the Holy Spirit 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts Ephes 1.13 After ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of Promise Ephes 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption The Learned Dr. Cox upon these words Rom. 4.11 saith It is Genitivus Speciei as when we read the City of Jerusalem for the City Jerusalem and the like For we read not saith he that any other Ordinance No not Baptism is so called in Scripture but in the New Testament the sealing of Believers is attributed to the Holy Ghost For it is not possible to conceive that Circumcision should be a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith c. to one that never had Faith And it is equally absurd to say that Circumcision was a Seal unto all its Subjects of the Righteousness of Faith which they had while uncircumcised as to affirm that it was the Seal of a paternal relation to all Believers unto every one that received it And I hope this Gentleman will allow me to say that it 's more absurd now under the Gospel wherein all the Children of the Covenant are to be taught of God and all of them to know God that any should affirm that Baptism is a Seal to Infants who have no Faith at all neither in Habit nor in Act espeeially seeing it 's no where called so in the Holy Scriptures If men ●●●ough the Lightness and Vanity of their Minds must needs play with metaphorical Expressions in Scripture yet I know not how they should have a liberty to impose words upon us as Mr. H. doth which are not at any time nor in any place so much as mentioned This is our Case Mr. H. will have Baptism called the Seal of the Covenant we will not allow it him because it 's no where so called in Scripture But suppose we should it would ruine his beloved Cause for then it could be administred to none but such who are true Believers But before Mr. H. goes any further he proposes this Question Who we are to understand by the Children in the Text viz. Acts. 2 39. His Answer is No doubt but they are the very same which in Gen. 17 are called Seed The Reason he gives for it is from the Etymology of the Greek word there used The Word saith he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used for little sucking Babes Matt. 21.18 and 1 Cor. 7.14 How he came to give us this sence of the Word so contrary to the Scope of the place I know not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the singular is rendred thus by a late famous Grecian A Child an Off-spring and in the plural a numerous Off-spring In the 2d Epistle of John Ver. 1. he uses the same Words as in Acts 2.39 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The elder unto the elect Lady and her Children Here it 's rendred Children as it is in Acts. 2.39 but not little sucking Babes For you have their Character given in Ver. 4. I rejoyced greatly that I found of thy Children walking in truth as we have received a commandment from the Father And he writes to her and them in the plural to look-to themselves and to 〈◊〉 false Teachers c. And in the last Verse 〈◊〉 saith The Children of thy Elect Sister greet thee Now these things can no ways agree with Mr. H's little sucking Babes And he hath every whit as much Reason to give this sence of the word here as in Acts 2.39 it being the same Word But let us examine his other two Texts In Matt. 21.18 Now in the morning as he returnned into the City he hungred This I am sure hath neither the word nor thing he intends But I suppose he intended the 15th Verse And when the chief Priests and

he had known how and then it should have run thus All such as are by Nature Children of Wrath are liable to the Condemnation of Hell All Infants are by Nature Children of Wrath Ergo All Infants are liable to the Condemnation of Hell which is the thing I suppose he meant And then I deny his minor Proposition and let him prove it if he can As for his Text he brings for probation thereof I deny that Infants are either expressed or intended therein For the design of the Apostle in that place is to set before them what a miserable condition they had been in before Conversion by their own personal transgressions viz. Dead in trespasses and sins who in times past walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the Air the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience Among whom also we all had our Conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfiling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature i. e. by the corrupt and fleshly Inclinations that were within us Children of wrath even as others Meaning thereby other Gentiles who were still in an unregenerate Estate wallowing in their Iniquities So that as Infants are not here exprest neither can they be intended as being free from all personal transgressions and not capable to transact those Evils there spoken of I shall now offer some Reasons why I do not believe that any Infants dying in their Infancy shall be tormented for ever in Hell-fire 1. Because there is no such thing exprest either in the Threatning or Sentence Gen. 2.17 Gen. 3.17 18 19. as I have already shewed 2. Because God himself hath disclaimed such an Opinion as Erroneous and declared the contrary Ezek. 18.2 3 4 20. 1. Hear what the first Founder of your Sect from whence you have your denomination viz. John Calvin saith upon this Subject speaking of all others besides the Elect so many Nations of Men together with their Infants were involved without remedy in eternal punishment by the fall of Adam for no imaginable reason but that so it seemed good in the sight of God Calvin's Instit l. 3. cap. 23. Sect. 7. 2. Hear what God saith in the fore-mentioned place The soul that sinneth shall dye the Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father this must intend eternal punishment for as to temporal punishment Children do often suffer for their Fathers faults and we all suffer for the fault of Adam both temporal Miseries and Death it self But whereas these People of Israel had such a blind Notion as that of Mr. H. That the Fathers had eaten sowre grapes and the Childrens Teeth were set on edge God tells them As I live saith the Lord God ye shall not have occasion any more to use this Proverb in Israel for the Son shall not bear the Fathers iniquity the soul that sinneth it shall dye 3. Because the Lord who best knew hath declared that Infants belong to the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19.14 4. I will add to these the Opinion of the Learned Poole that he would rather believe that all Infants dying in their Infancy were elected than conclude that any of them were damned and his reason was because as no man knew the contrary so they ought not to affirm what they did not know But I suppose Mr. Poole must be a blasphemous Heretick in Mr. H's Opinion as well as the poor Anabaptists But it 's our mercy he is not to be our Judge in the Great Day The 2d Heresie or Error this man of might charges us with is 2. That Christ dyed alike for all men and that all Persons in the World c. This doth necessarily divide it self into two General Parts 1. That Christ dyed alike for all men 2. That all Persons in the World are by the Death of Christ put into a Capacity of Salvation I shall answer to both of them distinctly 1. That Christ dyed for all men I do with the Pen-men of the Holy Scripture affirm and that it 's a great and fundamental Truth this appears from these following positive assertions 1 Tim. 2.6 He gave himself a ransom for all 2 Cor. 5.14 15. He dyed for all Heb. 2.9 He tasted death for every man 1 Tim. 4.10 Who is the Saviour of all men 1 John 2.2 He is a propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world So that to deny this is to deny the very express words of Scripture And therefore Mr. Harrison being aware of this hath owned it to be true in some sence but not content with this he puts in the word alike thinking to puzzle us with that and lays down some Arguments to prove he did not dye for all alike and thinks we are obliged to prove it I answer It 's an Unscriptural term a man of Straw of his own setting up for in all our Confessions of Faith that I remember to have been published there is not the word alike to be found in any of them As for that last he refers to printed 1691. the words are these Article 3. That Christ freely gave himself a ransom for all tasting death for every man a propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole World So that the word alike is not by them inserted And it being a term of Art of his own Coyning I return it to the mint from whence it came The Question therefore betwixt us is this not whether Christ dyed for all men for that he owns but whether all persons in the World are by the death of Christ put into a capacity of Salvation This he denyes and we affirm Article 4. Of the aforesaid Confession of the Baptists they have these express words No man shall eternally suffer in Hell that is the second death for want of Christ that dyed for them but as the Scripture saith for denying the Lord that bought them 2 Pet. 2.1 or because they believe not in the Name of the only begotten Son of God John 3.18 Unbelief therefore being the cause why the just and righteous God will condemn the Children of Men it follows against all contradiction that all men at one time or other are put into such a capacity as that through the Grace of God they may be eternally saved 1. The Scriptures of Truth do affirm this in as plain words as a matter of this kind can well be exprest John 3.14 15 16 17. here is set down the design of God in the Gift of Christ for the World 1. Negatively that they should not perish that God sent not his Son to condemn the World 2. Affirmatively That whosoever believeth in him should have eternal life and everlasting life and that the World through him might be saved And in 1 Tim. 2.4 speaking of God our Saviour he saith who will have all men to be

on purpose to damn them as the Calvinists say And this leads me to the Second Reason for he triumphs over us in this saying Thus this rotten Pillar of universal Grace is overthrown His 2d is this He denyes that God hath afforded every person in the Visible Church sufficient Grace for their Conversion To make it out he insists upon three things necessary in order to Conversion 1. That a Person sit under the Ministry of the Word faithfully preached Multitudes saith he in the visible Church do not enjoy a faithful Ministry some none at all others only such as are sent in Judgment that dawb with untempered Mortar c. Answ What visible Church must this be that he speaks of What a Church and have no Preacher and others Churches that have Preachers sent to them in Judgment only This cannot be the Church of Christ but the Synagogue of Satan For Christ hath promised to be with his Church by his Spirit alway even to the end of the World But will he charge all this upon God I know that when some Persons have sinned away all their Mercies and the Grace offer'd them then he doth sometimes give them up to strong Delusions to believe Lyes as is the case of the Papists and others but he charges the fault upon themselves because they did not receive the love of the Truth that they might be saved but took pleasure in Unrighteousness It would therefore be horrid wickedness for any that professes Christianity to charge God with being the cause of this when he hath declared their Destruction is of themselves 2. He saith They cannot be converted except their Consciences be awakened and stirr'd under the Ministry of the Word c. Persons may sit under the best Ministry and yet never be thus convinced Now that we may know where he hath a Mind to lay the blame he insinuates it in saying this Conviction is only from the Holy Spirit who bloweth where he listeth Answ A●●ho ' I acknowledge that no Man is converted without the Operation of the Holy Spirit yet I am far from thinking that the reason why they are not converted is because the Holy Spirit doth not operate with the Word but it is because they resist the motions and striveings thereof God's Spirit did strive with the Old World but they resisted it and perished by the Flood And as Stephen saith Acts 7. 51. Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your Fathers did so do ye Now Stephen was better skilled in these matters than Mr. H. for he justifies God and charges it upon them as being a stiff-necked and obstinate People uncircumcised in Heart and Ears But 3ly saith he There must be a divine powerful drawing of the Soul to Christ by the Spirit which he calls an irresistible power which he also saith is not afforded to all that sit under the Gospel-Ministry and they cannot come to Christ without it Answ That the Divine Power is in it self irresistable I grant but that is not here the Question But whether that power be exerted in an irresistable way which was the thing he should have proved if he had spoken ad rem but that he seldom does And I have already proved that the Spirit in its Operations upon the Souls of Men hath often been resisted However the Man crys ●ictory and saith This Anabaptistical Doctrine of Universal Grace is but a lying Invention of their own c. which I will put up among the rest of his Railery for it deserves no better Treatment As for what he says that Free-will is the consequence of our Opinion I may truly ●●y by a figure in Rhetorick that he is a profound man for drawing of Consequences But to the point in Hand The Words in the 4th Article of our Confession which he refers to are these Unbelief therefore being the cause why the just and righteous God will condemn the Children of Men it follows against all contradiction that all Men at one time or other are put into such a capacity as that through the Grace of God they may be eternally saved John 1.7 Acts 17.30 Mark 6.6 Heb. 3. 10 18 19. 1 John 5.10 John 3.17 Now there is not one word of Free-will in those words as quoted by himself nor yet in the whole Articles in that Confession so that he quarrels with his own shaddow and not with us for we say through the Grace of God But suppose we had let fall such Words as his Friend Mr. Baxter hath used about Free-will in his Call to the Vnconverted Oh! what a noise would he have made about our Ears His Words are these 1. In his Presace And for the point of Free-will which you harp so long upon Divines are not so much disagreed about it as you imagine Augustine as well as Pelagius Calvin as well as Arminius the Dominicans as well as the Jesuites all do generally maintain that Man hath Free-will No man of Brains denyeth that a Man hath a Will that is naturally free it 's free ●●●m Violence and it 's a Self-determining principle In page 31. We are commanded to tell you what thoughts of Kindness God hath towards you and how happy how certainly and unspeakably happy you may be if you will page 32. I do here in the Name of the Lord of Life proclaim to you all that hear me this day to the worst of you to the greatest to the oldest Sinner that you may have Mercy and Salvation if you will but turn there is Mercy in God there is sufficiency in the Satisfaction of Christ the promise is free and full and universal you may have Life if you will but turn page 90. If nothing will serve turn but Men will yet refuse to turn we are next to consider who it 's long of if they be damned And this brings me to the last Doctrine which is That if after all this Men will not turn it is not long of God that they are condemned but of themselves even of their own Wilfulness They dye because they will dye that is because they will not turn if you will go to Hell what Remedy God here acquits himself of your Blood it shall not lye on him if you be lost pag. 102. But you seem to intimate all this while that Man hath Free-will his Answer is The Dispute about Free-will is beyond your Capacity I shall therefore now trouble you with no more than this about it your Will is naturally a free that is a self-determining Faculty but it is vitiously inclined and backward to do good but that is the wickedness of it which deserveth the punishment your disability is your very unwillingness it self which excuseth not your sin but maketh it the gre●●er page 44. And think not to exte●●ate I by saying that it was only for his Elect for it was thy sin and the sin of all the World that lay upon our Redeemer and his Sacrifice and Satisfaction is sufficient for all