Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	law_n	sin_n	transgression_n	3,416	5	11.8881	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76088	The storming of the Anabaptists garrisons, vvith a brief discovery of the weaknesse of the same, & of the inconsiderableness of the sconces and forts of all the other sectaries, in despight and contempt of all the which, any Christian souldier may safely march to Heaven, without the least danger; ... In a word, in the insuing discourse, the vanity of all novell opinions is discovered, the ignorance of all the which can no way hinder any mans happinesse: and the baptisme of little children borne of Christian parents, whether Iewes or Gentiles, is proved by the word of God to be lawfull, ... / By Iohn Bastwick, Doctor in Physick.	Bastwick, John, 1593-1654.; Smart, Richard, fl. 1647.	1647 (1647)	Wing B1071; Thomason E390_23; ESTC R201542	43,659	52

more some Independents have acknowledged that they were convinced by reading of your Booke which I conceive to be one of the principallest causes that makes them so much maligne you and hinder the publishing of it And others of them upon the reading of your booke have writ out of the Countrey to some of their fraternity here in London telling th●m that they had read your Booke saying moreover that they could witnesse that you had writ nothing of them and their practices but what they could witnesse to be true and therefore earnestly exhorted them to mend their manners and carry themselves so as beseemed the Gospell all this can bee abundantly proved which induces me to believe that if that Book were but knowne amongst the people they would either speedily be undeceived if they were seduced or bee preserved from the errours of the times All that I have now to say unto you besides my good wishes is this You have had great experience of Gods love unto you who hath hitherto preserved you and delivered you out of so many dangers and from so many deaths and from the fury of so many enemies and preserved you in the truth who with all their fury rage and reproches have never in any thing beene dismayed I shall therefore earnestly desire you to consider that you serve the same master still who is the same All sufficient Jehovah be constant therefore to maintaine his cause and truth to the death and be not discouraged with any thing any enemy can doe unto you which words I utter not as in the least doubting of your resolutions but out of my hearty desire of your honour and happinesse which your s●ability and constancy will crowne with a L●●rell of i●mortall praises manger all enemies I pray sir faile no● with the s●●nest to let me receive th●se Arguments I desire and to heare of your health and happinesse and the welfare of all your● and you shall ●●ch 〈◊〉 and rejoyce 〈◊〉 who is Sir Your assured Friend in What I may in the Lords quarrell RICHARD SMART From my house in Scalding Alley at the Hand and Pen this 25 of March 1647. To his Christian friend Mr. Richard Smart at his house in Scalding Alley at the hand and Pen. SIR IF in the very day of the Apostles when truth was so prevalently and powerfully taught and confirmed with so many wonders and Miracles errours did then so abound that Saint in Iohn in his Epistle to the elect Lady greatly rejoyced to find any walking in the truth It is now no wonder that in these latter and perilous times so many revolt from the same and embrace errors and therefore it is exceeding matter of joy to all the lovers of the truth to meet with any that continue constantly in the same and truly it doth much rejoyce me to find you against so many temptations persevering in the love of it which will ever be for your honour here and reall comfort in life and death For your good opinion of me and of the Book I sent you and for your kind acceptance of the same I returne you many thankes and withall for your farther satisfaction I doe here in the presence of the great God that shall judge both quick and dead professe unto you that I never was in my judgement and opinion an Anabaptist Brownist Independent or any Sectary And as I have formerly in almost all my bookes manifested to the world that I differ'd in nothing from the doctrine of the Protestant reformed Churches beyond the Seas as those of France Germany and the Netherlands in any dominative or Principle point of Religion saving in the doctrine of the Sabbath or Lords day which in my judgement ought wholly to be employed and kept both privately and publickly in all duties of piety and charity and that with as much care diligence and reverence as ever it was amongst the Jewes saving I say in this point only I speake it again in the presence of God I never differ'd in any thing concerning faith or any fundamentall point of doctrine from any of those Churches nor never approved of any separation from Gods ordinances celebrated in them or allowed of the leaving of their publick Assemblies and therefore whatsoever either the Anabaptists or any of the Sectaries have formerly published or doe now speak of me intimating that I was once one of them it is a meere calumny and foule reproach and what I now say I shall be able to prove by a cloude of witnesses and those of their own party who have formerly been of my acquaintance and familiarly intimate with me who are ready as they have lately told me to witnesse for me that I was ever against their severall separations from any of Gods ordinances in our publick Assemblies here in England and that in the worst times and therefore the Anabaptists and Sectaries do use me very injuriously to perswade their followers or any others that I was once one of them But before I come to declare my opinion concerning the baptisme of Children of Christian Parents which is my theame at this time and to prove that there is very good warrant for it in the word of God I thinke it fit in this place to declare my judgement which you desired in your Letter I would doe concerning all Separatists whether Papists or Sectaries which is this that I am so farre from favouring their wayes especially in these times of our so happy begun reformation that I am able by Gods blessed assistance ever to make it good that whatsoever either of them by what names soever they are called hold or beleeve concerning Christian religion more then what is beleeved and embraced in the Protestant reformed Churches that it is either blasphemous impious or at least superfluous so that a man may dy either in the ignorance or contempt of it and yet goe safely to heaven And as for the vanity impiety and falsity of all the popish tenents I have sufficiently declared it in many Books and in that my discourse betweene me and Mr. Montayne called the Church of Englands true Church and for all the severall opinions of the Sectaries wherein they differ from the Protestant reformed Churches they are if not as impious yet as vaine and needlesse as those of the Papists so that a man may as safely goe to heaven without the knowledge of them as either the glorious Prophets or blessed Apostles who knew none of them and yet were all saved for nothing keeps men out of heaven but sinne and the transgression of the law of God Now I desire any rationall creature to declare unto me what law of God I or any man transgresse and what sin I commit if I beleeve and practice no more then the written word of God hath taught me to beleeve and doe and if I die in the ignorance of Independency Anabaptisme Antinomianisme c. yea let any of them shew me what sin I commit in rejecting

the place which he shall choose in the feast of unleavened bread and in the feast of weekes and in the feast of Tabernacles c. And this law God enjoyned all his people to observe for the instruction of their children and bringing them up in the knowledge and worship of the true God so carefull was the Lord that their children should be brought up in the feare of his name which law of God is still in force to all Christian Parents as is evident in the sixth of the Ephes ver the fourth where they are enjoyn'd to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And that law of God was observed in succeeding ages to the times of the New Testament Many instances of the which are recorded in holy Scripture I shall only at this time produce a few presidents or examples by which the truth of this doctrine may yet more illustriously appeare that in all their solemne Feasts Fasts and Covenants children were joyned with their parents as actors and partakers in them as well as they and that by speciall command from God by all which it will be the more evident that their children and little ones were as well of the family and Church of God and in covenant with him as their Parents and that they had as much right to partake in all these publick ordinances and solemne assemblies and that by the command of God as they And first I shall desire you to looke into the tenth of Exodus ver 8 9. 10. 11. where when Moyses and Aaron were brought before Pharaoh and he said unto them goe serve the Lord your God but who are they that shall goe And Moses said we will goe with our young and with our old with our sonnes and with our daughters for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. And he said unto them let the Lord be so with you as I will let you goe and your little ones Looke to it for evill is before you Not so goe now ye that are men and serve the Lord for that you did desire and they were driven out from Pharaohs presence By which place alone it appeareth that the Lord was as well the God of their little Children as of their Parents and that he would be served as well by them in their sacrifices and solemne assemblies as by their Parents as being all in covenant with him as their parents and consecrated to him by covenant as well as they Neither did Moses stirre without them as the story declareth And if we looke into the 29. of Deut. ver 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. c. The Lord saith there to all the people Keepe therefore the words of this Covenant and doe them that ye may prosper in all that yee doe Yee stand this day all of you before the Lord your God your Captaines and your tribes your Elders and your officers with all the men of Israel your little ones and your wives and the stranger that is in thy campe c. that thou shouldest enter into a covenant with the Lord thy God and into his oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day c. Here we see that the little children were not only in Covenant with the Lord as well as their parents but that they by name entred into a covenant with the Lord as well as they And in the second of the Chronicles and the 20th to omit many other instances it is related there that Jehoshophat feard and set himselfe to seeke the Lord and proclaimed a fast through all Judah and Judah gathered themselves together to aske helpe of the Lord even out of all the Cities of Judah they came to seeke the Lord. Now if we looke but into the thirteenth verse of the same chapter we shall find who they were out of all Cities that thus sought the Lord where it is related that all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones their wives and their children By all which testimonies and many more that might be produced it affirmes that the very little children of the Israelites were as well of the family of Abraham and in covenant with God and had as good right to all the Ordinances as their Parents if by the mouth of many Witnesses this truth may be confirmed Yea it was the practice of the Jewes into what Country soever they were scatter'd to bring up their children in the knowledge of God and of the holy Scripture and that from their childhood as we may learne by the example of the Grandmother and mother of Timothy who knew the holy Scriptures from a child by their industry and godly care And this was Gods method that after any had relinquished their Idol gods and turned to the living God that God would have them to be Circumcised and all their Males in their family under them after one and the same manner ever using the same way of admittance of their children that were tender and young that was used for the receiving in of their parents professing that he would be a God of their side as of them taking them all in like manner into Covenant with him by the same way of admission Now God is the same God to believing Christian parents and their children that he was to the Israelites and their children as I hope sufficiently to prove in the sequell of this discourse Neither do I ever read that God changed his method of taking in and of admitting them into Covenant with him by any new law and therefore I will not feare to believe and for ever to conclude that as the Parents of the believing Jewes were admitted under the new Covenant so were their children after one and the same manner for they were all equally in covenant with him as well as their Parents and therefore when Iohn the Baptist and Christs Disciples were sent unto his people then in covenant with him and had all of them their Commission to Preach and Baptise as we may see in Math. the third Marke the first Luke the third and Luke the 10. and 11. Iohn the first Iohn the 3. 4. and as they preacht Repentance and Faith in the Messiah whom Iohn the Baptist declared and shewed unto them to be the Lambe of God that tooke away the sinnes of the world so they were neither of them limited in respect of sex or age but commanded to Baptise all that come to their Ministry without any restriction for they were all his people in covenant with him as well the children as their parents and by vertue of that capable as well as they of that ordinance of Baptisme for they were sent to baptise all the Jewes without limitation as I said before as well their children and women as men neither do we read in all the New Testament that either Iohn or the Apostles refused to Baptise Children or Women or any but the Saduces Pharisees and Lawyers Math. 3. Luke the 7.