Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	glory_n	prepare_v	vessel_n	3,783	5	9.2997	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65668	An essay to revive the primitive doctrine and practice of infant-baptism in the resolution of four questions I. What are the reasons of God's appointing the token of the covenant to be applyed to the infant-seed of his people? II. What is the good or benefit they receive thereby? III. What is the duty of parents towards their children as bearing the token of the covenant? IV. What is the improvement that children as grown up to years of maturity, may and ought to make of the token, as applyed to them in their infancy / by Joseph Whiston ...	Whiston, Joseph, d. 1690.	1676 (1676)	Wing W1690; ESTC R38586	159,793	270

he bears to his People makes this very rational yea I may say somewhat necessary It cannot be rationally supposed but that when God bears so great a love to Parents he should do somewhat more and vouchsafe greater Advantages to their Seed in a subserviency to their future Salvation than he doth for and vouchsafes to others And yet 4. This will seem less improbable if we consider that in what God doth for and vouchsafes to the Seed of his People he hath a peculiar respect to the Elect among them 'T is in special for their sakes that the Priviledges of the Seed of Believers are so great It hath pleased God to make his choice of Persons to Salvation very much in the lines of particular Persons hence he usually casts Elect Children upon Elect Parents though he hath left a liberty to himself to pass by whom he pleaseth and sometimes to take in such who are of the lines and posterity of the wicked yet his Election lies very much in and among the Seed of Elect Parents and for their sakes and in a subserviency to their Salvations he doth so much for and vouchsafes so great Priviledges to the Seed of his People in general That all the Seed of Believers should have been elected to Salvation would have been attended with great inconveniencies and that upon divers accounts as might easily be shewed yet it hath pleased God to lay his Election very much among them 'T is rare but that some one or more of the Seed of believing Parents evidence their Election by a personal taking hold of the Covenant as they grow up to years of Maturity Yea it is sometimes found that all the Seed of some believing Parents give good ground to hope they are such as God hath ordained to life Now with respect to them and for their sakes God hath done so much and vouchsafed so great Priviledges to their Seed in general so that all things considered that God should grant the Priviledges assigned to the Seed of Believers and yet after leave some of them to themselves and suffer them to forfeit their own Mercies and finally perish carries not the least improbability in it 3. For that which may yet further be pleaded viz. The improbability that any should be in Covenant with the holy Spirit and yet have no benefit by him either in regard of any saving no nor any common operations that have a direct conducency to their future Salvation To that I would say in the general that how improbable soever this may seem to be yet no sound Argument can be drawn therefrom to prove the Conclusion inferred in the forementioned Objection God may receive the Infant-seed of Believers into Covenant with himself and that universally and vouchsafe them all the Good and all the Priviledges afore assigned to them and yet it will not necessarily follow from thence that any such Operations of the Spirit should be granted to them This is evident from what hath been already said yea let me say this is no way improbable This will appear if we consider two or three things 1. What interest and hand the Spirit of God hath in all that is done for and vouchsafed to them hence it cannot be said they have no benefit by him This might be abundantly evidenced but that I should inlarge this discourse quite beyond the bounds designed for it And therefore 2. Consider the special office and work of the Spirit and thus we shall find the office and work of the Spirit more especially relate to the fitting and preparing the Elect unto Glory through their Sanctification and chearful performance of holy obedience unto God in Christ 2 Thess 2.13 with 1 Pet. 1.2 Now it is vastly more improbable that the Spirit should perform any part of that work whereunto he is designed for the preparing vessels of Mercy unto Glory upon the hearts of the Non-elect than that though in Covenant with him he should suspend the performance of that work in or upon them Especially if we consider 3. What hath been already said viz. That the Promises of the Covenant constituting a Covenant-relation between God both absolutely and personally considered and the Seed of Believers as taken absolutely and by themselves only oblige the several persons in the divine essence to act for their Good Benefit and Advantage according to the tenour of the Covenant that is according to the distinct Promises of the Covenant and the terms or conditions upon which they are made Now there being no Promise made to the individual Infants of Believers assuring them of any such Operations of the Spirit hence the Spirit is under no obligation to vouchsafe them to this or that individual Infant antecedent to their personal taking hold of the Covenant which that the Elect shall do is secured as by the Covenant between the Father and the Son so by those indefinite Promises of divine teachings and the like made to the Church in general of which before so that here is yet nothing improbable 4. And lastly That which is pleaded to countenance the Conclusion in the Objection is the reference that the Token of the Covenant whether Circumcision or Baptism had or hath to Regeneration and Sanctification And thus it is supposed by many to have such a reference as lays a sure ground for the Conclusion viz. that in case Infants have such an union with Christ and Covenant-relation unto and interest in God as intitles them to the Token of the Covenant they must be granted to be regenerated and thereby initially sanctified Answ That the Token of the Covenant hath some reference to Regeneration and Sanctification is evident from those Texts usually insisted upon John 3.5 Eph. 5.26 Tit. 3.5 but what that reference is is not agreed on by all Some say it is an outward Sign or Symbol of Regeneration and consequently an evidence of the Party 's present Regeneration to whom it is applyed and sometimes it is called by the men of this perswasion a Seal of Regeneration Others attribute the conferring of the holy Spirit to it by whom Regeneration is wrought and so they conceive the Spirit is ordinarily communicated if not by yet in a concomitancy with the Application of the Token of the Covenant by means whereof at least the Seeds and Principles of Regeneration at least some kind of disposition leading thereunto are wrought in all that have it rightfully applyed to them Now I shall not stay upon a particular discussion of these different apprehensions of Men. It may suffice to shew that the Token of the Covenant may have and hath a true and proper reference to Regeneration on the account of which those allusions to it made use of by Christ and the Apostle in the places forementioned are genuine and proper and yet the Conclusion pleaded for cannot be rationally inferred therefrom And thus we may allow the Token of the Covenant to have a twofold reference to Regeneration and Sanctification 1. It