Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	baptise_v	baptize_v	infant_n	1,224	5	9.3240	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62635	Several discourses by the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson ... , being the fifth volume published from the originals by Ralph Barker ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.	1700 (1700)	Wing T1263; ESTC R31970	188,402	488

Father Son and Holy Ghost is meant the initiating of Men by this solemn Rite or Ceremony into the Christian Religion upon their profession of the necessary Doctrines of it concerning the Father Son and Holy Ghost and a solemn Stipulation and Engagement to live according to those Doctrines Which promise of a suitable Life and Practice was likewise made at the same time as Justin Martyr and other of the ancient Fathers do testify But before I leave this Head it is very fit to take particular notice what use the Anabaptists make of this Text so as in effect to lay the whole stress of their Cause upon it as if by virtue of this Command of our Saviour's and the manner wherein it is exprest all Infants even those of Christian Parents who are themselves already admitted into the new Covenant of the Gospel were excluded from Baptism because it is here said by our Saviour Go ye and disciple all Nations baptizing them from whence they infer and very clearly and strongly as they think that none are to be baptized but such as are first throughly instructed in the Christian Religion and made Disciples which Infants are not but only those who are grown to some Maturity of Years and Understanding But the Opinion and Practice of the ancient Church in this matter is a sufficient Bar to this Inference at least to the clearness of it And indeed it cannot reasonably be imagined that the Apostles who had all of them been bred up in the Jewish Religion which constantly and by virtue of a divine Precept and Institution admitted Infants into that Church and to the benefits of that Covenant by the Rite of Circumcision and likewise the Infants of Proselytes by Baptism as I observed before I say no Man can reasonably imagine that the Apostles could understand our Saviour as intending by any consequence from this Text to exclude the Children of Christians out of the Christian Church and to debar them of the benefits of the New Covenant of the Gospel The Children of Christians being every whit as capable of being taken into this new Covenant and of partaking of the Benefits of it as Children of the Jews were of being admitted into the old Unless we will suppose which at first sight seems very harsh and unreasonable that by the terms of the Christian Religion Children are in a much worse condition than the Children of the Jews were under the Law So that the parity of Reason being so plain nothing less than an express Prohibition from our Saviour and an exception of Children from Baptism can be thought sufficient to deprive the Children of Christians of any Privilege of which the Jewish were capable For the plain meaning of this Commission to the Apostles is to go and proselyte all Nations to the Christian Religion and to admit them solemnly into it by Baptism as the Jews were wont to proselyte Men to their Religion by Circumcision and Baptism by which Rites also they took in the Children of the Proselytes upon promise that when they came to Years they should continue in that Religion And if this was our Saviour's meaning the Apostles had no reason from the Tenor of their Commission to understand that the Children of Christian Proselytes were any more excluded than the Children of Proselytes to the Jewish Religion unless our Saviour had expresly excepted them for it is a favourable Case and in a matter of Privilege and therefore ought not to be determined to debar Children of it upon any obscure consequence from a Text which it is certain was never so understood by the Christian Church for 1500 Years together I have done with the first part of their Commission which was to disciple or proselyte all Nations to the Christian Religion and to admit them into the Christian Church by the Rite or Sacrament of Baptism I proceed to consider the Second part of their Commission which was to instruct Men in the Precepts and Duties of a Christian Life teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you You see how their Commission bounds and limits them they were to teach others those Precepts which Christ had taught and deliver'd to them they had no Power by virtue of this Commission to make new Laws which should be of universal and perpetual Obligation and consequently necessary to the Salvation of all Christians they were only to be the Publishers but not the Authors of this new Religion And therefore St. Paul when the Corinthians consulted him about several things relating to Marriage and Virginity he only gives his advice but would not take upon him to make a Law in those cases that should be binding to all Christians And for the same Reason Christians do generally at this day think themselves absolved from the Obligation of that Canon which was made even in a Council of the Apostles as to all those Branches of it the reason whereof is now c●ased But notwithstanding this the Authority which our Saviour conferred upon his Apostles to teach his Doctrine does in the nature of it necessarily imply a Power of governing the Societies of Christians under such Officers and by such Rules as are most suitable to the nature of such a Society and most fit to promote the great Ends of the Christian Religion For without this power of governing they cannot be suppos'd to be endowed with sufficient Authority to teach and therefore in pursuance of this Commission we find that the Apostles did govern the Societies of Christians by such Rules and Constitutions as were fitted to the then present circumstances of Christianity And as they did appoint temporary Officers upon emergent Occasions so they constituted others that were of perpetual use in the Church for the instructing and governing of Christians and that in such a subordination to one another as would be most effectual to the attaining of the end of Government which subordination of Governors hath not only been used in all Religions but in all the well regulated Civil Societies that ever were in the World And this may suffice to have spoken of the second part of their Commission The Third and last thing in the Text is the Promise which our Saviour here makes for the encouragement of the Apostles in this Work Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world that is tho' I be going from you in person yet I will still be present with you by my Power and Spirit And surely this must needs be a great Encouragement to have him engaged for their Assistance who had all power in heaven and earth committed to him as he tells them at the 18 th verse I shall endeavour therefore as far as the time will permit to explain to you the true meaning and extent of this Promise That it is primarily made to the Apostles no man can doubt that considers that it was spoken to them immediately by our Saviour and in regard to them the