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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	adam_n	law_n	moral_a	4,944	5	10.5377	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31095	A brief and plain discovery of the falseness and unscripturalness of anabaptism as the same is now practised by those of that perswasion, w[here]in are plainly proved from God's word the five particulars here handled, that God's covenant with Abraham, Gen. 17.7. is the Covenant of grace whereby all God's elect are saved ... / by Ja. Barry, an unworthy minister of the Gospel.	Barry, James, fl. 1650-1702.	1699 (1699)	Wing B968; ESTC R34200	57,378	134

all the Male-Seed of the Believer and that without any regard to the Election which is a Secret known only to God about which he would not have us to trouble our Spirits any farther than to give all becoming diligence to make our own Pe sonal Election sure to our s●lves As touchi●g the Infants of Church Memb●rs about whom all the Dispute is We are not ●nxiously to be concerned about them whether they be in the Election of God yea or no. It is ground sufficient for us to Bless and thank God for his dealing so Graciously with our Infants in that they with us are taken into the same Covenant and Sealed with the Seal thereof for by Gods dealing thus with Believers Infant-Seed Believers have a good foundation laid whereon to bottom their Hope and Comfort with reference to thei● Dying or Deceased Infants and also of wrestling with God in Prayer for their Conversion and Eternal Welfare the which the Enemies to Infant-Baptism do by denying that Infants belong to the Coven●nt or have any right to the Promis●s thereof till they themselves B●lieve deprive and insensibly s●oil themselves of This is most evidently true as will appear if it be s●riously consi●ered tha● all right Prayer is a Pl●●●i●g the Promises of Gods Covenant in the Name and Merit of Christ his own So● in and through whom the said Promis●s are intail'd on all the Children of Promise Now if my Infant be Sick or Ailing If he be going on in Sin c. how can I by the Anabaptist Principle put up a Prayer to God for him seeing there is no promise of Gods Covenant belongs to him Or how can I comfort my sorrowful Spirit with reference to my Deceased Children if I must look on my dear Babes as Strangers and Enemies to God the which they are by Nature and must remain so for ever in case they be not Partakers of the Grace of Gods Covenant Secondly If none but the Elect have right to Baptism this Objection will fall like a Mill-stone on them who Baptize whole droves of Men and Women of whose Election to Eternal Life neither Baptizer nor Baptized know any more than they know how many Stars in the Firmament so that by thus arguing against poor Tongue-ty'd Infants they may see how they deny Salvation to their own as w●ll as others Infants and render themselves uncapable of discharging a good Conscience to their poor Children in putting up daily Petitions to God for them Object 6. We have an open Profession from those we Baptize and that warrants our Baptizing such as offer themselves to join to the Churches You have not the like from Infants Answ I Answer hereto in three particulars First it were well for both Baptizers and Baptized if both the one and the other were better acquainted with the Nature of right Conversion than they are and that they were better grounded in the sound and experimental knowledge of the Covenant of Grace the which if they were I dare boldly say they would not be so precipitant and rash in condemning and despising those poor Infants who are set forth by the Wisdom of God as Patterns and Examples by which grown Persons are to be moulded and sitted for Heaven Neither would they be so forward to offer themselves to Baptism on such slight and evanid Motions as falls short in too many of common Convictions Secondly poor Infants never yet broke or transgressed the Moral Law Personally and that is one great reason why an actual confession of Faith and Repentance is not required of them to qualifie them for Baptism As the Sin of Infants lyes in the imputation of Adams Disobedience and the Pollution of Nature derived by fleshly Generation so their help and remedy lyes in the imputation of Christs Spotless Righteousness to their Persons and his Spirits renewing their inward Faculties in Regenerating them And this twofold work of the Spirit in Justifying and Sanctifying the Elect Infant is plainly signifi●d and Sealed in that Ordinance of Baptism to the Infant as well as to a grown ●eliever Thirdly albeit Infants be not able to spe●k for themselves and to claim that right to the Seal of Gods Covenant which the Covenant it self hath entail'd on them as they are the Church Seed of Believing Parents yet there is one who speaks for them whose Judgment and Testimony of them is more sure and infallible than all other Testimonies of Men and Angels the Lord Jesus I mean who with his Father and God the Holy Ghost contrived and made the Covenant of Grace wherein they are comprehended I will lay down in six Particulars what is the Judgment of Christ concerning Infants as they are concerned in the Covenant First he propounds them as Patterns by which grown Persons must be moulded and fitted for Heaven Mat. 18.3 Secondly declares their right to the Kingdom of God Mar 10.14 For of such is the Kingdom of God Thirdly rebukes most severely his Disciples for hindering Infants being brought to him Mar. 10.14 But when Jesus saw it he was much displeased c. In the Greek it is Eganaktese which signifies to have the Bowels inwardly moved or affected with Grief to be filled with Indignation as Beza renders it Indignatus est to be Stomackt at a Person or a thing which is greatly or highly displeasing A Word which judicious Sydenham observes was never used by Christ in any case or on any occasion besides this of poor Infants to instruct and teach Men No doubt how greatly he was concerned for helpless Infants and how displeased he was at the hardness of his Disciples Hearts against them Oh! that the consideration of this might melt the hard Hearts of such into a Christ like tenderness towards poor Infants Fourthly commands Infants to be brought to him Mar. 10.14 Suffer little Children to come unto me c. Fifthly pronounces them Holy Rom. 11.16 1. Cor. 7.14 Sixthly Blesseth them Mar. 10.16 And he took them up in his Arms laid his Hands upon them and Blessed them These six Particulars laid together and weighed in the Ballance of Gods Sanctuary I leave it to any Man of Sense in Spiritual matters to judge whether is safer to credit this infallible Testimony of the Son of God concerning Infants than to rely on the bare Testimony of a meer Man concerning himself who may in all he pretends to be but a Painted Sepulchre Object 7. If Infants must needs have a right to Baptism because it is a Seal of the Covenant then of necessity they must have a right to the Lords Supper also for that is a Seal of the Covenant of Grace as well as Baptism The Wine in the Supper might as well be poured down the Infants mouth with a Spoon as to sprinkle Water on his face Answ This Objection better becomes a Superannuated Man who borders on perfect Dotage than one who pretends to be a Teacher of ignorant and misguided Souls and not only so but who

present thee Blameless before the Throne of my Glorious Holiness in the Third Heaven is Subjectively Inherent in the Person of God-Man thy Mediator and Surety to this Mediatorial Righteousness of his thou shalt add nothing neither thy own Personal qualifications nor yet the Holiness of Saints or Angels as if thereby thou couldest be made more Acceptable than that Righteousness of his doth make thee Thou shalt keep my Covenant both thou and all thy Ecclesiastical or Church Seed throughout your Generations till my Son comes to Judge the World at the last day Thou and all thy Church Seed which Springs from thee by Fleshly Generation shall observe to have all your Males mark'd with Circumcision the visible Token and Seal of this my Gracious Covenant which I have now entred into with thee for thy self a stipulating Father and for all thy Children who are to be the Members of my Sons Mediatorial Kingdom or Visible Church on the Earth And when Christ my Son shall come in the Flesh and shall enter upon his Mediatorial Kingdom whatever visible Token or Seal he shal appoint to Succed in the Room of Circumcision thy Gentile Church Seed as well as Jews who are to believe in him shall carefully observe to be Sealed therewith both they and their Infants And that by Virtue of this my Covenant I now make with thee for thy self and them And to the end that neither thou nor thy Children in succeeding Ages may Be Ignorant of what my Will and Pleasure is concerning the Non-Elect who are to come and spring from Believing and Holy Parents in my visible Church or Churches I notifie to thee and thy Church Seed after thee throughout their Generations that my Soveraign Will and Pleasure is that all the Infants of my Believing Professing Church Membrs shall be markt with the Visible Token or Seal of this my Covenant in the Church whereof the Professing Parent or Parents are Members and that without any regard had to the Elect or Non-Elect For seeing that the Secrets of my Decrees and Counsels are known to my self alone I Will that thou and thy Church Seed after thee to the end of the World do in the Judgm●nt of rational Charity Judge all the Seed and Infant Posterity of my Professing People who have laid hold on my Covenant by an Eternal Visible Profession to belong to the Election and to own them for such untill they by open Apostacy and final Impenitency do manifest the contrary For albeit my Visible Churches do consist of Elect and Non Elect and the one as well as the other do partake of the Seal of my Covenant and are partakers of all Church Priviledges yet none shall ever partake internally and savingly of the inward Grace and Mercy Signified and Sealed by the Token and Seal of my Covenant in the Church Visible but the Elect only whose Names are particularly Registred in the Lamb's Book of Life And altho' the Non-Elect in my Church do fall short of the saving Benefits of my Covenant of Grace yet shall they find that I am no way behind with them for altho' I the Absolute Soveraign of the World be no way obliged to the Creature especially fallen Rebels yet seeing it is my Pleasure to Employ the Non-Elect in the Service of my Church while it is in a Militant State that those common Gifts of my Spirit wherewith they are to be endowed might be laid out and improved for the good and wellfare of my Elect and Chosen I will give them a Place in my Church that they shall be called by my Name and shall have an equal Right with mine Elect to the Seal of my Covenant and all outward helps and means of Salvation in the Church Visible whereby it shall plainly appear in the day of Judgment that their missing Heaven and falling short of Eternal Life was of their own Procurement Notwithstanding As is the Service wherein they are Employ'd in my Church I will give them a plentiful Recompence viz. a Temperal Reward in Lieu of a Temporal Service Such as Bodily Health Worldly Wealth Pleasures and Honours c. which are every way more suitable to their Spirit and are more sought and delighted in by them than are the things laid up for my Chosen Plain Instances hereof I have seen fit to leave on Record in the Persons of Ishmael and Isaac both born of Abraham according to the Flesh the one a Reprobate the other Elect both must be of the Church Visible and Sealed with the Visible Token and Seal of Gods Covenant with Abraham Of the same Nature is that of Esau and Jacob both born of Isaac according to Fleshly Generation yet the one a Reprobate and the other Elect both must be of the Visible Church and Sealed with the Seal of the Covenant and pass currant for Church Members before men untill they themselves make the contrary to appear As did Ishmael Esau c. And thus having as plainly and as briefly as I could for the information of those who are yet Ignorant of Abrahams Covenant Explained and shewn the Substance and Tenure of Gods Covenant with Abraham for himself and all his Ecclesiastical or Church Seed both Jews and Gentiles to the end of the World I come now to lay down some Scriptural Arguments to Prove that Gods Covenant with Abraham as now Explained is the Covenant of Grace which God Propounded to Abraham in Gen. 17.7 And not a Covenant of Works as the Anabaptists Teach it is That it is the Covenant of Grace and no other will evidently appear to any who look not asquint on the Arguments following Arg. 1. The first Argument is this If God never yet made a Covenant of Works with any mee● Man but that which he made with sinless Adam the Natural and Federal Head of all Mankind in the State of Innocency before the Fall Then God's Covenant with Abraham is the Covn ant of Grace and not a Covenant of Works But God never yet made a Covenant of Works with any meer Man but that which he made with sinless Adam the Natural and Federal Head of all Mankind in the State of Innocency before the Fall Therefore Gods Covenant with Abraham in Gen. 17.7 is the Covenant of Grace and no other Plain it is and none without Lying against God can deny it that God made a Covenant of Works with Adam and in him with all Mankind The Condition whereof was do and Live sin and Dye And as plain it is that Adam Fell by Transgressing that Covenant by which Fall he lost the Blessed Image of God to himself and all his Posterity whereby he and his Posterity became utterly uncapable of Life and Salvation by that Covenant Now Abraham being by natural Birth a Son of the first Adam and as such born under the Curse of Adam's Covenant and partaker of a sinful and polluted Nature which rendred him as uncapable of performing any Work which as a condition can Answer

Seal thereof in the Visible Church must belong to them also But Infants are Saved by the Grace of God's Covenant made with Abraham and in no other way Therefore the Covenant of God's Grace by which they are Saved and the Seal thereof in the Visible Church must belong to them also This Argument hath been constantly maintained by the Orthodox against the Enemies of Infant-Baptism with such success that I never yet heard the Man's Name who was able to answer or overthrow the same by sound or solid Argument To deny Salvation to Infants is a Principle so monstrously Cruel and Uncharitable exposing to the Judgment of God and to the deserved Frowns of all Tender-hearted Parents that some who account it a point of great Skill and Wisdom in the Mystery of the Gospel to Decry and Witness against Infant-Baptism have declared themselves strongly inclin'd to believe that all Infants are Saved and that without distinguishing between Elect and Reprobate or between the Seed of Professing Godly Believers and that of Mahometans c. a Principle altogether as silly and groundless as that of denying the Right of Believers Infant-Seed to the Covenant of Grace and the Visible Token or Seal thereof in the Church And at what Door this Heterodox Dream should enter or from what Root or Principle it should spring I know not unless from that Popish Arminian Principle of general Redemption and universal Grace Here by the Concession or Grant of the very Adversaries Infants are Saved but how or in what way whether by a Covenant or without a Covenant Here they are profoundly silent not daring to mention any Covenant at all fearing an Advantage may be thereby given to discover or prove the Right of Infants to the Covenant It is sufficient such Dreamers Judge to leave poor Infants to the general Mercy and Grace of God as those do who Dream and Conceit that the very Damned in Hell shall at length be delivered from the Torments of that Place For which Chymerical Whym there is as much to be said from the Word of God As there is to prove that God will extend the Grace of his Covenant to all Infants Dying so The Adversary I dispute against knows very well that should it be granted in Terminis in plain Terms that Infants are Saved by the Grace of the Covenant it can no way be avoided but that Infants must be in that Covenant and must have an Indisputable Right in foro Ecclesiae to the outward Seal thereof But this must be deny'd and its contrary asserted for the most Glorious Gospel-Truth viz. That Believers only excluding their Infants are Interested in the Covenant and have a Right to the Seal thereof and that in the Right of the Profession they make before Men. Now how absurd and contrary to the very Tenure and Design of God's Covenant with Christ in the behalf of the Elect this Principle of Anabaptism is I leave to every Unprejudiced Reader who understands any thing in Religion to Judge And whether to restrain the Promise of God's Covenant which equally extends to all the Elect to that part of the Elect which are Adult and Grown up to make a Profession and to extend the Grace of God beyond the bounds of his own Covenant be not equally to Rase the Foundation of Gospel-Truth and to Usurp the Throne of God or to Invade his Prerogative in the Church I leave to Wise Men to determine If thus to do falls not under that dreadful Commination or Woe threatned in Rev. 22.18 I am greatly mistaken Arg. 3. If Infants do stand in as real need of the Grace of God's Covenant as the Adult do and be every way as capable thereof as the Adult are then must they of necessity be allow'd the Seal thereof in the Church But Infants do stand in as real need of the Grace of God's Covenant and are every way as capable thereof as the Adult are Therefore the Seal of God's Covenant in the Church must of necessity be allow'd them That Infants are Partakers of Adam's Guilt and also of that Pravity and Pollution of Nature which came by Adam's Fall I am confident will be deny'd by none unless by downright Dreamers now to own this And at the same time to Teach and Hold that Infants are because not Grown up to the use of Reason and actual Faith uncapable of Regeneration is to deny Salvation to all Infants who Die Infants And how well this Principle accords with all Infants being Saved who Die Infants is not difficult to understand If this be not Contradictio in Terminis viz. A Contradiction in plain Terms I know not what a Contradiction means The Lord Christ who can neither lye nor be deceived in what he saith assures us that except one be Born again he cannot possibly see the Kingdom of God Jo. 3.8 wherein the absolute need of Regeneration is discovered and asserted and the Subject of which this is predicated in that Text being indefinitely and universally exprest we are taught that neither Adult nor Infant shall ever enter Heaven till that work of Regeneration pass on the guilty polluted Soul And to say that an Adult or grown Person by reason of his Age is capable of this great Change but that an Infant because he wants the use of reason c. is uncapable of it What is this but interpretatively to hold and say that the Creatures own will and reason must concurr to the producing the New Creature in a Dead Soul And how advantageous this Principle is to Papists Arminians Pelagians and Socinians the Learned and Orthodox well know The Enemies themselves do with us acknowledge that Water-Baptism is a Passive Ordinance and strange it is that those of that Party who are concerned to deck and adorn the Frontispiece of their Books against Infant-Baptism with such Ornate Florishes of Greek Hebrew and Latin Sentences do not in their way of arguing about this matter give us to understand that they understand and know the meaning and proper signification of the word Passive better than it appears they do certain it is and the Learned know it that the term Passive signifies and imports a Non-agency in the Subject when a change is passing on it or a work producing in it to the effecting of which change or work the Subject Recipient neither wills nor acts any thing towards the production of such a change If I understand any thing of Gods Mind revealed in the Sacred Scripture or was ever experimentally acquainted with the Spirits method in passing that great change on a Sinner in effectual Calling The work consists of two parts First Gods Gracious Acts in freely Pardoning all the Rebels Sins and Transgressions committed against the Law imputing to him that spotless Righteousness of Christ his Son the Sinners Sponsor or Surety as truly and really as if that spotless Righteousness had been acted performed by the Sinner himself Personally This is the first part wherein that great