Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	commandment_n	law_n	moral_a	3,008	5	9.5759	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26964	The nonconformists advocate, or, A farther account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood written principally in vindication of A letter from a minister to a person of quality, shewing some reasons for his nonconformity, modesty answering the exceptions of two violent opposers of the said reasons.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1680 (1680)	Wing B1318; ESTC R1328	72,144	90

faithfully be paid and discharged shall not this Chief and indeed sole Debtor be called upon and that too in the first place to pay his Debt In right reason he should and you your self would be of the same mind were you in some great Bond only Collateral Security to a Friend and this too in little more than a Complement Now therefore that the Principal and sole Debtor is not once mentioned or called upon for the payment of the Debt but only the Collaterals this is my Exception and I think not without cause But you say Nature and Religion call upon the Principal Debtor viz. the Father of the Child and that is sufficient without any further Call from the Minister I know what you would reply in the case but I am not so spirited Nature and Religion call upon us to keep the Moral Law or ten Commandments and therefore the Ministers Call to keep them is needless and out of doors This is to make composita to be opposita The more Obligations are upon us from Religion and Nature to fulfill any duty the more we are to be called upon by Arguments out of those Topicks to perform the same and all little enough If not always Nature yet always Religion does bind Godfathers and Godmothers quae tales to perform the promise made on the behalf of the Child baptized for if it be not from Religion there can be no tye in the case yet the Church thinks not Religion enough to bind them without the further help of additional Exhortation why therefore should not the same be thought necessary to the Father himself to bind him also to his duty notwithstanding any preceding Obligation of Nature I approve not of the Sign of the Cross nor that Sacramental mystical way of signing with this Sign as if baptizing with Water in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost were not sufficient but moreover the Sign of the Cross needful to bind the Conscience and confer the Blessing You say The sum of my Argument against signing with the Cross is because lest by a perverse interpretation it may seem to the vulgar people what it is not and what I my self dare not affirm it to be but herein you are either wilfully blind or grosly in the dark for though I mentioned my fear lest the action then done by the Minister for then the Priest shall make a Cross upon the Childs Forehead and the words then uttered by him We receive this Child into the Congregation of Christs Flock and do sign him with the sign of the Cross in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified and manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue Christs faithful Souldier unto his lives end might be taken in a wrong sense and mistaken by the generality and do fear it still yet the presumptuous addition of the Cross to Baptism and this too after the manner of another Sacrament the devised Sacrament of man to the instituted Sacrament of God was the grand cause of my exception against it for if we may add at our pleasure the Sign of the Cross why not also with some others Cream Salt and Spittle yea whatsoever else the daring invention of man shall think meet to devise and conjoyn Who in this case shall set the limits and say Ne plus ultra As for mine own part I would sooner yield to have my Child baptized with Cream Salt and Spittle yea though Snow and Sope also were put into the Laver than to have it signed with the Sign of the Cross in such a mystical manner We are neither to add nor diminish in the matter of Gods Worship and particularly this holds good in the Sacraments of the Gospel which in their own nature are Signs and Ceremonies wherefore if we shall arrogate to our selves the license of adding Sign to Sign and Ceremony to Ceremony in so doing we boldly set Threshold against Threshold and proudly usurp no less than the place and Dictatorship of God himself This likewise more than faintly and covertly speaks the Baptism of Water to be lame and wanting of it self alone which I have the courage to speak out in the hearing of all according to your command yea I promise you if you will be at the charge to procure me one of Sir Samuel Moreland's Stentorean Tubes I will take the pains to go up to the Monument and at the top of it I will trumpet it out as a truth all over the City and if I could I would cause it to ring and eccho from one end of the Nation to another Why else is this dedicating sign of the Cross at the time of the Infants Dedication by washing in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost thought so necessary and constantly co-applied But you have a Church-Canon by you mounted and bent on purpose to discharge upon me prim'd with the Rubrick and ready to give fire upon all occasions with a loud contrary report Well be it so yet after all it is but brutum fulmen I mean only protestatio contra factum and therefore ipso facto void and of none effect As if you should vow and protest you were no Idolater and yet at the same time worship a Crucifix adore the Host or bow your knee to the Image of Baal You indeed baptize the Child with Water in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and you say the Child so baptized is lawfully and sufficiently baptized yet notwithstanding at the same time you sign him with the sign of the Cross in token hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified and manfully fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil c. Now this is the answer of a good Conscience and the main End and Obligation of Baptism as to the party baptized which the Cross and the signing him with that sign and not washing alone must at least mind him of if not spirit him in and ingage him to with the greatest manhood and courage else signing with the sign of the Cross is a meer insignificancy and a ridiculous nothing Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate What need the Cross if washing with water could sufficiently bring about its own ends The Cross therefore as it is there used loudly proclaims washing of and by it self incompleat and imperfect Something was spoken further by me about laying aside the use and custom of signing with the sign of the Cross to distinguish our selves from the Idolatrous Papists who superstitiously adore the Cross foolishly fondly and wickedly signing themselves with it upon every occasion putting no little confidence in it to free them from evil and to furnish them with all good But upon this score to leave off Crossing you call it vanity and affectation which is peculiar to