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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	law_n	moral_a	precept_n	2,880	5	9.5945	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85422	VVater-dipping no firm footing for Church-communion: or Considerations proving it not simply lawful, but necessary also (in point of duty) for persons baptized after the new mode of dipping, to continue communion with those churches, or imbodied societies of saints, of which they were members before the said dipping; and that to betray their trust or faith given unto Jesus Christ to serve him in the relation and capacity, whether of officers, or other members, in these churches (respectively) by deserting these churches, is a sin highly provoking in the sight of God. Together with a post-script touching the pretended Answer to the Forty queries about Church-communion, infant and after baptism. By John Goodwin, a servant of God in the Gospel of his dear Son.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1653 (1653)	Wing G1213; Thomason E723_15; ESTC R202234	72,402	91

Observations over the Moral Law or Authority to over-rule the dictates or any the principles of the Law of Nature or to exempt any man from the performance of any duty required hereby How much less will he justifie any man in pleading the necessity of submitting to such a Ceremony which or at least the necessity whereof more probably is of humane then divine Institution by way of bar to the performance of such duties which the Moral Law yea the Law of Nature it self requireth Therefore inexcuseable altogether are such persons both in the sight of God and men who pretend themselves disobliged from the performance of such promises which they have solemnly made unto their Brethren by a necessary of subjecting to an external Rite or Ceremony how much more when the observation of this Rite or Ceremony is and always hath been by all the judicious learned and faithful servants of God in the Christian world a very few and these upon no accompt very considerable excepted adjudged no ways necessary by vertue of any Precept or Command of God God doubtless by the Law of Nature and of love to their Brethren requireth of such men a forbearance of their Ceremony though supposed of Divine Institution for the peace comfort spiritual accommodation and edification of their Brethren rather then the practise of it to their offence trouble and distraction yea to the danger of the precious Souls of many weak ones who are emboldened by their example having no sufficient ground in themselves for such a practise to condemn themselves in allowing and practising the same Ceremony For as our Saviour of the Sabbath so say I of Baptism Baptism was made for man and not man for Baptism Baptism was made or ordained for man i. e. for mans benefit comfort and accommodation and consequently is only to be used and administred in order hereunto and so not to his disturbance danger or distraction not man for Baptism i. e. man was not made or created by God for any such end as this that Baptism by his trouble sorrow molestation or danger should be magnified or exalted in the world And why it should not savour of as much Christianity and be of equal acceptance with God for the peace of the Churches and servants of God in these days to lay asleep a living Ordinance for a time as it did in the Apostle Paul to awaken a dead Ordinance I mean Circumcision upon the same account in his days I understand not CONSIDERATION II. The Churches and Societies of the Saints which are not actually and externally baptized with that figure or kind of Baptism so much contended for yet supposing this very Baptism to be the only Baptismal Ordinance of Christ and that it is his Will that they should be baptized with it they are according to the rule and standard of divine Estimate and Acceptance baptized therewith as well as those persons themselves who so impotently please themselves in their subjection to the letter of it The Standard or standing Rule of Divine Estimate is this If there be first a willing mind a man is accepted according to that he hath so it were better rendered though the difference be not material and not according to that he hath not 2 Cor. 1. 12. By a like rule God likewise estimateth the sinfulness and wickedness of men Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath COMMITTED ADULTERY with her already in his heart Mat. 5. 28. So then if the Members of unbaptized Churches so called have a willing mind are prepared and large-hearted to submit unto all and every the Ordinances of Christ and consequently unto New-Baptism it self supposing this to be one of that retinue but only want the opportunity of light and conviction so to judg conceive of it they are accepted with God and esteemed by him and ought they not then to be so with men as persons baptized with that very Baptism Yea the truth is that if the unbaptized Churches sin or be blame-worthy for not being actually baptized after the manner of the Brethren of New-Baptism these persons themselves are in a great degree accessary unto such their sin partly by administring unto them only weak and insufficient grounds for their conviction partly also and more especially by causing through their pride frowardness insolency and disdainfulness of spirit together with many other strains of most unchristian behaviour towards them that sacrifice of the Lord if such it be to be abhorred Besides I am all thoughts made that the far greater part of those who have been prevailed with to accept of a dip for Baptism neither have nor ever had either that love unto nor sacred and reverent esteem of all the Ordinances of Christ which thousands of those have whom God hath not yet so perswaded So then they who refuse Communion with such Saints who have not been actually baptized with their Baptism upon this pretence only that they have not been thus baptized reject the communion of those whom God reputeth to have been baptized with that very Baptism for the want of which such men reject them always supposed as hath been said that the Dipping-Baptism is the sole Baptism Ordinance of Christ CONSIDERATION III. The Scripture very frequently and expresly teacheth that by Faith men become and are made the children of Abraham and Sons of God But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that beleeve on his Name Joh. 1. 12. But ye are all the children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus Joh. 3. 26. See also Rom. 4. 11 12 16. If then true Beleevers be the Sons of God then must all they needs be Bastards and no Sons of God but children of Satan who are not their Brethren And if they who are the Sons of God and consequently their Brethren be ashamed of them and shall refuse to own them in their Church-fellowship are they not ashamed of those of whom the Lord Christ professeth before Heaven and Earth that he is not ashamed no not ashamed to own them in the relation of Brethren For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause HE IS NOT ASHAMED TO CALL THEM BRETHREN Hebr. 2. 11. Must not then Jesus Christ needs look upon those men as greater in their own conceit either in Holiness or in Dignity or in both then himself who are ashamed of such persons of whom he is not ashamed yea indeed in whom he glorieth as being with their fellows his Fulness and in whom he shall come to be glorified and admired in the great day a Thess. 1. 10. Or is not the great jealousie of Christ like to be provoked when men shall presume to make or call that common which he hath sanctified with his own blood and made express declaration from Heaven accordingly Or can either a thing or person be made or called common in a more

is not his meaning in saying so many of us as c. clearly this that as many of us Saints or of us beleevers who have been baptized For in what other consideration rel●●ion or respect he should make himself one of them is not easie to imagin Evident it is from Chap. 1. 13. 15. that he was no dweller in Rome at the time of writing this Epistle nor had been any time before So likewise when he writes to the Churches and members of the Churches of Galatia thus For as many of YOV as have been baptized c. can his meaning be as many of you who dwell in Galatia as have been baptized Or doth not such a sence as this plainly imply that he wrote his Epistle aswel to the Infidels in the Countries of Galatia as to the members of the Christian Churches there Therefore questionless the Apostles meaning in the words before us is plainly and directly this As many of you who being members of the Churches of Galatia have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ and consequently the particle {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as many as is not partitive of the beleevers in the places mentioned from the rest of unbeleeving Inhabitants there but of beleevers amongst themselves those that had been baptized from those who were at present unbaptized in either place respectively This to be the express sence of the two passages mentioned might be further evidenced by the light of sundry considerations but that we judge the premises already levied sufficient to establish that conclusion It being then so clear a case that there were some members of Churches in the Apostles days who were unbaptized at least for a time it undenyably follows that Baptism is no Constitutor of Churches as the beloved notion of my Anti-querist beareth Concerning that Copweb-piece stiled by the Author Some Baptismal abuses briefly discovered wherewith some silly flies as I understand have been intangled and catched there is a besome preparing for the brushing away of that also from the Temple of God so far as it is catching and hath not been dismantled by the contents of these papers For the tail of it wherein the sting and the worst of the poyson lies hath been cut off and swept away hereby THE ANATOMY OF Ana-Baptism ANa-Baptism is by the Modern Architects of it built upon Foundations or Grounds of three sorts Some 1. True but not pertinent 2. Fals and therefore not pertinent 3. Conjecturall onely and therefore very little pertinent 1. Of the first sort are 1. All those Texts of Scripture on which they mis-ground first their Opinion and then their Practictise As Mat. 19. 28. Mar. 16. 16. Act. 2. 38 41. Act. 8. 37. Rom. 6. 3 4. Coloss. 2. 12. Heb. 6. 2. possibly with some others These are true Grounds of Doctrines and practises corresponding but are irrelative to the Doctrine and Practise of Ana-Baptism 2. Of this sort also are these and some other like Tenents upon which they build their said Fabrick 1. That in the Scripture there is no particular or expresse either Precept or Example for Infant-Baptism 2. That no Ordinance of Christ can be neglected or omitted without sin This rightly understood and with due limitation is a truth also but thus understood it reacheth not their practise 2. Of the second sort are these 1. That in case Infants were not Baptized in the dayes of Iohn the Baptist nor of Christ nor of his Apostles then ought not Baptism to be administred unto Infants now 2. That Circumcision was neither sign nor seal of the Righteousness of Faith or of the Covenant of Grace but unto the person of Abraham onely 3. That Baptism it self is no Seal of the Covenant of Grace unto any person whatsoever but a sign onely 4. That an Administration of Baptism made to professing Beleevers doth more conduce unto and better answer the ends of Baptism then that which is made to Infants 5. That Infant-Baptism is disagreeable to the Ministration of the New Testament 6. That none ought to be Baptized but such who in their own person appear voluntarily willing to be Baptized in obedience unto God 7. That Infant-Baptism is a nullitie 8. That Infant-Church-member-ship was a Leviticall Ceremonie and abolished with the rest of the Legall Ceremonies by Christ in the Gospell 9. That a profession of Faith whether reall or feigned is a more warrantable ground whereon to administer Baptism then an estate in Grace though attested by God himself 10. That any Person un-baptized may without special Commission from God and without proof-making of such a Commission administer Baptism and that such a mans Administration together with all the administrations lineally descending from it is the Institution of Christ 11. That any person whatsoever pretending to beleeve and to have been baptized whether invested into any Office or not may as lawfully administer Baptism as he that is an Officer in a Church 12. That not simply Baptism but the administration of Baptism to beleevers onely is an Ordinance of Christ properly so called 13. That there can be no warrantable ground for the administration of an Ordinance to such or such a subject or after such or such a manner but either a particular and express precept for or example of the one and the other 14. That there ought to be a resemblance or similitude between the sign and the thing signified as there is between the bush and the wine in the Vintners celler and was between the streight pole on which the brazen Serpent was lift up and the cross timber on which the Lord Christ was Crucified and again between the Rain-bow and the safty of the Earth from drowning between Circumcision and the Covenant which God made with Abraham and his seed 15. That the Baptizing of Infants is unlawful because it is not a Ordinance of Christ 16. That obedience to external Rites Ordinances and Institutions is to be preferred before obedience to the Law of nature or to the precepts of the Moral Law 17. That no circumstance mentioned in the Tenour of an Institution or observed in the first Administration thereof can without sin either be omitted or varied in after Administrations upon any occasion or consideration whatsoever 18. That persons baptized after the new mode of dipping though void of saving Grace and strangers unto Holiness are notwithstanding by vertue of such their Baptism rendered visible Saints whereas others not so baptized are invisible notwithstanding the greatest Exemplariness of Saint-ship in the whole course of their lives and conversations otherwise 19. That children under the Gospel are more unworthy more unmeet less capable subjects of Baptism then they were of circumcision under the Law 20. That it was better and more edifying unto men to receive the initiating or first Sacramental pledg of Gods Fatherly love and care in the time of their Infancy under the Law and that now under the Gospel it is worse and less edifying unto

VVater-Dipping NO Firm Footing for Church-Communion OR CONSIDERATIONS Proving it not simply lawful but necessary also in point of Duty for persons baptized after the new mode of Dipping to continue Communion with those Churches or imbodied Societies of Saints of which they were Members before the said Dipping And that to betray their Trust or Faith given unto Jesus Christ to serve him in the relation and capacity whether of Officers or other Members in these Churches respectively by deserting these Churches is a sin highly provoking in the sight of God Together with a Post-script touching the pretended Answer to the Forty Queries about Church-communion Infant and after Baptism By John Goodwin a Servant of God in the Gospel of his dear Son Ye did run well who did hinder you that ye should not obey the Truth Gal. 5. 7. Let them return unto thee but return not thou unto them Jer. 15. 19. If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies Fulfil ye my joy be ye like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory c. Phil. 2. 1 2 3. London Printed by J. M. for Henry Cripps and Lodowick Lloyd and are to be sold at their shop in Popes-head Alley 1653. To the Reader Good Reader HOw thou wilt interpret or accept of the Considerations here presented unto thee I know not The ground of my doubt is because they are but as so many candles lighted up to shew unto men the Sun Never did my pen labor in a cause more expedite and facil yet this I confess is fully balanced with the unreasonableness and difficulty of conviction in those persons with whom I have chiefly to do And since all proof ought to be made by somewhat more manifest and better known then the conclusion in question he whose task it is to prove that twice two make four must needs have an hard Province to manage My engagement in these Papers is upon the matter only to prove That Jesus Christ doth not require of his Followers to be promise-breakers for his sake much less for a Ceremonies sake when the matter of these promises is just and holy and good least of all when these promises have been solemnly made and as in his own presence and unto persons relating in Faith and Holiness unto himself It is a polique Maxim maintained by the Consistory of Rome that Promises are not to be kept with Heretiques but that promises should not be kept with Saints and true Beleevers and so acknowledged certainly is the apprehension and conceit of a troubled and maimed fancy And I confess that the cure of a misused and distempered fancy is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} little better then an hopeless undertaking seldom atchieved by art or skill sometimes by chance or Providence out of course However my small pains in teaching these Papers to speak as they do shall be largely rewarded if God shall only please to use them as a Shield wherewith to defend those which are yet whole and sound from like impressions of distemper Thine to serve thee in the things both of thy present and eternal Peace J. G. CONSIDERATIONS Proving it not simply lawful but necessary also in point of Duty for persons Baptized after the new mode of Diping to continue in Communion with those Churches or imbodied Societies of Saints of which they were Members before the said Dipping or Baptizing and that to betray their Trust or Faith given unto Jesus Christ to serve him in the relation and capacity whether of Officers or other Members in these Churches respectively by deserting these Churches is a sin highly provoking in the sight of God CONSIDERATION I. IT is evident from many notable passages of Scripture that God himself hath given a kind of Superintendency or power of Regulation unto the Law of Nature the dictates and duties thereof over Institutions and Ceremonial Commands and the observations of these even as he hath given a like power unto some Institutions over others Mat. 12. 5. so that when and whilest the observation of an Institution or Ceremony cannot take place or be practised without trespassing upon some branch or other of the said Law of Nature then and so long the said observation is to give place nor is the Law of God requiring it in such a case broken or disparaged in the least Have ye not read saith our Saviour to the Phaerssees what David did when he was an hungered and they that were with him How he entered into the House of God and did eat the shewbread which was not lawful for him to eat viz. in ordinary cases neither for them which were with him but for the Priests only Mat. 12. 3 4. And soon after But if ye had known what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice ye would not have condemned the guiltless For the Son of man * is Lord even of the Sabbath day Again a few verses after What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day will he not lay hold on it and lift it out How much then is a man better then a sheep Elsewhere If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there rememberest that thy Brother hath ought against thee Leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then offer thy gift Mat. 5. 23 24. Our Brethren in stead of reconciling themselves to their Brethren fall out with them and then go and offer their gift of Dipping From the same lips in another place this dew of Heaven falleth The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath Mark 2. 27. Circumcision was a great Institution of God and obedience unto it most strictly and solemnly commanded Yet they to whom it was particularly commanded omitted the observation and practise of it for forty years together and this without any other warrant dispensation relaxation or permission from God but only that which by the Light and Law of Nature he granted unto them and yet are blameless And yet it may be worthy consideration that the inconvenience in Nature I mean the degree of smart pain trouble or danger in any kind the prevention and avoyding whereof they judged and truly a sufficient dispensation from God for a forbearance of Circumcision during their travel was not so great or threatening but that in probability they might have endured it without the loss of any of their lives The Jews of later times though rigid enough in their Doctrine concerning the observation of their Sabbath yet have this maxim Periculum vitae pellit Sabbatum Peril of life drives away the Sabbath But on the contrary it is no where to be found in Scripture that God giveth any superintendency unto Institutions or Ceremonial