Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
opinion_n	church_n	council_n	trent_n	1,107	5	10.4717	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36539	A collection of texts of Scripture, with short notes upon them, and some other observations against the principal popish errors; Abrégé des controverses. English	Drelincourt, Charles, 1595-1669.; Comber, Thomas, 1645-1699.	1688 (1688)	Wing D2160B; ESTC R14004	125,272	218

pure from Sin Psal 19. 13. Who can understand his Errors Psal 130. 2. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquities who shall stand Therefore Psal 143. 3. Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified Job 9. 2. I know it is so of a truth For how should Men be just with God If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand Job 15. 14. For what is Man that he should be clean or he that is born of a Woman that he should be righteous Isa 64. 6. For we are all as an unclean Thing and our Righteousness as filthy Rags 1 Joh. 1. 8. If we say that we have no Sin we deceive our selves Jam. 3. 4. For in many things we offend all none excepted Of Baptism CHAP. XXIV That Baptism is absolutely necessary to Salvation so that those who die without Baptism are damned Concil Triden Sess 7. Can. 5. Bellarm. de Amiss grat stat peccat lib. 2. cap. 6. THE Necessity of Baptism we constantly maintain and that it is a Law of Christ which he hath establish'd in the Gospel to be for ever observed But we think it very uncharitable to determine that all those that die without it are absolutely excluded from the Grace of Christ nor have all of the Church of Rome been of this uncharitable Opinion But it is supposed that Martyrdom or Penance and Acts of Faith Hope and Charity may supply the Defects of it But if Children which are not capable of these die without Baptism they very uncharitably hold that they are excluded from all part in Jesus Christ Which being the general Opinion the Sense of the Council of Trent is to be supposed to intend it But by what hath been said in the foregoing Chapter it appears that the Grace of God is not absolutely tied to the Sacraments but is rather presupposed unto them So that there is sometimes Sanctification Justification and the other Graces before the use of the Sacraments As Abraham believed and was justified before he was circumcised Rom. 4. 10. Cornelius received the Holy Spirit before he was baptized Acts 10. 19. And our Adversaries are forc'd to grant that there may be Acts of Faith and Hope and Charity without or before the Application of them As the Thief on the Cross believed though he was never baptized Luke 23. 42. Even after those words were spoken by our Saviour Except a Man be born again of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Now if there may be this Grace of Faith without Baptism then so likewise there may be Salvation For John 3. 16. God so loved the World that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life So that if they may believe without Baptism then so likewise they may be saved as we see the Thief on the Cross was who entred into Paradise without being baptized Sacraments are Seals of Grace which they serve to increase and confirm as being before but they do not give Grace or Salvation any other ways than as they confirm the Covenant by which it is promised to them who are in it It is not the Sacraments then which make Children to have part in the Covenant of God and the Fruits thereof tho by these Rights they are visibly initiated into the fellowship of the Catholick Church But on the contrary they receive the Sacraments because they belong to the Covenant of God before Gen. 17. 7. God made a Covenant with Abraham for himself and his Seed to be a God unto thee saith he and thy Seed after thee and upon this they were to receive the Token of Circumcision as a Seal of the Covenant vers 11. So that Circumcision followed the Clauses of the Covenant and did not give them a right to it nor make them the Children of God out presupposed their being so So in the New Testament God hath taken Children into Covenant together with their Parents that believe so that their Children are holy already before they are baptized and that from the very Birth as being born within the Covenant of Grace 1 Cor. 7. 13 14. The unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the Wife and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband else were your Children unclean but now are they holy By which he cannot understand Legitimate in opposition to Bastardy for so they would have been being born in Matrimony though neither of their Parents had believed But he means they are holy to God by virtue of the Covenant by which he is the Parent 's God and the God of their Posterity Gen. 17. 7. And if the Lord be the God also of Children and if they be holy being sprung from the Righteous Seed how can they possibly perish though they die unbaptized For though it be a federal Holiness only which can be directly argued from words yet it must be supposed to be such a federal Holiness as intitles them to saving Benefits contained in the Covenant which therefore if they die before their actual breach of the Covenant they shall not fail to attain Mat. 19. 14. Our Saviour therefore ●aith Suffer little Children to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven Note that as the Crown which is put on the Head of the Children of Kings doth not acquire to them a right to the Kingdom but because the Kingdom belongs to them the Crown which is the Symbol thereof cannot be denied them So Baptism doth not acquire to Infants a right to the Kingdom of Heaven but because the Kingdom of Heaven is obtained for them by the Blood of Jesus Christ Baptism which is the Sacrament thereof is administred to them But the Promise of God for not being sealed with the outward Sacrament is never the less true nor less constant Baptism succeeded Circumcision and cometh in the room of it and is of the same use to us as Circumcision to the Jews as the Apostle teacheth Col. 2. 11 12. And Circumcision was as necessary to the Israelites as Baptism is to us But now behold the Ordinance of Circumcision Gen. 17. 12. Every Child that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you Luke 12. 3. In the eighth day the Flesh of his Foreskin shall be circumcised It was not to be done before the eighth day there is no exception made in case of necessity Yet shall we say that if they died before the eighth day being uncircumcised that then they were not saved What a cruel Law had that been then to limit Circumcision to the eighth day David's Child died on the seventh day and therefore before it was circumcised 2 Sam. 12. 18. And yet he doth not doubt of the Child's Salvation vers 23. I shall go to him but he shall not come to me Sure he doth not mean in Limbus or in Hell but in the place of the Blessed And many of the Children of Israel in

the Wilderness that were not circumcised no doubt died in that time Josh 5. 5. And shall we think therefore they were all deprived of eternal Salvation And what became of the other Sex that were not capable of Circumcision if the Sacrament of Circumcision were absolutely necessary to Salvation And if that was not absolutely necessary then why is Baptism so For if Baptism be so absolutely necessary to eternal Salvation that all Children dying without it should be excluded from the Grace of Christ then an infinite number of Children would meerly perish by the Fault or negligence of others without their own This would make the Salvation of a Child to depend upon the Will of a Midwife If she baptizeth the Child after his coming forth of the Womb behold he is saved but if she crusheth him behold he is lost for ever What can be more unreasonable than this Ezek. 18. 20. The Soul that sinneth it shall die The Son shall not bear the Iniquity of the Father But if a little Child be not baptized this doth not come from his Fault and sure he shall not be punish'd for the negligence of his Parents or for want of opportunity When Moses neglected to circumcise his Son Exod. 4. God spared the Child in that he was Innocent but sought to kill Moses for his carelesness in the omission Note therefore that when it is said Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved It is plain from the following words that Baptism is not of the same necessity with Faith for it is added only and he that believeth not shall be damned But it is not said He that is not baptized shall be damned if so be he hath Faith. But that Baptism is join'd to Faith in the Promise it is to signify and express our duty of publickly testifying our Faith in Christ by our being baptized in his Name So that Baptism is here required only as it denotes our external profession of the Faith of Christ which is to be notified by Baptism as the solemn and visible Sign of it Baptism being a Right divinely instituted for that end So again when it is said Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized for the remission of Sin. And Chap 22. 16. Arise and be baptized and wash away thy Sins calling on the Name of the Lord. It is so required and exprest because Men express and testify their Faith and Repentance by Baptism that they may obtain remission of Sin. And 't is by Baptism that God seals to them remission of Sin upon their Repentance and Faith in Christ therein testified and express'd 'T is the faithful undertaking of the Baptismal Covenant that is the condition of Salvation And Baptism it self is required only as it is necessary to notify and own this our Consent and Covenant unto others And if we perform the Condition the want of the use of the Sign when it doth not arise from our own neglect shall not hurt us As for John 3. 5. and Tit. 3. 5. see in the former Chapter Observe only this farther that by reason of the Opinion of the absolute necessity of Baptism to Salvation the Church of Rome hath impowred Midwives or any other Person to administer it in case of peril of Death But this Opinion being overthrown it is evident that that Practice is groundless it being the contempt which is a virtual rejection of the Christian Faith and not a bare want of it that is damning Moreover it is plain that our Saviour hath committed the administration of the Sacrament to those to whom he committed the Office of Teaching Matth. 28. 19 20. Go teach all Nations baptizing them But this Office was committed to the Apostles and their Successors in the Ministry and not to Women to whom the Apostle hath prohibited it therefore so is the administration of Baptism prohibited to them likewise Of the Lord's Supper CHAP. XXV That after the Consecration there remains no more of the Substance of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament but that there is a Transubstantiation or a change of the substance of Bread and Wine into the proper substance of the Body and Blood of Christ Council of Trent Sess 13. chap. 4. Can. 2. THE Foundation upon which this portentous Doctrine is built are our Saviour's words of Institution Mat. 26. 27 28. and Luke 22. 19. Jesus Christ took Bread and brake it and gave unto them saying This is my Body which is given unto you this do in remembrance of me Now we do not question but that our Saviour made his words good but the Question is In what sense our Saviour's Words are to be understood whether in a literal and proper or in a figurative Sense The Church of Rome saith in the literal and proper we say in the figurative Sense and so consequently that in them there is no Foundation of Transubstantiation Now to make this clear we argue thus If there be no necessity to understand them in the sense of Transubstantiation and there be a great deal of Reason to understand them in the figurative Sense in which we understand them and that it is very absurd and unreasonable to understand them otherwise then they ought to be understood in the Sense in which we understand them For we ought certainly to understand them in that Sense which it is most reasonable to understand them in Now that there is no necessity to understand them in the Sense of Transubstantiation and that there is a great deal of Reason to understand them otherwise may appear by these following Observations The Sense in which we understand them is very agreeable to the Custom and Usage and Manner of speaking which was very familiar among the Jews with whom such figurative Expressions were very common For we have many of this sort in Scripture it being usual in the Hebrew Language to say Things are that which only thy signify and represent As Gen. 41. 26. Joseph tells Pharaoh The seven good Kine are seven Years i. e. they signify and represent them And the seven good Ears of Corn are seven Years And so in the matter of the Sacraments as Circumcision is called the Covenant Gen. 17. 9. and yet in the following Verse is expounded to be only the Token of it So the Paschal Lamb is called the Lord's Passover Exod. 12. 11. Yet by Verse 13. appears as in all reason it was to be only a sign of it So Baptism is called the washing of Regeneration because it was the Sign and Seal of it And the Cup is by our Saviour called the New Testament because likewise it was the Seal of it where the Cup is also taken for the Wine in the Cup. Our Saviour speaking of himself saith I am the Door Joh. 10. 9. and I am the true Vine Joh. 15. 1. the Church of Rome would have mightily triumphed in it if it had been said This is my true Body yet no Body takes these Expressions