Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	baptism_n	baptize_v	infant_n	2,779	5	9.3007	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39261	The necessity of serious consideration, and speedy repentance, as the only way to be safe both living and dying. By Clement Elis, M.A. Rector of Kirkby in Nottinghamshire	Ellis, Clement, 1630-1700.	1691 (1691)	Wing E566; ESTC R171929	98,541	214

be pardon'd and saved That therefore which the Gospel calls and admits us to is a state of Repentance whereinto we enter by Baptism Adult persons already come to the use of Reason must repent that is bid adieu to their old wicked way of life and resolve upon a new and holy one before they be baptized And Christian Infants by Baptism covenant to lead a life of repentance when they come to understanding And none are to delay this wilfully but always as they are able to understand the state whereunto they are called and wherein they are engaged to make good their part of the new Covenant which is to live in sincere obedience to Christ and always to repent of their failings as they are able to discover them Thus he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved Mar. XVI 16. How Shall he be saved though he live as long as he will in his Sins after he is baptized No but if he die after Baptism before any actual sin and in a purpose not to commit any such he shall be saved and if he do commit sin afterward and speedily repent of it not wilfully continuing therein he shall be saved But if he wilfully continue in his Sins which in Baptism he renounced 't is no-where told him that he shall be saved Baptism saveth us saith the Apostle 1 Pet. I. 3 21. But then he saith too 'T is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God If our Consciences being examined can answer us truly that we covenanted sincerely and keep covenant faithfully Baptism saveth us But what was it we promised To repent and begin to live an holy life at such or such an Age or when we grow old and are going to dye or after we have had our fill of sinning some time or other when we shall think it most convenient Was it not this we promised To keep God's holy will and commandments all the days of our life Was it not this Charge that Christ gave his Apostles when he gave them Authority and Command to baptize Teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you Matth. XXVIII 20. What for some few days of their life or for the whole remaining part of it St. Paul shall answer this Question Rom. VI. 2. Shall we saith he that are dead to sin live any longer therein What means he by saying We are dead to sin Is it not that we are by our Baptism engaged to live in Sin no longer Know ye not saith he again that so many of us as were baptized into Iesus Christ were baptized into his death v. 3. And what will follow thence This is that which he tells us v. 4. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life And then he adds v. 6. Our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroy'd that henceforth we should not serve sin Henceforth we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies that we should obey it in the lusts thereof Neither to yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but to yield our selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God v. 12 13. Henceforth then that is from the time that we are called to repentance by the Gospel and are baptized into Christ we are to lead a life as St. Paul saith Eph. IV. 1. worthy of the vocation wherewith we are call'd and that 's a life of sincere Obedience and unfeigned Repentance To sin at all is a transgression of the Law and that 's mortal in it self but that the Gospel comes in to our succour and gives us the privilege of Repentance If then we delay our Repentance so graciously indulged unto us we sin against the mercy of the Gospel as well as against the righteousness of the Law we reject our Pardon most lovingly tender'd unto us by our unwillingness to comply with the Terms on which it is offer'd us and if we be sick unto death and will not in time apply the only remedy provided for us in our otherwise desperate case what can we expect but to dye and what pity can we deserve if we die And yet too many are apt enough to encourage themselves to hold out still longer against all Calls and Invitations to a speedy Repentance upon the most deceitful grounds imaginable Because they read in the Prophet Ezek. XVIII 27. When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his soul alive And because many have lived a long time very wickedly and yet have been converted at length and accepted of God upon their conversion and repentance they are apt to think it no such ill thing as they are told it is to delay their Repentance a-while longer and therefore venture on it in hopes they may be accepted hereafter as well as others have been Now for men to flatter themselves thus upon so very slender grounds is so very foolish a thing that one who considers not how much the love men have to Sin is become too hard for their reason to answer how weakly soever it plead for it self would exceedingly wonder how any reasonable creature should be guilty of it It is indeed very true and God's Holy Name be for ever Blessed for it that God will accept of the true Repentance of great Sinners who have lain long in their Sins without Repentance and this is a good reason why one that hath continued long in Sin should not despair but if he yet Repent he may hope to be Saved But is it therefore as good a reason why he should delay his Repentance in hopes to Repent hereafter I have not yet said that no man who hath been long an Impenitent Sinner can never Repent or shall not be pardon'd if he Repent though I am in doubt whether or no a Sinner that Repents not till he come to die can have a pardon upon so late a Repentance But that which I have said is this That all delay of Repentance is exceedingly sinful and therefore nothing ought to be pleaded for it no man should dare to encourage himself in it It is a Sin against the Gospel of Christ which is the only foundation Sinners have to raise their hope of Salvation upon 'T is I think beyond all dispute that though the Gospel of Christ assure Salvation to the Penitent yet it hath not assured Repentance to him who delayeth it It calleth Sinners to Repentance without exception whether they have been so a longer or a shorter time and promiseth acceptance but doth it allow them to take what time they please for it after they are called Doth it tell them that they may safely

repent and what will become of us then How long any one may delay his Repentance before it be too late in this sense no man living can tell him And therefore whoso is wise will not delay his Repentance at all Of this I shall say more afterwards at present I shall endeavour to make us all a little more sensible of the sinfulness of delaying and driving off our Repentance and the keeping of God's Commandments from day to day how contrary it is to all Scripture and Reason And truly this delay is so contrary to both these that it seems very wonderful how any one should not be ashamed as well as afraid to use it There can be nothing in the World more absurd than for a man at once to profess he believes the Gospel and owns the duty of Repentance as necessary and to delay this duty for this delay seems no less than a bold attempt to cancel and blot out the whole Gospel at one dash and to change the order and method which God hath prescribed for the bringing of Sinners to Salvation for a new one of our own contriving It seems I say the making of a new Gospel for our selves and a new way to Blessedness which God never approved of nor allow'd And is not this as absurd as to set our selves in our Saviour's stead and a taking upon us to make for our selves a new and easier way to Heaven That I may not seem to say this without good reason let it seriously be consider'd That Repentance is not only a duty but the special priviledge of the Gospel The good news which the Angels brought from Heaven was That God had sent us the Saviour whom he had in the beginning promised to Sinners and the good News that our Saviour brought us was That God would for his sake accept of the Sinner's Repentance and Faith in him And this was blessed Tidings indeed to a sinful World told 't is true before in the Old Testament and shadow'd forth in the Law but now most fully declared and gloriously confirm'd by JESUS CHRIST in the New Testament The Law of Innocence and Covenant of Works made with Adam allow'd of no such thing as Repentance All it said was this Do this and live do it not and dye In the day thou eatest thereos thou shalt surely dye Gen. II. 17. The first breaking of the Law was death There could be no safe delaying to keep it because every delay of keeping it was a breaking of it for it was a not doing of the Commandment and that was death And it must be kept from first to last for every ceasing to do what was commanded was a not doing of what was commanded and to this death was threaten'd No repentance therefore could have place under this Covenant It was the New Covenant of Grace that made way for Repentance and this is the Gospel-grace that Sinners who have broken God's Law and for that are by the Sentence of the Law doom'd to die shall yet if they repent find mercy with God through JESUS CHRIST This is the Gospel which the Apostle saith was preached before to Abraham Gal. III. 8. and therefore was before the Law of Moses so long that it was first preach'd by God in that gracious Promise of the seed of the woman Gen. III. 15. If Repentance had not been allow'd of from the first man 's sinning even all along to the coming of our Saviour into the World as well as after his coming then had all men during that long tract of time for about four thousand years perished in their sins But to prevent this it pleased God that so soon as the Law was broken the Gospel should be preach'd that men might believe and repent and be saved In a most astonishing condescension to the weakness of Sinners he mitigated the rigor of the Law and was pleas'd to accept henceforward of a sincere obedience to it instead of a perfect fulfilling of it Heartily a man must endeavour to do the whole will of God and whatever failings he finds in himself he must as heartily repent of them and believe that God for CHRIST his sake will not only forgive him his repented failings but also reward his sincere Obedience with Eternal Life This is the Grace of the Gospel but this admits of no delay of our sincere obedience or of our repentance but makes it our duty every day sincerely to obey and unfeignedly to repent and he that doth not so daily sinneth against the Gospel of Grace and he that hopeth for Salvation whilst he thus daily sinneth against the Gospel of Grace must needs frame to himself in his imagination some other Gospel than that which Christ hath preach'd as the foundation of his Hope The Gospel of Christ gives no man leave to continue one moment in sin and impenitence It shews an easier way to Heaven than the Law did and assures us of pardon and salvation upon our repentance which the Law did not but it hath not left Sin to be any part of our way to Heaven nor assured any one that delayeth to repent that he shall ever come thither Our Blessed Saviour came not to call Sinners immediately to Heaven or to assure them of Blessedness whether they lead a life of repentance or no but he came to call sinners to repentance Matt. IX 13. and so to put them into the new way to life which was opened unto them through him His Forerunner Iohn the Baptist he sent before to prepare his way by his Preaching and Baptism The substance of whose Preaching was this The kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the Gospel Mar. I. 15. He preached the Baptism of Repentance for the remission of sins v. 4. And the first preaching of our Holy JESUS was to the same purpose He began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand Matth. IV. 17. And sending out the Twelve to preach we find the Business they were sent about was the very same Mar. VI. 12. They went out and preached that men should repent For this was God's will That Repentance and remission of sins should be preach'd in Christ's name among all Nations Luke XXIV 47. When St. Peter's Auditors were moved with his Discourse on the day of Pentecost and began to be inquisitive what course to take for themselves he thus directs them Acts II. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins Now what doth all this signify but that as many Sinners as hearing this comfortable Gospel believe it and are thereupon willing to leave their former sinful course of life and to bind themselves in a new Covenant by Baptism to live a holy life in all sincerity and uprightness of heart always as they find themselves failing repenting of their faults and endeavouring to do better shall through the Merits of Christ in whom they have believed