Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	church_n	member_n	visible_a	3,184	5	9.3025	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37484	Truth defended. or, A triple answer to the late triumvirates opposition in their three pamphlets viz. Mr. Baxter's review, Mr. Wills his censure, Mr. Whiston's postscript to his essay, &c. With Mr. Hutchinson's letter to Mr. Baxter a little before his death. And a postscript in answer to Mr. William Walker's modest plea for infants baptism. By Tho. DeLaune.	De Laune, Thomas, d. 1685.	1677 (1677)	Wing D897; ESTC R213236	99,906	139

charity exempt dying Infants from the benefit of that grace they having by no actual sins barred themselves from its saving communications And what Scripture can be produced that any one is damned meerly for the non-application of a Sacrament provided it to be not contemned I can no where find Ursinus tells us in his Catechism that it is not the want but the contempt of the Sacraments damns Privatio Sacramenti non damnat si non accedat contemptus Christus non adimit sal●tem eis quibus adimitur Baptismus The Consequences produced for Infant Baptism we find to be sophistical wretched Non-sequitur's and against the rules of that Logick so celebrated by the Authors that make them The Jewish high-Priesthood will prove a high-Priesthood now by as good Consequence of the faederal right then proves a faederal right now And the Passover being to be taken and eaten Exod. 12.4 according to the number of jouls in the house and by every one according to his eating and therefore by Children will afford a consequence of Infants right to the Supper as valid as that drawn from their Circumcision to their Baptism But that indeed there is no Birth-holiness now that being a legal priviledge abolisht and not comporting with the Gospel is unanswerably evident by this Argument If the legal commoness and uncleanness of some meats Flesh Birds Beasts Persons and their natural seed above others be taken away then the legal holiness and cleanness of some meats Flesh Birds Beasts Persons and their natural seed above others is also taken away But the Antecedent is true Ergo so is the Consequent The major is undenyable from these received Maxims Contrariorum eadem est ratio And Contrariorum uno sublato tollitur alterum viz. Of Contrary's take away one and the other cannot remain in its opposition to it any longer The minor is evident from Act. 10.11 to 28 Act. 11.2 to 9. Gal. 2.11 to 28. But to the matter VVe find the true reasons of the primitive Saints being Baptzed at age to be because they durst not recede from the Rule And that 's our reason for practicing as they did 4. VVe know no advantage accruing to Infants from their Baptism it makes them in your own esteem nominal not real Members of the visible Church And the name without the nature is worthless And the absurdities and inconveniencies of that practice are obvious in our VVritings The Gospel Church must consist of living Stones at least such as to our cognizance profess so to be not ignorant Babes untransformed out of their natural state 5. That we place too much of our Religion in an external mode is false suggestion not to be made out by Mr. Whistons Logick VVe profess to worship God in Spirit and Truth according to our measute and by Divine assistance in an exact conformity to his Revealed VVill. 6. Our enquiry's after the will of Christ are from the Revelations of his will in his word and if that be termed prepostero●s let our opposites find a better foundation for their enquiry's and it shall be considered VVe think it a fruitless and ●indeed preposterous undertaking to seek for the Institution of Baptism in Gen. 17.7 VVe have it nearer home in the New Testament and that we adhere to No Arguments from the pretended Analogy to Circumcision are deemed by us of any greater force then those drawn from the Levitical Priesthood and its Ceremonious appurtenances to vindicate the Papal or National Prelacy and its concomitant rites In Mr. Whistons 1 Book he layes down his grand proposition p. 1. thus That it is the will of our Lord Jesus Christ that the Infant seed of one or both believing Parents should be baptized To prove which p. 2. he layes down three subordinate propositions viz. That God in Gen. 17.7 Intended Abraham and his natural seed 2. That God settled the same promise upon and confirmed it to believing Gentiles 3. That all under the promise ought to be Baptized Page 3. He distinguishes Abrahams seed into natural and spiritual or Mystical p. 4. He subdistinguishes the spiritual or Mystical into visible and Denominative 2. Invisible and Real Rom. 9.6 Tells us p. 5. That Baptism doth not properly incorporate into the body of Christ as invisible but as visible p. 7. Sayes the difference between both Seeds is only Respective because the same persons in different respects may be both his Natural and Spiritual Seed Natural Seed are such as descend immediatly from Abrahams own Lovns or 2. his whole race and Posterity p. 10 He sayes that under the term Seed both Natural and Mystical are comprehended p. 17. That under this Covenant both Jews and Gentiles are comprehended And that God had a peculiar regard to the Natural Seed that Parents performing the Conditions of the Covenant convey to their Children the same Interests themselves had Cap. 1 p. 19. He labours to prove that all Abrahams immediate Natural seed were intended as the immediate subjects of his promise Gen 17.7 p. 36. That the Covenant made with Abraham was a Covenant of Grace And the same for substance that believers are now under That it was conditional p. 51. A Covenant being a mutual compact p. 52. That the Condition required of Abraham was also required of his Natural Seed p. 54. Chap. 4. p. 64 The 2 d. subordinate proposition is Prosecuted into which service these Scriptures are pressed Deut. 29.10 to 13. Isa 59.21 and 65.25 and 44.3 4. Jer. 3.12 Ezek. 37.21 22. with Rom. 11.26 That is the same Covenant Jews and Gentiles are under Jer. 31.31 with Heb. 8.8 Isa 54.1 with Gal. 4.27 Hos 1.11 and 2 3. with Rom. 9.25 26. Amos 9.11 with Acts 15.20 so out of the New Testament Gal. 3.13 14. Chap. 6. p 104. He proceeds to make our that the promise of Salvation appertains to the houses of believing Parents as such without respect to the personal faith of any in the said houses of such besides there own for which he urges Mar. 10.31 Luke 19.8 9. Acts 2.38 39. and 16.31 1 Cor. 7.14 And p. 106. sayes the promise believers are under is not absolute but Conditional and so it must be understood of their houses which Condition he expounds p. 108. viz. That the Master of the Family believing his house shall be saved upon Condition of his believing He affirms ibid. that Children in an especial manner are included and comprehended under the term house p. 203. That the Interest of any of Abrahams natural seed arises from their Relation to their immediate Parents included in the phrase their generations Affirms p. 205. that the Infant seed of believing Gentiles are to be accounted of numbred amongst Abrahams Mystical seed Chap. 7. p. 213. The 3 d. subordinate proposition is prosecuted from Gen. 17.9 That as Circumcision of old so Baptism is now the token of that Covenant And p. 222. That the will of God concerning Circumcision shews us what is his will concerning Baptism

can there be made but must be obnoxious to this censure We ascribe nothing to our own wisdom it is the beneplaeitum or good pleasure of the Lord to reveal his Truths to Babes which are hid from the wise and prudent Luk. 10.21 for which we must as Christ did express our thankfulness And no man must presume to call him to account for the exercise of his Soveraignty We believe that a great many hold Infant Baptism purely out of Conscience because they think the grounds urged for it from Scripture be valid and that if they were satisfied as we are of its unlawfulness they would renounce the practice as a great many do upon the accession of more light 2 That vast multitudes hold it out of pure ignorance 3 Some because it was the opinion of their Ancestors and is so generally owned 4 Most from that wretched and mischievous conceit with which except some few of the most refined Protestants the world is intoxicated viz. that WITHOVT IT THEIR CHILDREN ARE DAMNED 5 Many of the great and learned ones hold it because it is the Cornerstone of the Ecclesiastical Fabrick erected by the man of sin against which they must not declare if they will be Ministers of that State 6 Most are brought up in that way and never examine it whether right or wrong 7 Some that would examine it judge that so great a part of the world would not hold it if it were unlawfull and so are led by an implicite Faith 8 Some that examine it are byassed by Interest or Education so that the clearest Argument or Reason cannot remove them 9 Some are indeed convinced by the force of Truth yet the love of the world or some such sinister end hinders their owning so despised and uncountenanced a practice And a great many through grace are convinced and wrought upon to own it and be●r their testimony to it and certainly the testimony though but of a few that are not blinded with temporal ends and that cannot be charged upon us but swim painfully against the stream is not to be slighted Obj. But you make an Idol of it and censoriously condemn all that differ from you Answ This is an injurious charge for we ascribe no more to it then is warranted in the Word of God We look upon it as the initiating Ordinance into a Gospel profession Act. 2.41 42. An Ordinance of Christ of the s●me duration with preaching Mat. 28.19 A lively resemblance of the Death Burial and Resurrection of Christ Rom. 6.4 Col. 2.12 And we conceive it our duty to be found in the practice and profession of it though we undergo the censures and affronts of the age we live in thereby We make no Idol of it nor does our Religion consist in it only we desire to press after Holiness and to worship our God in Spirit and Truth to walk blamelesly Nor do we condemn dissenters but pray for them that the Lord would give them more light We desire to love all men as far as they appear to us to belong to Christ and would walk together in love as f●r as we agree But when they erre from the Rule we dare go no further with them Magis amica veritas it being as Aristotle himself said l. 1. c. 6 Ethicorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sacred thing to prefer Truth before Friendship Daille tells us in his Right use of the Fathers p 97. that Justin Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian I may add Origen Cyprian Lactantius Hillary Ambrose Jerome Augustine and Epiphanius that is the most eminent and most approved of the Fathers that ever were have stumbled in many places and quite fallen away in others Of which they themselves were so sensible that they gave us many cautions not to lean upon their Authority Non ●ecipienda veterum Authoritas Scripturae testimonio destituta August Ep. 19. Ex omnibus Fatribus nemo est quin suis scriptis aliquando faede erraverit hallucinatus est Lubert de Eccles l. 3. c. 7. In libris Doctorum Ecclesiae aliquondo errores aliquando Haereses inveniuntur non est tamen ut condemnemus vel librum vtl Authorem Deus enim hoc permittit ut nos veritatem ex ipsis scripturis indagemus Anselm Comment in 2 Cor. Therefore it is the less to be wondred that such as suck their unexamin'd Religion from their mouths go astray with them Nor can we be censured of arrogance if upon the tryal of their documents we hold fast only that which is good The sober Author of the Naked Truth tells us p. 42. That in matters of Faith there were some errors very Primitive and at the time of the Evangelical Reformation by Luther Melancthon Calvin he can shew some errors generally received in most if not all the Churches of Christendom but neither approved nor known by the Primitive Church Now this being so let the sober judge what little reason or safety we have to be led by any mans ipse dixit I would not be understood in any thing I say about this matter to cry down humane learning as a thing of no use For I confess it to be of excellent benefit in its place if rightly employ'd and that the knowledge of the Original Languages in which the Scriptures are penn'd is of very great necessity that we might converse with that blessed Book in its own emphatical and Native Idiom and that we might not be imposed upon by wrong Translations Yet we are to consider the bounds of Philosophy and humane literature viz. it is to be exercised in the things that may be known by the light of Natural Reason but when it travels beyond that road and must needs be defining things beyond its sphear it becomes extravagant and sawcy Accinge te ad Philosophiam sed hac lege ut memineris nullam esse Philosophiam quae à mysteriorum veritate nos abdueat Philosophia veritatem quaerit Theologia invenit Religio possidet says Picus Mirandula ad Ald. Man Fire is good in the Chimney but mischievous in the House-top Learning is good as an handmaid Hagar-like but if it must needs be Mistress and usurp Authority in the Family if like scoffing Ishmael Gen. 21.9 Gal. 4.30 it will mock at the Spirit and the simplicity of the Gospel let it be cast out As Reason is above Sense so Faith is above Reason 'T is the work of Faith by the aid of Divine Revelation to be employ'd in the mysteries of Religion Therefore our Philosophers when they attempt that undertaking by the dim guidance of Natures light are guilty of as great an absurdity as if the eye should encroach upon the ear and would pretend to distinguish the various gradations of Musical Notes or the Quavers of a pleasant Instrument which it cannot so much perform as the dullest brute can imitate the warblings of the Nightingale Christ made choice of the despised and unlearned that his grace might be the more

So that whatever he urged against us afterwards which was but very faint too is upon record substantially confuted by his own pen. As to Dr. Hammond's Arguments they are largely and learnedly refelled by Mr. Tombs in the later Sections of the second and third part of his Review which Mr. Walker should have taken notice of and to which the enquiring Reader is now referred As to the stile and manner of Mr. Walker's writing against us I own it to be indeed for the most part modest and sober having not given himself the libert● of such an unsavoury treatment and unchristian Refl●●●●ons as is almost the common language of our other Antagonists And 〈◊〉 ground for his so fairly treating us in the beginning 〈…〉 Preface viz. as lying under the strongest prejud●●● 〈…〉 dissenters from the Church of England because 〈…〉 ingly fair pleas from Scripture and Ecclesiast 〈…〉 few of our fellow dissenters can paralli●● 〈…〉 more favour and kindness to be treat 〈…〉 ness and clearness ought our 〈…〉 candid and ingenuou● 〈…〉 As to the matter of his Book it is confess'd his labour in quoting so many Greek and Latine Authorities has not been small And Mr. Danvers before him gave through every Century a collection of their real as pretended Authorities And I confess freely that he hath much more to pretend from Antiquity then those have who assert Infant Baptism from a faederal right a Medium not to be found among the Fathers nor in the world as I can find till about Zuinglius his time in the 16th Century For all the Fathers that held the Baptism of Infants for these last 1200 years it has been in the world have asserted it and Vossius himself says that it was the mind of the Catholick Church Magnus est antiquitatis consensus quod Infantes per baptismum vitae ac felicitatis aeternae participes fiant p. 594. from its necessity to salvation Which dismal opinion growing common that none without baptism could be saved from John 3.5 mis-understood and the Interest of their Childrens salvation having so near an influence and impression upon them caused them to admit a conclusion of so great moment and concernment upon very easie and infirm considerations And hence came the pract●ce to give them as Baptism so the Lords Supper for 600 years together from its necessity also to salvation as they inferred it and indeed with as much reason as the other from John 6.53 By way of premise and to prevent Repetition I shall consider how far the practice of Antiquity so much lean'd upon by Mr. Walker and others is obliging to us and of what weight their Testimonies ought to be in deciding this Controversie And I shall lay this down for a principle which no man I presume will deny That Proofs ought to be fetcht from such things as are confess'd and acknowledged by our adversary whom we endeavour to convince otherwise we shall never be able to move him or make him quit his former opinion And therefore no proof from the Fathers to prove a matter of right is valid against us because we own ●ot their Authority To many indeed that 's a great argu 〈…〉 baptizing of Infants but to us as I said such 〈…〉 are so far from being of the first magnitude 〈…〉 collateral being as often brought for the 〈…〉 as truth 〈…〉 as a Rule or Standard to try 〈…〉 certain and undoubted and must carry with it a sufficient authority to satisfie the understanding which neither can nor indeed ought to believe any thing in point of Religion as the excellent Daille at large evinces but what it knows to be certainly true It is certain that in the proof of an Hypothesis to begin with the Fathers and humane Authority is to invert the natural order of things we ought first to have recourse to the Scriptures of truth that we may be assured that the thing is or ought to be before we make enquiry whether it hath been in the respective ages believed or not For to what purpose is it to find that the Ancients believed it unless we find withall in their writings some reason of this their belief and what harm is it to us to be ignorant whether Antiquity believed it or not so long as we know that the thing is Quod sacris Scripturis traditum non est non sine peccato inquiritur sive periculo ignoratur says Bull●nger The greatest admirers of the Fathers confess that though they erre little in matter of right yet are often out and have their failings in matter of fact because right is an universal thing every way uniform and all of one sort whereas matter of fact is a thing which is mixt and as it were enchas'd with divers particular circumstances which may easily escape the observation and knowledge of or at least be not so rightly understood by the most clear and piercing wits Now the condition of the Churches belief in every particular age is matter of fall and not right and a point of History not an Article of Faith He that will not examine the Reasons as well as the Opinions of men though of never so venerable names may be soon led into a labyrinth of error How consonant to Reason is it that we should alledge not the Names of Books but the Reasons and take notice not of the quality of their Authors but of the solidity of their proofs so to reduce the dispute from persons to things according to that memorable saying of Jerom Ep. 15. Non juxta Pytagorae Discipulos praejudicata doctoris opinio sed doctrinae ratio ponderanda est What is urged here is to reduce Controversies to be tried before the right bar viz. the Scriptures since that alone is of so sacred and undoubted authority as to oblige our belief to whatever is found there and against which no objections lie the Lord having by his gracious providence preserved them in the Church from the injuries of time ignorance and fraud from the beginning hitherto They have been kept with much greater care then any other Books translated into all Languages retained both by Orthodox and Hereticks diligently observing each other so that there could not possibly happen any remarkable alteration in them but that presently the whole world would have exclaimed against it whereas as learned Daille truly says much of the writings that go under the names of the Fathers are not truly sach and that the Hereticks vented their conceits under those eminent names to gain them repute And that their legitimate pieces are wonderfully corrupted and obscure and such are not proper for the decision of Controversies and incumbred with Rhetorical flourishes and Legical subtilties and that they have erred in divers points of Religion and contradicted one another in matters of great importance So that in this case we are to take the course that 's observed in all Sciences whatsoever we are to prove the truth we propose by such maximes