Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n
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A47740
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A discourse proving the divine institution of water-baptism wherein the Quaker-arguments against it are collected and confuted : with as much as is needful concerning the Lord's supper / by the author of The snake in the grass.
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Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing L1128; ESTC R13375
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53,245
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76
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of them So very wild is that Notion that there must be no Signs or Figures under the Gospel It would be much Truer if they had said That there are nothing else but Signs and Figures There is nothing else without a Figure but God! For all Creatures are Figures of Him Christ the Highest But have the Quakers no Figures G. Fox in his Saul's Errand p. 14. says That Christ's Flesh is a Figure They call the Body of Christ generally a Figure a Vail a Garment Then either they have none of it or they have Figures Richard Hubberthorn wrote Snake in the Grass 1st Part pag. 208. That Christ's coming in the Flesh was but a Figure He meant of the Inward coming of Christ or the Light in the Heart which they call the Substance and the Mystery of which Christ's Outward coming in the Flesh they say was but a Shadow or the History to use their own words G. Fox made a great Mystery or Figure of his Marriage which he said 2d Part p. 43. Was above the State of the first Adam in his Innocency in the State of the second Adam that never fell He wrote in one of his General Epistles to the Churches which were read and valu'd by the Quakers more than St. Paul's That his Marriage was a Figure of the Church coming out of the Wilderness This if deny'd I can Vouch undeniably but it will not be deny'd tho' it be not Printed with the rest of his Epistles but I have it from some that read it often But why was it not Printed That was a sad Story But take it thus He Marry'd one Margaret Fell a Widdow of about Threescore Years of Age and this Figure of the Church must not be Barren therefore tho' she was past Child-bearing it was expected that as Sarah she shou'd miraculously Conceive and bring forth an Isaac which G. Fox promis'd and boasted of and some that I know have heard him do it more than once She was call'd The Lamb's Wife And it was said amongst the Quakers That the Lamb had now taken his Wife and she wou'd bring forth an Holy Seed And Big she grew and all things were provided for the Lying in and he being perswaded of it gave notice to the Churches as above observ'd But after long waiting all prov'd Abortive and the Figure was spoil'd And now you may guess the Reason why that Epistle which mention'd this Figure was not Printed I wou'd have brought nothing into this Discourse that looks like a Jest but they have compelled me And it may be of use to them to shew them that while they throw off the Sacraments of Christ's Institution upon the Pretence that there must be no Signs or Figures under the Gospel they at the same time make Ridiculous Signs and Figures of G. Fox and his Fantastical Marriage and of several other things every thing almost among them is a Sign or Figure of something to come upon the World How many of their Lying Prophets have call'd themselves Signs to the Men of their Generation as the Holy Prophets were in their Day VII There have been Outward Signs in all the Institutions of Religion since the beginning of the World as well before as under the Law and now under the Gospel Only they have been vary'd or Ended according to what they praefigur'd Thus those Signs which had no further Tendency than to point out what Christ did or suffer'd upon Earth are fulfill'd and therefore Ended But there were some Signs which though they pointed to Christ upon Earth had yet a further Tendency For Signs may be appointed to more Ends than one Thus the Institution of the Sabbath was appointed for the Commemoration of God's Rest from the Works of the Creation Gen. ii 3. and Exod. xx 11. and likewise the rest of the Children of Israel who were the Type of the Church from their Captivity and Slavery in Egypt Deut. v. 15. which expresses the Servitude of Sin and Hell and their final Rest in Canaan the Type of Heaven after their forty Years wandering in the Wilderness which represent the Labours of this Life But this was not the Ultimate Rest or Sabbath Heb. iv 18. For if Joshua had given them Rest then wou'd he not afterward have spoken of another Day there remaineth therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the keeping of a Sabbath which signifies Rest to the People of God For he that is entred into his Rest he also hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his Thus Christ as he suffered the 6th Day of the Week the same Day that Man was created and fell so on the same Day on which God Rested from his Work of Creation viz. the 7th Day did Christ Rest in his Grave from his Work of Redemption And there is yet a farther Rest or Sabbath beyond this and that is the Eternal Rest in Heaven Heb. iv 11. Let us labour therefore to enter into that Rest Now though several Significations of the Sabbath are already past as the Deliverance out of Egypt the Entrance into Canaan and the Rest of Christ in his Grave Yet there being one behind that is the Sabbath of Heaven therefore do we still keep the Sabbath as a Type of it But there is another Reason for the Continuance of the Sabbath and that is That it was not only ordained as a Type of Things to come but as a Commemoration of what was past viz. Of God's Rest from his Works of Creation And by the Alteration of the Day of the Sabbath it serves likewise to us Christians as a Commemoration of the Resurrection of Christ and his Conquest over the Powers of Death and Hell It was the first Day in which Light was created and Christ who is our True Light of which the Visible Light is but a Shadow and was ordain'd as a Type Arose from the Dead the same Day and gave Light to those who sat in Darkness and the Shadow of Death by the Joyful Tidings of our Redemption from Hell and Eternal Bliss in Heaven Now so long as the Works of our Creation and Redemption are to be kept in Memory so long is the Sabbath to continue as a Commemoration of these Inestimable Benefits And by the same Reason so long as we ought to commemorate the Death and Passion of our Lord so long ought the Sacrament of it to continue which he Instituted in Remembrance of it and commanded it to be continu'd till his Coming again Thus you see that there are Signs under the Gospel not only the two Sacraments of the Church which flowed distinctly out of Christ's Side after his Death upon the Cross but that the Gospel does still retain the Signs of Commemoration which have descended down to us all the way from the Creation And likewise such Signs or Types as have yet a Prospect forward and are not wholly fulfill'd And 3 dly The Signs of Present Signification as the outward Acts of
Printed most of all these threw away Baptism And threaten'd an immediate and total Overthrow of the Christian Religion in this Island But by the great Mercy of God the Restauration of the Church with the King 1660. has extinguished the very Names and Memory of these all but 4 or 5 of the Principal Sects The Presbyterians Mother of all the rest Independents Ana-baptists Quakers and Muggletonians I am told of some Sweet-singers got up of late But they are yet inconsiderable They may Increase and all the rest Revive if warm'd by a Plenitude of Indulgence The Socinians or Unitarians are already got very high who make nothing of the Sacraments but as In-effectual Forms So think the Deists who pretend to higher Quality than these And the Latitudinarians will quarrel with none of these All Deists are Latitudinarians and tho' they despise Baptism and all Reveal'd Institutions yet they can submit to them because they are Established by Law as they would to any thing else rather than lose a Penny or their Ease But the Quakers and Muggletonians have more sincerely Rejected Baptism as not allowable because they think so III. The Presbyterians Independents c. do indeed use Baptism but as a thing so indifferent that many of them will suffer a Child to dye without it rather than Baptize it Privately or not upon a Sermon or Lecture-day or before Sermon rather than after it And an Instance can be given since this late Establishment of Presbytery in Scotland of a Child who dyed in the Church in Sermon-time but the Minister suffered that and the repeated Requests of the Parents rather than go out of his wonted method of Baptizing after Sermon he thought Baptism so little material But the People being us'd to a greater veneration of Baptism under the Episcopal Administration and taking the Presbyterian contempt of it somewhat uneasily the Presbyterian Ministers there to instruct them better had publick Preachments all over the Nation to shew the no Necessity of the Outward or Water-baptism I will not say the ENGLISH Presbyterians go so far they are one Degree further from the League Covenant I hear that they do now Administer Baptism PRIVATELY in and about London Which the Independents do still Refuse I have it from some of themselves let the case be never so urgent even tho' the child should dye without it before one of their Sermon or Lecture-days As for the other Sacrament of the Lord's Supper I hear that some Independent Congregations in London are come to use it Monthly And the Presbyterians more frequently than they us'd to do or than they do in other places The frequency of Communion in the Episcopal Churches in some manner forcing them to it that their people might not think themselves more neglected by them than others are But their own Inclination and the Value they have for this Sacrament will better appear by their Behaviour while they had the Power in their own hands and could Dictat to others instead of Following or Complying with them And during their Government in the late Revolution tho' they did not down-right as the Quakers declare War against it Extripate it at once yet they plainly seem'd to have had a design to have Inch'd it by Degrees out of the world as far as it was in their power by letting it fall into Dissuetude that so it might be Forgotten Dye And they had almost Effected it among those Vnhappy People that were led by them For from the Birth of their Covenant A. D. 1638. they had not this Sacrament in many Parishes in Scotland some for 10 some for 12 some for 15 years which was almost their whole Reign And in the Indulg'd and Conniv'd at Parishes to the Year 1683. many persons who were not Debarr'd for any Exception against them some of 50 60 70 and 80 years of Age never receiv'd this Sacrament once in their lives This I know from certain Information And since their present Establishment in this Revolution their neglect of this Sacrament is likewise Notorious Four Years after which viz. in the year 1693. it had not been Administred in Edenbrugh but once a year at the most since We may imagine then how it has been observed in the Country Parishes IV. The Presbyterians in the North of Ireland are a Sprig of the Scotch Covenant Transplanted thither Which in that change of Soile has taken deep Root and spread Intolerably And the Bishop of Derry in his late Clear and Rational Discourse concerning the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God And Two following Admonitions has made it fully appear That not One in Ten of them do ever Receive this Sacrament in the whole Course of their Lives And the rest very rarely even now since this last Revolution And in the Former Revolution of 41 he gives Vndenyable Instances that in several Churches even in Dublin after the turning out of the Episcopal Ministers the Lord's Supper had not been Administred till the Restauration 1660 that is in some Churches for Ten in some for Twelve Years together V. These Presbyterians in Dublin and in the South and West parts of Ireland were sent from England and had learnt the Contempt of this Sacrament there Where even in Oxford it was not Administred in the whole University from the Ejection of the Episcopal Clergy in the Year 1648. to the Restauration in 1660 as is observed in the Antiquit-Oxon So that the Quakers have only taken that out of the way which the Presbyterians had worn into Dis-use VI. And from all these Enemies and the subtle Insinuations which they have broached in Prejudice of Christ's Holy Institution of Baptism and likewise of the Lords Supper for both are slightedly the same Persons and upon the same Grounds it is to be feared that several even of the Church of England have been wrought tho' not into a Dis-use or downright slight yet into a less Esteem and greater Indifferency as to these Holy Sacraments than they ought and consequently receive less Benefit by them much less than if their Knowledge and their Faith were better rooted and more sublime Nay there is not any Degree of Indifferency but what is Culpable in this Case and may bring a Curse with it instead of a Blessing for whatsoever especially in Religious Worship is not of Faith is sin And according to our Faith it is to us in all our Performances of Religion VII For all these Reasons tho' this Discourse was wrote wholly on Behalf of the Quakers yet I hope it will not be un-useful to many others to see the strong Foundation Great Necessity and In-estimable Benefits of Baptism and the Lord's Supper when Duly Administer'd and Receiv'd with Full Faith and Assurance in the Power and Love of God that He will not fail to assist His own Institutions when we approach unto them with sincere Repentance and undoubting Dependance upon His Promises And many of the Objections hereafter answered