Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	abraham_n	promise_n	seed_n	2,290	5	8.4156	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44213	The catechist catechized, or, An examination of an Anabaptistical catechism pretended to be published for the satisfaction and information of the people of God in Lancashire &c. : also some observations both old and new concerning the pretended visibility ... of the present Roman Church and religion / sent to a gentleman upon his revolt to popery and now published for the churches good by Richard Hollingworth.	Hollingworth, Richard, 1607-1656.	1653 (1653)	Wing H2487; ESTC R28107	42,729	60

possibly you that published this Catechism may be of the strictest Sect of your Religion as the worst of these at their first separating from us seemed also to be and do abhor to have communion not only with these but with Drunkards Adulterers Swearers c. To you I say if there be not amongst you Drunkards Adulterers Swearers c. Satan himself is none of these but are there not seditious schi●matical persons that say all the Church is holy sacrilegious persons that devour that which is holy or dedicated to the service of God and his Church not by themselves which was Ananias his sin but by others Are there not Murderers Railers false Accusers Lyars proud boasters covetous traytors heady high minded lovers of themselves despisers of good men having a form of godliness c. Such an one is Satan As for the rotten members in Paedobaptists Congregations they are or should be duly proceeded against and much good is done that way in many Congregations where Government is set up and people help forward the work humane infirmities both in Rulers and ruled ever have been and will be And more good had been done had not the separation of some from us the exemption by the Civil Powers from Church-government of whosoever will not freely own it the unjust clamors of Presbyterian Rigidness and Tyranny together with the Tumults and Troubles of the Times hindred it As for Infant-Baptism §. 4. it is a consecrating of children to God and formally initiates them into the Church which is a great benefit as casting out or excommunicating out of the Church is a great censure it is an outward distinctive sign of Christians children from Pagans signifies their original sin and necessity of regeneration even before the commission of actual sin and the Salvation of Infants as well as grown men by Christ It makes Infants partakers of the Ordinances at least of the Prayers of the Church as members thereof it pre-engageth them to a Christian Course when they have the least prejudice and obstruction against it and as soon as they are capable to receive the nurture and admonition of the Lord to frequent Ordinances to own Jesus Christ by external profession it binds Parents to be more careful and conscientious of their Religions Education it comforts their hearts godly Parents may speak this experimentally to see their Children thus sealed in assurance that God is their God and the God of their seed Yea God doth sometimes yea always as we ought to judg till the contrary appear baptize them inwardly or in●use grace or the seed of it into the Soul of the baptized Infant These and the like were counted great benefits in the time of the Law and are they or can they be mischiefs in the time of the Gospel You assert indeed That delaying of Baptism would make men careful to get knowledg and holiness whereas now they viz. they that do not delay Baptism are careless of both But may they not be as conscientiously taught and as careful and apt to learn in Christs School in his visible Kingdom as out of it baptized as unbaptized Are not many grown persons as forgetful and careless of the Promises they make on their sick beds and other occasions as of those which were made in Infancy Are Anabaptists the only men that are careful to get knowledg and holiness Are not multitudes of persons which were baptized in their Infancy as careful to get knowledg and holiness and as good Proficients therein as any others Is it better not to put children into a lease or grant of a priviledg lest they should be secure and careless to pay rent and do homage then to put them in May not deferring of Baptism so long make them despise it when they come to age Satan may more easily keep children when grown up from receiving Christianity then work them to renounce it though he sometimes prevails with Witches and Wizzards to renounce their Baptism received in Infancy that they may be his vassals and more assured to him Keeping the children of Christians out of the Church is a strange way sure it is none of Gods ways nor is it likely to prevail to make them in love with Christianity If any good can be done by such mediums the warrantable deferring of the Lords Supper alone may do it as well as the unwarrantable delaying of Baptism As for darkening the Doctrine of Baptism experience teacheth us that the Doctrine thereof was clear enough in Scripture and competently understood as well as the Doctrine of the Lords Supper before such opposition hath been made to Infant-Baptism If it be now darkened the darkness is not from Infant-Baptism but from your opposite Opinion and Practice ANABAPT CAT. Q. But may not Infants be baptized if they be Abrahams seed A. Yes But we Gentiles are only Abrahams seed by believing Gal. 3.7 so Rom. 4.16 Gal. 3.29 They that would make the children of Believers to be the seed of Abraham are mistaken for the Scripture speaketh but of three seeds of Abraham viz. Christ Gal. 3.16.2 The carnal seed 3. The Believer Jew or Gentile Gal. 3.28 And they add a fourth seed of Abraham viz. the seed or children of Believers amongst the Gentiles about which the Scripture is silent EIther you do not sufficiently enumerate Exam. Chap. 7. or not rightly understand your enumeration of the Scripture-kinds of Abrahams seed or both For 1. Christ personal is not the whole of Abrahams seed to whom though he be the whole in whom 2 Cor. 1.20 the Promises were made but Christ mystical the whole Church of Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 13. all which whether Jews or Gentiles bond or free I may add young or old are but one in their Head Jesus Christ Gal. 3.28 All that are Christs are Abrahams seed vers 29. and Infants are his as well as grown persons for he became an Infant suffered much in his very Infancy was the Head of the Church while an Infant and therefore might well have Infant-members dyed for Infants as well as for grown men bad his Disciples to suffer little children to come to him if not that he might baptize them for he baptized none at all Infants or others Joh. 4.1 2. yet that he might bless them and said that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven 2. As for the carnal seed of Abraham their fleshly relation was not sufficient to entitle them to Church-priviledges except they had a spiritual relation also Rom 9 6 8. Open Apostates and Revolters though the carnal seed of Abraham were not counted of the Church but as strangers and Heathens as David calls them Psal 54.3 59.5 That Text Exod. 12.48 prohibiting strangers did by the rule of proportion prohibit from the Passover all such Jews as did forsake the Faith The Caldee Paraphrast saith No son of Israel that is an Apostate or fallen from the Faith shall eat of it Cain and his posterity were rejected Gen. 4.15

16. cum Gen. 6.1 2. So Ishmael cast out and the Ishmaelites Gal. 4 30. Gen. 21.10 14. Psal 83.6 which last place mentions the Edomites also which were the posterity of Abraham yea all the twelve Tribes which were the seed of Abraham were cast off at the last and yet their being begotten after the fl●sh and being circumcised in the flesh was an help not an hindrance to their being begotten of the Promise or to Circumcision in the Spirit Jacob was of Isaac and Rebecca after the flesh and yet also the heir of Promise And as then some were born only after the flesh as Ishmael Esau and some were also born after the spirit as Isaac Jacob So the Apostle looking not only to the Parallel but to the History saith So it is now some even in the time of the Gospel are born of Christian Parents only after the flesh and some also after the spirit and these do persecute one another Gal. 4.29 This difference may discover it self in riper years but in Infancy it is as undiscoverable now as then 3. It was not necessary that they should be the carnal seed of Abraham that were in Covenant-relation and initiated into the Church for Abraham was as to this not only the father of the Jews but of many Nations and upon this account his name was changed Gen. 17.4.5 Proselytes being Gentiles as well as we and not of his carnal seed nor many so much as of his family yet they were the seed of Abraham by believing as wel as we are now and they were not only initiated into the Church but those of them that were of Abrahams family were the foundationals and first members of the Church as constituted in Abrahams family his 318 trained servants besides others were not all if any of his carnal seed 4. As for the Infants of Believers which you separate from their Parents of which see before Chap. 3. § 3. and make them a fourth seed you know that Proselytes became Abrahams seed only by believing as you say we Gentiles now do and yet their children were accounted Abrahams seed though they be none of the three which you mention and as such were initiated into the Church Gen. 17.12 23. Exod. 12.48 49. In the same sence that Abraham was a father to a Proselyte or believing Gentile and his seed then he is a father to a Christian Gentile and his seed now for his Paternity abides the same nor can you shew a better warrant for his Paternity over the one then over the other nor have the Gentiles lost any priviledg by the coming of Christ which they had before The Scripture saith The Brethren now are the children of the Promise as Isaac was Gal. 4.28 Now Isaac was the seed of Abraham and in the Promise as an Infant of believing Parents before he was an actual Believer and his Infants wa● within the Covenant and accordingly initiated into the Church Abraham might say God is my God and the God of my Infant seed and so might the Gentile proselyted say also and why may not a Christian who is blessed with faith-ful Abraham Gal. 3.9 say so too especially seeing Jesus Christ the Minister of Circumcision did not abrogate but confirm the Promises made unto the fathers and that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his Mercy c. Rom. 15.8 9. God alluding to the outward Circumcision of his people and their seed promiseth to circumcise their hearts and the hearts of their seed Deut. 30.6 and this promise is Gospel and a parcel of the Covenant of Grace as appears by Deut. 30.6 10 11 12. with Rom. 10.6 7 8. and this circumcision of the heart is commended Rom. 2.28 29. and is signified and sealed in Baptism Colos 2.11 12. It is observed that Gen. 17.7 speaks not of Abraham and his seed which you say are actual Believers abstractedly taken but of his seed in their generations which words necessarily imply and include as the Parents generating so the Children generated Lastly Abraham is not only called the father of particular Believers but the father of Nations professing the true faith as well as of the Jewish Nation Every Nation receiving the true Faith as they did and in which there is a National Agreement in Doctrine Worship Discipline as was in the Nation of the Jews is an holy Nation a peculiar people to the Lord even Egypt and Assyria with Israel and may call Abraham father Isai 19.21 Gen. 17.5 When the Gentiles were graffed into that stock from which the Jews were broken off and did partake of the root and fatness of the Olive tree Rom. 11.17 and Abraham began to be the father of many Nations Rom. 4.16 17. Regenerate Infants are Abrahams spiritual seed by Mr. T. his confession and he professeth that he would baptize them if he could know them I am sure no one dare say of this or that particular Infant that it is not regenerate yea we are bound to judg they are such till something appear to the contrary ANABAPT CAT. Q. But are not the children of godly persons visibly in the Covenant of Grace A. No the Covenant of Grace is an invisible thing and we cannot know who are in it nor have we grounds to judg persons are in it till we see some profession of holy life of faith and repentance which Infants cannot make NOt to spe●k of such as are only intentionally in the Covenant of Grace as children yet unborn may be Examinat Cap. 8. § 1. Deut. 29.15 Those that are Actually in the Covenant of Grace are of two sorts Some are externally in it as Ishmael Judas Simon Magus and so all such as own God to be their God and themselves to be his people as the Jewish Church did and every true Christian Church doth though but externally are said to be within the Covenant Your self say that profession of faith and repentance are grounds to judg some persons to be in the Covenant of Grace There is external being in Christ Joh. 15.2 Vocation Mat. 22.14 Sanctification Heb. 10.29 and purging from sin 2 Pet. 1.9 But some are also internally and savingly in the Covenant of Grace as Isaac Jacob while Infants and when adult also Zacheus Lydia and her houshold the Jaylor and all his This distinction is grounded upon Rom. 9.4 6 7 8. We may know who is in the Covenant of Grace externally but the Covenant of Grace in the second sence is invisible and none could know who were in it in the time of the Jews though Infants were then visibly in it and initiated as such or amongst Christians If the invisibleness of the Covenant of Grace and our not knowing who are in it doth exclude Infants it doth also exclude adult Professors from admission into the Church for the signs of their being savingly in the Covenant of Grace are but conjectural hopeful and probable not certain and infallible none can be sure that he that makes profession at a