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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	meaning_n	true_a	word_n	6,122	5	4.4275	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28214	The god-father's advice to his son shewing the necessity of performing the baptismal vow and the danger of neglecting it : with general instructions to young persons to lead a religious life and prepare them for their confirmation and worthy receiving of the blessed sacrament : very necessary for parents, &c. to give their children or others committed to their care / by John Birket ...	Birket, John.	1700 (1700)	Wing B2975; ESTC R16106	33,239	50

become Priests unto God as to be admitted the honour of bearing a part together with the Priest in his publick worship And to this great priviledge the works of St. Peter as I suppose may have relation 1 Ep. 2. 5. Where speaking of the whole Congregation of Christians he tells us that we are built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up Spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ And therefore you should be sure to accompany the Minister with a pure heart and humble voice unto the Throne of the Heavenly Grace as in repeating the Confession and the Lord's Prayer after him so in making all such answers as you are directed by the Rubrick throughout the whole service never omitting to say Amen but thus in a fervent zeal shutting up all your Prayers And because I find that the generality of Christians are negligent in this to the end that you may not follow the ill examples of others and be so too I shall now take occasion to inform you rightly in this matter by shewing you 1. Of all the meaning of the word Amen 2. That the people of God in all ages of the Church have made use of this word in their publick devotion 3. How great a necessity there is that this practice should bestill continued among us In the first place as to this word Amen It is the same in all Languages and the people of all Nations upon Earth make use of it at the conclusion of their Prayers And as to the meaning of it it 's cheifly twofold oft it signifies either so be it or so it is Sometime we 〈◊〉 Amen and thereby express our hearty desire that the thing which we have prayed for may be granted and in this sense we use it at the end of all our prayers sometime also we use this word to testifie our confidence and the declaration of our faith assuring our selves thereby that the things which we profess to believe are certainly true and in this sense we use it after the Doxology or Glory be to the Father c. and the Creed And in both these senses we find it us'd in Scripture as I shall shew you by observing in the 2d place that the people of God in all ages of the Church have made use of it in their publick devotion First of all as to the Church of God under the legal dispensation we read Nehemiah 8. 6. that when Ezra blessed the Lord the great God all the people answered Amen lifting up their hands and no doubt but their hearts were also lifted up with the greatest fervency as appeared by their doubling the expression saying Amen Amen Yea we find Deut. 27. 14. that even when the Levites did use to perform divine service and declare the curse of God to be due to such and such sinners the whole Congregation were to answer and say Amen i. e. be it so or cursed be the man who does those things Thus they were to declare their abhorrence of those things which were so eminently liable to the curse of God And here by the way I cannot but observe that if all of us were duly sensible of the great indignation of God against those sins against which the curse of God is denounc'd in his holy word we should have a care of falling into or however of persevering impenitently in any of those sins mention'd in the Commination which is appointed to be read on Ash-Wednesday and then we should not scruple to say Amen at the end of every sentence as many do fearing thereby to call for a curse upon themselves For tho in saying Amen we affirm with our own mouths the curse of God to be due to such sins which is no more than what David has declared P. 119. 21. saying cursed are all they that do err from thy Commandments yet 't is certain we shall not be found liable to the curse if we be not guilty of the sin and if we be guilty and persevere therein impenitently whether we say Amen or no we shall certainly be accursed at the last day for as we read Mat. 25. 41. then shall the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth say unto them on the left hand depart from me ye cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But to return to the practice of the Jewish Church in saying Amen we find that they did not only use this word at the end of their Prayers but in the conclusion also of their Psalms and Hymns as we read 1 Chr. 16. 36. for at the end of that Psalm which Da●id had compos'd for the use of the Temple all the people were required to say Amen Nor was it used by the Jews only under the Law but from the beginning of the Gospel dispensation it has been practis'd also by he Christian Church That it was us'd in the Apostles times is evident 1 Cor. 14. 16. For there St Paul reproving those who prayed at any time in a Language which the people did not understand he uses this as an argument to p●ove the unreasonableness of that practice because t●e People who understood not the Language could not say Amen to such prayers they could tnot give their consent to what they did not understand Nor did the Apostles only think sit to conclude all prayers with this word but our Saviour was pleased also to teach us so to do for Mat. 6. 13. we find the Lords Prayer concluding with it And as this was the practice of Gods people both under the Law and in the beginning of the Gospel dispensation so it has been continued in the Church of Christ ever since tho of late years through the great want of Zeal and true Devotion it has been much neglected by us in this nation But how great a necessity there is that this ancient practice of all the peoples saying Amen to the prayyers of the Church ought to be continued among us I shall now proceed in the 3d place to show you For whereas there are two things among several others necessarily required in prayer to make it acceptable unto God viz. a fervent desire and lively Faith we give a testimony of both these in saying Amen but in neglecting this we seem to be as by-standers and no way concerned in the things that are prayed for nor in the service which is performed And in truth how good soever the prayers be you have no reason to expect the benefit of them unless you heartily joyn in them If another man writes a Letter in your name you ought to set your hand to it ot make your mark to testify your consent unto that which is written and thus if the Minister prays for you you ought to set your Hand and Seal to his prayer supposing the matter of it to be good by saying Amen to it nor should you think it enough to say Amen to all the prayers of the Church but you should also

the Baptismal Vow 2. To prove unto you the possibility of keeping it 3. To shew you how great an Obligation you lye under to observe it Therefore whereas you promised by us to renounce the Devil c. you must know that by renouncing any thing is meant a declaring against it or a forsaking it and resolving to have no more to do with it a refusing to comply with it or to be govern'd by it And thus our Church has explain'd the word in the first interrogatory to the Sureties For says the Minister unto them Dost thou in the name of this Child renounce the Divil and all his works the vain pomp and glory of the world with all covetous desires of the same and the carnal desires of the flesh so that thou wilt not follow nor be led by them To which they are required to make answer and say I renounce them all By which is meant that whosoever Covenants with God to be his faithful Servant does thereby oblige himself not to be at Satans beck nor led by the vain customs of the world or the lusts of the flesh And in this sense we find the word renounce us'd by St. Paul 2 Ep. to Cor. 4. ch 2. where speaking in vindication of himself he declares that he had not been slothful in the work of the Ministry but had renounced the hidden things of dishonesty i. e. he disdained to have any thing to do with those base Arts and cunning Tricks which some others made use of in handling the word of God So that in promising to renounce the Devil the World and the Flesh you declared by us that you would oppose all their temptations and no way comply with them to the dishonour of God and the destruction of your Soul 2. Whereas you promised also by us to believe all those fundamental Doctrines of Christianity which are briefly comprehended in that form of sound words which is called the Apostles Creed I cannot suppose that there is any necessity for explaining that part of your Baptismal Vow in this small Treatise because as there are no great difficulties in it so there are no great disputes about it it being generally received in the Christian Church by men of all perswasions how different soever from one another in many other points However this one thing I cannot omit letting you know viz. that you are so to believe all these Articles as to take care that the practice of your life and conversation be answerable to all those things which you profess to believe That is to say you must so believe in God as to dread his almighty power and greatness and yet adore and love him for his immense mercy and goodness You must so believe in Jesus Christ as to walk according to those excellent rules of his holy Gospel which he has given us and you must so believe in the Holy Ghost as not to grieve him by following any vicious or idle courses and thus in reference to all the other Articles of our Christian Faith you must so reflect upon them as to be admonished thereby of your duty and effectually moved to the performance of it And now 3. Wheteas you promised also by us to keep Gods holy will and commandments and to walk in the same all the days of your life it is requisite that I give you a more large explication of this part of the Baptismal vow because there are so many and so great mistakes among Christians about it You must know therefore that you are not hereby to understand a perfect and unsinning obedience for it is utterly impossible for any man to live without being guily of disobedience to God upon many accounts but by keeping the Commandments of God now under the Gospel is meant our using the most sincere endeavours to do those things which God has required being unfeignedly sorrowful for all our frailties and imperfections heartily begging Gods pardon through Christ for what we have done amiss and conscientiously putting our holy resolutions of new obedience into practice still exercising our faith and relying upon Gods mercies in Christ Jesus towards us So that in acknowledging our selves bound to keep Gods holy will and commandments and to walk in the same all the days of our life we do not in the least mean that our good works are meritorious or that we can be sav'd purely through any the most excellent works of righteousness which we can perform but our obedience to the Gospel is required as the best testimony of the sincerity of our faith And hence it is that our Saviour is said Heb. 5. 9. to be the author of eternal Salvation to all that obey him Let no man therefore deceive you by extolling faith to the disparagement of good works for as St. John has told us 1 Ep. 5. 3. that our keeping the commandments of God is the best evidence of our love to him so St. Paul has taught us Ephes 2. 10. that we are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works that we should walk in them In like manner St Peter 2 Ep. 1. 5 6. tells us we must not think it sufficient that we are made partakers of the Divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust but says he besides this giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge c. for if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ And thus my Son having shew'd you the true meaning of your Baptismal Vow I shall in the second place prove unto you the possibility of keeping it And for this I suppose there needs no better proof than Gods requiring these things of us in order to our Salvation and his setting before us the examples of holy men in Scripture for our encouragement and imitation of them in this matter For so infinitely just and merciful is our heavenly father that he expects no more from us than he knows we are able to perform through the gracious assistance of his holy spirit concurring with our own sincere endeavours In the first place therefore as to our renouncing the Devil has he not commanded us by his Apostle St James ch 4. 7. to restst him promising withal that thereupon he shall flee from us Has he not enjoin'd us also by his Apostle St Paul Eph. 4. 27. not to give place to the Devil And in like manner has he not also told us by St Peter 1 Ep. 5. 9. that we should resist the Devil being stedfast in the faith Now surely if we are to resist him and to give no place unto him it must be possible for us to renounce him by making all opposition against him and all his temptations And if it be possible for us thus to renounce the Devil it cannot surely be impossible for us to renounce all sin and particularly those