Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	apostle_n	holy_a	lord_n	6,631	5	3.5276	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96995	The covenants plea for infants: or, The covenant of free grace, pleading the divine right of Christian infants unto the seale of holy baptisme. Against the rusticke sophistry, and wicked cavillations of sacrilegious Anabaptists: being the summe of certaine sermons had in the parish-church of Cranham, neere the city of Gloucester, in Gloucester-shire, with the exceptions of certaine Anabaptists against the foresaid sermons, and the authors answers thereunto. Very seasonable for weake consciences in these unsettled times of schisme and apostacie. By Thomas Wynell minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.	Wynell, Thomas, b. 1599 or 1600.	1642 (1642)	Wing W3778; Thomason E115_17; ESTC R8440	86,631	137

not because the argument is sensuall and groundlesse but because you cannot answer it Moreover I told you that circumcision was the seale of the righteousnesse of faith and that this seale was imprinted on very Infants in their infancy And is this a groundlesse and sensuall argument not worth the answering Alas alas you cannot answer it And therefore for ought you have said or can say my doctrine must stand good and the gates of hell cannot prevaile against it View it over againe and consider it more punctually And then haply you will either be † Hodson an Ambaptist in the city of Glocester growne as light to the head since he was new baptized as he was light in the heart before Hodson-peevish or of another mind And now having made so manly an encounter let us see whether your valour will endure the brunt of the battell Let us heare your killing exceptions against my reasons that I had for paedo-baptisme Reason 1 The first reason for paedo baptisme Anabaptist Because you say that children are holy therefore they may be baptized 1 Cor. 7.14 Now we would know what holinesse you meane Answer I did not say that children are holy that 's too generall but that children of Christian parents are holy And wee therefore say so because the Apostle Paul the pen-man of the Holy Ghost speaks it And so when you aske me what I meane by holinesse in this discourse you demand withall what the Apostle meanes by it for I only relate his words The meaning then of the Apostle is the same as was the meaning of the Prophets when they said that the Iewish Infants were holy because borne under an holy Covenant Iewes by nature and not sinners under the Gentiles So the meaning of the Apostle is that the children of Christians are holy i. e. Christians by nature and birth not sinners of the Pagans unto which Pagans God hath not committed His Oracles nor put them under His seale But goe on and we will follow you Anabaptist If you say an inward holinesse then grace must come successively from parents And so by this rule wee shall make our parents the authors and conveighers of grace and so mightily wrong the Lord Jesus Christ For there is nothing doth make us truly holy but grace for by nature wee are all filthy and corrupt from top to toe and by this ground we draw grace from our parents loynes which to affirme is most grosse and false and no lesse then high blasphemy against the Spirit of God and the Lord Jesus Christ Answer What holinesse we meane you may see in our answer immediately going before But if we should say that it was inward holinesse How doth that inferre that grace must come successively from parents Seeing parents and children doe not derive inward holinesse and grace from one another but as joint-confederates they both derive and draw holinesse from the Covenant of Grace under which they both are For the expresse words of the Covenant are I will be thy God and the God of thy seed jointly as co-partners in the same Covenant And therefore you erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the nature of the Covenant The Sadduces endeavouring to overthrow the doctrine of the Resurrection drew an argument ab absurdo wherein there were more words then matter like the arguments of you and your brethren of the separation Matth. 22.23 28. thinking to puzzle their answerer with multitude of words seeing they wanted weight of argument So you use many words and sport your selves with your owne fancies But as Christ answered the Sadduces that they did erre because they neither knew the Scriptures nor the power of God So say I to you that you therefore erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the Nature of Gods Covenant of free Grace with His people And who wrongs Christ think you You or I You in making the grace of God of lesse extent by the comming of Christ in setting Moses above Christ For Moses allowed Infants of Gods Covenant people the initiall seale in their infancy but Christ denies it unto them if your Divinity will hold Or I in setting Christ above Moses both for clearenesse and extent of grace Now if Moses in his typicall ministration afford unto the Infants of Gods Covenant-people the initiall seale and Christ denies it in His Gospell-ministration then surely the shadow is to bee preferred before the substance And herein you shew your selfe to bee as stout an advocate for the obstinate Jewes agaist Christ as if from them you had received thirty peeces of silver to betray Him But what high blasphemy against the Spirit of God and the Lord Jesus Christ have you found out spray you Oh this namely that children shoul● draw grace from their parents loines● But who a ●irmes this you or ●● If ● then the Apostle affirmes it for ●d only said that children of Christian parents are holy and so saies the A●ostle An● is the Apostle an high blasphemer in saying so But goe on I pray I know you love not to be interrupted in so weighty a case of conscience as this is Anabaptist Againe if this be true then the unbelieving wife is made holy too and shee may be baptized as well as the children although shee be an infidell which is agaist your owne affirmation Answer T is true that children of Christian parents are holy if that be your meaning and upon this ground are to bee baptized as is said in my Sermon-notes But how doth it hence follow that the unbeleeving wife though holy to the beleeving husband is therefore as well to be baptized as the children of the beleeving parent For the Covenant is I will be thy God and the God of thy seed not I will be thy God and the God of thy wife though an infidell It 's one thing to be under an holy use another thing to be under an holy conditition The beleeving party is said to have a sanctified use of the infidell but the infidell is not said to be holy as the children are For such children are not said to bee sactified unto the parents but holy in themselves by reason of the holy Covenant under which they were borne as children of a parent in Covenant with God and joint-confederates In the originall the unbeleeving party is said to bee holy not to but in the beleeving party Not that one of them absolutely considered were sanctified in another for wee are sanctified only in the Lord Jesus Christ but as considered in the relation of husband and wife in lawfull matrimony so the infidell party is sanctified in the beleeving party for conjugall society and for raising up of an holy seed unto God And if you can but look into the originall and consider the scope of the place you cannot but suffrage with me But goe on Anabaptist But you say it is such an holinesse as hath the promises of the Kingdome of heaven If so then thus we affirme

winne upon them they grow in grace and submit unto Gods word in all duties And certainly God doth not ordinarily work by a false ministery and a false Sacrament I say God doth not thus ordinarily by false and unlawfull meanes though sometimes He brings light out of darknesse Now I challenge all the Brownists and Anabaptists in the world to answer me this one thing though nothing bee more rife with them then to condemne our Ministers and Baptisme as false and Antichristian Certainly God would not ordinarily give testimony to a false Ministery and false Sacrament by making them effectuall to the proper ends whereunto the true Ministery and Sacraments are appointed in the Gospell The Apostle Paul useth this very argument to prove his calling to be right and from the Lord. 1 Cor. 9.1 2. saying Am I not an Apostle Am I not free Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord Are not you my work in the Lord If I bee not an Apostle to others yet doubtlesse I am to you for the seale of mine Apostleship are yee in the Lord. 1 Cor. 4.15 Reason 5 Fiftly and lastly we baptize Infants of Christian parents because it is the practise of other reformed Churches which God hath blessed in that way with great increase of heavenly gifts Now if we should forbeare by virtue of a divine restraint as we pretend then wee should lay iniquity upon whole kingdomes and godly societies as taking liberty where God hath put a restraint And how should we justifie our practise and condemne theirs by the word of God For they would tell us that we put restraint upon mens consciences where God hath put none And that we misinterprēt the 28. of Matth. verse 19. And that our inter pretation of the text is absurd and ridiculous and that neither Christs Commission nor the Apostles practise doth any way countenance our cause Againe they would tell us that wee doe evade the evidence of 1 Cor. 7.14 against us by a base and beggerly shift plainly derogatory to the Majesty of the holy Scriptures in saying that children of a beleever are said there to bee holy in opposition to bastardy as if they were holy for no other more noble cause but for their being meer legitimates a notion too low for the Spirit of divine Oracles a notion plainly ridiculous in the apprehension of every ordinary capacity the Scriptures no where terming children holy but for the holy Covenants sake under which they were borne Now for us to pretend Apostolicall imitation and walking according to Christs primitive Commission and yet to put off Apostolicall Authority with such a bastardly glosse would give other Churches which we oppose just cause to think that our way is rather a diabolicall delusion then an ordinance of Christ and that phantasticall humours doe rather sway with us then conscience Againe they would tell us that our way of rebaptizing hath been alwayes condemned in all reformed Churches by the holiest and ablest Christians for an heresie and that paedo-baptisme was never so condemned in any reformed Church but practised and maintained an Ordinance of Jesus Christ under the Gospell and that God ordinarily hath blessed it by making the same effectuall to the comfort and sanctification of the baptized Furthermore they would tell us that denying Baptisme unto Infants of baptized parents is grounded upon an hellish foundation and is the inlet of many hatefull heresies which have been alwayes found with the abettours of this practise though at their first entrance into this trade they have not been so vile and loathsome Yet for the maintaining of this way when opposed by the Churches and Ministers of Christ they have been enforced to hold many grosse and palpable heresies which our Anabaptists will be driven unto though as yet they deny not the doctrine of predestination orginall sinne in Infants the morality of the Christian Sabbath the Person of the Holy Ghost c. I say though as yet they seem to be more tolerable they must be driven unto these and many moe such abominations or else they cannot hold up their trade Finally they would produce many learned authours that have condemned our practice and refuted our tenents which to this day are not answered by any of the contrary party Now for us to make so pitifull a schisme from all the Churches of God and not to refute those that have written against us would argue rather obstinate folly then conscience and zeale And so much for this first Generall THE COVENANTS Plea for INFANTS vindicated Anabaptist A Briefe answer unto Mr WYNNNELS arguments and reasons that hee delivered in publique for to prove the lawfulnesse of Infants Baptisme with propositions annexed Answer A full reply to your answer vindicating the arguments and reasons for paedo-baptisme against your frivolous exceptions with an answer to your annexed propositions Anabaptist First you argue from the difference of state and time of the Pagan Gentiles in the Apostles times and us now under the Gospell For you say that they were such as had their severall country Idols and that they were strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel and without God in the world For answer unto this First we grant that this was the generall state and condition of the Pagan-Gentiles but there were many particular persons as Cornelius and others is the Acts who were men truly fearing God and such as were called out of the state of Paganisme unto the profession of the Gospell and therefore they were not all under Paganisme and yet we doe not find that any of the seed of those persons were baptized but only such that did heare the word and beleeve Act. 10. latter end Answer Well If this were their state in generall that is as much as I require And for particular extraordinary instances they cannot infringe the truth of an ordinary and generall canon However to the point Shew one example that any of the seed of Cornelius or of any Jew or Gentile converted to Christianity were baptized when they were able to answer for themselves and not before and then and not before then the cause is yours Iohn Baptist baptized a world of people And from Iohn Baptist to the end of the Acts was about forty yeares But shew that any one of the posterity of those John baptized or of those the Disciples baptized who were more then those Iohn baptized Jo. 4.12 I say give one example of any one such baptized when growne up and then you speak to the purpose Else give over calling for examples Anabaptist Againe further Admit we grant you that this were the condition of them all in particular as well as in generall yet this would make nothing for your purpose For wee Gentiles are all Generally as bad in our naturall condition as they were and we are such as know not God nay are open and professed enemies to God as well the seed of beleevers as other stand therefore seeing our condition by nature

shall then see that nothing else can be meant but a better Ministration or Liturgie for the text runs thus viz. But now hath he obtained a more excellent Liturgie or Ministry by how much also He is the Mediatour of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises Heb. 8.6 A better Covenant established on better promises Now shew what these better promises are and you have what the Apostle meanes by the better Covenant whereof Christ is now Mediatour Now these better are I will put my lawes into their mindes and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people And they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest for I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnesse and their sinnes and their iniquities will I remember no more Heb. 8.10 11 12. 1. The Old Covenant had the Law written in tables of stone but the New hath the Law written in the hearts of the worshippers i.e. Moses did minister the Law unto the Jewes written in tables of stone thus did the type but Christ the anti-type doth minister Gods Lawes unto Christians written in the fleshly tables of the heart Moses could minister the letter of Gods Law unto the people but Moses could not change the heart and renew the minde of his people but Christ by his Ministers can change the heart and renew the minde of his worshippers And it s Christs peculiar prerogative both under the Law and under the Gospell that whatsoever persons formerly under the Law have beene renewed by grace and what persons soever have beene renewed or shall be renewed under the Gospell have are and shall be renewed by Christ and in Christ This Epistle to the Hebrewes was written by the Apostle unto the Jewes and the end of the Apostle in writing this Epistle was to take off the Jewes from resting on the workes of the Law and Liturgie or Ministration of Moses for salvation and eternall life and to divert their mindes unto Jesus Christ the Prince of life and to the ministration of Christs bloud and spirit under the Gospell or New Testament or Covenant And that the difference betweene the old Covenant under Moses the type and the new Covenant under Christ the truth and anti-type lyes not in the thing ministred for mans eternall salvation but in the ministration of Christ to come and already come is cleare by that of Paul to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 3.2 18. Ye are our epistle written in our hearts knowne and read of all men Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with inke but with the spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward Not that we are sufficient of our selves to thinke any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God Who also hath made us able Ministers not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance which glory was to be done away How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious For if the ministration of condemnation be glory much more doth the ministration of righteousnesse exceed in glory For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth For if that which is done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious Seeing then we have such hope we use great plainnesse of speech And not as Moses which put a vayle over his face that the children of Israel could not stedfastly looke to the end of that which is abolished But their mindes are blinded for untill this day remaineth the same vayle untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament which vayle is done away in Christ But even unto this day when Moses is read the vayle is upon their heart Neverthelesse when it i.e. their heart shall turne to the Lord the vayle shall be taken away Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty But we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And then Chap. 4.1 he comes with this inference viz Therefore seeing we have this Ministry c. So then the difference lyes in the ministration and not in the substance of the Covenant Gods Covenant of grace with man is nothing but Christ for salvation Christ in type and Christ in person Christ in type before His Incarnation and Christ in person since Here Christ is said to be the Mediatour of a better Covenant And in the former chapter Heb. 7.22 He is said to be made a Surety of a better Testament This better Covenant comming in place did disanull the former Heb. 7.18 Now what did it disanull Surely nothing but the Typicall and Mosaicall Liturgie or Ministration And what did disanull this typicall ministration Surely nothing but the body of Christ offered up unto God once for all Heb. 10.1 10. Reade the 9. chap. of Heb. In a word the whole redounds to this much the Sacrifices which they offered up yeare by yeare continually under the Law could not make the commers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Heb. 10.1 2. Nay could not so much as make him that did the service perfect Heb. 9.9 But the sacrifice of Christs body once for all makes the commers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the conscience Heb. 9.14 And therefore Christ is the Mediatour of ● better Covenant than Moses was But the people to whom Paul writes this Epistle and the end wherefore he wrote it are alwayes to be remembred and that will give a great deale of light unto what is herein written Ob. If this be the meaning of the text then here is nothing in peculiar attributed to this ministration under the Gospell for under the Law the Elect were converted and had their hearts changed and renewed by Christ and in Christ Sol. Right They had so Grant but this and grant my conclusion and so establish the contradictory of your owne For if Christ made the ordinances of Grace effectuall to the conversion of Gods Elect under the Law and doth the same under the Gospell then that and this is the same Covenant of Grace for substance and so the difference must needs lye in the administration onely But Pauls controversie lay with the Jewes and mine lyes with the Anabaptists both adversaries to Christ and his Gospell The conversion of the Jews under the Law is

we find generally all children to be as vile and as wicked when they are come to any bignesse as any wicked men For there is not any evill almost but they doe shew it in their tougues or actions And this they doe c. ut infra Answer In the amplification of this reason I told you that among us that were baptized in infancy we have as humble and as meek and mortified men and women as any among the Anabaptists to say no more We have those that dye dayly unto sinne and are vexed in soule to see the abominations of others Againe wee have those that beare upon them the marks of the Lord Jesus Their lives are holy and lovely They are sound in the faith grave in their behavior and ready unto all good works They deny themselves They advance free grace They afflict their souldes and seek the peace of Hierusalem And hereof I say we through Gods blessing have not a few and all these baptized in their infancy And whereas you say that all children generally are as vile as wicked when they are come to any bignesse as any wicked men I must tell you that this your charge is unjust wicked and slanderous for many children of godly parents among us that were baptized in their infancy doe manifest the gracious fruits of their incorporation into Christ by Baptisme as soone as they come to any bignesse And their speeches and actions considering the immaturity of their age and the corruption and frailty of mans nature are for the corruption and frailty of mans nature are for the generall tenour thereof gracious and lovely though at some times and in some particulars being provoked and stirred they are erroneous and not justifiable Anabaptist And this they d ee still remaine untill the word of God doth work upon them and new mould them so that it is the word that doth change them and not Baptisme For wee finde c. ut infra Answer Mortification and rising to newnesse of life are attributed to Baptisme Rom 6.3 4 5. And salvation by Jesus Christ his resurrection is attributed to Baptisme 1 Pet. 3.21 And therefore for you to exclude Baptisme from having any stroak in the change of man from nature to grace is not to speak according to the language of the Scriptures of God Christ doth sanctisie and cleanse His Church with the washing of water by the word Ephes 5.26 Here the Apostle doth joyn Baptisme and the word as joint-instruments in mans sanctification and therefore you are led by an anti-Apostolicall spirit in excluding Baptisme But now you have forgotten God in your discourse for I said that God doth ordinarily make our baptizing of Infants effectuall to the ends whereunto true Baptisme is appointed And now you say that it is not baptisme that changeth the baptized but the word Well God ordinarily by His word changeth and new mouldeth the baptized in their infancy and so God by His word ordinarily makes baptisme effectuall unto persons that were baptized in their infancy And this is that which wee would have And thus you see that while you had forgotten God in His ordinances of grace you forgot what you were about And why make you such an opposition between the word preached and the Sacraments seeing both are the word of God The word preached is the word audible and the Sacraments are the word visible both the word of God to the fitting of His elect for Heaven Wee baptize with water that 's our duty but it 's Christ that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost We catechise and preach but it 's God that makes His word effectuall to the ends whereunto it 's appointed God must bee look't upon in all His ordinances as a wise worker that makes them all helpful unto one another and one must not exclude another The Infants of the Jewes were circumcised in their infancy but that Sacrament became a long time afterward effectually by the instruction of their teachers Shall we now for this cause exclude circumcision as ineffectuall because God made it not effectuall unto them until a long time after by the instructions of their instructours Answer this and the proportion will hold in paedo-baptisme It 's wild divinity to say that an ordinance is not to bee used unlesse it take effect presently Anabaptist For wee finde them to shew forth as bad fruites after their Baptisme as the vilest creatures that bee so that if wee should judge of their Baptisme by their fruits before they come to understand the word of God wee may justly say that their Baptisme was abominable by its evill fruits I say if we should judge any thing of the effect of their Baptisme then this wee may judge of it But wee will bee sparing in our censures although from your affirmation we might justly conclude so Yet I say we will be sparing in that and impute those evill fruits and effects that are in children after Baptisme unto their corrupted nature and their Baptisme to bee ineffectuall by its fruits And therefore by all this well considered we may see it is the word that makes the change in the children and others and not their baptisme Thus we plainly see that it is the word that makes them fit for Baptisme and not their parentage Answer We find not all baptized children of Christian parents as bad as this your wicked charge doth import Nay there are creatures worse then the worst of them and therefore you are a false accuser and unjust slanderer and you cannot make it good But you have forgotten the businesse in hand again I told you that God did ordinarily make our baptizing of Infants effectuall to the ends whereunto true Baptisme is appointed in the Gospell And this the Lord may doe though the most of those that we baptize in their infancy prove vitious in their conversation and but few of them religious as long as the Lord doth it ordinarily i. e. by ordinary meanes and usually as by His word and ordinances in His Church for what else can you understand by the word ordinarily I say as long as the Lord doth thus ordinarily make our baptizing of Infants effectuall to the proper ends of true Baptisme appointed in the Gospell though but to a few of the baptized our argument stands good And you can no more conclude from the vitiousnesse of the baptized in infancy that that practice of baptizing Infants is abominable then you may from the vitiousnesse of the Jewes that their circumcision in their infancy was abominable because there were but few of them unto whom God ordinarily made it effectuall to the proper ends whereunto it was appointed in the word for among them there were but few that did beleive in the Messias yield obedience unto Gods holy Law in heart and life And now how just your conclusion is from my premises let all men see And no wonder that you make my premises speak what you please And should we judge