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truth_n belief_n faith_n word_n 1,936 5 4.6203 4 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A45125 The axe laid to the root of separation, or, The churches cause against it by the author who wrote in the late Times for free admission to the Lord's Supper. Humfrey, John, 1621-1719. 1685 (1685) Wing H3670; ESTC R225063 79,856 182

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Iniquity of the Father The Soul that sinneth it shall die In Rom. 9. it is said of Jacob and Esau That while they were Yet unborn God said Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated which though it be spoken I believe of their Posterity and in regard to their Temporal Inheritance yet does it carry methinks a Figure in it of something farther to wit That the Eternal State of Children while Infants depends not on the Condition of the Parents which was here the Same to Both but on God's Free Election Above all if the Salvation of Children depends on the Faith and State of the Parent as this is comfortable Doctrine to the Sound Believer whose Infants therefore must be Saved so must it follow That all the Children of the Vnregenerate though their Parents be Christians and bring them to Baptism must be inevitably damn'd Which is a Consequence too hard upon the Church and harder in it self than can be borne Let the Case here of Adam alone be set by I must note farther How through want of the same Distinction insisted on and Application of the Light of it to our CAVSE some Worthy Men who have gone before me have Faltered in it It is not for any one to tell us of a Faith short of Saving called by them Dogmatical that suffices to Enter Covenant with God while they think of no other Covenant but That which gives Pardon and Life upon a Faith that is Saving and None else Whereas let the Government of God and Covenants thereof be distinguished and then shall the Distinguishing of Faith also suit with it For when there is no Faith less than Saving sufficient for a Man to Enter into the Covenant of Life it being a Contradiction to think we should Live by a Faith that is less than Saving yet did a Faith call it Dogmatical or what you will which consists in the Owning of the only true God and his Worship in opposition to all false Gods and false Worship which Faith may be separate from Sincere Obedience suffice to the General Body of Israel for their Entring that Covenant for This was the Main of it which God made with them When He took them by the Hand to lead them out of the Lard of Aegypt Let any prove That the Faith of the Whole Body of Israel could come to any More Besides This that Faith alone and That only which lies in an Assent could say Amen to the Curses which making a Man obnoxious to the Minatory Part of the Covenant must put him in Covenant Conditionally in regard also to the Promissory Part with it And the Truth is a Faith of Assent a Belief of a God and that his Word is True does lay an Obligation on the Conscience which none can have that Believe not And though a Resolution of doing what may escape the Threat be Another thing called Consent than that bare Obligation yet so long as the Obligation it self is laid thereby whether a Dogmatical Faith goes not farther into the Covenanting Act than some Men are aware I commit to their farther Consideration And as for the Covenant whereof I am speaking which I have said was a Political Covenant between God and Them as King and Subject Lord and People and such an Owning Him as a Dogmatical Faith suffices to was the main Substance and Intendment of it as their departing to Idolatry was the Chief if not Only Breach of it as I have also noted I do take it to be that Covenant which was repeated often by their good Rulers In the Time of Asa a great Confluence of Persons are summoned together and it is said They Covenanted to seek the Lord with all their Heart 2 Chron. 15.12 15. If by this Covenanting we understand a Resolution of Vniversal Obedience according to the Covenant for Salvation I cannot see well how this could be said of such a Mixed Multitude But if it be understood of a Refreshing the Covenant mention'd and a Seeking the Lord in opposition mainly to Idolatry as indeed it must be so understood comparing Vers 8.16 then may we apprehend likewise how These Men the most of Them might have a Faith less than Saving and yet secundum quid do This from their Hearts And Jehoiada made a Covenant between the Lord and the King and People That they should be the Lord's People and between the King and the People 2 King 11.17 What was the Covenant between King and People but a kind of Oath of Allegiance to him in opposition to Athaliah's Faction And what was the Covenant between the Lord and Them but the like higher Allegiance to Him as their Supreme Lord in opposition to Baal as appears in the next Verse Here is a Covenant we see unto Which nothing but the want of a Dogmatical Faith could be a Bar and nothing requisite to Enter it but the believing that God was the only True God And as for that Qualification it is most certain that the Israelites had it in the Whole Body of them when they first Covenanted this Covenant with God as their King in the Time of Moses who were under such a Conviction at the Appearing of God himself to them as never had any the like under the whole Cope of Heaven so that neither Man nor Woman nor Child that were capable of Seeing and Believing could be under Vnbelief Yet can I not think that many of them had Saving Faith whose Carkasses all of them save Two or Three fell afterwards in the Wilderness Let me come now then from this Church in the Wilderness to the Christian Church under the Gospel into Which Men are Entred by Baptism And what is here the Covenant of Christianity The Words of Christ's Institution are these only Go Baptize in the Name of the Father Son and the Holy Ghost Which Words undoubtedly do import thus much to wit An Owning the Blessed Trinity to be that Only True God whom the Jews owned in their Covenant before And what Else but the Consequences of it who can say Unto This now such a Faith which is Dogmatical does appear absolutely necessary and was therefore required of the Eunuch I believe Christ to be the Son of God But if the Church by her Additions to Baptism hath made more Qualification necessary to them than Christ to his Institution so that no Adult Person whose Faith is less than Saving can without a Lie make these Responses what shall I say but that She may Diminish what She hath Added and hath Power over her own Additions to Change them or Interpret them and delare That She understands them in a Covenant Construction The last Objection as to this Doctrine in hand is the innumerable Testimonies of Modern and Antient Divines that Are and May be cited for the received Opinion against What I have proposed Unto Which I have also some Little to say I remember well that Austine hath one Book which especially touches the Point It is