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A91845 The second part of the vanity & childishnes of infants baptisme wherein the grounds from severall Scriptures usually brought for to justifie the same, are urged and answered. As also the nature of the divers covenants made with Abraham and his seed, briefly opened and applied. A.R. May 3. 1642.; Treatise of the vanity of childish baptisme. Part 2 Ritor, Andrew. 1642 (1642) Wing R1541; Thomason E59_5; ESTC R3120 27,552 31

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THE SECOND PART OF THE VANITY CHILDISHNES OF INFANTS BAPTISME WHEREIN The grounds from severall Scriptures usually brought for to justifie the same are urged and Answered AS ALSO The nature of the divers Covenants made with Abraham and his Seed briefly opened and applied A. R. May 3. 1642. Gala. 3. 1 3 4 6 7. O foolish Galathians who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth dre yee so foolish that after yee have begun in the Spirit yee would now be made perfect in the flesh Have yee suffered so great things in vaine Was not Abrahams beleeving God accounted to him for righteousnesse Know you therefore that they which are of Faith the same are the Children of Abraham LONDON Printed Anno Domini 1642. THE SECOND PART OF THE VANITY CHILDISHNES OF INFANTS BAPTISME HAving formerly Treated of the Baptisme of the Nationall Church I have now thought it meet likewise to consider the grounds upon which the Separated and some other Churches doe Baptise their Infants which are from severall places of Scripture especially these five which I will examine in order The first is that in the Acts. 2. 39. where it is said The promise is to you and your Children which Text although it be to no purpose in the point and so confessed by the ingenuous yet because many inconsideratly do still alledge it I shall for their sakes shew their great weaknesse in their thus reasoning thence If the promises be made to us and our Children then the Seales of the promises To which I answere it is not there said of Infants but to your Children not promises but promise it is therfore worthy inquir● to finde out what is there meant by you and your Children in both these we shall be satisfied if we looke back into the former part of the Chap. where when the gifts of the holy Ghost were given forth upon the 120. and they speaking in divers tongues and the Jewes thereupon some marvailing some mocking and saying that they were full of New wine ver 13. Peter hereupon stands up and speakes to these Jewes thus These men are not drunke as yee suppose but this is that which is spoken by the Prophet Joel that in the last day saith God I will powre out my Spirit upon all flesh and your Sonnes and Daughters shall Prophecy c. ver 15. 16 17. And immediatly when he had thus spoken he preached unto them Iesus Christ whom they had murthered and whom though dead and buried yet God had raised up and who being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of his Father the promise of the Holy Ghost had shed forth this which they then did see and heare ver 33. As if Peter should have said to the Jewes thus we are not filled with wine as yee suppose but are fil'd with the Spirit promised to our Fathers long since that should be poured forth in these our daies And that their Sonnes and their Daughters should Prophecy which is now fulfilled upon us their Sonnes and Daughters and may be also poured out upon you and your Children to make you all Prophecy and speake with tongues as we do for you and your Children are all the Sonnes and Daughters of the Jewes our Forefathers to whom this Prophecy was spoken aswell as any of us If you repent and be Baptized every one of you in the name of thi● Lord Iesus whom you have crucified for the remission of your s●nne notwithstanding your dealing so wickedly with him and moreover yee shall also receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise is to you and to your Children aswell as unto us ver 38. 39. So then by this time we may see what is meant by the promise to wit The gift of the holy ghost mentioned in the 17. ver to be prophecyed of by Ioel and in the 33 verse to be received of the Father and to be shed forth by Iesus Christ and also recited in the 38 ver thus And yee sh●ll receive the gift of the holy Ghost for the promise is to you and your Children And likewise we may see who are meant by you and your Children to wit the very same which are mentioned in the 17 ver under the termes of Sonnes and Daugheers that should Prophecy therefore no Infants are meant in this place nor is there so much as any colour for the Baptizing of Infants from hence for the text is not be Baptized for the promise is to you and to your Children as many in Print do falsely alledge But repent and be Baptized c. and yee shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise is to you and to your Children Object If they say then surely these Children were in the Covenant seeing the promise is said so plainly to be to them Answ To this I answere that this objection hath no colour of footing in the Text as appeareth by that which is already said thereto yet neverthelesse I will further demonstrate the same by these reasons First The Promise is made equally to them and to their Children and to them that are a farre off But these which are a far off are not within the Covenant by the promise untill they beleeve the same Secondly If they were in the Covenant by having this promise made to them then were they of the New Covenant and Church of the Gospell for there were no other people to be accounted in Covenant with God save those which be of this Church but those were not of this Church but they were afterwards added thereunto as appeares ver 41. and therefore were not of it before and consequently notwithstanding the Promise being so to them and their Children yet neither they nor their Children were of the Covenant nor Church untill they did beleeve al●hough they were Jewes and so the children of faithfull Abraham Their second Argument is from those places which speake of Baptizing whole Households for say they there may be Infants in the Household thence they conclude that Infants may be Baptized To which I answere that there might be no Infants there and my negative is as good as their affirmative without any proofe and more probable for it is said Act. 18. 8. That Crispus the chiefe ruler of the Synagogue beleeved on the Lord with all his Household and that many of the Corinthians hearing it beleeved and were Baptized And it is said of the Goaler who was Baptized and all his Act. 16. 32. That Paul and Sylas first preached the word of the Lord to them and to all that were in his House And in the 33 ver it is said that he and all his were Baptized and in the 34 ver it is said that hee with all his Household beleeved in God So then it is plaine that they first beleeved and then were Baptized and although it be barely spoken of Pauls Baptizing the Household of Stephanus 1 Cor. 1. 16. And of the
waited in the dayes of Noah while the Arke was preparing wherein few that is eight soules were saved by water the like figure whereunto Baptisme doth now also save us by the resurection of Iesus Christ These then being only figures and allusions cannot serve at all to prove the point in hand Object There be divers other Baptismes as that of the Holy Ghost being inward and spirituall and the effect of the other which if a man hath that in water being an outward thing is not needfull Answ To which I answer that this in water being commanded us of God it must needs be our duty to submit thereunto unlesse we will reject the counsell of God against our selves as the Pharisees and Lawyers did Luke 7. 30. And deeme our selves wiser then God who commanded it and by slighting and neglecting the same become guilty of disobedience which is as the sinne of Witchcraft 1 Sam. 15. 23. Object But now as Circumcision is nothing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature so Baptisme is nothing for Christ is now all in all Answ It 's true that now Circumcision is nothing nor Vncircumcision whereby to difference or preferre one man before another now in time of the Gospell but a new creature yet hence to conclude that therefore Baptisme is nothing is very absurd it being commanded us unlesse to obey and disobey Christ were all one and yet in some sence Baptisme is nothing but it s in the same sense as Prayer hearing and Preaching is nothing yea and as Faith it selfe is comparatively nothing to Christ who is all in all For in all our duties of obedience wee ought so to make and esteeme him but by our slighting of his commands instead of making him all in all we do make him nothing in all and all in nothing and our selves nothing at all But these and the like Aeriall Notions I thinke scarce worth answering holding firmely this conclusion that as Christ hath redeemed us both bodies and Spirits 1 Cor. 6. 20 so he requireth us and it is our duties to worship him in both not onely to believe him in the heart but to confesse him also with the mouth and with the whole man to yeeld him obedience to all his Ordinances and Commands without which we cannot approve our selves to love him nor be his Disciples indeed and truly Io. 15. 10. 15. 22. And it much pitties me to see such curious conceits and sublime Notions should be the ruine of so many precious Spirits as it is to be feared they will be 5. But their fifth and maine argument is yet behinde from the Covenant which God made with Abraham and with his seed Gen. 17. And hence thus they reason as the Covenant and promises were made to Abraham being a faithfull man and his seed and thereupon all his seed were circumcized in time of the Law so the same C●venant and promises are made to them being Beleevers and their seed And therefore their seed may now upon the same ground be Bap●ized To which I answer that neither Abraham nor his seed were circumcized because the Covenant was made with him for the Covenant was made with him above twenty yeares before Circumcision was Instituted as may appeare by comparing Gen. 12. 2 3. with Gen. 16. 3. and 17. 25. And yet all this time Abraham was not circumcized neither had he or any of his seed ever bin circumcized for his being in the Covenant had not the Lord afterwards expresly commanded the same Nor was that Covenant made with Abraham and his seed meerely for his being a faithfull man for then should it have bin made with Noah being a faithfull man but for his being such a faithfull man whom the Lord pleased to chuse and set out as a Patterne to all Beleevers Rom. 4. 23 24. And to be a Father of many Nations Rom. 4. 17 18. And in whose seed all the Nations in the world should be blessed Act. 5. 25. and 13. 23. to wit in Christ who was to come of his flesh And therefore although the Covenant and Promises were made to Abraham and his seed yet the consequence will not follow that the Covenant is likewise made with all Beleevers and their seed for Beleevers only are the seed and the seed only and none of them a Father in the Gospell sence nor any other save only Abraham to whom and his seed the Covenant and Promises are made wherefore to affirme that every Beleever hath now the same Covenant and Promises made to him and his seed as Abraham had to him his seed is very absurd and is all one as to say that now every Beleever by his beleeving doth immediately become a father of the faithfull as well as Abraham And if so I demand then where are any seed if all be Fathers For their seed and their seeds seed are all members of the Church and to be accounted faithfull and so to be all Fathers of the faithfull as well as Abraham from Generation to Generation to the worlds end Or more plainely thus promising onely this truth that there is now no difference betweene any Circumcision or Vncircumcision Iew or Gentile bond or free Male or Female But all are one in Christ Iesus Gal. 3. 28. I thus expresse my selfe if every beleever by his beleeving doth become a father of the faithfull as well as Abraham then it must be at the very instant of his beleeving that he doth become a father of the faithfull as well as Abraham and if so where then will be any Children to all these Fathers for none can be Children before they be faithfull and also at the same instant cease to be Children and become Fathers which implies a flat contradiction and then how can Abraham himselfe be father of all Beleevers Rom. 4 11 12. Or how then can the Promise be sure to all the seed if Beleevers Children be the seed for they will not affirme that all their Children are saved But this is affirmed of all the seed to whom the Promise is made Rom. 4. 16. Heb. 6. 16 17. compared with Gal. 3. 29. Now then if the Promise be sure unto all the seed unto whom it is made and all Beleevers and onely all Beleevers the Promise is sure to Then all Beleevers and onely all Beleevers are the seed unto whom the Promise is made and then none of Abrahams owne naturall seed nor the naturall seed of any other in the world are to be accounted the seed unto whom the Promise and Covenant is made untill they beleeve Rom. 9. 7 8. Rom. 4. 13 14. Gal. 3. 7. 9. This then being a most evident truth it may in no wise be granted that the Covenant is made with all Beleevers as with Abraham or that the Promise is made unto all these as unto Abraham or that all these are fathers as Abraham for all these are the seed and the onely seed and Children of Abraham And those to whom the Covena●t and