Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	jesus_n	life_n	1,867	5	4.4456	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33967	The improvableness of water-baptism, or, A discourse concerning the gravity and seriousness of the action and the usefulness of the sacred institution of baptism instructing all parents how great a thing they do when they bring their children to that holy ordinance, and all persons, whether young or old, what obligations their baptism hath brought them under, what wrath it hath exposed wicked and impenitent persons to, and what use they may make of their baptism for confirmation of their faith, and quickening them to repentance and an holy life : discoursed from Rom. 6:3,4, by way of sermon / by John Collinges ...	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1681 (1681)	Wing C5321; ESTC R5112	38,449	47

Christ So that either these things must be true undoubtedly true or the whole Christian World in all ages hath been mistaken 2. It seateth and confirmeth this unto us That if we truly repent and receive the Lord Jesus Christ our sins shall be washed away with his blood and sin shall not have dominion over us These are the two great promises of the Gospel and in Baptism there is a mutual stipulation it is neither a single promise on Gods part to us nor a single vow on our part to God but it is a Covenant Gods Covenant in our flesh as God himself stiled Circumcision to which Baptism succeedeth being a seal of the same Covenant 3. It is a confirmation to us of our favour with God liberty of access unto God In baptism we have the Name of God put upon us the baptized person like the circumcised Jew is called by Gods Name In populum Dei adoptatur he is adopted into Gods family It is very pleasant to see and observe what use the servants of God have made of this being called by Gods Name in their pleadings with God Jer. 14 9. Thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name leave us not Jer. 15. 16. I am called by thy name O thou Lord God of Hosts Dan. 9. 18 19. O my God incline thine ear and hear and behold our desolations and the City which is called by thy name O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do for thine own sake O my God for thy City and thy people are called by thy name Shall not a Christian that forgets not the kindness of his youth and the love of his Espousals go to God and say Lord leave me not I was baptized into thy name or Lord help me for I was baptized into thy name Mark how many Promises are made to those that are called by the Lords name 2 Chron. 7. 13 14. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain c. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land So Isa 46. 6 7. I will say to the North Give up and to the South Keep not back bring my sons from far and my daughters from the end of the earth even every one that is called by my name for I have created him for my glory I have formed him yea I have made him Admitting a soul to live up to his Baptismal-dedication and Covenant his Baptism furnisheth him with a great argument to go unto God with and with a great confidence and boldness in his addresses to the throne of Grace by reason of the promises to persons under those circumstances Thus I have largely shewed you the usefulness of this sacred Institution and finished this my first branch of Application I now proceed to further branches Instruct 2. Observe from hence how great the duty is which lieth upon all baptized persons I will open it to you in three or four particulars 1. There lyeth a duty upon them to hold fast the profession of the faith of the Gospel Jude v. 3. exhorteth that we should contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints St. Paul Phil. 1. 27. commands us together to strive for the faith of the Gospel The Apostle to the Hebrews calls to us to hold fast our profession Heb 4. 14. The profession of our faith Heb. 10. 23. This discourse will let you see the engagement which we have to do it we are baptized into it we are striving for needless Rites and Ceremonies things of no value and in the mean time forget this striving for the fundamental truths of the Gospel These are the things we are to strive to contend for to be tenacious of our Baptism layeth an engagement upon us as to this for we are not baptized into Moses but into Christ that is into the publick and steady profession of the Truths and Doctrine of the Gospel and whosoever apostatizeth from that profession renounceth his Baptism forgetting both his own dedication in it and his own Covenant and obligation by it Baptized persons have set to their seal that God is true and the Doctrine of his Gospel is true and that they will own it and persevere in it 2. Hence it appears That all baptized persons are by their Baptism obliged to the acceptation of Christ as their spiritual husband I have saith the Apostle espoused you to one husband that one husband is Christ the contract is made in Baptism the espousals are upon the admission of the soul into the fellowship of the Church upon the visible evidence of his faith and repentance You know sometimes there are Contracts betwixt persons that are not of age for the consummation of Marriage the contract is in verbis de futuro in words respecting the time that is to come the Marriage is in verbis de praesenti in words obliging for the present The differences are in those words I will take which are the words of a contract and I do take which are the words used in an actual Marriage Every person in Baptism is contracted to Christ Every person is not of age for an actual Marriage to which Repentance and Knowledge are precedaneous But every Baptized Infant saith I will take Christ for my wedded husband and Lord. The Act in Infant-baptism is indeed rather the Act of the Parents than the Childs which is not yet capable of a rational act But be it so the Parent hath such a right in the Child that it stands bound to abide by the Act of its Natural Guardian unless the child grown up can shew a sufficient reason to the contrary It is thus adjudged as to all legal Acts what the legal Guardian doth the Infant and person in Non-age doth It holdeth much more in things spiritual where there is a precedaneous obligation to any humane Law upon every child to confirm and justifie its Parents act For every soul is bound to this and the Parent herein engageth the child no further than was its precedaneous duty in obedience to God so as the Parents obligation that the child should accept of Jesus Christ as its Saviour and perform what God requireth of it in order to its salvation is really an obligation upon the child to do what its spiritual Guardian hath solemnly obliged for it so as every baptized person stands bound to believe in the Lord Jesus and to live an holy life 3. It followeth from hence That there is a duty incumbent upon all good Christians even with their blood to maintain and defend the truth of the Gospel I would be rightly understood not that all men are engaged in such cases to take up Arms in the defence of the greatest Truths of the Gospel that requireth a lawful authority to call them to

these but so necessary that by it Original sin is certainly washed away and without it a child cannot be saved which is that which I call a groundless fancy if not a Relique of Popery It is true we have no certain time limited for Baptism To give you my opinion in the case The best argument we have for Infant-Baptism is the Analogy betwixt Circumcision and Baptism they being both seals of one and the same Covenant of grace which is not straitned under the Gospel-dispensation God prescribed the Eighth day as a certain time for Circumcision yet were not the Jews tyed to the eighth day under undue circumstances All the while the people were travelling in the Wilderness which was forty years there were no Children circumcised as you may read Josh 5. 5 7. I would fain know how Baptism is more necessary to the salvation of Christians than Circumcision was to the salvation of the Jewish Children I am sure they were both seals of the same Covenant the contempt of an Ordinance of God that is damnable but the omission of it under undue circumstances as suppose the sickness of the child c. is far from being so it may be our duty that the Ordinance of God may be more gravely and thoughtfully administred But from that Popish opinion of the absolute necessity of Baptism to salvation and the efficacy of it as a work done have risen many abuses and prophanations of this holy Ordinance of God Hence came up the practice of Midwives baptizing which held amongst us till King James his time hence the slighty and perfunctory administration of this Ordinance by too many at this day For my own part supposing other due circumstances to concur I should not omit the baptizing my child beyond the Eighth day Nor on the other side sear that if due circumstances did not concur the delaying of it longer But this is but a digression Let me beg of you that are Parents with all seriousness and gravity and due forethinking what you do to bring your Children to this most facred Institution Remember that in it you present your Children before the Lord you dedicate your Children unto the Lord. What a great action this is What gravity reverence seriousness deliberation is sufficient for such an action With what fear ought the Lord to be served in such an action 2. The second thing which I would call to you for shall be a faithfulness to your children whom you have so dedicated to God Your child knoweth not what is done unto it it knoweth not that it is baptized that it is so dedicated to Christ that such an Oath of the Lord is upon it it knoweth of no vow that it hath made no Covenant with God in which it is engaged you have brought it under this engagement If now you shall not tell the child its state what you have done as to it under what a Vow and Oath of God you have brought it but it shall give up it self to the service of the Devil and live contrary to its most solemn ingagements your child shall perish but shall not its blood be required at your hands When God fell upon Moses and had like to have killed him in the Inn for not circumcising his child it is said his wife Zipporah in a passion cut off the childs foreskin and threw it at Moses saying A bloody husband hast thou been to me because of the circumcision How many thousand children hereafter will throw the very coles of Hell at their Parents and say Ah! Bloody Fathers bloody Mothers have you been to us because of our Baptism you dedicated us to God when we were Children we lived with you ten twenty years and you never told us of it but let us run into those sins which have brought us into these flames you brought us under a solemn Vow and Covenant to God in our Baptism and never told us what you vowed or ingaged for us we never heard a word from you of our Baptismal vows if we had we should probably not have violated them as we have done Bloody damning Parents have you been to us Thus much shall serve for what I have to say to Parents Br. 2. I speak to you that are Children That which I have to say to you is Remember you have been baptized into Christ That you have been by your Parents dedicated to Christ and are under a vow to be his servants Remember that you have vowed the profession and defence of his truth the acceptance of him as your Lord and Saviour an adherence to him a living up to his law being baptized into his death and buried with him by baptism into death It may be some of your Parents never minded you of this I now tell you of it and indeed I have sometimes thought that one end of Gods instituting us Ministers hath been to supply the defects of Parents and Masters of families in this debaucht and declining age of the world Let all therefore hearken to me this day I suppose I speak to none but have been baptized into Christ in the larger sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And if so If your Parents have forgot to tell it you or neglected their duty I tell it you you are all dedicated unto Christ yea and God hath accepted you for he hath bidden us Go and baptize in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost We have baptized you in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost What follows hence You are sacred persons not sanctified in a spiritual sense but sacred in a ceremonial sense in which sense all the Jews were called an holy people and the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 7. 14. our children are not unclean but holy sanctified ceremonially externally ritually that is set a part for God sanctified as the Tabernacle the Temple the Vessels of the Temple under the law were sanctified I tell you again that you are under a Vow and Covenant to own the profession of Christ and to defend it to accept of Christ as the Saviour of the World as your Saviour in particular to commit all your spiritual concerns unto him to live to Christ not to lusts not to the world as to these things you were buried with Christ by baptism into death Do not think to evade this by saying it was none of your own act your parents did it you did it not It is in the power of parents to ingage you in a debt by the laws of men to which all the estate you inherit by them shall be lyable for payment though there be no antecedaneous obligation upon you from the law of God to pay such debts It is in your parents power to dispose of you in Marriage in your Nonage and before God you will be bound when of age so to dispose of your selves unless you can give a sufficient reason to the contrary As to God it is in your parents power to render you obnoxious to his wrath and justice so as for their sins you shall answer as far as your lives and estates go though indeed they cannot withour a guilt of your own subject you to the eternal wrath of God your prrents have as to this dedicated you to God to be his servants they have brought you under the Vow and Oath of God to be his servants to own profess and defend his Gospel and the truths of it to accept of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the World as your Saviour and spiritual husband to live unto him in disclaiming the service of lusts and of the world Take heed now of Sacriledge Perjury and Apostacy A loose leud life contrary to the Gospel brings you under all this guilt and subjecteth you by the righteous God to be dealt withall as sacrilegious persons who being holy have stollen away your selves from the service of God and robbed God of his right as false and perjured persons who have sworn your selves unto God and have violated the Oath of God upon you As Apostatized persons who have put your hands to the Lords plow and have drawn it back again There is yet a time for you to repent and to remember the kindness of your youth and the love of your Espousals O neglect it not To day while it is called to day harden not your hearts through Impenitency nourish not unbelief in your Souls Return you Shulamites return Remember from whence you are fallen and how the Oath of God presseth you Let no baptized person go down to the pit that will but add oyl to the fire that shall never go out It will be more tolerable for an unbaptized Turk or Indian than for a baptized Christian in the day of judgment if he stands at the Judges left hand in that day Br. 3. Lastly I speak to you all Men Brethren and Fathers 1. Labour to see your selves baptized into Christ you are all baptized in the name of Christ but rest not here Give your Souls no rest until you find that you are baptized into Christ that you have put on Christ how you may know that I have shewed you that you are concerned in it will appear from the insignificancy as to your eternal state of Water-Baptism O think not that the pouring or spirinkling of a little water upon your face can wash away the sin of the soul Beg of God that you may be born again of water and of the spirit without which our Lord hath told you you can never enter into the Kingdom of God that you may be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire burning up the dregs and dross of lusts and corruptions which Water-Baptism leaveth in every soul Nay remember your Water-Baptism without this will be but as the Water of jealousie to the guilty woman as Gods water of Witness the more to confound your souls to all eternity 2. Let all persons reflect on their Baptism Let the unconverted reflect upon it and study it to ingage them to faith and repentance because of their Oath and ingagement in Baptism to do it Let the converted reflect upon it and fetch strength from it more to dye unto sin and to live unto righteousness remembring they were baptized into Christ baptized into his death and buried with him by baptism into death But this is enough to have spoken on this argument God give his blessing FINIS