Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	doctrine_n	time_n	4,041	5	3.7132	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
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

workes of Abraham but yee seeke to kill me who tell you the truth this did not Abraham I must therefore tell you whose children you are yee are of your father the ●●v●ll and his workes yee doe repent yee therefore and bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life and thinke not to say with your selves you have Abraham to your father for now the Axe is laid unto the root of the tree and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is to be hewne downe and cast into the fire Matth. 3. 10. 11. which is you must not now thinke to profit your selves by pleading your naturall descent or birth from faithfull Abraham But you must be borne againe and have faith in your owne person as he had and doe the workes which he did else you are to be cut downe and cast out as unprofitable trees for now every naturall branch of all that natural tree or stocke of you Iewes whereof Abraham is your roote if it be not transplanted by my spirit into me the true Vine and so to be inabled to bring forth fruit in mee is to be taken away by my Father the husbandman but such as in me bring forth fruit he will purge that they way bring forth more fruit Jo. 15. 1. 2. Now then to shut up all put case it be granted which is not true that all the children of Believers are those to whom the promise belongeth are within the Covenant are elected yea and had faith also yet notwithstanding can they not warrantably be baptized untill they doe manifest and declare the same by profession this is apparent by the doctrine and practice first of Iohn Matth. 3. 6. 8 9. Mark 1. 4. Secondly of Christ and his Apostles Ioh. 3. 22. compared with 4. 1. 2. Act. 2. 38. 41. and 8. 12. 36. 37. and thirdly by the tenor of the Commission Matth. 28. 29. Mar. 16. 15. 16. 1. By this we may partly see the grosse mistake of all such great Clerks of our times which confound these two Covenants of Law and Gospell and make them both as one in substance and different onely in circumstance as in administration or in degrees the one more darke the other more light c. whereas indeed they are no lesse different then old and new workes and faith nature and grace then the Administration of condemnation and the administration of righteousnesse or than the letter killing and the spirit giving life 2 Cor. 3. 6. 7 8 9. or than a state of bondage and a state of sonnes Gal. 4. 21. c. And from hence this errour comes that in their teachings and writings they make such a kinde of hodge podge of the doctrine of the Gospell and so intermix Grace and Workes Truth and Error and distill thereby such a spirit of giddinesse into the hearts of their hearers that for the most part they walke in a circular maze or as in a twilight left between legall terrors and Gospel hopes betweene consolations and consternations of spirit all the dayes of their lives and never come to find that spiritual life brought to light by the glorious Gospel nor that rtyumphant state of son-ship and freedome purchased them by Jesus Christ through faith in his blood The Apostle tels the Church of the Romanes Chap. 6. 14. That sinne should not have dominion over them the reason hee addes because they were not under the Law but under grace whence it is evident to be under the Law is to be under the dominion of sinne and consequently of death Now therefore by how much any by their teachings doe confound Law and Gospell by so much they seeke to bring us or rather deteine us in Bondage to sinne And hence also followes that grosse error of admitting of Infants and a naturall seed as right Subjects of Paptisme and of the Gospell Priviledges These two errors like Hypocrites Twynnes smile and weep stand and fall together For if the doctrine of free grace by Iesus Christ in its native luster were once distinctly set out and the Spirituality thereof in its fullnesse of Beauty and glory clearely laid open It would then evidently appeare to all men that none ought to partake of such a spirituall estate and worship without being made sutable thereunto by Regeneration manifested by their Faith and Obedience to the Gospell But how sutable such Spirituall worship and Churches would be to a Priestly Levitical gay Clergy let the wise judge I cannot but much suspect that they do finde farre more sweetnesse and relish in their revenewes of hundreds per annum gleabes tithes c. Though it be from the world in a Church then they have hopes to finde in any thing from any such Church in the world I conceive therefore that there is no more hope to see that Tribe stoope so low or forget themselves so much as to owne and beare witnesse to this truth then there is to see them to allow the Doctrine and Practise of blessed Saint Paul Act. 20. 17. 34 35. to be now of use and immitation in our times or then to allow the speeches of Iesus Christ Mar. 12. 38 39 40. Luk. 11. 44. 52. Mat. 15. 14. To appertaine aswell to the Clergy of this Age as to them of any former age yea and aswell as to the learned Scribes c. of whom they were immediately spoken Wherefore to prevaile with these men in this point there is yet one Argument onely wanting to wit certaine revenews of 3. 4. or 500. per annum for each of them with which Argument I doubt not But one might convince the Judgements of a hundred in one day easier then a hundred can one in a whole yeare without it So prevalent is the world with our corrupt natures as by dayly experience is seene But these Arguments are of the earth earthly and sutable to earthly affections which men ought to mortifie and to have their conversation in Heaven Phil. 3. 19. 20. Col. 3. 2 3. And seriously to consider Christs Arguments who reasons quite contrary telling us of denying our selves and taking up our Crosses dayly Luk. 9. 23. Of being sent as Sheep amongst Wolves Mat. 10. 16. Of being hated of all men Mat. 10. 22. Of suffering hunger and nakednesse 1 Cor. 4. 11. 2 Cor. 11. 27. Persecution tribulation affliction reproach imprisonment distresse yea death it selfe for his sake Mat. 24. 9. Io. 15 20. Luk. 21. 12. 2 Tim. 3. 12. 2. Cor. 6. 4 5. and 12. 10 And that except we first count our Costs and forsake all for Christs sake and the Gospells we cannot be his Disciples here in this world nor raigne with him in the Kingdome and world to come Luk. 14. 26 27 28. 33. Io. 12. 25. 2 Tim. 2. 12. 2. And from confounding of these two Covenants and States of Law and Gospell ariseth another great error and that of no small consequence For from hence as I conceive the Papists have brought in many disorders into

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