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	ground_n	infallible_a	1,901	5	9.8298	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80854	The vertue and value of baptism: in which the dignity and duty of [baptism], the due right of infants to [baptism], and their right above that of grown persons by [baptism], the degrading and destructive principles and practices of [baptism] are / catechetically propounded, plainly preached, and now published as an antidote to the baptism-despising dictates of John Simpson. By Zachariah Crofton ... ; Imprimatur, Edm. Calamy.	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.	1658 (1658)	Wing C7003B; ESTC R174314	79,234	315

the name of God exposing the holy God to irreverent rude approaches and his Seals and sanctifying Ordinance to scorn and contempt Nor is this guilt thus charged in the least extenuated by the qualifica●ion required and propounded as the ground of Communion viz. R●al Grace the answer of a go●d conscience by the Resu●rect●on of Christ from the de●d for I never yet found this propounded in Scripture as the ground of Church communion not is it discernable by every eye of every common believer who are to see such sanctified unto God to whom they do joyn themselves Nay the very Stewards of the mysteries of God have not that Spirit of infallible discerning the truth of grace Grosse hypocrites have been by the very Apostles of Jesus Christ Baptized and admitted into the Church and so will be by all that administer holy things for Hypocrites void of true Grace must be found in the Church when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come to Judgment And if it could be known yet by what authority is inward Grace divided from the outward Ordinance and opposed thereunto Those things which God hath joyned together shall any man dare to divide asunder and can true Grace consist with ignorance of the Doctrine of Baptism and neglect and contempt of the least Ordinance of Jesus Christ and inversion of the order of the Gospel But is not this most gracelesse Chymistry so to spiritualize Gospel dispensation as to Deifie every Minister that hath the charge of the Sanctuary Nay every believer that must hold communion in the Ordinances of the Gospel by making them Searchers of the heart and infallible discerners of Real Grace the ground of Church Communion and to justi●●e the washing of the body which God hath made the ground of confidence in accesse to him in the assemblies of his people Secondly The second sort to be reproved as contradictorie to this consecrating faith encouraging Ord●nance of washing the body with pure water are such as Disown and decline Baptism in their drawing nigh to God in the assemblies of his pe●ple Like Priest like People if men that ●all themselves Ministers ●●d Teachers shall with black mouths blaspheme Baptisme it cannot but meet with people that shall pr●fane contemn and cast off that holy Ordinance If Teachers shall dare in the Name of the Lord to declare That water-baptism is not the ground of communion with the Church visible no marvel if men do sl ght Baptisme in seeking such communion nay it were a marvel if some should not sinfully reject and renounce it for he is a mean man that draweth not some Clients after him A●e there not many in the midst of us that make their way to God by renouncing their Baptism when once their fancy doth but dictate to them a vanity in that outward Ordinance and their tongues are filled with vilifying invectives calling it beggarly Element carnal Ordinance outward and groundless Ceremony badg of Antichrist Superstitious administration their hearts are as full of joy as they can hold now they are full of courage can come with freedom and full assurance to God being as they pretend baptized with the Spirit and fire now they boldly joyn themselves to that assembly they call the Church of God and despising all outward Ordinances their formal admission must be by a full renunciation of their Baptism and all carnal acts of worship as they phrase it that they may serve God in Spirit This generation of men must needs appear most grossely ignorant or greatly deluded as to the method of approach to God and manner of worship to be done unto him Unto them I would demand If they be guided by Scripture directions not Enthusiasmes and pretended Inspirations whether Scripture doth not declare That divided man must make no aprroach to God the Spirit of all flesh will be adored with outward acts of worsh p wh●ch h● himself hath ap●ointed Hath God comm●nded Baptism to no use or end May bodies not consecrated come nigh to holy Presence Must not the Lords immediate attendants be distinguished from the rest of the world by some Livery that is obvious and to be seen by every eye Can the Spirit and Sacred Ordinances of God stand opposite one to the other and not consistent each with other And must sincere Gra●e share stakes with God giving m●n the Body and God the Spirit The Divel may be content with the half of man for he well knows by that means he doth possesse the whole for God will have all or none they that will draw nigh to his Sanctuary must love him with all their migh● heart soul and strength they that will wait on him must worship him in Body and Spirit They that walk as the redeemed of Christ must gloryfie him with Soul and Body which is their reasonable sacrifice Rom. 12.1 For both were bought with a price 1 Cor. 6.20 God will part with no part of his purchase and hath therefore prescribed outward acts of adoration to be bodily performed in the sincerity of Spirit and appointed the washing of the body with pure water to consecrate and stamp holinesse on the outward man as well as the sprinkling of the heart for the inward the exercise of the body ●n the outward acts of worship without the Spirit is plain hypocrisie and the exercise of the Spirit without the Bodies subjection to outward Ordinances is positive profanenesse such is the Souls influence on the Body that if it awfully apprehend Majesty it will make the bodily members to expresse it In vain is heart Subjection pretended where the yoke of outward Ordinances is broken from the neck What likelyhood of Loyalty from such as scorne the Livery Sad is that Sanctity that sets at enmity Gods Spirit and Sacred Ordinances Cursed is that cry of holiness that cryeth down Divine order and Ordinances Rebellious is that Assembly whose Incorporation is a renunciation of the matter and method of Gods Worship Dreadful must needs be Gods approach to th●t people that draw nigh unto him not duly consecrated to that end by Baptism and touch the holy things of God in his Assembly not having the body washed with pure water I have lost my little skill in Scripture-Calcuiation if such perish not in the gain saying of Korah and occasion not a P●rz-vzzah in Israel Whilest some disown Baptisme as an outward Ordinance by the Spirit of Familism disowning all outward administrations There are others that will joyn with us in condemning them and consent that God must be w●rshipped by bodily acts of Religion yet they find no way of accesse to God but by receding from the baptism they had received and disowning the consecrating Faith-encouraging use of the washing of their bodies in pure water to which they have been subject These are our Antipaedobaptist become actual Anabaptists who quarrelling at Infants interest unto Baptism and the Administrators thereof do disown all relation they have had to the Church and the priviledges

informed in the first rudiments of the Doctrine of God even the Doctrine of Baptismes and to be convinced that the body washed with pure water is the qualification prescribed by a glorious God to consecrate such as with confidence approach before him and so the contempt of it must needs be prophane and dangerous nay too many in the midst of us open their black mouths and give their blasphemous tongues the liberty of decrying and vilifying this Holy Ordinance envying against it as a carnal base beggarly Element an Excrementious Ordinance and Antichristian Idol and piece of abomination so horribly profane and impudent do impostors grow by liberty that they will outface God and speak blasphemously of Divine institution and the appointed order of accesse to God in the assemblies of his people Nay what shall we say to the rude recession of people from the application of Baptism to others or their irreverent attendance on it as if it concerned not them or were no part of Gods worship and of those eminent pretenders unto Saintship who disown the relation of men Baptized to God and themselves as the people of God standing at a distance from the consecrated to the Lords service as if profane and altogether strangers to the Covenant and many other profane carriages that are insuitable to so holy an Ordinance But Generalia non pungunt not to confine my self to Generals which will hardly reach the heart and consciences Give me leave to take notice of those principles and practises that are inconsistent with this holy use and nature of Baptisme and do indeed profanely militate against this doctrine that teacheth you That Baptism or the body washed with pure water is the especial qualification of confidence in approach to God in the assemblies of his people and I shall Rank them into this order and make them known by these names They are such who 1. Dictate to the unbaptized a liberty of accesse to God 2. Disown and decline their Baptism in their approaches to God 3. Disregard Baptism administred to others 4. Disesteeme the priviledges conferred by Baptism 5. Declare not to theirs Baptized the dignity and duty of Baptism 6. Deny the Baptized the liberty of accesse to God in the assemblies of his people and use of his Ordinances Unto each of these this Doctrine doth speak Reproof and Blame as we shall note in the particular consideration of them And First If the washing of the body with pure water or Baptism be the especial qualification of confident approach to God in the assemblies of his people then Generally are they too blame who do Dictate to the unbaptized a liberty of accesse to God Many in this Remisse age of ours can make Baptism a matter of no moment in their Communion they can hold Communion with baptized or unbaptised and cry out Circumcision or uncircumcision is to them nothing as if this Ordinance of Baptism were rendred indifferent as the nullified Ordinance of Circumcision And they themselves complain of rigor and severity in such as impose Baptism as the ground of Communion in the Church and decline the administration of holy things to the unbaptized these call for inward grace the answer of a good conscience Real love to Jesus Christ and then they care not whether they ever passe under the outward Ordinance or be Baptized And herein the Lukewarmnesse of private men is not so much to be blamed for that the leaders of the people cause them to erre some that stand in the midst of you as guides and professe themselves Ministers of Jesus Christ and teachers of the truth have not been aff●aid if I may not say ashamed positively to affirm and in this Pulpit plainly to teach as the very mind of God Tha Baptism is not the ground of Church Communion but real Grace the answer of a good Conscience by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and therefore did offer and affirm That although a man were altogether ignorant of the Doctrine of Baptism and had never passed under that outward Ordinance yet he could own him as a member of the Church hold Communion with him and admit him to all the Ordinances of Jesus Christ and much to this purpose which stands in a direct contradiction to this truth and declared use of Baptism For if it be the qualification of accesse to God the door of admission into the assemblies of Gods people and way of consecration unto Communion in the holy things of God must it not needs be profanenesse to administer the holy things of God to such as are not thus qualified and presumption to invite such unto the participation of them But a little to expostulate with the asserters of this Baptism-subverting notion Will God be worshipped by outward Ordinaces and must these Ordinances be enjoyed in order some preparing for participation to others Is Baptism the first Ordinance of the Gospel Initiating Seal of the Covenant Door of admission into the Church and method of Matriculation into the houshold of Faith and way of consecration unto Communion with God and his people Is it not reckoned among the first principles of the Word of God to be learned by all Disciples entred into Christ's School And if so must it not be horrid profaneness to decry the knowledge of Baptism and its Doctrine To expose communion with God and his people to common hands never sanctified and by body washing separated from the heap of mankind on whom Baptism never stamped holinesse and grosse impiety to fling open the door of Gods house that dogs and swine may enter at pleasure there being no baptismal badge of distinction between them and the children of God Is it not great prodigality to offer the priviledges of the Covenant to every hand not having any Sealed interest whereon to claim Is it not grievous presumption to decline the directed order of the Gospel and dispence the holy things of God in a way and method contrary to that whereby Christ and his Apostles either injoyned or administred them Must not this needs be Superstition Will-worship a laying waste Divine directions and running from the Rule of Scripture and due method of holy things Must not God in his Jealousie needs arise and say to such Ministers as to the keepers of the Sanctuary Ez●k 44.7 You have enough of all abominations seeing ye have brought into my house the unbaptized in fl●sh and in spirit To what end do these men Baptize any or urge any to be Baptized In this assertion Baptisme is proclaimed a matter of indifferency nay a meer nullity an action of no advantage administred to no end for if it confer not outward Priviledges it will never conveigh inward Grace And thus the institutions of the Lord Jesus stands charged with folly and vanity and the Ordinances of the Gospel are made Complements and bootlesse Ceremonies but rather the Spirit of seduction is evidenced to be prophane notoriously wicked willingly withstanding Divine order and in

the Covenant that assureth them of the high priviledges of Salvation doe not only slight this holy Ordinance of Baptism but also sinfully transgress Gods command shew their natural affection to be diverted from its right channel cure for the chiefest good and set their children under an inevitable necessitie of sleighting the Ordinance starting aside from God to whom they know no relation We finde it our grief that our children are prophane when it is no other than the production of our own neglect We can easily complain of their impietie but where is the man that as soon as his child is sensible doth season him with the knowledge of his miserie by sin Gods mercy in the Covenant of Grace and his special engagement to holiness for that he beares on him the name of God from his very birth and that imprinted by his Baptisme when his body was washed with pure water The sixth and last sort whose principles and practise doe plainly millitate against the nature of Baptisme and cleerly doe contradict the same are such who deny the baptized the libertie of access to God in the assemblies of his people This I well know to relate unto the most eminent professors of Gospel order and pretenders unto pietie that are among us and therefore the most tender rebuke will seem to be railing violence and bitterness But be it what it will sin against Gods Ordinances must not pass without a zealous and serious reproof Such among us as affect the term of Congregational Brethren in the gathering of their Churches run into an extreme as farre wide on the one hand as the loose levelling Familists and Anabaptists are on the other These dictate a liberty of access to the unbaptized and those denie it to the baptized We must needs imagine they agree both in one principle that Baptisme is not the ground of communion with the Church visible nor qualification of access to God For if it be otherwise as we have noted it must be prophaneness to admit without it and they have need of good warrant that will acquit themselves from impietie in excluding the baptized from these priviledges That such are among us who debarre the baptized from their priviledges is so obvious to every observant eye of the now only cryed up Church way that I need not much urge demonstrations thereof I well know some whose practice proclaim it in their principles will disown it but it is the property of that congregating way to couch their principles until their practice have proved their truth and goodness and proclaimed them to others But if in the termes charged any shall deny this to be acted among us I shall desire to understand why they declare privatly and publiquely men baptized to be strangers to God and his Covenant why doe they decline communion with and a care of baptized soules as members of the Church and dictate a necessitie of their coming into Church-way and fellowship and why doe they direct other wayes for admission of Church members is there any terms more ordinarie in the mouthes of the congregated saints towards those whom they live amongst than doggs without unbeleevers not in a Church way Doe not the pastors ●f these private it may offend if I say separate assemblies in their publique ministrie speak unto their baptized hearers as aliens strangers to the Covenant and Common-wealth of Israel men in the High-wayes and Hedges Doe they not call them into their self congregated and constituted Churches as the only Churches of Jesus Christ Doe not the particular members of these assemblies appropriate to themselves the title of saints beleevers the people of God the brethren If they know or deale with a man professing the same God and Christ baptized and of a Godly conversation but not in their Church-way they cannot know him in any Christian relation but can oppose to him a member of their private a●●sembly by the name of brother such an one as if the other were no brother Nay further do not they decline communion with the baptized even such whom they cannot charge with any visible prophanenesse and against whom the Church never proceeded in censure Hence they withdraw themselves from publique assemblies in their speciall administration of Church priviledges denominate thems●lves the Church and decline all Church actions towards such as come not into their Church-wayes though their Pastors will possesse the places and make a shift to compell the late cried down parochial maintenance yet of the people in common they take no charge Brethren will not own them as objects of first or second admonition Pastors will neither admit to the Lords table the unblameable parents nor baptize or catechize their Children nor exercise any act of discipline towards the disorderly in order to their conviction and salvation but in all things so demeane themselves towards the baptized as men without the pale of the Church meere heathen for Church ministrations are as much reserved from them as from such who never yet had holinesse stamped on them And if any doe incline to associate with them in the holy things of God they must bee admitted Members and enter at the door of a Church-Covenant or mutuall agreement among themselves and declaration of the worke of Grace upon their hearts and their experiences of God which these Congregational-men have set up If this dialect and deportment doe not declare that liberty of accesse to God in the assemblies of his people is denied to the baptized I know not how to judge it And how this will consist with the nature use and end of Baptisme I cannot discern If by the washing of water we were sanctified how were we prophaned and again laid common I never yet could understand any divine rejection I am sure it is much contrarie to Gods wonted method and patience to cast off a people adhering to him though subject to many aberrations and vile actions towards him and the extraordinarie pleasure of God is yet to be manifested And if God count us holy and continue the libertie of our access to him in his Ordinance they must produce a good commission that shall cast us out as prophane and unclean if they expect we should be therewithall contented If Baptisme doe incorporate into the Church of God doth it not intitle to all the priviledges of the Church and binde us to use them and the Church to allow us the use of them according to our capacitie If we are baptized into one bodie have we not the same relation to them that others have Are we not all of one familie members of one bodie and brethren sonnes of the same father Ought not all the Church to be the Pastors charge Is not the rebuke of the disorderly his duty as well as his encouragement of the orderly Doth not Baptisme so knit us one unto another that we are bound to watch over one another and doe all brotherly duties Why else doth the Apostle make it

an argument there is one Baptisme Ephes 4. we are all baptized into one bodie I would fain know of what use Baptisme is to them is it not the same to others baptized To count the baptized dogges men without to disown their brotherhood and the like must needs denie that Baptisme is the dore of admission into the Church and yet this in terms they will not say though they carrie towards them as without and call them to be members of the Church who are members of the Church on as good a ground and as cleer a method as themselves If this be not a solecisme in Christianitie I know not how to make any As for their admission into the Church by Covenant Agreement or profession it is cleerly without Scripture prescription or primitive president that ever I could yet finde and I can deem it no other than an inhumane invention if I may not call superstition the countenance of which it bears in my eye whilest it stands in the place of Baptisme is made the only way of consecration unto Church communion whereby it plainly supplants Gods Ordinance These things I note but cannot stand to debate intending a reproof not dispute and to let men see the sinfulness of this sacred way of independencie and gathering of Churches out of Churches whilest it stands guilty of a contempt of Gods way of access unto him and admission into his Church of censorious uncharitableness towards their brethren invested with the reason of relation to the Lords people and constitution of Church membership in a way of meer humane invention I confesse I have heard it often noted that the difference between Independents and others is not so much as to maintain an irreconcileable distance and I say so too I could wish they were more friendliely united As to the single point of Discipline they shall have my consent for a brotherly toleration of its exercise till they are weary of it But as for their separation from the Churches of Jesus Christ self congregation into a Church and seclusion of baptized souls from sacred Ordinances and the like they seem to me so repugnant to truth and order and ruinous to Gods Church and Ordinances that I cannot without sinne but stand a professed enemie thereunto Let not men think that I allow the prophaneness of Christians because I alledge their interest in the cōmon administration of the Covenant or that I think their enjoyment may not be interrupted because I cannot consent their interest be denied them I have learned to distinguish between right and possession and where the one is cleer the other may be justly sometimes with held I well know prophane Christians are unseemly Saints yet Saints scandalous Disciples yet Disciples disorderly Brethren yet Brethren vessels of dishonour yet vessels in the same house to the Masters use That Church members be for a time suspended from particular priviledges may be admitted but at private brethrens pleasure to be sleighted as no members is not to be endured That obstinate incurable members be cut off is the Church her duty but that the Church be cast off is the congregational impietie Is there baptized persons in works denying the God they profess Is there a brother a drunkard an adulterer and the like Doth not Baptisme appropriate them to the private admonition of particular brethren and publique inspection of Church officers Is not the delivering them to Satan for the buffeting of the flesh that the soul may be saved their priviledge by Baptisme If these holy men would talk of correcting casting out cutting off disorderly baptized souls it would sound well in my ●ares but to talk of gathering Churches coming into Church-way admission of members and the like amongst those that bears holiness in their flesh and have on them the qualification of access to God sounds so harshly in my eares that I cannot but abhor it as inconsistent with the nature of Baptisme exposing it to contempt making it of no effect endangering the subversion of the Church and the ushering in of Paganisme whilest the baptized finde themselves rejected and not looked after as of any relation to God they cannot but resigne up themselves to their own lusts run into an ignorance of and estrangedness to God It seems to me a most just plea that is made by Christians in common Were we baptized why are we disowned as to relation to God and his Church and cast out of all the care of the Church as if we were thereunto strangers If the seal of God be on us why doe our bre●hren lift up themselves above us and engross to themselves the titles termes priviledges that belong in common to all baptized souls If we walk unworthy our relation we are willing to be corrected but must we needs lose our interest and be thrust out of our fathers inheritance by our brethren our forfei●ure never being judicially exacted Gods Ordinances we could bear though never so cross to our nature because thereunto we are bound by our Baptism but the new wayes pursued by our brethren and to us proposed are grievous to us because we finde them not in the grand Charter of our priviledge willingly we would walk with God in duty and draw nigh to him in the assemblies of his people for that we are thereunto consecrated but herein we are debarred and driven at a distance as if Doggs not Children Heathens not Christians Aliens to the Covenant not Heirs of Grace If we goe astray we think those that are set over ought to seek us as sheep not suffer us to wander as goats We have cause to complain that our Shepheards feed themselves not the flock they feed the flock and clothe them with the wooll kill the fat but feed not the sheep The weak they have not strengthned the sick they have not healed nor have they sought that which was lost nor brought again that which was driven away but with crueltie and rigor have they ruled us We were scattered without a shepheard and when we were dispersed every beast of the field devoured us We were sheep though wandring upon every high hill and mountain Gods flock though scattered through the earth and none sought after us If the Lord Jesus subscribe and accept not this complaint as just and good I know nothing of Gospel method or order Thus then I have noted the vanitie and vileness of those whose carriage contradicts the nature of Baptisme and bespeaks them insensible of it as an especial qualification for confidence in access to God in the assemblies of his people The third and last use of this Doctrine is by way of exhortation unto two especial duties First Acquaint we our selves with the holy nature of Baptisme Secondly Act we the course of our lives and carriage as those whose bodies are washed with pure water Of these give me leave to speake a word in their order and first of the first Acquaint we our selves with the holy