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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	faith_n	justify_v	object_n	1,744	5	9.2095	5	false

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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

Citizens and fellow-Soldiers so it ought to engage us to endeavour unity that we are fellow-members of the same body and fellow-Citizens of the same City There is but one body and we were all baptized into that one body 3. It is useful to quicken us both to the exercises of faith and To the Exercises of faith and of repentance repentance The force of this lyeth in the solemn dedication of the person to God and the Souls solemn engagement in it to be the Lords both which inseparably attend this holy Institution The soul thus reasoneth with it self I was by nature a child of wrath a great sinner blind unbelieving when I was baptized I was dedicated to God I solemnly engaged my self to the service of God I cannot be the Lords without repenting and believing his word and also a receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ whom God hath revealed to be the Saviour of them that believe Had I been an Heathen I ought not to have been baptized until I had given an evidence of my repentance my hearty imbracing the Doctrine of the Gospel and as hearty closing with the Lord Jesus Christ as my hope and my Saviour Now though I was baptized when a child in my parents right yet if I ever hope to be saved this cannot excuse me from those great duties of Repentance and Faith which God hath made inseparably necessary to salvation As Circumcision availeth nothing to those who did not keep the Law so Baptism availeth as little to those who perform not the terms of the Gospel Besides when I was baptized though an Infant I could not indeed engage for my self but my parents engaged for me that so far as lay in them I should repent and believe they have fulfilled their parts to me in calling upon me for it and pressing these things upon me or if they have not yet the Covenant of God is in my flesh and I am ingaged to do these things not only because they are the necessary terms of my salvation but in regard I have covenanted in Baptism to do it It is true it is not in my power without the special efficacious grace of God to repent or to believe but I am under the Oath of God to do what in me lyes to do it to avoid those gross sins which it is in my power to avoid by vertue of the common grace of God denied to no man Wherein I have offended to set down sadly to reflect on them and to beg of God a broken heart for them to wait upon all holy Institutions which may be conducive to these ends c. 4. To name no more It is useful to quicken us up to Holiness and that part of it especially which lyeth in the mortification of our To the exercise of Mortification members Why because saith the Apostle we are Baptized into his death and buried with him by baptism into death We are not only baptized into a belief and a profession of a belief of his death but into a fellowship with his death a part of which lies in a dying to sin as he dyed for sin For saith the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 4. 1. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God Observe the words which go before v. 2. For as much therefore as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind c. From whence I infer That our fellowship with Christs suffering in the flesh lyeth in our cessation from sin Now I have shewed you that in Baptism a Sacramental representation of Christs suffering in the flesh and our submission to that holy Institution engageth us to a conformity to the death of Christ and to a fellowship with it that is to a ceasing from sin For saith my text we are buried with him by baptism into death and it followeth That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father even so we also should walk in newness of life And again v. 6. Knowing that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin For he that is dead is free from sin The meditation of this is of great use to ingage us to Holiness as there is in this Ordinance an ingagement upon us to dye unto sin and to maintain that as well as other parts of the spiritual fight Thus I have shewed you the usefulness of this Ordinance to quicken the soul 3. It is useful likewise to corroborate and strengthen the soul Baptism how it is useful to help and strengthen the Soul and that both in the Exercises of faith and of holiness 1. In the exercises of faith Faith either respects the Proposition of the word which faith agreeth to as truth Or 2. The person of the Mediator who alone is the object of saving justifying faith the primary and more remote object though the promises of the Gospel be the proximate and mediate object in and by which the soul receiveth Christ and by means of which through the assistance of the Spirit the soul committeth it self to him as to all its spiritual concerns respecting eternal life and salvation As to both these Baptism is if made use of a great help Indeed all Sacramental signs are so and given for that end I remember when God instituted the Jewish Passover after the describing the rise of it Exod. 12. from v. 3. to v. 26. he addeth v. 26 and 27. And it shall come to pass that when your children shall say unto you What mean you by this service you shall say It is the sacrifice of the Lords Passover who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses God foresaw that that great deliverance would in time be forgotten or not believed that God should shew such favour to a small oppressed number of people as to bring them out of slavery to slay one in every family of the Egyptians might be questioned especially considering the world was never very apt to believe stories of distinguishing Grace or Providence therefore God instituted the Passover to continue the memory and revive the faith of so great a salvation But how much greater a salvation was here For God to send forth his own Son the Antitype to that Paschal lamb to take upon him our flesh and to dye in our nature for sinners upon the Cross to agree to this was like to be a much harder exercise of faith To revive the memory and keep alive the exercise therefore of faith as to this miracle of salvation God instituted two Sacraments of the New Testament ordained two sacred Actions to be done that when our Children should say to us Father or Mother What is the meaning

of this We might say these are the Lords Sacraments that you may believe what the Scripture tells you that the sins of souls are only washed out by the blood of Christ here signified and represented and that if ever you will be saved you must as you submit to this Ordinance so also submit to the acceptance of him and his righteousness and look for salvation from him and no other and that you might believe the Gospel is not a Romance but a true History of what he who was the Son of God did in dying for your sins that you might not dye eternally And that when our own unbelieving hearts are over-whelmed in the thoughts of these things and saying Surely such a thing could not be the mercy is too big for the grasp of our reason and comprehension we might help our selves by reflecting on our Baptism and our frequent communicating at the Lords table and chide down those risings of unbelief saying If this were not What is the meaning of sprinkling persons with water in Baptism or our so often meeting at the Lords table to eat bread and drink wine signifying the flesh and blood of Christ And as to that faith which is saving and justifying the object of which is the person of the Mediator the soul is also helped in that as it is helped in the other faith For the more the Soul is confirmed in the Doctrine and Proposition of the Gospel and the truth of that the more ground it seeth to look for no other name under heaven by which it should be saved but to go out of it self unto him as one who because he was God is able to save to the utmost and because he submitted to be made man to dye upon the Cross to pay a price for lost man evidenced his unquestionable willingness to seek and to save that which was lost so as the soul hath no longer any pretence or colour to doubt or question the sufficiency or willingness of this Saviour Thus this great Ordinance if duly improved is of exceeding great use to us to help our Souls in their exercises of faith the Soul as it were here reacheth its hand to put into the holes of Christ's side and its fingers to lay in the print of the nails 2. Nor is it less helpful to the soul in the exercises of holiness And this not only as it layeth the soul under an engagement to it of which I spake sufficiently before but also in regard of the secret blessing of the Lord attending Baptism where a Christian setteth himself to fulfil the ends of it Object 1. But some will say We have been baptized and we do not find such fruits we are full of doubts and fears and unbelief still and we are very unholy still we find no such fruit of our Baptism I Answer 1. Possibly you have not stirred up your Baptismal-grace I remember St. Paul calls to Timothy to stir up the gift of God which was in him and 1 Tim. 4. 14. not to neglect the gift of God which was in him by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery I do not think that any saving-gift is given to any by Baptism more than there is to a Minister by setting him a-part to the Ministry But there is doubtless a gift given the Baptized person conducive to his salvation if he will make a due and just improvement of it he hath a new character put upon him and is by it taken out of the Pagan World he hath a new vow upon him he hath a new dedication Now if men and women will never seriously consider and think on this never revive the memory of it or whet it upon their souls it is no wonder to hear them complain that they find no benefit fruit or advantage by it A Scholar may be at a loss about a Notion or Question in which twenty books he hath in his Study would resolve him but if he knoweth not how to use his books to that end or will never take down a book to look for any help from it he may complain that none of all the books in his Study will do him good in the case The Question is What they would do if he lookt into them or knew how to use them Object 2. But will some say How many baptized persons are there to whom their Baptism is no help nor advantage they notwithstanding it are unbelieving unholy profane persons To this I answer with Cyprian To take upon us Christs name Christi nomen induere non per Christi viam pergere quid aliud est quam praevaricatio divini nominis Cypr. and not to walk in his ways is but to profane and abuse his most holy Name The Soldiers taking Press-money or being listed helps him if he runs from his Colours very little unless it be to a shameful end of his life but if he keeps him to his colours it helps him to his pay and to his reward according to his service A man may have in his Yard several pieces of Timber which do him no service at all he may have great heaps of Stones that do him no good but only annoy and trouble his Yard But if this man begins to build then they help him every stone every foot of Timber is useful to him It is thus with our Baptism it lies by us of little use till we begin the spiritual building it is a piece of timber a stone cut out and squared for that When a man begins this work then his Baptism helpeth In short the water of Baptism is much like the water of jealousie of which you read Numb 5. 27. If the defiled woman adventured to drink of it it became bitter and made her belly to swell and her thigh to rot and the woman to be a curse amongst her people but if she were clean it made her fruitful So doth the water of Baptism in a more spiritual sense If the baptized person after it lives an unbelieving unholy life it causeth a rot in him and becomes a curse to him But if a person adhereth to the faith and lives an holy life in conformity to his Baptismal-Dedication and Vow and maketh use of his Baptism it maketh him fruitful and helpeth him in every good work 4. The last thing wherein I shall shew you the usefulness of this sacred Institution is with reference to its confirming sealing to and assuring of the soul 1. It sealeth to us assureth us of and confirms to us the truth Baptism is useful to assure confirm and seal of the great Proposition of the Gospel That this Rite was used in the Apostolical Church that it hath been used ever since in the Church of Christ is out of doubt Now what is the meaning of it what doth it signifie but that Christ is come into the world to save sinners and that our souls are washed clean from their filthiness by the blood of

the house to the Congregation thinking in that action I had something else to do than to entertain my friends with ordinary discourses Secondly That all persons baptized may from hence be instructed how useful their Baptism may be to them if the fault be not in themselves though it doth not actually justifie and wash away Original sin which I durst not assert By this short discourse Reader thou mayest if I mistake not easily understand the nature of Baptism and of thy engagement to God in thy Baptism and know how to make use of an Ordinance of God under which thou hast been brought and which it may be hath lyen dead by thee many years because thou knowest not how to make a spiritual use of it Such as the discourse is it is now tendred to thee if it doth thy Soul any good pray for the Author who is a debtor to thee and to all in the business of the Gospel and Thy most affectionate Friend and Servant for thy Souls advantage JOHN COLLINGES Norwich Dec. 13. 1680. ROM VI. 3 4. Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his Death Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death c. THE great Apostle of the Gentiles in this Epistle hath been vindicating the same blessed Doctrine concerning the Justification of the Soul before God by the Righteousness of Christ which Chap. 4. v. 6. he calleth an imputing of righteousness without works received by faith which we are at this day contending for A Doctrine which Luther was wont to call The Article of a standing or falling Church A Church keeping or losing its purity and integrity as it upholds or loseth this great truth Of which we may say as one of the Ancients concerning that Text 1 Tim. 1. 15. It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners We could better want the Sun in the firmament than this great light in holy Writ Or as David said of the Sword of Goliah V. Lutheri Epist ad Eremitam in Sculteti annal in anno 1517. There is none to it without which it is impossible to relieve a soul in a distress of Conscience and under the violence of a temptation as Luther rightly judged upon his restoring of this great point in Germany in the beginning of that Reformation of which God made him so blessed an instrument This is that great Doctrine which made St. Paul profess Chap. 1. v. 16. that notwithstanding all the opposition the Jews made to it notwithstanding all their scoffs and drolleries he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek For v. 17. therein the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith and conformable to the Doctrine of the Old Testament the New Testament being as Augustine called it the Revelation of the Old as the Old was Occultatio novi the New Testament in a Mystery for it was written there Hab. 2. 4. The just shall live by faith That text Rom. 1. 17. Luther tells us infinitely perplexed him he was miserably tortured to understand how the righteousness of God should be revealed from faith to faith for still he dream'd having been all his life-time before a Papist of a righteousness of his own but at last he began to conceive that the Righteousness of God might signifie in a passive sense not a righteousness in which a man should walk before and towards God but the righteousness wherein a man should appear before God as righteous as the power of God and the wisdom of God in some Texts signifieth that power by which God maketh us strong and that wisdom by which God maketh us wise Now as life and immortality so this righteousness was not first discovered but brought to light by the Gospel fully and clearly there manifested When Luther apprehended this he Jam quanto odio vocabulum Justitia Dei oderam ante tanto amore dulcissimum istud vocabulum extollebam ita miki iste locus Pauli fuit vere Porta paradisi Luth. Jenae t. 1. op in praefat tells us the Gospel looked upon him with quite another face Now saith he look how much I before hated that word The righteousness of God so much now I loved that most sweet word and that place of St. Paul was to me the very gate of Heaven This Doctrine was but darkly revealed in the Old Testament in types and prophecies and dark sayings but in the Gospel it is fully revealed viz. That the righteousness by which a soul is justified and by which it must stand righteous before God is not a righteousness of Works neither an obedience of the law contained in Ordinances which law is perished nor yet our obedience to the Moral Law whether by works done before or after conversion but the righteousness of Jesus Christ on Gods part imputed to us without works on our part received by faith as it is expounded Phil. 3. 10. and in several other places of the New Testament The Apostle having laid down this Proposition in Chap. 1. v. 16 17. he confirmeth it by a very great variety of argument in the remaining part of the first Chapter and in Chap. 2 3 4 5. In the first and second Chapters he proveth it by an Induction If works will justifie any they must either be the works of the Heathens or the works of the Jews As to the first he proveth that the works of the Heathens could not for they were abominable such as the wrath of God was revealed against Acts of ungodliness and unrighteousness Chap. 2. He proveth that the works of the Jews could not for they were imperfect and they rested in some rituals and external priviledges which could never justifie a soul In the third and fourth Chapters he proveth it as by other arguments so from the instances of Abraham and David the same way that Abraham the Father of the faithful was justified the same way must all believers his children be justified and the same way that David was justified the same way also must we be justified but Abraham and David were both justified by an imputed righteousness In the fifth Chapter he argueth from the sweet fruits which flow from justification by faith In that Chapter v. 20. he had said But where sin abounded grace did much more abound The wise Apostle foresaw there would be that very clamorous objection made which we hear now made against this excellent Doctrine of the Gospel viz. That it openeth a door to licentiousness destroyeth any obligation to good works giveth a license to sin c. He therefore in this Chapter obviateth this silly or malicious cavil What shall we say then saith he shall we continue in sin that grace may bound May we then neglect any good works because we

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