Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	jesus_n	lord_n	spirit_n	7,577	5	4.8812	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65671	Infant baptism plainly proved a discourse wherein certain select arguments for infant baptism, formerly syllogyistically handled, are now reviewed, abbreviated, and reduced to a plain method, for the benefit of the unlearned, and persons of weaker capacity / by Joseph Whiston ; with a large epistle to the pious and learned among the anti-pædobaptists, especially the authors of the late confession of their faith.	Whiston, Joseph, d. 1690.	1678 (1678)	Wing W1694; ESTC R1322	72,861	137

D'Laun or any one else have so much as attempted to shew the weakness and invalidity of And sure all Men must needs conclude it is a strange Confutation of Books when there is not any one Argument that is laid down from first to last the invalidating or weakning of which has been so much as attempted For Men to cry out of dictating when they know in their Consciences that nothing is affirmed but what is proved and that by such Arguments as they dare not undertake to answer signifies but little Surely I may do with such Confutations and Animadversions as Job professes he would have done with any Book his Adversaries should have written against him viz. take them upon my Shoulder and bind them as a Crown to me And now Reverend and beloved Brethren Bear with me though I take the boldness earnestly to inteat and beseech you having laid aside all Anticipations and Prejudices yea all superfluity of naughtiness yet once again seriously to receive Est aliquid spectare Deos adesse putare Ovid. and in the fear of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ throughly ponder the Arguments that have been both by by others and my self which in part are here again in Love and I hope I may say in a Spirit of Meekness presented to you for your satisfaction and chuse rather to become victorious Captives unto Truth than to lie under the Charge of holding fast Deceit and refusing to return It is true you have given us some account why you cannot receive that for Truth which we judge to be so but I can hardly think bear with my plainness but upon a serious Review your selves must needs own it to be unsatisfactory I doubt not but you have weighed again and again the Arguments pleaded by some on the behalf of our Judgment and Practice drawn from the Covenant But let me say Have not some Mistakes which since have been discovered and rectified occasioned your rejection of them For my own part I must say had not I evidently seen a way to rectify those Mistakes if I had not been in your Tents I should not have abode in your opposite's with any considerable satisfaction to my self Had it been so indeed as some have thought that the Covenant entred with Abraham had taken in all his Posterity at least descending by Isaac and Jacob during the First-Testament-Administration meerly as such I could not but have judged it a very rational Supposal that that had been a Priviledg peculiar to himself and not continued to all believing Parents or could I not have maintained the Covenant-Interest of the Infant-Seed of Believers but by distinguishing of the Covenant as Internal and External I see not how I could upon any solid Grounds have maintained it Or did the Covenant only convey unto them External Priviledges as the Ground upon which their Covenant-Interest and Baptism are pleaded upon would have appeared to me less sure and firm so I should have somewhat haesitated whether the Advantages redounding to them at least in respect of those that die in their Infancy would countervail the Inconveniences of a Contest thereabout Or had it been so that that grand Promise of the Covenant wherein God promises to be a God to Abraham and his Seed had as simply and absolutely considered included all Spiritual Good and consequently that all that have an actual Interest in that Promise must needs either de presenti actually have or de futuro be infallibly assured of saving Grace I should have judged it at least very probable that the Covenant might be restrained to the Elect or yet could I not have allowed Infants as such an other Interest in the Covenant than a visible standing under the out ward Administration of it I should have readily granted they had indeed no Interest at all in it and consequently not to be baptized But I am fully satisfied these things are meer Mistakes it is quite otherwise And hence not only that the Infant-Seed of Believers are in Covenant but the Consistency of their being so with all those Orthodox Doctrines maintained both by you and us against the Arminians with the very great Benefit and Advantage they have thereby appears with so much plainness and evidence to me that I can hardly forbear to wonder they should not do so to all others who have attained to any Competency of Ability for the comparing one Scripture with another And though I suppose some of you may say somewhat more to purpose than any of those who since these Mistakes have been rectified and our Practice truly founded upon its right Basis have appeared in favour of your Cause have said Yet let me say I verily believe they will never be able to answer either some of those Arguments Mr. Baxter has laid down for the Church-Membership of the Infant-Seed of Believers or that I have offered for the establishing of their Covenant-Interest and Right to Baptism thereupon So as that a tender Conscience residing in a Heart from whom God has not hid Vnderstanding can quietly acquiesce therein As for those two who have concerned themselves in my poor Endeavours to let in some further Light into this Controversy let your Consciences speak out Did you ever read such insignificant Animadversions and Confutations neither the one nor the other attempting in the least to shew the Insufficiency of any one Argument I have laid down surely neither could the Authors nor can you suppose that such Discourses can yeild any other Advantage to your Cause than this viz. that although they signify nothing to those that read them yet will give rise to a general Rumour that such a book is answered And alas how are they forced that what they say may carry some appearance of a Reply to our Arguments to feign us to use other mediums or to argue quite otherwise than indeed we do and impose upon us such Concessions as we are no way obliged to but do expresly reject As to the former in respect of which your selves are not wholly innocent how evident is it both in that Supposal of Mr. Hutchinson justified by Mr. D'Laun that the main Ground we lay or can lay to the Church-Membership and Baptism of the Infant-Seed of Believers is their Relation to Abraham as his Seed and also that Supposal that I argue from the Analogy Baptism bears with Circumcision which is apparently false and is expresly disowned by me It is the Command to keep the Covenant that I argue from and only mention Circumcision to shew that by Covenant is there meant the Token of the Covenant As for the latter take two Instances at present Both Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. D'Laun will needs suppose and seem to think that we must grant that that Covenant entred with Abraham Gen. 17. was the Old Covenant said by the Apostle to be vanished away 2dly That that Covenant did reach unto and take in all Abraham's natural Posterity meerly as such

of bringing things together that lay in my former Treatises at some distance one from another in order to a due comparing them one with another 3. I may probably here have put my last hand to this Controversy I am aware of the uncertainty of Life neither am I supposing God should lengthen out that altogether without hope that the addition of any thing more in pursuance of it will be utterly unnecessary the Reasons of this my Hope will more fully appear before I take my leave of you And now Brethren having given you this brief Account both negatively and positively of my adding these Lines to you to the foregoing Copendium bear with me though I say to you as Elihu to Job I am ful of matter the Spirit within me constraineth me I must speak that I may be refreshed and let me I pray you as he there adds not accept any Mans person I speak to you as Friends yea as Brethren as Joint-heirs with us of the common Salvation purchased by our Lord Christ both for you and us Hence ad Plainness of Speech most becomes me so to you I hope it will neither be offensive nor grievous Your Orthodoxy and Soundness of Judgment in the main Fundamental Doctrines of the Gospel with that Love to Truth Moderation of Spirit and Christian Charity afore taken notice of appearing in your late Confession and Appendix thereunto annexed are greatly commendable and I hope I may truly say they have endeared you not only unto me but to all that love our Lord Christ in sincerity neither shall you as I hope at any time find me in Endeavours after mutual Love Conversation and Christian Communion in things wherein we are agreed in the Rear as you have still done in these unpleasing Contests For though I would and dare do no less than * Quia inextricabile quodammodò malum nanquam desinit humana corda pulsare atque inopinatis argumentis fidem inquietare Catholicam necesse est Sectatoribus veritatis prudenter captiosas ejus sententias praevidere sapientérque detegere prolatásque in medium malleo veritatis cohibere usque ad effusionem sanguinis contra eas pro verstate certare Ibid. praef manifest a true Zeal in maintaining the Truth yet that through Grace shall be no Let to me in an amicable and peaceable walking with you according to what we have jointly attained unto I have of a long time been and still am wholly perswaded that those Alienations of affections and Distances in point of Christian Conversation and Communion in things wherein they all agree found among Christians holding the Head and sincerely embracing and practising the Truth as it is in Jesus according to the measures of Light they have respectively received are utterly dissonant from the Doctrine of our Lord Christ and his Apostles and the Simplicity of the Primitive Practice And surely might we be so happy as to take true measures of those Differences that are between us and manage them with that Spirit of Moderation and mutual Forbearance that the Gospel requires it would not only not a little conduce to our mutual Edification and Comfort but greatly obviate those Offences taken at them by the Men of the World Grace never shines more brightly nor appears with a greater lustre than when it is duly exercised under visible Disadvantages Hence if that mutual Love of Christians when yet thinking the same thing appeared so beautiful in the eyes of the Heathens that they could not behold it without an Ecce quam mutuò se amant much more would it so do when it is kept up under the disadvantages of some Differences both in judgment and Practice And hence the Disadvantages Religion may lie under through the Differences in Judgment and Practice among the more strict Professors of it would be abundantly recompensed through the Illustriousness of their Grace rendred more beautiful by occasion of them And hence as I cannot but greatly commend in you that Gospel-becoming Frame of Spirit you have discovered so you may assure your selves I shall through Divine Assistance always endeavour to maintain and promote the like both in my self and all others walking in the same steps with me according as opportunity is put into my hands But Brethren though I cannot but in faithfulness commend what appears in you so greatly commendable yet I must and that also in faithfulness to you shew you wherein I cannot but judge you blame-worthy I remember what the Comick saith Assentatores non veniunt ut arrideant sed ut arrodant Flattery however it may please yet is prejudicial Two things more especially I cannot but judge blame-worthy in you 1. That when you come to give the Reasons why you cannot acquiesce in what as you express is urged by us against you or as you elsewhere candidly interpret is offered for your Satisfaction you wholly overlook those Scriptures and Scripture-Arguments that we at least some of us conceive most cogent and answerably are most insisted on by us to establish our Practice and convince you of your Mistakes and either only suppose us to reason quite otherwise than indeed we do or only single out some of those Scriptures and Arguments drawn from them that we only make use of as additional enforcements of our main Arguments but not as demonstrative of themselves First I say you suppose us to reason quite otherwise than indeed we do or to make use of other Mediums than indeed we do Thus in your 114th and 115th pag. you thus express your selves That albeit this Covenant-Holiness Church-Membership should be as is supposed in reference unto the Infants of Believers yet no Command for Infant-Baptism does immediatly and directly result from such a Quality or Relation insinuating thereby as though we should affirm there did which we do not So Pag. 125. you again thus express your selves Of whatsoever nature the Holiness of the Children mentioned 1 Cor. 7.12 be yet they who do conclude that all such Children whether Infants or of riper years have from hence an immediate Right to Baptism do as we conceive put more into the Conclusion than will be found in the Premisses Whereas we do not conclude meerly from their Covenant-Holiness that they have from thence any immediate Right to Baptism we only improve that Scripture as a Confirmation of their Covenant-state which you at present deny not neither will you determine of what Holiness the Apostle there speaks so that as you grant not so you deny not but the Apostle may speak of foederal Holiness which is all that we affirm Hence what you subjoin in those 114 and 115 pages so in 125 and onwards to 129 is utterly impertinent We say not that a Command for Infant-Baptism doth immediatly and directly result from their Interest in the Covenant or Church-Membership but this we say that God having graciously extended his Covenant to them hath been pleased of his Sovereign will and pleasure to annex a

truth They are ready to think it may be so with Infants But now the Case of grown Persons and of Infants in this matter is wholly different the Interest of grown Persons in the Covenant and Promises of it depends upon their own Performance of the Conditions of the Covenant but it is otherwise with the Infant-Seed of Believers they have their Interest in the Covenant purely from the Promise as made to them as the Seed of believing Parents Hence suppose that Parents are true Believers their Seed must needs have a like Interest in the Covenant that they themselves have and the same Good or the same Benefits and Priviledges must needs be granted to and conferred upon their Seed that are given unto and conferred upon themselves Now that the Covenant is indeed entred with and the Promises thereof made to the Infant-seed of Believers definitely I have as I conceive sufficiently proved And I had intended to have somewhat further enlarged and strengthned these Reasons already offered and also to have added somewhat more for the Confirmation of that their definite and particular Interest in the Covenant and Promises of it But not having as yet met with any Objections against those Reasons already offered I shall for brevity sake forbear and only say to the sincere Enquirer after the Mind of God in these things Consider what hath been said and the Lord give thee Vnderstanding in all things To the Godly and Learned among the Antipaedo-baptists especially the Authors of the late Confession of their Faith Reverend and beloved Brethren THe Design of the preceding Sheets being to lay level with ordinary Capacities what I have already made publick in a Method more suting Scholastick Educations the adjoining an Address unto you may justly be deemed improper That I may therefore do both you and my self right I shall give you a brief account of my thus doing Far be it from me once to imagine that the one or the other of those Tracts or any thing in them a Recapitulation of which this is is unto you unintelligible I doubt not but that at least will you make use of those Abilities both natural and acquired you are so plentifully furnished with you can take a prospect of what I have said from first to last and by comparing one thing with another pass a judgment upon the whole It is true to note in one passage those two viz. Mr. H. and Mr. D L. who have seen meet to take notice of what I have written seem to complain of obscurity as though I had neither set down my Thesis distinctly nor prosecuted my Arguments syllogistically at least in a form intelligible to all Persons But I am perswaded their Complaints had their rise from some other Cause and not from any difficulty themselves found and whether I had any reason to take any notice of the former's Complaint or the latter to object it as a Failure in me that I did not I shall leave with you to determine I shall not deny but that the Method I have proceeded in hath render'd those Discourses somewhat obscure to Capacities unacquainted with the Rules of Logical Argumentation neither was I without some previous Intimations that it would so do yet was not I thereby discouraged from the publication of them my main design being by the rectifying some Mistakes I saw some of the chief Asserters of Infant-Baptism lay under and the addition of some few Arguments overlook'd by them to establish more fully that Practice in the Minds of the Learned wherein what success I have had or yet may have through the Blessing of God upon my weak endeavours I shall leave to the observations of others and the discovery of Time This I can through Grace say I have not as yet seen any Cause to repent either of the Pains I have taken or the Charges I have been at neither had I any cause to fear that I should willingly or could be justly suspected designedly through any unsound Mediums or fallacious Reasonings to promote an Error while I designed to established the Truth I was well assured there were those of your Perswasion who could sufficiently understand me and were able to detect both the unsoundness of my Mediums and Fallaciousness of my Arguments had the one or the other been so but no Attempt of that Nature has as yet been made by any But to return this I was saying It is far from me to imagine that what I have already written is to you unintelligible Let not therefore my adding this Address to you to this Compendium be offensive either to you or any others as though 't were a reflection upon your Understandings but three things have induced me hereunto 1. The Encouragement you have given me in your late Confession and Appendix thereunto annexed and that not only by your Orthodoxy in the main Doctrines of the Gospel but more especially by that Discovery you have there made of your Love to the Truth Moderation of Spirit and being through the anointing of the Spirit not only shewn but led into that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recommended in 1 Cor. 12.31 to us by the holy Apostle of the Gentiles It is indeed hard for any reciprocare serram in Polemical Divinity especially in that dawning Light we are yet under without being in one respect or another if not really Solent Injuriae illis praestare suffragium quibus studium est non de verit ate sed proprià gloriari victoriâ in his autem qui totâ Intentione cupiunt de compertâ veritate gaudire locum hac penitus non habent Maxent Dialog contra Nestorian lib. 1. yet in appearance injurious one to another Now when it is not Love to Truth but Desire of Victory that keeps up the Contest these Injuries whether real or supposed will ordinarily be more heeded than the Arguments urged but when Love to Truth prevails especially if attended with those other blessed Fruits of the Spirit Moderation and Charity as Plain-dealing will not be reputed injurious so even that which may be really judged to be so will be overlook'd and passed by Which things I having more abundant Ground to hope are true of you I cannot but promise my self that as what I shall say though it be with much freedom of Speech shall meet with a candid Interpretation yea and a kind Reception from you so in case any thing injurious should unwittingly for wittingly there shall not drop from my Pen that shall be no Let to your more through weighing the Arguments I have offered or embracement of Truth so far as by them it is demonstrated 2. That in case any of you shall farther appear in the ventilation of this Controversy which I would by no means discourage you from you may with more ease take a full prospect of it at least as managed by me both as to the Foundations I have laid and the whole Structure built thereupon and not be put to the trouble