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truth_n	speak_v	true_a	word_n	8,834	5	4.4618	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77497	The doctrine and practice of paedobaptisme, asserted and vindicated. By a large and full improovement of some principall arguments for it, and a briefe resolution of such materiall objections as are made against it. Whereunto is annexed a briefe and plaine Enarration, both doctrinall and practicall, upon Mark 10.V.13.14.15.16. As it was some time since preached in the church of Great Yarmouth: now published for an antidote against those yet spreading errours of the times, Anabaptisme and Catabaptisme. / By Joh. Brinsley.	Brinsley, John, 1600-1665.	1645 (1645)	Wing B4712; Thomason E300_14; ESTC R200258	127,125	196

come to be strengthned and increased To this end it was that our blessed Saviour gave such harsh intertainment to that poore Cananitish woman that came to him in the behalfe of her daughter First bidding his disciples dismisse her send her away Then himselfe shaking her off telling her hee had nothing to doe with her or for her I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Then giving her tam and course language calling her a dog It is not meete to take the childrens bread and cast it unto dogs All this he did for her probation and tryall to try and exercise her faith These ends God hath in it 2. Satan hath other ends viz. to discourage dishearten the people of God to beate them off and make them desist and leave off their undertakings and therefore he endeavoureth to crush them in the shell and nip them in the bud Take we notice of it and make use of it that being fore-warned we may also be fore-armed against what ever discouragements wee shall meet with Not disheartned by them Alas these are no new or wonted things but such as Gods people have frequent experience of Let them not dull or rebate the edge of our endeavours but rather whet and set them Sowre sauces in the beginning of a meale they whet the appetite Even such use make wee of what ever impediments and discouragements shall encounter us in the entrance upon any pious relgious undertaking Let them be rather as whets to sett an edge upon our resolutions And in particular let it be usefull to new beginners new commers to Christ young Christians At first conversion when they doe but begin to looke towards God and Christ they oftentimes meet with such entertainment as these Infants here did They finde course usage from the world Course language it may bee or an overly carriage from friends and acquaintance mocks and checks from others And happily God himselfe or Satan by his permission may strow some Murices some Caltraps some crosses in their way But let not all discourage still hold on In the end what ever the world doth bee you assured Christ will smile upon you and embrace you as here he doth these Infants To passe on These Infants were repulsed and those which brought them checked But by whom By the Disciples of Christ His Disciples rebuked those which brought them What see we here Even good men holy and gracious men may sometimes be impedements to pious and Religious undertakings It was Peter that assayed to perswade his Master not to goe up to Jerusalem Master favour thy selfe Here was an assay to hinder the best worke that ever was done the worke of our Redemption and that by an eminent Saint an eminent Apostle Here in the Text the Apostles whose office it was to winne and bring all sorts o● persons unto Christ yet they prohibite these children and rebuke those which brought them Thus good men sometimes may bee back-friends to good causes This God permits this Satan incites to this holy men yeeld to See a Reason for each First God permits it to the end that our faith as the Apostle speaketh should not stand in the wisdome of men nor yet in the holines of men That we may learn not to make either the Iudgement or Practise of man our Rule our Rule to believe by our Rule to walke by Secondly Satan incites to it the rather making use of these Instruments because least suspected and consequently most prevalent Thus at the first he made use of the Woman in tempting the Man Adam could not naturally suspect his owne flesh hee could not suspect that poyson should bee reached forth to him by such a hand None so likely to perswade with him as his wife was Vpon a like ground it is that Satan maketh use of pious and godly persons in crossing and hindering some pious undertakings Thus hee made use of Peter to take off his Master So much our Saviour there expresseth Get thee behind me Satan It was Satan that spoke in and by Peter making use of him as his Instrument in suggesting and conveying that temptation And wherfore of him Why he thought if any could prevaile with Christ Peter might assoone or sooner than any 3. As God permits and Satan incites so holy men sometimes yeeld and become instruments to God and Satan in these services or rather dis-services in hindering of good and that because they know but in part It was so with the Disciples here In prohibiting these children they act according to their knowledge They did not know their Masters mind concerning them and thereupon they did what they did Thus is it with good and holy men they are sometimes Remoraes back-stayes to a worke that tends to the glory of Christ and good of his Church Whence is it not from any ill-will they beare to either but because they are not fully informed touching the minde of Christ they are not perfectly instructed in the way of the Lord wherein they walke according to their light Make use of it briefly even that which I have already given you a hint of Learne we hence not to pin our faith or obedience upon other mens sleeves not to make the Iudgement or practise of others whatever they be a Rule a Standard for us to believe or walk by A very common errour in these un-setled times How many well-meaning soules are there every where that bottome their faith upon the wisedome or upon the piety and holinesse of men Take wee heed of it Knowing that if we shall sayle by this Compasse we may bee on ground before we are aware You know who spake it Let God bee true and every man a lyar God onely is infallible and his Word an infallible Rule As for men the wisest the learnedest the holiest they are all lyars and that both actively and passively subject to deceive and bee deceived Take wee heed therefore of trying truth by this touchstone of weighing truth in this ballance by these weights To the Word to the Word That will not that cannot deceive Humane judgement humane practise may though in persons never so eminent Take heed then how wee bee prejudiced against truth because such or such assent not to it Take heed how we let in errour because such or such embrace and entertaine it Surely it is one of the prevailing Arguments of the times that hath misled and seduced many to the receiving and embracing of divers dangerous errors even the good opinion and high esteeme which they have had of some who have gone in those wayes I will instance but in one that which the Text leadeth me to viz. The errour of the Anabaptists in denying Baptisme unto children An errour which spreadeth farre and nigh in the Kingdome to the present disquietment to the future danger of the Church Many in all places carried

and all his family were circumcised In the selfe same day was Abraham circumcised and all the men of his house And the like we read of Baptisme As it came in the ro●me of Circumcision being the initiall seal of the Covenant as Circumcision was so it was administred after the same manner to the whole family Where the head of the family believed presently we read that they and all theirs were baptized Thus we read in that 16. of the Acts first of Lydia v. 15. God having opened her heart she was baptized and her houshold Then of the Iaylour v. 33. being wrought upon by the Apostles Ministery he came and was baptized he and all his Thus be they what they will being once in Covenant they may and ought to be baptized So runs the Apostles Commission Go teach all Nations Mat. 28. 19. And will you have the ground and reason of it why the administration of this Ordinance should be so universall consider but these two things 1. The universality of mans sin and misery and secondly The universality of Gods offer of grace and mercy 1. Mans misery is universall All have sinned Rom. 3. 23. And sinning died Death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5. 12. Such is the condition of all the sonnes of men by nature They are all concluded and shut up under sinne and death so shut up as without the free grace of God in Christ pardoning their sinnes and healing their natures they cannot possibly be saved Even Infants that never sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression viz. by committing actuall sinne yet being sinners by nature by nature children of wrath they stand in need of Christ as well as any other And consequently they stand in need of this laver of regeneration this Sacrament of initiation whereby their spirituall washing from the guilt and spot of sinne and their ingrafting into Christ may be sealed up unto them and declared unto others All sorts of persons stand in need of Christ and consequently of this Sacrament which sealeth up their interest in Christ 2. And secondly as mans misery is universall so is the tender of Gods grace and mercy held forth to all men Goe teach all Nations Mat. 28. Goe preach the Gospel to every creature Mark 16. 15. Thus Christ sent forth his Apostles and thus he now sendeth forth his Ministers with Commission to offer Christ and salvation by Christ to all that will receive him beleeve on him submit to him And reaching forth the thing signified hee also reacheth forth the signe even this Sacrament of Baptisme which is therefore to be administred alike unto all because Christ is offered alike unto all I meane all sorts of persons and is alike to all There is neither Iew nor Greeke i. e. Gentile there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Iesus Being all alike in Christ they ought alike to be baptised into him By one spirit we are all baptised into one body whether we be Iewes or Gentiles c. Thus all that are in Covenant ought to be baptised 2. And in the second place Onely they This being a seale of the Covenant ought not to be administred unto any but unto those which are or in the judgement of charity may be thought to be within the Covenant By this rule must the Church proceed in dispencing of this Ordinance not by the judgement of Infallibility and Certainty but of Charity To know infallibly who is within the Covenant this none can doe but God and a mans owne soule The Churches rule is the rule of charity Those who by the law of charity may bee thought and are to be reputed within the Covenant of Grace they all they and only they may and ought to partake of this Ordinance Q. Here then the great Question now falls in Who they are that in the judgement of charity are to bee thought to be within the Covenant A. Hereunto we answer All that professe the faith of Christ and their children Both these the eye of charity looketh upon as Christians and being such it cannot deny them the badge of their Christianity the seale of that Covenant wherein they are presumed to be As for the former of these we shall meet with no great difference about them Persons professing the faith of Christ may and ought to be baptised For this Scripture is expresse when the Eunuch put the question to Philip See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptised Philip returnes him this answer If thou beleevest with all thine heart thou mayest Those three thousand Converts Act. 2. 41. upon the receiving of Peters word his doctrine they were baptised Thus Simon Magus and the rest of Samaria upon their beleeving i. e. making a profession of faith they were baptised both men and women Thus all that professe the faith of Christ professing it with their mouthes and not denying it in their lives they have a right unto Baptisme And why Because in judgement of charity they are to be reputed Christians and to be within the Covenant True it is if we speake of Christians in truth in reality then they only are Christians who have received Christ into their hearts by faith and love in whose hearts Christ is formed He is not a Iew saith the Apostle which is one outwardly And so may we say He is not a Christian that is one outwardly that hath only the name and profession of a Christian Yet in a large sense they which make so much as a generall profession of Christ of faith in Christ and subjection to Christ they are to be accounted Christians And by vertue therof they may and ought to be baptised Upon this profession Iohn the Baptist baptized those that came unto him And so did the Apostles those which came unto them however in some of them that profession was hypocriticall and unsound as in Simon Magus Ananias Saphira c. yet the Apostles looking upon them with an eye of charity and judging of them according to their profession they admitted them unto this Ordinance Neither doe we read of any whom they refused or yet brought to an exacter scrutiny and tryall touching the inward worke of grace in their hearts who did make such a profession and confession And thus ought all those who are come to yeares of discretion before they are baptised be admitted to it As viz. Pagans and Infidels such as are borne and brought up without the pale of the Church not descended from Christian parents Before they be admitted to this Sacrament they ought first to be instructed in the faith of Christ in the principles and rudiments of Christian Religion Being thus instructed then they are to declare and testifie their voluntary imbracing of that faith together with their repentance

which we meet with Matth. 18. 3. Where our Saviour upon an other occasion taking a little childe and setting him in the midst of his disciples hee propounds him to them as a patterne for their imitation telling them Verily I say unto you except yee be converted and become as little children yee shall not enter into the Kingdome of God Behold here then a patterne for every one of us As many of us as would enter into Gods Kingdome his Kingdome of grace and glory we must become as little children Q. As little children How shall this be What must aged persons according to Nicodemus his conceite of the doctrine of Regeneration repuerascere turne children againe A. Yes This aged persons oft-times doe in a naturall way Bis pueri senes Old men are twice children And all Christians must doe it in a supernaturall and spirituall way They must be twice children As once by nature so once by grace and that by the imitation of children in some of their imitable qualities Q. But what qualities are these Wherein must Christians be like unto children A. To single out some particulars some of the chiefe 1. A first is that which the Apostle himselfe propounds to and presseth upon his Corinthians 1 Cor. 14. Where hee sheweth them both wherein they should not be like unto children and wherein they should Non mentibus sed moribus wherein not Not in understanding Herein he would have them not children but men Brethren be not children in understanding c. But in understanding bee men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfecti perfect Adul●● of ripe age Wherein then why in malice How ●e it in malice ●e ye children Children they are free from malice and envie there is not so much as a sparke of this fire in those breasts Herein a patterne for Christians even for all that would enter into the Kingdome of God Let them in this become as children laying aside malice So St. Peter presseth it Wherefore laying aside all malice c. As new borne babes desire the sincere milk of the word New borne babes are voyd of malice So should all Christians bee Not seeking not wishing evill to any wishing and doing what good they can to all but hurt to none As children concerning malice Secondly as children concerning guile So the Apostle Peter there goeth on Laying aside malice guile Such are infants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no guile no fraud no deceit no hypocrisie in them They doe not pretend one thing and intend another They doe not goe about to over-reach or circumvent others but in all their actions there is a plaine-hearted simplicitie And such should Christians be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simple as doves So our Saviour presseth it upon his Disciples I simple as children Simple concerning evill as Paul explaines it without guile and that 1. In their actions not circumventing defrauding others So the Apostle presseth it upon his Thessalonians 1 Thes 4. That no man goe beyond or defraud his brother in any matter As viz. in buying and selling and bargaining c. 2. Without guile in their words This is the character which Peter gives of his Master Who did no sinne neither was there guile found in his mouth So should it be with Christians there should be no guiles in their mouthes in their words in their promises testimonies c. So Paul chargeth it upon his Ephesians Therefore putting away lying speak the truth every man to his neighbour Truth is the Christians girdle The girdle of truth And in this sense the Proverbe holdeth true Vngirt unblest 3. Without guile in their hearts and spirits It is one branch of Davids description of a blessed man Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile Such is the spirit of a childe There is no guile no hypocrisie in it It is such a one as it seemeth to be And O that it were so with all Christians That they were in this respect as children As children for sinceritie without guile Here is the second of these properties 3. A third followes As children concerning pride Children for humilitie This I take from our Saviour himselfe in the place forenamed Whosoever shall humble himselfe as this little childe c. Children we see how humble how lowly they are Their spirits are not haughtie high minded There are no proud ambitious vaine glorious aspiring thoughts in them They are as well content with their rags as with their robs with a cottage as a pallace often sitting in the dust An embleme of humilitîe A childe sitting in the dust and as well contented there as if it were a throne Such should Christians be of humble and lowly spirits Such a frame of spirit we finde in the man after Gods own heart Lord mine heart is not haughtie c. Surely I have behaved my selfe as a childe c. It is not for Christians to have haughtie hearts or lofty eyes so as to have high thoughts of themselves or seek high things for themselves And seekest thou great things for thy selfe Saith the Lord to 〈◊〉 seek them not This will not children this should not Christians doe Their spirits should lye low so as they may be willing to embrace the Dust if God shall bring them thither This carnall wicked men sometimes do by constraint So shall Babylon do Come downe and sit in the dust O Virgin daughter of Babylon Babylon a Virgin So called because then not deflowred by the enemy Even as Cities that were never sacked nor conquered but have enjoyed a long continued peace they are called Virgin Mayden-Townes as Venice in Italy Dordrecht in Holland so Babylon there in that respect is called a Virgin She shall sit in the dust saith the Prophet which is long since accomplished in typicall and ere long shall be in mysticall Babylon And this Gods own sometimes doe They which were brought up in Skarlet embrace dung-hills It is sayd of the precious sonnes of Sion the Nobles of Israel Lam. 4. and this they ought to do willingly when God calls them to it In this as I sayd like children who if their Parents set them in the dust they are willing withall Is it so that God is pleased at any time to bring any of his children from high estates to meane and low conditions to set them in the dust I suppose with Job upon the dung-hill yet should they herein submit to the will of their heavenly Father Ever having their spirits as low as their conditions Herein again should Christians be as children Children in humility putting on this as a robe being clothed with it as the Apostles both Peter and Paul presse the exhortation Fourthly to this in the fourth place let me joyn another quality not much different from the former and that is Contentation A quality very observable in young children If they have but

we have not what wee would have our hearts are ready to repine and murmure Are there not some amongst us who care not what wrong what injury they do to others so they may but benefit and advantage themselves Are there not others of an implacable spirit Being once offended once provoked they will never be reconciled never forgive much lesse forget injuries Are there not some who do not know what it is to un-load their cares their fears their sorrowes into the bosome of their heavenly Father by powring forth their soules before him And are there not others who walk stubbornly against God not regarding either precepts or promises or threatnings no they are obstinate Their necke is an iron sinew and their browbrasse as the Lord complaines against the people of the Jewes Surely such there are some of every of these sorts to bee found amongst us And is this to be like unto Children In this to receive the Kingdome of God as little children Let the Conviction take place with those to whom it belongeth who may here see themselves shut out of the Kingdome of God Marke the Text. Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the kingdome of God as a little childe he shall not enter therein As for such then who are un-like unto children it may bee every wayes un-like un-lesse happily therein wherein they ought not to resemble them viz. in knowledge and understanding Brethren be not children in understanding saith the Apostle Herein happily they are too like unto children having no more understanding in spirituall matters the mysteries of Gods kingdome then they But in all other imitable qualities they are altogether un-like them Now let not such flatter themselves with vaine hopes of ever entring into Gods Kingdome No it cannot bee Hee that is Truth it selfe here speaketh it and hee speaketh it both earnestly and peremptorily So much will appeare from a re-view of the words First earnestly So much that Asseveration which we meet with in the entrance of the Text imports Verily I say unto you Amen which in the beginning of a sentence hath the force of a vehement Asseveration importing a serious and earnest affirmation or negation Secondly Peremptorily He shall not enter There is an Emphasis in the originall which our Translation here hath not expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two negatives put together which in the Greeke tongue do vehementius negare confirme the negation or denyall of a thing like two witnesses to a Testimony making it more peremptory more certaine He shall not enter Nequam ingredietur He shall in no wise enter So we finde it translated else-where and so it ought to be here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In no wise or by no means Thus is the Kingdome of God both locked and boulted against all such Locked and that by him who hath the key of David who shutteth and no man openeth Bolted and that with a double boult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall in no wise enter Thus hath Christ put it out of doubt Whosoever shall not receive the kingdome of God as a little childe he shall not enter therein Vse 2. Let this then in the second place bee a motive to every of us setting on this usefull exhortation that we would labour to be such Would we enter into the kingdome of God of Grace here of Glory hereafter Be we as children It is a Copie you see which our blessed Saviour himselfe hath set before us Let us write after it propounding this patterne to our selves study to imitate it Bee wee as children As children without malice as children without guile as children for humility as children for contentation as children for innocency forgiving and forgetting injuries as children upon all occasions complaining to our heavenly Father as children Obedient as children Imitate we them in every of these Specially in the last That the Text leadeth us to more particularly Receive we the kingdome of God as little Children The kingdome of God as I told you is here his Kingdome of grace and glory His kingdome of grace The government which hee exerciseth in and over his Elect upon earth whom he guideth and governeth by his Word and Spirit His Kingdome of glory That blessed state which hee hath provided for his Elect hereafter Now receive we both these as little children viz. humbly submissively First Thus receive we his kingdome of grace Yeelding up our selves as little children do themselves to their Parents and Governours to bee instructed and ordered by him according to his good will and pleasure Resigning up our understandings and our judgements unto him So doe little children they yeeld themselves as an abratatabula white paper for their teachers to write any thing upon what they please receiving their instructions quietly submissively without quarrelling or cavalling Even thus receive we the Kingdome of God the mysteries of his Kingdome Such truths as God hath been pleased to reveale unto us in his Word let us receive them entertaine them quietly readily with a holy submission of our understandings and judgements not standing to quarrell with or cavill against any truth of God because we cannot apprehend the reason of it Herein looke upon our patterne Children do not apprehend the reason of things which are taught and told them yet they receive them and believe them The like do we in the mysteries of Gods Kingdome 1. Captivating our understandings and judgements yeelding up both unto God to receive and believe what ever is held forth unto us in the Word And then 2ly In like manner yeeld up our wills and affections Let Gods will be our will to which let us stoope and submit though contrariant and crossing to our wills So doth the childe Though happily it may be crossed in what it would have and doe yet it submits it yeelds Even so doe wee Yeeld wee up our selves as to be instructed so to bee ordered by God to be in what state and condition he pleaseth to doe and to suffer what he will have us to do Thus behave we our selves in life even as a child So did David as himselfe telleth us Psal 131. Surely I behav'd and quieted my selfe as a Childe that is weaned c. A childe in the weaning is froward and tangle then nothing will please it but the breast But being once weaned then usually it is quiet and contented with any thing In this be we as children not like children in the weaning so as if we have not what we would have nothing shall please us But like children weaned behaving our selves quietly and contentedly yeelding up our selves to the ordering of our heavenly Father And thus behave we our selves in death Therin also as children Children Infants as they are ordered by their Mothers or Nurses in the day so they are put to bed by them at night when and where and after what manner they please for the most