A23636:151
The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession…
The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pennsylvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pensilvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.
printed by Richard Pierce, 1690
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Introduction › Reflections on Chapt. 5. Of God, His Decrees &c.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Sect. 6. p. 84. Here we are challenged to prove that there are Reprobate Infants, or such as go to hell for Adam's sin only: to which we reply. 1. He himself grants (p. 88.) that men generally (and why not universally?) are Children of wrath by nature: and he will not deny but that by Nature is intended tha• natural condition they were born into the world in (and then it must needs concern Infants a• well as others) and this too is by Adam's sin transferred upon them, and his corrupt Image communicated to them. 2. That hence Children in their natural birth are under a sentence of Condemnation to dye, is a necessary Consequence. 3. That God hath nowhere ⟨p. 79⟩revealed to us that He hath accepted of the Satisfaction of Christ for all that die in their Infancy; and where there is no Revelation, there is no ground for Faith. 4. That there is merit enough for Damnation in them, else it would be unjust that they should be under Condemnation. 5. That this Sentence hath been actually executed upon some Infants, Rom. 5.14. they never sinned actually, and yet they died, and it was the same death spoken of vers. 12. If therefore the Text which some of ours use, 1. Cor. 7.14. should not prove it, it follows not that no other can: and yet we suppose there is thus much in that too, Viz. that till Parents do openly profess the Gospel and submit to it, or as long as they abide in their Gentilism, their Children were also unclean, and so apparently lying under guilt, and liable to eternal Death. And then he chargeth some of our Church Covenant, for glorying that none of •heir children were Reprobates while Infants; we declare it to be a slander: we never affixed Election to a visible Relation to the Church •f Christ.
Sect. 6. p. 84. Here we are challenged to prove that there are Reprobate Infants, or such as go to hell for Adam's sin only: to which we reply. 1. He himself grants (p. 88.) that men generally (and why not universally?) are Children of wrath by nature: and he will not deny but that by Nature is intended tha• natural condition they were born into the world in (and then it must needs concern Infants a well as others) and this too is by Adam's sin transferred upon them, and his corrupt Imag communicated to them. 2. That hence Childre in their natural birth are under a sentence of Condemnation to dye, is a necessar Consequence. 3. That God hath nowher