A26895:118
The Christian religion expressed I, briefly in the ancient creeds, the Ten commandments, and…
The Christian religion expressed I, briefly in the ancient creeds, the Ten commandments, and the Lords prayer, and, II, more largely in a profession taken out of the Holy Scriptures, containing 1, the articles of the Christian belief, 2, our consent to the gospel covenant, 3, the sum of Christian duty, according to the primitive simplicity, purity, and practice, fitted to the right instruction of the ignorant, the promoting of holiness, and the charitable concord of all true believers ... / by Richard Baxter.
London : s.n., 1660
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.
10. We are persuaded that it is the Will of Christ that the Infants of the faithful shall be dedicated to him in Baptism, and engaged in his Covenant, and made members of his visible Church, because we find that under the promise before Christs Incarnation it was their duty to devote and engage their Children to God in the holy Covenant, and that God did accept them as visible members of his Church; And we never find where Christ had discharged Parents from this duty, or turned all Infants out of his Church, and reversed this blessing of their Church-membership; but contrarily we find him offering to have taken the Jewish Nation to be still his Church, if they would have taken him for their Saviour; and telling us that it was for Unbelief, ⟨p. 32⟩that they were broken off; and that it is but some of the branches that were broken off, and we are grafted in amongst them into the same Olive-tree, and that all Israel shall be saved, when the fullness of the Gentiles is come in; And we find Christ rebuking his Disciples for hindering little Children from being offered to him, and that he charged them to forbid it no more, and that he received and blessed them himself, and tells us that of such is the Kingdom of God; and we find it the Commission given to his Ministers, that they were to Disciple the Nations, Baptizing them. All which, and much more (especially having not the least intimation of his Will against that which was even then the Duty and Practice of the Parents, and the Infants benefit) do deter us from forbidding the dedication of Children unto Christ, and receiving them into his Church by Baptism.
10. We are perswaded that it is the Will of Christ that the Infants of the faithful shall be dedicated to him in Baptism, and engaged in his Covenant, and made members of his visible Church, because we find that under the promise before Christs Incarnation it was their duty to devote and engage their Children to God in the holy Covenant, and that God did accept them as visible members of his Church; And we never find where Christ had discharged Parents from this duty, or turned all Infants out of his Church, and reversed this blessing of their Church-membership; but contrarily we find him offering to have taken the Jewish Nation to be still his Church, if they would have taken him for their Saviour; and telling us that it was for Unbelief, ⟨p. 32⟩