More proofs of infants church-membership and consequently their right to baptism, or, A second…

As to Levit. 20. God did perform a twofold work of separation for Israel. 1. By his Covenant and their entering Covenant with him. 2. By local separation of their bodies from others. It was the first that made them his people, and Church-members, and not the last: the last was only a favourable dealing with them as his beloved. The same I say to the other two Texts. Sure you cannot think that corporal separation makes a Church-member. What if an Egyptian that had no part in the Covenant had past out with the Israelites, and got with them through the Red Sea, do you think he had been therefore a Church-member? Suppose God had made no promise or covenant with Abraham or his seed, but only taken them out of Chaldea into Canaan, and thence into Egypt, and thence into the Wilderness, and thence into Canaan again: Do you think this much had made them Church-members? ⟨p. 71⟩Then if the Turks conquer Greece, or the Tartarians conquer China, they are become Church-members, because this seems as great a temporal prosperity at least. And I think it is past doubt, that Lot was a Church-member in the midst of Sodom, and the Israelites in Egypt before they were brought out, as truly as after.

As to Levit. 20. God did perform a twofold work of separation for Israel. 1. By his Covenant and their entring Covenant with him. 2. By local separation of their bodies from others. It was the first that made them his people, and Church-members, and not the last: the last was only a favourable dealing with them as his beloved. The same I say to the other two Texts. Sure you cannot think that corporal separation makes a Church-member. What if an Aegyptian that had no part in the Covenant had past out with the Israelies, and got with them through the Red Sea, do you think he had been therefore a Church-member? Suppose God had made no promise or covenant with Abraham or his seed, but only taken them out of Chaldea into Canaan, and thence into Aegypt, and thence into the Wilderness, and thence into Canaan again: Do you think this much had made them Church-members? ⟨p. 71⟩Then if the Turks conquer Greece, or the Tartarians conquer China, they are become Church-members, because this seems as great a temporal prosperity at least. And I think it is past doubt, that Lot was a Church-member in the midst of Sodom, and the Israelites in Aegypt before they were brought out, as truly as after.