A37205:65
The power of Congregational churches asserted and vindicated in answer to a treatise of…
The power of Congregational churches asserted and vindicated in answer to a treatise of Mr. J. Paget entitled The defence of church-government exercised in classes and synods / by John Davenport.The power of Congregational churches asserted and vindicated in answer to a treatise of Mr. J. Paget intituled The defence of church-government exercised in classes and synods / by John Davenport.
London: printed for Rich. Chiswell and to be sold by John Usher of Boston, 1672
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.
Reas. 1 From the parity of reason between the ⟨p. 30⟩Churches before the coming of Christ and since, in all essentials of a Church. For in the essential state and form of a Church, there is par ratio omnium Ecclesiarum. Before the coming of Christ, the People of God were joined together into Church-fellowship by confederation; Psal. 50.5. Gather my Saints together unto me; those that have made a Covenant with me by sacrifice. So did Adam, and all the holy Patriarchs, unto Abraham: and so did the posterity of Jacob, at Mount Sinai, Exod. 19.5, 6. and 24.8. and from thence were called, the Church in the Wilderness, with which Moses was joined. Act. 7.38. And so, the Lord there tells them, it should be in point of the Covenant, though not of Sacrifices, with the Church under the New Testament, v. 14, 15, 16. In Abraham's family, God built his Church by a Covenant, without sacrifice; but first, the Lord changed his name, and called him Abraham, to show, that he now treated with him, not as a single person, but as a Father of many nations, and as a multitude virtually, Gen. 17.5. Then he gave him his Covenant, to be a God to him, and his seed, Gen. 17.7. and, to show that it was a Church-Covenant, he gave him Circumcision for the visible sign and seal ⟨p. 31⟩of it. Gen. 17.10-15. Thus far went the Covenant on God's part. 2. On Abraham's part; he first accepted both the Covenant and the confirmation of it, with Faith and holy reverence, declared by his rejoicing, John. 8.56. and humble prostration of himself before the Lord, v. 17. and by real performance of it, after, both in his own person, being circumcised when he was ninety nine years old, v. 24. and, as a Prophet and Ruler, instructing his family, concerning the Covenant and Circumcision, and their duty to accept the one, and submit to the other, which they did accordingly, v. 23, 27. and thereby professed their subjection to the Lord and to his Ordinances. Hence the posterity of Abraham, by Isaac and Jacob, became the Lord's People,