A41329:105
The plea of the children of believing-parents for their interest in Abraham's covenant, their…
The plea of the children of believing-parents for their interest in Abraham's covenant, their right to church-member-ship with their parents, and consequently their title to baptism. The cause of publishing this discourse after so many learned men have laboured in this province, is declared in the preface to the reader. By Giles Firmin.
London: printed for Tho. Simons, 1683
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.
This we premise, There is a great difference between the outward Administration of an Ordinance, and the inward Efficacy? This is clear in the Lords Supper, ⟨p. 33⟩preaching the Word, and so in Baptism; the Scripture is plain for this, and the Anabaptists cannot deny it.
Or, if you please to take Mr. Tho. Hooker's distinction, There is an Inward and an Outward Covenant. [Cov. of Grace, p. 2.3.]
Inward, standing in a spiritual Institution of it between God and man.
When God calls a people, and with his Call gives them Faith to answer his Call: So that now he is indeed their God, becomes theirs by Faith, and they who are thus in Covenant with him shall never fall.