A47585:364
Laying on of hands upon baptized believers, as such, proved an ordinance of Christ…
Laying on of hands upon baptized believers, as such, proved an ordinance of Christ in answer to Mr. Danvers's former book entitled, A treatise of laying on of hands : with a brief answer to a late book called, A treatise concerning laying on of hands, written by a nameless author / by B.K. ...Laying on of hands upon baptized believers, as such, proved an ordinance of Christ in answer to Mr. Danvers's former book intituled, A treatise of laying on of hands : with a brief answer to a late book called, A treatise concerning laying on of hands, written by a nameless author / by B.K. ...
London : Printed, are to be sold by Benj. Harris ..., 1698
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Answ. 'Tis true, the Apostle was about to instruct them into higher Mysteries, viz. about Christ's Priesthood; but he found them to have need of Milk, and not strong Meat: And most evident it is, that by strong Meat he refers to the things which he proceeds to instruct them in; but the Milk he speaks of are these things, viz. Repentance, Faith, Baptism, and Laying on of Hands, &c.
They hardly understood the first Rudiments or A B C of the Christian Faith: but to suppose that Milk, or those first Principles he speaks of, is the strong Meat, is preposterous. True, Christ is properly the Foundation; but by the Foundation here is meant those first Principles which every Babe in Christ was to be instructed in, and to practise, and then to go on to perfection.
Doth it follow, because 'tis said, not laying again the Foundation of Repentance, &c. that the Apostle only refers to Christ, who is the Foundation of our Salvation, and of every Principle of the Christian Religion? Evident it is that the first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ are here ⟨p. 110⟩called the Foundation-principles, not that they are all Fundamentals of Salvation, but of Church-constitution: for we will not say (nor any else we hope) that none can be saved who are not baptized, and come not under Laying on of Hands; yet every true regular Church, and regular Member, ought to be under the practice of both those Principles.