A50170:108
The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renowned John…
The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renowned John Eliot, a person justly famous in the church of God, not only as an eminent Christian and an excellent minister among the English, but also as a memorable evangelist among the Indians of New-England : with some account concerning the late and strange success of the Gospel in those parts of the world which for many ages have lain buried in pagan ignorance / written by Cotton Mather.The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renowned John Eliot, a person justly famous in the church of God, not only as an eminent Christian and an excellant minister among the English, but also as a memorable evangelist amoung the Indians of New-England : with some account concerning the late and strange success of the Gospel in those parts of the world which for many ages have lain buried in pagan ignorance / written by Cotton Mather.
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris and John Allen for Joseph Brunning, 1691
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.
He could not comprehend, that this Church-state can arise from any other Formal cause, But the Consent, Concurrence, Confederation of those concerned in it; he looked upon a Relation unto a Church, as not a Natural, or a Violent, but a Voluntary thing, and so that it is to be entered no otherwise than by an Holy Covenant, or, as the Scripture speaks, by giving our selves first unto the Lo•d, and then one unto another. He could not think, that Baptism alone was to be accounted the cause, but rather the effect, of Church-member-ship; inasmuch as upon the dissolution of the Church to which a man belongs, his Baptism would not become a Nullity: nor that mere • rof sum would render men members of this or that Church; for then it would be impossible to cut off a corrupt member from that Body Politic: Nor that mere Co-habitation would make Church-members; for then the vilest infidels would be actually incorporated with us And a Covenant, was all that he now saw remaining in the Inventory.
He could not comprehend, that this Church-state can arise from any other Formal cause, But the Consent, Conc•rrence, Confederation of those concerned in it; he looked upon a Relation unto a Church, as not a Natural, or a Violent, but a Voluntary thing, and so that it is to be entred no otherwise than by an Holy Covenant, or, as the Scripture speaks, by giving our selves first unto the Lo•d, and then one unto another. He could not think, that Baptism alone was to be accounted the cause, but rather the effect, of Church-member-ship; inasmuch as upon the dissolution of the Church to which a man belongs, his Baptism would not become a Nullity: nor that meer • rof ssum would render men members of this or that Church; for then it would be impossible to cut off a corrupt member from that Body Politic: Nor that meer Co-habitation would make Church-members; for then the vilest infidels would be actually incorporated with us And a Covenant, was all that he now saw remaining in the Inventory.