A59660:130
The church-membership of children, and their right to baptism according to that holy and…The church-membership of children, and their right to baptisme according to that holy and…
The church-membership of children, and their right to baptism according to that holy and everlasting covenant of God, established between Himself and the faithful ... cleared up in a letter, sent unto a worthy friend of the author ... / by Thomas Shepard ...The church-membership of children, and their right to baptisme according to that holy and everlasting covenant of God, established between Himself and the faithfull ... cleared up in a letter, sent unto a worthy friend of the author ... / by Thomas Shepard ...
Cambridge: printed by Samuel Green, 1663Cambridg: printed by Samuel Green, 1663
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.
2. There is much good hereby in respect of the Parents; for, suppose the children cannot profit by it, yet Parents may, and 'tis in respect of them very much that God looks upon their children, thus to receive them into Covenant, Deut. 4.37. For, 1. Parents may hereby see, and wonder at the riches of Gods grace, to become a God not only to themselves, but to take in their seed also, whose good they prize as their own, and as if done to themselves: hence Abraham fell down upon his face, adoring God, when he heard of this Covenant, Gen. 17. See also how Moses aggravates this love, in the eyes of all that had eyes to see, Deut. 10.14, 15. 2. Hereby God gives Parents some comfortable hope of their children's salvation; because they be within the pale of the visible Church; for as out of the visible Church (where the ordinary means of salvation be) there is ordinarily no salvation, Acts 2.47. So if children were not of Christs visible Church and Kingdom, we could not hope for their salvation, no more then of Pagans, or Turks; for if they be without God, they are without hope, Ephes. 2.12. and to be without hope of such, to whom God hath made such promises of salvation, not given to Pagans, nor proper to Abraham, is very hard, and horrid to imagine; ⟨p. 23⟩for the promise run's universally, that the Seed of the upright (whether Jews, or Gentiles) shall be Blessed. Psal. 112.1, 2. Prov. 20.7. 3. Hereby Parents are stirred up the more earnestly to Pray for them, because God's Covenant and promise is so large toward them, at which Prayer look's, and by which it wrestle's with God, and hence, we find that Moses, and others, they use this argument in their Prayers; oh God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: &c: 4. Hereby they may not only hope, and Pray, but are encouraged to Believe, concerning their Children and the rest of those who are in Covenant among them, that God will do them good, as they conclude mercy to the remnant, forgiveness of their sins, with faith, upon this ground, thou wilt remember the Truth to Jacob, and thy Mercy to Abraham, sworn unto our Fathers in days of old,