A59660:139
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. You think that Visible personal Faith only, makes the Church, and members of it; which •s an error, as may appear from many thing• already said: for Children may be in Gods account professors of y• Faith parentally, as well as personally; i. e. in the profession of their parents, as well as in their own; And hence you shall find, that the Covenant God entered into with the Parents of Church-members personally, the Children are said, to have that Covenant made with them many hundred years […] See for this purpose▪ among hundreds, these few Scriptures, Hagga• 2.5. In Haggai's time God is said to make a Covenant with them then when they came out of Egypt (which was not personally, but parentally) so Hosea 12.4, 5. when God entered into Covenant with Jacob at Bethel; God is said to speak with US, who lived many years after; and hence the Children many years after, challenge Gods Covenant with them, which was made with their Fathers for them, Micah 7.19, 20. Hence also those Children are said to Come to Christ (who were not able to come themselves) but only were brought in the arms of others to Christ. It's a known thing among men, that a Father may receive a gi••, or Legacy given to him, and his heirs, and he, and his heirs are bound to perform the condition of the Covenant, and promise by which it is conveyed, and that the Child doth this in his Father.
2. You think that Visible p••sonal Faith only, makes the Church, and members of it; which •s an errour, as may appear from many thing• already said: for Children may be in Gods account professors of y• Faith parentally, as well as personally; i. e. in the profession of their parents, as well as in their own; And hence you shall find, that the Covenant God entered into with the Parents of Church-members personally, the Children are said, to have that Covenant made with them many hundred yeares See for this purpose among hundreds, these few Scriptures, Hagga 2.5. In Haggal's time God is said to make a Covenant with them then when they came out of Egypt (which was not personally, but parentally) so