A59660:34
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.
That there is no cessation of the membership of a person in this or that particular Church (the Church whereof he i• a member continuing in b•ing, together with the person himself) unless it be by means ⟨image 8⟩of a Church-act intervening, is a truth of no small importance; And therefore as for that notion which doth obtain with some; That in particular Churches of Christ, walking in the order of the Gospel, there are such as become Ecclesiastically Felones de se, that is such Church-members who by their scandalous sin, do become their own executioners Ecclesiastically, cutting themselves off from the Church, so as that they thereby become actually non-members, and that the Church hath no more power over them, either Ecclesiastically to admonish them, or Excommunicate them; this seem's unto me to be but an humane invention, and not of Divine institution, yea in truth destructive to the Order of the Gospel. And therefore to apply it, (as to members in full communion, so) to these Children of the Church whom we now speak of, is not of God; as may appear by these reasons following.
That there is no cessation of the membership of a person in this or that particular Church (the Church whereof he i• a m•mber continuing in b•ing, together with the person himselfe) unles it be by meanes ⟨image 8⟩of a Church-act intervening, is a truth of no small importance; And therefore as for that notion which doth obtain with some; That in particular Churches of Christ, walking in the order of the Gospel, there are such as become Ecclesiastically Felones de se, that is such Church-members who by their scandalous sin, do become their own executioners Ecclesiastically, cutting themselves off from the Church, so as that they thereby become actually non-members, and that the Church hath no more power over them, either Ecclesiasticallly to admonish them, or Excommunicate them; this seem's unto me to be but an humane invention, and not of Divine institution, yea in truth destructive to the Order of the Gospel. And therefore to apply it, (as to members in full communion, so) to these Children of the Church whom we now speak of, is not of God; as may appear by these reasons following.