A59660:83
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.
Thus much for the first argument, wherein I have been the larger, because much light is let in by it, to answer divers mistakes I shall name the rest with more brevity.
Thus much for the first argument, wherein I have been the larger, because much light is let in by it, to answer divers mistakes I shall name the rest with morerbrevity.
Argum: 2. If it was the curse of Gentiles, to be strangers to the Covenants of promise (made with the Jews) before they became the Churches of God; then by being Churches, this Curse is removed; and hence Ephe. 2.12, 13. The Apostle saith they were strangers to the Covenant, and Common-wealth of Israel, but are not so now. If you lay that the Ephesians were in Covenant, but not their seed, and so they were not strangers? I Answer that the Apostle doth not set out their cursed estate merely because they were without any Covenant, but because they were strangers to that Covenant of promise which the Israelites had; for if their children had it not, they were then as without Covenant, so without God, and without hope, as Pagans are, which is notoriously cross to the current of all Scripture, as may afterward appear.
Argum: 2. If it was the curse of Gentiles, to be strangers to the Covenants of promise (made with the Iews) before they became the Churches of God; then by being Churches, this Curse is removed; and hence Ephe. 2.12, 13. The Apostle saith they were strangers to the Covenant, and Common-wealth of Israel, but are not so now. If you lay that the Ephesians were in Covenant, but not their seed, and so they were not strangers? I Answer that the Apostle doth not set out their cursed estate meerly because they were without any Covenant, but because they were strangers to that Covenant of promise which the Israelites had; for if their children had it not, they were then as without Covenant, so without God, and without hope, as Pagans are, which is notoriously cross to the current of all Scripture, as may afterward appear.