A59660:91
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.
Object: 1. If Children (say you) be members as it was in Abraham's Covenant, then wives and servants, and all the household are to be taken in; for so it was, Gen. 17. & Gen. 3•.2.3. and then what Churches shall we have? but such as you fear, God will be weary of & angry wa•.
Object: 1. If Children (say you) be members as it was in Abraham's Covenant, then wives and servants, and all the houshold are to be taken in; for so it was, Gen. 17. & Gen. 3•.2.3. and then what Churches shall we have? but such as you fear, God will be weary of & angry wa•.
Answ. Churches at first (by your own confession) were in families, where therefore God's grace did the more abound, by how much the less it did abound abroad And hence Abraham's family and household was a Church of God; but yet consider withal that all were not of this Family church, merely because they were of the family of household, but because they were Godly, or the children of such as were godly in the family; for Abraham's servants and household, were such as he could and did Command to keep the way of the Lord, and so were obedient to God in him, Gen. 18.19. and we see they did obey, and did receive that new strange, & painful sign of Circumcision: about the nature and use of which, no doubt he first instructed them, and in the place you mention, Gen. 35.4. they gave to Jacob all men strange gods, & eatings to worship God more purely And it's evident,