A76157:49
Confirmation and restoration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…Confirmation and restauration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…
Confirmation and restoration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of the corruptions and divisions of the churches: submissively, but earnestly tendered to the consideration of the sovereign powers, magistrates, ministers, and people, that they may awake, and be up and doing in the execution of so much, as appeareth to be necessary as they are true to Christ, his Church and Gospel, and to their own and others souls, and to the peace and welfare of the nations; and as they will answer the neglect to Christ, at their peril. / By Richard Baxter, an unworthy minister of Christ, that longeth to see the healing of the churches.Confirmation and restauration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of the corruptions and divisions of the churches: submissively, but earnestly tendered to the consideration of the soveraigne powers, magistrates, ministers, and people, that they may awake, and be up and doing in the execution of so much, as appeareth to be necessary as they are true to Christ, his Church and Gospel, and to their own and others souls, and to the peace and wellfare of the nations; and as they will answer the neglect to Christ, at their peril. / By Richard Baxter, an unworthy minister of Christ, that longeth to see the healing of the churches.
London: printed by A.M. for Nevil Simmons book-seller, 1658
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.
The Servants of God before Christ's coming were enabled and required to enter their Infants into the Covenant of God, sometime (and ordinarily) in Circumcision, and sometime (as in the wilderness, Deut. 29) without it. And they have the same Natural Interest, and as large a discovery that it's the W•ll of God, for the Dedicating of their Children, to God, and Choosing for them, and entering them into the holy Covenant, now as then. If then a Child that had no exercise of its own will, might by the Will of his Parents choose the Lord, and be entered into Covenant with him, it is then so still. God hath no where reversed or abrogated that Command, ⟨p. 7⟩which obliged Parents to enter their Children into Covenant with God, and Devote them to him. Nay Christ chid those that would keep them from him, because his Kingdom, that is, his Church, is of such. A place that doth purposely and plainly express the continuance of his Love to Infants, and yet the Gospel entertaineth them as readily as the Law or Promise before did. Oft and again doth Christ signify to the Jews that he would have gathered them wholly to his Church, and not have broken them off, if they had not by unbelief been broken off, and in the same Olive hath he engrafted the Gentile Church. Infants are members of all Commonwealths on the face of the earth, though they know not what a Commonwealth is, nor yet what sovereignty or subjection mean. And he that should say they are no members, because they are Imperfect members, would but be laughed at. And Christ hath not cast them out of his family or Commonwealth, nor shut the door against them.
The Servants of God before Christ's coming were enabled and required to enter their Infants into the Covenant of God, sometime (and ordinarily) in Circumcision, and sometime (as in the wilderness, Deut. 29) without it. And they have the same Natural Interest, and as large a discovery that it's the W•ll of God, for the Dedicating of their Children, to God, and Choosing for them, and entering them into the holy Covenant, now as then. If then a Child that had no exercise of its own will, might by the Will of his Parents choose the Lord, and be entered into Covenant with him, it is then so still. God hath no where reverst or abrogated that Command,