A80622:200
The grounds and ends of the baptism of the children of the faithful. Opened…The grounds and ends of the baptisme of the children of the faithfull. Opened…
The grounds and ends of the baptism of the children of the faithful. Opened in a familiar discourse by way of a dialogue, or brotherly conference. / By the learned and faithful minister of Christ, John Cotton, teacher of the Church of Boston in New-England.The grounds and ends of the baptisme of the children of the faithfull. Opened in a familiar discourse by way of a dialogue, or brotherly conference. / By the learned and faithfull minister of Christ, John Cotton, teacher of the Church of Boston in New-England.
London: printed by R.C. for Andrew Crooke, 1646
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.
But your children are not unclean, but now they are holy:
But your children are not uncleane, but now they are holy:
Therefore the unbelieving yoke-fellow is sanctified in the believer, and to him.
Where, in the assumption, the Apostle putteth a manifest difference between the estate of the children now in the days of the New Testament, and their estate in the Old, as in Ezra and Nehemiah's time. In the Old Testament, as the unbelieving yoke-fellow was unclean to the Israelites, so were their children unclean also: And therefore both wives and children to be put away. Why ⟨p. 51⟩so? Because then there was a partition wall between Jew and Gentile, the Gentiles were then strangers from the Covenants of promise (Ephes. 2 12.) and all communion with them was accursed, Nehem. 13.25. more fear, then, that the infidel should pervert the Israelite, then hope that the Israelite should convert the infidel. But now, (to wit, now in the New Testament, now that the partition wall is broken down between Jew and Gentile, now that the Covenant is extended to every believer in each Nation, and to his seed) now God is a God to the seed of every believer as to himself, God hath promised to be a Father to his children; and so they are holy by the holiness of his Covenant. And if the children be holy, then the marriage fellowship of the Parents is sanctified to the believer, though the other yokefellow remain an infidel. And if the marriage fellowship be sanctified, then the married Parents may lawfully cohabit together, though the one a believer, the other an fidell. This is the plain meaning and scope of the Apostles words, and discourse. Which plainly and strongly holdeth forth, that the grace of the Covenant is extended to the children of believing Parents in the new Testament, as much as in the Old, yea and more too. For in the Old Testament the Covenant reached not to the children, in case an Israelite had children by a Pagan wife, (whether Moabite, Ammonite, or Canaanite) but now if either of the Parents be believers, and so in Covenant, let the other Pagan Parent be of what Nation soever, yet the children are in the Covenant, and so holy also.