A80622:479
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.
For this is a promise of the new Covenant, they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, Jer. 31.34. And that knowledge is faith upon which sins are forgiven, Isa. 53.11. And this is another promise of the same Covenant, I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine off-spring, Isa. 44.3. If then the Spirit and Faith be given by the New Testament, (or which is all one, the new Covenant) then all the Legacies, and privileges, and blessings of the Covenant, are not given only believers, but some also to the children of believers, that they may receive the spirit and faith also. It is therefore a slender evasion to allege (as you do) that the children and off-spring of believers are such only, as succeed them in the same faith and truth, and so are called the generation of the righteous. For they did not succeed them in the same faith, and truth, and righteousness, till it was given them; and given them it was by a legacy of the New Testament, when they were only the children of the faithful, and had neither faith, nor truth, nor righteousness in them. The other places which you quote, do show, that men of years, (as well as children) are sometimes called the seed of the Church. And that the godly ones amongst them are begotten of the immortal seed of the word, and are regenerate by the spirit of grace, have a seed of God dwelling in them, are maligned by the carnal seed, are approved of God, and acknowledged as heirs of the Kingdom of glory. All which are truths out of question. But none of all the places do exclude the Infants of believers, nor their grown natural children from being subjects of this grace of the Covenant, to have the Spirit of grace and faith poured upon them by virtue of the Covenant. One only place of all the rest, might seem to look that way, which you quote out of John 3.5, 6, where it is said that the carnal seed, as being flesh, and destitute of the spirit, cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. And indeed if by the Kingdom of God, were meant the Church (as oftentimes it is) ⟨p. 139⟩the objection would be more difficult to resolve. But the truth is, in that place, by the Kingdom of God, is plainly meant, the Kingdom of Glory, not the Church.