A80622:91
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.
God hath proclaimed,1 that all are by nature the children of wrath, Ephes. 2. And therefore I cannot believe that any are naturally born in grace, and so believers from the womb, though the opposite doctrine teacheth and affirmeth the same.
God hath proclaimed,1 that all are by nature the children of wrath, Ephes. 2. And therefore I cannot believe that any are naturally born in grace, and so believers from the wombe, though the opposite doctrine teacheth and affirmeth the same.
- 1Sylvester.Silvester.
1The opposite doctrine (if you mean the doctrine of the Baptism of infants) teacheth as the Apostle doth, that all by nature are the children of wrath, (even believers and their seed as well as others) neither did I think that any had been so ignorant, as to believe or teach, and affirm, that any are naturally born in grace, and so (that is naturally) are believers from the womb; I never heard nor read of any such before, nor do I believe it now. All that for ought I know do hold the Baptism of infants, they teach, that by nature all Infants (Christ only excepted) are born in sin, and children of wrath: and none of them born in grace naturally, but only by virtue of the Covenant of grace, which is above nature. Neither do they say that all that are born under the Covenant, are borne believers (or partakers of faith) from the womb, but that some by the blessing and grace of the Covenant are made partakers of faith, and of the holy Ghost from the womb: and that all are capable of the same grace from the womb; yea, and God hath promised to work the same sooner or later, in all the elect children of the Covenant absolutely: in the rest according to his Covenant, he offereth to work the same in his own time, if neither their parents nor themselves reject or neglect the means which the Lord offereth them. For as the second Commandment (whereby the instituted means of grace and worship are established) is moral and perpetual: So is the sanction or ratification of that Commandment moral and perpetual also. Now in the sanction of that Commandment, as God threatened to visit the neglect of his ordinances (which are the means of grace) upon the fathers to the children, to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him; so he promiseth to show mercy unto thousands of them that love him & keep his Commandments,