A93091:532
A treatise of liturgies, power of the keys, and of matter of the visible…A treatise of liturgies, power of the keyes, and of matter of the visible…
A treatise of liturgies, power of the keys, and of matter of the visible church. In answer to the reverend servant of Christ, Mr. John Ball. By Thomas Shepherd, sometimes fellow of Emanuel-College in Cambridge, and late pastor of Cambridge in New-England.A treatise of liturgies, power of the keyes, and of matter of the visible church. In answer to the reverend servant of Christ, Mr. John Ball. By Thomas Shephard, sometimes fellow of Emanuel-Colledge in Cambridge, and late pastour of Cambridge in New-England.
London: printed by E. Cotes for Andrew Crooke, 1652
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.
Answ. There is no such disparity in this as is objected, for Abraham's family was in Covenant before Circumcision was given, only the Covenant was more fully explained and confirmed: and so when John baptized, he baptized the members of the Jews ⟨p. 142⟩Church in Covenant before, to whom he was sent to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, &c. and to prepare a people for the Lord, and baptism was then given to the Church of the Jews with reference to so many as would receive the doctrine of John, concerning repentance and remission of sins by faith in the Messiah now come amongst them, and therefore Christ himself, and his Disciples remained yet members of that Church.
Answ. There is no such disparity in this as is objected, for Abrahams family was in Covenant before Circumcision was given, onely the Covenant was more fully explained and confirmed: and so when John baptized, hee baptized the members of the Jewes ⟨p. 142⟩Church in Covenant before, to whom hee was sent to turne the heart of the fathers to the children, &c. and to prepare a people for the Lord, and baptisme was then given to the Church of the Jewes with reference to so many as would receive the doctrine of John, concerning repentance and remission of sinnes by faith in the Messiah now come amongst them, and therefore Christ himselfe, and his Disciples remained yet members of that Church.
Secondly, Though the visible Kingdom of Christ was not yet to be erected in Christian Churches, till after Christs death and Resurrection, whereby he did put an end to the Jewish worship, and therefore no Christian Churches could be gathered by John, yet there was a middle state of a people prepared for the Lord, gathered out of the Jewish Church, which according to that state were made the Disciples of John, by solemn profession of their repentance or conversion to God, and acknowledgement of Christ the Lamb of God already come, to whom the seal of baptism was appropriated. As for the instances,