N00041:105
Another essay for investigation of the truth, in answer to two questions, concerning I.…
Another essay for investigation of the truth, in answer to two questions, concerning I. The subject of baptism. II. The consociation of churches. / By John Davenport B. of D. and Pastor of the Church of Christ, at New-Haven, in New-England. ; [Twenty-four lines of quotations]
printed by Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson, 1663
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.
Reply. 1. The tenor of the Covenant in Gen. 17. 7 had (as it hath been formerly noted) a special respect unto Isaac ver. 19. for in Isaac was Abraham's seed to be called, •en. 21. 12. So the children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are accounted for the […], Rom. 9. 8. The sealing of this Covenant to the Posterity of Isaac and Jacob, by Circumcision, was to continue throughout their generations, till the coming of Christ. The Covenant in the tenor of it, is, for substance, the same to us as it was to them (though the outward Signs, and manner of dispensing it, differ) it being established by the blood of Christ, Luke 1. 69,71,73. Heb 13. 20. The extending the Covenant to a thousand generation, themselves say, is conditional, provided that the Parents successively do continue to be keepers of the covenant. Such a succession in the Covenant, through Faith, is not to be found even in the best Churches that ever were in the world for a thousand, or an hundred generations: But such the Parents in question are not. For though they are not such forsakers and rejecters of God, and the Covenant of their fathers, as they who are spoken of in Deut. 29. 25 26 2 Kings 17. 15—20 2 Chron. 7, 22. Yet, besides that gross Idolatry, there is a spiritual Idolatry, in scandalous Covetousness, […] 3. 5. and Worldly-mindedness whereby men forsake and reject God and his Covenant, to serve the World, Mat. 6. 24. 1 Tim. 6. 17. 1 […] 2. 15. to these, the text alleged by them in […] 7. 10. may fitly be applied; and they forsake the Covenant of God, as […] 4 4. and such may they be, who answer all the terms of their fifth Proposition, externally and visibly. Now, the Religion of such is no better then that of the […], who took upon them the Religion of the Jews and were circumcised only for worldly ends, […] 34. 22. 23,24. Such Religion will end in Apostasy, in times of Persecution for the Truth, […] 13 21.