N00149:123
A discourse concerning the subject of baptism wherein the present controversies, that are agitated…A discourse concerning the subject of baptisme wherein the present controversies, that are agitated…
A discourse concerning the subject of baptism wherein the present controversies, that are agitated in the New English churches are from Scripture and reason modestly enquired into / by Increase Mather, teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Sixteen lines of quotations]A discourse concerning the subject of baptisme wherein the present controversies, that are agitated in the New English churches are from Scripture and reason modestly enquired into / by Increase Mather, teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Sixteen lines of quotations]
printed by Samuel Green, 1675
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.
We proceed to Consider a third Objection, viz. that membership in a particular Church constituted according to Gospel Rules is that which doth give right to Baptism, which since it cannot be affirmed concerning the Children in Controversy, therefore it may seem that they have no Title to Baptism.
We proceed to Consider a third Objection, viz. that membership in a particular Church constituted according to Gospel Rules is that which doth give right to Baptisme, which since it cannot be affirmed concerning the Children in Controversy, therefore it may seem that they have no Title to Baptisme.
Unto this may be Answered.
1. A particular Church is by some taken in a very strict Sense, viz. for a Company of professing Covenanting Believers entrusted by Christ with the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, Math. 16. 18, 19. Thus by Church is meant a Society consisting of Elders and Brethren which are a Body Politic, or Spiritual Corporation, unto whom Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction doth entirely belong. Yea, the particular Church is sometimes in the Scripture taken in this strict Sense, Acts 15. 22, 23. The Elders and Brethren are there said to be not only the Church, but the whole Church. See more to this purpose in that excellently Judicious Epistle which Dr. Goodwin, and Mr. Nigh have prefixed to Mr. Cottons Treatise of the Keys, pag. 3. Now in this Sense not only Children but also women are exempted from being members Constituent of the particular Church. h. e. They have nothing to do with the power of the Keys. See that Preface mentioned in the page Cited, and the Reply of the dissenting Brethren at Westminster, pag. 30. and Dr. Owens Catechism, pag. 89. 103. Doubtless some such Notion as this must be aimed at by Learned Mr. Norton,