N00149:30
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.
4. To be wholly excluded the visible Church is a most dreadful thing, and therefore to affirm it concerning all those persons, whom the Proposition refers unto it that which (for my part) I dare not do. Judicious Interpreters conceive (and that not without Reason) that, that Book of the Living which some in Scripture are said to have their Names blotted out of, is meant concerning the (f)Church Book. To have a name to be amongst the number of the Lords faithful Servants is a great favour, so to be deprived of such a name is a heavy Judgement and usual Curse that doth fall upon, and follow Hypocrites, after they are in their graves, It is mentioned as no small mercy, Psal. 87. 6. The Lord shall count when he writeth up the People that this and that man was born there. And on the other hand, it is a terrible threatening which we have Ezek. 13. 9. They shall not be in the Assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel. And this may give light unto those words of Moses, Exod. 32:32. And if not, blot me I pray thee out of thy Book which thou hast written. That is, (saith gan excellent Interpreter) out of the Book which thou hast commanded to be written as a record of the People of Israel. God said to Moses that if he would let him alone, and not by his Prayers withstand the destruction of the Children of Israel, he would of make him a great Nation. Nay, (saith Moses) rather then that Gods Name should suffer by the ruin of his people, I am ⟨p. 7⟩content not only to be without the honour of being the head of a greater Nation then this, but that my Name should not be recorded as a Leader of this Nation. Yea, moreover that my Name should not at all be mentioned amongst the Lords People, I am content to be without the honour of being recorded so much as a member of Gods Church in this world. Thus also Paul could wish himself an Anathema from Christ for his Brethren his kinsmen's sake, &c.