N00149:56
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.
3. Circumcision did seal and signify Conversion and Regeneration, Rom. 2. 28, 29. Hence when in the days of the Jewish Church any of the Heathen Nations being Proselyted and joined to the Church were thereupon Circumcised and baptized, they called them new born. In which respect Christ may well upbraid Nicodemus for his not understanding what was spoken to him concerning the new birth, Joh. 3. 10. Art thou a Master in Israel and knowest not these things, q. d. Art thou a Rabbi and yet understandest not the true meaning of these Phrases, and of the rites that are Customary in your Church? And hence also is that Deut. 30. 6. I will Circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy Seed, &c. which doth manifest that Circumcision was a Seal of Regeneration, and in other places the Scripture speaketh of the Circumcision of the heart, because the outward Circumcision made with hands, was a sign of the inward Circumcision made without any hands, but that of the Spirit, so doth the Apostle plainly teach us that Circumcision signified the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, Col, 2 12. Now the very same thing is signified in Baptism, even a mortifying of the old man, Rom. 6. 3, 4, 5, 6. therefore is it called the Laver of Regeneration, Tit. 3 5 effectum significati praedicatur de signo ut cum Baptismus di•itur Regenerare. Ames. And our Saviour teacheth that a man must be born of water and of the Spirit, Job. 3. 7. h. e. (w)of the Spirit, as the principal Author of this new birth, and of water, or Baptism, whereby the Regenerating work of the Spirit is as by a sacred Symbol adumbrated and sealed. Other Concurrences there are, which make good this Assertion, that Baptism answers to, and cometh in the room of Circumcision. But designing brevity we let them pass, these instanced in being sufficient to evince the thing, they are produced for.