N00230:31
The divine right of infant-baptism asserted and proved from Scripture and antiquity. By Increase…The divine right of infant-baptisme asserted and proved from Scripture and antiquity. By Increase…
The divine right of infant-baptism asserted and proved from Scripture and antiquity. By Increase Mather, teacher of a church of Christ in Boston in New-England. ; [Ten lines of quotations]The divine right of infant-baptisme asserted and proved from Scripture and antiquity. By Increase Mather, teacher of a church of Christ in Boston in New-England. ; [Ten lines of quotations]
Boston: printed by John Foster, 1680
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.
1. That Baptism (as Mr. Cotton rightly observeth) is an engagement unto future Repentance. Hence is that expression of Baptism unto Repentance. Math. 3.11. because, by virtue of Baptism the subject of it, is engaged to repent and walk in Newness of life, before the Lord, and woe unto him if he do not so. And withal, when elect Infants are baptized, the Lord doth (which is matter of great encouragement to a believing Parent) engage to bestow Repentance on them in due time. In like sort, was Circumcision an engagement unto Repentance, Deut. 30.6.
1. That Baptism (as Mr. Cotton rightly observeth) is an ingagement unto future Repentance. Hence is that expression of Baptism unto Repentance. Math. 3.11. because, by virtue of Baptism the subject of it, is ingaged to repent and walk in Newness of life, before the Lord, and woe unto him if he doe not so. And withall, when elect Infants are baptized, the Lord doth (which is matter of great encouragement to a believing Parent) engage to bestow Repentance on them in due time. In like sort, was Circumcision an engagement unto Repentance, Deut. 30.6.
2. Many of the Elect of God, have had the seeds of grace wrought in their Souls, whilst in their Childhood. Mr. Janeway hath lately exemplified in thirteen children, that clear Evidences of faith were observed in them, albeit sundry of them not seven years old. And daily experience confirms the Truth of this. Yea, more, some Infants among the Lords people have dyed Martyrs of Jesus. So when that noble Romanus suffered, there was martyred with him a little child, but seven years old, because he said that Christ is God, & that there is but one God, professing that he learned those Principles of his godly Mother, from the time that he hung upon her breasts. And many other Christian Children both in former and latter Ages have dyed Martyrs, See the Martyr Books, vol. 1. p. 53 57, 83, 116. and vol. 3. p. 200, 747. and continuation of that History. p. 63. The bloody Papists, exposed four hundred Infants amongst the Waldenses, to death at at once with their godly Parents.