The triumphs of the reformed religion, in America. The life of the renowned John…

He could not comprehend, that this Churchstate can arise from any other Formal cause, but the Consent, Concurrence, Confederation of those concerned in it; he looked upon a Relation unto a Church, as not a Natural, or a Violent, but a Voluntary thing, and so that it is to be entered no otherwise than by an Holy Covenant, or, as the Scripture speaks, by giving our selves first unto the Lord, and then one unto another. He could not think, that Baptism alone was to be accounted the cause, but rather the effect, of Church-member-ship; inasmuch as upon the dissolution of the Church to which a man belongs, his Baptism would not become a Nullity: nor that meet Profession would render men members of this or that Church; for then it would be impossible to cut off a corrupt member from that Body Politic: Nor that meet Co-habitation would make Church-members; for then the vilest infidels would be actually incorporated with us. And a Covenant, was all that he now saw remaining in the Inventory.

He could not comprehend, that this Churchstate can arise from any other Formal cause, but the Consent, Concurrence, Confederation of those concerned in it; he looked upon a Relation unto a Church, as not a Natural, or a Violent, but a Voluntary thing, and so that it is to be entred no otherwise than by an Holy Covenant, or, as the Scripture speaks, by giving our selves first unto the Lord, and then one unto another. He could not think, that Baptism alone was to be accounted the cause, but rather the effect, of Church-member-ship; inasmuch as upon the dissolution of the Church to which a man belongs, his Baptism would not become a Nullity: nor that meet Profession would render men members of this or that Church; for then it would be impossible to cut off a corrupt member from that Body Politic: Nor that meet Co-habitation would make Church-members; for then the vilest infidels would be actually incorporated with us. And a Covenant, was all that he now saw remaining in the Inventory.

But for the Subjects to be admitted by Churches unto all the privileges of this Fellowship ⟨p. 67⟩with them he thought, they ought to be such as a trying Charity, or a charitable Trial, should pronounce, Regenerate. He found the first Churches of the Gospel mentioned in the Scripture, to be Churches of Saints, and that the Apostles writing to them, still acknowledge them to be Holy Brethren, and such as were made meet for to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light; and that a main end of Church-fellowship, is to represent unto the world, the Qualifications of those that shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, and Stand in his Holy Place forever. He would therefore have, Bona Mens, and Purum pectus, and Vita Innocens, required, as Lact entius tells us, they were in his Days, of all Communicants at the Table of the Lord; and with Holy Chrysostom, he would sooner have given his Heart-blood, than the Cup of the Lord, unto such as had not the hopeful Marks of our Lord's Disciples on them. The Churches of New-England still retain a Custom which the great Justin Martyr in the second Century assures us to have been in the Primitive Churches of his Time; namely, To Examine those they Receive, not only about their persuasion but also whether they have attained unto a work of Grace upon their Souls. In the prosecution hereof, besides the Enquiries of the Elders into the Knowledge and Belief and Conversation of them that offer themselves unto Church-fellowship, in i expected, tho' I hope not with any severity