N02341:209
Ratio disciplinae fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A faithful account of the discipline professed and practised; in…
Ratio disciplinae fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A faithful account of the discipline professed and practised; in the churches of New-England. : With interspersed and instructive reflections on the discipline of the primitive churches. : [Seven lines from Ezekiel]
Boston: printed for S. Gerrish, 1726
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Thus Justin Martyr informs us, That in his Time, it was expected, That Persons should give good Proofs of their Resolutions to lead a Pious and Religious Life, and protest their Assent and Consent unto all the Christian Verities, ere their Claim to Baptism could be acknowledged.
Thus Justin Martyr informs us, That in his Time, it was expected, That Persons should give good Proofs of their Resolutions to lead a Pious and Religious Life, and protest their Assent and Consent unto all the Christian Verities, e're their Claim to Baptism could be acknowledged.
§. 4. Private Baptism is not used in the Churches of New-England. They agree with the Divines of Leiden, who condemn it as a Disorder, because, Baptismus publici Ministerii, non privatae Exhortationis est Appendix. They say with Calvin, Since our Baptism has with it our solemn Introduction into Church of GOD, — ⟨p. 73⟩it should be administered still in an Assembly of the Faithful; to which indeed a Temple is not always necessary *—. They say with Beza, The taking in, and cutting off a Member of the Church, are to be alike Circumstanced in This; that a Church Assembly should be called together for it ‖But none can say more unto their Mind than Did lavius; The Sum of whose Reasoning is this: That the Communion that we maintain with the Universal Church in the Sacrament of Baptism, cannot be regularly expressed, but in an Assembly of some visible particular Church: And since, as Chrysostom says, The Keys of the Sacraments are delivered unto the Church, a Pastor therefore, should make his Dispensation of Baptism in some Church: And since the Sacraments are not only Symbols of Grace exhibited unto us, but also as Aquinus expresses it, Protestationes Fidei nostrae coram Mundo, Professions of our Faith before the World, therefore Baptism should have an Open and a Public Celebration. The Ethiopian Treasurer and the Gler were indeed more privately baptised: But it was by extraordinary Officers,