chap. 20 1 with verse 17.28 From all which it appeareth that disciples in Mat. 28.19 and members of the visible church are termes equivalent and disciples being there by Christ himselfe made the subjects of Baptism it follows that the members of the visible Church are the subjects of baptisme 2. Baptism is the seal of first entrance or admission into the visible church as appeareth from those texts 1 Cor 12 13. Baptised into one body i e. our entrance into the body or church of Christ is sealed by Baptisme and Rom 6 3 5 Gal. 3 27. where it is shewed that Baptisme is the Sacrament of union or of ingrafting into Christ the head and consequently into the church his body from the Apostles cōstant practise in baptising persons upon their first comming in or first giving up themselves to the Lord and them Acts 8.12 16.15 33. 18.8 and in Acts 2.41 42. they were baptized at their first adding to the church or admission into the Apostles fellowship wherin they afterward continued And from its answering unto circumcision which was a seal of initiation or admission into the church Hence it belongs to all and onely those that are entred into that are within or that are members of the visible church 3. They that according to Scripture are members of the visible Church they are in Corenant For it is the Covenant that constituteth the Church Deut 29.12 13. They must enter into covenant that they might be established the people or Church of God Now the initiatory seal is affixed to the Covenant and appointed to run parallel therewith Gen. 17.7 9 10 11. so circumcision was and hence called the covenant Gen. 17.13 Acts 7.8 and so Baptisme is being in like manner annexed to the promise or Covenant Acts 2.38 39. and being the seal that answereth to circumcision Col 2.11 12. 4. Christ doth Sanctifie and cleanse the Church by the washing of water i e by Baptisme Eph. 5.25.26 Therefore the whole Church and so all the members thereof who are also said in Scripture to be Sanctified in Christ Jesus 1 Cor 1.2 are the subjects of Baptisme And although it is the invisible church unto the spiritual and eternall good whereof this and all other Ordinances lastly have respect and which the place mentioned in Eph 5. may in a special man̄er look unto yet it is the visible Church that is the next and immediate subject of the administration thereof For the subject of visible external ordinances to be administred by men must needs be visible And so the Apostles Baptized sundry persons who were of the visible but not of the invisible Church as Simon Magus Anamias and Sapphira and others And these are visibly Purchased and Sanctified by the bloud of Christ the Bloud of the covenant Acts 2◠28 Heb 10.29 Therefore the visible seal of the covenant and of cleansing by Christs bloud belongs to them 5. The Circumcision is often put for the whole Jewish Church or for the members of the visible Church under the Old Testament Those within are expressed by the circumcised and those without by the uncircumcised Rom 15.8 3.30 Eph 2 11. Judg 14.3 15.18 1 San 14.6 17.26 36. Jer 9 25 26. Hence by proportion Baptisme which is our Gospel circumcision Col 2.11.12 belongs to the whole visible Church under the new Testament Actual and personal circumcision was indeed proper to the males of old females being but inclusively and virtually circumcised and so counted of the circumcision but the Lord hath taken away that difference now and appointed Baptisme to be personally applied to both sexes Act 8.12 16.15 Gal 3 28. So that every particular member of the visible Church is now a subject of Baptisme We conclude therefore that Baptisme pertaines to the whole visible Church and to all and every one therein and to no other Proposition 2d The members of the visible Church according to Scripture are confederate visible believers in particular Churches and their infant-seed i e children in minority whose next parents one or both are in Covenant Sundry particulars are comprised in this proposition which wee may consider and confirme distinctly Adult persons who are members of the visible Church Partic 1 are by rule confederate visible beleevers Acts 5.14 believers were added to the Lord The believing Corinthians were members of the Church there Acts 18 8 with 1 Cor 1.2 12.27 The inscriptions of the Epistles written to Churches and calling the members thereof Sants and faithfull shew the same thing Eph 1.1 Phi 1.1 Col 1.2 And that consederation i e. covenanting explicite or implicite the latter preserveth the essence of confederation the former is duety and most desireable is necessary to make one a member of the visible Church appears 1. Because the Church is constituted by Covenant for there is between Christ and the Church the mutuall engagement and relation of King and subjects husband and spouse this cannot be but by Covenant internall if you speak of the invisible Church external of the visible a church is a company that can say God is our God and we are his people this is from the covenant between God and them Deut 29 12 13 Ezek 16 8. 3. The church of the old Testament was the church of God by covenant Gen 17 Deut 29 and was reformed still by renewing of the covenant 2 chron 15 12. 23 16 34 31 32 Neh 9 38 Now the churches of the Gentiles under the new Testament stand upon the same basis or root with the church of the Old Testament therefore are constituted by Covenant as that was Rom 11.17.18 Eph 2 11 12 19 3 6. Heb 8 10 3. Baptisme enters us into the Church Sacramentally i e by sealing the Covenant The Covenant therefore is that which constitutes the Church and inferrs membership and is the Vow in Baptisme commonly spoken of The members of the visible Church are such as are confederate in Particular Churches Partic 2 It may be minded that we are here speaking of Members so stated in the visible Church as that they are Subjects to whom Church ordinances may regularly be administred and that according to ordinary dispensation For were it graunted that the Apostles and Evangelists did sometimes Baptize such as were not Members of any Particular Church yet their extraordinary office large Power and commission renders them not imitable therein by ordinary Officers For then they might Baptize in private without the presence of a Christian assemblie as Philip did the Eunuch But that in ordinary dispensation the Members of the visible Church according to Scripture are such as are Members of some particular Church appeares 1. Because the visible beleever that professedly Covenants with God doth therein give up himselfe to wait on God in all his ordinances Deut 26 17 18. Math 28 19 20. But all the Ordinances of God are to be enjoyed onely in a particular Church For how often do
therein from one generation to another Hence the covenant runs to us and to our seed after us in their generations To keep in the line and under the influence and efficacy of this covenant of God is the true way to the Churches glory To cut it off and disavow it cuts off the prosperity of Sion hinders it from being as in the most glorious times it shall be an eternal excellency and the joy of many generations This progress of the covenant establisheth the Church Deut. 29 13. Jer. 30.20 The contrary therefore doth disestablish it This obligeth and advantageth to the conveyance of Religion down to after-generations the care whereof is strictly commanded and highly approved by the Lord Psal 78.4 5 6 7. Gen. 18.19 This continues a nursery still in Christ's Orchard or Vineyard Isa 5.1 7. the contrary neglects that and so lets the whole run to ruine Surely God was an holy God and loved the purity and glory of the Church in the Old Testament but then he went in this way of a successive progress of the covenant to that end Jer. 13.11 If some did then or do now decline to unbelief and apostacy that doth not make the faith of God in his covenant of none effect or the advantage of interest therein inconsiderable yea the more holy reforming and glorious that the times are or shall be the more eminently is a successive continuation and propagation of the Church therein designed promised and intended Isa 60.15 59.21 Ezek. 37.25 -28. Ps 102 16-28 Jer. 32.39 The parents in question are personal immediate Argum 6 and yet-continuing members of the Church 1. That they are personal members or members in their own persons appears 1. Because they are personally holy 1 Co. 7 14. not parents onely but your children are holy 2. They are personally baptized or have had Baptism the seal of membership applied to their own persons which being regularly done is a divine testimony that they are in their own persons members of the Church 3 They are personally under discipline and liable to Church-censures in their own persons vide Propos 3. 4. They are personally by means of the covenant in a visible state of salvation To say they are not members in their own persons but in their parents would be as if one should say They are saved in their parents and not in their own persons 5. When they commit iniquity they personally break the covenant therefore are personally in it Jer. 11.2 10. Ezek. 16. 2. By the like Reasons it appears that children are immediate members as to the essence of membership i. e. that they themselves in their own persons are the immediate subjects of this adjunct of Church-membership though they come to it by means of their parents covenanting For as touching that distinction of mediate and immediate as applied to membership which some urge we are to distinguish 1. between the efficient and the essence of membership 2. between the instrumental efficient or means thereof which is the parents profession and covenanting and the principal efficient which is divine Institution They may be said to be mediate or rather mediately members as they become members by means of their parents covenanting as an instrumental cause thereof but that doth nothing vary or diminish the essence of their membership For divine Institution giveth or granteth a real and personal membership unto them as well as unto their parents and maketh the parent a publick person and so his act theirs to that end Hence the essence of membership i. e. Covenant-interest or a place and pâ—â—tion within the visible Church is really properly personally and immediately the portion of the childe by divine gift and grant Josh. 22 25 27. their children have a part in the Lord as well as themselves A part in the Lord there and Church-membership or membership in Israel are terms equivalent Now the children there and a part in the Lord are Subject and Adjunct which nothing comes between so as to sever the Adjunct from the Subject therefore they are immediate subjects of that Adjunct or immediate members Again their visible ingraffing into Christ the head and so into the Church his body is sealed in their Baptism but in ingraffing nothing comes between the graft and the stock Their union is immediate hence they are immediately inserted into the visible Church or immediate members thereof The little children in Deut 29.11 were personally and immediately a part of the people of God or members of the Church of Israel as well as the parents To be in covenant or to be a covenantee is the formalis ratio of a Church-member If one come to be in covenant one way and another in another but both are in covenant or covenantees i. e. parties with whom the covenant is made and whom God takes into covenant as the children here are Gen. 17.7.8 then both are in their own persons the immediate subjects of the formalis ratio of membership and so immediate members To act in covenanting is but the instrumental means of membership and yet children are not without this neither For the act of the parent their publick person is accounted theirs and they are said to enter into covenant Deut. 29.11 12. So that what is it that Children want unto an actual compleat proper absolute and immediate membership so far as these terms may with any propriety or pertineÌ„cy be applied to the matter in hand Is it Covenant-interest which is the formalis ratio of membership No they are in covenant Is it divine grant and institution which is the principal efficient No he hath clearly declared himself that he grants unto to the children of his people a portion in his Church and appoints them to be members thereof Is it an act of covenanting which is the instrumental means No they have this also reputatively by divine appointment making the parent a publik person and accounting them to covenant in his covenanting A different manner and means of conveying the covenant to us or of making us members doth not make a different sort of membership We now are as truly personally and immediately members of the body of faln mankinde and by nature heirs of the condemnation pertaining thereto as Adam was though he came to be so by is own personal act and we by the act of our publick person If a Prince give such Lands to a man and his heirs successively while they continue loyal the following heir is a true and immediate owner of that Land and may be personally dis inherited if disloyal as well as his father before him A member is one that is according to Rule or according to divine Institution within the visible Church Thus the child is properly personally or immediately Paul easts all men into two sorts those within and those without i.e. members and non-members 1 Cor. 5.12 It seems he knew of no such distinction of mediate and immediate as puts a medium between
PROPOSITIONS CONCERNING THE SUBJECT of BAPTISM AND CONSOCIATION of CHVRCHES Collected and Confirmed out of the WORD of GOD BY A SYNOD of ELDERS AND MESSENGERS of the CHURCHES in Massachusets-Colony in New-England Assembled at BOSTON according to Appointment of the Honoured GENERAL COVRT In the Year 1662. At a GENERAL COURT held at Boston in New-England the 8 th of October 1662. THe Court having Read over this Result of the Synod judge meet to Commend the same unto the Consideration of all the Churches and People of this Jurisdiction And for that end doe Order the Printing thereof By the Court Edward Rawson Secret ' CAMBRIDGE Printed by S. G. for Hezekiah Vsher at Boston in New-England 1662. THE PREFACE TO THE CHRISTIAN READER And especially to the Churches of Massachusets-Colony in NEW-ENGLAND THat one end designed by God's All-disposing Providence in leading so many of his poor people into this Wilderness was to lead them unto a distinct discerning and practise of all the Wayes and Ordinances of his House according to Scripture-pattern may seem an Observation not to be despised That we are fit or able for so great a service the sense of our own feebleness forbids us to think But that we have large and great opportunity for it none will deny For besides the useful Labours and Contemplations of many of the Lords Worthies in other places and in former times contributing to our Help and shewing our Principles to be neither novell nor singular the advantage of Experience and Practise and the occasion thereby given for daily searching into the Rule is considerable And He that hath made the path of the just as the shining light is wont still to give unto them further light as the progress of their path requires further practise making his Word a Lanthorn to their feet to shew them their way from step to step though haply sometimes they may not see far before them It is matter of humbling to us that we have made no better improvement of our opportunities this way but some Fruits God hath given and is to be praised for In former years and while sundry of the Lords eminent Servants now at rest from their labours were yet with us A Platform of Church-Discipline comprizing the brief summe thereof especially in reference to the Constitution of Churches which was our first work when we came into this Wilderness was agreed upon by a Synod held at Cambridge and published to the world From which as to the substance thereof we yet see no cause to recede Some few particulars referring to the Continuation and Combination of Churches needed yet a more explicite stating and reducing unto practise For though the Principles thereof were included in what is already published yet that there hath been a defect in practise especially since of late years there was more occasion for it is too too apparent For the rectifying whereof a more particular Explication of the Doctrine also about these things is now necessary In order hereunto by the Care and Wisdome of our Honoured General Court calling upon all the Churches of this Colony to send their Elders and Messengers this Synod was assembled who after earnest Supplications for Divine Assistance having consulted the holy Scriptures touching the Questions proposed to them have proceeded to the following Issue hoping that if it might seem meet to the Father of Lights to guide the Churches unto a right Vnderstanding and Practise of his Will in these things also the beauty of Christ's wayes and Spiritual Kingdome among us would be seen in some more compleatness then formerly For that which was the prayer of Epaphras for the Colossians ought to be both the prayer and labour of us all viz. that we might stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God And we trust it is our sincere desire that his Will all his Will and nothing else but his Will might be done among us To the Law and to the Testimony we do wholly referre our selves and if any thing in the following Conclusions be indeed found not to speak according thereunto let it be rejected We are not ignorant that this our Labour will by divers be diversly censured some will account us too strict in the Point of Baptism and others too laxe and large But let the Scriptures be Judge between us all There are two things the Honour whereof is in a special manner dear to God and which He cannot endure to be wronged in viz. His Holiness and His Grace The Scripture is often putting us in minde how much the Lord loveth Holiness and that in his House and in the holy Ordinances thereof and how he abhorreth the contrary Mal 2.11 Psal 93.5 2.6 Lev. 11.44 45. Ezek. 22.26 44.7 8. And hence neither dare we admit those unto the holy Table of the Lord that are short of Scripture-qualifications for it viz. Ability to examine themselves and discern the Lords body Nor yet receive or retain those in Church-estate and own them as a part of the Lords holy People that are visibly and notoriously unholy wicked and prophane such we are bidden to put away from among us 1. Cor. 5.13 and therefore ought not to continue among us Neither may we administer Baptism to those whose parents are not under any Church-power or Government any where To baptize such would be to give the Title and Livery to those that will not bear the yoke of Christs Disciples and to put the holy Name of God upon them touching whom we can have no tolerable security that they will be educated in the wayes of Holiness or in the knowledge and practise of Gods holy Will Baptism which is the Seal of Membership in the Church the Body of Christ and an engaging Sign importing us to be the devoted Subjects of Christ and of all his holy Government is not to be made a common thing nor to be given to those between whom and the God-less licentious world there is no visible difference This would be a provocation and dishonour to the Holy One of Israel On the other hand we finde in Scripture that the Lord is very tender of his Grace that he delighteth to manifest and magnifie the Riches of it and that he cannot endure any straitning or eclipsing whereof which is both deshonourable unto God and injurious unto men Gal. 2.21 Eph. 2.7 3.2 6 8. Rom 11.1 5. Acts 15.10 11. 10.15 20.24 26 27. And in special he is large in the Grace of his Covenant which he maketh with his visible Church and People and tender of having the same straitned Hence when he takes any into Covenant with himself he will not only be their God but the God of their seed after them in their generations Genes 17.7 9. And although the apostate wicked parent that rejecteth God and his Wayes do cut off both himself and his Children after him Exod. 20.5 34.7 Yet the Mercy and Grace of the Covenant is extended to
following Testimonies from sundry Eminent and Worthy Ministers of Christ in New-England who are now with God First Touching the children of Church-members Mr. Cotton hath this saying The Covenant and Blessing of Abraham is that which we plead for which the Apostle saith is come upon us Gentiles Gal. 3.14 which admitteth the faithful and their Infant-seed not during their lives in case their lives should grow up to Apostacy or open Scandal but during their infancy and so long after as they shall continue in a visible profession of the Covenant and Faith and Religion of their fathers otherwise if the children of the faithful grow up to Apostacy or any open Scandal as Ishmael and Esau did as they were then so such like now are to be cast out of the fellowship of the Covenant and of the Seals thereof Grounds and Ends of Baptism of Children p. 106. see also p. â—â— 3â—.34 Again The seed of the Israelites though many of them were not sincerely godly yet whilest they held forth the publick profession of God's people Deut. 26 3-11 and continued under the wing of the Covenant and subjection to the Ordinances they were still accounted an holy seed Ezra 9.2 and so their children were partakers of Circumcision Yea further though themselves were sometimes kept from the Lords Supper the Passeover for some or other uncleanness yet that debarred not their children from Circumcision Against this may it not seem vain to stand upon a difference between the Church of Israel and our Churches of the New-Testament For the same Covenant which God made with the National Church of Israel and their seed it is the very same for substance and none other which the Lord makes with any Congregational Church and our seed Quaery 9th of Accommodation and Communion of Presbyt and Congregal Churches And the same for substance with those Quaeries was delivered by him in 12. Propositions as Mr. Tho Allen witnesseth in Epist to the Reader before Treat of Covenant and those Quaeries Now in the 8th of those Propositions he hath these words The children of Church-members with us though baptized in their infancy yet when they come to age they are not received to the Lords Supper nor admitted to fellowship of Voting in Admissions Elections Censures till they come to profess their Faith and Repentance and to lay hold of the Covenant of their parents before the Church and yet they being not cast out of the Church nor from the Covenant thereof their children as well as themselves being within the Covenant they may be partakers of the first Seal of the Covenant Lastly speaking to that Objection That the Baptism of Infants overthrows and destroys the Body of Christ the holy Temple of God and that in time it will come to consist of natural and carnal Members and the power of Goverment rest in the hands of the wicked He Answers That this puts a fear where no fear is or a causless fear And in prosecution of his Answer he hath these words Let the Primitive Practise be restored to its purity viz. that due care be taken of baptized members of the Church for their fitting for the Lords Table and then there will be no more fear of pestering Churches with a carnal generation of members baptized in their infancy then of admitting a carnal company of hypocrites confessing their Faith and Repentance in the face of the Congregation Either the Lord in the faithfulness of his Covenant will sanctifie the hearts of the baptized Infants to prepare them for his Table or else he will discover their hypocrisie and profaneness in the presence of his Church before men and Angels and so prevent the pollution of the Lords Table and corruption of the Discipline of the Church by their partaking in them Grounds and Ends of Baptism c. p. 161 163. See also Holiness of Church-members p. 41 51 56 57 63 87. Bloody Tenent washed p. 44 78. Mr. Hooker saith Suppose a whole Congregation should consist of such who were children to Parents now deceased who were confederate their children were true members according to the Rules of the Gospel by the profession of their fathers Covenant though they should not make any personal and vocal expression of their engagement as the fathers did Survey part 1. p. 48. Again We maintain according to truth that the believing parent covenants and confesseth for himself and his posterity and this covenanting then and now is the same for the kinde of it Part 3. p. 25. See p. 17 18. part 1. p. 69 76 77. And in the Preface fetting down sundry things wherein he consents with Mr. R. he expresseth this for one that Infants of visible Churches born of wicked parents being members of the Church ought to be baptized In these saith he and several other particulars we fally accord with Mr. R. And Part 3. p. 11. It is not then the Question whether wicked members while they are tolerated sinfully in the Church they and their children may partake of the Priviledges for this is beyond question nor do I know nor yet ever heard it denied by any of ours Mr. Philips speaking of a people made partakers of Gods Covenant and all the priviledges outwardly belonging thereto he saith Themselves and all that ever proceed from them continue in the same state parents and children successively so long as the Lord continues the course of his Dispensation nor can any alteration befall them whereby this estate is dissolved but some apparent act of God breaking them off from him Reply p. 126. Again speaking of that Holiness 1 Cor. 7.14 he saith I take it of foederal holiness whereby the children are with the believing parents taken by God to be his and by him put under his covenant and so they continue when men of years though they never have any further grace wrought in them nor have any other state upon them then what they had when they were born Ibid. p 131. Again a company become or are a Church either by conversion and initial constitution or by continuance of the same constituted Churches successively by propagation of members who all are born in the Church-state and under the covenant of God and belong unto the Church and are a Church successively so long as God shall continue his begun dispensation even as well as fully as the first Ibid. p. 145. Mr. Shepard in Defence of the Nine Positions p 143. hath the expression Concerning the Infants of Church-members they are subject to Censures whensoever they offend the Church as others are though so long as they live innocently they need them not And in the year 1649. not three moneths before his Death he wrots unto a friend a large Letter yet extant under his own Hand concerning the Membership of Children wherein he proveth by sundry Arguments that they are Members and answereth sundry Objections against it and sheweth at large what great good there is in children's Membership In which