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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50206	The first principles of New-England concerning the subject of baptisme & communion of churches : collected partly out of the printed books, but chiefly out of the original manuscripts of the first and chiefe fathers in the New-English churches : with the judgment of sundry learned divines of the congregational way in England, concerning the said questions : published for the benefit of those who are of the rising generation in New-England / by Increase Mather ...	Mather, Increase, 1639-1723.; Mitchel, Jonathan, 1624-1668.	1675 (1675)	Wing M1211; ESTC W35680	45,581	56

for the helping the Church against Errors Schismes and Scandals 3dly That these Synods may by the Power they have from Christ admonish men or Churches in his Name when they see evils Continuing in or growing upon the Church and their Admonitions carry with them the Authority of Jesus Christ 4ly As there shall be cause they may declare men or Churches to be Subverters of the Faith or otherwise according to the nature of the offence to shame them before all the Churches about them 5ly They may by a Solemn act in the Name of Jesus Christ refuse any further Communion with them till they repent 6ly They may declare also in the Name of Christ that these erring people or Churches are not to be received into Fellowship with any of the Churches of Christ nor to have Communion with one another in the Ordinances of Christ You will say what if they care not for all this Answ That is as if you should say what if they be not Conscientious what if nothing can prevail with Conscience if you say private Brethren may admonish and declare in the Name of Christ This is more then if any private Brethren should do the same thing For a Synod is a Solemn Ordinance of Christ and the Elders are to be looked upon as the Officers of Jesus Christ And again pag. 47. he ha's these words If it shall be said But surely they do not agree so farr they do not come up to these six things mentioned To that I Answer I do not in these deliver only mine own Judgement but by what I know of the Judgements of all those Brethren with whom I have occasion to Converse by Conference both before and since I stand Charged to make it good to be their Judgements also yea it hath been theirs and mine for divers years even then when we never thought to have enjoyed our own Land again And if it be so then let the Lord be Judge between us and our Brethren for those loud and grievous out-Cries there ha's been against us in this thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 POSTSCRIPT SInce the Composure of this Collection of Testimonies it hath pleased the Lord to take unto himself another of our Antient Studs viz. worthy and Reverend Mr. Allin of Dedham whose Apprehensions touching the Controverted Questions is sufficiently known Likewise not many weeks before his death he read this Script and expressed his judgement thereon in words following Reverend and dear Brother I salute you in the Lord. I humbly bless God for your fruitful Labours in this your Collection and in other matters performed by you concerning which in general I think it is worthy serious Consultation amongst your Friends whether it be not a Season to publish the same 1. We see the work of Christ touching the Church Seed is laid asleep this might awaken our drowsiness we see also the great disorders in Churches for want of seasonable help from Neighbouring Churches and by Reason of the rejection of Counsel without convincing their Sentence of error 2 dly We see how our present doctrine is rejected as a Novel Innovation differing from first and primitive Principles 3. Who knoweth how farr God may bless this Treatise to the recovery of some if not many from their Erroneous Opinions about these Truths I Conceive also some serious Exhortation to cleave to these first wayes of Christ in New England might be seasonably added I Rest Yours in our Lord Iohn Allin A Letter concerning the Subject of Baptisme written by that eminent Minister of Christ Mr Ionathan Mitchel late Pastor of the Church in Cambridg in New England Reverend and dear Sir I have deliberately read over Mr. D● Essay and Epistle to the Reader which I now return to you with thanks for the Loan of it If I should say I see not matter of Conviction in it his Answer is already given me pag. 35 If men shut their eyes when the light is held out to them they may truly say they see not or in pag. 6. they that Enquire of God with an Idol in their hearts shall be paenally answered by being left to their own Counsels c. we had need Labour to approve our selves to God when we meet with such sharp Censures from men But the R. A. can hardly expect we should find Conviction here seeing he builds all upon this distinction of Immediate and mediate membership which with the Consectaries He deduceth from it is the prora puppis of his whole discourse and for the proof of the distinction himself in pag. 34 35. refers the Reader to his former Essays neither have I observed much more in this writing toward the proof of it then we have had before And therefore if we did not see it as by him explained and Improved to be evident before it is not strange if we do not see it now If it must be imputed to our blindness yea wilful and paenal blindness that we see it not we must be Content to bear it as we may Also when he affirms over and over pag. 75 83 92 103 131 145 152. that we our selves Confess the Parents in Question have not Faith or are not visible Believers the Contrary whereunto we have plainly asserted And how many times over does he say it we call them meer members which we have disclaimed and do not so call them but members not in full Communion yea he sayes in pag. 49. we grant that the persons in Question are not to be accounted Church members c. How should we receive Conviction from such discourses If his meaning be by so often reflecting on our meer members as he calls them to deny that distinction of members into such as are in full Communion and such as are not in full Communion that would seem strange for how can that be denyed by any Pad●baptists and he seems to approve it in pag. 35. yea he seems sometimes to grant that some when Adult do Continue in the Church and Covenant who yet are not admitted to full Communion pag. 76. 99 yet he calls for a Rule for two such sorts of Adult members pag. 73. But I shall not enter into discourse of particulars nor am I fit to be an Answerer it is casie to observe a greater sharpness in his Expressions to me then else where in this Book I hope I shall Consider as I am able what I find in this or other discourses about the matter in Controversy c. and if I be convinced of Error I shall not be ashamed to own it but if there be no way to Issue the Controversy but by such voluminous writings and if every passage be not spoken to he counts himself neglected or unanswered And that which he hath before said stands still firm and good as to that purpose he speaks in this Book above twenty times I have little hope to see an Issue of it nor can I see any likely way for an Issue unless we can meet

Contentious Spirit I had Conference with him about this matter in his life time And the Summe of what he hath now written he then expressed and told me withal that if a Case should be presented to the Church in any other way by the Brethren he would refuse to act in it unless the Church would first dispute the point which he would offer but act against his Judgement he would not It 's true that the Rule requires to tell the Church in due order by the Officers as he that Commands one to goe into his house intends that he should go in by the door The Elders are Captains and Leaders and Rulers Heb. 13.17 1 Tim 5.18 And therefore the Brethren must not go before them A common Souldier must not begin or make an Attempt without the Captain And the Elders being Leaders and Rulers they are to order all the publick occasions and affairs of the Church in a comely manner which they cannot do if the Brethren have Liberty at their pleasure to publish what seems best to themselves Touching the desire of such members Children as desire to have their Children baptized it is a thing that I do not yet hear practiced but for my own part I am inclined to think that it cannot justly be denyed because their next Parents however not admitted to the Lords Supper stand as Compleat members of the Church within the Church Covenant and so acknowledged that they might have right to Baptisme Now they being in Covenant and standing members their Children also are members by virtue of their Parents Covenant and Membership as well as they themselves were by virtue of their Covenant and membership and they have not renounced that Covenant nor are justly Censured for the breach of that Covenant but do own and profess it and by virtue of it claim the Priviledge of it to their Children Those Children who are within the Covenant and so members of it Baptisme cannot be denyed unto But the Children in Question are within the Covenant of the Church and so members of it Ergo Baptisme cannot be denyed to them The assumption is proved thus the Children of such Parents as are within the Covenant of the Church are themselves within the Covenant of that Church and so members But the Children in Question are the Children of such Parents as are in Covenant and so members of the Church Ergo they are so themselves The Proposition is clear because the Parents Covenant for themselves and for their Children Deut. 29. from 10 to 16. Ezek. 16.8 13. And God accepts both Gen. 17.12 13. the whole Nation is faederally holy they are expressly said to be in Covenant with their Father Deut. 29. not partly or partially in Covenant Rom 9.3 4 Acts 2.39 and God stiles himself their God as well as their Father Gen. 17.7 8 9. and to have God to be our God is to be in Compleat Church Covenant with him The assumption is evident because else such their Parents had not had right to Baptisme the Seal of the Covenant but that they had right unto and so received it and the same right they had the Children have who are included in their Fathers did expressly engage and Covenant but these not I Answer that the Covenant is the same and of the same force to bind and of the same extent in the one as well as the other Explicite and Implicite are but adjuncts of the Covenant and therefore though they are not come into Covenant the same way that their Parents did viz. by explicite personal Covenanting but are taken in by the Father Covenanting for them and themselves yet it seems to me that they are not less truly or less Compleatly in Covenant The God of Peace and Truth guide us in those wayes I rest Milford June 12. 1651. Your loving Brother Peter Prudden Unto these might have been added the Testimony of that Reverend and faithful Servant of Christ Mr. Iohn Wilson the first Pastor of the first Church in Boston But his Judgement touching the question in hand is known to all that knew him And the Reader is referred to his dying Spee hes concerning this matter which are inserted in the Book called New Englands memorial pag. 183. 184. which because they were amongst the last words of so holy a man cannot without great sin be despised or disregarded Also we might have mentioned the Judgement of Reverend Mr. Norris which that it did Concur with what hath been expressed is to be seen from the Records of the Church in Salem viz. in their Records of the 24th of the first Moneth And of the 9th of the fifth Moneth and sixth Moneth Anno 1654. Likewise we might have produced the Judgement of Mr. Philips sometimes the faithful Pastor of the Church in Watertown but the Reader is for that referred to the Preface in the Synod Book Also that some godly and Judicious of the Congregational way in England are for a greater Latitude in the point of Baptisme then our dissenting Antisynodalian Brethren do acknowledge is manifest from what ●undry Learned men of that way have long sinc● published For Doctor Owen in his review of Sc●asm● pag 134 thus expresses himself I am so far from confining Baptisme subjective y to a particular Congregation that I do not believe that any m mber of a particular Church was ever regularly baptized baptisme p●●cedes Admission into Church membership as to a particular Church the Subject of it is professing Believers and their Seed as such they have right unto it whether they be joyned to any particular Church or no suitable to this Judgement ha's been my Constant and uninterrupted practice Likewise Doctor Nathaniel Homes in his defence of Infant Baptisme against Mr. Tombs ha's these words pag 193. for baptizing of Believers Infants several Churches of us do hold that we may baptize them though neither of their Parents be of our particular Churches Baptisme as we conceive being an Admission into the universal v sinle Church c. And again pag 217. Mr. Tombs having made this Objection that the baptizing of Infants ha's occasioned on u●ne●essary dispute about baptizing the Infants of believing Parents that are not members of gathered Churches I never saith Doctor Homes perceived the world troubled with this dispute divers Churches without dispute can practice the baptizing of such c. Thus he See also in the same Book 207 208 215. with his Epistle to the Reader And the Collector of these Testimonies hath lately received Letters from su●dry eminent Divines of the Congregational way in England declaring that the Judgement of the Elders with them is generally according to what hath been now expressed By these things therefore which have been thus far expressed it is very manifest that the doctrine of the late Synod concerning the Subject of Baptisme is no Apostacy from the first Principles of New-England nor yet any declension from the Congregational way It remaineth that we proceed