we find in the Scripture that they came together into one place or met as a congregational particular Church for the observation and enjoyment of the Ordinances Acts 2 1 44 46. 4 31 11.26 20 7. 1 Cor 5 4. 11.18.20 33 14 23. _____ 2. The Apostle in his Epistles writing to Saints or Beleevers writes to them as in particular Churches 1 Cor 1 2. Eph 1. 1. Phil â— 1. Col. 1.2 And when the story of the Acts speakes of Disciples other places shew that those are understood to be Members of particular Churches Acts 18.23 with Gal 1 2. Acts 21 16. with Chap 18 22 Acts 11.26 14 22 23,27,28 All which shewes that the Scripture acknowledgeth no settled orderly estate of visible beleevers in Covenant with God but onely in particular Churches 3. The members of the visible Church are Disciples as was above cleared now Disciples are under Discipline and liable to Church-censures for they are stated subjects of Christs Laws and Government Mar 28.19 20. but Church Government and censures are extant now in ordinary dispensation onely in a particular Church Mat 18.17 1. Cor 5.4 The Infant-seed of confederate visible beleevers are also members of the visible Church Partic 3 The truth of this is evident from the Scriptures and reasons following 1 The covenant of Abraham as to the substance thereof viz Argum 1 that whereby God declares himselfe to be the God of the faithfull their seed Gen 17.7 continues under the Gospel as appears 1 Because the Beleeving inchurched Gentiles under the new Testament do stand upon the same root of covenanting Abraham which the Jewes were broken off from Rom 11 16 17 18. 2 Because Abraham in regard of that Covenant was made a Father of many nations Gen 17.4 5. even of Gentiles as well as Jewes under New-Testament as well as Old Rom 4.16 17. Gal 3 29 i e in Abraham as a patterne and root God not onely shewed how he Justifies the beleever Gal 3 6 9. Rom 4. but also conveied that covenant to the faithfull and their seed in all nations Luk 19.9 If a Son of Abraham then Salvation i e the Covenant-dispensation of Salvation is come to his house 3. As that covenant was communicated to proselyte Gentiles under the Old Testament so its communication to the inchurched Gentiles under the new Testament is clearly heldforth in diverse places Gal 3.14 the blessing of Abraham comprizeth both the internal benefits of Justification by faith c which the Apostle is there treating of and the external dispensation of Grace in the visible church to the faithfull their seed Gen 28 4. but the whole Blessing of Abraham and so the whole covenant is come upon the Genitles through Jesus Christ Eph 2.12 19 They had been strangers but now were no more strangers from the covenants of promise i e from the covenant of grace which had been often renewed especially with Abraham and the house of Israel and had been in the externall dispensation of it their peculiar portion so that the Ephesians who were a farr off being now called and made nigh v. 13-17 they have the promise or the Covenant of promise to them and to their Children according to Acts 2 39. and so are partakers of that Covenant of Abraham that we are speaking of Eph 3,6 The inchurched Gentiles are put into the same inheritance for substance both as to invisible visible benefits according to their respective conditions are of the same body and partakers of the same promise with the Jewes the Children of Abraham of old The same may be gathered from Gen 9 27. Mat 8 11 21 43.4 Sundry Scriptures which extend to Gospel-times do confirme the same interest to the seed of the faithful which is held forth in the covenant of Abraham and consequently do confirme the continuance of that covenant as Exod 20 6. there in the sanction of a moral and perpetual Commandement and that respecting Ordinances the portion of the church God declareth himself to be a God of mercy to them that love him and to their seed after them in their generations consonant to Gen 17.7 compare herewith Psal 105.8 9 Deut. 7.9 Deut. 30.6 The grace signified by circumcision is there promised to Parents and children importing the covenant to both which circumcision sealed Gen 17. and that is a Gospel-promise as the Apostles citing part of that context as the voice of the Gospel shewes Rom 10 6-8 with Deut 30 11-14 and it reacheth to the Jewes in the latter dayes ver 1-5 Isay 65 23. In the most Glorious Gospel-state of the church ver 17-19 the blessing of the Lord is the promised portion of the off-spring or Children as well as of the faithfull parents so Isay 44.3 4. _____ Isai 59.20 21. Ezek 37 25 26. at the future calling of the Jewes which those texts have reference to Rom 11.26 Ezek 37 19-22 23 24. their Children shall be under the promise or Covenant of special Grace to be conveyed to them in the Ordinances Isai 59.21 and be subjects of David i e Christ their King Ezek 37.25 and have a portion in his Sanctuary vers 26. and this according to the tenor of the ancient covenant of Abraham whereby God will be their God viz. both of parents and Children and they shall be his People vers 26,27 Now although more abundant fruits of the Covenant may be seen in those times and the Jewes then may have more abundant Grace given to the body of them to continue in the Covenant yet the tenor and frame of the Covenant itselfe is one and the same both to Jewes and Gentiles under the New-Testament Gal 3.28 Coll 3.11 _____ Heb. 8.10 The house of Israel i e the Church of God both among Jewes and Gentiles under the new Testament have that Covenant made with them the summ whereof is I will be their God and they shall be my people which is a renewing of that Covenant of Abraham in Gen 17. as the same is very often over in those termes renewed in Scripture and is distinguished from the Law Gal 3 16 17. Heb 8.9 wherein is implied Gods being a God to the seed as well as parents and taking both to be his People though it be not expressed even as it is often plainly implied in that expression of the Covenant in other places of Scripture Deut. 29.13 Jer. 31.1 32.38 39 24 7. 30 22 20. Ezek 37.27 25. Also the writing of the Law in the heart in Heb 8 10. is that heart circumcision which Deut 30 6. extends both to parents and seed And the terme House of Israel doth according to Scripture-use fitly expresse and take in especially as to the externall administration of the Covenant both parents and Children among both which are found that elect and saved number that make up the invisible Israel compare Jer 13.11 9.26 Isai 5 7. Hos 1.6 Ezk 39.25 Neither may we
Discourses he asserteth That as they are Members in their infancy so they continue Members when they are grown up till for their wickedness they be cast out and that they being Members their seed successively are Members also until by Dissolution or Excommunication they be unchurched That though they are Members it follows not that they must come to the Lords Supper but they must first appear able to examine themselves and discern the Lords Body That the children of godly parents though they do not manifest faith in the Gospel yet they are to be accounted of Gods Church until they positively reject the Gospel Rom. 11. That this Membership of children hath no tendency in it to pollute the Church no more then in the Old Testament but is a means rather of the contrary And that there is as much danger if not more of the degenerating and apostatizing of Churches gathered of professing Believers as of those that rise out of the seed of such Mr. Prudden in a Letter to a friend written in the year 1651. doth plainly express it to be his judgement That the children of Church-members are Members and so have right to have their children baptized though themselves be not yet admitted to the Lords Supper His words are these Touching the desire of such Members chidren as desire to have their children baptized it is a thing that I do not yet hear practised in any of our Churches But for my own part I am inclined to think that it cannot justly be denied 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 Baptism 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 Parents Covenant and Membership And they have not renounced that Covenant nor are justly censured for breach of that Covenant but do own it and profess it and by virtue of it claim the priviledge of it to their Children Then he puts this his Argument into form thus Those Children who are within the Covenant of the Curch and so Membeâ—s of it Baptism cannot be denied unto But the Câ—iâ—dren in question are within the Covenant of the Church and so Members of it Therefore Baptism cannot be denied unto them The Assumption is proved thus The Children of such Parents as are within the Covenant of the Church and so Members of the Church are themselves within the Covenant of the Church and so Members of it But the Children in question are Children of such Parents as are in Covenant and so Members of the Church Therefore they are so themselves The Proposition is clear because the Parents Covenant for themselves and for their Children Deut. 29.10 -16. Ezek. 16.8 13. And God accepts both Gen. 17.12 13. the whole Nation is foederally holy Ezra 9.2 they are expresly said to be in Covenant with their fathers Deut 29. not partly or partially in Covenant Rom. 9.3 4. Acts 2.39 and God styles himself their God as well as their fathers 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 Baptism the Seal of the Covenant but that they had right unto and so received it and the same right that they had their Children have who are included in their Covenant as they were in their fathers and are not less truely or less compleatly in Covenant Lastly to adde no more Mr. Nath. Rogers in a Letter to a Friend bearing date 18.11 1652. hath these words To the Question concerning the Children of Church-members I have nothing to oppose and I wonder any â—…ould deny them to be Members They are Members in censu Ecclesiastice God so calls them the Church is so to account of them And when they are adultae aetatis though having done no personal act yet are to be in Charity judged Members still and till after due calling upon they shall refuse or neglect to acknowledge and own the Covenant of their Parents and profess their belief of and subjection to the contents thereof â—…ot Practise I confess I account it our great default that we have made no more real distinction between these and others that they have been no more attended as the lambs of the Flock of Christ and whether it be not the cause of the corruption and woeful defaction of our youth disquiri permittimus So that it was the judgement of these Worthies in their time that the children of Church-members are members of the Church as well as their parents and do not cease to be members by becoming adult but do still continue in the Church untill in some way of God they be cast out and that they are subject to Church-discipline even as other members and may have their children baptized before themselves be received to the Lords Supper and yet that in this way there is no tendency to the corrupting of the Church by unworthy members or of the Ordinances by unworthy partakers And in the Synod herd at Cambridge in the year 1648. that particular point of Baptizing the children of such as were admitted members in minority but not yet in full communion was inserted in some of the draughts that were prepared for that Assembly and was then debated and confirmed by the like Arguments as we now use and was generally consented to though because some few dissented and there was not the like urgency of occasion for present practise it was not then put into the Platform that was after Printed We need not mention the Meeting of Elders at Boston upon the Call of the Honoured Court in the year 1657. where in Answer to XXI Questions since Printed this Point is particularly asserted By all which it appeareth that these are not things lately devised or before unheard-of nor can they justly be censured as Innovations or Declensions from the received Doctrine in New-England It is true that in the beginning of these Plantations and the Infancy of these Churches there was not so much said touching these things as there hath been since and the reason is Because then there was not the like occasion as since hath been Few children of church-Church-members being then adult at least few that were then married and had children Accordingly when a Question was put about the priviledges of Members children when come to years these Churches then having been but of few years standing our Answer was That by reason of the Infancy of these Churches we had then had no occasion to determine what to judge or practise in that matter Answer to the 5 th and 6 th of 32. Questions which may satisfie as the Reason why in our first beginnings there was no more said touching these Questions But afterwards when there was more
John 3.12 and so becoming the father of a wicked unchurched race Burthen God appointed unto Eve another viz Seth in whom to continue the line of her Church-seed Gen 4.25 How it did continue in his seed in their generations Genes 5th sheweth Hence the children of the Church are called Sons of God which is as much as members of the visible Church in contradistinction to the daughters of men Gen. 6 2. If righteous Noah be taken into the Ark then the onely preserving place of the Church his children are taken in with him Gen. 7.1 though one of them viz. Ham after proved degenerate and wicked but till he so appears he is continued in the Church with his Brethren So Gen. 9.25 26 27. as the race of Ham or his son Canaan parent and children are cursed so Shem parent and children is blessed and continued in the place of blessing the Church As Japhet also or Iaphet's posterity still parent and children shall in time be brought in The holy line mentioned in Gen. 11 10-26 shews how the Church continued in the seed of Shem from him unto Abraham When that race grew degenerate Iosh 24.2 then God called Abraham out of his countrey and from his kindred and established his covenant with him which still took in parents and children Gen. 17.7 9. So it did after in the house of Israel Deut. 29.11 12 13. and when any eminent restauration or establishment is promised to the Church the children thereof are still taken in as sharers in the same Psal 102.16 28. 69.35 36. Jerem 32 38 39 Isa 65 18 19 23. Now when Christ comes to set up the Gospel-administration of his Church in the New Testament under the term of the kingdome of heaven Mat 3 2. 11.11 he is so far from taking away children's portion and membership therein that himself asserts it Mat 19 14. The children of the Gentile but now believing Corinthians are holy 1 Cor 7 14. The Apostle writing to the Churches of Ephesus and Colosse speaks to children as a part thereof Eph 6 1. Col. 3 20. The inchurched Romans and other Gentiles stand on the root of covenanting Abraham and in the Olive or visible Church they and their children till broken off as the Jews were by positive unbelief or rejection of Christ his Truth or Government Rom. 11 13 16 17 -22. The children of the Jews when they shall be called shall be as aforetime in Church-estate Ie 30.20 with 31.1 Ezekiel 37 25-28 From all which it appears that the series or whole frame and current of Scripture-expressions doth hold forth the continuance of childrens membership in the visible church from the beginning to the end of the world The seed or children who become members together with their Parents Partic 4 i.e. by means of their parents covenanting are children in minority This appears 1. Because such children are holy by their parents covenanting who would else be unclean 1 Cor. 7.14 but they would not else necessarily be unclean if they were adult for then they might act for themselves and so be holy by their personal covenanting Neither on the other hand would they necessarily be holy if adult as he asserts the children there to be for they might continue Pagans Therefore the Apostle intends onely infants or children in minority 2. It is a principle that carries evidence of light and reason with it as to all transactions Civil and Ecclesiastical that if a man be of age he should answer for himself John 9.21 They that are come to years of discretion so as to have knowledge and understanding fit to act in a matter of that nature are to covenant by their own personal act Neh. 10.28 29. Isa 44 5 3. They that are regularly taken in with their parents are reputed to be visible entertainers of the covenant and avouchers of God to be their God Deut 26.7 18. with Deut. 29.11 12 But if adult children should without regard to their own personal act be taken in with their parents then some might be reputed entertainers that are manifest rejecters of the covenant for so an adult son or daughter of a godly parent may be It is requisite to the membership of children Partic 5 that the next parents one or both be in covenant For although after-generations have no small benefit by their pious Ancestors who derive federal holiness to their succeeding generations in case they keep their standing in the covenant and be not apostates from it yet the piety of Ancestors sufficeth not unless the next parent continue in covenant Rom. 11 22. 1. Because if the next parent be cut or broken off the following seed are broken off also Exod 20.5 Rom. 11 17 19 20. as the Gentile believing parents and children were taken in so the Jews parents and children were then broken off 2. One of the parents must be a believer or else the children are unclean 1 Cor. 7 14.3 If children may be accounted members and baptized though the next parents be not in covenant then the Church should be bound to baptize those whom she can have no power over nor hope concerning to see them brought up in the true Christian Religion and under the Ordinances For the next parents being wicked and not in covenant may carry away and bring up their children to serve other Gods 4. If we stop not at the next parent but grant that Ancestors may notwithstanding the apostacy of the next parents convey membership unto children then we should want a ground where to stop and then all the children on earth should have right to membership and Baptism Proposition 3 d. The Infant-seed of confederate visible Believers are members of the same Church with their parents and when grown up are personally under the Watch Discipline and Government of that Church 1. That they are members of the same Church with their parents appears 1. Because so were Isaac and Ishmael of Abrahams family-Family-church and the children of Jews and Proselytes of Israels National Church and there is the same reason for children now to be of the same Congregational Church with their parents Christ's care for children and the scope of the Covenant as to obligation unto Order and Government is as great now as then 2. Either they are members of the same Church with their parents or of some other Church or non-Non-members But neither of the latter therefore the former That they are not non-Non-members was before proved in Propos 2. Partic. 3. and if not members of the same Church with their parents then of no other For if there be not reason sufficient to state them members of that Church where their parents have covenanted for them and where ordinarily they are baptized and do inhabit then much less is there reason to make them members of any other and so they will be members of no particular Church at all and it was before shewed that there is no ordinary and orderly standing estate of Church-members but