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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50249	A disputation concerning church-members and their children in answer to XXI questions wherein the state of such children when adult, together with their duty towards the church, and the churches duty towards them is discussed by an assembly of divines meeting at Boston in New England, June 4th, 1657 / now published by a lover of truth.	Mather, Richard, 1596-1669.	1659 (1659)	Wing M1271A; ESTC R3585	21,931	42

would have reduced under the yoke of circumcision they were some of those whom the Apostles accounted Disciples or whom the Apostles had Discipled But some children were some of those whom the false Teachers would have reduced under the yoke of circumcision for they would have had both Gentile Parents and children circumcised after the manner of Moses v. 1 5. with Exod. 12. 48 49. Acts 21. 21. And that the Apostles took in children with Parents when they were conversant in the work of Discipling further appears from Acts 2. 39. 16. 15 31 33. 1 Cor. 7. 14. 2. Some children are under the promised teaching of God Isa. 54. 13. And the Word there used is rendred Disciples Isa 8. 16. 3. Some children do visibly belong to Christ Mark 10. 14. Iosh. 22. 24 25. Therefore are Disciples Compare Mat. 10. 42. with Mark 9. 41. 4. When Christ saith Disciple all Nations he bids gather the Gentiles into like covenant and Church-estate for the substance thereof which had been the portion of the Iews Therefore he bids Disciple some children Arg. 6. They that are subjects of the Lords visible Spiritual Kingdom servants and children of the Lords Family they are Members of the Church which is called the Lords Kingdom and House and Family in the Scripture But so are some children Ezek. 37. 25 26 27. It is Davids i. e. Christs Spiritual-Gospel-Kingdom that he there speaks of and that in reference unto visible Sanctuary or Church-estate That some children are the Lords Servants see Lev. 25. 39 41 42. And that not by common right of Creation onely or designment unto some particular service but of special Redemption and conservation there spoken of And surely both childrens capacity so to be and the Lords Grace and Favour so to accept them was not greater then than now That they are children sons and daughters of God see Rom. 9. 4 26. Gen. 6. 2. Ezek. 16. 20 21. 23. 37. And how were these children the Lords children properly and meerly upon the account of internal and spiritual regeneration For that was not found in many of the children spoken of in the places mentioned nor yet only by Creation for so others were Gods children as well as the children of the Iews and so the daughters of men were his daughters as well as the other were his sons Gen. 6. 2. Therefore they are said to be Gods children because of their Covenant and Church relation unto him which was common to all the children of the Church and to none other and so Ezek. 16 8. shews being compared with verse 20 21. Arg. 7. If no children be members of the visible Church then we have no well-grounded hope according to ordinary course of dispensation of the salvation of any dying Infants And the reason is because salvation pertains to the Church Isa. 45. 17. Eph. 2. 12. 5. 23 26. Ioh. 4. 22. Act. 2. 27. Luke 19. 9. Those that are without the visible Kingdom of God are visibly in the Kingdom of Satan for he is the God of the world 2 Cor. 4. 4. And to him are men delivered when they are cast out of the Church 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 20. So if children live and die out of the visible Church they live and die out of Gods visible Kingdom and visibly in the Kingdom of Satan And then what visible ground of hope according to ordinary course of their salvation But to account the estate of all that die children so hopelesse and forlorn is contrary to the tender and rich mercy of the Lord and to the Doctrine of the Scriptures and to Godly Parents most uncomfortable Arg. 8. If some children were Members of the Church of God in the old Testament then some children are Members of the Church of God in the daies of the new Testament But some children were Members of the Church in the time of the old Testament which though a Truth that we know not how any can deny yet we may briefly evince and confirm thus That children then were in Covenant is expresly witnessed Gen. 17. 7. Deut. 29. 11 12 15. And that they were in such a Covenant or so in Covenant as to be Members of the Church that then was appears because 1. They were in the same Covenant that their Parents or elder persons were in and whereby they were constituted Members of the Church Gen. 17. 7. Deut. 29. 10 11 12 14 15. 27. 9. 26. 18. Ier. 23. 11. Acts 7. 38. 2. They were subjects of a Church-Ordinance never regularly applied to any out of the Church viz. Circumcision Rom. 3. 1 2. They were Israelites i. e. In other words Members of the Church of Israel to whom pertained Church priviledges Rom 9. 4. They were children of the Kingdom and such as were capable of being cast out of Church estate therefore in it Mat. 8. 12. Rom. 11. 20. Ier. 7. 15. 2 King 17. 20. 5. They were visibly the Lords people by Covenant even as the rest of the people were the Lords people Ezek. 16. 8 20 21. 6. They were children of the House of Israel as opposed to dogs i. e. Persons out of the Church Mat. 15. 24 26. In a word as oft as they are said or implied to be a part of the holy seed of the holy people of the Lords people of Israel of the Circumcision of those whom God redeemed out of the Land of Egypt to make them his peculiar treasure of the inheritance and congregati of the Lord c. So often are they shewed to be Members of the Church But all the Question will be about the consequence of the Proposition and that may be cleared thus 1. If the Church of the old Testament and the Church of the Gentiles under the new Testament be for kind essentially the same then if children were Members of that Church they are also Members of these For if they be the same essentially and the same for kind then they have the same Covenant or general From Therefore that Covenant which takes in the seed or children Gen. 17. 7. Therefore the seed or children are in and of the one Church as well as the other But that the Church State then and now was and is essentially the same is evident because it is the same Kingdom of God and not another which is taken from them and given to us Mat. 21. 43. 8. 11 12. One and the same sheepfold for kind under one and the same shepheard in which were the Iews first and the Gentiles afterwards Iohn 10. 16. The Gentiles are fellow heirs with the Iews of the same body and partakers of the same promise Eph. 3 6. We are in the same root and Olive from which some of them were broken off in which the Godly Iews not broken off did still continue and into which the rest shall be grafted in again in time Rom. 11. 17 18 24. The conversion of the Gentiles is expressed in such

A DISPUTATION CONCERNING Church-Members AND THEIR CHILDREN IN ANSWER TO XXI QUESTIONS Wherein the State of such Children when Adult Together with their Duty towards the Church And the Churches Duty towards them is DISCUSSED BY AN ASSEMBLY of DIVINES meeting at BOSTON in NEW ENGLAND Iune 4th 1657. Now Published by a Lover of Truth London Printed by I. Hayes for Samuel Thomson at the Bishops Head in Pauls Church-yard 1659. To the READER IT is justly accounted one of the glories of the English Nation that God hath honoured them with special light in some momentous Truths above what he hath other Protestant Churches round about them The morality of the Christian Sabbath deep and spiritual insight into those secret transactions between the Lord and the soules of his elect at their first conversion also in their after walking in communion with God are usually observed as instances hereof And of the same kind though perhaps in a lower rank are those Truths about the instituted Worship of God which have been now for some years a considerable part of those disquisitions which do also at this day exercise the most searching thoughts and ablest pens that are amongst us And truly the dealing of God in his Providence towards the people of this Land in bringing out the light and glory of these Truths hath been observable and different from the way that he hath walked in to other Churches For whereas they rose up from Antichristian apostasie in Doctrine and Discipline both at once together with his abominations in Faith rejecting also his inventions in Church Order insomuch as neither the Head the Pope nor his Body in the principal Members of it the Arch-Bishops and Bishops with the rest of that Hierarchical frame have at all been to be found exercising the usurpations of the man of sin in most of the Reformed Protestant Churches since the first day of their rejecting Popery In England it was far otherwise the head of Antichrist being indeed here cut off by Henry the eighth who justled him from his usurped supremacy within his Territories but yet as is observed of him he left his body the Hierarchy continuing which for many years not only stood but exercised in a great measure the authority of the Dragon and made an image of the Beast and caused as many as would not worship it to be killed And in this the Lord had doubtlesse a design more fully to lay open the loathsomnesse of the abominations of the mystery of iniquity in this part of it which by his infinite wisdom he effectually carried on all along and hath in a good part accomplished in these daies wherein we live For even from the first Reformation here begun the Lord shone in upon the understandings of some of his precious servants with such an evidence of light in these things as overpowred their Consciences and constrained them to bear a publick testimony against the remainders of Antichrist in the Land Insomuch as from that time till the day of the downfal of all the Hierarchical brood God never suffered himself to be without his witnesses in this cause of his whom he raised up and whose right hand he held to plead and preach and pray and weep and beleeve and print and contend and resist and suffer for the institutions of Christ not only to silencing and reproach but to banishment and blood it self some of them And verily the number of the Martyrs of Iesus Christ who have had his testimony and kept the Word of the patience of the Saints in this Land since the first Reformation will be found not to be few and their sufferings neither few nor light whenever that dying wish of judicious and blessed Ames shall be accomplished as it deserves viz. that a Martyrologie in this cause of Church-Discipline under the Bishops should be compiled and published to the world And hence it is come to passe that amongst the English Divines and Christians there is as was said more light in these points and in sundry of their Church Assemblies and administrations more purity then is so ordinarily to be met withal in others Amongst all that have suffered for and searched into these Truths they of New-England justly deserve and will have a name and a glory as long as the earth shall have any remembrance of an English Nation not only for their sufferings here under the iniquity of those bloody Fathers of the Church as they loved to be stiled the Bishops though they bore as great if not a greater share therein than most of their brethren that staied behind them But more especially will after ages honour them for that great and high adventure of theirs in transporting themselves their wives and little ones upon the rude waves of the vast Ocean into a remote desolate and howling wildernesse and there encountring by Faith and patience with a world of temptations and streights and pressing wants and difficulties and this upon no other inducements but that they might meet with him whom their souls loved in the midst of his Golden Candlesticks and see him as they have there seen-him in his Sanctuary An undertaking hardly to be parallell'd unlesse perhaps by that of their Father Abraham from Ur of the Caldees or that of his seed from the Land of Egypt And these are the men Christian Reader who are the Authors of this disputation now put into thy hands which deserves esteem and acceptance somwhat the rather on this account because it comes from such as it doth and is about such a Subject even from men holy and learned and is about that which they have searched into as seriously impartially and unprejudicedly as any men are ever like to do in this world Besides that being themselves Officers to Instituted Churches of Saints and this work of theirs being nextly and especially for the service of the Churches they did therein lie under as direct and full an influence of the Spirit of Christ and were on all accounts as compleatly wrapt within the promise for their guidance as men can on this side Heaven Yea 't is about those Truths which they have and at this day do suffer for and therefore they are as likely as most others to be the instruments in the hand of Christ by whom he will communicate further light in these points God is never behind hand with men and as some special exercise of any particular Grace strengthens and encreaseth it and establisheth the heart in it and with it so the obedience and faithfulnesse of his servants to any truth of Christ especially if in an eminent degree and manner engageth God to make known more of his counsel and will in that truth to such persons and as under such an engagement the Lord looks upon himself It is true indeed the Civil Magistrates of that Jurisdiction of the English in New-England that lies upon the River Connectiquot sent these Questions to the Magistrates of the Massachusets and they mutually

in for that his reports of New England have perhaps therefore found the more credit because he above others is not without advantages to know New-England and the waies of the Churches there better than it seems he doth The design of these enquiries being to search out what course the Lord Christ in his wisdom and faithfulnesse hath appointed for prevention of the degenerating of Churches in successive generations from their primitive soundnesse and purity and of the polluting and prostituting of his holy things thereby it is not altogether improbable but some additional contribution of light may be brought forth by them to us here in England in that great case of ours about the restoring of such of our Parishes as retain any thing of the essence of a Church in them and thence are capable of a reformation to such a measure of purity as may take off the just distasts and dissatisfactions of such as are conscientiously tender of their Church-Communion The preservation of Churches pure restauration of them when collapsed meeting in the end do also run along together in the way thereto and are to be accomplished by the same rules May this in any measure be the fruit of this Disputations coming under the presse it will never repent any of those persons that have had any hand therein yea it will be their rejoycing and their glory in the day of the Lord Iesus and that so it may the blessing of Heaven be upon it A DISPUTATION CONCERNING Church-Members AND THEIR CHILDREN IN ANSWER to 21 QUESTIONS Quest 1. WHether any Children of confederate Parents be under their Parents Covenant and members with them Answ. Some Children of confederate Parents are by meanes of their Parents Covenanting in Covenant also and so Members of the Church by divine Institution For Arg. 1. They that are in that Covenant for substance which was made with Abraham Gen. 17. 7. they are in Covenant and Members of the Church by divine Institution because that Covenant doth inferre Church-Membership as being the formall cause thereof For 1. A people that are in that Covenant are thereby the visible People or Church of God Gen. 17. 7. compared with Deut. 29. 12 13. by this Covenant the Family of Abraham and so afterwards the People of Israel was made and established the visible Church of God 2. Many were in that Covenant which never were in saving state of grace Therefore that was the externall or Church Covenant which God makes with his visible Church or People 3. Circumcision sealed that Covenant which was the distinguishing mark between those within and those without the Church But some children are in that Covenant for substance which was made with Abraham Gen. 17. 7. as appears by sundry Scriptures which being rightly considered and compared do inferre the continuance of the substance of that Covenant whereby God is a God to his People and their seed under the new Testament Acts 2. 39. Gal. 3. 14. with Gen. 28. 4. Rom. 11. 16 17. the Churches of the Gentiles do partake of the root of covenanting Abraham and of Olive or Church estate thereby So 1 Cor. 7. 14. The word Holy as applied to any sort of persons and opposed to Gentile-uncleannesse is not in Scripture used for lesse then a Faederall or covenant-holinesse but is often used in that sense as Ezr. 9. 2. Deut. 7. 6. and 14. 2. 21. and 26. 19. and 28. 9. Dan. 8. 24. and 12. 7. Rom. 11. 16. and where a covenant or faederal estate is asserted of children what doth it but refer us to that Ancient and never revoked covenant common to all Nations whereof Abraham was the Pattern-Father Gen. 17. 5 7. And if Gentile Proselytes of old they and their children shared in that covenant surely Gentile believers now are not behind them in the like priviledge For the Gentile confederate believer is also a child of Abraham Gal. 3. 7 29. Rom. 4. 11 16. Therefore he hath that covenant of which Abraham was a pattern subject made with him viz. That God will be his God and the God of his seed Luk. 19. 9. Arg. 2. Such children as are by Christ affirmed to have a place and portion in the Kingdome of Heaven they have a place and portion in the visible Church and so consequently are members thereof But so it is with some children Math. 19. 14. Mark 10. 14. Luk 18. 16. The Proposition is evident for the Kingdome of heaven or of God is sundry times used to expresse the visible Church or Church estate Math. 25. 1. and 21. 43. and 8. 12. And if the Disciples might or should have known that those children were to be admitted to Christ upon that ground then the Kingdome-Interest of such children was a visible or knowable and apparent thing If any should expound it of the Kingdome of Glory yet that would inferre the same thing For neither may the Church exclude those from her fellowship who by Christ his testimony are visible heirs of Glory nor are any in ordinary course heirs of the Kingdome of Glory that are not of Gods visible Church and Kingdome of Grace here And what is there spoken by Christ himself as a standing truth and that under the term of the Kingdome of Heaven a term in speciall manner applied unto Gospel-Administration cannot be doubted to continue in force in the Christian Church of the new Testament Arg. 3. If no children be members of the visible Church then was not the Lord Jesus when a child a member of the visible Church but none we presume will venture to say so of Christ Arg. 4. If it were not so no children might be Baptized For Baptisme being a Church Ordinance and a seal of being incorporated into the Church 1 Cor. 12. 13. and succeeding circumcision which was proper to the Church none can be subjects immediately capable thereof but Church-Members Nor doth the Power of Officers as such extend further then to the Churches as they cannot judge so they may not Baptize them that are without or non-members Arg. 5. They that are some of the Disciples intended in Mat. 28. 19. are Church-members For as the term Disciples is ordinarily used for Church-Members Act. 6. 1 2 3 5. and 9. 26. and 14. 22 23 27 28 and 18. 27. and Vers. 22. with Chap. 21. 16. and 20. 7. So this sense thereof best suits that place in Matthew 28. 19. because the Disciples there are the immediate subjects of Baptisme and so of being called by God his name the wonted Title of Church-Members and because they are such as are subjected to Christs School to Christs Doctrine and Discipline and to the authoritative teaching of his Ministers and observation of all things that shall be taught by them ver. 20. But some children are some of the Disciples intended in Mat. 28. 19. For 1. some children were some of those whom the Apostles in accomplishing that commission did Disciple Acts 15. 20. Those whom the false Teachers