A Body of Divinity, Vol. 4 (of 4): Wherein the doctrines of the Christian religion are explained and defended, being the substance of several lectures on the Assembly's Larger CatechismRidgley, Thomas
Religion
A Body of Divinity, Vol. 4 (of 4): Wherein the doctrines of the Christian religion are explained and defended, being the substance of several lectures on the Assembly's Larger Catechism
He who gave parental affection, and is the Lord of his church under
every dispensation, conferred on children at an early age of the world
the privilege of sharing with their parents in the seals of grace, and
bearing the tokens of his covenant. Jewish christians having
themselves experienced such benignity, and been given to the same God,
whom they now served under brighter displays of his eternal and
unchangeable love, could not have expected, that, an entrance into the
milder gospel-church would have been denied to the seed whom God had
given them, and whom they had devoted to him not only in prayer, but
in that ordinance which he had appointed for the purpose. An ordinance
which being now obsolete was supplied by another, apparently as proper
for their children as themselves. Because infants are incapable of
repenting and believing, these duties were not required nor expected
of them, either under the old, or new dispensation; but though
incapable of actual sin, and therefore free from obligations of
obedience unto the law, yet their nature is not pure, and consequently
needs the sanctifying influence of divine grace, which can correct the
latent enmity, and renew the soul. They are capable, therefore, of
spiritual blessings, and may consequently be members of the invisible
church, and received into the church triumphant. The obvious
reasonableness of the privilege of being received with their parents
into the society of the worshippers of God, a privilege publicly known
to have been conferred by the great Head of the church, equally
prevented the supposition of an implied repeal, and the necessity of a
renewal of the right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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