the faithful and their seed unto a thousand generations if the successive parents do but in the least degree shew themselves to be lovers of God and keepers of his Covenant and Commandments so as that the Lord will never reject them till they reject him Exod 20.6 Deut. 7.9 Psal 105.8 9. Rom. 11 16-22 Hence we dare not with the Antipaedobaptist exclude the Infant-children of the faithful from the Covenant or from Membership in the visible Church and consequently not from Baptism the Seal thereof Neither dare we exclude the same children from Membership or put them out of the Church when they are grown up while they so walk and act as to keep their standing in the Covenant and doe not reject the same God owns them still and they doe in some measure own him God rejects them not and therefore neither may we and consequently their children also are not to be rejected Should we reject or exclude any of these we should shorten and straiten the grace of God's Covenant more then God himself doth and be injurious to the Souls of men by putting them from under those Dispensations of Grace which are stated upon the visible Church whereby the children of God's visible people are successively in their Generations to be trained up for the Kingdome of Heaven whither the Elect number shall still be brought in the way of such means and wherein he hath given unto Officers and Churches a solemn charge to take care of and train up such as a part of his flock to that end saying to them as sometimes to Peter If you love me feed my lambs In obedience to which charge we hope it is the we are willing and desirous though with the inference of no small labour and burthen to our selves to commend these Truths to the Churches of Christ that all the Flock even the Lambs thereof being duly stated under Pastoral Power we might after a faithfull discharge of our Duty to them be able to give up our account another day with joy and not with grief How hard it is to finde and keep the right middle way of Truth in these things is known to all that are ought acquainted with the Controversies there-about As we have learned and believed we have spoken but not without remembrance that we are poor feeble frail men and therefore desire to be conversant herein with much humility and fear before God and men We are not ignorant of variety of judgements concerning this Subject which notwithstanding with all due reverence to Dissenters after Religious search of the Scriptures we have here offered what seems to us to have the fullest Evidence of Light from thence if more may be added and may be found contained in the Word of God this shall be no prejudice thereunto Hence also we are farre from desiring that there should be any rigorous imposition of these things especially as to what is more narrow therein and more controversal among godly men If the Honoured Court see meet so farre to adde their countetenance and concurrence as to commend a serious consideration hereof to the Churches and to secure those that can with clearness of judgement practise accordingly from disturbance that in this case may be sufficient To tolerate or to desire a Toleration of damnable Heresies or of Subverters of the Fundamenta's of Faith or Order were an irreligious inconsistency with the love of true Religion But to bear one with another in lesser differences about matters of a more difficult and controversal nature and more remote from the Foundation and wherein the godly-wise are not like-minded is a Duty necessary to the peace and welfare of Religion while we are in the state of infirmity In such things let not him that practiseth despise him that forbeareth and let not him that forbeareth judge him that practiseth for God hath received him But as we do not thus speak from doubting of the Truth here delivered Paul knows where the Truth lyes and is perswaded of it Rom. 14.14 yet he can lovingly bear a Dissenter and in like manner should we So we do in the bowels of Christ Jesus command the consideration of these things unto our Brethren in the several Churches What is here offered is farre from being any declining from former Principles it is rather a pursuance thereof for it is all included in or deducible from what we unanimously professed and owned in the fore-mentioned Platform of Discipline many years since There it is asserted that Children are Church-members That they have many priviledges which others not Church-members have not and that they are under Discipline in the Church chap. 12. sect 7. and that will infer the right of their children they continuing to walk orderly And the other matter of Consociation or exercise of Communion of Churches is largely held forth Chap. 15. 16. It may be an Objection lying in the mindes of some and which many may desire a fuller Answer unto That these things or some of them are Innovations in our Church-wayes and things which the Lord 's Worthies in New-England who are now with God did never teach not hold and therefore why should we now after so many years fall upon new Opinions and Practises Is not this a declining from our first Purity and a blameable Alteration To this Although it were a sufficient Answer to say That in matters of Religion not so much what hath been held or practised as what should be and what the Word of God prescribes ought to be our Enquiry and our Rule The people in Nehemiah's time are commended for doing as they found written in the Law though from the dayes of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day the children of Israel had not done so Nehem. 8.14 17. See the like 2 Chron. 30.5 26. 2 Kings 23.21 22. they did not tye themselves to former use and custome but to the Rule of Gods written Word and so should we It was Thyatira's praise that their good works were more at the last then at the first Rev. 2.19 The Lord 's humble and faithfull Servants are not went to be forward to think themselves perfect in their attainments but desirous rather to make a progress in the knowledge and practise of God's holy Will If therefore the things here poopounded concerning the children of Church-members and the Consociation of Churches be a part of the Will of God contained in the Scriptures as we hope the Discourse ensuing will shew them to be that doth sufficiently bespeak their entertainment although they had not formerly been held or heard of amongst us Yet this must not be granted the contrary being the Truth viz. that the Points herein which may be most scrupled by some are known to have been the judgement of the generality of the Elders of these Churches for many years and of those that have been of most eminent esteem among us As besides what was before mentioned from the Platform of Discipline may appear by the
cause for it many of the Elders in these Churches both such as are now living and sundry who are now deceased did declare their judgements as aforesaid and this many years ago Secondly Touching Consociation of Churches take these few Testimonies in stead of many more that might be alledged Mr. Cotton Keyes p. 54 55. It is a safe and wholsome and holy Ordinance of Christ for particular Churches to joyn together in holy Covenant or Communion Consociation among themselves to administer all their Church-affairs which are of weighty and difficult and common concernment not without common consultation and consent of other Churches about them And how it is so he there sheweth in all the particulars See also p. 24 25 47 59. Mr. Hooker Survey see part 4. p. 1 2. p. 45. And in the Preface he professeth his consent with Mr. R. That Consociation of Churches is not only lawful but in some cases necessary That when causes are difficult and particular Churches want light and help they should crave the assistance of such a Consociation That Churches so meeting have right to Counsel Rebuke c. as the case doth require And in case any particular Church shall walk pertinaciously either in the profession of Errour or sinful Practise and will not hear their counsel they may and should renounce the right hand of fellowship with them And after he sets down this of Consociation of Churches amongst other things wherein he had leave to profess the joynt Judgement of all the Elders upon the River of New-haven Guilford Milford Stratford Fairfield and most of the Elders in the Bay By which it is clear that this point of Consociation of Churches is no new invention of these times but was taught and professed in New-England many years agoe for so it was we see in Mr. Hooker's time and it is now above fifteen years since he departed this life To these of our own Ministers we shall only adde a passage in the Apologetical Narration of Dr. Goodwyn Mr. Nye Mr. Sidrach Simpson Mr. Burroughes and Mr. Bridge wherein besides much more to this purpose touching the Remedy provided in the Congregational-way for mal-Administrations or other miscarriages in Churches p. 16-21 They set it down in p. 27. as their past and present Profession That it is the most to be abhorred Maxime that any Religion hath ever made profession of and therefore of all other the most contradictory and dishonourable unto that of Christianity that a single and particular Society of men professing the Name of Christ and pretending to be endowed with a Power from Christ to judge them that are of the same Body and Society within themselves should further arrogate unto themselves an exemption from giving account or being censurable by any other either Christian Magistrate above them or Neighbour-Churches about them See also Mr. Burroughes Heart-Divis pag 43 47. Brethren bear with us Were it for our own Sakes or Names or Interests we should not be sollicitous to beg Charity of you With us it is a small thing to be judged of man's day But it is for your sakes for your children's sake and for the Lord's sake that we intreat for a charitable candid and considerate Acceptation of our labour herein It is that the Congregations of the Lord might be established before Him in Truth and Peace and that they might have one heart and one way in the fear of God for the good of them and of their children after them Do we herein seek our selves our own advantage ease or glory Surely we feel the contrary What is it we desire but that we might do our utmost to carry your poor Children to Heaven and that we might see these Churches bound up together in the Bonds of Truth and Peace Forgive us this wrong But should the Church-education of your children be by the want of your hearty concurrence rendred either unfeizible or ineffectual should they live as Lambs in a large place for want of your agreement to own them of the Flock we beseech you to consider how uncomfortable the account hereof would be another day We pray with the Apostle that you do no evil not that we should appear approved but that you should do that which is good and right though we be rejected For we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth and this also we wish even your perfection 2 Cor. 13.7 8 9. However we hope after-ages will bear witness that we have been in some measure faithful to the Truth in these things and to this part of Christs Kingdome also in our generation But we may not let pass this opportunity without a word of Caution and Exhortation to the Youth of the Country the children of our Churches whose Interest we have here assorted Be not you puffed up with Priviledges but humbled rather in the awful sense of the Engagement Duty and Danger that doth attend them It is an high favour to have a place in Bethel in the house of God and in the gate of Heaven but it is a Dreadful place God will be sanctified in all that come nigh him A place nigh unto God or among his people who are near to him Ps 148.14 is a place of great fear Psa 89.7 Take heed therefore unto your selves when owned as the people of the Lord your God Deut. 27.9 10. lest there should be among you any root that beareth gall and wormwood Take heed that you do not with a spirit of pride and haughtiness or of vanity and slightness either challenge or use any of your Priviledges Think not to bear the Name of Christians without bearing the Yoke of Christ Remember that all Relations to God and to his people do come loaden with Duty and all Gospel-duty must be done in humility The wayes of the Lord are right and the humble and serious shall walk in them but proud Transgressors shall fall therein Be not sons of Belial that can bear no yoke Learn subjection to Christs holy Government in all the parts and wayes thereof Be subject to your godly Parents Be subject to your spirtiual Fathers and Pastors and to all their instructions Admonitions and Exhortations Be subject unto faithful Brethren and to words of counsel and help from them Ye younger submit your selves unto the elder and to that end be clothed with humility Lye under the Word and Will of Christ as dispensed and conveyed to you by all his appointed Instruments in their respective places Break not in upon the Lord's Table or upon the Priviledges of full Communion without due qualification and orderly admission thereunto lest you eat and drink your own damnation Be ordered and take not upon you to order the affairs of Gods Family that is not the place of those who are yet but in the state of Initiation and Education in the Châ—rch of God Carry it in all things with a spirit of humility modesty sobriety and fear that our soules may not
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-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-members But neither of the latter therefore the former That they are not 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
partake of that which is the main ground of baptizing any is clear Because interest in the Covenant is the main ground of title to Baptism and this these children have 1. Interest in the covenant is the main ground of title to Baptism for so in the Old Testament this was the ground of title to Circumcision Gen 17.7 9 10 11. to which Baptism now answers Col. 2.11 12. and in Acts 2.38 39 they are on this ground exhorted to be baptized because the promise or covenant was to them and to their children That a member or one in covenant as such is the subject of Baptism was further cleared before in Propos 1.2 That these children have interest in the covenant appears Because if the parent be in covenant the childe is also for the covenant is to parents and their seed in their generations Gen 17.7 9. The promise is to you and to your children Acts 2.39 If the parent stand in the Church so doth the childe among the Gentiles now as well as among the jews of old Rom 11.16 20 21 22. It is unheard of in Scripture that the progress of the covenant stops at the infant childe But the parents in question are in covenant as appears 1. Because they were once in covenant and never since discovenanted If they had not once been in covenant they had not warrantably been baptized and they are so still except in some way of God they have been discovenanted cast out or cut off from their covenant-relation which these have not been neither are persons once in covenant broken off from it according to Scripture save for notórious sin and incorrigibleness therein Rom 11.20 which is not the case of these parents 2 Because the tenor of the covenant is to the faithfull and their seed after them in their generations Gen 17.7 even to a thousand generations i. e. conditionally provided that the parents successively do continue to be keepers of the covenant Exod 20.6 Deut 7 9 11 Psalm 105 8. which the parents in question are because they are not in Scripture account in this case forsakers or rejecters of the God and Covenant of their fathers see Deut 29.25 26. 2 Kings 17 15-20 2 Chron 7 22 Deut 7 10. 2. That these parents in question do not put in any barre to hinder their children from Baptism is plain from the words of the Proposition wherein they are described to be such as understand the doctrine of Faith and publikely profess their assent thereto therefore they put not in any barre of gross Ignorance Atheism Heresie or Infidelity Also they are not scandalous in life but solemnly own the covenant before the Church therefore they put not in any barre of Profaneness or Wickedness or Apostacy from the covenant whereinto they entred in minority That the infant-children in question do themselves put in any barre none will imagine The children of the parents in question are either children of the covenant Argum 2 or strangers from the covenant Eph 2 12. either holy or unclean 1 Cor 7 14. either within the Church or without 1 Cor 5 12 either such as have God for their God or without God in the world Eph 2 12. But he that considers the Proposition will not affirm the latter concerning these children and the forme being granted infers their right to Baptism To deny the Proposition Argum 3 would be 1. To straiten the grace of Christ in the Gospel-dispensation and to make the Church in New Testament-times in a worse case relating to their children successively then were the Jews of old 2. To render the children of the Jews when they shall be called in a worse condition then under the legal administration contrary to Jer 30 20. Ezekiel 37 25 26. 3. To deny the application of the initiatory Seal to such as regularly stand in the Church and Covenant to whom the Mosaical dispensation nay the first institution in the covenant of Abraham appointed it to be applied Gen 17 9 10. John 7.22 23. 4. To break Gods covenant by denying the initiatory Seal to those that are in covenant Gen 17 9 10 14. Confederate visible Believers though but in the lowest degree such Argum 4 are to have their children baptized witness the practice of John Baptist and the Aposiles who baptized persons upon the first beginning of their Christianity But the parents in question are confederate visible Believers at least in some degree For 1. Charity may observe in them sundry positive Arguments for it witness the terms of the Proposition and nothing evident against it 2. Children of the godly qualified but as the persons in the Proposition are said to be faithfull Tit 1.6 3. Children of the Covenant as the Parents in question are have frequently the beginning of grace wrought in them in younger years as Scripture and experience shews Instance Joseph Samuel David Solomon Abijah Josiah Daniel John Baptist and Timothy Hence this sort of persons shewing nothing to the contrary are in charity or to Ecclesiastical reputation visible Believers 4. They that are regularly in the Church as the Parents in question be are visible Saints in the account of Scripture which is the account of truth for the Church is in Scripture-account a company of Saints 1 Cor 14 33. 1.2 5. Being in covenant and baptized they have Faith and Repentance indefinitely given to them in the Promise and sealed up in Baptism Deut. 30 6. which continues valid and so a valid testimony for them while they do not reject it Yet it doth not necessarily follow that these persons are immediately fit for the Lords Supper because though they are in a latitude of expression to be accounted visible Believers or in numero fidelium as even infants in covenant are yet they may want that ability to examine themselves and that special exercise of Faith which is requisite to that Ordinance as was said upon Propos 4 th The denial of Baptism to the children in question Argum 5 hath a dangerous tendency to Irreligion and Apostacy because it denies them and so the children of the Church successively to have any part in the Lord which is the way to make them cease from fearing the Lord Josh 22.24 25 27. For if they have a part in the Lord i. e. a portion in Israel and so in the Lord the God of Israel then they are in the Church or members of it and so to be baptized according to Propos 1. The owning of the children of those that successively continue in covenant to be a part of the Church is so far from being destructive to the purity and prosperity of the Church and of Religion therein as some conceive that this imputation belongs to the contrary Tenet To seek to be more pure then the Rule will ever end in impurity in the issue God hath so framed his covenant and consequently the constitution of his Church thereby as to design a continuation and propagation of his Kingdome
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