A survey of the summe of church-discipline. Wherein the vvay of the churches of New-England is warranted out of the vvord, and all exceptions of weight, which are made against it, answered : whereby also it will appear to the judicious reader, that something more must be said, then yet hath been, before their principles can be shaken, or they should be unsetled in their practice. / By Tho. Hooker, late pastor of the church at Hartford upon Connecticott in N.E.

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Title: A survey of the summe of church-discipline. Wherein the vvay of the churches of New-England is warranted out of the vvord, and all exceptions of weight, which are made against it, answered : whereby also it will appear to the judicious reader, that something more must be said, then yet hath been, before their principles can be shaken, or they should be unsetled in their practice. / By Tho. Hooker, late pastor of the church at Hartford upon Connecticott in N.E.
Author: Hooker, Thomas, 1586-1647.
Publication: London :: Printed by A.M. for John Bellamy at the three Golden Lions in Cornhill, near the Royall Exchange,; M.DC.XLVIII. [1648]
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Cite this Item: "A survey of the summe of church-discipline. Wherein the vvay of the churches of New-England is warranted out of the vvord, and all exceptions of weight, which are made against it, answered : whereby also it will appear to the judicious reader, that something more must be said, then yet hath been, before their principles can be shaken, or they should be unsetled in their practice. / By Tho. Hooker, late pastor of the church at Hartford upon Connecticott in N.E." In the digital collection Early English Books Online 2. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A86533.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 14, 2024.

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Argument 3.

If baptisme be the seal of our entry into the Church, 1 Cor. 12.13. as circumcision was the seal of the members of the Iews visible Church: then such a Covenant is not the formal reason of our Church-membership. But the former is true, as I shall prove hereafter: Ergo, so is the later.

The proposition stands, because all baptised are members of the visible Church before they can swear this Covenant, even when they are infants.

Answ. The Proposition fails, nay fights against it self. For if it seal up our membership, and Covenant with the visible Church, then is it after-membership, and therefore not the formall cause of it, for then it should be before it.

Again, If it seal up our membership, as circumcision sealed up membership in the Jewish visible Church, then certainly it pre∣sumes the Covenant, for so that did, Gen. 17.10, 13. He that is born shall be circumcised: so that he was in Covenant, and so cal∣led a holy seed, before in his own person he could make a Cove∣nant, but was included in the Covenant of his parent.

And if M. R. be of another minde, we desire he would tell us, How children of believers are said to be holy, if not by a foederall holines? and if so, then by the visible Covenant of their Parents. For many children are SO holy that have parents not spiritually and invisibly within that Covenant. Ergo.

Lastly, The proof is also false, namely, children are mem∣bers before they are in this Covenant, because though they doe not covenant personally by themselves, yet they are in∣cluded virtually in the Covenant of their parents, Deuterono∣my 29.10, 11.