in force and vigor and by a pious recordation thereof the Penitent may confirm his Faith as Peter did and by vertue of the same once established Covenant God receiveth such to mercy and grace otherwise the infidelity and impiety of man would frustrate the goodnesse and good will of God the matter testified in baptism which it cannot because it is constant and changeth not and therefore it is a horrible prophanation of it to reiterate baptism In a word Second baptism was ever abhorred in the Orthodox Church as a kind of incestuous Birth and if you iterate it and baptise your beleevers again upon their profession of faith you must be able to make their former baptism void and no baptism which you can never do as having all things therein which God requireth unto Infant baptism Though Faith a positive and actual Faith as you call for should not be there which is not required of God and therefore is denyed of us to be a necessary condition requisite to be found manifest in every one that is to be baptised indeed in an Aethiopian Eunuch an elder Gentile it is and therefore when he said see here is water what doth hinder me to be baptised Philip answered If thou beleevest with all thine heart thou maist who answering I beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and so Philip baptised him Acts 8 36 37. The onely Argument the Anabaptists triumph in I shall here give a short answer to Infants of Gentiles are not of Abrahams seed either according to the flesh because not Iowes or according to the promise because not beleevers therefore not to be baptised whilest Infants or if they be to be baptised again when beleevere But I answer First The consequent is denyed for Simon Magus and thousands more even of them that you baptise are neither 2. Nor is it true that onely Iewes are Abrahams seed according to the flesh for that part of the Gentile Galatians who pleaded for Justification by the works of the Law and thereby lay under the bondage and curse of the Law are called the children of Hagar and said to be born of the Bond-woman Sinai and Hierusalem upon earth as it is to be seen Gal. 3. 4. The Apostle applying that part of the distinction to them like as the other part the Children of Sarah to those Gentile Galathians who were justified by faith Nor 3. Is it true that onely beleevers actually beleevers as you speak are the Children of the promise for thus they do not onely at this one blow beat down all Christian infante from all interest in Christ and title to heaven and make them like as the Heathens and Pagans who yet are not wont to strike so hard yea and which is more all Jewish Infants Isaack Iacob and Ioseph these must not be with them nor were by this reason Children of the promise in their Childhood but only according to the flesh untill they did actually believe and so became Children of the promise And more absurdity yet doth follow hence that those Patriarks whom I named Abraham is to be here excepted by their infant-circumcision had no promise of grace sealed unto them but were under a Covenant of works and until the years of discretion and actual fiath were incapable of any interest in the Covenant of grace If onely true beleevers and the Elect persons be under the covenant of grace have right to the Sacraments why is the same Covenant of grace inthe outward administration thereof both in preaching the promises and applying the Seales of the Sacraments to be propounded by Gods appointment to all the outward visible members of the Church And why was Simon Magus baptised as I said 'T is true the inward saving grace of the Covenant in both Administrations is by the Holy Ghost conferred onely upon the invisible members of Christs mysticall body which are the true beleevers and elect But we not able to discern of these give the outward baptism to all those I mean all outward members of the visible Chruch You must do so for the Text before alleged out of the Acts sheweth that all they who have any degrees of Faith may and ought to be baptised But Sir will you stand to your own Tackling The baptising of beleevers hereby you think and intend to exclude Infants of Christians What then will you make of them Infidels or Beleevers can you shew any Text of Scripture old or new where any Infant of Iew or Gentile in Covenant with God is so stiled or can you give any reason of it That which makes an Unbeliever must be a positive habit of unbeleef to justifie this in an Infant will be a task too hard for you and to say that Infants do not beleeve in act or have not the habit of faith onely negatively will not in the Language of the Scripture denominate an Unbeleever Indeed those that are made Christians of heathens they must give some positive and actual expressions of their faith before they be baptised so Philip required of the Eunuch and not till then are they to be accounted beleevers but for such as are born Christians of Christians as our infants are being entred into and under a gratuitall Covenant with God we admit them unto the Initial Seal of that Covenant which is baptism without any such Testimonial Act of Fath as you require for they are not Infidels or Unbeleevers but beleevers and within the compasse of your words though not your sense the baptism of beleevers Seeing you can produce no scripture against their Faith I will see what I can do for their Faith Matth. 18.5 6. Turn to the Chapter and Verses and read them and look to your Neck in that Verse it is a Neck verse Whose shall offend one of these little ones which beleeve on me it were better for him that a Mistone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Lord what shall become of those that offend all thy little ones by dobarring and excluding them from their birth-privilege and their Right-baptism But that I aim at as to you Sir is that you would take notice that our Saviour Christ who best knew knowing the very secrets of the heart pronounceth of some little ones little Children such as he took out one of them set down in the midst of the Apostles for a pattern of Humility and Harmlesseness That they did beleeve in him its apparent that howsoever sometimes and elsewhere spirituall Children are meant by little Children such as are of a meek spirit little in their own eyes here and at this time very natural Children in age and little in growth or statute are spoken of as the very context and Antithesis do shew They who do so interpret this place do make this not the same story with that which followeth in Matth. 19.13 Where little Children are said tob e brought to Christ it may be in their
partakers of the Covenant that other way by obedience to the Law if it could it should have been done that way Adam though made perfectly Righteous and able did not answer it and if God had tryed Adam the second time he would not have answered in obedience to it but would have broken it again and so should we Therefore it must needs be by Faith embracing the promises and so amswering them that the Covenant of Grace must be made sure unto us which otherwise could never have been done But all this maketh nothing against the exposition of the Text above of Infants being in Covenant with their faithfull Parents and included yea they are expressed in the promise for God looked upon the Faith of Abraham when he entred into Covenant with him and his Children and made the promise to be the God of him and his seed and hereupon himself was Circumcised and his seed And where God pleaseth and when he pleaseth as he doth give sanctity the Spirit and other Graces to Infants as to the Innocents Jeremy John the Bap. so the habit of Faith infused it being the Condition on mans part yet wrought in every Elect Infant by God whereby they answer the promise as to the good and benefit of the Covenant if they dye before or soon after the Sealing thereof by Baptism besides that Infants being born of Parents in Covenant and themselves also in Covenant with God and others as sureties and sponsors in the name of the Infants answering for their Faith and promising for their education in the Faith and the Churches charitable opinion or judging them to have Faith are sufficient to answer the promise as for the outward visible seal which is Baptism to be conferred upon them But you make an answer to an objection which will make also an answer to the promise If any will say say you that the Parents may believe for their Children and so their Faith will answer the promise I answer 1. That the Text doth not say the promise is made to you in the behalf of your Children but to you and to your Children and therefore you must believe for your selves and they for themselves or else neither you nor they do answer the promise Somewhat of this before Sir whilest you are about this promise I wish you would observe the precept of using no vain repetitions as here you do so that I must either wholly omit or repeat vainly with you 1. Though the Text saith not so much in so many words yet it meaneth so much The Promise is made to you in the behalf of your Children also that word added it is the same with The Promise is made to you and your Children both together and joyntly the one being in promise as well and as soon as the other and thus the Text neither saith or denyeth your objection nor your answer For the promise may be truly made and is to believing Parents and their Children whether the Parents do believe for their Children also or the Children for themselves 2. Whereas you say Parents must believe for themselves and children for themselves or neither answer the promise it is truly meant according to the inward and spiritual part thereof so as to partake of Remission of sin Justification and Salvation But yet the Faith of Parents in Covenant may be and is so far beneficial to their born Children that thereby they are declared to be also in Covenant with themselves and to have a Right and Title unto the Seal of the Promise and the external Ordinances and outward Privileges of the Church and in respect of these may be said to answer the promise For the promise is the whole Covenant and the dispensations of it in outward Ordinances as well as saving Graces and it s your constant errour and mistake never to speak distinctly of this promise but usually and onely strictly of the saving Graces thereof belonging to the Elect whereas there is an answering of this promise also by visible profession and external Church-membership and privileges which is done both by the Parents and Children whether the inward Graces thereof be known or not Concerning Infants Faith and their inward Graces whereby you will have them also and they may be answerable to the inward promise I refer you to what I have said before 3. You Sir must own the Child above and it must be laid at your doors I mean the objection there made That Parents may believe for their Children and so answer the Promise I do not believe you can find out a Father for it nor did I ever reade the words as I remember it is true as I have related before that Parents did answer for the Faith of their Children presented to Baptism when the Child was asked dost thou believe the Parent in the Name and place of his Child answered I believe but this is far off from your Parents believing for their Children for it was onely Parents professing of their Childrens Faith or the Childrens professing their Faith by or in the mouth of their Parents as I have largely shewed And as for those Divines who though contesting for Infant-Baptism because they could not be perswaded of infants-Infants-Faith made their refuge to parents-Parents-Faith yet they did it not in such words as Parents believing for their Children nor to such purpose that their Faith might answer the promise but to shew that the Parents Faith gave unto their Children a proof of being born under the Christian Covenant and a Plea for the Seal of Baptism notwithstanding the supposed privation of Faith in Children Though therefore Infants as to their inward state before God of Justification and Salvation are not relieved and helped forward either by profession of Sponsors and Parents or by the acts and habits of their Faith because as I said the just shall live by his Faith and as you say the Parents must believe for themselves and as the Errors and Heresies of the Parents do not hurt the Children no more do their Faith and Truth help them as giving nothing from themselves unto their inward and eternal condition Yet are they beneficial to their Children otherwayes 1. It s from their Faith that the Children are brought out to Christ and offered and dedicated to him in Baptism Psal 206.37 whereas the Infidels offered their Sons and Daughters unto Devils 2. And as in their dedication so by their supplication the Faith of the Parent is helpful towards the obtaining of their Childrens regeneration and many graces of the Spirit God being ready to hear and do accordingly 3. If original sin did hurt Infants which without any fault of theirs they drew according to the flesh from their Parents why may not the Faith of the Parents profit the Children so as that sin be not imputed to them for Christs sake to whom they are offered and dedicated purposely and willingly by their Parents seeing grace is more abundant than Condemnation and the
is a great deal of distance and difference twixt a Warrant out of Gods word and a Command or Precept out of the same I shall I hope bring you forth some warrants out of the word for our Baptizing Infants but for a Precept or Command for the same I am not engaged no nor required to give by this your Quaere Warrants enough and those from the word I shall serve upon you for though a Warrant from a Justice be a Precept Missive yet a Permissive will of God which is no Precept for it may be a Warrant of an Action and such are and may be any solid Reason or good Consequence or like example drawn there from which though it will not be admitted for a Precept may serve for a Warrant A. first Warrant shall be this Reason which is but a recollection or recapitulation of somewhat immediatly said before If Infants of Christians are all of them capable and some of them partakers of the Spirit and Faith and other inward Graces Then they may and ought to be Baptized This is warranted out of the word and those Texts Act. 8.36 Act. 10.47 The one warranting Baptism to a believer the other to him who hath received the Holy Ghost whether young or old Infant or grown person If Thou believest saith Philip thou mayest be Baptized when the Eunuch asked what doth hinder me so Faith it was that made him capable and removed the hindrance though upon his confession of his Faith it being not otherwise discernable he having no other right pleadable he being one o' the Gentiles He was actually Baptized So can any man forbid water that these should not be Baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as we and so he Commanded them to be Baptized That particular Hypothetical if thou believest c. thou may'st be Baptized may and must be resolved into this general Categorical whosoever Believeth may be Baptized Man or Child Young or Old and howsoever Cornelius and the rest their receiving of the Spirit was in the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit then manifesting it self that way yet any other manifestation of the Spirit any word or act of God declaring that Persons do belong to Gods Covenant as some or other way the Spirit doth manifest it self in all that do belong to Gods Covenant is to us and ought to be to you a sufficient Warrant without any danger of will-worship to account them such and therefore to Baptize them be it this pouring out of extraordinary gists as here upon Cornelius and others or the Consession of Faith as in Philip or Repentance as in those that came to John the Baptist or be it a promise to believing Parents-and their Seed to be their God or Gods owning them as Persons belonging to the Church or any other ordinary Gifts and Graces of the Spirit or the Spirits supplying their infirmities in these cases can any man forbid water that these should not be Baptized This Interrogative and quaestionipropounding Speech may and must be resolved into a Nagative-Answer absolutely No man can forbid water rightly for that 's done that is rightly done or done of Right anless he will forbid that which God hath Commanded and some of these we have abundantly for the Infants of believing Parents where no man can forbid there God Commands that they who have received the Holy Gholst should be Baptized The resule also out of this is this general Proposition whoseever whether Infant or grown Person hath received the Holy Ghost whether apparently or secretly ordinarily or miraculously whether in sight or Faith hath a right to Baptism no man can forbid it and in one of the particulars Peter here Commands it See how I have gratified you beyond a Warrant with a little less than a Command for the Baptizing of Infants if having Faith and the Spirit as many yea all the Elect of them have whom we not able to know one from the other particularly do therefore Baptize all under the Covenant with God More briefly and syllogistically thus take it as I recollect it All Persons who have received the Holy Spirit or have Faith are Commanded by God in Scripture to be Baptized as appears by the two Texts here cited But some Infants of Christians have received the Holy Spirit or have Faith as appears by many Texts formerly cited Therefore some Infants are Commanded by God in Scripture to be Baptized A Second Warrant is This Reason It Infants of Christian Parents be in the Holy Covenant of God and have the same engraven upon them and established with them Then they are to be Baptized and to receive Baptism as the initial seal thereof This Reason is warranted or this warrant may be reasoned out of the word Gen. 17.9 c. and Rom. 4.11 for it s there apparent and the light there shining dazzles all Antipaedobaptists they cannot abide to look thereon that as Abraham and his Proselytes grown men upon their profession of their Faith were Circumcised so the seed or Children of Abraham and those Proselytes were Circumcised as Children of Parents in Covenant and joyned together with them in covenant and both these are there expresly Commanded and so this also that the seed of Abraham and his Proselytes should be Circumcised by vertue and reason of Gods Covenant with them which was to be sealed unto them by Circumcision Now as the Being of Infants in Covenant under the Law made them capable of and gave them a due Right to Circumcision the Initial seal of that Covenant under the Law so the being of Infants in Covenant under the Gospel makes them capable of and gives them a due or Right to Baptism the Initial seal of the Covenant under the Gospel The Covenant being the same for substance and in relation to the eternal wel are of the Soul as in the nâ—x I shall shew which being so if Anabaptists passing by this reason from the Covenant will insist still upon the meer and sole Commandement of God I must tell them the Text saith not Thou shalt keep my Command but thou shalt keep my Covenant implying that this Command of Circumcision had reference to the Covenant and was part of it For here God is to be considered not in his absolute Prerogative commanding but as God in respective mercy Covenanting with his people and all his Commands are to be taken as branches of his Covenant and all prounded upon his Free-grace in Jesus Christ therefore Gen. 17.10 and 13. God calls expresly Circumcision by the name of his Covenant to teach you and all others that will learn that the Covenant made Infants capable of the Seal and not Gods meer Commandement as you and your notional and metaphysical Masters do abstract who love to play with your own Fancies and Imaginations whereas the Seal is nothing but the confirmation of the Covenant and appointed and commanded so to be of God But the Covenant in order of Nature going before the Seal thereof
these in persons baptised they must be limited to such as were Adults grown in years converts from Heathenism such as Cornelius and the Eunuch for therefore doth the Scripture name them to shew the same when it mentioneth their Baptism and the conjoyned duties as required in such which is nothing against Baptism 3. Or if Infants should be meant it sufficeth that these have them Mortification c. not in the Act exercising and manifesting themselves in any deed or word professing the same but onely in Habit included and lying in the principle of Grace the Holy Spirit and why because infants are sinners not by any proper Act of their own but onely by an Hereditary Habit. Now who amongst you can or will say that infants have not thus the Spirit of God which bloweth where it listeth and hath listed to blow in some of them we know of and thousands more where it listeth that we know not of effecting and producing in them this habitual principle of Grace Of this see more before 4. Nor is it necessary that Baptism in that very moment it is received should effect all things it figureth out and doth signifie no more was it that Circumcision should do the like but it may fall to working them afterwards wherein present there is an impediment and hindrance that letteth actual fact mortification Repentance c. as in infants the want of reason doth Those Actuals are not for the present required in infants to be baptised who yet are required to be in present actualy baptised for they are required to be partakers of the death and burial of Christ that is the merit and power thereof to the killing and burying of sin and natural corruption of which Baptism is the sign and means More briefly and syllogistically thus take it as I recollect it If Baptism do succeed and is substituted of Christ now instead of Circumcision in the Church of the Gentiles then as infants were commanded to be circumcised then in the Church of the Jewes so are Infants commanded to be baptized in the Church of the Gentiles But the Antecedent is true being the very matter and substance of the Text above Therefore also the Consequent is such and so I have reasoned Infant-Baptism into another Command before I intended this as reserved for the latter argument But I serve too large warrants upon you Sir to whom I now return I have another or two brief ones yet to serve A sixt warrant therefore is this Reason If infants of Christian Parents be capable of all the good ends effects and benefis that Baptism bringeth with it and worketh or offereth them then surely they are both capable of Baptism and their Baptism is warrantable and justificable This warrant may be reasoned out of the Word or this reason warranted out of the Word 1 Gor. 4.15 1 Cor. 9.1 The Apostle warrants and reasons his Apostleship and the Gospel he preached to be true and right from the good ends effects and benefits that came thereby to the Gorinthians and they received That he had begotten them through his Gospel they were his work in the Lord and the Seal of his Apostleship were they in the Lord. So may I hence warrant and justifie our ministery and even the Baptism which we minister to the infants of Christian Parents to be good had true from the many good ends effects and benefits thereof of which Infants are capable and receptive and which are wrought and sealed in them thereby Our Ministery of the Seal of Baptism with such effects and successe may be also the Seal of our Ministery Now the ends effects and benefits of Baptism are these for which it was appointed 1. To be a means of entrance and admission into the visible Church and a kind of engrafting the party baptised into the body of Christ and an enrolling of him amongst the houshold of God as Members and Servants of Christ Acts 2.37 2. To be instead of Circumcision an annexed Seal and assurance yea conveiance of the good and grace of Christs word and promise covenanted the sum whereof is this of being the Parents God and God of their seed Rom. 4.11 3. To be a representation and Collation of the washing and clensing of the Blood and Spirit of Christ and of the Regeneration and New Birth Titus 3.5 1 Peter 3.21 4. To be a Tye or Obligation of the baptised to stricter Obedience of God and his Truth to make the parties more diligent to serve God and careful to abandon sin Rom. 6.1 to the 9. 1 Cor. 1.13 5. To be a means of Union with Christ and of Unity amongst themselves knitting them faster and bringing them nearer unto Christ 1 Cor. 12.13 Eph. 4.5 6. To be a badge of Christianity and for distinction of Christians from Unbelieving Jewes and Gentiles as the stamp and Character whereby they are known to belong to Christ being a kind of partition-wall betwixt Christians and Jewes and Heathens Ephes 2.14 Now Sir tell me which of all these our infants are incapable of that you should thereupon deny them Baptism in the mean time I tell you they are capable to them all and therefore are not to be denyed The promises of the Covenant the washing away of sin by Christs Blood and Spirit the admittance into the body of Christ c. may be sealed unto them as wherein they are but Passive and if you say so are they capable of the Graces signed in the Lords Supper and therefore may communicate I say how know you that you have no rule for that no glimpse of light from the Word for that whereas I have given you evidence enough of light for the other if you will see there is a Scriptural light that infants are capable of the Graces signed and sealed in Baptism we may be sure of it and therefore may admit them to Baptism there is but your supposal light which is below Traditional you so much write against that they are capable of the Grace signed and sealed in the Lords Supper are you sure of it and will you thereupon admit them thereto The Lords Supper is no initial Seal and for Reception into Covenant which I onely plead for for infants yet this Seal which is Baptism it servesto confirm all the benefits of the Covenant as the baptised grow capable of them and are made partakers of them and so is a good preparative unto the Christians Passeover or the Lords Supper afterwards in due time and order The Lords Supper is a Seal of Augmentation appointed for the nourishment and growth of those Graces which the Covenant promiseth and requireth particularly and expresly of all partakers of it That they must discern the Lords Body and try and examin themselves and therefore Infants are not capable of the Graces of the Lords Supper like as they are of them of Baptism for that they must be Active in that whereas they may be but Passive in this Those that are capable
a vain thing to demand it as who baptized none as I have told you formerly out of the Evangelist And for the Apostles they baptized but a few as whose business and work was especially and lay for planting Churches and raising of foundations out of grown persons converted by them out of Judaism and Gentilism as is expresly set down 1 Cor. 1.13 17. And therefore if Christ sent them not to baptize but to preach the Gospel not to baptize either especially in reference to preaching and converting or generally all whom they preached unto or converted it was not part of their commission to do so nor any violation of Christs command for them not to do so for then S. Paul would and should rather have asked God pardon than given him thanks as here he doth for that he baptised none of the Corinthians whom notwithstanding in Christ Jesus he begate through the Gospel 1 Cor. 4.15 save some few here also named and mentioned by him This I acquaint you with at first to let you understand the reason of so frequent mention of the Baptism of believing Converts and of so much silence in Scripture of Infant-Baptism and to shew you further the irrationality of your demand who as your friends and father Jesuites were wont to call upon us for Names Names of Protestants before Luther's daies now clamour me for Examples Examples of baptized Infants in the Apostles time Yea to present to you the invalidity of your reason so frequently urged the Apostles did not practise constantly the baptizing Infants and therefore it is not to be so done For besides that for you to reason negatively from the Scripture in a matter of fact as here from the not-practice of the Apostles to the unlawfulness of our practice and fact sheweth you are indeed averse not onely to humane but even Divine Arts and Sciences there being no Divinity little humanity in such arguments fitter for children than men for the scales of a Higler than the Schools of a Disputer I have shewed you good reason why the Apostles yea the Apostles own reason which I suppose you will not deny to be good did not baptize all either grown persons whom they converted or their Infants by name and sometimes did not baptize at all when they had converted people And may not I now turn the same Argument upon and against your self and put the same yoke upon your neck There is no practice of any Apostle to be seen or read of in the whole Gospel or Acts of the Apostles of their baptizing any Christians child when he was grown up to years and therefore your practice in doing so is unlawfull and unwarrantable you I believe would think this but mad arguing but you know the man and his communication 1 Kings 9.11 From the Acts of the Apostles there may be but from the non-Acts of the Apostles there may not be made or drawn a good reason to enforce or unforce a practice There is recorded no practice of any Apostle admitting women to the Lords Supper or example of any woman receiving the Lords Supper more then of Infants receiving Baptism and the Apostles admitting them thereto will you therefore hence conclude the practise of Womens receiving the Lords supper is to be omitted yes will say there is for doth not Christ say Drink ye all of this And I say Christ also said Teach baptise all Nations therfore Infants will as well follow here As therefore women will follow there you will say again was not the Lords supper administred to the whole Church of Corinth and therfore to the Women therein and so say I was not Baptism administred to the whole Church of Corinths and to whole families there and therefore to the children therein You will say again that in Christ Jesus there is neither Male nor Female Gal. 3.28 And may not I say that in Christ Jesus there is neither Old nor Young Father or Child Thence indeed you may prove and deduct that Women are not to be kept back from the Lords supper but there is nothing expresly set down or mentioned of their receiving the Lords supper or the Apostles giving them it And so may I prove hence and have proved many wayes that Christian-Infants are not to be kept back from the Lords Baptism Though there should be nothing mentioned explicitly of the Apostles practise of baptising children or childrens examples of receiving baptism in the Gospel For your fuller Understanding in this poynt look back to what I have discoursed formerly about our imtation of the examples of th Apostles and their practises To which I add that their practise and example is and ought to be in all Morall and material acts of Religion an affirmative and Positive Rule to the Churches of God as thus and herein they baptised such and such and therefore we may do the like But it is no negative or exclusive rule They baptised not such and such That therefore we may not baptise such for the reason is plain that they possibly might not meet with all persons and occasions and their practise is not a full rule though a good rule but the reason I gave before is a playner one for that they were altogther in a manner or chiefly taken up with the preaching to the Nations converting people and planting Churchs that they could not nor did attend so much upon Baptising and therefore their Practise and example in not baptising such or such is no rule for the Churches to walk by now But yet Sir notwithstanding all this there are fair footsteeps and prints of the Apostles feet to be seen walking in this though not so much beaten way of baptising beleevers and their infante which the scriptures have traced and tracked out for us to take after them As in the Acts of the Apostles chap. 16 15. Lydia she and her houshold was baptised and verse 33. The Gaoler He and all his houshold was baptised Acts 18. chapter verse 8. Crispus with all his house and many of the Corinthians with their housholds for so it is meant were baptised So in the Acts of Paul the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.4 5.6 Where is repeated again the baptising of Crispus and Gaius and the houshold of Stephanas And I know nothing to the contrary or contrary to the Analogy and proportion of faith but rather it may be agreeable to the Harmony of the scripture and these scriptures If I should say that those persons who are mentioned but single are meant to be baptised them and their housholds as Gaius here by Paul So Cornelius by Peter yea the Eunuch baptised alone by Philip might procure his children if he had any to be baptised by some or other Evangelical minister coming into those coasts and so where the houshold of Aristobulus and the houshold of Narcissus are mentioned as Romans 16.10 And the houshold of Onesiphorus 2 Tim. 4.19 Baptised housholds are there meant Now when it is said such and
you say nothing seeing there is a Christian World or a World of Christians even all that professe the Gospel and embrace Jesus Christ for if you mean by Church the elect true beleevers and by the World the Reprobate and false Beleevers within the same neither our Infant-baptism nor your baptism of beleevers as you call it confessing Faith when grown in years can make such a distinction for as amongst our Infants so amongst the grown Beleevers baptised there may be and are undoubtedly many Reprobates Hypocrites and Falsehearted Professors such of both sorts come to Baptism without any distinguishing by us and go from baptism without any distinction of such by it And therefore 4. Is a pittiful reason you add and I pitty you for it that Infant-baptism doth not distinguish the true Church from the World because all are admitted in by it True all of the Church are admitted in by it What need a distinction in the Seal where there is a conjunction in the Covenant and this very admitting all of the Church professing Christ or born of those that professe Christ upon both which termes the Covenant runneth doth evidently prove that we hold strictly and uphold strongly the distnction of the Church from the World of Pagans and Heathens whom we exclude-and keep off from baptism untill they learn and beleeve the Gospel and make profession And now 5. Consider that your Non-baptism of your Infants until they be grown to great years able to profess faith c doth overthrow the end of bapttism and a chief one the distinguishing of the true Church from the World for that none of them are admitted into the true visible Church by it for tell me what 's the distinction and difference betwixo the World-Infants I mean the Infants of Pagans and Heathens and the Church-Infants the Infants of Christians and Professors but this onely of baptism admitting these into the visible participacion of the Covenant and Communion with the Church of God for want of which the others are kept out as aliens and strangers until they by faith and confession come to claim the same Seal of admittance I say again consider this and lay it closely and seriously to your heart that during the years you detain uyour Infants and Children from baptism which is their birth-privilege and their Covenant-Seal and their distinction-mark you leave them in a Heathenish and Gentile state as Aliens and strangers from the XCommom wealth of ChrisTians and Covenants of Promise Them I say you leave without Hope as being without the Seal of the Promise and your selves in doubt about them The revealed things belong to you and your Children The Promise and the Promise to be sealed belongs to you and your Children to your Children upon their birth as their Privilege and due Let them have it and leave the secret things to God to whom they belong their Salvation by Election for he that elected them to such an end hath elected them to the means And thus you have been thrice overthrowing of Infant Baptism yet have you not given is any fall For though in words you seem to make is the great overthrower as if it overthrew the Covenant and Gospel the visible Church the ends of true baptism yet Infant-baptism and all these stand ver well together each upholding the other and though you would indeed seem as the great Goliah and overth over to little David and so have given these three retches and girds at Infan shaptism it s rather to your own overthrow and of vour own baptism and yet I perceive you have another stroke to come in the 21 of Ezekiel 27. God said of Jerusalem purposeing to destroy it I will overturn overturn overturn and it shall be no more but in your design for the ruine of Infant-baptism you exceed the wrath and indignation and have gon beyond that threefold Ingemination saying I will overthrow overthrow overthrow overthrow the doctrine of Infant-baptism But as curst Cowes have short horns so strong words have most an end weak hands you have done but little yet by your three highly and strongly conceited considerations and I beleeve the fourth will be like the sormer Which because there are so many In and outs and round abouts in it I will reduce it to a short form The baptising of Beleevers or Deciples is onely expresly commanded in Scripture as in Matthew 28.19 Mark 16 15. John 4.12 Acts 2.38 and 41. Acts 8.37 and 38. But Infants baptism overthroweth and prevents that babtism which is onely expressly commanded in Scripture Therefore what you infer nothing lest it should be a Syllogism a Limm of the profane University human Learning but I know your meaning onely mend in your copy at home Deciples and Babtism as you write here and make it Disciples and Baptism lest your friends think you call the baptism of beleevers onely a babism and derive your Disciples from Deciples decipients or deceivers You must pardon me for not turning to your Texts some of them I have already handled shewed they were nothing to your purpose and others I shall meet within in a fitter place I know them without book that none of them all do expresly command the baptising beleevers onely Which they must do if you cite them for your purpose For who ever denyed the baptising of beleevers as I have formerly written Again as these Texts do command some of them expresly the baptising of beleevers as Acts 2.38 So some other doth but condition for and propound Faith unto baptism of grown persons as Acts 8.37 And another mentions faith and baptism as a joynt requisit to Salvation as Mark 16.16 And another hath nothing at all in it either of faith or baptism or command as John 4 12. And for the last place in your paper the first look back where it s largely handled and you shall see you might have seen it in the Text it self there is no expresse command for baptism of beleevers but of Disciples and therefore you did well to add to beleevers or Deciples and are not Children of beleeving Parents Disciples too if not beleevers you shall find if upon your first reading you did not Them also to be commanded there under the Notion of Disciples or a discipled Nation of which they are a portion to be baptised and much more to that purpose And lastly your Texts that do speak of Baptism of Believers mean it of Believers being grown persons and Heathens converted newly not of Believers born and living within the Precincts of the Church But how I pray doth the Baptism of Infants within the Church overthrow the Baptism of believing Heathens and Pagans grown persons they stood up together both in Apostles General and National Commission by which the children of believing and baptized Heathens were to be also baptized and in Apostles domestical and special Dispensation when they baptized whole Housholds of believing Parents and their children It is true
have not indeed during your minority any sensible use and benefit thereof because of your incapability but yet the Right and Title is not vain but true and real and stands firmely secured unto you to be claimed and enjoyed to your use good and benefit what time soever you come to be capable of it so that you shall not need to look after a new Will or sealed Conveyance thereof the first being in force and effectual Even so God by Will and Covenant hath made over as it were Christ with all his Merits Righteousness and all Graces accompanying Salvation to you as still supposed an Elect child born of believing Parents in those words I will be thy God and the God of thy seed and sealed the same in Baptism unto you and you have made little or nothing of it for a long while as to your comfort and benefit thereby by reason of your uncapableness of them by your ignorance and want of knowledge faith c. yet your Right and Title to Christ and all his Merits was and is good and real and stood and stands firmely secured unto you and sealed in your Baptism and whensoever you come to understand what grant God hath sealed to you in Baptism and do actually lay hold upon by Faith and resolve to come out of your sins as it seems lately and you say The Grace of God appeared bringing you to the knowledge of the Truth and plucking you from your evil wayes then you may lay claim to them all and shall have the comfortable benefit and finde and feel the effectual fruit of your Baptism so that you needed not have looked out after another new Will or Covenant or another new Seal of the same Covenant the old being still in force and in effect to the slighting of God in his own Ordinance and to the introducing of a new Business and so in a maner setting your posts to Gods post Ezek. 43.8 and setting altar against altar yea Baal before God Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that thou sendest to enquire of Baalzebub the God of Ekron 2 Kings 1.6 so was it not because there was no Baptism in our Church or your baptizing of our Church was not as you thought in force and efficacy that you ran out to the Anabaptist to be dipt and laver'd in a Pond or to be ponded and plunged at Laver This indeed was occasioned through great ignorance and profaneness in part that you had so mean and base opinion of the outward Sign and Seal of your Infant-baptism and the vertue and efficacy thereof as if it were a meer mysterial Ceremony and sacramental Complement for the present time to give the Childe a Name and there an end and no farther matter or benefit for the future Know then and I pray mark it seriously that you may know it and I may not beat onely the air and your ear but also the heart and the fire in you if you be of Gods Elect that your Infant-baptism was of vertue and effectual to the taking away of the guilt of sin and to the furtherance of your salvation not onely in that hour it was taken and received by you from me in your Infancy but it is and may be and will be if you be not the hinderance thereunto and to your self of force and powerful to the same good ends for the time future and to come yea throughout your whole life time as also in all other such as are elect children of God truly and inwardly baptized or regenerate The which truth as being of grat moment in and against this new business of yours I will prove both by Scripture and Reason and both briefly for I confess I am too tedious and long but it is that I might do you the more good and Baptism the more right St. Mark 16.16 saith He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved is baptized in present for the act and some present benefit but it extendeth its vertue farther to time future for he shall be saved Col. 2.12 They are buried with Christ in baptism and are risen with him They are so now a long time after finding the vertue and effects thereof who were long before baptized as to the act and some initial fruits thereof 1 Pet. 3.21 Even Baptism doth now also save us now in our latter dayes it saveth us though in former times received by us So in reason it must be so for Baptism is and was to you the Sacrament of your insition and ingrafting into Christ sealing up your setting into Christ the which you needed but once and never after to be done again for the force thereof goeth on and continueth for all times as a grafted Crab-stock holdeth on and continueth bearing also fruit if it be not broken off Once engrafting though often nourishing once regenerating and alwayes increasing is the Grace of Christ and the life of a Christian and if it were not so that the force of our once being baptized did continue and reach to the washing off all the sins of our whole time why then you would have upon every sin which is a separation of you from God a new ingrafting and so a new seal of it Baptism or somewhat else Secondly because as long as the Covenant it self is of force and effectual so long is Baptism of force and effectual that being the foundation and substance of this as every promise or covenant is of the seal in which God promiseth and covenanteth to and with the party baptized inwardly to be their God and the God of their seed But this covenant of the Grace of God to you and all his Elect children is eternal and so effectual at all times so Esay 54.10 The mountains shall remove and the hills shall fall down but my mercy shall not depart away from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace fall away saith the Lord who hath compassion on thee And so Jeremy 32.40 I will make saith the Lord an everlastingcovenant with them that I will never turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me So hence may fairly be inferred and concluded That he Covenant of Gods grace with you being eternal the Seal of this Covenant which is Baptism is also eternal for the efficacy thereof not limited to any time much less the time it is in taking and therefore being imprinted upon you in your Infancy according to Gods Covenant with you in your Infancy the God of thy seed it is of force and vertue to you throughout all your life time yea to all eternity Now then Sir did you not very evil to obscure the Grace of God appearing to you and to plunge your self into such an evil way and shew such ignorance of the word as to renounce and lay aside an effectual and powerful Christian Baptism ready and present at all times in the fruits