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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B23662	The controversie about infants church-membership and baptism, epitomized in two treatises the first, shewing the certainty of the salvation of all dying infants, against the doctrine of the Pædo-baptists, who deny salvation to all infants that die unbaptized, either directly, or by the natural consequence of their arguments : the second, being a plain confutation of Mr. J.B. his second book of more than 60 queries, about infants church-membership and baptism, by a proportionable number of antiqueries : being an essay towards a more Christian accomodation between the Pædo-baptists, and the baptized believers, published for that happy end / by Thomas Grantham.	Grantham, Thomas, 1634-1692.; Grantham, Thomas, 1634-1692. Querist examined.	1680 (1680)	Wing G1529	50,899	65

the Decree made by the African Council † The words of the Council are these All that affirm young Children receive Eternal Life albeit they be not by Baptism renewed they are accursed c. where Augustine was present and President Wherefore remove but this Error and the other will presently vanish SECT X. The Sum of this Controversy I will finish this Discourse by setting down certain Propositions which contain the whole Controversy and which I hope will carry so much Light and Evidence in them as may tend much to the satisfaction of the Reader The thing to be cleared is this viz. That no dying Infants are Damned or all dying Infants are Saved Which will thus be made good 1. Because they cannot damn themselves And it is most certain God will not Damn any to Hell Torments who do not first Damn themselves in sinful Courses This is evident by his unwillingness to destroy those that had so destroyed themselves Hos 13. 9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help If then our God be thus unwilling to destroy those that have destroyed themselves as that he will help and save them how should it enter into the Heart of a Christian to imagine that the same God will Damn poor Infants who never destroyed themselves neither can they do it 2. No Man can damn Infants This is evident because if any Man have power to damn Infants every Man hath the same for it cannot be proved the peculiar power whether good or bad of any Man And if any will say that every Man hath power to damn his Children he speaks presumptuously there is nothing in the Word of God to countenance such a Doctrine for the contrary is plain Jer. 31. 30. Every one shall die for his own iniquity This is meant or is most true of Eternal Death because we all die the first Death for the Sin of another to wit Adam and though this saying be true of the Adult yet it is the more to our purpose because if God be so gracious to actual Sinners as not to damn them for the Sin of another there is all the ground imaginable to believe that he will be as gracious to Infants 3. The Devil cannot damn Infants This is evident because Infants are out of the reach of Santan's Temptations seeing they know not to chuse the Good or to refuse it they know neither Good nor Evil they know not their right Hand from their left Jer. 7. 16. Jonah 4. 11. Whom Satan cannot Tempt them he cannot Damn 4. God will not damn Infants God will not suffer Men to punish any Person for that which they cannot help Deut. 22. 25 26. If a Man find a betrothed Damsel in the Field and force her and lie with her then the Man only that lay with her shall die but unto the Damsel shalt thou do nothing there is in the Damsel no Sin worthy of Death For as when a Man riseth up against his Neighbour and slayeth him even so is this matter The Mercy which God sheweth in this case may suffice to convince us that in the Judgment of the Almighty there is no Sin in Infants worthy of Damnation seeing what Sin soever is upon them i● was impossible for them to avoid it Wherefore he will not d●●● poor dying Infants 5. Christ will not damn poor Infants When Christ denounceth the Damnation of Hell he dir 〈…〉 speech to Hypocrites and incorrigible Sinners Mat. 23. 3 〈…〉 Generation of Vipers how can ye escape the Damnation of Hell But he hath better things in store for Infants for he saith of such are the Kingdom of God which being spoken of Infants or little Children indefinitly shews his Gracious Judgment of them all And he that came not to Condemn the World but to Save the World how shall this be true if he came to Condemn any Infants Seeing there are no Persons in the World who do less deserve Damnation than Infants No not his own Disciples who are therefore sent to little Children to know how to enter the Kingdom of Heaven Mark 10. 15 Verily 〈…〉 you whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a litt 〈…〉 shall not enter therein What Believer can think himself 〈…〉 Heaven than an Infant Hath he not some Actual Sin 〈…〉 no Infant Hath Christ freed the Believer from Original Sin 〈…〉 e he hath done for all Infants Rom. 5. As in Adam all d 〈…〉 in Christ shall all be made alive John 1. 29 Behold the 〈…〉 God which taketh away the Sin of the World There i 〈…〉 Sin can so properly be called the Sin of the World as Origin 〈…〉 because perhaps a third part of the World dies having no other Sin at all This is the case of Infants this Sin being taken a 〈…〉 hrist how shall Christ their merciful Judg pronounce them 〈…〉 Hell 6. Christ died 〈…〉 Infants therefore they shall not be damned Christ died 〈…〉 Infants Because he gave himself a Ransom for all 1 Tim. 2. 6. He tasted Death for every Man Heb. 2. 9. He bought them that deny him 2 Pet. 2. Therefore certainly he was as gracious to Infants as to those who deny him Seeing then it cannot be denied but he bought them he either bought them to save them or to cast them to Hell Not the latter no by no means The primary end of Christ's dying is Life and Salvation Infants never forfeit this Grace but are just Persons that need no Repentance if there be any such in the World 7. All dying Infants are written in the Book of Life from the Foundation of the World therefore no dying Infants are Damned The Omniscient God knew as well the Date of all Mens Lives as that they should be born or live at all and therefore did he know who would die in Infancy as well as who would live to years of Knowledg Admitting then their opinion to be true That hold a certain number ordain'd to Life from the Foundation of the World yet we doubt not but to make good this Proposition and that by the Text Rev. 20. 12. as expounded by themselves For by the Books out of which the Damned are judged is understood the Actions of Men even the most secret which shall then be laid open Now these Books cannot concern Infants they having done neither good nor evil Here is therefore another Book opened which say they represents the everlasting Election to Life and Glory in Christ In this Book must all dying Infants either be found written or else be Judged without Book The Book of Conscience will not accuse them therefore the Lamb's Book of Life must needs acquit them 8. All dying Infants are in the Covenant of Grace therefore no dying Infant shall be Damned When we say Infants are in the Covenant of Grace we mean it as God hath vouchsafed to interess them in his Mercy by Christ That as Condemnation came upon them by Adam's Sin so

Church-Membership And yet I do not at all doubt that Infant-Baptism will remain without any ground at all SECT II. And this I shall demonstrate by shewing That all Infants are in a visible state of Salvation and so of the Vniversal Church of God and cannot be put out of that blessed state till by their voluntary departure from God by choosing sinful ways they destroy themselves And here we will make our entrance by a passage out of Mr. Baxter himself who saith All Mankind is brought by Christ under a Covenant of Grace which is not vain nor repealed by God But as their abuse of the Grace of the Covenant may cast them out For as a Covenant of intire Nature was made with all Mankind in innocent Adam Mr. Baxter's more Reasons pag. 8. 6. so a Covenant of Grace was made with all Mankind in lapsed Adam Gen. 3. 15. in the promised Seed and renewed again with all Mankind in Noah Now this Doctrine being no more than plain truth we shall apply it to the case in hand by shewing First That this Covenant of Grace was a visible Church-Covenant 2. That it was made with all Mankind and takes place in their Infancy 3. That it was never repealed by God 4. That no Infant did ever abuse the Grace of this Covenant And therefore no Infant was ever cast out of this Covenant And then fifthly They all stand visible Members of the Catholick Church by virtue of this Covenant however their Parents do abuse or neglect it and hence it will follow no dying Infant is Damned but are all in a visible state of Salvation 1. That this Covenant of Grace first expressed Gen. 3. 15. was either a Church-Covenant or else there was no Church-Covenant in the World that we read of from Adam to Noah this being indeed all the Covenant that is named during these Times besides that Covenant of Intire Nature made before the Fall And that Covenant of Nature being broken by Adam and in him by all his Posterity it being not a Covenant of Grace could not justifie the Offenders in the ●ight of God There must therefore be some supervening Act of Grace or Mercy from God else Adam even whole Mankind who were then in his Loins must have stood under Condemnation for ever seeing no Man could by any means redeem his Brother nor give to God a Ransom for him It is the received Doctrine of Christians that the Visible Church began in Adam and that his Family was the Church wherefore the whole World being then the Church and that Church-Covenant being made with the whole World that was to proceed from Adam and this Covenant yet remaining it follows against all contradiction that whole Mankind considered as they come into the World in all the several Ages of it are in a visible state of Salvation and so of the Catholick Church of God But whereas many did Apostatize from the Grace of God's Covenant by corrupting his way Gen. 6. 12. It was necessary that they should be ejected and therefore was the Covenant accommodated and appropriated to those who had not sinned themselves out of it but still the Innocent must not be ejected with the Nocent for it is he only that sinneth whose Name shall be blotted out of the Book which God hath written Gen. 32. 32 33. And therefore neither the Method which God took with Noah in settling the Covenant of his Grace nor yet that Order which he observed with Abraham was exclusive of any Infant in the World as to the Grace of God in order to Eternal Life no more than the establishment of it by Christ in the Gospel in a far more excellent order for distinguishing the Precious from the Vile is in any wise exclusive of any dying Infant for of such is the Kingdom of God Nor can any Man shew either by Scripture or Reason that God will shut out all the dying Infants of wicked Men from Life and Salvation by Christ no nor so much as any one of them for we are sure that the Judgment of God is according to truth that the Judge of all the Earth will do right That the Condemned shall be judged according to the deeds done in the Body but alas as for poor Infants what have they done 2. That this Covenant was made with all Mankind is thus cleared because it was made with Adam without the least intimation of the exclusion of any part of his Posterity as they proceed from him to the end of the World neither hath God himself explained the Covenant of Grace to be Exclusive of any but for the cause of their own iniquity and this was evident first in the case of Cain who not being faithful in his offering was not accepted Yet God was pleased to shew him the cause Gen. 4. 7. If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted It should seem God never rejected him till this time neither did he now delight to reject him but graciously expostulates with Cain to convince him of his evil and assures him of acceptation if he did well If then Cain had an interest in the Grace of God who can we suppose to be shut out till they with Cain shut themselves out of it Evident it is that the Covenant of Grace extended to those Rebels in the Old World because we read the long suffering of God waited on them and he gave them time of Repentance and sent a Preacher of Righteousness even the Righteousness of Faith among them Heb. 11. 7. 2 Pet. 2. 5. therefore it is said Christ went by his Spirit and preached to them 1 Pet. 3. though none of them believed his Word Now such Acts on God's part are great Evidences of his Graciousness towards Men and shews that he remembers his Covenant made in Christ with them even for them that rebel against him and so perish And then how shall we think that he should not be gracious to poor Infants who never rebelled against him 3. The Covenant of Grace was never repealed by God for if it be there is now no Covenant at all nor can it be repealed to one Man but it must be repealed to all Men. 'T is true Men may forfeit the Mercy held forth in that Covenant but the Covenant cannot be repealed for then there can be no certainty of any Mercy for Sinners Christ himself may as soon be made Null as this Covenant For what if some Apostatize or do not believe shall this make the Grace of God without effect God forbid When we continually see that Covenant of God's Grace displayed making overtures of kindness to Sinners even to the chief of Sinners what shall we say if any Infant be without a part in that Covenant Is he not then the chief of Sinners It is not then the Sin of Parents that can repeal the Covenant of Grace with respect to Infants 4. No Infants did ever abuse the Grace of the Covenant made with them in Adam