none but such as rejoyce at your destruction We may observe in Horses that after a stumble for some paces they go better and quicker than before Some impute this to their fear to be beaten and desire to avoid it others to their generosity to make amends for their former fault with double diligence 56. Be not like the Horse and Mule which hath no understanding Psalm 32. 9. that is do not imitate them in their brutish head-strongness Yet be like the Horse and Mule in their commendable conditions as creatures far above Pismires and Lillies imitate those generous principles which the instinct of Nature hath put into them Recover what is past in your stumbling by your future activity in going the faster in the path of truth and righteousness 57. To conclude there is for the present a great Gulph and distance betwixt you and us in our opinions Indeed though we should desire it we dare not approach nearer unto you in point of judgment S. Paul saith even of his brother S. Peter Gal. 2. 5. To whom we gave place no not for an hour that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you We may not yield to you no not a hairs breadth We have already in stating the Controversie betwixt us drawn as near as we can without betraying the truth prejudicing Gods cause and our own consciences And having gone to the very marches and out-bounds of the truth we there stand on tiptoes ready to embrace you if you come to us and no otherwise 58. But as for difference in affection seeing we conceive your error not such as intrencheth on salvation because not denying but deferring Baptism and onely in the out limbs not vitals of Religion wherein a latitude may and must be allowed to dissenting brethren we desire that herein the measure of our love may be without measure unto you Lightning often works wonders when it breaketh the Sword it doth not so much as bruise the Scabbard Charity is a more heavenly fire and therefore may be more miraculous in its operations You shall see that our love to you as it doth detest and desires to destroy your errours so it will at the same time it will safely keep and preserve your erroneous persons 59. For mine own particular because I have been challenged how justly God and my own conscience knoweth for some morosenes in my behaviour towards some dissenting brethren in my Parish this I do promise and God giving me grace I will perform it Suppose there be one hundred paces betwixt me and them in point of affection I will go ninety nine of them on condition they will stir the one odd pace to give them an amicable meeting But if the Legs of their Souls be so lame or lazy or sullen as not to move that one pace towards our mutual love we then must come to new propositions Let them but promise to stand still and make good their station let them not go backward and be more imbitter'd against me than they have been and of the hundred paces in point of affection God willing I le go twice fifty to meet them As for matter of judgment I shall patiently and hopefully expect the performance of Gods promise in my Text when to those which are otherwise minded in the matter of Infants Baptisme God will reveal even this unto them Amen FINIS PERFECTION AND PEACE Delivered in a SERMON preached in the Chappel of the Right Worshipful Sir ROBERT COOK at DYRDANS By THO. FVLLER B. D. LONDON Printed by Roger Norton for Iohn Williams at the Crown in S. Pauls Church-yard 1653. TO The Hono ble and truly Religious GEORGE BERKELEY Sole Son and Heir to the Right Honourable GEORGE Lord BERKELEY c. SIR WHen I look on the Crest of your ancient Arms A Mitre powdered w th Crosses I read therein an abridgment of the Devotion of those darker dayes the Mitre shewing your Ancestors actions in Peace the Cross their atchievements in the Holy War the Mitre their doings at home the Cross their darings abroad Yea I fancie to my self each ancient Lord Berkly like one of the Israelites at the walling of Jerusalem Neh. 4. 17. With a Trowel in one hand and a Sword in the other We alwayes find him either fighting or founding either in a Battel or at the building of some Religious Fabrick as besides others the intire Abbey at Bristol afterwards converted into a Cathedral was solely founded by one of that Family This was the Devotion of those dayes wherein the world knew no better and scarce any other Since the Reformation your Noble House hath not had less heat for having more light Your Charity hath not been extinguished but regulated not drained dry but derived in righter channels and flowing with a clearer stream free from the mud of superstition As for your particular that your ancient Crest is worthily born by you the Mitre speaking you a Patron of Learning the Crosses a Practicer of Religion Qualities which encouraged me to present this small Treatise unto you Acceptance is more then it can expect pardon being as much as it doth deserve being so long in coming so short when come But because it had its first Being by your Command it hopes to have its well-being by your Countenance Should I desire so many Lords of your Family hereafter as heretofore have flourished in a direct line by desiring a particular Happiness to your House I should wish a general mischief to mankind that men should live so many years in sin sorrow before the coming of the necessary and comfortable day of Judgment My prayer therefore shall be That the lustre of your House may continue with the lasting of the World so long as God will permit the badness thereof in that honourable Equipage of your Ancestors May Perfection here and Peace hereafter light on you your vertuous Lady and hopeful issue which is the daily desire of Your Honours most bounden Servant THO. FULLER PERFECTION AND PEACE PSAL. 37. 37. Mark the Perfect behold the Vpright for the end of that man is Peace THIS and the 73. Psalm are of the same subject wherein David endeavours to cure an Epidemical disease with which the best Saints and servants of God are often distempered Observe in this Disease the nature danger cause and cure thereof The Nature namely fretting fits of the soul at the consideration of the constant peace plenty and prosperity of wicked men The Danger thereof It causeth the Consumption of the spirit and is destructive to the health of the soul Yea when this disease comes to the Paroxism the height and heat thereof it becometh dishonourable to God aspersing and be-libelling him as if he wanted Goodness and would not or Power and could not or Justice and doth not order matters better then they are The Cause thereof it proceedeth from a double defect in men 1 Want of Faith to trust in God 2 Want of Patience to wait on God
conscience been convinced of the truth thereof How might he have rejoyned Original sin cannot be proved from the Baptizing of Infants which is but a modern custome an innovation in the Church of God What the Sodomites said of Lot Gen. 19. 9. This one fellow came in to sojourn and will he needs be a judg may be said of Infants Baptism This custome is new and novel lately crept into the Chuch as yet rather a sojourner then an inhabitant therein and must this regulate matters in a judicial way so that arguments must be deduced from the same Besides I have been a Traveller and have conversed with most Churches in Christendome being born in Britaine a little world by it self I have been in the great world abroad Jew and Gentile East and Western Churches have I observed Hierusalem that was and Rome which is so eminent for Religion are places wherein I am well acquainted This I know some Churches observe others neglect some use others slight the Baptising of Infants Nor can it be accounted a general custom of the Church which is but local and partial in a word both NEW and NARROW as neither coming down from Christ nor extended over all Christendome But Pelagius endeavoured to evade S. Austins argument by another device namely by pleading that Baptism was admitted to Infants not to wash away their Original sin but to bring them to the kingdome of heaven A fancy which he was the first and he and his the last to maintain it The result of all is this Seeing Pelagius was so great a schollar knowing full well how to manage a bad cause to its best advantage and seeing he was so great a Traveller who had not eat his bread all in one place but had roved up and down to know the customes of the Church and yet feeing by his silence urging nothing against it and by his shifting seeking otherwise to evade it he acknowledgeth the truth of Infants Baptism we conclude the same in his days received for an Ancient and Universal practice of the Church For why should he adventure the breaking of his bones or at leastwise the bruising of his flesh by leaping out of the window who hath a wide door set open unto him Why should he make so poor and pittiful so base and beggerly an escape to avoid S. Austins argument against him by forming a frivolous fancy of his own who had a ful free and fair passage at pleasure to go forth durst he but have denied the Baptizing of Infants to have been a general Church custome in his time To conclude this point the argument of Jephthah to the King of Ammon carrieth great weight therewith Judg. 11. 26. proving Israels right to the Land which they possest and the Ammonites pretended unto When Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns and in Aroer and her towns and in all the cities that be along by the coasâ—s of Aâ—â—on three hundred years why there fore did ye not recover them within that time In like manner may we urge it against the adversaries of childrens Baptism If the Ancient Church conceived the Baptizing of Infants an usurpation and incroachment injurious and unlawful why did not the Church of God in so long a time cast out the custome which made so unjust an invasion therein For S. Austin lived about the fift Century after Christ when Pedo-baptism was in a peaceable passission of Church practice and Pelagius himself sufficiently impudent was so modest and ingenious not to deny the same though such a denial had conduced much to his own advantage I have done when I have told the Reader that S. Austin brought the Baptizing of Infants as an argument to prove Original sin and in our age wherein Original sin is on ought to be granted by all we alledge the same as a reason to prove the necessity of Infants Baptism and surely so solid is the argument reciprocally that both may be firmly grounded on the same CHAP. XVI The Grand Objection drawn from the silence of Scripture herein Answered OUr Adversaries in this point gain not a greater advantage against us amongst common people then by urging of that which indeed we confesse no literal precept or practice for Pedo-baptism in Scripture By popular improving of which argument they not only gain to themselves the reputation of a strict adherence to the Word and will of God but also asperse us with the dangerous imputation of wil-worship and Popish inclinations Yea which is more they threaten us with a curse pronounced Rev. 22. 18. If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this book In Answer whereunto In the first place we request our Adversaries to remember that this place by them cited out of the Revelation like a two edged sword cuts on both sides for it followeth immediatly And if any shall take away from the words of the book of this prophesie God shall take away his part out of the book of life See here a curse incurr'd as well by the defect as the excesse And be it reported to our opposites in this point whether denying such consequences which infallibly flow from Scripture be not taking away from the words as well as mutilating or abstracting the numerical words from the same More particularly I answer Baptizing of Infants appears not to such who only read the Scripture but is plainly visible to those who also search the Scriptures which John 5. 39. is the duty of all judicious Christians as by reasons out of Scripture we have made it to appear Here will it not be amisse to mind our adversaries in this point that they account themselves concerned in conscience to believe and practice many things as necessary to salvation which notwithstanding are built on the same foundation with the Baptism of Infants namely not on the expresse letter of Scripture but undeniable consequences arising from the same But I conceive such instancing though lawful yet not expedient in this unhappy juncture of time lest Satan get an advantage over us for we are not ignorant of his devices and lest such instancing though intentionally good in us prove occasionally evil to others by casting scruples into mens consciences who are quiet for the present There needs more allaying of old then raising of new jealousies in divinity more needful to settle then scatter mens belief in our dayes wherein so many deniers and more doubters in most Articles of Faith Indeed the words of the wise Eccles 12. 11. are as goads or as nailes fastened by the masters of the assemblies But such builders must be wary lest whilest they fasten one nail they do not loosen another However to prove this point I will embrace a way as sure to clear the matter and more safe not having any dangerous influence on the times This may be done by removing the instance from our age and fixing the same in the time of Gods
yet possibly the measure thereof might be faulty Elisha being like Eliah and Eliah a man subject to like passions as we are James 5. 17. And He might see in himself what others saw not in him that he was too much transported with passion and perchance did too much insult on the present perplexity and extremity of King Jehoram Wherefore conceiving that He in the still voice would not come to one in so loud a passion he calls for a Minstrel so to reduce pacate and compose his Soul that it might return to a quiet temper Whence it plainly appears what an enemy Passion is generally to the receiving of Gods Spirit and that all those which desire a Revelation of the truth unto them must labour to devest themselves thereof 33. Thirdly devest thy self of Covetuousness Here take notice how easily men are perswaded to embrace those opinions though never so erroneous which bring in profit unto them for instance One with weak sinnews of Logick worse colours of Rhetorick will quickly perswade a Country-man to be a convert in this point that he is not bound to pay Tithes to his Minister 34. On the other side it is hard to wean men from sucking on those Opinions which are sweetned unto them by commodity For by this craft we get our gain Acts 19. 25. No wonder if the Pope zealously maintaineth Purgatory seeing that Purgatory so plentifully maintaineth the Pope The same may be said of other lucrative errours in their Religion Pilgrimages Pardons Prayers to the Saints Prayers for the dead c. Scylla omnes suos divitiis implevit it was the policy of that cunning Senatour to enrich all of his party tyed by their purse-strings the faster unto him whereas the Antifaction of the Marians being nothing so well monied by their Patron cleaved not so stedfastly unto him Gainfull errors soon gain and long keep such as desire them whereas speculative opinions which terminate onely in the brains having little influence on mens practise and less on their profit are nothing so taking of men and men nothing so tenacious of them 35. As for the errour of such as deny the Baptising of Infants we have cause to conceive the greater hopes of their returning to the truth because that their Opinion can not make them a thred or a shoo-latchet the richer by the maintaining thereof Tully saith of our Brittainy in his time when Caesar rather discovered than conquered it that it had naturally Ne micam auri aut argenti not a crum of gold or silver as within the bowels of the earth thereof So may I say of the Doctrine of Anti-poedo-baptism it is a bare and poor opinion Gold and Silver it hath none and therefore alone of it self is never probable to enrich the patrons and defenders thereof 36. And yet as Tully went a little too far in condemning Brittain as utterly devoid of Silver oar and is disproved by the industry of our Age which some years since hath discovered Silver mines in Wales so possibly this opinion may be more advantagious to the defenders thereof than is obvious to the eye of every common beholder It may be it may make them more capable of preferment and that either they are or conceive themselves to be in a better proximity to advancement by maintaining thereof as more favourably reflected on than others as if this opinion gave the most real testimony of their good affections to the present government whereby they apprehend themselves the next reversions to preferment I believe they mistake themselves therein and that no such partiality is in the present state However let them examine their own souls and devest themselves of covetousness in case they be conscious to themselves that expectation of profit inclines them to this opinion 37. Come we now to Positive counsels what we ought to perform And here I am afraid some will be offended at the simplicity plainness of them There is a book entituled De medecinis facilè parabilibus of medicines which may easily be procured and very good for such w ch take Physick in forma pauperis Yea generally it is conceived nothing so much detracteth from the worth of those medicines as the cheapness and commonness thereof so that if we did but fetch from the East Indies what now groweth in our gardens it would then be accounted a precious Drug which now we esteem a common Potherb In like manner I fear that these our counsels shall be undervalued for the usualness and obviousness of them If a Soul-Mount-abank should prescribe such new fangled means which was never heard of before he should get more patients than all the grave Physicians of the City However we will adventure to prescribe these plain means which God hath prescribed unto us 38. First pray to God that he that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth would be pleased in his own due time to reveal all necessary truths unto thee Secondly be diligent in reading Gods Word Luther did profess that when he first began to write against the Pope many fancies were put into his head plausible to flesh and bloud but groundless on Scripture which made him daily to pray Domine in verbo Domine in verbo Lord teach me in thy Word 39. Thirdly be carefull in keeping the Lords day not with any superstitious but godly observation thereof On what day did God reveal the Revelation to S. John On the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. Thus Princes use to bestow their Boons and confer their favors chiefly on those days which more properly are called their days as on the Anniversaries of their Births or Coronations Fourthy Repair to the place of Gods Publick Service Fifthly as the Magistrate bears not the Sword in vain the Minister bears not the Word in vain But least we Ministers should seem to plead our own cause herein we leave this to God to plead for us 39. Object But some erroneous persons will be ready to say unto me as the young man did to our Saviour in the Gospel All these things have I done from my youth I have constantly prayed and carefully read and conscienciously kept the Lords day and diligently repaired to the publick Ministery and have endeavoured to devest my self of pride passion and covetousness and yet no errour is revealed to me which I formerly maintained Hereupon I conclude my self to be in the right Our English Proverb as it hath much of rudeness so it hath no less of truth therein One is not bound to see more than he can And I conceive I am in no errour because I follow my present light and all the means of your prescription have made no alteration on my understanding 40. Answ Give me leave to be jealous over these Objectors with a godly jealousie I exspect not the validity of my Receits prescribed but suspect their effectual application thereof whether or no they have sincerely practised the same this I am sure
THE INFANTS Advocate Of Circumcision and Baptisme on Jewish Christian Children DEUT. 29. 11 12. Your little ones shall enter into Covenant with the Lord thy God Origen lib. 5. ad Rom. c. 6. Ecclesia ab Apostolis traditionem accepit parvulis dare Baptismum quia essent in omnibus genuinae sordes peccati By THOMAS FULLER B. D. LONDON Printed by R. Norton for J. Williams at the Crown in S. Pauls Church-yard M.DC.LIII To the Right Honourable JAMES EARL of CARLILE my most Bountiful Patron AND To the Right Honourable LIONEL EARL of MIDLESEX my Noble Parishioner I Shall be censured for a Solecisme in Dedicating this my Infants Advocate unto your Honours not only for the meannesse of the Present but because the one of you being hitherto Childless and the other not as yet Married seem not so proper persons to be presented with such a subject But give me leave to acquaint your Honours that this my Treatise Janus-like looks backwards and forwards backwards to vindicate and assert the lawfulnesse of their Baptism which now arrived at Maturity were in their Infancy Baptized and in this capacity your Honours have an equal concernment in this subject with any others Forwards to justifie and avouch the acts of those Parents who hereafter shall fix the Sacrament on their Infant Children Your Honors in Gods due time may for the future be interested herein a favour the more fervently to be desired from Heaven both of you being the sole surviving Males of your Families and the single threds whereon all the hopes of your Noble houses do depend Give me Leave therefore who here am the Advocate to plead for the Baptizing of others to be also the Orator to pray for the Birth of your Children till which time may the blessings of the right and left hand plentifully fall and peaceably rest on you both which is the daily desire of Your Honours most obliged and humble servant THO. FULLER To the Right Worshipfull Edward Palmer Henry Wollaston and Matthew Gilly Esquires John Vavasor Francis Bointon Gent. with all the rest of my Loving Parishioners in Waltham Holy-Cross WHen I consider the many worthy works which had their first being within the bounds of this our Parish I may justly be ashamed that my weak endeavours should be borne in the same place For first the book of Mr. Cranmer afterwards Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Martyr containing the Reasons against King Henry the 8 th his Marriage with Queen Katharine Dowager was compiled in our Parish whilest the said Cranmer retired hither in the time of a Plague at Cambridge to teach his Pupils Thus did Waltham give Rome the first deadly blow in England occasioning the Popes primacy to totter therein till it tumbled down at last The large and learned works of the no lesse Religious then Industrious Mr. Fox in his book of Martyrs was penned here leaving his posterity a considerable estate at this day possessed by them in this Parish What shall I speak of the no lesse pleasant then profitable pains of Reverend Bishop Hall predecessor in my place the main body of whose Books bears date from Waltham And shall my unworthy pamphlet presume to follow such able works from the same place However seeing my publike promise is solemnly past to you to Print the same hoping some profit may thence arise to you and others let it as a Page at due distance wait upon the works of those most eminent Authors Some will say this your Infants Advocate hath almost been as long in the breeding and birth as Infants use to lye in their Mothers womb so many moneths hath past betwixt the promise and performance thereof But let none grudge the time if it appear at last in its perfect shape coming forth soon enough for those who will reap benefit thereby Too soon for such who will take causless offence thereat Some perchance will take exception at the plainness thereof which by me was purposely affected herein It is a good leslon which may be learned from the mouth of a bad master even Rayling Rabshakeh not to deliver a message of publick concernment in a language which a few Courtiers only do understand but in a tongue whereby all the people on the wall may partake thereof And seeing the generality of our opposers are unlearned I conceived it my duty to decline all difficult words and phrases that all might more easily and perfectly perceive the truth therin Some perchance might expect a confutation of their practice which are Re-baptized a task needless for me to perform For such repetition of Baptism will follow of course to be vain if not wicked unneedful if not unlawful where the lawfulness and needfulness of Infants Baptism hath formerly been proved Baptism once wel done on Infants I may say is twice done which twice done is once ill done namely when it is iterated the second time without any just reason for the same What remains dear Parishioners but that I pray that my weak Preaching may be powerful and profitable unto you that you may do and suffer cheerfully according to the will of God Remember the addition of the name of your Parish HOLY CROSSE It matters not though Crosse be the sur-name if Holy be the Christian name of our sufferings whilest that God who sendeth them sanctifieth them unto us which is the daily prayer of Your unworthy Pastor in Jesus Christ THO. FULLER TO THE CHRISTIAN READER AMongst the many Lying Miracles reported by impudent believed by ignorant Papists in their Leaden Golden Legend it is not the last and least what they tell of one Rumball Son to an English King whose Saint-ship in those dark days was superstitiously adored at Brackley in Northampton shire Of him they report that he spake as soon as ever he was born and professing himself to be a Christian already in his heart requested or rather required that he might be Baptized which done he instantly ended his life I know not whether to call this a Childs fable from the subject or in the Apostles language an old wives fable from the inventors thereof Otherwise were this true and all children like him this our Infants Advocate were utterly useless and our pains for the present altogether superfluous which now we believe and hope may be profitable for those who cannot plead for themselves For though I cannot with Job be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame that is relieve their poverty out of a plentiful estate yet I will endeavour to be a tongue to the dumb and plead as well as I may in their behalf True it is I must confesse with that good Prophet not in respect of my age being past the vertical point thereof but of my other infirmities behold I cannot speak for I am a child and if a child be advocate for children the cause is likely to be poorly pleaded However I will endeavour to supply in integrity what I want
in ability and sometimes a cordial counsel who zealously engageth for his client is to be accepted for his hearty intentions and affections though falling short of others in his performances Indeed great is the multitude of pleaders who have undertook this cause and truly the more the better such the worth thereof to deserve the weight thereof to require many defenders against the fiercenesse and multitude of modern opposers But here give me leave to bemoan a sad accident that the councel cannot agree amongst themselves how to manage their clients cause Some found it on a Jewish ceremony of washing others fasten it only on the ancient practice of the Primitive Church others graft it on the Analogie of Circumcision others bottom it on an implicite precept others on expresse arguments in the New Testament And which is the worse many of these are not content alone to prefer and advance their own opinion except also they decry and destroy confute and confound the arguments of others by which discords our adversaries in this point gain to themselves no small advantage I am confident those our adversaries long since had wanted weapons had not our friends furnished them with all manner of munition out of our own magazins Yet dare I not challenge such pleaders for Infants Baptism of disloyaltie as if they wilfully betrayed their trust herein though I cannot excuse them for indiscretion whereby they have prejudiced that cause they endeavoured to defend It would be well therefore for the time to come if the assertors of Pedo-Baptism on what bottom soever they builded store in this kind is no sore and the firmer it is that stands on so many foundations raise their own Reasons without opposing the arguments of others who agree with them in judgement though going by different ways to the end of the same place It is said of every Locust that marched in Gods Army they shall not thrust one another they shall walk every one in his path on Gods blessing let the assertors of Childrens Baptism what way soever they imbrace for the proof thereof proceed fairly and friendly in their own tract and leave off justling those who go next to them in another path Thus desiring Reader Gods blessing on thy perusing my weak pains I remain Thine in Christ Jesus THO. FULLER THE Infants Advocate CHAP. I. Of Circumcision What it was on whom by whom and when to be administred The Penalty of wilful Recusants there in CIRCUMCISION was the cutting off of a skin in those parts which nature hath covered with shame which might be spared without danger of life hinderance of generation or visible deformity The solemn Institution hereof we find Gen. 17. where it was commanded to Abraham and his seed before which time though allowing something Sacramental in the Tree of Life Ark c. the Church of God had Sacrifices but no constant and continuing Sacrament This Circumcision is subject to many carnal objections which corrupt Nature may urge against it First some accuse it as an immodest Ceremony whereas indeed no such wantons as such who pretend to more modesty then God commands If a strict enquiry should be made into their lives it is more then suspicious Eph. 5. 12. It would be a shame to speak of those things which are done by them in secret Others are offended at such Cruelty therein exercised on a small Infant as probably with the pain thereof might drive it into a Feavour It is answered that was cruelty indeed which wil-worship commanded superstitious Parents to afford to their Idols when 2 Kings 17. 31. They burnt their children in fire to the gods of Sephar Vaim Call not Circumcision Cruelty but what indeed it was Mercy Pity and Compassion that such who by nature were children of wrath and deserved damnation had by Gods mercy their sufferings commuted into the short pain of Circumcision Besides we are bound to believe that God doubled the guard of his providence to preserve such infants as were ordered according to his command Indeed if the Priests of Baal who with knives and lances cut themselves till the bloud gushed out 1 Kings 18. 28. I say if such superstitious Bedlams should have their wounds fester and gangreen they dyed felons de se and the Devils Martyrs seeing God never required it at their hands But if any infant miscarried under Circumcision the precedents whereof we conceive very rare being a divine ordinance and injunction the Parents might comfortably presume of the final good estate thereof who rendred his soul in service to Gods command Come we now to consider on whom Circumcision was to be administred These were all the males and only the males of Abrahams family Gen. 17. 13. All the Males 1. Born in his house 2. Bought for money In the latter observe a miraculous providence How many of these persons being taken prisoners and sold like beasts in the slave-market accounted themselves utterly undone for the losse of the life of their Life their Liberty What sighing what sobbing what grieving what groaning for their forlorn condition But oh Let them not sorrow that they are sold but rejoyce that Abraham hath bought them How had they been undone if they had not been undone Sold under sin for ever Rom. 7. 14. if not sold unto Abraham See here in some cases it is better to be a good mans slave then a great mans Son Only Males Object How cometh it to passe that so many as amount to the halfe of reasonable â—ouls were excluded the Sacrament If the Grecians Acts 6. 1. murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the ministration of Almes had not the weaker sex cause to grieve and grudge at men that neither their widows wives nor virgins were included in the administration of Circumcision Besides no Sacrament no Salvation Their not partaking of the sign might cause them to suspect the substance and question their title to Heaven and happiness Answ Before we come to the particular answer hereof be it premised that had God created at the first two distinct and absolute as to the mutual dependance each on other principles of mans being the one male the other female and had they both wilfully forfeited their integrity then some necessity might have been pretended that to Re-covenant them both both Sexes should have been signed with Circumcision But Divine providence otherwise ordered the matter only making man at the first and woman of the man This laid down we answer to the Objection though women were not formally they were vertually circumcised in the males What is done to the head none will deny done to the body The man therefore being the head of the woman 1. Cor. 11. such females as died in their virginity were circumcised in their Fathers such as survived to be married were circumcised in their husbands Their nearer relation one flesh swallowing up that which was more remote in their Father And thus all though not directly