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A85020
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The infants advocate of circumcision on Jewish and baptisme on Christian children. By Thomas Fuller, B.D.
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Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing F2447; Thomason E1431_1; ESTC R202071
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87,089
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272
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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
reductively Circumcised It follows by whom it was administred this generally was the master of the family Abraham Circumcised Isaac Gen. 21. 4. As for Zipporahs Circumcising her sons Exod 4. 25. in a case of extremity and her husbands indisposition it was an irregular act not to be drawn into precedent but to be recounted amongst those which when performed are valid but ought not to be performed Come we now to the time When eighth day Here I will not search with some for a secret sanctity in the Number of eight as consisting of seven the Embleme of Perfection with the Addition of one that is Intirenesse lest our Curiosity reap what Gods wisdom never sowed therein The plain reason is this Before the eighth day a child was not conceived to be consolidated flesh but till then in the bloud of the mother And for the same cause when a bullock sheep or goat was brought forth Levit. 22. 27. Then it shall be seven dayes under the dam and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Quest. What became of the souls of such infants who died before the eighth day and so wanted Circumcision Answ They wanted not Circumcision For want is the absence of that which ought to be had now there was no necessity of because no command for their Circumcision before that time God the Grand Law-giver though tying others is not tyed himself to his Law But can and no doubt did give spiritual grace to many infants chiefly if children of believing Parents dying in their non-age of their non-age before the eighth day and incapacity of the sign of Circumcision He who Rom. 4. 17. calleth things which are not as if they were can call children which are but are not circumcised as if they were circumcised And although properly amongst men they were not named till the eighth day Luke 2. 21. Yet such infants nameless on earth might Phil. 4. 3. have their names writte◠in the book of life An instance we have hereof plain and pregnant to such who read the place without prejudice in Davids child 2 Sam. 12. 18. And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died That is seventh day à nativitate from the birth thereof as Tremelius expoundeth it the more probably because no mention is made of any name imposed upon it This child besides the natural stain of original corruption had also the personal blemish of adulterous extraction And yet how confident David was of the final happinesse thereof appears by this expression vers 22. I shall go to him but he shall not return to me Let none strangle the life of so comfortable a passage with too narrow an interpretation thereof as if nothing therein were imported more then that David should die as well as his child This had been but cold comfort unto him and would never have invited him to such cheerfulness of spirit so freely to have refreshed himself Whose joy was founded on the comfortable assurance of his childs final happinesse and that one day they should both meet in Heaven together It remaineth that we treat of the punishment on the refusers of Circumcision expressed in these words Gen. 17. 14. That soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my covenant A threatning capable of three several sences 1. Severe That is by the sword of Ecclesiastical censures They shall be cut off from the visible congregation they shall most justly as the blind man was injuriously John 9. 33. be cast out of the Synagogue not to be restored unto it without their solemn and sincere repentance Parallel to S. Pauls expression Gal. 5. 12. I would they were even cut off that trouble you Though both phrases by some Divines be expounded in a sence 2. Severer That is the Magistrate shall cut them off with the sword of Justice and as Capital offenders they shall be put to Death In this sence God had last used the same words Gen. 9. 11. neither shall all flesh be cut off any more that is their lives shall no more be taken away by an universal destruction 3. Severest That is they shall be cut off from the congregation of the righteous by a final perdition of soul and body in Hell-fire These three interpretations do not crosse but crown one another being no contradiction unto but a gradation one above another The Refuser of Circumcision first shall be cut off by excommunication that not causing his amendment shall be cut off by the Magistrate and the pain and shame of temporal death not reclaiming him he shall be cut off with Eternal Damnation Quest Here is a heavy punishment indeed But who is the person on whom it is to be inflicted It was the Disciples question to our Saviour John 9. 2. Who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind But here the question will be who shall be punished this child or his parents seeing betwixt both Circumcision is neglected Answ First negatively surely not the child for it is said He hath broken my Covenant The Covenant may be said to be broken on him but not by him being purely passive therein Were the child sensible of the benefit by the having dammage by the loosing thereof and might it but borrow a tongue of the standers by never was Rachel more impatient for children then this child would be importunate for Circumcision Give me Circumcision or else I dye Now positively that the Penalty fals not on the child but on the parent plainly appears by Gods proceedings Exod. 4. 24. When he sought to kill Moses and not his children for being uncircumcised However if a child left uncircumcised by his Parents neglect afterwards arrive at mans estate and pertinaciously persist in the contempt of Circumcision he equally entitleth himself to the fault and is also liable to the punishment in my text Quest Seeing so sharp and severe the penalty how came that suspension of Circumcision full forty years in the wilderness Josh 5. 7 to be connived at God not only not punishing but for ought appears in Scripture not so much as reproving the same Answ In the first place I cannot approve the answer of S. Hierom and others affirming that Circumcision was given to difference and distinguish the Jews from other Nations and seeing no Nations were near them during their travel in the desolate wildernesse Circumcision was therefore purposely omitted For beside that sundry people and particularly the Amalekites dwelt in the desart Circumcision was principally ordained not to be a badge of distinction but a Seal of the consecration of the Jews unto God More probable therefore it is that because the Jews during that fourty years were alwayes though not actually moving disposed to move at a minutes warning when ever they received orders from the removing of the Pillar God the Lawgiver dispensed with them to defer Circumcision till they were fixed