croslie and contradictorily to what they were intended as yea and nay are one unto the other that children at three or four years old as your selves then affirmed may be instructed I granted and do still acknowledge with you but that I said at that age they might be baptized upon that account of bare instruction unless apparently effectual to their true conversion to the faith so that by Profession they give good ground to our consciences to believe that they believe I here disclaim it as either a mis-conception or rather a meer conception and birth of your own brains and profess it in the sight of God and all men to be that which in the sence you here insert it in came not so much as into my mind much less out of my mouth at that time and though I find you so un-ingenuous in your dealing that I wonder how you can wish me to deal ingenouusly with youâ—…s you do yet can I not conceive you to be so unjudicious as to conceive I confest as you have here accounted since my speech to all that were not dull of understanding was most plain to a very contrary purpose and tended to shew the utter unwar rantableness of baptizing at any age at all whether in Non-age Middle-age or Old-age unless it be found in the way of Faith and therefore of baptizing anie Infants in respect not only of their incapacitie to believe but much more to make profession of belief I shall therefore give you and the world too wherebie yours must needs appear to be a juggle a more true Account of the Dilation that was then between us on this wise it was I confess I granted for 't is the verie truth though not of a straws weight to your purpose that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 18. 3. was meant children in Non-age to which Christ saies his Disciples must be like although bie the phrase v. 6. viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I asserted then and see no occasion of saying otherwise to this hour that he means his Disciples whom he likens to the other and not little ones in age and bodily Stature in proof of which I referr'd you to Mat. 10 42. where under the self same greek phraise viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he expresses no other than his Disciples there being no little child then among them of which he could be imagined to speak moreover I shewing how that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did properly signifie not such an Infant as you sprinkle which cannot speak called infans quasi non fans but a child capable at least to be instructed and so you are to seek still for Infant-baptism 't was bolted out bie you that at three or four years old many began to be instructed even in principles of Religion and that then at least they might be baptized whereupon I replyed that 't was neither this nor that age old or young gave right yea that no age could make a fit subject for Baptism but that wherein a person is apparently instructed to conversion and that when so instructed they were to be baptized whether old or young so that if you could so effectually instruct children at three or four years of age as to bring them to make such profession of faith as I could not but judge to proceed from the reality thereof within I could then for my part baptize them yet I thought it was a thing very seldome if ever at all visibly effected to this effect and much what in iisdem terminis did I then deliver my self yet so willingly were you mistaken in my meaning as downrightly to set me out for such a Childish Novice as met you before thousands to maintain the unlawfulnes of Childrens Baptism and held a Discourse of 6 hours to that end and yet confest the lawfulness of it so soon as ever we had well begun but Sirs suppose I had confessed as I did not that children of three or four years old because capable at that age to be instructed might without respect to the begetting of faith in them by that instruction even then and thereupon only be baptized yet will you not at last be ashamed think you of that ignorant assertion of yours namely that infants of a day old are as capable of baptism as they for grant it should be granted you as it is not that bare instruction without any success thereof to conversion is a good ground to baptize persons on at three or four years of age yet is it a ground whereupon to baptize Infants of a day old that are not capable of so much as that bare instruction a man may in much wisedom and some hopes if not of present yet of future conversion thereby begin to indoctrinate his children at three or four years old and instill the principles of truth into them as preparative to their obeying it hereafter and also to baptism it self in due time yet I judge him as very a Child as his Child that goes about to instruct and baptize it so soon as t is born yet after your own assertion by which you would make men believe I asserted that children of three or four years old are capable of instruction and consequently of baptism so young you second it with another more absurd and false than the former namely that children of a day old are as capable of it as they Say you so Sirs are infants of a day old capable of Baptism that cannot so much as be instructed in principles much less be begotten to the true Religion or if you say you hold not their right to baptism from a capableness of instruction from which you plead the other but upon other grounds upon what grounds I beseech you Sirs upon what grounds as you offered to shew them then so shew them now if you can for none of the Arguments in your Account can possibly prove such a thing What Infants of a day old I 'le saie it again that you may consider it for sure you did not consider what you said when you said it what children of day old fie for shame Sirs had you said infants of eight daies old it might have held some proportion with that grand ground you go upon viz. the Analogy between Baptism and Circumcision but this opinion doth not cotten at all with that for the subject of Circumcision which you all say though falsely is one and the same with that of Baptism was one of at least eight daies old and an Infant of one day only was not a warrantable subject thereof nor an infant of seven daies neither though likely to die before the eighth but as for you though your chief plea for your timely untimely rantizing Infants be grounded upon that timely dispensation of Circumcision yet as if you had a mind to proclaim your selves be-blinded so that you cannot walk by Christs Right rules nor your own wrong ones neither you take the
the faithfull are to be baptized The former proposition is clearly exprest in the text saith he make disciples and baptize them therefore all disciples are to be baptized but had he concluded according to mood and figure or the tenor of this text or had he not been both blinded and minded to go besides the sense of the spirit in this place he would have said therefore all that are first made disciples by instruction are to be baptized and then he had mard all his proceedings concerning infants As for the second proposition which is the assertion of you all viz. That infants are disciples Mr. Cotton toward the proof of it so miserably misapplies 2. pieces of Isaiah that he rather proves himself thereby to be yet but an infant in discipleship and Gospel understanding then proves infants to be disciples from thence The first place is Isa. 54. 13. whereby its said by way of promise to the Church of the New Ierusaâ—…em when once it shall be established a praise in all the Earth as it is not yet nor ever shall be till Christs second appearing when God shall wipe away all tears from her-eies and secure her for ever from all future sufferings and oppressions That all her children shall be taught of God and great shall be the peace of her children from this place which is meant of all the Saints and that immediate teaching which they shall once have he argues thus to all the naturall infants of believing parents in the Church now viz. if they be taught of God then are they disciples for that is the meaning of the word disciples Disciples are taught or learned of God His second place is Isay. 65. 20. where its said there shall be no more thenceforth an infant of daies c. in which place what ere the meaning is it matters not a rush as to his purpose so long as it s spoken of a time that is yet to come Now here is such a messe of mistakes as may well make a wise man amaz'd and and make him muse whether the pen-man of this proof of that Minor that infants are disciples and consequently to be baptized according to Mat. 28. 19. were well awake or asleep when he set it down concerning it I le propound four things to be well examined of you all First whether he be not egregiously mistâ—…en in the persons to whom those promises are made which if they be all infants of the faithful considered as in their minority then is there a mighty mist before my eyes for really by the bâ—… improvement I can make of my understanding I can possibly ken no such matter nor that it is any other then the Saints and faithful ones themselves even all of them and not any of their children after the flesh but as they prove faithfull and do â—…ome Saints in their own persons as well as their parents Secondly whether he be not grossely mistaken about the time wherein these promises are to be fulfilled in fuller evidence of both which consider first as to the first Scripture who ever they are that are there expressed by the term thy children they are all and every of them without exception partakers of the Lords teaching and of all the other priviledges there promised for it s said All thy children shall be taught of the Lord c. at that time therefore wherein this shall be fulfilled this promise shall be performed to every individual of those kind of persons to whom it s made not one excepted which shews that it is meant onely of the Saints for they are the Churches children and not their natural seed and of that time onely when the New Ierusalem which is not yet shall come down from God out of heaven for so shall it then be with all the faithful that shall inhabit that City of the Lord whose people are said also to be all righteous Is. â—…0 21. but this is not performed to all the children of the faithfull now neither are they all taught of God with that effectual teaching there promised as is evident in that many of them in time prove reprobates when wicked mens children prove elect Secondly It is expresly shewed in the 17 v. who are the persons whose portion and heritage these priviledges are for this saith he is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. As for the second place so far is it from speaking of infants in infancy that it rather shewes that there shall be no infant of daies i. e. that shall dy an infant nor old man that hath not filled his daies in that time but the very child shall dy an hundred years old i. e. he shall be counted as dying young or a child that lives but an hundred years so long lived shall they be in those daies yea as the daies of a tree shall be the daies of my people saith God and mine elect shall long enjoy the works of their hands And as to the time when these things shall be t is not now but in the reign of Christ when the New Ierusalem shall be built with Saphirs and all precious stones and when the Lord shall make the New Heavens and the New Earth which is not yet in being but is looked for of all the Saints at the comming of Christ and the redemption of Israel as Peter saith according to his promise which appears plainly by comparing Isa. 65. 17 66. 2â—… with 2 Pet. 3. 13 14. and also by the last text of the two which Mr. Cotton abuses viz. Isa. 65. v. 20 which saith this shall be from thenceforth i. e. from the time of Gods creating that new heavens and new earth Thirdly Whether he doth not most palpably depart from the matter he took first in hand to prove unto another thing which is no more to his purpose then if he had said bo to a goose yea he runs clear away from the Scripture he began upon and never returns to it more as if he were affraid to come near it scarce ere so much as facing about or looking behind him for what he ought to have cleared but surely he thought he could not and therefore was not minded to meddle with it was this viz. that in order to being the subjects of the baptism there injoined infants are disciples in such a sense as is there spoken of viz. made so by the Ministery of the word and teaching for saith Christ go teach all nations baptizing them but his is not to the same not ad idem but ad aliud quoddam a certain other thing which if he did prove as he doth not it could in no wise prove what he brings it in proof of viz. that infants of the faithful upon the account of some uncouth unheard of strange secret sort of teaching and learning which these infants have from God above any other may be truly said to be disciples and thereupon to be baptized And this though it be not spoken so broadly
I have sufficiently shewed that birth priviledge and holiness which the Jew had by nature to be abolished in Christ and not derived to the fleshly seed of believing Gentiles Thirdly if it were now both in force and of force to denominate a person to be relatively a disciple of Christ by birth what 's that to the purpose of Mat. 28. 19. and the tenor of all those presidents Mr. Baxter brings out of the New Testament whereby to direct us in baptizing in all which it is both enjoined and exemplified that in order to baptism persons should be first made disciples or discipled really by us i. e. taught and brought to the faith and obedience to the Gospel and not baptized upon account of a meer Relative birth-discipleship for the 3000 Jewes but that is nonsense to call their birth-holiness by such a name as that of Infant discipleship had as much of that Infant discipleship as Mr. Baxter saies falsly Christians children now have yet till better discipled then so i. e. till visibly imbracing the Gospel could not be baptized though pleading we have Abraham to our Father besides to be born disciples if there were any such thing at all as Mr. Baxter dreames there is is one thing and to be made disciples by the teachings of either God or men availing to conversion which is that only we are according to all that precept and president Mr. Baxter himself produces above to baptize persons upon immediately is another to be disciples born and to be made disciples by men are as different as those that are born Eunuchs and those that are made Eunuchs of men now if they were as there is no such thing in Rerum natur â as disciples of Christ by nature nor ever was but by a birth from above such a way of becomming Christs disciples relatively from the womb yet every one of those that were baptized in the primitive times whom Mr. Baxter brings in for our example were discipled by mens teaching according as in the commission Matth. 28. they were enjoyned to be before they were baptized yea even those three thousand Iews themselves who secundum sacerdotem had the relative infant discipleship could not be baptized meerly thereupon till they had attained to a better discipleship by Peters Ministry Babist You see Mr. Baxter does take discipleship in Mr. Tombe's own sense and yours viz. as it signifieth one that doth seriously and understandingly c. professe Christianity laying by at present the consideration of meer Relative infant discipleship for I speak but his own words p. 128. and yet makes it good that your rule of baptizing children of Christians at years is utterly inconsistent with the rule of Christ and that constant example of Scripture wherein baptizing did immediately follow making disciples forasmuch as the true beginning of the discipleship or conversion or sincere profession of faith in men who are born and brought up of Christian parents cannot possibly be discerned it is wrought on by such insensible degrees and consequently they cannot be baptized when first made disciples unless they be baptized in their first infancy Baptist. Unless they be baptized in their infancy why are you so sure of hitting upon the day and hour of their first discipleship or conversion to the faith if you baptize them in the first of their infancy what are all the children of Christians I hope he doth not take Christians in so large a sense as Mr. Blake does for Papists and formall Protestants as well as zealous professors and yet by some passages in his book me thinks he makes the pale of the visible church as wide to the full as the other are all these I trow disciples with him not only relatively but really also i. e. converted truly from their mothers womb or if he mean not this of nominall Christians or the seed of Christians at large which with Mr. Blake at least are born Christians but of the children of true converts sincere believers such as are Christians indeed what is it evident that all or at least the most as Mr. Baxter saies of the children of real disciples are as real disciples as their parents so soon as they are born are the seed of true believers true converts mostly by birth how then do so many of them as well of the seed of meer nominal Christians prove wretches and ungracious a great while till God workes on them and many of them to the grief of their parents even to their dying day and yet thus it should seem they are in Mr. Baxters opinion so that if they be baptized in their first infancy under the notion of such they are in all likelyhood baptized when they are first made disciples even immediately upon the point and period of their conversion and besides if they may so safely be supposed all or most of them to be truly converted and upon that account baptized in their first iefancy as he saies then how doth this square a squint with what he saies also to go round again in the same chapter p. 128 viz. That men are usually who are born and brought up of Christian parents wrought to this meaning to conversion and true discipleship by such insensible degrees that the true beginning cannot be discerned 1. by others 2. no not themselves And p. 139. Now if it be the sincerity that is looked after who knoweth what day or year the child began tobe sincere in his profession for my own part I aver from my heart that I neither know the day nor year when I begun to be sincere nor the time when I first began to be a Christian how then should others know it and when Mr. Tombes would have baptized me I cannot tell and as large experience as I have had in my Ministry of the State of Souls and the way of conversion I dare say I have met not with one of very many that would say they knew the time of their Conversion and of those that would say so by reason that they then felt some more remarkable change yet they discovered such stirrings and workings before that many I had cause to think were themselves mistaken and that I may not tell men only of mine own experience and those of my acquaintance I was once at a meeting of very many Christians most eminent for zeal and holinesse of most in the land of whom diverse were Ministers and some at this day as famous and as much followed as any I know in England and it was there desired that every one should give in the manner of their conversion that it might be observed what is Gods ordinary way and there was but one that I remember of them all that could conjecture at the time of their conversion but all gave in that it was by degrees and in long time now when would Mr. Tombs have baptized any of these All this Mr. Baxter saies in proof out that the time of the first
grant p. 88. intailes baptism to the children that have believing Guardians as well as to such as have believing parents and so he gives the question as stated concerning believers children only Some again put it on the score of neither the childs nor the parents nor the sponsors faith but at least either the fathers or the Mothers membership in a gathered Church so as if this be not the parents though otherwise never so faithful may not have their children baptized thus the Churches in New England yea and I think all of this indifferent semi-demi-Independent way both in Old England and New and elsewhere witness Mr. Best Churches plea p. 60 61. who saith thus A man must not only be a Christian and by profession within the covenant only but also a member of some visible Church and particular congregation ere his child be baptized For which Mr. Rutherford rounds him a bout again and takes him to do p. 174. 175. of his Presb. and flatly contradicts him thus saying Baptism is a priviledge of the Church not of such a particular Independent Church and the distinction between Christian communion and Church communion in this point is needless and fruitless for none are to be refused baptism whose parents professe the faith c. howbeit not members of a settled Church Which also contradicts Mr. Cobbets Castle of come down whose whole structure is settled upon that same dainty distinction of Church choice and true choice of this mind also was my beloved friend Mr. Charles Nicolls of whom I have more hopes yet then I have of every one of his own form that he will fully own the truth in time forasmuch as he doth more fully appear for it against that Truth-destroying thing called Tythes then those of his way do in other parts of Kent who either per se or at least per alios take them not to say rake and rack both Christs flocks and the parish flocks also for them still which Mr. Nicolls preaching publiquely at Dover in my hearing Ian. 1650. whether he fetch his doctrine out of Mr. Cobbets book yea or no I cannot tell in page 17. whereof the same is found declared himself to be of Mr. Cobbets mind by the delivery of this doctrine viz. That an enchurcht believers natural seed is faederally holy from 1 Cor. 7. 14. which position I have also since seen under his hands so narrow a corner is the case crouded into now that it is not the believing but the enchurcht belieuing parent i e. who leaving the perochiall posture betakes himself to membership in some seperated society who sanctifies the unbelieving parent and the seed else were the children unclean but now are they holy i. e. from the time of one or both parents entering the borders of a seperated society and so by this means if an old man or woman that hath ten or twenty children the youngest whereof is no less then twenty years old they all though never so morally wicked yet from thenceforth are faederally holy but not before no though their parents believed before Upon this Account the Churches in New England deny their Nullity sprinkling to infants of such parents as are either not yet joined to them or for which they are very oddly also at odds among themselves excommunicate from them in justification of which Gambole Mr. Cotton lapps himself up in such a manglement of discourse p. 81. to the 88. as betokens that wisdome is perishing from the wise for mans tradition sake which they hold up against Christs institutions yea he sticks not to assert p. 81. Thâ—…t the Apostles and Evangelists gathered men whom they baptized into a visible church estate before they baptized them unless they were church-members before they preached to them Which is as if he should say they brought them first into the visible Church that they might be baptized and then to go round again baptized them that they might be brought into the visible Church for unlesse he contradict all those thousands of Old England now becoming New whilest New England growes old who after sprinkling still used this phrase viz. We receive this child into the coâ—…gregation of Christs flock as in the English refined Masse-book the Priests universally did preaching baptism to be the entrance into the visible Church not in word only but in deed also by placing their Fonts at the Church doors unless I say he be contrary to all Paedobaptists who hold baptism to be the way into the Church and not the visible Church the way into baptism and then what another cross whet doth he wipe them with we must needs take Mr. Cotton in that manner and yet to say the truth the Clergy is cross enough to themselves in this case for this is but like that of them that say believers infants are born in the bosome or within the pale of the Church and so must be baptized and must be baptized and so enter within the pale of the visible Church or else they are out and in no better condition than the children of Turks and Pagans What prety Gim-cracks are here yet surely not much above the tyth of those round abouts and contradictions to themselves and one another that are to be found among the Paedorantists should I stand upon a full discovery of them but verily I am weary to see Old England New England and Scotland all together by the ears about their infants sprinkling and had rather if it were possible gain them all to be at peace in that point by laying down their dispensing it any more to infants and pitching all upon the undoubted subject of true baptism i. e. a professed believer without which it is impossible to reconcile them till they have routed each other and stormed themselves out of their strongest garrisons with their own hands Among whom and so to make an end what hold and keep is there likewise about the sprinkling of bastards may be seen by Mr. Cotton page 88. of his way e. Some and those the best Divines holding the baptism of Bastards but not sine sponsoribus i. e. not without witnesses or sureties Others holding it without witnesses for ought I find of which sort is Mr. â—…obbet who brings in Bastards to baptism by a certain fetch beyond his fellowes viz. the faederal interest of those bastard infants that are born in the Church saying Though the parents faith do not sanctify such yet the force of Abrahams covenant fetches them in which I much marvel at sith the law or covenant of Circumcision admitteth not such into the Congregation unto the tenth generation Others again denying that the Scripture warrants any such thing at all as the admitting of Bastards to come by baptism into the Congregation as his neighbour Mr. Cotton who gives liberty to Christian Sponsors to entitle wicked mens children to baptism by their undertaking for them yet can scarce find in his heart for ought I find to allow them the