that save him 2. The Godfather may be an Hypocrite and mean nothing that he promiseth and shall the Child be saved by his Lye that damneth the Lyer himself 3. Why should a Promise of future Education save a Child that must die to morrow or ere long 4. But if it be the meer opus operatum of Baptizing that must save that may be a Profanation when unduly applied and the Priest's sin that damneth himself cannot save others § 11. 8. Some lay the hope upon Ancestâ—rs Faith and say That if the Great Grandfathers or others before them were faithful the Infants shall be saved But then are all Men saved for Noah's Faith Or how far must our Confidence ascend § 12. 9. Most of the Anabaptists with us hold That there is no Promise nor Assurance of the saving of any particular Infants in the World either Christians or Heathens but only that God electeth some whom he will sanctifie and save and reprobateth others whom he will damn without any notice given to the World who they be or how many or how few So that we cannot say that he will save Ten or that he will damn Ten of all the World nor have the Faithful any more promise than Heathens of the Salvation of their Infants and so are not to baptize them § 13. 10. The commonest Opinion among the English Calvinists is That God hath made no certain Promise of the Salvation of any particular Infant but by his general Promise of mercy to the Seed of the Faithful hath given us cause to hope that more of them than of others shall be saved and therefore that they are by Baptism to be entred into the visible Church as we baptize the Adult while we are not certain but they may be Hypocrites § 14. But I think this would not warrant their Baptism nor give us any certain hope of any ones Salvation God hath but one Covenant of Grace which giveth us Christ and Life and God hath ordained no Baptism but what is for the Remission of Sin and making us Members of Christ if we have the Conditions of Right to Baptism The Adult profess Faith and Repentance if they have them in sincerity and consent with the Heart as well as the Tongue they are certainly pardoned If they are Hypocrites and consent only with the Lips they have notoriously the Qualification which the Church must require and so are received to outward Communion but not that which God requireth to Remission and Salvation But if an Infant be the Child of a true Believer he hath all that God and the Church require And therefore if he be to be baptized he is certainly put into a state of Life because no Condition is wanting on his part § 15. 11. Others say That the Children of all Christians Sinners or Hypocriâ—es if baptized are in a state of Pardon and Salvation and that God will not punish the Child for the Hypocrite or prophane Parents Sin But by that rule Heathens Children should be in as safe a case because God will not punish them for their Parents sin Either something on the Parents part is a Condition of the Child 's Right or nothing If nothing Heathens and Christians Children are equal If something it must be true Faith as to God's acceptance For whatever the Church must do that knoweth not the Heart it is incredible that God should have such a Covenant Thy Child shall be saved if thou wilt though lyingly offer him to me tho thou shalt be damned for that Lye § 16. 12. That which I acquiesce in is this That God who visited Adam's Sin on all his Posterity hath in the Covenant of Grace also so joined Infants to the Parents that till they have a Will to chuse for themselves their Parents may chuse for them and dispose of them for their good and God taketh them as Members of the Parents so far And so he hath made many express Promises of mercy to the Faithful and their Seed and Threatnings to the Wicked and their Seed And that this Mercy cannot be consistent with their Damnation for it is to be their God and to love and bless them which cannot stand with damning them And God having but one Covenant seeing they are in the same Covenant with their Parents and not another if it give Pardon to the Parents it doth so also to the Child of whom no Condition is required but that he be offered by a believing Parent to God whose Acceptance is Salvation § 17. Therefore I think that the Synod of Dort truly conclude Act. 1. 17. That faithful Parents need not doubt of the Election and Salvation of their Children dying in infancy The Covenant certainly pardoneth and saveth them § 18. But this is not only because they are born of their Bodies nor yet is their Faith the efficient Cause of it but there are two things go to qualifie the Receiver as the dispositive Condition that is 1. That he be the Child of a faithful Parent who devoteâ—h himself sincerely to God 2. And that he be by the Parent devoted to God by Consent that he be in the mutual Covenant Which virtually all the Faithful do that have Infants because they devote themselves and theirs to God to the utmost of their Capacity And the Recipient Subject being thus qualified God Covenant pardoneth him as the efficient Instrument by signifying God's Will § 19. Though the Promise here be not so plain I deny not that all true Proprietâ—rs whose own the Child is here be as Parents § 20. God having not made the Case of Infants so plain to us as our own that are Adult there are difficult Objections against this way but as it seems to me much more against all the rest § 21. The grand Objection is That then some Infants lose a state of Salvation when they come to age Ans This will follow but far haâ—der things from all the rest But 1. This was thought no Absurdity for a Thousand years after the Apostles when I cannot prove that any one man thought that none of the Adult themselves fall away from true Sanctification and right to Life When even Augustine the famous Defender of Election and Grace against Pelagius thought that all the Elect only persevered and that more were justified and sanctified than were Elect and that the rest all fell away 2. Davenant answereth this That Infant-grace may be lost and yet not the Grace of the Adult Because it is but a Relative Regeneration and an Extrinseck Remission of Sin that giveth them Right to Impunity and Life or if they are said to have the Spirit it is not in a fixed Habit of Grace If you say They cannot be saved without real Holiness I answer § 22. 3. Distinguish of Holiness and of the Season of it 1. Infants have not actual Faith nor necessarily a proper Habit which is a disposition to facile acting that same act But a semen a Seed as Amesius
Christ And Faith kindling Love to God and Goodness and Men and Love kindled by Faith is the Sum of the Christian Religion And it is no Disparagement to Christ and Faith in him to be taken for a Means or to trust him as one that will save to the uttermost all that come to God by him CHAP. XIX Of the State of Infants as to Salvation § 1. I Have said so much of this in two Books against the Anabaptists and in my Christian Directory that I shall therefore here be brief What measure of Glory and holy intellectual operations Infants shall have after Death we know not but we have reason to judge that they shall not be like Brutes nor so unintelligent as in the Body nor sleep in an unactive Potentiality but be intellectual Agents § 2. The Conceits of a middle state of those unbaptized as having poenam damni and not pâ—nam sensus we know not what to make of unless they suppose them to be not actually but only potentially intelligent For one that is deprived of true felicity must by knowing it have the sense of his Privation Nor do we find in Scripture any Proof of their middle State however Reason may think it congruous § 3. They that think all Infants saved go on these different grounds 1. Some think that they have no sin But if Pelagians could prove that it would be no Proof that they shall have Heaven or Happiness 2. Others think that Christ hath pardoned them all that sin which was derived from Adam But either they mean that his Sacrifice and Merit immediately pardoned it or that he hath pardoned them all by the Covenant or Law of Grace But 1. Christ's Sacrifice and Merits are given to God for Man and pardon no man immediately but only Merit a pardoning Covenant 2. And that Covenant doth indeed in tantum pardon all men as far as common Mercy amounteth to for the remitting any part of the punishment is so far to remit the sin But the saving-pardon in question it giveth to no man actually before the Condition be performed for it is but a conditional Pardon Therefore as no one at age so no Infant hath any Pardon given him by that Covenant that I can find but only conditionally § 4. All grant That the Covenant pardoneth the Adult only conditionally and if it should pardon all Infants absolutely their Condition would be so much more happy than that of the Adult as is not consistent with what Scripture Reason and Experience speaketh And there is no such thing said of them in the Word of God and therefore not to be believed § 5. Those that think not all Infants so dying to be saved and glorified are also of several minds 1. Some think that none are glorified as being uncapable Subjects whom I will not bestow the labour to confute nor to open the ill Consequents of it 2. Some think that some are glorified but none are positively punished with the poena sensus These seem to me less rational than the former For either Infants will have actual Intellection and answerable Joys and Sorrows or not If not the former who reduce them all to meer Potentiality or the state of Brutes are in the right of whom some will have them to be Viatâ—res after Death in vehiculo aâ—reo and some are for their Transmigration and return to Earth If yea then as one part will have rational Joys the other must have rational Sorrows unless some return to Earth or some middle state be better proved than I have yet seen § 6. 3. Some think that all that are baptized are saved and no other though the rest have no Pain But 1. this is not suitable to the Nature of God as a Spirit and as most wise and merciful nor yet to the Tenor of his Word to lay mens Salvation and Rejection upon a meer outward â—eremony or Act of Baptizing The Seed of Believers may want it in many Cases of Impedition and the Children of Cannibals and Infidels might by Souldiers be taken away by thousands and baptized against the Parents Wills and then turned to them again to be educated And who can believe that barbarous Souldiers that must themselves â—e damned can thus save thousands at 〈◊〉 pleasures There are many Infants that have no right to Baptism and why then should it save them § 7. 4. Some think that all that are baptized by the Parents Conâ—int are saved But what if a Heaâ—hen or Infidel or Athent say I believe not in God or Christ my self but for worldly Ends I desire my Child may be baptized whether he say I will or I will not educate him uâ—to Christianity There is no shew of Reason much less of Scripture that this should save the Children that are no better offered to God § 8. 5. Some say That all that any Christian Sinner or Hypocrite offereth to God and is so baptized shall be saved that is That hath Christian Godfather or Godmother But if so then what if Christians take Heathens Children against their Wills and baptize them and then turn them home again Are they saved by the Ceremony or by Consent to the Covenant Not by the meer Geremony as is and shall be shewed Not by Consent of any such Christian that hath no right to them nor power to represent them else all the Children on Earth should be saved For Christians would sit at home and consent for them and dedicate them to God unseen And sure God would not refuse to save them because of distance nor because unseen for the Godfather may be blind nor because unbaptized when it cannot be had and the Child hindereth it not § 9. 6. Some say That it is the Churches Faith and dedicating them to God in Baptism that is the Condition of their Salvation But this is not intelligible If by the Church they mean all the Christian World or all a National Church or all a Diocesan Church yea or all a Parish-Church they use not to be all Godfathers nor to offer other folks Children to be baptized nor did I ever know one that had so common a â—ote or was so offered If they mean that the Churches Faith â—erveth whoever be the Covenanter or Offerer then all the Pagan World may have their Children saved by the Churches Faith or all that can be catcht up and baptized and so the Ceremony doth it But if they mean by that Church the Bishops or Presbyters whether it must be all the Bishops of the World or of the Nation or one Bishop or the Presbyter that baptizeth every one may speak according to his own Invention and Fancy but with no Proof from the Word of God or Reason as the aforesaid Disproofs do manifest § 10. 7. Some say That any one baptized by a Godfather's offer who undertaketh for his Christian Education shall be saved and no other But 1. The Godfather may have no Propriety in the Child but steal him shall
be ruled and judged by and constituteth the Essentials of Christianity § 18. This Covenant did constitute Christianity many years supposâ—d eight before any part of the New Testament was written as now extant and near seventy years before it was all written § 19. As Man hath an Intellect a Will and an Executive power and the Gospel is to work on all so the Creed is the Summary of our Belief the Lords Prayer of our Desire and the Christian Decalogue and Institutions of our practice as expounding what Baptism generally expresseth § 20. Though to the Iews that were bred up under the use of the Old Testament and that expected the Messiah the Apostles staid not long instructing them before they baptized them when they professed Repentance and Faith in Christ yet it cannot be conceived but that with the ignorant Gentile Christians all Teachers took pains to make them understand first what they were to profess and promise for ignorant doing they know not what pleaseth not God And therefore that the Faith contained in the three Baptismal Articles was certainly explained in more words and accordingly professed which must be in substance that called the Apostles Creed which the Churches preservation and use with the Custom of long instructing Catecumens giveth us notice of as well as the reason of the thing § 21. When we find Christ commanding his Apostles to disciple the Nations and baptize them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and teach them all his Commandments and when we daily see after people have learned to say They believe in the Father Son and Holy Ghost how long it is ere they understand the meaning of those three Articles and when we know that it is not bare words without the sence that constituteth the Christian Faith no sober Man will doubt whether the persons to be baptized were taught the sence as well as the words which must be done by more words And it is certain that those Words were not to alter Christ's Baptismal Covenant nor the Nature and Terms of Christianity but to expound them And it is certain that multitudes were so weak that had those Words been very long and many they would rather have burdened them than become their own profession as understood and remembred And it is certain that the changing of words doth easily turn to a change of the sense and that even then Heresies quickly multiplied which made it necessary to the Church to be careful to preserve sound Doctrine From all which it clearly followeth that a Creed that is a Summary Profession of Belief explaining the Baptismal Articles was in common use in all the Churches many years before the writing of the New Testament And it is not likely that in the Apostles days the Churches did receive it from any but themselves § 22. Yet it is not probable that they composed exactly such a Form of Words as might not at all be altered and used still the very same terms for the Creeds recited by Irenaeus Tertullian Marcellus in Epiphanius and others do all differ in some words from one another and some Articles have been added since the rest of which see Usher and Vossius de Symbolis But except those few Additions they all agree in Sence which may perswade us that the ancient Churches kept still to Words which signified the same matter of the Articles of our common Creed and admitted no variation of the Words but such as was small and endangered not the Doctrine § 23. Though Baptism explained by the Symbol of Faith Lords Prayer and Decalogue contain at least the Constitutive Essentials of Christianity yet the Integrals are much larger and all that Christ commanded was to be taught the Church And though this was done by Voice many years by the Apostles before they wrote any part of the New Testament yet the Memory of men from Generation to Generation would have been a very unsafe and treacherous Preserver of so many things had they been committed to Memory alone Therefore it pleased the Wisdom and Love of God to inspire the Apostles prophetically and infallibly to commit the Sum of the History of Christ's Life Sufferings and Death c. with all the Integrals of his Word to those durable and sacred Records which we call the Holy Scriptures for the easier and fuller Propagation and Preservation of the Christian Faith and all its Integrals especially his Example and sacred Precepts yea and the necessary Accidentals or Appurtenances § 24. Because the Scriptures contain both in Words and Sence much more than the Essentials of Christianity and so more than is of absolute necessity to Salvation many a million may be saved that understand not all that is in the Scriptures nay no man on Earth understandeth it perfectly And he that understandeth and receiveth the Essentials shall be saved though he were ignorant of a thousand particular Texts § 25. Therefore it is that the Church hath ever selected the great and most necessary Truths and taught Children and Catechised Persons these before the rest by way of Catechism of which the foresaid Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue are the Sum and the Sacramental Covenant is that Sum yet more contracted And it hath not been the Churches way to teach Children or Converts the Bible over in order indifferently without selecting first the Marrow out of the whole which the Ignorant cannot do for themselves § 26. Besides the Method or Order of the Scripture books there is specially to be studied by those that will be more perfect than the rudeâ— for t the true Method of the Body of Doctrine contained in all the Scriptures For all the parts of that Doctrine have that Place Order and Respect each to other as maketh up the Beauty and Harmony which is in the whole And even in the Covenants the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue there is a most excellent Order and Method above all that is found in Aristotle or any humane Writers though alas too few perceive it § 27. Therefore they that gather true Systems of Theology do not add to the Scripture nor feign it to have a Method which it hath not no more than Catechisms do but only gather out that Doctrine which is there and deliver it in the true Scripture-method not as it lieth in the order of Words but in the order of Relation that one Truth hath to another And to despise this real Method because every dull and slothful Wit doth not see it in the Scriptures is indeed to despise the Matter and Design of the Scripture and to despise all true and clear Knowledge of things Divine For to see Truths placed in their proper Order doth differ from a knowing of some confused parcels as knowing the parts of a Man a Picture a Clock a House a Ship c. duly compaginated and seeing all the parts cast confusedly on a heap But to draw up a true Method is the Work of a skilful hand and