God's Ordinances in it as Ordained to give them the Signs of their Title to the Kingdome of Glory it being said of the Church now increasing And the Lord added Acts 2. 47. to the Church daily such as should be saved Without which daily and visible addition to the Church of such as shal be saved the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or hairy Devils Scripturized by Aquila Aquila in Is 13. 21. would soon dance in it If therefore Infants must be offered to Christ and thereby have a Communion with him in the Kingdome of Heaven Baptism Christ's Ordinance now in full vigour and force must be communicated to them in the Church Velut Arrha Sponsi as a Christian Signe of this their Communion with Christ and Right to him in the Kingdome of Glory and as a visible Manifestation of this invisible Benefit the Church of God being as truly visible as invisible He that objecteth our Text saying Text. Graee Mr Tombs in his Examen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of such not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of these is the Kingdome of God or of Heaven and that Christ intended to teach others Humility Simplicity Innocency by these Children and that therefore the Kingdome of God is of such only who are like to these Children such Children expressing not Innocency Simplicity Humility as they are Vertues may take for a sure Answer Propter quod aliquid est tale illud magis That for which any Thing is such is it selfe more such If Men be qualified for the Kingdome of God by reason of their likenesse with such Infants such Infants are as much if not more qualified for the same Kingdome who though they doe not expresse true Vertues outwardly yet outwardly expresse the likenesse of such Vertues and have inwardly true Vertues by Infusion effecting their inward conjunction with God And this outward likenesse though naturall and not flowing from inward and Supernaturall Habits yet is in such Infants outwardly significative of inward Perfection from which signification the similitude is taken Where it is Note-worthy that Baptism was not obligatory or necessary to Salvation untill after the Death of Christ the very Morning-Rites and Sacrifices being on the day of his Passion in force and the Evening-oblations invalid nor declared in a generall consideration untill the command went forth Goe ye therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them c nor yet fully compleatly sealed and perfected untill the promulgation of the Gospell in the Pentecost And we are not driven to take Sanctuary at the Terms of the Summulists Summulissae â— and stand it out that other children in the rigour of Speaking are such For although Christ did both commend these Vertues the likenesse whereof is in children and Men-piously-turn'd-children in respect of their having them truly yet he shewed also that the age of children is not underannuated and estranged from the Kingdome of God Because when he said Suffer little Children to come unto me he spake literally and Historically of true children presented actually to him And therefore even the reason adjoyned for of such is the Kingdome of God must also truly agree with true children and those imbracings and blessings of true children signifie truly the like Things in the Kingdome and import Heavenly blessings and imbracings CHAP. LIX I Confirm it thirdly If in this great Command of Baptizing children be not included God having imprinted in the nature of Parents a most ardent and earnest Love of their children there is nothing in the Supernaturall Order of Grace that answers to this naturall Love according to the way of God in the disposition of these Orders and the Parent is left by the God of Nature very much loving his child and yet not succoured by the God of Grace or inform'd how or that his child shall be beloved of God without which pectorall security he cannot love his child as he ought and with a love becomming a Christian Father I speak of security by Ordinance we being confined to Ordinances which excludeth four And if this fear be not excluded it will be continuall and urgent and the Gospell and law of Christ shal in this respect be Lex Timor is Servitut is non Amoris Libertatis a law of Fear and Bondage not of Love and Liberty which it essentially is and ought and is revealed to be And the fearfull and troubled Parent may perhaps go aside into a melancholy place and there desperately cry O for my poor childrens sakes that I had been born a Jew before Christ and expected him in Figures this my latter having him in Substance is dangerously prejudiciall to my dear flesh and bloud-Babes Rachel in the Orientall Languages Hebr. Syr. Chald. is interpreted a Sheep or Lamb and a Lamb or Sheep was aptly and suteably call'd up to lament weep and Mat. 2. 18. mourn over Innocent Lambs Indeed every Christian Mother if knowing and not unnaturall I exclude Anabaptists would be a Rachell a sheep and in this great contest betwixt Love and Fear mourn weep and lament over her Lambs And whereas it is the observation of Franzius that the Sheep or Franzius in Ove Lamb useth in the sensuall motions of Joy and Sorrow but one bleating â—one and that one a pleasant-one Griefe would invent many sad and unpleasant Tones in those Rachels or Sheep And the perswasions of the most Spirituall Men would not otherwise prevaile with them than the Odours applied to Persons in a Fit of the Falling Sicknesse which happily recover them out of the Fit but are unfit to discharge the Disease or fitly prevent the casuall Recurrence of it Because their Griefs would under the Supposition and consequence of this Case be rationall For it would be apparent that the Course of Divine Ordinances was interrupted And therefore like Rachel they would not be Comforted And as according to the Discourse Scholastici of School Divines if God should reveal to a Man his Damnation he might lawfully despair So if this neglect of divine provision for Infants now only under the Gospell were a reveal'd Truth Parents would think justly or unjustly my reverentiall Fear of God will not suffer me to define themselves dealt with hardly strangely preposterously and the Thoughts arising would raise and beget irregular and immoderate Sorrow I doe not justifie these complaints or Griefs But I maintain that God cannot give a just cause of Griefe or complaint against him and that the Matter of this Case thus put into Form is impossible and therefore the thing is impossible which is dreined from it as heer not only ex Vi suppositionis but also ex Vi consequcntiae petitae quasi ex rei naturâ CHAP. LX. NOte The Baptism of Infants is not commanded expressly interminis though the Circumcision of them was expressely commanded and by a positive Law Because the Thing which materially occasions a particular nomination or branch of injunction in a Law
first of them Yet Faith justifies as being alive and as being alive works I answer This Argument fights altogether for the Faith of understanding and grown Persons and if it wins the Field I lose it not And Faith in Children is not dead though it works not the fault being in the Organ with regard to within and without CHAP. LXIV I Confirm it thirdly St Paul writeth Eph. 5. 25. 26. to the Ephesians Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Where it is perspicuous that either Infants are of the visible Church and partakers of her Faith or that Christ did not give himselfe for them and also that those for whom he gave himselfe he sanctifies and cleanses with the washing of water by the Word the water and the word being the outward part of the Sacrament and the Sacramentall Sense being the literall Sense of this place though the Adversary would have hoop't it up to the washing of the word preached untill his Hoops brake and flew about his ears and the water being left leapt into his face And the visible Church is here meant because the visible Church is the Church which is invisibly sanctified and cleansed with the Visible washing of Water by the Word And because the water and Word in these words concern Children the Admonition is conveniently directed to Husbands who are exhorted to love their Wives this Love being the pious occasion that Children are born to the Church In the which exhortation agreeably the Baptizing of Infants is implicitely Theologi in primam secuudam partem D. Thomae Vide S. Hieronymum adversus Jovinianü Vigilantium c. commanded Now the Divines put it to the Question An Deus jubeat impossibibilia Whether or no God Commands impossible Things And they generally answer negatively Their Commanding Reason is Because if God should command impossible Things ageret praeter finem Mandati qui est ut servetur he would work besides the end of the Commandement which is that it may be kept And here is Ignorance Imprudence want of Power and Unrighteousnesse in one lefthand-cast of the Anabaptist cast upon God For in his Legislation he commands and appoints a Thing which as the Anabaptist mutters for the unfitnesse and incapacity of the Subject to which the Action in the appointment is appointed to point neither ought nor can be done according to Appointment CHAP. LXV NOte The federall adherent extrinsecall relative and Covenant Holinesse transmitted from the last Age to Posterity and grounded 1 Cor 7. 14. upon St Paul and which is commonly distinguished against internall inherent and Personall Holinesse is not fashionable to this purpose or of the same colour with it And Mr Tombs in his Examen as Mr Tombs judiciously censures it the ancient Writers knew it not For this federall Holinesse as it is ordinarily expounded walks by the sides of the Parents who are many times unbeleevers and formall Denyers of God in their Works and therefore cannot qualify their Children being also Children of Wrath for Baptism And though in such a Case the verticity of the point moves to the Faith of the Church yet neither this Faith concurrs to the Holinesse of a Child in order to Happinesse as we speak here of Holinesse without application which is by Ordinance And what shall be said of those young raw Catechumeni the Jewish Children Baptized by Athanasius in his childhood as he was playing the Bishop on the Sea-shoare which Baptism was pronounced firm and Sacrament-strong by Alexander Bishop of Alexandria and his learned Assistants and was pinned upon the Record by Ruffinus Nicephorus Ruffin Eccles Hist lib. 1. cap. 14. and others Our Christian Monuments and Annals have many potent Examples that urge accordingly And if a Paganish Infant-Orphan be brought by Providence to be educated all the time of his Pupillage by a Christian shall he not be presently Baptized when the Patria Potestas Fatherly Power over him is now untterly dissolved Farther yet The Covenant confirmed by the Blood of Christ is more ample and of more efficacy than the Promise to Abraham as such Wherefore if the Child offered be in a condition that the Undertakers can perform their Promise there can be no injury where the Right leans towards God and when the Sacramentall Ordinance is opened to all Nations And if an innocent Child should be thrown aside from Baptism hôc ipso by this very thing that he is not born of Christian Parents the child should be hardly used and it would hardly yea verily it would never be soundly explicated wherein the largenesse and plentifullnesse of the Gospell with relation to Infants doth consist And here is no repugnance oppugning us from the want of Christian Parents because the Christian Suseeptores adopt such children and are loco Parentum CHAP. LXVI I Now set forward to prove the Baptism of Infants by Reason and to send the Text assistance from the God of Nature Reason as Aquinas D. Tho. p. 1. q. 1. a. 8. ad 2. teaches being subservient to Faith as the naturall Inclination of the will is to Charity I prove it first There is a perfect Congruity and Conformation of Things in this Ordinance with reference to Children Which Infers a Congruity if not a Necessity of their being Baptized As thus There is requir'd in grown Persons an actuall Disposition to Baptism by actuall Faith for two Reasons The first is Because they are defiled by actuall sins which they have added wilfully to their Originall Transgression Sins which are committed by the actuall aversion of our wils from God naturally and symmetrically asking if they be remitted the actuall Conversion of our wils to God The second is Because God acts with all Things according to their Natures and therefore the reasonable creature having the use of Arbitriment wanting to be justified is not justifi'd by God except he concurs by free and actuall Assent But neither of these Causes hath place in Infants they having only an habituall Aversion which may be removed by the infused Habit of Theologicall Charity and they having sinned not by their own wils but by the will of another and it being therefore even and equall that they should be relieved by the wils of others Which is most proportionable to our way Guidance and Prudence we dividing to all all Things agreeably to them by an Act of distributive Justice informed with Prudence being the Way of Humane Reason and to God's Way and Government being the way of Divine Providence Wherfore St Austin speaks as reasonably S Aug Serm. 10. de verbis Apost so divinely Accommodat illis Mater Ecclesia aliorū pedes ut veniaut aliorū Cor ut credant aliorum linguam ut fateantur ut quoniam quòd aegri sunt alio peccante praegravantur sic cùm sani
that respect he hath already sure hold of them And Theodot Job 1. 6. Vide Theophylact in Mat. 12. he who according to Theodotion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Adversary that lyeth in ambush against us is willing that the Anabaptists should greatly please themselves with a little smattering of Morality and a few beggerly rudiments of pious Profession whil'st they are Soule-poison'd themselves and whil'st they poison the Souls of the People with their impure Arguments which like the inchanted Castles of their Hearts are strong and impregnable only until the Charm be dissolved O the Saviour of Israell Nature in the Naturall Body doth alwaies endeavour to rectify it self And Grace in the Soule rectifies Nature But who shall rectify these out-law'd and strong-will'd people that strongly keep the Fort of their Hearts against Grace Even thou alone who art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mighty God CHAP. LXXXVIII THE Results here prefer themselves Whereof the first is This Text thus warded guarded and secur'd with Fortifications of all sorts professing for Baptism the Baptism of Infants is commanded in Scripture The Resultancy is thus brought neer to the Eye Every Proposition is either a Principle principally and properly belonging to some Science I speak of Science in a large Sense from which the Scâ—ence partly floweth and followeth every Science being Virtually contained in it's Principles or is a Conclusion deduced from a Principle Whence every Conclusion is reducible to the Principle from which it was deduced And Sciences are of two Kindes there being some which proceed from Principles known by the naturall Light of our understanding as Arithmetick Geometry and others and some that proceed from Principles known by the Light which a Superiour Science gives to us and these we name Subordinate Sciences As our Science called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Perspectiva proceeds from Principles Vide Alstedâ—i Cursum Philosophicum ultimae Ediâ—ion is in Perspectiva Musica made known by Geometry and Musick from Principles known by Arithmetick Now if the Proposition be a Principle of a Superiour Science it supposeth no other Principle of it's Kinde going before it yet is it big with Inference and the Propositions inferred are Conclusions regulated by it this being one applicatory Sense of the Rule Primum in unequoque Genere est Mensura reliquorum The first in every kinde is a Measure of the rest And every Conclusion supposeth and inferreth unlesse the last Conclusion that is deducible may be â—ound this inferring not but abundantly supposing And of what rank and Order soever the Proposition is which supposeth and inferreth of the very same Order and ranke are the Propositions inferred and supposed If that be a naturall Truth these also be naturall Truths If that be a divine Truth and God's Word these be God's Word and divine Truths Because as that in it selfe expresseth God's Speech so likewise by it selfe it supposeth and inferreth God speaking by these Take now the Text or Proposition here Except one be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God This Proposition supposeth and inferreth What doth it suppose Every Proposition necessarily and immediately supposeth the Proposition whereof it is the immediate Reason the Thing the immediate Reason of the Thing being immediately connexed and such a Reason orderly necessarily and most neerly following the Thing The Thing therefore which this Proposition must of necessity suppose is Go and Baptize all Persons qualified for Baptism yea even Infants offered by the Church it necessarily following as the immediate Reason For except one be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Or Except ye Baptize all such and they be born of Water and of the Spirit they cannot enter into the Kingdome of God And the immediate Reason hath so severe and sincere a connexion with the Thing that the Thing which even now went before it and was supposed it can now againe infer and bring after it making the Thing omnimodously strong by supporting it on both sides and with both Arms upholding it As thus Except one be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Therefore goe and Baptize all Persons qualified for Baptism yea even Infants offered by the Church Finally This Proposition or Conclusion except one be born c. being the Word of God a divine Truth and a Proposition of the Superiour Science which is Scientia Dei Beaâ—orum the Science of God and the Blessed the other Proposition Go and Baptize all Persons qualified for Baptism yea even Infants c. must also be a Proposition of the Superiour Science a divine Truth and the Word of God even upon a double Account and as in the Supposition so in the Inference and must be received by all rationall Persons as of equall waight and worth with the written and expresse Proposition Except one be born c. by the which it is necessarily supposed and from the which it is inferred of necessity And therefore let our Anabaptists never ask more where we finde the Command of Baptizing Infants in the Word of God it being there once and againe within a short space of place And the Truths of Scripture cannot be more cleared by interpretation if we could mingle with our Interpretations the very Beams of the Sun Indeed A Conclusion may proceed ex falsa Hypothesi from a false Supposition But our Conclusion is the Word of God and in a false supposition the Thing supposed is not immediately necessarily naturally supposed but accidentally ad placitum as being far fetch 't neither is the Proposition supposing or before and to which we suppose the immediate Reason of it And the false Supposition may be soone discovered to have crep't and wedg'd it selfe unnaturally into the Order drawn from the Principle and not to belong orderly and naturally to it CHAP. LXXXIX THE second Result is The Baptizing of Infants is necessary tà m necessitate Pracepti quà m necessitate Medii by the necessity of Precept and by the necessity of Meanes That is necessary by the necessity of Precept which is necessary because it is divinely commanded And that is a Command at the least an implicit-one to the breach of which there is annexed an extreme Penaltie as here there is That is necessary by the necessity of Meanes which is appointed by divine appointment as a Meanes of our entring into the Kingdome of God And here Baptism is required as a necessary Condition Qualification or Meanes Except one be born c. the unbaptized being excepted by a contrary exception as unconditioned unqualified and without the Meanes The Reader may perhaps voice it here This is Popery If he doth I reply first I have repeated what I have read in Dr Featly who hath Dr Featly in his Dâ—pper dip't written as I have that Baptism is doubly necessary by these Necessities Secondly I reply
Western Churches or as the Ecclesia Graeâ—â— Eâ— O … ales aliae quaedam Church of Greece and some other Orientall Churches Baptizetur Servus Christi talis in nomine Patris c. Let the servant of Christ be Baptized here he is named in the Name of the Father c. For the Grecians doe not attribute the Act of Baptism to the Minister Sacramenti Minister of the Sacrament that they may de industria of set purpose professedly and practically condemn the old errour of those who attributed the virtue of Baptism to the Baptizers saying I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas 1 Cor. 1. 12. With a beame cast upon these Requisites on the part of the Sacrament St Austin is doctrinall Accedit S Aug. Tractat. 80. in Jâ—an Verbum ad Elementum fit Sacramentum The Word is applyed to the Element and there is made a Sacrament And ex parte Baptizantis on the part of the Baptizer we may not undervalue his right intention For as a certaine Forme of words is required by the pull of necessity that the indifferency of the Matter may be determined so there is need of some speciall Intention formall or virtuall to determine the indifferency of the Form otherwise he that shall accidentally reade or utter the words or formall part of the Sacrament in strange or profane matters and occasions shall be said to reade or utter them Sacramentally And in Conscience The Minister of a Sacrament doth not Act Sacramentally but as Minister Christi the Minister of Christ and he cannot act as the Minister of Christ except he doth intend the worke of Christ and to Act after his prescription And lastly ex parte Baptizati on the part of the Baptized right qualification is required which in Infants is That they are offered to the Church and supplied with the Faith of it that they may be offered to God CHAP. XXIIII AND it is not absonous from Truth that the Kingdome of God is open to the rightly Baptized The Scriptures being impregnably strong for it The Apâ—stle St Peter having opened the sluees of Heaven and brought the sloud into his Discourse and how some were saved by water in the Ark. assâ—meth The like figure 1 Pet. 3. 21. whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us And St Paul is divinely Tit. 3. 5. symphonous But according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost The Originall deales it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Text. Graec Vulgar doth reâ—â—est into its native signification per Lavacrum Regenerationis Edit Vulg. by the Laver of Regeneration Then are we saved by Baptism as by a Sacramentall Instrument Then are we likewise washed in Baptism from Originall sin Then is Baptism the Sacrament of Regeneration and consequently of Initiation And it is most conformable to the royall way of divine Mercy and to right Reason the royall Work of the divine Power that the Sacrament which initiates us should also instrumentally regenerate us and compliablie lift us up into the royall state of Salvation that the Goodnesse of God may be not onely as large and extensive but also in some sort as intensive and efficacious for us to life and deliverance as the malice of the Devill is to Death and destruction Wherefore Ananias to Paul then Act. 22. 16. Saul Arise and be Baptized and wash away thy sins For As the outward filth of the body is washed away with water so the blood of Jesus Christ applied in Baptism 1 Joh. 1. 7. cleanseth us from all sin which is the filth of the Soul Then are our actuall sins also committed if such there be before Baptism washed away by it And either this water-signe must be Signum inane a vain Signe and of no effect or there is an inward washing suppositis intere à supponendis And if there be this washing God's works being perfect and Sanctifying Grace being opposed to all sin must be a washing from all sin Which compleat washing is indeed so properly the Thing intended by the Author of the Sacrament and Giver of Grace that be the outward washing more or lesse I speak here of Infants not of Adults in whom the Grace received is correspondent with the qualification of the Subject the inward effect doth not recipere magis minùs but is ever the same Because God lookes upon the End in every practicall touch of his Power which End is the chiâ—fe in all the course and the first intentionally though executively the last and Grace the Gift of God is an attendant upon the Thing signified and doth not attemperate it selfe to the manner of signifying And therefore Baptism given with a threefold Immersion doth not more justify than Baptism conferred by one Immersion or Inspersion And yet the first is a more expresse and visible signe of Sacrramentall Grace because it washeth more perfectly and furthermore adumbrates the most blessed Trinity in whose most blessed Name the Baptism is given A Roman Councill celebrated under Gregory the Great and the same Gregory together with Gratianus firmly set a bar upon this Truth Leander Bishop of Hispalis or Sivil imploreth Gregory his Determination concerning Immersion whether it should be one or three-fold Gregory answers as followeth De Concilium Roman sub Greâ—â—cio primo idem Greg lib. 1. Registâ—i â—p 4. ad Leandrum Episc Hispalâ—nsem allegat Gratianus de Consecrations Dâ—st 4. cap. de trina trinâ mersione Baptismatis nil responderi verius potest quà m quod ipsi sensistis quia in una Fide nihil officit sanctae Ecclesiae Consuetudo diversa Nos autem quòd tertio mergemus triduauae Sepulturae Sacramenta signamus ut dum tertiò Infans ab aquis educitur Resurrectio trâ—duani temporis exprimatur Quòd si quis fortè etiam pro summae srinitatis Veneratione existimet fieri neque ad hoc aliquid obsistit Baptizando semel in aquis mergere quia dum in tribus Subsistentijs una Substantia est reprehe sibile esse ni … a tenùs potest Infantem in Baptismate vel ter vel semel immergere quâ—ndò in tribus mersionibus personarum Trinitas in una potest D. vinitatis Singular it as designari Concerning the threefold Immersion in Baptism nothing can be answered more truly than that which ye have thought Leander and the Church of Sivil used one Immersion because a diverse Custome of the Holy Church hurts not where there is one Faith â—ut we dipping the third time declare the Mystery of the three dayes Sepulture that while the Infant is drawn from the water the third time the Resurrection of Christ after three dayes may be thereby expressed If any perhaps may thinke it to be done even for the veneration of the highest Trinity neither is there any hinderance to this but such a one may dip once onely the
bespattereth and bedawbeth his Mother-Church as accusing her that she damns Children dying without Baptism he runs himselfe inevitably upon Scylla or Charibdis For he would have Children sav'd without Christ that is without Grace which is the bond of Salvation in Christ and the wedding Garment without Faith which is the first sanctifying Grace against the common cry of Scripture and without a Sacrament the Sacraments being the pure Channels of God's mercy to us in Christ and so sets them above all Ordinances or he would have them all damn'd who doe not ascend to the years of discretion Alasse poore Babies That God as the great Provisor and overlooker of the naturall and supernatural Order and that Christ as the High-Priest and the Shepheard and Bishop of our Soules supplies 1 Pet. 2. 25. by his extraordinary Power the inculpable defects of the Sacraments which are Defects ex parte Ministri Materiae c. I deny not And that he supplies all the Defects concerning them I doe not affirme Because the Supernaturall and extraordinary suppletion is in the most part when the ordinary failes without our fault or failing it being therefore afforded and the obligation of the Supreme Provisor in some such Cases only arising As the Universall Cause in Nature supplieth in like manner the naturall Defects of the Particular Cause Here the Adversary being desperately resolved durissima atque ultima sustinere to endure all hardnesse manumises this Proposition Those who doe not manifest Grace are not of the Visible Church I answer first The Innocents Mat. 2. 16. in the Gospell Baptized Baptismo Sanguinis with the Baptism of Blood did not manifest Grace and yet were of the visible Church because they were visible Martyrs And they are called by the Ancients Primitiae Martyrum the first fruits of the Martyrs And when the Fathers in their Sermons upon St Stephen dignify him with the Title of Protomartyr the first Martyr they suppose him to have been the first in respect of adult Persons and the first compleate Martyr Where learn that the Baptism of Blood hath the same Effects as Baptismus Fluminis Flaminis the Baptism of water and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost that is as Baptismus in Re Baptismus in Voto Baptism in the Thing and Baptism in Desire here being an extraordinary Suppletion Yea the Baptism of Blood is the more noble as having and holding a singular conformity with the Passion of Christ Secondly If Children do not pertaine to the Visible Church because they cannot manifest Grace then if they dye being Children miserable is their end and their misery in the losse of God is without end Because the Church of God is Via the way she only teaching it and the Head of it so calling himselfe and the Kingdome of God is Patria the Country And as no man comes to his Country but by the way So extra Ecclesiam non est Salus out of the Church there is no Salvation A Figure whereof was That all were drowned in the Houd whom the Floud found unaâ—ked The divine S. Cypr. lib. de Vniâ—ate Ecclesiae Rule of St Cyprian is universally accepted Non habet Deum Patrens qui non habet Ecclesiam Matrem He hath not the God of the Church for his Father who hath not the Church of God for his Mother And Concil Lateran sub Innocent 3. cap. 1. the Faith Confession of the Councill of Lateran under Innocentius the third is innocent Una est Fidelium Universalis Ecclesia extra quam nemo salvatur There is one Universall Church of the Faithfull out of which no Person is saved Lastly outward manifestation of Grace doth not render us Members of the visible Church as visible that is of the outward Church as it is outward but that we visibly and and outwardly communicate with the said Church and are congregated with the visible Members of it the Case of the Innocents was extraordinary as the Birth of Christ was upon which it waited because the outward manifestation of Grace imports a reference to the Senses of men which are not capable of the Impressions of such manifestation and because outward manifestation in free Agents is no infallible signe of inward and invisible Grace except it be infallibly known to us that the Persons giving such manifestation are infallibly directea or except we receive it of God by private Revelation CHAP. XLV THe last Objection comes to it's tryal And it is the monumental Objection of Mr Tombs the Oracle Apollo Champion Achilles Mr Tombs in his Examen Goliath Knight-Errant or lesse improperly the feather'd Forehorse of our Anabaptists It parallels another Text with ours Except ye eate the flesh of the Son of Man and drinke his Blood ye Jo. 6. 53. have no life in you Being the Text in meditation whereof Synesius hymns it of the Eucharist that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes in Hymnis the Trophy of Divine Love It is not saith Mr Tombs proved sufficiently by illation from this Text that Infants may receive the Lord's Supper therefore neither from the other that Infants may be Baptized Wherefore although the Text treateth of Baptism yet is it not efficaciously convincing for Infants I answer First These Texts very much differ in their Logicall Terms and latitude His Text is directed by a Term of restriction to the Jews to whom Christ preached in the Synagogue being grown See V. 59. Persons and commends to them the eating of strange but solid meat perfectly agreable to them only and such as they Except ye eat c. In our Text although presentially directed to Nicodemus the direction is let loose and widened with a Term extending to all persons young and old c. Except one be born Secondly These Sacraments are very much different in their Natures and Effects The Sacrament of Baptism was given that it might initiate us purge us from sin and reduce us to Spirituall Purity and it is requisite that even Children should be initiated purg'd and reduced and being now initiated bodily and apparently into the World should not be left there by the Lover of Souls as the most innocent and yet wanting an Ordinance of Spirituall Initiation For this reason the Sacramentall and visible Action in Baptism is washing with water accordable even with Children who are born unclean and therefore presently washed by the Midwife The Eucharist was appointed that it might nourish and conserve Spirituall Life acquired in Baptism which corporall Meat doth in corporeall Things as conserving the animall Life and therefore the Signes here are presented in the form of solid nourishment which agrees not perfectly with Babes but only with grown Persons Yea the Spirituall Repast in the Eucharist being instituted with analogy to materiall Meat and Drinke and presupposing in the Receiver Spirituall Life if it findeth it not cannot nourish materiall eating and drinking presupposing also the Life of Nature And God
giving grace to the religious and humble Receiver of this Sacrament gives it alwaies as an augmentation of Precedent Grace not as the beginning of Spirituall Life But Baptism as vivificatory primarily and properly belongeth to Infants that are dead in sin And a strong digestion of solid nourishment in Spirituall Things conformable to vigorous Augmentation is not without the Spirituall strength and election of grown Persons And the Eucharist most relieves the best disposed As in Nature Est modus operandi Causae uniuscujusque ut cateris Paribus sempèr magis operetur in passum meliùs dispositum Every Cause more works upon a Subject more disposed because it hath lesse to conquer But there is no diversity of Disposition in Children nor any positive or privative indisposition to Baptism And therefore Baptism infallibly necessarily and irresistibly produceth it's whole Effect in them For Causa necessarâ—a sufficientèr applicata debet operari A necessary Cause applied sufficiently must work if it encounter no resistance requiring a Warlike encounter in the Subject and here is none Thirdly when Actions are directed and determined to certaine Persons capable of performance it is supposed that the performance belongs to them and their care to whom the determination and direction is made as in the Text Except ye eat the persons here being all capable of such care and performance But if Actions be enjoyned in Terms that involve all and some be uncapable of the care and performance enjoyned it is supposed that the performance belongs to the capable and knowing part not only in respect of themselves but also in respect of them who are unknowing and uncapable in themselves of such performance and care and therefore Subordinate And Parents are obliged to a care of their Children Superiours to care for Inferiours the Knowing to be carefull of the Ignorant by the Laws of God and Nature Lastly His Text is religiously true and illative even in our Sense For except the grown Jews to whom solid nourishment belonged after their conversion were converted Baptized and received the Sacrament of the Eucharist in Act or Desire Or if they wilfully rejected or neglected the sacred use of it they were void of Life as not having the Life of Grace and conserving it with agreeable nourishment CHAP. XLVI IF St Austin deduced a like necessity S Aug. l. 1. de peccatorum Merit is Remissione cap. 20. S Cypr. in l. de Lapsâ—s that Infants should receive the Lords Supper from the words Joh. 6. as appears by his own cleare expression If within the Line of St Cyprians Dayes the sacred Communion was exhibited to Infants as is evident by his evidence given concerning himselfe giving the Communion to an Infant Which History with its Book is againe Historied by St Austin If it be delivered S Aug. cp 23. up into the Senate and Councill of the Learned by Maldonat that Maldon Comment in Jo. 6. Innocentius the first held a necessity of communicating Infants and that this opinion and practise went on six hundred years with some parts of the Church I shall yeeld it passage as a pious Use but not as absolutely or strictly necessary nor as able to infringe the Baptizing of Infants or our Text concerning Baptism for the most unalterable Reasons newly given And moreover because the susception of the Eucharist cannot have it's whole substantiall or most excellent Effect in Infants And the Authority of private Men say the Sorbonists when they Sorbonista are not made publike by representing the Church in Councils proves little in dubious and those ill-byassed Cases Originall and Secondary Tradition are not of equall Validity Neither are some particular Churches and their use comparable or to be measured with the overspreâ—ding use in the great stream of the Church Innocentius as a private Doctor might accept it as a private opinion So might St Cyprian St Austin and others before them as the Testimony of Dionysius Areopagita makes credible It was a pious use and somewhat like that the sacred crums were anciently given in the Greek Church to innocent Children And uses of Ordinances must be measured with the Natures of them and therby tried I maim no Authority because it is such but as deviating or turning aside from Truth The Couâ—cill of Trent reasons devoutly most piously Concil Triden .. Sess 21. quâ— suit quinta suâ— pio quarto cap. 4. and according to right Reason Sancta Synodus dâ—cet parvulos usu rationis â—arentes nullâ obligari necessitate ad Sacramâ—ntalem Eucharistiae Communionem siquidem per Baptismi lavacrum regenerati Christo incorporati adeptam jà m filiorum Dei Gratiam in illa aetate amitteâ—e non possunt The holy Synod teacheth that Little-ones wanting the use of reason are not oblâ—ged by necessary obligation to the Sacramentall all Communion of the Eucharist because they being regenerated by the Laver of Baptism and incorporated into Christ cannot lose in that Age the Grace of the Sons of God now obtained Where the Councill learnedly enforces that the Eucharist being ordained for the nourishing of the Grace received in Baptism the use of it would be uselesse with regard to the main use in an Age which cannot lose the Grace received And whereas we are nourished not only that we may not perish but also that we may be strengthened we are not strengthened in Grace for present use but by the concurcrence of actuall Grace of the which Children as not acting by Grace are uncapable there only remaining accidentall and adventitious benefits according to the good use afterwards made of Baptismall Grace And now quandoquidem umbone exceperim hoc telum seeing I have received this Dart upon the bosse of my Shield or Buckler I thus retort it If Infants were partakers of the Eucharist then certainly they were Baptized being Infants Baptism preceding the Eucharist Yea Dionysius S Dionys Areap lib. Eâ—cles Hierarch c. 7. part 2. having eternized in his Hierarchy That the unbaptized ought not to be admitted to the sight of the Eucharist And St Austin here wheels to us Ad Sacramentum S Aug. l. 1. de peccat Merit Remiss cap. 20. Tom. 7. Mensae Domini nemo rit è nisi Baptizatus accedit To the Sacrament of the Lords Table none come by direct and orderly proceedings but the Baptized That the Ancients were deceived in the Baptizing of Infants as in communicating them will not follow because the Sacraments are differently natur'd and intended and because the practise was differently carriag'd This return of the Argument is like Aurum fulmâ—nans which is an Extract from Gold admixed with other Ingredients and in the blow forceth downwards with a mighty power This Return drives all down before it but what was down before CHAP. XLVII THirdly I gather up my selfe to prove that the Holy words Except one be born c. word it in the neerest and holiest Sense for Baptism from the sweet harmony concord
18. 11. which is prescribed in Exodus and likewise that the Nature and Effects of the Eucharist are as coherent with Infants as the Effects and Nature of Baptism are proved to be And though we shall not put God to a confinement yet because in ordinary Things and Cases he hath confined himselfe to his own Order we shall consider him in comparison of such Things to be there where he hath put himselfe and not expect extraordinary Works in disagreeing and ordinary Courses or Superordâ—nations within the Dominion of Ordinances For the way to God being the way of God is agreeable to God as 〈◊〉 Meanes agree with the End And therefore we come to the God of Order and of Harmonious Heaven by an orderly Way which is the Godly Participation of his Ordinances As Men goe to the Devill the God of this World and of Discorder Sidonius testifying there Sidon lib. 2. ep 9. is a great Head or Power in Hell overlooking and overawing all that there be no order kept 〈◊〉 a disorderly Way which is the wicked neglect contempt or abnegation of his Holy Ordinances CHAP. LI. I Confirme it secondly Christ is the Son of the Father of Mercies his Naturall Son And From the Father and the Son by one everlasting and undivided Act proceeds the Holy Ghost who is Love â—or 1 Jo. 4. 16. Text. Grac as the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Charity And the Son of God so loved Mankinde that he took the Nature of Man in the very wombe of a Woman and first was and appeared a Child And this Divine Son of God grown from a Child to a Man professed himselfe to be and was Medicus Animarum the most knowing and most mercifull Physitâ—an of Souls Now is it imaginable by intellectuall Creatures or can a Man be so blinde to the Law of Christ whose Love Wisdome Providence and infinite as to think that our Spirituall Physitian described by the Prophets and in the Gospell as the grand Master of the Colledge would now under the Gospell which is the Perfection of the Law and to publish which Christ himselfe became a Child suffer Children to have a damnable and mortal Disease inward but revealed in his Visible Church upon which rejecting the Synagogue he setled all Heavenly Rights and Properties now purchased and unfolded by his Death and not suffer them to have a revealed Cure by a Visible Ordinance It is improper that the Society of Jesus which Jesus is the greatest Lover of Mankinde should be such an evill Companion as to molest and incommodate all other Societies and Communities But it is most improper that the sweet and blessed Child Jesus should not be a Saviour of sweet Children as he is of other Persons or that they should want the Blessing of his Providence Plutarch honours in Tiâ—us a Pagan Plutar. in Tite Vespasiam Filio Emperour that he was Deliciae Humani Generis the Dainties of Humane Kinde and that he was often heard to say Hodie non regnavimus quia neminem affecimus Beneficio We have not reigned to day as not having been beneficiall to any Palladius applauds Bisarion because Pallad in â—ausiâ—ca cap. 116. Leontiâ—s in vita Joan. Eleemosynaâ—ii he sold his Bible for the reliefe of a poor Man And Leontius magnifies in Joannes Eleemosynarius that he wept alwaies in the evening when in the Day he had not been solicited for the suppliance and succour of some afflicted Person And now the Anabaptist sets Christ in whom the fullnesse of Mercy as of the Godhead dwels looking sternly and immoveably night and day upon all innocent Children who in puris naturalibus cannot looke towards him and who by the default of others are burdened with accidentall and grievous Impediments and leaving them destitute of Help yea selling in a manner his Book of Promises and glad Tidings to others for their Prejudice and without any pitty of them pretty Souls The Casuists publish to the World Casuistae that when the publike Use of a Thing is both Righteous and sinfull sub diverso respectu according to the good or evill Persons using it as Oyl was in the Primitive Times wherein it served for meat and for Lamp-use and was orderly used by the Christians and by the Jews disorderly it may be Righteously sold to all that are not known to buy it for evill purposes This Doctrine of the Anabaptists cannot be accepted of any for a good End because it is evill in it selfe as Blaspheming the Mercy of God the Procession of the Holy Ghost who proceeds ut Amor as Love the Incarnation of Christ as excommunicating harmelesse Children assigned to Christ by divine Title as profaning all Congregations and Families with uncircumcised and Unblessed Company as being injurious to the whole Church of God CHAP. LII I Confirme it thirdly As it is an ordinary manner of Inference to infer by arguing à majore ad minut affirmativè From the greater Thing to the lesser affirmatively thus He that is able to doe the greater Thing is able à fortiori to doe the lesser in eodem Ordine in the same Order of Things because as God having an Infinite Power does all things equally and with like facility so we being finite and acting by our Power act proportionably with it and in proportioned and subordinate Acts of Power the greater includes the lesser And as this Manner of Inference concerns the Power of the Agent So is it an extraordinary manner of Inference but a firm one and Giantstrong according to the divine Logick of Scripture to infer by arguing à minore ad majus from the lesser Thing to the greater thus If God actually cares and exercises his Power in caring for the Sparrow and the Haires of our Head he cares much more for our Children If he provides comfortably for Children under the Law he provides more comfortaebly for Children under the Gospell And this Manner of Inference concernes the providentiall Love and good Will of the Agent And although this Manner of Inference be not ordinary but with certain other applications deniable yet the work and Order of Love is a Proof above Nature and Reason and will not be thus limit-bound So we teach in ordinary Logick A posse ad esse non valet Argumentum The Argument is not Valid which saith whensoe're there is a passive Power that a Thing may be done then also is there an active Power which shall or will doe it Because although every Passive Power hath an active Power extant and responsible to it Yet many times they meet not But Love and Truth transcend all and teach above the ordinary Level that the Rule is contrary and rules thus A posse ad esse praesens vel futurum valet Argumentum when it meets with a Set and promised Order of divine Things and that God having willingly and lovingly bound himselfe to an Ordinary Law and proportionable Course being extraordinarily able to keep
Nations or People it must admit such Senses by the which it shall approve it selfe appliable to all people or Nations And Children certainly are a bigger part of the Nations or People in respect of their number than they are in respect of their growth And that our Children are so discipled is undeniable Because first they are offered to God by the Church or by their Parents who devote them and give their Names to Christ Secondly the Susceptores undertake for them that in conformity to their Obligation intimated in the Form of Baptism which is afterwards expressed in the Charge they shall be taught the true Worship of the most Holy Trinity Hitherto they are onely Disciples in Fieri Thirdly they receive the royall Marke or Character in their Souls by the which they are Seal'd for God and made Disciples and Christians in Facto esse not as being actually taught but as being put into the School and Family of Christ and set actually in the number of his Disciples according to the lesse common acception of the word We send sometimes little children to School or put them into the hands of Tutors or Governours not for their present actuall improvement by learning but that they may be kept out of harms way And thus children are sweetly received into Chrstian Discipline to way-lay the danger of their dying without Baptism God's generall and Holy Ordinance the Holy Ordination of which was not for nought in respect of any person Though this be adduced for Illustration sake and Similitudines Illustiant non probant Similitudes prove not but Illustrate Yet when the Similitude stands with both feet upon Things of neer affinity and like Oeconomy and concurring to Identity or some aggregate Perfection combined in the same End as the outward Man and the inward Man in the same man are but one and the same Christian Man tending to Legatur Suarez in Metaph Disp de Vno Sect. 8. Christ the Illustration is a solid Probation CHAP. LV. AND in this Text the word Teaching followes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teaching them to observe V. 20. c. And yet we doe not there presse the word Teaching to teach that Teaching alwaies and of necessity followes Baptism because Baptism of necessity and alwaies follows Teaching in Adultis in grown Persons capable of Teaching But now will they force Christ to speak irrhetorically and burden Scripture with a Tautology that he may speak for them Truly if they should he would immediately draw off and leave them to speak for themselves Forâ— If Teaching be set before Baptizing it will not evince that all the Persons deputed for Baptism must be actually taught before they be Baptized First Because ut habetur in Materiâ— de Legibus Statuta Communia Videatur Materia de Legibus propâ—â—â—ntur secundùm quod multitudeni conveniunt ideò Legislator in eis statuendis attendit id quod communiter in pluribus accidit Generall Appointments as this is are proposed accordingly as they agree with the greater number and therefore the Lawgiver in appointing them attends to that which commonly and for the most part happens And the greater number in those times were such as should be taught before they could be Baptized being grown Persons and the Lawgiver attends to the common course and bids teach all Nations Baptizing them And indeed in the Conversion of Nations and the generall Plantation of Christian Faith the Preaching of the Word as being the first onset upon the Sense and Soule precedeth orderly and simply the administration of the Sacraments Secondly because it might also be reasonably answered which would rebate the edge of all that could be said The stepping of teaching before Baptizing doth no more carry away with it that teaching hath legall precedency and ought alwaies to take the place in action before Baptizing than that Repentance as being commanded before Faith in the Words Repent ye and beleeve Mar. 1. 15. the Gospell should therfore claime alwaies the first place which yet is a fruit of Faith Faith attending upon Repentance here by a Rhetoricall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These pleasures of the Holy Ghost in the contexture of Scripture occasioned the Rule of Exposition Non datur prius aut posterius in Scriptura Scripture observes not sometimes what is former or what latter in it selfe I commiserate the Adversary heer he being so environ'd that if he will dance he must needs dance in a Hoop But as St Austin elegantly S Aug. l. 1. Confess cap. 13. Quid est miserius misero non miserante seipsum What is more miserable than a miserable man having no commiseration towards himselfe CHAP. LVI THere is another knot The Text in the Mine hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptizing them into the Name Because the Baptized should not only catch to themselves the Name and Profession but also be soberly immersed into the Thing professed and named I answer The Undertakers take for Infants with respect to the Profession but the Thing and the Name themselves take They are washed and Sanctified in the Name of Christ and are therefore called Christians externall Communication being necessary to a Member of the visible Church but not externall and personall Profession in this case the Persons being uncapable of it and the Profession of others being equipollent on the behalfe of such Persons Still they stick by the teeth at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and finding it to be an alien in gender from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have taken up from under the hedge in the High-Way a Noun whereon to throw it which themselves have made fit and clothed And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disciples And thus they send back 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them with a passe and an Officer to be carried not to the Nations it 's native place but to the Disciples in the Nations Let the Answer be The like Conjunction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is frequent in Scripture And they are at once thrice conjoyned in the Apocalypse Rev. 20. 8. 9. 10. And why may we not more naturally fetch out a companion for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Vulgar use of speaking thaÌ„ from a strang Vâ—rb of Command which Verball fetch would be a wondrous fetch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Abase of speech and most abusively surrogate one word for another and â—ather Substitute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Name common to Men Women and Children and binde all up in the ende of the Construction with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all the Nations Neither is the Conjunction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incongruous because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a most ready word in that Language and as alwaies ready so able alwaies to make the construction perfect the Nations being constituted of Men Women and Children What a mighty weight would these underlings and Country-Workemen
heap upon a new-sangled supposition of their own When a Building should not be improportionable to the Foundation The Author of the Arabick Catena Author Arabicae Catenae cap. 8. sets for a mark to us that Cain's Marke made him proof against Men and all their Weapons Had there been Swords or Pikes they could not have entred him had there been Guns he was so marked by God that he could not have been their Mark to be marked by them Against all the Beasts and Serpents his Force and Poison proved the stronger and subdued their Poison and Force Against the Elements He could nor be burned by the most devouring Fire or drowned by the great Ocean of Water or blasted by the most Pestilentiall Air or crushed by the fall of a Rock or Cliff Against the War and uproar of the Clouds and Sky Thunder and Lightning could not offend him nor Tempests hurt him The simple Herd of Anabaptists fancy to themselves that their Arguments are all of proof and they prove nothing for them but only that they prove nothing for them and altogether for us An ordinary pen is a sufficient Weapon to pierce them One sparke of industrious courage is able to consume them A few drops from the profound School-Ocean to chill benumme and drown them CHAP. LVII I Confirm this Argument first Christ demonstrated by his Example that he intended in his command the Baptizing of Infants It is written Jesus himselfe Baptized not Joh. 4. 2. but his Disciples that is Baptized not ordinarily but only extraordinarily in compliance with the Testimony of Euodius And Jesus devolved and delegated the function of Baptizing to his Disciples First that he might enable them in regard of appliance to the wants of the Church And secondly that he might ennoble them and that the people might look upon them as having such power so derivatively conferred on them For had Christ himselfe commonly Baptized the People would have greedily sought to be Baptized by him and have waved his Disciples who therefore would have sunk in repute and been brought into contempt and obloquy Now Christ Baptizing not for these Reasons could not in his Example express for Infants more fully plentifully thā he did He said Suffer See Mat. 19. 13. 14. 15. Mar. 10. 13. 14. 15. 16. little children to come unto me that is to come in a large Sense or have accesse to me for a Spirituall End And the three Evangelists who treat of this Matter declare first that they were brought Yea St Luke saith expressely Lu. 18. 15. 16. 17. And they brought unto him also Infants that he would touch thē Where the Original ears exactly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Text. Graec. they brought unto him also sucklings Adferebant non adducebant they brought them they did not leade them Roger Bacon instructs us in his Perspectives that Looking-Glasses Rogerus Bacon in Perspect Dist Vlt. may be erected by the representations of which we may notwithstanding the interposition of much distance looke into the Countries Cities and Camps of our Enemies Let us here as in a Glasse behold the deceitfull carriage of our Adversary in reversion What nimble Familiar taught Mr Tombs that when the word Mr Tomb◠in his Examen Mat. 12. 22. Mat. 17. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is applied to the blind and deafe Demoniack and to the lunatick Child the persons were steered to Christ upon the carriage of their own legs and not carried to him Anabaptism walkes by the false Light of strange and feverish Fancies And is there not a blindnesse and deafnesse I will be modest and not asperse them with Devilishnesse in such who will not allow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie they carried when it is joyned with so portable Subjects as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 babes Such might be shamed into better knowledge by the Greek words which begin with a Child and are both carried and run along with him untill he ceases to be a Child First in the womb of his Mother he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being born he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there he staies a while he is afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 puerulus which word is used by St Matthew and St Marke untill he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stripling Boy But Mr Tombs being ready-handed Mr Tomb◠in his Examen would gladly take away the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie a Child explerato ingenio praeditum come to some known ripenesse of Wit and Understanding and now capable of Learning because the Apostle writes thus to Timothy And that 2 Tim. 3. 15. from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures in the place of the Translation expounding from a Child the Originall exposing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Text. Grac. Which in our Sense would signifie from thy very Infancy It is not far to the Answer The Intention of the Apostle is to manifest here that his Timothy had early and betimes applied himselfe to the reading of Holy Scriptures and therefore he takes a Word upon which that he might raise up this Example as an honourable Pyramis with a point like a Flame he builds an Hyperbolicall Sense the plaine and ready meaning of which is thou did'st begin so early to learn Holy Scriptures that had it been possible thou wouldest have begun even from thy very Infancy A word now having a proper Sense in the which it is almost alwaies used for a common Reason and a Sense that is Hyperbolicall in the which for a speciall Reason it is used once only shall I disdainfully turn away from the proper Sense and adhere to that which is Hyperbolicall and improper Certainly no Man doth it unlesse to defend improperly improper Works I make up al into a pretious Bracelet thus Christ by receiving Infants into his Arms and Bosom he being the Bridegroom and Head of the Church and now working as the Head and Bridegroome shewed that we might receive them into the Bosom and Arms of the Church Christ by laying his hands upon them in sign they were his own shewed that we might signe them as his Christ by blessing them which was the last and highest of present mercies it being supposed that he Baptized not shewed that his Disciples and we might Baptize them which is the last of our present favours towards them And therefore Christ by saying Suffer little Children to come unto me shewed that we must not prohibit them to be brought unto Christ by Baptism And Christ by declaring that of such and none but such is the Kingdome of God declared likwise that the Kingdome of Grace as the Way is open to them CHAP. LVIII I Confirm it secondly The Church or Kingdome of Grace may not reject such as the Kingdome of Glory receives Yea Such as the Kingdome of Glory receives must be received into the Church or Kingdome of Grace by
fiant alio confitente salventur Our Mother the Church lends and fits to Infants the seet of others that they may come to the Font which presented it selfe at the Doore because Baptism is the Doore into the Church the Heart of others that they may beleâ—ve the Tongue of others that they may confesse to the end that as they are made sick and weighed downewards by the sin of another so by the confession of another they may be restored to Health saved and carried upwards CHAP. LXVII I Prove it secondly which Proof may serve as a perfect Confirmation of the former The Doctrine of St Hierom is pure Divinity and like S. Hieron ep ad Da mas exalied Metall Peccantes recedunt à Deo Affectuum non Locorum Spatiis Sinners recede from God by the distance of Affection not of Place And the Reason is at the next Doore God is every where though not repletive repletively and circumscriptivè circumscriptively as a Body is in a place which possesses a place and so fils it that it excludes another Body out of the same place and which is circumscribed nor definitivè definitively as the Angels who are so determined to a place that if they be here they are not elsewhere at the same time yet attinctivè attinctively quia atting it ubique saith Cajetan because he touches every Cajet in p. 1. q. 1. a. 10. where as conserving and holding all Things up by the touch of his Power and impletivè impletively according to his own Testimony of Himselfe in his Prophet Caelum terram ego impleo I fill Heaven and Jer. 23. 24. Earth and so he is totus in toto Mundo totus in qualibet parte Mundi All in all the World and all in every part of the World and so also he is All with all his Essence and Power out of the World in Vacuo wherein he can create more Worlds at his pleasure and therefore we should not locally or absentially depart from him though we could run out of the world Wherefore we likewise return to God versis Vestigiis in the very same Way non Spatiis Locorum sed Affectuum not by the Spaces of Places but by the motions Pases and foâ—tings of our Affections not our Persons but our Affections drawing neer to him and those not in a Physicall or naturall but in a morall and ethicall Consideration And this our return to God being every where yea this only is proper to us in respect of our Departure and of the Nature and possibility of the Thing and pleasing to God in respect of his Acceptance Because this only is proportionable to our Departure in the removall of it and to our Duty in repairing the breach made by our Departure And therefore having departed only after that manner after this manner only by the Rule of Proportion we return Now when we recede from God who is every where by the Affections of others as in Originall sin it is likewise most proportionable and orderly and therefore most proper to us in regard of our Departure in the manner of it and most pleasing to God in regard of his Acceptation yea only proper and pleasing as being only proper to the Nature and possibility of the Thing that we should return to God by the Affections of others if we have not the use of our own CHAP. LXVIII I Prove it thirdly God hath wonderfully ordained that as Children are not capable of the qualification of grown Persons so neither should they need it I have proved that they need not actuall Charity and consequently neither actuall Faith by way of Remedy because they have not actually sinned Truly though a grown Man should not actually sin after Baptism yet he should need actuall Faith and actuall Charity but he should not need them in Remedium as a Remedy And moreover Children should not need actuall Repentance although they should be able in respect of their Powers to Repent actually Because Originall sin in the Children of Adam is not Materia Poenitentiae Matter of Repentance Neither doth a Man rightly repent of a sin which he never committed the position or opposition of which did not lie within the Verge of his Power To wch purpose the Scripture equitably saith of two Infants Jacob and Esaw neither having done Rom. 9. 11. any good or evill Therefore according to the stipulation of sound Reason there is another qualification of Infants agreeable to their need which can be no other than Baptism God supplying abundantly with his Remedies all our Spirituall needs according to their exigence Chesed a Scripture-Word in the Hebrew Language properly signifies Piety by the which a Man is pious not only towards God but also towards Men and towards these especially in the cravings of their Wants And therefore it signifies Piety as Piety is an infused Vertue that is Piety towards God for his own sake and Piety towards Men for God's sake or a Piety towards Men regulated by the Law of God Hence Marinus Forsterus Pagninus â—exicis a good and Holy Man is called Chasid pious and a Stork Chasida as being a pious Bird towards it's Parents and as painfully and as it were piously supplying their needs and wants in the ingruencies and strong Assaults of their feeblenesse and as being therefore a Symboll of Piety If Men by a divine Regulation piously supply the wants one of another and this by a Participated Goodnesse or Piety God as being essentially good in which Sense God only is good much more supplies the Wants of his Creatures especially of his reasonable Creatures and of those especially as he he sits at the Fountain-Head of the Supernaturall Order wherein the Gifts are most excellent and most excellently and plentifully communicated the End being most excellent as being infinite and the communication of an infinite Good finito Modo after a finite manner because the Subject is incapable of Infinity and the Provider being infinitely able infinitely wise infinitely mercifull Which consideration in the rallying of every Argument must bring up the Rere CHAP. LXIX I Prove it fourthly In the curing of naturall Diseases we instruct a sick Man concerning the Circumstances of his Recovery and we exhort him to the use of the Meanes Yet we doe not exhort him to be well which is the End but medicine him Because the curing of his Disease and his well-making are not in his own Power but altogether in the power of God and of the wise Physitian under God And therefore the Physitian cures Mad Lunatick and Lethargick Persons that have no desire to be cur'd and consequently doe not confer their endevours towards it In the curing of Spirituall Diseases we both instruct and exhort the sick Person if he be capable of exhortation and instruction because there is a Voluntary and Supernaturall Concurrence absolutely requir'd on his part and God infallibly performeth his Promise if the sick Person doth in
this Consequence which with the rest proceeds ex falso Supposito were true the Presbyterians or strict Calvinists would cristas attollere lift up their Crests and Combs and continue their unnaturall and exotick Interpretations upon the old Proverbiall Sentence The Prov. 16. 4. Lord hath made all things for himselfe yea even the Wicked for the Day of Evill Which the Hebrew Text. Hebr. hands forth Omnes operatus est Jehovah propter se improbum ad Diem mali Jehovah hath made all Persons for himselfe the wicked Man to the Day of Evill And which the English Presbyterians English God hath made all Things for himselfe yea the Wicked for the Day of Judgment and eternall Damnation pouring as it were by the carriage of an Indian upon God that he makes the much-greater and massier Part of Men Women and Children of purpose to Damn them Whenas this good Proverb speaks of the Evill Day of temporall Punishment which according to the Hebrew Dialect is called the Day of Evill or as the Septuagint Sept. oftentimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of affliction or afflictation Or If they will draw the Text to the punishments of Hell Then must they draw with it that God made indeed the Wicked for the Day or Time of Evill intentione secundariâ with a secundary intention and having fore-looked upon them in the Evils of their sins And thus the Ends here God and the Day of Evill as executing the good Justice of God are as we term it in Logick Fines subalterni And when God made the Wicked Man for the Day of Evill he made him for Himselfe Because when he punishes him with temporall or eternall punishments he glorifies himselfe in his executive justice And the wicked man falling by Death from under the Order of his Mercy fals under the Death-Order of his Justice Now God cannot absolutely Ordaine a Wicked Person for this good End the glorification of the divine Justice by his eternall punishment first Because this Ordination would Eclipse his Goodnesse and his very Nature And secondly Because he should then be contrary to his own Sanctity and absolutely Ordain the wickednesse of the Wicked Person as such the absolute Ordination of which would by a necessity derived from the Ordination bring it necessarily into Being And Non est faciendum malum vel minimum ut eveniat bonum vel maximum The least Evill Sâ—â— Rom. 3. 8. may not be done that the greatest good may come of it For Though in the Evils of Punishment we may lawfully chuse the lesser because the lesser Evill tnuc indueret rationem Boni would then put on the State or Nature of a Good as we may rather chuse the losse of our Goods than of our Lives yet Malum Culpae quatenus tale est nunquam potest habere rationem Boni The Evill of sin as such can never put on or have the Nature or state of a good Neither can a good End moralize or sanctifie an Evill Action CHAP. LXXII I Prove it lastly The naturall work of Baptism answerable to the Word the best and most primitive Words signifying the Natures of Things and to the Signe is to wash And Children greatly need Spirituall washing as being greatly defiled with the first sin of their first Parents Therefore Baptism which is a Sacramentall Washing and the first Sacrament greatly agrees with them as not being yet washed And is not in vain with respect to Children Frustrà est quod non potest habere suuÌ„ usuÌ„ that is in vain which cannot have its use As Aquinas expounds D Thom. comment in Aâ—â—stot l. 1. de Coelo Text. 12. upoÌ„ Aristotle's Axiom Deus natura nihil frustrà faciunt God and Nature do nothing in vain Which Axiom thus expounded hath a farther aim yet clearly windes up and proves that even the actuall use of Baptism belongs to Infants And If the Thing which is ordained for all who are touchable by the Faith of the Church may not by reason of humane Restraint be communicated to the Little-ones which are many there follows upon wheels that the Restainers render it uselesse and vain with respect to the many Little-ones at the least and that although God will make nothing in vain yet men make vain the will of God Which likewise all unbeleeving Parents in respect of their Children and all Unbeleevers in regard of themselves doe Baptism being ordain'd for all that want it and all wanting Baptism that want Baptismall Grace and all wanting Baptismall Grace that want to be washed from Originall sin and all wanting to be washed from Originall sin who are desiled with it These Arguments are such as the Substration of the Matter will bear For we cannot in this place eventilate Reasons from the Definition or Nature of a Sacrament or from the Effects of Baptism in themselves and in the proper Houses and Places wherein as the Planets they have their plenary Power Because these things being Spirituall mysticall and Lidden our naturall Reason cannot give an exact estimat of them or bring them forth to the most perfect discernment avowance of the reasonable Man And as Revelation first supposes Reason so Reason afterwards in her Discourses of revealed Things supposes Revelation and sometimes walks only by the walls and Edges of it And for the same Reason we are unfurnished of Demonstrations both à Priori and à Posteriori that is Cause-Demonstrations and Demonstrations by the Effects Yet we have Reasons of the second Order and Metal of the Silver-kinde which are perfectly urging so say the Logicians where Demonstrations cannot be had CHAP. LXXIII LET my Standard be now set up at the Doctrine and Praxis of the Church in Primitive Ages Because there is no expresse Precept in Scripture saying Go and Baptize Infants no President in plaine Terms saying They Baptized Children no clear Promise promising clearly Many Benefits shall accrue to Baptized Children many to the Baptizers of them or the like the Church gave to the Baptizing of Infants the Name of an Apostolicall Tradition Which we therefore understand with respect to the expressenesse of Precept President Promise In a generall Sense and much used anciently the whole Body of the new Testament is an Apostolicall Tradition and in a speciall Sense some speciall Truths of it That in See 2. Thes 2. 15. our Sense is an Apostolicall Tradition which was deliver'd by the Apostles to the Church and is not found expressely in divine Scripture though it be expressely found and extant in the writings of Apostolicall Men in Apostolicall Times Or That is an Apostolicall Tradition which hath many faire and excellent Characters in divine Scripture but hath it's explicitnesse or expressenesse from Apostolicall Precepts Practises Promises warranted to the Apostles by Christ their Master which are Unscriptur'd The Baptizing of Infants being thus received by such Tradition the Disciples of the Apostles preached it in their Sermons it fell from their
God should give them over to finall Desolation of Heart as he gave Cain Which Mark soever of these we sieze upon as the mark of Caine that even that very Mark is verily the Marke of an Heretick but especially the Vagabond-Mark The Difference is God set a Mark upon Cain The Anabaptists in the repetition of Baptism mark themselves After the marking of which Mark See Ezech. 9. 4 in the Hebrew so the Hebrew phrases it it is remarkable that they know not where to rest or end their Motion but are turn'd besides their Marks wayes and Arguments and sent into the Wildernesse by every Novice And having once iterated Baptism although they should be Baptized as often as Alexander the Physitian required the washing of Lapis Lazuli before it should be used they would never be clean or washed from this irremoveable Mark of their continuall Wandring and Motion CHAP. LXXXIV THey argue sixthly The Merits and Satisfaction of Christ profit us not but as pull'd home to us by our Application Therefore the Sacrament of Baptism cannot convey the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ to Children these being unable to apply to themselves the said Merits and Satisfaction I answer Be it heartily granted that there is a necessity of Application in Persons capable of it Because the satisfaction of Christ is altioris Ordinis of a higher Order than any pious operation of ours it being generall as offered and prepared for the sins of all Mankinde and our pious Operations being particular and reflecting only upon our own Faults And as the Sun being a Universall Cause does not anull or abolish the proper Efficiency of the particular Causes for Example of a man begetting a Man but rather works with them and requires their cooperation without which it works not in the production of such Effects So the generall satisfaction of Christ requires to it's Effects the Particular operation of grown Persons without which it doth not operate Hence for the Sin of Adam being the generall Fault and adhering to humane Kind God is wholly and solely satisfyed with and by the Satisfaction of Christ a generall Satisfaction being adequately commensurated with a generall Fault and in regard of our particular sins he requires our particular operation and application of the generall Cure the most soveraign Medicine or salve not curing except applied to the wound or Soar to be cured the Weapon-salve and magneticall Cures have here no place or likenesse But particular Application cannot have being in Infants And God exacts not of any Persons in any condition above what he offereth or hath given to them And therefore the Faith of the Church is efficiently and sufficiently appliable to them and supplies their Defects Sans doubt When Children shall be unchilded their particular and personall Application is necessary Which Application doth not enforce Rebaptization Because the Sacrament of Regeneration as relating to Generation cannot be iterated And because we may not be twice Character'd with the same Character Wherefore it may be justly said of Rebaptization from the Pen of St Cyprian writing against the promiscuous S. Cypr. contra promiscuos in â—alne is Congressus Meetings of Men and Women in Baths Soâ—didat lavatio ista non abluit This washing defiles and washes not CHAP. LXXXV THey argue seventhly from the Authority of a Councill Upon Dr Taylor in his Liberty of Prophesying Sect. 18. which the Libertine-Prophet confidently reposes himselfe as with Authority The Councill of Neocaesarea allows expressely to a woman with Childe that she may be Baptized the Baptism Concil Neocaes Can. 6. of one in her Condition not descending to the Child in her Wombe because every one in that Confession should shew his own Election I answer first This Councill was not a generall Councill or confirmed by a generall Councill in every particular Branch of it Secondly Even a generall Councill may erre in reddendâ Ratione in giving a Reason and in Things besides the Thing principally defined and intended And therefore a Councill doth not oblige us ad necessariò credendum aut faciendum but when it speaks definitivè definitively God securing to us only the Matters to be beleeved and to be done which conduct us to Salvation and leaving us to discourse the Reasons Because the Definitions pertain to all the Reasons to the Learned only who are Judges of them Thirdly this Councill undertakes not to define the Matter of Infant Baptism but only glances at it obitèr aliud agens by the way Fourthly As Infants may not be Vide D. Tho. p. 3 q. 68. art 10. Baptized in the Womb for excellent Reasons so being out of the Womb and alive they must be Baptized for as excellent Reasons Fiftly The Canon compares an Infant in the Womb not constituting a Person by himselfe with one out of the Womb being a proper Person subsisting by himselfe and to such a Person the Canon requires that he shal shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proper Election And this is all that Theodorus Balsamon Zonaras Photius or any Expounder of the Canons can demand canonically of this Canon But the Canon doth not shew that the Election of others having Dominion over the Child and their publike shewing of it and strengthening it by their Confession of the Faith for him is not accepted as the proper Election of the Child and as his personall shewing of it and may not be so named in the nonage of the Child And this answer perfectly divides betwixt the Child in the Womb and the Child newly born For the Sacraments are Visible Signes and must therefore be conferred upon and terminated at Persons in a visible approximate tangible condition So that had the Canon compared Infants with grown Persons in this or the like Pronunciate Infants that they may be Baptized must grow beyond their Infancy and Childhood and must have and shâ—w proper and personall Election as other grown Persons do it had pronounced against us But whereas it only requires in an Infant a proper Election and the shewing of it with comparison to the Infant in the Womb for the which none can Elect or shew Election because no one can see for what he should shew Election on God's behalfe which inhibits the administration of the Sacrament being a Visible Signe and requiring a Visible and apparent Subject The Child born being now a Person by himselfe though he hath no such actuall Election in himselfe yet may Elect and shew his Election by others of which only Election he is then capable as he Elects by others in the matter of temporall and outward Provision and as Nature Elected for him in the Womb and this may freely passe for his proper Election and answer to him as being now a proper and single Person and in the hands of others having received spirituall Power over him from God and in whom it lies to dispose of him to God's greatest Glory who is most glorified by his
is intimated that such Care puls the caring Person with adhibition of great force divers waies at the same time and that it divided St Pauls Heart amongst many Churches This cutting and dividing Care stops the way to the divisions Cuttings of Schism the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schism coming from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Isid Hispalensis in Etym cut Whence Isidor Scisma à Scissura Animorum nomen accepit Scism is a Cutter and cut it's Name from the Scissure or Cutting of Mindes CHAP. LXXXXIV NOthing is more often repeated in the royall Spouse-Treasures of Antiquity than Pastoralis Vigilantia Pastorall Vigilancy Yea the staffe of the Pastorall Dignity belonging to Bishops had froÌ„ of old the shape and fashion of a Shepheard's Hook to designe their Authority by the which they were designed for the pulling of the diseased Sheep to them And though we reade of St Peter Chronicon Alexandrinum Bishop of Alexandria a Successour to St Marke that he would never sit in St Mark 's Chaire but humbly sate al his days on the Footstooll even untill after his death the devout people of Alexandria having dressed adorned his unâ—ould Body with the Pontificall Habit set it above the Footstool in the Pontificall Chaire yet his Pastorall Watching unto which the high place in the Chair directed him was eminent even from the Footstool though the Footstool was not preeminent This Care and Vigilancy from on high hath two extreames as all vertues have the one growing from excesse and the other from defect The excesse looks from on high too highly and seeks highly caringly and pragmatically the temporall and unjust profit of the Bishop being unjust in it selfe or unjust because unjustly sought not the just and spirituall profit of the people for which profit of the People the Bishop is a Bishop Wherefore the Apostle St Peter prosecuting his Matter saith not for 1 Pet. 5. V. 2 3 4. filthy lucre but of a ready Minde Neither as being Lords over God's Heritage but being examples to the flock And when the chiefe Shepherd shall appeare ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away For our lording it the Vulgar taketh dominantes Versio Vulgata Text. Graec. exercising soveraignty the Originall interweaveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mastering it over God's Heritage The Text wils and commands that the Mastership or Soveraignty and the Profit thence arising be not the chiefe Things which the Over-lookers actively look after in their looking over or overlooking A notorious Example of this Excesse we have in Paulus Samosatenus Euseb Eccl. Hist lib. 7. cap. 26. who affected secular Honours piliaged the People moved from place to place with expressions of Luciferain Pride and Pomp and commanded that he should be called an Angell and that Psalms should be sung in the Praise not of Christ but of him Hither I may throw with scorn the Bishops that in their Processions were carried in Chaires upon the backs of the Cleargy which a grave Council was troubled to forbid by a Concil Bracarens 3. Can. 5. Canon The Defect is a Dormouse-Life and a negligent giving of the Bridle of Government by the which the Bishop permits all things to the people This was the fault of Arsâ—cius who succeeding to St John Chrysostom in the Arch Bishoprick of Constantinople was supinely negligent gave broad way to the Monstrous Vanities of the Empresse Eudoxia and lived as if he had been dead while he lived And therefore Nicephorus bewailing the Matter elegantly Niceph. Eccle. Hist l. 13. cap. 28 cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an old and unprofitable stump stock or Blockhead In the middle Point betwixt these two sits the Godly wise and learned Bishop or Overseer on a high Seat from which there is lesse Deceptio Visûs deception of his Sight and as more overseeing so lesse Oversight and from which he draws more Power and splendour which beget fear awe and veneration and therefore more ability to correct and amend the Things that in his Overseeing he sees to be against or under the Law For Although this reverentiall fear and awe in the People should be godly and therefore generated of a like Cause namely Godlinesse in the Bishop Yet whereas the Bishop in the consequents of his overseeing deals more with ungodly than with godly Persons the ungodly being the more numerous the just Acts of his Godlinesse must be freed from contempt and maintained by Power and Splendour or their Influence upon the ungodly will be small and contemptible Splendour without Power will be vain idle and a meer splendid shew And a Beggar or other poor Man having Power and wanting Splendour will be ridicuously powerfull and his Power will prove a poor and begging Power CHAP. LXXXXV THAT Episcopacy is de Jure divino of divine Right and consequently that Bishops were instituted by Christ himselfe and that the Apostles were Bishops I beleeve I hope with divine Faith For When St Hierom let fall S. Hieron in c. 1 ad Titâ—â— from his Pen that by common consent and Custome Bishops were first preferred before Presbyters he wrote though his words may seem to resist this Interpretation of the Custom and Common Consent which supposed the divine Ordinance and was radicated and grounded upon it and of Prelation not in it selfe as Nature hath preferred Gold in it selfe before other Metals but with respect to publike and Universall knowleage and acceptation Because the same St Hierom contends Idem ep ad Heliodorum â— ep ad Marcellam the Bishop to sit above the Presbyter and to be empowred before him tum potestate Ordinis tum potestate Jurisdictionis by the Power of order by the power of Jurisdiction Yea St Hierom defineth as a Truth of God Ubi non est Sacerdos Idem in Dialago advers Luciferian non est Ecclesiâ— Where there is no Priest there is no Church And most certainly he understands by a Priest here a Bishop for the word Sacerdos was applied to both and he speaks of the Priest qui potestatem habet Ordinandi who hath Power to give Ordination which even in the Judgement of St Hierom though Vide ejusdeÌ„ Epistolam ad Euagrium a Presbyâ—er a meer Priest or Presbyter hath not but a Bishop only Add that the Church of God being the Spouse of Christ is Acies Ordinata A well-ordered Army Cant. 6. 10. Edit vulg S. Ignat. in Epist ad Trallianosâ— Idem inculcat in Epist ad Smyrnâ—â—ses which is visible and uncapable of a generall Parity And that St Ignatius the third Bishop of Antioch from St Peter admonishes the Presbyters or Priests accordingly Presbyteri subjecti estote Episcopo O ye Presbyters be ye subject to your Bishop In good deed the Bishops did at the first sweetly and humbly consort and companion with the Presbyters as their Fellow-labourers untill the Vide S. Hieron in c. 1.
lips in the first warmth of the Gospell like sweet Gumms from the Trees of Arabia heated by the Sun the Fathers of the Church published it in their writings the holy Councils Canonized it and it became a Starrified Truth or a Truth of the Firmament And as Vincentius Lyrinensis thunder-strikes the Hereticks of his Time Quid unquam aliud Conciliorum Decretis Vincâ—nt Lyrinens contra Haeres cap. 32. enisa est scilicet Ecclesia nisi ut quod anteà simplicitèr credebatur hoc idem posteà dilâ—gentiùs crederetur What other Thing at any Time hath the Church endeavoured in the Decrees of the Councils than that the Things which were simply beleeved should afterwards be beleeved with more diligence And this Truth thus extracted being as such more than a humane Truth is no lesse than a divine Truth For As the Art or Invention which removes a Thing from Earth must needs exalt it neerer to Heaven and the farther from Earth still the neerer to Heaven So a Testimony comming from God to us through Sanctified Persons if it be more than humane must needs be in some sort divine and it comming through Persons divinely inspir'd and infallibly directed the higher it is raised from the consideration of being humane the more divine will it be And if such a Testimony were not Apostolicall but only Ecclesiasticall even such an Ecclesiasticall Testimony endowed with all it's Perfections and Formalities would be formally Divine CHAP. LXXIIII IN this purified Sense St Dionysius Areopagita who lived in the first Century and was the Disciple of St Paul as having been his Convert at Athens affirms to be delivered S. Dionys Arcop lib Eccl. Hier. cap. ult part ult Author QuaestionuÌ„ ad Orthodoxâ—s quaest 56. by the Apostles that Infants should be Baptized The same thing is Orthodoxly taught by the Author of the Questions ad Orthodoxos who also after some discussion and bandying of the Businesse concludes in the rebound that Baptized Infants are saved unbaptized Infants are not saved leaving us to save our selves as we can And though Justin Martyr be not the Author of this Booke it caling into the Court Irenaeus Origen the Manichees Yet the Author is confessed by all Authors to be very ancient and of great reputation And Justin Martyr himselfe being S Just Mâ—rt in Dâ—alâ—g cum Tâ—ypâ—â—â—e Judaen p. 2. propâ—s 3. a Noble Member of the second Century and contemporary with St John and therefore well familiariz'd with Apostolicall Practise declares himselfe like-minded in his Dialogue with Tryphon the Jew Irenaeus also an honourable Extract S. Lenaeus contra Haeret l. 2. c. 39 of the same Century honourably mentions the Baptizing of Infants In the third Century we have Origen who having alleadged the Words of the Prophet Psal 51. 5. Behold I was shapen in in quity and in sin did my Mother conceive me follows the motion of his matter thus Propter hoc Ecclesia ab Apostolis Orig. lib. 5. Homil in c. 6. ap Rom. Tradâ—tionem accepit etiam parvulis dare Baptismum For this reason namely because we are all conceived in sin the Church received a Tradition from the Apostles enjoyning us to Baptize Infants St Cyprian S. Cypr. Carthag l. 3. Epist 8. ad Fidum Episcopum was the Church-Pillar of Africa in this Century who together with a Councill of Carthage consisting and bound together of 66 Bishops as of so many strong Cartilages whom he venerably cals his Collegues determin'd not only that Children might and ought to be Baptized but also that they might even before the eighth day which was not app … ent and Crystal-clear to Bishop Fidus and his Church in respect of the neernesse and complyance betwixt Circumcision and Baptism and the Determination of the Councill having been occasioned thereby which Determination St Cyprian recounts to Fidus. CHAP. LXXV SAint Hierom witnesseth for us S. Hierom. l. 3. contra Pelagianos S. Aug. l. 10. de Genesi ad literam cap. 23. in the fourth Century And St Augustine who thus writeth Consuetudo Matris Ecclesiae in Baptizandis parvulis nequaquam spernenda est ncc ullo modo superflua deputanda nec omninò credenda nisi Apostolica esset Traditio The Custome of our Mother the Church in Baptizing Infants is not to be despised nor in any sort deemed superfluous neither at all to be beleeved except as an Apostolicall Tradition St Austin imbracing Apostolicall Tradition as the unwritten word of God and speaking here of beliefe built upon expresse Declaration of God's Word The same St Austin to prevent the Insurrections of objection devoteth a Rule to the perfect knowing of an Apostolicall Tradition and Reason in the Light of Nature beholds the evidence of it Quod universa Idem lib. 4. de Baptismâ— Parvulorum contra Donatistas cap. 23. tenet Ecclesia nec Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi Authoritate Apostololicâ traditum rectissimè credimus That which the Universall Church holds and was not instiâ—nâ—ed by Councils but hath been alwaies retained we most rightly beleeve to have been deliver'd no otherwise than by Apostolicall Authority The same Father again treating of this Ecclesiastical custome of Baptizing Infants ascertains to us that it was Universall Hoc Ecclesia semper habuit sempèr tenuit hoc à Majorum Idem Serm. 10. de Verâ—is Apost c. 2. fide percepit hoc usque in finem perseverantèr Custodit This the Church always hath had always hath held this she received from the Faith and credit of our Ancestors this she perseveringly keeps to the end Yea the three tutelar Angels of the Church in their Times St Hierom St Augustine and Prosper Aquitanicus alwaies presâ—e on and put forward this Custome in their Victorious S. Hieron ubi Suprà S Aug. Serm. 14. de verbis Apost qui inscribitur De Baptismo Parvâ—lâ—rum contra Pelagianos Tom. 10. Item l. 1. de Peccator merit remiss c. 26. Prosper Aquitan l. 2. de Vocatione Gen. ium cap. 8. Concil Milevit Can. 2. S. Greg. Naz oâ— at in sanctum lavacrum S. Basil Oyat Exhortatoriâ ad Baptismuâ— S. Chrysâ—â— Homil. 1. ad Nâ—ophytoâ— Disputations against the Pelagian Heresy which denied Originall sin CHAP. LXXVI IN the Year foure hundred eighteen The Milevitan Councill being a Provinciall of Africa consecrated this Canon Placuit ut quicunque Parvulos recentes ab uteris Matrum Baptizandos negat Anatâ—enia sit It is the Pleasure of the Councill that is placuit spiritui sancto nobis It hath pleased the Holy Ghost and us that whosoever denies Baptism to Infants newly born be denounced an accursed Thing The intendment is whosoever denies Baptism to such at such a Time as a Thing then alienated from their condition Other Councils give the like Counsill afterwards I add St Gregory Nazianzen St Basill St Chrysostom And I could add very many others But these are sufficiently efficient And this