page 54. where he confesseth ingenuously thus Anabaptistas Paedobaptismo oblainantes apertis testimoniis ferire non possumus vesaniam his teles comprimimus 1. ex parallelo praecepto de Circumci sione 2. ex praxi Apostalica quae quum aliquanda fit obscurior consuetudinem totius Ecclesiae à primaevis historicis temporibus adjicimus juae licet praefractos Anaboptistas non movebunt apud prudentes morigeros aejuos renum aestimatores valebunt So that according to him the main weight lies on the custome of the Church which is falsely imagined to have been from the Apostles as in some measure is proved in my Examen part of the first not yet shaken by Mr. Ms. friend with all his insight Antiquity From which I inferre that the Antients and learned afore Zuinglius did account Infant-baptism to have been an unwritten tradition having reason from Scripture not evident of it self but to be received for the determination of the Church and that because it was not fully perfect therefore Confirmation was added which was retained in the English Liturgy as necessarily previous to the Lords Supper nor do many of the best learned Protestants speak much otherwise out of the heat of dispute against Anabaptists They are farre from Mr. Bs. audaciousnesse to assert it as having plain Scripture proof for it The very hesitant resolution of the most learned and considerate is enough to represse his vain attempt and to awaken those that depend on his proofes and rest on their Infant-sprinkling and neglect the practise of being baptized after profession of faith being so expressely enjoyned in Scripture as a prime important duty for their salvation SECT XXI Many things are cleered about my conformity Anabaptists necessity to be baptized the manner of dipping used by them their standing to their confession of faith c. Page 241. he saith I begin with a complaint of my sufferings whereas my words were a gratulation for the change of my condition and for my sad complaints Mr B. makes them more then they were and misrepresents me in the time and reason of them I let passe his jerkes about my health and my grievance of removing from Bewdley his way to heaven and mine Mr. B. page 242 would vindicate his passages I cite in the Epistle to the people of Bewdley but he passeth over that which goeth before in my Epistle and makes no answer to any of these three things 1. That he assignes no sufficient note whereby to discerne the visible Church-membership of Infanrs of which he speaks 2. That there is no connexion between his visible Church-membership of Infants and the initial seal without institution of the rite to be so used 3. that in the positive rites of the New Testament there 's no reason to be a rule to us but the appointers will in some precept or practise And to shew the precept to be against him his own words are alleged and that rightly however he interpret or interlace them His interpretation agrees not with his own passage Appendix page 56. which saith neither are the seals usefull till the accepting and entring of the Covenant where he placeth accepting before entering the Covenant and in both his passages speakes of accepting and entering with consent which Infants cannot do page 243. he saith I seem to speak as if I had some of my old Episcopal ceremonious spirit though he hoped and believed verily that I did not turn meerly to the times though with the times To which I answer Mr. B. was a stranger to me till a little afore these times and therefore is not fit to charge me with an Episcopal ceremonious spirit Were it worth while to trouble the world with it I could shew how I examined as well as at those years I could the points in difference about which I was to subscribe and conforme and however I was carried away with the stream yet my subscription was according to Doctor Burges his explication and my conformity upon Mr. Spruits grounds I was no promoter of either and in the worst time I think none can say but I stuck fast to the main the propagating the Gospel and Conjunction with the Godly And my opposing the Bishops began with the soonest afore this Parliament began as soon as ever I deprehended the Bishops to be wholly for their own rule and adversaries to the preaching of the Gospel And for my non-conformity reasons were given with some of the first in a Sermon at a visitation at Lemster November 24. 1641 since printed And what I said the ceremonies were more excusable then Paedobaptism is true 1. They were not at first urged otherwise then as indifferent things Paedobaptism is urged as of Divine appointment and yet the chief principle of non-conformists doth more strongly plead against it then the ceremonies 2. Paedobaptism not withstanding the palliating salves of Mr. M. Mr. B. I find farre more pernicious then the ceremonies it being 1. The great occasion of the soul-destroying presumption whereby a great part of men perish and the genuine hinderance of the reformation of the Lords Supper and Church-communion 2. it quite perverts the end and use of baptism which the ceremonies did onely in some sort disorder I justifie not the ceremonies and therefore I need not answer the men he names but their writings yield strong arguments for me against Paedobaptism and better for me then for themselves Mr. Bs. questions page 243. are upon a mistake as if I counted all Pedobaptists meer formal teachers whereas what I speak was in tendernesse to Bewdley lest they out of averseness to my doctrine should rest in a meer formal teacher which I had reason to fear was the aime of some whom perhaps Mr. B. may find though I wish he may not he hath mistaken for godly men Who perhaps might tell him what was not true that the power of godliness is much diminished since my comming to them and their profitable converse turned into heart-burnings jealousies and fruitlesse contendings His argument pag. 244. is vain for were it supposed that Infants of believers were Church-members which his whole book proves not and it were true that baptizers cannot otherwise have knowledge when those that are piously educated begin to be Church-members yet the practise of baptizing the children of Christians ordinarily at years of discretion overturnes not the true end of Baptism For whether the true to which he addes principal in a parenthesis as if true and principal were all one end of Baptism be to be Christs sign for solemn admission of Church-members or Disciples or to be an engaging seal as elsewhere yet both these ends are preserved if they be baptized many years after their being Disciples It is untrue that it is my usual artifice to work on the affections of people when I mistrust my strength to work on mens understandings it may be more truly said of himself who usually fills up the vacuity of proofs with childish
to judge who dies wicked who not The wisest Divines do advise caution in judging the final estate even of selfe-murtherers that have died with horrible speeches in their mouthes not long before their death I thinke God onely fit to judge of mens final estate and therefore think him fit onely to resolve Mr. Bs. question If I should aske Mr. B. where hath there been known a society of Antiprelatists that have not in the end proved wicked I think it would be as hard a thing for Mr. B. to give answer to it as for me to give answer to his question When men speak of men they speak as they are affected some magnifying whom others debase some counting that wicked which others count pious he 's canonized as a Saint a Martyr by some who is judged a Traitor Malefactor by others They that passe such a censure must trust much to informations which whether they be partial or impartial true or false who can tell Nor is it necessary to answer Mr. Bs. question For to what end Is it thereby to conclude against me the doctrine they held But what may be known by the certain rule of Scripture without this uncertain sign And therefore I conceive of this question not unlike the artifice of the Jesuites to deterre people from the plain doctrine the Protestants hold by calling for Catalogues of Protestants in all ages demanding where was your Church before Luther As if we must not own a manifest truth we find in Scripture unlesse we can produce teachers of it in former dayes and societies of professors of it that were not wicked Yet I gave for answer some instances of some societies now in Londor 500. years ago in France and some later in Germany As for those now in London Mr. B. saies 1. They are not yet come to the proof when they have reached to the end of what they are tending to then it will be seen what they will prove if they do not return and repent Answ. What he meanes by the end of what the societies in London under baptisme I mean are tending to I know not If he mean Levelling or Ranting or universal grace they have as much for their number and quality opposed them as any other in London if he know any other dangerous end they aime at it were fit it should be named that their designe may be prevented if not who can interpret this speech of Mr. B. but as from a man out of a settled hatred to the opinion unwilling to hope well of the persons against the rule of charity 1 Cor. 13. 7. which hopeth all things in them for the future whom he knows not for present to be desperately bad which he wil not say of the Churches of Anabaptists in Germany Holland England of whom Mr. B. in his book against Mr. Bedford page 310. saith thus Yea what will you say to all the Churches of the Anabaptists in Germany Holland England c. Have none of them grace till baptized Are you sure so many thousands are all unpardoned or that God is not wont to pardon them and give them grace I dare not think so uncharitably of them And after Who dare think that it is of the Anabaptists such an error as excludeth them from grace There have been societies of them for a great while though somewhat latent afore these times and of them many of the leaders are fallen asleep in the Lord many remain unblameable in respect of their faith and life And therefore why Mr. B. should so forebode as he doth the wicked end of the societies remaining I know no reason but his ill opinion of them But should God in his just judgement let it fall out so that they should prove wicked as some Churches yea the most famous as the seven in Asia have done which have begun well and ended ill it is no certain evidence against their doctrine sith their miscarriages may come from other causes whereof here and Examen part 2. sect 5. some are assigned by me and are such as have befallen others as well as they 2. Saith Mr. B. It is hard with your cause when you cannot name one society of them that ever lived in the world that proved not wicked except those now alive whose ends we yet see not Answ. 1. It were not hard with our cause though we name no society or person before our selves that were Antipaedo baptists as long as we have the Scripture for it 2. If I could not name one society yet there may be many we have but obscure intelligence of many Churches in the East and other places The Georgians children or the Christians children of Cholcis say Heylin in his Geography in the description of Armenia out of Brerewood Alex. Rosse in his censure of religio medici c. are not baptized till they be eight years old How they live what they be we have no clear intelligence probably honest though poore Christians The certain state of them in London is not known to many much lesse the state of those farre off 3. We have seen the ends of many of the societies to have been blessed and how otherwise we now alive should see the end of a successive society I do not well conceive until is be quite dissolved Mr. B. addes 3. If I were never so able to answer this yet as the world goes it is not safe to speak all or half the wickednesse of the Anabaptists now living which the history of this age will speak to posterity Answ. 1. Why it should not be safe for Mr. B. to speak half the wickednesse of the Anabaptists now living I cannot divine except it be because if he or others speak of them while they live they may be convinced of lying as Beza did the tale of his dying a Papist They are not so many nor so formidable in power or so spiteful in spirit that it should be unsafe for Mr. B. to tell the worst he knowes of them However me thinks of any man Mr. B. being according to his declaration of himself in such expectations of death as neare and so resolute to speak truth should not be moved by the unsafenesse of speaking truth Yea if Mr. B. should speak all he could I think he should not more exasperate them then he hath done part 2. chap. 14. Those that sit at the sterne I cannot yet learne have such hard thoughts of them as Mr. B. And he that reades Mr. Edwards Gangraena Mr. Baillee his Anabaptism and other writings may imagine that if there were worse matters to charge them with they would not be spared in this age especially by those that are out of their reach After-Historians may relate as partially as the present and therefore I shall not think it lawful to condemne them upon such dark intimations as this but think the better of them till their wickednesse be laid open 4. Saith Mr. B. Yet if you had named that society that
the book of Gods judgements on Sabbath-breakers he is jealous lest it be from no good will to the doctrine of the morality of the Christian Sabbath as being against the scope of the book though the occasion shew it was onely to prove the uncertainty of relations that men may not rest on them as proofes of a truth But I perceive as Mr. B. is very prone to have hard thoughts of me so both he and Mr. M. seek advantage to create prejudice against me about this point of the Lords day which makes me more full in my clearing my self in this thing and in other things not so much regarding my own personal esteeme as desirous to prevent that indirect way of wounding the truth through my sides I would have no man adhere to my tenet because it 's mine nor would I have any to reject it because it is mine I know too much evil by my self yet not in the things in which I am accused at least not in that degree in which Mr. B. accuseth me Mr. Bs. telling me in print this manner of crimes not proved but imagined is no whit justified by the rules and examples he brings his ranking me with seducers I defy and know that I shall better be able to prove it against him then he against me SECT XVI The ground of my opposing infant-baptism is confirmed by Mr. B. himself PAge 205. He tells me all the Ministers and schollers that he can meete with that heard my disputes did think I had silly grounds to build my confidence in and though I boast much of my answers by writing he thinks my writings have little to be boasted of Answ. I have some experience of Ministers and Schollers and I sind few fit to judge of controversies and of those few not many willing to search impartially into a point that 's against the streame and likely to expose them to hard measure some that talk much study little nor is it a new thing to find some that wrangle in dispute for such a sense of a Scripture as when they are out of the heat of dispute they themselves expound otherwise The Ministers and Schollers at the dispute such as they were weigh but little with them that know them best My writings are not boasted of by me yet men equal to Mr. B. or any auditors of the dispute have said more of them then I am willing to speak of My imployment in this argument seemes to me to be part of my work God hath allotted me though I am known not to be idle in other work What Mr. B. calls fallacies passing from me will be proved verities My arguments from Mat. 28. 19. Marke 16. 15 16. are to be found in my Exercit. sect 15. Examen part 4. sect 1. to which Mr. Ms. replies are insufficient as I shall shew in my Review In the worship of God it was wont to be accounted a certain rule that Gods worship should be observed according to his appointment and no otherwise And so Protestant Divines argue from 1 Cor. 11. 28. selfe-examiners are appointed to eate Ergo no infants or younglings though young ones ate the Passeover Yea Mr. B himself page 221. If Christ never sent any but Ministers to baptize then no others may do it If there be no example of any but Ministers that have baptized though parenrs did circumcise then no others may do it For the Apostles established the Church according to Gods mind and the Scripture is a sufficient rule page 222. if there be no command or example in Scripture of any but Ministers administring the Lords Supper then no others may do it Page 342. If we have no warrant by word or example in all the New Testament since the solemne institution of baptisme Mat. 28. to admit any member into the Church without baptisme but both percept and example of admitting them by it then we must not admit any without it ordinarily I take his own medium mutatis mutandis and thence inferre If we have no warrant by word or example in all the New Testament since the solemne institution of baptisme Mat. 28. to admit any member into the Church by baptisme but believers by profession but both precept and constant example of admitting them by it then we must not admit any without it ordinarily I use his own words and texts But the Antecedent is evident John 4. 1. Acts 2. 38 41. and 8. 12 13 16 36 38. and 9. 18. and 10. 47 48. and 16. 15 33. and 18. 8. and 19. 3 4 5. Rom. 6. 3. c. the Consequent is undoubted to those that take the word for their rule If Mr. B. will stand to his own argument he must make good my arguing from Mat. 28. 19. Marke 16. 15 16. unlesse he have some such strange shift as Mr. Cotton puts in the mouth of Silvanus who personates himself in his book intitled The grounds and ends of baptisme in the Preface page 3. where he intimates that the urging against childrens baptism this main principle of purity and reformation to wit that no duty of Gods worship nor any ordinance of religion is to be administred in the Church but such as hath just warrant from the word of God is from Satan but from God when it is urged against the Prelatists and Papists so Mr. B. thinks his medium good against Socinians but not though it be the same for the Anabaptists He addes All your confident words shew me not the least ground for your conclusion no more then thus Scripture requireth faith to justification therefore none but believers are justified which is false yet like yours if I know what you would thence deduce Answ. He now I hope knowes what and how I deduce or rather how Mr. B. deduceth my conclusion from Mat. 28. 19. Marke 16. 15 16. not onely in my words but also his own though I had often long before deduced my argument in the places before quoted and elsewhere in my writings of the validity of which deduction I am the more confident because it is in Mr Bs. own words justly brought by me against himself If the Scripture requireth saith of all to justification then it is not false that none but believers are justified Yet infants may be justified by habitual faith or actual by operation in an extraordinary way But the Scripture requires profession of faith afore any be baptized ordinarily As for what may be done extraordinarily elsewhere I have expressed my self and have vindicated my self from the wrong inferences made thence Postscript sect 15. and elsewhere Page 206. The People of Kederminster did not heare from my mouth in the dispute Jam. 1. How little Anabaptists could say in the hardest point of baptisme for I used no such wordes nor any thing I said or omitted to say can infer it and when they have read my answer me thinks they should believe I could say more then I did say then and see the reason why no
page 273. and said it was of dangerous consequence And indeed I think it so still For I think it will follow that except a Magistrate can shew his commission from Christ that he is an usurper and then none is bound to him but to suppresse him then no infidel is a lawfull Magistrate who denies Christ and it will be questionable whether this will not extend to a non-churchmember or an excommunicate person then a Magistrates doing of right to an infidel against a believer or to one believer against another as putting him to death is an act for Christ as Mediator and if because all power is given to him in heaven and in earth therefore magistracy so as that all power must be derived from Christ as Mediator then a Fathers power over his child but sure that is in a Father by nature nor do I think it any part of the curse then ruling Presbyters should do the acts of civil Magistrates as having plain title to rule under Christ. Nor do I think Mr. B. hath answered these arguments or the rest but that however he proves Magistracy to be from Christs appointment and to be subordinate to his laws and accountable to him and ought to act for him yet not that the commission of every lawful Magistrate is from him as Mediator I think it will follow if Mr. Bs. position be true that supposing Christ had not been Mediator there had been no lawfull Magistrate and that Dominium fundatur in gratia which was heretofore denied And sith Christ is heir of all things and believers onely are Christs and all theirs 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. it would be considered whether by parity of reason the Saints might not intitle themselves to all power and all mens estates which was charged on Anabaptists at Munster But I find I digresse and therefore stop till more liberty draw me to a fuller handling of it SECT XX. Many learned men with the Oxford Convocation of former and later times take Infant-baptisme onely for an unwritten tradition MR. B. proceeds to answer my Antidote termes it a Corrective for a circumforaneous Antidote but the Antidote will appear to be good if taken notwithstanding his disgraceful term of Corrective without vertue Page 299. He prints two passages of Dr. Whitakers for the late Oxford Convocation to reade and referres to the like in Davenant But whatever Doctor Whitaker thought yet that the Antients did take Baptism of Infants to have been an Apostolical tradition unwritten seemes to me from that which is said in my Examen part I. sect 5. not avoided by Mr. Ms Defence In the Council of Basil in the oration of the Cardinal of Ragusi it is asserted Item nusquam legitur in canone Scripturae S. quod parvulus recenter baptizatus qui nec corde credit ad justitiam nec ore confitetur ad falutem inter fideles crudentes computetur Et nihilominus Ecclesia it a determinavit et statuit c. And in principip hujus Sacramenti baptizabantur solum illi qui per se sciebant fidem interroganti respondere To which purpose Walafridus Strabo many hundred years before and Vives about that time whose words are alleged in my Exercitation the title page and sect 17. Erasmus resp Archiep. Hispal ad artic object 61. Sunt et alia innumera quae prisci non ausi sunt definire sed suspensae pronunciatione venerabantur quod genus est an parvuliessent baptizandi And commonly the learnedst Papists do instance in Infant-baptism as an unwritten tradition in force and whereas it is objected that Bellarm. and others do bring Scripture for it Becan manual lib. 1. c. 2. sect 24. answers aliqua possunt probariex Scriptura quando constat de vero legitimo Scripture sensu So he saith it is concerning Infan-baptism which is proved from John 3. 5. but that the sense whereby to prove it is onely manifest by tradition Which is confirmed in the Canon law and Schoolmen an Infants-baptism was not reckoned perfect till the Bishop laid on hands which act was called Confirmation to wit of the imperfect Baptism in infancy Molinaeus in his Vates l. 2. c. 7. cites the canon dist 5. de consecratione as determining that without the Sacrament of Confirmation no man is a full Christian. Can. omnes et Can. ut jejuni Thomas 3. parte summae q. 72. art 9. dicit hoc sacramentum esse perfectionâ—m Baptismi innuens Baptismum esse imperfectum nisi accesserit Confirmatio Lumb l. 4. sent dist 7. A. omnes fideles per manus impositionem Episcoporum post Baptismum accipere debent in Confirmatione Spiritum sanctum ut pleni Christiani inveniantur Bellarm. tom 3. de sacr confirm c. 12. confirmatio est complementum perfectio baptismi Lib. 2. de effec Sacram. c. 8. est Confirmatio quaedam perfectio consummatio Baptismi Jewel Defence of the Apolog. page 218. allegeth it as Caistans tenet that an Infant for that he wanteth instruction in faith therefore hath not perfect Baptism Consonant hereto is the conceit of the common people that they have not their full Christen dome all they be Bishopped But that it may appear even learned Protestants speak near the same I will cite some of their speeches Among which I will forbear to recite the speeches of the Lord Brook and Mr. Daniel Rogers alleged by me in my Exercit. sect 18. and cleered in my Apology from Mr. Rogers his latter glosse nor the opinion of Mr. Bedford who judged with the Romanists that the Scripture gives us proof onely of the reasonableness of Infant-baptisme as I gather by Mr. Bs. I answer to him page 305. Dr. Field of the Church fourth book chap. 20. The fourth kind of inadition is the continued practise of such things as are neither contained in the Scripture expressely nor the examples of such practise expressely there delivered though the grounds reasons and causes of the necessity of such practise be there contained and the benefit or good that followeth it Of this sort is the Baptism of Infants which is therefore named a tradition because it is not expressely delivered in Scripture that the Apostles did baptize Infants nor any expresse precept there found that they should so do Yet is not this so received by bare and naked tradition but that we find the Scripture to deliver unto us the grounds of it Doctor Prideaux fasci Controv. Theol. loc 4. sect 3. q. 2. Paedobaptism rests on no other Divine right then Episcopacy Doctor Jeremy Taylor in his Liberty of prophesying sect 18. num 34. after he had ventilated the point on both sides saies there is much more truth then evidence on our sides meaning Paedobaptists To all which I will adde the words of Theophilus Philakyriaco Loucardiensis that is Mr. Young as I am informed an eminent man in the late Assembly and Mr. Marshals friend that holp him in the first part of his Defence in his Dies Dominica lib. 1. c. 10.
Tribe young or old men and women are gathered by the Apostles and other Preachers as Moses did gather together the Jewish Nation Exod. 19. Deut. 29. But saith Mr. B. 1. Hath he noi commanded to Disciple Nations I answer yes to make Disciples of all Nations by Preaching the Gospel to every Creature as it is Marke 16. 15. but no where by civil authority to gather a whole City Countrey or Tribe and to draw them into a National or City Covenant together old and young but to offer Christ and to baptize so many as are willing to embrace him 2. Saith Mr. B. Hath not the Father promised to give the Heathen or Nations for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession Psal. 2. and that Nations shall serve him Answ. He hath and it is fulfilled but not in Mr. Bs. sense as if one whole Nation City Countrey or Tribe were gathered together in the manner Moses brought into Covenant all the Jewish Nation but as the Apostle speaks by ministring the Gospel Rom. 15. 16. the Gentiles that is believers among them are an offering to God glorifie God ver 9. praise him trust in him ver 11 12. so as it was foretold in Abraham all Nations should be blessed which is expounded Gal. 3. 7 8 9. Rom. 4. 17 18. believers of all other Nations as well as Jews 3. And that the Kingdoms of the world shall become the Kingdomes of the Lord and his Christ Ans. I reade those words Rev. 11. 15. but I find the time of fulfilling to be when the seventh Angel hath founded which some say is not till the world to come So Mr. Seager of the world to come part 1. sect 8. And this is not improbable from ver 18. and Revel 10. 6 7. The New Annot faith thus Antichrist is weakened and Christ hath begun to take the Kingdome out of his hand and shall have a visible Church like an Empire in all the known world and that to the end but that it is not yet 4. And do you not see it fulfilled before your eyes Are not Bewdley Kederminster c. and England till of late as fully Christs Disciple and so Church-members as the Jews were in Covenant with God and so Church-members Answ. If by it be meant the prophecies Psal. 2. 8. and 72. 11. I see them fulfilled though not in Mr. Bs. sense but the prophecie Revel 11. 15. I see not yet fulfilled I see at Bewdley Kederminster in England people who generally are called Christians but I do not see that all old and young are Disciples or Church-members or ought to be so accounted or that they were ever brought into such a Covenant as the Jews or-ought to be accounted Church-members by vertue of such a Covenant There is not a word in my writings to that effect Mr. B. chargeth me that I would not have Princes and Masters do what Abraham and Moses did in bringing the people of Israel into ' Covenant with God but I say that should they do so yet the Infants are not thereby to be accounted visible Church-members in a Christian Church The commission to gather the Christian Church was not given to the Emperour but Apostles The Apostles it is true were sent to proselyte them that were no Chuch-members and yet they were sent to proselyte or in the phrase of Scripture to Disciple the visible Church-members of the Jewish Church as well as the Gentiles What I said I still say that the different Church-call of the Jewish and Christian Churches is enough to shew a different Church-state and consequently the argument is not good from the Jewish Infants visible Church-membership to ours If Mr. Bs. judgement be not so commandable as to assent to what I say it is so much the lesse commendable The speech of Mr. Herle and the jest out of Matthiolus are misapplied When he saith why may we not write plainly against one anothers judgement by a loving consent He may know that it was my desire it should have been so that it was not so was from himself He that believes he hath shewed love in this his writing is very credulous For the rest if Mr. B. will have the patience and indifferency of judgement which is meet he may see an answer to his allegations about Gods mercy to Infants and the repeal of their visible Church-memship If he remain in his opinion which I much fear knowing him sowell as I do and I in mine we must leave our writings to others to judge especially to that day which shall declare every mans work being revealed in fire In the mean time sleighting his vain curse which is page 217. my prayer for him as my self is that we may do nothing against the truth but for the truth FINIS Cyprian and the other Collegues which in the Council were present to the number of 66. to brother Fidus greeting MOst dear brother we have read thy letters in which thou hast signified concerning one Victor a Presbyter that Therapius our Collegue in a time not ripe and with overmuch haste hath granted him peace before he had done full penance and satisfied the Lord God against whom he had offended Which thing hath enough moved us that he hath departed from the authority of our Decree that before the allowed and full time of fatisfaction and without the asking and privity of the common sort no infirmity urging nor necessity compelling peace should be granted to him But upon counsel weighed long with us it was enough to chide Therapius our Collegue in that he rashly did this and to have instructed him that for hereafter he do no such thing Yet we have not thought that the peace however once granted by a Priest of God should be taken away and for this cause we have permitted Victor to use the Communication granted to him But for what belongeth to the cause of Infants whom thou hast said should not be baptized within the second or third day in which they were born and that the law of antient Circumcision is to be considered so as that thou shouldest not think him that is born should be baptized and hallowed within the 8. day it seemed farre otherwise to all in our Council For unto this which thou thoughtest should be done none of us have agreed but all have rather judged that the mercy and grace of God is to be denied to none that are born of mankind For when the Lord in his Gospel saith The son of man came not to destroy mens souls but to save them as much as in us lies if it may be no soul is to be lost For what is wanting to him who is once formed in the wombe by the hand of God For to us and in our eyes they which are born do seem to receive growth according to the course of secular dayes but what ever things are made by God are perfected by the Majesty and work of God the Maker Lastly