half-Countrey-men the Jews yet soon after it decently expired leaving Baptism to succeed in the Church to all the essentials thereof amongst which this was one of main importance That as Children were admitted to Circumcision so they should also participate of Baptism Which by reasons out of Scripture God willing shall plainly appear CHAP. VIII What it is to reason out of the Scriptures and what credit is due to deductions from Gods word WE do freely confesse that there is neither expresse Precept nor Precedent in the New Testament for the Baptizing of Infants and yet are confident by necessary and undeniable consequence from Scripture it will be made appear to be founded thereon Let us here premise and explain a practice of the Apostle Paul as much conducible to our purpose He coming to Thessalonica Acts 17. 2. Reasoned with the Jews out of Scripture Three things herein are considerable First being to prove that this Jesus whom he preached was Christ he neither did nor could produce a positive text of Scripture wherein the same was affirmed syllabically or in so many very words Secondly in proof hereof he did not bring bare reason which would be but ineffectual especially to prove that which was meerly an article of Faith Thirdly in his disputing he made a wise composure of both joyning Scripture and reason together Scripture was the Well Reason was the Bucket S. Paul was the Drawer Pauls precedent ought to be followed by our practice herein Scriptura non scribitur otiosis The Scripture was not writ for the idle but the industrious Yea to what intent hath God bestowed reason upon us improved in some with Learning and Education together with the promise of his Spirit to conduct us into all necessary truth but that we should improve the same in the serious searching of the Scripture One main motive which induced Columbus to believe the other side of this Globe to be peopled with reasonable souls and invited him to undertake the discovery thereof was a firm apprehension and belief that God would not create so glorious a creature as the Sun to shine to Sea and Fishes alone but that surely some men did partake of the benefit thereof Is it probable that God would light the threefold lamp of reason learning and grace in mens souls for no other purpose or higher design but meerly that men should make use thereof in perusing of pamphlets and reading the works of humane writers chiefly in examining the word of God with such consequences which naturally may be extracted from the same Some things are in Scripture as grasse on the ground which on the surface thereof is apparent to every beholder other things are in Scripture as mines and minerals in the bowels thereof no lesse the product of the earth then the former though more industry must be used for the eduction thereof Circumcision is of the first sort obvious to a childe that can read the 17 th of Genesis But he must be a man of understanding which we all ought to be to whom Baptism is visible by deduction from Scripture See we here not only the usefulnesse and conveniency but even the absolute necessity of the profession of Ministers not only for the administration of Sacraments but for the clearing those necessary consequences from Scripture which at the first view are not apparent to every ordinary capacity S. Paul saith Rom. 12. 6. Let us prophesie according to the proportion of Faith Now I believe it will generally be granted that by Prophesie here is meant the preaching of the word Know then that the proportion of Faith consists not in one or some or many but is the result of all places of Scripture the universal Symmetrie of them all concerning such a point which is treated of Here then is the office of the Minister to present to his people in any matter necessary to be believed or practised the sence of the Old and New Testament This is sometimes not conspicuous in any one place as being the collective and constructive Analogie amounting from many particular places compared together Here I say the Ministers office is called upon in whom Reason is or ought to be cleared and strengthned by his learning to manifest and evidence to the people of his flock the rise and result of such deductions how naturally and necessarily they flow from Scripture This done such of his flock who of themselves could not see will see when shown who of themselves could not go will go when led enabled by Gods blessing on his help will both easily apprehend in themselves and communicate to such in their family such Scipture-consequences which their simplicity could never first have found out by themselves Then will it fare with such people as with the Samaritanes John 4. 42. who came to Christ at the womans invitation but believed on him not because of her saying but because they heard him themselves Unlearned people receive not such consequences for truths on the credit of the Learning and Religion of their Minister though by his direction first acquainted therewith but because that since they have been convinced in their own judgements and consciences of the truth thereof as no doubt the Thessalonians were when S. Paul as is aforesaid reasoned with them out of Scripture But a greater then Paul is here to avouch this practice even our Saviour himself Who being to confute the Sadduces who not only denied the resurrection of the dead but also that there was neither Angel nor Spirit Acts 23. 8. existing separate from the body so that at death the souls of men expired and were utterly extinguished In refutation of which errour our Saviour reasoned out of Scripture Mat. 22. 31. 32. But as touching the resurrection of the dead have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living God is not the God of the dead that is he is not God to that which is annihilated and null in nature but that thing must have an absolute being in it self before it can be so related that God becomes a God unto it This text in it self seems at great distance to prove the Resurrection and never likely to meet the matter in controversie unlesse Reason intercede to joyn them both together The argumentation being thus framed and that to which God pronounceth himself a God hath a true real existence But God pronounceth himself God to Abraham Isaac and Jacob some hundreds of years after their death Therfore Abraham Isaac Jacob had stil a true and real existence And thus an argument which formerly was vertually in the text is by the assistance of Reason actually extracted thence and effectually applied to the preset purpose Say not Christ might have chose in the old Testament more pregnant and pertinent places then this by him cited to prove
infants children striplings youths men of perfect reduced decayed ages CHAP. XVII An Objection Answered drawn from the inability of Infants to repent and believe ALthough we conceive this formerly satisfied yet finding it to recur in our proceedings we will repeat something in our larger Answer thereunto We perceive many men infidels in the point of infants faith and do not believe that they do or can believe whose distrust is principally grounded on these two causes partly because infants cannot evidence their believing to others partly because men cannot conceive the manner of infants belief To the first of these we say it is injurious to conclude infants incapable of believing because they cannot manifest it to others On the same account and with as much truth and right one might deny reasonable souls to infants because they neither do nor can make any expression thereof Let matters be measured by outward appearance and the young ones of bruit beasts seem more rational though indeed it be but natural instinct in them then any childe whatsoever A Lamb new wean'd and Chicken new hatch'd know their Dam can stand go do many things in order to their self-preservation better then a new-born infant and yet no wise man will pronounce them more reasonable then a childe Yea give me leave a little here to make an useful digression There is no one mistake w ch hath betrayed mens judgements to more absurdities in the points of Circumcision and Baptism then a misapprehension in making the body the standard of the soul and measuring the same by the proportion thereof I am afraid there be too many who conceive souls like the pipes in an Organ some longer some shorter some lesser some larger and fancy degrees of their dimensions variable with their ages So that a new-born infant should have a smal soul a weaned childe a soul somewhat greater and so successively that the souls of boyes youths striplings men should gradually exceed one another in greatnesse Yea I am afraid that some do farther extend this their false apprehension even to imagine that at the last day of Judgement the souls of such who died in their infancy shall appear before Gods Tribunal little diminutive Spirits This conceit makes men behold infants with disdainful eyes accounting them but Cyphers which signifie but little in nature and nothing in Religion To rectifie their erroneous judgements let them know that all reasonable souls as created by God and first infused into bodies are equal in their essence and that something extrinsical and adventitious causeth that grand disparity betwixt souls in their natural moral and supernatural operations 1. In their natural as the wise man and the fool are equal in their death Eccles 2. 16. so also in their birth not only in the manner thereof but in this respect of an adequation of all the essentials of their souls The different tempers of their brains and more or lesse perfect fabrick of their bodies differenceth them in their actions who in their beings are alike 2. In their moral That which makes the difference betwixt them is this First education bestowed on one more then another whereby he arrives at a perfection above his equals Secondly Habits of vertues or vices which one hath acquired more or lesse then the other 3. In their supernatural Only the distinction ariseth from infused graces more plentifully conferred on one then another and from the holy improvement thereof which one frugal in goodnesse makes above him which is an unthrift therein Thus the species or kind with all specifical perfections are not partial to one individuum to make that a favourite more then another but all indifferently partake thereof And as amongst the Israelites Exod. 16. 18. all had their just omer of manna so the man yea the giant hath no more of the reasonable soul then the Dwarfe or the Infant all share alike in the essence thereof The same may be said of the souls of Children and men The essentials of a childs soul are as large and ample to all purposes and intents as that of a man The house-keeper is the same though pent for rooms he cannot make the like entertainment Indeed we read Rev. 20. 12. I saw the dead great and small stand before God and the books were open c. But the inequality there relates not unto their souls and the essences thereof but to their conditions wherein they were estated when alive Psal 49. 2. Low and high rich and poor together What matters it then though Children cannot discover and though men cannot perceive their belief It follows not but that God may see what a child is not sensible of in it self nor others in it God judgeth not as man judgeth nor doth he see as man seeth Man only beholdeth the out-side of childrens operations loaden with defects arising from their bodily indisposition Gods sees the heart and what mainly moveth therein the soul and age being meetly circumstantial and accidental thereunto it maketh no odds at all in Gods discovery therein who can see in them that beliefe which we cannot behold But suppose the worst that Infants neither do nor can believe yet this cannot be a bar to their Covenanting in Baptism no more then it was to the Jewish children in Circumcision Their tender age knew not what a Covenant with God meant Nor had they feeling how thereby they were engaged to keep the Law Nor understood what did belong to the inward Circumcision of the heart yet were vouchsafed to be foederati cum Deo So it can be no bar to the children of Christian parents to receive a seal of covenantship with Christ albeit they at that time want reason to know the nature of a Covenant nor how they put on Christ nor what it is to believe and to be washed clean from sin There is no more absurdity or inconsequence upon one then the other CHAP. XVIII Other Objections Answered THe Grand Objections thus cleared such as remain will be easily satisfied as followeth Object It is pride and presumption for any to account themselves fitter and forwarder for Baptism then Christ himself was Now Christ himself was not Baptized Luke 3. 23. till he began to be about thirty years of Age none ought therefore to prevent that date of time in their Baptism Answ Though Christ was not baptized till thirty years of Age remember he was circumcised Luke 2. 21. on the eighth day Secondly Christ was not Baptized out of necessity needing no soul-physick who had no soul-sicknesse but a voluntary design to Baptize baptism and to give a soveraign vertue thereunto Thirdly Many of Christs actions were for our instruction not imitation Christ presently after his Baptism fasted fourty days and fourty nights which the urgers of this argument will not pretend unto Discover we here a corruption too rife in all our hearts Such is the frowardnesse of our crosse-grain'd nature that we lazily stand still and admire such actions of Christ
which ought to be in the morning in the afternoon on condition they were done before night But many men through their lazinesse give liberty to themselves to put off their setentance which ought to be in their youth to their declining Age conceiving all will be well if it be but done before their Death Whereas indeed soul Circumcision ought to be timely 6. Must be totall Jewish Circumcision say the Rabbins consisted of two principall parts 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cutting off 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The casting away of the forekin The ruines of the latter Custome remain in Zipporahs behaviour Exod. 4. 25. though distempered with passion shee might over act her part when casting her sons foreskins at her husbands feet and both are spiritually united in our Saviours Precept Matth. 5. 30. If thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee 7. Will be painfull Such therefore as indulgently hope of themselves that they have circumcised their souls and yet can never remember that they offered any violence to their own Nature never put their selves to any pain in curbing their corruption may justly suspect their spirituall condition Had ever any a Tooth drawn and was insensible thereof Surely such Incisions into our souls with the lancers of true repentance leave an indeleble impression behind them and that pain too probably was never at all indured which so soon is wholly forgotten It is to be feared rather the pain will prove insupportable unto us some counsell therfore wil be good to mitigate the same Surgeons when forced to cut off a limb generally use two wayes to ease their Patient One by casting him into a sleep lately disused because dangerous sleep being so immediate a donative of God himself Psal 127. 2. For so he giveth his beloved sleep that humane receipts for the same either under or over-do the work The other by stupifying and mortifying by degrees the part to be cut off so to render the party lesse sensible thereof The same way is prescribed us by the Apostle Col. 3. 5. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication c. The torture will be intolerable to have our souls circumcised and corruptions cut from us whilest we are in the full feeling thereof and therefore ought it to be our endeavour by dayly mortification to dull our sense of the same So much of Circumcision and now let us briefly recollect with the Reader what progresse we have made in the present controversie and by what degrees we have proceeded First we have proved the Covenant made with Abraham at Circumcision and Evangelical Covenant Secondly that the same descendeth on all the children of Abraham Thirdly that all believing Gentiles are Abrahams children Fourthly That eight-dayes-old-Jewish-children were accepted of God as capable to covenant Come we now to shew that Baptism with Christians is what Circumcision was to the Jews whence this will naturally and necessarily follow that Christian children at the same age have as much right to the one as Jewish infants had to the other CHAP. VII That Baptism succeeds to all the Essentials of Circumcision A Successour must be as after in time so really distinct from that which precedes it otherwise it is not the successour but the same Those therefore who indeavour to disprove Baptism's succession to Circumcision by alledging many differences betwixt them do our Work in desiring to destroy it whilest the same differences are but accidental betwixt them We shall first observe what such accidental differences are betwixt Circumcision and Baptism and they will appear such as do not dis-essential the one from the other It is remarkable that all the differences betwixt Circumcision and Baptism are on the gaining side for us Christians whose estate is not impaired but improved thereby Baptism being milder in the sign freer in the time larger in the subject 1. Milder in the sign the Law saith cut off and be clean which is Painful the Gospel saith wash and be clean which is easie At Baptism no violent Impression is made on the Infant only a little water powred on his Face Washing is so far from doing wrong even to a new born Infant that his natural wel-being cannot be without it Ezek. 16. 4. When thou wast new Born thy navel was not cut thou wast not washed in water to soften thee 2. Freer in the time Circumcision was confined to the eighth day and those equally guilty who anticipated or protracted the same God in the Gospel hath left Baptism to the discretion of Christians to accelerate or retard it as they are advised by the childs strength and their own conveniency He hath given Parents as much liberty herein as kind Elkanah allowed Hannah his loving wife 1 Sam. 1. 23. Do what see meth good unto thee Presume we here that pious Parents will not create needlesse delayes to Baptise their children Ne quod differatur auferatur Lest God in the interim take their child away from them In which case as I will not be the Judge to condemn the Child so should I be one of the Jury I would not acquit the Father 3. Larger in the subject Circumcision left out a just half or full moiety of Mankinde confin'd only to the Males whereas Baptism takes in the weaker sex Indeed we have but one woman signally named whom we find baptized namely Lydia Acts 16. 15. the seller of Purple in Thyatira But the precedents of more And let the ensuing parallel in the same Chapter be observed Acts 8. 3. Saul made havock and haling men and women committed them to prison Acts 8. 12. Philip preached concerning the kingdom of God and they were baptized both men and women See here the weaker sex joyntly partake in persecutions and which was but equal did also communicate in the comforts It was just that those who with men had drunk their share in the cup of bitter affliction should also have their part in the cup of Sacramental consolation Let none be troubled that only two places expresly mention the baptizing of Women For Scripture proofs are not to be taken by their number but weighed in the ballance One witnesse from an infallible mouth is as valid as one thousand Yea one testimony of Scripture coming from the Spirit which is 1 Cor. 15. 28. all in all is as much as if all the Scripture and every verse therein had avouched the same Here let the weaker sex enlarge their gratitude to God on this very account that he hath cleared their title to this Sacrament in the Gospel whose right to Circumcision under the Law was incumbred with some difficulty For suppose a Jewish woman distressed in conscience and complaining that she was excluded the Sacrament of Circumcision because not actually signed with it and suppose a Rabbin or Levite endeavouring to satisfie her by the answers Chapter 1. formerly alledged viz. that she was vertually or reductively circumcised in her father or
hasten with all convenient speed to the fourth which one is worth all the rest A servant of God in this life is perfect 4 Imputatively Christs perfections through Gods mercy being imputed unto him If I be worsted in my front and beaten in my main Battel I am sure I can safely retreat to this my invincible Reer In the agonie of temptation we must quit comparative perfection Alass Relation is rather a shadow then a substance quit intentional perfection being conscious to our selves how oft our actions cross our intentions Quit inchoative perfection for whilest a servant of God compareth the little goodness he hath with that great proportion which by Gods law he ought to have he conceiveth thereof as the pious Jews did of the Foundation of the second Temple Haggai 2. 3. Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing But stick we may and must to imputative perfection which indeed is Gods act cloathing us with the Righteousness of Jesus Christ This is the reason the Saints are unwilling to own any other perfection for though God Job 1. 1. is pleased to stile Job a perfect man yet see what he saith of himself Iob 9. 20. If I say that I am perfect it shall also prove me per verse God might say it Iob durst not for fear of pride and presumption Indeed Noah is the first person who is pronounced perfect in Scripture Gen. 6. 9. But mark I pray what went in the verse before But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Not that his finding grace is to be confined to his particular preservation from the Deluge which was but one branch or sprig of Gods grace unto him But his whole person was by Gods goodness accepted of Noahs perfection more consisting in that acceptance then his own amiableness approved not so much because God found goodness in Noah but because Noah found grace in God Come we now in the description of the Dead to what he is The end of that man is peace Object Some will object that daily experience confutes the truth of this Doctrine what more usual then to see Gods servants tossed tumbled tortured tormented often ending their painful lives with shameful deaths Cushi being demanded by David to give an account of Absaloms condition 2 Sam. 18. 32. made this mannerly and politique return The enemies of my Lord the King and all that rise up against thee to do thee hurt be as that young man is But some will say if this be a peaceable end to lead an afflicted life and have an ignominious death may the enemies of God and all goodness the infringers of our Laws and Liberties the haters of Learning and Religion the destroyers of Unity and Order have their souls surset of such a peaceable end Resp In answer hereunto we must make use of our Saviours distinction the same for substance and effect though in words there be variation thereof Being taxed by Pilate for treason against Caesar he pleaded for himself Ioh. 18. 36. My kingdom is not of this world So say we to salve all objections our peace that is the peace in our Text and God make it ours not only to treat and hear but partake thereof is not of this world consisteth not in temporal or corporal prosperity but is of a more high and heavenly nature Indeed this peace is in this world but not of this world begun here in the calm of a clear and quiet conscience and finished hereafter in the Haven of endless happiness When the man in my Text becomes perfectly perfect he shall then become perfectly peaceable However we may see that sometimes I say not alwayes God sets a signal character of his favour on some of his servants enjoying at their end a generall calm and universal tranquillity towards all to whom they are related Amongst the many priviledges of Saints reckoned up Job 5. none more remarkable then that verse 23. For the Stones of the field shall be at league with thee and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee Have we here a Dichotomy of all wicked men or a sorting of them all into two sides Some are Stones like Nabal 1 Sam. 25. 37. stupid sottish senseless no Rhetorick with its expanded hand no Logick with its contracted fist no Scripture no reason no practice no precedent can make any impression upon them so that the best of men may even despair to get their good will Well the way to do it and procure a perfect peace with them is to please God Others are beasts like the Cretians Tit. 1. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so fierce so furious so crafty so cruel no medling with them without danger As the former could not conceive so these will not abide any rational debate with them The former were too low and silly too much beneath these high and haughty too much above perswasion to peace mention but the name thereof and they Psal 112. prepare themselves to battel The art then to make these friends with a man is only this to endeavour to please the high God of heaven and then Solomons words will come to pass Prov. 16. 7. When a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him It once came to pass in England and but once it came to pass in England namely when Sir Thomas Moor was Lord Chancellor that the Cryer in Chancery being commanded to call the next cause returned this answer there were no more causes to be heard Not that there was no more on the file for that day which is ordinary and usual but which is strange that then there was no more sutes depending in the whole Court of Chancery but that all ripened for Trial were decided Then was Janus his Temple shut clean throughout England in Cases betwixt Plaintiff and Defendant relating to equity and conscience Whether this proceeded from the peaceableness of people in that age not so quarrelsome and litigious as in ours or from the goodness of the Judge either happy privately to compound differences without any sute or dextrous publickly to decide them with all expedition But when some good man hath lyen on his death bed though having many sutes in his life all then are ended and composed Call the sute betwixt this man and his God long since it is attoned and both made friends in Christ Cal the sute betwixt this man and his conscience it is compremised and both of them fully agreed Cal the sute betwixt this man and his enemies Stones and Beasts it is compounded and they at peace with him Call the sute betwixt this man and all other Creatures it is taken up and he and they fully reconciled Thus I say sometimes not alwayes God graceth some of his servants that they depart in an universal peace a personal favour indulged to some select Saints But generally and universally all the true servants of God whatever