it up on this assurance that the end thereof shall be peace Take up thy Cross Is it not enough that I be passive and patiently carry it when it is laid upon me What a Tyranny is this for me to cross my self by taking up my own cross But God will have it so thou must take it up that is First thou must freely confess that nothing hath befaln thee by chance or fortune but by Gods all-ordering Providence Secondly Thou must acknowledge that all afflictions imposed upon thee are the just punishment of thy sins deserved by thee if inflicted more heavily seeing all things is mercy which is on this side of hel fire This it is to take up thy cross do it willingly for it will be peace at the last The last is the worst word Daily Not that God every day sends us a new affliction but he requires that every day we should put on a habit of patience to undergo whatsoever cross is laid upon us This I conceive to be Davids meaning Psal 73. 14. and chastened every morning Daily superstitious Fryers never esteem themselves ready till they have put on their Crucifix and religious Protestants must never accompt themselves ready till they have put on their cross The Papists have besprinkled their Calendar with many festivals having no foundation in Scripture or ancient Church History One day they call the Exaltation of the Cross which is May 3. another the Invention of the Cross which is September 14. But we must know there is one day of the Cross more Day which continueth from the beginning to the end of the year namely the Assumption of the Cross every one must take it up daily do it do it willingly for the end thereof wil be peace And yet there is a fourth thing remaining in the Text when we have took up our Cross we must follow Christ it is not enough to take it up and then stand still as if suffering gave us a supersedeas for doing but God at the same time will have our hands back and feet of our soul exercised hands to take up back to bear our Cross and feet to follow him and happy it is for us though we cannot go the same pace if we go the same path with our Saviour for the end thereof will be peace O the amiableness of the word Peace oh the extensiveness of the word End Peace what can be finer ware End what can be larger measure The amiableness of Peace especially to us who so long have prayed for it and payed for it and sought for it and fought for it and yet as yet in England have not attained it For the Tragoedy of our war is not ended but the scene thereof removed and the Element only altered from earth unto water Surely had we practised Davids precept Psal 34. 14. Eschew evil and do good seek peace and ensue it before this time we had obtained our desire It is to be feared we have been too earnest prosecutors of the last and too slow performers of the first part of the verse great have been our desires but small our deeds for peace Had we eschewed evil and done good God ere this time would have crowned our wishes with the fruition of peace The Marriners Act. 27. 30. men skilful to shift for themselves at Sea had a private project for their own safety namely to quit their crazie ship with the souldiers and passengers therein and secretly to convey themselves into the boat But their design miscarried being discovered by S. Paul to the souldiers who cut the ropes of the boat and let her fall off All men ought to have a publick spirit for the general good of our Nation the success where of we leave to the al-managing providence of the God of heaven and earth But I hope it wil be no treason against our State and I am sure it wil be safe for us who are but private persons to provide for the securing of our souls and to build a little Cock-boat or smal Vessel of a quiet conscience in our own hearts thereby to escape to the Haven of our own Happiness We wish well to the great Ship of our whole Nation and will never desert it so but that our best prayers and desires shall go with it But however providence shall dispose thereof we will stick to the petty Pinnace of Peace in our own consciences Sure I am no souldiers shall be able to cut the Cables I mean no forcible impression from without shall disturb or discompose the peace which is within us O the extensiveness of the word End It is like the widows oyl 2 King 4. 6. Which multiplyed to fill the number and bigness of all Vessels brought unto it so here bring dayes weeks months years myriads millions of years end will fill them all yet it self is never filled as being the endless end of eternity We will conclude all with a passage of Columbus when he first went to make discoverie of the new world Long time had he sailed and seen nothing but Sea insomuch as the men and Marriners with him begun to mutiny resolving to go no further but return home again Here Columbus with good words and fair language pacified them for the present perswading them to sail forward for one month more That month elapsed he over-intreated them to hold out but 3 weeks longer that three weeks expired he humbly and heartily sued unto them that for his sake they would sail on but 3 dayes more promising to comply with the Resolutions of returning in case that within those 3 dayes no encouragement to their contrary was discovered Before the ending whereof they descryed fire which was to them a demonstration that it was not subjected on water and w ch invited them for the finding out of those Islands whereby others afterwards discovered the whole Continent Whilest we live here below in our bodies and sail towards another world in our souls and desires we must expect to meet with much disturbance in our distempered passions yea such as sometimes in the hour of temptation will amount to a mutiny and much dishearten us when tost with the tempest of afflictions we can make no land discover no hope of happiness It must then be our work to still and calm our passions perswading them to persevere and patiently to proceed though little hope appear for the present Not that with Columbus we should indent with our souls to expect any set-time of years months or dayes this were unlawful and with the wicked Psal 78. 41. To limit the Holy One of Israel but indefinitely without any notation of time Let us till on our souls by degrees a while a little while yet a very little while to depend on God and go on in goodness Then at last a pillar of fire a comfortable light of a conscience cleared through the blood and merits of Christ will appear unto us not only contenting us for the present but directing us for the future to that bliss and happiness enjoyed by the Subject of my Text Mark the Perfect behold the Vpright for the end of that man is Peace AMEN FINIS PAg. 7. l. 4. for ad praevaricationem r. and prevarication p. 12. l. 5. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Fox Acts and Monuments page 1860. * 2 Kings 18. 27. * See Camdens Brittania in Northampton shire * 1 Tim. 4. 7. * Job 29. 15 * Jer. 1. 6. * Joel 2. 8. * About the end of his first Book on the Galatians Theodoret 2. Quest on Joshua * In his Cōment on Genesis chap. 17. * Gen. 4. 4. * Heb. 11. 4. * Harpsfield in his Eccl. Hist saec dec 5. p. 625 * 1 Cor. 14. 20. ‖ Augustine Epist 95. ‖ Augustine Epist 92. * Fox Martyrol p. 1860. * See his life lately printed
and not cover it he was to pay the owner for the losse of those his cattel which fell into it Parents having opened a pit of original corruption by the sinfulnesse of their nature if they labour not to cover it again as much as in them lies by using the ordinance God hath appointed for the same shall not the souls of their children if finally falling into that pit be heavily required at their hands Yea shall man be carelesse and cruel where God hath been so kind and careful in his instituting of Baptism Rom. 6. 3. That we may be Baptized into Jesus Christ his death as it followeth vers 6. that the body of sin may be destroyed To conclude Infants having the body of sin as well as adult persons and Baptism being appointed for the destruction thereof such parents are wanting to their own duty undervalue Gods ordinance and are cruel to the souls of the flesh of their body that deny Baptism unto Infants CHAP. XIV The Sixth Reason drawn from the constant Practice of Christian Churches in all Ages what credit is to be given to a Primitive Custome I Shall now be challenged by such who herein dissent in judgement from me for breach of promise starting from my own principles that having promised Reasons out of Scripture I flie now to Church-Practice and Ancient Tradition Wherefore to vindicate my self which is far more considerable the Truth herein I will first prove by Gods assistance by Reason out of Scripture that the Practice of the Catholique Church in all Places and at all Times especially in such matters wherein nothing appears contrary in Gods Word obligeth all conscientious Christians to the observation thereof And in the next Chapter we wil shew that the Baptizing of Infants hath been the uninterrupted Custome of the Church Be it premised that if we look on Customes simply in themselves we shall find them generally like the men of Sodom not ten good ones amongst the many thousands of them For what is Custome but the practice of most men time out of mind Now seeing most men yea all men by Nature Gen. 6. 5. have the imaginations of their hearts evil and that not for a day week or year but as the Text saith continually no wonder if Customes be commonly wicked Yea such errours and vices which at the first are soft and supple pliable to Reproof and sensible of Refutation contract an hardnesse by custome in continuance of time yea get an incrustation and such scales over them that they become impenetrable to Scripture and Reason brought against them And as Lahan deceived plain-dealing Jacob in his Marriage Gen. 29. 26. by pleading the custome of the Country so it is confessed that too many in all Ages in matters both of faith and fact have alledged Custome to Patronize their erroneous opinions and injurious practises But all this ought not to beget in us a neglect of such Customes which like Melchisedec are Heb. 7. 3. without father without mother without discent whose first original cannot be found out as practised in the Church time out of mind no remembrance or record extant to the contrary Now as Melchisedec in the same place is said to have neither beginning of dayes and what necessarily followeth thence nor end of life so it is but just and equal that such Ancient Customes in the Church which never had memorable Rise should never have Fall therein but that such which probably began at the first should constantly be continued till the last coming of our Saviour Here I plead not for such mis-shapen Customes which either run up all in length narrow and slender which though long in use never extended to any wideness in the Christian World or else so low and thick they only spread in bredth as many Popish Customes generally but not anciently used but never shot up to the just stature of Primitive Antiquity We only defend such wel-grown Customes which I call square ones the form of firmness and stability whose height and bredth are well proportioned put in ure by Christians at all times and in all places conceiving we can demonstrate it by reason from Scripture that such Customes must be presumed grounded on the word and will of God For proof whereof we produce Gods promise and Lo I am with you always unto the end of the world Amen Mat. 28. 20. Every operative word herein deserves our serious consideration I am with you unto the end I am A verb of the present joyned with words of the future tense to shew Gods Instantaneous assistance in every moment of extremity Psal 46. 1. God is our strength and refuge a very present help in trouble With you This cannot be meant only of the Disciples personally none of them living to the end of the world seeing John himself the surviver of the whole Jury died about the year of our Lord 102. It is therefore meant extensively of the Disciples as they were an immortal corporation With you Selves and successours persons and posterity As Christ John 17. 20. Did not pray for these alone so here he did not promise to these alone but to them also which should believe on him through their word These words To be with you import not only a promise of protecting them from all dangers but also of directing them in all doctrines necessary to be believed and practised for their salvation And this promise being made not so much to the particular persons as to the collective body of the Church is not so effectually performed to every individual Christian as to the Universal Church which amounteth from them all We confesse that notwithstanding the foresaid promise of protection and direction many good men have been guilty of great errours and have also fallen by Gods permission and just punishment of their sins into grievous dangers However Divine goodnesse so doubleth his Files about his Church in general that he will not suffer the same to be universally infected in all Ages with any one dangerous Errour And therefore a Church Custome in all times and places must be presumed conformable to the will of God because were it erroneous it were utterly inconsistent with that solemn promise which God hath passed to his Church to be with them unto the worlds end Such who on the contrary side are highly opinioned of their private Judgements and will not confide in the Universal Customes of the Church I know not whether therein they do shew more want of Charity in condemning so many Christians at once or plenty of pride in over-prizing their own judgements or store of profanenesse in doubting yea denying the performance of Gods promise so solemnly made of his protecting presence in the Church who surely will dispatch and destroy an errour therein before it grow up to be so long liv'd as to become a Custome What a high valuation S. Paul set on Church Customes appears by his expression 1 Cor. 11. 16. But if any man
seem to be contentious we have no such custome neither the Churches of God For the better understanding whereof know that the Corinthians were guilty of an innovation wherein they were an exception from the rule of the general practice in all Christian Churches The Innovation was this that their women used to pray uncovered the men covered that is as it is generally interpreted the women with short the men with long hair This ill fashion S. Paul confutes with several reasons drawn from the power of man over his wife appealing also to natural decencie therein And at last concludes all with this close But if any seem to be contentious we have no such Custome nor yet the Churches of God As if he had said could you Corinthians prescribe any custome that in Gods Churches grave and godly men and women have prayed as you do the former covered the latter uncovered Then should you alledge much in your own justification But I am confident on the contrary that no such custome can be produced and therefore your singularity is condemned by the joynt practice of all Gods Churches against them Object These words But if any man seem to be contentious we have no such custome neither the Churches of God Import only that Gods Churches have no custome to be contentious Christians ought to be of a quiet and peaceable mind and not to delight in vain janglings and dissentions Answ This cannot be the meaning of the words For was ever man so silly as to suppose and conceive that Gods Churches should be so irrational as to have a ridiculous custome of being contentious The Church is so far from having such custome which is a habit resulting from many acts that it condemneth each single act of causelesse contention as wicked and ungodly Yea no civilized estate though consisting of meer Pagans ever had any custome to be contentious or did ever delight in Barrettors More then must be meant herein that Gods Churches had never any such Custome for the two Sexes so to pray as the Corinthians did who herein ran counter to the Universal practice of Christianity the Apostle naming Churches in the Plural which are the single instruments as the whole Church is the consort all of them harmoniously agreeing in this custome save only the jarring Corinthians who are out of tune by themselves If a Church custome carried weight with it in S. Pauls time when amongst Christians it could not be above fourty years standing what a reverence is due to those customes which have continued in Gods Church above sixteen hundred years amongst which the Baptizing of Infants is a principal and if S. Pauls argument followed negatively women ought not pray uncovered because the Church hath no such custome the consequence is no lesse strong from the affirmative Children ought to be Baptized because the Church in all ages hath had such a Custome The proving whereof is the subject of the ensuing Chapter CHAP. XV. The Antiquity and generallity of Baptizing of Infants proved by the confession of Pelagius DIvers Learned and Godly Divines have undertaken and performed this task to prove the constant practice of Infants Baptism in the Primitive Church by the induction of the Authorities of several Fathers to that purpose And as the Angels in Jacobs Ladder Gen. 28. 12. Some ascended others descended upon it so in this scale of authorities some have deduced the practice downwards from Christs time to our dayes others by an inverted method have raised it upwards from our days to Christs time both by different motions meeting in the same point It is our hap like Ahimaaz to be sent last on the same errand the proof of this point And although far be such arrogance from me as to hope with him to come first to our journeys end and to do better then my betters have done before me yet thus far wil I follow the example of Ahimaaz 2 Sam. 18. 23. To run by the way of the plain Having to deal with people who generally are unlearned therefore the heaping of Quotations in unknown tongues were probable to offend and incense rather then to edifie and inform them we will imbrace the plainest way to make the Baptizing of Infants appear an Antient and general Church Custome unto them This will be proved by the confession of Pelagius when first we have given an account to the Reader what he was when and where he lived and what opinions he maintained He was a Britan by birth flourishing about the year of our Lord four hundred ten a man of great learning and greater parts had the same been sanctified unto him In the time of this Pelagius only three parts of the world were known Europe Asia and Africa all which were traced with the feet of Pelagius who though born in a corner of the World quickly quitted his native soyl and enriched himself with the experience of Church-practice in all parts In Europe where he was born in Britain and where he lived a long time in Rome it self gaining there great acquaintance with Ruffinus which may passe for the Epitome of the then Christian world Asia where in the Island of Rhodes or thereabouts he first scattered his dangerous Doctrine Afterwards he went to Hierusalem Africa where for some times he continued in Egypt working himself into the familiarity of the learned men therein Yea it is laid to the charge of Pelagius that to disperse his poysonous opinions with the more advantage saepius mutavit loca he often purposely changed the place of his habitation Amongst the many dangerous doctrines which Pelagius maintained we will insist on that alone the confutation whereof makes mainly for our present purpose He defended that Infants were conceived and born without original sin which came unto them when growing in years not from an inward principal of corruption but from their imitation of outward ill examples presented unto them S. Augustine undertakes his confutation and amongst many other solid Arguments to that purpose principally insisteth upon this that it was the custome of the Church in all ages to Baptize Infants which plainly proves that they were conceived in original sin For that which is clean needs not to be washed This Argument is often inculcated by S. Austin in several places as namely in his 150 Epistle unto Sixtus Likewise in his second book of Marriage and concupiscence in the eighteenth chapter Likewise in his four books to Bonifacius and every where in his six books against Julian one of Pelagius his schollers Likewise in his first book of imperfect work against the same chapter 48. 54. and 115. Lastly in his second book of imperfect work chapter 120. and 180. To spare making more instances the matter being notoriously known to any who have the least skill in the works of that worthy Father Now how easie had it been for Pelagius to answer this argument by denying childrens Baptism to be a Church custome had not his