Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n
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A80416
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A learned and full ansvver to a treatise intituled; The vanity of childish baptisme. Wherein the severall arguments brought to overthrow the lawfulnesse of infants baptisme, together with the answers to those arguments maintaining its lawfulnesse, are duly examined. As also the question concerning the necessitie of dipping in baptisme is fully discussed: by William Cooke Minister of the Word of God at Wroxall in Warwickwshire. Printed and entred according to order.
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Cooke, William.
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1644
(1644)
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Wing C6043; Thomason E9_2; ESTC R15425
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103,267
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120
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of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 1.2 c. Secondly that the reason why these children are said to be holy is the faith of the parents or one parent at least to whom the other parent is sanctified by vertue of the beleeving parents faith according to those generall rules 1 Tim. 4.4 5. Tit. 1.15 Whence it was that the beleeving yoke-fellow had the lawfull and sanctified use of the unbeleeving yoke-fellow For though it be unlawfull for a beleever to marry an infidell 2 Cor. 6.14 Yet when of unbeleevers who were married together in the time of infidelitie one is called the other is not the calling of the one to grace doth not dissolve or annihilate their marriage which is Gods ordinance and therefore good if the unbeleever be content to live in marriage fellowship with the beleeving mate So that Gods Covenant with the beleeving parent or parents is the ground of the childes holinesse for as hath beene touched before in regard of externall covenant with God the state of the parents or better parent and of the child is the same If the parent be in Covenant the child though by nature the child of wrath yet by Gods grace is borne in Covenant and so he and his posteritie continues untill any of them cast themselves and their posteritie out of Covenant by Apostasie The child that is borne of parents out of Covenant remaines out of Covenant unlesse either the parents or some that are in stead of parents being called of God give up themselves and the child unto God or the child coming to yeares of discretion be called into the Covenant in his owne person Thirdly Hence it followeth that the holinesse of the children of beleeving parents is not necessarily internall and reall holinesse so that it be externall and faederall it sufficeth to make them members of the visible Church For as of those Corinthians and others that are called Saints we cannot infallibly gather that all were internally sanctified it was sufficient to make them externall members that they were both Saints by calling so it is sufficient to make the children so farre holy as to be members of the Church and outwardly in Covenant if their parents were outwardly in Covenant What is inwardly wrought it is not for man to judge Now let us see what A. R. objecteth to this place of Scripture A. R. For answer you lay down some grounds as First There is but one Covenant now on foot which is the Covenant of grace and salvation Heb. 7.22 8.13 10.9 Answ We grant you this and more too Namely that never since Adams fall was there any Covenant properly so called made with mankind by God but the Covenant of grace and salvation Where read you of any Covenant of works and damnation Secondly You say That there is but one manner of entering and being in the Covenant Ioh. 3.3.5.6 Heb. 10.19 20 21 22. Answ True If you meane being in that Covenant inwardly spiritually and savingly and the same ever was the manner of being and entering into Covenant since Adams fall viz. by Iesus Christ or regeneration Thirdly You say There is but one holinesse now acceptable unto God which is inward spirituall and in truth without which no outward obedience or conformitie to any worship is warrantable or acceptable Ioh. 4.23 24. Heb. 11.6 Answ If you understand it of such warrantablenesse as finds acceptation with God in the party performing it as your latter seemes to expresse the former This is not questioned nor denied by any that I know But why doe you limit your propositions by the particle Now as if though now outward obedience and conformitie to any ordinance be not acceptable without inward holinesse yet it sometimes had been which is utterly untrue as may appeare Gen. 4. Psal 50. and 51. Esa 1. Ier. 6. and almost every where Now you come directly to answer Hence say you it followes that if beleevers children be in Covenant and have true holinesse then they are all saved old and young But all beleevers children are not saved no not of faithfull Abraham himselfe Esa 10.21 with Rom. 9.27 Therefore the children of beleevers are not in the Covenant now on foot nor ought to be baptized Answ You might as well reason thus If Simon Magus Ananias and Sapphira with many other hypocrites in the Primitive Churches whom yet the Apostles baptized and called Saints and faithfull were in the Covenant and had this true holinesse or were truly Saints then they must needs be all saved But they were not all saved Therefore they were no beleevers or Saints nor in the Covenant now on foot and therefore should not have beene baptized The Apostles belike wanted you to direct and controll them and shew whom they should have baptized and whom not Secondly I answer directly Though true holinesse be necessarie for spirituall and internall being in Covenant and for eternall salvation yet the outward holinesse of the party consisting in externall being in Covenant is sufficient to warrant a Minister to baptize otherwise he should never have warrant to baptize for none knowes the heart so as to judge of inward holinesse infallibly but God You adde that we object notwithstanding all this that you have said Why may not infants be in the Covenant outwardly having faederall holinesse and in that sense be holy and so to be admitted to the outward ordinance of baptisme as infants were unto circumcision in time of the Law and in the State of the Iewes To this you answer That the State or the Church of the Iewes were under the old Covenant and Law and stood not by faith or circumcision of the heart as this of the Gospel doth but stood meerly upon nature and the circumcision of the flesh and accordingly had their outward and faederall holinesse and outward cleansings all which were abolished with their State and no such holinesse or distinction is now between any persons in the world Answ Secondly though they were under the old Covenant legally dispensed wherein grace was more obscurely and sparingly communicated to Gods people then it is under the Gospel yet the old Covenant was a Covenant of grace which all must needs grant unlesse they thinke that the Patriarks Prophets and that holy nation of the Iews were a gracelesse people out of favour with God either not at all saved or saved by workes For there is no way to be saved but by grace or workes and no salvation by grace but in a Covenant of grace But I hope you will not be so blasphemous as to say this Secondly If the old Covenant stood not by faith to use your phrase and circumcision of the heart how is it that God promiseth circumcision of the heart Deut. 30.6 and living by faith Hab. 2.4 and the Prophets call upon the people for circumcision of the heart Ier. 4.4 and for faith Psal 37. Esa 7. 2 Chron. 20. and that the
speakes as it was taken without the promise and that Covenant which God made with Abraham and as men sought justification by it whether without the promise before Christ or without the Gospell since Christ or whether they sought justification by the Law together with the promise or the Gospell which was not Gods end in giving the Law to his people but mans abuse of it so it brought men into a state of bondage and so the obstinate Iews that thus abuse the Law are cast out as Ishmael and Hagar And as the faithfull were under the discipline and padagogie of the Law they were in a servile condition in comparison of that great freedome from those intolerable burdens of ceremonies and great discomfort and feare accompanying the same which the faithfull have under the Gospel But notwithstanding their bondage they were sonnes and heires and lords of all Gal. 4.1 and so they were under a Covenant of grace though legally administred As for your following discourse wherein you talke your pleasure against Magistrates and Ministers and cry out of the Baptisme of Infants as the greatest delusion and a thing of as dangerous consequence as ever the man of sinne brought into the world and that the greatest maintainers thereof are the greatest deluders and that it is time for you to awake out of your drunken slumber and seek by whom and by what meanes you are so miserablely intosticated as you call it whether by an errour of the Printer or because you are so intoxicated with your drunken slumber that you cannot speake English with much other like raving talke wherein you abuse the Scriptures and shew what manner of spirit you are of Answ I account this wild talke being the evaporations of a giddy braine intoxicated with a drunken slumber whereof you complaine worthy no other answer but this Of every idle word you must give an account at the day of judgment Matt. 12.36 much more of speaking evill of those things you know not railling upon dignities and authorities despising dominions 2 Pet. 2.9.10.11.12 Iud. 4. 8 9. c. and of calling evill good and good evill putting darknesse for light and light for darknesse Es 5.20 Which places of Scripture I would intreate you when you shall awake out of your drunken slumber to consider and seriously ponder So much for the fourth argument and clearing it from exceptions Now I come to the fifth which is of affinity with the former and confounded with it by A. R. and therefore his answers to it mingled with his answers to the former but not the same and therefore we will consider it apart and set downe his answers of any weight and replie to them God willing and this is taken from circumcision 5. Argument If Infants of beleeving parents or parents in Covenant under the old Covenant might and ought to be consecrated unto God and initiated into Covenant by circumcision then Infants of beleeving parents under the new Covenant ought to be consecrated to God and solemnly entred into Covenant by Baptisme But Infants of beleeving parents under the old Covenant might and ought to be consecrated to God and initiated into Covenant by circumcision Gen. 17.10.11 Exod. 12.48 Therefore Infants of beleeving parents under the new Covenant ought to be consecrated unto God and solemnly entred into Covenant by Baptisme For the clearing and confirming of the sequele of the proposition for of the assumption there is no question I will lay downe two or three considerations First that the old and new covenant were one and the same for substance Abraham Moses David and all the faithfull before Christ were under the same Covenant that all the faithfull since Christ are under For since Adams fall there hath been but one way of salvation common to all that have been saved which way is revealed and exhibited only in the Covenant of grace as hath been partly shewed before see Rev. 13.8 14.6 Heb. 11. through the Chapter and 13.8 Hath been demonstrated by the godly learned and must be needs acknowledged by all that will without prejudice consider that Exod. 34.6.7 first God considered as a mercifu l Father a gratious long-suffering God abundant in goodnesse and truth Ezeh 16. is the Authour of the old Covenant as well as the new secondly Iosh 24. Exod. 33.19 That man considered as a miserable sinner yet weary of sinne desiring mercy professing and promising repentance faith and obedience Eph. 1.12 upon his being received into this Covenant is the other Covenantier or confederate in the old aswell as in the new Thirdly 1. Cor. 10.4 that Christ is the Mediatour in both being the Lambe slaine from the foundation of the world Gen. 3.15 Ioh. 8. Ps 110. Exod. 34.7 the promised seed who brake the serpents head whose day Abraham seeing rejoyced A priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek Fourthly that the principall good things promised in both were pardon of sinnes Ps 32.1.2 adoption sanctification perseverance and eternall salvation Fiftly Gen. 15.6 that the condition required is repentance faith and obedience in the old Covenant aswell as the new Sixtly that the end in both is the same Act. 15.10.11 to wit the glory of Gods rich mercie in powring spirituall temporall and eternall blessings upon his people And seventhly that the summe of the Covenant is the same viz Rom. 4. Exod. 19.5 6. Deut. 4.29 30. 10.16.19 11.22 I will be thy God and thou shalt be my people All which are undenyably the same in the old Covenant and new So that considering they agree in Author Object Mediator Good things promised Duties required End Effects in a word in Matter Forme and Definition there can be no essentiall difference Only they differ in some Accidents As there the Covenant was made in Christ to come Here in Christ already come There with a few people and after Abrahams or at least Moses his time only with the house of Israel and those that should joyne therewith Here with more even with all nations Then dispensed by darker prophesies and more obscure sacraments sacrifices and ceremonies or types now by cleare revelation and plaine or open ordinances without the vaile of shadowes types and darke ceremonies Then grace was more dimly scantly and with mixture of legall slavery ordinarily bestowed now more plainly plentifully comfortably and freely all which are but circumstantiall or graduall differences Secondly when the new Covenant succeeded the old then Baptisme succeeded in the place of circumcision as the Lords Supper in stead of the Passeover Exod. 12 48. Rom. 4.11 1 Cor. 12.13 Act. 22.16 Col. 2.11 12. I say Baptisme succeeded in the roome of circumcision and is to us of the same use that circumcision was to the Iewes to wit a signe of entrance into the Church a seale of the righteousnesse of faith which comprehends remission of sinnes Baptisme of the spirit and circumcision of the heart