Baptism But the Seal cannot do it without the Covenant that is the great Instrument of Donation and Conveyance Our Saviour prescribing the ordinary way of Salvation Mark 16.16 says He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but adds He that believeth not shall be damned Not he that is not baptized The Covenant of Grace and our being in Christ is absolutely necessary But the Sign the external Seal is not of a like necessity And yet it is of such necessity too that it cannot be neglected without Sin and Danger To speak summarily and briefly 't is necessary as a Law of Christ as a part of his external Worship as a Seal of the Covenant of the Promise of remission of Sins as a means of exhibiting and conveying of Grace necessary as the ordinary way by which in Conjunction with the Covenant and the Grace of it God doth save And therefore none can neglect it without great indignity to Christ and great ingratitude for such an high Priviledge and eminent Advantage But still we must take along with us this Caution That this sacred Ordinance be not past over as a mere customary Thing as an external Rite only or Ceremony without minding the thing signified and the correspondent of our part of the Covenant which our Baptism Signs and Seals Our common Negligence in the Duties incumbent on us and in those Conditions which our Baptism obligeth us to is certainly one of the great Prejudices that hath hardned the Anabaptists and made them look upon our Infant-Baptism as a trifling Business a mere insignificant thing I proceed now to the next thing I noted as the second general Head which I am in order to consider viz. That Baptism is the initiating Sacrament of the New Testament and so succeeds Circumcision which was the initiating Sacrament of the Old And to discuss this the more fully and methodically I will endeavour to shew you First What Baptism or the Sacrament of Baptism is Secondly What it is to be baptized or what are the Priviledges and Advantages that do accrue to us by our Baptism And then in the Third Place I shall endeavour to prove that Baptism is the initiating Sacrament of the New Testament As to the First The word Sacrament in its original intendment had the signification of such a Military Oath as was attended with sacred Rites and such as led Men by sensible resemblances to things of an higher nature As for the Sacraments of the New Testament particularly that of Baptism we may consider it in divers Respects and so may take up various and distinct Notions and Conceptions concerning it If we consider it with respect to the Divine Grace so it may and ought to be conceived by us to be such an outward and visible Sign thereof as is moreover ordained by Christ to be a means of conveying it unto us and a pledge to assure us of the same Secondly With relation to our Virtue or the embracing the Conditions on our Part So 't will be such an outward visible Sign thereof and ought to be so reputed as is appointed by Christ for us to make a Declaration of it and an Obligation to continue this our Profession and to practise what we so publickly declare and profess Thirdly With reference to that New Covenant by which the Divine Grace and our Duty are as it were tied together so it must be defined such an outward and visible Sign as is ordained by the same Christ for God and Man to declare their mutual Consent and by that Rite explicitely to enter into the said Covenant Lastly As to those who are joyned together in the same Covenant and so are connected to Christ and to one another then 't is such an outward and visible Sign as is by Christ ordained and fitted as a general Badge of their common Profession And a means of bringing particular Men into Society Communion and Fellowship one with another In sum 't is an outward and visible Sign ordained and fitted by Christ to signifie and convey and assure the Divine Grace unto us and on our part to declare the Duty we owe to God and to Christ and to one another and to oblige our selves to the constant Profession and Practice of it * See Towerson on the Sacraments Having thus seen what we are to understand by the Sacrament of Baptism let us consider 2. What it is to be baptized What are the Priviledges and Advantages that do redound to the party baptized First Then to be baptized is by a solemn Rite to be explicitely admitted into Covenant with God a Covenant of Grace Pardon and Salvation which Christ hath purchased with his Blood And surely 't is no small Advantage to be brought into such a State whereby we are consign'd to the Grace of the Gospel and the mercies of God Who thereupon don't measure our performances by Grains and Scruples by perfect unsinning Obedience but with the allowances of the balance of the Sanctuary Not exacting from us according to the strict measures of the Law but saving us by his Grace or as it is elsewhere in Scripture expressed According to his mercy That is by pitying and pardoning us by relieving and supporting us because he remembers that we are but Dust Some say that Baptism only washeth away all the Sins that are past or at present adhering but not the Sins of our future Life But this Sacrament promiseth more and greater Things even in futurum and therefore is not repeated because it doth all at once which it can do at a hundred times For it admits us to a state of Pardon to the condition of Repentance and the Evangelical Mercy He that hath entred into this gate of Life is always in the ready way of having his Sins forgiven unless he turns aside out of this Path by renouncing his Baptism and by utter Apostacy The Messalians denied this and 't was part of their Heresie to undervalue their Baptism and to lessen the Grace thereof * Whom you 'l find confuted by Isidore Pelusiot lib. 3. 195 Epist ad Herman But it was in pursuance of this Grace of Baptism that St. Paul calls the lapsed Galatians to their Covenant of Baptism and the Grace of God stipulated in that Sacrament †Gal. 3.26 and therefore wisht them not to hope to be justified by the Law seeing they are entred into the Covenant of Faith and to be justified thereby And this he proves for that they have been baptized this being the Covenant made in Baptism the gate to all this Mercy Wherefore he exhorts us to hold fast the Profession of our Faith the Faith into which we were baptized when we had not only the Truth of God's Promises absolutely Sealed and Confirmed to us but likewise an assurance of what God is ready to do for us in a way of Grace and Mercy on condition we be faithful in the duties of the Gospel For we must know that the
Gospel-Govenant of which Baptism is the Sign is not without its Conditions which Baptism seals in a way of particular application not only that upon the performing our part of the Covenant we shall obtain the Grace but it seals up to every receiver their particular right in the Graces promised If we do not forfeit all by violating and breaking the Covenant and rend'ring our selves unworthy of the benefits of it Hence the Sacrament of Baptism is said by the Schools to be gratiae exhibitivum an Ordinance of exhibiting and conferring Grace to those that are rightly baptized not by its own Operation but through the Operation of God alone who in the right use of Baptism does always perform what he hath promised For who can deny the effect when we have God's fiat for it Some indeed ascribe too much to Baptism others leave it as a mere naked Sign The bare Element 't is true hath not a power and vertue to convey Grace The Water is not a subject capable to receive it and consequently cannot convey it it toucheth not the Soul it cannot operate upon that to infuse real Grace this would be to ascribe that to the external Instrument which is peculiar only to the great efficient Cause What it conveys and confers is not from any vertue of its own by its bare application but by vertue of Christ's Institution and its relation to the Covenant For this Reason its effects are not confin'd to the instant of its Administration But it extends its efficacy and influence throughout our Lives it continues a seal to the Covenant and the promises of Grace and Mercy till the Covenant be utterly violated by absolute Apostacy or final Unbelief And so it continues an Instrument to convey Grace during our whole Lives not only remission of Sins for the time present but upon our perseverance in the conditions of Faith and Repentance it continues this Grace of Pardon to us to the last Period So that we are but once baptized for the remission of Sins though we daily contract Guilt because being once received it remains a perpetual Pledge and Testimony of the everlasting Covenant of God and of the continual washing away of Sin by the Blood of Christ 'T was therefore a causeless fear occasioned from the Novatian Errour that made some of the Ancients defer Baptism till near their death as tho' it did not continue to exhibit and convey the Grace of Pardon But from what I have already noted there is no resting on the bare work done All are not upon the receiving the external Baptism regenerate and made partakers of internal Grace as if it were necessarily annexed to the outward Ordinance Real Sanctification doth not always accompany the Ministration of Baptism Nevertheless the Ordinance is not without its effect in a way of Grace it doth confer on us in a Sacramental Way what it doth exhibit and Seal to And till there be a Bar put by Men's actual Rejection those that are truly baptized have a right to the Grace and Mercy sealed And tho' Baptism be not always an Instrument of infusing real Grace Yet hereby we are actually de presenti made partakers of relative Grace and have a right to real sanctifying Grace in that way that God gives it and so are partakers of relative Regeneration Being as it were born again into a new State of gracious Relations Priviledges and Hopes And our Baptism is the Character and Sacramental Seal of this new blessed State of Adoption and Salvation And this continues as I have said till there be a forfeiture on our Part and he that will not call this Grace knows not how to value things Spiritual But how rich so ever this Baptismal Grace may be in its self and effects for the benefit of Infant-Innocency 't is not that which is the terms of our Salvation in riper Age when we come under the guilt of actual Sins Those that arrive to the Years of Reason and Choice to them the Gospel tenders Salvation upon condition of actual Faith and Repentance What is sealed to us in our Infant-state is continued to us upon other conditions at Age The Grace that is made over by the free Covenant of God and sealed in Baptism confers a right to the baptized So that if he dies in this State he dies in this right But there are other things required for the continuance of it at years of Knowledge and Reason which as it is a great Foundation of comfort touching the Salvation of dying Infants and justifies that Clause formerly in the rubick for Baptism so it destroys the vain presumptions of others and takes Men off from resting on the Grace of Baptism as if it were sufficient for their Salvation not considering whatever Mercy or Priviledge Baptism doth confirm is continued to us upon other conditions after we come to Age and fall under the guilt of actual Sins Again To be baptized is to be enrolled a Member of the Church incorporated into the Communion of Saints ingrafted into Christ's Mystical Body The Apostle speaking of Christ Mystical under the similitude of a natural Body 1 Cor. 12.13 saith We are baptized into Jesus Christ into that noble blessed Society of which Christ is the Head and to which belong the Adoption and the Covenant and the Promises It would be too large a digression particularly to insist upon the Priviledges and Advantages of the Church of Christ beyond the rest of the World Sure I am of all the judgments that God inflicted upon the Jews none had comparably that fire of Fury that terrour of Wrath in it which was executed in the accomplishment of the threatning mentioned Zach. 11.9 10. upon their heinous Provocation in crucifying the Lord of Life which filled up the number of their Sins Upon which they were rejected cut off from the Olive-Tree and their Church-enclosure pluckt down So that they were no longer his peculiar People but were left in common with the rest of the World without God without Christ and so without all hope of Salvation Whereas they only that are added to the Church that are separated to be God's peculiar Inheritance among all the Tribes of the Earth are in the way to be saved as being the sole objects of his special Care and Providence And therefore it must needs be a blessed Priviledge to be brought within the Pale to be owned by God under such a Relation Now into this Body this Society this holy Corporation we are baptized And as the Church in its Constitution is blessed of God beyond all the World So all its Members have the advantage of other benefits flowing from the Communion of Saints in order to their spiritual and eternal Good As the labours and services of God's Ministers and Ambassadors all are theirs whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas they are all Servants of Christ for the edifying this his Body and the building of them up till they come to Perfection Again they
aquam quae adfuerit super caput nascentis dicens Ego te bapt Synod Colon sub Rudolpho Imper. apud Magd. Cent. 13. And consequently with so much precipitancy as speaks their laying too much stress as their manner is upon the Opus operatum and as if God ties himself to means as well as us Agreeable hereto Christ's Commission is as full for baptizing Infants as any others for if they be the natural or adopted Children of Believers or such as are proselyted they are Abraham's Seed and so are interested in the Covenant and belong to Christ which in Christ's own Dialect is the same thing with being his Disciples * Compare Matt. 10.42 with Mark 9.41 Yea they are called so by the Holy Ghost †Act. 15.10 with v. 1. And the Commission runs to Baptize all Disciples ‖ Matt. 28.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Go Disciple all Nations baptizing them if then Infants be or are made Disciples together with their Parents or Proparents so as the Promise of Abraham reacheth to them they are to be baptized for there is nothing to interpose between discipling and baptizing Yea such is the near conjunction of the Commands that they seem to be coincident q. d. Whosoever are my Disciples or Relatives Partners of the Covenant or are in the Church's Power to stipulate for their Religious Education let them be consigned thereunto by this Sacrament of Baptism let this be the Rite of their Admission let this be the Badge and Cognizance of their Discipleship and who are we that dare in contradiction to this express order of our Saviour hinder any such out of our own Imaginations from entering in at this ordinary Gate or Door of Grace who do not exclude themselves Ananias finding Saul in the state of a Disciple baptized him * Act. 9.18 tho' neither he nor any Minister else had made him so Infants are Disciples not so much of Man 's as of God's making vouchsafing graciously in their believing Parents to accept them also into his Covenant †Rom. 11.16 1 Cor. 7.14 and so into the State of Disciples The Apostle also plainly declares that interest in the Promise is alone by it self a sufficient ground for the application of Baptism in that he exhorts those awaken'd Jews to be baptized upon this Ground or for this reason that the Promise did belong to them ‖ Act. 2.38 39. 'T is true he exhorts them to Repentance to which Faith must be conjoyn'd as necessary to their interest in the Promise but 't was their interest in the Promise on which he Grounds his Exhortation to them to be baptized Hence however Persons come to have an interest in the Promise whether it be by descent or adoption or by their own personal Faith and Repentance 't is all one to our present purpose And this is agreeable to the first Command to keep the Covenant that is the token of the Covenant the Command is grounded upon interest in the Promise Gen. 17.9 Thou shalt keep my Covenant therefore that is upon this Ground because the Promise is unto thee and having the Promise thou shalt wear the Sign and Seal thereof for it follows à majori ad minus that the Children being in Covenant should not want the Sign and Seal that ensures the Benefits and Priviledges of the same Who then can forbid Water 'T is the Apostle's Argument * Act. 10.47 to those that have received the Grace of God the Promise by Virtue whereof they are in Covenant with God as well as we Now what have the Anabaptists to Object against what is here alledged for the putting on Infants the present Sign or Token of the Covenant Why nothing in effect but what they are beholden to the Papists for viz. That Circumcision was the Token only of a Carnal Legal Covenant and that such was the Covenant which God made with Abraham and his Seed and renewed by Moses to the Children of Israel and that its being a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith was peculiar only to that Patriarch and that there is no such thing now as foederal holiness or any Right or Priviledge accruing by vertue of any Promise or Covenant from Birth or by being of such a Lineage or Descent but that the Children of Believers in their Infant Estate are in no better Condition than those of Heathens 'T is strange that they who in shew are so much against Popery should broach so much of it speaking the Language of Rome against the Protestant Doctrine maintained in the Church of England Is this to come out of Babylon thus to side with the Papists and Bellarmine * De Sacr. effectu l. 2. c. 13. alibi in particular Mr. Blake †Answer to Tombs p. 61. Printed Anno 46. declares that their Arguments against foederal Holiness are borrowed from them and that he hath not met with any either in Mr. Tombs or Blackwood which may not be found in Stapleton Cornelius a Lapide the Rhemists or some of that Party and that the Jesuits were the first Opposers of it 'T is likewise a great and much agitated Controversie between the Papists and those of the Reformed Religion concerning the Identity and Efficacy of John's Baptism compared with Christ the Papists thundering Anathema's against them who shall affirm the Baptism of John to have the same vertue and power with that of Christ Those of the Reformed on the other side are generally of Opinion that John's Ministry was the same that was afterwards delegated to the Apostles And his Baptism the same which was afterwards ministred by them This the Anabaptists deny to take occasion there-from to Ground their dipping again or Rebaptization and to this purpose draw most of their best Shafts out of the Popish Quiver and form most of their choicest Weapons on their Anvil yea in the whole conflict they have been necessitated to borrow help from these Philistine Artists But let them if they can produce any thing in the whole Bible to overthrow what is here laid down otherwise what I have retorted on them must be acknowledged to be very just Neither is there any doubt but that the Practice of Christ's Church hath been answerable to the Doctrine here represented They say there is not any express Instance of any Infant baptized in the whole History of the Gospel but is there any instance of any Infant of a Christian believer left unbaptized Are there not strong Presumptions that upon coming over of any to the Faith their Children together with themselves were received and baptized 't is said only of Lydia that she believed but of her and her Houshold that they were baptized * Act. 1◠15 yea our Saviour himself upon Zaccheus's receiving of him says to Day is Salvation come to thy House forasmuch as thou also art the Son of Abraham †Luk. 19.9 So St. Peter told Cornelius words by which he and his House should
the Lord's Day That the Answerer did thus intend to represent me seems plain because after he had shewed Reasons for the first Day he concludes so we have a plain Precedent tho' not positive Prescript for the first Day but you want not only Precept but Precedent for Infant Baptism Page 3. Now the obvious meaning of my Discourse there is that the general Command of keeping God's Covenant in its Sign as also the general Command of observing the Day of the Sabbath one Day in seven is obligatory to Christians as well as it was to Abraham and his Seed The consideration what is the particular Sign or whether it be altered from what was first specified or whether with or without a Prescript being not there any part of the Argument its main strength depending on the general and primary Part of the Precepts the substance therefore of what I said is that the general and primary Command to Abraham thou and thy seed shall keep my Covenant in the sign of it is of perpetual Obligation as in the fourth Commandment the general and primary Command for sanctifying the Sabbath or keeping Holy one Day in seven obligeth now as well as then and that if Christians be discharged from observing Circumcision as the Sign and the last of seven which was appointed to be the Sabbath at first which are secondary positive Commands yet they are bound to observe a seventh Day and to keep God's Covenant in its Sign these things being of Primary obligation And now what is said to all this Why truly as to the general Command to Abraham above mentioned he passeth it over at least for the present and says nothing about it but as to the Sabbath doth he deny that the general Command of keeping one Day in seven Holy continues obligatory Not at all which he should have done if he would have opposed the force of my Argument What doth he then do Why he gravely says 1. He knows no positive Command for the change of the seventh Day to the first 2. He knows one Day of seven was commanded 3. He gives some account what we have to say for the change of the seventh Day to the first Lastly That he dares not blame the Sabbatarians By all this he confirms my Argument and that too more than it required And yet he hath so mannaged the matter blind-folding his ignorant followers that those who heard only his Papers when they were read apart in their Congregation doubtless thought that he answered what may be reasonably thought to call for an Answer He proceeds Page 3. to observe concerning the Covenant which he saith I have written several Pages about supposing that as Abraham's natural Seed were in Covenant and had right to Circumcision so the Seed of Believers are in Covenant and ought to be baptized Reply The word Natural is not in the Text neither was it put in by me 'T is rather their way to add to the Word the better to gloss over their Error Provided nevertheless it be not understood qua tale as natural I do admit it and own the whole it being that which I have fully demonstrated But so it is to be accounted for my Conclusion rather than for my Hypothesis However it be he makes two exceptions against it tho' it be very illogical to nibble as it were at the Conclusion whilst he tacitly grants the premises But it must be considered that he hath ingeniously acknowledged how unmeet and unfit he is to be a Respondent and he doth but go on to prove it The first Exception that he makes is That the Covenant in the 17 of Gen. is not a Covenant of Grace This indeed would overthrow the very foundation of my Discourse could it be proved and duly applied Nei-of which tho' he Acts here the Part of an Opponent is done by the pretended Answerer whereof he is so Conscious that he dares not depend upon it fearing he should be driven to his Shifts should we put the matter in Controversie to this issue And therefore that he may have a Loop-hole to escape he saith Page 8. neither indeed were it that Covenant meaning the Covenant of Grace would it as to that help you And he is not without a pretended Reason to help himself in it because forsooth Grace doth not go says he in Generation from Parent to Child Wisely argued 't is as much as to say speaking to the Point God is not a God to Abraham and his Seed too his Promise in that respect went beyond his Performance Grace cannot go by Covenant from Parent to Child And who are those that found descent of Grace in natural Generation or say that Believers Children are in this gracious state because they are believers Children that is by vertue of natural Generation We only say 't is by vertue of the Covenant the Promise that is made to the faithful and their Seed whereupon are grounded such gracious Priviledges and Perogatives descending from Parent to Child So that the Root being Holy the Branches are so too * Rom. 11.16 yea if but one of the Parents be a Believer †1 Cor. 7.14 the Children are in a Holy Separate-State not common and unclean with the rest of the World but in such a State at least as puts them into a more advantagious and fairer Prospect of Heaven and greater probability of obtaining saving Grace than if they had been out of the Covenant that Holy State so as the Promise did not reach them Hence Christ speaking of the Jews Collectively calls them the Children of the Kingdom ‖ Matt. 8.12 the Apostle the Children of the Covenant * Act. 3.25 the Margin referring it to that of Gen. 12.3 which himself saith Page 5. respects the Covenant of Grace But to Reply to his Exception as he goes on to demonstrate it here as his manner is he Acts the Opponent rather than the Respondent and therefore thinks himself not concern'd to meddle with the Arguments produced by me tho' he pretended otherwise in his Preface and seemed to Promise to give Answer to such things as call for an Answer but since 't is not his mind I am content to answer his Allegations and moreover do purpose to take occasion from thence further to demonstrate the Identity of the Abrahamical and Evangelical Covenant that the Covenant Gen. 17. is a Covenant of Grace the more firmly to establish the Scripture Foundation touching God's Covenant with Abraham on which as himself says truly Page 3. I found the stress of my Discourse He says Page 4. that he looks upon this Covenant in the 17th of Gen. not to be the Covenant of Grace but a Covenant God made with Abraham respecting some temporal Blessings that God was pleased to bestow upon him and his natural Seed and the same with Deut. 29.1 and onward to the 9th but adds that he understands the Covenant in Gen. 12.3 and 18.18 to have a respect to the
Covenant of Grace Now suppose the Land of Canaan be the main matter Promised to Abraham in the said Covenant it may not follow that 't is only a temporal Blessing because under temporal Promises Spiritual Blessings were veild and consigned by a temporal Possession of the promised Land an eternal Inheritance in the heavenly Canaan was assured to them Besides you take a part for the whole that which is but an Adjunct or an appendix for an entire Covenant as if God made two distinct Covenants with Abraham when as there is not the least hint for it in the whole Bible which speaks only of one Covenant made with that Holy Patriarch even that which Circumcision did consign which was a Spiritual Covenant under a Veil but now 't is one and the same without a Veil as Doctor Taylor who is so often quoted by them expresseth it * Discourse of Baptism p. 37. and so could not respect only as the Answerer saith God's blessing him with a numerous Issue and them with the Land of Canaan there being in that no sensible Blessing to Abraham seeing neither he nor his Posterity enjoyed the Promise as a mere earthly Blessing for near 500 Years after doubtless therefore this must be made good to him as before premised or there was a Blessing for him which was concealed under the leaves of a temporal Promise Besides there were others than Abraham's Seed and Ismael who were to be circumcised †Gen. 17.11 12. to whom the Land of Canaan did not belong The Mysteriousness of this Transaction we are further instructed in by St. Paul Heb. 11.13 They all dyed in the faith having not received the Promises as he observes viz. of a Temporal Possession in Canaan They saw the Promises that is the Spiritual Part afar off they embraced them and looked through the Cloud and temporal Veil and desired a better Country that is an heavenly or the same in an heavenly State This was the Object of their desires and the secret of their Promise And therefore Circumcision was a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had before * Rom. 4.11 and so must relate principally to an Effect and Blessing greater than the generality of the Jews apprehended or was exprest in the surface of the Temporal Promise Wherefore when God promised pardon and forgivness of Sins he promised to remember this Covenant †Levit. 26.42 what stay could it be to Moses's Faith when God appeared to him in the Bush in saying I am the God of thy Fathers of Abraham c. ‖ Exod. 3.6 if it only concern'd temporals Agnoscatur says Chamier * Lib. 5. de bapt let it be granted that the Promise of the Land of Canaan together with the Multiplication of Abraham's Posterity is annexed to this Covenant yet says he this is not the Covenant but an appendage to it as to Godliness the promises of this Life are annexed Earthly things were indeed under that dispensation promised more fully and distinctly suitable to the Jewish Pedagogical Estate to allure them to the service of God and heavenly things more generally and sparingly On the contrary spiritual Blessings are more fully and clearly and earthly Things more generally and sparingly held forth and promised to us under the Gospel Administration And the Land of Canaan was more particularly insisted on in the first Dispensation being design'd for the Type of Heaven and an explanation of the Primary grand Promise to be their God Denoting that he would as certainly bring them to the Celestial Canaan and to the spiritual and glorious Rest there as to that temporal and corporeal Rest from their servitude and captivity in Egypt Hence it was that Jacob gave such a solemn Charge to Joseph and Joseph to his Brethren the one to Bury his dead Body in Canaan the other for the Transportation of his Bones thither which they would never have done for an earthly Inheritance but to nourish in the Hearts of their Posterity Faith and Desire of rest in Heaven in the Communion of Saints whereof Canaan's rest was a Type into which not Moses the Law-giver but Joshua or Jesus the Type of Christ was to bring them So that the whole Tenour of the Ahrahamical Covenant speaks it a Covenant of Grace and the Apostle giving us the substance of it in the Gospel doth it in these Words * Heb. 8.10 I will be to them a God and they shall be my People But such is this Man's Confidence that he prays me to take notice whether there be any thing else in the 17th of Gen. but temporal Blessings But what saith he to v. 4. as the Apostle applies it Rom. 4.27 whereto 't is referred in the Margin Or to v. 7. denoting the quality of the Covenant that 't is not temporary but everlasting respecting spiritual good Things Or to the following Words To be a God to thee and thy seed after thee Bellarmine indeed says that God when he enjoyned Circumcision to Abraham did Promise only earthly Things i. e. the Propagation of his Posterity and the Land of Palestine as this Answerer doth and again I will be a God to thee and thy seed holds forth says Bellarmine only a Promise of a peculiar protection But Amesius well observes in his Answer to him that our Saviour gathered from thence a Resurrection to Bliss or his Argument against the Sadducees †Matt. 22.32 had not been Conclusive In short this Covenant is so much the Covenant of Grace that it contains in it the great Mystery of Man's Redemption as is plain from the Comment of Zachary upon it * Luke 1.71 the belief whereof was the justification of Abraham †Gen. 15.5 6. Rom. 4.3 wherefore 't is expresly said that when God enacted this Covenant with Abraham he preached the Gospel unto him ‖ Gal. 3.8 that is he made a Covenant with him concerning Christ and Salvation by him and he saith further that it was preached to the Jews as it is to us * Heb. 4.2 Thus we see what that Covenant with Abraham was that 't is substantially the same that we are now under or by what means else did any of the Jews before Christ came obtain Grace or Glory It was before Christ's coming into the Flesh cloathed with many Shadows of now abolished Ceremonies Types and Sacrifices in its Administration having upon Mount Sinai the Covenant of works adjoyned to it or the first Covenant so termed for that in the substance thereof it represented the first Covenant So that by Reason of these adjuncts 't is sometimes distinguished from its very self as it was administred by Christ after his Incarnation But if not the same how are the Gentiles said to be grafted in amongst them †Rom. 11.17 as Grotius hath it or according to Beza and Piscator pro ipsis instead of them or in their Place or how doth the same Olive-Tree continue still It
it And thereupon he gives several Instances wherein they differ But what would he infer hence That the one succeeds not the other And so there can be no Argumentum à pari That therefore Infants should be baptized because such were circumcised I answer the Lord's Supper succeeded the Passover and yet they differ in many Punctilio's and Circumstances It sufficeth to make the Parallel suitable that Baptism is a Sacrament of initiation into the Covenant of Grace and the Seal of the Righteousness of Faith under the Gospel as Circumcision was before under the Law Gen. 17.11 Act. 7.8 Rom. 4.11 compared with 1 Cor. 12.13 1 Pet. 3.21 and doth as properly and effectually confirm and establish the Covenant betwixt God and us now as Circumcision did then Baptism being the only ordinary way of adding to the Church in the time of the Gospel on which score 't was instituted And 't is as requisite that we should in some such manner seal to the Covenant now as Abraham before we being as much unable to give an answerable assurance to Almighty God for our selves and Children as ever Abraham was for himself and Posterity or if you will may it not be thought as highly necessary that we should be by some Rite matriculated members of the Christian as they were solemnly initiated into the Jewish Church Now what other way is prescribed to us of Matriculation than Baptism the only most proper Rite for this purpose as it hath been in all Ages accounted insomuch that all the several Baptisms that were before Christ were all meant for initiating forms So the Jews had a Custom long before the coming of Christ to make proselytes or converts to their Religion not only by Circumcision but by baptizing or washing them with Water The same was the meaning of John's Baptism to make Men Disciples under his Administration And the same was the meaning of Christ's Baptism to initiate Men into the Christian Religion and make them Disciples of Christ Hence baptizing and making Disciples means the same thing John 4.1 John made and baptized more Disciples that is baptized them Disciples which was the form of making them such All the instances of Baptism in the New Testament were used as initiating Forms and to no other Purpose being therefore never repeated no more than men were twice circumcised or admitted into the Church before Christ Nor do we find since the coming in of the Gospel any other Rite or Ceremony of initiation permitted much less enjoyn'd Sure I am there was at first no framing of distinct Covenants for each Congregation according to the fancy and humour of the respective Teacher a mode which some of our late upstart Sects have boldly introduced without any Divine Authority or Foundation in the Word of God And as there is no mention in the Gospel of any Covenant but one of Grace so neither of any other Sign or Token thereof or any other form of entering into the said Covenant than Baptism but as Circumcision was heretofore so Baptism is now the initiating Rite But to Reply to his Instances whereby he would prove the Parallel not suitable His first Instance or Reason is because the natural Seed of Abraham without any token of a work of Grace on them ought to be circumcised but the natural Seed of Believers without some token of a work of Grace upon them ought not to be baptized For which he cites Matt. 3.6 to v. 10. That some had a sense of their Sins and were brought to a confession is plain v. 6. But what token was there of a work of Grace on them whom the Baptist calls there a Generation of Vipers And yet of them he says Matt. 3.7 v. 11. Mark 1.5 Luke 7.30 I indeed Baptize you And St. Mark says they were all baptized of him he refused none of them So that they were only the Pharisees and Lawyers that were not baptized of him who exempted themselves Or what token of a work of Grace appeared on those that were baptized of Lydia's Houshold besides what was observed on her self Act. 16.15 Domûs autem nomine ipsam intelligimus familiam imprimis vero Liberos nepotes says Marl. on the Place See Mons le Clerc's Supplement to Dr. Hammond on the Place And yet not she only was baptized but her Houshold upon her Conversion And if others of the House were thereupon baptized much rather her Infant-Children if she had any such This is certain she had a Houshold a Family and they were baptized as well as her self To alledge that some had such a work of God wrought upon their Souls before they were baptized proves nothing for so doubtless had some Jews and Abraham in particular before they were circumcised That interrogative Mat. 3.7 having there the force of a Negation implies that they had no manner of Conviction nor could any have taught them that they should merely by St. John's Baptism avoid the destruction that hung over their Heads and therefore he bids them to repent He must prove if he can that none else ought to be baptized for as yet we have only his bare Ipse dixit his own say so he may pass for a Magisterial Dictator to his own ignorant Party who can follow him with an implicit Faith but his Authority will not sway with any others of sober sense 2. He says the natural Seed of Abraham were commanded to be circumcised but the Children of Believers are no where in the word of God commanded to be baptized This is that we call a begging of the question Is not Baptism as expresly commanded now as Circumcision was then But Infant Baptism he will say is not Neither need there to be a new or distinct Command for it Because their right to be within the Church or Covenant together with their Parents is not a new Institution but as old as Adam for ought I know says Dr. Wallis * Defence of Infant Baptism pag. 14. Printed Anno 97. but the solemn Rite of admission into this Church to which the Children of Believers have a right to be admitted is a new Institution Then by Circumcision appointed to Abraham And Now by Baptism upon a new Institution appointed by Christ as the same Author expresseth it Another Reason that he gives which is the only one more that I need consider here is because there is a sore Punishment threaten'd on the Man-Child that is not circumcised †Gen. 17.14 but no Punishment threaten'd in the whole Word of God on an Infant for not being baptized Answer This Argument were it of any force doth militate against the Lord's Day succeeding the Sabbath * Exod. 31.14 which nevertheless he himself hath granted and in some measure made good Moreover the Punishment threaten'd doth not affect Infants wanting Circumcision but Persons neglecting or contemning that Ordinance The words in the Original import no more Praeputiatus Mas the uncircumcised Male so
And Christ's coming must have rendred the condition of Children worse than before Whatever then be the Priviledges of being within the Pale and the Promise of the visible Church they must belong to the Children of Believers now as they did to the Seed of Abraham heretofore By being such they have jus ad rem a right thereunto and by being baptized they have jus in re and are as it were put into the possession of the same So that denying them Baptism we do as much as lies in us debar them of the outward means the enjoyment of the Priviledge of being in the Church and the benefits thereunto appertaining Should a like Question be put concerning a baptized Christian a member of Christ's Church with that which the Apostle proposeth Rom. 3.1 touching a circumcised Jew What advantage the Answer may be the same with his v. 2. Much every way And in Rom. 9.4 5. are reckoned up no fewer then eight Priviledges or Prerogatives belonging to a Jew upon the score of that Relation The same advantage that there was then to the Jews as God's visible Church is now common to the Gentiles also and if Children were sharers therein with their Parents during the former Administration how are they excluded now Those Children more particularly whose Parents kept their Station * Rom. 11.5 17. and if some Children continued within because their Parents so continued what hinders but others should be admitted whose Parents are re-instated or have gained a like Priviledge with those that are The Prophet Elisha wept when he looked upon Hazael because he foresaw he would dash the Infants of Israel against the Wall and even Hazael thought himself worthy to be esteemed a Dog if ever he should do such a thing But certainly to dash all the Infant Children of Believers out of the Covenant of Grace as much as in them lies and to deprive them of the Seal of it is in a spiritual Sense far more heavy and I dare appeal to the tender Bowels of any believing Parents whether it were not easier for them to think that their Children should be dashed against the Stones and yet in the mean time to die under Christ's Wing as visible members of his Kingdom rather than to have them live and behold them to have a visible standing only in the Kingdom of the Devil We read of Herod the Tyrant that he destroyed all the Children in Bethlehem and the Coasts thereof from two Years old and under But is it not a far more cruel sentence to set these in no better state than Pagans and Infidels without Christ Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the World How far Heaven extends its mercy to those that are without means and cannot use them is a Mystery hid from us and known only unto God 'T is our Happiness that he hath not left us destitute of the ordinary means of Salvation with respect to our Children as well as to our selves and therefore whatsoever means of Grace God has appointed as Instrumental to that end that they are capable of are to be afforded them unless God hath made any particular exception in the Case And Baptism being appointed by God as such a means we cannot well Administer it too early to our Children for tho' it doth not confer Grace ex opere operato yet it always doth so when God is pleased to vouchsafe the concurrence and co-operation of his Holy Spirit with it And we know not how soon the operation may be how soon God may by his Grace pre-dispose their Souls to an aptness for good through the means it may be long before they are in a capacity to Act any and therefore the Ordinance ought by no means to be withheld from them or neglected Pag. 16. He questions what a Disciple is whether he be not a Scholar or one taught and whether Infants can be said to be Disciples till they are taught To this I Answer That a Disciple in the New Testament is the same with Christian * Act. 11.26 any one that hath a Relation unto Christ and so of as large an extent as the word Israel in the Old Testament Infants therefore having a Relation unto Christ are of his Body not Heathens but Christians and so consequently Disciples infieri not for that they are actually taught of God but because they are as I may say retainers to Christ and designed for his School into which when they are admitted or initiated by Baptism they are more compleatly Disciples Disciples in facto esse having then not only a right to but are invested with the Priviledge of those that are properly and actually Scholars or Disciples not as being personally instructed but as consecrated and set apart for the service of Heaven placed so as to be reckoned Scholars of Christ being entered into his School tho' they be no Proficients And thus they are commonly reputed of the number of the Scholars or Disciples who are admitted into a School and only entered there to learn tho' they have not learnt a Lesson or a Letter As John the Baptist baptized to Repentance or in order to it Who should limit God May not he make Disciples several Ways By the Administration of the Ordinance of Baptism and so by putting on them his Livery or by teaching them by his Spirit from the greatest to the least by writing his Laws in their Hearts or by graciously accepting them into his Covenant with their Parents or bringing them under a Religious Government Page 18. He would know whether I can tell Lydia was a Maid Wife or Widow or whether there were any Infants in her House I answer 'T is plain she had a Family and that upon her Faith alone they were brought into God's ordinary way of Salvation and were forthwith baptized * Act. 16.15 unless they 'l understand by her House the Stone-Walls By Salvation coming to Zacheus's House he understands Page 19. the Messiah Answer Christ would have rather said I am the Messiah which had been true whether Zacheus was the Son of Abraham or no and so there had been no occasion of giving that Reason that the Covenant of Abraham reached him But why doth he so perversely understand by Salvation the Person only of the Messiah but purposely to avoid the Argument which yet is no other but what the whole Current of the Scripture holds forth viz. That the blessing of Abraham immediately descends to an House or Family upon the Conversion of the Head or Chief thereof But none are more blind than they that will not see In the forementioned 18 and 19 Pages he endeavours to render it probable there were no Infants in the Housholds I had instanced in but there is enough said in these instances that the blessing of Abraham viz. Salvation came to an House especially to the Children if any such there were upon the Faith
Christ that have dedicated your selves by Covenant to his Honour and Service to break those sacred Bonds and to stand it out in your Impenitency and Rebellion against God and to live like Gentiles his professed Enemies to forsake him and his ways and to wallow in the impurities of an evil Conversation is unaccountable How dreadful will the Day be when the Lord shall come to avenge him of his Adversaries You shall not perish under such easie Circumstances of Wrath and Vengeance as do the Gentiles The Aggravation of your Sin and Judgment will be the treading under Foot the Blood of the Covenant Thus far in general But to proceed to some particulars and so to make some further improvement by way of use of what hath been delivered on this Subject Doth holy Baptism admit us to a state of such high Priviledges and Advantages as I have observed Then we may see how injurious they are who deny Baptism to Infants and so as much as lies in them keep them from Christ I mean in the visible way in which we are brought unto Christ from that Grace which is the internal mystery of this sacramental Ordinance In which respect we are said to be baptized into Christ if they have any right to the grace and spiritual Benefits which are the Mystery the Spirit and Life of this Sacrament why not to the external Symbolical signification and Seal of it Shall Men hinder them from this visible application of the Grace of Baptism If we affirm they have no right to this Grace what greater uncharitableness and presumptuous straightning the favour of God and Christ For where has he debarred and excluded them from his Covenant and Promises and cast them out of that Body whereof he is the Head and the Saviour Certain it is this was one of the great Blessings of the Covenant with Abraham I will be thy God and the God of thy Children after thee Thus ran the Promises of old He sheweth mercy unto thousands of generations of them that love him and keep his commandments the seed of the righteous is blessed Children are the heritage of the Lord. They had the Seal of the Covenant Circumcision externally applying the Promises And are the favours of Christ more narrow under the Gospel who is yet the Mediator of a better Covenant Has Christ only a love for the Parents and none for the Children and yet hath told us if the root be holy so are the branches Is not Christ the Redeemer of Infants Did he purchase no Pardon no Grace or remission of Sins for them How abominably injurious would this be to Christ and the fullness of his Oblation and Merit Will Christ give them no place in his mystical Body in his Church and Kingdom And yet when he was upon Earth commanded the little Children to be brought unto him and took them into his Arms and blessed them declaring that such did belong to his Kingdom of such is the kingdom of God Mark 13.14 If the Infants of Believers under the Gospel be not capable of the Grace signed and sealed then there will follow many sad unscriptural Consequences Then they belong not to the Church and Body of Christ they are in the same Case with the Children of Infidels left without as common and unclean This Principle mingles the holy Seed with the Heathens and renders the favours of the Gospel more narrow than those of the legal Covenant and the Christian Seed in much worse Circumstances than the Jewish Yea they would not only be without the Church but without the Covenant and so without Christ or any special relation to him So far without as are the Gentiles Dogs and Strangers While they are disputed out of the Covenant all well grounded hopes of their Justification and Salvation are disputed away dying in that State 'T is vain to recur to the secret Election of God for the grounds of this Hope Faith and Hope must be grounded upon some Word of God If God have excluded them from the Covenant of Salvation how shall we conclude that they belong to the Election of God And if the Case were so well may the Parents of dying Infants mourn over them as those that have no hope All those then are rash groundless uncharitable Conclusions highly derogatory to the Love of God to the infinite riches and freeness of his Grace But on the other hand if God and Christ have not excluded them from the Grace of Baptism the Mercy and Grace which is there signified who shall forbid Water the external sealing Application If God have not denied the greater who shall deny the less if God have not excluded them from the Substance and Mystery why shall they be denied the external Rite and Symbol Either then they must be highly uncharitable in denying Infants the Grace of Baptism and so leave them in an evil Case or else be very unjust in denying them the Seal where God grants them the substance Thirdly Let this serve to humble those that walk unworthy of this Priviledge of being baptized and thereby admitted into the fellowship of Christ's Religion initiated Members of his Church Can it seem a light thing in our Eyes that when God has passed by the greatest part of the World as strangers from his Family and Kingdom and hath left them under the Kingdom of Satan and taken us no better by Nature than they are to be his peculiar ones into Covenant with himself and to train us up under such heavenly Ordinances We should notwithstanding walk as Rebels and Enemies unto him like the unbaptized World Do we know into what a Covenant he hath taken us what he hath done for and expects from us What means then our Conversation so repugnant to our Profession Is it because we renounce the Covenant as being made when we understood it not If there be any such Apostates let them take their Course serve the God they have chosen But say what iniquity what ill is there in this Covenant of your Baptism what disadvantage have you met withal Or how or where do you hope to find better things than what are here exhibited and ensured Than for instance for God to be your Father Christ your Saviour the Spirit your Comforter than to have your Sins pardoned and remitted than to be adopted justified sanctified and every way comfortably provided for here and in the end eternally saved Do the Gods you have chosen to serve provide better things than these that you renounce Christ for their sake If you say God forbid you should so do you hope to be saved by him as well as any other then tell me seriously do you expect that Christ should stand bound to perform his Part of the Covenant and you left at liberty whether you discharge your part or no That he should love you and you hate him That he should be your God and you remain the Devil's Servants That he should provide Heaven for you and you
Salim because there was much Water a Reason given by the Holy Ghost himself why he chose that Place for the Country to come in and be baptized because they might go many Miles in those hot Countries and not meet with a drop of Water and it was a great Priviledge to those Places that banked on Jordan that they had much Water but 't is no Argument to prove that John plunged all that he baptized or dipt them over Head and Ears Beside the Original is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Waters viz. Streams or Rivulets and History informs us that they were so shallow as not to reach above the Ankles and so unapt for dipping as their way is †Non interest quanto quisque abluatur quomodo in Eucharistiâ non quantum quisque comedat Chamier l. 5. de bapt c. 1. p. 1404. The Eunuch as has it hath been well observed doth not say here is a River here is a Pool here is Water enough for me to be dipt into the quantity of the Water is not insisted on which fairly intimates to us that where there is Water be it much or little nothing hinders but one may be baptized therewith I had need now to crave Pardon for being so very Prolix on this Head but I hope St. Austin's * Ad Hilar Epist 89. Apology in the like Case may pass for mine Tanto magis pro Infantibus loqui debemus quanto minus pro se loqui possunt THE REPLY To a pretended ANSWER To the foregoing Discourse IT will not be unnecessary to premise that this foregoing Discourse in opposition to the Anabaptists contained at first only eleven Pages in close writing a Copy of which was transcribed and communicated to a particular Friend who shortly after upon their confident Boasting that they would get it answered did by my Permission deliver it into their Hands from whom after almost a Years time and through frequent importunities I received an Answer in Manuscript such as it is consisting of 27 Pages I think it needful also to premise that I have somewhat inlarged my Discourse but not so as to cause the least difference in my ensuing Reply nor shall I make the least advantage upon any Improvement or Addition I have made nor is there in truth any occasion for it For I do solemnly and with all sincerity protest that I don't find I had need to have had any word Syllable or Letter added left out or altered in my Papers by reason of any thing in the pretended Answer My Argument in short is this That as Circumcision was the initiating Sign and Token of the Covenant to the Jews So is Baptism to the Christians and that the Command to keep the Covenant in the Sign of it whatever the Sign be was and is always Obligatory and that the practice from Age to Age answers it In the Prosecution whereof I obviated many Objections now made use of by the Answerer which takes up above half of the aforesaid 11 Pages whereto there is no manner of Reply save only somewhat about the Sabbath or Lord's Day but not to the purpose as will afterwards appear and at that rate too that he dares not condemn the Sabbatarians This with the Preface takes up 3 Pages of the Answer Nevertheless that he may seem to say somewhat he turns Opponent First He endeavours to prove that the Covenant whereof Circumcision was the sign was not the Covenant of Grace as having relation only to temporal Promises taking a Branch for the whole and reckoning that God made two distinct Covenants with Abraham And this takes up 2 Pages more Secondly He labours to prove that Circumcision can give no ground for Infant Baptism nor bear a suitable Parallel with it using Arguments which have been answered over and over and in a great Part obviated by me tho' he takes no notice of it This reacheth to his 10th Page Then he takes notice of my citing Act. 2.39 running out into a large Ramble which will not bear any Test and as introductory thereto he begins thus You say the Promise in the 39. v. is spoken to those in the 36. v. even the House of Israel who had crucified the Lord Jesus Christ and their Children of which I had not said a word And adds that by Children he doth not understand them as they are in a state of Infancy But how doth he illustrate it Why very profoundly and unanswearably with five or six Arguments which to give them their full force amounts to this That there were none such then present as he takes for granted neither could any of them be Children to whom St. Peter Preached and said Repent and be baptized every one of you For were this true would it follow as he would sillily infer that St. Peter neither did nor could speak of or concerning Children to them May it not then be as well argued that the Promise did not belong to those afar off that should hereafter be called Unless we understand thereby such of them as were then present and had been St. Peter's Auditors Which would be a contradiction in terminis Now this with some gross impertinence and senseless Stuff which immediately follows comes home to the 14th Page of the Reply So that there is above half of mine and within a few Lines half of his past over and hitherto it cannot be pretented there is any kind of Answer As to what follows he says himself Pag. 15. that what is written in my 8 9 10 11 Pages and I don't remember there were any more in the Transcript-Copy they had concerning the Covenant and Infants right to Baptism he supposeth to be answered in what he had written aforegoing He means he had framed Arguments which was not his Province Moreover in these Pages he omits several Things which must needs be reckoned very material whereto he answers nothing I 'll instance in some particulars First That in Christ's Dialect to belong to him and to be his Disciple Is all one Secondly That Infants are called Disciples by the Holy Ghost Thirdly That they are made so by God himself vouchsafing graciously in their believing Parents to accept them also into his Covenant and so into the state of Disciples Fourthly That the Apostle shews that interest in the Promise is alone of it self a sufficient ground for the application of Baptism Fifthly That the Suffrages and Authorities of the Primitive Fathers are on our side which he overlooks as insignificant tho' they are only produced to shew what was their judgment in the Case and the practice in their time Sixthly That sprinkling or pouring on of Water doth as well express the Mystery as dipping and better alludes to the inward Baptism of the Spirit And that 't is very improbable that the 3000 baptized in one Day and in all likelihood where they heard St. Peter's Sermon were dipped Again he neither denies nor vindicates their concurrence
with the Papists tho' I had represented it in so many Instances and whereas I said expresly that the Fathers in avouching Infant-Baptism to be an Apostolical Tradition did not understand the word Tradition in the Popish sense to supply the supposed defect of the Scripture Yet he positively affirms it is to be believed to do so and so he runs on for above 2 Pages proving the Perfection of the Scripture that is fighting with his own Shadow for who denied it Once more I said we don't read in the New Testament of laying on of Hands on any unbaptized Person except in order to a bodily Cure But the Answerer passeth by the exception and then doubtless he confuted his Adversary speaking so home to the matter What hath been hitherto observed chiefly refers to the Method and Composure of the Answer and discovers in it so much of weakness and insufficiency that no judicious Person can well allow it that denomination But taking liberty further to display its imbecility I shall offer somewhat by way of Reply to the matter and contents of the pretended Answer that if possible I may provoke him or some one for him to make a Rejoynder that the point in Controversie may be thorowly sifted and the truth cleared or left to the World to judge how unable that Party is to maintain their way or make any tolerable defence He saith Page the first that he cannot understand that the weight of the Arguments for Infant-sprinkling but rather thinks that the want of weight in them is the Cause an Answer hath been so long neglected It seems he is unfit to answer Arguments tho' they want weight and others perhaps may think it was very meet and fit he should have let them alone rather than prejudice his Cause by an unfit Answer and should not have put himself upon this Tryal of his Skill unless he could have managed it better But first an Answer as he saith is expected that is something must be done towards the giving an Answer for the amusing the expecting People who otherwise 't is likely would have been more apt to have mistrusted the weakness of their Cause Secondly 'T is presumed that after the perusal of my Discourse by some of the more learned and wiser Heads 't was thought more eligible to leave it to one that is unfit for it to give an Answer that the defect thereof may not reflect on any of the Grandees or rather 't is suspected that some Chief undertook it but under the mask of one unfit that the lameness of the Answer of which the Preface seems conscious may by those that peruse it be imputed to the Author and the strength thereof which their own Party will suppose may be ascribed to the presumed goodness of the Cause they have espoused however tho' he be unfit he will make an Essay Yea he will which is more give an Answer to such things as he thinks may have any thing in them that calls for an Answer Now he who will discharge the Office of a Respondent ought fairly to repeat his Adversaries Words and then to apply his Answer either by denying or distinguishing or both but how this hath been observed by the Answerer you will see in the first Paragraph The first thing saith he that I take notice of is in Page 1. where you endeavour to prove that Infant-Baptism came in the room of Circumcision although no positive Prescript for it bringing the change of the Sabbath-Day from the seventh to the first without prescript Reply These are so far from being my words that they contain not the sense of them For 1. neither I nor I think any Body else ever indeavoured to prove either that Baptism came in the room of Circumcision without a positive prescript or that Infant-Baptism came in the room of Circumcision but that Baptism did which none can justly deny St. Paul Coloss 2.12 affirms as much viz. That Baptism in the New Testament succeeded Circumcision the initiating Sacrament of the Old Testament and that as plainly as in 1 Cor. 5.7 8. he hath affirmed the Lords Supper to come in the room of the Passover for the Apostle having told his Colossians that they had the Circumcision made without Hands the Circumcision of the Heart he further signifies by way of implication that they had as good as the outward Circumcision too by being baptized or he could have no occasion to add being buried with him in Baptism and his Argument had been nothing at all a mere non sequitur unless he gives them to understand thereby that Baptism succeeded and came in place of Circumcision To evidence this to be the genuine sense and intention of the Apostle know that he was here disswading the believing Christians from the Rudiments of the World and Jewish Ceremonies particularly from Circumcision upon this very ground that they were compleat in Christ but lest the Jewish Teachers should suggest that the receiving the inward Grace of Circumcision doth not make them so compleat as the Jews were because they had also an outward visible sign As Abraham for instance had the inward Grace and yet he received the outward Sign and consequently tho' Christians be made partakers of this great Benefit by Christ yet they may stand in need of an outward Seal to assure them of their partaking herein he would have them know that neither is this Priviledge wanting to Christians who have as excellent and express a Sacrament of it and that Christ hath not left his People under the New Testament destitute of such an outward Sign and Seal for however Circumcision be taken away yet there is another Sacrament substituted and appointed a more excellent and lively one than ever Circumcision was a Sacrament resembling it and answering to it buried with him in Baptism wherein c. that is sacramentally signifying and sealing up both our mortification and our vivification But if they had espoused Antipedo-Baptism they might have urged their dissatisfaction and have again Replyed that tho' they needed not to be circumcised themselves seeing Baptism is so happily come in the room of it yet they would still Circumcise their Children because according to their Doctrine Baptism is not to be applyed to them In the second Place the Words have no positive Prescript for it and without a Prescript do shew either that he did not understand my Argument tho' easie to be understood or else that he wilfully altered and perverted my sense that he might serve some other Design than the finding out the Truth His own Conscience must tell him he hath fathered on me what I said not This Addition of his without Prescript insinuates as if I had there argued that the want of a Precept for the change from Circumcision to Baptism is no more a reason to deny Baptism to Infants than the want of a Precept for the change from the seventh Day to the first is a reason for the rejecting of
remains then that there are not two Covenants of Grace differing in substance but one and the same under various Administrations Camero * Thes 7. makes three Covenants one of Nature one of Grace and one subservient to that of Grace But ubi unum propter aliud ibi unum tantum But lest I be thought too general in my Procedure I shall further demonstrate that God's Covenant with Abraham consists of those very substantial Parts which are assigned to the Evangelical as 't is in this 17th of Gen. and elsewhere more fully expressed by Moses interpreted by the Prophets and applyed by the Apostles In Gen. 17.1 he tells Abraham what a God he will be unto him viz. A God all-sufficient Which Promise you have Gen. 15.1 divided into two Parts and in other Places among the Prophets into these Three first All-sufficient to pardon the Penitent secondly To give his Holy Spirit thirdly To give eternal Life In each of these respects was God lookt upon as all-sufficient in the Old Testament In Isaiah 55.7 God says I will forgive and multiply my pardons Hence the Jews are exhorted to repent †Act. 2.39 Ezek. 36.25 for that the Promise of the Pardon of Sins by the Blood of Christ belongs to them and he promiseth further to put his Spirit within them and to cause them to walk in his Statutes ‖ Ezek. 36 27. and as 't is in Deut. * 30.6 to Circumcise the Heart So Zachary speaking of God's Covenant and his Oath to Abraham †Luke 1.71 74. makes mention of this two-fold Mercy which accrues to us by vertue thereof viz. First Deliverance from the Power of our Enemies Sin and Satan Secondly Grace and Strength to serve him that he would grant or as the Word is rendered ‖ Rev. 11.3 give Power to wit his Grace and Holy Spirit for the amending of our Lives See also Psal 103.3 and Esa 44.3 And that these Places refer to God's Covenant with Abraham is yet more evident from Gal. 3.16 where the Promise of the Spirit is called the blessing of Abraham And tho' the Promise of eternal Life is not any where in the Old Testament plainly expressed yet it was concealed under the leaves of a temporal Promise wherein all the Prophets do unanimously declare there was an excellency of Blessing far exceeding what Believers outwardly enjoyed in their Peace Prosperity Kingdom and Temple-Worship which could be no other than the spiritual and eternal Deliverance of their Persons from Sin and its curse with the enjoyment of the Favour of God here and eternal Life in the World to come as 't is observed by St. Paul in the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews In like manner the Condition on Abraham's Part is the same that is required of us Christians i. e. to observe the Evangelical Precepts to believe and obey that Gospel which was preached to him as much as to say Faith and Obedience Not that Righteousness which is of the Law exact legal Obedience but that which is of Faith that which is truly Evangelical as is evident by comparing Deut. 3.11 with Rom. 10.6 and of the same nature with that of a Christian How otherwise could Abraham be the Father of them that believe and his Faith the pattern of Faith to others and we be admonished to walk in the steps of his Faith and to do his works Neither do the Prescript Rules given to the one or the other make any alteration therein so long as they are all of the same Nature and Kind Now that they are so appears from the fore-quoted Places where 't is said that the Commandment is not hid in the Hebrew and Septuagint not too heavy but as Christ's Yoak and Burthen light and easie Neither is it in Heaven or beyond the Seas it will cost no great Pains to come to the knowing and practising of it very agreeable and consentaneous to every one's Nature very nigh and in the Heart very easie to Learn and Practise and what this is is punctually set down * Rom. 10.9 to be confessing of Christ and a Cordial belief of his Resurrection shewn forth in the Practise of those Rules that he hath left us and God had before Prescribed And for that Commandment which Christ calls New 't was from the beginning but being buryed as it were in a Law of Ceremonies it seemed wholly laid aside and neglected insomuch that few attained to so right a meaning of the Commandment as that Scribe †Matt. 12. who our Saviour saith was not far from the Kingdom of Heaven But suppose the Divine Precepts are found to vary in number and perspicuity or the like in respect of Abraham and us yet that puts no distinction betwixt his Faith and Obedience and ours for so the Faith and Obedience of one Christian would not be the same with that of another when in different Circumstances We conclude therefore that Abraham's Faith and so his Obedience is of the same Nature with ours Accordingly runs the Precept Gen. 17.1 Walk before me and be thou perfect that is upright or sincere as the Margin shews which implies that tho' he should be subject to infirmities yet so long as he hath a single upright Heart there is no more required than such an Evangelical Obedience the Righteousness of Faith Hence the Apostle discoursing of justification by Faith * Gal. 3. v. 5. instanceth in Abraham and argues that we are justified on the same Terms with him and that neither Jews nor Christians are otherwise justified than he was who was justified or accounted Righteous not only for that particular Act of Faith by which he believed that he should have a Son which should be his immediate Heir †Gen. 15.6 but that habit that Grace of Faith that is chiefly and primarily whereby he was able to believe that Promise with the same Faith he believed the Promise of the Messiah that a certain Seed should be given to him In whom all the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed And 't is the same Faith to believe that God would send such a Messiah before the Law as that he hath exhibited and sent him since and consequently what is now required of us as the Condition of the Covenant on our part is the same and no more in effect than what was required by God of Abraham as the Condition on his Part. Forasmuch then as hath been shewn that God's Covenant with Abraham hath the same mercies on God's Part made over to Man and the same Conditions on Man's Part required of God with those of the New Covenant the Abrahamical Covenant cannot be denied to be the Covenant of Grace and so my Foundation stands sure and unshaken and beyond all doubt will so remain notwithstanding the utmost efforts of such Assailants His other exception toucheth Circumcision Which he says to repeat his very words can give no grounds for Infant Baptism nor bear suitable Parallel with
or Conversion of the Chief that 't was usual for the whole Family thereupon to be put into the ordinary way of Salvation added to the Church to be saved and especially Children that have not committed actual Sins nor could reject the Counsel of God against themselves Whereas there might have been perchance some others in the Families who with those Pharisees and Lawyers might have so done and so have rendred themselves unworthy of the blessing but this could not have been incident unto the Children The stress then of the business lies not in this Whether it can be proved there were Infants in those Families where 't is recorded whole Housholds were baptized but the truth of the Case is this That in all Families whatsoever were there never so many Infants they were all baptized when their Parents were baptized Which shews the vanity of this repeated saying Not one word of an Infant in this House Not one word of Infants in all those Housholds and the like Now to retort this their negative Argument upon themselves let it be demanded where they find mention in Scripture of any Children of Christian Covenanting-Parents that were baptized when they came to Years of Discretion and not before That they were baptized I suppose they 'l not deny and if so let them shew where and when for this let all the sacred Register be searched from the time that John the Baptist began his Ministry to the time that John the Evangelist ended his which was above 60 Years during which time thousands if not millions of Children of such Parents were grown up to Maturity and if in all that time they can but shew any one Instance of any Child so priviledged whose Baptism was deferred till he came to Years of Discretion and that then he was baptized it may then be acknowledged that there is some strength in their Negative Allegations In the mean time having such general Instances of baptizing whole Families surely we have more reason to believe that Infants were comprehended and are to be reckoned in the number than they have for the contrary I said we read of none laid aside or excluded Baptism upon the Account of their Non-Age To this he answers Page 20. We never read in the whole Word of God that ever any Infant was commanded or offered to be baptized and if so how should we read of any laid aside or excluded that were Non-sense But I say again Is there any Direction given in the Gospel to lay them aside in case they be offered to Baptism And who can say they were not offered Where then is the Non-sense Can it be imagined but that the Jews brought their Children with them to the Baptist to save them as well as themselves from the wrath to come who were so tender of their Children and so zealous for their Circumcision they who had been always used to have their Infants admitted into the same Covenant with themselves by vertue of a Divine Law would have raised great Arguments against the Divine Authority of Christ if he or his Disciples in his Name had refused to admit their Children together with themselves into this Covenant of which they taught God's Messiah to be the Mediatour So that 't is no Non-sense to suppose that we should have heard in the Gospel of Children being excluded if they had not been of course admitted I ask therefore again shew us in any place of Scripture where any one was excluded Baptism upon the account of Non-age particularly such a one whose Parents were admitted thereto for if in that sacred Book such are not expresly excluded we are to take it for granted they are not to be excluded at all since it hath been God's constant Method to take Children into his Covenant when he took in the Parents Thus for instance the Covenant made with innocent Adam included his Infant Children The Covenant made with Abraham which hath been already proved to be the Gospel Covenant included his Children So the legal Covenant of which Moses was Mediatour included the Jewish Infants also Therefore they should shew us where God hath altered this Method in the Gospel or else we are to take it proconfesso that God hath not altered this his constant Method And the Abrahamical Covenant which included Infants seeing it could not be disanull'd by the legal Covenant continued till Christ unrepealed Gal. 3.17 If therefore they can't shew that 't is repealed by Christ we are to conclude that 't is not repealed at all Wherefore our negative Argument is more cogent from Scripture for Infants being in Covenant with their Parents and that they have a right thereupon to Baptism than theirs is against it and proceeds on the fairest and most credible Grounds As first That there were Children in some at least of those Housholds that are said to be baptized upon the Conversion of the Chief of the Family Secondly That if the Jewish Converts Infants had been forbidden Baptism they would have made such a noise about it that the sacred History of those times must needs have taken notice of it And lastly It having been God's constant Method when ever he made a Covenant before Christ came to include the Infants in it and particularly God having by an express Law commanded Infants to be admitted to the sign and seal of the Gospel Abrahamical Covenant it must be supposed that God if he had intended to exclude Infants from the sign and seal of the Gospel-Covenant under Christ would have signified his Pleasure that his former Method of dealing with Infants was altered or that the aforesaid Law in the Covenant with Abraham was as to Infants repealed Whereas the Anti-paedo-Baptists negative Argument proceeds upon all the contrary improbable Grounds and therefore their objecting that we have no certain instance of the Baptism of any such and that we don't read that ever they were offered to be baptized is of no force for it shall be presumed by vertue of that Law which is unrepealed viz. That Children should keep the Covenant in the sign of it that they were both offered and admitted of Course How highly had the Jews been scandalized if the first Planters of Christianity had denyed an admission of Infants into the Covenant under the Gospel despensation when they had ever been allowed it under the Mosaick oeconomy and had wholly shut them out like the Children of Infidels This must in all probability have galled them to see their Infants so treated to have had no visible difference put between the Infants of those that embraced and those that resisted the Faith having always reckoned upon Pagans Children as common and unclean but their own as separate and holy St. Paul makes the same distinction that tho' but one of the Parents be a Believer yet they are so far sanctified each to other that their Children are thereby entitled to the Covenant of Grace which they had not been if both the Parents had
to go up to Mount Calvary for to enter into his Sepulchre you are entered into it and buried with him if by Faith you do mortifie and destroy the Body of Sin to this end we are baptized Nor is it a whit the more necessary for having part in his Resurrection to go and kiss the last Print of his Feet upon M. Olivet We are risen with him if being affected with the glory he brought out of his Tomb and convinced of the truth of the discoveries he made of a blessed Immortality we live as becomes the Gospel in all holy Conversation all the Graces and Priviledges of which Baptism is a sign and seal on God's Part are continued to us upon performance of that Duty to which Baptism is an Engagement on our Part and there is no Grace of God but tends to lay an Obligation on us The Grace which hath appeared unto us in the Gospel teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live righteously and holily for 't is naturally inconsistent that we should be happy partakers of the blessed effects of God's Love and Favour and the merits of Christ unless we be holy and therefore as we have the priviledge to be buried with Christ in Baptism or to be baptized into him so 't is necessary that we put on Christ as our great Lawgiver and Example to live according to the rule of his holy Doctrine and Precept and to walk in that way which he hath trod before us For in the Institution of Baptism our Lord did not only design a benefit to us so as to make it an Instrument of Advantage in a way of Grace but also to bring us under an Obligation of Duty As then we value the Priviledge let us not neglect the Duty As we are glad of the mercy offered So let us mind the Stipulation on our Part what an obligation lies upon us to live a Christian life solemnly to resolve upon the profession and practice of the Law of Christ according to our utmost Capacity and the Ability God hath given us So that tho' in our Infancy the faith and repentance of our Parents or Proparents such I mean by whom we are adopted may be reckoned as ours by vertue of God's Promise to Believers and their Seed Yet if in due time we do not personally believe and repent our Baptism is made frustrate and vain 't is then in our Choice either to rescind or annul our Baptism and to turn Heathens or Apostates Or to ratifie and confirm the same If we disclaim and renounce our Baptism We do in effect disclaim and renounce all Right and Title claim and interest in the promises of Christ we cast him off tread his Blood under Foot as an unholy Thing Neither can we expect any strength from him against Temptations but are left in the Power and under the dominion of all Sin and Villany We renounce the Article of remission of Sins and the claim and right which otherwise we might have to everlasting Life But if we submit to the terms of the Covenant and embrace the Conditions we stand obliged and bound to lead a mortified and a Holy Life to be implanted into the similitude of Christ's Death and Resurrection or we make void the Grace of God and most unworthily forfeit and reject it by breaking Covenant with him These things being considered we cannot chuse but confess that as it was a great act of Charity in our Friends so early to engage us in so beneficial an Indenture So we are bound to stand to their Engagement which they made in our Name and to observe the Conditions of it through the whole course of our Lives especially considering that as God hath by his own Institution and Appointment put us under a strict Obligation of Duty so we have by our Baptism submitted to the terms and actually undertaken the Conditions Having to this purpose entered into a most solemn League and Covenant and as it were subscribed thereunto promising and vowing unto God to answer our Engagement to our utmost Ability So that the Vow and Covenant of God is upon us to live as his Servants as Men who are dead to Sin and alive unto God Know you not was the sharp and cutting expostulation of St. Paul to all licentious Christians Rom. 6.3 who presume when once they are baptized into the Church of Christ and profess themselves Christians and partake of the Ordinances they may then live as they list and be saved however This is intimated in the first Verse of that 6th to the Romans where 't is said Let us continue in sin that grace may abound as if some had thus flattered themselves that though they continued in the course of their Sins yet however grace and mercy from Christ would abound towards them and save them But the Apostle as startled at such an Imagination crys out God forbid God forbid such a horrid thought should possess any of our Hearts and then subjoyns the impossibility that any such foul imagination should prevail upon the Heart and life of any regenerate Christian which would be as strange a Prodigy as if the dead should rise out of their Graves and Walk and Live as they did in their life time and thereupon he bids them to look to their Baptism for that they cannot be Ignorant that when they were baptized into Christ Jesus they were baptized into his death and here in my Text buried with him in Baptism And doth the Death the Burial of Christ stand for a Cypher Hath Christ his Death and Burial no tye upon us in this holy Sacrament Hath it no Power Vertue or Influence Certainly it hath done us little good if we exemplifie it not in the death and mortification of Sin This is the duty of every baptized Christian So far necessary that we can have no benefit by our Baptism no portion in Christ or in his Death and Burial but by our being dead and even buried unto Sin If it be said how must we be thus dead to Sin to have any share in Christ and his Death For we cannot say we are dead to it we find it still lively and stirring in us and too much prevailing with us I answer We are then dead to Sin when we live not any longer therein And that is to expound the Apostle's meaning First When we do not only refrain and forbear our Sins for a while but do really aim at no less than the mortification of our Lusts Secondly When though we are not quite dead to Sin yet we are not dead in Sin but are sensible of the Venom and Sting of it Thirdly When though we cannot live and not Sin yet we do not live in it 'T is not as our Life so far from that that 't is grievous to us 't is as Death Lastly When though our Sins be not quite dead yet they are languishing and decaying in a lingering and dying state and if we commit Sin
walk in the way that leads to Hell Be not deceived he hath sworn the contrary and hath heaped up Tribulation and Wrath for every Soul that doth Evil. For that Person more especially who though baptized hath profaned and made the Blood of the Covenant as an unholy Thing Fourthly Let the consideration of this great Priviledge excite us to a Holy Life to live as Men who are dead to Sin and alive unto God To make account that it ought to be as strange to see a baptized Person walk in a sinful Course as to see a Spectrum a walking Ghost at Noon-day We are buried with Christ in Baptism And how can we who are dead to Sin live any longer therein saith the Apostle So that we are or should be at least as it were dead and buried to Sin and that this may be the rather effected and brought to pass we must be mortified as to the World To this use the Apostle seems to apply the Argument of the Text in the following Chapter to call off Mens affections from earthly Things towards the Things that are above There is acted a kind of Similitude upon the baptized to the Burial and Resurrection of Christ And we profess in a spiritual Sense to be dead to the World and to be risen again to a more Noble and Divine Life so as to be above the World And 't is the Engagement of Baptism to be as it were dead and buried with respect to the Things here below Thus some interpret that of the 1 Cor. 15.29 where the Apostle arguing against the Atheists and Sadducees who denied the Resurrection and the hopes of Glory in another Life says What shall they do that are baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for dead Men or as dead Men into a mortification of this World so as to run all Losses Dangers and Hazards for the Profession of Christ such would then be of all Men most miserable if things were so as the Sadducees and Atheists suggest But certainly there is a glorious state of eternal Life hereafter and therefore let us not be befooled with the Snares of earthly Vanities to neglect things Eternal Our Baptism engages us to live above the World to be dead to it to have mortified Affections to the things thereof The World indeed affords lawful comforts for the living and convenient resting Places for the dead but their Souls are above So should Christians be in the World use it as it doth administer to their necessities and conveniences but the Soul the affections should be above We are not dead Naturally and so there is need and there must be a using of the World but we must be dead spiritually to every thing in it that is matter of allurement and temptation to draw us aside from God and must be strangers to such immoderate cares and desires as drown multitudes of Men in Perdition Lastly Let this serve to comfort those whom God Honours so far as to bring them thus near unto himself as to adopt them into his Family and to take them for his own Let this encourage them to believe in him and to rely upon him for all the good things that he hath promised in the Covenant of Grace They of the Church of Rome as in some things they give and ascribe too much to Baptism making it to take away original Sin by the mere applying of the Ordinance so in other things they rob God's People of the comfortable use of it because they say when once we commit actual Sins after the susception of Baptism we make Ship-wrack of our Baptism and then Penance must be secunda tabula post naufragium the only Pinnace or Plank which we can safely catch hold of in this extremity But this blessed Sacrament is of a more durable and comfortable use even to be an Ark whereto 't is assimulated 1 Pet. 3.21 to carry us to Heaven 'T is not a business past and finished in the very Act of its Administration There are in it Promises of such Grace as we may still have need of and by its engaging us to Mortification and Holiness the most comprehensive Duties of Christianity we may experience it to be an Instrument of Grace throughout the whole transaction of our Lives That is when 't is from time to time improved and actuated by a sober Consideration and a serious Recognizing of the Baptismal Covenant and reflecting on the Terms and Conditions upon which we stand with God with respect to Justification and Glory And when the same is prest home by the conviction of the Spirit These things being premised we may readily Conclude what an effectual Instrument and Means it may prove of converting the Souls of Men and regenerating them long after the time of its reception So that Holy Baptism continues still to be altogether as effectual to apply the Blood of Christ for washing away of Sin upon true Repentance as when we first received it Know then that when ever we find our selves at a loss sensible of our undone Condition conscious of our Guilt and Bondage through Sin and so do fly by Faith unto Christ and our Conscience bears us Witness that we would fain Walk for the time to come according to the rule of the Covenant in Uprightness and Sincerity as often I say as we do this we may have recourse to our Baptism and plead it for our Comfort as we may plead the Rain-bow in great Inundations against the World's destruction by Water Thus upon the renewing of our Repentance and Faith in Christ Holy Baptism will be as an Ark to the Soul in all Cases of Relapse Desertion and Temptation For the like figure whereunto doth baptism also now save us saith the Apostle Which that it may so prove to every one of us and particularly to the Person that hath even now received it God of his infinite mercy Grant for Jesus Christ his sake To whom c. FINIS ERRATA PAge 5. line 19. read putting p. 12. l. 12. r. token p. 17. l. 18. r. Gentiles p. 18. l. 16. r. the Case p. 19. in marg r. Rodolpho p. 28. marg l. 30. r. Canon p. 31. marg l. 15. r. eâdem p. 33. l. 30. r. Independent p. 34. l. 32. blot out has p. 76. l. 20. blot out as p. 83. l. 13. r. not to be A Catalogue of Books Printed for and sold by John Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard POOL's Annotations on the Holy Bible in 2 Vol. The 4th Edition Much corrected Folio Philips's New World of Words or an Universal English Dictionary containing the Proper Significations and Derivations of all Words from other Languages c. The Fifth Edition with large Additions and Improvements from the best English and Foreign Authors Folio Archbishop Vsher's Life and Letters Published by Dr. Parr his Grace's Chaplain Folio Archbishop Vsher's Sermons Folio The History of England By Dr. Frankland Folio Love's whole Art of Surveying and Measuring of Land made easie With plain and practical Rules how to survey protract cast up reduce or divide any Piece of Land whatsoever 4 to Strode's New and Easie Method to the Art of Dyalling 4 to His Arithmetical Treatise of the Permutations Combinations Elections and Compositions of Quantities 4 to Miracles perform'd by Money A Poem 4 to Godwin's Roman and Jewish Antiquities 4 to Bishop Hopkins on the Lord's Prayer and Commandments 4 to Happy Union betwixt England and Holland 4 to Lord Shannon's Letter to an Atheistical Acquaintance 4 to Reasons why a Protestant should not turn Papist 4 to Rich's Epistle to the seven Churches 4 to Religio Militis 4 to Archbishop Cranmer's Judgment on the Holy Scriptures Publisht by Dr. Gee 4 to Baxter's Church History and Episcopacy 4 to Mr. Boyle's free Enquiry into the Vulgarly receiv'd Notion of Nature In English and Latine 8 vo His Disquisition of the Final Causes of Natural Things 8 vo Of Languid and Local Motion 8 vo Abbadie of the Truth of the Christian Religion 8 vo Quintilian's Declamations 8 vo Dr. Newton's Compleat Arithmetician 8 vo Counsellor Manner's Legacy to his Son 8 vo Ray's Nomenclator Classicus sive Dictionariolum Trilingue A Classical Nomenclator with the Gender and Declension of each Word and the Quantities of the Syllables c. For the use of Schools 8 vo Robertson's Large and General Phrase-Book 8 vo Dr. Owen's Meditations of the Glory of Christ Yworth's whole Art of Practical Distillation 8 vo Bishop Hopkins Sermons and Discourses in Four Volumes 8 vo Dr. Salmon's Practical Physick shewing the Method of curing the most usual Diseases happening to Humane Bodies the whole compleated in Three Books 8 vo Lord Shannon's Discourses for the Modish Ladies and their Gallants 8 vo Mrs Eliz. Walker's Life and Character 8 vo