most grosse ignorance to say that Circumsion Sealed to the naturall issue of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the land of Canaan and Promise thereof but not the Covenant of Grace whilst the matter sealed and very ground on which every man child must be Circumcised is expressely declared to be I will be thy God and the God of thy seed whilst the Holy Ghost tells us Circumcision was the seale of the Righteousness of faith which is the Covenant of Grace Rom. 4.11 and Circumcision was set on the flesh of the Profelyted Gentiles who never claimed nor possessed by the vertue thereof any portion of Canaan the land of Promise so that if this were the onely matter Sealed by Circumcision it did to them Seale a blank and they had by it no benefit again God doth lay an eminent claime to the naturall issue of the Jewes in their very Apostasies from him when he calls them out of Egypt he doth it with an especial claime let my People go Exod. 5.1 when he chargeth them with duty he enforceth it with relation ye are the children of the Lord your God Deut. 14.1 when he chides their abominable Idolatry he aggravates it by the sacriledg owning his own title Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters which thou hast born unto me and sacrificed c. Thou hast slain my Children and delivered them to cause them to passe through the fire for them in Ezek. 16.20 21. When he chastiseth them he comes to them as a Father Ye children of Israel you onely have I known as mine therefore I will visit you for your iniquities Amos. 3.1 2. and when he comes to deliver them from afflictions their sins provoke to continue the Covenant made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob is the onely cogent reason thereunto this is pleaded as the prevalent argument and ground of faith in prayer Exod. 32.14 Isa 64.9 And affectionately resented by the Lord Levit. 26.42 Ezekiel 16.59 60. I might deal with thee as thou hast done when thou didst despise the Oath in breaking the Covenant neverthelesse I will rememember my Covenant made with thee in the dayes of thy youth when I consider this carriadge of God toward Israel according to the flesh I cannot without blasphemy but think God to be more just then to lay such a speciall claime under the series of his dispensation towards Israel if by his Covenant with their Fathers he had not a cleare and unquestionable title to the posterity and it is to me a most senselesse and dull evasion to say that Israel were Gods People by right of Creation as wool and hempe and flax are his whilst he himselfe tells us he had chosen them to be a precious People unto himselfe above all people that are upon the earth Deut. 14.2 and you onely have I known above all the families of the earth Amos 3.2 Where doth God say of any Nation they are my people Israel excepted and is not the transmission of the Covenant to the Gentiles that which makes them who were not a People to be the People of the living God and unto this it may further be added that our Saviour in the very rejection of the Jewes when he declares them to be of their father the devill denieth them not to be the children of Abraham John 8 nay declareth them to be Children in the Right to the Grace he brought into the world in comparison of whom the Gentiles are called dogs Mat. 15.26 Nay and ownes them as children of the Kingdome of Heaven Mat. 8.11 And St. Paul lamenting the rejection of his Kinsfolke aggravates their present miseries by their past mercies reckoning up their priviledges Adoption Glory Covenants Oracles the giving of the Law the Service of God the Promises the Fathers and the coming of Christ concerning the flesh but not a word of Canaan the great dreamed of Priviledge in Anabaptist view and determines these belonged not to Israel heires of Abrahams faith but to Israel his kinsfolk according to the flesh even the naturall issue of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. By all this and much more that hath been said by others and might be by me it is more then manifest that during the dispensations of the Covenant under the Law and to the Jewes the children of Gods Covenant People even as their children and without personall acts of faith were in Covenant with God and subjects capable of the initiating Seale thereof and me thinks under the Gospell if as undoubtedly it is the Covenant be substantially the same though ministerially different men should have more reason then to release such a priviledge without a very plain and clear reversall in the New Testament and limitation of the Covenant to adult and actuall believers which my dimme sight could never yet read nor dull brain conceive and more justice to themselves and Postesterity then if it be at their choice to change a Fee-farm to themselves and heires for ever for a Lease for a terme of life and meere personall title sure I am my little honesty would act me with such foolish selfe love more regard to the rejected Jew who are yet the beloved of God according to Election for the Fathers sake Rom. 11.28 And in hope to be Re-implanted into the Olive from which they were cut off can we with any confidence court them to a new Covenant with straiter termes shall we not earnestly emulate and highly provoke them to receive the Gospell by bidding them to their losse will not ingenuity engage them thus to retort why you perswade me to turn Christian as I am a Jew I beget Children to the Lord and bring forth an Holy seed the Priviledges of the Covenant is entailed on me and on my Naturall issue and therefore the Covenant of God is set on the flesh of my child assoon as born whereas if I turne Christian I bring forth children of wrath and beget children to the God of the world I have indeed a Personall right to the Covenant and am provided for during my own life but my children are turned into the wide world to sink or swim shift for themselves without any speciall Divine Protection is not a poor pittance with perpetuity better then more large enjoyments with so short a tenure never tell me of a better Testament on such tickle termes O the hopes the hopes of England to convert the late inlet Jewes their new inhabitants by such narrow and Honourable treaty and tenders of Grace and Salvation Lastly Me thinks men calling themselves Saints should have more Religion then to restrain the Grace God hath extended to themselves and feed and curtaile the Covenant that by the New Testament is conferred on the Believer and his issue naturall even as his child in infancy and before he acts any Personall faith when I consider little infants sucking the brests and brought in armes not able to go received by our Lord Jesus Christ by him blessed and pronouneed with others of the
but also a positive performance of all duty he becomes in all things obedient unto the Father lives in Communion with the Church and is conforme to all holy Ordinances proclaiming himselfe a Member of the Church before he propose himselfe a Mediator for or to the Church he is Baptized because it thus became him to fulfill all Righteousness by his subjection to Ordinances and thereby suiting himselfe for his worke he doth not only shew but sanctifie them to be the way of access to the Father for he as our High Priest hath left open the same way of approach and as the Captain hath marched in the same steps of salvation in which we are to follow him and we shall find him Baptized and so immediately entring on the exercise of his Mediatorship when and not till then he was Baptized he is solemnly inaugurated into his office coming out of the water the Spirit came visibly on him and the voice was heard This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him We never read of his praying preaching and combate with the Divel till he was Baptized and no sooner was he Baptized but as consecrated to God he Prayed Luk. 3.21 as confirmed to the Combate he was led immediately into the wildernesse to be tempted Mar. 1 12. And as one now completely fitted to transact the business of mans salvation he preached the Kingdom of God Mat. 4. By all which the Mediator doth plainly dictate That acts of holinesse must move in order beginning at Baptism and that Baptism doth fit men to prayer for temptation and all publick acts of Religion and if any will in confidence of acceptance follow the Mediator they must have their body first washed with pure water and be by Baptisme thereunto prepared Reas 3. Circumcision was the qualification of confident aproach to God under the old Covenant And therefore Baptism having succeeded into the place standing in the stead serving to the end for which Circumcision served must be so under the new Covenant The administration of the Covenant may be altered but the Covenant it self abides substancially the same to the Church of God both in the Old and New Testament Sacraments are permanent and inseparable adjuncts to the Covenant as grounds of Faith and however the different administration may cause a change in the Rite and outward Ceremony in the matter applyed or form of application yet is there no change in their use and signification but what was of old signified by the Seals of the Covenant the same is now signified by such as have succeeded into their place thus the Lords Supper supplyeth the room of the Passeover and Baptism the room of Circumcision so that whatever Circumcision did confer on its subjects the same priviledges are by Baptism conferred on its subjects And Circumcision was to the Jews the door of admission into the Church the Ceremony of Consecration to such as approach to the Lord and the Character of distinction on the people of the living God and so the qualification that was unto them the ground of confidence in approach to God hence Circumcision and Vncircumcision are the distinguishing terms between the Jewes the only people related unto God and the Gentiles that were afar off without God and without hope in the world Rom. 2.26 Eph. 2.11 12. and the approach of the uncircumcised unto the Sanctuary of God is declared to be a polluting and profaning of Gods Sanctuary Ezek. 44 7 9. therefore such are forbidden the least approach to God they may not enter the Sanctuary nor observe the Lords Passeover Exod. 12.48 Nay the uncircumcised must be cut off from the Lord people Gen. 17.14 And if a stranger will come nigh to God and have a place in his Sanctuary he must first lay hold on the Covenant of God and be Circumcised so that by Circumcision Jews were acknowledged and Gentiles proselyted members of the Church entituled to the Covenant and entrusted with the liberty of accesse to God in his Sanctuary That Baptism is the Ordidinance under the New Testament answering unto Circumcision in the Old can any that observe the order of Gospel the cessation of Circumcision the regular succession of Baptism into its place believe some initial Seal essential to Gospel administration and see none established if Baptisme be excluded and find Baptism in all things fully significant of what was signified by Circumcision deny that Baptism is succeeded into the room serves to the end that Circumcision did and so confers the same priviledge of confidence and is Essentially necessary to such as approach to God in acts of worship Unto such I would in short say Dâ—d Circumcision incorporate into the Church are we not all Baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12.13 did Circumcision put the name of God on any do not as many as are Baptized put on Jesus Christ Gal. 3.27 Was Circumcision a sign of Regeneration called the Circumcision of the heart Are not the Baptized buryed with Christ in baptism Doth not the Apostle in this very respect note the agreement of these two distinct but not different Seals Col. 2.11 12 Did not Circumcision seal the Covenant of Grace I will be your God is it not therefore called the Seal of the righteousness by Faith Rom 4 11 Is not the propriety to the promise of Grace Remission and Salvation the very ground entituling and encouraging to Baptisme as the Seal thereof Act. 2.38 39 And is not this agreement sufficient to demonstrate that Baptism is now what Circumcision was of old to the Church What if in some things these two Seals do differ is the difference so essential as to deny the succession of the one to the other It is true the one was by blood the other by water the one is to male and femal both sexes the other to males only the one limitted to the eighth day the other left at liberty but do these or the like hinder either the one or other from being ordinances of Incorporation to the Church Consecration to God or Confirmation to our confidence in drawing nigh to God Will not the differences be found as many and great between the Passeover and the Lords Supper yet the succession of the one to the other will not be denyed Circumstantial differences do shew they are not the same in substance and matter but they must be essential disagreements that shall deny a succession unto the same use and end And if Baptism be not the Ordinance that supplyeth the room of Circumcision what doth How is it called when and where was it institâ—ted and who were ever consecrated by it so as to have the boldness of accesse to God Or is the Church defective under the New Testament as to an initiating Seal so that the holy things of God lie common no visible badge of holinesse is now to describe them that may with freedome use them Most rude and ridiculous is that objected bar to this
succession that some Antipaedo baptists have urged and talked of among you viz. Circumcision was a National priviledg and only sealed the promise of Canaan to the children of Israel If so how then came it to be used before Israel was a Nation and how came it to be used after the land was possessed and the promise accomplished Why doth Moses mention the Covenant of Grace I will be your God as the ground and reason of Circumcision To what doth the Circumcision of heart so frequently mentioned in Scripture allude it is often joyned with the Circumcision of flesh What was the benefit of Circumcision to the proselyted Gentiles We never read that by the virtue of it they demanded or the Jews divided to them any portion of the Land of Canaan And it will be an hard matter to make me believe it did to them Seal a Blank for that I find it in Scripture called A laying hold on the Covenant of God and the Uncircumcision are declared strangers to the Covenant and without God and without hope in the world Why doth the Apostle define Circumcision to be the Seal of the righteousnesse of Faith I find this phrase to denominate the Covenant of Grace and its Spiritual priviledges but that it ever denominated Canaan or any National priviledges I am yet to be informed And the limitation of it unto the personal faith of Abraham is so inconsistent to the scope of the Text absurde in it self and smells so much of Popish Bellarmine that I cannot but avoid I had almost said abhor it But lastly I would Quaery whether the adversaries of Circumcision sealing the Covenant of Grace did ever yet observe adjuncts separable from a Covenant to bear the name of a Covenant or did ever yet discern that the Land of Canaan was an appendant on the Covenant but not of the essence of the Covenant which if they well study I doubt not but they will correct their ignorance and the errors thence arising and so with us conclude That Circumcision sealed Spiritual priviledges to the Jews as Baptism doth to Christians and Baptism succeeding to its use and ends must have the same subjects and is now the special ground of confident approach to God Reas 4. The nature and order of Baptism doth dispose unto a confident approach to God Baptism is a Seal and the first Seal to the Covenant of Grace and Salvation and so is a ground of Faith and an encouragement in accesse to God But in the Nature of Baptism three things do dispose unto confidence in approach to the Lord 1. It is an Ordinance of Conjunction to the Church 2. Consecration to God 3. Confoederation with God And every one of these are Reasons of boldnesse in Access and assurance of Acceptance 1. Baptism is an Ordinance of coojuuction to the Church The Church is Christs Body and every individual Christian is the members thereof united by Baptism as by Nerves and Sinews None but the Church may come nigh unto God in Zion every one must appear before God Christ is only conversant with his Spouse if the Gentiles will draw nigh to the God of Jacob they must joyn themselves to Israel the people of the Lord and all believers that will come nigh to God must be added to the Church all the promises of God are made to the Church and all the administrations of the Covenant are in and to the Church Ex Ecclesia nulla Salus out of the Church no Salvation They that will come nigh to God as his children must be the daughters of Sion of the houshold of Faith and Commonwealth of Israel To be cast out of the Church is to be debarred all priviledges of grace delivered over to Satan for that relation to the Church is the only reason of every individual believers claim of promises and priviledges ground of confidence in all worship unto God and this relation is conferred by Baptism 1 Cor. 12.13 We are all Baptized into one Body whether we be Jews or Greeks bond or free Baptism is the only badg of distinction to the Lords people the very door of admission into the houshold of Faith the very method of matriculation to Christ his Disciples and manner of adding to the Church such as shall be saved Act. 2.41 In a word Baptism is the band of union to all Gods servants binding them to a constant adherencie to his Name and joynt attendance on his Worship and is the bar of division from all others that are yet strangers to the Covenant so as that until baptized they may not communicate of the holy things of God with the Church nor come nigh with them to the Lord. In the Primitive times of the Church the Catechumenists who were preparing for Baptism not having been yet Baptized were sent from Church Communion and holy priviledges with the profane and paenitentiaries by the cry of Sacra Sacris holy things for holy men but when by Baptisme they were incorporated into the Church then they continued in prayer breaking of bread and every act of Worship to God with confidence so that till the Church appear our mother we see no warrant to call God Father his children are no vagrants in the high way and hedges and when begotten by uncorruptible seed of the Word were by Baptisme placed in the lap and laid to the brests of the Church then as her children we claim all the Priviledges of the Covenant and come to the throne of Grace with confidence nor may any without a forfeiture of Baptisme be judicially exacted by the Church deny our relation and liberty of accesse to God I never yet could conceive any warrantable reason to deny the liberty of accesse to the Lords table to such Baptized soules whose horrid profaneness and obstinate spirits did not make them obnoxious to the censures of the Church in order to their excommunications and dismembring from the body and certainly Circumcision did not more firmly incorporate unto the Church under the Law and conferre a liberty of approach unto the Sanctuary then Baptisme doth under the Gospell 2. Baptisme is an Ordinance of Consecration unto God God is a God of Holiness and will be sanctified in such as come unto him none may appear before him in their prophanenesse the Masse of Mankind is so prophaned with sin that men in common may not appear before God such as shall adore him must be adorned for him and if they will hold communion with him they must be consecrated to him God never comes nigh to Israel but he first calls to have the people Sanctified nor comes the Messiah before his Messenger had prepared his way Israel the onely Nation that holds communion with and comes to God are called an holy Nation because conâ—ecrated by Circumcision hence Circumcision is the terme and title of a Sanctified people but uncircumcision the title and terme that denominates the prophanations that might not come nigh to God It is Gods command
of their incorporation with whom you must live in communion in Gods Ordinances 3. Direction Argue your Baptisme to your engagement to and encouragement in drawing nigh to God Your bodies are washed with pure water provoke your spirits to draw nigh in the assurance of faith Consider that by your baptisme you are singled out of the world and set in a capacity of Salvation You are placed in the Ark will you perish in the common deluge of mankinde You are sanctified unto God by the washing of water will you stand at a distance from God as strangers to him You are in the order of his own appointment suited for divine society will you live as without God without hope in the world You are the sealed sonnes and subjects of the covenant and will you pass away your time as Bankrupts that possess nothing You have put on Jesus Christ his livery will you not doe him homage with all cheerfull loyalty You are entred into the houshold of Faith and Church of God shall not their communion be to you comfortable Is not Baptisme a ground of faith and encouragement why are you then so dispondent in appearing before God Is it not your solemn Bond unto divine service why are you then so dull and backward unto duty Was your baptisme a meer complement that you doe not minde it or make use of it now it is past Is it not a moral instrument to be improved by meditation affording matter of counsel and comfort Nay is it not Gods Ordinance a ground of faith pledge of love badge of relation to be argued into the awe and encouragemâ—nt of our access to God Is not Baptisme an initiating seal assuring us of iâ—â—tiating graces hath it not planted us into the Olive that we might extract â—p and juyce to the bringing forth fruits of Righteousness In a word Baptisme is greatly advantagious to hope and holyness if but duly improved by acts of Faith We find no profit in it because we look for none from it If right assured be never claimed how shall it be possessed If sin-mortifying engines be never used sin must needs have dominion over the soul I would to God I couâ—d but perswade Châ—istians to sit down and seriously contemplate their Baptisme in order to their holyness and thus reflect it I am baptized Surely then I am under some more than ordinary engagement Thereby I was washed from my old sins shall I then live in them or so far forget my self as not to let vertue knowledge temperance brotherly kindness patience godliness all the graces of God to abound in me Is not Baptisme the dew of Heaven that waters the Garden of God Hath it been distilled on me and shall I be found idle and unfruitfull 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8 9. I have been baptized into the death of Christ buried with him in Baptisme planted into the similitude of his death that my old man might be crucified and the body of sin destroyed that I should not serve sinne but as he was raised up from the dead I should walk in newness of life and shall sin reign in my mortal body that I should obey the lusts thereof or shall I give my members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sinne Rom. 6. I have by Baptisme been consecrated unto God and shall I not come nigh him in duty I am incorporated into the Church ought I not then to be conversant in the assembly of the first born I have stricken Covenant with God will not my neglect of duty and course of impiety be charged on me as the breach of the oath of God All the promises of grace are to me sealed shall not I then cleanse my self from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness In a word Baptisme is the seal of the Covenant set in my flesh and the causing me to see the evil of my wayes and doings and to be ashamed and forsake them the taking away the stony heart and giving an heart of flesh the putting Gods spirit within me that I may walk in his wayes are the promises of the Covenant why then doe not graceless I claim them and by prayer plead my Baptisme for the obtainment of them For he is faithfull that hath promised but will not perform until they be asked in faith And as our Baptisme is thus a moral argument of holiness to our selves it is the more helpfull hereunto because it answers all temptations unto sin When we are saluted with the pollutions that are in the world through lust we may answer we are washed in pure water and may not be again defiled The cogencie of custome must give place to the Covenant we have made in Baptisme The violent temptations of Satan recoile upon the returns of Bâ—ptisme I am baptâ—zâ—d silenceth all suggestions to sinne I am baptized into the Name of Fathâ—r Sonne and holy Ghâ—st is the only Spel to speak with reverence that charms the Devil For it imports thus much Shall the children of God coâ—verse with his enemies the confederates of God break his commands the separated out of the world be subject to the Prince of the world Oâ— doth malicious Satan think the sealed of the Lord shall be so much sleighted by their Lord as to be taken captive at his will Oh! play the man in a rational mâ—nagement of your Baptisme it will much advance your Christianity all your dayes As Baptisme is an help to holinesse so also to hope to be improved by due acts of Faith as it is an Ordinance of God for our encouragement in accesse to him many soules stand at a distance from divine Ordinances or draw nigh with much trembling which would be dispelled by due apprehensions of Baptisme Let such therefore consider that under the want of speciall they ought to rejoyce in generall expressions of Gods love and arguments of hope and immediate assurances of divine favour are not to bee expected whilest we have mediate Ordinances on which to act our Faith Our Hope must come into the Soule in the same way with holynesse by a morall improvement of Gods Grace in his Ordinances to us extended let therefore the desponding Christian that trembles to converse with Gods people to come nigh Gods table or claim any of Gods promises sit down and seriously discourse his Baptisme I am Baptized Was this an emptie Ordinance Shall my unbeleeving heart imagine any divine Institution to be emptie and in vain imposed No All the wayes of God are Truth hee never subjected Soules to any falacie nor can doe Why then art thou so sad Oh my Soule Trust still in God in him will I hope for he hath established a Covenant of peace extended to my Parents and through them to mee and set the Seale thereof Baptisme in my flesh and is not Baptism a pledg of his affection to mee a badge of my relation to him Why then doe I say he knowes mee not or I belong not to him Doe all
guilt The second Benefit of Infant Baptisme is That it explaineth the benefit of Relation and the method of transmitting the Covenant of Grace Baptisme as a seal of the Covenant sheweth interest in the Covenant and the benefit of personall qualification that fits for it but it is the Infant season that shâ—weth that God hath wisely ordered Grace to run in natures channel and parental relation under such a qualification as beleeving to engender a propriety to Baptisme He that first receives the Patent of honour can discern no benefit of relation save what is future but if his Patent be only personal he seeth none at all but hereditarie honours are demonstrations of relation and its advantage hereby a man knows what his benefit is in being the childe of a Baron or Earle rather than of a common Knight or Gentleman Baptisme applied to men of years doth indeed demonstrate a Covenant of Grace granted on good behaviour unto every individual person but wholly obliterateth the seeds interest and extent of the Covenant unto natural Issue in order to their good behaviour It declareth expresly that as to the specialtie of Gods Grace relation to beleeving Parents is no priviledge As good be the childe of Ammon as of Abraham of a Pagan as a Christian which is cleerly contrarie to the tenure of the Covenant I will be thy God and the God of thy seed The promise is to you and your children and the ground of applying the initiating seal is relation to such Parents Therefore every man-child at eight dayes old shall be circumcised that thereby it may appear the order of my Covenant is to Parents beleeving and their seed and the benefit of relation to such Children shall be that I will be their God Relation to the Olive is the reason of the branches fatness The Jews relation to their pious progenitors is the only remaining hope of their conversion They are beloved of God according to election for the fathers sake Rom. 11.28 If we will maintain the knowledge of relative advantages in the Covenant of Grace carefully baptize we our Babes in their infancie as the plainest comment thereon so when they shall consider themselves to have been sealed and sanctified to God before they had in themselves the least of personal qualification they will bless God for the Covenant of their fathers and the extent of it to the seed of beleevers and giving them to be born of such favorites to heaven The great assertors of the Baptisme of grown persons to defend their notion doe in the ministration of Grace darken all relation and disfranchise all Posterity interpreting the cleer text of Scripture The promise is to you and your children by a personal qualification when God shall call them as if the Holy Ghost had spoken nonsence and used a term of relation in vain and to no purpose But certainly when God established a Covenant of Grace he did not invert natures course but provided relation to derive the priviledges thereof in his Church as well as other advantages in the world nor did he in the least intend Religion to be an abridgement of parental right and power of dedication of their seed to the service of their God as well as designation to any worldly trade and therefore he appointed a seal of his Covenant and sacred Bond to his own service whereby subjects meerly passive as was before noted might be at the pleasure of Parents to him presented And hereof Infant-Baptisme is the only visible evidence in the whole world Root and branches Parents and Children are alwaies homogeneal Nature makes all relations to be of the same kinde and Grace not inverting Natures order will have the children by the dignity of a sacred Ordinance to be declared of the holy kinde with their Parents and by this religious badge of Baptisme be distinguished from other Children of Turks Jews and Pagans who like their Parents remain prophane and estranged unto God And thus Infant-Baptisme doth not only evidence relation and its benefit the method and order of the Covenant to men within but also to men without the Church that it may be to them an encouragement to lay hold on the Covenant of God for that they doe not only provide for their own personal term but see Grace also extended to their issue on the very ground of relation natural unto them under a Christian qualification And this is especially profitable to the Jew who having had the Covenant of God to themselves and seed natural as their seed and that witnessed by the initiating seal of Circumcision set in the flesh of their children must needs stumble at the new Covenant if it exclude their issue as hath been before noted So that the Infant-Baptisme so cleerly witnessing the order of the Covenant and benefit of relation to beleeving Parents to the comfort of men within the Church and encouragement of men without the Church it must needs be more profitable than the Baptisme at grown years which curtails the Covenant cuts off Posterity casts out of the Church all relation natural and maketh all ministrations of Grace to be meerly personal The third benefit of Infant Baptisme is That it enlargeth the bounds and establisheth the being of the Church of God but the baptisme of grown men doth much confine the borders and hazard the being of the Church Infant Baptisme doth enlarge the Church by the spreading of it through whole Families Countries and Nations persons are private and perishing but posterity is publique and flourishing holy seede is the Churches nurserie whilest grown trees are fading Lambs are the increase of Christs Fold when old-sheep are few and dying and succession is the surest title and strongest ground of claime when from generation to generation the Church of God is continued in a constant Race from Father to Son it is much established against hellish opposition Nature hath made all living Creatures seminall that they might multiply and continue the course of providence is the same to the Church that it is to the World certainly the only wise God well knew the best way to enlarge and establish his owne kingdome upon Earth and hee though hee founded his Church in an old stock yet order'd the spreading of it by naturall branches and preservation of it by posteritie The method of God must needs bee the same in the maintenance of his Church under the new as it was under the old Testament and hee that takes up his Church from one Nation on designe to extend it through all the nations of the World would never plant it only in personall perishing plants but provide for their scattering an holy-seede for its increase and succession The promise of the Churches increase in Gospell times is noted to be by Children the promise is expresse I will lift up my Standard to the Gentiles and they shall bring thy sonnes in their armes and thy daughters on their shoulders Isa 49.22 Our own observation must
kingdome all my dayes thou hast done me good yet wretched I have sinned against such a God ungratefull I have been ready to forsake thee my God and my fathers God and have dealt falsly in thy Covenant It might be just with thee to deal with me as I have dealt with thee when I despised the oath in breaking the Covenant but in thy mercy Lord I pray thee Remember thy Covenant thou madest to me in the dayes of my youth and establish it for an everlasting Covenant that I may know the Lord that I may remember and be ashamed and never open my mouth any more because of my shame when thou art pacified towards me for all that I have done against the God of my father and the God of my youth Now will I live in loyalty to so good a God if thou wilt give me to be sanctified by the blood of sprinkling and my old man to be crucified by Baptisme which by thy Grace shall be the awe of my soul and answer of my heart unto every temptation to sin against thee This benefit cannot be effected by adult Baptisme which affords no such matter of meditation apprehending the dispensations of God to be only personal and therefore to be personally improved The fifth Benefit of Infant-Baptisme is that it enforceth faith towards God Baptisme as a seal of the promise pledge of love and sanctifying Ordinance of God is a ground of faith pleadable in prayer by all its subjects but receiveth not a little force from the season of its application in infancie whilest it self witnesseth the Covenant it seals the season of its use witnesseth the extent of the Covenant to beleevers and their seed and creates a ground on which to claim protection as well by early seizure as covenant proprietie not to note how all the Graces of God in order to salvation and good things of this life even all things pertaining to life and godliness are assured to the soul by Baptisme as the seal of the Covenant The Parent can with faith thus plead from the season Lord my childe is thine in Covenant to thee begotten to thee dedicated by thy seal on his flesh Oh! wilt thou own him Remember him take care of him establish thy Covenant with him let all the graces of thy promise be performed to him let not Satan seduce him from thy service to which he is so soon sealed How much doe I owe to thee that makest Grace to run through Natures channel my loins Lord let him in time know and have faith to claim his interest keep him from the property of prophane Esau that he despise not his birth-right in thy Covenant which thou hast sealed to him in the sight of thy people by his baptisme And as the Parent so the person baptized acting faith in the Ordinance doth thus enforce it from his Infant season of enjoyment of it God is a gracious God in calling my parents he had respect unto my good before I had a being he graciously established w th them a Covenant which he extended to their seed I no sooner sprang from the womb but he owned me as his own and called me by his name and set the seal of his Covenant in my flesh as studious to forestall the choice of my corrupt will which would never have chosen him he challenged me and caused me to be dedicated to his service as sensible of Satans malice he made an early seizure of me and set his mark upon me and before there was in me the least of act or qualification he sanctified me to himself by the washing of water What ever doubts may deter me I will now draw nigh unto him and depend upon him for he that was so soon gracious in extending and sealing to me the Covenant will faithfully perform it My condemnation will be most just if I having such grounds of faith should be cut off by reason of unbelief now I will walk before and wait upon him for he will not now forsake me or suffer Satan to repossess me and take me out of his house and family The sixth Benefit of Infant-Baptisme is That it engageth more to duty than adult Baptisme Herein it is of use to the Parent and baptized child How much of argument doth Infant-Baptisme press upon the Parent to the due instruction and education of his baptized child Not to speak any thing of the benefit of catechising it self the Parent hath reason to reflâ—ct the Baptisme of his child in its infant estate to convince him That if God hath been so gracious to extend a Covenant of Salvation to his seed he must have so much grace as to make them know Gods goodness and understand the extent of the Covenant If God hath caused their loins to convey grace as well as sinne their care must be that the grace of God be not received in vain The childs ignorance of interest in conceded honours and priviledges is the baseness of education and blot of natural affection If by their Parental power they have dedicated them to Father Son and holy Ghost it is their part to make them know to what they are devoted And as it bindes the Parents to the duty of education so the child to carefull observation Early adoption is the greatest argument of filial observation that can be the child taken off the Stall is more bound to the will of Parents than the man at years adopted to inherit the one is the object of more pitie subject of more care cost and charge but of lesse service and obedience therefore bound more to duty than the other Infant-Baptism giveth cause to sing with Israel He is our God and our fathers God we will exalt him Exod. 15.2 and with David I am thy servant the son of thy handmaid I will offer sacrifice and call upon thy name Psal 116.16.17 We must not think as heirs of dignity to wear Gods livery in our cradles but must know it makes us also heirs of duty to yeeld loyalty to him all our dayes Parental dedication to God layeth on us the duty of observation Shall Parents proclaim dayes of purim to be observed in all generations and posterity dare to pretermit them Whether we consider Gods pitie or our Parents power sparkling in our Infant-Baptism both impose on us duty the nature of our Baptism the effect of both binds us to fight at Gods command under Christ his Banner against every iniquity and vice to the discharge of every duty of Religion but neither faith nor obedience can be so enforced by the Baptisme of grown persons which deny relations natural to be of any use in things of Salvation and doth greatly darken the method and order of the Covenant of Grace and Salvation The seventh and last Benefit of Infant-Baptisme is That it encourageth under death and that either the Child or Parents We read in primitive times of Infant Martyrs certainly they were thereunto prepared by a knowledge of
valid and of force the Grant of a cruel King and profane Prince will be by these men admitted as the substantial binding Charter of the peoples Priviledges we read often of the proâ—anenesse of the Priests of Israel but never of a nonentitie brought upon Gods Ordinances in their hand If they be in Moses Chair though we must not do as they do we are bound to the attention and obedience of what they say It is not impossible for a man to preach to others and himself be a cast away I never read that the Baptism of those Baptized by the unworthy hand of Judas was ever pronounced void or null A pure Ordinance is unhandsome in a profane hand but yet its essence is not impaired it is Gods Ordinance effectual to its end So that if they were Baptized by Ministers though unworthy wherein I wâ—sh charity be not violated for that many know not who they were they do censure as unworthy nay some worthy men to themselves so known they now call unworthy it is a corrupâ—â—on consistent with the essence of the Ordinance not any way destructive to its being The same is to be said for the annexed Ceremonies that they were profanely added but yet did not nullifie the Ordâ—nance but it stands in full force as a ground of confidence in access to God But secondly As they appear greatly irrational in inferring more then their premises will allow so they are Grosly ignorant nay I fear many wilfully shutting their eyes may be charged to be grosly obstinate They renounce their Baptism under the notion of Superstition not considering they run into the sin of Sacriledge charity must perswade us these men understand not the method and ministration of the Covenant of Grace otherwise they could never charge Infant Baptism with superstition which is the very application of Gods Ordinance to its proper subjects and so Sacrilegiously rob God his Church believing parents and their children of those holy duties and Dignities that belong unto them Have we not before noted that they who are in Covenant with God ought to be Baptized and is not this the principle wherein we all agree And if these men know any thing of the method and and ministration of the Covenant must they not needs confesse That the natural issue of one or both believing Parents are in Covenant as we have before proved and so fit subjects for Baptism that may and must be made partakers of the first initiating Seal of which God hath made them capable in their Passive age and estate Can any stand convinced that such infants are as soon as born the Lords Heritage Psal 127.3 The Lords servants Lev 25.42 Children begâ—tten to him Ezek. 16.20 21. Holy ones Rom. 11.16 1 Cor. 7.14 Children of the Covenant Act. 4.25 To whom belongs the promise Act. 2.28 Interressed in the prâ—viledges of the people of God Mar. 10 14. and withhold the keeper of the Sanctuary and Stewards of Gods houshold from setting of Gods mark in their flesh or withstand their dedication unto God Must not we give Caesar the things that are Caesars and God the things that are Gods Will not God account it a Râ—bbery tâ—at they which are his shall be withheld from him Again câ—n any consider the issue of believing Parents to be the Churches Children begotten to the Lord Ezek 16.20 an holy seed scattered for her increase and yet snatch them out of her armes and cast them out of her bosome into the wide wildernesse of the world Shall not the Church lament and refuse to be comforted whilest she is bereaved of her babes and as a Bear robed of her whelps Will not such robbery prove her ruiâ—e and the drying up her seed hinder her increase and make her bâ—rren and fruitlesse Again shall the children of such believing parents be borne members into thâ— houshold of Faith and not be incorporated by Baptism Shall Loyalty be their born duty and not Gods Livery their dignity Shall the Covenant of Grace be the Charter of their priviledge and the Seals not be applyed to them as tâ—ey are capable of receiving them Shall they be holy in their kind and the badg of distinction be denyed them If any thing would make a new born babe to speak sure this Sacriledge would do it there is reason for the real demand that is fabled of one Rumball Son to an English King at Brackâ—ly in Northhamptonshire that as soon as he was born he requested to be Baptized for that he was a Christian Iâ— it not a cruel Sacriledge to shut out of the Ark of Salvation such whose title to entrance cannot be denyed Yet further is Baptism the only visible evâ—dence God hath given to parents of the extent of the Covenâ—nt to their children and shall any deprive them of this reason of hope cause of joy ground of Faith in prayer and spur to duty in dedication to God and education of their children for God So that these things considered such as on this ground of being Baptized in infancy do renounce thâ—ir Baptism do out of ignorance of Gods Covenant commit most horrid Sacriledge by robbing Gâ—d of his Heritage the Church of Children and the beâ—efits of the administration of Baptism to infants which by Gods grace I shall shew to be great the children of believing parents of their Seal of the Covenant of which they are capable and their Parents of that ground of Faith the administration of the Covenant doth award them And so they g ve us cause not only to charge them with irrationality in fancrying Gods holy Ordinance to be superstition but in the language of the Apostle to say Thou that abhorrest Idols dost commit Sacriledge Rom. 2 22. So that not only Groundlesly but even contrary to Divine method and order they disowning the regular washing of their body in pure water do divest themselves of that Seal of Sanctity and veâ—ture of holinesse by which they were fitted for a confident approach to God and decline the assembles of Gods people in which alone the Lord is to be adored and joyn themselves to false assemblies where they are consecrated to and come before God in a way that is not of his appointment nor can expect his approvement how high soever false hopes and joyes may carry their sâ—irits For those to whom they joyn are divided from the Church of Christ and void of all commission to administer the holy things of God if you look at their constitution you shall find it is no other then seâ—f-congregation with the cry of all the Lords people are holy and invectives against Aaron and Moses as they which take too muâ—h upon them the which I could never yet find warranted in Scripture but is remarkably condemned in the company of Kâ—rah that were thus constituted Ministerial authority is no lesse essential to Constitute a Church of Christ then Magistratical to constitute a Corporation or Company my litt e skill in Politicks could never
THE VERTUE AND VALUE OF BAPTISM In which the Dignity and Duty of Baptism The due Right of Infants to Baptism And their right above that of grown persons by Baptism The degrading and destructive Principles and Practices of Baptism ARE Catechetically propounded plainly Preached and now Published as an Antidote to the Baptism-Despising-Dictates of John Simpson By Zachariah Crofton Minister at Botolph Aldgate London Imprimatur Edm. Calamy London Printed by D.M. for J. Nuthal living next door to the Dolphin in the Minories 1658. To the Right Worshipful Richard Garforde AND Robert Burdet Esquires And the rest of his Beloved Parishioners late Assertors of his innocency and Protestors against his groundless and furious Persecutions Right Worshipful and wel-beloved TO you of all men this Treatise oweth its Dedication and from you must needs demand its Patronage for that in order to your good in the Instruction and establishment of you in the order of the Gospel and Ordinances of Jesus Christ it hath been preached once and again and is now Printed you cannot be insensible how you baptized Members of the Catholick Church were dispersed as Sheep without any Shepherd nay by the Congregational Anabaptistical principles and practises and in order to their Schismatical Church-gathering design you were by Rude Rust Foolish Wise and Baptism-blaspheming Simpson paganized and proclaimed Dogs aliens and strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel when the zealous importunity of some among you meeting in me with a real pity of your Pagan posture did engage me to take of you as a Church of Jesus Christ the care and charge I was constrained to lay again the Foundations these wicked men had razed and to inform you in the first rudiments of Religion and first ordinances of worship that you might understand the dignity and duty of your Baptism in which I finde such dulness in common capacity that the things you heard you must hear again and indeed Read before many will receive them I being come among you and by Gods blessing on my Ministry having reduced you into some order convinced some persons of their Rebaptized vanity and Parents of the sinfull neglect of their Infants interest in the Covenant have met with violent opposition and malitious interruptions in the work of God constraining me to preach unto you the Gospel of Truth through much contentation wherein yet through grace I have waxed bold You are manifest Witnesses that the Anabaptists will Baptize with fire and fury such as they cannot Baptize with water in the way of their folly By what clamours have they clouded my name representing me uncivil whilst for fear of the Law they durst not render me prophane how they have by false surmizes prejudiced present powers by false accusations palpable perjury extrajudicial Process partial and prejudiced Judges of their own picking and implacable fury darkned my credit weakned my Ministery disturbed my peace and endeavoured 〈◊〉 stop my mouth you and all the Churches of God cannot but know The guilt and odium whereof you have taken from your selves by your seasonable Attestation to my Innocencie and serious protest against their groundless cruelty wherein I bless God I can rejoyce It is the cause that makes the Martyr and what is the cause of all that calamity they have to me created Let the fretting of their spirits when your Pulpit sounded the Sacrament of Bastism is to be administred your Reverend attendance on that Ordinance is desired their railing speeches on all occasions uttered against Infant Baptism their invective Letters to me written which I keep as Monuments of their folly and malice their often strugling to set up Oats Knowls Lamb Simpson to blaspheme Gods Ordinances and at last violent and unjust intrusion of John Simpson into the Baptismal Season of the Sabbath to the excluding of that Ordinance and vilifying the same in the sight of the People and that not only in its subjects but in it self openly teaching baptism is no ground of Communion with the Church visible witness to all the world if I suffer as an evil doer Whose Ox or Ass have I taken what Law have I violated whom did I injure in word or deed How often have I sought for competent impartial Judges that might convict me and proposed ways of Accommodation admitted them when sought by my enemies whose Return hath been we will have no peace no agreement no arbitration nay my enemies being Judges the ground of their quarrel and enmity is my endeavours to return you into order and their cry is He will not let Simpson preach So that because I will not suffer that woman Jezabel to teach and seduce the Lords people I must be loaded with calumny and followed with vexation Well be it so I will bless God for supporting and wait on him for saving mercy and pray that you may be more confident in the truths confirmed by my Sufferings wherein you also have boâ—n your share I cannot but observe how Heretical Malice hath trampled on your dignities and gravities by Military insolency and vulgar rudeness yet hath God hitherto given you hearts to adhere to me and the truths by me witnessed Whilst you have owned my Ministry under so great a Fight of affliction I cannot but hope you will do it still and be more confirmed in the vertue and value of your received Baptism both which are here plainly and practically propounded to your view Many eminent men have most fully debated the Controversie and defended your Infants Right to Baptism but of their Labours I observe the vulgar make little use for Practical conviction of sin I find to be the best confutation of error and have therefore attempted it in the ensuing Treatise for its stile and method suited to vulgar capacity receive it as a token of my true affection to your Souls and Gods holy Ordinances read it as the direction of your duty learn by it to prize Baptism as the high Priviledge of you and yours and in doing and suffering shew forth the vertue and value of the Covenant of God on your flesh living as Baptized into the name of Father Son and Holy Ghost to which end you may be assured as of the endeavours so the earnest prayers of Your greatly reproached and persecuted but yet really innocent and resolvedly zealous Pastor Zach. Crofton To the READER Courteous Reader THou canst not be such a stranger in our Israel as to be ignorant of my sufferings by the intrusion of John Simpson into my Pulpit and amongst my People I doubt not but thou mayest well with many other enquire the reason of my resistance the which is written in such legible Characters that just men and zealous Christians cannot but Run and Read them I have in a small Book called Right Re-entered given the world some account as to my own personal Reasons wherein had I been silent can any that know John Simpson a man subject to such windings and turnings that he cannot to his own
his silence and resolving to leave him without excuse I wrote unto him this second Letter Sir I did this day sevenday signifie my dissatisfaction in your Doctrine and dislike of that old Familistical noâ—ion you published I demanded your reasons but have received none Sir Think you not that it is your duty to convince gainsayers or can I pass in silence Baptisme-annilitating notions I cannot I will not Sir I once more demand your arguments and that as you are a man of any ingenuity williâ—g to give an account of your Doctrine Sept. 9. 1657. Zach. Crofton This also he received but passed it in silence and never to this day gave any the least answer to defend or retract his error If therefore I find him obstinate after the first and second admonition I hope I shall not be blamed for rejecting him as an Heretick and withstanding him from filling my Peoples Heads with low thoughts of Gods Ordinances and the high Priviledges of Grace whose tongues can already speak too despicably of them God having in his Providence brought me to the Section of Baptism in my course of Catechizing and given me a little breathing space from the violent persecutions of his Abettors I thought it to be my duty to dictate to my people the dignity of Baptism and knowing that many heard his Error who would not hear the correction of it I have committed it to the Press and sent it into publique view submitting it and my opposition of the Seducer that occasioned it to thy Censure desiring thou mayest shake off prejudice and read with seriousness and sobriety whereby I doubt not but thou mayest finde profit for which he prays who seeth a Divine Stamp on every ourward Gospel-Ordinance Zach. Crofton ERRATA Page 4. line 23. for a read as p. 23. l. 22. r. not to p. 24. l. 2 r. me p. 56. l. 4. r. readily gives p. 58. l. 20. r. tribes p. 87. l. 23. r. profane nations p. 92. l. 11. r. answerably p. 107. l. 23. r. inveighing p. 119. l. 19. r. justle out p. 136. l. 7. r. weight p. 149. l. 7. r. third p. 186. l. 4. r. humane A SHORT CATECHISM BRIEFLY Propounding and plainly shewing the VERTUE AND Value of BAPTISM OR The following TREATISE fitted to the weak capacity of such People as desire to be confirmed in the Nature and Necessity of BAPTISM against the Contempt and Neglect thereof By Zachariah Crofton Minister at Botolph Algate London London Printed by D.M. for J. Nuthal living in the Minories 1658 A Short CATECHISM Briefly propounding and plainly shewing the vertue and value of BAPTISM Q. WHat is your name Ans M. Q. Who gave you this name A. My Parents the natural Authors of my being and Instruments of my Interest in the Covenant of God Q. When did they give you this name A. In my Baptism when I was dedicated to God and by the washing of my body in pure water fitted for approach to him Q. What is Baptism A. It is a solemn and Religious application of water by the hand of a lawfull Minister to fit subjects to signifie the blood of Christ and Seal the â—ovenant of Grace Q. What is the outward sign in Baptism A. Water in opposition to all other elements and pure water without any mixture or composition for so Christ did appoint and his appointment doth stamp dignity on that despicable Element Q. What is the inward Grace in Baptism A. The blood of Jesus Christ with its properties and effects the remission of sin and regeneration of the soul Q. Is Baptism only a sign to represent these things to our minde A. No but also a seal to ratifie them to our soul and therefore a right unto the Promise is the ground of Baptism and Baptism a reason of our Faith in the Promise to be pleaded in Prayer for obtainment Q. What is the form of Baptism A. The Application of water by Dipping or Sprinkling for the manner is of no moment so it be done solemnly and religiously as a sacred Ordinance by Divine Institution with Prayer to God and a Dedication of the person baptized unto the name of Father Son and Holy Ghost Q. Who is to administer Baptism A. A lawful and none but a lawful Minister for Baptism is an act of Office and argument of Faith therefore to be applyed by authority and then the Baptism of women and private men is void and null Q. Who are fit subjects to be baptized A. Such all such and only such as are in Covenant with God for the qualification that must guide the Church in applying Baptism must be Interest in the Covenant and these are two sorts 1. Infidels converted to the Faith 2. The Infants of one or both Christian Parents Q. By what must Infidels converted to the Faith be judged within the Covenant and fit subjects to be baptized A. By making a profession of saving faith which may be done by men in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity not saving profession of faith importing sincerity of grace nor by a well ordered conversation for Gods Ministers must judge by a presenâ— visible sign and they cannot search the heart And Plants are to be set in the Church before we look for fruit Baptism is a Bond unto amendment of life Q. How can it be proved that the infants of Christian Parents are with in the Covenant and to be baptized A. During the administration of Covenant in the times of the Old Testament the natural issue of Gods people before they acted their faith even as soon as they were born were within the Covenant The form of the Promise is I will be thy God and the God of thy seed Circumcision the Seal of the righteousness of faith was set in their flesh at eight days old God claims the natural issue of his Covenant-people as his own when he calls them out of Egyyt Exod. 5.1 chargeth them with duty Deut. 14.2 complaineth of Idolatay Ephes 16.21 Chastiseth their sin Amos 3.2 And Christ calls the Jews natural the children of his Kingdom and placeth in them the Right to the mercies he brought whilst the Gentiles were Dogs licking up the crums Q. But what is the interest of Infants in the Old Testament to us under the new A. Very much for whilst we see they have been in Covenant it will direct us to see a very clear reversal and plain limitation of the Covenant before we part with such a birth-right and priviledge for common Justice will not suffer us without good warrant to change a Fee-farm to our selves and heirs for a Lease for term of Life and we need a clear reason to convert the Jews from the old Covenant whereby they begot an holy seed to God unto a straiter Covenant that provides for the Parent but leaves the child prophane and estranged to God The enemies of our Baptism cry for an express command to baptize Infants but instead of shewing any we think we
have good reason to say we as such infants have by a long Tenure an interest in the Covenant shew us a clear Gospel Writ of Ejection if you think now to dispossess us Q. But have you any good ground in the New Testament on which infants as the natural issue of believing Parents may claim an interest in the Covenant A. Yes very much when we consider little sucking Babes brought in arms to be received by the Lord Jesus to be blessed by him to be declared members of the Kingdom of heaven propounded as such who ought to be received in his name as his disciples and not to be offended all which are the blessings of the Covenant and that the Apostle affirms of the Gentiles ingrafted in as well as the Jews cut off in Rom. 9. That if the first-fruits then the whole lump is holy if the root then the branches are holy and the branches do partake of the fatness of the olive we must cast away our reasons if we see not Infants interest in the Covenant Q. But have you not yet some plaiâ—er Scriptures to prove their title A. Yes the Apostle doth expresly say the Infants of one Christian Parent is holy 1 Cor 7.14 of real holiness none understand it natural holinâ—ss taking away the blot of bastardy supposing Faith essential to Marriage is too ridiculous to be received and then it must needs mean a foederal holiness by the extent of the Covenant and in the esteem of the Church And in Acts 2.38 the Apostle saith expresly The promise is to you and to your children This promise cannot be of extraordinary-Gifts because it is extended to all that shall be called nor is it to children when culled for that were not to them as children the Holy Ghost doth not use to speak non-sense and express personal qualifications by terms of relation but tels the believer his children as his children have a priviledge in the Covenant above other mens children so that it is plain such Infants are within the Covenant and according to their capacity to enjoy the Seals and Priviledges thereof Q. But they are not capable of being baptized because they can act nothing in the Ordiâ—ance nor can they make a profession of Faith and Repentance A. Nor is such capacity needfull for profession gives no right to Baptism but as an evidence of Covenant Interest and their right to the Covenant manifested by their descent from such Parents is as good a reason for their Baptism and the subjects of the initiating Seal do not act any thing as if God would thereby dictate inability to action shall be no bar to Baptism Q. But those we read of in Scripture that were baptized were at grown years A. So were those who were first circumcised but that was occasional and circumstancial The Church is founded in grown Trees but is to be edified by infant branches Q. But there is no institution for infant Baptism A. That Baptism is instituted cannot be denied Age or Infancy are only directions to whom to apply it and therein the qualification of Covenant Interest is according to Scripture the clear direction Moreover Infants may be Disciples bearing on them the name of Christ and are Members of Nations and so the Institution directing the baptizing of Discipled Nations is to them extended Q. But all you urge for infants baptism is by way of inference and consequence A. Scripture-Inference is Gods word binding mans conscience it was the way of Christ his convincing the Sadduces of the Resurrection and of Pauls preaching at Athens and is your only way to warrant womens Communion at the Lords Table and shall it not be of force to Infants Baptism Q. What benefit do you receive by your Baptism A. Much as I am baptized and enjoy that Ordinance of God and much as I was baptized in Infancy by the early enjoyment of it Q. What is your benefit received by the Ordinance it self A. A fit qualification to draw nigh to God with confidence Q. What do you mean by drawing nigh to God A. Not only the possâ—ssion of heavenly Glory when I die which I deny not but such may enjoy whom the providence of God cuts off before they can be baptized Nor only the private and personal acts of the soul which may be presented though not with much confidence acceptably to God before a man can be baptized after his Conversion he not living in contempt or wilful neglect of Baptism but I mean an approach to God in the Assemblies of his people to worship before him as a Member of his Church and one of his peculiar people to bear his name in the world and of his Royal Priesthood to offer up acceptable Sacrifice and enjoying all his Ordinances all which I do in assurance having my body washed with pure water Q. Is then Baptism the necessary qualification for approach to God A. Yes it is so necessary that the unbaptized may not appear in the Assemblies of his people The way of Christ his appearance in his Church as the Messiah was prepared by Baptism therefore John the promised Elias is called John the Baptist Baptism prepared Christ for his work of Mediatorship he neither prayed that we read of nor was tempted nor preached nor received the Testimony from heaven till he was baptized and if the head were thus sanctified much more must the members moreover Circumcision did sanctifie such as might come nigh to the Sanctuary and Baptism hath succeeded in the room signifies and seals the same Grace and in all things serve to the same end in the Christian Church that Circumcision did to the Jews Q. What is the use of Baptism that it should so qualifie with confidence in access to God A. By Baptism I am visibly interested in Jesus Christ Gal. 3.27 incorporated into his Church 1 Cor. 12.13 made a member of the houshold of Faith and Commonâ—ealth of Israel consecrated unto God Eph. 5.26 having holiness stamped on my flesh being sanctified by the washing of water by the word And in Covenant with God having the seal of the promise whereby God is become mine and I am dedicated to be his in faith and obedience to God Father Son and Holy Ghost All which are clear grounds of Faith to be improved unto my encouragement in approach unto God Q. Are all that are baptized partakers of these priviledges A. All that are baptized enjoy these Priviledges Visibly and Sacramentally in the judgement of the Church by whose just censure they may be deprived of them but not Savingly and Sincerely for to some the inward Grace is withheld from Gods outward Ordinance according to Gods holy purpose And many not acting Faith to claim lose the Priviledges sealed Baptism is in its nature and efficacy the same to all but by reason of the incapacity of some it is not always a like effectual Q. What principles or practices are to be condemned as contrary to this use of Baptism A.
Many as 1. Such as dictate to the unbaptized a liberty of access to God teaching that Baptism is not the ground of Communion with the Church visible but real Grace the answer of a good conscience and thereon do tender all the Ordinances to the unbaptized which is directly opposite to this use of the Ordinance and inverts the Ordinance of the Gospel giving God cause to complain as once in Israel Ezek. 44.7 Ye have defiled my Sanctuary by admitting into my Sanctuary the unbaptized in flesh and in spirit Q. Who are further to be condemned as contrary to this consecrating nature of Baptism A. Such as disown their Baptism in drawing nigh to God as do some Familists who deny all outward Ordinances and pretend to serve God altogether in Spirit as if divided man could draw nigh to God or the Lord would not be adored by the body he hath redeemed or true Grace could admit a contempt of any divine Ordinance Or the Anaebaptists who are so irrational as to renounce their Baptism because received in Infancy as if a corruption in circumstance if this were one had destroyed the essence of the Ordinance but indeed they do it out of ignorance or obstinacy deâ—ming Gods Institution Superstition and so run into the sin of Sacriledge Q. Is the denial of Infants Baptism the sin of Sacriledge A. Whilst it robs God of the children to him begotten the Church of Members to her born believing Parents of a ground of Faith and reason of hope and the Infants of their undoubted Interest in the Covenant I cannot but deem it sacriledg Q. Who else are to be blamed as repugnant to this consecrating nature of Baptism A. Such as disregard Baptism in its application to others as do Parents who pass over their childrens Baptism as a Civil Complement and meer Formality to please Friends but never compose themselves to it as an act of Religion and Ordinance of God pray not for a blessing on it nor praise God for the blessing of it nor instruct their baptized children in the benefit and use of it and people who attend with some shew of reverence on other Ordinances but rudely rush out of the Congregation when Baptism is administred as if it were some idle action and as if the sanctifying of a soul to God the sealing of the Covenant and admission of a Member into the Church were of no use to them nor worth their attendance Q. Who else are to be blamed as contrary to the nature of Bapiism A. Such as disesteem their own Baptism neither improving it against sin nor arguing to themselves the duty or dignity of their Baptism so as to make Baptism an Engagement against sin to holiness and encouragement of their Spirits in holy duties Q. Who also are to be blamed as contrary to the consecrating nature of Baptism A. Such as deny the Baptized the liberty of access to God in the Assemblies of his people as do the Independents who gather Churches out of Churches rightly constituted and call the Baptized into Church way as if they were out and prescribe a Covenant of their own whereby to admit Church members affect to distinguish themselves from others Baptized by the term of Saints Brethren Church and the like and deny to communicate with them as if Baptism did not incorporate into Christ his Body and prepare for communion with him in his Ordinances Q. To what course of life doth your Baptism bind you A. To depart from all iniquity to devote my self wholly to the Faith and Service of one God Father Son and Holy Ghost to whom I am dedicated and all my days to demean my self as a member of Christ his Church one in Covenant with God on whom holiness is stamped and that is sanctified for approaches to him Q. You spake of some benefit you reaped by your being Baptized in Infancy Is the early enjoyment of this Ordinance of any advantage A. Yes veâ—y much in many things to be preferred before Baptism of grown persons wherein it is more profitable Q. What is the first benefit of Infant Baptism A. Infant Baptism expresseth clearly the sin of nature and engageth against it in that we are washed it is evident we are unclean but being so soon baptized doth witness our very nature is defiled for infancy did never admit us to be stained with personal guilt as are men at years and so Infant Baptism is an unanswerable argument of our inbred corruption against which we are bound to fight being baptized before it had spread it self into actual sin Q. What is the second benefit of Infant Baptism A. It explaineth the method and order of transmitting the Covenant and affecteth us with the benefit of Relation to a believing Parent That we are baptized speaks us in Covenant but that we are so soon baptized before we have in our selves any qualification for it shews us as branches we partake of the fatness of the olive and are of the same kinde with our Parents God hath graciously become the God of the Believer and his Seed and made grace to run through natures channel otherwise we had never enjoyed this Priviledge Q. What is a third benefit of Infant Baptism A. It enlargeth the bounds and establisheth the being of the Church Baptism is the band of union and Ordinance of ingrafting into the Church But Infant Baptism doth scatter the holy seed and send forth sprouting branches which succeeding into the room of old perishing stocks doth not only increase the number of the Churches Members but defend it from the wasting annihilating breaches of time Q. What is the fourth benefit of Baptism A. It exciteth Repentance representing sin in its Root and Original the pravity of nature and its gracious object the God of our Fathers and the God of our youth against whom we have offended Q. What is the fifth benefit of Infant Baptism A. It enforceth Faith not only in the sealing but also the extending of the Covenant to the seed of Believers a ground of Parental Prayer for Posterity and an early seizure of our souls before Satan could possess us or our own corrupt nature could betray us unto him Q. What is the sixth benefit of Infant Baptism A. It engageth duty Parents to Christian education and instruction of those who by their Authority are dedicated to the service of the true God children to the obedience of the God of their Father and of their youth who extended to them the Covenant and so soon set the seal of it in their flesh Q. What is the seventh benefit of Infant Baptism A. It encourageth under death the knowledge of the Covenant extended unto Believers and their seed hath prepared young children unto Martyrdom and interest in the Covenant can be the only ground of hope to the Parents under the death of their Infants who are born the children of wrath but by Baptism are put into the ark of salvation such as let go this must
chear themselves by a dream of childrens immunity from all guilt and so cannot be damned Or a Popish Limbus Infantum or some unusual way of comfort the Scripture doth not warrant Q. May not these benefits redound to such as are baptized in grown years A. No in no wise for such see not the extent of the Covenant to Believers and their seed nor the serviceableness of Relation natural in businesses of salvation nor do they enjoy the same and therefore it is our great happiness that we are not only Baptized but Baptized in Infancy under all the advantages that either Ordinance or season can afford us FINIS THE VIRTUE and VALUE OF BAPTISME Delivered in a Summary Sermon at the close of the Catechetical Considerations of the Doctrine of Baptism at Botolphs Aldgate LONDON TEXT Heb. 10. ver 22. the last words And our bodies washed with pure water THE Author of this Epistle intending a Confirmation of the Christianized Jews in the Faith they had râ—ceived and administration of the Gospel to which â—hey were subjected doth assert â—esus Chrst to be the true Messiah â—oth in respect of Person as â—e is God-Man-Mediator and â—is Offices as Prophet Priest and King and opposeth him unto all â—hose Levitical Rites whereby he was typified plainly declaring that the appearance of the Substance put a period to all those Shadowie Ceremonies whereby they had worshipped God and necessitated another manner of administration of Gods Covenant and Worship fit to shew that the Messiah was come and no longer to be expected Which having by clear Demonstrations confirmed in the 19 verse of this chapter he enters upon the Application of this Doctrine which he manageth by 1. Stating the principle proved as granted and agreed on v. 19 20 21. 2. Special Inference of Duty v. 22. In the Inference we are to note three things 1. The Duty Inferred Let us draw near 2. The Dictated Qualifications of such as must draw near and they are two The heart sprinkled from an evil conscience the body washed with pure water 3. The directed manner of drawing nigh to God With a true heart in the full assurance of Faith I intend not a full Consideration and therefore shall not insist on a full Comment upon the whole verse but confine my self only to the words propounded and we see they are the Dictated quality of such as are required to draw nigh to God upon the account of the High Priest and liberty of entâ—ance into the Holy place and therefore is to be Grammatically Read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we sprinkled and washed let us draw neer c. and herein there is among Expositors no difference but the difficulty is in the Interpretation of the words many of our modern Expositors differing from the Antients in the same the last understanding the Sacrament of Baptisme to be the qualification here spoken of the former Externall Sanctâ—ty by way of allusion unto Baptisme the difference is not much for if all Externall Sanctity be here intended then Baptisme and if the order of Sanctity be to be observed that first as it where External Sanctity must begin yet my judgement leads me to the interpretation of the Antients and such later Expositors as follow their steps and so I understand by the body washed with pure water the Person Baptized or qualified by due subjection to the Sacrament of Baptisme and hereunto I am guided 1. by the opposition of it to the heart sprinkled which intends the reall Sanctification of the whole Man and is so interpreted in the 9 ch 14. v. whilst the washing of the body signified Externall Sanctification alwayes in use among the Jewes and is so used by the Apostle Eph. 5.26 Sanctified by the washing of water as Expositors do agree So the opposition in this Text seems to me to distinguish the inward grace and outward signe in dictating the Gospell order of access to God to be by Baptisme of water on the body and blood or Grace on the heart and is the same with that in 1 Peter 3.21 Baptisme that now is saves us not the washing of water but the answer of a good Conscience 2. By the occasion which seemes to me to have been the preventing answer of an objection that might well be propounded by the Jewes thus You have put a period to all holy Rites and laid all the Administrations of the Covenant according to Moses in the dust and tell us positively that they which serve the Tabernacle must not eat at your Altar Heb. 13.10 nor enjoy with you the Priviledges of Grace we well know God is a Holy God and will be sanctified in such as approach unto him and the uncircumcised in heart or in flesh may not come nigh unto him Ezek 44.9 nor enter into his Sanctuary what order or outward ordinance of Sanctification is then prescribed in our approaches to God To which the Apostle answereth in stead of Circumcision of heart and flesh under the old you must according to the direction of the New Covenant and the Gospell worship draw near to God with an heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience and a body washed with pure water which will be to you a ground of full assurance which all the Ceremonies of the Law could not Create unto you So that the words seem not to me to be at all strained but of their own selves by a genuine Interpretation thus to speak that the outward signe and inward Grace of Baptisme are the onely qualifications of such as will in full assurance of Faith draw nigh to God in Gospell administrations and the priviledges of the new Covenant and in this sense and exposition I stand not alone for Aretius saith expressely Corpora Nostra debent esse abluta aqua pura hoc est Baptisme Christi debemus esse initiati Our bodies washed with pure water that is we ought to be initiated by the Baptisme of Christs appointment And Paraeus saith Intelligimus nos intus sanguine spiritu Christi purgari foris quod Baptismo ablui corporibus ad Sacramentum enim Baptismi Apostolus respicere videtur Par. in Loc. We understand an inward sprinkling of the Conscience with the Blood and Spirit of Christ and an outward washing the body by Baptisme for the Apostle lookes on Baptisme The words thus explained do plainly present to our observation and consideration this point of Doctrine Doctr. Baptisme or washing of the Body with pure water is a special qualification that fits us for confident approach to God In the prosecution of this Doctrine I shall explaine confirme and apply it with all convenient brevity In the explication we are to enquire what is Baptisme 2. What 't is to approach to God with confidence For the first I shall not stand upon the acceptations of the word Baptisme nor trouble you with the various senses in which 't is used but taking it in its vulgar acceptation as it denominates a Gospell ordinance and eminent
piece of Gods worship you may receive of it this description Baptisme is a Solemn and Religious application of water by a lawfull Minister to a fit Subject to the signifying of the Blood of Christ and its cleansiing property and the Sealing of the Covenant of Grace In this description I will not trouble you with a logicall distribution of it into its parts but propound these conclusions as helpfull to your understanding of it Conclusion 1. Water is the outward sign and matter of Baptisme water and no other Element pure water without Popish mixture or Composition with oyle creame spittle or the like for this and this only Element the Lord appointed and his appointment stamps on the use of it Dignity and Authority and justly checks the curiosity of such as are subject to contemne the simplicity of the Element and advance the dignity of the Ordinance by their own dull but daring inventions and yet water being an Element cooling heat quenching thirst of common use and easie purchase and cleansing all filthiness doth fitly represent unto our minds the cooling and refreshing efficacy the plenty and easie purchase together with the purifying property of the Blood of Christ Conclus 2. A solemne and Religious application of the water must be the form of Baptisme That water be applied to the Subject is the essentiall act of Baptisme the manner of its application by dipping or sprinkling is to be guided by discretion and conveniency though we deny not dipping to have been used in the Primitive Churches in the hot Eastern Countries where with safety and conveniency it might be used and we grant all other things concurring dipping to be a lawfull application of the water yet it is not essentially and indispensably necessary as the Anabaptists do too zealously contend but it is both lawfull and sufficient that the water be poured or sprinkled on the Subject which hath been the allowed practise of the Church and the word Baptize signifying any kind of washing by sprinkling pouring on or dipping and the measure or quantity of water being no more essentiall to Baptisme then of Bread and Wine to the Lords Supper will allow it and the Holy Ghost mentioneth the blood of Christ as Cleansing by sprinkling 1 Pet. 1.2 by way of allusion to this act in Baptisme as the analogie thereof and it is more then probable that Baptisme in houses as was that of the Jaylors Act. 16.33 was Administred by sprinkling or pouring on not by dipping and the weakness of Children and coldness of our climate is a just Reason for this manner of Application so that either of these may be used without contention Water what way soever must be Solemnly and religiously applyed in the holy form and with the holy Rites which God hath appointed for every common washing or application is not Baptisme but water consecrated by the word of institution and prayer and as an act of worship to God and argument of faith applied in the name that is by the appointment and to the dedication of the person Baptized to faith in and holy profession of Father Son and Holy Ghost is the Sacrament of Baptism so that as the Apostle doth well check the horrid prophaneness of such as deemed the common eating of bread and drinking of wine to be the Lords Supper by declaring The Cup of blessing which we blesse is the Communion of the blood of Christ and the Bread which we break is the Communion of the body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 thereby pointing unto the solemne and Religious Rites which must distinguish the Lords Supper from common eating and drinking so the Solemne and Religious Application of water distinguisheth the Sacrament of Baptisme from all other common washing Conclus 3. Baptisme must be administred by a lawfull Minister this water may not be applied by every or any private hand the Lord Jesus hath joyned it in Commission with teaching and discipling so that such only that have the Authority of the one have the Authority of the other Baptisme is on all hands agreed on to be an act of office and Authority and not to be given by men out of office it is a Seale which must be stamped not by a childish impression but with Power and Authority to make it valid a ground of faith pleadable in prayer so that the Baptisme of women and private Persons on what pretended necessity soever it be is wicked and prophane nay in my judgement is void and null and not to be salved with a quod fieri non debuit factum valet that unlawfull things are valid when past and done though I cannot with the Donatists grant that the efficacy of the Ordinance depends on the dignity of the Administrator yet I cannot but believe that the Authority of the institutor is essentiall to every Gospell Ordinance to the Church and must be found in every Administrator Ordained Ministers must give us Sacraments I and preach the Word too if we will not be cheated of Salvation and content our selves with mock Ordinances my muddy brains could never yet conceive the God of Order to make Office and Authority essentiall to politicall transactions in Kingdomes and Common-wealths and yet to leave his Church in such confusion that the great Affaires of Salvation shall be dispenced by every common hand as if his care were more for the world then the Church which if it be I will never go to the House of God to behold the beauty of his Holiness which shines more brightly in the wide Wilderness Conclus 4. Baptisme must be administred unto fit subjects all Subjects sute not the Ordinance Creatures insensible and irrationall are incapable of the Grace of God and these holy Administrations thereof the baptizing of Bels Churches Fonts c. is a piece of Consecration neither prescribed nor allowed in the New Testament but to be damned as prophane and superstitious they must be the subjects of Life and Reason that will lie in the least Capacity of Grace and Holiness and such are the Sons of men Sons of men are Subjects capable of Grace and Holinesse but the speciall dispensations thereof in the Covenant of Grace and its Seales calls for speciall qualifications and therefore Baptisme may not be given to men as men and meerely the sons of Adam no they must first be the seed of Abraham Gen. 17.13 for the Covenant of God must be in their flesh and by Preaching they must be discipled into the Christian Church and see that the Promise is to them and to their Children before they be Baptized Act. 2.38 39. for Baptisme must be the Seale of the Righteousness of faith which we have being not yet Baptized Rom. 4.11 so that the fit Subjects for Baptisme must be not only men but Faederati such as Covenant with God to whom the Promise may be judged to belong they must be made Christians and lay hold on the Covenant of God and then be Baptised I could drive
out of your common discourse an ordinary terme relating to Baptisme viz such a one is Christned if I did not hope you well understand it Baptisme may Christianum dicere declare and pronounce a man a Christian but it doth not Christianum facere make a Christian if your Children be not made Christâ—ans by the extent of the Covenant to believers and their seed bring them not to me to be Baptized most cursedly prophane was the cruelty of the Spanish Papists in America who with whips and scourges drave the unchristanized untaught Indians to the Fonts to be Baptized for that Baptisme belongs to none but Christs disciples and Covenant People Baptisme belongs to all Christs Disciples and Gods Covenant People so that none of them may without sin nay sacriledg be barred from Baptisme and these are resolved into two ranks and known by two names in the Church viz Infidells converted to the faith and the Infants of one or both Christian Parents These two are the orders into which Gods faederates have been Ranked ever since Gods Covenant was established and his Church was estated in Abraham Isaac and Jacob and their seed as to the first of them they are on all hands consented to as fit and proper Subjects onely our over-pious age hath started the quaery How and when they must be judged converted to the faith which I must needs resolve to be by a profession of saving faith not the saving Profession of faith and possession of sincere Grace which the Congregating Anabaptists call for sincere grace and saving Profession must be the soules care and ground of joy but cannot be the signe that shall guide the Church in giving the Sacrament of Baptisme assoon as they professed to believe Philip Preaching the things of God and the name of Jesus Christ they were Baptized both men and women Act. 8.12 Philip required no more of the Eunuch in v. 37. and when I hear Peter declared Simon the Sorcerer to be after his Baptisme in the Gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity as v. 23. I perceive they in whose company he was Baptized yielded no more and when I remember Annà nias and Saphira Demas and other Baptized Persons proved hypocrites and reprobates I cannot believe they possessed sincere Grace or made a saving Profession though they professed saving Faith I cannot yet turn Arminian and believe true Grace may be finally and totally lost and a man may be a child of God to day and a child of the Devill to morrow I have not faith enough to believe that when God made me a Minister he made me a God and endowed me with the property of to searching the heart nor have I wit enough to conceive that God making me a Steward of his Misteries prescribes to my as my guide the qualification of subjects which lies beyond my knowledg I believe the grosse enormities of many baptized Saints as they call themselves hath convinced them that true Grace is not within their sight but they may and have baptized hypocrites why then do they call for that qualification God hath not directed and they can not discern God hath made the tongue the trumpet of the heart and I can better hope men will not play the hypocrite and make that utter an uncertain sound then I can know the sincerity of their Grace Though Infidels converted to the Faith be generally resolved within the Covenant yet since the dayes of Balthazar Pacimontanus who pretending to have derived his fancy from Luther constrained Luther to write against him in the year of our Lord 1527. The Right of Infants to the Covenant of God and consequently their capacity for Baptisme hath been called in question and of late yeares hath met with most high and violent though irrational and unscripturall opposition wherein I cannot but admire at the erroneous industry of the Antipaedobaptists to curtail Gods Covenant cut off their seed from the priviledges of Grace and cast away their own reasons blinding their eyes against plaine demonstrations of Scripture and the Antient enjoyments of the Church wherein we must see better warrant before we strike hands with them and be of their uncharitable beliefe for if I know any thing of the method of Gods Covenant or in the least how to Reason from Scriptures It is as cleare as the Sun that the Infants of believing Parents Gods Covenant People whilst Infants and as their naturall seed are Gods faederates and within his Covenant and so fit Subjects of Baptisme In politicall and all civill transactions of men we find all the world over that Covenants made from or to parents do usually include children as their children so that by that very relation without any new formall contract they claime Priviledges and stand bound to duty and when I consider Gods way of dealing to be according to mans capacity and humane method I have no ground on which to imagine that he hath inverted the order and cut off Relation in the conveighing of the priviledges of Grace and constituting a peculiar People to himselfe for Gods speciall dispensations do ordinarily run in the same Channell though not with the same Latitude that his Generall Providences do and then when God after the manner of men assumes to himselfe a Kingdom without doubt he confers Honours on and looks for Loyalty from his subjects and their seed or off-spring who as their seed are born heires of such Honour and duty Further in all the transactions of God with man ever since he had a being the Covenant hath extended to his seed as his seed without any personall qualification all that know any thing of Gods dealing with Adam know the Covenant of works was made to him for himselfe and his seed as they were his naturall seed he received priviledges for himselfe and them and so he lost them and by one mans disobedience we were all made sinners if this were Gods method in the Covenant of works we must have good reasons to make us believe it is altered in the extent and Administration of the Covenant of Grace but not to stand on Generall equity and demonstrations the Scripture doth by plain and clear instances in both Old and New Testament evidence the children of men under the Covenant of Grace to be also in Covenant as they are their naturall issue There is nothing plainer in Scripture then that when the Covenant of Grace was established in Abraham Isaac and Jacob it was extended to their naturall seed their children as their children even in infancy and before they attained to any Personall qualifications were in Covenant and the children of God This is expressed in the very form of the Covenant Gen. 17.7 I will be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee This is evidenced by Circumcision the Seale of the Covenant set in their flesh on this very ground and that at eight dayes old whilst infants unable to any personall acts of Abrahams faith and it must needs be
like kind to be of the Kingdome of Heaven and propounded not onely as examples of meekness and humility but as objects of charity and observation not to be offâ—nded but awfully received because Christs name is placed on them and they are made his disciples so as that the receiving such a little child must be deemed the receiving of Christ and the offending one of these little ones a dolor more dangerous then a milstone hanged about his neck and being cast into the Sea Matth. 18.2 3 4 5 6. Mark 10.14 Luk. 18.16 And when I consider the Apostles position of the latitude of Sanctity not onely to the Jewes the naturall branches but the Christianized Gentiles accidentall branches wilde by nature but ingrafted in and partaking of the fatness of the Olive plainly affirming of both if the first fruits were holy so is the whole lump if the root be holy so is the branches Rom. 11.16 And I here by the way observe that from these priviledges the naturall branches were and accidentally may be cut off Lastly When I consider the Apostles clear and serious resolve to the case of Conscience propounded by the Corinthians concerning their children born of an Infidel not adulterous parent else were your children unclean but now are they holy 1 Cor. 7.14 The Anabaptist will not let us understand in this place Real holiness nor do we desire it and until that they have made it to appear that Faith is essential to Marriage which will put marriage in a good tendency to a Sacrament and please the Church of Rome it is too ridiculous to understand a natural holinesse I mean Legititimacie and acquittance from the blot of Bastardie and then I am constrained to understand a Foederal holiness in the extent of the Covenant and esteem of the Church These things I say considered I must pluck up my reason by the very root if I do not by undenyable consequence constraine my conscience to believe and preach this point of Doctrine viz In New-Testament times under the Gospel-administration of the Covenant of Grace the natural issue or infants of believing parents are in covenant with God and under the promises of salvation And when I look upon Peters encouragement to the converting Jews to believe and be baptized for the promise is to you and to your children even to all that are a far off as many as the Lord our God shall call Act 2.38 39. I must renounce my Grammar and little skill in reading plain English with the least of understanding if I do not read Believing Jews and their children and also believing Gentiles and their children have that interest in the Promise that may be to them a Ground of Faith and confer on them a Right to Baptism And the Anabaptist glosse that the promise was of extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghâ—st for these are not extended to all that are a far off when God doth call them nor created they any right to Baptism for many time they follow this Sacrament or that children when called to the faith of the Parent should have the right to the Promise for that is to them as called nor as children And my mind is very foggie I am much out if this terme of Relation do not dictate a Priviledge and Propriety by virtue of relation which children of such parents as children should enjoy above what children of other parents did or could enjoy is too short a Fescue to make me read otherwise Thus then it doth fully and plainly appear that under Old and New Testament administrations of the Covenant of Grace the infants of believing parents are Foederati within the Covenant and so fit and proper subjects of baptism to be baptized Nor is their incapacity of making a vocal profession of Faith any bar to their baptism for profession simply creates no right to baptism I never read the divil was baptized and I believe the Dipping Saints will not now baptize him Yet he really believed and more then once professed That Jesus Christ was the Son of God Profession as an evidence of Covenant-interest was the Churches guide to baptism and the Scripture giving another demonstration of Covenant-interest viz Descent from believing parents that is also regarded and the one to be no bar to the other but both in their place gives due direction who are foederates and to be baptized Nor is the Argument of any more force because the Scripture mentioneth vocal profession and baptism upon it but passeth the other in silence for occasional and circumstantial actions are no binding precedents or universal direction to the Church of God The Church is founded in grown persons whose Covenant-interest can be known no otherwise but by vocal profession but it may be edified by infant Branches who by a course of nature partake of the fatnesse of the Olive having the birth-right of the Covenant Thus it was with Abraham and his issue and so with us 2. Where the general nature of the Covenant with a long and particular exercise thereof doth dictate there needs no particular explâ—cite directions God in his wisdome designing our right understanding and rational improvement of the Covenant and our reverend esteem of the old Testament in its use and necessity to the Christian Church representing unto us the order of the administration of the Covenant and Circumcision refers us thither for direction concerning baptism and we must needs in reason see that the change of a meer Rite or Ceremony under the continuation of the substance and same Covenant will never admit a change of the subjects to be sealed Last of all Infants inability to action is no bar to their baptism because it voids not their interest in the Covenant and the Sacrament is such wherein they are to be meerly Passive When I observe God to have appointed the initiating Seal of initiating grace to be such where men of the greatest activity are altogether Passive he seemes to me to suggest these shall not act in their admission into the Church and receiving of my Covenant that inability to action may be no bar or hindrance to such as have no lesse interest in the Covenant and only Covenant-interest shall make capable of the Seal Let not any Antipaedobaptist think to amaze us by crying Why Sir on this ground infants may have a right to the Lords Supper for we say so too they have jus ad rem though not jus in re their right is not denyed though present incapacity hinders their injoyment These things considered we must tell the Anabaptist That infants right to the Covenant and enjoyment of the initiating Seale having been continued throughout the old world under the Law without the least controule and also under the Gospell for more then 1600 yeares without any Generall interruption or the least disturbance untill within this 200 yeares we must find better warrant to divest us of it before we part with it and our antiquity on so clear a
title in the enjoyment me thinks should be no meane argument to ingenuity for we say in this case as Jephthah to the King of Ammon Judges 11.26 When Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns in Aroer her towns and in all the Cities of Arnon three hundred years why did ye not then recover them in that space so whilst infant right to the Covenant and initiating Seale dwelt in Judea and her towns in Asia and her towns and in all the Cities of the Church of God and the borders thereof 2000 yeares why did you not recover them in that space surely now you may despair of ever doing it how much soever you disturb our peace we will never part with this priviledge Conclus 5. The signifying of the blood of Christ with its effects and the sealing of the Covenant of Grace is the end of Baptisme Baptisme is both a signe and Seale to excite our thoughts and affect our mind with the blood of Jesus assure our hearts of a right unto the Priviledges of the Covenant so as to argue them to our soule as grounds of faith on which we are to urge God in Prayer herein it agreeth with other Sacraments and in speciall circumcision into whose place and end it hath succeeded in that it is a sign and Seale of the righteousness of faith Rom. 4.11 And so the analogy between water in all its properties and the blood of Christ doth clearly hold and the Scripture doth plainly attribute Remission Sanctification Regeneration and Salvation to the outward signe or act of Baptisme as the Graces to be brought to our minds and made sure to our Soules thereby Mark 16.16 Acts 2.38 Eph. 5.26 Titus 3.3 1 Pet. 3.21 And it is not only a Seale from God to us as a ground of faith but also from us to God as a reason of duty our subjection to it is an actuall confaederation with God that we will be called by his Name live as his servants in all obedience to his will so that hereby we are bound to believe in Christ and forsake nay fight against sin this the Apostle dictates when he demands of the Corinthians directing them to joynt advancement of Christ into whose name were ye Baptized 1 Cor. 1.13 And Peter aggravates the Apostasie of Christians nay non-proficiency in Grace with this They have forgot they were washed from their old sins 2 Pet. 1.9 Baptisme will be a monument of perfidy against profane Christians to all Eternity and aggravate their misery so that although Baptisme doe not conveigh Grace opere operato by the meere work or by any Physicall natural power that is in it selfe yet it is a morall instrument by contemplation to be rationally improved to the affecting of our hearts with our own uncleanness and the blood of Christ Gods mercy to us and our duty to him nor is it nudum signum a meer sign to excite our thoughts but also a Reall Seale Gods holy Ordinance Creating to all Baptised a Right to the Covenant by rationall acts of faith to be argued to their own joy and duty and pleaded to God in Prayer so that these priviledges being not possessed by all Baptized springs not from any defects in the Ordinance but neglect in the subjects if men will not claime by a conferred title and visible Seale they deservedly lose their interest Here note that I have not wit enough to conceive that the end of the Sacrament makes against infant Baptisme for infants are capable of Right though not of claime and possession and Baptisme is given as a ground not effect of Christian claime I see noe reason why infants may not be Sealed in the cradle as well as Crowned in the mothers belly nor is there any force in the confaederation of the Baptized unlesse it must needs be actively and cannot be passively done I conceive parentall power in dedication to God and the Soveraign nature of the Covenant imposing on the party Sealed the condition to be by him performed as well as sealing the comforts to be enjoyed doth fully enforce the confaederation of such as are at the present non-agents It will be a hard matter to make me believe that Gods condescension hath lost his authority any more in the Covenant of Grace then in the Covennat of Works or that infants are not as capable of confaederation by Baptisme as they were by Circumcision I have done with the first thing to shew you what Baptiâ—me is and now come to the second to shew what is here meant by confident approach Approach to God is the act of a Baptized soule and it is done either by the perception of faith which is the evidence of things not seen and substance of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 This is that personall and private act of the soule whereby it seeth and saluteth God at a distance with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered and receives an assent unto truth apprehended which is or cannot be expressed and hereby we deny not the Baptised in extraordinary causes where the body cannot be washed by pure water as in an Indian Countrey remote from the Church or in the Church under a limitted order and season of Baptising as it was in some Churches in primitive times when they Baptized but twice in a year may draw nigh to God no doubt but the Catechumeni such as learned their Catechisme in order unto Baptisme had sweet communion with God alone whilst they wanted Communion with the Church otherwise they had never been able to endure Martyrdome Or by the possession of Glory when the Soule departing out of the body returnes to God who gave it and is received into Abrahams bosome or eternall blisse in the presence of God for ever and this I deny not may be and doubt not is enjoyed by many unbaptised I can neither with some Anabaptists grant that all that dye in infancy and before stained with actuall guilt are certainly saved I see no warrant for it nor yet with the Papists do I think all that die unbaptized are damned I believe Baptisme is necessary by reason of Gods command and as the ordinary Ark or meanes of Salvation and so the sinfull contempt or neglect of it to be damnable though I will not determine God will charge it on the helpelesse infant yet I see not its necessity to be so absolute that providence superceding the Ordinance by unseasonable death sets the soule under inevitable condemnation I have confidence to meet many an uncircumcised Israelite in Heaven who died before the eighth day of his age and if in any in this case God will have mercy and not Sacrifice Or by the presentation of duty and performance of publick devoire in the Tabernacle of the Lord going up with his Scribes worshiping in his Sanctuary and in the Assemblies of his People in all the parts of Gods Worship this is an appearing before God in Zion and a drawing nigh unto him in his Holy place not
to be admitted to the uncircumcised among the Jews nor unbaptized among Christians this unto me seems to be the drawing nigh intended in the Text and is that I intend in the Doctrine viz That the Leviticall Rites being abolished and the way of access to God is now by Gospell Ordinances they that will use them must begin at Baptisme and first have their bodies washed with pure Water and be thereby made members of the body or Church of Christ and be consecrated unto God without which such as have the charge of Gods Holy things must keep them from intermedling with them Confidence is the adjunct quality of this act of approach to God and stands opposite unâ—o the tremblings and despondency of the uncircumcised Gentiles who could expect no other but rejection and displeasure in their approach to God for that they were aliens and strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel without God and without hope in the world Eph. 2.11 12. Positively forbidden approach to God and the use of his Holy thing Ezek. 44.9 And to the terrors of the circumcised Jewes who though admitted into Gods presence were yet kept at a distance and might not enter the Holy of Holies in their own Persons but by their High Priest but now such was the priviledges of Believers and the advantage of Baptisme that the Baptized might not onely enter the sanctuary whence the uncircumcised were excluded but also the Holy of Holies not made with hands but eternall in the Heavens so that they who by Baptism have their body washed in the outward sign and their hearts sprinkled from an evill Conscience the inward Grace of this Ordinance are required to shake off all feares and doubts and to encourage themselves to the enjoyment of all Ordinances and discharges of all duties whereby they may walke with God and hold communion with him for that they are the persons so qualified as that the Church must not onely admit them to outward acts of Worship but also a liberty of inward adoration by the nearest approach they can possibly make to God is their priviledge to them is given full assurance of ready acceptance for the way is open to the Holiest the Vale is rent the High Priest gone before and the liberty left Common to all such though none but such as having their hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience and their bodies washed with pure water do draw nigh to the same both these are necessary qualifications for an approach to God without an heart sprinkled must needs be diffident and full of doubts and without a body washed dreadfull and full of horrour The Text and doctrine you have had explained and you see the point of doctrine plainely asserting That Baptisme or the body washed with pure water is the especial qualification that must fit us for an approach to God The next thing to be done is to prove the doctrine and it is in it selfe a truth so plaine that none that understand any thing of the method of Gospell worship and the necessitie of outward acts and bodie qualifications in approaches to an holy God but do subscribe unto the truth of it indeed the late spiritual Chymists who have by our late overlarge liberty of conscience I mean sinful toleration had the boldness to blaspheme all Gods holy Ordinances and under a pretence of spirituality to nullifie all outward acts of worship â—nd qualifications to duty have denied it and the late Intruder into this place hath openly decried the necessity of this qualification in access to God offering the liberty of Church Communion and the priviledges of the Covenant to such as never passed under water Baptisme as if the order of the Gospell were now inverted and Gods Ordinances not capable of profanation or the answer of a good conscience reall grace were obvious to every eye that hath the charge of holy things and is a Steward of the Misteries of Salvation I shall therefore briefly enforce this plain and Generally acknowledged truth with these commonly known observations as the reasons thereof Reas 1. Baptisme prepared the way of the Messiah or Christ his appearance in and approach to the Church the qualification that fits the Church for Christ his approah to her fits the Church for approach to Christ or God for these are reciprocall the one goes not without a return of the other and the same qualification must be in both for that holy Majesty is present Holinesse is in the Assembly of the Saints when God comes to his people as well as in Heaven where his People come to him and all that will walk in this consuming fire and meet this Messiah and be made fit to enjoy him must not onely have the heart sprinkled but also the body washed with pure water Baptisme is the Sanctification of the People directed to prepare them for Gods appearence in Mount Sion the voice of the Grand Herald crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths strait Mat. 3. Repent and be Baptised The Mace of Majesty borne by the Messenger of the Messiah to strike awe in and require subjection from the expectants of his coming was the Baptisme of amendment of life The levelling Engine that pulled down and made plain all mountainy and proud hearts that withstood the coming of Christ in his first appearance was Baptisme insomuch that the Scribes and Pharisees who rejected the counsell of God against themselves not being Baptized are all along branded as enemies who would not have Christ reign over them in a word the promised and prophesied Elias who was to come before the Lord to prepare his way is from his preparative work which is plainly declared to have been Preaching and Baptizing denominated John the Baptist and the way of the Lord thus prepared is proclaimed as a ground of Confidence to the Church Isa 40.3.9.11 So that if the way of the Messiah his appearance must be the way of the Churches approach to him as it is evident it must in that Baptisme did not onely precede but also followes his appearance for John the Baptist did not onely prepare for his coming but ever since his ascension his Ministers do go teach and Baptize into the name of Father Sonne and Holy Ghost Baptisme hath ever been the Discipling forme method of matriculation in his Schoole and incorporation into his body and solemne consecration unto communion with him of all such as were afarre off but are now made nigh even the people of the living God their Baptisme is the qualification that fits for a confident approach to God without which we cannot be assured of acceptance Reas 2. Baptisme prepared Jesus Christ unto the work of Mediatorship The way of access to God is the same for the people as Priest for the Head as Members for the Church as for Christ the Mediatour as Man must manifest himselfe Holy in all things not onely in an immunity from all positive acts of sin
contempt and profane negleâ—t thereof that is not a little abounded to our shame and with grief of heart be it spoken in the midst of us were men but rightly affected with the nature of Baptisme they would see in it beauty and of it a great necessity Was not washing of the flesh necessary and the holy Garment glorious in Israel because they fitted for approach to God and entrance into the holy place if men were but really convinced that the body washed with pure water was a ground of assurance because a qualification of access to God that Bâ—ptisme is the onely band of union and doore of admission into the Church the formall consecration to the service of the living God what an esteem of Baptisme must needs possesse their hearts and make them not content without but carefull to pursue it as seeing into Gods presence there is no approach to such as are not sanctified by the washing of water through the Word but a pressing unto Gods Ordinances not thus prepared must be a presumption no less then damnable nay how would the sence of Baptisme affect the heart with joy whilst thereby we are made Members of Gods Church an higher priviledg then the Coronation of a King C. and made fit for the worship of an holy God the ground of all alacrity and boldnesse in the use of his Ordinances How must such a soule say what a happy condition am I now in who through Grace have my body washed with pure water and joyned to the houshold of faith and sanctified for the service of that consuming fire and Holy God whom to approach unto it 's the greatest happinesse man can enjoy whilst others are a far off debarred the Holy things of Grace and dare not intermeddle with the Holy things of God nor draw nigh unto his Holy place I come with freedome into his Sanctuary and claim the liberty and priviledges thereof by virtue of Baptism that Covenant of God which is upon my flesh in this therefore I will rejoyce before the Lord. Nay the sense of Baptisme as a qualification for accesse to God would set our hearts into a reverent use and dreadfull attendance on the administration of it to others whilest the Element is weak and simple its use and end must make it glorious and powerful whilst common washing is contemptible a bathing the flesh at the door of the Tabernacle in order to an entrance into the Holy place and appearance before God is dreadful â—â—â—â—â—gh Wax and parchment aâ—â— poor and viile base and common Commodities most Shops afford Commodities much higher prized yet these conjoyned by the hand of Majesty to make a Patent Deed or Magna Charta to secure some Grant priviledge or great revenue is of much more worth and value and received with more reverence and esteem if we look on water we see it is an Element as low as common as meâ—n in our esteem as ordinary in menâ— use and this is ready to raise in our hearts contemptible thoughts and make us say what a beggerly Element and base Administration is this What profit can be in the Application of an handfull of water But when we shall consider that water is applyed by vertue of Gods Command as a most sacred Ordinance to signifie the blood of Christ whereby we are cleansed from all sin to seale unto us the Covenant of Grace and all its priviledges of Salvation to set us in union with the Church to the enjoyment of all Gospel Ordinances and Sanctifie us as a peculiar people that may and must draw nigh to God in assurance of faith what lustre doth there appear in the Ordinance what reverence doth then raise our Spirits what high and honourable regard doe we then see we ow unto this common and contemptible act of Baptisme oh what prayers for efficacy what prayses for enjoyment what pleasure in administration must the consecrating qualifying and soule-encouraging assuring nature of Baptisme effect in all such as are seriously affected with Gods Holiness and the order of approach to him unto all such Baptisme is no carnall beggarly and unprofitable Element but a Glorious Spirituall Evangelicall Administration of exceeding dignity no Church complement and matter of indifferency that may or may not be used without any damage but a compleat duty by reason of Divine command and its own due nature disposing man into such a devout relation to God and so of indispensable necessity Vse 2. Is of reproofe justly to blame that disesteeme and disregard of Baptisme that is to be found among us our age of liberty hath set us so loose to Gospell Ordinances that many can be not onely content wiâ—hout them but also readily run into the contempt of them how few in the midst of us understand the nature and seek the use of Baptisme as a ground of â—aith and Ordinance of Consecration and so of confident access to God mens principles and practise doth proclaim their palpable ignorance of such priviledges possessed by the body washed with puâ—e water How many to our shame and with griefe be it spoken do use Baptisme as a meere Church complement and convenient Ceâ—emony to the content of their wives kinsfolke friends or neighbours bring their children to be Baptised without any awe of an Ordinance of God upon their spirit or apprehension of advantage to be by Baptisme conferred or design and intention of solemne dedication of their children to God and his service and so to have Gods name and Covenant stamped upon their flesh and them fiâ—ted for accesse to God in the Assemblies of his people and hence it is that they are at cost and care for the civilities that attend the Baptisme of their children but as for the Solemne praises of God for the blessing of the Covenant prayers for a blessing on an Ordinaâ—ce and carefull instruction of their Baptized children in the consecrating nature of Baptisme the boldnesse it creates and the duty of access to God it imposeth these come not into his thoughts cost him no care or pains his friends gone and work done he thinks himselfe well rid of a piece of trouble and pursues that dayes enjoyments to no more advantage nay how many sit so luke-warme in minds and affections to Baptisme that they think it to be a meer Ceremony and matter of indifferency if their body be washed they are content but they know no good it hath done them and if it be not washed they are as well pleased they see no losse they undergoe by the want of it and they can accompany with the Baptized or unbaptized in the Assemblies of Gods people and Administrations of Grace they matter not an outward Ceremony but look after the inward and hidden Man of the heart true and reall Grace without any outward Ordinance shall be the ground of their communion but say Circumcision or Uncircumcision avails not to them must it not be concluded that these men yet need to be
the Covenant that assureth them of the high priviledges of Salvation doe not only slight this holy Ordinance of Baptism but also sinfully transgress Gods command shew their natural affection to be diverted from its right channel cure for the chiefest good and set their children under an inevitable necessitie of sleighting the Ordinance starting aside from God to whom they know no relation We finde it our grief that our children are prophane when it is no other than the production of our own neglect We can easily complain of their impietie but where is the man that as soon as his child is sensible doth season him with the knowledge of his miserie by sin Gods mercy in the Covenant of Grace and his special engagement to holiness for that he beares on him the name of God from his very birth and that imprinted by his Baptisme when his body was washed with pure water The sixth and last sort whose principles and practise doe plainly millitate against the nature of Baptisme and cleerly doe contradict the same are such who deny the baptized the libertie of access to God in the assemblies of his people This I well know to relate unto the most eminent professors of Gospel order and pretenders unto pietie that are among us and therefore the most tender rebuke will seem to be railing violence and bitterness But be it what it will sin against Gods Ordinances must not pass without a zealous and serious reproof Such among us as affect the term of Congregational Brethren in the gathering of their Churches run into an extreme as farre wide on the one hand as the loose levelling Familists and Anabaptists are on the other These dictate a liberty of access to the unbaptized and those denie it to the baptized We must needs imagine they agree both in one principle that Baptisme is not the ground of communion with the Church visible nor qualification of access to God For if it be otherwise as we have noted it must be prophaneness to admit without it and they have need of good warrant that will acquit themselves from impietie in excluding the baptized from these priviledges That such are among us who debarre the baptized from their priviledges is so obvious to every observant eye of the now only cryed up Church way that I need not much urge demonstrations thereof I well know some whose practice proclaim it in their principles will disown it but it is the property of that congregating way to couch their principles until their practice have proved their truth and goodness and proclaimed them to others But if in the termes charged any shall deny this to be acted among us I shall desire to understand why they declare privatly and publiquely men baptized to be strangers to God and his Covenant why doe they decline communion with and a care of baptized soules as members of the Church and dictate a necessitie of their coming into Church-way and fellowship and why doe they direct other wayes for admission of Church members is there any terms more ordinarie in the mouthes of the congregated saints towards those whom they live amongst than doggs without unbeleevers not in a Church way Doe not the pastors â—f these private it may offend if I say separate assemblies in their publique ministrie speak unto their baptized hearers as aliens strangers to the Covenant and Common-wealth of Israel men in the High-wayes and Hedges Doe they not call them into their self congregated and constituted Churches as the only Churches of Jesus Christ Doe not the particular members of these assemblies appropriate to themselves the title of saints beleevers the people of God the brethren If they know or deale with a man professing the same God and Christ baptized and of a Godly conversation but not in their Church-way they cannot know him in any Christian relation but can oppose to him a member of their private aâ—â—sembly by the name of brother such an one as if the other were no brother Nay further do not they decline communion with the baptized even such whom they cannot charge with any visible prophanenesse and against whom the Church never proceeded in censure Hence they withdraw themselves from publique assemblies in their speciall administration of Church priviledges denominate themsâ—lves the Church and decline all Church actions towards such as come not into their Church-wayes though their Pastors will possesse the places and make a shift to compell the late cried down parochial maintenance yet of the people in common they take no charge Brethren will not own them as objects of first or second admonition Pastors will neither admit to the Lords table the unblameable parents nor baptize or catechize their Children nor exercise any act of discipline towards the disorderly in order to their conviction and salvation but in all things so demeane themselves towards the baptized as men without the pale of the Church meere heathen for Church ministrations are as much reserved from them as from such who never yet had holinesse stamped on them And if any doe incline to associate with them in the holy things of God they must bee admitted Members and enter at the door of a church-Church-Covenant or mutuall agreement among themselves and declaration of the worke of Grace upon their hearts and their experiences of God which these Congregational-men have set up If this dialect and deportment doe not declare that liberty of accesse to God in the assemblies of his people is denied to the baptized I know not how to judge it And how this will consist with the nature use and end of Baptisme I cannot discern If by the washing of water we were sanctified how were we prophaned and again laid common I never yet could understand any divine rejection I am sure it is much contrarie to Gods wonted method and patience to cast off a people adhering to him though subject to many aberrations and vile actions towards him and the extraordinarie pleasure of God is yet to be manifested And if God count us holy and continue the libertie of our access to him in his Ordinance they must produce a good commission that shall cast us out as prophane and unclean if they expect we should be therewithall contented If Baptisme doe incorporate into the Church of God doth it not intitle to all the priviledges of the Church and binde us to use them and the Church to allow us the use of them according to our capacitie If we are baptized into one bodie have we not the same relation to them that others have Are we not all of one familie members of one bodie and brethren sonnes of the same father Ought not all the Church to be the Pastors charge Is not the rebuke of the disorderly his duty as well as his encouragement of the orderly Doth not Baptisme so knit us one unto another that we are bound to watch over one another and doe all brotherly duties Why else doth the Apostle make it
an argument there is one Baptisme Ephes 4. we are all baptized into one bodie I would fain know of what use Baptisme is to them is it not the same to others baptized To count the baptized dogges men without to disown their brotherhood and the like must needs denie that Baptisme is the dore of admission into the Church and yet this in terms they will not say though they carrie towards them as without and call them to be members of the Church who are members of the Church on as good a ground and as cleer a method as themselves If this be not a solecisme in Christianitie I know not how to make any As for their admission into the Church by Covenant Agreement or profession it is cleerly without Scripture prescription or primitive president that ever I could yet finde and I can deem it no other than an inhumane invention if I may not call superstition the countenance of which it bears in my eye whilest it stands in the place of Baptisme is made the only way of consecration unto Church communion whereby it plainly supplants Gods Ordinance These things I note but cannot stand to debate intending a reproof not dispute and to let men see the sinfulness of this sacred way of independencie and gathering of Churches out of Churches whilest it stands guilty of a contempt of Gods way of access unto him and admission into his Church of censorious uncharitableness towards their brethren invested with the reason of relation to the Lords people and constitution of Church membership in a way of meer humane invention I confesse I have heard it often noted that the difference between Independents and others is not so much as to maintain an irreconcileable distance and I say so too I could wish they were more friendliely united As to the single point of Discipline they shall have my consent for a brotherly toleration of its exercise till they are weary of it But as for their separation from the Churches of Jesus Christ self congregation into a Church and seclusion of baptized souls from sacred Ordinances and the like they seem to me so repugnant to truth and order and ruinous to Gods Church and Ordinances that I cannot without sinne but stand a professed enemie thereunto Let not men think that I allow the prophaneness of Christians because I alledge their interest in the coÌ„mon administration of the Covenant or that I think their enjoyment may not be interrupted because I cannot consent their interest be denied them I have learned to distinguish between right and possession and where the one is cleer the other may be justly sometimes with held I well know prophane Christians are unseemly Saints yet Saints scandalous Disciples yet Disciples disorderly Brethren yet Brethren vessels of dishonour yet vessels in the same house to the Masters use That Church members be for a time suspended from particular priviledges may be admitted but at private brethrens pleasure to be sleighted as no members is not to be endured That obstinate incurable members be cut off is the Church her duty but that the Church be cast off is the congregational impietie Is there baptized persons in works denying the God they profess Is there a brother a drunkard an adulterer and the like Doth not Baptisme appropriate them to the private admonition of particular brethren and publique inspection of Church officers Is not the delivering them to Satan for the buffeting of the flesh that the soul may be saved their priviledge by Baptisme If these holy men would talk of correcting casting out cutting off disorderly baptized souls it would sound well in my â—ares but to talk of gathering Churches coming into Church-way admission of members and the like amongst those that bears holiness in their flesh and have on them the qualification of access to God sounds so harshly in my eares that I cannot but abhor it as inconsistent with the nature of Baptisme exposing it to contempt making it of no effect endangering the subversion of the Church and the ushering in of Paganisme whilest the baptized finde themselves rejected and not looked after as of any relation to God they cannot but resigne up themselves to their own lusts run into an ignorance of and estrangedness to God It seems to me a most just plea that is made by Christians in common Were we baptized why are we disowned as to relation to God and his Church and cast out of all the care of the Church as if we were thereunto strangers If the seal of God be on us why doe our breâ—hren lift up themselves above us and engross to themselves the titles termes priviledges that belong in common to all baptized souls If we walk unworthy our relation we are willing to be corrected but must we needs lose our interest and be thrust out of our fathers inheritance by our brethren our forfeiâ—ure never being judicially exacted Gods Ordinances we could bear though never so cross to our nature because thereunto we are bound by our Baptism but the new wayes pursued by our brethren and to us proposed are grievous to us because we finde them not in the grand Charter of our priviledge willingly we would walk with God in duty and draw nigh to him in the assemblies of his people for that we are thereunto consecrated but herein we are debarred and driven at a distance as if Doggs not Children Heathens not Christians Aliens to the Covenant not Heirs of Grace If we goe astray we think those that are set over ought to seek us as sheep not suffer us to wander as goats We have cause to complain that our Shepheards feed themselves not the flock they feed the flock and clothe them with the wooll kill the fat but feed not the sheep The weak they have not strengthned the sick they have not healed nor have they sought that which was lost nor brought again that which was driven away but with crueltie and rigor have they ruled us We were scattered without a shepheard and when we were dispersed every beast of the field devoured us We were sheep though wandring upon every high hill and mountain Gods flock though scattered through the earth and none sought after us If the Lord Jesus subscribe and accept not this complaint as just and good I know nothing of Gospel method or order Thus then I have noted the vanitie and vileness of those whose carriage contradicts the nature of Baptisme and bespeaks them insensible of it as an especial qualification for confidence in access to God in the assemblies of his people The third and last use of this Doctrine is by way of exhortation unto two especial duties First Acquaint we our selves with the holy nature of Baptisme Secondly Act we the course of our lives and carriage as those whose bodies are washed with pure water Of these give me leave to speake a word in their order and first of the first Acquaint we our selves with the holy
nature of Baptisme Understand its end use and effects Labour we to know the holiness it stamps on any the priviledges it confers and how it confers them see the divine institution enforcing the duty of subjection to it and the dignitie received by it Ignorance is the Nurserie of Error and Guard of all Prophaneness All those Oâ—dinance degrading and vilifying notions that are conceived in mens mindes blasphemies belched out of their mouthes and contemptible carriage under and towards Baptisme and the baptized which we have before taxed are no other than the mists and filthie fogs of a blinde mind to be dispersed by a right apprehension of the holy nature thereof Ignorance is noted in Scripture as the ground of Isâ—aels impiety very often doth God complain they know not me and are a people who will not understand my people perish for lack of knowledge Knowledge is the propounded cure of all prophaneness and contempt of holy things it is the principle of Regeneration to be renewed in the spirit of the minde Our Saviour corrects the prophanation of the Temple by an it is written my house shall be called an house of prayer and dispels all rude traditions which made the Law of God of none effect by an exposition of the Law And the Apostle corrects the prophane use of the Lords Supper by explaining the nature form and use thereof telling them sometime this is not to eat the Lords Supper and other times pointing to the Ordinance by a The Cup of blessing which we bless is the Communion and an I received from the Lord what I delivered unto you The same is to be the cure of the prophaneness of every Ordinance of God viz. the understanding of its use and nature They that know not the benefit of a Denison of England or a Freeman of London must needs disesteem disregard and despise the priviledges thereof Is it any marvel to hear men speak and see men carry contemptibly towards a sealed parchment whose use and nature he doth not understand but such as know thereof the use and value will purchase them at a dear rate and prise them above many things simply and in themselves more considerable In a word I must say if men knew that Gods image and authority was set on Baptisme they would not dare to despise its simplicity and meanness If they understood it to be the dore of admission into the Church incorporation into Christs body and method of matriculation into the houshold of faith they could never scorn it or sit indifferent to it but must see as ever they will put on Christ Jesus and be united to his body they must be baptized nay further such as are sensibly affected with it as a seal of the Covenant of Grace and so ground of faith as a sacred qualification of approach to God without which we may not come nigh unto him and as the ordained Ark of Salvation wherby we stand separated from the world unto so great advantages he could not but set on it an high esteem rejoycing in his Baptisme blessing God for such distinguishing grace and thankfully improve the same to his encourâ—gâ—ment in and ingagement unto duty Let it therefore be your care with all diligence to studie the nature of the Ordinance and understand its use vertue and value that by ignorance you lose not its effects or be led into erronious notions luke-warm affections to and prophane expressions towards so holy and necessary an Ordinance The second exhortation is To act our conversation as sensible that the body washed with pure water must qualifie us with confidence in access to God Let your knowledge of the right use and nature of Baptisme appear in your lives and carriage under and towards so holy an Ordinance Take heed of prophaning holy things disesteeming high priviledges and contemning special grounds of faith and priviledges of grace and more particularly 1. Direct Admit not men into communion with the Church in other Ordinances and acts of worship that have not been baptized Let them enter at the right dore that receive Gods alms Call not them the Lords people who weare not the Lords livery communicate not the priviledges of the Saints with them who stand Aliens Strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel Let not them approach the presence of an holy God who were never sanctified by the washing of water by the word And in a word take heed of running into the abhomination of bringing into Gods Sanctuary the unbaptized in flesh Invert not Gods order and the Gospel method of approach to God These might have seemed needless exhortations heretofore but now doe not for that many in the midst of us doe not onely disown their own baptisme but bring up their Issue unbaptized And great is the present and greater will be the future danger of admitting to sit at the Lords table such as never were baptized I could heartily wish we could keep a Register of the unbaptized as we doe of the baptized However let the administrators of holy things make it their first enquiry Were you baptized and take heed they pollute not Gods Sanctuarie by admitting thereunto the men whose bodies were not washed with pure water Be not deceived with a pretence of reall grace for grace must needs be pretended where any of Gods Ordinances are despised and Christs prescribed order is neglected but if it were reall it is not the Churches guide who cannot know it Outward qualifications must be their direction and Gospel order in peoples approach to God is their charge and must be their care 2. Direct Attend with reverence and affection the administration of Baptisme unto others Turn not your backs on so holy an Ordinance and eminent action but consider it is an act of worship and Ordinance of God as well as preaching or prayer and our attendance on all acts of Religion is duty it is a solemn and sacred action separating persons unto God sanctifying them for God stamping upon men holiness to the Lord setting them as members of Church the body of Christ and solemnly dedicating them to the service of Father Sonne and holy Ghost And doth not this call for the attendance of all the Lords people Shall not the worth of union with Christs Church and consecration to God be witnessed to be of weight by the reverent attendance of the assemblie Are not all concerned in and to be edified by the Ordinance and shall they sleight it and turn back on it Consider the reproof of the guilt of such neglect let it quicken you to duty let your presence at and reverence in the administration of Baptisme bespeak your sense of its sacred nature and sanctifying use making a Church Ordinance privat by confining it to your houses or running from its administration in the publique place must needs be the result of low thâ—ughts Clandâ—stine Baptism is the cloud of Baptisme and the rude out-â—unning that Ordinance runs it into contâ—mpt be witnesses
needs witnesse the bounds of the Church is much enlarged by Infant Baptisme more are ingaged to God by an early incorporation to his Church then their owne personall choice for where wee see one man take up Christianity so much as to the profession of it on terms of choyce wee see hundreds engaged therein by parental profession and baptismall obligation in their infancy if an essay hereof were made in America how small would bee the number of them that should own God and Christ by being baptized in grown yeeres and how numerous would they bee by a timely dedication to God and incorporation to the Church by Infant Baptisme And again how many generations each after other hath succeeded in the Churches of God in our Nation but how soon will they be extinct this Orchard be overspread with the weeds of Atheisme and Heathenisme if Anabaptists Parents doe proceede to breake off their branches from the Olive and the line of the Covenant from their Posteritie The fourth benefit of Infant Baptisme It exciteth Repentance Baptisme in it selfe is hereunto an argument but it is more enforced from the season of infancy than grown age humiliatiation for past guilt and future caution against sin are much enforced by the season of our Baptisme and that by pointing out unto us the inclination of our nature and the kindnesse of our God both which meeting with an ingenuous spirit are very moving and melting considerations That wee are washed in water doth witnesse wee are uncleane but in that we are washed in this Infant season before stained with the least actual sin and personal corruption must needs witness that in the day of our nativity our father was an Amorite our mother an Hittite we were polluted in our blood our navel not cut we were not washed nor salted no eye pitied us but we were cast out to the loathing of our persons If Baptisme be an Ordinance of Remission and Regeneration it must needs remember its infant subjects that in their nature there is guilt to be bewailed and pardoned a foreskin to be violently cut off a pravity unto evil to be slain an old man to be crucified with Christ a corrupt nature to be watched against with all care and caution and that not acquired by any personal act or custome of our own as Baptisme at age imports but the more cutting it is to consider it is imbred in nature hereditarie to our being therefore will more easily act in us more closely adhere to us and doth call for more care to keep it under true repentance alwayes reflects on the root of sin in iniquity was I conceived and in sin did my mother bring me forth is the first complaint of pensive David and hereunto Infant-Baptisme doth plainly point us This season of our Baptisme doth not only acquaint us with our own vile nature but also affect us with Gods kindness that will melt the ingenuous soul into mourning and much care not to offend for the season of our Baptisme doth shew us Gods love to us as he was the God of our fathers and the God of our youth and both of them are exceeding aggravations of guilt God often doth charge the sin of Israel under the notion of forsaking the God of their fathers and the pious in Scripture did much enforce their humiliation by the kindnesses God did shew their fathers And if we consider our selves sealed in infancie by Baptisme we must needs see God was the God of our fathers and struck Covenant with them and was unto them gracious otherwise we could not have been owned as begotten to the Lord and to be baptized and therefore the sins we commit is against our fathers friend and God nay they are against the God of our youth that owned us in the day of our nativity and in the loathing of our persons and said unto us Live that took us as his own sware unto us and entred into Covenant with us in our very cradle when we could not choose for our selves and set the seale of his Covenant in our flesh and placed us on the knees of his Church brought us up at his own costs and nourished us by his Ordinances and hath been our God all our dayes Oh! what aggravations of sinne doth this kindness of God afford How may the Ministers of God speak bitter things against them that daily break the Covenant of their youth and deal unfaithfully with the God of their fathers Me thinks I should heare some pensive soul sitting on its stool of repentance thus soaking its hard heart in its Infant-baptisme by such serious contemplations as these I am baptized then surely unclean guilt is on my soul the body of corruption possesseth me if I be not pardoned I perish If this old man be not buried with Christ in Baptisme I am undone Must not the water of my baptisme set the pump of my dry heart on running tears of contrition for this defiled estate of my person of my person that is not all I was baptized in infancie before I was in the least capable of staining my person Oh wretched man my very nature is defiled how can I dream of drawing nigh to God that am the pudled stream of a polluted fountain Sinne is my natural temper and guilt the very image of my father In iniquity I was conceived and in sinne brought forth how shall I be purged from this natural blemish or withstand this imbred corruption How am I necessitated to live in sinne for that it is naturalized to my very being How easily must I needs be drawn to sinfull action whose very nature is sinfull corruption If ever I obtain pardon for or power over my sinne it must needs be an act of especial Grace the benefit of a peculiar Covenant Sure I am I can never sufficienly lament this sad estate of my nature Many are the sinfull actions which daily flow from this bitter root and they sink my soul into the depth of sorrows when I seriously consider my self baptized For hereby I see God the God of my fathers and the God of my youth to have been the object of my offences against thee thee only have I offended thee the God of my father to whom thou shewedst favour and called him out of darkness into thy marvellous light with whom thou didst establish thy Covenant of Grace and didst extend it to his seed and madest me miserable me partakers of it and so becamest my God from my very being thou sawest me in the day of my nativity when I lay in my blood in the loathing of my person thy eye pitied me thou said'st unto me Live thou spakest kindly unto me swarest to me and entred'st into Covenant with me and madest me thine own layedst me in the lap of thy Church nourishedst me by thine Ordinances Thou by timely engaging me to thy self did'st prevent my wicked choice and Satan his malicious purpose of possessing me as a vassal of his
their interest in the Covenant In vain should the miserable mother encourage the scourged thirsty child to remember the cup of which Isaac drank and patiently to bear its present torments for that it should be shortly crowned with eternal glory if the child at eight years of age had not understood the Covenant of God and been catechised in its baptisme Our Anabaptists will never afford us babie Martyrs that will not allow us babie Christians And as for Parents if their childrens interest in the Covenant and right to Baptisme doe not support them under the death of their babes I a parent of dead children doe demand what can That they are by nature children of wrath must not be denyed that they fall into a limbus Infantum must be denyed by all that abhor Poperie that they are saved there remains no hope whilest we see them out of the Ark of salvation What unusual way the Anabaptists run upon for their own comfort they have not yet declared nor will Scripture warrant any Were it not for Infants interest in the Covenant sealed in their Baptism I should mourn over my dead children as without hope You see now that there is not only warrant in Scripture for the Baptisme of your Infants but there is much of profit by it Whilest others are beating the controversie doe you study the practice of Infant-Baptisme Let not seducers beguile your simple souls by pretending Infant-Baptisme is unlawfull because unusefull But seeing there is so much profit in the Ordinance and so much in the season of its application prize it pursue it and preserve it to the Church Let your children be baptized in their Infancie and catechised according to their growing capacitie that through ignorance they may not throw away their birth-right but may duly know the duty and dignity thereof and dâ—mean themselves as baptized souls The fifth and last exhortation is to Church-gathering saints To admit the baptized into the approaches to God in the assemblies of his people Make no bar of division to such as we are the badge of union If Baptisme doe incorporate into the Church and consecrate unto God why doe you deny the relation of the baptized or their fitness for divine service either deny Baptisme to be the dore of admission into the Church of Christ or throw down your Church Covenant agreement or experiences of graces as to entrance into a Church state Deny Baptisme to be the Church constituting Bond or talk not of gathering Churches from among baptized souls Affect not to your selves the terms and titles of saints brethren beleevers Church and the like whilâ—st those you despise have as good naâ— by reason of your sinfull schisme a better title thereunto than your selves If Baptisme be the ground of confidence in access to God who are you that make it void Is not the straitning of the Church dore as dangerous as setting it wide open Will it not be equally provoking to God to let doggs into his house and to keep children out to pollute his holy things by the unbaptized and bar the baptized from his worship If men baptized walk disorderly endeavor by discipline to reduce them deny not their interest drive them not from God make it not your designe to paganize the Christians among whom you dwel that some few of them may be brought into your Church-way Weigh well the nature of Baptism if it do not charge your way with wickedness I know not how to judge If Baptism rightly apprehended be not the engine to batter Independencie I dare renounce my skil in militaries Let not God say draw neer in full assurance having your bodies washed with pure water and you say to your baptized Brethren stand thou further from me I am holier than thou Thus then I have noted to you the nature of Baptisme the outward Ordinance and the duties that flow from its consecrating nature which rightly understood will convince much error and correct many sinfull practises Which that it may doe God Father Son and holy Ghost in whose holy Name we are baptized follow it with his blessing Amen FINIS