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ground_n	believe_v	faith_n	hope_n	2,425	5	7.9570	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80854	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 ... ; Imprimatur, Edm. Calamy.	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.	1658 (1658)	Wing C7003B; ESTC R174314	79,234	315

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 de●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 ve●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

Proselytes appear to be the same this year he was the last A man under judicial * The Committee for Plundred Ministers Parliamentary censure for his Errors a man by the most sage grave and pious * London Testimony to the truth c. Ministers of his City the place of his Residence branded as a Seducer from the Truth of Jesus Christ a man for Sedition so owned by himself imprisoned banished and afflicted as an evil doer a man of such violence commotion division confusion distraction disorder that Bishopsgate and Aldgate must needs lament the day of his being in the midst of them And yet enquire why should Master Crofton so much withstand John Simpsons preaching but if he or all his Adherents were as they never can be able to acquit him from these Blots that must needs render him unfit for Gospel-work yet Master Crofton hath too too just cause to withstand his Ministry not only for his unjust intrusion and dis-ingenuous silence under any propounded conveniencie for the people and malitious exercise of his pretended Ministery to the meer humoring of an envious prophane Faction pursuing nothing but Confusion and Disorder not having any Assembly of his own to engage him to it But for those Falshoods that in the name of the Lord he doth utter to the decrying of Gods holy Ordinances and danger of mens Salvation herein he is frequent and of which I shou●d were it not that my weak people are apt to take boldness to sit under his Ministry from my hearing him make a full detection Can any man think Ministerial zeal can in the least admit an afternoons contradiction of a forenoons Doctrine of Truth I have before noted to the world that he no sooner violently entred my Church and interrupted some of Gods Ordinances but he presently vilifying those he could not hinder openly averred that to learn a Catechism was not to worship God you might as well take your children to the Market or Fair and buy them Baubles Rattles and Hobby Horses as Catechisms I well know that he did with most prophane impudence in the Pulpit at Great Al-hallows and in my own Pulpit make a dreadfull appeal to God Angels and Men that he never Preached such Doctrine but I have offered and do yet offer if he will be convicted before any competent Judges to convince him by some of his late Proselytes and many others that heard him speak it and after most wickedly deny that he spake it he must not think but we know the Serpentine wisdom of Seducers leads them to deny they spake the doctrine they divulge if the time and other circumstances will not defend them in it And yet in the Sermon wherein he would deny this notion he doth but Familistically Spiritualize and runs into this assertion which is yet Tantamount That it is gross ignorance to say or think that the teaching of Catechitical heads of Religion is the way to bring any man to the knowledge of Christ I confess this contempt of catechizing was in my ears but a praeludium to the decrying of Infant Baptism which engaged me to attend his Wednesday Lectures for some few days when he was from 1 Peter 3.21 Treating of Baptism wherein I heard many absurdities false interpretations and incongruous expressions uttered but at length found him that pretends he had * His Book of Justification in the Epist to the Reader run over the bogs of Familism yet not to have been swallowed up in them to have fallen up to the arm holes if not over head and ears for not only did he despise Poedo-Baptism by the contemptible terms of Baby-sprinkling cozening Infants and the like but proclaimed Water-Baptism the very Ordinance it self to be nothing worth and the spirit inward Grace the answer of a good conscience to be all in all even unto communion with the Church visible and this he did in a full Discourse half an hour long directed to his own Proselytes with many invectives against such as would not admit Communion with the unbaptized in flesh these nullifying notions of Gods Ordinance I could not bear and resolving they should not corrupt on my stomack or he have liberty to make a false appeal to God Angels and Men in the denial of what he had delivered or to complain I dealt not fairly by him publickly to render him erronious before I had charged him personally I did on the day on which he preached it being the 2. of September 1657. and assoon as Sermon was ended repaire to my Study and writ unto him this Letter following Mr. Simpson I did this day with no little trouble hear your Discourse and pretermitting your incongruous impertinent expressions and misapplication of Scripture with many Ordinance-degrading and Church-confounding speeches you laid down this inference That Baptisme is not the ground of communion with the Church but real grace the answer of a good conscience by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and therefore you did declare Though a man were altogether ignorant of the doctrin of Baptism and had never passed under that outward Ordinance you could own him as a member of the Church and hold communion with him and admit him to all the Ordinances of Jesus Christ and much to this purpose you delivered Sir When I consider the answer of a good conscience is only known to God I cannot believe God hath made it the Ground of communion with men and outward Baptism to be the first Ordinance of God to the Church and external Seal of the Covenant and the very door of admission into the Church erected by Jesus Christ and reckon'd by the Apostle among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so in all Ages of the Church made the foundation of the Church Ordinances in foro Ecclesiae I cannot conserv● to communion with such as are unbaptized but must fear in this case God may say to me as to them in Isa 44.7 For though outward baptism without inward Grace can carry no man to heaven yet the Church cannot without palpable profaneness admininister other Ordinances of Communion to the unbaptized I pray you tell me whether you do not in vain press me to outward Baptism when you tell me I may live and die in Commmunion with the body of Christ all my dayes and yet never know the Doctrine nor passe under the Ordinance of water-Baptism Is Baptism become an Adiaphoron These things I thus timely signifie to you to prevent mistakes desiring your arguments for your position for that your Cited Scripture Rom. 15.7 doth not conclude it but is farre wide to which I promise you a speedy answer unless they be convincing to Zath Crofton Sept. 2 1657. Though this letter was by a messenger sent of purpose delivered into his hand disingenious be never returned answer to it either in publick or privat but suffered these contemptible notions to abide on the spirit of the people as it they were Gospel truths Having observed

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 off●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 Gh●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 expl●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

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 D●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 instit●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

see that self-congregation could constitute any body but that which is seditious or Schi matica And as Korah seems to have been the Counseller of their Constitution so Jeroboam seems to be of their Consecration for he that will may make himself a Priest even the lowest of the people are Ministers to the Lord uncalled and unqualified they presume to administer holy things which is a shadow and appearance of Divine worship but a real building of Altars besides the Altar of the L rd and gives just cause to the people of God truly piou● and pursu●ng the truth of his Ordina●c●s to pray as the Church in Je●obo●m● dayes Tell me O thou wh m my Soul loveth where thou feedest thy fl ck where th u m●kest them to rest at noon for why sh●●ld I turn aside by the flocks of thy companions so seem and pretend to be Cant. 1.7 So that the●r exchange of the Baptism they renounce for that they now receive is a profaning of themselves who once were an holy people to the Lord and by false wayes of sanct●ty to set themselves at a greater distance from God and to shake nay to rake up the Found●tions of their Faith and exchange their assurance rightly grounded on their Baptism for a fond presumption flowing from Sacrilegious notions and false worship which must at the last fall into the h●nds of the living God and be found as stubble before a consuming fire because unconsecrated in the presence of an holy God for never to be sanctified and after to be profa●ed is all one in its event and issue they that contemn and they that cast off Gods holy Ordinance shall fall into the same condemnation The second sort to be reproved as carrying Contradictorily to this qualification to confide t approach to God are such as disregard the admist●ation of Baptism unto others These acknowledge the use and benefit of having the body washed with pure water but by the rudenesse of the●r behaviour do declare themselves ignorant or insensible of its holy nature and consecrating use These are such as drive th● Sacrament in its admi●istration i●to corners and continue not in the Congregation in the administration of it they think it is conv●nient children be baptized but the solemnity thereof is to them strange a●d needless they will call some few friends together call into baptize it any Minister that slubbers over the act as easily as they desire and in a way of complement get the work done never considering it is a ●hurch Ordinance and of due belongs to the whole assembly not particular families or persons nor with any reverence composing themselves to a solemn and Religious act of ded●cation to God many in this case carry toward the Ordinance as a meer Complement to please wife kinsfolk or neighbours they will have their Children Baptized and the civilities thereunto belonging being past they think themselves well rid of a piece of trouble and never devote themselves to any Religion in the application of this Ordina●ce Incorporation into the houshold of Faith Dedication to an holy God is not in their thoughts their prayses proclaim not any sense of a Covenant pri●iledge nor doth their Prayers pursue God for his blessi●g on his own Ordinance they bre●k not through any d●fficulties to present their children to God in the Assemblies of his people they think not the silent suffrages of the S●ciety of any moment in the incorporation of a Member or supplicat●ons of any virtue to an Ordinance of sanctification but as unaffected with these things they get the work done the child Baptized they neither care where how or by whom for when it s done they have done And others are in this respect no lesse blame-worthy who turn their backs rudely and irreverently when Baptism is administred wh lest the Word Prayer and other Ord●nances are in hand they sit composedly in the Congregation but when Baptisme comes in hand they post out of the Church as if this were not worth their attendance or tended any way to their advantage Unto these I would say Is not B●pti m an Ordinance of God act of worship to his people Is it not an Ordinance of Incorporation into the body of th● Church of God of which thou art a member oughtest not thou to take them into society and by thy presence to witnesse their relation thou givest them little honour who hast no● patience to attend their solemn admission into the society of the Saints Is not Baptism the Seal of the Covenant the Sanctifying Ordinance of accesse to God Adm●nistreth it not matter of Meditation concerning Mans Guilt Gods G●ace the Covenant of Salvation between God and man whereby thou mayest be edified Is not the Baptism o● a Christian of high concernme ● Doth it not tye the Baptized to great and m●ny engagem●nts Are they not obnoxious to many t●mptations to violate the Covenant Is not Bapt●sme the Ord●nance of holin●sse Gods blessing needful to make it holy and prayers of the Church t●e way to obtain Gods blessing that thou tu nest away and followest not the Or●ina●ce with thy prayer Can a conscience awed by the sanctity of any Ordinance and affected with the holinesse of God to be adored dispense with the neglect and contempt of other Ordinances equally holy nay in order the first of and that without which other Ordinances must not be used The fourth sort of such whose practise doth militate with the consecrating nature of Baptisme are such who disesteem their own Baptisme owned and adhaered unto many have had their bodyes washed with pure water and would not be without their Baptism for all the world but yet as for any great benefit they ever received by it they know no reason they have to esteem it at so high a rate They never read any thing of Divine favour in their Baptism nor from it reaped either counsel or comfort the reflections of duty and dignity are to them strange and unusuall Baptism having once passed on the●r bodies come● no more into their mi●ds It is not to them engagement to or encouragement in duty or drawing nigh to God the which as it exposeth the O●dinance to contempt not imaginable so it bespeaks such souls to be unsp●akably igno●ant or insensible of the nature use and end of the w●shing of the body with pure water for can any soul that understands and believes Baptism to be a pledge of Divine affection live under it without o●servation of Gods peculiar love to them above others who want it Can any stand convinced That the Seal of God is in their flesh and not lay claim to God by so visible a ground of claim Can any say that by Baptism ●hey are purg●d from the corruptions that are in the world through lust and live in sin Can any consider hereby t●ey are called out of the world and consecrated to the worship of one God Father Son and Holy Ghost and neglect directed