Cain and his offering being not in faith God accepted not for all the thoughts of such a man are only evil and that continually till they believe as Gen. â— 5 and 8.21 All the imaginations of all believers till converted are evil and only evil continually Secondly their words are evil Matth. 12.34 O Generation of Vipers how can you being evil speak good word for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh an evil man out of the evil Treasure of his heart brings forth evil things and as their thoughts and words are evil so in like manner their actions are all evil natural actions as eating Job 20.23 When he is eating to fill his belly God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him and shall rain it upon him while he is eating thus you see natural actions are evil such as eating and drinking for satisfying his hunger and also civil actions are evil as Prov. 21.4 an high look and a proud heart and the ploughing of the wicked is sin if plowing then all his civil actions and also his best duties of worship as his sacrifice is an abomination to God Prov. â—8 9 15.8 Isaiah 1. with 66.4 Upon this ground it must needs be that the Covenant of Grace and eternal life cannot belong to any such persons that do not believe for it is impossible to be in a covenant of Grace and yet not to have persons nor any of their best actions accepted Yea further all mankind are compared to beasts till they believe Job 11.11 Vain man would fain be wise but man is born like a wild Asses Colt with Jeremy 2.23 24. Yea the Lord saith in Revel 21.8 That the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murtherers and whoremongers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and all Lyars shall have their portion in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Beloved therefore if any have been so deluded as to believe such a notorious error as this is to think that any ever hath been in the Covenant of life but such as are in Christ by faith I desire God may give you repentance for maintaining such a fundamental error as this is And now in the fourth place Answers to such Scriptures as are alleged to prove the baptism of infants I shall endeavour to answer such Scripture allegations and those especially brought in from the New Testament to countenance this error wherein I shall endeavour to take off those false and corrupt Glosses that are usually put upon them wherein men pretend to prove the covenant of grace among the Gentiles to run in the flesh and line of believing parents under the Gospel which I am sure was never yet since the world began nor never shall be with any neither parents nor children but such individual persons that particularly believed in Christ with their own hearts And first let me speak to that in Acts 2.39 An answer to that text Act. 2 39. which is usually pretended to be a proof of the covenant in the flesh the words are these The promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Now I pray you take notice how evident this Text makes against this error For this Text affirms only the promises to belong to so many even as God shall call and that is a fundamental truth if by promise you understand the gift of the Holy Ghost or remission of sins or both to be promised in this text It is most true that so many as God shall call have an interest both to Christ and all the promises in him and only they for saith the Text Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost So that remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost it is safe to understand here to be meant that promise that is said to belong to them to their children and to those afar off even so many of them and their children and of those afar off as the Lord our God should call agreeable to the words thus understood is Rom. 8.30 moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified So that justification or remission of sins is here given only to called persons with these agreeth that of Heb. 9.15 For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgression that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of the eternal Inheritance So here you see that those that are predestinated to have a covenant of life and the blessing given in that covenant are first called as 1 Pet. 2.9 He hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light Now this text is plain to prove that those Jews and Proselytes that then heard him and their children and also the ten Tribes new afar off and also the Gentiles the promises did belong to so many of all these as God should call and except Souls be given up to a Spirit of Delusion will any dare to affirm that the promises of the Spirit remission of sins and eternal life do belong to any other Will any be so ignorant as to judge that those promises did belong to the Generation of the Jews whether they were called or not though they continued in unbelief and hardness of heart and impenitency Is not such a corrupt interpretation against Christs words to that very people John 8.24 Except you believe that I am he you shall dy in your sins speaking to these very Jews and doth not John the Baptist say to these John 3. last He that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him directing this speech indeffinitely to the generation of the Jews the seed of Abraham such as were in the covenant of Circumcision But if by the children you understand so many of them as God should call whether then at that time or afterwards to the end of the world it is most true that to such of their children the promise of grace did belong But Beloved the Scripture is in nothing more full than in this that the promise of grace belonged not to any of those Iews seed but such as were called for God shuts them under unbelief and because of unbelief they were broken off Rom. 11. if unbelief excluded them from that external relation which before Christs death they then had in the Covenant intailed on the flesh and Christ coming in the flesh and fully exhibiting and putting an end to that covenant no other covenant standing in force in the Church of God but what Christ was the Mediator of these unbelieving Iews of necessity were broken off The promise of remission of sins was so far from running upon the
THE Doctrine of Baptism And the Distinction of the COVENANTS OR A Plain Treatise wherein the four Essentials of BAPTISM Viz. 1. Who is a Lawfull Minister thereof 2. What is the true Form thereof 3. Into whose name it is to be administred 4. Who is a fit Subject thereof Are diligently handled As also the business of the two Covenants wherein is proved that the Covenant of life is not made to the seed of Believers as coming out of their Loins and therefore that the baptism of Infants is drawn from thence by a false Consequence By THOMAS PATIENT a Laborer in the Church of Christ at DUBLIN Acts 22 16. And now why tarriest thou Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling one the name of the Lord. Ephes 2.12 Being aliens from the Common wealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenants of promise John 3.5.6 Jesus answered verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit London Printed by Henry Hills and are to be sold at his house at Sir John Old Castles in Py-corner 1654. The Epistle to the Christian Reader to whom the Author wisheth all grace and peace from God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. THere being but a small moment of time from the Lord alotted to men in this life to run that Christian race set before them And considering what Christ saith That whilest it is day we ought to work for the night commeth when no man can work And further considering that Christ Jesus is gone to fetch a Kingdom and to return having left his Servants several Talents to be accounted for at his comming when every mans reward or punishment shall be according to his works which ought to provoke and stir up every Christian to a consciencious and carefull improvement of his strength for Gods glory and the service of his generation in this pilgrimage These among many other motives prevailed with me to present this Treatise to thy view being also pressed thereunto by many of Gods People formerly in England and of late in Ireland who have heard me upon the same Subject deliver the substance of what is herein conteined both in England and in Ireland Beloved Reader I know the World is filled with many Books stuffed with very much of mans wisdome which though the Apostle saith is enmity against God yet we find such discourses most pleasing to the carnal hearts of men in our age Therefore if that be the thing that thy itching ears do thirst after thou maiest spare thy self that labour for thou wilt finde that with as much simplicity and plainness as possibly I could I have herein given out by clear Scripture-evidence what the Lord hath made known to me For the clearing of this weighty point which God by his mighty power hath subjected my heart to believe the which formerly by reason of my ignorance and error I was much averse unto For after it pleased God to reveal his Son in me and to work a change in my heart the great and weighty thing that God presented to me was to make my calling and election sure which I found to be a work filled with many difficulties considering how far Hypocrites might attain in the profession of godliness and that they might come to have the counterfeit of all the Grace in the Child of God And this the rather appeared more difficult because I found my own heart so desperately wicked and full of deceit as Jerem. 17.9 and also found the wiles and subtilties of the Devil to be various and I constantly under several temptations and deep desertions when God though for a little season withdrew himself and the light of his countenance from me At which time I judged it my onely thing necessary to prove whether CHRIST were in me and my faith right as also my sincerity to the Lord. At which time I found but little settled rest or peace till the Lord had put that great question out of doubt in giving me a sure and well grounded confidence of my interest in him till which time I found little disposition to search narrowly into other truths which I then thought to be too remote for me to exercise my self in having received so much spiritual benefit in communing with God and mine own heart and searching out the difference betwixt the speaking of Gods Spirit my own spirit and the spitit of Satan But when I came to some good measure of settlement in my confident and well grounded hopes that I was the Lords then presently was I tempted touching the main and material fundamental points in Religion Which temptations as they were a great cause of trouble and restlesness in my soul so they occasioned me with great eagerness night and day in use of the best means God presented to me to seek satisfaction in the same at which time the Lord did carry on my soul with much vehemency after him so with much unweariedness For usually as one case and weighty question was answered to my satisfaction and comfort another was stated in my soul too hard for me in which experiences I for many years was exercised with all in which time I was ignorant of the true way which Christ would have his people to walk in But presently being convinced of the unwarrantableness of the Government of the Lordly Prelates and the Liturgy in the Church of England and the mixed Communions in the Parish Assemblies I was resolved God willing to examine all Religion as well in worship and the order of Gods house as I had done in other points But I at this time being by the divine power of God converted from the Church of England though with a great deal of difficulty being well furnished with arguments from Pulpit and Print and divers able Disputants for the defence of that false way but God breaking in by the power of his Spirit with clear Scripture-light subjected my heart to the obedience of the truth so that I found my heart closing with those truths in the love thereof At this time many godly Christians going to New England and being come up in my judgment to the way of New England in Faith and order went over thither being not convinced of my error and great darkness in sprinkling the carnal seed of Believers But verily I thought I had good warrant for that practise having then in substance the same grounds for the defence thereof that generally to this day is urged for the same Yet having in my heart so clear a light discovering how shamefully in many things I had been deluded and that by those which I could not but have charity to think were the Lords own Servants and finding the danger of receiving truths by Tradition was resolved to examine that point of Baptism And so I
were the first fruits of Achaia and that they were Ministers and addicted themselves to the Ministring unto Saints they did as the Text notes labour and he would have the Church submit themselves unto such therefore they were not babes or little infants but all true Converts believing and penitent persons And in Acts 18.8 for the further clearing of this Matter in hand And Crispus the Chief Ruler of the Synagogue believed on the Lord with all his house and many of the Corinthians believed and were baptized So that you see what a Catalogue of clear examples you have to confirm unto us which way those infallible Apostles both taught and practized according to the great Commission given them by the Authority of Christ from Heaven To preach first the Gospel to every Creature and he that believeth and is baptized should be saved and that they should make disciples through teaching dipping them into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost And withall you see both Commands as you have heard and plentiful examples for baptizing believers But not the least colour or shew of any ground for sprinkling of Infants Now by the way let me say what a sad thing therefore is this that such a world of People from Custome and Tradition run headlong after this Idol of mans invention But this Solemn Ordinance which you have heard lies clearly as a Duty under the express Law of Christ to every one that believeth this they sleight and contemn as enemies to the same therefore let such souls know That as Christ is a King So this is one of his great Laws and a fundamental ordinance of the Gospel unto which he calls all believing and penitent persons that are professed subjects to him to be obedient to Now therefore let such tender souls who have the fear of God in them lay this to heart First The Ordinance of baptism long neglected and an Idol set in its room That this Solemn Ordinance for many hundred years hath been neither preached nor practised by abundance of such which in Charity we cannot but judge might have many good things found in them But here lyes that which makes the case sad and lamentable that in the room of this precious Ordinance of God which Christ confirmed by his blood should be set up that Idol of sprinkling of Carnal poor Infants for doubtless if there be an Idol now practised in the world or set up amongst men this must needs be one For I have learned with others of the Saints of God this to be an Idol either the worshipping of a false God or the true God in a false manner which I might largely insist upon to prove from Scripture Now though this be not an Idol of the first kind it is without doubt an Idol of the second It is setting up mans Invention instead of Gods solemn Ordinance which is a sin for which God plagued the people in Levit 10. and 1 2. It is an Image of true Baptism set up in the room of it but not the same and that in all the before mentioned essentials A false Administrator ignorant of the true nature of the Ordinance instead of a true Minister Sprinkling instead of dipping A carnal infant instead of a true believing man or woman And all this done at the naming of so many words only VVhereas the Commission injoins that they should dip them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost So that there is in this christening of Children nothing of Gods appointment or of what he commanded viz. The Minister wrong the Subject wrong the Form wrong and also the naming of so many wâ—rds only instead of dipping into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost VVhereas the Commission injoins the true Minister should dip a Disciple into the name of Father Son and Holy Ghost Now let any Soul seriously judge whether God can own that which hath nothing of his own appointment or Commands but in every particular contrary thereunto But seeing the main thing usually controverted is about the Subject whether Infant or Believer I shall leave what I have said The Papists do hold that the Ordinance of baptism doth convey grace by the very work done which is so generally confuted by all Protestant Authors that I think it not worth my time to speak to that grosse Error concluding the Administration upon Children corrupt in all the three foresaid heads as well as in the last and shall speak of the last only viz. That carnal children are not lawful Subjects of baptism and shall begin to speak to the main Argument or ground usually pleaded by all except Papists for Childrens baptism and that is Though there be no command nor example yet there is a consequence viz. the Covenant of life being made to Believers and their seed comming out of their loins Baptism being an Ordinance of that Covenant doth also belong to them Now I shall endeavour to prove the falseness and erroneousness of this Consequence The Covenant of life not made to the seed of Believers as coming out of their loins therefore the baptism of infants drawn thence by a false consequence That it cannot be of God my first ground is because it doth oppose it self to the express Laws and Commands of the New Testament and whatsoever consequence men do draw from Scripture that crosseth the plain Commands of God to be sure cannot be of God but such consequence must needs be according to Scripture light of Satan or at the best from the vision of a mans own heart Now this I would have you seriously to take notice of That baptism of Believers is a Solemn Ordinance of the new Testament enjoined by divers special commands and incouraged with promises of remission of sins and salvation on the right performance of the same Now for any man to force a Consequence that shall oppose it self against so solemn an ordinance cannot be of God because God cannot speak that which is contrary to himself or to his own commands As for instance When Christ began to teach to his Disciples that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the Elders and chief Priests and Scribes and be killed and the third day rise He spake that saying openly and Peter took him and began to rebuke him but he rebuked Peter saying Get thee behind me Satan From whence we may observe That whatsoever consequence or Argument any man shall seem to inforce though pretending Scripture for the same that oppose themselves against duty or do hinder the servants of God therein I may say of such Consequences and such Arguments Gâ—t thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unro me It s clear That Christ concludes those Arguments and perswasions whatsoever they be that do tend to the hinderance of any solemn duty or Ordinance of God they are of the Devil Get thee behind me Satan Therefore all those Books and Arguments
set out for the maintenance of Childrens Baptism grounded upon this Consequence opposing themselves against duty as you have heard which is That every penitent or believing person ought to be baptized Now the whole tendency of those Books being to oppose the practicâ— of the same and to hinder it I may say of them as Christ said before c For upon this ground we may conclude all those Discourses not to be of God I shall therefore leave what is said to you seriously to weigh whether or no this is not an erroneous consequence But in the next place let us come nearer to examine this consequence both in its self and the grounds from whence it is drawn The grounds of this Consequence is That the Covenant of Grace belongs to believers Children the consequence is therefore Baptism being an Ordinance of that Covenant must needs belong to believers children in which two lyes our whole business for the grounds of this consequence is brought the Covenant of Circumcision that belonging to Abraham and his seed after him in their generation Gen. 17.7 and 10. to 14. From hence it is gathered That the Covenant of Grace viz. of eternal life belongs to believers and their seed born of their body For the Covenant God made to Abraham and his off-spring viz. the Covenant of Circumcision belonging to Abraham and his seed in their Generation therefore Circumcision the sign of the Covenant belonged to them so the New Covenant now belongs to believing Gentiles and their seed Baptism being an Ordinance of that Covenant belongs also to believing Gentiles and their seed this being the onely and alone foundation ground of all those except Papists for their Rantizing or Sprinkling of Children We shall endeavour to prove this ground from whence this consequence flows to be so far from being the truth that it is an error and yea such an error that if it were maintained with all those errors that naturally must needs be defended as consequences of this opinion it would shake the foundations of the Gospel But that I may with as much clear satisfaction inform others as God had clearly convinced my own soul of the truth of this I shall propound this method to be handled First then I shall make it appear to you That there is two Covenants held forth in Scripture the one a Covenant of Grace and the other a Covenant of Works or an absolute Covenant and a Conditional Covenant Secondly I shall prove that the Covenant of Circumcision was no Covenant of eternal life but a Conditional Covenant a Covenant of Works Thirdly I shall prove that none but believers ever had or shall have right to the Covenant of Grace Fourthly I shall endeavour to answer such Scriptures especially those in the New Testament that are usually alleged for defence of a Covenant of life in the flesh To the first That there is two Covenants mentioned in Scripture is very plain The one a Covenant of eternal life the other a Covenant of works Two Covenants the one of Works the other of Grace or the one the Old the other the New in which eternal life was not conveyed or given as appears in Jeremiah 31.32 33 34. But behold the day commeth saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was to them an husband saith the Lord. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those daies saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their Iniquities and remember their sins no more You have here set forth two Covenants the one Old the other New and as here we find a New and Old Covenant so there is likewise mention of two Covenants in the eighth to the Hebrews where you have upon the matter the very same words only it is clear that Jesus Christ is the Minister of the New Covenant in the 6. and 7. verses of that chap. But now hath he obtained a more excellent Ministery by how much also he is the Mediator of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises for if that first Covenant had been faultless there would no place have been sought for the second In which place we may understand two Covenants a new Covenant and an old Covenant and Jesus Christ holding himself to be the peculiar Minister of the New Covenant unto the Church then gathered all those that are in Christ being Gods Israel Abrahams seed If you be in Christ then are ye Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise Gal. 3. the latter end So that those that are Christs have this Covenant now made to them and it appears at the 3. verse that the other Covenant was a meer Covenant of works in that he saith he hath made the first old And now that which waxeth old is ready to vanish away where by old Covenant he means that typical Covenant of works which run upon the fleshly line of Abraham till Christ came out of the flesh of Abraham and so put an end to that Covenant in the flesh and this you have further proved in Heb. 9.15 16. There is again mention made of two Covenants or Testaments the first and second the first was confirmed by the blood of Goats and Calves the second by the blood of Christ Now if any please but to search these Scriptures it will appear that there is two real distinct Covenants or Testaments the one of Grace and the other of works the one conditional the other absolute Now an absolute Covenant is a Covenant without all Condition required in the Creature but what God himself performs as Jerem. 32.40 I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Where you see God undertakes both first that he will not leave or forsake his people but do them good and secondly undertakes that he will plant his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him And as in that eighth of Heb. he engaged that he will write his Law in their hearts and that he will be their God and they shall be his people and that he will teach them to know him and will pardon their iniquities and their sins he will remember no more Now here is nothing but what God hath
the Priests looked upon him and behold he was leprous in his fore-head and they thrust him out from thence yea himself hasted to go out because the Lord had smitten him And Uzziah the King was a Leper to the day of his death and dwelt in a several house for he was out off from the house of the Lord. Thus you see the sad curse of God executed against such like inventions in the service of God that men set up in the room of Gods commands thereby justling out his Commands as the Scripture saith This is for a man to set up his Posts by Gods Posts and in a sense setting up himself in the place and room of God and flowes from abundance of Pride as here it is said of King Vzziah preceding this his sin his heart was lifted up to his own destruction Now most certain it is That man Moses was faithful in all Gods house as a servant in giving the Church then exact and perfect rules how they should serve God unto which they must not ad and from which they must not detract nor take away Diut 4.2 so Christ is every way as faithful over his house as a Lord Heb. 3.4 5 6. and rightly to this purpose is applyed that in Col. 2.8 with 20 21 22. For men to imbrace any worship to their God that they have not a rule for it is in that chapter condemned as will-worship and traditions of men and warily consider that it fosters men in a sinfull neglect of that holy and solemn Ordinance of Dipping believers Do not all our Protestant Authors in all their Disputations against the Papists defend that Faith and Repentance precede Baptism thereby confuting the Papists that Baptism is not to convey grace where it is not but to confirm Grace and strengthen it where it is and in that Catechism imbraced generally by all Protestants in the Common Liturgy in England this question being demanded What is required of them that are to be baptized The answer is Faith and Repentance which doth plainly manifest that it was the judgement of all those that were Protestants owning that Liturgy that none ought to be baptized but such as repent and believe not only so but that do confess faith and repentance because in Baptism there is as Peter saith The answer of a good conscience 1 Pet. 3.19 compared with Philip and the Eunuch Acts 8.38 If thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest Saith the Eunuch I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God So in Acts 19. it is said They came to the Apostle confessing their deads Now consider that this doctrine in all those times was defended that faith and repentance must needs precede baptism why because they concluded it a seal of the new Covenant and therefore where persons were not in a Covenant by Faith did in apposition to the Papists defend they had no interest in baptism Now let any soul that is not blinded with the subtilty of Satan and by means of the stumbling block of iniquity set up in his own heart as saith the Lord in Ezekiel 14.4 Let such I say judge how cross to this Doctrine they do practice that do baptize visible graceless and Christless children so far as any man is able to judge Object But some will say I grant this baptizing of children is a meer tradition and that not to be practised by Christians and I do believe in the primitive time Believers only had this Ordinance dispenesd upon them but I do conceive saith the Soul I have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost therefore I need not that Ordinance of Baptism by Water and the rather because I think that was Johns baptism and the baptism of the Holy Ghost being come hath put an end to that Baptism of water Answer Then you deny in Judgement any Ordinance of Baptism at all to stand in force which is be sure an upstart opinion exceeding cross to the Doctrine of Christ in his Gospel but let me as warily as I can answer this question First you do think it was Johns baptism it is true that John baptized or dipped into Water those that came to him confessing their sins and professing faith in him that should come after him But though it is true Johns baptism in this respect pointing out Christ to come is done away yet it is as true that the Lord hath afresh since his death and resurrection intituled this ordinance of dipping believers into Christ already come and fully exhibited in the flesh Matth. 28.19 20. with Mar. 16.16 and Peter after the Holy ghost was in that extraordinary manner powred down upon him according to Johns Prophesie to wit with cloven fiery tongues he doth after this by the direction of the infallible Spirit command all his converts that were prickt in the heart Acts 2.38 to repent and be baptized every one of them for the remission of sins and they should receive the gift of the Holy ghost Where you may see that this was baptism of Water that he commanded all that repent to submit to because the Holy Ghost as those extraordinary gifts was to follow to wit those gifts that Joel prophesied of And so in Acts 10. When Cornelius and his house had heard the word of God the Holy Ghost fell upon them and as an effect thereof they spake with new tongues and magnified God And then saith Peter to them of the Circumcision How should we forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we So that this great Apostle was so far from this opinion that he urgeth the contrary that because they had received the Holy Ghost and that in the extraordinary gifts thereof which John foretold Christ should baptize them with saith he How shall we forbid water plainly holding forth that it is baptism by water that he here is speaking of and in which verse 48. he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus because they received the Holy Ghost therefore they must not be denyed that Ordinance of baptism by Water clearly holding forth that the enjoying the Holy Ghost was so far from being an argument why souls should not be baptized with water that it is an argument that they ought to be baptized more especially and this appears in Paul after his conversion which I understand was wrought by Christ immediately For saith he to Annanias Behold he is a chosen vessel to me for he now prayeth therefore say I he was now converted as to the inward work of faith changing his heart But when Annanias came to him he laid his hands upon him and there were two effects of this his laying on of his hands He received his sight and was filled with the Holy Ghost and he arose forthwith and was baptized that is to say after he was filled with the Holy Ghost he arose and was baptized in water Acts 9.17 18. compared with Acts 22.16