far as Regeneration in a person is a reason or ground of baptizing him than you have to baptize the adult Considering farther that the words of our Saviour's Commission did run in general terms to disciple all Nations and baptize them how can you think that the Jews or the Apostles themselves could understand otherwise thereby than that the Children of the converted Gentiles and Jews too should with their Parents be received as Proselytes to the Christian Religion and as such baptized unless they had had caution to the contrary which if they had there would have been no place for controversie in this matter The reason of the unlikelihood of their understanding otherwise is taken from a usage among the Jews by which they did initiate Proselytes both Fathers and Children from among the Nations of the Gentiles by baptizing as well as circumcising them A thing which is acknowledged by the more learned among your selves and which you may find recited by several of our English Authors out of the writings of the ancient Jewish Doctors as by Dr. Hammond for one in his Annotations upon Mat. 3.1 John 3.5 See also Ainsworth on Gen. 17.12 The reception of the Proselytes into the Church in this way the Jews esteemed a new birth unto which our Saviour seems to refer in his discourse with Nicodemus when he said except a man be born again of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Jo. 3. And when Nicodemus grosly mis-understood our Saviour and demanded how can these things be our Saviour replied and said art thou a master in Israel and knowest not these things As if he should have said is this any such strange thing which is so like what is familiarly practised among your selves This considered they by Christs commanding them to Disciple or Proselyte all Nations baptizing them could not well understand but that they were now to go abroad into all the World to Proselyte the Nations to Christianity and to enter them in the Christian Church by Baptism both Parents and Children like as now and then a family of them had been formerly Proselyted to the Jews Religion and received into their Church And accordingly the recorded instances in Scripture of persons baptized that had Housholds makes it probable in conjunction with other circumstances that when the Father or chief of a Family was converted to Christianity and baptized his Houshold was baptized also as it had been before practised in the reception of Proselytes Of all those in Scripture who by name or personal description are said to have been baptized there are but nine so far as I remember besides our Saviour to wit Simon Magus the Eunuch Saul called Paul Cornelius Lydia the Jayler Crispus Gaius and Stephanus The Eunuch had no Children and was baptized-upon the road Paul had none not being Married Whether Simon had or had any Houshold is not said And whether Gaius at that time had any Houshold when he was baptized is uncertain But the other five of the nine who had Housholds their Housholds came into the Church with them by Baptism as the Housholds of the Proselytes formerly had done If then we may make a Judgment of what was usually done by so many instances in Scripture as we have of what was done in this Case we shall not want reason to incline us to think that when the Apostles did baptize any that had Housholds that it was their usual practice to baptize all those also that were of their Housholds except such as rejected the counsel of God against themselves and were not baptized which little Children could not do It was not without its signification that of old the great promise of Grace to the World by the Messias was made to Families in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed as if Gods design signified thereby was to bring the Nations of the World into the Church by Families as the event shews he hath done for the most part both before and since the Gospel dispensation The Proselytes of the Gentiles of old as well as the Jews came in by Families and we see by the instances before-mentioned that the Christians came in by Families and were baptized by Families also And the Church hath been stockt by Families and the Christian Religion transmitted down from Age to Age from Parents to Children and from Masters to Servants It will seem the less strange to you that when the Father of the Family was converted to Christianity his Houshold was brought into the Church with him if you consider upon how small appearance of becoming Christians adult persons were baptized and received into the Church in the Apostles days and by them When we read in 1 Cor. 8.7.11 that such as unto that hour continued to eat of the Idol sacrifice with conscience of the Idol are yet called brethren though weak brethren indeed you may easily guess upon how little appearance of Christianity persons were received into the Church and so you may by the baptizing of Simon Magus and many others that soon proved great scandals in the Church by whom the way of truth was evil spoken of When in the same hour of the night in which St. Paul preached the Gospel to the Jayler and his Houshold they were all baptized they did not long stand Candidates for Church-membership nor could attain to much knowledge in the Christian Religion into which they were baptized No doubt but the door into the visible Church is far wider than the gate of the Church as invisible and of the Kingdom of Heaven I do not find that any were refused that were willing presently to be baptized how bad soever they had been before or proved to be after no not Simon Magus himself than whom there could hardly be a worse But then it must be remembred that Discipline was appointed for the cure of distempers in the Church and for the purging it of the notorious scandalous members These things I have the rather mentioned to render it the more probable that little Children were baptized where whole Housholds were baptized when there were any such in those Housholds For if adult and grown persons were baptized and received into the Church upon such easie terms as I have shewed they were if they were baptized when there was but any fair probability that they would own the Christian Religion for the future though but by so little appearance of such a thing as was visible in some of them when they were baptized Then it is not unlikely but that they might baptize some little Children also concerning whom circumstances considered there was every whit as great a probability that they would own profess and assert the Christian Religion for the future as there was that their Parents would in as much as Parents still use to educate their Children in the same Religion which they themselves profess Unto all which let me add this further That the Judaizing
when they are but placed in circumstances that will bring them to do it actually in the Issue And thus the Children of the Rohathites of a month old were numbred with their fathers as with them keeping the charge of the Sanctuary when they were but in a way of being trained up to it Numb 3.28 And in this respect perhaps it was that our Saviour spake of some little Children as believing in him of which I shall say more afterwards Mat. 18.6 And for the same reason it may be little Children were said to enter into Covenant with God when their Parents did so Deut. 29.11 12. To conclude this enquiry Most certain it is that Infants were then received into the Church and were a part of it as all acknowledge and it must be in the respects which I have mentioned that they were so unless any more likely can be named which I cannot imagine For other Infants of the Heathen which were not under these circumstances were not reputed Church Members nor were in any immediate capacity of the Church initiating Ordinance The next thing after this which would be enquired into is whether the visible Church membership of the Infants of believing Parents was discontinued or terminated by the taking place of the Gospel ministration or by any new Church state under it And I doubt not to say that there are many things which will determine this question against you in the Negative I will begin with that in Rom. 11.29 where it 's said for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance These words relating to the calling of such Jews who as concerning the Gospel were then Enemies for the sake of the believing Gentiles and yet beloved for the fathers sake that which I chiefly note from them is That the calling of God or his antient way or method of bringing the Jews to be his people is not now under the Gospel recalled no more than his donation or gift conferred on Abraham and his Seed is when he promised to be their God on the terms he did but both are still continued without any repentance in God The way into the Church is as open the terms of admission as touching the general nature of them as easie and the means of procuring it vouchsafed by God as sufficient now as ever they were God hath not repented of any favour or grace that was antiently granted to the Jews whether old or young in reference to their being of his Church and People And in that very prediction in Isa 59.20 21. which the Apostle here in Rom. 11.26 27. recites touching the calling of the Jews in Gospel times it is foretold that the same way of propagating Church-members and the true Religion which God used in old Testament times by Parents training up their seed in the true Religion and by that means transmitting it from Generation to Generation shall continue in the Church to the end of the World For it is there said As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever And accordingly we find in point of event that except in the first planting of Christian Churches in an extraordinary way by extraordinary means the ordinary way of propagating the Christian profession and professors from age to age hath been the very same with that which was used by Gods appointment by the Jews of old which was by receiving their Infant Children into the Church and so educating them in the true Religion professed by the grown members of the Church For further light in this matter let us consider what doctrine our Saviour taught and what his Apostles after him in relation to it Our Saviour saith Suffer the little Children to come to me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of God Mark 10.14 Which words for of such is the Kingdom of God are the reason here given by our Saviour why little Children should be suffered and not forbidden to be brought to him Which shews that when he says of such is the Kingdom of God he meant it of such little Children properly as those were which were brought to him and not of men like little Children in humility innocency or docility as you would have it For if we should understand it in your sense then that which our Saviour gives here for a reason seems to be no reason For what consequence is there in this or how would it follow thaâ— because the Kingdom of God is of other persons like little Children in other things but altogether unlike them in what was the matter of exception against their being brought to Christ which was their minority that therefore little Children properly meant ought to be suffered and not forbidden to be brought to Christ And if it be meant of little Children properly then our Saviour in these words asserts such little Children to be of the Church whether you understand by Kingdom of God Heaven it self or the Church on Earth For none are of the Kingdom of Heaven above who are not first of the Church on Earth for it is his Body the Church only that Christ is thus the Saviour of But if this Text were to be understood in your sense yet it would prove that for which I alledg it by parity of reason For if that which makes adult persons like little Children in that for which they are propounded as a pattern will qualifie them for the Kingdom of God then it must needs qualifie the Children themselves for it If you say that this way of arguing as well proves Doves Lambs and Sheep qualified to be of the Kingdom of God as little Children because they in some respects are set for patterns unto men and good men upon account of resembling them in some respects are called by their names I answer it follows not because these Creatures have not rational natures as Children have and therefore are not capable of spiritual benefits as Children are Nor were ever constituted Church-members heretofore as little Children have been By reason of which difference it will not follow that the one are not Church-members because the other are not though both are propounded as patterns in some respect of that which will qualifie rational Creatures for Church-membership So that take it which way you will the argument from the Text for Infants Church-membership is far stranger than any thing which can be offered against it Again in Luke 9.48 Our Saviour speaking of a little Child which he had set by him saith Whosoever shall receive this Child in my name receiveth me Here you have no room to pretend it meant of men qualified like Children For it is not said whosoever shall receive such as this Child in my name but
Anabaptists more true to their principles than they and that then the baptizing of persons may be as well deferred till they have special grace as their particular Church-membership may and so upon that account among others have gone over to them Secondly hereby some who may have no saving grace are in great danger of being betrayed into self flattery and into a being confident that they have because so good and knowing a Congregation as they esteem such a Church to be hath judged that they have and so rest secure in an unsafe condition Which made several of the New-England Ministers after their long experience of the effects of this way at last in their joint answer to Mr. Davenports Apologetical Preface p. 43 44. to say thus Indeed when men confound these two and do tie visible Church-membership unto such conditions and qualifications as are enough to salvation this may tend to harden men and to make them conceit that if they be got into the Church they are sure of heaven whenas alas it may be they are far from it Thirdly A guiltiness of a great Schism in the Church and consequently of the many sad effects of it some of which I have mentioned before If the separation built upon the principle under consideration had been matter of duty by vertue of that principle they that have engaged in it would not have been accountable for the evils consequent upon it no more than they were of setting Father against Son and Son against Father Mother against Daughter and Daughter against Mother by preaching the Gospel Lu. 12.53 But whosoever hath undertaken a separation from though but part of the Church upon insufficient grounds and mistaken principles must be accountable for the ill effects and consequences of it until they repent and leave off as well as for the Schism it self which caused them But now I have already represented to you why a Judgment in the Church that persons have not saving grace cannot be the rule of non-admission of them to particular Church Communion supposing them to have been baptized into the Church Universal and I have shewed likewise how that in the account of Scripture such have been visible Church-members and externally related to God and to Christ and called by his name and denominated Saints upon another account than that of saving grace or internal holiness Which if truly represented then it cannot be matter of duty but the contrary to ground a separation from such Congregations as are constituted upon other terms and because they are so In that those of the Churches mentioned in Scripture have been stiled Saints it is no argument why none are to be admitted to Church-fellowship but such as are Saints in a saving sense though this principle of separation I now speak of is wont to be grounded on that For some in those Churches which were not Saints in that sense were yet stiled Saints from their being separated and set apart to own and profess the worshipping of the most holy God only and to be of his holy Religion as I have shewed both in this discourse and elsewhere more at large Saints then was the common appellation of those that profest the Christian Religion as Christian is now and was not then used to discriminate the sincere from the unsound Christians as it is now This was a device of a later date and is too like that of the Church of Rome which does appropriate the honour of being Saints unto such only as they esteem to have been eminently Religious The conclusion then is that if the separation of these friends with that of your own be unaccountable from the Scriptures then they and you must needs be accountable for it as an unlawful and naughty Schism and for the many evils produced by it until pardon be obtained by repentance which none can promise themselves but upon reformation THE last thing I shall observe from the foregoing discourse is that it doth afford us a substantial ground for National Churches That is it affords us ground to conclude that the whole body of a Nation who are baptized into the Universal Church and that profess Gods true Religion are in that respect subject matter of a Church though this is indeed a thing which lies cross to your thoughts and which you are wont to oppose with some indignation The whole body of the Nation of the Jews as was shewed before were by Gods call and their profession Abrahams Spiritual Seed and as such were Church matter and a Church inorganically considered And for the same reason if the whole body of a Nation now by Gods call and their profession of the true Religion become Abrahams Spiritual Seed in a sense they must needs be as well National Church matter as the Nation of the Jews were Now that other Nations which have profest Gods true Religion have thereby become Abrahams Spiritual Seed in a large sense as well as the Nation of the Jews ever were we have good reason to believe not only from the nature of the thing it self but also from the Scriptures The Lord said unto Abraham My Covenant is with thee and thou shalt be a father of many Nations a father of many Nations have I made thee Gen. 17.4 5. Which is not to be understood in a restrained sense of his being a father of many Nations by natural generation only but also if not only of his being a spiritual father of many Nations who were to derive their being and what they should be in a spiritual or religious capacity from him from whom the true saving doctrine hath been since propagated first to the Nation of the Jews and then to Nations of the Gentiles And thus St. Paul interprets the aforesaid promise of God to Abraham Rom. 4.16 17. That the promise might be sure to all the seed not to that only which is of the law but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all as it is written I have made thee a father of many Nations Now if Abraham be hath been and shall be a spiritual Father of many Nations then many Nations must needs be his spiritual Children For Father and Children are corlaretives and in what sense the one is a Father the other must be his Children And when St. Paul saith if ye be Christs then are ye Abrahams seed Gal. 3.29 is true of all that are so and in the same sense in which men are Christs in that sense they are Abrahams Seed whether it be by profession only or by a sound Faith also And in correspondence to all this the Kingdoms of this World are said to become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Which must be understood of their becoming professors of the Gospel of Christ or the Christian Religion Revel 11.15 And this hath come to pass according as was foretold by the Prophets as well as to Abraham himself To instance in one instead