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A78189 Fifty queries, seriously propounded to those that question, or deny infants right to baptism By J.B. an hearty well-wisher to their souls, and to the Churches peace. Barret, John, 1631-1713. 1675 (1675) Wing B907A; ESTC R212079 15,280 32

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as to the age of the Subjects And is it not more modest and safe to live quietly in a Church of that frame as all the Saints of Heaven lived in till the other day as a few Anabaptists did attempt an Alteration Q. XLIII V. p. 160. Whether considering Christ's own Infant-membership and his kind reception of Infants and his chiding those that would have kept them off and his offers of taking in all the Jewish Nation Matth. 23.37 and that they were broken off by unbelief V. p. 143. and consequently the Seed of Believers not broken off from the Church Universal and that whole Housholds are oft said to be baptized and that Paul pronounceth Believers children holy and that Christ expresly Matth. 28. commandeth his Ministers as much as in them lieth to disciple all Nations baptizing them and that it is prophesied that the Kingdoms of the World shall be made the Kingdoms of Christ and there is no Nation or Kingdom on Earth that Infants are not Members of whether in all this and much more there be not a plain notification of God's will that as he never had a Church which excluded Infants so neither doth he now exclude them And if any will take him for Antichrist that taketh Infants into the visible Church V. p. 305. whether it will not prove to be Christ himself Q. XLIV V. p. 209 In summ whether 1. God would not have Parents devote their children to him and enter them according to their capacity in his Covenant 2. Whether also he doth not accept into his Covenant all that are faithfully thus devoted to him and be not peculiarly their God that such children are holy 3. Whether they are not as certainly Members according to an Infant capacity of the visible Church as they are of all Kingdoms under Heaven 4. Whether there be not far more hope of their Salvation than of those without 5. Whether the Covenant doth not make their Salvation certain if they so die 6. Whether the Investiture and Solemnization of their Covenant with Christ should not be made in Infancy Whether ever it can be proved V. p. 233. that granting Infants visible Church-membership yet they are not to be baptized and that Baptism was appointed for initiating none but adult Members Whether Baptism be not the common entrance into the Church and the plain Law of Christ Matth. 28.19 and the Exposition of the Universal Church doth not stand on Record to confute such an Opinion Q. XLV Preface p. 4. How inconsiderable a part of the Universal Church do the Anabaptists hold Communion with And do they not unchurch almost all the Churches on Earth may we not think that they rob Christ of more than nine parts of ten of his Kingdom or Church Universal V. p. 305. Q. XLVI Preface ib. Whether they can possibly hope that ever the Church on Earth will unite upon their terms of rejecting all their Infants from the visible Church and renouncing all our Infant Rights and Benefits conferred by the Baptismal Covenant of Grace Q. XLVII Preface ib. And whether if they continue to the World's end to separate from almost all the Churches and unchurch them their employment will not be still to serve the great Enemy of Love and Concord against the Lord of Love and Peace and against the Prosperity of Faith and Godliness and against the welfare of the Church and Souls and to the scandal and hardning of the ungodly Q. XLVIII V. p. 189. Whether too many well-meaning but weak Christians are not disaffected to lawful and warrantable things in the Worship of God meerly because they see such as are ungodly use and own them And whether if God should but let us have a King and other Rulers that were against Infant-baptism and singing of Psalms c. and would make Laws for their own way and impose it on others so that the ungodly multitude should fall in with them it would not presently cure many that are now for such Opinions Q. XLIX Whether Mr. Baxter in the second and third part of that his second Defence of our Infants Rights have not sufficiently detected the great and notorious Untruths in Fact and History wherewith Mr. H. D. Treatise of Baptism and Reply to Mr. Willes is fully stuffed Q. L. V. p. 228 229. Whether the Anabaptists Schism or Separation from Communion with our Churches be not worse yet than their simple Opinion And whether it be not desirable and possible that some way be found out and terms layd down in which good and sober men on both sides would agree and hold Communion As v. g. If the Anabaptists would consent to and profess as followeth or to this sence Though we judge Infant-baptism dssonant from Christ's instituted Order yet finding that God hath made many Promises to the Seed of the Faithful above others and that Christ expressed his readiness to receive little Children when they were brought to him for his Blessing and knowing that all Christian Parents should earnestly desire that their Children may be the Children of God through Christ and should devote them to him as far as is in their power and knowing that there are difficulties about the extent of this Power and Christ's Promises we do here solemnly profess that we thankfully desire all those Mercies for this Child which God hath promised to such in his Word and that we heartily offer devote and dedicate this Child to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as far as he hath given us power to do it beseeching him accordingly to accept him And we promise faithfully to endeavour to educate him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and as we are able to perswade him when he is capable to believe in Christ and solemnly devote himself to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in Baptism If thus much were done in the Church or so openly as may satisfie the Church that they are not despisers of God's mercies nor of their Childrens Souls And much more if those that profess that they cannot satisfie their Consciences in their Infant-baptism V. p. 230. 231. would but do as the Liturgy doth by those whose Baptism is uncertain If thou be not baptized I baptize thee and so would say Being uncertain whether my Infant-baptism be valid if it be not I now receive that which is And when they have satisfied their Consciences would live quietly in the Love and Communion of the Church who would not receive them though we approve not of their way And should not we be willing to give satisfaction by such an answerable profession as this Though it be our Judgment that Infants have ever been Members of God's visible Church since he had a Church and there were Infants in the World and do believe that Christ hath signified in the Gospel that it is his gracious will that they should still be so and that he hath made Baptism the regular orderly way of solemn entrance into a visible Church-state and therefore we devote this Child to God in the Baptismal Covenant yet we do also hold that when he cometh to age it will be his duty as seriously and devoutly to make this Covenant with God understandingly himself and to dedicate himself to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as those must do that never were baptized in Infancy And we promise to endeavour faithfully as we have opportunity to instruct and perswade him so to do hoping that this his early Baptismal Dedication and Obligation to God will rather much prepare him for it than hinder it Whether might not some such Professions put off the chief matter of Offence and Exception against each other as to the ill consequents of our Opinions and would not sober good men by such a mutual approach be more disposed to live together in Love and Holy Peace which we should all pray for and what in us lieth as far as possibly we can promote FINIS
any person that can be known by themselves or others Would it not be to confound the Decree of God with his Covenant And what Right or hope doth this give to Christians for their children more than to Pagans Whether they that will lay all the Right of Infants to the pardon of sin V. p. 209 205. and salvation upon secret election only as if all that we knew of Infants salvation were that God would save some whom he hath elected but that there is no promise of Grace or Salvation to any particular Infant in the World as under any condition or qualification Whether they must not say that no Infant hath any Right to Pardon Grace and Salvation given him by the Covenant of Grace no more than any elect person at age hath before Faith and Regeneration And must they not say too that we have no assurance that God will save ten or three Infants in all the World For he hath not told us whether he hath elected so many Or that they may all or almost all be saved while the number of the Elect is unrevealed Or can they say that any more of the children of the faithful are saved than of the Heathens or Infidels of those that love God and keep his Commandment than of those that hate him Yea how can they have any proper hope upon Covenant-right that God will save any one Individual Infant in the World For how can we hope in this proper sence of any thing but what we do believe And how can we believe what is not promised or revealed And so must not Parents thus far be left hopeless And if God will save more yea V. p. 205 206. so great numbers as we hope are saved in Infancy than ever he promised to save and gave any Antecedent Right to Salvation to whether will it not open such a gap to the hopes of presumptuous Heathens and Infidels this way as will cross our common Doctrine As some will say why may he not do so also by Parents at least renewing them in transitu And further V. p. 1●2 if God hath given no condition or character Antecedent as a differencing qualification of those that he will save from those that he will not but only told us that he will save whom he listeth whether this maketh not Infants to be no Subjects of his Kingdom under no Law and so liable to no Judgment nor to stand in judgment with the rest of the World but only to be used as Beasts or Stones by Divine natural motion as he will And then if there be no Law that giveth Right to pardon and salvation to any one Infant in the World and yet many are saved will it not follow that God is as the prophane say better than his word and will save many to whom he never gave right to it by promise Q. XXXVIII Though all that are saved V. p. 203 204. are saved for the meritorious righteousness of Christ by way of free gift yet whether the condition be not a sutable acceptance And why may not a Parent accept a Donation for his child who hath no will to accept it for himself Shall he be certainly shut out unto damnation Or shall he have that gift absolutely which is conditional to all others Or is he not concerned in the Donation at all And have not Infants guilt and misery from their Parents And though life and pardon be by Christ only yet is it not congruous that the meer condition of acceptance may be performed by the Parents while they cannot accept for themselves Q. XXXIX V. p. 106 107. Whether it be no advantage for children to be under an early engagement to God and Jesus Christ Whether to dedicate them betimes to God doth not tend to secure God's right and childrens good and to prevent their sin and misery they being thus under a double Obligation which they may be minded of betimes and which may hold them more strongly to their duty and disadvantage the Tempter that would draw them off from God And may it not do much to awe the minds of children yea V. p. 107. and cause them to love that Christ which hath received them and that Society to which they belong And is Infant-covenanting any hinderance in Nature or Reason from personal serious covenanting with God at age Do we not tell our children and all the adult that their Infant-covenanting by Parents will serve them but till they have Reason and will of their own to chuse for themselves If it were deferred till ripeness of age would not one part neglect it and continue Infidels V. p. 222 223. and another part do all formally as we see they do now at the other Sacrament where the same Covenant is to be renewed Is there not a better remedy that all that are baptized in Infancy should as understandingly and as seriously and if it may be conveniently as solemnly own and make that Covenant with God when they come to age as if they had never been baptized if not more as being more obliged Is it not much liker to tend to the good of Souls V. p. 109. and the propagating Christianity and the strength of the Church for to have both the obligation and comfort of our Infant-covenant and Church-state and as serious a covenanting also at age when we pass into the Church-state of the Adult than to be without the former and left only to the expectation of the latter Whether to be seriously devoted to God by our Parents first V. p. 223. and to be brought at age as seriously to devote our selves to him as any Anabaptist can do be not a much likelier way to fill the Church with serious Christians than to leave all men without an early Infant-obligation Q. XL. V. p. 156 157. Whether it can be proved that ever there was one Age or Church particular on Earth since Adam till about 200. years ago that the Anabaptists rose wherein Infants were not de facto taken for Members of the Church Q. XLI Whether it can be proved V. p. 157 104. that ever there was any one Infant of true Church-members that was not rightfully a Church-member himself from the Creation till Christ's dayes Or from the Creation till this day except the Anabaptists who reject the benefit whose case we will not presume to determine Q. XLII V. p. 157 158. Seeing that Infants have been de facto Church-members from the Creation to this day as far as any Records can lead us Is it likely that the Lord and Head and all sufficient Governour of his Church would have permitted his Church till now to be actually made up of such Subjects as in regard of age be disallowed and suffered his Church to be wrong framed till now Or is it a reasonable modest and lawful undertaking to go about now in the end of the World to make God a new framed Church