respects than such as amount to saving grace or internal holiness Then your principle and the principle of others in the Congregational way cannot be sound when you and they assert That none are to be owned as members of the visible Church so as to be received into Church Communion who are not in the Judgment of Charity savingly sanctified For we see others than such are in Scripture account owned as really members of the visible Church And therefore the opinion and practice both of you and them in this can be no other than an innovation and humane invention and which hath been one principal cause of so much division in the Church and of the sad effects of it as we have already seen I have nothing to say against exercising as much Charity in your opinion of others as you can But that 's no judgment of Charity nor of truth neither to judg those no visible Church Members for want of saving Grace which yet are so in the judgment of God himself by the Scriptures And men should not pretend to be wiser than their Maker or think to find out better methods than he hath pitcht upon for the promoting his ends his own Glory and mans Salvation But when they do they lightly do in the total and at the long run but frustrate and disappoint those ends or greatly hinder them and promote those of a worse nature The Judgment of Charity in this matter is a rule arbitrary and uncertain and will vary as mens opinions and affections vary and he shall be a good Christian in the charitable judgment of some that shall be denied to be so in the judgment of others To set up this judgment of Charity for a rule in this matter is indeed a way like unto which there is none that I can think of so prepared and fitted to make parties and Sects in the Church as that is But to own all to be of the visible Church who are converted from a false to the profession of the true Religion and the little Children of such and the successors of such in the same profession until they desert the Church or are worthily and deservedly and in a regular way of proceeding Excommunicated is to walk by an open manifest certain and fixt rule which had it been duly observed would have preserved the Church in Unity and Peace which now is lamentably divided and disturbed by introducing other measures Which brings me to the next thing to be enquired into The next thing then which as I say we will enquire into is how or in what respect little Children were members and a part of the Old Testament Church and capable of the then initiating Ordinance And by what hath been before proved I think we may safely conclude that it was not meerly upon the account of their natural descent from Abraham or from Abrahams Seed according to the flesh For Abraham as he was Father to the Church or Church members as such it was not in his natural but his religious capacity that he was so it was as he was a believer that he was and yet is the Father of Believers And accordingly all that were of the Church whether young or old were so upon a religious account in one respect or other The Church is not a Natural Political or Civil Community but a Religious or Spiritual Community And therefore all persons and so little Children that were of the Church must needs in one respect or other have been persons of a Religious or spiritual consideration This I think is past dispute And yet I think that the little Children which were of the Church could not be looked upon to be in that religious capacity actively or by any act of their own while but little ones but were passively such This considered I know not upon what better to place the visible Church-membership of Infants or to attribute it to than Gods electing and calling them to be his people and their Parents dedicating and devoting them to God and his service First God chose them to be his people among the rest Deut. 4.37 Because he loved thy fathers therefore he chose their seed after them This was the adoption of which St. Paul speaks Rom. 9.4 Now Gods thus chusing them to be his people and declaring that he had chosen them as he did in promising to be their God was one degree of separating them from the rest of the World and by which they became a holy seed relatively holy I mean But this was not all but they became his people by Gods calling them to be so as well as by his election and promise The Lord by his Prophet stiled the whole body of the people of the Jews Israel my called Isa 48.12 By this call of his they were in a further degree separated to God as his people and differenced from the Heathen Nations that were under no such call Now God then calleth persons to be his people when he placeth them in such circumstances or vouchsafeth them such means as by which they do or will come to take him for their God and to imbrace the Religion which is of God Now as to the manner of this call it is either extraordinary or ordinary As for Abraham himself he seems to have been called by God in a way extraordinary by his appearing and speaking to him as he did in Mesopotamia Acts 7.2 But his seed and posterity were called in an ordinary way by being educated from their Childhood in Abrahams Religion by their Parents deriving it from Abraham and so successively from one Generation to another from Generation to Generation according to Psal 78.5 6. The Lord established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their Children that the generation to come might know them even the Children which should be born who should arise and declare them to their Children that they might set their hope in God And in this way the little Children who were then members of the Church as all confess were called to that Church membership unless you can suppose that any can be Members of the Church without being called to it And it was doubtless the Election and Call aforesaid by which little Children were brought into that spiritual relation to God and his people which qualified them for a solemn admission into the Church by the Church initiating Ordinance for the time then being which other Children were not duly capable of who were not under that Election and Call God's placing those Infants in such circumstances as was their being under the care and tutorage of such Parents as would issue in their owning God for their God and his Religion for the way of their worshiping and serving him was his calling of them in the beginning of it unto such a profession And the Scripture useth to reckon little Children as having begun to do this or that
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-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
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
sought honour one of another and not the honour that comes from God only John 5.44 I the rather mention these things to you because I know in part how strong a temptation of this nature is and how hard to be overcome But let it be considered that it is not counted a disparagement to any man that he is not infallible when as it is truly dishonourable for any to carry it as confidently as if he were when almost all knowing and good men in the World are of another mind It is in the Judgment of the wisest truly commendable and praise-worthy for a man to acknowledge and retract his error when he is convinced of it If this should not be admitted what place is left for men to grow in knowledge or to perfect that which is lacking in their repentance which is not done without a change of mind There are few men that arrive at any great wisdom but have found occasion to alter their opinion in many things THere is another principle of separation besides this of Infant Baptism which is common both to you and those of the Congregational way and though you differ in the former yet in this you are one This principle of separation consists in an opinion that none are to be held Communion with in Church-fellowship who are not in the Judgment of the Church savingly called and savingly sanctified which you and they call a Judgment of Charity or of discretion This is an opinion and the practising upon it a thing plainly contradicted by the testimony of the Scriptures both in the old Testament and the new This I have shewed already in this discourse And to what I have already said I shall add one or two things more The one is that herein you and they take upon you to judge in matters wherein you neither are nor can be competent Judges He that judgeth a man to have saving Grace or not to have it must pass a Judgment of what is in the heart and not of his outward actions only And this is the Prerogative of God only who as the Scripture saith only knows the hearts of the Children of men 1 Kings 8.39 and therefore may not be usurped by men It 's true indeed we may and must judge the best of men with a Judgment of Charity so far as there is any ground to hope well of them in reference to their state Godward but we must not take upon us to judge in the Negative against men in the worse sense that is that they have no saving Grace or which is the same that they are in a damnable condition except they have those black Characters on them for which the Scripture expresly excludes them from having any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and of Christ such as are enumerated in 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Gal. 5.19 20 21. We may judge of mens declared principles and actions in order to their reception to or rejection or at least suspension from the Communion of the Church when we may not judge of their state Godward A man may be so scandalous as for which to be deprived of Communion with the Church when yet we may not judge that man to have no Grace If any man obey not our word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed Yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother 2 Thes 3.14 15. The reason of all which I have signified already which is because we are incompetent Judges in this at least unless they are monstrously wicked persons The parting difference between the lowest degree of saving grace and that which is but common grace is so little and to the wisest of men so undiscernable that it is impossible but that they will be in great danger of judging them to have no saving grace that have who sit in Judgment upon that matter Yea and of depriving them also of those Church priviledges which according to your own tenent they have a right to having saving grace And thus in going about to weed out the tares you will root up the wheat also contrary to the mind of our Master Mat. 13.29 When our Saviour saith judge not that ye be not judged Mat. 7.1 as he would not have us severe in judging other mens words and actions or intentions so much less their state and standing before God Who art thou that judgest another mans Servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth Rom. 14.4 And again who art thou that judgest another Jam. 4.12 St. Paul saith of him that is a Jew not outwardly but inwardly and whose Circumcision is not outward in the flesh but inwardly in the heart That his praise or approbation is not of men but of God it is not of men decisively or determinately but of God only who knoweth the heart And if it be not of men then men should not attempt it or undertake it Rom. 2.28 29. That 's one thing Another which respects those of the Congregational way chiefly is this That their practice in pursuance of their principle aforesaid is contrary to the constant practice of the Apostles and Primitive Christians We do not find that they refused any adult persons Communion with them in the Supper of the Lord who had been received into the Universal Church by Baptism but only in case of being orderly proceeded against in a way of Church censure for notorious scandalous offences but that such as were baptized continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and in breaking of bread and prayer Acts 2.41 42. And the Proselyte strangers of old who were Circumcised were by Gods appointment admitted to the same Church priviledges as the Jews were Exo. 12.49 Whereas those of the Congregational way though they baptize their Children yet refuse them Church Communion when they are grown if they have any strong suspicion that they have no saving grace although they never came under Church Censure for notorious scandalous offences Which is an Arbitrary and unscriptural way of proceeding and so much the worse in them who scruple some things because not commanded in Scripture though they be not forbidden So that their foresaid principle of separation in Conjunction with their practice of baptizing their Children renders them inconsistent in their way and their way contradictious in it self There are further great inconveniences to say no worse attending this practice of theirs First they have hereby prepared a way to Anabaptism and give occasion for many to take their way to that throughth eir Congregations as taking a degree towards it there For when some have perceived the interferings that are in their way in baptizing persons into the Universal Church and yet not to receive them into their particular Churches nor permitting them Communion with them therein when come to Age notwithstanding their profession of the Christian Religion but upon a new account of special grace they have been thereby drawn to think the
Abrahams House or bought with his money they being under his power to instruct and educate in the true Religion the Males of them were to be Circumcised and received into the Church as Abrahams Spiritual Seed This being so upon what account little Children were of the Church at that time we will consider afterwards In the mean time methinks from what hath been now represented to you from the Scriptures you should not but perceive that the Church was no more constituted by natural generation before the times of the Gospel than it is since And that therefore the spiritual Constitution of the Church under the Gospel is no more an argument against Infants Church-membership nor of the Nationality of Churches now than the like Constitution of the Church in Old Testament times was an argument against them then The next thing I would offer to your consideration is this That notwithstanding that the Constitution of the Church in Old Testament times was as well spiritual as that in the new and did as well consist of Abrahams Spiritual Seed as the New Testament Church doth and that there is no such difference between them as you have imagined Yet for all that the whole body of the Jewish people in Jacobs Line stood related to God as his Children and peculiar people Before they were incorporated into a Common-wealth and while they were as yet in Egypt God himself stiled them collectively considered his Son Exo. 4.22 23. And afterwards to the whole body of that people Moses said Ye are the Children of the Lord your God And again thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God and he hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself Deut. 14.1 2. Elsewhere they are stiled Saints Deut. 33.2 3. Psal 89.5.7 149.1 And St. Paul saith that unto them pertained the adoption Rom. 9.4 Now these several appellations Children of God holy people Saints peculiar people signifie doubtless as much when applied to the Old Testament Church as when applied to the New in the Epistles to the Churches And therefore there can be no difference in the general nature of the Constitution of the one and of the other Though there is a difference in the Revelation of the mind of God and of the way of Salvation to the Church then and now yet there is no such difference in their Constitution as that the one should be called carnal and the other spiritual for as those of the Church of the New Testament are said to be Saints by calling holy brethren Children of God a peculiar people so were those of the old likewise Considering then that the Old Testament Church was Constituted of Abrahams Spiritual Seed as well as that of the New and stiled the Children of God Saints a holy and peculiar people as those of the New Testament Church also are One of these two things must of necessity follow Either first that the whole body of the people of the Jews under the Old Testament and all the people of the Churches of the New who both came under the aforesaid denominations were all savingly holy and no Hypocrites among them or else secondly That some people are in Scripture denominated Children of God a holy People Saints a peculiar people and the like in other respects than that of saving grace or internal holiness And because we have no ground to believe that all those both of the Old Testament Church and of the New to whom the aforesaid appellations are given were savingly sanctified savingly the Children of God therefore we must of necessity conclude that they were and are so called upon some other account that is more extrinsecal than that of special and internal grace And what that should be is not necessary for me to determine it is enough to my purpose that it appears that the forementioned glorious appellations are in Scripture given to some other than such as are savingly sanctified But yet that which seems to me most likely to be it upon account of which others are stiled Saints the Children of God and the like than those that are savingly so is this to wit Gods chusing calling and separating them from other people in the World to be brought nearer to him than those others are in relation and in learning to profess the true Religion And thus such are Saints by Calling Rom. 1.6 7. of which I shall say more afterwards and of the manner how But thus there are many called when but few are chosen as our Saviour hath told us again and again Called not only by being invited but really brought to profess the true Religion in the sincere belief and practice of which Salvation is to be obtained when yet they are not the chosen of God in that emphatical sense which is peculiar to those who are inwardly in heart and Soul separated and devoted to God Thus all and every one are Gods Sons or Daughters that are called by his name as every one is that is called to profess his name and Religion Isa 43.6 7. Bring my Sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth even every one that is called by my name And according to this account and in this more general respect persons very unworthy in point of life and practice are Gods Sons and Daughters Deut. 31.19 When the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters There are many that are Children of Gods Kingdom that will be cast out into outer darkness Math. 8.12 St. Paul writing to all the Churches of Galatia saith thus unto them Chap. 3.26 Ye are all the Children of God by faith in Christ Jesus and gives this reason of his so saying For as many as have been baptized into Christ as they all were have put on Christ viz. by profession And yet many of them were such as made him to write thus of them I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you unto the grace of Christ unto another Gospel Chap. 1.6 I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed on you labour in vain Ch. 4.11 And again I stand in doubt of you Ver. 20. Much more of this nature might be said and it might be further shewed also that the holy Scriptures stile such Saints in this more general respect and in a large sense which were far from appearing to be so in the more special and emphatical sense Instances of this nature might be given in Members of the Church of Corinth and other Primitive Churches as well as in the antient Jewish Church Compare 1 Cor. 1.2 with Chap. 5.1 and 8.10 11. and 15.34 2 Cor. 12.20 21. But I will not multiply words to prove that which appears so evident by a few as you see But if this be true which I have been proving viz. That some in the visible Church are in Scripture denominated the Children of God a holy people Saints a peculiar people in other