Days and Nights under Water to make the resemblance to Christ's Burial compleat and then they would have been Bury'd indeed 2. In Burying a Corps we are not wont to Dip them into the Earth which will not yield to them as Water does but to sprinkle Earth upon it 3. This Phrase must be taken Mystically as our Church expounds it that as Christ Died and Rose again for us so shou'd we who are Baptized Dye from Sin and Rise again unto Righteousness P. Have you any more places of Scripture to produce M. Yes Three more which you shall have in order Mat 19.14 where our Lord says of little Children whom St. Luke calls Infants Cap. 18.15 who were brought unto him for his Blessing and Prayers of such is the Kingdom of Heaven and then certainly we cannot deny Baptism to those Children to whom God will not deny Heaven P. But at this rate of arguing you must give them the Lord's Supper too as they did generally in the Church about a Thousand Years ago M. But there is not the same Reason for adminstring the one as there is the other Ordinance to Children 1. Because in that Command our Lord gives about Baptism John 3.5 the Word made use of to signifie the subjects thereof may be as well extended to Infants as to grown Persons 't is except one any one whether he be Man or Woman or Child be Born of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God but in the Command St. Paul gives about the Lord's Supper he says Let a Man examine himself and so let him Eat of that Bread and Drink of that Cup 1 Cor. 11.28 Let a Man c. the word signifies a Man of Understanding that can examine himself and discern the Lord's Body so that Infants may be baptiz'd pursuant to the former Command but they may not be permitted to Communicate pursuant to the latter P. But these Men will not understand that place of John to be spoken of our Christian Baptism M. They may understand things as they please and as their Interest leads them but it is plain the most Ancient and best Expositors have so understood the place and so it must be understood or else it will be hard for them to prove we must Baptize with Water there being no mention of Water in Christ's Commission or rather inlargement of it to his Disciples to Baptize all Nations Mat. 28.19 And therefore I wonder at the Confidence of * Mr. K. Gold refin'd p. 6. one of them who says this last is the only place where Water-baptism is mention'd when 't is certain it is not there mention'd at all the words are Go ye therefore and Teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 't is not there said Baptize them with Water any more than it s said Baptize Infants and if Water had been expressed to what purpose does that Author muster up eight Arguments and spend so many Pages to prove Water must be impli'd and meant in Christ's Commission if it was mention'd there P. 'T is strange a Man shou'd take so much pains to prove Water must be intended in such a place of Scripture if it was there expressed M. 'T is no stranger than true but he is loath such a needful thing as Water shou'd be omitted in Christ's Comission to Baptize and be only imply'd lest on the same account the baptizing of Infants shou'd be also imply'd in it P. That may be the reason why he is so presumptuous to say Water-baptism is mention'd Mat. 28.18 tho' he tells an untruth in saying it but have you any other Reason why Children tho' they may be Baptiz'd may not receive the Lord's Supper M. Yes because Baptism is an Initiating Sacrament and so like Milk proper only for Babes in Christ but the Lord's Supper is a strengthening and confirming Sacrament and so like stronger Meat proper for such as are grown to be perfect Men in Christ Jesus P. But Christ does not say of these Children but of such as these is the Kingdom of Heaven M. But if Men shall enter into Heaven for being like Children Children who are set for Mens Pattern cannot be excluded from it and if Children have a Right to the Heavenly Inheritance they cannot in Justice be deny'd Baptism which is as it were God's Signing and Sealing the Deed by which it is convey'd P. This seems unreasonable but what is your other Proof M. It is 1 Cor. 7.14 Else were your Children unclean but now are they holy Where the Apostle in all likelihood intends a real or foederal and not a Matrimonial Holiness i. e. only a Legitimacy to be in Believers Children otherwise there cou'd be no Lawful Marriages among Heathens nor their Children lawfully begotten contrary to Heb. 13.4 Marriage is honourable in all c. and this reason of our Exposition the Opposers thereof do well to omit because I doubt they are not able to Answer it P. But if foederal Holiness be here meant then the Unbelieving Wife may lay a claim to Baptism as well as the Children on the account of her Husband's Faith M. No there is a double difference in the Case 1. Because there is not the same reason a Believer's Unbelieving Wife shou'd be Covenantly Holy as that his Children shou'd be so Almighty God having ingag'd himself in Covenant to such Children which he has not done to such a Wife the Tenor of which Covenant runs thus Gen. 17.7 I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy Seed after thee in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God to thee and to thy Seed after thee And this Covenant which God made with Abraham is still in Force and made with the Believing Gentiles and their Children by Virtue of which a Covenant relation redounds to the Children of a Believing Father but not of the Unbelieving Mother the Covenant is establish'd with Believers and their Seed and not with their Wives that are Idolaters and so St. Peter expounds this Covenant Acts 2.39 The promise is to you and to your Children there is no mention in either place of Unbelieving Wives neither are they included in the Covenant of Grace as their Believing Husbands and Children are as for instance when Solomon Marry'd Pharaoh's Daughter she continuing a Heathen still had no benefit of the Abrahamical Covenant as her Husband and Children if he begat any by her had they were both within the Covenant tho' she was out of it In like manner is it with a Believing Christian Husband he and his Children are Covenantly Holy when his Unbelieving Wife is not so but only Civilly Holy 2. The Wife is able and therefore ought to make Profession of her Faith before she is Baptiz'd the Children are not able to Profess their Faith and therefore may be Baptiz'd without it And this distinction they must allow because they have made
Remission of Sins and Gift of the Holy Ghost belongs to the Believing Gentiles and their Children as well as to the Jews and theirs and that they both and their Children stood upon equal Terms in respect of the Covenant of Grace P. But may not this Promise be understood with reference to that Curse the Jews imprecated on their Childrens head when they Crucified Christ His Blood be on us and our Children Mat. 27.25 that they and their Children should be freed from that Curse in case they did live to repent and be Baptised M. No The Text cannot be so Interpreted because if the Curse was imprecated and fell on their Children according to the Jews imprecation why should not this Promise if it were a freedom from that Curse exempt their Children from it altho they might not live actually to repent of it And since a great many of them in all probability did not live so long 't was but poor comfort to tell the Jews their Children should be pardoned and saved on condition they repented which was impossible for them to perform and for this Reason and because it was made to the Gentiles too who are not charg'd by St. Peter to be guilty of Christ's Blood as the Jews were Acts 2.23 this Promise ver 39. cannot be particular to the Jews for their Sin of Blood-guiltiness but must be general and extend to all theirs and the Gentiles Actual Sins and the Original Sin of both their Children and if this Promise belong to both their Children there is no other ordinary means for them to receive the benefit of it but by Baptism P. But does not the Clause in the conclusion limit the Promise to grown Believers even as many as the Lord our God shall call M. No That is only another Phrase to express the Gentiles by and a further Explication of the former All that are afar off and the purport of both is that the Promise is the same to the converted Gentiles as to the converted Jews and since the Children of the Jews are expressed to have a Right in this Promise the Children of the Gentiles must be imply'd to have the same Right in it P. Have they not some other Answers to these Five Texts of Scripture M. Yes But they are evasive ones and I have considered them and reply'd to them in a set Discourse of which this is but an Abridgment P. I should be glad to see this but in the mean time must observe that they will tell you all your five Scripture Proofs come short of Proving your Point because none of them expresly require us to Baptize our Children M. I thought they would allow of a good consequence from these or any other Texts of Scripture for Infant Baptism if they do not what have they to say for admitting Women to the Lords Supper there being no express Command for it P. Here I confess they are hard put to it and after all their turnings and windings are not able to produce one such Precept or so much as one Example for this practice but are forced to fly to deductions and consequencs to prove it M. This shews these Men to be partial they can easily espy the lawfulness of Womens receiving the Lords Supper in Scripture but they cannot or rather will not see the lawfulness of Childrens Receiving Baptism which is as visible there as the other P. But they produce three or four passages out of the Acts of the Apostles and St. Paul's Epistles to prove that Women believed and were Baptized and that they that were Baptized Assembled together and brake bread M. But how do they prove that this breaking of Bread must be the Lords Supper and not the First Christians ordinary Meals since in the same Chapter 't is call'd a breaking of Bread from House to House How do they likewise prove that those that were Baptiz'd and brake Bread must needs be all the Believers that were then in the World and if all were not present as it is highly improbable so many Thousands shou'd receive the Lord's Supper together in one House why might not those that were absent be the Women Alas they cannot infer a right to the Ordinance from what grounds they please they must produce some plain Command or Example for Womens Communicating or they say nothing This is certain my former Texts of Scripture as plainly prove Infant Baptism as any Text they can bring does that Women ought to receive the Lord's Supper and I wish they would let the Controversie rest here and I will undertake to prove as clearly the one as they are able to do the other P. But are you against Womens receiving the Lord's Supper M. No God forbid you know I have formerly Preach'd the contrary and pressed and persuaded Women as well as Men to partake of that great Ordinance and I am still and hope shall ever be of the same Mind But I urge this to prove that we have not better Grounds from Scripture to admit Women to the Lord's Table than we have to admit Believers Children to Baptism P. I apprehend you Sir that there is good Grounds from Scripture for both but if there is no express Command or Example for the Baptism of Infants it must be unlawful for that nothing ought to be done in the Worship of God but what has one or the other to Warrant it M. But how do they prove this P. They produce Jer. 7.31 And they have built the high Places of Tophet which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom to burn their Sons and their Daughters in the fire which I Commanded them not neither came it into my Heart And several other places M. But this and the like Scriptures mention such things only as God had expresly forbidden and the Phrase I commanded them not imports as much and 't is all one as if the Prophet had said I forbade them to do this But what is the Idolatry here spoken of viz. the Jews Sacrificing their Sons and their Daughters to Devils What is this to Infant Baptism which is an Offering our Sons and our Daughters to Christ Is the one as Unlawful and great a Wickedness as the other Let them prove this and the Controversie is at an end but let them not think to fetch their Arguments from the Old-Testament to overthrow a New-Testament Ordinance if they do to speak in their own Language is not this a meer a trifling Vanity and nought but a piece of foolery and deceit to darken Counsel with words without knowledge Job 38.2 I think this to be a more true and safe Rule than theirs that as nothing is our Duty but what God has expresly or by good consequence Commanded so nothing is a Sin but what God has expresly or by good consequence forbidden according to that plain passage in Joh. 3.4 Sin is the transgression of the Law and St. Paul's inference from it Where there is no Law there is no transgression
Persons are sometimes surpriz'd and confounded with them and therefore I long to see that larger Treatise you mention'd M. If you never see it as you may not this being a dull Age for Printing there are many Excellent Discourses on this Subject already Published and that will not be found wanting especially since you have an Abridgment of it in this Conference which perhaps will spoil the Sail of the other P. I hope not and wou'd have you encourag'd because your Reasoning is plain and your Arguments so worded that the meanest Capacity may understand them M. I confess next to God's Glory that is my great design the Edification of all People and those Authors that do not aim at this lose their labour in Writing as the Common People do their time in Reading their Books But enough of this lest I shou'd be justly thought too conceited and censorious P. I believe you speak the Truth after your wanted manner let who will be offended with it and therefore pray give me a little Advice at parting how I shall behave my self in reference to those Men we hâ—ve been all along discoursing of M. Why take heed that you do not hear them that you be not present at any of their Dippings they will very few of them and they very seldom come to our Sermons but none of them to our Church's Prayers or Baptism and think it unlawful to be present at the two last I am sure 't is more unlawful for us to frequent any of their Assemblies and very fit we should hearken to St. Paul's Counsel and receive it into our Hearts as well as Ears Rom. 16.17 Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to sound doctrin which ye have learned and I may add wherein too you have been Baptiz'd and avoid them And I might use many Arguments to this purpose yet shall content my self with one that they esteem the Church of England no true Christian Church nor any other Church to be so that has been or now is in the World excepting only their own and if you had no other reason methinks you should not venture into their Assemblies nor be of their Perswasion nor think them the only Church and People of God because of this their prodigious uncharitableness to all other Christians P. This is Reason enough not to be of their Religion who want Charity which is such an essential part of it and therefore as I never was at any of their Meetings so I hope I never shall believing my self safe in the Communion of this Orthordox Church of England as to the eternal Welfare of my Soul M. And so no doubt but you are and finding you so well satisfied I presume you have no more Queries to propose no further Scruples that may trouble you and shall therefore take my leave of you at this time with those two excellent Petitions of our Litany From all blindness of heart from pride vain-glory and hypocrisie from envy hatred and malice and all uncharitableness M. and P. Good Lord deliver us From all sedition privy conspiracy and rebellion from all false doctrine heresie and schism from hardness of heart and conâ—â—mpt of thy word and â—â—â—mandment M. and P. Good Lord deliver us P. And I pray Sir let me conclude with my Prayer 〈◊〉 that God wou'd restore you and all such to your places that you may do more good in your Generation M. Amen I daily Pray for it and if our Prayers are not heard God's will be done and grant us all an happy meeting in Heaven P. and M. Amen Amen FINIS