him for the future 1 Cor. 10.2 But I will not stand upon this Discipling the Nations by baptising them and their Children Though the word disciple them be a general word comprehending in it both kinds of conversion both by the preaching of the word and the initiation of baptism This is that though which I can presse hence That all Disciples of Christ are to be baptised there is a Command for this Go Disciple the Nations and baptise them And that this discipling the Nations was a making them Scholars and Disciples of Christ not as taught but to be taught of him as before the force and energy of the word in the original importeth as much as may farther be declared in Matthew 27.57 Where Joseph of Arimathea discipled himself the same word is there that here is entred himself to be of Christs school and out of John 9.27 Where the blind man saith to th Pharises Will ye be also his Disciples and be initiated to learn of him and may be farther instanced from the manner of the Jewes amongst whom to become a Disciple was to be initiated into a Master to be taught of him and therefore the very day any one initiated themselves to learn they were called Disciples as Christs were and so called his Disciples from the first day he called them and said Come follow me And like as men are called the Souldiers under such a Captain from the time of their listing them though they be not as then taught the skill of Armes Now then Sir are not Children may they not be called Disciples Acts 11.26 you may as well deny 〈…〉 be Christians as to be Disciples For I take 〈…〉 and Christians are Synonymas that is lest you 〈…〉 symony in that word words of the same name and 〈◊〉 fixation so that all Christians are Disciples of Christ and ano … Disciples of Christ they are Christians and howsoever Disciples were called Christians first in Antioch they may be so called after in any place and Christians wheresoever may be called and are Disciples of Christ In the mouth of two witnesses this word may stand to bear you down for Acts 15.10 Children upon whose necks those false Teachers would have put the yoak of circumcision are called Disciples I say they would have put it upon the Infants of beleevers as well as the beleeving Parents for they would have done it after the manner of Moses Law pressing it still to be of force And why not Disciples I pray do they not visibly belong to the family and school of Christ yea and his Kingdom and so why not subjects also are not the little Children of a kingdom subjects thereof though they know not the Lawes of the same is not the promise made unto our Children and the Covenant of God upon them and do not we Parents offer them to God giving up our Names to God both for our selves and all our Families and undertake for them and their instruction and education in christianity and will this work nothing to the declaring them Disciples I will shut up all these interrogatories with this Assertory that because if children of Christian discipled parents be also discipled why then they are within this commandement of Christ and may and ought to be baptized and so you have a commandement for their baptizing out of that word Go disciple the Nations our children are as capable of being Disciples Or if you will not go from your English of being taught as the children of the Jewish Parents were which if you yeeld unto as you cannot do otherwise then shew me some reason why our children are not as capable of Baptism without such teaching as the Jews children were of Circumcision without the same Besides that I will minde you of this that though they be not capable of receiving actual teaching from men they are not uncapable of Gods own teaching even in their infancy no more than children of the Jews were that hereupon you should debar ours from Baptism when as theirs were not kept from Circumcision upon any such account 6. The same or rather another Commandement for our Infant Baptism may be fetched out of those words Baptizing them for whom doth our Saviour design here for the Subject of Baptism or persons to be baptized why the Discipled or taught Nations Parents and Children they have a right to the Gospel preached as Nations but a right to Baptism Parents and Children as discipled taught and brought into Covenant So that when Christ commanded the Apostles to baptize the Nations so discipled and taught he did not look onely to the time then being but to the continuation of a Christian Progeny and Posterity of Believers upon earth So that as S. Paul saith 1 Tim. 1 16. For this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long suffering for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting so these Nations obtained mercy that in them first Jesus Christ might shew forth Baptism for a pattern to them who should hereafter be discipled and taught of him in the everlasting Covenant namely that Baptism belongeth to them all other Nations so far forth as they consist of discipled Parents and Children Parents professing Christ in their own persons and their Children under their Christian Education both together make up a discipled Nation commanded here to be baptized as the proper and adaequate Subject of Baptism So that if I can shew that the Children are contained in the word Nations the work is done a commandement here is for their baptizing I shall do it briefly yea it is done to my hand already 1. It is a general rule in Scripture That children are alwaies included in every administration whether of promises or threatnings mercies or judgements privileges or burdens unless they be excepted and in the very constitution of it children make a great part of a Nation 2. In this particular of these all Nations here some think it to be spoken emphatically in opposition to the one Nation of the Jews and so it is in a sense this was the onely taught and discipled Nation but now go and teach and disciple all Nations I should rather or as well think it to be spoken in apposition and relation unto the one Nation of the Jews that like as the Nation of the Jews hath been a long time discipled and taught in the Covenant and circumcised the parents with their children so now all Nations are commanded to be likewise discipled and taught in the same Covenant and baptized the parents with their children the which S. Paul sheweth clearly Gal. 3.8 9. namely that the Doctrine of the Gospel delivered to Abraham in the nature of a Covenant was preached now to all Nations and so the blessing of Abraham's family was here conveyed to the believing families of the Nations and so the Promise and the Seal Baptism were here applied to the same families father and children as the promise and seal Circumcision were to the particular families of Abraham father and children and so here came the Nations to be blessed in
plainly and directly evinced Infants Faith and Salvation by it which is all one Doth not David say and testifie Psal 8.2 out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings hast thou ordained or founded strength or perfected praise and doth he not Psal 148.12 call upon and exhort old men and children to praise the name of the Lord the which you cannot expound of spiritual children onely as sometimes it may and somewhere for Mat. 21.15 16. they are real and bodily children that cried Hosanna to the Son of David and fulfilled Davids Speech now if these had no Grace Knowledge or Faith in Christ how could they so glorifie and praise Christ and rejoyce and even Triumph in Christ I ask again are any Infants in Christ or ingrafted into Christ or the Children of God if so as you cannot deny it for we are all one in Christ Jesus whether bond or free male or semale old or young Father or Children And God the Father hath given to Christ Infants and Children as well as Parents and Fathers and to those that Christ hath received his Father he gives eternal life But now they are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus and if they be Christ then are they Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise Galat. 3.26 28 if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 and he that is none of his Christ Baptizeth not But Christ Baptizeth with the inward Baptism also unto Remision of Sins many Infants these are some of his as who hath taken them into Covenant to be the God of them and them to be the Children of God And surely if Christ should not impart unto some Infants Knowledge and Faith according to their measure Competent to Salvation but only to the Adule and grown persons he might seem to be an Acceptor both of Ages and personages which he is not Deut. 10.17 Rom. 2.11 See John 6.35 and 37. He that commeth to me shall not hunger and he that beleeveth in me shall not thirst immediately Christ addeth whatsoever the Father giveth me shall come unto me or beleeve in me I ask you now and Quaere you hath not the Father in his everlasting Counsel and Bounty given to Christ all his Elect Infants and appointed them to be Christs when Psal 2.8 the Lord said unto him thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee ask of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession if so why then they also Infants being somewhat of that whatsoever given unto Christ shall come and do come continually unto him or beleeve in him whatsoever you say or write to the Contrary that they neither shall or do believe See Galat. 3.22 The Scripture hath shut up all things under sin that the promise by Faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those that believe you hear the disease of sin in Adam is spread over all things that is all men and whatsoever is of and in man even Infants therefore the Remedy of Faith in Christ must be spread over them too that this may be as generall and large as that so Infants who are saved must and do believe in Christ See 17. John 3. This is life everlasting to know thee the onely true God and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ Here is a General and universal Rule given by Christ himself the Author of Salvation without any inkling or tinkling of exception for everlasting life to be atteined namely by knowing and believing for that is also included in it as is specified and more enlarged in the 1 John 5.10 11 12 He that hath the Son hath life this life is in the Son and he that believeth hath this witness in himself c. Now I Quaere you again Have any of the Elect Infants the Son of God have they eternall life you cannot deny it and therefore you cannot deny them some spark of Knowledge and Faith See 2 Cor. 5.7 We walk by Faith and not by sight and 1 Cor. 13.12 now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face whence it appeareth there is but one way of joyning us all to Christ and of our enjoying of Christ which is Sight of him in Heaven or Faith in him upon earth to which Sight our Faith now is answerable being of the same nature and quality onely differing in the measure for Faith is nothing else but a sight of him John 12.44 and 4. Now I Quaere you again do not you think but the same way which serveth for all the rest of Gods Elect doth serve for Children also to joyn them to Christ and that there is but one life begun here which is perfected in heaven according to that He that believeth in me hath eternal life John 6.47 Then also must Infants have some light of the mind to see and behold Christ now here as in a looking glase so hereafter face to face See Rom. 4 6. To all Abrahams seed the promise is firm by Faith and his Title is the Father of the Faithfull the Scripture maketh him the Father of us all and all the Children of the promise i.e. The whole number of Gods Elect for of that Primary cause of our Salvation Gods holy Election Saint Paul there disputeth Rom. 9 8. which is observable against the Anabaptists who impute the Salvation of Infants solely to Gods Election which is acknowledged of us to be the Primary cause whereas in that very place he mentioneth a secondary cause of their Salvation that they are the Children of the promise and so reckoned in Abrahams seed because of that Interest they have in that blessed Seed in whom Abraham and all his posterity are partakers of the holy inheritance Now I Quaere you again here do you or dare you exclude Infants from being Abrahams Seed you must then also bar them from having interest and part in Christ if not why do you or dare you to deny them Faith seeing that in the same manner as Abraham obtained the Blessing which was by Faith so must all Nations of the world Jews Gentiles and every particular person all and as many as lay under the curse before even Infants therefore obtain the Blessing by Faith according as it is Gal. 3.8.13 14. What should I run on thus your self will prove as much for me anon and agaiost your self for in your confutation or rather consideration following upon Acts 2.39 there you say That nothing but Faith answereth the promise and I shall tell you that Faith answereth it as the condition If then there be no other way or means for Infants to come by Righteousness or Salvation but by Faith or believing the condition of the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel as works and doing was of the Covenant of Nature and the Law you must either grant some Infants to believe and have Faith or else
Abraham and Abraham here began to be the father of many Nations The which may be yet made more to appear if the time be looked upon when the Apostles were sent to teach or disciple these Nations just when Circumcision lay a dying as I may so say and expiring or ceasing to be a seal of administration unto the Jewish Church a very fit time the very time for the Lord to appoint Baptism and to enlive it for the seal to come in place of the other and perform the same office in the Churches of the Gentiles as the other did in the Churches of the Jews namely to let in the believing parents with their children Look again into Rom. 11.23 24. these Gentile and Pagan Nations were to be taken into the place of the Nation of the Jews now upon this their cutting off and casting out and these wild olives were to have the same engraffing into the good Olive as the natural branches had but they and their children were graffed in and now they and their children are cut off so these and their children of the Nations here were in the like manner here engraffed and implanted into Christ and therefore baptized Rom. 6.5 like as the other circumcised Lastly what a great change would there have been else in the heart and love of Christ if now he who rebuked the Apostles for hindring the little children of the Jews to come unto him yea who embraced them in his arms laid his hands upon them and blessed them should now himself in this commandement unto his Apostles to teach disciple and baptize the Nations not minde them the children of these Nations in the like manner as to Baptism as he did the children of Abraham as to Circumcision but leave them out or forbid them to come or be brought unto him as if he had now no delight or took no pleasure in the Infantry of the Gentiles whereas himself long before spake of this very time Isa 49.22 Behold I will lift up my hands to the Gentiles and set up my standard unto the people and they shall bring thy sons in their arms or bosoms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders But why did not Christ here put in baptize the Nations and their seed as he did in the first administration Circumcise the Jews and their seed The Answer is made in the very Question Because he did it in the first administration of Circumcision there was no need of doing it again and besides children having once a right to be accounted as belonging to Christs Church and to be reputed visible Members thereof and no forfeiture made thereof on their part or bar put In by Christ or any other person of authority they are alwaies so to be reckoned of yea they are here put in again and mentioned in the discipled Nation and comprehensively included in Them baptize them the Nations discipled which consist of parents and their children which make them up Again if the children had not been included here in these Nations what a great change had here bin made in the latitude and extent of the Covenant as to the subject thereof I mean this particular of children and that without warning given whereby some other provisions or course might have been sought for and supplicated at Gods hands for the good of their souls for by this your rule of shutting out children from Baptism by the power of this commandement according to your interpretation if a Jew should convert to Christ and become a Christian and believe in Christ come in the flesh he should be in a worse condition as to his child than before as who may not be baptized whereas before he might be circumcised and the parents faith in Christ will be a loss and prejudice to his child and both parent and child may think it to be a worse Covenant than the former whereas it is but one and the same and therefore when he was a Jew his child was circumcised so when he becomes a Christian his child is to be baptized And thus I have out of this Text of Matthew 28.19 wherein your party glorieth so much though I forgate to tell you that herein is not described the primary Institution of Baptism but onely an enlargement of the Apostles Commission I have evinced a commandement for baptizing of Infants of Believers you perhaps looked for a command exprest in so many letters and syllables Go baptize the children of Believers but is it not good and effectual it ought to be if included in the sense and meaning of the words are not Magistrates and Ministers too by your leave meant in that commandement Honour thy Father are not envie and hatred likewise comprised in that command Thou shalt do no murder yet neither those nor these are expresly literally or verbally commanded where is the Bishop of Rome mentioned in the Revelations yet he meant and his universal headship by the Beast there and his mark I could give you many more instances And why not Infants also comprised in this command Disciple the Nations and baptize them though not set down there by name amongst the Nations and Disciples to be baptized But I have writ enough of this Point before I will onely as formerly now also for a conclusion of this Point leave with you another Syllogism supposing that now having been used to them Syllogisms I mean you will not be much afraid of them though you think them the bug bears of the Universities and limbs of humane Arts and Sciences fear not for unless you come nigh them which I believe you will not or dare not they will not bite you otherwise they have teeth in their mouths The sixth Syllogism is this The discipled or taught Nations and so brought into Covenant are commanded by Christ to be baptized Mat. 28.19 But the Parents and their children are the discipled or taught Nations and so brought into Covenant Therefore the Parents and their children are commanded to be baptized The first Proposition is the letter of the Text as is said The second is largely proved before and who need doubt but that children are included in the word Nations being a part and a great part of them and comprehended in every administration of grace and mercy especially And now leaving the commandement of Christ for Infant Baptism I proceed to the second kinde of Warrants you call for namely the example of Christ and his Apostles for so these two you yoke together in your Quaeres and impose upon my neck to bear up and carry out in this and all points Commands and Examples when your self as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke neither do nor can shew either of the two for your wild untamed and untaught opinion As for the example of Christ it is
such were baptised and all their housholds such a one and All his by the Apostles is your imagination so strong and wide as to shut out the children first out of doors of those housholds that so next you may exclude them from the Apostles Baptism You must do so if there were any within doors or tell us that the Apostles passed by them in their baptisings or you must shew us that all the Women in those housholds were barren not a Mother of a Child or a young one amongst them all For though there should not have been in them Infants or Sucklings yet if but a youngling and a Child of some years all would have been but as one as to their Understanding and confessing Or you must thus divide the housholds as you are good at dividing houses and households setting the Husband against the Wife and alienating the Children from Father Mother which is a very bad practice and say that not all the Houshold was baptised whereas the Text saith expresly He and all his houshold were baptised but some major part or the most considerable part of the house and when it is said the house of Israel was circumcised its meant not of a part either major or most considerable but of the whole house as to the Parents and Children and Servants also or Proselytes under their education and instruction I do not wonder you cannot abide our University Arts and Sciences These cannot abide you and such reasonings and interpretations the Apostles baptised such and all their housholds that is the greater part the people of Growth for though sometimes such a word may be so taken where all are not capable of the thing done or spoken of you must prove it to be so here meant in all the places where the Apostles baptised such and all their housholds which you can never doe the express Letter which you are so for is expresly against you such and all their housholds of which many times also children are not onely some of all and a part of the whole but in your Tearms one of them at least the major part I say not the most considerable but I say a capable part too but if in all or any of these housholds there was but one infant or any one young stripling you are gone as to the Apostles practice who baptised the beleever and all his houshold and incapacity here is none to hinder either our interpretation or the Apostles ministration for if there had been any in the houshold uncapable The Apostle would not have baptised the whole houshold or the beleever and all his houshold and I have abundantly shewed before from the Apostle that Infants of Beleevers are capable of baptism Verse 32. Now if be said that the Apostle preached and spake the word to the Gaoler All that were in the Gaolers house so all might beleeve and be baptised it is true the Apostle did so speak the word to all capable of it but yet at the 31. Verse he speaks of the salvation of all the house upon the tearms of the Gaolers beleeving for that the promise and Covenant being so made at first held still to beleevers parents and their children and here also servants because it is said he and all his were baptised in the 33. verse So it appears to me that the Gaoler himself onely beleeved and had an inward work of Faith wrought in the heart upon some special evidence he received of Christ come in the flesh whereupon he and his of whom the other Pagans of his family there is nothing said as to their faith whether servants of growth or children under age the whole houshold were baptized immediately in relation to the Fathers and Masters undertaking and engaging for themselves and their housholds And indeed to keep to my particular if such in these or our housholds as did or do actually beleeve and professe were and are to be baptised onely why was the houshold as of the Gaoler before who onely there beleeved as I have shewed so the houshold of Lydia of whom onely it is said that the Lord opened her heart to beleeve in Christ baptised Surely the Apostles would not bring in a different Administration now in the housholds of beleeving Christians whether out of Jewes or Pagans from that which ever was in use and practice amongst the housholds of beleeving Jewes at first and therefore went here according the common custom formerly used in time of circumcision and where they baptised any beleeving Father of a Family there they did baptise or others for them the children of the same houshold or might have done Otherwise how could they the Apostes when they preached the Gospel to all Nations and so to their housholds how could they bring the blessing of Abraham into all Nations and their housholds according to the prophecy and promise thereof by God if they did not apply the Covenant and the Seal generally to them and theirs in the same manner as it was to him and his so that the children of beleevers might now be baptised as formerly they were circumcised And lastly I may add this That when men in those dayes were converted from Judaism or Pagainism they did probably at their admittance into the Church by baptism make an open and solemn League and Covenant with God before some people present to professe the Faith of Christ they and their housholds which Saint Paul may seem to put some of them in mind of Ephesians 6.4 Fathers bring up your Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord And therefore when the Apostles did baptise housholds of beleevers they did it in relation on to the Parents or others in their stead undertaking and ingaging for themselves and the children therein And thus now at last and at length too as all other point I have asserted unto you this Point also of Apostolical Practice and Examples for the baptizing of the children and Infants of believing Parents I have answered all your Quaeres and I hope have informed and setled your judgement better by my answers than you could do it by our Quaeres for I cannot yet forget how that at the end of them you say these your Quaeres are your judgement I proceed now to what you have more in your Letter of two sheets but do not mean to proceed as I have begun either to transcribe all your words of the second sheet all have done your words of the first or to bestow twenty and five sheets closely written in answering of your second sheet but loosely written as I have done upon your first sheet for I have dispatched hitherto but the one first sheet of your Letter and there is good reason for it For the first sheet for the most part put Quaeres to me in your number twenty one and they contained in them some material and substantial things to be answered of a large extent and great depth and therefore I thought
thee as it were a Shipboard or into the Ark sealing Christ with his benefits unto thee which shall not be pulled off and made Null and therefore need not to be iterated and set to again the first being still of force and efficacy to all true believers in Christ and repenters of sin Thus I have shewed you Sir how most men yea all men who have been Baptized in their Infancy may and ought to look upon themselves as Baptized in their Infancy which you seem to condemn and that to very good purpose and benefit and whereas you adde as the other part of your condemning them for their not looking after the Command of Christ to be baptized when they believe will you have them look after that is not to be seen or found nay have you seen or found out such a Commandment I pray Si lend or sell no some of your eye-salve to annoint our eyes for by and from that eye-salve in the 3. of Rev. 18. wherewith we have anointed our eyes according to Christs Council there given we cannot see from the one end of the New Testament to the other any such Commandement for persons baptized in their Infancy to be baptized when they believe And yet as if you had revealed and brought to light some rare matter of Salvation you have a very scrious and devout epilogue that it your considerations should be considered without a selfiish prejudicial Spirit a Spirit willing to he guided by the Spirit of the Lord according to his word of truth and the Scriptures truly red and interpreted by the Spirit of the Lord which are quoted to prove the Assertions It will appear to every honest and unbyassed Spirit that Infant-Baptism is a great and dangerous errour for ever to be rejected of every Soul that expects Salvation by Christ Jesus What a Cackling is here made upon the laying of an addle egge or rather what a Crowing is here upon the Treading out of a few idle considerations you have the faculty of entitling upon the Spirit and the Scriptures that which they being the Spirit and Scriptures of Truth own not your considerations and interpretations though very seldom you give interpretations them you leave for me to make quotatious and considerations enough you bring and those to no purpose or proof as I have particularly demonstrated where you cite them I leave it to the Honest and unbyassed Spirits to judge and determine whether the Texts you have cited were pertinent to your Consideration or according to your meaning or interpreting if you have given any whether Infant-Baptism be a great and dangerous errour for evewr to be rejected because now opposed of you which ever was a good and Religions Truth ever practised amongst the Saintt because recommended of Christ and the Apostles whether youts or mine be a selfish and prejudiciall Spirit I confess my Spirit is prejudiciall to yours your opinions as your Spirit is prejudicate to mine and thoughts Lastly whether your considerations be not as inconsiderate in the writer so inconsiderable to the Reader However you think so well of them that you go on to more of them when its time to have done with such selfish things and in the next place offer to me some of your considerations upon Act. 2.39 The which if I thought they were no more considerate nor considerable than your former I would consider a while upon it whether or no I should take them into consideration at all or pass by them as inconsiderable And such indeed they seem to be and upon the General view I find them so for in them all there are nothing but answers and solutions made to objections not set down Refutations and denyals of a sense before it be any where mentioned is not this Cart before the Horse which a Carter methinks should not do a consideration without consideration which a Consideratour I am sure should not do we had before your judgment setled out of Quaeres this is as bad your answers to no objections your refuting no Exposition of ours Well as all the way hitherto I have ordered your matters for you so I see I must do so still or else we shall make no work of it at least have no orderly proceeding in it First therefore let the sense of that Text be given and the argument drawn out of it for Infant Baptism which I will do for you and then after let the refutation of that sense and the Answers to that Argument be added or subjoyned the which you shall do for me Peter having preached here unto the Jess and laid to their charge the death and crucifying of Jesus Christ and brought them to some apprehension of their horrid sins at the 38 Verse exhorteth them to repent and be baptized into the Name of the same Jesus Christ and to accept him for their Messias the which he doth upon this reason and ground mentioned in the 39 Vers and drawn from the benefit that should redound not to the mselves onely but to their Children by their believing in Christ The which he proves from the Promise made to them and their Children In plainer and larger words thus it is God hath remembred his Covenant in sending that blessed Seed in whom he promised to be the God of Abraham and his Seed know ye therefore that as God made the Promise of Grace in Christ to come and to be exhibited unto Abraham upon his believing and took also his Children and Posterity into Covenant with him not onely the natural Jews but even amongst all Nations whoever became followers of Abraham's Faith should by vertue of the same inherit Abraham's Promise That he would be their God and the God of their Seed also which should also be taken into the same Covenant so now this blessed Seed in whom the Promise was founded being now come and exhibited would make it good to you all Jews and Gentiles who would believe in him and notwithstanding your cruel practises against him and your crucifying of him if you will believe in this Lord of life and your Messias you shall thereby be in as good or better condition under this last Administration for your selves and your children as in the former therefore deprive rot your selves by your impenitency and infidelity of so great a benefit as may come to your selves and Posterity for the Promise is made to you and your Children c. what Promise or the Promise of what for so I will clear the Text of some exceptions the Promise of the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost so say some of you that you may the better turn this off from Infants of Believers baptized It is true they are promised also in the Verse before and I acknowledge they were Appendants to the Primitive Baptismes of the adult and peculiar to the first times for the more abundant confirmation of their Faith as Act 10 11. who were converted to it from Paganism and
Judaism But no doubt Peter here aimed and even pointed at that grand and fundamental Covenant of Grace made to Abraham In thy seed shall all families of the Earth be blessed Such a Promise as this of Grace and the free remission of their sins by that blood of Christ though shed by some of them sealed in the Sacrament of Baptism comes seasonably to them to pacifie their troubled consciences and cheer up their drooping spirits whereas the other Promise of receiving the Gifts of the Spirit that is the extraordinary ones of speaking divers Languages c. would nothing so properly and effectually have done it as that was the thing then in hand to be done And besides the Promise here spoken of being a Gospel Promise was to extend to all also that were afar off as many as the Lord shall call and so it did pass on in the general Tenders Privileges and Effects to the Believers of the Gentiles and their children from that time and so shall unto the end of the World But you will not say I dare say That according to this Promise the believers of the Gentiles and their Children have received and shall receive those Gifts of speaking divers and strange Languages throughout all Ages and Generations Such a Promise was never made and ought not to be challenged of God But it may be the Promise made to Abraham was but a personal and peculiar one to him and his seed to be taken Into Covenant and to become a visible Church I will be thy God and the God of thy seed i.e. Isaac Jacob and their children No it extended we see to the Proselytes of other Nations also and to all followers of Abraham's faith both Jews and Gentiles and therefore the same Promise was frequently renewed in Scripture many hundred years after those Patriarchs deceased both to Jews and Gentiles as Isa 30.6 Isa 44.2 3. and so shall continue unto the end of the World Isa 59.21 to as many as the Lord our God shall call until the very last calling in of the Jews it being as I said a Gospel-Promise Yea say you it is granted when any of the Children of Believers come to be called and do believe this Promise shall be made good to them But thus saying you make the Promise to hold forth no more comfort or benefit to the children of Believers than the children of Pagans and thus even Isaac and Jacob should have no external privilege by this Promise until they actually believed yea thus all the Jews but such as were Elect and truly faithfull were cut off as well as the Gentiles from having any visible communion in external privileges thereof The Call here is either inward or outward if inward can none partake of the outward privileges as Baptism but such as have that We know those are common to the Elect and Reprobate If of an outward Call why the Infants of Believers enjoy this Call with their Parents and so partake of the Promise And what if Peter here required repentance of such as were in Covenant before baptism are therefore Infants not to be baptized so Ahraham was in Covenant and an actual Believer and justified in Uncircumcision and received Circumcift on as a seal of righteousness of Faith and Proselytes turned to the Jews were first to make profession of faith were therefore none but such to be circumcised But if being under the Covenant besufficient to give a proper right to the seals of it and the privileges of it as I said why-doth Peter keep such a do with these Jess being already in Covenant to repent and believe before they were baptised and why were none of them being in Covenant baptized but such as gladly received the Word and believed It is no where so said that none but such were baptized amongst the three thousand souls And as for the Jews who receiving the Word gladly were baptised you must know they were not now before it in Covenant so as to acknowledge Jesus Christ the Son of Mary to be the Messias and Saviour of the World as who denied that holy One and killed the Prince of life True they were born Jews under the Covenant in the first Ministration of it and were circumcised and had the seal of their faith in Christ to come But this being now antiqunted and out of date by the coming of Christ in the flesh and these Jews having renounced Christ and deposed themselves and their children from the Title they had to Christ as Matthew 27.25 they so renounced the Covenant they had Title to by birth and were now in a condition little better than Pagans Christians to be made and therefore they were not to have the new appointed seals of entrance which was Baptism to assure them that Jesus was Lord and Christ until they embraced him by faith confessing that he was come and that Jesus was he and repented of their crucifying him And thus having cleared the interpretation of the Text I will give you a Consideration of mine upon it before I come to your Considerations without any interpretation given of you My Consideration upon it is this That here is a good warrant for me and for Infant Baptism against you and so as Solomon said of Adonijah 1 Kings 2.33 That be had spoken a word against his own life I may say you have brought in this Word and Text against your self and the life of your Cause said I a warrant yea a very Command The words Be baptized every one of you you will not deny I suppose to be a word of command from Peter in Christs stead and so from Christ by Peter But the Command is To baptiae Father and Child I prove thus Because the Promise is to the Father and Child The Promise is made to you and your Children and therefore the Command is Be baptized every one of you and your Children For if the Children of Believers have a right to be baptized by the word of Promise they must have a right to be baptized by the word of Command and so the other way also these two being convertible Terms the word of Promise and the word of Command having mutual relation each to other So it s in the general nature of Covenants there must be a convertibility betwixt the two parts that do contract as the mutual Indentures shew and so also it must be in the Sacramental Covenant betwixt God and man and betwixt the word of Promise which is Gods part and the word of Command that contains the duty of man in the Sacramental Action And so particularly it was in Circumcision in which Institution there was a mutual neer relation and convertibility between the word of Promise I will be thy God and the God of thy seed and the word of Command Every man-child among you shall be circumcised so that as many of them that had a right to be circumcised by the word of Promise had a right to be circumcised
so many of them as he did and I would wish you to be very wary when you go over to the Savages in New England and the Pagans in our West Indes that you broach not this either doctrine or interpretation amongst them lest the Parents there and husbands and especially the mothers and wifes fly in your face and all to scratch you and scald you for calling and making their children bastards and left the children 〈◊〉 come forth out of the Cities and mock you and throw stones at you or words as hard Go up thou baldhead he interpretation is bald indeed and hath not one hair of a rational Writer whatsoever the head is or hath under the cap I know not and the she Bears come out of the Wood and tear the false Prophet and interpreter instead of the true children and no bastards What a man are you Sir that thus fill the world with bastards by such your interpretation I mean the world of Pagans and Heathens where man and wife being neither of them believers and so neither sanctified by the other their children must be unclean bastards according to your doctrine and Exposition thus instead of satisfying and pacifying the doubtful and scrupulous consciences of some converted yoke fellows the other remaining unconverted you will trouble and disquiet a world of consciences or the conscience of the greater part of the world which being unconverted and lying in infidelity must sadly look upon their issue as bastardly and illegitimate because unclean Yea this will make such mutinies insurrections in those Kingdoms that there will be no Conscience of peace made as no peace of conscience successions in them and all inheritances may be hereby questioned and overthrown by this your Divinity although it be not good Humanity Yea those worthy Primitive Christians converted by the Apostles who were born in Paganism of both Infidel Parents must lie under your censure and sense of bastardy until you release them and the very father of the faithful Abraham himself cannot escape you but by your exposition must be a bastard too as whose Parents were Idolaters both and servers of other gods than the true one Jos 24.2 I pray you Sir you that pretend so much to the language of the Spirit as if it were your Mother-Tongue the cloven Tongue of the Spirit as also to exposition according to the minde of the Spirit as you said of your self even now as if you were the Spirits Secretary or Clerk of its Closet shew me such a language of the Spirit such a minde of the Spirit in any one Text throughout the whole Bible for this in hand fails of it where a child or children of two unbelieving or Infidel Parents lawfully married together are called or but intimated bastards and will you have the face and impudency without any exemplary Text or parallel Scripture or miraculous gift of Prophesie it would be miraculous indeed if you were so gifted but indeed miraculous gifts are ceased and they were for confirmation of Truths not for confusion of them as are your prophesyings to affirm such children bastards as you cannot avoyd it whilest you interpret the children in St. Paul whereof but one of the Parents in lawful wedlock is an Infidel or unbeliever are therefore caleld holy because they are legitimates or lawfully born and not bastards and when you have done it or before you do it to call it the genuine sense and meaning of the Text and to father it as it were upon the Spirit to be an exposition according to the minde thereof And so now having gone thus far against your interpretation of bastardly uncleanness and legitimal holiness I shall now come back to mine which is also the Exposition generally of all Orthodox Baptist Protestants and I may adde more truly an Exposition according to the minde of the Spirit and the very genuine sense of the Text. For I suppose you will not deny but the minde of the Spirit was in Paul Now Paul was of this minde you must confesse it That children of though but one Christian Parent were holy in the Scripture phrase in the Spirits language in the Churchs relation and if they be judged and reputed such esteemed and spoken of as such by Paul I shall not hereafter much minde or regard what they are in your or others mindes and meanings expositions and interpretations For if the Apostle reputeth them so then God reputeth them so in some things the Apostle said I but not the Lord 1 Cor. 7.10 in other not I but the Lord 12 ver but in this I and the Lord for not I saith he i.e. I onely but the Lord also verse 14. the believing wife is sanctified by the husband c. else were your children unclean but now they are holy I said before that such holiness is here meant and spoken of as is opposite to uncleanness as appears in the very words placed and set in opposition one to the other else they were unclean but now they are holy but to what uncelanness not to the uncleanness of bastardy as you will have it to make up a holiness onely of legitimation both which I have refelled but the uncleanness of infidelity or a state out of Covenant as our Divines will have it to make up the holiness of these children a holiness of federation or federal holiness For so this state out of Covenant as Infidelity and Paganism and Idolatry is very often stiled and called uncleanness as I touched before and such Infidel and Idolatrous Parents or people are even named Adulterers and Fornicators and said to go a Whoring after strange gods or Idols and so it s the condition and denomination of their children to be called unclean all after a Spiritual or Ecclesiastical sense But you cannot shew me where by unclean are meant bastards though bastards may be called unclean for where the unclean persons are reckoned up bastards are not mentioned But if this must go for an Exposition of the Text and that according to the minde of the Spirit as thus unclean i.e. Bastards then the terms or words must go or run true both waies backward and forward that bastards are unclean and the unclean are bastards And whereas bastards amongst the Jews might not by their Laws bear any Office in Magistracy ordinarily for Jephthah was extraordinarily chosen by God and the people for this valour nor sit in the Sanctuary nor execute any Priestly Office as over the Congregation of the Lord Deut. 13.7 like as by the Civil Laws they could not enjoy Inheritances yet they were Circumcised and might eat the Passeover and had free accesse to the Temple and Tabernacle to perform worship and hear the Law and were federally holy as any legitimates But for the particular of infants holiness I say 1. in general Any person or family for so it was at first in Abraham or Nation as afterwards it was with the Jews and is now with the
what great difficulties and intricate Objections are laid upon the Point as pleaded and held to be derived from the faith or holiness of Parents and Ancestors the which for my part I have not found so easie to extricate and shake off though I have said something for it and enough against my Antipoedo baptist hare I do therefore refer this to better Confideration whether our Plea for Infant Baptism would not be stronger cleerer and more consonant to the Truth not that I any way do implead the other as weak dark or dissonant if it be made directly and primitively from the Covenant it self and the saith of which before much is said and the holiness of children themselves thereby I see indeed our worthy Divines do interpret and call the derivative holiness from Parents to their children a federal holiness too and so we all agree together in our general meanings but would it not be more properly and rightly called a federal holiness if it were said to be derived from the Covenant of God as to Parents so to children to both joyntly equally and indifferently made And methinks the Text above cited speaks clear for it somewhat clearer in the Original than in the Translation as to the former part but if the first fruit be holy And or so the lump is if the root be holy And or so the branches are And thus we shall not need to fly to Parental holiness as sometimes we are driven or faith of which before for the upholding of holiness in children seeing we may have federal holiness for them the which I know not but that it may be called a personal holiness sure it is not an abstract Metaphysical Metaphorical or an aerial imaginary notion I say a personal holiness being in or upon the persons of children as the Covenant is and as other relative privileges and the imputative righteousness of Christ are If I erre in any thing here I will not be either Hereâ—ique or Scismatique for I am ready to retract if convinced noâ— willing to divide from the differing Either way it will be still a federal holiness and good either way against you Sir And therefore also some of those our Divines do Expound the holy Root and first fruit in St. Paul to be the Covenant and in a good sense and sounding to that I have said it may be so upon which Abraham and his seed and so along all believing Parents and their children do grow together as holy lumps and branches and it is by vertue of such Covenant that Abraham and every believing Parent is called and meant the holy root and first fruits and their children or posterity the holy branches or lump For the holy Covenant stayed not and determined in Abraham and his seed Isaac and Jacob as some say because the Covenant runs in their names onely the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob as if that were meant when God Covenanted I will be thy God and the God of thy seed God often renewed this his Covenant with that people even after those Patriarchs were deceased and the Covenant entered into with Abraham was an everlasting Covenant and comprehended under it all Nations as the Jews even the Gentiles as many as the Lord our God should call to the saith of Abraham had a share therein and in the eternal privileges thereof both Parents and children and were both holy thereby before the Lord as in others and the Churches account For not onely the Jewish children the natural branches of their father Abraham if he be the holy root as he is but by vertue and in respect of the Covenant are holy and partakers of holiness and the other privileges thereof but even so Gentilish children the natural branches of their converted Parents or Parent being also a holy root as it s said the root of Jesse Esa 11. still by vertue and in respect of the Covenant are holy and partakers of holiness and other privileges thereof But to derive the Pedigree as I may so call it of holiness of children to its first original and root I think I may safely say that all Parents and their children both Gentilish and Jewish even up to Abraham and his seed Isaac were holy branches and partakers of holiness and other privileges from the Covenant it self as the first original and root of their holiness Another Text there is that doth eminently hold out the holiness of Christian infants by Covenant which is Gal. 2.25 We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles of which because I have had a former occasion to say something I shall need to adde but a little there Jews by nature or birth are put in opposition to sinners of the Gentiles just as heâ—e the holy children are to the unclean And these two Texts seem to be parallel As therefore Jews by nature or born Jews in contradistinction to sinners of the Gentiles were holy federally by being born in and under Covenant and of Parents in and under Covenant so Christians by natures or born Christians in contradiction to born Heathens are holy federally by being born in Covenant and of Parents in Covenant our children must be one of the two holy or unclean Christians by nature or birth or sinners of the Gentiles but unclean they are not or sinners of the Gentiles or Pagans therefore tâ—â—y are born Christians and holy with the holiness external of the Covenant and also the holiness particular of the Parents and the chosen Nation in Covenant Besides that they are dedicated and consecrated to God and designed to holiness as Candidates thereof as some of the Fathers were wont to call the infants of Christians and therefore are holy as the Temple is holy the Sabbath is holy the Priests were holy Again Moses and the Prophets every where call the Jews a holy Nation and holy people in respect and by vertue of the Covenant and shall not the children of that Nation and people being also in Covenant be holy federally too yea in therefore called a holy seed Ezra 9.3 in Ezek. 36.38 a holy flock is the flock of Jerusalem and shall not the little Lambs a great part of the flock be holy too The visible Catholique Church is holy and so are particular visible Churches and all the members of the same are federally holy and therefore also little children are so who are members of the same even as the little finger is a member of the body and partaker of the bodily external cleanness Lastly is not the external Covenant it self holy why then sure all who are taken and assumed into it are Covenantly holy and they are Parents and their children And so now lastly I will shut up this Point as I have done often before even all along before with this Syllogism to bring you still into more love and liking of our University Arts and Sciences one whereof is Logical syllogising and it shall be this All