or term in either of his propositions But the next work we find him upon is an impertinent confused accusation that the Anabattists obscure and darken Scripture and perswade the world that children have no right to the promise till they are actually called Wherein we shall use some patience to bear his abuses and frothy traverses to give an answer as God shall inable Our sence of the Scripture alleadged is this That ver 39. hath a necessary and plain coherence with verses 37 38. wherein we have an inquiry of the Jew wounded in conscience for sin and the Apostles full and comfortable resolution of the case to this effect that God hath made his precious promise in Christ to Jew and Centile of pardoning repenting sinners and of giving to them the holy spirit and that in this grace and promise the Jew and his children had a precedency and priority to all other people and therefore they repenting and being baptised should receive the mercy promised This resolution of this Scripture is not only pertinent to the case but also very coherent with it self and consonant to other Scriptures It was a pertinent point for comfort to the Jew that grace was tendred to all that all scruple from personal incapacity might be removed by such rich mercy and it was an additional comfort that the tender of this grace was specially reserved to be made to the Jew and his children before any others as is elsewhere also declared Rom. 2.10 Acts 13.26 46. But withal it was profitable to inform the Jew who boasted much of his birth-priviledg that although he had a priority in the tender yet as to the grace it self he was but in a parity and likeness with all others that a right frame of spirit might keep him from being puffed up under a mistake of that wherein his Interest lay and this also we have elsewhere frequently instanced Gal. 3.28 Rom. 3.29 30. Eph. 4.5 6 7. And that therefore the same common requisite of Faith and Repentance in order to Baptism must be found alike in all persons that would partake in the benefit of this grace indeed Mar. 16.15 16. He that beleeveth and is baptised c. this is the Doctrine that Christ comanded to be preached to every creature for salvation and this is the order by which it should inure to every creature first that they repent and then that they be baptised And let not your mindes be shifted aside from this truth by a pretence that the Spirit of God in these and such-like places of Scripture is onely to be understood of an invisible work of grace in the hearts of the saints and not of the principle upon which the Gospel-Church was to have its constitution Of which you have formerly in like case been warned 1. Jesus Christ came to gather the true seed into his granary the Church and not the chaff Mat. 3.12 and his sanne the Gospel-administration was fitted as a fanne to doe the thing according to the doctrine held forth he came not to set up a Church after the Jewish principle Mat. 16.18 of a natural generation of the sons of men but by spiritual regeneration to be made the Sons of God and therefore tells Peter that he will build his new Church upon the rock of personal profession And 2. who shall presume to lay a right in natural generation as a principle to give an enterance into the visibility of the Church of which there is not one titlte to be found in all the New Testament from Christ or any Apostle while in the mean time the Scriptures of the Prophets and all the New Testament doe everywhere abound with evidences that run upon a supposition of a real profession of a work of grace as the state of the Gospel-Church and many passages against the principle of a seed according to the flesh the principle of the bondage covenant as hath been promised 2. Whereas he chargeth us with perswading the world to believe that children have no right to the promise till they are actually called It is a very odious and false suggestion the man was ill instructed to publish it this we say that a right to the promise doth not conclude a right to be baptised We affirme that children have a right to the promise as well as the aged but to have a right to be baptised is not given to old or young till the rule of the word be complied with according to which baptisme is to be administred As for his discovery of our mistake which he thus rectifieth Accuser Call hath no relation to children but to them that are afar est 1. Because the children are joyned with their parents in the promise which is an intire proposition in the Text. Answer We say that his affirmation and his reason are of the like worth both made up of a meer trinkling about words his reason supposeth that in a continued discourse a word in one proposition can have no relation to words without the same which is sensless or that there may not be more then one logical proposition in the same coherence of matter which is also as vain as the other We have not yet ended with this Scripture Acts 2.39 We lay our claime to it as eminently justifying our practise of baptisme and that it speakes not in favour of our opposites at all although alledged as a chief evidence against us The promise is to you and to your children therefore repent and be baptised This is part of the Apostles argument to the Jew which plainly infers this That the reason upon which the title of the Jew and their children to the promise was to inure was repentance and baptisme thereupon otherwise there lay no force at all in the Apostles argument if the promise would inure where there was not found in the person the prescribed qualification of repentance antecedent to baptisme If the children should be admitted to baptisme before repentance then the promise carries more to the children then it would afford to the parents although the parents title to the promise be reckoned antecedent to the childs and the childs title through the parent If call in the close of the 39. vers is to be restrained to them afar off and to have no relation to children as is alledged what a disproportion would it have produced in the converts to the Church that the Gentiles and their children being comprised under them afar off must first be called and then baptised but on the part of the Jewes the effectuall calling of the parents and their baptism sufficed to justifie the baptisme of the children without calling Our Accuser proceeds with a long train of arguments we cannot pick out the coherence they have with what had been before alledged we shall therefore take them in their course as the Lord shall give assistance and make our answers to them severally without taking advantage from their inconsequential application either to his
alone This distinction of the Covenant is clear from Rom. 9.4 where the Apostle saith The Covenant pertains to them and yet the Apostle was in great heaviness for them vers 2. It 's clear from Act. 3.25 where the Jews are called the children of the Covenant and yet but few of them internally in the Covenant It 's clear from John 1.11 where they are called God's own which could not be by Creation for so all are his own neither could it be by special Grace For saith the Text they rejected Christ then it must needs follow that there was a visible Church-Covenant or Covenant of Grace visibly exhibited that gave them a claim to God Answer He calls upon the impartial Reader to take notice c. so also do we and shall take it for the point in issue between us and our Opponent viz. whether the visible exhibition of the Covenant the ground of Baptism will justifie the baptizing of Infants or the baptism of Believers and let the Reader consider the evidence and pass a righteous sentence The visible exhibition of the Covenant is not that which the fancy and pleasure of men calleth so but it is the visible way of worship which standeth and must stand by special institution and appointment of God himself under known ordinances and laws reveased in the word of God a description whereof we have Ezek. 43.11 12. Shew them the form of the house and the fashion thereof and the goings out thereof and the comings in thereof and all the forms thereof and all the Ordinances thereof and all the forms thereof and all the Laws thereof and write them in their sight that they may keep the whole form thereof and all the Ordinancas thereof and doe them this is the Law of the house upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy behold this is the Law of the house Here we have a compleat description of a visible exhibition of the covenant where we may see the Lords exactness to give his people an unquestionable plain written rule for all visible worship with this caution that the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy nothing to be taken from it or added to it So did heat first by Moses Exod. 25.9 40. Now we say if such exactness were to be kept in the figure and a sutable faithfulness was found in the servant what exactness may we expect from Christ the Lord see Hob. 3.5 6. Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for a TESTIMONY of those things that were to be spoken after but Christ as a Son over his own house which house we are And that Christ was not wanting to us in this matter see Mat. 28.19 20. but the administration of baptism is a very main ordinance of the instituted worship of the New Testament and that form of it which is practised among us to wit to baptise upon faith and repentance being an undoubted form instituted and practised by Christ and his Apostles and no institution or practise for baptizing infants being produced We therefore say that allowing this distinction of the promise or covenant invisibly and visibly made and that the visible exhibition is the ground of baptism we require the proof of this that infant-baptism is a part of the visible exhibition of the Covenant in the New Testament days institured by Christ or his Apostles and it is no small comfort to us that in a day of so much contradiction envy and detraction wherein this truth becoms a word of patience to us all hitherto we have never been pressed by any one argument which doth pretend to an institution of Christ or any Apostle but by certain far-fetcht reasons from Abrahams carnal seed and from circumcision and suppositions of strange inconveniences imagined by men to follow the denyal of infant-baptism and such like matters and indeed being tryed are found suppositions and nothing else Accuser In a word this must be acknowledged by the Anabaptists themselves else how can they call themselves a visible Church of Christ if there be no visible exhibition of the Covenant to give men such a visible relation for there is no claym to God but by Covenant Answer You have heard us affirm a visible exhibition of the everlasting covenant and that in Gospel-times the same is of another nature then it was under the Law that now it consisteth in a clear unvailed discovery of the doctrine of salvation by Christ and an orderly disposition of all matters relating to the same by the rule of the written word of God instituting the New Testament-administration all which we thus particularly set down once more 1. The exhibition is the only instituted worship which God accepteth and in performing the same according to rule we are said to do that which is right in the eyes of God and not otherwise Exod. 23.13 Deut. 12.28 2. All the force and authority which it hath upon the conscience lyeth in the rule by which it is commanded and binds according to it and no farther Esa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony c. 3. God so greatly detesteth all services which himself hath not commanded that in this respect he declareth that he is a jealous God who will not indure a provocation Exod. 20.4 5. and because mans nature is prone to be inventing and medling God hath therefore never left his Church without certain plain and positive rules for all manner of duties which he requireth And this provision being as needful in the Gospel as under the Law Christ therefore was not wanting to the Church therein Mat. 28.19 20. And amongst other the Lords Ordinances we find a plain rule and institution for the baptising of beleevers and penitents but for the baptising of infants we have not a word and because we do not read it neither in precept nor president we dare not to practise the same Accuser In this sence we are to understand the children of beleevers in the promise according to the meaning of the Apostle in Acts 2.39 Answer That is to say these words of the Apostle The promise is to you and to your children by him preached to the Jew to bring them to Christ by repentance and baptism do import that the children of beleevers are in the covenant visibly exhibited such wretched abuses of Scripture this bold person dares to affirm That the interest of the Jew and his children before repentance and baptism is here expressed to be in the promise of Christ is plain but from these words to conclude an interest yea an actual being in the visible Church would also conclude that the Jew in his rankest opposition was already in that state which the Apostle laboured by the tenders of this grace to bring him into Accuser Now this covenant-right is a ground which God himself lays down why any should be baptised Acts 2.38 he requires baptism v. 39. shews the reason
for the promise is to you Here I desire the reader to take notice how the word of command depends upon the word of promise and what an inseparable union and connexion there is between the command and the promise Answer It is a most false and sensless inference the right to the promise we grant to be the ground of the Apostles perswasion to repentance and baptism but it is no ground of a persons being baptized without repentance neither is it so layd down by the Lord or by the Apostle But observe the dealing of this man he requires baptism saith he v. 38. and what next shews the reason v. 39. the promise is to you and to your children and then on he runs that the word of command depends upon the word of promise with an inseparable union and connexion without taking notice of the conditional qualification of repentance no less in the command as he hath devised to call it then baptism yea antecedent to it What wonder if a corrupt mind drive a person headlong to maintain a justification of smaller by greater evils Having first found out in the Apostles declaration of a right to the promise in persons in order to conversion that the same imports a right in a visible Church-state That here again he also hath found out a command for baptism disjoyned from a comand to repent with an inseparable union and connexion directly against the letter of the text Accuser The same reason alleadged by the Apostle why the parent should be baptised is rendred by the same Apostle as a reason why the children should be baptised for the promise is to you and to your children Answer Let the accuser whoever he be enjoy what he demands we consent to him herein that the reason of the baptism of the parent is the reason of the baptism of the child but the reason of the baptism of the parent by vertue of this right in the promise cannot take effect at all or for ever without the qualification of repentance and if the reason rendred by the Apostle be the same for the baptising of the child then it must bring repentance with it to the water as the Eunuch did faith to Philip or it can receive no baptism if the Apostles reason be rightly alleadged Accuser Nay the very same command expressed to baptise the one is implyed to baptise the other for if some or any to whom the promise is made may not be baptised there can be no force in the Apostles argument Answer We are not willing to contend with our opponent about small matters to wit how the Apostles counsel or exhortation Repent and be baptized may pass by the name of a command But having layd down a truth for the substance in what he first affirmeth we shall joyn issue with him in it 1 we consent that the command to be baptized to parent and child is one Then what saith the comand Repent and be baptized We answer What God hath joyned together let no man put asunder The accuser was telling but now of an inseparable connexion he might have better observed it here then where he sought it But 2 Though we approve our accuser in the first part of what he affirms yet we must leave him to himself to make good his reason viz. If any to whom the promise is made may not be baptized then there is no force in the Apostles argument We make no question but that notwithstanding the multitude of Converts at this Sermon yet there were very many Jews to whom this promise was made equally with those that were converted who persisted in their obstinacy and thereby rendred themselves and their children incapable of baptism upon the Accusers own Principles nevertheless the Argument the Apostle made use of was not therefore without force because they might not be baptized The Accuser having put an end to the cruel torture with which he hath racked the Scripture beyond all bounds of sobriety he leads you to see his fair fruits of better information where we believe you will finde enough to discover the person 's very great want of a sober Spirit to say no more Accuser Thus the Lord satisfied me about Infant-baptism being thus satisfied I went to hear the publick Ministery but this coming to the ears of the Anabaptists there came three of their Society the nex day to me to have an account concerning this thing I told them If they would be pleased to come at a time appointed I would give them the Reasons of my withdrawing from them and accordingly they came the Preachers and Principalest among them where I gave them an account of my withdrawing from them as many of my Friends can bear me witness which was as followeth 1. Their denying the Children of Believers a right to the Covenant 2. Living in constant neglect of an Ordinance of Christ viz. singing of Psalms Answer Thus the Lord satisfied me c. and in his entrance on this of Baptism he saith And upon serious enquiring into the Word and earnest seeking of the Lord it pleased him to satissie me and a little after but by considering I saw their mistakes c. If the Accuser deserves the praise which seems desired by him and allowed to him of having with much search of the Scripture consideration and Prayer sound out and set in order these Grounds wherein his satisfaction lay before he departed from us would it not seem somewhat unhandsome dealing and beneath a learned Minister that above a month after our Accusels departure from us these our accusers meditations should be publickly preached in that Town in matter and form well-nigh verbatim as he here hath written them without acknowledging whose Collections they were but we leave them to agree whether the one's claim to them in the Pulpit or the other 's in the Press shall carry away the applause desired and go on to consider what he Reports of that Meeting in which he gives account of his with-drawing The first Ground whereof as he presents it we have already tendered to examination The second is our living in constant neglect of an Ordinance of Christ viz. singing of Psalms At this Meeting he charged us with denying singing of Psalms now he calls it living in constant neglect of it About which what our Light and Practice is and as then in effect was said you may take thus We do fully and cordially own speaking to our selyes teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms Hymns 〈…〉 singing and making Melody with Grace in out heart to the Lord to be the will of Christ according to which wholy men of God are bound in all generations to sound forth his high Praises in the Church by Jesus Christ which ought to be performed by them being merry in the Lord with Melody in their hearts and a distinct and chearful voice expressed either in the Songs of Moses David or otherwise as the Spirit bringeth things to their remembrance
Children of Believers And in the Text alledged If ye be Christs then are ye Abrahams not if ye be children of believers 4. As to the interpretation of that passage taken from vers 16. The promise is to Abraham and to his seed besides what hath been said in answer to the tenth Argument we say that the application of this Scripture must be made between competent persons and under their proper qualifications and respects respectively considered The promise was made to Abraham as a common Ancestor and he had a noble seed to whom the blessing as an Inheritance did inure but under this qualification as they were his natural seed priviledged under the typical administration by which this Prerogative was so setled Now to improve this Scripture aright the heavenly mystery vailed in this dispensation must be sought out and first we must finde the common Ancestor and him the Apostle discovers to us to be Christ if Christ's then Abraham's seed vers 29. So then although Abraham stood a Father of many Nations under the Law yet Christ is the onely Father the everlasting Father under the Gospel-administration and this Ancestor hath also his Seed more nobly descended then the Seed of Abraham they are all the Sons of God by faith in Christ vers 26. Yea it is impossible that by any other qualification men can come to be the Sons of this Ancestor then by being made one with him in the participation of the everlasting Grace of the unchangeable Covenant Now then it is an incompetent application of persons to compare every particular believer and his children to Abraham the common Ancestor of a whole administration and the Seed priviledged thereby and no less incompetent is the application of the qualification requisite in persons to be accounted heirs that because it sufficed to Abraham's heirs that they were the sons of his natural Generation and thereby made capable of an Inheritance in the figure and in the letter that therefore it sufficeth by being the child according to natural generation of any believer to be upon that account an heir of God and joynt-heir with Christ in the very substance and mystery which the former administration did prefigure We therefore shall deny the Argument raked up out of these two abused Scriptures and we say That it is an absurd as well as a presumptuous reasoning from the promise to Abraham and his seed to infer or suppose that the Infants of believers are joynt-heirs with Christ and their godly Parents under the administration of Grace because of the Birth-Priviledge given to Abraham and his Seed by the Law Accuser Arg. 12. Lastly If children be excluded from the promise it seems the Apostle went about rather to deceive his hearers then to inform them it 's very unlikely the Apostle would use the same dialect of the Covenant that was formerly used to Abraham I am thy God and the God of thy seed the promise is to you and your children if it had been his minde that children should be excluded I wish that men would with unbyassed hearts weigh these things and you shall see that the children of believers are in the promise Answer 1. We say That the Apostle in plain terms tells them That the promise is to you and to your children and in the strength of that gracious promise perswades them to Repentance and Baptism but what if Children be not excluded from the promise where comes in Infant-Baptism upon that account and this should have been the very first thing if he had intended ingenuously to have proceeded and there was a fair occasion for it in the first Proposition That the Covenant of Grace stands now in force to the children of Believers under the Gospel But in stead of a fair proof as well there as all along we have a parcel of doubtful and equivocal terms made use of without any discovery in what sense they are applied of which artifice we have frequent experience And we have some grounds to judge by the management of what hath passed That the Opponent durst not open that door lest the light thereby entring would have manifested these and the like inconsequential and confused reasonings and that therefore it was thought best silently to trust the credit of that Point with the good disposition of the credulous Reader having to deal with us whom in a jeer he scorns with the Title of a learned company meaning a company of silly follows 2. What an odious and audacious inference he here imposeth upon the Spirit of God That if Infant-baptism may not be concluded from the words alledged The promise is to you and to your children then the Apostles use of them is in a deceit we have already made known That the use made of these words was to induce poor grieved sinners to Repentance as containing a Doctrine full of comfort for such that repenting and being baptized they and theirs in all generations had Promises of Christ and all his benefits And what is the deceit herein Indeed to promise an Inheritance in Christ to poor Creatures and to affix a Seal of God to that Promise without any colour of authority by any Rule of the Word may perhaps be in time charged as a notorious deceit the good Lord draw all his faithful Servants out of it 3. That the Apostle useth the like Dialect as he pleaseth to set it out phrase of speech to these Infants that God was pleased to use to Abraham at the confirmation of the Covenant viz. I am thy God and the God of thy seed the promise is to you and to your children is no help to Infant-baptism at all forasmuch as the allegation of the Apostle is to perswade the People to Repentance and Baptism without which the Promise contributed nothing at all to justifie a persons Baptism 4. These words spoken by God to Abraham I am thy God c. did Prophetically and mainly refer to Christ and Gospel-times to have their accomplishment for the gathering in of the Seed of God to Christ scattered abroad amongst the Jews and Gentiles especically and first of the Jews it was therefore necessary that the Argument of the Apostle should be formed to the likeness of the authority from whence it is drawn but still the intepretation suited to the minde of the Spirit to wit the gathering of a spiritual not a carnal Seed to Abraham that is Christ Accuser Further I observe that the promise is to be considered two ways 1. As it is invisibly made so it is alone to the elect 2. As it is visibly made so it is with visible professors and their children whoever is in covenant in the first sense can never fall away but many may be in covenant in the later sense who may afterwards degenerate and fall away Here let the impartial Reader take notice that the Covenant as it is visibly exhibited is the ground for baptism seeing the subjects of the Covenant internally are known to God