inclination it s far enough from putting a man into a justified state And when ever the will is brought to comply with the assent and judgement of the mind in this great matter yet it is then ordinarily a work of time and the fruit of many thoughts and considerations for want of which tho' men do believe their Faith will languish and bring forth no fruit to perfection as we are taught in the Parable by the seed which did so for want of much Earth which answers to the want of many thoughts and considerations All these things consider'd then that since a Faith which hath not Regenerated those in whom it is falls short of a Justifying Faith and since Faith in its beginning and lowest pitch is ordinarily so weak and inoperative to effect so great a change as Regeneration signifies untill by many thoughts and considerations it has gathered some strength and since for it to do so is a work of time and since the Apostles from whose writings these things are collected baptised those upon their first believing or beginning to believe who had untill then lived in the darkness of Paganism I say these things considered make it very improbable that the Apostles Baptised none but upon supposition and probable presumption that they all had a justifying Faith before they Baptised them If any shall say it was upon a charitable perswasion in the Apostles that those whom they Baptised had such a Faith as by which they either were already regenerated and justified or would be in time that they Baptised them I shall not oppose them herein But the saying thus does suppose and grant that the Apostles did not account such a Faith as by which men were already before Baptism regenerate and justified necessary to qualifie them for Baptism if they had but such a Faith which gave them ground to hope that it might in time be improved so as to become a justifying Faith which concession is every whit as much as I plead for 2. It is not probable that the Apostles received none into the visible Church by Baptism but such as they esteemed to be of the Church as invisible by a Justifying Faith because they could not but know that many are really and truly of the visible Church and are so esteemed by God who yet are not of the Church as invisible by such a Faith That such are of the visible Church in the account of the Scriptures both of the Old Testament and of the New I have I suppose sufficiently proved in some of the following Enquiries And if this was and is the currant doctrine of the Scriptures of the Old Testament and of those written by the Apostles we cannot suppose them to be ignorant of it And if they were not it is not reasonable to suppose they would reckon more necessary to qualifie men for their enterance into the visible Church than was necessary to their being of it 3. The Apostles had Commission to Baptise Disciples and Believers without limitation or exception and those who had but the initial Faith which I before described are in Scripture said to have believed and to have been disciples as is shew'd in the following Papers and therefore the Apostles Commission to Baptise must needs extend to the Baptising of such And it is no ways likely that the Apostles would make exception in reference to the Baptising of persons where their Commission made none but that they Baptised all that were at all disciples as such without discrimination or making a difference between believers and believers or disciples and disciples in reference to their Baptising of such Nor does it all appear by any the least hint in Scripture that they did Indeed our Saviour in Commissionating his Apostles seems to make a difference between teaching men so as to make them disciples capable of Baptism and the teaching them afterwards how to live a truly Christian Life he seems to have directed them to bring them first to believe Christ to be the Son of God the Messiah the Saviour the great Prophet that brought to men the way of Salvation and to engage them to become disciples unto him and his Religion and to baptize them into it and then afterwards to instruct them in the particulars of their duty And this the double teaching mentioned in their Commission Mat. 28.19 20. seems to imply and their baptising men so suddenly and upon so little Teaching as they did does likewise infer I have also given same account in the Tenth Enquiry how agreeable it is to the Wisdom and Goodness of God towards men in several respects to admit such as have but common grace into the Church as visible and if it be so then they act cross to Gods gracious design who labour to keep them out of it Another mistake upon which Separation from parochial Communion is founded is an opinion that our blessed Saviour has been more particular then indeed he has in determining the external manner and circumstances of Gods publick worship For the promoters of Separation were wont heretofore to suggest to us from those words concerning Christ Heb. 3.2 That he was faithful to him that appointed him as Moses was faithful in all his House That Christ had given direction in particular about the worship of God and the orders to be observed in his House now under the Gospel as Moses had done under the Law And accordingly they often urged that care should be taken that all things be done according to the Pattern in the Mount By which many people became disaffected to the worship of God by the use of a Liturgy in as much as they could not find our Saviour to have given any precept or direction for the worshiping God in such a way or after such manner Whereas the faithfulness of Christ to him that had appointed him did not stand in being as particular as Moses was in his directions touching the worship of God and orders of his House but in doing and teaching so much and all that the Father had appointed him as Moses also had done And since we find that our Saviour has not been so particular in his directions touching these matters as Moses was we thereby know that the Father did not appoint him to be so because he was faithful in observing all that was appointed him Now that our Saviour has not been so particular in his directions touching the external manner of Gods worship as Moses was will quickly appear if we do but compare what was done by him in this kind and what was done by Moses Vnder the Law God did not only prescribe the matter and substance of his worship as the several sorts of Sacrifices and Oblations but also the particular circumstances relating to them as the place where the Sacrifice should be killed and on which side the Altar and how it should be dressed and about the Fire of the Altar and the orderly laying of the Wood upon it and how
of their being already qualified with the other It is true men by Baptism it self are brought into a new state externally they are brought into a new relation to God to Christ and to the Church his body and to new enjoyments also in the Church And it is to be noted our Saviour calls Baptism a being born of Water as a birth distinct from that of being born of the Spirit Our Saviour in that discourse of his with Nicodemus about Baptism and being born again seems to allude to the Jews custom of receiving Proselytes by Baptism as well as by Circumcision who did reckon they were thereby born again as it were and brought into a new state of life as is well known by the tenour of the writings of the Jewish Doctors And altho by being born of Water men may be said to be born of the Spirit in one sence for they are Baptized into the Name of the Holy Ghost as well as into the Name of the Father and the Son and by one spirit we are all Baptized into one body as the Apostle faith 1 Cor. 12.13 Yet in a higher and more emphatical sence all that are born of the Spirit are not so born when they are Baptized but most of them afterwards as the experience of the Church doth abundantly manifest Again another Scripture is Act. 2.38 Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins Now it may be some will argue hence that since Baptism is enjoyned in order to the obtaining of remission of sins and since Baptism alone without Repentance here required with it will not avail for the obtaining such remission that therefore a being Baptized for the remission of sins always supposes Repentance in him that is Baptized Answer The most that can be inferred hence is that Baptism as well as Repentance and Repentance as well as Baptism are directed to and enjoyned in order to the obtaining Remission of sins but not that such Repentance as is available to this end is enjoyned as the condition of being Baptized and by that to be received into the Church Tho I deny not but that in the adult a profession of sorrow for sin past and a promise of amendment for time to come was always required before Baptism but sorrow for sin alone avails not to the obtaining of remission of sin and what the promise of amendment for the future would prove was uncertain to those who received Persons into the Church by Baptism The Apostles we may well suppose received such raw Disciples to Baptism as those were to whom this counsel was here given upon like terms that John the Baptist received the multitudes that flock'd to him for Baptism and they were Baptized confessing their sins They confessed themselves such sinners as needed amendment and professed sorrow for what was past and by receiving Baptism engaged themselves to amend for time to come and accordingly he is said to Baptize them unto Repentance Mat. 3.11 But very many of them fell short afterwards of performing their engagement John 5.35 Baptism and Repentance as saving are not inseparable in point of time in reference to the obtaining Remission of sin If a man do effectually repent tho it be not till long after he is Baptized yet his Baptism and Repentance will be effectual for the obtaining Remission of sins And if so then such Repentance as is saving is not of necessity before Baptism to the obtaining of Remission of sins But the truth is if we will infer any thing from the Text under consideration in reference to our present enquiry it may be that which is so far from proving mens Visible Church-Membership to depend upon the credibility and reputation of their being of the Church as Invisible as that it will much rather prove the direct contrary viz. That the credibility of mens being of the Church as Invisible depends upon their being of the Church as Visible For it tends to prove that men living under the Gospel and others I meddle not with in this matter cannot approve themselves to be Members of the Invisible Church until they are first made Members of the Visible by Baptism For we see men are as well to be Baptized for the Remission of sin as to repent to obtain it As the promise of being saved is elsewhere made unto a being Baptized as well as it is to believing He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved Mark 16.16 And if so then a man cannot be concluded to be in a pardoned state that through his own default is not Baptized by which he should be made of the Visible Church and if he cannot be concluded to be in a pardoned state without this then he cannot be duly reputed to be in the Invisible Church-state because there are none in that Church-state but what are pardoned If any should alledge the words of St. Paul If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5.17 and infer that none are by Baptism or otherwise in Christ but what are new Creatures the answer to them is this If by any mans being in Christ be understood of such a being in him as is saving then he is indeed a new Creature and truly Regenerate But then that is such a being in Christ as is not visible to men and therefore does not belong to our present inquiry But if you read the words according to the Margent If any man be in Christ let him be a new Creature then this Text does not infer that if men be in Christ they are new Creatures but that they ought to be so according to their Covenant-ingagement when they were planted into him by Baptism Act. 2.37 It is likewise urged to prove that a true saving faith such as makes men Members of the Church as Invisible is requied as necessary to qualifie them for Baptism and Visible Church-Membership For when the Eunuch said to Philip Here is Water what doth hinder me to be Baptized Philip said unto him If thou believest with all thine heart thou maiest And he answered and said I believe that Christ is the Son of God Here Philip seems to make a believing with all the heart to be the condition of admitting the Eunuch to Baptism and what less can a believing with all the heart be than a true saving faith To which I answer thus That the Apostles and Evangelists such as Philip was did indeed suppose and expect a faith in Christ in all adult Persons whom they Baptized into him is not to be doubted Nor is is it to be doubted but that they press'd and persuaded them to be very hearty and serious in their undertaking the Christian profession when they Baptized them into it and so did Philip here But yet we see that for all that Philip Baptized this Eunuch upon his bare professing that he believed Jesus Christ to be the Son of God tho he did not say that
Church and those of the world All under this Character and Badge and none but they were of the Visible Church and therefore it must needs be the Constitutive form of that Relation Visible Church-membership All that have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ and are visibly Christians and of Christs Church How ancient and how long before Christs appearance in the world in our nature this way of constituting Visible Church-members has been by such a Rite as God appointed I have shewed before And if this visible Covenanting with God by Baptism be that by which persons become Members of the Visible Church then a probable appearance of Regeneration or a reputation of being of the Church as invisible cannot be it that makes them visible Church Members tho it does qualifie them for it unless this probable appearance of Regeneration and Covenanting with God by Baptism be one and the same thing And if they be then those of which our Parish Churches are constituted have a probable appearance of Regeneration or of being of the Invisible Church and then they are constituted of matter according to those Dissenters own mind And if so then we may well hope they will no longer separate from them as if they were not Constitututed of qualified matter So that things are brought at last to this issue That these Dissenters must either overthrow this Plea against the reason and ground of their Separation and prove that visible Covenanting with God by Baptism is not that by which Visible Church-membership is made or else it will certainly overthrow this Plea of theirs for their Separation And if they will so much as attempt to overthrow this Plea against them they must row all the way against the stream and strong tide of the Scriptures and against the stream of Antiquity and the sense of the ancient Church from the Apostles times downwards who always esteemed Baptism the door of entrance into the Visible Church and consequently that all such as had pass'd through Baptism were within the Church And as it is more agreable to Scripture so it is much more reasonable to say that men cannot seem to be of the Church as Invisible without being first of the Church as Visible than it is to say their being of the Church as Visible proceeds from their seeming to be of the Church as Invisible For as touching mens enterance into the Church by Baptism our Saviour hath said Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 And Baptism is injoyned in order to the obtaining Remission of sin and Salvation which are Priviledges of the Church as Invisible Acts 2.38 and 22.16 Mar. 16.16 So that according to these Scriptures mens being and seeming to be of the Church as Invisible and their sharing in the Priviledges of it seems ordinarily to depend upon their being of the Visible Church by Baptism Now one would think a Notion so preposterous as this opposed appears to be should be very unfit to make a foundation to build Churches upon or to justifie a separation from those which have a substantial foundation the Scriptures I mean But if mens seeming in the apprehension of others to be of the Church as Invisible did not depend upon their being of the Church Visible yet such seeming could be no proper or fit Rule by which to judg determine and conclude who are and who are not of the Visible Church And the reason is because it is Arbitrarious and uncertain for mens being or not being acknowledged to be of the Visible Church would depend upon the uncertainty of mens opinions and affections and those would seem in some mens apprehensions to be of the Church Invisible which to others would seem otherwise And then those would be owned by some to be of the Visible Church which would be denied to be so by others Of the truth of all which this present Age hath furnished us with plentiful experience And if this should be the Rule observed through the whole Christian world it would be the ready way to make Parties and Sidings unchristian oppositions and uncharitable censurings among Christians in all parts of the world as it has done here in this Nation Whereas to be visibly in Covenant with God by Baptism is a certain fixed a common open and publick Rule by which to judg who are of the Visible Church so long as they continue to own themselves under the obligation of that Covenant and have neither so far violated it as to give Divine Worship to other Objects than their God nor incurr'd to themselves Excommunication by Heresie or other scandalous living And this Rule gives no occasion of division in the Church as the other does but tends to bind and hold the several Members together in the unity of the Spirit and bond of peace To which purpose St. Paul urgeth it upon the Christians motive-wise Eph. 4. All these things considered one would wonder how men of Learning and Piety should ever be betrayed into such Notions and Principles and to lay so mighty a stress on them as they have done when yet they have no more colour from Scripture or reason than ever yet they have been able to produce for their defence But to make the best of it I can we will suppose it was the appearance of a more thorow Reformation and more pure Communion which in their apprehension was to be obtained by these new Methods that first drew them into this way Reformation and pure Communion are things which sound mighty well in good mens ears and which they can easily believe to be well pleasing unto God And as there is an appearance of greater strictness in that way than in that of more general Communion so it was easie for them hereupon to think there was more purity in it also which has been the prevailing reason which has carried multitudes into Quakerism And when such an opinion has once seated it self in mens minds they quickly grow confident that nothing in Scripture can be against it and then they can easily fancy that every slight appearance and sound of words in Scripture is for them upon which they can but put such a gloss as shall favour them though it be nothing to their purpose when impartially scann'd And had their opinions and practice which I have opposed and wherein they differ from all other good men been matter of purity indeed I should not have made One to find fault with them But if this their Way be disagreeable to Gods pure Word which is the Rule by which we must judg of what is pure and what is impure and if it run counter to our Lords Method laid down in the Scripture of ordering the affairs of his Church in very material points then it will be found an impure practice a sinful mixture and a corruption to be purged out of the Church And yet such it is if I have not
God now as ever Circumcision did the Circumcised heretofore And it is now as much the benefit of Persons to be obliged in Covenant with God in their Infancy by Baptism as ever it was for others formerly by Circumcision Now as touching that Warrant or Authority which Christians have to oblige their Infant Children by Baptizing them to become parties in Gods Covenant and to perform the terms and condition of it on their part as they grow up into a capacity of being active therein I shall compare what of this kind Christians have with what Abraham and his Seed and others had for their obliging their Children to be a People unto God by Circumcising them Abraham and his Seed had an express command for it but the Gentiles which were not of Abrahams natural Seed had only a favourable allowance and grant that in case any of them had a mind to joyn themselves to the Jewish Church and to have communion with them in the way of worship prescribed them Exod. 12 48. that then in order to this attainment the Father or Man himself was to be Circumcised and all his Males But otherwise as Circumcision was not enjoyned the Gentiles so we do not find that any Prophet or other were sent abroad among them to draw them into the Jewish Church only we read indeed that the Pharisees compassed Sea and Land to make one Proselyte but its probable it was but from among other Jews to make him of their Sect to strengthen their party But when the Visible Church was to become Christian our Saviour commissionated his Apostles to go into all the World and to disciple all Nations and Baptize them Now if this commissioning extended to the Baptizing the little Children of Christian Parents as well as the Christian Parents themselves then here is Warrant and Authority enough for such Parents to engage their Children by Baptizing them in Covenant with God and to oblige them to perform the terms of it when they shall be capable of endeavouring to do so And that this Commission of our Saviour did extend to the Authorizing the Apostles to Baptize such little Children I have endeavoured to make out in another discourse which I shall not here repeat but refer the Reader to it Address from p. 29. to p. 80. The substance of what is there said is reducible to these two heads 1. To shew what reason the Apostles had to understand the words of their Commission to Baptize in this Latitude 2. What reason we have to believe that they did understand the words of their Commission in this extensive sense and that they did practice accordingly Unto what I have said there I shall here add one very considerable reason to induce us to believe that the Apostles did Baptize the little Children of Christians taken from the unanimous agreement of all Christians in all parts of the World in the practice of Baptizing Infants in the purer times of the Church and before the defection into Popery Now there are some things which render it morally impossible that there should be such an unanimous agreement in such a practice unless they had it from the Apostles or others sent by them in their first planting of Christianity in those places The Apostles went into all the World to Preach the Gospel and were our Saviours Witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth according to his Commission Their sound went into all the Earth Rom. 10. Col. 1.6.23 and their words unto the ends of the World The Gospel was Preached to every Creature under Heaven as St. Paul saith There are some things which make it morally impossible that there should be such an universal agreement as aforesaid in all places upon any other account or for any other reason than their first receiving this practice of Baptizing Infants from the Apostles in their first planting of Christianity there As 1. The vast distance of one place from another where the Christians lived made it morally impossible they should come into this usage by combination or imitation of one another 2. The diversity of their Languages made it impossible that this sameness of practice should grow out of any mutual correspondence or intelligence held by them 3. If these things had not made it impossible and if it could be supposed that the Christians in all parts notwithstanding their distance of place and diversity of Language might have held such correspondence as by agreement to have introduced such a practice as they had not from the Apostles but had been imposed upon them at first by some Innovators yet it is morally impossible it should steal into all Churches and every where without some known opposition from some good men or other if it had not been Apostolical We cannot with any reason think that all Christians both in office and out of office in the Church would have suffered such an Innovation as this if it had been an Innovation without such considerable opposition as would have been taken notice of by some Author or other who lived in or near such time in which it had been first brought into the Church Since then no man is able to assign the beginning of this practice short of the Apostles times And since the whole world of Christians were agreed in it in the purest times of the Church for ought appears to the contrary And since all Christians how much soever they have differed in other things have yet all along agreed in this as much as they have in the observation of the Lords day a very few only excepted and those chiefly or rather only as have appeared since Luthers days or the beginning of the Reformation And since the Apostles practice recorded in Scripture of their Baptizing whole Housholds gives us ground to believe they practised the same in all places where they have been and that their doing so was the reason and ground of the universal practice of Baptizing Infants in all Churches first planted by them and in those succeeding them I say all these things considered there remains little reason for any impartial man to doubt but that the Apostles did practise Infant Baptism in pursuance of their Commission QUERY VI. WHether in the Baptizing of Children that method of proceeding be not most proper by which the Children are most directly made to enter into Covenant with God by their Parents The reason of this Query arises out of the matters discussed in the two former For if that Union and Relation between God and men by which they become Members of his Visible Church is made by entering into Covenant with him to be his People as he with them to be their God And if little Children are obliged in Covenant with God by what their Parents do in causing them to be Baptized with intent thereby so to oblige them then I propose it to be considered whether it will not thence follow that it is most proper to demand of the Parents
me to fall somewhat hard upon such as separate from the publick Worship of God established in such Nations by National Authority in a way of National Reformation and on those more especially who separate from that Worship for that very reason because enjoyned by National Authority It likewise falls hard upon them also who disesteem or less esteem a National Ministry because it is National or made such according to a National establishment These seem to be of one mind and Almighty God of another when he esteems Nations to be joyned to him and to be his People by that for which they separate Their pretence that in the Apostles times and for three hundred years after the Affairs of the Church were carried on only in a free Congregational way in greater or lesser voluntary Associations and therefore they ought to be so now seems very inconsiderable Because what was done in that kind then was done by way of necessity because they had not opportunity of a better Not but that they long'd for and pray'd for such Kings as would use their Authority and Power for the propagation and furtherance of the Christian Religion as well as for the defence of it and the Professors of it And they esteemed it no small favour from God when at last they obtained it in Constantine a Christian Cesar who used that Power of his for the establishing the Christian Religion and Worship of the only true God and for the ordering and regulating many things relating to the more commodious and orderly carrying on the ministration of the Gospel and the Worship of God And therefore the people of God then existent in the Empire are brought in by the Spirit of Prophesie expressing themselves thus upon that occasion Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ as I shew'd before Rev. 12.10 2. It may be justly questioned whether it be worth the while for men to dispute against the being of a National Church in New Testament times considering that in the New Testament Nations reformed from Paganism and Popery are stiled Gods Kingdoms And considering likewise that the Scripture stiles the same people and in the same respect sometimes the Kingdom of God and sometimes his Church And therefore it should seem no more improper to call a Christian Nation a Church of God than it is to call it a Kingdom of God which yet the Scripture stiles so 3. It may be observed yet farther That the Kingdoms or Nations which have been reformed from Popery were before such reformation was made but Kingdoms of this world notwithstanding much of what pertains to the Christian Religion was then owned and professed in them The Spirit of God by whom the book of Revelations was indited we see stiles them so in their unreformed state The Kingdoms of this world are become c. Yet they then in their unreformed state Worshipped the true God and his Son Christ Jesus They owned the holy Scriptures for the Word of God and used the same Creeds which the Reformed Churches themselves use and yet we see they are in that state stiled by the Spirit of God but Kingdoms of this world when as under their reformed state they are said to be the Kingdoms of God and of his Christ Like as Almighty God for the like reason esteemed the Nation of the Jews who had been his own Church and People but as Ethiopians unto him Amos 9.7 and told them by another Prophet Ye are not my people and I will not be your God Hos 1.10 For tho they had his Ordinances among them and boasted of their Temple-Worship crying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these yet at the same time they burnt Incense unto Baal and walked after other Gods Jer. 7. they divided their Worship between the true God and Baal and did swear by the Lord and by Malcham Zeph. 1.5 And upon this account it was that God said of them by his Prophet they are unto me as a speckled bird of a Religion of several colours Jer. 12.9 For this spiritual Whoredom especially it was that Almighty God who had once espoused that people to himself gave them a Bill of Divorce at last brake up house turned them out of doors and sent them out of his Land untill they should repent and reform And if we compare these things with the spiritual whoredom wherewith Mystical Babilon is charged and for which with other heinous crimes she is threatned in this Book of Revelations it will not be at all hard to conceive why Nations while Popish are stiled and esteemed but Kingdoms of this world And this if there were no other is argument enough to prevail with all such as would not be disowned by God to be none or to become none of their Communion who are thus disowned by him And thus we have seen how both from the light and law of Nature the reason of the thing and from divine Revelation also the great expediency at least of the publick exercise of Gods Worship in the way of National establishment is warranted and approved of This then may be a caution to men who live in any such reformed Nation as we have discoursed of and as ours is to take heed of acting in matters Ecclesiastical or pertaining to Church Communion as if they lived in a Popish or Pagan Nation by disowning and by separating from the National way of Worship lest thereby they discountenance and disparage what God approves of and disown that for which God owns such a Nation for his Kingdom It is true the Primitive Christians who lived in Pagan Countries and those since which have lived in Popish have been necessitated in duty to be separate in their Christian Communion from their National Worship as much as they were obliged not to be Idolaters But there is a great difference between false Worship and defects in that which is true The best Church Constitution and the best Church Administration which have men not divinely inspired for the ordering of them are liable to humane defects And if humane defects even in Gods Worship were not to be endured for the sake of Communion in the Worship it self there could no such thing as Church Communion be enjoyed among Christians because we cannot say there is any in this imperfect state in which we are without defects But then the question will be what defects are to be indured in Gods Worship rather than Communion in it should be forsaken and what are intolerable and for the sake of which Communion in the Worship is to be declined And here it seems to me impossible warrantably to determine any defects intolerable which do not alter the nature of the Worship and make it become false Worship that do not destroy or defeat the ends for which true Worship serves Who is he that will undertake to determine for what defects which