the whole law Secondly God promised to be a God to Abraham and his spiritual seed such as walk in his steps that is believers whether Jews or Gentiles in giving unto them an eternal inheritance Heb. 9.15 incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away purchased by the blood of Jesus and reseved for them in heaven of which the earthly inheritance in the land of Canaan was but a type So there is a twofold seed of Abraham a fleshly and a spiritual typed out by Ishmael and Isaac and a two-fold inheritance an earthly and a heavenly But the heavenly inheritance was not given to the fleshy seed but only in Types offered to them and confirmed to the spiritual seed who are therefore called the heirs of promise Heb. 6.17 Neither was the Covenant made with Abraham a pure Gospel Covenant but a mixt Covenant consisting partly of promises of temporal blessings of which Isaac who is said to be born by promise was the true and proper heir And partly of promises of spiritual blessings of an heavenly inheritance and of these Jesus Christ was the true her and Antitypical Isaac for as Ishmael the child of the flesh had no right with Isaac in the outward Typical promise so Isaac himself by vertue of his fleshly descent had no right nor Interest in the heavenly inheritance and Gospel priviledges Rom. 9.7 any otherwise then he came to have an interest in Christ And therefore we find the Apostle in Gal. 3.16 expounding the word of promise i. e. I will be a God to thee and thy seed sheweth that the Gos-promises of Abrahams Covenant were not made to any ones fleshly seed no not with the meer fleshly seed of believing Abraham himself but the promises did all run to Christ the inheriting seed to whom they were made and when Christ was come they all center in him see and consider the text Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made he saith not to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ to Isaac in the type but to Christ in the Antitype and in him are all the promises yea and Amen Having thus followed the promises down along from Abraham to Christ and found them all to center in him let us now see to whom they came forth again And it is not to any ones fleshly seed whatever but from Christ they all flow forth again to believers and only to believers and that by vertue of their union with Christ and therefore says the Apostle If ye be Christs then are ye Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise for there is no other way to partake of the promise but by faith in Christ Gal. 3.22 The Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe where two things are observable first to whom the promise is given viz. to them that believe secondly by what means they come to partake of them and that is by the faith of Christ so in verse the 26. you are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ and if ye be Christs that is by faith then are ye Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise So then it seems all promises run to Christ and from him flow forth again only to believers Which being impartially considered is a full answer to all Arguments drawn from the Covenants and the promise made to Abraham and certainly and unavoidably cuts off Infants Church membership in the days of the Gospel unlesse the Poedobaptists can finde a new institution for it But for a further illustration of this and that you may see that this is not my opinion alone I shall present you with some select passages that the judicious and eminent divine Dr Owen hath upon this subject it is in his Exercitations upon the Epistle to the Hebrews tom 1. p. 55. c. to which the Reader is referred which by another hand may be shortly improved In the mean time take these few instances Two Priviledges did God grant unto Abraham upon his separation to a special interest in the old promise and Covenant First that according to the flesh he should be the father of the Messiah the promised seed who was the very life of the Covenant the fountain and cause of all the blessings contained in it That this Priviledge was temporary having a limited season time and end appointed unto it the very nature of the thing it self doth demonstrate For upon this actual exhibition in the flesh it was to cease In pursuit hereof were his posterity separated from the rest of the world and preserved a peculiar people that through them the promised seed might be brought forth in the fulnesse of time and be of them according unto the flesh Rom. 9.8 Secondly together will this he had also another priviledge granted unto him namely that his saith whereby he was personally interested in the Covenant should be the pattern of the faith of the Church in all generations and that none should ever come to be a member of it or a sharer in its blessings but by the same faith that he had fixed on the seed that was in the promise to be brought forth from him in the world On the account of this Priviledge he became the father of all them that do believe for they that are of the faith the same aere the children of Abraham Gal. 3.7 Rom. 4.11 as also heirs of the world Rom. 4.13 in that all that should believe throughout the world being thereby implanted into the Covenant made with him should become his spiritual children Answerable unto this twofold end of the separation of Abraham there was a double seed alloâ—â—ed unto him A seed according to the flesh separated to the bringing forth of the Messiah according to the flesh and a seed according to the promise that is such as by faith have an Interest in the promise or all the elect of God Not that these two seeds were always subjectively divers so that the seed separated to the bringing forth of the Messiah in the flesh should neither in whole or in part be also the seed according to the promise or on the contrary that the seed according to the promise should none of it be his seed after the flesh Our Apostle declares the contrary in the instancos of Isaac and Jacob with the remnant of Israel that shall be saved Chap. 9.10.11 But sometimes the same seed came under diverse considerations being the seed of Abraham both according to the flesh and promise and sometimes the seed it self was divers those according to the flesh being not of the promise and so on the contrary Thus Isaac and Jacob were the seed of Abraham according unto the flesh separated unto the bringing forth of the Messiah after the flesh because they were his carnal Posterity and they were also the seed of the promise because by their own personal
in as much as he that hath builded the house hath more honour then the house Moses was faithful as a servant but Christ as a son over his own house whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence c. where the servants are also described they are belivers not infants hence they are also called living stones and a spiritual house 1 Pet. 2.3 And that none but such are of this houshold appears in that Christ the great Master of this house is compared to a king travelling into a far Country who called his servants all his servants and delivered unto them his goods that is Certain Talents to improve Math. 25.14 15. which cannot be supposed to be delivered to infants while they want the use of reason for these â—alents are presently to be improv'd and laid out not laid up So again Christ is compared to a house-keeper who made a great supper and invited his guests but they were not infants because the first that were invited made excuses The next are compeld to come in which supposes an unwillingness in the parties and that they were persons capable to consent or deny The summe of all is that the old house the Jewish Church with all the appurtenances and priviledges of it is pulled down and a new one built into which infants are not admitted because not invited nor appointed by any law They were of the houshold of old but it was by a positive law shew us the like now or you say nothing Sure I am there is no institution that makes infants now fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Neither are they so to be accounted till they believe and are able to do service in the house And if you say that amongst men infants are counted of the houshold though they can do no service I answer that comparison does not run upon four feet it doth not follow that because we count our infants of our family therefore they are to be accounted members of Gods family the Gospel Church unless God by any institution had made them so The houshold of God is called the houshold of faith do good unto all especially the houshold of faith or a house consisting of believers now unless you prove your infants to be believers they are not of this house For all the servants here must be believers either really or Historically and professedly which infants cannot be And it will not help you to say the Church was or may be called the houshould of faith synecdochically from the greatest part for it is evident all the materialls of the first Churches were adult persons and professed believers as appears by the narrative we have in the Acts of the Apostles the direction of all the Epistles and divers Scriptures Besides it may so happen that the infants may be the greatest part of a Congregation and then where is your houshold of faith Poed But Mr. Wills tells us that Mr. Baxter saith That Infant Church membership did take place as an ordinance of God before Circumcision was enjoyned or the Ceremonial law instituted and why then should it cease with it It was no part of the typical administration but a moral institution of God even from the beginning of the world God ever made a distinction between the seed of the faithful and the seed of the wicked as visibly belonging to several kingdomes of God and of Satan Mal. 2.15 Therefore they are called a holy seed Wills pag. 54. Bap. Here is vox praeterea nihil 'T is true Mr. Baxter saith so but if it be warrant enough for Mr. Wills to believe it it is not for me It is strange of what authority some mens words are when they have got the estimation of Orthodox and pious and we have no great cause to wonder at the implicite faith of the Church of Rome when an ipse dixit from an English oracle commands such credit and vassals us to their raw and undigested dictates But let us examine this assertion He saith that Infant Church-membership did take place as an ordinance of God before Circumcision c. But where is that ordinance why are we not directed to some place of Scripture where we may find it Did God make Mr. Baxter of his Cabinet Councel and reveal it to him and no body else Or in what Ancient father did he find it Did any one ever say so before him 2. He saith that it was no part of the typical Administration but a moral institution of God c. I answer there hath been enough said to prove the fallacy and novelty of this position Therefore I referr you to what hath been written But he saith it is a moral institution We still demand where we shall find that institution or else wee 'l say Mr. Baxter is wise above what is written 3. He saith God ever made a distinction between the seed of the faithful and the seed of the wicked But what distinction Did God single them out and separate them by any visible sign or character before the law of Circumcision It is evidently known he did not Or did God distinguish them by his providential care of them or provision for them more then others The Scripture is silent as to this also Or did God love them with a saving love more then the children of unbelievers This seems to be his meaning because of his next words as visibly belonging to several kingdoms of God and Satan But is it so Did all the children of believers from Adam to Abraham belong to the kingdom of God and all the children of unbelievers belong to the kingdom of the Devil If it be Mr. Baxters Divinity or M. Wills charity it shall be none of mine But he thinks to salve all with the word visibly But pray when the sons of God took the Daughters of men and all flesh had corcupted its ways to what kingdom did they belong Did not the seed of believers grow prophane and wicked and the seed of unbelievers pious and Godly as appears in divers even Abraham himself whose father was an Idolater as is probably supposed he himself being bred up in Idolatry But Mr. Baxter hath some Scripture for his warrant and it is Mal. 2.15 that he might seek a godly seed But he that can find infants Church-membership in this text and that the seed of believers did always belong visibly to the kingdom of God and all others to the kingdom of the Devil erit mihi magnus Apollo What though God says he that sâ—ught a godly feed therefore let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth implying that children born in lawful wedlock are this Godly seed Let none whether believer or unbeliever unless you hold that children of unbelivers may not be a godly seed But these are such Non sequiturs that it is in vain to spend further time about them So that the Morality of Infants Church-membership is a very fancy And that
Holiness 5. From page 129. to the end He endeavours to prove the Validity of Baptism as Administred by Sprinkling Of which in Order ANIMADVERSIONS UPON Mr. Whiston's Book c. HE Intitles his Book Infant Baptism from Heaven and not of Men This indeed may raise the Expectation of such as have not Read Mr. Baxter's Plain Scripture proof I began to think he had lighted upon some Rarity else he would not Front his Book with such a Title nor trouble the World especially at this juncture when such men of Noise are already Engaged against us But Empty Casks give the greatest sound and pregnant Mountains bring forth a Mouse From Heaven and has he been there then and searcht the Records and was of the Cabinet Counsel of the Almighty what if we doubt it we have but his bare word for it He must pardon me if I say Infant-Baptism from Rome or beneath for if it had been of Heavens making the Scriptures and the Records and Histories of the purest Primitive times would not be so silent about it as the most Learned Paedo-baptists confess and particularly Mr. B. our keenest Adversary is forced to own they are But the Author is cunning and would Decoy the Reader by a specious Title so the Vintners gaudy sign often Trapans to a costly though unwholsome Entertainment The plain Scripture-proof man himself confesses Infants baptism has its considerable difficulties the Ingenious Papist counts it a Miracle to have it proved by Scripture Most of the Learned Paedo-baptists have recourse to Tradition for help and how come they to miss of this mans Invention all this while This Apollo this Oepidus this Alexander which you will might have done good service to unriddle the Aenigma or cut that knot the unfolding of which cost so much Debate Had he brought that from Heaven sooner which was ever there he had saved many Learned men the labour of their Elaborate Systems pro and con But this Author has as dexterous and nimble a way of confuting all Antiquity as the Junior Sophister in Oxford used with Bellarmine when he writ in the end of his Works Bellamine thou liest therefore I will make bold to tell him that he stamps his uncertain Conjectures with a Divine Character and fathers his Forgeries and contrivances upon Heaven which is a during piece of Confidence to say no more So that I shall say of him and from just ground as the Poet of Pigmalion extreamly doting upon the fair Image he made Operisque sui concepit amorem c. He tells us Mr. Danvâ—rs his Book is all Forgery which he leaves to the Readers Observation wishing him to have a care of crediting any of his perswasion But if this be not Inconsistent with the Laws of Ingenuity Equity and the Generositie of a Scholastick Education I know not what is Had he been as nimble to attacque the Cause we maintain as we find him a keen Satyrist against the person he Opposes who never gave him the least Provocation it would be more honest and taking But instead of a fair unprejudiced Examination of our Arguments he laies bout him terribly and deals his strokes unmercifully charges the whole with Forgery Falshood and what not without vouchsafing to tell us wherein those Forgeries and Falshoods lye But stay Sir as loâ—ty a conceit as you have of your self wee 'll not believe you upon your bare word Have you hit upon that pernicious Knâ—â—k â—â— assassinating mens credit at a breath It seems you â—corn to be â—uch a petty Chapman â—s Mr. Ws. who comes to Particulars but you would knock us down by whole Sale You lâ—â—ve the â—â—ader to his own observation And is that all as if he had stood gaping till you become his Monitâ—â— could not the Reader make his Observations without thâ— impertinâ—â—t memento Be wary of crediting any of his perswasion In this I would appâ—al to Mr. Whiston's Conscience or any â—â—â—â—â—of commoâ— genuity whether it be just and 〈◊〉 for him to charge the whoâ—e party of Antipâ—edâ— baptists at this rate although Collonel Danvers as 't is possible a Learned man may had been mistaken in some things among so numerous a Tract of Quotations of which he has made no significant discovery neither Would he think it fair dealing if we should improve the particular errors or miscarriages of Paedo Baptists to the scandal of all under that denomination particularly the apparent Injustice and unchristian Dealings of Mr. B. and Mr. Ws. in their late conspiracy wrongfully to impeach us and the truth we profess and their malicious Contrivances in prosecution thereof fully detected by another hand And whether we have not just ground to conclude his Infant-baptism is not from Heaven not only from the weakness of his Arguments but from his manner of Arguing also the Apostles way being to convince in meekness and confute in terms full of Love and void of all Opprobrious and Canting Railery The Scripture tells us that the wisdom that is from Above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good Works without partiality and without Hypocrisie James 3.17 Whereas he accosts us in so haughty and domineering an Equipage as he thinks will crush and disable us from any farther Encounters with so dreadful a Gigas as he takes himself to be Exposing us to the scorn and odium of the whole World as if we had not felt enough of its unkindness till he comes to open the mouth of Calumny wider and make our Enemies bâ—â—l louder But these things we hope our Lord God whom we desire to serve will give us patience to endure for his Name and Truths sake But to put the better face upon the matter he pretends to give some instances of Mr. Ds. his unfaithfulness in his Quotations and of a great many picks out two with singular judgment which he thinks â—e can toss to the purpose and makâ—s his Reader sport to see how ridiculous he would make them But to check his triumphant Insultings we shall joyn issue with him in the fair Tryal of those particulars he impeaches 1. He charges Collonel Danvers for unfaithfulness in affirming that the Magdeburgs say in the place he cites That in the first Century they find they baptized only the Adult or Aged c. whereas the Word only is not there This Exception Mr. Ws. made and is answered by Mr. D. in p. 31 32. of his Reply and I conceive it is no part of ingenuity in Mr. Whiston to be inculcating that which he could not be ignorant was so justly replyed to already But What if Mr. D. has been in the right and the falshood be laid at Mr. Whistons door is not Mr. Whiston then the unfaithful man and that it is so the Reader is desired to consider that what we desire to prove from the Magdeburgs is matter of Fact viz. whether Infants were Baptized in that Age which in plain terms they tell
Monarchy that great thing Catechrestically call'd a Church must vanish and the large Revenues pomp and grandeur of its active Janizaries expire with it since the matter of such a synagogue is the collective body of the nations which because of its unbelief and prophanesse the word of God excludes out of the Church till in Gods time and by his power gradually converted it being evident from the mouth that errs not that the greatest part of Mankind traverses the broad way to destruction Math. 7.13 Surely this one consideration has a more forcible rhetorick to keep up this pernicious practise then all the juglings of its abettors or the gaudy flourishes or specious Fulcrums its defenders produce to illustrate and support it It is one of the Popes political and very necessary maximes and I fear borrowed by many from him wanting that power by which the Gospel ministers acted to principle the emissaries that manage his cause very ripely in school-sophistry and such other subtile qualifications that their learned craft and seeming profoundness of wisdom and parts may amuse and captivate the generality of mankind And indeed we find them too apt to be gaping after those ornaments which the Apostle elegantly calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and well translated the inticing words of mans wisdom 1 Cor. 2.4 They are well versed in the perplexing Idle whimsies of Aristotle Scotus c. but meer dunces and fools in plain Scripture doctrines their Heathen Philosophy and the Gospel being at as wide a distance as the Earth is from the third Heaven See Job 5.12.13 and 32.9 1 Cor. 1.19 But what is most lamentable is that ministers that are separatists from national corruption and prophaness and in the judgment of charity in many things orthodox and pious should be the forwardest opposers of so necessary a reformation and not only so but when they find the pretences upon which it was with a ridiculous retinue obtruded upon the world rotten and reeling they must invent new supporters for it viz. a Covenant right derivative from a believing parent c. As if spiritual graces would admit of carnal propagations or that a Christian doth always beget a Christian a divinity as novel as 't is absurd And with this modern auxiliary this otherwise yeelding cause is reinforced In the judgment of some it may parhaps add to the credit of that fancy that so famous a man as Mr. Baxter is should patronize it But he is not the first Theological grandee that has been mistaken Performances of never so exalted a kind conferr not the priviledge of Infallible 'T is only the great Creator is unerring A man may preach and write of the most seraphick verities and yet know but in part Mr Baxter is to be honoured as far as he has laid himself out to preach the Gospel and improve his Talent for the Conversion of souls in this evil day But when he forgets himself and instead of promoting practical holyness fills the nation with notions as uncertain as they are numberless puzling such as arrive not to the subtilty of his distinction creating more doubts then ever he 'l be able to resolve making Christianity a meer riddle which no man understands but he and liable to as many forms and interpretations as his wavering mind Then I humbly conceive he may be very safely left 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a golden Aphorism of a heathen poet Sure as peaceable as he would make us believe he is that party or person that incurs his displeasure must expect an unmerciful handling He is so invenom'd an Antagonist that whoever encounters him has need of an Antidote Nor is his reverend new Author Mr. Wills to whom he is so liberal of his encomiums much behind in this Excellency A strenuous satyrist that by the flashes of his Academick wit makes some blaze little of solid heat or warmth As for Mr. Baxter it feems he has something prophetical in him he says in his last book he knows what can be said in answer and what he 'l reply and the others rejoynder c. Belike he knew by the same prophetick faculty the first year of his ministry when he fell into doubts about Infants Baptism and suspended the practise some years as he says that the Anti-Poedobaptists would be out of the favour of the times and so inconsiderable as he scornfully says they are which scared the man to the other side And to convince the world that he was re-proselyted in good earnest persecutes them with all the obloquy and slaunder a virulent peevish humor could dictate So that poor people 't is well their bones are whole from the furious artillery and crushing grasps of so mighty a Polyphemus It would â—â—artle a man to see what a room he would take up as if the whole world must become his pupill How confident a dictator he is to universal mankind such a reconciler that he will not be stopt in his cariere till he brings us to Rome as if the vast creation must be of his parish But I doubt the Pope will not be so tamely cog'd to resign up to Mr. Baxter his Regalia Petri Sure as nimble a Proteus as he is hee 'l find himself mistaken in these incongruous Topicks We have the Bible in English and in the original too and for all he picks a quarrel with that in his 20. Quaeries c. because perhaps too narrow to confine so boundless a wanderer yet it shall be our Christian Directory wee 'l keep it preciously and leave his rotten and superfluous notions to fill up the vacuums in the Stationers shops That leaven hath so soured his whole lump that for fear of sucking some poyson with his honey we 'l be Christians as well as the Lord shall enable us without him Hold but he gives you his extremum vale at the door of eternity But is very angry that he is importuned to it from some supream transactions he is hatching in his study Possibly his next errand may be to send us to Constantinople nor is the scruple extravagant considering what he has done already to have a treaty of reconciliation with the Muphti and make some part of Mahomets creed by his vast Authority Orthodox But being so successesse in Christendom he may very well despair of that undertaking But what 's his farewel why he begins with his old quarrel with Mr Tombes rallying his defeated quibbles for a new Combat But he is full of words and will leade his reader such a dance that he may sooner grow giddy then finde the truth or whereabouts he is such a continuation of impertinent periphrases though connext with his wonted Artifice that Daedalus's Labyrinth may sooner be travers'd then the more numerous mazes and perplexities of Mr Baxter and all to ecclips a Gospel truth His next project is to take Col. Danvers to task he thinks it beneath a man of his Talent to let him passe without fixing an Epithete upon him as
believers have their breeding amongst unbelievers and the children of unbelievers amongst believers in that case these laâ—t have not only no less priviledge as to the promise of salvation by bare birth but a priviledge also by that breeding above the other That therefore that the promise of the Gospel covenant in any sence in the world is made to believers seed as barely such more then to the natural seed of unbelievers can never be proved by the word yea the contrary is evident from this place Acts. 2.38.39 For first neither were these parents believers as yet when Peter said the promise is to you and your children but only were pricked at the heart upon some measure of conviction that the person whom they had crucified was the Lord of life which the devils believe tremble at in order to begetting that saving faith which yet they had not he spake these words of encouragement Secondly doth Peter make the promise any otherwise to them and their children then he doth to all others in the world viz. on condition of their coming in at Gods call 't is sayd to you and your children and them that are afar off all manner of persons in all nations and generations as the Lord our God shall call viz. as are prevailed with to come when God calls them which to be the sence of this place is further illustrated by that parallel place Heb. 9.15 they that are called receive the promise of eternal inheritance Thirdly when the parents did believe were baptized were any of their children baptized with them which they must have been had that promise been to the Infants as well as to the parents on that single account of being their seed but that no Infants were then baptized appears because the Scripture recording how many were baptized at that time it concludes them under such a term as excludes the Infant from that days work while it says as many meaning no more or else we are deceived in the relation as gladly received the word this Infants could not do were then baptiZed which number as they are recorded to be about 3000 might in all likelyhood have amounted to three times 3000. if all the Infants of those had been baptized also so that I conclude if they had Infants why did they not bring them or at least send for them here being so fit an opportunity to baptize them and so for ever to put the controversy out of doubt But fourthly neither were there any more enchurched that day but such as gladly received the word and were thereupon baptized For of these only and not infants its said they continued together in the Apostles doctrine in Fellowship and in breaking of bread and prayers But all their Infants must have been Enchurch'd also if they had been baptized Fifthly it crosseth the current of all other Scripture to put such a construction upon this for that the promise of old I mean the old promise of the law which was of the Earthly Canaan and but a Type of this did pertain unto a fleshly holy seed I grant But that the new Covenant or Gospel promise is made to any mans fleshly seed that thereupon we may baptize them in token of it I deny For sure I am the Scripture holds out no other seed of Abraham to be heirs with him of the heavenly Canaan but his spiritual seed i. e. Believers that do his works Nor doth it own any but these to have the right of membership and Fellowship in his family i. e. the visible Church For if it should be granted that the visible Church is Abrahams family under the Gospel as well as under the law yet it is so altered from what it was so different in its constitution that it is even turned upside down and in a manner nothing remains as then it was For as the covenant is not the same with that of the law so neither is there the same Mediator nor the same Priesthood nor the same Law nor the same Law-giver nor the same promises That being of an Earthly this of an heavenly inheritance nor the same holy seed to which the promises are made that being to the Typical seed Isaac and his posterity this to the true seed Christ and believers Nor the same ordinances theirs being Circumcision and the Passe-over ours Baptism and the supper Nor the same subjects for those ordinances those being by nature Jews or at least by profession and their Male seed only ours Male and female theirs whether believing or not ours only as believing So that whatever can be said of the Covenant the promise the holy seed is only this they were Typical ceremonial abiding only to the time of Reformation Heb. 9.9 and are now all abrogated and out of date so that we may say as he fuit Ilium so fuit Canaan fuit lex fuit Templum fuit sacerdotium fuit sacrosanctum semen There was indeed a holy land a holy law a holy Priesthood a holy seed But all these belonging to a first Covenant which was faulty are now long since vanished before a better and whatever was glorious hath now no glory by reason of a glory that excelleth 2 Cor. 3.9 10 12 13. Poed Sir I thank you for your opinion of this text Act. 2.39 But though the children of believing Gentiles have no right to the Covenant by vertue of their Parents faith yet may they not have a right by vertue of Abrahams faith Bap. In no wise for the natural posterity of believing Gentiles are so far from being heires apparent with Abraham of Gospel promises and priviledges that even Abrahams own natural seed as such only are not at all his seed at this day nor at all holy with the birth-holynesse they once had nor entail'd as heirs of that heavenly Canaan without faith and Repentance in their own persons and because this is the very root and knot in the state of this controversy the unfolding of which will discover the whole mystery of your mistakes all which arise originally from your erring in it for error minimus in principio fit major in medio maximus in fine Give me leave therefore to enlarge a little upon this point First then let it be considered that Abrahams own seed even those that were heirs with him of the earthly Canaan though born of his body now as truly though more remotely of his body who was the greatest believer in the world Christ excepted even these are not his seed in the Gospel account nor heirs of the Gospel promise nor as born of his body to be admitted to Baptism and Church priviledges which I make appear from Rom. 9.6.7.8 in which pray observe how the Apostle denies Abrahams own Natural Children the name of Abrahams seed in the sense of the Gospel First he magnifies them exceedingly in the 4th verse and sets out their dignity and preheminence above all people under the name of Israelites to whom pertained the
to question that either he thinks they want Relief being very near a Defeat or have not so singular a Talent as himself to set off a bad Cause For my part I cannot conjecture what his design is unless by making up a Triumvirate of Champions he thinks to carry the Cause by Clamour and so share of the Applause their admiring Votaries are liberal enough of But as his Book needs little more Confutation than to be perused so the infirmity of his Reasoning serves to illustrate not foil the Truth he invades Our Adversaries themselves are forced to confess that most of those great Fathers the generality of Christians are so fond of have been of Corrupt Principles and tainted with Superstitious conceits and unsound Notions and that there are but very few of them to be found throughly Orthodox though of great Learning Zeal and Industry which is an Item to us not to lean upon the Authority of man though never so Celebrated by Ages and Nations but to have recourse to the Word of truth left for our Instruction and to seek our Warrant for Religious Duties there This consideration satisfies me That this Triumviri however acted by confidence or self-conceit may be out of the way and that their Dictates are no farther to be received than they agree with the Word of God The perplexing Systems spun out of mans own brain nice subtil Distinctions and long-winded periods may be taking with such as are firmly Espoused to a Party right or wrong or such as think him Conqueror that has most words but the sober enquiring Soul that seeks Truth not Victory will easily perceive the Vanity and Error of such a procedure Error cannot be disputed against without giving it its name and its Abettors cannot be reproved nor admonished but in words accomodated to their mistakes which indeed is not Railing but plain-dealing and which I hope is Apology enough for me if any Expressions should seem to be of too acute an Edge The Scripture commands us to reprove Errors sharply or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cuttingly Tit. 1.13 I love the Godly Paedo-Baptist as one that I know my Master Christ loveth but having such a Call to Witness to and Contend for his Truth I will as he shall enable me do it without daubing on the one and unnecessary sharpness on the other hand I know how to distinguish between such as by a mistaken Zeal utter provoking rash words and such as in pursuance to their Duty contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints And that Believers Baptism is such an Ordinance as Christ delivered to his Saints I never heard doubted And that Infant pretended Baptism is not such is our work to manifest After all the Clutter our Antagonists kept to find some Evidence for the practice of Paedo-Baptism in Fathers Councils c. the Scripture as they fully own being silent about it they are glad to run for refuge at last to their new Invention of a Covenant they imagine to be made with the Carnal Seed of Believers Gen. 17.7 which they say Intitles them to be Baptized but to no other Ordinance under the New Testament a most pittiful Paradox and being ashamed to own the mistaken absurd Mediums its old and most celebrated Patrons have Insisted upon for its Support in Old Times they have Center'd in a more plausible pretence for it viz. the aforesaid Covenant which is their only Reserve at present And I cannot but admire that Men of any Reason should cry up Antiquity Antiquity at the Rate they do when at the same Instant they reject the Grounds and Reasons the Ancients used for the same And is it fair to derive the practice from Antiquity and add Reasons of their Own when the Old Reasons are found to be indeed Irrational We know Infant-Baptism has been of an Early Birth viz. in the Third or Fourth Century to save the Child's Soul and upon a mistake that it might be Damned without it But Infant-Baptism upon the modern ground of a Hereditary Covenant is new and altogether unknown to the Ancient Paedo-Baptists as by other hands is clearly made good And how plausible this New Argument is in the following Pages is examined And before I come to a particular Survey of this present Vndertakers Book I would tender to his Christian consideration hoping him to be a man that Fears God Whether it be so consistent with his Profession in so Taunting and proud a manner to scorn and reproach his Opponent whereas a meeker way would be not only his Duty but more graceful 2. Whether it be consistent with the Word of Truth to go about to impose his bare Ipse dixit's upon the World without any material proof from the Scripture 3. Whether it be consonant to the plainness of the Gospel to confound rather than Instruct the ordinary plain Reader with such a variety of needless impertinent Distinctions Hypotheticals Tedious and rambling Circumlocutions Preambles and dark miserable shiftings to find a Covert for his I adorantism in the Word of God 4. Whether it be Ingenuous or Honest to supply the want of Argument with such phrases as these proceeding from Immodesty to Impudence Warning his Reader to be wary of crediting any of his viz. Mr. Danver's perswasion can any man think he had any true actual Fear of God before his Eyes Down-right Falsities Forgeries meer Cheats c. though not the least Tittle of them proved to be justly chargeable upon Mr. Danvers And to all which I think as it is the product of an Vnruly provoking Spirit actuated by prejudice and its ireful concomitants the best return will be silence Let him consider Gal. 6.1 Mat. 5.5 We shall not Insist upon his uncomely carriage throughout the whole Book we leave it to his cooler consideration and the Reader 's Observation and shall present you with a brief account of his Book and then Select what wants our Reply and leave all to the judgment of the Reader The Book consists of Two parts 1. An attempt to weaken the Humane Authority urged by Mr. Danvers for Illustration of Believers Baptism in opposition to Infants Baptism 2. To Confute him in the Doctrinal part About the first he spends 24 pages his Objections are some scraps of what Mr. B. and Mr. W. have more at large urged and already Answered by Mr. D. of which nevertheless I shall anon take a brief View From p. 25. to 71. he goes about to disprove that Believers Baptism is only Christ's Baptism 2. To prove that the silence of the Scripture about Infant-Baptism tends more to its establishment than overthrow 3. To vindicate Tradition as he defines it viz. the Discoveries made by the Church Doctrinally and Practically from the Apostles time to us as a subordinate means whereby we come to know and are more fully confirmed what 's contained in the Doctrine of the Apostles 4. From page 71. to 129. he considers the Arguments from the Covenant and Faederal
1. The piece of the Waldensian Confession which he sayes is not to our purpose is but an Introduction to the 7th Article in the same page which sayes That by baptism we are received into the Holy Congregation of the people of God declaring openly our Faith c. which our Answerer takes no notice of That of Vignier is pertinently enough brought wherein the Waldenses reject all Doctrines which have not their foundation in Scripture and all Ceremonies and Romish Traditions because the Baptism of Infants at that time was practiced from that ground And that he gives â— testimonial of them that they denyed Infants Baptism in totidem Verbis See what he sayes viz. Nicholas Vignier in his Book called la Vraye Histoire de l' Eglise p. 354. upon the year 1136. speaking of the Waldenses and some of their principal Barbs where he hath these words Et qu'ils condamnoient le Baptesme de Petits Enfans alleguans que le Baptesme n'aportoient qu' a ceux qui ont foi i. e. And they condemned the Baptizing of little Infants alledging that Baptism belongs to none but those that have Faith As to the agreement between the Donatists and Novations it is also properly enough applyed for all Mr. Whiston's hast as the following words of Mr. Ds. make out viz. they held That none ought to be received into Churches but such as were visibly true Believers and read Saints c. The way of being received into the Church Mr. W. knows to be Baptism but he overlooks this also As to the Three other Particulars out of the Waldensian Confessions p. 282 283 284. 1 Ed. he Excepts against as not to our purpose let the same return serve them as before That out of Thuanus from Dr. Vsher viz. that the Beringarians held that Baptism did not profit Children to Salvation is a proper and suitable Argument of their denying Infant-Baptism it being elsewhere evidenced and which Mr. Whiston nor his Associates never Answered that that was the only ground of its administration viz. that it Saved the Child's Soul 3. As to his Charge of Mr. Ds. perverting Authors sayings viz. Paedo-baptists in general it is already fully cleared by himself in his Rejoynder to Mr. Ws. and to him the Reader is referred 2. Mr. Whiston would have us shew wherein lyes the inconsistency of their words with their practice which is also fully done But me thinks it might be a properer task for themselves to reconcile their Contradictions which they are loudly called to do if they can and so either yield up the Cause or remove the stumbling blocks they themselves lay in our way 4. He says Some of Mr. Ds. Authorities are against himself and instances Mr. Baxter we confess he is sometimes against us to the purpose but sometimes he is also kind enough and gave us Twenty good Arguments improved by Mr. Tombs in his Felo de Se. But for the rest 't is but meer prattle Chrysostom is instanced to shew the Erroneous ground upon which Infant-Baptism was practiced viz. to take away Original Sin and if it be a proof for Mr. Whiston let him take it I 'll give him another proof too if that will please him out of his Friend Aâ—stin 23 Epist ad Bonif. Nec illud te moveat quod quidam non ea fide ad Baptismum precipiendum parvulos ferunt ut gratia spirituali ad vitam regenerentur Aeternam sed quod eos putant hoc remedio temporalem retinere ac recipere sanitatem non enim propterea illi non regenerantur quia non ab illis hac intentione offeruntur celebrantur enim per eos necessaria Ministeria But he must excuse me if I leave him the pleasure of Translating it seeing he may perhaps do it to most advantage That Peter Bruis and Henricus denyed Infants Baptism we have good ground to believe from many substantial Reasons offered by Mr. D. and if we reject the testimony of Papists in whose hands most of our ancient Writings have been for some Centuries which we are well enough satisfied to do in this why not in other things That Cluniacensis owned to be a very learned man disputed with Peter Bruis and Henry is evident he layes down their Position to be this Nos vero tempus congruum fidei expectamus hominem postquam Deum suum cognoscere in eum credere paratus est non ut nobis imponitis Rebaptizamus sed Baptizamus quia nunquam baptizatus dicendus est qui baptismo quo lavantur peccata locus non est i. e. We wait for the fit season of Faith and when a man knows his God and believes in him we baptize him not rebaptize as you charge us for he cannot be said to be ever baptized that is not washt with the baptism that washeth away sins And then makes this pathetick declamation against them enumerating the Absurdities he fancies that follow their Opinion he saith thus Itane desipuere praeterita saecula tot millibus parvulorum per mille eo amplius annos illusiorum baptisma tribuerent c. which I thus English And have past Ages been so foolish and have given but a mock-baptism to so many thousand Little ones for this thousand years and more and from Christs time to ours have made them not real but fantastick or imaginary Christians Was the whole World so blinded and involved in so huge a mist of darkness hitherto that it mâ—st wait for you at length to open its eyes and to dispel so tedious a Night that after so many Fathers Martyrs Popes and Princes of the Vniversal Churches it must chuse Peter Bruis and Henry his Lackey as the last Apostles to correct its long error What hath all the World perished till the coming of these New Reformers of our Age and have all things been managed by the Sons of Light and Truth in darkness and falshood that whereas all of any Age or Rank having been baptized in Infancy and received their Christian name then and in convenient time have been preferred in divers degrees in the Church no Bishop of the Bishops no Priest no Deacon no Clerk no Monk not one as I may say of those innumerable numbers will be a Christian for whosoever is not baptized with the Baptism of Christ hath not Christ nor can he be of the Clergy People or Church And if it be so what manifest absurdities will follow For whereas all France Spain Germany Italy and all Europe for almost three hundred or four hundred years have none baptized but in Infancy they have therefore no Christian if no Christian then no Church if no Church no Christ and if no Christ then certainly they are damned Our Fathers therefore have perished because they could not be baptized with Christs baptism in their Infancy And we that live shall also perish unless after Christs Baptism we be Baptized with Henries Baptism also And innumerable of the Saints shall be pluck'd