discipled or taught and so put into a capacity and susceptibility of the Sacrament of Baptism and all in that Nation have a title unto it whereof Infants are a considerable Party whose Incapacity of teaching doth not make them uncapable of Baptism because while they remain Infants they are not included among those that are to be taught For our Saviour did not send his Disciples to teach Infants but men of years And therefore the teaching pre-required as antecedent to Baptism is necessarily required only of men of years that be docible and not of Infants that are indocible So that we acknowledge a necessity of a praevious precedaneous teaching before Baptism of docible persons but not of Infants because they are capable of Baptism though not of teaching I know that protervious and peevish Spirits are able and apt enough to cavil at any truth be it never so clear and so its probable will cavil at the interpretation of this place of Scripture But the indifferent Reader may discern it to be both can did and consonant to other Texts for no where in Scripture is there any exception against this general Command of battizing all Nations that embrace the Gospel amongst which Infants are a considerable party as was said before And therefore where the Gospel is preached and embraced there Infants of that Nation are to be baptized by vertue of that command For a general Command in Scripture to perform any duty appertaines to all persons of what condition soever unless in the same Scripture some exception be added whereas in this case there is no any A Second Argument may be thâ— testimony of the ancient Fathers oâ— the Church who affirm it to be aâ— Apostolick Tradition and so of the same authority and credibility with other Apostolick Traditions such as these The Apostles Creed Thâ— change of the Sabbath from the laâ—â— day of the week to the first anâ— what Books of Scripture are Canonâ—cal and what Apocryphal Whicâ— Assertions being received by thâ— Church as Apostolick Traditionâ— are and ever have been acknowledâ—ed and embraced as undoubtâ—â— Truths though they be not in tâ—minis word for word expressed iâ— Scripture And so in like manner hath Infant-Baptism as leaning upon the same ground with them so that the Anabaptists may as well question the truth of the Apostles Creed anâ— the sanctification of the first day of the week for the Sabbath and the Canon of Scripture as the lawfulness of Infant-Baptism in that they 〈◊〉 lean upon one and the same foundation i. e. Apostolick Tradition which was ever held by the Churches of God to be of authentical authority next unto Scripture it self For though the Reformed Churches disclaim Popish Humane Traditions as mens Inventions yet these Apostolick Traditions they receive and reverence as unquestionable Truths Now that the ancientest Fathers as Dionysius Areopagita Justin Martyr Origen St. Augustine with many others have witnessed Paedo-Baptism to have been accounted and received as a Tradition Apostolical neither can nor is denied by the Learnedest Anabaptists But yet they will not give credence to their testimony hereof which how void of Charity it is to censure such renowned Doctors as reporters of an untruth especially in matters of Religion I leave it to be considered of by all persons of understanding Arg. 3 A Third Argument may be the constant practice of Infant-Baptism by all Christian Churches from the very next age after the Apostles to this present age This was witnessed by Dionysius who lived in the Apostles time and Ignatius and Justin Martyr and Iraeneus and Origen This is proved at large by many learned men who of late have written of this Subject and therefore I will supersede the labour of rehearsing the particular proofs thereof especially considering that the most learned of the Adversaries of this truth do not deny this but yet condemn it as an errour and a very pernicious abuse needful to be taken away out of the Church of God as is to be seen in Mr. Tombes his Antipedo-Baptism in the 3d Part and Section the 98 about the middle of the Section which is a presumptuous censure unfit for any particular man to pass against the Church Now this practice of Paedo-Baptism by the Universal Church of Christ in all ages and places is an Argument irrefragable and unanswerable to prove the lawfulness of it For the Church is the ground and pillar of truth so saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 3.16 Particular Churches may erre both in judgment and practise but the Universal Church cannot erre in any important point of Faith such as this is because of Christs promise to it both of protection and direction in several Texts as Mat. 28.20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even to the end of the world which could not be meant only of the Apostles as who could not live to the end of the world but of necessity of the whole Catholick Church And John 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth And again John 16.13 He promiseth his Disciples again to send them the Spirit of truth which should guide them into all truth Seeing therefore the Universal Church for many ages and those next succeeding the Apostles have allowed and practised Infant-Baptism no intelligent godly Christian may oppose it without manifest contempt of the sentence and judgment of the Catholick Church which whose will not hear is to be accounted as a heathen man and a publican Mat. 18.17 If some particular Churches only had practised it the Legality of it might have been questioned but seeing all Churches for many ages did practile it the legality of it is thereby made unquestionable A Fourth Argument may be the Circumcision of Infants in the time of the Jewish Church Arg. 4 For if Baptism be the Sacrament now under the Gospel that succeeds the Jewish Circumcision which is abolished then by the rule of analogy and proportion and parity that is betwixt them to whom Circumcision belonged under the Law to those Baptism belongs under the Gospel But Baptism is the Sacrament now under the Gospel that succeeds and comes in place of the Jewish Circumcision Which is most apparent from Col. 2.11 12. Where the Apostle proves that the Collossians were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ being buried with him in Baptism that is because they were baptized in or into his name for else the Apostles argumentation were inconsequent if Baptism did not come in place of Circumcision for in affirming they were circumcised because they were baptized he declares Baptisme to come in room of Circumcision Hence therefore it followes that as Infants were to be circumcised in the time of the Law so Infants are to be baptized under the
I once used in a dispute with one Mr. Oats a Coryplaeus and teacher of note amongst them and all the answer he returned was this that he had heard that there had been some of their profession formerly in Hungary which was both an insufficient answer and a tacite and clandestine confession that they must either prove the continuance of such profession and professors from the Apostles times which they never can nor that I ever heard attempted to do or else must yield themselves in a manifest and obstinate Errour The Anabaptists interpretation of several Texts of holy Scripture Arg. 3 as if they did impugn and disallow Infant-Baptism is dissonant and dissentaneous from the interpretation of all visible Churches both before and since their appearance and therefore is a private interpretation and so is repugnant to St. Peters Doctrine who tels us that no prophesie of Scripture is of any private Interpretation 2 Pet. 1.20 Divers of the Fathers affirm that the Primitive Church received of the Apostles not only the Scripture but the genuine and true Interpretation thereof and this indeed in all probability was so And therefore if the Primitive Church held Paedo-Baptism to be agreeable to Scripture and so accordingly practised it as before hath been declared it s out of doubt a doctrine of truth and the Anabaptists reclamation and opposition of it as if it were not warrantable by Scripture a private and novel mis-interpretation of Scripture and therefore to be disavowed detested and exploded Re-baptization of those that have been baptized before Arg. 4 is repugnant to Scripture which allowes but one Baptism Eph. 4.4 There is one Lord one Faith one Baptism But our Infants whom they re-baptize have been truly baptized before Ergo They act therein against Scripture Now that our Infants are truly baptized I thus demonstrate Those whether men women or children that are baptized in the right and true form of baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost expresly set down Mat. 28.19 are truly baptized But our Infants are thus baptized and therefore are truly and rightly baptized For it s a known Canon in Logick and received of all Learned men as a truth that forma dat esse the form of a thing gives its being unto it And therefore Infants being baptized in this true and right form are truly and rightly baptized and so ought not to be baptized again That Profession of Christian Faith Arg. 5 which was never publickly and openly acknowledged and owned by any Christian Nation but ever since its first hatching hid it self in corners and private Conventicles was professed only of some private persons cannot be the truth for Veritas non quaerit angulos Truth seeks not to sculk and hide it self in corners but such is Anabaptism Ergo. The major Proposition I make good from those many Texts of Scripture where it s affirmed that Nations yea many nations should flow unto the Church of the Gospel which is the ground and Pillar of truth where truth is to be found as Esay 2.2 It shall come to pass in the last daies that the Mountain of the Lords House shall be established in the top of the Mountains and shall be exalted above the hils and all Nations shall flow unto it And the like sentence is in Micah 4.1 which was fore-spoken of the state and condition of the Church under the New Testament And for the minor Proposition let them make it appear that ever any Nation did openly and publickly without restraint make profession of Anabaptism and they shall be quit from the Conclusion But this was never yet done nor indeed can be done Esay 49.23 It s foretold of the Church of the New Testament that Kings should be nursing Fathers and Queens should be nursing Mothers unto it That is that there should be some supream Civil Magistrates that should be propitious to it and Protectors of it But this honour was never done to Anabaptists there was never King nor Queen nor Supream Magistrate that hath protected their Profession nor the Professors thereof under that notion but have alwaies declared their dislike and distast of them which undeniably secludes them from being that true Church of Christ there spoken of which yet is their Pharisaical boast and proclaims them to be a Set and Sect of Schismaticks that have groundlesly made a scandalous and dangerous separation of themselves from that true Church of Christ whereof divers Civil Magistrates have been for many ages and still are the constant and resolute Protectors and Defenders The Third Point Swasory and Considerable reasons to bend and sway with all Anabaptists to repudiate and renounce the errour of their way THE first reason that I shall tender to their due consideration Reas 1 is this Because Persons of that Profession are generally void of Charity which Charity being the cognizance of a disciple of Christ as is taught by Christ himself John 13.35 By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another And being also a Badge of truth as St. John affirms 1 John 3.19 Thereby saith he speaking of Love or Charity we know that we are of the truth The contrary thereto which is uncharitableness must needs be the Livery of such as are adversaries to Christ and his truth and therefore to be abhorred and abandoned Now that they are uncharitable appears these two waies 1. From their separation of themselves from all other Christian Congregations and refusing Churh-fellowship and society with them 2. From their ostentation and boasting of themselves to be the only Church and people of God upon earth and censuring all others as unregenerate Persons and so out of Gods true Church and thereupon term them the world as one that was of their Profession and Association but is now reclaimed hath certified and assured me Whereas Charity thinketh not evil but believeth all things and hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13.5 7r Now by this uncharitable censure of theirs they condemn not only all the Reformed Churches of Christendom amongst which there be Millions of Saints but all the Martyrs in Queen Maries daies here in England and all the Martyrs in the Primitive Church that never were dipt after their Infant-Baptism Baptism and yet lived godlily and suffered gloriously and died comfortably That the Martyrs in the Primitive Church lived and died with signal and apparent evidences of extraordinary divine Graces and supernatural comforts imparted and infused into them is witnessed as by other Ecclesiastical Historians so by that creditable Author Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History Lib. 8. Cap. 12. toward the end where he testifieth of them That they so shined throughout the world in their afflictions that the beholders wondred at their patience and noble courage and that saith he there was not without cause for they expressed and shewed forth unto the world special and manifest signs of the divine and unspeakable power
of our Saviour Christ working by them And for the Martyrs in Queen Maries daies Mr. Fox in his History of them recordeth many speeches uttered by them which were manifest evidences of Gods divine Graces and Comforts in an extraordinary measure and manner conferred and breathed upon them And therefore to censure both these and all other Christian Professors in the world besides themselves to be without God in the world sets a shameful brand of Pharisaical pride and uncharitableness upon them And is enough to make both the ears of all that hear it to tingle and their hearts to boil with indignation against them and divers wise and godly persons wonder that they are not more strictly dealt withal and restrained this and some others of their gross hallucinations and errours and presumptuous and irregular extravagancies and Practises considered A second Reason that I shall offer to their consideration is this Reas 2 Their presumptuous confidence in their own Opinions and Judiciousness preferring the same before the wisdom and judgment of millions of eminently Learned and Godly Christians and many of them Martyrs who lived before them and that in all ages even next to the Apostles as hath been formerly declared This is contrary to the prescript Rules Directions and Sanctions of the holy Scripture as in Prov. 3.7 Be not wise in thine own eyes And Prov. 26.12 Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool than of him Esay 5.21 Wo unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight Luke 9.23 If any man will come after me let him deny himself Which self-denial in one point of it consists in the denial of a mans own reason and wisdom Rom. 12.6 Be not wise in your own conceit It s not to be questioned but that the Christians of the Primitive Church and the Learned holy Fathers that succeeded them who were main and strenuous Props and Pillars of the true Christian Faith in defence thereof against the Heresies of those times as also the modern learned and illustrious Divines the late Reformers of Religion Luther Zuinglius Melancthon Peter Martyr Calvin Junius Beza Zanchy Chemnitius with many such of other Nations and those Renowned Pious and Learned Divines of our own Nation that lived but a few years since as Cranmer a Bishop and a Martyr Jewel Whittaker Reighnolds Andrews Perkins Bishop Usher Bishop Hall Hooker with thousands more who were Divines of singular and transcendent piety and Learning It 's not to be questioned I say but that these men did seriously and searchingly and throughly sift and examine this Point of Infant-Baptism yet concluded for it and owned it to the last period of their lives without any scruple at all And is it likely that a few Illiterate Persons I speak it comparatively namely in respect of those so profoundly Learned before-named should espy out such an errour to be crept into Gods Church as they were never able to discover Oh be humbled now in your selves all ye self-conceited and perverse Anabaptists and lay your hands upon your mouths and deny your selves if ye will be Christs Disciples as ye would be accounted And take unto you these or the like words and say as the truth is Alas we are weak men and far inferiour to those renowned Worthies and glorious Martyrs now mentioned both in Learning Perspicacity Judgment True Zeal and Piety and therefore we do acquiesce and submit to the Judgment and Sentence of those Learned Judicious and illustrious holy Ones of God so far excelling us in all divine Graces and Vertues And the rather to bend you hereunto remember how St. Peter hath set this Presumption and self-conceitedness as a black Brand upon the Hereticks of these last times in 2 Pet. 2.10 Where he speaks thus of them That they are presumptuous and stand in their own conceit and fear not to speak evil of them that are in Authority And therefore it stands you in hand to beware that you wear not this Reproachful Livery A Third Reason may be this Reas 3 Because they give great offence to many Godly Christians by separating themselves from the Congregations of the Reformed Churches which is repugnant to the Doctrine of the holy Scritpures as is evident by these Texts 1 Cor. 10.32 Give no offence neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God And Rom. 16.17 Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which we have learned and avoid them Herein they proclaim themselves to be such vain ostentators as God complains of Esay 65.5 Who said stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holier than thou and yet they were a smoak in Gods Nose and a fire that burned all the day as in the next words God himself pronounceth against them Hereby also they declare themselves to be such Mockers as St. Jude foretold should appear in these last times in the 18 and 19 v. of his Epistle in that they thus separate themselves from other godly Christians for these be they saith he that separate themselves If they shall say that it is an offence taken and not given It s answered that its the unanimous sentence and judgment of all Learned and Orthodox Divines both ancient and modern and amply justifiable by Scripture that neither corruption in manners in a particular Church nor errours in matters of Ceremony Circumstance or in the manner of Church-Government are a sufficient ground or warrant for any particular persons to desert it and make separation from it but it must be some errour in the Fundamentals of Religion that will justifie a separation from any particular Church Now the Church of England is not culpable or chargeable in the least measure of errour in any one particular Tenet that strikes at the Foundation of Christian Belief as I doubt not but they will ingeniously confess And therefore their separation from the Church of England is an offence given by them and not an offence taken by us who profess our selves Members of the said Church I wonder that the example of our blessed Saviour is no more minded and regarded by them who never refused to joyn himself to the Congregations of the People of the Jews though they were guilty of more foul errours and gross abuses by many degrees than the Church of England is And it s very apparent from St. Pauls Epistles to the Corinthians and Galatians that neither errours which are not fundamental nor corruption in Manners will warrant a separation from any Church seeing he acknowledgeth and owneth both these as the Churches of God albeit he taxeth them both both for palpable errours and foul misdemeanors as is evident in the said Epistles and such as were more gross and dangerous errours that any the Church of England holds Reas 4 A Fourth Reason shall be this Because their Sect hath hatched several Broods of