alone convey sinne to the Infant It beleeveth then and it's baptisme is valid and it 's joyned to the faithfull formerly baptized This the authoritie of the Church our mother holdeth This doth the sure Canon or rule of truth obtaine Thus far forth then it was looked at as a doctrine not onely which the Church had in it but which the Scripture the rule of truth contained in it that in the businesse of Baptisme at least the faith of such as conveyed sinne to the child even of the parents was in stead of its owne personall faith so farre as to make its baptisme valid and beneficiall to it SECT IIII. Arnobius THe next witnesse is Arnobius upon the Psalmes which Perkins putteth at the yeere 290. but because Perkins in Praepar ad Demon. Probl. and Rivet in his Crit. sac makes it a spacious booke as mentioning on Psal 119. the Pelagian heresie which came up above sixscore yeeres after Arnobius his time I shall not attempt to fight against a shadow Albeit the place being of the way of Adults Baptisme concludeth nothing against what wee maintaine Lâ—do Vives Ludovicus Vives is the next who in his notes upon Austin de Civitate Dei l. 1. cap. 26. saith the Treatise but it 's rather cap. 27 as Hen. Den. more truely quoteth it affirmeth that in times past no man was brought to bee baptized but those that were come to their full growth who having learned what it concerned desired the same But whether hee that lived but in Henry the eighths dayes or Austin whom hee expounds which lived above twelve hundred yeares agoe had better reason to know what was done of old let any sober minde judge Strabo To the same purpose Walefrid Strabo who lived about the yeare 800. seemeth to speake but Origen who was in the yeare 201. according to Osiander or 230. according to Perkins and Vsher hee mentions Paedobaptisme as from the Apostles as well as Austin doth Melivitan And so doth the Milevitan councell in the yeare 402. according to Wolfius say as much that the Catholique Church hath alwayes understood Infants to bee defiled with Adams sinne and according to the rule of faith to bee on that ground namely amongst others for it 's knowne sundry other gounds were of old urged for Paedobaptisme as that Matth. 19. 13 14 15. Suffer c. For of such c. urged in Tertullians time 200. yeares before as appeares by his assaying to take off that ground in his booke De Baptismo before mentioned baptized See the 1. Tome of Councells SECT V. Bucer THe next witnesse is Bucer in his Annotat. upon the 4th of John set out Anno 28. So much as in the Apostolicall writings are written of baptisme is apparent that baptisme was administred to none by the Apostles but to those of whom concerning their regeneration they made no doubt c. I have looked that very booke and a booke distinct from his greater booke on the Evangelists and there is no such words It 's a meere forgery Bucer is againe cited Proposion 6th saying that Christ hath no where plainly commanded that children should bee baptized If the speech had been just thus yet it 's evident his Intent was not that children ought not to bee baptized by vertue of Gods command which is the direct conclusion subscribed to in the explication of it at Wittenberg by him and others as before but that the command was not in so many words expressed but by necessary consequence to bee concluded His booke intituled The groundworke and cause I have not though like testimonies have been answered before SECT VI. Ruffinus THe next is Ruffinus in his exposition upon the Symbol that those at Rome and Aquila that were to bee baptized must first acknowledge and confesse the 12. Articles of the Creed Here Ruffinus is as one against Paedobaptisme By others when Origens authoritie is urged upon Rom. 5. for Paedobaptisme then it is spurious and the words of Ruffinus Now how should one behave himselfe amidst this contradiction of the antipartie Well wee shall ward off both Blowes as they come God willing As for this testimony as much is in the Treatise and the same place brought out of Austin in his 8th Booke of Confessions that albeit the Authors conceale the name of the place where Victorinus was to have made confession of the faith as the custome was namely at Rome Yea but how then saith Austin lib. 4 cont Donat. cap. 13. 14. that it was ever the use of the Churches and that delivered from the Apostles to baptize Infants Verily both are subordinates and not contraries According to the subjects mentioned if speaking of Adults then the former is true if of Infants then the latter is as true Albeit it 's as true after the custome then in use in Ruffinus his time that Infants did make confession by their sureties as according to God they did and doe now confesse their faith so farre as concerneth their baptisme in their parents even as every man Deut. 16. 17. giving as hee was able their males which personally there appeared came not before the Lord empty not any of them but gave scil in their parents offering for them CHAP. VII SECT I. HIs proofes out of Popish writers as Eckius mentioned in proofe of that and of the 7th Proposition Rossensis Cocletus Ennusius and Staphylus to which some adde Bellarmine I doe not much regard because they can play Legerdemaine fast and loose with a trick that they have If they dispute against Calvinists about the sufficiency of Scripture or validitie of humane traditions then Paedobaptisme is a tradition of the Church If against Anabaptists then Eckius in his Enchiridion here cited hath his foure Scripture arguments to prove it to bee of Scripturall authoritie and foundation For Bellarmine hee hath in his book of Baptisme cap. 8. 3 arguments from Scripture for it And although saith hee wee doe not find it commanded expresly that wee should baptize Infants Tamen id colligitur satis aperte ex scripturis ut supra ostendimus Yet it is to bee gathered plainly enough from Scriptures saith Bellarmine as wee have before shewed Wherefore of such if I may say as hee bluntly once spake to his companion If they can with the same breath blow hot and cold let them even eate porridge with the devill if they will I like not their falshood SECT II. OF Lutherans Pomeranus is quoted whose booke of children unborne I cannot meet with and so cannot trace my Authors here And in such a case as they say Travailers and Souldiers may lie by authoritie when none can contradict them But yet what sayes Dr. Pomeranus that for the space of 1200. yeares men erred concerning children the which wee cannot yet willingly would baptize what his intent is by these words of his cannot well bee gathered If hee intend it of all sorts of children that it is an errour to baptize
his instruments that dirt wash it off who can Plateolus Abbas Cluviacensis and others traded this way concerning Berengarius and his followers Dr. Vsher de successione statu Ecclesiarum Christianarum Cap. 7. pa. 207. quoteth Tbuanus accusing him and them thereof but evinceth the contrary both in that In all the Summons of Berengarius before the Synod wee never read hee was charged with Anabaptisme and that hee rather denyed baptisme to profit Infants to salvation ex opere operato for which hee quoteth Alanus in his first booke against the Heretiques of his times as saying that baptisme had no efficacy either in Infant or grown persons c. and in p. 195. citeth Serarius in Triharesio as saying qui hodie sunt Calvinisti olim dicti fuerunt Berengariani qui hodie Protestantes dicuntur Johanni Wendelstino praefat in Cod. Canonum novi sunt Waldenses They then acknowledge their and our doctrine to bee the same and therefore no Antipaedobaptists and Gretzer prolegom in Script edit contra Waldenses cap. 1. citeth this as one of their Articles of confession credimus etiam quâ—d non salvatur quis nisi qui baptizatur viz. ordinarily and parvulos salvari per baptismum and wee beleeve that little children are saved by baptisme and so in the same cap. 8. doth Dr. Vsher cleare Peter de Brucis and his followers from all such aspersions They were accused too for rejecting the Old-Testament and Evangelists yet by Gretzer and others they are cleared as those that translated and taught the same and Reiner the Inquisitour said they were so well acquainted with the old and new Testament as that they could say much thereof by heart the history of the Waldenses mentioneth this accusation of them as if denying Paedobaptisme but citeth a booke of the Waldenses intituled the spirituall Almanack fol. 45. to the contrary ordering that though no time or day bee set yet the charitie and edification of the Church must serve for a rule therein and therefore they to whom the children were nearest allied brought their Infants to bee baptized as their parents or any other whom God had made charitable in that kind True it is saith the Author of that story scil John Paul Peruin of Lyons l. 1. c. 4. they being forced by the Popish Priest to bring their children would delay their baptisme out of detestation of the superstitious addition and their owne Ministers cald Barbes being very often and sometimes very long upon the Churches service they would deferre their childrens baptisme to their returne which delayes of theirs being observed by the Popish Priests they thence raised that report and charged them with that imposture they appealed to the Greeke Church not as denying Paedobaptisme for they held and practised it as before was shewed but as to a Church that was not so corrupt in dispensing it as not using Chrisme crossing and exorcising as the Latin Church did in baptizing any See Flaccus Illiricus Catalogo testium veritatis pag. 434. Waldenses semper baptizarunt Infantes c. the Waldenses ever used to baptize their Infants nor doe they now hold against it they spake not against baptisme of Infants simply but as not administred by those of Rome in the vulgar tongue nor doth Aeveas Sylvius in his Bohemian Story of the Waldensian tenents although hee bee an exact sifter into the supposed errours of the Waldenses charge them with Antipaedobaptisme SECT IIII. BUt to returne to that first consideration let it bee weighed â—hat as Austin long agoe said of it Nullus Christianorum c. No Christians orthodox and godly had ever denyed Paedobaptisme l. 4. Con. Donat. c. 13. Secondly adde also this that if it had been any way justly suspicious why did not the Messalians wholly deny it and the Pelagians also what need had they to use that shift of Infants to bee baptized to the kingdome of God but not to the remission of sinnes this argument Austin useth Serm. 14. de verb. Apost Yea but they were affraid of the authoritie of the Church being great therein that is strange that Heretiques that regarded not so directly to goe against in their opinions as well expresse letter of Scripture as the doctrine of the Church in fundamentall matters should yet bee affraid of the Church in a matter circa fundamentalia and not so expresse in so many words as Paedobaptisme was who will imagine such an unlikelihood A have done with this dispute for present onely I could advise that Mr. Blackwood and others would bee more sparing of such printed blaspheming of the name and tabernacle of the Lord as to stile this which to all the Saints in a manner of old and to the most that now live is of precious esteeme and use an Antichristian Garrison and the doctrine of the man of sinne or of Antichrist Mr. Blackwood I am sure doth know what is the judgement of all Orthodox Divines touching Antichrist and who or what it is that is so and where hee hath his seat and when hee had his rise And cannot bee ignorant wholly that Paedobaptisme was of universall esteeme and use in a manner long before those prophesyings and pointings out of Antichrist by many of the ancients the Greeke Church which had not what doctrine and worship they had and held from the Latin Church but the Latine Church had it rather from them as in the Councell of Trent was before acknowledged and which was averse from Romish customes yet they held Paedobaptisme as before was proved It is dangerous speaking a word against the Sonne much more writing albeit not so irrecoverably as to speake against the Holy Ghost hee had need bee on good sure and cleare grounds if it were supposable hee could bee so that assayes to charge God foolishly with the reasons of his covenantings or dispensations and so palpably as to deny that God made a Covenant of Grace with Abraham Gen. 17. and such like inaudita It 's dangerous pretending an imaginary Garrison and in fighting against that as a supposed Garrison of Antichrist whereon a man hazards the name and doth the worke of one which will bee found a fighter against God wee know who would not bring a rayling accusation against the Devill and how dare any so boldly revile such a received and ratified truth as that of Gods exhibition and dispensation of his grace in a preventing way to those whose seed after them in Scripture Language are counted blessed The Saints of old were very tender of speaking any thing in such a sort as tended to the condemnation of the just CHAP. XI Vse 1. TO winde up all in a word of Use to all 1. in way of instruction 1. See the riches of Gods grace which thus is enlarged to all the sorts of the sons of men younger and elder if God would amplifie grace hee sets it out as extended to his people as in the case of an helplesse and despicable babe Esay 49. 14 15.
of grace albeit invested with Church-covenant as appeares in that vers 60. that God for that his covenant sake considered as his will deale so gratiously with them after all their provocations as vers 62 63. Albeit hee did not thus properly for the sake of that investure of his covenant annexed scil Thy covenant the Churches covenant abstractively considered vers 61. see more Ezek. 36. from vers 17. to the Chapters end There is an externall being in the covenant of grace as there is an externall being in Christ John 15. 2. and partaking of Christ hence that of Heb. 13. 14. An externall belonging to Christ hence those Jewish refusers to beleeve in Christ yet called his owne John 1. 11. As there is an externall being called Matth. 22. 14. an externall being sanctified by the blood of the Covenant Heb. 10. 29. an externall being purged from sinne 2 Pet. 1. 9. an externall being purchased by Christ 2 Pet. 2. 1. an externall Saintship Deut. 33. 3. And therefore both are joyned being Saints and making a Covenant with God Psal 50. 5. and such as had Gods covenant made with them to glory of verse 16. yet what persons many of them were that Psalme doth declare There are those invisible Churches which are as Isaac was children of the promise Gal. 3. 28. children of the Gospel Church verse 31. and 26. this must bee verified in all the members of the Galatian Churches unto whom Paul wrote that Epistle Gal. 1. 2. for hee spake this of them all Jerusalem which is the mother of us all verse 26 27 28. compared They then were all such either effectually and savingly And then there were some particular visible Churches in which were no hypocrites Contrary to the very scope of the parable of the Tares and Net and Virgins and Wedding and varietie of vessels in the Church visible as an house of God 1 Tim. 3. 15. compared with 2 Tim. 2. 20. Yea then there should bee a possibilitie that such as are savingly interessed in the covenant of grace should end in the flesh Gal. 3. 3. suffer many things in vaine verse 4. have Apostolicall labour bestowed on them in vaine Gal. 4. 11. fall from grace and have no profit to salvation by Christ Gal. 5. 2. 4. for if there were not a possibilitie of some such members and cases to bee found in the Galatian Churches why doth the Apostle speake such things as there are mentioned but there is no possibilitie of fatall seducing the elect one savingly interested in the covenant and Church 2 Tim. 2. 16. 19 20. 1 John 2. 19. Matth. 24. 24. So then it must needs follow that according to God some were such indeed but externally and according to men all were children of the promise In which sense the promise of grace and glory may bee to one as ones legacy or portion externally and according to men of the saving good whereof it is possible one may fall short Heb. 4. 1. 4. When Antipaedobaptists admit any to the seales of Church and covenant fellowship is it not possible that some false brethren may creepe in unawares Jude 4. some wolves enter in and of their owne selves some turne seducers Act. 20. 29 30. can it be otherwise but that in visible Churches with us or them there will bee some unapproved ones to God 1 Cor. 11. 18 19. yet you admit them to the fellowship of covenant but without ground unlesse to them they are in covenant Will you ordinarily put seales to blankes and the seale must follow the covenant Gen. 17. 7. 9 10 11. 13. Acts 2. 38 39. 1 Cor. 11. 25. You will surely say they appeared to us to bee in the covenant of grace wee judged them to bee in it else wee had not admitted them So then according to your selves persons may bee externally and quoad homines in the Covenant of grace which are not savingly so I plead for no more wee are then thus farre agreed I yeeld no more advantage to Arminius nor undermine perseverance in grace nor the Polemicall doctrine of our choyse Divines more then you doe nor then Amesius Chamier Luther Calvin Beza and then your owne Tertullian as you count him doth who in his booke De Anima Chap. 21 22. urgeth that Text 1 Cor. 7. 14. for a peculiar cleannesse of beleevers children by priviledge of seed as the rest which I have named to whom Pareus Peter Martyr Bucer Melancton Mr. Philpot besides many others might bee added who pleading for Infants baptisme urge it from their interest in the Covenant As many of the ancients Cyprian Gregory Nazianzen Jerome Austine and others which plead for Paedobaptisme from the argument of circumcision must need implicitly if not expresly maintaine Infants Covenant estate to which the baptisme of the one as the circumcision of the other was ex natura rei a sacramentall signe Gen. 17. 11. And yet they held not that all such were infallibly saved and therefore must maintaine with mee an externall inbeing of some in covenant which possibly may never be saved But leaving humane authorities to returne to Scripture proofe of this third conclusion let our opposites consider of Gods breaking that gratious Covenant which hee had made with his people of old which was as his staffe of beautie Zach. 11 10 whether it can be verified of a legall covenant of workes and not rather of his covenant of grace in respect at least of the externall administration thereof amongst them as verse 9. and their externall right in that his covenant And whence else is there any supposall of some interested in that same covenant of God wherein the upright are faithfull stable and perminent but others are false treacherous and apostatising Psal 44. 17. Dan. 11. 30 31 32 33. If they were never in this holy covenant how came they to forsake it to deale falsely in it or was this Covenant wherein they together with those true beleevers were interested in communion other then the covenant of grace If it were not that from Sion was it that from mount Sinai which are the Apostles membra dividentia of the covenant Gal. 4. 24. If so then beleevers which as beleevers must necessarily be in the free covenant of life and grace yet also at the same time are under a contrary covenant of bondage and death and curse if this covenant in which they were with true beleevers were a covenant of grace as is evident then were hypocrites externally in it for internally and efficaciously they were not and whence else were they charged with breaking the everlasting covenant catâ—exochen if they were never in that bond And if in it it was but externally else had they never so fatally broken this covenant which is thus plainely described by the old periphrasis of Abrahams covenant Gen. 17. 7. 13. and whence also are some charged with not beleeving the faith or ingaged truth the covenant of God Rom. 7. 3. if it were not plighted with
children of Gentile in-churched parents Though even this also is of grace that they should naturally descend from such parents Gen. 49. 26. Object 4. The Gentiles come into and abide in Church-estate by faith Rom. 11. 20. But children have not faith Therefore this Scripture concernes not them Answ 1. The Gentiles that so stand by faith are collectively taken as including also their children with them so abiding untill that these their children come to reject as did the children of those godly Jewish ancestors their covenant right And observe it by the way how tender God was of covenant children They were never excluded untill they came after many generations so wholly to degenerate as Rom. 11. 16 17 18 19 20 21 25 28. sheweth and then but not till then they are rejected so is it still God is tender of unchurching and discovenanting any that come of godly ancestors till they grosly and obstinately reject their owne mercy But if they grow up to that obstinacy then they cut off the gratious covenant entailed as from themselves personally so to their children parentally as did those of old Rom. 11. 20. and as those of Rome Corinth and Ephesus c. have done since 2. This faith mentioned is not a bare personall faith respecting this or that particular Gentile but such as is in direct opposition to that unbeleefe of the Jewes by which they were broken off as that opposition Rom. 11. 20. sheweth now it is evident that their unbeleefe was the obstinate rejecting of the covenant of grace as it was held out in Christ to them and theirs joyntly and not as barely made to themselves personally Acts 3. 25 26. and 13. 46 47. Matth. 21. 41. 42 43 44. Rom. 9. 31 32 33. and 10. to the end see Rom. 10. 21. with 11. 1. c. and vers 20. So verily is it in the faith of the Gentile opposed thereunto It is a faith that lookes to Gods covenant as in reference to families and kindreds of the earth so imbracing it and so being quickned and comforted by it That pretious fruit of faith must hold proportion to the nature of the seed thereof scil the words of promise 1 Pet. 1. 23. now the words of promise run not barely in a personall way but in a parentall oeconomicall and plurall way as well Jer. 31. 1. Acts 3. 25 c. our faith is or de jure should bee inlarged according to the latitude of covenant as was before proved Rom. 10. 8 c. By what hath been said their grosse mistakes appeare which say that none are the subjects of this lumpe but elect ones That the branches were such onely which were in Christ by faith and hee in them by his spirit for neither Jew nor Gentile branches many of them were such as appeares by their being broken off nor is that assertion sound but absurd and crosse to the very text that the Jewes owne naturall root and Olive tree whereof they were naturall branches onely by faith was union with God c. since that way of being branches onely by faith is no where called naturall nay in the same verse Rom. 11. 24. speaking of the first growne Gentiles inserting by faith it is said to bee contrary to nature nor is inserting which is onely by faith more naturall to Jewes then it is to Gentiles Neither is that true and sound that no other holinesse inrighteth any in any priviledges of grace if understood of Church priviledges now in question then holinesse of justification or sanctification since many of those naturall branches which as naturall branches of that holy root were holy federally and did partake of the root and fatnesse of the olive before their rejection as well as some better Jewes did afterward yet they were not justified for which compare Rom. 11. 16. 24. 17 18 19. so likewise the Gentiles which came to partake of that Olive fatnesse in their stead ibid. yet were fatally cut off many of them which had never bin if they had been justified and sanctified Object 5. Doth not the Apostle only speake here of the invisible Church under the notion of the Olive which sometimes was amongst the Jewes and therefore called their Olive the Apostle reasoning about the elect remnant Rom. 11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 c. and making the tree to bee the Church of beleevers still standing and some branches broken off and others graffed in and so it might seeme the graffing in to bee inserting into the invisible Church by election and faith Answ I deny not but that the Apostle discourseth about the elect and invisible members of the invisible Church vers 1 2 3. c. and therefore proveth fully enough one principall thing propounded scil that the invisible elect membes of it or the elect seed and branches of Abraham Isaac and Jacob did not could not fall away finally but it will not therefore follow that hee speaketh onely of the invisible Church in the whole chapter or that he discourseth not as well of the visible Church of the Church seed of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Yea it wil appeare by good reason that in that part of the Chapter where hee discourseth of the Church as an Olive communicating its fatnesse to all the branches of it hee principally intendeth the visible Church as visible For 1. The objection acknowledgeth that it is the Church of beleevers still standing and some branches broken off and others graffed in now none that were in the invisible Church by election and faith could ever bee broken off Yea but they might bee in the Church in appearance or visibly as branches may bee said to bee in Christ and after broken off John 15. 2. Not to answer this with an exposition of that according to some to bee meant of Christ considered with his body the visible Church as 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. here is more said of these scil that others came in their roome and place Rom. 11. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in ramorum defractorum locum as Beza noteth on that particle they had then a reall place there and a reall breach was made neither did the Gentiles come into an imaginary place in the Church but a reall and yet they came into no other place then into the place of the broken branches therefore theirs was a reall not a seeming place in the Olive the Olive then must bee the visible Church where hypocrites may have place and not the invisible Church where they can have none Besides they were such branches of the Olive as did partake of the fatnesse of the Olive not like withered branches seemingly in Christ which are saplesse nor did ever partake of the sap of Christs saving grace as these did of Church sap hence the Gentile is said to partake in common with them Rom. 11. 17. Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and thou partakest in common with them in the fatnesse of the Olive What did the collective Christian