Parents be Christian partus sequitur meliorem partem the children are not Infidels but Christian But §. 3. say you there is no command for baptizing such and you call it Will-worship forbidden Lev. 10.1 A tradition and ground-work for more traditions others call it the mark of the beast one of the strongest holds of Antichrist and what not To all which I answer 1. If Nadah and Abihu's offering strange fire fire unsanctified or not taken off the Altar Was Will-worship though the Scripture doth not call it so yet Paedobaptism suppose it be not warranted by the Word cannot be will-worship because it is not an introduction of a new Worship or Ordinance but the misapplication of an old and unquestionable Ordinance of God or if you put on it the worst name you can with any shew of reason the Profanation of an Ordinance as your self call it some of your party which have in derision and contempt of Infant-Baptism baptized Horses Cats or Dogs have been unquestionably guilty of horrible Profanation but not of will-worship 2. Infant-Baptism is grounded on and warranted by the Word of God and therefore is far enough from being a Profanation or so much as the misapplication of an Ordinance That it is so grounded and warranted needs no other proof then what hath already been produced in this Examination upon occasion of the Scriptures and Reasons brought against it 1. They that are Disciples in Scripture-sence are expressed in Christs Commission about Baptism and are to be baptized But Infants of the Church are Disciples in Scripture-sence Therefore they are to be baptized See Chap. 2. Sect. 3. 2. They that are Abrahams seed are to be baptized as you confess But such Infants are the seed of Abraham Therefore they are to the baptized See Chap. 7. 3. They that are visibly Within the Covenant of Grace are to be baptized as you acknowledg But such Infants are visibly Within the Covenant of Grace Therefore they are to be baptized See Chap. 8. 4. They that are to be judged Church-members are to be baptized But such Infants of the Church or born of members of the Church are to be judged Church members Therefore c. 5. They of Whom the Kingdom of God is are to partake of the privileges of the Kingdom of God But of Infants is the Kingdom of God Therefore c. 6. They that are Saints and holy are to be baptized But such Infants are Saints and holy Therefore 7. Christ knew that Baptism was an ancient Ceremony of initiation into the Church and applyed to the Infants of the Church as well as to adult Proselytes yet he took up that Ceremony and advanced it as he did the Postcoenium of the Passover to be a Sacrament of the New Testament without prohibition of Infants from it and therefore he did at least approve it should be administred to Infants See Cap. 2. § 1. In these alone to omit others conscientious enquirers into the mind of the Lord Jesus may find satisfactory grounds of Infant-Baptism especially when they are compared with the grounds of the contrary Opinion and Practice You cannot shew any precept at all §. 4. or president or good warrant in the Word of God that children of believing Parents should be kept from Baptism as you require them to be till they do in their own persons actually believe or make profession of Faith or that any such were baptized in riper years as you would have them now to be Yea I further say that if you can shew me in Scripture any son or daughter of believing Parents baptized I shall shew you that he or she was baptized in Infancy Surely from the time that John Baptist begin his Ministry to the writing of the Apocalyps great multitudes of Infants of Christians grew up to maturity yet amongst them all we read not of one whose Baptism was so delayed nor have we any solid ground to conceive that God at the coming of Christ took away Infants Covenant interest Church membership and Sacramental initiation and made their condition as to this as bad as the Heathen and worse then the Jewish children seeing it cannot be said that God did take these priviledges away in judgment upon occasion of Christs coming from all Infants even Elect children of Elect Parents seeing Infants in the time of the Gospel are not any way more guilty or uncapable then in former times nor can it any way appear that God did it in mercy and sure if it was done it was done either in judgment or mercy for it was a mercy to the Jewish children to have these priviledges and nothing more was conferred upon Infants which lost them then upon adult Christians which did not lose them You cannot shew a precept ' or president for your gathering Churches out of other true Christian Churches for requiring persons before they can be admitted members to give account of the truth of their graces for the Congregations judging whether they have grace or no and consequently whether they were to be admitted or no for a solemn explicite Church-Covenant for the erection of a Church without Officers for the power of such a Church consisting only of unofficed Christians to elect ordain impose hands by one or more of them on their Officers to censure or excommunicate any member yea any or all their Officers when they have them for maintenance of Ministers by Lords Day-Collections formerly urged as an Ordinance of God though of late much waved for a sentence of non-communion with Sister-Churches for Synods only consultative and not decretive for publike ordinary preaching of gifted men not so much as intending the Ministry and their receiving maintenance for their pains and yet these are asserted by men of the Congregational way in which Antipaedobaptists are generally found to be duties priviledges of the Church or Ordinances of God nor can you shew any Church consisting of unbaptized ones such as you account your selves to be your Infant-Baptism being a nullity till you be baptized upon profession und such a Church admitting members commissionating some Disciples to preach and dip nor any precept or president for admission of such which are in your opinion unbaptized to the Lords Supper not for rebaptizing such as were baptized suppose in Infancy in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost or for renouncing such Baptism nor can you shew any one Text of Scripture in which Infant-Baptism either in express words or in the interpretation of any Apostolick or Primitive Church or Father in the purest Times nor can you shew one visible Church from the beginning of the World to the time when your Opinion was lately broached which was of any long continuance and did neither admit into it nor permit in it any Infant-member Finally §. 5. Should you or I be required a Command for admission of women to the Supper as you require a Command for Infant-Baptism though you can neither shew command
least it is the profanation of the Ordinance Who you are I know not but the general Opinion of your party is that any Disciple especially a teaching Disciple may baptize See Confession of the seven Churches Art 41. And doth Ordination by a Bishop and other Ministers make voyd such Discipleship and make him that he cannot be so much as a private Christian yea make his Baptism Antichristian We receive from God the Old Testament by the hands of the Jews and the whole Bible by the hands of Papists most Scriptures have some time or other been abused must we therefore disuse them If a Bishop should baptize one at full age making profession of faith and repentance yea suppose a Jesuite pretending to be a gifted Brother or a teaching Disciple as it is lawful for the Jesuites to say or do any thing that may tend to the weakening the true Reformed Religion and should dip many would his dipping be null and voyd and to be reiterated This I dare say Whatsoever is rational or religious cannot be made irrational or irreligious whosoever useth or hath used it And if multitudes of persons should cast away all that they have received by the Bishops and Ministers ordained by them they should with those things irrecoverably cast their Souls into Hell When Antichrist most reigned and raged and the woman fled into the Wilderness God did preserve some Fundamental Doctrines and the essence of Baptism and the essence of a true Ministry dispensing it and they that is her Pastors did feed her there Revel 12.6 14. 4. There are now more Antichrists then ever were before in our or in any other Reformed Church and worse Antichrists by how much Fundamental Errors in Doctrine are greater abominations then Errors only in Discipline All Heretiques in Scripture-language are Antichrist 1 Epist John The Errors Heresies Blasphemies Treacheries Hypocrisies Perjuries sacrilegious seditious Actions Divisions and Subdivisions bitter and bloody Contentions Rebaptizations Ordinations by the people and other meer humane inventions of these Times do justifie the Bishops and all Episcopal men that have kept themselves free from these and the like crimes from being so Antichristian as we do really dishonor the true Reformed Religion delight the truly Antichristian Faction and make way for our reducing not only to Prelacy but to that which all sober men count incomparably more dangerous to Popery yea to the worst edition of it Spanish Jesuited Inquisition-Popery ANABAPT CAT. Paedobaptism is done upon a wrong subject who is not in Christs commission Matt. 28.19 nor Mark 16.16 Believers and Repentants being the subjects therein EXAMINAT You here beg the question what you here alledg hath been answered Chap. 1. and Chap. 2. ANABAPT CAT. All the certainty I can have of such a Baptism is only conjectural not infallible whereas the outward sign of a Sacrament must be visible and infallible as the thing signified is this Infant-Baptism I take only in trust from others THe Infants blessed by Christ could in their riper age have no certainty of their being so blessed by him Examinat Chap. 14. nor had the Jewish Infants any certainty of their Circumcision for the foreskin of circumcised Infants might be and sometimes was so drawn up that when they came to age they could not discern their Circumcision To this Paul alludes 1 Cor. 7.18 If the flesh-mark was alway discernable yet it could not teach them whether a friend or foe had done it whether for sacred or civil ends whether duly or unduly without instruction and information by word or writing and such instruction may assure us of our right Baptism though it was administred in Infancy You may have such assurance of your Baptism as the Priests by the Registers had of their pedigree Ezra 2.62 as Paul had that he was circumcised the eighth day that he was of the stock of Israel an Hebrew of the Hebrews of the tribe of Benjamin Phil. 3.5 Yea you may have as much or more certainty that you were baptized as that such an one was your father such a woman your mother yet sure if you will call that only a conjectural and not infallible testimony you will test so much upon it as to call him your father and her your mother that are testified and reputed to be so and without scruple of conscience honor them as you are bound by the fifth Commandment and also keep that which is generally computed to be the first day of the week or the Lords-Day though you take it but on trust from others Possibly he that is baptized at full age may not infallibly know that he was baptized some have forgotten through sickness the greatest concernments yea their own names must they thereupon be rebaptized Possibly a man or woman as you are dipping them under the water may be so damped that they may not hear or not heed the words used by the Administrator whether he baptize or bless or curse must they be dipped again till they do hear and heed that they may infallibly know themselves to be baptized If a man should herein be deceived and think he was baptized in his Infancy when he was not the Error is not very dangerous Faith in Christ may supply the defect of Baptism and he not neglecting or contemning Baptism nor knowing that he wants it may reap benefit by his supposed Baptism as if it were reâ—l As for his resolution of the case grounded on the suppose unlawfulness of Paedobaptism whether a Christian may with good conscience be present at it I judg it unnecessary for me to discuss it having I hope cleared the lawfulness of Infant-Baptism yet I confess I cannot approve sundry things in it though Paedobaptism were confessed to be unlawful SOME OBSERVATIONS Both Old and New Concerning the pretended Visibility Universality Antiquity Infallibility Unity and Purity of the present Roman Church and Religion Sent to a Gentleman upon his Revolt to Popery and now Published with some few Additions for the Churches good SIR 1. YOu do all confess the affirmative and positive Doctrines of the Church of England and other Reformed Churches to be true and Catholique and to have had visible Professors in all Ages only you superadd certain other Doctrines which you say are necessary to be beleeved unto Salvation For evidence whereof observe 1. Our Churches Doctrine All the Books of the Old and New Testament mentioned in the 39 Articles and in the late Confession of Faith to be holy and Canonical are for such to be received 2. Your Churches Additions The Books of Tobit Judeth Wisdom Maccabees and the rest commonly called Apocrypha are also Canonical The Scripture is the Rule of Faith and Manners Traditions of the Church are of equal Authority with the Scriptures The Originals Hebrew and Greek are Authentical The Vulgar Edition is most pure and Authentical There are two Sacraments of the New Testament Baptism and the Lords Supper There are also five more viz. Confirmation
Pennance Extream Vnction Orders of which there are seven viz. Priests Deacons Sub-deacons Acolytes Exorcists Lectors or Readers Ostiaries or Door-keepers and Matrimony God is to be invocated and Religiously worshipped Yea and the Images of God also Crosses Crucifixes Altars Angels Saints with their Reliques and Images Christ is the Head of the Church And the Pope also Christ is our Mediator and Advocate So are the Angels and Saints likewise Christ was conceived without original sin And the Virgin Mary also Christ was once sacrificed on the Cross for the Redemption of the world Christ is dayly offered up in Mass a propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of quick and dead We are saved by the merits of Christ And also by the merits of the Saints We are justified by Faith And by hope love fear of God good works which merit Salvation All the words and actions which Scripture records to be used by Christ in the celebration of the Supper are to be used by us also The sacred Hoast must also be elevated adored reserved carried in solemn procession Christ is truly present in the Eucharist Christ is corporally present by Transubstantiation and may be received into the mouths of wicked men yea of Rats and Mice There are two places for the Souls of such as depart hence And two besides viz. Purgatory and Limbus Infantum The three Creeds commonly called the Creed of the Apostles of the Nicene Councel and of Athanasius are to be received and beleeved And Pope Pius his Creed also or his additions to the Nicene Creed are also to be received and beleeved These and the like positive Points of the Reformed Religion whereof I omit sundry are truly and properly Catholique for in them not only Papists but in a manner all Christians in the world concur with us but in your Additions you stand single and have multitudes of Christians in the Eastern and Western Churches dissenting from you 2. Peruse the Book of nine and thirty Articles the Homilies Leiturgy and Catechisms or the late Directory Confession of Faith or Catechisms larger or shorter and find if you can the Doctrine of our Church contrary to any one Article of those several Creeds which in the first six hundred years were Badges of Catholique Profession or produce any one of those Articles to which we do not willingly subscribe 3. Though the ancient Church did undoubtedly beleeve and profess all that was necessary to Salvation yet there is not one Creed of General or National Counced particular Church or Father within a thousand or twelve hundred years after Christ in which the Articles of Pope Pius his Creed were imposed as now they are for Articles of Faith necessary to be beleeved unto Salvation 4. The Church of God as might be proved by Scriptures or Fathers if it were not acknowledged by your own Authors cannot make a new Article of Faith nor any addition to the Creed save by way of Explication of that which was formerly upon Scripture grounds beleeved and professed But these additions of yours were not beleeved if you should say that they were beleeved implicitely this suppose it true would take away the Visibility of the Profession thereof by the Ancient Caâ—holique and Apostolique Church 5. None of your side hitherto hath or hereafter can produce any one visible Church which in the Apostolique and in all succeeding Ages did approve and use Communion in one kind Private Mass Prayer in an unknown Tongue Image-worship Pardons Indulgences which beleeved the Popes Infallibility his Superiority over General Councels his temporal Authority over Kings and Emperors to depose them and dispose of their Dominions the necessity of auricular Confession the determinate number of seven Sacraments Purgatory and the Popes Power to deliver Souls from thence which forbade Lay-men without a special dispensation to read the Scriptures or Priests to marry c. 6. Nay you cannot name any one person in each several Age out of whose words or writings notwithstanding there were sundry Creeds Confessions of Faith Catechisms Sermons or Homilies Summaries of Christian Doctrine the aforesaid particular Points of Popery may be collected descending from the age of Christ to the days of Luther 7. Nay you cannot name any one Father or Catholique Writer for twelve hundred years after Christ that did hold all those Tenets which are now taught by the Romish Church and authorized by the Trent Councel 8. None of your side hath or can prove that any of the Primitive Martyrs or Confessors suffered Death Banishment Torment Confiscation c. for the Popish Religion or any particular thereof in which they differ from the Church of England as Papal Supremacy Communion in one kind Image-worship c. 9. You cannot shew that any one Article of your Faith in which we dissent from you is Catholique according to Vincentius Lirinensis his Rules viz. which was Ancient in his time and in respect of the Arrian Heresie which he calls novellum dogma a novel tenet and that which you know that not unus aut duo tantum sed omnes c. not only one or two but all though living in several times and places have with one consent openly frequently constantly held written and taught 10. None of your side dare for shame affirm that Communion in both kinds Prayer in a known Tongue communion of Priest with people Lay-mens reading of the Scriptures Worship of God without Images Invocation of God without mediation of Saints or Angels and other the aforesaid affirmative and positive Doctrines were invented by Luther or that they are not in themselves so lawful and agreeable to the Scriptures and practise of the first six centuries of years as Communion in one kind Prayer in an unknown Tongue c. 11. There are few or no Points denyed or affirmed against us by you in which you vary not amongst your selves and if any of you will distinctly set down avoyding general and ambiguous terms what he thinketh to be the truth in any Question or Exposition of Scripture controverted betwixt us I verily beleeve I can name him another Papist new or old that saith the contrary Bellarmine doth obiter discover to the world above three hundred several Opinions of Papists and those only in and about the Points controverted between you and us and Navane mentions about sixty Dissentions of your Doctors in one only Point to wit Confession 12. I shall hold till herein I be convinced of Error by instance to the contrary that whatsoever titles are by the ancient Fathers given to the Eucharist whereby you would prove Transubstantiation Adoration Sacrifice c. the same phrases or some equivalent to them may be found in the Fathers concerning Baptism in which you confess there is neither Transubstantiation nor Sacrifice 13. Also that those glorious things which were spoken by them of the Bishops of Rome may be parallel'd by such as read them throughly with the like honorable mention of other Patriarchs and Bishops 14. Also
possibly you that published this Catechism may be of the strictest Sect of your Religion as the worst of these at their first separating from us seemed also to be and do abhor to have communion not only with these but with Drunkards Adulterers Swearers c. To you I say if there be not amongst you Drunkards Adulterers Swearers c. Satan himself is none of these but are there not seditious schiâ—matical persons that say all the Church is holy sacrilegious persons that devour that which is holy or dedicated to the service of God and his Church not by themselves which was Ananias his sin but by others Are there not Murderers Railers false Accusers Lyars proud boasters covetous traytors heady high minded lovers of themselves despisers of good men having a form of godliness c. Such an one is Satan As for the rotten members in Paedobaptists Congregations they are or should be duly proceeded against and much good is done that way in many Congregations where Government is set up and people help forward the work humane infirmities both in Rulers and ruled ever have been and will be And more good had been done had not the separation of some from us the exemption by the Civil Powers from Church-government of whosoever will not freely own it the unjust clamors of Presbyterian Rigidness and Tyranny together with the Tumults and Troubles of the Times hindred it As for Infant-Baptism §. 4. it is a consecrating of children to God and formally initiates them into the Church which is a great benefit as casting out or excommunicating out of the Church is a great censure it is an outward distinctive sign of Christians children from Pagans signifies their original sin and necessity of regeneration even before the commission of actual sin and the Salvation of Infants as well as grown men by Christ It makes Infants partakers of the Ordinances at least of the Prayers of the Church as members thereof it pre-engageth them to a Christian Course when they have the least prejudice and obstruction against it and as soon as they are capable to receive the nurture and admonition of the Lord to frequent Ordinances to own Jesus Christ by external profession it binds Parents to be more careful and conscientious of their Religions Education it comforts their hearts godly Parents may speak this experimentally to see their Children thus sealed in assurance that God is their God and the God of their seed Yea God doth sometimes yea always as we ought to judg till the contrary appear baptize them inwardly or inâ—use grace or the seed of it into the Soul of the baptized Infant These and the like were counted great benefits in the time of the Law and are they or can they be mischiefs in the time of the Gospel You assert indeed That delaying of Baptism would make men careful to get knowledg and holiness whereas now they viz. they that do not delay Baptism are careless of both But may they not be as conscientiously taught and as careful and apt to learn in Christs School in his visible Kingdom as out of it baptized as unbaptized Are not many grown persons as forgetful and careless of the Promises they make on their sick beds and other occasions as of those which were made in Infancy Are Anabaptists the only men that are careful to get knowledg and holiness Are not multitudes of persons which were baptized in their Infancy as careful to get knowledg and holiness and as good Proficients therein as any others Is it better not to put children into a lease or grant of a priviledg lest they should be secure and careless to pay rent and do homage then to put them in May not deferring of Baptism so long make them despise it when they come to age Satan may more easily keep children when grown up from receiving Christianity then work them to renounce it though he sometimes prevails with Witches and Wizzards to renounce their Baptism received in Infancy that they may be his vassals and more assured to him Keeping the children of Christians out of the Church is a strange way sure it is none of Gods ways nor is it likely to prevail to make them in love with Christianity If any good can be done by such mediums the warrantable deferring of the Lords Supper alone may do it as well as the unwarrantable delaying of Baptism As for darkening the Doctrine of Baptism experience teacheth us that the Doctrine thereof was clear enough in Scripture and competently understood as well as the Doctrine of the Lords Supper before such opposition hath been made to Infant-Baptism If it be now darkened the darkness is not from Infant-Baptism but from your opposite Opinion and Practice ANABAPT CAT. Q. But may not Infants be baptized if they be Abrahams seed A. Yes But we Gentiles are only Abrahams seed by believing Gal. 3.7 so Rom. 4.16 Gal. 3.29 They that would make the children of Believers to be the seed of Abraham are mistaken for the Scripture speaketh but of three seeds of Abraham viz. Christ Gal. 3.16.2 The carnal seed 3. The Believer Jew or Gentile Gal. 3.28 And they add a fourth seed of Abraham viz. the seed or children of Believers amongst the Gentiles about which the Scripture is silent EIther you do not sufficiently enumerate Exam. Chap. 7. or not rightly understand your enumeration of the Scripture-kinds of Abrahams seed or both For 1. Christ personal is not the whole of Abrahams seed to whom though he be the whole in whom 2 Cor. 1.20 the Promises were made but Christ mystical the whole Church of Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 13. all which whether Jews or Gentiles bond or free I may add young or old are but one in their Head Jesus Christ Gal. 3.28 All that are Christs are Abrahams seed vers 29. and Infants are his as well as grown persons for he became an Infant suffered much in his very Infancy was the Head of the Church while an Infant and therefore might well have Infant-members dyed for Infants as well as for grown men bad his Disciples to suffer little children to come to him if not that he might baptize them for he baptized none at all Infants or others Joh. 4.1 2. yet that he might bless them and said that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven 2. As for the carnal seed of Abraham their fleshly relation was not sufficient to entitle them to Church-priviledges except they had a spiritual relation also Rom 9 6 8. Open Apostates and Revolters though the carnal seed of Abraham were not counted of the Church but as strangers and Heathens as David calls them Psal 54.3 59.5 That Text Exod. 12.48 prohibiting strangers did by the rule of proportion prohibit from the Passover all such Jews as did forsake the Faith The Caldee Paraphrast saith No son of Israel that is an Apostate or fallen from the Faith shall eat of it Cain and his posterity were rejected Gen. 4.15